The topic of the April 1st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is "Funny, foolish, family!" which is appropriate for the day, don't you think.
Embarrassingly Funny...I have a cousin who is named Ralph. His mother really wanted another boy. When Ralph was born his mother exclaimed "It's a boy!" so, naturally, his family nickname became "Boy". Now, Ralph lives in Indianapolis and one day a few years ago (back in the 90's, 1990's that is) he and his nephew were shopping in a sporting goods store. The nephew sees something he wants to show Ralph, and hollers out "Hey Boy, look at this!" Well, there were a few young black men shopping there also. Rather red-faced Ralph tries to explain, but just seems to make the situation worse, so they left the store as quickly as possible. Since then, that moniker has not been used out in public. Actually, since Ralph is nearly 50 years old it isn't used much at all anymore.
Silly.... Another nickname we had for Ralph was "Fred" because of a dumb joke he told when he was about 12 years old. "Did you hear about the farmer who had three sons, all of them were named John except Ralph and his name was Fred!" We still sometimes call him Fred.
Sad and Silly.... When I was a teenager my mother and I worked in my grandmother's restaurant. On Sunday's we'd both work the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. When we got off work, we'd go home and usually watch the Sunday afternoon movie on tv with my little sister. This particular Sunday the movie was a real tear-jerker. It was called "All Mine to Give" and was the story of a young teen-age boy whose mother had died and left behind seven children. I don't remember why, but the father was no longer on the scene. Anyway, before his mother died the boy had promised her that he would find good homes for his siblings. Now, you're thinking, that's not funny. And you're right, it wasn't. We were all still relatively dry-eyed until the very end of the movie when the young man had found a home for each his siblings and himself. Even then we were "ok" but when we all looked at each other we started crying. We cried and cried until we laughed because we knew it was so silly to be crying so much. Well, we thought we had gotten through it. Then the doorbell rang. It was my grandmother and she could tell we had all been crying. She wanted to know what was wrong. Well, the three of us started crying all over again and we tried to explain, between the laughter and the tears. I don't think she ever did understand.
Foolish...In 1965, my older brother (Doug) was in the Navy. He was coming home on leave and was flying in to Chicago's O'hare airport. My mother, sister, other brother (Jack), and I drove to the airport to pick him up. We went to the gate for his flight but he never showed up. For whatever reason, one that I've never been able to figure out, after several hours of waiting, my mother decided that Jack and I should stay at the airport to wait for Doug. Now, you're talking about a 16 year old boy and a 17 year old girl. Well, we did as we were told. We waited, and we waited. We waited until it was too late to get a bus home that night. So, there Jack and I were, spending the night at the airport! Jack and I are both explorers. We like to check things out. So we wandered around that airport and somehow ended up near the International terminals. It was about four in the morning when we were awakened by an announcement being blasted out of the speakers "the Beatles have arrived, the Beatles have arrived". My sleepy response was "the who?" and Jack said, "No, not the who, the Beatles". About 7 a.m. we called home and told mom we were going to get the first bus out that we could. She said "Okay, Doug was asleep on the couch when I got home!" Seems he had gotten an earlier flight and hadn't had time to call us since he was flying standby. He hadn't seen us at the airport and instead of waiting and trying to find us went ahead and took the bus home.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
A Dirty Day
Today was spent getting really dirty! Last fall the Genealogical Society of Whitley County (GSWC) was given 30+ boxes of old records from the county archives that they were going to dispose of (not sure if they were going to destroy them or send them to the state archives). Anyway, they were offered to the society and, of course, we said yes! The records are from the office of the Clerk of Courts and include packets from small claims court, civil actions, insanity applications, divorces, past due notes, and other miscellaneous stuff. It appears that they cover a period of 100 years or so, roughly from 1847-1947.
Like I said, we got dirty! After 5 hours our hands were black with grimy dust. And don't say we should have worn gloves to protect the records! Maybe we should have, to protect our hands! There were five of us that gathered for a "fun-filled" day at 9 a.m. We moved the boxes from the storage building at the Historical Museum to the annex where we had some good light and plenty of room to spread the packets for sorting. Right now we are basically trying to get them into some semblance of order so they can be indexed. We foolishly thought we'd be able to get them in packet number sequence today, but that didn't happen. We stopped today at about 3 p.m. We're going back tomorrow morning and will work until the sorting and boxing is finished 'cause the Museum will need their space back on Monday morning.
In one of the boxes was a very nice surprise. A bunch of loose papers were literally stuffed into one box amongst the packets. It's a stack of maybe a hundred or so marriage affidavits with some parental consents thrown in for good measure. Way cool. Dated 1893-1902. What I wouldn't give to have something like that for one of my ancestors!
