San Diego Fun and Research - Wordless Wednesday

San Diego, As Seen From Coronado Island
February 2013

(Digital Image; Photograph and Text, Copyright (c) 2013 Cynthia Shenette) Last month my family and I spent a couple of weeks in southern California on vacation. It was a wonderful respite from the snow and cold of Massachusetts. None of us wanted to come home! This photo was taken on one of the rare cloudy days we had in San Diego.  Quite a dramatic sky, don't you think?

While we were there I had chance to check out the San Diego Public Library.  Doesn't everyone visit the library while they are on vacation?  My son had some homework to do, and I had a little research I wanted to do for myself in the California Room.  While I struck out at finding what I was looking for with my own research I also asked if they had information on surveyors in the San Diego area.  My friend Barbara Poole, who writes the wonderful and ever informative Life From the Roots blog, had an ancestor, Charles H. Poole, who was an early surveyor in the San Diego area.  It was just my luck that a young man overheard me talking to the librarian.  He mentioned the name of two books about surveyors in San Diego, and the librarian brought out the two books, the History of San Diego Land Surveying Experiences by Curtis M. Brown and Michael Pallamary (out of print but available on WorldCat) and Lay of the Land: the History of Land Surveying in San Diego County by Michael Pallamary.  Well, didn't I hit pay dirt!  Barbara's ancestor was featured prominently in both of books!  So even though I didn't find the information I was looking for on my family I still had a great day!

The moral of the story is then next time you are in sunny southern California forget the beaches, and hit the library!  Also, sometimes it's just nice to help another genealogist.  You'll be glad you did!



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Books of Interest: Worcester History

(Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) This is a list of books that I either have as part of my collection or use for research.  The list is by no means comprehensive, simply books about Worcester history that I use and/or enjoy on a regular basis. 

Berhman, S.N. The Worcester Account.

Greenwood, Janette Thomas. First Fruits of Freedom: The Migration of Former Slaves and Their Search for Equality in Worcester Massachusetts, 1862-1900.

Hultgren, William O. Eric J. Salomonsson, and Frank J. Morrill. Worcester 1880-1920.

Koelsch, William A. Clark University, 1887-1987: A Narrative History.

Knowlton, Elliot B. and Sandra Gibson-Quigley (eds.). Worcester's Best (Second Edition): A Guide to the City's Architecture. 

Moynihan, Kenneth J. A History of Worcester: 1674-1848.

Nutt, Charles. History of Worcester and It's People (available on Google Books).

O'Toole, John M. Tornado!84 Minutes, 94 Lives.

Proko, Barbara and John Kraska Jr., Janice Baniukiewicz Stickles. The Polish Community of Worcester.

Prouty, Olive Higgins. Pencil Shavings.

Sandrof, Ivan. Your Worcester Street.

Sawyer, Christopher and Patricia A. Wolf. Denholms: The Story of Worcester's Premier Department Store.

Southwick, Albert B. Once Told Tales of Worcester County.

Southwick, Albert B. More Once Told Tales of Worcester County.

Wagner, David. The Poorhouse: America's Forgotten Institution.


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Books, Books, Books!

(Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette) Books, Books, Books! was the title of my library presentation for my son's Cub Scout den last year.  You want to work a tough crowd? Try entertaining a group of overly excited eight-year-old boys on a Friday night with a talk about books.  Stand up is easier. While not as exciting as whittling and geocaching, the presentation went remarkably well.  The boys all seemed to be interested and had a good time. When I was a kid I would have loved a Friday night at the library!  I loved books and  always had my head buried in a book.  I read standing up, sitting down, or walking. The best summer afternoon was one spent at the library!

My first favorite author was Miriam Clark Potter.  I loved her Mrs. Goose stories--Hello! Mrs. Goose, Just Mrs. Goose, No, No, Mrs. Goose, Our Mrs. Goose, Goodness, Mrs. Goose!  My favorite book in third grade was Charlotte's Web.  I read it over and over. Fourth grade--Little Women. Fifth grade--Johnny Tremain.  Sixth grade was a four way tie--the Little House series, Constance by Patricia Clapp, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, and Star Girl by Henry Winterfield.  I also loved fairy tales--the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, The Red Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book.  My grandmother hated the fairy tales. She thought I'd find them too scary.  No way.  I loved when Cinderella's step-sister chopped off her toes to fit her foot into Cinderella's glass slipper. They don't write kid's stories like that any more...

