Memorial Day 2010

Thanks to all who have served our great country!

We owe you a debt beyond comprehension for your service-

So many who served, so little space

so for today I choose to honor my grandfather,

David Cullie Ansley

1917-2008

Many members of my family & Mark's have chosen to serve their country, we are blessed that all served & all returned home to their families.

Found: Baptism Record!

While I was away on my research vacation I blogged about finding the baptism record of my 4th great grandfather, Thomas Kreitzer. I had believed for a long time that Thomas was the son of Peter Kreitzer & his wife, Elizabeth. Sadly I had been unable until last week to prove that Thomas was indeed their son. Well they say seeing is believing. From this point down I've got the documentation sewn up tight. Finding this baptismal record was truly one of the highlights of this trip!

Clicking on the image will open it enlarged in a new window.

The photo below shows the headstone of Thomas Kreitzer, he is buried with his wife, Mary Salome Gebhart Kreitzer in the Ellerton Cemetery, Jefferson Township, Montgomery County, Ohio.

Thomas & Mary Gebhart Kreitzer were the parents of 7 children: Peter (1815-1823), George (1816-1855) who married Sarah Apple; William (1818-1869) married Barbara Apple; Elizabeth (1822-1878) married John Gebhart; Jacob (1824-1913) married Sarah Warner; Sarah (1827-1900) married Uriah Patton and Elizabeth (no dates) married Harry Heistand.

Of these my ancestor was George Kreitzer who married Sarah Apple. For more information on the Kreitzer family please contact me either in comments or via email.

Happy Researching!

Karen

Treasure Chest Thursday - Mabel's Doll

A peek into the family treasure chest today provides us with a look at Mabel's doll.
Mabel Reusch born 13 Apr 1891, the oldest daughter born to Frederick Reusch & his wife, Amanda Appla Reusch. Mabel's doll was made probably ca1900-1910.

Mabel married Paul Krugman and they moved from Medina County,Ohio to Oakland County, Michigan. The doll was in the possession of Mabel until the time of her death 1 Oct 1985 at which time it was given to her granddaughter, Jennifer Krugman Weithman.

Mabel is my husband Mark's, grandmother.

Wordless Wednesday

Tombstone Tuesday

These photo's are from Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio - the images I am using are not related to either myself or Mark - they are just random images from our time wandering this old cemetery. Woodland was founded in 1853 and I must say I am disappointed in the current upkeep of this wonderful old cemetery! If you have ancestors here, you should take a visit - SOON! Beautiful old mausoleum doorways sealed with concrete, shingles coming off roofs, unsure what the large pile of concrete pieces some of which appear to be part of headstones or mausoleums just tossed on pile in middle of cemetery. This is a sad statement of the way we treat the final resting place of those gone before.

Photo's taken 14 MAY 2010

Relatively Speaking

Time sure flies when you are having fun - researching or just vacationing - either one, time just seems to march on.

Yes, I am back from my trip. Finding the stuff for me is the fun part. I love the thrill of the hunt, chasing down that elusive ancestor and all I can find about him.

Coming home & putting it all in my computer is good, not as good as the hunt, but it is good to finally see a puzzle piece fit into the larger puzzle on my screen. Luckily alot of what I find, unleses it is direct line I don't have to do the dreaded filing! UGH!

Now I get to figure out where to start with all the "stuff" I found. Photo's to scan, obits to type, deeds to sift thru - so much to do and so little time.

As I go thru I'll be sharing some of my goodies here on the blog - so stay tuned for that!

There were two major finds on this trip - note the word MAJOR... the first was found by Mark - when he found one of his great grandfather's birth, death & birth place in Europe in some church records and the other when I found the baptismal record confirming the link between father & son that I had long searched for proof on. More on those probably later this week.

I continue to work towards my goal of not sitting at this computer for mega hours every day, yesterday we planted some new rose bushes around the patio and added some pretty little "color" to the window garden. Maybe later this week I'll get photo's of those for you as well. We did some weeding in the window garden as well. Spent most of the evening on the patio having dinner with friends.

What a great ending to a fabulous week! Today's big goal - stay busy so I don't miss Mark. We have such a great time when we are on the road I hate it when he goes back to his job! Then I hope to scan some documents, take the photo's off the camera's and begin to organize the input from the trip.

For now - its herbal tea time on the patio.

