Tag: Genealogy

Genealogy, My Family Tree

The Holidays

Becky

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.

Happy Holidays and hugs to you all!

Genealogy, My Family Tree, Paternal Side

George Ritchey – My 3rd-Great-Grandfather

Becky

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!

This photo was uploaded onto FamilySearch.org

His Birth

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
Genealogy

It’s Family History Month!

Becky

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.

Here is to a successful Family History Month!

Genealogy, Maternal Side, My Family Tree

I’m Doing It Again

Becky

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. 

Genealogy, My Family Tree, Paternal Side

Down the Rabbit Hole

Becky

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.

12 Ancestors in 12 Months

Month #1: Foundations

Becky

As you begin your family tree, one item is essential: you must have a strong foundation.

What is the foundation of your family tree, you ask? That is simple. It all begins with you. And then your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, I am sure that you get my meaning. You have to have good, solid facts on yourself, your mom and dad, everything in order to have a strong tree.

Trust me, I know the lure of just adding person after person in your tree. It’s exciting as you get up higher and higher into the branches as you find a fifth-great-grandmother here, and a seventh-great-grandfather there. But if you haven’t done your due diligence down below, you know, where YOU are, and YOUR PARENTS are… you aren’t going to know for certain if your fifth-great-grandmother is really who you are related too.

I am a person who does the horrible, awful no-good type of researching because I skip around (and I have a feeling there are more people like me out there than aren’t). They say you should just work on one branch at a time. I am sure that is the smart way of doing things but there are days I want to work on my dad’s side of the family, and other days when I feel like getting my mom’s family a little more under control. It’s called variety, and I love variety (it is the spice of life, after all). Not to mention sometimes you have people on both sides of your family curious about what you are finding, and you don’t want to disappoint anyone, so I skip around and do both.

Sometimes on the same day.

But you always begin with you. And once you know about you, you can move onto your parents, and their siblings which leads to your grandparents, and their siblings, and so on. Yes, I’m the type that likes to work on the collateral people as I work my way up because you never know when you are going to find a distant aunt or cousin that may come back and help you figure out a puzzle later on (like, great-great-grandma was living with an aunt, and it wasn’t popping up in an Ancestry or FamilySearch search).

But it’s always best to find everything you can, or at least all the vital records and census records before moving up to the next direct line ancestor. This gives you a strong foundation for your genealogical research. And a strong foundation helps you build a very healthy tree.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Genealogy

Week 52: Future

Becky

The final week of 52 Ancestors in 52 Week’s has a heavier topic than normal (I type as I laugh as some of the themes have really made me think hard). This week’s is no exception with the prompt of “Future”.

Family Lines

I’m going to seize the moment and really focus on 2 lines from each side of my family. The Warner’s and Gustin’s on my Mom’s side and the Blair’s and Aker’s on my Dad’s side. I’m sure others may pop up with interest (for example, my Dunbar’s married a Warner so I could stray a bit that way), or maybe I’ll have a moment when I want to research my maternal grandfather’s side of the family, and since they are all in England, you utilize that mood when it strikes.

The Warner’s

My genealogy future will be me going into a little more detail on my mom’s side of the family, the Warner’s to be precise. While attempting to look up some information on Thankful Chapin, who I believe to be my fifth-great-grandmother on my maternal side of the family, I realized not only do I not have the paperwork to back this up (though her years of being alive do) but I don’t have confirmation that her supposed son, Oliver Charles Warner, is a son of Joel Warner. By exploring this portion of my tree, it will help me explore other areas of this side, and since my great-great-grandmother, Mazie, was a Warner, they are extra special (because for some reason she is extra special to me, I truly feel she would have liked me).

The Gustin’s

If I am going to write more about the Warner’s I may as well learn more about Mazie’s mother, Orienta Gustin and her parents, Benjamin Gustin and Nancy Return Gault. I remember being so tickled upon finding Orienta’s photo that I want to know more about this amazing lady and her lineage as well.

The Blair’s

Oh, it wouldn’t be a year of genealogy if I didn’t try to work on my Blair brick wall, now would it? Observing in the past weeks of various DNA matches I saw that a person who was placed in the middle of my Blair’s on FamilySearch’s one big tree is on a DNA matches tree. Though there is a possibility that the person has the wrong fellow in his tree, just in case that I am somehow related to the infamous Andrew Sloan Blair I am investigating him by putting him on an experimental, private tree. I will never know if there is some sort of distant connection until I build a tree and flesh it out. The worse thing I do is waste my time. (And honestly, I have no idea how this will all pan out).

