Don't Get Cold Feet in Virginia

Six months after a young man in Virginia called off his wedding, the cops showed up at his mother's door.

"What's he done?" asked the bewildered mother.

"He got a marriage license and didn't return it," the deputy replied. "Do you know where it is?"

The mother supposed that her cold-footed son, just wanting to forget the whole marriage thing, had just thrown the license in the trash after the wedding was called off.

"I guess we just threw it away," the mother said. Then she hastened to add, "But it was never used."

"That's a legal document," the deputy said. "He can go to jail for not returning it to the court." [Link]

Teen Unsheaths His Sword in Public

To mark the 700th anniversary of Robert the Bruce's momentous journey from Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland to the Isle of Arran in Scotland, Lord Bruce of Kinloss and his three sons retraced their relative's steps carrying his original sword.

Lord Bruce’s eldest son, 16-year-old James, who has the title Master of Bruce was carrying the sword which was nearly as big as him and he took it out of the sheath to show the crowd on Lamlash pier.

‘It is not as heavy as you would think,’ said Lord Bruce. ‘The strength is in the tempering of the blade.’ [Link]

Planning a trip to Scotland? Then you'll need your very own Robert the Bruce sword. Good luck getting it through airport security.

Girl's Blood Tests Negative for Acting

At summer camp, Haley Wilcox, 9, snagged the role of a reporter covering the trial of the Big Bad Wolf. She says that she's genetically disposed to tread the boards.

"I have acting in my blood because my ancestors are Lillian and Dorothy Gish," Wilcox said.

Wilcox, the daughter of Kelly and Curt Wilcox of Galesburg, said she's done plays in school before but this is her first "real performance." [Link]

Sisters Lillian and Dorothy both died childless and—unless the father who abandoned them planted his seed elsewhere—had no siblings aside from each other. Since she's only 9, I won't relentlessly mock Haley for her dubious claim, and will concede that she could be a far-removed cousin of the two actresses.

Were Your Relatives in the Movies?

"Willowbob" is using YouTube to identify relatives who appeared in his grandparents' home movies (Parts 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7).

If you had any relatives in the USA in the 50s or 60s named BOOKE LEVY HANIFORD ROSENBLATT ROSENGARD MILLER GOLDBERG HEIN ALTMAN COPPACK, they MAY just be related to the people in this cinefilm that my British grandparents visited in California, Vegas and New York (Buffalo) over 50 years ago.

It may be a longshot, but it would be AMAZING if I could contact anybody from the family tree I have containing over 200 names. It's never too late for a reunion! Who knows? You may just be watching your grandparents right now!

On a less genealogical note, he asks if anyone can identify the TV show or movie being filmed in this clip.

Immigration Expert Running for Senate

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is challenging Senator Chuck Hagel in the next Republican primary. He says that Hagel is all wrong on immigration.

I've got a picture here on my desk of my great great grandfather and my great great grandmother who came to Ellis Island in 1861 and ended up in Nebraska, in the little town of Bruning, by the way. They came in the right way… [Link]

The immigration station at Ellis Island didn't open until 1892, which suggests that Bruning's ancestors bypassed the station at Castle Garden to slip into the country undetected. If Mr. Bruning thinks that that is the "right way" to enter this great land of ours, I have to wonder how many fugitive Taliban leaders he's harboring in his basement.

(As it happens, Bruning's ancestors actually did pass through Castle Garden in 1861, before settling in Thayer County, Nebraska.)

Sibling Census Needed

Pop singer Lily Allen is quite sure that actor and comedian Keith Allen is her father, but has no clue how many siblings she has.

"I don't know. I honestly don't. My dad lies about it. He's like, 'Okay, it's eight.' And I'm like, 'We know it's twelve.' There are a few years before he met my mom that are unaccounted for, but law of averages would say he had five [kids then]." [Link]

What's to Blame for Baby Names

The Wall Street Journal had a piece last week on the booming baby-name business.

Some parents are checking Social Security data to make sure their choices aren't too trendy, while others are fussing over every consonant like corporate branding experts. They're also pulling ideas from books, Web sites and software programs, and in some cases, hiring professional baby-name consultants who use mathematical formulas.

