This week was too busy to get regular research done. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a genealogy-free week!
First and foremost was my presentation Wednesday evening of "Frugal Genealogy or How Not to Spend a Fortune on Your Family Tree" at the Tri-City Genealogical Society in Richland, Washington. What a fabulous group they have there and I am looking forward to reconnecting with their members next month at the state conference! I had a chance that afternoon to stop by Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland where my husband's maternal grandparents are buried and was able to stop for a bit and photograph their shared gravestone. I also inquired at the office whether a sibling of the grandfather was buried there, and was informed that he was not.
Although I was enjoying my time in the area, unfortunately, I became ill with fever and chills later that evening and woke up the next morning knowing that I was too sick to make the 2 1/2 hour drive home. My gracious hostess, Anne, invited me to stay as long as I needed to recuperate and generously offered Tylenol, chicken noodle soup, and everything in between to make me comfortable and rested. Yesterday evening, although weak, I felt better and took her up on her offer to accompany her on a visit to Richland's oldest cemetery, Resthaven Pioneer Cemetery. The cool evening air was refreshing and I enjoyed looking at all the varieties of tombstones, as I do in any cemetery. What was most interesting was the tales that Anne told me about the individuals buried there. Every year on the weekend before Hallowe'en, the CREHST Museum hosts Tombstone Tales, a living history tour of the cemetery. Tour groups are lead by the Grim Reaper to individual gravesites where actors in period costume give a brief monologue of their life as an early Columbia Valley pioneer. Anne has played a Grim Reaper numerous times and has also done research on many of the individuals buried there and so is quite familiar with their stories. It was a fascinating visit and a good non-strenuous diversion that I needed. (Only a genealogist would understand how visiting a cemetery when you're not feeling up to snuff is rejuvenating! Thanks, Anne!)
When I got home late this morning, I was delighted to see that my desktop computer is working again two months after the electrical system shorted out...and even more delighted that all my data seems to be intact, although I did have it backed up with Carbonite. There was so much that I was unable to do, genealogy-wise and blogging-wise without that main computer, and it's hard not to mourn the lost time of a whole summer, when I tend to do more blogging and research. Sometime next week, I'll be back in the classroom preparing for our new students even though my official first day of work isn't until August 25th. UPDATE: Bummer...the computer shut back down after being on for a few hours. (sigh)
Lastly, the Summer 2009 issue of New England Ancestors arrived in the mail today. Randy Seaver did a post about the details, and like him, I have Vermont ancestors that settled in Western New York, making the articles personally interesting.
Showing posts with label Friday Findings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friday Findings. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Friday Findings: BARBER, COLE and WILLIS Death Certficates
I forgot to mention in last week's Friday Findings that I had found two of my ancestor's death certificates on the Seeking Michigan website: James W. BARBER and Elizabeth A. "Betsey" COLE were my paternal 3rd-great-grandparents. I had difficulty finding their records on the site because their names had been misspelled. This week, I found their son's death certificate; Orlando BARBER was my 2nd-great-grandfather and he died of smallpox in 1910, which I find rather unusual. Of course, smallpox was still enough of a threat in 1967 when I was born that sometime when I was an infant or toddler, I received an inoculation--my generation being one of the last in America to receive it. I also found Elizabeth's mother's death certificate, again having difficulty because of the misindexing of Lavina (WILLIS) COLE to "Lovina CALE."
I also came across a scanned image of the will of my 5th-great-grandfather, Albert William WYCKOFF, on the NEHGS website. In it he mentions his wife Elizabeth (MAINARD), his children, including "Polly CRUTHERS", and some grandchildren with a different surname, suggesting he had a daughter I don't know about who predeceased him. This will is evidence that my Mary "Polly" WYCKOFF CROTHERS CHAPPEL is indeed the daughter of Albert and Elizabeth. All I had previously was an old family history book on the Wyckoff family, which unfortunately was written by Gustav Anjou.
My September 2009 issue of Internet Genealogy arrived today.
I didn't do much research this week. Some family situations coupled with preparing for my presentation next week at the Tri-City Genealogical Society in Richland, Washington, the upcoming Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference in Spokane, and working on my Online City, County, and Rural Directories website all kept me busy doing other kinds of genealogical work.
I also came across a scanned image of the will of my 5th-great-grandfather, Albert William WYCKOFF, on the NEHGS website. In it he mentions his wife Elizabeth (MAINARD), his children, including "Polly CRUTHERS", and some grandchildren with a different surname, suggesting he had a daughter I don't know about who predeceased him. This will is evidence that my Mary "Polly" WYCKOFF CROTHERS CHAPPEL is indeed the daughter of Albert and Elizabeth. All I had previously was an old family history book on the Wyckoff family, which unfortunately was written by Gustav Anjou.
My September 2009 issue of Internet Genealogy arrived today.
I didn't do much research this week. Some family situations coupled with preparing for my presentation next week at the Tri-City Genealogical Society in Richland, Washington, the upcoming Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference in Spokane, and working on my Online City, County, and Rural Directories website all kept me busy doing other kinds of genealogical work.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday Findings: DeVRIES and other Dutch Lines
The last couple of weeks have just been rather crazy and chaotic, and although I did have some great finds, keeping up with blogging about it wasn't easy.
The first big find was when Henk van Kampen read my DeVRIES Surname Saturday post and left a comment, having found more information on this family. I am so excited, because I was able to trace this line back another two generations, using data that has been added to Tresoar (the Frisian Historical and Literary Centre) since I last researched this line!
Then my distant VALK cousin, Anja van Huesden, was looking at my online database and found more information on my JONKER line in the Province of Groningen. Groningen has long had their marriage records indexed on Genlias, but thanks to Anja, I discovered that birth and death records for my ancestral town of Kloosterburen have been added to Genlias. I was able to obtain specific birth and death dates for a few of my ancestors (instead of the "c. 1809" type dates used from their ages at the time of marriage). Plus, I discovered that my HOEKSTRA 3rd-great-grandfather and his first wife actually had eight children, instead of two before the wife died. Most of these were twins, and all died young, except for Gertrude, who accompanied my widowed 3rd-great-grandfather to America in 1867. When my uncle brought me a bunch of old family photos, I found a couple of Gertrude as an elderly lady. She was my 2nd-great-grandfather HOEKSTRA's older half-sister.
One of my husband's maternal cousins friended me on Facebook. Besides being glad we are back in touch after so many years, I am delighted to be in contact with her because she has always had an interest in genealogy. I have asked her to keep an eye out for old family photos, since there seem to be so very few in existence in my mother-in-law's family.
Genealogical Publishing Company has been having fabulous book sales on Fridays. Last Friday, I ordered Virginia Genealogy by Carol McGinnis. I have her Michigan Genealogy, which I've raved about before on this blog many times, so I expect to learn much about how to research in Virginia and how and where records were/are kept. Although I have no Virginia ancestry, my husband has a multitude of lines from that state. (Yippee! It just arrived in today's mail!)
Speaking of ordering, I'm going to renew my Footnote subscription for another 12 months at the reduced rate of $59.95 ($20 off the cost of annual subscriptions after today).
Lastly, I received the July issue of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Interesting and scholarly reading here, impressing me on the importance of citing one's sources!
The first big find was when Henk van Kampen read my DeVRIES Surname Saturday post and left a comment, having found more information on this family. I am so excited, because I was able to trace this line back another two generations, using data that has been added to Tresoar (the Frisian Historical and Literary Centre) since I last researched this line!
Then my distant VALK cousin, Anja van Huesden, was looking at my online database and found more information on my JONKER line in the Province of Groningen. Groningen has long had their marriage records indexed on Genlias, but thanks to Anja, I discovered that birth and death records for my ancestral town of Kloosterburen have been added to Genlias. I was able to obtain specific birth and death dates for a few of my ancestors (instead of the "c. 1809" type dates used from their ages at the time of marriage). Plus, I discovered that my HOEKSTRA 3rd-great-grandfather and his first wife actually had eight children, instead of two before the wife died. Most of these were twins, and all died young, except for Gertrude, who accompanied my widowed 3rd-great-grandfather to America in 1867. When my uncle brought me a bunch of old family photos, I found a couple of Gertrude as an elderly lady. She was my 2nd-great-grandfather HOEKSTRA's older half-sister.
One of my husband's maternal cousins friended me on Facebook. Besides being glad we are back in touch after so many years, I am delighted to be in contact with her because she has always had an interest in genealogy. I have asked her to keep an eye out for old family photos, since there seem to be so very few in existence in my mother-in-law's family.
Genealogical Publishing Company has been having fabulous book sales on Fridays. Last Friday, I ordered Virginia Genealogy by Carol McGinnis. I have her Michigan Genealogy, which I've raved about before on this blog many times, so I expect to learn much about how to research in Virginia and how and where records were/are kept. Although I have no Virginia ancestry, my husband has a multitude of lines from that state. (Yippee! It just arrived in today's mail!)
Speaking of ordering, I'm going to renew my Footnote subscription for another 12 months at the reduced rate of $59.95 ($20 off the cost of annual subscriptions after today).
Lastly, I received the July issue of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Interesting and scholarly reading here, impressing me on the importance of citing one's sources!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday Findings: A Potluck of Goodies
This week brought a hodgepodge of different genealogical goodies my way!
