Notes from the White County Historical Society as they appear in "The Carmi Times."

Copyright ©2001 by "The Carmi Times" Permission to reprint granted to Cindy Birk Conley and the ILGenWeb by Tammy Knox, editor, "The Carmi Times."

According to a George W. Bush biography which I've just finished
reading, Fortunate Son, the president has always felt uncomfortable
when discussing his prestigious pedigree, an ancestral line which can be
traced back to the 14th century, making him a 14th cousin of Queen
Elizabeth II and a relative of the entire British royal family.
Mr. Bush, who considers himself a West Texan, prefers to ignore the
aristocratic branches on his family tree, but he never hesitates to
boast about his American heritage during the past 200 years. This
includes kinship to the 14th president of the United States, Franklin
Pierce (on Barbara Bush's side of the family), his paternal grandfather,
Prescott Bush, who was a U.S. Senator, and his father, who was America's
41st president.

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Yesterday I read a number of occupations of frontiersmen in North
Carolina about 1750. (This list is from an old and fascinating book,
Carolina Cradle.) There were more tavern keepers than any other. Some of
the others were architect, attorney, blacksmith, butcher, candle-maker,
carpenter, clothier, cooper, cordwainer, doctor, ferry operator,
gunsmith, hatter, Indian trader, joiner, malster, merchant, miller,
millwright, minister, potter, saddler, schoolmaster, shoemaker,
spinner, stiller, mason, tailor, tanner, wagon maker, weaver and
wheelwright. A couple of the terms sent me scurrying to the dictionary.
I learned a cordwainer is a leather worker (this is a word of French
derivation). I have yet to find out what a malster was. My dictionary
didn't list it.

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Last week was our first venture at keeping the Genealogy Library open
five consecutive days. We had a number of visitors, and invite you to
drop in Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 2.

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We are busy numbering all our books so we can more readily place them in
the right spots on the shelves. We have gone through and sorted out
books and journals of which we have duplicates. We have several books
for sale cheap and packets of Illinois Genealogy journals for $1 per
packet, plus a few freebie journals from various places. And as we work
we all think, "So many interesting books and such little time to
research them."

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Address letters to Genealogy, White County Historical Society, PO Box
121, Carmi, IL 62821.

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The Coordinator for the White County, Illinois ILGenWeb page is Cindy Birk Conley

Copyright © 2001 by Cindy Birk Conley, all rights reserved. For personal use only. Commercial use of the information contained in these pages is strictly prohibited without prior permission. If copied, this copyright notice must appear with the information.