145-Year-Old Book Finally Released

Joyce Yarde bought a copy of The Siege of Kenilworth that once belonged to Union soldier J.C. Sample.

When curiosity about the book’s plot led Yarde to turn a few pages into it, she found an inscription penned by Sample in 1863.

“Captured from the Blount House Little Washington North Carolina in June 1863,” the inscription reads. It is signed “J.C. Sample Corps G 168 P.V.I.”

That sent Yarde, a self-professed history buff, on a quest to return the “captured” property in her possession to its rightful owner, if one were living and if she could find him or her. She Googled “Little Washington, North Carolina” and came up with Blount Rumley, director of the N.C. Estuarium. A few weeks of e-mail correspondence ensued and, confident that she had at least found someone who could point her and the book in the right direction, she mailed the book to Rumley. [Link]

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)]

Postcard Samaritan Strikes Again

Doris Alman of Mason City, Iowa, was sent a postcard mailed by her parents to her grandmother back in 1968.

Alman turned her attention to the envelope the card was mailed in, wondering who sent it to her.

The No. 10 envelope has a one-line return address: Lost Postcard Rescue Dept.

The envelope has a 41-cent Gerald Ford postage stamp and the postmark shows it was mailed from Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 21, 2007.

That’s where the mystery rests for Alman.

“I have no idea who it came from,” she said. “You would almost have to think it was someone who does genealogy because our last names are different.” [Link]

Sound familiar? I blogged last January about a similar case in South Carolina.

The envelope the card came in was postmarked in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 9. The return address is an e-mail account held by someone using the moniker "lost.postcards." [Ned] Hethington has e-mailed the account several times but has yet to receive a reply.

I Should Start Climbing Poles

Alice Zetterstrom and her husband are restoring cemeteries in Upstate New York—including the beautifully named Dunham Cemetery in Stillwater.

"It's an interest we have," Alice said. She became interested in Dunham when she realized there weren't good records of all the epitaphs there.

Chuck Zetterstrom used to spot forgotten cemeteries from the tops of telephone poles; he's retired from National Grid. Then they would go visit them.

"Cemeteries are interesting places," Alice Zetterstrom said. [Link]

The 'Ghost Writer' Speaks

The man who's been leaving notes with genealogical info on Nova Scotian graves appeared on a Canadian television show today.

"I often drive by and all you see is stones," said the man, who appeared in silhouette on Canada AM to remain anonymous. "You don't know nothing about them or who they are and I just thought I would give some information about some of the people that's in there."

The mystery man has been leaving notes on random graves that are at least 50 years old. Some of them are dated as far back as the 1800s. The information on the letters detail the person's occupation, marital status and information about their family members and is available on the public record. [Link]

Traces of Dorothy

The New Hampshire Historical Society's "book doctor" has been repairing the damage done by overeager genealogists for many years.

In 16 years, Dorothy Emery has patched up The Manning Family and taped together The History of Dunbarton. She's ripped apart and rebuilt The Paine Ancestry and glued Concord's vital records.

"You can see traces of Dorothy all over here," Emery said one morning last week, running her hand over the stacks of books in the hushed New Hampshire Historical Society Library. She paused on a tattered copy of the 1874 Concord city directory. "Does this one need a trace of Dorothy?" [Link]

A Very Understanding Husband

Ann Stolper's daughter was unable to have children after treatment for cervical cancer, so 59-year-old Ann stepped in and became a surrogate mother to her own twin grandchildren last December.

Ira Stolper enjoyed teasing neighbors who marveled at his pregnant wife. Jaws that had dropped at the news she was pregnant dropped farther when Ira told them that she was expecting twins.

And then he'd drop the real bombshell: "'I'm not the father. My son-in-law knocked her up.' Then I would say, `Let me explain.'" [Link]

The Good Brother

Albert Goering despised everything his brother stood for, but was able to put the family name to good use by simply writing it on official documents.

In this way he saved countless Jews from certain death in his role as a deliberately inept director at the Skoda armaments factory. The Gestapo were on to him, but he managed to slip through their clutches.

