Catching Up on Some Chronicles

I should be posting Chronicles on social media using prompts about my family. But sometimes you get stuck and then you fall behind, which is where I am at presently. So I have decided to post them here from now on and should I stay on schedule, I’ll post them on Instagram as well.

Here is a prompt from March – it’s the day in the life of an ancestor, I’ve opted to write about my 2nd-great-grandfather, Arthur Dunbar.

Arthur Dunbar

Today I’m discussing the day in the life of an ancestor. According to the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census, Arthur J. Dunbar, my 2nd-great-grandfather on my mom’s maternal side, was a farmer. In the 1910 Census, it specified his farm as a “general farm”.  Until I can find a copy of the Agricultural Schedule to determine exactly what his farm had, I’m going to assume a general farm is your basic farm – with vegetables and animals. 

As I decided to dig deeper into the best crops for Potter County, PA I learned that most farms were best suited for dairy and poultry farms and potatoes! (No one loves potatoes more than me). Farming back in the early 1900’s was hard work (it’s hard today) but you didn’t have tractors or mechanical tools at this time to make life a little easier.  You got up early in the morning and would plow the land using your own strength or that of animals (most likely a horse or a mule). You worked hard all day, from sun up to sun down, ending the day by eating dinner with your family and going to bed early so you could get up and do it all again the next day.  Arthur was the father of 3 girls, so it’s not likely that they were able to help out as much as he may have liked. 

This is a photo of the 40 acres that my dad now owns in Woodsfield, Ohio (it was originally owned by my grandfather, Leroy Blair)

Arthur died at the age of 43 of polio.

A New Research Trip

I’m preparing for another research trip to the Pennsylvania State Archives this week. I’m so excited as it’s a pretty new building that has only been open for a month or two (I think) and I’m going with my PA Ancestors group that I’ve been either listening to via a podcast since 2019 I believe – and a group I’ve been interacting with via Zoom for a bit so needless to say I’m excited that I get to venture to the Pennsylvania state capital to hang out with some genealogy junkies for a day.

Finding Focus

My biggest obstacle so far has been trying to come up with what I’m going to research. I was so excited about just going and meeting my favorite podcast person in person (she knows I am a fan girl) that now that it’s the Monday before the trip I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to focus my research on.

I guess I feel that my people aren’t important enough to make it into the State Archives (probably because I don’t see them being fancy enough to make it into the Bedford County Archives). Not that my people need to be fancy or important, I just wish they’d be found.

Coal Mining

But the Pennsylvania State Archives seems to have a lot of information about coal mining and so a part of me has found myself making a list of names in my family (at least on my dad’s side) of those who were coal miners (so far I’ve listed a dozen men – on just my dad’s paternal side – 2 are my direct line ancestors) in a hope of trying to figure out the mines they may have worked in and a hope of finding out more information about the men themselves (possibly) and the companies they worked for. My next step is to begin researching the men on my dad’s maternal side.

Religious Records

Another topic listed under the Research Guide is that of Religion. As a person who hasn’t really taken as much time as she should to find the religious records of my ancestors, knowing the WPA surveys on church records could come in handy for me – and they are apparently at the Pennsylvania State Archives. I remember these being mentioned a great deal at PaGE last year (this was the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event that was put on by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania). So it’s one more thing I can look into should time permit.

Birth Certificates

I do have a birth certificate I want to get for my great-uncle, Donald Blair. When looking him up in the Birth Indices on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s website, he has no name but found his record due to it also listing his mom’s maiden name (Bertha Childers). I found when I received my grandfather’s birth certificate it noted that he was the fifth birth of my great-grandmother, when he should have been the 4th – so was there another child that I am unaware of? Did they make a boo-boo? I’m hoping that Donald’s says fifth too and that would resolve that. I’ve tried to find my grandfather’s older sister, Genevieve’s birth certificate to see what hers would say, but I have been unsuccessful in finding it. I’ve never found a birth certificate for the oldest child, Darrell Blair either, but do have his death certificate from when he passed away at 4 months old. On Vada’s birth certificate, the second oldest, it does state on her birth certificate that she was born 2nd.

