Carnival of Genealogy: Musical Instruments

It's the 83rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy

Musical Instruments! - Do you play a musical instrument or did one of your family members? What instrument did you or they play? If no one in the family played an instrument, tell what is your favorite instrument or band and what is your least favorite one.

Back in July of 2007, I wrote about my Dudelsack surname. "The Dudelsack was once perhaps the most widespread bagpipe in Europe." One theory about the surname's origin is that my ancestors were either makers or players of the musical instrument.

However, the spelling of the surname isn't certain, and it could be "Dudelczyk." 'Dudel' is the Hebrew/Yiddish variant for 'David', and 'czyk' is a common Polish surname suffix meaning 'little' or 'son of'. This could be a more likely, but less interesting, origin of the surname.

Back in June of 2008 I discussed whether or not my great uncle, Mandell Newmark, played the oboe. The occupational code for his WW2 Army enlistment classified him as "Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile." But I ultimately realized that the transcription was incorrect, and a '170' (meaning a Sales Clerk) had been misread as a '175.'

There was a piano in the family house as I was growing up. (It's still there, even though I'm not.) I believe my siblings and I took some lessons. I recall learning Heart and Soul. (YouTube)



We tried out other instruments as well. Throughout elementary school I learned to play the violin using the 'Suzuki method,' which didn't require learning how to read music. When reading music was added to the curriculum, I dropped out. I preferred reading words.

The poster above for the Carnival was created by footnoteMaven