What the Census Knows, 1900-1940

The information on the census reports for 1900 to 1940 can give you information to better flesh out the lives of your most recent dead. This is a breakdown of each census report, and what the columns tell you, left to right. It’s an interesting read on its own, without ancestral context, simply to see what questions were thought to gather important information as the country developed.

The 1940 Census was released last year. Within months, volunteers had all of the information transcribed onto the internet so that people could search the census files by ancestor name; in the beginning it could only be searched by address. I spent weeks reading every census report for my hometown, looking for the names of my relatives, searching their last known addresses. It was how I discovered that my Great-Grandparents Riddle had left Lockport. Both of their previously known addresses were properties being rented to other families.

When I inquired with my family about where they might have been, I was told that they had owned a general store in Franklinville, NY for a while, while my Poppa commuted back and forth from the Harrison Radiator Factory in Lockport. And that they had a small farm in Somerset, NY just before that. The family story goes that they were having financial difficulties due to a delinquent son (who later went to prison for bank robbery in San Luis Obispo, California), which forced them to move. I found them on their farm in Somerset.

When I discovered their 1940 census from Somerset, I was suddenly reminded of a conversation my Grandpa and I had one night. His job had brought him down to the SUNY school where I attended college and we went out to dinner, which would have been when he lived in Franklinville. I was talking about high school as if he had attended the same one I did in his youth and he told me how he had gone to high school in another town, because they had moved for a while. That evening of conversation came flooding back to me, the snippets of his life he had shared. Knowledge is wonderful, and the census information is amazing; slivers of time like samplings of the past. But the memories that surface in the hunt for the past are the true treasured gifts for the living.

1900:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         sex

·         date of birth with month and year; age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced; number of years married

·         number of children born to mother; number of children still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         year of immigration to the US; number of years in the US; date of naturalization

·         profession, occupation or trade of each person, male or female over 10 years; number of months person has been unemployed

·         whether attended school within the census year

·         whether can read; whether can write; whether can speak English

·         home owned or rented; whether owned free of mortgage

·         living farm or house; number of farm schedule

1910:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced; number of years or present marriage

·         number of children born to mother; number of children still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         year of immigration to the US; whether naturalized or alien

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; whether an employer, employee, or working on own account; whether worked April 15, 1910; number of weeks unemployed

·         able to read; able to write

·         attended school anytime after September 1909

·         owned or rented home; owned free of mortgage

·         farm or house; number of farm schedule

·         whether a survivor of the union or confederate army or navy

·         whether blind; whether deaf and dumb

1920:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         owned or rented home; owned free of mortgage

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         whether single, married, widowed or divorced

·         year of immigration to the US; whether naturalized or alien; year of naturalization

·         attended school

·         able to read; able to write

·         place of birth; mother tongue; place of father’s birth; father’s mother tongue; place of mother’s birth; mother’s mother tongue

·         whether able to speak English

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; whether an employer, employee, or working on own account

·         number of farm schedule

1930:

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         owned or rented home; value of home owned or cost of monthly rent

·         whether or not the family owned a radio set

·         does this family live on a farm

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         marital condition; age at first marriage

·         attended school; able to read and write

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         language spoken before coming to the US

·         year of immigration to the US; year of naturalization

·         whether able to speak English

·         trade or profession of each person; general nature of industry or business; class of worker; whether actually at work on regular working days; if not, number of unemployment schedule

·         whether a veteran of US military; what war

·         number of farm schedule

1940:

·         name of street; house number

·         number of household in order of visitation

·         home owned or rented; value of home or monthly rent

·         does this household live on a farm

·         name of each person whose place of abode was the family

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         sex

·         color or race

·         age at last birthday

·         marital condition

·         attended school or college; highest grade of school completed

·         place of birth; citizenship of those foreign born

·         in what place did the person live April 1, 1935

·         whether at work in private or non-emergency government work March 24-30; whether at work or assigned to public emergency work the week of March 24-30; if not, whether they were seeking work; if not, whether they had some other job; number of  hours worked in week of March 24-30; duration of unemployment

·         occupation and trade; industry of employment; class of worker; number of weeks worked in 1939

·         wage and salary income received from the last year; did person receive income from sources other than wages

·         number of farm schedule

The census reports for 1940 were released in 1912 and it will be another 10 years before the 1950 census is released, in 2022. In order to protect the privacy of the people listed, they are only released to the public after 72 years.

What the Census Knows, 1850-1890

Albert & Rosella (LaValley) Durant, my 3x Great-Grandparents.

The information on the census reports for 1850 to 1890 can give you information to better flesh out the lives of your ancestors. After trolling through them for months, the information will become more clear, but even still, not all the handwriting is legible enough to discern what questions are being answered. This week I will be sharing a breakdown of each census report, and what the columns tell you, left to right. There may be some slight variations.

The US Census is an interesting read on its own, without ancestral context, simply to see what questions were thought to gather important information as the country grew and developed. On the personal side, these set of reports include job information and locations of birth, as well as clues to infirmities and education levels.

