Saturday, May 19, 2007

Family History

There are various family names associated with this blog. For example, the Millers were decendents of Black Beard, the postal clerk, who worked in the Venango post office in the early 1820s wearing women's underwear on his head.

53 comments:

Rich said...

This PO clerk had a bird named Zip. This eventually led to the ZIP code.

John Whitbeck said...

Unfortunately, the underwear on Black Beard's head did not belong to the mother of his three children, nor did they belong to his wife. Rumor has it that they belonged to the family goat.

Rich said...

Some day Skippy says that he'd like to go back to the old country for a visit.

Anonymous said...

be kind to your stinking bearded horned frends,for a goat might be sombody's insester ancestor or whatever

Anonymous said...

or maybe the goat was hogan's

Anonymous said...

were was the turkey in the family tree

John Whitbeck said...

The turkey was in the upper east side of the tree where it had a large nest. The family goat also had a nest but it was a little lower and on the south side. When the wind was from the north east, it was not unusual for the family goat to get a few splatters of turkey poop.

Anonymous said...

doe's Rich concur on the turkey goat issue in the tree
or was the wind in the wrong direction.? if there was a
very strong up draft or a wicked strong thermal inversion there could have been goat poop all over the whole tree denisons or if not goat poop maybe goat beard inhancer or goat juice parfume!

Anonymous said...

was skippy's old country name zip and get americanized to skippy after he worked in the post office? maybe he was the PO clerk's bird. does the tree shed any light on this or are the leaves too thick?

Anonymous said...

after minimal research i have found rumer that blanch the family goat was the white headed step child of billy dagoat who was the left nefwew of yellow beard dagoat.

John Whitbeck said...

First of all, Blanch was not that happy having to live in a tree with a turkey

Laura & Judy said...

Clearly postal connections are hereditary in this particular family. We have had postal workers, those who have taken the civil service exam and wanted to become postal workers, and a long line of family members who go postal on a regular basis.

Laura & Judy said...

Additionally, how do we really know whose underwear those are, since most of the underwear worn by the women in the family looked exactly like men's underwear, except without the fly.

And speaking of flys . . .

John Whitbeck said...

Look closely, you will see no flies on Blanch. Too bad we can't say the same thing about the family tree or the turkey.

John Whitbeck said...

An early observer of Black Beard noticed that his head was covered by flyless boxer underwear. Of course Black Beard claimed that he was particularly vulnerable to head colds and must avoid any type of draft at all costs. It is rumored that in the winter of 1821 his head was subjected to a cold draft (he was never able to grow hair above his ears) which caused sneezing fits that left him permanently cross eyed.

Anonymous said...

i haven't reasearched any family connection between skippy and blanche's flys. however i have done some work on the goat issue. it seemes there was a link either between the legendary hogan and a tree branch or his fornacational verticly challenged goat to blanch the family goat through one of the dagoats (billy or yellowbeard).some info can be found at www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/7553/hgoat.htm

Anonymous said...

our blog manager "skippy" mentioned a link between digger the family cat and schrodinger's cat. could it have been to the live or the dead cat and if it was to the dead cat was there a fly issue as with blackbeard's underwear? perhaps another blog contributer could reaserch this matter or anti-matter
which ever the case may be.

John Whitbeck said...

At one time, because of a serious fly problem, the community of Venango attempted to convince Blackbeard that, if he must wear underwear on his head (because of a lack of hair above his ears and his susceptibility to head colds) that he at least wear clean underwear on his head. Blackbeard, however, remembered childhood dreams of flying. he was convinced that if he could get enough flies to gather on his head, the flies would be able to left him off the ground by beating their little wings in unison. Because of this obsession, he insisted on wearing his underwear under his trousers for at least three weeks before wearing the same pair on his head. Although this insured success in attracting flies, the flies were never successful in getting Blackbeard off the ground. This is one reason why airmail was never initiated from the Venango post office.

Anonymous said...

it seems blackbeard in his attempts to draw flies to his head discovered that digger the family cat was not digging deep enough holes to completely cover his business as the ground around venango was quite hard. this was also drawing flies and competing with blackbeards fly quest. to solve this problem blackbeard invented the litter box so that digger could dig deep enough holes so as his business did not compete for flys. sadly he did not patent the litter box as he was too focused on trying to fly with flys.then the wrights came along and solved the flying thing.

Anonymous said...

the age old question of "is that hair or is that flys" originated in venango when people saw blackbeard's head and wondered what they were seeing, later when it was learned that blackbeard had no hair
above his ears the question was resolved as far as blackbeard was concerned and it became commonly used in connection with over exposed bikiny lines at venango beach aka. bare ass beach.

Anonymous said...

venango missed another claim to fame when blackbeard invented the litterbox and failed to patent it due to his total focus on drawing flies to his flying attemps. just as gillette invented the safty razor and made his fortune making razor blades for it, blackbeard could have made his fortune making kittylitter for the litterbox. venango then could have made claim to "first in kittylitter" ironicly just as kittyhawk north carolina makes claim to" first in flight". both claims would have been arrived at by seperate but unequal attempts to fly .

Anonymous said...

o where is that parrot when you need him

Anonymous said...

blackbeard broadened his flying with flys research when he hit upon the idea of tying a string to a fly as a sort of harness to capture the flys lift. charles f. orvis who was visiting venango to fish at venango beach saw the fly on a string thing and decided to try adding a fishhook to the fly to use as a fishing lure thus starting the sport of fly fishing.once again blackbeard could'nt see out of the underwear on his head or the flys on them and missed the boat so to speak on the fly fishing thing.

Anonymous said...

blackbeard did broaden his outlook a little when he established an honor society for under graduat students at venango university. he named it the fly baita cappa society for the promotion of excellence in the study of flys and flying. two of his three children who were among the eleven students at venango u qualified to join the society in it's third year becoming it's first members

John Whitbeck said...

Once Blackbeard's strong desire to become airborne led to the creation of flybaita cappa, the members of flybaita cappa followed a curriculum of putting various forms of fly bait on the ends of their noses so they could study flies up close.

Although this greatly enhanced the member's ability to observe flies, it also led to bumping into things because of becoming cross eyed and a loss of smell because of the odor of the fly bait. Within a few generations, local historians noted that few members of the fly betta cappa society were able to see beyond the ends of their noses.

John Whitbeck said...

Shortly before the civil war, rumor had it, among the inhabitants of Venango, that Black Beard might be a pirate. Whenever Black Beard approached French Creek, various Venango citizens would sneak around, hiding behind trees to see if he had a pirate ship at anchor. Two young women from fly baita kappa swore they'd seen the ship. However, because they were cross eyed and found it difficult to see clearly beyond the ends of their noses, further investigation determined that the pirate ship was really Blanch, the family goat, who, although much smaller than a pirate ship, loomed large from a short distance when viewed by a cross eyed member of fly baita kappa.

In an effort to further dispel the pirate rumors, Black Beard stopped pronouncing his arghs. Over the years, this created a separate dialect in Venango.

For example, around the time of the civil war, an ancestor of the Wright brothers got lost while hiking in Ohio and wound up in Venango. Her name was Lily Wright, but she was known in Venango as Lily Wight.

Another example of Venango's arghless dialect led to the belief that somehow, some Venango citizens were Chinese. Unless someone got lost while hiking, there were few if any visitors from the outside. This, plus the fact that cross eyed young women with fly bait on their noses were not particularly attractive, led to the practice of incest.

To make a long story short, Black Beard's oldest daughter gave birth to a boy at the age of 32. She decided to have the baby baptized in the local methodist church with only herself, the baby, and the minister. When she told the minister that the father was her brother, the minister said, "This is really wrong!!!" Later, Black Beard asked his wife what the minister had to say. Black Beard's wife said, " The minister said This is Willy Wong." So from that point forward, Black Beard's grandson was named Willy Wong. A year later, Willy Wong' brother was born. His brother's name was Willy Willy Wong.

dondw said...

A lot of these comments about the family tree are just crap since I have been able to verify any of them with the Venango histerical society. They did tell me this fact, that in those days it was very hot in the post office. Black Beard constructed a fan and figured how to power it with a pulley running to the old mill located behind the post office. The turkeys were in fact living in the attic of the post office and since there were holes in the ceiling, the droppings would fall through into the post office. This is were the old saying "When the ___ hits the fan" comes from.
Also, there may or may not have been a "Venango beach", this could have been a mispronunciation of a common term used for referring to Blackbeard's wife.

John Whitbeck said...

We are not sure that it is possible to verify much of anything with the Venango histerical society since most of the members of this society are from the Wong side of the family, and we now know they were not really from China.

We should mention that Black Beard's wife was known to vacation under the bridge that crossed over French Creek, (people did not make long trips from Venango) Of course, the residents, in addition to not pronouncing their Arghs, also pronounced Creek as Crick, so it may very well be that Venango, in fact, did not have a beach...

Another interesting fact from the annals of the Venango histerical society: Willy Wong and his brother, Willy Willy Wong were recruited to be in an early Western Movie about Western Pennsylvania. Primarily because the local dialect was not well understood outside of Venango, and partly because Willy and Willy Willy were allowed to name the movie, it never made it to the "big time". Willy chose to sing a song called "Home on the Wange", and Willy Willy's main line, which he said 129 times during the movie was "Wide em cowboy!"

The name of the movie was "Silly Men on Horses" There was a sequel called "Willy Silly Men on Horses" which was particularly popular with the Wong side of Venango. Another sequel was to be made but the Humane Society interceded on the part of the horses. It was to have been called "Willy Willy Silly Men on Horses".

dondw said...

The Nelsons were also part of the family tree. They lived on the opposite side of the tracks from the Wongs. The Nelsons had 2 sons. One was also named Willy. He liked to sing cowboy songs. The other son was illegitimate and was know as the "Half Nelson."

John Whitbeck said...

Actually, if you check with the Venango histerical society, you will find that there was a family named Wilson who had a rather silly child named Nelly Wilson. Also, some people say that Nelly Wilson was the singer of "Home on the Wange".

dondw said...

Does anyone remember Venango University? The histerical society didn't have any information about it but then none of them even went to grade school. I heard stories that when you graduated, instead of marching down the aisle with a cap and gown, they launched you out of a metal tube from the upstairs. Where you landed, I'm not sure, either in the crick or else in the outhouse.

dondw said...

A little known fact is that Venango was home to the first rock band. A group of brothers who's last name was Munky lived on the Wong side of the tracks with their Uncle. They played music by banging rocks together. They were not very good but made their fortune by inspiring others to buy rocks from them which of course ran up the price of rocks which is why the Millers could not afford them.

John Whitbeck said...

Whenever the rock group's uncle got mail, it was addressed to "The Munky's Uncle"

dondw said...

After Blackbeard got some more goats, he started a cheese factory. Not knowing what to do with all of the cheese, he started the first fast food restaurant. The restaurant served carpburgers with cheese and sauerkraut. However, on Saturday nights they served a sit down meal. Everyone sat down and waited for Blackbeard to cut the cheese and then the meal began. The restaurant had plenty of atmosphere, so much so that people began requesting a no farting section. People in the restaurant became much more proficient in pronouncing their Arghs. Some think that Venango residents still retain some of this accent.

dondw said...

About the Wongs. One of the Wong descendants actually became his own grandfather. At an early age he learned if this and began to question himself. He would ask such things as "Grandpa, why is the sky blue?" And then he might answer, " Well Grandson, I don't rightly know." Later it was discovered that he didn't really have a split personality, but a cracked mind, which gave him a great advantage in politics and he later became mayor of Venango.

John Whitbeck said...

Why is it that we have a certain amount of information about the Wong side of the family, but no one has mentioned the White side of the family?

dondw said...

"Why is it that we have a certain amount of information about the Wong side of the family, but no one has mentioned the White side of the family?"
The answer is simple, two Wongs don't make a White.

John Whitbeck said...

The only Wongs I am aware of are Willy Wong and his slightly younger brother Willy Willy Wong.

John Whitbeck said...

Of course there was Lily Wight who was the ancestor of the Wright brothers.

John Whitbeck said...

Another Venango family was named the Noughs. The first Nough to settle in Venango was Shorty.

John Whitbeck said...

He named his oldest daughter Tallie

dondw said...

"Two Wongs don't make a White." Maybe I am thinking of the Wong Wong but I thought there was some incestoral relationship back there.

John Whitbeck said...

Or maybe it's the Wong Wight

John Whitbeck said...

By the way, it seems that Willy Wong and Lily Wight had a son, but were not married. Lily wanted the son to be connected by name to his dad, so she named him Willy Wight. Years later, an old photograph of Willy Wight revealed that he was an albino.

Anonymous said...

would'nt willy wong and willy willy wong have not only been double brothers but also full bloodied first cousins and nephews to thier parents?
it seems the spawn of blackbeard was as messed up as hogan's poor goat.
the noughs on trying to sort all this out had a second child and named her hadda

dondw said...

Does anyone remember reported sightings of black panthers in Venango? I am not sure if they were talking about cats or perhaps it was the beginnings of a radical organization. The histerical society believes it was merely a giant rabbit.

John Whitbeck said...

There was an organization started at one time in Venango by Blackbeard. The meetings used to happen late at night in the back of the post office. However, the histerical society described it as a "wadical" organization. We are not sure if this was due to the Venango dialect at the time. We do know that within the ancient rites of this organization, Walt Disney supposedly found the basis for his creation of the character Elmer Fudd.

dondw said...

So maybe the panther was actually a giant wabbit.

dondw said...

A nearby town to Venango was Cabbage Springs which also had a kraut factory. It is believed the town got its name from manufacturing springs for items such as watches to railroad cars. However when springs made from steel were found to work much better, the cabbage spring company went out of business.

John Whitbeck said...

It's rumored that is where the phrase "That's just a bunch of cabbage!" came from.

dondw said...

Yes, the kraut factory gave a new meaning to payroll. The workers were paid in cabbage rols.

Anonymous said...

it is hard to put much credence to any thing the venango histerical has to say about venango's history because they had thier main office under Lady Godiva's front porch.This is likely why they were ignorant of Venango University( even though it was only two doors down the street) as they spent most of thier time peeking up through the porch floor boards to catch a glimpse of the good lady's nakedness as she left her house to ride the streets of venango on her wide white horse. The citizens { with thier arrghless dialect ) would cry "wide that big white ho se Lady Godiva wide him good and ha d" and the histerecal society when they were'nt peaking through the porch floor boards spent their time documenting the good lady's horse ride

Anonymous said...

In speaking of Alfred E Newman it seems that the presidential abomination currently in office(george w bush)has to be the exclusive byproduct of all the incestial misdeeds of Alfred E and the rest of the Newman decendents. Just look at the strong lookalike resemblance.

Skippy and I

Skippy and I
The effects of researching family history

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