His PB & J Did Not Survive

Coal miner Joseph Roberts went to work on Feb. 19, 1891, with an orange in his lunchbox. He was fatally injured in an explosion that day, and never got to eat his lunch. So his family kept the orange for 116 years, donating it recently to a museum in Staffordshire.

Spokeswoman Deb Klemperer said it may just be a piece of dried fruit but the story behind it made it an amazing piece for the museum.

The orange is completely blackened and dried out - the pips can be heard rattling when it is shaken. [Link]

You Can't Get Blood from a Stone, But You Can Get Tears

In Riverside Cemetery in Wichita Falls, Texas, stands the statue of a young woman descending a staircase. Witnesses say that the statue, on occasion, weeps.

"I saw what looked like a tear," said Julie Coley, a genealogist who has meticulously recorded the graves of Riverside Cemetery, where the girl's statue stands.

"It was a tear stain on her right cheek. I've gone back many times since in all kinds of weather and all times of day. I've never seen the statue cry again."

Of course, you can't have a spooky gravestone story without a tragic, fictional back story.

It was on her wedding day, dressed in her flowing dress, that she tripped on her train and fell down the mansion's stairs, her young life cut short by a broken neck - or so some say. [Link]

The true story? She died of typhoid in Detroit.

Genealogue Challenge #83

Debbie Atchley sent in this challenge about Fred Friendly, the American broadcaster and author whose birthday was yesterday. According to a recent movie, he bore a striking resemblance to George Clooney.

When did his paternal grandfather become a US Citizen?

How much time lapsed between the death of his paternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother?

I'll add an extra credit question: Where are his paternal grandparents buried?

A Most Mysterious Memorial

BBC History Magazine has named a winner in its Mysterious Memorials contest. Sarah Johnson's epitaph recounts "the 28 times the
deceased was drained of fluid in her abdomen – the treatment for ascites, which is related to liver disease." It's thought that this was an "early example of brazen advertising" by the doctors mentioned on the stone. (If so, this was the worst advertising campaign ever. Sure, it makes me want to have a few hundred gallons of fluid drained from my abdomen, but not by these quacks.)

You can read Sarah's medical memorial and runners-up here (pdf), and all the "Shortlisted Entries" here.

Genealogue Challenge #82

Cozmo's Food and Spirits in Stockertown, Pennsylvania, is supposedly haunted by a ghost named Marvin who hanged himself in a stairwell. The Pennsylvania Area Paranormal Association was called in to investigate.

Team researcher Regina Sell said she found in 1900 U.S. Census records that a Marvin Hoff, born in New Jersey, was living at the hotel with his mother Susan, an assistant cook.

Legends differ on the details, but the gist of the tale is Marvin was spurned by a woman he fell in love with at the saloon and committed suicide. [Link]

Could Marvin Hoff have been the jilted lover at the end of his rope?

Genealogue Challenge #81

I hadn't learned of Porter Wagoner's death before Drew Smith sent me this challenge. Even if you've never heard of Porter, you've probably heard the song Dolly Parton wrote for him many, many times.

What was the full name (first, middle, and maiden name) of his paternal grandmother?

The Proof is in the Plastic

Here's some good advice from Genealogy Blog: If you can't prove it, laminate it.

Even God Needs a Good Index

The GRO's digitized index of UK vital records is still a couple of years away, the microfilmed records are scarcely usable, and the paper originals have just been removed from public view.

There will never again be public access to the paper records, the index to where in the country all the births, marriages and deaths were registered, but - as so often with government IT projects - the timetable for the online version intended to replace them has collapsed. According to a spokesman for the Office for National Statistics, which is responsible for the General Records Office, "the present target is to have the online index available by mid-2009".

In the meantime, researchers are invited to use microfiche, which means, one furious researcher said, that "not even God himself is going to be able to find most of this stuff". [Link]

If God is impatient, He can try these resources:

• England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index: 1837-1983 (Ancestry.com, free partial index)
• England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983 (Ancestry.com, free partial index)
• England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index: 1837-1983 (Ancestry.com, free partial index)
• England & Wales, Birth Index: 1984-2005 (Ancestry.com)
• England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1984-2005 (Ancestry.com)
• England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2005 (Ancestry.com)
• England & Wales, Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-2005 (Ancestry.co.uk)
• England & Wales, Births, Marriages and Deaths: 1837 - 2005 (findmypast.com)
• Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates - Complete BMD Index 1837-2005 (The Genealogist)
• Official GRO Birth, Death, Marriage Indexes 1837-2005 (familyrelatives.com)

Google Brings Me Back to School

Ain't it amazing what you can find online? While playing around with Google Book Search today, I found this—a floor plan of the first school I (and my father and my brother and sister) ever attended.

