DEAR GENEA-SANTA 2016

Dear Genea-Santa,

Hi, it's me again! First, I'd like to thank you for those Worcester County Probate files over on the AmericanAncesters.org site.  And thanks for the hint from Elizabeth Pyle Handler that helped me fill in a whole lot of blanks on my Moore family ancestors.

I'm going to try to keep my wish-list short and sweet this year. Here I go:

-Please help get more Suffolk and Plymouth, Ma. County probate files online,

- I'd really appreciate it if you could do the same for the court records for Middlesex, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester County court files, I just know there's probably some juicy family stories in them like the ones I found in the Essex County court files,

-Could you  get me a bit more ambition to get out next year and drive to the towns my ancestors lived in? 

-As usual, I need help in breaking down a few more brick walls, especially the one for the Elusive John Cutter West,

-Finally, I want an app that will help me find the gravestones I'm looking for when I visit one of the cemeteries where an ancestor is buried. Something that makes it easy, like maybe a hologram of a flashing neon arrow pointing down at the headstone as a trumper blares. Maybe you can get the  Ronco Company to manufacture a Ronco Easy Headstone Spotter?

That's it for this year Genea-Santa! Thanks again! 

And Merry Genea-Christmas!



   
((Inspired by a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings.))

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: MALE ANCESTORS' AGE AT DEATH

The latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver is entitled Male Ancestors Age at Death. Here's the challenge:

1) Review your Pedigree Chart (either on paper or in your genealogy management software program) and determine the age at death of your Male ancestors back at least five generations (and more if you want to).
2)  Tell us the lifespan years for each of these ancestors.  Which of your male ancestors in this group lived the longest?  Which lived the shortest? 
3)  Share your results in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

Once again I have more information on my Dad's side of the family than from my Mom's side.
Her grandparents were all immigrants from Ireland and Germany and so far I've found very little
information about them before they came to America.

On my Barker side of the family two of my were brothers, both sons of Nathaniel Barker.

The two ancestors who died at the youngest ages died of  disease. On Mom's side, Charles Offinger died at 33 from consumption, and on Dad's side Frank Barker died from "pneumonia
after La Grippe"


 
The longest lived was my 2x great grandfather and Civil War veteran Asa F. Ellingwood who lived to be 93 years old.


Father
Floyd E West Jr. (1924-1984) 60 years

Grandfathers
Floyd E West Sr (1893-1970) 73 years
Edward F White Sr. (1899-1981) 82 years

Great Grandfathers
Philip J West (1868-1954) 86 years
Frank W Barker (1865-1905) 40 years
Edward J White (1873-1939) 66 years
John McFarland (1852-1924) 72 years

2x Great Grandfathers
Jonathan Phelps West (1834-1917) 83 years
Asa F Ellingwood (1828-1921)  93 years
Nathaniel S Barker (1830-1884) 54 years
Amos H Barker (1828-1907) 78 years
Patrick J White (1848-1902) 54 years
Charles J Offinger (1848-1881) 33 years
Michael McFarland (Dates Unknown)
Patrick Kelley (1829-1886)

3x great grandfathers
John Cutter West (1802-1862) 60 years
Philip Richardson (Death Date Unknown)
John Ellingwood (1798-1821) 33 years
James Thomas Dunham (1805-1888) 83 years
Nathaniel Barker (1794-1884) 90 years
Wesley Coburn (1802-1877) 75 years
Nathaniel Barker (1794-1884) 90 years
Cyrus Moore (Death Date Unknown)
Edward White (Dates Unknown)
Thomas Powers (Dates Unknown)
Jacob Offinger (Dates Unknown)
Christian Luick (Dates Unknown)
Unknown McFarland
Unknown
Rodger Kelley (1795-1860) 65 years
James Byrne (Dates Unknown)

WHERE WERE MY ANCESTORS 150 YEARS AGO?

Here's last week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 25 June 1866 - 150 years ago.
2)  List your ancestors, their family members, their birth and death years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?
3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

On my Mom's side of the family, most of my ancestors were still living in Ireland,
Scotland, or Germany, and I have no record of where they were or might have been
in 1866. I haven't found much yet on my 2x great grandparents who were in this country, Patrick J White (1848- 1902) & Mary (Powers) White (1848-?) and their parents.
Part of the problem is the commonality of the Irish family names in a period when Massachusetts was seeing a great influx of Irish immigrants.

Even on my Dad's side with all his family living in Maine and New Hampshire
there are a few missing a date of death, so I don't know if they were even alive
in 1866. In those cases I've left their names off this post.

Anyway, here's what information I was able to find on the paternal side of my
family:

My 2x great grandparents Asa F Ellingwood (1828-1921) and Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood  (1832-1917)were living on a farm in Dummer, Coos, NH with their 8 children.. My 2x great grandmother Clara Ellingwood 1865-1901) was just 1 year old.

