CBH News

JAMES PARKER: A Printer on the Eve of Revolution - Book due for release in April '08!

2008-03-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that my biography of the colonial NJ/NY printer, James Parker, is scheduled for release in April of 2008! I am also lining up promotional speaking engagements - keep an eye on the "Presentations" page of our website for dates. If you belong to a group that is interested in a presentation, please let me know. My contact info is on the homepage www.commonbondhistorians.com

Gordon

FOLK GRAVE MARKER SURVEY: Grave Marker Presentation a Success!

2006-12-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

On November 18, 2006, Stephanie and I participated as speakers at the first New Jersey Forum, held in Trenton by the New Jersey State Historical Commission. We spoke about our folk grave marker survey project and were well received.

The event itself was great! It was well-attended and it was very interesting to see the kinds of research others are doing, both in the professional and amateur realms. It was also great to meet so many people I knew from the NJ History Listserve as well!

People seemed very interested in what we are doing and offered support. I believe that the current plan is to hold this event every other year. It was a lot of fun and I really hope it continues. It certainly got off to a strong start!

- Gordon Bond

FOLK GRAVE MARKER SURVEY: Unique Double Marker Unearthed in Fords, NJ

2006-06-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

There are many folk markers along the fence-lines at Our Lady of Hungary Cemetery in Fords, NJ. Many in this particular section were laid down flat. Grass and dirt often encroaches over the edges and we have to pull it back with a trowel. In this case, however, we noted that the base tablet seemed off-center from the cross. It soon became apparent that we were dealing with a "double" marker! The whole other half was totally buried!

Using the trowel, brushes and standard archeology techniques (Stephanie is seen here taking a turn digging), we slowly unearthed the second half. It is possible that this was the first sunlight to shine on it in many years. Once free from the muddy soil, we carefully turned it over in the hopes of finding an inscription, but there was none. In the vast majority of cases, when we do any digging, we are careful to put things back to cause as little disturbance as possible. In this case, however, it seemed reburying the other half would have been more disrespectful. So we raised the marker back to its uprighted position.We have seen similar "double" markers among 18th c. brownstones, usually associated with multiple deaths of children, mother and child during childbirth, etc. Without an inscription, of course, we can't say with certainty, but we suspect this unique marker reflects a similarly sad story.

GETTING HIGH: Stephanie Working on The Plaza Hotel

2006-03-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

Since the wall project is almost over (have one moremidnight shift to do tonight) I thought that I would send you a picture of me up high instead of down low.This is me taking paint samples from the ceiling of the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. As you may know the Plaza was bought by someone new and they are converting the majority of the upper floors into"Luxury Condos," so we are working on the restoration of the public spaces.

Never has working on a project like this helped more to foster my ever growing dislike for the rich. The snooty Realtors (really just glorified sales people) often complain that it sounds like they are working ina construction site. I just want to tell them that with the wholesale demolition of the upper floors it may be because they are working in a construction site.

When Trump bought the building he did a complete renovation of the interior and as gaudy as it is, at least he did have the bucks to use real gold leaf and not fake gold paint. It will be a pleasure to watch them paint over it.

The wall was a fun project to work on and I got to collect several little mementos that the archaeologists did not want. I got a yellow dutch colonial brick to add to my brick collection and several pieces of pottery shards.

Stephanie

FOLK GRAVE MARKER SURVEY: Modern Things to Come!

2006-02-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

Whenever Stephanie and I go anywhere in NJ, if we have a chance, we stop off at any cemeteries along the way. We're looking to see which ones have folk grave markers, so we'll know which ones to return to later when we're ready to survey in that area.

Last weekend, we were in the Oranges and stopped by St. John's. As expected from a Catholic cemetery, we found several interesting markers. The main difference between those at St. John and those we've surveyed at St. James in Woodbridge has been the lack of Hungarian graves in the former. There were more Irish at St. John's. While the folk marker tradition seems to have been strong among the Hungarian community, that we still find them in a cemetery where they are less represented proves that the tradition is part of the overall Catholic burials.

What was particularly neat was that we found at least two very modern, 21st century examples! These were fine markers incorporating concrete and tile. One would appear to have been Hispanic. While we've seen some later 20th century examples, these are the most recent and show that to some degree anyway, the tradition is still alive today! It will be interesting when we start working in that part of the state!

Gordon

UNDERGROUND: Pottery Shards from the Battery Wall!

