** Did you help with the FamilySearch Indexing Marathon?
** Black Dutch; Somehow A Slur
** Finding Family Bibles
** Heaven Is (for Genealogists)
In mid-July, all of us genealogists had a great opportunity to help “Pay It Forward.” FamilySearch organized an Indexing Marathon and know what? The outcome was 10,447,887 records were indexed during those three days with 116,475 new people/names added to the searchable database. I did one batch; how about YOU?? Stay tuned for there will be a next time and we both might-could-should-will do better.
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In GenealogyMagazine.com, 1997, Vol. 12, No 1, Page 17, was an explanatory article titled “Black Dutch As 19th Century Slur.” This term has been around since the late 19th century and it has always meant something negative. “The guileless and unphilological,” often classed with the “ignorant Irish,” and “they are like a drove of bullocks..where one leads the rest follow.”
“The term originally meant all speakers of German in the broadest sense. Specifically, the Schwarze Deutsche, or Black Germans, were found along the Danube River in Austria and Germany, in the Black Forest….have dark hair and eyes, unlike the fairer people north and south of them.”
This last comes from the website, www.blackdutch1.webs.com (for real, no @). Managed by Mike Nassau, this site is a good read but has not been updated for ten years.
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We’re all looking for that elusive family Bible; we’re just sure that our family kept one. Maybe no and maybe so. I live in Eastern Washington. The last mention I have of a Potter family Bible was in Latah County just across the border in Idaho. I’ve not found it yet but will (as Sir Churchill said) never give up!
My question to YOU today is this: How diligently have YOU looked for that old family Bible?
You don’t know where to look? Well, www.cyndislist.com has 155 links to websites where you can search for that treasure. There are several “family Bible websites” where one can post if they have one and can also post if they’re looking for one.
Another source is (believe it or not) www.eBay.com. Doing a search today, there are 328,448 listings under the category “Bibles” and under “old family Bibles” there were 142 listings. Clicking on one (for $124.99), the full description read:
1829 Leather Bound Bible Old and New Testament Family Bible S5169
Antique Bible – Has Old and New Testament.
Leather Bound, however both the front and back are detached.
Printed in 1829 in Philadelphia.
This was a family bible, it has marriages, births and deaths listed.
There are 1076 Pages.
There is foxing, some dog-eared pages, and a few small rips.
It measures approximately: 10 1/2″ X 8 1/2″ X 3″ High.
Wonderful Piece of History!
Family section of marriages, births, and deaths includes members of the Tice, White, Thorn, Palmer, Hutchinson, Gray, Allen, Mull, and Hill families. Specific names include:
Leonard White, Mary Tice, Mary Thorn, Amaziah White, Lydia Anna White, Deborah White, Stacy White, Mary Ann White, Letitia White, Almer Henry Palmer, Mary Elizabeth White, Elizabeth Gray, Henry Gray, John Thorn, Martin Mull.
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I’ve had this “funny” tucked into a teaching folder for years and it still brings a big smile: “Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the cooks are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police Germany and it is all organized by the Italians.”