Month: May 2022

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Siege on Quebec

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Jonus Hubbard, an 8th great-granduncle to my wife, was born in Worcester MA and was an active businessman of ample means as the Revolution began. He was a first lieutenant in Captain Timothy Bigelow’s Company of Minute-Men and later became a Captain in Colonel Jonathan Ward’s Regiment. His commission was signed by none other than John Hancock.

While at Fort Western on the Kennebec, he wrote to his wife the following: “I know not if I shall ever see you again. The weather grows severe cold and the woods, they say, are terrible to pass. But I do not value life or property if I can secure liberty for my children.”

He was on the Kennebec taking part in the first major initiative by the new Continental Army. The goal was to capture the British-held province of  Quebec and persuade French speaking Canadians to join their cause. It was a dismal failure, as smallpox became a major problem. It is presumed a British officer intentionally sent out infected civilians to the American lines. Whether an intentional act or not, smallpox decimated the attackers. Over half of the 10,000 troops contracted the disease and died. Only a small fraction of men remained healthy enough to storm the fortified city guarded by a now superior force. Jonus Hubbard was captured and taken prisoner on Dec 31, 1775. He died of his wounds between Jan 5 and 6, 1776. 

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotape, audio recordings, photos, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to watch our TEDxEustis talk! https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8

The Troup Suit Club

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Two of my daughter-in-law’s 3rd great granduncles, Snap and David Pace Jarvis from Troup, TX, established their family business, Jarvis & Company, in 1888. It would continue to be a fixture of the community for the next eight decades.

The store carried a complete inventory of goods and became the community’s go-to source for clothes, shoes, hardware, farm implements, groceries, feed, fertilizers and buggies. They also bought and sold horses and mules as well as cotton. Snap’s wife explained, “Farmers would usually shop twice a year. They would come in the fall to sell their cotton and pay up their past accounts. Then the farmers would buy their winter supplies.

When Snap and D.P. retired, the store was left in the hands of Snap’s sons, Julian and Newell. When Newell moved on, Julian became the sole proprietor and under his management the store continued its successful rise. Jarvis & Company became especially known for the quality of its men’s clothing.  Julian established the “Troup Suit Club.” Members were assigned a number and required to pay $10 per week. Each week, if a member’s number matched the cent amount of a predetermined stock, he won a free suit. If no one won after a number of weeks, the amount paid could be applied to merchandise within the store. At one point there was up to 100 people paying into the club, some coming in as far away as Tyler to take part in the offer.

A family legacy finally ended on February 7, 1963 when The Troup Banner headline declared that Jarvis & Company had been sold to an investor from Dallas.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotape, audio recordings, photos, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to watch our recent TEDxEustis talk about geneaology.  https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8

Of Service To The Queen

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Our family’s connection to royalty continues. I’ve just learned that Sarah Jones, the great-great grandaunt of my sons, who lived in Rochester NY during the late 1800s, emigrated to the U.S. from England with her parents when she was 38 years old. But it was her life prior to that which came as a surprise. 

Sarah was hired in 1833 to be a housemaid for a teenaged Victoria who was seven years younger than she. She is listed on the employment records of Windsor Castle as “supernumerary’ (temporary). It is unclear how long she was employed at that time however, when Victoria assumed the throne at the age of 18, Sarah was re-admitted and transferred to Buckingham Palace where she had the title of “linen room woman.”

Her employment records at Buckingham indicate that she remained there at least until 1845. She appears on a list of servants who were given an allowance for mourning clothes in 1844 after the death of the Duke of Sax Coburg Gotha. He was Ernest 1st, father of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband.

Sarah learned the millinery trade while in England and after arriving in America with her parents and siblings in 1850, she opened a millinery shop in Rochester NY which is where she stayed until her death in 1880. She never married.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to watch our TEDxEustis talk at https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8.

That’s My Pop!

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One of my father-in-law’s earliest memories was also one of his favorite stories to tell. As a young lad, Arthur Giannone grew up in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1930s, and was taught early on how to identify the various musical instruments that made up an orchestra. His father was a working musician, playing the trumpet in concert halls and in the theatrical district of New York City.

