1918 Flu Pandemic

I'd like to highlight once again how you can use newspaper reports of what was going on in your ancestor's world even if there are no specific mentions of them. Recently, I wanted to know more about the 1918 Flu Pandemic that swept the world, infecting some 500 million people and killing somewhere between 20 and 50 million, and how it influenced my ancestors and their local communities. I already knew that none of my ancestors were reported in any (accessible) papers as ill during the time and none died in 1918 either. I do have one ancestor who died in Alabama in January 1919 and I am waiting on his death certificate to tell me if it was the flu. Though it was mostly waning by that point, you never know.

But for this, I focused primarily on the Ambler Gazette, a local newspaper in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. The Fallows branch of my tree already had numerous mentions in the society section of this paper so I knew that this paper would give me a good picture of their community during the flu pandemic.

First, some background. At the time, it was known as the Spanish Flu because this particular epidemic was thought to have come from Spain. It's now believed that it began amidst the war, at a hospital camp in Étaples, France, spreading quickly among soldiers and staff. There had been precursors among birds and pigs, which highlights how easily bird flu and swine flu can mutate to infect humans, something we still fear today. From Europe, it spread outwards to Asia, Africa, South America, North America, and even the Arctic and remote islands. On July 22, Philadelphia public health officials issued a warning about the Spanish Influenza and in August, Boston was hit hard by it, arriving first at the docks. By late September, it was spreading to the rest of the country but Philadelphia went on with their scheduled Liberty Loan Drive Parade on September 28th, in support of the war effort. Afterwards, there were 635 new cases of the flu in Philadelphia and on October 6th, there were 289 flu related deaths reported for a single day.

Philly was a stone's throw away from the Fallows' East Willow Grove Ave home in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County and their daughter and son-in-law, the Godshalls, were just across the Philly border at 227 E Durham Street. But what was going on in their neighborhood? How was the community and local government handling it? I turned to the Ambler Gazette, which was issued weekly on Thursdays. This meant that the first mentions of the flu weren't ground breaking, since people probably would have read about it first in other, daily papers. At first, there were only a few mentions of individual cases reported on September 26, before the Parade in Philadelphia, but at this point, it did not seem like a huge concern to anyone. Indeed, even as late as October 3rd, Ambler was still planning to go forward with it's own Liberty Loan Drive Parade on October 12 (left), despite reports of other, smaller, local events being postponed or cancelled in the area and the nearby town of Norristown in the "throes of epidemic" (below).

Finally, a week later on October 10th, Ambler had to admit that the parade needed to be cancelled. In the clipping below and right, also including a report from Wyndmoor, they announce:

"Owing to the prevalence of the epidemic, it has been considered prudent to cancel all plans for the public demonstration and parade in Ambler on next Saturday afternoon, Columbus day, designated by President Wilson as Liberty Loan day."

In the account of Wyndmoor, though there is no mention of my ancestors in particular, you can see there are a number of reports of illnesses and the announcement of the closure of churches and schools. This was significant for my ancestors since they were very involved in their church activities and my great grandmother (from this family) had been a teacher in Wyndmoor before her marriage and still occasionally substituted afterwards. Whether she was substituting at that specific time, I'm not sure. She did have a two year old son, (my grandpop!) at the time so I'm guessing not, but she would have known much of the staff at the Wyndmoor Public School.

The mention of Dorothy Unruh's illness is significant as well since they were neighbors of the Fallows. And yes, Unruh is spelled correctly. It's a weird name, I know, but don't laugh because they were prominent land owners in the area and pretty wealthy.

Also on the 10th, information provided by Dr. Karl Schaffle in Massachusetts was printed in the Ambler Gazette with good advice about prevention and preparation, shown below. The Red Cross made notices as well (below) about the war effort and an order for 1800 influenza masks. Although the information about the Ambler parade being cancelled had obviously not yet reached them, note how Red Cross members were expected to participate in the demonstration despite the danger.

 

Wyndmoor was certainly not the only town shutting down. Most nearby areas, such as Flourtown or Horsham, were also closing churches and schools. It must have been worrying just to go out for necessary groceries. Would such a simple act cost you your life? Or the life of those you loved? At first, I was surprised when I realized that one of the numerous mentions of my ancestors going on one of their many vacations was right in the midst of all this. On October 17th, the Wyndmoor section of the paper writes:

"Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fallows are spending some time at Lake Hopatcong."

