Thursday, July 23, 2009

Record References found on the Internet

The following is a copy of information I received in an email from Family Tree. Last night I once again got lost at www.ancestry.com and found records of births of early ancestors. Now with this list I can continue my search. I hope that you get lost in some of these and find some useful information for your family tree.
I went to the Vital Records chart and printed it out this morning to put in my Pedigree note book so I have it at my finger tips. This chart tells me when each state started to record Birth, Marriage and Death information.

Here’s a list of the cheat sheets currently available in this category. Check back often at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/recordreferences as we’ll continue to add new ones.
Naturalization Laws TimelineWhat laws might have affected your ancestors when they immigrated to America? Knowing the restrictions and guidelines in place will help you identify records to consult.
Records ChecklistThink you've hit a brick wall? Don't assume you're stuck yet—use this rundown of record types to guide you to other records you haven't checked.
War Service Reference GuideFrom the American Revolution to the Vietnam War, most families have members who served in the military. View a timeline of US conflicts, plus our birth date chart serves as a quick guide to telling which major war your ancestor likely served in.
Where to Look for 1880 DDD Supplemental Census RecordsThis state-by-state listing helps you find the 1880 supplemental schedules of “defective, dependent and delinquent classes” for your ancestor's state. Vital Records ChartSee at a glance the years that each US state began keeping state-level birth, marriage and death records. (Note that many counties began recording these events earlier.)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

My Grandparents William and Grace Day


William Henry Day and Grace Celestie ( Daly Esler ) Day are my mother's parents. William was born October 21, 1889 in Clinton Minnesota. Grace was born July 6 1892 in Winona Minnesota. Grace is the birth daughter of my mystery Andrew Daly from my brick wall ancestor. They married January 12 1911 in Mora, Minnesota. Grandpa passed away February 21 1964 with grandma passing away August 18, 1972. They were married 53 years. I remember a warm loving couple. You always knew that they loved each other. They had 53 years together, had a total of 5 children with 2 of them passing away shortly after birth. There home was always filled with warmth and the smell of home cooking. In the living room hung a picture of Jesus on the Mount and in the dining room a picture of the Last Supper. They never had a lot of money but they always had a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies for a visitor. It was a close knit religious family. We would go to Church every Sunday and then walk with them to their home. Dinner was usually Roast Beef with Mash Potatoes and Gravy. There would be corn , a jello salad, dinner rolls and dessert.
Being the oldest grandchild it was my responsibility to go to their home every other Saturday to mow the grass. It was a small yard but would take me about an hour to push this old mower. Grandpa would say " Rest Grace , don't get worn out . Part of him probably did not want me to not over do but I also think part probably wanted me to stay with him a little longer. When I would finish mowing I would go into the back door and sit at the kitchen table for a ginger ale and cookie and a quarter. These are probably the only times I had with my grandparents alone. No other adults or kids to share them with. These are wonderful memories that I have cherished for about 50 years. One more thing I have that the other grandchildren do not have is my Grandma Grace's name.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Mom and Dad Young and In Love in the 1940's


They were young and in love. It was the early 1940's. What a love story. My father was working as a sailor on the Great Lakes in 1943. His ship entered the port of Duluth, Minnesota having crossed Lake Superior. While in port on a Sunday morning he went to a little church in Duluth, where he met my grandparents. Having loving and warm hearts my grandparents invited this sailor home for Sunday dinner. There he saw my mom's picture on the mantel. He feel in love with that face and had to meet her. That Sunday she was working at the Asian Restaurant in downtown Duluth. Within days he went to the restaurant and introduced himself to her. That was May of 1943. He courted her the over the next weeks and on October 30, 1943 they married in that little church.
That love story lasted until Mama died in 1998. At that time my Dad was suffering from dementia. I feel somewhere deep within him he still remembered that beautiful young woman.
Over the next 55 years they had their good times and their hard times. Shortly after marrying they moved to Texas and went to Bible College in San Antonio where my dad graduated as a minister. The picture above is from that time and place. I was born in 1948, my sister in 1950. Mama got polio in 1953 and was not expected to live, but with God's good graces' she came out of the hospital and raised us. There were 2 more children born both boys. The first was named after my father but was premature and passed away within 3 days. In 1963 my brother David was born.
There are so many memories of my parents. They were fantastic. Warm and loving to not only us but also to each other and their families. We grew up in a close knit Christian home. Church was a weekly function. We had great times then with many memories and stories to share at another time. This is just the start of my parents story. They are both gone in body with my dad passing away last September. I still feel them around me everyday. I am lucky to have had both of them for as long as I did and I miss them terribly. I hope that some day my boys will remember me with the fondness that I have for my parents.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

"I Wonder Who You Are " My Brick Wall


This is my super brick wall. My grandmother Grace was born in July of 1892 in Minnesota, but her mother never married her father. Great grandmother did marry in December of 1893, to a wonderful man who raised my grandmother as his own.
I was never really told much about my grandmother's birth father while growing up.
They did tell me his name. We were led to believe that he was a no good scoundrel who took off for Chicago. I wish my grandmother would have talked about him, but she was of another generation. That is all we got, he was no good and went to Chicago.
It was not until my mother and uncle were getting older that they finally pulled out a picture of him some time in 2000. My darling uncle even whispered "Our little mama was illegitimate."
At least we have a name and a picture. This is one of my great grandfather's. His name is Andrew. I really doubt he went to Chicago.
I tried to get my grandmother's birth certificate but no luck as there is none available to the public. I have searched the census in the area where I think he may have lived and may have found him. I even found a cemetery in the area with a grave with the same name as his.
But until I find some one with the same photo on the Internet I will really never know that I have found him. All I have is this photo of a handsome young man. His name is Andrew and he is one of my grandfathers. For what ever reason they never married. He probably was a good man who moved on after he and my great grandma never got together. He probably married , had children and died.
I do know he saw my grandma Grace at least once. My great grandma's brother had died in an accident in 1911. Andrew came to the funeral. My great grandma said " Andrew this is our Grace"
How I wish my grandma Grace had talked about him and anything else she may have known about him and his family. She never did and this one photo is all I have .

Monday, July 13, 2009

Great Aunt Grace Got married in 1929 What was Happening


The last post was a picture of my great aunt Grace in her pretty wedding dress. What an exciting day that was for her I am sure. She was 29 years old and getting married for the first time.

Tonight I was looking at that picture and decided to print out the historical information for my family note book to put with her picture. Below is the link I used

http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=870&o_iid=23560&o_lid=23560. From there I found the year in question.this is copied from their site so not only can you read what happened but you also can have the link to more information.



The year was 1929 and is probably best remembered for the October 29 “Black Tuesday” stock market crash that signaled the start of the Depression Era.
President Herbert Hoover continued to express optimism with statements like, “Any lack of confidence in the economic future or the basic strength of business in the United States is foolish,” but fortunes had been lost, unemployment rose, and the “Great Depression” would last into World War II.
In Chicago, one of the most notorious crimes of the era takes place on February 14, when seven gangsters who were members of Bugs Moran’s gang were gunned down in a warehouse on Clark Street in Chicago, in what is now known as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. No charges were ever filed on the infamous murders, but it is widely believed that Al Capone and his gang were behind the crime.
The year 1929 had its share of natural disasters too. Off the coast of Newfoundland, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck and set off a tsunami that killed 28 people, devastated coastal communities on the Burin Peninsula, and ruptured 12 transatlantic telegraph cables.
In the U.S. an F5 tornado devastated parts of Arkansas, the lower Mississippi Valley suffered severe flooding and an ice storm hit New England.
In February, Dartmoor in Great Britain had one of the worst snowstorms in history. The storm dumped over six feet of snow on the area and the winter was one of the most severe on record in Britain. Europe also suffered cold temperatures, with record lows set in Germany and Austria in that month.
Fire took its toll in 1929 when a fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio killed 123. The fire began when x-ray film got too close to a lightbulb and ignited. The poisonous fumes given off by the burning films killed most of the victims. More information and photos are available on the Cleveland Public Library website.
In entertainment, the first Academy Awards ceremony took place. The cost of admission was $10 and the awards ceremony lasted five minutes, with fifteen statuettes being handed out. “Wings,” starring Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper, won best picture.
That same year the Marx Brothers made their film debut with Cocoanuts. Ernest Hemingway wrote, A Farewell to Arms, and ironically one of the most popular songs was Happy Days are Here Again, which was released just prior to the stock market crash.

Wow what a year that was.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Wedding Picture of My Great Aunt Grace 1929



Today I wanted to show you a beautiful wedding picture I have of my great aunt Grace (Day )Gatzemeyer Crosby.
I do not have much information written down about her. What I do know for sure is she was born May 11Th 1900 to William Albert and Carrie ( Lockwood ) Day and died November 14, 1993.
She was the sister of my grandfather William on my mother's side.
What a pretty bride she was the day she married Lloyd Gatzemeyer, who I thinks first name was really Joseph according to the 1930 census. That is her sister Gladys as her bridesmaid. I am not sure of the groomsman name but may be one of her brothers either Bernard or Morris.
They were married about 1929. According to the census of 1930 They are 41 and 30 years old . The 1930 census asks age of first marriage and they give the age of 40 and 29. This tells me they had been married about a year.
The wedding dress and bridesmaid dress seem sheer and the hem lines end just above the knee. Her veil is floor length and also sheer. My great aunt Gladys is wearing a wonderful brimmed hat. The picture was take at the New Hennepin Studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota .They never had any children. Not sure how the marriage ended yet.
I do know she married a second time to Carl Crosby but I do not think that marriage lasted real long. He died within a few years of their marriage.


I have memories as a child riding the train to Minneapolis with my Aunt Daisy, sister and cousin to visit Aunt Grace and Aunt Gladys. My aunt Daisy was close to them, so we went once every summer. Great memories.



Lesson for the Day BACK UP Files

Well I could cry, I was working my family research on http://www.ancestry.com/ last night. My plan for this last week and now starting on 2nd week is to work on my great grandfather Arthur Hall family. I had put in his brothers and sisters names into http://www.ancestry.com/ to see if I could find any information.
On my to do list I want to see if I have them in my family tree program. This morning I open up my family tree file. Nothing is left in my program except about 20 names. Some how when I was working on a part of my family I saved this information over my family tree program.
How did I do this I do not know but everything is gone. Over 10,000 names.
We pull out my family tree back up file and my CD drive is not working. Will not read the file. Hubby puts CD in to his CD drive. He can see that I have information on the CD but he does not have family tree down loaded on his computer so of course can not open.
What do I do? Take computer to Best Buy to see own much to fix my CD drive on a computer that is 4 years old? I know that I can not buy a new computer. I guess my plan is to see how much a CD player that I can plug into my computer cost. That is my first plan and then i will compare to getting my computer fixed. In the mean time I am sitting here very sad and wanting to cry.
So lesson is back up your files. I know I did not back up all the information I had on my family tree program, but there is a lot there.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Putting depth to the history of my Ancestor


I love searching around the Internet for anything relating to genealogy that I can add to my own research.
I am blogging and searching my great grandfather Arthur Reynolds Hall this week. He was my father's grandfather. He was born September 19, 1863 in Evansville Rock County, Wisconsin to George Wilbur and Louisa Marie( Reynolds) Hall
What was happening around this happy event in my ancestors family.
In my searching I found this site http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=870&o_iid=23560&o_lid=23560. From there I found the year in question.
this is copied from their site so not only can you read what happened but you also can have the link to more information.

The Year Was 1863
The year was 1863 and the U.S. was embroiled in the Civil War. Notable battles that year included those at Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. One of the most well-known battles of the Civil War, 1-3 July 1863, the Union Army, led by General George G. Meade met General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Virginia at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to engage in one of the largest battles to ever take place on American soil involving more than 160,000 men.


The battle would result in more than 23,000 Union casualties and between 20,000 and 25,000 Confederate. Later that year, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to speak at the consecration of a cemetery where he would deliver his famous Gettysburg Address, on 19 November 1863.


Earlier that year, on 1 January, Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves held in Confederate states were to be free, and further declared that they “be received into the armed service of the United States.” Following this proclamation, the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer infantry became the first northern all-Black Union regiment.


Not all of the Civil War soldiers of 1863 were volunteers. In March of that year, the National Conscription Act began a draft registration for men between twenty and thirty-five. The conscription process allowed for wealthy men to hire substitutes or buy exemption for $300. The process angered those who couldn't afford to get out of service, and following the news of devastating casualties from Gettysburg, when a list of draftees was listed in New York papers, rioting ensued. Mobs attacked the armory and then took to the streets, targeting blacks and abolitionists in a horrific manner. Federal troops, many of them fresh from the fields of Gettysburg, had to be called in to quell the riots.


In partitioned Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, another protest of a draft, in this case into the Russian Tsarist army, resulted in an insurrection known as the January Uprising. After the uprising failed, the Russian government executed hundreds, and more than 18,000 people were exiled to Siberia.


Another proclamation by President Lincoln would be of a more peaceful nature. On 3 October, he issued a proclamation calling for a national day of Thanksgiving to be held on the last Thursday of November. (The full-text of the proclamation appeared in the 13 October 1863 issue of the “Adams Sentinel,” which can be found on the blog entry for this article and in the Ancestry Historical Newspaper Collection. (Click on the newspaper image in the upper right corner to enlarge it.)
In other U.S. news in 1863, Arizona and Idaho were organized as U.S. territories, and West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state.


The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in 1863, inspired by a book written by Henry Dunant, a Swiss man who had visited an Italian battlefield and asked “Would it not be possible, in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies for the purpose of having care given to the wounded in wartime by zealous, devoted and thoroughly qualified volunteers?”
In London, crowds gathered in January hoping for a ride on the first underground train, a project aimed at cutting down on the congestion on London streets.


There is a printer friendly copy of this which I copied and put in my genealogy binder with his other information. As I am showing my grand children and others this book, not only are they looking at recording of births, deaths, children , the census reports and pictures of my great grandfather Arthur and family, there is history around this period of time for them to read.
An interesting foot note to me is less than one hundred miles away in Fon du lac, Wisconsin my great great grandfather John Lockwood was courting and soon would marry Betsey Jane Eddington on September 25th, 1963. John would enlist in the 2nd Calvary Wisconsin on August 29th, 1964 to join the war. John is an ancestor on my mother's side. http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Evansville&1s=WI&1y=US&1l=42.7803&1g=-89.299202&1v=CITY&2c=Fond+Du+Lac&2s=WI&2y=US&2l=43.773102&2g=-88.446899&2v=CITY. Of course there were no freeways or cars then. Wagons were the method of travel. Cars did not come till later.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Whats New at Ancestry.com

Just wanted to let you know some of the new things at www.ancestry.com. If you are a member of ancestry.com you can check out these links.

Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War
Regiments and armories of Massachusetts: an historical narration of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, Vols. 1-2
Australian Convict Transportation Registers – First Fleet, 1787-1788
Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Second Fleet, 1789-1790
Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Third Fleet, 1791
Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868
Annual report of the Adjutant General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1863-1865



Has been really hot here in Texas the last few weeks so we pretty much stayed in on Sunday in the air conditioned apartment. The great thing about that is I just sat in front of the computer much of the day and searched on http://www.ancestry.com/ . I had been in contact with a distant cousin and she emailed me that she had posted pictures and information on my dad's side of the family. How fun is it to see a picture of a my great grandfather Adam and great grandmother Rachel in a wedding photo. They married in 1886. They are suppose to look like they are in a boat. How cute is that. His dream was to see the ocean before he passed away. They got as far as Colorado in their moves. He never made it to the ocean. When I spent 3 years in San Diego and would walk the beaches I would think about his wish and was glad I had made it there even for only three years.
Then there was the picture of my great great great grand father Bella Millsap that I saw for the first time . Sad thing it was a picture of him at the bed side of his second wife who had passed away. I can just feel the saddest in him. His first wife had died in 1835 so this picture is some time after that. I have not found the date of her death yet. Some say she died in 1838 at the age of 39 years. When you look at the picture she is not 39 years old. She is an old lady. That is why you never want to down load someone's information. I will take the hint and try to prove it but will want to find my own information if I can. I found so much more but will share that with you another night.
If you have not checked out www.ancestry.com give it a look. I love all that I have found. Sorry I put off joining till lately.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Plan of Action Investigate a Sibling or Cousin

