Mennonite Deaths

Their church

Last weekend I wondered about some of the details of the Mennonite religion. While on a trip to nearby Yates County in the Finger Lakes region, we stopped at a cemetery that belongs to a group of Mennonites. Situated along side their church, the cemetery is small compared to most others in the area. The Mennonites started moving to this area somewhere in the 1970’s, but it has only been in recent years that any large number have located in the area.

Looking at the stones in this cemetery, I wondered about the experience of pregnancy and birth for the women of the community. Do they have more problems with giving birth and losing children than what people in the general population, those of us they call “the English” do? It may seem strange to be thinking about the beginning of life while standing in a place representative of the end of this journey. However, there was a distinct reason that these questions came to mind. Probably somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of these graves were for children and infants.

While it is understandable that there would be few older people buried yet in a cemetery that was created by a community fairly new to the area, it was surprising to find so many young people. Many of the stones gave birth and death dates that were only a few days apart. One listed how many hours and minutes the baby lived. Others only had one date and the word “stillborn” inscribed on them. It was heartbreaking to see so many, especially the neat little row of five stones-- all from the same parents. Why I wondered. Did they have a problem that we don’t? Is there something genetic that is happening to them? Do they shun modern health care that would have prevented some of these early deaths?

Many sites that I looked at on the Internet concurred with what this one has to say: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../8296784

It seems that while the group as a whole have a few more genetic disorders surfacing due to the fact that they don’t marry across a wide population, their healthy life-style balances this out. Therefore, the rate of infant mortality is not much different than that of the general population.

The Mennonites, while shunning many of our modern technologies, don’t object to ones that they find helpful. For example, some groups do not own cars due to the temptations of more modern life that they lead to. However, they don’t object to members riding in someone else’s car when they need to get somewhere quickly or at a great distance. This balance between temptations and what is helpful would certainly allow for medical intervention by the English if there was a problem during pregnancy or childbirth.

Shelter for the horses during services

The only conclusions I could come to is that either it is a sad coincidence that there are so many deaths at a young age, or that they are perhaps more willing to acknowledge such loss and create memorials to the children than we in modern society are likely to. It is a common fact that they tend to have larger families than others do and so perhaps, too, it is just a law of averages at work and being a newer community, it is more noticeable in the graveyard. Whatever the reason, I found it sad and touching how many small children were remembered in their short lives. This is a part of why we do genealogy, to remember those that have gone on before us. I think especially, those that were here for such a short time that they didn’t live much of a life or have many people get to know them are important for us to acknowledge and remember.

Oswego County Fair and the Heritage Building

I was neglectful in not writing about the Oswego County Fair before it happened so that readers who live near there could visit last week. This is the best fair in the area for genealogists. Really! I know people don’t think about attending a fair when they think about working on their genealogy, but if you have ancestors from Oswego County you can easily do both at once.

The fair is the typical small county fair with animal exhibits, a mid-way, food concessions and people hawking all kinds of products. At different times you can listen to local bands, attend a demolition derby or look at an antique car display. But, wander over to the far corner of the fairgrounds. There’s a pole building called the Heritage Building. The superintendent of the building is Shawn Doyle. Some of you might recognize him as either an Oswego County legislator or as the President of Half-Shire Historical Society. It is the latter hat he is mainly wearing when he is in this building.

This is the place that is the best for any genealogical or historical minded visitor. Within this building are exhibits dedicated to the history of many of the towns in Oswego County. This year, I believe all towns had a display and Fort Ontario even offered one as well. Fort Ontario’s even had historical hats that you could try on and have your picture taken if you wished! These displays vary from year to year, but feature some historical aspect of each town and along with it some of the older families of the towns. Many displays feature pictures of what the town looked like 100 years or so ago. Sometimes people are there demonstrating old time techniques. I’ve seen people spinning and sewing quilts among others over the years. An old piano sits near one wall that anyone can walk up to and play if they wish.

Situated in one corner of the building was the librarian form Half-Shire Historical. As always, she had many notebooks and other materials related to the genealogy and history of the area available to consult as well as her computer system there. On Saturday, and I understand for much of the run of the fair, she was busy scanning old pictures into the system in between talking with and helping people that came by.

