Craig Pfunnkuche says we should be digging around in our ancestors' privies.
"Outhouses are wonderful, fantastic, fabulous places to find stuff out about families."
Pfunnkuche, a retired history teacher and amateur archeologist from Wonder Lake, collects the items found in digs, such as his favorite, a Meakin Tea Leaf china set.
Although he goes through rigors of disinfecting the dishes before use, they still grace his table when company comes over, he said with a chuckle. [Link]
Today's genealogy-related post allows me to recommend to you the excellent Twelve Mile Circle blog. Among other things, it offers advice on how to find a bathroom at Old World Wisconsin.
Mark Gilliam, 41, is searching for his birth parents with the slimmest of clues.
The only clues are his birth certificate, which states under place of birth 'Found on The Pavement, Clapham', and fading newspaper cuttings that report he was abandoned in a public toilet.
Attempts to trace Elizabeth Coulbeck, the lavatory attendant who found him, have so far failed. When she discovered Mark he was well-fed and dressed in white bootees and a romper suit embroidered in orange, green and white. 'We're not sure if there is an Irish link,' Mark said. He was found the day after St Patrick's Day, so he is called Mark Patricks on his birth certificate. [Link]
I've poked around in trash dumps at a couple of family homesteads, but never have I probed beneath an outhouse. This MetaFilter post has some good links about amateur privy archaeologists and the treasures they find. Remember to wash up when you're done.
Those who prefer to stay aboveground may want to visit The Outhouse Museum's website, which features a collection of vintage postcards.
Visitors to Åsens By in southeastern Sweden can use a toilet just like the ones used by their 18th-century ancestors.
In previous centuries most Swedes used similar facilities said Patricia Blaker, who led the project to restore the venerable dunny.My parents have an authentic 19th-century outhouse attached to the back of their barn. After reading this, I'm thinking of charging admission.
"We get lots of school classes who come here and most haven't used an ordinary outside toilet," she told The Local.
"Now they can get the chance to use it like people used to." [Link]
Tim Agazio was right to think I'd be interested in this story. It concerns the passing of Howard "Reds" Arrington, who for 19 years was the White House plumber (no, not one of those guys).
"I did all kinds of things. I got a call once that Mrs. Truman's toilet wasn't flushing right. So I went over there, and all of a sudden up comes these false teeth. They weren't Mrs. Truman's; they were her maid's," Arrington told Life magazine in 1992. "Ike used to drive golf balls down the South Lawn right into the fountain. The water was so deep, he would give me his waders and a ball retriever." [Link]
Centenarian Jessie Ridd of New Zealand recalls here the early days of her married life, she a Cambridge graduate fresh off the boat from England.
Her husband had removed the coalrange from his Woodville farmhouse, but because of war restrictions no replacement electric range was available. She had to cook outdoors on an open fire.
"I said to John 'What should I cook?' 'Stew,' he replied, and I asked 'How?'
"Put meat and vegies in the pot and boil it," he said.
To keep the fire going in the rain, Mr Ridd erected a corrugated iron roof over her temporary kitchen. "The carpenter was living with us, building a bathroom because I refused to marry John until I had a toilet inside." [Link]
Sure, antiques dealer Joy Shivar is trying to turn a profit with her Just a Joy website, but she's also making an effort to return historical artifacts to relatives of the original owners.
Each item has a direct link to a specific surname and is guaranteed to be authentic.Of course, my real reason for plugging her website is to draw attention to this item.
This network creates a real possibility of returning "orphaned" family items back to their rightful owners. Items that may have been lost through estate sales, broken marriages or by other means may be recovered. [Link]
This is one of the most interesting items we have ever had. Depending on your point of view it is either comical, classic or elegant. It is the actual chamber pot from the Lincoln bedroom of the White House. Although Lincoln, himself, did not use it, as it did not become a resident of the Lincoln Bedroom until around 1890-1910, it is still a remarkable item.
My great-uncle claimed to have used nothing but corncobs, but rolled and perforated toilet paper has been available since the 1870s. If you don't believe it, check out the Vintage Collection at The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum.
About ten years ago, Mark Sherman discovered a letter written by his grandmother to her son on three-and-a-half feet of toilet paper.
The letter describes the family's new bathroom in Hillbilly English.Sherman said the letter, entitled “From the Mountain Mother to a Navy son,” was a spoof intended to provide a few laughs for his father, Dave Sherman, and his Navy buddies stationed in San Francisco in Aug. 1957.
But over in the other corner now we really got something, that the dam thing you put one foot in, wash it, and then pull a chain and you get fresh water for the other foot. Two lids come with the dam thing and we aint got no use for them in the bath room, so I’m using one for a bread board, and the other we framed our picture with. [Link]
There are more developments in the disturbing story of a cemetery worker answering the call of nature, and then braining the guy who caught him in the act. The New York Post offered the Brooklyn graveyard a free Porta-Potty, but they turned it down.
Ungrateful employees of the Washington Cemetery in Bensonhurst cursed and angrily spurned the delivery of a blue portable toilet for groundskeeper James Scott, 80.Scott denies the charges, and retains his position as groundskeeper and director of the cemetery's Public Urination Program. The injured man, Itomor Khaimov, simply wants justice for his grandmother.
"I pay them good money to take care of her grave, to come and see some schmuck peeing on it," he said. "All I want is that he should be fired. A guy like that should not be allowed to work there." [Link]In related news, the cemetery is considering a new ad campaign: "When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go to Washington Cemetery in Bensonhurst." The same ad agency came up with a slogan for a cemetery in Queens a few years ago: "Your Loved One Would Want You to Try Flushing."
The National Registration Department in Kuala Lumpur has compiled "a list of unusual names to prevent embarrassing situations." It's too late for some, like Datuk See Ah Kow, whose name can mean "dog" in Cantonese.
Then, there is Selangor executive councillor Datuk Tang See Hang, whose name may sound like "waiting to use the toilet" in Cantonese.
The affable 54-year-old is quick to brush the unpleasant translation aside, saying "see" or "sze" in Mandarin meant a poet.
He said "hang" meant hero.
"So you see, my name is actually very meaningful and I have not encountered difficulties with it," he said. [Link]
From The (Provo, Utah) Daily Herald of Aug. 27, 2005:
Sewer backs up into 15 homes
Rashae Ophus Johnson DAILY HERALD
Friday morning wasn't the first time Paul Dalebout discovered a foot of raw sewage in the basement of his Timpview Drive home, but it was no less horrifying the second time. He screamed.
"It was just gushing up out of the toilet like a geyser," Dalebout said.
[snip]
As firefighters walked door-to-door notifying residents and asking them to avoid flushing, the Dalebouts recounted the roughly $6,000 worth of losses from their first disaster. That time, at Provo city's expense, restoration contractors tore out the flooring, replaced drywall around the lower perimeter and cleaned any salvageable items, but genealogy records, family photos and other priceless belongings were destroyed.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From U. S. NewsWire:
Toilets Removed From Profaned Jewish Burial Ground in Poland
7/27/2005 9:43:00 AM
To: National Desk
Contact: Daniel Schatz of the World Jewish Congress, 917-216-5579 or dschatz@wjcmail.org
JERUSALEM, July 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Yielding to pressure by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), local authorities in the town of Szczekociny in Poland dismantled the public toilets that were built on the grounds of one of the town's two Jewish cemeteries.
"The World Jewish Congress is committed to the preservation and restoration of Jewish heritage sites around the world. We will not hesitate to take this issue to the highest levels to ensure that the material evidence of Jewish presence be saved for future generations," declared Bobby Brown, director of the Israel Branch of the World Jewish Congress.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