The Photo Album
I've been reviewing and analyzing the contents of a photograph album/scrapbook that my maternal great-grandmother kept (one of the items my uncle brought out to us from Michigan). It's not complete, as many photos were either lost or were removed to give to descendants of her three daughters. What was left in the album were photos and birth announcements of many extended family members and my uncle felt that I, of all people, would be able to identify many of the individuals that were unknown to him or other family members.
My great-grandmother was an invalid for the last 15 or 20 years of her life, and she spent much of her time in bed, labeling photographs in albums and writing in her Family Record book (which I also inherited) during the days when she felt well enough to do so. Of course, this is a boon to me, and I have been going back and forth between the labeled photos and the descriptions she listed of family members, friends, and neighbors in the Family Record book, as well as checking vital and census records at Ancestry, FamilySearch's Record Search, and SeekingMichigan. By doing so, I was able to figure out who some of the cousins she had listed were: the LANINGA "children" (they were elderly in the photos) were children of my great-grandfather's father's older half-sister, Geertje "Gertrude" (HOEKSTRA) LANINGA. In my records, I had three children listed for Aunt Gert, one of whom died at age 18; the photos showed four children, allowing me to add two more to the family tree. One of the daughters' photos listed her married surname and I was able to find her marriage record and her sister's birth record on FamilySearch Record Search (earlier attempts to find more children in this family group had been unsuccessful because the transcriptions of their name were spelled wrong).
Now I'm trying to get more information on the STRONG family, which is the maiden name of my great-grandmother. There are many photos and birth announcements of children and grandchildren of my great-grandmother's siblings. There were seven children who survived childhood in this family, and several of them had multiple marriages, so compiling a complete list of descendants has been tricky. The album is helping, but also challenging me, where some names and dates do not "jive".
Scanning Large Items
I also mentioned last week that I scanned a large number of photos and some documents that belonged to my mother. My flatbed scanner scans items at the standard 8 1/2" x 11" size, but there were a couple of larger photos, and rather than photograph them, which would create a .jpg file, I decided to see if I could take them to a copy shop and get them scanned into a .tif file. I called my neighborhood Office Depot and found out that they could scan items up to 11" x 17", so I brought a couple of large photos AND the marriage certificate of my ROBBINS great-grandparents (one of my goals for MayDay - better late than never, I say!). The copy clerk told me she could scan items in 300 or 600 dpi (dots per inch) resolution, in color or black-and-white, and in .jpg, .tif, or .pdf file formats. The first scan cost me $2.95, with each additional scans being .25 each! That is, I had three different things scanned and it only cost me $3.45 plus sales tax! The only problem is, the marriage certificate was larger than 11" x 17" and I had asked to have it centered to fit as much of the main document in the scan as possible, as it had wide margins on all four sides. However, when I viewed the file at home, it had been scanned from the bottom edge up, and the top part of the document, including the title, was cut off. I'll need to get it rescanned and ask the clerk to either try to center it again, or scan it from the top down, as there is a larger margin at the bottom of the document than at the top. This document was rolled up and its cracks and tears taped, which of course has damaged it greatly. When I got it, I slowly unrolled just a bit of it at a time, sandwiched between layers of cloth to protect it and using books to weigh down the unrolled edge until it could lie flat. It will deteriorate; there is no stopping that process, but by scanning it, I can preserve what it once looked like, and even perhaps clean up the image a bit to remove the yellow tape stains.
So there you go: if you have some large items too big for your scanner, call a copy shop! And make sure they handle your items with care (I brought my scanning gloves along).
Birth Certificates
I've been interested in genealogy for 30 years as of this summer, actively researching records for 15 years, have been a mother nearly 19 years, and only this week obtained the last of the birth certificates for my immediate family! Yes, that's right, I have birth certificates and birth records for great-great-grandparents and didn't have my own kids' documents (other than hospital certificates)! The motivation? My son got his driver's permit and the State of Washington has become increasingly picky about citizenship documentation, so what was acceptable two years ago when my daughter received her permit is no longer so. I figured since I was at the county public health building picking up my son's certificate, I might as well get my daughter's. My parents gave me mine a few years ago, and we purchased my children's father's three years ago when he had to prove citizenship while working for a company that contracted with the military. And yes, the kids' certificates will go in our safe deposit box.
Busy, Busy, Busy
I didn't work at all on my Online City, County, and Rural Directory Site since I was busy playing around with two new websites. First of all, I became a member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) - a great society if you have ancestors from New England, New York, French and Atlantic Canada, or mid-Atlantic states, or have Jewish, Irish, Scottish, or African-American roots. They have a $15 off special on their annual membership through the end of July now which offers access to their online and premium databases, a subscription to two publications, and discounts to a variety of goods and services (DNA, research assistance). The other website that has kept me busy is GenealogyWise, and I wrote about this earlier here. I also spent a lot of time preparing posts that my team members at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society blog, Donna and Charles, had pre-written, getting them scheduled to be posted. My intent is to get a lot of publicity for the Washington State Genealogical Society 2009 State Conference through our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and GenealogyWise.
Publications
Both NEHGS and RootsWeb sent me their free electronic newsletters via e-mail this week. You do not have to have any kind of membership to receive them, and they are always chock full of genealogical goodies. Click on the links to sign up for these freebies yourself!
Home and Neighborhood History
This week an elderly woman stopped by with her daughter. This woman had lived in our home for 20-some years as a renter back in the 70s and 80s. She had all kinds of stories to tell about the house and the neighborhood. In addition, she had gone to school with a girl that had grown up in this house in the late 30s and early 40s, who had related the ghost story to her. However, it was a bit more chilling than what we had originally heard. Apparently, the story goes, two sisters lived here and one of them murdered the other and buried the victim in the basement. Supposedly, people heard the ghost of the murdered girl when they went into the basement. It so bothered the woman who lived here in the 70s and 80s that she had a priest come and bless the house. I don't believe that this story is true...I think it had its roots in the tale two sisters made up during the Depression years to get out of paying the rent. However, I will do a little investigation with city directories and old newspapers to see what I can find.
That same evening, I was talking to my 30-something next-door neighbor who told me she had grown up in a house over in the next block. She, too, had stories to share about the neighborhood. I felt like I had done some time traveling that day, having listened to tales encompassing seven decades!
Carbonite
Is your genealogy protected? Our main computer has been down for nearly two months, now, and attempts to get parts and repair it have been both frustratingly long and unsuccessful (we may actually have to take it to a shop!). It's especially been difficult not having easy access to my genealogy document and photo files, but I do have access, nonetheless. I have had everything backed up by Carbonite, and while my laptops do not have the room to download everything I need, I can remotely access a few things at a time. I spent some time this week doing an online chat with customer service to make sure those files and folders still are safe in online storage, although we are running out of time to reinstall everything. I am hoping that a) our hard drive was not damaged when the power supply blew; and b) if that is so, we'll be able to reinstall everything smoothly, once we get the computer back up and running. Fingers and toes crossed!
The Photo Album
I've been reviewing and analyzing the contents of a photograph album/scrapbook that my maternal great-grandmother kept (one of the items my uncle brought out to us from Michigan). It's not complete, as many photos were either lost or were removed to give to descendants of her three daughters. What was left in the album were photos and birth announcements of many extended family members and my uncle felt that I, of all people, would be able to identify many of the individuals that were unknown to him or other family members.
My great-grandmother was an invalid for the last 15 or 20 years of her life, and she spent much of her time in bed, labeling photographs in albums and writing in her Family Record book (which I also inherited) during the days when she felt well enough to do so. Of course, this is a boon to me, and I have been going back and forth between the labeled photos and the descriptions she listed of family members, friends, and neighbors in the Family Record book, as well as checking vital and census records at Ancestry, FamilySearch's Record Search, and SeekingMichigan. By doing so, I was able to figure out who some of the cousins she had listed were: the LANINGA "children" (they were elderly in the photos) were children of my great-grandfather's father's older half-sister, Geertje "Gertrude" (HOEKSTRA) LANINGA. In my records, I had three children listed for Aunt Gert, one of whom died at age 18; the photos showed four children, allowing me to add two more to the family tree. One of the daughters' photos listed her married surname and I was able to find her marriage record and her sister's birth record on FamilySearch Record Search (earlier attempts to find more children in this family group had been unsuccessful because the transcriptions of their name were spelled wrong).
Now I'm trying to get more information on the STRONG family, which is the maiden name of my great-grandmother. There are many photos and birth announcements of children and grandchildren of my great-grandmother's siblings. There were seven children who survived childhood in this family, and several of them had multiple marriages, so compiling a complete list of descendants has been tricky. The album is helping, but also challenging me, where some names and dates do not "jive".
Scanning Large Items
I also mentioned last week that I scanned a large number of photos and some documents that belonged to my mother. My flatbed scanner scans items at the standard 8 1/2" x 11" size, but there were a couple of larger photos, and rather than photograph them, which would create a .jpg file, I decided to see if I could take them to a copy shop and get them scanned into a .tif file. I called my neighborhood Office Depot and found out that they could scan items up to 11" x 17", so I brought a couple of large photos AND the marriage certificate of my ROBBINS great-grandparents (one of my goals for MayDay - better late than never, I say!). The copy clerk told me she could scan items in 300 or 600 dpi (dots per inch) resolution, in color or black-and-white, and in .jpg, .tif, or .pdf file formats. The first scan cost me $2.95, with each additional scans being .25 each! That is, I had three different things scanned and it only cost me $3.45 plus sales tax! The only problem is, the marriage certificate was larger than 11" x 17" and I had asked to have it centered to fit as much of the main document in the scan as possible, as it had wide margins on all four sides. However, when I viewed the file at home, it had been scanned from the bottom edge up, and the top part of the document, including the title, was cut off. I'll need to get it rescanned and ask the clerk to either try to center it again, or scan it from the top down, as there is a larger margin at the bottom of the document than at the top. This document was rolled up and its cracks and tears taped, which of course has damaged it greatly. When I got it, I slowly unrolled just a bit of it at a time, sandwiched between layers of cloth to protect it and using books to weigh down the unrolled edge until it could lie flat. It will deteriorate; there is no stopping that process, but by scanning it, I can preserve what it once looked like, and even perhaps clean up the image a bit to remove the yellow tape stains.
So there you go: if you have some large items too big for your scanner, call a copy shop! And make sure they handle your items with care (I brought my scanning gloves along).
Birth Certificates
I've been interested in genealogy for 30 years as of this summer, actively researching records for 15 years, have been a mother nearly 19 years, and only this week obtained the last of the birth certificates for my immediate family! Yes, that's right, I have birth certificates and birth records for great-great-grandparents and didn't have my own kids' documents (other than hospital certificates)! The motivation? My son got his driver's permit and the State of Washington has become increasingly picky about citizenship documentation, so what was acceptable two years ago when my daughter received her permit is no longer so. I figured since I was at the county public health building picking up my son's certificate, I might as well get my daughter's. My parents gave me mine a few years ago, and we purchased my children's father's three years ago when he had to prove citizenship while working for a company that contracted with the military. And yes, the kids' certificates will go in our safe deposit box.
Busy, Busy, Busy
I didn't work at all on my Online City, County, and Rural Directory Site since I was busy playing around with two new websites. First of all, I became a member of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEHGS) - a great society if you have ancestors from New England, New York, French and Atlantic Canada, or mid-Atlantic states, or have Jewish, Irish, Scottish, or African-American roots. They have a $15 off special on their annual membership through the end of July now which offers access to their online and premium databases, a subscription to two publications, and discounts to a variety of goods and services (DNA, research assistance). The other website that has kept me busy is GenealogyWise, and I wrote about this earlier here. I also spent a lot of time preparing posts that my team members at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society blog, Donna and Charles, had pre-written, getting them scheduled to be posted. My intent is to get a lot of publicity for the Washington State Genealogical Society 2009 State Conference through our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and GenealogyWise.
Publications
Both NEHGS and RootsWeb sent me their free electronic newsletters via e-mail this week. You do not have to have any kind of membership to receive them, and they are always chock full of genealogical goodies. Click on the links to sign up for these freebies yourself!
Home and Neighborhood History
This week an elderly woman stopped by with her daughter. This woman had lived in our home for 20-some years as a renter back in the 70s and 80s. She had all kinds of stories to tell about the house and the neighborhood. In addition, she had gone to school with a girl that had grown up in this house in the late 30s and early 40s, who had related the ghost story to her. However, it was a bit more chilling than what we had originally heard. Apparently, the story goes, two sisters lived here and one of them murdered the other and buried the victim in the basement. Supposedly, people heard the ghost of the murdered girl when they went into the basement. It so bothered the woman who lived here in the 70s and 80s that she had a priest come and bless the house. I don't believe that this story is true...I think it had its roots in the tale two sisters made up during the Depression years to get out of paying the rent. However, I will do a little investigation with city directories and old newspapers to see what I can find.
That same evening, I was talking to my 30-something next-door neighbor who told me she had grown up in a house over in the next block. She, too, had stories to share about the neighborhood. I felt like I had done some time traveling that day, having listened to tales encompassing seven decades!
Carbonite
Is your genealogy protected? Our main computer has been down for nearly two months, now, and attempts to get parts and repair it have been both frustratingly long and unsuccessful (we may actually have to take it to a shop!). It's especially been difficult not having easy access to my genealogy document and photo files, but I do have access, nonetheless. I have had everything backed up by Carbonite, and while my laptops do not have the room to download everything I need, I can remotely access a few things at a time. I spent some time this week doing an online chat with customer service to make sure those files and folders still are safe in online storage, although we are running out of time to reinstall everything. I am hoping that a) our hard drive was not damaged when the power supply blew; and b) if that is so, we'll be able to reinstall everything smoothly, once we get the computer back up and running. Fingers and toes crossed!
Friday, July 03, 2009
Friday Findings: Magazines and a Bonanza
I haven't done Friday Findings in a while, and am hoping to get back on track with it. It's a great way to keep track of any research I've done or discoveries I've made over the past week.
I received the September 2009 issue of Family Tree Magazine and the July/August 2009 issue of Discovering Family History. Both have great articles, as usual, and they both had articles on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA is the focus of FTM's web guides series, and DFH had an article on NARA field branches.
In an earlier post this week, I mentioned how my uncle had arrived from Western Michigan for a surprise 65th birthday party for my mother last weekend. He brought two packages of photos and documents, one for me and one for Mom. I am scanning Mom's stuff now to return to her when we visit for the annual Robbins' Fourth of July barbecue. It's been a challenge, since my main computer has been down for a month, I can't get my scanner's software to load on my daughter's fast laptop with lots of hard drive space, and my own sluggish laptop is almost out of room (I had to go through and do a lot of deleting of unnecessary files and cropping of .tif photo files to allow enough hard drive space to finish scanning).
The photos are mostly formal ones of Mom, her mother, and her grandmother, although there are many snapshots. There are also my grandparents' senior yearbooks, my grandmother's high school diploma, and some snapshots of my own childhood. There are also some photos from my (step) grandfather's family, and I'm honored that they are passing into my hands. I look forward to eventually highlighting a lot of these photos on some Wordless Wednesday posts.
I also heard from a HOLST relative (my paternal grandmother's adoptive surname) I've corresponded with in the past who may have some copies of photos to pass on to me. Also, a descendant of Silas YORK got back in touch with me. There's a possibility that my brick wall ancestor Jeremiah F. YORK is related and we've been knocking on this wall for many years. Last, I heard from a distant DICKINSON relative who told me of a family reunion in June 2010 in Massachusetts.
There's been a lot of news from genealogy websites this past week, and I just haven't had time to get the press releases on my blog. Many of them have to be reformatted to fit the post, which is time-consuming. I wish they'd get e-mailed to me in .txt format instead of HTML!
I received the September 2009 issue of Family Tree Magazine and the July/August 2009 issue of Discovering Family History. Both have great articles, as usual, and they both had articles on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA is the focus of FTM's web guides series, and DFH had an article on NARA field branches.
In an earlier post this week, I mentioned how my uncle had arrived from Western Michigan for a surprise 65th birthday party for my mother last weekend. He brought two packages of photos and documents, one for me and one for Mom. I am scanning Mom's stuff now to return to her when we visit for the annual Robbins' Fourth of July barbecue. It's been a challenge, since my main computer has been down for a month, I can't get my scanner's software to load on my daughter's fast laptop with lots of hard drive space, and my own sluggish laptop is almost out of room (I had to go through and do a lot of deleting of unnecessary files and cropping of .tif photo files to allow enough hard drive space to finish scanning).
The photos are mostly formal ones of Mom, her mother, and her grandmother, although there are many snapshots. There are also my grandparents' senior yearbooks, my grandmother's high school diploma, and some snapshots of my own childhood. There are also some photos from my (step) grandfather's family, and I'm honored that they are passing into my hands. I look forward to eventually highlighting a lot of these photos on some Wordless Wednesday posts.
I also heard from a HOLST relative (my paternal grandmother's adoptive surname) I've corresponded with in the past who may have some copies of photos to pass on to me. Also, a descendant of Silas YORK got back in touch with me. There's a possibility that my brick wall ancestor Jeremiah F. YORK is related and we've been knocking on this wall for many years. Last, I heard from a distant DICKINSON relative who told me of a family reunion in June 2010 in Massachusetts.
There's been a lot of news from genealogy websites this past week, and I just haven't had time to get the press releases on my blog. Many of them have to be reformatted to fit the post, which is time-consuming. I wish they'd get e-mailed to me in .txt format instead of HTML!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday Findings: More on the Polar Bears Documentary, Plus Some JOHNSONs
This has been one of those crazy busy weeks where I'm burning the candle at both ends and perhaps in the middle as well, so I didn't get much done in the area of research (if you've e-mailed me or commented on my blog, it may be a while before I respond). I started a post on my brickwall ancestor that I hope to get posted this weekend or early next week. It takes time to get all my information together in an organized and chronological manner.
I heard from the producer of the Polar Bear documentary and she requested to use the note my great-grandfather kept on his person at all times "just in case" in her film, a request I was happy to grant. She is also going to send me an invitation to a Southern California screening of the film this summer. I have no idea if I will be able to attend, so I haven't even thought about overwhelming details of finding lodging and transportation while down there, etc.
I did do a little playing around at FamilySearch Record Search and believe I've found a couple of records pertaining to two children of my ancestors, Nelson H. JOHNSON and Catherine MASSEY. Their daughter Martha was my 3rd-great-grandmother and I may have found two of Martha's four siblings, Henry and Susan.
