The Gift of Grace

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good turkey!

SAN BERNARDINO, Cal., Dec. 25.—A large camp of brake-beam tourists just beyond the city limits is without a sumptuous turkey and chicken feast to-day only because the prompt action of Mr. and Mrs. George Delaney saved from the pot the entire stock of their poultry farm which had been given the tramps by their eight-year-old daughter Grace as a Christmas gift.

Grace had just returned from a church service when a tramp wandered up to the door. The sermon had been preached from the text that it is better to give than receive. The child put it to the test by presenting the wanderer with her own pet rooster. He promptly sent all the other denizens of the "Tincan" camp for Christmas gifts, and the little girl continued applying her pastor's text through the medium of her parents' poultry.

Just as the last pullet passed into the hands of a smiling tramp, Mrs. Delaney discovered the little Lady Bountiful. A hurried visit to the camp saved several hundred dollars' worth of turkey and chicken from being spitted over the sage-brush and yucca fires of the hungry tramps. [The New York Times, Dec. 26, 1909 (Link)]

Census Sensitivity

The Economist has an interesting article on the politics of census taking.

Counting can be even more dangerous than being counted. In 1936 Stalin told his officials that the following year's census would find a total population of 170m—a figure that took no account of his slaughter of millions in famines and purges. But the enumerators found only 162m people, and also revealed other unwelcome facts, including that nearly half the population of this avowedly atheist country was religious. So Stalin denounced the count as a “wrecker's census” and had the census takers either imprisoned or shot. A new count in 1939 came up with a similar total, but this time officials wisely classified the results and gave Stalin his figure of 170m.

Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, was "so fond of enumeration that he once wrote to a friend that he had 'ten and one-half grandchildren, and two and three-fourths great-grandchildren', and that 'these fractions will ere long become units.'"

Genealogue Challenge #110

From the New York Times of Dec. 26, 1906, comes this cheery Christmas story:

Dissatisfied because he had not had a happy Christmas, the police say Adam Heckenmuller of 516 Eleventh Avenue last night attacked his wife Margaret and a boarder, Lawrence Stanchorn, with a bread knife, and stabbed them both. Neither was seriously hurt.

Heckenmuller was sitting in his home, the police say, and heard his wife and the boarder talking about the happy Christmas they had had. Heckenmuller had not been happy, and, according to the police, he picked up a large bread knife and attacked them.

Who would become Adam's sort-of-famous son-in-law?

Dutch is All Greek to Him

One of the perks for Mark Van Vleet of being a lawyer for Fender Musical Instruments Corp. is meeting great musicians.

He negotiated an exclusive deal for the company to manufacture and distribute EVH products inspired by Eddie Van Halen, a Van Vleet hero. The lawyer told the guitarist that they shared Dutch ancestry, and Van Vleet sat enthralled as Van Halen spoke fluent Dutch for the next 20 minutes. The two shared a laugh when the lawyer sheepishly admitted that he didn't understand a word of it. [Link]

You Can Always Find What You're Looking For at Lowe's

Steve Flaig found his birth mother working at the same Lowe's where he works.

Four years ago, when Steve turned 18, he asked DA Blodgett for Children, the agency that arranged his adoption, for his background information.

A couple of months later it came, with his birth mother's name.

He searched the Internet for her address and came up empty.

In October, around his 22nd birthday, he took out the paperwork from DA Blodgett and realized he had been spelling his birth mother's surname wrong as "Talladay."

He typed "Tallady" into a search engine, coming up with an address on West River Drive. That was less than a mile from the Lowe's store, 4297 Plainfield Ave. NE, and just around the corner from where his parents raised him.

He mentioned it to his boss.

She said: "You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?" [Link, via Ancestories]

Long Live the Queen

Queen Elizabeth will soon be the longest-lived British monarch ever.

She overtakes the record set by her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria.

Victoria, who was born on May 24, 1819, died on January 22, 1901, having lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days or 81 years and 243 days.

