This week in the 52 Ancestors Challenge hosted by Amy Johnson Crow, the topic is favorite photo and WOW it is a tough one. I can’t pick just one so here are a couple of my favorites.
The first is of my husband’s great grandfather, Henry Bass. Henry was a bit of a scoundrel and not much is known about him. I am hoping with the release of the upcoming 1950 census I can fill the picture out a bit more.
Henry Morrissey Bass picture courtesy of Ancestry.com
The next photo is of my favorite ancestor Sarah Larkin Beardsley, MD.
Circa 1880
Sarah Larkin Beardsley is my 2X Great Grandmother on my maternal Grandfather’s line. I joined the DAR through Sarah’s Grandfather Lorin Nehemiah Larkin. The stories she could tell and the trails she blazed by becoming a doctor in the 1880s.
My Mom is currently getting a bunch of family photos from a family member so it will be awesome to see what she gets.
January 14, 2021 began a 14 Day Research Like a Pro Mini Challenge. I love these challenges because I use them to focus on lines I am uncomfortable searching like my husband’s Irish roots or this time I am working on my Italian Roots.
Searching my Italian roots ought to be fun because I do not read or write Italian and my genealogy books are all still in the garage in boxes. I really should move those things upstairs and get a desk so I can get back to work but I digress.
Day one was to come up with a research question and my original question was going to be when did my 2nd great grandmother Chiara Ludovico die but I know she died sometime after 1902 and the records for Chieti, Italy only go until 1900 so I figured that would be a very difficult task.
Last night I was poking around my tree trying to decide on a different question and I ran across her marriage record to my 2X great grandfather Michelangelo Moro. I found some one who was able to translate it on a facebook group and I now have the names of Chiara’s parents.
Translation number 1Translation number 2
Both of these translations gave me new information I did not have regarding both the groom and the bride. I now have the following questions and one may just become my research question for this mini- project.
When did Domenico Moro die?
Can I find birth records for Michelangelo Moro or Chiara Ludivico?
Who are the parents of any of the parents listed?
Can I find other records for any of the persons named here?
The other cool thing I found here is my Dad had mention San Salvo to me but we did not know where that fit in so now we do. Also we never knew that his Great-Grandmother was named Chiara before finding her on a ships Manifest in 1880. So this is going to be an interesting journey and while I like the Antenati website, I may take myself to a Family History Center to do this research as I will be able to save it on my computer easier and it is behind a wall. Thankfully the Family History Center is only about a 20 minute drive and has great hours.
So any ideas on which Italian Ancestor I should research next?
This week in the 52 Ancestors Challenge hosted by Amy Johnson Crow, the topic is favorite find. To this date I think my favorite find is about my 2x Great Grandmother, Sarah Larkin Beardsley. Sarah was born in Clintonville, Clinton County, NY in 1847 and sadly she died in April 1886 but she is truly a remarkable woman. Now let’s get back to the find.
I discovered a blurb about Sarah being inducted into the Michigan Medical Society in 1884 that means she had to be a doctor. So there was more research and let’s look at the 1880 Census for Ann Arbor Michigan.
On this 1880 Census we find Sarah with her husband Lesley Beardsley and she is listed as a Student.
On Google Books I found the Calendar for the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and listed inside is Sarah A. Beardsley as a 3rd year student.
from the 1880-81 Calendar for the University of Michigan.
Another search of Google Books yielded the In Memoriam Page for the Michigan State Medical Society, where Sarah is listed as deceased.
Sarah died in Valley Falls, New York in April 1886 of tuberculosis. I have found numerous articles about her in the New York newspapers for Clinton and Essex County to this date she fascinates me.
I also have a new favorite find. I have been trying to find out a death date for my husband’s 2X Great-Grandmother, a woman named Bertha Maier Brucks. Bertha was born in approximately 1863 in Germany. She emigrated to the United States and in 1887 she married Robert Brucks who also was a German immigrant. Robert died in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois.
After Robert died the family left the Chicago area after the 1930 census, I know that two of the daughters settled in the Washington DC area. Daughter Charlotte was a gifted pianist and attended Julliard and daughter Helen settled in Maryland.
I found Bertha in a Washington DC City Directory in 1954 but after that I couldn’t find her after that. She was living with her daughter Charlotte.
So this past weekend I decided to run an Ancestry search on Bertha and a new result for Find-A-Grave popped up but I wasn’t sure it was her so I ran her husband Robert and daughter Charlotte. I knew Robert was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago due to an obituary and his death certificate.
So I think this is my new favorite find.
Find A Grave Memorial – Photo Courtesy of MHunt.
This wonderful Find-A-Grave contributor has been going section by section and photographing Rose Hill Cemetery. So now I have a Year of Death for Bertha. So maybe now I will be able to find a death record for her.
When I saw the topic of foundations for the week, my Grandma immediately came to mind. I have many a memory of cemetery trips with my Grandma and Grandpa.