Happy Researching!
Karen

Taking Time To Slow Down

Don't know if you ever take the time to look at some of the other blogs I follow over on the sidebar or not? Some of them are not genealogy. In fact they have to do with just slowing down.

Slowing down is really hard for me. One of my new year's "want to do's" for this year was learn to slow down, learn to appreciate the small things - my flowers, my grandkids, my husband. More counting blessings & less time as part of the rat race. I've always had a hard time with wanting to make other people happy. Pleasing other people, wanting others to like me, to want me around was almost an obsession. BUT when it goes to the point where it drags you down and causes you to be down, stressed and leads to discord in your own home, its time to stop.

Luckily for me, I have a loving husband who said "do what makes YOU happy", and stands beside my decision regardless of what anyone else thinks. So I've decided to simplify, back off on some activities, spend less time sitting at a keyboard, spending more time in the flowers, visiting with my daughter (my son is working in Canada for a while) and my grandsons. More time reading in front of the picture window or sitting on the patio... Keeping life simple and enjoying the life I have with Mark.

Needless to say this isn't something everyone has an interest in doing. I mean some people are just born to be part of the rat race. And I think they actually enjoy the pressure and stress that comes with that. I don't want off the merry go round, I'd just like to slow it down and enjoy the ride more...

So today is part of that stepping off the rat race course - we're going to go out and just wander, just enjoy -- The flowers here are spectacular - especially the iris... I think I've seen more Iris blooms this week than in my whole life. So I'm off to shop, enjoy the tea shop again and who knows maybe I'll even bring back a surprise for you!

Happy Researching

Karen

Catching Up...

Hello from Pennsylvania -

Been off my keyboard for almost a week so I thought I would take a few minutes & catch everyone up on the progress of my research for the past week!

Our stop in Medina County, Ohio at the library netted us abt 157 obits, some marriage write ups, a wedding photo and more. I don't have the exact numbers with me, I'm not at the hotel right now. But it was a very good day!

We left the library and went in search of some headstone photo's, we found a few that we had been searching for so it wasn't a total wash. I think the highlight of the Medina stop was the full birth, death information on Mark's ancestor Heinrich Augustus Reusch, whose name is on a headstone but no legible dates. Did I mention that this church record also included the name of the village where he was born?

From there we headed over to Centre County, Pennsylvania to research Henry Gates, the founder of Gatesburg, Pennsylvania. I was looking for links between Henry & my George Gates who was born in Pennsylvania in January 1810. Lots of bad info out there, as nothing is panning out YET.

Finally we moved into the area I was most looking forward to - Lancaster County! Paid a visit to the Lancaster County Historical Society - although we found lots of great info we really didn't knock down any walls or make any extreme discoveries. BUT I'll take the tidbits and consider myself blessed that I was able to travel to Lancaster & get the tidbits!

Did find an awesome little English tea room - I'll blog more about that in a later post.

Today (Wednesday) we opted to head over to the Berks County Historical Society . An excellant place to research, and a staff always ready to help! The church records we found there provided so much information I must admit we were sorely tempted to make another trip tomorrow. We've decided not to return tomorrow, but we've barely scratched the surface of this awesome facilty!

The first church records were for The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Rhersburg, Berks County - the traverse into these church records was quickly rewarded with the baptismal record of my fifth great grandfather, Thomas Kreitzer! The record gives his name, birth date, baptism date, and the names of the sponsors! A photo copy was made and will be scanned very soon after we arrive back at home! There were other Kreitzer records found but none that really compare to this one!

The second set of church records we wandered into were from Christ Church in Stouchsburg, Marion Township, Berks County. We were rewarded with entry after entry on the Gebhart family, and more records on the Kreitzer family as well. Nothing as earth shattering (you did feel it didn't you?) as the baptismal record, but still, quite a few maiden names and many dates that were previously missing from my data base!

Its been quite a week here. Now that the rain has stopped we are hoping tomorrow to do some more headstone photography - somehow I enjoy it more when its not pouring rain! I do believe I've talked Mark into a return trip to the tea shop. The scones are just out of this world!

I'll blog more on the tea room & some other goodies when I return home!

Happy Researching!

Karen

The Obituary List

One of the most important parts of a research trip, at least to me, is making sure that I am prepared for the job I am about to do. Going into a research trip with no prep to me is just something that makes absolutely NO sense to me. The more prepared you are the more likely you are to have success.

