The Mayfair Family Tree

One thing I have noticed is the interest in the genealogy of the Mayfair Witches.  So, I have been making some preparations to go into the subject on a deeper level.

There has been a great deal more interest in genealogy in recent years, and I think that is largely due to the use of genetic genealogy and what it can do.  So, I've begun by adding a new page to the site, a Mayfair Family Tree Tutorial, I guess I can call it.  So far, I have found some charts that most start with.  They give the average percentage of genes inherited down the generations of the direct line, and the amount of shared DNA (on average) that can potentially be found in cousins by generation.

Different DNA testing kits have different thresholds, so the second chart I found, which is from an online article in Family Tree Magazine (there is a link provided), shows those averages by testing kit.

Now, I wish this had turned out better than it did, but I did manage to make a transparent image of the family tree by Katherine Ramsland that appears in The Witches' Companion.  The trees I've shown before are only sections of the Mayfair tree.  This tree is where they all come from, and will be handy if we were to, say, apply averages using the charts.

There are pages on the site that also might help to give a better idea of what's going on when it comes to the genetics of the Mayfair Witches.  When we look at this data for ourselves, the charts are typically referring to only one line of descent from an ancestor.  

It's when you start to identify more than one distinct line of descent from the same ancestor that things get...interesting.

I'm also trying to provide some basic information on genealogy that people might have anyway.  If we start with the basics, the genetic picture, mind boggling as it already is, might become more clear.

Please note that some of the things that I will discuss are sensitive in nature, and might possibly be upsetting for some.  So I will try to be as careful as I can when discussing those things.  

I anticipate that to illustrate real life examples as much as I am able, I will be using branches of my own family tree.  How much information I provide about the people on it will depend upon several factors.  The first is living or dead.  The second is how close the person is to me in terms of time and generation.  Beyond that, other things that will influence the amount of information I share will be whether or not that information is relevant in some way to current events and/or living people, and if the person was well known in life and/or after death.

Hopefully, what it will amount to is a better understanding of the Mayfair genealogy that plays such a role in the lives of the characters and the events in the novels... 

World of the Witches

I kept forgetting this one, but when you go to the main navigation menu and click on World of the Witches, it will open the page that gives an overview of Rowan and Lasher's trip from the US to Britain and Europe before returning to the US and Rowan's eventual escape in Houston, Texas.  Except the maps that were once on the page haven't been for some time.

I've put maps and images back onto this page, and they are larger ones you can open to see at full size.  I've started to put images on the main site the way they appear on the pages here: with edge fade, which looks a bit nicer a lot of the time, I think.  But I finally got to it.

The maps come from The Witches' Companion, and I have straightened them so they aren't slightly off center like they were before...

Patterns in Chaos

I've done a little redecorating on the Patterns In Chaos page.  The page mainly discusses the restoration of the Mayfair house in The Witching Hour.  The AMC series had the Soria-Creel house's exterior fit with the condition of the Mayfair house when Dierdre Mayfair died in the novel.  In one of those brief featurettes about the making of the series, the use of the green inside and out was meant to give the impression that the overgrown chaos that was the Mayfair garden was slowly consuming the house as well.

There are several GIF and animated images made of the house from clips of episodes of the show.  That, I thought, would be an interesting way of showing what is meant by "patterns in chaos".  There is much chaos, but you can still see there is remaining a pattern of some sort.

The animated images I found in GIF and WEBP format were mostly found on Tumblr, but there are a few from AMC as well.  And I found a neat, tidy little way to preserve whatever original graphics I had on the page originally--a small image gallery at the bottom of the page.

I'm attached to them...

I have many animated images from the series, but for this page, I focused on the outside of the house.  Here is one of my favorites...

The House on First Street

Added to the Exploring New Orleans Architecture page is a brief section on The House on First Street by Julia Reed.

New Orleans Architecture--Updated

Another new page!

When Rowan Mayfair went to New Orleans to bury her mother, Dierdre, Michael Curry was already in Louisiana.  He had found out who the owner of the house on First Street that haunted him actually was.

He learned who had just inherited the house.

After Rowan Mayfair claimed the house, Michael Curry began the massive task of restoring the Mayfair house after 60 years of just sitting in danger of being swallowed whole by its garden.  During this project, he showed Rowan Mayfair some books that discussed the houses surrounding hers, giving an overview of the history she was now surrounded by.

