Happy Halloween, Halloween!

Here are some of our favorite spooky names we found on old census records using www.ancestry.com:

• Eliza Ghost
• Ghoul Moore
• Specter Johnson
• Pumpkin Hill
• Jack Lantern
• Witch Watty (Witch was a boy--his parents must not have heard about warlocks.)
• Warlock Pinkney (Yes, his parents got it right!)
• Haunt Page
• Scary Rith (Scary and Haunt were both female. These sound manly to me--who knew!)
• Trick Rea
• Treat Askew
• Fairy Tucker
• Princess Whistnant (Poor boy.)
• October Gulley
• Freddy Krueger
• Frank Stein
• Vamp Sweeney
• Grave Daring
• Halloween Doyle (Halloween also seems to be a feminine name!)

Have a frighteningly spectacular Halloween!

http://www.ancestry.com
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Mini_pumpkins.jpg

Welcome Back, Blog!

Last week, as I was preparing for a presentation on blogging, I created a new, fake blog so I could walk myself through the steps. Then I deleted that new, fake blog. Only it wasn't the new, fake blog, it was our old, real Mississippi Library Commission Reference Blog. Oops.

So, here we are! Starting fresh! Eventually all of our old posts will make their way back over here, so never fear: you'll still be able to access those lists of interesting names from the U.S. Census, ads for chewing gum from the 1930s, and the ever-present nuggets of information. It just might take a little while.

Welcome back!