Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Occupation: Lamplighter

A lamplighter, historically, was an employee of a town who lit street lights, generally by means of a wick on a long pole. At dawn, they would return and turn them off using a small hook on the same pole. Early street lights were generally candles, oil, and similar consumable liquid or solid lighting sources with wicks. Part of the lamplighter's duty was to carry a ladder and renew the candles, oil, or gas mantles.


In some communities, lamplighters served in a role akin to a town watchman; in others, it may have been seen as simply a position that involves little or no responsibility.

In the 19th century, gas lights became the dominant form of street lighting. The early gaslights required lamplighters until systems were developed which allowed the lights to operate automatically.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - Truman & Mable Casteel



Charity Cemetery
Macoupin County, IL

 
Truman Casteel
b. Sept. 1889
Son of Robert E. Casteel & Irena Dundon
Occupation:  Photographer
Died 4 May 1910 at the age of 20 of tuberculosis.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Banat Defined



The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe located between three countries: the eastern part lies in Romania, the western part in Serbia, and a small northern part in Hungary.  It is bordered on the east by Transylvania and Walachia, on the west by the Tisza River, on the north by the Mureşul River, and on the south by the Danube.


The term banat originally referred to a frontier provinces that were ruled by bans.  The word "ban" is of Slavic origin meaning lord, governor, or viceroy.

The region (with the exception of some eastern mountains) is primarily an agricultural area of fertile, rolling plains. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Banat was occupied successively by Romans, Goths, Gepidae, Huns, and Avars.

By the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the Banat was made an Austrian military frontier zone known as the Banat of Temesvar. Empress Maria Theresa put the region under civilian government in 1751 and brought in thousands of German colonists. In 1779 the Banat passed to Hungary, to which it belonged until 1918, except for a brief period as an Austrian crownland.


Although the Allies in World War I had promised through a secret agreement to give the Banat to Romania, it was divided by the Treaty of Trianon (1920) between Romania and newly independent Yugoslavia, with the Szeged district reserved for Hungary.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

A Sunday Drive

- - - 

Ann (center) & Eddie (left) Bauman on a family outing.


I do not know the make/model of the vehicle - perhaps someone can identify it for me.  Thank you.
(18th Edition of Smile For The Camera - "Travel")

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Wildcard Searches - Information worth sharing

Find Ancestors Online With Search Wildcards
 ( http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/Now-What-Online-Search-Wildcards/ ; Diane Haddad)
Q. What wildcard searches would you recommend using for the surname Zelenski?

Some online genealogy databases allow you to search on names using wildcards—characters that can stand in for any letter of a name—to catch alternate spellings of the name.

On most sites, an asterisk * stands in for zero or more letters in a name, and a question mark ? stands in for exactly one letter. Web sites have different rules for using these wildcards, though.

· On the subscription site Ancestry.com, you must have at least three letters before a wildcard, but you don’t have to have any letters after it. After an initial search, you can change your wildcards using the Refine Search panel on the left side of the results screen, but what you’re really doing is performing a new search.

· On subscription site Footnote, you must have at least two letters before the wildcard and at least two letters after the wildcard. You can’t use wildcards to refine (narrow) a search; instead, start a new search if you want to introduce new wildcards.

· On the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot, your asterisk wildcard must be the last character in the name, and it must have at least three letters before it. In our experiments, the search ignored a question mark on the end of a name. A question mark inside the last name brought up names in which the indexer included a question mark because one or more letters were illegible.

· The EllisIsland.org database doesn’t return results for wildcard searches.

On your favorite genealogy database site, look for a link to search tips to see whether the site accepts wildcards and what the rules are for using them.

Next, think about variant spellings you’ve seen in your genealogical research. For example, Zelenski could be spelled Zelenskie, Zelenskey, Zaleski, Zalemsky or Zaleck in old records.

Depending on the rules for the site you’re searching, you might need to do a few wildcard searches to cover all the variant spellings you come up with.

For example, on Ancestry.com, a search on the last name Zal*k? conforms to the rules; it tells the search engine there are zero or more letters after the l and exactly one letter after the k. Results might include Zalenski, Zalensky, Zaleski, Zalemsky and Zalemski, as well as other names. Try searching on Zel*k? as well.

On Footnote, you could enter Ze*sky to catch Zelasky, Zelesky and Zemasky, among others. You’d also want to try Za*ski and Za*skie.

On the FamilySearch Record Search pilot, search on the last name Zelensk* to catch Zelenski, Zelensky and Zalenskie.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Origin of Names

FLORENCE, FLORENT, etc., Popular in the victorian era it is derived from the Latin florescere: ‘to grow, flourish’;  the source of the English word flower.






SOPHIA (f): The Greek word for “wisdom” became an English personal name to large extent through French and German SOPHIE, favored in certain European royal houses; it was hugely popular into the nineteenth century.



