ROOTS, revisited

If you are of a certain age (cough, cough) you may remember watching Roots in January of 1977. Following on the heels of America's Bicentennial, Roots brought the untold story of an American family bound by slavery to television in a sweeping saga spanning eight nights.

The miniseries genre was relatively new to television. The first miniseries, QB VII aired in 1974, followed by Shōgun and Rich Man, Poor Man. Telling a serialized story was certainly not a new phenomenon, Alexandre Dumas and Charles Dickens were masters of the genre. And, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was one of the first American stories to be told in this format. But it was still a novelty to television. 

When Roots aired in 1977, nearly 85 percent of American homes watched some part of the eight-night event recounting the saga of Kunta Kinte (played by actor LeVar Burton) and his descendants. The series finale had 100 million viewers, a staggering number long before most Americans had VCRs or any of the myriad of replay options available today. All told, Roots was watched by an estimated 130 million viewers, an incredible feat given the U.S. population at the time was 221 million. The series led to an amazing spike of interest in genealogy that carries through to today.

I was one of those viewers back in 1977; on the edge of my seat following the story that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Despite the pain and suffering it depicted, I was inspired and uplifted by this testament to endurance.

Now the History Channel is retelling the story for a new generation of viewers. With so many entertainment options — streaming, on demand, and more — there is no way this Roots can capture the same viewership as it did in 1977. Regardless, I hope its reach is vast and inspires a new generation to research their family history.

When asked to characterize why Roots struck such a resonant chord with so many Congresswoman Barbara Jordan replied "Everything converged — the right time, the right story, and the right form." There was something magical about the way the nation was held enthralled by Roots and because of that memory I will be glued to my TV every night this week watching this new telling in real time. I encourage you to do the same.

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A lot of ink has been devoted over the past couple of weeks to trying to explain the cultural impact of Roots then and now. Read more about it:

• Roots: Then and Now 
• Roots: A Cultural Force that Changed the Nation 
• Roots Remade for a New Era 
• Roots for a Black Lives Matter Era 
• Why America Forgot About ‘Roots’
• Remembering Alex Haley: ‘Roots,’ Kunta Kinte & Genealogy 

Is there no end to the fires?

firebug • noun, informal /ˈfī(ə)r bəɡ/
: a person who starts destructive fires

Sometimes you're just bobbing along randomly searching Ancestry when you come across something that causes your head to tilt and your eyes to bug out. I occasionally search my great-grandmother's maiden name, Uselding, just to see if anything new pops up in a sort of virtual serendipity. Imagine my surprise when I did this same search again recently and the word convict leapt off the page of results! 

Clicking through to the digitized record led me to prisoner 15691 (line 4 below), who I immediately recognized as my great-great uncle. But wait! The Luxembourgers were supposed to be the fine, upstanding side of my family. Darn it, another illusion shot to heck.

Iowa Consecutive Registers of Convicts, 1867-1970 [Ancestry.com]¹

Burlington Gazette (Iowa),
October 10, 1932, pg. 

John Uselding (left) First Communion. 

Holy Cross, Wisconsin, 1901.

So, just who was this firebug? The adorable first communicant pictured here, John Jerome Uselding, was the youngest of five children born to John Uselding and Catherine Lauters. The only boy after four girls, John was likely just a little big spoiled. He married Irma Bell Greif in the bride's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, on July 28, 1915, and they had two daughters, Dorothy Marguerite and Catherine Julietta.

John was born and raised in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, but by the 1915 Iowa state census, John was living in Aspinwall, Iowa, where he was manager of the lumberyard and grain elevator and employed by the Neola Elevator Company.²  The discovery of the prison register led me on a search of various digital newspaper sites and the article above was similar to one published in papers throughout the Midwest. I speculated on what might have caused John to set the fire he was imprisoned for and envisioned quite a melodramatic scenario about the family finding themselves in dire circumstances during the Depression... but the reality was far more incredible -- and sinister-- than anything I could have imagined.

A centennial history of Aspinwall provides a wealth of detail about the elevator and lumberyard where John worked.³  As detailed in the town's history, after moving to Aspinwall in 1914, John Uselding was particularly unlucky with respect to fires, losing several homes, livestock and more. And yet, the family's clothes were all at the cleaners when one of these fires occurred. The children's toys were at their grandparents and other coincidences that no longer seemed to be quite that when John was arrested for arson on October 9, 1932.

The Uselding home burned to the ground on September 23, 1932, their third to be lost to fire. Despite the fact the home was heavily mortgaged and John was behind on his payments, suspicion didn't immediately fall on him because he'd been in Omaha on business sixty miles away. But law enforcement learned he'd received a speeding ticket in a nearby town that evening. As it turns out, John took the train to Omaha, rented a car and drove back to Aspinwall to set the fire and received the ticket on his way back to Omaha. What a web of deceit!

Unfortunately John's motives are lost to time and this story was, as well, as I had certainly never heard a hint about it. Convicted of insurance fraud, John seems to have been looking for a way to solve financial difficulties. Had he and his family been living beyond their means? Was he a serial arsonist? He was just convicted for one fire although confessed to others. There are many unanswered questions and the mystery confounded the people of Aspinwall, as well:

Some people say Mr. Uselding was caught after fire #13; others say he was a scapegoat, and after confessing to one fire, "he was blamed for every fire we've ever had in these parts"; still others say the fires were accidental and that Mr. Uselding was a victim of a very strange set of circumstances.

Despite receiving a five-year sentence to the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, John was paroled just eighteen months later, in April of 1934, as indicated on the prison register. By October, 1934, the family was living in Dowagiac, Michigan, and presumably their streak of bad luck in losing homes to fire had ended.
                                                     

1. Iowa Consecutive Registers of Convicts, 1867-1970 [Ancestry.com]. J.J. Uselding, prisoner 15691, Iowa State Penitentiary, Fort Madison, admission 10 October 1932. 
2. Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. J.J. Neslding. Aspinwall, Crawford County, Iowa, 1915. 
3. Stammer, Nancy. The History of Aspinwall, 1882-1982. Odebolt, Iowa : Miller Print. & Pub., 1982. [online]. 

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