Thursday, October 13, 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday - Relatives With Dusty Photo Albums and Wonderful Memories

My husband's cousin, Tammy, and I have been working on their side's Fond family genealogy.  Mordechai Herscovici married Sarah Schwartz about 1873 in Moinesti, Bacau, Romania.  He was 18, she was 15.  Soon after, they found they were expecting their first child.  Mordechai also learned that he would be required to serve in the Romanian army, and knew they didn't treat Jewish soldiers very well.  A friend told him that he would take care of it for $25.  He obtained papers that said that Mordechai, now Marco Fond, was a foreigner to Romania, and he escaped military service.  He and Sarah had twelve children:  Elka, Chaim, Mindel, Harry (who died young), Tidia (who also died young), Mary, Clara, Sadie, Mollie, Manus, Celia, and Lottie.

Marco and Sarah and their family immigrated a few at a time from 1903 to 1906 from Moinesti, Romania.  Sadie and Clara came first, with Uncle Zeidel Binder Fond and his family.  Then Chaim, their brother, came, followed by their Marco, and sister, Mary.  Sarah started several months later with the younger children:  Mollie (our great grandmother), Manus, Celia, and Lottie, and Chaim's wife, Eva, along with a few friends.  Mindel stayed behind with her husband, Sol Snyder (unsure on the last name - family source) because Sol was very religious and didn't think he'd be able to live a kosher lifestyle in America.  They had one son at the time.

While passing through Germany on the train, Mollie was severely burned when the train jerked and she was splashed or fell into the percolator used to heat up coffee.  The train had to be stopped, Mollie was taken to a hospital, and Sarah was told that the group couldn't wait anymore and she would have to leave her child behind to recuperate alone, or stay with her and find some way to support herself and all of the children in a country that she didn't understand the language, and make her own way to America, eventually.  She had no choice and had to leave Mollie behind, begging that they would send her as soon as she was well enough to travel. 

Sarah arrived in New York with the children on 31 July 1904.  Mollie arrived 14 August 1904, but was detained 10 days because she didn't have enough to finish paying the fare.  She eventually made it to Los Angeles, her mother beside herself the entire time, and was finally reunited with her family.  She had scars on her neck and chest from the burns for the rest of her life.

Mollie worked as a seamstress in Los Angeles, and a young man named Jack Shapiro worked as a supervisor there.  Mollie made beautiful handmade button holes, and Jack admired her work and wanted to get to know this girl better.  They married on 25 January 1914 in Los Angeles. They moved a few years later to Salt Lake City where they went into a partnership with two other brothers-in-law, Sam Bercovitz and Ben Berkouf, in a grocery store.  When brother-in-law, Sam Bercovitz, died of the Spanish flu in 1918, Jack and Ben took his wife, Sadie (Mollie's sister), on as a partner in the grocery store, Sadie moved in with Jack and Mollie, and Mollie cared for her three daughters while she worked.

Tammy and I recently visited with Mollie and Jack's oldest daughter, Marion, along with Judy and Floyd, her daughter and son-in-law.  They had several photo albums, put together by their niece, with notes on the backs of most of the photos saying who was who.  These wonderful and generous people allowed us to carefully lift each photo out, scan it, and replace it.  They had no idea what was in the books, and we found the most amazing treasures. Several times I couldn't see well enough to work, from the tears in my eyes.  In addition to beautiful old pictures, Marion is sharp as a tack at the age of 95 and had many stories to tell.  If we showed her a picture, she could immediately tell us the occasion and who was pictured. 

Marco and Sarah Schwartz Fond, 1890's

Mollie Fond, age 21

Mollie Fond, age 23


Jack Shapiro, 1918

Jack and Mollie on their honeymoon in Tijuana
Mollie's sister, Mindel, and her husband Sol Snyder? Mindel and Sol stayed in Romania, survived World War II, and Sadie and Clara sent them enough money so they could emigrate to Israel.  They lost contact with them.  This picture is a treasure!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Eugene Victor Rhinehart


Do you see that handsome man up in the corner of the page?  That's my grandfather, Eugene Victor Rhinehart.  I met him once when I was a tiny infant, and I'm told he held me in his arms, but I never saw him again, and yet, he's one of my favorite people to have ever walked this green earth.  It's funny how learning about someone you've never met can make you feel so close to them.  I believe in a hereafter, and I'm so excited to sit down and talk to this wonderful man.

He had his problems in life - he battled alcoholism - but everyone loved him. I think he just loved the people in his life dearly.  He was born June 22, 1920 in Cambridge, Guernsey, Ohio, and died January 21, 1980 in Newark, Licking, Ohio.  He was part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, sent from Ohio to Vernal, Utah, where he met my beautiful grandmother, and where he learned his trade.  During World War II, he served in the 1st Special Construction Battalion (Seabees) in Guadal Canal.  He was a gifted machine operator and worked in construction all of his life.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thankful Thursday - Collaboration

Today I'm feeling very thankful for the many resources that allow me to collaborate with other genealogists.  I've had the amazing opportunity, in the last couple of weeks, to connect with distant relations, either of myself or my husband, that have been extremely generous and helpful in furthering my research.  I hope I've been helpful to them, as well.

One amazing woman, who I found on Jewishgen.org, compared notes with me - she'd kept up with the family, and had much more information than I did - and it turned out that she had a tape from 1985 from a wonderful 95-year-old aunt, who talked about her immigration experience, life in Romania, and all of her siblings and their descendants, as well as both humorous and  heart-wrenching stories from her life.  I don't have permission to post it, so you'll just have to feel jealous and take my word for it.  She asked me if I knew of any services out there to get it transferred to CD, and it turned out I had a cousin that had the equipment.  She sent me the tape, we transferred it, and I had the completely enjoyable experience of transcribing it. 

Said newly found relative also sent me pictures in the mail, one of which is of the family, right before they were separated forever from a daughter who stayed behind in Romania with her husband, the parents and the rest of the siblings emigrating to America.  I cried as I found that picture in the package - tracing the sad faces of people that now had faces to names. 

Another relative I found on Ancestry.com, related by marriage, didn't have very much information to share, but I was able to send her everything I had for her niece, who she's been doing the research for.  It so happens that she's traveling to Salt Lake for a genealogy research trip and we're doing lunch! 

