Clara Lazzaretti and Alexandre Bienvenue

I spent much of the day at the notarial archives in NOLA researching some properties. Mostly I was overwhelmed, but I learned a few things and met some very nice people - including stunningly beautiful Tabitha who is headed off to graduate school in conservation soon, she hopes. I met Erin and Natalie, too, who helped me understand a bit about how to go about getting information, and Leslie (or Melissa?) who spent a lot of time with me educating me about the work that some Tulane students did entering the buildings of French Quarter into a wonderful database. The property I was researching, unfortunately lies directly across North Rampart, so it was not included in their wonderful database.

I did, however, find these maps:



This map seems to show the division of Mr. Treme's property into lots. It appears to me that this map was created by Jacques Tanesse on June 13, 1810. Mr. Treme seems to have owned the house and orchard in the upper right hand area. I took this map from here.

I also found this funny map. The reason it interested me and I saved it because it mentions the name Alexandre Bienvenue, who is Clara Lazzaretti's brother-in-law and the person from whom she buys a property on North Rampart designated as No. 25.

I finally have this last image which I love. I assume it is not the Lazzaretti-Bienvenu house, but I wanted to share the image. I bought it today at the Notarial Archives. These are the wonderful watercolors made as advertisements when the property was sold by the sheriff. I paid $1.00 for this black and white image, but one can buy a very large mounted color poster for $350 which is lovely.

One can see the facade of the house and the floor plan - which has a second building in the back, and perhaps an outhouse in the very back? This property was put up for sale in April 1845. I was trying to find it on Google maps, but I believe it is gone. How sad. This is what I found in the approximate location:

Bored out of his mind.... But thinking about home

Here is Nagem, Luxembourg. The town looks very pretty, but I can certainly see why it would not appeal to a 21 year old soldier. Nothing doing but those milk cows!

Photo taken from here

Olive was born in December 1904, so she would have been fourteen in 1918... right?

Olive - though date unknown

So, who is Aunt Anna? I have no idea.... is Aunt an honorary title, like for Aunt Berdella?

January 7, 1919

Dearest Mother,

Your letter of December 8th came to-day. That will give you a pretty true idea of the mail service these days. It is really worse now than it has ever been.

I had been thinking of Olive’s birthday – and Dad’s – and wondering whether Olive would be fourteen or fifteen. To save me I couldn’t decide which was right. I was quite sure she would be fourteen until I took another look at the pictures you sent me and then I decided that fifteen would be nearer the truth. I expect that I’ll scarcely know her when I get back.

There is still no news about demobilization. We haven’t moved so far from Nagem, Luxembourg though there is a rumor around that we are to go back into France with the Division. I put no faith in rumors anymore.

All chances of seeing Mr. Rankin’s friend in Paris are over. Several extra companies of Mr. P’s have been assigned there and it is as much of your life is worth to set foot there without special authority. Since one can’t get the special authority, chances are pretty slim. One man in the section went there on permission to stay with his brother who is connected with the Red Cross. He was picked up as his leave ended and given ten days with a prisoner’s working squad near Paris while his case was being investigated. He got back here finally but has no more desire to visit Paris. So I think the day I had in Paris on my way back from permission will have to suffice me.

This last week I have had a card from Mrs. Nial + one from Aunt Anna and a letter from Nellie Graham. Also one package of 4th class. Printed rather used to come in pretty well but now when we need it so badly it’s even more irregular than the first class matter. Still, it does come eventually and is very, very welcome when it arrives. Time hangs pretty heavy on everyone’s hands around here, though the natives appear to be used to it. Where they get the ambition to stick it year in and year out I don’t know. I suppose the habit grows on them.

I’m in my usual good health – not even a cold to complain of. The weather continues bad – very bad. There has been just one halfway decent day since Thanksgiving. And there isn’t another blessed thing to write about.

Best love to you all
Your affectionate son,
Herb

A Missing Link (The NOLA Olivers)

Thru DNA connections I have two people who do not necessarily know one another, but they have the same ancestor in their trees. I haven't been able to communicate in a meaningful way with either cousin about their trees, so I don't know how much information/people in the trees is first hand knowledge of people they actually know.