Another aspect of my trip prep is for obituaries in Medina County, Ohio. Mark's Reusch family came from there, so there is alot to do there. This library has an obituary index on line which made my list making much easier! Whenever I come across someone on the line who has no obituary in my data base, I add them to the to do list or the spreadsheet. If you decide for the to-do list you will have to go back and put all the entries from the to do list on the spread sheet. If you go directly to the spreadsheet you will be going back there alot, adding persons of interest & resorting from time to time.

My speadsheet has six columns & when printed, it is printed in landscape mode. The six columns I use are:

1. Name - I use surname first, the given
2. Date - for this library I used the online obituary index and got the dates that the obits appeared.
3. Page number
4. Female ID number. This makes it easy to identify if I have any questions when I am putting them in my data base.
5. Y/N - did I get the obituary or not
6. Comments - things like "no newspaper" or "newspaper on strike" things like that.

If you have mulitiple newspapers in the area you could add another column for newspaper name. Its really comes down to what YOU need to make it work for you. I don't have the mulitple newspapers to deal with this on this trip.

After I get them all entered on the spread sheet I sort by date, with the earliest date appearing at the top. I always print TWO (2) copies - one for me and one in case the films are not open for personal "fetching", the person behind the counter can get them for me much easier if they are in some of order. If Mark is getting films its easier on him as well.

By calling ahead and confirming costs, hours & policies, then having your obituary list in order, ensures you success whether you are pulling 6 or 160 obits.

Please remember that if you have someone pulling films for you & they are on staff, a THANK YOU is always in order. Some libraries also take donations - donating to the library is a great way to say THANKS! They need to hear it and I don't know of any library that can't use some financial help as well! If its my husband Mark - I buy him dinner! ; )

An obituary spreadsheet - Its a VERY GOOD THING!

Happy Researching!

Karen

Tombstone Tuesday

John Hess (1787-1871) and wife, Anna Maria "Mary" Bloss Hess (1787-1870)

Middletown Cemetery, Butler County, Ohio.

Headstone of John Hess & Mary Bloss Hess his wife, as I found it in 2004.

Headstone as it stands today after the kindness of a stranger. Repaired and good as new!

Three R's...

Bet you've seen that before - the three R's... you know what they are... review, review, review...
Yep you are seeing that correctly! Its all about review.

With my sweet husband moving the date of departure forward a few days we are now in review stage. I've written before about reviewing your files - but for now this comes down to reviewing the prep I've done for this trip.

• Decided on what counties in Pennsylvania I want to focus on
• Determined which lines I want to focus on
• Researched which libraries & archives I want to visit
• Determined what work needed to be done on our Ohio days
• Put together an extensive obituary search list for Ohio
• Assembled my research notebook

Now its time to focus on my briefcase and making sure I have everything in there I need. There's nothing worse than getting to the library or archives & discovering they only take change or a copy card. So today's focus will be my briefcase.

I'm going to try & blog as I do this research trip but as with all plans sometimes it just doesn't happen. So if I go a few days without blogging you'll understand!

Happy Researching!

Karen

Rest In Peace My Friend...

Today I learned of the death of a friend & fellow researcher, Robert Young Clay. He was without a doubt THE Clay researcher, no one could research the Clay's like Bob Clay. He was the first Clay researcher I encountered when I began my search. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew & loved him.

Robert Young Clay at the Clay Family Gathering 2004

Research Notebooks

Back a month or so ago I mentioned the research notebooks that I assemble when going on a research trip. I do take my laptop, but often the laptop is in use by my DH who is busy entering data for me or I didn't decide to take it into the repository where I am working.

The black "combs" you see are the 2 inch size, I get them at my local office supply or if you can't bind it yourself the office supply can bind for you in a comb that fits properly. These have a locking feature so nothing accidently comes open. They also lay flat so its easy to work with & write in.

The research notebooks are great - being comb bound means that if you drop it everything stays intact, no messed up papers. I index the material in the notebook, divide it up by County or repository depending on the length of the trip and number of stops. If I have cemetery stops to make my cemetery search lists are also included in the notebook. Group sheets on the families I will be working on are included along with printouts on the repositories & libraries I will be visiting. The photo above shows some of the lists & print-outs ready to be put into my notebook for this trip.

