family tree Tag

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,...

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...

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