Ancestry indicates that they are both 4th - 6th cousins, which means at a minimum a 3rd great grandparent is our connection.

The surname I find in both, well, all three trees actually, because of mine, is Oliver. I have a second great grandmother named Oliver. I do know, though, that she came from Ireland in the mid-1800s. And that is about all I know. I know some of her descendants, of course. :)

I have another DNA connected person (different branch, but I know where she fits) who I know has put some wrong information in her tree. I have told her about the error, but she has not made the change. So, with that tidbit, I know to approach other people's public trees with caution.

I am trying to piece this man's life together and see if I can get further back. I have found his parents - lucky for me - but I still haven't jumped over the pond to Ireland.

And I can't get further back. Also, is his mother Ella or Ellen? A search in the Orleans Parish Marriage records comes up with nothing for a William and Ella/Ellen. (That doesn't mean anything, of course...) But I haven't been able to find anything about them. I suppose I might conclude that they - William and Ella - do not live in New Orleans. Why would I think they do? Perhaps Joseph Mack Oliver moved to New Orleans from elsewhere and then settled and married here. Maybe he is the first of my branch of Olivers to live in NOLA.

WAIT! As I write this I remember that one census indicated that Joseph Mack Oliver was born in Texas. If that were true - all other census indicate that he was born in Louisiana - then perhaps William and Ella/Ellen are in Texas and I am searching entirely in the wrong state. Though it does appear that William was a witness to the wedding, which would bring him back to NOLA. Though he might have traveled for the joyous occasion.

But, we also have an obituary which indicates that Joseph Mack Oliver had a sister and half brother... a sister he calls Lita and a half brother he calls Peter Tatum. We see Peter in some of the census documents living with Joseph or his children. I guess I need to get back to writing that life story and see what I can tease out.

And, am I jumping to conclusions on the name of the father? Maybe that is not shorthand for William. Maybe it is another name entirely.

I am getting discouraged enough to start entering all the Oliver marriages before a certain date in to Ancestry to see what pops up. Silly and a huge waste of time, isn't it? But that is what I am thinking. I should just finish writing the story of Joseph Mack Oliver and see what trails I determine and explore those.

Herb's Christmas Eve

Poor Herb - no Christmas package and feeling really low.

I have decided Marnie is Margaret, Herb's youngest sister.

This would be 'Marnie' and Herb in 1953 at Christmas

And this is Christmas 1959 - Harry with his back to us, Dorothy - Herb's second wife on the left - Ruth - Harry's wife - and Nellie Jane and Olive at the head of the holiday table.

On Christmas Eve, what Nellie Jane and Oliver are reading at home and Herb is writing in Luxembourg. Taken from Newspapers.com

Christmas Eve

Dearest Mother + Dad,
How I wish I might have been with you to-night, even for a few hours. But one can’t bridge thirty-five hundred miles except in imagination so I must be content with that.

Who is trimming Marnie’s Christmas tree, thereby taking my job away from me? And where are you putting it? In the same place? This afternoon while I was out for a walk I met a man bringing home whole load of small Christmas trees in a cart drawn by one ox and two milch cows. The poor cows don’t get much rest around here. Many of the peasants have to use them to do their plowing and carting nowadays.

Dec. 26th

My intentions were good night before last but after I started I got to feeling so low in spirits that I couldn’t go on. Lord I was homesick. I wasn’t the only one, either. So the evening ended by we non coms playing cards to keep our minds off our troubles.

Christmas wasn’t a howling success either. We had a good dinner but that doesn’t make a Christmas. At first we were to have turkey but the turkey didn’t arrive so we bought a pig from one of the peasants and half of it made a good dinner for the whole section. With it we had fried potatoes, canned peas, and apple sauce and for dessert apple pie, cheese, nuts + raisins.

The day before Christmas a box came for the Section from the Red Cross. In it was a phonograph with twenty records and a raft of cigarettes. In addition everyone had chocolate + tobacco from the Y.M.C.A. Some six or seven of the boys had received their Christmas packages. The rest are presumably hanging around in some base port. However it’s forbidden to criticize the government or it’s servants any way. They can’t prevent one from thinking, though.

