Joyce Kilmer - That Tree-hugging Poet-Guy - Never Lived Here!

So ...what's wrong with this picture?  Well, let me tell you...

In less than three weeks, the “Fall Genealogy Season” will get underway for us.  

Once it starts, that means four events in four different states in a space of six weeks, with me presenting a total of seven talks, (which in turn means reviewing and updating about 650 PowerPoint slides), and packing and unpacking lots of books.  Again and again.

As you might expect, it all takes a bit of planning to make it all work smoothly.  The problem with planning is that the act itself depends heavily upon living in a “steady-state” universe where everything is predictable and unchanging.  There are no emergencies, and no unplanned events allowed or planned for.

Usually, planning is a good thing.  Old trees, however, teach us that we do not live in an unchanging world. Old trees make planning hard.

Today was a well-planned day, or so I thought. I intended to finish the slides for at least two of the talks. I did not, however, plan on the old maple tree, which, apparently had plans of its own.

Who knows how trees make plans?  I certainly don’t.  All I know for certain is that the tree next to the house – a towering maple at least two and a half times the height of our two-storey 18^th century house – has been here for more than a century.  Its aged limbs have been pruned and cabled, and, frankly, from the ground, they don’t look very big at all.   

That turned out to be an illusion.

Sometimes, trees get tired from stretching out their shady limbs. Occasionally they shed dead twigs and branches along with leaves. Sometimes, the parts of trees seem to decide “Enough!” and come crashing to the ground.  In a windstorm.  In a snowstorm.  Or sometimes, for no apparent reason at all.

How trees plan their lives is beyond my understanding.

In any case, tree-plans and people-plans rarely work in harmony.  Which is why my plans for today are now very much modified.

The old maple tree, you see, decided to shed one of its massive limbs.  The limb, with all its attendant branches, twigs and leaves, ended up across the driveway - all 40 plus feet of it - blocking all entry and exit.  At its thickest, the fallen limb measures about 59 inches in circumference and thus about 19 inches in diameter.  I figure it’s a good ton and a half of tired old tree that finally decided “enough is enough”.  

Why that was, I don't quite know.  A day or so ago, it seemed quite happy and content to be living about 50 feet up in the air.  

Then, all of a sudden, the limb must have changed its plans.

Fortunately, no people or property were in the way when the limb decided to come down.

So, now we wait for the “Guy Who Knows The Guy With A Truck and a Chainsaw” (the GWKTGWATAAC).  He said he’ll come by sometime later and let us know what can be done and by whom and for how much. 

He would have come sooner, but he had plans, you see.

I gave thought for about 10 seconds to doing it myself, but I'm not much of a "Do It Yourself" kind of guy.  Apparently, my little dinky electric chainsaw wouldn't do much good.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but who knew that my well-planned day would be interrupted by a massive larger-than-life tree limb that somehow decided that “Fall Genealogy Season” literally meant – “FALL”?

Those Campfire Stories from Equatorial East Africa

“Hapo zamani za kali…”

Or as they say in English, “Once upon a time…”

That’s the way many of the Swahili stories told around the early evening campfires of East Africa usually begin.  Of course, the specific words might change as you move out of the Swahili-speaking areas and move further inland, into the areas populated by speakers of other languages, but still, all over East Africa, the idea stays the same.

Listen carefully, the speaker says, I’m about to tell you a story – a story that I learned from my father, who learned it from his father and so on, back to the very beginnings of time, when mists enshrouded the earth and all the animals spoke our language. 

It’s a story about how the giraffe tricked the hyena. Or about the lizard and the elephant.  Or perhaps it's the story about the lion and the crows.

The children gather round, their eyes wide in anticipation. 

Story-time.

“Hapo zamani za kali, twiga alisema…” the story begins.  The beginning is always the same.

“Once upon a time, the giraffe said …” and thereby begins a classic story that everyone knows, yet everyone still wants to hear, night after night, over and over again.

In most of East Africa, night comes very close to six o’clock in the evening, just as sunrise comes close to six in the morning.  Every single day of the year. There are only two seasons:  Wet and Dry.  Life is mostly unchanging and largely predictable.

When night falls, however, it’s sudden. Twilight and dusk are short; in rural areas, it’s bright and cheery at 5:30 in the evening, but at 6:30 , it’s pitch-black.

