Ambitions Without Ambition

Sweet Knees is the blog of a woman who wants very much to make a career of genealogy. I think we were separated at birth.

[Jan. 13] If I could be a paid genealogist, I would. In a heart beat. (I'd do it for free! Shhh.)

[Jan. 29] God, why am I such a mess? A bundle of contradicting feelings.

Laziness, apathy, boredom, wanting to do something that I probably can't make money at (professional genealogist). Wanting to write a book, but not doing it.

What is wrong with me????

Why can't I DO things?

I too would be a paid genealogist if I could do it for free. I'd feel guilty charging for something so enjoyable—like I was robbing my clients of the enjoyment that comes of doing the work on one's own. I'd never make it as a gigolo.

Their Bid for a Little Bit of Britain

Members of the American Balcom and Balcombe families gathered in Buffalo, N. Y., in August of 1901 for a reunion, but also for a second purpose: to lay claim to the town of Balcombe, Sussex, England, valued at about $2,000,000. Representatives were appointed from each of three branches of the family that settled in the United States.

The idea to claim the old family seat in England occurred to Frank Balcom some twenty-five years ago, and ever since then he has, with the aid of his relatives, been trying to make the chain connecting the family with the town of Balcombe complete. There are still a few links missing, but it is expected that they will be supplied at the reunion.

The results of the deliberations of the representatives are to be published in book form and will constitute the basis of the claim to be filed with the British government. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 9, 1901]

I find it interesting that this notice of the reunion and this account of the gathering make no mention of a plot to seize land in England.

A Lot of People Have Ancestors

The Berkeley County Landmarks Commission in West Virginia searched for the grave of Civil War soldier Nimrod Wright for nearly a year, but now they're giving up. Descendant Dennis Wright had hoped to place Nimrod next to his widow, and is upset that the Commission gave up so quickly.

“There we are with Nimrod Evans Wright laying somewhere, rest his soul. His body probably never will be found,” Wright said.

[Chairman Don C.] Wood said the effort to exhume Nimrod was no longer the responsibility of the Landmarks Commission, adding Wright is free to continue the search for his relative on his own.

“A lot of people have ancestors,” Wood said. “He can go and get a permit.” [Link]

Certainly Possible It's a Cenotaph

Hal Belcher's efforts to record the history of Fernandina Beach, Florida, included an inventory of Bosque Bello Cemetery.

During his Bosque Bello inventory he found that two Union Civil War soldiers from Pennsylvania had died in Fernandina of natural causes, but there was no record their bodies had been returned home.

"So they put a Yankee monument up for them at Bosque Bello. Now they've got a monument whether they're there or not," he said. [Link]

This Gandhi Likes Meat

Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mohandas, says it's sometimes a drag being known as the Mahatma's descendant.

"I have been termed Gandhi-in-Jeans by the press. I recall an incident when I was joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress from Mumbai north-west constituency in 1997. The campaign was held sometime during Ramzan. There were lavish spreads of non-vegetarian food. Photographers would click pictures of me eating non-vegetarian food all the time. I wish they could understand I am a descendant of the Mahatma, not Mahatma myself. If being Mahatma was hereditary, there would be 54 living Mahatmas today!" says Tushar, recounting another episode. [Link]

How Could He Say No?

A man in China has reportedly married himself.

Liu Ye, 39, from Zhuhai city, married a life sized foam cut-out of himself wearing a woman's bridal dress.

"There are many reasons for marrying myself, but mainly to express my dissatisfaction with reality," he said.

Liu says he is not gay, but admits he's "maybe a bit narcissistic", reports New Express. [Link]

A Wedding That Defied Comprehension

From the Brooklyn Eagle of May 19, 1896:

Whitestone, L. I., May 19—A peculiar marriage was solemnized here yesterday. The contracting parties were Corporal John Notter of the engineer battalion of Willets Point, and Miss Louise Schlungle of College Point. The ceremony, which was in the German language, was performed by the Rev. Frederick Kroencke, pastor of the German Lutheran church. The groom did not understand German, and the bride, who is not conversant in the English language, would not consent to having an English ceremony. Several times the groom interrupted the ceremony to ask the clergyman what he was saying.

Digging for a Dimple

The remains of Col. Joseph Bridger have been exhumed from beneath a Virginia church and sent to the Smithsonian for analysis. And it's all because Jean Birdsong Tomes, president of the Bridger Family Association, wanted a look at the guy.