One day his mother decided to take Arthur to the theater where his father was working. As the lights dimmed and the audience hushed, the orchestra began to play. After only a few notes into their planned number, Arthur’s trained little ears picked out the unmistakable tones of his father’s trumpet and excitedly shouted out, “That’s My Pop!” As he tells it, he got quite the ovation from the amused audience in attendance.

A few weeks later, a new cartoon appeared in the Sunday funnies. Penned by the renowned cartoonist Milt Gross and carried by Hearst’s King Features Syndicate, it featured a bumbling man who finds himself in absurd situations shadowed by a doting son who is not shy about shouting out his admiration. That’s My Pop! became a popular running comic strip, and was eventually adapted at one point into a radio show.

My father-in-law was convinced that he was the inspiration behind the strip and that Gross must have been at the theatre that night he first shouted out the catchphrase that captured the nation’s fancy.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And don’t forget to check out our recent TEDxEustis talk!

En Guarde

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A family name that is sprinkled throughout my daughter-in-law’s ancestry is Scrimshire or Scrimshaw. It is an Anglo-Scottish surname of Old French origins. The derivations are from the French word “eskermir” meaning to fence or fight hand-to-hand. It was then transposed to the Middle English “skrymsher” from which the surname comes.

Fencing masters always found plentiful employment during medieval times although fencing schools were forbidden in the city of London due to their dangerous influence.

One of the first Scrimshires to arrive in Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire England was Harrold who is recorded having purchased land and property there sometime in the 16th century. This land came as a direct result of the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and most of the land was previously divided between Lenton Priory and Swineshead Abbey.

Harrold  quickly established himself as a country squire and his offspring became notable figures in the area over the next two centuries, serving as Rector, Churchwarden, Constable and other key positions. But by the end of the 18th century, most of the Scrimshires had sold off their land and departed.

Now, the only remaining sign of their once formidable presence, is Scrimshire Lane, a relatively short stretch of road between Plumtree Road and Risegate. It represents one of the oldest named streets in the village.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And don’t forget to check out my recent TEDxEustis talk:  https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8

The Randolphs of Virginia

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My aunt’s 6th great-grandfather, William Randolph, is often referred to (along with his wife) as the Adam and Eve of Virginia. Though he arrived in the colony with an axe and no money, he accumulated wealth and land quickly, becoming one of the most influential figures of his time. He was a member of the house of burgesses; active in the work of civilizing the Indians; was a founder and trustee of William and Mary College; and built his lofty domed mansion on Turkey Island (near Richmond) using imported bricks carried over from England aboard his own ships.

And while he had a large brood of children who lived to adulthood, so vast were his holdings that he was able to bequeath to each of them substantial land grants. So much so that his children’s names became associated with the territory they had been given. One of them, Isham Randolph of Dungeness, became a estimable ship’s captain; served in the house of burgesses; was a planter of some renown; and was also known to be a man of great scientific culture, being honorably mentioned in the memoirs of Bartram the naturalist. He, like his father before him, built for himself a grand mansion on his land at Dungeness.

But perhaps it was Isham’s daughter, Jane, who made the greatest contribution of all. She gave birth to one of the most influential figures in all of American history. Her son was Thomas Jefferson, who like his grandfather and great-grandfather, made the construction of his mansion a lifelong project. He named it Monticello.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. Also be sure to check our our TEDxEustis talk available now on YouTube. https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8

A Colonial Love Story

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John Wentworth, my wife’s 6th great grand uncle, lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  And even though he was smitten with his cousin, Frances Deering Wentworth, who felt the same affection for him, as a loyalist, John had political aspirations.  And so to Frances’ dismay, he “went to England, no positive pledge of marriage passing between them.”

In his absence, another cousin, Theodore Atkinson Jr., wooed Frances, winning her heart.  He proposed to her, and they married on 13 May 1762 when she was 16 years old. She sat for her portrait at the age of nineteen.

Sadly, a few years later, Theodore developed a “lingering illness,” and was expected to die.  During that time, John Wentworth had returned to the Province of New Hampshire as the newly appointed royal governor of the colony.