I've found family on Rootsweb boards, Geni.com (haven't used a lot yet, but I've had people nth cousins, thrice removed contact me), along with just reconnecting with family that I haven't talked to for a while. 

There's nothing like feeling like you're the only descendant from a somewhat obscure couple and finding a cousin that is as passionate and loves family history as much as you do.  I'm so thankful that technology has advanced to the point that, at the click of a mouse, I can connect to people and share and be shared with.  It has me singing Kip Dynamite's famous love song, "I Love Technology."

Friday, September 9, 2011

Family Recipe Friday - Romanian (or Jewish) Apple Cake


I found a recipe for Romanian Apple Cake on allrecipes.com, but my husband's family has made a "Jewish Apple Cake" for years, and I thought it was cool that their Romanian heritage has a little to do with it.

Jewish Apple Cake  
Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix & put aside:
3 apples sliced and peeled
2 t. cinnamon
¼ c. sugar

In large mixing bowl combine all in order:
4 eggs                       1 T. baking powder
2 ¼ c. sugar              2 ½ t. vanilla
1 c. oil                       3 c. flour
¼ t. salt                     7 T. OJ

In a well-greased bundt cake pan, alternate cake mix with apples, begin and ending with batter.  Keep apples from touching sides of pan. Bake for 1 ¼ - 1 ½ hours. Let cool for 10 min. or longer and invert onto serving plate.

Follow the link here for the allrecipes version.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sentimental Sunday - Scentimental Suitcase

My grandma, the one I brag about all the time on this blog, has infused my children (and my siblings and I) with a wonder and love of the outdoors, science, birds, rocks, learning, reading, etc.  When the kids find an interesting rock or see a new bird they haven't seen before, they can't wait to tell Grandma P. about it.  When she had triple bypass surgery when my oldest was about 7 years old, he took two little home-grown crystals from a science kit to the hospital, for her to look at and to keep her company.  She still displays them proudly on her end table of "specials." 

Several months ago, I took the kids to visit her and she recruited them to help her lug two very old-timey (and very heavy!) suitcases out of her storage closet.  She popped them open, and to their wonder and delight, they were full of beautiful specimens of rocks that she and Grandpa P. had collected on their many forays out into the deserts of Utah.  At 90 years old, she could remember several of the rocks, where they found them, even telling interesting stories about their discovery.  She knew what each specimen was and let the kids pick out as many as they wanted.  In the end, both suitcases ended up in the back of my minivan, with kids squabbling over who got what. 


One of my sons, who has been collecting rocks since he was a tiny boy and who idolizes his grandma, has a veritable rock museum in his room, with all sorts of interesting and unique rocks and minerals.  He ended up with most of the collection, and put the empty suitcase in the garage.  I cleaned the garage for several hours yesterday and found the suitcase.  It's pretty trashed, and my first thought was to throw it away or send it to the local thrift store.  I opened it to make sure there was nothing left inside, and the smell of my grandma's house hit me so hard I started to cry.  After holding it and sniffing it for a few minutes (it's a lovely smell!), I closed it back up and put it in a safe place in the garage.  Needless to say, I won't be getting rid of the suitcase. 

I think it's interesting how smells can take you back so sharply and suddenly to a memory you hadn't even remembered you'd forgotten.  My mom wore a particular brand of blush that had a scent to it when I was little, that I loved.  She also wore Jovan Musk. Both of those scents take me back to a little-girl-cuddle, nuzzling my face against hers. My dad wore Russian Leather cologne.  He asked for some a couple Christmases ago, and I managed to find some.  As soon as I smelled it I was back on a weekend visit, riding on his shoulders at the park.  My mom's house has a specific smell, and every time we get a package from her the kids love to sniff at it.  "It smells like Grandma's house!" Scents have a very nostalgic element to them.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Apology...

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.  We've been wrapping up school - public and homeschool, dealing with five sick kids, my daughter's baptism with 70 guests!, and now that that's all over, I'm trying to reclaim my house and yard from lots of neglect.  I'm hitting some big projects so I can settle down to my favorite things without the guilt of weeds going to seed or a garage with half-unpacked boxes from our move three years ago.  I promise to get back to this blog soon, but I need to take care of the living before I can focus on the dead.  Even though I often get along much better with the dead people.  Only a genealogist would take that the un-creepy way.  :)

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Sorting Saturday and Happy Birthday, Grandma P!

Grandma P last Christmas
It was my Wonder Grandma's birthday this week.  91 years young!  She is an amazing lady, I talked about her before on my first Thankful Thursday post.  She works out at the gym three times a week, is in better shape than I am (I'm not kidding), and is sharp as a really sharp tack.  I was able to go with her Tuesday night to her church women's group and listen to her talk about part of her life - the nine years she spent married to her second husband, Dr. Robert C. Pendleton, who was an amazing, kind, man, and a genius.  He was head of the Radiological Health Department at the University of Utah and was one of the, if not THE, biggest force that stopped above ground testing of atomic bombs in the US.  He was very outspoken against the government, dedicated his life to studying the impact of the fallout on plant and animal life, and was interviewed by People Magazine in 1980, at the request of the children of Dick Powell, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and others, because they all died of cancer after filming in Utah's west desert, downwind of atomic testing.  Just a wonderful man.  He died on July 10, 1982, when I was almost 7 years old.

Grandpa Pendleton loved hiking, fishing, hunting and camping
Anyways, what does this have to do with sorting?  Well, I have the unique privilege of having my 91-year-old grandmother, who can remember some of the smallest details and faces and stories from her life and others over the last 85 years.  She has these great old photo albums and she knows who almost everyone is and the stories behind the pictures, and I need to get them scanned in and tag each person in the album so we don't lose that great information.  I need to get her to write down more of her life story; this woman lived through the Depression, World War II - she sent my grandpa off to war as a Sea Bee, and saw him home after he was sent home with malaria.  She moved all over Utah and Nevada, has read and learned about everything related to geography and history, knows about flowers and rocks and birds, she was president of the Salt Lake Chapter of Dental Assistants, and then has had that amazing chapter with Grandpa P.  And in the 30 years since he's died, she's parasailed, skied, hiked mountains, visited Nova Scotia, ridden horses, spun around a racetrack, and lived through bypass surgery, hip replacement, an artery replacement in her leg, she's our bionic grandma!

