Jennifer's Genealogy Blog

Happy Blogoversary to Me! (And Happy Birthday to Lee-Lee Too!)

2012-01-26T18:40:00.000-06:00

My blog is three years old today! Wow! How time flies. I'm not really sure why I started blogging. It was sort of an impulsive decision. It wasn't something I thought about for a long time. I don't even remember how I came to know that genealogy blogs existed. I think I was searching for something on Google and up popped a blog result. Within 24 hours, I decided to start my own blog too. I think what I was most excited about was that this blog I found was written by someone who was under 40. Until this time, I thought I was the only person under 40 who was interested in genealogy (now that I'm 30, 40 is not looking so old anymore). In fact, I thought I was the only person interested in genealogy (other than my little cousin, Paige, and my older cousin, Stacy). My family members and friends were not always as excited as I was, so I immediately felt right at home in the geneablogging community, where people were excited about my finds.

Now some of you may be wondering who Lee-Lee is. I didn't realize it at the time, but my little cousin Brynnlee (aka Lee-Lee), was born on my blogoversary last year! Happy First Birthday, Lee-Lee!

Photo courtesy of Lee-Lee's mom, Cousin Paige mentioned above

I fully admit that I stole this pic from Paige's Facebook page. I was too lazy to go get my camera out of my husband's backpack with the pictures we took of Lee-Lee at Christmas.

Part IV: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

2012-01-25T22:20:00.000-06:00

Other posts in this series:
Part I: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part II: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part III: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

After looking at the marriage records at the St. Clair County Courthouse to find out more about Arthur and his family, I moved on to the death records to see if I could find out more. Here is what was known about Arthur and his family to this point:

Arthur was born 08 Feb 1923 in Michigan to Martin W. CHAMBERLIN and Gertrude DEVERS
Arthur married Christine Elizabeth CHATTERSON 19 Apr 1941 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan
Arthur was an 18-year-old butcher and resided in Marine City at the time of his marriage
Christine and Arthur had four children:

Alma Pauline CHAMBERLIN

born 17 Feb 1942 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan
married Edmund J. YOUNG 30 Apr 1960 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
died 25 Sep 1996 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Christine "Betty" CHAMBERLIN

born abt 1943-1944 in Macomb County, Michigan
married Ford Eugene FRENCH 30 Mar 1963 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
moved to California between 1979 and 1989

Tommy CHAMBERLIN

died as a teenager in an accident, c. 1960s

James CHAMBERLAIN

my uncle

Arthur left Christine when my uncle was a young child in the late 1940s or early 1950s
Christine remarried to George E. MASON 21 Apr 1952 or 21 Apr 1954 (conflicting dates in George and Christine's obits)
Arthur died 03 Nov 1984 in East Point, Macomb, Michigan
Arthur was buried at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan
Arthur's paternal grandparents were E.F. CHAMBERLAIN and Alice M. SWARTOUT
Arthur's maternal grandparents were T. DEVERS and Jennie PELTIER
Arthur's parents married 7 Sep 1908 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Arthur's father, Martin W. CHAMBERLAIN, was born abt 1882-1883 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan
Arthur's mother, Gertrude DEVERS, was born abt 1886-1887 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan
Arthur's father was a cooper at the time of his marriage
Both of Arthur's parents resided in Marine City at the time of their marriage

The first death record I decided to find was the one for Arthur and Christine's son, Tommy CHAMBERLIN. His death record confirmed the family story that he died in an accident as a teenager. See my transcription below:

Decedent: Thomas G. Chamberlin
Date of death: 12 Oct 1962
Place of death: Port Huron
DOB: 16 Jan 1947
Birthplace: St. Clair, Mich.
Sex: M
Race: W
Marital Status: Single
Cause of death: Fractured skull and internal injuries, Accident, Arthur B. Smith, Coroner
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Father: Arthur Chamberlin
Mother: Christine Chatterson
Informant: Mrs. George Mason of Pt. Huron, Mich.

Now that I had an exact death date, I could go back to the library and look for an obituary or an article about the accident. The death record did not give any details about the accident.

I decided to next see if Martin or Gertrude had a death record. I did not find one for Gertrude, but I did find one for Martin in 1942, just one year after his son, Arthur, was married. This is where things started to get interesting.

Decedent: Martin William Chamberlin
Date of death: 10 Apr 1942
Place of death: Marine City
Sex: M
Race: W
Marital status: Divorced
Cause of death: Apoplexy
Age: 59 y, 5 m, 6 d
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: Retired
Father: Felix Chamberlin
Father's birthplace: Michigan
Mother: Gertrude Devers
Mother's birthplace: Michigan

Martin was divorced? Hmmm....wonder what happened there. Did Arthur have a rough childhood? That may explain why he left his own wife and children with very little contact afterward. If Gertrude remarried, that may be why I couldn't find her death record. In any event, we now know that Martin's full name was Martin William CHAMBERLIN. His age gives a birth date of 4 Nov 1882, which would be consistent with his age at the time of his marriage. His father's name is now listed as Felix CHAMBERLIN. It appears that Felix may be his middle name, as he was listed as E.F. CHAMBERLAIN on Martin's marriage record. His mother appears to be listed incorrectly. We know that Gertrude was actually his ex-wife and not his mother. According to his marriage record to Gertrude, his mother was Alice M. SWARTOUT.

I then decided to look for death records of Martin's parents and found them for both his father (1936) and his mother (1914).

Decedent: Edward F. Chamberlain
Date of death: 6 Jun 1936
Place of death: Marine City
Sex: M
Race: W
Marital Status: Widower
Spouse: Alice Swartout
Cause of death: Edema of lungs, myocarditis, old age
Age: 82 y
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: Retired steamboat captain
Father: Felix Delisle
Father's birthplace: [blank]
Mother: Not given
Mother's birthplace: Not given

Decedent: Alice Chamberlain
Date of death: 20 Oct 1914
Place of death: Marine City
Sex: F
Race: W
Marital Status: Married
Age: 54 y, 9 m, ---
Cause of death: Tumor
Birthplace: Mich.
Occupation: Housewife
Father: Martin Swartout
Mother: Lydia Webster

Martin's father's first name appears to be Edward, and his full name appears to be Edward Felix CHAMBERLAIN. He died 6 Jun 1936 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan, at 82 years old. This assumes a birth date of 1853-1854. His birthplace is listed as Michigan, and his occupation as retired steamboat captain. Oddly, his father is listed as Felix DELISLE. This seemed strange since his surname was CHAMBERLAIN. Was he adopted? Did he legally change his name? Was he illegitimate? Too bad his mother wasn't listed. This only added to the mystery.

Martin's mother, Alice M. SWARTOUT, died 20 Oct 1914 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan, at age 54y, 9m. This presumes a birth date of 20 Jan 1860, and her birthplace is listed as Michigan. Her parents were Martin SWARTOUT and Lydia WEBSTER. It appears that Martin William CHAMBERLAIN may have been named after his maternal grandfather.

At this point, I returned to the marriage records to see if I could find one for Gertrude (Devers) CHAMBERLIN, since according to Martin's death record, they were divorced by 1942. Sure enough, I found one in 1941 transcribed below:

Groom: Sear Christian
Age: 53
Race: W
Residence: Detroit
Birthplace: Belgium
Occupation: Bottler
Father: Julius Christian
Mother: Julia ---
Times previously married: no

Bride: Gertrude Chamberlain
Maiden Name: Devers
Age: 53
Race: W
Residence: Marine City
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: ---
Father: Thomas Devers
Mother: Jennie Peltier
Times previously married: one

Date of license: 18 Oct 1941
Date of marriage: 25 Oct 1941
Place of marriage: Port Huron
Officiant: D.S. Large, Minister
Witnesses: Harold & Beatrice Walton, both of Marine City

Gertrude married a 53-year-old Belgian bottler from Detroit named Sear CHRISTIAN on 25 Oct 1941 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. This was just 6 months after her son, Arthur, married Christine in April 1941. Gertrude was age 53, which would put her birth date around 1887-1888 (just a year or so off from her approximate birth date figured from her age at her first marriage to Martin). Her residence is given as Marine City, and now we have a first name for her father, Thomas. Her marriage record to Martin only listed him as T. DEVERS.

By this time, I was pooped out and resolved to return to the library the following day to do a little follow-up on Tommy's obituary, as well as several others in my family tree. Stay tuned for more info about Arthur and his family. The saga continues....

Part III: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

2012-01-24T17:00:00.121-06:00

Other posts in this series:
Part I: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part II: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part IV: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

Before I move on to the particulars of my Day 2 research at the St. Clair County Courthouse, I will summarize all known information about Arthur and his family up to this point:

Arthur was born 08 Feb 1923
He married Christine Elizabeth CHATTERSON, probably in the 1940s in St. Clair County, Michigan
Arthur and Christine had four children:

Alma Pauline (Chamberlin) YOUNG, who was born 17 Feb 1942 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan and died 25 Sep 1996 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan; married Edmund J. YOUNG 30 Apr 1960 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Tommy CHAMBERLIN, who died as a teenager in an accident, c. 1960s
Betty CHAMBERLIN, who married Ford FRENCH and moved to California sometime between 1979 and 1989
James CHAMBERLAIN, my uncle, who spelled his name differently

Arthur left Christine when my uncle was a young child in the late 1940s or early 1950s
Christine remarried to George E. MASON, who raised her children as his own. In fact, my uncle considered George to be his father.
There are conflicting marriage dates for George and Christine

21 Apr 1952 in South Bend, Indiana (Christine's obit)
21 Apr 1954 in Grand Bend, Indiana (George's obit)

George and Christine moved to Port Huron around 1954
George owned and operated a restaurant in Port Huron
Arthur died 03 Nov 1984 in East Point, Macomb, Michigan
Arthur was buried at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan
Christine was born 23 Nov 1922 and died 12 Oct 1979 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
George E. MASON was born 19 Apr 1920 and died 2 May 1989 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

On Day 2, my plan was to research marriage and death records for several of my ancestors and their collateral relatives, including Arthur. The courthouse in St. Clair County has death records from 1867 onward and marriage records from the 1830s onward in large (mostly) handwritten books. Both sets of records go through 1985 or so. I believe that after 1985, they became computerized and stopped being recorded in the books.

I started with the index to the marriage records and found a 1941 entry for Arthur Chamberlin. This is my transcription:

Groom: Arthur Chamberlin
Age: 18
Race: W
Residence: Marine City
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: Butcher
Father: Martin Chamberlin
Mother: Gertrude Devers
Times previously married: no

Bride: Christine Chatterson
Age: 18
Race: W
Residence: Marine City
Birthplace: Michigan
Occupation: Housework
Father: Leo Chatterson
Mother: Alma Plonkey
Times previously married: no

Date of license: 4 Apr 1941
Date of marriage: 19 Apr 1941
Place of marriage: Marine City
Officiant: W. J. Pottach, Priest
Witnesses: Maurice and Dora Lebeck of Centerline

This was very exciting, as I now had a date of marriage for Arthur and Christine AND the name of Arthur's parents! They were married 19 Apr 1941 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan. They were both 18 years old and residing in Marine City. Arthur was a butcher. His parents were listed as Martin CHAMBERLIN and Gertrude DEVERS. His birthplace was given as Michigan, and the age matched with the birth date from his funeral card.

Before moving onto the death records, I decided to see if I could find a marriage record for his parents. Sure enough, I located it rather quickly with the index. Here is a transcription:

Groom: Martin W. Chamberlain
Age: 25
Race: W
Residence: Marine City
Birthplace: Marine City
Occupation: Cooper
Father: E.F. Chamberlain
Mother: Alice M. Swartout
Times previously married: no

Bride: Gertrude Devers
Age: 21
Race: W
Residence: Marine City
Birthplace: Marine City
Occupation: [blank]
Father: T. Devers
Mother: Jennie Peltier
Times previously married: no

Date of license: 7 Sep 1908
Date of marriage: 7 Sep 1908
Place of marriage: Port Huron
Officiant: E.P. Bennett, Minister
Witnesses: Roy Duchene & Henrietta Cloggen, both of Marine City

So, I was able to take the family back another generation! Martin W. CHAMBERLAIN and Gertrude DEVERS were married 7 Sep 1908 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. They both resided in Marine City, which is also given as their birthplace. Martin was a 25-year-old cooper, meaning he was born about 1882-1883. Gertrude was age 21, meaning she was born about 1886-1887. Martin was the son of E.F. CHAMBERLAIN and Alice M. SWARTOUT. Gertrude was the daughter of T. DEVERS and Jennie PELTIER. I found the variations of spelling CHAMBERLAIN/CHAMBERLIN to be interesting. Now it was being spelled the way my uncle spells it today.

I also found a marriage index entry for a Christine CHAMBERLIN in 1963 and decided to check it out, since it was the same first name as Arthur's ex-wife. Well, it turned out to be Betty CHAMBERLIN and Ford FRENCH. Apparently, Betty was her nickname. Here is my transcription:

Groom: Ford E. French
Age: 18
Race: W
Address: 3814 Maple St, Port Huron, Mich.
Birthplace: Sanilac Co, Michigan
Occupation: U.S. Army
Father: Clifford French
Mother: Hazel Hill
Times previously married: no

Bride: Christine Chamberlin
Age: 19
Race: W
Address: 2811 Wright St, Port Huron, Mich.
Birthplace: Macomb Co, Michigan
Occupation: Waitress
Father: Arthur Chamberlin
Mother: Christine Chatterson
Times previously married: no

Date of license: 29 Mar 1963
Date of marriage: 30 Mar 1963
Place of marriage: Port Huron, Michigan
Person performing ceremony: James R. Balfour, Minister
Witnesses: Orion D. & Marion I. Streeter, both of Port Huron, Mich.

Ford Eugene FRENCH and Christine "Betty" CHAMBERLIN were married 30 Mar 1963 in Port Huron. Christine's age was given as 19, which gave her an approximate birth date of 1943-1944. Her parents were listed as Arthur CHAMBERLIN and Christine CHATTERSON.

I will continue my death record research on Day 2 in a later post...stay tuned.

Part II: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

2012-01-23T17:00:00.159-06:00

Other posts in this series:
Part I: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part III: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part IV: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

As stated in my previous post, at my cousin's request, I was trying to find out more about my uncle's biological father, Arthur, who left the family when my uncle was a young child. I had exhausted online resources, as well as the few family resources we had. I was ready to take a trip to visit family in Michigan and planned to sneak in some research on my ancestors, as well as Arthur, while I was there in the summer of 2007. But before I discuss the findings of my trip, here is a summary of what I had so far:

Arthur was born 08 Feb 1923
He married Christine Elizabeth CHATTERSON, probably in the 1940s in St. Clair County, Michigan
Arthur and Christine had four children:

Alma Pauline (Chamberlin) YOUNG, who was born 17 Feb 1942 and died 25 Sep 1996 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Tommy CHAMBERLIN, who died as a teenager in an accident, c. 1960s
Betty CHAMBERLIN
James CHAMBERLAIN, my uncle, who spelled his name differently

Arthur left Christine when my uncle was a young child in the late 1940s or early 1950s
Christine remarried to George E. MASON, who raised her children as his own. In fact, my uncle considered George to be his father.
Arthur died 03 Nov 1984 in East Point, Macomb, Michigan
Arthur was buried at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan
Christine was born 23 Nov 1922 and died 12 Oct 1979 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
George E. MASON was born 19 Apr 1920 and died 2 May 1989 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

This was not a lot to go on, but it was certainly enough to search for marriage records, death records, and obituaries at the St. Clair County Public Library and St. Clair County Clerk's office.

The courthouse was closed for genealogy research the first day set out to do research, so the first thing I did was search for Alma Pauline (Chamberlin) YOUNG's obituary in The Times Herald at the public library. This is the Port Huron newspaper. Her obituary stated that she was preceded in death by her parents, George "Eddie" and Christine "Teensie" MASON. It did not mention Arthur at all, which would make sense if Arthur had walked away from the family with very little contact afterward. Like my uncle, she probably considered George her father. The obituary confirmed her birth date as 17 Feb 1942 and gave her place of birth as Marine City, Michigan. It stated that she married her husband, Edmund J. YOUNG, on 30 Apr 1960 at Court Street Baptist Church in Port Huron. It listed my uncle and Betty FRENCH of California as surviving siblings. Betty's husband's name was listed as Ford FRENCH. So, now I had a married name for Betty, as well as a location.

I also searched for Christine's and George's obituaries. Christine's obituary made no mention of Arthur at all. It's almost as if the family wiped him out of their memories after he left. Of course, when a previous marriage ends in divorce, it is often not mentioned in an obituary. Her obituary stated she was born 23 Nov 1922 in Detroit and had lived in Port Huron for 25 years. This means that she moved to Port Huron around 1954. Her obituary stated that she married George E. "Eddie" MASON on 21 Apr 1952 in South Bend, Indiana. This helped to narrow down the timeframe of when Arthur left. No other new information was found, except that her daughter, Betty, was living in Port Huron, and not California, at the time of her death.

George's obituary stated he was born April 19, 1920 in Bay City, Michigan, and was a lifelong area resident. His obituary gave a different marriage date and place of 21 Apr 1954 in Grand Bend, Indiana. He was a lifelong chef and had even owned his own restaurant in Port Huron. It appeared that he had been previously married, as three surviving sons with the last name of MASON were mentioned. These sons were not mentioned in Christine's obituary, nor in Alma's obituary. My uncle, Betty, and Alma were all listed as surviving children. Betty was listed as living in California this time, so she obviously moved to California sometime after her mother's death in 1979 but before her (step)father's death in 1989.

So, this is what I found on Day 1 of research onsite in Michigan at the St. Clair County Public Library. Not too much was found on Arthur. What wasn't found on Arthur was more telling: further evidence that his children considered their stepfather, George MASON, to be their father. Now, looking back on it four years later, I wonder why I didn't look for an obit for Arthur. I am sure it was because Arthur died in Macomb County and was buried in Oakland County, so I probably assumed he wouldn't have an obit in St. Clair County. Also, keep in mind that I was really there to find obits on my own ancestors and was not focusing entirely on Arthur and his family. However, I think I need to revisit that next time I am in Michigan to make certain I didn't miss anything. Now I have something to put on my to-do list for my next trip.

Stay tuned for the report on Day 2. It would prove to be a much more productive day for research on Arthur.

Part I: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

2012-01-22T20:31:00.005-06:00

Other posts in this series:
Part II: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part III: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN
Part IV: My Research on Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN

Back in 2006, while talking to my cousin on the phone, she mentioned that she wanted to know more about her biological paternal grandfather, Arthur Guy CHAMBERLIN. She had dabbled in genealogy with me in the late 1990s or early 2000s, but she hadn't really researched her dad's biological paternal side of the family. Her mother and my mother are sisters, and she had mostly focused on that side of the family, as well as her father's mother's family. By 2006, my cousin had stopped doing genealogy research and had started focusing on her interest in scrapbooking, which is why she asked me if I could find anything more about Arthur for her.

Of course, the first thing I asked her was what she already knew about Arthur. I knew from my aunt and uncle's wedding announcement that my uncle's parents' were named as Mr. and Mrs. George E. MASON, so I knew that his mother had remarried. My cousin said that Arthur had married her grandmother, Christine Elizabeth CHATTERSON, but left the family when my uncle was very young. Based on my uncle's age, we figured that Arthur and Christine must have married sometime in the 1940s in Michigan, possibly St. Clair County, where my uncle was born and raised. After Arthur left, Christine remarried to George E. MASON, who raised my uncle as his own son. The only other info my cousin had was a funeral card from Arthur's funeral which stated that he was born 08 Feb 1923 and died 03 Nov 1984. It also stated that he was buried at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Oakland, Michigan.

The first thing I decided to do was look at the database "Michigan Deaths, 1971-1996" at Ancestry.com.

Name: Arthur G Chamberlin
Birth Date: 8 Feb 1923
Death Date: 3 Nov 1984
Gender: Male
Residence: East Point, Macomb, Michigan
Place of Death: East Point, Macomb, Michigan

As this database is only an index, it had very limited information. The only new pieces of information learned from the index was that he had lived and died in East Point, Macomb, Michigan, about 23 miles from where he was buried and 40 miles from where my uncle was born. East Point is now called "Eastpointe" and was formerly called "East Detroit." Another thing I found interesting about the index entry was that his name was spelled as CHAMBERLIN, while my uncle spells his name as CHAMBERLAIN.

I tried searching for Arthur in the 1930 census at Ancestry.com, but I had no luck. There were a few Arthur Chamberlain/Chamberlin's living in Michigan, but none that were born around 1923.

Since I could find no other information about Arthur at Ancestry.com, I decided to start searching on Google. There I found a website devoted to the descendants of Leo A. CHATTERSON, the father of Christine Elizabeth CHATTERSON, Arthur's ex-wife. This website had no information about Arthur other than his name and that he married Christine, but it did mention the names of Arthur and Christine's children, including a daughter named Alma that died 25 Sep 1996. It also mentioned a son named Tommy, which triggered a memory. I remembered my cousin telling me years earlier that Tommy had died when he was young in an accident of some sort. There was no death date listed for Tommy at the website. The other children mentioned were my uncle, James, and a second daughter, Betty. So, now I knew that Arthur and Christine had four children: Alma (d. 25 Sep 1996), Tommy, James, and Betty.

Since I was at a dead-end with Arthur until I could do some onsite research in Michigan, I decided to see what I could find out online about his associates, namely his ex-wife and children. I decided to check for his daughter, Alma, in the "Michigan Deaths, 1971-1996" database. I did not know her married name, but I knew her first name and date of death and had a hunch that she probably died in St. Clair County. Sure enough, I found an entry for Alma Pauline YOUNG who died 25 Sep 1996 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan.

Name: Alma Pauline Young
Birth Date: 17 Feb 1942
Death Date: 25 Sep 1996
Gender: Female
Residence: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Place of Death: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Based on my uncle's age, the age also seemed to match with the Alma I was looking for. I made a mental note to confirm with my cousin that this was her aunt.

I also searched for Arthur's son, Tommy/Thomas, in the Michigan deaths database at Ancestry.com, but I couldn't find him. I wasn't sure if I would find him or not, as I had a hunch that he died prior to 1971. I seemed to remember my cousin saying that he was a teenager when he died, which would have put his death closer to the 1960s, assuming he was born in the 1940s. I also made a mental note to ask my cousin more about Tommy's death.

The CHATTERSON website had given Christine's date of birth as 23 Nov 1922 and her date of death as 12 Oct 1979 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. I confirmed this with the Michigan deaths database at Ancestry.com.

Name: Christine E Mason
Birth Date: 23 Nov 1922
Death Date: 12 Oct 1979
Gender: Female
Residence: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Place of Death: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

I also found George E. MASON's entry in the Michigan deaths database.

Name: George E Mason
Birth Date: 19 Apr 1920
Death Date: 2 May 1989
Gender: Male
Residence: Burtchville, St. Clair, Michigan
Place of Death: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

At this point, I felt that I had exhausted all of my online resources. Keep in mind that this was 2007 and FamilySearch had not yet released all of its wonderful Michigan databases. Some of you may be wondering why I didn't order a copy of Arthur's death record back in 2006. That would have likely given his parents' names. Well, to be honest, I wasn't that interested at the time and was mostly just doing this as a favor to my cousin. Also, I was trying to exhaust Ancestry.com, which I had already paid for, and was waiting until I was able to take a trip to Michigan to do onsite research before pursuing the extra expense for a death record of a collateral relative. Usually, I would order a death record before doing onsite research, but I was going to Michigan regardless of whether I got any research done or not. Since I have family still living there, genealogy research is not my primary reason for going. So, in this case, travel to do onsite research was not really an extra expense.

Stay tuned to find out what I found during my research trip in August 2007...it gets juicier....I promise.

Census Sunday: MERTENA in 1920

2012-01-15T08:00:00.008-06:00

This Sunday, I feature the census record of my great-great-grandparents, John Henry MERTENA and Blanche WELDEN. Blanche was featured yesterday in my Surname Saturday post. John and Blanche were living in Rose Hill Township, Logan County, Oklahoma, in 1920, where John was a farmer. Their only child, my great-grandfather, Merlen Paris MERTENA, was 9 years old.

1920 U.S. census, Logan County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Rose Hill Township, enumeration district (ED) 68, sheet 3A, dwelling 57, family 57, John Mertino household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 January 2012); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1470.

John Mertino Head M W 35 M IL France IL Farmer Gen Farm
Blanche Mertino Wife F W 36 M MO KY KY
Merlen Mertino Son M W 9 S OK IL MO

Surname Saturday: WELDEN

2012-01-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

WELDEN is the surname of my paternal grandmother's paternal grandmother, Blanche. This is one of my more "typical" American lines that started out in Virginia, moved west to Kentucky, then Missouri, and finally to Oklahoma. I am not sure of their European origins. I have a lot of research to do on this line. Most of my info comes from secondary sources.

Blanche WELDEN

b. 31 Aug 1883 in Coffeysburg, Daviess, Missouri
m. 25 Dec 1907 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma to John Henry MERTENA
d. 05 Feb 1970 in Sulphur, Calcasieu, Louisiana

James William WELDEN

b. 12 Sep 1847 in Canmer, Hart, Kentucky
m. 26 Apr 1875 in Hart County, Kentucky to Henrietta Murl RENFRO
d. 01 May 1922 in Marshall, Logan, Oklahoma

George Dale WELDEN

b. 07 Jan 1815 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
m. abt 1835 in Hart County, Kentucky to Eliza Jane DAVIS
d. 18 Jan 1858 in Canmer, Hart, Kentucky

Jonathan WELDEN

b. abt 1776 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia
m1. 12 Feb 1797 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia to Sarah Elizabeth MAYES (my line)
m2. 04 Jan 1821 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia to Nancy Hawker BUTT
d. 1844 in Linwood, Grayson, Kentucky

Jonathan WELDEN

b. abt 1731
m. bef. 1760 to Mary Elizabeth HANKS
d. 18 Dec 1781 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia

Who Do You Think These Kids Are Rooting For?

2012-01-09T11:01:00.000-06:00

Can you guys tell that it is LSU Day today? I just kept seeing all of my cousins' kids' photos popping up on Facebook today in LSU gear and couldn't resist.

Genealogy Goals for January

2012-01-02T16:09:00.000-06:00

Since it's the beginning of a new month in a new year, and I have the CPA exam and the wedding behind me, I am reinstating my monthly genealogy goals posts I started last spring. I think I posted them for two months and then fell behind when the wedding planning got to be too much. I think it's safe to say that 2011 was a big year for me. I passed the CPA exam, got married, quit my job I had for the last three years, and then moved back across the country from North Carolina to Louisiana (after having just moved to NC from Louisiana a year before). Now that the holidays are finally over, it's time for things to get back to "normal." This is why I have hope that I might actually keep up with my goals.

For January, this is what I hope to accomplish:

Complete the Intro to Genealogy course offered through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I started the course on 12/7 and have until 1/29 to take the exam. I am on track so far, assuming I complete the lesson for Week 4 before Wednesday. I have found the work so far to be rather easy. I suppose it's because I'm an intermediate genealogist taking a beginner's course, but it is a prerequisite to taking the more advanced courses. It has been fun reminiscing about my research in my early years of genealogy research.
Complete the maintenance of cleaning up sources and events for the families of the children of my great-great-grandparents, Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) Pemberton. I started on this family in December, and have finished with ten of the thirteen children. I am currently working on the family of Leo and Madeline (Pemberton) Carnahan. I have finished cleaning up the sources for them and their children. I am now moving on to cleaning up the Carnahan family sources that I have. I did not do any real research on the Carnahan's beyond Leo's parents and siblings, since they were a collateral line. I do have some info I gathered from online family trees for Leo's grandparents and great-grandparents, so I need to re-evaluate the sources and decide whether or not to delete the connections and move the info to the notes section of my database until I have time or inkling to do the real research. Typically, if an online tree is my only source, I prefer to keep the info in the notes before making a connection in my database. I may be able to find more primary sources in the Michigan collections at FamilySearch and Seeking Michigan. These collections did not exist four years ago when I was doing the Carnahan research. I also need to check cousin Steve's family tree for sources, as he is a Carnahan descendant and has done much more research than I have, since this is more than a collateral line for him.
I plan to input at least five records from my To Be Entered folder (including my own marriage record!).
I plan to index at least 500 names with FamilySearch Indexing. I have gotten bad at keeping up with this.
I need to write at least four emails to cousins or researchers that have emailed me within the last year about connections, getting together for visits, etc. I am VERY BAD at keeping in touch with people. I need to improve on this.

I think five goals is plenty. I am trying not to be unrealistic with my goals. I should probably have a research goal, but I really want to finish my maintenance project. I will be so happy when my sources are cleaned up in my RootsMagic database. I think I may be happier than when I found out I passed the last part of the CPA exam! I will not be happier than I was on my wedding day, however!

Surname Saturday: SONNIER

2011-12-24T00:00:00.113-06:00

SONNIER is the surname of my great-great-grandmother, Marie Alice (Sonnier) BONEAUX. She was my paternal grandfather's maternal grandmother. She was featured last Sunday in my Census Sunday post. In her older years, she lived in a little one-room house behind my great-grandparents house on Nelson St. in Vinton, Louisiana. I always thought that house was really cool when I was a kid because I had never seen such a small house, and it had a bunch of old stuff in it.

Marie Alice SONNIER

b. 07 Sep 1891 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
m. Maurice BONEAUX 10 Sep 1908 at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
m. Hymel POTIER aft. 1934
d. 07 May 1970 in Vinton, Calcasieu, Louisiana

Joseph Numa "Babe" SONNIER

b. 03 Jun 1862
bap. at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
m. Marie Edmonia DOMINGUE 22 Jan 1883 at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
d. probably bef. 1906, probably in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana

He has been quite the mystery for my cousin Cheryl and I. The rumor in Cheryl's line of the family was that he had committed suicide (Cheryl's grandfather and Marie Alice SONNIER were siblings). We had both come across a reference to a 1906 courthouse marriage record for a woman named Mrs. Edmonia DOMINGUE and Laurent ARCENEAUX, but there was no way to tell for sure if it was our Edmonia. Several years later, as my grandmother was digging around in a desk inherited from Edmonia's granddaughter, she came across the actual marriage record buried in the desk, which confirmed for us that this was likely our Edmonia.

Simeon SONNIER

b. 18 Feb 1830
bap. 01 May 1830 at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
m. Rosalie Basilisse Armigela DOMINGUE 05 Aug 1861 at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
d. 15 Aug 1871
bur. St. John Cemetery in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana

Cyrille SONNIER

b. abt Sep 1794
bap. 10 May 1795 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
m. Susanne PARR 13 May 1822 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
d. 16 Apr 1859
bur. St. John Cemetery in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana

Joseph SONNIER/SAULNIER

b. 30 Apr 1755
bap. 16 Nov 1755 in Petitcoudiac, Acadia
m. Marie THIBODEAUX 10 Jan 1779 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
d. 09 Oct 1820 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
bur. 10 Oct 1820 at St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
Arrived in Louisiana in 1765 with his older sister, Madeleine. Read more about their journey here.

Etienne SONNIER/SAULNIER

b. abt 1702, probably in Minas, Acadia
m. Jeanne COMEAU abt 1729, prob. at Minas, Acadia
m. Anne Marie DAROIS 04 Jun 1740 in Beaubassin, Acadia (my line)
d. Unknown

Louis SONNIER/SAULNIER

b. abt 1663 in France
m. Louise BASTINEAU c. 1684 in Grand Pre, Acadia
d. abt 1730, probably at Minas, Acadia

Census Sunday: BONO/BONEAUX in 1920

2011-12-18T15:06:00.000-06:00

This week I am featuring my great-great-grandparents, Maurice and Marie Alice (Sonnier) BONEAUX in the 1920 census for the Census Sunday post series. They were living in Police Jury Ward 1 of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, which I believe includes the present-day unincorporated area of Ossun. They were also living there in 1930. My family still owns this land. My great-grandmother, Beatrice, their only child, was age 9 at the time (though she is listed here as 10 years old). Their native tongue was French, and Marie could not read or write nor speak English. They had a 15-year-old servant named Joe Green living with them. Maurice was a farmer, so I am assuming Joe probably helped Maurice out on the farm. Joe's race is hard to determine. It looks like he was black, but someone tried to write either white or mulatto as well. I may have found Joe in the 1930 census living in Baton Rouge, and his race is listed as mulatto.

1920 U.S. census, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Police Jury Ward 1, enumeration district (ED) 27, sheet 9B, dwelling 123, family 126, Maurice Bono household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 December 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 615.

Maurice Bono Head M W 37 M LA LA LA Farmer

Marie Bono Wife F W 27 M LA LA LA

Beadrise Bono Daughter F W 10 S LA LA LA

Joe Green Servant M B(?) 15 S LA LA LA Servant for private family

Someone Has Pissed in My Cheerios

2011-12-15T22:31:00.000-06:00

Why have we become a nation so obsessed with privacy, while so many of us post personal information on social media websites? I must admit that the recent and proposed changes to accessing the SSDI, as well as access to social security applications (Form SS-5) make me feel as if someone has pissed in my Cheerios, and I feel compelled to write about it here. It has me depressed and pissed off because I feel like my last resort is being taken away. When I can't get the info I need because some state has restricted access to PUBLIC vital records, I almost always use the social security death index to obtain at least some of the info I could have obtained from the PUBLIC vital record. All of these restrictions, both with the SSDI and with state records, have been enacted in the name of "privacy" and "prevention of identity theft."

In July 2011, the SSA began restricting access to the parents' names listed on an SS-5 form if the number holder's date of birth is less than 100 years ago. You can still order an SS-5 form for a deceased person, but you will NOT be able to see the parents' names of the number holder, unless you have proof of death for the deceased person's parents if the deceased person was born less than 100 years ago. This often defeats the purpose of ordering the SS-5 for a genealogist who is trying to determine the parents' names based upon the SS-5 form. If you don't know the parents' names, how are you supposed to provide their proof of death?

The reason for redacting the parents' names, according to the SSA's website, is to protect an individual's privacy. First, since when is a deceased person's parents' names considered private? The only time parents' names should be considered private is in sensitive situations, such as closed adoption cases (though I'm sure some even disagree with this). We don't consider the names of our parents private when we publish obituaries, wedding announcements, and birth announcements in newspapers. How come they are considered private on an SS-5 form?

Second, exactly whose privacy are we trying to protect? Even if this information was considered private, for a person who was born 80 years ago, their parents would be approximately 100 years old today. What are the chances that the parents are still alive? For a person born 99 years ago, their parents would be around 120 years old at the youngest. The Federal Privacy Act declares that deceased people do not have rights to privacy. Occasionally, a court case will consider the privacy rights of family members of the deceased, but this is usually reserved for extreme cases, such as when a media outlet wants to publish gruesome pictures of a person's death. I don't think the parents' names exactly qualifies as a family member's right to privacy. I mean, even if the parents' names would be considered private, I think 75 years is much more reasonable than 100 years.

Now, not only have there been restrictions on parents' names, but effective 11/1/2011, the SSA will no longer report death info obtained from protected state death records. The good news is that most death information is provided by funeral homes, family members, etc. and not state death records. Still, approximately 4.2 million entries will be removed from the SSA's Death Master File (DMF), though it's not apparent whether or not Ancestry.com has any plans to remove names from their SSDI database.

Furthermore, there is a "Keeping IDs Safe Act" in Congress right now prohibiting the sale of the DMF by the SSA. The SSA sells the DMF to companies like Ancestry.com, which it uses to publish its Social Security Death Index database. The reasoning behind this is that supposedly thieves recently obtained social security numbers from children listed in the SSDI and used them as fake dependents on their federal tax returns. Quite frankly, I really don't think this bill is going to get very far, especially considering it would most likely violate the FOIA and there have always been cases of people using deceased persons' IDs fraudulently on tax returns. This is not a new problem, but for some reason, the media has taken an interest.

What baffles me about all of this is that Ancestry.com has decided to respond by removing the SSDI from their free site, and even restricting the paid site by removing SSN's from people in the SSDI who have died in the last 10 years. I have one question: Why ten years? Why not five years or twenty years? What is the difference? Do thieves say, "Well, I am not going to take this number because this person died twenty years ago, but this one only died five years ago. I'll take that one." I don't even think people paying for the service would be thieves anyway. That would be too easy to trace.

When is all this madness going to end? Why do we think every single piece of information is private? Let's just ban all media and free speech right now. The media gives out way too much private information. When are newspapers going to quit publishing obituaries because they give out too much private information? That's where I am afraid that we are heading. We are so concerned about privacy and scared to death that everyone is out to get us that none of us know our next-door neighbors anymore. However, at the same time, people are posting drunken pictures of themselves on social media sites. They are listing their dates and places of birth, job locations, and current residences on social media sites. I cannot tell you how many times I have used Facebook to double check a living family member's birth date or birth place. It is much easier to access someone's Facebook account than it is to order a vital record or an SS-5 application.

Also, the fact that the social security numbers of deceased persons are made public should actually help slow down identity theft. If they are made public, then anyone can have access to determine if an applicant for a loan or job or a taxpayer is using the number of a dead person. Perhaps the banking industry or the human resources groups can help us with this fight. It makes sense that if information (any information, not just SSDI info) is made public, then it makes it harder for individuals to use it for fraudulent purposes. Transparency is one of the main purposes of the FOIA. The only reason for the IRS not catching the numbers used fraudulently on tax returns besides pure laziness and strapped resources would be that one can use a deceased dependent's number on his/her tax return in the year of death. It can typically only be used in the year of death, however, so perhaps restricting the publishing of deaths in the SSDI online to one year would be reasonable.

Overall, there are always going to be people who cheat the system, no matter how many curveballs you try to put in their way. I promise that the IRS had problems with people using bogus dependents long before the Internet came along. Banishing the publication of the SSDI online because of a few cases of identity theft and leaving millions of American people without a way to trace their family heritage and learn about where they come from is unreasonable. And the parents' names of a deceased person being redacted in the name of "privacy" is just plain ridiculous.

Tombstone Tuesday: Arnold Frederick and Alvina Florence (Pemberton) Beedon DISTELRATH

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

Photograph by Edward Goscicki (FindAGrave)

DISTELRATH

ALVINA F.

1919-1997

ARNOLD F.

1915-1983

My great-great-aunt and uncle

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Cemetery

Lewiston, Montmorency, Michigan

Alvina was the younger sister of my great-grandfather, John Vital PEMBERTON. She was the tenth child and youngest child who survived to adulthood of Lovell Hugh PEMBERTON and Alvina Mary LESPERANCE. She was born 19 Apr 1919 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan, and died 12 Nov 1997 in Fort Gratiot, St. Clair, Michigan. She married her first husband, Daniel Robert "Bob" BEEDON, 11 May 1938 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan. They divorced in 1951. Interestingly, after divorcing Alvina, Bob married Alvina's widowed sister-in-law, Mabel (Crysler) PEMBERTON, who was my great-grandmother. From what I understand, this caused further tension between my great-grandmother and her Pemberton in-laws. There was already tension because my great-grandmother was not Catholic. Alvina then married Arnold Frederick DISTELRATH on 21 Jan 1956 in Angola, Steuben, Indiana. I presume they married in Indiana because there was no waiting requirement as there was in Michigan. Arnold was born 3 Dec 1915 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan, to Frederick DISTELRATH and Anna VOSSEN. He died 4 May 1983 in Petoskey, Emmet, Michigan. In their later years, it appears that Arnold and Alvina retired to Northern Michigan.

Census Sunday: PREJEAN in 1920

2011-12-11T21:29:00.001-06:00

Before I got married and moved across the country, I had started posting census records of my direct line ancestors each Sunday. I began with the 1930 census and posted about my great-great-great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and great-grandparents. I promised to post about the 1920 census after the wedding, and I am finally getting around to it. I've decided to only post on one family in each post because it was getting to be a bit much to put together one post with several families.

I am starting with my great-great-grandparents, but I'm skipping my great-great-grandfather, Oscar TRAHAN, because I haven't yet found him in 1920. I've found his wife, my great-great-grandmother, Virginia PREJEAN, in 1920, living with her parents in Police Jury Ward 2 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. At some point, Oscar and Virginia divorced, but I haven't set out to find their divorce record yet. Virginia was listed as married in this census. I don't see my great-grandfather, Bienvenue, living with Virginia in 1920. He would have been 11 years old. I wonder if he was with Oscar, his paternal grandparents (whom I can't seem to find either), or if the census enumerator simply forgot him.

1920 U.S. census, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Police Jury Ward 2, enumeration district (ED) 92, sheet 6A, dwelling 94, family 94, Luseus Prejean household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30

October 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 630.

Luseus Prejean Head M W 55 M LA LA LA Farmer

Alicie Prejean Wife F W 57 M LA LA LA

Virgina Prejean Daughter F W 32 M LA LA LA

Ferdinon Prejean Son M W 17 S LA LA LA Farm Labor

Rene Prejean Son M W 15 S LA LA LA Farm Labor

Cleaning Up My Database: Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) PEMBERTON

2011-12-09T14:36:00.001-06:00

Since I am going family by family cleaning up source citations in my database, I figured I would share some of the sources that I have for the current family I am working. I am working on cleaning up the source citations for the family of my great-great-grandparents, Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) Pemberton.

Lovell Hugh Pemberton was born 14 Jan 1878 in Almont, Lapeer, Michigan, to John C. Pemberton and Mary Ann Coombs. The funny thing about Lovell is that his birth certificate says he was born 14 Jan 1878, but his father's Civil War pension file and his own WWI draft registration card, death record, and obituary all give his birthday as either 17 Apr 1878 or 17 Apr 1879. I have yet to figure the mystery out. Lovell died 23 Mar 1952 in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan, and is buried in St. Denis Catholic Cemetery in Lexington.

Alvina Mary Lesperance was born 27 Nov 1881 in Anchorville, St. Clair, Michigan, to Charles Lesperance and Christine Goslin. She died 16 Jun 1961 in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan, and is buried with Lovell.

Lovell and Alvina married 10 Nov 1902 in Anchorville, St. Clair, Michigan, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. They had 13 children, only 6 of whom survived to adulthood.

When I clean up source citations on a family, I usually start with the children first. With Lovell and Alvina, I started with their seven children who died in childhood first, since they had the least amount of sources. Now I am working on the other children. Below are the sources I have for their children:

Gilbert Lowell PEMBERTON

b. 8 May 1903 in Ontario or Michigan
d. 21 Jun 1913 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
Sources:

1910 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 208 Gratiot Ave. in Mt. Clemens, Macomb, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1913 state death certificate from "Deaths, 1897-1920" at SeekingMichigan.org
1913 death announcement in Mount Clemens Monitor obtained from a lookup volunteer at Mt. Clemens Public Library

Nellie Mary PEMBERTON

b. 25 Oct 1905 in Chesterfield, Macomb, Michigan
m. 9 Jun 1925 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan to Darcy Merle VAN BUSKIRK
d. 18 Jan 1967 in Torrance, Los Angeles, California
Sources:

1910 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 208 Gratiot Ave. in Mt. Clemens, Macomb, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1925 marriage register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007
1930 census with her husband and young daughter at Hathway Street in East China Township, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
Port Huron City Directory obtained from St. Clair County Public Library digital collection

1930: 1016-14th St.
1936-37, 1938-39: 1814-17th St.

1950 mentioned in her brother John's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 mentioned in her father's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1961 mentioned in her mother's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St Clair, Michigan
1961 mentioned in her sister Madeline's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1967 death certificate obtained by mail from Los Angeles County Recorder's office
1967 obituary from Port Huron Times-Herald obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007
Letter from Los Angeles Archdiocese giving exact burial location in All Souls Cemetery in Long Beach. Asked a volunteer from FindAGrave to take a pic, but there was no headstone.

John Vital PEMBERTON (my great-grandfather)
b. 19 Feb 1908 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
m. 7 Aug 1927 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan to Mabel Ellen CRYSLER
d. 22 Nov 1950 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, Michigan

Sources:

1908 birth certificate obtained by mail from Michigan Department of Community Health
1908 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1910 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 208 Gratiot Ave. in Mt. Clemens, Macomb, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1925 witnessed marriage of sister Nellie and her husband, Darcy
1927 marriage certificate obtained by mail from Sanilac County Clerk (he married in St. Clair County but obtained the license in neighboring Sanilac County)
1930 census with his wife and two young children at 1650 McPherson St. in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
Port Huron City Directory obtained from St. Clair County Public Library digital collection

1930: 1650 McPherson St.
1933-34: 622-11th St.
1936-37, 1938-39: 729-12th St.

1950 death certificate obtained by mail from Michigan Department of Community Health
1950 obituary from Port Huron Times-Herald obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007
Photograph of gravestone at Elk Township Cemetery in Peck, Sanilac, Michigan, taken summer 2007

Charlotte Agnus PEMBERTON
b. 2 May 1910 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
d. 25 Sep 1910 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
Sources:

1910 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1910 state death certificate from "Deaths, 1897-1920" at SeekingMichigan.org

Madeline Marion PEMBERTON

b. 18 Oct 1911 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
m. 21 Oct 1933 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan to Leo Clayton CARNAHAN
d. 18 Nov 1961 in Torrance, Los Angeles, California
Sources:

1911 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1925 witnessed marriage of sister Nellie and her husband, Darcy Merle VAN BUSKIRK
1930 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at Ditty Road in Kimball Township, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1930 Port Huron City Directory: 17 Rural St. (lived with her parents)
1933 marriage register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007 (she married in Sanilac County but obtained a license in neighboring St. Clair County)
Port Huron City Directory obtained from St. Clair County Public Library digital collection

1936-37: 1131 Pearl St.
1938-39: 1103 Miller St.

