Sleuthing the Kirkpatricks

It has been a very long time since I have posted. I have been researching, but apparently haven't felt like blogging in a long time.

With that being said, I am meeting with a DNA cousin tomorrow and I brought a ton of unlabeled photographs to share with him in the hopes he might recognize some people. I have also been posting photos on the Kirkpatrick Genealogy Facebook page, hoping maybe someone there might know the people. Alas, it seems that there are many Kirkpatricks which came to this country in the mid-1700s, but mine came over in about 1831, and I have yet to meet a Kirkpatrick cousin from that larger group. Whereas my family stayed in Troy, NY, the rest of the Clan seems to have headed south and west.

BUT, the person I am meeting tomorrow is absolutely a Kirkpatrick cousin and from the Troy, NY area. So I know he is family.

I recently had an "aha!" moment when I realized that I recognized a house in the background. Guessing on the children, I assumed the photograph was from 1900 and I looked at the census for that address and sure enough, the people I assumed were in the photograph were all living in the house together at the time.

The first photograph below I know all the people.

Nellie Jane Kirkpatrick Lee with sons Herbert "Herb" and Horace "Harry"

This photograph was labeled - and I do know the house - Kirkpatricks after the porch and fence taken.

And this third photograph was the mystery. But based on the known children above, the 1900 Census, and other photographs of the house, I think this must be Martha Jane Wright Kirkpatrick holding Harry with little Herb standing in front.

As of a few years ago, the house looks like this:

The house has seen some better days.

This was a house in my family for generations. Through the census documents, one can see first that Charles and Nellie Jane lived there with her brother and sister-in-law, and Nellie and Oliver are in and out a couple times, and then Martha Jane's father is there with them for a while before his death, and then Oliver and Nellie raise their children there. Must have been a sad day when the house was sold and Olive moved with her parents Oliver and Nellie to Bronxville, NY.

Transgender and Family Research

Photo taken from here.

Roughly 1.4 million adults who live in the United States are transgender, or about 0.6 percent of the population, according to a new report by UCLA's Williams Institute, the country's leading researcher on LGBT demographics. That's double the institute's previous population estimates, released in 2011.

In the context of my interest in family history and health:

1. I wonder how one would research this in the future? I mean, how would you know when someone changed their gender based on legal documents? In the past, I am sure it was rather hush-hush. As I write this, I wonder what happens in India (the Hijra) and Albania (Balkan Sworn Virgins), for example, when there is a culture of people either being a third gender or the women who, for economic reasons for example, change genders, though not actually changing genders, just living culturally as the other gender. My mother-in-law was given a truly masculine name upon her birth and changed it legally to a cute woman's name either when she changed to her married name, or perhaps before. I should imagine her name will baffle any cousins doing the research in the future who do not know one of us to ask.
2. Does American, with it's Standard American Diet, have proportionally more people who identify as transgender than we did throughout history? Is it our food? American air? Does the West have more than the East - or did Western culture make people hide it more than India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh did, obviously? What are the percentages in the rest of the world?

I don't mean to disrespect third gender or transgender people. People should live the way that does not contradict their soul. I just wonder if food choices and the chemicals and antibiotics Westerners (or maybe just North Americans, as Europeans do have more laws) put into the food, is changing the sex hormones in the human body so that babies are born with a gender that contradicts their soul.

Original blurb above taken from the July 15th edition of The Week Magazine.

Dr. Stewart Wolf, Jr.

Man, I have just found some cousins... cousins through cousins. I mean, they are as close to me as some cousins who I see almost every summer, but yet I had not known of them. I am optimistic they will accept my invitation to be friends through Facebook.

I learned that one of these cousins lived in New Orleans. Unfortunately, he passed as a young man - 51 - in 2002. It would have been great to have family here in NOLA. He was a professor at the University of New Orleans. (I haven't yet located his obituary...)

In any event, the father did medical research and was very highly regarded; I found this obituary about him through his wikipedia page. Interesting because we talked about the happiest places in America are here in Louisiana, where family and a support group makes you happy, not wealth. (Wait, I can't find that study... I thought I had written about it already. I will have to see what I can find and post it!)

