Genealogy tip for today: Dead Man Talking, Part two
Last week we talked about
when to visit the cemetery. Today let’s talk about how to do cemetery rubbings
or readings. There are several methods that can be used, some of safer than
others.
1. If you have the equipment you can set up a light that sets to the side of the stone and casts shadows from the letters. Then take a picture and print it out. For some reason they are sometimes easier to read then looking directly at the stone.
2. Some folks have used shaving cream foam. Spray them into the stone, with a squeegee clean off the foam, leaving foam in the letters that are carved out. Write down what you find, or take a picture of this. Then with a spray bottle of water wash it off, completely. If you use any paper towels, be sure and clean up your mess before you leave. There is a caveat – this, over time, can be harsh on the older stones. The newer ones aren’t so bad, but then again, the newer ones you should be able to read, anyway.
3. This is probably the easiest way, rubbing. With this you need large sheets of paper. Newsprint is good for this. With masking tape, fasten your paper to the stone as snug as possible but not so tight it tears. With the side of a crayon, or charcoal (the artist’s kind, not the cooking kind) and rub over the paper. This is similar to putting a penny under a sheet of paper like we did as kids. If the letters are carved in, they should be a different shade then the flat surface of the marker. If the letters are raised, then these are all you should see in the rubbing.
As always, when you are done
– whatever method you use, make sure you left the grave as clean or cleaner
than before you got there. We want to be sure that genealogists don’t get a bad
reputation for how we treat the resting places of our loved ones.
Happy Hunting.
If any of these posts are helpful drop us a line in
the comments section below. We just want to know if the information we provide
to you is helpful in anyway.
312 Constantine the
Great defeats Marcus Aurelius
Valerius Maxentius at the
969 After a
prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch
1216 Henry III of England
1628 After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle
1636 Harvard College , the oldest institution of higher learning in
the United States , is
founded in Cambridge , Mass.
1768 Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their
armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans
1793 Eli Whitney
applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the
tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively–a job
which was previously done by hand.
1863 In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James
Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga ,
Tennessee
1886 The Statue of
1901 Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to
the White House kill 34.
1904 The St. Louis
1914 The German cruiser Emden ,
disguised as a British ship, steams into Penang
Harbor near Malaya
and sinks the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug.
1914 George Eastman
announces the invention of the color photographic process.
1919 Over President Wilson
1927 Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled
international flight.
1940 Italy
invades Greece , launching
six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania
1944 The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flies from
the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a
strike against the Japanese base at Truk.
1960 In a note to the OAS (Organization of American
States), the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial
quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians" from the Soviet
bloc.
1875 Gilbert
Grosvenor, editor, turned the National Geographic Society's irregularly
published pamphlet into a periodical with a circulation of nearly two million.
1896 Howard Hansen, composer, director of the Eastman School
1903 Evelyn Waugh, English novelist who wrote Decline
and Fall and Brideshead Revisited.
1909 Francis Bacon, English artist who painted
expressionist portraits.
1912 Richard Doll,
English epidemiologist who established a link between tobacco smoke and cancer.
1914 Jonas Salk, U.S.
1955 William Gates, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft
Corporation, the world's largest software firm.
This
week we'll see five eponyms: words derived from a person's name.
pecksniffian
PRONUNCIATION:
(pek-SNIF-ee-uhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Pretending to
have high moral principles; sanctimonious, hypocritical.
ETYMOLOGY:
After
Seth Pecksniff, a character in Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit.
Earliest documented use: 1844.
NOTES:
Charles
Dickens describes Pecksniff like this: "Some people likened him to a
direction-post, which is always telling the way to a place, and never goes
there."
USAGE:
"She
said, 'Davis, stop being such a Pecksniffian stuffed shirt.'"Jay Inman; Sunigin; WestBow Press; 2012.
"In the meantime, the pecksniffian French consul was feigning indignation."
Bob Stockton; Fighting Bob; AuthorHouse; 2011.
Journalist
Ed Murrow: "Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Jonas Salk:
"Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the
sun?" -Jonas Salk, medical researcher and developer of polio vaccine
(1914-1995)
Today’s
Recipe
Treats,
No Tricks!
Cupcakes:
4 ounces cake
flour (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup
unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
1/8 teaspoon
salt
3/4 cup
granulated sugar
1/4 cup
butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
1/2 cup
low-fat buttermilk
1 ounce
bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped and melted
Icing:
1/2 cup
packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons
bourbon
3 large egg
whites
1/2 teaspoon
cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon
salt
1/4 cup
butter, softened
1 teaspoon
meringue powder
1 tablespoon
water
1 cup
powdered sugar
Black food
coloring
Directions
1.
Preheat oven to 350°.
2.
To prepare cupcakes, weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup;
level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and 1/8 teaspoon salt,
stirring with a whisk.
3.
Place 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at
medium speed until well combined (about 3 minutes). Add eggs and vanilla,
beating well. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to egg mixture,
beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in chocolate. Spoon batter into
12 muffin cups lined with muffin cup liners. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or
until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging.
Remove from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.
4.
To prepare icing, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar and bourbon in a saucepan; bring
to a boil. Cook, without stirring, for 3 minutes or until a candy thermometer
registers 250°. Combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a
large bowl; using clean, dry beaters, beat with a mixer at high speed until
foamy. Pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high
speed until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, and
continue beating until the egg white mixture cools (about 3 minutes).
5.
Place 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Fold in 1
cup egg white mixture. Fold butter mixture into the remaining egg white
mixture. Spread about 3 tablespoons icing over each cooled cupcake. Combine
meringue powder and 1 tablespoon water in a bowl, stirring with a whisk until
smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating with a mixer at medium speed until thick
and smooth. Stir in black food coloring to desired shade. Scrape the powdered
sugar mixture into a zip-top plastic bag, and snip a tiny hole in 1 corner of
bag. Pipe black spiders or webs over frosted cupcakes.
ENJOY!
Now You Know!
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