Saturday Serendipity (May 21, 2016)

Here are just a few recommended items of interest for your reading pleasure this weekend.  [By the way, we ended our rainy streak at 18 straight days earlier this week, but it is now predicted that we have a 100% chance of more rain and unseasonably cool temperatures again today!] 

1.  This week there is another thoughtful rumination from James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog.  You can read his thoughts on "Innovation and Change in the Genealogical Community" here.  You might also have a look at the post of May 17th titled, "Digging Deeper into United States Copyright Law -- What is and is not subject to copyright?" It is a very basic discussion of copyright law, but it is a short read. You can see the post here.

2.    If you believe you have ancestors or relatives that were involved in the New England whaling industry, you might find this NYT article of interest.  The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS mentioned the piece on illustrated logbooks of whaling ships during the 19th century. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is woking on a book titled "The Art of the Yankee Whale Hunt: Manuscript Illustration in the Age of Sail."  Since the museum owns 2,300 logbooks and about 100 of them are now online, you never know what you might find concerning your whaling ancestors or relatives. [You can get link in the article.] Good hunting! 
  
3.  Here is a rather heart-wrenching story about an adopted woman's search for her biological roots.  It is a story of rejection, determination, and resolution that makes for an emotional read.  NEHGS again provided the link, but you can read the piece from Good Housekeeping online here and see photos and a brief three and a half minute video of one determined woman!

4.  The Vault posted a very interesting piece on a list compiled in December 1942 by the U.S. Office of War Information documenting the lies told by Adolf Hitler on his way to power and thereafter. You can read the post and see images of the 11-page list here . . . and see if perhaps the rhetoric resonates in some way.

5.  The Legal Genealogist blog by Judy Russell has what I consider a "must read" about staying aware of records access issues.  Judy provides valuable links to sites where we can all learn more about the danger to records access and how we can become involved. As Judy puts it, "Records access isn't something we can take for granted -- and it's not a responsibility we can leave to someone else. We all need to stay informed and to speak out when necessary." You can read Judy's most recent post on the subject here and you can also look at Judy's original post (now to be known as Part 1) here.

6.  Janine Adams, of Organize Your Family History blog, has a post about a clever and useful research aid that she has developed to remind and assist her research into ancestors/relatives who fought in various wars and conflicts.  I have read of similar documents to the one Janine has developed for herself.  Janine now provides a valuable link to a table called Ages of Servicemen in Wars that allows collection of data across 20 conflicts.  See how Janine has adopted and adapted the table by reading her post here  . . . and you get the link to the table. 

7.  With Memorial Day just over a week hence, it is time to start thinking about ways you might be able to contribute to one of the greatest genealogy-blog-created research tools of which I am aware.  I am speaking, of course, about Heather Rojo's "Honor Roll Project."  The project began on Heather's Nutfield Genealogy blog and now has its own home at http://honorrollproject.weebly.com.  Unless I have missed it, I have not yet seen a post on Heather's blog about joining the project for this Memorial Day, but please have a look at this very useful research tool and see if you can contribute this Memorial Day! 
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3 (May 20, 2016) -- Part I

Rhode Island Historical Cemetery -- Cumberland 3 taken in late March 2010.

The Rhode Island Historical Cemetery (Cumberland 3) is located on Dexter Street in Cumberland. It has long been in disrepair -- although of late there has been interest by a small group of kind and dedicated people in repairing the damage done by time, long neglect, and some unfortunate vandalism of the past.

I visited the Cumberland Cemetery in late March 2010 toward the end of several dreary, gray, very rainy days that had resulted (just a day or two earlier) in the flooding and closure of Interstate 95 in the Providence area.  I visited because I have ancestors and relatives who are buried in this particular cemetery.  Despite the inclement weather the day I visited, I walked the entire cemetery taking stock of the conditions and documenting via photographs as many headstones as I could before the rain started up again. I have photos of some 56 or more headstones found in the cemetery in late March 2010.