2x great grandfather Jonathan Phelps West (1834-1917) and his second wife Louisa A Richardson(1837-1925) were living on their farm in Upton, Me.

My 3x great grandmother Arvilla (Ames)West (1810-1907) was  a widow of 4 years, her husband John Cutter West having died in 1862. She was living on the farm in Upton, Me. with Jonathan and Louisa

My 2x great grandparents Nathaniel Barker(1794-1884) & Huldah (Hastings) Barker (1798-1884) were living  on a farm in Albany, Oxford, Me. My 3x great grandparents Nathaniel S. Barker(1830-1884) & Lucy (Coburn)Barker(1842-1904) were living with them. My great grandfather Frank W. Barker(1865-1905) was only 1 year old.

My 3x great grandparents Amos Hastings Barker (1828-1907) & Betsy J(Moore)Barker (1842-1924) were also living in Albany, Oxford, Me on another farm with their 6 children.

3x great grandmother Hannah (Upton)Moore Emery (1814-1896) was also living on a farm in Albany, Me with her second husband, Peter Emery.

3x great grandfather James Thomas Dunham(1805-1888) was in Greenwood, Me with his second wife, Polly Lowe.

3x great grandfather Wesley Coburn was a widower living in Albany, Maine.

That's all I know at present.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN:MY 2X GREAT GRANDPARENTS' LIFESPANS

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has an interesting Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge regarding the lifespans of my 2x great grandparents. Here's the Challenge:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:
1)  We each have 16 great-great grandparents.  How did their birth and death years vary?  How long were their lifespans? 

2)  For this week, please list your 16 great-great grandparents, their birth year, their death year, and their lifespan in years.  You can do it in plain text, in a table or spreadsheet, or in a graph of some sort.

3)  Share your information about your 16 great-great grandparents with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.  If you write your own blog post, please leave a link as a comment to this post.

Okay, I decided to compare the two sides of my family. What stood out to me immediately was that my 2x great grandparents on Dad's side lived much longer than Mom's,  with five living past
age 80 an one just missing it by a year.

Dad's Side
Jonathan Phelps West  (1834-1917) 83 years
Louisa Almata Richarson (1837-1925)  88 years
Asa Freeman Ellingwood (1828-1921)  93 years
Florilla Dunham (1832-1917) 85 years
Nathaniel S Barker (1830-1884) 54 years
Lucy E Coburn (1842-1904) 62 years
Amos Hasting Barker (1828-1907) 79 years
Betsey Jane Moore (1842-1924) 82 years

Mom's Side
Patrick J White (1848-1902) 54 years
Mary Powers ( 1848-?) ? years
Charles Offinger (1848-1881) 34 years
Johanna Luick (1844-1908) 64 years
Michael McFarland (?-?)  ? years
Dorothy  _____  (?-?)  ? years
Patrick Kelly (1829-1886) 57 years
Anne Byrne (1831-1900) 69 years

My Dad's farmer ancestors in Maine had longer lives than Mom's Irish and German immigrants in Boston. Of course, I'm missing information on some of the Irish relatives but I don't think that would
make a difference in the wide disparity of ages.

I hope I take after Dad's side of the family.   

DEAR GENEA-SANTA 2015

Dear Genea-Santa
You've been so good to me in 2015, what with all those free Essex and Middlesex County
Probate Records images and other things on AmericanAncestors.org. That's been keeping me
busy most of the year and I really appreciate eveything I discovered. So I'm going to keep my
requests for 2016 short. I don't expect you to give me all of this but any one would be nice:

-More help with finding probate records online would be nice, especially for Worcester County, Ma. I'm hoping FamilySearch will add more images soon to their "Massachusetts, Worcester County, Probate Files, 1731-1925 " collection.

-Court record files for more Massachusetts counties would be great too, especially for Middlesex,
Suffolk, and Worcester counties.  

-This one might be a bit more difficult: magic glasses. Magic glasses that will let me read the colonial documents with the worst handwriting. Hard to believe that there were people with worse handwriting than mine, but there were, and I need some sort of edge to decipher their while trying to decipher their scribbling.

-And finally, still waiting Santa for that hint that will let me break down that John Cutter West brick wall!

That's it for this year, Santa. If you can come through on any one of those I'll be very happy. Or surprise me, because the surprises you gave me this past year were great!
Merry Genea-Christmas!
Bill 
 
((Inspired by a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings.))

"WORKING FOR A LIVING" PT3: MOM'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

These are my male ancestors on my mother's side as far back as I've been able to
trace them so far. While Dad's ancestors in the 19th century lived in rural Maine, Mom's
came over from Germany and Ireland and settled in Massachusetts, living in Cambridge
and Boston.  My 2x great grandfathers were artisans, although Patrick G White didn't
work at being a gilder very long, turning to other occupations. My Irish McFarland
and White great grandfathers worked at more physical jobs. Finally, my grandfather
Edward F White Sr. worked at a variety of places but there is a big gap in my knowledge
of what he was doing in the time after his divorce from my grandmother while he
was avoiding the court orders to pay child support for my Mom and her brother.