You can see in the center underneath where it has “Vada Blair” written in red where it lists the number order of birth and it states “2nd”. This was found on Ancestry.com

Under the carrot showing Charley Wilmer Blair you can see that he is listed as the Number in Order of Birth is 5th. He should be fourth (Darrell, Vada, Genevieve, Charley Wilmer aka Leroy). This birth certificate I ordered up from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Social History

Lastly, if nothing else I would think there would be Pennsylvania history books there that will enlighten me on the social history of Pennsylvania. Not having been taught in Pennsylvania and learning the specifics of Pennsylvania history I am sure there is something to be learned on the shelves, or even possibly in a museum-like atmosphere that I can gain knowledge on a day in the life of my ancestors. This could be from both parts of my family as I have to remind myself my mom’s family was from northern PA and sometimes it feels like it’s a night and day difference from “Mother Bedford”.

Overcoming My Feeling Overwhelmed

I am sure part of my frustration at this point is that I just feel a bit overwhelmed. I don’t want my trip there to be wasted – as it’s a 5-hour drive for me. But it will give me experience in an archive in what I hope to be a friendly environment.

I shall report more next week when I return from Harrisburg.

How Do You Find Records That Aren’t Where They Should Be?

I’m having issues. I’m trying to find the will of my fourth-great-grandfather, Heinrich “Henry” Ritchey who died in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1849. The only trouble is I can’t seem to find his will. I’ve looked through the probate records and the only Henry Ritchey was a different Henry Ritchey who died in 1856 (I was hopeful when I requested his will that it was MY Henry Ritchey who just took a long time for his estate to be settled, but alas, it was a different Henry).

So I then began trying to find records in the Orphan’s Court – but I’ve been unsuccessful there as well, looking at the index of the records on FamilySearch and also being led from the FamilySearch Wiki to the Bedford County Historical Society’s index and they don’t have a Henry Ritchey listed either.

So where is Henry?

I’m sure you wonder why is it so important that I find the will of Henry Ritchey? Easy, I have no documentation that states who the parents of my third-great-grandfather, George Ritchey are. I’m rather hopeful that I will find a will and it will state who his children are. I could only be so lucky for him to name everyone (which I’ll admit if he died intestate I had better chances of finding everyone).

So I’m at a loss. My guess is to look in surrounding counties, despite his living in Hopewell, Bedford, Pennsylvania – I suppose he may not have died there after all. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of researching can be hard and frustrating – but sadly, in the end, I know it will be worth it.

A screenshot of my profile of Henry Ritchey and his wife, Catherine Strickler. The children listed are who I have pieced together so far – other sites have more listed – but for some reason I am more limited but still realize I have no true blue documentation of those I have.

I’ve searched Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com (PA edition through my Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania subscription) with no luck. If I didn’t have a date of death I’d swear Henry is hanging with Andrew and Suzanna. (Insert laughing emoji here).

If you have any suggestions for me as I try to gather more pre-1850 information on my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Ritchey to tie him together with who I think is my 4th-great-grandfather, Henry Ritchey – by all means I am open to suggestions. I will continue to do the FAN Club and look up information on others who I believe are Henry’s children (the youngest child that I have for Henry and his wife Catherine was John Ritchey and he died in 1913 so there is a death certificate for him, and though it’s secondary information, Henry and Catherine are noted as his parents… so that’s something). Deep breaths and baby steps. I’ll get there.

Thank you in advance!

You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe

We knew it was only a matter of time before I wrote a review on a book about my favorite president. You Never Forget Your First is a clever titled book (or at least I think so) about our first President, George Washington.

One of the interesting quirks of this book is when you begin perusing the pages, it initially reminded me of reading someone’s resume… and to read George’s was interesting. Surveyor, Gentleman Farmer, Land Developer, if it weren’t for the “Virginia Militia Colonel (British Army)” and the “Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses” or even the “Commander in Chief of the Continental Army”, he would seem like an average man living in Colonial times. But George isn’t your average man.

I felt the author, Alexis Coe, did her due diligence as there were interesting facts about George I was not aware of, for example he apparently “took 2-impoverished girls to court for stealing from his clothes while he swam” and “named a dog Cornwallis”. The latter one made me laugh.

The book also includes a recipe for hoecakes, which was a regular breakfast in the Washington household. I found this fascinating, I could actually eat like George and this had me really happy.

She didn’t give a squeaky-clean version of George either. Ms. Coe brought to light how he switched out enslaved people in order to keep them enslaved. He was far from a perfect man, and you are aware he knew better which makes it that much more disappointing.

Overall, I liked the book, the one recurring theme of how shocking it was that a woman was writing about George Washington got old for me. I understand that not many women write about the founding fathers, and I may not have minded that she made the statement once, but it seemed she brought this to light several times, and I just felt like it took away from the actual topic of the book… which was George, not how she was a female writer.

