Genea-Resolutions for 2011

Jasia put the topic for January's 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy up for a vote and planning won. I am the world's worst at keeping New Year's resolutions, but I am highly motivated to continue the projects begun in 2010.

Postcard from 1908, via Wikimedia Commons

2010 was my year to begin organizing and sharing my genealogical research. I made some progress - this blog, a good start on a family history web site which WILL be online in 2011, and another failed attempt to organize the generations of papers I've inherited. Those papers are threatening to take over the entire house so tackling them is top of the list for my 2011 genea-resolutions.

Organizing Research goals -

• Design archives storage/filing system and IMPLEMENT! The first step must be to corral all the papers into one room. 
• Process at least one box per month of family papers. Remember, not everything must be kept. This will become my mantra. 
• Finish designing and publish the genealogy website (R O O T S T O C K). 
• Continue to update pedigree database with biographical sketches and blog post information. Review and standardize source listings. Do NOT attach any multimedia files.

Blog goals -

• One biographical sketch a month - starting with the grandparents.
• One brickwall post a month outlining the issue or research status, beginning with the Hamptons.
• Continue posting photographs and document transcriptions from the family "archives" (aka the boxes that ate my house).
• Blog reading and commenting - limit to 30 minutes each morning.  You may finish in the evening. No peeking in between! Much as I love reading what everyone else is writing it has eaten into my day. 

Research goals -

• Just say no! No more research until the website is up and running, until the streamlined pedigree database is complete, until the "archives" are organized. 
• Except... there are the road trips! Do organize research plans for the Family History Expo in July (Kansas City), the FGS conference in September (Springfield, IL), the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International conference in October (St. Louis, MO - not really a road trip) and ...
• The spring tour of Maryland, Virginia and D. C.  Plan research days at the Library of Virginia, The Mary Ball Washington Historical Society, the Maryland Historical Society and the National Archives. Research Catholic archives, especially in Baltimore, to see which might have additional records for Merediths, Palmers and Yerbys. 
• Examine and digitize the Maria Palmer Smith papers. Develop storage plan for papers. 

Whew! It's a lot to do, but there are some carrots in with the sticks - not the least of which is reclaiming our home.

Happy 2011 to Geneabloggers near and far!

Submitted to the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

Advent Calendar: Holy Night Supper

Christmas Eve for my Rusyn ancestors was celebrated on January 6th. While I celebrated many Easters with my father's family, I was never able to celebrate Christmas with them. School holidays were over and my parents were wary of a hurried drive to upstate New York in January.

In 1979 my aunt gave me a cookbook prepared by the wives of priests in the Scranton Deanery of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese (how's that for a mouthful?). It describes the traditional Holy Night supper served on Christmas Eve. It is the last meal of the forty day Advent fast and is prepared without meat or dairy products. Twelve dishes are served (representing the twelve Apostles) including bread and wine which represent the Last Supper. A candle, representing the Star of Bethlehem, lights the table which is covered with a white cloth representing the Virgin Mary. Garlic, honey and salt are placed on the table. After dinner special Christmas prayers are said, carols sung and the family goes to Church.

A sample menu: 

Wine and Bread

Split Green Peas with Záprašhka

Lima Beans with Záprašhka

Mushroom Soup with Záprašhka

Sauerkraut with Záprašhka

Mashed Potatoes

Lenten Píroghi

Fish

Bobaľki

Fruit Compote

Stewed Prunes

Stewed Apricots

Nuts

Tea or Coffee

Píroghi are similar to ravioli only filled with potatoes or prunes. Záprašhka is a brown roux made from flour and oil that thickens the soup or liquids served with the vegetables. Bobaľki, or small dough balls boiled in water, can be sweet or savory. Sweetened, they are served with honey and poppyseeds. Savory bobaľki are tossed with sauteed cabbage and onions.

Over the years I've tried to incorporate some of these foods into our Christmas Eve menus. Each effort has been an abject failure. My very American husband and children could never see bringing in Christmas with mushrooms and cabbage nor, I must admit, have I been impressed with my offerings. The worst was a sauerkraut and pea casserole that even the dog wouldn't eat. Perhaps one year I'll manage an elegant meatless and dairy-free Christmas Eve supper worthy of my roots.

Merry Christmas. Christos Razdajetsja! Slavite Jeho!

Source: Paňis' Cookbook. No place: no publisher, 1977. Printed privately to benefit Camp Nazareth, Mercer, PA. 

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.

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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.