Here's what I've found out so far about this side of the family:

2x great grandfathers
Patrick G White (1848-1902)
1870 Marriage Record Gilder
!880  Census  Retail Grocer
1902 death Record Clerk

Charles Offinger (1848-1881)
1870 Census Cabinetmaker
1870 Marriage Record Cabinetmaker
1880 Census Cabinetmaker
1881 Death Record  Cabinetmaker

Great grandfathers
John McFarland (1852-1924)
1900 Census Laborer
1910 Census Laborer Street Dept.
1920 Census Gardener City
1924 Death Record Retired

Edward J White (1873-1939)
1895 Marriage Record Teamster
1900 Census Teamster
1910 Census  Teamster Wholesale Flour
1920 Census Stage Builder Government
1930 Census Teamster City of Boston

Grandfather
Edward F White Sr (1899-1981)
1920 Census Steamfitter Railroad
1924 Marriage Record Steamfitter
1981 Death Certificate Retired Security Guard
1981 Obituary School Crossing Guard and Cab Driver  

"WORKING FOR A LIVING" PT2: A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT DAD'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

Just a few quick thoughts about the occupations of my Dad's male ancestors:

-All Dad's family lived in Maine and New Hampshire from the late 18th and early 19th
centuries on. so the main occupation on the list is farming. But some of them alternated that
with working at things that they could do while still living on their farms: miller, "lumbering",
blacksmith, or wheelwright. In some cases their sons were working the farm they all lived on.

-I've blogged before about my 3x great grandfather being on the 1850 Census for both the
neighboring towns of Mason and Albany, Maine. I'm still not sure how that happened, unless
his property straddled the town line with the mill being in Mason which would explain the two different occupations as well.

-Two of my ancestors, Nathaniel Barker and John Laughton V, appeared to have turned their
farms over to their sons and moved into town where they were working as "laborers" in their 70's.

-Great grandfather Frank W. Barker was the only ancestor in these generations to not have
worked at farming as an adult. I wonder if it was just a matter of better pay or if he was
drawn in by the excitement of working for a railroad?

-It will take me a bit longer to list the occupations of earlier ancestors in Dad's family since
the censuses before 1850 don't list occupations. Other documents, such as Probate files and
Land Records will help me there, as well as the information in court case files and family
genealogies.

As for my Mother's side of the family, since I don't have much information about the
ancestors who lived in Germany and Ireland, the list of occupations will be shorter. I'll
deal with that in another post. 

"WORKING FOR A LIVING" PT1: DAD'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge this past Saturday was something
I had been thinking of doing already but hadn't done as yet:

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:
1)  Geneablogger Diane Gould Hall posted WORKDAY WEDNESDAY – What kind of work did your ancestors do? on her Michigan Family Trails blog this past week, and I thought the topic could be used as an SNGF post.

2)  Please go back several generations (say parents or grandparents or great-grandparents) and list the occupations that they had in the records you've found for them.  You could do this, say, by ancestor table number.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook or Google+.

It took me the past few days to work on this because of the amount of information I had to
look through, which is mostly on my Dad's side of the family. For that reason this post
will deal with my paternal line, and my Mom's family will be in a seperate post.

Here's what my Dad's ancestors worked at going back to some of my 4x great grandfathers
Grandfather
Floyd E West Sr (1893-1970)
1915 WW1 Army Enlistment Record- "Knowledge of any vocation: Farming"
1920 Census- Occupation-Farmer  Industry-Cropper
1923 Upton  Directory-Farmer  and saw mill
1925 Oxford County Business Directory-saw mill
1927 Upton Directory "frmr moved to Wentworth Location, NH"
1940 Census- Occupation "Operates tractor  Industry- lumbering"

Great Grandfathers
Philip J West (1868-1954)
1910 Census Farmer
1920 Census Occupation-Farmer  Industry-General Farming
1923 Upton  Directory-Farmer  and saw mill
1925 Oxford County Business Directory-saw mill
1927 Upton Directory frmer and saw mill
1930 Census Occupation-Millwright  Industry-Birch Mill
1940 Census-Occupation- Sawyer  Industry-Saw Mill

Frank W Barker (1865-1905)
1898 Marriage Record "Railroading"
1900 Cenus Railroad baggagemaster
1905 Death Record Baggagemaster G.T.R.  (Grand Trunk Railroad)

2x Great Grandfathers
Jonathan P West (1834-1917)
1860 Census Farmer
1870  Census Farmer
1880  Census Farmer
1900  Census Farmer

