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!