POSSIBLE SPOILERS SO DON’T READ THIS IF YOU
DON’T WANT THE SHOW SPOILED FOR YOUR
VIEWING PLEASURE!

Alrighty then. I’ll try not to give too much away of the plot and
just stick to observations about the genealogy angle.

The wife of coroner Doc Robbins reports finding a man dead
in her bed. The murder scene appears as though she and the
dead man were having an affair. It turns out that the dead man
was a professional genealogist hired by the wife. She wanted
to surprise Doc with his family tree. Eventually the investigation
turns to the dead man’s recent clients and his partner, Donna
Hoppe, lends a hand.

I liked how Donna Hoppe was portrayed.as bright and enthusiastic
about genealogy.(The dead partner is as well,. She says that “Genealogy
was his life”),She comes on a little strong at first, instantly deducing
that Greg Sanders’ last name was changed from it’s Norwegian
original, but I think the writer was trying to establish a rapport between
she and Greg. This is television after all, and they do have less than an
hour to tell the story.(Too bad this wasn’t a two part episode!).

Eventually the trail turns to one specific client of the dead man and when
the CSI team comes to a brick wall of sorts in their scientific pursuit, Greg
turns to Donna Hoppe for help. She takes him to a records room and with
paper county records and a newspaper article on a microfilm reader they
discover that, as in some cases, this hunt for ancestors has turned up a
painful family mystery.

I thought this episode did a good job on the genealogy related elements.
Besides avoiding some of the old cliches about genealogists, I liked how
Donna told her students to ask permission first before doing gravestone
rubbings.(Since I’ve never done any myself, perhaps someone who has
can comment on the method she was demonstrating).

Yes, it did seem as though she found the information for Greg lickity-split,
but they did have those little pauses between scenes to denote there was a
passage of time. And she took him to an archive to look through actual
records, and then used a microfilm reader to find the news article. Not a
computer in sight! (and this from me, who uses a computer all the time!)

There were some elements like the fancy chart which might not ring true
to life but overall it was a job well done. And that last line from Doc Robbins
is something all of us have said at one time or another when we’ve made
some exciting discovery in our research.

All in all, I really enjoyed this episode.

For further insight on the writing on the episode, you can read how Elizabeth
Devine was inspired by her own and co-workers’ genealogy research here
at the CSI Insider Blog.

CBS Show to Air Genealogy Episode on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Posted by Nick Cifuentes on December 14, 2011 in Social Media

The Las Vegas crime lab is called into to process a victim where you 
would least expect.

When a man is found mysteriously murdered in the home of one of their 
own, the Las Vegas crime lab scrambles to solve the case. When the 
victim turns out to be a genealogist, the case will reveal a dark family secret.

Meanwhile, Greg Sanders’ (Eric Szmanda) interest in his own family
history is renewed when he interviews a renowned genealogist, Donna 
Hope (Pamela Reed), accurately tracks Greg’s family name to some
well known historical figures.



Hmm. My first thought was “Well at least we know they’ll be wearing gloves.”

My second was “Somebody must have angered The Gedfather”

My third was: “Genealogy must now really be mainstream when it figures
into the plot of a tv crime drama.”

I’ll be watching tonight anywayh because I’m a CSI fan but I’ll be
interested in seeing if they know their sources and citations as well
as they know their femurs from their ulnas.

I’ll let you know what I think after the show.

Ah, fruitcake! The Food. The Myth. The Legend.

We’ve never had any of the perpetual fruitcakes hanging about
for weeks or months in our family. We’re a practical bunch. If it
tastes good, we eat it. If it doesn’t, well, out it goes!

I have, however, invented a mythical fruitcake named Margaret.

Like distant cousin Tim Abbot over at Walking the Berkshires I
have been a role-player for years although mine has been online
instead of tabletop Dungeons and Dragons. One of my characters
is an eccentric Scotsman and last Christmas he gave Margaret
the Fruitcake to another character as a Christmas gift.

It seems it was baked by a female relative who passed away
while doing so and the Scotsman believes (he says) that her spirit
inhabits her final fruitcake. Margaret has been exchanged
between family members each Christmas but last year it was
given to a young squire. Various adventures ensued including a
jailbreak where Margaret was used as a weapon and then the
disappearance of the haunted fruitcake sometime around
midyear.

