Gathering Leaves

A few years ago a correspondent in Belgium sent me an image of a map of Ronse, Belgium made in the mid-18^th century. He wrote that the structure depicted in the lower center of the map was of a windmill owned by my ancestor (ggggg-grandfather) Judocus (Joos) De Backer (1723 – 1797) and that the windmill stood in what is now a city park in Ronse known as the Bruul (see here for that image). Last night I came across a very detailed map of Belgium made by the Austrian cartographer, Joseph Jean François, count de Ferrari, in the 1770’s. The Ferrari Cabinet map, made between 1771 and 1778, was commissioned by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and her son Emp. Joseph II to detail their Austrian Netherlands, as Belgium was known in those years. A page of that map shows the city of Ronse (Renaix) in the 1770’s and upon close inspection one can see that two windmills are depicted in this sector. In the second image below the windmill in the lower left corner corresponds to the windmill drawn in the earlier map from the early 18^th century.

The Ferrari map can be seen in detail by going to Ferraris Cabinet KBR Map Viewer.

In 1744, César-François Cassini de Thury (also known as Cassini III), began the construction of a great topographical map of France, one of the landmarks in the history of cartography. The map that eventually took 70 years to complete has been digitized and is available for viewing on at least two sites that I have found – the first site being the better of the two: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection and Des Villages de Cassini. I was able to find the sections of the map that shows the region of eastern France where my Franc-Comtois ancestors lived. The first image below is centered on the town of Montecheroux from where my ggg-grandfather,  Jean Baptiste Francois Xavier Jeanin-Gaume, emigrated in the 1830’s.

The second image shows the larger area that my Franc-Comtois ancestors hailed from. Click the image to view the detail. In the lower left is Montecheroux which was then in the principality of Montebeliard and is now in France. In the upper right is Chevenez and Porrentruy which was then in the Bishopric of Basel and is now in Switzerland.

In a previous post, I describe how I obtained on microfilm the dispatches that my great grandfather, J. M. Dobbs, Sr. sent from Chile while he was posted there as consul general to Valparaiso from 1893 to 1897. Below are links to images of only a few of the 200 pages I found on the microfilm.

5 July 1893 – JMD’s first dispatch to the State Department announcing his arrival in Valparaiso after first reporting in to the embassy in Santiago. The man whom my great-grandfather reported to, Ambassador Patrick Egan, was a controversial figure who was accused on occasion of attempting to incite a war with Chile over the control of the Panama isthmus and the west coast of South America.

6 July 1893 – JMD’s second dispatch to the State Department, where he and previous consul general sign over the office.

1893 – JMD’s drawing of floor plan of second floor of building on Calle Blanco where the US consulate is located. When he arrived in 1893 the consul office was located on the second floor of a dilapidated building at 140 Calle Blanco (behind the janitor’s closet). The annual rent was $58 and my great grandfather complains in one dispatch that the cramped office was “unclean” and that the furniture in the office is 25 to 35 years old. By July of 1894 he had gotten permission from Washington to re-locate to a two room office on the 2nd floor of 430 Calle Blanco, purchase new furniture, and hire a clerk. He reports that his offices are next door to the offices of the German consulate and that his residence is in an apartment on the third floor of that same building. His clerk was paid $400 a year and the rent for the new offices was $90 a year.

16 September 1895 – JMD files a report regarding the disappearance of Alfred E. Sutro, nephew of then mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro. A search of the internet for Alfred E. Sutro comes up dry, so it is unknown whatever became of the missing Sutro.

2 September 1895 – Another report regarding the disappearance of Alfred E. Sutro.

10 November 1895 – JMD’s report regarding the wreck of SS Parthia, an American vessel which caught fire off the coast of Chile near the Juan Fernández Islands.

19 November 1895 – JMD was responsible for hiring “consul agents” residing in other locations on the Chilean coast who reported to him. In one dispatch he reports to Washington that he could not find an American citizen to act as “consul agent” in Punta Arenas (at the straits of Magellan) and that he had hired a Russian to act as the American representative in that town.

28 August 1897 – JMD files a three-page report regarding the shipwreck of an American vessel, the SS Nonatum, whose crew was stranded on Easter Island for 43 days before being rescued by a Chilean schooner.

23 October 1897 – JMD’s last dispatch from Chile as he signs over the office the new incoming Consul General.

My great, great, great-grandfather, William Kelsey’s old home in Northern Ireland is up for sale. Asking price half-a-mil USD. I wish I had that kind of money laying around. See more info at PropertNews.com