Who is my Grandma? Frances Mary Stewart was born 30 July 1922 in Clinton County, New York. The daughter of Charles Stewart and Mildred Shumway. Frances married Earl Elmer Witherwax 6 October 1940 in Schuyler Falls, Clinton County, New York. Grandma and Grandpa had 7 children and did many different jobs. She developed an interest in genealogy and she spent a huge amount of time researching my Grandpa’s family. She left me so much information and I have loved following through with her work. Sadly my Grandma passed away in 2004 in Washington County Arkansas and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her .
Coming from a family who are contractors, you know the foundation needs to be the strongest to hold up the rest of the building. So when I think of a genealogy foundation I think of my grandma. She was the heart of my family and the glue that held us all together.
I am excited to be starting the 52 Ancestors Challenge again and can’t wait to dive back into my family history after a crazy insane 2021.
Yes shrubbing out that tree and a DNA cousin have lead to a huge Rabbit Hole and it isn’t even a direct ancestor but when a good juicy story gets you hooked you follow.
I love a mystery and think I may of been a detective in a previous life. So I am working on shrubbing out the descendants of Benjamin Knowlton Coolidge and Olive Daby. Though I should also shrub out Benjamin Knowlton Coolidge and Betsey Black also since this family has some pedigree collapse going on and I discovered a triple cousin.
I am also working on creating a tree for my DNA cousin’s great great grandparents because I discovered a case of sisters marrying brothers, so we have a bit more pedigree collapse going on. Thankfully I have a couple of odd markers making the research go a bit easier with a somewhat common last name.
So one of my goals in the coming days is to actually work on some of my own research and scope out the Family History Center’s local to me. It will be nice to be able to access the records fairly easily. I have a list of records I need in my source box and my wonderful daughter said she wouldn’t mind going either. She likes doing research. I am thinking of doing a little 14-day mini-challenge, I did one last year with Nicole and Diana from Family Locket and Research Like a Pro and it helped me. I was able to find some great information and have a nice little report for it. The best part is it kept me focussed on one question.
So I am sitting here going down a rabbit hole and shrubbing along this tree, what are you working on in your tree.
So the past 2 days I have been answering some emails and working with DNA, if you know me I prefer digging through the records or traipsing through a cemetery than doing anything sciencey. Yes I made up a word. Anyway DNA requires sciencey work and while doing this I have uncovered a mess of what I call double cousins.
I am sure there is some correct term but my mind after very little sleep is not working at 100 percent capacity. Anyway my Daby and Coolidge lines are merging in more than one way. A DNA cousin messaged me and that lead me to Benjamin Coolidge and Olive Daby (Darby), who are my 3rd great-grandparents through my maternal grandfather. It also lead me to John Daby and Olive Bolton, who are the parents of Olive Daby making them my 4th great-grandparents.
This DNA cousin and I, along with the accounts I manage share several matches through these 2 couples. After getting some information I decided I should finish shrubbing out these 2 lines and maybe I would find what I was looking for.
Well I started with Miss Destina Coolidge who is the daughter of Benjamin and Olive. Destina married Thomas Bailey. Thomas Bailey had a wonderful obituary.
Part 1 of the Obituary that appeared in the Elizabethtown Post. Courtesy of New York Historical Newspapers.Part 2 of Thomas Bailey Obituary – Courtesy of New York Historical Newspapers.Part 3 of Thomas Bailey Obituary – Courtesy of New York Historical Newspapers
Sadly both Destina and Thomas died in 1902 only a few months apart. So in my shrubbing I learned that Lydia Bailey married a Hiram Daby. Hiram is somehow related to Olive Daby Coolidge Some ancestry trees have him as the son of John Lloyd Daby who is Olive Daby’s Brother but I haven’t verified it. I would venture a guess to say he is a cousin of some sort. Unfortunately his obituary gave very little family information.
Hiram Daby Obituary appeared in The Adirondack Record – January 25 1923 courtesy of New York Historical Newspapers.
Hiram and Lydia Daby had 2 children Maria who died in 1898 at the age of 21 and Warren. Warren’s Obituary was a beauty. It alludes to all kinds of family lore that I would love to prove. (Those documents are proving to be elusive. I have not shrubbed Warren’s children yet but at least I have the info to move forward.
Warren Daby obituary appeared in the Adirondack Record – Elizabethtown Post – March 29, 1956 courtesy of New York Historical Newspapers.
Shrubbing these lines is going to take a while, I need to bring them forward from the 1840s through the present day and you have heard me all talk about the black hole that is Jay, New York. This will be a fun journey and hopefully I will discover some useful bits as I try to figure these things out.
Long time no post. I have missed writing to you all. 2020 was an eventful year to say the least. Besides living through a pandemic, our family re-located from New York to Arkansas. We lived in a rental from October 2020 until May 2021 when we moved into our forever home. So Genealogy was on the back-burner, I did a little bit of research but not much.
