SNGF: Children/grandchildren in Matrilineal Lines

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for tonight involves counting the number of children and grandchildren for each woman in your matrilineal line--so mother, mother's mother, mother's mother's mother.....

My matrilineal line:

1.      Nancy Leah Swicegood (1917-1996) had 5 children (1 died in infancy), 2 grandchildren

2.      Molly Fay Brookshire (1894-1966) had 6 children, 15 grandchildren (1 died in infancy)

3.      Nancy Jane Collins (1873-1966) had 3 children, 8 grandchildren

4.      Rebecca Jane Campbell (1842-1882) had 8 children, 25 grandchildren [3 husbands; 3 children died young]

5.      Sarah Anne Crabtree (1817-1856) had 8 children, 30 grandchildren

6.      Rebecca Sally Holeman (1774-185x) had 10 children, no idea how many grandchildren

 

After a long day of driving, I was too tired to generate outline descendant charts for each woman and seriously study the results. I just looked at each generation in FTM 2014 and added the child counts. I think my research is pretty complete through the 5th generation, but haven't researched most of Rebecca Holeman's children.

 

SNGF: My Ancestor Score

Randy Seaver's challenge for this week is to calculate you Ancestor Score. You can check out his blog post here for the details.

Figuring out my ancestor score was a tad more complicated than for others, it seems. I keep my maternal and paternal lines in separate Family TreeMaker files. I tried Randy's technique of generating an Ahnenfelt chart in FTM, but it was way too cumbersome, as it included all of my notes. So instead, I generated 10-generation pedigree charts for each of my databases and just counted the number of lines that had names on them. Granted, some of the wives in earlier generation only had given names, but I counted those anyway. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not absolutely convinced that all of the 9th and 10th generation ancestors in my trees are correct.

So....drumroll please....my results:

Generation	Relationship	Possible People	People in MY Tree	Percent Identified
1	Me	1	1	100%
2	Parents	2	2	100%
3	Grandparents	4	4	100%
4	Great-grandparents	8	8	100%
5	2x Great-grandparents	16	16	100%
6	3x Great-grandparents	32	28	88%
7	4x Great-grandparents	64	28	44%
8	5x Great-grandparents	128	35	27%
9	6x Great-grandparents	256	24	9%
10	7x Great-grandparents	512	21	4%

Can you tell that I'm not a genealogist who focuses on seeing how far back I can take a line? I get really hung up on the stories and trying to prove or disprove them. Not surprisingly, I don't have many stories from earlier than my 3x great-grandparents, so I don't spend much time on them. And my paternal ancestry is more sparse than my maternal one. Through 6 generations I'm 100% on my maternal line, then my percentage drops fast. Overall, my ancestor score was just 16% for the ten generations. Maybe I'll try to focus on filling in the 6th and 7th generations this coming year.

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.