Saturday Serendipity (November 30, 2019)

Here are a few suggested reads for this post-Thanksgiving weekend .  .  . 

1.  Genelogists are emersed in the discovery and documentation of the existence of ancestors and other family members.  When that dicovery and documentation is about one's own family history, then it is also very much about discovering the history behind one's own existence.  This week there was an utterly amazing and mindblowing photo display by BuzzFeed titled, "26 Pictures That Will Make You Re-Evaluate Your Entire Existence."  You can view the photos here and it is recommended you view the photos on your computer rather than your phone.

2.  Blogger Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy posted this week about the 2019 New Hampshire Thanksgiving Proclamation and Turkey Pardon.  Heather is a descendant of multiple Mayflower passengers (see her post of November 27th here), but she is also the current and 38th Governor of the New Hampshire Society of Mayflower Descendants (NHSMD).  Governor Rojo and NH Governor Christopher Sununu can be seen with NHSMD members at the ceremony at the first link above.

3.  Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings blog posted this week about using Find-A-Grave for finding burial records.  To learn more you can read Randy's post here.

4.  The National Geographic Genographic Project is coming to an end after 15 years.  Anyne who bought a test kit to particiapte in the project is under a deadline to act and have their data saved.  Read more about the project end date and getting your data saved by reading The Legal Genealogist's post on the subject here.

5.  Janice Brown of Cow Hampshire blog remembers Thanksgiving of 1919 -- one hundred years ago tomorrow -- with stories and photographs of Thanksgiving at the end of WWI.  Read her post and see the photographs here.

6.  Marian Wood of Climbing My Family Tree blog posted on a subject I very much agree with her about -- family photographs being taken from a public tree or public blog for purposes of adding to a family tree/genealogy.  Read Marian's post, "Steal My Family Photos -- Please" here.  

I am quite fortunate to have many old photographs of ancestors and relatives that were given to me for family history purposes.  Some go back to the 19th century and the earliest days of photography.  The photographers are rarely known and quite probably have no copyright issues at this point.  I believe that if someone is part of the larger, extended family to which someone in the photograph belongs, then the person is every much a part of their genealogy as mine and they should be able to see what the ancestor/relative looked like.  I do not understand at all those who have been lucky enough to inherit an original photo of a long-gone ancestor or relative and now seek to prevent others who are descended from or related to the person from using the photo.  It is not like such people have any copyright in something they did not create.  And by what right do they deny another descendant or relative the opportunity to see and use the likeness of their mutual family member?  However, there is just one very small distinction in my position from that of Marian.  I have these old photos only because my grandmothers (in most cases) preserved them and made it possible for them to be passed on to me.  For this reason, and to honor my grandmothers' desires and efforts, I will ask anyone who asks my permission to use the photos to please give credit to my grandmother (who I name) for the fact that the photograph was preserved and even exists today for others to see and use. 

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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Thanksgiving and a Birthday Remembrance (November 28, 2019)

The following post is essentially a reprise of a post first published on November 28, 2013 -- the last year in which Thanksgiving fell on November 28th.  Since Congress fixed the day for Thanksgiving back in 1941 as the fourth Thursday in November, November 28th is the latest date on which Thanksgiving can occur; the earliest is November 22nd (which is the date that President Kennedy was assassinated).  Due to the workings of our Gregorian calendar and leap years every four years, there is actually a  pattern for establishing the day on which Thanksgiving will fall in any given year.  So, if one's birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day, then it will do so again in 28 years.  In between those dates, Thanksgiving will be on one's birthday three other times at an interval of 6 years, 5 years, 6 years .  .  . and then again 11 years later to complete the 28-year pattern (6+5+6+11= 28).  This means Thanksgiving will next fall on November 28th five years from today in 2024.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!  

"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" by Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)

We all think we are pretty familiar with the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.  It is the holiday that is popularly recognized as having started in 1621 with the Mayflower "Pilgrims."  The Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in 1620 and only 53 of the 102 Mayflower passengers survived the first winter.  As any grammar school student will tell you, following their first harvest in 1621, the surviving Pilgrims held a feast of thanksgiving in celebration.  The feast lasted three days and 90 Native Americans attended as guests.  Many think that Thanksgiving was thereafter established by tradition as a November harvest feast and holiday -- but like most things to do with holidays and celebrations in the U.S., it is not that simple.

The genesis of Thanksgiving as a celebration in the U.S. is mixed up in trying to make distinctions between religious celebrations of Thanksgiving and a public holiday celebration established by
proclamation or statute.  As early as the 1500s, religious observances of thanksgiving were practiced by Spaniards in areas that eventually became part of the U.S. In Jamestown, Virginia there were religious services of thanksgiving as early as 1610 -- 11 years before the harvest feast of the Pilgrims in 1621.

