The Vicious Chiffonier Part II

This is part II of a story that happened almost 100 years ago in Transylvania.
Don't start here.
Start with Part I

Ted: So this day he didn’t go very far, he left the gun at home. When he left his home he had a chiffonier. And in there he locked up the bread and locked up any other stuff the kids might take. And his gun. So he forgot to lock it this time.

When I first listened to the tape, I had no idea what a chiffonier was, so I had no idea what Ted was saying. But I knew it was a container of some sort, so I got out a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus and went to the section on containers and read through the list until I found it. So anyway…

We have a loaded chiffonier, and three kids: Armon, Ted and Ed. It’s not certain that my grandfather was in the room at the time, and Jean was with their mother and father, wherever that was. A total of seven.

Ted: I went to the Chiffonier. It was open so I went to get the bread. If it was locked we couldn’t get the bread, but if they left the key open, we’d go in and look for bread.

Martin: Something to nibble on

Ted: Yeah, so we found a gun in there. We didn’t know what the hell it was. I thought it was a plaything. Armon was older than I and I don’t know if he knew what it was. But he wanted…he took it away from me…And showed it to me. And then Eddie got it, and he was looking at it. He thought it was something to whistle in because the barrel was there, and if you blew your breath in there you could whistle.

So Ed does it. He tries to use the gun as a whistle.

Ted: Yeah, he held it up against his mouth like that and suddenly the damn thing went off and it went through his upper jaw and through his nose. It came out thorough his nose.

But Ed isn’t the one who dies.

Ted: Eddie, Luckily he wasn’t hurt much…He always had a spot around his nose where it came out…He didn’t take the thing in his mouth, he just pointed it this way where you’d blow into it…If he had shot himself in the mouth…when Mother came home he was bleeding a lot but they took care of that.

It's hard for me to imagine how much blood there probably was. Nor can I imagine my great-grandparents' reactions when they returned home. There was probably a lot of yelling and screaming. Probably focused a lot on Armon, the eldest child who was supposed to be 'in charge' of his younger brothers. Even though he was only seven or eight.

Ted: So he got scared because Ed was bleeding and there was no doctor around there to take care of it. Nobody knew what to do. Anyhow, after awhile, Dad and Mother blamed him, and he got scared and he got depressed that he was to blame for the entire thing…He was depressed in every way. He wouldn’t eat right. Finally about a month later he passed away…He was just scared. He was just scared stiff.

Martin: He died of fear or something like that.

Martin mentions a memory of a coffin in the house, and Ted confirms there was one, and that Armon was buried in a cemetery not far from the home – about the equivalent of two blocks. My mother visited the town a few years ago, and looked in the cemetery, but the inscriptions were so worn, even if they had been able too afford a marker for the grave, it was unfindable.

The Vicious Chiffonier - Part I

In the 1970s my maternal grandfather, Martin, and his brother, Ted, sat down and recorded their recollections. Both of them were born in Transylvania/Romania/Hungary in a small town called Varalmas, Nagyalmas, or Almasu, depending upon the language.

This is being written for the 34th Carnival of Genealogy, which is themed for the Halloween season. However, despite the setting for the tale, there are no vampires involved. And while wolves will be briefly mentioned, they probably weren't of the were-variety. I briefly considered titling this post "The Were-Chiffonier" for the poetic qualities, but settled on the current title for accuracy. There isn't anything supernatural about this, it's unknown what time of year it occurred, or even whether it occurred under a full moon. But horror stories are one of the sub-themes, and this may well be the most horrific story I have discovered in my family's past. I hope I never discover anything that exceeds it.

I've had this audiotape for a while, and digitized it a year or so ago, but I made a transcription specifically for this entry. It's been on my to-do list, but it got moved up a bit, for which I am grateful. This way, instead of just summarizing the events, I can use the words of my grandfather and great-uncle.

After they announce that they’re going to talk about an Accident that brought the number of family members from seven to six, several minutes are spent discussing years, birthdates, and ages. They know their parents were married in 1898, and they think the oldest child, Jean, was born in 1899, and Armon, 1900. However, it’s also possible Jean was born in 1900 and Armon 1901.

