SNGF: My 2013 Dear Genea-Santa Letter

So....this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver is to write a letter to Genea-Santa, including information on how good/bad you've been this year and what you'd like Genea-Santa to bring you in terms of genealogy gifts this year.

Dear Genea-Santa,

I may have sloughed off a little this year in the genealogy good deeds department, because after 4 years I finally rotated off the Seattle Genealogical Society's Board of Directors the first of June. That doesn't mean I've stopped volunteering; but I have definitely cut back from my 20 to 40 hours per week I had been putting in over the last 4 years. I did still write 3 grant proposals, managed another funded grant (for digitizing and indexing VFW membership cards we found in our storage area), made several presentations for SGS (with another one next week) and several more for other area genealogy societies, served as desk volunteer in the SGS library at least once a month, proofread the SGS Newsletters and Bulletins, and helped at least a dozen people with their family history research. I also attended my first RootsTech (never again) and submitted 5 presentation proposals for the 2014 FGS conference (all declined, so likewise never again).

In theory, not being on the Board should give me lots more time for my own research, but that really hasn't happened. My husband and I have done a lot more travel since June, but he's not terribly patient when I veer off to visit courthouses and cemeteries. We did stop in Oquawka, my father's father's father's birthplace and burial place to half of his US ancestry. But that was for less than 4 hours; I could have stayed for several days digging into the Henderson County courthouse and surrounding towns. And I have managed to convince a couple of relatives (one I've never met) into doing DNA tests for me. But there's a lot more I'd like to do.

What I would love to see under our Christmas tree (if we manage to get one up this year; we're still on the road right now), dear Genea-Santa, are the following genealogy gifts:

1. Leads to finding direct line male descendants of my Henry Collins (abt. 1802-1852) and Nicholas Campbell (1808-1876) who are willing to have their DNA tested.

2. An introduction to one or more of my living SHARP relatives who is interested in our family history and willing and able to share stories, photos and information about my Dad and his family.

3. A good quality, lightweight LCD projector (link is to one on sale at Staples, but if you know of a better deal....) so that I can offer a beginning genealogy class to the folks at Desert Gold RV Resort where we spend February and March. I promise I won't charge for teaching the class.

4. A pile of money and willing relatives to fund more DNA tests (especially FTDNA Family Finder tests) so that I can better respond to queries I receive about how I'm related to other people with matching strings on individual chromosomes.

This is beginning to sound a bit greedy, so I'd better stop here.

I can't promise there will be treats left when you get to our house, but I will put them out. The kids will be home and may beat you to them. If there's any left, be sure to try our family's favorite holiday cookie, Chocolate Krinkles, and some of the Caruva Horchata Cream liqueur.

Thank you for whatever you bring me to help with my genealogy pursuits, dear Genea-Santa. I know there are many family historians more needy than me, but I have been at this a long, long time and would really love to break down some of these pesky brick walls in 2014.

SNGF: Geneamaps!

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for this week involves maps, so of course I have to do it!
Randy's challenge this week (see http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-show-us.html) is to generate maps of US states and Canadian provinces we've visited using the cool mapping tool at http://www.defocus.net/visitedstates/us-canada.html. The "advanced challenge" is to generate maps of your 16 great-great grandparents resided when they married.

1. Map of my travels:

The color definitions are as follows:
    pink is for states/provinces I've visited, but no spent much time in
    amber is for states/provinces where I've at least slept and seen some sights
    blue is for states/provinces where I've spent a lot of time and seen a fair amount
    green is for states/provinces where I've spent a great deal of time on multiple visits (or lived)

YES, I have visited EVERY state in the U.S. at least once and I've lived in Virginia, Missouri (briefly, as a baby), Japan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Ohio, Colorado,  Washington, Hawaii, and Arizona (only in winter). My parents retired to Florida, in-laws lived in California, and daughter lives in Minnesota. I've driven across the country three times (so far) and visiting the Canadian maritime provinces is definitely on my bucket list.

2. Randy suggests showing where our 3rd great-grandparents were living at the time of their marriage. That only gives me 8 points, since they all resided near each other prior to marriage, so my next map is of states where my 3rd great-grandparents were BORN.

On this map,
    pink is for states where ONE 3ggparent was born;
    amber is for states where TWO 3ggparents were born;
    blue is for states where THREE 3ggparents were born;
    green is for states where FOUR 3ggparents were born.

Note that this map only shows birth locations for 13 of my 3ggparents; the other 3 were immigrants to the U.S., being born in England (one) and Germany (two). The NJ and OH births (+ all 3 foreign births) were on my Dad's side; the

SNGF: Henry Numbers

Randy Seaver is back from his genealogy cruise and back to challenging geneabloggers with his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. This week's challenge (see http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-what-is.html ) asks us to:

1. Go to our first known ancestor with our birth surname and calculate our Henry Number from that person. Show each generation of your line of ancestors with your birth surname with their Henry numbers.
2. How did you calculate the Henry numbers? What do these numbers tell you?
3. Tell what you did in your own blog post.....

My responses:
1.  My first known ancestor with my birth surname is Peter SCHARFENSTEIN (1655-1713). Here is my descent from him:
1                    Peter Scharfenstein (1655-1713)
11                  Matthias Scharfenstein (1678-1756; immigrant ancestor)
111                Johann Moritz Scharfenstein [aka Morris Sharp] (1714-1781)
1118              Morris Sharp/Scharfenstein (1750-1823)
11186            Morris Sharp (1796- ? )
111868          Morris T Sharp (1834-1917)
1118681        Alvah Clyde Sharp (1871-1923) *
11186811      Harold Herbert Sharp (1893-1934) *
111868112    Alva Curtis Sharp (1917-1978)
1118681123   Virginia Leah Sharp (1948-Living)

* Denotes a son who was the eldest son with living children.

2. I generated an Outline Descendant Report in Family Tree Maker 2009 and manually added the Henry numbers, as I couldn't see a way to get FTM to do it. I'm not sure I have all the children for the first three generations of this list. I haven't focused much on this line for quite some time....like 25 years (?) 
     I was somewhat surprised to notice in doing this that I am doubly descended from Peter Scharfenstein. The Outline Descendant Report is 28 pages long. Through my direct male Sharp line I show up on page 22. But I also appear on page 6! As it turns out, Morris Sharp (11186) married Anna Mary Thomas (111312), a granddaughter of Anna Sharp [Scharfenstein] (1113). Notice that we have mis-matched generations here, which is not surprising given the birth positions, which are obvious in this numbering system.

Interesting system, but since I'm not sure I have all the children in all of the generations, it's probably not terribly accurate. And, of course, if you go another generation back, you have to start all over again!

Classic Courthouses

I have to say that I really, REALLY love old courthouses.
Unfortunately, I lot of them have been knocked down and replaced by more modern structures.
Those I don't even bother photographing.
But when I see a nice courthouse dome or spire peaking above the trees in a town, I just have to make a detour and take a photo.
On our trip from Seattle to Minneapolis via US-12 we came across a couple of nice courthouses.






This is the Brown County, South Dakota courthouse in Aberdeen, SD. Built in 1904, it is a Renaissance Revival style building. I absolutely love that there are clocks on all four sides of the dome structure. I think the statue atop the dome is Justice, but am not positive. Forgot to bring my binoculars along!








At right is the Swift County, Minnesota courthouse in Benson, MN. It was built in 1898 to replace an earlier courthouse that proved too small to meet the growing county's needs. There are some old postcard images of this courthouse here.


Pity all county seats don't have such classic courthouses, isn't it?


