This is a newspaper article, likely from 1972, for the infamous Rottman Family Reunion. There's a lot of wonderful information in this small amount of space!
Source: "Rottman Reunion Held at Ely," undated clippping, ca. 1972, from unidentified newspaper; privately held by Julie Marie CAHILL Tarr.
Randy over at Genea-Musings asks: Who is #21 on your Ahnentafel list?
Sarah Jane WARD, my second great-grandmother, was born in April 1875 in Illinois to Bridget and ?? Ward. She married Timothy J McMAHON about 1899. He was born on 14 May 1874 in Chicago. Together they had two children: John Ward McMAHON (b. 7 April 1902 in Chicago) and Timothy G McMAHON (b. 17 March 1904 in Chicago). John is my great-grandfather.
I don't know too much about Sarah. Her and Timothy lived and raised their children in Chicago. She died on 29 December 1939, just a few months after Timothy, who died on 14 October.
What's ironic is that I was working on this line yesterday. Okay, I was working on several lines yesterday as I searched the Cook County birth and marriage records on FamilySearch. I found her son's Timothy's birth certificate (I already had John's). Then I spent some time trying to figure out her mother's maiden name and her father's first name. I have some leads but need to track down some records before I can go any further.
Now, if Randy would have picked #23, I could have written a book!
James M GARRISON - Jim is my first cousin twice removed, who was born on 22 February 1936.
Dorothy E TRAPP - Dorothy is my second cousin twice removed. She died on 23 February 2004 in Wisconsin at the age of 85.
Calvin Price WEBSTER & Betsey PARKS - Calvin and Betsey are my fourth great-grandparents. They were married on 24 February 1825.*
*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.
On Tuesday, I posted Bingo! (and a few lessons learned). The long and the short is that I finally found my grandfather in the 1930 census. He was indexed as Jack Isbill, when in actuality it should have been Jack Cahill.
I submitted corrections to his record and the others in the family. Today, I got emails from Ancestry saying that they had added the correction and it was now available in the searches.
| The Email from Ancestry |
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| The Original Indexed Record |
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| The Corrected Indexed Record |
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| The New Search Results |
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I'm impressed that the turnaround time was only a few days. I'm also impressed that this option is available so as to help others in their searches. I strongly encourage everyone to submit corrections anytime you find something indexed incorrectly.
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| Wow! 200 posts since this blog's inception in late July 2008. Special thanks to all my readers!
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There are some many wonderful people out there willing to help others in the genealogy research. Between Facebook and blogging, I've met many of those wonderful people, and it's a pleasure to know them.
Just in the last few days, I've experienced RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) all over the place. I thought I'd take a few moments to share them with you and to publicly thank these wonderful people.
One Thursday, I posted An Unexpected Find. To make a long story short, David Weller (Standing Stones) was kind enough to go out to a cemetery and take some photos for me. After I posted the article, I had two other wonderful ladies share some information and offer to help.
GrannyPam (Granny's Genealogy) left a comment and emailed me on Facebook. She lives near the cemetery and offered to get photos once the snow clears. She also offered to lookup information in the cemetery transcription books published by the Oakland Genealogical Society, for others I suspect to be in the area. I will be taking her up on this offer!
Brenda (Grand Traverse & Leelanau Counties Cemetery) left a comment with the gravestone transcriptions from the Michigan, Oakland County, Troy Township Cemeteries book she has.
Then yesterday, I emailed Sheryl (Erfourth) Helewski asking for the transfer of Calvin P Webster and Betsey Webster on Find A Grave, if of course, she was not related to them. She kindly transferred the memorials to me and offered to send me a photo of the memorial stone for the cemetery. Had I not already had it from David, I would have graciously accepted, but I told her I already had one. I've since updated their memorials with all the known information I have and have also done some linking to other family members.
This morning I got my first RAOGK volunteer request. A gentleman requested a lookup of obituaries for two people who lived in died in Bloomington, Illinois. I certainly hope that I can find them. I don't think it will be too difficult, as our library has a wonderful index of people mentioned in the newspaper all the way back to its inception.
I can't stress enough how much the Internet has played a role in my genealogy research. Sure you have the genealogy sites like FamilySearch and Ancestry. But I am so happy that I decided to sign up for Facebook and start blogging about my genealogy, both back in July 2008. More on that in an upcoming post.
Thanks again to David, Pam, Brenda, and Sheryl for you generosity and kindness. May it all come back to you in your genealogy endeavors.
This is a newspaper clipping that I found in the Webster family Bible a few weeks ago. I have no idea what paper it came from (likely something in or around Pontiac, Michigan) nor when, as I have no idea when he died. I am trying to track down more information, but getting a hold of an actual person for the cemetery, has been quite a challenge.
Cindy over at Everything's Relative awarded me with the KreativBlogger award. Thanks so much for the award and your very kind words, Cindy!
Rules
And the award goes to...
Prompt - Share your holiday traditions. How did you spend the 4th of July? Did the fire truck ever come to your house on Thanksgiving? Share your memories of all holidays, not just the December ones.
With Easter just around the corner, I thought I'd share some stories and photos of Easters past.
Every year when I was younger, my mom would make hard-boiled eggs (at least a dozen, sometimes two dozen). She'd set out four mugs, usually the multi-color Tupperware mugs, each filled with vinegar and one of the four food coloring colors. Then, with our Tupperware egg holder-scoop thingy, we'd dip the eggs in a mug and viola, a colored Easter egg.
Mom would get up early on Easter Sunday to hide the eggs. Then when I got up, it was off to search for them. Sometimes they were easy to find. Sometimes they were in the same special place year after year. Mom was also pretty creative; sometimes the eggs were in plain sight, yet hard to find. When I would get frustrated if I couldn't find them, we'd play hot-and-cold until all the eggs were found.
Then it was off to nana and papa's house for more egg hunting and Easter supper.
My cousins and I would search high and low to find all the eggs. It was always a mad dash to the classic hiding spots like the mailbox and under the big brass floor candle holder.
We'd sit down to a wonderful ham dinner with all the fixings.
Easter was definitely one of my favorite holidays. A lot of fun and great food!
Photos: Above right, me and mom, Easter 1979; above left, me and dad, Easter 1979; below left, me and nana, Easter 1984; below right, me with mom and dad, Easter 1984.
Prompt - Let readers in to your kitchen. Discuss your family’s favorite foods. What was a typical Sunday dinner in your childhood house? What did grandma make that had you coming back for more? Were there any dishes that the dog wouldn’t even eat?
I'm a little late with this post, as it was last week's prompt. But I want to do them all, so here goes...
I have to admit, this is the one thing I miss about my family when growing up. We ate dinner as a family every night. When I was about 9 or so, it seemed we always had a big meal on Sunday's with me, mom, dad, and nana. A roast of some sort, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas or corn. My mom makes the best mashed potatoes and gravy!
One of my favorite meals growing up (and still to this day) was mom's chicken and dumplings. I'd have to say that tuna casserole was not on my list of dishes to eat.
These days it's hard. It's just me and my husband. He works second shift, so dinner is not something we share, except on the weekends. I like to cook, but it's hard to cook for just one. I could make dinner for two, but some meals just don't make good leftovers. Now that I am working at home, we try to have a meal for lunch, so I've been cooking a little more. And we've gotten better about cooking at home on the weekends as opposed to eating out.
When my mom came back to Illinois for my wedding in 2003, I made her cook for three weeks! Yum!!! She even introduced us to new creations that she'd never cooked when I was a kid. That was the last time I had her cooking, until that is, when my husband and I drove out to Arizona for the holidays. I gave her a menu in advance. Boy do I miss her cooking! It was also nice to sit down as a family, have a great meal, and talk about anything and everything.
Boy, now I'm starving! What's for dinner?
P.S. Love ya, mom!
Sometimes you find things when you're not looking for them. I haven't had that experience in a while, so it was a huge and welcomed surprise when it happened.
