What We Are Looking For Can Determine What We Find – Part Two

So, when last we left our incredibly intelligent, dazzlingly beautiful and thin heroine, (hey, it’s my blog, I’ll be who- and whatever I want to be!!) she had just signed up for one of Michael John Neill’s classes on “Organizing Genealogical Information.”

Our first class assignment had to do with charts. Michael gave us many examples of using charts to help solve a specific problem or to get a clearer picture of an issue. We were to create a chart dealing with one of our own problems. Hah, I thought. I’ll show him that charts can’t help with everything.

 So, Mr. Herbert Amos Evans became the focus of my chart. The first thing I put in my chart was what I did know.  I would then make rows for missing information along with ideas about what records to search. It wouldn’t take long because I had precious like known information. I quickly recorded what I had from the marriage register and the 1910 census. That census was particularly unhelpful. My guess was that the information was provided by Gertrude as her place of birth and her parents’ places of birth are correctly listed while Herbert and his parents are listed as being born in “the United States.” (Another reason I had decided on the dead end scenario years ago.) I even included the information from my Mother’s baby book with the caveat that it was most probably supplied by someone who had never met any of the people involved.

Finally I thought about those divorce papers I mentioned yesterday. I didn’t know that they would be all that worthwhile because Herbert had never appeared or answered the complaint so none of the information would have come from him. I did vaguely remember an advertisement being put in a Chicago paper so I decided to go over them and see if there was any information to record in my nifty chart. The Chicago information was no help – it states that the summons was sent, “…in an envelope addressed to Herbert Amos Evans at Chicago, Illinois.” I can’t imagine the point of that as there had to be a number of people with the same name.

In spite of that, I kept reading, and there, staring me right in the face, was the fact that he was last known to be living with his mother IN CONNEAUT, OHIO! Seriously that must have spontaneously appeared in the record just as I was reading it because surely it was never there before. Of course, before I was so focused on Gertrude and Ruth that I clearly just skimmed over that little nugget of information.

As another odd coincidence, I had been working on something on Find-A-Grave and since I was there I just decided to search on the off change that Alma might be buried there. Normally this would not be my first research strategy, but I was on the site so I typed in "Evans" and filled in the county in Ohio where Conneaut is located – and up popped not only a memorial, but one with a picture of the stone AND her maiden name AND the names of her parents! She is buried with her husband – whose name is John, not Henry but in further research I did over the weekend, I am convinced this is the right person.  Her name, incidentally, is Almeda.

All of this allowed me to find, on FamilySearch, Herbert’s first wife and his third wife, both of whom he married in Ohio. I had been half-heartedly doing random searched in Minnesota. I had even listed searching Minnesota marriages and divorces to find his first marriage in my chart as a research strategy.

I am SO very excited to have this “new” family to research. Many of my previously know lines have only been in the country since the mid-1800’s and I have most all of those fairly quickly back to the immigrant ancestor. I even have some generations back in a few of the countries of origin. This will allow me to do research in the US much farther back than I’ve ever gone before – which is just a very exciting prospect for me. Interestingly enough, that memorial on Find-A-Grave was only put up earlier this year. So I guess the time was just right for me to find good ole Herbert.

What We Are Looking For Can Determine What We Find – Part One

I once saw a television show about child prodigies. One of the interesting things they talked about was that we see what we are looking for. If we are only looking for children who are super good in math or science or even in athletics, we fail to see or appreciate children with a remarkable gift for say compassion. One of the analogies offered was that if you go into a grocery store with a small list, you will only come out with a small number of items. [Obviously none of those people had ever met me, but I digress…]

In genealogy when we are looking for something specific, we can fail to notice interesting facts that aren’t related to our current inquiry. I’ve learned this lesson before, but as with many lessons, apparently I needed to learn it again. So here’s the story – or maybe more of a confession – of how I solved a “brick wall” starting with information that was in my own files. [It’s in quotes specifically for James Tanner who has blog about this concept a number of times including here.]

This particular brick wall is named Herbert Amos Evans. He is my great-grandfather – the father of my mother’s birth mother, Ruth Evans. I really didn’t expect this branch to be so problematic. My mother's birth certificate shows her mother as Ruth Penrose Evans, who is listed as being born in Broomfield, Colorado. On top of that I have my mother's baby book with the section for "Baby's Ancestry" nicely filled out.  So tracing this line should be a piece of cake, right? Nope, not even close.

The first dilemma was that while Ruth was born in Colorado I was unable to find an Evans family that looked right in the 1910 or 1920 census in the Denver area . The first time I searched I was immediately rewarded with a family that had a “Ruth” of exactly the correct age. Unfortunately the parents were all wrong as was the information on where everyone had been born. This was a nice Welsh family that I could trace forward and back – NOT my Evans family. I also searched for the Evans parents listed, Henry and Alma, thinking that possibly they also lived in Colorado – no such luck.

Years went by from the time I did that first search and then one day as I was searching on the Colorado State Archives site for my Colorado grandparents' divorce. I typed in “Evans, Anna” – Herbert’s wife – on a lark and there was a divorce case listed! I felt fairly confident, in spite of the common name because the husband was listed as Hurbert A and Anna was listed as “Anna Gertrude” and finally the timing was so perfect. It was not going to be cheap – I actually called the Archives before I ordered to find out what I was signing up for – but I HAD to have this information so off went the check.

After waiting an eternity in genealogy time, which was about a week or two in calendar time, I received a thick packet in the mail. I tore into it and rapidly read through the contents with things jumping out at me like, “married in Shoshone, Idaho” and “deserted me in Portland, Oregon” and “gave me money to return to my father’s home in Broomfield.” My head was spinning to say the least. Because Gertrude was born in Colorado, as was her daughter, it never occurred to me to look anywhere else. Here she had been roaming around other states getting married and having children!

With this information I was able to find Gertrude in 1910 in the Oregon census with her husband and first child (who had been born in Oregon.) I also found a marriage record for the couple in Idaho although originally I found just an index. It wasn’t until quite a number of years later that the image was on-line.   It allowed me to see that this was not a first marriage for Herbert and that he listed his birthplace as Minnesota.

But I was happily on Gertrude’s trail now and traced her through 3 more marriages right up to the 1940 census. Herbert was another case however – my “brick wall.” Before I saw the image of the marriage record I was working with what would later prove to be a false hypothesis that he was the Herbert Evans in the Colorado census of 1900. I even blogged about it.   The age was right and I figured that he and Gertrude ran off to Idaho to get married. Even with the Minnesota information, it wasn’t clear. I did find a few possibly matched in early Minnesota censuses, but was pretty much resigned to him being my dead end.

Then I signed up for one of Michael John Neill’s classes on “Organizing Genealogical Information” Mostly because of Susan Petersen’s Organized Genealogist website and Facebook group  the title just caught my eye. Tomorrow I’ll thrill you with the tale of my actual discovery as a result of our first homework assignment.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ~ A Tad Late

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!!

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

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!

Every Family Has One ~

…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 (Auflick) 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 [the mother in this picture] would see her own 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 their 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!

Saturday Night Fun ~ Genealogy Style

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!!

Saturday Evening Time Travel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday Night Fun ~ on Saturday For a Change!

I usually don't manage to participate in Randy Seaver's "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" until sometime on Sunday. Tonight, however, I am sitting at home watching "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and thinking of rhymes in my head. So, without further ado, here is my offering:

Some ancestors seem to fall in my lap ~

I find Ritchie’s in Scotland with ease!

I can look at their records from the 1700’s,

From home - anytime of the day that I please.

There are other who seem to be more elusive ~

Though they’re much closer in time to me.

There are Nissens and Quicks and Evans to find,

But it seems the more I look, the more they flee!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Anna and Heinrich NISSEN

ANNA E.

BELOVED WIFE OF
A. H. NISSEN
DIED
May 11, 1900
AGE 44 YEARS
1 MO. 15 DAYS
____________________
OUR
HEINRICH F.
DIED Oct 11, 1879
AGED 2 YEARS
1MO. 3 DS.

This stone is in Riverside Cemetery, Denver, CO and the picture was taken by a (wonderful!) volunteer at Find-A-Grave. I especially appreciated this as my photo request was for August Nissen. The person who took this photo verified that August was buried here when they did not find him on the marker at the spot I had indicated. [While he is buried there, the stone was apparently never "updated" to include his information.] So, this person went ahead and took a pictures of the stone even though August's name was not on it and then set up records on Find-A-Grave for Anna and Heinrich.

This was fantastic information for me as I was unaware of Heinrich and did not have a specific death date for Anna. I knew that her youngest daughter (my great-grandmother) was born in 1890 and that by the time of the 1900 census, August was listed as a widower. It was a nice bit of genealogical luck for me that Anna died in 1900 which is the first year that Colorado officially has death records (although some counties have records earlier.)

Just this one picture added a child to my family, gave me a death date for Anna AND allowed me to obtain a death certificate for Anna which in turn gave me her maiden name - PARKSON - and her parents names as John and Anna as well as her parents birthplaces - both Germany...all information unknown to me until someone I've never meet took the time to take a picture for me - and one that I hadn't specifically requested at that.

Wow - it never ceases to amaze me how much I owe to the kindness of strangers!

Saturday Night Fun ~ WOW

Once again it's Sunday before I manage to get around to the "Saturday Night Fun" that Randy Seaver, or his alter ego, Randy the Easter Bunny, posted here. [and by the way - nice ears Randy!!]

I have to admit that I saw it last night and thought, "Yeah, right, that won't work for me. I've been searching the internet for YEARS." So, I come here today to make a public confession that I was wrong and Randy was RIGHT!

