Just a sample of today’s (Oct 21, 2009) lead story:

OLYMPIA, WA—With random cries of “Enough is enough,” “Do something now,” and “Huh?” thousands of the nation’s biggest morons descended on Washington State this week, some 3,000 miles from their intended destination of the nation’s capital.

The march, which had no discernable goal or message, and no official organizers, began at approximately 8:45 a.m. in front of what the morons called the National Mall, but was actually the courtyard outside the Olympia Public Library.

“More government accountability, and transparency, and accountability!” shouted grade-A moron Tammy Caldwell, 37, addressing no one in particular. “On behalf of me, and all the [morons] who came here today, listen up, greedy Washington fat cats: We’re not going anywhere until each and every one of our voices is heard.”

Continue reading @ TheOnion.com…

I can’t say that I’ve been any more productive along Leonard lines this month than I was last. I have, in fact, been pursuing my wife’s family for the past several weeks. I’ve met some new researchers in that pursuit, and I’ve been reminded of the importance of genealogical sources.

I stumbled into my wife’s family history directly from my Family Tree Maker software. I had entered her parents’ and grandparents’ names as a matter of course and, in a moment of weakness, clicked the Search Web Resources button. If you’re not familiar, it’s a button that connects FTM directly to Ancestry.com and automatically searches for information matching what you’ve already entered. It’s a double-edged sword.

I’ve been a member of Ancestry.com for a number of years and I truly appreciate the ease with which I can search federal, state, and local census reports anywhere in the country. And I love the birth-death-marriage records they make available online. In fact, there are dozens of databases available for inspection. That’s the good stuff. What I’m not so crazy about, are the user-submitted family trees.

There are way too many family trees on Ancestry that are simply copied from another family tree on Ancestry, without regard to accuracy. That’s not to suggest the people who submit are in any way dishonest or careless, because they’re not. But they may not be aware of the significance an error can have. For example…

I had a great aunt, fantastic lady and awesome story-teller. Unfortunately, she was a bit sensitive about her own age. Her birth records were destroyed in a fire and she had “fudged” her age for so long and in so many places that when it came time to collect Social Security, she couldn’t prove she was eligible!

Here’s another, more recent example… I submitted a family tree, years ago, before I had any real training or experience at family history. That tree included an error in my great-grandmother’s birth date. She, too, had “fudged” her age in a few places. I finally got it right, and fixed my online tree, but it was too late. My error had been copied out to at least a dozen other sites.

Here’s the question…. How many times does an error get repeated before it becomes a “fact?” Don’t laugh. Here’s my last example… Who said, “Play it again, Sam?” If you answered “Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca”, you would be wrong. The line was never uttered. A reviewer, years after the movie came out, erroneously cited “Play it again” as a classic line and to this very day… we believe it.

My point is this, there’s this thing called the Genealogical Proof Standard and it’s very specific about what’s good genealogical evidence and what’s not. I fully intended to spell out some of the details of the GPS in this article, but I’ve already wasted enough of your time. You’ll find a nice summary on About.com, or you can pick up a copy of Christine Rose’s excellent primer on the GPS at Amazon.com for between 5-10 bucks. It’s called, uh, Genealogical Proof Standard.

And worth every penny.

Cheers!
Rick

Most of us are clear on the difference between the “Mayflower Leonards” and the “Iron Leonards,” but I still get questions and I need a point of reference, so here’s the skinny… There are two fairly distinct, albeit easily confused, Leonard lines in this country. Both lines arrived within a decade or two of the Pilgrims.

This Web site, as most of you know, focuses on the family commonly known as “The Mayflower Leonards.” That line starts with Solomon Leonard, who arrived in Plymouth Colony around 1629-30 and married the granddaughter of Mayflower passenger James Chilton. The “Iron Leonards” are actually better documented, in some ways, beginning with brothers James and Henry Leonard, who may have arrived in what would eventually become Providence, Rhode Island, as early as 1645.

