Nearly every week, a mystery is solved or some interesting twig (or nut) appears somewhere on the family tree. Here is a little news of recent findings.

It is so hard, impossible really, to not get distracted while working on family history. I am trying so very hard to finish my McCall book but nearly every day I find something that I would like to stop, study, and learn more about. Here are a couple things from this week. To try to keep my distraction to a minimum, I used ChatGPT to help write some of this.

Please get your kids (and yourselves) vaccinated

Nancy Caroline Tuttle, one of my 1st cousins 5x removed had 13 children with her husband Andrew Washington Hood. They started their family in North Carolina, in 1842, and then moved to Indiana, about 1852. By 1863, 12 of their children were born. Within a few weeks, six of those children had died of diphtheria and scarlet fever.

1. Cordelia Caroline Hood died on 20 Mar 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 5.
2. Augustus Girdine Hood died on 24 Mar 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 21 months.
3. Lucius Tuttle Hood He died on 28 Mar 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 15.
4. Luellen Isoline Hood, a twin to Augustus, died on 30 Mar 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 21 months.
5. Arthur Washington Hood died on 30 Apr 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 4.
6. Enzor Marcellus Hood died on 24 May 1863 in Rush County, Indiana, age 13.

The first diphtheria vaccine became widely available in the 1920s. Today diphtheria is largely prevented through the DTaP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), typically given to children, with booster shots for adults to maintain immunity.

But that vaccine was not available to the Hood family.

Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which typically affects the mucous membranes of the nose and throat. The bacteria release a toxin that can cause severe inflammation, leading to symptoms such as a sore throat, fever, and swollen glands, and it may form a thick coating in the throat that can block airways. The toxin can also spread to other organs, potentially causing life-threatening complications like heart and nerve damage.

Nancy had to watch her children suffer. Without modern antibiotics, the only treatments would have been herbal remedies or poultices to help with throat pain and fever. Gargling or swabbing the throat with antiseptics like vinegar, alum, or silver nitrate might have been done to try to kill the sickness in the throat. The family was probably quarantined.

Thanks to widespread vaccination, diphtheria has become very rare in the United States.

Modern medicine is amazing. Get your children and yourself vaccinated.

It is hard to imagine the grief that Nancy had to go through in 1863. She lived until 1910, dying at age 87. Being a mother who lost a child at 21-months old, I know that she could never have been the same and that the grief and memory of her lost children was with her always.

Please, get your children vaccinated!

The Know Nothing Party

I voted today. Politics in 2024 is tense. Democracy is at risk. It is hard to sleep sometimes when worrying about how life will change if the wrong people are in charge.

But, we no longer have Know Nothing Party candidates.

In 1856, another 1st cousin 5x removed, Robert Gaius Tuttle, ran for the office of county sheriff in Caldwell County, North Carolina. He ran and won as an anti-KN candidate.

Election Results

Burke, McDowell and Caldwell.

Gen. C. W. Clarke, Dem. elected in Caldwell over Maj. E. P. Miller, K. N. Clarke 435; Miller 434 — R. G. Tuttle, anti-K. N. elected Sheriff by 297 maj. over Hartley.

– The Weekly Standard, Raleigh, North Carolina, 20 August 1856

K. N.?

We have heard of the Democratic party, but what is the K. N. party?

The KN Party in North Carolina in the 1850s refers to the “Know-Nothing” Party, officially known as the American Party. It emerged in response to increasing immigration, particularly of Irish Catholics, and was part of a larger nativist movement in the United States. The party’s platform emphasized restricting immigration, limiting the influence of Catholics in American politics, and advocating for longer naturalization periods for immigrants.

The name “Know-Nothing” originated because members, when asked about the party’s secretive activities, would often respond, “I know nothing.” The party gained some traction in North Carolina and across the country in the 1850s but quickly declined in influence with the rise of sectional issues related to slavery.

The primary opposition to the Know-Nothing (KN) or American Party was a mix of Democrats and Whigs, who disagreed with the nativist and anti-immigrant platform. However, by the mid-1850s, the political landscape in the United States was shifting due to increasing tensions over slavery. In response to the Know-Nothings, these two parties—particularly the Whigs—began to splinter, leading to the formation of the Republican Party in the northern states.

In North Carolina, the anti-Know-Nothing coalition was mostly led by Democrats who supported states’ rights and were more willing to accept immigrants, especially as slavery and states’ rights became central political issues. The Republican Party would later become the main opposition to the nativist sentiments of the Know-Nothings, focusing on stopping the spread of slavery rather than restricting immigration.

While I probably don’t have much in common with this distant relative from the antebellum south, I do agree with him in being anti-no nothing. I hope that the winners of our current election know a lot.

Where are they in the tree?

Nancy Caroline Tuttle Hood and Robert Gaius Tuttle were siblings. They are both 1st cousins 3 times removed from Thomas Leland Estes.