According to Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, who was born on April 21 1926, beats her ancestor's record at around 5pm on December 20. [Link]

Here's a list of British monarchs since 1603 ranked by longevity. The key to Elizabeth's longevity? She's never eaten a surfeit of lampreys.

Christmas Meme-ories

I'm flattered that the footnoteMaven has included me (or least my avatar) in her Choir of GeneaAngels—though genetic testing has established that I'm more Angle than angel.

fM also started a Blog Caroling meme, which has been making the rounds. Here's a Christmas classic sung in the impenetrably beautiful language of my ancestors by the impenetrably beautiful Johanna Kurkela. I've provided the lyrics below so you can sing along.

Jouluyö, juhlayö!
Päättynyt kaik on työ.
Kaks vain valveil on puolisoa
lapsen herttaisen nukkuessa
seimikätkyessään,
seimikätkyessään.

Jouluyö, juhlayö!
Paimenil yksin työ.
Enkel taivaasta ilmoitti heill':
Suuri koittanut riemu on teill'!
Kristus syntynyt on,
Kristus syntynyt on!

Jouluyö, juhlayö!
Täytetty nyt on työ.
Olkoon kunnia Jumalalle!
Maassa rauha, myös ihmisille
olkoon suosio suur,
olkoon suosio suur!

There Was No Body There

Last weekend, archaeologists finally started digging for missing duelist Charles Henry Dickinson in Jim and Laura Bowen's front yard.

“The day we moved in, the guys across the street came in and said, ‘Have you heard about the body? Are you going to help excavate it?’” said Mr. Bowen, as he watched with his daughter, Lily, in his arms.

Several hours of digging turned up nothing.

The archaeologist leading the dig, Larry McKee, his jeans streaked with mud, announced to onlookers and his tired crew, “I think we’re going to call it, guys.”

The Bowens looked out from the porch as workers replaced the sod, saying they might continue after more research.

“We should let them dig up the whole yard,” Ms. Bowen said, “just to settle it once and for all.” [Link]

King David of Frederick, Maryland

Maryland businessman David Howe got a call last year from an English genealogist telling him that he descends from the last king of the Isle of Man. So, he crowned himself king and set up a website.

Many Isle of Man residents are not happy about Howe's proclamation, however. There are Internet postings questioning Howe's legitimacy, even demanding that authorities intervene.

Howe said he was surprised by the backlash.

"I haven't hired a general, I haven't raised an army, and I have no plans to invade," Howe said.

Howe has never visited the island, but he said he plans to go with his family in the spring. [Link]

Following in the footsteps of William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart, Howe established his claim by publishing a notice in a London newspaper (pdf).

Genealogue Challenge #109

In honor of Flat Stanley finding his British roots, today's challenge is about Stanley Flatt. Specifically, this Stanley Flatt.

What were his middle name, nickname, wife's name, the full names of his parents, and the name of his step-father?

Family History Makes Strange Bedfellows

Next November, cousins Mark Udall and Tom Udall will be running for the Senate, and their second cousin, Gordon Smith, will be running for reelection to the same body. The Udalls are Democrats, Smith a Republican.

The Udalls are descendants of one David King Udall, who as a year-old child was brought by his parents on the trek to Utah led by Brigham Young. As a young man, he was sent to Arizona and lived to be president of the Mormons' Mesa, Ariz., temple until 1934.

Having taken two wives, David Udall ran afoul of territorial law enforcement officials in the 1880s. He served a brief term for perjury, having to do with an affidavit filed on a land claim by one Miles Romney -- Mitt Romney's great-grandfather.

Baron Goldwater, uncle of the future senator and father of modern conservatism, bailed David Udall out of jail. [Link]

What Else Is Watson Hiding?

A Slate article casts doubt on the claim that James Watson is 16% African.

The company that did the sequencing claims that each base was read an average of 7.4 times, but Kari Stefansson, whose company assessed Watson's heritage, says he found enough errors in the public genome to have doubts about whether the 16 percent figure will hold up. For example, he says there are places where it appears that Watson has two X chromosomes, which would make him a woman. [Link]

Ale in the Family

Members of the famed Guinness brewing family had their DNA tested to confirm their ancestor Arthur Guinness's claim that he descended from the Magennis chieftains of Iveagh, in County Down. It turns out that he descended from "the subsidiary McCartan clan, a far less eminent family."