Next week, I hope to be able to spend more time in research.
I heard from the producer of the Polar Bear documentary and she requested to use the note my great-grandfather kept on his person at all times "just in case" in her film, a request I was happy to grant. She is also going to send me an invitation to a Southern California screening of the film this summer. I have no idea if I will be able to attend, so I haven't even thought about overwhelming details of finding lodging and transportation while down there, etc.
I did do a little playing around at FamilySearch Record Search and believe I've found a couple of records pertaining to two children of my ancestors, Nelson H. JOHNSON and Catherine MASSEY. Their daughter Martha was my 3rd-great-grandmother and I may have found two of Martha's four siblings, Henry and Susan.
Next week, I hope to be able to spend more time in research.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday Findings: McLALLIN Pension Record (Again)
Hands down, my biggest find this week was receiving the 72-page Civil War Veteran's Pension Application for my 4th-great-grandfather, Levi E. McLALLIN. In an earlier post, I spelled his surname "McCLELLAN," but his signature on many of the documents has established for me that this was the way he personally spelled it!
What a treasure trove! First, I was amazed at the speed at which I received it, having ordered it December 26th online from the National Archives and having it arrive in my mailbox on January 19th! I have had experience with four other direct ancestors' pension files, so I knew what to expect for the most part, but also understood that some information I was seeking might not be forthcoming. There was such a nice amount of details given in this file that I was not too disappointed not to find anyone with the surname of CLEVELAND as a witness, hoping to find a quick connection for Levi's first wife--my ancestor--Clarissa Mary CLEVELAND.
Here are the highlights of new information I discovered for this man who is one of my brick walls after visually scanning through the record twice (my first phase of analysis):
1. His full name was Levi Edward McLALLIN; this, from only one document, created after his death by the family physician, Dr. A. THUERIER, who along with another family physician, Dr. Myron BATES, have become some of my genealogical angels due to the obscure yet vital details they left behind in this file!
2. He was born in Montgomery County, New York (unfortunately, no complete birthdate was given, so it still stands at "c. 1823").
3. He married my ancestor, Clarissa Mary CLEVELAND, on 6 August 1848 in Cottrellville Twp., St. Clair Co., Michigan. From a sworn statement by the county clerk in 1885, who testified that the Justice of the Peace whose name appears on Levi and Clarissa's marriage certificate was indeed a serving in that county at the time, I discovered that the marriage record was never entered in the St. Clair County libers. A photocopy of the original marriage certificate is in this pension file!
4. While the majority of Levi and Clarissa's children, including my ancestor Cornelia McCLELLAN (this is how her name is normally spelled in documents), are not mentioned in the file, it does list the youngest child of Levi and Clarissa--Ira--quite frequently, since after Levi's death, financial support was needed to raise this minor child. Ira's full birthdate and place are given: 29 June 1870 in New Haven Twp., Macomb Co., Michigan. This information was given by Dr. BATES, who delivered Ira.
5. Clarissa died 17 September 1877 of consumption, and although the location is not given, there is inference it was in New Haven Township. Again, this information supplied by the wonderful Dr. BATES, who treated her for her consumption for about two years prior to her death.
6. I already knew that Levi had married a widow, Mary C. (FORD) COREY, but I discovered her birthplace: Orange County, New York. Old information: she was born c. 1831 and they married 16 December 1877 in New Haven Township.
7. Throughout the documents there were many different addresses (city and rural) given for Levi which helped me understand why he's been so hard to track. He and his family just moved around a lot. I'm still within the second phase of my analysis of sorting the documents in chronological order to determine the timeline of his residences.
8. While certainly not a highlight for poor Levi, I discovered why he qualified for a pension: he was 75% disabled due to a gunshot wound in his right chest sustained at Spotsylvania, Virginia on 12 May 1864. The ball never exited the body and was believed to be lodged in his lower lung or in his liver. This pension file is large because he requested numerous times for an increase in his pension. He was unable to work at his regular occupations of farmer and carpenter due to his disability, but occasionally worked as a teamster.
9. He was 5' 11" and his weight varied from 160 to 175 pounds, depending upon the documents and timeframe. He had a light complexion, light eyes and dark hair.
9. He died 6 March 1882 in Hamtramck, Wayne Co., Michigan (his death is not listed in the state death records found at FamilySearch Record Search).
10. He was buried 8 March 1882 in Chesterfield and Lennox Union Burying Ground in Macomb Co., Michigan. I believe this is probably now known as Hart Cemetery, also known as Chesterfield Union Cemetery.
11. His widow, Mary C. (FORD) COREY McLALLIN, died 11 February 1894. I've since been able to find her record at FamilySearch Record Search, but while the index information gives me her death location (Mt. Clemens, Macomb County), it does not list her parents' names (they were probably not given). The image given for the record is the first page only.
There are many names of witnesses that I need to research, so this will keep me busy for some time!
Other research reports for this past week include a couple of lookup requests (one for Kent County, Michigan; the other for Newaygo County), finding Sylvester FREDENBURG's grave location at Find A Grave's listing for Powell Cemetery in Romeo, Macomb Co., Michigan (Sylvester was the above Levi's son-in-law); receiving e-mails from a woman related to one of my great-grandaunts by marriage inquiring into the ABBEY family; and a descendant of the CHRISTIAN branch of MIDKIFF family trying to confirm names of children in that family group. I also heard from a HOLST descendant whose grandfather was the brother of my adoptive great-grandfather, Alfred Henry HOLST. Last, but not least, my dad sent me some more photos of his mother as a teen with her adoptive family members, including her dad, the aforementioned Alfred HOLST.
What a treasure trove! First, I was amazed at the speed at which I received it, having ordered it December 26th online from the National Archives and having it arrive in my mailbox on January 19th! I have had experience with four other direct ancestors' pension files, so I knew what to expect for the most part, but also understood that some information I was seeking might not be forthcoming. There was such a nice amount of details given in this file that I was not too disappointed not to find anyone with the surname of CLEVELAND as a witness, hoping to find a quick connection for Levi's first wife--my ancestor--Clarissa Mary CLEVELAND.
Here are the highlights of new information I discovered for this man who is one of my brick walls after visually scanning through the record twice (my first phase of analysis):
1. His full name was Levi Edward McLALLIN; this, from only one document, created after his death by the family physician, Dr. A. THUERIER, who along with another family physician, Dr. Myron BATES, have become some of my genealogical angels due to the obscure yet vital details they left behind in this file!
2. He was born in Montgomery County, New York (unfortunately, no complete birthdate was given, so it still stands at "c. 1823").
3. He married my ancestor, Clarissa Mary CLEVELAND, on 6 August 1848 in Cottrellville Twp., St. Clair Co., Michigan. From a sworn statement by the county clerk in 1885, who testified that the Justice of the Peace whose name appears on Levi and Clarissa's marriage certificate was indeed a serving in that county at the time, I discovered that the marriage record was never entered in the St. Clair County libers. A photocopy of the original marriage certificate is in this pension file!
4. While the majority of Levi and Clarissa's children, including my ancestor Cornelia McCLELLAN (this is how her name is normally spelled in documents), are not mentioned in the file, it does list the youngest child of Levi and Clarissa--Ira--quite frequently, since after Levi's death, financial support was needed to raise this minor child. Ira's full birthdate and place are given: 29 June 1870 in New Haven Twp., Macomb Co., Michigan. This information was given by Dr. BATES, who delivered Ira.
5. Clarissa died 17 September 1877 of consumption, and although the location is not given, there is inference it was in New Haven Township. Again, this information supplied by the wonderful Dr. BATES, who treated her for her consumption for about two years prior to her death.
6. I already knew that Levi had married a widow, Mary C. (FORD) COREY, but I discovered her birthplace: Orange County, New York. Old information: she was born c. 1831 and they married 16 December 1877 in New Haven Township.
7. Throughout the documents there were many different addresses (city and rural) given for Levi which helped me understand why he's been so hard to track. He and his family just moved around a lot. I'm still within the second phase of my analysis of sorting the documents in chronological order to determine the timeline of his residences.
8. While certainly not a highlight for poor Levi, I discovered why he qualified for a pension: he was 75% disabled due to a gunshot wound in his right chest sustained at Spotsylvania, Virginia on 12 May 1864. The ball never exited the body and was believed to be lodged in his lower lung or in his liver. This pension file is large because he requested numerous times for an increase in his pension. He was unable to work at his regular occupations of farmer and carpenter due to his disability, but occasionally worked as a teamster.
9. He was 5' 11" and his weight varied from 160 to 175 pounds, depending upon the documents and timeframe. He had a light complexion, light eyes and dark hair.
9. He died 6 March 1882 in Hamtramck, Wayne Co., Michigan (his death is not listed in the state death records found at FamilySearch Record Search).
10. He was buried 8 March 1882 in Chesterfield and Lennox Union Burying Ground in Macomb Co., Michigan. I believe this is probably now known as Hart Cemetery, also known as Chesterfield Union Cemetery.
11. His widow, Mary C. (FORD) COREY McLALLIN, died 11 February 1894. I've since been able to find her record at FamilySearch Record Search, but while the index information gives me her death location (Mt. Clemens, Macomb County), it does not list her parents' names (they were probably not given). The image given for the record is the first page only.
There are many names of witnesses that I need to research, so this will keep me busy for some time!
