Wisteria

Normally I like to include scrapbook pages for Wordless Wednesday, but this one will need some explanation first. I decided several years ago to put together a heritage scrapbook for my sister's young granddaughter to introduce her to her ancestry and show her that her grandmother (and my grandmother) was once a little girl just like her. I had to put the project aside for a few years. Other things took precedence (like graduate school) and it took me some time to gather some of the photos I wanted to include to expand it to go as far back as I could with heritage photos. It took me so long that I now have to do a page to include her brother that was born a year or two after I started. I also made an extra copy to give to my sister's other grandson as well. I used an 8 x 8 scrapbook which was a good size to include just a few photos on each page. In the front of the album, I printed a pedigree chart starting with the child scaled down to size. On the next page I printed m

 Joshua L. Hardy funeral card, Christian Co, KY  Pictured is a funeral card for Joshua L. Hardy. The original is approximately 4 x 6 inches in size, printed in gold lettering (though much faded) on a thick gray cardstock similar to what was used for photographs in that time period. This was one of the items given to me by my father’s cousin Norman Vaughan in 1995. I have mentioned my Hardy family in several posts. This card states that Joshua died on June 1, 1892 but other information indicates the date was actually May 26, 1892. Notably his tombstone pictured below gives the May date as well as two family records. The one family record has been posted here . The other is a family bible record that I have yet to post. I am not so concerned about the discrepancy and feel the May date is probably the correct one. Perhaps his burial date was June 1 or it could just be a printer’s error when the card was made. Although there were earlier attempts at collecting vital records, they

Well here, I’ve talked about this record often enough in other posts (just choose the tag “Bird Hardy” and you’ll get a list). These are scans of what I call the Bird Hardy Family Record. It begins with listing the birth date of Bird Hardy and Tiercy Hardy and then listing the birth dates of all their children. After skipping some space, the page chronicles the death of Tiercy Hardy in 1843, Bird in 1870, then Elizabeth Tyer’s in 1846 (who was the mother of Tiercy). It goes on to list the deaths of four of Bird & Tiercy’s children on the front. On the back of the paper, it lists the deaths of two more children, twins Joshua & Thomas Hardy. Written in pencil in another handwriting is noted the death of Thomas’ wife Nancy. The final listing in ink in yet another handwriting notes the death of Martha S. Hardy who was the wife of Joshua.  Bird Hardy family record page 1  This paper was given to my in 1994 by my father’s cousin, Norman Vaughan. Norman lived with his

A tribute to one of my grand-nephews, part of the next generation...

I’ve talked about this before but again I’ve come to realize that I can only do life in small bites. What I mean is, I have these grand ideas of projects such as organizing files, scanning old photographs, etc. but I can only do so much at one sitting; especially when the world of present living gets in the way of exploring the past. Take the other day for instance, I had this idea for a blog post which entailed a couple of historical items I had on hand. I scanned those first. One bite down. Then I had to go make breakfast for my children (who all happen to be home this weekend). Much later after the girls drifted off to other events and projects of their own, I was able to work some more on my blog post. Another bite taken. The girls and I had plans for getting back together later in the day, so I only had so much time and had to finish up my blog project another day. I am meant for a lot of things: not just exploring the past, but making memories with my children, impacting my

“Lucy, you have some esplainin’ to do.” Ricky Ricardo used to say on the I Love Lucy show.**   I thought about that when I decided to write a post explaining the provenance and details of this photograph. Because of the time period in which it was likely taken, I have thought that this may be a picture of Mary Brizendine who was mentioned as Ancestor No. 19 in my previous post . This is only a tentative identification, though, and it really remains a mystery. According to notes I took many years ago, this item was found among the photographs originally owned by my grandparents, Cephas Bryant and Amy Leora (Hardy) Watts. This is very important to know and I’m glad I wrote it down back then. (Memory has a way of fading after a while.) If I had traced the provenance of this photograph back to those that had come from my dad’s cousin Norman, my original theory of it being my grandfather’s grandmother, Mary Brizendine, would be dead in the water. Norman and I only share the Hardy lin