Like I said, we got dirty! But, oh, what an interesting day it was! And in the company of good friends too!
This is an example of one of the court records:
Packet 373 dated September 1883
State of Indiana Whitley County
In the Whitley Circuit Court Sept Term AD 1882
The State of Indiana on the relator of George Snyder Trustee of Columbia Township in said Whitley County Indiana vs Seth E Kerns, a minor
To the Hon Elisha V Long, Judge of the Whitley Circuit Court, the above assigned, would respectfully show, that one Seth E Kerns, who is now at the County Asylum in said County and in the charge of Cyrus Coplin, Superintendent of the same, is about thirteen (13) years of age. That said Seth E Kerns, should be committed to the state House of Refuge, for the reason that it is not safe for him to be at the county asylum. That he is addicted to stealing and has stole articles of value at said asylum, and that he has threatened to burn the barn on the county farm. That has by his own confession burned one barn in the north part of the town of Columbia City – in said county. That his father Jeremiah Kerns, has wholly abandoned his child, the said Seth E Kerns, and that the then said Jeremiah Kerns now resides somewhere in the state of Michigan. That Catherine Kerns mother of said Seth E Kerns died more than three years ago. That said Seth E Kerns was born at the Village of Coesse in said County about January 1869. That the said Jeremiah Kerns was a day laborer and so was the mother Catharine Kerns. That the said Seth E Kerns can read a little. That the said Seth E Kerns is an incorrigible boy and dangerous to be where he can not be watched and managed all the time. That this complainant obtains this information from Cyrus Coplin the Superintendent of the County Asylum and other reputable persons. Wherefore he asks that the said Seth E Kerns be committed to the State House of Refuge, and such other orders as the court may deem proper in the premises.
George Snyder, Trustee of Columbia Township Sept 1882
Like I said, we got dirty! After 5 hours our hands were black with grimy dust. And don't say we should have worn gloves to protect the records! Maybe we should have, to protect our hands! There were five of us that gathered for a "fun-filled" day at 9 a.m. We moved the boxes from the storage building at the Historical Museum to the annex where we had some good light and plenty of room to spread the packets for sorting. Right now we are basically trying to get them into some semblance of order so they can be indexed. We foolishly thought we'd be able to get them in packet number sequence today, but that didn't happen. We stopped today at about 3 p.m. We're going back tomorrow morning and will work until the sorting and boxing is finished 'cause the Museum will need their space back on Monday morning.
In one of the boxes was a very nice surprise. A bunch of loose papers were literally stuffed into one box amongst the packets. It's a stack of maybe a hundred or so marriage affidavits with some parental consents thrown in for good measure. Way cool. Dated 1893-1902. What I wouldn't give to have something like that for one of my ancestors!
Like I said, we got dirty! But, oh, what an interesting day it was! And in the company of good friends too!
This is an example of one of the court records:
Packet 373 dated September 1883
State of Indiana Whitley County
In the Whitley Circuit Court Sept Term AD 1882
The State of Indiana on the relator of George Snyder Trustee of Columbia Township in said Whitley County Indiana vs Seth E Kerns, a minor
To the Hon Elisha V Long, Judge of the Whitley Circuit Court, the above assigned, would respectfully show, that one Seth E Kerns, who is now at the County Asylum in said County and in the charge of Cyrus Coplin, Superintendent of the same, is about thirteen (13) years of age. That said Seth E Kerns, should be committed to the state House of Refuge, for the reason that it is not safe for him to be at the county asylum. That he is addicted to stealing and has stole articles of value at said asylum, and that he has threatened to burn the barn on the county farm. That has by his own confession burned one barn in the north part of the town of Columbia City – in said county. That his father Jeremiah Kerns, has wholly abandoned his child, the said Seth E Kerns, and that the then said Jeremiah Kerns now resides somewhere in the state of Michigan. That Catherine Kerns mother of said Seth E Kerns died more than three years ago. That said Seth E Kerns was born at the Village of Coesse in said County about January 1869. That the said Jeremiah Kerns was a day laborer and so was the mother Catharine Kerns. That the said Seth E Kerns can read a little. That the said Seth E Kerns is an incorrigible boy and dangerous to be where he can not be watched and managed all the time. That this complainant obtains this information from Cyrus Coplin the Superintendent of the County Asylum and other reputable persons. Wherefore he asks that the said Seth E Kerns be committed to the State House of Refuge, and such other orders as the court may deem proper in the premises.
George Snyder, Trustee of Columbia Township Sept 1882