The holidays are a wonderful time of the year where you can’t help but think of family traditions. I often wonder if any of the things I do were the same things that my family did. I can only assume that they were. But what traditions were unknowingly handed down? I wasn’t smart enough to ask such questions when the women in the know were still around. Maybe I’ll ask my dad if he knows of anything. He often surprises me with the stuff he knows. I think he surprises himself as well.
I’ve recently finished up doing most of the decorating of my house. I have a table to move up into my room as the Christmas tree stands where this end table does the rest of the year. It becomes a night stand on the other side of my bed in the month of December (it blocks the heater and I have it in my head it doesn’t spread the air around as nice when it’s not there). I also need to put my battery operated Thomas the Tank Engine out. This often takes turns between being underneath the tree and on my coffee table – it just depends on where I feel like placing it. It went under the tree for years but then we got a new tree and the base is much wider than the previous tree.
My tree
But all the thoughts of family have gotten me back into a groove of wanting to work on my family tree. This is improvement as it seems like I haven’t been in that mood for a while. I began setting up a research plan on my great-grandfather today, one I know I’ve written about here and there in the past but haven’t really focused a lot of research on him. Today that will change.
Anyhow, I hope you all get through the holidays and maybe find out a little bit about past holidays in the process. If you have lost someone special, my thoughts go out to you. This is my first Christmas without my sister and I’ve really had a much harder time processing her death than I ever would have thought. You see we never really got along much, but I never realized how much I sought her out for advice until she was gone.
Over a year ago I began a bit of focused research on my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Ritchey. I still have a few bits of information to figure out, one being to finalize that his parents are Heinrich Ritchey and Catherine Strickler, and who are all his siblings, but for most everything else, I think I’ve been able to gather a lot of information about him.
One thing that surprised me was a photo that is listed on FamilySearch.org of him. I shall post it here – I have no idea if this is truly him, but it’s exciting to think this is what he looked like. I love photos so much!
George Ritchey was born 15 July 1810 in Providence, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. This date was eluded to in his obituary with the statement of “88 years, 4 months, and 4 days” (taken from the Everett Press). I believe this to be accurate because the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses all seem to back up his year of birth as well.
Who Are His Parents?
As previously mentioned, confirming that Heinrich “Henry” Ritchey and Catherine Strickler are his parents is something I have not yet proven. I believe I must have noted that they were his parents from the big tree on FamilySearch.org. Just about every tree on Ancestry.com notes the same parents, but I really don’t see them having any proof either. George’s obituary does not mention anything about his parents. It only mentioned his wife, children, and brothers.
I did try to do a search through Newspapers.com to see if there were any articles in reference to Henry Ritchey but did not get any hits. I have searched both FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com to see if I could find a will for Heinrich “Henry” Ritchey that could note his children, but came up short so far. I reached out to Bedford County for a Will from 1856 for a Henry Ritchey, hoping that maybe it was for mine, that it just took 7 years to get through everything, but it did not seem to be my Henry Ritchey.
My next plan is to begin with the (4) children of Heinrich and Catherine that I am aware of and work from there. FamilySearch.org has 9 children listed for them so I have a lot of work to do on this couple.
I, George, Take Thee, Anna
George Ritchey married the former Anna Cypher on 30 August 1838 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The reference of his marriage is one of my favorite parts of George’s lengthy obituary, I’ve placed a snippet from the Everett Press write-up below, but I’ll only transcribe a portion here. “On the 30 of August, 1838, at Cypher, Pennsylvania, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Cypher, who as a most devoted and cheerful companion, filled his life with sunshine…”. Isn’t that just one of the most wonderful things anyone could have written about her? What a remarkable way to be remembered.
This snippet was taken from George Ritchey’s obituary from the Everett Press on Newspapers.com
Eleven Kids?
As the Everett Press snippet above states, George and Anna had 11 kids who all lived into adulthood.
Catherine Ritchey Bessor
Elizabeth Ritchey Grove
Rachel Ritchey Eshelman
Sarah Ritchey Smith
William Cypher Ritchey
Mary Ann Ritchey Morgart Hughes*
Daniel Edward Ritchey
Amanda Jane Ritchey McGraw
Alice Emma Ritchey Barton
George Grant Ritchey
David Theodore Ritchey
They were a blessed couple to have such a large family. Anna was aged 19-47 (only having been 47 for a week with David) when she had her children. Most were clockwork every 2-years except the last few which were closer to 3-4 years apart. I placed an asterisk next to Mary Ann Ritchey as she is who I descend from.
