Victorian Christmas

Posted on 30 November, 2007 by Janice Brown

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Are you An Elf, Or Are You A Scrooge?

Posted on 30 November, 2007 by Janice Brown

Inquiring minds want to know.  If you could be a Silly Elf, or a Dancing Scrooge, which would you select?

In my usual spirit of lunacy, I'm presenting two options for your viewing pleasure.

–Elf Yourself–            -Scrooge Yourself-

Have fun!

Janice

P.S.: Which would I choose? I tried them both out! Click on one of my pics above to see how well I dance.

*How some of my Blog-Friends fared*

Lee Anders of “The I Seek Dead People” blog is an ELF!

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For additional holiday fun, visit the nice folks posting at *Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories*
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When You Wish Upon A Gene

Posted on 29 November, 2007 by Janice Brown

Genealogists are a strange bunch.

When gift-giving events roll around, they don’t want the “normal” things.  Instead of an  iPod, they want a subscription to an online research service.  Rather than eating cake and ice cream, they’d rather be digging through that box of old photographs.

After thirty years of genealogical research, I’ve fully traced most of my immediate lines (Brown, Geer, Judd, Sisco, Webster, Kilborn, Thompson, Miner, Dyer, Wicks, Moulthrop, Abbott, Runnels, Hickok, Tuttle, Uran, Long, Ordway, Blakeslee, Allen, Plummer, Worthley, Corser, Blaisdell, Jackman, Hardy) — they are a veritable Who’s Who of early New England families.  Continue reading →

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1819 New Hampshire: A Whale Is A Fish?

Posted on 27 November, 2007 by Janice Brown

On 2 February 1819 the New-Hampshire Gazette of Portsmouth New Hampshire reported on a courtroom dispute about the classification of whales as follows:

“A very long and sage trial has been carrying on in our court, relative to the question whether a whale is a fish, referring to some dispute relative to fish oil.  On this occasion all the learned men of the age have been called in to decide on the question, and the majority of opinions maintain that a whale is not a fish. This is stretching a point of learning to a dangerous length, and all the minute distinctions of genera, in the science of icthiology, will not prevent a man of common sense from believing that a whale is a fish, for the simple reason that it is not a beast or a bird. After all, we adopt the motto of Ollapod, in such cases, “rhubard is rhubarb, call it what you please.” 

The case was finally decided that a whale is a fish; and whale oil is fish oil. —N.Y. Adv.” 

Headline: [Trial; Court; Occasion]; Article Type: News/Opinion Paper: New-Hampshire Gazette; Date: 02-02-1819; Volume: LXIV; Issue: 10; Page: [1]; Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Janice

This strange story of misguided icthiology is my submission for the 2nd Edition of  “Cabinet of Curiousities” Carnival.  Feel free to join this and other stranger submitters! (See submissions to the first edition)

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He put the "Straw" in Straw Point: New Hampshire Governor Ezekiel A. Straw

Posted on 27 November, 2007 by Janice Brown
Ezekiel A. Straw

Ezekiel A. Straw

Straw Point is an outcropping of land, located at the north end of Rye Beach, near Jenness Beach. Originally this point was called Joscelyn / Josselyn’s Point. It is not known which Josselyn family member–Henry, John or another–were responsible for giving it their name.).

 

After being settled in 1660 by John Lock(e) and his family until about 1872, this area was called Lock(e)’s Point.  Then Ezekiel A. Straw, who had became Governor of New Hampshire in 1872, erected the first summer home well out on this Point. Continue reading →

Posted in Irish in New Hampshire, New Hampshire Men | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments