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!

Family Events ~ September 13 - 19

[Putting this post together was a big "ah-ha" moment for me. When I saw that Rudy & Emma Graber, my 2x great-grandparents, both came up on my report as being born on Sept 13th I though I must have entered something wrong. I double checked and found that I had that information from several sources for each of them - although not from birth records. I had never, until this moment, realized that they had the same birthday!!]


September 13 ~ On this day in 1853 my 2x great-grandfather Rudolph GRABER is born in Canton Bern, Switzerland. Also on this day, seven years later in 1860, Rudy's future wife and my 2x great-grandmother Emma Anna ZAUGG is born in Wayne County, Ohio. [I believe this picture to be their wedding picture.]





September 14 ~ This day is marked by the death of my grandaunt, Hildegarde Moore RITCHIE, in 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio.




September 16 ~ On this day in 1836 my 2x great-granduncle, David RITCHIE is baptized in Kemback, Fife, Scotland.

September 17 ~ This day is marked by the death of my 2x great granduncle Frederick ZAUGG in 1928. This day also marks the death of Ella Rosa [GRABER] SAURER, my great-grandmother, in 1963 in Apple Creek, Ohio. (Frederick is Ella's uncle - sister to Ella's mother Emma [ZAUGG] GRABER.)



September 19 ~ On this day in 1872 David RITCHIE, my great-granduncle, is born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. David is buried in Kincardine Cemetery in Ontario which I visited (and blogged about) in May.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Really!

It's all Sheri Fenley's fault ~ check it out here!!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More From Baltimore

When I was in Baltimore, visiting Mt. Olivet Cemetery and taking pictures of the nice grassy area, totally devoid of stones where my 2x great grandmother, Susan [HUNGERFORD] QUICK is buried (as I posted in last week's Tombstone Tuesday) I happened upon 2 rather old stones side-by-side in the ground and decided to take pictures. I'm not sure why, as I'm not related to these people, but I guess I just liked the cemetery and wanted to take SOME pictures. I thought they would be a nice post for this Tuesday.

On the left is:
MARY A GREEN
APRIL 23, 1819
OCT. 10, 18[98] ?

On the right is:
REV. JOHN J. GREEN
SEPT. 15, 1816
JAN. 28, 1879

Weekly Events ~ September 6 - 12

September 6 ~ This day is marked by the death, in 1930 of my step-grandaunt Melva Marie DUNCAN in Colorado. She is buried with her mother. Lena [VENETTE] DUNCAN and grandmother, Mary Dixie [LEGAULT] BOWLEN in Boulder, Colorado's Green Mountain Cemetery. It was the wonderful on-line index to this cemetery, compiled by the Boulder Genealogical Society that allowed me to find this grave so easily!


September 7 ~ This day is marked by the death, in 1919 of Emma [ZAUGG] GRABER near Apple Creek, Ohio. Emma was my 2x great grandmother. This picture was taken when she was 16.







September 9 ~ On this day in 1789, my 4x great-grandmother, Margaret BEVERSTOCK is born in England.

September 11 ~ A busy day in our family history! On this day in 1819, Isaac BENZIE, my 3x great-granduncle is born in Oyne, Scotland.

Also born on this day in 1829 is my 3x great-grandfather, William (born Wilhelm) EICKELBERG in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, later Germany.

And finally, on this day in 1906 my granduncle, Thomas Albert RITCHIE is born in Cleveland, Ohio. In the picture below, he is the second from the left. [My Grandpa, David Washington RITCHIE is the youngest boy sitting to the right of Tom]

Wordless Wednesday ~ Walkin' in the Rain (With the One I Love)

Picture of my parents in the rain in Pitmedden Gardens, near Tarves, Aberdeenshire, Scotland May, 2007.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Baltimore

In this picture you might notice a remarkable LACK of actual tombstones for a Tombstone Tuesday post!

I was looking for Susie (Hungerford) Quick, b April 9, 1867, d July 2, 1937 both dates according to her death certificate. It also stated that she was to be buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery.

The information on the website wasn't quite making sense to me as most people had plot information that corresponded to the lettered sections on the map. For Susie [and a few others that I'd noticed], the entry read "Olivet xx" with just a number. When I called for further information, they explained that Olivet was actually section L and that those were generally unmarked graves. As the nice lady so carefully put it, they were "single" burials rather than family plots. So, it appears that Susie, who at this point was a widow with 2 of her 3 sons also pre-deceasing her, was buried in a potters field possibly due to the fact that it was 1937 and I would guess that money for such luxuries as gravestones was probably not plentiful.

I then took a drive over to Louden Park Cemetery where I was able to find the resting place of her son, my great-granduncle, Charles Quick, b November 11, 1889, d February 16, 1955 according to his death certificate. This was a huge cemetery, but very well marked and the person at the desk gave me very good instructions. I found Charles almost immediately. I looked around for a little bit and found some other Quicks as well. Now I just need to work on identifying them and figuring out how everyone "fits together.

Isn't that the most fun part of a research trip - coming back with even MORE questions than you started with!!