Saturday Serendipity (April 26, 2014)

After an absence last week while I was on a week-long visit to see and assist my parents, Saturday Serendipity returns this week in an abbreviated form.  I am back to visit my parents again this weekend, but . . . Here are a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this week:  

1.  Two interesting reads courtesy of The Vault. If you are a Little House on the Prairie fan, the first will interest you -- a letter from Rose Wilder replying to her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder about the first draft of one of the books on which they collaborated, By the Shores of Silver Lake. You can read about it and see the letter here.

     

2.  The second read at The Vault is a fascinating series of maps published in 1874 by Dr. Sidney Carney, the Associate Medical Director for New York Life Insurance Company.  The maps show the prevalence of five diseases across the eastern U.S. Dr. Carney tracked pneumonia, malaria, typhoid, rheumatism, and tuberculosis (then called "phthisis").  You can read more and see the maps here. 

3.  My parents celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary a little over a week ago making theirs the second longest I am aware of in the family genealogies.  This week there was a heart-warming piece about a note an 88-year-old man added to a birthday card for his wife of 67 years. You can see the card and the note he added here. 

4.   As we approach the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, we are seeing the start of a flood of interesting articles, posts and books about that devastating war and time.  From the NEHGS Weekly Genealogist is this link to a story of how the effects of an 18-year old who died in the Battle of the Somme were displayed after being locked away for 98 years.  See photos of the possessions and read about how and why they came to light after so long by going here.

5.  And finally, speaking of WWI, if you have ancestors or relatives that fought and maybe died in the "War To End All Wars," then you might be interested in the tours that are being organized to visit the great battle fields of that awful war.  NEHGS provided this link to an article about "coach tours" to the battlefields taking place this year.   
    
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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos -- World War II Ration Stamps

To finish this impromptu series on war rationing during World War II, today's Friday Fotos shows four examples of war rationing stamps.  The stamps came with drawings of various objects such as a fighter aircraft, tank, wheat, fruit, etc.  Each individual stamp was also numbered.

Below are examples of stamps with the fighter aircraft, artillery gun, aircraft carrier and tank designs on them. All are from the ration books of my Grand Aunt Edna [Tew] Tarr, which are now in the possession of her grandson, Bruce Marquardt.

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Scan of original World War II ration stamps courtesy of my cousin, Bruce Marquardt.

For more information and photos of various rationing paraphernalia, see http://www.ameshistory.org/exhibits/events/rationing.htm and the page links at the bottom of the home page.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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War Rationing -- When The Greatest Generation Went "All In"

Edna Lillian [Tew] Tarr (1885 -1969) was the older sister of my paternal grandfather.  The above Ration Book from World War II is in the possession of her grandson, my cousin Bruce.  He allowed me to scan the book and the stamps it contained.

Since this summer is the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, I did a little research and was surprised to learn that there was no rationing to speak of in the U.S. during WW I.  During World War I, food rationing was not explicitly imposed in the United States; instead the U.S. Food Administration relied on a public relations "propaganda" campaign and popular slogans to persuade people to self-ration and conserve food resources.  Catchy slogans such as "Meatless Mondays," "Food Will Win The War," and "Wheatless Wednesdays" did in fact help reduce national food consumption by 15%!  

World War II was different.

As early as the summer of 1941, the UK appealed to the United States to conserve food so that more food resources could be contributed to those fighting Germany in Europe.  As a result, on August 28, 1941 a Presidential Executive Order was issued to establish the Office of Price Administration (OPA) within the Office for Emergency Management.  OPA had broad powers that included the ability to place ceilings on the price for all products except agricultural commodities.  On many other items they had the power to ration the supplies available for consumer sales: tires, cars, shoes, gasoline, nylon, and many other products.  At one point all but about 10% of retail food prices were frozen by OPA. 

The first item to be rationed by OPA was tires.  In December 1941 OPA ordered the cessation of tire sales while it established volunteer tire ration boards around the country.  In January 1942 a temporary end of all civilian auto sales was implemented and dealers suddenly had 500,000 unsold vehicles sitting on their lots -- and by early February 1942 the production of civilian automobile models had ceased. Then, by June 1942 companies no longer produced metal office furniture, refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, radios and other products in order to save and divert materials for war production efforts.

Civilian ration books were first issued in May 1942 with the release of War Ration Book Number One, also known as the "Sugar Book." It was distributed through a network of over 100,000 volunteers that included teachers and PTA groups around the country. All sales of sugar were ended on April 27, 1942 and resumed on May 5th after the ration books were out to limit sugar purchases to a half pound per person per week (50% of the previous normal consumption by Americans). Coffee was rationed beginning in late November 1942 and by the end of the year ration coupons had to be used for citizens to buy other items.  Within a year such items as butter, cheese, fuel oil, meat, canned milk, coal, jams, lard, margarine, typewriters, gasoline, bicycles, and shoes were rationed.

