Serendipity

 

Question for you:  Was your ancestor a yeggman?  Ever heard that term? Here’s a clue:  “We estimate that one crew of yeggs has been responsible for the theft of a total of $75,000 worth of securities from the bank.” Did you guess safe cracker? You were right. I’d never heard that word before. So was your ancestor a yeggman?

If your ancestry tracks back to an Eastern European country (think Croatia), I’d bet you don’t know much about that place. My husband’s line goes back into Luxembourg and initially I couldn’t finger that country on a map. What helped me to learn and what might help you? There are many good sources and references. The FamilySearch WIKI is one. In depth articles are another. The Spring 2021 issue of History Magazine carried a 6-page article on Croatia, “Land of 1000 Islands.” Historically part of Yugoslavia, Croatia has a long and sunny Adriatic coast line and is a favorite European summer tourist destination. The article does not go into research sources or suggestions but just gives background (with photos) of the “country of Dalmatians, citrus fruits, lavender, olives, wine, sunshine and possibly the birthplace of Marco Polo.”

 

We subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and read each issue mostly cover to cover. The final page of the magazine is an “Ask Smithsonian” page where experts address questions. Recently (March 2021) a reader asked, “When did the war of 1914-1918 begin to be called the Great War?”  Good question.  Here’s the Smithsonian answer:  “Almost as soon as the conflagration began. The Canadian magazine Maclean’s noted, ‘Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War’ in October 1914. Winston Churchill broke with British nomenclature when he called the conflict ‘the World War’ in 1927, says David Ward, a senior historian emeritus at the National Portrait Gallery. Most British people stuck with ‘the Great War’ into the 1940s, calling the more recent global conflict ‘the War.’ In contrast, Time magazine started using the terms World War I and World War II in 1939, before the United States entered the conflict.”  Now we know how that name originated.

 

 

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Funnies For A Dark January Day

 

·         Half of us are going to come out of this quarantine as amazing cooks. The other half will come out with a drinking problem.  Too many will come out pregnant.

·         I used to spin that toilet paper like I was on Wheel of Fortune. Now I turn it like I’m cracking a safe.

·         I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.

·         Still haven’t decided where to go for Easter…the living room or the bedroom.

·         Every few days try on your jeans just to make sure they still fit. Pajamas will have you believe that all is well in the kingdom.

·         Home schooling is going well. Two students suspended for fighting and one teacher fired for drinking on the job.

·         I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone.

·         This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my dog and we laughed about it a lot.

·         So, after the quarantine, will the producers of My 600 Pound Life just find me or do I find them?

·         Quarantine Day 5: Went to this restaurant called The Kitchen. You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have no clue how this place is still in business.

·         My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.

·         I’m so excited…. It’s time to take out the garbage. What should I wear?

·         I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to Puerto Backyarda. I’m getting tired of Los Livingroom.

·         Classified Ad: Single man with toilet paper seeks woman with hand sanitizer for good clean fun.

·         Will the baby boom of early 2021 be known as Children of the Quarn?

·         Better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under.

 

Dark Secrets Of Our Pilgrim Fathers

 

Those of you who know me know I’m not at all hesitant to tell the juicy story of my Civil War ancestor, Matthew Potter, and his “encounter” with a chicken. WELL, this, sadly, was not an isolated occurrence or behavior.......... even in the Plymouth Colony among our revered Pilgrim fathers: 

The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in the Plymouth Colony, by James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz, 2000,  ISBN  0-7167-3830-9

The introduction begins with this: “Who really were the Pilgrims? Far from the somberly clad, stern, and righteous figures children learn about in school, many of the settlers of Plymouth actually dressed in bright colors, drank heavily, and often got into trouble.”   This book is “a surprising look at America’s founding fathers and mothers. The Times of Their Lives, presents a realistic factual account of the Plymouth colony based on contemporary archaeology, cultural research and living history. Taking little known trial transcripts, personal accounts, wills, and probate records, as well as physical artifacts such as shards and spoons unearthed from old foundations, the authors reveal what life in the 17^th century Plymouth was really like. In the process they blow the dust off the dull, wooden figures of tradition and show the Plymouth colonists as vibrant people who lived out complex and colorful lives in a world profoundly different from our own.”

