KEEP FAMILY GENEALOGY
DNA PROJECT
Keep Trivia
During the Crimean War, Thomas Keep was just ten years old and a Bugler with the Third Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. He
took part in the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854. Despite the heavy bombardment from General Menshikov’s Russian forces,
Thomas bravely built a fire to provide warmth and tea for the troops. He went out under fire to assist the wounded in the field,
and continued despite being badly wounded. Thomas was given the title of “Boy Hero” by the troops. His courage was acknowledged
by J. E. Rankin’s poem “Thomas Keep of Battersea.”
The Keep River rises in the Northern Territory of Australia and flows for
approximately 107 miles before entering the Timor Sea at Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. It was named after Henry Francis Keep, born
27 January 1863 in Wollaston Northamptonshire, and died on 26 September 1905 in Perth, Western Australia. Henry, together with John
Craigie, made an early examination of this river in May 1888. It is home to the endangered Freshwater Sawfish (Pristis microdon). Part of its course runs through an area now designated as the Keep River National Park. It falls within the Aboriginal
tribal area of the Mirriuwoong and Gadjerong Aboriginal People, and contains an indigenous Australian art site. It has a number
of striking sandstone formations.
James Miller Keep, born at Pepperell, Massachusetts, on 8 December 1822 invented roller
skates at the age of fifteen. In 1846 he manufactured chewing gum and was the first person to market it. James also patented
Parafine paper in 1876, which was widely used in the confectionery trade.
KEEP TRIVIA
Nathan Cooley Keep, was born 23 December 1800, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. He was a pioneer in the field
of dentistry, invented and manufactured many dental tools used even today, and is credited with being one of the first to manufacture
porcelain teeth. Dr. Keep founded the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and was its first Dean. He was a founder and
the first president of the Massachusetts Dental Society and was an officer of the American Association of Dental Surgeons. Dr.
Keep had a partnership in his dental practice with William Morton, credited by many to first demonstrate the use of surgical anesthesia,
and he was prominently involved in the controversy with Morton and others over the restrictions set by Morton of its use.
Dr. Keep was the first in the Western Hemisphere to use anesthesia in childbirth, administering ether to Fanny Longfellow, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow's wife, on the occasion of her daughter's birth on 7 April 1847. He was the first person to identify a
corpse at a trial through dental records, which led to John White Webster, a professor of chemistry at the Harvard Medical School,
being convicted and hanged for the murder of George Parkman, a prominent physician and member of the Boston Brahmin elite.
Theodore Keep was a co-founder of Liberty Records. He was chief of engineering at the label and introduced a number of innovations
to commercial sound recording, and electronic music. He is also known for lending his name to the character of Theodore from The Chipmunks.
Byron William Keep, born 9 January 1917 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and died on 22 July 2000 in Portland, Oregon, was a pioneer
of early morning-drive broadcasting. From 1944 until Valentine's Day, 1979, Byron or "Ol' Barn," as he was known, broadcast
his show "Keeptime" for KEX in Portland. To celebrate his 30th year in broadcasting, Oregon Governor Tom McCall declared 28 Dec 1975
as "Barney Keep Day."
Please send suggestions for additions to Bob Warner.
The Rev. John Keep, 1781 - 1870, was a very prominent clergyman in the United States. He established churches, was trustee
of Auburn Theological Seminary, of Hamilton College, and of Oberlin College as well as serving as President of its Board of Trustees. He is included in the huge portrait of the 1840 Convention of the Anti-Slavery Society found in the National Portrait Gallery in London,
painted by Haydon. A computer beside the painting identifies him.
Oliver Hildreth Keep, b 1832, invented the shirt that could be bought with the collar and cuff already sewed on. Prior to this, shirts apparently came in 4 separate pieces--body, collar and two cuffs. The patent description in 1872: The
present invention consists principally in a shirt front bosom and yoke, combined in such a manner as to cause them to conform to the
shape of a person having a certain neck measurement. It consist further in a shirt front yoke and bosom combined in the usual
manner, and provided with suitable guide marks or lines whereby the dimensions of the same may be varied to cause the article to fit
any person or ordinary size.
The Keep with the longest name is Francisca d'Ararauma Marianna Pereira Filippe Luiz Anna Izabel Keep. She was born in Brazilin 1869 where her father, Calvin William Keep, spent some years after the U. S. Civil War.
Lucy Gunn Keep, b 1868 married Ralph Isham in 1893. She died one year later leaving a child, Albert Keep Isham, 1894 - 1931,Captain, U. S. Army, who died of illness while in the service. The Aeolian Skinner organ in Harvard's Memorial Church was donated
by his father in 1932 in his memory. Albert was in the Harvard class of 1915. The gift of the organ marked the beginning
of the Isham Memorial Library at Harvard, in which a very excellent and complete collection of early organ music was amassed including Bach and other important composers.