Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Rare Copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence Found

An original first print of the United States Declaration of Independence has been discovered gathering dust after nearly 250 years. The poster size proclamation, which is in perfect condition and is said to be worth about $8 million, is one of only 26 surviving initial copies of the document that changed the course of history.

The interesting thing is that this copy was found in The National Archives. That's NOT the National Archives and Records Administration in the United States. Instead, this copy was found in The National Archives of Great Britain in Kew, West London! Apparently, this copy has been there since 1776 or shortly thereafter.

Still Another Concord Coach

I have always been interested in Concord Coaches, long considered to be the best stagecoaches ever built. I certainly am not an expert, but I have done some reading and have been fortunate enough to see several of these beautiful stagecoaches in various museums. A few weeks ago I interviewed Tom Howard, who IS an expert on Concord Coaches. You can watch and listen to that interview at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/05/video-interview-tom-howard-and-the-concord-coaches.html.

You can imagine my surprise today when I walked into a small, privately-owned museum about ten miles from my house and found a Concord Coach on display. This is a real Concord Coach, manufactured circa 1867. This one is not an immaculate museum display piece; it was a bit dirty and had grease smeared all over the axles. The upholstery is just a bit frayed. This is a working coach that is brought out several times a year to participate in parades and other events in the area. Even more interesting to me is that this particular Concord Coach is on loan from the Wayside Inn, a historic restaurant that is about five miles from my home. I never knew there was a Concord Coach in this area!

Ancestral Embarrassment or Entrepreneur?

John Reiniers has written an article in Hernando Today that describes the embarrassment of finding an ancestor who was a bit less than an upstanding pillar of the community. As John writes, "It came as quite shock to me that one of my Dutch ancestors was known as 'Manhattan's first and most famous prostitute.'"

Yes, if your ancestry includes anyone in New Amsterdam in the 1630s, now is the time to pull out your pedigree charts and look for the name Grietje Reiniers (sometimes Reyniers). It seems that she had quite a few children but the fathers are not well documented. We can assume that most of these children married and spawned more generations, resulting in many thousands of descendants of Grietje Reiniers being alive today.

A Blog About 18th Century Stays

Historical seamstress and owner of the 18th Century Sutlery "At the Sign of the Golden Scissors" Hallie Larkin has started a blog on eighteenth-century stays — the foundation undergarment that women felt they were next to naked without. The blog is subtitled, "Discussing aspects of 18th Century original Stays and the Stay Making Trade."

This blog has collected newspaper advertisements, satirical prints, and other sources on this ubiquitous part of life in Revolutionary America, as well as pointers to some modern studies of stays and corsets. This is an excellent study in one aspect of our ancestors' lifestyles.

18th Century Stays is available at http://18thcstays.blogspot.com.

Accessible Archives Expands South Carolina Newspapers

The following announcement was written by Accessible Archives, Inc.:

Accessible Archives, Inc. (www.accessible.com) , a publisher of electronic full-text searchable historical databases, has announced the addition of four titles to its Charleston, S.C., Gazette database. The collection has been renamed South Carolina Newspapers in order to better reflect these new titles. South Carolina Newspapers 1732-1780 contains a wealth of information on colonial and early American history and genealogy and provides wide-ranging and often divergent views of life in South Carolina and America, with additional coverage of events in Europe during the early days of this country.

South Carolina Sells Confederate Money - Again

"Save your Confederate money, the South will rise again!"

Indeed, South Carolina is selling money to make money.

State officials have quietly picked through boxes of Civil War state currency and auctioned it on eBay, providing the state archives with an influx of cash amid tight budgets.

Last Titanic Survivor Dies at 97

The last survivor of the sinking of the Titanic has died aged 97. Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the liner sank after hitting an iceberg in the early hours of 15 April 1912, on its maiden voyage from Southampton.

Her family had been traveling to America, where they hoped to start a new life and open a tobacconist's shop in Kansas. They traveled third class.

13th Century Document Found in Ontario

It's not exactly the Magna Carta, although it was penned around the same time, in similar Latin script, on English parchment. It's a simple document, in the legalese of the day, by which a low-to-middling noble named Robert de Clopton granted land to his son, William, in the 13th century.

Apart from its age, its most intriguing aspect is how it resurfaced all these years later: in a filing cabinet at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., during an office reorganization last summer.

St. Louis Opens Civil War Era Court Documents

The St. Louis circuit clerk's office has unlocked never-before told stories of looting, betrayal and slavery in the years following the Civil War. Now these rare documents, unearthed during a 10-year preservation project, will be available to anyone who wants to read about how Missourians attempted to bring law and order after the chaos of war. If you had ancestors living in the area after the Civil War, you may be able to find information about them that was never available before.

