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Seeking information on
KAGEY, FRY, HANSBERGER, LINEWEAVER AND KIBLER, and their
descendants in the Shenandoah County, Virginia area. Please contact
Kathie Jones, 252 Jones Road, Franklin, GA
30217.
Wisconsin Teddy Bears
Lynn Skinner of Beloit,
Wisconsin makes teddy bears out of vintage fur coats. They are really
cute, and in addition, are keeping the old coats out of the landfills and
recycling them into items with a story.
She uses all kinds of furs.
The most exotic was a huge kangaroo coat. Rabbit is the most popular
because it is the softest. Lynn has also used fox, raccoon, bear, beaver
and mink. It took several years for her to develop a pattern for the bear
and to find a "fur sewing" machine that would sew through the hides.
A lot of her material comes
from Florida, where women retire and can no longer use the coats. A friend
of Lynn’s in Florida buys the coats for her.
Bears are in stock or can
be made to order. Contact Lynn Skinner, 9437 S. Walker Road, Beloit, WI
53511 or call 608-676-4784 for more information.
Thanks to Mac-Alasdair
Clan, Clan McAlister of America, 825 San Luis Road, Berkeley, CA 94707.
Early Pioneer
Certificate Available
Any direct descendant of an
early pioneer who settled in the Illinois counties of Winnebago or Boone
before 1880 may apply for the Winnebago & Boone Counties Genealogical
Society’s Early Pioneer Certificate. These certificates are awarded in
either of two categories:
-
The pioneer settled in
Winnebago or Boone County before 1850, with the certificate bearing a
gold seal with a blue ribbon.
-
The pioneer settled in
Winnebago or Boone County before 1880, with the certificate bearing a
gold seal.
To qualify for an Early
Pioneer Certificate, documented evidence must be furnished to confirm the
lineage from the pioneer ancestor to the applicant. This evidence could be
birth, marriage and death certificates, land records, census records,
mentions in city, county, and state histories, etc.
To receive the application
for an Early Pioneer Certificate, send your request with a self-addressed
stamped envelope to Ken Michel, WBCGS Early Pioneer Chairman, 921
Concordia Ave., Belvidere, IL 61008-4551. The cost is $5.00 per
certificate.
The Society of
Genealogists in London On-Line
The Society of Genealogists
in London has contracted with an Internet "pay-per-view" service to make
indexed records available tot he public. For a fee of about $9 US, you get
access to up to 150 actual printable documents over a period of 48 hours,
and surname indexes to these documents are available for free. You can
explore the surname indexes before you pay. The records currently indexed
include marriage allegations of the Vicar-General and Faculty Office of
the Archbishop of Canterbury (1694-1850), London apprenticeships
(1568-1850), wills held by the Bank of England (1717-1845) and by the
Archdeaconry Court of London (1700-1807), London Consistory Court
Depositions (1700-1717) and Boyd’s Marriage Index for Cambridgeshire
(1538-1837).
Additional record
sources are expected to be available later this year, including wills in
the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (1750-1800). {Films of these wills are
currently available from a LDS Family History Center for a nominal fee.}
Take a look at the available records and the indexes on the web site:
http://englishorigins.com.
The same company offers a
similar service for records held by the Scottish government, but you have
to pay before you see anything at all. Expect more "pay-per-view"
offerings from the British Isles, including eventually censuses that are
not now indexed.
Thanks to Rabbit Tracks,
Conejo Valley Genealogical Society, Inc., PO Box 1228, Thousand Oaks, CA
91358-0228.
Arts in the Heart of
Augusta by Eric Duncan
On the 14th, 15th
and 16th of September, I was booked to perform in Augusta,
Georgia, at a street festival. This has been going on for 21 years and I
never knew it existed.. So since I was here I decided to cover it for the
Family Tree.
It is The Greater Augusta
Arts Council that is responsible for this event, which is Augusta’s oldest
and largest cultural event. The festival was recently awarded "Top 20
Event in the Southeast". It is held at the Scenic Downtown Riverwalk and
attracts a collection of all ethnic groups in the area.
Each ethnic group had its
own food tent; and some had entertainment. This was so interesting and
very colorful. A different country is chosen each year as the main
attraction. This year it was Scotland and hence the reason I was there.
I was invited by the
Scottish American Society of Augusta. They had setup a Scottish Pub called
"The Shaggy Coo", which looked like a typical Scottish cottage including a
simulated, thatched roof and a hand painted sign. A Coo is a highland cow;
and amazingly they had a real highland cow in a pen in back of the pub. A
local farmer had donated it for the day.
Next to the pub was a large
food tent where they sold scotch eggs, meat pies, brides, shortbread and
whisky cake {for which they won first prize}. This is only a sampling of
the items made by hand by the women of the society. What a great job they
did! They had been preparing this for weeks, the ladies told me; and they
scattered scotch eggs and meat pies all over their neighborhoods because
they did not have room enough in their refrigerators. They wanted me to
thank everyone who helped them out with this.
By the end of the first
day, the pub had sold out of beer, and the food tent was constantly busy
with customers buying their wares. The entertainment tent was jammed
packed all day both days with people. We had pipers playing, a lovely lady
who played the harp, a dancer who was excellent, a band that I have known
for sometime called S MATH SINN DRAGON, and yours truly.
There were 17 groups
representing 35 countries that lent an ethnic flair to the festival,
giving everyone an opportunity to sample the arts and cuisine of the
cultural resources in the community. Arts and Crafts were displayed in 60
booths, featuring things such as pottery, lawn art, watercolors, tie-dye
and much more. There was street dancing in the evening and a local band,
The Vellones, was playing. These guys were great. They played a blues tune
and dragged me up on stage, gave me a Fender guitar, and we were
off…playing the blues. Thanks a lot guys.
When I asked a committee
member the estimated crowd, I was told 40,000 each day and I can believe
this as I was there. In the morning of Saturday, it was 65 degrees and
windy. Bonita, my wife, stepped out of the hotel and stood there
shivering. She’s too used to that Florida weather!
My feelings on this is the
festival is a good, positive way to introduce people to other cultures,
which will hopefully help them understand and respect each other better. I
wish more communities would adopt this idea.
All the proceeds benefited
the Greater Arts Council of Augusta, which was founded in 1968 to promote
the cultural well being of the central Savannah River area. For more
information contact the Greater Augusta Arts Council at 706-826-4702.
My thanks go to Mr. Shane
Parris and his wonderful mum, Shari, everyone involved in the event,
especially the ladies of the society for their hard work. We need events
like this because America is multicultural and we can grow closer in the
greatest country in the world – AMERICA.
I may be contacted at
bclippership@cs.com. |