Despite the title, the report is actually for the year ending Dec. 31, 1891. The school was built in the summer and fall of 1889, and was expanded to three rooms over the years. The building now houses Greenwood's town office, and is also the first place I ever voted against anyone named George Bush.

As a bonus, Google included this image of the book-scanner's fingers. It's good to know that they use protection.

But He Had a Pair of Pants

Micki Smith says that your great-great-great-grandfather probably owned just one shirt.

Why did your ancestor own only a single shirt?

Well, Smith said, in order to provide it, your great-great-great-grandmother had to grow, gather, ret, clean, spin and weave the flax, to create linen, or raise the sheep, shear them, skirt the wool, wash, dry, pick, card and spin it, and then weave or knit the garment.

Plus, this was in addition to minding the children, doing the laundry, milking the cow, cooking the meals, tending the house and garden, etc., Smith said. [Link]

A Run-of-the-Mill Story

An Alabama woman was able to buy back the iron mill wheel sold to pay for her birth.

Onis and Nena Harrison operated the gristmill in Goodsprings on Alabama 99 in western Limestone County during the Great Depression. They did not have money to pay a Lauderdale County doctor for the birth of their daughter, Nancy, on July 25, 1939.

"My dad sold the wheel for $125 to pay the doctor in Anderson," Nancy Harrison Gaston said.

The wheel remained in Anderson until 1996, when Gaston bought it from an Anderson police officer for $1,000. [Link]

Haunting Found Wanting

The story goes that 6-year-old Inez Clarke was locked out of her house by her parents on the night of Aug. 1, 1880, for being a naughty girl. She was promptly struck by lightning. Her guilt-ridden parents claimed she had died of tuberculosis, and had her buried in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery beneath a lifelike marble statue. Little Inez has been haunting the cemetery ever since.

A great story, if only Inez Clarke had existed.

"Based on cemetery records there's no such person buried in that grave," Al [Walavich] says.

He's even looked up U.S. Census records from the 1800s and found "no indication that such a child ever existed."

There's even an affidavit from Inez's "supposed mother" issued in 1910 -- 30 years after the child's death -- that claims the Clarkes had two daughters, both of whom were still living at the time. The document also stated neither parent had any other children, Walavich says.

"And the most telling fact was that one of the Clarke family [relatives] had been in touch with cemetery about statue and grave. When asked who Inez was, she said, 'I have no idea, but isn't it a lovely statue,'" he says. "It's kind of hard to have a haunting when the supposed person never really existed." [Link]

An 8-year-old boy, Amos Briggs, is actually buried beneath the statue. Walavich suspects that the intricately carved statue was an advertisement for its maker, Andrew Gage.

[Photo credit: Inez Clark in Her Plexiglass Case by Richie Diesterheft]

Genealogue Challenge #80

The heads of this household had a daughter who had a son who had a famous daughter (still living).

Who is their famous great-granddaughter?

A Genealogue Interview

Everyone seems to be interviewing TGN CEO Tim Sullivan these days, so I thought I should get in on the action.

The Genealogue: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

Tim Sullivan: Who is this? How did you get my home number?

TG: Your company recently launched a DNA testing service in partnership with Sorenson Genomics. Do you do paternity tests as well?

TS: Listen, we just sat down to dinner...

TG: Because there's this girl—I swear I hardly know her, but she's got this kid...

TS: I really can't help you.

TG: I'm not saying the kid's not mine, but I'm not paying a dime in child support until—

TS: Okay, I'm hanging up now.

TG: So I should send my DNA directly to your house, huh?

TS: No!

TG: I wasn't sure which bodily fluid you guys test, so I'm sending some of each.

TS: I have Caller ID.

TG: Yeah, you can just call me back with the results. If a woman answers, hang up.

TS: click

TG: Mr. Sullivan? Tim?

Genealogue Challenge #79

Challenge No. 78 still needs some attention, but let's move on to No. 79. I don't know the answer to this one.

My mother found this card today among her mother's papers. (Click the image to enlarge.) It bears the name, address and Social Security number of my great-grandfather, a Finnish immigrant. It measures 2½ inches by 3 inches, and is made of heavy cardboard.

What was the purpose of this card?

Cherish the Oddballs

Mary Penner's column today covers one of my favorite tricks for tracing families: following the weird names.

