Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday: Seen in Southern Illinois

My wife and I explored Southern Illinois this weekend - stopping at several of the hiking paths and other sites along the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. In the Alto Pass area, we spotted the below tombstone.


We had to stop to take a picture, but we didn't ask directions.

If anyone is interested in a similar exploration, I can recommend a bed and breakfast to spend the night. The accomodations at Von Jakob are very comfortable, the food is excellent, and they have a nice selection of wine, beer, and mead to taste.

Monday, April 22, 2013

A Year Ago Today

This is a picture of Jen and myself a year ago today, on April 22nd, 2012.


It's amazing how quickly a year goes by.



I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
Song of Solomon 2:16

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Weekly Genealogy Picks - Changes

Using the "Share Page" at TheOldReader, I have simplified for me the process of sharing posts I find which I feel may be of interest to others.

Every post I share will appear here:

TransylvanianDutch Weekly/Daily Picks
  • This page has an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to it and receive every post I share, when I share it.
  • If you have a TheOldReader account, you can 'follow' it instead, and it will appear separately from your other subscriptions.
  • Or you can bookmark the page and stop by whenever you wish and see my latest selections
  • I have a list of the five most recent shared posts on the left sidebar, along with a link to the page.
  • I can connect the page to Facebook, through a setting in TheOldReader, and it will be shared there as well. I'm not doing this, but it is an option.
  • I will only be sharing items I think will be of interest in the same categories I was already sharing posts on this blog. TheOldReader has both a "Share" and a "Like" feature, so I have  a different method of bookmarking posts of personal interest to me.
Downsides:
  • I will not be able to share anything that doesn't appear in an RSS feed to which I currently subscribe. This mostly means news articles.
  • If you don't have a TheOldReader account, the page includes the full posts that are shared, so if you bookmark the page, you will probably have to scroll through posts you don't wish to read. (If you do have a TheOldReader account, and simply bookmark the page, the posts will appear in a collapsible format which will be easier to scroll through.)
  • If you subscribe to the feed, you should be able to skip over posts in the same way you normally would with whatever news reader you use.
  • Many of those who subscribe to the feed will see duplicate posts - the first one by the original blogger, and then my share of it. Mine may often include a line or two of commentary. 
Upsides:
  • I think this will free up about an hour on my weekends I can spend actually conducting genealogy research, composing original content for this blog, or other activities.
If  you were utilizing my Calendar of Upcoming Holidays, you may find: The Interfaith Calendar of interest. That is where I was getting my list of religious holidays.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Two Poems for Today - April 19


The Midnight Ride of William Dawes - by Helen F Moore (1896)

I am a wandering, bitter shade,
Never of me was a hero made;
Poets have never sung my praise,
Nobody crowned my brow with bays;
And if you ask me the fatal cause,
I answer only, “My name was Dawes.”

‘Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear –
My name was Dawes and his Revere.

When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,
Paul Revere was waiting about,
But I was already on my way.
The shadows of night fell cold and gray
As I rode, with never a break or a pause;
But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!

History rings with his silvery name;
Closed to me are the portals of fame.
Had he been Dawes and I Revere,
No one had heard of him, I fear.
No one has heard of me because
He was Revere and I was Dawes.

***
Excerpt from Campo dei Fiori, by Czeslaw Milosz (1943)

I thought of the Campo dei Fiori
In Warsaw by the sky-carousel
One clear spring evening
To the strains of a carnival tune.
The bright melody drowned
The salvos from the ghetto wall,
And couples were flying
High in the cloudless sky.

(full poem)

April 19th is filled with historical events. 

Many Americans think of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  (Some erroneously place it on April 18th, but it was a midnight ride. The battles took place the next day.)

But this is also the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. The most recent edition of Tablet Magazine was devoted to Warsaw, including a haunting look at repurposed gravestones.

Note: According to this source William Dawes, who rode with Revere, was related to Henry L Dawes, for whom The Dawes Act was named.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Yom HaShoah / Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holoccaust Remembrance Day - the 27th Day of the Hebrew month of Nisan.

Contrary to some thought, the day was not chosen to correspond with the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising [Nisan 14]. There were some who suggested that as the date, but it would have coincided with Passover celebrations, and wouldn't have been appropriate. The 27th was chosen because it lay between Nisan 14 and Israeli Independence Day. Even though it was separated from Passover, many Orthodox Jews don't observe it because it still falls within the month of Nisan, when mourning is prohibited. [Source / Source]



Some past posts:

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Weekly Genealogy Picks: March 31 - April 6

Highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.
Other Weekly Lists
Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar
  • April 7 - Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jewish) [ Sundown April 7 - Sundown April 8]
  • April 7 - World Health Day
  • April 8 - International Romani Day
  • April 11 - New Year (Hindu)
  • April 11 - Ramayana (Hindu) [April 11-20]
  • April 12 - Yuri's Night
  • April 14 - Baisakhi/New Year (Sikh)
  • April 15 - Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Jewish) [Sundown April 15 - Sundown April 16]
  • April 15 - Jackie Robinson Day
  • April 15 - Patriots' Day (US) [For those observing it on the 3rd Monday of April] 
  • April 19 - Dutch-American Friendship Day
  • April 19 - Patriots' Day (US) [For those observing it on the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord]
  • April 20 - Ramanavani (Hindu)
  • April 21 - First Day of Ridvan (Baha'i)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Friday Five

Many years ago I started a series of posts I entitled, "Friday Five" based on the old internet meme of listing five random songs from your computer's playlist. Instead, I found five names in online genealogy databases that were related to each other thematically.

If you click on the category link below this post, you'll notice that most of the themes have been fun and lighthearted, however, today I said to myself, "Let's do a Friday Five," so I looked at the calendar to see if there were any holidays coming up, and I noticed Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) on Monday. A fan of Mel Brooks, I couldn't resist the opportunity. It is springtime after all.

My apologies to anyone who feels the below (or above) is at all inappropriate.
All of the below names were found in databases at Ancestry.com

***
  1. Crystal Knot – 1900 US census – Age 9 – Shields, Lake, IL
  2. Robert Auschwitz – 1920 US census – Age 3 – St. Louis, MO
  3. George Hashoas – 1885 Nebraska state census – Age 2 – Friend, Saline, NE
  4. Celia Kaddish – 1911 UK census – Age 4 – Yorkshire-West Riding
  5. Gay Hitler – 1910 US census – Age 28 – Pickaway Ohio
***

According to my quick research Gay Ludwig Hitler graduated from Kenyon College in 1905, was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and became a dentist. He died in 1928.

There’s no photograph of the tombstone on FindAGrave, but there is a photograph of the entrance to Hitler-Ludwig Cemetery in Circleville, Ohio.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Data Backup Day: Accidents Happen; Be Prepared

The first day of every month is Data Backup Day.

Accidents have been known to happen. We can't predict them, but we can be prepared for them.

Digitize your source materials, and back them up regularly.

Image Source: "The First Page," by Émile Bayard (1837-1891). An illustration for the novel, Ninety-three, by Victor Hugo.

Émile Bayard's best known illustration is his image of Cosette sweeping the floor of the inn, for the novel, Les Misérables.