1850& 1860:

·         dwelling houses numbered in the order of visitation; families numbered in the order of visitation

·         the name of every person whose usual place of abode was within the family

·         age

·         sex

·         color (white, black or mulatto)

·         profession occupation or trade of males over 15

·         value of real estate owned; value of personal estate owned (1860 only)

·         place of birth

·         whether married within the year

·         whether attended school within the year

·         persons over 20 years who cannot read or write

·         whether deaf, dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict

1870:

·         dwelling houses numbered in the order of visitation; families numbered in the order of visitation

·         the name of every person whose usual place of abode was within the family

·         age at last birthday

·         sex

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         profession occupation or trade of each person, male or female

·         value of real estate owned; value of personal estate owned

·         place of birth; whether father and mother were of foreign birth

·         if born within the year, list month

·         if married within the year, list month

·         whether attended school within the year

·         whether cannot read; whether cannot write

·         whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic

·         male citizens of the US over 21 years

·         male citizens older than 21 whose right to vote is denied or abridged on grounds other than religion or other crime

1880: (the first time women were allowed to be enumerators)

·         name of street; house number

·         dwelling houses numbered in order of visitation; families numbered in order of visitation

·         name of each person whose place of abode was with the family

·         color (white, black, mulatto, Chinese, or Indian)

·         sex

·         age at last birthday; if born within the census year, list month

·         relationship of each person to the head of the family

·         whether single; whether married; whether widowed or divorced

·         profession, occupation or trade of each person, male or female; number of months person has been unemployed; whether person is sick or temporarily disabled and unable to work, list sickness

·         whether blind; deaf or dumb; idiotic; insane; maimed, crippled, or bedridden

·         whether attended school within the census year

·         whether cannot read; whether cannot write

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

1890: Only 6,160 census reports out of 62,979,766 survived a great fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC. It occurred January 10, 1921. For 1890 only, each family was enumerated on a separate sheet of paper. 

·         full Christian name with middle initial; surname

·         whether a soldier, sailor, or marine in the civil war, or a widow of one

·         relationship to head of family

·         race (white, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, Chinese, Japanese, Indian)

·         sex

·         age

·         whether single, married, divorced or widowed; whether married during the census year

·         mother of how many children and how many of these still living

·         place of birth; place of father’s birth; place of mother’s birth

·         number of years in the US; whether naturalized; whether naturalization papers have been taken out

·         profession, trade or occupation; number of months unemployed

·         attendance at school

·         able to read; able to write

·         able to speak English, or language spoken

·         whether suffering from acute or chronic disease, list disease

·         whether defective in mind, sight, hearing or speech, whether crippled, maimed or deformed

·         whether a prisoner, convict, homeless child or pauper

·         home rented or owned and if owned; whether free from mortgage or not

After I had accumulated enough Census reports, I noticed that I didn't have a single one from 1890 and went on the search to find out why. The only surviving fragments are from Alabama (1 county), District of Columbia (10 streets), Georgia (1 county), Illinois (1 county, 1 township), Minnesota (1 county, 1 township), New Jersey (1 county, 1 city), New York (2 counties, 2 towns), North Carolina (2 counties, 2 towns), Ohio (2 counties, 1 town), South Dakota (1 county, 1 town), and Texas (5 counties, 10 precincts).

Coming next week, What the Census Knows, 1900-1940. See last week’s post for the census reports from 1790-1840.

What the Census Knows, 1790-1840

B.H. Whitcher, retired shoemaker, and my 3x Great-Grandfather.

If you know what the United States Census reports are trying to tell you, you can glean information in your journey towards fleshing out a fuller picture of your ancestors. After trolling through them for months, the information will become more clear, but even still, not all the handwriting is legible enough to discern what questions are being answered. For the next few weeks I will be sharing a breakdown of each census report, and what the columns tell you, left to right.

The first census report was taken in 1790, fourteen years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when only men were allowed to be enumerators. It lists a total US population of 3,929,214. It’s an interesting read on its own, without ancestral context, simply to see what questions were thought to gather important information as the country grew and developed.

1790:

·         name of head of family

·         free white males 16 years and older; under 16

·         free white females, including head of families

·         all other free persons

·         slaves

1800 & 1810:

·         number of family in order of visitation

·         name of head of family

·         number of free white males under 10 years; of 10 years and under 16; of 16 years and under 26; of 26 and under 45; over 45 years

·         number of free white females, under 10 years; of 10 years and under 16; of 16 years and under 26; of 26 and under 45; over 45 years

·         number of all other free persons

·         number of slaves

1820:

·         name of the head of family

·         number of free white males under 10 years; of 10 and under 16; of 16 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; over 45 years old

·         number of free white females under 10 years; of 10 and under 16; of 16 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; over 45 years old

·         number of foreigners not naturalized

·         number of persons engaged in agriculture; persons engaged in commerce; persons engaged in manufacture

·         number of male slaves under 14; of 14 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; of 45 and older

·         number of female slaves under 14; of 14 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; of 45 and older

·         number of free male colored persons under 14; of 14 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; of 45 and older