Tomes, a direct descendant who lives in North Carolina, initiated the move to exhume Bridger’s body less than a year ago. There was never a portrait of Bridger, or, if so, it was destroyed in a fire that burned his plantation. At an association meeting, she suggested exhuming the bones at St. Luke’s Church because she longed to see what her ancestor looked like, she said. A facial reconstruction is possible.

“I wonder if he had a dimple in his chin?” asked Merry Outlaw, another descendant, fingering her own cleft chin. [Link]

Genealogy in 3D

Want to see what it would be like to fly through a three-dimensional family tree? Of course you do.

Out of Africa (By Way of Yorkshire)

The seven British men who share an unusual surname and a West African Y chromosome were not named Marton, as the Sun reported, but Revis. John Revis should know.

John responded to a newspaper advert by Leicester University asking for people who have traced their ancestry to give DNA samples for a study on world populations.

He said: "The scientists took some of my DNA away for analysis and then one day they called me up and were very excited. They said I had a Y-chromosome that was extremely rare. I was flabbergasted. I had no idea that I was so culturally unique. But I am not going to start eating couscous and riding a camel." [Link]

A Carolina Conflation

North Carolina erected a marker in 1963 to recognize James Hunter—a militia leader who challenged corrupt tax collectors in the 1700s, and later became a state legislator. But amateur historian Warren Dixon has discovered that the militia leader and the legislator were two different men, both named James Hunter.

One led a band of backwoods men known as the Regulators into the 1771 Battle of Alamance - one of the first acts of rebellion against British rule in North Carolina.

The other was a member of the state Legislature from 1772-82 and a state auditor. He also fought at the 1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse, according to the N.C. Genealogical Journal.

He is the one most likely to have been buried near the former marker.

"They ought to put a sign up for him," Dixon said. "He sounds more important than James Hunter the Regulator." [Link]

Late for His Own Wives' Weddings

From the Salt Lake Tribune of Sept. 28, 1895:

MATRIMONIAL COMPLICATIONS
Kentucky Man the Uncle of His Own Child.

Vanceburg, Ky., Sept. 27.—William Sargent, a young man of this place, find himself in the peculiar position of being a bigamist, a brother-in-law to his own wife, and uncle to his child, which will, when big enough, call him father. And, to make his burden still harder to bear, Mrs. Kate Evans, an estimable widow of Vanceburg, is twice his mother-in-law.

A few years ago Sargent married Rose Evans and lived with her a few months. Then he went West to seek his fortune. After two years the report came that he was dead, and his wife discarded her weeds a year later and married again. Sargent suddenly turned up in his old home. There was no divorce, but an agreement was entered into by which husband No. 2 was to have possession of the wife, while Sargent wooed and won Mary, his wife's younger sister. A few weeks after the second marriage, the roving young man again left for parts unknown. A year ago the report came to Vanceburg that he had been killed in Cuba, and wife No. 2 married Charles Simpler, to whom she bore a son.

Thursday Mary and Rose, while sitting on the porch of the home they jointly occupied, were astonished to see Sargent coming up the road. Another agreement was proposed, but Sargent refused to entertain it, saying he was going to stay at home this time, and wanted his wife Mary, with the child. Simpler had other alternatives, but chose the simpler way out of the perplexing difficulty. He packed his baggage, kissed his wife good-bye and left for Ohio.

Sargent is now in full possession of the house, but does not seem to know just where he is at, and it will take considerable calculating of genealogical and domestic problems to set him exactly right. [Link]

The Cigar-Smoking Ghost of Cape Cod

Some current residents of Sagamore Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., were transplanted from other graveyards in 1909 when the Cape Cod Canal was built. Some remains ended up in the wrong graves, under the wrong headstones. Caretaker Donald Ellis thinks that the cemetery is haunted by the troubled spirit of Isaac Keith, late owner of the company that built new coffins for the transplanted bodies. As evidence, he reports "an incredibly distinct aroma of cigar smoke."

“Isaac Keith was a big cigar smoker, and he died in 1900,” Ellis says simply.

Or the supernatural aroma could be from the ghost of Emory Ellis, who held off the folks with shovels intent on disinterring the dead in Bournedale so long ago.

