tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34095157745977017992010-03-24T01:43:24.823-05:00For general musings & scurrilous opinions.Megnoreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-48399210606688546782009-09-20T19:33:00.004-05:002009-09-26T12:52:50.308-05:00

I posted about the Kimlin family quite a while ago. I recently came across another mention of the Richard Kimlin family from the New York Sun in 1903.According to the paper, he was a cider and vinegar dealer (possibly connected to the Kimlin Cider Mill?). He was noteworthy for being so poverty-stricken that in February, he and another family were living in a pig sty in the woods near

Megnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-71967642321743260262008-04-14T13:27:00.003-05:002008-04-14T13:33:57.073-05:00

The Gadgets section of the website has been experiencing some problems. I've changed the hosting locations of all my genealogy gadgets so that they are now hosted by Google. As soon as the Google Content Directory is updated, you should be able to find them there. I will also make the necessary changes so that anyone subscribing to the old gadgets will be automatically transferred to the new

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-53488217025800883942008-04-12T14:11:00.002-05:002008-04-12T14:14:43.215-05:00

Slate.com had an interesting blurb about a court stenographer tackling a criminal, subduing him, then diligently compiling his formal transcript, complete with the obscenities the stenographer had uttered during the struggle. Now why can't that kind of stuff be included in the historical court records I've seen?

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-1161637921798459352008-03-10T18:11:00.008-05:002009-09-21T19:31:51.733-05:00

In the Jefferson Co, OH Naturalizations index I find the following:- Markus Kornhauser, age 22, from Hungary, court date on 5/8/1875 & 9/19/1877, witness George Poth- David Kornhauser, from Austria, age 21, court date 10/4/1888 & 7//3/1891Also, birth record indexes for Jefferson County (same online location as above) show:- Edgar Kornhauser, born on 3/13/1884 in the Fourth Ward, Steubenville, OH

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-30824043546507645202008-02-27T22:19:00.004-05:002008-02-27T22:28:39.065-05:00

The latest addition to my website can be found here. The Civil War letters of Quincy Plaisted were a huge find at the National Archives recently. The original letters and a page that was taken out of the family register from the Bible were all in Quincy's Civil War pension paperwork!He was the brother to my ggg-grandfather, Edward Harmon Plaisted, but I had never heard much about him. My side

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-87140660828622310182008-02-21T15:03:00.014-05:002008-03-02T13:27:48.354-05:00

A follow-up with some more information for those of you who are interested in the name:Many Kornhausers seem to have fled Europe during or just before the Holocaust. Several families seem to have settled in Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Israel, and the United States. The Central Database of Shoah Victims lists a number of Kornhausers who died in the Holocaust. Many are from Slovakia, Poland,

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-125684091297064012008-02-21T13:57:00.003-05:002008-03-01T20:21:29.562-05:00

I recently wrote out for my mother what I've been able to learn about the Kornhausers in the U.S. I am actively searching this line, so please comment or contact me if you know more!First, the name Kornhauser doesn't seem to appear in the U.S. until about the 1860s. It's a tricky name to find, because most indexers and/or original records creators couldn't spell it properly and you have to try

Megnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-30834006904262884792008-01-06T18:17:00.000-05:002008-01-06T19:01:53.138-05:00

News agencies ran the following this week:"University of Utah researchers have tracked a gene mutation linked to colon cancer risk back to an English couple that sailed to colonial America before 1640.The couple -- whose names aren't published in the researchers' report -- were born in England in the 1590s, married in 1615, and arrived in America with at least two children "some time before 1640,

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-5462865192064096922007-11-24T11:19:00.000-05:002007-11-24T11:57:41.980-05:00

Ancestry.com just rolled out the new U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 database. A few notes based on my brief review of it:First, passports containing photos have the photos on the image after the initial application form. Make sure you view both pages for an image of your ancestor. The photo that displays next to the initial page of the application belongs to someone else. Early

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-51391671527279080522007-11-12T11:57:00.000-05:002007-11-12T12:28:56.049-05:00

I recently came across this quotation in a book which really has little to do with genealogy otherwise:"Further, we now know that culture exerts a more powerful effect than strictly biological factors in shaping our brains. Take, for example, the dramatic increase in the average IQ, which has climbed 24 points since 1918. Is this increase due to better education? Healthier diet? The greater

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-13573948088191587322007-10-25T11:38:00.000-05:002007-10-25T12:06:11.833-05:00

The Genealogue recently pointed me to this interesting story. Apparently, a family historian named Delia published to her blog a quotation from her grandmother's diary and is now being sued by other family members for copyright infringements and defamation.The story raises interesting questions, particularly for those of us who have published letters and documents to the web or in other formats.

