Birdie's Fresh Apple Cake - a priceless antique

This recipe is a family favorite, passed down through the generations. In fact, it is over 100 years old. The original slip of paper, though torn and tattered - is priceless to me.  There have been very minor adjustments, from the original.  

Birdie's Fresh Apple Cake

2 Cups sugar
3 Cups flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 Cup finely chopped pecans
1 Cup Wesson oil
3 eggs
3 apples (finely chopped, med-large size Red Delicious)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, soda, salt and sugar together. Add pecans, eggs, vanilla, Wesson oil and apples. Beat gently at medium-speed with electric mixer.

Bake at 350 in a bundt pan with PAM or equivalent butter spray, for one hour.

Moist and yummy, and does not require a frosting. I would love to hear your thoughts, and perhaps this will be one you also pass down to your friends and family.

Legacy announces converting Black and White photos to Color !

This is a SUPER addition to Legacy. Run don't walk, and go to:

Your Black & White Photograph to Full Color in 1 Step
February 12, 2020
Brand new - use this incredible new tool to automatically colorize your black and white photographs. Watch how here: https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2020/02/your-black-white-photograph-to-full-color-in-1-step.html

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy

Special thanks to DNA Testing Guide, for directing me to their website - I hope readers find this useful.

The idea of doing genealogy research might make you cringe because you imagine yourself spending hours trapped in a library or a town hall as you dig through dusty books and tall shelves. You can now do much of the research that you like from home.

The internet made it easy for you to access the public records of town halls and community centers located thousands of miles away.

Additional information on What Can Genealogy Tell You ?  and more, go to:
https://www.dnatestingguides.com/blogs/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-genealogy/
(DNA Testing Guide)

Learning the DNA Lingo

a repost from 06 April 2016, but an excellent refresher

By Blaine T. Bettinger

Taking a DNA test for genetic genealogy research? We’ll help you understand some of the scientific terms you'll come across.

Autosomal DNA (also called atDNA or admixture DNA): genetic material inherited equally from mother and father. It's genealogically useful for ancestry back through about five to seven generations. Beyond that, you may not have inherited enough DNA from any one ancestor for that person to be represented in your autosomal DNA.

Centimorgan (cM): a measurement of the distance between genetic markers on the DNA based on the expected frequency of recombination with each generation. On average, one cM equals one million base pairs. In general, the more centimorgans you share with a genetic match, the closer your relationship (although individuals related through multiple ancestors also may share a high number of centimorgans). 

Chromosome: a threadlike strand of DNA that carries genes and transmits hereditary information.

Genome: All the genetic material in the chromosome set of an organism. 46 chromosomes make up the human genome.

Genotype: The genetic makeup of a particular individual.

DYS (DNA Y-chromosome Segment): DYS followed by a number identifies a short segment of Y-chromosome DNA, also called a Short Tandem Repeat (STR) or a marker. A Y-DNA test reveals how many repeats of a particular nucleotide sequence are found at that DYS marker. For example, DYS390 is one of the most commonly tested Y-DNA markers, and values for the marker typically range from 19 to 28 repeats.

Genetic cousins: Individuals whose DNA test results match one another. You may have cousins who aren't genetic cousins—that is, you and your cousin don't match on DNA tests because you didn't inherit enough of the same DNA from the same ancestor.

Haplogroup: a collection of related haplotypes with a common ancestor. The haplogroup (also called a clade) is usually defined by a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation that arose in an ancestor hundreds or thousands of years ago, and is found in all of the descendant haplotypes.

Haplotype: an individual’s set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or DYS markers. Males who are recently related through their paternal line will have similar haplotypes and belong to the same haplogroup. The more diverse two haplotypes are, the more time has passed since their most recent common ancestor.

Genealogy Tips: Searching for Your Ancestors Using Nicknames

By Gena Philibert-Ortega

Try Nicknames

Do you have a nickname? Maybe your nickname is based on your actual given name. Perhaps it has to do with a characteristic or physical trait you possess. You may have earned your nickname playing sports or in the workplace. Sometimes a nickname may make absolutely no sense. In my case, my paternal grandfather gave me a nickname shortly after I was born based on his miss-hearing of my actual middle name. That nickname would make no sense to anyone (and no, I won’t tell you what it is) but it was always the name he used to refer to me.

A person can gain a nickname for all kinds of reasons, including: ease of pronunciation; to distinguish between two family members with the same name; and in some cases to call out a negative trait.


