That's a Long Time to Be a Woman

Kathryn Larcher spotted this in the World Wide Words newsletter of March 8th:

On visiting the Daily Telegraph Web site Ian Harrison encountered this sentence in a report dated 5 March: "Historians have been kept guessing over claims Dr James Barry, Inspector General of Military Hospitals, was in fact a woman for more than 140 years." I can see the slogan already, "Transvestism: keeps you living longer".

Getting past the hard-to-parse lede, this is actually a pretty interesting article. Evidence suggests that James Barry was in fact Margaret Ann Bulkley.

Key evidence came from around two dozen letters, some written by Margaret as a teenager and others by Barry the student doctor.

Alison Reboul, a document analysis expert with the Forensic Science Service, has concluded they were written by the same person. Another newly-discovered letter was written by Barry to the family solicitor Daniel Reardon on "his" arrival in Edinburgh to study medicine in 1809.

Although the letter was signed 'James Barry', Reardon had written on the outside 'Miss Bulkley, 14th December’. "Reardon was a meticulous man," said du Preez.

"On the outside of all the letters he received he wrote the date and the name of the sender. You can't get much more conclusive than that."

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]

How to Stalk a Talk-Show Host

The New York Times has an entertaining article about genealogists who will go to any length to obtain DNA samples from possible relatives.

To her husband’s dismay, Melissa Robards, nee Springer, has spent more than $1,000 testing Springers around the country to see if they are related. She has been known to send flowers to stubborn holdouts.

More drastic measures may be necessary to secure DNA from the talk-show host Jerry Springer, who has so far ignored her three e-mail messages. Ms. Robards, a 55-year-old mother of two in Sparks, Nev., has not entirely dismissed posing as a cross-dresser to get on his show. [Link]

[Photo credit: Jerry Springer by Brett Weinstein]

A Well-Worn Heirloom

When 3-month-old Alexis Penner had her first formal picture taken last week, she wore a hand-me-down dress.

The simple white gown was previously worn not only by Alexis's 22-month-old sister Zoe, but also 136 other descendants of Lieuzetta Schonlau, the matriarch of [Alexis's grandmother] Judy's side of the family, who created the dress in 1896.

"It has become a tradition that at the age of 3 months, the children have their picture taken in this dress," said Judy, who was descendant No. 24 to experience it.

The dress travels with books that contain family photos, a history of the garment, and a list of descendants who've worn it. Judy says not every eligible infant has donned the dress.

"We've had a couple of fathers who have said, 'I'm not putting my boy in a dress,'" she said. "There might be 20 out there who never had their picture taken." [Link]

Surprise, You're a Girl!

A young man from South Africa named Surprise Ndlovu was surprised to learn that his birth certificate says he is female. This means that he can't get his national identification documents and proceed with his studies—at least not without undergoing several rounds of expensive surgery.

"My life is doomed," he said on Wednesday, holding back tears.

"I wanted to become a social worker, but now it seems I can't even become a truck driver.

"How can I get a driver's licence without an ID book?" [Link]

How Could He Say No?

A man in China has reportedly married himself.

Liu Ye, 39, from Zhuhai city, married a life sized foam cut-out of himself wearing a woman's bridal dress.

"There are many reasons for marrying myself, but mainly to express my dissatisfaction with reality," he said.

Liu says he is not gay, but admits he's "maybe a bit narcissistic", reports New Express. [Link]

Male, Female, or None of the Above?

Because of a 20-year-old court decision, anyone tying the knot in Clark County, Ohio, has to take a strange oath before Probate Court deputy clerk Sharon Weldy will issue a marriage license. It starts: "Do you solemnly swear you are not a transsexual..."

"Most of the time, I'd say 75 percent of the time, when I give the oath I get laughter or giggles or questionable looks. You know, they can't believe that's what they're being asked to say," Weldy said.

"Some ask me why they have to say that. Or they look at each other and say 'Are you a transsexual?' to the other one," Weldy said.

No one has ever answered yes.

"I think the average man and woman, by the time they're getting married, kind of just assume that their partner is not a transsexual," said Richard Carey, Clark County Probate Court judge. [Link]

Same-Sex Marriage is Nothing New

From the Huron Reflector of Norwalk, Ohio, Sept. 6, 1836, copied from the New York Journal of Commerce.

POLICE OFFICE, Aug. 13.—Extraordinary case of a female Husband.

A paragraph appeared in this paper on Saturday relative to a female who was found intoxicated in the street, on Friday night, dressed in men's clothes. The account she gave of herself turns out to be false, or at least she has since told a different story, in consequence of a farther and more extraordinary discovery having been made in relation to her. On Saturday morning a decently dressed woman called at the Police Office and asked to see James Walker (the name by which the female called herself before her sex was discovered) whom she said was her husband. This woman was informed of the discovery which had been made, and was permitted to see the person in question, to whom however she declined speaking and went away. In consequence of this occurrence, James, or rather Jane Walker, was again brought before the magistrate, and underwent another examination, in which she stated ,she was a native of Liverpool; that her name is George Moore Wilson, and that George is a name commonly given to females in England; that both her parents died when she was very young, and that when she was twelve years old, in consequence of being ill treated by her friends, she ran away from them, put on boy's clothes, and made her way to Scotland, the native place of her parents.

When she arrived there, she went to work in a factory, still retaining her boy's dress, and remained in it until she had nearly arrived at manhood. She married a Miss Eliza Cummings, with whom she set sail for Quebec two days after their marriage. A few days after her marriage, she imparted the secret of her sex to her wife; but notwithstanding this, the two females have lived together ever since as man and wife. Fifteen years have passed since their union, during which it appears they experienced a great variety of fortune, but kept the secret of her husband's sex so well, that it never before transpired, and remains even unknown to the wife's father, who has resided for sometime with them. As the first account which this woman gave of herself appears to be false, this one may also be untrue—but it stands corroborated to a certain extent by the wife calling to see her on Saturday, and by the vexation and rage she evinced on hearing that her husband's sex was discovered; and also by a marriage certificate having been found on the prisoner's person, certifying that the marriage was solemnized at the time and place which she stated in her examination. The magistrate considered the matter altogether so extraordinary, that he has detained her until it can be more fully inquired into.