Tag: Genealogy

Genealogy, My Family Tree, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Maternal Side

Week 1: An Ancestor I Admire

Becky

This week’s topic for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is to write about an ancestor I admire. It’s so easy to think of my Grandma Blair (Anna Maria Morgart) or even my great-great-grandmother, Mazie Lorenia Warner, but alas, I’ve written about both of them and there isn’t much else to tell (well, I’m sure I have a lot I could still say about Grandma Blair).

So the more I thought about this topic, I realized that writing about someone I know is the easiest way of accomplishing this task so obviously it shrinks the circle down a bit and that’s when it hit me… my great-grandmother, Mildred Laura Dunbar. I’ve written about her often but I’ve only written snippets about her life, so here goes.

Mildred Laura Dunbar

Mildred Laura Dunbar was born on 15 March 1908 to Mazie Lorenia Warner and Arthur James Dunbar in Hebron Township, Potter County, Pennsylvania. She was their 4th and youngest child. Arthur was a farmer and Mazie was a housekeeper, according to her birth certificate.

Mildred was only 5 years old when her father died of adult onset polio on 18 December 1912. Two years later, she gained a step-father in Samuel Joseph Randol. Sometime between March and August 1916, the Randol-Dunbar household moved to Akron, Ohio, settling in the North Hill area.

Mazie and Samuel moved to 75 Rosalind Court, which is where Mildred lived out her childhood. At this time she was 8 years old.

Paul Harrison Geer

The big question mark with my great-grandmother is when did she meet Paul Harrison Geer, her first husband and the man I believe is the father of my grandmother, Alberta Lou Fleming. The Geer’s, you see, lived on the corner of Glenwood and Howard Street, which was not that far from Rosalind Court. Paul’s father Clyde worked at Swinehart Rubber with Mildred’s step-dad, Samuel Randol. Around 1924, Samuel owned a store on Howard Street, one block from the Geer home on Glenwood. So many instances where their lives could have crossed paths. But there is always that chance that they didn’t meet until 1925 when Clyde moved his family in next door to the Randol’s at 71 Rosalind Court.

The romantic in me wants Mildred and Paul to be high school sweethearts, or at least teenage sweethearts. This I will never know. I do know they married on 17 September 1927 in Akron, Ohio by Reverend O.W. Haulman, who was the minister at the Grace Reformed Church (not sure if that is where they got married, however). Their marriage did not last long, with Mildred filing for divorce on 15 January 1929 – stating that Paul was “grossly neglectful of his marital duties” and since 1 March 1928, refusing to provide her food and clothing, making her rely on her parents. He also barely worked, and not only gambled his earnings but visited houses of ill repute (this was what was stated in her divorce papers). The paperwork also stated there were no children born of this marriage but I think something happened between Paul and Mildred between her filing for divorce in January and the finalization of the divorce on 5 September 1929, because I truly feel from DNA results that Alberta Lou Fleming is the daughter of Paul Harrison Geer, despite her birth certificate stating that Albert Nank was her father.

I still give my great-grandmother credit for being the plaintiff in 1929 and filing for divorce from her husband when she wasn’t happy in her marriage. I know in an previous 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks that I discussed her being a “Strong Woman” and I stand by that. Women didn’t have the power to do such things back then, and that she stood up for herself is simply amazing.

Albert William Nank

I have no idea how my great-grandmother met Albert William Nank, her second husband, but she married him on 30 September 1929 by Reverend George M. Smith (I was unable to pinpoint where his congregation may have been). Their honeymoon quickly ended when my grandmother was born on 2 October 1929. I’ve heard countless stories how she was born premature and Mildred was sent home with her newborn and a hot water bottle and told that if the baby survived until morning, that she would need to feed her. I believe my grandmother was just a couple pounds when she was born, and since I’m typing this, you know she survived until the next morning.