Fast forward about five and a half years after my last visit. On September 18, 2015 I received an email from Diane Boumenot of the wonderful blog, One Rhode Island Family. Diane and I have never met in person, but we have corresponded for a few years now and I am a dedicated reader of her blog. In her email, she very kindly shared with me a photograph of a damaged headstone found in Cumberland Cemetery and reassembled by Ken Postle and his helpers. It turns out the headstone is that of my 4X great uncle, Aurin Miller (April 22, 1800 - November 27, 1859).  

There are several Millers, Carpenters, Bishops, and Angells buried in Cumberland Cemetery and many, if not most of them, are relatives of mine. I am very appreciative of what Ken Postle and his crew are doing in this and other cemeteries!

In my reply of thanks to Diane, I mentioned that I had some papers that belonged to my maternal grandfather, Everett Shearman Carpenter, that I needed to dig out of storage because I seemed to recall some of them related to the Cumberland Cemetery. I have finally gotten around to pulling out the papers and giving them a closer look.  It was an understatement to say I thought I had papers that merely "related" to Cumberland Cemetery. I have what I think is a small treasure trove of documents about the history of the cemetery and this is the first of a series of posts where I will share the information and images for those who are interested. Perhaps the documents and the information they contain can help in some small way to memorialize the history of the cemetery and encourage continued repair and preservation of this historic site.

To begin with, the plat shown immediately below depicts the various parcels that were conveyed by James Dexter or Timothy Dexter and eventually became the irregularly shaped site of the future Cumberland Cemetery. The plat is undated, but as will be seen in a future post in this series, it pre-dates subdivision of the Sumner plat, the Leighton plat, and the unnamed parcel running along the east side of England Street. The information it depicts probably dates from before 1870.

Although the site of the Dexter Street cemetery existed as a burial ground for many years prior to 1870, Cumberland Cemetery was incorporated in 1870 after proposed legislation was "received and passed" by the Rhode Island House of Representatives on June 14, 1870 and "received and concurred" by the Senate on June 15, 1870. There were eight initial incorporators named in the act approved by the legislature:

George A. Kent               Addison Kinsman

                                   James G. Dexter               Eber Miller [my 3X great grandfather]

Joseph G. Fiske               Daniel A. Miller

Baylies Bourne               William C. Dexter

In accordance with Section IV of the incorporating legislation, the conveyance of lots in the Cumberland Cemetery were mandated to be by deed duly executed by the treasurer of the corporation. Such deeds vested in the purchaser full ownership of the lot conveyed.  Property owned by the corporation or by individual owners/purchasers was exempt from taxation. But, the burial lots sold by the corporation were not sold with any provision for the perpetual care of the deeded properties.  The upkeep of individual lots was the duty and responsibility of the heirs of the original owners . . . and, as we shall see, therein lies the problem.

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All images by the author -- or from scanned original documents in the author's personal collection -- except the photograph of the repair of the Aurin Miller headstone, which is courtesy of Ken Postle via Diane Boumenot.

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (May 14, 2016)

Fifty miles west of Washington, DC in the extreme western part of Loudoun County, just over the Blue Ridge from the famed Shenandoah Valley, we have been setting a record daily. It has rained here for the last 18 days! Washington, DC itself had a record 15 straight days of some measurable rain, but the streak that started on April 27th ended on May 11th. Here in western Loudoun we have continued the streak with some level of rain on the 12th, 13th, and today starting at about 1:40 PM.  This morning was gloriously sunny-- for a while -- and so I absolutely had to devote several hours to reclaiming the yard from the rain-loving grass and weeds. It is for this reason that Saturday Serendipity this week is posted late and in unusually abbreviated form.  

Here are just a few recommended items of interest for your reading pleasure -- especially if you are having a rainy day where you live. 

1.   Today is the 51st anniversary of the death of Fannie Coralie Perkins. Who, you might ask, is Fannie Coralie Perkins? Well she was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 10, 1880. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1902 with a B.A. in chemistry and physics.  In 1910 she  earned a master's degree from Columbia in political science and in 1918 she began years of study of sociology and economics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. It has been said that she is largely responsible for the adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, federal child labor laws, and the federal minimum wage laws in the United States. If you have heard of her at all, you probably know her by the name she took when she joined the Episcopal church in 1905 . . .  Frances Perkins.  [By the way, yesterday, May 13th, was the feast day in her honor on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church.] 