Rationing did not end until 1946.

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Scan of original War Ration Book No. 3 issued to Edna L. Tarr courtesy of her grandson, Bruce Marquardt.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Wordless Wednesday (April 23, 2014) -- What Is This?

[Posting resumes today after the longest hiatus (10 days) since The Prism began in December 2012.  I was away on an extended visit to my parents in New Hope, PA.]

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Scan of originals in the possession of my cousin, Bruce Marquardt.  Thank you Bruce!

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 12, 2014)

Saturdays often allow a more leisurely approach to life than work days. I can more easily post links to some blog posts or other materials I have discovered during the week, or even to those discovered during a Saturday morning coffee and extended surfing of the blogosphere/internet. 

Here are a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this week .  .  .  

1.  Inevitably, genealogy is inescapably concerned with death almost as much as it is with life. Across history, events involving horrendous numbers of deaths impact families and thus genealogies (think wars, epidemics, calamities of weather, and disasters of human error or ignorance) . . . but what do we really know about the magnitude of the numbers of deaths due to these kinds of events, and how they compare to one another? At Wait But Why blog a reprise of an old post titled, "The Death Toll Comparison Breakdown" makes very interesting (albeit depressing) reading. I recommend it.

     

2.  From NEHGS's The  Weekly Genealogist . . .  You will find this article interesting if you know the story of the 257 cadets at VMI (Virginia Military Institute) who took up arms and marched to New Market, VA to shore up Confederate forces and turn the New Market battle for the South. If you have family from Virginia and other southern states who you think attended VMI and might have been among the 257, then you want to read this Washington Post article about the VMI grad who is tracing the lineage of the 247 cadets who survived New Market in order to identify living descendants. So far he has found 1,000 descendants!  

3.  Also from a tip in The Weekly Genealogist . . . a nice article on how young folks are being introduced to genealogy (and genealogy research sources) in schools through the "Storykeepers" project of children's author Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. 

4.  We should all be so lucky as to have the kind of documentary record of our parents' wedding that Donna Catterick has.  Donna shares her treasure trove at This I Leave blog.  It is just a nice read that illustrates how chock full of genealogical information these items can be. 

5.  UpFront At NGS provided us TWO very useful resources in the latest "Mini Bytes." One is a nice tip for deciphering old and new medical terms so we can understand the illnesses and causes of death we come across in our genealogy research.  AND the resource is international so you can explore the medical terms in languages other than just English. Check out the Medical Heritage Library.  The other is a very useful and interesting source for researching American regional words, phrases and pronunciations!  Sadly, when I visited I found it might require a subscription costing individuals $150/yr., but check out D.A.R.E., the Dictionary of American Regional English here and see if you would like to sign up.  

6.  Thursday was National Siblings Day and you have to love the photos of very young siblings together.  Two examples that just bring a smile to your face at Twigs and Trees blog and Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog.
     
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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (April 11, 2014) -- Enjoying Sailor's Duff

Just over a month ago, I posted the recipe for a favorite family dessert tradition -- Sailor's Duff. Today's Friday Foto captures what could be our younger son Christopher's first taste of Sailor's Duff at about age two.  He certainly seems to be enjoying the warm and wonderful molassas treat -- and his two-handed delivery makes sure none escapes.  

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Photograph from the family collection.  Taken at our first home in Sterling, Virginia when Christopher was about two years old.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Those Places Thursday (April 10, 2014) -- Russia

With all the recent news about Russia and Ukraine and the take-over of the Crimea, it made me recall a week-long trip I took to Russia in 2006 (St. Petersburg and Moscow only) with a friend.  It was definitely a different experience as these photos will illustrate.

The high goose-stepping young soldier above is part of a changing of the guard ceremony at a memorial to war dead in the shadow of the Kremlin wall (which can be seen in the background).

This photo is interesting. In view of the news reports of a resurgent interest in the Soviet Union in Russia and especially in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine as shown by the flying of the old Soviet flag and the playing of Soviet music, I remembered that the elderly couple in this picture were playing patriotic Soviet music full blast on the boom box the man is holding. They were in the porch entry to a building just outside Red Square and the open arch and brick made the music echo and sound even more strident.  The couple was largely ignored then, but I am not so sure it would be the same today.

This is a huge Eastern Orthodox church in Moscow within easy walking distance of the Kremlin and Red Square. I'm not sure if there is anything allegorical in the story of this cathedral given past history and recent news, but it sure made me think.

The church above is the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.  It is 338 feet high and is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world. It was originally built in the 1800s and it took 40 years to complete.  Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture premiered in the cathedral in 1882.  

