Saturday Serendipity (March 8, 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.

This week offers an abbreviated selection. Due to a problem on my iMac as the result of trying to install updates to iTunes and the Maverick OS (it will not restart now and just keeps shutting itself down), I am using Molly's unfamiliar MacBook Air and thus lack some of my usual resources.  I sure hope I can resolve this irritating problem later today!  

In any event, here are just a few quick recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this week .  .  .  

1.  Today is National Genealogy Day as established in 1997 by Jerry Hill, an amateur onomatologist. As part of his "Celebrate Your Name Week" (the first full week in March), the last day of the week is designated as Genealogy Day. [See,  http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2014/03/name-days-and-celebrate-your-name-week.html]  

     

2.  Today is also "International Women's Day." It is celebrated on March 8th each year. Read about the history and meaning of Women's Day here and here.       

3.  Continuing with a Women's Day theme, you should check out this item posted at The Vault. Susan B. Anthony managed to vote in Rochester, NY during the 1872 national elections (this was almost five decades before women were granted the right to vote via the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920). In January 1873, Anthony was served with a federal indictment for "illegal voting." See a copy of the indictment, learn who Susan Anthony voted for, and read about the defense she mounted.            

4.  For those with New England roots going back to 1854 and earlier, The Vault also offers a fascinating resource to inform us about the travel and communication routes available to our ancestors and relatives in the New England of that time. Go here to view an interactive map of New England showing the routes and extent of railroad and telegraph service throughout New England in 1854.  The map shows the "mass transit" and modern communication technology that was available to those of the time and should be a valuable resource for those trying to piece together a full story about the lives of New England ancestors.     

5.  And since this week IS "Celebrate Your Name Week" (and today is the last day of this celebratory week to boot), let's end today's Saturday Serendipity with a name theme recommendation.

Do you know anyone who is about to have a baby? Naming a baby is always a matter of intense interest within families and often brings up the subject of family history and genealogy through the recounting and recalling of first names in the past of merged families.  Sadly, it sometimes can result in tense and even acrimonious feelings. Enter the very helpful and entertaining website Wait But Why to solve the problem of how and what to name that new person. Read the extremely helpful, informative, humorous, and (as always) well-illustrated post titled "How To Name A Baby,"  Enjoy!   

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Name Days and Celebrate Your Name Week (March 2 - 8, 2014) -- Mehitable and Dorcas and Peleg . . . Oh My!

I was recently exploring the unusual names that appear in our family genealogies and came across the tradition of "Name Days" whereby certain first names are celebrated on a particular calendar day each year.  It seems the tradition is largely a European and Latin American phenomenon derived from the Christian calendar of saints. In fact, the church preferred the celebration of name days associated with saints over actual birth days because birth day celebrations were viewed as pagan.

In the old tradition, people who were named after a given saint would celebrate their name saint's feast day and that day became the "Name Day" for those sharing the saint's name.  In the course of time a direct connection to Christian tradition waned and in many cases a calendar day for a given name was assigned somewhat arbitrarily. Still, the tradition seems to be more common and popular in those countries that are predominantly Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.  Those from a Catholic tradition have name days still associated with saint feast days, but those from an Eastern Orthodox tradition have name days assigned based on the day a saint died or "fell asleep" as that tradition puts it.

Among the countries where Name Day is a popular tradition are Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Turkey, Spain, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, and others. The name days for given names (or their equivalents) are not uniform across countries. So, for example, the given name "Kristoffer" in Sweden has its Name Day on March 15th, whereas the name "Christopher" in Greece has its Name Day on the 9th of May. 

Today, March 3rd (the 62nd day of the year), is Name Day for all those named "Guenole" in France, "Gunborg" in Sweden, "Hieronim" and "Maryna" in Poland, "Kunigunde" in Denmark, and "Anselm" in Croatia. 

Not to be left out, the United States has an "American Nameday Calendar of First Names" originally published in 1982.  You can read about the history of this particular calendar here. Publication of the 2014 calendar is delayed for technical reasons, but if we go by the 2013 calendar, today we should all be wishing "Happy Name Day" to all the Alexandrias, Lexis, Sandras, Sashas and others we know. According to the American Nameday Calendar of First Names, with a first name of "John" I have to wait until June 24th to celebrate my name day!

BUT, there is also a "Celebrate Your Name Week" which was created as recently as 1997. Onomatology [the study of proper names] hobbyist, Jerry Hill, set the first full week of March each year as Celebrate Your Name Week-- so yesterday began the celebration week here in the U.S. and around the world!  [Who knew?] This week-long celebration calls for seven facets of orderly recognition during the first week of March: Name Tag Day, Namesake Day, Name Fun Facts Day, Unique Names Day, Learn What Your Name Means Day, Middle Name Pride Day, and [yes] GENEALOGY DAY next Saturday! This means I can proudly wear my "John" name tag today and then learn on Friday that my first name means "God is gracious" and that ts currently ranks as the 28th most popular male name in the United States -- and it is on the decline.

So with all this Name Game* business going on this week, I went back to look up some of the unusual names in our family genealogies. Here are some of the first names that sound pretty unusual to me and that I thought would not have a name day:  Mehitable, Dorcas, Peleg, Remember, Thankful, Elnathan, Toleration, Lemyra, Experience, Preserved, Asquire, Abadial, Zenith, Almanza, Zilla, Sarepta, and others. Surprisingly, however, the only one of the above names to be listed on the American Nameday Calendar of First Names, is perhaps one of the strangest to my ear -- "Dorcas," a female name that we celebrate on August 25th!

What are the unusual first names in your genealogy -- and do they have a Name Day so far as you know?

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Generic name tag image altered by the author.

* See "The Name Game" of "The Banana Song" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_Game and listen to the 1964 hit version of the song by Shirley Ellis at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeF7jqf0GU4

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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