[Genealib] This week's chuckle

Mon May 12 12:41:16 EDT 2008

Dear Cynthia & others:
I have the same problem with genealogists seeking 1820 and 1830 census and 
state vital records for our county, as the first settler came to our area in 
1830, and most Michigan vital records date from 1867.   Historians and 
architects asking which are the pre-Civil War business buildings in our town 
think I  know nothing when I reply, "None."  I have to explain that all but 
three of our downtown buildings burned in 1884, and those three were later 
replaced.  Luckily, I keep local history timelines and references handy to 
show people and to help them realize what was or was not available in our 
area. Diplomacy is key in order not to have the requestors feel stupid.
My pet peeve is the request for the location of the old insane asylum in the 
Allegan Game Forest near here.  The requests are result of a recurring myth 
that there was a haunted, old insane asylum there.  The paranormal seekers 
think I am part of a conspiracy to keep the information from them. There 
never was an asylum, despite unsubstantiated claims by a couple of unnamed 
people who supposedly spent the night in asylum outdoor cages (remains of 
the old kennel?) there.  I do point out what supposedly or legendary haunted 
sites we can locate on maps, but it is impossible to prove what does not 
exist, even with historic records locating our first county asylum at the 
county poorfarm, miles away from the forest.
One point:
I agree that there were no U.S. telephone directories around in the 1860's, 
but as a reference librarian, I do wish to point out that there was at least 
one telephone credited as invented in the United States prior to Alexander 
Bell.  There were also lots of claims of  telephones prior to Bell's 
invention date.
According to Wikipedia, the telephone was patented January 30, 1877 by 
Alexander Bell; however, the first U.S. telephone was also credited as made 
before its 1854 demonstration in NYC by its inventor, Antonio Meucci. 
According to additional sources, he filed a caveat (a sort of pre-patent 
intent) for his teletrofono in 1871.  He invented the device to communicate 
between his ill wife's second floor bedroom and his basement laboratory; but 
since Meucci was ill and poor, he was not able to follow through with a 
caveat renewal and a formal patent.
According to an article at 
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=254181
The US Congress in a 2001 resolution acknowledging Meucci's work 
contributing to the invention of the telephone said, 'if Meucci had been 
able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could 
have been issued to Bell'.

This fact did not decrease my smile when I read the email.  Part of our job 
is to keep a straight face when someone's family tree has sons predating 
fathers, goes back to Adam and Eve, or includes improbable ties to several 
important historic ancestors.  Dealing with the public is a formidable job 
and takes its toll upon our spirits. In our library the increased use of 
"do-it-yourself" divorce requests, help needed with out-of-state Internet 
job applications, and requests for mental health books and sites sometimes 
needs a bit of humor and laughter to balance the load.  It is good that 
sometimes we (secretly) are able to chuckle at our patrons and (not so 
secretly) laugh at ourselves to lighten our days.
P.S.  This was written on my own time, not library time.

Linda Koch
Reference & Adult Services Librarian
The Allegan Public Library
331 Hubbard St.
Allegan, MI 49010
269-673-4625
FAX 269-673-8661
open M-Th 10-9; F & Sa 9-5:30
www.alleganlibrary.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cynthia Van Ness" <bettybarcode at yahoo.com>
To: "genealib" <genealib at lists.acomp.usf.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 8:54 PM
Subject: [Genealib] This week's chuckle

>I knew you'd all appreciate this. I had some out of town
> genealogists come in this week.  They asked for city directories
> and telephone books.  No problem there, we have both.  But they
> were interested in people who were here in the 1860s.  I had to
> tell them that the telephone hadn't been invented yet.
>
> *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
> Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com
> http://www.BuffaloResearch.com
>
> "Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living.  City 
> living by its definition is crowded.  It is tolerant of other people.  It 
> is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred 
> compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that 
> a city generates."     --Robert N. Davis, Jr. (1955-2007)
> _______________________________________________
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> genealib at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
> http://mailman.acomp.usf.edu/mailman/listinfo/genealib
>
>
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