·         number of free female colored persons under 14; of 14 and under 26; of 26 and under 45; of 45 and older

·         all other persons except Indians not taxed

1830:

·         name of the head of family

·         number of free white males under 5 years; of 5 and under 10; of 10 and under 15; of 15 and under 20 years; of 20 and under 30; of 30 and under 40; of 40 and under 50; of 50 and under 60; of 60 and under 70; of 70 and under 80; of 80 and under 90; of 90 and under 100; 100 years and older

·         number of free white females under 5 years; of 5 and under 10; of 10 and under 15; of 15 and under 20 years; of 20 and under 30; of 30 and under 40; of 40 and under 50; of 50 and under 60; of 60 and under 70; of 70 and under 80; of 80 and under 90; of 90 and under 100; 100 years and older

·         number of male slaves under 10; of 10 and under 24; of 24 and under 36; of 36 and under 56; of 56 and under 100; of 100 years and older

·         number of female slaves under 10; of 10 and under 24; of 24 and under 36; of 36 and under 56; of 56 and under 100; of 100 years and older

·         number of free colored males under 10; of 10 and under 24; of 24 and under 36; of 36 and under 56; of 56 and under 100; of 100 years and older

·         number of free colored females under 10; of 10 and under 24; of 24 and under 36; of 36 and under 56; of 56 and under 100; of 100 years and older

·         number of deaf and dumb persons under 14; of 14 and under 24; of 25 and older; number of blind persons

·         number of foreigners not naturalized

1840, same as 1830, including:

·         number of insane and idiotic persons in public or private charge

·         number of persons employed in seven classes of occupation

·         number of persons in school; number of scholars

·         number of white persons over 20 who cannot read and write

·         number of pensioners for Revolutionary or military service

You can’t tell a whole lot of detail from the information in these early census reports, except for where your ancestors were located and how big their families were. However, when we were trying to locate the parents of my ancestor Cynthia Lusk, we used information from her brother George’s life to make clues as to where they lived. We found only one Lusk in the area, and the number of children he had, male and female, would fit the siblings we knew of for Cynthia and George, and other Lusks who lived in that town in the coming generation of heads of house. A possible lead is better than no lead at all, and we took it. We were lucky to discover later that our leap was correct.

Coming next week, What the Census Knows, 1850-1890.

Our Living Ancestor, the Earth

We live in a world we want to believe will never fall. We want to imagine that our society will grow and rise in prosperity and technology like every good science-fiction novel or film would have us see in our future. At best, we see a future like Gene Roddenberry created in his Star Trek universe, where no one wants for any of the basic needs. That is a beautiful world he created. Unfortunately, I see it more like E.M. Forster wrote in his 1909 short story, “The Machine Stops,” where everyone is living underground in automated bunkers, reliant upon their technology for everything, and the chaos that ensues when it dies. Just imagine what would happen if every internet browser crashed for one hour- chaos! We hide the true intention of these cautionary tales behind the moniker of science fiction. We live in a world we want to believe will never fall, but our own history tells us a different story.

Our planet’s surface is littered with the ruins of civilizations, big and small, that rose and fell into legend through acts of nature, lack of resources, and warfare; civilizations like the Sumerians, Minoans, Ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Toltecs, Aztecs, Mauryans, Incans, and the Rapanui. Could any of them have foreseen their own eventual demise? I wonder this as prices for natural resources skyrocket and scientists stop debating the reality of global warming and start talking about the eventual end of the Midwest Aquifer. I’m not trying to be a downer but I try to look at the world with my eyes open. As we spill out into the future, it’s important that we remember the ones who will come after us. We have to be aware that we are not more important or entitled to life than any other man, than any other animal. We all share this world together. As a species with higher brain function, we cannot afford to be selfish creatures.

Western Civilization once referred to the African peoples living in tribal villages as savages and primitives, thinking of them as little more than animals, judging them on the way they lived. After all, who would choose to live that simply if they could evolve and become more civilized? It’s what those who traveled to the New World thought of the Native peoples. Except when I think of how long any of those indigenous populations existed in their way, on their lands, adapting their lives to the available resources and living gently, it gives me pause. My own city is littered with empty and decaying industrial buildings, giant monstrosities paved over the earth, over sacred land, for all that is green and brown and wild is sacred to me. There are days when I desperately despise concrete more than I am grateful for the ease of travel because of it.

How long did the Native people of America live softly upon the earth? And how quickly did colonists ravage it of resources? According to their own Edward Winslow, it only took one year for them to make a visible and landscape altering change. And my ancestors were among that group, and more among the ones to come soon after. We came here, from an industrious world, with industry in mind, not simple living.

Philosopher and writer Derrick Jensen lives on Tolowa land, a Native people who originated in what we know as northwestern California and southern Oregon. He says that before conquest, they lived there for 12,500 years, without materially damaging the land. He argues, for sustainability sake, that while they were able to take trees from the rainforest for their homes during the course of that time without damaging the environment, that is no reason to believe that any forest can survive industrial forestry, because that becomes, by its nature, deforestation. What damage have we already wrought seeking resources for profit rather than need? Jensen talks about the Summitville Mine in Colorado, two square miles of toxic land in the mountains, in his article “What We Leave Behind” written with Aric McBay in 2009. He says “the total value of gold and silver taken from this mine is less than half of what the cleanup has cost so far.”