1950 mentioned in her brother John's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 mentioned in her father's obituary as residing in Lakeport, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 newspaper article about the family home catching fire and burning to the ground in Lakeport, St. Clair, Michigan (two children died)
1961 mentioned in her mother's obituary as residing in Torrance, Los Angeles, California
1961 death certificate obtained by mail from Los Angeles County Recorder's office
1961 obituary from Port Huron Times-Herald obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007

Myrtie Elva PEMBERTON

b. 23 May 1914 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
d. 15 Sep 1914 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
Sources:

1914 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1914 state death certificate from "Deaths, 1897-1920" at SeekingMichigan.org

Lovell Henry PEMBERTON

b. 4 Jul 1915 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
m. 10 Nov 1934 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan to Vera Delores BARNES
d. 22 Aug 1972 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1915 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1930 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at Ditty Road in Kimball Township, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1934 marriage register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007 (he married in Sanilac County but obtained a license in neighboring St. Clair County)
1936-37 Port Huron City Directory: 1814 1/2-17th St. (next door to sister Nellie)
1950 mentioned in brother John's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 mentioned in father's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1961 mentioned in mother and sister Madeline's obituaries as living in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1972 death register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007
1972 obituary from The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007
Photograph of gravestone taken by a FindAGrave volunteer at St. Denis Catholic Cemetery in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan

Eva Edna PEMBERTON

b. 17 Jul 1916 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan
m. 26 Oct 1938 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan to Truman Elnathan ROWLEY
d. 24 Jun 2001 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1916 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1930 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at Ditty Road in Kimball Township, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1933 witnessed marriage of sister Madeline and her husband, Leo Clayton CARNAHAN
1934 witnessed marriage of brother Lovell and his wife, Vera Delores BARNES
1938 witnessed marriage of sister Alvina and her husband, Daniel Robert BEEDON
1938 marriage certificate obtained by mail from Sanilac County Clerk
1950 mentioned in brother John's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 mentioned her father's obituary as residing in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan
1961 mentioned in mother and sister Madeline's obituaries as residing in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan
1967 mentioned in sister Nellie's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1972 mentioned in brother Lovell's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1997 mentioned in sister Alvina's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
2001 death certificate obtained by mail from St. Clair County Clerk
2001 obituary from The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007
Photograph of gravestone taken by FindAGrave volunteer at St. Denis Catholic Cemetery in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan

Orville Joseph PEMBERTON

b. 17 Apr 1918 in New Baltimore, Macomb, Michigan
d. 23 Mar 1919 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan

1918 birth register entry from Macomb County Clerk FHL microfilm #979569
1919 death register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007
1919 state death certificate from "Deaths, 1897-1920" at SeekingMichigan.org

Alvina Florence PEMBERTON

b. 19 Apr 1919 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan
m. 11 May 1938 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan to Daniel Robert BEEDON
m. 21 Jan 1956 in Angola, Steuben, Indiana to Arnold Frederick DISTELRATH
d. 12 Nov 1997 in Fort Gratiot, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1920 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1930 census in household of Lovell and Alvina at Ditty Road in Kimball Township, St. Clair, Michigan (Ancestry.com)
1938 marriage certificate obtained by mail from Sanilac County Clerk
1950 mentioned in brother John's obituary as residing in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
1952 mentioned her father's obituary as residing in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan
1956 marriage certificate obtained by mail from Steuben County Clerk
1961 mentioned in mother and sister Madeline's obituaries as residing in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
1967 mentioned in sister Nellie's obituary as residing in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
1972 mentioned in brother Lovell's obituary as residing in Atlanta, Montmorency, Michigan
1997 death certificate obtained by mail from St. Clair County Clerk
1997 obituary from The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007
Photograph of gravestone taken by FindAGrave volunteer at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Cemetery in Lewiston, Montmorency, Michigan

James PEMBERTON (twin)

b. 22 Mar 1921 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
d. 22 Mar 1921 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1921 death register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007

Joseph PEMBERTON (twin)

b. 22 Mar 1921 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
d. 14 Aug 1923 in Marysville, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1923 death register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007

Adele Christine PEMBERTON

b. 22 Nov 1923 in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan
d. 28 Dec 1928 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan
Sources:

1928 death register entry transcribed at St. Clair County Courthouse in summer 2007
1928 obituary from The Port Huron Times-Herald obtained from St. Clair County Public Library in summer 2007

Yes, I Am Alive!

2011-12-06T21:31:00.001-06:00

Just in case anyone is still reading my blog, I am alive. It seems like I write these posts more and more in the last year and a half. I guess life gets in the way of genealogy and blogging, especially since I started studying for the CPA exam in September 2010.

The good news is that I *think* I am done studying. I took the last part of the exam on 11/21. I should hear something tomorrow about my score (or at least within the next week). I think I did okay. I don't feel 100% confident, but I think I did well enough to pass. For those of you that don't know, there are four parts of the exam: Financial Accounting & Reporting, Business Environment & Concepts (economics, cost accounting, finance), Audit and Attestation, and Regulation (tax and business law). They can be taken in any order and as many times as you need, but they must all be passed within a rolling 18-month window. The Regulation test was the last one I took and the hardest for me because I do not deal with taxes or business law on a regular basis at my job. I primarily work in financial accounting and audit, so those two parts were my easiest.

I have now moved back to Louisiana. I am so excited to be back with my husband and the rest of my family and friends. I really did like North Carolina, but it's not about where you are. It's about who you're with. I am working for the same company but on a contract basis. Instead of working in the accounting department, I am working in the operations area of the company on a contract that monitors federal funds received by the state of Louisiana through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I like the people I am working with, I work less than half the hours I used to work, and I make twice the pay, so life is grand.

In genealogy land, I am still cleaning up my RootsMagic database. I am primarily cleaning up the sources, but I am also fixing a few other things, such as how I enter events.

The sources were somewhat jumbled when I converted my Legacy 7.0 file to a RootsMagic 4.0 file two years ago (i.e. author's name in wrong position in source citation). They came over in free form, and I am transferring them to the RootsMagic source template forms based on Elizabeth Shown Mills' style.

Also, some of the dates that contained ranges in Legacy 7.0 (i.e. born bet 15 Apr 1886 and 15 Apr 1887) did not transfer properly. The second part of the date range was cut off, so those have to be fixed as well.

Overall, I feel that my research skills and experience have increased greatly over the last 3 to 4 years, so that adds to why I have a lot of clean up to do. I have a lot of events sourced with undocumented WorldConnect trees, and I want to remove those sources and put their information in the notes instead until I can verify the data.

As I do cleanup, I am also adding a few events and people on collateral lines that can be easily found online in Ancestry, FindAGrave, and FamilySearch databases. Sometimes I feel like I should be focusing more on the cleanup, but it does get a little boring doing the cleanup at times.

I started the cleanup with my own parents and then moved through the generations (primarily in order of Ahnentafel), including collateral lines in each generation. Currently, I am on my great-great-grandparents, Lovell Hugh PEMBERTON and Alvina Mary LESPERANCE. I am going through their children first, beginning with the children that died in childhood since they have the least amount of sources. Then I will go through their children that married and their collateral lines (and then their children's collateral lines). Sometimes as I am doing this, I realize I have way too much info on a collateral line. Then again, is it possible to have too much info on a collateral line? I typically struggle with how much info to research on a collateral line. Most of my collateral line research is stuff I've found online and stuff that was within easy reach at the courthouse while I was researching my direct lines.

I have not yet made it to the library or archives here in Baton Rouge since I've been back. I was busy studying the first month I was home, and then I've been busy with unpacking and holidays the last two weeks. I hope to get to the library before Christmas.

I start my first course in the National Institute for Genealogical Studies American Records Certificate program tomorrow. That was my gift to myself for passing the CPA exam (I know that some of you may be thinking I am crazy to reward myself with more studying...LOL...but this should be fun studying). It is the intro to genealogy course. It should be interesting since I've been doing genealogy for several years now, but I browsed through the first module (there are six total) today and noticed that they do have tailored suggestions on the assignments for people who have been doing it for years. For instance, one of the assignments was to start your pedigree chart using only resources in your home and your family members' homes until you get stuck. Well, I did that about 15 years ago. I believe the suggestion for experienced genealogists was to document where you got stuck after using resources in your family's home when you initially started doing genealogy years ago. Luckily, I still have my first pedigree chart (I can't seem to part with it), copies of both of my grandparents' and my parents' records that I found in their homes that are sourced in my database, and I've got a pretty good memory, so it shouldn't be too hard of an assignment.

Anyhow, my new goal is to blog at least once a week for the next 2 months. Then maybe I will be able to get back in the habit. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Clifford Robert DROUILLARD: Petition for Naturalization

2011-10-02T13:00:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, I posted about a story I was piecing together on my second maternal grandfather, Clifford Robert DROUILLARD. I had found an entry in Ancestry.com's naturalization index, which showed that he filed a petition for citizenship with the Eastern District of Michigan U.S. district court in 1965. I had also found some references to his case in documents on the USCIS website defining good moral character. My suspicion was that he had trouble becoming naturalized because of a false identity he provided upon his entry in the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1950s, a story that he told me about in December 2008, about nine months before he died. He did not say that was why he was never naturalized, but he did tell me that he was a only a legal resident and not a citizen of the U.S.

I followed Ancestry.com's directions about where to find the actual naturalization records to which the index card was referring. I ordered his file from the National Archives-Great Lakes Region in Chicago through their online ordering system for $7.50. I received it very quickly, but I was disappointed to find that it only contained his petition for naturalization. In any event, I was excited to at least have the petition because it did provide info that I did not have, such as his military service dates and his date of entry into the U.S. (though I believe it was his second date of entry after he was sent back to Canada for falsifying his military records).

I will not post the actual petition because it contains information on his second wife, who is still living (I should probably ask my aunts how to get in contact with her). I will, however, share the pertinent information contained in the document.

Filed under Section 329 at the district court of the U.S. in Detroit, Michigan
Full name is Clifford Robert Drouillard
Resided at 3191 Wadhams Rd. in North Street, St. Clair, Michigan
Worked as a mechanic
Born on 10 Jan 1932 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Medium complexion
Brown eyes
Brown hair
5'8" tall
170 pounds
Scar on center forehead
Citizen of Canda
Married to B. on 14 Nov 1964 in Port Huron, Michigan
B. was born in 1936 in Pembroke, Ontario
B. entered the United States with him in May 1961 at Port Huron, Michigan
B. had not been naturalized
Served in the U.S. Marine Corps under service no. 1348427 from 25 Oct 1952 to 2 Mar 1954
Entered military service at Detroit, Michigan
Honorably discharged on 2 Mar 1954 (I had my suspicions about that one)
Had resided continuously in the U.S. since 15 May 1961
Had 4 living children
Witnesses were Leo F. Drouillard, railroad switchman, of 3188 Wadhams Rd. in North Street and Eva G. Caughill, housewife, of 3596 Pollina Ave. in Port Huron. (his brother and sister)
Alien no. was A8 857 380.
Filed on 26 May 1965 at Detroit, Michigan
Denied by Judge Kaess on 11 Jul 1967 due to failure to establish proper documentation

The parts of the petition asking for his date of lawful entrance were crossed out and left blank. I have a feeling that he entered the U.S. illegally, since he told me that he had been deported to Canada after falsifying his military records. He also crossed out and left blank the parts about being physically present in the U.S. for the six month period preceding the date of filing the petition. I imagine he had gone back to Canada to visit relatives numerous times during that six-month period (three of his sisters remained in Canada). He did swear to residing in the U.S. for the six-month period, however.

I was disappointed that there was no documentation proving why they chose to deny his petition. I decided to check out the good moral character references on the USCIS website one more time to see what I could find. I had only skimmed them before. I sure am glad that I decided to look at them in more detail.

What I found was that Section 329 allows an alien who has served in the U.S. military to petition for naturalization in a more expedient manner than the normal course. This is the section under which my grandfather filed his petition. The document in which his case was referenced was an interpretation of Section 329.1 Naturalization based upon honorable service in the armed forces during wartime. He is mentioned in Footnote 33, which is attached to this part of the interpretation:

In determining whether the petitioner has met the burden of establishing good moral character, the inquiry into these matters shall extend to the petitioner's entire lifetime. Should the inquiry disclose relevant adverse conduct or activity which occurred during a reasonable period of time immediately preceding the date of the petition, and/or during the period between the date of the petition and final hearing, and the adverse information is of sufficient weight and probative value to warrant the finding, it shall be concluded that the petitioner has not sustained the burden of proof, and he shall be deemed ineligible for naturalization.

He is also mentioned in Footnote 35, which is attached to this part of the interpretation:

(7) "Separated under honorable conditions" requirement . (i) Undesirable discharge . A petitioner who was issued an undesirable discharge from the Marine Corps in 1954 because he falsified his name, age, place of birth, citizenship, arrest record, and previous military service was held not to have met this requirement, since under section 13254 of the Marine Corps Personnel Manual an undesirable discharge is defined as a separation under conditions other that honorable, issued for unfitness, misconduct, or for security reasons.

They are obviously talking about my grandfather because this matches up with the story he told me and the dates of military service he gave in his petition. Also, the alien number in the footnote matches the alien number on his petition, so I know for certain they are talking about him and not a person with the same name. Apparently, he received an undesirable discharge, which is somewhere between honorable and dishonorable. Because the interpretation is referencing all of this, I know there must be more info than just the petition.

After much research, I found on the Blood and Frogs blog that the USCIS usually has more information than what is on file at the National Archives for naturalization occurring after 1906. I've decided to go ahead and request his A-file (alien file) from the USCIS under the Freedom of Information Act. I have to submit proof of death, but that shouldn't be a problem because they will accept obituaries and SSDI printouts as proof. I also have a proof of death certificate from the funeral home. I thought I read that the agency had to respond within 20 days to an FOIA request, but I also saw on the ProGenealogists blog that it can take 18-20 months, so I may have to be patient. They have a genealogy record search program, but because his records are more recent than the files covered by that program, I cannot request them through that program.

In the meantime, I may also try requesting the records from the U.S. District Court in Detroit. They have what seems like a simple online ordering system, and they also have an online records search system, though I don't know if records from 1965-1967 are available online. I have my doubts about that. Registration for the online system is free, but you have to pay for search results. I'm just not exactly sure what to request from the U.S. District Court. I have the petition number, his alien number, and the dates, so maybe that will be enough for them to retrieve the rest of the file.

I also need to order the military records, especially since I now have the dates and service number. I did find an unusual social security card in my grandmother's photo albums that I inherited when she died in 2008. It was a social security card for a man that I didn't recognize. I don't know anyone in the family by this name, so I have no idea why we would have a social security card for him. I am beginning to wonder if this was my grandfather's friend that he was covering for in the military. I did a little searching, and found that there is someone around my grandfather's age with that name who appears to still be alive and living in Fort Gratiot, St. Clair, Michigan. However, it was a common name, so I'm not sure if this living person has any relevance or not.

So, stay tuned! It may be several months before I get any additional information, but I will keep you posted.

Update: Moving Back to Louisiana and A Little Story About My Pippi

2011-09-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

I just realized that I haven't posted anything in a whole month! A lot has happened since then. As the title of this post says, I am moving back to Louisiana in October! I have really enjoyed my stay in North Carolina, but I miss my husband and we've decided it is best for me to move back there rather than he move here, as originally planned. It is time for me to move on in my career and it will be really nice to be closer to family and friends again. Now that my sister and brother-in-law live in Arkansas rather than California, it will be nice to be closer to them too.

I am still studying for the CPA exam. I was supposed to take the audit part of the exam on 8/29, but Hurricane Irene had other plans for me. She shut down my testing center in eastern North Carolina and I had to reschedule for October since they they don't offer it in September and the other two days left in August were already booked up. Hopefully, I will be finished by the end of November.

In genealogy land, I have been working on the ever continuous cleanup of my sources in my RootsMagic database. I feel like I will never be done. I should probably start a goal sheet for the cleanup so that I can see the finish line, especially since I may be unemployed soon if I don't find a job in Baton Rouge right away. I have gotten the sources cleaned up for the families of my parents, sister and bro-in-law, both sets of grandparents, and all of my aunts, uncles, and first cousins. Right now I am looking at the sources for the parents and siblings of my second maternal grandfather (not my mom's biological father, but he is the only maternal grandfather I ever knew...he raised my mom and her siblings after their father died in 1970, and they all consider him their dad too...as mentioned in previous posts, I prefer not to call him step).

And speaking of my second maternal grandfather, Clifford Robert Drouillard (1932-2009), I have been piecing together an interesting story. My grandfather was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario. At some point in his teen years (c. 1945), I believe he moved to Port Huron, Michigan, with his parents and siblings (not certain about the exact date). After my grandmother died in 2008, he told me a story about his time in the U.S. Marine Corps. He said that a friend of his from Bay City, Michigan, was supposed to go into the Marines, but due to personal reasons did not feel that he could make the commitment after he had already sworn in to go. My grandfather offered to "take his place" in the Marine Corps, so my grandfather pretended to be his friend from Bay City. I'm not quite sure how long the ruse lasted, but eventually, he and his friend were caught by military officials. I knew at the time he told me the story that he had divorced a lady named Ann in the 1950s in Florida (thanks to Ancestry.com), but I had no idea who she was or why he had been in Florida. According to him, he married Ann, who was in the real estate business, because someone told him that if he married her, he could stay in the U.S. Apparently, he was going to be sent back to Canada for his wrongdoing. He soon found out that wasn't the case and he was deported back to Canada anyway. He and Ann divorced in Hillsborough County, Florida, in 1956.

Fast forward to 1964, and my grandfather and his second wife, B (still living so I will keep her name private), married in Port Huron, Michigan, and both gave residences as Michigan and birthplaces as Ontario on the marriage record. They had just had their fourth child one month before their marriage. The first three children were born in Ontario, but the last one was born in Michigan.

In 1965, my grandfather petitioned the Eastern District federal court in Detroit for U.S. citizenship. I found the entry in Ancestry.com's naturalization index database. While I was searching, I decided to google his full name and the word "immigration" to see what I could find. I found that the USCIS seems to be citing my grandfather's case to further define "good moral character." Knowing the story about the military, I am now wondering if he had trouble getting his citizenship because of his past wrongdoings. Perhaps this is what the USCIS is alluding to in their footnotes.

I do know that he never received citizenship status. He was a permanent resident when he died in 2009. He was afraid to go back to Canada for a few years after September 11 when they started tightening the borders, and I'm wondering if it had something to do with his past. I am beginning to wonder if the only reason he received permanent residency was because he had a child who was only one year old in 1965 and who was an American citizen by birth. I did a little research on permanent residence status and learned that people with an American spouse and/or an American child under 21 years old are typically granted the status without too much fuss.

In any event, I ordered the naturalization file from the National Archives branch in Chicago, and I will keep my readers posted. I hope that I am not disappointed and that it takes me one step closer to learning more about my grandfather. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that your parents and grandparents were people too before they were your parents and grandparents. I never thought to ask him questions about these things because he was just my "Pippi." He may not have been perfect, but a man who raised eight children that weren't his own as if they were his own has "good moral character" in my opinion.

Surname Saturday: SEPULVADO

2011-08-20T17:37:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been about a month since the wedding, and I figured it's only proper for me to interrupt my usual Surname Saturday routine to do a post about my new married surname. I'll start with my husbands's (I love saying that word) paternal grandfather and work backwards.

Hosea SEPULVADO
Born 26 Nov 1915 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana.
Married Lorena LEONE 28 Oct 1935, probably in Sabine Parish
Died 22 May 1994 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana.

Leo SEPULVADO
Born 30 Oct 1890 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana
Married Marguerite BEBEE abt 1911, probably in Sabine Parish
Died 15 Jan 1982 in Many, Sabine, Louisiana

Jose SEPULVADO
Born 10 Jun 1852 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana
Married Louisa LAROUX abt 1873 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana
Died 23 Jul 1930 in Zwolle, Sabine, Louisiana

Jose Biniano SEPULVADO
Born abt 1832 in Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Texas
Married Georgonia ESTRADA 17 Mar 1851 in Sabine Parish, Louisiana
Died 13 Oct 1903 in Sabine Parish, Louisiana

Jose Antonio SEPULVADO
Born abt 1781 in Mexico
Married Maria Guadelupe CHAVANA in 1817 in Natchitoches, Natchitoches, Louisiana
Died 16 Aug 1853 in Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches, Texas

I'm not 100% certain about the exact birthplace of Jose Antonio within Mexico. Unsourced online trees say San Carlos. I need to examine his marriage record in Natchitoches Parish to see if it mentions a birthplace. Most civil records from that timeframe don't give much information other than names and residences of the bride and groom, but sometimes Catholic church marriage records will give the person's home parish. Since they were Spanish, I assume they probably married in a Catholic church in Natchitoches. Even if he was born in San Carlos, so far I have found three locations in Mexico with that name. The most likely possibility, because of it's close proximity to Texas, is a town outside Monterrey in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. The other two possibilities are a town in the state of Aguascalientes in central Mexico and a seaside resort community in the northwestern state of Sonora.

Happy Birthday, Hope!

2011-08-06T17:39:00.000-05:00

First Birthday, 1987

Wordless Wednesday: Justin and Violet

2011-08-03T20:57:00.000-05:00

Violet and her Uncle Justin (my little bro)

Honeymoon Photos

2011-07-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

Our cabin in Fancy Gap, Virginia

View of the NC Piedmont from the deck

Close-up view of the Piedmont with Blue Ridge Mountains in background

Needless to say, we didn't want to leave the cabin. We called the owners to see if we could stay an extra day, but it was already booked.

Ok, this is me in front of the Carroll County Courthouse in Hillsville, Virginia. I couldn't resist a photo op in front of a courthouse. No, I didn't torture the hubby and make him go in there (only because I don't have any known ancestors there). But I did convince him that we need to go on our first married vacation next summer to Southern California so that I can attend the 2012 SCGS Jamboree!

We Are Married!!!