Dr. Stewart Wolf Jr., who studied health of Roseto residents, dies at age 91

It was 42 years ago that Dr. Stewart Wolf Jr. took a close look at the people who lived in Roseto, determining their close family relationships gave them an edge to a healthier lifestyle and lessened their chance of having fatal heart attacks.

Wolf, who worked until his mid-80s, died Sept. 24 in Oklahoma City. He was 91.

His 1963 study, which detailed why Rosetans had fewer heart attacks than people in nearby communities, brought him professional praise and brought Roseto international recognition.

His daughter, Angeline Wolf Gloria, and son, Thomas Wolf, have kept their roots in Upper Mount Bethel Township, both living on or near their father's famed research facility on Totts Gap Road.

But the doors have closed at the Totts Gap Institute that Wolf founded in 1958 to bring together the concepts and findings of biomedical and behavioral sciences.

"Father was not able to pass the torch on to a single person who would be able to take charge in the direction he had originally planned for it," Gloria said Friday.

Through his 60-year medical career, Wolf was affiliated with medical, clinical and research departments at the University of Oklahoma, Cornell University Medical School, the University of Texas Medical Branch and St. Luke's Hospital-Fountain Hill.

Gloria said although Totts Gap is closed, its assets were given to the Warren Foundation at the Oklahoma University School of Medicine in Tulsa, Okla.

"They matched 150 percent our contribution, which was about $1.5 million," Gloria said. "It is being used to establish the Stewart Wolf Scholar Trust to benefit a student, doing specific research, for one year."

A couple of years before his death, his daughter said, the Stewart Wolf Endowed Chair was established by the Oklahoma University Health and Science Alumni Foundation.

The Wolf children may not have had a father who played ball with them because of his extensive travel and working hours, but they did not feel deprived.

Gloria said her father was a busy man, who, like his own mother, felt travel was vital to their upbringing.

"His mother took he and his siblings to Europe in the summer," Gloria said, "and he replicated that for us."

When the children were young, Wolf took them; his older brother, George, who died in 2002; and their mother, Virginia, to Paris where they lived for a year while he did his research.

When the children were in their late teens, they took turns traveling abroad with their father for his work.

That is Gloria's legacy from her father.

"One of the most important things our dad taught us was that travel was mind-expanding," she said. "I have held onto that, traveling all over the world in my career."

She and her husband of 15 years, Jim Gloria, have continue the tradition of traveling. They have adopted two children abroad, a son, now 12, from Russia, and a daughter, 8, from the Ukraine.

Gloria, who uses the name Gloria Wolf in her career as a professional dancer, teaches repertory dance theater in Allentown and at Bravo Dance in Scranton, and has taught at DeSales University. Her husband, an artist, teaches various forms of art at their home.

Thomas Wolf, who lives with wife Peggy and son on the Totts Gap property, serves as overseer for the grounds. A photographer, he worked with his father at the institute and in the laboratory as a computer engineer before it was closed.

After Wolf's famous Roseto study, he predicted that Rosetans would change as they became more "Americanized." A later study proved him correct: As residents moved away from their close-knit community, the heart disease statistics matched those of neighboring communities.

October 08, 2005|By Madeleine Mathias Of The Morning Call

Possible Breakthru on a Photograph (because of Herb's letter home)

The Spanish Flu is some serious stuff... Herb is a little cavalier about it.

Ruth Parker is Herb's cousin, born 1915, and had a tragic life. I should write up her story, though she married, she died at 25 years old. I wish I had that photograph! (Or do I? This photo was sent to me by my cousin Chuck who is a descendant of Ida Lee.)

Either of those little girls could be roughly 3 years old, couldn't they? And I think the woman second from the right is Herb's Mom, Nellie Jane. So if the older girl seated is Olive Lee, (born 1904) and maybe the other child is Margaret, (born 1911) then maybe the woman standing next to the man is Ruth's mother, Edith Cornell. Hmm. I will need to ask my cousin Chuck. BUT, OMG, I think I figured it out. What a triumph!