Emory Ellis reportedly smoked cigars too and was not too happy – until some money passed hands – with the dead moving to Sagamore.

“That’s another story,” Ellis says. [Link]

Harry McFry Investigates

The first chapters of Harry McFry Investigates: The Case of the Missing Family are now online. This is sure to become a blog noir classic.

“OK, ma’am – I’m listening. What exactly is the problem?” There was another pause, before she went on “Someone’s stolen my family, and I don’t know what to do.” Her voice was soft as a silk scarf – but Harry knew that it was the kind of scarf that could be pulled around your neck, tied tight and, before you knew it you were done for. He wanted to meet this woman – a dame with a silky, soft voice that hid a threat wasn’t that common in Birkenhead, and he felt a curious need to see her.

Angling for the Cherokee Vote?

I'd like to be able to claim Barack Obama as a cousin, but I can't. His mother's maiden name was Dunham, but she inherited it from a guy named Jonathan Singletary alias Dunham who DNA tests show wasn't related to my line. According to family friend Julia Suryakusuma, Mama Obama's complexion belied her native roots.

“You know Ann was really, really white,” smiled Suryakusuma, looking through the album, “even though she told me she had some Cherokee blood in her. I think she just loved people of a different skin colour, brown people.”

Dunham was from Wichita, Kansas, but her parents moved to Hawaii in search of a better life. According to Obama, a distant ancestor was a “full-blooded Cherokee”. [Link]

No evidence was found by William Addams Reitwiesner of Cherokee heritage in Obama's pedigree.

His Buddy Must Have Been a Yankee

Robert E. Lee of Cordele, Georgia, is honored to have the name of a general celebrating his 200th birthday this month.

But it didn't carry much honor when he was Pfc. Lee fighting in Germany with the 95th Infantry Division during World War II.

"I got a lot of kidding about it," he said. "'The famous General Robert E. Lee,' they would say."

His buddies' kidding he could take; getting shot was different.

"One [of] my buddies shot me accidentally while we were pulling back from the front for a rest," he said. [Link]

Mona Lisa Smile Runs in the Family

Giuseppe Pallanti recently announced that he had found the resting place of Mona Lisa model Lisa Gherardini. Now a genealogist says he's found some of her living descendants.

"It's a matter of great emotion and great pride to learn that we are descended from La Gioconda," said Natalia Strozzi, 30, an actress. The subject of Leonardo's most famous painting is known as "La Gioconda" in Italy. "We had a vague knowledge of this family story, but the fact that it's been documented proves that it is true, which makes us take it more seriously." And what about the celebrated smile? "Yes," she went on, "once in a while a smile like that flits across our father's face, and that's the most convincing proof there is." [Link]

Natalia and her father stand on the left in this photo. A Tuscan engineer has offered to crawl around under the Florence convent to find what remains of Lisa. Only then can a side-by-side comparison of the smiles be made.

She's Her Son's Sister

When Paul and Leanne needed a surrogate mother, Leanne's own mother, Antoinette, stepped in to help. The baby that resulted—a boy named Kye—is legally his mother's brother.

Victorian law demands the birth mother and her partner are registered as parents.

Antoinette's husband, David – Leanne's father – is registered as Kye's father and Leanne is legally considered Kye's sister. His biological father, Paul, does not rate a mention.

Leanne and Paul would need to adopt their own son to have his birth certificate amended – but even this is not allowed under Victorian law. [Link]

Still Beating That Dead Horse

Remember that weird horse picture I blogged about here, here, here, and here? Two articles appeared today—one in Sheboygan, the other in Fort Worth, Texas—claiming that the mystery has been solved.

Arthur Perry of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, believes that the man on the horse is Frank L. Roenitz of the C.T. Roenitz Leather Company.

"Maybe he wanted to lay a claim to that animal for the hide," Perry said.

A picture of Frank Roenitz, found in the Illustrated Atlas of Sheboygan County published in 1902, shows a man who could possibly be the mysterious man in the picture.

Both men seem to have dark and deep-set eyes, prominent noses and bushy mustaches. [Link]

Jim Hodges of Glen Rose, Texas, though, has a different theory.

"That horse isn't dead," said Hodges, a 70-year-old horseman. "Jesse Beery is the man in the photo, and he would lay a horse down like that and usually he would have an accomplice walk around the horse beating on a pan or something to show that the horse wouldn't move."