2011-07-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

Pics from Trahan/Sepulvado Wedding

23 Jul 2011

Raleigh, Wake, North Carolina

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Kravchuk

Bride & Groom

Rehearsal Dinner

22 Jul 2011

The Pit, Raleigh, NC

Photo courtesy of Susanna Miller

Me with my niece, Violet

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Kravchuk

Wedding Cake

Photo courtesy of Lindsay Kravchuk

Groom's Table

Photo courtesy of Susanna Miller

Bride & Groom walking into reception hall

Census Sunday: My Great-Great-Great Grandparents in 1930

2011-07-17T16:55:00.005-05:00

This week I will discuss my 3rd great-grandparents who were alive in 1930. Most of them had passed away by this time, but I did have six of them living in 1930. This is my last generation that had any members alive in 1930, so I will be moving on to the 1920 census next week. (Well, actually, it will probably be in two weeks since I am getting married next weekend)!

Anna (Wise) TRAHAN

1930 U.S. census, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Police Jury Ward 2, enumeration district (ED) 14, sheet 22B, dwelling 391, family 391, Pierre Richard household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 July 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 820.

Anna WISE was the mother of my great-great-grandfather, Oscar TRAHAN. She is one of the few Germans on my paternal grandfather's side of the family. She was born 04 Oct 1866 to Andrew WISE and Anna GREY and was baptized at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Church Point, Acadia, Louisiana. She married Theoville TRAHAN 05 Nov 1883 at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was Theoville's second wife, and they had twelve children. Anna was 14 years younger than Theoville and outlived him by quite some years. She died 01 Mar 1952 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana, at the age of 85.

I'm not 100% certain the Anna in this census record is my Anna, though. She is living in the household of a young couple named Pierre and Amy RICHARD and is listed as a cousin. Her age is given as 70 years old, which assumes a birth date of 1859-1860. This is off of her known birth date from church records by 6-7 years. However, it was not unusual for an elderly person's age, particularly an illiterate elderly person's age, to be off by a few years in census records. Her relationship to Pierre is listed as cousin, and I haven't had time to research a link between my Anna and Pierre Richard. Both of this Anna's parents are listed as being born in Louisiana, but my Anna's parents were supposedly born in Germany and Ireland. Once again, though, it wasn't unusual for an elderly's person's parents' birthplaces to be incorrect in census records.

Paul Lucius PREJEAN & Marie Alicia BERNARD

1930 U.S. census, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Police Jury Ward 6, enumeration district (ED) 19, sheet 18A, dwelling 335, family 338, Lecuise Prejean household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 July 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 798.

Lucius and Alicia were the parents of my great-great-grandmother, Virginia (Prejean) Trahan SCHENKEL. Paul Lucius PREJEAN was born 11 Feb 1866 to Ursin Theomile PREJEAN and Adenysa LEGER and baptized at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana. He married Marie Alicia BERNARD 22 Jan 1885 at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana. He died 10 Mar 1938 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana. Marie Alicia BERNARD was born 30 Dec 1863 to Honore BERNARD and Virginie LEBERT and baptized at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. She died 26 Mar 1949 in Lawtell, St. Landry, Louisiana.

In 1930, Lucius and Alicia (aka Alice) were living in Police Jury Ward 6 of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Present-day Ward 6 is 3.5 miles south of I-10 along Ambassador Caffery Parkway in Lafayette and just east of the town of Scott. Lucius was a retired grocer. Neither Lucius nor Alicia were listed as literate or able to speak English.

Susan Rilla (Woods) BAKER

1930 U.S. census, Las Animas County, Colorado, population schedule, Precinct 55, enumeration district (ED) 63, sheet 2B, dwelling 34, family 34, William C. Baker household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 July 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 245.

Rilla was the mother of my great-great-grandmother, Emmer Link (Baker) PROFFITT. She was born 06 Mar 1853 in Caldwell County, North Carolina, to John D. WOODS and Adaline Rilla JORDAN. She married James Gilbert BAKER 17 Dec 1874, possibly in North Carolina. She died 17 Nov 1938 in Wilmore, Comanche, Kansas.

In 1930, she was living with her oldest son (and Emmer's younger brother), William Clay BAKER, and his wife, Mary (Shrader) BAKER, in Las Animas County, Colorado. Las Animas County is in southwest Colorado on the border of New Mexico. Her age is given as 73, which is off by about 3-4 years from the birth date given in her obituary (06 Mar 1853).

Mary Ellen (Molesworth) CRYSLER

1930 U.S. census, Sanilac County, Michigan, population schedule, Fremont Township, enumeration district (ED) 17, sheets 5B-6A, dwelling 114, family 116, Mary Crysler household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1028.

Mary Ellen MOLESWORTH was the mother of my great-great-grandfather, Ernest CRYSLER. She was born 04 May 1858 in Dorchester, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada, to William Edward MOLESWORTH and Priscilla DEMARAY. She married George Calvin CRYSLER 30 Jun 1875 in Arkona, Lambton, Ontario, Canada. Mary died 26 May 1935 in Melvin, Sanilac, Michigan.

In 1930, she was living as a widow in Fremont Township, Sanilac, Michigan, with her son, Ernest, and two grandsons, George and Harold.

Cora Millicent (King) WEDGE

1930 U.S. census, Oakland County, Michigan, population schedule, village of Oxford, enumeration district (ED) 41, sheet 17A, dwelling 450, family 463, Joshua Wedge household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 July 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1017.

Cora was the mother of my great-great-grandmother, Nellie May REYNOLDS. Cora was born 05 Nov 1874 in St. Clair County, Michigan, to Suel Alfred KING and Ardelia STRATTON. She gave birth to Nellie illegitimately 21 Oct 1890 in Elk, Sanilac, Michigan, at the age of 15. Nellie's father was listed as Douglas REYNOLDS on the birth certificate. The only Douglas REYNOLDS I have found in the area was a man who died just two months before Nellie was born on 16 Aug 1890 from consumption. It doesn't appear that he and Cora ever married. Cora eventually married Joshua WEDGE 06 Oct 1897 in Lynn, Sanilac, Michigan. Cora was the last of my great-great-great grandparents to die on 27 Feb 1964 in Pontiac, Oakland, Michigan.

In 1930, Cora and Joshua were living at 27 Stanton Road in the village of Oxford in Oakland County, Michigan. Joshua was a railroad laborer. Their youngest daughter, Thelma, was age 20 and working as a saleslady for a variety store. They had two boarder, Earl Teal and George Bice, living with them. George was a laborer of some type (it's hard to read) and Earl was an inspector for an automobile factory.

SNGF: 16 Great-Grands and Heritage Pie

2011-07-17T00:45:00.009-05:00

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has come up with another great challenge for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

Your mission tonight, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places). [Hint - you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.]
2) Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death.
3) For extra credit, go make a “Heritage Pie” chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the chart generator from Kid Zone for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the "Heritage Pie" chart idea.]
4. Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook or google+.

16. Oscar TRAHAN: born 17 Oct 1889 in Rayne, Acadia, Louisiana; married 18 Jan 1908 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana; died 5 Aug 1962 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana.

17. Virginia PREJEAN: born 12 Jul 1889 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana; died 3 Mar 1977 in Crowley, Acadia, Louisiana.

18. Maurice BONEAUX: born 13 Aug 1883 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana; married 10 Sep 1908 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana; died 5 Sep 1934 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana.

19. Marie Alice SONNIER: born 7 Sep 1891 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana; died 7 May 1970 in Vinton, Calcasieu, Louisiana.

20. John Henry MERTENA: born 11 Mar 1884 in , Franklin, Illinois; married 25 Dec 1907 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma; died 28 Jan 1956 in Sulphur, Calcasieu, Louisiana.

21. Blanche WELDEN: born 31 Aug 1883 in Coffeysburg, Daviess, Missouri; died 5 Feb 1970 in Sulphur, Calcasieu, Louisiana.

22. William Harmon PROFFITT: born 12 Jul 1871 in , Jefferson, Tennessee; married 17 Dec 1896 in Chestnut Hill, Jefferson, Tennessee; died 3 Jul 1944 in Alva, Woods, Oklahoma.

23. Emmer Link BAKER: born 20 Sep 1875 in , , North Carolina; died 5 Jul 1949 in Waynoka, Woods, Oklahoma.

24. Lovell Hugh PEMBERTON: born 14 Jan 1878 in Almont, Lapeer, Michigan; married 10 Nov 1902 in Anchorville, St. Clair, Michigan; died 23 Mar 1952 in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan.

25. Alvina Mary LESPERANCE: born 27 Nov 1881 in Anchorville, St. Clair, Michigan; died 16 Jun 1961 in Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan.

26. Ernest George CRYSLER: born 21 Oct 1877 in Forest, Lambton, Ontario, Canada; married 18 Nov 1904 in Sandusky, Sanilac, Michigan; died 8 May 1942 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan.

27. Nellie May REYNOLDS: born 21 Oct 1890 in Elk, Sanilac, Michigan; died 9 May 1917 in Yale, St. Clair, Michigan.

28. Alexander CURRIE: born Nov 1837 in , Middlesex, Ontario, Canada; died 1909 in Sanilac Co, Michigan.

29. Mary RAYMOND: born Sep 1852 in , , Ontario, Canada; died 1920 in Sanilac Co., Michigan.

30. Robert PLAINE: born 20 Feb 1870 in Caradoc, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada; married abt 1891 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada; died 1936 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada.

31. Florence Minnie HILLMAN: born 23 Jul 1867 in Alvinston, Lambton, Ontario, Canada; died 9 Mar 1933 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada.

Here is my heritage pie with my great-great-grandpaents' birthplaces:

The pink section that represents 1/4 of the chart is my paternal grandfather's family - mostly tried and true Cajuns from Louisiana with a little French (non-Cajun), German, and Spanish mixed in.

The four sections that each represent 6.25% of the chart is my paternal grandmother's family. These were German, English, and Scottish immigrants that originally settled in Pennsylvania and Virginia and made their way further south and west over the years, eventually ending up in Oklahoma.

The other half of the chart is my maternal side of the family, representing Canada and Michigan. I didn't realize that over half of my great-great-grands on that side were born in Canada. Some of these were Scottish and English immigrants to Canada in the early to mid-1800s, and others were German and Dutch Loyalists from New York who fled to Canada around the time of the American Revolution. My Michigan folks were part French-Canadian and part English Loyalists from New York who also fled to Canada.

Aren't They Precious?

2011-07-14T17:53:00.001-05:00

Several months ago, I blogged about the births of my niece, Violet, and my cousin, Denni, as well as the upcoming births of cousins Brynnlee and Connor. Poor Brynnlee and Connor were born during my busy season, so I never did post any updates on their births (getting complaints from the readers). So, here are updated pics on all babies (now, you complainers better not get mad because Denni and Violet get two posts).

Photo courtesy of Cousin Hope
Denni ViAnn

b. 30 Aug 2010

Violet Cecile

b. 30 Sep 2010

Photo courtesy of Cousin Paige
Brynnlee Addison

b. 26 Jan 2011

Photo courtesy of Cousin Amber
Connor Andrew

b. 25 Feb 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday: My Grandma

2011-07-13T23:00:00.004-05:00

I recently bought a subscription to NewspaperARCHIVE.com, which I highly recommend. I noticed that it had issues of the Lake Charles American Press from the 1950s to 1970s. This is the major newspaper in the area of southwest Louisiana where I grew up. I searched for my grandparents' names, and I found some really cool articles on my grandmother. She told me that she had been the editor of the newspaper at McNeese State University (then called McNeese State College), but it was really cool to see it on paper in the context of the time period. And I always knew she worked for the Louisiana Office of Tourism at the local tourist bureau in the town where I grew up, but it was cool to see her appointment to the position published in the newspaper. In fact, that article is where I found the address of the house where my dad grew up. The house has since been torn down, so I didn't have the exact address. These articles make me very proud of my grandmother, and I would like to share them with my readers. Enjoy!

"Sulphur Girl Is Editor of College Paper," Lake Charles (Louisiana) American-Press, 26 August 1954, p. 23, col. 3.

Miss Merlene Mertena, a Sulphur sophomore majoring in journalism at McNeese State college, is the editor-in-chief of the Contraband, the college's weekly newspaper, for the 1954-55 school year.
Elected by the paper's staff at the close of school, she assumed her new responsibility with the summer issue published August 3.
During her freshman year she served as reporter and feature editor, and in the absence of last year's editor-in-chief, Miss Carolyn Pulliam, who attended the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Convention in New York City, Miss Mertena headed the Contraband.
At Sulphur high school, Miss Mertena was editor of the school paper, the Cyclone. Prior to entering Sulphur High where she was an honor student, she attended high school in Ponca City, Okla. There she was on the staff of the school paper for two years, a member of Latin club, Biology club, the Dynamighters and worked on the annual, the Cat Tale.
Activities at McNeese include participation in the speech tournament, and membership in the [unreadable]

"Vinton Women Added to Staff," Lake Charles (Louisiana) American-Press, 5 April 1966, p. 1, col. 1.

VINTON---The appointment of two new members to the staff of the Vinton Tourist Bureau was announced this week by John Tarver, director of the Louisiana Tourist Development Commission.
Named as tourist information representatives at the Vinton station were Mrs. Benford Trahan and La Dell Jeffers, both of Vinton.
The new addition increased the staff of the Vinton bureau to three. Already employed at the station is Mrs. Jack Kimball, who has been the only representative there for the past several years.
Mrs. Trahan will be employed by the bureau as a full-time representative, while Miss Jeffers will serve as a part-time hostess and also do publicity and promotional work for the Tourist Development Commission in Southwest Louisiana.
They will assist Mrs. Kimball in greeting visitors entering Louisiana from out of state and in distributing pamphlets and other information describing points of interest to the tourists.
Before assuming their positions at the station the three women attended a two-day training seminar for Tourist Commission employees.
A native of Oklahoma, Mrs. Trahan is the former Merlene Mertena of Maplewood. She attended McNeese and was active in many campus organizations, serving at one time as editor of the school paper. The Trahans live with their four sons at 1306 Fancher St.
Miss Jeffers, a Northwestern Louisiana State College graduate with a degree in journalism and English and a former school teacher lives at 1305 East St.

I am going to have to find another copy of the newspaper on microfilm when I go back to Louisiana to see if it has a better copy of the first article. I couldn't read the rest of the sentence about the rest of the organizations my grandmother was involved with. Stay tuned next week for another great newspaper article about my grandmother and grandfather in 2006.

Wordless Wednesday: Golda Emmer (Proffitt) Curtis

2011-07-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

Golda Emmer (Proffitt) Curtis
Sister of my great-grandmother, Hassie Cora (Proffitt) Mertena
1902-1977

Tombstone Tuesday: Truman Elnathan ROWLEY

2011-07-12T22:10:00.002-05:00

Photograph by Don & Wendy McCallum
FindaGrave volunteers

TRUMAN E. ROWLEY
US ARMY
WORLD WAR II
FEB 4 1912
JAN 26 1993

Husband of my great-great-aunt, Eva Edna (Pemberton) ROWLEY
Allied Veterans Memorial Cemetery
Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Census Sunday: My Great-Great-Grandparents in 1930

2011-07-03T09:32:00.001-05:00

Three weeks ago, I started a Census Sunday series, in which I featured the census records showing my great-grandparents in 1930. I skipped the next two weeks because my mom was visiting from Louisiana two weeks ago, and last week I was in Louisiana visiting. Now that I am back on track, this post will feature my great-great-grandparents in 1930.

Oscar TRAHAN and Bertha DUHON

1930 U.S. census, Harris County, Texas, population schedule, Justice Precinct 3, enumeration district (ED) 178, sheet 32A, dwelling 587, family 649, Oscar Trahan household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2352.

This is my great-great-grandfather, Oscar, and his second wife, Bertha. He ran off to Texas to work for the oil refineries after he left his first wife. I cannot seem to find his first wife, Virginia PREJEAN, in 1930. They divorced around 1920. She had a child with a man named DOMINGUE in 1926, and then she married a SCHENKEL in 1932. I looked for Virginia and her son, Claude DOMINGUE, but I have not been able to find them in 1930. I also looked for her future husband, Louis SCHENKEL, but she was not with him either in 1930. I'm just going to have to order Claude's SS-5 application to see who his father was. Perhaps they were with his father in 1930. DOMINGUE is a very hard name to find in the census. It is pronounced like the word "domain," so you can imagine how it gets spelled. Oscar and Virginia's only chld, Bienvenue, was featured in my last Census Sunday post in the home of his father-in-law (see below).

Maurice BONEAUX and Marie Alice SONNIER

Maurice and Marie were the parents of my great-grandmother, Beatrice Marie BONEAUX. They were featured in the last Census Sunday post, since my great-grandparents, Beatrice and Bienvenue, were living with them.

John Henry MERTENA and Blanche WELDEN
John and Blanche were the parents of my great-grandfather, Merlen Paris MERTENA. They were featured in the last Census Sunday post, since my great-grandfather was still single and living at home with them.

William Harmon PROFFITT and Emmer Link BAKER

1930 U.S. census, Creek County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Mannford, enumeration district (ED) 24, sheet 3A, dwelling 49, family 51, William H. Proffitt household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1900.

William and Emmer were the parents of my great-grandmother, Hassie Cora PROFFITT. They were living in Mannford, Creek, Oklahoma, where William was a Methodist minister. Creek is just one county west of Tulsa County. They moved around Oklahoma a lot since William was a minister. I really need to dig into church history and find out where all his appointments were located. My great-grandmother, Hassie, was not living with them. Her younger sister, Bessie, was the only child living at home in 1930. Hassie was probably boarding with a family near where she was teaching, but I haven't been able to find her yet in the 1930 census. I'm not precisely sure where she was teaching. I know that at one time between 1925 and 1930, she was teaching in Pawnee County, just one county north of Creek County.

Lovell Hugh PEMBERTON and Alvina Mary LESPERANCE

1930 U.S. census, St. Clair County, Michigan, population schedule, Kimball Township, enumeration district (ED) 20, sheets 17A-B, dwelling 391, family 394, Lovell H. Pemberton household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 December 2005); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1024

Lovell and Alvina were the parents of my great-grandfather, John Vital "Jack" Pemberton, who was already married and living with his wife and two children in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan, in 1930. Lovell and Alvina were living on Ditty Road in Kimball Township, not too far from Port Huron. Every census year, they seem to migrate further north. Their youngest four children were still living at home in 1930. Lovell was a blacksmith, and the oldest of the four children at home, Madeline, was a laborer in the salt plant. Morton Salt Company had large operations in Marysville, Michigan, just a few miles from Kimball Township, so I presume she worked for them.

Ernest George CRYSLER

Ernest was the father of my great-grandmother, Mabel CRYSLER. Mabel was already married in 1930 and living with her husband, John Vital "Jack" Pemberton, and two children in Port Huron. Ernest was a farmer living with his mother, Mary (Molesworth) CRYSLER, in Fremont Township, Sanilac, Michigan, in 1930. Ernest's first wife and Mabel's mother, Nellie REYNOLDS, died in 1917. He remarried Minnie SIBLEY in 1919. I'm a little confused because this lists Ernest as a widower, and Minnie is also listed as a widower, living with her mother, Pauline CAMPBELL, in Port Huron in 1930. It seems Ernest and Minnie must have had an unhappy union. Interestingly, Minnie was 10 years older than Ernest. Ernest's sons, George and Harold, were living with him in 1930. George was working as a farm laborer.

Alexander CURRIE and Mary RAYMOND
Alexander and Mary are not found in the 1930 census because they both died prior to 1930. They were the parents of my great-grandfather, Archie CURRIE. Alexander died in 1909, and Mary died in 1920.

Robert PLAINE and Florence Minnie HILLMAN
Robert and Flora are not found in the 1930 census because they were living in Ontario, Canada in 1930. They never immigrated to the U.S. They were the parents of my great-grandmother, Jennie Grace Christina PLAINE, who immigrated in the 1920s.

Wordless Wednesday: Katherine (Proffitt) Marshall

2011-06-29T18:55:00.004-05:00

Katherine Proffitt Marshall
Sister of my great-grandmother, Hassie Proffitt Mertena
1906-1988

Tombstone Tuesday: Eva Edna (Pemberton) ROWLEY

2011-06-27T23:00:00.002-05:00

Photograph by Don and Wendy McCallum (FindAGrave)

Eva E. Rowley
Wife of Truman E. WWII Vet
July 17, 1916
June 24, 2001

My great-great-aunt
St. Denis Catholic Cemetery
Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan

Eva was the younger sister of my great-grandfather, John Vital "Jack" PEMBERTON. She was the 8th of thirteen children. She married Truman Elnathan ROWLEY on 26 Oct 1938 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan. She was the last of her 12 siblings to pass away.

Surname Saturday: PREJEAN

2011-06-24T23:00:00.002-05:00

PREJEAN is the surname of my great-great-grandmother, Virginia (Prejean) TRAHAN. This is one of my many Acadian/Cajun lines. Virginia and my great-great-grandfather, Oscar TRAHAN, divorced sometime around 1920, so I lost her whereabouts for awhile. From what I understand, my great-grandfather, Bienvenue, only had sporadic contact with his mother after his parents divorced. When I first started doing genealogy research, I could have sworn that my paternal grandmother, Bienvenue's daughter-in-law, did not have any info on Virginia's death because Bienvenue had lost contact with his mother. Several years later, I found a Virginia SCHENKEL with the same birth date in the SSDI with a last residence in the right area of Louisiana. After a little asking around on Acadia Parish message boards, I found a person who actually remembered growing up as a child next door to Virginia SCHENKEL, and someone else even offered to find her obituary for me. Sure enough, it was my Virginia. It actually mentioned Bienvenue as a surviving child. I brought it to my grandmother, and she was like, "Oh, I thought I had given you all of that info. I remember going to her funeral. They did reconnect later in life before Virginia died."

Virginia PREJEAN
Born 12 Jul 1889 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
Married Oscar TRAHAN 18 Jan 1908 at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana
Married Louis SCHENKEL 4 Nov 1932 in Acadia Parish, Louisiana
Died 3 Mar 1977 in Crowley, Acadia, Louisiana
Buried in Crowley Cemetery

Paul Lucius PREJEAN
Born 11 Feb 1866
Baptized at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
Married Marie Alicia BERNARD 22 Jan 1885 at St. Peter Catholic Church in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
Died 10 Mar 1938 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana
Buried 11 Mar 1938 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana (probably St. Peter Catholic Church cemetery)

Ursin Theomile PREJEAN
Born 26 Nov 1831
Baptized at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
Married Adenysa LEGER 20 Nov 1854 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
Died 22 Feb 1888
Buried at St. Peter Catholic Church Cemetery in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana

Maximilien PREJEAN
Born 11 Jan 1797
Baptized 26 Jan 1797 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
Married Marie Tarsille BREAUX 10 Jul 1816 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
Married Marie Phelonise THIBODEAUX 25 Nov 1822 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana
Died 13 Jan 1834
Buried at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Cemetery in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana

Dominique PREJEAN
Born 20 Oct 1774
Baptized 2 Nov 1774 at Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville, Ascension, Louisiana
Married Marie Madeleine SAVOIE 25 Oct 1793 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
Died 6 Feb 1846
Buried at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Cemetery in Grand Coteau, St. Landry, Louisiana

Amand PREJEAN
Born abt 1724 in Chipoudy, Acadia
Married Marie Madeleine MARTIN 21 Jul 1749 in Port Royal, Acadia
Married Marie THERIOT 07 Nov 1773 at Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville, Ascension, Louisiana
Buried 4 Dec 1787 at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Cemetery in St. Martinville, St. Martin, Louisiana
Read more about Amand and his journey from Acadia to Louisiana here.

