Tombstone Tuesday ~ Annis GALLOWAY ROSS

JOHN ROSS
BORN
Mar. 17. 1800
DIED
Apr. 7. 1872

ANNIS M.
WIFE OF
JOHN ROSS
BORN
JULY 27. 1830
DIED
JULY 31. 1888

Sunday when preparing my weekly family events, I decided to do a search for Annis Mae GALLOWAY. I had a little information on her, but nothing that was verified. These are my brother-in-law's 3x great-grandparents, although I don't really have actual proof of that.

I came across this picture on Find-A-Grave and yesterday I received permission from the person who took the picture to post it here. I was thrilled to find that the person who took this picture is also a descendant of this couple and has taken a number of other pictures of family stones in the area. It's great to find not only pictures, but also someone who is researching the same family. I was so glad I took the time to contact them for permission to use this picture!

Family Events ~ July 26 - 31

July 26th ~ is marked by the death, at the age of 88, of my Grandpa, Jack H QUICK, in Hamilton, Ohio.



July 27th ~ in 1830 Annis Mae GALLOWAY the 3x great-grandmother of my sister's husband was born in Tennessee.


July 30th ~ in 1809 my 3x great-grandfather, David RITCHIE is christened in Dairsie, Fife, Scotland. This day is also marked by the birth of my uncle, also David RITCHIE, in Wayne County, Ohio.

July 31st ~ in 1888 the above mentioned Annis GALLOWAY would die in Hempstead County, Arkansas. For a great picture of Annis and her gravestone, visit her page on Find-A-Grave.

Wordy Wednesday ~ On the Path to Maryland

[As I never seemed to be able to keep my Wednesdays "Wordless", I'm taking my cue from Greta over at Greta's Genealogy Blog. Greta said, "Since I find it so difficult to be “wordless” in my Wednesday contributions, I decided to start a new tradition, “Wordy Wednesday." I couldn't agree more!!]

People who follow me on Twitter might know that I recently found out I will be going to Maryland in August. I vaguely knew that I had ancestors in Maryland, but I've never worked on that line. About my only real hint was a line in my Grandpa Quick's baby book which states, "Baby left Denver with his mother on Jan. 21st 1913 to visit his Grandma Quick in Baltimore Md." I've been frantically trying to figure out what I might want to look for while I am there and have been searching census records and trying to work out some likely leads. A big thanks to Michael Hait for giving me a quick crash course in Maryland records and where I might best find them!

So, all those words are leading up to my choice of a picture for "Wordy Wednesday". This is Nelle EICKELBERG and her second husband John H QUICK taken in Denver around 1910. It is John's line - the QUICKS - that I am hoping to find more about when I visit Maryland. I thought I would feature his picture here to give me some inspiration.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Lena Duncan

Lena Duncan 1889 - 1923
Mary D Bowlen 1866 - 1920
Melva M Duncan 1908 - 1930

This stone is in the Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. I almost cropped this picture to show just the stone, but then I saw the mountains in the background and decided to leave it this way. I was a beautiful setting - but then again of course it was, it was in Colorado!


Lena VENETTE DUNCAN is my step-great grandmother. Mary Bowlen is her mother and Melva is one of her daughters.

Family Events ~ July 12 - 18

July 12 ~

In 1901, my great-grandaunt, Laura Hazel GRABER was born in Wayne County, Ohio near Apple Creek. Aunt Laura was the keeper of the family pictures and a previous "Random Relative" post.


Also, in 1945, Amos Melvin MOUSER, my brother-in-law's great-great-grandfather would die in Grayson, Louisiana at the age of 87.


July 13 ~

In 1879 my great-grandaunt, Elizabeth "Lizzie" BENZIE was born in Inverurie, Scotland. She would later come to the United States, as did all of her surviving siblings, and would settle in Montana.


July 15 ~



In 1886, at the age of 67, Anna Nube Nations, my brother-in-law's supposed 4x great-grandmother would die in Hempstead Co. Arkansas.




July 18 ~

In 1891 my great-grandaunt, Edna Mary GRABER was born in Wayne County, Ohio near Apple Creek.

