Maybe They're in the Witness Protection Program

George and Clarissa Vickers want to celebrate their 50th anniversary in the company of complete strangers—specifically, Owen and Mary Coyle, the two strangers they asked to witness their nuptials.

The 18-year-olds were married at the old Preston Register Office by special licence as Clarissa's father wouldn't consent to his daughter marrying a "teddy boy".

But on the day of the nuptials their intended witnesses, George's school friends, were taken ill with flu and were unable to attend.

So the pair were forced to ask total strangers from the street to act as their best man and bridesmaid. [Link]

Good Graveyards and No Nukes

Joe and Virginia Sprott celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary next month. Their decision to relocate to Marble, Arkansas, back in 1959 was influenced by something Joe heard while working at a California Marine base.

When he learned that officials at the base had determined that Arkansas was the place least likely to have an atomic bomb dropped on it, he knew immediately where he would move his wife and five children.

They were struck by the land's beauty, said Virginia, and by its churches (a good church was a must for her) and its doctors.

"And the cemeteries," Joe quickly added. "If you go to a community and its cemeteries are clean and orderly, you can afford to stay. If not, move on." [Link]

No Limitation on Statues

This is what happens when you give the memorial company a blank check.

Davis was friends with a local tombstone salesman named Horace England, and together the two men designed a memorial consisting of life-size marble statues of John and Sarah as they looked on their 50th wedding anniversary. The statues would stand at the foot of the graves and face the headstones; the cemetery plot would also be protected from the elements by a 50-ton marble canopy supported by six massive columns.

Completed in 1931, the Davis memorial was easily the most impressive in Hiawatha, probably in the entire state. And yet when Davis got a look at it he felt something was missing. The giant stone canopy dwarfed the pair of statues beneath it. The solution? More statues.

[Photo credit: Davis Memorial by Frank Thompson]

Tylers Tend to Attend

Harrison Tyler—grandson of our tenth president—will play a part in celebrating Jamestown's 400th anniversary. He's genetically predisposed to do so.

Harrison's grandfather, President John Tyler, attended the 200th anniversary jubilee of Jamestown's founding in 1807 and gave the keynote address at the centennial celebration in 1857 on Jamestown Island. Harrison's father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, who was president of the College of William & Mary for more than twenty years, was a leading advocate of the 1907 Tercentenary, writing numerous books on early Virginia history when America celebrated her 300th anniversary. [Link]

Ellis Island's Very Busy Day

April 17th will be the 100th anniversary of the busiest day in Ellis Island's history—a day when 11,747 people passed through the immigration station.

A usual day saw some 5,000 immigrants processed. It was the highpoint of 1907 when 1,285,349 immigrants entered the United States, with Ellis Island processing nearly 80 percent of those new arrivals. The country would not welcome as many immigrants again until 1990. [Link]

By way of comparison, on a typical day in 2006 [pdf] U. S. Customs and Border Protection processed 1.1 million passengers and pedestrians—240,737 arriving by air, 71,151 by ship—and 327,042 incoming privately owned vehicles.

Still Trafficking in Human Misery

One family has found a way to continue benefiting from the slave trade. To mark the 200th anniversary of legislation ending the British Empire's involvement in the practice, unnamed individuals are putting up for auction a slave ship log book once owned by their ancestor, the ship's master. It could bring $6,000 or more.

It is unclear if the logbook owners, who [auction house] Bonhams say they believe are descendants of "master" Lewis, are aware of the criticism surrounding the slave ship log auction.

After the auction, one legal expert says, there theoretically could be legal ramifications for the owners.

"What comes to mind under common law approach is to bring an action that we refer to as unjust enrichment," says Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association. [Link]

I think we've finally found some people who are fully qualified to apologize for slavery.

Longest Liverpudlian Lineage Sought

Liverpool is celebrating its 800th birthday by seeking out the family with the deepest roots in the city.

Anyone living in Merseyside who can prove their family tree goes back further in Liverpool than anyone else will be invited, with three of their relatives, to take pride of place in a once-in-a-century procession through the city on 'Liverpool 800 Day' on August 28th.

Those who trace the earliest Liverpool-born ancestor will also earn the title of 'Liverpool's Oldest Family', as well as a fantastic heritage weekend in the city in October, which includes:

• 2 nights for family of four at Hard Days Night Hotel. The world's first Beatle's concept hotel. (Opens October 2007)
• VIP tour of the prestigious Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Liverpool. (October 19 - Jan 13 2008)
• Free annual family membership - two adults and two children - to the National Trust.
• VIP tour of National Trust-owned Beatles childhood homes and related attractions.
• VIP tour of St George's Hall - which re-opens on April 23 2007 after a £23m restoration.
• Free, special-edition copy of 'Liverpool 800: Culture, Character and History', by University of Liverpool Press. [Link]

What happens if two or twenty or two-hundred people can trace their lineage back to the same Liverpool resident? Will there be room in Aunt Mimi's kitchen?

Modern-Day Braveheart: Death March Not So Bad

From Telegraph.co.uk:

700 years on, a funeral is held for William Wallace

By Sally Pook
(Filed: 24/08/2005)

There was little of William Wallace to bury after he was strangled by hanging, released near death, drawn, quartered and beheaded.

His head was placed on a pike on London Bridge and his limbs displayed across Scotland to serve as a terrible warning.

Seven hundred years later, a symbolic funeral service was conducted for the Scottish rebel leader in London yesterday, close to his place of execution.

[snip]

Tied to horses and stripped naked, he was dragged for six miles through the city in 1305 to a site next to St Bartholomew's church in Smithfield, where he is commemorated by a plaque dedicated to his "immortal memory".

[snip]

Colin Hay, 32, a youth worker from Perth, who walked the death route from Westminster to Smithfield, said: "It was the easiest six miles of my life. I didn't feel it. We were walking for a purpose, in honour of Wallace."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]