Cursive writing going the way of the dinosaur?

I enjoy looking at medieval manuscripts.  Odd hobbies, I know I have a lot of them.  They are beautiful, and once you understand the hand, or calligraphy, they are fairly easy to read.  This made me think about a trend of recent blog posts I read.  They all concern the lack of teaching cursive writing in schools and if in the next century we will need to teach researchers how to read what was written by…us. 

Most recently James Tanner wrote at Genealogy’s Star about this subject as well.  While his post covered several subjects pertinent to the education of future researchers, his comment about his grandson not being able to read cursive struck home.  Just a few months ago I taught my middle school son how to sign his name.  He didn’t know how.  I know that they started to teach cursive in 2^nd grade at his school, but it seems that it is not a requirement to actually do it anymore.  All of his work is printed or typed, no cursive to be seen.

If you had asked me a year ago if thought this could happen in our future I think I would have been hard pressed not to laugh.  Cursive, go out of favor, are you kidding me?  However, as I have read article, after article, after article addressing this concern, I started to look around me.  Even my home state isn’t requiring teaching of cursive writing anymore!

I think I am the only one in my house who still writes in cursive.  My boys both print, and so does my husband when he isn’t typing.  However, in his defense, he is a lefty with atrocious handwriting; I may be the only one on the planet that read it.  Most of my friends print, even my sons teachers for the most print all their notes home when they aren’t typed. 

What are your thoughts?  Is this a dying art from like gothic lettering?  Do see a college class for historians in 50 years on reading cursive handwriting?  Or… am I overreacting? 

*Image from wikipedia

Giving Thanks at FTF

Signing of the Mayflower Compact
from the Library of Congress

My next post is up at Family Tree Firsts. All about….wait for it…. The Mayflower!  You know I couldn’t resist.  It is that time of the year after all.

I have written several times about learning from my grandmother that we were from “those Pilgrims.”  Several times I have even told you about my application process with the GSMD.  Well, this week is when those stories and dreams are realized.  I have the last pieces of documentation in my hand to prove her tales and hopefully by this time next week it will all be in the mail.  Then I can concentrate on my husband’s multiple lines.  I only have the one line since my family left Massachusetts by the 3^rd generation after settling here, my husband’s family on the other hand stuck around for a while.  300 years  in New England is a while right?  He has 4 potential lines if I can prove them beyond a doubt.

What makes me even more excited is that members of my family are excited too.  I even have cousins of my mother-in-law helping me with their family lines.  Collaboration at its best!  Without their help this would have been a longer process with more costs for me.  Since we are sharing documents, records, and sources with each other we all benefit from on another’s resources. 

Best of all, my oldest got on the bus this morning with his Mayflower ancestors extra credit report.  We had the best time putting it all together.  He looked up their names on the internet, wrote a ½ page about each of them, added some pictures from wikicommons, and by the end of it had a basic understanding of a pedigree chart.  He was so excited to take it to school and show everyone.  In particular to show it to the kids who didn’t believe him.

 

 

Yes, there was some teasing.  Kids are kids right?  My son is very sensitive to others and I was happy the teasing from unbelieving children made him more resolved to prove them wrong.  That would be the desire to become a historian showing through I think.  Now, it would be great if I could get him to have the same drive when it comes to studying math.

Having this last document also proves my first ancestor for the DAR.  I am up over a dozen patriots on both sides of my family.  My mom and dad are tied with patriot ancestors, and at times I wonder if there is a bit of competition between the two of them.  I sometimes wonder if when I call do they get all excited about another one being found to pull them in the lead for the ancestor count?

As I stated in the post at FTF I am submitting William Hayden as my first patriot.  I can also put in for his son Noah as he fought along with his father in the war.  In fact, 5 of William’s sons fought in the Revolution:  John, Stephen, Enoch, Noah, and Hosea.  Enoch and Noah were twins too, but I haven’t figured out if they were identical or not.  In an out of print Magazine called  The Hayden Family I found an interesting description of what William did during the Revolution in Volume 1, No. 3, page 102:

 

 

We also know he died after working on his farm one afternoon in July of 1823 thanks to a poem written after his death.  I have not found a pension record for him or his son Noah; I hope to uncover more about their family’s service in the Revolution.  Oh, and find out where the Fredericksburg Magazine was.  That would be a worthy field trip to take.  Maybe on my next run to the grocery store.

Entering the modern era

You may have noticed the 2 new badges on the left side of the screen.   Yes, I have joined the modern world of social media.  Heaven help me!

I have created a Facebook page for this blog as well as a twitter account.  Just click the links to the left and you will join them.  The pages are still being tweaked, but I should have them all up and going full steam ahead by the end of the week.  I have never used twitter before so this should be very, very interesting.  Advice is welcome, don’t be shy.

The Facebook page and twitter account are designed so when I have something to say, but not a lot on the subject, I can quickly post it out to you. If I want to share a link, a picture, a quick comment; you know all those things that I don’t have time to write a full blog post on but want to let you all know about anyway.

Hope to see you over there!

photo credit: agahran via photopin cc

Heraldic Primer: Part 2

Last time we talked about colors and common furs that were used on heraldic arms.  This time I want to talk about common field divisions: ordinaries, and sub-ordinaries.  These help build the structure of the arms and give you definition to them as well as defining places that the charges can go.

 

Before we can get into that, let’s go through the parts of the shield/arms/device.  This is important because you may not see a pictorial representation of the arms; someday you may only get the blazon, or written description.  If you are not comfortable with the basic terms you won’t be able to decipher the heraldic language.  First, all directions are giving from the shield bearers perspective.  Right, or dexter, is the bearer’s right side not the observers, just like in stage directions.  Left is sinister, the top of the shield is chief, and the bottom is base.  The background of the shield is the field and anything placed on this field is called a charge.

 

 

Field divisions, or the way you can divide the background of the device, are created from ordinaries.  They are large geometric charges that cover the field from one side to the other.  They were not required to be used and you will see many arms that have no field divisions on them.  Common ordinaries are shown below. 

 

 

 

Smaller, or diminutive, geometrical charges are sub-ordinaries.  There is some argument as to whether or not these should have an ordinary category.  Some people feel they should be lumped in with charges, but since they can be used to make patterns on the field I like to separate them out.  Common sub-ordinaries are shown below.

 

Heraldry would be boring if it was only a bunch of straight lines wouldn’t it?  Each of these ordinaries and sub-ordinaries may have various line treatments to add variations to the arms.  Common line treatments you may see are shown below.

 

Now, what about color?  In the last post I talked about metals and non-metals and how similar colors cannot be used on top of each other.  This is when you can really begin to understand the need for contrast in color and appreciate the rules.  An or field with an argent pale would not be visible from across the field let alone look right.  However, an or field with an azure pale would be visible and contrast nicely.  Think about sports teams.  What colors and charges stick out in your mind from community, high school, college, or professional teams?  Do they have a nice contrast?  Are the charges visible?  This is modern day heraldry!  Heralds wanted the same type of gut reaction from people when arms were designed.  Yes, they need to have significance to the bearer, but they also need to make a statement to those who see them. 

 

Next time:  animal charges

Images of the parts of the field and ordinaries are from Heraldry Clipart
Main image from wikimedia

Memories and phone calls

Ruth Eleanor Brennan Combs
mid 1940s

This past week my mind has repeatedly gone back to my Grandmother Combs.  Things I have done, seen, said, and listened to have reminded me over and over again of her.  We lived with my grandmother until I was in Kindergarten.  When we moved away I would spend summers home with her and my other grandmother as well as many school vacations. 