[Edna would marry a man named Ben SAURER. Edna's brother Raymond GRABER would marry a girl named Edna SAURER. It took me some time to sort THAT one out when it came to pictures and other information!]

Saturday Evening Time Travel

Randy Seaver, at Genea-Musings wants to take us Time Traveling and asks us to, "Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?"

These questions made me ponder so many possibilities in my family history.

I would so love to go to Canada in 1891 to find out why my great-great-grandmother, Jane [SWINTON] RITCHIE left her children with her brother-in-law, Alexander and herself returned to Scotland. Actually, I'd like to figure out WHEN she returned to Scotland!

Or possibly I would want to go to Germany, in 1866 when it really wasn't "Germany" yet as we know it today but rather to the duchy of Mecklenburg-Stelitz and find out exactly what it was that prompted William EICKELBERG to bring his young family to Pomeroy, Ohio - to a country that was just emerging from a civil war. Did they know people there? Where were they between their arrival and when I can first find them in the 1880 census? And most of all, WHO is the young girl, Anna, listed in 1880 as a granddaughter at 1yr old who I can never find again?

But no, the winner of the Time Travel contest has to be this:

The year is 1909 and the place is Broomfield, Colorado. I would like to see what life was like out on a farm for a young girl of 18, Anna Gertrude NISSEN. Without her mother, who had died when she was 9, did she have any female to share whispered confidences with when her father wasn't around? Did she long to go into the big city of Denver? Most importantly, Who else knew that she was going to run off with Herbert EVANS to Shoshone, Idaho to be married?

So, great-grandmother, Gertrude, my question to you is, "Who was this Herbert EVANS?" I think he might have been the same Herbert Evans, a 20 years old boarder and a railroad laborer in the 1900 census of Weld Co, Colorado. That would make him about 10/11 years older than Gertrude, which fits with other facts I've found.

I'm breaking Randy's rules a little bit, but I don't want to ask ONE question. I want the whole story of this romance that ended with a pregnant Gertrude and her 2 year old son, Harold, returning from Portland, Oregon to her father's home in Broomfield, Colorado where her daughter, my grandmother, Ruth Penrose EVANS was born on 29 Sept 1912.

Quite A Coincidence ~

"The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense" ~ Tom Clancy

One of my genealogy stories would probably not sound credible as fiction - "Too unlikely" an editor would say.

[A little info: My great-great-grandparents, Rudolph GRABER and Emma ZAUGG met and married in Apple Creek, Ohio on March 15, 1881.]

On day, many, MANY years ago (late 80's/early 90's) I was showing my best friend, Nancy, a genealogy program I had just purchased. My friend is a computer programmer and I was only showing her because it was "cool computer stuff", not because she was particularly interested in genealogy. I happen to click on Rudy's record and she said, "Oh my grandfather was born in Apple Creek."

I really thought she was joking as Apple Creek is a tiny town. I said something like, "Not Apple Creek OHIO or I would recognize the name." She insisted that her grandfather, Carroll Lee ERB, had been born there. She told me the family hadn't lived there very long and that Carl's father, Edmund ERB was a minister who later moved the family to Nebraska.

After she left I was in a genealogy mood and began reading a copy of a page from a Wayne County history with information about the German Reform Church where my ancestors had worshiped. I read that services were held in English and in German for many year. It gave a listing of all the prior ministers to serve the church - and there I saw "E. Erb".

I immediately called my friend to tell her. We both thought this was quite a coincidence ~ certainly a small world! If we had grown up as friends in the same small town it wouldn't be at all unusual, but I was born in Ohio, she in Illinois. She grew up in California and then we met in St. Louis and worked together and became friends.

Her grandfather, incidentally, was apparently the last minister to give the service in both languages. After that the services were held in English in the morning by one minister and German in the afternoon by a different minister. [picture of Edmund ERB]

But wait, there's more ~

[picture of Rudy & Emma - likely a wedding picture or taken near that time]

I had no more than hung up the phone then I found something even more amazing. On the registration of Rudy and Emma's marriage was the signature, "Edmund Erb". Her great- grandfather had officiated at the wedding of my great-great-grandparents!!! There on one piece of paper is the signature of both my great-great-grandfather, Rudolph GRABER and Nancy's great-grandfather, Edmund ERB.


