Week 45: Tombstones (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Amy Johnson Crow’s Week 45’s theme is one of her favorites: "Tombstones." Cemeteries are near and dear to many of us. Whose tombstone stands out to you? Was it something on the tombstone, the effort to find it, or who was buried there that makes it special to you? Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

It’s been a while since I have done these weekly posts. It wasn’t because I wasn’t inspired by the themes, because I was inspired. It was because I became busy with life. It’s hard to image life without Genealogy, however sadly it happens to the best of us. 

Anyway, this week’s theme really spoke to me. In fact, it was a Tombstone that got me interested in Genealogy many moons ago. Many of my genealogy friends have heard this story, but I think it is well worth telling again.

When I was about 14 years old, I had been assigned a genealogy project in Junior High School by my social studies teacher. I asked my parents a few questions about their parents who had all died by this point in my life and asked them about their grandparents. I wrote up my report and even though it was very interesting, it was the end. 

Then during the summer, my dad said he was going to take me to visit some relatives. I was excited because my relatives consisted of my father’s sister and my mom’s two sisters. My father had a brother, but we rarely saw him. My dad would swing by the Gas Station “Garage” that his brother owned, that he inherited from their father, to speak to his brother. Their visits were short and I either waited in the car or went to the garage to watch the female mechanic at work. I really wanted to be a female mechanic. 

Anyway, my father picked up his sister and she guided my father, who was driving, through the countryside until we came upon a cemetery. The following stone was found.

This stone pulled at my heartstrings. Three children, all died by 1864 and I wondered about their parents. Did they have any other children still living or did they have to start over with their family. I knew that their parent’s were my ancestors, because my father and aunt told me so, but besides that fact, I didn’t know much. The genealogy bug bite me that summer. We went to another cemetery that day, a larger cemetery located in Doylestown, Columbia County, Wisconsin. The first cemetery was the original cemetery. Later they built a church in Doylestown and added a cemetery next to the church. It was at this church that I found the parent’s graves of the three small children along with some of their other children. 

James Crinion (1832-1823) and Mary Ann McMahon (1839-1899) had a total of ten children. James and Mary were my 2nd great grandparents. Their first child, Eliza was born Jan 2, 1857 and died Feb 3, 1864. Their second child, Ann was born Apr 10, 1860 and died Oct 25, 1861, she was the first one to die. Their third child, Patrick was born Mar 6, 1862 and died Mar 25, 1864. I am guessing their tombstone was created after all three children died, since they are listed on the stone based on their placement in the family and not the order of their deaths. When I first saw the stone, it was lying on the ground and I could read the age of Patrick and thus this is how I calculated the birth date of Patrick. Notice the spelling of Crinion on the stone is Crenien. This is the only time I saw this spelling variation. The spelling of Crinion is in use today in Ireland.

Mary was pregnant with her fourth child, David, who was born May 15, 1864 at the time of Eliza’s and Patrick’s deaths. David was my great grandfather. 

This wasn’t the end of the tragedy for James and Mary. In 1890, their daughter, Rose died during childbirth. James and Mary took care of their grandchild, also named Rose even after Mary passed in 1899. In 1896 their daughter Mary died at the age of 17. Their son James died in 1909 at the age of 28. Their daughter Jane died in 1872 at the age of 42. Jane's son, John Spooner died four days after his grandmother Mary. 

Their son Charles died in 1933 at the age of 60, their son John who might have been intellectually challenged, died in 1946 in an Asylum at the age of 70.  According to family lore, he was sent there after his mother died. My great grandfather was the last sibling to die, at the age of 84 in 1950. I can’t imagine being the oldest and having to watch each of your younger siblings being buried.

Of the ten children, only three had children, David had five, Rose had one and Jane had eleven. I have found about 125 descendants for James and Mary. 

Over the years, I have revisited the Doylestown Cemetery since it appears about 90% of the people buried there are related to me in one way or another. Much of my early research consisted of visiting cemeteries and then looking for their obituaries in local newspapers to find out family relationships. From there, I would visit courthouses to find birth, marriage and/or death records. 

I wonder what my life would be like, if I hadn’t visited that original cemetery, so many moons ago, and saw the tombstone that tugged at my heart strings. I feel as if it was my ancestors who gave me the genealogy bug, so that they would not be forgotten.

Just remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

 

Week 34: Timeline (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Amy Johnson Crow’s Week 34's theme is "Timeline." Timelines are a great research tool. What discovery have you made after putting together an ancestor's timeline? Have you thought about how everyday life changed for an ancestor during his or her life? Click here to check out all of the themes for 2022.

A Timeline should start with the birth date of your desired person and then go forward to events in their lives such as, employment, military service, marriage date, children’s births and deaths and then their own death.

My preferred genealogy software program, Family Tree Maker 2019 has a timeline report. If I select Publish, Person Reports there is Timeline Report. This report shows all the events for a single person. However, what can be confusing is that the report starts with the births of older siblings, if the report person wasn’t the first born in the family. However, it didn’t show the deaths of those older siblings because they died before my report person was born. Siblings that died after the person was born, was shown. However, only siblings that died before the report person’s death. 

Thus, the time line basically shows events surrounding the report person’s life. It will show births of siblings and spouses even if they occurred before the report person’s birth.  However, it will not show deaths of siblings before their birth or deaths of siblings, parents, spouses, children after the report person’s death.

It will show their marriage, their siblings’ marriages, their siblings’ births and deaths, their children’s births and deaths, as long as it occurred during their lifetime. 

Another place that has facts for a person in chronological order is under the Person Tab. If you select the Facts view, the person’s individual facts will appear in date order. This is one of the reasons I created a “Census” fact. I can see at a glance if I found them in a census record during their lifetime. This view allows me to quickly see if I have other census records that I need to search for. Some people actually use the residence fact for recording census information. However, I like to reserve that fact for city directories, or for where they were living when one of their children were born. 

As Amy said in the introduction, “Timelines are a great research tool.” Timelines allow you to put your ancestor in chronological time and place to better understand his/her movements and connections to people and locations. Timelines reveal gaps in your research where more information about your ancestor is needed. They can help point you to where to look for vital records. If you have big gaps in the person’s timeline, you might want to search out more information to see what they were doing. Did they have additional children, did they move away and then come back? So, if you are struggling with a person, try creating a timeline to see what you are missing.

Just remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

 

Week 32: At the Library (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week, Amy Johnson Crow’s prompt is “One of my favorite things to do when I was little was going to the library. (It still is!) It's really no surprise that I ended up getting my Masters degree in library science. This week's theme is "At the Library." Do you have any librarians in your family? What about fond memories of going to the library or help that you've received from a librarian?” Click here to check out all of the themes for 2022.

Growing up, the public library was only ½ mile from my home. I loved going to the library, because it was free, it was air conditioned (something my home wasn’t) and it was quiet. Being the youngest of nine children and being an aunt by the age of seven, having a quiet place was heaven.

When I became interested in genealogy at the age of 14, it was the library that I went to, to find books on how to do genealogy. It was this library that I found out about my older half siblings’ ancestry, they descended from the Wisconsin French-Indian Fur Traders. 

