World Almanac

Genealogy tip for today: World Almanac

 

 

Not every source or resource contains genealogy or is even thought or considered a genealogy resource. World Almanac is one of those resources. It does not have anyone’s genealogy in it. But what it does have may very well have helpful information in it for the genealogical researcher. 

For the most part, I would say that the Almanac is a trivia facts book about the world. However, included in that book, is information that we can use. One section is a directory with names and addresses of places that might be helpful in locating records for your ancestor. This would help you ‘flesh out’ your ancestor so that he is more than just dates and places. Here are the categories listed:

          Associations and Organizations

Business and Professionals

Fraternal

Social services

Historical

Industrial and Trade

Military and Veterans

Professional Sports

Health Organization

There are many, many other things that may be useful as well. Such as:

Zip code list

Weights and measurements chart

Church Denominations with addresses of headquarters (This is not a complete, comprehensive list. But it does list a good majority of denominations.) It includes a brief time-line of history of the US and of the World.

If you are writing your family history and want to set your families story in a certain time period, the almanac will give you that information – presidents, sports winners, historical events, disasters, inventions and much, much more! It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one of these sitting on your desk.  

Let’s pick a year: 1787

Northwest Territory created

Shay’s Rebellion, Jan 25

Constitutional Convention opened, May 25

Federalist Papers first appeared in NY Independent Journal

Our flag had 13 stripes and 13 stars.
Washington was not yet chosen president (1789)

No notable fires, floods, earthquakes or other natural disasters,

Population not counted for three more years

 

So you see with just a few facts listed it gives you an idea what was “current” at that time and place. This helps to create the environment that your ancestor lived in, during his lifetime. I know that when I realized that an ancestor of mine named Caleb lived during the Civil War era, I realized it meant no electricity, no cars, no appliances or tools of any kind that were electric driven. He lived in horse and buggy days. He was a carpenter and everything he did had to be by hand. What a difference that realization made in picturing his lifestyle.

 

Today in History

Abercromby

1758 James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at  Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.

1759 Quebec surrenders to the British after a battle which sees the deaths of both James Wolfe and Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders.
1793 George Washington lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol.
1830 Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in the United States, loses a nine-mile race in Maryland to a horse.
1850 Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.

Tom Thumb
 

1862 After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia.
1863 Union cavalry troops clash with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
1874 The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West.
1911 Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin dies four days after being shot at the Kiev opera house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff.
1914 The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
1929 Charles Lindbergh takes off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America.
1934 The League of Nations admits the Soviet Union.
1939 A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous, killing 500 people.

Margaret Chase Smith

1948 Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress.
1960 Two thousand cheer Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.
1961  UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Congo.
1964 U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam.
1973 East and West Germany and The Bahamas are admitted to United Nations.
1975  Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by violent radical group SLA

Patty Hearst

(Symbionese Liberation Army); she later took part in some of the group's militant activities, is captured by FBI agents.
1977 Voyager I takes first photo of Earth and the Moon together.
1980 Cosmonaut Arnoldo Tamayo, a Cuban, becomes the first black to be sent on a mission in space.
1998 ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is formed to coordinate unique identifying addresses for Websites worldwide.
2009 The US television soap opera The Guiding Light broadcasts its final episode, ending a 72-year run that began on radio.

 

Birthdays today

Diefenbaker

1709 Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist.

1819 Leon Foucault, French physicist.
1827 John Towsend Trowbridge, poet and author of books for boys, wrote the Jack Hazzard and Toby Trafford series.
1839 John Aitken, physician and meterologist.
1895 John G. Diefenbaker, prime minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963.
1905 Greta Garbo, actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in Anna Christie and Ninotcha.
1908 Viktor Hambardzumyan, a Soviet Armenian scientist who was among the founders of theoretical astrophysics.
1912 Maria de la Cruz, journalist, woman's suffrage advocate; the first woman ever elected to Chile's Senate (1953).
1923 Queen Anne of Romania.

Avalon

1926 Joe Kubert, comic book artist (Sgt. Rock, Hawkman), inducted into Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame (1907) and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (1998); founder of  The Kubert School.
1939 Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus") , actor (The Alamo), playwright; teen idol of 1950s-60s.
1951 Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon.
1961 James Gandolfini, actor; won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards (crime boss Tony Soprano in The Sopranos).
1971 Lance Armstrong (Lance Gunderson), cyclist; won record 7 Tour De France titles but was stripped of them and banned from competitive cycling for life after it was determined he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
 

Word for the Day

aegis

PRONUNCIATION:

(EE-jis)

MEANING:

noun: Protection, support, guidance, or sponsorship of a particular person or organization.

 

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin aegis, from Greek aigis (goatskin), from aix (goat). Aigis was the name of the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena in Greek mythology. It was made of goatskin. Earliest documented use: 1704.

 

USAGE:

"The French hope that by April an African force will have come under the UN's aegis."
The Battle Moves to the Mountains; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 9, 2013.

 

 

Quote for the Day

Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) 

 

       Today’s Recipe         

BBQ Sloppy Joe’s

 

 

1 pd. ground beef, cooked and drained
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbls. worcestershire sauce
1 heaping Tbls. yellow mustard
2 Tbls. vinegar
1 tsp. each of garlic salt, onion powder, Lawry's seasoned salt and pepper (or to your taste)
4 Golden Honey hamburger buns

Brown ground beef and drain.

Return to skillet and add spices. Mix well.

In a bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, worcestershire, mustard and vinegar. Mix well and add into the hamburger mixture.

Simmer for about 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Serve on buns.

 

ENJOY!

 

Now You Know!