The Aker’s

And it’s not fair to write about the Blair’s and not bring in Susanna Akers. I so wish to know more about my third-great-grandmother on my paternal side. Just how they appear and disappear from thin air has me especially intrigued. I hope to find her. Or whatever Susanna’s last name is. I still feel the key is with their second youngest son, George Washington Blair.

Expanding My Researching

This year I plan on doing something I have never done before. Going to specific places to research, and try to utilize knowledge from groups I already belong too.

Family History Center

I am going to get the courage to go into my local Family History Center and ask for help on how to use their facility (assuming they are open – with the different Covid variants running around, this may be another pipe dream). I know that there are files for Oliver Charles Warner that I can hopefully view in the Family History Center, so this is one of the reasons why I am planning on using this wonderful place to find out what I need.

AmericanAncestors.org

I signed up for the AmericanAncestors.org website to utilize as my mother’s family is from New England (you may recognize these names, the Warner’s, the Chapin’s – all from Massachusetts). This appears to have so much great information that I plan on utilizing it more for my research so I can better understand this area of the world and hopefully learn so much more about my relatives. As a person who absolutely loves the history involving the beginning of our country, this should be a wonderful treat me for me.

The Genealogy Center

Since I live within four hours of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I hope that I can go and visit the Genealogy Center in the Allen County Public Library over a weekend. I know I need to be ready to research what I need to find out if I go there, but it just seems like a great resource for me to go since I just live in the state next door.

Continue with my Blog

My other goal is to continue with my blog. I know I was able to increase those who follow me this past year and that is great. I like to think that means people are enjoying what I’m writing. I hope to add more history book reviews in the mix, and more how to articles, as well as the occasional prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (I’ve still signed up for it – just may not do it every week – I’ll write when the feeling strikes or the theme is too enticing that I can’t say no).

I enjoy sharing what I know that if maybe it helps someone else with their research, all the better. And I’ve actually chatted via email/Facebook messenger with distant cousins because of my blog and that had made it that more exciting!

Continue to Learn

I love to read books about genealogy. I have various books on finding church records, the Genealogical Proof Standard, books detailing women’s lives (The Hidden Half of the Family), researching newspapers, and the like. I’m also trying to get more out of the genealogical memberships that I belong to from my local county chapter to my state and even NHS as they have all kinds of learning opportunities for free and some classes you can purchase. All of them will allow me to be the best researcher I can be.

I also want to be a better participant in the Facebook groups and on Twitter. If you aren’t a part of the Twitter genealogy scene, you are missing out. So many wonderful people in the social media world.

So that is what my genealogical future holds. All in all it’s about learning. You can never learn too much!

Genealogy

It’s October!!!!

Becky

October is one of the greatest months of the year because it means we all have an excuse to work on our genealogy!

Not that we ever have to have a reason to continue to work on our family trees, but it is a month filled with educational webinar’s, podcasts, and articles that will further our knowledge to find our ancestors.

So I hope you are all able to enjoy the month and get the most out of all the opportunities that are out there. May you break down your brick wall and move on to new ones!

Genealogy

Bringin’ It Home 2021

Becky

Today is an exciting day! It’s the first day of the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference with the theme of “Bringin’ It Home”. When the co-chairs came up with the theme they had no idea that we would still be living in a virtual world, but here we are, having the conference from the comforts of our living rooms, or porches, or attics, or dining rooms!

The first day is workshops and this year I signed up for one. When I went to my first conference 2 years ago when it was in Mason, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati) I opted to do the meet and greet. This year I am attending my first workshop that will discuss what it takes to be a professional genealogist.

Then Thursday through Saturday we begin the many classes and online exhibitors. What makes this years a little more unique is that any session that is pre-recorded you can watch anytime through April 20 so you can try to seize the “live” sessions so you can get even more knowledge than you thought!

I’m looking forward to learning a great deal. Last week I attended a couple of sessions that the Indiana Genealogical Society offered and on Saturday, Lisa Louise Cooke was the speaker and what stuck with me was her comment about how every day we are a better researcher than the day before because we are always learning new things. And that is so true. You are never looking at the same document in the same way because every day we become more knowledgeable with what we are doing and learning.

