Saturday Serendipity (December 17, 2016)

After an absence of six weeks due to some pressing family matters, Saturday Serendipity returns with a few recommended reads for this weekend (only two more weekends left in 2016 after this one!) . . .

1. The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of NEHGS recently mentioned a story of extreme rarity -- a Canadian woman who at age 96 just became a great, great, great grandmother.  This means that the family is able to capture a photograph of six generations all living at the same time.  How rare is that?? Read more here and see a photograph of the oldest and youngest as well as all six generations of the family. N.B. If you are curious, you can also guess what the Guinness World Record is for the most living generations in an unbroken line.  [Write down your guess before you read the article . . . and no cheating! ;-) ]

2.  The Vault posted a piece that genealogists will find not only very interesting, but also quite useful for adding "color" to the picture of what everyday life cost ancestors back in the early 19th Century. Read here the post titled, "What Things Cost in an American Country Store in 1836."    

3.  Do you know if you have any ancestors or relatives who lived in New York City in 1776? If so (or if you just like reading historical documents), have a look at The Vault's post titled, "Washington's 1776 Warning to the City of New York: "Get Out While You Can."  You can read it here. 

4.  Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, has an interesting post about copyright, missing copyright notices, and newspapers this week. You can read Judy's post here.    

5.  Ahh those Christmas memories of years past.  They stay with us a long time and even the ones that were seen as utter catastrophes at the time, can become the subject of family humor as the years pass.  Bill West of West in New England blog shared one such memory with us this past week. Need a chuckle?  Have a read here.  

6.  Finally, The Weekly Genealogist also brought us a link to a wonderful seasonal story about Alfred Carlton Gilbert, a toymaker who had 15 minutes to actually save Christmas in 1918.  If you have not already seen, read, or heard about this bit of U.S. history, you need to read it here.
  
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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