October 31 (1918)

Dearest Mother,
I had your and Dad’s letters of October 6th and 13th to day – rather good time. Two days ago we received fourth class mail and lo and behold! What should arrive but that package you ordered for me from Wanamaker’s – last May. I think it was. There was in it some carbolic soap, a tooth brush, a tube of toothpaste, a half-pound of hard candy and this paper on which I am writing. That let’s Wanamaker’s out, of course, but I hardly think the experiment worth repeating. The war may be over before I could receive another package, at that rate.

I think I’ve already told you that I won’t be able to get a requisition for any winter clothing. These are all being refused on the ground that such things are supplied by the Q.M. on the Red Cross. As a matter of fact, we’re issued four pairs of heavy socks though they are by no means so good as home made ones. However, I’ve bought a sheepskin coat from one of the boys who wanted to dispose of it, so I don’t believe I shall freeze.

There is, of course, plenty of Spanish grippe over here but so far I’ve escaped all but that touch of it I had while on leave. At present I’m in my usual good health and, you may believe that I’m taking all possible precautions to stay so.

Since my last letter we’ve made two short moves and, at present, I’m living in what was once the Station Agent’s house in a small town on a jerkwater road. It’s a very comfortable place, too, dry – I’m on the second floor and good and warm thanks to a comfortable stove.

I continue to get magazines that Dad sends me pretty regularly. They come in handy, too. I was awfully glad to get that picture of you all – I mean the one taken when you were at Aunt Ida’s. You must have been looking straight at the sun because you do look cross. Ruth is as fat as a button, isn’t she?

It was very fortunate that I told you how I met Ken Lavin, wasn’t it. I can imagine that his mother was greatly relieved to hear he was all right. I know nothing of Herb Blake these days. In fact, the only time I ever saw him was when I first came up to the front.

I haven’t heard from Tom in some time now so I’m hoping that he really has gone back to the U.S.
The last letter I had from Karolyn was written while she was on the train going down to Bridgeport to take up her work there so I am waiting to hear from her to see how she likes it.

With best love to all,
Your affectionate son,
Herb

William A. Kirkpatrick

I'm not sure where he might fit in my tree, but his death caught my eye so I did a tiny bit more research and found the follow article which I clipped from Newspaper.com.



We met William here. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, NY. Poor William was only 32 years old. What a tough way to go.

The William Arthur Ferguson Story

Quickly compiled to see what I 'knew' about my cousin Bill. Unfortunately, because he was born in 1935 it is harder to gather lot of information, for privacy reasons. His obituary was a source of most of the flesh on the bones provided by the original documents.

A fitting day to remember someone who served.

William “Bill” Ferguson was born to Norman C. and Helen Sherman Ferguson in Westchester County, New York on June 3rd, 1935. By April 1, 1940, Bill was living with his parents at 157 Hunter Street in Mount Pleasant, Westchester, New York, which the parents indicate they were living at the same location in 1935. They own their home, valued at $6,500 in 1940.

Helen and baby William Arthur

Norman and son William Arthur

According to the 1940 Census, Bills parents had a diverse level of education; Norman had four years of college, but Helen only an education to 8th grade. I would surmise based on what I know about the rest of the Sherman-Kirkpatrick family that that information is incorrect about Helen.

At the time of Bill’s early development, Helen is staying at home with him and his father is making $2,800 a year working as a teacher in the Public School System.

By 1944 the Ferguson family had moved to 55 Sagamore Street in Glens Falls, New York.

Bill at age 12

Bill graduated from Queensbury High School in Queensbury, New York. Bill was probably in the class of 1953.

By 1959, the Fergusons had moved around the corner to 170 Sanford Street in Glens Falls. Though Bill is listed as living there, the directory also indicates that he is serving his country with the Navy.

From 1944 on, Norman is listed as working at the Glens Falls Insurance building either as the building manager or the building superintendent.

After returning from the Navy, Bill worked as a stone mason and then later as a bartender.

Bill’s father died in 1993, at the age of 93, when Bill was roughly 58 years old.

His mother passed when she was very old, at 104 years old, in 2005.

Bill was known to his many friends as "Fergie" and they remembered his devotion to his parents, his kindness to his friends, his interest in all things and his love of conversation on a wide range of subjects.