In the early colonial period in America periodic festivals of "giving thanks" were celebrated by various colonies on different dates and not every year.  The first national celebration of thanksgiving in America came after the Declaration of Independence when the Continental Congress declared the First Proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1777 -- while temporarily located at York, Pennsylvania because the British occupied Philadelphia.  And in December 1777, George Washington declared a victory celebration of thanksgiving after the British were defeated at Saratoga, New York.  Various designations of thanksgiving celebrations took place after American Independence was declared and the Revolutionary War was fought until George Washington, as President, created and declared in the City of New York the first Thanksgiving Day on October 3, 1789.  Subsequent presidents also declared Thanksgivings and some state governors did likewise until President Lincoln, during
the raging of the Civil War via a Presidential Proclamation, established a national Thanksgiving Day on October 3, 1863 and set the celebration for the "last Thursday of November" in 1863.

Since 1863 "Thanksgiving" has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, but not with the kind of uniformity and lack of controversy that most of us would think.

All of the Presidents after Lincoln followed the Lincoln proclamation and annually declared the last Thursday of November as the Thanksgiving holiday.  But then, in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt was faced with a November having five Thursdays rather than the usual four AND he was presented with the argument (in the midst of the Depression) that making the Thanksgiving holiday the fourth Thursday rather than the last Thursday that November would give more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and thereby help the economy.  He was convinced and proclaimed the next to last Thursday in November 1939 to be the national Thanksgiving holiday. Despite protests from Republicans that the change to the fourth Thursday from the "last Thursday" in November was an affront to the tradition established by Lincoln, within two years of FDR's switch to the fourth Thursday in November, the holiday was established as the fourth Thursday each November.  On October 6, 1941 a joint resolution of Congress fixed the national Thanksgiving holiday as the fourth Thursday of each November beginning with November 26, 1942.

The transition of our national Thanksgiving holiday to the fourth Thursday in November from the "last Thursday" did not go smoothly, however, and for a time many people called November 30th (because the last Thursday in 1939 was November 30th) the "Republican Thanksgiving" and called November 23rd (because the fourth Thursday in 1939 was November 23rd) the "Democratic Thanksgiving" or "Franksgiving" (an apparent amalgamation of "Franklin's Thanksgiving"). The years 1940 and 1941 each had only four Thursdays in November and FDR declared the third Thursday in each of those years as Thanksgiving.  Many states and localities had a tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving as the last Thursday of November and they were loath to give up that tradition. Also, the fact that football schedules were made far in advance and so the traditional Thanksgiving Day games were already set for the last Thursday, further complicated any change.  Annual presidential declarations were not legally binding and so only 23 states followed Roosevelt's proclamation while 22 did not.  Texas was one state that could not or would not decide between the two options and so took both days as holidays.

Finally, as I mentioned in an earlier November 28, 2013 post here on The Prism about the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, that horrible crime and Thanksgiving have ever since been connected in my mind because Thanksgiving in 1963 was a mere six days after the assassination.  What I did not say then, is that both of those events are also forever linked in my mind with my father's birthday.  My father was born on November 28th and the fourth Thursday in November 1963 was the 28th -- Thanksgiving Day (six days after the assassination) was also my father's birthday.  On November 28, 2013, Thanksgiving fell on my father's 91st birthday. And in keeping with the pattern for determining when the 28th is once again Thanksgiving Day, six years after the last time in 2013 means Thanksgiving Day falls on my father's birthday again this year (2019).  Today our family will be giving thanks for many things and will gather together in celebration.  Among the celebrations for us today will be the memory of all the birthdays with my father.  He would have been 97 years old today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!! 

At Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy (1943)

Merchant Marine officer during World War II

1954 with his parents, wife, and first two children

August 15, 2009 at his granddaughter's wedding

The last birthday we had with him in 2017

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Image of "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" by Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914).  The image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thanksgiving-Brownscombe.jpg 

All photographs of A.G. Tew, Jr. in the collection of the author.

For more information on the history of Thanksgiving in the U.S., see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (November 23, 2019)

The following are some recommended reads for this weekend .  .  .

1.     The Weekly Genealogist published a status update this week on the re-index project for the New Engand Historical and Genealogical Register.  The update adds 41,000 records and 83,000 searchable names in the re-release of Volumes 7 - 9 covering 1853 - 1855.  The expanded database can be accessed here for NEHGS members.

2.     Would you be willing to pay up to $625 to get basic immigration records for an ancestor or relative from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)? The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, shares the bad news and a call for support in protesting the planned increase in fees by the December 16, 2019 deadline. Read "Records, not revenue" here and learn the steps to register your protest.

3.     With the family-oriented holiday of Thanksgiving just days away, Good Housekeeping recently had an interesting article titled, "We're Losing Generations of Family History Because We Don't Share Our Stories: But here's how to get your kids, siblings, and parents talking."  You can read the article here.

4.     For decades I have often inquired at social gatherings about traditional foods and menus at Thanksgiving as a way of getting to know others and to engage people on a subject almost everyone likes to discuss (another being, "How and where did you meet your spouse/partner?).  For some reason the subject of family food traditions fascinates me.  For this reason (and because I lived in NH for many years as a boy) I was drawn immediately to the post "New Hampshire: Old Time Thanksgiving News and Menus" at Cow Hampshire blog this week.  The post title says it all.  Read thoughts on NH Thanksgivings more than 100 years ago and see some Turkey Day menus of old here.

5.     This past week James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog posted two more installments in his "How to take better photos for genealogy" series.  You can see Part Three here  and Part Four here. 

6.     Anyone born in New England -- and so with New England in their blood -- or who relocated to live in New England -- and so with New England in their heart -- will understand and appreciate the New Englander's close relationship with and love of stone walls.  Bill West of West in New England blog, expressed his deep connection with stone walls with a post in picture and verse this week. [When I was under 10 years old and visited my maternal grandparents in Cumberland, RI, there was a horse chestnut tree in the small field behind the barn on the couple of acres they owned; and beyond it was a stone wall that marked the boundary of where we could wander and play.  Occasionally, if we were lucky, Gramma would take us over the wall, down a slight incline in the woods beyond to the cool, shaded, bubbling brook where the water ran over stones and moss, mushrooms and watercress grew.  The stone wall was like a gateway to a magic place.  I still have dreams about it occasionally.]  Thanks for this post Bill.  Old New England walls make old memories new! See Bill's post here. 

7.      "We Don't Celebrate Thanksgiving Because of the Pilgrims." Peter Muise of New England Folklore blog explains why our Thanksgiving holiday is not due to the Pilgrims.  Read Peter's post here and be prepared to give a short presentation at your Thanksgiving table on Thursday! 😏

8.    If you blog or have ever thought about blogging, then you should read Marian Wood's post at Climbing My Family Tree blog.  Read "How Blogging Helps My Genealogy" here. 

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Copyright 2019, John. D. Tew

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Genealogy and Preserving Memories (November 22, 2019)

                               [T]he past is beautiful because one never realizes an 

                     emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we

                     don't have complete emotions about the present, only

                     about the past.

                                          --  Virginia Woolf

As Molly and I were driving to an appointment early this morning, I mentioned that today was 56 years since President John Kennedy was assassinated.  I remembered it well because I was in elementary school in Concord, NH at the time. The Principal (Miss Dearborn) cut in on the speaker system at about 2:30 PM and her shaky voice announced that school was closing early so everyone could go home.  Our eyes and ears were concentrated on the brown speaker box up in the front right corner of the room. Every classroom in Kimball school had one. And then she said that the President had been shot in Texas. Each of us was to get our coats off the coat hooks in the central hallway, gather our book bags and return to class until we were dismissed class-by-class in an orderly manner. Each of us was to go right home since it was close to the end of school anyway.

We were watching a news program during our appointment and there was a video clip of LBJ addressing Congress five days after the assassination. I noted that the speaker of the house behind the new President was Speaker of the House John McCormick, a Congressman from Massachusetts (who himself died on November 22, 1980 one month shy of age 89 -- it was the 17th anniversary of the JFK assassination).

Big events (whether on the world, national, or personal stage) tend to embed themselves in our memories!

And as we drove home from our appointment in Philadelphia we were listening to a local NPR station when a piece by Innovation Hub out of WGBH radio and PRI (Public Radio International) came on.  The piece was about memory research by Cesar Hidalgo, the director of MIT's Collective Learning Group.  His research is fascinating and focuses on how society experiences "generational forgetting."  IMHO ("In My Humble Opinion"), genealogists -- professional and hobbyist alike -- should listen to this program "From Famous to Forgotten."  The entire 21.5 minutes is well worth listening to, but there are three basic takeaways as summarized at the above link and presented below:

          1.  There is a timeline for how long it takes something famous to become forgotten and it

               follows a curve.  For example, a popular song has up to 5 years of lasting in what is

               called the "communicative memory."  This means that people are still are still talking

               about the song in day-to-day conversation.  But after 5 years, a popular song enters

               what is called our "cultural memory" and this is the stage where it lives not in

               day-to-day pop culture, rather it lives only in materials like recordings, books and

               other media.

          2.  There is no singular theory as to why something once famous loses its popularity.

               One explanation is that new content arrives to displace old content.  Another

               explanation is that when people of an older generation begin to age and die, many

               of their cultural touchstones also begin to diminish in importance.

          3.  Hidalgo believes that the determination of which content and people deserve to be

               remembered throughout history is a question of morals too and not just about matters

               of memory and forgetting.  And since morals change over time and are culturally

               learned, Hidalgo believes it does not make sense to use current values to judge

               people at other points in time.

