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[lookingforancestors]

So now when you do Alt + Reblog, the reblog symbol turns green, "explodes" and then disappears.

[lookingforancestors]

English War Bride, adopted Californian 52 Ancestors

This photo is of my grandfather, David Fernandez, a Sgt, in the Army-Air Corps (half French and half Indian) and his English warbride, Joan Evelyn Rowden. They married in Cambridge, England-close to the American airbase where grandad was stationed. 

My gran was a sheltered daughter of a city planner and housewife. She had two older brothers and a younger sister. She was training to become a nurse, a much needed vocation in war time England when she was swept off of her feet by my dashing grandad. They married in 1944 and my mom was born in 1945. A month later the war was declared over, but it took a year for my grandad to get Gran and mom to California. 

Gran took to California like she was born there. Hemet is technically desert but she bloomed there, wearing shorts and scandalizing her mother in law, an immigrant herself from France. 

A strong woman, she didn't let her French mother in law and her Indian in laws bully her. She raised roses, always had a garden and loved dogs. She was part of an English war-bride group and she loved to ballroom dance. 

Because of her I love tea and collect tea pots, but I can't dance to save my life. 

[lookingforancestors]

When you can't find an ancestor by the name that you're familiar with...

I've had this problem with one (cough, cough, MANY) of my searches. I'll give you an example with a a couple of German names that I've had problems with-

Dewalt Bish married Mary Drawbond on Feb. 21, 1821 in Rockingham Co. VA. Now, I have a tendency to be like a hound dog and run off on tangents-I was curious about Mary Drawbond. What kind of name was 'Drawbond'? In the marriage record, it lists her father as Conrad Drawbond. So, I dug through more records and found a Conrad 'Traban' married to Mary Zieglerin. (Ziegler, the 'in' indicates in German that she's a woman). So, since this area of VA was predominantly German (many from the contested region of the Alsace Lorraine), I began to dig around and found the last name Trobaugh. So, we start with the German Trobaugh-they immigrated to the US and their names get anglicized by ministers and census takers to Traban and then Drawbond. And that happened in less than a generation. D and T's are regularly interchanged with German, and to a lesser extent, French names. Occasionally you'll see F's and V's as well with German. (and B's and V's in Spanish)

Why, you ask? A lot of our ancestors were illiterate. They knew their numbers but were unlikely to have gone to school-(a caveat here-they often sent as children to other families to learn a trade like baking or blacksmithing or shoemaking) I have yet to find an emigrant in my research that didn't make sure their children were educated to some degree. So, they couldn't, or didn't feel the need to correct the spelling. 

German is an interesting language-and spelling it the way it was pronounced by a German speaker introduced many interesting interpretations. Plus you have High German (Switzerland and the Amish) and Low German (Germany, parts of the Alsace region of France), but this is not hard and fast. 

My lesson here? Well, simply, ALWAYS check different spellings that can occur with a surname. Heck even with a first name, I had a Diebold turn into Dewalt-again, in one generation. 

I hope that this helps you! 

[lookingforancestors]

A Farmer, Dad and Hero. Week 3 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Simon F. Deal was the son of well respected farmer John Deal and Barbara Gruber, and grandson of German immigrants Conrad and Maria (Korrin) Diehl. He was tall for the time period 5'10", with brown hair and brown eyes. He married Eliza Ann Beckwith, the youngest of 10 children and from a very well established New England family. 

He wasn't famous, just a plain farmer but we lucked out as his descendants because he wrote a diary. At first it's all about relatives and farming. He mentions the small New York towns that he regularly traveled to, the small things he bought, just day to day minutia. 

Then the Civil War comes and he and several men in the area enlisted in January 1864. He wrote about the training, the conditions and then the war. The weather was abysmal and the conditions terrible-he mentioned all of the men getting sick-and included a pithy comment that the doctors were worse than the sickness.

He served in 8th NY Heavy Artillery and fought in the battle of Harper's Ferry and the Battle of the Wilderness (Cold Harbor, VA). He was fatally wounded during the battle and taken prisoner of war. They exchanged him and he ended up dying June 17, 1864 at the Union Hospital in Richmond, VA, a mere 6 months after he'd enlisted. 

He left behind his young wife, a two year daughter (my g-g-grandmother Mattie) and a baby son he never met, born two months after his death. 

[lookingforancestors]

WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

I would love to visit Dublin, Ireland.

[lookingforancestors]

Why do they have to have a common name?

James Long-what a terrible name to have to search for. His middle name was Newton, but can't find him that way either...

Born in December 1874 in Ohio, and he died of a self inflicted gun-shot wound in October 1921 in Beltrami Co. MN.

It was a tragedy-he'd fought with his oldest son over wages and he hit him so hard that it was thought the younger man would die. When the police came to collect him, he made an excuse that he needed to check on the animals in the barn, and shot himself through the heart. His son survived until old age. I can't imagine how hard it was for his wife and kids.

There were several newspaper articles, but none mentioned any other family except his wife and children. And the Ohio census has several likely candidates-but no way of proving any of them.

So, I ordered his death certificate and it lists an 'Albert Long and a Mary Ellen (Allen?) Jackson'. Which, hurrah! Except, they are in none of the censuses. And not even Google can find them. *sigh

So, mystery #2 for the Ollom side of my family. (Why do I like to do this again?)

[lookingforancestors]

Starting blog for Ancestry's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks-Ollom side

Ugh, I am a week late to I'll post twice. 

I adore genealogy and I've been digging into my pasts (yes, plural) for the past 23 years. I was adopted-I have my adopted family to thank for my curiosity. My mom was always adding to the family tree as each grandbaby and great grandbaby were born. I took over the duty when she passed. Then I discovered my biological family, including finding my half brother (who is a week older than me). He has had no contact with our father's side of our family either, just things he's dug up so he handed what he'd found to me and I've run with it. 

So, here goes. My 'never met' grandfather-Roscoe Richard Ollom 1913-1995. He was born in Iowa and died in Eagle Bend, Minnesota.  

His father is well documented-Jacob Hiram Ollom 1864-1961, but his mom is a mystery. 

Her name is Gertrude A. -------. She was born in 1876 in Iowa and died in Kings Co. WA-and her last name is either Bell, or Merryfield. Unfortunately I can't find her in the 1880 census under either name-if she was born in Iowa. And you'd think she'd know, and her kids all list Iowa as her birthplace as well. 

So, she's one of my mysteries in this branch of our family.