Newsletter

11 Feb

Posted at 17:40h in Newsletter

ANCESTORS- DURING WWI, A GERMAN OFFICER TRIES TO BLOW UP A BRIDGE AT THE U.S.-CANADIAN BORDER AND IS SENTENCED TO ONLY 30 DAYS IN JAIL Ancestors ask about the railroad bridge over the St Croix River between Vanceboro, Maine and McAdam, New Brunswick, was an essential link on the Grand Trunk railroad, which fed war materials from Canada and the United States to the port of St. John, New Brunswick. The bridge had been unguarded on the night of the attempt, even though experts say the destruction of the bridge would have seriously reduced the usefulness of the Port of St....

27 Jan

Posted at 11:39h in Newsletter

THE SUTTON-TAYLOR FEUD AND YOUR GENEALOGY The Sutton–Taylor feud arose from a growing animosity between the Texas Taylor family—headed by Pitkin Taylor, the brother of Creed Taylor (a Texas Ranger)—and local lawman William E. Sutton, who moved to DeWitt along with his mother when she married a man named William McDonald. Before the feud began, Sutton had been elected deputy sheriff in Clinton, Texas. The feud lasted almost a decade and has been called "...

14 Jan

Posted at 14:55h in Newsletter

MY UNCLE, A DEVELOPER, AND A HOBBY GENLEALOGIST TOLD ME THAT, GENERALLY, THE NORTHWEST PART OF CITIES WAS THE NICEST He said that was because the prevailing winds blow from northwest to southeast in North America, barring barriers like mountains. So, the bad smells of the affluent and the less all ended up in the southeast. By 1894, the 15 to 30 pounds of manure produced daily by each beast multiplied by the 150,000+ horses in New York City resulted in more than three million pounds of horse manure per day that somehow needed to be disposed of. That’s not to mention...

30 Dec

Posted at 17:54h in Newsletter

ANCESTORS OF THE WHITE HOUSE BABY Esther Cleveland was born on September 9, 1893, in the White House, to the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, and First Lady Frances Folsom. She remains the only child of a president to have been born there and was nicknamed "the White House baby" as a result. In April 1896, she contracted measles when it spread through the White House, leading to a quarantine. Five years later, she contracted diphtheria. She made her debut in 1912 and was rumored to be engaged to Randolph D. West shortly after (which was denied by her relatives). On March...

16 Dec

Posted at 17:29h in Newsletter

WHY TEXAS HAS A SUNSET RED OR PINK COLORED STATE CAPITOL Our ancestors might know, but we decided it was time to visit the capitol of our adopted state to get the answer. Construction of the Italian Renaissance Revival–style capitol was funded by an article of the state constitution, adopted on February 15, 1876, which authorized the sale of public lands to pay for the capital. In one of the largest barter transactions of recorded history, the builders of the capitol (John V. Farwell and Charles B. Farwell), known as the Capitol Syndicate, were paid with more than three million acres of public...

02 Dec

Posted at 11:26h in Newsletter

DEJAVU AMONGST GENEALOGISTS AT THE BALLOT BOX If our next presidential election were to be held today, we would have the same major party choices as last time. I was curious how many times that has happened in the past that has occurred: In 1789 and 1792, George Washington beat John Adams. However, before the 12th amendment, it was a forced rank election, and the consolation prize for the loser was becoming the Vice President. Of course Adams later went on to become president in his own right. The next time was in 1824 when John Quincy Adams beat Andrew Jackson. Four years...

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;...

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