In Praise of Out-dated History Books

One of my favorite things to do is seek out old history books at used book stores. One of the first one's I ever bought was a history of Europe that was written pre-World War I. I learned so much that helped me in researching my Domelle line (they come from what is now Romania, but what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire when they emigrated) that from that point on I always kept my eye out.

On that same line, I also like when I find books that are very local - not the books that so many people write about counties and towns around the turn of the 19th century, but the one's that were written about people's customs and local stories.

Here's a few I've found over the years:

"Home Life in Colonial Days", by Alice Morse Earle, published 1898

"The Cultural Life of the American Colonies", by Louis B. Wright, published 1957

"Landmarks in the Old Bay State", by William R. Comor, published 1911

and the latest one I just finished reading:

"It's an Old New England Custom", by Edwin Valentine Mitchell, published 1946

Edwin had a great writing style - very informal - as if he was in the room telling you the cool stuff he found out.

Two things from this book really made an impression on me - one chapter was on eating pie for breakfast. Yes, pie! And cake too! Apparently people used to be way more flexible in what was considered an appropriate breakfast food. Edwin lamented the habit of a continental breakfast, brought back by people traveling in Europe. And let me tell you, Edwin knows how to turn a phrase, tell me you aren't hungry after reading this:

"Gone are the great juicy steaks, the red-hot chops, the vast platters of smoking ham and eggs, the hashed-brown potatoes, and the steaming stacks of buck-wheat cakes brought on in relays and eaten with maple syrup from the Berkshires or the Green Mountains."

He also quoted from an account written by English traveler John Lambert, who stopped in at a Vermont farmhouse after having troubles with his boat. He and his traveling companion just busted into this guy's farmhouse at like 4am and woke up the farmer. And he welcomed them! Boy have times changed. Anyway, John Lambert wrote:

"The master of the house, with two of his sons, were soon up, and, having put the kettle on the fire, made preparations for breakfast. About six o'clock, his wife and daughters, two pretty little girls, came into the kitchen, where we were assembled, and in the course of half an hour we had the pleasure of sitting down to a substantial American breakfast, consisting of eggs, fried pork, beefsteaks, apple-tarts, pickles, cheese, cider, tea, and toast dipped in melted butter and milk."

Now THAT'S a breakfast! Especially the cider part. I think I would like to bring back drinking hard-cider all hours of the day.

I consider all these little tidbits so interesting, it really rounds out your knowledge when you are researching ancestors to know a little bit about what their life was like when it comes to the mundane stuff.

One other really cool thing I came across in the book was an awesome turn-of-phrase. He has a chapter on epitaphs found on grave-stones across New England, and in describing how sometimes crimes were recorded on the gravestone, instead of the phrase " old cemetery" he uses:

"old skull orchard"

Come on, how awesome is that!!!!! What a great phrase, I am totally using it from now on.

So anyway, if you come across an old local history, or book on customs or folklore for your area of interest (I also have some old books on New England folklore), I suggest you grab it, you never know what you'll find!

A Little Time to Smell the Roses

So anyway, yeah, it's been a busy summer, to say the least. I won't launch into a bunch of excuses as to why I haven't been writing much - it's all due to a massive project at work finally winding down after 2 years. Man oh man, I sure do miss reading genealogy blogs and researching! Hopefully, the next few weeks will see things winding down.

But that's all besides the point for today!

So I had this doctor's appt and usually they take forever because I have an AWESOME doctor that I love because she spends time actually talking with you. Unfortunately, she does it with all her patients so she is always running really really late. Her office is right near a place that makes delish pad thai, so I figured I'd go to the appt, and then grab some pad thai on the way home for dinner.

Ah yes, the best laid plans!

Naturally, today was like I was in bizarro-world, I'd never gotten in and out of there so fast, and there I was, wanting my pad thai but the restaurant didn't open for dinner for another hour!!!

Spur of the moment I decided to take a little drive into a state park that was just 2 minutes down the road while I waited for the restaurant.

It was the best decision I've made in months!

It's Ridley Creek State Park, that I've been in dozens of times before, but apparently have always managed to miss some really important aspects of it!

Right at the center there is a huge U-shaped mansion that the park office is now in. It was built in 1914 around the original 18th century farmhouse. Surrounding it are gardens that are in just exactly the perfect state of not quite being kept up.

It was hot and very humid, a real summer's day. Blue sky, trees all around, and every once in a while, a wonderful breeze would come through, interrupting the hot sun. There wasn't anyone else around.

The cicadas in the trees were absolutely deafening.

I couldn't hear any road noise, just the cicadas.

I got to be reminded of how huge really really old trees can be.

I saw a butterfly and a big fat bumblebee duking it out for this one flower, which must have been the best tasting one of all of them.

I found an old greenhouse in the woods, broken glass, trees growing out of it.

I found a door on an outbuilding that clearly had not been opened in years.

I found a secret garden!!!

In short, I found bliss! It was a wonderful little 60 minute interlude. I got to be reminded of how beautiful nature is.

What a great day.

:-)

Sentimental Sunday - A Genealogist's Favorite Kind of Gift

What could be a genealogist's favorite kind of gift? Well, I can't speak for all genealogist's, but for this one, it's when someone happily shares their hard work and research with you.