Nothing new occurs. I expect that we’ll move to some other town in Luxembourg, further south, in a few days, but where we’ll go from there I have no slightest idea.

The papers have no news except long detailed descriptions of what the President + Mrs. Wilson wear, eat, visit and talk about day by day. That sort of thing may be interesting to both French and Americans at present in Paris but there’s only one interesting topic amongst Americans in the armies of occupation: That is “when do we get out of here?”

The weather has been colder lately and there was a fall of three or four inches of snow for Christmas.

The rest of the news is that I am well and as happy probably as could be reasonably expected.

And, oh yes, I got those socks you sent me. That’s a good scheme + might be pushed further.

With best love to all,
Your affectionate son,
Herb

Such good information about The French Army Division Herb is stationed with

I had to look up the Rainbow Division (I have attached a link below):

On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress declared war on the German Empire and entered the Great War. In the rush to mobilize troops, individual states competed with each other for the honor to be the first to send their National Guard units into combat. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker authorized the organization of a Division made up of National Guard units from 26 different states and the District of Columbia. Douglas MacArthur, who at the time was a Major working at the office of the Secretary of War, is credited with saying “The 42nd Division stretches like a Rainbow from one end of America to the other.” MacArthur was instrumental in the formation of the Division and was appointed its Chief of Staff and promoted to Colonel.The 42nd (Rainbow) Division was activated in August 1917 and was assembled at Camp Mills in Long Island NY. Its four infantry regiments were respectively 165th (formerly New York’s 69th); 166th (formerly Ohio’s 4th); 167th (formerly Alabama’s 4th); and 168th (formerly Iowa’s 3rd). War strength of 27,000 was present when the Division paraded for Secretary of War Baker on September 26, 1917. The Division arrived in France in November and December of 1917 and trained in Eastern France until mid-February 1918.

What do you suppose Harry has done now that he needs to be fixed up? My goodness. What do we do with that boy?

Poor Herb, waiting for his Christmas package! 

December 20 [1918]

Dear Mother,

I was beginning to think the mail man had deserted me until I got your letter of November 26^th day before yesterday.

So far we’re still in Boxhorn, Luxembourg but I rather expect that we shall move within a week. Where to I don’t know. Otherwise things are exactly the same, except that for two days it has snowed instead of rained.

I was glad to hear that Tom got home at last and to know that he can get around. It seems to me that I must have told you he was engaged to a girl in Syracuse. I know her slightly and I think she is very nice. She seems from a good family not rich but fairly well off.

I was surprised to hear that Ralph Weed is married though I knew of course that he was engaged. I know his wife very well – she was a stenographer in the advertising department when I was there. She’s a very fine girl.

This is for Dad – I’ve read that article about the Marne in the Post and I must say it’s a scream. I don’t believe it was intended for comedy but that’s what it is – low comedy at that. No one should be allowed to write such stuff. From the author’s point of view the war may have been a pink tea affair but she must have seen things from a peculiar angle.

I thought I had told you what happened to Lieutenant Allen but it’s evident I didn’t. he went into the medical service – first aid work with the rainbow division. I think he is probably in Germany with the Rainbow Division.

I had a letter from Mr. Friedman several days ago. He sent me a money order + told me to get myself a Christmas dinner in Paris. (Paris is two days journey from here, by the way.) He also wanted to know when I would be back, says he needs me badly. I wish I could tell him.

I’m quite sure I told you once about our Division – but then you may never have gotten the letter. At any rate it’s the 13^th and is one of the best Divisions the French have. It is part of the 21^st Army Corps, a crack corps, and at present is with the 5^th Army. From June 15^th to October 22^nd or there abouts we were with Gouraud’s army, the 4^th, which broke up the German attack on Rheims + Chalons July 15^th. The Section was working then at Suippes about half way between Reims + Chalons. Two regiments of the 13^th are Chasseurs (the Blue Devils, you know) and the other two are infantry. Three of the regiments wear the Military Medal fourragère (that’s the colored rope green and yellow twisted over the left shoulder) and the other one has the Croix de Guerre fourragère. The Military Medal fourragère is the next highest honor a regiment can have. It is surpassed only by the Legion of Honor fourragère which is worn only by the Foreign Legion. Before the war Foch commanded the 13th and early in the war he commanded the 21^st Corps.