There are many homes in New Orleans that are similar to what is, in real life, the Brevard-Rice house.  This home, at 1239 First Street in New Orleans' Garden District, was built for Albert Hamilton Brevard in 1857, and is the house Anne Rice owned when she wrote The Witching Hour.  Rice used the house as the Mayfair house in her series, Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

The house used (the facade, at least) in the AMC series, Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, is the Soria-Creel house.  However, it is very obvious the two houses were built in the same basic style: Italianate, Greek Revival, and what is called "American Townhouse".  That probably refers more to the footprint of the house, which is basically long and narrow.  

There are several houses in New Orleans that are noticeably similar to the two houses mentioned above.  So, I have begun a page, Exploring New Orleans Architecture, that will be added to over time as I learn about more houses like these.  

The house in the graphic above, the Morris Israel house, is actually across Chestnut Street and the third door down from the Brevard-Rice house.  At the end of the page is a section that is just about this house.  Some images of the house's interior are there, and you will find a link to a PDF document by The McEnery Company that shows more photos of the interior of the house under renovation.  

I've added a picture of the house that is across Chestnut Street from the Brevard-Rice house at 1315 First Street.  That is the Carroll-Crawford house, and I've never looked into its history before, but it should be interesting!

I can't help but look at pictures of the double parlor being renovated in the Morris-Israel house and think of the restoration work by Michael Curry...

 

#MayfairWitches A new page on the Parlor, a "work in progress" that explores New Orleans houses similar to the Brevard-Rice house: https://t.co/iVe1iOPXoO

— Come Into My Parlor...The Mayfair Witches (@mayfairparlor) March 23, 2023

Amelia Street Gallery Two

I've added a second gallery to the Amelia Street page.  One difference you'll notice right away is that the kitchen appears to have been redecorated/renovated/remodeled at some point between listings.  The same seems to have been done with at least one of the bedrooms.

The articles the images came from no longer have the images in the online articles, but I've linked them anyway.  The images I was able to find on Pinterest.  They show the house furnished, and hopefully, they will give a good idea of what each room is when they are photographed unfurnished. 

So far, the new and updated content about the houses seems to be a favorite.  I actually enjoy research on the houses.  Every time I research a house in New Orleans like these, I learn something new about the people who once called them home that is also a significant part of New Orleans' history.  I also run into things I never would have thought I'd find, such as all the different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds that are so much more than what people initially realize when it comes to New Orleans.

Or other places in Louisiana.

I mentioned Belle Grove Plantation in Iberville Parish, Louisiana as being one prototype for Fontevrault.  As I said, the plantation mansion had been built for John Andrews, a planter from Virginia, in 1857.  He sold it to Henry Ware in 1868.  The house remained in the Ware family in one way or another until it was abandoned in 1925.

Of course, the house was looted and became a ruin by the time it burned in 1952.  And of course, the remains of the structure were deemed a hazard and razed by the end of the 1950's.

I think one stereotype is that in and around that area of Louisiana, people tend to expect planters to be pretty much of French or French Creole ancestry.  And yet, many were of English and Scottish ancestry.  And even more than that.

In fact, one of the houses in the Garden District that is similar to the Brevard-Rice house was built for a man who emigrated to the United States from Germany.  Those are just a few examples, to be honest.

There are photos of Belle Grove's interior online, but they were taken only after the house had fallen into ruin.  I've yet to see a photo of the interior of the house taken when it was still in use and/or in reasonably livable condition.  It's only when I find photos taken of the front elevation with people standing on the gallery that I can really see its enormous proportions.

In recent years, a 3D model of the house with interior rooms has been created on Second Life, and it is truly astonishing.  The model, I understand, was made from floor plans that can also be found online.  It might also be a pretty good estimate of what Fontevrault's interior would have looked like...

Amelia Street

I spent quite a bit of time on the Amelia Street page.  As I make my way towards distinguishing the two houses from one another, I decided to add some additional images and details about the house on St. Charles Avenue.

The details of the house come from a more recent listing on Realtor.com, and I've added a gallery of images from that listing that show the interior of the house.  It has been renovated over time, of course, but it isn't always obvious which rooms are which when they are empty.  Some are obvious, like the kitchen area, and a closet quite enormous.  

I have some more photos I might add at a later date, but hopefully, we can start to see which house is which.