Now, to make matters a little more confusing, the two families may actually be related, as they came here from two English/Welsh towns less than thirty miles apart. Solomon is said to have been born in environs of the town of Bristol in Monmouthshire, England. James and Henry, on the other hand, are said to have been born in or near Pontypool, Wales, just a stone’s throw across the Bristol Channel. We’ll leave the relationship discussion for another day.

To find Solomon, one must dig and scratch and rustle about in musty old colonial books and records. To find James and Henry, one need only drive to the present-day city of Taunton, Massachusetts. Their names are emblazoned on streets and buildings and historical monuments as far as the eye can see. One of their homes, built in 1682, is still standing. The “Iron Leonards,” you see, got very rich establishing America’s first iron smelting plants in New England. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

I try not to get distracted by my wealthier cousins, given the hundreds yet to investigate on this side of the family… but I have to admit there are some fascinating stories on that side. The Iron Leonards, it seems, found a particularly iron-rich strip of land that belonged to an Indian tribe headed by a chief oddly named “King Phillip.”

King Phillip willingly granted the land to the Leonards and got along handsomely with them right up to and through what became known as “King Phillips War.” Do a Google search and you’ll find it quite easily. King Phillip specifically forbid his warriors from doing any harm to the Leonards, even as they readily slaughtered other whites in the neighborhood. In the end, however, King Phillip was killed and there’s one story that contends his head found a home in the Leonard basement until a proper burial could be arranged.

Did I mention that Bridgewater and Taunton, Massachusetts are less than ten miles apart? No? Well, they are, and you just know the Leonards would have to make things even more complicated by intermarrying, right? Yup. Levi Leonard, great-great-grandson of James Leonard, married Anna Leonard, great-granddaughter of Solomon Leonard. There were also a couple of near-misses, like Benjamin Leonard, grandson of Solomon, marrying Hannah Phillips, whose sister married a great-grandson of James Leonard.

It’s quite likely there are more intermarriages to be discovered… beyond, I mean, the obvious brother marrying his brother’s widow and vice versa. We’ll save those ramblings for another day, too. In the meantime, if you’re still wondering why some members of your immediate family may be just a leetle, uh, unusual… blame it on the Iron Leonards.

Isaac & Daniel Leonard, twins?

So, whaddaya think? Neither of these photos is dated, but both appear to be men in their fifties. Isaac Leonard, on the left, was born in 1827 according to an early Leonard researcher. That would put him midway between firstborn Edmund (1925) and third born Daniel (1930), on the right. Unfortunately, that early researcher didn’t leave us his sources.

Both men left extensive paper trails, but neither man ever mentioned having a twin brother. Wouldn’t you think it would come up at least once? Their county of birth hadn’t started keeping birth records yet and newspapers from that time are mysteriously missing from the microfilm collection. (I suspect ancestors of Rose Mary Woods, but she passed away in 2005.)

In 1860, the first census to record ages has Issac as 28 years old, Daniel as 30! Isaac is missing in 1870, but in 1880 he appears as 48 years old Daniel is 50. Records of 1890 were destroyed by fire, but in 1900 Isaac lists his age as 69 and his birth month as June 1830, same as brother Daniel. but Daniel says the month was April. In 1910, both men are 80 years old, listing only the year of birth as 1830. Both men died within a few months of each other in 1913 and 1914.

Daniel consistently listed his birthday as June 24th, 1930 in multiple locations… the April date in 1900 is clearly a clerical error. Isaac, on the other hand, rarely mentioned his birthday and appeared to grow older as the decades rolled by. But his tombstone clearly says “June 24th, 1830.”

What’s a researcher to do? How ’bout you? Any twins in your line? Any unsolved mysteries?

Turns out that old story was true. Know how I found out? The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and a very old map. Of all the documents and materials produced by the federal government, only 1-3% are actually saved. NARA has documents dating back to 1775 and postal records made the cut.