They raised this family in East Providence, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 Censuses all list them as dwelling in East Providence. I believe that both George and Anna lived in Bedford County their entire lives.
His Work & Interests
According to all (4) censuses, George was a farmer. When I did a quick search of the types of crops grown in Bedford County between 1850-1895, it appeared they could have grown a variety of staple crops including grains, potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Livestock was also bred in this area of the country which would provide both dairy and meat for this large family. I still need to look up tax records and maybe this will detail this information.
George belonged to the Knights of the Golden Eagle, which was a fraternal organization that began in 1873 whose rituals were based on those of the Crusaders. George was a member of the Everett Castle and had been installed as an officer the year he passed away. He was the W.C. or Worthy Chief, which was the presiding officer of the local chapter.
This article was taken from the Everett Press from 7 January 1898
He was known to host huge picnics on his property where people could fish in the nearby stream.
In another article from the newspaper, he lost his wallet, or in this case his “pocket book” which makes so much sense. I found it interesting the reward.
This article was found on Newspaper.com in the Bedford Inquirer on 12 April 1861
His Death
George passed away on 19 November 1898. His family provided an outstanding obituary that detailed his life (everything but his parents) and helped me quite a bit as I have attempted to research him.
This is the entire obituary found on Newspapers.com from the Everett Press
Family History Month takes place every October. I got a kick-start last month when an area FamilySearch Center had a Family History Day in late September to get my mojo going. The keynote speaker was one of my favorites, Sunny Jane Morton, who gave her presentation on PERSI 2.0 (and despite having learned about PERSI so many times over the 9 years of being serious about my genealogy, this time I finally got it).
In the coming weeks, I will be attending the Early Morning Genealogy my local library is hosting. We get to hang out in the Special Collections division where the library opens up to us an hour early to begin researching. I’ve said it a zillion times, I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful resource. With a wide array of genealogy databases available for free (many are viewable at the local branches but a few are Main Library specific), I should be able to find some information about whoever I choose to explore that day.
At the end of the month my own county’s FamilySearch Center is hosting their Family History Day where they will have programming introducing researchers of all levels to the various online databases – Ancestry, AI, Find My Past, Find a Grave, etc. Though I know a lot of things about a lot of the different programs, I always learn something I didn’t know, or could simply be reminded about something I have forgotten.
Check your local libraries and FamilySearch Centers to see if there are free programs near you to attend. It’s always fun just to get together with other researchers and learn about their discoveries because it may give you an idea on how to chip away at a problem you’re having.
For the first time in months I sat down this morning and worked on my genealogy. For the last 2.5 years I worked with an investigative company completing military repatriation cases. And as much as I enjoyed finding the relatives for those MIA/KIA World War II soldiers, it made me feel more and more guilty whenever I took a moment to work on my own family history.
So I called it quits.
Genealogy was a hobby that I so enjoyed. It wasn’t just finding out the stories of my ancestors, but it was meeting cousins along the way, because often they were like me, searching for their own roots, so it was a win-win, I found people like me!
Sadly, today had me begin adding the death certificate information into my program for my sister, Kellie, who passed away on June 25. I’m sure I’ll delve into that whole thing in the coming months. It could be therapeutic for me. I know she is at peace, but she brought a lot of her issues onto herself, and that’s the challenging part for me as the surviving sibling. It’s where the anger comes in.
Looking forward to getting back to work on my favorite hobby and sharing my relatives and their stories with you. Thank you for your patience during my downtime.
I should be posting Chronicles on social media using prompts about my family. But sometimes you get stuck and then you fall behind, which is where I am at presently. So I have decided to post them here from now on and should I stay on schedule, I’ll post them on Instagram as well.
Here is a prompt from March – it’s the day in the life of an ancestor, I’ve opted to write about my 2nd-great-grandfather, Arthur Dunbar.
Arthur Dunbar
Today I’m discussing the day in the life of an ancestor. According to the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census, Arthur J. Dunbar, my 2nd-great-grandfather on my mom’s maternal side, was a farmer. In the 1910 Census, it specified his farm as a “general farm”. Until I can find a copy of the Agricultural Schedule to determine exactly what his farm had, I’m going to assume a general farm is your basic farm – with vegetables and animals.
As I decided to dig deeper into the best crops for Potter County, PA I learned that most farms were best suited for dairy and poultry farms and potatoes! (No one loves potatoes more than me). Farming back in the early 1900’s was hard work (it’s hard today) but you didn’t have tractors or mechanical tools at this time to make life a little easier. You got up early in the morning and would plow the land using your own strength or that of animals (most likely a horse or a mule). You worked hard all day, from sun up to sun down, ending the day by eating dinner with your family and going to bed early so you could get up and do it all again the next day. Arthur was the father of 3 girls, so it’s not likely that they were able to help out as much as he may have liked.
This is a photo of the 40 acres that my dad now owns in Woodsfield, Ohio (it was originally owned by my grandfather, Leroy Blair)
I’m preparing for another research trip to the Pennsylvania State Archives this week. I’m so excited as it’s a pretty new building that has only been open for a month or two (I think) and I’m going with my PA Ancestors group that I’ve been either listening to via a podcast since 2019 I believe – and a group I’ve been interacting with via Zoom for a bit so needless to say I’m excited that I get to venture to the Pennsylvania state capital to hang out with some genealogy junkies for a day.
Finding Focus
My biggest obstacle so far has been trying to come up with what I’m going to research. I was so excited about just going and meeting my favorite podcast person in person (she knows I am a fan girl) that now that it’s the Monday before the trip I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to focus my research on.
I guess I feel that my people aren’t important enough to make it into the State Archives (probably because I don’t see them being fancy enough to make it into the Bedford County Archives). Not that my people need to be fancy or important, I just wish they’d be found.
Coal Mining
But the Pennsylvania State Archives seems to have a lot of information about coal mining and so a part of me has found myself making a list of names in my family (at least on my dad’s side) of those who were coal miners (so far I’ve listed a dozen men – on just my dad’s paternal side – 2 are my direct line ancestors) in a hope of trying to figure out the mines they may have worked in and a hope of finding out more information about the men themselves (possibly) and the companies they worked for. My next step is to begin researching the men on my dad’s maternal side.
Religious Records
Another topic listed under the Research Guide is that of Religion. As a person who hasn’t really taken as much time as she should to find the religious records of my ancestors, knowing the WPA surveys on church records could come in handy for me – and they are apparently at the Pennsylvania State Archives. I remember these being mentioned a great deal at PaGE last year (this was the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event that was put on by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania). So it’s one more thing I can look into should time permit.
Birth Certificates
I do have a birth certificate I want to get for my great-uncle, Donald Blair. When looking him up in the Birth Indices on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s website, he has no name but found his record due to it also listing his mom’s maiden name (Bertha Childers). I found when I received my grandfather’s birth certificate it noted that he was the fifth birth of my great-grandmother, when he should have been the 4th – so was there another child that I am unaware of? Did they make a boo-boo? I’m hoping that Donald’s says fifth too and that would resolve that. I’ve tried to find my grandfather’s older sister, Genevieve’s birth certificate to see what hers would say, but I have been unsuccessful in finding it. I’ve never found a birth certificate for the oldest child, Darrell Blair either, but do have his death certificate from when he passed away at 4 months old. On Vada’s birth certificate, the second oldest, it does state on her birth certificate that she was born 2nd.
You can see in the center underneath where it has “Vada Blair” written in red where it lists the number order of birth and it states “2nd”. This was found on Ancestry.com
Under the carrot showing Charley Wilmer Blair you can see that he is listed as the Number in Order of Birth is 5th. He should be fourth (Darrell, Vada, Genevieve, Charley Wilmer aka Leroy). This birth certificate I ordered up from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Social History
Lastly, if nothing else I would think there would be Pennsylvania history books there that will enlighten me on the social history of Pennsylvania. Not having been taught in Pennsylvania and learning the specifics of Pennsylvania history I am sure there is something to be learned on the shelves, or even possibly in a museum-like atmosphere that I can gain knowledge on a day in the life of my ancestors. This could be from both parts of my family as I have to remind myself my mom’s family was from northern PA and sometimes it feels like it’s a night and day difference from “Mother Bedford”.