Asa Ellingwood (1828-1921)
1850 Census-Wheelwright
1860 Census-Mechanic
1870 Census-Farmer
1880 Census-Farmer
1921 Death Record-Farmer

Amos H Barker (1828-1907)
1860 Census Farmer
1870 Census Farmer
1880 Census Farmer  
1900 Census Farmer

Nathaniel S. Barker (1830-1884)
1860 Census Millman
1870 Census Farmer
1880 Census Farmer  

3x great grandfathers
John Cutter West (1802-1862)
1850 Census Blacksmith
1860 Census-Farmer & Blacksmith

Philip Richardson (1794-?)
1850  Census Farmer
1860  Census Farmer
1870  Census Farmer
1880 Census Farmer

James T Dunham (1805-1888)
1850 Census  Wheelwright
1860 Census Farmer
1870 Census Wheelwright

Nathaniel Barker (1794-1884)
1850  Census Farmer
1860  Census Farmer
1870  Census Laborer

Wesley Coburn (1802-1877)
1850 Census Wheelwright (29Aug 1850, Albany, Me)
1850 Census Miller (26Aug 1850, Mason, Me)

4x great grandfathers
James Dunham  (1775-1864)
1864  Death Record  Farmer

John Laughton (1790-?)
1850  Census Farmer
1860 Census Laborer

Before I discuss my Mom's lines, I'll have a brief post about some of the things in this post.

To be Continued...

THE "WHEN I WAS YOUNG" GENEA-MEME, PART 3

Finally I've caught up with the "When I was Young" meme from Randy Seaver's
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges on his Genea-Musings blog of a few
weeks back. Here's my answers to Part 3 from questions originally posed by Alona
Tester on her lonetester HQ blog.



16.What was entertainment when you were young?
Mostly tv,  listening to music on the radio, and reading.

17.Do you remember what it was it like when your family got a new fangled invention? 
(ie. telephone, TV, VCR, microwave, computer?)
Not too many newfangled inventions when I was really young. My Mom's stereo console,
and the portable phonograph that my sister and I had to play 45's on come to mind first.

18.Did your family have a TV? Was it b&w or colour? And how many channels did you get?
We had black & white tvs. I remember the Beechwood company tv that was a smallish
tv built into a cabinet of some tan wood. At first there were only two channels in Boston,
Channels 4 & 7, and then Channel 5 came along towards the end of the 1950's. I bought
my parents the first family color tv,  a Motorola portable with a lime green and creme
colored plastic casing that had both UHF and VHF channels. That portable was passed
down and around for nearly 20 years after my folks got a larger tv.   

19.Did your family move house when you were young? Do you remember it?
Four times: From 37 Beach St in Malden to the Dorchester section of Boston at 101
Capen St, Then a few years later we moved to 18 Evans St, a few blocks away. Finally
we left Boston and moved south to a house here in Abington on Bicknell Hill Rd.

20.Was your family involved in any natural disasters happening during your childhood (ie.fire, flood, cyclone, earthquake etc)
There were several hurricanes that happened when I was younger back in the 1950s while
we were living in Malden. I've blogged before about how Dad drove his car down the flooded
street to get home.

21.Is there any particular music that when you hear it, sparks a childhood memory?
Some of the older songs that were performed on the Mitch Miller albums makes me
remember the parties at 18 Evans St and Mom playing those albums. Also, anything
by Andy Williams or Johnny Mathis reminds me of Mom playing one of their albums while
she cleaned house and she sang along with them.

22.What is something that an older family member taught you to do?
My Granduncle Frank taught me to make tomato sandwiches, much to my Mom's dismay;
I used too much mayonnaise and cut the tomato slices too big. But I was 8 years old when
he taught me.

23.What are brands that you remember from when you were a kid?
Waleco Candy,  Andrews and Swett Carpet Cleaners, Robert Hall Clothing stores, T.V.
Time Popcorn, Cushman Bakery, S.S. Pierce.  

24.Did you used to collect anything? (ie. rocks, shells, stickers … etc.)
Baseball cards and comic books, and postage stamps. I still have my stamp album, but
the baseball cards and comic books are loooong gone.

25. Share your favourite childhood memory.
Hmm. Hard to narrow it down. I think maybe the hot summer nights before we had
air conditioning, when we'd get in the car and Dad would drive us down to the beach,
We had all the car windows open and we'd sit there where it was cooler until finally we
fell asleep. Then Dad would drive us home and wake us up when we got there. 

THE "WHEN I WAS YOUNG" GENEA-MEME, PART 2

I'm still struggling to catch up with Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun
challenges from his Genea-Musings blog. This is part 2 of the When I Was Young
challenge:

1)  Geneablogger Alona Tester has devised a new meme called the "When I Was Young" genea-meme on her blog, LoneTester HQ.

2)  Since the genea-meme is 25 questions, let's do the rest 10 at a time.  This week, answer questions 6 to 15.

3)  Share your answers on your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook post or a Google+ post.


6.When you were young, do you remember what it was that you wanted to grow up to be?
A cowboy. Hey, my last name IS West after all! And so was the last name of the Range
Rider's sidekick on tv!

7.Did you have a favourite teacher at school?
Miss Murphy, my second grade teacher at the Linden Elementary School in Malden. My
Mom told me when I was older that I had a big crush on Miss Murphy. 

8.How did you get to school?
I walked, up hill, two miles, in the snow. Ok, not that far, but I did walk. I never took
a school bus to school until we moved to Abington and I took it to high school. 

9.What games did playtime involve?
Hmm. In Malden, cowboys and indians, mostly. When we moved to Boston it was stick ball,
wiffle ball, "Three Flies Out" off the porch steps, and flipping baseball cards. But mostly I read a lot.

10.Did you have a cubby house?
Nope, no club house; in Boston, the front steps were your club house.

11.What was something you remember from an early family holiday?
Most of our family vacations were visits to Maine to visit my Dad's family. I remember on one
trip a bunch of us cousins sat in the back of Aunt Flossie's station wagon as we drove up
to visit our grandfather. We sang "99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall". And there was the fishing
trip where I only caught half a fish. Some animal had already eaten the bottom half.

12.What is a memory from one of your childhood birthday’s or Christmas?
The Christmas our folks got us a portable record player and we heard them playing the
Alvin & The Chipmunks "Christmas Song" several times when we were supposed to be asleep.  

13.What childhood injuries do you remember?
I never had any broken bones. I had corrective surgery several times and during one stay
they put me in a room with adult men, one of whom was a meat packer. I increased my
adult vocabulary and learned to play blackjack as a result.

14.What was your first pet?
Our first pet was a fox terrier named Saddles who was already there when I was born. He
was killed in a dogfight with a larger dog, a boxer, that lived across the street from us.

15.Did your grandparents, or older relatives tell you stories of “when I was young ..?”
Unfortunately, not that I can recall. My Dad's parents lived in Maine , and my Mom's mother
passed away when I was seven, so I can't recall if she told me any stories. I never met my
other grandfather.

THE "WHEN I WAS YOUNG" GENEA-MEME, PART 1

I wanted to do this Saturday Night Genea-Fun Challenge from Randy Seaver of
Genea-Musings but wanted to finish up my blogposts on Thomas Tuck first. So
here it is now. (Better late than never!) The rules for the Challenge were:

 
 1)  Geneablogger Alona Tester has devised a new meme called the "When I Was Young" genea-meme on her blog, LoneTester HQ.

2)  Since the genea-meme is 25 questions, let's do them five at a time.  This week, answer questions 1 to 5.

3)  Share your answers on your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a Facebook post or a Google+ post.


Here's my answers:

1.Do you (or your parents) have any memorabilia from when you were a baby? (ie. baby book, lock of hair, first shoes etc.)
I have knife from a silverware set my godmother Nancy gave me, I also have a sketch a
friend of my parents did of me,

and telegrams my Dad, grandmother, and Uncle Ed sent my Mom in the hospital after I was
born. I think they came with flowers:    

2. Do you know if you were named after anyone?
Nope, I was the first William that I know of in my Dad's family. 

3. And do you know of any other names your parents might have named you?
My parents were originally going to name me Michael after one of my Mom's uncles.
I don't know why they changed their minds.

4. What is your earliest memory?
 All my earliest memories involve my maternal grandmother Agnes (McFarland) White who
watched me while my folks were at work. One involves her cleaning the goldfish bowl and
accidentally losing the goldfish down the drain of the sink. The other one is of a roofer falling
off the roof of our house and Nana telling me not to look out the window.

5. Did your parent/s (or older siblings) read, sing or tell stories to you? Do you remember any of these?
 My grandmother and mother sang  "Pony Boy" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to me, and probably played "Patty Cake" with me. Mom liked to sing so there were probably other songs as well that I can't recall from that far back. And I remember someone reading "Doctor Dan the BandAid Man".
   
 

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN- RELATIVES BORN ON MY BIRTHDAY

It's Saturday night and time for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver over at
his Genea-Musings blog!


The challenge this week is to find out if any of your ancestors, or their siblings (your cousins!), were born on your birth date?  

1)  What is your birth date (not the year, only month and day)?

2)  Review your records, or use your genealogy management program to create a list of persons in your database born on your birth date.  Are any of them your ancestors, or siblings of your ancestor?  Tell us how you figured it out too.

3)  List one or more of those born on your birth date in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+. 

OK, my birthday is August 20th.