In the clipping to the right, you can see how right along side this report, there are also several announcements of illness and death related to the flu and shocking accounts of hundreds of bodies not yet buried laid out in a cemetery because there was no where else to put them and they couldn't be buried fast enough. Why on earth would my ancestors go on vacation in the middle of all this? It's hardly a time to kick back, relax, and enjoy yourself. I can only imagine that were trying to escape the risk of infection. Lake Hopatcong is a rural area where there was probably less contact with people and therefore a lower threat. Indeed, people were being advised to avoid crowded, public areas and what better way to avoid that than to spend some time at a remote lake? With that line of thinking, I'm actually surprised they didn't take their daughter, son-in-law, and toddler grandson with them.

In the same week, the Massachusetts Department of Health issued information about avoidance and treatment. Some of it, as you can see to the left, is not very dissimilar to the advice circulated regarding the more recent swine flu outbreak.

Riddled throughout all these articles are countless mentions of the names of the ill and dead. The search function on the Ambler Gazette initially highlights the words you're searching for in red (example below) and after searching merely for "influenza", some of the images of each sheet of paper are literally covered in red highlight. By this point, I was definitely getting an understanding of just how much this must have influenced my ancestors in the area, even if they were not infected themselves (and it's possible they were but it simply wasn't reported in the paper - if they were, they at least did not perish from it).

By the following week as reported on October 24th, we are starting to see more mentions of improvements and fewer new cases. There are still deaths and illness but there is light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Still, the Red Cross asks for donations of soups and other foods (right) to distribute to the sick.

Also printed on the 24th was an obvious attempt to keep fears at bay and prevent panic in yet another instructional advice article, shown to the left.

"Simply the Old Grip or La Grippe That Was Epidemic in 1889-1890".

I'm sure that was a great comfort to those with dead loved ones and did not sound patronizing at all (sense the sarcasm). It is true that it was certainly not the first flu epidemic (which went by many names including the Grip) but it did wind up being a more devastating case of it. The 1889-1890 influenza comparatively caused about one million deaths.

Finally, on October 31st (below), the Ambler Gazette reports more and more improvements and the Wyndmoor section notably has no mention of any new cases of the flu. It lists names of fatalities from their town in the last couple weeks, just one of the many areas of the sprawling suburbs of Philadelphia where there would be many more names. It also announced the reopening of two churches, one of which was the Grace Lutheran Church where my ancestors were members. Life was seemingly getting back to normal but with so many gone, it would never quite be the same. Below is an account from November 14th of how the deadly epidemic made orphans out of 50,000 children in Pennsylvania alone:

Never underestimate capitalism's ability to benefit from tragedy though. Below are examples of companies advertising treatments for the flu; amusingly, one of them is for plain old whiskey! And good old Vicks, still used today, cashed in big and had to report a lack of stock.

Of course none of these things will have saved lives, they just made the suffering a little easier. On October 19, Dr. C.Y. White in Philadelphia developed a vaccine and over 10,000 inoculations were given out through the Philadelphia Board of Health. Whether this played a significant role in reducing the spread of the disease in Philly is still debated. Numbers did decrease afterwards but some believe they would have done so naturally anyway at that point as the virus had run it's course.

And remember, this epidemic was spread worldwide so it's likely your own ancestors were somehow influenced by it as well, even if it was only indirectly. Don't overlook this important yet often forgotten part of history. The hardest part is finding the right newspaper for your ancestor's local area but if you're like me and you've already got your source and are looking for new ways to use it to find new information, this should yield fascinating results. Happy searching!

Sources:
Influenza Strikes: The Great Pandemic
City Snapshots: Philadelphia. Influenza 1918
Timeline. Influenza 1918
1918 flu pandemic
Access Pennsylvania Digital Repository

Do You Know Me?

Carrying on from my post about the mystery photos found in one of the boxes of ancestry stuff passed down from my grandmother, here are a bunch more. They seem to all have been taken in Philadelphia, sometimes the Chestnut Hill area, in the late 19th century. And I'm pretty sure they are friends or relatives of my Fallows and/or Rorer branches. If you recognize any of these people, please contact me by commenting below or sending me a private message on Ancestry.com.

