Something Special Thursday

Greetings all, The family has received a special "picture book" as Granddad called it. Granddad received it from his father. Who was a HOFFMAN but his wife was a DUVALL

WE are not sure which side of family from since we have found many pictures of

HUFFMAN, HOFFMAN, DUVALL, PLANTS , PATTERSON's and many other kin.

A picture of a dead child, we know who it is but surprised us they did that so long ago.

I guess the CW caused you to double think events. We have replicated the pictures my cousin and I. Mom had a fire once and we were lucky it was saved. So thought we should do back up and next trip home he and I did split the pictures and shared so two houses have copies.

These pictures have to date from about 1860 forward, there are CW people in them and in uniform. Yes we are a very patriotic family.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

WW11 PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR

RETIRED FROM NAVY.

DAD'S ONLY BROTHER

Tombstone Tuesday Comillo and Etta Jones Morelli

This is in Petaluma, California. This picture I took last spring.

My Aunt Etta Mae JONES MORELLI later m to MR. Leo MORETTI,(Family friend)and her first husband Comillo MORELLI.

This family played a major role in my life. When MOM was not well in WYOMING, and Uncle Comillo could not hire hands to help work the family dairy, because of the war, they asked for her brother (my Dad) and family to come to California. It was a plus for most involved.

I was not quite three, but I grew up with my cousins and have always lived on ranches of some type. We are still close all these years later. She became an authoress in her own right and did awesome poems. We always wanted Dad to write the book he would tell us about but it never happened. Bob, Don, Mike in Memory of your very dear Parents.

I actually ate some of that (HORRID) smelling cheese he ate the other day and it was as good as he said but it sure doesn't need to smell that bad. LOL I bet he was smiling when I did it.

Monday Madness Harvey Edward FOULK

I have an ancestor with an interesting disappearance. At least so far I have only gotten rumors and stories. Wow, Grandma even did not know the answer to this one and it was her father.

Long ago in Berks Co. PA we start proven with JOHN FOLK dcd 1793 WILL Proven, I have it.

We descend down to (duel lines) William Henry Foulk b 1846 in Somerset Co PA, died 1940 in

Blackhawk Co., IOWA. He marries Katherine Myers his cousin who is also a FOULK ie FOLK descendant. Her Mother is Sarah Elizabeth Foulk (Jane) who marries John MYERS in ie old Cumberland Co PA later Perry Co., PA.

William Henry and Katherine Myers Foulk have Harvey Edward FOULK. He is born 18 October 1867 in Illinios. He bought and farmed in Washburn, Blackhawk Co., IA as an adult. He married 19 October 1892 in Blackhawk Co. IA to Margaret Mae EASTMAN whom was born 6 oct 1874 in Iowa and died 23 Jan 1958 in Washburn, Blackhawk Co. IA.

She was my Great Grandmother, I wrote to her for about 4 years as a young adult living in California. I wish I had been able to know her better. I kept some of her letters in my trunk.

Great Grandfather is the puzzle. He supposedly went to Seattle, Wash. with a shipment of wheat he sold to Russia and wanted to make sure it got on the ship. As far as I can learn

no one heard from him again or they are not talking or were not talking. I can not even

pin down when this happened but am working on that. It had to be after or around 1930, I suspect.

I understand he and Grandma were maybe at odds with each other. I know years later she remarried to a Mr. Archer. I can not even remember his first name because I wrote to him as GGrandfather Archer. That information I may find but they had no children, so a mote point.

I tried to contact the Merchant Marines, shipping lines and census records. I looked for data in Australia because some cousins thought he went there from Seattle. I did this in the 60's and 70's so maybe there is something more I am missing out there today.

I would like to have closure on what happened to Great Grandfather FOULK.

Frantic Friday

Friday's Frantic none ability to post. We shall see if this goes through. I tried for two hours to post a comment and a follow up and kept getting a warning I could not post. So much to learn so little time.

Thursday Muddle

Thursday was a day of muddle. Muddled through papers, muddled through documents.

Finding tidbits and facts and nothing concrete. See it was a day of Muddle.

MUDDLE MUDDLE MUDDLE may tomorrow be full of much less MUDDLE.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Tuesday's Tombstone

Daughter of James Fuller from Maryland to Ohio to Iowa. Madrid, Boone Co. Iowa Cemetery

Mother of Daniel Warden

Monday Madness Susan Madison

Susan Madison has become my Monday Madness

Susan Madison comes with dates and places in excess. My name may be a copy cat but she sure has not been helping me find her information or her family. She had some really cool children and some really neat descendants. Alas the birth has been listed from 1816 or 1818 from NH, VT, NY and MASS. Mass. seems to be the most prevalent one used. She hasn't fessed up with a marriage document yet either though family says she always said 1832 in MASS.

Then again I am looking in a section of the world that seemed to move boundaries on a almost daily basis. I guess they were trying to please everyone who was someone.

I have read town histories, county histories, census records, town council data, and any thing google has brought up on the Susan Madison search. I have read Mattison genealogy and rootsweb lists and Madison data when found. I have recently joined a new group for records in hopes something may surface. The Mattison group has been very helpful but she just is not materializing.

NO, she is in New England she is not from James Madison.

She married NOYES JONES ( NOIS -NOYCE) variants for first name some where around 1832 in either Mass or NY or maybe VT.

Family data says they were married near Holyoke, Springfield MASS. Family was raised Baptist.
She died in Chickasaw Co. IOWA 13 Feb 1881.

First child was born in NY 3 Sept 1834, named Henry George, Dropped Henry used George and moved to Minn. (2) wives. children

second child was Noel JONES b 1835 Mass( died young), gone before move to ILL.

3rd child was possibly Arvilla a girl, she married 2 Johnson bro.( Addison and Alfred), 1 died she then married the other one,
children

William Harrison died Murfeesboro, TENN CW battle,

Calvin Fay* b 1843 Rensselaer Co NY probably in JONES HOLLOW on JONES RD. where the Grands Uncles and Ggrandparent had lived. (Silas JONES SR)b 1721 Ri died around 1802 Petersburg, NY. Calvin and William Harrison were in the same CW unit,

Jennie born 1847, m

Lucy born, and m Fred Apel in IA or ILL

Charles E was last b 1850 Rensselaer Co. NY (d 1916 in IA). He married a Betsey BARTLETT also from NY. His daughter was my Dad's favorite Aunt. He always called her Aunt Fanny. She was really a cousin. Family has moved to Wheatland, Wyoming at this point of my Dad being very small less than two years old.

When the family moved from Rensselaer Co NY to ILL Noel JONES was already gone. The time frame was after 1855 pre 1860.
Calvin and Harrison( as family called him) enlisted in the same unit in ILL.

After the war the family moved to area near Nashua, IA. It seems all their land was always on borders of nieghboring county.

Calvin mar Hannah YOUNG (line from Maine) 5 July 1868 Butler Co IA ( My chosen wedding date also)

My Grandmother said when she and Granddad were married Uncle Charlie took them to BLUE MOUND, MINN and sure enough I found their marriage record there. They went by horse and buggy. 1913

One census listed a George MADISON next to Susan Madison JONES in IOWA for one year. I can not find him to verify if he went back to NY or on west. I suspect he was a brother.

I also suspected Phiilip MATTISON was her Grandfather in MASS just total conjecture at this point.

As you can see I have tracked each sibling for data and clues. I have tracked other JONES families in hopes a clue may interlope onto the scene. I was amazed at the many listed places of birth but someone told me the boundaries kept moving so maybe a couple may be true and she same place but not all of them for sure. :>) NH is no where near MASS NY VT corner.

Anyone with information on Susan MADISON JONES or any of these children I would deeply appreciate hearing from you.
I can be reached at SusiCP@cox.net or SusiCP@aol.com or 619 690 1188

Susan Jones Pentico

My Ultimate Goal for Research on Husband's Kin

Since my sister in law and I have been researching together on their side of the family I have much I wish to share with her family also. I have not done all his lines but some have been very intriguing and he has learned he is not a latecomer, like he thought he was.

Some of his family on his Mother's side came late to USA from around 1850 to 1890. He was not aware that there are many lines in his family that have been here almost as long as mine to early 1700's and maybe even to late 1600's.

Due to his last name being such an elusive find we have dug for almost 49 years for information on his surname. We are still digging. If we break the barrier we will feel we have made a major accomplishment for the family.