Name choices have long been agonizing for some parents. In Colonial times, it was not uncommon for parents to open the Bible and select a word at random -- a practice that created such gems as Notwithstanding Griswold and Maybe Barnes. [Link, via mental_floss]

For parents who wait till the last minute, the circumstances of birth can provide a name. William Shepard Walsh's 1892 Handy-book of Literary Curiosities offers an example:

The register of St. Helen's, Bishopgate, for the year 1611 tells the short tale of "Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes," a child born on the last day of August, "in the lane going to Sir John Spencer's back gate," "and there laid on a heap of sea-coal ashes. Baptized the next day and buried on the day following." [Link]

[Photo credit: yawn by Stephen Rainer]

What's the Bear Hiding Down There?

A controversy has erupted in Madrid over the sex of "El Oso"—the bear which has long been the symbol of the Spanish capital. The Madrid Women's Council insists that El Oso is "una osa." The city's coat of arms depicts the bear looking up a tree, but the relevant parts of its anatomy are not shown.

The Director of the Matirtense Heraldic and Geneology Royal Academy, Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués, told El Mundo that they are not veterinarians, and therefore cannot decide the sex of the bear. [Link]

Get Your Heirlooms Smashed on TV

On the Chinese version of Antiques Roadshow, sentimental value counts for nothing.

Losers go away not just disappointed that their "family heirloom" has turned out to be a dud. At the end, if a panel of experts decree it to be a forgery, the host wields a golden hammer and smashes it to smithereens.

Before the experts pass verdict, the audience gets to vote - a red, smiling face for genuine, a blue, sad one for those they would consign to the hammer. [Link]

Contestants on "Collector's World" can opt out before receiving the final judgment, but have to sign a contract allowing the destruction of their item if they want to receive an appraisal.

A Caper on the Cape

Volunteers in Sandwich, Massachusetts, waded into a pond last Saturday with "thumping" poles, in search of gravestones supposed missing from the adjacent Old Town Cemetery. George Burbank's 1946 book Highlights of Sandwich History says that ne'er-do-wells tossed the stones into the pond back in the 1880s.

In December, town workers pulled a headstone of Hannah Thacher, who died in 1785, from the water. Town workers found the headstone and other broken pieces of stone in shallow water when they were clearing bramble and brush between the pond and the cemetery.

Some believe Burbank's tale of graveyard shenanigans is accurate because while the burial ground was established in 1663, according to historical records, the oldest stone in the cemetery is marked 1685.

That's a 20-year gap with no explanation. [Link]

There are other possible explanations for the gap. In his study of colonial gravestones on Cape Cod, Stephen P. Broker was able to locate just 37 stones bearing dates prior to 1709.

Possible explanations for the slow start in gravestones being placed in Cape cemeteries include a hesitancy of the early settlers to mark the graves of their growing numbers of deceased for fear of encouraging attack by the Native Americans, the initial absence of a gravestone carving tradition in the New World, the need to import gravestones from Boston and Plymouth carving centers, the use of uninscribed fieldstones to mark early burials, the use of wooden markers that have not survived, and the use of inscribed stones that have disappeared with the ensuing time. [Link]

[Photo credit: Zad Crol by Chris Seufert]

She's Sure to Be a Knockout

A baby in Britain has been named Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown. It's a tradition in her mother's family to name kids after lots of boxers.

The tradition started with Autumn’s boxing-clever grandparents Brian and Sue – who gave their three children no less than 103 names between them.

Autumn's aunt Becky has 34 names, and says it could have been worse.

“We’re all named after different boxers – my brother is bare-knuckle boxers, Maria is named after Heavyweight and all my names are after British Heavyweight boxers.

“I was a bit worried when Maria first had Autumn because she said she was going to name her after all our names combined.

“Thankfully she toned it down." [Link]

The Family Chariot

Forty-two relatives of Isidoro Vannozzi gathered Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to visit a former family treasure—a 2,600-year-old Etruscan chariot Isidoro discovered in 1898 while digging a cellar in Monteleone, Italy. He stored it in his barn, where his grandson—Lou Giovannetti's father—used to play on it when he was a boy.