Overcoming My Feeling Overwhelmed
I am sure part of my frustration at this point is that I just feel a bit overwhelmed. I don’t want my trip there to be wasted – as it’s a 5-hour drive for me. But it will give me experience in an archive in what I hope to be a friendly environment.
I shall report more next week when I return from Harrisburg.
I’m having issues. I’m trying to find the will of my fourth-great-grandfather, Heinrich “Henry” Ritchey who died in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1849. The only trouble is I can’t seem to find his will. I’ve looked through the probate records and the only Henry Ritchey was a different Henry Ritchey who died in 1856 (I was hopeful when I requested his will that it was MY Henry Ritchey who just took a long time for his estate to be settled, but alas, it was a different Henry).
So I then began trying to find records in the Orphan’s Court – but I’ve been unsuccessful there as well, looking at the index of the records on FamilySearch and also being led from the FamilySearch Wiki to the Bedford County Historical Society’s index and they don’t have a Henry Ritchey listed either.
So where is Henry?
I’m sure you wonder why is it so important that I find the will of Henry Ritchey? Easy, I have no documentation that states who the parents of my third-great-grandfather, George Ritchey are. I’m rather hopeful that I will find a will and it will state who his children are. I could only be so lucky for him to name everyone (which I’ll admit if he died intestate I had better chances of finding everyone).
So I’m at a loss. My guess is to look in surrounding counties, despite his living in Hopewell, Bedford, Pennsylvania – I suppose he may not have died there after all. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of researching can be hard and frustrating – but sadly, in the end, I know it will be worth it.
A screenshot of my profile of Henry Ritchey and his wife, Catherine Strickler. The children listed are who I have pieced together so far – other sites have more listed – but for some reason I am more limited but still realize I have no true blue documentation of those I have.
I’ve searched Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com (PA edition through my Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania subscription) with no luck. If I didn’t have a date of death I’d swear Henry is hanging with Andrew and Suzanna. (Insert laughing emoji here).
If you have any suggestions for me as I try to gather more pre-1850 information on my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Ritchey to tie him together with who I think is my 4th-great-grandfather, Henry Ritchey – by all means I am open to suggestions. I will continue to do the FAN Club and look up information on others who I believe are Henry’s children (the youngest child that I have for Henry and his wife Catherine was John Ritchey and he died in 1913 so there is a death certificate for him, and though it’s secondary information, Henry and Catherine are noted as his parents… so that’s something). Deep breaths and baby steps. I’ll get there.
We knew it was only a matter of time before I wrote a review on a book about my favorite president. You Never Forget Your First is a clever titled book (or at least I think so) about our first President, George Washington.
One of the interesting quirks of this book is when you begin perusing the pages, it initially reminded me of reading someone’s resume… and to read George’s was interesting. Surveyor, Gentleman Farmer, Land Developer, if it weren’t for the “Virginia Militia Colonel (British Army)” and the “Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses” or even the “Commander in Chief of the Continental Army”, he would seem like an average man living in Colonial times. But George isn’t your average man.
I felt the author, Alexis Coe, did her due diligence as there were interesting facts about George I was not aware of, for example he apparently “took 2-impoverished girls to court for stealing from his clothes while he swam” and “named a dog Cornwallis”. The latter one made me laugh.
The book also includes a recipe for hoecakes, which was a regular breakfast in the Washington household. I found this fascinating, I could actually eat like George and this had me really happy.
She didn’t give a squeaky-clean version of George either. Ms. Coe brought to light how he switched out enslaved people in order to keep them enslaved. He was far from a perfect man, and you are aware he knew better which makes it that much more disappointing.
Overall, I liked the book, the one recurring theme of how shocking it was that a woman was writing about George Washington got old for me. I understand that not many women write about the founding fathers, and I may not have minded that she made the statement once, but it seemed she brought this to light several times, and I just felt like it took away from the actual topic of the book… which was George, not how she was a female writer.
If you are looking for a different, slightly more refreshing take on Washington’s life, then I highly recommend “You Never Forget Your First” as you learn a lot about our first president in a non-conventional way.
I have gone almost a month without a blog post. It just seems like I’ve been so busy and can barely find time to even work on genealogy – despite one of the things keeping me busy in January was a genealogy workshop where I focused on my 3rd-Great-Grandfather, George Ritchey. But I’m still investigating him so I’ll write about him when I get more answers (and I will get more answers – as my research just brought about more questions – don’t you hate that?).
