April’s Theme and Week 14: Begins with a Vowel (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 14 is "Begins with a Vowel." Chances are there is someone in your family tree whose name begins with a vowel... or lived in a place that begins with a vowel...  or had an occupation that begins with a vowel....  You get the idea ;-) Have fun with this week's prompt! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

I decided to look at my name list and see how many people’s names start with a Vowel. Therefore, names that start with an A, E, I, O or U. 

Therefore, I went to my Family Tree Maker program. My main tree has 19833 people. I knew I would need some sort of report that I could export to Excel and a count function to quickly add up the totals.

Under Publish, you will find all the reports for FTM. I decided to select a Custom report. I included “All Individuals”. Under Items to Include, I only needed the name field, thus I removed birth, marriage, death and spouse. I didn’t need any notes or sources and thus I unchecked those fields. I only needed the preferred name and thus this is the only check mark I have for fact options. Under Name options, I made sure the format was First Middle Last, so that the names are placed alphabetically by first name. I made sure all the other boxes are unchecked. This generated 405 pages. WOW!

Next, I needed to save this report in a format that Excel can read. Thus, I clicked on the Share button in the upper right-hand corner. Then I click, Export to CVS. Then I am going to export data as rows. Under the CSV Export Options, I leave the defaults and click “OK”. I select where I want to save my file, plus the name to use and then click Save. I won’t open it through the pop-up box, thus I click No. Next, I find my file and double click to open it.

I will delete the rows I don’t want by highlighting them in batches. Thus, I left click the first name, hold the mouse button, and drag it down to highlight multiple rows. I start in the number row area so that the entire row is selected. It will scroll faster, based on how far down the bottom of the screen I am scrolling. If I go to far, I just move my mouse back up the list. NEVER Letting go of the mouse button until I have what I want highlighted. If you goof up, press the ESC button and start over. Then I right click in the highlighted area, select Delete and the rows all disappear and the names starting with A will be in the first row. I will scroll down to find the B names and highlight all the B-D names. I will delete those rows and then I am left with the E names. I continue by deleting the F-H names, the J-N, the P-T and finally the V-Z names. 

Going back to the last A name, I insert a blank line. I can see that I have 1278 A names, because of the row numbers being displayed in Excel. However, it won’t be as easy for the other vowels. So, to check my formula, I will count the A names before using the formula for the other letters. In the blank row, column B, I use the following formula =COUNTA(A1:A1278) and it counts the cells that contain information.  

I make note that the E names start at 1280 and move down to the last E name. I will insert a blank line and input the =CountA formula in the blank row, column B with (A1280:A plus the row number of the last E names). I continue in this manner for all the vowels.

What did I discover in this process? I discovered that I have a lot blank first names. I input seven underscores for unknown names, whether it’s a first or last name. If I don’t know either name, then they get seven underscores followed by seven underscores.  I still have some unknown first names listed as “Unknown” and I need to change those to seven underscores, so this gave me the opportunity to clean up my tree and make it more consistent.

I created an Index Filter where I Filter In Names that contains Unknown. I found 27. Once you apply the filter, this is all I see in the Index list and I can go one by one, fixing those names. FTM will think this might be a duplicate person, just respond No to the pop-up box.

I also found out I have 21 as infant for first names. I did delete these from my totals. I also used numbers spelled out if I knew a couple had children but I didn’t have names. For example if they have three known children, I would put the first one is as One Last name, then Two last name and then Three last name. I even found Unknown1 Last Name Unknown 2 Last Name, Unknown3 Last Name. I even have one that is un-named Last Name. Perhaps I should have used First Child Last Name, Second Child Last Name, Third Child Last Name, this might have been easier. Or the first name should be seven underscores, and I could use one, two or three in the middle name. I know sometimes in the description field of the marriage fact I have inputted the number of children. I guess I need to revisit this and decided on one method so that my database is more consistent, which probably means the seven underscores. 

My mother’s name is an O name and is quite unusual since it is Orlien. My mother stated she was named after her grandmother, however the grandmother in question was named Wilina Ellen and was called Nellie. Her mother used Orlien as her middle name as an adult, however her birth certificate states it was Arlene. I did find a Orlena in my family tree and that is the closest to Orlien that I have found.

Anyway, I ended up with 1278 “A” names, 1251 “E” names, 180 “I” names, 119 “O” names and 6 “U” names. Thus, there are 2834 people in my tree whose name begins with a vowel.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 13: Light a Candle (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2023 Version)

Candles are often lit in remembrance, in prayer, or when the power goes out for 5 days because of an ice storm. Be creative with this prompt! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023!

Sometimes it’s the young that are often forgotten. Therefore, I want to light a candle for a child that was forgotten. 

In my early days of research, I remember going to the Wisconsin Historical Library and looking up Pre-1907 vital records. I was looking up the children of my Great Grandparents, David Crinion and Amelia Gadow.

I know they had five children who lived to adulthood. However, my father told me that his grandmother often spoke of the baby boy who had died. My dad didn’t know where this baby was buried, so I was hoping to find a death certificate for this little one to see where he might be buried.

David Crinion, the little boy was born on Oct 12, 1897 in Fountain Prairie, Columbia County, Wisconsin and died seven months later on May 17, 1898 in Fountain Prairie. I found a death certificate that listed his burial as the Lutheran Cemetery near Red School House. This description must have meant something to the person reporting it, however, it doesn’t mean anything to me. I asked my dad, and he had no idea where this might be. I am afraid, he might be buried in an unmarked grave and thus I won’t find it anyway.

I did try looking on Find A Grave for his burial, and was surprised to find another young David Crinion, who is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery located in Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin. David W Crinion was the son of Harlan D Crinion and his wife Shirley Paff. He was born in 1955 and died in 1958. David’s father, Harlan is the grandson of the David and Amelia (Gadow) Crinion through their son, Frederick Crinion. 

While at the Wisconsin Historical Library back in my early days, I found another child of David and Amelia who died young. Her name was Adelaide J Crinion. She was born on Dec 29, 1905 in Burnett, Dodge County, Wisconsin. She lived a brief 8 months and died on Sep 25, 1906 in Dodge County, Wisconsin. I told my father about this child and at first, he said I must be wrong. I explained that the death certificate clearly shows that her parents are David and Amelia. He wondered why his grandmother often spoke of the son that died but not the daughter. Of course, I could not explain the grieving process of a mother. Maybe one child died unexpectedly while the other one was sick for a while. I really don’t know. 

Sadly, I don’t have copies of these death certificates. I have source citations and thus I could look them up again and see about getting a copy. However, they just may be in one of the stacks of papers I have collected over the years. Every year, my goal is to attack the stacks. As I get older, the more urgent that project seems to be.

How many children will your research help to be remembered into future generations?

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 12: Membership (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

It isn't unusual to find our ancestors as members of a group, such as churches, school alumni, veterans’ organizations, or fraternal societies. Have you found an ancestor who was as member of a group? Or maybe you've made a discovery by being a member of a genealogical or historical society. Write about it this week! Feel free to post your links and stories in the comments. Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

Several years ago, I gave a program to my genealogy society on Fraternal Societies. You might be able to find family members who belong to these societies based on symbols you may find on their gravestones.

Odd Fellows Tombstone example

One Fraternal organization that piqued my interest was “The Maccabees”. This is because my half siblings are McAbee(s). Their surname is McAbee, they are not members of the Fraternal organization. In doing their research, I have found their name spelled many ways through the years including the spelling of Maccabee.

The Maccabee’s started as the Knights of the Maccabees and was formed in 1878 in London, Ontario, Canada. Most active in the U.S. state of Michigan and proved low-cost insurance to members. It provided other final-expense related benefits such as society cemeteries. They were founded by members of the Order of Foresters. The group grew rapidly in Canada and several US States, reaching 10,000 members by 1880. 

Knight Of The Maccabee's Grave Marker

In 1911 the organization changed its name from the Knights of the Maccabees to simply the Maccabees. The Maccabees became a mutual life insurance company effective 1961, though they kept some fraternal features. In 1962 the group changed its name to the Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance Company. In the 1990’s the organization was demutualized and sold to the Royal Insurance Group and operated under the name Royal Maccabees Life Insurance Company. In 1999, the Royal Maccabees was sold by its parent company, Royal & Sun Alliance Financial Services to Swiss Re which merged it into its subsidiary, Reassure America Life Insurance Company. 

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 11: Lucky (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

Were any of your ancestors lucky? Maybe someone won the Georgia Land Lottery? Do you consider yourself lucky to have discovered a particular ancestor or document? Write about it this week! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

This past week I considered myself lucky. I was contacted by a DNA match that let me see my shared matches in a different light.

For several months, I have been working on identifying the descendants of my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. I believe Jane’s maiden name is Burns, however, this was given to me by a distant cousin via an email back in 2009.

Anyway, I decided to select this branch of my family, because I don’t know who either of their parents are, they are both born in Ireland and are my immigrant ancestors. Thomas Goodwin was born about 1796 in Ireland and died Dec 1, 1967. He is buried in a little cemetery known as Annunciation Cemetery however was formerly known as St Mary’s Cemetery.  This cemetery is located in a little community called Lost Lake located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Jane Goodwin was born about 1811 in Ireland and died Jan 15, 1888 in Dodge County, Wisconsin and is also buried in Annunciation Cemetery. 

Thomas and Jane have five known children, who were born in Ireland and who came to Wisconsin. It appears they stopped off briefly in New York State, since their eldest son John was married in New York City May 16, 1854. 

I descend through their third child, Mary Goodwin born Jan 1, 1839 in Mayo, Ireland and died Mar 18, 1910 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. She married Myron O’Brion who was born in 1835 in New York State and died Nov 1883 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. They were married around 1859 in Fox Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin, USA.

Now back to my DNA match, lets called her KB. She was looking for distant cousins on her Ellen Scott and Bartholomew Kernan line. She is trying to find the parents of Ellen Scott. I do have Scott’s in my tree, on my maternal line.

I proceeded to go to her DNA profile page. It displays her tree and I don’t recognize any names. Next, I select “Shared Matches”. We have a total of 12 matches. The first one is my sister, then my 1st cousin’s son. This tells me that the match isn’t on my maternal line, since this is my paternal 1st cousin’s son.

The next match is labeled “Extended Family” by AncestryDNA and it’s my 2nd cousin 1x removed who our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) is Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin. The remaining nine of the matches are for Distant Family of 4th-6th cousin range. Of these nine, only four have public link trees and one has an unlinked tree.

The first distant match, I look at her tree and see the Kernan name. I see Bartholomeus Kiernan and wife Mary. I click into that tree for Bartholomeus and the first thing I see is that he died in Lost Lake, Wisconsin. I also see that his son is Bartholomew who is married to Ellen Scott. 

Therefore, at first glance, it appears I am not related to her via Ellen Scott but through the Kiernan line.

Looking at some of the other trees tied to my matches for the Kiernan / Kernan line, I noticed that Mary’s last name might be Byrne. 

Several of the Goodwin children of Thomas and Jane married siblings from the Biel family. I was lucky to have someone from the Biel family send me a portion of the History of Joseph and Theresa Biel Family compiled by Carol Graff in October 2003. However, I noticed another descendant, a grandchild or great grandchild had married into the Biel family and it wasn’t part of the portion of the book sent to me. I decided to go online and see if I could find that book. I saw it was listed as a holding of the Beaver Dam Public Library located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. It’s only about 47 miles away and happens to be the town I was born in.

The public library had a listing of other family genealogies in it’s holding and I saw one labelled, “Some Goodwin & Kieffe families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska” which was complied by William R & Helen (Kral) Houk in July of 1997. It was only 28 pages long, but I knew a road trip was needed. I really feel lucky finding this listing.

Even though it appears to be lacking quite of few of the descendant lines of Thomas and Jane Goodwin, they included a transcription of Jane’s will. In this will she named Edward Kernan as the executor of her will. Her only two sons had proceeded her in death. 

Edward Kernan is the son of Bartholomeus and Mary Kiernan. I found a marriage record for Edward where the witnesses of his wedding are Thomas and Jane Goodwin. 

I found another son of Bart and Mary, Thomas Kernan’s marriage record where he lists his mother’s name as Burn. I wonder if the Irish accent of Byrne sounds like Burn(s). Could Mary and Jane be sisters? There is some biological connection between the Goodwin descendants and the Kernan’s descendants. Plus, many of the Goodwin and Kernan descendants moved from Wisconsin to Hasting, Nebraska. 

Thus, I started another project folder for my Kernan’s DNA Matches, along with the marriage records and trees of my matches. I feel lucky to have had that DNA match reach out to me. I might not have noticed the Kernan family tie.

Even though, this project will have to be put on hold until I finish my current Goodwin descendant project. I feel lucky to know I have a very interesting project in my future. So far on my current project, I have added over 750 descendants to my tree and I am only on Thomas’s second child of five, Edward and his fourth child of six, Anna and her fourth child of thirteen, Frank. So I might be here for a while. I have also noticed that AncestryDNA ThruLines has increased the projected number of DNA matches from 14 to 37 possible matches for Thomas and Jane Goodwin. My goal of doing this project, was to be able to identify more of my DNA matches. 

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 10: Translation (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 10 is “Translation.” Would any of your ancestors have needed someone to translate for them? Have you had to work with records in a language other than your own? No matter the language, it’s good time to write! Click here to check out all the themes for2023.

I have come across German in my research and it was a class I took in High School. I know some basic words such as Born is Geboren and Died is Gestorben. The month of may is Mai and the month of March is März. These items come in quite handy when looking at some of the older gravestones in my research along with some of the documents.

However, with today’s technology, all we need is a Translate app on our phone. Allow the app to access our phone camera and point the phone (camera) towards the gravestone and it will translate the stone. Of course, the stone needs to be readable.

While researching my mother’s step great-grandfather, John Thielke. I found that he appears in German newspapers that were published in Watertown, Wisconsin. My guess is that there was a strong German presence in Watertown. The 1900 US Census, states he could read and write, so I wonder if he became bilingual?

John was born on Sep 21, 1839 in Germany. His Baptism record is found on Ancestry and of course it’s written in German, and the handwriting if very challenging to read. Plus, the Translate app doesn’t work very well for sloppy handwriting. This is one reason; you should transcribe the document. How do you transcribe a document you don’t understand the language? You transcribe it with the letters you see and it will end up being in a different language. Then I can use the Translate App on that typed transcribed record. Fingers crossed that I can truly make out the letters, because a double S is written as a strange B letter.

John came to America in 1857. On Oct 27, 1863 he married Wilhelmina Buss in the Town of Melford, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. They had 10 children, of which 7, all girls survived to adulthood. He belonged to the German Methodist Episcopal Church. John died on May 16, 1903 in Watertown, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, USA.

I was lucky, that I took German in High School. I am also lucky that I started my genealogy journey when I was in my late teens and thus kept that little German to English dictionary. Don’t let foreign languages stop your research since we have Google Translate on our computers and many Translate apps to choose from for our phones.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!