Wisteria

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

After a previous discussion on naming customs and surnames, another focus for Netherlands research is the naming patterns used to name children after close relatives. The traditional system in the Netherlands is as follows: First son:              named for his paternal grandfather Second son:       named for his maternal grandfather Third son:            named for his father’s paternal grandfather Fourth son:         mother’s paternal grandfather Fifth son:              father’s maternal grandfather Sixth son:             mother’s maternal grandfather This same system was used for the daughters using the grandmother’s names in place of the grandfather. The feminine version of male names was formed using such suffixes as –je/n, -ke/n, -pje/n, -tie/n, -tje/n. Examples in my family include: Grytje and variations such as Gertje, Geertje, Geesjen and Annechje or Annechien.   It is uncanny how rigidly many Dutch families stuck to this traditional pattern so that one can loo

 Friesland traditional dress Grytje Ettes Kloosterman, my grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother, was born in Augsbuurt in the Friesland province of the Netherlands on 7 April 1788. She was baptized nearly one month later on 1 May 1788 in Augsbuurt. Her parents were Ette Jacobs and Wytske Jans. Her maternal grandfather was Jan Johannes Kloosterman. Before she was seven years old, Grytje’s father died in January 1795. Her mother died when she was twenty. On 3 January 1812, when Grytje was 24 years old, she gave birth out of wedlock to a daughter. Tijtske Jan, an innkeeper in Burum registered the birth and said that the child’s name would be Ettje Sijmons. As the typical naming customs of the Netherlands was adding the father’s given name (called a patrynomic), I’m reasonably sure that the father was a man named Sijmon. At the age of 36, Grytje marrie Feike Gerrits Bos in Kollum on 26 Jan 1824. Feike had been previously married to Tryjntje Hendriks who died on 11

My postings have been sporadic lately. But that seems to be how life works. Sometimes I have time for traveling to the past, sometimes the present gets in the way. I never let the grass grow under my feet, mind you. I usually always have a project or two going, whether genealogy-related or not. Genealogy is never far from my mind, though. I was looking at children’s books yesterday for Christmas gifts and ran across this book, Fancy Nancy: My Family History .   I bought it, though I’m not sure if I’m giving it away or keeping it in anticipation of a future opportunity to introduce the subject to the next generation. Speaking of books, in my spare time I’ve also been reading Someone Knows My Name   by Lawrence Hill .  It’s a good historical novel about slavery. I don’t remember where I’ve heard the term “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts” before but it’s mentioned in this fictional work.   I highly recommend it. Recently, I completed a photo scanning project of

   Coughell girls w/Uncle A. Metler My world does consist of more than living in the past, though I try not to let that show too often as this blog is mainly the manifestation of my genealogy personality. Situations sometimes do overlap, though.   My day job entails working in the foster care system. There have been some new programs and concepts coming out in that field focusing on finding and expanding on family resources for these children. My co-workers and I are participating in some in-depth training on Family Finding developed by Kevin Campbell . Mr. Campbell took some concepts from various other philosophies and resources including research by the Church of Latter-Day Saints that estimates that there are between 100-300 living relatives of every person on the planet. The training introduces techniques and tools for locating relatives of children currently in foster care. I have boasted that I’m good at finding dead people, but I do need more help in finding livi