Random Relatives

Family Events ~ Jan 01 – Jan 08

2012-01-02T15:06:00.001-06:00

January 1st ~ On this day in 1884 my 2x great-grandparents, William EICKELBERG and Nellie AUFLICK were married in Charleston, West Virginia. This picture of the family was taken in Denver, Colorado sometime in mid-1887 as the baby in the picture, also William, was born 15-Feb-1887.

This day is also marked by the death, of my 3x great-grandfather, Jacob ZAUGG in 1900 in Mount Eaton, Ohio. Finding his gravestone was quite an adventure and one of the first exciting things I found in my genealogy. My original picture was not even digital although I've since gone back to this cemetery several times.

January 6th ~This day is marked by the death of my 3x great-grandfather, Thomas AUFLICK, in 1910 in Lafayette, Colorado. Quite the snowy day when I was able to take this picture!

I Just Received a Letter From My Great-Great Grandfather

2011-10-02T20:22:00.003-05:00

Well, OK so it wasn't actually sent to me - it was sent to his daughter in 1919. But today is the first time I've ever seen it. (It was shared with me by a second cousin once removed who found me through my blog.)

Helen & William Benzie

The great-great grandfather in question is William Benzie and he was writing to his daughter, Lizzie who was living in Montana with her husband Fred. William is writing to let Lizzie know that her mother has died. William and Helen still lived in Inverurie, Scotland and both are buried there.

Here is the letter that was in my e-mail box this morning when I went down stairs to my office to work on my homework.

10 Constitution St, Inverurie
April 20th 1919
Dear Lizzie,
Jeanie and I are very
sorry to tell you that poor
Mother died on the 16th April
through dropsy. She was
ill mostly all winter with
swollen feet and legs up
to the knees and about
two months ago they broke
and ran out water. She
was wonderful well in
health through the winter
but changed about a week
ago then sank very quickly and

passed away in three days -
- just sleep'd away. Jeanie
came home six weeks ago
and had been attending her
as she could not, even, walk
about in the house, but just
sat in a chair. We are very
sorry, indeed, as we feel such
a want in the house. With
kind regards to Fred, yourself
and family, trusting you are all
well. Your loving Father &
Sister Wm & Jeanie Benzie

Reading this made me, once again, realize the importance of writing. How thrilled I am over this short two pages that give me just a little glimpse into the life of my great-great grandfather. "...we feel such a want in the house" - considering he was a dour Scot I imagine that is as effusive as he was likely to be!

What I've Been Doing For 15 Minutes Every Day!

2011-09-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

And no smart aleck comments from the peanut gallery, please! I've been WRITING for 15 minutes each day ~ and here's why:

At FGS 2011 I was inspired by a talk give by Lisa Alzo called Write Your Family History Step by Step. One of the things she addressed was our excuses for not writing. One of those excuses - the one I use - is "I don't have time." As she's talking I'm sitting there thinking, "But I really don't. I work, I go to school, I get home late because of a project I'm working on..." and then she said, "Even if it's just 15 minutes every night, write something."

OK, so how could I say that I didn't have 15 minutes in a day? Heck I spend that much time checking Facebook and tweeting or even watching TV. So, I decided to put a separate page on my blog to start putting in my 15 minutes a day. It's not ideal because I have to update the page each day, but I do like having it out there in the open so to speak. It keeps me more accountable!

Emma Zaugg age 16

Lisa encouraged us to have a focus - be it a person, a branch of the family, a geographic area etc. On the drive home from FGS I decided that my focus would be Emma ZAUGG, my great-great grandmother.

After just six days, here's what I've learned.

I realize what I don't know and what I want to know. Oh I've always heard that writing helped to show the holes in your research, but then I didn't exactly think I had holes for this particular ancestor. I don't when it comes to the events in her life. I know and have documentation to show when she was born, married, when her children were born and when she died. I have visited the cemetery where she is buried many times. She lived her whole life in the same rural county in Ohio and I really didn't think there was much I needed to learn about Emma.

Boy, was I wrong! Trying to write her life as a story shows me how much background material I need to explore. While she didn't leave a diary, there would be many histories of the area and time that I could read. I've also pulled off my shelves, "The Expansion of Everyday Life: 1860 - 1876" and "Victorian America: Transformation in Everyday Life, 1876 - 1915" two books that I've had forever but not yet read. (and by forever I mean almost 20 years - I KNEW I'd need them at some point)

The Graber Farm

And I do have research holes as well. I don't have any information pertaining to their land - and I know there would be some. The farm where they eventually lived is still standing and I have this old picture from their daughter's photo album as well as a picture which I took a number of years ago. One of my questions is why and how this ended up with their oldest daughter and her husband (my great-grandparents) and not with one of their sons.

I also have a newspaper article written in 1980 featuring Emma's son Raymond Graber with a story about how his father Rudy had been the first cheese maker in the area. It briefly mentions Emma as well. There is a lot from that article that I could explore to add to Emma's story.

One of the totally unexpected benefits of this exercise has been that it takes my mind off my work problems. That's certainly a good thing right before I turn in at the night! Now, instead of tossing and turning as I think about my current project, I find myself thinking about Emma Zaugg Graber and what her life was like. With 8 children, a husband and a farm to care for, I'm sure she could have told me a thing or two about being busy!!

Day 0 at FGS2011

2011-09-07T21:16:00.000-05:00

I know there are many people posting about the events and I will certainly be tweeting as the days go by. Not sure how much blogging will happen, but thought I'd put in a quick word or two today.

I called this "Day 0" because I just drove up after work today. I didn't attend any of the Wednesday classes but I did arrive in time for the Prairie Social which was presented by the Illinois State Genealogical Society and sponsored by FamilySearch.org.

The first group of people I saw included Caroline Pointer, Amy Coffin, Lisa Alzo, and Kathryn Doyle. It was good to see some familiar faces - as I meet more and more of my "virtual friends" it makes attending genealogy events sort of like a family reunion. The difference is at this family reunion people WANT to talk about genealogy and don't try to politely excuse themselves the moment they see an opening!

At the Social I also got to meet in person a few more of my blogger/Facebook friends. Susan Clark, Jennifer Holik and I thought we were going to go over to watch Genealogy Jeopardy. As the announcers started explaining the rules it turned out that we were on one of the teams. We were joined, moments before the game started by Linda McCauley - who didn't realize she had just joined our team!! The good news is - we won. We received beautiful picture frames for our astounding wealth of genealogical knowledge...we won't mention that we weren't the only people on the team and the people sitting in the row behind us were the ones who really pulled our team ahead to victory. :-)

After the Jeopardy game I met Tina Lyons and her husband. She is just as much fun in person as I would expect from reading her blog. That's one things I've found as I get to met my blogger friends in person - I feel as if I already know them. Reading what they share in their blogs really gives a good sense of who they are. I'm never disappointed!!

I also got to chat briefly with Audrey Collins who is here from the UK. I think she wins the prize for coming the farthest. I was fun to hear about the various places she's been recently - and it also made me start thinking again about trying to figure out how to go to RootsTech in 2012!

Tomorrow I am all set to learn some cool stuff and hear some great speakers. I have my three-day agenda all outlined in a color-coded spreadsheet that shows just the sessions I have decided to attned. (Hey, I work in accounting, EVERYTHING is a spreadsheet to me!) I have all the handouts for those sessions printed out and in my folder.

Also, just in case something doesn't work out or I have a change of heart, I have the WHOLE schedule printed out with all the sessions that looked interesting highlighted in various colors and then those hand outs available as well. It pays to be flexible.

RIP ~ David Lee Ritchie July 30, 1933 ~ August 31, 2011

2011-09-04T19:49:00.002-05:00

September 2, 2011FREDERICKSBURG -- David L. Ritchie, 78, of Fredericksburg, passed away Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, at West View Manor Nursing Center in Wooster.

He was the son of David W. and Lela (Saurer) Ritchie and was born in Apple Creek on July 30, 1933. He graduated from Apple Creek High School, class of 1951. He received his bachelor's degree from Miami University in 1955. He served two years in the U.S. Army while stationed in Germany, and then received his master's degree from Miami University in 1962.

Dave started his career in teaching at Sterling school in 1955, then resumed it when he returned from the service. He taught at Norwayne School District and was head basketball coach and assistant baseball coach for six years. His next teaching job took him to Chardon schools and was head basketball and head cross country coach as well as math teacher and assistant baseball coach. He then went to Streetsboro schools and in 1971 married Vicki (Sutherland). She survives.

This is part of the obituary for my Uncle Dave ~ the full version can be found here.

Reading it made me realize another reason for collecting family stories - for any person there is so much more than just these final few paragraphs. Here are just a few of the things I remember about my Uncle Dave.

He was born on a farm near Apple Creek, Ohio. The farm was the home of his mother, Lela Saurer's family. For many years Uncle Dave had a painted picture of that farm that had been handed down to him by one of this Mother's aunts. That picture now hangs in my bedroom and is one of my genealogy treasures.

When I was very young I used to tell people I was named after my Uncle Dave. That always brought some amused looked! I thought it was so incredible that we had the same initials - DLR. I'm not sure why I equated that with being named after him, but somehow that made sense to me as a child.

The obligatory horse picture taken in Cleveland.

Although Uncle Dave was born out on the farm the family spent his early years in the city of Cleveland. For many years I thought this picture of Uncle Dave on a horse must have been taken out on the farm. I have a similar picture of my Dad and in talking to him about it one day he told me he doesn't remember exactly but it was NOT on the farm. His grandparents didn't have ponies! This picture was taken in the city somewhere.

My Uncle Dave, the older of the two brothers.

My dad was the younger brother, but he was the first to marry and have children. I remember my Uncle Dave living with his parents at least for part of the time I was little. One memory especially stands out. It was probably late morning and my sister and I had been asking about Uncle Dave. Apparently he was still upstairs asleep and the adults all told us to go waken him. So we crept up stairs and silently made our way across the big open room upstairs until we stood by Uncle Dave's bed. There was a reading light over the bed - it pulled down from above and to this day I can't remember if we actually pulled it down or if it had been left that way, but we both yelled, "UNCLE DAVE WAKE UP" as loud as we could. Of course he sat up and hit his head on that light while we ran for the safety of Grandma and Grandpa!!

The farm didn't have ponies, but it had dogs!

That is a particularly funny story because eons later, when he had two very small children and they were being, well children, he made a comment about how well-behaved Jackie's girls always were. My mom just laughed at that and told him he obviously didn't remember very well. I don't think she brought up the light incident, but that was hardly the only thing we ever did to torment Uncle Dave.

In spite of that little incident, one thing I remember was when Uncle Dave bought us cowboy boots. I'm not talking about some pretend dress-up things - these were real, honest to goodness boots and something our parents had told us they would not buy. Of course they wouldn't because we would grow out of them so soon but Uncle Dave bought them!! I used to wear them to roller skate because I had the old metal skates with a key. I could tighten the skates and then still slip my feet out later.

We could always count on Uncle Dave to indulge us.

I know that to many people 78 doesn't seem young. People will always says, "He lived a long and full life" but for those we love there is no number of years that ever seems long enough.

Sorting Saturday...and Sunday ~ Trying to Get Organized

2011-07-24T16:25:00.000-05:00

Elyse Doerflinger has been regaling us with her organizational efforts and her new desk. She now has a wonderfully organized and well thought out work area. You can see the initial piles of stuff here and the final product here. I, in contrast, have THIS:

Being roughly 2 ½ times older than Elyse it would make sense that I would have more “stuff”. However instead of 2 ½ times as much, I seem to have about 20 times as much! Give it a few more years and the crew from “Hoarders: Buried Alive” will be knocking at my door.

The sad part is that for about 3 months now I've had a dedicate genealogy ROOM. Yes, a room where I could spread out and organize all my genealogy stuff. Well, at least that was the supposed to be the idea. In those 3 months all I've managed to do was to rearrange and move book cases so that the 2 with children's books are now in the guest room and the 2 oversize book cases are in the genealogy room. (You can see them reflected in the closet mirror in the picture on the right.)

I brought in two tables to be my desk and set up my new, BIG monitor and arranged the computer paraphernalia in roughly the order I want it to be. The scanner is to the left of the monitor and the printer is on a stand father to the left. That leaves me room to put MORE junk under the printer.

So, what would any sane person do in a case like this? I have no idea, but I can tell you what I did – went shopping! While Elyse is in love with the IKEA store, I personally want to order one of everything from The Container Store. While I didn't quite go that far, as you can see it was pretty close.

But seriously how could one possibly organize a room without color-coordinated items? I spent some time yesterday putting together a nifty little rolling cart that gives me three drawers under the table and right next to my chair. Of course this also give everyone a great view of the piles still ON the desk that have not yet made their into a drawer or file!

I'm making some progress, but not yet enough for an after picture. Hopefully that will come sometime next weekend when I will be done with classes for a few weeks.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ~ A Tad Late

2011-07-17T10:35:00.002-05:00

I know that's I'm late to the party - and on top of that, I'm going to cheat! Several years ago we did a similar exercise for SNGF and I've mostly copied it here. I did do the extra credit pie chart for this go round.

