It's Carnival Time!

This week, two carnivals were posted. The 12th Edition of the "Smile for the Camera" Carnival was published April 15th at the Shades of the Departed Blog, with the theme being "A Noble Life." There were 20 submissions honoring the noble lives of ancestors, and the theme for the 13th edition will be "All Creatures Great and Small."

The 70th edition (70! Can you believe it!) of the Carnival of Genealogy was published this morning at Creative Gene. "Uncle, Uncle!" was the theme, and 33 posts were submitted. "Local History" will be the theme for the 71st edition.

Tim Abbott reports that the 18th edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities will be postponed indefinitely while he recovers from a case of pneumonia. We wish you a speedy recovery, Tim!

Remember, there are three more carnival deadlines coming up in the next week or so: the 18th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - Easter and Passover Traditions (April 20); the 3rd Edition of the Graveyard Rabbit Carnival - Cemetery Preservation (April 25); and the 4th Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival - Black Sheep Canadian Ancestors (April 26). Thomas should also be publishing the final installment of Bound for Mom - The World is Not Flat very shortly.

Enjoy the great reads!

The 13th Edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities is Posted

Tim Abbott of Walking the Berkshires has posted the Baker's Dozen Edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Head on over to read about and view the fascinating, interesting, off-beat and just plain bizarre items that end up in our collections.

The 14th Edition will be published February 16th and Tim is looking for a host. Contact him here if you're interested.

This and That

Oh, Baby! The footnoteMaven has published the 7th Edition of the "I Smile for the Camera" Carnival at her digital publication site, Shades of the Departed. From babies on bearskins to twin babes to favorite snaps of grandbabies, this edition features 44 submissions from 43 bloggers, and is a sure winner!

"The word prompt for the 8th Edition of Smile For The Camera is Stocking Stuffer. Show us that picture that would make a great Stocking Stuffer and tell us whose stocking you'd stuff." Submission deadline is December 10th and can be entered here.

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poster courtesy of footnoteMaven

Yesterday, Jasia of Creative Gene posted the 60th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, on the very personal and moving subject of Alzheimer's Disease. November is Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, and many families (including mine) have been touched in one way or another. The ten stories that are shared here are difficult to read, but as Jasia says, "...Alzheimer's Disease won't be researched and cures won't be found by keeping the monster behind a curtain."

"The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: Traditions!...What traditions were passed on to you from an earlier generation? Do you keep those traditions? What tradition(s) will you or have you passed on to a younger generation? Do you think they will keep it up? Do you care if they do?...Write about your traditions and submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form. The deadline for submissions is December 1st."

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Also published yesterday was the 11th Cabinet of Curiosities, hosted by M. Diane Rogers of CanadianGenealogy, or 'Jane's Your Aunt!' There's an eclectic collection of collections on parade here, something to suit every taste and fancy!

The 12th Cabinet of Curiosities will return home to Tim Abbott of Walking the Berkshires. The Cabinet is always published the third Monday of every month and can be entered here.

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Speaking of carnivals, Jessica of Jessica's Genejournal is looking for hosts for her 2009 Carnivals of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. If you're interested, please contact her at jess_history at yahoo dot com.

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Lisa Louise Cooke is getting ready for the holidays over at her Genealogy Gems News Blog and asked for a little help from Pat Richley of DearMYRT; Allison Stacy, Editor and Publisher of Family Tree Magazine; Genealogy Insider Blogger and Family Tree Magazine Managing Editor Diane Haddad, and myself. We were only to happy to comply; you can see our shenanigans at the Genealogy Holiday Hoe Down (shhh! don't tell my orthopedic surgeon about that cartwheel I did!).

Cabinet of Curiosities #9 has Been Posted

Tim Abbot of Walking the Berkshires has just posted Cabinet of Curiosities #9. The "I Know What You Did Last Summer" Edition has eleven submitters and probes the weird, bizarre, and merely odd. Not necessarily a genealogy-related carnival, many genea-bloggers post their entries nonetheless, for who more than genealogists and family historians have numerous collections of curiosities? I always enjoy a walk on the edge whenever I read this carnival!

Tim informs us:

Next month, Cabinet of Curiosities will be hosted by Thomas MacEntee at Destination: Austin Family, and then in November he will pass the baton to M. Diane Rogers of CanadaGeneaology. Submissions for these carnivals can be made to the hosts directly, or via the carnival submission form.

September Is...

...Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15)

September 1: Labor Day (United States)
Labour Day (Canada)
("Labor Day and Ancestral Occupations" by Carolyn L. Barkley)

September 1: Ramadan begins

September 7: National Grandparents' Day (U.S. and Canada)
Father's Day (Australia and New Zealand)

September 11: Patriot Day (United States)

September 15: Independence Day
(Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua)

September 16: Independence Day (Mexico)

September 19: Independence Day (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

September 22: Autumnal Equinox (Northern Hemisphere)
Vernal Equinox (Southern Hemisphere)

September 29, sunset: Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)

Do any of the above events feature in or affect your heritage, culture, or family history?

