Family Events ~ February 21 - 27

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 ;-)

Weekly Events ~ September 6 - 12

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


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







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

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

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

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

Family Events ~ August 2 - 9

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.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Lena Duncan

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

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


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

Family Events ~ April 19 - 26

April 20, 1883 ~ My great-grandmother, Ella Rosa GRABER was born near Apple Creek, Ohio


April 21, 1844 ~ My great-great-grandaunt, Elspeth SWINTON was baptized in St. Andrews, Scotland.

April 22, 1819 ~ My 3x great-granduncle, Thomas GOURLAY was baptized in the parish of Ceres, Fife, Scotland having been born on April 16th (but I missed that last week!!)

April 24, 1995 ~ My Grandma, Olive Isabelle DUNCAN, know in later life as Belle, (my mother's step-mother), died in Hamilton, Ohio


April 25, 1875 ~ My great-granduncle, George BENZIE was born in Inverurie, Scotland.


April 25, 1902 ~ My granduncle, William Alexander RITCHE was born in Cleveland, Ohio on his Uncle George BENZIE's 27th birthday. William's mother was Mary BENZIE, George's younger sister.

The cool thing about putting all these events together is that I had not previously realized that Uncle Will was born on HIS uncle's birthday. Until I started doing this, I hadn't run a "list of events" type report. It's been fun to see what was happening in various branches of my family all together like this.

Family Events ~ February 22 - 28

Something that I am shamelessly stealing from Julie over at GenBlog is this idea of showing what events happened during the coming week in my family history. Thanks Julie!!

David Washington RITCHIE - my grandfather was born on February 22, 1908 in Cleveland, Ohio. His middle name was due to the fact that he was born on Washington's birthday.




Lena VENETTE - my [step] great-grandmother died on February 22, 1923 in Boulder, Colorado.



Barbara HUNZIKER - [potentially] my 7x great-grandmother died on February 24, 1747 in Eggiwill, Berne, Switzerland

Random Relative of the Week ~ Jan 25, 2009

Olive Isabelle DUNCAN QUICK

Born October 15, 1910 ~ Louisville, Colorado

Died April 24, 1995 ~ Hamilton, Ohio

Ollie Belle as she was known, or just Belle in later life, was my Grandmother. While she is technically my Mother's step-mother, she and my Grandpa Quick were married when my Mom was only 3 so Belle is the only one I knew as "Grandma Quick".

I recently was able to scan a copy of this great picture of my Mom and Grandma on a horse. Please note the open-toed, high-heeled shoes Grandma is wearing! Hopefully they were only posing for the camera, and not going on a trail ride.