Homodox

Bill Dudley Won't You Please Come Home

My latest article has just been published in The American Genealogist also known as TAG.  It is my 28th published article of which I would say 14 or so are major articles.  It is my first English origins article, that is, placing a 17th century immigrant to New England back in his/her home parish in England, in this case William Dudley (1609-1684).  I think it is an OK article.  However, before I could read it, due to the vagaries of the U.S. mail, others had read it and had already emailed me about it--some positively, some not.  I started with a thesis that was inspired by an article in TAG.  I extracted all the primary sources for Dudleys in Dorking, Surrey, England and assembled the family there, I believe, for the first time.  The key to the article was seeing that an Eleanor Dudley was not a daughter but a widow when she married and tracking down her will.  I used the process of elimination method, showing that of four possible William Dudleys, two had no records beyond their childhood, one clearly stayed in Dorking, and the last was demonstrably alive but far away from Dorking.  Yes, it would have been nice had either his mother or brother said in their wills: he's in New England, but that happens far less than one would hope for.  In the same issue of TAG, there in another English origins article where the will of a father doesn't note the son in New England either.  It is a combination of other wills that make the identification possible.  In any case, I think the article is correct in its identification.  I fear I may have transcribed one name incorrectly.  The 16th century handwriting in the parish register which I viewed on microfilm, was tough.  I saw Gooder.  It may have been Hooker.  I'll have to go back and relook at the registers again.

No one teaches you how to do genealogy.  It isn't one skill, but hundreds of skills based on ethnicity, time period, country, religion, etc. The paleography (handwriting) of medieval and late-medieval England is at present the bane of my existence as I push into that area.

Perlman Perfection

We saw the great Itzhak Perlman on Sunday at Boston Symphony Hall.  There's so much to be amazed at when you see Perlman perform.  The music.  The fact that he shuffles on stage due to childhood polio and then sits and plays with a dexterity that would rival any Olympic athlete.  There's Symphony Hall itself, built in 1900, with acoustics that are remarkable.  Yet, the oldest thing at the concert was the Stradivarius violin Perlman uses.  He owns two, one from 1714 and the other from 1721.  So those violins have been making music for close to 300 years, longer than the Schumann or Strauss pieces they played so magnificiently.   Live performances never get old.  The immediacy of the music and the fleeting nature of the event.  You live it and it's then only a memory.  Providentially, during his encores, he had a broom brought out on stage to sweep up some stuff from the floor.  He joked that for Boston, it was for a sweep--which the Red Sox accomplished later that evening.  Perlman noted he was a Mets fan!

Good Times Never Been so Good

I think the amazing part of living so long is seeing things like this. The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series for the second time in only four years! My grandfather was a die-hard Bosox fan. It jumped out at me that the Red Sox won the World Series in the year he was born and now the year he died: 1912-2007 (they also won in 1903, 1905, 1916, 1918, and 2004). Michael and I saw this team play live in July at Fenway. Wow, I'm so thrilled. Do I need to mention the Patriots who are still undefeated?

Halloween

When did Halloween become a national holiday for adults?  I noticed this when I lived in San Francisco, but let's face it: it was San Francisco.  Not exactly your average American city.  I mean in the Castro, there's a Halloween block party where people wear costumes that could win Oscars.  I would marvel at their creations and think "where do they get the time to do that?"  Now back in Boston, I'm amazed at the number of newspaper and Internet ads for costumes and parties.  Halloween is now a major fest day (which we don't get off from work, although perhaps that's coming).  I'm not into holidays.  To me they essentially mean work, stress, travel, traffic jams, and a day off from my job.  I'd gladly get rid of 90% of them.  I mean does anyone really celebrate, Presidents' Day, Labor Day or Columbus Day?  Now I have a new way to feel guilty--more than being a grinch at Christmas, I'm a pumpkin pooper at Halloween. 

Coming Late to the Party

Why is it people on the Internet can't use the search capabilities of the boards to which they post?  Someone recently commented on GCN about the DaVinci Code and could it be possible?  The book came out in 2003 and the movie in 2006.  Harvard's catalog shows 31 books written about the DaVinci Code to date.  Do you think the topic has been discussed before?  Isn't there e-speak for "asked and answered--use the search button!"  This was a major complaint of mine for GCN of people "discovering" things as if they were the only ones to hold the keys to the kingdom.  How many times can you write "John Boswell covered that in 1979" or "actually that's from St. Thomas Aquinas." 

This works for genealogy too.  For those of us who were on email and listservs from the beginning (say 1992 or so), we've been there, done that, got all the T-shirts. I can't discuss Austin Bearse's alleged Indian princess wife anymore.  Search the archives. Read the 1939 article by Jacobus.  Please do some homework before you sit down at your computer!

