Miscellaneous Queries

A Bridge to the Past

If you have a blog, especially one that covers family history, chances are somebody is going to find your blog by doing a google search. There are times, I don't have any idea how they found me and what  prompted them to even write. Always, the queries are interesting, and below is a collection of some rather recent ones. I've replied to all, except the last and the reason is pretty sad. Her query got forgotten in my inbox of over 1,500 emails. It has been in that box since March 2014! I will respond to her tomorrow. Fortunately, I've been cleaning out that box and now have only 110 emails (most are to read and only one to respond). This is very embarrassing to admit, so I'm facing one of my faults in public.

I'm not asking for help with any of these queries. It is my hope that the names will show up in google searches and I can put the individuals in contact with each other. Some I've helped others I couldn't.


I found your tree on line.  I have family trees for Elsie father, Charles Cowlam, going back a few more generations in England.  Cushman is a descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower.  If you are interested, I can send GEDCOMS.
---------- 

Hello Barbara. My name is Kris ____. My grandfather (he died in 2005) said that John ____ (died 2011 years, WTC) is my family. I am looking for their roots. Can you help me? What do you know about the family of John? They came from?
I know that my grandfather had two brothers. In 1944 - 1945 the year escaped from Lvov (former Poland) by Rumunię.Dwóch brothers returned to Polish. One of the brothers escaped to Canada. His children lived in the United States, reportedly including John ____. I will be very grateful for the information. Kris ____.

I am sorry for my poor English.
----------

I am researching my Chapman line and noticed your web site.     Since I believe I connect up thru David Chapman b 1675,   I clicked on that and it took to me to weird web site,  just thought you should know.   Or maybe I am reading it wrong?

Anyways,  have you done much research down the David Chapman line (b 1675).   I am stuck at Ebenezer Chapman b 1764.
----------

HI Barbara, no i do not think we have communicated before, but maybe my memory is short.    I am the registrar of ____ and I have a prospective member who has desperately. Trying for years to find connection to a Amos Parmele in Killingworth who had a son Richard who married a Thankful X.   Richard moved around a lot in CT and finally in Oneida County NY.    Amos did have a daughter Polly who married an Amos Warner in Bethlehem CT and then settled in Oneida Co.   We are trying to prove Richard had a son Amos Parmelee who was in Oneida County and then moved to Orland, Cook County, Il.   

I just learned from the PM that she did get info from  the library in Killingworth which she does not think will help her.   It is most frustrating, but I will understand if you can't help either.   

Are you involved in your chapter lineage or as registrar?
----------

Dear Barbara,
Your RootsWeb page says you've been studying your roots for 26 years; I've only been at it (when I can) for about 2 years.  Your RootsWeb page gave me my first big clue as to the family of my 3rd Great Grandmother, Jane Winn b. 22 Aug 1800, and pointed me to the book "The Mohawk Valley Ehles and Allied Families".  I sincerely thank you for that.  I am writing you for two reasons:
1) The Mohawk Valley Ehles book says John Winn (Jane's grandfather) was from Belfast, Ireland.  From what I have researched and you show on your page, he appears to have been born in Albany County, NY and his immigrant ancester seems to have been born in Belgium.  Any opinion on that?  Just another document error?
and
 2) I haven't tried all avenues yet, but I now need to find out more about Jane's husband, John G. Kelly, and his family. I'm not sure exactly how you are descended from the Scramblings and others, but I was wondering if you had stumbled across anything about John & Jane.  Since you've been studing the family so long, perhaps you could suggest some juicy research material for the western New York area and its people.  I have the census information and some information after they settled in Hamberg, NY, but I'd like to break the wall of where John G. Kelly (born in USA) came from... why they lived in Canada for awhile...  and anything else I can find. 
Okay, I admit writing you is a shot in the dark, but I thought I'd try.  I think I have done all I can on the internet and now I need to try writing/contacting some record sources and finding other avenues of research.
Again, thank you for the lead on Jane
----------

My name is ____. I live in Upton, Massachusetts, which is central Massachusetts. I grew up, in part, in Hampton New Hampshire for several years until I was around 13. My family rented a large house which had a carriage house and barn in the back. To my recollection, the house was owned by a gentleman who lived in New York, who was the last of the Lane family. I moved to California after High School, which I attended in Rhode Island, and lived there during my college years and for many years after. I moved back to Massachusetts several years ago, and have gone to visit Portsmouth. My family moved from Hampton to Portsmouth for a few years, and I did go back to Hampton just once, in hopes of visiting the house I remember so well from my childhood. I remember the location as being close enough to walk to the Main Street, which was not much of a downtown area thirty years ago, when we lived there. And, I was also able to walk to the library, which I loved and have many fond memories of.
I was disappointed when I went to visit, as I was unable to find the house my family rented, which was owned by the Lane family.  I was told by someone in town that the house burned down many years ago. Curiosity over the years has led to want to know more about the family, the house and the history of Hampton.
As I was doing a little online research I came upon your blog via ‘Life From The Roots’. I noticed a house, could it be the home of the historical society, which looks so much like the style of the house my family lived in for several years. It made me wonder if perhaps the Lane family home hadn’t burned down after all, and I was misinformed.
Can you provide any insight, or do you know how I might find out more on the topic? It’s a curiosity which has never left me for many reasons.

Follow-up: I did write the above person (after two years). Amazingly, she responded within hours. Here is what she wrote me:

"I’m very impressed and grateful that you’ve responded, albeit after some time. Thank you for that!  Actually, the house was located within a very short walk of the central business district as it were, and the town Public library. I will contact the Hampton historical society, what and excellent idea.

 

And, thank you for posting it on your blog. One never knows where connections take place."

I Love the Red Colors of Lowell, Massachusetts

"There is A Lot to Like About Lowell" is the city slogan.

(See tab on right side called "Lowell Series" for many more articles about Lowell.)

Photo above of Lowell was taken by Google Earth, I used Snagit to capture this shot.

The other photos show various aspects of red bricks and other materials in buildings taken during the past several years.

Franco American School to close in Lowell

How To Do Genealogy When You Eyesight is Failing You?

I received my first pair of glasses at age 3.

Recently, I had my first eye surgery, a cataract removed, and a new lens was put in. I had a few days of doing almost nothing because I couldn't see out of the bandaged eye and the other eye had poor eyesight. The second operation will be done in a few weeks, then my vision will be clearer, but not good enough to read, so I'll have to get new glasses. So how can I do genealogy with limited eyesight until I get new glasses in about six weeks? (If you want more information on how my genealogy volunteering has been affected in the past, see the end of the article.)

Like so many genealogists, my genealogy world consists of a lot of research, reading genealogy books and magazines, doing data entry, corresponding through emails, and some online contact with Facebook genealogy friends. All those are easy when you can see, but what if you can't? Fortunately, I know my situation is temporary, but what can I do in the meantime?

The other night, I got my answer when I listened to Drew Smith's excellent webinar Organizing Your Genealogy Research Process presented by the Illinois State Genealogical Society. My takeaway was, I should be thinking of projects and how to do them. For me, that is a lot of thinking. Like so many other genealogists, I jump from one thing to another. Anyway, during the past two days, I've thought of things I can work on, once the vision improves and I get new glasses. My list consists of things I must do to make my genealogy life easier and I will report my progress in December 2016.

1. Learn Evernote. Drew Smith mentioned Kerry Scott's book in his webinar (see #9), "How to Use Evernote for Genealogy." I plan on ordering her book in a few days. Update: I already ordered it. Reading will begin in over a month.

2. Delete many photos, 26,000 is too many on my computer and I don't need them because many are on my blogs. However,  I'm not sure what my grand total should be. Decide which ones to print, which ones to use for my Lowell posts, and which ones to use for future genealogy posts. The same goes for my iPad photos, which number over 6,000. I can begin now because the photos are large enough to see.

3. Read and delete almost all 1,300 Gmail messages. Most have been glanced at, and need a second read. There is lots of good information to save.

4. Do a better job at understanding Dropbox. I just don't get it yet, probably because of my difficulty in reading, I rarely read more than a paragraph, and even then, with macular degeneration, I miss words. So I will try hard with this. However, I did manage to "get" saving my RootsMagic7 to my iPad via the app and Dropbox. I believe it took about five hours!

5. Plan another trip to Canada for late summer. It won't be to do research, but to bring some items to the Missisquoi Museum and Archives. I'll revisit the six cemeteries where my ancestors were buried. This should be an easy plan, but fun and I look forward to it. On the last trip in 1999, I took limited photos as I didn't have a digital camera.