In this part of the world, there's not much in the way of streetlights, or in some parts of up-country (rural) East Africa, not much in the way of electricity of any sort, so the evenings are a time for gathering around the fire and socializing.

Generally, socializing means telling those stories that everyone wants to hear, even though there are no surprises, and the endings are well-known by all.

“Hapo zamani za kali…”

Once upon a time, and for several years, I worked in the Republic of Uganda on a project funded by the Ford Foundation.  Our job was to re-write the textbooks used to teach English in primary schools throughout the country. We started with the text used in P5 (about the 5^th grade), because that was the year in which Ugandan kids spent their entire school day learning everything in English.  English, you see, was chosen as the country’s national language when it became independent in 1966.  That way, no single tribe would control the "national" language.

We wrote the text and then the teachers' manual, commissioned the illustrations and arranged for the printing.  In between, we "field-tested" the lessons in our 26 pilot schools all over the country.

After we finished the P5 book and teacher’s manual, we moved on to the other years.  The series of textbooks and teachers’ manuals were known as “The Nile English Course.”

I was part of the tiny team of teachers/writers/linguists/editors whose job it was to take those familiar East African stories and folktales that were told around the evening campfires and turn them into vehicles for the teaching of English grammar and vocabulary, all in a way that fifth graders – who may have been the only people in their families who could recognize a few words of English – could understand.

Before we could use them as teaching lessons, the stories needed to be “de-tribalized”.  In other words, we wanted them to be somewhat familiar, but not totally identifiable as specific Acholi, Toro or Ganda folktales.  So, we re-wrote them, borrowing bits and pieces from various tribal cultures and languages, changing characters and re-doing the stories’ endings.  

 This was the “official” government position that we were required to follow.  Uganda, a new nation with many indigenous tribes, religions and languages, was set on a course of “nation-building” and wanted to develop a generation of people who identified themselves as “Ugandan”, not as members of a specific tribe.

Plus, our goal was to teach English, not tell traditional stories, and largely it worked.

Of course, we used other stories in our books as well – many of which we concocted ourselves – but the folktales were the key to holding the interest of our 5^th graders.  After all, these were largely rural kids, living in villages without electricity, television or even radio.  Buses and cars were infrequent. There were no movies and no libraries. No refrigerators and no running water or indoor plumbing.  In fact, for most of them, there was no plumbing at all.

Those old, old stories that began “Hapo zamani za kali” (or with some other similar phrase in their local language) were their primary entertainment.  

And they worked.

Even though the project was started way back in 1967, the books – now published by Macmillan -  are still used in most Uganda elementary schools to teach English. 

In fact, about 7 years ago, when I was interviewing a Ph.D. scientist for a research position in NY State government who just happened to grow up and go to school in late 1980s Uganda, I started speaking to him in fractured, pitifully-poor Luganda.

“Where did you learn to speak Luganda?” he asked, since, generally, people who looked like me did not speak much Luganda in upstate New York.

I told him about what I used to do in Uganda and about the text-book project.

His eyes grew wide and a big smile took command of his face.  

 

“Amazing!”, he said.  “You wrote the Nile English Course!  That’s how I learned English and was able to go on to secondary school and then on to college.  Amazing!  Wait till I tell my wife!  That’s how she learned English, too!  Amazing!”

Of course, all of this happened “hapo zamani za kali”  - once upon a time and far, far away. 

And now, it’s kind of its own campfire story.

Today: the 1820 Census of Manufactures and A Western Mass. Conference Next Month!

One of the things on my shortlist of chores this morning was to drive over to Pittsfield and pop into the Silvio O. Conte branch of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). I needed to check out a bit of “obscuriana” in the microfilmed copy of the manuscript 1820 Census of Manufactures for the Madison/Culpeper/Orange county area in the state of Virginia.  

While it’s not really a “census” in the truest sense of the word, and can also be woefully and frustratingly incomplete, depending upon the county and state you’re interested in, the 1820 Census of Manufactures is a much underused resource by genealogists and is completely overshadowed by its “big brother”, the 1820 population schedule.  

What’s so great about it?  For one thing, it can often help identify sons with “manufacturing” businesses – millers, blacksmiths, tanners and the like - who were not heads of households in their own right, and thus are not accounted for in the “real” 1820 Census except as tick marks. Second, it occasionally identifies the specific location in a county that the family/business is located.  One individual who operated a distillery described his business as being “… at the headwaters of Buffalo Creek in the Great State of Virginia”, which may very well have been the way he promoted his whisky. There’s a certain cachet to clean and refreshing “Buffalo Creek Whisky”…

Plus, since no early census actually clues us in as to our ancestors’ occupations, this can be a real help in our understanding of family. Farmers with five acres of apple orchards often became “manufacturers” of hard cider in the fall after the harvest and many are accounted for in the Census of Manufactures.

One of the frustrating things about working with that “census” schedule is that the assistant marshals who took the census were given a list of questions to complete. How they treated the responses was apparently not standardized. Sometimes, they gave the questions to the “manufacturers” on sheets of paper, who then filled them out in their own hand.  Others asked the questions and provided a “county narrative” summarizing each of the individual responses.  Still others constructed the 19^th century equivalent of spreadsheets.

Worst of all, many county schedules did not survive at all.

Nonetheless, it’s still a great resource and one of the things that gets me over the mountain to NARA - Pittsfield. At least, it has in the past.

But not for much longer.

Soon, of course, the Pittsfield facility (at least the part that serves genealogists) will close as part of NARA’s “cost reduction.”  I wrote about that earlier this year, so I won’t belabor the point again.

However, before that closing happens at the end of September, the Friends of The National Archives – Pittsfield will once again host yet another fun-filled “Life in the Past Lane” conference.  This will be the 8^th annual event, and like those in recent years, will take place at the classic Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA.  

The date is Saturday, September 17th, 2011.  Save it!

Think about it…mid-September in the Berkshires.  The classic Williams Inn and a really good sit-down lunch.  Genealogy all day long.  What’s not to like???

Here’s the link to the event, where you can download a registration form. 

Do it now, and you can take advantage of the “early bird” rate and save some bucks.  Plus, tell your friends.  Make a weekend of it.  (Hint: most of the summer people will have gone back to their cities of asphalt and cement and the buses of leaf-peepers won’t be there yet; the Berkshires will be EMPTY and will be just waiting to impress you…!!!)

As you look over the program, you’ll note that there are TWO (count ‘em …two…) TRACKS this year, and for whatever it’s worth, I’ll be speaking twice – once on German research (emphasis on the Internet) and once on city directories.  Plus, we’ll be in our usual space (as “Jonathan Sheppard Books”) with tables of books.

So… make plans to join us NOW!!!

Oh… and by the way, I couldn’t find the guy I was looking for in the “1820 Census of Manufactures” because 2 of the 3 Virginia counties’ schedules did not survive.  

Guess he shoulda moved earlier…

The Problem With Old Records Is - They’re Really Expensive To Store and Shredding Is Cheap…

One of the recurring memes in the world of archives and records management is that it’s really expensive to store stuff – especially stuff that nobody’s ever going to look at ever again.  That’s why the archives and records management professionals develop “retention schedules.”  These schedules help records holders sort out the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

But like most human endeavors, deciding what gets to stay and what will become shredder fodder is often a “trial and error” kind of thing, especially when some human is deciding what will be considered the “wheat” a century from now.

So it was with some trepidation that I read the story about the shredders being fired up at NARA’s federal records centers.  Frankly, any story headlined “Millions of federal court records are being destroyed to save money” tends to make me sit up and take notice.

Here’s the link:  you can read all about it for yourself. 

Then, when you’re done with that, be sure to read about the decision-making process wherein it is decided what gets to stay and what must go.  The article (linked here) appeared back in May on the “Third Branch” judicial site and is very enlightening. 

As you read, remember they’re discussing modern (1970 – 1995) court cases, not really old stuff.  Still, in a century or so, the 1970s will be considered “long, long ago”, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

In any case, courts will be saving the historically important cases.  Whatever might that mean? 

The article lays out the criteria for preservation.  It’s a case that:

    * Involved a lawyer, litigant, or witness of historical interest or importance;

    * Involved an issue of historical interest;

    * Involved a matter of national interest separate from the issues in the litigation; or

    * Received substantial media attention at the time.

So using these criteria, how many of the records that you regularly use for your research would meet the test?  For example, would the packet containing the papers relating to your great-grandfather’s contested will meet the test if the time period under discussion were 1900 – 1925 rather than 1970 - 1995?   Was he important enough? Did he hire the “right” lawyer?

Granted, the current issue involves a space problem for relatively modern civil and criminal federal court cases, not what we perceive today to be our “historic” records or the ones that previous legislation has designated as “permanent”. 

And, by the way, the concept of “permanent” is pretty fluid when it comes to tangible stuff like records.  Stuff that gets legislated today can get “unlegislated” fifty years from now.

Still, take a look at the bulleted criteria above and see if you concur that it’s evidence of an attitude – that “big” history is always more important than “little” history.

Famous ancestor? No problem – we’ll save that.  “Ne’er do well” criminal ancestor or street urchin type – sorry, too expensive and not in the “national interest.”  Toss it.

These days, lots of our “public history” decisions are made based upon money and power.  But then I guess that’s nothing new.

From the “We Get Letters From West Africa” Department

So, it’s the first of the month again and therefore time to clean out that ol' email spam folder.

I love to open my loopy business emails; you know, the ones that get directly routed to the “spam” folder without passing "GO.".  You never know what goodies you’ll find.   

Today, I found the following:

 SUBJECT:  BE MY BUSINESS PARTNER

Dear Friend,

I am Dr George.Egobia, manager auditing & accounting section Bank of Africa, Burkina faso. I got your e-mail address in international directory as i was looking for oversea contact. 

It's my urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this business which involves transfer of huge sum of money to a foreign account. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($11.5 million USD) into your account.

I need a foreign partner who will support me because i cannot claim this money without a foreign partner since the deceased client (the owner of the fund) was a foreigner. For more information view http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/859479.stm . 

This fund ($11.5 million USD) will be shared between us in the ratio of 60/40. I agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account while 60% will be for me and I want to assure you that this transaction is absolutely legal and risk free since i works in this bank and i have all the necessary information that might be needed. 

Before we proceed, i would like to know your ability to handle this over there in your country. Please tell me more about the political/economic stability/monetary policy of your country. I need to know all these because i don't want to have problem with the Government of your country.

Kindly update me with the following info because i will want to know you more before we proceed on this transaction. Hope you will understand the importance of this request. 

1. Your full name........................
2. Your age/sex ..........................
3. your occupation ................
4. Your residencial/Postal address ..................
5. Country of origin/nationality ..............
6. Your private phone number ..................
7. Your fax number ...................
 

I will be waiting for your urgent response to my private E-mail: drgeorge.egobia@voila.fr

Thanks,
Sincerely,
Dr George.Egobia

Interesting thing about Dr. George Egobia -   

Apparently, lots of years ago - way back before 2002 -  he got married to a woman named Rosemary.  I know this because Rosemary used to write to me as well.

 

Then – at least according to Rosemary’s email to me way back then - the unthinkable happened. 

Dr. George mysteriously died, apparently while working as a staffer for the Kuwait Embassy in the Ivory Coast.  His widow – describing herself as a DEEPLY RELIGIOUS born-again Christian like her late husband – was looking for assistance in moving a large amount of money. You see, she had health problems, and wrote about herself as follows:

“I will not last eight months due to cancer problem... decided to donate this fund to a church that will utilize this money for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavor that the house of God is maintained.”

She wanted me to find the appropriate church and then keep a huge bunch of the cash for my trouble.

Some folks have all the rotten luck, even while sitting upon a large stash of cash. 

R.I. P. Mrs. Rosemary Egobia.

However, Dr. George, it seems, had a glorious resurrection from the dead shortly thereafter.  Miracles are neat, right?  It seems to happen frequently, this back-from-the-dead stuff, especially in West Africa.  Plus, everybody then gets a better job, which I guess is the "zombie" advantage.

By 2003, according to his emails, Dr. George was the Head of Foreign Operations, Mississippi Finance Company, PLC, in Lagos, Nigeria.  Then, a few years later, in 2006, he was Director of Finance in the Foreign Payment Department of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).   

No matter where he turned up, there was always a large amount of money swirling around him that needed moving – and mostly by me, because, you see, I am very trustworthy.  

At least, that’s what George keeps telling me in his frequent missives.

A few months later in 2006, he described himself as an engineer and as the operations manager of some business called “Deposit Trust House, a Security and Trust company in Republic of Benin, West Africa.”

I guess that 2003 Mississippi Finance gig didn’t work out too well. 

Still, no matter where he turned up, those large amounts of cash – millions, actually – circulated around him and were always in need of non-Nigerian foreigners like me who could help with moving these megabucks.