I was hoping that troops would be demobilized according to length of Foreign Service but I read in the “Stars and Stripes” about a lot of ground service aviation men being sent back from England nine days after their arrival. There are also wild articles about a large part of the American army remaining here for perhaps two years but I scarcely think they’ll attempt that. I don’t believe it would be wise.

With Christmas only five days away only three Christmas packages have arrived in the section so far but a great deal can happen in five days so I haven’t begun to worry yet.

There’s only one thing I have to say about Harry at this time and that is go to Dr. Marsh and have himself fixed up if that’s the only way out. I can readily believe that that weighs heavily on his mind and it would be better to get it attended to in some way. Don’t you think so?

With best love to you all and a happy new year.

Your affectionate son,

Herb

Taken from here

New Orleans Cousins

I have fallen in love with New Orleans. There is something about the city which hits me viscerally. I have no way to explain it. And it's not the Creole or Cajun food or the jazz music particularly... it's the architecture and feel of the city. Wait, I need to amend that, as I love the Zydeco music!) I don't know what it is really, but I am very happy in New Orleans, but not for the reasons others may love NOLA.

You may understand, then, how excited I was to find a DNA connection with people born in New Orleans. Now I have fantasies that my DNA aligns to the city like a compass to magnetic north! I have not yet been able to connect their trees to my tree, but they also have Irish heritage and they have the Oliver name in their tree, as do I, through my 2nd great grandmother. Though my second great grandmother and her husband settled in Troy, NY, not Louisiana. So, where is the split? Did one of her brothers go to NOLA while she headed to NY? Or was the immigrant further up the tree?

I have communicated (and soon to meet) a fellow genealogist who is related the the wife of the man I believe to be the patriarch of the branch I am researching - so the younger generations tie us together, but we are not biologically related. She has not researched the Oliver family in New Orleans, but perhaps she can point me to some of the resources not yet available on Ancestry.com which can help me climb the tree. My new friend has been researching for 20 years.

The Surprising origins of the Irish

This explains some of my husband's DNA results... he is the 'Emerald Isle' the whole way, but with a tiny trace of European Jew and Caucasian... so some of his ancestors possibly walked west to Ireland and Great Britain. I say that, because he doesn't have any recent ancestors from anywhere other than Great Britain and the US.

The Irish people have a complex genetic history shaped by mass migrations from the Middle East and Spain, with blue eyes and fair skin arriving through a later migration from Eastern Europe, new DNA evidence indicates. The evidence was found in the bones of four people buried in Ireland: a brown-eyed, black-haired female who lived on a farm some 5,200 years ago, discovered buried in a small village in Northern Ireland, and three men who lived between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago, found on Rathlin Island, just off the Irish coast. When researchers analyzed the woman’s genome, they discovered a strong similarity to people from Spain and Sardinia, who are believed to have originally migrated to Europe from the Middle East. The genomes from the three Bronze Age men revealed a different genetic background, with about 30 percent of their DNA closely resembling populations from modern-day Russia and Ukraine. These blue-eyed males also had a genetic variant linked to a hereditary iron-overload disorder, haemochromatosis, which is so prevalent in Ireland that it’s also known as Celtic disease. Researchers said their findings show that the modern Irish were largely shaped by the 1,000 years of migration from Eastern Europe. “There was a great wave of genome change that swept into Europe from above the Black Sea into Bronze Age Europe, and we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island,” study author Dan Bradley tells The Guardian (U.K.). He said the migrants may have even brought “the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues.

Taken from the January 15th edition of the Week Magazine.

'Heavy' Drinking linked to Strokes

Image and blurb taken from here.