My plan of action was to learn more about my Great grandfather Arthur R Hall. I have spent several hours on http://www.ancestory.com/ and have gathered the census for Arthur and his wife, and his daughters including my Grandma Alta.
I found a small genealogy book my aunt Alice wrote about the Hall family and learned some things about Arthur and on his father George. We will go into George at a later post.
Arthur was born in Evansville Wisconsin in 1805. His father was George and his mother was Louisa ( Reynolds ) Hall. As a child he attended school at Union Township Section 20 at the stone school house built in 187? He then attended and graduated from the Evansville Seminary in 1884. I have not found as of yet that he practiced in the ministry.
He helped build the third home, a 2 story house on his parents farm and at least 2 other that were similar about town.
He went on a adventure to Denver Colorado where he married Mable Jane Coleman August 28, 1891. I know nothing about their romance at this time. When did they meet and where. Did he visit Denver earlier and return to marry her or was living in Denver for a period of time part of the adventure.
After marrying the couple moved to Chicago, Illinois and lived there for seven years. ( Other records have it as 4 years so I am not sure.)
This would of been during the Chicago World's fair in 1893. I have in my possession a souvenir from that fair. This souvenir was passed down to me from my grandma Alta who was their daughter. I wonder if he help build this magnificent fair.
This was an exciting time in Chicago. I read the fiction / non fiction book " Devil in a White City " by Erik Larson http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html. It was a great read about this time.
Arthur was a carpenter and fathered 3 daughters. They were living in Chicago when my grandma was conceived , she was born in Evansville Wisconsin. They must of gone there to visit family just before her birth. They returned to Chicago where the second daughter Mae Bell was born in 1895. In 1898 they moved to Nebraska and lived in Geneva where in 1901 the third daughter Pearl was born. They also lived in Taylor Nebraska for awhile. In 1919 they moved to Crawford Nebraska. While visiting his daughter Alta ( Hall ) Zion in Craig Colorado he passed away of hardening of the arteries around his heart.July 8 1919. He was returned to Crawford and buried. I am on a search for his grave. Notes on his wife my great grandma Mabel say that she died in Arkansas and she also was buried in Nebraska so they are probably together.
I need to get the census reports for Mabel (Coleman) Hall his wife, this hopefully will tell me where she was living shortly before they married. Was she in Chicago with her family during that period. But that is for another day in my search for my great grandfather Arthur Hall and my great grandma Mabel Coleman Hall.

More Best Web Sites 10 Best Web Sites to See Dead People



Here are a few more Best Web Sites that from family tree. This post has been taken from http://familytreemagazine.com/article/10-obituary-web-sites

Use these sites to find obituaries, cemeteries and other traces of your departed ancestors.
American Battle Monuments Commission If you have military ancestors buried in US cemeteries abroad, this is the place to find them. The site covers 24 overseas military cemeteries with almost 125,000 American war dead, plus Tablets of the Missing that memorialize more than 94,000 US servicemen and -women.
AncientFaces $ This collection of nearly 50,000 old family photos also offers family stories and recipes, plus Family Spaces Web pages on which to share them (starting at $29.95 a year).
Cemetery Surveys View nearly 240,000 burial records, many with photos of the actual headstones; the site is richest in coverage for the southeastern United States. You can even import your finds into Google Earth.
DeadFred $ A longtime favorite, this genealogy photo archive has helped more than 1,400 people reunite with pictures of their ancestors. It's free to search the archive of more than 92,000 records representing more than 16,000 surnames. Paying members ($19.95 a year) get customization options and enhanced photo posting.
Find a GraveThis simple-yet-powerful cemetery database has grown to more than 31 million grave transcriptions. You can search by name (with options for maiden names and partial surnames), birth date, death date or cemetery location, or browse a cemetery for people you think might be your ancestors. There's also a surname index and the Social Security Death Index. .. this is one site I have started searching and have now joined them as a find a grave member.
Interment.netThough smaller than Find a Grave, Interment.net is likewise worth a look—its user-submitted gravestone records cover cemeteries that no longer exist, along with graveyards beyond the United States. Special collections cover veterans' cemeteries, flooded cemeteries, California mission graveyards and Woodmen of the World burials.
Kentucky Historical Society In addition to a searchable catalog and digital collections, this handsome site serves up the Kentucky Cemetery Records Database—hundreds of thousands of names transcribed from gravestones across Kentucky, from urban cemeteries to rural plots.
MortalitySchedules.com Don't you just hate it when you find an inconsiderate ancestor who died right before the next census? Now you can track him or her with the help of this site: It provides free transcriptions of the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census mortality schedules, in which enumerators recorded information on all people who perished within the 12 months preceding the census.
Names in Stone $ Not nearly as data-rich—yet—as more established cemetery sites, this newcomer nonetheless has a great concept: You can search for a grave and get a map showing where it is in the cemetery and whose plots are nearby. Searching is free, and you get not only the information on a tombstone but also the grave's location, the cemetery name, a cemetery map, the address, GPS coordinates and driving directions. Paying members ($7.95 per month, $39.99 per year) can save searches and a "cemeteries of interest" list, get automated- search notifications and receive discounts on "virtual gravestone décor." Only about a dozen states are represented to date, but this one's worth watching.
Nationwide Gravesite LocatorThis Department of Veterans Affairs Web site—a domestic counterpart to the aforementioned American Battle Monuments Commission site—searches burial locations of veterans and their family members in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries and various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries. It also includes veterans buried in private cemeteries where the grave is marked with a government grave marker.
So many places to search for our information. Hope that you enjoy these sites and find something interesting in your own ancestor hunt.