A very informative feature from GenealogyBank. Continue reading at: https://tinyurl.com/ua45sxy

Gilbert Town: Its Place in North Carolina and Revolutionary War History

William Gilbert, of Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Scot) heritage, came to America and settled first in Philadelphia, where he met and married Sarah McCanless, who was born there in 1737. They traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, from Philadelphia and then came to Old Tryon County.
In 1777 and 1778, he was assessor of taxes and, in 1778, collector of taxes. Mr. Gilbert held the office of justice of the peace in Old Tryon County, taking his seat in July, 1778. In 1779, he represented Tryon in the North Carolina House of Commons.
On February 8th, 1779, he was forced to resign his commission as justice of the peace on the charge of duplicating his vouchers as commissary of militia of Tryon County. His guilt or innocence can never be known. Despite the charge, when Rutherford County was formed from Old Tryon, Gilbert represented the new county in the North Carolina House of Commons. He was selected in 1779, 1780, 1782, and 1783.
Gilbert was appointed justice of the peace for Rutherford County in 1781. At the October, 1781, term of the Rutherford County Court, he was chosen chairman of the court. The court vindicated him of the legislative charge of duplicating his vouchers by an order in October 1781, reading "On motion of William Gilbert, Esq., and testimony produced to the satisfaction of the court, it is ordered that the opinion of the court be entered on the records, to-wit: It is the opinion of the court that the said William Gilbert is not guilty of the charge laid against to the General Assembly, and we do certify that the said William Gilbert never plundered, nor was guilty of plundering, to our knowledge."
Gilbert was charged with treason, because Ferguson used the Gilbert home as his headquarters. Lyman Draper in his definitive history, King's Mountain and Its Heroes, on page 159, states Gilbert "was a Loyal friend of King George." In 1897, Flournoy Rivers wrote in a Nashville newspaper that "Draper seemed to have presumed that Gilbert was a Loyalist simply because Major Ferguson camped at Gilbert Town, as though an invading army would ever quarter on a friend while in an enemy's country. As a fact, the Assembly was then sitting at Hillsborough and Gilbert, being the county's representative in the House of Commons, was most likely absent there, and Ferguson, in his absence, most probably quartered on [Gilbert] as an object lesson by way of making treason odious, as it were."

North Carolina records indicate that on October 25th, 1775, Gilbert and others, including the Committee of Safety, signed the "Association Oath," expressing profound regret that "his Brittannic Majesty had been so ill-advised as to encroach on the undoubted rights of the colonists as Englishmen, with the firmly expressed intention of sustaining both the Continental and Provincial Congresses."

In October, 1783, Gilbert wanted to visit his wife's relatives in Philadelphia. The court, sitting at his son-in-law's house, prepared, under the seal of the court, a statement of his standing and civic virtues, by way of a letter of introduction. "That the said William Gilbert hath long been an inhabitant of this county, hath frequently represented the same in the General Assembly; that he is first in commission of the place, and that it appears from the lists of assessments returned into the clerk's office that he is possessed of and hath given in for assessing more taxable property than any other person in the county of Rutherford, and that he hath uniformly distinguished himself as a warm Whig and a true friend to his county in times of greatest distress and defection during the war."
Despite his successful defense of the charges of treason, Gilbert continued to have legal problems after the war, being engaged in numerous lawsuits, and eventually lost his property. In 1786, 1787, and a portion of 1788, he lived in Charleston, South Carolina. He later returned to Gilbert Town to live at the home of his son-in-law, James Holland, where he died in 1790. He was buried on Ferguson's Hill above Gilbert Town.
Gilbert's wife, Sarah McCanless Gilbert, lived until 1822. She went with the James Holland family in 1790 to Maury County, Tennessee, and is buried at Holland's Ford on the Duck River.
James Holland married Gilbert's daughter Sarah. He represented Rutherford County in the North Carolina House of Commons and the Senate. He was elected to the first board of trustees of the University of North Carolina.
(Nancy Ellen Ferguson)

Early Vermont Settlers: new Fort Dummer sketches

          An excerpt from a 1724 letter containing a plan of Fort Dummer (Thomas Stoddard)

Today we’ve added eight new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784, highlighting families who lived at Fort Dummer. The new sketches include Major John Arms, Valentine Butler, Joseph Kellogg, Col. Josiah Willard, Col. Josiah Willard, Jr., Nathan Willard, Wilder Willard, and William Willard. We’ve also added “Fort Dummer Soldiers“, a document containing shorter notes regarding the lives of soldiers who served at Fort Dummer (but did not become residents of Vermont). See the first page of “Fort Dummer Soldiers” for more information on who is included and why. Scholars of this region and time period should also consult Scott Andrew Bartley’s article, “The Connecticut River Valley Before Settlement and the Soldiers of Fort Dummer,” in Vermont Genealogy, (24 [2019]: 135-162).

Scott Andrew Bartley’s study project tracks heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War.  His sketches so far have focused on Windham and Windsor counties.

The latest cluster of sketches focus on families who lived in Fort Dummer, the precursor to Brattleboro, Vermont. Fort Dummer was established during Dummer’s War, a series of conflicts between settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Native Americans. The main conflict of Dummer’s War centered around boundaries–what belonged to the American colonists? What land belonged to the Native Americans? What land belonged to the British? These conflicts took place from 1722-1725 along the Kennebec River in Maine, in Nova Scotia, and in western Massachusetts. Brattleboro was established in 1753 as part of the New Hampshire land grants (when both New Hampshire and New York laid claim to the present state of Vermont).

Steel Smith‘s sketch (from Windsor) was also updated.

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

Archdiocese of Boston: new searchable records from Foxborough and Georgetown

by Molly Rogers

 St. Mary's church in Foxborough from 100 Years of Progress, page 753

Today we’ve added six new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Mary in Foxborough and St. Mary in Georgetown. This update adds over 6,400 records and over 24,000 names to search.
St. Mary's in Foxborough became an independent parish in 1880. Prior to this date, various priests from a few different parishes would come to say mass in this area. They had a church in this town as early as 1859.
In 1873 the church of St. Mary's in Georgetown was dedicated. For some time, it was a mission of the church in Haverhill. As the Catholic population in this area grew, St. Patrick's in Groveland began as a mission of this parish.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these parishes available online.
The new volumes are listed below:
St. Mary (Foxborough) Baptisms and Marriages, 1880-1901
St. Mary (Foxborough) Baptisms, 1896-1901
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1874-1890
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1874-1890 (copy)
St. Mary (Georgetown) Baptisms and Marriages, 1891-1898
St. Mary (Georgetown) Various, 1898-1916

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
https://wp.me/p8jE0N-Em 
photo/https://www.stmarysfoxboro.org/

How Two 1950's Kids Playing on the Railroad Tracks Found a National Treasure

By Bethanee Bemis, Harry R. Rubenstein
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
February 12, 2020

Sixty years later, curators at the National Museum of American History talked to the brothers who found a relic of the 1800 Adams and Jefferson election

In 1959, the Smithsonian Institution received a letter from Mrs. James “Shirley C.” Wade offering to sell a linen banner bearing an ink portrait of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. An eagle carried the Jefferson portrait victoriously aloft framed in a halo of seven-pointed stars. From the bird’s beak streamed a ribbon proclaiming: “T. Jefferson President of the United States. John Adams is No More.”

The imagery was crafted in the foment of a bitter campaign that was barely resolved by a voting system so flawed (a problem later clarified by the 12th amendment) that it required congressional intervention to deliver Jefferson’s victory. During the campaign, Jeffersonian Republicans accused John Adams of conspiring to establish a new monarchy aligned with the British, and the Federalist supporters of Adams warned that the godless Jefferson would bring an end to religion in the republic. The candidates’ campaigns were so contentious in their rhetoric and accusations that historians often referred to them as an extreme example of how low presidential contests can be.

Fascinating story from Smithsonian magazine at: https://tinyurl.com/vuzfstn

Dozens of Historic Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Available Online

The University of Texas San Antonio’s vast collection makes traditional Mexican and Mexican-American cooking accessible

The oldest Mexican cookbook in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) collection was never meant for public consumption. Handwritten in 1789 by Don?a Ignacita, a woman who probably served as the kitchen manager for a well-to-do family, the manuscript includes recipes for such specialties as “hidden vegetable stew,” or potaje escondido, and an orange-hued soup called zopa de naranja.

Volumes like this 200-year-old specimen—many boasting scribbled notes and stains on their owners’ favorite recipes—form the heart of the university’s collection. Now, thanks to a renewed digitization campaign, around half of the school’s approximately 100 manuscript cookbooks are available for anyone to browse online, reports Nils Bernstein for Atlas Obscura.

“I’ve had students in tears going through these, because it’s so powerful to see that connection with how their family makes certain dishes and where they originated,” UTSA Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Noell tells Atlas Obscura. “I want anybody with an internet connection to be able to see these works.”

Additional story at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dozens-old-mexican-cookbooks-now-available-online-180974186/

Finding a Stronger Sense of Self through family history

I Spent a Month Uncovering My Family History, and I Found a Stronger Sense of Self

As part of a monthly resolution challenge, I wanted to learn more about my family's past and how it could shape my future.

BY KELSEY HURWITZ
Feb 21, 2020

This article is part of WomansDay.com’s series on mini monthly resolutions and challenges. The first challenge is all about discovering and recording your family history.

An idea seems to persist that family history, like the study of history in general, is mostly about the discovery of names and dates. But tracing your family history should be about so much more than filling in the branches of a family tree. For genealogist and historian David Allen Lambert, it’s all about the dash. “The years on someone’s gravestone are when they lived,” he told Woman's Day. “The dash represents how they lived.”

Additional story at: https://www.womansday.com/life/a30928747/mini-monthly-resolutions-family-history/