From a $34 dollar roll of microfilm, I discovered that my great-grandfather was appointed postmaster of “Post Office Dan” on October 7th, 1870. He noted, on his application to open the post office, that it would be run from his house and that there were no roads connecting the nearest towns to the north and south.

Once his application was approved, it was up to the postal service to get the mail to him as often as six times per week, roads or no roads. It was Dan’s responsibility to deliver it to the twenty-eight families living within two miles of his home. He did that, on foot, for several years, before he hired a neighbor to do it on horseback.

When Uncle Dan decided to close his post office in December of 1876, a neighbor volunteered to open a new one two miles away, naming it “Post Office Leonard” in Uncle Dan’s honor. Technically, “Dan” and “Leonard” both show up in government records as “towns” and as such, generated even more government records over their lifetimes. Those, too, are available for purchase or loan.

NARA has records of government land grants, military records, immigration reports, and hundreds of other information-laden documents. Worth checking out. Give their web site a peak for information on holdings and how to view them.

Before we leave the subject of postmasters, I know of at least two more in the Leonard line… Uncle Dan’s brother James Heron Leonard in Marion, Ohio… and my very-much living cousin Doug Leonard in Corning, Iowa. I’m sure there are probably more. One of the Isaacs, after all, was the founder of Leonardsburg, Ohio.

And speaking of towns, what can you tell me about Leonard, Texas… Leonardsville, Kansas… Leonard, Missouri… Leonardsville, New York… Leonard, Michigan… Leonardtown, Maryland… Leonard, Oklahoma… Arkansas and West Virginia???

* “Please, Mr. Postman” was Motown’s first number one record, by the Marvelettes, in late 1961. Who says we’re not a full-service site?.

Painting Attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer

Unaware of the growing crisis, Washington County farmers, among others, had simultaneously figured out that it was easier and cheaper to ship whiskey over the Cumberland Pass to the east coast than it was to ship the grain used to make it. The practice became so widespread in Western Pennsylvania that whiskey actually became the preferred currency over government-printed money. You see where this is going, doncha?

Ol’ Uncle Sam decided to impose the country’s first “sin tax” on western Pennsylvania distillers. It only amounted to a few shillings per gallon, but there were a couple of problems with that. 1) No one had any actual cash… just whiskey and 2) the farmers couldn’t see where the federal government had done them any recent favors.

Long story shortened wa-a-a-a-y down, the farmers refused to pay, went so far as to tar and feather some tax collectors and generally thumb their noses at President George Milhouse Washington. He got miffed, donned his General’s outfit again and led 13,000 US troops into western Washington. The rebels eventually backed down or escaped down the Ohio River, but not before a bunch of farmers were rounded up as suspects and/or witnesses.

President George not only became the first and only US President to lead troops against his own people, he also became the first president to grant amnesty to some insurgent evil-doers. (They really did call them “insurgents.”)

And HERE’S the point of this story… Caleb Leonard, Jr., Isaac Leonard, and one of the William Leonards were among the farmers who signed an Amnesty Pledge… according to the Washington County Historical Society. They appeared in court before Caleb’s neighbor Sheshbazzar Bentley, namesake of Bentleyville.

It’s not real clear whether the Leonards were witnesses or participants, but it’s a great story, doncha think? My g-g-grandfather used to speak of his grandfather’s “log book” and now I have to wonder if “the log book” was the equivalent of today’s checkbook? And wouldn’t THAT be a great find?

There’s lots more good reading out there on the Whiskey Rebellion, and you may find out George Washington’s middle name was NOT “Milhouse,” but the best reference for names, according to the WCHS, is Elizabeth J. Wall’s book, Men of the Whiskey Insurrection in Southwestern Pennsylvania, 1988, Library of Congress # 88-90121.

And many huzzahs to Polly for digging up the Leonard Connection.

