William Hutchison – 3rd Great Grandfather (for family reference, this is Robert Lee Updegraff’s great grandfather) Missing 1900 census Unknown death date (estimate Unknown birth date (estimate 1821-1825) No actual sources for connection to parents (DNA has confirmed though) Williams parents were Forgus Hutchison (1798-1860) and Jane Campbell (1800-1872). William appears in the Census from 1850-1880 […]
Contacting Distant Cousins
Have you ever followed a lead by contacting an unknown non-genealogist cousin? Websites like ancestry.com, findagrave.com, footnote.com etc make it very easy connect with distant cousins that share an interest in genealogy. The rewards of those connections can be quite great. Here’s an example: Last year I found a story on ancestry.com involving my Davis […]
An Unusually Attractive and Popular Girl
On occasion, while researching my family history, I’ve come across a person, photo, or event that touched me personally. Often it was completely unexpected, and mostly about ancestors that I wasn’t even that closely related to. One such instance occurred while reading about my great grand aunt Alma Catherine Updegraff. Thanks to the New Castle […]
Friedhof Pörtschach
Greetings from Austria! What better time to research my dad’s family history, then while on vacation in his hometown! I’m really starting from scratch and was hoping to visit the church archive and interview some older family members while on vacation. Upon contacting the Archiv der Diözese Gurk (Catholic Church Archives), I found out that you […]
Family Photo Album
Hello! I’m just getting back to civilization after a very busy work week/weekend and am desperately trying to manage my “flourishing” genealogy to-do list. First things first, do something with the growing collection of family photos. Thanks to family members that have posted photos to Facebook and a recent trip to my parent’s house, I […]
Sunday’s Obituary-Walter Harris
I believe this is the oldest obituary I have of a direct ancestor, Walter Harris, my 4th great grandfather. Walter was born 1769 in Wales. He came to America at the age of 85 with his wife, Sarah, and settled in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He died 10 years later in 1864. His obituary is particularly interesting: […]
Who is this?
I had this photo labeled as James Joseph Murphy, but I’m starting to think this may be someone else. James J Murphy died in 1917 at 36 years old. This man looks a little older, don’t ya think? To give some comparison, the photo on the right is actually James J Murphy. The hair part […]
Murphy Reunion Photo
One of my favorite family photos. The Murphy family in Youngstown, Ohio 1955. Let me know if I have misidentified someone. 1. Patty Ann Gallagher 2. Margaret Arnaut 3. Owen W Gallagher 4. Mildred Elaine Murphy 5. Unknown 6. Unknown -possible friend of Mildred Elaine Murphy 7. Edward Murphy 8. Mildred Whitacre 9. Robert Lee […]
My Mom’s Great-Greats
I got this idea from Genea-Musings and Family Tree Magazine and thought it would be interesting. Charts and graphs are fun to make, not to mention this entire blog post took about 15 minutes to do. Here’s what I did: 1. Listed the birthplaces of all 16 2nd great grandparents. For simplicity, I’m used my Mom’s […]
Who Do You Think You Are?
Just finished the book “Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History” by Megan Smolenyak-Smolenyak. Megan is one of America’s top genealogists; she consults for the show Who Do You Think You Are?, is the author of five books, and is a cold-case researcher for the Army, NCIS, and the FBI. Three […]
Katie's Grove 