Some of my early NE ancestors are described as having slits in their
ears into which a half-penny was inserted?  What does this indicate?

Dear cuddles1-ga ;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

It indicates that your ancestors were farm animals.

Half penny earmarks were a form of branding used in New England in the
early to mid-1800's to identify ownership of cattle and the like:

?Ear Marks of sundry inhabitants of Blenheim Township for Horned
Cattle, Hogs, and Sheep, etc. One of the more interesting aspects of
this Town Book is the list of ear marks used for the identification of
animals. The various marks used include square croping of the ear,
slits, swallow forks, half penny notches, holes, half crops, and
slanting crops in various combinations on both left and right ears of
the animal. This seems to be a rather novel way of branding animals,
and not too many records exist of this type. One might wonder which
would be more painful to the animal, branding with a hot iron or
having notches and holes cut in its ear.?

EARS MARKS 1822-1859
Blenheim Township
Oxford County

http://www.magma.ca/~ekipp/earmarks.htm

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



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Half penny ear marks

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 23 Jan 2004 14:18 PST

I'm sorry, I should have said the practice was in use in the "early
1700's to mid 1800's". By the way, "half penny" was the name of the
mark, and not literally a half-penny coin.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 23 Jan 2004 18:49 PST

I'm sorry you took it the wrong way. It was not my intention to insult
you. In fact, my answer was a serious answer. Information about this
early form of branding is widely recorded and easily found so that
facts as I have given them to you are indeed accurate. My mistake I
suppose was assuming this was some kind of trivia question (we get a
lot of those here you know). I expected it to be all in fun, with a
little history lesson to boot.

Again, I'm sorry if you felt insulted. I can have the answer removed
if you like so someone else can answer it for you if they choose to do
so.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

This was an insult to a valid question.

Yikes, tutuzdad!  Did you miss the word "ancestors" in the question?

Not at all!

As I said, I assumed it was some kind of trivia question like the kind
we frequently get from radio stations. I also assumed it was all in
fun, and if you double check my research you'll see that my answer is
quite accurate. Its unfortunate the customer was offended. It was not
intentional.

tutuzdad-ga

I assure you that my good friend and colleague tutuzdad-ga would never
insult anyone!

I grew up in New England and have never heard folklore about people
having slits in their ears back in the old days. This is something I'd
associated only with livestock!

Out of curiosity, I did a little research just now and, like tutuzdad,
kept coming up with references to livestock having ear slits.

To my shock, I finally stumbled upon what appears to be a recounting
of a family whose (human) members had "half-penny" ear slits:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Farm/7208/rr01/rr01_043.htm

I'm not sure what it signified, other than acting as a kind of family
"seal" or "crest." Actually, the document I cited may well refer to
the family's various livestock -- it's not totally clear.

Again, tutuzdad never meant to insult you. This is a very obscure
subject and most hits bring up clear references to cattle and pigs
only.

I was stunned to find an *apparent* reference to people in Colonial
New England possibly making such ear marks upon themselves.

Regards,
nancylynn-ga

Much like what I found, what you offered was the biography of Captain
John Howell and it describes, among other things, the registered
earmark he and his grandfather used to identify their ownership of the
family's FARM ANIMALS, not on their human family members.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Yes, I looked at that page again:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Farm/7208/rr01/rr01_003.htm

"Arthur's widow, Hannah Howell, and her remarriage appear in town
records: "December ye 6 1683. Widow Hannah Howell gives her ear mark
to be a crop on both ears and two slits downe the right ear."

It's confusing at first, of course, but what it really signifies --
I'm quite sure --is that when Hannah remarried, she gave her first
husband's livestock to her second husband. (I believe the laws at that
time would have required her to yield any property to her new
husband.) So, the correlating earmarks to that livestock were
transferred to the new husband in local records.

Here's another good explanation of how families used earmarks to
identify their livestock:
http://www.geocities.com/athens/bridge/3962/marks/marks.htm
AND note that freed slaves -- at least in the town of Newburgh, NY --
were also recorded in the county clerk's records on livestock: "the
town clerk simply used the empty space in the back of his 'Livestock
Marks and Strays' book for the purpose."

I believe cuddles1-ga's family lore got a bit jumbled as it was handed
down: this lore probably refers to the distinctive earmarks
cuddles1-ga's ancestors
used on their livestock. . . . If cuddles1-ga's family is
African-American, then the real origins of this family lore might have
been that black ancestors were registered in the same books where
local officials recorded livestock earmarks.

After much research, I have found out that,yes, cattle did have
ear-slits, and yes, some prisoners of the Brits had ear-slits to
assure they did not engage in warfare against the British again. 
Usually, the Brits slit their prisoner's noses and removed their ears.
 My ancestors got off easy.

This was not "folk-lore" but found in copies of land transactions, not
only with this Scottish ancestor but also with some others of his
family. I am a bit more advanced in the subject of genealogy than a
newcomer would be, buyng into every bit of "folk-lore" that came my
way. And I still feel it an insult to be told by an "expert" that my
ancestors were cattle.

Cuddles1-ga