Dead Man Talking, part two: Tombstone Rubbings

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Today in History  

312   Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.

969   After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.

1216 Henry III of England is crowned.

1628 After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces.

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, hoping to cut their supply line, the "cracker line." They fail.

1886 The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Bedloe's Island, by President Grover Cleveland

Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly

1901 Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34.

1904 The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints.

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's veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.

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.

 

 

 

Birthdays today     

 

 

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 of music.

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. scientist who developed the first vaccine against polio.

1955 William Gates, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software firm.

 

 

Word for the Day

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.

Quote for the Day

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!

 

 

Spider Cupcakes

 

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!

 

 

A Leg Up

ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns (Oct 28) we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”

Genealogy tip for today: A Leg Up

About two weeks ago we talked about ‘Just What IS Genealogy?’ It’s more than we think, when we stop to realize all the factors that go into who we are before we even begin our research.

Today we are going to talk a little bit more about this. “Is it history?” and “Do you read a lot?” were some of the questions we asked, but didn’t really address. If you are interested in history and do a lot of reading on the topic, then you already have a good background in world events and maybe even American history events. If you haven’t, don’t let that stop you. It’s not a requirement, just a benefit. But a helpful one.

Along with history, goes geography. Is that your thing? If it is – Woo Hoo! That will give you a leg up on your research, also.

Learning Styles play into researching genealogy. We talked about that on Oct. 14^th. So we won’t go into detail about it, but it is another factor that plays into your research before you even begin.

Time: how much time do you have to devote to your hobby? If you work full time or even part time, it takes a bite out of your real life! J But you can still begin chipping away. If you don’t work outside of home, or are retired, then you may have a whole lot more time to indulge.

Money: Are finances tight right now for you? A lot of research can be done on the internet from the free websites that are out there. There’s always the “armchair” approach – what many of us did long before there was a computer. You correspond, and request forms or documents by mail. It’s sometimes called “shoestring genealogy.” You do it a little bit at a time. It may take a little longer, but you still get it done.

Maybe money isn’t an issue. Then you can go for it, carte blanch! You can travel – foreign and domestic. You can request documents to your heart’s content. (Course, when they start poring in, you need to be organized right away.)  Usually though we are people who are somewhere in between this two extremes. So you’ll do a little bit of this and a little bit of that! (My mind is weird – sorry – but that phrase reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof! Does it you?)

Okay, back to genealogy – Room/Space: What is your house like? Do you have a corner where you can at least squirrel away a two drawer file cabinet? When I was young my dad cut “lapboards” out of plywood. Some were about 30 inches wide and 18 inches across. Then he made a large one. These make good temporary desks you can use anywhere. That may be your hobby space. Or maybe you have a whole room you can turn into your genealogy office. A nice big desk and comfortable chair, filing cabinets (notice I put plural!), shelves for all your notebooks, and more. This is great if you can do it that way.

Your age: hmmmm, I know, you don’t want to talk about it. That’s ok, I’ll do the talking. Where you are in life also has an impact on how much or how little research you can do. If you have little ones or even if you have teenagers you don’t have as much time to do much of anything else. But take advantage of family get-togethers. Talk to the older members of the family and take notes if possible.  Grab a few moments here and there and see what you can find on the internet. If this is becoming a passion of yours, you can still squeeze in moments here and there.

As you get, (ahem) older, your time will be a little freer to a lot freer when you reach retirement age. Oddly enough the majority of people who get into genealogy are 50 and older. If you are younger than that you have quite the advantage as at this point in your life you probably still have those elderly relatives still around. Go get ‘em!!! You will wish later you did.

Residence: where do you live? Do you live in the area where your family has lived for the last 5-6 generations? That is a huge benefit and advantage!  Your mother may live across town and you can drop in and ask questions. Or maybe granny lives near by and she can regale you with all kinds of stories.

If you live in another part of the country, it isn’t impossible - just more difficult. You can’t always go visit at the drop of a hat. But you can plan a vacation around your needed area of research. Maybe sometime soon we’ll talk about planning a trip.

All of these factors, and probably more impact how you go about pursuing your dream hobby. You just have to figure out what you can do given your current status in life. Whatever advantages you have, give you a leg up on doing your research.

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.

ENJOY!

Now You Know!