Sisters, Florence and Sophie Krukowski, were born in New Jersey and are the daughters of Katherine Kolbush (b.19 Oct 1897 New Jersey) and Stanley Krukowski (b. abt 1895 Poland) who were married c. 1818.

http://tangledtrees.blogspot.com/2009/05/joined-in-marriage.html
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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Treasure Chest Thursday - An Historical Find

 Andrew Job - 7th Great-Grandfather - is referred to in the historical marker below.
BLUEBALL TAVERN
A long two-and-a-half story stone inn established on the Nottingham Lots about 1710 by Andrew Job, a Quaker. It was operated as an inn until 1866. The tavern is now occupied by James H. Mendenhall, who conducts a country store there. Blue Ball is 8 miles northwest of Elkton on Route 273.

Inscription:
 Established about 1710 on Lot No. 35 of “The Nottingham Lots” by Andrew Job who secured it from William Penn. Job’s son, Thomas married Elizabeth Maxwell, niece of Daniel Defoe who wrote “Robinson Crusoe.”

Erected by Maryland Historical Society.
Additional information:
While visiting Philadelphia, Job acquired as a bond servant Elizabeth Maxwell, 16-year-old niece of Daniel Defoe.  This girl, thwarted by relatives in a love affair, had run away and indentured herself in return for passage to America  Shortly after 1725, when she married Thomas Job, son of Andrew, her mother died and left Elizabeth considerable property, including some furniture her uncle had used while writing Robinson Crusoe.- Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State, Tour 1,  pg 300.
The building still stands and is now used as private residence.



Location:  Marker is near Elkton, Maryland, in Cecil County. Marker is at the intersection of Telegraph Road (Route 273) and Blue Ball Road,
on the left when traveling east on Telegraph Road. Marker is in this post office area: Elkton MD 21921.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - Forget Them Not

Vergesst Sie Nicht - Forget Them Not


Banater Schwaben Memorial, Mannheim, Germany
Established 22 Jul 2001

Dedicated to the Banater Schwaben and Berglanddeutsche who were victims of the World Wars, Yugoslavian extermination camps, abduction to Russia, and Baragan deportation.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - Martin J. Wetzel




 
Martin Joseph Wetzel  
 Born: 1913  New York
Son of Martin Wetzel & Anna Kollain
Pilot, U.S. Army Air Forces
Royal Air Force Ferry Command
Entered the Service from New Jersey
Died: 14-Aug-41
To clearly photograph the engraving on the marker his name is highlighted with dampened sand taken from the beaches of Normandy.
Buried at Plot G Row 3 Grave 156

Monday, September 21, 2009

Madness Monday - Place Names

 - - - -
Place of Birth?   - A simple question but depending on the document or person the answer was always different....

One town - so many different names:

Segenthau, Hungary (German)
Dreispitz, Romania (German)
Németsag / Nemetsag, Hungary (Hungarian)

Segentau, Romania (Other)
Sag/Arad, Romania (Other)

Sagu, Romania (Official)
Segenthau, Austria-Hungary

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Black Sheep Sunday - Bigamy in New France


Main Entry: big·a·my
Pronunciation: \bi-gə-mē\

Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English bigamie, from Medieval Latin bigamia, from Latin bi- + Late Latin -gamia -gamy

Date: 13th century

: the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another



The first case of bigamy in New France was that of Michel Chauvin-Sainte-Suzanne.  Although married to Louise Delisle in France where she remained, he married in New France (Canada) on 29 July 1647 at Quebec.  This second wife was Anne Archambault (our ancestor), daughter of Jaques Archambault & Francoise Toureau, by which he had two children, Paul Chauvin (b. 1650) & Charlotte Chauvin (b. 1651) who both died young.  Charged by the governor, Michel was commanded to pay fifteen hundred livres to Anne, and he returned to France.  Anne remarried on 3 Feb 1654 in Montreal to Jean Gervaise, son of Urbain Gervaise and Jeanne Pebise, and together they had 9 children.
(source:American-Canadian Genealogist Issue 81, Vol. 25, No.3, 1999)
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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Kirchweih


Elisabeth Rauner with Nikolaus Feisthammel wearing traditional costumes at Kirchweih (church dedication festival) in the Banat village of Segenthau, located in Romania.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Military Mystery

For the 5th edition of A Festival of Postcards Carnival - Quadrupeds, I have submitted a photo postcard of my Grandfather, Andrew Bauman. The son of Ferenc Bauman & Zsuzsanna Grosz, he was born 29 Jan 1901, in B. Oszlop, Veszprem, Hungary. This picture postcard was taken in Budapest sometime prior to his immigration to Canada in Apr 1926 aboard the RMS Ausonia. We do not know anything regarding the history of this photo, and he never spoke of any military service.