Love Letters from 1837 Kentucky

First love surviving love letter between
Robert Hawkins Smith and Octavia M Wood

One of my greatest treasures in the jackpot of heirlooms my maternal grandmother left behind are the love letters between my 3rd great grandparents, Robert Hawkins Smith and Octavia M. Wood, dated 1837.

Robert was born in Buckingham County, Virginia on October 9th, 1817 and as a child, he and his family traveled to Georgia and then finally settled in Elkton, Todd County, Kentucky. Octavia, the 8th born child, had been born in Williamson County, Tennessee on May 21, 1821. Sometime before she was 16, her family migrated to Christian County, Kentucky, either in or just outside of Hopkinsville.

So in 1837, Robert is in Elkton, Kentucky and Octavia is in or around Hopkinsville, Kentucky. If you look at a map, you'll see these two places are about 20 miles apart, which today is but a mere half hour drive according to trusty Google Maps. On horseback, this would take about 5 hours at an average walking gait (according to Wikipedia, a horse's average walking speed is about 4 miles per hour). At an average trot, this time would be halved but your horse would be more worn out. So it's safe to say that Robert and Octavia were conducting what we would call a long distance relationship. How did they meet? I don't know, that remains a mystery. One suggestion made was that they could have met at a church function, such as a revival meeting.

What I do know is that by 1837, they were sending letters to each other expressing their feelings for one another. The ones sent to Octavia were addressed to Hopkinsville but since there was no postal service outside the city, those who lived in rural areas had to travel into the city to pick up their mail. Octavia's father was a farmer, which is what makes me think they were living just outside of Hopkinsville. Octavia's letters to Robert were addressed to "Elkton" or "Near Elkton".

Above is the first surviving letter, from Robert to Octavia, in which he seems to be revealing his feelings for her for the first time (note how he says he has concealed his feelings from her as long as he could). There is no date to be found on the letter but since the rest of the letters openly discuss their feelings for one another, this one must come before them in chronological order. It is difficult to read and I could not make all of it out, especially with there being a big hole over at least one word, but this is what I managed to transcribe:

"Sitting alone it is then that I think of thee. It is on thee that all my future happiness depends as to my sincerity or that you may depend for I would not deceive you for the world. Believe me for I am truly your lover. Dear Octavia would it [illegible] with my [hole in document] feelings or in other words could you consent to become my companion through life. If I am your choice it will shortly render me happy through life. If not, My Dear, I have more regard for your feelings than to persuade you contrary to your tender feelings. I have concealed my feelings from you as long as I can so you must not think me bold in this address to you for my love to you is so great that I could not [for bane?]. So excuse my Boldness. It is my desire that you answer me as soon as you can. Remember me your affectionate lover until death,

Robert H Smith"

As you can see, the letter was then folded up several times and the address was written on the back so apparently envelopes weren't used.

Second surviving love letter from Robert
to Octavia

Octavia's response to Robert's profession of love are lost to history, her responding letter has not survived. There are five surviving letters in total, each in varying degree of legibility. The second surviving letter is also from Robert to Octavia and dated May 24, 1837. How many letters there had been between the first and second (or prior to the first) is unknown. Since the first letter is not dated, there is no way to guess how many letters could have been sent before May 24.

In the second letter (right), Robert tells Octavia that she is "as dear to me as life itself" and tells her "doubt not what I say for every word comes directly from the heart." He then promises to see her in a short time and will have "the most exquisite pleasure of embracing one who I am ever anxious to see." He finishes the letter by saying he "remains your affectionate and dear beloved until death." Obviously eager to hear back from her, he adds a rather demanding P.S. of "Answer this letter immediately".

The third letter (below), dated June 2, 1837, is the most interesting of all as Octavia tells Robert,

"You must give me a generous reward for transacting this generous act but alas I fear the consequence. Round is the ring that has no end."

What is going on here? My mother's theory, one I can't help but be inclined to agree with, is that Octavia's "generous act" was one of a sexual nature and that she fears the consequence of either getting pregnant or someone finding out and her reputation being ruined and therefore as her "generous reward" she is expecting him to marry her. "Round is the ring that has no end" certainly sounds like a pretty obvious reference to a wedding ring.

Third letter, from Octavia to Robert

But this is mere speculation. You wouldn't have thought that they would want to save letters which could prove they engaged in premarital sex and tarnish their reputation. But if it's accurate, Octavia need not have feared for not only did Robert marry her, she did not give birth for the first time until well after their marriage, which occurred in the year following the letters, on February 20, 1838.

Front page of fourth letter, from Robert
to Octavia

The fourth letter (right), dated June 24th, is obviously Robert's response to Octavia's fears. Covering a page and a half and written in what appears to be larger and sloppier handwriting than his other letters, it shows how anxious Robert must have been to reassure Octavia:

"Dear Miss I hasten to answer you letter but alas how can I express my feelings to one who I consider if I should use the expression as dear to me as life itself and the letter that I received from you was a dear consolation to me. Dear Miss, doubt not what I say for every word comes directly from the heart of one who is and shall prove to be your friend and as to the regards of the love I have for you, is beyond expressible. Dear Miss, I hope you will for this time I beg to excuse me of not answering your letter sooner for I was so engaged in my affairs that I could not. But I am in hopes that I will see you in person and that will be the most enjoyment to us both. My Dear, you speak of a generous reward from me for transacting so generous an act. I say by all that is sacred and by all that is dear to man and men that I pledge myself again and again that I will prove to you what I ought to do on that subject. Oh my dear, give me your heart and hand and that is all I ask and if you do not, I am ruined forever. Dear Miss, you will permit me to subscribe myself your most obedient friend. But I would write something more on that, but I thought as you would be convinced in this letter the love that I had for you."

You may notice that Robert is beginning to reiterate some romantic sentiments that he used in the second letter! But Octavia too uses some of the same phrases as Robert and so I think these were common phrases of affection at the time.

Back of the fourth letter

Robert's post script in his final surviving letter is the most romantic of all, in my opinion, because it is not found elsewhere in any of the letters by Robert or Octavia and is therefore a unique sentiment rather than a recycled or commonly used term of endearment:

"My dear it is you and you alone that I love and no other can win my affection from you."

Fifth and final surviving letter, from Octavia to
Robert

The fifth and final surviving letter (right) is from Octavia and dated November 15 so there is another gap in the timeline here in which some letters are probably missing. In it, Octavia reflects on the many transactions between them but I found it to be the most difficult letter to transcribe and therefore her thoughts come across very brokenly. She talks of Robert's "respectful attention", which perhaps suggests there was never any sexual intimacies between them after all, and his "sincere friendship". She calls him "my darling", "my beloved", and "dear lover", all terms that Robert used for her as well. She ends the letter with the final insight we have into their world and hearts:

"May god bless and preserve you and believe me that I remain forever your affectionate lover until death."

We hear so much about arranged and political marriages from the past that it is refreshing and heartwarming to see a genuine love like this develop. Robert and Octavia married 3 months after the final surviving letter and settled in Pembroke, a small rural town just outside of Hopkinsville, where they had 12 children and became members of the Christadelphian Church.

Octavia died on January 10, 1894 when she was 72 years old and Robert followed her six years later on January 6, 1900. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of Octavia but I do have one of Robert looking rather old so perhaps it was taken after Octavia's death:

With 12 children, there are many descendants of Robert and Octavia out there. I hope these letters can help provide them with some personal insight into their ancestor's lives. If anyone out there has any additional surviving letters, perhaps some of the ones I am missing, please get in touch with me, either by commenting below or you can use the contact form on the right.

Colonial Facts and Stats: Culture and Life Part 2

The last installment of this topic involves less statistical information and is more focused on the roles within the family unit. Again, this is just a small portion of the wealth of useful information from Family Life in 17th and 18th Century America.