That has to mean something now. Our resources are finite. They will have an end and we know that. We have to know that. Taking resources from elsewhere isn’t the answer. We are not schoolyard children. Just because someone else has something we want doesn’t mean we can take it. Jensen says, “Any solution that springs from the (most often entirely unconscious) belief that the culture is more important than the world (or that the culture is real and the real world exists only as a backdrop and a source of raw materials) will not solve the problem.” Living more simply and walking softly is the answer, but it’s not enough if just a few of us do it. As a culture, we have to move away from industry. Can we, or is it already too late? I mean, we can do it. But will we?

And still, we do what we can to live more simply, because it’s something we can and should learn to do. Years ago, we turned to seriously look at the waste our house was producing. We switched from putting out one large garbage bag a week, to one smaller bag every two to three weeks. It makes us feel better, but it’s still not enough. That my family is living simpler is not enough. It helps us maintain our empathy for all living beings but having empathy for dying breeds, starving and enslaved people, and toxic landscapes will not make a global difference. I can no longer fool myself that it’s enough that I feel for the world. We need to stop industrial progression that surpasses our ability to dispose of the waste it produces.

When I think about industry, I think about the landfills, and about how much our country manufactures that we hope people will buy. We make products that are not meant to last for more than a few years, specifically because it is more cost effective to make a cheaper product in a country with less stringent labor laws and environmental laws, all in the hopes that we will feel the need to buy another product when it must be replaced. Or that we will buy a better one. How can we be so selfish? How can we, as consumers, allow industry to decide how we should live and what we should buy, what we should want to buy?

My resolution for this new year is to look more deeply at our waste culture. How can we recycle more than we have without needing to create more industrial waste in order to do so? How can we step away from our dependency on plastic everything? Every time we travel on the road and I see plastic bags stuck up in the winter trees, I say that if I could have one wish, it would be that every piece of plastic stuck and tangled in nature would, poof, become grass seed. That every bottle cap and soda can ring snagged in the mouth or belly of a turtle or bird would, poof, disappear, so that no more animals die from our careless lack of disposal of our waste.

How can we move away from a disposable Dollar Store culture and salvage this world for our children and their descendants? I do not have children, but I consider all of yours my responsibility. I am not more important than any of them. My immediate gratifications and comforts are not more important than their future. This society of make more, buy more, spend more, is not a cooperative one, it’s a competitive one.

I think about our ancestors, and how they had hope for progress and growth and were unaware of the potential dangers that would appear down the line. In a world as vast as the new world they could not envision a depletion of its resources, but they were wrong. I want to leave a better world for those still to come. I don’t have any answers, but for this new year, I am choosing to see the world with my eyes wide open, with my heart wide open. I would rather know the truth rather than be sheltered from it.

The earth is not a backdrop we live upon, it is the life source we were birthed from. It is our first great ancestor, and it is still alive beneath us. We have the chance every day, with every breath, with every action, with every dollar, to show our gratitude for the life and sustenance it gives us. We have a living opportunity to honor it. Derrick Jensen asks his reader, when we talk about living in the real world, what do we mean? “...are you talking about wage slave capitalism, or are you talking about a living breathing world of trees and rivers and lakes and deserts and forests and mountains and seas?”

To end, I offer you a moment of inspiration to brighten this week's theme, because there is always hope. Click on the link and the watch the video listed on the page, a gift for you, of people making the most beautiful music out of garbage- enjoy!

The Graceful Birch

This time last year, a small accident derailed my day-to-day routine. Sometimes, we’re thick, and we don’t/can’t see the full path we’re heading on for what it really is. Sometimes, the universe has to kick us in the face before we can see it and alter our course. Growth, transformation, and evolution are at the heart of my spiritual practice, and I comforted myself with the knowledge that growth comes, even after a painful transition, if we can stay open to accepting it.

I spent the day after the accident going through old family mementos with my dad. In the box, among the cache of old camping photos, taken by my Great-Grandma Minnie, we found a piece of white birch bark, a lone keepsake among photos, pamphlets, brochures, recipes and news articles.

That find meant a great deal to me. Birch is my favorite tree. In my parent’s kitchen, I held a piece of the past, a pale piece of birch placed among collected bits, treasured enough to keep forever. Did my Great-Grandma Minnie pick it up? Was it a gift to her from one of her children on a family adventure? Was it something she loved instinctively, too?

That bark now sits among my treasures. Birch is a tree that we have attributed symbols of growth to over history. The Norse rune Beorc, named for the tree, means growth, and is one of my personal talismans. I have been meditating this last year on birch, pushing forward for my own healing and renewal, moving towards wellness.

