Wordless Wednesday - 04/29/09

Nana Miller
1920-1989

Family Events - Week of April 26 to May 2

Sarah Jane MULLIGAN - Sara "Jeanie" is my second great-grandmother, who was born on 16 April 1870 in Flint, Genesee, Michigan.  She died on 26 April 1947 in Cook County, Illinois.

Richard TREAT & Alice GAYLORD - Richard and Alice are my eleventh great-grandparents.  They were married on 27 April 1615 in Pitminster, Somerset, England.*

Agnes H WRASKE - Agnes is my twelfth great-grandmother, who was born about 1564 in Cossington, Leicestershire, England.  She died on 28 April 1612 in Cossington, Leicestershire, England.*

Marie Ethel ROTTMAN - My beloved grandmother would be celebrating her 89th birthday on April 29th.

*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.

Saturday in the Attic - 04/25/09

 

My grandmother would be celebrating her 89th birthday on April 29th.  This is a birthday card that my mom gave my grandmother many years ago.  I'm not sure exactly when, as there is no copyright date on the card, but I'm guessing that my mother was a child.  My mother has beautiful handwriting, even during her adolescent years.  The signature is either her early handwriting or perhaps it was said for her by my grandpa.  That said, this card was likely given to her between 1947 and 1962.  Care to clear this up, Mom?

Be sure to check out the other Saturday in the Attic articles.

Technical Difficulties...

Not sure what happened to my blog here, but my right column has mysteriously moved to the bottom.  Been trying to fix it, but no luck.  Will have to dig into the code and see what's going on.  Stay tuned!

DAR Application Update

Gosh, I've been meaning to post this for a long time.  My application was verified over a month ago.  Just been waiting for the NSDAR board meeting in order for my membership to be official...that will be this WEEKEND!!!  At the same time, I will also be attending my first state DAR conference, which, lucky for me, is being held just on the other side of town...finally, a conference I can attend without travel expenses.  Can't wait!!

What Once Was, Is No More

Some of my research focus lately, has been on my PARKS/PARKE family,  partially because it had to do with lineage for DAR.  And fortunately, I've had two wonderful people do some legwork for me in Oakland County, Michigan.

A month or so ago, Granny Pam was kind enough to go to her genealogy library and send me copies of so resources, such as cemetery and marriage records collected in some books.  This was a tremendous help in connecting some dots. 

About the same time, David Weller took a trip to Beach Road Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan.  With snow on the ground, it was difficult find much, but he did get a photo of the memorial that was erected that shows all the people buried there, along with their burial dates.

David went back to Beach about a week or so ago and sent me several photos.  This cemetery is likely considered "abandoned" and is in really bad shape.  David did manage to find two stones that belong to members of my family.  I believe he said that the one is one of the only  ones still standing.

Edward W. PARKS is my fourth great-granduncle.  According to one source, he married a Marcia MARTIN, date unknown.  The gravestone indicates that Fanny M. was his wife.  One in the same?  Probably, but more digging is necessary to confirm or disprove.

Edward W. Parks Aug. 17, 1825 Jan. 21, 1866 [?] U.S. Navy in Civil War

Fanny M. His Wife Nove. 12, 1828 Nov. 5, 1898

Now for the sad part.  The photograph below has been in my possession for years, and it took some time to figure out how it connected to the family.

On the back of the photo, the following was written:

The tall monument marks the resting place of our Great-grandfather Robert Parks the markers Grand father and Grand mother Webster.  Some day I may get a better picture they are buried close to the front fence.  Taken Dec. 5, 1921.

Well, I don't know who took the photo, although I imagine it was my second great-grandmother, Sarah Jane "Jeanie" MULLIGAN.  The picture is the gravestone of Robert PARKS, and his first and second wives, Mary "Polly" SMITH and Elizabeth IRISH.  I'm guessing that the two stones to the right of the obelisk are that of Calvin Price WEBSTER and Betsy PARKS, as they were also buried in Beach and would agree with the note on the back of the photo.

Calvin and Betsy are my fourth great-grandparents.  Betsy is the daughter of Robert and Polly, sister of Edward mentioned earlier in this post.  Robert and Polly are my fifth great-grandparents.

Assuming that Sarah took this photo, she would have had 26 years to come back and take "a better picture" before she died.  I'm not sure if she did, but I'm betting she'd be disappointed to see the pictures I have now, nearly 88 years later.

 

What a shame.  I wish I had the resources to go and reset the stone.  Heck, I wish I had the resources to fix up the whole cemetery!  But in a sad sense, I do have "better" pictures of the  stone, thanks to David.

 

 

 

 

Robert Parks Died June 29, 1864 Aged 88 Yrs 4 Mos Polly Wife of Robert Parks Died June 30, 1844 Aged 63 Years Elizabeth Wife of Robert Parks Died [?] 10, 1852 Aged 68 Years

What Once Was, Is No More

1921	2009

Wordless Wednesday - 04/22/09

 

~~Happy Earth Day~~

Family Events - Week of April 19 to April 25

William STOFFEL - William is my great grand-uncle, who was born on 14 November 1895.  He died on 21 April 1934 at the age of 38, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.

Patrick CAPUTO - Pat is my newly-discovered fourth cousin and old high school friend.  Happy birthday, Pat, on April 22nd.

Margaret Alma COSTER - Margaret is the wife of my first cousin twice removed, Clarence ROTTMAN.  She was born on 23 April 1899 in Linn County, Iowa.  She died in November 1978.

Laura ROTTMAN - Happy birthday to my third cousin, Laura, on April 23rd.

Trisha BELLUOMINI - Happy birthday to my stepsister, Trish, on April 24th.

Thomas FOX - Thomas is my tenth great-grandfather, who was born in 1608 in London, England.  He died on 25 April 1693 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts.*

John NORTON - John is my ninth great-grandfather, who was born on 24 May 1651 in Branford, New Haven, Connecticut.  He died on 25 April 1725 in Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut.*

*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.

Diigo Bookmarks (weekly)

• MyGenShare

  tags: genealogy, genealogy resources, genealogy references

• CensusDiggins

  Collection of various genealogy resources on the web.

  tags: genealogy, genealogy resources, genealogy references

• Most Common Nicknames for First Names

  tags: names, nicknames, given names

• Graveyards of Illinois

  tags: Illinois, Cemetery, Project, Cemeteries, illinois, graveyards

• Illinois Cemetery Project

  tags: Illinois Cemetery Project, Illinois Cemeteries, illinois graveyards

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday in the Attic - 04/18/09

What in the world?  This is a handwritten family tree from my dad's side.  It is extremely hard to read.  I'm hoping that it ties to the typed family tree that I have...my guess is this was something that was written first, then typed up (or so I hope).  I have yet to sit down and actually try to decipher it or see if it ties to the typed tree.  Some day I'll get around to it!

Be sure to check out the other Saturday in the Attic articles.

Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #15

Prompt:  List some vital signs. Talk about specific birth, marriage and death certificates. Topics may include misspelled names, fudged dates, other anomalies that stand out in your records.

This is an interesting topic, and in fact, I blogged about something related to this very issue a few months ago.  In that post I discussed how the month of death differed from the age at death on a death certificate.  The problem was, there was no birth date indicated on the certificate so various other sources had to be consulted to sort this out.

Most recently, I've been perusing the Cook County, Illinois birth certificates on Family Search's pilot search.  One of the nice things about this search is that it also searches by the mother's name.  Had it not been for that, I may not have come across the certificates for some of my relatives.  Why?  Because there were no given names issued on the certificates!  Luckily, I had information from other sources so I was able to figure out which certificate belonged to which person.

At the same time I was finding these, I read a post over at TransylvanianDutch questioning the indexing of these records.  I followed the trail to ChicagoGenealogy and learned about Certificate of Corrections.  I wonder if there are any of these documents for my relatives to indicate their given name.  Some day, I will try to figure that out just to have a record of it.

"Uncle" Bob

He was always called "Uncle" Bob, but in fact, he was my first cousin once removed.  He was born in 1952, seven years after my dad.  My dad and Bob grew up together and were close, like brothers, hence the "uncle."  That's them in the photo above.  It's the only photo I have of the two of them together.