Hodges said that it was 50 years ago, or more, when he became familiar with Beery. "He used to advertise in all the old horse magazines and farm magazines. You could buy some of his training pamphlets. I bought them and there were a number of photos just like the one in the paper. He was doing the same thing, always in a top hat and black suit."

Hodges concluded, "That's him, I'm sure of it." [Link]

The Downside of Digitization?

I learned through Irish Roots Cafe of a provocative new article by Emily Heinlen called "Genealogy and the economic drain on Ireland: Unintended consequences."

Heinlen argues that digitizing genealogical records has had the negative effect of discouraging people from traveling to Ireland and spending money. As more records have gone online, she says, fewer genealogy tourists have made the trip. The number of visits actually increased from 1999 to 2000, but dropped by almost a quarter in 2001, and remained stagnant through 2004.

I'm curious why she fails to address the obvious explanation for a precipitous drop in tourism in 2001. Given the aftereffects of 9/11, I'm not sure that the correlation between digitization and lack of tourists is as strong as Heinlen needs it to be. (You can check out Irish visit stats for all classes of tourist here.)

That being said, some of Heinlen's recommendations to raise more genealogy tourism revenue are worth a read. And listen to the January 30 Irish Roots Cafe Podcast for an interview with the author.

Update: Megan says She's Got It Backwards on her Roots Television blog.

[Photo source: Aer Lingus A330 on approach by Rob Colonna]

Copy Right or Risk Blindness

Paul sends along this reminder that, before capturing an image of Aunt Millie for the family album, one should first tape her eyes shut.

It's the standard office prank to photocopy some part of the anatomy.

But the experience of Luke Wilson, five, has been anything but light-hearted for his family. Complaining of sore eyes, he told his parents his face had been photocopied at school. A doctor has diagnosed allergic conjunctivitis caused by strong light, and his mother fears his eyes could be damaged. [Link]

[Photo credit: Copy by late night movie]

I Glad I'm Not on His List

Emma Faust Tillman, the world's newest oldest person, is unmoved by her accomplishment. But her great-nephew John B. Stewart has been keeping score on her behalf.

Stewart, a self-described family historian, ... had a copy of a page from the Guinness World Records that he has been saving since August.

Tillman was listed as the sixth oldest person in the world then, but Stewart has marked tiny X's in the margin as those above her passed away. [Link]

There's no sense waiting till the last minute, so I've started my own list of people older than me:

Emma Faust Tillman
Gerald Ford
Art Buchwald
Ringo Starr
Saddam Hussein
My kindergarten teacher
The short guy on Barney Miller

Don't Hold It In

Here's another reason to subscribe to the recently relaunched Ancestry Magazine.

In the current issue of "Ancestry," is one of the funniest tombstone epitaphs seen to date, noted on a tombstone in a cemetery near Ingersoll, Ontario: "Wherever you be, Let your wind to free. I held it in, T'was the death of me." [Link]

What's the Truth About Booth?

Did John Wilkes Booth escape his pursuers, flee to Colorado, and end up buried in the old Evergreen Cemetery in Leadville? Probably not, but someone was buried there under the name "John Wilkes Booth."

The Leadville JWB, according to accounts, claimed that he was a nephew of the real one. Turns out that the real JWB didn't have any nephews; his sister didn't dare name her children after him (nor did anybody else in the country) and it does seem bizarre that anyone at the time would have even wanted to claim kin with Lincoln's assassin.

What makes it even spookier is that, according to a Leadville historian I spoke with, not one of the "facts" in the Leadville JWB's newspaper obituary turned out to be true. His date of birth, his biography - these were all made up, but by whom? To this day, the story goes that the real Booth descendants won't let their Leadville "relative" be exhumed and examined for DNA evidence, which might answer some questions. [Link]

It's actually not hard to find parents willing to name their kids after an assassin. These people did it. According to this page, Lincoln himself named a child after one.

Note also that JWB did have nephews, including one who came to a tragic end. In fact, this same nephew in 1903 identified a man in Oklahoma—"David E. George"—as his uncle, the escaped assassin.

A Corset, But No Corpse

From The Monessen (Pa.) Daily Independent of May 17, 1948:

READING, Pa. (UP)—Genealogists delving into the history of Reading and Berks County, Pa., for their bicentennial anniversary this year, have been puzzling over a curious epitaph recorded here.