September Carnivals and Events:

Posted September 4 - the 55th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Show and Tell

Posted September 14 - Family Heirlooms Meme

Posted September 15 - the 5th Edition of the "I Smile for the Camera" Carnival - Crowning Glory

Posted September 15 - the 9th Edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities

Posted September 17 - the 56th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Ten Essential Books in My Genealogy Library - Part I and Part II

Posted September 24 - 1st Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival - My Ancestor was Canadian, Eh!

Posted September 24 - 11th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - First (Given) Names

Posted September 25 - the 8th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture - Back to School

September 1 - Data Backup Day

It's Data Backup Day
by Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family

Don't Be Blogged Gone: Tips for Keeping Your Blog Backed Up and Secure
by Elizabeth O'Neal of Little Bytes of Life

Scanfest: Sunday, September 28th, 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

Go here to learn how to join Scanfest and our group of chatting, scanning family archivists, historians, and bloggers!

Go here to add the above deadlines and dates to your Google Calendar,
courtesy of Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family.

August Is...

...National Back to School Month (United States).

...Holiday Month (many European countries).

August 1: Anniversary of the 1st U.S. Federal Census
Swiss National Day

August 2 - 3: Twins Day in Twinsburg, Ohio
(Do twins run in your family?)

August 6: National Salvadoran-American Day (United States)

August 7: Purple Heart Day

August 8 - 24: 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, China
(Any Olympians or athletic champions in your family tree?)

August 9: Singapore Independence Day

August 10: Ecuador Independence Day

August 14: Pakistan Independence Day

August 15: Korea Independence Day
India Independence Day

August 17: Indonesia Independence Day

August 21: Hawaii Statehood Day

August 25: Uruguay Independence Day

August 31: Malaysia Independence Day

Do any of the above events feature in or affect your heritage, culture, or family history?

August Carnivals:

Posted August 2 - 53rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Carousel Edition

Posted August 5 - The Genea-Bloggers' Picnic

Posted August 13 - 4th Edition of the "I Smile for the Camera" Carnival - My Favorite Photograph

Posted August 18 - 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - The Family Language

Posted August 23 - 10th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - Carousel Edition

Submissions for the 8th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture are not due until September 22. Read more here.

The Cabinet of Curiosities is on summer holiday until September. Tim Abbott is looking for hosts for future editions.

August 1 - Data Backup Day

Julie Miller writes on how to create a genealogy disaster plan.

Scanfest: Sunday, August 24th, 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

Scanfest will be held one week early (usually held the last Sunday of the month), due to August 31st being a part of Labor Day weekend.

Go here to learn how to join Scanfest and our group of chatting, scanning family archivists, historians, and bloggers!

Go here to add the above deadlines and dates to your Google Calendar, courtesy of Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family.

July Is...

...not a month that has a particular heritage associated with it. However, there are a number of national holidays and a historical celebration during this month:

July 1: Canada Day

July 4 - Independence Day (United States)

July 9: Independence Day (Argentina)

July 14: Bastille Day (France)

July 17 - Constitution Day (South Korea)

July 20: Independence Day ( Colombia)

July 24: Pioneer Day (observed by the State of Utah and members of the LDS church)

Do any of the above events feature in or affect your heritage, culture, or family history?

Carnival Deadlines:

Posted July 4 - 51st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Independent Spirit

Posted July 14 - 3rd Edition of the Smile for the Camera Carnival - Celebrate Home

Posted July 18 - 52nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Age

Posted July 18 - 9th Edition of the Carnival of Central and European Genealogy - Research Experiences and Techniques

Posted July 28 - 7th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture - Summer Reading Challenge

The Cabinet of Curiosities is on summer holiday until September. Tim Abbott is looking for hosts for future editions.

July 1 - Data Backup Day

Ken Spangler of Beyond Fiction shares his close call in "A Very Scary Last Few Days". Don't let this happen to you!


Scanfest: Sunday, July 27th, 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

Go here to learn how to join our group of chatting, scanning family archivists, historians, and bloggers!

Go here to add the above deadlines and dates to your Google Calendar, courtesy of Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family.

Carnivals Galore!

This past week has seen the publication of four of my favorite carnivals. I've been--sadly--too busy to submit any posts to these, but I sure have enjoyed reading them as I snatch little moments here and there!

On Sunday, April 27th, the Cabinet of Curiosities #6 was posted by Jessica Palmer of bioephemera. You'll recognize one of our prominent geneabloggers, Janice of Cow Hampshire, as one of the submitters. Not necessarily a genealogy carnival, many geneabloggers submit their unusual finds they come across while researching their family trees.

