Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

TRAGEDIES COMPARED

Many media commentators and writers have compared the four hijackings of September 11, 2001 and terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, DC to other events in American history. The most frequently referenced cataclysms are the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Along the Texas Gulf Coast the most catastrophic comparison is the Galveston Storm of September 8, 1900. The so-called storm was actually a category 4 hurricane, but, since hurricanes were not named until the 1950's it was termed a storm and has no other name. While not in recent memory, we, along the Texas Coast can well empathize with our fellow Americans in New York and Washington as we too once suffered similar unfathomable loses.

In 1900 the highest point on Galveston Island was about 8 feet and the storm surge covered the island with 8 to 15 feet of water for several hours during the darkness of night. In 1904 the Galveston seawall was completed to a height of 17 feet, two feet above the tidal surge of 1900.

The 1900 Storm produced a death toll between 6,000 and 10,000, the highest of any natural disaster in American history. A month after the Storm The Galveston Daily News published the names of nearly 5,000 people who perished in the Storm. Those names are reproduced on The Great Galveston Storm of 1900 website at ~http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~barn ette .

Due to daytime temperatures in the 90's after the 1900 Storm and the overwhelming numbers of dead authorities were worried disease would propagate and spread through the population. After trying unsuccessfully to bury the dead at sea, authorities ordered the corpses of people, horses, cows, dogs and any other animals that may have perished to be burned in funeral pyres created on piles of splintered houses and other combustible debris found across the island.

In a few cases deceased were identified by tattoos or by the clothing or jewelry they wore. In most cases, however, the remains of the dead were bloated by submersion in water or disfigured by trauma and unrecognizable. Most of the dead were never identified and their loved ones were left with a sense of unknowing about their untimely demise and hurried disposition.

As with our fellow Americans today, people and companies throughout the world collected money, food and clothing and generally did what they could to help alleviate the pain and suffering of the survivors and those who lost a loved one to an unexpected catastrophe.

It is with these sad memories our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones in the recent terrorist attacks in Northeast.

GENEALOGICAL COURSE OFFERED

Offered by Leisure Learning, Mic Barnette will teach an introductory course in family history. Roots of Genealogy-How To Research Your Family Tree will be held from 7 P.M. to 10 P.M. Tuesday October 2 at Leisure Learning's 2990 Richmond Ave campus. The following week the class will tour Clayton Genealogical Library and conduct on site census research. For more information and to register, contact Leisure Learning at 713-529-4414.

GENEALOGY ON THE INTERNET

Paula Perkins Parke will offer a one time class showing some of the best genealogical websites on the Internet. This class will be taught live on the Internet from 2 P.M. to 5 P.M. Thursday October 4 at the Grace Presbyterian Church, 10221 Ella Lee near the Sam Houston Tollway in West Houston. For more information and to register contact Becky Morris at the church at 713-267-5091.

LOUISIANA TALK AT HGF

The Houston Genealogical Forum meets at 9:30 A.M. the first Saturday of each month at the Bayland Community Center 6400 Bissonett between Hillcroft and Fondren in Southwest Houston.

The featured speaker at the October 6 meeting will be Robert de Bernardinis whose topic will be English, French and Spanish Genealogical Methods and Resources of Louisiana Prior to 1803. From 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. de Bernardinis will speak on Land, Probate and Forced Heirship records in Louisiana plus Ante-Bellum Migration Patterns in North Louisiana.

There is no charge for the morning session, however, a nominal fee will be charged for the afternoon session. Both morning and afternoon sessions are open to the public. For more information call the Genealine at 713-968-9750.

NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF

Casey Greene, Head of Special Collections and Assistant Archivist Shelly Henley Kelly of Galveston's Rosenburg Library have assembled and published an interesting collection of accounts by survivors of the 1900 Galveston Storm. Through A Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm is available for $31.88, postpaid, from Texas A&M University Press, John H. Lindsey Building, Lewis Street, College Station, TX 77843-4354.

The well composed book features letters written by survivors, memoirs written by survivors and oral histories related by survivors. Throughout the book there are very clear pictures of photographs with graphic details taken before the storm and of the aftermath of the storm.

Reading the experiences of the survivors of the storm is an excellent way to get a sense of feeling about the storm and the hardships and fear people had to withstand to survive until they could walk on solid ground.