As I listened to the program "From Famous to Forgotten," it stuck me how similar Hidalgo's research results are to the vocation or hobby of genealogy!

In genealogy there is a timeline with respect to communicative memory family history.  How many people have had day-to-day interactions and firsthand memories beyond their parents, grandparents, and perhaps rarely their great grandparents?  The "timeline" for the overwhelming number of families with respect to the "fame"/familiarity of their older family members (meaning the kind of real-life contact that is the basis for actual memory of the people) is generational and rarely extends much past grandparents. After grandparents -- and perhaps, at most, great grandparents -- the knowledge of older ancestors/relatives passes into the realm of family "cultural memory/history" and can exist only in photos, stories, and information collected and saved by earlier generations. The "communicative memory" for most of us rarely extends beyond our grandparents or great grandparents.  

For example, our two sons knew all four of their grandparents into their 20s and one grandmother is still with us while our sons are now in their 30s.  Our older son was the only one of our sons to have actual contact with one of his eight great grandparents, but that great grandmother died when he was just five months old, so he has no "communicative memory" of her.  For our sons, their great grandparents are only known in the family "cultural memory" if you will.  They exist for them not through any real day-to-day interactions that became part of their personal memories; they exist only through photographs and oral stories shared by their parents or grandparents. 

Collected and preserved information about ancestors and relatives beyond grandparents and great grandparents (photographs, records, etc) is the essence of genealogy -- the study and recording of the record of a family.  It is a way of preserving the "fame" of those who came before us and thus account in some way for our very being.  The better we are at collecting, preserving, and passing on the evidence of who our ancestors are and how they lived (good and bad), the more we extend their "being," their "fame" from the finite realm of communicative memory -- the day-to-day contact that results in personal memories across maybe three or four generations at most -- into the realm of family "cultural memory" that can extend as far back as the evidence, photographs, artifacts, stories, and records we can locate, verify, and preserve into a collected genealogy.

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The memory image above is from The Doctor Weighs In blog founded by Pat Salber, M.D.

The three takeaways from the research of Cesar Hidalgo are borrowed from the Innovation Hub piece originally published on May 17, 2019.

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (November 16, 2019)

Below are a few suggested reads for this weekend.

1.     This week The Weekly Genealogist had two stories of note and of interest.  The first is about what might be the first banned book in America back in the early days of Puritan Massachusetts.  Read the story of the "Lord of Misrule" here.

2.     Probably every genealogist who has investigated ancestors and relatives from the 19th century Victorian era has noticed that people often died young from a variety of causes and diseases that today are unusual.  The second story of interest noted by The Weekly Genealogist this week is "7 Very Victorian Ways to Die" by Claire Cock-Starkey.  Jot down what you  might have been seven common causes of death during the 19th century and then read the list here.

3.     This week the nation celebrated Veterans Day and many bloggers (including this blogger) participated in the Honor Roll Project of Heather Rojo, author of Nutfield Genealogy blog.  And Janice Brown of Cow Hampshire blog posted about a WWI monument that especially caught my attention.  It is about a very small stone with a metal plaque that simply states, "IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO SERVED IN CO. M N.H. STATE GUARD DURING THE WORLD WAR."  The memorial sits inconspicuously in White Park in Concord, NH.  You can see the simple little monument here.  [I lived in NH for several years in the late 1950s through the middle of the 1960s and for two of those years lived on Essex Ext., a residential street, within 200 ft. of White Park (and now where Franklin Pierce Law School is located).  My siblings and I spent many hours in White Park ice skating on the pond shown in Janice Brown's blog. We also swam in the community pool and skied and sledded on the hills in the park.  Most interesting to me is that we also played baseball on a makeshift diamond just to the left of the memorial shown in the photo with the skating pond in the background.]

4.     James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog posted Part Two of his series on photography and genealogy. "How to take better photos for genelogy" can be read here. 

5.      The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, posted about great news for adoptees born in New York.  Starting on January 15, 2020 New York will join other jurisdictions in making copies of original, unredacted, unmodified birth certificates available to those who were born in NY and then adopted.  Read more about this change in NY law here. 

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew
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Heather's Honor Roll Project (Veterans Day 2019) -- Wallingford, CT World War II Memorial Part 4 -- close up panel photos

This past Sunday, November 10, 2019, I contributed to the 2019 call for additions to the Honor Roll project of Heather Rojo.  My contribution for Veterans Day 2019 continued the process of transcribing the hundreds of men and women from the Wallingford, Connecticut area who served their country during World War II (my father being among them).

As the above photograph of the WWII memorial on the grounds of the Wallingford Town Hall illustrates, there are seven panels each with triple columns of the names of those who served. My 2016 Veterans Day post covered many, but nowhere near all, of the names listed on the first panel. The surnames are in alphabetical order across the entire seven panels. 

