Deadbeat Ancestors

Gail writes at GenForum that she sent away for a list of interments at a large New York City cemetery. The response was a plea for money.

"Upon examination of our records, we find that there are outstanding annual care charges due on this graveholding in the amount of $1071.00. A remittance in the amount would be appreciated."

"We recommend that all graveholdings be placed under Perpetual Care. The cost for your graveholding is $1550.00, in addition to the annual care charges mentioned above."

Keep in mind that this graveholding was purchased in 1899, apparently by my great great grandmother. The last burial in the grave was in 1927.

I about had a heart attack when I got the letter--here I am requesting genealogy information and getting a bill for $2500 dollars! My husband said not to do him any favors and order interment lists for his side of the family!!! [Link]

Stump Megan!

With a post like this, Megan at Roots Television is just asking for problems.

I'd like to invite you to submit your unsolved mysteries for possible resolution. I can't do 'em all, of course, but it only takes a minute or two to submit and you just might get that stubborn brick wall knocked down! Here's where to submit:

• Orphan Heirlooms
• Lost Loved Ones
• Brick Wall/Mystery
• DNA Stories

The Genealogist's Inn

Shouldn't every bed-and-breakfast have a resident genealogist?

Jerry and Nancy Jones own The Golden Lion, a one-of-a-kind bed-and-breakfast. Because of Jerry's expertise in genealogy and his reputation for tracing difficult surnames, the inn attracts many guests named Jones. They arrive clutching birth certificates, death certificates, census records and family Bibles, determined to unearth one more clue to their families' origins.

You don't have to be a Jones or a genealogist to stay at The Golden Lion, although you might be lodged in the Cadwallader Jones room, the Nicholas Jones room or the Griffin Jones room, all named after Jerry's ancestors. And if you ask, he will be glad to regale you with tales of their escapades. [Link]

Beware the Scary Fairies

A burial register for the parish of Lamplugh in Cumbria reveals some interesting causes of death between the years 1656 and 1663.

The manuscript, a later copy of the original, was found in Whitehaven during a national local history campaign. It claims four people were “frighted to death by faries” while another died after being “led into a horse pond by a will of the whisp’.

A drunken duel “fought with frying pan and pitchforks” killed another man, while a second using “a 3-footed stool and a brown jug” as weapons claimed another. [Link]

Two deaths were attributed to "Mrs Lamplugh's cordial water," and eleven poor souls "took cold sleeping at church" and died (a dig, archivist Anne Rowe supposes, at the long-windedness of the rector).

Man Run Down by Census Taker

Thomas Martinez has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that former census taker Susan Dyck went too far trying to get his cooperation.

Dyck at one point "misrepresented herself as a potential renter" and made late-night phone calls "attempting to convince him to complete a census inquiry," the lawsuit said.

On Feb. 14, 2005, Martinez confronted Dyck and told her he'd call police, according to the lawsuit. Then "in the process of attempting to flee," Dyck backed her vehicle into Martinez, the lawsuit said. [Link]

All Is Lost

Let's all join in a moment of silence for Jason of Jason's Genealogy Work Log.

It's all Gone
All of it, every last record every last bit of research. It’s my fault, I thought I had it backed up, but I didn’t and I was reinstalling the site and lost it all. [Link]

Is That a Pinky Ring or a Wart?

Missouri farmer Greg Ellison thinks he's found a picture of George Dixon, captain of the Hunley.

The man looks to him like the facial reconstruction of Dixon made from his skull, and he is wearing a Civil War-era naval uniform.

And, most significant of all, Ellison says he's wearing a pinky ring much like the diamond-studded ring found in Dixon's pocket on the Hunley.

"I firmly believe that's what it is, that ring," Ellison said. "From what they know about Dixon, he was a sharp dresser, he was rich and had nice jewelry. My biggest clue was the fact that he's wearing that diamond pinky ring." [Link]

Ellison sent a scan of the photograph to the Hunley lab for verification. They concluded that it was not Dixon, and that the object on the man's pinky was not a ring but a wart. Ellison insists that "they looked at the wrong finger."

A Nation Undefined

The Canadian Parliament on Monday officially recognized the Québécois as a "nation within Canada." Unfortunately, no one has a clue what "Québécois" means.

On Ste-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal, there was some confusion.

