Great quote to share with you today. Found it in the book “The Scotch-Irish: A Social History,” by James G. Leyburn, 1962.
“A person in search of his ancestors naturally likes to believe the best of them, and the best in terms of contemporary standards. Where genealogical facts are few, and these located in the remote past, reconstruction of family history is often more imaginative than correct.”
You can really get a good deep look into an ancestor’s life by reading the inventory of his/her possessions when the estate was probated. EVERY single little thing was apparently listed…….. and it surely shows how very little they had by way of possessions. (Think how long YOUR list would be???) Below is the inventory of an ancestor of mine dated 1774:
What I found quite fascinating, as I typed this list, was the mixed-up nature of it….. outdoor tools mixed in with kitchen stuff. And he had a Bible! (Where else did the family obtain new-baby names?) Another bit of interesting trivia, as I understand, all this stuff did not automatically go to the wife…… My, my, my how times have changed for the better.
BIG thanks to my friend, Paul Hoefling of Seattle, for these marvelous funnies………. I admire and identify with his sense of humor.
Haven’t yet gotten around to crafting some Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions? Or, like Maxine, have you broken them all already?
A full year ago, my friend Thomas MacEntee wrote a blog post wherein he came up with a list of seven “Cs” for Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions:
Whatever YOU come up with for YOUR Genealogy New Year’s Resolutions, I hope you stick to them and by next December can be proud of your progress.
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I already knew I was dumber
Than the fifth graders…
But now it’s the
Preschoolers!! A PRE-SCHOOL TEST FOR YOU Which Way is the bus below traveling?
To the left or to the right? Can’t make up your mind?
Look carefully at the picture
Again. Still don’t know?
Pre-schoolers all over the United States
Were shown this picture and asked
The same question.
92% of the pre-schooler’s gave
This answer.
“The bus is traveling to the left.” When asked, “Why do you think the bus is traveling to
The left?”
They answered:
“Because you can’t see the door to get
On the bus.” How do you feel
Now??? I know, me too.
Have a nice day |
Most all genealogists used the FamilySearch website. We also use Ancestry, Find-My-Past, MyHeritage, and a host of other website containing user-submitted family trees.
How many of us look with a careful, critical eye to the information we find amidst the branches on those online family trees? Do we swallow every new name, date and places as if it were “good medicine?” Or do we stop, slow down and ask questions.
I was Internet-searching in the above named databases thinking to further the lineage of James Paschal. Here’s an entry I found on FamilySearch, copied faithfully as I spotted it:
James Paschal
1742 – Midd, NJ
1792 – North, Carolina, Puerto Rico, USA
What on earth was that dear soul submitter thinking??? That’s more than a simple “finger jerk” goof.
The point is here to yes, search those family-tree-user-submitted online databases but consider carefully what you find. At best you’ll find really goofy stuff and at best you’ll find great clues. Not final answers without further research. But you all knew that right?
Everybody enjoys granola in one form or another. …. cereal, bars, ice cream topping, etc. And most everybody knows the basics of ingredients: oats, nuts, honey, etc.
Seems a bakery in Massachusetts had listed, among the items in their ingredient list for their granola, the item “love.” The “ingredient” was a nod to the passion bakers put into their product and wink to fans of the snack.” The company’s chief executive officer was quoted as saying: “People ask us what makes (our products) so good. It’s kind of nice that we can say there’s love in it and it puts a smile on people’s faces.”
But the Food & Drug Administration didn’t see it that way. “A human emotion, it said, cannot be an ingredient in baked goods.” They published a warning letter to the bakery, telling them to “stop claiming that its granola contains love.”
(The FDA) “expects the company to correct the serious violations found upon FDA inspection, as noted in the warning letter.”
How would you have responded to this situation??
(Bangor Daily News, Oct 6, 2017)
We all know that “the Pilgrim Fathers or Planters” were those who arrived in what-would-become American shores in 1620 aboard the ship Mayflower, right? Wrong.
“We may define, roughly, the “Pilgrim” Planters as those who came to New Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620, and in the Fortune in 1621, and in the Anne and Little James in 1623, and the Mayflower (again) in 1629. There were a few, closely related to this group, who came over in the Handmaid, and other ships, in 1630 or soon thereafter.
So how would you define the difference between a Pilgrim and a Planter?
(History and Genealogy of the Mayflower Planters, by Leon Clark Hills, 1936, published in the Cape Cod series, Vol. 1 and 2.)
All us dog lovers will enjoy this story….. In September, when daughter and I took our trip to Maine, we visited the Owls Head Lighthouse near Rockland. I did notice a small “tombstone” near the steps up to the light: For SPOT, the Lighthouse Dog. I knew there was a story so I looked….
Spot was a springer spaniel belonging to the lighthouse keeper. “The dog learned to pull the fog bell rope with his teeth when he saw an approaching vessel. Boats would answer with a whistle or bell and Spot would bark a reply. One stormy winter night in the 1890s, the mailboat was headed towards Owls Head. The fog bell rope was buried in the snow but Spot’s constant barking warned the captain in time to guide his vessel around the peninsula, clear the rocks and sound a whistle to acknowledge safe passage. The spaniel is buried on the hillside near the former location of the fog bell.” (Discovering Marine’s Lighthouses & Harbors, Summer 2017)
What do you think of this story? Would you want a marker for your beloved dogger pet???
Knowing the origins of surnames is a most interesting study. I submit to you today that knowing the origin of YOUR first name is way-cool too. I often ask folks, “Do you know why your parents chose ( ) for your name?” Sometimes they know but often they do not. Transfer that thought to your ancestor’s first names. I have, back in the late 1700s in Connecticut, a John and Sarah Gurney family. They had children Sarah (after mother), Elizabeth (after grandmother) and John (after father) and then Bezaleel. After nobody! Where on earth?
Well, knowing that the only “baby names book” those good Christian folks had was the Bible, I went looking. Sure enough, There are plenty of references to a Bezaleel…”the Lord called Bezaleel and filled him with knowledge of how to do the job of making the Ark of the Covenant.” (Exodus 35:30). Exodus 37 and 38 describe how he did the job.
P.S. He did not pass down that name!