I need to sort through her mind (sounds creepier than I intend it) and take advantage of the time I have with her so I won't lose any part of her amazing story.  She's in great health and I pray all the time that she'll have many more years with us - I can talk to her about everything and she always cheers me up with a bright, "Hello, Pretty Girl!" whenever I call or visit.  I'm so thankful for her and her influence in my life.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Emmaline Duncan Myers

Emmaline Duncan Myers, born July 1856 (1858?) in Greene County, Pennsylvania, died 19 April 1929 in Wetzel County, West Virginia.  She's buried in Quiet Dell Cemetery, in Aleppo, Greene, Pennsylvania. She married Andrew Myers on 17 Feb 1875 in Greene County.  Their families had lived practically next door to each other since before Emma was born.  Andrew was about 14 years her senior, but according to his pension papers, neither were married previously.  He apparently had poor health and lingered several months after a stroke, finally dying on 29 April 1908 in Cameron, Marshall, West Virginia.  They were extremely poor and had only his pension from the Civil War to live on.  They had 13 children:  Mary Sharlota, Lena Myrtle, Loucena (Lucinda?) - who died before 1900, John L., Easter B., James G. B. - died at age 15, Ethel, Wiley, George Washington, Goldie Agatha, Charles, Anna, and Encil Raymond.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Amanuensis Monday - Will of Andrew Myers, Senior

"Will of Andrew Myers:
The last will and testament of Andrew Myers, Senior - In the name of God Amen I Andrew Myers Sen. do make this my last will and testament hereby revoking all other wills by me heretofor made in manner and form following to wit:
Item   I will and bequeath unto my wife Elisabeth Myers the Interest of one third of my estate during her natural life.
Item   I will to my son John Myers, heirs the sum three dollars.
Item   I will to my son Andrew Myers the sum of Two Hundred and fifty dollars
Item   I will to my Daughter Margaret Deboldt the sum of two hundred Dollars.
Item   I will unto George Myers, Anne S. Debolt, Mary Hinerman and Stanton Myers the remainder of my estate to be equally divided betwixt them.
Item   I do hereby appoint and establish Lindsey Hinerman my executor of this my last will and testament.
Signed with my seal this 22nd day of April 1872
Andrew Myers (his mark)
Signed in the presence of us by Andrew Myers Sen. and in his presesnse and at his request have signed the same as witnesses.  A.J. Hinerman, A.B. Pipes, Lindsay Hinerman
State of Pennsylvania,
Greene County"
(Note in sideline:  "For Assignment of the dower interest of George Myers, hereunder, see Deed Book 33, Page 577."
Will Book Vol. 5, Greene Co, PA, will #3343, FHL #1318266

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sentimental Sunday - Special Day Breakfast


Since today is Mother's Day, and my kids made me the most amazing breakfast ever, I thought I'd touch on that family tradition.  I know a lot of families do this.  When I was growing up we took my mom breakfast in bed every Mother's Day.  A couple years ago I decided to make it a little easier on my kiddoes and told them to just set the table, then they can come get me and bring me out.  They love that, because now they decorate my chair and put their presents and homemade cards around my plate.  I heard them from about 7:15 this morning, but they didn't come get me until 8:40.  It was fun to hear them in there trying to be quiet and working together.  I have older kids now, so I "slipped" them a more difficult recipe and they pulled it off like a five star restaurant.  It's been a wonderful morning.

As I was thinking about it, I remembered visiting my dad for Father's Day.  He always made the most amazing food when I stayed with him, and I wanted to give something special to him, so I decided to make him french toast.  I was six, but we'd made it together many, many times.  So I cracked the eggs and added a little milk, and mixed them together.  Then I got my fork and dipped the bread into the egg and put it in the pan.  I turned it over after a few minutes, then I put my delicious concoction on a plate and proudly presented it to my dad.  And I'll be darned if that man didn't eat it.  Uncooked.  That is true love.  He never said one word about it being completely, disgustingly raw, and I didn't know until I was an adult and he was telling that story to my kids that I hadn't cooked the french toast. 

A very Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there who has nurtured and cared for children in any way.  Happy Mother's Day to my ancestral women who sacrificed and lived and raised their children through hardship and happiness.  And a Happy Mother's Day to my own amazing mom - we laugh until we cry, we talk forever, she's been my best friend, my example, and a huge strength my entire life.  I love her dearly. 
My beautiful mama, about a year before I was born

My beautiful mama with her cute hubby, Bob

Friday, May 6, 2011

Family Recipe Friday - Skunk Creek Cabbage

This is a recipe my mom made a lot while we were growing up, and one I still make today for my kids.  She calls it Skunk Creek Cabbage.  Cooking the potatoes and cabbage with the kielbasa gives them a great taste.  You can omit the cabbage, as well, which is how my kids like it.  It sure beats her tofu phase (picture chunks of tofu floating in spaghetti sauce.)

Skunk Creek Cabbage

1 Package Polska Kielbasa (I use Hillshire Farms Turkey Kielbasa, for less fat), sliced into 1/2 inch disks
3 Potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 small sweet onion, sliced into rings or 2" slices
1 small head of cabbage
2 T butter
salt and pepper to taste
water or chicken broth

Melt butter in a large pot or frying pan.  Panfry potatoes, onions, and kielbasa for a couple of minutes until potatoes start to brown a little.  Pour in a little chicken broth or water, add cabbage, and cover, stirring occasionally and adding a little more liquid to keep things from burning and to allow the potatoes and cabbage to steam until soft.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Thrifty Thursday - Utilizing Free Online Resources

I've been very lucky to within a few hours drive of the LDS Family History Library for much of the past 18 years.  However, being a mother of five kids doesn't lend itself well to genealogy expeditions, even if they're only an hour or two away.  I've been so thankful, especially in the last few years, for an increasing number of websites and records that are available for free search online. This might be pretty basic for old pro's, but it's always nice to get tips.  Some of the ones I've frequented (in no particular order) are:

  • FamilySearch - As more records are digitized and transcribed, this increasingly becomes a great resource for me.  I'm not totally happy with the organization of results from a search, yet, but I've been able to find important information that I hadn't found in years of research, because I didn't know where to look.  
  • Utah Digital Newspapers - I LOVE newspapers!  I have a Newspaper Archive subscription that I utilize regularly, but it's not comprehensive.  Having a lot of ancestors that lived in Utah at some point, the Utah Digital Newspapers site has been a wonderful resource for me.  I've found clues, obituaries, scalliwags, and funny stories that flesh out the bare facts and make my ancestors personal.  
  • Utah Death Certificate Index - Death records and more for the State of Utah for the years 1904 - 1958.
  • Find A Grave - I think most of us has used this.  Many thank you's to the amazing volunteers who make this site possible.
  • Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness - This is a free and great way to have someone in the area that you're researching (and can't get to immediately) do some legwork for you.
  • West Virginia Vital Research Records - Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for West Virginia.  I love when states put these resources online.  HUGE help!
  • USGenWeb - One of the original resources for online genealogy, volunteer-driven, this has been a great resource over the years.  Some county pages are better than others, but it's been a helpful website for me.
  • Ohio Online Death Certificate Index - 1913 - 1944.
  • Google Books and Images - I always run these searches on someone I'm researching - I've found pictures, digitized county histories, business directories and almanacs, etc.  
  • Family Tree Magazine's 2010 Best State Websites for Genealogy - Self-explanatory, and very helpful.  I just found this.  :)
Anyways, these are just a few of the ones I've found over the years.  I know there are more.  Many universities have digitized records for their state, including photography collections.  

Please comment with other websites you've found to be helpful, I'll add them to the list!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Gene and Eva Rhinehart

 
Gene and Eva Rhinehart, about 1940, at Gene's mother, Goldie Bonnell's, home in Cambridge, Ohio. The child running in the background is the son of Gene's older sister, Esther (Hagerman) Gibson.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - World Memory Project


This is the headstone for my husband's great-grandparents, Jack and Mollie (Fond) Shapiro.   Jack was born on March 11, 1884 in Romania, immigrated to the United States with his parents, Max and Ida (Solomon) Shapiro, about 1890.  They lived in Philadelphia for some time, his youngest two siblings were born there, and in 1900, Ida and her children were living in Chicago.  Jack and his brother, Benjamin, were naturalized on September 26, 1906. Jack's brother, Benjamin, stayed in Chicago and married.  Ida and the rest of the family moved to Los Angeles.  There, Jack met and married Mollie Fond, daughter of Marco and Sarah (Schwartz) Fond.

Mollie Fond was born October 9, 1890 in Menes, Arad Megye, Hungary.  Her family immigrated in 1895.  She and Jack were married on January 25, 1913 in Los Angeles, California.  Their daughter, Marian, was born in 1917, and soon after, they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.  There, they had three more children:  Morris, born in 1918, Sam, born in 1920, and Beverly, born in 1926.  Jack ran the Shapiro Grocery Markets until 1947.  He and Mollie were members of Congregation Montefiore.  They are buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in Salt Lake City.  Jack died on November 28, 1957, and Mollie died on November 6, 1974.

Their son, Morris, is my husband's grandfather.  He went by "D" Morris so as not to be confused with another, unrelated, Morris Shapiro in Salt Lake City (their mail would get mixed up.)  I'll write more about him another time, but he was an amazing man.  He went blind at a young age and it never slowed him down a bit, he married, had nine children, and worked his entire life to support his family. 

In honor of our Jewish ancestry, I would like to talk about a new and exciting project.  The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com are teaming up for the World Memory Project.  Volunteers, like you and me, can transcribe digital images of millions of documents that have information about survivors and victims of the Holocaust.  These records will be made available in a free searchable online database.  This is an amazing undertaking and will give faces and humanity back to the 6,000,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the Nazis, who tried to erase their memory.  To learn more about this and to participate, go to the World Memory Project.

It's very easy to start - you just download the software, download an image batch, and transcribe the information into data fields.  I can't change the past, but I can help families reconnect and find out what happened to their loved ones.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Yom Hashoah

Today is the nationally observed Holocaust Remembrance Day.  This article from the Huffington Post explains it well, I think.

From a young age I read everything I could about the Holocaust.  I don't know why I was so drawn to the history and the stories of the victims and the survivors.  I think I read Treblinka when I was about 11 or 12 years old.  I remember sitting in a world history class in 7th grade, and we'd been learning about World War II.  I had an amazing teacher, a little Italian man, named Mr. Giordano, or Mr. G.  I remember he had a huge bunch of keys attached to his belt and he'd jump up and down when he got excited, and the keys would jingle.  The day we talked about the Holocaust, he sent around 8x10 pictures of the camps.  I remember feeling reverent, for lack of a better word, and tears were flowing, and suddenly a boy asked if I had a strong stomach and thrust a picture in my face.  I think I got hysterical, I remember being very, very upset that he would take things so lightly.  Mr. G sent me a note later that day that said something to the effect that if there were more people in the world like me, the Holocaust would never have happened.  That has stuck with me for the past twenty-plus years, and has affected how I take sides on a lot of issues.

Having married a descendant of Romanian Jewish immigrants, the idea of the Holocaust strikes even closer to home.  My husband and I took a trip to Washington D.C. last summer and spent some time at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It was an emotionally draining experience, but I'm glad we went.  Having read so much about this horrific period of history, I was better prepared for the feelings I had there than my husband was.  It was a bit of a shock to him.  There was a sweetness at the end of the tour as you watched a looping video of survivors.  One particularly poignant story was of a young woman in a camp that was being liberated by Americans.  One of the only prisoners able to stand, she watched as the soldiers entered the camp.  A soldier came up to her and she said simply, "We're Jewish."  He could hardly respond for the emotion that came over him, then he said that he was, too.  They later married.

My senior paper in college was "A Community at Work:  Activities of the Salt Lake Jewish Community During World War II".  Written from a very Gentile perspective, I had fully intended to give a copy to Rabbi Wenger in Salt Lake City, Utah, but I was newly married that semester, pregnant with morning sickness, and I was so worried that having written it as a non-Jew, and knowing I didn't give my all in writing the paper, I've been ashamed to give it to them.  I need to just do it, with profuse apologies for its many flaws, maybe it will have some meaning for their community.

