2014 has been an amazing year for me and my genealogy research. With increased knowledge, time, and resources available, I’ve uncovered some amazing discoveries! I had thought about making a “top 10” booklet for my family as Christmas gifts, but didn’t get around to it. Maybe I will still do that but give it to them for Valentine’s Day. But, for now, I thought I’d highlight my top 10 finds of the year. 1839 Marriage Record – Parish of Prestwich, Lancaster County, England (image from Ancestry.com) #10 – I didn’t start blogging until March of this year, so my first...
My husband’s favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story in which Ralphie wants a BB gun but the adults all tell him, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” It’s taken me years to appreciate this movie, but now I look forward to seeing it every year. A few months ago, I found a newspaper clipping at newspapers.com which was a “Dear Santa” letter from my husband’s grand uncle (his grandmother’s brother). I was amused to see that this 7-year-old was also asking for a BB gun. But, he was also asking for things my husband’s other grandparents talked about getting at...
I was ‘making’ mugs on Shutterfly this morning while thinking about last minute gift ideas. (You can still order them today and get them in time for Christmas with 2-day shipping!) I decided to use some of my heritage photos to see how they looked. I accidentally clicked on an obituary for my 2nd great grandmother’s brother, Emil Werther. While it’s kind of creepy to have a mug with an obituary, I think it looks really neat! Mug sample created with Shutterfly So, while you probably don’t want to order an obituary mug for your loved one, how about using...
Oops! Somehow I ended up on one of Randy’s challenges from last December on Genea-Musings. Oh, well! I’m going to go ahead and post it. It was fun! So, the challenge was to create a surname genealogy tree and share how you did it. I went to my RootsMagic and created a surname list based on frequency. I then started typing the names in Word while creating a tree shape. I added a star from the ‘drawing’ tools and then my husband helped me to save it in PowerPoint as I was lost as how to get the image on...
I had read multiple times that my 8th great grandfather, Cornelis Cornelisse Doremus, was born in the Netherlands. His family were supposedly French Huguenots who escaped religious persecution of protestants in France by moving to Holland in the mid 1600s. His father, Cornelis, brought his young family to New Amsterdam in the New World in about 1685 or 1686. Cornelis Doremus, my 9th great grandfather, is listed on the National Huguenot Society’s list of qualified Huguenot ancestors. But, I’d never seen any proof that Cornelis Cornelisse Doremus was born in the Netherlands. Until this week. In January of this year,...
Among the hundreds of records I received from my family in Kansas a few weeks ago was a death certificate for my great, great grandmother’s sister. They were both born in Germany in the mid-1800’s and immigrated to the United States in 1869 at the ages of 23 (my 2x great grandmother) and 10 (her youngest sister). Wilhelminia (Werther) Heuszel’s death certificate The sister’s name was Wilhelmina Fredericka Augusta Werther, but she went by Minnie. The name recorded on her death certificate as reported by her son, Frank, threw me for a minute… and then I understood. She’s listed as...
Today I’m continuing to work on a major genealogy organization project starting with just one surname. When I visited family in Kansas last month, I printed out Family Group Sheets from my RootsMagic program. But, I really didn’t like the format. So, today I’ve been filling one out the old fashioned way – by hand. I started by filling out the details for my 3x great grandfather, Johann Charles/Carl Guenther Werther: BORN: 17 May 1819 n in Berka, Sonderhausen, Prussia (Germany) RELIGION: Protestant MARRIED: about 1845, probably in Berka DIED: 19 Apr 1899 CAUSE OF DEATH: dropsy (from obituary) BURIED:...
I’ve continued to look into the family of C. R. Viney who was a son-in-law of my 3x great grandfather, Guenther Werther. C. R. married Guenther’s daughter, Augusta “Gussie” Werther. Yesterday I discovered that C. R., who was born in Canada, served on a steamboat in the Civil War. As I tried to learn more about C. R.’s story, my research at newspapers.com helped me to uncover several siblings. Through these siblings I was able to trace C. R. back to his roots in Canada using the 1851 and 1861 censuses. These records revealed his parents names, Joseph & Jane,...
Last week I read “Shiloh” by James Reasoner about the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War. I was particularly interested in this book of the series because one of my relatives fought as a Confederate soldier in this battle. This book of historical fiction, however, focused on a character who fought in the battle from a steamboat. Yes, my history background is weak, though I am actively making it stronger. But, I didn’t know that steamboats played a part in the Civil War. As I read about the character’s experience on the steamboat and then fighting in the battle,...
I’ve written posts about Ephraim Bennett (my great, great grandmother’s brother) killing his abusive brother-in-law, Nathan Buchanan. A few days ago, I uncovered another murder in my family tree. This time some in-laws allegedly killed my 3rd great grandfather’s granddaughter (so she’s my first cousin, three times removed) to prevent her from testifying against her husband! Her Death is Cause for Four Being Held, Springfield Republican, Springfield, Missouri, 01 Nov 1911, page 1, column 4, digital image newspapers.com, (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 30 Oct 2014 Ollie Werther’s father, Guenther “Kenny” Werther, immigrated from Germany with his family when he was 15 years...