Against the dark grey of seasonal winter, the white birch stands out in the forest like bones jutting from the earth. As they age, their bark splits and peels and curls away in beautiful rippling edges. If you have never seen an elderly birch tree, you haven’t experienced the full truth of their wisdom; that what is no longer needed gets sloughed away. I have seen birch trees bowed down by ice after storms. They bend but they bend under great weight. They bend but they do not break. Many old folktales say the birch was cut by an angry old man because it refused his command to break and fall.

I have leaned against a young sapling, and rested my weight against it. After a time, I could feel the slightest shudder of vibration, as if the tree beneath me were breathing. And I knew that ripple was the wind swaying the tree top, resonating down the trunk and against my chest. The tree folk have a rhythm of breath all their own and a stillness that I try to carry with me.

Peace, gratitude, growth, adaptation, evolution… these are the qualities I learn from the birch tree, a deciduous member of the Betulaceae family, native to temperate and boreal climates in the Northern Hemisphere. As one of the first trees to seed and spread after the receding ice glaciers, botanists refer to it as a pioneer species. It is often one of the first trees to seed and grow after disastrous fires, creating essentially pure stands of birch. After a generation, they are usually replaced by more shade-tolerant conifers or stronger hardwoods, and when they die, their bodies and fallen leaves will further nourish the recovering soil. There are so many birches in Umea, Sweden that it is called “The City of the Birches.” A devastating fire swept the city in June of 1888, and left 2,300 of the 3,000 inhabitants homeless. When the city was rebuilt, the buildings were placed further apart and silver birches were planted widely between buildings, so they might halt the spread of fire in the future.

There are sixty species of birch and they can grow up to 80 feet tall. Properly cultivated, they can live up to 140 years, though silver birches in the wild rarely live past 80 years. Currently, the oldest birch tree in the world is 101 years old in Wageningen, Netherlands. Each birch tree is male and female, carrying both the slender, male, drooping catkins, and the short, conical, wooly clusters of female flowers.

Birch bark is marked with long horizontal lenticels, making it quite distinctive and easily identified. The lightweight, chalky white outer bark is easily separated into thin strips. The bark is strong and flexible, as well as water-resistant, and can be bent, cut, and sewn, like cardboard. Full of resinous oil, birch bark is slow to decay, lending to it an air of indestructibility. Removing bark from a living tree leaves a permanent black band on the trunk, which will not harm the tree as long as this band is undamaged. Still, bark should always be removed from fallen trees first.

Birch bark was used as material for canoes, wigwams and other shelters, scrolls and writing paper, instruments, boxes and baskets, and even shoes and clothing by the indigenous peoples of North America, Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia. The water-resistant properties of it made it a valuable material in roofing. It is a good source of firewood, for whether it is frozen or freshly cut, it burns without spitting or popping. It even burns well when wet, because of the kind of and amount of oil it contains. In March, cuts can be made to the birch tree, from which thin sugary sap is collected, half as sweet as maple syrup. Moderate tapping will not harm the tree. Birch wine and other cordials are made from this syrup.

FOLKLORE

The word birch is said to derive from the Sanskrit word bhurga, meaning “tree whose bark is used to write upon.” It is also said to come from the Germanic birka with the Proto-Indo-European root bhereg, meaning “white, bright; to shine.” Where these language roads may overlap, I cannot say. The Germanic rune berkanan, or beorc, is named for the birch tree, which is known by many folk-names: Beithe, Bereza, Berke, Beth, and Bouleau. The tree has a prominent position in the history of Anglo-Saxon place names, like Birkenhead, Birkhall, and Berkhamstead, showing most commonly in Northern England and Scotland. The Gaelic word for birch, beithe, pronounced “bey”, is seen in Highland place names like Glen an Beithe in Argyll, Beith in Sutherland, and Loch a Bhealaich Bheithe in Inverness-shire.

            The birch is one of the earliest trees to bloom in the spring and as such, it embodies the energies of growth in general, but especially regrowth after destruction. To the Celtic people, birch represented inception and new beginnings. Twigs were used in May, at Beltane celebrations, to light bonfires marking the beginning of the new season. In October, at the festivals of Samhain, bundles of twigs were used to drive out the spirits of the old year. At Winter Solstice in December, birch brooms were used to sweep the house the morning after the longest night of the year, clearing the way for renewal. Birch was often used as a Yule log.

            Beltane bonfires in Scotland were made of a combination of birch and oak. Birch was often chosen as the maypole tree for the festivities, and was sometimes used as a living maypole. Scottish Highland folklore says that a barren cow driven with a birch stick will become fertile; a pregnant cow will birth a healthy calf.

            Birch was the Germanic tree of wisdom, and the holy tree of Frigga, the Mother goddess and wife of Odin. Frigga is associated with the Welsh owl goddess Blodeuwedd, and the barn owl is a familiar of hers. Birch, used in rune divination, known as beorc or bfarkan, is associated with Freya, the lady of the forest and goddess of fecundity. It is associated with the planet Venus, and all goddesses of love, like Freya and Frigga.

