Was Johnny Appleseed for real?  Click to this link and find out:

https://waapple.org/johnny-appleseed/

(You may have to copy/paste this link.)

Apple facts perhaps you didn’t know:

Apples are a $2 BILLION industry in Washington. 

Washington grows over 30 varieties of apples….can you name five?

Apple sizing is designated by count—specifically the number of apples that can be packed in a 40-pound fiberboard carton. 

The average apple contains only FIVE seeds.

29 – times you could circle the earth with the apples picked in Washington state

7500- varieties of apples grown around the world

1381 – Year the earliest known apple pie recipe was recorded

4 lb 1 oz – weight of the world’s largest apple, picked in Japan in 2005

95 – calories in a medium apple

Did our ancestors eat apples? Darn tootin. Driving around and trying to find old homesteads, the surest indication that you’re in the right spot is to find an old, gnarled, apple tree. 

‘Vampire’ grave shows 17th-century fear of women who ‘didn’t fit in’

A sharp sickle was placed across her neck, ready to decapitate her should she jolt awake after death, and a padlock was put around her big toe.

That’s what scientists found when they excavated the corpse of a woman they believe was suspected of being a vampire in 17th-century Poland.

The unnamed woman — thought to be young and of a high social class, given that she was buried in a silk scarf — was probably accused of being supernatural because she stood out, experts said. A large protruding tooth may provide some clues.

A professor from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun said burials involving a sickle are extremely unusual. Archaeologists from the universitymade the discovery in the southern village of Pien in the Eastern European nation last month and published their findings this week.

“Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them and smashing them with a stone,” Dariusz Polinski, who led the research team, told The Washington Post. Instead, in this case, a sharp scythe is “not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.”

The woman’s exhumed remains are now being studied by Polinski’s team.

Her burial reveals “paranoia” and “fear” around vampires — and the “gender politics” at the time, Stacey Abbott, author of “Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century,” told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,

Discussing things as they’re said to be.

There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true

That Man descended from our noble race

the very idea is a disgrace!

No monkey ever deserted his wife,

starved her babies and ruined her life.

And you’ve never known of a mother monk

To leave her babies with others to bunk.

Or pass them on from one to the other

‘Til hardly is known who is their mother.

Another think you’ll never see

A monk build a fence around a coconut tree

And let the coconuts go to waste

Forbidding all other monks a taste

Why if I’d put a fence around the tree,

Starvation would force you to steal from me.

There’s another thing a monk won’t do: 

Go out at night and go on a stew,

or use a gun, or club or knife

To take some other monkey’s life.

Yes, man descended—-the onery cuss,

But brother, he didn’t descend from us!

** I found this poem while perusing a old periodical, Phillips Family Finder, in the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society library. It stated “submitted by Esther Freeman.”  I share it with you only because I thought it funny. I know that monkeys are “ornery” too and do bad things to each other (I’ve seen the documentaries) but I never thought of monkeys as “proud.” What about you?

EWGS past president Shirley Penna-Oakes has been gone for a couple of years now. Her good friend, Mary, to whom Shirley gave all her genealogy and her genealogy books, is now wanting to re-home some family histories that Shirley collected.  The titles are listed below; I have these books and would be willing to send them to you for postage.  First to ask gets them….. 🙂  

The Irish Scots and the “Scotch-Irish,” by John C. Linehan, 1902, Heritage Books reprint.

 I Saved the King: The Story of the Turnbulls, by R.E. Scott, 1977, 17 pages, Xerox copy

 Robert Clements: Ancestors & Descendants, of Leicestershire & Warwickshire, England, First Settler of Haverhill, Mass, by Percival W. Clement, 1921, 2 vols in 1, Xerox copy

 Family of John Page of Haverhill, Mass, 1614-1977, by Lynn M. Case and Page Sanderson, 1978, 245 pages + index, Hardbound book

 History of Haverhill, Mass, by Benjamin L. Mirick, 1832, 237 pages + index, Heritage Book reprint

 By the Name of Morrill, 1632-1987, by Madeleine Witten, ND, 240 pages + index

 Theresa Maria Maselli (Dalsanders) and Virginia D’Amico (Penna); Arrived into New York City 1907 and Spokane, WA, 1907. Compiled by Shirley Penna Oakes, ND

 Descendants of Margaret Campbell, 1847-1928, inc. John Doherty and Jonas Otto Wallgreen, by Juanita Sullender, 2011

 Family of Anthony Wayne Bricker & Melinda Sullender (who married in IN in 1842), a stuffed 3-ring binder of charts, notes, obits, pictures and copies; compiled by Shirley Penna Oakes.

 The Munson Record: Genealogy & Biographical Account of Capt. Thomas Munson and His Descendants, by Myron A. Munson, 1896, 200 pages, unbound Xerox copy

*** I also have a big box of The New England Historic Genealogical Society’s publication, The Register. Shirley apparently purchased these early volumes…………. I will not send them (way, way too heavy) but they are up for grabs. 