"Dad would be amazed. I'm sure he would. I don't think he realized that much about it when he was a young kid playing on it."

Neither, apparently, did Isidoro, who -- according to lore -- sold the chariot for two cows and 30 terra-cotta tiles before it was shipped off to America. Other accounts say Isidoro made a tidy profit on the sale.

"We keep talking about Isidoro -- he was a farmer; he gave the chariot away. But the money he got was a lot. He wasn't stupid," Bill Giovannetti said. [Link]

[Photo Credit: Bronze chariot inlaid with ivory... by Mary Harrsch]

1940 Census Now Available!

Well, sort of. Ancestry.com has added U.S. Indian Census Schedules, 1885-1940.

These censuses cover only Native Americans who lived on reservations under federal supervision. The Constitution excludes these "Indians not taxed" from the federal decennial census, but a 2006 Prologue article discusses how this rule was bent in 1880 and 1890. And how poorly native names were recorded.

In many cases, only a single name, either the given or surname, is recorded. Frequently, enumerators recorded an English given name without any surname or used "Indian" as a surname or given name. In the 1880 census, for example, there are 924 enumerations in which the surname is "Indian" and 560 entries in which "Indian" is recorded as the given name with no surname. Occasionally, "papoose" or "squaw" is used for given names, or a number is used in place of the given name. One enumerator took the unusual step of making this note in the 1880 census: "Indians won't always give their names. When they do it is unsatisfactoryily [sic] given."

A Viking-Inca Link?

The Vikings were great seafarers, but could they have traveled all the way to Peru and brought back an Inca? Archaeologists pulled up some rose bushes at the old St. Nicolas church in Sarpsborg, Norway, and came upon an unusual skull.

"A particular bone at the back of the head was not fused. This is an inherited trait found almost exclusively among the Incas of Peru," [Mona Beate] Buckholm added. To this day, no other example of this trait has been found in Norway. "While it is tempting to speculate, seeing as St. Nicolas is the patron saint of sailors, it's hard to imagine a Peruvian making his way here at the time. This is quite puzzling." [Link]

They Didn't Have a Ticket to Ride

Tom Kemp at Genealogy Library News has gathered some stories of people born on trains. Here are some famous, and almost famous, people who came aboard between stations:

• Rudolf Nureyev was born somewhere on the Siberian Railway, as was fellow dancer Tamara Toumanova.
• Professional bowler June Courington came into the world on a train carrying her father's baseball team on a barnstorming tour through the South.
• Marlon Brando's second wife, Maria "Movita" Castaneda, was born aboard a train in Arizona.
• Maria von Trapp of Sound of Music fame was born on a train en route to Vienna.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew was born on a train in the Panama Canal Zone. He was named for Dr. Rodney Cline, a passenger in the whites-only section who assisted in the delivery.

[Hat tip: Genealogy Blog]

Car Contest, Sans Saturation

Not long after blogging about the guy who won the time-capsule car, I received an email from Debra Osborne Spindle about a second contest in 1957 involving a second Plymouth Belvedere. But this prize wasn't immersed in water for fifty years. Read more at All My Ancestors.

Mitt's Mexican Cousin

Today's Boston Globe has a story about the side of the Romney family that remained in Mexico after Mitt's ancestors returned to America.

Mike Romney, a school administrator in this small town in the Mexican desert, and Mitt Romney, a candidate for president of the United States, have never met.

But the two distant cousins are just a year apart in age, and both are descendants of the same great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, who fled the United States and, at the direction of church leaders, helped create this colony 122 years ago as a refuge for polygamous Mormons. [Link]

Celebrating a Celibate Ancestor

The Shakers were celibate while living as Shakers, but that did not preclude their having children before joining the community or after leaving. A reunion of the descendants of Elder Freeman Benjamin White was held at the Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire over the weekend.

The dozens of relatives who attended the reunion this weekend are descendants of only two of Freeman White's children - Forrest White and Everett White. Freeman White brought the boys, along with their two sisters, Jennie Lind and Lillie Grace, to the Shaker Village in 1879 after their mother left the family.

It was not an unusual circumstance at the Shaker Village, historian and Shaker trustee Sue Maynard said.

"There were a number of children who were brought to the village to be cared for because of a divorce," Maynard said. "This was a safe, pious, good place. There were not as many men; this is one of the reasons that Freeman stands out from other people who came to the village as a refuge." [Link]

The only place to find honest-to-goodness real live Shakers is at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, not far from where I live.

Lucky Guess Wins Dead Guy a Car

The winner of the rusty 1957 Plymouth Belvedere recently dug up in Tulsa is Raymond Eugene Humbertson, late of Cumberland, Maryland. He and his wife died childless, but he has two sisters living, and a number of nephews and nieces, including Sue (Humbertson) Gerhart.

Sue said her husband, Paul, broke the news to her early Saturday morning, when he said, "You're not going to believe what was in today's paper." Sue added, "I wasn't even awake yet . . . I thought he said, 'Raymond buried a car and they just dug it up.'

"I said, 'My God, is there a body in it?'"

Family members are wondering how Raymond happened to be in Tulsa, and how he managed to predict the city's 2007 population (his guess was 384,743; he was off by just 0.6%). They think he might have been returning from San Diego, where he was visiting his ill father.

They speculate that Raymond stayed overnight in Tulsa, and perhaps had a bite to eat at a local diner -- where he may have filled out the form for the time capsule contest. As far as why he chose the numbers he did -- no one knows. In fact, they said Raymond was not a great math or science whiz.

"For all we know, he could have picked those numbers because (the cost of his meals were) $3.84 and $7.43, or something like that," Ace [Humbertson] added. [Link]

This Needs to Be Addressed

Someone spent some time posting the same message to all 50 state boards at GenForum yesterday:

Having Trouble Finding Information or Just Dont Have The Time???

I am here to help if you are having trouble finding out the information your looking for or you just dont have the time. Check out my webpage and let me get started for you today!!

The poster didn't leave the address of the webpage, so people having trouble finding information may have trouble finding it.

His Parents Told Him He Was Through

Visit GeneaBlogie to learn the full name of a man named Through.

Here's another one in the same vein: The full name of a certain English economist was Nicholas Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-
Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon. He went by Nicholas.

Genealogy is Bunk

After reading Richard Conniff's article, "The Family Tree, Pruned," in the July issue of Smithsonian, I have decided to give up genealogy. After all, "genealogy is bunk," and genealogists are nothing more than celebrity chasers.

The temptation is to pay attention only to the good news, and look on the family lineage as a golden thread leading down from some glorious ancestor straight down to the lucky modern-day descendants.

Boy, he really knows what motivates genealogists. I don't add anyone to my GEDCOM without checking first to see if he's glorious.

Conniff argues that sharing DNA is less important than we think ("In theory, you may possess no genetic connection whatsoever to your own great-great-grandfather"), and that not sharing DNA is more important than we think ("Go back ten generations in virtually any family, and the odds are that someone has climbed unacknowledged up the family tree"). In other words, I might not have a genetic connection to my great-great-grandfather, but that's irrelevant because odds are his wife was a tramp.

Not only is genealogy bunk, it's pointless. We all have common ancestors a few millennia back, so "Our genealogy is, in a word, identical." Analogously, my brother and I share a common set of parents, so I must also be husband to his wife and father to his child. Unless our mother was a tramp.

Yes, I'm giving up genealogy. If our genealogies truly are identical, I'll just wait until you've finished yours. And then copy it.

Bruce's Landlocked Lineage

I hope Bruce Willis is better at genealogy than geography.

The actor revealed that his ancestors come from Ecton, a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England, reports the Mirror.

However, he got a bit confused as to the location of the place, for though he describes it as "a small fishing village in the north of London", it happens to be landlocked. [Link]

His ancestors must have emigrated because the fishing was so poor.

Be Prepared For an 'Oops'

Any genealogist who's put off DNA testing because he's confident where his Y chromosome came from might want to reconsider.

Genetics students, reports Steve Olsen, are commonly taught that 5% to 15% of the men on birth certificates aren't the biological parents of their children.

As more people opt to have DNA tests to check for genetic diseases or to explore family history, the more geneticists are discovering false paternity assumptions.

"Any project that has more than 20 or 30 people in it is likely to have an 'oops' in it," says Bennett Greenspan, whose company, Family Tree DNA, traces ancestral links. [Link]

Acting Like a Witch No Longer a Capital Offense

Genealogist David Nelson says that actor Tom Felton—best known for his portrayal of Harry Potter nemesis Draco Malfoy—is related to some of those executed at Salem as witches.

“He is a distant relative of John Proctor — who was hanged on August 19, 1692. I have informed Tom’s manager about witches in his family tree.” Mr Nelson, of Salt Lake City, US, has been probing the Salem witches’ history for four years.

He found the teen star is also related to seven others involved in the most infamous witch hunt in history — which was the subject of Arthur Miller’s celebrated play The Crucible. [Link]

The Battle of Niihau

I'm a bit of a World War II buff, so I enjoyed reading this evening about The Niihau Zero—a Japanese plane that crash-landed on the westernmost of Hawaii's main islands while returning from the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Having terrorized the islanders who refused to return his papers, the pilot was dispatched by Bene Kanahele and his wife Ella, making the "Battle of Niihau" the first American victory of the war.

A sidebar to the Air & Space print article explains why the pilot couldn't successfully land his plane on the island. It was all because of the pre-war prediction that, if captured by the Japanese, Niihau would make a perfect base for attacks on the other Hawaiian Islands.

To preclude that, Alymer Robinson, Keith's uncle, began plowing up Niihau. "They started with mules," Keith Robinson says. After the Japanese sinking of the USS Panay in China's Yangtze River in 1937, the Robinsons added the tractor power. In all, over 50 of the island's 70 square miles were rendered unusable, all at the family's personal expense.

From a helicopter today, you can still see traces of Niihau's furrows, especially along the island's drier barrens. It was these that denied Shigenori Nishikaichi a safe landing, sending his Zero crashing into brush and boulders that December 7 morning. While Pearl's mighty defenses fell, Niihau's held.

Fellow buffs might want to read more about The Niihau Incident at HistoryNet.com.

That Baby Can't Be 4real

Parents in New Zealand have been denied permission to name their baby "4real" because it starts with a numeral.

Pat and Sheena Wheaton said they decided to name their new baby "4real" shortly after having an ultrasound and being struck by the reality of his impending arrival.

If no compromise has been reached by July 9, the baby will be registered as "real," officials say. [Link]

[Thanks, Nancy!]

Fact About Founder Found Faulty

General Mariano Vallejo was the founder of Sonoma, California, but his tombstone at Mountain Cemetery in Sonoma gives the wrong date of birth—July 7, 1808.

There's even documentation to back it up. A letter written by a genealogist at the Monterey Diocese says Vallejo was born on July 4th, 1807, the day before his baptism. But trying to correct history hasn't been easy. The cemetery is maintained by the city of Sonoma.

The people here at city hall say they'd be happy to change the tombstone, but it's not up to them. They say only family members can make that call. [Link]

Oh Baby, That's a Strange Name

If you thought this was bad, welcome to the world little Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K. First name pronounced "Your highness," of course.

[via Neatorama]

Images First, Index Next

I think the most exciting revelation from Tuesday's announcement of FamilySearch's Record Search Pilot is their apparent openness to letting users "Find and view images that have not yet been indexed."

Indexed images are great, but it will take years (decades?) for volunteers to fully index all the digitized records piling up in the Vault. Genealogists raised on microfilm are used to scanning page after page for a single relevant record; there's no reason to hold back digitized records until every name is cataloged. Providing the images online with simple finding aids should suffice for researchers eager to ferret out family facts.

Besides, isn't it more satisfying to stumble upon your ancestor's name after hours of mind-numbing work than after a five-second search? And what clues are missed by the family historian who looks only at those pages where his last name appears?