The tragedy of Albert Goering was that the surname that allowed him to make a stand during the Third Reich’s rise was the surname that condemned him following the Reich’s collapse. After he surrendered to the Americans, the interrogators refused to believe his protestations. He faced years in prison until his claims were finally verified. Following his release, his marriage collapsed and he eked out a miserable living as a translator. Nobody wanted to honour his name. He died, in obscurity, in 1966. [Link]

Perhaps They Met in Passing

Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. R.G. Smith is buried far from home, but his grave is tended by Nita Knapp of Grantham, England.

"I feel a very close connection with Smith, although I never knew him in real life," Knapp said in a telephone interview. "Perhaps it's because he died on the day I was born - Aug. 2, 1941."

Knapp said she regularly places flowers at Smith's gravesite, located near her home. [Link]

Pat Welsh Chandler, a friend of Knapp's from Indiana, is trying to track down relatives of the young pilot—a search hampered by the common surname.

The Cream of Wheat Man Has a Name

Frank L. White—thought to have been the model for the "Cream of Wheat man"—finally has a proper marker on his grave in Leslie, Michigan.

On Wednesday, a granite gravestone was placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.

Researcher Jesse Lasorda started the campaign to secure a marker. He discovered that White was a naturalized citizen, born in Barbados in about 1867.

The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he was the Cream of Wheat model, the Jackson Citizen Patriot said. [Link]

A Reckless Rescuer of Records

Christine Zywocki has spent twenty years archiving monument transaction and burial records stored in a building in West Toledo, Ohio.

The records, some written in a loopy cursive and others by typewriter, give more than just a name and date of birth and death. Many include biographical information, handwritten correspondence from the deceased’s family members, and details and whereabouts of headstones the family bought.

The now-abandoned Lloyd Bros. Walker Co. building was looted by thieves last winter, and may be demolished with some 20,000 records still inside.

Mrs. Zywocki succeeded in rescuing a few thousand records from the building’s basement in early March and deposited them for safekeeping in a Toledo-Lucas County Public Library warehouse.

Her efforts to remove more were thwarted by city code enforcement officials, who quickly boarded up the building’s entrances and threatened her with arrest for trespassing.

“We can’t just let anybody walk in there and take whatever they want,” said City Law Director John Madigan. [Link]

Yes, better that these records be destroyed than to have them fall into the hands of a genealogical vigilante.

I Suspect a Genealogist

Some good Samaritan mailed Ned Hethington a postcard his great-aunt should have received in 1949.

The envelope the card came in was postmarked in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 9. The return address is an e-mail account held by someone using the moniker "lost.postcards." Hethington has e-mailed the account several times but has yet to receive a reply.

Did someone find the card in an old mailbag and send it on its way? Or was it a collector who decided to have a little fun by tracking down a descendant of the intended recipient? For the record, the postal service says it wasn't them.

"Someone paid 39 cents to send it to me, but why didn't they put a note in there?" Hethington said. "I'd just love to know who it was and where it's been all this time." [Link]

Click over to Honoring our Ancestors for info on known heirloom rescuers.

A Genealogical Life Well Lived

The "Local Life" featured in today's Washington Post is that of the recently departed Edna Somers. Not only was she a member of genealogy's embattled old guard ("Never a convert to computers, she wrote everything longhand"), she also was a friend to overturned turtles.

Years ago while driving on the Dulles Access Road, she saw a turtle on its back in the middle of the road. She found the first turnaround for emergency vehicles and went back to rescue the reptile. "She later said that if she had been stopped by a police officer, she would simply explain that for the turtle it was an emergency -- a matter of life and death," [her daughter Janine] Gates said. [Link]

But Who Has His Car Keys?

When Torbjorn Johannes Maage emigrated to the United States from Norway in 1882, he left behind his wallet. It somehow ended up in the family of Tor Oevsthus, who recently tracked down a descendant of Torbjorn in Minnesota.

"I have taken for granted that it came into my family in an honorable way," Oevsthus said. "But you never know. Maybe it was won in a poker game? My thought is that this family needed some money to make the journey to America, and they sold this wallet with other possessions.