"Out here we're Quebecers. But if you go a bit further east [in the city], we're Québécois. But what it means to me? I don't know exactly," said Phil Letour, a Montreal resident.

"The Québécois signifies the French Quebecer, which kind of leaves us English Quebecers as … I don't know what we are. And what about all the Franco-Canadians in the rest of Canada? What are they? Are they only Canadian?" mused Heather Laing, another Montreal resident. [Link]

Staten Islands Need Not Apply

If your parents were so cruel as to name you after a certain New York City borough, you can console yourself with a free pizza.

In honor of its new Brooklyn Style Pizza, Domino's is rewarding customers with the name "Brooklyn" or "Brooke Lynn" with a free Brooklyn Style Pizza. Beginning today through December 17, Domino's is giving away gift certificates good for a free Brooklyn Style Pizza to the first 300 people who can prove it.

"We're honoring everything "Brooklyn" with the introduction of our new Brooklyn Style Pizza," said Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Communications for Domino's Pizza. "We created this promotion to reward the real die-hard Brooklynites whose love of the 'old neighborhood' inspired them to name their children after it. What better way is there to salute a great community?" [Link]

Landmines Would Be More Effective

If you need to visit the Olive Branch Cemetery in Frankenmuth Township, Michigan, be sure to wear Kevlar.

[June] Finger and others can't visit the gravesites because back in 1963, the cemetery was sold by a trustee of the now defunct Olive Branch Methodist Church.

It was sold to Saginaw attorney Joseph Trogan, who has since given the property to his son. The purchase price was $1.

According to the people who try to visit, the younger Trogan guards the property. He claims he protects it from grave robbers, but Kathy Schlegel has relatives there.

"When he kicked us off, he had a gun in his hand," she said. [Link]

Romanian Remains Arrive in the Mail

Aurelia Cenusa of Romania was notified that the graveyard where her father was buried had been sold to developers.

She said she thought the priest was joking when he told her to come and collect her father Rafaila Cojocaru's remains - or receive them in the post.

Cenusa said: "I had entered a lottery a few weeks ago and when I got the large parcel I thought I had won something.

"Instead I opened it up to find a banana crate containing the bones of my dead father. You could still even see bits of his funeral suit even though he died 16 years ago." [Link]

I really wish this had happened in a different European country, so I could use the headline "The Czech Is In the Mail."

An English Name Prevails in Wales

"Jones" is considered a quintessentially Welsh name, but author Rocet Arwel Jones says that it's not Welsh at all.

"If Wales had a surname, it would be Jones," writes Mr Jones in his Welsh-language book.

"And yet it's a surname that starts with a letter that's not even in the Welsh alphabet. Does that make it an English surname?

"It was a surname in England before such a thing as a surname existed in Wales at all."

Jones says that the surname in Wales is an anglicized version of the truly Welsh patronymics "ap John" or "ap Siôn," and appeared only after the English system of using surnames took hold in Wales.

"The first Jones surname appears in Huntingdonshire, in England, in 1279. Looking at the collection of wills in the National Library [of Wales], the first Jones to appear there is Roger Jones from Tregynon who died in 1564." [Link]

More Time to Paw Through the Immigrants

Ancestry.com has extended its offer of free access to its passenger lists through the end of 2006.

Ancestry.com has experienced its highest-ever site page views since the launch of the passenger list collection. Average page views per day have increased by 25 percent, from 12 to 15 million over the past month, and by more than 30,000 page views per day from new visitors. In its first week, the site experienced a 26 percent increase in average unique visitors per day from the previous month. [Link]

By way of comparison, in the same period my average page views have increased from 14 to 17 per day. I'll be issuing my own press release shortly.

Some Stains Will Never Come Out

Detective Lt. Nicholas A. Paonessa is using a high-tech forensic tool called the Rofin Polilight PL500 to prove that a farm in Pennsylvania was used as a field hospital after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

Records show that farmer Daniel Lady and his family returned to a home filled with wounded soldiers and bodies.

Paonessa's investigation is confirming that story. In the darkened parlor, on his second trip to the farm since September, Paonessa pointed the bright blue light at a vaguely human outline on the wood floor. The shape became a distinct form, from head to knees, of a small-framed man. Four spots by a baseboard were revealed as being the fingerprints of a person sitting against the wall.