About a month ago, I added a photo request on Find A Grave for Calvin Price WEBSTER and Betsy PARKS Webster, my fourth great-grandparents. According to Find A Grave, they were buried in Beach Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan. I had no supporting evidence in my own research, so I was going out on a limb by requesting photos. I knew they likely died in Troy, so being buried in this cemetery wasn't far-fetched.
I didn't expect anyone to claim the requests anytime soon given that we are still in the winter months. But lo and behold, a nice gentleman claimed them and said he'd go check it out within the next day or so as the snow was clearing and there were some nice days ahead.
Turns out the gentleman who claimed the request was also a newfound genealogy friend on Facebook. David Weller, who recently started a Graveyard Rabbit blog, Standing Stones, sent me some photos and information just a day or so after his initial email for claiming the requests.
One of the links he sent me was to the City of Troy Parks & Recreation website's cemetery page. Here's what it said about Beach Cemetery:
Beach Road Cemetery, 5360 Beach Road - Reuben and Marietta Ann Beach settled in northwestern Troy Township in the early 1820s. Their family cemetery was established in 1854 on one acre in section 7 along Beach Road between Long Lake and Square Lake roads. It was deeded to the township prior to 1875 and is no longer active. In 2001 the City of Troy placed a boulder style marker near the entrance inscribed with the names of those buried there. Many of the original grave markers were missing or had completely deteriorated. This cemetery has a pedestrian entrance but does not have parking spaces or a road.
The marker referred to, was one of the pictures that David sent. There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground, so he was not able to see if Calvin or Betsy's stones were still in the cemetery (he plans to go back once the snow clears).
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| Photo taken by David Weller, used here with permission. |
Fortunately, Calvin and Betsy are listed on the stone. My guess is the names were taken from cemetery records since the burial dates are indicated next to the person's name.
So what's the unexpected find, you ask?
I recognized other names on the stone, specifically other Parks. Unfortunately, a few may be hidden by the snow (second picture), but when David goes back, he'll get another photo for me.
What's even more interesting is that this particular line leads to my American Revolutionary War soldier Joseph PARKS. The information I have on a few, such as Robert PARKS is simply a year of death. But this stone indicates a burial date, giving me more information than I had, plus a better idea of when he died.
I'm curios to know why this family was buried in the Beach Cemetery, since it seems to be a family cemetery for the Beach family. None of the other surnames ring any bells in my family tree, but you never know. As I continue to research this line, I may find some of the people listed on this stone. The nice thing is, I basically have the cemetery records right here in this photograph...what a wonderful find.
Thanks again to David for taking the time to go out there and photograph this stone! It is certainly an invaluable resource for me!
The Bingo
For a while now, I have been trying to find my grandfather in the 1930 census. It's a weird situation, that goes a little something like this:
My grandfather, John F "Jack" CAHILL was born in 1922. He had an older brother Raymond, born in 1918, and an older sister, Marcella, born around 1920. Raymond was enumerated in the 1920 census with his parents, John F CAHILL and Catherine M SCHWARTZ Cahill. Since Marcella was not listed, I assume that she was born after January 1920 (which is when the census was done).
A chain of event occurred between 1920 and 1930 for this family. On 26 January 1925, my great-grandmother Catherine allegedly took her own life. I say allegedly because some family members wonder whether it was homicide instead of suicide. Apparently, my great-grandfather, John, was a shady character and it was said that he left Catherine and the kids just prior to her death. The apparent suicide was brought on because there was a possibility that her children would be removed from her custody. I am planning to investigate all of this further by obtaining court records and such, as well as searching the newspaper for articles pertaining to this situation. I am also waiting on the coroner's inquest that I requested a few weeks ago.
So back to the 1930 census search. Because the above events occurred, the three children were split up. In 1930, Ray is found in the census living in St. Vincent's Orphan's Home, in Freeport, Stephenson, Illinois. When I initially found this, I wasn't sure if it was really him. A cousin I found through Ancestry confirmed this, as her father was also placed in that home. Marcella was found living with her maternal grandmother, Margaret KRAMER Schwartz, in Aurora, Kane, Illinois, in the 1930 census. That left my grandfather, John. Where was he?