So, now I’m torn.

You see, yesterday, I got a note from Dr. MARTIN Egobia, who is also some kind of high powered bureaucrat in Nigeria, who wants me to help him move $21 million dollars.  Something about a plane crash, foreigners, and a secret bank account in US dollars that Martin has control of. 

I’m guessing that because of the similarity of last names, Martin is some kind of a close relative of George.  In fact, they might even be twins, thrust on similar career paths in finance!

Really. I don’t know what to do.  If I help George (who wrote first), then I’ll miss out on about 4 extra million bucks that Martin is offering.  If I help Martin, George will probably find out and will be truly ticked off. And then, he may stop writing altogether.

I just don’t have time to help them both.

I’m tempted to go with Dr. George, mostly because I’ve never had the pleasure of working with a truly “resurrected from the dead” zombie banker before. Bloodsucker-bankers, sure; zombie-bankers, never!  

I have all sorts of questions about things on “the Other Side” that I want to ask him. (like, do they have free Dunkin Donuts Frozen Hot Chocolate Coolatas Over There?  Did they all sit around watching the John Edward "Crossing Over" TV shows in the expectation that somebody would want to chat with them? And, if so, did they find the re-runs annoying?)

And frankly, I find the idea of a “zombie financial partner” rather appealing, wouldn’t you?

I’d tell you more about all this, but I’ve got this other pressing business email to respond to, something about this new non-prescription miracle drug that will make me, well, “more of a man” in bed, if you catch my drift.

It’s seems to be from some faraway part of the globe and is apparently really cheap.

I think one of those “Dr. Egobia twins” might have something to do with that email as well.

Time to Learn About The Dunning-Kruger Effect and What It Means

I love political polls, especially the ones that reinforce Jay Leno’s “Streetwalking” segments – in which he asks “average Americans” about basic historical “general knowledge” facts, and they provide him with hilariously loopy answers.

Like “America declared its independence from France in 1865.”

Currently, those “common wisdom” polls suggest that we’re screwed and things couldn’t get much worse and that government is the problem.

Okay, I know.  

Everybody has a lot of stuff going on in their lives.  It’s hard to stay on top of everything.  Sometimes we just have to trust the folks that we figure are the experts. We can’t know everything. Simple is best.

But there are some things WE KNOW!

We KNOW that politics and politicians are all childish, evil and bad.  And government costs too much.  And taxes are evil.  At least, that’s what they say on TV, anyway…

So, when something really important comes along – say, like electing somebody to Congress or running the government – we tend to gravitate to candidates who we think actually THINK like us.  Chances are, they’ll represent us and our view of reality and do the Right Thing. 

This, of course, may be a tremendously bad idea, especially if we haven’t been paying really close attention to what’s been going on. Like The Issues.

Listen. There are lots of politicians out there who use the phrase “the American People” followed by verbs like “think”, “believe”, “want”, “expect”, “have said” and other similar nonsense.   Next, they’re happy to tell you that “the American People” (for whom they say that they speak) are damn near infallible on virtually every imaginable issue when they think collectively.

It's kinda like having a 330 million person Pope...gifted with infallibility.

 

Think about it – according to these folks, “American Group-think” is always right…which, of course, is why lynchings of blacks made so much sense in parts of the 1920s Deep South.  Local group-think indicated that was the way to go.  It’s hard to argue with majority opinion, after all. 

So…Everybody knows you can’t spend more than you have. That’s just common sense.  Or “group-think.”

Of course, if you ask those people if THEY should pay cash on the barrelhead for their $350,000 houses and thus be mortgage free or pay cash up front for their children’s college tuitions, - no mortgages or no college loans - they’ll look at you like you have three or four heads.

Apparently, that’s a different kettle of fish.

Problem is, most folks don’t know that all this “knowledge stuff” has already been studied by experts (Justin Dunning & David Kruger) who actually DO know what they’re doing.  In fact, they’ve gone so far as to lend their own names to their findings.

It’s called the “Dunning – Kruger Effect.”  You can read about it here, in a “Psychology Today” article published last year.  

In a nutshell, the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” posits the following:  If you’re really, really stupid, you’re probably too stupid to know just how stupid you are.  You are confident that you have a lockhold on The Truth.