A couple months ago I got a surprise package in the mail, a manila envelope from my Aunt Becky.

It was filled with 53 pages of paper, some hand-written, some type-written. She had written out a history of our family based on her own memories and conversations she had over the years with her parents. She had made copies of everything and mailed it to me.



I had no idea she had done this! Truly, what a gift!! In the note she sent with the pages, she made the statement that it wasn't "hardcore genealogy" but she hoped it would add to the family history I'm doing.

What I hope she realizes is that what she gave me is the most valuable part of doing a family history. Names and dates and number of children is fun for filling in a database. My OCD loves filling in empty fields in a software program.

But a database is not a family history. The stories she captured - THAT's what's important.

What's important are little tidbits like this about my grandfather William as a young boy in Indiana:

"Tony, Peter and some friends went in the woods and found a whisky still. They came back and got William to show him. William was around eight years old. The still was covered with a tent, around six by eight feet, that was painted green to camouflage it in the woods. A revolver was hanging inside. The boys swiped the tent and left everything else. They came back about a week later. Everything was gone. This was during Prohibition."

Or this tidbit about my grandmother Ann:

"When Ann was born, her mother told her there was a snow storm which dropped 2’ of snow and she had jet black hair which curled around her finger and hung down. She looked like a little doll."

Or even this, a wonderful little tidbit about my mom:

"Once during a hot summer day, Deborah and Maria Capp began to fan themselves and each other with some pretty green leaves. The leaves were poison ivy. They were covered in poison ivy. The girls were liberally covered in calamine lotion. They then ran after the other neighbor children to scare them."

So, thank you Aunt Becky!! These pages are priceless and I am very grateful to have them!

And now, let's see what's happening in "Poetry Corner"

Alas! Another day has passed
and my mailbox is sadly bare;
The New York Department of Health
has yet to answer my prayer!

O NY DOH, please do tell--
Tell me yay, tell me nay!
Have you seen my death certs?
My patience is oh so frayed!

The truth has been told by my bank;
On 11 June you cashed my winter-writ check!
Yet every day since then
Fruitless has been my mailbox trek!

The suspense is killing me!
Will I get my certs?
Or will the dreaded Letter of No Records Found
Be my cold com-fert?

O New York Department of Health, take pity!
I toss and I turn every night!
Have you not heard of immediate gratification?
Come on already!!!!!

(with all apologies to the New York DOH, yes I know it costs money to scan records and make them available to the supplicants I mean users immediately via a website and you need people to run the website and have the ability to process credit cards online but I swear, I will contribute lots of money towards recouping your investment because there are LOTS and LOTS of records I would buy, I SWEAR!)

The Will of George Akins

My last couple posts (part 1 and part 2) detailed the will of my great-great-great-grandmother, Rebecca AKINS.

Now, thanks again to the wonderful SAMPUBCO website, I can share the will and probate information for Rebecca's husband, George AKINS.

Here's the transcript of his actual will:

I George Akins of the town of Barton, Tioga County and State of N.Y. aged fifty seven years, being of sound mind and memory do make publish and declare this my last Will and Testament in manner following that is to my.

First - After defraying expense of a proper and suitable burial and paying all my just debts, I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Rebecca Jane, all my personal property of every kind to use and control and dispose of as she shall desire.

Second I further will and direct that my wife shall have the use and control of all my real estate during her life.

Third - I further Will and direct and give my son John F. Akins the use of my real estate during his life, and to come into the possession of the same after the death of my wife Rebecca Jane and not until the death of my said wife.

And I further will and bequeath and desire all my real estate aforesaid to the heirs of my son John F. Akins after the death of my wife and my son John F. Akins.

And I hereby appoint my wife Rebecca Jane and my son John F. Akins the executrix and executor of this my last will and testament and I hereby declare the foregoing to be my last Will and Testament revoking all former Wills made by me.

In Witness Whereof. I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 13th day of June.

George Akins
(his mark)

So let's see:

1. The will was made June 13, 1873. George was a Farmer, and was one in all the census records I've seen. Prior to this will, he was living in neighboring Chemung County NY. Sometime between 1870 and 1873 he moved to Tioga County, NY and stayed there until his death in 1883.

2. George helpfully mentions by name his wife and son. There is no mention of a daughter Mary listed in the 1850 census. Perhaps she died young?

3. George also confirms for me that he (along with his wife Rebecca) both referred to their son as "John F." Not Francis or Frank or Franklin; all of which are various names John liked to give to census takers, presumably to throw future generations of researchers off so that they waste years thinking some other John is their ancestor. Not that I'm bitter or anything great-great-Grandpa. Not bitter at all. grumble

The probate of George's will happened on 20 November 1883. The witnesses to the will, who were also at the probate hearing were A.G. Allen and Jerome (or maybe James?) Hungerford, both of Waverly, NY. There were no special notes to the will or probate records.

"Waverly" (in Tioga County) raises a flag for me because most of John F.'s 1st wife Gertrude BOWMAN's family lived in Waverly. This particular town doesn't come up in my records for anything else at the moment. So I'll have to check if there are any connections between the BOWMAN family and this A.G. Allen and J. Hungerford. I'm not related to the BOWMAN's, because my ancestor was John F.'s 2nd wife, but it still helps to research this corollary stuff in case any clues pop up.