I used [Nissen Colorado genealogy society] as my search criteria. This is would be my Mother's birth mother's mother's family. I have found a little bit about them including a picture of a grave stone that a wonderful person on Find-A-Grave posted for me. I don't really know much about the family though.

So, what did I find? Not a whole lot, but what I found is intriguing and has definitely put me on to some things to follow up. It also reminded me that I need to keep looking and that visiting all the area historical societies next time I am in Colorado would be a great idea. I guess the "WOW" is because I didn't expect to find anything and was surprised when the following appeared:

The link of interest is to the Foothills Genealogical Society and it's page titled "Jefferson County, Colorado Residents Index." On that page is a listing for Clara, Minnie and August NISSEN. August would be my great-great-grandfather. Clara and Minnie are older sisters of my great-grandmother, Anna Gertrude NISSEN. At one point [as listed in the 1920 census] Gertrude's son, Harold EVANS, was living with his Aunt Minnie. Gertrude's daughter, my grandmother Ruth EVANS' full name is Ruth Penrose Evans. Minnie's married name is Minnie PENROSE. So, this should be the right group of people.

The listing of NISSEN's in Jefferson County also has several listings for John and August had a brother John.

The information for Clara and Minnie is given as "Foothills Inquirer." This is a publication of the Foothills Genealogical Society and I will be following up with them today!

For August, besides a listing in the Foothills Inquirer there is note of a mention in History of Pioneer Wheat Ridge as well as mention in an agricultural index for the area. From what I read on the webpage it sounds like the information could be obtained at the Denver Library as well as the local Genealogical and Historical societies. I really need to plan another trip to Colorado soon - and this time I will remember that my ancestors didn't always live in Denver!!

Thanks again Randy ~

Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #1 ~ Favorite Picture

[This post is based on a great idea from Amy Coffin at WeTree. She has come up with a series of 52 different blogging.prompts, one for each week of the year.]

Week #1 Upload your favorite picture and talk about it on your blog. Answer the who/what/when/where/why of the subject matter and explain why it is your favorite.

I could never pick just one picture as my favorite, so I chose, "My Favorite Picture That I Never Expected To See In My Life That I Received From Someone I've Never Met In Person."

The people in this picture are:
Far back: Jack H. Quick [my grandfather]
Middle Row (l to r): Dick Heflin, Nelle [Eickelberg, Nissen, Quick] Heflin, Harry Nissen
Front Row (l to r): William Eickelberg, Nellie Eickelberg, Helen Nissen
Far front/extreme right - Ruth [Evans] Quick.

Ruth is my Mom's biological mother. Ruth and my Grandpa were divorced when my Mom was barely 2 years old. My Grandpa had custody and Ruth did not remain in my Mom's life so consequently I had no pictures of Ruth as a young woman. I do have a picture of Ruth when she was in her 50's and briefly got in touch with my Mom [long story, not for here] but that was it.

I also have a baby album of my Mom's that has a picture of her with her Dad and a space labeled, "Mother and baby" but the picture in that space is one of my Mom at about 2 years old! Also in the album were 4 carefully cut out heads, all of my Mom - adorable baby that she was - so I have to assume that Ruth was in all of those pictures. How I wish I had them!

Well, I have my tree posted out on Ancesty.com. Through a contact from the information posted there I began an e-mail correspondence with a man, Don, who is the grandson of my great-grandmother's [Nelle Eickelberg's] 3rd husband, Dick Heflin. Got that?!?

I turns out that Dick had been married before and had children from his previous marriage - something I hadn't known. Don and I exchanged e-mails for awhile and I mentioned that I had some pictures that included Dick. I sent Don scanned copies and then I put the originals in the mail. They were just snapshots, but I though he might like to have them.

Don really appreciated them and told me that he had other pictures of Dick that he had been meaning to scan. I told him that I'd be interested in seeing them. Even though Dick Heflin was not a blood relative, he was the Grandpa that my Mom grew up with. He and Nelle were married early enough that Dick was a big part of my Grandpa's life as well. So Dick was very much a part of the family stories and family life.

Some time later - I'd actually forgotten about it - Don sent me a whole raft of scanned images. I was looking through them thinking how fun it was to see pictures of Dick in his army uniform (WWI) and just having fun looking at all the neat old pictures.

Then, this one came up and I gasped. The young woman sitting right in the front was staring at me with my mother's face! At least the eyes and the smile were the same. I could easily identify everyone else in the photo, but this woman in the front - could it really be Ruth? I shot off an e-mail to Don asking if there was identification on the picture. I told him that I knew all the people - and named who I thought they were - except the woman in the front on the right. He came back almost immediately, thank goodness, and told me that it said, "Ruth Quick."

Amazing~

Wordless Wednesday ~ 01/07/09

Harry Nissen, Nelle [Eickelberg, Nissen] Quick, Jack Quick

Denver ~ 1911