Cemetery Kit

ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns (Oct 28) we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”

Genealogy tip for today: Cemetery Kit

You’re all geared up and ready to hit the trails. Wait a moment – hold your horses, as my mom used to say. You need to put together what is called a cemetery kit. I have one put together that I keep in the garage. I just grab it and take it with me when I get ready to hit the road.

I’ll give you a list. Virtually all these are household items that are easy to find and/or inexpensive to purchase. I’ll also find you website you can check for similar information. And of course, your supplies will depend on which way you are going to do your reading – photo, rubbings, or other.

This is pretty much a master list, because you may find from time to time one method will work one time, but you will need to do something different another time. Before we get to the list, there are calculators on the internet that can help you determine a birth date, but the age at death.

Cleaning and Rubbing Supplies:

Baggies

Squeegee

Shaving foam

Spray bottle of water

Two gallons of water (or more)

Paper Towels

Sponge(s)

Rubber Gloves

Garden Gloves

Large Ziploc bags or small trash bags

Clean towels or rags (several)

Masking tape or painter’s tape (leaves no residue)

Newsprint or rice paper

Charcoal or unwrapped crayons

Moist Towelettes

Metal polish, clean soft rags or cotton balls

Toothbrush

Craft sticks

Grass clippers

Small hand shovel (used with potted plants)

Trowel (shovel or trowel may be needed to clean grass or gravel from around the grave marker.)

Kneeling board

Painter’s plastic or large trash bags cut open (coverage for ground in case it’s muddy)

Small, long dowel rod* (or metal rod)

Metal Detector*

Mallet (to gently tap on the rod) – or use your shoe. J

Office Supplies:

Notepad/notebook

Clipboard

Pens, pencils

Eraser or art gum

Ruler or tape measure

Pencil sharpener (handheld)

Small stapler and staple remover

Paper clips

Scissors/shears

Camera supplies

Umbrella (or a foam board covered in aluminum foil)

Camera

SD card, film

Batteries

Tripod

Flood Lamps

Photographer’s umbrella

Plywood or board, (for photography equipment to set on)

Personal Needs:

Band aids

First aid ointment

Flashlight

Magnifying glass

Kleenex, personal size

Allergy kit (if needed)

Snake bit kit

Sturdy shoes/hiking shoes/socks

Long pants, long sleeved shirts

Broad brim straw hat

Bug spray

Sunscreen

Sunglasses

Snack Bars (clean up your trash)

Drinks

Maps, or printed out maps from the Internet

*The dowel rod may seem like an odd piece to take. When you don’t have a grave marker, you can sometimes find an older grave by poking the rod down into the ground. If they were just buried in wood, the wood may be decayed and the ground may be fairly soft from being dug up. If it’s virgin soil it will be hard and possibly have rock layers. You can’t always make a firm decision, but this can help you deduct possibilities. The metal detector can help for the same reason. If you have one or can get access to one, it may also be of help. The cemetery association or caretakers may have maps for you. These items (dowel rod and metal detector) are also helpful in finding graves that are on the map, but not otherwise marked. They can also be useful in find buried headstones.

This is more than you can pack into a medium box or plastic container, but you can always set up a basic one and add the clothes and camera equipment when you go. Take good notes – of where you go, what you find and what you need next time.

And if you think of something not on this list – drop me a comment and I’ll be glad to add it to the list. Also - feel free to copy the list.

Here are a couple of examples of people's kits:

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.

ENJOY!

Now You Know!

Cleaning Stones

ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”

 

Genealogy tip for today: Cleaning the stones

I probably should have done this one yesterday. We have been talking about visiting cemeteries. Some are deserted and have overgrown brush. You may have to clean or create a path just to get to the stones you need.

Sometimes when you visit a cemetery, you may not have to fight the jungle to get there, but you will find that the stone needs cleaning. This could be for a number of reasons – bird droppings, stain from rain, lichen growing on the surface, or other. You also have different types of material. Most are a stone of some type, for example granite, but some are brass.

If you find a brass marker, you can clean this with the usual metal (brass) cleaner, usually found in the discount stores or furniture stores. With a soft cloth, rub the cleaner in circular motions on the brass and gradually cover the whole marker. Then with a second clean cloth, clean off the cream and you will have a shiny “new looking” marker. Use your finger nail or a wood craft stick to scrap it off. Do not use anything that is sharp or would scratch or damage the surface.

