Human Rights and Genealogy

Blog Action Day is a "free annual event, that has run since 2007. Its aim is to unite the world’s bloggers by posting about the same issue, on the same day, in order to raise awareness and trigger a positive global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all, raises awareness or even funds for not-for-profits associated to the theme issue."

I participated in 2008 when the theme was poverty.
I participated in 2010 when the theme was water.

This year the theme is Human Rights.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - US Declaration of Independence, 1776

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. 

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

[Image: Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Spanish text.]

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How have my ancestors interacted with Human Rights issues? Have they been the victims, or the perpetrator of human rights abuses? Have they fought for the human rights of others on political or martial battlefields? The answer, for me, is, 'yes.' All of the above.

I have written several posts in the past that are appropriate to re-share today.

On slave-owning ancestors

• The Labors of Hercules - where I discuss my discovery that an ancestor owned a slave.
•  Following the Citations - where I possibly clear the name of an ancestor others alleged owned a slave

On the impact of the Holocaust on my relatives

• Central Database of Shoah Victims Names and Central Database of Shoah Victim Names Part II - where I conducted some research on my Deutsch, Lichtman and Cantkert branches.

On those who fought

• Every Veterans Day I share a list of those in my family who served in their nation's military - in many instances, such as World War II, fighting for the human rights of others.

I'm not proud to say a first cousin, ten times removed, is William Stoughton, the justice who presided over the Salem Witch Trials. However, through the same line, I am cousin to Samuel Huntington, who in addition to being a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and President of the Continental Congress from 1779-1781, is also said to have been an abolitionist.

More recent generations have been active in various civil rights movements. There are some who try to distinguish 'Civil Rights' from 'Human Rights,' but they can be viewed as a subset.

Teachers tend to present the ‘civil rights movement’ as a distinctly American event, from ‘Montgomery to Memphis,’ with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as its crowning moment. The term ‘civil rights’ limits our understanding, since it refers specifically to rights guaranteed by the Constitution or protected through legislation. It fails to encompass the cultural, social and economic goals of the struggle. Desegregation and voting rights were a means to achieve broader goals, such as overcoming social forces that limit freedom and opportunity. (source)

As I wrote five years ago, apathy is foreign to my genes. As I research my lineage I am proud to see ancestors and kin, near and far, who have and had an interest in the freedom of others.

Blog Action Day - 2010 - Water

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all. (BlogActionDay.Change.Org)

The theme for 2010 is Water.

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us who are subject to preventable disease and even death because of something that many of us take for granted.

Access to clean water is not just a human rights issue. It’s an environmental issue. An animal welfare issue. A sustainability issue. Water is a global issue, and it affects all of us.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

For more on the current global issue of water, visit the Blog Action Day site.  However, this is a genealogy blog - and as such - my concern is less on how water currently impacts me, or others, but how it has impacted my ancestors.  You might ask, "how would you know?"  I know my ancestor, Barnard Goldfinch, was a sailmaker, and every one of my immigrant ancestors arrived in America by ship.  Those are obvious connections, but not exactly what Blog Action Day is about.

Since February of 2009, every Monday I have posted a transcription of some document in my family history collection.  I have also transcribed many documents that haven't been posted.  One of the reasons I give for my transcription project is that it makes searching for documents that mention a particular person, place, or thing much easier.  So I put this into action.  I searched for the word 'water' on my computer.

If I had done this prior to this week, my choice for this past Monday's transcription would have been different.  Back in January I mentioned my Great Aunt Minnie's letters to the Happy Hammers (a 'youth club' sponsored by the Houston Post, where children throughout Texas submitted weekly letters.  Often challenging the youth to write letters on specific themes.)  Here's a letter of hers from when she was 13 years old.

November 21, 1897
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Maxwell, Texas

Dear Haphammer: ...

What historical man deserves the most honor before 1900? Well, I have studied some time about it and it’s a hard thing to decide. I think Christopher Columbus, the great sea voyager, deserves the most honor. He was the first man that crossed the Atlantic. He didn’t really discover America, but it is claimed that he did. Still, he had very much courage to make such a daring attempt. When he started he did not intend to discover any such land as America. He wanted to set a new route by water to Asia and the West Indies. I know more about him, but it doesn’t seem interesting to most of the Haps.

... I will close with love to all. A true Hap,

Minnie Van Every

I think it's great that Minnie at age 13 in 1897 knows Columbus did not discover America.  Of course, her grandmother professed to be part Choctaw.  Minnie had reason to know that what everyone claimed wasn't so.

While this jumped out at me due to Columbus Day, one of the suggested themes for Blog Action Day is the impact of water on global conflict, and Columbus's arrival in American waters might be seen as applicable in a way.

However, this isn't the only appearance of water in my transcriptions.

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When my grandfather, Melvin L Newmark, was interviewed he discussed the living conditions of his grandparents in St. Louis around 1910-1920.

Melvin: I remember my grandmother’s tenement on 15th and Carr or something in downtown St. Louis. Without indoor plumbing. I went there frequently as a child, I recall…
Interviewer: Describe it. 
Melvin: Horrible! 
Interviewer: Tall buildings? 
Melvin: Well, maybe three stories, walk-up steps, with a porch. Squalid. 
Interviewer: Outdoor plumbing? 
Melvin: Outdoor plumbing 
Interviewer: Did they have water inside? 
Melvin: I think they had running water. Yes they had running water inside. 
Interviewer: Electricity or gas?
Melvin: I don’t think, no, I think it was gas. Later they got electricity…

[Image note: The caption reads, "The back wall of this privy vault is the wall of the oven of the adjoining bakery." Source: Housing Conditions in St. Louis: Report of the Housing Committee of the Civic League of St. Louis, The Civic League of St. Louis, 1908, p. 22.  The photograph may have been taken only a few blocks from where my grandfather's grandparents lived.]

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My maternal grandfather, Martin Deutsch, and his brother, Ted, also mentioned water when discussing their childhood in Romania. 

Ted: ...Dezur and Feri, those are the two brothers I met that I know of in Margitta, because I was there, and I visited them. I used to go when I visited them, I went out to the marketplace, I used to sell water over there. Fresh water. 
Martin: Sell water? How did you get the water? 
Ted: Well, we had a well. They had a well. 
Martin: Oh, you wouldn’t get it from the river? 
Ted: Grandfather had a well. And they had a little container that I put on my back. I was about 10 years old. We’d go to the marketplace, and sell fresh water. We made money that way. 
Martin: You had goatskin probably. 
Ted: No, we had a little container. I don’t recall what kind, made out of wood, that’s all I know.

[Image note: This photograph of a well was taken in 2000 by my mother in Almasu, Romania - formerly Varalmas, Hungary - the birthplace of my maternal grandfather.]

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A couple other posts from the past come to mind when I think about this theme.

When my great great grandfather, Selig Feinstein, came to America he was a blacksmith for ten years. As a blacksmith he had to have ready access to a fire hydrant in case of emergency.  He even came up with some improvements to the hydrant which he patented in 1898.

My 2008 Blog Action Day post  on poverty focused on the 1908 Civic League of St. Louis report on housing conditions from which the above photograph of the privy and bakery came.  The report discussed the lack of indoor plumbing in the neighborhood, and what that meant for the residents.

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Finally, at times I've wondered what the reasons were for my paternal ancestors who settled in St. Louis upon arriving in America.  None of them seem to have had relatives here beforehand.  One commonality is that they were all in similar trades -- 1 blacksmith, 2 tailors, and a shoemaker.  In the late 19th century early 20th century, I believe those trades may have still thrived best in cities that were fed by a river economy.  That's just a guess, and may not be the real reason.  But it's certainly a possibility.

Returning to St. Louis City - 1908

Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day. "Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion." The theme for 2008 is Poverty.

I thought I would return to a post I wrote back in July. St. Louis City Housing Conditions in 1908. I wrote about the disturbing conditions I had discovered that my ancestors had lived in from a report given by the Civic League of St. Louis. It was an 88-page report, though, and I only quoted a few paragraphs. I will try to give a fuller picture of what life was like for those who lived in this area bordered by 7th and 14th streets, and Lucas Avenue and OFallon Street. (1908 and 2008 maps provided in July post.)

I am going to "copy and paste" several clippings from the report straight into this post as it is certainly easier than transcribing or rephrasing, and the images should be readable.

Let's start with a chart of the number of bathtubs found in the neighborhood



As the report states, "It is useless to try to add anything to the force of such figures as these." As one might expect, the majority of tubs were in the apartments of the building owners.

A lot of space is given in the report to the conditions of the Yard Vaults, since toilets were a new innovation and rare.





Another factor the report considered was the overcrowding situation. They compared the neighborhood to a similar report Chicago had conducted.





Housing conditions in St. Louis City have improved greatly in the past 100 years. However, I have heard people over the years, when comparing the situation in today's inner cities to the situation in the tenements, to focus a lot on crime. There is a sense that things are different today.



The differences that exist, I suspect are due mostly to technology, and greater access to a different class of weapons, and less to do with the individuals involved. The authors of the report back in 1908 knew that there was a connection between crime and poverty that was unrelated to race, nationality or ethnicity. As Victor Hugo wrote, "If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness." (Les Miserables, p. 14)

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Understandably, many of the posts for Blog Action Day will focus on what it means to be poor today. Author, John Scalzi, had an excellent blog post three years ago on that topic: Being Poor. The Blog Action Day site had a list of resources for those interested in fact sheets, statistics, and suggestions on what can be done to alleviate poverty around the world.