Alcohol Is Good for the Heart

DNA tests on the heart of Frédéric Chopin—preserved since his death in 1849—may prove whether the composer suffered from cystic fibrosis.

Grzegorz Michalski, director of Poland's National Fryderyk Chopin Institute, says the last known time the heart was examined, just after the end of World War II, it appeared to be perfectly preserved in the hermetically sealed crystal urn that was filled with an alcoholic liquid, presumed to be cognac.

"Records show it is in perfect condition, so to tamper with it risks destroying it," Michalski says. Of Chopin's two living descendants, he says, one favours DNA testing, but the other is staunchly opposed. [Link]

You just know that someone somewhere would pay top dollar for that 1849 cognac.

Genealogue Challenge #18

I'm going to leave Challenge #17 open until this evening. In the meantime...

On what date did George and Ira Gershwin's mother arrive in America?

Extra credit: On what date did her father die?

Custer's Last Band Leader

Is Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri a genealogist? He's certainly familiar with one ancestor who narrowly avoided the fate of his patron, General George Custer.

My great-great grandfather [Felix Vinatieri] came over on a boat from Italy, entered the country somewhere on the East Coast and joined the military and got stationed at South Dakota as our government was heading west. He hooked on with Custer, who was a big music fan. My grandfather was a composer, and Custer really enjoyed him, so he did some symphony work for him. The band was there not only for marches but for entertainment, as a morale-booster. They knew at Fort Meade that they were going into some hostile areas, so they left the band behind. Thank goodness for my family that they decided that – I think one horse made it back from the Little Big Horn. Other than that. ... [Link]

At the Vinatieri Archive of the National Music Museum you can listen to, among other tunes, Felix's "General Custer, Last Indians Campagne March"—composed just months before the General met his end.

French Busts Lifted

Thieves have made off with six bronze busts from the famous Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris—including that of Carmen composer Georges Bizet.

The busts dated from the second half of the 19th century and were made by well-known artists of the time. Each is worth between €5,000 and €10,000.

Jean-Claude Hitz, a trade union representative for Paris cemetery workers said that although efforts had been made to provide security for the Père-Lachaise, "20 or so wardens were not enough ... at a site whose five gates are open to the public, where the landscape is hilly and where someone can hide behind a cross or a tombstone, out of sight". [Link]

[Photo credit: 1993 Bizet by majorbonnet]

Those Crazy Latvians

More than 400 people in Latvia changed their names during the first half of 2006. This is one of those rare instances when Latvian bureaucratic news is interesting.

A girl wanted to change her name to Michura Satori only because she is studying Japanese, while an artist wanted to rename himself as Neliesu Kavejs, which in English means Slayer of Villains. Several people had expressed a wish to take the name of popular Latvian composer Raimonds Pauls, but their requests were rejected on the grounds that this would affect the interests of a third party. Authorities also turned down the request of a man who wanted to be renamed as Adolf Hitler. [Link]

The Decomposed Composer

From the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News of Dec. 11, 2005:

BEETHOVEN'S BONES

By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News

Joan Kaufmann is thumbing through neatly cataloged volumes of family papers at her Danville home when she comes across a page of particular interest. Casually scribbled are the contents of an aluminum lunchbox that once belonged to a relative named Tom Desmines in the South of France: "11 silver spoons . . . 1 gold chain . . . Chinese lock and key . . . box Beethoven skullbones."

Kaufmann, 70, chuckles: "I never assumed that I married into a family like this."

She did, 47 years ago. But it's only recently that the family history has come sailing out of the mists. In 1990, she and her husband, Paul, a business executive, visited Desmines, an old bohemian who was badly ailing, and brought home the bones that Paul had been hearing about since he was a boy and which his Uncle Tom had stashed in the lunchbox.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

tags: genealogy, family history, family tree

Let's Skip the Peasantries

From The New York Times:

Arts, Briefly

Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: December 9, 2005

[snip]

Sibelius Diaries Published

Diaries kept by the Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius from 1909 to 1944 have been published for the first time, Agence France-Presse reported. Seen previously by only a handful of researchers, the diaries cover his relationships with friends and family, publishers and economic matters. They reveal his anger at poor reviews and his disappointment at being unable to find one aristocrat among his ancestors. Sibelius (1865-1957) was particularly irate when genealogists traced his ancestry to Finnish peasants.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

I had the same reaction when I learned that two of my great-grandparents were Finnish peasants. My other great-grandparents had the good sense to be French-Canadian and American peasants.