So, here is our "mission" from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings:

1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places). [Hint - you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.]

2) Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death.

3) For extra credit, go make a "Heritage Pie" chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the chart generator from Kid Zone for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the "Heritage Pie" chart idea.]

4. Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook or google+.

Here is mine - copied from my original post from August, 2009.

1. James Ritchie ~ born on 4 May 1844 at Blebo Craig, Kemback, Fife, Scotland. He married on 26 Jun 1868 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He died on 7 Oct 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity – Scottish.

2. Jane Swinton ~ born on 13 Aug 1846 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She died on 31 Dec 1912 in Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish.

3. William Benzie ~ born on 18 Oct 1843 at Oyne, Scotland. He married on 20 Jun 1874 at Inverurie, Scotland. He died on 3 Mar 1922 at Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

4. Hellen Lumsden ~ born in 1849 in Udney, Scotland. She died on 16 Apr 1919 in Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

5. John Ulrick Saurer ~ born on 23 May 1823 in Berne, Switzerland. He died on 24 May 1899 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

6. Caroline Flory ~ born on 20 Mar 1844 in Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 16 May, 1884 in Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

7. Rudolph Graber ~ born on 13 Sep 1853 in Berne, Switzerland. He married on 15 Mar 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio. He died on 5 Aug 1918 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

8. Emma Zaugg ~ born on 13 Sep 1860 at East Union Twp, Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 7 Sep 1919 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

9. Edwin S Quick ~ born circa 1855 in Maryland. Ethnicity – Unknown.

10. Susie H Hungerford ~ born 09 April 1867 in Prince Frederick, Maryland. She died 02 Jul 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. Ethnicity – possibly English.

11. William Eickelberg ~ born on 24 Mar 1863 in Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany. He married on 1 Jan 1884 in Charleston, West Virginia. He died on 11 Dec 1934 in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

12. Nellie Auflick ~ born on 29 Apr 1864 at Minersville, Ohio. She died on 27 Sep 1940 in Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio and is buried in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – English.

13. Henry Evans ~ unknown

14. Alma ~ unknown

15. August Heinrich Nissen ~ born abt 1850 in Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He died 06 Apr 1914, Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

16. Anna Elizabeth Parkson born abt 1856 in Ohio, Died 11 May 1900 in Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

This was a very interesting exercise! My ethnicity is 25% Scottish, 25% Swiss-German, 18.75% German (or 43.75% Germanic), 12.5% English and 18.75% anybody's guess.

And here is my extra credit pie chart:

This was fun ~ thanks Sheri & Randy!!

SCGS Jamboree 2011 ~ More Fun Than Christmas!

2011-06-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

I don't even know where to start to explain how much fun Jamboree is! It's a combination of family reunion (if all the really crazy relatives showed up), Woodstock (and, no I was not there), a three-day non-stop party, and an amazingly intense learning experience - sometime all at once!

To start with there was the Geneablogger's Welcome Bag. Please click on the link to see all the amazing vendors who contributed something. No, really - go look; I'll wait. See, I told you! This was NOT filled with the sort of trinkets that you quietly discard later. Oh no - this was the "Christmas" part. We got tee shirts and CDs of webinars and beads and food and a PH testing pen and there were a lot of cool free offers and too much to mention - thus the picture.

On the first night Geni.com hosted an ice cream social for the Geneabloggers. Here are a few of the pictures that no one has paid me sufficiently NOT to share.
Ooops, someone forgot to tell Randy Seaver and Cheryl Palmer that the hula skirts were not meant to be worn on their heads. Their friend there is Peter the Parrot. He will apparently be making another appearance tonight.

Sheri Fenley was explaining SOMETHING important to one of our Geni.com hosts.

More to come, but another sessions calls.

(And someone, who shall remain nameless but his initials are THOMAS is complaining about the millions of pictures in all the blog posts )

This is the Face of Genealogy

2011-06-05T16:30:00.001-05:00

For me nothing exemplifies my genealogy more than this picture. The youngest girl here is my great-great aunt Laura. She was born in Ohio in 1901 and it is thanks to her that I have so many wonderful pictures and stories.

Her father - the man sitting - is Rudolph Graber who came to this country from Switzerland in 1877 as a young man of 23. He came with very little and ended up a successful farmer with a large and happy family. His wife, Emma Zaugg was born in Ohio to a family that had come from Switzerland sometime prior to her birth in 1860.

I have the original picture hanging in my genealogy room to remind me what the "Face of Genealogy" looks like.

PS - to see what this is all about, stop over at Geneablogger and find more posts about The Faces of Genealogy

Don't Let Someone Else Put a Swan on Your Head!

2011-04-19T19:19:00.001-05:00

So, quick survey – how many of you are reading this wondering how I will relate this to family history!?!?

I’ve been putting together a book of stories from when my sister’s children were young. We call it “The Mouser Family Absolutely True Stories.” I wrote down many of these stories back before there were so many cool ways to put words and pictures in books to share. These are just all in a word document. So, now I am gathering pictures and trying to make them into something to share.

This is the story I am working on today and I just couldn’t resist blogging it as well.

When my sister’s two girls were about 3 and 5, the older one could torment the life out of the younger one just by what she said. One of Kyli's favorite times to tease her little sister was when they were in the car. I guess sitting there in those car seats had to be pretty boring because before too long, Kyli would look over at her sister and say (very quietly), “You have a swan on your head.” Codi would immediately wail, “Mommy, Kyli says I have a swan on my head. I don’t waaaaaannnt a swan on my head!!!” Very often actual tears would ensue. My sister could try to reason with Codi but it didn’t really matter because Kyli SAID the swan was there. Of course Kyli would just sit there with an angelic look on her face. Sometime it would be a dinosaur or even an inanimate object that would be “on” Codi’s head. The results were always the same however. Over the years as we’ve re-told the story – as family’s will – it’s always the swan we use to tell the tale.

As adults, we laugh at how gullible poor little Codi was to fall for something so silly. How could something her big sister said override the obvious fact that there WAS NO SWAN? Yet as adults we do the same thing all our lives – we believe that one bad thing someone else says no matter how many others tell us it isn’t so. We even spend time worrying about that stupid swan and refuse to listen to those we know are “older and wiser” who tell us that really, we do NOT have a swan on our head!

It’s become something of a proverb in our family now, “Don’t let someone else put a swan on your head.”

Hot Off the Press

2011-03-16T20:26:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of Shades of the Departed is hot off the press!! There is a new feature debuting in this issue and I am thrilled to say that I had a small part in suggesting it. As far as I am concerned, being mentioned in Shades is my 15 minutes of fame - and it's really made my day.

So, drop on over to fM's and pick up your copy today - while they last ;-)

Photographs in Politics

March/April

Family Events ~ March 14 - 20

2011-03-13T15:19:00.000-05:00

March 15th ~ On this day in 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio my 2x great-grandparents, Rudolph GRABER and Emma ZAUGG were married. I've posted previously about the incredible coincidence of my becoming best friends with the great-granddaughter of the minister who married this couple, Edmund ERB.

March 17th ~ On this day in 1800 in Cape Girardaeu, Missour John ROSS, the 4x great-grandfather of my nieces and nephew, is born.

March 19th ~ On this day in 1852 my 3x great grandparents Jacob ZAUGG and Anna Barbara BARTCHEY are married in Berne, Switzerland. [pretty obviously NOT a wedding picture, but the only one I have of them.]

This day in 1892 is also marked by the death of my 3x great grandfather, Thomas SWINTON in St. Andrews, Scotland. I've previously posted a picture of his gravestone.

March 20th ~ On this day in 1795 in Bern, Switzerland Jacob ZAUGG, father of the above Jacob and my 4x great grandfather is born.

Also on this day in 1844 my 2x great grandmother, Caroline FLORY is born in Wayne County, Ohio .

Do You Play Favorites?

2011-03-07T21:32:00.000-06:00

Marian Pierre-Louis over at Marian's Roots & Rambles asks, "So I want to ask you folks - Why do you have favorite ancestors? How did you select them?" Several other bloggers have picked up on this question including a post from Randy Seaver and one from Ken Spangler. This question fascinates me so I thought I'd play along.

I do have several "favorites" but I don't have as logical reasons for picking them as the others seem to. I can't really even seem to explain how it happens. One of my favorites is Emily Jane "Jennie" SAURER. I have no pictures of her which makes it even more odd that she's a favorite. I remember my Grandma Ritchie (nee Saurer) telling me about Aunt Jennie - everyone loved Aunt Jennie she said. This would have been something she heard, because Aunt Jennie died before my Grandma would have been old enough to even remember her. She did have older siblings however so she might have heard it from them.

I have some china that was Jennies that my Grandmother left to me and I display a cup & saucer in a cabinet. Oh, it's not very good china - but the story was that her husband, Harv Senff, sent away for it just because she wanted it. I might need to get the rest of that china out of the attic and just used it for some occasion.

She died very young - only 36 - and they had no children. I always found it rather sad that this funeral card only has her name as "Mrs Harvey Senff" - with no part of her name even included! Even her gravestone is somehow just a little bit different than any of the surrounding stones - it always draws me to it when I go to the Apple Creek Cemetery.

Maybe one of the reasons that I've always considered her a favorite is that she is the daughter of Caroline FLORY. I've written about Caroline before here and here. I've always thought that her picture looked just a little bit sad. Oh I know they were always solemn in pictures back then, but her eyes just look sad to me. While I have a picture of her mother, I have no pictures of Jennie. I would think there was at least a wedding picture taken, but it's not something that's come down in my part of the family.

Fearless Females ~ Day 3 [a little bit late]

2011-03-04T13:01:00.000-06:00

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging prompts to celebrate National Women’s History Month is brought to us by Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist. Be sure to take a look at her post showing the whole month’s worth of prompts and then jump in and play along!

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.


Hildegarde M Ritchie

My name, Diana, is not one that is anywhere in my family tree. My Dad used to tease me, however that they ALMOST named me after his Aunt Hildegard!! My Mom always said that they never even considered that, but to this day my Dad will sometime says, “We really should have named you after Hildegarde and maybe she would have left you some money” or variations on that theme.

I do something very similar with my nieces. I tell them from time to time that I wanted their Mom to name one of them Magdalena. That is a name that appears on the Swiss-German side of my Dad’s family. I rather like it myself, but my sister wouldn’t go for it. Like my Dad, however, that doesn’t keep me from bringing it up to them in a variety of ways.

Fearless Females ~ Day 2

2011-03-02T19:39:00.000-06:00

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging prompts to celebrate National Women’s History Month is brought to us by Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist. Be sure to take a look at her post showing the whole month’s worth of prompts and then jump in and play along!

March 2 — Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

This is an easy choice for me. I've chosen Nelle EICKELBERG, my great-grandmother and the original "Random Relative" of my first post.

I'm not sure when this photo was taken but it's always been one of my favorites of Nelle. Her son, my Grandfather, Jack H QUICK used to tell this story about his mother.

On his very first day of school the teacher asked his name and he replied, "Jack H Quick." She promptly told him that "Jack" was just a nickname and his real name must be John. She also quizzed him on what the "H" stood for and refused to believe him when he said he didn't have a middle name, it was just Jack H Quick. Throughout the whole first day the teacher called him "John."

Upon arriving home from school little Jack told his mother about his first day. He wanted to know if his real name was indeed John and why his mother had never told him that. Nelle did not think much of this story and the next day marched down to school with her son. She told the teacher in no uncertain terms that she had named her son JACK and JACK was what she expected him to be called. [She also straightened her out on the middle name issue.]

While I believe the picture above was taken prior to that time*, somehow whenever my Grandfather would relate this story I always saw Nelle sailing into that school wearing this hat! She was not someone to be trifled with ~ truly as "fearless female"!

*My Grandfather was born on July 3, 1911 and so would have started school about 1916/1917 and the style of dress seems to predate that.

Happy Birthday to the territory of Colorado!

2011-02-28T06:00:00.002-06:00

As I was perusing the blogs in my reader, I came across a post about the sesquicentennial of the Colorado Territory. It was established on February 28, 1861 ~ 150 years ago today. As I wrote for the 100th COG, Colorado holds a special place in my family's past as well as in its present, so I wanted to take a little time out to say Happy Birthday.

This year for Christmas we gave my Mom & Dad the present of the whole family going out to Colorado for vacation in August. It's been quite some time since we've been able to take the whole family out. Once my sister's children got into high school it just never seemed to work out. Somehow we managed to find one week this summer and decided it was time to try again. At Christmas we all wrote down the three things we most enjoyed doing when we went to Colorado. We want to be sure that we get in all the hikes and trips that everyone remembers.

I'm also trying to figure out how to sneak in a little bit of family history/genealogy - I'm thinking of a trivia game of sorts. One of the things we all enjoy doing is playing some sort of game in the evening - cards or anything else. The game doesn't really matter because after about 10 minutes we are all laughing so hard we can barely concentrate on what we are doing! But shhhh - don't tell my family what I'm plotting...

What I Am Doing To Overcome GADD...Genealogical Attention Deficit Disorder!

