Advent Calendar - Evening Bells

It's simply not Christmas unless there is music playing throughout the house. This is the first and last carol I play. It's playing as the tree goes up, as I bake cookies or make nut rolls, as we wrap and unwrap presents. It's the Christmas recording I would want were I stranded on the proverbial desert island. I can sing all the other carols I love. I cannot sing this. Only the incomparable Ivan Rebroff can.  

Sunday's Obituary: Thomas James Meredith (c.1815-29 August 1855)

Thomas James Meredith, called James by his family, was the eldest child of Maj. John Meredith of Lancaster county, Virginia. According to the 1850 census James was born in 1815. In December, 1832 he was living and working at a store near Totuskey Bridge in Richmond County, Virginia. He remained there for over a decade, living with first his uncle, Joseph Meredith, then with his aunt, Caroline Meredith Shearman. He assumed responsiblity for his younger half-sister and brothers following the deaths of his father in 1834 and stepmother in 1835. (You can read about his sister Margaret here and here and about his brother William here.) By 1847 he had moved to Baltimore to work directly with his uncle, Thomas Meredith, at the firm Meredith & Spencer. He appeared in the 1850 census with a wife, Elizabeth and two young children. Elizabeth appears alone, widowed in the 1860 census with three children. 

Much of my knowledge of James is drawn from the letters he wrote from Totuskey Bridge to his uncle Thomas Meredith in Baltimore. The letters are part of the Thomas Meredith Papers at the Maryland Historical Society. They are warm and affectionate, painting a picture of a devoted brother and nephew, as well as an active merchant.

From the Library of Congress

A search of Google Books yielded a horrible clue to James' fate. An 1856 New Jersey legislative report included reports from the railroad and canal companies that listed a Thomas I. Meredith of Baltimore as a fatality in an August 29, 1855 railroad accident. Since James was indexed as Thos I Meredith in the 1850 census it seemed probable that he was the Meredith listed in the report. News reports from the Baltimore Sun and New York Times confirmed that he was one of twenty-two killed when a train derailed near Burlington, NJ. Dozens more were injured. The accident was headline news during early September while the coroner's inquest was held. 

The Baltimore Sun published an update on August 31st (p. 4) that read

The papers of yesterday contained the particulars of the terrible railroad accident on the Camden and Amboy road, by which two of our most estimable merchants were suddenly hurried into eternity, viz: Mr. John Dallam, of the firm of Dallam & Miller, and Mr. Thomas J. Meredith. Both of these gentlemen were about forty years of age, and leave families to morn their loss -- Mr Dallam leaving a wife and two children, and Mr. Meredith a wife and three children. Their partners, Messrs. Spencer and Miller, left yesterday morning, in the early train, for the scene of the disaster, for the purpose of bringing __ the remains. They were expected at an early hour this morning, and arrangements were made for the purpose of interring them in Greenmount Cemetery upon their arrival.

Should the funeral not take place until a later hour, we learn that the merchants on Baltimore Street and in the vicinity of the stores of the deceased, will close their establishments during the hours of the internment as a mark of respect.

James' widow Elizabeth remained in their home on Biddle Street until marrying a widower, Alexander Wolf, in 1868. Their children Thomas, (b. 1847), Kate (b. 1848), and Florence (b. 1854) appear with their mother on 1863 I.RS. Tax Assessment lists and with Alexander and Elizabeth Wolf in the 1870 census. Kate and Florence appear on the 1880 census as Kate and Florence Wolf, living with their mother Elizabeth, who was apparently widowed again. Thomas may be the Thomas J. Meredith (b. 1847, Maryland) who appears in Gloucester County, Virginia in the 1900 census.

Advent Calendar: Grandmother's Tree

When my mother was growing up her mother would on rare occasions tamper with the Christmas tree formula (and it was a formula - see below). One year there was a flocked tree with blue balls - not a favorite. Grandmother was no longer decorating the tree when this one was put up in 1989. But  her caregivers brought out the boxes and put up the tree for her. If you'll look carefully you'll see glass balls with writing on them. There was a set of seven ornaments, each painted with the name of one of her grandchildren. The set was given to her sometime between 1960, when her 7th grandchild was born, and 1968 when her eighth surviving grandchild was born.

When I was helping to clean out her house after her death in 1993 I found the set - now eight balls. Seven neatly painted plus one more scratched out with a knife bearing the name of our dearly loved number eight. I wrapped them carefully and sent each off (with a few other souvenir ornaments) to the appropriate cousin. I smile every time I think of my youngest cousin sitting there, nail file or pen knife in hand, etching out his name and hanging the ball on the tree.

***************
Mother's formula for decorating a Christmas tree - Divide lights and ornaments into sixths. Three-sixths of the lights and ornaments go on the bottom third of the tree. Two-sixths go on the middle third of the tree. One-sixth goes on the top third of the tree. Young children were excused from knowing and executing the formula - but their ornaments were likely be moved once they were abed.

Happy Day! Great Blogs Abounding

Perhaps it's a factor of the delightful chaos of the Christmas season, or my rapidly diminishing ability to keep ANYTHING in order - my desk, my dogs, my muddled brain. Perhaps the stars realigned during last night's meteor showers which I really, really wanted to see but did not because it was just too cold. For whatever the reason, I am more than befuddled today - I'm stunned, flabbergasted and having an awful time wiping a really goofy grin off my face.

I have been nominated as one of the 40 best genealogy blogs by Family Tree Magazine in the New Blogs category. Luckily I was seated when I learned this.

My initial response was to laugh and pull a General Sherman or Groucho Marx. I mean, really? I have a pretty healthy (inflated) sense of my own worth, but I know how many great bloggers there are on the other side of this keyboard and monitor. I can spend entire mornings reading them. No way am I in their class. Then I looked at the list of nominated blogs. The blogs I spend mornings reading - they're there. The blogs I quote to my husband and children - they're there. The blogs I want to write when I grow up - there. The blogs I send links to my non-genie friends with the note "I never do this but you HAVE to read this" - there.

Forget Groucho - I'm hugely honored to be on the same page with these blogs and thank those that nominated me. And sorry Sherman, but having been nominated, I will serve with pleasure if elected.

Geneabloggers has posted a list of all the nominees with links (thank you, Thomas). Check them out, then vote, if you wish, here. It's a great group - all keepers.

Blog Caroling 2010 - Christmas Bells

FootnoteMaven has invited geneabloggers to a virtual carol sing this Christmas. One of my favorite carols began as a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow during the Civil War. It was twice set to music and then a third time in 1956 by Johnny Marks, who also wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Longfellow's original poem, with stark references to the Civil War raging, can be found here.

It has been recorded many times, but my favorite version was recorded by Harry Belafonte in the 1960s.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Bells

(Adapted from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rung so long

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: 

"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!"