Birches were used to ward off evil spirits. Birch twigs were used to beat the energy left behind by witches out of the house. Twigs can also be used to gently strike a person or animal possessed by an evil spirit and drive it from them in exorcism. In its association with the dead and the Underworld a folk ballad from the 17^th century, “The Wife of Usher’s Well,” tells of a woman’s sons returning from the Underworld in clothing made of birch: “It fell about the Martinmas,/ When nights are lang and mirk,/ The carline wife’s three sons came hame,/ And their hats were o’ the birk./ It neither grew in skye nor ditch,/ Nor yet in ony sheugh;/ But at the gates o’ Paradise/ That birk grew fair enough.”

            In Siberia, the Birch tree was considered to be the axis of the world. Siberian shamans hung other dead shamans in birch trees. They left the dead to the elements. The dead spirit would use the birch as a doorway to spirit world, and as a means of return when he was petitioned for guidance. Among the Eskimo of the Gold Coast, shamanic teachers climb birch trees, circling the trunk nine times to represent his ascent into Upper World. His students will each do so in turn.

In some Ojibwe communities, birch bark was a sacred gift from Wenabozho, a cultural hero and they buried their dead in bark wrappings. Birch bark rolls depict the symbols of the Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa and are a treasured possession According to other Ojibwe folklore, lightning won’t strike birch trees.

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Birch is used in furniture making. The wood is heavy, tough and contains a straight grain that makes it perfect for handles and toys. It was used to manufacture anything that required turning, like hardwearing bobbins, spools, reels, and herring-barrel staves. In the country, lighter birch twigs were used as thatching, to make brooms, and for wattle-fencing. Baby cradles were traditionally made from birch, as a means of protection from fey folk.

J.C. Loudon wrote in his Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs, in 1842, that the Highlanders of Scotland used birch for much of their household and farming production, and general building materials. They used the branches as fuel in distilling whiskey. The Scottish used the spray to smoke ham and herring, which was preferred against any other kind of wood. The bark was used to tan leather, and was sometimes twisted in rope to be used in the place of candles. The spray was used for thatching and dried in the summer with the leaves to be used as a bed when heath was scarce.

MEDICINAL

The leaves of the birch are both an antiseptic and a diuretic. The infusion, having a bitter taste, has been used to treat gout, rheumatism, dropsy, and mild arthritic pain, as well as urinary tract infections, specifically cystitis. Taken over a few weeks, birch leaf tea will detoxify and stimulate the gall bladder, kidneys, and liver. Cooled, it can be massaged into the scalp to accelerate hair growth.

Native Americans used bark tea for fevers, stomachache, and lung ailments. Birch bark and twigs have similar properties to Wintergreen and can be drunk to aid purification of the blood. It’s a good body tonic, helping the bowels with conditions of diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera infantum. In history, it was used to expel worms from the body. Taken internally, the tea can be just as helpful for skin ailments like warts, boils, and sores, as well as when it is used as an external wash for skin eruptions. Cover the bark in water, boil until it softens and mash it with a hammer or pestle into a paste. This can be used to apply to sores, abrasions, and inflammations on a daily basis until healed.

            The salicylates in the bark and the essential oil ease sore muscles and joint pain when applied externally. The oil soothes irritated joints and actively decreases the inflammation. Massage it in to relieve stiffness and reduce pain. The oil has a high concentration of acid that repels mosquitoes and gnats. Mix 25 drops with 4 ounces of water in a spray bottle for a natural bug repellent. The inner bark is bitter and astringent and has been used as a remedy for intermittent fevers.

            Birch trees have intentionally been planted in waste areas, like old mines and toxic ground. The birch is believed to purify the ground in the same way it can purify the body, paving the way for nature to return. When the birch dies, it’s own body will nourish and cleanse the soil beneath it. I don’t know if that is true or not, that the birch can cleanse a soil so quickly, but I do believe the birch to be a great Way-Maker. In my own life, it has seen me through new growth and challenges. In meditation with birch, I have learned to bend with change instead of breaking beneath it.

BIRCH FACTS & TIDBITS:

• It takes 25 years for a silver birch to bear fruit.
• The name Macbeth is derived from the word birch.
• Beithe is first in the Ogham, an Irish tree alphabet.
• The tree was dedicated to Brigit, the goddess of inspiration, healing, and blacksmithing.
• Gardeners used birch brooms to purify their space.
• Birch was the personal sacred tree of the Norse god Thor.
• In Germany, young men would place decorated birch trees in front of the houses of their beloveds on May 1, to reveal their feelings.
• In some Scandinavian countries, the leafing of the birch tree marked the start of the agricultural year.
• In Sweden and Lapland, birch sap is used in place of sugar.
• The Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, was celebrated from Spring Equinox to Beltane with birch trees.
• In Wales, wreaths of birch were given as love tokens.
• Birch boughs were placed over cradles and carriages to protect infants from the glamour of the Little People.
• On St. Stephen’s Day, December 26/27, Robin Red Breast used a birch rod to slay the wren in a gorse bush.
• Many countries make birch wine and beer.
• Cattle and deer do not like the taste of birch bark, so they leave birch trees alone.
• In folklore, tying a red ribbon around the stem or branch of a birch tree would ward off the evil eye. 
• Birch was used for protection against lightning. 
• The Paper White Birch is the New Hampshire state tree.
• The Lieschi, or Lesovik, a Slavic Spirit of the Forest, lives in the top of birch trees. He wears a long green beard and casts no shadow, changing his size at will. He hibernates from October until the spring.
• In Russia, the birch was worshipped as a goddess during Green Week in early June.
• Russians plant birches outside the home to bring protection.
• Modern Siberian shamans use birch for the center pole of their yurt, with nine notches carved on it.
• The thin bark was widely used as writing paper in Northern India. The first written version of the Vedas, ancient Indian wisdom, were written on birch bark.
• The sap is fermented to make birch wine.
• Birch bark can be ground down and fermented in sea water to season the sails of Norwegian boats, made of wool, hemp or linen.
• Baltic birch is sought-after for making speaker cabinets, due to the peaks of high and low resonances.
• It is sometimes used for acoustic guitars and mallets in keyboard percussion.
• Books bound in Russian leather, tanned with Oil of Birch Tar, are unlikely to mold. Asphyxiating gases have been sourced from birch wood.
• Charcoal of birch is used for gunpowder.
• Many indigenous people linked the birch with the fly agaric mushroom, amanita muscaria, a hallucinogenic mushroom used for spirit journeys, because it seemed to prefer growing beneath birch trees.
• In saunas, birch twigs are used to ‘beat’ the body to stimulate circulation.
• A tea of the twigs and bark aids in ridding the mouth of canker sores.
• Softened birch has been used to form casts for broken arms.
• The inner bark of the birch can be dried and ground into flour for bread or cut into strips and boiled like noodles in stews. 

Winter Solstice Wonder: Snow Falling

“They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could 

the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we 

ever recover from the wonder of it?”

~ Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

The world we live in is a vibrant kaleidoscope of magic and science, for science is magic that has been placed in boxes; a deconstruction of wonder. It is this place of wonder my spirituality has found me, breaking down those walls of distinction to simply be moved by the beauty of… everything. There are days when I feel like I see the whole world for what it is for perhaps the first time.

Winter is coming to the land that I live on, to the city that I live in. In America, Solstice marks the beginning of our coldest days, which for those of us in the Northeast, usually means snow. It’s an excuse to snuggle down with loved ones and nest in blankets in the shelter of our homes. It’s a reason to pull into ourselves and reflect on what we have gratitude for, and what is important to us.

I also find snow to be quite beautiful.

There is breathtaking wonder in falling snowflakes, in the filigree of crystalline symmetry, as the little frozen worlds slide in to meet each other and catch on edges; each snowflake a delicate crystal. How amazing it is that they fall into each other, hugging and holding on to create something solid and larger than itself. Under a blanket of white, the sleeping earth becomes encased in diamonds of ice.

The sunbeams fall on snow, momentarily blinding our vision and we must reach into other senses. The dancing light flits across the surface of earth, refracting and sharpening in the cold chill of breath. And we smell winter, freezing against our mucus membranes. And we taste winter in the icy cold within our lungs. And every bare particle of flesh feels itself retracting against the frosted air. That is what it means to be alive in snow-drenched winter time. When the sun shines it’s brilliance we forget the cold, if just for a moment, and bask like lizards in the reflective gaze.

On Solstice night, we sit through the longest dark of the year. We’ve watched the days get shorter and we’ve been turning our porch lights on before making dinner. We’ve stood in bursts of sunshine and soaked up the solar vitamins in preparation. Winter may just be beginning, but with its start comes the promise of lengthening days. The air is cold but the sun is warm, a hope that shines through the intruding chill.

            Yet even as I anxiously await the first flurry of snowfall, I see the pattern of the worlds and know that as the darkness retreats, snowmelt will warm with the early spring breezes. It will sink into and feed the ground below us which, in turn, will nourish seedlings so that they might flourish in our gardens. Then plants and flowers will grow in warmer sunlight, to nourish our hearts and bodies.

            All this is wonder, beheld in the beauty of a single snowflake.

            On the longest night, we greet this turning. We greet this movement forward, into a new spring, a breath of freshness in an age-old pattern. What appears to be a never ending circle when viewed from above, is an ever-winding spiral, a journey circling around and moving upward with each turn when seen sideways. It’s a pattern we know, which is how I know that on winter nights, when the moonlight is strong, the fallen snow will shimmer with the reflection of the sky above us. The earth we trod will be awash with fields of glittering stars.

            That starlight lives within us, a spark of ancestral matter. And it is this gift I reflect on most. All the light I need lives within me. All the hope I need is in me. Every day, I hold fast to this truth and let it illuminate my darkness, and hope that someday, others will see their own source-light, too.

            “Your first parent was a star.”

             ~ Jeanette Winterson, Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles

Experiencing Death VIII: Choosing the Moment

We have an ornament that we hang on our colorfully-decorated tree, in memory of our cat Luna. This is our third holiday season without her. The ornament is a little cream-colored cat with wings and dangling legs. At this time of year, I still find myself looking for her sleeping form beneath the tree. But already the grief has ebbed to longing. That ornament reminds me of the joy Luna brought to our house and that’s what I remember.

The night before she died it was obvious that she wasn’t all right. We had kept an eye on her all day and besides seeming overly tired, the main concern was that she seemed to have difficulty breathing. When I got ready for bed, she was on the couch and she barely responded to me, which was abnormal. Every night before, she would follow me in, and climb on top of me. That particular night she didn’t even twitch as I passed. I didn’t even hesitate. Moved by something greater than me, I lifted her gently and eased her into my lap, noting her whimper when I lifted her. No, she was not all right, and though we would try to convince ourselves she would be okay, I think in that moment, I knew something I couldn’t put words to. I knew our time was precious.

I didn’t sleep. I didn’t even nod off for a second. The spirit world was so ripe to me it was viscous and I was scared to leave Luna unattended. I remember every minute, every labored breath in, every whimpering exhalation and every second-too-long between them, when my heart caught in my throat. I remember the hot heat that emanated from her, like the last coal burning out in the fireplace. The entire night she never tried to move from where I had propped her on my lap. She never shifted her position, and neither did I. Not even for a moment.

I could feel how important each second was, in a bordering-on-obsession way. But as a highly-sensitive person, I have always stopped my world for these moments- the ones I know we can’t do over. Only that night could I feel the full force of how much weight she had so recently lost. I was still awake when my partner woke for work and we agreed we should take Luna to the vet as soon as we could. I fed her a bit of water with a pipette which she seemed thirsty for but soon wouldn’t take more of. I tried to offer her some wet food and she wanted it, crying at me, but she seemed to know better than to eat it. We took her to the walk-in vet.

We weren’t prepared to be forced with a final decision less than three hours later. I wasn’t prepared for the answer to my question of “How long before she’s in pain and it’s too cruel to wait?” to be “Oh, honey.” She only had hours left and her pain wasn’t going to stop.

In that moment, there is no decision to be made. It won’t stop you from second guessing later on, but in the moment it is the only choice available- end the pain. Luna seemed far readier than we were, perched like a rabbit on the floor of the exam room, content and unafraid (totally unusual for her) while we waited for lab results. But after forcing an x-ray on her next, she couldn’t breathe and was in apparent agony.

The reality still stands that we chose for her to be ready to die. And that is not an easy thing to swallow. We women, who can gift life into the world whether we choose to or not, we women who bleed every month for that right and that chance, we women are capable of gifting that kind of mercy death and carrying the burden of that choice. I cannot speak for men because I am not one, and I do not know where the strength for such mercy comes from in them.

I held Luna’s face in my hands and I didn’t look away from her eyes. I told her what a good girl she was and how much we loved her. She was the best girl ever. When the poison was injected, her eyes widened with… fear, pain, fire? Who knows. She had lost so much weight that it barely took a second. I barely had time to breathe in. And then she went limp. Her eyes dulled with the sparkle life gives them. She was gone.

I don’t care what anyone thinks. I ripped her out of the plastic bag they put her in and carried her home in her blanket, the weight of her suddenly so heavy in my arms. She was lighter than a feather in life and heavy as bricks in death. Is it our soul, our spirit that lightens our time upon the earth?

I would not take back sharing her death with her, even though the memory of it causes me pain. It was pain she experienced so that she could finally be at peace and I believe it was important that I share in that truth. In our society, we have trouble letting go, and as long as that is an issue we face, our cultural relationship with death will not change.

I think that one of the hardest life lessons we can make is that sometimes, we have to tell death it’s okay. No one should have to live in pain that’s caused by their body either slowly or quickly shutting down in a way that makes it impossible for them to have any quality of life- unless they want to and choose to ride it out. I could have made the choice to watch Luna slowly die in agony, unable to drink or eat, because I wasn’t ready. That would have been horrifically unfair.

It’s something I think about, watching people with terminal illness in the news, trying to fight for the right to choose their own moment of death, rather than spend their last days unconscious on medication because otherwise they could not tolerate the pain. We are so willing to put down our four-legged friends because it’s the humane thing to do, whether they can consent or not, but we don’t give consenting adults who have been given a death sentence the right to die in peace.

I can’t imagine it would be easy to accept that choice from a loved one. But I think I could come to terms with respecting it. Personally, it still doesn’t feel easy to say, “I opened the door for death to enter.” I still miss Luna terribly, but even looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Relevant Posts:

The Beginning I Saw in the End (published March 23, 2011)

Eulogy I Wish I’d Given (published March 14, 2012)

Experiencing Death: The Unborn Baby (published May 16, 2012)

Experiencing Death II: My Father’s Father (published June 13, 2012)

Experiencing Death III: Squirrel in the Road (published July 11, 2012)

Experiencing Death IV: The Body at Daggett Lake (published August 15, 2012)

Experiencing Death V: Suicide (published September 9, 2012)

Experiencing Death VI: Alone with the Dead (published October 17, 2012)

Experiencing Death VII: There in the Room (published November 14, 2012)