The Real McCoy

Today we have a guest blogger, Lyn Cote shares with us about "The Real McCoy." Thanks Lyn, for stepping in.

Historical Research is My Kind of Fun!

I have a Masters in American History and my idea of fun is to spend hours deep in the back of a library or in the heart of a local museum. On a trip to Florida, my husband and I managed to stop at the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois, the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia and finally Andrew Jackson’s estate, The Hermitage, near Nashville. (Can you believe that the wallpaper hung in that antebellum house is still on the walls? No peeling and still looks good--AMAZING!)

Using Authentic Language

It is always so interesting to research the language of a time period. For example, I had wanted to use the phrase “the real thing,” in my latest book, The Baby Bequest, but after some research, I discovered that phrase came into use much later than when this story takes place. I don’t like to use phrases that aren’t historically grounded.

The Real McCoy

So I substituted “the real McCoy,” and discovered that this phrase came into use because of Elijah McCoy, an African-American born in Ontario, Canada, in 1844, the son of runaway slaves. Educated in Scotland as a mechanical engineer, Elijah McCoy settled in Detroit. Unable to get a job as a mechanical engineer because of racial prejudice, he worked for the railroad as an “oiler.”

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down

While working there, he invented a cup that would regulate the flow of oil onto moving parts of industrial machines, first the train engine. This invention distributed oil evenly over the engine's moving parts. He obtained a patent for this invention, which allowed trains to run continuously for long periods of time without pausing for maintenance.
The term “real McCoy” refers to Elijah’s oiling device. It became so popular that people inspecting new equipment would ask if the device contained “the real McCoy.”
How about that?

For more information, go to http://www.biography.com/people/elijah-mccoy-9391300

So that’s what makes me smile.

Finding out something I never knew before and usually it’s so much more than I expected!

Have you ever visited a national historic site or a particularly interesting small museum or local historical site? Please share what you learned or what surprised you.--Lyn

PS: My upcoming historical is BLESSING, the second in my “Quaker Brides” series about a family who works for abolition and equal rights for all in mid-19th century America. Also if you drop by my website and subscribe to my enewsletter, I’ll send you a PDF copy of “Old Family Recipes.” 15 Love Inspired Historical authors (including me) put together our old favorite family recipes and the stories behind them. LynCote.com

American Slang

by Linda Farmer Harris

Slang and clichés fascinate me. My dad's advice was, "Say what you mean and mean what you say." Slang drove him crazy.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, clichés are words and phrases that are used so often that they are no longer original or interesting. For example, over the hill, the calm before the storm, or back against the wall. As writers, we avoid them like the plague.

What's your favorite cliché? What phrase(s) do you find yourself relying on to communicate with friends and family?

Slang "are words that are not considered part of the standard vocabulary of a language and that are used very informally in speech especially by a particular group of people." Not to be confused with idioms, jargon, and euphemisms.

Slang words show the attitudes of folks who use them. They can appear as a new word, new meaning for an existing word, word that are said a particular way, but are not dialect based, and/or compounded words. The words are not dialect, graffiti, secret codes, or catch phrases.

It has been reported that by the 18th century that the differences between English speaking countries and America prompted the evolution of slang. Writers began using slang in the 1900s. Slang was originally thought to be the language of the uneducated, criminals, and foreigners.

Sit in a large bookstore, or stand in a long grocery line for very long and you'll probably hear a lot contemporary slang or regional clichés in quite a few conversations.

The first time I was asked if I wanted a "pop" I said I had one, but would really like a Coke. My aunt still kids me about that one.

What slang word threw you for a loop the first time you heard it? Was it old slang or new?

Writing historical fiction adds its own need for making sure word and phrase usage is authentic, true to the period. A few years back, I read a novel set in 1850. The premise was intriguing, the characters likable from the first page. However, the promise of a great read was shattered when the villain used 1940 gangster movie lingo.


I recently completed content editing for a local writer. Her novel is set in 1977, Archuleta County, Colorado. One of her characters, Star, is a gum-smacking rebellious teenager. Star's vocabulary is spiked with contemporary lingo. Since I remember that decade, I marked, but didn't immediately check the slang Star used.

