What tangent might I go off on today? Well, I decided to check on my ancestors who lived through a trying time, meteorologically speaking that is. 1816 is known as the year without a summer .
In 1815 a volcano in Indonesia (as it is now called) caused enough ash to be in the atmosphere that the sun reflected from it, and cold wet weather caused massive crop failures in Europe and the New England states in the United States.
The main cause of the Year Without a Summer is generally held to be a volcanic winter created by the April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa.
Countries such as Great Britain, Ireland, and France experienced significant hardship, with food riots and famine becoming common. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Europe was still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, adding to the socio-economic stress.
North America also faced extreme weather conditions. In the eastern United States, a persistent "dry fog" dimmed the sunlight, causing unusual cold and frost throughout the summer months. Crops failed in regions like New England, leading to food shortages and economic distress. These conditions forced many families to leave their homes in search of better farming opportunities, contributing to Westward expansion.
In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in parts of the eastern United States. The fog reddened and dimmed sunlight such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog", retrospectively characterized by Clive Oppenheimer as a "stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil".
The weather was not in itself a hardship for those accustomed to long winters. Hardship came from the weather's effect on crops and thus on the supply of food and firewood. The consequences were felt most strongly at higher elevations, where farming was already difficult even in good years. In May 1816, frost killed off most crops in the higher elevations of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York. On June 6, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine. In Cape May, New Jersey, frost was reported five nights in a row in late June, causing extensive crop damage. Though fruit and vegetable crops survived in New England, corn was reported to have ripened so poorly that no more than a quarter of it was usable for food, and much of it was moldy and not even fit for animal feed.
The crop failures in New England, Canada, and parts of Europe caused food prices to rise sharply. In Canada, Quebec ran out of bread and milk, and Nova Scotians found themselves boiling foraged herbs for sustenance.
Sarah Snell Bryant, of Cummington, Massachusetts, wrote in her diary: "Weather backward." At the Church Family of Shakers near New Lebanon, New York, Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816 that "all was froze" and the hills were "barren like winter". Temperatures fell below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze on June 9; on June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7, it was so cold that all of their crops had stopped growing. Salem, Massachusetts physician Edward Holyoke—a weather observer and amateur astronomer—while in Franconia, New Hampshire, wrote on June 7, "exceedingly cold. Ground frozen hard, and squalls of snow through the day. Icicles 12 inches long in the shade of noon day." After a lull, by August 17, Holyoke noted an abrupt change from summer to winter by August 21, when a meager bean and corn crop were killed. "The fields," he wrote, "were as empty and white as October." The Berkshires saw frost again on August 23, as did much of New England and upstate New York.
Massachusetts historian William G. Atkins summed up the disaster:
In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as northwestern Pennsylvania. Frost was reported in Virginia on August 20 and 21. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours. Thomas Jefferson, by then retired from politics to his estate at Monticello in Virginia, sustained crop failures that sent him further into debt. On September 13, a Virginia newspaper reported that corn crops would be one half to two-thirds short and lamented that "the cold as well as the drought has nipt the buds of hope". A Norfolk, Virginia, newspaper reported:
Regional farmers succeeded in bringing some crops to maturity, but corn and other grain prices rose dramatically. The price of oats, for example, rose from 12¢ per bushel in 1815 to 92¢ per bushel in 1816. Crop failures were aggravated by inadequate transportation infrastructure; with few roads or navigable inland waterways and no railroads, it was prohibitively expensive to import food in most of the country.
Maryland experienced brown, bluish, and yellow snowfall in April and May, colored by volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
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So I just spent an hour on my private Ancestry tree straightening out (who or how does this mix-up keep occurring on my tree?) various people who were married to their mothers, and had their wives as their daughters born the year they were 1 year old!
There is one widow whose husband was alive and well and didn't die till after her. But she was called his widow on several original sources. But how were their lives effected by the cold of 1816 summer? No idea...
So I started looking at my ancestors from Massachusetts...to see if there were any deaths in 1816. So far, none.
In the Rhode Island (probably Quakers) family of the Swaseys, one daughter was born on May 8, 1814, in Newport, RI, and died Sept. 20 of 1815, same city. It's interesting that the same name was again given to another daughter born on April 11, 1827, who lived till 1853.
That's all that my sleuthing has discovered, since many of the sisters/brothers of my direct line haven't been "fluffed out." That means many nieces and nephews of 'great' generations haven't even been added to my tree. Since I've already got about 7600 people, with quite a few photos also, I have only looked back at the New England ancestors on my father's line. There probably are some as well on my mom's side of the family.
One ancestor did die age 50 in 1816. In North Carolina. He was John Franklin Tate III. His older sister (Casandra "Cassiah" Elizabeth Tate 1765-1851) was born in Cherokee County, NC. That is the area where the Eastern Band of Cherokee now live. The Cherokee were forced to leave their homes in 1838 and join 4 other tribes on the Trail of Tears, forced removal to the Oklahoma reservation. But it's very unlikely my 4 time great grandmother probably had any Indian blood. She was the first born of 9 children, with John III her next younger brother, who was born elsewhere.
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But let's see if I can find just one photo of relations/ancestors looking like the Sepia Saturday posted suggestion.
From L to R: Alex, Caesar, Paul, Lizzie, Henry, Emil, Theodore, Louis P F
From Sepia Saturday this week we have...