Theoretically, Paonessa said, old blood could reveal the victim's identity. Identification would require a well-preserved blood sample -- from between floorboards, for instance -- and a known descendant for comparison. [Link]

Inside the Family History Library

Steve Danko's pictures from inside the Family History Library in Salt Lake City should make any homebound genealogist green with envy. I'm pretty sure this is what heaven looks like.

Birth Blamed on Marx Brothers

New York City lawyer Robert Howard Werbel has applied to change his middle name to "Harpo" to honor a family legend.

According to family lore, the night before he was born, March 30, 1938, his mother went to a Marx Brothers movie, probably "Room Service," which was released that year.

"My mother laughed so hard that she went into labor," said Werbel. [Link]

She Might Not Be Right On the Button

Elizabeth Anne Gwinnett McLeod of Queensland, Australia, is "almost certain" that she inherited her middle name from Button Gwinnett of Georgia, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. I'm less certain.

McLeod and a cousin, Christopher Gwinnett Coote, both share the middle name that has been in her family for generations. But McLeod said she had no idea where it originally came from, or how she might be related to Gwinnett.

McLeod said she did not pass the name on to her daughter, but is beginning to regret that fact. After beginning to do some research, McLeod said she may have to try to convince her daughter to augment her own children’s names with Gwinnett. [Link]

Sprechen Sie Texas German?

Elizabeth Behrend is one of about 10,000 people who still speak the Texas German dialect of their ancestors.

"People could not believe that we could still speak German," said Behrend, a 78-year-old fourth-generation Texan. "They invited their neighbors to hear us speak because they were so amazed by it, and so were their neighbors. They thought we spoke like their grandparents."

The dialect has survived despite efforts during the World Wars to discourage its use.

Growing up in Fredericksburg, Carol Latta remembers, children from this German town weren't seen as cool in the eyes of their English-speaking peers in other towns. At high school football games, the Fredericksburg team brought its own announcer to pronounce the multisyllable surnames. [Link]

A Whirlwind Romance

I love this story of a spur-of-the-moment marriage from Robert B. Fillmore's 1914 Gems of the Ocean. I can imagine my own New England Yankee ancestors proposing in much the same way.

When Ebenezer Hall lived on Matinicus, a great many years ago, there lived in the family a girl by the name of Dorcas Young, a sister to Hall's wife. Joseph Green was paying his addresses to Dorcas at the time. One night Hall invited some fisherman up to the house, so he said to Greene, "Joe, don't you and Dorcas want to get married?" "I don't know," says Joe. He started for the cow yard where Dorcas was milking the cows, and asked her if she thought they had better get married, that night. "Why Joe," says Dorcas, "I have not got any wedding gown." "Never mind the gown," says Joe, so they went into the house, Dorcas washed herself, put on a clean apron, stood up, and they were married, there being a justice of the peace among the crowd. [p. 24]

Potato Pit or Washtub?

Monacan Indians attacked the Virginia plantation of John and Sara Woodson while an itinerant shoemaker named Ligon was visiting in 1644. A six-foot-long musket now displayed at the Virginia Historical Society played a role in the skirmish.

John Woodson was just riding into the clearing around his cabin when a confederation raiding party poured out of the woods. The doctor was struck by an arrow and fell from his horse. Ligon grabbed the rifle from above the fireplace and took a position at a window. Sara bolted the door from the inside and hid her two sons - John in the potato bin under the house, Robert beneath a washtub.

Ligon, the shoemaker, killed five of the attackers with the musket, and Sara bludgeoned two more to death with a heavy iron roasting spit when they tried to come down the chimney. John Woodson lay dead in the clearing, but his family had survived.

“Ever since, there have been two branches of the family,” said Carolyn Lusardi of Brookneal, a Woodson descendant. “You’ve got the ‘Potato Pit Woodsons’ and the ‘Washtub Woodsons,’ depending on whether your line comes from John or Robert.” [Link]

Keeping Amelia On Course

Stan Moody can still remember visiting "Amelia's Tower" with his father more than 50 years ago and learning of a famous aviator's connection to their Cape Cod farm.

One afternoon when Stan Moody's great-great-grandfather Samuel Moody Jr. was tending to his sprawling cranberry farm in the early 1930s, he was approached by a man who sought the highest point in Harwich, so goes the tale.