Many years ago, Bob left Chicago for the warmer weather in San Diego.  I visited him many times.  We'd go to L.A. and visit Disneyland and Universal Studios.  In San Diego, we'd see the sites.  He was a really fun guy.  He was just like my dad, who I lost in 1989. 

      

Bob passed away in 2007, at an early age, just like my father.  In a way, I felt like I lost my dad all over again.  Bob will be missed.

This was written for the 70th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.  Scrapbook designs courtesy of Raspberry Road Designs.

My GeneaSpace

I'm still catching up on Randy's Saturday Night Challenges.  This one from April 4.  The challenge:

• Take a digital picture of your Genealogy Space - whether it is a table, desk, bookcase, whatever. Take more than one if you want.
• Show off your Genealogy Space to all of us in a blog post showing your digital pictures. If you aren't blogging or don't want to show us your pictures, go to 3 below without passing Go or collecting another ancestor.
• Tell us something about your Genealogy Space. How long does it take you to find something? Are you thinking of reorganizing your space?

My GeneaSpace is in my office.  Fortunately, we have enough rooms in the house so I can have an office.  My office is used both personally and professionally (I own my own business) and for genealogy.

I'm a highly organized person, so finding what I need when I need it is pretty easy.  My husband and I actually just redid the office about six months ago, so we could include a desk for him.  We bought matching desks, which I love.  We also redid the closet.  It originally had wire shelving racks, which were not very useful, and they weren't laid out very well either.  So were tore them out and put in good-old wood shelving, laid out in a more organized way.  I LOVE my closet...every time I go in there, I just smile in appreciation (my husband is so wonderful to have done this for me!!).

Genealogy Business Card

I got this idea somewhere along the line, although I don't remember from where.  At any rate, since I am heading to the Illinois state conference for DAR in two weeks, I thought I'd better put one together.  I also thought I'd share it here.

I had a package of pre-cut business cards to use with my printer, so I decided to use them up.  On the front, I've included contact information, which includes a link to my blog and a link to my Ancestry profile (using TinyURL).  On the back of the card I listed the surnames I am researching.

I think this will come in really handy at the DAR conference, as well as my trip to the state archives on Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday - 04/15/09

Geneablogger Cookbook

I have had a note to post this since February, and just came across it today.  Better late than never!

The Geneablogger Cookbook that Colleen McHugh put together is available as a PDF download.  There are 35 recipes from 18 different Geneabloggers.  Kudos to Colleen for organizing this project; she did a wonderful job!

You can read more about the cookbook at her blog.

Family Events - Week of April 12 to April 18

Edward Paul ZUMSKI & Harriet R TRAPP - Harriet is my second cousin twice removed.  She and Edward married on 12 April 1951 in Cook County, Illinois.

Margaret CLARKE - Margaret is my tenth great-grandmother, who was born in 1611 in Connecticut.  She died on 13 April 1673 in Connecticut.*

John HOPKINS - John is my eleventh great-grandfather, who was born around 1613 in London, England.  He died on 14 April 1654 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut.*

Charles Henry ROTTMAN & Rosanna Elizabeth BEATTY - Charles is my great-granduncle.  He and Rosanna married on 14 April 1899 in Muscatine, Muscatine, Iowa.*

Harry Arthur REIMERS & Elnora Berneice ROTTMAN - Elnora is my first cousin twice removed, and the daughter of Charles and Rosanna (above).  She and Harry married on 14 April 1930 in Iowa.  Elnora was born on 26 September 1910 in Iowa.  She died on 18 April 1994 in Iowa.*

Robert FERNETTI - Happy birthday to my grandfather-in-law on tax day, April 15th.

Sarah Jane MULLIGAN - Sarah is my second great-grandmother, who was born on 16 April 1870 in Flint, Genesee, Michigan.  She died on 26 April 1947 in Cook County, Illinois.

Catherine M SCHWARTZ - Catherine is my great-grandmother, who was born on 16 April 1894 in Aurora, Kane, Illinois.  She died on 26 January 1925 in Aurora.

