Notes from a 150 yr old newspaper

[Brisketexan 105569]

Most of my wife’s family came over here from Scotland, many moons ago. Last year, she got a box of family documents that contains some real treasures (among them is one of her relative’s will from Mobile, Alabama in the 1850s….it bequeaths two slaves, by name. So, there’s that….worth its own conversation elsewhere). But the coolest thing is a copy of the Glasgow Times from exactly 150 years ago, 1873. It had been folded up, an address written at the top, some stamps slapped on, and mailed from Glasgow to Mobile. It was mailed because on the front page are the marriage banns, listing the marriage of her gg grandfather and gg grandmother (gg grandpa was a shipbuilder and engineer, had gone to Mobile, and came back to Glasgow to marry his bride, then they headed back to Mobile and life in the US). Seeing the banns was cool. And reading a Glasgow paper with a slice of her family history in it as our son is actually living in Glasgow for university (his middle name is even the Scottish surname of that particular branch of the family, which is a cool historical coincidence) is kind of poignant and fascinating. The family left Scotland for 150 years, then one of them makes his way back. History is a funny thing.

 

But for this thread, thumbing through a 150 year old paper was freaking cool as shit. I’ll share some of the interesting shit below.

 

 

 

I don’t know what stories about J.C. Pottage, noted homeopathic chemist (for real, he wrote a paper on the kola nut, was a well-regarded pharmacist for a long time) were going around, but he wanted to put a stop to that shit, once and for all.

 

He has NO CONNECTION to any other premises in Glasgow (some shady shit going on at the similar-sounding J.D. Pottage? Their buns have no seeds?), and wants you to know it. The statements circulating are Untrue (capital U says he really, really means they are untrue).

 

I’d love to know what the shady scuttlebutt was that compelled him to take out an ad on the front page of the Glasgow Times to clear his good name.

 

Next up? An ad with some fantastically flowery salesmanship of women’s underthings.

[ftf82 486]

I can read that paper much better than I can understand anyone from Glasgow. My Dad took all of us to Scotland on a golf trip in '91 and we spent two nights in the Glasgow area (played Prestwick and Glasgow Gales). We finally started pointing and miming things to the locals. Incredible that their accents were so different than in Edinburgh which is like 50 miles away.

[956 Worldwide 34909]

 

[HornOnTheBayou 8967]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Next up? An ad with some fantastically flowery salesmanship of women’s underthings.

 

 

In all seriousness, this is badass. Keep posting more of the paper.

[Brisketexan 105569]

 
In all seriousness, this is badass. Keep posting more of the paper.

Fair.

So…what continued with unabated interest in December of 1873 in Glasgow?



THE GREAT SALE OF UNDERCLOTHES, of course!

And why? Well, obviously…because the ladies of Glasgow know a bargain when they see it. Duh. Messrs. Copeland and Lye clearly knew their skivvies.

They thought they were done cleaned out, sale’s over, but….by dint of perseverance, they’ve pulled it off again. Seriously, look at the language used. It’s gorgeous. This is an ad for undergarments, and it reflects a better vocabulary than 98% of Americans have today. Amazing writing. Today? “BIG SALE ON BRAS AND PANTIES! NOW FOR A SECOND WEEK!” That’d be the whole damned thing.

So, go get you some drawers, and what looks like three different kinds of chemises. Damn….sexy.

[TwiceHorn 31677]

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Fair.

So…what continued with unabated interest in December of 1873 in Glasgow?



THE GREAT SALE OF UNDERCLOTHES, of course!

And why? Well, obviously…because the ladies of Glasgow know a bargain when they see it. Duh. Messrs. Copeland and Lye clearly knew their skivvies.

They thought they were done cleaned out, sale’s over, but….by dint of perseverance, they’ve pulled it off again. Seriously, look at the language used. It’s gorgeous. This is an ad for undergarments, and it reflects a better vocabulary than 98% of Americans have today. Amazing writing. Today? “BIG SALE ON BRAS AND PANTIES! NOW FOR A SECOND WEEK!” That’d be the whole damned thing.

So, go get you some drawers, and what looks like three different kinds of chemises. Damn….sexy.

I am interested in NAPERY of every description.

[Brisketexan 105569]

I am interested in NAPERY of every description.

That’s from ad above, man. Messrs Copeland & Lye would not be amused by your distraction.

[tx 3 putt 77921]

 

 

[TheStoicPaisano 9940]

Too much long cloth…tell me about “handsomely trimmed.”

