On the evening of January 25, 1938, my Oma witnessed an extremely rare meteorological phenomena; something that stuck with her for the rest of her life and something I will likely never witness myself. After the sun went down the evening of the 25th, the sky turned an deep red. This was something much more […]
Margaret Ann Richards’ family line has become one of my biggest roadblocks. Family lore says that Margaret and her sister Bessie were born in Yorkshire, England and the girls came to America as children with a mean stepmother. The name given for their biological mother was Ann Williams. Margaret is pretty easy to trace from […]
Two things I can tell you about my ancestors: there are a lot of Margarets and a lot of accidental deaths. Harman Alexander Updegraff was born 28 August 1821* in Somerset County, Pennsylvania to Harmon Updegraff and Rachel Howard. He was a farmer in his early years and later became a conductor of a freight […]
Facts and evidence are a fundamental part of genealogy. Without these, genealogy would be nothing more than folklore (and Ancestry member tree hints). Unfortunately, facts and evidence are not always as important in politics. What happens when politics and genealogy collide? A couple months ago there was some attention on Senator Marco Rubio’s family history. The […]
I love statistics and all the fun charts and graphs you can make. I also love TED Talks. You can imagine my delight when watching Hans Rosling’s New Insights on Poverty, when he inserts his grandparents into the data set while comparing past and present economic situations around the world. Genealogy adding context to economic […]
Old Newspapers How else would I know that my 4th great grandfather died at at 90 with all his teeth? The Library of Congress Chronicling America is a great starting point for old newspapers. Not all newspapers are digitized, but keep checking as more are added everyday. You can search for an ancestor’s name or […]
Margaret H. Davis was born 19 January 1861 in Johnstown,1 Pennsylvania to David H Davis and Catherine Annie Harris, both immigrants from Wales. She was the 5th child of 13 born to David and Catherine. Margaret Davis married Henry Herman Updegraff in 1881. Her siblings considered her “marrying well.” The young couple moved to New […]
I had the pleasure of attending a class yesterday at the National Archives in Washington, DC titled: Beyond the Basics: Census, 1790–1840. The Archives offers various genealogy classes each week and I thought this would be a great topic. I hadn’t given the 1790-1840 Censuses much attention before now. Well, I learned a lot! 1840 Census […]
I’ve recently been in contact with a cousin of my father’s, who is also interested in genealogy and still lives in my dad’s hometown. He is older than my dad and has more first-hand accounts of my Oma’s generation. His recent email included an interesting little story – my Oma’s father (my great-grandfather) Valentin Stossier […]
Just for fun, prompted from the blog Geniaus. Here’s “The Ancestors’ Geneameme” KEY: Things you have already done or found: bold face type Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional) Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type Extra comments and details are in brackets. Which of […]
Katie's Grove 