Though the idea of setting aside a day to honor the “First Americans” was set in 1915, it wasn’t until 1990 that an entire month, the month of November, was designated as Native American month. Read more about its beginnings here: https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/ In honor of the month, Legacy Roots has gathered a few website links...
{1934 – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania} What if you could build a tower to prevent airplanes from flying over your property. As ridiculous as that may sound, Baron Bestecki did not think it was. Born as Zdzislaw Alexander Maximilian Von Bestecki in Poland into Polish nobility, he arrived in the United States after marrying American citizen...
{The Use of Hats in Creating a Pictorial Family Tree} National Mad Hatter Day, celebrated on the 6th of October every year, is a day of fun creating silly hats, having tea parties a la Alice in Wonderland, and telling riddles. The holiday naturally brings to mind the phrase, ‘mad as a hatter’ with...
{Researching Commissioned Officers Gone Awry} We all know about infamous pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. But beyond those who made a career of it and whose life stories have shown up in numerous books over the centuries, there are those who had a much less notorious history who started out as privateers, commissioned...
{Book Review: Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You, by David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty, Published by Rowman & Littlefield} Nearby History is called ‘a comprehensive handbook for those interested in investigating the history of communities, families, local institutions, and cultural artifacts.’ But it is much more than that. What I found this...
{Buildings Archaeology Artifactual Feature Origins Part II — Trenched Timbers} INTRODUCTION The first technique covered in this series of artifactual features used in early American homes by immigrant English carpenters is trenching. In his book entitled English Historic Carpentry, Cecil A. Hewett describes a trench as ‘a square sectioned groove cut across the grain.’...
{National and New Jersey African American Genealogy Resources} In honor of Juneteenth, Legacy Roots has compiled a short list of national and local New Jersey genealogy websites that may be instrumental in telling the story of your family’s journey as an African American. While some sites will provide access to sources with names and...
There aren’t too many people I can think of who can claim this past year as stellar. However, for research and genealogy, we were somehow able to progress even though the repositories had closed or limited their access. That being said, I thought I might share what this past year was like in my...
In 1864 Charles G. Gunther took office as the Mayor of New York City and was presented with a personalized copy of a book, The Draft Riots in New York. July, 1863. From 1861 to 1865 America was in turmoil with families and friends fighting side by side, and at times on opposite sides,...