The Wentworth and Atkinson families lived in houses within view of each other. If the ancient gossip is true, Frances had various methods of communicating to John how her husband’s health was faring, by hanging a handkerchief out of her window.

On 28 October 1769 Theodore Atkinson Jr. died.  The event that followed caused at least a few colonial jaws to drop.

“On one day Theodore breathed his last. His burial took place on the following Wednesday; by the Governor’s order all the bells in town were toiled, flags were hung at half-mast, and minute-guns were fired from the fort and from the ships-of-war in the harbor.  On Sunday the weeping widow, clad in crapes, listened in church to the funeral eulogies; on Monday her affliction was mitigated; on Tuesday all the fingers of the seamstresses of the country roundabout were flying; and on the next Sunday, in the white satins and jewels and fardingales [hooped skirts] of a bride, she walked up the aisle the wife of Governor Wentworth.” [from New England Legends by Harriet E.P. Spofford, 1871]

The colonists’ victory in the American Revolution made John the last royal governor of the New Hampshire colony. After fleeing the country, Frances was appointed a lady-in-waiting at the court in England, and John was given the governorship of Nova Scotia as a reward for his loyalty.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotape, audio recordings, film, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to check out our TEDxEustis talk at https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8.

The Mason Dixon Line

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Prior to 1760, there was a considerable amount of controversy that existed between Lord Baltimore and William Penn regarding the boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This actually led to armed skirmishes between settlers who were trying to lay claim to parcels along the contested area. On one occasion the sheriff of Lancaster County had to raise a posse to act as a militia to try and restore peace.

The dispute was finally resolved in 1760 when the English crown insisted that the Baltimore and Penn families adhere to the articles of agreement signed decades earlier. In it, Baltimore ceded to Penn a large territory which contained the counties of Philadelphia, Lancaster, York, Adams, Franklin, among others. The articles of agreement stated that the boundary would be fixed along Mason and Dixon’s line, two English surveyors hired by the families to determine the actual demarcation line. They laid out their “line” by placing stone markers one mile apart with each fifth mile having a crown stone with an “M” engraved on the Maryland side and a “P” on the Pennsylvania side along with the two coat of arms. Many of these stones can still be found today, right where they were placed two and a half centuries ago.

With the disputes effectively ended, permanent settlements began to arise in what was previously wilderness. Among them, Harbaugh Valley, situated in the northeastern part of Frederick County, Maryland not far from the Mason Dixon line. Nestled up against the Catoctin Mountains (now best known as the site of Camp David), its natural elevation was appealing to Swiss immigrants as it would have reminded them of their homeland.

The very first to settle were three brothers (George, Ludwig, and Jacob Harbaugh), whose family provided the name of the valley.  Ludwig was the 4th generational great grandfather of my aunt.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website.

And don’t forget to check out our TEDxEustis talk about some interesting discoveries we made during our genealogical research. https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

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Around 1772, Daniel Boone once again crossed paths with some of my family members. My 8th great grandfather, Shadrach Inman, along with his brothers Meshach and Abednego joined Boone in exploring the wilderness west of the Cumberland Mountains, an area now known as Tennessee. With their provisions depleted, they relied on their hunting skills for what little nourishment they received. It was not an easy feat as winter was upon them.

While camping near the Nick-a-Jack cave, they were surprised by an Indian ambush. Most of the party was killed, including my great-uncle Meshach. Abednego received a tomahawk wound to his forehead but survived, crawling into a hollow of a tree where he stayed, in and out of consciousness for nine days, before finally emerging and somehow finding his way back to his North Carolina home.

Shadrach and Boone were among those who escaped, stealthily navigating their surroundings like the experienced woodsmen they were. Boone, on account of his superior skill and knowledge of the Indian wiles, escaped unharmed. The Indians pursued him keenly through the dense forest but, like a fleeting shadow, he eluded them and led the few survivors safely back to their homes. Shadrach did receive a non-fatal wound in his side from an Indian spear which he kept. His descendants have it still in their possession, kept on display under glass.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives, and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And don’t forget to check out my TEDx talk! https://youtu.be/uYlTTHp_CO8