My post of November 10th, 2016 transcribed and listed all the names on the first panel from George C. Abbott, Jr. to Joseph E. Buza -- 244 names altogether. My Memorial Day 2017 post listed all the surnames on the Wallingford WWII memorial that begin with C through E -- 298 names in all. My Veterans Day post of November 8, 2017 transcribed an additional 317 surnames covering those beginning with F through I and my Veterans Day 2019 post earlier this week added 242 more names covering surnames beginning with J through L.  In keeping with my intent to also post close-ups of the panels containing names I have transcribed and listed, this is the post of panel close-ups to provide photographs of all the surnames that begin with J through L. This is the process that will be followed for the remaining panels over time in order to keep the transcription posts to a manageable size.  The transcribed names will be posted first and photographs of the panel close-ups covering the posted names will follow shortly thereafter.

In past posts of the panel close-ups I think I have neglected to mention that some of the names have a star preceding the inscribed name.  This means that the starred person gave the ultimate sacrifice and died in service during the war.

I am very indebted to my cousin, Bruce Marquardt of Wallingford, for so willingly photographing the panels in close-up for me after my efforts to do so failed.  Thank you Bruce!

The following six panel close-ups cover the names on the Wallingford WWII memorial from Joseph P. Jacob through Harold O. Lynch.  Please note that in order to be sure all names were photographed, the photos overlap and some names are therefore shown twice.  The repeated names can thus be used to orient the precise order of the names from Jacob to Lynch.  The alphabetical order flows down the first column and then up to the top of the second column and finally up to the top of third column on each of the panels. The surnames starting with J begin in the third column of the first close-up Photo No. 1 below. The surnames starting with K begin in the first column of Photo No. 2 and continue down the first column in Photos 3 - 6 before ending in the second column of Photo No. 3.  Surnames starting with L begin in the second column of Photo No. 3 and continue down the second column in Photos 4 - 6 before ending in the third column of Photo No. 3 where the surnames beginning with M start with Allen A. Macfarlane.  The next transcritions for the Honor Roll Project with begin with Allen A. Macfarlane and continue through all the M surnames and onto N and O surnames. 

Photo No. 1

Photo No. 2

Photo No. 3

Photo No. 4

Photo No. 5

Photo No. 6

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All close-up photographs of the panels of the WWII memorial are by Bruce Marquardt of Wallingford, Connecticut.

Photo of the entire memorial is by the author.

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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Heather's Honor Roll Project (Veterans Day 2019) -- Wallingford, CT World War II Memorial Part 4 -- Surnames J through L

Wallingford, Connecticut Town Hall

Tomorrow -- Monday, November 11,  2019 -- is Veterans Day. 

Among the military Honor Roll memorials located in Wallingford, Connecticut on the grounds of the Town Hall is one for those who served (and in some cases died) in World War II. It is by far the most extensive memorial listing of veterans of war who lived in Wallingford.  The list contains hundreds of names -- in fact so many that it will take several posts to get them all transcribed and published. This is the fourth post of names from the Wallingford WWII Memorial and the first since 2017.  A post was not done in 2018 due to our relocation to New Jersey from Virginia.  This resumed listing will cover all the surnames names in alphabetical order from J through L, which comprises 242 names for this post.  With this post, a total of 1,101 names will have been transcribed from the Wallingford, CT World War Two memorial -- and we still have surnames from M through Z to complete! [For the first post listing the 244 surnames from this memorial that begin with A or B, please see the earliest post here.  The second post listing the 298 surnames that begin with C through E can be viewed here.  The third post listing 317 surnames that begin F through I can be viewed here.  ]  

I know that finding a database of transcribed names is one thing for those who are searching for ancestors and relatives, but for those who cannot make a trip to see the actual memorial, a photograph of their family member's name would be a very useful gift for inclusion in a family genealogy; therefore, it is my intention to do a blog post shortly after posting each list of transcribed names to publish the photographs from which I worked to do the transcriptions. Please check back here periodically after you see a listed name of an ancestor or relative in a post and you will then be able to get a photograph of the name in a close-up of the memorial panel containing your family member's name. 

For readers who take the time to scan the names, you will notice that unlike memorials for earlier wars there are a significant number of women listed on this memorial. Also, apart from the sheer number of names on the World War II memorial, one will note the wonderful ethnic diversity of the surnames in the lists. And there are a number of obvious family members listed so that it appears several possible brother, father/son, and cousin combinations are listed.