The mysterious stranger presented Moody with an odd request: his wife, Amelia, flew small aircraft and they were looking for an appropriate spot to construct a communications tower to relay her flight data and transmissions while she was practicing off the Cape coast. Jay Moody, on that walk with his son, said his great-grandfather allowed the man to erect the tower and it still stood there decades later. [Link]

An Unrecorded Life

Tommy Johnson is a genealogist's worst nightmare.

He likely was born at a KOA campground in the Northeast, but his birth apparently never was recorded.

Johnson said that he learned from his paternal grandparents -- who raised him -- that his biological mother suffered from mental illness and gave birth to him while camping. They never spoke to him about their son, his father.

They registered him at school, and records show a question mark for date and place of birth and the birth-certificate slot was left blank.

Johnson said he is not even sure he had a name before enrolling in school. He cannot recall being called anything as a young child. [Link]

Genealogy Is a Lot Like Football

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is trying to figure out why his team's performance has been so inconsistent this year. His method is something he can explain only with a strained genealogy metaphor.

"I'm doing a book now on the genealogy of our family, and the person I'm starting to work with told me 50 percent of the people who start doing these books never finish them. I said, 'Why is that?' They start to find out things they don't want to know about their family so they stop the work.

"In this case, when you start asking the question, 'Why isn't the consistency there?' you can start getting answers — if you're really objective and dig — that you don't want to hear. You have to be prepared to deal with those answers. I'm committed to getting this book finished and digging as far as we have to dig to find out why we're not playing with consistency." [Link]

Something Doesn't Add Up

Sometimes it pays to look at old evidence with fresh eyes.

I was looking over the family record of my great-great-grandfather Lemuel Dunham this afternoon, and noticed something odd. On Oct. 3, 1825, Lemuel married Molly (Bisbee) Bryant—a young widow who had borne an illegitimate child at age 17. On Mar. 26, 1826, Lemuel and Molly's first child was born.

I have read these dates thousands of times in the past, but only today did I notice that my ancestors had rolled in the hay prior to taking their vows.

Primoprematurity is nothing new in my family: three of my four sets of great-grandparents had children less than nine months after marrying. My paternal grandmother's father married twice, and on both occasions there was a bun in the oven. But this is the first proof of premarital conception in my Dunham line—proof I can't wait to spring on my father.

Who Needs DNA When You Have Crooked Toes?

Deborah Robinson didn't need science to prove that Lisa Files was the daughter she'd given birth to four decades ago.

Robinson asked Files to describe herself, and was flabbergasted to learn about her daughter's resemblance to herself, from her dark eyes to her crooked baby toes, which all her daughters inherited.

“In a 10-minute conversation, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, God confirmed that she is my baby,” Robinson said, adding that as far as she's concerned, DNA stands for “Don't Need Any.” [Link]

Supercentenarian Liked the Ladies

America's oldest World War I vet died last Sunday. Ernest Pusey was one of fourteen surviving U.S. veterans of The Great War, and was thought to be the third-oldest man in the world.

In a life that touched three centuries, Pusey was a sailor, a machinist, a husband, a father and an unrepentant flirt.

Sure, he was 111 - but that didn't stop Pusey from having bellydancers and Buccaneer cheerleaders at his last birthday party.

"Oh, he loved the ladies," granddaughter Kathy Dieck said. "He was looking as long as he could see." [Link]

Couples Induced to Reproduce

In a PR event to boost their nation's birthrate, the Taiwanese government sponsored a joint wedding on Sunday for ten lucky couples.

At the wedding, under the government officials' witnesses, the ten couples announced that they were willing to cooperatively share the families' responsibilities and take care of their babies together in the future. Then the ten couples walked down the aisle with baby carriages containing their marriage certificates.

In the marriage certificate, each couple promised to have at least two babies. The first baby will be born before the mother reaches 30 years old; and second before the mother turns 35, the certificate states. [Link]

Canada's Bizarre Wedding Customs

Celebrating marriage by abusing the dead is evidently rampant in Canada. Two women were spotted Thursday stealing flowers from graves in an Ontario cemetery.

Cemetery operator Ray Pruellage said the flower bandits seemed to target expensive fresh flowers, such as roses and lilies, adding that the long-time cemetery supervisor Al Reid had never heard of such a thing happening before.

“They were two women in their '50's or '60's, so I am thinking maybe one of them had a daughter who had a wedding coming up and they couldn’t afford flowers. That’s the only thing that crossed my mind,” Pruellage said. [Link]

Meanwhile, Kelsey Ray Taylor confessed to setting fire to a church in Manitoba and then smashing headstones at a local cemetery with a sledgehammer.