Yeah, I know.

I’m nutty as a fruitcake

2009 Update-Margaret’s location is unknown at present, although
rumors persist that she is being used as a curling stone by a team
of dwarves.

2010 Update: Margaret’s present location is still unknown. The
most prevalent rumor is that she was recently employed as a 
battering ram at the Gates of Mordor. 

2011 Update: Margaret’s whereabouts still remain a mystery. Rumor
has it she is presently being used as a doorstop by a giant at
a certain school for yound wizards.

I said earlier that when Enoch and the rest of the family returned to Canada
in 1901 I wasn’t sure if Margaret and their daughter Bessie returned with him.
This is because at sometime between 1900 and 1905 the marriage came to an
end. This is based on three pieces of evidence, one found on Ancestry.com
and two on FamilySearch.

The first is the passenger list of the S.S. Ivernia from Liverpool, England that
arrived at Boston on 29Sep 1904 that includes Margaret Ellingwood and her 10
year old daughter Bessie.( Perhaps she took Bessie to England to meet her
grandparents?). What’s interesting about this  is that it says they were returning
to Enoch who was residing in Harrisonville, Rhiode Island. But while they might
have legally still be married they may have already been separated.

The second document is one from FamilySearch: the Rhode Island State
Census of 1905. On the form for Bessie, she’s listed as having been a resident
of  Rhode Island for 4 years and as being a stepdaughter.

When I saw that I checked for and found a record of  Margaret’s third marriage on
FamilySearch.in the Rhode Island Marriages 1724-1916  collection. According to
that, Margaret Ellingwood married John Lacourse on 29Apr 1905. That’s not a lot
of time after Margaret and Bessie had returned from England in the previous
September so the divorce may already have been in the works.

Bessie kept her father’s name and is listed as Bessie Ellingwood on the 1910
Federal Census. The Lacourse family was living on Mineral Springs ave in
Providence, RI. Bessie married Thomas P.Wall on 18Nov 1914 and their son
Thomas Jr. was born on  9May 1915. By 1930, Margaret was once more a widow
and living with the Wall Family.

I don’t know much else about this branch of the family except that Bessie’s
son Thomas P Wall Jr ran for governor of Tennessee as the Republican candidate
and lost the election. Whether Bessie kept in touch with her father Enoch or
visited him in Canada I cannot say at present.

Like his older brother Oscar, Enoch Merrill Ellingwood stayed behind in Canada
when their parents returned to the United States. He was fourteen years old
when the family arrived in Canada so he’d have been in his late teens at the
family’s departure.  And again like Oscar, he married a girl from Hereford,
Quebec, Lucy Anne Howe, in a ceremony across the American border in
New Canaan, Vermont.

Enoch & Lucy’s Marriage Record from FamilySearch

Enoch and Lucy were married on 24Oct 1874 and were married for seventeen
years until Lucy’s death in 1892. They had six children:
Edwin  B.  (1876-1947)
Fred Willis (1879-1961)
Elsie M(1883-?)
Effie (1885-1961)
Lucy (1888-?)
Archie John (1891-1985)

Effie & Lucy Ellingwood Baptism Records w/ Birthdates from Ancestry.com

A year after Lucy’s death, Enoch married a widow, Margaret (Kermeen)Evans
on 9Sep 1893 (Again in Canaan, Vt.) They had one child:
Bessie M.(1894-?)

Enoch & Margaret’s Marriage Record from FamilySearch.

I found  Enoch on various Canadian and American Census Records between 1850
and his death in 1935. He lived most of his life in Hereford, Compton, Quebec
but is counted twice on U.S. Federal Censuses as an adult. One was near the end
of his life when he was enumerated on the 1930 Census living with his daughter
Elsie (Ellingwood) Gager in Croydon, Sullivan, New Hampshire. The other instances
was thirty years earlier when in 1900 Enoch and his family for some reason were
living on Sixth Street in Attleborough, Bristol, Ma and he was employed as a
carpenter. Whatever the reason, it seems they returned to Canada soon after
becaise he is listed on the 1901 Canadian Immigrant Records, Part 1,

But when he returned to Canada, his wife Margaret and daughter Bessie may not
have been with him.