In the center of the building is the heart of it. A large circle of tables display information about the society and various other organizations and events that are coming up in the area. A small display of older artifacts is housed in a glass case. However, much of the table space is taken up with books. What kind of books? Well, books on the history of various areas of the county, of various groups of people, cemetery records, newspaper abstracts, genealogies… If there is a book that has been published by an individual, historical society, town historian or the like in recent years on some aspect of Oswego County, it is likely available here. When I say it is available, I mean you can look at it just like in a bookstore and just like that store, you can buy a copy for yourself. Half Shire sells these books that they have bought as well as many that are there on consignment from the various places that have published them.

If you have a question about the area, history or genealogy in general, there is usually someone hanging out somewhere in this building that has at least an idea of where to find the answer for you. All of them are volunteers that enjoy this type of thing. My husband and I hung out at the tables talking with friends and people we met there for most of the day on Saturday.

As I said in the beginning, I was neglectful in not writing about this earlier. The fair concluded for this year yesterday. However, it will be back again next summer, so keep an eye out for the dates and plan to attend. This building is a great addition to the Oswego County fair and I wish other local fairs would start something like this as well!

IGHR Has Announced Rooms for Next Year

 As I mentioned in posts earlier this summer when I was attending IGHR in Samford, Alabama, next year the institute is moving to Athens, Georgia. This morning they announced that booking for the hotel is now open. This hotel is in the conference center where the institute is being held so rooms will go fast. If you are interested in attending, you'd better get busy booking!

Online booking for the UGA hotel is now open! https://webapps.georgiacenter.uga.edu/Hotel/
Use block code 86879 to get the IGHR rate ($79 for "Classic" rooms and $99 for "Select" rooms).
Room descriptions are available at the hotel's website, http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/…/…/guest-rooms/guest-rooms.
The IGHR rate includes one parking pass per room.
The UGA hotel is in the same building with the conference center where all IGHR classes (excluding field trips) will be held. There are several dining options in the building as well.

Calendar Tip

A couple weeks ago I mentioned the Legacy webinar about organizing.

Last week I finally got a chance to listen to it. Fortunately I subscribe to the webinars as the free access time period had expired by the time I got a chance to listen. I think perhaps that is an indication of how much I need help with organizing! 

Yes I've needed help organizing since early on!

Like many webinars there were many ideas and tips in there and I did not absorb all of them. It is one of those webinars that is good to go back to and listen to again and again. There just seems to be more nuances and ideas popping out each time you hear it.

One idea that I took from the webinar that I am very grateful for is a tip on using Google Calendars. This would work for many different calendar apps and even for a paper one if you use that. However, it was something that Lisa Louise Cooke said about this particular app that I already used that jumped out at me. You can create many different calendars that appear on the same page, assigning different colors to each one. Okay, so this is a basic concept and one that I already use. I have a calendar on there, I also have any of Rich’s appointments in a different color and holidays appear in a third color. Each can have their display turned on or off with a click on the side panel. Easy, simple, and something I’ve been doing for years. No big deal.

However, when Lisa was discussing this, she mentioned having a separate calendar for genealogy projects. Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head! Wait a minute! It doesn’t need to be a person! I can have a calendar and a unique color for my genealogy projects. Another color can be assigned for client work. The menu planning I’ve been trying to do on a paper calendar to streamline cooking and grocery shopping- that could be yet another color on there! Suddenly I was realizing I could pull all these things together in one place. It would not be a jumble of confusion on the calendar- I could just turn on and off the ones I wanted to see at any given moment.

Many people are probably laughing at such a simple idea being a break through on organizing. However, this is often how such things work. What is simple and obvious to one person takes another a longer time to reach. This simple concept has been very helpful to me in organizing. It is giving me hope in sorting out some of the messes I have and finally figuring out what I have and where I need to go next.

Here is my challenge for you. What simple thing do you do that helps with your genealogy or with getting things done so that you have time to do genealogy? Think about it. Something that is small and obvious to you might not be to others. Write about it. It could be just a few sentences on a Facebook or Twitter post. Just write and share it with others and encourage them to also share a small tip that they might have. All of us together can discover ways to save hours of time to do what we really want to do- find those elusive ancestors!

Wordless Wednesday - Yates County farms

US-Mexican War Announcement

 I just got this announcement through the National Genealogical Society's newsletter UpFront with NGS:


From our friends at FGS and the National Park Service …

August 8, 2016 – Austin, TX. and Brownsville, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park announce a partnership to develop a searchable database of more than 130,000 soldiers of the U.S.-Mexican War.