Other research reports for this past week include a couple of lookup requests (one for Kent County, Michigan; the other for Newaygo County), finding Sylvester FREDENBURG's grave location at Find A Grave's listing for Powell Cemetery in Romeo, Macomb Co., Michigan (Sylvester was the above Levi's son-in-law); receiving e-mails from a woman related to one of my great-grandaunts by marriage inquiring into the ABBEY family; and a descendant of the CHRISTIAN branch of MIDKIFF family trying to confirm names of children in that family group. I also heard from a HOLST descendant whose grandfather was the brother of my adoptive great-grandfather, Alfred Henry HOLST. Last, but not least, my dad sent me some more photos of his mother as a teen with her adoptive family members, including her dad, the aforementioned Alfred HOLST.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday Findings: WILLIS and a Polar Bear Film
I really didn't have any time to do research this week, as it was my first full week of work (last week, there were three snow days, so I only worked Tuesday and Friday). Not only did I not have a lot of time to research, but I was often pretty tired when I returned home each afternoon. Additionally, I started teaching my latest Beginning Online Genealogy class on Thursday, a four-week class, for the Spokane County Library District.
While I didn't even get to some of the e-mails to which I intended to respond, I did hear from a newer genea-blogger, Andrea Christman. It seems we may be connected through the WILLIS line. If this pans out, Andrea will be the fourth genea-blogging cousin I've discovered since I started this blog nearly three years ago (Randy, T.K. and Bill are the others)!
I'm very excited to hear from Dale Nielsen that a film which will eventually be aired on PBS is in the works about the Polar Bear Division which fought in North Russia at the end of WWI (my great-grandfather served in that division)! Dale and I have also been corresponding about a Civil War photo he donated to the Archives of Michigan, which I believe features the two DICKINSON brothers of my 3rd-great-grandmother.
While I didn't even get to some of the e-mails to which I intended to respond, I did hear from a newer genea-blogger, Andrea Christman. It seems we may be connected through the WILLIS line. If this pans out, Andrea will be the fourth genea-blogging cousin I've discovered since I started this blog nearly three years ago (Randy, T.K. and Bill are the others)!
I'm very excited to hear from Dale Nielsen that a film which will eventually be aired on PBS is in the works about the Polar Bear Division which fought in North Russia at the end of WWI (my great-grandfather served in that division)! Dale and I have also been corresponding about a Civil War photo he donated to the Archives of Michigan, which I believe features the two DICKINSON brothers of my 3rd-great-grandmother.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday Findings: LEWIS, TUINSTRA, Lookups and (Maybe) a Bigamist
I had hoped to post this last night, but was too exhausted after a long day to finish up the details. This has been a completely weird week, so I don't feel like I got much accomplished. Things happened in fits and starts, so to speak. School was supposed to start on Monday, a return from Winter Break, but we had a snow day and started on Tuesday, instead. It was odd coming back to work after seven weeks, but good to see everyone again. Then school was closed Wednesday and Thursday because rain and warm temperatures had our 76 inches of snow melting all over the place and causing flooding. There was no place for students to walk to school, as sidewalks were still covered with mounds of frozen, melting snow and the streets were filled with slush and standing water. Friday morning we all returned yet again!
I started adding information from the LEWIS e-mails and MyHeritage family site that were shared with me from my newly-found cousin. It's taking a while, since I'm being very careful to cite my sources correctly. My Great-grandmother Robbins, Marie LEWIS, was one of 13 children, and although only ten made it to adulthood, marriage, and parenthood, when you start adding their descendants to a family tree, it grows quite quickly!
I also heard from a TUINSTRA cousin this week, with whom I've been in contact previously, but haven't had time to look closely at her e-mail other than to note that she has some documents she'd like to share with me.
There were three lookup requests this week; two for records from Muskegon County, Michigan and one for Newaygo County. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to get to the Family History Center, because although the roads are clearing up, I'm starting my next Beginning Online Genealogy Class Thursday night, the day I normally set aside for research at the FHC. I also had a request for lookups in the record books for Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington. These records are now available online, but many people don't realize it. I choose to keep my lookup service for Park Hill available so that I can direct requesters to the website when they contact me.
My husband has a third cousin--Holly--who is attempting to find out about the ancestry of her paternal grandmother, Fidelia (ORTIZ) MIDKIFF. This woman was married to Holly's grandfather, William Mason MIDKIFF. They had four children. When Willie became blind in one eye due to violent headaches, Fidelia left, taking the youngest child, Sam. Attempts to determine what became of her or their son has been futile. Willie died when the remaining children were teenagers and they were placed in foster care.
I knew from some research another distant cousin had done that Willie and Fidelia had been married in Trinidad, Las Animas Co., Colorado in 1937. Our records indicated that Fidelia had also been born in Trinidad. I started with the 1930 Federal Census and believe that I found her living with her parents and siblings. They were all born in New Mexico, not Colorado. By the ages of her parents and the information given on how old they were at their first marriage, it was easy to determine that this was not a first marriage for this Fidelia's father. Tracing back into 1920 and 1910, I also determined that the age given for this Fidelia on the 1930 census were incorrect, and that this Fidelia would have been 10 or nearly 11, not 12 as stated. I also made an interesting find: it appears that this Fidelia's father may have been a bigamist. Without going into tons of details too long for this post, anyone curious enough with access to the Federal Census collection at Ancestry can trace this Fidelia's father, Francisco ORTIZ and her mother Telesfora [--?--] ORTIZ, along with Fidelia's older half-sister's mother, Venerada [--?--] ORTIZ to possibly come up with the same conclusions.
I wrote Holly and said that the only way we could know with certainty that the Fidelia ORTIZ I found in the 1930 census was her grandmother was to order a copy of her grandparents' marriage record, a tricky task, since Colorado has such stringent privacy laws. Holly would have to prove she is descended from Fidelia and Willie, but since Holly's father died young and her step-father adopted her, she does not have access to her birth certificate with her MIDKIFF surname. She does have an aunt, the one known surviving child of Willie and Fidelia, so perhaps the aunt can fill out the application and provide the evidence needed to obtain the marriage record. From that record, we could hopefully ascertain that this is indeed Holly's grandmother Fidelia in 1930. From there, perhaps we can obtain a birth record from New Mexico and then see if the birth date matches any women with the same name in the Social Security Death Index to discover what happened to her. It's all very "iffy," of course, but it is fascinating and I hope that I'll be able to help Holly, and in turn her siblings and cousins. (Holly was amused by the bigamist possibility.)
This week I renewed my subscription to Footnote for the year and actually got 15 months out of the deal, instead of only 12. I also started another trial subscription to GenealogyBank when I saw on their blog that they have recently added the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press, 1901 - 1922. I have found some little treasures that I will probably post later. I do know from using the obituary database at the Western Michigan Genealogical Society's website that my ancestors preferred placing notices in the Grand Rapids Herald while it was still in publication. However, GenealogyBank only has three years of the Herald available at this time.
I also found a blog template that I really liked, but wasn't having success downloading it. I finally used Internet Explorer instead of Firefox and was able to download it just fine. I also uploaded it to a private sample blog, but there are some backgrounds I want to change and I'll have to save and tweak all my widgets. It will take some uninterrupted time (!) to accomplish, but at least I'm headed in the right direction in my New Year's resolution to redesign my blog and make it look less cluttered.
I started adding information from the LEWIS e-mails and MyHeritage family site that were shared with me from my newly-found cousin. It's taking a while, since I'm being very careful to cite my sources correctly. My Great-grandmother Robbins, Marie LEWIS, was one of 13 children, and although only ten made it to adulthood, marriage, and parenthood, when you start adding their descendants to a family tree, it grows quite quickly!
I also heard from a TUINSTRA cousin this week, with whom I've been in contact previously, but haven't had time to look closely at her e-mail other than to note that she has some documents she'd like to share with me.
There were three lookup requests this week; two for records from Muskegon County, Michigan and one for Newaygo County. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to get to the Family History Center, because although the roads are clearing up, I'm starting my next Beginning Online Genealogy Class Thursday night, the day I normally set aside for research at the FHC. I also had a request for lookups in the record books for Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington. These records are now available online, but many people don't realize it. I choose to keep my lookup service for Park Hill available so that I can direct requesters to the website when they contact me.
My husband has a third cousin--Holly--who is attempting to find out about the ancestry of her paternal grandmother, Fidelia (ORTIZ) MIDKIFF. This woman was married to Holly's grandfather, William Mason MIDKIFF. They had four children. When Willie became blind in one eye due to violent headaches, Fidelia left, taking the youngest child, Sam. Attempts to determine what became of her or their son has been futile. Willie died when the remaining children were teenagers and they were placed in foster care.
I knew from some research another distant cousin had done that Willie and Fidelia had been married in Trinidad, Las Animas Co., Colorado in 1937. Our records indicated that Fidelia had also been born in Trinidad. I started with the 1930 Federal Census and believe that I found her living with her parents and siblings. They were all born in New Mexico, not Colorado. By the ages of her parents and the information given on how old they were at their first marriage, it was easy to determine that this was not a first marriage for this Fidelia's father. Tracing back into 1920 and 1910, I also determined that the age given for this Fidelia on the 1930 census were incorrect, and that this Fidelia would have been 10 or nearly 11, not 12 as stated. I also made an interesting find: it appears that this Fidelia's father may have been a bigamist. Without going into tons of details too long for this post, anyone curious enough with access to the Federal Census collection at Ancestry can trace this Fidelia's father, Francisco ORTIZ and her mother Telesfora [--?--] ORTIZ, along with Fidelia's older half-sister's mother, Venerada [--?--] ORTIZ to possibly come up with the same conclusions.
