A Whipple Vampire?

Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series has sparked considerable interest in vampires. (The interest promises to heighten further as Twilight the Movie appears in theaters on the 21st of this month.)

The History Channel recently aired a series on Vampires in America. The second episode of the series mentioned a Simon Whipple Aldrich, who was thought to have been a vampire:



Simon's headstone in Union Cemetery Annex, Great Road, North Smithfield, Rhode Island, bears this inscription:

In memory of
Simon Whipple,
Youngest son of
Col. Dexter Aldrich
& Margery his wife,
who died May 6,
1841,
aged 26 years.
Although consumption's vampire grasp
had seized thy mortal frame

FamilySearch lists a Simon W. Aldrich born 13 Apr 1814 in Smithfield, RI, the son of Dexter and Margery Aldrich. We probably ought to add Simon to the WhippleGenWeb?

By the way: I'm planning on going to see Twilight the Movie when it appears later this month. Are you? (No, it doesn't mention anyone named Whipple ...)

New Server for www.whipple.org

Today I moved the [www.]whipple.org web site (the main Whipple Website) to a different server. The space on the new server costs considerably less than it did on the former server. (The WhippleGenWeb--[www.]genweb.whipple.org--remains unchanged; it hasn't moved.)

There was a slight glitch for about 30 minutes. Fortunately a Whipple cousin noticed it almost immediately and notified the webmaster. (Thank you very much.) The short time between the time of the glitch and the receipt of the email witnesses that there really are people who follow the Whipple Website!

Thank you for your interest and contributions!

Weldon Whipple, Webmaster

Whipple's Penstemon

This is a photo of a Whipple's Penstemon that appeared on the front of a packet of seeds I purchased last year, hoping to grow some of these wild flowers.
Unfortunately, our attempts to grow them were unsuccessful. They are a native wildflower of the southwestern United States.

Although I'm not certain of the origin of their name, they are probably named after Major General Amiel Weeks Whipple. In 1853-54, Amiel led an expedition in search of a railroad route near the 35th parallel to the Pacific Ocean. (The 35th parallel passes through Albuquerque, NM and continues westward through Arizona to California.) The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often abbreviated to Sante Fe) appears to have later followed that approximate route across New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Another Episode in the Sad Saga of Diane Whipple

Seven years ago Diane Whipple, an athlete and LaCrosse player living in San Francisco, died when mauled by dogs owned by neighbors. On Monday (following a series of legal proceedings), the dogs' owner was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. 

Read more at Yahoo! News and in Wikepedia.

Diane was born 21 Jan 1968 in Princeton, NJ.  She died 26 Jan 2001 in San Francisco.

Approximate Dates in the WhippleGenWeb

I sometimes read email from Whipple relatives who might not realize the idiosyncrasies of how approximate dates appear in the WhippleGenWeb. I offer this post to (hopefully) clarify approximate dates that appear there.

"Abt"

Abbreviation for about. When "Abt" precedes a date, it generally means that the event likely occurred within a year or two of that date.

This is common when censuses give an age but no birth year--I just subtract the age from the census year and use "Abt [year]" as the birth date. When I find actual vital records, I generally update the dates to be more exact.

"Aft"

Abbreviation for after. It can sometimes mean "a long time after."

It probably appears most often when I don't know a death date, but found the individual listed in a census. I will often use "Aft [year]", where "[year]" is the year of the census that lists the individual.

To illustrate: I might find a person mentioned in a 1910 census, but don't have time to do additional research (at that moment). I might, then, record the death date as "Aft 1910" (even though the person might have actually lived until, for example, 1950 or 1960).

This also occurs when an obituary lists survivors: I will use the death date of the person who died (preceded by "Aft") for the survivors.

"Bef" and "Bet"

Abbreviations for "Before" and "Between". These (like "Aft") can be very inexact. (See above)

Summary

In just about every case, "Abt" dates are the closest to the actual date. Other dates can be far from the actual dates.

Whipple Research Society?

Nearly four years ago, I (the Webmaster of the Whipple Website) posted this on my own blog:

Since the Whipple Website came online in 1997, we have watched that site grow from a few pages to over 100,000 pages [currently over 125,000] , with individual pages (in the WhippleGenWeb) for over 95,000 [now 122,000+] Whipple relatives.

What is to become of the Whipple Website if the webmaster dies or becomes incapacitated? Will someone just pull the plug? ... or should we create a non-profit organization of some sort to ensure that the site continues in perpetuity? (If we do establish such a corporation, will it guarantee that the Whipple Website will continue?)

Several years ago someone created a 501(c)(3) corporation, hoping to provide some sort of ongoing existence for the web site, but the IRS denied tax-exempt status, so it was dissolved.

Should we try again? How about naming it the Whipple Research Society? Whipples can be a cantankerous lot. Do you think enough of us could get together to organize such a society? Is it worthwhile?

Well, last week Blaine Whipple (undoubtedly the most prolific writer of Whipple genealogies) found the above post. (See his web site at www.blainewhipple.com.) He responded with this comment:

If you are successful in organizing a Whipple Research Society, I would be happy to join and suggest the first project be a DNA study with the goal of determining if there is a relationship between Capt. John of Dorchester-Providence and the Ipswich brothers.

I responded by telling Blaine that I would post the original post on the Whipple Website's blog. What is your response? (Although I'm aware that DNA testing has become a hot topic in genealogical research, I'm not quite "up to speed" on it. The thought of using DNA to determine the common ancestry of the two main U.S. Whipple lines is intriguing.)

Mary Whipple Leads Women Rowers to Gold in Beijing

I watched it yesterday on TV and have received numerous phone calls and emails reporting the event, so we probably ought to mention it on the Whipple Website's blog.

U.S. Women's eight rowing team received a gold medal yesterday at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The team's coxswain was Mary Whipple of Orangevale, California.

28 years old, Mary is a graduate of Casa Roble High School.

Among her accomplishments:

• Gold medal, women's eight, 2007 FISA world championships
  
• Gold medal, women's eight, 2007 FISA World Cup
  
• Gold medal, women's eight, 2006 FISA world championships
  
• Silver medal, women's eight, 2006 FISA World Cup
• Gold medal, women's eight, 2006 Henley Royal Regatta Remenham Cup
• Bronze medal, women's eight, 2005 FISA World Cup
  
• Silver medal, women's eight, 2004 Athens Games
  
• First place, women's eight, 2002 NCAA championships

Congratulations, Mary!

See an article about the event on sacbee.com.

The Family Tree

I think that I shall never see
The finish of a family tree.

As it forever seems to grow
From roots that started long ago
Way back in ancient history times,
In foreign land and distant climes.

From them grew trunk and branching limb,
That dated back to time so dim
One seldom knows exactly when
The parents met and married then.

Nor when the twigs began to grow
With odd named children row on row
Though verse liked this is made by me,
The end's in sight as you can see.

'Tis not the same with family trees
that grow and grow through centuries.

(Author unknown)

From e-mail received from Blaine Whipple, July 16, 2008.
(By the way, Blaine is having a summer sale on his fascinating Whipple genealogies--published recently. Go to blainewhipple.com for more information!).