2011-01-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

In a recent post I mentioned that I intended to, “…pick someone in my database….ANYONE….and do a little researching!” Well, I have decided to pick two people instead – my Father’s paternal grandfather and my Mother’s maternal grandmother and here's why.

My first choice, Thomas RITCHIE, I picked because I know quite a bit about him already. I have many documents including birth, marriage, census and naturalization records and a number of pictures. That might seem counterintuitive, but I have two goals here.

First I want to really work on my source citations within my genealogy program. Using Tom as my subject gives me many different types of documents to use. I feel that once I’ve gotten every piece of data I have for Tom properly documented and cited, I’ll have a better understanding of how to handle a wide range of sources. This goal is related as much to better understanding and utilizing my software as it is to source citations.

Second, because I have so much information on Tom it will allow me to work on my overall organizational strategy as well. I’m going to think of it as a mini-project. If I can get all the pictures and documents, both digital and paper, in a form that makes sense then I’ll be in good shape for working on those ancestors where I have much less to go on.


Marker of Gertrude's mother

Which leads me to choice number two, Gertrude A. NISSEN. I’ve chosen her specifically because I have so little information about her! Until just a few years ago I didn’t know anything more than her name. I am going to use her as my research opportunity. By concentrating on her, and not allowing myself to be side tracked into wandering after my step-grandmother’s brother’s second wife’s sister (an actual example, by the way) I should be able to accomplish so much more ~ an astonishing revelation, I know - which is why I am sharing it here!

By having these two goals in front of me - and ONLY these two – I should be able to overcome some of the debilitating effects of that disorder I have – GADD. I’ve written about it before and it still haunts me ;-) In addition, having a very narrow scope will allow me to use what little time I have without being overwhelmed just trying to decide where to start.

Up next, what I know and don't know about Gertrude and a few wild-eyed theories as well. I hope some of you out there will stop by to poke holes in my theories or offer some words of wisdom or both!

Weekly Events ~ January 24 - 30

2011-01-23T18:41:00.002-06:00

January 24th ~ This day is marked by the death of Margaret BEVERSTOCK in 1858 in Durham, England. I believe that she is my 4x great-grandmother.

January 25th ~ On this day in 1921 my grandaunt, Cora Black RITCHIE is born in Cleveland, Ohio. I have no pictures of Cora when she was young. I guess as the youngest of a large family, there was no time for baby pictures! This day is also marked by the death, in 1985 of one of Cora's older brothers, my granduncle, Thomas Albert RITCHIE.

January 28th ~ This day is marked by the death of my great-grandfather, Thomas Leopold RITCHIE in 1953 in Ravenna, Ohio. He was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, came to Canada when he was around 9, ended up working in Massachusetts by 1900 where he met and married his wife and then moved to Ohio where he raised a family of 8 children and lived the rest of his life. I would loved to have talked to him!

January 29th ~ On this day in 1775 Margaret KIRK, my 4x great-grandaunt is baptized in St. Andrews Scotland.

January 30th ~ On this day in 1698 my potential 7x great-grandfather, Niklaus ZAUGG is born in Eggiwil, Bern, Switzerland. Also on this day, in 1831 in St. Andrews, Scotland my 2x great-granduncle, Thomas SWINTON is born.

Also born on this day in 1914 is another Ritchie sibling, my granduncle George Foster RITCHIE. Uncle George was definitely a "character." He was the story teller in the family and he always embellished those stories quite a bit. He gave me some great information on the family history, but I've had to go over every piece to find the actual truth to the story. I don't have many pictures of Uncle George - he was one of the younger children in the family of 8. In the picture to the left I think he looks quite a bit like his older brother, my grandfather David Ritchie.

Finally this day is marked by the death, in 1985 of my granduncle Clair Raymond SAURER. I always remember that Uncle Clair and Aunt Temp lived next door to my grandparents and they had a dog that was scary! Uncle Clair loved that dog but we were always warned not to run up to it or even go near it unless Uncle Clair was around.

[this post was originally written in 2010 and has been slightly modified for 2011]

What Will 2011 Bring at Random Relatives?

2011-01-21T21:48:00.000-06:00

I’ve been in a genealogy “funk” lately – as anyone could tell by the marked lack of posts here. It took me until Jan 18th to even get the Christmas decorations "taken down"! It’s partly to blame on my recent decision to pursue my MBA. Studying definitely takes time away from the fun stuff. It’s also been a matter of just not knowing where to start when I only have a little bit of time. That’s just an excuse though, as this great post by Susan Petersen over at Long Lost Relatives.net shows.

So, I decided to look at 2011 and jump into some genealogy activities and planning. There’s nothing like a good conference or class to get me really inspired. Here is what I’ve come up with for my 2011 schedule:

March 26 ~ Signed up for a class entitled “Techniques for Finding a German Ancestor’s Origin” offered by the St. Louis Genealogy Society.

March 30 – April 2 ~ Attending the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

July 29 & 30 ~ Attending the Midwest Family History Expo in Overland Park, Kansas.

September 7 – 10 ~ Attending FGS 2011 Conference in Springfield, Illinois

Just reading over the sessions that are being offered at OGS and FGS has really got me excited. My only complaint – and this is especially true of FGS – is that every single time period has no less than two, and often three or four, sessions that I’d just love to attend.

I also read a post today over at Find Your Folks that reminded me of an easy and close to home thing I can do to further my genealogy education - read the genealogy books I already have in my personal library!!

So, check back in periodically – those of you who are still around – and I plan to pick someone in my database….ANYONE….and do a little researching!

Advent Calendar ~ Dec 7 - Holiday Parties

2010-12-07T06:00:00.001-06:00

Did your family throw a holiday party each year? Do you remember attending any holiday parties?

No parties here ~ but please come back tomorrow because we always had a party decorating those Christmas cookies!!

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. Please stop over to read Christmas memories posted by other GeneaBloggers from now through Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar ~ Dec 6 - Santa Claus

2010-12-06T07:03:00.001-06:00

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Did you ever visit Santa and “make a list?” Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

I'm not sure I understand the last part of the prompt, "Do you still believe in Santa Claus?" I mean it's not a question of belief - it's an obvious fact!!

I did receive a call from Santa once. I think I was about 4 or 5 and all I really remember about it is that Santa Claus sounded quite a lot like my Grandpa Ritchie, but again, Santa is just magical like that - he can do anything he wants!

As for letters, I don't ever remember writing one - I'll have to ask my Mom about that. It seems sort of redundant to me ~ Santa Claus knows if you've been good or bad so of COURSE he knows what you want. And besides, I sat on his lap at the mall and told him. Somehow he didn't seem as happy about it as when I was younger....

Somewhere I have a picture of my dad dressed up as Santa and kissing my Mom - we all LOVED the song, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" I should have been more prepared for some of these posts - I'll need to dig that picture out.

**UPDATE**
I can't believe I almost forgot the BEST Santa story ever - my youngest sister was 7 years old and we were still playing Santa up big time...leaving out cookies etc. (she was MUCH younger as she likes to say - I was 15 and my other sister was 13 at the time) After Christmas I was coloring with her (in her new Strawberry Shortcake coloring book!) and she said to me in this very confidential tone, "I know that Santa Claus isn't real, but don't tell Mommy and Daddy I know - it would spoil it for them" I has SUCH a hard time keeping a straight face!!! I just made some non-committal noises and kept on coloring.

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. Please stop over to read Christmas memories posted by other GeneaBloggers from now through Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar ~ Dec 4 – Christmas Cards

2010-12-04T14:18:00.000-06:00

Did your family send cards? Did your family display the ones they received? Do you still send Christmas cards? Do you have any cards from your ancestors?

I almost skipped this day, because my family was never much for sending out Christmas cards. My mother has always been a school teacher and there just wasn't enough time for composing those Christmas letters and addressing cards. Also, as my Mom herself is first to admit, she was never much into letter writing!

But as I was sorting through a scrapbook I happened upon a publication sent in December, 1961 by People's Federal Bank in Wooster, Ohio. It was full of various things (apparently my grandmother or grandfather saved it for a house plan it contained) and there was a whole spread detailing the history of Christmas cards so I thought I'd share that for today. Also, the cover was very cute!

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. Please stop over to read Christmas memories posted by other GeneaBloggers from now through Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar ~ Dec 3 - Christmas Tree Ornaments

2010-12-03T06:51:00.000-06:00

Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

I don't remember any real heirloom ornaments. There was nothing that had been passed down from previous generations that we put on the tree. I do remember that we had some favorites though, and my sister and I would try to grab our favorites to hang on the tree. Yes - competition even at Christmas time!

One year, when we were all grown up and my younger sister was either first married or engaged we came up with the great idea that we were all going to MAKE Christmas tree ornaments. Each person (I think this was my parents, sister and husband and I) was to make 5 ornaments of whatever kind they chose and then keep one and give one to each of the other people so we would each end up with all 5 different kinds of ornaments. I have no idea WHY we thought we each would need our own separate stash of ornaments - we usually only had 2 trees...one at Mom and Dad's and one at my sister's house. Anyway, we thought this was a great idea for some reason.

As it turned out I only remember that my brother-in-law and I completed the task. He hand painted hollow eggshells and somehow managed to attach something to the top to hang them. I crocheted snowflakes and put silver glitter on them. I totally forget what the others started (or planned.) Needless to say, that "tradition" didn't make it past the first year!! We do still have the eggs and snowflakes. I'm going to try and get a picture of them from my sister to add here.

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. Please stop over to read Christmas memories posted by other GeneaBloggers from now through Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar ~ Dec 2 - Holiday Foods

2010-12-02T06:30:00.033-06:00

Did your family or ancestors serve traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that was unusual?

There is one special things that we always had at Christmas which I've never known anyone else to have. As a matter of fact when I tell people one of the ingredients they usually look at me like I'm making it up! It sounds simple enough - it's just a fruit cup with grapefruit, oranges, grapes and sugar. It's the grapes that make it something rather unique. For some reason, the grapes that were traditionally used were the kind that had seeds. Before they could go into the fruit cup the grapes had to be PEELED and then cut in half and the seeds had to be removed. It's the PEELED part that always causes the stares of disbelief!

Many years when I was a child I helped with that particular task. I'd have to stopped multiple times and wash my hands and arms as I seemed to get sticky from about the fingertips to the elbows on both hands. It would take forever to peel the required number of grapes!

This delicacy was particular to my Mom's side of the family. It was always consumed right before Christmas dinner and was always, at least for the adults, served in an ornate crystal goblet. For those of us kids who liked this concoction, we usually were served in plastic glasses!

In later years, as everyone started going to less labor intensive holidays, sometimes the person in charge of fixing this would use seedless grapes and NOT PEEL THEM! We all agreed that peeling grapes was probably rather silly, but it just never tasted the same - or as good - unless the grapes were peeled.

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. Please stop over to read Christmas memories posted by other GeneaBloggers from now through Christmas Eve.

Advent Calendar ~ The Christmas Tree

2010-12-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

When I was growing up we always had a "real" Christmas tree and felt only pity for those poor souls who thought that an artificial tree was good enough. As might be evident from the picture here, a real tree was certainly not always a perfect tree!!

One thing I remember about our Christmas trees is that we always put them up on two orange crates covered with a white sheet. I guess that was to make room for the presents under the tree. My sister still has a couple of those old orange crates even though they are no longer used for the Christmas tree.

There were a number of my relatives that were total heathens in respect to the "real" Christmas tree idea. My mother's parents for some years had a tree that I believe was a very early forerunner of today's fiber optic tree. The catch was that this tree had to have a revolving color wheel to supply the ever-changing colors. I'm sure that anyone my age remembers these!

I don't remember how many years my grandparents had this type of tree, but I do remember being told by my parents not to get to close - they were always afraid we were going to knock it over.

In later years I remember my grandparents having a little (artificial) tree that they just set up on a table - which still seemed so WRONG to me as a child. As an adult I have a little more sympathy for the ease of the artificial tree. I will even admit to having a fiber optic tree in my house - but it's only the secondary tree down in the lower level. The upstairs still gets a BIG tree!

Every Family Has One ~

2010-11-29T19:50:00.001-06:00

…a favorite place that is. Or maybe I should say a place that is deeply a part of the family.

Colorado is, without a doubt, our family’s favorite place to be. It's also the state that defines my mother's side of the family.

William Eickelberg Family

My family’s history with Colorado goes back many, many years. This picture of William and Nellie Eickelberg and family would have been taken in roughly 1887/1888 because the baby in the picture, William Jr was born Feb, 1887. The family moved out to Denver sometime between William, Jr's birth and the birth of his older sister (my great-grandmother) Nelle who was born in 1885 in Indiana. Eventually Nellie Auflick would see her parents and both her younger brother's and older sister's families move out to the Denver area. I've posted a picture of Thomas and Margaret Auflick's gravestone in a previous post.

