Week 47: Random Number (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2024 Version)

The theme for Week 47 is "Random Number." This is a fun exercise -- pick a random number between 1 and 100. Then, either take a list of everyone in your tree and scroll down to that number or print out an ancestor chart and pick the person in that number slot. (You might need to go to a second chart if you picked a big number!) Then write a little bit about that person. Click here to find out all the Themes from 2024.

I decided to print out an Ahnentafel Report using my Family Tree Maker software. This report numbers my ancestors with myself as person 1. It will give the father of each person a number twice their number and their mother will be twice plus one.

I wanted 100, however I haven’t input this person in my tree. I do have his child, #50 – William Long who was born on Sep 3, 1812 in England and he died on Jun 14, 1885. He married Mary Thompson who was born on Dec 22, 1819 and died on Jan 13, 1892. I have found at least eight children, my ancestor is #25, Sarah Agnes Long who was born on Dec 27 1843, supposedly in Canada. I say supposedly, because her immediate older and younger sibling were born in England.

I am confident that Sarah Agnes Long is my ancestor, however, I am not so positive of her birth information, since I obtained it from Find A Grave. 

Therefore, my research will start with her.

Using the hints on Ancestry, someone posted a 50^th Anniversary newspaper article about Sarah and her husband George Tyler. It states that both Mr. and Mrs. Tyler came from England when children. Thus, Sarah was born in England, not Canada. It also means her parents came to America. George served in the civil war and at the close was married. The couple traveled overland from Illinois to Audubon County, Iowa in a covered wagon. But they did not remain long, returning in a short time to Illinois to be near Mrs. Tyler’s Parents. Thus, Sarah’s parents were still alive after the Civil War. Also, this probably means that they most likely died and are buried in Illinois. Later, the couple came to Iowa again, settling on a farm near Chapin. I don’t have a wedding date for George and Sarah and the article states that the anniversary was September 21^st. The article was from the Mason City Globe Gazette, dated Oct 5, 1915 on page 5. Thus, their marriage date most likely is Sept 21, 1865.

Also, among the Ancestry hints is a Baptism record, dated Nov 1, 1844 for Sarah Long with a father of William Long and mother of Mary Thompson Long. No birthdate is giving in this transcription only record.

The hints have her Wisconsin marriage record, with image with a marriage on Sep 21, 1865 in Gratiot County, Wisconsin. It has George’s parents of Peter and Sarah Tyler, stating George was born in England. Sarah Long’s parents are listed as Wm and Mary Long. No birth place for bride is asked on this certificate. The place, town or township and county where the marriage was consummated is difficult to read. I do know it is in Lafayette County, per the label from Ancestry.  I use google to look up, Gratiot, Lafayette County and there is a town by that name in Lafayette County.

Sarah is found in the 1870, 1880, 1900 and 1910 US Federal Census and her birthplace never changes from England. Her age starts at 26 in 1870, 36 in 1880, 56 in 1900 and 66 in 1910. She is found in the Iowa State Census for 1915 and her birthplace is England and her age is 72. Her immigration Year is listed as 1848 in the 1900 census. The 1910 census states she had eight children, and only 7 are still living. This matches previous information I found about her second born child who died at the tender age of 6.

I don’t find any Census records for Sarah before 1870. She should be in the 1850 and 1860 US census if she immigrated in 1848.

The only other England records I find are for a Sarah Ann Long who is born in 1843, her parents are John Long and Mary possibly with a maiden name of Booth.

When I follow a hint from Mary Thompson Long from Sarah’s baptism record, I find Mary age 20, living with her husband, William and son George 10 months old in England. Further research would be needed to see if this William and Mary are my Sarah’s parents. I don’t have a George as a child of my William and Mary in my records.

When I look at other people’s tree’s on Ancestry for Sarah Agnes Long, no one has a census record before 1870. Some appear to have records for the Sarah Ann Long attached to their tree for Sarah Agnes Long.

If I want to figure out who my ancestor #100 is, I will need to first investigate Sarah Agnes Long parents and see what kind of records I can find for them.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 44: Challenging (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2024 Version)

The theme for Week 44 is "Challenging." Some ancestors are easy to research. Others, not so much. Who has been challenging to research? Another way you could approach the prompt is an ancestor who challenged something in their life.   Check out all the 2024 themes.

Overall, I think Genealogy is Challenging. In fact, it is one of the reasons I like doing Genealogy. I even tell people that if genealogy was easy, then everyone would be doing it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are days that are easy. That I sit in front of my computer, and everything just seems to fall in place. However, the normal day involves, some easy, some difficult and a bunch of challenging aspects to figure out.

Many years ago, an acquaintance of mine, exclaimed with glee “I don’t know why you say Genealogy is hard. Last weekend, I went on the computer and by the end of the night I had traced my family back to the 1700’s”. I looked her straight in the eye and asked, how do you know that is really your family? Did you verify all the information or were you just relying on other people’s trees and hoping they knew what they were doing. She gave me the “deer in the highlights” look.

So here is my disclaimer: if you are a person who just goes from one tree to another, collecting names, stop! Those could be your people, but how do you really know unless you do the work. I will give you some examples.

My husband’s great grandfather is Ernest Kaeding. He was born on Sep 29, 1868 most likely in Germany. He married Lydia Erbrecht in 1902 in Shawano, Wisconsin. They had at least 13 children. I researched all of this from the Shawano County Courthouse. The birth records I did find, would tell me what number child they were and often gave the first names of the other children. 

In 1900, I have him living in Tigerton, Shawano County, Wisconsin. A Single male born Sep 1869, living with his widowed mother and several of his siblings.

However, one of my husband’s cousins has him in 1900, living in Chicago with his widowed father and several of his siblings. His birth date is given as Mar 1877. 

First of all, you can see, these two Ernest’s are not the same age or even close to the same age. Their siblings’ names are quite different too. This cousin has Ernest married twice and have children born around the same time. This cousin not only has my Ernest’s wife but another woman too. My Ernest was married in Shawano in 1902 while their Ernest was married in Hammond, Indiana in 1906. My Ernest stayed in Tigerton, Shawano, Wisconsin while the other Ernest moved from Illinois to Indiana and later to Minnesota. The other Ernest even produced a death record on Sep 18, 1959 in Minnesota. My Ernest also produced a death record on May 2, 1931 in Shawano County when he died in a car accident. 

Moral of this example: Genealogy is Challenging. People have the same name, lived in the same area and was born and married around the same time. However, you have to do the work, follow the leads and determine if these Ernest(s) were two people or one, living a double live. Since Ernest could not die twice, this is clearly two people.

Another example: My husband’s 2nd great-grandfather is Friedrich Theodore Christian Martin Gloede born Nov 12, 1842 in German. Died Jan 3, 1901 in Oshkosh, Winnebago, Wisconsin. His Find a Grave memorial is 109073583. However, the Ancestry Hints that come up for this person refers to Friedrich Carl Heinrich Theodor Gloede born Apr 6, 1843 and died May 2, 1900. His Find A Grave memorial is 80195156. Thus, there are many trees where people have records for both of these men in their tree and claim it is the same person. 

In fact, one of my husband’s cousins has done this. Her tree comes up in the list of hints, showing my husband’s ancestor with his wife and the Sheboygan County man’s grave information. 

Of the 12 hints that Ancestry is giving me, only one, the 1900 US Federal Census for Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin is valid for my husband’s ancestor. Challenging right?

However, when I used the search option, the magnifying glass to the right of my person’s profile page, the list of records is more accurate and appears to be for my person. The first record is the Find a Grave for my husband’s ancestor along with the next six records listed. It’s the eighth record that brings up the Find A Grave for the Sheboygan man. 

Moral of this example: Genealogy is Challenging. We have to look at all the records, see if the information fits what we know about our person. It might mean following the life of a person who isn’t our relative.

Another thing that makes Genealogy Challenging, not everything is found on-line. Let me repeat this, NOT EVERYTHING IS FOUND ON-LINE!  I explained previously how I went to the Shawano Courthouse to look at the actual records. This is because the index that Ancestry offers on-line only goes so far. It was the actual records that told me the order of the children and gave me names of the previous children already born. I found a few stillborn records (deaths only) for children of Ernest Kaeding. After looking up the births, I switched to the death records and found those children who died young or were stillborn. To make things even more challenging, they repeated the names of their deceased children. Thus, if a child died, they didn’t have a problem reusing that child’s name for a future birth. They had an August Gottlieb Kading who had been born and died in 1912. Then in 1918, they had another August Kading who had been born and died. They had two stillborn children that they didn’t name, one from 1915 and another from 1917. 

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!