I knew that at some points in his life, he lived with Theresa "Tessie" Karas, who until a few months ago we thought was a close family friend. Come to fin out, she was a Cahill and was John's first cousin once removed. After talking to Tessie's son and confirming that she was a Cahill, I also learned that John had at one point lived with Tessie's sister Esther. So I had some leads to perhaps find him in the 1930 census.
Why was this search difficult? My initial search for "John Cahill" (both exact and soundex) in Illinois did not turn him up. I tried searching by Kahill, Kayhill, Cayhill, Cael, Cabel, O'Cahill, and got nothing. I tried "John Karas" knowing that as some point he had lived with Tessie, and sometimes the census takers make mistakes on the last name of others living in the household (I have seen this many times). I searched for just "Cahill" in Illinois, wondering if he was enumerated a "J" or some other variation. No luck. I searched for Tessie and number of ways with no luck. So I tabled it.
The a few days ago, I had a thought. My grandfather also went by "Jack," so I decided to do a search using that name. Again, no luck. So I began to get creative. I was determined to find him right then and there...no more tabling the issue.
I did a search for all Tessies living in Chicago. I read through the list and one stood out: Tessie Havas. I clicked on the link and saw her and Winslow J Havas. Now, I never knew Tessie's husband's name, all I had were the initials W.J. So far, this seemed to fit. I viewed the actual census sheet, and could tell that it was Karas and that it was simply indexed incorrectly. Additionally, I know that she only had one son, and he was born in 1933, so this really seems to be the right family. And finally, they lived on Carroll Avenue, which for me solidified my assumption that this was in fact the right Tessie. But...still no John.
Since the 1930 residence was on Carroll Avenue, I checked the other pages in the census. On the previous page...you guessed it...I found my grandfather. He was living with Tessie's father, mother, and two brothers, on Carroll Avenue. Alas! I found him. But why was he not showing up in the search (keep in mind that I had also searched HeritageQuest to no avail).
Curious as to how the family was indexed (or perhaps missed altogether) I got a little creative trying to find them in the search. I chose to look for Clarence (Tessie's bother) since John and Anna were pretty common names. For some reason, I had no luck. So I search for John (Tessie's brother), with a father of John and found them indexed as Isbill. That's a far cry from Cahill.
The Lesson
Get creative with your searches. Soundex is a great tool, but in both of the above cases, it was useless. The soundex code for Karas is K-620, while the soundex code for Havas is H-120. The soundex code for Cahill is C-400, while the soundex code for Isbill is I-214. So soundex was no help for me in either situation. Besides, the other thing I don't like about soundex is that it hangs on the first letter. So for example, Cahill also sounds like Kahill, but soundex will not find that variation, hence the reason I also search for Kahill, just in case.
The one thing I've been trying to do with all of my searches is to think not only about how it sounds, but how it's written. The writing and transcribing I think plays a bigger part in missed searches than the way a name sounds. For example, when searching for Cahill, I will also search for Cabill (soundex C-140). Why? Sometimes the "h" looks like a "b." Soundex would not help me here. I've picked this tip up while doing transcriptions. Sometimes a "c" can be mistaken for an "o" or an "r" for a "p" or in my case above, and "h" for a "k." So be creative. Think about how it's written and what letter could be mistaken for another and try your search by swapping that letter for the other. I think I may devise a cheat-sheet for quick reference that outlines each letter and the possible alternatives. If I do create it, I will make it available on my blog.
As an aside, I did perform a Random Act of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) by submitting corrections to the Ancestry search using the Comments and Corrections link. Hopefully they will make the change (or at least add it as an alternate) so others have an easier time than I did.
I hope that this little lesson helps all of you in your searches.
Margaret "Maggie" MURANE & William E KING - Maggie is my second great-grandaunt. She and William married on 16 February 1898 in Cook County, Illinois.