I wrote Holly and said that the only way we could know with certainty that the Fidelia ORTIZ I found in the 1930 census was her grandmother was to order a copy of her grandparents' marriage record, a tricky task, since Colorado has such stringent privacy laws. Holly would have to prove she is descended from Fidelia and Willie, but since Holly's father died young and her step-father adopted her, she does not have access to her birth certificate with her MIDKIFF surname. She does have an aunt, the one known surviving child of Willie and Fidelia, so perhaps the aunt can fill out the application and provide the evidence needed to obtain the marriage record. From that record, we could hopefully ascertain that this is indeed Holly's grandmother Fidelia in 1930. From there, perhaps we can obtain a birth record from New Mexico and then see if the birth date matches any women with the same name in the Social Security Death Index to discover what happened to her. It's all very "iffy," of course, but it is fascinating and I hope that I'll be able to help Holly, and in turn her siblings and cousins. (Holly was amused by the bigamist possibility.)
This week I renewed my subscription to Footnote for the year and actually got 15 months out of the deal, instead of only 12. I also started another trial subscription to GenealogyBank when I saw on their blog that they have recently added the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press, 1901 - 1922. I have found some little treasures that I will probably post later. I do know from using the obituary database at the Western Michigan Genealogical Society's website that my ancestors preferred placing notices in the Grand Rapids Herald while it was still in publication. However, GenealogyBank only has three years of the Herald available at this time.
I also found a blog template that I really liked, but wasn't having success downloading it. I finally used Internet Explorer instead of Firefox and was able to download it just fine. I also uploaded it to a private sample blog, but there are some backgrounds I want to change and I'll have to save and tweak all my widgets. It will take some uninterrupted time (!) to accomplish, but at least I'm headed in the right direction in my New Year's resolution to redesign my blog and make it look less cluttered.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday Findings: VALK, LEWIS, McCLELLAN, Markham Twp Ancestry
I haven't done a Friday Findings post in a while, and as I'm slowly returning to posting more of my regular "columns", I thought I'd start here. Friday Findings is a feature I started last summer to record my weekly research finds and cousin connections. I hope to do a better job of keeping up with this. This post covers the past two weeks.
LEWIS and VALK
Last week, I had two cousins leave comments on the guestbook at my family history website, also named AnceStories. I'm delighted to hear from them, and need to take the time to compose thoughtful, comprehensive e-mails as responses.
McCLELLAN
I have spent a lot of my online research time during the past two weeks trying to find as much as possible about one of my brick wall ancestors, Levi E. McCLELLAN (or McLELLAN). The Michigan vital records at FamilySearch Record Search helped me to determine that he was indeed married twice, and not just once. Confusion came about because both wives had similar names. His first wife, my ancestor Clarissa Mary (or Mary Clarissa) CLEVELAND, was born c. 1832 in New York state. She last appears on the 1870 Federal Census with him and the children, William, Cornelia (my 3rd-great-grandmother), and Edwin in New Haven Village, Macomb Co., Michigan. In 1880, Levi is living with wife Mary C. FORD, along with a 10-year-old son Ira, and two step-children in Detroit. Finding son Ira's marriage record, also at FamilySearch Record Search proved that he was Clarissa's son and not Mary's. Mary appears in the 1890 Veteran's Census as a widow of two veterans, Levi being one of them. So Levi died sometime between 1880 (when he appears in both the Federal Census in Detroit and the 1880 Detroit City Directory) and 1890. The 1850 Federal Census gives me a possible mother, brother, and niece for Levi. I've decided to spend my Christmas money on obtaining Levi's Civil War Veteran's pension record from the National Archives to see what genealogical gems I can glean from it.
Markham Twp., York Co., Ontario Ancestry
Janet Iles was kind enough to let me consult her regarding what Markham Township records are available so that I can try to knock down some other brick wall lines, my WILKINSON and either TERRY or LAMONEAUX lines. I'm hoping to find the marriage record of Richard WILKINSON and his wife Mary, who seems to have two surnames (TERRY and LAMONEAUX).
LEWIS and VALK
Last week, I had two cousins leave comments on the guestbook at my family history website, also named AnceStories. I'm delighted to hear from them, and need to take the time to compose thoughtful, comprehensive e-mails as responses.
McCLELLAN
I have spent a lot of my online research time during the past two weeks trying to find as much as possible about one of my brick wall ancestors, Levi E. McCLELLAN (or McLELLAN). The Michigan vital records at FamilySearch Record Search helped me to determine that he was indeed married twice, and not just once. Confusion came about because both wives had similar names. His first wife, my ancestor Clarissa Mary (or Mary Clarissa) CLEVELAND, was born c. 1832 in New York state. She last appears on the 1870 Federal Census with him and the children, William, Cornelia (my 3rd-great-grandmother), and Edwin in New Haven Village, Macomb Co., Michigan. In 1880, Levi is living with wife Mary C. FORD, along with a 10-year-old son Ira, and two step-children in Detroit. Finding son Ira's marriage record, also at FamilySearch Record Search proved that he was Clarissa's son and not Mary's. Mary appears in the 1890 Veteran's Census as a widow of two veterans, Levi being one of them. So Levi died sometime between 1880 (when he appears in both the Federal Census in Detroit and the 1880 Detroit City Directory) and 1890. The 1850 Federal Census gives me a possible mother, brother, and niece for Levi. I've decided to spend my Christmas money on obtaining Levi's Civil War Veteran's pension record from the National Archives to see what genealogical gems I can glean from it.
Markham Twp., York Co., Ontario Ancestry
Janet Iles was kind enough to let me consult her regarding what Markham Township records are available so that I can try to knock down some other brick wall lines, my WILKINSON and either TERRY or LAMONEAUX lines. I'm hoping to find the marriage record of Richard WILKINSON and his wife Mary, who seems to have two surnames (TERRY and LAMONEAUX).
Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday Findings: Canadian Online Records and a McARTHUR Obituary
I didn't have as many "finds" this past week. I spent quite a bit of time inputting data from a Descendancy Report shared with me by the wife of a distant WILKINSON cousin. Her information appears to be mostly oral family history, and as this family lived in Canada for many generations, I decided to see what I could find online. I used the vital records indexes for both Manitoba and British Columbia to verify or correct information in the report. The report listed William WILKINSON (the person from whom the descendants were listed, and brother of my 3rd-great-grandfather John) with a death date of 25 September 1934, but no death location. His wife's death information stated she died 26 February 1947 in Victoria, British Columbia, so I checked the BC vital records index using William's name only, and found a listing for a William WILKINSON who died 25 September 1939 in Victoria. This is very likely the same William, and to confirm, I wrote a RAOGK volunteer to request obituaries for both William and his wife Mary Magdaline (THOMPSON) WILKINSON.
I'm just amazed and thrilled with the amount of Canadian information available online these days, from the provincial vital records indexes to the census records indexes and images that are being provided by a variety of websites! It's getting easier and less expensive to trace my Canadian ancestors and relatives these days.
I also used information found at FamilySearch's Record Search pilot website in Michigan vital records and found marriage records for two of William's sons. Speaking of Michigan vital records, stay tuned to this blog next week for a series on these records.
Another Canada - Michigan link in my family tree is my M(a)cARTHUR family. A cousin sent me a photocopy of the obituary of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Daniel J. MacARTHUR. He was born in Canada and immigrated to the United States, as his obituary confirms. It also confirms he was buried in the Hill/Danley/Phillips Cemetery in Fulton Twp., Gratiot Co., Michigan. The obituary gives his death date (March 10; and other records state the year was 1919), then says "Funeral services were held at the house Thursday and the remains brought to St. Johns [Clinton Co.] and laid to rest Friday in the Danley cemetery on the Gratiot county line." I used the calendar tool in my RootsMagic program and entered "1919" to view that year. I determined that Daniel died on a Monday; the funeral was March 13th, and the burial was the 14th. If you do not have access to a program like this, you can find calendar calculators online.
As I always am, I was intrigued by the listing of the number of descendants in his obituary: "seven children, four boys and three girls, 22 grand children, and 7 great grand children..." Have you ever looked an obituary and then tried to figure out to whom exactly these numbers refer? You may discover additional descendants! Be aware, however, that these numbers can be incorrect. When my paternal grandfather died, the wrong numbers of grandchildren and great-grandchildren were listed in his obit; no matter how I rearranged the possibilities with adoptive and step-descendants, it didn't work out. Somebody simply goofed, and that's often what happens when people's minds are filled with grief and/or the overwhelming duties of filling out paperwork for death certificates, obituaries, probate proceedings, etc.
Although not a "find," I decided to see if I could find cotton gloves for sale here in town, instead of having to purchase a large box of them online through an archival supplier. I've been needing to get some to use while handling old family photos, documents, and heirlooms. At the last Scanfest, someone mentioned purchasing them at art supply stores. I called Spokane Art Supply; they were out of stock momentarily, but recommended Inland Photo up the street. The photo shop employee told me they had two pair of one-size-fits-all regular cotton gloves for $8.95 (not appealing, since I have very small hands), and one pair of anti-static ones in either small and large for $14.95. I'm going to check them out later today. I don't need anti-static ones, because I'm not using them to work on electronics, but they may be the better choice for comfort and fit.