• Family feasts were popular to celebrate common milestones and events of life; there were feasts for a lying-in, births, baptisms, churchings, starting school or an apprenticeship, betrothals, weddings, anniversaries, house-warmings, recovery from an illness, and even after the setting of a gravestone. On the other hand, many Protestant sects were "hostile" to seasonal or annual feasts related to Catholicism like saints days but some could not be suppressed. 
• Younger sons were often able to follow their own path in life when the father could only afford to send one or two sons to college. However, it often meant they could only find work in "less desirable" careers like sailing, tailoring, blacksmithing, or carpentry. 
• In very rural areas, many children had only very basic writing skills with little more ability to spell out much more than their own name. In more populated areas, there were often laws requiring public schooling: in Connecticut every town of 80 families had an elementary school, and those with 500 families had to establish the equivalent of a high school. Similarly, Massachusetts required every town of 50 families to appoint a schoolmaster. Under Dutch rule, public schooling was not common in New York but under English rule the Dutch were more motivated to establish their own schools in attempts to maintain their culture in light of the increase in English residents. Higher education was still needed though and so college's began to be founded: In the northern and middle colonies were Harvard (1636), Yale (1701), Princeton (the College of New Jersey, 1746), the University of Pennsylvania (1751), Columbia (King's College, 1754), Brown (1764), Rutgers (1766), and Dartmouth (1770). In the south, there were William and Mary (1693), Hampton-Sydney College (1776), and Transylvania College (1780). 
• Prior to the American Revolution, Philadelphia had some of the best schools with the most comprehensive curricula. However, Quaker families were suspicious of any government-run organization and preferred to home school their children, providing them with adequate fundamental education.
• In the south, planters and merchants commonly hired private tutors or sent their children to private schools, often even shipping them back to England to attend private school.
• Just like today, college students would often explore their new freedom by behaving badly and binge drinking, even breaking the law. They would sometimes harass local women in town (the school body was all male) or take up with prostitutes. Students and sometimes entire classes could be expelled or dismissed for a term because of riots, abuse of the faculty, or vandalism.
• Unlike in some homes today where children are always welcome in their parent's home, once colonial children, particularly sons, left the home and established their own household, they would be expected to pay for room and board if they ever returned.
• A teacher's annual salary could range from around £75 to £150 depending on the level of instruction required.
• Men were expected to work to support their family and those who relied entirely on allowance or inheritance were often viewed with suspicion.
• The society was broken down into four classes: 
• Upper class, who were mostly politicians and plantation owners.
• Middle class, consisting of skilled workers such as tradesmen, craftsmen, and farm owners (not to be confused with large plantation owners).
• "Laboring poor" or lower class, who did mostly unskilled work (often on farms) such as digging ditches, rolling wheelbarrows, carrying timber, pitching manure and hay, etc but it also included sailors and fishermen. 
• "Miserable poor" or the unemployed, were often criminals and prostitutes. 
• The most abundant crop grown in the south was not cotton but corn (maize). However, the most profitable was sugar, adding about £3 million to Britain's wealth annually. Also common was tobacco, rice, and indigo. 
• Plantation owners, though members of upper class, were often cash poor and in debt, all of their money being tied up in their plantations.
• On average, farmers tended about 18 acres of crop per 100 acres. The rest was used as pasture and woodlots or left to recuperate after many seasons of over-farming.
• To solve the issue of coin shortage, each colony produced it's own paper money, Maryland's being most successful.
• Under Dutch law, marriage was an equal partnership with equal claim to their combined wealth. Upon the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse was entitled to half the estate and the right to administer the other half for heirs.
• Quaker women did not deal with business, economic, or legal matters but did carry authority in the community such as being responsible for approving marriage applications as a group.
• In English culture, a widow was entitled to 1/3 of the household goods and income of real estate but a husband could will her more. If he willed her less, it was often contested in court for the standard 1/3 and usually ruled in favor of the widow.
• Childbirth was the leading cause of death among women.
• 1 in 10 infants died within their first year and 4 out of 10 died before age 6.
• Once past toddlerhood, children spent the most time with their same gender parent, sons learning the occupational skills of their father and daughters learning domestic skills with their mothers. Girls as young as three were expected to help with the household chores and were taught to knit from age four.
• Diarying and gardening were among the most important of a farm woman's tasks (diary, especially cheese, was a more common source of protein than meats).
• Farm housewives spend their morning milking cows so breakfast was usually very simple and included toast and cheese or leftovers from meals of the previous day. Dinner, what we'd call lunch, was the biggest meal of the day and served at noon. Supper, an evening meal, was similar to breakfast. Southern plantations had bigger breakfasts with cold meats, fowl, game, hominy and hot breads.
• While many parents disciplined with physical punishment, not all parents condoned it.
• Many free black girls were apprenticed with another family to perform household chores where they would also learn to read. The indenture served as proof of their freedom, safeguarding them against being sold into slavery.
• Some indentured servants were criminals who were indentured for life, essentially an enslavement but one which did not pass on to their descendants. 
• Indentured servants had rights that slaves did not. When ill, they were entitled to care and the time of service lost could not count against them. They could not be sold out of the colony in which they arrived and could not be cheated out of the items due them at the end of their service. They could take their masters to court for neglect (not providing food or clothing). In many ways, they had a similar legal status to children.
• Colonial jails usually served only as temporary holding cells, not long term confinement. Whipping, flogging, branding, ear cropping, etc were preferred methods of criminal punishment than confinement.