2006-02-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what people will throw away! While Stephanie was working on the Battery Wall (see previous posting!) she picked through the material that the archeologists were throwing away and found some really nice specimins of pottery shards. Gordon sent the above image to archeologist Dr. Rich Veit to see what we had. Here's what he had to say...

"The item in the upper left hand corner is redware and probably dates from the 18th century, though slip trailed redware was in use up until about 1850. I think this is an early piece. All the others, except the bottom right, appear to be buff bodied English earthenware C. 1670-1790. The fragment in the bottom right appears to be Pearlware (c. 1775-1840). Essentially it is a nice 18th-century collection."

Gordon

UNDERGROUND: Stephanie and The Battery Wall!

2006-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone

I just thought that I would send you this lovely picture of me pretending to dissassemble the battery wall that they found while they were digging the new subway tunnels at the foot of Manhattan. Based on the bricks that they found, the archaeoligists think that this wall dates back to the Dutch occupation of New Amsterdam in the late 1600s. Our job [Stephanie works for Jablonski Berkowitz Conservation in New York City] was to map the pieces of the wall, label them and then stand in the muck and mud while contractors cut the pieces out and then we would load them into crates. The goal is to rebuild the sections of fort wall that they found in a park above ground. The MTA blasted one of the walls and put a back hoe though the center of this wall, but there is one wall left to take out that is about 6' high. They are threatening to dynamite this wall but, but I don't think that will happen and I should be spending next week back in the"pit". The last wall even had wood logs embeded into it which will quickly deteriorate once they bring it above ground, but the archeaologists are going to do testing on it to date it definitivly.

The walls havegotten a lot of press in the NY Times here and it has mostly been about our office, which has some of the subway people mad, but that is what you get when you threaten to blow stuff up. By the way, I am not really as fat as I look in this photo. The tempurature that day was about 32 degrees and I had about five layers on. Which still did not keep me that warm. When I got home at night after taking off my scarf, outer jacket, outer sweater, lighter sweater and turtle neck, I still found dirt inside my bra. I don't know how it got there. One of the girls in the office even found dirt in her panties. Now that is something to question. I havebought a new Carhart jacket to help keep me warmer for the next go around.

Stephanie

FOLK GRAVE MARKER SURVEY: St. James Update

2006-01-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

Stephanie and I have had the opportunity to go through the St. James church cemetery records in Woodbridge. We had hoped to use them to identify who was buried under those folk grave markers we had surveyed that either had no inscription or were illegible. Unfortunately, the scheme of recording had changed enough times over the years under various administrators that this was virtually impossible.

Nevertheless, we were able to compare our field data with the records to show variations in the spelling of names, correct and add information that had been unclear or missing on the markers, etc.

To give some idea of what we’ve been up against, out of 253 folk markers, we only have enough information (names and dates of death) for 69 to seek death certificates! Amateur genealogist, Elizabeth O’Donnel has been hired to travel to the NJ State Archives in Trenton to search for and make copies of death certificates. She was only able to find certificates for about half of those we had enough information for.

We have a very small data sample despite the large number of markers. Our plan now is to create a presentation which we can give to the congregation at St. James about our project and what we’ve found. We hope that members who have information will come forward.

One striking feature of the St. James records was how they reflected the 1918 influenza pandemic. Around the end of August of 1918, what had been nice, neat, double-spaced entries became obviously hurried and crammed together. We had heard stories of people finding unidentified bodies at the sides of the road, but actually seeing entries reading “Hungarian Man” or “Polish Baby” really drove the reality of that home.

It has been suspected that there may very well have been mass-graves since the number of bodies coming in would have easily swamped the limited staff of grave-diggers. There is evidence that just such an expedient was used in neighboring Perth Amboys.
Obviously, one immediate question is how they knew to identify the individuals as being Hungarian or Polish or Italian? This is an area that could use more exploration!

Gordon

Welcome!

2005-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the new Common Bond Historians news blog!

We had been previously posting updates about our on-going history research projects on our website (www.commonbondhistorians.com), but have found the blog an easier method for sharing our doings with our friends. A link to this blog will be added to the website and we hope you'll check in from time to time to see what we've been up to!

As of January 1, 2006, all news updates will be posted here.

Contacting us is pretty easy, either via the info on the website or by posting comments here. We hope you'll find our work as interesting and enjoyable as we do!

And don't forget to check out !