The inscription reads: "Here lies the clothing of the living Anne B——," and has researchers bewildered to explain why anyone would want to bury the clothes of a living person.

With an eye to current styles in women's fashions, one genealogist hazarded the unscientific opinion that Annie B's husband may have taken the drastic step to express his displeasure with 18th century female dress.

Any More Last Bequests?

Here are a few more selections from Virgil M. Harris's 1911 Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills—a book I first ripped off in July.

A British sailor requested his executors to pay to his wife one shilling, wherewith to buy hazelnuts, as she had always preferred cracking nuts to mending his stockings. [p. 80]

John Parker, a bookseller living in Old Bond Street, served his wife in the following manner, leaving her no more than fifty pounds, and in the following words: "To one Elizabeth Parker, whom through fondness I made my wife, without regard to family, fame, or fortune, and who in return has not spared most unjustly to accuse me of every crime regarding human nature, except highway robbery, I bequeath the sum of fifty pounds." [p. 86]

A certain wealthy man left this provision in his will: "Should my daughter marry and be afflicted with children, the trustees are to pay out of said legacy, Ten Thousand Dollars on the birth of the first child, to the ______ Hospital; Twenty Thousand Dollars, on the second; Thirty Thousand Dollars, on the third; and an additional Ten Thousand Dollars on the birth of every fresh child, till the One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars is exhausted. Should any portion of this sum be left at the end of twenty years, the balance is to be paid to her to use as she thinks fit." [p. 88]

A certain Glasgow doctor died some ten years ago, and left his whole estate to his sisters. In his will appeared this unusual clause: "To my wife, as recompense for deserting me and leaving me in peace, I expect the said sister, Elizabeth, to make her a gift of ten shillings sterling, to buy her a pocket handkerchief to weep after my decease." [p. 88]

That's Reserved for the Devil

Should you happen to visit Union Cemetery in Guthrie Center, Iowa, be sure not to sit in the cement chair located between the Miller and Peterson gravestones. It's the Devil's Chair, according to Chad Lewis, co-author of The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations.

"A young man told us that if you are brave enough to sit in the chair you will experience a case of bad luck. When asked whether or not he had ever sat in the chair the man replied that even though he didn't believe in such things he wasn't going to tempt fate," Lewis added. [Link]

His Roots Are in the Suburbs

Actor Alan Davies would have preferred to find out that his great-grandfather was a master cabinet maker. On an episode of "You Don't Know You're Born," he discovers the sad truth.

Alan Davies harbours an instinctive antipathy for suburbia - so imagine his shock when he finds out his great grandfather helped build it.

"The suburban life I grew up in filled me with horror and dread," the Jonathan Creek star confesses when he discovers his maternal grandfather, Robert Peachey, made his fortune by erecting swathes of 1930s suburban semis that criss-cross north-east London. [Link]

A Clever Way to Make Money

Peter Kershaw is making a film about the Cragg Vale Coiners of West Yorkshire, and is hoping that some of their descendants will come forward to help.

Mr Kershaw said: "We want people who descend from the coiners or who have just grown up with the story."

The Coiners were a band of counterfeiters based in Cragg Vale.

In the late 18th century they clipped the edges of gold coins and milled them again, melting them down to produce fakes to supplement their small weaving incomes. [Link]

Could There Be a Bob Law Blog?

I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. I'm sure that Mr. Law is a scintillating speaker.

A series of genealogy workshops taught by Bob Law is available through Ridgefield Continuing Education this winter. [Link]

Fellow fans of Arrested Development will understand why I couldn't resist.

It Wasn't a Pauling, It Was a Pawling

Brian Pauling found out in eighth grade that someone at his school shared his name. He'd asked his mother to drop off some food for him, and five minutes later heard his name called over the P.A. system.

"They asked me if I was Brian Pauling and I said yes, and they gave me two big bags of candy," said Pauling. "I brought it back to my team and we started eating all of it. I got recalled down to the office and they said, You're not Bryan Pawling.'"

It wasn't until his freshman year that Pauling met the other Bryan Pawling and told him about the candy. [Link]

According to Brian's uncle, the Paulings and the Pawlings are two branches of the same family that split over their differing views on slavery. After this candy incident, it's unlikely that the branches will ever reconcile.