If you have a stone marker, you have to be very careful what you use on them because of the various chemicals that are in all products. You don’t want to use anything that will tarnish or worse yet, eat away at the stone. Check and make sure there are no ionic ingredients in your cleaner. I found a website that gives us some help. It gives a list of what not to use.

Headstone cleaning and gravestone maintenance at www.diylife.com gives these instructions: Water and a soft bristle brush (don't ever use a wire brush) is the best way to clean a marker, but if they are necessary, only non-ionic detergents should be used for removing dirt, algae, and lichen from the stone. If the lichen has been stuck on for quite some time, try to gently scrape it off with a fingernail, plastic scraper, or wood craft stick.

I would also suggest you look at this webpage. It has a lot of additional help – what to do and what not to do. We want to be sure that we preserve these stones for the generations that follow us.

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.

ENJOY!

Now You Know!

Dead Man Talking

ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns (Oct 28) we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”

Genealogy tip for today: Dead Man Talking



Have you had the pleasure of visiting a cemetery yet? You may be surprised what you can find out. There are some points of etiquette and tips that will help you and even help those who come after you.

The best time of year to visit a cemetery is in the spring, but sometimes the fall. The reason being, the grass is not up and growing – or the weeds for that matter. It makes it easier to find and read the stones, especially the ones that are level with the ground.  There are also less chances of running into snakes. They like to hide in tall grass. So if the grass hasn’t sprouted, or is dried up at the end of the year, there is apt to be no snakes.

Now that’s not to say you won’t ever find any, you may. Older deserted cemeteries can be more difficult. They can be over grown, stones covered with vines and other brush with a layer of leaves on the ground. So no matter the season, you could still run into snakes.

Another reason to go in the spring or fall is the absence of leaves on the trees. If there are a lot of trees in your cemetery, the leaves on the trees can make it harder to find grave markers or maybe even read the stones once you find them. If you go anytime but summer, the leaves are gone or not back yet and it allows more light. It may not make for the prettiest of pictures, but it will easier to do the work you need to do.

There is the other option of visiting a cemetery, anytime of year, without leaving the comforts of home, especially if you can't go there! Two websites are fairly new but growing fast.

1. www.findagrave.com has been incorporating volunteers from all around the country. Folks will visit a particular cemetery, takes pictures of the stones and get the appropriate information that goes with each stone.

2. www.billionsofgraves.org  is the newer one of the two and pretty much does the same thing. So if you can’t find a grave on one try the other. They are both also adding new information all the time. If you don’t find someone one time – try again later. I have watched “findagrave” especially for awhile and seen their numbers go steadily up for a couple of years now.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about reading the stones.



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.

ENJOY!

Now You Know!

Preponderance of Evidence

Where Did They Go

ANNOUNCEMENT! Posts for the next two weeks will be brief with genealogy tips only. When the blogger returns (Oct 28) we will go back to our standard format. As they say: “Don’t go away. We’ll be right back!”

 

 

Genealogy tip for today: Where did they go?

 

Have you decided the world really is flat and your great-great grampa must have fallen off the edge of the earth? How, on earth (!), can you find him? That’s a good question and sometimes one that is hard to answer or doesn’t always have easy answers.

 

But sometimes you can follow clues.

          What was happening at that time? The gold rush?

          What were the migration patterns in his time frame?

          What or where were others going that lived in the same town? (“Cluster Theory”)

          Where were some of his children born? (check the census.)

          What was his occupation and what was going on, at that time, in the economy?

          What were the headlines of the day?

          Did you check the deeds? Sometimes they will list that John Doe sold his land to his brother before moving west to Oregon.

          Was it during the Pioneer days and everyone was going west? Check to see where the trails went and if they left footprints in the towns they went through.

          Was it during the Industrial Revolution and everyone was moving to the cities? What’s the nearest big city? Did he find better work in another city?

          Did you check the newspaper to see if there was an auction for a family because they were moving to ….!

 

Sometimes we want to just throw our hands up and say we have no clue. But actually we have lots of clues. You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes, their location, their timeframe, and do some brainstorming. The things going on in your life can be the very things that went on in their life.

 

Everyday things are the things of which life is made! See what you can think of that may have been some of their “stuff” as well. You never know where your mind may lead you if you peek outside of the box.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

ENJOY!

 

Now You Know!