Adding a few Leaves

A cousin of mine widowed at a very young age.  Her children are now grown.  The gentleman she has been with for the past fourteen years had asked her once again to marry him.  He not only loves her but would like her taken care of if anything were to happen to him.

This leads me to some of my ancestors.  Families 150 to 200 years ago were very large.  I would love to believe they took their Bible seriously and went forth and multiplied.  I'm sure some did, but more did not.  A couple may have had six to eight children with the intention of rearing farmhands.  Don't look so shocked.  Life expectancy was much younger.  Boys were expected to follow in their father's footsteps; girls to marry and raise large families.  A husband would die in a farming accident, a woman in childbirth; leaving the surviving spouse with a brood of children to raise.  The widow or widower would remarry a widower or widow combining the two families.  As you can imagine, families then could have sixteen children.

This has happened more than once during my family history.  If fact, my seventh great-grandfather, Captain Thomas Taber married his second wife, Mary Tomson, he built a second home to hold his, hers and theirs!  Remarrying was a practical solution to single parenthood.

My cousin and her new husband certainly are not merging a family this large but with two little words, she has become a grandmother.

With the Fall Weather....

Cooler and shorter days are upon us.  With this change, my hobbies and activities change.  I'll still be taking my daily walks until the snow banks stop me but I'll be hibernating in my office working on my writing, crafts and most of all, my family history.  I no longer think of my research as a tree with different branches.
I've reconnected with some of my cousins I was close to during my childhood.  It amazes me the stories they have of my parents and grandparents.  They saw them in a completely different light than I did.
My hope is to discover more history, document my findings here and maybe tell a story or two from family members.
Now sit back and think of the history that makes you.

Another cousin comes out of the woodwork...

The Barrens, my Dad's maternal side of the family, have begun to slowly emerge from the fog.  It appears my great grandfather, Andrew John Barren, had a brother.  Who knew!?  I remember Grandma talking about Aunt Suzy (not a clue who she is), but never an Uncle Stephen.  Of course, this is the same woman who new nothing about her older sister!  (see Happiness is a puzzle piece found!)

I don't have much to go on yet, but we (the newest cousin and I) will be exchanging information.  Then I will have to go through a lot of records and a trip to my oldest cousin to pick at his brain.

Which brings me to websites you can use to get information.  The best site to get links for what you are looking for would be CyndisList.com.  Also, if you have an idea where your loved one died but the travel distance isn't exactly within a couple hours (let's face it, gas prices are killer today) try findagrave.com.  This site is not limited to the US.  Cemeteries world wide are listed.  When ordering a record; birth, death or marriage certificate, I go to the municipality site in which the event took place.  Most, I've found, have a link to vitalchek.com.  Don't pay for express shipping, you get your document in the same length of time.

Beware of site who are expensive and fairly useless.  Most sites will give you a 14 day trial period free.  Use the 14 days to the max. Then there is ancestry.com.  I pay for membership for this site, including the international information.  I pay monthly and have found it worth the dollars I spend.  Which brings me full circle...this is where I found out my great grandfather had a brother.  They have message boards where you can post the surname, cemetery, military records; what every you are looking for.  

Remember, anytime you receive information you are looking for from someone else, be sure to reciprocate as a thank you.  Think of it as 'Miracle Grow' for your family tree.  

Uncle Remus had Jail Fever??

When going through old family papers such as death certificates or diaries, you may come across some odd illnesses.  Of course they are only odd to us.  A century from now, Swine Flu will probably sound strange.

Grandma may have written to Gramps while he was gone to fight the war, telling him little Tommy was in bed with the grippe.  Today, we would just say he had the flu.

Mary goes off to aunt Victoria's for the summer and comes down with nostalgia.  She's suffering from homesickness.  Polly suffered from melancholy; she's depressed.

In the 1800s, when hordes headed out west to find their fortunes, many never made it.  Those who didn't make it may have succumbed  to Winter Fever (Pneumonia), Scurvy, Tick Fever (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), Spotted Fever (typhus or meningitis) or Lockjaw (tetanus if left untreated is fatal in eight days).  Women who gave birth on the trails often suffered from Child Bed Fever, an infection after childbirth.

Other illnesses from days past would be Dropsy, Grocer's Itch (skin disease caused by mites in flour or sugar), Gout, Infantile Paralysis or Horrors.

Now, go back and reread the certificates, diaries and letters.  How many ancestors had suffered from Kruchhusten, Scrivener's Palsy or Cramp Colic?

By the way, I don't have an Uncle Remus and jail fever is typhus.

Genealogy has a Language of it's Own

I can sit for hours reading centuries old documentation.  Anything from a deed to a will.  I have to be honest; I keep my glossary of genealogy terms close by.  Most terms are relatively easy to understand.  And then there are these:

ANTE - Latin prefix meaning before, such as in ante-bellum South, "The South before the war"
APPURTENANCE - That which belongs to something else such as a building, orchard, right of way, etc.
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT - A right to obtain land, specific number of acres of an allocated public land,     granted for military service. 
CHATTEL - Personal property which can include animate as well as inanimate properties.
COLLATERAL ANCESTOR - Belong to the same ancestral stock but not in direct line of descent; opposed to a lineal such as aunts, uncles and cousins.
CONSANGUINITY - Blood relationship.
DISSENTER - One who did not belong to the established church, especially the Church of England in the American colonies.
DOUBLE DATING - A system of double dating used in England and American from 1582 - 1752 because it was not clear as to whether the year commenced January 1 or March 25.
ESCHEAT - The reversion of property to the state when there are no qualified heirs.
FEE TAIL - An estate of inheritance limited to lineal descendant heirs of a person to whom it was granted.
FRANKLIN, STATE OF - An area once known but never officially recognized and was under consideration from 1784 -1788 from the western part of North Carolina. 
GLEBE - Land belonging to a parish church.
HOLOGRAPHIC WILL - One written entirely in the testator's own handwriting.
HUGUENOT - A French Protestant in the 16th and 17th centuries.  One of the reformed or calvinistic communion who are driven by the thousands into exile in England, Holland, Germany and America.
INDENTURED SERVANT - One who bound himself into service of another person for a specified number of years, often in return to transportation to this country.
LIS PENDENS - Pending court action; usually applies to land title claims.
MESSUAGE - A dwelling house.
METES & BOUNDS - Property described by natural boundaries, such as 3 notches in a white oak tree, etc.
NECROLOGY -Listing or record of persons who have died recently.
PROXIMO - In the following month, in the month after the present one.
YEOMAN - A servant, and attendant or subordinate official in a royal household; a subordinate of a sheriff; an independent farmer.

Of course there are dozens more in my glossary.  I can tell you when my 2nd great grandfather, Henry Hart came here, he was a yeoman, an independent farmer.

So now you are set to begin reading old documents you may come across.  Don't get discouraged.  It's taken hundreds and hundreds of year to make you, well you.  Don't expect to get all the answers at one time.

So, Grandma, You Were Born in Buffalo.

I had sat with my Grandma Zaky, Dad's mom, and asked her about her family.  I was told of the family moving from Austria to America to Austria to America.  Grandma was the child born here in America.  Mom and I have tried for years to get her birth certificate.  When you are looking for a birth certificate, you must go to the municipality the person was born in.  If she was born in Buffalo, New York, you go to City Hall.  If she was born in the Village of Lancaster, New York, the Village Hall and so on.

A couple things went wrong with our search.  Grandma always told us she was born in 1909.  That was vanity talking.  She did not want to be older than her daughter-in-law's (my mom) father.  We did find out she was born in 1907.  She never told us this, her death certificate did.  I wonder, however if the certificate is accurate.  I have a copy of her father's naturalization papers in which he indicated her birth years as 1904.

I'm going to try again.  I have her on the 1910 census. Her year of birth is listed as 1907.  This census lists her place of birth as New York.  However, the census lists her older brothers having been born in New York.  They were born in Austria.  I'm beginning to wish Old Grandpa had his facts, or white lies, written somewhere.  I will certainly let you know how this mystery turns out.



 

What's in all those boxes?

My next step was going through old boxes in our attic.  Of course Mom had known what was up there, but now it was time to organize it all.  Of course birth certificates, marriage licenses, and baptismal records are in boxes with old newspaper clippings and report cards.  Then, in my opinion, the old pictures.  Most people do not write in the back of their photos.  Sadly I am one of them, although I'm getting better about it.  Pictures hold an abundance of information.  Think about all the photographs you have around the house.   You've taken pictures of your children as babies, toddlers and through the years showing the changes in them.  Think about this though.  You are going through Grandma's pictures in her attic.  You come across a picture of a young child about three or four sitting on Grandma's lap.  She looks familiar but you can't place her.  A great aunt perhaps.  Slowly you turn the picture over.  Faded in pencil is a surname you've never heard before.  Under the name is a date.  Our loving daughter, aged three written.  It's possible Grandma was married before and had a child from the marriage.  It was common to loose a husband and remarry to support yourself and children.  Often, a widow might give up her children to adoption to give them a better chance.  Be sure to search surnames you find on the backs of pictures.
Pictured are my sister Lenora and my youngest brother David.  Mom didn't date this one.  Judging by the dress Lenora is wearing and the little closet behind them, the picture was taken circa 1971.

Happiness is a puzzle piece found!

I'm jumping a bit ahead but I've found a piece of a puzzle!  My dad's side of the family has been more difficult to research.  Part of the problem was old Grandma...she was spoiled and wasn't really sure where she wanted to live.  It wasn't that she didn't want to live in New York then changed her mind to Wyoming and back again.  She had them move from the Old World to the New to the Old and back to the New World.  And my husband thinks moving two miles away is a hardship!

I knew from stories my grandmother told me, she had a sister; she had died very young.  She never knew more than that.  I've visited Mary's grave almost all my life.  The headstone is in German; shaped in a heart.  It gave me her date of birth and her date of death.  My next trip was to the library.  Back in 1905 the newspapers did not have an obituary section like they do today.  Buffalo had three newspapers at the time so I had to search them all.  Tucked away with the bankruptcies and Supreme Court settlements, I found found five notices.  Three adults, an infant and my aunt; no cause of death listed.  Now it was time to find a death certificate.

For the most part, other than the person in question, immediate family members are only allowed birth, marriage and death certificates.    However, there is an exception to that rule.  A researcher may also get this information.  The document is stamped in red "For Genealogical Purposes Only".  Ten dollars for the certificate and eight dollars and fifty cents for shipping and handling (outrageous, definitely) later, I have in my hot little hands the answer I've been looking for!  The cause of death was Acute Nephritis.  In layman's terms (no need to Google off this site) is kidney failure.  This was and is very common in children, usually in boys.  This could occur after a streptococcal disease such as sore throat, tonsillitis, or ear infection.  We have weak tonsils  my bet is on tonsillitis.

Now, let's see what else I've learned from this death certificate.  Mary's last name is spelled incorrectly as Barran.  The certificate and record of death was the 79th issued in the City of Buffalo in 1905. Her physician was Euial Lustig.  His residence is listed.  He attended to Mary from the 1st of February to the 14th. He last saw her alive on the 10th of February. She died at two o'clock pm on the 15th of February 1905.  She was 5 years, 10 months and 22 days old.  Mary was not born here in America but was born in Austria.  She was only in America for four years.  This explains her absences on the 1900 and 1910 Federal census.  It's also very likely she would not appear on the 1905 State/County Census since her death was so early in the year.

The certificate also indicates her parents names and places of birth.  Both born in Austria.  Surprisingly, her mother's name is listed as "Marie" not Mary and her married is used instead of her maiden name.  Place of death is 778 Carroll Street, Buffalo New York.  Her home.  I searched the address on Google Earth.  The house stood on the corner of Carroll and Griffin Street.  It's a parking lot now.

Lastly, I have the undertaker's name and his residence along with the name of the cemetery.  She was buried on 17 February 1905.  Her stone is still there, a bit crooked from from earthquakes and age. I find it sad the only proof of her existence is a news blurb, a death certificate and a grave marker.  But rest assured, she is visited often, her grave and stone tended to regularly.  Aunt Mary may be gone for 111 years but she sure isn't forgotten!

Start Here

When this journey began, I began with me.  Best place to start.  Only you know the most about you.  I started with  a blank pedigree chart similar to the one here.  I then started filling in the blanks of those family members I am most familiar with.  Mom and Dad and their parents.  Simple enough.  Now the fun part.  I had to prove the man at the kitchen table was my Dad and the woman who taught me to sew was my Grandma Jake.  So now the fun began.  Mom and I went through dozens of shoe boxes and strong boxes looking for birth certificates, baptismal information and marriage licenses.  Everything you find needs a source and a citation.  Back in the 70s, computers were not a household appliances like today.  Each family member is numbered.  With today's software programs, it's done for you.
Now, what happens if you are looking at Grandma Zaky and she's telling you she was born in America, here in Buffalo, New York but she doesn't have her birth certificate?  I'll let you know how that went next time.

What makes you tick?

In my late teens, early twenties, I wanted to know where I came from.  Not the "birds and the bees" where I came from; my history.  Genealogy had always been around but became more popular in the late 70s.  It all started when I gave Mom a book for Christmas which basically taught you how to grow your family tree.  I created a monster.  I've never been happier I did.

I'm assuming since I am "Dr. Frankenstein" in this case, I was given to honorary title of family historian.  And I'm very proud to be. I now have all of my mom's research as well as my own.  You've no idea how happy I am our home has an "office".  I discovered on one branch of the family, I am a descendant of Francis Cooke.  He came over on the sharp looking ship posted here.  

I'll be posting my journey through the past.  Join me if you like.  Always feel free to comment or ask questions.  I think it will fun.