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The Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia, is a wooded plot surrounded by low-slung brick homes built in the 1950s. Accessible by narrow strip of grass along Sharon Court, the property is widely believed to be the site where the first black baby born in English North America in 1619 is now interred. Even though William Tucker's grave is not marked, visitors to the cemetery are greeted with a granite marker that reads "Tucker's Cemetery, First Black Family, 1619."
The stories of eight million U.K. First World War soldiers are to be published online to mark the centenary of the war’s outbreak. an interactive digital project called Lives of the First World War. It will tell the story of the men and women who served in uniform and worked on the Home Front by bringing together records from museums, libraries, archives and family collections across the world.
Lisa Wade has published an interesting article in the Pacific Standard magazine's web site about census data collected over the years. From 1790 through 1960, census enumerators visited households and recorded a lot of information about the residents, including race. However, in 1970, the Census Bureau switched to mail-in surveys where the individual self-identified their own race. The results were dramatic. The racial percentages in America changed overnight.
You can read the article and view some pictures of past enumerators at work at http://goo.gl/0D0G7.
John McColgan, Boston’s city archivist, and a team of four other city workers and archivists are preserving the hundreds of messages and other items left at Copley Square in the wake of the bombing. Thousands of notes were left by people from all over the world.
Check your family records. Do you have a record of someone who served in the Coldstream Guards in 1799? Is he listed as killed in action or perhaps simply as unknown? If so, the Coldstream Guards would like to know about the man to see if perhaps his remains were the ones recently discovered in the Netherlands.
In 2011, bones were discovered on a beach at Groote Keeten, the scene of a battle that is not well known today. The body had been buried in a uniform of the Coldstream Guards, as identified by buttons that still remained. After some extensive research at The National Archives at Kew, Surrey, archaeologist Esther Poulus has found six possible names, with Nathaniel Haines and Thomas Taylor the two most likely.
Caution: do not read this unless you have a strong stomach.
Historians have always known that cannibalism occurred during the Jamestown Colony’s “starving time” during the winter of 1609-1610. About 300 people inhabited the fort in November 1609. By spring, only 60 were left.
Most every American is familiar with the story of the Pilgrims traveling to the New World on a ship called the Mayflower. The ship, with 102 passengers and the crew on board, sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620.
The origin of the Mayflower has often been in question. Some historians believe the boat was built in Plymouth, England and carried a crew from that city. Proof has always been scarce, however. Now a rival claim to the Mayflower by the port town of Harwich states that the ship's crew were from Essex and only set foot briefly in the West Country before starting their transatlantic voyage. The newer claim claims that the Mayflower was built in Harwich, England. Harwich's supporters say their town was the Mayflower's home port, the place she was built, and the birthplace of her captain.
On Monday, April 22nd, a Century Chest buried in 1913 was opened at at the First Lutheran Church of Oklahoma City. Those who buried the chest asked that it not be opened until April 22, 2013. One item will interest genealogists: many people were able to put packages inside to be opened by their descendants in 2013.
OK, how good is your knowledge of antique objects? The Thayer Academy archives is asking for your help identifying a recently-received donation.
The barrel-shaped object was brought in this spring by a school buildings and grounds worker. He was given it by a contractor who is renovating one of the school’s houses. The object has a hopper on top and looks like a barrel. It has a shaft in the front with a handle on it; the shaft fits into a socket inside. It could fit on a large table top.
You can read more in an article by Sue Scheible of The Patriot Ledger at http://goo.gl/cO0B0 or you can watch the video below.
I know life was tough in "the good ol' days," but an article by Sara C Nelson shows just how tough it was. Would you want to have an occupation of toad doctor? Even worse, how about being leech bait? Those occupations were found on family history website Genes Reunited. You can read about these and more at http://goo.gl/VYK75.
The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is a center for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced labor and the Holocaust. The ITS archives document the fate of millions of victims whose names and memory are to be preserved. These archives are especially valuable to those looking for family members who were lost in the Holocaust.
ITS has published several finding aids on its website. The latest additions describe the archive collections on the Westerbork police transit camp and the persecution measures by the Nazis in the Benelux countries.
The University of North Texas operates the Portal to Texas History, a researcher's paradise where historians, genealogists, students -- anyone with a computer -- can browse thousands of books, maps, photographs and newspapers for an endless stream of information, whether an ad showing the price of milk in 1920 or clues about their grandmother's ancestry.
A century and a half after the Civil War ship the USS Monitor sank off the North Carolina coast, two unknown crewmen found in the ironclad’s turret were buried Friday evening at Arlington National Cemetery.
The Monitor made nautical history when the Union ship fought the Confederate CSS Virginia in the first battle between two ironclads on March 9, 1862. The battle was a draw.
DNA from the skeletons was compared with living descendants of the ship’s crew and their families. The DNA did not positively identify the men, although medical and Navy records narrowed the possibilities to six people. A genealogist who also worked on the project believes the older sailor is Robert Williams, the ship’s fireman, who would have tended the Monitor’s coal-fired steam engine.
Valentine’s Day is the second most popular holiday to send a card. The Greeting Card Association claims that an estimated one billion cards are sent each year. Yet, most of the people who send the cards have no idea who Saint Valentine was. Even historians cannot agree.
According to some authorities, there were two Valentines. One was a priest and doctor who was martyred in the year 269, and the other was the bishop of Terni, who was brought to Rome to be tortured and executed in 273. Others say it was the same person. Both men (or the same man) have legends attributed to them concerning love and matrimony, legends that may or may not be true.
The Old United Empire Loyalist List, Appendix B, page 264, provides the name of Andrew Ten Eyck, residing in Kingston, Ontario in 1783, who is listed as a soldier with the Jersey Volunteers. His actual name was Andres Ten Eyck. From Kingston in 1783, Andres settled in Missisquoi County, Quebec, in the 1790s. This is near the Vermont border. A red military coat owned by Andres came into the hands of a descendant, a Mrs. Ellis, and was donated by her in 2011, to the Missisquoi Historical Society. The historical society made a request to have the coat restored by the Centre de conservation du Quebec (CCQ). The request was granted, and the coat is undergoing restoration.
Did you have ancestors in Quakerstown? You might want to wait until these newly-discovered records get catalogued, then check again. Boxes containing hundreds of old school board minutes, scrapbooks and student photographs had been gathering dust in a high school basement, largely unnoticed until the school recently began to clear rooms in preparation for a $60 million renovation.
This is a follow-up to several recent articles about Richard III of England: A facial reconstruction based on the skull of Richard III has revealed how the English king may have looked. The reconstructed face has a slightly arched nose and prominent chin, similar to features shown in portraits of Richard III painted after his death.
The Richard III Society officially unveiled the reconstruction on Tuesday morning, at the Society of Antiquaries in London. It is expected the reconstruction will be put on public display in future.
A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III. Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.
Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: "Beyond reasonable doubt it's Richard."
John Murphy lived to be 219-years-old. At least, that's what it says on his tombstone. Tombstones never lie, right? Yeah, right.
The cemetery at St John’s Church in Knockainey, Limerick, Ireland contains a tombstone that defies belief. The lettering on the stone lists the name of the deceased, his death date of 1784, and then states, "died aged 219 years."
Members of the Texas Star Chapter of The Daughters of the Republic of Texas cordially invite you to attend the Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony for Major Leon Dyer, Army of the Republic of Texas, on Sunday, 28 April 2013 at 2 p.m. to be held at the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery, Broadway & 43rd Street at Avenue K, Galveston, Texas.
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