Not that I haven't been late to a few parties in my life.  As a child I thought gefilte fish was a real type of fish.  In New York, there was a TV ad for the New York Aquarium and two of the people were going to see the gefilte fishes.  I didn't get the joke for years (that's why the black people wanted to see the sole/soul fish!).  Who knew that was a cartoon of Humphrey Bogart with Bugs Bunny and the penguin from Hoboken?  I was 13 before we had a color television and realized that Dorothy stepped into a technicolor Oz.  I sang countless lyrics to pop and Broadways songs as a kid that I didn't understand until much later.

But eventually as an adult I caught on.  And back then, there was no search the archives button. 

Born Again

Today I'm having dinner with my friends, Chris and Drew, Glenn, his parents, my parents, Michael and our guest Dominic, a French teacher on exchange at Michael's school. It's a surprise for Glenn's mom's birthday. One of my favorite memories of Glenn's mom has to do with the proliferation of "Are you born again?" bumper stickers that happened in the 1970s. She would harrumph and say "I never died." I loved that. There are those of us who were brought up Christians and remained so steadily through our lives. Quiet lives of deep and abiding faith. No flashy conversions--no accepting Jesus as my personal savior moments; he has been and always will be my savior. We are also Christians--just because we let our lives do the talking for us and refrain from evangelizing doesn't mean we aren't any less committed. Happy Birthday Peg!

Gay Memoirs

Except for a few popular works of fiction, I generally read nonfiction books, my favorites being history and biography.  I readily enjoy memoirs, a special subset of biography.  I just finished reading Kevin Sessums' book Mississippi Sissy.  I thought it would be on the order of Alan Helms' memoirs, Young Man from the Provinces.  Both are gay men growing up in the 1950s and 60s who eventually make their way to New York City.  They both escape a confining societal norm in the their respective homes, the Deep South and the Midwest, for the freedom to be their true selves in the Big City.  As much I enjoyed Helms' memoirs, the devastating honesty and poetic prose of Sessums' book simply overpowered me.  Less gay memoir than just memoir, Sessums writes about the early loss of both his parents as well as coming of age in a Mississippi being forced to integrate their society in the 1960s.  He is a witness to those historical times at the same time he is trying heal from emotional wounds so deep and lasting as an eight-year-old.  Both of these writers seem to find famous friends early.  Helms is barely off the train and at Columbia University before he has a liaison with Anthony Perkins and Leonard Bernstein.  Sessums is still a high school teenager when he is befriended by Eudora Welty.  I've managed to live 44 years and not befriend a single "famous" person.  I don't think growing up gay in suburban New Jersey in the 1970s was any easier than those in the memoirs, but I was less inclined to escape my family life, which was a happy one.  Sessums' memory of the details of the events of his childhood is astounding, including what was playing on the TV or radio, what people wore, colors, animals, etc.  Maybe that's part of having a traumatic childhood--it's ineffably etched in your brain--every detail.  When I remember my childhood, it's nothing more than remembering a hit TV show.  I remember the playes, the plot outline, some of the lines, but not much more. 

Both men start out in the theater as actors, but end up in other professions--Helms a college  professor and Sessums a writer/journalist.   They also manage to live in New York City during the 1960s and 70s and not die in the subsequent  AIDS epidemic.  There were probably thousands of such stories, many of which were never written down for us to read.

Half Birthdays

Does anyone else celebrate their half birthdays?  Today is mine.  That would make me 44 1/2.  After January 1st, I'll probably start saying I'm 45 in anticipation of the event.  I rarely give my real age when asked, but I never deflate the number.  I usually say I'm older.  I don't know why.  Probably because I've always felt older and partially because Michael is older than I.  I also tend to say I'm in my mid-forties (which officially goes from 42 1/2 to 47 1/2, so you need to know your half birthdays).  After 47 1/2, one is in their late forties.  For some people that can last for 5-10 years, depending upon the person, hair dye, and plastic surgeon on call. 

Joy in Mudville

Oh yes!  The Boston Red Sox are in the World Series again!  That's the shortest span between Series appearances (2004-2007) since they won the World Series in 1916 and 1918.  This is the third time I've lived in a city where a World Series is happening, following Boston in 1986 and San Francisco 2002.  Let's hope this time I can live in a city where the team wins!

And of course the New England Patriots remain undefeated (7-0) and Boston College is ranked #2 this week in college football, the highest ranking since 1942.  This is what it must have felt like in 2004-5 when the Pats won two Superbowls sandwiching the Red Sox World Series win.  Wow.

Lynne Thigpen 1948-2003

I've always had a penchant for talented performers who fly just below the status of "stars."  Sometimes, after I've seen them on stage they do become stars in TV or movies.  These men and women work and you recognize their faces, but you may not know their names.  Except if you are me. The late Lynne Thigpen is my first true star pick. You know her from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? and countless other movie and television appearances, including her last stint on The District.  You've heard her on the original Broadway cast albums of Godspell, Tintypes, and Working.  In 1997 she won a Tony for her performance in An American Daughter.  I love her rendition of "If I Could Have Been. . " from Working.  She was a true star.