At the bottom, because I couldn't help myself, I decided to put some graphics together to show what Fontevrault "looked like".  Fontevrault was the plantation established by a separate faction of Mayfairs after the duel with Julien Mayfair ended in Augustin Mayfair's death.  I managed to find a good size print of the Mass Market cover to show the listing old mansion sitting in water and added that.

Madewood Plantation House was the "prototype" used for the artwork depicting Fontevrault, and I made a graphic from an actual photo of the house...with reflecting water.

In The Witches' Companion, Fontevrault was closest to a now long gone plantation in Iberville Parish, Louisiana named Belle Grove.  This particular house is one I've been fascinated with for several reasons.  Here, I managed to find a sepia photo of the house after it had been abandoned but before it burned, colorized it, and then gave it a reflecting water effect.  If I ever decide to make it so the house is listing somewhat, I wonder which side would most likely have started to sink first?

The two plantation houses with their graphics can be found at the bottom of the Amelia Street page.

Also, if you get the chance, the graphic at the top of the page that shows the Amelia Street house in a green light has a link below it.  That will take you to the site where that image came from.  On it are many portraits of houses in New Orleans done in this beautiful way, a sort of mystic glow.  They are absolutely stunning and well worth spending the time to look at each and every one.

#MayfairWitches More about Mona Mayfair's Amelia Street house on Come Into My Parlor: https;//mayfair95.tripod.com/id59.html and Belle Grove as Fontevrault... pic.twitter.com/sCnqWvnjrb

— Come Into My Parlor...The Mayfair Witches (@mayfairparlor) March 23, 2023

History in Color

Added to the bottom of The Witching Hour - The Mayfair House is a short video of the historical images of the First Street house taken in 1933 and in 1964.  I put the black and white images into Playback.fm to see what would happen, and they aren't too bad!  The images of the double parlor taken in 1933 are quite rich in color, and it's hard to tell what colors things actually were in a black and white photo.

The video is hosted on YouTube but you will need to go to that page of the Parlor to view it initially.  If you have a YouTube channel with playlists, and you'd like to save the video to watch later, you can add any video in the Parlor to your playlist and view it from there as well.

I like to find new ways to display the content on the website.  This one was fun because of the effects.  It's a bit like going into the room, flipping the lights on and watching the room fill with color as the lights come on.  

Speaking of history, there is another new page on the website that is still under construction, but you can see what's already there.  The First Street Family Gallery has portraits of some of First Street's previous owners and residents.  Seen here are Emory and Pamela Starr Clapp, and even a picture of Emory Clapp's father, Theodore "Parson" Clapp.  Parson Clapp did not reside in the house but he can be found in the history of New Orleans, as well.  

Emory Clapp died not in New Orleans, but in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to his Find A Grave listing.  Which means I am curious as to what Emory Clapp died of.  As I might have mentioned on the Vampires and the Ocean State page, Colorado Springs had tuberculosis sanitoriums in the late 19th century due to its high altitude.  It was believed that because higher altitudes tend to make blood move more sluggishly through the body, this sluggish movement would help slow the spread of tuberculosis through the body.  This, it was hoped, would give patients at least a little bit better chance of survival.  

Had these sanitariums begun by the time Clapp died?  I will have to go back and look, but the obvious question here is, did Emory Clapp die of tuberculosis?  Or did he happen to be in Colorado Springs for some other reason when he died there?

There is one more person I've listed on the family gallery: a man named Robert Slark Day.  He had been married to Sarah Clapp, the adopted daughter of Emory and Pamela Starr Clapp. and it seems he and his wife would at times stay with her widowed mother in the house on First Street.

It sounds like this is where Day probably met his rather bizarre end in 1895.  Even the New York Times did an article about it, but since I am not subscribed to that particular newspaper, I can't open it and read it.  The article from the Times-Picayune in New Orleans was transcribed into Day's Find A Grave listing, which is linked in the page.

I have more resources to add regarding the Clapps.  Also, I hope I can find more about Albert Hamilton Brevard, who had the First Street house built (and, it turns out, is also a relative of mine), especially photos.  I was able to find out that Brevard is not interred in Louisiana, but in Missouri.  More on that later...

#MayfairWitches A short video I made of historical photos of the First Street house transitioning from B&W to color, seen on https://t.co/I7qFFm3QWe and here: https://t.co/cMKAzynlur

— Come Into My Parlor...The Mayfair Witches (@mayfairparlor) March 23, 2023

An Update For Architectural Enthusiasts...