I ran a "On This Date" list on my RM6 database,and saved it a Rich Text File. Then I edited ut
the deaths and marriages using Wordpad, and this is what I ended jup with for August 20th birthdays.

Family Events
1648 - Birth: Sarah Howard, Bridgewater, Plymouth, Ma
1660 - Birth: Ralph Bancroft, Reading, Middlesex, Ma
1674 - Birth: Joseph Buswell, Topsfield, Essex, Ma
1682 - Birth: John Spaulding, Chelmsford, Middlesex, Ma
1687 - Birth: Deborah Butterfield, Chelmsford, Middlesex, Ma
1705 - Birth: Samuel Alden,
1771 - Birth: Giles Warren Ellingwood, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
1796 - Birth: Austin Ellinwood, Brimfield, Hampden, Ma
1824 - Birth: Sarah Ellingwood, Maine
1829 - Birth: Francis Williams Dunham, Abington, Plymouth, Ma
1834 - Birth: Stephen E. Williamson, Canada
1839 - Birth: Cornelia Ames, Maine
1851 - Birth: Martha L Abbott, Upton, Oxford, Me
1852 - Birth: Annie Poyas Dunham, Abington, Plymouth, Ma
1859 - Birth: Diantha West, Andover, Oxford, Me
1863 - Birth: George P. Ellinwood, Ohio
1899 - Birth: Margaret Marshall, Brockton, Plymouth, Ma
1902 - Birth: Theora B Boyce, New York
1904 - Birth: Grace E Luffman, New York
1947 - Birth: Thomas Ellingwood, Rumford, Oxford, Me


All the relatives that share my birthday are on my Dad's side of the family.

My earliest ancestor sharing my birthday is my 7x great grandmother Sarah
Howard, born on 20Aug 1648 in Bridgewater, Ma.

My closest ancestor born on August 20 is 6x great grandfather John Spaulding. He
was born at Chelmsford, Ma on 20Aug 1682

My closest West relative born on the same day is my first cousin 3x removed
Diantha West, born on 20Aug 1859 at Andover, Me. Sadly, she died a few months
later on 12Oct 1859.

The cousin born most recently on August 20th is my third cousin Thomas Ellingwood.

And one relative, second cousin 3x removed Anna POyas Dunham, was born right here in
Abington, Ma. on 20Aug 1852! 

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: HAIR-RAISING FAMILY ADVENTURES!

It's been awhile since I did one of  Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy
Fun Challenges. I couldn't resist the hair-raisin one this week: 


1)  This week we're going to look for men's facial hair in our photograph collection.

2)  Find one or more photographs of men in your ancestral families that have facial hair - a mustache and/or a beard.  

3)  Show the photograph if you have it and tell us a bit about the person shown.   If you don't have a digital photograph, please describe the man and his facial hair the best you can.

4)  Write your own blog post, or a comment to this blog post, or a comment on Facebook or Google+.


It turns out I have quite a few ancestors with facial hair who posed proudly showing
it for posterity:

3x great grandfather Philip Richardson

2x great grandfather Asa F Ellingwood

2x great grandfather Jonathan Phelps West

2nd great grandfather Amos Hastings Barker

And most of Amos' sons and sons-in-law had mustaches:

I think for many years men grew beards because they kept their faces
warmer in Winter. Well, that's my theory, anyway. 

Grandfather Floyd E West & great grandfather Philip J West.

Our Dad occasionally grew a mustache but I don't think Mom liked it so
it didn't hang around very long when he did.

And as for me, well, I've been trying to grow a beard or mustache for over
fifty years now and all I have to show for it is some fuzz!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I'm behind on Randy Seaver's  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges on
his Genea-Musings Blog. This is the challenge from a week ago Saturday:


Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):
1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

2)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.

I've done two earlier blogposts on this topic so I'm sort of running out of ancestors I knew who knew someone. For this one, I remembered this picture:

The dark haired little boy closest to the adults is my paternal grandfather Floyd
West. The adults are my 2x great grandparents Jonathan Phelps West and Louisa
(Richardson) West. Jonathan was born in 1834, Louisa in 1837. I knew my grandfather
so through him I have two degrees of separation from Jonathan and Louisa!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: YOUR FATHER'S MOTHER'S PATRILINEAL LINE

I'm finally getting around to the latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy
Seaver's Genea-Musings blog: 


Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What was your father's mother's name?

2) What is your father's mother's patrilineal line? That is, her father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

3) Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that  patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further.

4)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or Google Plus post.

Ok, here goes! 
1)My Dad's mother was Cora Berthella Barker, born 27 Oct 1899 at Bethel Me., died June 1987 at Errol, Coos, NH.

