Things on the Shelf

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I’m getting ready for another one of my porch sales. I decided that I no longer need to keep my paper copies of the tombstone records that I made in the 1990s and early 200s. There are copies at the Rochester Public. Library, FamilySearch and on the Monroe County GenWeb. I haven’t pull then down in 10 to 15 years. So there will be a binder of tombstone records for sale by each Town

I thought I had scanned everything in the binders but as I looked through them I found things that have never been scanned. So I created 3 new web pages and a new large PDF files.

  • Lakeside Cemetery of Hamlin, NY. I have three very old tombstone lists for this cemetery. One is from a newspaper article in 1890. There are some inscriptions that look as if an old tombstone was later replaced with a smaller and less detailed inscription. Then in 1934 two groups of ladies from the Daughters of the American Revolution copied inscriptions in the cemetery. Each of those had some tombstone inscriptions that weren’t in the other list. I combined all three lists and then added references to which list or lists the inscription is in. This only has tombstone up to 1934 so for later burials you should refer to the Find a Grave list for the cemetery.
  • A list of tombstone inscriptions in Parma Union Cemetery from 1928 that was done by Mary T. Douglas of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I’ll bet there a few tombstones that weren’t on later records of this cemetery.
  • Deaths (1836 – 1881) from Freewill Baptist Church, East Penfield, NY. This list is so old that it is something that I typed on my old typewriter. That means it is from 1984 when I got a computer.  These are deaths extracted from the records of the church that were published in the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Magazine, (volume 34, 1970).
  • Membership records of Rochester Baptist Church from 1818 to about 1854 (PDF file). As this is a Baptist church, baptism were only performed to adults. A person could be admitted by baptism or from a letter from another church. People discharged left on friendly terms, usually to go to another church. People could be expelled for dancing, drinking alcohol, playing cards. etc. Many were expelled for not coming to church in a long time.

I will have another post about my sale in a couple of days.

Hit Songs of 1976 – #18

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The Sylvers was a family group. The four eldest siblings called themselves Little Angels in the 1960s. They appeared in several variety shows, charity shows, community events, and other public venues. In 1972 when adding other siblings they became The Sylvers.

By the time “Boogie Fever” was released in 1976 there were eight Sylers in the group. The song ended up on the top of the Cash Box chart for May 2 -8. Then the next week it was #1 on the Billboard chart. The only other song they ever had in the top 10 was “Hot Line” which got up to #5 on the Billboard chart also in 1976.

The group released their last album (their 10th) in 1984 which became a big disappointment. They officially broke up the next year.

Four New Things

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I added 4 new publications to the GenWeb last week:

  • Rochester, The Flower City  from 1905 is what is called a souvenir booklet. It has pictures from around Rochester at that time. I was surprised to see some automobiles on the streets downtown. In 1905 there couldn’t have been many cars in the City. The next to last page in the booklet is an aerial view at Ontario Beach Park. The large crowd is there to see elephants bathing in Lake Ontario. They were there as a summer attraction. There are three elephants but the one on the left is very hard to see unless you blow up the picture.
  • “No-license Champion,” vol. 1, no. 2, April 11, 1899 is a temperance newspaper from the local W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union). They were an early advocate of alcohol prohibition. I was surprised to see that the organization still exists.
  • “Farm Life,” vol. 10, no. 1, January 1890. This is an agricultural farming newspaper published in Rochester. I found a reference that it began in 1880 as “Empire State Agriculturalist.” Then they changed the name to “Farm Life” in 1887. It was published until at least 1897 but if other issues survived, I couldn’t find them. This and the newspaper above were lent to me by the Greece Historical Society.
  • Cooking for One or Two . I keep thinking that I have scanned all the old RG&E recipe booklets. Then I found this one at an estate sale. This is more like what I need for cooking for just myself even though I probably won’t do any of the recipes.

Hit Songs of 1976 – #17

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The Bellamy Brothers had their first hit song in 1976 with “Let Your Love Flow.” They are David and Howard Bellamy and they had been in country bands from an early age in Florida. David along with Jim Stafford had written “Spiders and Snakes” which was a hit in 1975 for Stafford.

This song was written by Larry Williams who was a roadie for Neil Diamond’s band. It was at the top of both the Billboard and Cash Box pop charts for the week of April 25 – May 1, 1976.

The Bellamy Brothers had a few more hits on the country charts. They eventually built their own recording studio in Florida. They live in a 200-acre ranch, where they raise Brahman cattle and quarter horses, with three generations of their family living in the compound.