6. Write fewer blog posts. Most people want to write more, but I learned from doing almost a post a day for several years, it consumed so much time, good time that could have been used for learning some of the above things, like Evernote and Dropbox. My last post in December was one of my better ones, and I was quite pleased when Randy Seaver chose it to be included in his list of  Best of the Genea-Blogs - 13 to 19 December 2015. So in the future, I'll try to do more of that type of post, along with whatever comes along.

7. Less time on Facebook, boy that will be hard. When I'm not on Facebook, I gain so much free time. I'll skim or read blogs but will unfollow all blogs that have light or small print. Sometimes the font is so small or is in grey color, it's impossible for me to read with macular degeneration. Sorry writers, but I must leave you.

8. I will not try to find new ancestors, I have enough. However, I will continue to review my sources, make corrections, and try to solve my major "Brick Walls." In addition, I'll add and/or correct my past blog post entries dealing with surnames or add additional findings or photos.

9. In December I started thinking about what I would I do, and the first thing that came to mind was listen to Webinars, so I signed up for quite a few. For two years, I was a subscriber to the Legacy Family Tree Webinars, but was so busy with other things, I rarely listened. I plan on renewing so I can listen to many of the old ones I've missed. This will help me spend my time, and learn. To date, I've heard the following webinars:

"Tap Into Your Inner Private Eye - 9 Strategies for Finding Living Relatives" by Lisa Louise Cooke, January 9th.

"Organizing Your Genealogy Research Process" by Drew Smith, January 12th.

"Technology and Techniques for Differentiating Two People with the Same Name" by Geoff Rasmussen, January 13th.

Tomorrow, it will be: "Snagit Software for Genealogists by Michael" by Michael Brophy, January 15th.

10. In conclusion, I'll be doing fewer blogs, looking for new ancestors and checking Facebook. I need my "free" time to do all of the above, along with taking cemetery trips, corresponding with my wonderful cousins, cleaning off the desk occasionally, buying a Flip-Pal scanner (which Thomas MacEntee first showed me in 2011, now I know I need it for my trip to Canada), backing up everything on a monthly basis, and whatever else I may have forgotten.

Background...
Ever since I was a young child, I had to wear glasses and in the beginning in grade school, I always had to sit in the front row. Throughout my schooling years, that was always the case, but later the reason included poor hearing. As a matter of fact, in my baby book, my mother wrote I got my first pair of glasses at age 3, and poor hearing was noted at age 7. And, at age 4 I had six cavities filled! Ouch. Much later in life, these problems affected my life with work and outside activities. About eight years ago, I was volunteering at five places for over five years, and working and I thought everything was fine, until...

The eyes got really bad and it was discovered I have macular degeneration. I thought I would soon be blind in one eye, so I stopped my volunteer jobs at the American Textile History Museum and the Lowell Repertory Theater (did both for about four years). I also stopped helping three genealogy societies. New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), as a proofreader and typist; the Essex Society of Genealogists (ESOG) as an index proofreader for the TEG and the Greater Lowell Genealogy Society (several positions) for many years. In addition, I taught beginning genealogy for about four years (13 total classes) at the Chelmsford Library in Massachusetts, and a Google class about 8 years ago to the Chelmsford Genealogy Club. With the last two, I stopped because of the eye and hearing problems. Now, I have a hearing aid and soon two new lenses...I can't wait to get back to my former genealogy world of reading wills, and censuses, finding and reading cemetery stones, and traveling to new places without my husband (whose eyes I used).

The Three Unique Sources Didn't Prove Anything

George Anderson, my 3rd great-grandfather, has been a mystery to me ever since I saw the chart on the left for my father showing his ancestor was Major George Anderson. I've been very curious about his title for 25 years.

I've traced George's ancestry from his 1784 New Jersey birth back four generations. I know the names of his three wives and his nine children. This information was rather easy to find, thanks to 3 federal censuses, a state census, a book on his ancestors called, A Genealogy of the Reyniersen Family, several historical books, and the selfless help in 2008 from Dorothy Koenig, editor of the New Netherlands Connections. He died at age 94, so there was a lot of information out there, but not what I'm looking for.