When I reached by mid 20’s, I started to research my family history a little bit more and travelled to nearby communities and always started in their library. I even found a library open on a Sunday, in the town that I was born in. This was great, especially as a working parent, my research time was limited to weekends or using my vacation days for researching.

In 1999, my husband and I relocated our family to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. So of course, the first thing I did was check out the library. They had recently built a new library. However, I could not find any genealogy section. When I asked about it, they didn’t seem too concerned. I was bummed and confused. It wasn’t until around 2003 that I stubbled across the Lake Havasu Genealogical Society Library. I found out through the society, that the public library will donate all genealogical books to the society library. I thought this was strange, because perhaps they should at least have some beginning genealogy books?

Anyway, the library seemed very cluttered and I was overwhelmed by what I considered was disorganization of their books. The card catalog was hard to use, because I had no idea where in the library the book would be located. 

By 2011, I returned to the library and decided to join the society and find out more. I came in on Wednesday’s because it was the day the library was open from 9am-5pm. A whole day dedicated to genealogy. I volunteered to help at the library and when the volunteered Librarian asked if I wanted to take over Wednesdays, I jumped at the opportunity.

I approached the Society Board about doing classes. After raising almost $500 from my classes, I offered to revamp the library foyer which looked more like a back storage area than a welcoming entrance to the library. I gave them my design ideas, tearing up the old carpet and putting down some press-on tiles in the bathrooms and by the front & side door and putting press-on carpet squares between the two. I offered to paint the foyer and bathrooms. I also offered to rearrange the computer setup and clear out and organize the foyer area. They agreed and since they are closed during the summer, I decided to work on it in August.

When I was done, I made sure that I did not throw anything away, I moved the tall file cabinets that were in the foyer to the back corner of the library. They scaled down from four cabinets to only two. I moved the copier that was located between the front windows to the front of the research room along with a short file cabinet and the lateral file cabinet that was in the back corner of the library. They even had an extra desk that I moved out of the foyer to the back corner. I moved two nice side chairs and end table into the large foyer for a sitting area. I donated short bookshelves to fit along the pony wall that separated the foyer from the research room. I left one desk in the foyer for the sign in sheet. They had mini refrigerator that they use to sell water and soda and I left that in the foyer next to a new small storage cabinet that I donated to store extra soda, water and supplies for refreshments for the general meetings that the society has from October to May. The painted glass in the wall hanging between the bathrooms was from a garage sale. It was too pretty to get rid of. So I had the piece cut so that the chip corners were removed and my husband made the frame. It fits perfectly on the wall, below the needlepoint of the society's logo.

I also organized some of their wall hangings for the foyer, which freed up some wall space between the front two windows so that I could securely anchor the bookshelves to the wall. They were just at the end of the rows of some other bookshelves they had.

Later on, I tried to start a new chair fundraiser, but no one was interested in it. I didn’t like the chairs didn't match. My husband’s work was getting rid of eight non-wheeled chairs and I kept eight matching wheeled chairs and we got rid of the rest. I noticed that some of our older members struggled with their balance getting in and out of moving chairs. 

One of our members even donated a large TV that was mounted above the Computers, over the left side opening of the pony wall. Now when they do classes or even have general meetings, they can use the tv for a display. We found out, there is not a bad seat in the room.

Those lacy curtains  have been removed. Another member donated some black out drapes that we can pull shut to help with energy cost during the summer months when they are closed. Plus another member donated some nice pull down shades for the two front windows so that we don’t feel like we are exposed to everyone walking past the library windows. 

Before I moved back to Wisconsin in 2020, my last project for the library was reorganizing their books and periodicals. We transitioned from a stand-alone Access catalog system to LibraryThing. Now their patrons can view their book and periodical collection online. I made sure to organize the books a little better, weed out duplicates and books that would not help in genealogical research. Also, many of the help books were so out of date, so those were reduced too. 

Check out their website at lhgs.weebly.com

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Illness - My Covid-19 Story

I decided to write a short blog about my Covid-19 illness for my future generations to find and learn what I went through. I am going to give just the facts, and it isn't an endorsement of vaccines and wearing masks or an opposition of vaccines and wearing masks or the effectiveness of either choice. 

I got my first symptoms of Covid-19 around May 26th. Up to this point I was fully vaccinated and received my second booster about a month prior in late April. 

My husband and I had a planned a trip to Alaska, by dream trip because this was the last state for me to visit, having been to 49 other states prior to this trip. 

Even though I brought masks, we didn't wear them. We had pretty much kept our social activities to a minimal but we were starting to enjoy going occasionally out to eat. Keeping our distance from other people while shopping, avoid crowded events and such.

Anyway, 24 hours before our flight left for Alaska, my hubby and I took a home Covid test and it came back negative.

Our trip was great. We took a few small tours that meant we were around about ten other people. We still kept our distance from others, watched what we touched, and washed our hands often. It wasn't until the last leg of our journey that things got complicated. We were suppose to take a train ride from Denali National Park to Fairbanks, but a landslide prevented the train from going. We ended up taking a bus and it was jam packed. The two hour drive took 4 hours because the bus broke down. I don't remember hearing anyone coughing on the bus. We all appeared healthy.

Once in Fairbanks we took a spur of the moment river boat tour, and even though it was a large crowd, we were able to keep our distance from others. Plus the stop was at an outdoor tour and again, we could keep our distance.

Our flight was a late night flight and I remember eating at the airport and feeling good. It wasn't crowded where we ate. However, we had a 6+ hour flight home and let me tell you, there were many people coughing on the flight. That was an overnight flight on May 24th, that landed early May 25th. Travel days are always hard on me, and I remember starting to get a Migraine headache, which isn't unusual for me.  I took some over the counter medicine and it appear to be working, at first. By May 27th, my headache got worst and the medicine wasn't working. It was my hubby's birthday and we went out to eat.

I enjoyed the cold items from the salad bar but my fish tasted bland. I didn't think anything of it, because it is not unusual for me to not enjoy food while experiencing a migraine headache. It also is not unusual for my headaches to last days. 

The next day, my throat was getting dry and cough drops were not working. So I decided to take a home Covid test and it came back negative. I started taking Dayquil at night, Nyquil is too strong for me. 

I wasn't feeling any better and by Monday the 30th, my entire head was congested. My jaw bones were sore and I decided to take another home Covid test. It almost immediately came back positive. I took a full dose of DayQuil and slept on and off most of the day. For lunch I had chicken noodle soup and for super I made myself some eggs, sausage and toast. I didn't notice any lost of taste. However, my husband purchased some saltine crackers and on Tuesday when I ate them with my soup, they tasted supper salty. I ate some after having Covid and they were not that salty. So perhaps my sense of taste did get affected by Covid.