"It is a very nice piece of work, but it had nothing to do with my family. I thought it was very important to find the right address for it." [Link]

Genealogist Comes to Aid of Katrina Survivor

From the San Antonio (Tex.) Express-News:

Genealogy buff finds elderly Katrina survivor's kin

Web Posted: 09/10/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Cindy Tumiel
Express-News Staff Writer

A San Antonio genealogy buff who "just had to do something to help," used her computer to track down the family of Ada Roppolo, a New Orleans nursing home resident evacuated to San Antonio last weekend with no medical records or history.

"I did it as a good Samaritan with hopes that God will bless me," said Barbara Harrell, who has been researching family trees for 35 years. "These people are in such dire straits and this lady looked so pretty."

Harrell read about Roppolo in Thursday's Express-News, which reported on how the elderly woman was airlifted to San Antonio last weekend with no identification aside from a yellowing wristband. That ID bracelet, it turns out, misspelled her name as Roppola.

But Harrell figured it out as she did her online detective work, which led her to Roppolo's nephew, David E. Duthu in St. Rose, La., about 20 miles west of New Orleans.

[snip]

A few hours of searching led to Roppolo's maiden name, Dermady, and to obituaries that had been published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune listing the names of her relatives. Harrell was able to find a phone number for Duthu and called him to let him know his aunt was safe in San Antonio.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

General Genealogist Generosity

Seen on craigslist:

For all Katrina survivors ..... As a family historian and amateur photo restorer I would like to restore your old or damaged photos at no cost to you.

Please contact me about sending a photocopy or CD or scanned and emailed copy of your rescued photos and documents (Diplomas, Marriage Certs, Birth and Death Certs) Please do not send originals that could be lost in the mail.

God bless the survivors of Katrina. My prayers are with you.

R. Briggs

From AOL Genealogy Community News:

Help Hurricane Victims Recover Their Genealogy Research

We all know what a chore it is to find answers, locate records. Have you thought about all of the genealogists in the path of Katrina that fled their homes, leaving their computers and their data behind? Not today, but someday, they will be in a position to return to their genealogy, and have no idea where to start. A group has just been started to help. Please join!

Homepage: http://groups.google.com/group/Katrina-Genealogists
Group email: Katrina-Genealogists@googlegroups.com

technorati tags: genealogy

Genealogy Grants Taken for Granted

From The (Fulton, N. Y.) Valley News of July 2, 2005:

Schroeppel Town’s ‘free’ grant writer calls it quits
by Carol Thompson

Adelia Pearson said she will not be volunteering her services to write grants for the Town of Schroeppel any longer. She made the decision following remarks by a member of the town board at the June 16 meeting.

Ms. Pearson said she has written a minimum of four grants for the town at no charge. She said she would normally receive $250 or more for preparing proposals.

"I feel as though it’s my contribution to the town," she said of her free service.

[snip]

During the June 16 meeting, board member Cheryl Connolly addressed Ms. Pearson’s service and claimed that Ms. Pearson is paid for performing work related to the grant, hence, she is not really performing a free service.

"It was mentioned that this person writes grants for free," Mrs. Connolly said. "It made it sound like it's this altruistic person that just came out of the blue and writes grants for free."

Mrs. Connolly said that upon investigation she had discovered that Ms. Pearson had actually been paid for the service. Mrs. Connolly said she had located a voucher for payment to Ms. Pearson for $3,456.

That money was paid out of the grant fund and not the town budget, according to Ms. Pearson. The money was for the indexing of vital records. The bill did not include the procurement fees she would normally charge.

"I wouldn’t call that free," Mrs. Connolly said. "I would call that self-serving."

[snip]

Ms. Pearson acknowledged that she does tell the town that if a grant is awarded in her area of expertise, she would like the contract to perform the work. The work she performs all falls under record management. She has indexed the town minutes and vital records such as marriage and death records.

[snip]

[Ms. Pearson] added that the apparent lack of appreciation by the town board for her contribution motivated her decision to cease her contribution. "I’ll never write another grant for the Town of Schroeppel," she said.

[Read the whole story]

The nerve of this woman, expecting nominal payment for work that otherwise wouldn't be done, and charging the townspeople nothing.