Wow, this was a stretch!

I'm working on the same family as I worked on last week because somehow, someway, I lost the data.  I backed it up before I went out of town, but the back-up doesn't have all of the new data.  While it is very frustrating, I've discovered information this time that I didn't last time because I'm slowly adding the family back to the tree.  Last time I entered as fast as I could with the intention of going back and seeing what I could find to add at a later date.  I'm also doing lots of backups which I should have done before.  I'm probably being excessive, but it's also frustrating to work on a family and know that you found more information on them and can't recreate it.

I've posted before about connecting distant cousins.  It always amazes me, and this time is no different. 

My 6th cousin, Floyd, married Hattie.  I found their three boys and a little bit about the boys.  I turned my attention to Floyd and Hattie as I only had possible birth dates for them from census records.  I found Floyd on the SSDI.  Where's Hattie?

I found a tree submitted on Ancestry with her parents listed.  I looked in my database to see if I had those names.  No, but I enter the parents name and look for a census record to verify the names.  I find one. 

The mother's maiden name is not a direct line name for me, but it is one I run across fairly often in this part of the country so, just for fun, I check to see her parents are.  I check to see if I have the parents...and oh my gosh!  I do!  Her mother is my third cousin, 3 times removed.    That makes Hattie my 5th cousin 1x removed.

Back Up

I'm still shaking my head and I'm very thankful nothing happened.  I always take a back-up of my genealogy with me when I go out of town.  Wednesday I backed up the file to take with me.  I was thrilled I found a jump drive with enough room to store it so that I didn't have to take the bigger external hard drive. 

Today I realized I NEVER put the file on the jump drive.  It's on my camera card..which did NOT go with me on the trip.  <big sigh>  All is well, but I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing!

Lewis and Mildred

Who are you Lewis and Mildred?  Lewis, you show up on  the 1920 census with my 5th cousin once removed and his wife as adopted.  Mildred, you are also on the 1920 and appear again on the 1930 as adopted.  Two different last names, three if you count my cousin's.  The two of you do not appear on any family trees I can find.  You apparently were a part of my cousin's life, why is there no record of you other than the census?

I found a Lewis that may be you.  He has a half-sister named Mildred.  Could this be you?

I'm using the parents' names listed in the obituary to see if I can back-track and find out what happened....if this is the same Lewis. 

Must Be Time To Quit (for the day)

Allentown's Morning Call has obituaries online going back to 1984.  Tonight I spent several minutes looking for a cousin's obit.  I tried using his mother's maiden name, his sibling's name, his daughter's name, his wife's name...all trying to flush out the obituary.

Finally my over-active imagination kicks in and wonders if there's something secretive about his death and all articles about it have been pulled.  I can't find ANYTHING about him.  There must be some sort of cover-up!

Then I realize he died in 1982.  Oops.  Must be time to quit and get some rest.

It's no wonder I'm confused!

Ruth's mother, Sophia, married Elmer when she was about 1.  They are all together on the 1920 census.

Now I'm trying to find more about Ruth.  I found a possibility on the 1930 census.  Name matches.  Approximate date of birth the same.  How Cow!  The mother's name is the same but it can't be her!  She's married to Elmer! 

Either Ruth's father is dead or her parents divorced.  I don't think they divorced and remarried.   I must not have the right Ruth on the 1930 census.  Yep.  There's Ruth on the 1930 census with her mother and step-father and she's using her step-father's name.

This is like putting a puzzle together and someone makes the pieces very close to the same with one small difference.  Pay attention or it won't all fit in the end.

Phooey!

I wanted to post something stronger for the post title, but I thought I better behave since this is public.

I just discovered a problem.  I have Elmer married to Mabel.  No problem there.  BUT, who are his parents?  I have two different sets of in-laws for Mabel.  (One set is enough, don't you agree?) 

Going to have to do some digging to figure this out.  Darn it all.  But first I have to go to the store to get a few groceries before we have to dig out of snow.  Ha!  No matter what, I'm digging!



Much later....
I am the cause of my own problem.  Had I looked closely I would have realized that my Elmer's had different last names.   German and Handwerk.  Both names I've worked with a lot in the last few days.  I couldn't see the problem until I created a grid of important information for both people and the last names stuck out.  Now, I hope I didn't just confuse myself even more.

More double cousins

Verna, my 5th cousin, married Raymond. 

I always check to see spouses' parents in Pennsylvania because I think I'm related to everyone.  Well, that is an exaggeration, but it's darn close!