You may actually believe that NPR, foreign aid and health education collectively soak up huge amounts of your tax dollars.  But, of course, they don’t.  And you probably have no idea how to find out how much they actually are – in real dollar amounts.  And I’m not going to tell you where you can find out …

Admit it, if this is all too hard, you’ve been watching “American Idol” a lot…

Therefore, you might think (incorrectly) that you actually understand what’s going on around you, when, in fact, you don’t.  Inevitably, you’re probably convinced that you understand the situation, even though you couldn’t explain it to an alien from Mars, except by using the current buzzwords being used by those TV pundits who keep telling you that (a.) you’re smart and (b.) they can tell you what you should be thinking.

Worst of all, people suffering from Dunning-Kruger truly believe they have “The Answer.”

Politicians learned years ago that it’s always a good idea to tell you – the voter -  just how smart you are.  The more they tell you that you’re smart, the more you’re inclined to agree with them.

And, if we can distract you with a few “hot-button” issues – Casey Anthony, Maria & Arnold's split, Amy Winehouse, America’s Got Talent, same-sex marriage – so much the better.

Interestingly, nobody in elected office would ever suggest that you’re suffering from “Dunning-Kruger”, even though their staff aides already know just how easily you can be manipulated with a couple of “feel-good” buzzwords. 

Face it, you really, really like it when politicians tell you that you’re smart, even when you’ve never heard of Ludwig Van Mises and the Austrian School. If you had to explain Ayn Rand’s economic philosophy, you’d likely be at wit’s end, even when the guys promoting it say it’s the bee’s knees and you’re inclined to believe them. (If you’re not sure about those things, try Google…)

Politicians’ staffs understand the Dunning-Kruger effect; in fact, they rely on it.  Chances are, if you suffer from it, you don’t have a clue. 

Buzzwords sound good, and complex ideas seem understandable, especially if they’re reduced to buzzwords, which are the linguistic equivalent of the “lowest common denominator.”

Still, when it comes to making a choice about the future, I’m inclined to trust in the truth of Dunning-Kruger, not buzzwords.

And I’m not really all that fond of that “common wisdom of the American people” thing.  I’ve seen where that’s taken us in the past.

Way Back When the King of the Wild Frontier Was Jilted in Tennessee

When I speak about the importance of obscure local government records in my “Board of Supervisors” talk– the kinds of records that are rarely microfilmed and generally don’t turn up on the Internet – one of the things I talk about are the records relating to “near marriages” – those “almost weddings” that were planned, but never happened for one reason or another. 

That’s where one of the parties got cold feet, usually right before the ceremony but after the license was obtained.

For example, let’s suppose that “Mary and John” – prospective life partners - get themselves a license to marry in the appropriate local government office in 1868.  Mary – who turns out to be the archetypal “runaway bride” - has second thoughts about John. 

Mary says, “Thanks, but no thanks” and leaves John at the figurative altar.

Folks tend to forget that those marriage license applications are part of the public record. Even when the marriage itself never took place,  the license applications are great informational fodder for genealogists, since they contain the same background info about each of the parties, even though there was no wedding.  Generally, they’re overlooked, because they tend not to make it into the indexed marriage records.  The “Mary-and-John marriage” never took place, so it’s not a “marriage record”, obviously. 

Think about how many of your great-great maiden aunts might have had second thoughts and changed their minds before the deed was done…

Still, these records – often stuffed in out-of-the-way places in city and county clerks’ offices – may contain useful genealogical information. Genealogists need to be aware that such things exist  -often in the form of “loose papers” - and are part of what we sometimes call “the public record.”

Here’s an interesting news story about one of those “almost” marriage records – featuring none other than Davy Crockett – “King of The Wild Frontier” and best remembered today as a prominent Alamo-Person, not as a spurned bridegroom. 

The story is all about who owns what when it comes to government-produced paper and whether governments ever throw out stuff they think is “unimportant.”  Or whether government workers ever walk off with stuff.  There’s even a replevin lawsuit, now finally decided – just to keep things interesting!

Here’s the link:  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/jul/28/appellate-court-jefferson-county-rightful-owner/

When you read the story (and if you’re old enough to remember) try NOT thinking about Fess Parker and NOT humming the theme song to the famous TV series that started:

♫ Born on a mountain top in Tennessee,

The greenest state in the land of the free,

Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree,

Killed him a b’ar when he was only three. ♫