Wisteria

Yeah! I got everything in order in time to participate in the next carnival of genealogy - and just in time, too :) Christmas Past~ For Christmas past, I am posting these photos of an album that was more than likely a Christmas gift that my grandmother's aunt, Bettie Hardy Gross, received in the year 1887. It became filled with autographs of friends and family through the year 1908. My father's cousin sent it to me as it had been among the things owned by his mother, Ruby, who was one of Bettie's nieces. It's one of those echoes of the past that I cherish. Dec. 27th 1887  Christmas 2011 Christmas Present~ For Christmas present, I share a snapshot of a decorating scene I put together in my living room this year.  Christmas Future~ Although this next photograph is actually a few years old, I submit it to represent the future. For that's what children are - the future. One of my favorite quotes is: "We cannot fail our children, for they

I had to chuckle when I read Randy Seaver’s post about being related to Mitt Romney. I’ve been researching family history for over twenty years, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked up to see how I’m related to any political figure. I don’t say that to brag, though. My chuckling comes from the fact that I just recently had a tidbit to share with my daughter. She’s a big science fiction fan, loves Dr. Who, the Lost series, Harry Potter. Most recently she’s gotten into Star Wars. A portion of my children’s ancestry is out of Ontario, Canada and I recently ran across a website on the ancestry of Mary Margaret Bouk who married Wellington Smith in the town of Thorold in Ontario. I first found mention of this family line on the WorldConnect project of the trusty Rootsweb.com site (may it ever stay free) and contacted the submitter about some of his sources. The submitter, Bob Keith, graciously provided me with information and directed me to his website on the Keith family . Mr. Keith also wro

I had my former mother-in-law, Ruth, and her husband over for dinner on Christmas Day. She's no longer married to my former father-in-law and from the use of the word "former," you can tell I'm no longer married to my husband as well. To add to the mix, she's really my former husband's stepmother, but the relationship endures. Technically, it's not a matrilineal line but in another way it is. Because of my obsession with all things genealogy, I had looked into her family history years ago. On her mother's side, a book has been written which goes back several generations and is so intertwined with the local history that I discovered she and one of my closest friends and neighbor are related through a set of twins. I unfortunately had never been able to get far on her father's side of the family, though, and the stories her father told were often confusing. Her father passed away two years ago, just a month after my own father died. So last night

Kate Greenaway Children Art (Public Domain) Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year

Photo by Crispin Semmens After my cousin contacted me about Samuel Watts, Sr. and his possible English connections, I did a Google search to find out more about the reference to the 1738 christening in Frome, Somerset, England. (See the previous post  about that here.) I got a hit on the Watts Genforum (hint: you can search the forum using keywords such as Halifax) and was able to pinpoint the IGI source entry from a helpful researcher who had listed it for my benefit after I had advertised my Watts book on the site back in 2001. While there, I caught up on some other postings in reference to this family. I was excited to see a more recent posting that said: " Dear Dawn, A book entitled 'Sands through our Fingers' by Eunice M. White 1980, has just come into my possession. She refers to Samuel of England/Halifax Co. Va. then son William who married Martha Lee 1795, then went to Kentucky. I am descended from his son James who married Sarah Hulett and went to Howar

Old cabin at Neals Corner, Halifax County, Virginia Years ago, I had a Mullins researcher send me a chart on David Mullins of the Halifax Co, VA area b. ca. 1744, d. 1823 TN who married Athaliah b. ca. 1764. This researcher speculated that Athaliah was a Watts based on the fact that David and Athaliah named a daughter Mary Watts Mullins (1782-1851) who married John Laine III 7 Oct 1797 in Halifax Co, VA. This made me wonder if Athaliah could have been the Latty, child of Thomas & Mary Watts, christened in Frome, England in 1754. The John Laine could be part of the same Lane family as Mary “Polly” Lane who married Roland H. Watts the son of Samuel Jr. This seems to make sense, but until more research is done, it can only remain a theory at this time. Just like with the speculation about Samuel Watts, Sr. of Halifax Co, VA and his English origins (see the previous post about that here).   At Rootsweb.com , of the twenty listings for David Mullins born in 1745, four listings ha

Photo by Megan Westfall I got a phone call the other day from a distant Watts cousin. We got in touch ten years ago when I put together my Watts book and were able to meet at a family reunion in Virginia during that time. He and his uncle were recently looking at our earliest progenitor, Samuel Watts, Sr., and wanted to do some further research. I'm all for someone picking up where others have left off in exploring family roots. I've put together several books on my family lines knowing that I can't do it all, but wanting to put my two cents worth of work out there. In many instances, I myself added to the work others before me had done. My hope is that even if I'm not able to get back to it, at least someone else can begin where I left off and add their own contributions. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. In any event, I am happy knowing that I have played a part in bridging the gap between the future and the past. As you will note from my page on the Watts

