Monday, September 22, 2025

The Interstate and West Indian Exposition

Yesterday's post reminded me to look at what events might have been happening in Charleston, South Carolina when Agnes Atherton was producing her ten week run at the Star Theatre in the Spring of 1902. Between December 1901 and late June 1902, Charleston was host to the Interstate and West Indian Exposition, which was a World's Fair style event to stimulate business and trade through Charleston's port. This would have been similar to the Trans-Mississippi International Exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska in 1898, an event that Agnes definitely performed in.

Charleston, SC. 1902.

Agnes very likely attended the exposition in Charleston, and certainly would have entertained audiences who might also have been in the city for that event. The grounds became Hampton Park and the new campus for The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. A guest registry book of attendees from the exposition is available on The Citadel Archives, including one page with this great doodle of a cadet among the many signatures in April 1902.

Guest registry, Interstate and West Indian Exposition.
Season pass. Citadel Archives.

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Tampa, 1902

 

Ideogram. Agnes in Tampa, 1902.

One hundred twenty-three years ago, Agnes Atherton was performing and producing a vaudeville show at the Imperial Theatre in Tampa, Florida. An imagined scene above shows Agnes in Ybor City, a historic neighborhood in Tampa that would have been thriving during her stay.

Saturday, September 20, 2025

DNA in the News: Could your ancestry DNA results unlock citizenship?

A timely article from the BBC describing examples of UK residents learning about their heritage through DNA results, and then using that information to see citizenship in their ancestral countries.

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Guthrie Genealogy Project

Back in April I shared a few posts on the connection from my Dad's side of the tree to the Guthrie family (see here, here and here). Jesse Guthrie was a 5th-great-grandfather, descending from his daughter Susan Ann Guthrie Smith. In prior posts I had listed her as a Martin in error.

Ann Guthrie manages the excellent Guthrie Genealogy blog, and recently shared some milestones on the Guthrie genealogy project. I've added my Dad's autosomal DNA results to the project on FamilyTreeDNA, and am interested to learn more about DNA finds on this branch of our tree.

Paradise Cove, 2022

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Malibu, 22 Oct 2022.