The one thing missing is actual proof that George Anderson was a Major. As mentioned above, he was named Major George Anderson  in many sources I used. Such as: a small genealogy outline done by my mother, a death notice in a book I located in Salt Lake City, various pages from a manuscript I obtained from Rice University in 2009 (the word Major was written three times), a brief mention from an index card in the file of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Written on the card was, "Silver hilted dress sword worn by the grandfather of Maj. George Anderson." All these sources were useful, but I still don't know why he was called a Major.

When three new sources came my way this year, I decided my challenge would be to find proof if George was really a Major. My blog played a big part in getting help because of two new readers who helped me. The first reader was a distant cousin who googled our shared ancestor's name; the second reader enjoyed something I had written and left a comment (it had nothing to do with genealogy). Our correspondence led to my accepting a subscription to GenealogyBank.com. The third source involved George's will (I saw a better copy than the awful one I had received several months prior, thanks to Ancestry.com). Below, are the three steps I took to find information from my new sources.

In March, I received an email from Mattie, inquiring about my Adams line. As fate would have it, she is my third cousin and I was very familiar with her family. I never contacted anybody on that line because I felt I had all I needed. She mentioned a manuscript her grandfather had written and there were parts about Major George Anderson in it. Within a week, I had her typed 28 page booklet. I quickly made copies and sent it back to her. That information, though didn't solve my question as to why he was a Major, set me on the path to once again work on his line.

The next logical step was to try and find a will. The next month, I contacted the Deputy Clerk Dane County Circuit Court Record Center in Madison, Wisconsin to inquire about a will, then to get copies of it. The clerk called me after they received my written request, because the probate packet was so large. She needed to discuss what I wanted, since I had no idea, I decided on the first 14 pages (neither of us knew how large the packet was.) I paid $1 a page for an electronic image. The images were horrible and so were the copies I printed outs. I put the will matter aside until one day in September I received notice that Ancestry.com released the Wisconsin, Wills and Probate Records, 1800-1987. Within minutes of putting in his name and state, there was his file, a file with 101 pages!

Name: George Anderson
Probate Date: 6 Feb 1879
Probate Place: Dane, Wisconsin, USA
Inferred Death Year: Abt 1879
Inferred Death Place: Wisconsin, USA
Item Description: Probate Records, Box 266, T-W - Box 268, Anderson, George
Table of Contents 101 images

All the probate records turned out to be crisp and clean and I could read about 99% of it. I was lucky George had a will and a codicil. The contents won't be discussed because I plan on doing a post covering two interesting I discovered. What I was happy to find were the words Major Anderson written twice, as seen below. Only 2 pages out of 101 pages has this title.

The third bit of information regarding the name of Major George Anderson came from GenealogyBank.com. Within an hour of logging on, I was lucky to find death notices in newspapers for two of his three wives (died 1840 and 1878), and the best thing was finding George's 1879 death notice two weeks after his 3rd wife's death! Below shows the snippet of his death, and I immediately clicked on it to open it.


Seeing Major written in the above snippet for the Wisconsin State Journal was like finding the pot of gold, and it confirmed my other notice of his title and death which is shown below. As I mentioned, I also found death notices for two of his wives. The first wife, my direct line ancestor died in 1840, but I had no idea in which state, until I saw the notice. (Her children were born in 4 different states.) The notice also provided me with her father's name by printing she "was the daughter of, Capt. Jeremiah Ten Eyck of Middlesex co., N. J."

In 2008, while at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I found the following information: "Maj. George Anderson died at Madison, Jan 10th in the ninety-fifth year of his age. He was born on the banks of the Raritan, New Jersey, March 8th 1784; and after residing successively on Staten Island, in Pennsylvania and Illinois, he settled in Dane County in 1839 and spent most of his life as a farmer. While residing in Madison, he served two years on the Board of Aldermen, and several years as Supervisor in the County Board, serving in the latter capacity at the time of his death. He survived his third wife two weeks. He was a gentleman of the old school, enjoying good health and a bright intellect almost to the last."

From: Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1882 Vol. 9: 429. Wisconsin Necrology, 1879. (Book at FHL at Salt Lake City books.) I wrote a blog post about this in 2010, and it may be seen HERE.

