Family Events ~ October 4 - 10

[Wow, I've been a slug the last week. It's just been SO crazy at work! I know I am late, but didn't want to let this week pass by without posting at least a few family events.]

October 4 ~ This say is marked by the death, in 1985, of my great-grandaunt, Hilda Lena [GRABER] BUPP.









October 7 ~ On this day in 1876 my great-grandfather, Thomas Leopold RITCHIE is born in St. Andrews Scotland. I don't have any pictures of Tom when he was young so I am using my favorite picture of him pictured with 2 of his own sons - the younger boy on the left being my Grandpa, David Ritchie.


This day is also marked by the death, on Tom's 15th birthday in 1891, of his father James RITCHIE in York, Ontario, Canada.

Once again - something I never knew. How hard it must have been for Tom that his father died on his birthday.

Family Events ~ September 27 - October 3

September 27 ~ On this day in 1839 my 2x great-granduncle James BENZIE was born in Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

This day is also marked by the death of my 2x great-grandmother, Nellie [AUFLICK] EICKELBERG in Pomeroy, Ohio. (See my post here for my discovery that she died in Ohio and NOT Colorado as I had always assumed!)


Finally this day is also marked by the death of my great-grandaunt, Edna Mary [GRABER] SAURER in 1965.



September 29 ~ On this day in 1912 my grandmother, Ruth Penrose [Evans] QUICK [?] was born in Broomfield, Colorado. Her actual birth date was something I had been looking for over the past many years. I need to write about her for a Madness Monday post as there are still many other things I need to find out.

September 30 ~ On this day in 1832 my 3x great-grandmother, Anna Barbara [BARTCHEY] ZAUGG was born in Switzerland.

This day is also marked by the christening of the above James BENZIE.

October 2 ~ This day in 1885 is marked by the death of my 3x great-grandaunt, Margaret GOURLAY in Ceres, Fife, Scotland.

October 3 ~ On this day in 1906, Cotys Milner MOUSER, my brother-in-law’s grandfather, is born in Louisiana.

This day is also marked by the death, in 1924 of my 2x great-granduncle Alexander RITCHIE in Toronto, Canada. I’ve posted a picture of his gravestone in a previous Tombstone Tuesday post.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ a Stormy Day in Scotland

As you can see from the sky, the weather was somewhat threatening. We were coming to the end of a day touring around Fife. We had visited several churches where someone had been there to meet us and show us around as well as give us some of the history of the church. Now, as we were heading back, our driver had pointed out the Dairsie church but said that it wouldn't be open for us. He seemed to think that we would be happy just seeing it from a distance - and my parents probably would have - but there were gravestones there! Of course I needed to stop.


Many of the stones were old, and I wasn't looking for anyone in particular. Dairsie would be the area where some of my RITCHIE's had been born, but the ones I had traced had all moved and been buried elsewhere. As the weather was really staring to look ominous, we found this stone:

Erected
to the MEMORY of
WILLIAM RITCHIE
Late Blacksmith at Dairsie
Who Departed this Life
on the 8. June 1798 aged 51 Years
Also
EUPHAME Wife of the above
Who Departed this life on the
4. March 1829 in the 72 Year
of her age

ALSO THEIR DAUGHTER
AGNES WHO DIED 17th MAY 1891 AGED 95 YEARS

Now, I don't have this family "tied in" to mine yet, but Dairsie was not a large place. I feel sure they are somehow related. I just need to figure it out! So glad we stopped.

Family Events ~ September 20 - 26

Not much going on this week in the family history ~ and on top of that NO PICTURES.

On a side note however, I gain so much from doing this. I almost always find something to clean up. In this case I had 2 dates for Barbara Gourlay which were both showing as "birth." While I was fairly confident that one was really the baptism, I didn't know for sure. A quick "trip" out to ScotlandsPeople got me on the right track. I also downloaded the entry in the records so I can source this bit of information.

September 20 ~ on this day in 1801 my 3x great-grandaunt Barbara GOURLAY is baptized in Ceres, Fife, Scotland.

September 21 ~ on this day in 1858 Margery Ann WEAVER, wife of my 2x great-granduncle Frederick ZAUGG, is born in Homes County, Ohio.

September 22 ~ on this day in 1889 my great-granduncle, William Moore RITCHIE is born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

SNGF ~ Sunday Morning Style

I just love Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogical Fun "challenges"! They have so often opened my eyes to things that I need to research further or holes in my documentation. They make me look at my database from a totally different perspective!

So this week Randy offers us "Ahnentafel Roulette"

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

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick your mother, or yourself, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

I'm going to cheat a little bit on this one ~ so, my answers are as follows:

1.) My father is currently 74, which would make my number 18.5. Rather than rounding up and just using 19, I'm going to use BOTH 18 and 19.

2.) My #18 is William Benzie and my #19 is his wife Helen Lumsden. I decided to use both because I have this wonderful picture of them together.

3.) Three facts. William and Helen were married on June 20, 1874. They had 8 children born between 1872 and 1892. [Of those 8, the 5 who lived to adulthood all emigrated from Scotland to either the United States or Canada.]

William and Helen lived in Inverurie, Scotland and are buried there. Helen died on April 16, 1919 and William on March 3, 1922. When I went to Scotland I visited their grave and took this picture [with my Dad standing along side.]


William worked at the corn mill at Port Elphinstone where he was a "meal mill corn drier" according to one census listing.

Helen had a child out of wedlock before she and William married. I have not yet been able to trace what happened to that child but it don't believe William was her father as no father was listed. Helen herself was born out of wedlock and her marriage certificate lists a James Lumsden as the "reputed father."

So, that's what I have for my spin of the roulette wheel!