I just love singing Christmas Carols! I'm participating in the old-fashioned version next week with my church and just finished performing a Christmas Cantata last Sunday afternoon with another church group. Thanks, footnoteMaven for letting me participate in this high-tech version of caroling. Here's my favorite: O Holy Night O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ' Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O hear the angels' voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born; O night divine, O night, O night Divine. Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming, With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand. So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land. The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger; In all our trials bor

Among the many old photographs originally in my grandfather's possession, there is one that has haunted me and has remained a mystery all these years. The photograph is of three children with their names and ages typeset at the bottom of the photograph. “William, 10 years, Robert 8, and Maggie Bennerman, 4 Years Old.” Who were they? My grandfather was not able to identify them, though his memory was remarkably sharp and accurate until his death at the age of 96. I first noticed this picture and the others that my grandfather had in 1989 when I embarked on the adventure of genealogy. Since then I have traced all of my father's ancestors at least back to the early 1800s (and a lot beyond). But I never ran into the Bennerman name, anywhere. Not as ancestors of mine, not even as neighbors. I am lucky enough to even have a name to match the faces in the photograph in the first place. Early in my research, I visited the Tampa stake of the LDS church and I mentioned the Bennerman na

I mentioned before in a previous post that I work in the foster care system. Part of the work involves exploring relatives for children in care. I am passionate about family history and have always believed that learning about one’s roots plays a vital part in finding a sense of belonging. I’ve been eager to use my genealogy skills to help in identifying family resources for these children. When I first started in the position, I spoke briefly with the other workers about using ancestor charts and family group sheets to record information and gave them some tips on searching for relatives. Mostly I know how to find dead people, of course. It’s been a running joke that if they’re dead, I can find them, but I’m working on using those same skills to locate living kin as well. I also shared with my co-workers a story about one of my ancestors who lived in the rural south. This story shows how back in the day, relatives were the first place to turn when there was a need for alternative c

 Thomas M. & Nancy J. (Sizemore) Hardy, Christian Co, KY  The above image is a copy of a tintype photo. The original measures about 2 x 3 inches and was originally housed in a photo album owned by my second great grandmother, Martha Sizemore Hardy. The subjects of the photo are Thomas M. Hardy and his wife Nancy J. Sizemore. Nancy was Martha’s older sister. Thomas was the twin brother to Martha’s husband, Joshua L. Hardy. There are actually two originals of the photograph, although in this one, you can better see the umbrella Thomas is holding. Nancy holds what looks like a folded fan in her lap. At first, the fact that his arm rests on an umbrella doesn’t stand out. Perhaps it was rainy the day of the photo shoot? Research into Thomas’s ancestry leads me to believe that there may be more of a significance to this. Thomas and Joshua Hardy were listed together in a biographical sketch in Perrin’s County of Christian, Kentucky written in 1884. The entry states that they were

I spoke with a woman the other day who heard that I was good at finding dead people and wondered if I could find out more about her mother's biological family. This is the information she shared with me: "My mother was born on March 14, 1922 in Binghamton, NY. A nurse took her by train up to Utica, NY to the St. Joseph's Infant Home. Her mother came up a month later to give permission for the infant to be adopted. Her mother was said to have been Helen Turesky who came from a small town in Pennsylvania." Not a whole lot to go on, but I gave it a shot. I started with Ancestry.com and found Helen almost immediately.  Helen Teroski age 18 [birthdate ca. 1902] was listed as a boarder in the home of Mike (age 38) & Susie Novak (& children) in the 1920 U.S. Census in the city of Binghamton, NY. She was born in Pennsylvania of Slovakian parentage. The Novaks were Slovakian as well. She was a roller in a cigar factory. Unfortunately, there were no other Teros

Photo credit: Megan Westfall An open post to Sheri Fenley, The Educated Genealogist : Oh Sheri! Can I relate to your post on shiny objects ! Only I usually call it going down rabbit holes. It was getting distracted while trying to write a recent post that I googled you and found this post of yours in the first place. I was trying to write about prospography which led me to think of accuracy and I remembered you as the “educated genealogist." So I look for your blog and then try to google something about Elizabeth Shown Mills and accuracy that I read on a blog a while back. I get Michael Hait’s genealogy blog as a hit, which has a quote I can use (though not the original posts I remember reading). Then I get so frustrated about having to go search for things that I read before but didn’t bookmark or anything and now I want them! So I open OneNote to try and capture some of these now. I fall down another rabbit hole on Michael’s blog as I remembered he was the one who mention

