Do you pronouce the "l" in "yolk"?

Language has always fascinated me.  Perhaps because my parents were from Ohio (two different parts) and I grew up in northwestern Pennsylvania and I've lived most of my adult life in New Jersey.  In Pennsylvania growing up and in New Jersey early on (and sometimes even now), people think I talk funny or ask "where are you from?"

So here's a website you can get lost in: North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns.  This guy's hobby is dialects.  He has read a lot of academic literature, listened to a lot of online videos or audio clips, and done some surveys.  The result is a very detailed map of native speech patterns in North America and links to people speaking them.  Of interest to genealogists is that the dialects, to some extent, follow migration patterns.

My mother's southern Ohio speech (before being Pennsylvania-ized) pronounced "creek" like "crick" and I still don't know if I pronounce "roof" like "rooof" or "ruf".  If you catch me saying it let me know.

I can't wait to dip more into this one.  I looked at "-alm" words and find that I pronounce the "l" in the first column of words, but not the next 3, except "balk."  What about you?

Summer Fun

I'm off for a few days to Florida.  We will visit St. Augustine, the "oldest, continually occupied, European-established settlement in the continental United States."  (Thank you wikipedia.  BTW, in the non-continental United States San Juan, Puerto Rico is the oldest city.)  This got me thinking about what fun things there are to do in Bergen County this summer.

Bergen County Historical Society 
For more information on any of these events:

Saturday July 6, 2013, 11 am - 2 pm.  Vintage Baseball
 
Saturday, July 13, 2013, 6:30 - 9 pm  Calico Frolic at Historic New Bridge Landing for St. Swithin’s Day; come watch or join the dancing!
 
Saturday, August 24, 2013, 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Wine Festival at Historic New Bridge Landing:  10 NJ Wineries • Live Music • Food
Pre-Event Ticket $20 - Day of Event $25 - Designated Driver $10

The Hermitage   

For more information on these events:

Saturday and Sunday, June 15–16, 2013, 1–4 pm  Civil War Weekend with the 2nd Rhode Island
 
Saturday, July 20, 2013, 1–4 pm  Second Annual Revolutionary Social Day

Sunday, July 28, 2013, 1–4 pm  Play Day: Summer Activities for Kids
 
Saturday, August 17, 2013, 10 am–4 pm PJs Promotions Annual Outdoor Craft Show

Attend some of these events or check out an historical society near you!

Digital Bergen County Maps

I have compiled a list of Bergen County maps available at the Heritage Center at the Ridgewood Public Library and available from your computer anywhere.  Not every map is available digitally, but many are and they are great fun to explore for the place and time period your ancestor lived.  See the page on the Ridgewood Library website.  It's not beautiful (yet), but it gathers in one place maps that are available online from institutions as diverse as Library of Congress, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the University of Alabama.  (Who would think that Alabama would have Bergen County maps!)

This is Ridgewood area in 1840--before the advent of the railroad.  There were a few roads, a church, and a few farms.  (from US Coast Survey map #32  available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Twenty years later the same area looks like this.  (from 1861 Corey Hopkins map of Bergen and Passaic Counties available from the Library of Congress)

The railroad linking Ridgewood with Jersey City (and via ferry, New York) has been there for 13 years, farms have gone up for sale and commuters are moving in.

Enjoy the maps! If you find any additional ones online, please let me know.  (I'm addicted.)


Thank you to T. Robins Brown of the Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs for a bibliography of Bergen County maps used in compiling this list.

Vanderbeck house on Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in NJ

Last month the Jacob Vanderbeck, Jr. house in Fair Lawn was named one of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Places by Preservation New Jersey.  It's sobering to look at the entire list.  There's also a Record article about the listing.

Fair Lawn has some great preservation advocates.  The property is being considered for the site of an assisted living facility and is also a residential developer's dream--large, sub-dividable property with views across the Saddle River into the park.

Just as with the Zabriskie Tenant House on Dunkerhook Road, there could be a win-win development that keeps the home in the private residential market and still provides space for new residential development.  Will there be a creative buyer?