Edited November 13, 2023 by TheStoicPaisano

[atomheartbevo 90041]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

(among them is one of her relative’s will from Mobile, Alabama in the 1850s….it bequeaths two slaves, by name. So, there’s that….worth its own conversation elsewhere)

I'll have that conversation with you...there's a project, the 10 Million Names project, that's generated a lot of recent buzz, and their aim is to create "a public database of all enslaved people of African descent in the U.S. from the 1500s to 1865". I contributed to another, smaller project that was a predecessor/trial-run of sorts for this (between the Georgetown project and this one), and I'll see if I can find my contact.  Some of my Cherokee ancestors had a shitload of slaves, and I have contributed copies of wills, bills of sale, family letters that mentioned slaves, and even letters from ancestors who lost slaves (death or run-aways) on the Trail of Tears and who bitched to the feds that they should be compensated, and the named the slaves they lost with descriptions, etc.

Here's the project:

https://10millionnames.org

This is who you need to officially go through/submit copies of what you have:

https://nehgsweb.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/5

You really need to take some photos of what you have and send them in with the info on their masters - even though it's only a couple of slaves, they might have descendants, and any and all information (and name of the masters is very important for geographic or surname reasons) is needed to try and tie folks/relatives together.

This is the lady running it:

https://now.tufts.edu/2023/08/03/recovering-family-history-millions-african-americans

Quote

It seeks to create a database with the names of the estimated 10 million people of African descent who were enslaved in the territory that would become the United States between 1500 and 1865. She will be helping guide a team of genealogists, historians, and researchers in searching for new sources of information and connections between hugely disparate records.

Finding that information has always been especially difficult. “While those Americans attempting to claim Mayflower ancestry have had ample records to prove it, African Americans who have been collecting their family histories and genealogies for centuries have not generally had easy access to collective repositories of genealogical data,” says Field. “This divergence is a stark reminder of our unequal and uneven access to our familial past.”  

The 10 Million Names project stems from genealogical work done to trace the 272 enslaved people sold by Maryland Jesuit priests to raise money to create Georgetown University. Field was first involved in discussions with American Ancestors about this project last year, and began working with their research team in late spring.

I would love to (and may try in the next few years) to get more formally involved with this project, because obviously it's a good project, but it brings together a lot of my interests (history, genealogy, databases, etc.), and I know some folks that are involved with it (through American Ancestors). It's a tough nut to crack because so many of the slaves were only referred to by their given names in census records, at slave auctions, etc.

It's such a complicated project, and that alone has my interest, because they are basically trying to create family trees out of scant references using a very disparate group of documents.  An American with European ancestry has a lot of easily found avenues for tracing their ancestry - census records, birth/death/baptism records, family Bibles, land ownership, newspaper references, etc. and in every case, we have surnames.  Those with African ancestors, they are dealing with census records where it's just the given name, and if they have a surname, their surnames are the surnames of their owners, and because a lot/most of them were unable to read/write, there's a lack of personal records like letters, family Bibles with lists of births, deaths, etc., a lack of birth records in general (slaves born on a plantation aren't mentioned in the local newspaper, etc.).

Sorry for the ramble, but seriously Brisket, you should submit what you can.  A will mentioning some slaves can be entered into the database, and a researcher can look up one of the owners and see that they had an entry for a purchase of some slaves and link that info, and then a census of that owner shows those slaves over a period of time, and then somebody matches that to an 1850 or 1860 census, or even an 1870 census showing some ex-slaves with the same names living not far away from the former owner, etc., and light bulbs start going off and they have connections they can build on.  There's a lot of African-Americans out there where their family history basically begins in the late 1860s (or ends depending on how you look at it), and they'd like to know more.

Edited November 13, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[Brisketexan 105569]

I would love to (and may try in the next few years) to get more formally involved with this project, because obviously it's a good project, but it brings together a lot of my interests (history, genealogy, databases, etc.), and I know some folks that are involved with it (through American Ancestors). It's a tough nut to crack because so many of the slaves were only referred to by their given names in census records, at slave auctions, etc.
It's such a complicated project, and that alone has my interest, because they are basically trying to create family trees out of scant references using a very disparate group of documents.  An American with European ancestry has a lot of easily found avenues for tracing their ancestry - census records, birth/death/baptism records, family Bibles, land ownership, newspaper references, etc. and in every case, we have surnames.  Those with African ancestors, they are dealing with census records where it's just the given name, and if they have a surname, their surnames are the surnames of their owners, and because a lot/most of them were unable to read/write, there's a lack of personal records like letters, family Bibles with lists of births, deaths, etc., a lack of birth records in general (slaves born on a plantation aren't mentioned in the local newspaper, etc.).
Sorry for the ramble, but seriously Brisket, you should submit what you can.  A will mentioning some slaves can be entered into the database, and a researcher can look up one of the owners and see that they had an entry for a purchase of some slaves and link that info, and then a census of that owner shows those slaves over a period of time, and then somebody matches that to an 1850 or 1860 census, or even an 1870 census showing some ex-slaves with the same names living not far away from the former owner, etc., and light bulbs start going off and they have connections they can build on.