Jessica of Jessica's Genejournal posted the 6th Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy on Monday, April 28th, which had a carousel (pick your own) theme.

Wednesday, April 30th, Lisa of A light that shines again posted the 5th Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture with the topic of "Irish Gaelic Names and Words."

And Jasia of Creative Gene just posted the 47th Carnival of Genealogy with the topic "A Place Called Home". This ties in nicely with the National Historic Preservation Month's theme of "This Place Matters"!

Happy Reading!

Cabinet of Curiosities #5 is Posted

Tim Abbott of Walking the Berkshires has just posted Cabinet of Curiosities #5, the Steampunk Edition. Go take a read!

March Is...

...Irish American Heritage Month.

...Women's History Month.

March 1: Korean Independence Movement Day (celebrated in both North and South Korea - independence from Japan)

March 8: International Women's Day

March 17: St. Patrick's Day

March 23: Easter Sunday

March 25: Greek Independence Day

Do any of the above feature in or affect your heritage, culture, or family history?

Carnival Due Dates and Other Events in March:

March 1: 43rd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - Technology

March 10: "Where Were You?" Carnival - Great Depression

March 14: 4th Edition of the Carnival of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture - St. Patrick's Day Parade

March 15: 44th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy - A Tribute to Women

By midday, March 16: Cabinet of Curiosities #5 - Steampunk Edition

March 21: 5th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - Traditional Dishes

March 29 - April 6: Spring Break Scan-a-Thon

March 30: Scanfest, 11 AM - 2 PM, Pacific Daylight Time

And One More Thing:

March 1 is National Pig Day!

What I Missed from GeneaBlogger Land

Sheesh! Things move along quite quickly in GeneaBlogger Land! Last week when my Internet was out, I took my laptop to the local public library after work every day to check my e-mail, pay online bills, prepare my syllabuses for online classes I'm teaching, and skim through my Google Reader at my favorite geneabloggers' posts. Since I only had an hour and a half each day to do all that, I didn't get to linger for long at any one blog. Saturday after teaching my computer class on Footnote.com to members of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, I just came home and "played," trying to catch up on some of the reading I've missed. If you've been busy or offline for a while as well, here's what happened in the last week (and the last month, during which I've been too busy to make comments):

• *Chris Dunham returned after over three weeks' hiatus at The Genealogue, and is as funny as ever!

• *Several new blogs have been created. I'll post more about these later this week.

• *Jasia won a free genetic testing at Blaine Bettinger's The Genetic Genealogist! Congratulations! She's been blogging about it at Creative Gene.

• *Speaking of returning bloggers, David of OakvilleBlackWalnut has been posting like fury since late December.

• *Donna Pointkowski at What's Past is Prologue has started a new meme, "Where was your family 200 years ago?" which follows Lisa's meme of "Where was your family in 1908?" at 100 Years in America.

• *Kimberly Powell at About.com's Genealogy listed "10 Genealogy Blogs Worth Reading." I'm honored to be included in the links at "And the Rest...."

• *Denise Olsen of Family Matters challenges us to post lists of local or family history blogs we use in our research. I'll be posting mine later this week.

• *Joe Beine has posted more vital records links on his blog, Genealogy Roots Blog, here.

• *WorldVitalRecords.com has changed its name to FamilyLink.com to better reflect its mission.

• *The 40th Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! Topic: Living-relative connections.

• *The Cabinet of Curiosities Carnival #3 has been posted!

(Takes deep breath.) Whew! We're busy writers! I think I've caught my readers up on everything!

2nd Cabinet of Curiosities Carnival is Posted

The 2nd Cabinet of Curiosities Carnival is posted at Tim Abbott's Walking the Berkshires. This blog carnival highlights various interesting and bizarre objects that bloggers have collected, some from their ancestors' pasts, others from the modern era. There are 13 submissions to this carnival, and do they ever look interesting!

My own submission was about the buttonhook of my husband's great-great-grandmother, posted here.

For next month's carnival (submission deadline: January 19th), Tim suggests that we look at our Christmas trees to see if we find a curiosity to share. What about you? Do have an unusual keepsake to write about?

The Buttonhook of Rebecca Catherine (SNOOK) WESTABY

[Laura and Carrie] dressed carefully in their woolen winter dresses and nervously combed their hair and braided it. They tied on their Sunday hair-ribbons. With the steel buttonhook they buttoned their shoes.

"Hurry up, girls!" Ma called. "It's past eight o'clock."

At that moment, Carrie nervously jerked one of her shoe-buttons off. It fell and rolled and vanished down a crack of the floor.

"Oh, it's gone!" Carrie gasped. She was desperate. She could not go where strangers would see that gap in the row of black buttons that buttoned up her shoe.

