Did You Hear the One About...?

Do you have any ancestors that liked to tell a joke or two?

I've spent years researching my family tree. It has gradually grown to more than 1,700 people. People that I can describe with dates of birth, marriage, and death, graduations, and voyages across an ocean. But what can I say about the people themselves? In many cases, very little.

In an excellent blog post, Judith Batchelor describes possible ways to get an idea of what our ancestors actually looked like - even if there is no possibility of a photograph. I'm lucky enough to have a good collection of photos for some branches of my tree. And I can use some of the blog post's strategies for describing other ancestors. But what else can I do to get a better picture of my ancestors?

In addition to wondering what my ancestors looked like, I often try to piece together from the records what kind of person each family member might have been. A detailed will might tell me if a great-great-grandparent was particularly fond of one side of the family or another. Or a local newspaper may have recorded gossip that provides a little insight into the character of third Aunt So-and-So.

But that still sketches a fairly light outline of who the person was. Would I have gotten along well with this or that ancestor? Was she a passionate scholar or just an animal lover? Did he have a wild streak or a strong preference for quiet time at home? Who liked to tell jokes and who was a good listener?

I was hoping to find something a bit nutty in my family tree.

It has been very rare in my research to understand the personality of someone more than a couple generations back in my family tree. But recently I found two documents that offer a glimpse into the sense of humor of two of my direct ancestors.

But Who Was That Masked Man?

My great-great-great-grandfather was Marshall Spring Hagar. He was born in 1810 outside of Boston, but spent the second half of his life in Richmond, Maine. He is basically forgotten today, but in his prime he was a prominent business man on the Maine coast. He was a Harvard-educated lawyer who went on to finance the burgeoning shipbuilding industry of Richmond and was a trustee of the Kennebec and Portland Railroad. It has been difficult for me to imagine Marshall as anything other than a distinguished, educated businessman.

Looking back at long-dead ancestors, it is tempting to see them as adults in their prime or as matriarchs and patriarchs of their family. Each of them was also a crying baby, a laughing child, or an angst-filled adolescent at some point.

In his book, Iron Millionaire: Life of Charlemagne Tower, Hal Bridges records an encounter at Harvard University between Marshall and Charlemagne Tower. Charlemagne was a serious student who quickly became annoyed when anyone disrupted his studies. Harvard, like many universities today, harbored a culture that included the hazing of new students. Some of the older students annoyed Charlemagne by indecently chopping his name down to "Charle." Other freshmen were terrorized by fires secretly set in their chimneys.

Charlemagne Tower, presumably looking a bit older than when he was at Harvard.

Marshall was a couple years ahead of Charlemagne and stood out as one of the younger man's tormentors. Marshall's approach to hazing involved disguising himself in a mask and red cap and springing into an unsuspecting classmate's room. Charlemagne was so distressed by Marshall's prank, that he recorded it in his diary:

I felt cross. Told him to take off his mask. He would not. Then said I, "Have you anything particular with me, Hagar?" He said nothing. Asked him to take a seat. He would not; but left the room. Pretty soon he came back with his mask and cap in his hand. Laid them upon my table and staid about twenty minutes, until I said, "Any one who will not get his lessons has not much honour." "What," said he. "You don't mean to apply anything to me do you?" "No," said I, "I aim it at no particular one. Have you ever missed any lessons?" "Yes," said he, "I do sometimes," and he staid no longer.

This is an uncorroborated anecdote, but I still feel that I can glean some insights to Marshall's character. Even if Charlemagne was not completely unbiased, and was understandably annoyed by the practical joke, Marshall was certainly up to no good. This provides a helpful counterpoint to the stack of records that refer to Marshall as a mature and accomplished man of the world. Marshall could be an annoying rascal. Maybe he carried some piece of this playful sense of humor with him throughout his life.

Fishing for a Laugh

I also came across a newspaper article that provides a similar glimpse of the humor of Marshall's father, Uriah Hagar. Previously I had thought of Uriah much as I thought of his son: professional, sensible, maybe even cold. Uriah was a medical doctor in Waltham, Massachusetts, born more than two hundred years before me. It was difficult not to think of him as distant and aloof until I found the January 20th edition of the Waltham Sentinel on GenealogyBank.com.

The Waltham Sentinel is available on GenealogyBank.com.

Dr Uriah Hagar had been dead for almost twenty years when this edition was published so the faultiness of memory may be at play here. But the editors of the Sentinel must have been in a nostalgic mood because they devoted more than two columns of the first page to the leadership role of a doctor in a New England village, and more specifically to memories of Uriah.

The article includes a wonderful description of Uriah's physical appearance and character, "...his portly person, the blue coat and metallic buttons; the striped vest; the fresh, dark-complexioned, amiable face; the large expressive black eyes; the dark hair and whiskers; the quiet manner, and sly humor; the constant nods of good-humored, gentlemanly courtesy and recognition—common in those days but out of fashion now—which he cast right and left to acquaintance and stranger as he rode along the highways and byways."

Uriah's professional reputation and abilities are also described in great detail. "The town was not only much indebted to his judgment and skill as a physician and surgeon, but to his careful management of public matters intrusted to his charge."

"And he was not known to be guilty of any mysterious irregularities in practice, sometimes charged upon medical men." So that's a plus, too.

The article goes on to describe an anecdote that is intended to demonstrate Uriah's "self-possession and dry humor":

On one occasion, when in the boat with his friends, and engaged for pickerel with indifferent success, the doctor slipped and went overboard, deeply under water. He came up after a moment or two, however, quickly clambered into the boat, and without remark coolly resumed his rod and line, and, as luck would have it, immediately pulled in a pickerel of extraordinary size and weight. "There, gentlemen," coolly said the doctor, "it is plain that if you would catch a good pickerel you must first dive and see where he is!"

It is needless to say that the remark, and coolness of behavior on his part, caused a shout of laughter in that company, and the doctor's feat of diving to select a good pickerel was more than once referred to, and is still a common remark among the lovers of the sport in this vicinity.

I Learned It By Watching You, Dad

These insights into Marshall and Uriah's wit and humor deeply changes how I look at them and imagine their lives. It is much easier for me to find a connection with someone who played a practical joke than to someone who is only recorded as a set of dates and life events. Just one story like that can fill out an impression of my ancestor much more than a stack of birth and baptism records.

Before heading off to Harvard, Marshall grew up with the sly humor of his father, Uriah. Now I can picture a little bit more of that relationship. I can imagine Uriah playfully joking with Marshall and his brothers and sisters when they were small children. I can see Marshall developing his own sense of humor to match or compete with his father's wit.

You can find stories like these for your ancestors too. Sites like Ancestry, FamilySearch, and FindMyPast each have their own collections of newpaper articles. Chronicling America is a great free resource for newspaper articles as well. You should also try searching sites like Google Books, Google Scholar, and Hathi Trust. Keep looking - you never know where your ancestors will pop up!