The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (23 page)

28 W. M. Chamberlain "Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary," National Deaf-Mute Gazette 1 (1) (1867):1-4.

29 T. Brown [signed T.B.], "Letter," Deaf-Mutes' Friend 1(6) (1869):188-190. The Deaf teacher and journalist was Henry C. Rider.

30 W. M. Chamberlain, "Obituary of Laurent Clerc," Deaf-Mutes' Friend 1 (1869): 216-217.

31 W. B. Swett, "A Birth Day Party" Deaf Mutes' Friend 1(4) (1869): 123.

32 Brown, In Memoriam.

33 J. T. Tillinghast, "Gathering of Mutes at Amherst, New Hampshire," Michigan Deaf-Mute Mirror 4 (1878): 3.

34 Anon., "Meeting of Deaf-Mutes" [Boston Deaf-Mute Mission]. Silent World 4 (1874): 5.

35 W. B. Swett, Adventures of a Deaf-Mute (Boston, Mass.: Deaf-Mute Mission, 1874).

36 T. L. Brown, In Memoriam.

37 T. Brown, [Address by Thomas Brown at his 80th birthday]. Hillsboro Messenger, March 6, 1884.

Chapter 6

1 Colby, "Thomas Brown place."

2 Dr. Nora Groce informs us that she has deposited a set of Vineyard pedigrees with the Library of Congress and also with the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society in Edgartown, Mass. (Personal communication, April 2009.)

The following were the primary sources of data that included multiple Vineyard families:

C. E. Banks, The History of Martha's Vineyard. (Edgartown, Mass.: Dukes County Historical Society, 1911, reprinted 1966); Bell, Unpublished Notebooks; Cogswell, Henniker;

E. A. Fay's census of Deaf marriages: E. A. Fay, Marriages of the Deaf in America (Washington, D.C.: Volta Bureau, 1898). The data forms for Fay's census are in the Gallaudet University Archives. J. C. Gordon, Education of Deaf Children: Evidence of Edward Gallaudet and Alexander Graham Bell Presented to the Royal Commission of the United Kingdom On the Condition of the Blind, Deaf and Dumb, etc. (Washington, D.C.: Volta Bureau, 1892); W. Haygood, "The Mystery of Martha's Vineyard," Boston Globe, July 20 (1986): Al, A4; C. M. Mayhew, Vital Records of Chilmark Massachusetts to the Year 1850 with Birth Marriage and Death additions (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Editions, 1991).

3 Pedigrees shown at the website provide a coefficient of relatedness-see Method appendix.

4 Banks, History, see vol. 1, p. 125; D. C. Poole, A New Vineyard (Edgartown, Mass.: Dukes County Historical Society, 1976); D. C. Poole, "Vineyarders Down East," Dukes County Intelligencer 22 (1980): 3-14.

N. Groce, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985); p. 35 states that Skiffe was from Kent. Banks, History, see vol. 2, p. 8, "Annals of West Tisbury," states it was James Skiffe Jr. who purchased the land. Tisbury first had the name Takemmy, then Middletown.

6 Inspecting the pedigrees, the reader may have noticed that a Martha Parkhurst (1595-1635) wed Gov. Thomas Mayhew while a Deborah Parkhurst (1619-1678) married John Smith. Martha is not a proven name; she is sometimes referred to as Ann or Abigail. Her father has been identified as Matthew (b. 1575). One source gives as Matthew's wife, Ann Newcomb, m. 1594. Since nothing is known of Matthew's parents or siblings, it has not been possible to evaluate the hypothesis that Deborah is the daughter of a brother of Matthew. www.conovergenealogy.com/ancestor-p/ p160.htm (accessed 7/23/2010).

Lambert references: A. Otis, "The Lumbert or Lombard Family," Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy #54 (Yarmouthport, Mass.: C.W. Swift, 1914); S. Rich, "The Lombards of Truro," Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy #76 (Yarmouthport, Mass.: C.W. Swift, 1912). We appreciate Del Wynne's sharing family genealogy with us for the Lambert family.

8 H. G. Lang, "Genesis of a Community: The American Deaf Experience in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," in J. V. Van Cleve, ed., The Deaf History Reader (Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2007), 1-23.

Groce, Everyone Here.

10 Banks, History, quotation from vol. 2, p. 53, "Annals of West Tisbury."

ii Butler clan: W. Butler, "Martha's Vineyard, a Diary by William Butler," Dukes County Intelligencer 8 (2) (1966): 23-32; F. G. Butler, A History Of Farmington Maine 1776-1885 (Farmington, Me.: Moulton, 1885); W. C. Hatch, A History of the Town of Industry, Franklin County, Maine. Embracing the Cessions of New Sharon, New Vineyard, Anson and Starks (Farmington, Me: Press Of Knowledge, 1893); New Sharon, New Sharon, Maine, Historical Collections (1977). Poole, New Vineyard.

12 Athearn: Town of Tisbury, Vital Records of Tisbury, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1910).

13 Personal communication, Joan Poole-Nash, 2009.

14 Anon., "Deaf and Dumb of Squibnocket," Deaf-Mutes' Journal 24 (1895): 1.

15 Bell gives the head counts for Tilton, Mayhew, and Skiffe. See: Gordon, Education of Deaf Children.

16 The inference that the hearing ancestors of a Deaf descendant were related is based on the observation that numerous genes may render a person Deaf so the odds of receiving the same gene from each parent are quite small unless the parents are related. Recent studies have shown that mutations in the gene GJB2 (connexin-26) are very common among people who were born Deaf and as many as I in every 40 people in the general population have at least one mutated copy of the gene. If this gene was widespread on Martha's Vineyard, marriage among relatives would not necessarily have been required for some of the offspring to be Deaf. G. E.Green, D. A. Scott, J. M. McDonald, et al., "Carrier rates in the Midwestern United States for GJB2 Mutations Causing Inherited Deafness" Journal of the American Medical Association 281 (1999): 193-195. W. E. Nance, X. Z. Liu, and A. Pandya "Relation Between Choice of Partner and the High Frequency of Connexin-26 Deafness," Lancet 356 (2000): 500-501.

17 Groce, Everyone Here, see p. 123.

18 S. Rich et al., The Lombards of Truro, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy #76 (Yarmouthport, Mass.: C.W. Swift, 1912).

19 Lothrop's great-grandson, Nathaniel Brown, had a daughter, Mary, who married into the great Lovejoy Deaf clan in Maine; more on them later. (See Fig. 12, Lovejoy pedigree).

20 Banks, History.

21 Groce, Everyone Here, see p. 30.

22 "Downing's family came from the Suffolk/Essex borders (he is buried in Suffolk along with his parents). His family also lived briefly in Dublin (he was born there)." Bencie Woll, personal communication, 2008. See also: J. Beresford, The Godfather of Downing Street; Sir George Downing, 1623-1684 (London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1925); S. Jones, In the Blood: God, Genes, and Destiny (London: Harper Collins, 1996).

23 B. Carty, S. Macready, and E. Sayers, "'A Grave and Gracious Woman': Deaf People and Signed Language in Colonial New England," Sign Language Studies 9 (2009): 287-323.

24 J. Freeman, Dukes County 1807. Reprinted: Dukes County Intelligencer 12 (4) (1976): 1-51; D; Poole, New Vineyard; E. R. Mayhew, Martha's Vineyard: A Short History and Guide. (Edgartown, Mass.: Dukes County Historical Society, 1956).

25 Groce, Everyone Here.

26 N. Groce, "Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language," Natural History 89 (1980): 12-15.

27 ibid.

28 N. Groce, "The Island's Hereditary Deaf: A Lesson In Human Understanding." Dukes County Intelligencer 22 (1981): 83-95.

29 Groce, "Hereditary Deafness," see p. 177.

30 P. K. Valentine, "A Nineteenth Century Experiment in Education of the Handicapped: The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb," New England Quarterly 64 (1991): 355-375. See also: B. Bahan and J. Poole-Nash, "The Formation of Signing Communities: Perspective from Martha's Vineyard," in J. Mann, ed., Deaf Studies IV Conference Proceedings (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University College of Continuing Education, 1996), 1-26; J. Woodward, "Historical Bases of American Sign Language," in P. Siple, ed., Understanding Language Through Sign Language Research, (New York: Academic Press, 1978), 333-348.

31 N. Groce, Everyone Here; B. Crouch, "Martha's Vineyard 1700-1900," Sign Language Studies 53 (1986): 383-391.

32 J. R. Burnet, Tales of the Deaf and Dumb (Newark, N.J.: Olds, 1835); Anon., "Deaf and Dumb of Squibnocket," Deaf-Mutes' Journal 24 (1895): 1.

33 Bahan and Poole-Nash, "Formation of Signing Communities."

34 Groce, "Everyone Here."

35 Groce, "Everyone Here."

36 W. Haygood, "The Mystery of Martha's Vineyard," Boston Globe (July 20, 1986): Al, A4. Quotation from p. 4.

37 Anon., "Deaf and Dumb."

38 J. Poole, "A Preliminary Description of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language." Unpublished manuscript, Boston University. (Paper delivered at the Third International Symposium on Sign Language Research, Rome, Italy. June 1983.) Summary in Bahan and Poole-Nash, "Formation of Signing Communities."

39 R. E. Johnson, "Sign Language and the Concept of Deafness in a Traditional Yucatec Mayan Village," in C. Erting, R. E. Johnson, D. L. Smith, and B. D. Snider, eds., The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1994), 103-109.

40 Johnson, "Sign language." See also: Bahan and Poole-Nash, "Formation of Signing Communities," 1-26, quotation from p. 19.

41 N.Groce,"The Island's Hereditary Deaf: A Lesson in Human Understanding," Dukes County Intelligencer 22 (1981): 83-95, quotation from p. 95.

42 Other assimilative and differentiating societies include: S. Kisch "Deaf Discourse: The Social Construction of Deafness in a Bedouin Community in the Negev," Medical Anthropology 27 (3) (2008): 283-313. Cf. Ch. 7, n. 5.

Chapter 7

1 W. M. Chamberlain, [Concerning a national convention]. Deaf-Mutes' Friend IN (1869): 241-242. William Martin Chamberlain of So. Reading, Mass. (1832-1895), edited the monthly Gallaudet Guide and Deaf-Mute's Companion, official organ of the NEGA, printed in Boston 1860-1865. He also edited the National Deaf-Mute's Gazette and the Deaf-Mute's Friend. He was instructor at the Central New York Institution for the Deaf, at Rome, N.Y., and active in the Empire State Association of the Deaf.

2 J.O. David, "From New Hampshire: An Interesting Letter from Mr. David," Michigan Deaf-Mute Mirror, January 10 (1879): 2.