I think that I have always been drawn to this part of history because of the suffering, but also because of the amazing examples of courage and compassion that have come out of such a dark time.  In a time when people were dehumanized and treated as trash, a time when people could have just broken and given up, where the monsters from nightmares took the form of man, there were people who survived and who lived and those that didn't make it through have left echoes and tangible emptiness - and I believe it's important for us to remember and to try to give them a voice.  We haven't jumped The Pond, yet, so I don't know which of our ancestors' relatives were lost during the Holocaust, but I'm not naive enough to assume that a vast amount of those that stayed behind in Romania and Russia and Hungary weren't lost.  I honor them and all of those who fell victim to hatred.

*Follow-up note:  After writing this post, I decided to scan in my old senior paper from college and send it to Rabbi Emeritus Frederick Wenger of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City, with a big apology for waiting 15 years, and for everything the paper lacks.  The subject deserved a scholar, not a pregnant senior with morning sickness just trying to make it to graduation.  Here's a link to the paper, for better or worse, if anyone's interested:

A Community at Work: Activities of the Salt Lake Jewish Community During World War II

Amanuensis Monday - Will of John Duncan


"I, John Duncan of Moundsville in Marshall County West Va make this my last will revoking all others i give devise bequeath my estate and property real and personal as follows that is to say:
1st i direct that that my real estate be sold to the best advantage my personal ? all other expenses and lawfull debts be paid.
2nd After paying all claims i direct that my Children and grandchildren hereafter named be paid the sum specified to wit: George Duncan, my son, twenty dollars, Jane Whitlatch my daughter four dollars, Emeline Myers, my daughter, four dollars, Jackson Whitlatch (grandson) one dollar, Albert Duncan (grandson) one dollar, Harry Duncan (grandson) one dollar, Oney Duncan (granddaughter) one dollar, Lila E Hartsell, my Daughter who has been a faithfull and good daughter in keeping house and caring for me is to have the remainder of the money devised from the sale of my real estate, with all my personal property, Household and kitchen furnishings.
I appoint my daughter Lila E. Hartsell of Moundsville, West Va my executrix without ? of this my will.
In witness whereof i have signed and sealed published and declared this instrument as my last will at Moundsville West Va, on this 23 day of June 1906, John Duncan (his mark)
Attest:  S. F. Earliwine, George Dorsey

The said John Duncan at Moundsville West Va on June 23rd 1906 signed and sealed this instrument and published and declared the same as, and for his last will.  And we at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto written our names as subscribing witnesses.
S. F Earliwine
George Dorsey

Office of the Clerk of the County Court of Marshal County West Virginia
August 29 1906
A paper, writing bearing date June 23 1906 and purporting to be the last will and testament of John Duncan, deceased, this day fully proved before me on the oaths of S. F. Earliwine and George Dorsey the two subscribing attesting witnesses thereto, and is admitted to probate and ordered to be recorded as the true last will and testament of the said John Duncan, deceased.  Teste: J C Chase, Clerk."

Will Book Vol 4, Marshall Co, WV, p. 360, Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150  USA, FHL #0853789.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sunday's Obituary - Aged Lady Dead

"Aged Lady Dead"

Mrs. Mary Duncan, aged 82 years, died of paralysis at her home in the east end Tuesday morning.  Funeral at 2 o’clock Thursday afternoon.  Interment at Mt. Rose cemetery.
(Moundsville Daily Echo, 29 March 1905)."

This "aged lady" is my great-great-great grandmother, Mary, married to John Duncan, mother of Emeline Duncan Myers.  She's a bit of an enigma, and with Pennsylvania being the black hole of records (at least where my ancestors lived), I wonder if I'll ever solve her mysteries.

Here's what I know:

1850 Census - Aleppo, Greene, Pennsylvania - Mary is married to John "Dunkan", she is 26, he is 21, they have two children listed with them:  William, age 4, and Lucinda, age 2.  All were born in Pennsylvania, and the next family listed is Andrew and Easther Myers, whose son, Andrew, will eventually marry John and Mary's daughter Emeline (not born yet).  John is a farmer.

1860 Census - Aleppo, Greene, Pennsylvania - Mary and John are listed as age 41 and 40, respectively.  William H., 17, Lucinda, 12, Isaac, 5, Rebecca J., 4, Emeline, 2, are the children listed with them.  All are born in Pennsylvania, except Emeline, who is listed born in Virginia.  Still living near the Myers family.  John is a farm laborer.

1870 Census - Springhill, Greene, Pennsylvania - Mary is 47, John is 41.  Isaac is 17, Rebecca is 14, Emaline is 12, George is 7, Mary Anne is 3, and Delila is 2.  All born in Pennsylvania.  John is a laborer.

1880 Census - Aleppo, Greene, Pennsylvania - Mary "Dunkins" is 44 (truly, an ageless woman!), John is 41, Mary Anne is 14, Delila J. is 12.  John is again a farmer, all born in Pennsylvania.

1900 Census - Moundsville, Marshall, West Virginia -  Mary is 77, born May 1823.  John is 69, born Mar 1831.  They've been married 45 years, she says she's born 5 children, 3 of which are still living.  Daughter Isabella is 31, born Jan 1869 in West Virginia.  I believe this is either Mary Anne or Delila, it fits Delila's birth date better.  John owns the home free from mortgage.

In John's pension papers, it appears that they moved to Balls, Marshall, West Virginia in 1890, and were in Moundsville by 1891. There is no mention of Mary or the children in any of the pension papers in my possession.  

Mary died 28 Mar 1905 in Moundsville, West Virginia. 

Obviously the census is not the source of all wisdom and truth, so I take the age fluctuations with a grain of salt.  I was thrown off by the "5 children, 3 living" marks because I count 8, maybe 9, and I know for sure that 4 were still living.  William and Isaac had died by 1900, but Rebecca, Emaline, George, Delila, and Isabella (who may be Delila) were still living.  I don't know what happened to Lucinda, and there is a Mary Buble Duncan buried next to John and Mary in the Mount Rose Cemetery in Moundsville, with no dates on her headstone.