I wanted to take dance classes when I was little.  Across the street from my dad’s store was a dance studio.  I watched the other little girls in their tights and leotards going to class and wish I could be one of them.  Once, dad and I sat in on a class.  I remember grandma teaching me basic ballet positions in her kitchen after that.  It amazed me that she knew so much and I practiced in her kitchen holding on to the kitchen counter as my bar.   Those lessons have stayed with me.  In college I started to take belly dance lessons and for 5 years.  Recently I have taken it back up, and grandma’s stretches, feet positions, and walking techniques are still there.

So, I called my dad.  He has a better memory of my childhood that I do after all.  He is always full of stories, and I was not disappointed.  He told me about how his mom taught square dance for the local 4-H and girl scouts.  She also enrolled his sister in dance classes at the YMCA and then made him be her practice partner.  Dad learned tap and ballet at home with grandma watching and correcting them both.
 
The memories and the stories didn’t end there, for either of us.  It was a wonderful conversation about all the odd things that I did growing up, how everyone acted, antics my dad got in, coaching sports, and so much more. 

My first sports picture
taken 1981

Here are some of the highlights:

•  Dad telling me about karate drills when he was learning in Hawaii
• Him coaching women’s softball teams
• Me learning to play soccer, but not ever being able to pitch or hit a ball with a bat
• His PE classes in school teaching dance to reluctant teenagers.
• His memories of playing collegiate soccer
• Me walking with a book on my head learning proper posture so grandma would buy me my first pair of pumps

We tend to talk for hours on the phone, and this time was no different.  Dad is in his 70s and living several thousand miles away now with mom.  I will take all the long phone calls that I can.

Local Meeting Sucess

Last night I attended a local genealogical society meeting.  Awesome huh?  I had tried to begin attending last year; however their meeting nights conflicted with another activity I was required to attend.  It was very exciting to be able to attend something in the local area with people who enjoy genealogy.

I found out about it yesterday morning from a new genealogy friend who lives in the same housing complex I do.  We met at the Fairfax County Genealogical Societies Fall Fair nearly a month ago.  I was asking questions about becoming a member when the nice lady I was talking to, Ole Myrtle herself, exclaimed that there was another person in the room from the same town I was.  We chatted briefly and talk about riding up to meetings in Fairfax together.  Need to do that, but the timing didn’t work out for this month.  Just one more reason I need to find reliable child care… again.

It was great to get a phone call yesterday morning from her letting me know that 20 minutes from my house there was going to be a meeting of the Fredericksburg Regional Genealogical Society.  After I fed my boys dinner we jumped into the car and headed out to the meeting at the Salem Church Library in Fredericksburg, VA.  My youngest played with LEGOS throughout the meeting, but my oldest sat in rapt attention during the guest speaker’s presentation.

The guest for the evening was Ray Maki and he spoke about finding female ancestors.  I picked up some good tips, heard wonderful family stories, learned of some great new resources for New York, and enjoyed watching my oldest son with great big eyes learn about documenting your research.  He particularly thought the wills were the “most awesome” thing he had ever seen.

They are a nice group of people, I even saw a woman from the chapter of the DAR I am joining, and I think I will enjoy being with them.  My helium hand stayed down, for now, and I did not leave the meeting with a job.  I did however leave the meeting with an invitation to speak in the future on a couple subjects.  Gulp…
 

photo credit: de sata1 via photopin cc

Entries for FTF Blogger Contest due FRIDAY!

Hey guys!  One more little plug for the Family Tree Firsts Blogger position…. If you know anyone who is a newbie genealogist that would love an opportunity at amazing products and resources have them go check out the Family Tree Magazine/University contest for my replacement!

Entries are due THIS FRIDAY November 16th!!!

It has been the most amazing experience and I have learned so much by being their blogger.  In fact, I can safely say, that without their help I would not be as far along today.  The last year has been an amazing ride and I am so glad many of you have decided to stick it out with me to see where I went next. 

Have questions?  Let me know and I will do my best to give you my perspective.  Also, go check out my predecessors posts.  Nancy Shively was the first FTF Blogger, and she had a very different style than mine.  Don’t let style, words, and ideas, stand in your way!  Get out there and tell someone you know about this amazing opportunity.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc