This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s theme is: START. Beulah Peters, born in 1923, was the baby of her family. One of her big sisters, Hazel, was my grandmother. For many years, Beulah was the family historian for the Peters side of our family. Not only did she collect many family photos and documents, but she also wrote down thoughts and stories about various family members. In 1998, “Aunt” Beulah graciously introduced me to the amazing world of genealogy. She generously sent me a copy of her tree with all...
Have you ever attended a week-long genealogy institute? For the past four years, I have attended an institute each summer: three years at GRIP in Pennsylvania and last year at IGHR in Georgia. Here’s a quick comparison: ROOMS Room at GRIP GRIP – Most people stay in the dorms on campus. They provide a set of sheets (if I remember correctly), a thin pillow, and one towel. Most people bring their own sheets – I put their sheets under mine as the mattresses are quite thin! I also bring my own blanket, pillow, towels, and toiletries. The room has a...
Yesterday, I got my final assignment graded for my BU certificate. BU was a wonderful learning experience, but I’m glad to be done! Merry Christmas! This year was a year of growth for me. Not only did I complete BU, but I attended IGHR for the first time, watched webinars, took other online classes, and read genealogy books, articles, and blogs. I also did a lot of research. (Oh, and I started a new hobby: art!) I have so much to share, and I can’t wait to really start blogging again! Merry Christmas, everyone!
The Church of England is the official church of England. Protestant churches which do not conform to the Church of England doctrines are called nonconformist churches. Register of Baptisms Kept at Providence Chapel, Spring Head, Saddleworth, County of York, [England], page 83, baptized 12 May 1835, Humphrey Eastwood; The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England; database, “England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Register, 1567-1970,” “Ancestry.com” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 December 2017). With his first wife, my third great grandfather had two children who were baptized in a nonconformist church. On Ancestry.com, these two baptisms are in a database...
My last post was about how I found my grandfather’s younger brother’s birth announcement by searching a newspaper using their address – not their surname. Before finding this article, I didn’t know his date of birth. And, I still hadn’t learned the baby’s name as each of the birth announcements just named the father. In this case, Frank. Michigan death records for 1897 to 1947 are online at Seeking Michigan. I had not been able to find the baby’s birth by using his surname, Kaechle, so I decided to search using other information. Searching the Michigan death records for 1897-1920,...
Searching newspaper sites for an address, instead of a name, can sometimes uncover articles which would not have been found otherwise. 1910 U.S. Census, Wayne County, Michigan, Detroit Ward 9, population schedule, page 12B [written], dwelling 181, family 247, 651 Chene St, Frank Kaechle, image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 October 2017), citing National Archives microfilm T624, roll 684. In 1910 the census record for my great grandmother, Anna (Adam) Kaechle, stated she was the mother of seven children with six still living. Since I knew of only six children, I assumed she must have had a seventh child who...
I haven’t blogged much in the past five or six months. I went through a significant genealogy “slump” where I wasn’t sure I wanted to pursue genealogy any longer. Happily, that phase has passed and I am back! IGHR – July 2017 This July, I attended IGHR in Georgia. Even while I prepared for my trip, my passion was reignited. I am currently taking the Boston University (or “BU”) course. We just finished the first module, and I’ve already learned a lot. I am also reinstating my goal to become a certified genealogist by 2020! I am, quite happily, “the...
The last of his siblings to die, my husband’s grandfather either didn’t know or didn’t remember the names of his paternal grandparents. His father, William Emmitt Hunter, was born 9 July 1874 most likely in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, married in December of 1910 to Winnie Huddleston, and died in that same county on 4 April 1953. However, William hasn’t been found in any census record prior to 1920. Where he was living before his 1910 marriage and the identity of his parents has been a mystery. Oklahoma Department of Health, certificate of death 005619 (1953), William Emmitt Hunter....
As I mentioned in my last post, I recently found an article about one of my relatives from a 1916 German newspaper. I found the article on Chronicling America by searching for the surname “Kaechle.” But, since I don’t read German, I struggled with both transcribing and translating this article. In the process, I came across some tips I’d love to share: Tip #1: Determine the Font The initial “P” and “kk” in this word are difficult to read. While many of the letters in this German newspaper article were easy to recognize, some were more challenging. For example, the...
I cannot read German. But, thanks to technology, I can still search German newspapers to find stories of my German relatives. I recently found my first German newspaper story about Jerome Kaechle who was my great grandfather’s younger brother. The article, which I found on Chronicling America, was in the Detroiter Abend-Post on August 4th, 1916. After seeing his name, I painstakingly worked with Google Translate to translate the article. I also sent the article to my dad and shared it on the Genealogy Translations group on Facebook. Combining all of our work, I was able to come up with this...