In 1931, Joseph Stalin completely destroyed the cathedral in order to make way for a stupendous structure to be known as the Palace of the Soviets.  The Palace was never built and instead a gigantic open-air swimming pool was constructed in its place. Then, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the pool was destroyed and cathedral was completely re-built in the 1990s to duplicate the original cathedral on the original site.  Pictured above is the second coming of the cathedral and it was largely funded by donations to a construction fund by over 1 million Russians.

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Photographs by the author (November 2006).

For more information about the Cathedral of Christ the Savior see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Saviour. For more about the story of the cathedral, historic photos of the original building, the swimming pool and the conception for the Palace of the Soviets, see http://io9.com/5981106/the-strange-history-of-the-moscow-cathedral-that-couldnt-be-destroyed 

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Wordless Wednesday (April 9, 2014) -- D.J. O'Kane, Jr.'s 1936 Diploma from Great Neck High School, New York

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Scan of the original high school diploma of Molly's late father, our sons' maternal grandfather.  The original is in the family collection.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 5, 2014)

Saturdays often allow a more leisurely approach to life than work days. I can more easily post links to some blog posts or other materials I have discovered during the week, or even to those discovered during a Saturday morning coffee and extended surfing of the blogosphere/internet. 

Here are a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this week .  .  .  

1.  What a difference 109 years makes.  Jana Last of Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog shares with us not just the 1905 postcard of Santa Catalina Island, CA that was addressed to her 2nd great-grandaunt, she also cleverly provides a modern photo taken from the same vantage point as the picture on the postcard.  Two things jumped out to me:  (1) how much greener it is 109 years later; and (2) the manmade objects on the peaks that were not there in 1905.  Have a look.  

     

2.  Would you like to help solve a mystery? Maybe you can you identify the man who took more than 400 photobooth "selfies" beginning in the 1930s just after the introduction of the photobooth in 1926.  See 27 samples of the mystery man's work as he ages over the years here at The Vault -- and let Rebecca Onion know of you know who the man is!     

3.  Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings blog has a nice post about new multi-generational family chart options available at CreatFan.com IF you are on FamilySearch.  

4.  I think we all get the procrastination blues at one time or another when we think of the backlog of genealogy tasks we have set for ourselves. The thought of having to tackle all those files, documents, inputting etc. that have accumulated makes us freeze like a deer in the headlights. Janine Adams at Organize Your Family History blog has faced a backlog and offers a tip on how to handle them generally and how she decided to tag files with metadata specifically.     

5.  If you have not seen Judy Russell's post about the sad practice some have of simply taking the stories researched and written by other genealogists and posting them on-line to their trees without any attribution whatsoever, you can read Judy's excellent piece here at her blog, The Legal Genealogist.          

6.  UpFront With NGS blog has an informative post about the certification process for limited access to the Social Security Death Master File. You can read it here.       

7.  And finally, also courtesy of UpFront, is a piece about a collection of 5,000 World War I photographs that were rescued from the dump by a man in England.  Read here about Bob Smethurst and his 36 years of rescuing and collecting and see some of the wonderful photographs he has saved from destruction.         

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (April 4, 2014) -- Lake Sunapee, NH

When I lived in Concord, NH back in the early 1960s, my best friend's family had a summer place on Lake Sunapee in the shadow of Mount Sunapee, a state ski resort. I spent many summer days at the lake with my friend's family and I have loved fresh water lakes ever since.

Sunapee is the fifth largest lake in New Hampshire and it is a glacial lake with extremely good water quality even today. Native Americans (Algonquins) named the lake "Soo-Nipi" meaning Wild Goose Waters because of all the geese that migrated over the lake..  The lake is 8.1 miles long and 2.5 miles wide at its widest point.

The photograph above was taken in about 1972 during my first visit back to Sunapee since I left New Hampshire in 1965. It is taken from the property of my friend's family looking toward Mt. Sunapee. The photograph brings back many wonderful memories of youth.

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Photograph by the author.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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International Children's Book Day (April 2, 2014)

As has been noted at The Prism in previous posts here and here, reading has always been an immensely important part of our family culture and experience. We exposed our sons to books and read to them from the time they were infants and could snuggle against us on the couch or sit on our laps in a chair. Their rooms always contained books and it was rare indeed if a birthday or Christmas or other holiday passed without the gift of a book or two to each of our sons. Our homes have always been "decorated" (though some might suggest "cluttered") with books, magazines and newspapers. Currently, we have boxes of children's books in storage just waiting to be awoken for use with future grandchildren.

Based on this family reverence for reading and books, the day cannot be allowed to pass without paying homage to the fact that today is "International Children's Book Day" (ICBD).  April 2nd was first declared International Children's Book Day in 1967 by IBBY (the "International Board on Books for Young People") in honor of Hans Christian Andersen, who was born on April 2, 1805 in Odense, Denmark. 

