Bahamas: Moon & Sunset

I thought I'd share just a few more photos. These were taken on the return trip to Port Everglades. I'm gearing up now for the Boston trip. I'm really far more excited about Boston because it's got a genealogical research component.

Thoughts on Census Occupations

If you've ever looked at census records from Southern states, you know that the majority of the persons enumerated have a single occupation that was listed variously as "Farmer," "Farm laborer," "Farm hand," "Works on farm," etc. Occasionally on a big plantation, you'll run across "Overseer" but you know that person also worked on the farm.

Today as I was transcribing 1870 Massachusetts census records in the town of Plymouth, I was reminded of how varied occupations were in the north. I did have one farmer and one farm laborer on that page, but I had several mariners. (I wondered if the oldest one was the famed "ancient mariner," although I knew Coleridge was an English author and that his mariner predated this one. However, I did wonder if others in the town associated the poem with this man.) There was one person who was listed as working for the "shoe man." I don't know if this meant he sold shoes or worked in shoe repair or both. It was an interesting occupations though. The Superintendent of Schools was also on this page. It was interesting that this man had been born in Jolly Old England rather than in the states. One man worked in an iron foundry. Most of the women were listed as keeping houses. Most of the older children were "attending school" while the younger ones were "at home." A few young ladies had "no occupation." My favorite occupation on that first page was "paper box maker."

On the next page I indexed, I found a brick mason, an engineer, a bookkeeper, a rope manufacturer (I'll bet those mariners visited his business quite a bit), a locomotive engineer, a huckster (I'm picturing Mr. Haney from Green Acres in a much earlier incarnation), and two farm laborers and two farmers. Interestingly, the first laborer was an African-American--the first black family I'd encountered in indexing Plymouth. (This family, however, was born in Massachusetts rather than the South.)

In nearby Wauham Wareham, my next page yielded a couple of wharf workers (one of whom was a black man born in North Carolina; he was probably a former slave who migrated north after being freed), a mariner, several Irish iron works employees, and a stevedore (someone who unloaded and loaded the ships). There was actually what was likely a boarding house full of Irish workers for the iron works on this page!

One can actually learn a lot about a community by paying attention to the various occupations enumerated on a census. These communities definitely had occupations in keeping with their waterfront locations. The presence of a locomotive engineer means that the railroads were becoming an important means of getting goods from the shipyards to the outlying areas and the rest of the country.

My next batch is taking me to a different part of Massachusetts so I'll end my thoughts for now. I'm sure that I'll be able to tell as much about this next community as I was the others (and even those Southern communities where farming was the driving force).

Okay - I can't resist one more occupation that I ran across later because I'd never seen it listed as an occupation before (especially for 1870)--trance medium. I did find this person listed in the 1900 census as a "lecturer."

So . . . what am I doing genealogically?

Some of you may wonder if I'm doing anything related to genealogy at the moment. I really didn't do anything while I was in the Bahamas. I didn't even take my computer along. This past week I spent a lot of time working in the church library. I was trying to get ahead of the other volunteers who are doing the processing. (I'm doing the cataloging.) We generally work on Saturday mornings. I needed to get ahead because I will miss the next 3 Saturdays because I'm headed out on a genealogical research trip and library conference all rolled into one!

When a library conference is in the greater Boston area, that's a perfect excuse to spend some time at the NEHGS Library researching your New England lines. Of course, there's so much historical stuff to see in the Boston area as well, but some of my fun times for this trip are also planned around places my ancestors resided.

I've been planning this trip and also trying to get myself organized to make efficient use of my time in Boston. My current plans include a day trip out to the Ipswich/Essex area where my Perkins family lived, another day trip into Maine and spending quite a bit of time in the Hampton, New Hampshire area where several of my families resided, researching at the NEHGS Library, Lexington & Concord (hopefully including a trip to Walden Pond if I'm lucky enough to be one of the first to arrive that day), a day trip to Concord, and more research at NEHGS.

The conference I'm attending has library tours scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. One of the options is NEHGS, but rather than touring the library, I'll probably spend my time doing a little more research so I checked "I will arrange my own library tour."

I will probably also spend some evening time at the Boston Public Library on the evenings NEHGS is closed. My hotel for the time before the library conference begins is in the Back Bay near both.

I'm looking forward to my Boston trip, but I'm going to have fun and also research! I'm looking forward to seeing where my ancestors resided and learning more about them!

Non-Fiction Five Challenge: Book 2

Webb, James. Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. New York: Broadway Books, 2004. (ISBN 0767916883)

Webb outlines the warlike spirit of the Scots-Irish as he tells their history. I enjoyed the earlier parts of the book which were based on research far more than the latter parts which were more of a personal memoir. The author does offer insights into the cultures of Appalachia and the South. The reader can see how the Scots-Irish settlers shaped these cultures.

Mail

You just never know what you are going to find when you go out to your mailbox. I had 4 pieces of mail today. One was one of those credit card offers. Another was an offer for a home equity line of credit. One was Southern Living's latest issue. The last piece of mail was the most exciting though. It was from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. Okay - it was from the U.S. Census Bureau. It seems that my household (The letter made sure it let me know that it wasn't me individually but my address) has been randomly chosen to complete one of those American Community Surveys. The survey should arrive soon. I actually had one of the long forms in 2000 although I was living at a different address then. Since Hamblen County is roughly the size of Greene County (Hamblen is slightly smaller) and Greene County's sample rate is posted, I can assume that I'm one of no more than 644 households selected in our county to take the survey. This, of course, is any genealogist's dream--to be chosen to participate in these surveys which, if kept and made available in 72 years, will be useful to future generations of family historians! Now . . . I have another piece of mail to look forward to receiving!