Bill died of cancer on February 17, 2010 in Glens Falls, New York. He had been being treated at the Veterans Hospital in Albany. “He never complained and brightened the lives of friends and the hospital staff with his wonderful spirit and his ability to go forward, in spite of the overwhelming medical challenges he faced every day.”

Tombstone photograph taken by Donald Martell, from Findagrave

Oakwood Cemetery Section A, Lot 14 - Alex Kirkpatrick's family

Here we begin to see some married names of the daughters.... the Groesbecks and the Neals for example. William Groesbeck's parents - Gates B And Ella F. Kirkpatrick Groesbeck - are in this plot. We met cousin William with Herb here.

In Section A, Lot 11, bought by Alex Kirkpatrick on April 6, 1859, we have the following people:

Burial Number       Grave Number       Interments
827                                1                      Andrew Kirkpatrick, age at death 3-1/2 (This child was named                                                                  after his grandfather.)
7113                              2                      Jane Ann Kirkpatrick, age at death 22
12253                            3                      Alex Kirkpatrick age at death 59
13438                            4                      Morris K. Groesbeck, age at death 7 mos.
                                      5                      Maria w. FredK A Neal, age at death 23
19317                            6                      Agnes w. Alex Kirkpatrick, age at death 72
25639                            7                      Gates B. Groesbeck, age at death53
                                      8                      Morris E. Kirkptrick, age at death 75 (later moved to Section                                                                   13)
38281                            9                      Ella F. Groesbeck, age at death 70

I believe this Alex is the oldest brother of William, discussed here.

So, why did Alex buy this plot in 1859? His first child, Andrew, seems to have passed a couple years before. And where would this child have been buried first, if not here? No mention is made about a re-interment.

The second burial is Jane Anne Kirkpatrick and we know she was 22, but we know very little else about her. I assume she was not married... but, that could also be her married name.

The purchaser of the plot is the third to be buried there.

I had to look up: Mitral regurgitation is leakage of blood backward through the mitral valve each time the left ventricle contracts. A leaking mitral valve allows blood to flow in two directions during the contraction.










This is what I have put together in Ancestry.com about this group of people who share a burial plot. I am not saying it is right, but it's what I found and it can be found here for more review and analysis.

PS - Happy birthday, Frances!

More Dead Kirkpatricks - the Plot thickens...

Well, I say 'the plot thickens,' but all I really mean is that we have another plot at the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, NY with more people.

In Section H, Lot 168 , bought by William Kirkpatrick on July 28, 1873 (see Chas Kirkpatrick 246 Second Avenue) we have the following people:

Burial Number       Grave Number       Interments
4255                             1                       Hattie W. d. Wm Kirkpatrick d. 7/27/1873, Cholera Infantium, age at death 1y, 10m, 14d
4290                             2                       Freddie S. Kirkpatrick
3508                             2                       Still born of Kirkpatrick 4418
13437                           3                       Samil Kirkpatrick 58 (Samuel?) d. 8/13/1892, died of Bright's Disease, father Andrew Kirkpatrick, mother Jane Kirkpatrick, age at death 58
19420                           4                       Geo H Kirkpatrick 28 d. 1/9/1905, died of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, William Kirkpatrick, brother, age at death 28 and single
19459                           5                        Chas Kirkpatrick 42 d. 2/1/1905, died of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis, age at death 42
21023                           6                        Wm. Kirkpatrick 64 d. 12/4/1907, died of Chronic Bright's  Disease, Charles Kirkpatrick, brother, age at death 64 and married
29846                           7                       Lottie A. Kirkpatrick 73 d. 9/18/1923, died of Chronic Bright's Disease, daughter, Mrs. Emery Williams, age at death 73 and a widow

According to Wikipedia, Bright's Disease is:

a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It is typically denoted by the presence of serum albumin (blood plasma protein) in the urine and is frequently accompanied by edema and hypertension.

Poor William Kirkpatrick must have gone out and bought the plot because his beautiful daughter, Hattie W., died of Cholera Infantium the day before. My goodness, your daughter dies and then you have to go spend $37.68 for 304 SF of space in a cemetery. (I can't calculate today's equivalent because the CPI calculator I found doesn't go earlier than 1913.)