As stated at the IBBY web page for ICBD, "Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster."

The National host for ICBD this year is Ireland and the poster designed by Niamh Sharkey is shown above. The ICBD message for 2014 is from Siobhán Parkinson, the former Laureate na nÓg (Children’s Laureate of Ireland). Ms Parkinson's 2014 message to the children of the world can be read here.   [The United States was the National Host for 2013 and the poetic message for 2013 by poet Pat Mora can be read here.  The 2013 poster by designer Ashley Bryan is shown below.] 

 

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Photograph of Hans Christian Andersen by Thora Hallager (1869) is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HCA_by_Thora_Hallager_1869.jpg.  It is in the public domain.

Photograph of the statue of Hans Christian Andersen by the author from a trip to Copenhagen in 2007.  Children and adults alike pose sitting on the knee of the famous author of children's literature and the polished surface of Hans's knees are a testament to how popular this ritual is among residents and tourists.

Images of the 2014 International Children's Book Day poster by Irish artist Niamh Sharkey and the 2013 poster by American designer Ashley Bryan are both taken from http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=317 
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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew
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Wordless Wednesday (April 2, 2014) -- A Group Portrait Pursuant to G.A.R.P.

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The author's final group portrait of Jonathan's grade school trophies deemed worthy of mere digital preservation according to G.A.R.P.  [See post of April 1, 2014]  Individual portraits not shown. 

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew
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The "Genealogical Artifact Review Process" or The Whirl According to G.A.R.P. -- No Foolin' (April 1, 2014)

This past weekend our younger son and his girlfriend and our older son and his wife were home for what has come to be called the "March Extravaganza" -- an annual celebration of the March birthdays of our younger son, Christopher, and Molly's sister, Kathy.

Having both sons as a captive audience for most of Saturday, Molly got them to commit to going through possessions they left behind when they moved on as adults.  Saturday was a whirl of activity as things were brought down from the attic, storage boxes were retrieved and opened . . . and memories and stories began to flow.

The purpose of the possession review was to gather those items "the boys" wanted to keep so they could take them home when they left on Sunday. Then there were the items that they were sure they did not want.  Those items had to be processed through the formal, but perhaps little known, three-step G.A.R.P. process.

The second step in the process for unwanted items was to decide if the things had enough value (and were in decent enough condition) to go into a yard sale or off to Salvation Army.  The third step followed from any decision that the items were not worthy of offering in a yard sale or in donations to Salvation Army -- these items were booked for a one-way trip to the landfill.

I performed the crucial adjudication role in Step 1 -- the "Genealogical Artifact Review Process" or G.A.R.P for short. Any items that our sons were not interested in retaining and removing to their own homes had to undergo a rigorous review by me to determine first and foremost if they were worthy of keeping for genealogy purposes.  This is a delicate process and hard to describe, but when pressed repeatedly during the day I simply explained, "I know it when I see it."  At times this technical explanation did not sit well with the players and at other times it resulted in some derisive laughter when a particular item was deemed worthy of inclusion in the Class genealogica artifactus.

Now having earned entry into the class of items deemed "genealogy artifact" did not mean the item was necessarily pardoned from the one-way trip to the landfill -- it simply meant the item had been granted a reprieve for further processing. Items in the Class genealogica artifactus were subject to final review and determination as to whether they were worthy of permanent intact corporeal preservation or digital preservation via a final portrait session before a journey to the landfill.

Some examples of final decisions and photographs might illustrate the difficult and intricate nature of G.A.R.P.

Those of you who read The Prism faithfully might recall the recent post on "Preserving Ephemeral Treasures." That post dealt with the rescue of emergency sandals crafted by our older son, Jonathan, when his Crocs were swept away during a water crossing in the Hundred Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail. Those artifacts were formally restored to Jonathan's possession Saturday morning and he decided he did not want them -- so they were processed according to G.A.R.P. and were adjudicated to be worthy of digital preservation only.  They are scheduled for a journey to the landfill this coming weekend because they and their story have been preserved (see the post link above for the story and their formal portrait).

In contrast to the adjudication on the emergency sandals is the decision on the artifacts pictured below.  These items were also handcrafted -- by our younger son, Christopher. [Handcrafted items often score high on the G.A.R.P.  corporeal preservation scale!] The difference in the ultimate decision on the below items vs. the sandals is subtle and very difficult to explain to those not trained and experienced in G.A.R.P. -- so it is easiest to simply say that "I knew they were corporeal preservation items the instant I saw them. Case closed!" And what are the items preserved for future descendants? Fine examples of Cub Scout Pinewood Derby cars and a Cub Scout Sailboat Regatta sailboat. They now sit on a shelf of artifacts awaiting their stories to be told to grandchildren and other descendants.

And that's how G.A.R.P. works . . . intuitively!

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All photographs by the author.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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