Two Poems for April 19th (Repost)

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. Last year's April 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.

Surname Saturday: Genealogy Filk

Bill West of West In New England recently announced the Second Geneabloggers' Just Make Up the Lyrics Challenge 

1. Set the names of your ancestors to the music of any song. It can be
any number of names, any song. Just remember to mention what song
you are using so we can all sing along as we read!

More info

While I posted a comment on the first round of this back in 2009, apparently I was unable to come up with a contribution, which surprises me. I love writing filks, and what could possibly have caught my attention more than a genealogical filk challenge?!

I hear a few head scratches. What's filk?

One definition: A popular or folk song with lyrics revised or completely new lyrics and/or music, intended for humorous effect when read, and/or to be sung late at night at Science Fiction conventions.

While the term was invented for the science fiction community (some say it was originally a typo for 'folk' music) there's no reason its use can't be broadened to include any similar parodies.

I may have passed on the 2009 challenge, but I'm not passing this time around. (the lyrics of the final verse below are very close to the original, but the original lyrics worked quite well.)

NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer
Lyrics by John Newmark, 2014
Sung to the tune of: Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious, by The Sherman Brothers, 1964

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer
Even though our surnames, yes
We often can’t remember
If we say them long enough
We’ll know them by December
NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Because I was confused as heck
When I was just a lad
My father taught a little trick
It wasn’t quite so bad
“Our surnames might be bothersome
But I bet you didn’t know
String all our names together
And this is how it goes:

NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer”
Even though my surnames, yes
I couldn’t quite remember
When I said them long enough
I knew them by December
NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
So when your names you can’t recall
There’s no need for dismay
Just string your names together
In any sort of way
But better do it carefully
Or it could change your life
One night I taught this to me girl
And now me girl's my wife!
She’s WallaceGoberTaylorBlackmanFulkersonAndSchrock
WallaceGoberTaylorBlackmanFulkersonAndSchrock
I’m NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer
NewmarkCruvantFeinsteinLichtmanAdlerDeutschAndDenyer

Raising Relatives and non-Relatives

As I mentioned a month ago, my wife and I are in the process of adopting twin boys, so I've wondered a little bit about other adopted children in my genealogy database, and how easy it is when looking at census records to confuse parent-child relationships.

One instance is the Denyer family in 1870. 

Samuel and Zerelda (Singleton) Denyer - Children: Amanda, Robert, Albert and Ida
Ebenezer and Sarah (Hartley) Denyer - Children: William and Margaret

Samuel Denyer died in 1861, and Zerelda died in 1867, so by the time of the 1870 census, their children were orphans. It is common for a relative to assume guardianship of orphaned children, and that is what happened.

According to the 1870 census, Amanda, Robert, Albert, and Ida Denyer were living with their uncle's family - my second great grandparents Ebenezer and Sarah (Hartley) Denyer, and their two children William and Margaret.

Another instance is the Feinstein family in 1930

Harry and Dora (Servinsky) Feinstein - Children: Sidney, Adeline, Alvin, Willard, Seymour
Herman and Annie (Blatt) Feinstein - Children: Bernard, Belle, Seymour

Dora Feinstein died in 1920. Harry remarried in 1928. According to the 1930 census, he was employed as an insurance agent. However, his children were no longer living with him and his second wife. (By 1930, all but their youngest was over the age of 18, but Seymour was only 15 years old.)

In 1930 Adeline and Alvin are living with my great grandparents Herman and Annie Feinstein, and their children. Sidney Feinstein is a lodger in a hotel, and Seymour was a resident of the Jewish Orphan Home. I have been unable to find Willard in the census.

If Harry was alive and employed, why was Seymour placed in an orphan home? I'm unable to answer this question. It's possible he was placed in the home prior to his father's remarriage.

A third instance is my wife's 2nd great grandfather, Louis Pleas Gober

In the 1880 census, Louis is living with the (unrelated, to my knowledge) Kinder family in Cape Girardeau, MO. I know his father died in 1876, but I am unsure what happened to his mother.

I recently came across these statistics:

In 2010, in the State of Missouri, "there were 10,174 children in the custody of the Children’s Division."
Only "3,427 of youth placed in the foster care system live in the homes of relative and kinship providers."
I suspect the numbers in other states are similar.