Although I don’t have any pictures, I do know that the Nissen side of the family (my mother's mother's side) was also in Colorado around that time as they were enumerated in Colorado’s 1885 state census. They lived near Denver, in what is now Broomfield. On our recent trip to Colorado I was able to stop at Riverside cemetery and photograph this gravestone. Anna is my great-great-grandmother. Her husband, August Henry Nissen is also buried in this plot although his name was not on the stone. He died 06 April 1914.

Jack H Quick

My grandfather Jack H Quick – the son of the cute little girl in the picture above – was born in Colorado in 1911. He lived there for the first 30 some years of his life. I don't know where the picture to the left was taken, but it was someplace in Colorado where he is taking his first steps.

Jack & Belle Quick far right

I know that he and a buddy climbed Long's Peak many times. They liked to camp up there. The mountains were always a big part of his life and he spent vacations in a cabin above Denver that his mother owned. I have numerous pictures of outings that he took with his wife and other couples up to that cabin.
Not only did he spend time there, but all of Nelle's children and grandchildren spent time at the cabin. My mom is the cutie-pie right in the front with the floppy hat. They are sitting out on the porch of the cabin.

Jacqulin Ann Quick,

My mother was also born in Colorado. For the first 8 years of her life, her grandmother would take her to Dewey Studios in Denver to have her picture taken on her birthday. I have a beautiful group of pictures of her taken there including this one on her 4th birthday. So, for my mom, both of her parents were born in Colorado and several of her grandparents were as well. The Colorado mountains are definitely a part of her ancestry!

While I was born in elsewhere, I've been told that I took my first steps in Colorado. My mother and her parents had taken me out to Colorado to visit some relatives that still lived here. I liked the state so much even then that I decided to start walking.

Much later we took an extended summer trip again going out to Colorado to visit my Mom's Aunt Pearl. My mom took this picture of us that, surprisingly, did NOT cut off any of our heads! We had a wonderful time and I remember so vividly being up in the mountains standing on top of a snow drift in June - I thought that was amazing!

We also stayed in that very same cabin of my great-grandmother's. She was still alive and we visited her and she came up to the cabin with us. The thing I remember about that cabin - there was no indoor plumbing but the outhouse has a fancy green toilet seat! Oh, and did I mention the player piano?? Yes, the cabin had a player piano!

We didn’t get to come out as much after that, but when my youngest sister - the cute baby in the sunbonnet - had her first child the family started going to Estes Park for vacation. The first year is was just my parents and sister's family. But that started a new tradition and we began going out almost every year. My nieces and nephew have wonderful memories of hiking in the mountains. Here they are taking a break and getting there feet wet in a cold mountain stream.

Codi, Colton, Kyli

We also like to drive up what one of my nieces called "the scary road" which is the old Fall River road up to the top or Trail Ridge. It's a dirt road which now can only be traveled one way - up. Along the way there are places to pull off and things to see or short trails to follow. It is usually fairly cold and here one of the girls has "borrowed" her daddy's shirt!

As recently as last week my parents and sister (NOT the baby in the sun bonnet) were out spending Thanksgiving in Estes Park. We hiked several mornings and one day even got to snowshoe. My Mom took this picture of my sister and I up at Bear Lake. Oh my goodness was it cold - and this was the warmest day of the week!

So here's to Colorado, sometimes our home, sometimes our home away from home, but always that place where family memories are made!

Thanks for the poster fM!

This post was written for the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: "There's One in Every Family" to be hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene. Jasia is looking for 100 posts for this edition - So let's all help achieve that...I'm sure we all have something to share!

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ Family Stories

2010-11-24T20:15:00.001-06:00

Using the holiday week (and vacation) to catch up on my reading, I was browsing through the hundreds of genealogy blogs I like to follow. I came across a post comparing family stories to gossip and not only that but pointing out that, “gossip is one of the worst traits of humanity.” Wow – so that is pretty much my whole blog. Fortunately, I don’t find the need to believe something just because I’ve read it.

For me family stories are a treasure. They are what put the flesh on the bones of dates and events. I hope that someday I can be that person that Randy Seaver wrote about in a recent blog post. Being the “spinster aunt” I have a good start – now I would like to work a little bit more on the “wealthy” part!

So, why do I think family stories are important? Well, someday it’s possible that one of my nieces’ or nephew’s children might also be interested in genealogy. They will be able (hopefully!) to find when my mother, their great-grandmother was born, and married and (by then) died. I want them also to know what she was like. After all, she was their mother’s or father’s grandmother – and someone that had a big influence on that parent’s life. She was the “Nannie” that made them quilts and took them hiking out in Colorado almost every summer of their childhood. Maybe they are now vacationing in Colorado as well – a tradition passed down from the time of my own grandfather. There are so many stories I can leave for them so that they will have a better picture of my mother.

A story that I still treasure was told to my by my grandfather – Jack H Quick. He told about being somewhere with his mother and his mother's grandmother, Louisa Eickelberg. He called her "little grandma" and she would have been in her eighties at this time. As they had a number of things to do, and grandma wasn't as spry as she once was, they sat her down in the park and went about their other errands. When they came back grandma was not there. They finally found her in an area where someone was giving airplane rides! As they took grandma out of line (!!) she told them that she had ridden in a ship, a covered wagon, a train, a car and now she wanted to try out this airplane.

Is this literally true? I have no idea because clearly the conversation was not recorded. She lived to be 92, dying in 1928 when my grandfather would have been 17 so he certainly knew her well enough to have formed an opinion. Of course he only knew her at the end of her life, but I still treasure this small glimpse of someone I could never know other than through just a few cold facts.

So, that’s my opinion and I’ll keep collecting and recording the stories with the hopes that someday someone in the family might be as interested in them as I have always been.

It Looks So Obvious Now ~

2010-11-01T19:07:00.001-05:00

I've admitted it before - I'm the family historian. I'd like to be the family genealogist, but don't always have the time to research as much or as thoroughly as I'd like. So, as I can, I'm going through my database and looking at ancestors where I think I know everything (all the bmd dates/places) and checking on how and why I think I know. I've started ordering copies of certificates if I don't have them and I if find they are available.

I found that the Massachusetts Archives had a searchable index for vital records covering the years 1841 - 1910 so I thought I'd see what they had for the marriage of my great-grandparents, Mary BENZIE and Thomas RITCHIE. Of course I already KNEW when they were married. I have this great wedding booklet signed my both of them as well as the minister. I have always recorded their wedding at 17-Oct-1900. Their first child, William, was born on 24-Apr-1092. Very respectable!

It took me a few tries, but finally I found a listing in 1901. I thought, "Well obviously a well-meaning indexer just has a slip of the finger there!" Anyway, off went my check and request. On Friday in the mail I received a copy of that marriage record. Not only did I receive a nicely typed out "official" copy, but for my $3.00 (!!) I also received a photocopy of the page in the register showing the original information. Big as life it is 1901.

So, let's take another look inside the wedding booklet with the date of 1900:

It now appears that the last zero in the date might have started life as a one! It gives a somewhat different spin on the wedding in October. There was Mary, already 3 months pregnant, with her male cousin as witness at her wedding. Was the couple already planning their move to Ohio? Certainly by the time their son is born, six months later, they lived in Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland who's to know which year they actually DID get married!

I've looked as several other documents I have - Thomas's petition for citizenship where he give the 17-Oct-1900 date, the 1930 census that asks for age at first marriage. Both Tom and Mary give ages that would be consistent with a marriage in 1900. So, I guess I thought I had every reason to use that date - every reason but the best one...consulting a primary source!

Family Events ~ Oct 25 - Oct 31

2010-10-24T12:23:00.000-05:00

October 25 ~ On this day in 1937 my grandfather, Jack H QUICK and Olive Isabelle BRADDOCK (nee DUNCAN) are married in Castle Rock, Colorado. This is the second marriage for both. These pictures from my grandpa's photo album, dated 11-1-1937 were taken during their honeymoon at the Grand Canyon although the background is so faded it is hard to tell. Fortunately for me, he labeled all his pictures.

October 27 ~ This day is marked by the death in Hempstead, Arkansas in1889 of Margaret Amanda MOUSER, the 4x great-grandaunt of my nieces and nephew.

This day is also marked by the death in Colorado in 1912 of my great-grandfather, John H QUICK. My grandfather was a 15 months old at the time of his father's death. This is one of only two pictures I have of John.

October 29 ~ This day is marked by the death in Oyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1929 of Helen BENZIE my 2x great-grandaunt.

October 31 ~ This is a busy day in family history!

First, on this day in 1802 in Oyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland my 2x great-granduncle, Alexander Benzie is born.

This day is also marked by the death in 1892 of the 5x great-grandfather of my nieces and nephew, John Daniel Mouser. There is a wonderful memorial for him on Find-A-Grave with a picture of his gravestone and some great additional information regarding his will and the names of all his children.

Also on this day in 1896, my great-granduncle, Raymond Rudolph GRABER is born in East Union Twp, Wayne County, Ohio. [picture to the left is Raymond]

And last, but certainly not least - on this day, an unspecified number of years ago, my brother-in-law, Christian Mathis MOUSER was born.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Magdalena Saurer

2010-09-07T19:27:00.001-05:00

This gravestone is a currently unconnected SAURER from Tracy Cemetery in Apple Creek, Ohio. I believe the official name of the cemetery - if you try to locate it on Find-A-Grave or a map - is Red Run Cemetery, but if you want a local to direct you there - ask for Tracy Cemetery.

MAGDALENA SAURER

Born

Sep 20, 1789

Died

June 8, 1866

76 yrs. 9 mos. 19 ds.
June 8, 1855

[This is my best guess at what it says - although I realize the calculation is off by a month if you use death date & age or birth date and age]

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More from the ACPL

2010-08-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

While in Fort Wayne, at the wonderful Allen County Public Library, one of the people on our "guided tour" was busily scouring books for various bits of information. As I mentioned in my fishing analogy the other day, some people like the guide to do everything including baiting the hook, while others just need to be rowed to the right spot and left alone to fish.

Rosalie (Rosie) Day was one of the latter and she has an amazing ability to find seemingly random, un-indexed tidbits of great information. While any of us could Google "Kosciusko County cemeteries" [well, OK, only those of you who are really, REALLY good spellers could Google anything that starts off with "Kosciusko"!!], Rosie was able to find the exact location, including the row number, of the grave of Simon Wyland. She has been hoping to be able to visit the cemetery after leaving the library and now she knew just what she needed.

In the Kosciusko County, Indiana Cemetery Records, Vol II by Lester H. Binnie there on pg 44 was this entry:

There was also a nice picture of the layout of the cemetery along with some history.

Rosie is the great-grandniece of the wife of Simon Wyland. Rosie knew where Mary (Long) Wyland was buried in Garnett, Kansas, and wanted to complete the family history by locating Simon's final resting place.

So, after some "fishing" in the library, Rosie and her daughter-in-law Wanda (who took all the pictures you are seeing) were able to go directly to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery and take pictures of the stone Rosie had been looking for.

Rosalie Day standing next to the stone of her Civil War ancestor, Simon Wyland

More From the ACPL ~ How We Found Cölpin

2010-08-15T19:42:00.000-05:00

[Sorry I didn't update this yesterday as I'm sure you've all been on the edges of your respective seats. The group went out to dinner after spending the last day in the library and between the somewhat late hour and the wine and the need to get up early today, I opted for sleep rather than blogging.]

So, I left off Friday with the question of where to find Cölpin, or more specifically, in what parish would the church records be found? I came to the library on Friday morning all ready to tackle what I thought would be an easy "find." I knew that the ACPL had The Map Guides to German Parish Records books so all I would need to do was grab the appropriate one - Mecklenburg-Strelitz - and find my answer.

First thing on Friday, I grabbed the book out of the stacks and went back to the table to dive in. Checked the index and NO CÖLPIN! Now I'm a genealogist after all so I don't let a little thing like spelling deter me. I immediately look for Kölpin and find not one but two. The books don't have actual maps - more like general sketches of the area. They are mostly meant to help you figure out in which parish an already-located town would be. So I'm trying to figure out generally where these 2 Kölpin's would be but in reading more carefully I see that they are both in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and neither are in Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

The spelling doesn't concern me, but the location does. As I mentioned yesterday, William Eickelberg's passport application is very specific in saying he was born in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Also, the 1870 census entry that I had recently found shows the birth place of all the members of the family as "Strellitz Mecklenberg." I have to accept that they knew where they lived and it seemed that neither of the Kölpins in the book could be right. After dithering around with google maps (and finding in present day Germany both a Cölpin and a Kölpin) and looking at the book for awhile I decided to seek some council from our "guide."

So, Michael looks at the google map locations and we look at a big map in the library but are not further enlightened. Finally he says that he wants to look at a map resource online that he thinks might help us. I have to admit that as I am watching him type in "Wisconsin maps German Empire" I'm thinking, "Has he not been listening? - my ancestors were NEVER in Wisconsin, they went to Ohio." He must have caught that look I have because he sort of chuckled and said that the maps are housed at the University of Wisconsin Madison so that's best way to find them. OH!

