Surname Saturday - Four Generations of Surnames

The chart below is an introduction to some of my ancestors.  In addition, a little bit of information about my family is given.
My roots are in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Quebec, Canada.  If anybody has any of these names, please write to my email address.

My grandmother from Canada was in the United States attending Nursing school, although I don't know where, but she met my grandfather at that time, then married. My parents met in New York state, where they attended college. They graduated and married. Dad immediately went into the Navy as an officer during World War II, and was sent to the Philippines. I was born, my grandmother being the nurse at my delivery, and in the hospital that was designed by my grandfather (at least an addition or two). I was nine months old before my father ever saw me. Mom took pictures of me, almost daily to send to him.

Princess Diana, a sad follow-up

The postcard of Diana's dresses was used to announce the exhibit of some of her beautiful dresses. The exhibit was held at the American Textile History Museum in my home city. As a docent there, I saw it many times during the time it was there, from November 1, 1998 - January 17, 1999. Everybody was moved by just about everything...the fact that we were able to see the dresses and gowns, but to see large posters of her at the time she wore them. Seeing these things brought much sadness because she was no longer with us. All the gowns were encased in Plexiglas squares, so we could see all sides of the dress. This was an extremely popular exhibit.  Of course, this was maybe more moving to me, since I had personally seen her. The post was written a month after I began my blog in October 2009. See HERE

A few years later, the Museum exhibited dresses worn by many Hollywood stars in their movies. I have that flyer too. There I did touch Judy Garland's blue dress, worn in The Wizard of Oz. Other dresses were worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis (born in Lowell, Massachusetts) and many actors and actresses.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on Veterans Day, See My Photos!

November 11, 1985 was a pretty exciting day. The three hour wait to get a glimpse of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was worth the effort. I claimed my spot just about 7 AM on a rather nice sunny day in Springfield, Virginia, outside of Washington, DC. The sharpshooters and press were already in place at the mall parking lot, where the couple would soon be. They were going to open an exhibit of British merchandise (I think clothes) at J. C. Penney's. Once the motorcade arrived, everybody was so excited, esp. me, since I was at the barricade, and had a great view as they drove past me. The photos are the proof. Once they were inside, we all patiently waited to see what would happen when they left. Well, they did both walk over to the crowds, and a lucky few got to shake their hands. There was a policeman in front of me much of the time, so I couldn't take pictures of him. Pretty exciting day for a Veterans Day.

The Princess is in the white suit, standing at the barricade directly in the middle.

Another time, maybe in 1993, I was two blocks from where I worked, and had heard that Prince Charles was going to visit the Octagon House in Washington, DC. So at lunch, I went over with a few co-workers and waited a good hour before he showed up. He gave a quick wave to us, and went inside. No press, and very little security. But it got better...I left work at 4:00 and walked by the House, thinking that just maybe I'd see him again, and I did, with no wait at all. He must have been right on my schedule, because as I walked by, he came out of the House. There were only a handful of people, and he waved and said, "hi." I'll always remember his lovely lavender shirt.

Tombstone Tuesday -- Ten Eyck in Dunham, Quebec, Canada

The gravestone is in the back of the All Saints Church, Dunham, Missisquoi Co., Quebec, Canada.  Charles and Lydia were my grandmother's parents.  The family lived in this area for over 200 years, true Loyalists, from New York.

Charles TenEyck, Born August 01, 1859, Died August 26, 1907

Lydia J. Pell, Born November 25, 1867, Died October 16, 1948

All Saints Church, Dunham, Missisquoi Co., Quebec, Canada

To Brighten up a Monday

DAR application -- 1901 and letter from husband to Pension Office

Below are the DAR application papers for my gg grandmother, Sophia Davis Bishop, dated Oct. 2, 1901. After working with the two sets of application papers yesterday, I realized I had received these copies from the DAR, and just recently looked at them again. However, Sophia's membership certificate was held in our family until 20 years ago, when I donated the very large certificate to the DAR in 1994.

Sophia was born January 11, 1831 and died May 03, 1928.

Scanner Story, a Lesson Learned

If you are a Vista user, you may be aware that some of your peripherals didn't work with your new computer, esp. if you bought it last year. Such was my case, in March 2008, when I replaced my three year old XP. Once the Vista was up and running, I was a happy camper....the 20" monitor was lovely and the printer worked with it. Then I discovered the scanner didn't because there was no driver from Canon for this computer. At the same time, I found out my XP was under a four year warranty (which I had forgotten), so a repairman came and the problem was fixed. Now, with two computers, the scanning was done on the old XP, the images transferred via flash-drive to the Vista. The whole thing was so time consuming, I pretty much gave up on scanning.


Yesterday, a light bulb went off in my head, and I decided to check Canon's web site. Yes, they now had new drivers and software for my scanner that were compatible with the Vista. The updated driver was October 2008! For an entire year I did next to no scanning. Since this morning, I have gone crazy with it. Recently, because of the blog, I was thinking about purchasing a new scanner. The moral, check back (more often than 1 1/2 yrs.) with the manufacturer for updates. You might get lucky.

DAR application - 1913

Below are the DAR application papers for my great grandmother, Mira Kilborn Bishop, dated October 16, 1913. Her mother was also a member, and her application was dated 1901. I had the original document stating her admission into the DAR, which was beautiful. Quite large, I would say maybe 12" x 14" and had dark blue printing. I showed it to the DAR archivist, and she wondered if I would donate it to the society, so I did. Of course, I didn't have a scanner at that time, so there is no picture. My mother was also a DAR member, as was I. They all used the same Revolutionary War patriot, but since I was obsessed with our family genealogy, I found my own patriot. And he was new, even to the DAR, who later added his name into the DAR Patriot Index.

I'm So Excited

The Pointer Sisters were on CBS Morning Show the other morning, and they sang I'm So Excited ..., so all day, I hummed that tune. However, I wasn't truly excited until I received information in the evening from The National Genealogical Society (NGS) about some free events to be held at their conference to be held next year in Salt Lake City. So far, everything has been expensive for this April conference, especially the airfare and hotel, so to get something for free is a reason to celebrate.

The Utah Genealogical Association is offering an "Ask an Expert" session to a conference member, provided you fill out their form and submit it to them (in my mind, that means quickly). I have four long standing "brick walls" so the decision was hard. I ended up with JOHN ADAMS. That should be fun for somebody to track. He was in the Revolutionary War at Lexington, MA, born in CT, died in NY. Doing Google is fruitless, as all the hits are for President John Adams. Growing up in Lexington, my parents had a very old photo, in our foyer, of one of the President Adams', and was told we were related...he greeted me every day I came into the house. But, after many years of research, I've found no proof. It could have been one of those pipe dreams.  I hope to learn something from the one-on-one.

Cyndi Howells, her Book and Site for my Blog

Cyndi Howells of Cyndi's List wrote, Planting Your Family Tree Online (How to Create Your Own Family History Web Site, pub. in October 2003 and I have referred to it a lot lately. I remember ordering it even before it was available to the public, and had to wait a few weeks before it was actually shipped. My great intentions to have a Web Site were forming in my mind, and I thought the book would solve all my unknowns of how to do it. Unfortunately, It was right about that time that I was going full steam ahead with discoveries found through Google, so soon, any Web Site of mine would have to wait. I wanted my research to be absolutely completed and perfect before I posted anything for the world. Well we all know, that never happens. Time marched on, and now we are in the world of Blogs. Hum, the nice little unopened book remained in my bookcase until a week ago. And it has been so useful the past several weeks.


Even though her index doesn't list the word blog, she does cover topics that have helped me.


Example Chapters:
Leave a Trail for your Cousins to Follow
Find a Home for Your Web Site
Select the Contents for Your Genealogy Web Site
Enhance Your Web Site with Extras (such as photographs, scanned documents and links.
Check Your Work and Give Your Site a Trial Run
Publicize Your New Web Site


Very nice book Cyndi, and one way I decided to publicize my site was by putting it on her site. So my new blog is one of the first submitted for November 2009. Why not visit her new entries are at: http://www.cyndislist.com/new1109.htm