Joseph Cristome PREJEAN
Born about 1700 in Port Royal, Acadia
Married Marie Louise COMEAUX 28 Sep 1723 in Port Royal, Acadia
Died 1756 in Acadia

Jean PREJEAN dit Le Breton
Born about 1651, probably in Brittany, France
Married Andree Marie SAVOIE abt 1683 in Port Royal, Acadia
Died 06 Jun 1733 in Port Royal, Acadia

Tombstone Tuesday: Lovell Henry and Vera Delores (Barnes) PEMBERTON

2011-06-21T19:24:00.004-05:00

Photograph by Don and Wendy McCallum (FindAGrave volunteers)

PEMBERTON
LOVELL H.
1915-1972
VERA D.
1918-1995

My great-great-uncle and aunt
St. Denis Cemetery
Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan

This is the tombstone of my great-grandfather's younger brother, Lovell Henry PEMBERTON, and Lovell's wife, Vera Delores BARNES. Lovell was the third son and seventh child of Lovell Hugh PEMBERTON and Alvina Mary LESPERANCE. He was born 4 Jul 1915 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan, and died 22 Aug 1972 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. He married Vera Delores BARNES, daughter of William BARNES and Eileen A. BLAKE, 10 Nov 1934 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan. Vera was born 10 Sep 1918 in Croswell, Sanilac, Michigan and died 3 Jan 1995 in Tucson, Pima, Arizona.

Am I Just Being Paranoid?

2011-06-18T09:10:00.004-05:00

Lately, I've been getting emails about genealogy from people claiming to have a connection, but who don't give any info or very vague info about their families. See below:

hi, your information keeps popping up in my searches and i think we have similarities in our trees i would like to collabrate

Am I just being paranoid, or do you think this person really has a connection? This person contacted me via Ancestry.com's message system, so I clicked on his/her profile to see if he/she had any family trees at Ancestry.com. This person did, but it had nothing in it. It was basically a blank tree.

Another email I received looked like this:

I was doing a Goggle search for photos of Pembertons & I notice several submitted by you. Are you related to the family?

So I emailed this person back and gave him a brief pedigree on the Pemberton line going back to my 4th great-grandparents. The initial email he sent did not concern me too much because he mentioned a specific surname. But his response did concern me:

I can say with centenary my sister found proof of us being related to both the Civil war General but the man whom invented Coca Cola too as well.

Aside from the fact that I am annoyed by people who are certain all Pemberton's are related, especially to General Pemberton and the inventor of Coca-Cola, it freaked me out a little because the word "centenary" is a very personal word to me and it doesn't make sense in the sentence. I went to college at Centenary College, and it can sometimes be used to prove my identity. Perhaps this is just a spell check error. I'm sure he meant to put "certainty." Still, I found it odd that he didn't give me any more detailed info on his own pedigree. So I stopped all communication at this point.

I just normally don't send vague emails to people about genealogy. I will usually mention at least one ancestor or surname in a first email to someone I think has a connection. I suppose my fear is that these people are interested in identity theft.

Does anyone else ever get these kinds of emails? What do you usually do about them?

Tombstone Tuesday: Daniel and Mabel Crysler Pemberton Beedon

2011-06-13T23:00:00.003-05:00

Photographed by Tami Lindsay

BEEDON
MABEL E.
1910-1989
DANIEL R., SR.
1911-1985

My great-grandparents
Woodland Cemetery
Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

This is the grave of my great-grandmother, Mabel Ellen (Crysler) Pemberton Beedon. Daniel R. Beedon, Sr. was her second husband. She married him 16 Apr 1954 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. Mabel was the mother of my maternal grandfather, John Peter Pemberton.

Census Sunday: My Great-Grandparents in 1930

2011-06-12T15:41:00.012-05:00

I got the idea for this post from Leah over at Leah's Family Tree. Like Leah, in order to get ready for the 1940 census release in 2012, I need to get my census records I already have in order. Each week, I intend to post the census records I have for a particular family generation or family group in a particular census year. This week I am posting on my great-grandparents that I have found in the 1930 census. As I post, I will make sure the source is properly cited in my RootsMagic database. This week I am starting with my great-grandparents in 1930.

1930 U.S. census, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, Police Jury Ward 1, enumeration district (ED) 3, sheet 3A, dwelling 45, family 45, Maurice Boneaux household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 797

This is the census record of my great-grandparents, Bienvenue and Beatrice (Boneaux) TRAHAN and my great-great-grandparents, Maurice and Marie Alice (Sonnier) BONEAUX. They were living in Police Jury Ward 1 in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. I believe this is the modern-day rural community of Ossun and the family property that my family still owns. Bienvenue and Beatrice had just gotten married 14 Sep 1929 and were living with Beatrice's parents. My paternal grandfather would not be born until 1935. I believe this census record has Maurice's father's birthplace incorrect. It says he was born in Louisiana, but all other records say he was born in France. It also has Maurice's age wrong by about five years. Church records say he was born in 1883, not 1877-1878, as suggested by his age here. Everyone else's age is also off by a year or two when compared with church baptismal records.

It's funny how this census record confirms a story that Bienvenue told me about two years before he died in 2006. He said that Beatrice actually asked him to marry her and he said that he couldn't marry her because he had no money to support her. She said that was okay because they could just live with her dad and he would support them. If you look at the census, Bienvenue's job is listed as laborer at odd jobs, but "laborer" is crossed out and "none" is written across it. He is given a number on the unemployment schedule.

1930 U.S. census, Logan County, Oklahoma, population schedule, Mulhall Township, enumeration district (ED) 23, sheet 5A, dwelling 73, family 80, John H. Mertena household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1912

This is the census record of my great-grandfather, Merlen Paris MERTENA, and my great-great-grandparents, John Henry and Blanche (Welden) MERTENA. Merlen is the father of my paternal grandmother. He was 19 and single, still living at home with his parents in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma, in April 1930. He and my great-grandmother, Hassie Cora PROFFITT, did not marry until 14 Feb 1931. My great-great-grandfather was listed as a farmer, which coincides with all the stories my grandmother has told me about him.

And speaking of Hassie, I have not been able to find her in the 1930 census. She was a teacher in 1930, so I believe the family she boarded with may not have included her in the enumeration. I need to dig into school records some more to find out exactly where she was teaching in 1930. I have checked her parents' household in 1930, but she was not included in their enumeration.

1930 U.S. census, St. Clair County, Michigan, population schedule, city of Port Huron, enumeration district (ED) 37, sheet 19B, dwelling 453, family 472, John V. Pemberton household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 December 2005); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1025.

This is the census record of my grandfather, John Peter PEMBERTON and my great-grandparents, John Vital "Jack" and Mabel Ellen (Crysler) PEMBERTON. John Peter is my maternal grandfather and the only grandparent who was born before 1930. They were living at 1650 McPherson Street in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. Jack and Mabel had married 2 1/2 years earlier on 7 Aug 1927 in Port Huron. John Peter was 2 years old (born 18 Nov 1928) and his little sister, Eva, was born just two months before the census in 1930. Jack was working as a laborer at the country club. From city directories, I have found that 1650 McPherson was at the intersection of 13th Avenue, not far from where McPherson dead-ends at the Black River.

1930 U.S. census, Sanilac County, Michigan, population schedule, Flynn Township, enumeration district (ED) 15, sheet 3B, dwelling 67, family 67, Archie Curry household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 June 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1028.

This is the census record of my great-grandparents, Archie and Jennie (Plaine) CURRIE (spelled CURRY here). They were living on their farm in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. This is one county north of St. Clair County, where my maternal grandfather's family was located in 1930. Archie and Jennie married on 27 Aug 1924 in Jennie's hometown of Euphemia Township, Lambton, Ontario. They had two children before 1930, but both died very young. They likely died before the 1930 census because they are not enumerated. Their third child, my maternal grandmother, Violet Mae CURRIE, would not be born until October 1930.

I hope you have enjoyed my tour through the 1930 census. I now have all four of the census records featured here sourced in my database.

Update on May Genealogy Goals (Better Late Than Never)

2011-06-12T09:29:00.002-05:00

Well, I am finally getting around to posting on my May genealogy goals status. I didn't do as well with my May goals as I did with my April goals. Planning a wedding kind of got in the way. The poor CPA exam is just going to have to go on hold until after the wedding.

1) Add at least 5-10 more items from my "To Be Entered" folder into my RootsMagic database. - I don't think I managed to get anything added from my "To Be Entered" folder.

2) Clean up source citations for Ancestry.com databases in my RootsMagic database. I had been cleaning up sources by family, which I will continue to do, but there are some sources that can be cleaned up quickly if I fix all the citations for those sources at one time. These are the ones that usually require very little detail and very little media images. Mainly, they are the databases at Ancestry.com, such as the Michigan deaths database or the Texas birth index. - I did do a little cleanup on some California, Michigan, and Texas vital records index sources in my master source list.

3) Start adding HOFFNER/URBAN family sources to my RootsMagic database. This is my Aunt S's family line. I was going to do this last month, but I added a little more detail to my Aunt L's family line instead. Most of my sources for this will be obits I obtained a few years ago from a Louisiana newspaper and online sources, such as census records and such. They originated in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, which are three states I'm not too familiar with, so this ought to be interesting. I'll have to see what online databases are available for these states. - This is where I had the most success. I entered all census records, military draft records, obituaries, and city directory sources that I found on Ancestry.com and in Louisiana newspapers for the HOFFNER family. I am stuck because there are two James HOFFNER's born within the same time period in Philadelphia, and I don't want to continue until I confirm which one is the correct James. To do that, I need a death record or a marriage record that names his parents. That's not something easily found online, so I'm bypassing it for now while I work on other lines in this family. I will return to it later. I am now working on entering sources for the GROFF family, which is my aunt's paternal grandmother's family. I never did get started on the URBAN line, which is my aunt's mother's line.

I'm not going to do any June goals because of all the wedding planning going on. Goals will go on hiatus until the fall.

This is the Face of Genealogy

2011-06-06T20:49:00.003-05:00

Susanna Jermyn Pemberton (abt 1820-1891)
My great-great-great-great-grandmother

Thanks to Debbie Kraus's Tripp-Smith family tree on Ancestry.com, I was able to see what Susanna looked like. Debbie is the great-granddaughter of Susanna's son, Samuel Pemberton. I am the great-great-great-granddaughter of Susanna's son, John Pemberton. My mom's second cousin, Steven, is the one that informed me that Debbie had this picture.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Navy Cruise Books

2011-05-26T20:50:00.004-05:00

I haven't done a Treasure Chest Thursday post in awhile, but I'm going to interrupt my normal pattern to bring an awesome find. I have been posting all of my treasure chest items on my maternal grandfather, but tonight I found something really cool on my paternal grandfather.

I saw on Ancestry.com that they had added a new database called "U.S. Navy Cruise Books Index, 1918-2009." I knew my paternal grandfather had served in the Navy in the mid-1950s, so I thought I would check it out. I found him in the 1955 yearbook for the USS Plymouth Rock. Pretty sweet! The yearbook was really neat because it had a description of each division on the ship and what they did. Then it had each of their pictures with names and origins. And then it had a history of where it had sailed from 29 Nov 1954 to 29 Nov 1955. It looks like my grandfather was a quartermaster in the Navigation Division. According to Wikipedia, the quartermaster was responsible for steering the ship and applying the helm orders given by the Captain or watchkeeping officers.

Update on Personal Life

2011-05-10T20:06:00.003-05:00

First, I want to wish everyone that is in Charleston at the NGS conference fun times! I wish I could be there. I originally planned to go, since I only live four hours away, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards for me this year.

On a happier note, the main reason I'm not going is because I am getting MARRIED this summer on July 23. Yes, it is for real this time. After much counseling, a renewed relationship, a move across the country, an engagement ring lost in the Atlantic Ocean, the acquisition of two furry children, and 6 1/2 years, it is about time! Funny how things work out. I was so devastated in the summer of 2009 when my fiance called off the wedding. Now, I couldn't imagine any other wedding or any other marriage. I'm so glad we didn't get married then. We are both in much better places emotionally and spiritually, and we communicate so much better now. I even remember at one point him saying that maybe we could get married in the summer of 2011. I laughed at him and said, "What? Are you crazy? It has already been 5 years. We've already seen at least 3 of our friends get engaged after us and get married before us. I'm not waiting that long for you. If we're not married by then, we're not getting married." Again, funny how things work out. Sometimes I guess that God has other plans for us. He even threw in a cross-country move for giggles.

So, I'm sad to miss the conference, but I'm happy to be marrying my best friend. Even better, he is coming in this weekend, and I would choose him over a genealogy conference any day (you won't catch me saying that about many things). He stayed behind in Louisiana and didn't make the move with me, so this long distance thing has been kind of rough. Another reason I can't wait until the wedding. I will be so happy to be in the same city again. As much fun as it has been exploring a new place, happiness is really about who you are with and not where you are. A wise friend I worked with at Walgreens told me that once, and it's one of the most true statements I've ever heard. I think that's why our ancestors mostly seem to travel to new places in packs with friends and family.

Anyhow, I look forward to the blog posts from the conference. Maybe I will make it to the FGS conference in Illinois!

This is when we had been dating only 3 months. Gosh, we were young.
For you genea-peeps, that is my mom to the right, my sister at the stove, and my little cousin with her arms flailing. That is my grandmother's kitchen during our annual Christmas dinner. We had our Christmas early that year because my aunt and cousin were visiting from Michigan.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

2011-05-08T14:37:00.003-05:00

Mom, myself, and Kathleen
Christmas 1984

May Genealogy Goals

2011-05-03T21:24:00.004-05:00

Let's hope that I can stay as focused on my May genealogy goals as I did on my April ones.

1) Add at least 5-10 more items from my "To Be Entered" folder into my RootsMagic database.

2) Clean up source citations for Ancestry.com databases in my RootsMagic database. I had been cleaning up sources by family, which I will continue to do, but there are some sources that can be cleaned up quickly if I fix all the citations for those sources at one time. These are the ones that usually require very little detail and very little media images. Mainly, they are the databases at Ancestry.com, such as the Michigan deaths database or the Texas birth index.

3) Start adding HOFFNER/URBAN family sources to my RootsMagic database. This is my Aunt S's family line. I was going to do this last month, but I added a little more detail to my Aunt L's family line instead. Most of my sources for this will be obits I obtained a few years ago from a Louisiana newspaper and online sources, such as census records and such. They originated in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, which are three states I'm not too familiar with, so this ought to be interesting. I'll have to see what online databases are available for these states.

And those are all my goals this month. I'm going to be studying again for the CPA exam, so I'm not going to get too ambitious.

Update on April Genealogy Goals

2011-04-30T19:56:00.002-05:00

Well, I must say that I did very well on my April genealogy goals. Below are my goals and the results:

1) Finish adding marriage records from the Ohio County marriages database at FamilySearch. Currently, I have found three records for my Fink relatives. - Finished adding Fink marriages to my RootsMagic database. My great-great-great-grandfather's sister, Ella Pemberton, married Jacob Fink in 1871 and they moved from Michigan to Toledo, Ohio, sometime between 1894 and 1900. In fact, I could never find their marriage record in Michigan, except for one dated 1894, several years after all their children were born, which was strange. I just assumed they were married in Michigan since Ella's family lived there and all their children were born there between 1872 and 1890. In Jacob's affidavit for my great-great-great-grandfather's pension, he stated he had known him since his wedding to his sister in the summer of 1871. Sure enough, with the Ohio County Marriages database, I was able to find their marriage record in Toledo in 1871. They must have married in Toledo in 1871, had all their children in Michigan from 1872 to 1890, recorded their marriage a second time in Michigan in 1894 (not sure why), and then moved to Toledo between 1894 and 1900.

2) Enter and scan at least five records from my "To Be Entered" folder. Many of these are death records found at Seeking Michigan and some obituaries I found at the St. Clair County Library in Michigan last time I was there in June 2009 (yes, nearly two years ago...yikes!). A few of the other items are wedding invitations and such I've received from family members in the last two years or so. - I believe I may have entered about 10-15 items from my "to be entered" folder. I entered some San Diego City Directory info from the 1930s and 1940s for my bro-in-law's family, my cousin's wedding invitation from June 2009, my maternal grandfather's social security application, my cousin's birth announcement from a 2009 Michigan newspaper, my bro-in-law's maternal grandfather's death certificate, my paternal grandfather's death certificate and obituary, and my maternal grandfather's death certificate and obituary. Phew! Notice I didn't even get to the obituaries and death certificates mentioned in my original goal. Maybe in May.

3) Finish cleaning up the source citations and events in RootsMagic on the following families:
a) Lewis B. HERIN and Sarah A. RIPLEY - my Aunt L's great-great-grandparents
b) Lewis B. HERIN and Piety ROBERTS (same Lewis above with his second wife)
c) Ferdinand HERIN and Samantha BLEDSOE (Lewis B. HERIN's parents)
- I did manage to clean up all the sources and events for the above families, as well as enter some additional sources for siblings of my aunt's grandparents and great-grandparents. Texas is a rather easy place to find info online. I also added a marriage record search to my to-do list for my aunt's grandparents and great-grandparents and their siblings in Delta and Lamar Counties in Texas.

4) Finish entering in tombstone info found at FindAGrave for Lewis B. HERIN, Sarah A. RIPLEY, and Piety ROBERTS. - Finished this and added a few more FindAGrave entries for my aunt's HUIE relatives.

5) Start scanning and entering sources for the family of my Aunt S - the HOFFNER/URBAN family from New Jersey. - I did not start this just yet because I decided to flesh out my HERIN research, but I did review the obituaries I had in my HOFFNER and URBAN file folders. I also snagged a newspaper article I needed from the LSU library when I went to Louisiana for a few days around Easter.

Hopefully, May is just as successful as April, but I will begin studying again for the CPA exam, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Good-Bye, Uncle John!

2011-04-09T10:16:00.003-05:00

John Michael Pemberton
April 15, 1950 - April 8, 2011

My mom called last night and told me that my uncle, her oldest brother, passed away last night in Port Huron, Michigan. He is the first of my parents' siblings on either side of my family to pass away. He had been sick for the last 10 years or so. He had diabetes and had been through a kidney transplant a few years ago that didn't work out too well. Since then, he had been on dialysis. For about the last month or so, we all knew he was going to die any time now, so my mom and her siblings in Louisiana took a trip up there to visit him and just returned about two weeks ago. Now they are headed up there again for the funeral.

Of course, leave it to my family to be concerned about where to find Zummo brand sausage on their way to a funeral. I was woken up at 9:30 this morning because they were lost in Baton Rouge and looking for a Wal-Mart. I finally got them to a Wal-Mart, but they didn't have the sausage. They have called just about every grocery store from Baton Rouge to the Mississippi/Alabama border to find this stuff. They keep calling me because none of them have iPhones to look the phone numbers up, and I guess they can't figure out how to do it on the GPS. Apparently, Zummo is a southeast Texas based company, and it's pretty hard to find their product outside southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. My uncle in Michigan loves Zummo brand sausage and wants them to bring some. Lesson learned: Don't forget your Zummo sausage before going east of Lafayette.

I wish I could go to the funeral because I really didn't get to say good-bye while he was still alive. Last time I saw him was in June 2009 when I was in Michigan for my Uncle Dennis' (mom's brother-in-law) funeral. I'm tempted to go b/c it's only a 12 hour drive from North Carolina, but I have a busy week at work next week. I have to finish financial statements before the monthly manager meeting on Friday. It would be nice to work for a company with more than one staff accountant. Sigh. And even though I say it's "only" 12 hours, that is a lot of driving for one person to do in a short time. I would only be able to stay 2 nights. Oh, well.

Genealogy Goals for April

2011-04-07T18:10:00.003-05:00

Tonia over at Tonia's Roots and Tina over at Gen Wish List post their genealogy goals monthly. So, I decided that maybe that is a good idea. I seem to jump around a lot with my genealogy, and I hope that goals will keep me more focused and help me to see my accomplishments. I tend to focus on what I haven't done yet. For now, I will post my goals for the rest of April.

1) Finish adding marriage records from the Ohio County marriages database at FamilySearch. Currently, I have found three records for my Fink relatives.

2) Enter and scan at least five records from my "To Be Entered" folder. Many of these are death records found at Seeking Michigan and some obituaries I found at the St. Clair County Library in Michigan last time I was there in June 2009 (yes, nearly two years ago...yikes!). A few of the other items are wedding invitations and such I've received from family members in the last two years or so.

3) Finish cleaning up the source citations and events in RootsMagic on the following families:
a) Lewis B. HERIN and Sarah A. RIPLEY - my Aunt L's great-great-grandparents
b) Lewis B. HERIN and Piety ROBERTS (same Lewis above with his second wife)
c) Ferdinand HERIN and Samantha BLEDSOE (Lewis B. HERIN's parents)

4) Finish entering in tombstone info found at FindAGrave for Lewis B. HERIN, Sarah A. RIPLEY, and Piety ROBERTS.

5) Start scanning and entering sources for the family of my Aunt S - the HOFFNER/URBAN family from New Jersey.

My Decision Not to Use Clooz Anymore

2011-04-03T22:40:00.003-05:00

In the world of genealogy, despite the studying for the CPA exam and this being my busy season at work, I've managed to get quite a bit organized in my RootsMagic database and Clooz program. In fact, I've gotten all my census records from my RootsMagic database into Clooz. Now that I have them all entered into Clooz, I've decided that I'm not really going to use Clooz anymore. Funny, I know.

For those of you who don't know, Clooz is a software program that is supposed to be like an electronic filing cabinet. I think it was invented back in the day when genealogy management programs, like Family Tree Maker, did not really allow for much sourcing. Clooz has official forms to enter data into, such as death records, marriage records, birth records, census records, city directories, etc.

I really like the forms for the census records, but other than that, I'm not as impressed with the forms for other records. For instance, the marriage record does not have a field for witnesses or date of birth. There is a notes field in each record , but jamming everything into the notes is not really ideal.