But her marriage to Albert wasn’t successful either. On 15 March 1933 (her birthday), Mildred filed for divorce from Albert Nank. She states “gross neglect of duty”, his being unemployed for most of their marriage that she described as an “aversion to hard work”, he provided no money for her or their minor child, and is often “cross and disagreeable”. Their divorce was finalized on 1 June 1933 with Albert being instructed to pay what would essentially be “child support” of $5 per week and he was allowed to spend 1 day each week with his daughter, which I don’t believe he ever did.

My guess is as my grandmother got older I think Albert realized my grandmother was not his child. In all his paperwork pertaining to his joining the Army he always checked the box “no children”. I heard that at one point after Alberta married Harold Fairhurst, Harold made Alberta go and meet with Albert. He ignored her the entire time she visited. I often wonder why he never told her the truth, he had nothing to lose at that point in time, but I’m guessing he must have been willing to keep Mildred’s secret.

I’ll confess before taking the DNA test and not finding any Nank or Jennings DNA matches (I suppose there is a chance no one has taken a test, but unlikely as they seem to be a decent size family in Utica, Macomb County, Michigan). I still feel my grandmother was a very strong woman to file for divorce not once, but twice. I’ll admit my thoughts have skewed a bit over the years because I sometimes feel bad that Paul never had a chance to be a dad to my grandmother.

Howard Fleming

My great-grandmother’s third and final husband was Howard Fleming. As with Albert, I’m not sure how she met Howard, but he was the marriage that stuck. They married 5 August 1933 by Reverend Wayne McQueen, who when I researched him he was the minister of the North Hill United Methodist Church, and their marriage only ended when Howard passed away on 20 March 1972.

Mildred Laura Dunbar, left, Alberta Lou Fleming, center, and Howard Fleming, right. If I had to guess this would be about 1932-1933

My mother was always fond of her Grandpa Fleming though I don’t know too many details about him. My dad said he was a really nice guy, but also said because he seemed to be drunk a majority of the time. At least he was a happy one, I suppose. Howard was a carpenter who worked for a variety of rubber companies throughout Akron.

Mildred and Howard also had two sons, Howard Herschel born in 1936, he went by Herk but I won’t go into too much detail as he may still be alive (I have never found proof yet that he has passed away), and James Rodney, who was born 25 May 1943 and passed away 4 March 2009.

I never knew Howard Herschel, only ever meeting him maybe once when he came to town for his mother’s funeral.

I have lots of memories of my Uncle Jim. He was a nice man who just had a lot of problems, one of them being drinking (maybe he got it honestly?). We would often go to my great-grandma’s house on Sundays when Uncle Jim had his kids as well and it was always so much fun playing with them. Because Uncle Jim was only a few years older than my mom, there are lots of photos of him growing up alongside her.

A Working Woman

Mildred worked as a secretary pretty much her entire life. I know she was a stenographer in the 1930 Akron City Directory and according to my mom’s youngest brother, she dabbled in real estate when he was growing up, which was interesting as I saw real estate ad’s in the newspaper where you could call Mildred Fleming but I didn’t think it was referencing my great-grandmother.

To see the full page of this advertisement in the Akron Beacon Journal click here to read it on Newspapers.com

However, if I’d have clicked on enough links when I did my Newspapers.com search I’d found this gem of an article with her picture. Click here to see the article on the website.

My Memories

Mildred often babysat me when I was little and my mom had to go to the doctor as she did not live that far from us. One of my favorite things to do was play with her jewelry. I have so many pieces of her jewelry that became mine to play with in my playroom growing up. Shoes, skirts, tops, so many things. And to be honest, if it was convenient to get into the one toy box in my parents basement, I would take photos to put in this post.

My Great-Grandma was the first person to pass away that I really knew and her death hit me very hard. I was 8-years-old. I remember my mom asked me if there was anything I wanted and not really knowing what to say, I asked for the fry pan that she would scramble me eggs in when she babysat me. And though I didn’t think this was the pan then, it’s the only little pan they could find so they figured it must be it. Regardless it’s a pan that belonged to her.

