In the UK, 200 year old maps are being used to locate ancient trees. These maps show how the landscape use to look before deforestation, and also help to show where the ancient survivors are located.
Ordnance Survey/Landmark have compiled a digital archive from more than 1000 maps which will be used to build the first interactive map of Britain’s ancient trees.
Because of its legacy of hunting forests established at the time of the Norman Conquest, Britain has more ancient trees than any other country in Europe. Many can be found in these old forests. Scattered groups of trees can also be found in historic parkland, wood pasture and ancient wooded commons. Small groups and individual ancient trees reside in housing estates, urban parks, farmland, village greens, churchyards and within the grounds of old historic buildings.
One of the oldest found so far is a Shropshire Yew. It was found in a churchyard in Norbury, Shropshire, in the West Midland region of England. It could be 2700 years old!
The Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, launched the Ancient Tree Hunt last summer to find, record and preserve their oldest trees. Over the last six months, more than 4000 have been located. Their goal is to locate at least 100,000 ancient trees by the year 2011. They’ll also need the help of the public to find candidates in their home areas.
Have you ever wondered about the history of some of the Christmas items we are so familiar with? Here are a few examples:
Christmas Lights - The use of small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle 17th century. The candles were glued with melted wax to a branch or attached with pins. Candle holders appeared around 1890. The first Christmas tree lit by use of electricity was in New York City in 1882. By 1900, department stores began using bulbs to light up their Christmas displays. Safe Christmas lights for trees were developed around 1917.
Christmas Cards - The first commercial Christmas Card appeared in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley depicting a family with a small child drinking wine together!
Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. In 1875, Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America.
Artificial Christmas Trees - Artificial trees first appeared in Germany in the late 1800’s when deforestation was a problem. They were metal wires covered with goose feathers and often died green to simulate the look of pine needles. The trees first appeared in the United States in 1913, and were offered for sale in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog, ranging in size from 17″ to 55″.
In the 1930’s, the Addis Brush Company developed an artificial tree using the same machinery it used to create toilet brushes! The branches were made using pig bristles dyed green. These branches were color-coded for ease of assembly.
Santa Claus - The history and evolvement of Old Saint Nick is much too long to fit on these pages. You can read more about it here.
Have a very Merry Christmas!!
The U.S. Census Bureau has released a new report analyzing the most common surnames. Smith remains on top, followed by Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones. What’s interesting is that, for the first time, two Hispanic names have cracked the top 10. Garcia comes in at number 8, and Rodriguez at number 9.
You can search a list of the 5000 most common surnames to see where yours fits in.
My great great grandparents, Nelson and Louisa, died in Florida around 1900 and are buried in a Waldo, Alachua County cemetery. A couple of the things I’m trying to accomplish with my family history research is to find out where my many grandparents are buried and to obtain a picture of their headstones. But, the odds of me going to Florida anytime soon, and seeing their graves, is not very high.
I came across a group called Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. They are volunteers from all over the country who do everything from looking up courthouse records to taking pictures of headstones. The volunteers are listed by state and county. Each has a description as to what they are volunteering to do.
So, I sent an email to one of the volunteers who was willing to photograph headstones in Alachua County cemeteries. I gave as much information as I could to help him locate the graves. A couple of weeks later, a disposable camera arrived in the mail with pictures of Nelson’s and Louisa’s headstones on it!
Volunteers may charge reimbursement only for postage, film, video tapes, cost of making copies, and possibly parking fees. There is no charge for their time. All they ask is that you, in turn, volunteer to help someone else.
I have since signed up as a volunteer and am waiting to help someone!
We went to pick out our Christmas tree tonight. We’ve been getting Fraser Firs for many years. This year we decided to try something different. The first tree we came to was called a Grand Fir. We had never heard of it before. They told us it’s common in the Pacific Northwest. It’s much softer looking than the Fraser, and is very fragrant - citrusy. We decided to give it a try (we live on the edge!).
The branches aren’t as strong as we’re use to, so some of our real heavy ornaments may have to stay in their boxes this year.
The first map ever to use the name “America” will go on display at the Library of Congress on December 13th. It was created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507, and is also the first document to show a separate Western Hemisphere and label the Pacific Ocean as its own body of water.
“America” was named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Waldseemüller read Vespucci’s letters describing his explorations and used these, in part, to create the map. The map was rediscovered in 1901 after spending 400 years lost in the library of a German castle. It is mounted in a 6-foot by 9.5-foot display case machined from a single block of aluminum.
But, experts are puzzled as to how he was able to draw the shape of South America so accurately, given what Europeans were believed to have known at the time. Why did he put a huge body of water west of South America years before it was discovered by European explorers? According to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.
Also, why did he name the territory “America” and then stop using the name several years later?
You can read much more about this map at the following links:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0619_030619_americamap.html
http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/waldexh.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/magazine/02wwln-lede-t.html?ref=magazine