George's middle name is McClelland, and I've wondered if that's Mary's maiden name.  I also wondered if she was perhaps married previously, and if William and Lucinda are from a previous marriage, because John would have been 17 when William was born.  Not impossible, but an interesting switch in the typical marriages where the girl is younger.  There's a discrepancy in John's birth year - it's either 1827 or 1831, and if it's 1831, he would have actually been 15 when William was born.  Highly unlikely.  And a little creepy. 

But, since they lived one mile from the border of West Virginia, in rural Pennsylvania, it's likely that I may never find answers to these questions.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Geneabloggers - New Genealogy Blogs

This is shamelessly silly, but I'm excited about it.  I've been featured as one of the new blogs of the week "discovered" by GeneaBloggers!  I put discovered in quotations because I recommended myself to them, but it is exciting to see my blog listed up there with all of the other new blogs discovered this week.  It's also been fun to have my daily post listed in the roll-up widgets of the daily blogging prompts.  They also list "holidays" for each date of the year.  For example, did you know that yesterday was National Hairball Awareness Day?  I do now, unfortunately.

I'd like to tout another very exciting and cool blog, under the GeneaBloggers umbrella:  GeneaWebinars.  There is a calendar widget on there that lists all upcoming "webinars", or online classes/seminars, many of which are FREE.  I was lucky enough to attend only one National Genealogical Society conference back in 1995, and I've craved and missed that for the last 16 years.  It so happened that I was married shortly after that and between finishing my degree and entering into my first and most beloved profession of motherhood (second only to genealogy) I haven't been able to afford, either financially, or as life went forward, time-wise, to go to another genealogy conference.  My time is coming.  But I was absolutely thrilled to discover these webinars because I can continue learning from home.

There is also a weekly radio broadcast at blogtalkradio. You can listen to back episodes for FREE, and I'm looking forward to adding that to my weekly educational and social calendar.

I'm really loving this new community and hopefully when things settle down in my personal life (aka finishing up the school year with five kids before mom goes crazy) I'll be able to delve even more into learning about the abundance of technological advances that have entered the scene since I was last really active in the online community of genealogy research.  I'm embarrassed to say the last time I was technologically savvy in that area, it was when newsgroups were the cool new "in" thing.  What's a newsgroup?  Yeah.  It's that old.  Thank you, THANK YOU, GeneaBloggers and Thomas MacEntee for such a wonderful resource.  I'm more fired up than I've been in a long time and ready to enter the 21st Century.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Follow Friday - Genealogy for Kids

I saw that someone else recommended Genealogy for Kids today, as well.  I found Jennifer Holik-Urban's blog, Generations, a month or so ago, and started following it and her Genealogy for Kids blog in my blog reader.  I started reading the Genealogy for Kids to see what tips I can find to help my kids as they start into their genealogical journeyings with me, and have found that there are some great tips for me, too.  One that I was pretty excited about was:

Tuesday's Tip - Research Question Checklist

Through her blogs, I discovered Geneabloggers, and I decided that I needed to start my own genealogy blog.  So.  Here we are!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Thankful Thursday - My Grandma

Grandma at her 90th birthday bash
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to my grandmother, Eva.  This amazing woman is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, and has been one of my biggest resources when it comes to family history.  She'll be 91 years old next month, and she still remembers the most wonderful memories and stories about her own family and my grandpa's.  In face, she's probably the sharpest person I know.  My grandpa, Gene Rhinehart, saw me once when I was a baby, and died when I was a little girl. I never met his mother, Goldie Agatha Myers, she died long before I was born.  But because of my research and talking about them to Grandma "P", I feel a closeness and a relationship with them that all of you genealogists out there know what I'm talking about.

Besides her fountain of knowledge, she was also my biggest supporter in college and my early genealogy career.  She would drive one hour to pick me up from college, along with my dirty laundry, drive me an hour north to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, take my laundry home and wash and fold it, pick me back up, and drive me back to Provo.  Sometimes she would just sit and read next to me while I did hours of research.  And after all of that, she'd take me out to the Olive Garden and then grocery shopping.  She traded her Buick station wagon for a little car for me to drive.  And once I graduated and starting taking clients, she would watch my baby for me so I could spend more hours at the library, until I got too far along with my second child and had to give up professional research for a while.

For my graduation present from college, she gave me the Cambridge Glass Company glassware, with the Rosepoint design that my great-grandmother had etched herself, and which she had given to my grandma for her wedding.  She also gave me some beautiful crocheted doilies that her own mother had made.  She even let me borrow the beautiful brown dress with the suede collar and cuffs that she bought and wore for my grandpa when he was sent home with malaria from the Guadal Canal during World War II, for a Big Band era dance, even though my waist wasn't nearly as tiny as hers was and we both worried the old stitching might not hold (it did.)

She's endured tape- and video-recorded sessions for life story classes and papers, with me and my children, has been my friend and confidante, has inspired my children with a love for nature and birds and rocks and history, taken us on discovery outings, traveled with us on family trips, let us all camp at her house when we've come in from out of town, and been a lovely and wonderful person to know.  She still works out three times a week, "pumpin' iron", as she says, at the gym. And she always has cookies for us in her tupperware container. 

Thank you, Grandma!

Riding in a racecar on her 90th birthday

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wedding Wednesday - My Granddaddy and Grandma!

Eugene Victor, aka Gene, Rhinehart and Eva Collier on their wedding day - She's wearing the locket!!!

These are my beautiful, movie-star good lookin' grandparents!  Eugene Victor Rhinehart married Eva Collier on June 14, 1920 in Vernal, Uintah County, Utah.  There's a romantic story associated with these sweet people. 