I'm just amazed and thrilled with the amount of Canadian information available online these days, from the provincial vital records indexes to the census records indexes and images that are being provided by a variety of websites! It's getting easier and less expensive to trace my Canadian ancestors and relatives these days.
I also used information found at FamilySearch's Record Search pilot website in Michigan vital records and found marriage records for two of William's sons. Speaking of Michigan vital records, stay tuned to this blog next week for a series on these records.
click on image to enlarge and view citation
Another Canada - Michigan link in my family tree is my M(a)cARTHUR family. A cousin sent me a photocopy of the obituary of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Daniel J. MacARTHUR. He was born in Canada and immigrated to the United States, as his obituary confirms. It also confirms he was buried in the Hill/Danley/Phillips Cemetery in Fulton Twp., Gratiot Co., Michigan. The obituary gives his death date (March 10; and other records state the year was 1919), then says "Funeral services were held at the house Thursday and the remains brought to St. Johns [Clinton Co.] and laid to rest Friday in the Danley cemetery on the Gratiot county line." I used the calendar tool in my RootsMagic program and entered "1919" to view that year. I determined that Daniel died on a Monday; the funeral was March 13th, and the burial was the 14th. If you do not have access to a program like this, you can find calendar calculators online.
As I always am, I was intrigued by the listing of the number of descendants in his obituary: "seven children, four boys and three girls, 22 grand children, and 7 great grand children..." Have you ever looked an obituary and then tried to figure out to whom exactly these numbers refer? You may discover additional descendants! Be aware, however, that these numbers can be incorrect. When my paternal grandfather died, the wrong numbers of grandchildren and great-grandchildren were listed in his obit; no matter how I rearranged the possibilities with adoptive and step-descendants, it didn't work out. Somebody simply goofed, and that's often what happens when people's minds are filled with grief and/or the overwhelming duties of filling out paperwork for death certificates, obituaries, probate proceedings, etc.
Although not a "find," I decided to see if I could find cotton gloves for sale here in town, instead of having to purchase a large box of them online through an archival supplier. I've been needing to get some to use while handling old family photos, documents, and heirlooms. At the last Scanfest, someone mentioned purchasing them at art supply stores. I called Spokane Art Supply; they were out of stock momentarily, but recommended Inland Photo up the street. The photo shop employee told me they had two pair of one-size-fits-all regular cotton gloves for $8.95 (not appealing, since I have very small hands), and one pair of anti-static ones in either small and large for $14.95. I'm going to check them out later today. I don't need anti-static ones, because I'm not using them to work on electronics, but they may be the better choice for comfort and fit.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Friday Findings: Black Sheep Ancestors, McARTHUR Graves & Obit, WILKINSON Kin, ROBBINS Cousins and DeVRIES Info
Because of all the busy-ness relating to the Genea-Blogger Games, I'm not publishing any related images to this post at this time. Maybe I'll add them later.
Black Sheep Ancestors
Found my black sheep 4th-great-grandfather Uzza ROB(B)INS (convicted and hung for murder in 1850) in a book I ordered through Inter-Library Loan after seeing a mention of him in snippet view on Google Book Search: Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania: Reprinted with an Added Foreword, Biography, and Index to Names by Rhamanthus Menville Stocker (published by Regional Pub. Co., 1974). He's in a list of 1836 taxpayers for Liberty (formerly Lawsville) Township, along with an Isaiah Robins. This makes sense, since Uzza was enumerated in Lawsville in 1830. I photocopied all the pages recording the history of Liberty Township, and I figure I need to track Isaiah to see if he's a relative. I also photocopied the map and pages of the index that had lists of surnames that connect to this family.
Hired a professional genealogist to obtain the entire military file (what may exist of it) for my WWI great-grandfather, Howard Merkle YORK, while she is in St. Louis, Missouri. He was living in the Disciplinary Barracks of Ft. Leavenworth during the 1918 WWI Draft Registration, served time in a Michigan prison for forgery, and was listed as a WWI Veteran on the 1930 Federal Census. While I know I can order his military record myself, I'm hoping that she can request some things onsite that I might not otherwise think of or have sent to me via a written request.
McARTHUR Graves & Obit
The McARTHUR cousin who contacted me last week made it to the cemetery where our mutual ancestors are buried (Daniel J. McARTHUR and Martha JOHNSON) and took photographs. She has also been in contact with another cousin (one I met when I visited Michigan last, in 2000), who mailed us both a copy of Daniel's obituary. I'll be adding the obit to my website, and the photos can be viewed here.
WILKINSON Kin
I heard from the wife of a descendant of William WILKINSON, brother to my 3rd-great-grandfather, John WILKINSON, Sr. She sent me a descendant report, and wouldn't you know it, William's descendants left Canada for Michigan, too (like John), but they settled in East Michigan, whereas John and his descendants were in West Michigan. I'm hoping to exchange copies of primary documents with this new cousin!
ROBBINS Cousins and DeVRIES Info
Looked for and found two first cousins on my ROBBINS side on Facebook, both much younger than me. Added them as friends, then asked each to verify and complete birth information I had for them. No responses yet.
Contacted my mom's brother and asked him to complete some of the locations I was missing for his immediate family members. I can always count on his information as being complete and accurate!
P.S.
This isn't really a "find," but I got a call from DialAmerica, which sells magazines at a discount from the newsstand price, giving 12% to charities. I'd ordered magazines for my daughter through them in the past, and this time, I asked if they had any genealogy magazines. To my surprise, they did: FamilyTreeMagazine. Their price was the same as what I can get online, but it makes me feel good that part of my cost will go to charity. Plus, this is a magazine I've had a subscription to in the past and always loved. I signed up for 10 issues (not quite two years).
Black Sheep Ancestors
Found my black sheep 4th-great-grandfather Uzza ROB(B)INS (convicted and hung for murder in 1850) in a book I ordered through Inter-Library Loan after seeing a mention of him in snippet view on Google Book Search: Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania: Reprinted with an Added Foreword, Biography, and Index to Names by Rhamanthus Menville Stocker (published by Regional Pub. Co., 1974). He's in a list of 1836 taxpayers for Liberty (formerly Lawsville) Township, along with an Isaiah Robins. This makes sense, since Uzza was enumerated in Lawsville in 1830. I photocopied all the pages recording the history of Liberty Township, and I figure I need to track Isaiah to see if he's a relative. I also photocopied the map and pages of the index that had lists of surnames that connect to this family.
Hired a professional genealogist to obtain the entire military file (what may exist of it) for my WWI great-grandfather, Howard Merkle YORK, while she is in St. Louis, Missouri. He was living in the Disciplinary Barracks of Ft. Leavenworth during the 1918 WWI Draft Registration, served time in a Michigan prison for forgery, and was listed as a WWI Veteran on the 1930 Federal Census. While I know I can order his military record myself, I'm hoping that she can request some things onsite that I might not otherwise think of or have sent to me via a written request.
McARTHUR Graves & Obit
The McARTHUR cousin who contacted me last week made it to the cemetery where our mutual ancestors are buried (Daniel J. McARTHUR and Martha JOHNSON) and took photographs. She has also been in contact with another cousin (one I met when I visited Michigan last, in 2000), who mailed us both a copy of Daniel's obituary. I'll be adding the obit to my website, and the photos can be viewed here.
WILKINSON Kin
I heard from the wife of a descendant of William WILKINSON, brother to my 3rd-great-grandfather, John WILKINSON, Sr. She sent me a descendant report, and wouldn't you know it, William's descendants left Canada for Michigan, too (like John), but they settled in East Michigan, whereas John and his descendants were in West Michigan. I'm hoping to exchange copies of primary documents with this new cousin!
ROBBINS Cousins and DeVRIES Info
Looked for and found two first cousins on my ROBBINS side on Facebook, both much younger than me. Added them as friends, then asked each to verify and complete birth information I had for them. No responses yet.
Contacted my mom's brother and asked him to complete some of the locations I was missing for his immediate family members. I can always count on his information as being complete and accurate!
P.S.
This isn't really a "find," but I got a call from DialAmerica, which sells magazines at a discount from the newsstand price, giving 12% to charities. I'd ordered magazines for my daughter through them in the past, and this time, I asked if they had any genealogy magazines. To my surprise, they did: FamilyTreeMagazine. Their price was the same as what I can get online, but it makes me feel good that part of my cost will go to charity. Plus, this is a magazine I've had a subscription to in the past and always loved. I signed up for 10 issues (not quite two years).
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Friday Findings: GenLine, CRAPSEY Burials, Cousins, and SNOOK Graves
Due to the Blogger debacle this week, I was not able to post my Friday Findings in a timely manner. Here's a rundown of my research results for the week of July 26 - August 1, 2008:
More on Many Marriages
While entering the marriage records of my husband's granduncle, Lee Joseph "Mick" MARTIN, I realized that the witnesses for his third marriage, to Martha Isabell (JONES) DVORAK, were his daughter from his first marriage and her husband. Hmm... It made me wonder if his first wife had died by then (I'm not sure how their marriage ended; by divorce or by her death?). I couldn't find any death information for her, but I did find Isabell, as she was called, on the SSDI.