3 Brown, In Memoriam.

4 N. Groce, Everyone Here, quotation from p. 60.

5 Groce gives a list of examples of recessive deafness in small inbred communities. Groce, "Hereditary Deafness," see p. 361. See also on other assimilating communities: A. Kusters, "Deaf Utopias? Reviewing the Sociocultural Literature on the World's Martha's Vineyard Situations," Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 15 (2010): 3-16; M. Fox, Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007); R. Senghas and L. Monaghan, "Signs of Their Time: Deaf Communities and the Culture of Language," Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 69-97; B. Woll and P. Ladd, "Deaf Communities," in M. Marschark and P. E. Spencer, eds, Deaf Studies, Language and Education (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 151-163; Adamorobe village, Ghana: N. Frishberg, "Sign Languages: Ghanaian," in J. Van Cleve, ed., Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People And Deafness, vol. 3. (New York: McGraw-Hill), 78-79; V. Nyst, "A Descriptive Analysis of Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana)" (Ph.D. diss. University of Amsterdam, 2007). al-Sayyid Bedouins, Negev, Israel: S. Kisch, "Negotiating (Genetic) Deafness in a Bedouin Community," in J. V. Van Cleve, ed., Genetics, Disability, and Deafness (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2004.); S. Kisch, "Disablement, Gender and Deafhood among the Negev ArabBedouin," Disability Studies Quarterly 27 (4) (2007): http://www.dsq-sds.org (consulted 7/23/2010); S. Kisch, "Deaf Discourse." Amami Island, Japan: Osugi and T. Supalla cited in B. Bahan and J. Poole-Nash (1996), "The Formation of Signing Communities: Perspective from Martha's Vineyard," in J. Mann ed., Deaf Studies IV Conference Proceedings (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University College of Continuing Education, 1996),1-26; Y. Osugi, T. Supalla, and R. Webb "The Use of Word Elicitation to Identify Distinctive Gestural Systems on Amami Island," Sign Language and Linguistics 2 (1999): 87-112. Bali Indonesia: J. Branson, D. Miller, and I. G. Marsaja, "Sign Languages as Natural Part of the Linguistic Mosaic: The Impact of Deaf People on Discourse Forms in North Bali, Indonesia," in E. Winston, ed., Storytelling and Conversation: Discourse in Deaf Communities. Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities Series, Vol. 5 (Washington, D. C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1999); J. Branson and D. Miller, "The Cultural Construction of Linguistic Incompetence through Schooling: Deaf Education and the Transformation of the Linguistic Environment in Bali, Indonesia," Sign Language Studies 5 (1) (2004): 6-38; I. Marsaja, "Sociocultural, Sociolinguistic and Linguistic Patterns in a Deaf Community: An Ethnographic Study of a Deaf Village in North Bali" (Ph.D. Diss., La Trobe University, Melbourne, 2003); I. Marsaja, Desa Kolok. A Deaf Village and its Sign Language in Bali, Indonesia. (Nijmegen., Netherlands: Ishara Press, 2008). Ban Khor, Thailand: A. Nonaka, "The Forgotten Endangered Languages: Lessons on the Importance of Remembering From Thailand's Ban Khor Sign Language," Language in Society 33 (2004): 737-767. Brazil: L. Ferreira-Brito, "Similarities and Differences in two Brazilian Sign Languages," Sign Language Studies, 13 (1984): 45-56.; J. Kakumasu, "Urubu Sign Language," International Journal of American Linguistics 34 (1968): 275-281; Grand Cayman, B.W.I.: W. Washabaugh, "The Deaf of Grand Cayman, B.W.I.," Sign Language Studies 31 (1981) 117-134. India: U. Zeshan, M. Vasishta, and M. Sethna, "Implementation of Indian Sign Language in Educational Contexts," Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal 16 (1) 2005: 16-40; Jamaica: D. Dolman, "Sign Languages in Jamaica," Sign Language Studies 52 (1986): 235-242; K. Cumberbatch, "Country Sign: Jamaica" (paper delivered at the Third Conference for Cross-linguistic Research and International Cooperation in Sign Language Linguistics, in Preston, U. K., 2008). Kosindo, Suriname: B. Van den Bogaerde, "Everybody Signs in Kosindo Also," Deaf-Worlds 21 (2005): 103-107. Nicaragua: J. Kegl, A. Senghas, and M. Coppola, "Creation through Contact: Sign Language Emergence and Sign Language Change in Nicaragua," in M. DeGraff, ed., Language Creation and Language Change: Creolization, Diachrony, and Development (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999), 179-237. Yucatan, Mexico: E. Delgado, "Culture and Sign Language in a Mexican Mayan Deaf Community," Third Conference for Cross-linguistic Research. Papua, New Guinea: A. Kendon "A Description of a Deaf-Mute Sign Language From the Enga Province Of Papua New Guinea With Some Comparative Discussion," Semiotica 31 (1980): 1-34, 81-117, 245-313. Providence Island, Colombia: P. Farb, Word Play: What Happens When People Talk (New York: Knopf, 1973); W. Washbaugh, Five Fingers For Survival (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Karoma, 1986); W. Washabaugh, "Hearing and Deaf Signers on Providence Island," Sign Language Studies 24 (1979):191-214. J. Woodward, "Attitudes Toward Deaf People on Providence Island, Colombia," American Anthropologist 63 (1978): 49-68. Thailand: J. Woodward, "Sign Languages and Deaf Identities in Thailand and Viet Nam," in L. Monaghan, C. Schmaling, K. Nakamura, and G. H. Turner, eds., Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2003). Yucatec Mayan Village, Mexico: R. E. Johnson, "Sign Language and the Concept of Deafness in a Traditional Yucatec Mayan Village," in C. Erting, R. E. Johnson, D. L. Smith, and B. D. Snider, eds., The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1994), 103-109; M. Shuman, "The Sounds of Silence in Noyha: A Preliminary Account of Sign Language Use by the Deaf in a Maya Community in Yucatan, Mexico," Language Sciences 2 (1980): 144-173; M. K. Shuman, "Culture and Deafness in a Mayan Indian Village," Psychiatry 43 (1980): 359-370; R. E. Johnson, Sign Language, Culture and Community in a Traditional Yucatan Maya Village. Sign Language Studies, 73 (1991): 461-474. Our thanks to Annelies Kusters, Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol, who supplied several of these references.