2) She was descended on both her patrilineal and matrilineal side from immigrant
ancestor Richard Barker who died at Andover Ma on 18Mar 1693. Here's the patrilineal
line of descent:

3)Cora had a half brother and three brothers:
    -Henry L Barker (1891-1969), the half brother, had a son Robert G Barker (1922-?)
    -Brother Frank W Barker  (1910-1979) had no children I can find record of as yet,
    -Brother Earl H Barker died in infancy in 1903.
    -Youngest brother Harry H. Barker (1905-1967) had one son, Percy Barker (1939-
      1985) for whom I've found no record of marriage or children.

Oh well, out of luck!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: SIX GENERATIONS OF ABBOTTS OF ANDOVER, MA.

 It's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Night over on Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog! It's been awhile since the last time I took part, and I almost didn't this time, either. First, let's look at what this week's genea-challenge before I explain why I nearly took a pass on it:
1)  Which family surname line (of identified ancestors) of yours stayed the longest in one U.S. state or other country province/shire since, say, 1600?  For example, in the USA, my Seaver line was in Massachusetts from 1634 to 1940.  For England, my Vaux line was in Somerset from the late 1500s to 1840.  For Canada, my Kemp line was there from 1785 to 1902.

*  List the generations for one or two of your long-staying-in-one-locality surname lines.  (Yes, I know that some countries used patronymics - follow the father's line back in time).

*  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Google+ or Facebook post.

Seems pretty straightforward, but I wasn't sure I'd do it. You see, my Mom's ancestors
are from Scotland, Ireland and Germany and I don't have much information on where
they lived in those countries. On Dad's side, while my ancestors have lived in America
from the earliest colonial period,  many of them moved in the late 1700s from Massachusetts to Maine and New Hampshire.  I wasn't sure how many generations
stayed in one place for very long. Then I checked my RootsMagic base, and while my ancestors didn't stay in Massachusetts as long as Randy's, they did do something else: several of my ancestral lines stayed in the same town for five or six generations.

Here's one line, the Abbotts of Andover, Ma.:

1. George Abbott settled in Andover Ma in the mid 1600's
2.  Benjamin Abbott (1662-1703) Andover, Ma.
3. Jonathan Abbott (1687-1770) Andover Ma
4. Jonathan Abbott (1714 1794) Andover, Ma
5  Jonathan Abbott (1740-1821) Andover, Ma.
6. Zerviah Abbott, born in Andover, Ma. in 1768, then married John Ellingwood in 1789 and moved to Maine.
So six generations of Abbotts lived in Andover for  around 130 years!

 

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN;: TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I'm a bit late for this weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver
over at Genea-Musings, but as they say, better late than never!

This week's challenge:
1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?


2)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.



Ok, although I don't remember him, my great grandfather Philip J West died in 1954
when I six years old. PJ was born in 1862 and his grandmother Arvilla Ames was born
in 1810. It's possible his mother's parents Phillip Richardson and Esther (Laughton)
Richardson were still alive in which case Phillip was born in 1794. Since I don't know
their death dates as yet I'll have to go with Arvilla since she lived until 1907.Phillip's
son, my grandfather Floyd E West Sr was born in 1893 so he would have known
Arvilla as well.

Arvilla's grandfather John Ames fought in the Revolutionary War and lived until 1833
so my great grandfather and grandfather knew somebody whose grandfather was at
Bunker Hill!

Thanks for the fun, Randy!

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN;: RANDOM RESEARCH

It's once more Saturday night and time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun on

Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings. Here's  this week's challenge:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to follow Chris Staats' rules (from Freaky Friday: Random Research Reports)  for picking a random person's name and then doing some online research about that person.  Here are Chris's rules:

1. Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen (more than once if you want).  Pick one of the names you see.

2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. [Randy's add:  If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to https://www.familysearch.org/ and do it there - it's free.]

3. From the results, your research target will be the first census result for your generated name.

4. Using whatever online resources are at your disposal, see what else you can discover about your random person and write about it. It can be a formal report complete with footnotes, or just a “research story” about what you tried, problems you overcame, or success you had. Maybe you want to create a research plan for practice?

5. Post about it on your own blog, or as a comment here, or a comment on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter.

So, my name was Jerrold Gibson.
 
I entered the name at Ancestry.com  and was taken to the Historical Records
page. The first hit was for a Jerrold Gibson on the 1900 federal Census for
Lacrosse Ward 9 in Lacrosse Wi. at 1413 Caledonia St. He was 4 years old and
born in Minnesota in July 1895. His parents listed on the Census are Archie
A. and Lillian Gibson. Archie's occupation is given as merchant and apparently
business was good enough to be able to employ the 18 year old Carrie Knudson
as a servant, but not for long.

On the 1905 Wisconsin Stete census Archie is listed as a mail carrier. Carrie is
gone.

By the 1910 Census there were more changes. For one thing, Jerrold's name was
now spelled as Gerald and would be on all further records I found. There was
now a younger sister, 8 year old Mildred. The family was no longer living on
Caledonia St but at 1102 Charles St. Father Archie is now listed as a "Distributor"
for the Post Office.