In junior high my best friend gave me a Barbara Cartland romance for my birthday.  I was hooked.  According to the Barbara Cartland website, Dame Barbara wrote 723 books during her lifetime, and I think I read them all (or maybe it just seems like I did). How can you not love books with titles like The Wicked Marquis, The Dangerous Duke, and The Elusive Earl?  Then there were the "love" books--An Arrow Of Love, Lucky In Love, The Problems Of Love, Conquered By Love.  I also read Hungry for Love, The Race for Love, Prisoner of Love, The Karma of Love, and The Treasure Is Love, among many (many) others.  I developed my love (sorry) for alliteration and ellipses in writing thanks to Barbara Cartland.

By the time I hit high school I was ready to delve into more "serious" literature.  I discovered the Harlequin Romance.  I loved the exotic settings, the breathless women, and the imperious men (How often does one actually get to use the word imperious except when discussing a Harlequin Romance?)  I worked at a local department store through my high school years, and  on Friday night after work I'd stop at the grocery store and pick up a Harlequin from the revolving book rack at the front of the store.  I'd start reading as soon as I got home and finish the book around two in the morning.  On Saturday night the pattern would repeat.

During my college years I expanded my horizons and sampled the works of fantasy authors Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkien, though my leisure reading was still primarily populated by my handsome Harlequin heroes (Alliteration.  Thank you, Dame Barbara).  As an English major my coursework focused on the heavy hitters of American and English literature--Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, and James Joyce.  I loved Beowulf (Someone had to...), as well as the works of Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist), the Brontes (Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights), and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice).  

My reading tastes these days lean more towards historical mysteries, biographies, and histories.  I haven't picked up a Harlequin in years.  I've come full circle though. I'm back to reading children's literature, now with my son, though his taste definitely leans more towards nonfiction than mine ever did.  His journey will be different than mine, but that's the great thing about books.  Every story is different.

Submitted for the 118th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.


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Books of Interest: The Life of Billy Yank

Two years ago my family and I visited Charleston, South Carolina. While we were there I thought it would be interesting to visit Fort Sumter National Monument. I figured it would be interesting for my husband and myself, and at the very least my then five-year-old son would enjoy the ferry ride over to the monument. Well, my son did enjoy the ferry ride, at least the first five minutes of it. After that everything was "old news." By the time we got to the fort my son was pretty bored. As a result, my husband and I took turns alternately entertaining the child and looking around the fort.

During our visit I did manage to check out the gift shop. I picked up a tiny toy cannon for the son and The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier for the Union by Bell Irvin Wiley for me. The book provides an interesting overview of a Union soldier's experience during the Civil War. It discusses the daily camp life and routine of the typical Union soldier. It also discusses the relationship and attitudes of the soldiers towards Rebel soldiers and African American slaves, fighting and battle, the all too abundant miseries of war, and profiles of the average and not so average soldier. The book includes an extensive bibliography and an index. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy, a companion book by the same author, is also available for those interested in the typical life of a Confederate soldier.

Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978, 1952.

Books of Interest - St. Denis: A French-Canadian Parish

While Horace Miners book, St. Denis: A French Canadian Parish was published over 70 years ago, much can still be gleaned from its contents describing daily life in St-Denis parish, Richelieu County, Quebec. The book was of interest to me as my great-grandfather Francois Chenette and grandfather Frank A. Shenette were born in St-Denis and my grandmother Marie L. Comeau was born in the neighboring town of St-Ours. Miner's book provides a glimpse of life as it was in St-Denis and it's environs in earlier times. Chapters include information on the history of the town, the land and it's people, kinship and the family, the role of religion, life according to the annual calendar, as well as the childhood condition, married life, and mourning rituals. Appendices include age-sex distribution of the population of St-Denis in 1936, traditional cures and remedies, the "autobiography of a habitant," old and new traits in St-Denis. A bibliography and index are included.

Miner, Horace. St. Denis: A French-Canadian Parish; Chicago: University of Chicago, Phoenix Books, 1963, 1939.

Books of Interest - Landowners in Poland 1918-1939

Wojciech Roszkowski's title, Landowners in Poland 1918-1939, describes the economic, political, social, and cultural role of large landowners in Poland between World War I and World War II. The book's chapters cover the composition of the land owning group by number, size of land ownership, geographical and historical differentiation, nationality structure, and social composition. It outlines the socioeconomic and political conditions between 1918 and 1939. The economy of large land owners is discussed including agriculture, forestry, industry, banking, and trade. The book also discusses the political role of the aristocracy and landowners, as well as the interwar society and culture of landowners. The appendix lists the 200 largest landowners in Poland in 1922. The list includes the the rank of the landowner within the list, the name of the landowner, the name of the estate and county in which it resides, and the number of hectares of the estate. The author has included an extensive bibliography, mostly in Polish. An index is not included.

Roszkowski, Wojcieck. Landowners in Poland 1918-1939. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1991.