"We must take a button off one of Mary's shoes," Laura said.

But Ma had heard the button fall, downstairs. She found it and sewed it on again, and buttoned the shoe for Carrie.

At last they were ready. "You look very nice," Ma said, smiling. [1]

When I was a girl, my favorite books were the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Living on a small farm in rural Alaska with no electricity or running water, I could relate very well to her experiences. One of the things I also enjoyed doing was perusing a reproduction of an early twentieth-century Sears, Roebucks, and Co. mail-order catalog, that had pages and pages of button-up shoes. Now outside of museums, I have never seen button-up shoes, but my husband and I were blessed a few years ago to receive a button hook that had belonged to his great-great-grandmother, Rebecca Catherine (SNOOK) WESTABY, a woman who was alive when he, his brother, and several cousins were born. Unfortunately, to my knowledge no one ever took a five-generation photo for posterity. There were some four-generation photos taken when my father-in-law was a boy, however:

The woman on the far left in this photo is Rebecca at about age 79. Her son and daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and great-grandchildren also appear here.

First, a little history about Rebecca: she was born on 21 August 1865, probably in the Nittany Valley of Centre County, Pennsylvania to Reuben Wohlford SNOOK and Mary Ann WALKER. She was the middle of about half a dozen children, and her mother died when she was five years old. Reuben remarried to Elizabeth NEARHOOD and they had nine more children.

According to my father-in-law, the family came out west to California by covered wagon, and Rebecca walked behind the wagons much of the way. I have not found evidence that they ever made it to California. Perhaps they did, or perhaps they changed their mind along the trail. At any rate, they ended up in Forsyth, Custer (now Rosebud) County, Montana at least by the late 1880s. There Rebecca met and married George Rice WESTABY, II, always called "Rice," around 1888. They had seven children: Clarice Orvilla, a little girl born in 1889 who died in infancy; my husband's great-grandfather, George Rice, III; Guy Steven; Izma Ann (the only surviving daughter); Charles Wilson, Reuben Wohlford; and Lynn Walker WESTABY. What I like about Rebecca and Rice is that they named their children with family names. Many were named for relatives, and WILSON, Wohlford (from WOHLFART[H]), and WALKER were all ancestral surnames.

By 1920, Rebecca and Rice were separated, the older children all living on their own or with their spouses, while Reuben and Lynn lived with Rebecca and Rice in their homes, respectively. I've never heard what the cause of separation was, nor have looked for a divorce record for the couple. The family story passed down was that Rice married twice more before his death in 1927. Records from Rosebud County have not been filmed by the Family History Library; they are also archived in various locations, and both time and money must be invested to obtain the records I need to flesh out this family a little more. I do know that Rebecca's father and step-mother, as well as some of her siblings, are buried in the Forsyth Cemetery. Rice died in Forsyth as well, but his body was sent back to Illinois to be buried with Westaby family members in Thompson Cemetery, Jo Daviess County.

Rebecca, meanwhile, moved on. It is said that she lived in Sheridan, Wyoming for a while, but the next time I find her is in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census in Salem, Marion County, Oregon, working in a cannery. She would have been 64 years old at this time. Why she came to Salem is somewhat vague to me; her youngest son Lynn may have lived there, but he died while swimming in either Tillamook Bay or the Columbia River in 1923 (again, oral history unverified). He had an artificial leg, which may have accounted for his inability to survive whatever caused his drowning. According to family history, his body was never recovered. At any rate, Rebecca lived alone during her senior years. Her children were scattered from New Jersey to Montana and Idaho to the Yakima Valley of Washington State. According to her obituary, she made quilts all the way up until four years before her death, caused by a stroke and fall in her bathroom.

Now about that buttonhook: there is a wonderful website for The Buttonhook Society where I found information about this handy tool. It seems that buttonhooks were used for more than buttoning shoes, as buttons on gloves, the back of shirtwaists, boots, and many other articles of clothing were popular during the 1880s - 1910s. In fact, buttonhooks were still produced in the 1920s and 1930s. How were they used? The tip of the hook would be threaded through the buttonhole from the outside of the shoe or clothing. Then the button would be grasped with the hook and carefully pulled through the buttonhole. Obviously, pulling too hard on the hook could result in the button flying off, as the example from The Long Winter, above, tells us. Rebecca's buttonhook has no manufacturer's mark, and the handle is a resinous material that appears to be an early plastic, indicating that this is a newer model. So I doubt this hook has much monetary value, but its worth as a family memento is priceless!

[1] Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter (1940; reprint, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1968), 76.

This post was written for the 2nd Cabinet of Curiosities Carnival hosted by Tim Abbot of Walking the Berkshires. What unusual or unique items from the past do you possess?