Interestingly, this came up last weekend via a conversation with an old friend of hers who was in town for work and spent a night at our place. Her gig is helping people get Italian citizenship, which requires digging into records of family and such. We got to talking about our roots and paperwork. My wife mentioned the will and the slaves, and her friend told us about the project, and how that might help. We’ll be doing it.

When my wife came across the will for the first time, it hit her pretty hard. She has always assumed her family was too poor to own slaves. On one page, she got confirmation that they had owned slaves, and then their names. Her hands trembled when she held it and read, and she was pretty broken up when she said “and these were their names.” Major, and Prudence.

Of course, Glasgow profited quite a bit from the slave trade back in the day. So, circles and all.

[Upgrayedd 5824]

My boss is from Glasgow.  Celtic.  Took me 5 years to understand half the shit he says.

 

[Brisketexan 105569]

11 hours ago, Upgrayedd said:

My boss is from Glasgow.  Celtic.  Took me 5 years to understand half the shit he says.

 

We had to deal with a realtor and solicitor in Glasgow this past year.  It took us a bit to get in their rhythm, but once we did, we could understand them fine.

Glaswegian cabbies?  No fucking way.  Shit, we had a cabbie who was yammering to us, and we were engaging the best we could.  He finally asked, chuckling "how much of what I've said can you understand?"  I answered honestly - "about 10-15%."  He thought it was really fucking funny.

The boy figured out how to mimic the accent and vocab in a semester or so.  He'll go off on mock Scottish rants about shit that crack us up.  It's a hysterical "language."

[Brisketexan 105569]

There's an entire half page on "news from the United States."  It opens with the building bellicose rhetoric between the US and Spain over the Virginius affair and naval shenanigans in Cuba, interesting stuff.  But then it gets into culture and gossip.  Including this lovely poem, "Perfumes," by F.S. Saltus (Francis Saltus):
 


Oh....columnist....you DON'T understand this poem?  Methinks you do.  Methinks that just re-typing its stanzas made you all hot and bothered in your nether regions.  
I do appreciate how a good command of the language lets you be a dirty, randy bastard without being a crude dirty, randy bastard.  
Also, "supple-formed nymphs, robust" should perhaps be the new nomenclature for Vic Mackey's preferred romantic targets.

[atomheartbevo 90041]

Houris flusht nipples...sheathe and unsheathe...

[Jerry Callo 8828]

I have to save this line for future Surly post and maybe even future strongly worded letters:

Quote

The Statements now and recently circulated to a contrary effect are Untrue.

 

[Armybrat 40987]

17 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Fair.

So…what continued with unabated interest in December of 1873 in Glasgow?



THE GREAT SALE OF UNDERCLOTHES, of course!

And why? Well, obviously…because the ladies of Glasgow know a bargain when they see it. Duh. Messrs. Copeland and Lye clearly knew their skivvies.

They thought they were done cleaned out, sale’s over, but….by dint of perseverance, they’ve pulled it off again. Seriously, look at the language used. It’s gorgeous. This is an ad for undergarments, and it reflects a better vocabulary than 98% of Americans have today. Amazing writing. Today? “BIG SALE ON BRAS AND PANTIES! NOW FOR A SECOND WEEK!” That’d be the whole damned thing.

So, go get you some drawers, and what looks like three different kinds of chemises. Damn….sexy.

Mrs. Brat is subscribed.

[Brisketexan 105569]

1 minute ago, Armybrat said:

Mrs. Brat is subscribed.

SHE KNOWS A BARGAIN WHEN SHE SEES ONE.

[miguelito 11337]

9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

There's an entire half page on "news from the United States."

"I-35 in Texas is under construction."

[Judge Roybeanbag 11822]

33 minutes ago, miguelito said:

"I-35 in Texas is under construction."

Amazing, I saw news of that in a museum too!