If you are looking for a different, slightly more refreshing take on Washington’s life, then I highly recommend “You Never Forget Your First” as you learn a lot about our first president in a non-conventional way.

I’m Doing It Again

I have gone almost a month without a blog post. It just seems like I’ve been so busy and can barely find time to even work on genealogy – despite one of the things keeping me busy in January was a genealogy workshop where I focused on my 3rd-Great-Grandfather, George Ritchey. But I’m still investigating him so I’ll write about him when I get more answers (and I will get more answers – as my research just brought about more questions – don’t you hate that?).

So once again I’m participating in the 10 Days of Chronicles with my PAAncestors.com group. In this particular post I’m finishing up the last 5 days that I wrote about in January – but I’ll make sure I do another post about the Chronicles I’ve been writing for February. Denys has done an excellent job of coming up with prompts that make me think. Enough that most of my posts are coming late in the evening for the simple fact it takes me all day to come up with a proper response. 

Anyhow – here are days 6-10 for the month of January:

Day 6 I wrote about my 3rd-Great-Grandfather, Winfield Warner, and his involvement in the Civil War.

Day 7 we talked about a family home. Since I don’t have any photos of anyone closer to me, I posted the photo of the Ryther House in Bernardston, Massachusetts which was built by my 7th-great-grandparents.

Day 8 was the topic of family reunions – so I chose the descendants of my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mazie Warner to meet up with, as many are still in the Akron area.

Day 9 was reconstructing the day in the life of an ancestor. I chose my great-grandmother, Mildred Dunbar, as I inherited some of her clothes when she passed away and she babysat me when I was little.

On Day 10 it was discussing the birthplace of your ancestor so I chose to share the birth record from Sherborn, Massachusetts of my 7th-great-grandfather, David Ryther (though changed to Rider due to religious persecution). He was born in 1719.

This exericse is a great way to get little stories just written down about your ancestor. If you think you may want to sign up for March – make a comment and I’ll make sure I put a link for you to sign up. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

So this morning I got up, ate my breakfast, and grabbed my computer so I could start sorting things out with my Ritchey family as I’ve decided they are going to be my focus of the “Discover Your Ancestors Workshop” I am beginning Tuesday. I’m excited, I did one in the fall where I attempted to find Suzanna Akers before 1850. Shocker, I was unsuccessful – but all in good time. So this time I’m focusing on a different part of my family, the Ritchey’s, who I do know something about, mostly my 2nd-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Ritchey, but haven’t really delved in to them much further.

The rabbit hole I found myself in was when I looked at Ancestry and had 1 death date for my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Ritchey, and I had another in my software. So I decided to go over to FamilySearch to see what it had to say, the tiebreaker if you will (insert your laugh or eye roll here).

But I didn’t even make it to George right away because of the “tasks” or I guess they are now called “Record Hints” on the front page that I saw FamilySearch had waiting there for me. Have you ever worked on these? I often will click on these people and help “clean them up”. Most of the time it’s just a “hint” that FamilySearch has found, a document that needs to be attached to the person as a source. This can be done in about 30 seconds (my direct line people I can do it this quickly, either it’s them or it’s not). Others I will stay away from, as they will be people whose names I don’t immediately recognize and I don’t want to screw anything up on the big tree. But then I fix one person and see their wife’s name and down the rabbit hole I go, only to realize I need to probably spend way more time than I want to because I’m finding duplicate people so I need to merge people and move things around and that’s a project for another day (which is probably why the big tree is as messed up as it is because people really do have intentions of going back in and then they never do). Now I’m feeling guilty.

You can see the Record Hints listed on the right hand side of the graphic, starting with Martha Anne Dickens, John Fairhurst, then William Davidson Mitchell

But see how easy it was to go down that rabbit hole?

For the record, it was my software that was correct, the year was wrong on my Ancestry tree and has now been corrected to 1898 (there was a newspaper article that supported the date of 19 November 1898 which coincides with Probate starting in 1899). However, when I went to FamilySearch I was excited to see someone had apparently posted a photo of George Ritchey on his profile that I hadn’t seen (see what happens when you get so tied up with one set of grandparents, you ignore the others and miss fascinating finds). I was so excited to see this!

Anyhow – I’m sure I’ll share the photo in the near future as I learn more about my Ritchey roots. I hope everyone has a nice weekend – it’s quite blustery here this weekend as a polar vortex is hitting the area. I hear that the Buffalo Bills are willing to pay fans to help shovel out their stadium (here in Ohio we aren’t getting as much snow as we are just getting cold). I don’t blame Buffalo, though, you work hard for a playoff game with home-field advantage, and you don’t want to lose it.

#10DaysofChronicles

Have you begun your new year doing anything at all with your genealogy? I have – I’ve signed up for a writing challenge with the PAAncestors.com website where we chronicle about our ancestors each day for 10 days. It’s nice because they are short and sweet and to the point, approximately 150 words. So far so good.

We post our chronicle to social media. The main 2 that are friendly to hashtags are Twitter/X or Instagram. Not having a whole lot on Instagram I’ve opted to use it this time, but I also have the little option to have it shared on Facebook which allows my family to view it as well – and they tend to comment. It’s working out nicely too as I’m focusing this round of questions on my mom’s side of the family, specifically my Warner family.

Here are cropped photos of what I’ve shared on social media. I know it will be happening again next month on the chance you find that you are interested.

Day 1 I wrote about my great-grandmother, Mildred Laura Dunbar

Day 2 we had to use a map – so I showed the migration of my Warner’s from Bernardston, MA to Potter County, PA to Akron, OH

Day 3 was a marriage story – so I discussed Joel Warner and his “extra” marriage to Gratia Chapin (that never happened)

Day 4 was discussing how a historical event impacted your family so I discussed the boom of the rubber industry and why 2nd-great-grandmother, Mazie Warner, moved to Akron, OH

Day 5 discussed a specific occupation of our ancestor so I discussed how Oliver Chapin Warner, my 4th-great-grandfather was a lumberjack!

Halfway through the challenge – 5 days down, 5 days to go. Hoping you are working on your genealogy in some way to kick off the new year!

My 5 Genealogical Goals for 2024

Each year in the back of my mind I try to have some sort of goal for the next year. Any goals I had for this past calendar year I know I fell short as I feel as if I didn’t spend any time really working on my own family tree, but I do hope to change that in the coming year.

So here are my goals for 2024.

5) Make Some Headway with my Family Tree

This past year I have met a distant cousin because of this blog and our goal is to try to find out more about our shared 6th-great-grandfather, Philip Morgart. We know he is the father to Peter, but who are his other children? Who are his parents? We want to know!

And let us not forget Andrew Blair and Suzanna Akers – they are always in my thoughts and maybe this will be the year that I chip away at that brick wall (I can only hope).

4) Clean Up my Software

I am not always as good about entering my supporting information into my Legacy Family Tree software so I’m going to try to do better about filling in the missing pieces of information for all the many people in my family tree. Some may say why? But I work so hard to have an accurate tree, and if I don’t have the sources connected to my ancestors, then it could look like I’ve just plopped information into my program and not truly done the research.

3) Create a Locality Guide for Bedford County, Pennsylvania

With so many of my ancestors being in the vicinity of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, I’m going to work on creating a locality guide for this area of the world. For all I know one could already exist out there – if it does I really haven’t seen one, so this would be a helpful tool for me in my continued research.

2) Finish my NGS “Family Foundations” Course

I’ve done the first 2 sessions of the “Family Foundations” course offered by the National Genealogical Society. You have 6 months to go through a variety of modules that educate you in all types of topics related to doing your family tree. FamilySearch, Newspapers, Cemeteries, Vital Records, Research Plans, these are just some of the topics you learn about in the first 2 sessions. I still have part 3 to take covering Probate Records, DNA, Religious Records, and more! I really have learned a great deal taking these courses. They do have a cost (reduced for members) but it’s been well worth it.

1) Do a Better Job of Posting Here

I miss making discoveries that I can share here. Not only do I enjoy sharing what I find – but I have discovered a handful of cousins this way (not realizing when I began this that many people use a blog to do just that, not me – I just wanted what I learn to be out there and possibly help others). So I am going to once again focus on my family history and try to go back to introducing not only stories about my family but new techniques and websites as I did in the past because quite frankly, it helped me to learn, too!

Here is wishing you all a wonderful and Happy New Year! May you achieve all of your own goals this upcoming year!

Family History Month

Today is the final day of October 2023 and did you accomplish anything for Family History Month? I didn’t really have a chance to work on my family history much, but I did seize some time to take some classes that I’ll share with you.

PA Ancestors

I belong to a group on the website PA Ancestors and I began the month by taking a class entitled “Discover Your Ancestors Workshop”. It was very helpful – I found it allowed me to focus on my problem at hand (we worked on a brick wall throughout the workshop). Though I haven’t knocked my brick wall down yet, I do have a better sense of records I need to go through in order to find more information on Suzanna Akers (I focused on her alone as opposed to her and Andrew combined).