I took a Covid Test on Wednesday and it came back positive. It was about here that I felt like it was the turning point for me. My head didn't hurt as bad, the head congestion was clearing and I was able to stay awake more often. On Friday the test was still positive. It wasn't until Sunday that my fist test came back negative. I took another test on Tuesday and it came back negative. My husband never got Covid. We did sleep in separate beds once I tested positive until my first negative test. I also limited where I went. I washed my bedding on Wednesday and again on Sunday. 

My major symptoms were a dry, scratchy throat, a massive headache that never really went away, my head was heavy and it hurt to sit straight up, severe congestion. I had a little cough and felt a little in my lungs and if I talked alot, I became short of breath which caused me to cough while talking. My voice was a little horse, probably because my throat was so sore. Cold items felt good. Plus I lacked energy. Sleeping was easy, staying awake took energy. 

I think I got Covid either from the bus ride or the plane ride. I am grateful I didn't get severe symptoms. It took several weeks after the negative test before I started feeling normal. I forced myself to do a little more each day. I don't know if I am a 100 percent back to normal because I do seem to get extremely exhausted in the late afternoon and I just have to a nap. I can't keep my eyes open. 

So this is my experience and I know everyone who gets Covid symptoms will have their own experience.  So I suggest to my fellow genealogist. document your symptoms so that future generations can understand what you went through.

Week 29: Fun Fact (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week's theme is "Fun Fact." Not everything in family history has to be serious. This week, think of something fun you've found during your research. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022

When I hear the phrase, Fun Fact, my mind goes to the TV Show “The Big Bang Theory” because the character Sheldon was always saying “Fun Fact” and then gave useless facts to his friends. This is similar to when as the family historian/genealogist we share facts with our family.

So here goes, “FUN FACT”, when my mom was pregnant with me, I was supposedly due around July 22nd. When August 1st rolled around, my grandfather, her father-in-law asked my mother what was she waiting for, his birthday? My mother said, sure when is it, and he told her August 21st. My mom agreed to have me August 21st. However, my grandfather then said his birthday was actually August 23rd. My mom agreed to have me on August 23rd. My grandfather kept changing his birthday and finally my mother said, I will have this baby on August 22nd. YEP, my birthday is August 22nd.

I did find out, later, that my grandfather did celebrate his birthday on both days and didn't really tell anyone which was correct. I wondered why this was. I don’t have a birth record for my grandfather, however on his World War I draft registration card, he listed his birthday as August 23rd, 1899. His mother’s birthday is August 21st and I wonder if he was really born on her birthday and perhaps, they didn’t want to share the day. 

In the 1900 US Federal Census for Calamus, Dodge County, Wisconsin, I find my great grandfather, David married to my great grandmother Amelia and only one child is listed, their son Frederick age 4. However, it states that Amelia had two children and only one is living. So, if my grandfather was really born in 1899, shouldn’t he be listed in the 1900 Census? 

By the 1910 US Federal Census for Beaver Dam Ward 5, Dodge County, Wisconsin, David and Amelia have five children living with them and she is listed as having seven children and only five are living. Fred is 14, Elise is 11, Lawrence (my grandfather) is 9, Ruby is 8 and Marie is 6. I found a birth record for Elise showing she was born Oct 15, 1898 in Columbia County, Wisconsin. However, the birth record I found is only a transcription and I don’t actually see the record, thus I am unsure when the actual record was issued. This could be a late registration. Otherwise, shouldn’t Elise be listed with her parents? Even if Elise was born in 1899, she should be on the 1900 census.

Many in my family believe that my grandfather was born in 1900. And thus being 9 in 1910 would make sense since his birthday is in August and the census date was earlier in the year. Thus, he didn’t turn ten yet. His social security death record lists his birthday as Aug 23, 1900 however, his Find A Grave record listed it as Aug 21, 1900. Even though, the gravestone doesn't have the complete date, I am unsure where they came up with this date. 

Now to another “FUN FACT” my grandfather has three grandchildren all born on September 7th, different years. Each of his three children, have a child born on September 7th. First my aunt, her oldest is born on September 7th. Then my father, had a child born on the 7th and the very next year, his brother had a child born on the 7th. I am sure this happens in other families too. 

So, I decided to see how many people share my birthdate of August 22 and I found 38 in my database of 18000+ people.

Next, I decided to see how many people share my sister’s birthdate of September 7 and I found 39 in my database.

What “Fun Fact” have you found in your research. 

Remember to have fun and to Just do Genealogy! 

Week 28: Characters (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 28 is "Characters." Every family has a person who might be described as a "character." But that's not the only way you might interpret this theme. What about someone named for a famous character, working through a language that uses characters other than what you're used to, or deciphering a character on a tombstone? Be creative and have fun! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

We all have characters in our family. Heck, we might be the character in our family. This week I decided to pick a relative who actually portrays characters, she was an actress. She is my mom’s 3rd cousin and thus she is my 3rd cousin once removed.

She was born Donna Belle Mullenger on Jan 27, 1921 in Denison, Crawford, Iowa, USA. The daughter of William Richard Mullenger and Hazel Jane Shives. Her grandparents were William George Mullenger and Mary Ann Johnson. Her great grandparents were William Reform Mullenger and Mary Tyler. Our common ancestor is her 2nd great grandparents of Peter Tyler and Sarah Anderson. Peter Tyler was born about 1798 in Buckinghamshire, England, on Oct 24, 1820 in England he married Sarah Anderson, born about 1801. Peter died in 1883 in Middlesex, England. They had 9 children. Their daughter Mary was their 6th child and she was born Nov 26 1835 in Buckinghamshire, England. While, I descend from their 7th Child, George William Tyler who was born May 14, 1839 in Buckinghamshire, England. George died on Jun 3, 1928 in Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa, USA. 

George married Sarah Agnes Long who was born Dec 27, 1842 in Canada. She died Nov 18 1915 in Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa, USA. They had 8 children. I descend from John Albert Tyler their 3rd child who was born May 4, 1870 in Sheffield, Franklin, Iowa. On Feb 22, 1894 in Lincoln, Cerro Gordo, Iowa, He married Isabel Bonson Pedelty who was born Aug 2, 1870 in Lincoln, Cerro Gordo, Iowa. She died on Feb 16, 1934 in Granada, Martin, Minnesota and he died on May 23, 1935 in Granada, Martin Minnesota. They had 5 children. I descend through their son Vern E Tyler, who was born Mar 4, 1903 in Buffalo Center, Winnebago, Iowa. He is the biological father of my mother. My mother was born out of wedlock and I don’t know if she had any contact with him, especially since she didn’t know about him until she turned 18. See my other blog post “My mother’s Secret” to learn more. 

Anyway, Donna Bell Mullenger was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years. Donna planned to become a teacher but was unable to pay for college. She moved to California to attend the Los Angeles City College on the advice of her aunt. Even though she had no plans to become an actress, while attending college she did performed in various stage productions. However, after receiving several offers to screen test for studios, Donna eventually signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). She insisted on completing her associate degree before she signed with an agent.

In 1941, Donna made her film debut in “The Get-Away” opposite Robert Sterling. She was billed as Donna Adams.

MGM soon changed her name to Donna Reed as there was anti-German feeling during World War II. The rest as they say is history. I know Donna from her role as Mary in the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I also remember watching reruns of the Donna Reed Show that ran from 1958 to 1966. 

Back row: Tony Owen and Penny Jane 
Seated from left to right: Tony Jr, 
Mary on Donna's lap and Tim.

From 1943-1945, Reed was married to make-up artist William Tuttle. Her second marriage was to producer Tony Owen and they raised four children together. The two older children were adopted. They divorced in 1971. In 1974, she married Grover Asmus and they remained married until her death in 1986. 

Remember to have fun and to Just do Genealogy!

Week 27: Extended Family (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 27 is "Extended Family." We often focus on those people from whom we descend. But what about their siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins? They played a role in our ancestors' lives, just like those people play a role in our own lives. This is a good week to explore the lives of these other people in the family tree. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022. 

My father once asked if I found the relative who threw his wife down a well. This was one story I decided to promptly to look into.

Thomas E Goodwin, my 1st cousin 3x removed (my paternal grandmother’s side) had thrown his wife, Mary Biel down a well on the night of May 29, 1900. Thomas was born Dec 18, 1957 in Wisconsin the son of Edward Goodwin and Mary Delaney. Thomas’s grandfather Thomas Goodwin was my 3rd great grandfather. 

Thomas E Goodwin was a saloon keeper and came home intoxicated and she helped him to bed. About a half an hour later came to her room where she lay asleep and told her that a horse was sick in the barn and that he wished her to hold the lantern while he attended to the animal. However, when they were near the old well, he grabbed her and after a struggle, threw her into it. Mrs Mary Goodwin screams brought help and she was removed from the well by her brother, Lewis Biel and several others. 

Mary Goodwin was granted a divorce on Nov 21, 1900.

During the trial, it was mentioned that Mr Goodwin had made an attempt to commit his wife to an insane asylum a few weeks previous to the alleged attempt to murder her. Also, Mr Goodwin tried to show that his wife, if not insane, was in a highly disturbed and hysterical mental condition and had either wandered to the region of the well and fallen in or had attempted suicide. The trial shown that the couple had domestic troubles. 

In Dec 1901 Thomas Goodwin was sentenced to five years in Waupun State Penitentiary. The judge that sentenced him in the attempted murder trial is the same judge, Judge Dick that granted the Divorce request by Mary Goodwin back in Nov 1900.

Thomas Goodwin took the appeal to the Supreme court and in the meantime was released on bail. In Oct 1902, he was found guilty a second time, this time the case was held in Janesville Wisconsin. This time he was sentenced to ten years.

However, in Dec 1907, Governor Davidson paroled him on the recommendation of the state board of control, having served only five years of his sentence. A new law in placed required that before a prisoner is paroled, one half of the full term must be served and employment for at least one year must be guaranteed and a monthly report made on the conduct and condition of the paroled prisoner. 

Thomas and Mary had married on May 29, 1890 had five children born between 1891-1899. It was on their 10th wedding anniversary that Thomas threw Mary down the well. Thomas was previously married to a Catherine McMahon on Oct 26, 1881 and they had two children. Catherine died Nov 1, 1885.

When I looked up more information on Catherine, who might also be my 1st cousin 3x removed on my paternal grandfather’s side, I found that her death was questionable. 

She was found dead in bed Sunday Morning, Nov 1, 1885. Marks of violence were plainly visible on the neck, and her death is supposed to have been caused by strangulation. An inquest was held and it was determined that her death was from natural causes. 

I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but I really suspect Thomas had something to do with Catherine’s death. 

Mary died on July 24th 1921 and Thomas died Dec 26, 1927. Thomas and his first wife are buried together in Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin while Mary is buried in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

You never know what you might find out about your extended family.  Remember to have fun and to Just do Genealogy!

July’s Theme and Week 26: Identity (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 26 and July is "Identity." In genealogy, we seek out the identities of our ancestors. But they were more than just names. One way you could approach this prompt would be to share something about an ancestor besides just his or her name. Be creative and have fun! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

When I saw the theme Identity, I thought of my 2nd great grandfather, Seymour Hiltz who seemed to vanish after 1880.

Seymour was the son of Lawrence Hilts and his wife Nancy. I haven’t found Nancy’s maiden name, though one document listed Perin as the maiden name. Seymour was born about 1850 in Manlius, Onondaga, New York, USA. He is the third son and 7th child of Lawrence and Nancy. They had a total of 9 known children, four sons and five daughters.

He is first found in the 1855 New York State Census in Manilus, Onodaga County, New York. Lawrence and Nancy moved to Jefferson, Jefferson County, Wisconsin by 1860. On the 1860 Census, Seymour is called Orville. George age 20, Uriah age 17, Orville (Seymour) age 10, Julius age 5 and Mary age 3 are living in the household. By the 1870 Census, Nancy no longer appears and Lawrence is living with sons Seymore age 19 and Julius age 15 in Turtle, Rock County, Wisconsin. My first question is where are Nancy and Mary? Did they die or is Nancy estranged from Lawrence? 

On Nov 5, 1872 in Ripon, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Seymour marries Wilina Ellen Booth. They had a son, Orville Charles Hiltz (my great grandfather) in 1873 and Mabel Laurena Hiltz in 1876. In 1880, the same family are living in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and Seymour is listed as an Engineer. 

By 1900, Orville is living with his sister and her husband and his family in Nekimi, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. This leads me to the next question, why is Orville living with his sister and where did his parents go?

In 1903, a newspaper articled titled “Was Mourned as Dead” appeared in the Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Samuel Hilts (might me a newspaper mistake with the name) wrote from South Dakota after an absence of twenty years. He writes ““Can you give me any information regarding my wife and children? I am the owner of a large cattle ranch in the Black Hills, with 1,000 head of cattle and am drawing $125 a month as superintendent of construction of a new road just building, and am anxious to communicate with my wife and children.” The letter was sent to a Ripon woman whose sister was the wife of Hilts. She forwarded the letter to her niece, the letter writer’s daughter.

About twenty-one years prior, Seymour Hilts, a cooper residing at Traverse city, Mich and his wife had some difficulty and his wife left him temporarily. She went to live with her sister. After a time, her husband wrote a letter to her asking her to come back to him. The wife agreed to do this provided he would agree to take good care of her and the two children. No reply was received to the letter and the man dropped from sight. The mother struggled along for a time alone and then secured a divorce from her husband upon the grounds of desertion and remarried. About four years ago she died. 

It was from this article, that made me look for another marriage for Wilina Booth. I found it in 1890 in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. She married a man named George Pansie and Wilina died on Jun 1, 1898. While looking up this record, I came across a birth certificate for an unnamed Male child born to Seymour and Wilina on Sep 8, 1883 in Ripon, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Was Wilina expecting when she left temporarily left her husband? It appears the child died because she only mentioned two children in her reply letter to her husband. I never found a death record in the years from 1883 to 1890. 

Several years after her second marriage, Mrs Hilts heard from the mother of Hilts that he had died and that a letter had been sent to her asking whether she would send money to have the remains taken to her home. This the mother was unable to do and the man was mourned as dead. My questions: where has the mother of Seymour Hilts been living? She wasn’t living with her husband and sons in 1870. Since this was several years after Wilina’s second marriage the date would be around 1893. 

The letter Seymour sent was written from Belle Forche, South Dakota and from the Belle Forche Hotel upon the Hotel stationary. Both the sister-in-law and daughter sent replies to the letter to the Hotel and both came back unanswered. They asked the Postmaster in Belle Forche for help and he stated a man giving the name as S. Hilts left Belle Forche for Deadwood and asking for all mail addressed to him be forwarded. No one in Deadwood or anyone in the vicinity have claimed any mail for S Hilts. 

Seymour Hilts was last seen by the family when Mrs. Buehring was a child of about three or four years old which places it shortly after 1880. In 1903, Seymour would be about 54 years old, therefore he could be alive and well.

As you can see, I have lots of questions. Reviewing the timeline above, gives me some new ideas for research. Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy! 

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NOTE: the mentioned newspaper article was found through Newspapers.com using the keyword "buehring" date of 1903 and location of Wisconsin. It was published in the Oshkosh Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Tuesday, January 13, 1903, page 3, column 3. 

Week 25: Broken Branch (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

After the storms that blew through my area last week, it seems appropriate that this week's theme is "Broken Branch." Have you had to trim a branch from your family tree after you figured out it wasn't the right line? Are you researching a branch that it feels like there is nobody else in the world who is researching them? What about a collateral line that seems to have gotten lost? Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

My major Broken Branch came in 2013 when I discovered my mother’s secret. She was born out of wedlock and her mother’s husband was not her biological father. Read my previous blog post “My Mother’s Secret”. Anyway, I had researched her entire maiden name line with my Aunt Mary. So this way a very broken branch, however it was the only family my mother ever knew and it is my Aunt Mary and Aunt Shirley’s family, so I kept this branch in my tree.

A branch that I had to trim from my family tree was the Parent’s of Elizabeth Lighthall. Actually, I didn’t trim them, because I never added them since I couldn't prove the relationship. See my blog post, “Who are Elizabeth Lighthall’s parents?”. I have researched more on George Lighthall and his family, however I haven’t found the connection to my Elizabeth. 

I do remember actually trimming off a branch after going down the wrong path. I had a woman in my tree Mabel Hiltz who married Albert Salisbury. They married in Missouri and I found them in several census records. I traced her all the way to Find A Grave to only find out that somewhere along the way, this was no longer my Mabel. Find A Grave had her maiden name listed and after investigating a little better, sure enough, I found two Mabel Salisbury’s. Normally, I open tons of browser tabs, sort the tabs in date order and verify that I am still looking at my Mabel. However, for what ever reason, I got ahead of myself and added the children of the 2nd Mabel whose husband name was Al but not short for Albert. I had to go back and remove my citation entries, delete the children and possibly grandchildren. My Mabel moved from Missouri to California with several of her siblings’ families. Lesson learn, don’t get ahead of myself.

Anyway, you can see “Broken Branches” are common when researching. Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 24: Popular Name (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Week 24’s theme is Popular Name.  When I was in kindergarten, there were 3 girls named Amy. We liked to sit next to each other, which drove Miss Rockwell crazy. She'd call on "Amy" and all 3 of us would respond. Good times... Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

It’s been a while since I participated in Amy Johnson’s Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I either didn't feel the prompt, or was on vacation and then I got the dreaded COVID. So even though I thought of writing, my brain was not cooperating in any way, shape or form.

Anyway, I am back and I will be trying to do better.

I don’t have a common name. In fact, when my family would travel and camp across the United States, finding souvenirs with my name was a challenge. I hated that my name wasn’t common. As I grew, I appreciated having an uncommon name. Teachers would forget what my name was and thus, I won’t get called on in class. I remember sitting next to a Charlotte and the teacher would look over to us and say, I hate that you too are sitting next to each other. Many people would call me Charlotte because people could not remember Charlene.

When I met my husband and he asked my name, I told him he probably would forget. Turns out, he had an Aunt Charlene. Aunt Charlene thought it was cool that my name was Charlene too. I am always a little too excited to find other women named Charlene. 

A recent funny story is while watching HGTV show “Fixer to Fabulous: Welcome Inn”, this is a home improvement show with Dave and Jenny Marrs from Arkansas. They purchased a truck that came with the name, wait for it... "Charlene". They had a scene where they were talking about how Charlene was good at first. Dave was excited to have Charlene in his life. But then Charlene led him on and left him high and dry. My hubby and I never laughed so hard in our lives. View it here. Don't forget to turn your volume up and think of me as they describe Charlene. It makes it so much funnier.

Back to real genealogy, well sort of.. I ran a report on my main tree of 13,229 individuals to see what the most common names first names were. For females it was Mary and John for males. No surprises there. I did find five other Charlene's in my database. Not too bad, maybe I need to start a Charlene club. Any Charlene's out there?

Remember, Just do Genealogy!

Week 19: Food and Drink (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Week 19's theme is "Food and Drink." Few things bring back memories like food does. This week, write about an event that prompted a special meal, an ancestor who was a really good (or really bad!) cook, or a food that always makes you think of someone in your family. (Or whatever else you want to write about). Click here to check out all the themes for 2022. 

Growing up my family always had a gathering at our home for Father’s Day. In fact, my mother was pregnant with her seventh child on my father’s first Father’s Day. My mother and father had married the year prior. My mother was a widow with six children and this was the first year my father was celebrating Father’s Day as a father, even if it was as a stepfather. 

In the morning as my mother was preparing for the gathering, she went into labor. My older sister was born, a month early. It just so happened it was my other older sister’s birthday too. So now I have two sisters born on the same day, five years apart. So, on Father’s Day, we always celebrate the father’s and my two sister’s birthdays. 

In 1990, my parent’s retired to Arizona and my oldest brother started to take over the Father’s Day Celebrations. Then my oldest brother’s daughter had her only child the day before my sister’s birthdays and his birthday was added to the Father’s Day Celebrations.

We had four cakes at many of these celebrations, one for the fathers, one for each sister and one for my great-nephew or is he called my grand-nephew. One year my niece brought some really delicious Cup Cakes instead of cake.  

Though I don’t remember all the details of those younger days, because I was an aunt by the time I turned seven, there were many of my nieces and nephews running around. Sometimes I would be responsible to entertain them and thus I don’t really remember what we ate. I am sure we had cookouts and people would bring a dish to pass. I do remember one brother-in-law always made the potato salad. It was delicious. 

Over the years, on the many Father’s Days we would play badminton, yard darts (those were dangerous toys), the adults played cards such as Sheepshead. 

Anyway, this will be the first Father’s Day that this special celebration and gathering might not take place. My oldest brother died this past October. My brother’s Father’s Days didn’t have all the siblings or nieces and nephews there. But I did my best to attend them when I was back home, since I moved out of state. My brother sometimes cooked Brats and Hamburgers, other years he made Sloppy Joes. We all would bring a dish to pass. 

In 2020, I moved back home permanently, and I hope I can continue our Father’s Day celebration. I will probably have at least one sister over for Father’s Day, but I am not sure who else will come over. 

Week 18: Social (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Week 18's theme is "Social." Maybe you have a story or photo of an ancestor at an ice cream social. Maybe your ancestor was part of a society, like the Masons or Odd Fellows. Maybe you've made a connection with a cousin or made a great discovery thanks to social media. Whatever it is, write it down! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

When I think of social and genealogy, I think of collaboration.  

I started my first major collaboration with my maternal Aunt Mary. I have two Aunt Mary’s; both my mother and father have a sister Mary. Anyway, I never realized that my Aunt Mary was interested in genealogy until I attended a family reunion in 1990 and my aunt had started a family history book on her maiden name. She was a retired teacher; while I had a computer degree and I proposed that we work together to compile a formal book. Over the next year we visited courthouses, libraries, cemeteries and even relatives and collected information, family stories and I typed all the information up into Word Perfect. 

We published “The Hafenstein Family” in 1991 and did one update in 1992. Many years later, I managed to scan the entire book and created a version that family can purchase through LuLu and you can find it here. Keep in mind, this book is 30 years old and many updates have occurred in our family, including the birth of my fourth child and the death of my aunt. However, this book is a snapshot of our work from 1992. This was my start with documenting and sharing of my genealogy research. 

Through the years, I have connected with many distant cousins who were generous in sharing their genealogy research. Some shared written genealogies, some share specific documents, I even had one visit a courthouse and surprised me with my 2nd great grandfather’s will. A type document that I never really explored until I received it.

It is with these social connections that allowed me to expand my tree, expand my research skills and to develop friendships along the way.  This is one of the reason’s I started a blog. A way to share my research and skills with others. I even started a Facebook page for my Revolutionary Patriot, Johannes Spanknable and I have connected with various descendants. A cousin had a family site on the now defunct website of MyFamily which I turned into a private Facebook group. However, I spent many hours, downloading all the data on the site and shared with my distant relatives by sending them CD’s with this information. My relatives took me up on my offer.

So my advice, don’t be afraid to be social with your genealogy. Create small books on your family branches and share them with your siblings or other relatives. Don’t be afraid that it’s not perfect, or that it’s not complete. My personal genealogy motto that I didn’t come up with is “I think I shall never see a finished genealogy”. Thus, share what you have, it is a snapshot of what you found as of that day. People are born every day, people get married and unfortunately, people die too and thus we will never be done. Start somewhere and share what you have.

Remember, Just do Genealogy!

 

Week 17: Document (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

"Document" can be a noun or a verb and, as genealogists, we should be using it as both! Perhaps this week you share a neat document you've found or write about your efforts to document an ancestor. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022

Genealogist are always gathering documents to prove relationships and facts. When I was preparing to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), I was just gathering documents to prove facts that I thought I already knew.

I needed birth, marriage and death records for my parents and my maternal grandparents. I went to the courthouse where my mother’s birth certificate is filed along with her parent’s marriage record. My mother was born in 1927 and her parents were married in 1926. I happily went to the courthouse and used the birth index book first. For those of you who don’t know, the birth index book is a large book with the name of the person being born, their birth date and the volume and page number that the birth certificate can be found. Births are recorded by last name and in order of being recorded. I noticed that my mother’s name was listed as Hilts, her mother’s maiden name. Then it was crossed off and Hafenstein was written along with the year 1945. This was not the normal markings one would find in the birth index. 

As I was turning the pages of the volume that contained my mother’s birth certificate, there was nothing unusual about the pages. They were typed pages until I reached my mother’s. It looked like a microfilm printed page; it was black with white lettering. 

On the left side of the page was a 1945 written date, this was the same year as the Indexed book. The rest of the information looked normal, her parents are listed, her date of birth, doctor signatures and more.

I then proceeded to the Marriage index to find my grandparent’s marriage record. The marriage index is a little different, it is an index based on marriage date. They are recorded as they issue certificates, thus I went to May 1926 and found no marriage record for my grandparents. I keep looking through the remainder of the year, into 1927, and then 1928 and finally in 1929 I found the listing. Now I am questioning who is the father of my mother. My mother is a spitting image of my grandmother, so I have no doubts that she is her mother. 

I gather my documents and proceed home. I submit my application to DAR and they reject it, stating that it appears that my mother was adopted, since she was born before my grandparent’s wedding. Since I was going through my maternal grandmother’s line, I just needed to prove that her mother was indeed her biological mother.

I decided to send an inquiry email to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to find out if my mother was adopted in 1945 by her step-father. I stated that I am pretty sure that her mother was her biological mother. 

They were nice enough to confirm that my mother’s step-father did adopt her and sent me a form to request her non-identifying adoption paperwork. I did send for the paperwork, which confirmed that my mother was adopted after her 18th birthday. My mother was going to go to college and her step-father didn't want her to bear the shame of showing an illegitimate birth certificate the rest of her life. Up until that day, my mother didn't know that her father wasn't her biological father.  

At this point, my curiosity was sparked. I then contacted the local catholic dioceses for my mother’s baptism record. Unfortunately, the record appears it never had her birth father’s name on it and it was modified to include her step-father’s name.

The moral of this cautionary tale, is that not all documents are accurate. Even though the birth certificate I obtained is a legal document, it is not necessarily an accurate document because when my mother was adopted a new birth certificate was created. Whether or not her original certificate ever contained her biological father’s name, I don’t know. Also, her baptism record contains accurate information but also inaccurate since it also appears to not have her biological father listed on it.

This was my driving force to use DNA in my genealogy endeavors. I am pretty confident that I found out who my biological grandfather is. One of his daughter’s did finally show up as my half-aunt on one of the testing sites. It was his only surviving child. 

So keep looking for those documents and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 16: Negatives (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

There are some negatives to family history... Discovering something "negative" about an ancestor, not finding what you were expecting, and even film negatives. This week, explore one of those negatives. Maybe it will turn into a positive! Click here to check out all the themes for2022

Negative can include evidence as in Negative Evidence. For example, I am helping my sister-in-law with a branch of her family, her mother’s maiden name of Steffes. Anyway, starting with the immigrant ancestor of Jacob Steffes (1821-1878) and Anna Arenz (1830-1915), I have been documenting all their descendants. We are working off a family history that someone started in 1980’s. He had listed the youngest child as Engelbart Steffes (1872-1905)

Most of the family is buried in a tiny cemetery located in the unincorporated area of St Joes, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The area is named after the catholic church of Saint Joseph’s and there is a church cemetery.

However, the stone for Engelbart states his last name is Steffen. The stone does list that he is the son of Jacob. The stone has a birth date of 1872 and a death date of 1905. Thus, if Engelbart is a son of Jacob and Anna, he should be living with the family in 1880. However, looking at the census record, I find the other younger children, however no Engelbart.

So, I decided to take another approach, to search for an Engelbart Steffen. I find him in the 1880 census for the St Joe area living with his father Jacob and his mother Margaret. On the Ancestry website, I am also given a hint for a birth and christening records. These two records are for Engelbart Steffen and the birth date matches the gravestone.

I turn to Find A Grave and decide to look at what memorials are created. There are two memorials for this one gravestone, one is for Engelbart Steffen and the other for Engelbart Steffes. At this point I am very confident that there was never an Engelbart Steffes, so I reach out the creator of the memorial for Engelbart Steffes, who happens to be a distant relative of my sister-in-law and a descendant of Jacob and Anna.

I send him a message and point out that there are two memorials, one for each surname and reference the birth record and ask him to review those because I believe that this gravestone is for Engelbart Steffen. Please note, I never state that he is wrong and I am right. I like to gently guide people to come to their own conclusions. I also like to share my reasoning with records so that they can review what I am looking at. The memorial creator responded that he deleted his memorial.

Therefore, I used the Negative Evidence of not finding a Engelbart Steffes to conclude that there wasn’t a person by this name. To confirm this assumption, I found a Engelbart Steffen who fits the tombstone information. Ironically, last week’s theme was “how do you spell that”? and this wasn’t a case of changing the spelling of someone’s name.

Keep in mind, not all situations are this straight forward. I am currently dealing with a different family whose child doesn’t show up in the census record with the rest of the family. However, looking at obituaries, they are all listing each other as siblings. This child is too young to be a farm hand on another farm. Also, his parents and siblings are in the census record, but not him. I try to make sure it wasn’t the case where he was known as a different name as a child and another as an adult. I currently can’t figure out where this child came from. Based on the time frame, perhaps this is an adoption. Maybe from the orphan train or other family who died and left an orphan child. All speculation on my part. Currently I have added this child to the family unit with notes, because I need to investigate him more, to check all the siblings of the parents, maybe see if there are any newspapers articles about visiting orphan trains or other news worthy articles to explain a tragedy in the area that might had left an orphan child.

Good luck with your research and remember to Just do Genealogy!

Week 15: How Do You Spell That? (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

One of the things I tell people who are starting out in their family history journey is to not get hung up on a spelling. It's amazing how many ways a name can be spelled. (Just visit your local Starbucks, and you'll know what I mean!) Who is an ancestor who might have had trouble with people mangling their name? Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

My first acceptance in misspellings deals with my first name. Back in the late 1980’s someone did a family history on my Quinn family branch. My 2nd great grandmother’s maiden name was a Quinn. In this book, they spelled my name Charleen. No big deal, but annoying. 

A few years later, someone did a family history on my O’Brion family branch. My Quinn great grandmother who married a McDonald, had a son who married an O’Brion. This author copied, like photocopied the book pages from the Quinn family book that covered the O’Brion descendants, thus my name is spelled wrong, because they photocopied the book pages. 

Just the surname of O’Brion is a weird spelling, the above branches are on my dad’s side of the family and on my mother’s side I have an O’Brien branch. I have seen the O’Brion family have spellings of O’Brien. Even some of the McDonald descendants have changed the spelling to MacDonald. 

On my mother’s side, her mother’s maiden name is Hiltz. Through the years, various branches use Hilts while others use Hiltz. I even seen brother’s use different spellings. 

I guess spelling wasn’t that important to many. Let’s be honest, many of our Ancestors didn’t know how to read or write. Thus, they didn’t know how to spell their names. Therefore, clerks and such may have spelled it phonetically. Or perhaps they used various spellings to create a unique identity. We all know families that seem to name everyone John, Timothy, James, Michael and so on. Perhaps this helped keep the John Hilts family separate from the John Hiltz family. 

In more modern times with computer systems, spelling definitely counts. Names like O’Brien with the Apostrophe can cause glitches in computer systems because it can confuse some programming languages. I have worked at places where they didn’t want us to input the apostrophe and this sometimes makes the person associated with the name upset. Someone would type O Brien while someone else typed Obrien. We know that when you sort a group of names with these spellings, they are not necessarily sorted together. Also when you do a search for Obrien it would not display O Brien because the blank space would sort before letters. However, if you sort for O Brien, you might see Obrien at the bottom of the list. Confusing right? As a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, they even tired to come up with a standardized spelling for names. For example, if I search for an Ancestor and type in Hilts it will recommend using the spelling of Hiltz. 

Moral of story, don’t dismiss a record based on the spelling. It might be your person, look into it further. Also, don’t sweat the small stuff. If someone spells a name “wrong” in their tree, it might be the spelling they are more familiar with, one they found on a document, or just wasn’t sure which spelling to make default and they had to pick one.

Don’t forget to JUST DO GENEALOGY! 

Week 14: “Check it Out”

The theme for Week 14 (and the monthly theme for April) is "Check It Out." We often use this phrase when we want someone to pay attention to something neat. ("Hey! Check it out!") It's also something you do with some library books. What does that inspire you to write about? Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

Most genealogist will have some sort of books. I started with “How to” books because starting anything new, I wanted to do it right. Well, it didn’t help. (giggle). It helped a little but I did do my share of mistakes and I even restarted my genealogy, lucky I had less than 300 people in my tree, so it wasn’t all bad.

Through the years I look for books on skills I want to improve on. I have books on organizing my genealogy, many books on DNA, I have some dealing with digitizing my family history, how to cite your sources, about the genealogical research standards, how to become an accredited genealogist. Even books on various software packages that I can use for recording my genealogy.

I also have some history books, one for Columbia County, Wisconsin (a remake), another on the families in Mohawk Valley, New York and a few specific family history books, one for the Boone Family, the Hiltz Family, the O’Brion Family, and the Quinn family.

Genealogy is the only hobby (I use that word loosely because it’s a passion for me), that the more time you spend on it, the harder it gets. Think about it. For example, I crochet, I started out learning the stitches, and the more I do it, the easier it becomes because the better I get at it. Of course, I might have to lookup a new type of stitch or watch a tutorial on how to do that stitch, but everyone is going to do that stitch the same way.

Genealogy on the other hand gets harder because finding the documents to prove the next generation are rarer to find. Everyone’s might be basically doing the same thing, researching their family, their ancestors, etc.… But where they are looking are different based on where your family lived, what records survived that location and as in the book listed above on the families in the Mohawk Valley, New York, what has already been researched. Plus, how far you are able to trace your family will be different for each person because our families are so different. 

Books help me become a better researcher, to see what others are doing to find records. I can learn from others and apply those skills to my work. I always say, work smarter not harder. This also applies to Genealogy. Besides books, I watch a lot of Webinars, YouTube Videos, read other people’s blogs, belong to various Facebook groups so that I can become a better Genealogist. If I learn only one new thing, it is worth it to me. Yes, sometimes the topic is a review, however the lecturer might show me a different way of doing something. We are creatures of habit, thus if we keep doing what we have always done, we will always get the same results. Learning new websites or learning new search strategies might lead us to new results. 

My advice, CHECK IT OUT, and grow your knowledge and skill base for doing genealogy.

Week 13: Sisters (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week’s theme prompt is Sisters, "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." Any families made up of lots of sisters? Now is a great time to tell their story! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

I decided to tell the story of my sisters, I have five and I am the youngest of my sisters and my entire family. We use to share one bedroom in our three-bedroom house. We had three sets of bunk beds. The older sisters slept on top and the younger sisters on the bottom. I remember going to girl scout camp and it felt just like home with all the bunk beds. ;-)

My two oldest sisters are born just shy of one year of each other. Thus, they are the same age for 5 days. The two middle sisters are born on the same day, five years apart. and my fifth sister and I are born less than a year apart and are the same for age for 16 days. 

My three oldest sisters are from my mother’s first marriage, her husband died as a result of a tragic work-related accident. He was a welder and was working on a skyscraper building in Chicago. He was climbing up the safety ladder and someone forgot to weld the top of the ladder and thus it pulled away from the building and he fell over 500 feet to his death. So tragic, he left behind 5 children and a pregnant wife. He died the day after my oldest sister’s birthday. My mother gave birth to her sixth child, a son on their wedding anniversary. 

My mom remarried and had three more children, all girls. Therefore, I have full sisters and half-sisters, however in my family we only use the term “half” when explaining why they have a different maiden name than my own. Otherwise, we always use sister or brother, no “half”.

My second oldest sister, Maureen had a daughter out of wedlock and gave her up for adoption. This was back in the early 1970’s, so she was sent away to have her baby and thus wasn’t able to attend our oldest sister’s wedding. My youngest child, a girl was born on my sister’s daughter’s birthday. 

Unfortunately, Maureen developed breast cancer and died in 1998, only about 7 months after my youngest child was born. Maureen was an artist and has painted many beautiful paintings and has done many lovely drawings both in black and white and color. I am blessed to have a few of her pieces of art hanging in my home. Maureen seemed to be the glue who held the family together. She was the one who would keep in contact with everyone and keep everyone informed of what is happening in each other’s lives. After her death, I felt our family slowly drifting apart.

My oldest sister, for whatever reason doesn’t talk to me, doesn’t want to talk to me and it took a while for me to realize this is on her and not me. I can’t make anyone like me, so I just have to surround myself with those who do. I once was staying with my oldest brother, helping him recovery from a broken hip and my oldest sister called and I answered the phone because it was a landline in the kitchen. I could see it was her based on caller id, when I said hello, she hung up. I had to take the phone to my brother and he called her back. I was shocked that she couldn’t just asked for my brother, I would not have forced her to talk to me, but would had given the phone to my brother. She knew I was taking care of my brother, so she really should not been surprised that I answered the phone. Anyway, I guess that line from the song "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." is wrong.

My two “full” sisters were both born with Intellectual disabilities. I have set them up into an apartment. They know how to cook and clean. They go for walks, maybe too many even when the weather isn’t really for walking. I do all their shopping, take them to appointments and make sure their prescriptions are filled. 

I wish I had a group picture of my sisters and me but this really wasn’t something that was done. As we got older, I don’t think we were all in the same place much, maybe for Christmas and Father’s Day. My two sister’s who share a birthday, the youngest was born on Father’s Day, my dad’s first Father’s Day. Therefore, Father’s Day is a big day in our family, its usually our big summer get-together. Of course, not so much anymore. It also was near when my oldest sister got married, then my oldest brother’s daughter’s only child was born near Father’s Day. 

I know my family isn’t unique, might be a little dysfunctional but still is my family. 

Week 12: Joined Together (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week’s theme is "Joined Together." Could it be a marriage? Could it be an organization? Could it be a carpenter/mason/builder? It can be whatever you make it out to be! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

FYI – I skipped last week’s theme of Flowers. 

Families are joined together in so many ways, in the case of my 2nd great Grandfather James Crinion and his sisters Mary and Anne who all married McMahon siblings, their family ties became even closer plus all their children became double first cousins. 

James Crinion, who was born Feb 2, 1832 in Ireland on Jan 7, 1857 married Mary Ann McMahon, who was born about 1839 in Ireland. She is the daughter of Edward McMahon and his second wife Rose Ann Kirley. Her parents are both buried in Doylestown, Columbia County, Wisconsin, USA 

James and Mary Ann had 10 children. Mary Ann was pregnant with her fourth child, my Great grandfather David when she buried two of her first three children in 1864, Eliza and Patrick. While her second child had died earlier in 1861. Life didn’t get much easier for Mary Ann, she would bury two more of her children before she died on Aug 11, 1899. Her daughter Rose Ann Van Heukelon died during childbirth in 1890, her child, Rose survived and Mary Ann took the child in. Her other daughter, Mary Ann died on May 5, 1896 at the tender age of 17. James was left alone to bury two more children, his son James who died Sep 9, 1909 and his married daughter Jane Adline Spooner who died Apr 12, 1918. Jane gave birth to 11 children and her second child, her son John C Spooner died a few days after Jane’s mother on Aug 15, 1899. James and Mary had three sons who lived into adult hood. My great grandfather David died Mar 9, 1950 at the age of 85. Charles died Aug 3, 1933 at the age of 60 while John died Jul 9, 1946 at the age of 70. My 2nd great grandfather, James died at the age of 91 on Feb 2, 1832. 

Mary Crinion who was born Dec 25, 1824 in Ireland married Hugh Peter McMahon on Sep 2, 1855. Hugh was born Apr 5, 1825 in Ireland. Mary and Hugh had 6 children, all who lived well into adulthood. Hugh died on Apr 4, 1909 and Mary died on Aug 25, 1912.

Ann Crinion who was born in 1835 in Ireland married Philip McMahon somewhere between 1855 and 1860. Phillip was born in 1824 in Ireland. Ann died on Feb 16 1860 shortly after giving birth to her daughter Elizabeth McMahon. Philip remarried and had 7 more children and he died Aug 3, 1910.

Many of the McMahon’s, Crinions, descendants and other relatives are buried in Doylestown, Columbia County, Wisconsin in the St Patrick’s Cemetery. Most of these families were farmers. Many moved into the city as they aged. 

I can’t image how family gatherings were for these double first cousins. Edward McMahon and his wife Rose Ann Kirley had 9 children together, and Edward had two other children with his first wife. Thus, they had about 72 grandchildren and a majority of them lived in Columbia County, Wisconsin area. 

As for the parents of James, Mary and Ann Crinion, it is believed that their mother, possibly Ann Dillon died in Ireland. It is family lore that their father, Patrick Crinion came to America with his four children,  the other daughter being Margaret Crinion born about Aug 1839 in Ireland, in 1861 in New York State married Daniel Sullivan who was born Jun 14, 1835 in Ireland. They moved with their 9 children to the Chicago Area. Margaret died Mar 16, 1890 and Daniel died Jun 4, 1897. 

However, by the time my childhood came around, I don’t remember there being any family reunions. This branch of my family, my maiden name was unknown to me. Both of my Crinion grandparents died by the time I was five. My mother would joke and say that those Crinion's must have lots of secrets because not much was known about them. What I found has been through census records, actual burial plots and some vital records.