My father is listed on the World War II memorial in Wallingford since he briefly attended a year of post-high school education at Lyman Hall in Wallingford before he entered Kings Point, the United States Merchant Marine Academy.  Prior to 1957 what is the present Town Hall was the Lyman Hall High School. [1]  I previously posted a close-up of the section of names containing my father's listing here. This post continues the transcription of the hundreds of other names that are honored on the World War II memorial. The transcription posts will be submitted as part of Heather Rojo's wonderful Honor Roll project to create a searchable listing of all U.S. war veterans on memorials erected in this country.

One other point to make on this Veterans Day regarding memorials to World War Two veterans .  .  .

The names on this and other WWII memorials around the country list members of what has often been called "The Greatest Generation."  The names on these memorials recognize the hundreds of thousands of men and women who sacrificed years of their youth or middle age -- and in many cases their very lives -- to combat an undeniable evil.  Since the last post about this memorial, my father died on May 2, 2018.  He was about six months shy of age 96.  He turned 19 years old in November, 1941 and the United States declared war on Japan and Germany on December 8th and December 11th, 1941, respectively.  Before my father turned 20 years old he was attending the United States Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point in Great Neck, Long Island, New York and shortly thereafter he was making voyages to deliver supplies and materiel in the war effort. Today as we commemorate those members of the greatest generation who served and died in WWII, it is important to pause and realize -- with respect to this particular memorial and so many others like it -- that almost all of the men and women enumerated on WWII memorials are no longer with us. If they survived the war, the great majority have lived their lives and passed on. Very, very few remain with us today. Lift a glass tomorrow to all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and to those who served! 

The World War II memorial on the grounds of the Wallingford Town Hall

The names of the men and women honored on the Wallingford World War II memorial with surnames beginning with J through L are as follows . . .

Joseph P. Jacob                    Paul Jacobowitz                    Edward L. Jacobs

John S. Jakiela                     Walter E. Jakiela                   Edward James

Everett S. James                   Leo F. Janeczek                    Francis E. Janik

John Januszewski                 Henry J. Jasiewicki               Joseph W. Jasinski