In pretty short order he found an entry for Kölpin as follows:

Please note that the first entry clearly states it's in "Mecklenb-Strel" - YEAH that's what we want!! So a little more searching and here it is:

What's more in looking very closely at the map I see close by another small town - Spanholz. In reviewing the passenger list, the people listed right before the Eickelberg family are from Spanholz. So now, lesson number 27 (or something like that, I've lost count) is re-enforced - look at who else is traveling with your relatives. Well, maybe not "with" - I don't know that they are together. But this is definitely another match that tells me this is the correct town. Wow - I was just so happy at this point. I've wanted to be able to research my ancestors in Germany and this is the first step in doing that!!

That's not the end of the story however. With the help of this wonderful map I begin to narrow down, based on the towns around, exactly which parish is correct. I look up Stargard and some of the others and begin to pinpoint the area. Then, I decide it's so close to the edge of what I'm looking at, that I need to look at the parish bordering to the south. I pick a city and find where that is in the book and what do I find? There, on the page, big as life is listed "Cölpin" the city I was looking for all along!! I recheck the index a few more times, but it's just not there!

Recounting this story at lunch I came to the realization that I was actually GLAD that it hadn't been there. If it had I would have simply noted the parish and the numbers of the films that I could look up and been done. Instead I was introduced to this wonderful map resource. It's beautiful and I'd encourage anyone with German ancestors to check it out. If you remember nothing else, just remember to google "Wisconsin map German Empire" and it will be right at the top!

All smiles as we find Kölpin

A big thanks to Wanda Hunter Day, one of the great people I meet on this trip, for capturing the pictures of that fun moment when we spotted Kölpin!

Fishing With A Guide, or What I Found at the ACPL Today

2010-08-13T19:38:00.001-05:00

If you've read my blog before and seen my Bucketed List post, you will know that one of the things I've done is to go fishing in Alaska. On that trip my friends and I commented more than once about how very glad we were that we had decided to hire a guide. Not only did he row the boat (no noisy motors for us!) but he also helped us as much or little as we each needed. For me, not being a "fisher-person", I was more than happy to let him bait the hook, take the fish off etc. Nancy's husband Bob, on the other hand, needed nothing more than for the boat to stop and he was ready to fish.

So, what, you might ask, does this have to do with genealogy?? Have I change from "Random Relatives" to simply Random?? Nope - it's just that the last few days a small group of us have been enjoying the Allen County Public Library with Michael John Neill (who writes the great Casefile Clues) as our "guide."

Today was a great example of what this meant for me. I have been discussing one of my German relatives with Michael. William Eickelberg was born in Germany in 1863 and came to this country as a small child. [picture is William Eickelberg as a young man with his family in about 1887/1888] I've felt fortunate that in one of the census records I've found (1880, Meigs Co, Ohio) it is specifically noted as "Mechlinberg." Even better, on a passport application that I had found on Ancestry.com it showed that he had been born in Mecklenburg Strelitz.

Certainly that narrows it down - and Mecklenburg Strelitz is the smaller of the two Duchies of Mecklenburg - but still it's not enough to look at church records. I needed a town. Well to condense this somewhat - yesterday evening I found the passenger list for the family! Not only that but I had a few lessons re-learned along the way.

I had actually seen this in an index earlier and dismissed it because only the father's name was right. The children didn't seem right and the wife's age was all wrong. Also, the index had "unknown" for the town were they came from so really, what did it matter anyway, right?!?! I knew about when and about where - I needed a town. Of course the first rule that we all know, myself included, is LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL IMAGE anyway.

When Michael looked at the passport application with me - and pointed out a few things about naturalization laws along the way! - I decided to look again because the dates matched and were fairly specific - September, 1865. (The date of the passenger list on the index at Castle Garden.org and the date William had on his passport when he had come over from Germany.)

I had to page through the images because this year (on the Hamburg passenger lists) is not indexed and the handwritten index seemed as much work as just looking at a few months. Before too long there it was - and there was a town plainly indicated ~ Cölpin!

Also, the wife's age, which had been transcribed as 22 clearly showed 32 - which was a match. Between the time I first looked at the index for this record and now when I was looking at the actual record, I had found the family in the 1870 census and found the "additional" child who had seemed out of place before - so again, this was now a match. Second lesson, go back and review some of those items in your list of failures (you do keep that list, right??) Sometime new information will shed new light on records. The names still are not exactly what I would expect for the son and wife, but for the daughter, "Annie" in English and "Johanna" in German are close enough.

This was great - this was thrilling - but the search for Cölpin would prove even more interesting. (I know that many of you have already jumped on Google and are saying to yourselves, "easy - there it is" but the challenge is - what German parish does it belong to? If I wanted to now look at church records, I need to know that. And for those of you with the complete 33 vol set of Map Guides to German Parish records at hand - it's not in the index!

How did my guide help solve that problem? Tune in tomorrow!

More Fun at the Midwest Family History Expo

2010-08-03T20:15:00.002-05:00

Another person I got to meet at the Family History Expo was Lisa Alzo, who writes the great blog at The Accidental Genealogist.

Not only did I get to meet Lisa but I also got to hang out with her at the blogger table and I attended her great class on “Finding Your Female Ancestors.”

While Lisa certainly gave us some great tips on locating female ancestors, I would say that the session was about so much more than just finding them. It was focused on finding out about them, about telling their stories. Lisa has such a passion for this topic that it was just contagious. (Be sure to see who else Lisa has inspired by checking out Susan Petersen’s post on this same session.)

Giving these female ancestors a voice is something that Lisa wants us all to do and she has done just that in her book, Three Slovak Woman. She exhorted all of us to do the same. Lisa's enthusiasm and passion for the subject started me thinking about a number of women in my own family tree. While I can't imagine that I could actually write a book, I can at least begin to document the struggles some of my ancestors had and try to better understand their lives.

I have this picture which is labeled simply “Four generations”

The little boy is my grandfather, Jack H Quick (1911 - 1999) and I can easily identify his mother (Nelle Eickelberg 1885 - 1970) and her mother, his grandmother (Nellie Auflick 1864 - 1940) from the many other pictures I have of each of these woman.

So, is the older woman Margaret Hannington (1830 - 1914), Nellie's mother, who died when Jack was 3 1/2? He looks young enough in this picture to make that possible. Or is this perhaps Louisa (1835 - 1928), wife of William Eickelberg, even though that would make her Nellie's mother-in-law and not her mother?

I do know from my Grandpa’s stories that his great-grandma Eickelberg did live with them for a time. He used to call her "little grandma" and apparently tormented her because she couldn't chase after him! He once told me that he had to be careful to stay out of the reach of her cane or she would whack him with it. (and from other stories he's told me I'm sure he richly deserved to be whacked!)

Regardless, both women are people I should know more about. Both followed roughly similar paths, coming across the ocean to first settle in Ohio and then end up in Colorado. Margaret came from England while Louisa came over from Germany without that advantage of knowing the language. Margaret moved from Ohio to Colorado with her husband, Thomas Auflick while Louisa buried her husband in Ohio and then later moved to Colorado when her daughter's family left Ohio.

I often wonder if Louisa wanted to go? Of course with no other family that I have found - she was living with her daughter - there was probably no other option. Her name was on the other side of her husband's marker I found in the Minersville Hill Cemetery in Ohio so clearly she intended to be buried there. Of course Margaret had buried 4 children in Ohio and no woman's life in the mid-1800's was going to be an easy one!

So, I need to start understanding more about what their lives might have been like. Even if I don't write a book, I can pass that knowledge on to future generations at least informally. It's up to me to make sure that they don't become anonymous names and dates on my pedigree chart!

“I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman”. ~ Virginia Woolf

Fun at the Midwest Family History Expo

2010-08-02T19:19:00.002-05:00

While I was at the Midwest Family History Expo this past weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Smith aka “Dr. Bill” from Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories

This was a double pleasure since I am currently reading his book Back to the Homeplace (conveniently available on my Kindle!) and really enjoying it. Earlier, there had been a discussion on Facebook (started by Susan Petersen) regarding e-books and how one would “autograph” an e-book. Well, Dr. Bill solved that for me by presenting me with this:

In thinking about the whole e-book/autograph issue, I find that, for me anyway, the thrill is not so much having a book with a signature – that I may or may not be able to read – but in getting to meet a real live author! I’m always a little in awe of someone who can write books.* Now I just need to figure out if I can uploaded the picture to my Kindle – so I can have the autograph with the book!

More “Fun From the Family History Expo” tomorrow ~ because believe me, we had more fun that just one post can contain!

* "...if she had only books, that she might learn for herself what wise men knew! Saints and martyrs had never interested Maggie so much as sages and poets."
from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Family History Expo ~ I'm in Kansas City!

2010-07-30T17:07:00.001-05:00

It's more than past time for a new post here!! Currently I'm sitting at the "Beacon of Bloggers" table so it only seems right that I actually update my blog. It's been so much fun that I've actually gotten to meet in person a number of my facebook friends.

Susan Peterson (R) of Long Lost Relatives and me just getting ready to start the day.

Jenna Mills (L) of Desperately Seeking Surnames. Although you can't see it, we both have fresh pedicures :-)

And of course, Thomas MacEntee of Geneablogger fame. He is as full of energy as you would imagine. It's fun to be in the presents of actual Blogger Royalty - well at least that's what one of his ribbons says ;-) I attended his twitter class today and might actually be able to logically "follow along" now.

More later - but just wanted to let everyone know what a fun place Kansas City is this weekend.

A Bucket List or a Bucketed List?

2010-05-07T18:00:00.000-05:00

Being a copy-cat, as we used to say when I was a child, I found a great post by Leah over at Random Notes [hey, with a name like that it HAS to be good, right?] and I want to jump on board. Instead of creating a Bucket List, Leah decided to make a list of all the great things she'd already been able to do. She called this her "Already Bucketed List"

I like this so much better than the Bucket List and here’s why. Some of the things that ended up on my "Bucketed" list would never have been on any list of things I hoped to do some day. For instance, I didn’t even know that my great-great-grandfather was buried in that Toronto cemetery until I went there for a different reason. Also, I’m not a whiskey drinker, but being able to taste the peat-y flavor imparted to the whiskey by the brewing techniques particular to a specific area was a not-to-be-missed experience when one is actually standing in a distillery on the Isle of Skye.

So thanks Leah!! –I have really enjoyed this chance to be reminded of all the wonderful, amazing things I’ve experienced in my first 50(ish) years. It makes me look forward to the next 50 with a renewed sense of excitement and wonder about what is yet to come…things that I don’t even know that I want to do but will love when they happen!!

Diana’s Already Bucketed List

1. Watched a “thundering herd” of buffalo as they ran madly across a meadow.

2. Walked down the same dirt path from the small village of Blebo Craig (in Fife, Scotland) to the parish church of Kemback that my great-great-grandfather, James Ritchie would have walked with his siblings and parents in the mid-1800’s.

3. Tasted the smokey, peat-y whiskey distilled on the Isle of Skye - while ON the Isle of Skye.

4. Walked the very streets of Bath where Jane Austen set some memorable scenes in her novels Nothanger Abbey and Persuasion.

5. Drank water straight from a rushing mountain stream in Colorado. It was so cold it seemed like it must have been snow only moments ago. (And I lived to tell about it – ah the innocence of the times before everything we put into our mouths was going to kill us)

6. And speaking of Jane Austen, walked out on the Cobb in Lyme Regis.

7. Stood by my great-great-grandparents grave in Inverurie, Scotland. [well OK, that's my Dad, not me - but I was there too!]

8. Watched a Shakespearean play performed in Stratford-upon-Avon.

9. Stood at the continental divide and watch the water running both ways – twice! Once in Colorado as a child, once in Wyoming as an adult.

10. Stood in the ruts made by the wagons heading west on the Oregon Trail.

11. Happened to be right there when the Giant Geyser erupted in Yellowstone on Sept, 2005 . This geyser is know for its "spectacular, but sporadic eruptions."

12. Eaten strawberries just picked and popped straight into my mouth still warm from the sun. (Again, I haven’t died – but of course pesticides had never been near any of these berries.)

13. Watched a grizzly bear feeding – from a safe distance across a river, but none the less thrilling.

14. Sat in silence and listened to the erie sounds a glacier makes and then got to see it calve!

15. Slept in an actual castle. (It was haunted too, although the ghost didn’t see fit to visit me.)

16. Been salmon fishing in Alaska – rowed out in the silence and mist of the early morning.

17. Been to a baseball playoff game in St. Louis – which was played on grass and during the daytime…as baseball was MEANT to be played.

18. Found the grave of my great-great-grandfather, James Ritchie, in Toronto, Ontario.

19. Watched John Denver live in concert.(I was a child of the 70’s…what can I say!)

20. Seen the names of pioneers etched in stone at Register Cliff.

21. Enjoyed tea with scones and clotted cream and jam in England.

22. Visited Hill Top Farm – home of Peter Rabbit, and just incidentally home of Beatrix Potter as well.

This list could have been 3 times as long and actually was, but I picked out just 22 for this post. Wow - that's really all I can say!

