Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 12 July 2016.
I’m at NARA waiting for my military record pulls so I’m taking a break to blog. Read an interesting article about a way that World War I soldiers participating in the Battle of the Sonne that began on 1 July 1916 were recently memorialized throughout Great Britain recently as reported in The Guardian. Regarded as the largest battle of WWI, between 1 July and 18 November 1916, it was actually a number of battles in three phases. Best said by Friedrich Steinbrecher, a German officer, “Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word” casualties were high on all sides; estimates of 485,000 British and French and 630,000 German soldiers was made at the Chantilly Conference on 15 November 1916. But the war continued….
Please read the moving way that these lost lives were memorialized.
Hoping to make it home tonight. Can’t wait too share my latest research finds.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 26 June 2014
I’ve been following the interesting series of articles published by the New York Times and Washington Post regarding Georgetown University’s history of selling slaves to keep the school financially solvent.
Finding records in the old south is often difficult but for the former enslaved, it is even more so. The links to the three articles below provide helpful hints on how to identify the paper trail:
Of course, the articles were not written to help newbie genealogists learn how to discover records of enslaved individuals. Besides discussing reparations, they highlight the emotions that families experience when a discovery of unsavory findings from the past is brought to light and the journey the families face as they move forward with the knowledge gained. As I’ve previously written, the process is similar to how one deals with grief and loss in the present.
The Georgetown slave story, however, adds another layer of acceptance; that of reconciliation with one’s religious convictions. From a social science perspective, I find it fascinating how the descendants are processing the information that their current religion’s forefathers treated their kin, especially knowing that the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s.
I applaud the formation of the Georgetown Memory Foundation which as part of its mission, is to memorialize the event. Remembering history is a wonderful way to make it right.
While the Georgetown University administration tries to identify ways to right a wrong they have overlooked another story from their past. Father Patrick Francis Healy was the university’s 29th president tasked with its growth shortly after the Civil War. He was quite successful and much beloved. Fr. Healy’s ancestry makes his tenure even more remarkable then his legacy. Born in Georgia to an Irish Roman Catholic father and a mulatto slave owned by his grandfather, Patrick Francis and his siblings were born into slavery. Healy’s parents wanted their children to be educated which was illegal since they were slaves. The family sent Patrick to a Quaker school in the north, however, he faced discrimination not for being a mulatto but for being Irish Catholic. During this time, his grandfather and father continued to own slaves, another strike held against him by the Quaker school. Patrick transferred to a Jesuit owned school in Massachusetts. He joined the priesthood and went on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy at a Catholic university in Belgium. He achieved this during the time his mother remained enslaved.
The interaction of race, creed and national origin have complicated our country’s history and continues to do so today. As genealogists, it is wise for us to remember the complexities as we help those who have newly discovered information gain acceptance.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 12 Jun 2016.
After picking up all the soggy Spanish moss in my yard after Tropical Storm Colin I started thinking about mosquito epidemics. Well, this was how my thought process ended up on disease caused by skeeters:
1.”I hate Spanish moss because it’s everywhere after a storm”
2. It can be useful. The early settlers used it for comfort by stuffing their mattresses with it and if you’re lacking water in the woods, you can suck on the inside.”
“Chiggers – I hope there’s no chiggers in this stuff cause I’ve feeling itchy!”
“OMG, I just got bit and I hope it was a chigger and not a mosquito!”
All that rain has produced a bumper crop of mosquitoes in my area. I tend to use natural products so I’ve been dowsing myself with Skin So Soft even though I hate the smell of it.
I don’t know if Zika is causing concern in your area like it is here; the Avon lady told me she completely sold out of Skin So Soft the week before my purchase. Understandable, as even the state of Florida website has a post that would make anyone not want to live here:
“Mosquito-borne diseases found in Florida include West Nile virus disease, Eastern equine encephalitis, and St. Louis encephalitis. Many other mosquito-borne diseases are found in different parts of the world, and can be brought back to Florida if infected people or animals are bitten by mosquitoes while in Florida. Some examples of these diseases include chikungunya fever, dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, and Rift Valley fever.”1
Notice how Zika isn’t even mentioned. With 15 reported cases in my county I think it should be included! So that’s how my mind started thinking about epidemics back in the day.
What did people do when there was no products to repel critters? I decided to investigate…
When a major yellow fever epidemic hit Tampa in the 1880’s, a well meaning Jacksonville doctor recommended that everyone leave town as he thought poor sanitation was the cause. Calling the people of Tampa dirty caused a backlash in the press and his response below explains his scientific rationale:
2
I guess the good doctor should have been more specific as to where those fleeing the epidemic should go as this shows how they were greeted in New York:
3
Man’s inhumanity to man; labeled refugees and turned away. Hmm, how history repeats itself!
The state government had no idea how to contain the spread so they returned to what worked in the middle ages – burn the property of anyone infected:
4
The belief in fumigation lasted well into the 20th century. A Leininger cousin of mine was the inventor of this device:
You read that right! Dr. George Leininger Chemical Company of Chicago manufactured a Formaldehyde Generator to disinfect the sick room. I guess if the disease didn’t kill you, the chemicals would! Seriously, my son the chemical engineer almost had a heart attack when I purchased this on E-bay. I have no plans to use it. I just thought it fit perfectly in our den with our other family treasures.
Back to the Tampa epidemic – what I learned was that there was NOTHING available to the population to prevent the spread of the mosquito born disease.
Florida has always been swampy yet it was settled by Native Americans long before the Spanish arrived. How did they repel the critters?
I found lots of theories but no proof. Some say citronella was used but that is not native to Florida. Southern bayberry, paw paw, bracken fern or cedar have been recommended but I find nothing to link them to Native Americans usage as an insect repellent. Personally, I’m doubting that any of those plants were effective as I have a side yard filled with bracken fern and the mosquitoes seem to be worse there in the shade than in the more open spaced parts of my yard. We have cedars around, too, so that’s not helpful. I’ve never seen a bayberry or paw paw. My neighborhood is filled with old oaks so perhaps they grew here more than 150 years ago.
The Washington Post mentioned that burning sweet grass, which does grow throughout Florida, was effective.5 I don’t believe Native Americans walked around holding burning grass all day and night, though.
Some have suggested diet, while others say lung capacity discharging carbon dioxide differed. I have no idea but I’d love to know the lost secret because this is going to be a long itchy summer!
My son built this handy dandy mosquito trap for us:
It won’t kill adult skeeters but it does kills the larva, if the standing water on the top is drained through the middle level (an old pillow case). The water drips through the middle layer into the bucket, the larva die on the pillow case (or lizards and birds come and have a delightful treat). The bucket water is then placed back into the top to start the process all over again. Does it work? Yes, if you faithfully drain. No, if the weather is so awful outside that you can’t do it. It also doesn’t kill mosquitoes that fly in from other areas, like the park that has standing water in low spots. Going to keep using it though, as every little bit helps.
Now I’m going back to hunting ancestors and not skeeters. That’s much safer.
2 John P. Wall “As to Yellow Fever” Florida Times-Union.
3. Frank Leslie, “Refugees from areas with yellow fever are not allowed to leave the trains, for fear of spreading disease,” Illustrated Newspaper, 8 September 1888,
4 Letter from J.J. Daniel, President, Jacksonville Auxiliary Sanitation Association to Dr. Porter, 17 October 1888.
5Wilborn P. Nobles III “Research confirms Native American use of Sweetgrass as a Bug Repellent” Washington Post, 18 Aug 2015.
My thanks to the Florida Memory Project where a lot of this information was found – you can read more records there regarding the Yellow Fever scare in Florida.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 2 March 2016.
I’ve been reading through the diaries that were sent to me from Indiana and I’ve found a few surprises about life in the late 1800’s. Here are 10 wagon facts I never thought about:
You had to wash your wagon
When you purchased a new wagon you traded in your old wagon, like we do today with our cars
Wagons broke down ALOT! Poor road conditions, skittish horses and driver error contributed to the break downs.
You were responsible for the cost of damages caused by your runaway horse and wagon
There were ALOT of serious accidents around wagons – falling out of, getting run over by, getting injured by overhanging tree limbs, etc.
When your wagon needed repairs someone would come to you but it was much more expensive than if you somehow got the wagon to the wagon shop to be repaired.
Depending on the repair needed, it could take a few hours or several days to get the part
Wheels fell off wagons frequently
If you were going to take a train you hired a livery person to pick you up and take you home, unless you had relatives to help you out.
Family members borrowed each other’s wagons for various jobs that needed to be accomplished
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 28 Jan 2016.
Last week I took an interesting webinar called Your Ancestor Was…Occupations of our Ancestors by Nancy Waters Lauer through the Florida State Genealogical Society. I had never heard of many of the occupations the presenter mentioned. Have you ever heard of a brightsmith? It’s a metal worker. How about a bluestocking? That was a female writer.
I guess this topic was in the back of my mind as I continue to work on my Kinship Determination Project for my Certified Genealogist portfolio this week.
Guess what century I’m working on based on the “hot” jobs of the individuals I’m writing about:
Blacksmith
Wagon Maker
Farmer
If you speculated it was the 19th Century you are correct!
Funny, but I did an Interest Inventory with my students recently and I found many scored high in the areas of Transportation and Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources. I doubt any of my students will turn out to be blacksmiths or wagon makers but the allure of travel and the interest in food production definitely continues in this century. The more the world changes the more it stays the same!
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 22 Oct 2015.
As we approach Halloween, I’m thinking about the weird and unexplained that happens in the world of genealogy. I’ve had several strange situations occur which I’ll be sharing over the next few posts.
Since I know I’m not alone I wanted to share with you some coincidences I’ve discovered in the past few weeks written by other genealogists.
The first was from Crestleaf.com – if you don’t subscribe to their free email newsletter you really need to as it’s filled with useful posts. In their September recap there’s a link to their interesting finds for the month and one written by Vicki Noels-Cornish, The Ginger Genie, who shares a serendipitous find. Click on Crestleaf to read about it.
Don’t know if you saw the History Channel show last year about the violin that was discovered to belong to one of those who perished on the Titanic. I’m not a big Titanic fan but I loved how the show followed the trail to discover that the violin was in fact one used on the ship. I was astounded to read the rest of the story – recently posted by the Daily Mail in the UK. This you’ve got to read if you’re not aware of the update. Warning – there’s a spoiler in the headline so scroll down before you begin reading! View it here.
My Mother was quite superstitious and one of her favorite saying was “It always comes in 3’s.” So here’s the 3rd coincidental story – I’ve discovered recently that Genealogy Today has short stories submitted by users about Serendipity. I really enjoyed “Marriage Arranged By Ancestors” as my husband and I met accidentally through friends. Over the years we’ve discovered that we are “cousins” several times, the most recent in the 1500’s. Before researching my ancestors I would have said I was Croatian and German and he would have said he was Swedish. Little did we know we are also Irish, English, Welsh, Scottish, and French. Enjoy!
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 2 Aug 2015.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend an educational conference in San Francisco, California. This was my first visit to the area and the first time I ever visited somewhere I had no genealogy research to do. Ancestorwise, nada! No cemeteries, court houses, or former residences to explore.
Since I had only a little time to visit with loved ones who now call the city home and even less time to see the sights, I decided to spend Sunday afternoon absorbing San Francisco as a native would. It was too early to check into the hotel so I left my luggage with the concierge, hailed a cab and asked to be delivered to Mission Dolores, the oldest intact building in the city, founded in 1776 by Father Junipero Serra, My young taxi driver had no clue where I wanted to go. I shared with him my printed mapquest as originally, I planned to walk from the hotel but upon arriving later than anticipated, I didn’t want to waste time. (I still print direction cause I always have cell issues!)
In 3rd grade I had read about Father Serra although the story is now fuzzy in my brain. Of course, there are two sides to every story and the childhood version of events that I read was not the whole truth. As a parochial school student I would have read the Roman Catholic version of events. As a genealogist, I like to look at stories from different perspectives.
Mission Dolores
Father Junipero Serra is remembered as a Roman Catholic priest, philosopher, and mission founder. Those facts are undisputed. His character, however, is where viewpoints differ. He is seen by Native American groups as abusive though historians have labeled him as strict instead. Some say he destroyed native culture while others believe he blended it with his own. Known to beat his breast with a rock and scourge himself at the pulpit, was he mentally ill or just following the practices of his day? I don’t believe it’s up to me to pass judgement.
After visiting Mission Dolores I took a bus to Golden Gate Park. I drove through time – seeing the retro Haight-Asbury, Castro and Presidio districts. Strangely, I sat next to an actor who 30 years ago lived in the same place I did and I had seen him perform.
Haight-Ashbury – 48 years after the Summer of Love
Running out of time I was unable to visit the California Academy of Science Museum but spent the remaining times at the Botanical Garden. What an awesome place! I especially enjoyed the redwoods.
These trees remind me that often records are silently left to be interpreted. A forester can determine the tree’s age and weather conditions it experienced by looking at the tree’s rings. Genealogists uncover an old document that may shed light on an ancestor’s experiences without directly mentioning the individual by name. Droughts and floods, recessions and bull markets, along with so many other factors, effect families and influence their choices and decisions. My trip reminded me I need to keep events experienced by my ancestors in mind to better understand them and to remember I’m peering through my current world view and not that of my forebearers.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 14 May 2015.
Finding documents with conflicting info is common. Determining which information is correct takes careful analysis.
Lisa Lisson’s article in Crestleaf about the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Researching Your Family’s Genealogy notes that you can’t believe everything you read. (Check it out here.)
Although Lisa’s referring to documents, I had to laugh when I read the following headline in the Tampa Tribune, one of our local newspapers:
“Jose Marti historical marker outside Ybor building is wrong.”1
The marker states that Jose Julian Marti Perez, a Cuban poet and political theorist, slept at the Cherokee Club in 1891 on his first visit to Tampa. Problem is the Cherokee Club wasn’t opened until March 25, 1896, months after he had died in 1895 in Cuba. Oops! Evidently when the plaque was installed in the 1960’s no one checked for accuracy. Several members of the Florida State Genealogy Society have written that they have errors in plaques in their counties, as well. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that a plaque could be wrong; I assumed that someone somewhere had done the research. Apparently they did but the information was still wrong. A well respected Tampa historian, Anthony Pizzo was interviewed 30 years ago about the plaques that are all over town. The project began in the 1940’s. “Mr Bock at the time was the director of the Military Institutes of Cuba. He volunteered to make the historical markers at the military foundry and put them all over Ybor City. He said, ‘All you need to do is the research and write them up.’ We were beside ourselves – what a fantastic deal! So I took it upon myself to find out as much as I could, and I started to interview oldtimers, Cubans who were in their 80’s and 90’s. What I learned from them was unbelievable-that we had such a rich history. Then I started meeting historians in Havana, and one of the friends I really admired very much was Jose Rivero Muniz. He had written many books-he wrote Conquistadors En La Florida and Los Cubanos En Tampa, which I cherish!”2 Pizzo added, “The first marker was erected in front of the Ybor factory. It is a beautiful stone put up by the Ybor City Rotary Club. I think it was in 1949. That was the first one. And of course when Castro took over our project became paralyzed.”3 A local foundry agreed to cast the plaques at a discount and individuals donations poured in. “I quess I personally have been involved in putting up more than forty historical markers not only in Ybor City but all over Tampa.”4 Makes you wonder how many other plaques contain errors.
The story made me want to discover where Marti spent his first nights in Tampa. First I went to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser site to verify the building date but the construction details just note Pre-1940 Commercial. Tampa was incorporated in 1849 but the area where this building is located was not in the city limits. At the time, it was an unincorporated area. The current building, now on the National Register for Historic Places, was built as an exclusive men’s club and to house the offices of Vicente Martinez Ybor (pronounced Ee’ bor) the planner of Ybor City, which is now part of Tampa. I guessed that Marti slept in a hotel that was at that site before the Cherokee Club was built. I found the deed information in the Library of Congress records:
“Original and subsequent owners: The building is located in the Ybor City subdivision, Block 31, lots 6 through 10. The title records for this building, supplied by Chelsea Title and Guaranty Company, Tampa, Florida, are as follows:
1886
Deed recorded December 1, 1886, filed February 24, 1887 Book W, page 572 W. Wells and wife to Vincent Martinez Ybor, lots 6,7,8
1886
Deed recorded December 1, 1886, filed February 24, 1887 Book W, page 572 W. Wells and wife to Vincent Martinez Ybor and wife
1887
Deed recorded January 25, 1887, filed June 18, 1887 Book X, page 64 Vincent Martinez Ybor and wife to Ybor City Land and Improvement Company”5
VIEW OF FRONT CORNER – Cherokee Club, 1318 Ninth Avenue, Tampa, Hillsborough County, FL6
“The Cherokee Club, built by the Ybor Land and Improvement Company and opened March 25, 1896, was the most exclusive men’s club in the city. This club was unique in that its members combine persons of Latin and American heritage. The object of the club was to promote social intercourse of its members. The popular pastimes in the club were relaxation, entertainment and gambling.
In 1924 Jose Alvarez bought the club and operated it as a restaurant and hotel called the El Pasaje. Although the club was closed during the prohibition, the restaurant and the bar were the center for many luxurious banquets.“7
My guess was wrong – there was no hotel on the site during Marti’s first visit to Tampa. That location was a vacant lot. Unless Marti camped out on the grounds, which I doubt as the mosquitoes would have eaten him alive and then he may have contracted malaria, he had to have slept somewhere else.8
Marti arrived in Tampa and was received by “Carbonell on the morning of November 26, 1891. That day lunch at the guest house Leonela Nestor, who had great memory, and narrated details of the war…”9
“We do not remember days, we remember moments” -Cesare Pavrese
Leonela Nestor may have had a great memory of the war in Cuba but he didn’t have a very good memory of dates. Either he got the day of the week or the day of the month wrong. I suspect it was the day of the month as Marti must have arrived on November 25 and not the 26 because in the evening, Marti gave a lecture at the El Liceo Cubano, 1300 7th Avenue, a social and political club founded in 1886.10 His speech was so well received that “after a time they carried Marti off literally on their shoulders through the streets of Ybor City in the early hours of a Thursday morning singing the Ten Years’ War-era hymn of independence known as the ‘Bayamo Anthem’ and eventually delivering him to the door of host Nestor Carbonell.”11
In 1891, the 26th was a Thursday so it is most likely that Marti arrived in Tampa on the 25th.12
Although the newspaper article doesn’t cite its source, I did find a reference for Marti staying in a boarding house owned by Ramon Rubiero de Armas.13 I think it’s more likely that Marti stayed at the home of his host, Nestor Carbonell. We know, “that the next day, November 27, (the 26th) again at the home of Leonela Nestor, both discussed details related to the future creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.”14
(Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Marti was invited to speak that evening by the Cuban Patriotic League in remembrance of the anniversary of the execution of 8 medical students. The event was also held at the Liceo Cubano. After the speech, Marti is said to have “drafted documents related to the future Party” on Nestor Leonelo’s desk.15
Marti departed Tampa on November 28 after receiving a farewell toast at the El Liceo where his previous evening’s writings were read to the attendees.
If Marti did not stay with Carbonell, he certainly spent much time at his home.
Who was Marti’s host, Nestor? Nestor Carbonell Leonelo Figueroa was a journalist and teacher turned Captain of the Cuban Liberation Army who considered himself a “socialist, though he never specified of what school.”16
Nestor emigrated to Key West from Cuba in 1888 but was forced to leave due to his political views. Arriving in Tampa with his 3rd wife and 8 children, Nestor was aided by friends to open a school, publish a newspaper, La Bate, and serve as a librarian and treasurer of the newly formed Revolutionary Club, the purpose of which was to raise funds to liberate Cuba from Spain. A club member had heard Marti lecture in Philadelphia and recommended that he be invited to Tampa to speak at a fundraiser for the Revolutionary Club. By May 1891, Nestor was named president of the club and extended the invitation to Marti to come to Tampa.
Carbonell writes of Marti “Hence, when from a group of Cubans (from) Tampa invites you to take participation in an evening, you accept the invitation.”17
So where did Nestor live in Tampa? Since there is no 1890 US Federal census record for Tampa I looked for city directories. The Tampa Public Library’s oldest directory is from 1906. The Tampa History Museum has a slim volume from 1893 but you must make an appointment to view it through the Tampa Public Library. I have an appointment for next Monday and I’ll share with you what I discover.
The Tampa Tribune article notes that there were other errors in the plaque. You can read it in its entirety here:
I’m challenging you to check out a plaque in your community and let me know what you find. Wouldn’t this be an interesting project for a local genealogy group, historical society or a social studies class? I don’t think I’ll ever look at plaques the same.
___________________________________ 1“José Martí Historical Marker outside Ybor Building Is Wrong.” TBO.com. 1, 10 May 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.
2″Tony Pizzo’s Ybor City: An Interview With Tony Pizzo.” Tampa Bay History7.2 (1985): 142-60. Print.
3Ibid
4″Tony Pizzo’s Ybor City: An Interview With Tony Pizzo.” Tampa Bay History7.2 (1985): 142-60. Print.
5Fl-271, Habs Ho. “Cherokee Club (El Pasaje).” Historic American Buildings Survey (n.d.): n. pag. Library of Congress. Web. 13 May 2015. 6“Prints & Photographs Reading Room | Prints & Photographs Division – Library of Congress.” Prints& Photographs Reading Room | Prints & Photographs Division – Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015. 7Fl-271, Habs Ho. “Cherokee Club (El Pasaje).” Historic American Buildings Survey (n.d.): n. pag. Library of Congress. Web. 13 May 2015. 8Altonen, Brian. Public Health, Medicine and History The 1890 Census Disease Maps. 9“Néstor Leonelo Carbonell Figuerosa.” EcuRed. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015. 10 Rajtar, Steve. A Guide to Historic Tampa Florida. Charleston, SC: History: 169, 2007. Print. 11Lopez, Alfred J. Jose Marti: A Revolutionary Life. Austin: University of Texas Press: 253, 2014. Print. Information taken from Hildago Paz. Jose Marti 1853-1895, 144-145.
12″November 1891 Calendar.” November 1891 Calendar. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015.
13Wright, E. Lynne. It Happened in Florida Remarkable Events That Shaped History. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot: 62, 2010. Web. 13 May 2015. 14“Néstor Leonelo Carbonell Figuerosa.” EcuRed. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2015. 15Ibid 16Casanovas, Joan, and Joan Casanovas. Bread or Bullets!: Urban Labor and Spanish Colonialism in Cuba, 1850-1898. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh: 217, 1998. Print. 17Carbonell, Nestor. PROCERES. Ensayos Biográficos. Havana: Montalvo y Cárdenas,1928. Print.
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