The database will allow descendants of U.S. soldiers to connect to their personal history and help Palo Alto commemorate and tell the stories of these soldiers. After the database is developed, unit histories, digitized documents, and information on U.S.-Mexican War soldiers will be added. Efforts will also be made to include names and information about Mexican soldiers in this war.

"FGS is thrilled to partner with the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park for this important preservation project,” said FGS President D. Joshua Taylor. “We look forward to working with our member societies and volunteers to provide new access to records for those researching the Mexican War."

Palo Alto Battlefield is also pleased with the partnership. “National Parks tell the stories of America,” said Superintendent Mark Spier. “Palo Alto Battlefield is excited to have the opportunity to work with the Federation of Genealogical Societies to tell the stories of the thousands of soldiers who served in the U.S.-Mexican War.”

To help bring these soldiers’ stories to life and to be a part of this momentous preservation project, indexing volunteers should contact Project Coordinator Patricia Rand, The Villages, FL, at projects@fgs.org.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Park Service previously partnered together in 1999 for the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database project where FGS volunteers completed data entry for more than five million names. The efforts of the CWSS project can now be experienced on the NPS Civil War website.

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The US-Mexican War was fought between 1846 and 1848 for those that don't remember that part of American History class. It is not the border skirmishes that occurred in 1916 during the Mexican Revolution where we were trying to capture Poncho Villa who was making raids into the United States. This is the first thing I thought of when I saw the announcement especially when it mentioned Brownsville, Texas. I obviously didn't pay strict attention to military battles in class either.

Saturday Challenge- Oldest and Youngest Living Men Relatives

From Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Review your Pedigree Chart (either on paper or in your genealogy management software program) and determine the age at death of your Male ancestors back at least five generations (and more if you want to).

2)  Tell us the lifespan years for each of these ancestors.  Which of your male ancestors in this group lived the longest?  Which lived the shortest?  

Father

2 Gordon John Ward. (2 February 1919-10 December 1998) age 79.

Grandfathers

4 William J Ward. ( 27 November 1887-30 May 1962) age 74.

6 Marion James Wooster. (14 June 1896-1 April 1976) age 79.

Great-Grandfathers

8 John S Ward. (13 November 1854-26 January 1932) age 77.

10 Charles Joseph Ingalls. (3 April 1864-January 1939) age 74.

12 Verner Robert Wooster. (26 March 1867-30 May 1947) age 80.

14 William Jennings. (1849-13 November 1917) age 68.

2 Great Grandfathers

16 William Ward. (1 February 1830-31 August 1902) age 72.

18 Samuel H Titus. (13 October 1825-10 March 1874) age 48.

20 Joseph D Ingalls. (19 December 1834-21 August 1894) age 59.

22 John Robert Brown. (18 November 1835-24 October 1917) age 81.

24 Barclay Wooster. (29 August 1819-3 March 1895) age 75.

26 James Duff. (26 March 1836-26 February 1926) age 89.

28 Richard J Jennings. unknown dates

30 James “John” Damery. (1812-1896) age 84.

3 Great Grandfathers

32 Thomas Ward. (1804-16 February 1883) age 79.

34 Henry Winterburn. unknown dates

36 Daniel D Titus. (1796-5 March 1849) age 53.

38 John Tobias. (about 1802-??)

40 Samuel Ingalls. (26 July 1802-17 October 1873) age 71.

42 Ezekiel Edson Fay. (23 September 1802-17 January 1888) age 85.

44 Quartis Brown. (1795-24 November 1878) age 83.

46 Samuel Wright. (9 October 1802-1 April 1885) age 82.

48 Leverett Lyman Wooster. (1786-1855 and 1869) he was about 69.

50 Reuben Tifft. (bet 1791 and 1800-1855- 1859) he was about 64.

52 James Duff. (28 December 1809-6 February 1872) age 62.

54 William Homer Johnson. (February 1812-1892) age 79.

56 George Jennings.  unknown dates

60 John Damery. (1764-1844) age 80.

62 Richard Wolfe. (1787-15 April 1862) age 75.

The oldest living of my male ancestors would be James Duff at age 89. The youngest would go to Samuel H. Titus at age 48. There are a few unknowns that might change this, but I’ve yet to uncover their birth and death dates. I’m also not sure why Samuel died so young. I know his father, Daniel Titus died fairly young as well. That was an accident where either his horse was spooked by a train and ran in front of it or else he was racing to get across the tracks before the train arrived and lost. From the articles I’ve found about the accident, I doubt they ever knew for sure.