We see that two other children also passed, one still born and the other, Freddie S., we don't know, but we have each child's burial sequence... it looks as thought the still born child died first, and was then perhaps re-interred as burial number 4418 in this Kirkpatrick plot.

On the bottom of the form provided to me by the cemetery, it seems that the cemetery did ask for the names of the parents of the deceased before 1900; after 1900 a relative or friend's name could be provided.

William Kirkpatrick died in 1907, at which point I assume that Charles takes over the maintenance of the plot. It seems that it is Charles who informs the cemetery of the passing of William.

I think it is interesting that both George and Charles died of Pulmonary Tuberculosis only a couple weeks apart, though the records indicate that George was living in New York City when he died and Charles was living in Troy.

I found this on Harvard University Open Collections Program web site:

Tuberculosis, also known as “consumption,” “phthisis,” or the “white plague,” was the cause of more deaths in industrialized countries than any other disease during the 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 19th century, 70 to 90% of the urban populations of Europe and North America were infected with the TB bacillus, and about 80% of those individuals who developed active tuberculosis died of it.

Causes of Tuberculosis

For most of the 19th century, tuberculosis was thought to be a hereditary, constitutional disease rather than a contagious one. By the end of the 19th century, when infection rates in some cities were thought by public health officials to be nearly 100%, tuberculosis was also considered to be a sign of poverty or an inevitable outcome of the process of industrial civilization. About 40% of working-class deaths in cities were from tuberculosis.

Robert Koch’s identification of the tuberculosis bacillus in 1882 helped to convince members of the medical and public–health communities that the disease was contagious. Preventing the spread of tuberculosis became the motivation for some of the first large-scale public health campaigns.

Sanatoria

The sanatoria movement, which began around 1880, was an attempt to cure tuberculosis naturally and to prevent its spread by moving patients into quiet environments, isolated from normal life, where the air was pure and freely circulating. Major sanatoria included those in Davos, Switzerland, and Saranac Lake, New York.

At a sanatorium, rest in the open air was of paramount importance, and special houses, porches, and cabins were built to allow easy access to the outdoors. Because the sanatorium cure involved long periods of separation from home, work, and family, it was sometimes avoided until the disease was well advanced. Cost also was a deterrent.

The sanatorium model was adapted for use in urban environments, and dispensaries, free public clinics for the poor, also advised patients using the sanatorium model. However, following the dispensary’s advice was often difficult because of urban living conditions. If a patient had the means and the opportunity, moving to a different, more beneficial climate was another way to attempt a cure.

Exciting Breakthru

Life is good.

I was contacted by a cousin by marriage through wikitree yesterday. Though I learned I have missed the opportunity to speak with a relative who loved to talk about the Maher family, I have gained some information about a branch of my tree which had grown cold. And I have learned where many relatives are buried.

I have made some speculative stories about my great Aunts, Lillian and Roberta.

I have also come up with a theory about how Florence and Herb met; something I now must explore. I will share more as I uncover, but I have always been confused as to what happened to Karolyn and how/when Herb meets my grandmother Florence. There is a Lee in the Maher plot. Might Herb have visited a Lee relative for a holiday event and met Florence there? Could be. I mean, Herb didn't meet Florence in a bar or on-line.... so how did they meet? A family gathering would be very appropriate. Herb was living in New York City without the rest of his family who were in Troy, NY. Of course, this Lee in the Maher burial plot has not yet shown up in my tree... but maybe a little more digging and time will tell.

Packed In A Trunk - the Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson

The other night I watched a wonderful documentary on HBO on Demand - "Packed in a Truck." A grandniece (though she might actually be a cousin, I think) went searching for the life of her ancestor, Edith Lake Wilkinson.

Edith was an unmarried and childfree woman, whose money was eventually embezzled from her as she was locked up in an institution and neglected. Horrendous circumstances. A wonderful story, though, about the research and the 'bringing home' of a very talented artist.

I am intrigued by this story, too, because, though my ancestors are not talented artists - at least not that I have discovered - they also deserve to have their stories told and not to be forgotten.