Family Events ~ March 28 - April 3

2010-03-28T16:21:00.001-05:00

March 28 ~ On this day in 1801 my 3x great-grandaunt, Catherine Benzie was baptized in Oyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

March 30 ~ On this day in 1785 my 4x great-granduncle, William Gourlay is born in Ceres, Fife, Scotland.

Also on this day in 1808 my 3x great-grandaunt, and niece of William, Elizabeth Gourlay, is born in Ceres, Fife, Scotland.

Finally, this day is marked by the death, in 1985 of my great-grandaunt, Laura Hazel Graber Rittenhouse. Because Aunt Laura was the youngest in a family where my great-grandmother, Ella, was the oldest I was fortunate enough to have a link back to my great-great-grandparents even though my great-grandmother, Ella, died when I was only 4 1/2. Aunt Laura was very interested in family history and it is because of her that I have so many wonderful pictures on the Graber side of the family.

March 31 ~ On this day in 1893, Roy Duncan, my Grandma Belle Duncan Quick's uncle. I say it that way because Grandma Quick was my mother's step-mother so Roy comes up as "no blood relationship" in my genealogy software although my Mom knew him as Uncle Roy.

April 3 ~ This day is marked by the death in 1793 of Ann Magdalena Laesser in Bern, Switzerland. Anna is possibly my 6x great-grandmother.

On this day in 1903, my granduncle - my grandfather's half-brother, William Harry Nissen is born in Denver, Colorado. [picture to the left is of Harry]

Also on this day is born Kenneth Logan Keefer, the granduncle on their father's side of my nieces and nephew.

Family Events ~ March 21 - 27

2010-03-21T16:30:00.003-05:00

March 21 ~ On this day in 1759, Anna SCHENK, possibly my 5x great-grandmother is born in Langnau, Bern, Switzerland.

Also on this day in 1913 my paternal grandmother, Lela Mable SAURER is born in Wayne County, Ohio.

Finally, this day is also marked by the death, in 1966 of Enoch Melvin MOUSER who is the 2x great-grandfather of my nieces and nephew.

March 22 ~ This day in 1900 is marked by the death, of Elizabeth RENNIE, my 3x great-grandmother. She died and is buried in Inverurie, Scotland along with her daughter and son-in-law. Although her name is not on the stone, she is buried here with them and I have posted a picture of the grave marker in a previous post.

March 23 ~ On this day in 1908, Elizabeth LOGAN, the great-grandmother of my nieces and nephew is born. This picture of her on a trip to Egypt is one of the only picture I've seen of her.

March 24 ~ On this day in 1863 my 2x great-grandfather, William EICKELBERG is born in what was then known as Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Or, to practice my German, "Mein Ururgroßvater, Wilhelm Eickelberg war in Mecklenberg geboren. Als er zwei Jahren alt war, hat er nach Amerika mit seinen Eltern gekommen. Das war im Jahren achtzehnhundert fünfundsechzig (1865.)"

March 25 ~ On this day in 1824 my 3x great-grandfather, Jacob ZAUGG is born in Bern, Switzerland.

Also on this day in 1885, my great-grandmother, Nelle EICKELBERG is born in Carbon, Clay County, Indiana. She is the original "Random Relative" featured in my first blog post.

Family Events ~ March 14 - 20

2010-03-14T14:54:00.000-05:00

March 15th ~ On this day in 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio my 2x great-grandparents, Rudolph GRABER and Emma ZAUGG were married. I've posted previously about the incredible coincidence of my becoming best friends with the great-granddaughter of the minister who married this couple, Edmund ERB.

March 17th ~ On this day in 1800 in Cape Girardaeu, Missour John ROSS, the 4x great-grandfather of my nieces and nephew, is born.

March 19th ~ On this day in 1852 my 3x great grandparents Jacob ZAUGG and Anna Barbara BARTCHEY are married in Berne, Switzerland. [pretty obviously NOT a wedding picture, but the only one I have of them.] This day in 1892 is also marked by the death of my 3x great grandfather, Thomas SWINTON in St. Andrews, Scotland. I've previously posted a picture of his gravestone.

March 20th ~ On this day in 1795 in Bern, Switzerland Jacob ZAUGG, father of the above Jacob and my 4x great grandfather is born. Also on this day in 1844 my 2x great grandmother, Caroline FLORY is born in Wayne County, Ohio .

Family Events ~ February 21 - 27

2010-02-21T16:32:00.020-06:00

February 21 ~ This day is marked by the death of my great-grandmother, Mary BENZIE in 1961 in Garretsville, Ohio. The picture to the right has a notation on the back "Ma Ritchie at the farm." I don't remember her as I was barely past 2 when she died, but I do remember visiting the farm. Her son Tom lived there all of his life.

February 22 ~ On this day in 1908 my grandfather (and son of Mary BENZIE), David Washington RITCHIE is born in Cleveland, Ohio. (Born on the day celebrated as Washington's birthday, thus his middle name)

He was "the youngest of the oldest four" as he always liked to say (in a family of 8 children.) So, that would make him the scowling youngest child in this picture. Maybe he didn't care for the hat??

This day is also marked by the death of my step-great-grandmother, Lena VENETTE DUNCAN in 1923 in Boulder, Colorado. She is buried with her mother Mary LEGAULT VENETTE BOWLEN and her daughter Melva Marie DUNCAN in Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. This is a huge cemetery and I was fortunate to find a full index and map on-line (click the link above) that allowed me to locate this grave several years ago on a trip to Boulder.

February 24 ~ This day is marked by the death of a potential 7x great-grandmother, Barbara HUNZIKER in Staffelbach, Aargau, Switzerland.

February 26 ~ On this day Isabella DAVIDSON, my 4x great-grandmother is born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

February 27 ~ This day is marked by the death of my grandaunt, Pearl Emma SAURER BIDLE in 1998 in Wayne County, Ohio.

One thing I remember about Aunt Pearl is visiting her when I was a teenager. I am 5'2" on a good day and Aunt Pearl is a good 3-4 inches shorter than I am. She was cooking something for us, I don't remember what, and she asked me to take a skillet off the burner. It was a huge old cast iron skillet and I used both hands to lift it. She later walked over and was slinging it around with one hand as it it weighed nothing at all!! Even then - and she must have been near 70 since she was my grandma's older sister by 10 year - she was stronger than I was. I guess living on a farm most of her life was better conditioning than 10 Minute Abs or Sweatin' to the Oldies ;-)

Family Events ~ February 6 - 13

2010-02-07T20:04:00.010-06:00

As I ended last week's Family Events post, so I'll start this week's:

February 6th & February 7th ~ On these days, some years ago, right before and right after midnight my twin nephew and niece are born. I am using a more recent picture of them for this week - one taken at Christmas. We had the family celebration today so, once again,

Happy Birthday Twins!!!

February 8th ~ On this day in in 1835, my 2x great-granduncle Robert SWINTON is born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Also on this day in 1894, my great-grandaunt Selma EICKELBERG was born in Denver, Colorado. She would only live to be nineteen, but I have a number of pictures of her. My grandfather's baby book is also inscribed, "Presented to Baby Quick by His Aunt Selma" so I even have a sample of her handwriting.

February 12th ~ On this day in 1754, my 5x great-grandmother Agnes STEVEN is born in Kilmany, Fife, Scotland.

February 13th ~ On this day in 1908, my granduncle Clair Raymond SAURER was born in Wayne County, Ohio. Wasn't he the cutest thing?!

I Give Credit to Midge...

2010-02-02T06:00:00.001-06:00

....Midge Frazel that is over at Granite in My Blood for this post.

Back in early December I saw several Facebook updates from Midge about her new digital voice recorder. She even posted a short clip of her first recording (oddly enough, she has a New England accent - who would have thought!) I had been thinking about getting some type of hand-held recording device but just didn't have the energy to research them. I'm sure you all know how it is - there are a million choices and it just seems like you should thoroughly check them ALL out. Well, fortunately for me Midge mentioned exactly what she had purchased. I decided that was good enough for me! Now let me say that Midge never said, "Hey everyone, go out and buy this." I just decided that if she was happy with it and could upload a clip so (apparently) easily, that was going to be the extend of my "research." Besides, I could order it from Amazon and it met my price criteria. [Here is a link to the product, if anyone is interested]

As I mentioned in a recent post, I used this as part of my Christmas genealogy game. I had my nieces and nephew record answers to some of the questions on their quizzes. So, here's my first attempt. I chose this clip because I knew I had some pictures from one of my Grandpa Quick's photo albums to illustrate it:

Family Events ~ January 31 - February 7

2010-01-31T11:12:00.012-06:00

[Yes, I know - February 6th should be the last day...but I have a special reason for including it here!]

January 31st ~ On this day in 1901 in Edinburgh, Scotland William Hannan RITCHIE, my 2nd cousin twice removed is born. He will only live for 4 days.

February 2nd ~ On this day in 1838, marriage banns are read for David RITCHIE and Agnes GOURLAY in Ceres, Fife, Scotland. They are my 3x great-grandparents. This day in 1993 is also marked by the death of my granduncle, Windsor Benzie RITCHIE in Ohio.

February 3rd ~ This day is marked by the death of James KIRK, my 5x great-grandfather in 1829 in St. Andrews, Scotland. I am fortunate that there is a marker for him in St. Andrews, erected by his son and that I got to see and photograph it! It was an early Tombstone Tuesday post last year.

This day is also marked by the death of Selma EICKELBERG, my great-grandaunt in Denver, Colorado in 1913. She was just 5 days shy of her 19th birthday.

February 4th ~ On this day in 1897 Edna SAURER is born in Dalton, Wayne County, Ohio. She will become the wife of my great-granduncle Raymond GRABER. She will also cause be no end of problems early in my genealogical "career" as she was born Edna SAURER and became Edna GRABER while her sister-in-law, Raymond's sister, is born Edna GRABER and becomes on marriage Edna SAURER!!! Even when people noted names on the backs of pictures it all depended on who was doing the labeling as even after marriage both women might be noted by a maiden name.

And now for the most special days of this week:

February 6th AND February 7th ~ On these days, some years ago, right before and right after midnight my twin nephew and niece are born. My niece, the one born on the 7th used to say that the 6th was always, "the worst day of the year for me" because on that day her brother would tell her, and anyone who would listen, that HE was a year older! "I'm already x but you are NOT" I'm sure any of you with brothers can imagine. While they are teenagers now, I just couldn't resist using their one-year old birthday party pictures.

Happy Birthday Twins!!

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation...

2010-01-26T19:51:00.008-06:00

...or how I tricked my family into a Genealogical Holiday!!

I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering how to create more interest in my genealogical pursuits among my family. I know many of you are familiar with the glazed looks that appear anytime the subject of family history is ever so subtly dropped into a conversation. Oh, some members of the family will humor you and at least TRY to look interested for awhile, but oddly enough none of them ever seem to actually get excited when you tell them that yes, you finally found great-great uncle Zephaniah on the 1880 census - listed as an inmate of the Podunk County Jail.

Well this Christmas I resorted to games and bribery ~ and it worked!

I have 2 nieces and a nephew who are all teenagers. During a lull in our Christmas morning activities I brought out a pile of presents and told them I had a game that would result in their winning some of this loot. [I do have to say that they are all very good-natured kids and are used to humoring their slightly wacky aunt.]

I had put together a family tree for each of them and worked back through their great-grandparents...except that the 8 greats were all blank. [in the example here I have deleted some of the information, but the originals had all had full names and birth dates etc]

I also gave each of them a list of 20 question and told them that they would have to work together because contained within their questions were answers that would help them fill in a few of the blanks but not all of them (each one of them had different questions.)

Some of the questions were straightforward - "Who is your father's father's father?" Others required them to go around and talk to multiple people - "Who had a dog named 'Stinky' and how did he get that name?" Still others required them to take my hand-held recorder and interview someone to get the answer - "How, when and where did you Dad propose to your Mom? - and then get your Mom's version of the story."

The reward for finishing their family tree and list of questions was to pick one of three presents. First one finished got the first choice. In addition there was a smaller present attached that would go to whichever adult couple they were "competing" for. So, when my youngest niece finished first, she picked her present and the attached present went to my Mom & Dad. Once all the gifts were selected and everyone (or each couple) had one they all opened them. Of course when they unwrapped the presents they soon discovered that they were all the same - a family history calendar that I had created using Ancestry.com's MyCanvas application. I've attached a slide show of the calendar below.

Everyone loved the pictures and actually asked me questions about who they were and how they were related. It was so much fun. At one point my nephew said to me, "What are we going to do next year? We will have to get different relative so we can have more questions." I told him not to worry, I have a lot more stories and questions about his current relatives. I was just thrilled that they really seemed to think this was now a family tradition and wanted to do it again next year.

The final bonus was having 9 short audio clips created...but that's a story for another post.

I Know It's Been Awhile...

2010-01-24T15:38:00.006-06:00

...and believe me, I've missed blogging. It's just that I'm not so good at dealing with my life and still finding time for blogging. So when a close friend was diagnosed with cancer in October, many things went on hold. We are still dealing with that, but I've decided to spend at least a little time with my blog. I made so many great contacts in 2009 - I had no idea what I was getting into when I started and it's been great!