     In 1933, Frances Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Upon her appointment and confirmation, Frances Perkins became not only the first woman member of the Cabinet, but she was the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession; arguably, therefore, she remains the highest ranking woman in the history of the federal government.  You can -- and probably should -- spend a few minutes today reading more about this remarkable woman here.

Frances Perkins (1880 - 1965)

2.  Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy blog had a post this week about the raising of the First Parish Church of Derry, NH.  Heather provides some very interesting photos of the process involved in lifting a church built in 1769 in order to make some necessary foundation repairs.  Have a look here.
  

3.   Better late than never . . . I learned from a May 6th post by Nancy Messier -- of My Ancestors and Me blog -- that the day after Cinco de Mayo is National Nurses Day and National Nurses Week is always May 6 - 12.  As you can see at the linked post, Nancy's mother, sister, and daughter are all nurses.  Since my mother, my sister, my niece, and (as of just a week or so ago) my nephew are all R.N.s, I join Nancy in a belated recognition of the accomplishment and service provided by all nurses!
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The photograph of Frances Perkins is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. Unless its author has been dead for the required period, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works. The image is available from the U.S. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID mph.3a04983.

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (May 7, 2016)

Here are a few recommended items of interest for this week . . . 

1.  Since tomorrow is Mothers' Day, I have to highly recommend a listen to Nate DiMeo's Memory Palace podcast about the origins of Mother's Day and the sad story of the founder, Anna Jarvis. The podcast was first published on May 5, 2009, but you can listen to it here. [It is only about 4 minutes long.]

2.  The fourth installment of Diane Boumenot's series "8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research" is out. This newest post is about the use of maps and deeds in your genealogy research and -- as usual -- Diane provides lots of information and links. As I have stated before, if you have any roots in Rhode Island (or suspect you do) then you need to be reading Diane's series and keeping bookmarks to each of her posts.  Read Diane's newest post here.   

3.  If many of you are like me, you have all but ignored DNA/Genetic data in your family history research. Becoming more familiar with the nature and use of genetic genealogy is one of my top "to do" items that seems to always get shoved to the back burner and forgotten.  I am not sure of the exact reason why, but suspect that the disparate resources for the myriad aspects of genetics and the role of DNA in genealogy has hampered my enthusiasm for undertaking the study of the subject.  Perhaps that is about to change since NGS has just announced the coming of a handbook called "Genetic Genealogy in Practice" by Blaine T. Betting and Debbie Parker Wayne.       

4.   James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog has two interesting and informative pieces on the quality of digital images being posted as part of the growing genealogy cloud. Mr. Tanner provides some very revealing illustrations of how images after the true original are constantly being degraded one one way or another.  Have a look and a read here and then see his most recent post on the subject here. 

5.  And speaking genetics and genealogy, Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist blog posted an interesting piece about the DNA testing of four different individuals done by the same company. In a cautionary tale that is beautifully illustrated, Judy demonstrates why it is not possible to pinpoint precise ethnic origins based on DNA samples. There is a twist to the story Judy tells, but you will have to read her post to find out what it is.  You can read it here. 

6.  Bill West at West in New England blog posted about the recent announcement by FindMyPast that they are releasing "over 10 million new marriage records in the second installment of their United States Marriages collection."  Find out more about this release here.

