Time Capsule Tuesday

 I liked the time capsule genealogy fun post so much that I have decided to make it a regular feature here on the blog!  So welcome to the first Time Capsule Tuesday post.

Today, I chose to travel back in time to the birth date of my great-grandmother, Bessie Alice Carter. 

Bessie was born February 9, 1883 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Bessie was adopted by Charles Kelso and Sarah Schoonover Carter shortly after her birth.  We have no information on her birth parents.  We have checked with the state of Wisconsin but their records do not go back that far.  Through DNA, my mother and I have discovered that she must have been from Swedish and/or Norwegian descent. I ended up with an Ethnicity Estimate of 7% Sweden and 5% Norway. No one else in the family came from either of those countries.
 

February 9, 1883 was a Friday.  

The top headlines that month:

Feb 8 -          Louis Waterman begins experiments to invent the fountain pen

Feb 10 -        Fire at uninsured New Hall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, kills 71.

Feb 14 -        First state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions

Feb 16 -        "Ladies Home Journal" begins publication

Feb 23 -        Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law

The top songs for 1883:

Polly Wolly Doodle                                                      La Golondrina

Only a Pansy Blossom                                                There's a Tavern in the Town

A Handful of Earth from Mother's Grave                  The Farmer in the Dell

My Nellie's Blue Eyes                                                Strolling on the Brooklyn Bridge

The U.S. President was Chester A. Arthur.  However, there was no vice president in office on this date. 

1883 Prices:

Bread:                    2 cents/loaf

Milk:                     16 cents/gallon

House:                   $5,000

Average Income:   $500/year 

Famous people born on February 9th:

- Wilhelm Maybach,, German engineer, designer of first Mercedes - 1846

- Carmen Miranda, Portugal, vocalist/actress (Copacabana, Date with Judy) - 1909

- Alice Walker, U.S. novelist (Color Purple) - 1944

Here's a little diddy to get stuck in your head.  Shirley Temple singing Polly Wolly Doodle from the 1935 film, The Littlest Rebel:

Source:  dMarie Time Capsule

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - A Day in the Life

From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  What were the newspaper headlines the day one of your grandparents or great-grandparents were born?

2)  Use any newspaper provider (Chronicling America (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) is FREE) to find the headlines.

3)  Tell us who your subject was, when and where they were born, and tell us three or four headlines on the front page of the newspaper for that date.

4)  Share your finds on your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or on your Facebook page.  Please provide a link to your work as a comment to this post.

Here's mine:

My great-grandmother, Bessie Alice Carter, was born February 9, 1883 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  

Since I don't have a subscription to a newspaper archive, I used Randy's suggestion and searched Chronicling America.  I could not locate a Milwaukee newspaper from that day, but I did find the front page of the "Iowa County Democrat" out of Mineral Point, Wisconsin for that date.  

Mineral Point is located about 2 hours almost due east (and slightly south) of Milwaukee.  It is also about 3 and a half hours from Eagle Grove, Iowa, which is where Bessie grew up.  

There do not seem to be many headlines.  It's mostly little snippets of information all jumbled together on one page.     

Here are the few:

- Telegraphic.  News by Wire Reduced to Close Quarters for Convenient Reference and Easy Reading.  

  - Crime

  - Foreign

  - Fires and Casualties

  - Washington

  - General Notes

  - Milwaukee Market

  - Chicago Market

  - This takes the Belt

- The Forty-Seventh Congress

- The Legislature

- Tariff Meddlers.  Democrats Charged with Obstructing Legislation by the Republicans.
  - The River and Harbor Bill Modestly Calls for $6,000,000 This Time

Sounds like mostly the same kinds of news as we see today...especially about politics.  It also seems this little town had very little going on cause all the news is from around the country and the world.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What is Your Matrilineal Line?

From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

Dear genealogists everywhere, it's Saturday Night!  Time for some Genealogy FUN.

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to: 

 1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!

2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Status line on Facebook or in your Stream at Google Plus.

4)  If you have done this before, please do your father's matrilineal line, or your grandfather's matrilineal line, or your spouse's matrilineal line.5)  Does this list spur you to find distant cousins that might share one of your matrilineal lines?  

Here's mine:

(1)  My matrilineal line:

- Mary Elizabeth Tapley (that's me!)

- Linda Irene Tapley, mother (b. Los Angeles, California)

- Ethel Irene Ranney Tapley, grandmother (b. July 6 1913 in Elsie, Clinton County, Michigan; d. Nov 12 1973 in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia)

-  Bessie Alice Carter Ranney, great-grandmother (b. Feb 9 1883 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; d. April 14 1960 in Redlands, San Bernardino County, California)  (She was adopted at birth.  I know nothing of her birth  family.)

- Sarah Melissa Schoonover, great-great-grandmother (b. July 13 1840; d. May 23 1918 in Elsie, Clinton County, Michigan)

- Sarah Ozmun, 3rd great-grandmother (b. Oct 23 1800; d. Nov 7 1870)

-  Sarah Jordan, 4th great-grandmother (b. Sept 29 1762 in New York; d. Aug 12 1812 in New York)

(2)  I have had my mitochondrial DNA tested and the Haplogroup I am in is U5a1a1.  This Haplogroup was centered in the Scandinavian countries.  

(3)  Done!  ;)

(4)  Will do in another post!

(5)  I am always eager to find near and distant cousins, especially on my mother's side because I know very few on that side of the family.