Special Coverage on Footnote: Spanish Flu Kills Millions in 1918

The following was written by Footnote, one of the sponsors of this newsletter:

War and famine are generally associated with the loss of millions of lives. However, the influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more human beings than World War I altogether. One fifth of the world's population was infected by the virus. It killed more people than any other disease on record. The flu not only infected children and the elderly, but also young adults who would typically survive diseases of this kind. The deaths of so many youth contributed to the "Lost Generation" after World War I, resulting in new movements within the 1920s culture. The influenza epidemic has great historical significance, for it was not only a great tragedy, but also resulted in social changes throughout the world.

The Three-Story Outhouse

I grew up in a part of Maine where two-story interior privies were common. My grandmother's house had one that I remember well from my frequent visits as a child. However, I think three-story privies were rare. The Masonic Lodge in Bryant's Pond, Maine, still has one.

Memorial Day in "the Good old Days"

Roots Television has a great online video taken from old movies of Memorial Day in 1920. This particular video shows Cornwall, New York although I suspect that similar scenes were found all over America.

This is a silent movie but is accompanied by music of the era. I was fascinated by the clothing styles of the bystanders, by all the folks on horseback, and by the dirt streets.

Author Says Blackbeard was from North Carolina, not England

Despite what the history books claim, a Raleigh, N.C., author claims that Blackbeard and many of his henchmen weren't rogue Englishmen, but sons of North Carolina landowners.

Historical accounts contend that the notorious pirate known as Edward Teach or Thatch was from Bristol, England. But Kevin P. Duffus said his review of archives and genealogical research indicates that Blackbeard was probably Edward Beard, son of a landowner in Bath in Beaufort County. The writer also claims that several of Blackbeard's crew members were not hanged as earlier accounts said and at least three returned to North Carolina to respectable - and wealthy - lives.

The Lives of Jefferson's Slaves Documented

B. Bernetiae Reed, a retired nurse and amateur genealogist, has produced an impressive two-volume genealogical study of Thomas Jefferson's slaves that's drawing raves from such distinguished historians as John Hope Franklin. Reed self-published The Slave Families of Thomas Jefferson, a two-volume pictorial study that documents the lives of 619 slaves living at Monticello, in December of last year. She researched and compiled the work based upon Jefferson's Farm Book, a journal used during colonial times to record births and deaths among the estate's slaves.

New CD Promises to Preserve Essex Dialect

If your ancestors lived in Essex, how did they speak? They probably did not sound like Londoners. The Essex Record Office has produced a CD including speech and song, with examples of accents from across the county, some dating back to 1906.

This Month in History - Gangsters Bonnie and Clyde are killed - May 23, 1934

The following was written by Footnote:

Notorious gangsters, Bonnie and Clyde, ignited the citizens of the United States during their two-year crime spree. The public idolized their Robin Hood attitude during the Great Depression and watched with great interest while Bonnie and Clyde traveled around the country robbing and killing.

What Attracted Our Ancestors to the New World

The following article was written by Dick Eastman:

I learned in school that our ancestors came to the New World in the 1600s in search of religious freedom. While I still believe that to be true, I now believe the full story is a bit more complex than the reasons given in grammar school textbooks.

Religious freedom was a motivation for Puritans, Pilgrims, Quakers, and others, but thousands of other immigrants were members of the established church in England and had no interest in other theologies. What motivated them?

FaceBook Was Invented in 1902

FaceBook isn't exactly new. Bryan Benilous, a historical newspaper specialist at the digital-archive company Proquest, said he and his colleagues came across a Boston Daily Globe article from August 24, 1902, titled, “Face Book The New Fad,” describing a party game where revelers sketch out cartoony caricatures for fun.

National Archives Recalls Flu Pandemic of 1918

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

With concerns of a new flu pandemic, a look back at an old one

This alert is based on a National Archives online exhibit titled "Deadly Virus, the Influenza Epidemic of 1918," at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html. This site offers high-res downloads of documents and images from that time.

Historic Documents on Display in Boston

New England Cable News is carrying a story about the brand-new Commonwealth Museum in Boston. The museum contains many hidden treasures and jewels from Massachusetts history.

The network's web site has a video that illustrates some of the exhibits available at the Commonwealth Museum. Michael Comeau, the assistant archivist of the Commonwealth Museum, is interviewed and shows an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, which is considered one of the more authentic copies.