The book [Arthur's Round: The Life And Times Of Brewing Legend Arthur Guinness] explains that where Arthur's genuine ancestors, the McCartans, once lived is a small village called Guiness or Ginnies.

The name of which is derived from the Irish Gion Ais, meaning wedge-shaped ridge -- thus clarifying the roots of the famous surname.

However, the pretensions arose when Arthur Guinness married in 1761 and engraved a silver cup with the armorial bearings of the Magennises of Iveagh -- a lion, with the red hand of Ulster, and a boar. [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #108

Doug sent me an article that played a part in solving Challenge #104 (see also the followup):

A pioneer in a new school of dancing, Faith Yvonne Bacon has found that she also is the scion of a pioneer Alameda County family.

Her first visit to Oakland, Miss Bacon explained yesterday, brought her first visit with her uncles, Thomas P. Bacon, 1077 Trestle Glen Road and Robert Bacon, and her first details of the lives of her grandfather and great grandfather.

The great grandfather was Henry D. Bacon, founder of the Page-Bacon Bank in San Francisco, donor of the site for Oakland's Madison Park, and donor of a library and art gallery to the University of California. Bacon was offered the portfolio of Secretary of State in President Lincoln's first Cabinet, family papers show.

The grandfather was Frank Page Bacon, owner of the Bacon Block in Oakland, who died in 1928. Her father, Frank Page Bacon, Jr., never lived in Oakland.

Genealogical research by Miss Bacon's cousin, Mrs. Betty Bacon Week, Jr., shows that she can include among her ancestors of 100 to 300 years ago Sir Francis Bacon, the English essayist, and James Fennimore Cooper, the man who wrote "The Last of the Mohicans." [Oakland Tribune, Feb. 6, 1938]

Two questions:

Who were Betty Bacon Week's parents?

Was Faith really descended from James Fenimore Cooper?

Genealogue Challenge #107

Here's an unusual challenge. This postcard was featured today at PostSecret.

My grown daughter thinks she is named for a Biblical concept, but actually I named her after a KISS song.

Can you figure out what her daughter's name is?

Anne Is Alive!

Anne Hathaway of Orono, Maine, was surprised to read in her local newspaper that she had died.

The information in the short obituary and the list of death notices was correct, except for the part about her being dead.

The deceased was actually Ann Hathaway of Bangor.

At 92, Hathaway admits she’s no spring chicken but said that she’s not dead yet.

"I just laughed," Hathaway said. "I went to the pearly gates and opened the door and they didn’t have any strawberry shortcake and they didn’t like the way my hair looked." [Link]

This woman is also alive and well. This woman is almost certainly dead.

[Thanks, Sharon!]

Scary Santa Moments

Craig's Christmas photo brings to mind terrifying Santa memories of my own. Isn't there one of these photos in every family album?

Genealogue Challenge #106

We've concluded that most of Nancy's missing relatives were hiding under the porch when the census taker came in 1920 and 1930. You can try your hand at that challenge this weekend, or take a stab at this one.

A Christmas card mailed in 1914 was delivered recently in Kansas.

Little is known about the post card, which features a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl and is still in excellent condition.

The card was addressed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, who is deceased. The post office, however, wanted to get the card to a relative, he said.

That's how the relic ended up in the home of Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law. She said she believed the post card, which was from Ethel's cousins in Alma, Neb., had been found somewhere in Illinois. [Link]

Who might her cousins in Nebraska have been?

Grieving Through Glass

Florence Irene Ford died in 1871 at age ten, and was buried in Natchez City Cemetery in Mississippi.

During her short life she was extremely frightened of storms and whenever one occurred she would rush to her mother to find comfort.

