{"id":15753,"date":"2016-07-28T10:15:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T14:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=15753"},"modified":"2017-02-02T13:39:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T18:39:52","slug":"genealogy-activities-for-children-fun-codes-of-our-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-activities-for-children-fun-codes-of-our-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Activities for Children: Fun Codes of Our Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows a fun way to get kids interested in genealogy and the past: by looking through old newspapers to learn about some of the codes and ciphers our ancestors used. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n

Genealogists dream of ways to engage children and grandchildren in activities that lead to the love of family history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that easy. Just reciting the names of earlier family members doesn\u2019t work. If you\u2019re like me, I used to become glazed over when my mother mentioned long-ago people whom I knew I\u2019d never meet. Certain activities, such as dragging the children to cemeteries, works a little better, but not for all. However, as we all know, you only need one family historian at each generation to pass the love along.<\/p>\n

The Fun of<\/strong> Discovery<\/strong><\/p>\n

So experiment with activities that lead to discovery \u2013 that\u2019s something most children love. One that looks promising is to scour old newspapers for secret codes, with their fodder for young imaginations. Getting children engaged in searching old newspapers builds a skill essential for later genealogy research.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Edward Larsson’s rune cipher resembling that found on the Kensington Runestone. Also includes runically-unrelated blackletter writing style and pigpen cipher, 16 April 1885. Credit: Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research in Umea (Sweden); Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President McKinley\u2019s Secret Messages<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read about how President McKinley sent encrypted messages from his Pullman train car in 1901. He utilized a special telegraph and cipher bureau to keep in constant communication with the White House without outsiders being able to read the messages.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), 26 April 1901, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

George Washington used secret codes, as did many in the military before and afterward. Search old newspapers, looking to historical eras for ideas \u2013 paying special attention to the military\u2019s use of codes.<\/p>\n

However, don\u2019t assume that secrets codes were only essential in times of war \u2013 they were also used to protect business secrets and inventions from being stolen, and for diplomatic correspondence.<\/p>\n

General Trochu\u2019<\/strong>s Method<\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance, this coding example \u2013 based on a method devised by a Frenchman, General Trochu \u2013 was published in an 1871 newspaper article.<\/p>\n

A French diplomat in London wanted to alert Paris that a Mr. Gambett had arrived in the English capitol. Using the general\u2019s coding method, the number sequence \u201c3207498 3207498\u201d was used to generate this cryptic message: \u201cJCMIICB DEZYMEN.\u201d When Paris received the message, it was deciphered to read: \u201cGAMBETT A ARRIVE,\u201d French for \u201cGambett has arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Commercial Advertiser (New York, New York), 25 March 1871, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can you guess how \u201cJCMIICB DEZYMEN\u201d was decoded to read \u201cGAMBETT A ARRIVE\u201d? It involves a mathematical substitution process which I won\u2019t reveal here. If you don’t figure it out, I provide the answer at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

Cipher Cabling<\/strong><\/p>\n

As clever sleuths became better at decoding, methods needed to become more elaborate. This 1887 newspaper article notes that in order to protect trade secrets, commercial houses essentially created elaborate tables. Some had as many as 100,000 words in different languages:<\/p>\n

A cypher word may stand for as many as six figures, and each one of these figures may stand for a sentence or a price, and its correctness be of the highest importance. The day of the week, the place of a word in a sentence, may each have a special significance…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Duluth Daily News (Duluth, Minnesota), 20 October 1887, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Word Substitution \/ Jumble Cipher<\/strong><\/p>\n

An alternative method was suggested in this 1915 newspaper article. It works by creating substitution dictionaries that are drawn at random. When done you have a cipher insolvable by any process. As this newspaper article noted, foreign governments were willing to pay as much as $50,000 for a substitution dictionary. With a financial inducement like that, they were certain to get their hands on one and break the code sooner or later.<\/p>\n

Briefly, it was created as follows:<\/p>\n