In case anyone reads this blog and is wondering why I'm not posting...
I'm currently dealing with a broken computer, which holds all my research information, coupled with historic flooding in my town. Fortunately I was not directly affected, but it does make getting my computer to a good repair shop a bit tricky. I'll be back in within a few weeks I hope.
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
19 September 2013
24 May 2013
Updates Made
I finally finished my updates to the Ancestry tree! Bleh! I really need to remember to update my Ancestry tree as I'm updating my own database. Because, of course, Ancestry can't just make life easy and implement a gedcom merge capability.
I also made a couple updates to my public tree, which is a non-sourced, direct line ancestor tree I keep for DNA matching and other collaboration purposes. If you'd like to view my public tree, it's available here. You need an ancestry login to view it. I'm not sure if it's viewable with a guest login or if you need a paid account, though.
Next steps for me will not be focused on new research, but rather going through some records I've been sitting on as well as the Ancestry hints I've accumulated from updating my tree, as well as double-checking the new Michigan death records I've been working with. So it's more of a "beefing up" phase than any new research. After that, I'd like to fill out my Higley colonial line more, as that is a well-researched line that I just need to sit down and confirm sources for.
Although not as glamorous as going back further in time, I'm looking forward to this next phase of work. Researching siblings is very important for (a) fully documenting my family history and (b) additional clues for a family unit that may not be available when searching solely my ancestral lines.
I also made a couple updates to my public tree, which is a non-sourced, direct line ancestor tree I keep for DNA matching and other collaboration purposes. If you'd like to view my public tree, it's available here. You need an ancestry login to view it. I'm not sure if it's viewable with a guest login or if you need a paid account, though.
Next steps for me will not be focused on new research, but rather going through some records I've been sitting on as well as the Ancestry hints I've accumulated from updating my tree, as well as double-checking the new Michigan death records I've been working with. So it's more of a "beefing up" phase than any new research. After that, I'd like to fill out my Higley colonial line more, as that is a well-researched line that I just need to sit down and confirm sources for.
Although not as glamorous as going back further in time, I'm looking forward to this next phase of work. Researching siblings is very important for (a) fully documenting my family history and (b) additional clues for a family unit that may not be available when searching solely my ancestral lines.
20 May 2013
Random Person of the Day
I'm getting close to finishing my Ancestry tree updates. It's so painful to go through all 850+ people! I'll need to remember to update it as I'm updating my database. I'd rather have just uploaded a new gedcom to the site, but that would involve deleting the old tree and therefore the people I've invited to view it.
A new idea came to me for adding stories to the blog. My source index has a list of all the people in my records/tree, each one on a different numbered row. I'm going to use a random number generator to pick someone to write about, rerunning the generation if a living person is chosen. I doubt I'll actually make it daily, but I think it will be a good way to introduce different stories from my tree, particularly when I'm doing clean up work or bolstering up my sources and so not really making any interesting breakthroughs.
Some of the stories will be long, others might not be more than a couple sentences, depending on the closeness to my main ancestral lines.
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Today's random person is Margaretha Sophia Christina Eggert nee Reichmann. She was my 4x great grandmother. Born in Germany (likely Mecklenburg-Schwerin) about 1801, she married Johann Christian Eggert likely in the early 1820s and they had 4 sons and 4 daughters. She died on 31 Dec 1845 in the Eickelberg district of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1849 one of her daughters, Sophia Maria Johanna Eggert, died. On 14 July 1857, her husband and 7 living children arrived in the United States and went on to Saginaw, Michigan. Her oldest daughter, Marie, became my 3x great grandmother after marrying John C. Siems in Saginaw, also a Mecklenburg native. The only records I have of Margaretha are her death record and mentions in her childrens' birth records and on Michigan death records. I have no evidence the her husband Christ ever remarried or fathered more children. It is also a mystery why they picked up and moved to the US 12 years after she passed away, although opportunities for money, work, land, and spouses were common reasons across all immigrants.
A new idea came to me for adding stories to the blog. My source index has a list of all the people in my records/tree, each one on a different numbered row. I'm going to use a random number generator to pick someone to write about, rerunning the generation if a living person is chosen. I doubt I'll actually make it daily, but I think it will be a good way to introduce different stories from my tree, particularly when I'm doing clean up work or bolstering up my sources and so not really making any interesting breakthroughs.
Some of the stories will be long, others might not be more than a couple sentences, depending on the closeness to my main ancestral lines.
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Today's random person is Margaretha Sophia Christina Eggert nee Reichmann. She was my 4x great grandmother. Born in Germany (likely Mecklenburg-Schwerin) about 1801, she married Johann Christian Eggert likely in the early 1820s and they had 4 sons and 4 daughters. She died on 31 Dec 1845 in the Eickelberg district of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1849 one of her daughters, Sophia Maria Johanna Eggert, died. On 14 July 1857, her husband and 7 living children arrived in the United States and went on to Saginaw, Michigan. Her oldest daughter, Marie, became my 3x great grandmother after marrying John C. Siems in Saginaw, also a Mecklenburg native. The only records I have of Margaretha are her death record and mentions in her childrens' birth records and on Michigan death records. I have no evidence the her husband Christ ever remarried or fathered more children. It is also a mystery why they picked up and moved to the US 12 years after she passed away, although opportunities for money, work, land, and spouses were common reasons across all immigrants.
12 May 2013
New Records!!!
I just happened to stumble on a new record collection at Family Search last week! Behold, Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952.
In the past couple weeks I've added 94 death records to my database. Now I'm doing some mad updating of my ancestry.com tree (it's so annoying how only Family Tree Maker can sync with their online tree). Once that's done, I plan to go back through my database and see if there are any people I've missed that should be in the new collection. A lot of names are transcribed poorly...so some extra crafty searching might be in order.
No particular breakthroughs with the new data...yet. But there are definitely clues lurking therein.
In the past couple weeks I've added 94 death records to my database. Now I'm doing some mad updating of my ancestry.com tree (it's so annoying how only Family Tree Maker can sync with their online tree). Once that's done, I plan to go back through my database and see if there are any people I've missed that should be in the new collection. A lot of names are transcribed poorly...so some extra crafty searching might be in order.
No particular breakthroughs with the new data...yet. But there are definitely clues lurking therein.
24 April 2013
Oh, you Tomlinsons...
Life has gotten in the way of genealogy research this year, though I have kept up with my DNA connections and other cousins. I've also been working on documenting my colonial Higley family, which I mentioned in my Meeker post a while back.
It's easy to deal with facts and numbers several generations back, even documenting sad events like my Ogram ancestors who were so poor that their church parish in Yorkshire, England scraped together a few pounds to pay to ship them oversees to Canada to give them a chance to pull themselves out of poverty, or my poor ancestor Thaddeus Martin, who died at the county poor farm where his poverty-stricken family was forced to leave him as he was "insane". Or brave Seth Higley, who had fought for freedom for the colonies in the Revolutionary War, but died with only a few sheep, a pot, and a spoon to his name, desperately needing a veteran pension from the young US government to sustain himself.
Though sad, these facts surrounding distance ancestors are interesting to unearth and make me proud of my heritage, like the success of the Ogram family in Ontario. However, the passing of my grandfather a week and a half ago gives a new perspective to the art of family history. Entering his date of death into my database was surreal. He was one of my biggest inspirations to pursue this research, my interest in family history definitely inspired by tales of his childhood. He was always talking about his mother's family, the Tomlinsons. I am very happy and thankful for all the new information I was able to share with him, and all the stories I was able to record before we lost him.
One of the last family secrets I was able to share with him was the following Tomlinson tale. His grandparents were Laurence Tomlinson of Caro, MI and Rachel Brown of Ontario, near Kitchener. We had always heard the family history of how she was brought from Ontario to Caro to keep house for Laurence's father, William Tomlinson. Laurence married his father's housekeeper when he was just 18, and she was 30. Her first child, Eva, was an eight month baby. I had pictured the teenaged Laurence chasing the housekeeper around until he was finally old enough to take the plunge into marriage (or, perhaps, because he had gotten her pregnant). They went on to have 3 more children, one of whom, Clifford, had died at age 1. Then their fifth child was born in 1909, but both Rachel and the baby died during the birth.
Note on photos: I don't mind if you wish to save a copy of the photos on this blog, but as most of them are original scans of personal family photos I would appreciate if you credited the source.
This was the story that had been passed down through the family and was supported by records. Then one day, I had been conversing with a Brown family researcher from Saskatchewan and he asked about someone named "Emerson Brown". Emerson was supposed to be the illegitimate child of Rachel, and it was assumed of Laurence as well. He could be found living with Susannah Ogram Brown, Rachel's mother, in the 1901 Canadian census. However, Laurence would've been only 13ish at the time of Emerson's birth in 1893/1894. Also, Emerson was born in Ontario, and Laurence had been born in the US, with no hint of ever returning to live in Canada, where his father was from. It made no sense that he would've impregnated Rachel, then the two make the trip back to Canada for Emerson's birth.
I asked my grandfather, and he had never heard of an Emerson. Of course, babies born out of wedlock were very taboo at that time, so it's no surprise that it would've been kept a secret. Emerson himself, I was told, was very ashamed of it, and the news only got out as a deathbed confession. After some searching, I found an Emerson Brown, born to Robert and Mary Brown in Ontario, with the same birth date as Emerson's 1901 census record. Bingo, I thought. Emerson was actually the child of Rachel's brother, Robert.
Again, or so I thought. I had responded a few month's previously to an inquiry on the Genforum message boards from someone who had descended from Laurence and Rachel. Because my great grandmother had only given birth to my grandfather, and Eva never had children, he must be a descendant of Laurence's son, William Tomlinson. Wrong. Here was Emerson's grandson, sharing the deathbed confession that led me to believe, again, that Emerson must have been Rachel's first child.
I shared this again with my grandfather and aunts. There was laughter and comments about "those Tomlinsons". Although no one had heard of Emerson, no doubt the Tomlinson family was known to be, for lack of a better description, slightly wild.
My current working theory is that Emerson was the son of Rachel and William Tomlinson, father of Laurence. However, Rachel's lone U.S. census record indicates she came to Michigan after Emerson's birth. Whether this is actually true or not, I'm not sure. I'd like to find some border crossing records to see if there is any indication of when Rachel actually came to live with the Tomlinson family. Or, if there is some indication of any Tomlinsons returning to Canada around the time Emerson was conceived.
It's sad that societal pressures resulted in such a painful secret for Emerson, when really he and his family should have felt welcome in the Tomlinson family. I've enjoyed connecting with yet another cousin, though, and here's hoping we'll be able to solve the mystery.
It's easy to deal with facts and numbers several generations back, even documenting sad events like my Ogram ancestors who were so poor that their church parish in Yorkshire, England scraped together a few pounds to pay to ship them oversees to Canada to give them a chance to pull themselves out of poverty, or my poor ancestor Thaddeus Martin, who died at the county poor farm where his poverty-stricken family was forced to leave him as he was "insane". Or brave Seth Higley, who had fought for freedom for the colonies in the Revolutionary War, but died with only a few sheep, a pot, and a spoon to his name, desperately needing a veteran pension from the young US government to sustain himself.
Though sad, these facts surrounding distance ancestors are interesting to unearth and make me proud of my heritage, like the success of the Ogram family in Ontario. However, the passing of my grandfather a week and a half ago gives a new perspective to the art of family history. Entering his date of death into my database was surreal. He was one of my biggest inspirations to pursue this research, my interest in family history definitely inspired by tales of his childhood. He was always talking about his mother's family, the Tomlinsons. I am very happy and thankful for all the new information I was able to share with him, and all the stories I was able to record before we lost him.
One of the last family secrets I was able to share with him was the following Tomlinson tale. His grandparents were Laurence Tomlinson of Caro, MI and Rachel Brown of Ontario, near Kitchener. We had always heard the family history of how she was brought from Ontario to Caro to keep house for Laurence's father, William Tomlinson. Laurence married his father's housekeeper when he was just 18, and she was 30. Her first child, Eva, was an eight month baby. I had pictured the teenaged Laurence chasing the housekeeper around until he was finally old enough to take the plunge into marriage (or, perhaps, because he had gotten her pregnant). They went on to have 3 more children, one of whom, Clifford, had died at age 1. Then their fifth child was born in 1909, but both Rachel and the baby died during the birth.
Note on photos: I don't mind if you wish to save a copy of the photos on this blog, but as most of them are original scans of personal family photos I would appreciate if you credited the source.
Rachel Brown Tomlinson
This was the story that had been passed down through the family and was supported by records. Then one day, I had been conversing with a Brown family researcher from Saskatchewan and he asked about someone named "Emerson Brown". Emerson was supposed to be the illegitimate child of Rachel, and it was assumed of Laurence as well. He could be found living with Susannah Ogram Brown, Rachel's mother, in the 1901 Canadian census. However, Laurence would've been only 13ish at the time of Emerson's birth in 1893/1894. Also, Emerson was born in Ontario, and Laurence had been born in the US, with no hint of ever returning to live in Canada, where his father was from. It made no sense that he would've impregnated Rachel, then the two make the trip back to Canada for Emerson's birth.
I asked my grandfather, and he had never heard of an Emerson. Of course, babies born out of wedlock were very taboo at that time, so it's no surprise that it would've been kept a secret. Emerson himself, I was told, was very ashamed of it, and the news only got out as a deathbed confession. After some searching, I found an Emerson Brown, born to Robert and Mary Brown in Ontario, with the same birth date as Emerson's 1901 census record. Bingo, I thought. Emerson was actually the child of Rachel's brother, Robert.
Again, or so I thought. I had responded a few month's previously to an inquiry on the Genforum message boards from someone who had descended from Laurence and Rachel. Because my great grandmother had only given birth to my grandfather, and Eva never had children, he must be a descendant of Laurence's son, William Tomlinson. Wrong. Here was Emerson's grandson, sharing the deathbed confession that led me to believe, again, that Emerson must have been Rachel's first child.
I shared this again with my grandfather and aunts. There was laughter and comments about "those Tomlinsons". Although no one had heard of Emerson, no doubt the Tomlinson family was known to be, for lack of a better description, slightly wild.
My current working theory is that Emerson was the son of Rachel and William Tomlinson, father of Laurence. However, Rachel's lone U.S. census record indicates she came to Michigan after Emerson's birth. Whether this is actually true or not, I'm not sure. I'd like to find some border crossing records to see if there is any indication of when Rachel actually came to live with the Tomlinson family. Or, if there is some indication of any Tomlinsons returning to Canada around the time Emerson was conceived.
It's sad that societal pressures resulted in such a painful secret for Emerson, when really he and his family should have felt welcome in the Tomlinson family. I've enjoyed connecting with yet another cousin, though, and here's hoping we'll be able to solve the mystery.
24 February 2013
Back at it
Well, the last few months have been busy to say the least. Holidays, work, travel, and moving. But now things are settling back down again, and I can get back to researching. I've decided to push off finish up my website work in favor of doing more actual research, particularly cataloging the different records I've found while working on the website, but haven't put in my database. I also am concentrating on some cousin connections, both through basic research and DNA connections.
Just a quick update for now...but I'll be working on updating more frequently as I spin my research back up and put off the website work for a while.
Just a quick update for now...but I'll be working on updating more frequently as I spin my research back up and put off the website work for a while.
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