I didn't have to check in this case as I see Verna listed twice in the index and Raymond is twice, too.  Upon further investigation I find Raymond is my 5th cousin 1x removed. 

Wait! What? How can you be related?

This 5th cousin's family has a really sad tale connected to it.  Ralph's wife, Abrosia, died in 1934 at the age of 35.  According to her next youngest son's obit, there are ten children.  I can only account for eight at the moment.  Anyway, the four youngest went to live in an orphanage in Philadelphia.  It just breaks my heart to find this out.

Today's task is looking for information on the eight/ten children.  I googled one of the kid's name to see what I might discover.

Up pops an obituary I didn't expect.  The obituary is for a lady who lists Ralph's kids as her half-siblings.  Her parents are neither Ralph or his wife Ambrosia.  So.....how does she fit in?  So far she is not listed in any of her alleged half-siblings obituaries. 

Later...

I just found three of the kids in the 1940 census as 'boarders' with a family in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Still haven't located the father on the census yet.  So far 4 of the kids in the orphanage in 1940 and then the three just located with a 'strange' family in another county.

What do you mean no immediate survivors?

Roy died in 2009 and his obituary says no immediate survivors.  Really?  He has 6 siblings that I know of still alive and several nieces and nephews.  I don't understand.  It's not like he moved across the country away from the family.  He's in the same town/county as the ones still alive.  Wonder why his obit claims no immediate survivors.

We Share Cousins!

I think I have found other branches of the family where my husband shares cousins with me, but this will be the first documented in this blog.

Harry Walter is the son of Catherine Mohr and John Walter.  Catherine is a 1st cousin 6x removed for my husband.  Harry married Elizabeth Peter who is the daughter of Daniel Peter and Mary Burkhalter.  Daniel is my 1st cousin 4x removed.

Harry and Elizabeth had two children, Calvin who died as a toddler, and Ida who married Samuel Paul. 

Pretty cool.

John D. Cook

Why is it I cannot find information on John D. Cook's family?  I found him on the 1850 and 1860 census in Perry, Ohio.  I found him on the 1870 and 1880 Cincinnati, Ohio censuses.  They tell me he was born about 1826 in Pennsylvania.  His wife was Elizabeth A.  Other people's research indicate her last name is Clark, but I haven't found a source for that yet.  Ellen or Ella is the only child with more information discovered.  I have her husband (William J. Saffin) and her children.  She remained in the Cincinnati area.

Where are her siblings?  James (1852), Daniel (1856), Sarah (1859), John (1861), Amanda/Mary (1863) and William/Willie (1867) show up on the various census records mentioned above and then nothing. 

The last census with Elizabeth is the 1900 and she is listed with daughter Ellen/Ella.  Elizabeth is a widow. 

Where are you?!?

The Ottawa Kansas library was my destination today.  As I've said before, every library is different.  Here I was allowed to get microfilm out of the unlocked drawers to my heart's content.  When asking about what to do with the rolls when done (most libraries don't want you putting it up) and I was told to just put it back.  Okay.  Works for me. 

Today's search was frustrating.  It was nice to have a small town newspaper to look in as it doesn't have as much verbiage to scan, but, I only found one of four obituaries I wanted.  Where are the rest of you, darn it?

The newspapers were interesting even though they didn't contain the information I wanted.  One had a picture of a war bride from Germany or maybe England (my CRS is kicking in) with her young son in New York City.  Her husband was presumably in Reno working on a divorce according to the caption.  The wife hoped having their son with her would help a reconciliation.  I wonder how it worked for her.  It was surprising to find a picture/caption like this in a small town Kansas paper, even more surprising to find out it didn't involve a local person.  Why was this in the local paper?  

The library's genealogical section was small, but I found a lot of area books on cemeteries and histories.  I found some for counties not so close such as Finney and Ford.  The book on Ford County was new to me so I enjoyed some time perusing it.

Before heading out to the cemetery I stopped at Keim Bakery for lunch.  Nice place.  I would recommend it.

I found a map of the Mount Calvary Cemetery and an index of people buried there.  I quickly jotted the map down and I knew that would help shorten my time in the cemetery.  The cemetery didn't lend itself to the map very well, in my opinion, but I did find the graves I wanted to find in spite of the cold blustery Kansas wind and faulty map.

One obituary and three hours later

It's amazing how much time one obituary can consume.  I have new information which allows me to search for more people and before you know it, three hours are gone.  I now have the maiden name of my cousin's wife, the name of her first husband, and more information on her children from the first marriage.