Robert TROTT - Robert is my twelfth great-grandfather. He died on 16 February 1599 in England.*
Agnes TROTT - Agnes is my eleventh great-grandaunt, daughter of Robert TROTT (above). She was born on 18 February 1577 in England.*
Samuel PRICE - Samuel is my eighth great-grandfather. He died on 18 February 1768 in Connecticut.*
George ROTTMAN - George is my great-grandfather, who was born on 19 June 1882 in Mount Vernon, Linn, Iowa. He died on 19 February 1946 in Chicago due to injuries sustained in a trolley car accident.
Jerimiah "Jerry" William McMAHON - Jerry is my second great-granduncle, who was born on 8 August 1883. He died on 20 February 1928 in Cook County, Illinois.
*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.
Happy Valentine's Day!
In honor of the holiday, I thought the following find would be appropriate.
This is a Valentine's Day card that my grandmother gave to my grandfather in 1960.
The 66th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is upon us. In honor of the Academy Awards, it's now time for geneaBloggers to take center stage for the 2nd annual Academy of Genealogy and Family History Awards. So without further ado, let's take a look at the 2008 blog posts that won!
| ~Best Picture~ Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in 2008. Tell us which you liked best and why. And the award goes to... This is a photo of my second great-grandfather, James Manly GARRISON, and his son James Norton GARRISON taken about 1896. It's one of my favorites because it's probably the oldest photo I have in my possession of my own family. ~Best Screen Play~ Which family story that you shared in 2008 would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members? And the award goes to... There are three stories discussed in this post, but the first one could be a screen play. It's about my great-grandfather, who died after falling from a trolley car in 1946. There were a lot of circumstances that surrounded the fall and the quality of care at the hospital. Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in 2008? And the award goes to... Saturday in the Attic - 11/15/08 This particular post talks about my grandfather in WWII and the conception of my father prior to grandpa leaving for Europe. ~Best Biography~ Which was the best biographical article you wrote in 2008? And the award goes to... Mini-Bio: Harold L. MILLER (1918-1982) This is a short bio of my maternal grandfather, Harold Leslie MILLER. ~Best Comedy~ Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in 2008? And the award goes to... Good Thing I Didn't Live in the '30s This was a quiz at Blogthings basically telling me I'd make a horrible 1930s housewife. Sadly, I'd have to agree. |
And there you have it!
Raymond J CAHILL - Ray is my granduncle, who was born on 8 February 1918 in Aurora, Kane, Illinois. He died on 21 June 1987 in Aurora.
Emil Charles MILLER - Emil is my great-grandfather. He was born on 9 February 1889 in Chicago. He died on 21 February 1938 at the age of 49.
James Christopher TARR - Happy birthday to my husband on February 10.
Calvin Price WEBSTER - Calvin is my fourth great-grandfather. He was born on 10 February 1802 in Sacketts Harbor, Livingston, New York.*
Charles Henry ROTTMAN - Charles is my great-granduncle, who was born on 11 August 1877 in Ivanhoe, Linn, Iowa.* He died on 11 February 1927 in Wilton, Muscatine, Iowa.*
George ROTTMAN & Anna E STOFFEL - George and Anna are my great-grandparents. They were married on 12 February 1914 in Chicago.
Richard TREAT - Richard is my eleventh great-grandfather. He was born on 28 August 1584 in England and died on 14 February 1669 in Connecticut.*
*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.
This small Bible belonged to my grandfather, John Francis CAHILL. It was given to him before heading off to WWII by his cousin, Tessie, who had helped to raise him after his mom died.
Prompt: Talk about your genealogy adventures while on vacation. Doesn’t everyone plan a little genealogy visit during vacation? Take your readers along for the ride.
Seeing as I've only been doing serious research for the past year-and-a-half, and the fact that in that time I've only had one vacation, I'm gonna have to cheat on this week's blogging prompt.
Over the Christmas holiday my husband and I drove to Arizona to visit my mom, and on the way back home we stopped off to visit my grandaunt in Texas. I already blogged about how I took advantage of the trip for genealogy purposes. You can read those posts if you missed them in the first go-around, or just because you love to read everything I write more than once. ;)
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