The year of the accident is never stated, but from the ages of the children, it was probably 1908. Ted was about six at the time, and my grandfather, Martin, was two. The other main player is ‘Ed’ who was between Ted and Martin in age.

Ted: It happened that Dad always carried a gun when he went out of the village. He carried a gun with him because you travel through the mountains

Martin: Highway robberies

Ted: Not robbers, but

Martin: Hunting

Ted: Protection. Not not hunting, Protection from wolves.

Martin: Animals.

Ted: There are wolves around when you cross the mountains. He always had a gun

Martin: A revolver. A pistol.

Ted: A revolver or handgun. For protection. Not from robbers, but he did run into wolves. Wolves run in packs and you never know when they will attack you. Especially if you camp at night.

Martin: I wondered about that and how a gun got into the house.


This post is getting long, so I’m going to break and continue it in a second post.

Blog modifications

I decided I wanted the ability to 'cut' longer posts, like you see on some blogs. Have a lead-paragraph, and then let the reader click on something to read on...


There are instructions on how to do this in the Blogger Help manual, but their version isn't togglable. It's always on. Which explains the sudden appearance of a linked asterisk at the bottom of every post, if you're on the front page, or in a monthly archive. (Otherwise, you won't see it.)

I didn't want it to say "Read More" if there wasn't any more to read. If it's a short post, or an old post, the * will just provide a secondary link to the page with the entry+comments.

I am curious how confusing this post was, though. How long did it take you to figure out there was more to read, and where to click?

If anyone can come up with a better suggestion than an *, that's easy to change.

Update Thanks to Chris who in the comments directed me towards a better hack which makes the query above unnecessary.

My type of blogging

Terry and Randy have been thinking about acronyms and what type of blogger they are. I like acronyms. It may be in my genes.

When I first started a personal blog, back in 2002, I called it Politics, Religion and Drew Barrymore. If I had added the topic of "Insanity", I could have called my type of blogging: DRIP. I won't discuss my next title for the blog, but the initials were PBFIW. Not much you can spell with that. (Pfiwb?)

While the acronym fits, I am uncomfortable with adopting the HOGS moniker, even though Terry assures one commenter pork posts aren't a requirement. I definitely like the "Tribe" in Randy's GHOST. But I don't view myself as a "Ghost blogger" either. I do write under my own name, after all. And while most of those who get mentioned here are no longer living, that's not universally the case. I considered possibilities for the letter "N". It's the first letter of my surname, for example. I could take a picture of a pair of shoes for a logo. (Other possibilities for logos came to mind, too, but they wouldn't have been family appropriate.)

Instead, because of my love for the English language, I fell upon G.H.O.T.I. Some of my posts here are just about as Insane as they are on my personal blog, and I believe all my stories fall under one of the other categories. So in honor of the genius of George Bernard Shaw¹, for Klingons everywhere, and because in my short time as a family history researcher I've learned the importance of knowing how to spell phonetically: I choose to be a GHOTI blogger.

¹ I know that GBS claimed he didn't invent the spelling, but he did popularize it.

(the original image came from the US Fish and Wildlife public domain image website)

Friday Five

I was gong to hold off on doing this one for two weeks, but since I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription to Ancestry, I'm doing it today. (Sure, I could write everything down and post it in two weeks, but why not get into the holiday spirit early?) And no, this isn't my submission to the Carnival.

Names from various census indexes:

1. Ghoul Nipple, M, 1930, Caroll IN, 36 years old
2. Goblin Fester, F, 1900, Amity IA, 12 years old
3. Witch Layers, M, 1920, Marathon WI, 31 years old
4. Pumpkin Upshaw, M, 1910, Elbert GA, 13 years old
5. Halloween Hovey, F, 1870, Fenton MI, 1 years old

Blog Finder

Sometimes it pays to actually click on a few links on a blog's sidebar or topmenu, rather than just reading the posts as they come in through your newsreader, only going to the blog to comment.

I just found The Genealogue's Blog Finder. Of course, if I knew about his Blog Finder, I might have found his Blog Finder more quickly? Does that make sense?

Chris has catalogued over 600 genealogy-related blogs, and allows you to search the posts on all of them. He's also categorized all the blogs into useful categories based on their focii.

As near as I can tell, the last time he mentioned it in one of his posts was six months ago, back in April, which was a little before I started researching. Of course, the link has been on his site the entire time; I just hadn't clicked.

Descendents of William Denyer and Elizabeth Sliver

I included a poem by an ancestor a few posts ago which I found in a Fretz Family History book published in 1890. I have now entered the 7 pages from the book that pertain directly to the descendents of William Denyer and Elizabeth Sliver, and since much of the information isn't available anywhere else online, I created a page for it on my website.

There is a lot of good story information in the text, and since it was published in 1890, most of the information probably came directly from the individual, or a sibling/child. It's probably as trustworthy as first-person narration usually is. (Which means some of the story might be slightly exaggerated, but the general details are probably accurate, as are the dates.)

The one consistent alteration I made to the text is that I spelled out abbreviations. (I think the only exception I made were a few titles like Dr. and Rev. since it is rare that they are spelled out as titles.) The author over-abbreviated to conserve space, which is completely understandable, but space isn't an issue online, and I feel it is easier to read without abbreviations.

Fun and Games

This is in response to this week's 5-question prompts for Family History Month from the 24/7 Family History Circle. I am completely ignoring the five question concept and I'm going to ramble. However, I'm sure someone can find at least five questions that I answered.

As a child, I subscribed to Games Magazine. I loved all manner of games and puzzles. I definitely inherited my love for word games from my paternal grandfather, who would attack the newspaper's Crossword Puzzle daily, and he also taught me a game called Jotto where you select a 5-letter word, and try to guess your opponent's 5-letter word before they guess yours. I'd have Sunday dinner at my paternal grandparents house a lot, and they had a lot of games in their closet that I would play with my siblings and cousins: Rummikub being the most memorable. My grandmother had a Mah Jongg set, but I never learned how to play.

My maternal grandfather taught me to bowl. He was a much better bowler than I ever have been. I struggle to break 100, and he almost always broke 200. My maternal grandmother (actually step-grandmother, as my mom's mother died young) taught me how to play gin rummy, and it remains my favorite card game. My grandfather later purchased me a copy of Hoyle, and I taught myself several more games.

The game I remember playing with my brother the most was Stratego. I consistently lost until my brother told me his secret. All he had to do was watch me set up my pieces, as I always put my flag down first, and then surrounded it with bombs. Knowing exactly where my flag was, the game was easy for him.

A St. Louisan born and raised, my favorite professional sport to watch is Baseball. There is no close second. I'll tune into the Superbowl for the ads, and I've watched a little WWE with friends for the socializing, but Baseball is the only sport I've actually ever followed. I remember watching the final game of the 1982 World Series – age 13 – from the bleachers, and running onto the field with my brother when it was over. I can still name the players of the 1982 Cardinals team by position. And I can still hear Jack Buck's voice.

Finally – since age 6, I have considered reading Fun and Games, and I am still three decades later a voracious reader. I've read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror over the years, but my favorite novel of all time is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Hence, the first domain name I ever purchased was gavroche.org -- it says a lot that the character I most identify with is the mischievous child.

I've emboldened the present tense in the final paragraphs, because I noticed that the questions were all focused on childhood. I realize this is Family History, so we're talking about things that happened in the past, but I want to make sure I state that for me, fun and games doesn't end when you turn a certain age. Fun and Games goes on forever. Otherwise, life gets boring, and I don't ever want that to happen.

Tombstone Tales

Last night I went to the monthly meeting of the St. Louis Genealogical Society. This month’s discussion topic was an appropriate theme for October: Tombstone Tales. There was a lot of good information presented on dos and don'ts regarding visiting tombstones. (Don’t clean a tombstone with household solvents. Very little is safe for a tombstone beyond water. If it’s a family burial ground, it’s not public, and you need to ask permission, or you could end up facing an unhappy landowner with or without gun. What you should wear. Tips on taking good photographs. Stuff like that.) There was also discussion and handouts about common symbols and artwork you find on tombstones and what they mean.

The presentation ended with several slides of tombstones…some from all over the world, and some from St. Louis. I had no idea that General William Tecumseh Sherman, who marched through Georgia, was buried here. But there were two graves shown, several slides apart, that caught my attention. After seeing the second slide, I wanted to raise my hand and ask a question, but I wasn’t sure if I recalled the first slide correctly, and didn’t want to embarrass myself if I remembered it wrong. So, alas, I said nothing.

The first slide was a picture of the tombstone of Dred Scott. It was originally an unmarked grave, but a stone was eventually erected. It says on the stone “Freed by my friend, Taylor Blow.”

Several slides later, was the tombstone of famed educator, Susan Blow.

Taylor was her uncle. Her grandparents were the owners of Dred Scott. Her father was Henry Taylor Blow, one-time ambassador to Venezuela. But census records clearly indicate brothers Taylor Blow and Henry Taylor Blow were separate individuals.

I either wasn't paying attention during the Local History section of my education, or the connection between these two was never mentioned. I actually couldn't remember much about Susan Blow beyond that she was important to education in some way. She introduced the concept of kindergartens to the US.

State and Regional Resources

Family Tree Magazine has a list of "best websites". Here's their section on State and Regional Resources.

It looks like Arizona one-ups Missouri's certificate database. I've been very proud of Missouri's taking a lead, and scanning in their death certificates, but Arizona has been scanning in their birth certificates as well. (Up through 1931 - a 75 year privacy window - which means many living persons.) Unfortunately, I don't think I have any relatives born in Arizona. However, I did find the birth certificate of Cesario Chavez (direct link to pdf), and the death certificate of Baron Michael Goldwater. Barry's father. Barry's birth certificate should be there, but I can't find it. Cardinal ballplayer Solly (Solomon Joseph) Hemus should be there, too.

There are several states that have impressive indexes that will help many researchers.

Cost of Genealogy

Jasia at CreativeGene has been blogging about the cost of genealogy. It's a topic that hit home for me. She’s been at it for ten years, and I’ve just begun within the past few months, but I can already see the costs piling up. I work in the not-for-profit community, and don't make a large amount of money. However, being single without dependents does give me some hobby-money.

In some instances, I think the costs she lists are a little high. Especially for documentation from the US. They’re perhaps what they cost in Michigan, but document prices are dropping all over. Missouri’s death certificates from 1910-1956 are all online for free, unless they haven’t been scanned in yet, in which case they’re $1 if you’re superanxious. I ordered an 1854 marriage certificate from Gonzales Texas for $1. Chicago’s vital stats are going online in January. I’ve heard people say on mailing lists that in some county offices around the country you can walk in with your digital camera, and ask to ‘look’ at a certificate, and they won’t charge you the full price, since all they’re doing is looking it up. You’re not getting a “Certified Copy," but I don’t feel I need it to be certified. I just want a clear image of what is on the document.

Many documents do still cost in the $15-$25 range. Marriage, birth, and death certificates from the UK GRO cost 7 pounds, which is about $15 with today’s exchange rate. But there are many bargains for particular counties and states, and the number of these are increasing, not decreasing, as county and state agencies realize it’s more cost-efficient to put everything online than it is to hire staff to look up the documents every time someone asks.

Still, everything adds up. I’ve now ordered 4 certificates from the UK, and there are another four I know about which I will ultimately order if I can’t convince a relative to do so. ($120) There are also several marriage certificates I want to obtain.

I’ve told myself that ignoring any bargains under $5, I’m limiting myself to 1 certificate a month. I figure if I keep myself to that, I won’t spend much more than $200 on documents in a year. A birth certificate from the UK was my October purchase over the weekend. (One of my great-grandfather’s sisters.)

I started out with a monthly World Subscription to Ancestry. Since I found all the UK census records I’m likely to find, and the GRO indexes are free, I’m now at the Domestic level, until new international databases get added that affect me. I haven’t decided whether or not to subscribe for the full year. I probably will because I like being able to search from home, and I consider the benefits worth the cost, however I’m going to refrain from renewing next month and see how it feels not to have immediate access.

Hiring a Professional

I’m not sure hiring a professional makes economic sense if one doesn’t factor in time. Time doesn’t matter much to me. I don’t need to know everything possible now. On the other hand, I don’t want to spend ten years researching, and find out a professional genealogist could have learned everything I learned, but done it in a week’s time. I don’t think I’d feel my time was wasted, because I’m enjoying this. But I would feel like I’m a lousy researcher.

Still, I doubt that professionals are that much better at this. Better, yes. But not by that degree. They’re not miracle workers. They know more sources to go to, but I’m learning these sources as I go along.

Also, I know that whatever I pay a professional by the hour, they’re also going to be charging me for the documents, so I won’t save any money there. If anything, I will lose money, because they won’t necessarily be searching for the bargains.

And if I hired a professional genealogist, would they post queries on the community surname forums? I have, and found cousins, with information, and with scanned images of documents. Documents I would have had to pay for if I had hired the professional. And I wouldn’t have met a cousin in the process!

[On the other side of the coin, a distant cousin of mine who has done twenty years of extensive research on one section of my tree, has expressed gratitude for my interest, as I have read through her notes, and found some minor discrepancies other eyes have missed. Editing and proofreading are things I've received training in.]

Finally, a professional would also be likely to spend extra money on documents for quicker shipping so that they can produce the results quicker to the customer. Most customers like that, but as I said, time doesn’t matter much to me, and if it takes 4 weeks to receive the document instead of 1, I don’t really mind.

So I think in the final analysis I’d save time with a professional, but I would spend more money, and I wouldn’t extend my genealogical lines any further than I am able to on my own, learning as I go.

On further thought (10/11)

I do suspect there will come a time when I may hire a professional. Six out of my eight great-grandparents are Jewish, and I tend to reach dead-ends within one generation of their immigration. (That isn't too different for the other two great-grandparents, but their families have been in North America over a hundred years longer.)

The cousin I mentioned who has done 20 years of extensive research on one line, travelled to Lithuania multiple times to do onsite research. I don't see myself doing that. I do see myself finding a professional headed overseas to do some research in the Warsaw area, or Romania, who's willing to take on another quest. (That way one's only paying for the research, not the airfare.) I saw such a post on a mailing list a couple months ago, but I know I'm not ready to ask the question. I need to find everything here that I feel I can so that they're starting with the most information possible.

But I won't hire a professional to do research I know I can do, even if it's going to take me longer.

"Mother" by Ida Green

Yesterday I found a copy of Fretz Family History in the St. Louis Public Library. It was published in 1890 by Rev AJ Fretz, who published several family histories centered around families that settled originally in the Bucks County Pennsylvania area. I knew that my great-great grandfather, the Confederate soldier, would be mentioned in the book, but I was interested in finding information about his siblings. Little did I expect to find a poem written by Ida Green (nee Denyer), his niece, and the first cousin of my great-grandmother. The text of the family history is fully within the public domain, so I have no issues with reprinting it here.

I might take a few issues with meter, and modern political correctness, but I feel it’s wonderful a poem that clearly came from her heart has survived the generations through Rev AJ Fretz’s genealogical work, and encourages me on my own research and story gathering. (All the family history referenced in the poem are given dates and details in the bio that accompanies it.)

Mother

Mother! Ah, how oft that name
Our loving hearts have thrilled,
It soothes to rest in hours of pain,
Though death her pulse has stilled.

In life we were her constant care;
And often while we slept,
She o’er bent in silent prayer,
While Indians through our barley crept.

They had her loved companion slain,
Disguised in white-men’s clothes.
Whom he mistook for neighboring friends,
Till they had strung their bows.

And then upon that April morn,
When death his frame had chilled,
She stood beside that lifeless form,
Her heart with anguish filled.

And when we laid him in the tomb,
And sadly turned away,
Our mother knew that she alone,
Must guard us night and day.

Nor did she through those years of grief
E’er murmur or repine,
But sought in prayer that sweet relief
Which true believers find.

And when consumption seized her child,
The first that God had given,
She closed in death those eyes so mild,
And said, “We’ll meet in heaven.”

One year elapsed, then mother left,
To join the host above,
And four small children were bereft
Of either parents’ love.

And now those loved ones round the throne
Are beckoning us away;
Dear brothers, sisters, kindred ones,
Let us the call obey.

Yes! Let us follow in the path
This noble woman trod;
Perform our duty here on earth,
But lean upon our God.

Santa Maria, Texas, Oct 8, 1889.

The Wanderer

They call me the wanderer, yeah I'm a wanderer,
I go around around around around.

I've had difficulty finding some relatives in the various census - due to name spellings, etc. But now I have run across the inverse.

A relative recently sent me a huge Register for one branch of the family, and in it is someone who I will call B.

On Jan 3, 1920, the census taker in St. Louis, MO knocked on the door, where B, his wife, and six kids were living. He was 53. Immigrated to the US in 1885. Naturalized in an unknown year. His mother tongue was 'Jewish'.

On Feb 3, 1920, the census taker in Greenville TX, knocked on the door where B's son, J. was a boarder. But according to the census, B was a boarder there too! Must have been visiting his son, and must have decided, "Cool! Another census taker! Don't forget to count me!" He was now 54. (We don't know when his birthday was - it's possible he actually was a year older.) He immigrated in 1891, and was naturalized in 1906. His mother tongue was Polish.

On Feb 11, 1920, the census taker in Redbud TX, knocked on the door of B's brother S. Guess who must have been visiting that day? Almost 200 miles from Greenville, but he had a full week to get there. Still 54. Immigrated in 1887, Naturalized in 1900. Russian was his mother tongue.

Apparently those are all we've found -- but not necessarily all there is. His occupation on all three is 'Merchant'. It also leaves me wondering what the 'record' is. Most 'appearances' in a single census year for one person.

DNA testing

Lots of people are turning to DNA tests to see if they have Nordic, Russian, Chinese, African, or Native American ancestry.

But what if you want to know if beloved Rover is part Alaskan Malamute, French Poodle, or Border Collie?

DNA testing for Dogs

Rascal's mom looked like Lassie. And his dad? Well, that's a good question. Rascal's ears make it clear that he was the product of something besides a collie, but his owners couldn't say exactly what. So Kathie Svoboda of Lincoln dabbed a swab in her pet's mouth, mailed it to a lab and, a few weeks later, unlocked the mutt's canine heritage.

Collie and cocker spaniel, as suspected, along with a twist -- Shetland sheepdog.

Only disappointment is that the article began with an attempt to tie "Rascal" to a famous ancestor. That's so not what dog genealogy is all about.

And as some people argue, enough generations have passed, and every dog is related to Lassie in some fashion. (Every Collie?)

Canadian Manifests

Discovered this resource today. If you have any ancestors who arrived in Canada by ship:

From the Canadian Archives Passenger lists 1865-1922

You can search by: Name of Ship, Year of Arrival, Port of Arrival, Shipping Line, Port of Departure, Date of Departure, and Date of Arrival.

Once you find a particular manifest, it's not indexed by names, so you will have to read the images carefully to find your ancestor. And personally, I'd like the ability to enlarge the images a little. (Yeah, I know, magnifying glasses are cheap at the local store, but I'm talking about a key I can press...^*)

I know my great-grandfather Barney, and his father Samuel, should appear on the manifest for the SS Tunisian in May of 1904. At least when they crossed over into the US in 1907, that's the information that was provided for their arrival in Canada. The fact that it does match up to a real ship is hopeful, but my first reading of the 36 pages of names hasn't been successful.

Other databases at the Canadian Archives:

including immigration records from 1925-1935 which are indexed by name.

You can also search all their genealogical databases at once. And the search engine has the feature where as you type, it displays all the results for what you have typed so far. This didn't help me with my Newmark ancestors since they didn't stay in Canada long enough, but my Loyalist ancestors who skedaddled North after The Revolution ended are there.

^*Update: I haven't looked at the 'world' in 800x600 for a few years, I briefly forgot I could, but that does help. They still aren't there, and I doubt 640*480 will make them appear suddenly. Now I have to figure out why they aren't.

Carnival of Genealogy #33

The 33rd Carnival of Genealogy has been posted. I haven't read all of the wedding stories yet, but those which I have have been enjoyable. The 34th carnival will be on the theme of Halloween and the supernatural.

...stories of haunted houses, ghosts, any superstitions, voodoo, stories of Halloween parties or traditions, trick or treating, good luck charms, curses, ... Bring on your hauntings and horror stories, humorous and happy ones as well...

One idea in mind already, in preparation, I have spent about an hour tonight transcribing ten minutes from an audio tape. It was my first experience doing this. Recently on the Family Oral History blog, I read a 6-1 ratio is about average for transcription, so I feel pretty good about my skills. It's not really a Halloween story, but it is set in Transylvania, and has many of the trappings of a true horror story, so it might work. We shall see. At the very least, I've had transcribing this excerpt on my to-do list for awhile, and transcription is a good activity during Family History Month.

Family History Month

According to the 24/7 Family History Circle it's Family History Month, and they're going to post 5 questions each week on a weekly topic. They'll provide 5 default questions, but one can make up their own. There's also a good article on how to get beyond the fear of the blank page.

The five questions for the first week are on the topic: "School Memories" and since my 20th high school reunion was this past weekend, they seem very appropriate. I thought I'd post my answers.

• What was your favorite subject in school?

There's no question my favorite subject was English. (Well, second to Lunch) Ever since my first grade teacher challenged the class to read as many books as we possibly could in one year. She insisted we weren't competing against anyone but ourselves, but somehow I learned that a girl who lived across the street had set the 'all time record' a few years before. She no longer had it at the end of the year, and I haven't stopped reading. (Though my pace has slowed down a little.) The school was closed, and the teacher retired, four years later, so my record will stand forever on a technicality.

• In what extra-curricular activities did you participate? Sports? Drama? Music? Academics?

CrossX Debate, Original Oratory, Student Newspaper, and the Student Teacher Organization to Prevent (STOP) Nuclear War.

• Did you go on field trips, and if so, what was your most memorable field trip?

In Junior High School there was a field trip to Nauvoo, IL, which is a 3 hour drive from St. Louis. I went to a public school, so this wasn't meant as religious instruction. However, we did learn about the history of Nauvoo, and Joseph Smith. A tourguide at Nauvoo gave everyone a copy of the Book of Mormon to take home, but I don't believe I ever read it. I think if the school did this today, there'd probably be complaints, but I didn't feel at all preached to. It was presented as a field trip where we could learn the history of a nearby town.

• What teacher influenced you the most?

I'd have to say my first grade teacher, Mrs. Jones, - with that reading challenge.

• Did you buy a lunch at school, or bring one from home? What kind of lunchbox? What was your favorite lunch?

I almost always bought a lunch at school. I always looked forward to pizza.

Friday Five

There's a message hidden in the five names below from various census.
The message reveals what my plans for this weekend include.

Twenty Orton - 1900 census - Iron, UT - age 5
Year Smith - 1881 census - Middlesex, England - age 4
High Fields - 1860 census - Russell, AL - age 18
School Boy - 1930 census - El Paso, TX - age 28
Reunion Jones - 1930 census - Wetzel, WV - age 7

August 31, 1902

On August 31, 1902, my great great grandparents, Samuel and Rose, along with their children Barney, Nellie, Bella, Max, Katie and Cissie, were gathered in the Great Synagogue in London to watch their son and brother, Sol, get married to Sarah Nathan.

