Author: Dan

29 Jun

Posted at 23:35h in Newsletter

HAVE YOU EVER GONE CEMETERY HUNTING? Yes, it is part of Genealogy. I had come across a comment in an old newsletter saying that my 3rd Great-Grandfather, Gilbreath Falls Neill, was buried in the Neill Cemetery across the railroad tracks in Beech Bluff, TN. So, in about 2013, I was in Jackson, TN, for business, and I drove down to Beech Bluff. I checked around and asked some folks about the cemetery, and I was referred to old cemeteries, but no one seemed to know about a cemetery near the tracks, which were long gone, and there was just a railbed. I went...

15 Jun

Posted at 10:32h in Newsletter

THE ROSE OF LONG ISLAND AND HER HERITAGE Julia Gardiner was the daughter of David Gardiner, a landowner and New York State senator (1824–1828), and Juliana MacLachlan Gardiner. The Gardiners had a prestigious heritage, were a wealthy and influential family, and she was taught to value social class and advantageous marriages. She was educated at home until she was 16 years old. Julia then attended the Chagaray Institute in New York, where she studied music, French literature, ancient history, arithmetic, and composition. She was raised as a Presbyterian. As a young woman, Gardiner was a budding socialite who closely followed fashion trends and courted...

04 Jun

Posted at 13:34h in Newsletter

COULD YOU GET A PENSION FOR YOUR DESCENDANTS IF YOU HAD A JOB WITH NO SALARY? The answer is yes if you are a former First Lady. The president's wife receives no salary, but they can receive a pension. I became aware of first ladies' pensions when we visited Sherwood Forest. The former first lady Julia Gardiner Tyler, known as the "Rose of Long Island", at 22, married 52-year-old President John Tyler as his second wife and was the first to broach the subject. Tyler served as president from 1841-1845. Julia was known as a grand hostess in the Washington social scene....

18 May

Posted at 14:47h in Newsletter

ANCESTRY- THE HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRE Ancestry, The Hollywood Vampire. The Richmond Vampire (locally called the Hollywood Vampire) is a recent urban legend from Richmond, Virginia. Richmond residents claim that the mausoleum of W. W. Pool (Dated 1913) in Hollywood Cemetery holds the remains of a vampire. Supposedly, Pool was run out of England in the 19th century for being a vampire. Oral legends to this effect were circulating by the 1960s. They may be influenced by the tomb's architecture, which has Masonic and ancient Egyptian elements, and double W's look like fangs. Because this cemetery is adjacent to Virginia Commonwealth University, the...

04 May

Posted at 21:42h in Newsletter

  5 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN IRELAND. THERE ARE 39 MILLION AMERICANS OF IRISH DESCENT WHO ARE INTERESTED IN GENEALOGY You can imagine the demand to discover Irish records for genealogy purposes; however, Ireland is one of the most challenging first-world countries to find information. Here is one of the reasons why and how it may get easier. In June 1922, the opening battle of Ireland's civil war destroyed one of Europe's great archives in a historic calamity that reduced seven centuries of documents and manuscripts to ash and dust. Once the envy of scholars worldwide, the Public Record Office at the Four Courts...

20 Apr

Posted at 15:09h in Newsletter

BEFORE THERE WAS WOKE THERE WAS WIDE AWAKE, ARE THEY PART OF YOUR ROOTS? The Wide Awakes were a youth organization and later a paramilitary organization cultivated by the Republican Party during the 1860 presidential election in the United States. The organization introduced many to political participation through popular social events, an ethos of competitive fraternity, and even promotional comic books. It proclaimed itself as the newfound voice of younger voters. The structured militant Wide Awakes appealed to a generation profoundly shaken by the partisan instability in the 1850s, offering young northerners a much-needed political identity. In early March 1860, Abraham Lincoln...

07 Apr

Posted at 11:29h in Newsletter

THE GRAYBEARDS OF THE CIVIL WAR In the last edition I mentioned from my family tree, my three- times Great Grandfather, John Van Vliet (pictured) of Brighton, Iowa, enlisted on December 27, 1862, at age 58 in Company H, 37th Iowa Infantry Regiment. The unit was the Graybeard's regiment, as you had to be 45 or older to serve. They mostly guarded prisoners and such. By enlisting in 1862, he would have left behind his 13-year-old son, my Great-Great Grandfather Luther. When Luther enlisted at age 16, he was a resident of Davenport, Iowa. On July 13, 1864, in Memphis, TN, John was...

23 Mar

Posted at 10:34h in Newsletter

THE 14TH AMENDMENT, THE SOUTHERN CLAIMS COMMISSION, AND GENEALOGY We’ve heard much lately about the 14th amendment and the barring of insurrection officers from serving in the government. It made me take another look at my southern ancestors whose attempts to rejoin the United States as citizens in good standing were well-documented by the Southern Claims Commission. The Southern Claims Commission (SCC) was an organization of the executive branch of the United States government from 1871 to 1880, created under President Ulysses S. Grant. Its purpose was to allow Union sympathizers who had lived in the Southern states during the American Civil...

09 Mar

Posted at 11:17h in Newsletter

GENEALOGISTS VISITED THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS MUSEUM NEW YORK – February 25, 1983- Tennessee Williams' younger brother said Friday he believed the famed playwright had returned to a life of drugs just months before he died. Reached by telephone in Collinsville, Ill., shortly after his brother died in a Manhattan hotel suite, Dakin Williams, 64, told UPI Tennessee Williams' health and stamina have been going downhill for the past three months.' Dakin Williams, whose relationship with his brother had been strained for years, offered no proof that the playwright had returned to narcotics but volunteered his suspicions. 'I think he'd gone back on drugs. His...

24 Feb

Posted at 11:44h in Newsletter

AMAZING: THE SOCIETY OF PRESIDENTIAL DESCENDANTS This past week, we had the opportunity to watch a panel of Presidential Descendants at the Truman Little White House in Key West. Left to Right above are Kurt Graham, Moderator and Director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum; Clifton Daniel, Harry Truman's grandson; James Earl Carter IV, Jimmy Carter's grandson; Patricia Taft, William Taft's Great Granddaughter and the Granddaughter of Senator Robert Taft; Mary Jean Eisenhower, Dwight Eisenhower's Granddaughter, and Massee McKinley, William McKinley's Great-Great Nephew. It was interesting as there were descendants of two Republicans and three Democrats (the third Republican,...

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