Advance your family history research with the experts from American Ancestors! The Spring Research Stay-At-Home is a three-day online experience filled with consultations, lectures, and the skills and knowledge you need to continue your family history research online from home. Join us for live sessions June 10-12.
Our CEO D. Brenton Simons and Curator of Special Collections Curt DiCamillo chat with Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon, about Powderham Castle, family treasures, and his role in the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing.
Skip Finley with Whaling Captains of Color: America's First Meritocracy
Learn what life was like for leaders of color on the high seas with author Skip Finley. His new work profiles over fifty Black whaling captains who strived to succeed in one of America's first diverse industries. Join us on May 25 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
New sketches for Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784
The Early Vermont Settlers study project highlights families living in Vermont prior to 1784. Recently we added eight new sketches of Brattleboro families. These sketches are researched by Scott Andrew Bartley.
Hear the Dutch, Spanish, and English music the Pilgrims might have heard in Leiden, from early music ensemble Long & Away. We'll explore the political climate that led to the Pilgrim's departure from Leiden in 1620. Join us May 20 at 6 p.m. ET.
The Duvall Historical Society is located in Duvall, King County, Washington. The society has made a number of resources available on its website. Click 'Our Collections' and select a collection from the dropdown list. The Online Photo Collection is searchable by keyword. The Newspaper Archive includes two local papers, Duvall Citizen (1911–1916) and Carnavall Reporter (1953–1964). Click 'Newsletter' to view an index to the society’s newsletter, Wagon Wheel, and digitized issues starting in 2012. Click 'Archives' to browse over a dozen oral history interviews.
Last week's survey asked about your ancestors who worked in an industry or trade that no longer exists. We received 2,848 responses. The results are:
52%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors had a job in an industry or trade that no longer exists.
31%, No, I am not aware of any of my ancestors working in an industry or trade that no longer exists.
17%, I’m not sure.
This week's question asks about the type of environment your grandparents lived in. Take the survey now
Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Readers Respond: Extinct Professions
By Jean Powers, Senior Editor
Last week's survey asked about ancestors who held jobs or worked in industries or trades that no longer exist. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Marcia Diederich, Redwood City, California: My ancestor Thomas G. Young was a whaling master. In June 1865, he sailed from Fairhaven, Massachusetts to the Bering Straits, where his ship, the Favorite, was burned and sunk by the Confederate raider Shenandoah—two months after Lee had surrendered. The Favorite was one of the last of many New England whaling vessels destroyed by the Confederate Navy in the attempt to destroy the economy of the North. Thomas’s wife, Sarah Vining, was a descendant of many whaling masters; her father, Ammi Vining of Portland, Maine, sailed from New Bedford in 1848 and was never seen again.
Jeff Martin, York, Maine: My ancestor George Whittaker was listed as a “knocker up” in the 1881 Manchester, UK, census. For a small fee, “knocker ups” woke people by poking them through the bedroom window with a long pole or rapping on the window with a peashooter.
Debra Lawson, Clayton, California: My great-grandfather, Leroy Courtney Hendrick, drove a Wells Fargo stagecoach from Jackson and Ione to Yosemite, California, in the late 1800s, along with my relatives William Hendrick and Reason McConnell. The stagecoaches carried passengers and gold throughout the Gold Country of California. At one point, Reason McConnell was held up by the “gentleman robber” Black Bart. A mural of Leroy sitting atop his stage adorns a wall of the National Hotel in Jackson.
Diane Joseph, Herndon, Virginia: My great-grandfather, Frank Joseph Selinger, was a barber-surgeon in the Prussian military. He went AWOL in the 1870s and came to New York, where he set up shop doing barbering, pulling teeth, setting bones, leaching, lancing boils, and bloodletting. His surgical tools are now in the Smithsonian.
Mary Day, San Diego, California: My sixth-great-grandfather, William Butterfield, was elected “hog-reeve” at the first town meeting of Westford, Massachusetts, in 1734. The hog-reeve was responsible for capturing and impounding stray swine and assessing any damages they caused. Domesticated swine were required to have a ring through their noses; if a ringless pig was found, the hog-reeve would place a ring in the nose and charge the owner for the service.
Jim Gordon, Laurel, Maryland: My maternal grandfather, Edward Francis Quinn, was a linotype operator for the Boston Globe. The operator transcribed reporters’ material line-by-line with a 90-character keyboard, using hot lead to form the characters. When the line was finished, it went to the typesetter, who composed the page. Luckily for Edward, he retired long before computers took over!
Catching Up with Vita Brevis
Ross Williams wrote about using a range of DNA results to solve an eighteenth-century family mystery. Alicia Crane Williams reported on a new Early New England Families Study Project profile for George Blake of Gloucester and Boxford, MA; Joe Smaldone began a series on nineteenth-century Irish research in both civil and church records; Scott C. Steward and Christopher C. Child continued their report on the ancestry of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor; and Chris also concluded a two-part series with "Retroactive surnames" and marked Mothers' Day with an account of Alma Wahlberg's matrilineal line.
Up to 50% off titles from the Bookstore at NEHGS
The Bookstore at NEHGS has dropped prices on more than 40 titles! Shop family genealogies, guide books, genealogical essays, coffee table books, and more at discounts up to 50%.