The beauty of Clooz is that you are supposed to be able to attach a record to all the individuals named in the record, but when trying to do so, it gets kind of awkward. When I attach a person as a witness, the fields for data entry are the same fields as for the bride and groom. Seems like different roles should have different fields. This causes reports on my mom to show her occupation as "fireman" on her birth certificate, but this was actually her father's occupation.

Clooz seems to work better with a paper system of genealogy, allowing you to quickly find where a paper record is located by assigning each record an ID number. Since I am trying to go paperless with my filing system, it makes even less sense for me to continue using Clooz. My paperless filing system involves folders on each surname and within those folders, folders for each couple with that surname. This makes it pretty easy to find any document I may need without having to assign an ID number. My old system of paper filing worked better with Clooz because I filed by record type instead of surnames, which made it harder to quickly locate a document.

The one benefit to Clooz that I may be giving up is the ability to create reports on an individual that show all records/sources on that individual. I think I will miss that option a little. I say "a little" because the reports are not very flexible. I can create my own reports in Excel that I can tailor to my specific needs. In fact, I believe there are already some Excel templates that can be found through Google for the purpose of creating your own reports summarizing sources and info contained in them for an individual. I will also miss the census forms mentioned earlier, but I know there are also Excel templates out there for the same purpose.

Overall, I feel that Clooz no longer meets my needs and lacks flexibility. I would be curious if anyone else currently uses or has ever used Clooz and what your thoughts are on the matter.

Google Newspaper Archives: Fink Obituaries Update

2011-03-24T18:59:00.002-05:00

Thanks to my blog readers, I was able to print screen the obit for Benjamin F. Fink and crop it using Paint and Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This is why I love the genealogical community...such helpful folks!

Google Newspaper Archive: Fink Obituaries

2011-03-23T21:01:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Leah over at The Internet Genealogist, I found that the Toledo Blade is available on Google News. My great-great-grandfather's aunt and uncle moved to Toledo around 1890-1900. It seems that for some years, the issues are sporadic, but I did manage to find an obit on my second try. I found the obit of Benjamin Franklin Fink, who was my great-great-grandfather's first cousin. Now my only problem is figuring out how to print or download the darn thing. Apparently, Google News does not allow this, but somehow Leah has an image of the obit she found on her blog, so there must be a way that I am too tired to think about. In any event, below is the text from the obit, printed 29 Aug 1945 on p. 13:

B.F. Fink
50-Year Resident Of Toledo Was Mason

Benjamin F. Fink, 822 Brighton Ave., died yesterday in his home. He was 69.

A resident of Toledo 50 years he was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church; honorary member and past president of Marine Engineer Benefit Association; member of the Stationery and Operating Engineers Union, AFL , and Universal Craftsmen.

He was a 72nd degree Mason and a member of Barton Smith Lodge F & A M, and St. Omer Commanders, Toledo Chapter.

He was employed at the Toledo Club as a stationery engineer.

Services at 2 p m Friday in the Walker-Wenner Mortuary will be conducted by the Rev. Alfred C. Petersen, Westminster Presbyterian Church. Burial will be Toledo Memorial Park Cemetery.

Surviving are his wife, Rose Mary; stepsons, Lawrence R. and Raymond A. Hawn, Toledo, and Harold Hawn, Grand Rapids, Mich.; brothers, Arthur Fink, Toledo, and Herbert Fink, Chicago.

This obituary helped me to see that the Herbert Fink I've found living in Chicago in 1920 and 1930 is probably the brother of Benjamin. I had been a little skeptical before, because although the age and birthplace matched, none of the other family members seemed to have ventured over to Chicago. Of course, I am still not 100% convinced, but it does motivate me to research more in Chicago.

Now on to more searching for more Finks in Toledo. So much for going to bed at a decent time!

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

2011-03-01T21:56:00.002-06:00

May you always dance like no one is watching. Can't believe you are already 16!

Surname Saturday: PLAINE

2011-02-19T21:15:00.005-06:00

PLAINE is the surname of my great-grandmother and mother of my maternal grandmother. She died when my grandmother was only seven years old, and her ancestors lived in workhouses in England, so once again, there were some similarities between my family and the latest episode of Who Do You Think You Are? Rosie O'Donnell's mother died when she was ten years old, and her ancestors lived in workhouses in Ireland.

Jennie Grace Christina PLAINE

Born 9 May 1903 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Married Archie CURRIE 27 Aug 1924 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Died 24 Dec 1937 in Marlette, Sanilac, Michigan

Robert PLAINE

Born 20 Feb 1869/1870 in Caradoc, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada

Married Florence Minnie HILLMAN abt 1891 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Died 18 Dec 1936 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

George PLAINE

Born 28 Jan 1828 in Thompson, Norfolk, England

Married Mary Ann TRUMPASS in 1850 in Wayland, Norfolk, England

Died 4 Aug 1913 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

In 1851, George and Mary Ann lived at the workhouse in the parish of Rockland All Saints in Norfolk. They arrived in New York on 17 Nov 1856 aboard the Margaret Evans, which sailed from London.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Pemberton-Currie Marriage Record

2011-02-16T23:00:00.002-06:00

This is the marriage record of my maternal grandparents, John Peter PEMBERTON and Violet Mae CURRIE. I ordered it from the St. Clair County Clerk in 2006.

Record no. 8-99

Date of license: September 6, 1949

Full name of bridegroom: John P. Pemberton

Full name of bride: Violet M. Currie

Groom's age: 20

Bride's age: 18

GROOM

Residence: Port Huron, Mich.

Birthplace: Michigan

Occupation: Assembly Line Chryslers

Father's name: Jack V. Pemberton

Mother's maiden name: Mabel E. Chrisler

Times previously married: none

BRIDE

Residence: Brown City, Mich.

Birthplace: Michigan

Occupation: -----

Father's name: Archie Currie

Mother's maiden name: Jennie G.C. Plaine

Times previously married: none

Date of marriage: September 9, 1949

Place of marriage: Port Huron, Mich.

Name and official station by whom married: William C.s. Pellorne, Minister

Witnesses to Marriage

Name: Jean Louks

Residence: Port Huron, MI

Name: Rex Louks

Residence: Port Huron, MI

Date recorded: -----

Surname Saturday: CRYSLER

2011-02-12T21:25:00.004-06:00

Crysler is the surname of my great-grandmother, the mother of my maternal grandfather. Tim McGraw's Palatinate family history from the lastest episode of Who Do You Think You Are? inspired me to write about my own Palatinate family, who also have some celebrity ties.

Mabel Ellen CRYSLER

Born 10 Jan 1910 in Peck, Sanilac, Michigan

Married John Vital "Jack" PEMBERTON 7 Aug 1927 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Married Daniel Robert "Bob" BEEDON 16 Apr 1954 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Died 29 Dec 1989 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Ernest George CRYSLER

Born 21 Oct 1877 in Forest, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Married Nellie May REYNOLDS 18 Nov 1904 in Sandusky, Sanilac, Michigan

Married Minnie SIBLEY 11 Oct 1919 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

Died 8 May 1942 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan

George Calvin CRYSLER

Born 15 Aug 1853 in Arkona, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Married Mary Ellen MOLESWORTH 30 Jun 1875 in Arkona, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Died 2 Mar 1929 in Peck, Sanilac, Michigan

Daniel CRYSLER

Born 21 Jun 1809 in Johnstown, Fulton, New York

Married Catherine Jane SIPES abt 1830 in Ontario, Canada

Died 1870 in Arkona, Lambton, Ontario, Canada

Jacob CRYSLER

Born 1766 in East Camp (now Germantown), Columbia, New York

Married Sally DePUY abt 1786 in New York

Married Elizabeth YOUNG abt 1794 in Schenectady, Schenectady, New York

Death date unknown

Wilhelmus "William" CRYSLER

Born 26 Jul 1729 in East Camp, Columbia, New York

Married Catharina "Catherine" SCHAUER in 1754 in Claverack, Columbia, New York

Died 1808 in Echo Creek, Schoharie, New York

Johannes CRYSLER

Born 2 Dec 1703 in Guntersblum, Neiderneisen, Germany

Married Eva Catherina MONK (MANCK) in 1725 in Athens, Greene, New York

Died in Rhinebeck, Dutchess, New York

Johannes was also the fourth great-grandfather of auto baron, Walter P. CHRYSLER. He and my great-grandmother are fifth cousins.

Johann Phillip CRYSLER/KRUESSLER

Born abt 1670 in Guntersblum, Neiderneiesen, Germany

Married Anna Caterina BRAUN 26 Apr 1701 in Germany

Died in Athens, Greene, New York

Listed on "New York Subsistence List" as "Johann Philipp Kreuszler and Anna Catherine with three Chilldren"
Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration by Walter Allen Knittle, PhD and printed in Philadelphia by Dorrance and Company, shows the Crysler family as embarking in the Third Party from June 5 to June 10, 1709. In this book, they are listed as "Johannes Griesler, wife and three children."

Treasure Chest Thursday: John Peter Pemberton Occupational Records

2011-02-10T21:26:00.002-06:00

Tombstone Tuesday: Mary Margaret "Maggie" PEMBERTON

2011-02-07T23:00:00.003-06:00

Photographed by Don & Wendy McCallum (FindAGrave volunteers)

MARY MARGARET PEMBERTON

MAY 7, 1946-OCT. 27, 1969

My great-aunt

Kinney Cemetery

Wadhams, St. Clair, Michigan

My great-aunt, Maggie, died at only 23 years of age. She was born disabled and died of complications due to epilepsy (status epilepticus). Her older sister, Evelyn, died due to epilepsy as well in 1948, when Maggie was only a year old. There is some discrepancy in Maggie's date of birth. I believe the tombstone is correct, as it coincides with her birth certificate. Her death certificate and obituary give her birth date as 21 May 1946. This is my great-aunt Barb's birthday (though a different year), so I'm not sure if my great-grandma was confusing their birthdays when she gave the info for the death certificate and obit.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Backus-Pemberton Warranty Deed

2011-02-03T21:37:00.003-06:00

This is the actual warranty deed that was signed on the property in the land contract from last week's Treasure Chest Thursday post. I obtained this copy from my maternal grandmother's personal papers a few years ago. Apparently, I made a bad scanned copy because some of the parts are blurry, and it seems like the bottom was cut off, but I believe that I have inherited the original as part of my grandmother's family paper collection when she died in 2008.

The warranty deed was recorded on 30 Jun 1964 at the St. Clair County Courthouse in Port Huron, Michigan. The liber number (886) and page numbers (252-253) are stamped on this copy. The deed was entered into on 29 Jun 1964 between the sellers, Thomas H. Backus, survivor of himself and Bertha E. Backus, now deceased, and Zella Backus, his wife, of Carsonville, Michigan, and the buyers, John P. Pemberton and Violet M. Pemberton, his wife, of 1828 Stone Street, Port Huron, Michigan. The buyers were my maternal grandparents, and the house they purchased is the one at 1828 Stone Street, where my mom and her siblings were raised for most of their childhood. They had been living in the house since at least 1956 (maybe earlier), when they entered into a land contract to purchase the house from Thomas and Bertha Backus.

This deed says the selling price was $1, but we know that they entered into a land contract in 1956 to purchase the home from Thomas and Bertha Backus. They presumably made monthly payments of $40 to Thomas and Bertha Backus until the principal of $4,000 was paid off, including interest at 6%. The timing seems a little early, because if they had paid all principal and no interest at $40/month, they would have paid it off in 8.33 years. The warranty deed was signed a little less than 8 years after the land contract was signed, so they must have made a few extra payments. Or, perhaps Thomas Backus was anxious to finally get rid of the property, since his wife had passed on, and he was living in another county and getting up there in age (I found him in the census records; he was born in the 1880s).

What is interesting about Thomas H. Backus is that he never seems to have lived in the house. I looked through the 1900-1930 U.S. census records, and he always lived in Sanilac County. I wonder if this was an investment property for him, or if he somehow inherited it. It would be interesting to find out the house history on this place.

Stay tuned next week for occupational records of John Peter Pemberton.

SNGF: The Night You Were Born

2011-01-29T14:48:00.002-06:00

It's time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun again. Our mission from Randy at GeneaMusings is as follows:

1) What day of the week were you born? Tell us how you found out.

I was born on a Saturday. I found this out when I was a kid because my mom had a poster that she had ordered telling me about the day I was born and all the events that had happened on that day in the past, as well as famous people who shared my birthday.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events (I'm going to list more).

I was born 25 Apr 1981.

a) On the day I was born, President Reagan's daughter, Maureen, married her third husband, Dennis Revell. He was only 28, but she was 40 years old.

b) Ironically, Boris Yeltsin was elected on my birthday in 1993, and later had his funeral on my birthday in 2007.

c) In 1979, the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt went into effect, and in 1982, Israel completed it's Sinai withdrawal according to Camp David Accords.

d) In 1976, there were elections in Vietnam for a National Assembly to reunite the country. Also in 1976, Portugal adopted its constitution and still celebrates April 25 as Freedom Day.

e) The Guillotine was first used on my birthday in 1792. Yikes!

f) The St. Lawrence Seaway opened linking the Atlantic and the Great Lakes in 1959.

g) In 1898, the Spanish-American War was declared over Cuba.

h) In 1944, the United Negro College Fund was incorporated.

i) In 1933, the U.S. and Canada dropped the Gold Standard.

j) In 1956, Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" hit #1.

I found all of this out from a combination of brainyhistory.com and Wikipedia.

3) What famous people have been born on your birth date? Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

a) Renee Zellwegger b. 25 Apr 1969 in Katy, TX

b) Jason Lee (Earl from My Name Is Earl TV series) b. 25 Apr 1970 in Orange, CA

c) Hank Azaria (voice of Moe on The Simpsons) b. 25 Apr 1964 in Forest Hills, NY

d) Ella Fitzgerald b. 25 Apr 1917 in Newport News, VA

e) Al Pacino b. 25 Apr 1940 in East Harlem, NY

I also found out about these from Wikipedia and brainyhistory.com.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Backus-Pemberton Land Contract

2011-01-26T23:00:00.003-06:00

This is a document that I obtained while going through old papers at my maternal grandmother's house about a year before she died in 2008. It is a land contract that she and my grandfather entered into to purchase their first home. When I found this paperwork, I was not sure what the difference was between a land contract and a mortgage. Apparently, a land contract is one in which the seller agrees to finance the property, rather than a third party lender. The deed to the property remains in the seller's name until all payments have been made. It's similar to a rent-to-own agreement.

Below is a summary of the info contained in the land contract:

1) Entered into on 22 Sep 1956

2) Sellers: Thomas H. Backus and Bertha E. Backus of Carsonville, Sanilac, Michigan

3) Buyers: John P. Pemberton and Violet M. Pemberton, husband and wife, of 1828 Stone Street, of Porth [sp] Huron, Michigan

4) Selling price: $4,000 [Wow! Can't believe inflation!]

5) Location of land: Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan - The South Thirty-one (31) and five-tenths (5/10) feet of Lot Two (2), Block 5 Port Huron Northwestern Railway Plat of a part of the City of Port Huron

6) Down payment: None

7) Interest rate: 6%

8) Payment amount: $40/month, beginning 12 Oct 1956 [again, wow!]

I found a 1916 plat map at the University of Michigan's online local county histories and maps website. It does appear that they were purchasing the home at 1828 Stone Street, which is what I suspected. This is where my mom was born and raised until her middle school years. The contract mentions that my grandparents already lived there, so I take this to mean that they were probably renting the house for awhile before they entered into the land contract. The house on Stone Street is only two blocks away from the St. Clair River, which divides Michigan and Canada. I am really amazed at the price my grandparents paid in 1956...only $4,000! My mom said it was a 3-bedroom house. I checked on Zillow to see what homes there were selling for today. There was a 4-bedroom house built in 1917 (about the same age) at 2104 Stone St that has an asking price of $36,000. Of course, if Michigan were not suffering so much from the recession, I would expect this house to be closer to $50K. What I find interesting about this copy of the land contract is that it is signed by the buyers and sellers but not by the witnesses. I don't recognize the names of the witnesses, Mabel McLean and Betty Heberling. I also don't recognize the name of the sellers, Thomas and Bertha Backus.

Stay tuned for next Thursday's post that will showcase the warranty deed that was signed on this house after all the payments were made.

Happy 2nd Blogoversary to Me!

2011-01-25T23:00:00.002-06:00

Me at 2 years old

Well, I can't believe it has been two years since I started this blog in 2009. I was inspired by the death of my maternal grandmother in December 2008 to start blogging about my research. If you look at my history of writing, you can see that I started off with zeal and then sort of fell off the wagon around August 2009. The following year, 2010, was definitely a slower year for my blog, but I think the partial year off has done some good. I feel that I have more energy to write now, so be expecting more in 2011.

Tombstone Tuesday: Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) PEMBERTON

2011-01-25T19:29:00.004-06:00

(Photographed by Don & Wendy McCallum - FindAGrave Volunteers)

PEMBERTON
LOVELL H.
1878-1952

ALVINA M.

1882-1961

My great-great-grandparents
St. Denis Catholic Cemetery
Lexington, Sanilac, Michigan

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset in the Outer Banks

2011-01-19T18:15:00.003-06:00

Sunset from the sand dunes at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina

Sept 2010

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Cars

2011-01-17T20:24:00.007-06:00

Week #3 – Cars

Week 3: Cars. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

My very first car was a gray 1987 or 1988 Chevrolet Cavalier. My parents bought the car from a family friend in 1997, the year I turned 16 and got my driver's license. One funny thing about the car is that our family friend used to let her dog in there, and sometimes he would use the bathroom. So we affectionately called it the Peemobile. Below is a picture of a 1988 Chevy Cavalier (just picture it in gray):

The bad thing about getting my driver's license was that just two months after getting it, I had to leave home for boarding school. I attended a state-sponsored boarding school in Natchitoches, Louisiana, for my junior and senior years. We were not allowed to drive our own cars while staying at the school. We could only drive them to and from our parents' houses on the weekends. There was no gallivanting around Natchitoches allowed, except on prom weekend, and only then with a signed permission slip from our parents. If we wanted to go to the movies or Wal-Mart or out to eat on the weekend, we had to wait for the big yellow school bus to come pick us up, or we could walk downtown (in groups of three only) to the shops and restaurants on Front Street.

Despite not being able to use the car in Natchitoches, I used it quite a bit to go home on weekends. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive from my parents' house, so I went home every other weekend. It was always fun going home because I always brought along several friends who were also from southwest Louisiana. I was the only one of us who had a car. We used to jam to our nineties music that we burned on CDs (this is right when sharing music files online became popular, and it was not yet considered illegal)....Hanson, Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, etc.

Of course, being ten years old, the car only lasted until spring break in 1999 (my senior year). My friend Beth and I were on our way home for a week-long spring break when the car started smelling funny on Hwy 171 near DeRidder, Louisiana, just an hour or so from home. We pulled over on the side of the road in front of a house, and the guy who lived there just happened to be mowing his lawn at the time. This was in the very early years of cell phones, and of course, being in the middle of nowhere, my phone didn't have a signal. The guy on the lawnmower came over and took a look under the hood. He told us we could go up to the house to use his phone. We called my parents and Beth's dad, and they determined that Beth's dad would come get us, since he had means to tow the car. So we waited on the porch (it was REALLY nice weather) and drank iced tea (some of the best tea I've ever had). The family that lived in the house were so hospitable. I think they even offered us dinner.

Finally, Beth's dad arrived just as it started to get dark. He brought his big truck and a tow rope. Now that was the scariest thing ever. Have you ever driven a car that is being towed? I will never do that again. It felt like I had no control of the car whatsoever. The rope finally broke on Hwy 27 by the skating rink in DeQuincy, about 30 minutes from home. I was sort of relieved. From there, we called a tow truck. I never saw that car again because it wasn't worth fixing.

Well, that was fun reminiscing about my car. Most of all, I think of all the fun trips to and from school with my friends.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History is a series of weekly blogging prompts created by Amy Coffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog to encourage researchers to write about their own lives. Details can be found at GeneaBloggers.

Amazing Find: 1930 Census Occupation Codes

2011-01-16T21:45:00.006-06:00

As I was entering census records into my Clooz database tonight, I came across the 1930 census record of my great-great-grandfather's first cousin, Martin R. Pemberton. Martin lived on 24th Street in Detroit in 1930 with his wife and four daughters. I was trying to read the census taker's handwriting for Martin's industry name. I could read that he was a laborer, but the industry column left me befuddled. I could make out either Butler or Butter as the first word. The second word looked like Con't, which made no sense to me. Butler Construction? Butter Construction? The third word is Co., which I assume is an abbreviation for Company. I combed numerous city directories looking for a Butler or Butter Construction at Footnote.com, but had no luck.

Now, I have never paid attention to that lovely little column called Code (for office use only) to the right of industry. It has never had any use for me (or so I thought) in my genealogy research. I thought this was just something for the census office to use for who knows what. Then I found that, lo and behold, Steve Morse has a tool to decipher the 1930 census occupation and industry codes. Now, the limitation is that the code was added after the enumeration was complete and not at the time of enumeration. So, in this case, it seems that the employee at the census bureau may have had just as hard of a time as I did deciphering the industry for Martin R. Pemberton. In any event, the census bureau employee assigned it a code of 7812, which translates to a laborer in the butter or creamery industry. Hmm...I'm still not able to pinpoint a creamery that starts with the name Butter in the 1922 or 1923 city directories at Footnote.com. It is possible this company did not begin until after 1923, which is the latest city directory available at Footnote.com. I'm sure a 1930 city directory will be more helpful...I just need to get to Detroit for that. Oh, well. I still think Morse's tool is pretty neat!

SNGF: Ancestral Name List Roulette

2011-01-15T22:44:00.004-06:00

It's Saturday night and time for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

1) How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

My paternal grandfather, Benford Maurice TRAHAN, would be 75 years old today if he was still alive. If I divide this by four, I get 18.75, which rounds to 19.

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"). Who is that person?

This person is my great-great-grandmother, Marie Alice SONNIER. She is actually the maternal grandmother of my grandfather above.

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

1) Marie was born 7 Sep 1891 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana to Numa SONNIER and Edmonia DOMINGUE.

2) Marie spoke French all of her life and never learned English.

3) Marie lived her later years in a little one-room house behind the house of my great-grandparents on Nelson Street in Vinton, Louisiana, just around the corner from where I grew up. I never met Marie because she died 11 years before I was born, but I always thought her little one-room house was the perfect playhouse when I was a kid.

Surname Saturday: PROFFITT

2011-01-15T21:10:00.009-06:00

The PROFFITT line is that of my paternal grandmother's mother, Hassie Cora PROFFITT.