Mystery Photos

Among the plethora of photographs and documents of our ancestors that my mother inherited from my grandmother was a bundle of photos mostly from around the late 1800's of unknown individuals (frustratingly, no names written on them). Since I have pictures of all my direct ancestors on my mom's side going back four, sometimes five generations, it's safe to say none of them are of my own ancestors. So I suspect they were either extended family/distant relatives or friends of the family, most specifically, the Rorer and perhaps Fallows branches. How do I know this? Well, it's partly dumb luck and partly an educated guess.

Two of the photos in the pile are of the same guy (shown above) who also happens to be in a tintype (below) of a group shot containing my ancestor Mary Anne Rorer (far right in the photo) when she was looking particularly like a young woman (based on other pictures I have of her), probably before she was married in 1887. So probably sometime in the 1880s.

Mystery guy has very distinctive lips, right? Hard to miss. Definitely the same guy in all three images, though in the first one he might be a little older. And by the way, Mary Anne had no living brothers and her only known uncle was childless (no known aunts) so mystery guy is probably not a first cousin either. He could only be a distant cousin or friend.

To help confirm the time period, I decided to look up the photographer named on the print of the mystery guy when he was looking about the same age as he is in the tintype. I did this by using the directory records on Ancestry.com. Year by year, I looked up a photographer by the surname of Applegate in Philadelphia at the address Vine and 8th Streets and found James R Applegate worked there from 1871 to 1904 (he'd worked as a photographer prior to this but at a different address so I ruled that out).

I was lucky that the print of mystery guy had the photographer's details on it, not all do. I was also lucky to find him in a group shot with my ancestor so I could get a good idea of who he was associated with in my tree and when. Though I'm still investigating the individuals and photographers of the other images in the pile, many of them are of the same style and therefore probably around the same time period. And knowing that the Rorers and Fallows were something of socialites (and therefore had friends with the money to purchase multiple prints of a photo and distribute them to friends and family) and what appears to be enthusiasm for photographs, it seems likely that they received pictures of friends or family members, perhaps even swapping them with ones of themselves.

I will be posting more of the mystery photos in hopes that someone with a copy of the same picture, who knows who they are, will do a reverse image search like Tineye and find my blog and tell me who they are. My hopes aren't high but if I never put them out there for people to find, they'll never be found.

Historical Fiction and Author's Notes

I'm going to take a slight diversion from the topic of genealogy for a moment and address an issue concerning historical novels. I am a historical fiction enthusiast as much as I am interested in non-fiction and genealogy but I am not the type that requires my fiction to be perfectly accurate. It is, after all, fiction and some creative license should be expected.

What concerns me is the issue of the Author's Note in the back of many historical novels in which it's become common for authors to detail which parts of the novel are factual, which are grey areas, and which are complete fabrications. This would normally be a great little educational tool but readers tend to take this as gospel, which they unfortunately shouldn't. In two specific cases, I have come across an Author's Note that contains false statements of fact.

The first of which was Jeanne Kalogridis' The Borgia Bride. It's an excellent work of fiction based on Sancha of Aragon, wife of Joffre Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia). But in her Author's Note at the end, she claims:

"Historians have speculated for centuries as to who actually poisoned Alexander VI and his eldest son. The mystery has never been solved."