Was George in the military? I still don't know, but I doubt it because over the course of many years, I haven't found any indication that he was. As you can see, it often takes many years and many sources to get a pretty good picture of somebody's life, but until you know everything about the person, the research should continue. It also helps to have an interested cousin and a helpful reader, thank you both.


As an after thought, I've decided to show his marriage record for 1841, when George married his second wife.

Disclosure: GenealogyBank.com has provided me with a subscription to their product, a newspaper subscription to use and I am under no obligation to write a review. The product was mentioned in this post because I tried it out and was more than happy with the results.
----------------------------------------------------
To those who kindly responded with helpful ideas.
I re-read the will of George's father, Simon and it mentions son George four times. It also said, :Sons, George and Cornelius lands whereon I now live that my father bought of Albert Voorhees (315 acres). Son, Georege, negro man, Nene, my silver hilted sword, silver watch and 6 silver tea spoons." (His other son also received a negro man.) Now I know where the "silver hilted sword" came from.
I also put in the name of Major Anderson (as his first name) on Ancestry.com and he didn't come up. My finding, he was named George, not Major.

There is also a write-up about him, and in-part, it reads," Major Anderson has held several offices, the duties of which he has faithfully and honestly discharged. He was for several years supervisor of the town of Sun Prairie, chairman of the county board, under-sheriff three years, collector of taxes of Dane and Sauk counties, and settling his accounts without making a mistake. He was also deputy United States marshal. He is now living in comfortable retirement upon the interest of the money his industry and economy have enabled him to accumulate. Major Anderson's natural capabilities enabled him to enjoy the full benefit of the society of such cultivated gentlemen as Nicholas Biddle, John C. Craig and W. R. Johnson of Virginia, with whom he was intimately connected in business for five years, and his retentive memory enables him to narrate many interesting incidents characteristic of those gentlemen. In illustration of the ready wit and imperturbable self-possession of Colonel Johnson he relates that on his return to Philadelphia from New Jersey, when the great race between Mr. Johnson's horse Boston and Mr. Gibbon's mare Fashion had just been run, and while still on the crowded ferry-boat, Colonel Johnson felt some one's hand in his pocket, and instantly clasping and holding it, turned his head and said, "My friend Mr. Gibbon won the race to-day." Although Major Anderson is in his ninety-second year, his bodily health is I good, his mind cheerful, his manners easy and dignified, and looks very like, as he is, a gentleman of the olden time. His present vigor of mind and body is an eloquent commentary upon temperance, industry, and cheerfulness, that badge of a gentleman. If the prayers of his friends avail he will complete a century."

The Crane Estate at Christmas, No Downstairs Seen Here

The photos ishown were taken the first weekend in December, 2015, in the 59 room Crane Estate at Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The rooms were beautifully decorated for members and visitors to see. The fundraising event included, homemade cookies, live music and a visit from Santa. My husband and I are members, so we frequently go there, mostly to enjoy the views, see the garden and walk the grounds. This was our first Christmas event. If you ever visit Essex County, Massachusetts, please find your way to this property.

From Wikipedia, "Castle Hill refers to either a 165-acre (67 ha) drumlin surrounded by sea and salt marsh or to the mansion that sits on the hill. Both are part of the 2,100-acre (850 ha) Crane Estate located on Argilla Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The former summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Crane, Jr., the estate includes a historic mansion, 21 outbuildings, and designed landscapes overlooking Ipswich Bay, on the seacoast off Route 1, north of Boston. Its name derives from a promontory in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, whence many early Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers immigrated, and predates the Crane mansion."

The above photo of the dining room was a retake, because the sun was shining past my back, and leaving many shadows. Fortunately, when we were about to leave, I noticed that the sun, while still shining, had moved out of my frame.

Below are quite a few bedrooms, bathrooms, the kitchen and sitting rooms. I didn't take the ballroom, because it was a sitting area for visitors and there were too many people in there. In addition, I included some spring exterior shots of the grounds. You might recognize the house or grounds from various movies or a TV show.

  

Views from various rooms of the Atlantic Ocean.

Two tiled bathrooms.

Elegant bathroom.

 

 Kitchen. We were treated to three kinds of homemade cookies and cold or hot cider.

Below are spring photos from the past. My post showing many pictures taken in the spring and summer may be seen on my Seeing New England blog HERE.