RootsWorks
Genealogy Music
by Beau Sharbrough
Music and genealogy are two subjects that you don't hear together very often. Surprisingly, music can help you in interviews with relatives. It can express your own feelings, and it can give you a perspective on your ancestors' lives that you'll never get from reading a roll of microfilm.
"There stands the glass." That's what my father remembered, just the one line. It was from a song he had heard when he was young. Ten years ago, before the World Wide Web, Google, and the Apple Music Store, that would likely have been the end of the discussion.
"Young" is a relative thing, but I wanted to know more about the songs he remembered. Today, it's a bit easier. Type the phrase into Google, and you'll know in no time that "There Stands the Glass" is the title and first line to a song recorded by Webb Pierce that was a hit in 1953. Type the title and artist name into a power search at the Apple Music Store, and you'll have a choice between paying 99 cents for the song, or $9.99 for the album, entitled, Twentieth Century Masters--The Millennium Collection: The Best of Webb Pierce.
If your experience is similar to mine, a few minutes after that you'll be a dollar lighter and immeasurably richer. Watch your father's face. Memories of the past literally pour into his head--in the form of airwaves striking his ears in microscopic patterns that his brain recognizes from many years before. This song was popular fifty years ago, and finding the song led him to recall several stories for which no other records existed. My father's parents and siblings are gone, and his living memory of his childhood is one of the few remaining sources of information about that time and place. (Your mileage may vary. You can substitute a mother, aunt, grandmother, or any person whose living memory can help you learn about the past.)
People remember music, and musical experiences, for a very long time. Playing songs that older relatives remember from their youth is a helpful way to jog their memories.
Music and genealogy go together another way. Some songs remind us of genealogy, families, or the past. They put us in the mood for family history. Some time ago, I started to collect a list of songs that people say remind them of genealogy. That list can be found on the RootsWorks Genealogy Music Page (www.rootsworks.com/genealogymusic.htm). The page is not updated very often, so if you send suggestions to me, be patient about seeing them on the site.
Finding Songs Your Father Heard
Some of you might not remember life before MTV. Others might not remember anything before FM radio. But you have to be very senior to remember life before radio. The first commercial radio stations were heard in 1920. Well before FDR's famous "Fireside Chats" were Woodrow Wilson's broadcasts. When the Great War ended in 1918, many Americans were probably familiar with George M Cohan's "Over There." Before the advent of television, families gathered around the radio, or lounged on the porch in the evening, and listened to big bands, bluegrass, and St. Louis Cardinals baseball.
If you find your family in the 1930 census, and if the census page indicates that they had a radio, it's easy to imagine them listening to Duke Ellington, Rudy Vallee, Al Jolson, and others. If you listen to Ruth Etting sing "Ten Cents a Dance" or Ben Selvin and His Orchestra play "Happy Days Are Here Again," you will probably be hearing the same sounds that your family heard, back in the year that the census enumerator came around. And yes, those songs are in the Apple Music Store.
(Note: You may prefer other free or pay music services. It is not my intent to send you to the Apple Music Store, especially if you are already fond of WalMart.com or Napster or some other Internet music service. The Apple Music Store is used in this article only as an example--a place where you are one dollar and two minutes away from hearing what you're looking for.)
There was popular music before radio--long before. Jenny Lind toured the United States in 1850-52. Known as "The Swedish Nightingale," she is still the best musical act that ever came from Sweden. If you thought it was Abba, subtract five points from your score. Queen Victoria of England wrote wondrously of Ms. Lind's singing voice in her journal. Lind's American tour opened in New York City on 11 September 1850. Most girls tried to sing like her, and they learned "Jenny Lind Polkas" and "Jenny Lind Waltz Quadrilles," which is a fancy name for square dances. You can find names, and sheet music, for many songs that Jenny Lind made famous. For those who thought she was famous for making a kind of bed (and you know who you are), subtract five points from your score.
Lind's tour was promoted by P.T. Barnum, of circus fame. The girl was the first rock star. People named everything after her--trains, ships, gold rush towns, and even beds similar to the type she supposedly slept in. To this day, beds with turned posts, or spindles, are often called "Jenny Lind Beds."
Music reflects popular culture, and learning more about the music that your ancestors listened to will help you understand more about their times--and have fun in the process. Here are a couple of links that will help you find names of songs that were popular in the past.
Pop Culture Madness
Includes lists of popular songs by year back to about 1890.
The Library of Congress
Lists of sheet music by period in the nineteenth century.
More Information
If you want to discuss genealogy music issues, please drop by the RootsWorks Forums (http://www.rootsworks.com/forums). Registration is free, and I'd be interested to know what you think.
Beau Sharbrough is a product manager at Ancestry.com. His articles contain his own views and opinions and do not reflect any corporate policy or statement by the company. He lives in Provo, Utah, where he learning to shovel snow. The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for generic technologies. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer and genealogy problems. Visit the RootsWorks website (http://www.rootsworks.com) for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule. Next stop: Phoenix, 21 January 2005.
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