To be continued

It’s funny how some Christmas memories fade and some endure,
especially when it comes to gifts.

We weren’t poor but we weren’t exactly well off either when I
was young. Santa’s gifts were often determined by budget
concerns but he always managed to leave us clothes and some
toys. (although one year I got a note with the other gifts:
“Dear Bill, I owe you one telescope. Santa Claus”)

Ads for a forthcoming movie brought back more memories. One
Christmas Eve my sister and I could hear Alvin and the
Chipmunks “Christmas Song” play over and over while our
parents laughed. When we asked why the song kept playing we
were told it was the radio and to get to sleep before Santa came.
(of course by now I already knew the Awful Truth). It turned
out Santa had left us a portable record player along with a copy
of the record!

I still have the gift my sister gave me one year: a wooden chess
set, the kind that doubles as a box to hold the chessmen. It’s
over thirty years old now.

As I grew older I learned that giving gifts was as much fun as
getting them. We didn’t have a color tv so one year when I was
working at the toy warehouse I put a portable Magnavox color
tv on layaway and gave it to my folks for Christmas. That tv lasted
for years, even after my folks got a larger console set. It migrated
from bedroom to bedroom passing from my kid brother to my
sister’s kids back to my brother’s kids until it finally gave up the
ghost.

And then last year, I got a gift from a group of great friends, the
computer that I’m using right now to preserve these memories.

Oh, yeah! I eventually got the telescope!

2010 Update: When I moved here from my old apartment I had
to give up my desktop computer from my friends due to space
limitations. But my family had given me Sheldon the laptop
computer for Christmas last year, so I’m able to sit here in
the living room and do my blogging and research in my
comfortable chair. And the year before they gave me the
digital camera that lets me chronicle my road trips in pictures.
I’m very grateful for these and other gifts from them.

So Genea-Santa has been very good to me over the years!

Heather’s post today was about her ancestor the Reverend Joseph Hull. In the
list of his children was  “3. Tristram, born about 1623, married Blanche Unknown”.
“Blanche Unknown” is our connection. 

My ancestor William Hedge of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, married the widow
Blanche Hull. It was his second marriage as well, and I am descended from his
unnamed first wife. It may have been a marriage of convenience but for whom
it’s hard to say: all the accounts I’ve found of the pair say that William was a much
older man than Blanche. On the other hand, Blanche was a widow and remarriage
offered her some stability and protection.  Whatever the case, things did not go
well for the couple and Blanche left William sometime before he died in 1670.

Blanche was involved in a case of impropriety during her marriage to Tristram Hull.
In Volume Three of “Records of the colony of New Plymouth, in New England“
there is this entry for the Court Session of 5Mar 1655:

“Wee prsent John Gorum for unseamly carriage towards Blanch Hull att 
unreasonable time, being in the night,

Wee prsent Blanch Hull for not crying out when shee was assaulted by John Gorum
in unseamly carriage towards her upon her own relation.” (p97)

John Gorum was fined forty shillings; Blanche was fined fifty! Keep in mind that
“unseamly carriage” could have been something as simple as a kiss or a hug but
Blanche got the higher fine. Now at this time she was still married to her first
husband Tristram Hull and since their marriage continued until his death perhaps
he forgave the incident. In fact, he left her one hundred fifty pounds in his will.
Tristram Hull died in 1666.

When I first started researching my family many sources had Blanche as the mother
of my ancestor Elizabeth Hedge, but since Elizabeth was supposedly born in 1647
and Blanche was still married to Tristram Hull at that time that’s obviously incorrect.

So sometime after the death of Tristram in 1666 Blanche married William
Hedge. Although legally the marriage lasted four years, it was actually shorter.
In his will of 30Jun 1670, at the very end is this final bequest:

” And whereas Blanche my Wife
hath dealt falcly with mee in the
Covenant of Marriage in departing
from mee, therefore I doe in this
my Last Will and Testament give
her twelve pence, and alsoe what
I have Received of hers my will
is shal be Returned to her againe. “

 (Hawes, James W.   No.44 Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy: Captain
William Hedge of Yarmouth  C.W. Swift, Publisher, Yarmouthport, Ma, 1914)

I hope that included her one hundred fifty pounds!