My family lived in Wayne County, Ohio for many years. Some still do. Her family, on the other hand, had really just been passing through and yet we have this bit of shared history. I couldn't make up a story like that!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More from Canada

So, there I was having a great time at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Oakville, Ontario on a Saturday afternoon. I was facing an almost 13 hour trip back home the following day and I was already looking at what sessions were being offered tomorrow. Should I stay until the last one on Sunday afternoon, or should I try to leave a little bit early? It was going to be a LONG drive, but the sessions on Sunday looked good and all those that I had attended thus far had been excellent.

So, what did I decide? Why to skip out of ALL the session on Sunday and add a 3 hour side trip over to Kincardine, Ontario to visit a cemetery of course! I'm sure most people reading this won't find that nearly as strange as my family did when I mentioned that I might be just a tiny bit longer getting home than I had anticipated.

In between sessions on Saturday I had been chatting with a man about my desire to go to Kincardine. I knew what cemetery I was looking for, but wasn't sure how large it was, or if I would able to find the stone I was after. He helpfully mentioned that most of the branch societies in the vendor area had cemetery listings and that Kincardine would be Bruce & Grey. Sure enough, that cemetery had been transcribed and the stone I was looking for was in their cemetery listing. The lady helping me even said something about my not needing to go there because the inscription on the stone had been transcribed. I didn't mention to her that I actually had a very bad copy of an article that showed the stone itself - so I knew what it said. I STILL wanted to go to the cemetery. I even bought the book - it was a LARGE cemetery - and since I now had a layout of the cemetery and knew what section "my" stone was in, I made up my mind to take the trip.

I am so glad I went! The drive across Ontario was beautiful. The farmland made me feel at home, having grown up in rural Ohio. At one point I was in a tiny town sitting at a stoplight and I realized I was hearing bagpipe music. Sure enough, there out my window were some young men in kilts in front of the Knox Presbyterian Church playing the bagpipes. I like to understand the places my ancestors lived and not just see their names on paper and it was interesting to see how "Scottish" many places in this part of Canada were since my Canadian ancestors had come from Scotland.

When I finally arrived at Kincardine and located the correct part of the cemetery, I looked at the listing and noted the two names above and two below the one I wanted, figuring that they just transcribed in order. I walked along saying the names over and over to myself..I'm glad I had decided to look that way as I found the other names and realized I should be seeing RITCHIE but didn't. When I noticed the stone almost hidden my two large bushes ~ and there it was!

As I looked at the stone I was even MORE glad I had made this trip. The picture I had, and the inscription in the book, were both done quite some time ago. I found more than I bargained for when I saw that 3 of David's children were also buried here. One, also David, noted on the main stone and two daughter with separate markers.

RITCHIE
Rev. David Ritchie
Born at St. Andrews, Scotland, 1872
Died at Seaforth, Ont, 1948
Husband of
Marianne Moore
Born at Lauder, Scotland, 1881
Died at Collingwood, Ont, 1971
David G. Ritchie
1915 - 1996

Alexander R Johnson
1908 - 1998
Beloved husband of
Margaret E Ritchie
1918 - 2004

Elsie E Ritchie
1913 - 2004

David was my great-grandfather's older brother. He went back to Scotland at one point and became a minister, supposedly studying at the University of Edinburgh. When he was in Scotland, he married his cousin, Marianne MOORE. Her mother, Elspeth SWINTON, and David's mother, Jane SWINTON, were sisters. I would love to connect with this family in Canada to see what stories have come down in their branch of the family!

Oh, one last picuture - Lake Huron was right down the road from the cemetery. You could stand at the front gate and see it. I drove down before I left to get some more pictures. As I was standing there with the cold wind whipping off the lake I wondered if Kincardine at all reminded David of St Andrews with the nearness to the water and the cold winds. I'm so very glad I made the trip.

Happy 4th of July to All

"Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrations and revolutionists." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

[I saw this quote on a tee-shirt somewhere and thought it was appropriate for today - especially the "revolutionists" part!]