Happy Birthday Mamaw!

Today, 3 May 2012, my mamaw, Bennie Eldridge Epperson, would have been 100 years old. Not only was she my grandmother, she was also a sorority sister. She was initiated as an adult when Zeta Tau Alpha came to Baldwin-Wallace College and served as general adviser for many years. Then about thirty years later when I was initiated into the same chapter she gave me her badge. The photo above was taken when she was visiting BWC and we attended the ZTA Founder's Day ceremony.

Mamaw, know that you are greatly missed by one and all. In fact, like Dorothy and the Scarecrow, I think I might miss you most of all.

The Quest of Walter Horn

Since even I was a little overwhelmed by the Rape of Europa, I was relieved to discover that Hitler's Holy Relics. The True Story of Nazi Plunder and the Race to Recover the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire was a breezy, quick read. Seriously. I finished it in one day.

Sidney Kirkpatrick based his novelized account of Dr. Walter Horn's search for royal regalia of the Holy Roman Empire on various historical documents including 30 hours of oral history interviews with Dr. Horn conducted at the request of Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Horn, who earned a PhD in art history in his native Germany, left for the United States before the War and ended up as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley. He became an US citizen and enlisted in the US Army in 1943. With his background he was a perfect fit for the Monuments Men. His quest was to find the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire which had gone missing at the end of the War. The story details the intricacies of Horn's investigation, his back story, and his rescue of his mother and half-sister from the Soviet Sector. Kirkpatrick also highlights the cult-like aspects of the Nazi regime. He can't be the only individual to have made this connection, but I'd never thought of it like this before. This interpretation was particularly striking to me as I had just finished reading The Rape of Europe which detailed the ways in which Hitler and his followers controlled the art world in Germany

The only thing that didn't seem to fit was the "conspiracy theory" about the Spear of Destiny (reported to be the spear from the Crucifixion) and it's connection to a secret order of Nazi Knights. It's hard to tell from the text whether Horn believed these stories or whether Kirkpatrick highlighted them to make his book more sensational. Other than this minor flaw, the book and Horns search is fascinating and worth a read.

Europa, Nazis, and Looting - The Documentary

Did I scare you away from The Rape of Europa by Lynn H. Nicholas with descriptions of its complexity and endless details? Fear not, because in 2008 a documentary film of the same was released. The documentary focuses on the role art played in the Third Reich; the plight of art works in Italy, France, the Soviet Union and Poland; and recent efforts at restoration and restitution. Included are interviews with victims and Monuments Men.

I think this 117 minute film is a great introduction to art looting during the Second World War and restitution of such works. It would be great addition to European Art History course or any class or unit on the War. For the latter it provides much of the same background as any standard documentary on the Nazis, but focuses more on their cultural impact as opposed to battles won and lost. There is also a three-disk version with much more material, which I've not seen. Visit the website here.

In Our Time Moment: History and Understanding the Past

The jumping off point for this March 2000 episode of In Our Time was The New Century by historian Eric J. Hobsbwam. The US edition of this book was published as On the Edge of the New Century in May 2001. Melvyn Bragg was joined by Dr. Hobsbwam and Richard J. Evans.

The panel discussed whether history is useful for understanding the present and future and whether or not the lessons learnt are applied appropriately. I particularly liked Dr. Evans' point that studying societies of the past can give a greater understanding of what it means to be human. Dr. Hobsbwam uses the national and global aspecs of football (soccer) to explain globalization.

The conclusion, I think of the discussion, is that history cannot predict the future, in part because conditions have changed so dramatically. For almost all of human history the vast majority of people have worked the land, now only about 2-3% do, and as Dr. Hobsbwam points out this fact, along with the increases in literacy and education, make the world a fundamentally different place. But what history can do is help explain why things are the way they are and suggest possibilities for the future.

Find this episode at the IOT History archive here or search iTunes.

Have Your American Ancestors Done a Disappearing Act?

A common complaint amongst genealogists is ancestors who are “missing” in a census or other document in which they “should” appear.  And it doesn’t really help that America is a really, really big place – theses ancestors, theoretically, could be anywhere.

An article by Michael P. Conzen, a geography professor, provide clues in his article “Local Migration Systems in Nineteenth-Century Iowa.” In this piece Conzen explores the migration fields in Iowa using the 1895 Iowa State census. A migration field, is simply, the area from which a destination draws its migrants.

What Conzen found in Iowa is that many people moved along the Rivers and later west along the railroad lines. In fact the connection between westward movement and the railroad was so strong, he basically said it wasn’t worth talking about. He also found that the larger the city, the larger the migration field.

On the ground, these means smaller cities in Eastern Iowa, like Keokuk sent plenty of migrants westward and only pulled in-migrants from a few surrounding counties. The two largest cities Sioux City and Dubuque pulled people from all over the state. In Ohio, where I do much research, Wellsville, on the Ohio River, would only pull from a small surrounding area. On the other hand, Cincinnati and later Cleveland, would draw people from a larger area. Similar patterns are seen in Great Britain.

How might Conzen’s study help you find your missing ancestors? For starters if you're trying to figure out where someone was before look eastwards. If you are looking for where they went next, always look west. Yes, Americans did move move in both directions, but the general trend was an east-west migration. 

Follow the major transportation networks: rivers, turnpikes, canals and eventually, the railroads.  I suppose your ancestors could have gone orienteering with a map and a compass to read their destination, but it’s not very likely. 

If your ancestor is located in a small town in one census but not in the previous one, check all the surrounding counties in an expanding radius. If they are in a large town, follow the same procedure, but with bigger radiating circles. Basically, it is more likely that your ancestor would have moved, for example, from Brush Creek Township in Jefferson County, Ohio to either sizable towns of Wellsville or Steubenville than to have moved from Cleveland to Brush Creek Township.

*****

Conzen, Michael P. “Local Migration Systems in Nineteenth-Century Iowa,” Geographical Review, vol. 64, no. 3, (Jul 1974), pp. 339-361. Stable URL from JSTOR is here, which provides access to the first page unless you have subscription to JSTOR. You may be able to access JSTOR through your local library.