Time and history have been less kind to Blanche. Amos Otis in his Genealogical
notes of Barnstable families, Volume 2 (F.B. &  F.P. Goss, Publishers & Printers,
Barnstable, Ma, 1890) had this to say about her, followed by a footnote:

“Tristram Hull was a prominent man in Barnstable. He was of the board of
Selectmen, and held other offices of trust. His wife was named Blanch, and
is frequently named on the records as a woman whose reputation was not
creditable to herself, her family or her friends. In 1655 she married for her
second husband Capt. William Hedge of Yarmouth, but the change in her
residence did not improve her manners. Capt. Hedge cut her off with a shilling
 in his will, full eleven pence more than she deserved.*

•A question may arise whether it is right to publish such passages as thls. Some
squeamish persons object. I think It not only dearly right; but unjust to suppress
them. Is it right that the reputations of such persons as Martha Foxwall, Capt.
John Gotham, and Capt. William Hedge, should suffer because they unavoidably
came in contact with a bad woman? I think not. History is of no value when the
exact truth is suppressed. No line of distinction can be drawn between not telling
the whole truth and the wilful misstatement of facts”  (p.28)

But if (as Otis claims) Blanche was such a bad woman, why didn’t her first husband
deal with her in his will as her second husband did in his?

As I said, this is one of my favorite stories about my ancestors. And since I’d
never noticed that footnote by Amos Otis before I saw it todat, I’m left with
another tantalizing mystery:

Just what did Blanche Hull do that would tarnish the reputation of a lady
named Martha Foxwall?  

Cookies at Christmas time usually meant the Italian cookies
served at my Aunt Emily’s with that light frosting and the red and
green sprinkles. As an adult I buy them at the supermarket only
around this time of year.

But while my mom wasn’t really into cookie baking, she did like to
make coffee cake and sponge cakes. And when we were living in
Dorchester she learned how to bake mundel bread from our
Jewish neighbors. She also made cupcakes and cornbread.

There was one other dessert dish Mom made and I’m not sure
if it was something that her mom Aggie had done during the
Depression. Mom would send me down the street to the store
on Milton Ave to buy a box of Jiffy Bake Mix and she’d make
biscuits, then would top them with strawberries and whipped
cream. I didn’t care for the taste of the biscuit so I’d make sure
the strawberries had really soaked it before I ate it!

2010 Update: Due to my medical needs I don’t eat cookies
much anymore. However, I may cheat  a little if there are any
served over the holidays!
 
2011 Update:I forgot to mention last year that my favorite
holiday cookies are the ones with the big “Hershey’s Kiss” in
the middle. Yes, I know you can get them year round but the
only time I usually ate them was at the holidays. I might cheat
with one or two if any are around this year!

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas Day in the morning.

And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?
And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas Day in the morning?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Pray, wither sailed those ships all three,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
Pray, wither sailed those ships all three,
On Christmas Day in the morning?

O they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
O they sailed into Bethlehem,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
And all the bells on earth shall ring,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
And all the Angels in Heaven shall sing,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

And all the souls on earth shall sing,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
And all the souls on earth shall sing,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Then let us all rejoice again,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
Then let us all rejoice again,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

I don’t recall many holiday parties from my earlier childhood. In
our family folks were too busy working or shopping at Christmas
time. And when we lived in Dorchester the apartments weren’t
really big enough to hold large parties in, although there might
have been one or two. If so, they would have followed the rules of
other adult parties my folks had: after saying hello to the adults,
my sister and I would be sent off to our beds to eventually fall
asleep while listening to the adults in the other room laughing
at Rusty Warren records. We wondered what “roll me over
in the clover” meant.

As an adult, most of my Christmas party experience has been at
work, including one at a now defunct toy chain warehouse(more
on that job later) when I was in my early twenties. It snowed
when I left for home, my car at the time was an Olds 98 and
being in a hurry to get home, I didn’t completely clean the rear
windshield. I backed up, turning the car around….

….and smashed my rear windshield by backing the car up under
a tractor trailer box front end as if it were a big rig hooking up.

The good news was, my Dad worked in the auto glass repair
business.

The bad news was I had to call him and tell him what I’d done.

It was an …umm…interesting conversation.

((First published in December, 2007))