Recently attending a conference in Burbank has helped us to open doors to maybe find answers. I can not tell the Blogger's Group, (some of whom I have known for years and some I recently met) how very informative and helpful their two hour venue was to our research.

I talked to Sis (Mary) and we thought we have nothing to loose so we will try this new method in hopes of answers. We are thrilled with what we have learned so far.

Fred also has late arriving Germanic ancestors that came to the USA. His mother, Louise Jipp Pentico's father was from Germany. We have found one living descendant of kin there and immediately after a bad winter there we lost touch. We have no idea what happened to the person. She was a JIPP also from Schleswig_Holstein and the town family was from.

Since arriving in late 1800's we felt there would be kin to find who may have family stories of the family. We have a few stories but not a lot documented.

So I split my time between my research and my husband's family for our children's future information. It is truly more fun doing it with someone who shares the same passion as you do while researching. As humans we look at things differently and it gives us a wider range of ideas to work with.

As we gather data, I share with her and then save to disc for future development for the children and grandchildren. I may have found a child that will take up the cause down the road. Maybe another relative of the line that can help in the future, will take up the cause.

This is also a good practice if you are doing research of any line to share with someone else in case something happens to your home or data that is not expected. Again I use much the same practice for Fred's lines I am helping with as I do for my lines.

It is a blessing also because when your bogged down on a family surname you can move to a new field and practice different approaches and when you come back to work that surname again you are more revitalized and can see different perspectives for research.

I suspect a major key is sharing with someone else when one is seriously hindered in finding results. We are to much a creature of habit and repeat errors and thoughts and have to make ourselves move out of rut and into new era of research.

Hopefully we will find resolve on his PENTICO, NANKE, JIPP lineages. BROWN, HENDRICKS, and other lines we have been blessed with active cousins doing research. Mary and I found the way back on Brown, that was so much fun. We are stopped in Virginia with them at this time early 1700's. Hendricks also an old line in the USA. TATUM we are just beginning to look at but they are old VA lineages that moved to Tennessee.

My Ultimate Genealogy Goal

My goal is to update family every other year on the updates found on their ancestors. Down the road I have two books started I would like to finish. One has already been well received for wanting me to publish soon.

I hope to be able to do research for at least another ten years maybe longer. If I succeed, I can then put the mini packets together for turning into the Library of Congress and Allen County Library for future family use. Other places that may be important to family will also be considered. Chula Vista Genealogical Society, Cornerstone Clues( Greene Co Pa), NEHGS, OGS and Iowa Genealogy Society and other places family are dominately settled are my alternate places of choice besides children and grandchildren to have their own copies.

I hope I am doing the timing thing appropriately. I have grandchildren with needs and family that comes first always. I figured five years ago that I had to assess where I was at and what I wanted to do for some form of completion. The Genealogical Research truly never ends until your time runs out or your body gives up on you.

I try to keep a mental log of what I am doing, where I am at and what I need to move forward with. I had a personal log but that ended up being more tedious than worth my time. I may go back to it down the road. I can say if you get distracted easily you need to
develop a method of keeping a written log of what is done and what you need to do to see your progress. This needs done in the research side to make sure you do not repeat your search's and waste time. I try to set January aside yearly to go through older files and data to see what I found long ago that may be pertinent to today's files. I always find data to use. Alas I probably safe to much but it is fun to go through old files and find things you almost forgot you had received and some times do completely forget you have received it. :>)


A medical situation brought to fore that fact we are human and will not be here forever. Our time is not our own it is given us until our time is up. If the body is willing and the spirit is able I do plan on completing the research in segments. I gave up years ago on getting each individual direct line back to the water and across the pond.
The data that was done by others, and I was lucky and did not have to do it I have skimmed for errors and corrections. Somehow we learn more doing corrections than first time research. I think it makes us more aware of how close to error we can become and how careful we need to be to others feelings and efforts.

Ironically, my goal was to be a speaker and share my knowledge with others since I have been doing this for so very many years. I do not know if that will ever come to existence. That would really be fun, to do. I love to travel and see places and to be able to mix with genealogy just makes my spine tingle.

Blogging and Genealogy by the Lemon Grove Group

After having such success with a blog of mine that the Bloggers Group convinced me to try. I took the "Bloggers Group" thoughts to the genealogists who meet in Lemon Grove and we are going to see if it works for them also. Blogging does have a major place in genealogy and I can attest to it. Thomas McAfee, George Morgan, Pat Richley, and other members of the panel gave some very strong evidence of positive results.

Having suspected as humans, we are creatures of habit or rote. We repetitively do the same motions over and over so we repeat our mistakes and we miss the good clues that can be gained by clean, concise information.

I like to advocate that one takes January to refresh their research and review their old files for clues that have been filed away and maybe even forgot one has. I like to see one develop a good habit of posting a clean query on any site they post to.

I have been observing the ROOTSWEB lists and the constant missing information generates more questions to see if one can help, has information to help or maybe even may connect to them. One does not need to have all the facts. Or at times I just delete it because to much work involved to get the information that should have been presented in their haste to look for information. Yes, I have been guilty of the same thing. Some how I think when we had to set down and write a letter to the society for help or courthouse etc we were more thorough with our writing or speaking. If I am in a hurry, I pick up the phone and ask the questions directly. It works, it really works.

Facts are what we are looking for, one does need to post a clean query that helps others to help them.
I love the idea that bloggers suggested about using a story format. I think it helps one to give better information.

You may only have a last name, or a first name or no name but you share the data you have on the factual name and then
you can relate the potential thoughts for additional kin. You may not have a birth date but you may have a child's birth date or death. You can have a death date and no place, all these can be added to the story and when someone reads the
information then maybe one of your clues, thoughts or concepts will click with another person and you can have a working
relationship to find the end results.

No, we do not always have instant success and we have become a nation of instant wants, needs( I do not think so) desire yes.
Patience is a major virtue even in genealogy. Good things come to those who wait. Some one said that once.
A book may fall off a shelf, a person sends the wrong email only to find it was better than the right email, you walk a cemetery for a friend and find your missing link on a tombstone, ( yes this happened to me in Wyoming).

One never knows where the next clue may come from. A magazine (Remininsce Magazine) carries many old times stories and seldom do you hear people use it as a source. Readers Digest can have many old great family stories shared over the years.

I love small town newspapers because of the data that they put in them. Names, places, events and age not a limit to knowledge printed for research. The columns that go back to 30, 50 and 80 years ago are full of tidbits for family in any certain region.

Has anyone taken the time to research COOK BOOKS? Yes, there are cook books that are genealogical in nature. I have three myself printed by off shoot family lines. One is from Pennsylvania with many old German Dutch type recipes along with Ukrainian etc, another is from Ohio printed by the Taylor family. One of my favorites is one I got at a garage sale when young living in Coronado and bought the Ebell Society of Santa Ana Valley Cook Book printed in 1926. California. Each recipe in these books has the presenters name attached. The one I have from Sonoma County has many classmates MOM's names in the book. They are so much fun. Thanks Virginia Malnati for acquiring it for me, my parents family friend.

More sources not looked at are postcards, I had an awesome collection until the Navy moved us by CoroVan to Hawaii and they (postcards) and my address book never arrived. I kept cards from my kin all over the USA from WW2 to 1967 when we moved.
I can never replace many of them but I go to Antique Malls and shops and watch for post card. I lost contact with many great Navy friends then. I have found two since returning from HI and the age of home computers. I lost tidbits of information and signatures of many people long since gone. I love picture post cards. Do you realize they have them of court houses, statues,
history plaques of the area, famous people. Have you ever been to Cody, Wyo. and seen his statue, ever been to McPherson, Kansas and seen McPherson's statue? On this vein I could go on for almost every county and of course every state for information not normally considered in doing research. I lucked out in Michigan getting to go through four bins of postcards and I was able to replace 25 of mine that were lost and I also took others that now fit in the family realm of things, either via place or people. The one recently given me and I copied is of my Great Uncle as a contortionist in a circus and has his picture and his being bent like a pretzel. Yes we had more than one circus performer in my Mom's side of the family.

So besides, farmers, carpenters, judges and clerks, school teachers and politicians of old there were many other professions to look into. Some times this comes out in a Probate packet with the tools of that persons trade is auctioned off or given to living member of family to continue the trade. Blacksmiths today are a high paid worker and very hard to find yet their is major demand for them yet.

So as you write your story to present to a blog think of all these things and give yourself a chance to find that Elusive Ancestor.
I want to say thanks to those Bloggers who really impressed me with their thoughts because it has already found me a BrickWall partially dissolved.

Silent Wednesday

Obviously will remain very silent.

Silent Wednesday

/Users/susancpentico/Pictures/iPhoto Library/2007/06/24/PICT0215.jpg

Tina Sansone asks about joining a Genealogical Society?

Tina Sansone commented on Facebook about joining a Society. She said Genealogical but I say either Historical or Genealogical because some places do not have genealogical groups or they are joined together.

I am a firm supporter of Societies. The advantages are many. As a member you can call on fellow members for assistance, and receive an great response. Societies carry in the file cabinets, Surname cards of people looking for various names, name of people wanting to contact other people researching same names. Many times it can get you into the Court House records with out a disruption. They (the community ) knows your supporting their cause.

Yes, I have my favorite societies but that makes one no better or worse than the next. Sometimes they are only as good as the people who join (near and far) and share data and information. If you can not donate time due to distance try to donate a nominal amount of cash to help with incidentals. I was blessed and helped one society acquire a new computer, I had been given a gift and passed it on to the society for the thanks that so many had done to help my family with our research.

:>) Our family lines (many) came from this county and the two counties next door. So it was helping all that was in the region and sharing. Even thinking a trip there and it's cost and then giving them $5 ever so often if you write for a request. I always add extra for them.

Having been a President, Vice President, Program Chair and Membership Chairperson I am fully aware of the needs a society can have.
Filling peoples requests, doing lookups and keeping things running smoothly need recognized by small things. Sure large donations are very grateful but it is the small daily helpers that fill the empty spaces.

A Society can put you in touch with information your not aware may exist. The idea being, a friends data that they have at home is not in the library. What may be stored on a shelf and almost forgotten. I had an experience of that nature.

The book was almost 150 years old or older when I saw it. It was an album started in the 1830's.

The society can print your query or comments for others to see and it can go to other libraries and societies that suddenly may pick up on it and find you even more information.

I love the friendship that it creates and the warm that is shown when you actually finally grace their doors after many years of requests. I learned twice as much on that one trip than I have on many others and it was due to the association with the society prior to my going to the area.

I also let them know I was coming and what I would be looking for at the time I arrived. Would you believe they had 9 books setting on the desk by printer for me to look at when I first arrived. Yes, there was data in everyone and I gleaned about 30 more before my ten days were up.

I even gave up another library trip to meet some of the distant kin, a distant cousin had unknown to me contacted for us to meet and share. It was a trip of a life time and now so many of them have passed on, I am so grateful I went and I knew them in writing before I knew them in person.

I still get a note once in awhile if something comes in letting me know of information. O yes and I still belong to them.

I also think you should belong to a major society:NEHGS or NGS or OGS are my favorites. They being of a large nature
can offer even more assistance and observations regarding research. Some societies even have branches in other states.

There is also the Service Organization you can join. Some are more political than others some are very genealogical in nature, this depends on the makeup of the organization I suspect. They all fill a need and we should embrace those needs as we can afford and can share with them.

Today I received a note from our local German Society that it will be disbanding if all agree due to lack of participation.
This hurts my heart. I am sure that at least 1/3 or our local large group has Germanic ancestry and could help keep it going.
Yes, you may in your local area get asked to help the group. So be it, the more you help the more you learn. I normally find it's in the helping that later I will receive. One may not know where or when but it always comes back tenfold.

So as Tina asks please consider joining a society either where your doing your research at or in your local area or both.

I belong to many various states societies due to research and help. Most of the fees are less than a tank of gas or one trip to the local LDS Library. Join Join Join. Every State has one of one kind or another and almost every county has something akin to this affiliation.

Tracking down the Elusive One

http://brickwalls.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tracking-down-the-elusive-one

I have posted on another page data on the Elusive member of the family. Since Randy suggested we post who we
are really hunting for. Thought this might be the way to go and see if any one with these names has
any other information to share.

I with the land record which Mary and I read and was in her cousins hands in 1978 could be found since Clearfield Co says the no longer have any records.

It is a real shame how so called genealogists have ripped off repositories and court houses and left others out in the cold.

Now with the libraries in the financial bind I worry how much more will go wasted before rescued.

Suggestions are welcome and please support the Libraries of all our states and the L of C.