Here's how they describer the documentary on the website:

PACKED IN A TRUNK uncovers the story of artist Edith Lake Wilkinson, committed to an asylum in 1924 and never heard from again.  We follow the journey of Edith’s great-niece as she pieces together the mystery of Edith’s life and returns her work to Provincetown.

Here is a lovely example of her work which I took from the website:

Redoubled Energy (Back with Herb in France)

It's interesting to think about Herb's comment about keeping the war effort going at top speed at home. I am certain he is not referencing what is going through my head... What I think about is food production. I read that the reason we have so many food companies was because during WW2 we had to ship a lot of food to our soldiers and the food had to survive the trip - hence preservatives. And also, once those companies existed, they needed to continue after the war for the jobs they created, so rather than to make women's lives easier with Rice-a-Roni, the reason we have all these manufactured-food companies was to keep the jobs and the assets at work. Scary thought, isn't it? I mean, one can see the logic of the reasoning, but crap, at the expense of our health and family life.

Which of course leads to the next subject which I will not discuss here, but all the technological advances because of war and military.

Anyway... on to different subjects:
Here is the front page of the New York Times as Herb is writing this letter home:



I'm afraid I don't know who Miss McElwee is. The quickest of searches in Ancestry.com didn't find anything.

Chas is Herb's cousin.

Herb's maternal aunt lives in Huntingdon, NY - it's actually Chas' mother who Nellie Jane is going to visit.

August 25 (1918)

Dear Mother,
I had Dad’s letter of July 28 as well as yours yesterday – the first in a week or so.

We’re still taking things easy – though I expect our time is getting pretty short now. We’ve been in rest billets now almost two weeks. The past week has been very hot and close up till yesterday when a good hard rain cooled things off a bit. However it’s been good harvesting weather and the farm people – they’re old men, boys, women and men not fit for service over here – are very busy from early morning till dark getting in grain.

The war news grows steadily better as you know. I’ve seen accounts of wild celebrating in the States over the American’s victory on the Marne. I think people might better save their breath to keep war work at top speed myself. There is no doubt that the Allied machine is steadily growing and will before long be irresistible but the proper time to shout is after the crossing of the Rhine. This is the time or the folks at home to put their shoulders to the wheel with redoubled energy. The wheel has started, right enough, but it’s going to take lots of more pushing to keep increasing its speed.

I was much interested to hear that Miss McElwee had been working at 14 Wall. Are you sure it wasn’t before I left. I was in and out of there quite often and it would seem as if I should have seen at some time or other.

I wish to Pete Chas would write to me, I haven’t had a letter from him in a couple of months or so.

I expect that by now or in a few days at least you will be in Huntingdon. I’d like to be with you. The Sound is such a wonderful place these days.

The last drafts must have taken a good many of the boys around town. It may be that Stan Kling is over here now. I’ve known cases where things moved as fast as that. Wends must be rather deserted these days.

We’re still with the same Division of French. Of course I can’t name it but I can tell you that it’s rather famous and is largely composed of Chasseurs – those smallish chaps in dark blue uniforms and as good as fighting men as there are anywhere. I couldn’t tell you at the time but I think I can now that we were in the thick of it when the Germans advanced across the Marne. It was a very uncomfortable week because we were all running around like mad all over and had the Germans always on our heels. It took about a week to locate all the men and cars and get them together. They were scattered all over the salient (?). Well, the Germans went back faster than they came in so we were revenged, though I should have liked to have been there to see it.

The hot weather made me a bit sick to my stomach for a day or two but that’s over with and I’m feeling very fit.

A few nights ago we celebrated our vacation with a big dinner – quite a nice dinner, too – and a sort of party afterwards. Everyone seemed to enjoy himself.

Your affectionate son,
Herb

'Astonishing' Anglo-Saxon Remedy Kills Superbug MRSA

Though I initially read about this in the April 17th edition of The Week Magazine, I took this article/text from Forbes.com.

What an amazing discovery! (But who came up with the idea - and the money - to try it?) I mean, these folks have time on their hands. Brilliant, though. But it does make one wonder... I mean, clearly it is worth testing, but how many things were tested that resulted in no help? So, did Dr. Lee run to a microbiologist and say, "Hey, let's try this?" Or did Prime Minister Cameron call up Dr. Lee and say: "Hey, I was reading Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and I got this great idea for something we should try..."