My understanding is that most historians feel there is no conclusive proof that Alexander and his son were even poisoned at all. In fact, after reading The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert, I am more convinced that they were merely the victims of a naturally occurring bacterial or viral infection. Take a look at the timeline detailed in Hibbert's work of non-fiction:

"On August 5, just four days before Cesare was due to leave Rome, father and son accepted an invitation to dinner at the villa of Cardinal Adriano Castellesi in the countryside some miles outside of Rome. On this occasion it was Cesare's health that caused the greater anxiety, since he was not only suffering from pain in his stomach, but also, according to Burchard, he was "much irritated by the skin on his face in the lower part, which falls apart like rotten leaves and results in a pus that he is much concerned to hide with his mask." On their arrival at Castellesi's villa, father and son were both extremely thirsty and asked for cups of wine, which they drank "most gratefully." It was a sultry evening, and the guests dined alfresco, thankful for the shade cast by the trees in the garden. The next day their host felt ill and went to bed; a week later the pope also took to his bed; Cesare then fell ill; so did several of the cardinal's other guests, as well as some of his servants. Poison was naturally suspected."

The illness Cesare was suffering from prior to the incident was Syphilis, though probably of no importance regarding this. Hibbert does mention that poison was suspected; it often was. But people at the time had little understanding of illness, disease, and poison. After all, they still believed malaria was caused by "bad air". With the knowledge we have today, one only needs to look at the timeline of events (which I've bolded) to understand that it could not have been poison. After the dinner at which they were supposedly poisoned, the host first falls ill the next day. A full week later, the pope takes ill and soon after, so does Cesare and several of the other guests and servants who had attended the dinner. I admit I am no expert on poison but I've never heard of one which, after only one dosage, takes a week to kick in and then kicks in hard. I can not see how that would even be medically possible. Gradual poisoning wasn't possible, not with so many ill who were all only in the same place one night. It seems more likely to me that this is the result of a natural disease and the timeline we're seeing is due to the incubation period (the time between one is infected and one shows symptoms). The host of the night was already infected but not showing symptoms yet (at least not strong or obvious ones, he could have been ignoring minor, beginning symptoms in order to host the party) and was unknowingly infecting many others at the dinner, since one can be contagious during the incubation period. With an incubation period of about one week, everyone else at the party who had been infected suddenly comes down ill too.

Surely, that makes more sense than an unknown poison which, after only one dose, takes a week to kick in and then somehow is powerful enough to kill? And ultimately, the fact of the matter still remains that most historians don't conclusively believe Alexander's death was the result of poison. I did not have a problem with the use of poison in the novel but I do have a problem with the author claiming that Alexander and Cesare were indeed poisoned when there is no proof of that and little evidence.

The second inaccurate Author's Note I came across was found in Jessica McCann's All Different Kinds of Free, a novel based on the life of Margaret Morgan and the Prigg vs Pennsylvania case regarding slavery laws and whether escaped slaves in Pennsylvania could be returned to their owners in the south or not, especially with no documented proof of their ownership. Margaret Morgan had claimed to be free but was captured and returned to the south where she was sold into slavery. In the Author's Note, McCann claims that Margaret was indeed free, not a slave, when she went to Pennsylvania and as evidence of this states:

"In fact, in the 1830 U.S. census, she, her husband and their children were recorded as 'free blacks' by the county sheriff."

It's true that there is an 1830 U.S. Census record of a black Jerry Morgan, who McCann claims was Margaret's husband, living in the right area. What she fails to inform the reader of is that Margaret's husband's name is lost to history and that in the 1830 census, only the "head of household" is recorded by name. Here is where knowledge of genealogy research does come into play a little bit because every genealogist knows that you can't make assumptions like this. McCann is assuming Jerry Morgan was Margaret's husband without any proof of it since Margaret is never named on the census herself. Could it be an accurate assumption? Yes, it's possible that Jerry Morgan was Margaret's husband and that they were free and therefore Jerry's name was recorded on the 1830 census. But it's also possible they were escaped slaves whose names were never recorded on the 1830 census and Margaret's husband's name was something else entirely. Naturally, it goes without saying that regardless of their slave status, Margaret's fate (being sold into or back into slavery) was immoral. But that doesn't justify making false statements to suit one's agenda. I certainly don't have a problem with Margaret being portrayed as free in the novel or even if the author personally believes Margaret was free - I would like to believe the same thing. But she still needs to be clear about the facts in the Author's Note, which she wasn't. Had she explained that the census record may not be Margaret's family but that she believes it is, fair enough, I'd have no complaints. But don't claim something is factual when you're actually only making assumptions.