On June 5 1917 Gerald registered for the World War 1 draft. He gives his date of
birth as July 25th 1895 and his occupation as Motion Picture Operator at the Casino.
He is living at 912 or 412 Vine St.

On the 1920 Census the whole family  is living together  on.Vine St. Archie had
switched jobs again and was now a traveling salesman for the Elite Cream Co.
24 year old Gerald is single and not working, and there is another sibling, 7 year
old brother Laurence.

In 1930 there is a Gerald A Gibson living in Minneapolis on Dupont St with his wife
Charlotte and four children, three girls and one boy. This Gerald's a schoolteacher.
While I can't be absolutely sure this is the right man, one of his daughters is named
Lillian and the other Mildred. Since Lillian was 8 years old at the time of the Census,
that would mean he married Charlotte in 1921 and 1922. One interesting point is
that the family seemed to move around a lot after the marriage: Lillian the oldest
child was born in Montana in 1822, Wilma in Idaho in 1923, then Mildred and son
Gerard in Florida, 1925 and 1927 respectively.


I couldn't find a record of the marriage.

I found Gerald's death on the California Death Index 1940-1997. It had the correct
DOB of Jul 25th 1895 and gave his mother Lilian's last name as Graves. He died on
April 7th 1991 at the age of 96,


I next looked on Family Search using Gerald Gibson and his wife's name Charlotte.
I found the record for a fifth child, Richard Laurence Gibson, which gives Charlotte's
last name as Kaug.  I had no luck finding a record of Gerald and Charlotte's marriage
nor could I find one by a Google search or on Rootsweb.

So to summarize, Gerald A Gibson was born on July 25th 1895 to Archie Gibson and
Lillian Graves.  In 1917 he was working at the Casino movie theater in La Crosse WI.
where he had grown up. Sometime between 1920 and 1922 he married Charlotte
Kaug and became a schoolteacher. He and his wife moved around before settling
in Minneapolis. and had at least five children together. Finally, Gerald Gibson died
in Santa Cruz California  on April 7th 1991 at age 96.

Thanks for the challenge, Randy!

DEAR GENEA-SANTA 2011

Dear Genea-Santa,
I've had a pretty good genealogy year and thought It would be nice to share
some of that good luck with my fellow genealogists, So I've got some ideas
for genealogy gifts that you and the elves might be able to whip up in the
workshop:

1, The Brick Wall DeSTRUCTomatic:  You plug this little gadget into your USB
port on your computer, open your genealogy program, and BAM, it seeks out
and destroys those brick walls and provides you with the information you've
hunted for years on some elusive ancestor. Oh, by the way, you say the name
with emphasis on the "Struct" part. Trust me, it will sound good in the tv
commercial.

2. The Flying Sourcer: This works like a combination GPS and Roomba Robot.
Before you visit a repository, library, or  cemetery, you plug it into the USB of your
computer and feed it the list of what record or grave you are looking for at your
destination. When  you get there, you turn it on and it flies right to the item you
want  and then calls you tio the location.  I'd recommend a Borg's voice: "Records
found! They WILL be assimiliated!"

3, Super Re-Citer: A computer app that automatically writes correct citations for
your online discoveries and then recites them. I think if you get James Earl Jones
or Sean Connery's voice it would be a winner. But definitely include a Gilbert
Gottfried option for laughs.

So there they are. I think we have a hit on our hands. I'd recommend once you
have the bugs worked out, you outsource them to Ronco....or Whammo. And we
should list them in the Acme Genealogy Answers Catalogue!

I don't want any monetary compensation , but when you get them ready for gift
giving, I'd like one of each! After all, I still have some brickwalls of my own to
break down and I think that the Ronco Brickwall DeSTRUCTOmatic would help!

Thanks, Santa!
Bill

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN: MY GENEALOGY DATABASE STATISTICS

It's Saturday Night and time for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night

Genealogy Fun. This week, the exercise is: 


1)  If you have your family tree research in a Genealogy Management Program 
(GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure 
out how to find how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database 
(hint:  the Help button is your friend!).

2)  Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. 
are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this
blog post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream comment.



I use several different programs. I use Ancestry.com for my online
research and periodically download the gedcom to RootsMagic4. At
present the RootsMagic4 stats are:



People: 25971
Families: 6242
Events: 73557
Alternate Names: 11
Places:10188
Sources:168
Citations: 17883
Repositories: 6
To-Do tasks: 0
Multimedia items: 0
Multimedia links: 0
Addresses: 0
Correspondence: 0
This is based on the last download on July 1 2011. At present, the
Ancestry.com tree People count stands at 26598 and Records at
7099 so the RootsMagic 4 data will be going up when I do my next
download in December.