This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find… The larceny articles I shared yesterday from 1868 were about Martha’s brother, Tom. It mentions that the mother (Barbara) is currently in jail for “keeping a bawdy house” or brothel. So, let’s head back to Penn State’s “Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers” and Elephind and search the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and...

This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find… I already posted about how we tracked down the original will on FamilySearch. With quite a bit of effort, we eventually found the census records for 1850 (Baldwin Twp – surname transcribed as “Brandy” on Ancestry), 1860 (Pittsburgh, Ward 5 – father transcribed as “W Brandy” on Ancestry – all family...

This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find… Our will was for Martha Jane Brawdy who died in Birmingham, Allegeheny County, Pennsylvania. A classmate quickly realized that this was a copy of the will written in the court book and not the actual will. So, we all headed over to FamilySearch to look for the...