Solomon NORTON & Sarah REXFORD - Solomon and Sarah are my sixth great-grandparents.  They were married on 17 April 1774.*

James NAUGHTON & Mary BARNES - James and Mary are my seventh great-grandparents, and parents of Solomon (above).  They were married on 18 April 1745 in Bristol, Hartford, Connecticut.*

*Based on information from several compiled source, of which I have not personally verified at this time.

Saturday in the Attic - 04/11/09

In honor of Easter tomorrow, I thought I'd share my Easter basket.

My paternal grandmother made ceramics.  She made this for me for my first Easter, which was on 10 April 1977--just two weeks after I was born.

P.S. Check out the handy Easter date calculator!

Using FHL Resources to Further My Cahill & Millet Lines

Still catching up on Randy's Saturday Night Challenges.  This one is from March 28 and goes a little something like this:

1. Identify one "elusive ancestor" family (perhaps one you just found, or one you've not found any information about), and the county/state that they resided in. Tell us the family name and the county/state.
2. Go to the FHL Catalog, find the resources for that county/state.
3. Identify at least three items from the FHL Catalog that you need to look into in an effort to further your knowledge about that family's history. Tell us about them.
4. Do you know where your nearest Family History Center is? If not, go here and look for it. Tell us where it is.
5. Are you willing to make a commitment to go to the FHC and rent microfilms in order to pursue that elusive ancestral family? If so, tell us about your commitment.
   And later on, when you've reviewed the microfilms and information, you can tell us all about your research findings in a separate post.

It was quite ironic that this challenge came when it did, as I had actually fulfilled most of it a month or so before.

Identify one "elusive ancestor" family (perhaps one you just found, or one you've not found any information about), and the county/state that they resided in. Tell us the family name and the county/state.

I actually have many, but I'm working on identifying sources for my both sets of third great-grandparents on my dad's side: Michael CAHILL and Anne HALE, and John MILLET and Mary RYAN.  It is likely that they are all from Kilkenny County, Ireland.  I do know that my CAHILL/HALE resided in Thomastown, so my search begins there.  I'm working on them at the same time, since the same resources are likely to help for all of them.

Go to the FHL Catalog, find the resources for that county/state.  Identify at least three items from the FHL Catalog that you need to look into in an effort to further your knowledge about that family's history. Tell us about them.

• Parochial registers of Thomastown (Kilkenny), 1782-1881 - Baptisms, 1834-1881; marriages, 1833-1881, FHL BRITISH Film 926203
• Parochial registers of Thomastown (Kilkenny), 1782-1881 - Baptisms, 1782-1809; marriages, 1786-1806; baptisms, 1810-1834; marriages, 1810-1833, FHL BRITISH Film 926202
• Kilkenny District will books, 1858-1895 - Wills 1884-1895, FHL BRITISH Film 100945
• Kilkenny District will books, 1858-1895 - Wills 1875-1884, FHL BRITISH Film 100944
• Inscriptions taken from tombstones in various cemeteries, FHL BRITISH Film 100158 Item 147

Of all the sources I think the first one will be the launching pad.  Once I am able to put some more pieces together, I think the remaining sources will become invaluable.

Do you know where your nearest Family History Center is? If not, go here and look for it. Tell us where it is.

I am fortunate to have a great local genealogical library in town, that also serves as a FHC.  The McLean County Genealogical Society's library is open 7 days a week and can order films from the FHL.  There is also a FHC, Normal Illinois, but its hours are limited.  Why we have two places within a few miles of one another in farm country is beyond me.

Are you willing to make a commitment to go to the FHC and rent microfilms in order to pursue that elusive ancestral family? If so, tell us about your commitment.

Already done.  I ordered the first film listed above back in February.  In fact, I just got the call yesterday that it's in!  Hope to get over there within the next few days to view it.

And later on, when you've reviewed the microfilms and information, you can tell us all about your research findings in a separate post.

Absolutely!  I do hope I find some information that will fill in the gaps for my third great-grandparents, such as their birth, marriage, and death dates/places.  I also hope that I am able to identify their parents, which would put me back another generation and open up a whole new avenue of research.  I will definitely share what I find (or what I don't find).  Wish me luck!!!