Hassie Cora PROFFITT

Born 26 Feb 1908 in Crescent, Logan, Oklahoma

Married Merlen Paris "Zack" MERTENA 14 Feb 1931 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma

Died 07 May 1986 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana

Buried at Mimosa Pines Cemetery in Carlyss, Calcasieu, Louisiana

William Harmon PROFFITT

Born 12 Jul 1871 in Jefferson County, Tennessee

Married Emmer Link BAKER 17 Dec 1896 in Chestnut Hill, Jefferson, Tennessee

Died 03 Jul 1944 in Alva, Woods, Oklahoma

William was a circuit riding Methodist preacher who moved from Tennessee to Oklahoma around 1900 to minister to the Native Americans there.

John PROFFITT

Born 04 Jul 1838 in Jefferson County, Tennessee

Married Catherine Elizabeth DICKEY 11 Mar 1858 in Jefferson County, Tennessee

Died 05 Jun 1882 in Jefferson County, Tennessee

Samuel PROFFITT

Born 13 Feb 1799 in Ashe County, North Carolina

Married Sarah WEBB 01 Feb 1821 in Jefferson County, Tennessee

Died 29 Nov 1876 in Chestnut Hill, Jefferson, Tennesse

There are some discrepancies in Samuel's birthplace. A lot of unsourced online trees say he was born in Elk Shoal, Yancey, North Carolina, but it appears that his father, James, was living in Ashe County, NC at the time of the 1800 census, just one year after Samuel's supposed birth date. James lived in Buncombe County, NC at the time of the 1810 census, so me must have moved there between 1800 and 1810. Yancey County was formed from parts of Buncombe County in 1833. From this information, it appears more likely that he would have been born in Ashe County and then moved to Buncombe (present-day Yancey) County as a young boy.

James Wesley PROFFITT

Born 26 Jan 1766 in Goochland County, Virginia

Married Mary CLAWSON about 1794 in Wilkes County, North Carolina

Died 20 Nov 1846 in Elk Shoal, Yancey, North Carolina

John PROFFITT

Born 28 Aug 1727 in Goochland County, Virginia

Married Susannah ARRINGTON 10 Mar 1757 in Goochland County, Virginia

Died 15 Nov 1813 in Wilkes County, North Carolina

He was an elder of the Old Roaring River Baptist Church in Wilkes County, NC.

Sylvester PROFFITT

Born abt 1698 in Perth, Scotland

Married Alice PLEASANT abt 1724 in Goochland County, Virginia

Died 10 Apr 1767 in Goochland County, Virginia

Sylvester was among the Scottish Jacobite soldiers captured by the English army in Nov 1715 at Preston, Lancashire, England. He was sent to America as an indentured servant and is found on the ship manifest of the Elizabeth and Anne, which landed at Yorktown, Virginia on 12 Oct 1716.

Wordless Wednesday: Cousins #11

2011-01-11T23:00:00.002-06:00

Denni and Violet

1/11/11: A Day For Firsts

2011-01-10T23:00:00.002-06:00

Since it's a day of all 1's, I thought I would take some time to blog about some firsts in my life:

My first birthday: 25 Apr 1982

My first sibling: Kathleen

My first (and only) brother: Justin

My first cousins: Michael, Stacy, Troy, April, Andy, Ann Marie, Aimee, Stephen, Jeff, Joe, Billy, Travis, Amber, Hope, Paige, Taylor, Chad, Craig, Heather, Tony, Karlee, Tabatha, Justin, Mark Allen, Ashley, Josh, Kristina, Jesse, Jade

My first cousins once removed: Zach, Audrey, Cassie, Tyler, Nick, Travis, Landon, Sawyer, Lillian, Blake, Makayla, Connor, Tyler, Kennzie, Kennadi, Denni, Bryonna, Brynnum, Brynnlee, Christopher, Justice, Sebastian, Ian (I know I am leaving some people out b/c I don't have names for them)

My first love: Clayton in first grade

My first friends: Julia and Leslie

My first broken bone: I fell off the slide at a park when I was four and broke my arm.

My first grade teacher: Mrs. Duplechain

My first ancestor discovered in a library: Delphin Stainville TRAHAN, my great-great-great-great-grandfather

My first genealogy research trip: Port Huron, Michigan, Summer 2003 (well, this wasn't actually a research trip...I was really there to visit relatives...but this was the first time I snuck in some research at the courthouse)

My first job: Sales associate at Sears in Port Huron, Michigan, Summer 1999

My first kiss: July 23, 1995 (I'm not telling who...hint...where does it seem like I spend most of my summers?)

My first birthday party (that I can remember): My third birthday party at McDonalds

My first vacation to Michigan: 1981 (I was just a baby - My mom and I were sick for the whole drive from Louisiana to Michigan...can you imagine traveling 1,300 miles with a sick child AND being sick yourself???)

My first pet: My great-grandpa Mertena's dog Lena. She showed up on my great-grandpa's doorstep just a few days after my great-grandma died in 1986. My grandmother inherited her when he died in 1989, and then she was passed to us. She was a little white chihuahua mutt. She eventually got passed back to my grandma for some reason. I'm sure us kids didn't take care of her like we said we would, so my parents sent her back.

My first loss of a great-grandparent: Grandma Mertena (paternal grandmother's mother) on 7 May 1986. I had just turned five years old two weeks earlier.

My first loss of a grandparent: Mimi (maternal grandmother) on 15 Dec 2008. I was 27 years old.

My first date with Cade: 3 Sep 2004 to Pepper's restaurant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and then to the movies to see Papparazzi (stupid movie)

Hope you have enjoyed my firsts! It was fun reminiscing!

Happy Birthday, Pip!

2011-01-09T23:00:00.003-06:00

Clifford Robert Drouillard

(My maternal grandfather)

January 10, 1932 - September 7, 2009

Pip on the shores of Lake Huron

Me and Pip, c. 1981

Pip reading to Taylor, c. 1997

Pip and Paige, c. 1991

Hope and Pip, Dec 2008, just after Mim's funeral

Highlights of 2010

2010-12-31T18:39:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess I was just kidding last month when I said I was back from studying. I haven't blogged since. Time just flies by. For a week I was just so stunned to not have to study, that I walked around in a blank stare not knowing what to do with myself. Then before I knew it, it was time for the holidays and travel home to Louisiana.

Anyhow, I thought I would blog about my genealogy highlights of 2010.

1) The best genealogy highlight is that I attended my first national conference in August. I attended the FGS Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, and had the best time. I met several other bloggers and attended many wonderful lectures, including one by Elizabeth Shown Mills. I also signed up for classes at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, and attended a live version of the Genealogy Guys podcast.

2) I participated in my first genealogy cruise with RootsMagic in Feburary. This was also my first cruise ever. It was a seven-day cruise that set sail from Miami and traveled to Royal Caribbean's private resort in Haiti, as well as Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel. The speakers were Drew Smith and George Morgan from the Genealogy Guys Podcast, as well as Gary and Diana Crisman Smith, and Bruce Buzbee, founder of RootsMagic. We had classes on the two days that we were at sea. The morning classes were about general genealogy topics and were given by Drew, George, Diana, and Gary. Bruce presented the afternoon classes, which were specifically about RootsMagic. I also had a private session with Gary and Diana about my brick wall with my Mertena/Marteeny ancestors. On the days we were in port, there were no group activities, bbut we met up for dinner in the evening.

3) My greatest research highlight was that I think I finally broke through my brick wall on the Mertena/Marteeny ancestors. I discovered that my great-great-great grandfather, John Henry MARTEENY, born about 1854 in Illinois, was most likely the son of John MARTEENY and Hannah MILLHOUSE, of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. I think I even found Hannah living with her two children as a widow in the home of her brother in 1860. The whole household was enumerated as MILLHOUSE rather than MARTEENY, which explains why I couldn't find them before. I also found a Marteeny researcher who actually had documented sources. This whole discovery really reinforces the cluster genealogy concept. I found all of this by following the trail of other MERTENA/MARTEENY's in the same Illinois counties as my MERTENA ancestors.

4) Another great genealogy accomplishment is that I have started entering my sources into my Clooz software. I've gotten about 200 of my census records entered in there so far. It is all part of my goal to go paperless over the next five years. Clooz is an electronic filing cabinet of sorts. It has forms for census records, death records, marriage records, etc. that you can fill in with information from your actual records. You can run reports by person to see exactly what records you have on a person. It helps to see if you are missing a particular record on an ancestor. You can also run reports by location to see how many ancestors lived in the same county during a particular census year. You can also link the records in Clooz to your digital copies of your records.

5) My final major accomplishment in genealogy is that I got a handheld Magic Wand scanner for Christmas. While I was in Louisiana last week, I scanned in about 200 pages from some church record transcription books on the TRAHAN family. I don't have access to these books in North Carolina, so that will be a tremendous help until I can go to Louisiana again (or save up enough money to buy the books on CD-ROM for $400). I am also excited because this scanner is a lot quicker than my regular scanner on my printer, so I think it will speed up my paperless plan. I don't have things scanned because I hate walking over to the desk to hook up my laptop to a printer, and then waiting for the scan to finish.

Some other great highlights of 2010 were these:

1) My niece, Violet, was born on 30 Sep 2010. This was my first time being an aunt, and now that she is moving to Arkansas, she will be closer to me (okay, it is still 14 hours away from North Carolina, but this is better than her being all the way in California).

2) My 1st cousin once removed, Denni, was born on 30 Aug 2010. She has the cutest little chunky cheeks ever!

3) My fiance and I welcomed our sweet little cat, Callie (aka Boo Bear), into our lives in March. She appeared outside my apartment one day, and we decided to take her in. She has been the love of our lives and has provided much entertainment.

4) I moved from Louisiana to North Carolina at the end of June. That was the biggest move I have made in my 29 years. So far, I like North Carolina a lot. I love seeing snow. People here says it hardly ever snows, but I don't think they have ever lived in a place like Louisiana. In Louisiana, it rarely snows, so two to three times a year is a lot for me. I haven't gotten to explore North Carolina as much as I want because of studying for the CPA exam, but I did get to see the Blue Ridge Parkway and Outer Banks, which are both really pretty.

5) I got my CPA exam scores in yesterday. I passed! The bad news is that I have to start studying on Monday for the next part I'm taking on Feb. 28. This time, I plan on staying on track more so that I don't have to study 12 hours a day every weekend for the month before the test. That way, I may have more time for blogging. For those of you who don't know, there are four parts to the CPA exam. I have three more to go and 18 months from 11/29/10 to pass all four parts. So far, I'm on a good track to reaching that goal.

Preview of 2011:

1) Since our wedding was called off at the end of 2009, my fiance and I have been through a lot of ups and downs in our relationship. We are finally at a point where we both feel we are ready to get married again. So, no later than fall 2011, there will be a wedding. Our only obstacle now is living several states away from one another until he finds a job in North Carolina.

2) Two more additions will be made to the family: Brynnlee in January and Connor in March (both first cousins once removed).

3) I am applying for a supervisor position within the accounting department at my current company.

4) I plan to pass the remaining 3 parts of the CPA exam by the end of August.

5) I plan to start my National Institute for Genealogical Studies courses once I finish the CPA exam.

5) I will continue on my paperless organization project with my genealogy files. I also need to finish cleaning up my sources in my RootsMagic database that I transferred over from Legacy. Then I will finally be ready to do more research, instead of focusing on organization.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Denni and Violet, Dec 2010

I'm baaacckk!

2010-11-29T22:17:00.000-06:00

I just took my first of four exams necessary to become a licensed CPA. Needless to say, studying is why I haven't been blogging too much. Now that the first test is over, and my second test will not be until the end of February, I have at least a month to be study-free!!!! So watch out, because I'll be blogging more frequently now. And I *think* I did pretty well, but I won't know my scores for awhile (maybe not until January...yikes!).

Wordless Wednesday: Passion Island (Cozumel)

2010-11-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

Wedding Tent at Passion Island (Mexico)
RootsMagic Cruise
Feb 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Seven Mile Beach

2010-10-27T02:00:00.001-05:00

Seven Mile Beach
Cayman Islands
RootsMagic Cruise
Feb 2010

SNGF: Birthdays

2010-10-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Randy over at GeneaMusings has challenged us to more Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF):

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?

2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.

My birthday is April 25. The first person I can think of right offhand that shares my birthday is my 1st cousin once removed, Dee. Her mom and my maternal grandfather are siblings.

After a search of my RootsMagic database, I found two more people.

The first person is my great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Lesperance. He was born 25 Apr 1840, according to an online transcription of baptisms from St. Anne's Catholic Church in Detroit. I still need to verify that this is my Charles. Charles is the great-great-grandfather of my cousin, Dee, mentioned above.

The next person is on my dad's side of the family and is my second cousin three times removed, Helena Trahan. She was born 25 Apr 1910. She was the daughter of Jean Trahan and Bernadine Bernard. Jean was the son of Pierre Marie Trahan and Cidalise Julienne Robinson. Pierre was the son of Delphin Stainville Trahan, my fourth great-grandfather, and a slave named Fanny Becker.

To find these people, I went to Search>Person List>Find>Birth date contains April and Birth date contains 25. Of course, I found instances of people born April 1925 and such, but this was the best way I could figure to do the search.

In my old Family Tree Maker database, I found some more people:

1) Rosalie Hidalgo, b. 25 Apr 1850, my fourth-great-grandaunt (younger sister of my fourth-great-grandmother, Marie Calice Hidalgo)

2) Jean Clete Marcelin Domingue, b. 25 Apr 1828, my fifth-great-granduncle (younger brother of my fifth-great-grandmother, Maria Domingue)

3/4) Thomas Webb, b. 25 Apr 1795, and John Webb, b. 25 Apr 1804, my fourth-great-granduncles (brothers of my fourth-great-grandmother, Sarah Webb)

5) Joseph Thibodeau, b. 25 Apr 1739, my 7th-great-granduncle (older brother of my 7th-great-grandfather, Paul Thibodeau)

6) Anne Savoie, b. 25 Apr 1734, 7th-great-grandaunt (sister of my 7th-great-grandfather, Francois Savoie, and my 7th great-grandmother, Marguerite Savoie)

Treasure Chest Thursday: John Peter Pemberton's Obituary

2010-10-21T20:45:00.000-05:00

We continue in the Treasure Chest Thursday series on John Peter Pemberton (my maternal grandfather) with his obituary. I found this obituary in a box of my mom's keepsakes in the spare bedroom closet at my parent's house when I first started digging around for family history info. This was in the early 1990's when I was about 12. This is a memorial copy of the obituary that was originally published in the Port Huron (Michigan) Times Herald on 15 Oct 1970.

John P. Pemberton

John Peter Pemberton, 41, of 1828 Stone Street, died Monday in Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, after a short illness.

Born Nov. 18, 1928, Mr. Pemberton lived in Port Huron all his life. He married the former Violet Currie on Sept. 9, 1949.

He attended Port Huron schools and was employed as an engineer for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad for the last 20 years.

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force during World War II, he was a member of Charles Schoor Post No. 796, V.F.W. He was a member of the United Transportation Union.

He is survived by his widow; five sons, John M., George A., Stephen A., Brian J., and Mark A. Pemberton, all of Port Huron; three daughters, Miss Pamela S. Pemberton, Miss Gloria Pemberton, and Mrs. Deborah Chamberlain, all of Port Huron; his mother, Mrs. Mabel Beedon of Port Huron; three brothers, Frank M. Pemberton and Daniel R. Beedon, both of Port Huron, and William H. Pemberton, Flint; four sisters, Mrs. Nancy L. Jackson and Mrs. Barbara L. Post, both of Port Huron, Mrs. Betty J. Hackett, Madison Heights, and Mrs. Eva M. Hofeling, Bloomington, Calif.; and several nieces and nephews.

The remains are in Pollock-Jowett Funeral Home where services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Rev. M.V. Scutt, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene, will officiate.

Burial will be in Caswell Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Ted French, Tom Hering, Bill Hering, Dave Stocker, Howard Wollen, Gordon Bailey and John McQue.

Memorials may be made to the Cancer Society.

This is one of the more informative obituaries that I've seen in my years as a genealogist. It talks about military service, education, occupation, and memberships, in addition to the family information.

One thing that caught my eye when I analyzed this for the first time about two years ago was that it stated he served in the air force during WWII. However, when WWII ended in 1945, he was only 16. I will post his military records in a future post for Treasure Chest Thursday, but I did find that he actually served in Japan in the years after WWII, which was considered the occupation period. I also have a copy of his VFW membership card.

Another interesting thing is that I don't recognize any of the names of the pallbearers, so they must have been co-workers or friends.

I did send off to the social security administration for his SS-5, but I'm still waiting to hear back from them. In the meantime, stay tuned for more Treasure Chest Thursday posts on John Peter Pemberton.

Stovall Family in the Census Records

2010-10-14T18:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back in northern California again, visiting my sister and brother-in-law and my brand new niece, Violet. As some of you may remember, last year around this time, my sister had recently bought an old house that was built c. 1910. I did a post about the land records we found at the county courthouse in Colusa. According to town lore, Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall built this house as a retirement home. There is a history of Colusa County online, which contains info on Jesse Curl and Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall. It does not mention the house, but it does say that Mary Eliza (Moore) Stovall moved to the town of Williams after her husband died in 1902. According to the online history, Jesse and Mary married in 1859. In this post, I'm going to write about the Stovall family in the census records from 1860 to 1930.

1860 US Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, p. 15, dwelling 168, family 137, Jesse C. Stoval household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 57.

Jesse C. Stoval, age 31, male, stock raiser, b. Tennessee
Mary E. Stoval, age 20, female, b. Missouri
Cordelia Stoval, age 5/12, female, b. California
Leonidas Bugg, age 12, male, b. Missouri
Berry Swift, age 20, male, laborer, b. Missouri

1870 US Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, p. 21, dwelling 160, family 149, Jesse C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 71.

Jesse C. Stovall, age 48, male, white, stock raiser, value of real estate $89,920, value of personal estate $29,500, b. Tennessee, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

Mary E. Stovall, age 30, female, white, keeping house, b. Missouri

Cordelia Stovall, age 10, female, white, b. California

Mary Stovall, age 8, female, white, b. California

William P. Stovall, age 6, male, white, b. California

Jesse R. Stovall, age 4, male, white, b. California

Frank Lercan, age 35, male, white, sheep herder, b. New York, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

George H. Smith, age 40, male, white, sheep herder, b. Ohio, male citizen of U.S. at least 21 years of age

1880 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Spring Valley, ED 15, p. 18, dwelling 118, family 119, Jesse C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 64.

Jesse C. Stovall, white, male, age 56, married, stock raiser, b. Tenn. f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Ala.

Mary E. Stovall, white, female, age 39, wife, married, keeping house, b. Missouri, f.b. Ky., m.b. Ky.

Cordelia Stovall, white, female, age 20, daughter, single, at home, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. [blank]

Wm. Preston Stovall, white, male, age 16, son, single, at home, attended school, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

James M. Stovall, white, male, age 11, son, single, at home, attended school, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Hiram Stovall, white, male, age 7, son, single, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Charley Stovall, white, male, age 5, son, single, b. California, f.b. Tenn., m.b. Mo.

Alonzo W. Hannah, white, male, age 28, single, carpenter, b. Virginia, f.b. Va., m.b. Va.

John Carroll, white, male, age 50, single, farm laborer, b. Mass., f.b. Ireland, m.b. Ireland

William C. Ralston, white, male, age 28, single, farm laborer, b. Ohio, f.b. Penn., m.b. Penn.

Richard H. Lyons, white, male, age 26, single, laborer, b. Ill., f.b. N.Y., m.b. Ireland

Edward Ralston, white, male, age 22, single, farm laborer, b. Ohio, f.b. Penn., m.b. Penn.

Charley Barker, white, male, age 22, single, laborer, b. New York, f.b. N.Y., m.b. N.Y.

Leonard H. Jones, white, male, age 39, single, laborer, b. Illinois, f.b. Ala., m.b. Ky.

Sing, Chinese, male, age 36, married, cook, b. China, f.b. China, m.b. China

1900 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, precinct of Williams, ED 8, sheet 7A, dwelling 139, family 139, Jessie C. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 85.

Jessie C. Stovall, head, white, male, b. Jany 1822, age 78, married for 41 years, b. Tennessee, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, capitalist, able to read/write/speak English, owns home free of mortgage

Mary E. Stovall, wife, white, female, b. July 1840, age 59, married for 41 years, mother of 8 children, 4 children still living, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, able to read/write/speak English

Mabel Stovall, daughter, white, female, b. Sept. 1884, age 15, single, b. California, f.b. Tennessee, m.b. Missouri, attended school for 8 months, able to read/write/speak English

1910 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, population schedule, township of Williams, ED 26, sheet 5B, dwelling 47, family 47, Mary E. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 74.

Mary E. Stovall, head, female, white, age 69, married for 50 years [actually widowed], mother of 8 children, 3 children still living, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, speaks English, able to read/write, owns home free of mortgage

H.F. Clark, grandson, male, white, age 24, married for 3 years, b. California, f.b. California, m.b. California, speaks English, clerk in hardware store, wage earner, not at work on April 15, 1910, able to read and write

1920 U.S. Census, Colusa County, California, township of Williams, precinct of Williams, ED 31, sheet 6B, dwelling 25, family 25, Mary E. Stovall household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 94.

Mary E. Stovall, head, female, white, age 79, widowed, able to read and write, b. Missouri, f.b. Kentucky, m.b. Kentucky, speaks English

According to the deed records we found at the courthouse, Mary E. Stovall died in 1930, which is probably why I can't find her in the 1930 census.

Wordless Wednesday: Labadee

2010-10-13T02:00:00.000-05:00

Labadee, Haiti
Feb 2010
RootsMagic Cruise

Wordless Wednesday: Dunn's River Falls

2010-10-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Me and Mom
Feb 2010
RootsMagic Cruise
Dunn's River Falls
Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Introducing Violet

2010-10-03T21:31:00.001-05:00

Violet Cecile
b. 30 Sep 2010

I am finally an aunt! Violet is named for her great-grandmother, Violet Mae CURRIE. I will be going out to California to meet Violet on Thursday! Can't wait! I've already bought her a onesie with a pedigree chart on it from Fun Stuff for Genealogists. I figure since she is named for her great-grandmother, she is going to have to be the next genealogist, right? Violet is the first grandchild of my parents. She is the second great-grandchild and first great-granddaughter of my paternal grandparents. She is the 18th great-grandchild and 9th great-granddaughter of my maternal grandparents. She shares the same birthday as her second cousin, Blake, and was born exactly one month after her second cousin, Denni.

Surname Saturday: BONEAUX

2010-10-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

This Surname Saturday post focuses on the ancestors of my great-grandmother, Beatrice Marie BONEAUX. She was my paternal grandfather's mother. She is in the pic on my blog banner with the BONEAUX name written across it. This is one of my few Louisiana lines that is not of Acadian/Cajun descent. My great-great-great grandfather, Dominique BONEAUX, immigrated from France to Louisiana sometime before Dec 1869. The family story says that he met my great-great-great grandmother, Marie Alida MOUTON, while working at a restaurant in New Orleans. It does appear that Marie's stepfather, Gabriel DUBAN, owned property in New Orleans and was living there at the time of the 1870 census. Gabriel was also from France, so I have always wondered if he and Dominique knew each from the old country.

