Siege of Fredriksten

Plan of the Siege of Frederiksten, 1718. Holm, Edvard. Danmarks Riges Historie, vol. 5, 1907. Public domain. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

On 30 November 1718, Charles XII of Sweden's troops attempted a siege on the Norwegian fortress of Fredriksten in the city of Fredrikshald (now Halden, Østfold). This was the last invasion of Norway during the Great Northern War. Charles XII was killed by a projectile while he was inspecting his troops' lines.

I am not sure if any of my ancestors participated in the Great Northern War, but I could have had ancestors on both sides, since I am both Swedish and Norwegian.

References
Siege of Fredriksten

1783 Earthquake

The most powerful earthquake to strike New Jersey was the one that occurred at 9:00 PM on 29 November 1783. It measured 5.3 on the Richter scale, and VII on the Mercalli intensity scale. It was felt from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania.

In Philadelphia, it was reported that items were thrown off shelves and sleeping people were woken up.

Maryland Gazette, 11 Dec 1783, page 2

References
Damaging Earthquakes Felt in NJ
Historic Earthquakes: New Jersey 1783 11 30 03:50 UTC (Local 11/29)
"Philadelphia, December 2." Maryland Gazette, 11 December 1783, p. 2.
1783 New Jersey earthquake
Weather trivia: The day New Jersey shook like no other

Mary Winters

Mary Winters, the daughter of my 4th-great-grandparents Hugh Winters and Mary Bennet, was born 176 years ago today, on 27 November 1840. She was baptized on 13 December 1840 at St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland. The baptismal sponsors were John Finegan and Cath Boylan.

She arrived in New York, New York on 12 June 1849 on the Pursuit with her father and most of her siblings.

Passenger manifest, Pursuit, 12 June 1849. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C. Year: 1849; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 080; List Number: 706. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. 

Mary's mother and sister Margaret apparently traveled separately, but the whole family was together in Brooklyn, New York by 1850.

1850 United States census, Brooklyn Ward 10, Kings County, New York, population schedule, p. 131A. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

In 1855, Mary was a servant in the home of John and Mary Blair. Her mother had apparently died by this time.

New York State Census, 1855, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6W3-Z9M : 19 November 2014), Mary Winters in household of John Blair, E.D. 2, Ward 12, Brooklyn City, Kings, New York, United States; count clerk offices, New York; FHL microfilm 1,930,199.

Mary died on 12 September 1876 in Charity Hospital, Blackwell's Island, New York, New York. The causes of death were phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis) and alcoholism. Asthma was a contributing cause. She was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

New York, New York. Board of the Health Department. Death certificate no. 248060, Mary Winters, 1876.

Wordless Wednesday: Edward and Ellen (Dahlquist) Anderson, September 1950

Brooke Johns' Missouri Girls

My maternal grandfather's sister Florence Kathleen Boe was born 107 years ago today, on 22 November 1909. Florence was a dancer. She is pictured below (bottom right) as part of a group that danced in vaudeville performer Brooke Johns' stage shows.

St. Louis Star, 2 March 1928, page 11

Surname Saturday: Schunk

According to Dictionary of American Family Names, edited by Patrick Hanks (Oxford University Press, 2003), the surname Schunk comes from a South German nickname for someone with long legs (the Middle High German word for leg bone is schinke) or from a Slavic word meaning "piglet."

Absolute distribution

©Christoph Stöpel. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DE (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/de/deed.en). http://legacy.stoepel.net/de/MapGateway.aspx?name=Schunk&target=DE&renderer=EN_US&mode=abs

Relative distribution

©Christoph Stöpel. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DE (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/de/deed.en). http://legacy.stoepel.net/de/MapGateway.aspx?name=Schunk&target=DE&renderer=EN_US&mode=rel

My known Schunk ancestors are:

5th-great-grandmother: Agnes Schunk
born about 1744, Kendenich, Rhein-Erft, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
married Heinrich Erp
died 9 March 1819, Kendenich, Rhein-Erft, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

6th-great-grandfather: Peter Schunk

Uniform Time Zone Plan

Chicago Tribune, 18 November 1883, page 12

On 18 November 1883, five standard time zones were implemented across the United States and Canada. The General Time Convention had been held at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago, Illinois on 11 October 1883. At the convention, railroad executives decided to adopt the time zone system developed by William F. Allen.

The Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition. National Railway Publication Co., 1883. Available from Google Books.

Before the time zones were implemented, more than fifty different times had been used by the railroads.

Chicago Tribune, 18 November 1883, page 12

Although the railroads adopted the time zones, their use was not legally required in the United States until 1918, when the Standard Time Act was passed.  Calculations of differences in time were published, and train schedules sometimes included the difference between railroad time and local time.

Chicago Tribune, 18 November 1883, page 12

Montreal Daily Witness, 19 November 1883, page 6

Jewelers saw the time zone plan as a business opportunity, and offered to regulate watches so that they would conform to the standard time.

Daily American (Nashville, TN), 18 November 1883, page 2

Other businesses also mentioned the standard time in their advertisements.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19 November 1883, page 8