Happy Fourth Of July Let Freedom Ring




I want to take this time to wish all of you a Happy Fourth of July. As I am spending time with my family today I will also be reflecting on all I am grateful for. I live in America the land of the free. I have the freedom to vote, the freedom to protest, the freedom of religion. My ancestors came here as early as the 1600's. I have found three direct grandfathers that fought in the American Revolution. My sweet late dad was in the Merchant Marines during World War 11. At one point during the war his ship torpedoed. Only one life was lost during that incident. My youth was spent during the Viet Nam War. I lost school mates to that terrible war. I know of Veterans who are still fighting that war within themselves. I have walked the Vietnam Memorial , touched the names and cried. May God Bless these men and women the ones still with us and the ones we have lost.


We are still at war and during the this holiday while we are spending time at picnics or other family doings we have soldiers in foreign lands who are in danger so we can still be free. Lets take some time today and every day to pray for them. To pray for their safety and for them to return home to their families alive.


Today I am sharing some pictures of my visit to the Statue of Liberty. This picture of the Statue of Liberty was taken on a trip to New York in 2000


Take care, Be safe and thank a member of the Armed Service for all they do. And while you are at it thank a police officer, fireman/woman

Friday, July 3, 2009

A Historical Cemetery in Rosenberg Texas McNabb Family



I am not sure what there is about people who love to wander the cemetery and look at grave stones of people who are not their own family but I am one of them. I of course love finding my own family's gravestones, but they are scattered across the United States and Europe.
I found this wonderful old cemetery here in Texas thanks to my brother in law Larry. He loves history and old cemeteries like I do. Part of this wonderful old cemetery there are a great number of historical grave stones.
It was quiet and peaceful there. The sky was blue and it was hot - to hot to be there, but I still I wandered and took pictures for a bit.
I had posted awhile back about the top ten genealogy sites and http://www.findagrave.com/ was one of them.
This is a wonderful site where people just like me who love to wander cemeteries can post information and pictures about the gravestones of the famous and the non famous just for the historical or genealogy fact. I can sit here in my home and visit http://www.findagrave.com/ and see the grave stone of my great grandfather Adam Zion in Colorado and someone else can see the gravestones I am posting tonight and the next few evenings at that site.
Tonight I posted the tombstones of a family. I have not been able to find any information on them on the Internet yet but here is the information from their gravestones.
As you are facing the head stones on the left hand side is Johnnie McNabb who was born September 21 1902 and who died January 8 1944. My question is was Johnnie a female or a male? Did they name females Johnnie in 1902 after a father named John.
The middle tombstone is much larger and is that of Alexander D McNabb who was born May 4 1854 and who died February 20 1911. Printed also on his stone is "Women of the World Memorial. " Makes me wonder why this printed on a man's headstone. The tombstone on the right side of Alexander is Charlien Gloyd McNabb who was born September 27 1868 and died June 12 1929. This was probably his wife. I wonder if Gloyd a maiden name or middle name.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Plan of Action Investigate a Sibling or Cousin


My plan of action for this next week is to find information on a sibling or cousin of one of my ancestors. We often can get tunnel vision in our search to find our ancestors, and we overlook extended family members.

So this week I will search for information on my great grandfather Arthur Hall who married Mabel Jane Coleman. I know so little about him. I hope to find more information by not only searching him but looking for information on his brothers and sisters.
This picture is of Arthur Hall and his wife Mabel Coleman Hall with their children Mae Belle, Alta Louise and Pearl Myrtle. Alta is my grandmother.

Lets see if I can find anything new on this family.

 I am nowhere  done searching for my roots. For my missing family members.  So many to fine so little time.  This has been a hard few years ...