Men who average three drinks a day and women who average two face a significantly higher risk for stroke in middle age, a new study has found. The study by Swedish scientists examined drinking habits of more than 11,000 twins over four decades, and found that those they defined as “heavy” drinkers in their 50s and 60s have a 34 percent higher risk for stroke than more moderate drinkers. That makes excessive alcohol consumption a greater risk factor in strokes than high blood pressure and diabetes. Heavy drinkers also were more likely to have strokes five years earlier than light drinkers, regardless of their genetics or other health habits. The findings are consistent with the American Heart Association’s recommendations that men not exceed two drinks a day and women, one. Previous studies have found that moderate drinking can have a protective effect on heart disease and overall mortality, and the Swedish study found that abstaining from alcohol altogether did not lower the risk of stroke. Drinking is “like Jekyll and Hyde,” Tara Narula, a cardiologist at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital, tells CBSNews.com. “It can be medicinal and beneficial or poisonous and detrimental, depending on how much you use.”

Of course, according to an earlier article, we can drink coffee and undo the harm....

Taken from the February 20th edition of the Week Magazine. See how I am catching up on my reading? Really good stuff in this edition from long ago! But now I can toss the pages I have been saving for months.

Rittenhouse Needlepoint

Wow.
A beautiful store with so much to see. They have a ton of needlepoint yarn and they have many, many examples of things you can *do* with your needlepoint! That has been my struggle... how many needlepoint pillows can you possibly own? And I suspect my family does not want a ton of pillows, either.... We are not cutesy pillow people. Nor are my friends, for that matter.... it's an internal struggle for me....

I am not in love with all the ornaments or three dimensional pieces, though the variety of stitches on the pieces are really pretty and very creative.

An aspect of this store which is new to me is that at Rittenhouse Needlepoint they both create custom canvases and they make the pillows or the boxes or the backgammon sets which can be the final product.

Clearly I have been extremely limited in my vision as to what one can make with needlepoint. At Finishing Needlepoint you can see a variety of things to make - from hair accessories to coasters to the aforementioned backgammon sets.

I spent a good amount of time speaking with Kaitlyn who custom paints canvases for the shop. Kaitlyn is trained as a graphic artists and she showed me an example of her work. Not inexpensive to get a custom canvas.... But for those of us who like the process of creating but are not artistic, seems like a nice collaboration.

The intriguing thing about Rittenhouse Needlepoint is that they encourage lingering - as they even clearly print on their windows they are for needlepoint-coffee-conversation. They also encourage the meditative aspect of needlepoint. (I have been struggling with the feeling that I am wasting my time when I do my fiber art/crafts; this gives me 'permission' to work away during the day when I think I should be doing something at my desk. Of course, in all cases, needlepoint or desk work, is going against our intrinsic need to be standing and moving. How can we combine exercise and needlepoint?)

Kaitlyn kindly let me photograph one of the canvases.

Terrible photograph, but I didn't want them to think I was taking the photograph to copy it; and I was taking the photo just to show my husband who knows about my llama and alpaca fetish. A nice combination of interests... now if only there were an exercising, healthy eating llama canvas.

Here is a very colorful and playful foot stool from their web site:

Check them out at 18th and Walnut Streets in downtown Philadelphia, on the second floor. Plan to spend  while - heck, bring your project with you. I bought a ton of beautiful yarn to complete a geometric piece I am currently working on.

Go back here to see the discussion of one of my recently finished pieces. Here is the photo, though:

Slow and steady wins the race

Taken from the February 20th edition of the Week Magazine.

This is not something I ever have to worry about.... I tried riding like hell for 3 bursts of 20 seconds the other day and it nearly killed me. My legs were like noodles afterwards. I was inspired by a video on the BBC with Dr. Michael Mosely. I have no idea who he is, but a friend recommended it to me me.

Running too fast and too often may be just as unhealthy as not exercising at all, the Los Angeles Times reports. Researchers in Denmark studied a group of 5,000 people over a 12-year period and found that hard-core runners who routinely jogged at a brisk pace—a 7-minute mile or faster—for four hours or more per week were just as likely to die as those who did no exercise at all. Runners who jogged at a more leisurely pace—roughly a 12-minute mile—for just over two hours per week had significantly lower mortality rates. The findings are in keeping with a growing body of evidence that there is an ideal amount of exercise, and that too much of a good thing can stress the cardiovascular system and the body in general. “There may be an upper limit for exercise dosing that is optimal for health benefits,” says the study’s author, Peter Schnohr. “If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy, jogging a few times a week at a moderate pace is a good strategy. Anything more is not just unnecessary; it may be harmful.”