Follow that!

My grandfather's (dad's side) aunt on his mother's side was married twice. I have always assumed the first husband would be related to my grandfather's dad's side as the names are the same and we seem to be related to everyone in the area with that name. I have struggled over the years to make the connection. I made the connection tonight. To recap, she is my 2nd great-great aunt on my grandfather's mother's side. He is my 2nd cousin 4 times removed on my grandfather's father's side. Here is the kicker. The 2nd cousin's 2nd wife is my 3rd cousin 5 times removed on my MOTHER's side. Did you keep all of that straight? So the kids from the first marriage are related to my dad (twice) and the kids from the second marriage are related to both of my parents.

Birdie

A very distant cousin named Birdie lived in California and she owned a house in an exclusive area in Chicago. She decided she was going to sell her house in Chicago to Negroes. The neighbors were upset. Keep in mind, this was in 1915. Terminology was different and racism (sadly much like today) was rampant. She announced her plans and they were published in the paper. Now, was she going to do this because she was against the inequality of life between races or did she do this simply to irritate her neighbors. I am thinking the latter. She had no takers so a month or so later she decided to donate her home to Florence Prouty. Florence was the founder of a crippled children's home. I would like to think Birdie had the best intentions at heart to help the children, but the article goes on to quote Birdie describing the children who would live there and it wasn't complimentary. The final part of the quote was 'they (the neighbors) will be sorry they ever went up against Birdie' and 'charity may be sweet, but revenge is sugar.' I wonder what the story is behind all of this. It makes me sad to think Birdie would use people in this way and it also makes me sad to think the world isn't that much different today.

Let me amend the above. She offered her Chicago home in the Hyde Park district "to any colored or Italian" purchaser. She tried to sell the home previously and was unsuccessful. So she broadened her possible base and then finally her husband sent her a telegram telling her to donate the house to charity.

Time to Quit (for the day)

I googled Susan to find her obituary.  I found a Susan in California who could possibly be her.  She was born in Pennsylvania.  Her year of death is before her mother's.  The name matches.  It must be her!  I think I'll put her in my database and post it for the world.

No, I won't.  It is not the same Susan and I won't post it for the world to see for numerous reasons.  The main reason I'm not putting her in my database is because the Susan in the obit was born  in 1910.  The mother of the Susan I am looking for was born in 1925.  Do you see why Susan is not the Susan I am looking for?

Why would I post this?  Because I'm tired and the lack of respect for facts is nauseating.  Because of the fatigue my frustrations toward people who post ANYTHING (true or otherwise) because they found it on the internet are enhanced.

A part of me wants to place the wrong Susan as the daughter in a tree on Ancestry and see how many people will copy it.

But I won't.

I'm off to do something else.

Unrestrict! Expand!

I typically will restrict a searched name to a state when researching using a newspaper site especially when the name is a common name.

By accident I didn't invoke the state restriction when researching a third great grandfather.  When I realized what I did I figured I would have thousands of hits and would need to redo the search with a state restriction.

I had 15 hits from four states.  I decided I would look at the 15 since it wasn't unmanageable.  The third great grandfather's wife's maiden name showed up in the snapshot view so I clicked on the article even though it was from Utah.  Absolutely no connections to Utah.  He was born in NY and he lived in Kansas/Arizona before moving to California.

I'm so grateful for the accident.  The Utah article was a marriage annoucement of the grandfather and grandmother.  How about that!  SHE was from Utah.  I had no idea.

I need to stop restricting my searches!

Lincoln's Military Guard of Honor

My husband's third great uncle's obituary states he was the last of the military guard of honor at the bier of Abraham Lincoln following Lincoln's assassination.  The uncle was about 20 years old during this time.  I'm having difficulty finding proof of the story.  I've read about the military unit and it was involved, but there's no smoking gun for this uncle and this particular story.  Any ideas on how to prove it?

Interesting

My husband's cousin once removed married my fourth cousin once removed.  This was a second marriage for both. 

My cousin mentioned above married for her 1st husband my fifth cousin once removed.  Their second daughter married a 5th cousin to me.

I haven't checked to see if they are cousins to each other. 

Interesting.

That's one way to document a census page.

I looked up a census record and had a chuckle.  Out of the 11 households on the page, 8 are related to me.  That made quick work for entering census records.  I completed the page. 

Why not?  Otherwise I get to look for the number details to complete the source whenever I run across the family as I plug along in the data while constantly get sidetracked in my research.  (makes me think of OH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY) 

Why not find each family on the page and enter their data using a 'clipboard' of the information?  I only had to change three pieces of the sourcing information for the eight families.  This makes my day!

If this makes no sense to you, sorry.  It makes perfect sense to me.  At least today it does.  Tomorrow I'll wonder what the heck am I talking about. 

Oops! Not My Family!

I spent three hours today entering and documenting a family that doesn't belong to me.  Why?  Because I wasn't careful.

My Lehigh County, Pennsylvania family is huge.  (Or as Trump would say....bigly!)  All of my branches intertwine with each other so I make it a habit to enter family information for spouses marrying into the family.  I also will go back a generation or two on familiar names as a lot of the times I will find a connection. 

This morning I worked on one of the generations added previously thinking I was documenting family.  While it is frustrating, I may be very happy some day in the future when I find a connection.   I never know! 

Doris

I sit here smiling as I reflect on a Christmas letter from a 93 year old woman I've never met.  Doris lives in my grandfather's area of Pennsylvania.  She answered my plea many years ago, well before the age of the internet, for help on my family search.  We are not related, at least no connection has been found so far.  She responded by transcribing information from books and clipping obituaries from the local newspapers.  She watched for many family names for me and did the same for others.  She is a genealogy angel. 

Thank you Doris for your kindness.  You have set the bar high for helping others.

Pauline?

What would be the chances of someone having the same first name and last name as you and born in the same area and year as you? It could happen, right?  What about both of you marrying someone with the SAME last name as both of you?  Not as likely, right?  I have this situation.  I have NO idea which Pauline is mine.  Maybe neither?