Archive for the ‘Traditions’ Category

« Older Entries

Family Stories

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

Several family stories from both sides of my family give personality and life to ancestors.

For example, at the funeral of my Aunt Isabel  (my mother’s sister) recently, my first cousin once removed, Isabel’s granddaughter, said Isabel told this story: Grandfather Spencer (my mother and Isabel’s grandfather) got married late in life after being widowed. It seems a lady came to town looking for a rich husband. Because Grandfather Spencer had a surrey with fringe on top, just like the song. Apparently, as Cathy said, it was the Lamborghini of the time. Seeing this fancy rig,  she assumed the owner was what she was looking for. She set her cap and they were wed.

Now, as Aunt Isabel told it, at the time a rich widow in town would have happily married Grandfather Spencer, had he only asked, because she quite liked him. But he went for the younger, prettier and slier girl.

Once settled into domestic life, the new Mrs. Spencer discovered to her dismay that he was not rich. Not at all. Grandfather Spencer had been a successful farmer in Indiana before moving to Mississippi, but the crops he was accustomed to growing just did not fare well in the Mississippi heat. So he was not only not rich, he was losing money each year. He had a nice house, with nice furnishings, some land, and of course that surrey. But income was not what the bride expected.

She cut her losses quickly, leaving town with all the family heirloom furnishings and was never heard from again. And, we all assumed the nice, rich widow decided Grandfather Spencer was too foolish a man to pursue any further.

This is another family history tale I want to turn into a novel someday!

 

 

Posted in Genealogy, Traditions, Writing | No Comments »

Come hear me speak at the Navarre Library January 31!

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Using genealogy, history and online resources, Elizabeth Crowe will paint a lively picture of Colonel Guy Wyman, the founder of Navarre, at 5:30 p.m. January 31, 2012, at the library. It’s a story of murder, mayhem, madness and many wives. There’s never a dull moment in the story of Wyman and his family.

 

Libbi Crowe, a Navarre resident, is the author of Genealogy Online, now in its 9th printing. Crowe’s father really was a rocket scientist and she has been involved with computers since the early days. Her family got involved in genealogy after discovering an old Bible with family records going back to 1812.

 

The program is part of the free Lore, Legends and Learning series at the Library sponsored by the Friends of the Navarre Library. The program is held on the last Tuesday of each month, presenting a variety of topics to the public. Reservations are not required..

 

Visit our website:  http://www.friendsofnavarrelibrary.org/ for the most current information.

Posted in And More..., News, Traditions | No Comments »

Bastille Day!

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

According to Wikipedia,

Over 50 U.S. cities conduct annual celebrations 

Baltimore has a large Bastille Day celebration each year at Petit Louis in the Roland Park area of Baltimore City.

 No matter where you are today, Get your French on!

Posted in Traditions | No Comments »

Genealogy Serendipity!

Monday, July 11th, 2011

On my way to volunteer at the Panhandle Butterfly House this morning, I stopped for coffee at a little cafe that I have been meaning to try out for some time, Higher Ground Coffee and Tea Co.  It’s on US 98, on the north side just before the exit to SR 87.  As I walked in I saw on the white board menu for breakfast and lunch: HOT BROWN Sandwiches! Hot Browns! In Florida!!

Of course I had to ask how they knew about Hot Browns…and it turns out that though they grew up in Fort Walton and Navarre, the owner and his wife both have family in Kentucky & both went to Berea College! And the wife’s brother, who also works in the cafe, is a newly minted and highly enthusiastic genealogist!! We spent the next 30 minutes happily discussing genealogy, my book, Genealogy Online 9/E, Ancestry.com, military records, and on and on and on. Oh, and the University of Kentucky!

I just love genealogists!!

Posted in And More..., Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Traditions | No Comments »

My faovrite Derby Week Recipes!

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

It’s Derby Week and I’m having a Derby Party. The Kentucky Derby is always run the First Saturday of May, and the parties start about a week before that…..Here are my two favorite recipes for this tradition.
HOT BROWN SANDWICH

Recipe By     :
Serving Size  : 4  Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    :

Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
——–  ————  ——————————–
1 1/2         pounds  chicken breast — cooked
4             slices  white bread — trimmed l/2″thick slices
4             slices  bacon — crisp
1/4           cup  Parmesan cheese — grated
2              large  eggs — beaten
1           teaspoon  salt
1/4      teaspoon  pepper
2          teaspoons  lemon juice
1/4           cup  flour
1/2         stick  butter
2               cups  milk — heated
additional grated Parmesan cheese
4              whole  roma tomato — sliced

Skin and bone chicken and slice each half lengthwise. Toast bread butter lavishly and place in a 200F oven to crisp while preparing sauce.

Melt butter, remove from fire and stir in flour until there are no lumps. Return to fire and cook a minute or two. Add hot milk and stir until perfectly smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add cheese. Stir about ½ cupful of mixture into eggs, then pour this back into sauce and cook a minute longer, stirring all the time. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice.

To assemble sandwiches: Place toast in an ovenproof platter and arrange  chicken slices on top, allowing ½ breast per serving. Cover each with ½ cup of sauce and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Run under the broiler for about 1 minute or place in a 425 oven until speckled with brown.  Arrange tomato and top with bacon crosswise on top and serve at once.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

NOTES : Turkey and country ham may be substituted for chicken and bacon.

MINT JULEPS EN MASSE

Recipe By     :
Serving Size  : 0     Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    :

Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
——–  ————  ——————————–
1 1/2      teaspoons  Simple Sugar Syrup — See directions
2             ounces  bourbon — Makers Mark!
sprig  mint — fresh
ice

Everybody has his own idea about making a julep. Proportions vary as much as method, but most people will like these.
Make a simple syrup by boiling 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water for 5 minutes, without stirring. Fill a jar loosely with sprigs of fresh mint (uncrushed) and cover with the cooled syrup. Cap and refrigerate 12-24 hours. Discard mint.
Make 1 julep at a time: Fill a chilled julep cup with finely -shaved ice, pour in half a tablespoon of the mint flavored syrup and 2 ounces of the very best Kentucky Bourbon, frost, stick in a sprig of mint and serve at once. If there is room in the freezer, you can get a head start by putting the first batch, without mint, in it. The refrigerator is not cold enough.
To frost: Grasp the rim of the filled julep cup with your fingertips and rapidly twist the cup back and forth until the outside is covered with a heavy frost. Or churn with a spoon.

Source:
“The Farminton Cookbook 1979 page 157″

Posted in And More..., Traditions | No Comments »

Magna Carta at National Archives (US) to be re-encased

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Press Release
February 8, 2011

Last Chance to see National Archives 1297 Magna Carta Until 2012

 

Washington, DC…The National Archives has announced that Tuesday, March 1, 2011, is the final day for the public to view the 1297 Magna Carta before it is removed from display for a year to undergo preparations for re-encasement. The 1297 Magna Carta is on loan to the National Archives from David M. Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group.

The National Archives Building is located on Constitution Avenue and 9th Street, NW, in Washington, DC. Museum hours are 10 am to 5:30 pm, daily, free admission. Metro stop Archives/Navy Memorial on the yellow and green lines.

The only original Magna Carta permanently in the United States will be taken off display for a year so National Archives conservators may examine and stabilize the parchment before placing it in a new state-of-the-art encasement. This new enclosure, designed and fabricated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is based on an original design used to protect the Charters of Freedom–the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These documents, which are on permanent display in the National Archives Rotunda, were re-encased in a multi-year project that was completed in 2003 by the National Archives in partnership with NIST.

The document will return to display in March 2012. When it returns, Magna Carta will have a new protective encasement and a new display case. The case will incorporate an interactive exhibit allowing visitors to easily read the document for the first time. Magna Carta is written in Latin. The new display, which will allow close examination of the document and will have a translation feature, will also place new emphasis on the connections between Magna Carta and American history, particularly American legal history. This will make it easier to understand the elements of the document that influenced the United States’ founding charters: the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Background

In 1215 on the plains of Runnymede an assembly of barons confronted the despotic King John of England and demanded that traditional rights be recognized, written down, confirmed with the royal seal, and sent to each of the counties to be read to all freemen. King John agreed, binding himself and his heirs to grant “to all freemen of our kingdom” the rights and liberties described in the great charter, or Magna Carta.

Between 1215 and 1297, Magna Carta was reissued by each of King John’s successors. To meet his debts from foreign wars, King Edward I imposed new and harsher taxes in 1297. This provoked another confrontation between the king and the barons, resulting not only in the reissue of Magna Carta, but for the first time its entry into the official Statute Rolls of England. The 1297 document represents the transition of Magna Carta from a brokered agreement to the foundation of English law.

Only four originals of the 1297 Magna Carta remain. By the 17th century, the one displayed at the National Archives was in the possession of the Brudenell family, the earls of Cardigan. It was acquired by the Perot Foundation in 1984 and purchased by David Rubenstein in 2007. David Rubenstein has placed Magna Carta on loan to the National Archives as a gift to the American people.

# # #

For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.


Posted in News, Traditions | No Comments »

Family Recipe Friday: Mama’s Creamed Tuna

Friday, February 4th, 2011


“Family Recipe Friday is an opportunity to share your family recipes with fellow bloggers and foodies alike. Whether it’s an old-fashioned recipe passed down through generations, a recipe uncovered through your family history research, or a discovered recipe that embraces your ancestral heritage share them on Family Recipe Friday. This series was suggested by Lynn Palermo of The Armchair Genealogist (http://www.thearmchairgenealogist.com/).”

So, I blogged earlier this week that one of my comfort foods was creamed tuna, which yes, I would eat for breakfast when Mama made it. I searched my recipe cards and did not find a recipe written down, so the below is strictly from memory. It serves about 4, and is perfect for a cold day’s lunch or dinner as well.