As a member, I recently received a copy of the Winter 2011/2012 newsletter for the Western Michigan Genealogical Society . This is a very active society, established in 1954. They have a great number of programs and mini classes available for local members. Several of the upcoming programs sound awesome, I just wish I lived closer. The society does offer a good deal of information for remote members on their website, in their quarterly magazine Michigana  and with publication and access to other society materials as well. I am definitely renewing my membership. One scheduled talk is described as including a discussion of using "prosopography" for learning more about the residents of Cherry Street in Grand Rapids, MI. Proso-what?!? I had never heard of it. Is it a good tool for genealogy? I did a google search for the term and found a good article at trusty Wikipedia which says that prosopography is an increasingly important approach within historical research. The defini

Do you remember back in the day when there was a television advertisement (I think it was from AT&T) that said something to the effect of, “Have you ever read a book in a library, from another country? Well, you will.” We were then just on the cusp of the exploding world of internet and it sounded crazy. I remember thinking as a genealogist, “Heck yeah, there are books I want to read in remote locations!” I just recently found out one of my children’s ancestors lived in an asylum for nearly 40 years. Using Google ebooks, I got some great information from official record books about the institution where he was located. One book was digitized from the University of Michigan, which is a ways away from me. Another book was digitized from the University of California, even further. But thanks to technology, I incurred no travel expenses at all. Sweet! I remember an elderly distant cousin wrote in reply to a request for family information saying, “I have never been too keen on fami

Here's a combination of a tombstone photo and a scrapbook page, both great wordless topics!

I was talking to my dad's cousin, Mary Ellen, on the telephone a week or so ago. I had written to another cousin asking if she could identify an old photograph. The photograph was of an old homestead from the album cousin Julia had. I was hoping it was the home my grandfather grew up in. I'll talk about that story another day. Mary Ellen was saying that she remembered her folks visiting Julia's grandparents every so often. She said things were different back then. It was nothing, she said, to go visiting kin for the day or longer without planning it in advance. She pointed out that in this day and age, people are not so happy about someone just dropping in unannounced. People have to schedule everything and heaven forbid someone sees the house dirty. It made me wonder briefly, will we reminisce about these days by fondly recalling sitting in front of our computers at home blissfully posting status updates on Facebook and feeling close to our friends and family when they

Photo credit: Megan Westfall Before he passed away two years ago, I used to have my daughters call my father on Veteran’s Day. At the age of 16, he left home and joined the Navy. He put in 20 years of service, retiring at the ripe old age of 36. He then went on to become a vocational education teacher and put in another 20 years of service in that career as well. My daughters had a school concert this week. It had a patriotic theme in honor of the upcoming holiday and turned out very nice. (I have a hard time listening to Taps, though, as it brings me right back to my father’s funeral.) The superintendent issued a challenge to the students there. He asked them to write down the reason we celebrate Veteran’s Day and bring the explanation into school the next day. He said he would make it worth their while, but didn’t say what he was offering. On the way home, I told my daughters that they should simply bring in a photo of their grandfather and tell the superintendent that’s the reaso

There are many tales of serendipity (a chance discovery) in the field of genealogy.   One particular instance in my research follows:  I began the search for my ancestors shortly after my grandmother's death in January of 1989.   At the time of her funeral the subject came up, and several family members shared with me what they knew about the family.   I was extremely interested in it and when I returned home, began trying to find other things about the family.   I wrote some about my beginning trek into genealogy in this  previous post . After seeing my grandmother's obituary in the local paper, a woman named Frances Sizemore wrote to my uncle who lived in the area and said that our families were related.   My cousin gave me a copy of the letter and I wrote back to the woman.   Mrs. Sizemore sent me family group sheets she had completed on the Sizemore family and along with it sent a copy of a letter written by my second great grandmother, Martha Sizemore Hardy.   In thi

In August of 1994, I was visiting family in Michigan and again went the Grand Rapids Public Library to do more research. This time, I checked the 1884 State Census of Michigan for any references to the Kiel family. I knew the family was in Grand Rapids then and could just have easily decided not to look at that record since I thought I knew everything about the family. Luckily for me I followed the rule of leaving no stone unturned in pursuit of genealogy. Sure enough, on page 331 I found Henry Kiel and his wife Margeritte listed at 233 Lagrave Street. The next family was Henry’s brother, Herodas and his wife Gertie. This I knew was my ancestor. He is listed in various records as Gerrit, Gerhardus, Herodus, etc.   Continuing on the next page was my great-grandmother Hendrika at age 1. This information I was aware of, but the next listing was entirely new to me: another daughter Myke was listed age 7 months. Myke is a spelling variation of Meike or Maike and is a Dutch, Frisian an