William I. Jenkins                    Alex J. Jobbagy                    Frank F. Jobbagy
Louis T. Jobbagy                    William P. Jobbagy                    Frank Jobby
Clarence E. Johnson                Thomas H. Johnson             Walter G. Johnson
John H. Jones                         William T. Judge                   Alexamnder Juhase
Paul Juliff                               Stanley F. Kacprzynski          George W. Kahl
John E. Kahl                          Kenneth F. Kallaway              Peter J. Kamen
Peter Kamen, Jr.                      Stanley M. Kaminski             Andrew Kapi, Jr.
Alexander Karacsonyi, III      John S. Karpie, Jr.                   Robert F. Kast
John Kastukevich                   Nicholas Kastukevich             Thomas F. Kavanough
Alexander Kazersky               John Kelenosy                         Nicholas J. Kelley
Charles R. Kelly                     Robert G. Kelly                       Robert J. Kelly
Savilla M. Kelly                     William J. Kelly                       Norman J. Kelman
Robert T. Kennedy                  Joseph R. Kenney                   James D. Kenny
Nicholas L. Kern                     Ernest G. Kezi                        John Kilar
Albert E. Killen                       Albert E. Killen, Jr.                Arthur J. Killen
John T. Kinell                          William Kinell                       Bertrand A. King
Charles J. King                         Donald J. King                      Edwin J. King
Irving C. King                          Wallace J. King                      Charles P. Kingsland
Anthony V. Kinievich              Alex Kischkum                      Michael Kischkum
Edward J. Kiselewski               George Kish                           Peter J. Kliarsky
William J. Kliarsky                   Joseph Klish                          Bernard Klisky
Clarence J. Knope                     William Knope                      Francis E. Kober
Joseph F. Koblish                      Alexander Koch                    Stephen M. Koch
Alex Kockis, Jr.                         John Kofchur                        Peter J. Kolodziej
Stanley J. Kolodziej                  Walter V. Komerowski         Charles Kondracki
Paul Kondracki                          Edward Konopka                 Frank J. Konopka
Francis F. Konyu                       Steve Konyu                         Walter Korostynski
Alex Kovach                             Bertha Kovach                       Esther E. Kovach
Margaret Kovach                      Alex S. Kovacs                      Andrew F. Kovacs
Andrew S. Kovacs                    Bertha Kovacs                       James G. Kovi
Robert F. Kowalczyk                Edmund F. Kowalski             Julius J. Kowalski
Matthew B. Kowalski               Stanley E. Kowalski              Stanley J. Kowalski
Theodore J. Kowalski               Walter E. Kowalski                Zigmond Kowalski
John S. Kozak                           Thomas W. Kozak                 John Kranyak
Joseph J. Kristan                       Adolph W. Kubacki               Edwin J. Kubeck
George H. Kubeck                     John R. Kubeck                     Joseph F. Kubeck
Stanley J. Kubeck                      Thomas Kubeck                     Thaddeus G. Kuchinski
Joseph J. Kuczo                          Joseph D. Kuczynski             Joseph D. Kudla
Emil H. Kumnick                       Kenneth F. Kumnick             Edward J. Kupiac
Elmer Kurty                               John G. Kurty                         Joseph P. Kurty
Steven Kurty                              Anthony J. Kurylo                  Michael J. Kurylo
Joseph Kuzub                             Joseph W. Kwasniewski        George F. Lacoske
Ernest J. Lacroix                        John F. Lacroix                      Joseph E. Lacroix
Lester E. Lacroix                       William J. Lacroix                  Henry L. Ladd, Jr.
Thomas C. Laden                       William G. Lahey, Sr.             William G. Lahey, Jr.
Frank Lajewski                           John Lajewski                        Kenneth E. Lajoie
Richard B. Lake                         James H. Lamothe                  Harold W. Landow
Sydney S. Landow                     Donald C. Lane                       Emil W. Lange
Henry A. Lanouette, Jr.              James E. Lanouette                 Robert Lanson
Edward G. Lanzoni                    Robert A. Lanzoni                  Walter J. Lanzoni
John C. Lapinski                        Stanley A. Lapinski                 Ted C. Latall
Carl Laterra                                Thomas J. Latham                   Stanley P. Lathrop, Jr.
Edward J. Latournes                   Robert Latournes                    James M. Latto
Edward C. Laville                       Frances E. Lawler                  Alex R. Lawrence, Jr.
Arthur J. Lawrence                     William J. Lawrence               George Lawson
Edward C. Layman                     Edward K. Layman                 George J. Layman
John F. Layman                           John H. Leahy                         Thomas H. Leahy
John W. Leavenworth                 Henry P. Leblanc                      James A. Lee
James V. Lee, Jr.                         Peter Paul Lee                          Raymond J. Lee
Robert J. Lee                               Raymond H. Lefebvre             Edward A. Leibe
William H. Leibe                        Marc R. Lemay                        William W. Lemza
Andrew B. Lenart                       Ernest R. Lendler                     Walter J. Lentz
Harmon C. Leonard                    Robert J. Leonard                     William P. Leonard
Michael J. Lesniak                      Joseph Lesocke                         Edward S. Levack
John J. Levack                            George A. Leveille                    Louis J. Leveille
Walter E. Leveille                       John J. Lewis                             Robert L. Lewis
Paul A. Lidtke                            Bernard J. Lindauer, Jr.              Bernard J. Lindauer, Sr.
Robert H. Lindauer                    Edwin G. Lobb                           Kenneth G. Lobb
Robert Lobb                               Emil T. Lochowski                     Thaddeus C. Lochowski
William Logvin                          John M. Loin                              Joseph M. Loin
Peter Loin                                   Joseph J. Lombardi                    Angelo P. Losi
Louis Losi                                   Benjamin F. Loudon                  Edward R. Loudon
Emil J. Lovisone                         Anna M. Luby                           John W. Luby
Walter J. Luby                             William E. Luby, Jr.                  Jerry J. Lucas
Raoul F. Lufberry                        Michael Lukas                          Jeremiah Lunney
John B. Luparia                           Alfred J. Lussier                       Arthur J. Lussier
William J. Lussier                       Harold O. Lynch



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[1]  Lyman Hall (1724 - 1790) was born in Wallingford and served as a representative to the Continental Congress from Georgia.  He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later served as a Governor of Georgia.

Photographs of the extensive list of names on the World War II memorial in Wallingford, Connecticut were provided to me for transcription by my cousin, Bruce O. Marquardt, of Wallingford.  This transcription contribution would not have been possible without Bruce's very kind and willing efforts to make sure I had legible photos from which to do the transcriptions.  THANK YOU BRUCE!
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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew
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Saturday Serendipity (November 9, 2019)

Below are some suggested reads for this weekend.

1.  DNA profiles can be faked??  This week James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog posts about why this is possible based on an article in Forensic Science International: Genetics (FSI Genetics).  You can read the post here and get a link to the FSI Genetics article.  The post also references a New York Times piece about fabrication of DNA evidence.  You can check the NYT piece where a lead scientist states that with access to a DNA profile in a database, "You can just engineer a crime scene. Any biology undergraduate could perform this."  You can see the NYT article here.

2.  A new Guinness  World Record has been announced -- the oldest living married couple in the world.  Go here to see a photo of the couple and learn how long they have been married, their present ages, and where they live.

3.  Janine Adams of Organize Your Family History blog is asking for input from other genealogists on the subject of her upcoming Roots Tech presentation on the subject of perfectionism as an impediment to progress in genealogy research.  Learn more here and see how you can comment and perhaps assist Janine in preparing her talk titled, "The Imperfect Genealogist."