Page 11: 
Although we frequently hear references to reconstructing the past, this is an impossibility simply because we do not have access to all of the complexities of life in earlier times. What we do is construct the past, and in so doing, decide what is important and what is not. Such constructions invariable reflect, to some extent, the values and biases of the time in which they were written.

Page 135-6:  This was a chapter on sex-related capital crimes.  In 1642, Thomas Granger, a 17 year old servant to Love Brewster in Duxbury, was executed for buggery (sexual relations with animals). “He was this year detected of buggery, and indicted for the same, with a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves and a turkey.” He was sentenced to be “hanged by the neck until his body is dead.” The poor animals were all slaughtered and buried.

 ????????????

Coffin Ships---Did Your Ancestor Come In One?

 

The Irish potato famine is notorious even today because it killed one million people and prompted two million people to emigrate from Ireland. Signs of the famine can still be found in Ireland today, whether in the form of various ruins whose occupants had all perished or in the form of graves marked solely by rocks.

 Moreover, Irish emigration fluctuated so much that many voyages took place on coffin ships – small ships aptly named for the increased mortality rate onboard. Many immigrants were so desperate to leave their homeland that they booked inexpensive passage on ships that were small, overcrowded, and ravaged by disease and other unfavorable conditions. Based on these facts, arguably, many Americans with Irish ancestry can connect theirs to this event.

Ancient & Not-So Medicine

 

George Washington and you and I have something in common……..we've both had a bout of strep throat (or our kiddos have) but we're blessed that thanks to modern medicine, we shall not die.

Did you know that George Washington died from quinsy, a bacterial throat infection now known as strep throat??

When I went to ER with a hurting throat, blessedly the ER doctor did not perform any blood-letting, nor “blister” my arms, nor bring in the leeches. He gave me a bottle of pills and I was all better soon. Aren't you really, truly glad that you live today and not then as far as medicine goes? 

 

Been enjoying a YouTube channel titled Weird History. One recent watch was “What surgery was like in ancient Egypt.” People in ancient Egypt had a life expectancy (the narration said) of 34 years. The doctors of the day were really good with treating what they could see (ie, skin, broken bones) but not good with internal doctoring (infection). The show showed a mummy with a prosthetic toe!!

Also watched one about “what World War II soldiers died from.”  They were routinely sprayed with the new wonder drug, DDT, to ward off fungal and insect bite infections. Just think what that did long-term.

Again, aren’t you glad that you live NOW?

 

New York State History Tidbits

 

 

Researching New York ancestors? Did you know this?

In 1663 an ordinance was passed prohibiting the bringing of Quakers into the Province of New Netherlands?

In 1638 there were tobacco plantations on Manhattan Island?

On the 1855 census, the New York population was 3,466,212 with 3,420,926 whites and 45,286 blacks and “1847 Indians.”

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants crossed into New York from Canada without their names ever appearing on any U.S. government records. These immigrants consisted chiefly of Irish and German with a large number of English, Scotch (sic) and Norwegians. The greater part of the immigrants either located in the cities or immediately passed on to the wild lands of the West.  

In 1838 district public libraries were established and from then on to 1851 an annual sum of $55,000 was appropriated for the purchase of books for these libraries. The books were generally comprised of scientific and literary subjects and afforded people the means to obtain information which would otherwise be unobtainable.

Under an act passed in 1782, two lots of 200 acres each was to be set aside for schools in each township.

In 1857 there were 2016 prisoners in Sing Sing (named after a nearby village). There were both male and female cells and also an asylum for Insane Convicts.

(I gleaned these bits from the book, Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State, 1866.)