Upon her death her mother was so struck with grief that she had Florence's casket constructed with a glass window at the child's head. The grave was dug to provide an area, the same depth of the coffin, at the child's head, but this area had steps that would allow the mother to descend to her daughter's level so she could comfort Florence during storms. To shelter the mother during storms, hinged metal trap doors were installed over the area the mother would occupy while at her child's grave.

The glass window was walled off in the 1950s to prevent vandalism, but the metal doors still work. More photos here, here, and here.

Somebody Doesn't Like Ike

obituary forum has dubbed this the "Worst obit headline ever." I must agree.

The War on Error

Regret the Error has posted a list of notable media errors and corrections of 2007, including these:

Most Delayed Correction
The New York Times:

A caption on June 8, 1944, with a photograph of Army officers at mess on the Pacific front, misspelled the given name of the first officer seated at the left side of the table. He was Col. Girard B. Troland of New London, Conn. – not Gerand. The error was called to the attention of the editors by his grandson yesterday.

The Trouble at Home Award
The Daily Miner and News (Kenora, Ontario):

Last week’s editorial had a major error in it that I must correct. I referred to my new granddaughter as three and one-half YEARS old. It should have read MONTHS old. Boy am I in trouble.

Genealogue Challenge #105

Nancy Bovy needs some help finding relatives in the census.

Despite numerous hours searching at Ancestry I have been unable to find these relatives on the 1920 census and most of them on the 1930 census.

John M Nelson - head - born January 16, 1864 in Sweden (need 1920 & 1930)
Alfrida Nelson - wife - born July 8, 1870 in Sweden (need 1920 & 1930)
Edwin Reynold Nelson - son - born April 1, 1898 in Wisconsin (need 1920 only)
Esther W Nelson - daughter - born March 9, 1901 in Wisconsin (need 1920 & 1930)*
Alice Alfreda Nelson - daughter - born March 3, 1904 in Wisconsin (need 1920 & 1930)
Clarence V Nelson - son - born July 22, 1909 in Wisconsin (need 1920 only)

* Esther married Roy Matthew Curley some time after the 1920 census since he was still single on the 1920 census and living in Traverse County, Minnesota. I haven't found either of them on the 1930 census.
Roy Matthew Curley - born May 24, 1901 in Minnesota (need 1930 only)

The Nelsons lived in Grantsburg, Burnett County, Wisconsin until at least 1910 (1900 & 1910 U.S. census and 1895 & 1905 Wisconsin census). According to Alfrida's parents obituaries, John and Alfrida lived in Sandstone, Pine County, Minnesota in 1925 & 1926. When John & Alfrida died they were living in St Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota.

Both John and Alfrida died in Minnesota in 1949. Edwin died in 1993 in North Dakota. Esther Curley died in 1981 in Minnesota. Alice Nelson died in 1998 in Minnesota. Clarence died in 1964 in California.

He'll Go Down in Family History

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a profile at Genebase. He needs to do some work on his pedigree, though.

"Rudolph's DNA "Rangifer tarandus" was sequenced by a group of scientists in 2005 (Genebank AB245426) - this is the real thing," said June Wong, Vice President, Laboratory Operations, Genetrack Biolabs. "Humans are genetically similar to many other creatures on earth, including approximately 85 per cent similarity to reindeer and surprisingly, 61 per cent similarity to the fruit fly."

Experts speculate that Rudolph's DNA holds a genetic marker that makes the likelihood of a shiny nose highly probable. Whether flight is a dominant or recessive gene in reindeer has yet to be determined. [Link]

Note: Just because your grandfather or great-uncle had a red nose does not mean that he was related to Rudolph. It is far more likely that he was a circus clown. A circus clown with a chronic drinking problem.

Faith, the Stripteasing Genealogist

The most recent Genealogue Challenge has to be my favorite so far. We started out with an image of Faith Bacon as a striptease artist with a lackluster Hollywood career who ended up dead on a sidewalk in Chicago. What have we found out so far?