First off, let me reiterate that I’m not an official Mayflower descendant until the General Society of Mayflower Descendants says I am. And, given the fact that I haven’t actually filed the paperwork, it doesn’t seem likely to happen before Thursday. However, I am as confident as ever that it’s only a matter of time. My. Time.

So here’s the bullet-point version of how we Leonards became a national treasure… (And many thanks to our good friend and fellow researcher Allan for providing me a nice, fat package of Pilgrimage this week.)

* 1609 – English dissenters moved to Amsterdam, Holland, and formed a new Congregation. A few months later, they moved to Leyden. Our Solomon Leonard and his father, Samuel, would join them a few years later.
* 1620 – An agent in London, Robert Cushman, acting for the Dissenter Congregation at Leyden, organized a migration to the New World. The name “Pilgrim” was reportedly coined by William Bradford some time later.
* September 6th, 1620 – The Mayflower set sail for America with one-hundred-two people on board. One of them, the oldest passenger aboard, was James Chilton. His daughter, 13-year-old Mary, was the youngest.
* Dec 21st, 1620 – The Mayflower dropped anchor, after wandering the coast a bit, at Plymouth Rock, in the future state of Massachusetts. Contrary to popular myth and famous paintings, Mary Chilton was not the first passenger to set foot in the New World.
* 1629 – Isabella Chilton-Chandler, Mary’s sister, who did not hyphenate her name at the time, arrived in America with her husband, Roger Chandler, and family. Our Solomon Leonard arrived at about the same time and may have even been on the same boat.
* 1629-30 – Solomon Leonard starts his five-to-seven year indenture to the Plymouth Company for his passage and future property.
* 1640 – Fully vested and now an official landowner, Solomon marries Isabella Chilton-Chandler’s daughter Sarah Chandler, officially making him a Mayflower descendant. The rest, as they say, is us.

Notice anything missing? Like the first Thanksgiving? Yeah, well, that’s a little hard to pin down. First off, it wouldn’t have happened until the year after the Mayflower landed… and by then nearly half of the passengers had died. Including James Chilton. And his wife. Daughter Mary was left an orphan and most likely raised by Miles Standish or John Alden. Now what kind of Thanksgiving story is that?

My sincerest apologies for leaving out so many details (and playing fast-and-lose with the rest), but I feel I’ve wasted enough of your time for today and all this writing has made me hungery, so… Pass the gravy… Pilgrim.

Home, home on the range...

My dad wanted me to be a farmer, so I milked cows, and slopped hogs, and fed chickens, and drove tractors (standing up) before my feet could reach the pedals. I learned to wipe my feet before entering the kitchen.

By junior high, I was torn between becoming the next Ernest Hemingway or the next OJ Simpson. Boy, could I pick ‘em. I did win a couple of writing contests tho’, under the pseudonym “Ricky” Leonard. And I was a starting halfback, weighing in at almost a hundred pounds.

High school came and went with the usual amount of high drama and broken hearts… the writing and general jockery filling space between class plays and student council. I graduated fourth in my class with high hopes of becoming a hippie. And I succeeded.

University brought the promise of com-pu-ter-s and I went right to work on that three-story mainframe, feeding it hundreds of punchcards as fast as it could digest them. Which wasn’t very fast.

By the end of sophomore year, I decided I could do more to stop the war by becoming a journalist and going undercover as a short-haired tv reporter. A decade later, I was writing and producing newscasts for an ABC owned-and-operated television station in San Francisco. And I was still undercover.

Four superbowls, three World Series, two earthquakes, one Emmy and a Peabody later, I decided to work for Bill Gates. And I did. Sorta. Writing technical manuals for Word, and Excel, and Windows and such. At one point, I was the “webmaster” for a non-product called Internet Explorer. Janet Reno took a real interest in what we were doing.

Today, I continue to write, I build and manage Web sites, and I look for new projects. Looking back, at where I’ve been and where I started, I think to myself, “Good gawd, man, you’re becoming Forrest Gump!”

Just shoot me. Please?