Most family trees are over-populated with Johns, Elizabeths, Henrys and Marias. It's the unusual given names that send up a caution flag. Honing in on peculiar names can help with our research.

Even though today's parents tend to create unusual names for their kids by randomly selecting eight or nine Scrabble tiles, our ancestors usually latched onto oddball names because someone near and dear already had that curious name. [Link]

When searching for a family in succeeding censuses, I always look for the strangest name first. There were many John Smiths, but only one Merodach-baladen Smith (named after this guy).

What's Delia's Defense?

As part of his ongoing effort to educate genealogists on the law, Craig has posted an interesting quiz over at GeneaBlogie. Until I find out the answers, I will not be publishing my grandmother's diary online.

Did Baby Get Sex Change?

From The New York Times of Aug. 23, 1922:

The question as to whether the baby born to Mrs. Bertha Rich of 22 Dwight Street, Jersey City, on Aug. 12, was a boy or a girl has stirred up a hornets' nest.

Mrs. Rich says it was a boy. Her husband, Edward Rich, statistician for the Underwood Typewriter Company, says his wife told him the baby was a boy. The officials of the Bergen Sanitarium, Clinton and Madison Avenues, Jersey City, say the baby was a girl.

Rich declares that the sanitarium did not give Mrs. Rich her own baby, and he has retained Charles E. S. Simpson, as attorney, to take appropriate legal action. According to Rich, his wife told him that Dr. David Russell said to her: "It's a boy." Rich told his office associates that he was the father of a boy, and mailed announcements to his friends.

On Aug. 18, says Rich, Dr. Russell asked him what name he desired to give the child. Rich selected "Edward Jr.," whereupon, Rich declares, the physician wrote "Edwina" on the birth record. On the same day, according to the puzzled father, Mrs. Rich told the new nurse to "give the boy a bath," whereupon the nurse exclaimed, "It's a girl."

Dr. Russell's explanation is that Mrs. Rich's desire to have a boy was so strong that she thought the child born to her was a boy. When the baby was born, he said, he told Mrs. Rich it was a girl, and so did the nurses. Dr. Peter Maras, Vice President of the sanitarium, said that Mrs. Rich's baby was born prematurely and weighed between three and four pounds, and that if there had been a thousand babies in the sanitarium at the time it would have been impossible to have made a substitution. [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #78

I'm 97.3% sure I've figured out this one.

The character of Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show was first played (in just one episode) by actor Walter Baldwin.

Who were his parents?

Pensions Get Attention

Diane Haddad reports that all of those Civil War pension applications squirreled away at the National Archives finally are coming to the Web.

The agreement will kick off with a pilot project to digitize, index and provide access to 3,150 pension files. When that’s done, FamilySearch, along with records site Footnote.com, plans to digitize and index all 1,280,000 pensions in the series.

According to the announcement, the digitized records will be free on FamilySearch and at Family History Centers, and possibly on a commercial third-party site.

As Diane says, "Oh, happy day!" I've been working on a large local history project that would have required a lengthy visit to Washington or a hefty payout to some researcher for copies of pension records. I'm doubly thrilled that these will be digitized from the original documents, and not from Eisenhower-era microfilm.

Graveyard Revisionism

Richard Hill has been arrested in North Carolina for desecrating the grave of his ancestor, who served on both sides of the Civil War War of Northern Aggression.

According to the warrant, Hill, apparently a sixth-generation descendant, "tore down and removed a tombstone on the grave" of Stephen S. Shook, who is buried in a family cemetery behind Upper Laurel Baptist Church near Mars Hill, "then replaced the stone with a Confederate stone."

According to the warrant, Shook was "a Union soldier who died on June 10, 1902."

But before that he was a Confederate, the family agrees. [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #77

Who were Gummo Marx's parents-in-law?

Giuliani Related to Himself

A Genealogue News Flash [What's That?]

A genealogist tied to the Romney camp has discovered that the parents of Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani were distantly related, making Giuliani his own eighth cousin once removed.

"Never in a million years would I have guessed I'm related to someone like me," Giuliani said today in a telephone interview. "I guess there's a black sheep in every family!"

Campaign workers were stunned to learn that their candidate is related to a man who once called members of the NRA "extremists," cheated on his wife, and was kissed by Donald Trump while dressed as a drag queen. A spokesman downplayed the connection, calling it "genetically irrelevant" and criticizing Romney for his involvement in such a "desperate ploy."

This news comes on the heels of other genealogical discoveries on the campaign trail. It was learned last week that Barack Obama is related to Dick Cheney, and only yesterday Fred Thompson was found to share common ancestry with John Edward's hair stylist.

Asked for further comment, Giuliani invoked 9/11 several times, and then hung up to answer a call from his wife.

Genealogue Challenge #76

Joyce Randolph—best known for her role as Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners—was born on this date in 1924.

When did her father and her father's father arrive in the United States?

Country Closed Due to Census

The president of Peru ordered everyone in the country to stay home for 10 hours on Sunday so a census could be taken.

Half a million student volunteers were going from door to door to collect information about income, education level, jobs, religion and marital status.

Although the government did not establish sanctions for people disobeying the order to stay home, police were "inviting" people to go home if they were out on the street. [Link]

Whatever Mama Said Went

Wayne Myers is compiling a history of the "lost community" on Bald Hill in the town of Danby, New York.

According to Myers, one of the more colorful personalities on the hill was that of Grandma Felane Gunn, a rather large woman who married George Mettler and then proceeded to lay down the law. When she was pregnant with twins and the doctor was called, it turned out to be a difficult delivery resulting in two sons, Frank and Fred.

But what followed the delivery was bizarre. Upon viewing the boys, mother Mettler declared the brothers would only father one child between them. And she was correct. Fred married Florence Rumsey and they had a daughter, Marjorie. Frank married three times and all marriages were childless. “Mama said there would only be one child and the word was, whatever Mama said went,” Myers said. [Link]

Real Genealogists Don't Wear Ski Masks

A woman in New Zealand who thought she was attending a genealogical get-together was actually being recruited by a group of masked Maori "freedom fighters."

The woman, who did not want to be named, told the Herald she thought she was going to a Maori genealogy wananga (place of learning) in Ruatoki, about 15km inland from Whakatane, but was terrified after meeting balaclava-wearing footsoldiers.

"I honestly thought it was a whanau thing so I asked which family they belonged to, but they wouldn't say." [Link]

The woman refused to join, and told the men to "take those stupid bloody balaclavas off."

A Boy Not Named Sue

This correction appeared in Thursday's Los Angeles Times:

The obituary of Doolittle Raider Nolan A. Herndon in Monday's California section gave his nickname as Sue. In fact, he was known only as Nolan Anderson Herndon. In addition, his sons were listed as Nolan A. "Sue" Herndon Jr. and James M. "Debbie" Herndon. Neither son goes by those nicknames; Sue and Debbie are the names of their wives. [Link, via LA Observed]

Genealogue Challenge #75

Martha Raye died on this date in 1994.

What was her maternal grandmother's maiden name?

Questioning Methods Questioned

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

Ellis Hanscom, president of the American Genealogical Association, insists that members of his organization "do not torture."

A memo leaked to The Washington Post last week revealed that AGA guidelines permit "enhanced interrogation techniques" when questioning relatives. Allegations of inappropriate interviewing methods have since come to light. An elderly man in Miami was placed in a "stress position" by an AGA member and deprived of sleep for two days because the name of his father's first wife had slipped his mind. A Connecticut woman who refused to give her date of birth was forced to listen to Britney Spears' latest single for seventeen hours straight.

"We do not torture," repeats Hanscom. When asked for his definition of "torture," he replies, "Whatever it is that we don't do."

Critic Harold Lord says that AGA's guidelines violate standards accepted by every reputable genealogical organization, and that information gained through such methods is unreliable.

"People will say anything to end a family history interview, we all know that. Why make it more unpleasant than it already is?"

Hanscom counters by saying that he has used the "enhanced" techniques on his own grandmother with great success.

"She told me things I'd never heard before. Who'd have guessed that Grandpa Ted invented Velcro and frozen yogurt while climbing Everest on horseback?"

[Photo credit: Inside the Torture Chamber by Ricardo Shuck]

Genealogue Challenge #74

Comic Joey Bishop died on Wednesday.

Where did his parents live in 1910?

Extra credit: Can you find his wife in the 1920-1930 censuses?

Meet the Other White Meat

Stahnsdorf Cemetery has pigs. Davis Cemetery has turkeys.

Turkeys don't pose a threat to humans, but they can be intimidating. If a person runs from one of the toms, the aggressive males will give chase, [Susan] Finkleman said. She's learned to sidle by the turkeys and avoid making eye contact with them.

But even if the turkeys never actually attack, their presence at the cemetery is untenable.

“Out of their own fear of the turkeys, someone could take a step backward and fall over a headstone and get hurt,” Finkleman said. [Link]

KCRA reporter Richard Sharp tried to get the other side of the story, but was rebuffed: