Author: Dan

04 Sep

Posted at 11:12h in Newsletter

OLD BONES FOR FERTILIZER? In the 1700's Europe's fields were becoming exhausted. The solution became to use the bones of dead soldiers amongst others to fertilize the fields. Fortunately, a replacement fertilizer was found in the Chincha Islands off of Peru in the form of Guano, 150 feet deep. In November 1802, Prussian geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt first encountered guano and began investigating its fertilizing properties at Callao in Peru, and his subsequent writings on this topic made the subject well known in Europe. As many as 160 ships at a time were anchored off the islands while the "hard to recruit" guano...

21 Aug

Posted at 18:27h in Newsletter

What would Ben do? The article above is from 1724 Edinburgh, Scotland. It speaks to the beginnings of inoculation. I have included articles below from early London and 1869 New York City, showing that in the past there has been people on both sides of the discussion of to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. Lots of the wisdom we have heard since school days came from Ben Franklin. One of his many interests was public health. Here is some interesting perspective from Ben's early days dealing with smallpox: https://www.firstpost.com/living/how-benjamin-franklin-championed-science-to-a-colonial-america-divided-over-smallpox-inoculation-9783321.html         Doug's relatives thought brevity made the point better than a long exhaustive obituary. So, if...

07 Aug

Posted at 19:02h in Newsletter

What makes a sport or game Olympic? Over the years, sports and games (as in Olympic games), have been added and removed. While all events involved competition, they often involved activities that the host country might have an advantage of.  In 1912, the IOC removed motorboating since it was not human-powered, which became another definition of an Olympic sport. From 1912 to 1948, they had Olympic Art medals, where you could enter your Olympic-themed artwork. The idea of the artworks being medal-worthy came from Baron Pierre de Coubertin (see his name on the left). Coincidentally he won an award for a poem...

29 Jul

Posted at 12:20h in Newsletter

The article above is from 1915. Haiti has had 59 presidents since it's founding in 1804.. Other than the 3 presidents who served under U.S. occupation only 9 of those 59 served full terms in office. The other 50 were overthrown, executed, died in office, committed suicide and various other factors that prematurely ended their terms. Fourteen living descendants of Leonardo da Vinci are identified Let Dancestors find out who the geniuses are in your family tree! https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/fourteen-living-descendants-leonardo-da-vinci-are-identified-rcna1402?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm   The Rayburn Story (the name changed for privacy purposes). We recently had an inquiry for someone looking for their suspected biological father. They thought the name might...

12 Jul

Posted at 10:49h in Newsletter

The ratification of the US Constitution in 1790, was celebrated in a similar fashion as a day of Independence On May 4, 1776, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and it was the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, doing so on February 9, 1778. The state boycotted the 1787 convention, which drew up the United States Constitution and initially refused to ratify it, it was the last of the original 13 states to do so, on May 29, 1790.             NEW GIFT ITEMS...

26 Jun

Posted at 11:18h in Newsletter

JUNETEENTH The Galveston article above contains the exact order given by Major General Granger, that we now celebrate as Juneteenth. The article to the left had appeared in Columbia, SC, a few days earlier and is similar. The exhortations in the orders are, in essence, saying, you are free and equal now. The military can no longer support you in our camps. You need to figure out a way to make a living, improve yourself and your family, and be a good citizen.   NEW GIFT ITEMS ON OUR WEBSITE! Please visit our website: www.dancestorsgenealogy.com and click on the Shop tab, and you can view our...

12 Jun

Posted at 09:37h in Newsletter

A count of families in the fifteen slave-holding states in 1860: ▪ 73,230 members of families holding 50 or more slaves or 1% ▪ 986,895 members of families holding 5 - 49 slaves or 12% ▪ 931,280 members of families holding 1 - 4 slaves or 11% ▪ 6,120,825 non-slaveholding whites or 75% I would not have guessed that 75% of "southern families in 1860" were not slaveholders. The Man Who Inspired Father’s Day Was a Single Dad and a Civil War Vet written by John D. Trausch Father’s Day is a relatively new holiday, having only become “official” in 1972. But its origins go back to a...

29 May

Posted at 18:19h in Newsletter

Memorial Day, initially referred to as Decoration Day, was observed by many communities after the Civil War, when the nation suffered more than 620,000 military deaths, roughly 2 percent of the total population at the time. John A. Logan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of Republic, chose May 30, 1868, to be the day to decorate the graves of Union troops across the nation. From this beginning, Memorial Day is now designated as an annual day of remembrance to honor all those who have died in service to the United States during peace and war. Veterans Day, November 11,...

15 May

Posted at 15:13h in Newsletter

How long before your kids start talking about DNA? They think it stands for "Dan Nelson's Ancestry," but here is a resource if you want to set them straight: https://owlcation.com/academia/explaining-dna-to-a-six-year-old Vaccines a gift or curse- the arguments come around every time. During the World Wars, you had the British citizens fearing the risk of bringing in unvaccinated refugees (below) and Belgian citizens fearing the German-provided vaccines were poison (right). It seems that medical fitness was of concern to the authorities dealing with the arrivals from Belgium, not just those refugees who had been wounded in the fighting. At an early volunteer meeting for this...

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