Enumerate Me Challenge

I saw this challenge at Randy's. I'll confess that because "Lori" is a fairly recent name that I'd never thought to look for it in the census; however, I hit the comprehensive search button at Ancestry.com to see what I could find with "Lori Thornton." There were 2 hits for "Lori Thornton" in the 1920 census, but since one of them was "Ella Lori Thornton" and that is definitely not me, I decided to stick to the only one that was just "Lori Thornton." There was a 6-year-old Lori Thornton living in Riverside, California with parents Joseph E. and Florence Thornton. (Of course, the parents' names are wrong for me.) This Lori's father was born in West Virginia and the mother in Tennessee. I have no known West Virginia ancestry on my Thornton line. Those were the only hits on census records for my name. I am surprised to find any at all.

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea

Bob reviewed this cookbook earlier in the week. It sounded too good to pass up, so I ordered a copy which arrived today.

Southern cuisine--some of it "kicked up a notch." Each recipe contains notes that point to the history of the dish or hints about the dish's preparation. Information about some of the South's interesting culinary history can also be found--such as a brief history of the Chinese groceries in Greenville or stories about the recipes or those important to its history. A great addition to any cookbook collection.

Food for the Soul (by Chana Rubin)

3.5 stars. [LibraryThing Early Reviewers program].

This book simply rehashes most of the information about maintaining a healthy lifestyle that is heard on the news of on cooking shows that focus on healthy lifestyles. Having grown up in a home where my mother was a dietician, most of the first portion of the book was old news to me. The book, however, is very readable and informative for someone who lacks basic knowledge about healthy lifestyles. It will be easily understood my most readers. Toward the end of the narrative portion of the book, the author addresses specific concerns of her Jewish audience. The last part of the book consists of recipes which focus on the use of whole grains and fresh ingredients. Most of the recipes look tasty and should add a great deal of flavor to the diet without the high calorie counts of some other choices. It would have been nice to have photographs of most or at least some of the recipes. An extensive bibliography is included.

This is the 3rd of my Non-Fiction Five Challenge books. Right now I'm running way ahead of schedule.

Bahamas: A Few of My Favorite Photos

This was made from the bus as we toured an upper class neighborhood.

One of the buildings in the International Bazaar. This one was still occupied.

This was along the channel to the glassbottom boat docks.

Parasailing. I didn't do it, but it made for a great picture!

Another picture along the channel where the glassbottom boats were docked.

Bahamas: Plant Life

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm terrible when it comes to identifying plants. I can definitely identify the coconuts in the second photo, but if you can help me identify some of these others, I'd be grateful. I suspect that tree in the last photo is some variety of a Christmas tree! (LOL) You do have to admit that it's an interesting shape though!

Coconuts

Bahamas: The Merchandise

Reading Roundup - May 20

At Genealogy: Digging Up Dirt, there is a blog entry that details a most interesting murder case from the 19th century. One of the suspects is a John H. Dearborn, whom I would assume descends from Godfrey Dearborn. Since I'm a descendant of Godfrey, this really caught my interest. I may even have to see how I'm related to this "black sheep" family member!





Birmingham Genealogical Society tells us about the Alabama Department of Archives and History's 1867 Voter Registration database. The actual database is at the ADAH site. I'm excited that Walker County is there, but I'd like to see Fayette. I also wish that women had voting rights back then!



Paula has come up with quite a list of prizes for cooperating with the census taker. Of course, I think the census taker just didn't find the "holler" my ancestors lived in on some census years. They lived in an area of Monroe County known as the "Lost Corner." The only way to get there was to go up into Itawamba County and then back down into Monroe. I think the census taker just stopped at the county line and didn't try to track them down!



Footnote.com sent a newsletter. The Mississippi Confederate soldiers database is posted. I know what I'll be busy checking out! (Tennessee, South Carolina, and Louisiana have also been added. The Dawes packets are also available now.)



Stealing the Cat in the Hat.



Terry has really gotten Mississippi on the radar screen of a lot of bloggers. Randy is now using Mississippi as a search example!



Demolition Alert: It involves Paul Revere.

Non-Fiction Five Challenge: Book 1

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everthing Across Italy, India, and Indonesia. (ISBN 978-0-14-303841-2)

I ran out of books on my trip to the Bahamas. The book selection was rather limited in the Fort Lauderdale airport. This sounded like one of the more interesting reads, although I knew that I'd disagree with the author in regards to spiritual matters. I purchased it to read on the flight home. I also discovered that we disagree on political matters. The author set out to find herself after a divorce. She travelled to the three I's--Italy, India, and Indonesia. The real search was for God, but she was searching for Him in all the wrong places. No one will find God in Yoga or in Hinduism. In many places in the book, the observations she wrote sounded similar to Biblical truths; however, I'm reminded that Satan is a liar. He will often snare someone by making something appear to be good when in reality it is leading one down a slippery slope that will eventually separate them from God. (cf. 1 John 2) I found myself wanting to tell the author about the one true God--much as the apostle Paul told those in the Areopagus of the one true God in Acts 17.