Following is a little history I wrote about the two of them in college, with the help of my grandmother's keen memory:

A Romantic Bridge

    It was a crisp evening in February of 1940 in Vernal, Utah.  Actually, it was Valentine's Day, and two lovers were walking hand in hand down an unpaved road towards the Vernal Mill, which was less than one mile north of Vernal.  Near the mill ran a branch off of Ashley Creek, over which a small bridge stood.  This was a favorite spot for the two lovers, and their destination for the evening.  The night was cold, but beautiful, and a full moon could be seen rising through great, leafless branches in Split Mountain Gorge.  It was a special night for Gene and Eva - one that would change the history of the Rhinehart and Collier families forever.
     Eugene Victor Rhinehart, otherwise known as Gene, was a son of Ernest Rhinehart and Goldie Agatha Myers of Cambridge, Ohio.  He had come from Ohio with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to learn how to run construction machinery, which trained him for his life-long career in construction.  In 1940, Gene was a handsome, well-liked nineteen-year-old with black, wavy hair and twinkling green eyes.
     Eva Collier was born in Vernal, and had lived there all her life.  Her parents, James Edwin and Lena May (Palmer) Collier, were active members of the LDS Church and of the community.  At nineteen, Eva was beautiful, with brown, curly hair, green eyes, and a slim figure.
     Gene and Eva first met in July of 1939 while walking down the street in Vernal.  Eva and two of her friends saw Gene and his two friends on the other side of the street.  They chatted and moved on.  They met again that evening at a dance, which was the main activity for youth in Vernal.  Vernal had as many as four dances a week in The Imperial Hall, which had the only spring floor west of the Mississippi.  Gene and Eva spent many of their evenings at the dances.
     As mentioned, walking was their other main activity.  Seven months after they first met, on Valentine's Day, Gene and Eva reached the little bridge and sat down on the railing.  Gene pulled something out of his pocket - a gold heart locket with a tiny diamond chip in it.  He carefully clasped it around Eva's neck and asked her to be his bride.  She still has the locket today.  They were married three months later on June 14, 1940.
     Seven years later Eva gave birth to a little girl named Victoria Jeen (named after her father.)  That little girl is my mother.
    The Vernal Mill probably no longer stands, replaced by newer technology.  No longer do the residents of Vernal bring their wheat, corn, and oats thee in the fall to be ground.  The gravel road that was once Main Street is now paved, and the little bridge is now a memory.  But over 70 years ago a young man proposed to a young woman, which was the beginning of a new family.  That little bridge is thus an important historical site in my family's history.

And those three girls married those three boys.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Andrew Myers

Photo from findagrave.com, taken by Gary Chambers

This grave marker is for my great-grandfather, Andrew Myers (I wrote about his military experience yesterday).  It doesn't have any dates, but it does list his regiment in the Civil War:  Co L 6th W VA INF.  He is buried in the Quiet Dell (Wise) Cemetery in Aleppo, Greene County, Pennsylvania.  He was born March 1843, and died April 29, 1908.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Military Monday - A Midnight Romp

My great-great grandfather, Andrew Myers, who was born in March of 1843 in Greene County, Pennsylvania, entered the fray of the Civil War in October of 1861, enrolling for duty in Cameron, Marshall County, Virginia (later to become West Virginia), and was mustered in to Company L or the 6th Regiment Virginia (West Virginia) Infantry as a Private.  He was 18 years old.  He re-enlisted in December of 1863 as a veteran.  He was in action at New Creek on November 28, 1864, according to his pension records. 

In September of 1863, he was charged with "Absence without Leave":

"Specification, In this that the said Andrew Myers a private of Co L 6th Reg. Va Infy. U. B. Vols did on or about the 22d day of Sept 1863 without permission from his commanding officer and without other authority leave his Company and Regiment for Green Co Pa and was arrested the following day at Cameron WVa. from there taken to the Provost Guard House at Wheeling, from there he was sent to Guard house at Clarksburg, and returned to his Company under arrest on or about the 28th of Sept 1863, all this at Rowlesburg WVa."

The company muster roll for September and October 1863 list him as "Absent" with the remarks, "On a scout in Tucker Co WVa.  Forfeits 30 days pay by sentence of Regt. Court Martial."

This was not his only "vacation":

"Charge 1 - Absence without leave
Specification - That Private Andrew Myers Company L 6th Regiment West Virga Vol Infantry was absent from his Company without permission from proper authority on the night of the 10th of April 1865  This at Grafton WVa

"Charge 2 - Disorderly and riotous Conduct
Specification - That Private Andrew Myers Company L 6th Regiment West Virga Vol Inftry was whilst absent from camp, on the night of the 10th of April 1865, engaged in disorderly and riotous conduct in breaking open the houses of Private Citizens at Fetterman WVa"

Andrew pleaded guilty to both counts.  His muster roll for March and April 1865 say that he is absent, "In Guard house Clarksburg WVa"  He was honorably discharged on June 10, 1865.

In his pension application, dated 21 December 1888, he says "he was injured in the Righ Shoulder caused by a fall while Passing over a Ditch.  And on or about Latter Part of June 1865 at or near Moundsville WVa was Ruptured on left side caused by falling off a train.  And on or about 5 day of June 1865 at Wheeling WVa Contracted Chronic Diarrhaea."  He further states that he is "unable to earn support by reason of rupture left side, ulcers left leg, injury to right shoulder, Diarehaea, Piles, Eyes affected   Unable to Perform Manual Labor."

He is described as 5 feet 6 inches, with light complexion, light hair, and blue eyes.

His wife, Emeline, reported the following after his death (April 29, 1908, Cameron, Marshall County, West Virginia):

"I can not give the affidavit of any Physician as to his death for the reason we had no doctor to see for 5 or 6  months prior to his death in the fall of the year before his death He had a stroke of Paralesis and we had a doctor to see him and was told he could do nothing for and directed us how to take care of him which we did as best we could untill his death, He died from the Paralesis, for a long while at times his mind was bad, we were verry poor people and had to do the best we could and had no other means to live on but his pension."

In a March 1st, 1889 affidavit, John Black, Commissioner, asserts the previous injuries, and says, "If there is a charge of desertion against Claimant can the same be removed".

In the pension records, both Emeline and Andrew assert that they were not married to anyone else prior to their marriage on 17 Feb 1875 in Greene County, Pennsylvania.  Interestingly, I can find no record of Andrew from June 1865 until the 1880 Census, which lists he and Emeline along with their 3 oldest children, Mary, Lena, and Loucena (Lucinda?).  I can't find him on the 1870 Census, and he's 31 years old at the time of his wedding.  I've wondered if he served time in prison for his misdeeds or if he just laid low during the ten years after the war ended.  I would dearly love to know where he was and what he was doing.  Emeline was almost 15 years younger than him, she would have only been seven years old when he was discharged.  One of my many family mysteries...