While I respect all the hard work and research that goes into any historical novel, it's important to remember that if you would not use it as a credible source for an academic study, it's best to take it with a grain of salt. You wouldn't cite the Author's Note from a novel in an academic report of the topic so don't take it as gospel. The author can make mistakes or might be motivated to exaggerate the facts, even within the Author's Note, to lend authenticity to their story, making it more interesting to the reader. It's possible these were rare cases and that most Author's Notes can be trusted; I am not criticizing all historical novelists, I respect and admire most of them. But as I am not an expert in all fields of history, how can I know what to trust and what not to? So just keep this in mind the next time you read an Author's Note in a historical novel.

I will step off my soapbox now and return to genealogy in my next post!

Tyler State Park

Tyler State Park is a 1,711 acre small but beautiful and historic state park. It has no connection to my own family history aside from the fact that my parents currently live in walking distance to it. If you're a history lover, the thing you'll most enjoy about the park is the historic houses, some dating back to colonial times. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track down any specific information on them while I was there - I thought the park office would have a pamphlet or something but apparently the history of the area is only worth a small little corner of their park information pamphlet.

So what it does tell us is that the land was owned by George F. Tyler, who acquired it in stages between 1919 and 1928. So prior to his ownership, portions of it had been broken up and owned by different people. Tyler's family originally lived in the Solly Farm House (right) until their mansion (above) was built but they continued to vacation in it after moving into the mansion. The mansion is now the administration office building for the Bucks County Community College and Solly House was functioning as a hostel up until recently but is now vacant, though Hostelling International are still leasing it apparently. Sadly, it doesn't appear that anyone is taking care of it right now and if someone doesn't start soon, this local icon could deteriorate fast. I can only hope there are future plans for it. The above/right photo of Solly House is merely the original house, many larger extensions were added to the back, as you can see below.

The Tyler's farm had one of the finest herds of Ayrshire diary cattle in the county, as well as poultry, sheep, pigs, and a stable of about 25 horses. Their plentiful crops were mainly used to feed their livestock. They also had several servants - a dozen in 1920 including but not limited to five maids, two laundresses, a cook, and a governess for the family's children who were twelve, nine, and five years old at the time. By 1930, the Great Depression may have even been influencing them as their staff had reduced almost by half, dropping to only seven, mostly maids and also a cook and a butler. By 1940, the servant numbers had gone back up to ten including three maids, two waitresses, a cook and a valet, all working 60 hours a week. Before purchasing the land that would become Tyler State Park, the family lived at 296 Old York Road in Montgomery County. They only had one child at this time and employed a maid and a cook. This information was obtained from census records, hence my inability to make out some of the occupations of servants. George Frederick Tyler had been born in Newport, Rhode Island on August 10, 1883 and married his wife Stella Elkins around 1907. They had three children: Sidney, Molly, and George Jr.

Another icon of Tyler State Park is the Schofield Ford Covered Bridge. Originally built in 1874, it burnt down in 1991 and was rebuilt with authentic materials and methods in 1997. It's the longest covered bridge in Bucks County, shown below.

I wish I could say more about some of the other beautiful historic homes in the park which have been kept up better. Ten of them are currently leased out to residents who care for them. I also wish I had more information on the different pieces of land before they all came into Tyler's possession - after all, he only acquired the first portion of it in 1919 but the land had been settled since colonial times. And I'm sure the Solly House was once owned by a family named Solly but whether it has any connection with the other Solly Farm currently in another area of Bucks County, I don't know. These were the things I was hoping to find out from the park office. Regardless, below are some of the other lovely historic houses and barns to be found in the park and more photos of the back of the Tyler mansion as well.

Addendum: I was browsing the Library of Congress (great resource, by the way) for maps and came across one for Philadelphia and Bucks County from 1681. Curious to see if I could find the area that would become Tyler State Park, I attempted to overlay Google Maps on it and then drew a rough outline in Photoshop. Below is the result, though keep in mind that it's approximate - I could not quite get the maps to line up exactly right and I'm not sure the scales were entirely equal. But this should give you a rough idea of who the original lands of the park area were owned by.