There is some speculation there, in that I assume the whole family was in attendance. The youngest child at that time, Cissie, would have been six years old. This was almost 3 years after the Dreyfus protests I mentioned in an earlier post, which I also suspect several of them were at, though perhaps not the younger children. However, they lived 4.5 miles from the synagogue, so they couldn't have walked. They were close to the Oxford Circus Railway Station, though, which opened in July of 1900.

Above is a picture of the Great Synagogue in 1809. [source] It had been built in 1790, and from what I have read, it was basically the same structure in 1902. It no longer stands today, as in May of 1941, it would be completely destroyed by the German bombing.

Trying to find out as much as I could about the wedding, I looked up the names of the individuals who signed as witnesses on the Marriage record (see top of post). One of them, IL Defries, appears a few times in the Birth, Marriage, Death notices of the London Jewish Chronicle from 1890-1895, but beyond that, I know nothing about him. Two of them -- Marcus Hast and Samuel Gordon -- are mentioned in the final chapter of The History of the Great Synagogue by Cecil Roth (see link preceding the picture of the ruins).

Marcus Hast was the Hazzan (Cantor) at the Great Synagogue from 1872-1911.

“Apart from his great vocal qualities and deep piety, he deserved well of his community by reason of his monumental work, Avodath haKodesh, in which the musical traditions of the Great Synagogue were set down for all time. In 1888 Abraham Elijah Gordon (father of Samuel Gordon the novelist, who was at one time Secretary of the Congregation) joined him on the Almemor as Second Reader--an office which he continued to occupy with success until his retirement in 1919.”

Some people might wonder, "Why didn't the Rabbi sign it?" The Rabbi might not have been there. Traditionally the role of the Rabbi is as a teacher and judge/arbitrator for disputes in the community. The individual who normally led the worship services, and performed the marriages, was known as "Reader", and it was a role the Hazzan often filled. This began to change in the 19th century, but it appears the Great Synagogue still followed the traditional roles.

The scores of Hast's compositions are available for download, and there is a section devoted to wedding music, so the music that was likely played at the ceremony could be duplicated. Hast was born in Praga and was Hazzan in Warsaw before coming to England. The Newmarks also came from Warsaw, though Hast left about 20 years before they did. Still, it is possible Sol's parents, Samuel and Rose, heard Hast in Poland when they were children.

As I mentioned back in June, despite Sol not being my direct ancestor, this wedding originally piqued my interest because of Sol's wife, Sarah. The clerk who entered their marriage made an error in the name of the father of the bride. It says "Nathan Nathan." The clerk must have assumed that the father would have the same surname as the bride, and failed to ask. But Sarah was following the old tradition of using her father's given name as her surname. While that was my original interest, the more I researched, the more I discovered.

[this is an entry for the 33rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy]

Null set

Family lore had my great-great-grandmother's maiden name as Rose Garten. I always cringed and shook my head, wondering if that could be true. Everyone knows there are real Rose Gartens out there, and other silly names, but still, I didn't want my ancestor to have to have suffered through that.

When I discovered her death certificate, and with her son, my great-grandfather, as informant, learned her name had been Sundberg, I smiled in relief.

Another son's birth certificate just arrived from London, and as she was the informant in this case. that narrows down any variances to clerical error, which is usually limited to spelling. Turns our her maiden name was Sandgart. A nice compromise between Sundberg and Garten.

Unfortunately, there are no records on Ancestry or FamilySearch of anyone ever having that surname. Anywhere. Anywhen. I plugged the word into Google, and it was a 1-word Googlewhack.

Sure, if I spell it Sandgaard, or Sundgart, I come up with some peeps from Denmark or Sweden, but somehow she had to meet her husband in Warsaw. I ask myself...Did the Danes ever invade Poland? Turns out, not to my knowledge, but there was a series of wars between Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Russia . Hmmmmm.

(JewishGen suggests Cantkert, which is still a null set on both Ancestry and Familysearch, but there are a handful in the Polish database. Since a Polish 'C' is pronounced 'Ts', that's actually pretty close.)