So once again I’m participating in the 10 Days of Chronicles with my PAAncestors.com group. In this particular post I’m finishing up the last 5 days that I wrote about in January – but I’ll make sure I do another post about the Chronicles I’ve been writing for February. Denys has done an excellent job of coming up with prompts that make me think. Enough that most of my posts are coming late in the evening for the simple fact it takes me all day to come up with a proper response.
Anyhow – here are days 6-10 for the month of January:
Day 6 I wrote about my 3rd-Great-Grandfather, Winfield Warner, and his involvement in the Civil War.
Day 7 we talked about a family home. Since I don’t have any photos of anyone closer to me, I posted the photo of the Ryther House in Bernardston, Massachusetts which was built by my 7th-great-grandparents.
Day 8 was the topic of family reunions – so I chose the descendants of my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mazie Warner to meet up with, as many are still in the Akron area.
Day 9 was reconstructing the day in the life of an ancestor. I chose my great-grandmother, Mildred Dunbar, as I inherited some of her clothes when she passed away and she babysat me when I was little.
On Day 10 it was discussing the birthplace of your ancestor so I chose to share the birth record from Sherborn, Massachusetts of my 7th-great-grandfather, David Ryther (though changed to Rider due to religious persecution). He was born in 1719.
This exericse is a great way to get little stories just written down about your ancestor. If you think you may want to sign up for March – make a comment and I’ll make sure I put a link for you to sign up.
So this morning I got up, ate my breakfast, and grabbed my computer so I could start sorting things out with my Ritchey family as I’ve decided they are going to be my focus of the “Discover Your Ancestors Workshop” I am beginning Tuesday. I’m excited, I did one in the fall where I attempted to find Suzanna Akers before 1850. Shocker, I was unsuccessful – but all in good time. So this time I’m focusing on a different part of my family, the Ritchey’s, who I do know something about, mostly my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Ritchey, but haven’t really delved in to them much further.
The rabbit hole I found myself in was when I looked at Ancestry and had 1 death date for my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Ritchey, and I had another in my software. So I decided to go over to FamilySearch to see what it had to say, the tiebreaker if you will (insert your laugh or eye roll here).
But I didn’t even make it to George right away because of the “tasks” or I guess they are now called “Record Hints” on the front page that I saw FamilySearch had waiting there for me. Have you ever worked on these? I often will click on these people and help “clean them up”. Most of the time it’s just a “hint” that FamilySearch has found, a document that needs to be attached to the person as a source. This can be done in about 30 seconds (my direct line people I can do it this quickly, either it’s them or it’s not). Others I will stay away from, as they will be people whose names I don’t immediately recognize and I don’t want to screw anything up on the big tree. But then I fix one person and see their wife’s name and down the rabbit hole I go, only to realize I need to probably spend way more time than I want to because I’m finding duplicate people so I need to merge people and move things around and that’s a project for another day (which is probably why the big tree is as messed up as it is because people really do have intentions of going back in and then they never do). Now I’m feeling guilty.
You can see the Record Hints listed on the right hand side of the graphic, starting with Martha Anne Dickens, John Fairhurst, then William Davidson Mitchell
But see how easy it was to go down that rabbit hole?
For the record, it was my software that was correct, the year was wrong on my Ancestry tree and has now been corrected to 1898 (there was a newspaper article that supported the date of 19 November 1898 which coincides with Probate starting in 1899). However, when I went to FamilySearch I was excited to see someone had apparently posted a photo of George Ritchey on his profile that I hadn’t seen (see what happens when you get so tied up with one set of grandparents, you ignore the others and miss fascinating finds). I was so excited to see this!
Anyhow – I’m sure I’ll share the photo in the near future as I learn more about my Ritchey roots. I hope everyone has a nice weekend – it’s quite blustery here this weekend as a polar vortex is hitting the area. I hear that the Buffalo Bills are willing to pay fans to help shovel out their stadium (here in Ohio we aren’t getting as much snow as we are just getting cold). I don’t blame Buffalo, though, you work hard for a playoff game with home-field advantage, and you don’t want to lose it.
Helping History Come Alive 