1. Jennifer Nicole TRAHAN (me)

2. Michael David TRAHAN (my dad)

4. Benford Maurice TRAHAN (my paternal grandfather)

9. Beatrice Marie BONEAUX was born 26 Aug 1910 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. She died 21 Jun 1993 in Sulphur, Calcasieu, Louisiana and was buried 23 Jun 1993 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the daughter of 18. Maurice BONEAUX and 19. Marie Alice SONNIER. She married 8. Bienvenue TRAHAN 14 Sep 1929 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. He was born 26 Oct 1908 in Vatican, Lafayette, Louisiana, and died 18 Mar 2006 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana. He was the son of 16. Oscar TRAHAN and 17. Virginia PREJEAN.

18. Maurice BONEAUX was born 13 Aug 1883 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana and was baptized at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. He died 5 Sep 1934 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana, and was buried 6 Sep 1934 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. He was the son of 36. Dominique BONEAUX and 37. Marie Alida MOUTON. He married 19. Marie Alice SONNIER 10 Sep 1908 at St. Peter Catholic Church in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was born 7 Sep 1891 in Carencro, Lafayette, Louisiana, and was baptized 24 Oct 1891 at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. She died 7 May 1970 in Vinton, Calcasieu, Louisiana, and was buried 9 May 1970 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the daughter of 38. Joseph Numa SONNIER and 39. Marie Edmonia DOMINGUE.

36. Dominique BONEAUX was born about Jan 1837 in France. He died between 1910 and 1920, probably in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. He was the son of 72. Dominique BONEAUX and 73. Marie LACOSTE. He married 37. Marie Alida MOUTON 7 Dec 1869 at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was born 25 May 1840 and was baptized at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana. She died 22 Mar 1924 in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana, and was buried at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery in Scott, Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the daughter of 74. Cyprien MOUTON and 75. Cidalise Elizabeth DUGAS.

Wordless Wednesday: My Maternal Grandfathers

2010-09-29T21:49:00.000-05:00

This is a pic of my maternal grandfathers, John Peter Pemberton (1928-1970) and Clifford Robert Drouillard (1932-2009). They were friends for several years before John Peter passed away at age 41 from cancer on 12 Oct 1970. Clifford met John Peter through my grandmother, whom he worked with at the Prestolite factory in Port Huron, Michigan, in the 1960s. Clifford and his wife began bowling with my grandmother and John Peter. After John Peter died, Clifford's marriage ended in divorce, and he and my grandmother married on 22 May 1972.

In this picture, they are in their bowling outfits, so this must have been taken after a bowling game. It looks like they are at someone's house celebrating. This was probably taken sometime between 1967 and 1969. John Peter is on the left, and Clifford is on the right.

Thanks to Alanna at A Twig in My Tree, who gave me this idea to post the pic of my two grandpas together. See her two grandpas here.

Treasure Chest Thursday: John Peter Pemberton's Death Certficate II

2010-09-23T02:00:00.001-05:00

I know that I promised this post about two weeks ago, but I have been terribly busy studying for the CPA exam. I expect the CPA exam to consume most of my life between now and next spring. I will try to blog at least once or twice a week during the next six months or so.

Also, I've decided to change the format of my Treasure Chest Thursday posts a bit. Instead of focusing on record type for the series, I am going to focus on people. For instance, I will first display all the records from my "treasure chest" on John Peter Pemberton, my maternal grandfather. Then I will focus on all the records of my maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, and so forth.

Last time, I posted about the death record of my maternal grandfather, John Peter Pemberton, that was recorded in St. Clair County, Michigan. This week I will post the death record that was recorded in the city of Detroit. Yes, the man had two death records, for which I haven't quite figured out the reason.

I found this death record one day in 2007 or 2008 when I was at my maternal grandmother's house. I mentioned that I was going to have my mom sign off on some paperwork so that I could get my maternal grandfather's service records from the military personnel office in St. Louis, MO. My grandmother said that she probably had his service records, and she pulled out lots of old papers from some files in her bedroom. Well, this death record happened to be one of the papers. I was very happy, as this saved me about $25 from having to order it from the city of Detroit. In fact, I wasn't even sure if there was a record in Detroit, since I had found the one in St. Clair County, so this did confirm for me that there were two death records in two separate jurisdictions. Below is a transcription of the record:

Detroit Department of Health
Vital Statistics Division
Local File Number 14318
Certificate of Death
Deceased Name: John Peter Pemberton
Sex: Male
Date of Death: Oct. 12, 1970
Race: White
Age: 41
Date of birth: Nov. 18, 1928
County of death: Wayne
City of death: Detroit
Inside city limits: Yes
Hospital or other institution: Henry Ford Hospital
State of birth: Michigan
Citizen of what country: U.S.A.
Married, never married, widowed, divorced: Married
Surviving Spouse: Violet Currie
Social Security Number: [blank - handwritten in top righthand corner as 368-24-1966]
Usual Occupation: Engineer
Kind of business or industry: Grand Trunk Railway
Residence State: Michigan
Residence County: St. Clair
Residence City: Port Huron
Inside city limits: Yes
Street and number: 1828 Stone St.
Father-Name: Jack B. Pemberton
Mother-Maiden Name: Mabel E. Beedon
Informant Name: Violet Pemberton
Mailing Address: 1828 Stone St., Port Huron, Mich. 48060
Immediate cause of death: Adenocarcinoma of lung
Approximate interval between onset and death: 8 months
Autopsy: No
Physician attended deceased from Mar. 7, 1970 to Oct. 12, 1970
Last saw deceased alive on Oct. 12, 1970
Physician did view body after death
Death occurred at 12:49 PM
Certifier: Robert M. O'Bryan, M.D.
Signed Oct. 12, 1970
Mailing address: Henry Ford Hospital, 2799 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, Michigan 48202
Burial, cremation, removal: Burial
Cemetery or crematory: Caswell
Location: St. Clair Co. Mich.
Date: Oct. 15, 1970
Funeral home: Pollock-Jowett Funeral Home, 910 Harper Ave., Pt. Huron
Received by registrar Oct. 18, 1970

This obviously was the first death record created. It was received by the registrar in the city of his death only 6 days after his death. The one in St. Clair County was not recorded until 3 months after his death. This one is so similar to the one in St. Clair County, with the exact same mistakes made on the parents' names, that I really think the one in St. Clair County was merely copied from this one.

I noticed that the social security number was missing from the death record. I checked the social security death index at Ancestry.com, searching by his name and then by his social security number handwritten by my grandmother on the death certificate. I can't find anything. Was his death never reported to the social security office? It seems odd that it wouldn't have been reported because he left behind six minor children. My mom was only 11 years old. Wouldn't my grandmother have received survivors' benefits from social security for his dependents? Or, is he just missing from the online social security death index? This definitely calls for some investigation. Why have I never noticed this before? I guess I never thought to look for his SS-5, since I have so much other info and sources for him. I wonder if his work for the railroad complicated things because prior to 1951, railroad workers had their own retirement insurance system. But, in 1951, railroad workers with less than 10 years of experience became eligible for social security. He started working for the railroad in 1950. Hmmm....my aunt from Michigan is in town for a month visiting (I do have one cousin here in North Carolina, coincidentally). She is my mom's oldest sister and was 18 and already married when their dad died. She may remember if my grandmother ever received survivor benefits for the younger children. I'm going to have to pick her brain this weekend.

I'm sure glad I started participating in the Treasure Chest Thursday series. It's making me see holes I never noticed before.

My Report on FGS 2010 in Knoxville - Part III

2010-09-19T00:20:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know everyone has moved past the FGS Conference last month and are now blogging about other things. I'm trying to savor the moments I had there by dragging out my posts. Actually, the truth is that as of two weeks ago, I have started studying for the CPA exam. That has taken up the majority of my time, which is why I haven't blogged in about two weeks. Now, if I could only remember what I did on the last day of the conference....

Well, lucky for you guys, I have a pretty good memory. This is the only day of the conference where I made it to an 8 AM session. I attended the War of 1812 session by Christine Rose. Missy Corley of Bayside Blog was in attendance. I really wanted to see Christine Rose, which is the only reason I woke up so early. I love her book on courthouse records, so I figured her lecture would be great as well. She did not disappoint. She described the causes of the War and also informed us about bounty land records, including unindexed bounty land warrant applications based on service between 1812 and 1855, which are available at the National Archives.

I really wanted to attend the 9:30 AM session on North Carolina and Tennessee land grant processes, but I had to skip breakfast in order to make it in time for the 8 AM session. I was so hungry that I had to leave the conference and walk to Pete's for breakfast, so I had to miss the 9:30 session. I arrived back at the convention center around 10 AM, so I had an hour to browse the exhibit hall. I spoke with Louise St. Denis, the director of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. I had been eying their 40 course certificate program for awhile, so I talked to her about the cost of this program. She told me that she would be raising prices around September 1, and that there was a 10% discount and one free course for conference attendees. She also told me that I could take as long as I wanted to complete the certificate program. Hmmm...something to think about.

Next, I attended the 11 AM session on organizing materials electronically by Josh Taylor of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The most important concept I learned in this session was about metadata. Metadata is data about data. Josh showed us a spreadsheet that he keeps about the kinds of documents he has found on an individual or family. The spreadsheet has the name of the digital file, format of the digital file, the document name/type, individuals referenced in the document, repository, source citation, date created/found, and date edited. I need to do an analysis to determine whether my Clooz software is sufficient for storing metadata, or if I need to create spreadsheets as well. I have an inkling that Clooz is sufficient, but the accountant in me loves spreadsheets.

After the 11 AM session, all the geneabloggers ate lunch down in Market Square. This was our last day together :(.

I decided to skip the 2 PM session to further contemplate and calculate the cost of signing up for the 40 course certificate program at the National Institute. I finally decided that it would be a great deal financially to at least sign up now and receive the 10% discount plus the free course, especially since prices were on the rise. I knew I would be studying for the CPA exam soon and that I wouldn't have much time for anything else, but if I could take ten years to complete the certificate, I might as well sign up now to receive the special discounts. So I returned to the exhibit hall and signed up for the certificate program in American Records.

My final two sessions I attended were on finding Kentucky Civil War ancestors and on finding records for ancestors that worked on the railroad.

That evening, I attended a party at the home of Missy Corley's sister, who conveniently lives in Knoxville. I picked up Amy Coffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog from her hotel, and we headed to Missy's sister's house. (Most of the other geneabloggers had left to head back home after lunch). We had some of Missy's yummy taco recipe that was passed down from her grandmother. The party was really fun, and we got to meet some of her sister's community theatre friends. We also met up with Madaleine Laird of kInfolit at the party. This was a great way to end a great weekend.

Treasure Chest Thursday: John Peter Pemberton's Death Certificate

2010-09-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

This is my first Treasure Chest Thursday post. I've decided to first display the death records of my grandparents who are deceased (three of four), and then work backwards each week to display the death records of my great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, etc. This exercise will also help me see where I have holes in my research. Once I finish with the death records, I will move on to marriage records, birth records, etc.

The first post here showcases the death record of my maternal grandfather, John Peter Pemberton. I chose him first because a) he died first of all my grandparents and b) I'm too lazy to scan the other death records right now. This series of posts will also inspire me to scan more documents.

I ordered this death record from the St. Clair County Clerk in Port Huron, Michigan, in 2006. He did not die in St. Clair County, but he was a resident of St. Clair County at the time of death. I was actually surprised to find a death record here. I knew from his obituary that he died in Detroit, so I assumed I would find the death record in Wayne County. One day while searching online, I found the death index for St. Clair County, with his name included. This is when I decided to order the record from St. Clair County to see what it contained.

Full name of deceased: John Peter Pemberton
Record No.: 12-557
Date of death: October 12 1970
Date of birth: November 18 1928
Age of deceased: 41 years
Male or female: Male
White, black, mulatto, etc: White
Marital status: Married - Violet Currie
Name of informant: Violet Pemberton
Address: Port Huron, Mich.
Place of death: Wayne Co.
Birth place of deceased: Michigan
Occupation of deceased: Engineer
Father's name: Jack B. Pemberton
Birthplace or residency: --
Mother's name: Mabel E. Beedon
Birthplace or residency: --
Cause of death: Adenocarcinoma of lung
Recorded: January 11, 1971

The names of my grandfather's parents are not quite correct. His father was John Vital "Jack" Pemberton, but I guess "V" for Vital could be confused with a middle initial of "B." His mother was Mabel Ellen Crysler. Her second husband's surname was Beedon, not her maiden name. She was married to Daniel Robert Beedon at the time of her son's death, so perhaps my grandmother, the informant, didn't realize that she was supposed to give the maiden name of her mother-in-law instead of the current name. In her defense, I do have to say that this record just says "mother's name" and not "mother's maiden name." Perhaps it wasn't asking for maiden name.

As I was transcribing this death record here, I noticed for the first time the lag time between when he died and when the death record was recorded. It was about 3 months. As stated in the death record, he died in Wayne County (Detroit). I have a hunch that this was recorded in St. Clair County because this is where he resided and where the property he owned was located. Since it took three months from the time of his death to record it in St. Clair County, perhaps this death record was recorded for purposes of a probate. This reminds me that I need to search the probate records in St. Clair County for his probate.

I also noticed that his parents' birthplaces are missing. Perhaps my grandmother didn't know where they were born. I would say that maybe she was too distraught to remember, but since this was recorded three months after the death, I would think that the initial stress of losing a loved one would have subsided. I know that when she died in 2008, of course they called me into the meeting room at the funeral home to answer the questions about her parents' birthplaces, and any other day I could have told you the exact town of her mother's birthplace in Canada, but at that moment, I could only remember the county because my mind went blank with the stress that had ensued after learning of her death at 3 AM that morning.

Already, this exercise has proved useful. Stay tuned next week for the Wayne County death record of John Peter Pemberton that I found in my grandmother's papers after I had already ordered this one.

Wordless Wednesday: Cousins #10

2010-09-01T14:00:00.000-05:00

Travis, Landon, and Cassie
Christmas 2009

Tombstone Tuesday: Evelyn Marie PEMBERTON

2010-08-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

EVELYN MARIE PEMBERTON
FEB. 29, 1936
FEB. 28, 1948

My great-aunt
Elk Township Cemetery
Peck, Sanilac, Michigan

According to Evelyn's death record at the St. Clair County Courthouse in Port Huron, Michigan, she died from continuous epileptic seizures and edema of the lungs at age 11. My great-grandmother actually had two daughters who died from this same cause. I will feature her other daughter's grave in a future Tombstone Tuesday post. What is interesting about Evelyn is that she was born on Leap Day, and if she had lived just one more day, she would have died on Leap Day. Now that would have been weird.

Newest Addition to the Family Tree: Baby Denni

2010-08-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

Photo courtesy of Denni's Aunt Paige

Denni ViAnn
b. 30 Aug 2010 at 1:08 am
6 lb. 12 oz.
19 1/4 in.

My aunt called me on the way to work this morning to let me know that Baby Denni had finally arrived. Baby Denni is the daughter of my first cousin and is my first cousin once removed. She is the first of 4 babies being born into the Pemberton/Drouillard family in the next 7 months, so I'm sure you will be seeing many posts like this during that time. The next baby on the list is my sister's baby, who is due in September.

Baby Denni was named for her PawPaw Dennis (maternal grandfather), who passed away suddenly in June 2009 of a heart attack at the age of 52, and her maternal grandmother, Gloria ViAnn. If she is anything like her PawPaw, she will be the family jokester, though I think her older brother is vying for that title, as he won Most Witty in his pre-kindergarten class last year.

Denni is supposed to be wearing the stylish outfit I bought her when she leaves the hospital, so I'll have to be sure someone back in Louisiana takes pics for me on that day. If anyone does, I'll post them here, so you all can be wowed by my sense of style. I have to say that her Aunt Paige's dress, shown in the pic above, is not too shabby. I guess I have a little competition!

Surname Saturday: CURRIE

2010-08-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

1. Jennifer Nicole TRAHAN (me)

3. Pamela Sue PEMBERTON (my mom)

7. Violet Mae CURRIE (my maternal grandmother) was born 24 Oct 1930 in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. She died 15 Dec 2008 in Vinton, Calcasieu, Louisiana, from lung cancer and was cremated. She was the daughter of 14. Archie CURRIE and 15. Jennie Grace Christina PLAINE. She married 6. John Peter PEMBERTON 9 Sep 1949 at First Methodist Church in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. He was born 18 Nov 1928 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. He died 12 Oct 1970 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, from lung cancer. He was buried 15 Oct 1970 in Caswell Cemetery in Kimball Township, St. Clair, Michigan. He was the son of 12. John Vital "Jack" PEMBERTON and 13. Mabel Ellen CRYSLER. Violet then married Clifford Robert DROUILLARD 22 May 1972 in Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois (a destination wedding of sorts). He was born 10 Jan 1932 in Riverside, Essex, Ontario, Canada. He died 7 Sep 2009 in Windsor, Essex, Ontario, Canada, from lung cancer and was cremated. He was the son of Clifford Cleophas DROUILLARD and Eva Anna GENDRON.

14. Archie CURRIE was born 02 Nov 1889 in Maple Valley, Sanilac, Michigan. He died 15 Mar 1963 in Port Huron, Saint Clair, Michigan, from heart disease. He was buried 19 Mar 1963 in Omard Cemetery in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. He was the son of 28. Alexander CURRIE and 29. Mary RAYMOND. He married 15. Jennie Grace Christina PLAINE 27 Aug 1924 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada. She was born 09 May 1903 in Euphemia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada. She died 24 Dec 1937 in Marlette, Sanilac, Michigan, from a heart attack incurred after an appendectomy. She was buried 4 Jan 1938 in Omard Cemetery in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. She was the daughter of 30. Robert PLAINE and 31. Florence Minnie HILLMAN.

28. Alexander CURRIE was born about Nov/Dec 1838 in Ontario, Canada. He died 28 Dec 1909 in Maple Valley, Sanilac, Michigan. He was buried 30 Dec 1909 in Valley Center, Sanilac, Michigan. He was the son of 56. James CURRIE and 57. Margaret McGILL. He married 29. Mary RAYMOND about 1870-1872, probably in Elgin County, Ontario, Canada. She was born about 1852 in Tillsonburg, Oxford, Ontario, Canada. She died 7 Dec 1920 in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. She was buried 9 Dec 1920 in Omard Cemetery in Flynn Township, Sanilac, Michigan. She was the daughter of 58. John RAYMOND and 59. Unknown.

56. James CURRIE was born about 1815-1817 in Scotland. He died after 1881, probably in Elgin County, Ontario, Canada. He married 57. Margaret McGILL 22 Feb 1838 in Vaughan, York, Ontario, Canada. She was born about 1815-1817 in Argylshire, Scotland. She died 21 Nov 1880 in South Dorchester, Elgin, Ontario, Canada.

My Report on FGS 2010 in Knoxville - Part II

2010-08-25T20:31:00.000-05:00

OK, I am finally back to continue my report on the FGS Conference in Knoxville. I fell ill on Monday, and it is great to be feeling well again. I thought it was just conference hangover at first, but I believe that I had a 24-hour bug. I left off my last posting with Day One at the conference.

On Day Two, I woke up late once again and missed the 8:00 sessions. I went to breakfast at the Crowne Plaza restaurant and then headed over for the 9:30 sessions. My session was about pension agents, examining surgeons, and pension bureau employees in the nineteenth century and was given by Dr. Kenneth W. Heger of the National Archives. This was also one of my favorite sessions, and fellow geneablogger Tina from Gen Wish List, was there. I learned that I should check the records containing appeals for my great-great-great-grandfather, John Pemberton. He had a very large pension file, and while it looks like most of his appeal info is in his regular pension file, Dr. Heger said that there is a possibility some of the information is in the appeals files, which are not indexed. If you haven't ordered a pension file for your ancestor, I highly recommend it. John Pemberton's was my biggest goldmine yet.

For the 11:00 session, I attended Victor Dunn's session titled "The Research Process." I did not see any other geneabloggers in attendance, but I did sit next to a gentleman from East Tennessee. He asked what surnames I was researching in the area, and when I told him that one was Proffitt, he said that there used to be a Proffitt Department Store in East Tennessee and that there are still lots of Proffitts in the area today. I really liked this session because it was a nice refresher course on the research process as outlined in the BCG Manual. It had a slight focus on tips for client research, which is helpful to potential professionals like myself. I also found out that the presenter was an accountant too, which is always a plus in my book.

Afterward, I attended lunch with Tina, Linda, and Tonia before heading back to attend George Morgan's session on locating Anglican parish records in England. I had heard George give a talk on vital records in England on the RootsMagic Cruise, so I knew that this would also be an informative and entertaining session. We learned the history of the Anglican Church, what information is contained in parish records, and where the parish records are located today. This will help me a lot with my Plaine and Hillman ancestors on my maternal grandmother's side. They immigrated from England to Canada in the 1850s and 1860s.

After hearing Elizabeth Shown Mills the first day, I had to go to her session about The Genealogical Proof Standard on the second day. Just about all geneabloggers were in attendance and sitting on geneabloggers row for this session. Once again, Ms. Mills reminded us that we need to check all records, no matter where they are located and whether or not they are indexed. She presented a wonderful case study on proving the parentage of her client's ancestor.

Between sessions, I ran downstairs to put my door prize tickets in the exhibitors' boxes before the big drawings at 6:00 PM. I was planning to attend the session on land records by Christine Rose, but I had left my belongings with the geneabloggers who were waiting for the session on timelines to begin. I did not have enough time to grab my things and then run back downstairs to Rose's session, so I decided to stay for the timelines session. I learned of a few websites to use when constructing timelines in genealogy.

After this, I headed back downstairs to put in a few more door prize tickets at the last minute. I had procrastinated filling out my door prize tickets b/c I didn't have any address labels. There were some awesome prizes given away, such as an iPad, 5-day genealogy cruise to Bermuda, seven-night stay in Salt Lake City, free conference registration to the Illinois State Genealogical Society conference and the NGS conference, etc. Of course, I didn't win anything. Oh, well. It was fun anyway.

Finally, I attended the War of 1812 reception, where we learned about the digitization project of the War of 1812 pension files. There was also a prize there: 7-night stay in SLC plus airfare, meal cards, and copy cards for the FHL. After the drawing was over, I headed back to the hotel after the longest conference day yet.

As it is getting late, I will wrap this up again. Stay tuned for more reports on FGS 2010 in Knoxville!