Filiopietism Prism: May 2016

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Saturday Serendipity (May 28, 2016)

Here are just a few recommended items of interest for your reading pleasure this long holiday weekend.

1. Memorial Day is just two days away. Now would be a good time for you to visit Heather Rojo's "Honor Roll Project" website at http://honorrollproject.weebly.com if you have never done so before. Heather developed the absolutely wonderful idea of engaging the genealogy blogging community in finding, photographing, and transcribing the information contained on all the various military honor roll memorials and monuments around the U.S. and a few other countries. The heart of the project, from a genealogy point of view, is the transcription leg of the three-legged
FIND/ PHOTOGRAPH/TRANSCRIBE stool comprising the project. It is through a careful and accurate transcription of the names on these honor rolls that a database can be created to allow the search for ancestors and relatives that have served in the armed forces of the United States and select other countries. Heather has created a home for the collection of all this data and it is the "Honor Roll Project" website at the link above. Contributions to the project can be made at any time, but Heather targets the Memorial Day and Veterans Day holidays as particularly good times to add to the project database. I strongly suggest that you click on the "Geographic Areas" drop-down menu on the project homepage and then go to the state or country where you live. See if a monument or memorial you know of has been covered and transcribed -- if not, why not consider a contribution for Memorial Day or for Veterans Day this coming November (or anytime in between)? You will be glad you did!

2. The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS mentioned what I found to be a fascinating article in The Atlantic about a surprising form of printed advertising that we think of as ASCII computer art -- except it was found in newspaper adverts in the late 1800s! Have a look here. Perhaps you will find a clue about an ancestor or relative who was in business and used this form of advertising.

3. As the use of DNA analysis in genealogy continues to develop and mature, we are reading more and more stories of the surprises that can await a trip down the deoxyribonucleic acid spiral stairway. One such story was just posted today by The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell. As always with Judy, the post is worth the read, but this one is particularly interesting and uplifting. Have a read!

4. Barbara Poole of Life From The Roots blog posted a sad notice yesterday about the dissolution of a family reunion that had a history of over 100 years of meetings. Read Barbara's post here -- especially if you or anyone you know has connections to the Thomas and Mary Lowrey family!

5. UpFront With NGS blog posted a very interesting piece about the 1936 -1964 publication of guides to assist African-American travelers in finding safe places to sleep, eat, and get their cars serviced while traveling in the era of Jim Crow. The publications were known as "The Negro Motorist Green Book" and they were published by Victor Green. Read more about these guides and get links to further reading and a look at digitized versions of the guides here.

6. And speaking of UpFront With NGS, Diane Richard of that blog is also a fan of James Tanner's writing at Genealogy's Star blog. This past Tuesday, Diane posted links to Mr. Tanner's series on real property research as part of documenting the lives of ancestors and relatives. See Diane's post and get direct links to each of the posts in the Tanner series here.

7. I love reading stories about someone who finds an old photograph and sets about trying to reunite the photo with existing family members. The genealogy blogging community is often a resource for solving these kinds of puzzles. Yesterday, Laura Mattingly of The Old Trunk In The Attic blog posted a photograph of three boys and one girl that she has but is unidentified. Laura thinks the family might have lived in the Harvard or Eldorado, Nebraska area in the early 1900s. Have a look here and see if you can help Laura with the detective work!
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Friday, May 27, 2016

Heather's Honor Roll Project (Memorial Day 2016) -- Arlington County, Virginia

Perhaps the best known and iconic memorial to those who died in America's conflicts and wars, or who served honorably in the country's military, is Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery is located in Arlington County, Virginia on the west side of the Potomac River across from Washington, DC. "Arlington"consists of about 624 acres and, as many people know, the site is the location of Arlington House, the former estate of Robert E. Lee's family. Lee's wife was Mary Anna Custis, the great granddaughter of Martha Washington.

When the Virginia militia occupied Arlington County and Arlington House in May 1861 after the secession of Virginia from the Union, General Winfield Scott ordered Arlington and the city of Alexandria to be rid of any and all troops not loyal to the United States and on May 24, 1861 Brigadier General Irvin McDowell succeeded in occupying Arlington with little or no opposition. By May 1864 Union forces had suffered so many casualties that the burial places used until then (the United States Soldiers Cemetery in D.C. and Alexandria Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia ) were almost full. General Meigs, the Army Quartermaster, ordered that a search for eligible ground be made to establish a national cemetery. For political reasons, and because the site of Arlington House and its surrounding estates were on high ground outside the threat of floods from the Potomac with a lovely view of the national capital, the estate of Robert E. Lee's family became a new national cemetery. The first military burial there took place on May 13, 1864 (William H. Christman) and although Arlington was not desegregated for burial purposes until an Executive Order by President Truman in 1948, the first African-American buried in Arlington was William H. Johnson, who worked for President Lincoln. Lincoln asked that Johnson's tombstone be engraved with his name and the simple word "Citizen." [1]

Union Soldiers outside Arlington House (June 28, 1864)

Arlington House and Section 32 of Arlington National Cemetery (November 6, 2005)

Among the memorials within the Arlington National Cemetery are: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (represented by unknown remains of soldiers from WW I, WW II, and the Korean War -- the Vietnam War representative was later identified and eventually reinterred near his St. Louis home so it was decided that the Vietnam crypt will remain empty); the U.S. Maine Mast Memorial; the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial; the Women in Military Service for America Memorial; and others including the eternal flame at the resting place of President Kennedy.

With all the history, fame and recognition given to Arlington National Cemetery, it is perhaps somewhat understandable that the local memorial in Arlington County is little known and often forgotten.

Arlington County is located directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. and is the land that was once donated by the Commonwealth of Virginia to form part of the new federal capital district. The U.S. Congress made the area a subdivision of the District of Columbia and named it Alexandria County in 1801. In 1846, however, the area donated by Virginia was returned to the state and in 1920 the Virginia General Assembly renamed the area "Arlington County" to avoid confusion with the City of Alexandria, which lay adjacent to the returned area. The County is about 26 square miles in size and had a population of 229,302 in 2014. It is said that Arlington County is the smallest self-governing county in the country and there are no incorporated towns within its borders due to state law regarding population density. It is this population density and the rapid growth and urbanization of the county in the last few decades that probably accounts for the near anonymity of the local war memorial in Arlington County today.

The Arlington County war memorial is located in what is now a very built-up, bustling area at the confluence of the major thoroughfares known as Washington Boulevard, Fairfax Drive, and Wilson Boulevard.

Arlington County War Memorial east side (May 27, 2016)

The Arlington County stone war monument is pictured above. It was dedicated November 11, 1931 by the American Legion, but it was not dedicated at its present location. Originally, the monument sat adjacent to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in a part of Arlington National Cemetery close to the Potomac River and overlooking Washington, DC. The monument apparently was moved several times before settling in at the Clarendon area of Arlington. It was located at the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Highland Street, then at Clarendon Circle, then at Courthouse, and finally back to its home at the pinnacle of a traffic island in Clarendon today.