4.  And there is another blogger this week who would appreciate any assistance other genealogists could lend.  Laura Mattingly of The Old Trunk in the Attic blog periodically posts old photos that need information about the identity of those in the picture.  Laura would like to not only identify those in the photos, she would like to reunite the photo with existing descendants.  See Laura's latest orphan photo here and get a link to past photos also needing assistance.

5.    The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, posted another thought provoking useful piece this week titled, "When it's not online."  Go here to read Judy's post and the list of alternatives she suggests when a source document one needs is not available on the web. [N.B. As is often the case, readers should also pay attention to the comments made on this post.]

6.  There are many stories now about the amazing discoveries that DNA technology and commercial testing have made possible.  People magazine had one such story recently and The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS linked to it this week.  You can read the article here.  It involves a man who found the biological parents he thought died 50 years ago.

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew
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A Goose Here, A Goose There Every Day, But Never The Elusive Moose! -- Friday Fotos (November 8, 2019)

In the early 1970s, Molly's parents bought a lakeside Adirondack "camp"[1] out Mt. Whitney Rd. on Lake Placid.  They had the camp for just over three decades.  Our sons went up there every summer from the year each was born until the early 2000s when the camp was donated to Cornell University (where both of Molly's parents attended undergraduate and/or graduate school).

Molly's parents' camp on Lake Placid

The Adirondack Park in upstate New York is a gem of protected nature and wilderness.  It encompasses about a third of New York State's total land mass. [2]  It is unique within the United States.  The Park was created by the state legislature in 1892 and now comprises about 9,375 square miles (six-million acres) of northern woodlands and lakes.  This means the Park is about the size of the state of Vermont and it is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming; in fact it is larger in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined!  The park is a combination of both public and private land and more than half of its land mass is privately owned.  About 45% of the land has been designated as "forever wild" in the New York state constitution.  The private land is committed to 105 towns and villages, farms, businesses, etc.  The year round population in the Park is around 130,000 and another 200,000 seasonal residents arrive in the summer.  About 10 million people visit the Adirondack Park each year and unlike national parks there are no entrance toll booths and no fees for entering the Park.

The Adirondack Park -- especially in the forever wild areas and in areas that have not been over developed with camps -- has a wide variety of wildlife.  Over the years we have seen deer, coyotes, beavers, otters, eagles, black bears, a Great Horned owl, loons, Canada geese, herons, skunks, hawks, and other wildlife too numerous to list here.  But, despite the numerous signs such as the one below warning of moose in the area -- and our constant vigilant eyes when in "moosy areas" -- we never saw a moose in the wild .  .  . until this past August when we visited Molly's sister Kathy who lives in Saranac Lake, NY.

A typical Adirondack roadside sign warning of moose habit ahead

When we arrived in the late afternoon, Kathy announced as soon as we pulled into her driveway that a moose had been sighted numerous times in late afternoon feeding in the shallows on the banks of the Saranc River north of the village.  She had seen it and so we got back into the cars and went off to finally find and see an Adirondack moose.

It is estimated that there are only between 500 and 700 moose in the entire state of New York, but the only population outside the Park is near Lake Desolation south of Great Sacandaga Lake, which is in the southern-most part of the Park.  With that said, sightings of an Adirondack moose are rare and in more than 40 years of trying to see one we failed until this past August!  They are out there, but they are basically very shy and not comfortable near human populations.  Yet, the greatest danger to the moose is collisions with fast-moving vehicles on roads in the Park.  Luckily for us, the five most likely places within the Park to see a moose include the Saranac Lake area (the other four are Vermontville, Limekiln Lake -- Cedar River Road,  and Lake Lila).

We drove slowly up along the Saranac River a couple of times and finally on the last pass Kathy spotted the moose.  We parked and walked back on the shoulder of the road.  I was armed with my digital camera and two telephoto lenses.  Below is the result .  .  . FINALLY!  😊😊

      

Three views of the real Adirondack moose in the wild finally caught on camera

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew
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[1]   In the Adirondacks a lakeside or woodland cabin is often referred to as a "camp" rather than a cottage or even a cabin.  The so-called "Great Camps" were not the summer camps for children that we most often think of when talking about camps today.  Instead, a Great Camp was a lakeside, grandiose compound of a main residence and associated cabins for guests to sleep in or for other uses.  One Great Camp even had an outdoor bowling alley with a roof and open sides.  The Great Camps were mostly built in the late 1800s and early 1900s as summer homes for the wealthy to enjoy cooler weather, swimming, boating, fishing and other activities in nature's wilderness areas.  [For more info on Great Camps see, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Camps]  As the lakes and woods of the Adirondacks developed, just as "a man's home became his castle," the later more modest summer homes on a lake or out in the woods became known as a "camp" rather than a cottage or cabin."

[2]  See https://parks.ny.gov/regions/adirondack/default.aspx

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