So, instead of my usual New Year's Resolutions - complete my entire family history, lose 50 pounds, blog every day and bring about world peace...or sometime like that - I've decided on a more moderate approach. I'm going to post my weekly family events each Sunday. That was always my favorite post and also generally seemed to elicit the most comments.

I also have some unfinished business from the beginning of January. I find I've been given the Happy 101 Award three times in January! I know that I'm way too late to this party, but I'd still like to take a moment to thank Mary at Mary's Musings, My Family's Roots Run Deep and Felicia at My Nola Heritage for taking the time stop by my blog! I won't attempt to pass this along at this point, but I will list 10 things that make me happy ~ in no particular order:

1. My big ol' German Shepard, Killer
2. Being able to go snowshoeing with my parents!
3. Christmas with my family
4. Reading
5. Chocolate
6. My German class on Saturday mornings
7. Laughing with a friend
8. Connecting with new living relatives
9. My extra day off every other week
10. Taking photos for Find-A-Grave

So, that about wraps it up for now. Time to get that Weekly Family Events post in order!

Family Events ~ November 22 - 28

2009-11-22T18:36:00.008-06:00

November 22 ~ On this day in 1873 my 2x great-grandaunt, Sophie EICKELBERG is born in Minersville, Meigs County, Ohio. My mom says that as a very young girl she can remember going with her grandma to visit Aunt Sophie. Also on this day in 1895, Sophie's first child, William L HAZALETT is born in Meigs County, Ohio. William is my my 1st cousin 3x removed.

November 25 ~ On this day, in 1846 in Oyne, Aberdeen, Scotland,my 2x great-grandaunt, Mary BENZIE is born.

November 26 ~ This day is marked by the death of my Grandma, Lela Mable SAURER RITCHIE in 1991. There is a picture of her gravestone here as it was an early "Tombstone Tuesday" post.

November 27 ~ This day is marked by the death in 1847 in England of my 4x great-grandfather, John HANNINGTON. This day is also marked by the death, in 1858 of my 4x great-grandmother, Margaret LOUDEN RITCHIE in Blebo Craig, Fife, Scotland. [This Margaret and her husband, David RITCHIE are the common ancestors of my recently discovered cousin in Scotland!]

A Pleasant Surprise Times Two!

2009-11-17T20:34:00.008-06:00

As I mentioned in my post this Sunday, I've been very remiss about blogging lately due to a family issue that is still ongoing. So, imagine my surprise to find that I've been given the Kreative Blogger award TWICE!! Thanks to BOTH Karen at Ancestor Soup and Sheri at Twig Talk for thinking about me ~ it was such as nice pick-me-up!

The winner of this award is supposed to list seven things about themselves and then pass the award along to seven other bloggers.

Seven things about me:

1. I've just recently made contact with a cousin (OK, 3rd cousin) in Scotland!!

2. I'm quite an introvert but definitely not shy.

3. I've read every one of Jane Austen's 6 major novels at least 20 times.

4. I'm a Harry Potter fan!

5. I am going to German School every Saturday morning.

6. I have twin niece and nephew - born on different days.

7. I'm over 50 and still have my Mom hem pants for me. (after all - it's her fault I'm short, right?)

It's hard to nominate only 7 blogs when I read so many that are great in different way. So, here are just the first 7 that came to mind!!

1. Glimpsing the Past ~ Hi Cuz!

2. Family Tree May Contain Nuts

3. Tennessee Memories

4. Claudia's Genealogy Blog

5. Elyse's Genealogy Blog

6. Flipside

7. Grace and Glory

If I had more time, I'd just keep going...every blog I've looked at tonight was creative and interesting!!

Family Events ~ November 15 - 21

2009-11-15T15:57:00.007-06:00

[I know it's been awhile. I just have a lot going on in my personal life right now. I guess I'm not really a true blogger because my first instinct isn't to rush out and tell the world...anyway, I've decided to do at least 2 genealogy/blog things. First, I'm going to start posting my weekly family events on Sunday. My family likes those and I seem to get the most comments on those as well. Second, I'm going to pick ONE family name and only work on it and only it - really! (trying to cure my GADD) So, that's it for now.]

November 15 ~ On this day in 1778, my 4x great-grandfather, George KIRK is baptized in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

November 16 ~ On this day in 1746, my 5x great-grandfather, John GOURLAY is baptized in Ceres, Fife, Scotland. This day is also marked by the death, in Chevy Chase, Maryland in 1997, of my brother-in-law's grandmother Vestal [MATHIS] MOUSER.

November 17 ~ This day is marked by the death, in 1800 in Berne, Switzerland, of the man I believe to be my 6x great-grandfather, Abraham ZAUGG. Also on this day in 1838, my 3x great-grandparents James BENZIE and Mary BENZIE [this was her maiden name as well as her married name] were married in Oyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

November 20 ~ This day is marked by the death, in 1913 in Weld County, Colorado, of my great-great-grandaunt, Mary Ann [AUFLICK] SAUNDERS.

Wow ~ a whole week's worth of events and not ONE picture!! That's unusual for me.

Family Events ~ October 4 - 10

2009-10-05T20:12:00.010-05:00

[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

2009-09-27T10:45:00.009-05:00

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 pos t.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ a Stormy Day in Scotland

2009-09-22T19:08:00.005-05:00

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

2009-09-20T12:45:00.004-05:00

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

2009-09-20T08:40:00.007-05:00

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

2009-09-13T12:42:00.013-05:00

[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!

2009-09-09T20:52:00.003-05:00

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

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More From Baltimore

2009-09-08T18:00:00.005-05:00

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

2009-09-07T08:59:00.013-05:00

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)

2009-09-02T20:29:00.005-05:00

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

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Baltimore

2009-09-01T20:48:00.000-05:00

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!!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

2009-08-29T17:30:00.004-05:00

Randy Seaver has posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge over at Genea-Musings. While I'm still at the TMG Land Cruise, I just couldn't pass up SNGF! So, here is my list:

* Jacqulin Ann (Quick) Ritchie (living), my mother, born in Colorado, currently living in St. Louis, Missouri.

* Donald John Ritchie (living), my father, born in Ohio, currently living in St. Louis, Missouri.

* Jack H Quick (1911 - 1999), my mother's father, who was born in Denver and lived in Colorado until he was an adult and then lived in various places in Kansas and Texas before finally settling in Ohio.

* Ruth Penrose (Evans) Quick (1912 -????), my mother's mother, who was born in Colorado and I believe lived in Colorado most of her life. I have been told that she came to see my mother shortly after my birth so technically I “met” her but she and my mother did not remain in touch after that.

* Nelle (Eickelberg) Nissen Quick Heflin (1885 - 1970), my great-grandmother (mother of Jack, grandmother of Jacqulin), who was born in Indiana as the family was making the trek out to Colorado. She lived the remainder of her life in Colorado although she did travel quite a bit. I can remember Ga-Ga visiting us in Ohio and I can also remember a trip out to Colorado when we stayed in her cabin in the mountains above Denver.

* Lela Mabel (Saurer) Ritchie (1913 - 1991), my grandmother (mother of my father, Don). She was born in Wayne County, Ohio and lived there until she married. She lived in Cleveland for about 9 years and then the family moved back to Apple Creek, Ohio (in Wayne County) where she lived the remainder of her life.

*David Washington Ritchie (1908 - 2000), my grandfather (father of my father, Don). He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and lived there until the family moved to Apple Creek, Ohio (in Wayne County) where he lived the remainder of his life.

* John Frederick Saurer (1873 - 1962), my great-grandfather (father of Lela, grandfather of Don), He was born in Wayne County, Ohio and lived there all of his life. I can remember as a very young child visiting Grandpa Saurer in the nursing home.

*Ella Rosa (Graber) Saurer (1883 - 1963) my great-grandmother (mother of Lela, grandmother of Don.) She was born in Wayne County, Ohio and lived there all of her life. I can remember going over to visit her and the pump in the summer kitchen of her house.

*Mary (Benzie) Ritchie (1876 - 1961) my great-grandmother (mother of David, grandmother of Don.) She was born in Inverurie, Scotland and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts upon coming to the United States. She and Thomas Ritchie were married in Cambridge and soon thereafter moved to Cleveland, Ohio. They retired to a farm near Ravenna, Ohio. I don’t remember her, but I definitely remember going to that farm to visit. There were DOGS there! I remember the dogs ;-)

So, that's 10 for me. I have pictures of everyone on of them, but since I am not at home I have to put this post up totally naked!

I'm Cruisin' This Week

2009-08-26T08:17:00.004-05:00

Hi all ~ I really did try to post a Tombstone Tuesday yesterday...especially since I have some new photo's from Baltimore! The internet connection is just a little too hit-or-miss and I totally forgot that I don't have my photo editing software on my cute little red traveling computer. Whew ~ lots of excuses I know!

Anyway, for the rest of the week I'll be in Orkney Springs, Va at the TMG Genealogy Conference and "Land Cruise"

Not sure how much I'll be blogging, but I have some great stuff for when I get back. I had fun earlier this week in the Maryland Archives. I don't know why it's just so exciting when they bring you these big old ledger books and let YOU look through them. I love old stuff ;-)

Anyway, that's it for now...hopefully I can get this to save and post.

Family Events ~ August 16 - 22

2009-08-16T17:06:00.012-05:00

August 16th ~ On this day in 1807, Robert RITCHIE, my 3x great-granduncle is baptized in Dairsie, Fife, Scotland.

August 18th ~ This day in 1905 is marked by the death of Mary Victoria ROSS, the reported 2x great-grandmother of my brother-in-law in Jonesboro, Jackson Parish, Louisiana.

Even more importantly, on this day in 1957 my parents, Donald John RITCHIE and Jacqulin Ann QUICK are married in Hamilton, Ohio.

HAPPY 52nd Anniversary Mom & Dad!!

August 20 ~ This day in 1890 is marked by the death of Anna Barbara BARTCHEY, my 3x great-grandmother, in Wayne County, Ohio. She is pictured here with her husband, Jacob ZAUGG, Jr. Whenever I see this picture I can hear my Grandpa Ritchie say, "Those Zauggs were BIG women." I fight against those genes everyday! [Yes, I realize she was not born a Zaugg, but that's what Grandpa always said.]

Finding her gravestone was a great story - think I'll start working on that for this week's Tombstone Tuesday!!

Saturday Day Night Genealogy Fun - On Sunday Morning

2009-08-16T10:14:00.006-05:00

Once again I am late to the party, but Randy's challenge this week is one that I really want to answer. Over at Genea-Musings, Randy asks:

What is your UGG - your "Ultimate Genealogy Goal" for the genealogy research that you wish to leave to your heirs, descendants and the genealogy community?
How long do you think you have have left to fulfill this ultimate goal?
Are you prioritizing your time adequately in order to achieve this goal?
If not, what should you do to achieve the goal?
Will you do what you need to do?

Wow - that's a lot of important things to consider. So, taking a deep breath I'll start at the top.

What is your UGG - your "Ultimate Genealogy Goal" for the genealogy research that you wish to leave to your heirs, descendants and the genealogy community?

I have to admit that I've never thought about my "UGG". That might be why I have an as yet undocumented by the medical profession condition know as GADD - Genealogical Attention Deficit Disorder. This condition is marked by the tendency to flit from one "shiny object" to another - one minute ordering a copy of an English wedding certificate because, hey, I just got an e-mail from Ancestry telling me how and the next minute wandering over to the Maryland Archives site because, really, I MUST figure out what I know and don't know about my QUICK line, and then being seduced by a new link someone tweeted about Scotland...well, you get the picture.

I have always enjoyed pictures and stories about "long ago". It just seemed natural to focus on stories about my family. Genealogy is about the thrill of finding that next elusive piece of a fascinating puzzle. That's just for me and for now however. In thinking about what I wish to leave behind I realized that the main thing, or my UGG, would be to have shared my knowledge in such a way that (1) my nieces and nephew are interested and at least conversant with their family history and (2) all the important one-of-a-kind items I have are treasured and passed down with full knowledge about where they came from.

How long do you think you have have left to fulfill this ultimate goal?

Given that I am 50 and my almost 75 year old parents are just getting ready to leave to go hiking in Yellowstone (again) I'm going to be very conservative and say that I have at least 25 good years. My concern though would be if I got hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow - then what??

Are you prioritizing your time adequately in order to achieve this goal?

Nope, certainly not at this point.

If not, what should you do to achieve the goal?

Once I realized what my goal was, it was much easier to figure out how to achieve it! Oddly enough the main thing I should be doing it not trying to move back just one more generation in any given line. The main thing I should be doing is presenting my family history is a way that would capture the attention of my nieces and nephew. I know that they enjoy the stories and to that end I've worked, rather sporadically, on two books through Ancestry.com's My Canvas application - one for my father's family and one for my mother's. I have so many pictures to include and I know that the kids would have fun reading the stories.

While these are not the rigorously sourced and documented genealogies that many people want to (or have!) produced, these family stories are what I believe would capture the interest of the next generation. Now all that does not mean that I don't always try to adequately source my information. It just means that if I truly want to pass this along to another generation within my family I need something beyond that.