The Book of Me, Week 2--Auspicious Beginnings

I am the third of four children. My father was active military until I was 9, so was gone for long periods of time. As such, there are very few photos of me as a child.
I'm guessing that the photo to the right is me, but it just as well could be my younger brother. We can't decide, so I'll pretend it's me.
My Mother told the story of my birth so many times that I started to feel guilty. Dad was stationed at Vint Hill Farms Station, near Warrenton, VA (at the time, a top secret intelligence installation) and they were living in nearby Manassas as there were no available family accommodations on base. The brilliant VA doctors decided that I was going to be born before the end of June, and they insisted that Mom give birth at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., about 50 miles away, due to possible Rh complications and the fact that my sister's birth was very quick. My older siblings were aged 39 and 17 months.
So.....the military "powers that be" made Mom stay in a guest house at Walter Reed for an entire month, waiting for my birth. All the while, she protested that I wasn't going to come until late July. My father would bring my older siblings to visit when he could, but that often turned out to be embarrassing for my mother, as (in her words) "They looked like little street urchins."
My birth itself was apparently uneventful. I was born on Friday, 23 July 1948. I have no idea what time of day or night, as there is no baby book or photo album for me.

SNGF: Spin the Ancestor Roulette Wheel!

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week is:

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) What year was one of your great-grandmothers born?  Divide this number by 125 (use a calculator!) and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3) Tell us three to five facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

My 4 great-grandmothers were born in 1871, 1873, 1873 and 1867. Divided by 125 and rounded to the nearest whole number yields the number of 15. What a surprise!

Number 15 in my Ahnentafel (based on me) is my mother's mother's mother, Nancy Jane COLLINS. I could write a book about her, since I've been absolutely fascinated by her my entire life.
1. My maternal great-grandmother was known as "Nannie" by friends and many relatives; she was "Mammo" to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
2. Mammo was the only of my great-grandmothers that I ever met. She was born in 1873 and died in 1966, about two months before my high school graduation. After her last child (my grandmother) died earlier that year (late February), Mammo got her affairs in order and basically gave up on life. She announced that she "was ready to meet my maker" and went to sleep.
3. Mammo lived her entire life in Missouri, almost all of it in Hickory County. She did live a few years in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri, where all three of her children were born, but the family returned to Weaubleau, Hickory County within 5 years. Later in life, her husband took a job as a guard at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City and Mammo moved there for a few years, once again returning to Weaubleau after the Republicans took over.
4. Mammo had fiery red hair that turned snow white when she hit her 80s. She always wore it in a bun on the back of her head. When we moved to Pennsylvania she came and visited us and shared a room with me. I can still remember watching her brush her waist-length white hair and the light of the street lamp glinting off of it.
5. Mammo was feisty and strong-willed. Once in the early 1930s she took over writing the Weaubleau "locals" column for the weekly county newspaper and regaled the men in the area who drank alcohol and didn't attend church on Sunday. She was relieved of her correspondent duties in short order!
6. Mammo never once spelled my name correctly. She insisted that "Ginny" should be spelled with a "J"!
7. I have spent countless hours trying to evaluate the accuracy of the stories Mammo told and the family history "facts" Mammo wrote about in her letters. While there's been a grain of truth in all of them, none have proven to be very accurate.

Cemetery Tours are FUN!

Today we had another great Seattle Genealogical Society cemetery tour, led by Amber Case and Lisa Oberg. This time we visited the GAR Cemetery on Capital Hill, just North of the much larger Lakeview Cemetery.

The photo at left is of the obelisk "In Memory of Our Heroes" that was erected by the Women's Relief Corps. All of the stones in the cemetery are flat, or at least relatively so. The original upright stones were re-set at a low angle many years ago.

There are some fascinating stories in this cemetery. Amber and Lisa shared a few of them with us. Not surprisingly, none of the Civil War veterans or their wives we heard about were originally from Washington state. Several of them took long, circuitous routes to get here, living in as many as 8 states en route.

I could easily get sidetracked by these cemetery stories; there are just so many of them that are absolutely fascinating. I don't know how Lisa and Amber make any progress on their own family research, given the amount of research they do for these cemetery tours. Thanks to both of you for a very pleasant and informative afternoon.