• Her great-great-grandfather, Daniel Dearborn Page, was the second mayor of St. Louis.
• Her great-grandfather, Henry Douglas Bacon, was a generous benefactor of the University of California at Berkeley.
• She was a not-too-distant cousin of General George S. Patton (it appears that her great-grandmother, Mary Catherine (Hereford) Cooper, and his maternal grandmother, Margaret (Hereford) Wilson, were sisters).
• She sent General Patton fan mail, and "included a photocopy of her Colonial Dames papers." She was a genealogist!
• At her death, she was separated from her husband, Sanford Dickinson, "song writer and publisher of Buffalo, NY." He seems to have been the music consultant for the cult-classic transvestite flick Glen or Glenda—the making of which was depicted in the movie Ed Wood.

There are still details needing confirmation. Faith was living with her 28-year-old "sister" Charm Bacon in New York City in 1930. The 1910 census is difficult to read, but seems to show her father, Frank P. Bacon, with a 10-year-old bride, Charmaine. Was "Charm" Faith's mother? If so, what became of her? And where were they living in 1920?

House Turns Into a Money Pit

Contractor Bob Kitts found $182,000 in Depression-era cash behind the walls of a Cleveland house he was rehabbing for a friend. Now he and the homeowner, Amanda Reece, are heading to court to find out who gets the money.

They traced the home's Depression-era ownership to a businessman named Peter Dunne, Kitts said. The money bundles had "P. Dunne" written on them, but no sign of its origin. Dunne apparently died unmarried and childless, leaving behind a mystery -- a fortune that would be worth an inflation-adjusted $2.7 million in today's money.

But the joy, friendship and contractual bonds of the former classmates dissolved like melting snow amid the heat of all that money. Now Kitts and Reece speak to each other only through their lawyers. [Link]

[Thanks, Nancy!]

Genealogue Challenge #104

This one has me stumped. Faith Bacon was a burlesque dancer who is said to have invented the fan dance. She threw herself from a window in Chicago in 1956. I found her in the 1930 census, but the trail quickly runs cold.

What can you find out about Faith Bacon's origins?

Kilt Him a Bar When He Was Only Five

Five-year-old Tre Merritt bagged a 445-pound black bear while hunting with his grandfather.

"His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett," Mike Merritt said. "And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three." [Link]

Threads of the Dead

If you're having trouble finding a corset that fits at Wal-Mart, check out this MetaFilter post. Follow the links to find all the period attire you'll need to participate in next year's Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day.

2) The Past - This one is more for beginners. Basically dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture's set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of. Some pointers:

- Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.

- Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.

- Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.

Family Histories Protected by Panda

The Washington Post had an interesting article Monday about Ashish Sharma Pawan—a priest who keeps the records of some 2,500 Indian families stretching back 144 years.

The pages are filled with script in Arabic, Sanskrit used generations ago and dialects of Persian mixed with tribal languages. These days, Hindi is northern India's predominant language. The foreign letters in the book represent the past, says Pawan, 28. There are hundreds of priests, or pandas, like Pawan in this city, and each works for a set of families.

"It's so lovely that we still feel so emotionally connected to seeing the books," coos Parthi Krishnan, a hotel manager marveling at the record book's faded pages. There were remarks written by relatives through the years: "A good listener," one entry said. "Hard worker," another said.

"You see, a computer has no feeling," Pawan explained. "There is an intimacy in seeing the handwritten notes of a family." [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #103

James Watson reportedly has the genetic makeup "you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African."

Can you name his eight great-grandparents?

(For the sake of this challenge, let's assume that none of his recent ancestors was the product of a back-door romance.)

A Surprise in Jim's Genes

James Watson—who helped discover the structure of DNA, and suggested recently that black people are genetically inferior to whites—has had his own genome sequenced.

An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1%.

The study was made possible when he allowed his genome - the map of all his genes - to be published on the internet in the interests of science.

“This level is what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African,” said Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, whose company carried out the analysis. “It was very surprising to get this result for Jim.” [Link]

Based on Watson's own arguments, this means that he is 16 times more likely to say stupid things about race and intelligence than the average person of European descent.