Circus people

Circus owners, performers and freaks

A circus is a company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term 'circus' also describes the performance which has followed various formats through its 150 year modern history. Philip Astley is credited with being the 'father' of the modern circus when he opened the first circus in 1768 in England. Early circuses were almost exclusively demonstrations of equestrian skills with a few other types of acts to link the horsemanship performances. Performances developed significantly through the next fifty years, with large scale theatrical battle reenactments becoming a significant feature. The 'traditional' format, whereby a ringmaster introduces a varied selection of acts that mostly perform choreographed acts to traditional music, developed in the latter part of 19th century and continued almost universally to be the main style of circus up until the 1970s.

The exhibition of humans as a freak show or sideshow was an American invention.

A traveling carnival, usually simply called a carnival, is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, animal acts. Human oddity acts may include people with multiple arms or legs, midgets, extremely tall people, obese people, people born with facial or other deformities, and tattooed people. The term used for this type of show was called a freak show. WIKI

All these folks are related to me, the degree of relation of each indicated in red.

1. BAILEY, Hachaliah [1774-1845]

5C7 American circus pioneer

2. BARNUM, Phineas Taylor [1810-1891]

2C4 Self-proclaimed "Prince of Humbugs"

3. THUMB, Tom [1838-1883]

6C5 American showman, a dwarf, "General"