This discovery also makes me think about our food and what we are doing to it. I mean, if we had started to generically modify our garlic would this no longer have been the case? It is funny-interesting that they used wine from a historic vineyard. Would any wine do? Would all our clones of wine grapes work?

I read that some of the only food we have not modified are our herbs because we cultivated those herbs because we valued the taste of the herbs, but many other plants, like spinach and such, have been bred to remove much of their inherent bitterness. That today's cilantro is very close to "ancient" (that might not be the right word) cilantro. Interesting to contemplate.

And, of course, we must ask ourselves if the engineered or bred foods are actually better at healing. I mean, as mentioned in my little blurb about God and chicken, maybe the changes we are making are better. This article doesn't mention if they tried this recipe with modern supermarket bought ingredients.

So, could Dr. Christina Lee be a cousin?

A 1,200-year-old Anglo-Saxon remedy called Bald’s Eye Salve has proven “astonishingly” effective in battling the MRSA superbug, which kills more than 5,000 people a year in the US.

The potion, composed of garlic, onion or leeks, wine, and ox bile, kills up to 90 per cent of antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in mice, according to scientists at the University of Nottingham.

The Mediaeval treatment was rediscovered by Christina Lee, an associate professor who specialises in disease and disability in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking eras, who translated it from old English.

The recipe, including detailed instructions on how long to chill the ingredients (nine days at 4C), was found in Bald’s Leechbook, a leather-bound medical textbook from the 9th Century held in the British Library.

BaldsLeechbook
A page from Bald’s Leechbook (Credit: university of Nottingham/British Library)

“Medieval leech books and herbaria contain many remedies designed to treat what are clearly bacterial infections,” said Dr Lee.

Microbiologists recreated Bald’s Eye Salve as faithfully as possible, even using a wine from a historic vineyard near Glastonbury, and tested it both in vitro and on wounds in mice.

They compared the results to those achieved previously with the individual ingredients.

“We thought that Bald’s eye salve might show a small amount of antibiotic activity, because each of the ingredients has been shown by other researchers to have some effect on bacteria in the lab,” said microbiologist Freya Harrison. “We were absolutely blown away by just how effective the combination of ingredients was.

“We tested it in difficult conditions too,” Dr Harrison told IBT. “We let our artificial ‘infections’ grow into dense, mature populations called ‘biofilms’, where the individual cells bunch together and make a sticky coating that makes it hard for antibiotics to reach them. But unlike many modern antibiotics, Bald’s eye salve has the power to breach these defences.”

Although developed long before the formal scientific method emerged, such remedies could have benefitted from extensive trial-and-error research to determine what worked best.
Many other books survive from the period with other treatments that might be similarly effective, Dr Lee said.

A global hunt for new weapons against antibiotic-resistant infections was launched last year, spearheaded by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Rand Europe and KPMG calculated that, unchecked, superbugs by 2050 kill 300 million people, more than cancer, and cost the global economy US$1tr.

The population loss alone would cut world economic output by 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent, the report said.

The results of the research on Bald’s Eye Salve were presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for General Microbiology, in Birmingham yesterday.

Ancestry DNA

I had a tremendously exciting event the other day - I found a 2nd cousin once removed through the DNA feature of Ancestry.com. We are now Facebook friends and I am learning about her life and family.
Her mother is my second cousin. Her mother has met my grandmother, and presumably, my mother, too, though no one really remembers that. My mother and my new FB friend/cousin's grandfather are first cousins. They, of course, know one another, but had lost touch. (Thank goodness for Facebook. I mean, what a wonderful way to stay in someone else's life without being totally intrusive.)
An additional twist to this story is that my newly found cousin is adopted - though she knows both her biological parents. Her father is also adopted, so if and when she gets another hit and finds a relative of his, that could be really exciting and scary for her.

On another incredibly fun note, my DNA-found cousin's biological mother, my second cousin, is moving very close to where I live and we are all going to get together. How wonderful is that? Additionally, I don't have much information on that branch of the tree, so I am hoping she will have photographs and stories to tell. Wouldn't that be a hoot?