Oooh, I’m especially excited to participate in this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog as it highlights a part of the tree I have seldom focused on in my blog. Forgive me, but I’m going to give a more complete story than the original intent of telling three facts about the person I came up with using the “roulette” number… My paternal grandfather, Cephas Bryant (C.B.) Watts, was born in 1899. When I divide that number by 100 and round it off I get the “roulette” number of 19. Using that number on my ancestral name list brings me to C.B.’s maternal grandmother, Mary E.M. Brizendine . Interestingly enough, it was likely Mary’s maternal grandfather, Oliver Bryant McCraw, for whom C.B. got his middle name. Apparently he was a man worth remembering for it is also probably how C.B.’s mother, Ollie Spencer, got her as well. My grandfather always told me that his mother Ollie was an orphan. When I began researching, I thought I’d never be able to g

"Uncle Joe" Original photograph is a 4 x 5 inch cabinet card on dark grey cardstock. Joseph Chaffin Watts was the son of George Richard & Emily Jane (Chaffin) Watts. He was born 12 June 1880 in Christian County, Kentucky. He died 24 December 1952 in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona and is buried in the Cottonwood Cemetery in Arizona.

I have motivation. It’s just that I get going on so many projects that I lose my way sometimes. I recently wrote about my photograph project I want to start. But there’s so much else going on right now. I recently got some new living room furniture. This prompted a whole slew of projects including tearing up some platforms in the living room first which took me a whole week and several tools, too. Those platforms were in the house when we first bought it along with the carpet that I’ve hated since we moved in. I always told myself that when I ever got around to pulling up those platforms, the carpet was going, too. So guess what the other project was? Yes, I ripped up the carpet. I thought I could just live with the subflooring for a while. I ran into a SNAFU when I discovered the foam that was underneath the carpet is glued to the subflooring and still sticky when I try to pry it up. So now I’m stuck with walking over all this foam until I get the ambition for the next project: new f

Some people have all the luck! Wanting to discover more of her ethnic heritage, my friend & co-worker asked me about a month ago if I would look up her mother’s parents and see what I could find. She gave me their names: Jacob John Reinhardt and Florence Margaret Dehn. Right away I guessed that she had German origins but a quick search online revealed nothing. I couldn’t find the family listed in the resources at Rootsweb.com. So I went back to my friend and said, “I need a little more information.” She called her mother who was able to tell her only one other thing from memory: Jacob was born December 2, 1882 in Buffalo, NY. With that small piece of additional information, I was able to put together a basic family line back to Jacob’s great-grandfather! Key to this search was church records. Here’s how it went: I did a google search and found Jacob and his wife Florence buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Corfu (Genesee County), New York. I also verified his birth date fr

I’ve had too many irons in the fire lately with projects genealogy- and other-wise, but I can never resist Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Randy recently presented the following mission: Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born? I have only one great-grandparent that was alive when I was born. It’s been said that I saw her but I sure don’t remember. She, unfortunately, would probably not have known even her grandparents, though. So I could only get back to her father who was born in the Netherlands in 1859. In several instances I can get to a grandparent who knew a grandparent: I knew my grandmother Theresa Katsma, who knew her grandfather Martin Katsma born in the Netherlands in 1851. I knew my grandfather C.B. Watts, who knew his grandfather George Richard Watts, born in 1839, who participated in the Ci

My first goal for my family photograph project ( see previous post here ) was to create a general inventory of the different collections I have and discuss the provenance of each collection. What do I have? Currently I have three archival storage boxes separated and labeled as follows: Watts/Hardy; Westfall; Timmer/Katsma I also have a smaller storage box that holds a collection of mostly bon-ton tintypes and carte-de-visits. Most of these images are from two old tintype albums that were originally my second-great grandmother’s. The actual albums are stored in a fireproof safe along with other memorabilia including a Watts family bible, a dictionary from 1874, a old reader book and some miscellaneous photographs most of which are cased photographs (including ambrotypes).   I also have two archival photo albums I put together. One album has a blue cover and holds photographs of the Watts family. The other album has a white cover and holds photographs of the Hardy family. In the Hardy fa