Over time my mom gave me my great-grandma’s mirror, brush, and comb set. I’m sure my mother thought it would sit in a drawer forever, and the brush and comb do as I’m afraid I’d break it. But that mirror… I use it every day when I’m getting ready for work, life, whatever. When I got my vanity (from my Grandma Blair) I was entering eighth grade, so sitting at the bench with a mirror in hand is just about how I’ve always put my make-up on. The original mirror I used broke some time ago (handle, not the actual mirror itself) and one day I made the mistake of picking up my great-grandmother’s beautiful golden mirror, this was probably a good 10-15 years ago, possibly longer, and life has never been the same.

When I would see my great-grandma she was always put together which is probably due to her work in a professional environment. I believe she still worked part time up until her death, which she was 73.

When I was 6 she went on vacation with us to Florida to visit her daughter, Alberta. We drove down in the car stopping to visit with my aunt and her children on our way down. I remember we went to the Ringling Museum and other fun places while there (no Disney, but that was okay). Below is a photo of my mom and great-grandma sitting in the sun.

Cynthia Anne Fairhurst, left, and Mildred Laura Dunbar, right, basking in the Florida sun in March 1979

I found it appropriate that I finish this post when I did, on 8 January, as it was 44 years ago today in 1982 that my great-grandmother died of cardiac failure, renal failure due to a colon obstruction. My cousin Jaclyn, whose birthday was also today, was only 4 when she sat on my mom’s lap and said “I bet Grandma already has her wings”.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Genealogy, My Family Tree

Genealogy Goals for 2026

Becky

2026 will be here before we know it and I am getting my thoughts together on what I hope to accomplish as far as my family tree is concerned in this upcoming year. I find that doing this really seems to help. I don’t recall making this list last year, so here goes.

1. 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I’ve already signed up for Amy Johnson Crow’s weekly series of prompts to help me write about my ancestors. I’m heeding her words of wisdom, which are you don’t have to write about every prompt, just the ones that speak to you. So that is just what I am going to attempt to do this year. I figure this is something I can work on during my lunch hours each day at work instead of always just reading. I’ll be productive (when I’m not sleepy and going out to take a snooze in my car – or going to a local park and getting my exercise in).

If you are interested in signing up for 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks, click here: https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-new/

2. Utilizing My Local Library

Presently when I go to my local library for the meetings of our county chapter of OGS, I always see a group of people there diligently going between books and the computers working on their tree. I want to be one of these people. My local library is an amazing resource that I don’t use enough so I am going to begin going every Saturday to utilize the various programs that can be used while in the library. The websites include Ancestry Library Edition, FindMyPast, they are a FamilySearch affiliate, American Ancestors, Fold3, and MyHeritage.

I look forward to being able to utilize these different programs along with the many books they have in their stacks of shelves to assist me in finding out more about my ancestors. Especially since this year I forgot to renew my membership around Thanksgiving when Ancestry has good deals on gift memberships (or in my case, a gift from me, to me). I think my only subscription presently is Newspapers.com and even it expires in mid-February.

Check out your library, they may have Library Edition subscriptions for your favorite database as well!

3. Growing My Local Genealogy Chapter

When I first began going to my local chapter of the OGS, there were about 20-30 members coming to our monthly meetings. When Covid hit in 2020 our numbers decreased exponentially. Like it’s basically our few board members coming to the monthly meetings along with my mother-in-law (she is the only non-board member in attendance). I’ve already begun searching for speakers and have a theme for the meeting set-up for this years programming.

My hope is that with advance notice of a speaker or the topic that maybe we will be lucky enough to get a larger attendance. As the programming chair I’d been fearful of spending money on speakers when it was just about 7 people attending the meetings. But this year I’m throwing caution to the wind. I’m hopeful between filling in the schedule for the entire year along with more social media content I will be able to grow our chapter once again. If you belong to a genealogical society, feel free to share any tips you used to help grow your group.

A Successful 2026

I’m hoping all of the above will allow me to have a good year of expanding my tree and hopefully breaking down some brick walls. If you have any goals for this year, feel free to share in the comments below.

In the meantime, I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

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!