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sunday Obituary - Goldie Agatha (Myers) Bonnell Justice

Goldie Agatha Myers Rhinehart, about 1929

Mrs. Elmer Justice
     Mrs. Goldie A. Bonnell Justice, 68, wife of Elmer Justice, former resident of 416 W. Main St., who for several years had been living in Cambridge, died Tuesday in Guernsey Memorial Hospital, Cambridge, after a long illness.
     She was the daughter if Andrew and Emeline (Duncan) Meyers [sp], and a native of Waynesboro, Pa.  Surviving are her husband; three sons, William Rhinehart of Cambridge, Eugene Rhinehart of Las Vegas, Nevada, Donald Rhinehart of Newark and a step-son, Robert Justice of Willowwick; four daughters, Mrs. Florence Davis, Mrs. Esther Gibson and Mrs. Patricia Kennon of Newark, Mrs. Evelyn [Ethelyn] Rowland of Hamilton; also 14 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; two brothers, Ensil Meyers of Newark and George Meyers of Moundsville, WVa; one sister, Mrs. Anna Crawford of Baltimore, Md.  Three brothers and seven sisters are deceased.
     Services will be held at 1 pm Friday in a funeral home in Cambridge with the Rev. Fred Lemasters officiating and burial will be in Northwood Cemetery.  Friends may call at the funeral home." Newark Ohio Advocate, ancestry.com.

Goldie
From Tiffany:  A little more information about this lovely woman, who happens to be my great-grandmother:  She was born 5 Dec 1893 in Big Tree, Greene County, Pennsylvania to Andrew and Emaline (Duncan) Myers, the 10th of 13 children.  Her father, Andrew, had served in the Civil War and was not in good health by the time she was born.  He ended up passing away on 29 Apr 1908 in Cameron, Marshall County, West Virginia, after lingering from a stroke for some time.  They were extremely poor, possibly living in a shack-like home near the railroad.  Her mother couldn't even afford to have a doctor attend to her father.  She finally had one come, and he told her that he'd had a stroke and the end would come.  It took months.  The boys all worked for the railroad, and the girls married young.  The military pension helped a little, but once the children turned 16, their mother lost their portion of the pension.

Her family moved to Moundsville in Marshall County, and at the age of 16 she found herself pregnant with her first child, Florence L. Hagerman, who was born 28 Aug 1910.  She married the father, Joseph Hagerman, on January 1, 1910 in Moundsville, but was living at home with her mother in the 1910 Census.  They were divorced at some point and on June 28, 1913, she married Ernest Lawrence Rhinehart in Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio.  She gave birth to another daughter, Esther, on 9 Oct 1913, but called her Esther Hagerman.  Ethlyn Rhinehart was born 9 Aug 1916, William Joseph on 19 Aug 1917.

In 1920, Goldie was living separately from Ernest, he was living at his parents' home with Ethlyn and William, and she was 8 months pregnant with Eugene Victor Rhinehart, who was born 22 Jun 1920.  Eugene was later told by his sister, Ethel (Ethlyn), that his mother had had an affair with a salesman named George Swick (Zwick?), and that Eugene was his child, not Ernest's.  Supposedly, so were the next two children, Donald Leo, born 28 Feb 1924, and Patricia Mae, born 16 May 1927, although they were given the Rhinehart surname.  Goldie and Ernest eventually divorced.

Goldie later married someone with the surname of Graham, which is her last name in the 1930 Census.  There is a family story that one of her husband's put her children in an orphanage, or told her she needed to choose between the children and him.  The children stayed.  I will say here that from all accounts, while she may have had her flaws, she was a very loving mother and her children stayed close to her, emotionally, if not geographically, their whole lives.

Goldie later married Erville Ray Bonnell, known as Butch.  He was a butcher, and my grandpa, Gene (Eugene), loved him very much and would get up early in the morning to go work with him.  I'm told they were very close.  Butch got sick and Goldie moved him to a different location for health reasons.  She worked for many years at the Cambridge Glass Company, etching the Rosepoint design into plates, teacups, goblets, etc.  While Butch was sick she worked at a hospital.  After he died, she later married Elmer Justice.  From family interviews, I've learned that he was not very nice to Goldie, putting her down, saying unkind things.  Goldie died May 8, 1962 in Cambridge.  

From interviewing my grandma, Eva Collier Rhinehart Pendleton (Eugene's wife), and Goldie's daughter, Pat (Patricia), I learned that Goldie was a very warm, kind lady with a wonderful sense of humor.  She was devoted to her children, joined several churches - from the Methodists to the Pentecostals, she loved to have her family around her - they often had Sunday dinners, and I have pictures of her and her family sitting on the front porch.  She was close to her siblings, as well.  My grandma remembers a get-together with the family where they were all laughing and telling jokes and seemed like a really fun group of people.

Goldie with her grandson, Stanley Dale Gibson.  Behind her are her daughters, Esther and either Florence or Patricia (can't tell which)

Goldie and "Butch" Bonnell

Goldie (in truck) with Patricia (holding kitten), Donald (holding dog), and Eugene
 
Goldie and Butch

Goldie and Butch

Goldie, Florence, Ethel, and Esther
Goldie

Goldie

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Welcome!

I've been wanting to start a genealogy blog for a long time, and today is the day!  First off, a little about me:  My name is Tiffany.  I love genealogy and family history!  I love learning about the past, about how historical events shaped and affected my ancestors lives.  I love the stories, the colorful, the heartache, the joy, the romance, and the every day details that filled up their lives.  I love that sense of self that I get as I learn more about the people who paved the way for me, it gives me a feeling that if they could endure, I can, too.  And it makes me look forward to my own children and grandchildren, and beyond.  What legacy will I leave for them?

Besides just being personally passionate about genealogy, I also earned my degree from Brigham Young University in 1996 in Family History/Genealogy, with an emphasis on US research.  I have spent the past 15 years doing personal research, as well as volunteer and paid research for others. I've also spent the past 15 years working on my own "family history", as a stay at home mom of five wonderful children.

My main goal for this blog is to share the stories and research I've gleaned from my family history discoveries, and to connect with other genealogists.  So, welcome to Who's Your Granddaddy!