In case you are unfamiliar with PA Ancestors, it is a group run by Denys Allen and it focuses on Pennsylvania Genealogy. It began as a podcast and has grown into a group. Just so incredibly helpful as those of us who research Pennsylvania know it can be challenging.

NGS Class: Foundations 102

I also realized that I had not worked on my Foundations 102 class much since ordering it in early July (I thought I had done it in August) and since you have 6 months to complete it (you can get an extension) I figured I’d better get a move on as I was on the second module still.

I did manage to finish module 2, which was all about using FamilySearch.org, I am now working on the module about Vital Records. I still have a deep dive into Census Records, Newspapers, and Cemeteries to go before it concludes at the end of December.

This is a class you can purchase through the National Genealogical Society. I have found them to be quite interesting, some stuff I know, but other things I don’t. My goal is to complete all the classes they have in order to advance my genealogical education.

If you are interested in learning about the educational opportunities with NGS, click here.

Finishing Up the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event, or PaGE

I’ve also tried to watch all the recordings that I wanted to see and their corresponding Q&A videos for the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event, aka PaGE, that took place the first week of August. I spent the extra to have access to the recordings for a few extra months so I could watch everything (if they do this again I’ll know to work less and pay attention more during the live Q&A’s as they really tried hard to have those who attended interact throughout the week).

Some of the presentations were just phenomenal and I’m so glad I took the time to listen to each and every one as I still learned things that I might not have known before.

Most Importantly

I learned throughout the month I need to take the time to spend on my family history. I miss making the discoveries about my family and that feeling I get when I get one step closer to figuring out a monumental find. Between starting a new job, and my son being a senior… I feel like I’m in a whirlwind and never have time to just sit down and relax (when I do I instantly fall asleep, I’m typing this after eating a quick lunch so I hopefully will complete it).

I hope you were all able to make good use of Family History Month, if you made any discoveries please share them in the comments below. If you didn’t because you were busy, I totally understand. There’s always November.

Week #9: Gone Too Soon

As you all can see I am really behind in my prompts. I will do the best I can to catch up as I am getting use to a new job, which of course translates into a new normal. Now…. onto the next topic in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge. This week we celebrate someone who has gone too soon, and of course I think of the little ones who never really had much of an opportunity to spread their wings and fly and leave the imprint on the world that we are able to do as adults.

Marshall James Edmonson

Marshall James Edmonson was born on 19 October 1896 in Pennsylvania to James Coleman Edmonson and his wife, Phoebe Anna Blair. Marshall was the second child born to the couple, after older sister Frances Jane “Fannie” Edmonson.

Marshall sadly didn’t die of any heartbreaking illness right after being born like so many other children (I have many that have barely made it a day). Marshall survived infancy and lived to be 3-years-old, dying on 20 November 1899.

I was fortunate through social media to find out when and how Marshall passed away. Using the Facebook group “Old Bedford County PA Genealogy (Includes Huntingdon, Fulton & Blair Co)” I asked the following question:

Good Evening Everyone! I have a number of relatives from Bedford County – I know death certificates weren’t mandatory until 1906 – but is it possible that death certificates were done in Bedford County before then? I just found a first cousin twice removed that was born in 1896 and died in 1899 and was just curious if there was more to be found besides his gravestone I came across on Find a Grave. Thank you in advance (if this has been asked before I apologize).

I was very fortunate and received an answer to my inquiry with my first response. A nice gentleman responded with:

There were a few sporadic deaths recorded between 1852 and 1854, and then again from 1894-1906. Since it was voluntary to report deaths the registers are not complete however. I happen to have a copy of the Register of Deaths 1894-1906 Vol 2, D-G by James Boor and fortunately for you Marshall is listed! I’ll give you the data here: Date of record February 22 1900; Name of deceased Edmondson Marshall J; Color White; Sex Male; Age 3 years; Single; Place of birth Kearney; Date of death November 20 1899; Place of death Hopewell; Cause of death Drank dye; Duration of last illness 14 months; Place & date of interment Hopewell November 20 1899; Name of father and mother James and Phoebe Edmondson.

What’s more interesting is that I either forgot that the duration of his illness was 14 months or it never really sank into my little brain until just now. How horrible to have had your almost 2-year-old child accidentally drink dye and then be sick from it for over a year.

Little Marshall definitely died too soon, but it also shows how sometimes you can use social media to ask a question and get the answer you seek.