So keep that in mind when you go check out at an old document, you have probably learned quite a bit since you last looked at.

Wishing all those attending this week’s Ohio Genealogical Society Conference a wonderful time!

The official logo for the Conference and it’s main sponsor, Vivid-Pix.

Genealogy

Timelines: The Unsung Hero of Genealogy

Becky

An important tool for genealogy research is a timeline. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, as long as it helps you on your family history journey.

The timeline allows you to put your family member’s life events that you are aware of in chronological order. These events include:

  • Birth
  • Marriage(s)
  • Death
  • Birth of Children
  • Death of Children
  • Death of Parents
  • Census Location
  • Historical Events: National, State, Local

Once you have all of your events listed, you will see how they migrated, or even stayed in the same area, or if you are missing information all together over a period of time, you can determine what records you need to fill in the gaps. But most importantly, a timeline can help you get to know your ancestor in a way you hadn’t before.

Types of Timelines

There are primarily 3 different ways you can create a timeline for your genealogy. Timelines can be found in genealogy software, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, you can draw them by hand or you can create in a spreadsheet. Below I will go into detail of all of these.

Genealogy Software Programs

If you use a genealogy software program to keep track of your ancestors, you probably already have a timeline or chronology section for this purpose. I use Legacy Family Tree and here is a timeline for my great-great-grandmother, Mazie Warner.

You can see her age in the left hand column and you may find a gap of where additional information is needed. This is is not a complete picture, it’s what would fit on my screen so you can still read it.

Online trees such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org offer timelines too. On Ancestry it is easy to miss as it’s the “Facts” view on a person’s information page.

My Ancestry page on my great-great-grandmother, Mazie Lorenia Warner. You can see how the years are off to the left going down in a timeline form.

To access the timeline for a person on FamilySearch.org you just need to highlight the second option (to the right of “Details”) to show the chronology of your person’s life. If nothing else this exercise has brought to my attention that I do not have the 1880 census as a source for Mazie on FamilySearch.

Draw a Timeline By Hand

Sometimes simple is best and the easiest way is to draw a timeline by hand. For many this is a great way because by writing out the documents you have in chronological order, you see how their life progressed. I feel using colored pencils may nice to use because you could have selected Green for all birth dates, Red for all Death Dates, etc.

My attempt at a hand-drawn timeline.

Using a Spreadsheet

I discovered a YouTube video done by Anne Mitchell for Ancestry.com on how to create a simple timeline using a spreadsheet that included a column devoted to “Thought’s and Comments” which was a space that included your analysis of the timeline, and where you could add the types of records that you needed to look up for any gap you may have found. This type of timeline can be used with a Spreadsheet in Excel or Google Sheets, or by creating a table in Word or Google Docs.

Creating Timelines to Better Understand Records and Families – by Anne Mitchell via Ancestry.com was a YouTube video I watched that instructed me on this homemade table/spreadsheet

I found this to be extremely helpful when working on my family members. By typing out what I had and knew it allowed me to not only really look at each document closely, but pointed out what documents I still needed to find.

Original Research

What do I mean by “original research”? It’s the research you do when you are looking for something specific that you don’t have. Something not handed to you in the form of a hint on a database program (such as Ancestry.com’s leaf hints or the “Research Help” suggestions on FamilySearch.org).

By creating a timeline of your ancestors you can then move onto original research as you find the missing documents to fill in the gaps that you find. For example, I only have a date of my great-great-grandparents marriage from a Marriage Index I found but I do not have the actual marriage license confirming the date of 2 January 1894. I need to go in search of this record that took place in Wellsville, Allegany, New York.

As you continue to see what information you are missing for your person, think about what records you need to find. For example if you find that your people are moving around, try to find them in city directories, or look through land records to see if you are able to find where your ancestor was either the seller of their old property or a buyer for their new (they should be listed on both). If your person fought in a war look to see if maybe they had any land warrants for serving.

Also remember that not all records are found online. There is that chance you may have to research in person for the records that you seek. Sometimes you will be fortunate to contact someone in the records/archives where you people lived and will have time to look for you (though a price may be involved).

I hope you enjoyed learning about the different ways that you can create timelines for your research and I hope you begin to implement them in your family history journey.