Well it is now time to get back to the things I love and genealogy is one of them. Yesterday and today I have been responding to messages and e-mails and the passion is re-ignited. Since I am not doing 52 Ancestors this year I am going to have to discover new things to write about but I do have a couple of ideas planned.
One thing I did find while I was going through some papers was the elusive marriage certificate for Robert B. Bass and Patricia Moran, who are the parents of Barbara Ann Bass. So Gerard’s Grandparents. This was a breakthrough I needed as the wrong parents are listed on Barbara’s Death Certificate.
Marriage Certificate of Robert B. Bass and Patricia Moran, Married in Elkton, Maryland on 28 April 1941.
The importance of this document means I can complete a supplemental DAR application for my daughter and she will have patriots who fought in the American Revolution on both sides of her family. This would of made her Nana laugh and proud.
I have been working on filling in missing pieces of the family tree. especially shrubbing the tree out. This becomes especially helpful in the world of DNA. I have spent the last 2 weeks working on Gs family so I decided to look at one of my lines and see what I could do.
James Stewart was born March 1878, most probably in Clinton County. He is the sone of Joseph Gardner Stewart and Ella May.
He appears to live with his parents during all the census records I found him in beginning in 1880, 1892, 1900. I really knew nothing about him until I found a picture on Ancestry of the July 26, 1927 Plattsburgh Sentinel about a Funeral for James. It was a fairly long obituary.
When I find things like this I head to one of my favorite sites NYS Historic Newspapers. So I performed a search of 1927 and James Stewart. Oh poor James.
James died in a horrific car crash. The following are 3 different articles from 2 different papers The Lake Placid News, The Plattsburgh Sentinel and The Plattsburgh Republican.
The Plattsburgh Republican had so many details (one of the things I love about old newspapers. It gives me the 2 men in the car with James. It gives me where his brother William lived in NYC (how did I not know that William lived here in NYC). It also told me the type of car a Nash Touring Car. I had heard of Nash, I even think there was a movie about them though I could be wrong. So a quick google search to see what a Nash Touring Car looked like yielded this picture.
I think this is about a 1923 or 1925 Nash. Most of the pictures reveal that they were soft top cars. The guilt poor William must of lived with.
James Stewart died July 22, 1927 in Peru, Clinton County, NY. I am going to research and see if I can find the road they were driving on. I have probably been on it at some point growing up.
James Stewart’s funeral was held at the Redford Methodist Episcopal Church and he is buried in the Redford Cemetery from what I found he never married and never had children. He was 49 years old when he died and he should be remembered.
The prompt for week 14 is Water. I am going to follow the trend and continue with Gerard’s family as they are who I have been focussing on during this period of social distancing.
Gerard’s family is primarily recent Irish immigrants, as in post 1840 or 1850s except for a couple of his lines on his Mom’s paternal side which are German and English (I would say, haven’t gotten to the gateway ancestors on the Bass line). Those Irish immigrants then settled in NYC primarily Brooklyn.
His paternal great-grandfather James McMahon was born 12 November 1875 in County Limerick, Ireland. He arrived from Ireland 3 August 1893 aboard a ship named the Germanic. On the Census records and his naturalization papers he lists his occupation as a Longshoreman.
(1910 US Census & 1915 NY State Census)
A longshoreman is a dock worker who is a laborer involved with the loading and unloading of ships.
James McMahon died in early January 1956 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
Funnily enough Gerard’s 2X Great-grandfather on his maternal side also worked in a water based business. He owned a dredging company. Peter J. Moran was born April 1880 in New York. He died 23 October 1945 in Brooklyn, NY.
One of my future projects is too read about the William Beard & Co Dredging Company and seeing what it was.
I spent some time colorizing some old photos I had taken pictures of and oh my what fun that was. My Heritage has a tool to colorize your old photos in seconds. Here are a couple of photos that I had already in my computer. I can see this getting addictive really fast.
You know I had to start with my favorite relative Dr. Sarah Larkin Beardsley. I have an actual copy of this picture that I am going to redo this with.
Next up is my Beardsley Sibling picture. The men are George Beardsley and my 2X great grandfather Leslie Winchester Beardsley and their sister Helen Maria Beardsley Weston.
Then of course is my husband’s 2X great grandfather the infamous scoundrel Henry Morissey Bass that I am sadly still trying to piece his sad life together including his death.
and I had a couple of pictures of my grandma’s side of the family. We will start with Joseph Gardiner Stewart.
and my great grandmother Mildred Arvilla Shumway Stewart. This one I think I prefer the black and white version better.
and let’s finish with 2 of my absolute people in the world who I miss every day. My Grandpa and Grandma. I am not sure where I put the black and whites on my computer but here are the colorized photos.
Isn’t this just fabulous. I have a stack of photo’s from Gerard’s family that I am excited to try this on including my in-laws wedding photo.
To my family I would love photos to put in my tree and you can always email them to me.
(1910 US Census & 1915 NY State Census)
Decoding the Family Tree 