·        Trees do not walk. They lumber. (Sign in Port Angeles, WA)

·        Mistakes are good because we can learn from them; I must be a slow learner because I repeat most of mine.

·        I’m wrecked on the lee shore of age.

·        Definition of a volunteer: Someone who didn’t understand the question.

·        The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence; it’s greener where you water it.

 * What has more letters than the alphabet? The Post Office.

* You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead.

* Definition of a lobster:  An ugly, overgrown, insect-like-puny-brained crustaceon for which we pay $25 to eat.

* Junk is the stuff we throw away; stuff is the junk we save.

* Sign for a bra store: “Where no cup runneth over.” 

* When life gives you LIMES, change them to a SMILE.

* News flash! Did you know that chocolate makes our clothes shrink??

* Maybe that’s why our ancestors aren’t smiling in those old photos….. they had no chocolate in their lives. 

Time for a test. Give yourself a pat on the back for each one you know (answers at the bottom):

1. Washington is the _____ largest state in the nation.

2. The highest point in Washington is ________ with elevation of _______.

3. Where is the geographical center of Washington?

4. Washington ranks _____ in the nation for population.

5. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Washington was ______ on _______ at ___________.

6. The hottest temperature was ________  on ______ at _________.

7.  Washington became a U.S. Territory in _______.

8. Washington became the ______st state on _______.

9. Washington’s state motto is ______ which means ____.

10. Washington contains _______ counties.

11. Washington’s official state name is the ________.

12. Washington’s state flower is the _______ and state tree is ______. 

1. 12th largest / 2. Mt. Rainier, 14,411′ / 3. Ten miles SW of Wenatchee / 4. 18th / 5. -48, 30 Dec 1968, Winthrop / 6. 118 on 5 Aug 1961, Ice Harbor Dam / 7. 1853 / 8. 11 Nov 1889 / 9. 39 counties / 10. Alki, meaning “by and by” / 11. Evergreen State / 12. Pacific Rhododendron/ Western Hemlock

Betting you have ancestral ties back into the above show “heartland” states. Am I right? Would you like to know more……. and learn up-to-date research “more” about these states?

 The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society is giving you the chance to learn more about researching in the heartland of America in a series of programs beginning in October and ending in June, 2023.

Kickoff for the EWGS series, Heritage from the Heartland, will be the focus of the October 1^st meeting. It will be a hybrid meeting (both in person and ZOOM) but PLEASE, EWGS is limited to only so many via ZOOM so you in-towners COME and let the out-of-towners ZOOM, okay?) Besides, come and have lunch with your genealogy friends.

Click to www.EWGSI.org to learn more details and to register (yes, right from the website!).

Picking a name for baby has always been a delightful challenge. Surely it has always been so. I have a family of four siblings born in the early 1700s in Connecticut named John, Mary, Elizabeth…………… and Bazeleel.  Bazeleel? Yep, a Bible name for sure.

We might think that names for baby popping up today are kinda crazy but it was the same decades or centuries ago (as proved by the above example, no?).

Doing some “pay-it-forward” work for the St. Clair County Genealogical Society in Illinois (where some of my ancestors hail from), and helping index and proofread early birth records, I’ve come upon these names…. and they are first names:

Orben, Noal, Truthadoris, Honey, Ermil, Calliem, Argana, Bornodna, Yarlotts, Falenda, Mortha and Ceeylia.

How long ago were these names, you ask? 1916! 

I’m quite sure that a list compiled in 2122 of some of today’s names might sound just as “interesting.” Agree? 

I‘ve posted before about Coats of Arms and do we believe them….. or deserve them….today?  Here’s a story that I just HAD to share:

“At the town of Stirling began the great wood of Caledon where roamed a number of white bulls, with crisp and curly manes, like fierce lions….and more wild than any other beasts. As soon as any man appeared before them, the bulls would rush forward without fear of hounds, sharp lances or other weapons.

“It is said that King Robert Bruce went hunting in this wood and, having only a small party with him, narrowly escaped with his life. One of the bulls, after being sorely wounded by the hunters, rushed fiercely on the King who had then no weapon in his hand to defend himself from the impact. 

“Then a man of great spirit, who was nearby, leapt before the King and, grappling with the bull, cast it to the earth with great force and held it there while the remaining hunters slew it with their weapons. The man who rescued the King was called thereafter TURN-E-BULL and awarded with rich lands by the King.”

This story is retold in a 20-page booklet titled, I Save the King: The Story of the Turnbulls, by R.E. Scott, 1977. Author Scott cites The History of Scotland, published in Latin in Paris about 1626.

Working on a history of Cyrus Turnbull, for whom Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (south of Cheney near Spokane) was named (although he never owned land there and only “squatted” for six years), I found a reference to this story. Tracking it down, I found that a copy was held by a library in Michigan. Inquiring of them, a most kind librarian found a copy online for me!

Note the lesson there, dear readers. About helpful librarians, I mean. But back to the question: Do you “believe” in a family today having/boasting of a coat of arms from yore???