Before the editing was finished, I double-checked the slang. Several were in the online 1970's lists, but closer investigation revealed that they were not in use before 1977. Star couldn't use them. So the writer opted for "older than dirt; diddly-squat; head honcho; get so hyper; get on your pony and ride; all show and no go; lock, stock, and barrel.

One online website I visited was the Historical Dictionary of American Slang at http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/

When I have some free time, I'm going back to explore A Glossary of Quaint Southernisms at http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/southernese.html.

Well, I was staying on task, focused on 1977 slang, foregoing electronic forays into Southernisms, Yankees vs. Rebels, Cowboys vs. Dudes, when I came upon -
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/generation_test.html - Slinging Slang from the Flappers to the Rappers: The alphaDictionary Slang Generation Checkup. 

The twenty multiple-choice questions didn't take but a few minutes, but the results were enlightening. I'm definitely a slang product of my high school era, four-plus decades later!

As we know, never hitch your research on one source - online or in print. It was time to pull out the big guns.
• Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English edited by Paul Beale; 
• Bring Home the Bacon & Cutting the Mustard by Castle Books; 
• Heavens to Betsy & Other Curious Savings by Charles Earle Funk;
• Dunces, Gourmand & Petticoats by Adrian Room;
• The Cat's Pajamas: A Fabulous Fictionary of Familiar Phrases

I came across a few interesting nuggets — 
• since 1897 "bad" has been used to mean "good"
• "dude" to mean "guy" first appeared in the 1870's.

Texting is changing our current slang, too. We've abbreviated words and phrases, and even speak the letters. For example: YSVW—You're So Very Welcome; DBA—Don't Bother Asking; VBD—Very Big Deal; CUL—See You Later; PAW—Parents are Watching.

It won't be long before our computer keyboards will have text shortcuts built in.

In the novel you're currently reading, what slang or clichés has the author used?

Blessings,

I was introduced to CB slang by my brother, Jonathan. He became interested in the CB radio culture in high school. He had his "handle" and we'd listen for hours to the trucker transmissions. It was an easy slip over into being fascinated with slang and use cowboy slang in my Western novels.

Lin and her husband, Jerry, live on a hay and cattle ranch in Chimney Rock, Colorado.

 

Tidbits About Research

Back in May of 2009 I posted a short tidbit on my 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog about the first Gold Rush.

Here is the original post:
In 1799 a 12 year old boy named Conrad Reed found a 17lb gold nugget on his family farm in North Carolina. This nugget was used as a doorstop for years. In 1802, John Reed took the nugget to a jeweler and discovered that it was gold. He wasn't paid well for this nugget but John quickly learned the true value of the gold and a lot more gold was found on the family farm.

Gold mining quickly became a major industry in North Carolina. during the first half of the 19th century gold mining became the number one occupation in North Carolina, surpassing that of farmers.

Gold mining back then was little more than picking the nuggets off the land, then by the middle of the century shafts were dug when they discovered that gold came in veins.

The Charlotte house a mint. It was the first mint to mint gold from America in the U.S. end of original post

How did I stumbled upon this tidbit? I began researching the historical events from the 19th century for a possible book proposal set in North Carolina. That is when I found out about the original gold rush in 1799 and the first mint in the U.S. to mint gold.

Finding gold was not the goal of my hero and heroine but the general background information about the mint, getting ready to mint a gold coin, what that coin looked like, how the molds were made, etc. Allowed me to take a tin smith and turn him into the hero.

Making use of online sources is one of the ways to narrow down what I need to research when I actually go and visit an area. I'll find maps with street names, at various time periods and see if they are called the same today. Again that is something I can do online. However, visiting the location, gives me a better feel of the terrain.

Another online resource I use is Google books, I'll search for the name of the town, the year and I might find some newspapers, journals, criminal or town reports, not to mention advertisers of various businesses in the area, during the time period I'm writing in. These reports give me costs of items, names of people in an area, etc. (You can also use this method in researching Genealogy, I came up with some great information for some of my ancestors this way.)

And last but not least, I also search census records. These give me names of people, how many were in the town around the year I'm working in. I also look at previous and future censuses to see what kinds of changes have happened. Sometimes a report was generated from these censuses and you can find some of these in Google books which make it a lot easier to narrow down the stats of an area.

Well that's just a little bit of what I do while researching for a historical novel. Of course my favorite part is going to a location and meeting some of the people and places in the area. Later this month I'll be traveling up to Lake Champlain, NY again, to visit with family but do some additional research for a book, I haven't yet proposed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 40 years. Check out her 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog if you like exploring different tidbits of history. Lynn's latest novel is Courting Holly Her next novel, "Winning the Captain's Heart" is scheduled for release in July.

Historical Personal Diaries -- A Treasure in So Many Ways

Last month I shared here about researching family history, and many readers responded, saying they were encouraged to begin their own family history research. I hope some of you have gotten started or plan to in the new year!

Another way of learning about your ancestor’s lives--or maybe your ancestral hometown's history--is to locate personal diaries and journals written in the past.

One artifact that came to me through my dad and his family was a small notebook. It wasn’t intended to be a diary. In fact, the name "Wigwam Tobacco" is imprinted on its cover. Even back then they were making promotional items to advertise a product! 

Edith's Diary

It may not have been a real diary, but my paternal grandmother, Edith, decided to make it one. And for a bit more than an entire year, she recorded her life in that little notebook. There wasn’t a lot of room for her to write, but through those pages I was able to read about a year in her life as a young woman on the verge of falling in love. This was very special to me because I never had a chance to know her since she died before I was born.

She began the diary in August of 1899 and the last entry was made in September 1900. Through the pages I read about a young man named Jack turning her head, her celebration of the turning of the century on 1/1/1900, and her mother dying that May. What really caught my attention though, was the sweet flirtatious attraction between Edith and Jack, who would become my grandfather. It seems that although Jack was interested in Edith, a pretty girl or two would still capture his attention. Or, at least it seemed that way to Edith :-). They often attended dances, coming alone, but then at the end of the evening Jack would walk her home. 

One summer night she walked into the dance and the Tumbolt sisters were there. Jack having a good time. The following day she says she went uptown in the evening. Saw Tombolt girls AND saw Jack. She put the emphasis on the word "and." I could almost feel her stomach growing hot as she watched my grandfather probably cajoling with the Tombolts. At least it made good fodder for a story.

And a story I wrote for a fiction writing class I was taking.  A lot of the story came from my imagination, and the Tombolts were there to be sure.

Eliza's Lake Geneva Diaries

Fast forward to this past fall. While researching for my current work in progress, a 19^th Century story set in Lake Geneva, WI,  my hometown (which is not the same town my grandmother lived in), I attended an event at the town's museum. The speaker mentioned a set of diaries written by a lady who live in the town during the 19th century. Her seventeen diaries, dating from the Civil War up to the early 1880s, are housed in the archive library located at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. When I heard this, I couldn’t wait to get to that library and look at the ones written in 1871 and 1872, the time when my story takes place.What better way to read about life in my story setting than that?

How I picture the scene

I did not know the lady or any of her descendants, but I knew the house (long since torn down) that she lived in. The flavor of the town seemed to leap off the pages. For example, in winter she took a horse-drawn sleigh to church, and one time she and her husband took a horse-drawn sleigh across the frozen lake where he "found an Irishman"  there and hired him to chop firewood. Later in my reading, her husband suddenly took ill and died a few hours later. I gasped and said, “Oh no.” By that time I felt I really knew Eliza and blinked at tears as she described her grief.

I wished I'd had the time that day to read through all 17 diaries. But I'll have to save that for another time. My research makes me wonder what else is housed in those archives. You can be sure I’ll be heading back up there as soon as I can to find out.

Your family may not have passed down a diary, but something else. Perhaps you have some letters or postcards. Or possibly some newspaper clippings or a cookbook with notes written in the margins.

What artifacts from the past do you have that tell you about your family several generations ago?

 

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago, an hour's drive away from her hometown which she visits often to dig into its historical legacy. Her novels include Thyme for Love, and Love Will Find a Way,  contemporary romantic mysteries and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva,Wisconsin, released in April, 2013. She can often be found speaking at events around Lake Geneva or nosing in microfilms and historical records about Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.