Oh, remember the movie The Fockers.  Well, I found one of my families on the census as the Fockerts.  That is not the real family name.  It's amusing. 

It was an adventure

Each library is an adventure.  An added adventure today was driving to the Kansas City Kansas Public Library.  I loved seeing the KC skyline and bridges, but I'm a small town girl and driving by myself makes me nervous.

The KCK library has the microfilm locked up and four at a time are 'checked out' to you.  The printer on the reader didn't like any of my dimes so the librarian 'keyed' it to print and I just paid at the desk.  I thought that was very friendly of her.  Ten cents a copy.  More than reasonable!

I don't know if the microfilm was really that different or if my hurting neck (woke up with a crick in my neck) made it seem different.  Usually when I get microfilm the first date is the first paper on the film.  This film had the last date on the film first.  The joke is on me as I was excited when the librarian handed me the rolls to see that I needed either the first or second date on the all of the microfilmed checked out.  But that was not the case, I had to 'fast forward' to close to the end of the roll.  Oh well.

The library had some cemetery books, phone books, directories and some other genealogy books.  I found a piece of data in a cemetery book and then I needed to go as I parked in a two-hour parking spot.

I don't know where I was at in Kansas City as I don't know the area very well.  Isn't that a comforting thought?

On my way back I exited the interstate on the wrong exit and ended up at the railroad tracks. It made me nervous to drive under the interstate on a single lane with a train track in the middle of the lane!  I had to take a 'sharp right' to get back on the interstate and find a spot to get off and turn around so I could take the 'real' exit.

I'm glad I found the 'sharp right' road as otherwise I would have been going up the down ramp to get on the interstate hoping a highway patrolman wasn't around to see me!

Wonder if they knew

Thelma married Norman.  Her father was Alfred, grandfather was Alfred and great-grandfather was Joseph.  Hmm, might as well put her maternal grandmother on there too, Rosa. Rosa's father was Daniel.  (another one of those double cousin lines)

Rachel married Llewellyn.  Her mother was Gerda, Her grandfather was Calfenus and her great grandfather was Joseph.

Thelma and Rachel are both 4th cousins once removed to me.  They are second cousins to each other.  I wonder, were they aware they were second cousins?  I went to the same high school as second cousins once removed and didn't know one of them was related to me.

What makes this story more interesting than just simply were they aware of each other....they married brothers.  Yep, Norman and Llewellyn are brothers.  Small world.

Think outside of the box

Beatrice has been driving me crazy.  Her dad and mom apparently divorced when she was less than ten.  I can find her dad with his second wife and his second child on the census records for 1910, but no Beatrice.  I find Beatrice and her mother on the 1920 and 1930 census, but not for the 1910.  I really want to find this as I'm concerned I could have two wives connected to her daddy in error.  I need more information to confirm my suspicions her daddy married twice. 

It finally hit me.  Beatrice's mother would be in her 20s and probably moved back home with her young daughter.  Try them under the mother's maiden name.  Tada!  There they are!  This was the only census Beatrice's mother told the truth about her marital status even though she is listed with her maiden name.  She lists herself as 'widowed' on the 1920 and 1930 census. 

6th cousin, meet 6th cousin

My 6th cousin, Althea, married another 6th cousin of mine, Willard.  They both descend from my 5th great grandfather and grandmother.  I wonder if they knew they were distant cousins.

Sorting it all out

I don't have much information for Stella L.  I have birth month/year/state from the 1900 census and I know her siblings/parents.  Well, I guess I know more than I though.  :) 

I'm trying to find her marriage information and any children she may have.  As I'm unable to find an obituary for her, I decided to check other trees online to get information to verify.

I found three husbands for her.  Russell, Elmer and Adam.  I found her on the 1920 and 1930 census with Elmer and one child.  I found the child's obit.  His only survivors are nieces and nephews.  That means he must have a deceased sibling, or more.

I determined Adam was married to a different Stella as I found Adam's daughter's obituary.  Her mother is Stella L but a different maiden name. 

I found Russell and Stella in 1940's city directories, but no census records of them together.

I cannot find her on the 1940 census, nor can I find her son.  Frustration.

I found Russell on the 1940 census (if it is the same Russell - in the right area) and he is single and living with the OTHER Stella!  She is listed as married but the husband is not listed on the census.

Now I'm thinking my Stella did not marry three times.  The OTHER Stella married twice.

Stella has several siblings.  I hope to gather more information when I obtain their obituaries.  How many more children did she have?  Where are they?