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-57575656800282167792007-10-16T13:39:00.000-05:002007-10-16T13:40:26.231-05:00

The Oneida Community was a communal living experiment (one of many such experiments around the country) begun in Putney, VT and later moved to Oneida NY (where the mansion still stands). The group was founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1841. Like the Shakers with whom they share some similarities, there were religious teachings behind many of the practices adopted by members. One of the

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-66527222838757512902007-10-13T18:19:00.000-05:002007-10-13T18:38:27.040-05:00

This from Slate.com:The French government is facing a backlash for trying to DNA-test aspiring immigrants.Objections: 1) It's a double standard, since legal family relationships among French natives don't require a genetic bond. 2) Ditto for privacy: No native has to submit to such testing. 3) It's reminiscent of collaboration with the Nazis. 4) It's cheap anti-immigrant politics. 5) Genetics has

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-31917638294952113872007-10-08T13:51:00.000-05:002007-10-09T19:23:52.141-05:00

My grandfather, Henry Irving Baker, Jr. died in 1949 when my father was a young boy and before his sister was even born. For many years, members of the family gave various reports of his final illness. Several years ago, I decided that a careful family history study could actually help pinpoint the reasons for his death.My first stop was his death certificate. H.I. Baker, Jr. died on September

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-18909637063299279332007-10-08T12:39:00.000-05:002007-10-08T12:50:29.643-05:00

Slate.com ran an interesting blurb today in their Human Nature column about a British woman who is receiving donated sperm from her father-in-law. It would mean that the baby would be a biological half-sibling to its "father", raising a number of questions. The health risks with older sperm are increased, but many people are also seriously concerned about the ethics of the case (it was reviewed

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-68079083363912068462007-09-26T11:56:00.000-05:002007-09-26T12:05:24.794-05:00

Aah, yes, our first cousins, the Neanderthals. A lovely family, but so glad we didn't inherit their brains and looks. And now, the discovery of a brand new family of second cousins (on both our maternal and paternal lines... hmmm....). The Hobbits!The wrist bones of the 3-foot-tall creature, technically known as Homo floresiensis, are basically indistinguishable from an African ape or early

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-40953806392064081792007-09-24T08:01:00.001-05:002007-09-24T08:14:03.152-05:00

The Search for the Descendants of Samuel & Permilia Scott is an unpublished 1970s manuscript with details about families in and around Cortland County, New York (and their descendants in many other states). At this time, I do not know of any repository of this information, and so information is published here for those individuals who would like to know more about the book.I've just updated my

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-18035997526299941192007-09-22T12:16:00.000-05:002007-09-22T20:25:18.831-05:00

Some of you may be familiar with the late nineteenth century wave of funerary art. It was a way of commemorating the dead. Often pictures might be taken of recently deceased family members (especially children) and/or locks of hair clipped to be placed in lockets (or occasionally made into beads!).In a mystery series written by Sarah Stewart Taylor, her detective Sweeney St. George is a

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-66763054674209462832007-09-22T10:43:00.000-05:002007-09-22T12:10:49.442-05:00

I have an account with StatCounter.com that tracks the number of visitors I have. It also will track the searches that lead people to my site (on a random tangent, isn't it irritating when people use the word "sight" instead of "site"?). It is interesting to see what brings people to this site. Obvious searches are the most popular: surnames, names of historic events, places, etc.The searches

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-43000797352676881442007-09-14T19:38:00.000-05:002007-09-22T12:11:55.518-05:00

An interesting find in Google Books this evening. Abram Brewer is one of Jess's ancestors and I know from other research that he lived in Greenwood, Indiana, so this is likely to be him. Here is an image from The African Repository By American Colonization Society that shows he donated $2.00 (a relatively sizeable sum) in 1847 to the Greenwood (Indiana) Col. Society.The Greenwood Colonization

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-31420895132373982602007-09-13T11:43:00.000-05:002007-09-22T12:10:31.349-05:00

A prelude for the beginning of this post. Please note that this is not actually an invitation for invective regarding homosexuality. It is an opportunity to explore the murky situation of birth certificates, same sex marriage, and genealogy. How we as genealogists and family historians explore the related worlds of biology and family, the ethical dilemmas that result, and how we make changes

Megnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-89283317795384867592007-09-05T11:14:00.000-05:002007-09-05T19:26:05.775-05:00

To those of you who have spent hours of your life in cemeteries, I have good news! You have actually been completing a unit in earth science. In fact, you have (perhaps unknowingly) been working on the following key science concepts:Key Stage 3, Sc3 - 2. Geological changes“Pupils should be taught:d) how forces generated by expansion, contraction and the freezing of water canlead to the physical

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-54900462821593861752007-08-31T08:32:00.000-05:002007-08-31T08:44:10.745-05:00

I thought this video from the Birmingham (Alabama) Public Library was quite entertaining...Also, check this one out. A video/music version of "I am my own Grandpa"Note: Neither of these are mine, and information on their authors can be found at YouTube.

Megnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-15332717067176371462007-08-29T12:27:00.000-05:002007-09-22T12:07:57.401-05:00

When Leona Helmsley died a couple of weeks ago, she reportedly left millions for her dog. We've all heard about the people who do this, and I have to assume that it is relatively uncommon to leave such a large sum for pets in your will. Other websites do recommend making sure that your will does make provision for the care of pets and give you tips on how to do this... there is even a whole

Megnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3409515774597701799.post-72905848933533262292007-08-27T14:29:00.000-05:002007-08-27T20:10:10.116-05:00

(go to Part I here)As I mentioned, Faith & Betrayal was particularly interesting to me because of a family connection. While researching my father's line, I made contact with a very distant cousin, who has provided me with additional information regarding the Walsh family, some of which is included below.James Walsh was born on July 31, 1806 in Over Darwen, Blackburn, Lancashire, England. This

Megnoreply@blogger.com1