On This Day - Dec 3rd

On This Day...

A short list today for some reason...

1623 - Birth: Allis Butcher, Chipping, Campden, Glouchester, England

1719 - Birth: John Morgan, Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts

1747 - Birth: Phinehas Smith, Granby, Hampshire County, Massachusetts

1796 - Birth: Luke Powers, Robeson County, North Carolina

1879 - Death: Tamar Chapin, Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts

1903 - Birth: Alvan Kirby Browning,

As always, if you have any additional information or corrections, please don't hesitate to contact me!


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman

Advent Calendar 2012 - Dec 3rd

December 3 – Christmas Tree Ornaments
Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

We had ornaments a-plenty.  Some were store-bought, the usual glass bulbs and such, bubbling lights and other mass-manufactured stuff.  I know we kids did make our share of ornaments in school and Sunday School over the years, and some of them got hung up repeatedly as long as they lasted.   If any of the ornaments were cherished, it would probably have been those.  We didn't have any heirloom ornaments that I recall.

We didn't tend to string up popcorn and such every year, as it just gets messy when they start falling apart, but I do remember doing it on at least one occasion.  We tended more toward the manufactured garlands, as we got the stringy effect and the tinsel effect without the mess of either.  We did do tinsel at least once, and I think we were finding strands of it for months afterward!


The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman

On This Day - Dec 2

On This Day...

1595 - Burial: James Olmstead, Great Leighs, Essex, England

1595 - Death: James Olmstead, Great Leighs, Essex, England

1595 - Burial: Jane Bristow, Great Leighs, Essex, England

1595 - Death: Jane Bristow, Great Leighs, Essex, England

1627 - Christen: Joseph Olmstead, Fairstead, Essex, England

1720 - Birth: Francois-Xavier Baudreau Dit Graveline, Montreal, Communauté-Urbaine-de-Montréal, Quebec, Canada

1867 - Birth: Matthias Zwilling, Wallenborn, Eifel, Germany

1878 - Death: Lucia Fruth, Saint Wendel Township, Stearns County, Minnesota

1894 - Birth: Sodus A Collins, Louisiana

1898 - Birth: Albert M. Kunkel, Minnesota

1906 - Death: William Thomas Boyett, Winnfield, Winn Parish, Louisiana

1911 - Birth: John P. Lommel, Minnesota

1925 - Arrival: Edward Dana Durand, New York, New York

1948 - Death: James Franklin Dark,

1948 - Death: James Edward Dark, Winn Parish, Louisiana

 


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman

Advent Calendar 2012 - Dec 2nd

December 2 – Holiday Foods
Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?

As my wife and I both still have parents and extended family alive and close by, we virtually always spend major holidays with them, and usually with each side.  Two holiday dinners for the price of one! 

My family usually had one of several traditional meals when I was growing up.  Either the traditional turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, or else a similar dinner featuring ham.  Since we kids were somewhat picky eaters, it was just easier, as well as traditional, to go with the proven winners.

Even today my in-laws usually do the turkey dinner.  Scale it up to feed 40 or more, though.  Every sub-family brings one or more foods for the group.  Breads, vegetables, desserts, salads, etc.  The meat course is provided by the parents. 

My parents have done some different things in the past few years, in part because there are now so many grandkids that their tiny house gets overcrowded, and it's not very well set up for cooking and feeding the multitudes.  Sometimes we do have the turkey dinner, with some concessions to the kids like macaroni and cheese.  Sometimes we'll all meet at a local buffet restaurant.  Plenty of variety that way.  We have even on an occasion or two got a room at a local hotel, then had the holiday meal there.


What are your holiday meal traditions?  You can share your story by following the link below - you don't even have to have your own blog!


The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.



This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman

On This Day - Dec 1

On This Day...

1674 - Birth: Margaret Foote, Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts

1783 - Marriage: Francis Higginbotham and Dolly Gatewood, Amherst County, Virginia

1809 - Birth: Kendrick Kimball Kinney, South Hero, Grand Isle County, Vermont

1818 - Birth: Phillip Wiseman, Crawford County, Indiana

1828 - Birth: Rebecca Edwards Booker, Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

1868 - Death: Francis Neoma Branch, Winn Parrish, LA

1908 - Death: Peter Theisen, Cold Spring, Stearns County, Minnesota

1916 - Death: Bernard Riedeman,

1923 - Death: Margeret Krueger,

1951 - Marriage: Warren Harlan Luedtke and Dorothy Vivian Orcutt, Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts

1966 - Death: Frank Stephen Krueger, Cold Spring, Stearns County, Minnesota

1971 - Death: Zita Krueger, Winsted, McLeod County, Minnesota

1979 - Death: Norman Harold Nickens, Mt. Zion Cemetery, Prairieville, Ascension Parish, Louisiana

Last time I asked what tool you are using / would use to do a list of this type.  I neglected to say what I am currently using.  I am using the On This Day report from Roots Magic 5.    It's okay, but I'd like to be able to format it a bit better automatically.  I could manually do this, but I'd have to do it each and every day, and right now I don't have sufficient time to make that happen.




This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2012

And so it begins, the Advent Season of 2012.

December 1 – The Christmas Tree
Did you have a real tree or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree? What types of Christmas trees did your ancestors have?

I remember a mix of real and artificial trees.  Most of the real trees were when I was younger.  I remember the tree stands that had a bowl for water built in at the base.  I probably remember that because I was down at that level and snooping under the tree!

Later my family would get artificial trees, partly to avoid the annual cost of going out to buy a tree, partly to reduce fire danger, and probably partly to reduce cleanup of dropped needles.  My folks still have an artificial tree, and in fact my mother stated a few days ago that she dragged it out and put it up, still decorated from last year, saving her time and effort this year.

For most of my adult life I have had artificial trees for most of the reasons above.  The current one has been with us for a decade or so.  What I like most about it is that it has fiber optic strands embedded in it, and a light in the base, so it's pre-lit when we unpack it.  No tangly strands of lights, no testing to see which bulb(s) are burned out...

However, one year we did to the whole traditional thing of going out and finding a tree (we did use a tree farm, not a neighbor's yard!) to cut down and bring home.  We wanted the kids to have that experience at least once.  So we did get to experience the dropped needles, the watering of the tree, etc.  One plus was the wonderful pine scent in the house!

Generally, though, I would personally be fine not even having a tree.  I think the tree and all of the trappings are just one more thing taking away from the real reason for the Christmas season, the "Christ Mass", the celebration of the birth of Jesus.


The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman