As our country remembers those who have founght and died for our freedom, I wanted to share stories of two of my family members who died while in service to our country. Revolutionary War – Isaac Vincent In 1772, the Vincent families and others had moved from Essex County, New Jersey, to current day Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. For several years, they lived peacefully near the local Indians. But, trouble started brewing in 1777. By 1779, about 13 families were living in a large, two-story house around which they had built a 12-foot high wall around. It enclosed a half acre...
My 6x great grandparents, Cornelius and Phebe (Ward) Vincent, both fought for freedom during the Revolutionary War. Over 100 years ago, a newspaper journalist visited the cemetery where they had been buried more than 100 years earlier. He wrote a wonderful description of the cemetery, and happened to include the inscription of my ancestor’s headstone! Image of tombstone of Cornelius and Phebe Vincent taken by Jeff Harvey and posted 21 Nov 2012 This headstone is now more than 200 years old and is mostly unreadable. I appreciate Jeff Harvey, a volunteer at Find A Grave, for posting this photo and...
Recently, Michelle Ganus Taggart of A Southern Sleuth interviewed me for GeneaBlogger’s “May I Introduce You to…” series. With permission, here is the interview: Me (age 7) outside of my Ark City home Dana, tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what is your current hometown? “Ark City, Kansas was my childhood home. Our blue house was two stories tall and built in the late 1800s. I have fond memories of the house, but even fonder memories of our yard and the pretend games we would play. “I now live in a suburb of Houston, Texas, with...
The 1910 census lists Elizabeth C Merrill, wife of Norman B Merrill, as a mother of 6 with 4 still living. I’m sure we all have families like this on our trees. We’d love to tell the stories of these “missing” children who both were born and died between census years. But, how can we locate them? One solution? Newspapers. What a wonderful source! And, it was newspapers that helped me locate the two “missing” children of Elizabeth and Norman B Merrill. The first newspaper article I found was dated November 25, 1902. It simply stated: The infant child of...
I have chosen not to share the names of these family members for privacy reasons. The “he” in this post is related to me through marriage. He was almost 38 years old when he died in 1917. The death certificate informant was his mother. He was listed as “single” and worked as a “shipping clerk.” The cause of death was “paresis” which he had suffered with for “over 3” years. His obituary tells a different story. It says he was “united in marriage to Miss M—-” who still survived him. And, it states his direct cause of death as a...
I have used Google Books in the past, but after listening to a Genealogy Gems podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke on Friday, I decided to spend some time seeing what I could find. In just minutes, I found an article with four photos! And over the next two hours, I found dozens of “hits.” Me with Lisa Louise Cooke in Houston, March 2014 Tip: For unusual surnames (like Holthoefer), just search for the surname. For more common names, put the name in quotation marks & add a place name. Herman J Holthoefer (1863-1950), a druggist/pharmacist, was a nephew of my...
Randy Seaver, at Genea-Musings, posted this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. This week, we are looking at our great, great grandparents and their lifespans. You can visit Genea-Musings for more specific guidelines, but basically we are looking at the birth, death, and lifespans of our great, great grandparents. I’ll start with the statistics… My 2nd great grandparents statistics: Average birth year: 1846 (with 12 of them being born between 1840-1852) Range of birth years: 1826 to 1860 Average death year: 1914 Range of death years: 1882 to 1938 Average lifespan: 68 Range of lifespans: 40 to 99 Male average...
I’d like to make a “scrapbook” of newspaper clippings I’ve found that relate to my family. I’d like the clippings to LOOK like I clipped them out of the paper, but they always print out huge. Any suggestions? 50 Years Ago, The Express, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, 20 Jul 1967, page 1, column 4, digital image newspapers.com, (http://newspapers.com), accessed 12 Feb 2015 Thank you for your help! Dana
Have you ever looked for yourself in the newspaper? I always thought I was “never” in the newspaper – except the one time when, under my photo, the name was listed as actor “Dana Andrews” instead of “Dana Stewart!” So, I never looked for myself… until this weekend. Newspaperarchives.com carries the newspaper from the small town where I grew up. While digging around, I was pleasantly surprised to find four clippings where I was mentioned! Hospital Dismissal free from clipartlord.com When I was 5 I appear under the “dismissed from the hospital” column. My mom says it had to have been...
I was pleasantly surprised to get the following message from another Ancestry.com member: I have a photo from my mother’s collection that has the name Mr & Mrs H W Wingert – 911 Collins Street, Toledo, Ohio on the back. The photo is of a Circus Band Wagon – and I suspect that Henry is one of the fellows riding on top. 1930 Census of Toledo, Lucas Co, Ohio, showing Henry Wingert (son) living at 911 Collins St (image from Ancestry.com) Henry W Wingert was a nephew of my great, great grandfather, Reinhard Kaechle/Koechle. He lived in Toledo, Ohio during...