Creamed Tuna

1 hard-cooked egg
1 Tablespoon margarine
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon green pepper — chopped
1 tablespoon pimiento — chopped
Dash teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 to 8 ounces flaked tuna (“one can”)
Peel egg and chop coarsely, reserve for later step. Melt margarine. Add flour and salt. Stir until smooth. Cook 5 minutes. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly with a wire whip. Cook until thickened. Add green pepper, pimiento, and seasonings to sauce. Add tuna and eggs to sauce. Heat through . Serve with 4-oz ladle on toast, biscuits, or corn bread.
Other cooked fish may be substituted for tuna, for example salmon, or smoked fish.
Mama often used leftover peas instead of hard-cooked eggs and green pepper.   Or use some shredded cheddar instead of eggs, making a sort of “tuna rarebit”.

As to heritage, well this recipe is just so…WASP!!!

Posted in Genealogy, Traditions | 1 Comment »

Groundhog Day, Candlemas, and St. Blaise

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

February 2 in our calendar has many traditions: among them St. Blaise Day, Candlemas, and of course in the U. S., Groundhog Day! It is also a cross-quarter day…halfway between a solstice and an equinox.
Candlemas Day traditionally marked the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and of course Simeon’s beautiful song,

Nunc dimittis
Luke 2:29-32

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, *
according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, *
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, *
and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Traditions of this feast include the blessing and burning of candles.

It is also the feast of St. Blaise, who, because of several miracles attributed to him during his lifetime, is associated with complaints of the throat. The prayer for his day:

Saint Blaise, pray for us that we may not suffer from illnesses of the throat and pray that all who are suffering be healed by God’s love. Amen

Groundhog Day is our U. S. transplanting of many European traditions that this midwinter’s day can predict the coming of spring, such as this rhyme:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

Of course, like many folk tales, the connection to reality is tenuous. We are six weeks from the spring equinox, come sunshine, snow, or high water! 

Posted in And More..., Traditions | No Comments »

Linkpendium: A Source You Should Know

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Linkpendium is a wonderful search site, brought to you by Karen Isaacson and Brian (Wolf) Leverich.

This immensely useful site is a catalog of links to United States genealogy information, records, pages and sources, organized by geography. You can search by a surname, and get links within every state, or you can start your search in a specific state or specific county. Links to obituaries, cemetery lists, wills, biographies and more will be the result.

A quote from the site:

Linkpendium‘s goal is to index every genealogy, geneology, :) family history, family tree, surname, vital records, biography, or otherwise genealogically-related site on the Internet. PLEASE HELP! When you find a useful new resource, go to the right Linkpendium page and click on the “Add your favorite Websites to this page” link. Thanks from all of us at Linkpendium!

The site’s perpetrators are part of online genealogy history, being two founders of the venerable and still indispensable  RootsWeb genealogical community/information/data/search site. RootsWeb started as a few pages that a bunch of genealogists who worked together created to help each other. For more than a decade, RootsWeb was THE starting place for online genealogy. When Rootsweb merged with Ancestry in June 2000, this site had 600,000 registered users, was serving 100,000,000 Web page views monthly, and was delivering 160,000,000 pieces of email monthly to the subscribers of its 18,000 mailing lists. My book, Genealogy Online 9/E  has a chapter devoted to all the ways you can use RootsWeb.

About the page owners:

Before founding RootsWeb, Karen was a member of the research staff at The RAND Corporation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Washington State University and a Master of Science in Operations Research from Stanford University, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow. Karen’s hobbies include genealogical research, mountain climbing, and mountain biking. She is a rated leader of the Sierra Club and past Chairman of the Hundred Peaks Section.

Before founding RootsWeb, Brian was a member of the research staff at The RAND Corporation. He has also served on the faculty of the University of Southern Californiaand as Director of Statistical Systems and Credit Marketing Research at The Zale Corporation. He holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Operations Research from Stanford University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy Analysis from The RAND Graduate School. Brian’s hobbies include genealogical research, mountain climbing, and mountain biking. He is a rated leader of the Sierra Club, past Chair of the Hundred Peaks Section, and past Administrative Chair of the Angeles Chapter’s Leadership Training Committee.

Contact Information:

e-mail webmaster@linkpendium.com
Mailing address Linkpendium
P.O. Box 6798
Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 USA
Telephone (voice)               (661) 242-1953         (661) 242-1953
Telephone (fax)               (661) 242-1955         (661) 242-1955

Posted in Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites, Traditions | No Comments »

Tombstone Tuesday: Monument to Judge Toulmin dedicated today in Baldwin County

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Monument to Judge Toulmin dedicated today in Baldwin County. He was also president of Transylvania University (where I attended as a Freshman)  1794-96. In 1804 he was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson as judge for a territory that included what is now Baldwin County, Alabama, where my daughter lives. 

Posted in And More..., News, Traditions | No Comments »

« Older Entries