Family and Friends Newsletter Friday 22 January 2010

Research

Helpful Census-Takers

As I was examining the census entry in 1900 Garland Co. Arkansas for Mitchell and Susan (Norman) Blackburn, I saw that the census-taker helpfully added “Sec.” (second) to “wife” for Susan. Thanks, Joseph E. Flemester!

Norman

This week I have been working on the family of JMC Norman’s oldest child with Mary Patterson – Susan “Sudie” Norman, who married William A. Cannon and then Mitchell Blackburn.

There is turning out to be quite a bit of information, clues, etc. on the various branches of this family; in addition to the Cline history there are many different family trees on Ancestry, lots of these people were buried in Peak Cemetery, and many of the branches appear in the book Garland County, Arkansas: Our History and Heritage.

It is beginning to get confusing, however. There was a lot of intermarriage.

Sudie and Lige Norman were siblings. Sudie’s grandson Elmer Milholen married Lige’s daughter Olive Nancy Norman (first cousins once removed).

Callie and Simon Tallent were brother and sister. Callie married Jessie “Judge Spivey” Norman and Simon married Josie, daughter of Jessie’s half-sister Sudie.

Blogs

The question is asked by Gena Philiberta Ortega of Gena’s Genealogy: Does Your Genealogy Have a Mountweazel?

I don’t think so. I don’t import or copy gedcoms (may use them as tips, though) and try to cite sources as I enter information into my genealogy program (my citations may not be pretty, but they’re there). But, you know, maybe I’ll add a Mountweazel in there….

Music Recommendation of the Week



CD: Telemann: The Baroque Gypsies, by Ensemble Caprice, directed by Matthias Maute. Telemann was generally faithful to the original Gypsy tunes, and the performance by Ensemble Caprice captures the Gypsy zest and inventiveness. The Youtube clip above features parts of two songs from the CD. Some of the tunes were easily recognizable from recordings I have of performances by Gypsies of the present day.

The liner notes include the following excerpt from Telemann’s own words describing his reaction to Gypsy music:

“One can hardly believe what wonderful imaginative ideas these pipers and fiddlers have as they improvise. In only a week, a composer could be inspired for an entire lifetime. I have written several major concertos in this style.”