7.  Have you ever heard of "friendship albums?" In the early part of the 19th Century they were quite popular -- especially among young women at female academies.  Bookmakers at the time produced letter-bound books with blank, but decorative, pages for friends (usually other young women, but often times men too), to write messages, tributes, and sentimental offerings of friendship.  The books were also later called "autograph albums" and the writings these books contained often included poems, drawings, or even locks of hair.  Obviously, for those interested in genealogy these message books from the past are a possible source of research data.  On that note you might be interested in learning more about these books and seeing some examples at The Vault. AND, if these friendship albums catch your fancy and strike you as a research source you might like to explore, wander over to Pam Beverage's blog, Heirlooms Reunited.  I have written about Pam's blog in the past and it could be a useful source for research (and perhaps even purchase of a previously unknown family artifact) -- you never know! Check out the "Autograph Albums" link at Pam's site and it will take you to a vast collection of friendship/autograph albums complete with photos.  You can then follow a link to see Pam's individual posting for an album with photos of the pages in the book AND Pam's extremely useful listing of the names of all the people who created entries in the book.  For example, see here  Pam's posting about an 1880s/1890s album belonging to a woman named Maud/Maude who was a student at Carthage College in Illinois. Good hunting . . . and may you find an ancestor's or relative's writings or complete album! 

8.  And finally, on a lighter note for New Englanders from Massachusetts . . . have you seen, or know anyone who has seen, a "pukwudgie?"  I have not.  I only learned about pukwudgies recently through a post by Peter Muise at his blog, New England Folklore.  You can learn about pukwudgies here.
     
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 23, 2016)

Just a few recommended items of interest for this week . . . 

1.  Do you think you have ancestors or relatives who served in the Red Cross? UpFront With NGS posted a piece about both the British and American Red Cross and databases that are available for your genealogy research. You can read the post here and get links to learn more.

2.  A very interesting and disturbing article about Georgetown University in Washington, DC was mentioned this week in The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of NEHGS.  In 1838, 272 slaves owned by the Jesuit priests were sold to Southern plantation owners in order to save the Catholic institution of higher education that became known as Georgetown University.  Learn more about this story here.        

3.   This week, James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog ruminates on DNA testing and its usefulness to genealogy research.  As usual, the post is food for thought and you can read it here.

4.   Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings blog has posted a notice to summarize the new records databases available for research on FindMyPast. If you are researching Ireland, Scotland, or England roots, then you should check out Randy's post here.
     
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 16, 2016)

The recommended items of interest for this week are as follows . . . 

1.  The Weekly Genealogist by NEHGS provided a link this week to an article that serves as a primer on available Irish genealogy resources. You can read the article by Kathy Donaghy here.

2.   The Weekly Genealogist also alerted readers this week to an article by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. at The Root regarding DNA testing of dying or incapacitated ancestors/relatives. The piece has some valuable information and advice. You can access the piece here.     

3.  James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog has another thoughtful and thought provoking piece today. He ruminates on the nature of what can be called the "burden of proof" when adding an ancestor to one's tree, or evaluating the addition of a person to a tree you are consulting. Read the piece here.

4.   Last Sunday, Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy blog posted a very useful piece on her "Top Ten" places to do genealogy research in New Hampshire. Anyone with New Hampshire roots should have a look here.

5.  The third installment of Diane Boumenot's series on "8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research" is out!  Anyone with roots in Rhode Island needs to be familiar with Diane's One Rhode Island Family blog. Read installment 3 on "Probate and Cemeteries" here and catch up on the earlier parts of the series. You will see what I mean.  

6.   UpFront with NGS blog posted some very useful news this week for those who have -- or think they have -- ancestors or relatives who were married in New York City. Indexes for 1908 -1929 are now online with FREE access.  Read more about this new online resource here. 

7.   The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, posted a piece today that voices what most of us feel at some point in time while gathering and organizing the facts that make up our family history. Once we have accumulated a number of facts, photographs, and perhaps artifacts about particular ancestors or relatives, what do we really know about them in the end? Have a read here.

8.  And finally, for those with ancestors and relatives in Massachusetts, Barbara Poole of Life From the Roots blog has provided some very useful links to cemetery resources in several towns in Massachusetts. Read Barbara's post here.     
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Celebration -- 65 Years of Marriage (April 9, 2016)

Saturday Serendipity is on hiatus this week as our extended family gathers today to celebrate my parents' 65th wedding anniversary.

My parents were married on Friday, April 13, 1951 and despite being married on what many consider to be a particularly unlucky day, their marriage has endured through six and a half decades and four children.  My mother just completed her 89th trip around the sun and my father is almost half way through his 94th trip around the sun.  

Today my parents are joined in a celebration of their long marriage by 4 children, 6 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, one sibling, one nephew and three nieces with their respective spouses, one 4th cousin, and some family friends. This rare marriage milestone moves my parents into second place among all the ancestor marriages from both the Tew and Carpenter sides of our family. Upon reaching 65 years of marriage, only Joseph Carpenter (1789 -1880) and Nancy Mason [Bullock] Carpenter (1793 - 1880) have had a longer marriage at 67 years. 

The family history of marriages seen below was first compiled five years ago and shows the longevity of the various Tew and Carpenter nuptials since 1709. 

From the entire family comes rousing cheers for a 

VERY HAPPY

 65TH

 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

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All photos from the author's personal collection.

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 2, 2016)

The recommended items of interest for this week are as follows . . . 

1.   Anyone with roots in Rhode Island absolutely MUST pay attention to a series started last week by Diane Boumenot at One Rhode Island Family blog! Diane's series is titled "Eight Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research" and the title says it all.  Diane is walking us through the resources available to do genealogy research in and about Rhode Island and she is sharing her little secrets and tips along the way.  Read Week 1 here . . . and the most recent installment, Week 2, here.  

2.  The Weekly Genealogist by NEHGS gave a tip this week about a new collection of biographical data on over 115,000 photographers, studios, and others involved in the making of photographs. This can be a valuable resource for sleuthing those old photographic portraits of unidentified people that you think might be ancestors or relatives. For example, as I was just discussing with my cousin Neysa earlier this week, if you happen to know some chronological data about an ancestor or relative, and you have a cabinet card portrait of a person you think could be that ancestor or relative, and the portrait has a photographers logo on it, you could gain valuable clues to bolster or eliminate the identity puzzle. If your subject only traveled to the location of the photographer's studio once in her life, but it was well before the photographer was in business, then the likelihood is that the portrait is not one of your ancestor or relative. To learn more about this new resource and get a link to the "Photographers' Identities Catalog" (PIC) at the New York Public Library, go here. PIC "is world-wide in scope and spans the entire history of photography."     

3.   Here is another very interesting post on the Wait But Why blog, a blog about which I often post recommendations.  This one is of interest because Tim Urban takes what he calls a "horizontal view" of history.  Of course that is what we genealogists almost always do when we focus on the history of our families; but when Tim takes the view to a more general treatment of history writ large, we get a different take on history and the people who have left large footprints in the historical narrative.  Tim's "horizontal history" can be a nice tool to see at a glance many famous people decade-by-decade and thus get a better idea of who was shaping the world while some of our ancestors were living.  Have a look!

4. Did you know there are "Twelve Golden Rules of Genealogy?" I didn't until I ran across the link to the rules at GotGenealogy.com on Organize Your Family History blog by Janine Adams. As Janine says, the rules are a "great compilation of common-sense genealogy truths."  Have a look here at Janine's blog, or follow her link to the source at GotGenealogy . . . where there actually is now a 13th Rule stated.  What is the 13th rule? Go to the source and find out.  :-)  

5.  "I may be any minute!" is the punchline to a wonderful little story by Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings blog. Randy answers the question (so often asked) regarding whether or not he is related to Tom Seaver the Hall of Fame baseball pitcher. Read the answer and find out the context of the punchline here. 

6.  I did not know there were other cemetery index sites out there in addition to the Big Boys -- FindAGrave.com and BillionGraves.com, but there are. James Tanner at Genealogy's Star blog has a useful post about the FREE Interment.com and you can read about it and get links to the noted sites and others here. 

7.  And finally, while on the subject of cemetery databases, check out the post by Barbara Poole at Life From The Roots blog. Barbara provides a cautionary tale wherein she researched three databases for the same cemetery and found that not one of them was complete. Read Barbara's post here.      
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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