Author: Dan

27 Nov

Posted at 11:06h in Newsletter

CAMP DAVID ACCORDS THERE HAS BEEN 35 YEARS OF PEACE IN ONE PART OF THE MIDDLE EAST We recently visited the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, and refamiliarized ourselves with the Camp David Accords which were negotiated while we were in college. With all of the troubles in the Middle East, I was struck by the fact that since the 1978 accords, not one Egyptian or Israeli has died fighting each other in war. Here’s a summary of the Camp David Accords-: They were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17...

05 Nov

Posted at 14:26h in Newsletter

GENEALOGISTS- WHY DIDN'T GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPA MARRY UNTIL HE WAS 44? A client was curious about where their immigrant ancestor, Robert Devard, had come from in England. To answer him, as a genealogist I returned to where he was first found in the client’s records in America, in Mobile, AL, in 1860. I noticed children next door with his Devard last name, with an Emile Langdoc, and that they were recorded as mulattoes. So, were these children related to him, and if so, how? I finally found him indexed incorrectly and living next door to Emile in 1850, with the same children, but now...

22 Oct

Posted at 12:04h in Newsletter

GENEALOGY- THE OTHER JOHN ADAMS John Adams (February 1, 1745 [O.S. January 21, 1744] - March 26, 1849), not to be confused with President Adams, on his 100th birthday in Ashburnham, making him possibly the earliest-born person photographed. He was a shoemaker and veteran of the American Revolution. The picture is a photographic copy of the original daguerreotype in the possession of the Susquehanna County Historical Society. John Adams was born on February 1, 1745 [O.S. January 21, 1744] in Worcester, then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Captain Thomas Adams and Lydia Chadwick. He moved to Ashburnham, Massachusetts in...

07 Oct

Posted at 17:45h in Newsletter

    SITTING IN A TRAFFIC JAM ON PRESTON ROAD IN DALLAS, AND THOUGHT ABOUT MY FAMILY TREE AND MY GG GRANDFATHER'S BEING ON THE ROAD 152 YEARS EARLIER From his diary, that I referenced in the last newsletter: January 19, 1871- Leave the Brazos opposite Kimball for Kansas, camp on Nolin 9 miles. January 20, 1871- Camp on Buffalo one mile east of Cleburne, 11 miles from our old camp. January 21, 1871- Pass through the cross timbers & camp on the black land one mile from Alvarado on Cedar Mill Road, a distance of 12 miles. January 22, 1871- Pass over a gently rolling prairie;...

21 Sep

Posted at 16:27h in Newsletter

ANCESTORS- THE DOLLHOUSE FROM THE MANSION We recently visited the National Toy and Miniatures Museum in Kansas City. When we came across the “Coleman Dollhouse” (see picture above), a sign explained that the Dollhouse was built for the Coleman family, whose patriarch was a coal mine owner. They lived in a mansion called the Homestead in Lebanon. The museum knew nothing more about the Colemans. I wondered if this unnamed Coleman was related to Robert Coleman (see picture below left), to whom my son-in-law’s ancestors, the Grubbs, eventually sold their coal interests over time. See the attached article for more information- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grubb_Family_Iron_Dynasty I...

08 Sep

Posted at 13:01h in Newsletter

GENEALOGY- WAS DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ANOTHER SWEENEY TODD? We visited Ben Franklin's house in London, as I am working on a Franklin genealogy. The only residence of his that is still remaining. It is worth the visit. When the Friends of Ben Franklin House, started the restoration, the workmen discovered the bones of ten people buried onsite. After wondering about what Old Ben might have been up to we found about another tenant in the house. William Hewson (pictured above) was elected to the American Philosophical Society, awarded the Copley Medal in 1769, and was elected to the Royal Society in 1770. His significant contribution...

27 Aug

Posted at 14:08h in Newsletter

GENEALOGIST- HENRY ALEXANDER CLIMBED THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE U.K IN A CAR They commemorated a statue in Fort William in 2018. Here's the article from 1911 ascent.       GENEALOGIST- FLORA MACDONALD'S HEADSTONE ON THE ISLE OF SKYE Flora MacDonald (1722 - 5 March 1790) was a member of Clan Macdonald of Sleat. MacDonald was visiting Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides when Prince Charles and a small group of aides took refuge there after the Battle of Culloden in June 1746. One of his companions, Captain Conn O'Neill from County Antrim, was distantly related to MacDonald and asked for her help. MacDonald of Sleat...

13 Aug

Posted at 13:08h in Newsletter

    CONTINUING WITH THE HERITAGE OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION AND THE CONSTITUTION Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American statesman, lawyer, and Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. He also signed the 1774 Petition to the King. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Sherman established a legal career in Litchfield County, Connecticut, despite a lack of formal education. After a period in the Connecticut House of Representatives,...

29 Jul

Posted at 10:21h in Newsletter

GENEALOGY- SEVEN GENERATIONS OF OF A PREHISTORIC FAMILY MAPPED WITH ANCIENT DNA An adult man buried some 6,000 years ago in what is now France was the son of the man from whom dozens of people also buried at the site are descended. In the mid-2000s, archaeologists excavating a burial site in France uncovered a 6,500-year-old mystery. Among the remains of more than 120 individuals, one grave stood out. It contained a nearly complete female skeleton alongside a few assorted bones that looked like they had been dug up and moved from another grave. Ancient DNA from the enigmatic relocated remains shows that...

08 Jul

Posted at 14:01h in Newsletter

LEGACY- JEWISH REFUGEES IN SHANGHAI One of our clients shared a story about her husband’s ancestors fleeing Nazi Germany by going to Shanghai. She had a small book listing all of the refugees. I had to look up that story. An estimated 17,000 German and Austrian Jews first trickled into Shanghai after the beginning of Nazi persecution of Jews in 1933, and then, following the 1938 violence of Kristallnacht streamed in like a flood. These early refugees usually immigrated to Shanghai as families. Stripped of most of their assets before fleeing the Reich, these thousands of refugees swarmed into Hongkew because they...

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