The photo directly above this text shows a completed notebook, open to some family group sheets. Note the handwritten notes. Once the notes that I have written in the notebooks have been typed in I place a red strike (line) thru the information & I know I've put it in the computer. Many times I continue to use the notebook as a "workbook" long after the trip is done. They are a great way to see the "holes" in your research. I do love my laptop but many times "holes" get lost in the computer and its hard to see exactly where you really need to be working!
Recap of notebook contents:

• Maps
• Repository/library printouts
• Cemetery search lists
• to do lists for each county
• Pedigree charts for lines in area
• Family group sheets on lines of interest
• Blank family group sheets & blank pages for notes
• hotel reservations (w/o credit card info)
• any other pertinent information I might need
  

I use maps alot when I do research trips so there are always quite a few of them in the research notebook. This one below shows the state of Pennsylvania, with the counties I am researching in outlined for clarity. At a glance I can see where other counties are that might affect my research any given county. This particular one came from William Dollarhide's book, Map Guide To the US Federal Censuses, 1790-1920. Very clear and easy to use! To finish off the book I add an index of where everything is in the notebook, and then close it off with a white cover so I can list the surnames & dates of the trip, a dark cover on the back helps the notebook look cleaner & hold together better. For durability I use cardstock on the covers rather than regular paper.

If you have any questions about the research notebooks feel free to drop me a line or leave me a comment on the blog & I'll get back to as soon as I can. Hopefully someone will get something from this little tutorial, I never really thought anyone else would be interested.

To all of my followers who may be moms - I hope you have a wonderful mother's day this Sunday. Spend some time with those who matter most, & most important be sure to make some time just for you! Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Researching!
Karen

My Name is Sue...

I'm sure many of you remember that song, My Name is Sue.. It brings to mind an incident Tuesday when I was working on some research at the Allen County Public Library.

While flipping thru a book I happened to spot the name Jimmerson. Not a surname, but a given name. Now my memory is just good enough that when I have some strange names I do happen to remember them. In fact, Anne over at Gene Notes collects strange names. Every time the Wild Ones find a strange name we hand it over to Anne for her collection. Maybe one day she'll blog about her collection & share some with you.

Back to Jimmerson, I don't see it very often so I quickly jumped into my data base and did a "name" search. Notice I didn't say surname search. I found ONE Jimmerson in my file. Problem was I had to go back and find that Jimmerson in the index again. In thumbing thru the pages got away from me. SO I went back and thumbed through until I located the entry again. Turns out he was the very same one in my data base! Not in the county I expected, but hey, he is not lost any more!

Comes down to searching for those strange names - the ones we don't see all the time - sometimes that gets us much further than searching for surnames. Works for me!

Tombstone Tuesday

Above Family Plot of Thomas Edgar

Headstone of Capt. Thomas Edgar
1750-1822

Buried to the the right of Capt Edgar is his wife,
Anne Nancy Mathews Edgar (1765-1852).
Also in the plot are a son, Archer Edgar (1799-1863) and his wife, Nancy Pearis Edgar (1812-1864).

The stone on the far left is Delia Edgar (1847-1870), dau of Archer & Nancy Edgar.

Lewisburg Cemetery, Lewisburg, West Virginia

Clicking on image will open enlarged version. Use browsers back button to return to blog.

Relatively Speaking...

I've been thinking all weekend about what to write about on the Relatively speaking blog for this week. What is it that I want to blog about? Sitting here at my desk I look up and my little "robin" is sitting here looking at me. He doesn't chirp or hop about. He just sits here - with his little saying on the log under him. His saying is very simple - "Cherish Life's Simple Pleasures".

Life's simple pleasures can mean so many things to so many people. For me life's simple pleasures are family, friends, grandkids (did I already say grandkids?), my flowers, a good book, a little stitching or just watching my bird feeders. I'm very blessed to have lots of simple pleasures in my life.

When I stop & consider the simple pleasures in my life I have to wonder about the simple pleasures that my ancestors found in their lives. I've heard stories of my great grandmothers & their love for their flowers, their sewing and quilting and more. Alot of those simple pleasures seem to transcend generations, as I find myself enjoying much of the same sort of things.

I find myself looking at my daughter (yes I already see some of those in her life!), son & grandsons and wonder if these same simple pleasures will again transcend the generations. I sure hope so!

Take some time today to enjoy your simple pleasures! I plan on doing just that. Just as soon as I finish this blog entry!

Happy Researching!
Karen
[Photo taken 2005 by Mark at the Inn at Honey Run in Holmes County, Ohio. Another of life's simple pleasures, a weekend get away with someone special at Honey Run! Just beautiful!]