Swedish Parish Records
Also following up on last week's findings, I went to my local Family History Center to use their free subscription to GenLine, the Swedish parish records database, to find and verify my great-great-grandmother's birth (Ida Charlotte (GUSTAVSON) HOLST). I had never used it before, so it took some time. Fortunately, it has a nice tutorial, available both in English and Swedish. It is necessary to know the name of the parish to do a search. The records appear in digital image format, not unlike looking at a roll of microfilm. They are not indexed by name in any way, so it takes some searching. All I had for Ida's birthplace was Hamnada, Sweden. I had no idea where this location was, and used both Wikipedia and the FamilySearch Library Catalog to find it, without any success. I had a feeling I was spelling it incorrectly. I then did a Google search and found a mention in someone's online family tree of a "Hamnada-Småland, Krnberg". I went back to Wikipedia to look at the political structure of Sweden. Småland is one of 25 provinces (landskapen) of Sweden and has no political structure as of 1634. It is a cultural, geographical and historical subdivision. Kronoberg is a county (län), a political subdivision, that lies in what is a part of Småland. I still could not find Hamnada or a a similiar name in any of the lists of municipalities (similar to American townships), villages, or cities of Sweden.
I went back to GenLine, and looking up Kronoberg County records, I noticed that Hamneda was one of the parishes. Bingo! They had birth and christening records up through 1861 (I don't recall the beginning year), so I went to take a look. In 1861 alone, there were NINE Ida Charlottas (no Charlottes) born in Hamneda parish! Only one had a surname close to GUSTAVSON, and that was a Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON born, it appears on 29 December 1861 and baptized 31 December 1861. I say "appears", because I am not certain of what the dates stand for. There are three numbers and a month before each record. The first number is the record number, as they are all in sequence from 1 until the last record. Then comes the month abbreviation, which is very similar to our English month abbreviations. Then two numbers follow. The first number is always lower than the second number, and none of the numbers go beyond 31, so my assumption is that the first one is the birth date and the second one is the christening date. The words "Births and Baptisms" appear at the the top of each of these pages (in Swedish, of course), adding credence to my theory. I used FamilySearch's online Swedish Genealogical Word List to figure out the words.
My Ida Charlotte GUSTAVSON was born 28 October 1861, but I need to find my source of information for that. Her 1900 U. S. Federal Census enumeration does have October 1861 as a birth date. I ran out of time to double check 1860 records, and there are none available at GenLine for 1862. I will need to search other nearby parish records, too, I think. I also did not have time to figure out how to save or print the image with the birth date of the Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON I found. This was an interesting first foray into Swedish records, and I felt I learned quite a bit.
CRAPSEY Burials
I've been trying to find a death date for my 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY. I know she was deceased by 1900, when my step-ancestor, the Rev. John CRAPSEY, Jr. was listed as a widower in the Federal Census for that year. She was alive as late as 1891, when her husband filed an application for a pension based on his deceased son's military service. They were living St. Paul, Ramsey Co., Minnesota. Attempts to have a volunteer at RAOGK look up her death records did not work out. I then came across John's obituary stating he was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. There is a Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Ramsey County, and I contacted them to see if I could find burial information (and thus a death date) for the Crapseys. I received an immediate response that there was no record of either one in their records. I need to follow up with wording from John's obituary to make sure that the Forest Lawn Cemetery he was buried in is the same as what Park and Mortuaries company now manages, when their records begin, and if they have record of John and Lura's children being buried there (it's possible, if their children are buried there, that John and Lura are buried without markers).
Cousins
A distant LEWIS cousin of mine, Bob Stefanich, contacted me to tell me about another cousin of ours (related more closely to me than Bob is) and that the LEWIS family reunion is occurring today in Fruitport, Muskegon Co., Michigan (wish I could be there)! I've contacted Jim with the hope that I can get more information on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of my 2nd-great-grandparents, George Emmett LEWIS and Mary WILKINSON.
Also, a McARTHUR cousin contacted me. She lives in Michigan and is able to visit the ancestral cemeteries. She promised to take some tombstone photos of some of our mutual ancestors...so exciting!
SNOOK Graves
Speaking of ancestral graves, I heard from a Find A Grave photo volunteer--Catherine Bryon--who photographed the graves of my husband's 3rd-great-grandfather, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and his second wife, Elizabeth NEARHOOD, at the Forsyth Cemetery in Rosebud Co., Montana. Click on the links to view the photographs. Thanks, Catherine!
More on Many Marriages
While entering the marriage records of my husband's granduncle, Lee Joseph "Mick" MARTIN, I realized that the witnesses for his third marriage, to Martha Isabell (JONES) DVORAK, were his daughter from his first marriage and her husband. Hmm... It made me wonder if his first wife had died by then (I'm not sure how their marriage ended; by divorce or by her death?). I couldn't find any death information for her, but I did find Isabell, as she was called, on the SSDI.
Swedish Parish Records
Also following up on last week's findings, I went to my local Family History Center to use their free subscription to GenLine, the Swedish parish records database, to find and verify my great-great-grandmother's birth (Ida Charlotte (GUSTAVSON) HOLST). I had never used it before, so it took some time. Fortunately, it has a nice tutorial, available both in English and Swedish. It is necessary to know the name of the parish to do a search. The records appear in digital image format, not unlike looking at a roll of microfilm. They are not indexed by name in any way, so it takes some searching. All I had for Ida's birthplace was Hamnada, Sweden. I had no idea where this location was, and used both Wikipedia and the FamilySearch Library Catalog to find it, without any success. I had a feeling I was spelling it incorrectly. I then did a Google search and found a mention in someone's online family tree of a "Hamnada-Småland, Krnberg". I went back to Wikipedia to look at the political structure of Sweden. Småland is one of 25 provinces (landskapen) of Sweden and has no political structure as of 1634. It is a cultural, geographical and historical subdivision. Kronoberg is a county (län), a political subdivision, that lies in what is a part of Småland. I still could not find Hamnada or a a similiar name in any of the lists of municipalities (similar to American townships), villages, or cities of Sweden.
I went back to GenLine, and looking up Kronoberg County records, I noticed that Hamneda was one of the parishes. Bingo! They had birth and christening records up through 1861 (I don't recall the beginning year), so I went to take a look. In 1861 alone, there were NINE Ida Charlottas (no Charlottes) born in Hamneda parish! Only one had a surname close to GUSTAVSON, and that was a Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON born, it appears on 29 December 1861 and baptized 31 December 1861. I say "appears", because I am not certain of what the dates stand for. There are three numbers and a month before each record. The first number is the record number, as they are all in sequence from 1 until the last record. Then comes the month abbreviation, which is very similar to our English month abbreviations. Then two numbers follow. The first number is always lower than the second number, and none of the numbers go beyond 31, so my assumption is that the first one is the birth date and the second one is the christening date. The words "Births and Baptisms" appear at the the top of each of these pages (in Swedish, of course), adding credence to my theory. I used FamilySearch's online Swedish Genealogical Word List to figure out the words.
My Ida Charlotte GUSTAVSON was born 28 October 1861, but I need to find my source of information for that. Her 1900 U. S. Federal Census enumeration does have October 1861 as a birth date. I ran out of time to double check 1860 records, and there are none available at GenLine for 1862. I will need to search other nearby parish records, too, I think. I also did not have time to figure out how to save or print the image with the birth date of the Ida Charlotta GUSTAFSON I found. This was an interesting first foray into Swedish records, and I felt I learned quite a bit.
CRAPSEY Burials
I've been trying to find a death date for my 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY. I know she was deceased by 1900, when my step-ancestor, the Rev. John CRAPSEY, Jr. was listed as a widower in the Federal Census for that year. She was alive as late as 1891, when her husband filed an application for a pension based on his deceased son's military service. They were living St. Paul, Ramsey Co., Minnesota. Attempts to have a volunteer at RAOGK look up her death records did not work out. I then came across John's obituary stating he was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. There is a Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries in Ramsey County, and I contacted them to see if I could find burial information (and thus a death date) for the Crapseys. I received an immediate response that there was no record of either one in their records. I need to follow up with wording from John's obituary to make sure that the Forest Lawn Cemetery he was buried in is the same as what Park and Mortuaries company now manages, when their records begin, and if they have record of John and Lura's children being buried there (it's possible, if their children are buried there, that John and Lura are buried without markers).
Cousins
A distant LEWIS cousin of mine, Bob Stefanich, contacted me to tell me about another cousin of ours (related more closely to me than Bob is) and that the LEWIS family reunion is occurring today in Fruitport, Muskegon Co., Michigan (wish I could be there)! I've contacted Jim with the hope that I can get more information on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of my 2nd-great-grandparents, George Emmett LEWIS and Mary WILKINSON.
Also, a McARTHUR cousin contacted me. She lives in Michigan and is able to visit the ancestral cemeteries. She promised to take some tombstone photos of some of our mutual ancestors...so exciting!
SNOOK Graves
Speaking of ancestral graves, I heard from a Find A Grave photo volunteer--Catherine Bryon--who photographed the graves of my husband's 3rd-great-grandfather, Reuben Wohlford SNOOK, and his second wife, Elizabeth NEARHOOD, at the Forsyth Cemetery in Rosebud Co., Montana. Click on the links to view the photographs. Thanks, Catherine!
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