...is that what it's called?

Anyway.

Something I have been anxious to do for weeks now, I managed to do.  A lot of my time over the last several weeks has been focused on site navigation, which I hope makes it much easier for people to navigate the site without having to scroll, click, click, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, click, scroll, click, click, scroll...

And you won't have to do any of that on the page I just updated, House of Patterns.

The original images (they are still there in all their tiny glory for metadata reasons) were too small to really see all the details on the plans for 1239 First Street.  So I managed to find larger images, in case anyone wants to look closely at them, save a copy...

When I began to build the parlor as a 3D model, I did use the floor plan to place the doors, windows, fireplaces, measure dimensions...  If anyone out there enjoys building 3D models of historic homes like this one, the plans should be a big help.

This is a chance to mention again something I have wanted to add to the site for a while.  A page that does a survey of homes in the Garden District built in the same basic style as the Brevard-Rice house.  The house is in the basic style of American Townhouse, but is something of a polyglot when it comes to what you see on the house.  The front of the house is one place where the "Greek Revival" comes into it.  It does have two different styles of columns fronting it.

But not all the homes in the Townhouse style in the Garden District have exactly the same things on it.  Not all of them feature the Egyptian keyhole doorway on the front door, and not all of them have the same type of columns on the galleries (porches).  

The Morris-Israel house (1331 First Street) is one people might recognize as readily as they might now recognize the Soria-Creel house.  It has the lacy green arches along its front galleries, similar to the side porch of the Brevard-Rice house.  This one would be a fun one to give an overview of along with some resources because quite a bit can be learned about these houses just from fairly recent photos of work going on inside it.

I've always loved the restoration part of The Witching Hour.  When the series began in January, my mother reread the book and she wondered how a house, especially one in New Orleans, could remain fairly intact through 60 years of neglect.  Where I live, you don't see houses built with basements anymore because our water table is as high as the grass and the drainage caused too many problems for many houses with basements.  So we have what Anne Rice described Michael Curry crawling across to confirm the house had chain-walls: a crawl space.

A crawl space, not chain walls!  But chain walls and the description of their thickness and what they were built with just might be one thing that would keep a house like that from disintegrating from decades of neglect--to a point.

Just for funsies, I've always been fascinated in that creepy train wreck sort of way with the description of Fontevrault sitting in several feet of water but still standing.  I doubt that would even be possible, but I could be wrong.  I first read Taltos just before the Mass Market edition was released, so when I saw the cover with the plantation house sitting in swampy water and listing to one side, I was pretty fascinated!  

Several nights ago, I decided to see if I could find a plantation house that looked like the one used on that cover...or the one that WAS used on that cover.  In The Witches' Companion, you will see a photograph of the front of Belle Grove, a plantation house long gone but in its day was said to have been absolutely beautiful.  This was one example of Fontevrault shown.  

Then I found a short New York Times article that said the "prototype" for Fontevrault was the still standing Madewood Plantation.  When I looked, I could see it was.  The artist who created the cover for the Mass Market edition made some changes to the wings of the house, but the main facade is almost a complete match.  So I found a great image of Madewood shrouded in mist, pinpointed the height of the water, and made an animated graphic with reflecting water.  It is at the bottom of the page on the Amelia Street house on the main website.

Which leads me to the next idea I've mentioned before regarding houses.  

The two houses, the Amelia Street house and First Street, do sometimes seem to be confused with one another.  Anne Rice at one time did own several properties in New Orleans, including houses, but I think her main residence was First Street.  I want to do something that will help distinguish which house is which.  It will be fun, because both houses are absolutely gorgeous! 

I hope I can do that very soon, because the process of improving the site's navigation has NOT been an easy one!

Even though it was difficult, I finally found a way for this blog to feed into a widget on the website's Home page with good old fashioned RSS.  It's a website that, believe it or not, is for surfers!  But they have a great RSS feed generator, so if you need one for your own website, here is a link for Surfing Waves, or look for the link in the bottom right corner of the widget and it will take you to their site.

But...

Build a menu to put on each page of a fairly large website that will show up without having to copy and paste the code for it into each and every page?  Nope.

So I had to set it up a different way with a main menu, submenus, and jump menus with anchor links.  It's been time consuming but I think it's been well worth the time and effort.  Other than new content, you're likely to see a lot of these types of changes to the site to make it much easier to navigate and enjoy!