This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s them is: CENSUS. UPDATE 30 Dec 2023: I am no longer sure this is my Sally Eastwood. More work needs to be done! I recently located my 3rd great grandmother and two of her children—including my 2nd great grandmother—on the 1851 England census. The document is difficult to read as it is faded and stained. It is also difficult to read because of the word written on the line with her: pauper. After reading she was a pauper, I tried to imagine Sarah’s life...
This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” This week’s theme is: INVITE TO DINNER. My great, great grandmother, Sallie (Dickson) Ward, was born 27 November 1860 in Perry County, Tennessee, with the Civil War just months from starting. She lived until 21 August 1960, about 3 months short of her 100th birthday. Over almost 100 years, she saw and experienced an incredible amount of change, both in the world and in her family. What an experience it would be if I could invite “Grandma Sallie” to dinner. Among many others, here are five topics...
This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s theme is: LONGEVITY. Leona (Coppenbarger) Hutchins, who I knew as “Aunt Onie,” was my great grandmother’s baby sister. Born in Sumner County, Kansas in 1889, she died just across the county border in Cowley County, Kansas. She was 104 years old. In 1905, at the age of 16, Onie married Frank Hutchins (1883-1975). The childless couple had been married for 69 years at the time of Frank’s death. In 1989 we had a family reunion during which we celebrated Aunt Onie’s 100th birthday. (Although...
Last week I found a record for an individual who might be my ancestor. The baptism took place at St. Mary’s in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1784. While the other baptisms on the page list the name of the father and his wife, this record reads as follows: BB Sarah Daughter of Ann Bredbury of Lees Widow by John Beswick of Lees Singleman Evidently, Sarah was born out of wedlock. But, the “BB” notation had me confused. Several other entries on the nearby pages had the same notation; each of those babies was also born out of wedlock. What...
This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s theme is: FAVORITE PHOTO. My grandmother, Evelyn, the youngest of five children, was born 10 October 1915. Sadly, when she was only 8 1/2 months old, her mother died. Although Evelyn’s father raised the four eldest children, Evelyn was raised by her maternal grandmother, Sallie (Dickson) Ward. Evelyn grew up near family, including her father and siblings, in Perry County, Tennessee. This is one of my favorite photos as it is the only known childhood photo of my grandmother, Evelyn (Dickson) Kaechle (1915-2004). Wearing...
This post is based on Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s theme is: START. Beulah Peters, born in 1923, was the baby of her family. One of her big sisters, Hazel, was my grandmother. For many years, Beulah was the family historian for the Peters side of our family. Not only did she collect many family photos and documents, but she also wrote down thoughts and stories about various family members. In 1998, “Aunt” Beulah graciously introduced me to the amazing world of genealogy. She generously sent me a copy of her tree with all...
The Church of England is the official church of England. Protestant churches which do not conform to the Church of England doctrines are called nonconformist churches. With his first wife, my third great grandfather had two children who were baptized in a nonconformist church. On Ancestry.com, these two baptisms are in a database titled “England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970.” I found the first sentence of the description of the database to be thought-provoking: Trace your ancestral rebellious streak through non-conformist and non-parochial birth, marriage, and death registers. As someone from the States, I don’t think I...
My last post was about how I found my grandfather’s younger brother’s birth announcement by searching a newspaper using their address – not their surname. Before finding this article, I didn’t know his date of birth. And, I still hadn’t learned the baby’s name as each of the birth announcements just named the father. In this case, Frank. Michigan death records for 1897 to 1947 are online at Seeking Michigan. I had not been able to find the baby’s birth by using his surname, Kaechle, so I decided to search using other information. Searching the Michigan death records for 1897-1920,...
The last of his siblings to die, my husband’s grandfather either didn’t know or didn’t remember the names of his paternal grandparents. His father, William Emmitt Hunter, was born 9 July 1874 most likely in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, married in December of 1910 to Winnie Huddleston, and died in that same county on 4 April 1953. However, William hasn’t been found in any census record prior to 1920. Where he was living before his 1910 marriage and the identity of his parents has been a mystery. For many years, William’s 1953 death certificate was the only obtained...
One of the best parts of doing genealogy is meeting “new” cousins! I recently had the opportunity to spend a day with my newfound cousin, Terry, who is my 3rd cousin once removed. My 3rd great grandparents, Joachim and Henriette (Bünger) Peters, who I recently traced back to Germany, are our common ancestors. We met at Clayton Library in Houston and she brought a pile of photos and documents to share. We had a wonderful time discussing our family and getting to know each other. And, now I have a lot of new information to go through! One of the...