Origin Stories

It's some sort of sign of old age that I've suddenly become interested in genealogy.

(In my defense, it's grown out of the recent upsurge of my interest in local history, which has grown out of parenthood.)

I've been dragging my kids around to Revolutionary War reenactments, and I went to the William Johnson seminar last fall in Johnstown.

About 15 years ago we buried my mother's brother in the Catholic cemetery directly behind Fort Johnson; as his cortege passed the Fort, I recall thinking, "Hmmm, sometime I should learn more about Wm. J." So I did.

And that led me to the American Revolution here in the Mohawk Valley. Which led me to the Herkimer House, and to the Battle of Oriskany. Which led me to this book:

(insert cover photo of "Forgotten Allies")


about the Oneida Indians in the Revolution: the Oneidas broke the Six Nations Confederacy to stand by their Patriot neighbors against the British - and against the Indians allied with the British, including their own Mohawk brethren.

Now, the Oneidas are still right there at the west end of the Valley; and they've been pressing their land claims to that part of the world - which (theoretically, at least)
would include my sister's house, a few miles east of the Oriskany battlefield.

So I got to thinking about MY house, here on Mohawk land, and started looking into the solidity of my own deed. And wondering about the days when the Dutch wrangled my lot from the original owners, and wondering about the first contact between the natives and the Europeans. So I read some books on the Dutch settlement of the neighborhood, and some books on the Iroquois.

Now, my aunts had always claimed that their mother's line entitled them to DAR-status.
And it turns out that not only were they correct - we do go back before 1783, and at least seven of my ancestors served on the Patriots' side. But, more interestingly, my grandmother's people go back to the original Dutch settlers, before the English.

One remarkable aspect of this part of the world - which I suppose is little different from any other part of the world - is that you read the names on the map, you read the histories of the earliest settlement - and those same names used to sit next to me in school. I lived across the street from the DeGrafs, we lived around the corner from the Fondas. I went to Bradt School, for goodness sake, where I was taught by Mrs. Viele. In high school I dated a girl who lived next door to the Mabee farm. And there were still Mabees living there at the time, just like there had been since the 1680s, when it marked the frontier of European expansion. And those Old Local Names that I went to school with? Now it turns out that I'm probably connected to half of them. Being Americans , and so many of us recent immigrants, we never talked much about this back then. (Everyone being blue collar - with no particular desire to put on airs - probably had something to do with it, too.)

All of which is neither unusual or nor especially interesting - but it was startlingly new to me.

It's turtles all the way down

There really is no bottom to this 'history' stuff.

Everybody knows that Bristol fishermen had discovered the cod of the Grand Bank well before Columbus "discovered" the New World - they were drying their catch ashore here for hundreds of years before European settlement.

In 1609, Henry Hudson wasn't even the first European to sail up his eponymous river; but, starting then, the Dutch returned every summer to trade for furs. After a few years, they set up a permanent trading post (1614) on Albany's "Castle Island".

And why was it called "Castle Island"?

Because "Castle Island" was the home of the extensive ruins of the French fort of 15-fucking-40.

(Which doesn't seem to have been built by Monsieur Cartier, who was poking around the St. Lawrence around then, but I can't seem to find any name at all attached to this expedition.)

(And just why were the Albany natives so happy to see the Dutch show up, and just why were they so eager to trade with them? Because the French had helped the Hurons rout the Albany locals (up on Lake Champlain) the previous summer,
about three months before Hudson showed up in the fall. They wanted guns.)

For all the Big Deal that Albany makes of the year "1609", you might think that somebody would have at least mentioned "1540".

Pretty soon I'll find out that Leif Eriksson actually built an early canal around the Cohoes Falls.

Like a science fiction convention, but with less cosplay

(Well, with slightly less cosplay....)

I spent the weekend at an academic conference - a local history seminar funded by several agencies of NYS government, so it had both the resources to bring in some really big names in the field, AND the mandate to open attendence up to the general public. Which meant that the entire audience was self-selected to be people fascinated by the topic. There actually was a bit of cosplay, which highlighted the fact that the crowd was largely made up of types familar from SF fandom.

The audience all wanted to be there and all had some personal expertise and interest in the subject - so the difference from, say, "lectures aimed at sullen undergraduates" was remarkable. The questions were generally informed and intelligent (and only occasionally did they veer off toward the questioner's own particular "King Charles' Head" hobby horse).

On the other hand, 'lectures' really are a remarkably time-inefficient method of transmitting information: please give me the equivalent stack of articles, and please give me 90% of my time back. But sometimes interesting things really do happen in the personal exchange of ideas that can happen only at a conference. It killed the entire weekend, but I can't say that it was a waste of time.

Fandom

I grew up in a blue-collar suburb. I knew other kids who read (not all of them the college-tracked kids...), but I didn't know anybody as deep into SF as I was.
And at Big Nerd College ("A Technological University"), lots of guys read the stuff... but nobody seemed to have time to do much about it.

I first heard of fandom because Asimov mentioned it all the time.
(My Asimov stories:
1. A summer in the late 70s, M & I are out for a drive, we wind up at the Rensselaerville Institute. And there he was, strolling across the grounds with a young woman on his arm.
2. Saw him again at one of the "New York is Book Country" fests in the '80s.
3. I sent him a postcard once; in his F&SF column, he had asked for info on a poem; using M's Granger's Index to Poetry, I was able to tell him.)

I saw Harlan speak at my college in the fall of 1974, and he positively excoriated fans and fandom. I never found fandom until well after college, and never really got involved until after I was a grown-up.

Back in the '80s, Latham-Albany-Schenectady-Troy fandom (Byron & Tina Connell, wombat, etc.) put on 4 cons: 1981, '82, '85, '86

My first look at the Con scene:
Fall of 1982, LastCon Too: Aaron and I got press credentials and looked in.
I interviewed Wilson Tucker, we went to see the masquerade.
Fulfilling several fandom cliches, I was gratuitously insulted by a teenager who was dressed in a Robin Hood get-up. I was 27.

Years later I discovered that one of my my college pals was involved in the revived local fandom, and with Albacon. I've been to seven of them to date, starting with the first:

1996 I was 41 yrs old. This one was on Wash Ave. Nancy Kress, Sheffield
1997 Oct 17-19 Ramada Sch'dy Melissa Scott (Paul Edward Zimmer dies)
1998 Oct 9-11 Ramada Friesner

2000 Oct 6-8 Ramada Glen Cook
2001 Oct 5-7 Ramada Larry Niven; Bonnie & Ted Atwood
2002 Oct 4-6 Ramada Mike Resnick
2003 Oct 11 Bujold I brought Alice (at 11) to Lake George
I'm pretty sure I missed 2005 (Terry Brooks),
I'm certain that I missed 2004 and 2006)

Out-of-town Cons:

Readercon 15 July 2003 I was 47 for my first out-of-town con
A day trip/one-day membership to meet Howard Waldrop, Rucker, etc.
Noreascon 4, Sept 2004 I was 48. My first WorldCon.
Terry Pratchett I brought Alice (12) along
Boskone 43, Feb 2006 Ken MacLeod. Mary was 9.
I brought all the girls. Mary's 1st con, M's 1st.
Readercon 18 July 2007: which will be my 12th con;
M & M's 2nd; Alice's fourth