Will you do what you need to do?

I hope so. Now that, with Randy's help, I am more clear in my thinking about what I want to do. Also, this year was my first year to really concentrate on my genealogy. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've played at it for years and years (and years!) But this year was to be the starting point of my serious genealogy pursuit. And let me tell you - it has been eye-opening! There is just SO much information out there that I've been like a kid in a candy store just "GADDing" from one thing to the next.

The good new is that it is only mid-August. If I put together a plan to make finishing at least one of my "family story books" by Christmas a top priority, I'll bet I can do it!

Wordy Wednesday ~ Canadians in the US Civil War

2009-08-12T18:44:00.010-05:00

I haven't posted much (OK, anything) about my brother-in-law's family, but I decided these pictures were too good to pass up. The picture of the 2 Civil War soldiers is "George Keefer and friend." [George being the man on the right] That picture, along with the newspaper clipping are framed together. I do know that my brother-in-law's maternal grandfather was also named George Keefer but I have not been able to tie that George Keefer to this one or to the rather famous Keefer's of Thorold, Ontario. Of course I haven't really tried yet, but just saying...

The thing that I find so interesting about this picture and the next is the striking resemblance to my brother-in-law! Really remarkable. Clearly a relative, and according to family lore a direct one, but I haven't yet pieced it all together.

So, George A Keefer, who are you??

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Thomas & Margaret Auflick

2009-08-11T19:27:00.007-05:00

Thomas Auflick

1830 - 1910

Margaret
His Wife
1830 - 1914

Thomas and Margaret are my 3x great grandparents. This stone is in the Lafayette, Cemetery in Lafayette, Colorado. I took the picture on Dec 29, 2007 and let me tell you it was COLD. The stone was NOT conveniently near the roadway either - but after going out of the way specifically to find this stone (on a trip to Estes Park) I was not about to let a little cold and snow deter me. To give you a better idea, here is a zoomed-out picture of the area that I took while standing on the nearest roadway.

From The Lafayette Leader, Friday, January 7, 1910:

Death of an Old Citizen

"Thomas Auflick was born August 31, 1830, in Durham county, England. He was married to Miss Margaret Hannington in June, 1850, who still survives him. To this union eight children were born, three of whom are still living. He came to this country with his family fifty-two years ago, settling in West Virginia. He came to Colorado in 1887, and lived in Erie for a few months, moving to Lafayette in the spring of 1888, where he has since resided. He departed this life on January 6, 1910. Grandpa Auflick as he was familiarly called, was loved by all who knew him, and will be mourned by a host of friends. He leaves a wife, two daughters, Mrs. W. G. Saunders of Frederick, Mrs. Wm. Eickelberg of Denver and one son John H. Auflick of Norton, Colo. Thirteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren. The funeral service will be held in the Congregational church Sunday, Jan. 9th at 2 p.m., conducted by the pastor, Rev. R. C. Byers. The body will be interred in the Lafayette cemetery by Undertaker R. R. Powell."

I have always felt that somewhere there exists pictures of this couple. It is their daughter, "Mrs. Wm. Eickelberg" or Nellie Auflick, who is my great-great-grandmother. I have many pictures of her. I can't believe that she didn't have a portrait of her parents, but I have never seen one. Having a picture of Thomas and Margaret it very high on my genealogy wish list.

Family Events ~ August 9 - 15

2009-08-09T19:29:00.010-05:00

August 11 - David GOURLAY and Barbara PORTER my 4x great-grandparents are married in Ceres, Fife, Scotland on this day in 1800. Also on this day in 1803 the couple's daughter Margaret, my 3x great-grandaunt is baptized in Ceres Parish. Finally, this day in 1907 is marked by the birth of Vestal MATHIS, my brother-in-law's grandmother, in Arkansas.

August 12 ~ James RITCHIE, my 3x great-granduncle is baptized in Kembeck, Fife, Scotland. Also on this day in 1833 Robert Souter SWINTON, my 2nd great-granduncle was baptised in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

August 13 ~ Jane/Jean SWINTON, my great-great-grandmother, is born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. While I have no pictures of Jane, this is a picture of the house in St. Andrews where she grew up. Today it is a chocolate shop.

August 15 ~ In 1904, Hildagard Moore RITCHIE (left), my grandaunt, is born in Cleveland, Ohio. This day is also marked by the death, in 1970, of my great-grandmother Nelle EICKELBERG (right) in Denver, Colorado.

Saturday Night Fun ~ Genealogy Style

2009-08-08T21:12:00.005-05:00

Once again Randy Seaver has given us our Saturday Night Genealogy Fun assignment:

List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

I have a couple of holes in my sixteen, but I am going to go ahead and use this list anyway. I only have 2 that are totally unidentified and 1 with rather shaky birth and no death information.

1. James Ritchie ~ born on 4 May 1844 at Blebo Craig, Kemback, Fife, Scotland. He married on 26 Jun 1868 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He died on 7 Oct 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity – Scottish.

2. Jane Swinton ~ born on 13 Aug 1846 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She died on 31 Dec 1912 in Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish.

3. William Benzie ~ born on 18 Oct 1843 at Oyne, Scotland. He married on 20 Jun 1874 at Inverurie, Scotland. He died on 3 Mar 1922 at Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

4. Hellen Lumsden ~ born in 1849 in Udney, Scotland. She died on 16 Apr 1919 inInverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

5. John Ulrick Saurer ~ born on 23 May 1823 in Berne, Switzerland. He died on 24 May 1899 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

6. Caroline Flory ~ born on 20 Mar 1844 in Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 16 May, 1884 in Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

7. Rudolph Graber ~ born on 13 Sep 1853 in Berne, Switzerland. He married on 15 Mar 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio. He died on 5 Aug 1918 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

8. Emma Zaugg ~ born on 13 Sep 1860 at East Union Twp, Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 7 Sep 1919 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

9. Edwin S Quick ~ born circa 1855 in Maryland. Ethnicity – Unknown.

10. Susie H Hungerford ~ born 09 April 1867 in Prince Frederick, Maryland. She died 02 Jul 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. Ethnicity – possibly English.

11. William Eickelberg ~ born on 24 Mar 1863 in Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany. He married on 1 Jan 1884 in Charleston, West Virginia. He died on 11 Dec 1934 in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

12. Nellie Auflick ~ born on 29 Apr 1864 at Minersville, Ohio. She died on 27 Sep 1940 in Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio and is buried in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – English.

13. Henry Evans ~ unknown

14. Alma ~ unknown

15. August Heinrich Nissen ~ born abt 1850 in Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He died 06 Apr 1914, Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

16. Anna Elizabeth Parkson born abt 1856 in Ohio, Died 11 May 1900 in Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

This was a very interesting exercise! My ethnicity is 25% Scottish, 25% Swiss-German & 18.75% German (or 43.75% Germanic), 12.5% English and 18.75% anybody's guess.

It was also interesting for me to note that 8 of my great-great-grandparents where not born in this country, 4 were born in this country to immigrant parents and there is only one that I believe had parents born in this country - Susie H Hungerford*. (and then my 3 with almost no information)

*Of course, I just TODAY found this name and I will admit right now that I do not yet have good documentation for this line. I was just so excited when I saw the death certificate because it sure appears to be the person I am looking for. This is all part of my wild rush to put together pieces of my Baltimore ancestors so I will have a productive trip there at the end of the month.

Thanks Randy for this idea!!

Family Events ~ August 2 - 9

2009-08-02T14:52:00.012-05:00

August 3 ~ In 1800, marriage banns were read for my 4x great-grandparents, David GOURLAY & Barbara PORTER in Kennoway, Fife, Scotland.

August 4 ~ In 1886, Paris Roy BUPP was born. Paris was the husband of my great-grandaunt, Hilda GRABER.

August 5 ~ This day was marked by the death of Rudolph GRABER, my great-great-grandfather in 1918 in Apple Creek, Ohio. He will be buried in Apple Creek Cemetery on August 7th.

August 6 ~ In 1863 Elizbeth KIRK, my 4x great-grandmother, would die in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. A picture of her marker was posted in a previous Tombstone Tuesday post.

Also on this day, in 1964 James DUNCAN, my step-great-grandfather, would die in Riverside, California. He is buried in Boulder, Colorado.

August 8 ~ In 1841 Charles SWINTON, my 2x great-granduncle, is baptized in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

An Unfortunate "Meeting" at the Top of the Mountain

2009-08-02T11:53:00.011-05:00

The 77th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy invites us to "Tell about a disaster that one or more of your ancestors lived through."

While I'm sure that there were many natural disasters, such as tornadoes and epidemics, that had an impact on my ancestors' lives, I don't have anything in the way of pictures or stories to share. As I sat down today to work on my scanning project - working my way through the 1,000+ negatives from my Grandpa Quick - I realized I had the story of a more personal "disaster" right at hand. I chose to call it,

"The Unfortunate Meeting at the Top of the Mountain"

On the evening of Saturday July 17, 1937, my grandfather, Jack H Quick and his soon to be second wife, the current Mrs. Braddock, were involved in a head on collision on a mountain road near Woodland Park, Colorado. I was never given much in the way of the history of this event, as my Grandpa Quick never referred to a time before he was married to "Ollie Belle", as she is named in the newspaper article below.

While I always knew that my Grandma Quick was not my mother's mother, I was well into adulthood before I knew that she had also be married previously. At the time of this accident - July, 1937 - both divorces had been granted but were not yet final. Jack and Belle would be married on October 25, 1937. Belle had the scars on her knee from this accident all the rest of her life.

The pictures of the wrecked cars are the first pictures in what would be a lifetime of pictures albums that my Grandpa Quick kept.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Annis GALLOWAY ROSS

2009-07-28T19:24:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-26T12:03:00.010-05:00

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

2009-07-22T21:21:00.006-05:00

[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

2009-07-21T20:53:00.005-05:00

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

2009-07-12T17:00:00.002-05:00

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

2009-07-11T20:45:00.006-05:00

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 ~

2009-07-10T13:17:00.012-05:00

"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

2009-07-07T19:51:00.013-05:00

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

2009-07-04T16:25:00.004-05:00

"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!]

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T11:17:00.008-05:00

One of the things I remember most growing up is my Dad as "Coach." A lot of his students (who were oh, so grown up to me!) called him that like it was his first name. Thanks to my Grandma Ritchie's scrapbook I have a few newspaper clippings showing Dad in him coaching days. This picture appeared on Friday, April 3, 1964.

There is a story told about me going to track practice with my Dad. It would have been around this time as I was about 5. At some point Dad turned around to find me and saw I was earnestly talking to one of his sprinters - telling him how to correctly stand in the blocks! In my defense, I was apparently giving him the right instructions. I listened to *everything* my Dad said, and apparently all the runners hadn't!!

Dad coached just about every sport there was. Here are a few more pictures of him as a football coach and a basketball coach.

What I really like about seeing the Jr Hi basketball picture is how YOUNG they look - of course they WERE young. However, when I think of being a little girl, I just remember all the "big boys" that Dad coached.

The thing I love the most about my Dad as coach is how he could so love sports and have three daughters who were not all that interested in participating and yet never ever make any of us feel as if his family makeup was anything other than exactly what he wanted. I can remember more than once having people - adults who should have known better - say to him when I standing right there things like, "Oh you don't have any boys, that's too bad" or "Just girls, I'll bet you want to try again." My Dad would just laugh and tell them his girls kept him calm and happy - why would he want boys? I never once felt that I should be anything other than exactly what I was.

Thanks Dad ~ I love you!

Wordy Wednesday ~ Dad Naturally

2009-06-17T20:01:00.013-05:00

[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. Several week's ago, Greta said in her Wednesday post, "Since I find it so difficult to be “wordless” in my Wednesday contributions, I decided to start a new tradition, “Wordy Wednesday." Well, Greta, I'm jumping on that bandwagon starting now!!]

Since this is Father's Day week - Wordy Wednesday is devoted to a few pictures of my Dad.

This is the earliest picture I have of my Dad. He would be about 6 mo old. I remember asking my Grandma Ritchie more than once if this was REALLY Dad, because that sure looks like a pink sweater - but Grandma said it was Dad, and she would be the best one to know that!

Dad in the traditional "child on pony" picture. That hat is something else! I haven't yet found out where this picture might have been taken. My Dad's family lived in Cleveland until he was around 12. His maternal grandparents lived on a farm near Apple Creek so I've always thought this picture might have been taken on a visit to the farm. I'll have to see if Dad knows the answer when I see him this Sunday.

This is the earliest formal portrait of Dad. He is the younger of the two boys ~ and the cutest! I don't know how they were able to get both boys to sit there long enough to take the picture, and I'm even more curious about how they managed to keep Dad from falling over.

Finally a picture that I featured in a previous Wordless Wednesday, but it's so priceless I'm posting it again. Also, it's my baby sister's favorite picture of Dad.

Poor little "Donnie" can't even keep his head up, but he's waving to the adoring crowds ~ way to go Dad!!