"I did it for his wedding present," Taylor told provincial court Judge Krystyna Tarwid, claiming he was forced to smash the gravestones at the Roseland cemetery after his friend threatened to tell authorities about his role in the fire if he didn't.

"He wanted to see it in the paper, as in the destruction, I guess." [Link]

The Genealogist Who Stole Christmas

Javana Jenkins was convicted Wednesday of stealing money set aside for a Christmas party for her co-workers' children. But at least some of the money went to a good cause.

Jenkins admitted to investigators from Attorney General J. Joseph Curran’s office to using the Christmas Party Fund account for two personal expenditures totaling $1,368: to pay off a $1,288.50 debt she owed to a collection agency and to purchase $79.95 in online genealogy services for herself. [Link]

Give Thanks for Free Access

If you can recover from your turkey-induced stupor in time, here are some free offers for you to exploit this weekend.

Ancestry.com is offering free access to the whole shebang for three days, and to the immigration collection for the rest of the month.

The National Genealogical Society has opened up its Members-Only Data Section for the weekend, though technical problems have kept many from taking a peek inside. You can attempt to enter by following this link, and then signing in with username member and password ngspromo.

It's not free, but The Origins Network is offering a 25% discount on monthly subscriptions. When you sign up for a subscription, enter the promotional code 23TH and you'll be given the discount automatically. If you already have an account, you'll automatically get the discount.

An Ancestor of Undecided Height

Chris Dolley's grandfather was a sailor who entered New York Harbor four times between 1922 and 1939. Strangely, immigration records show that his height "oscillated between 5' 6" and 5' 9" over a period of 17 years. Never 5' 7" or 5' 8" always 5' 6" or 5' 9"."

His weight, however, did not fluctuate. It increased, gaining 21 pounds over the 17 years. No tattoos though. In fact there was a distinct dearth of tattoos - less than 10% of sailors had one.

The one solace for lovers of the stereotypical is a possible explanation for my grandfather's fluctuating height. A spare, and three inches longer, wooden leg. [Link]

Vampire Hunt Causes Collateral Damage

What makes the theft of Varnum Waite's headstone from a Rhode Island graveyard especially noteworthy is the possible motive.

Nestled behind the town's 256-year-old First Baptist Church, the cemetery has fallen victim to vampire enthusiasts and vandals ever since rumors circulated decades ago that the graveyard was believed to be the final resting place of the legendary Nellie Vaughn.

The rumor turned out to be a case of bloodsucking mistaken identity, but that hasn't thwarted thrill-seekers desperate to own a piece of American vampire folklore. Punks have been pilfering pieces of the graveyard under cover of night for years. [Link]

The cemetery actually is home to Nellie Vaughn, but she has been "legendary" only since 1967. It was in that year that a group of high school students wandered into the wrong cemetery looking for alleged vampire Mercy Brown and found instead Nellie's stone, which bore the ominous inscription, "I am waiting and watching for you." They, being idiots, took this as evidence that Nellie enjoyed the taste of human blood.

[Thanks for the tip, Carl!]

Barren Barony Titles For Sale

If you're willing to spend at least £50,000 in cash, you too can become a Scottish baron.

Recent changes to ancient feudal law, under the Abolition of Feudal Tenure (Scotland) Act 2000, have meant that Scottish barony titles are no longer attached to the lands that they once came with. As a result, some Scottish peers with spare barony titles are selling them on – and those with the funds can buy themselves the right to be a bona fide Baron.

Brian Hamilton of Scottish Barony Titles explains why someone would spend so much for something so worthless.

"Some people have a connection with Scotland, some people like to treat themselves."

However, he concedes that the owners who are selling them do not usually miss the barony titles.

"Most of my clients have superior titles – the barony title is not a peerage title. If you are the Duke of Something, you are not going to be worried about three or four barony titles." [Link]

How the Pilgrims Lived

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

A book released this week explores the world of the Pilgrims in fascinating detail. In How the Pilgrims Lived, author Eric Fulham provides photographs and descriptions of household items that "came over on the Mayflower."

"I was worried at first that not many Mayflower relics had survived," Fulham admits. "But my research turned up thousands—from kitchen utensils to complete bedroom sets."