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.
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.
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 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.
So looking forward to 2020, I have all sorts of projects and goals in mind. It is going to require me to be a bit more organized with my time and with my research.
Genealogy Projects for 2020
File a DAR supplemental application for my daughter through her paternal grandma’s line.
Clear the DAR Additional Information Requested to connect Sarah Knowlton Coolidge to Benjamin Knowlton.
Highlight an ancestor once a month on the blog.
Submit an application to Associated Daughters of Early American Witches.
Submit an application to Daughters of Union Veterans.
Submit a supplemental application for a new patriot David Weatherwax.
Break through a few brick walls including finding a death date for Henry Bass.
Plan a few local day research trips to Brooklyn (Holy Cross Cemetery, Canarsie Cemetery, trips to the municipal archives and family history centers.)
Work on detangling the Preston line.
Try to take a class on Jewish Research, Italian or Irish Research.
I knew right away this entry would be about Henry M. Bass. I don’t actually know if he was a thief but he is indeed a scoundrel.
Henry M. Bass was born 24 June 1886 in Warsaw, Duplin County, North Carolina. The son of John William Rufus Bass and Emma Faison Best Bass. The only census he appears on with his family is at the age of 14 in the 1900 United States Census.
By 1909 he is in New York where he appears as the father on a birth certificate of an Edna Bass.
A Bass cousin shared this photo of Henry Bass probably taken around the 1900 census.
I see some familial resemblance to my husband and his brothers. While researching Henry, Ancestry.com kept hinting at this record for a William Kirk with an alias of Henry M. Bass and for the longest time I said it couldn’t possibly be him.
I am beginning to come round to the possibility that this may be the same person. As mentioned above Henry Bass appears on the Birth Record for an Edna Bass born in 1909.
In his father’s obituary of 1914 Henry is listed among the surviving children.
When his mother died in 1915 he is not mentioned at all.
According to the NYC Marriage Index, Henry Bass married Mary Hartmann the mother of Edna Bass in December of 1914. Nowhere do I find Henry and Mary living together and their Daughter lived with a couple as a boarder and later foster daughter as early as 1910.
In 1917, Henry Bass and Marguerite Bruchs have a son Robert B. Bass in Chicago. So while I am not sure that Henry M. Bass and William A. Kirk are the same person I do have a reasonable assumption that Henry M. Bass is a scoundrel and something must of happened for him to be totally omitted from his mother’s obituary.
I will admit that I am not a real sciencey person. Most of it goes right over my head. In school science bored the tears out of me. The only science I could somewhat handle was psychology which is why 90% of the science in college was different psych classes with the exception of biology 101.
Anyway I digress, the science of DNA and genealogy confuses me to no end. I understand barely enough to get by and am thankful to Blaine Bettinger for his work and charts to make it somewhat easier to understand.
I have taken a DNA test along with my parents, my husband and several other family members and it was nice to see how nicely we were related. Have there been surprises? Absolutely.
One of those was the potential discover of a half-aunt to my Mother-in-law through her grandfather Henry Bass. (Thank you Ancestry for ThruLines). I am still piecing that one together but the DNA numbers seem to be right. Now to find the rest of the documentation I need on that one.
Someday when I have time I would love to figure out how go through each of the DNA lines and delve deeper. I would also love to attend some DNA classes but am scared that my eyes will glaze over with the science of it all. I am lucky I even know what a centimorgan is.
For me this prompt was tough. I haven’t been to a courthouse or a town hall in ages, that isn’t saying that I haven’t found legal documents anywhere.
Right now I have a super long list of things I would like to find at a courthouse and I even have plans to visit the Surrogate’s Court in Clinton County when I visit in May because I want to look at the probate record of David Weatherwax with my own eyes. So for this prompt I decided to share all the records I really want to look at.
Probate/Guardianship for Beverly Beardsley (d. 1815) – location Essex Co, NY.
Probate of David Weatherwax (d.1841) – location Clinton Co, NY.
Murder trial transcript for the man who killed Berlindo Moro (d. 1927/8) – location Queens Co, NY. (also need to find all the Long Island Star Journal articles).
Court Records for Henry Bass aka William Kirk (from 1913) I have records of him at Sing Sing trying to determine if this is my Henry Bass.
Annulment proceedings of Patricia Moran and Robert Bass. I have the final decree but I tend to be nosy.
I am sure there are more but I think these ought to be a good start and realistically I know we will probably never see the annulment proceedings everything else should be fair game though and it will satisfy my curiosity.
I have been mulling the topic of this post for a few days. Trying to figure out where to go with it and trying to figure out if there was a big A-Ha moment in my research and I really couldn’t come up with anything.
Looking back I would have to say the biggest surprises would have to be in my husband’s family. Researching his family has been fun and interesting as everything I learn is new to me.
The first surprise, I would have to say is when we did his DNA test in early 2018.
I was surprised by the amount of Norwegian ancestry he had, though he wasn’t as his grandmother had always told him he had it but he hadn’t paid attention. The 16% is in line with having 2 Great Great grandparents who were born there. I am still trying to learn more about Neils Osborne and Bergetti Netland Osborne and their life before the United States.
The other surprise on his DNA is the European Jewish. I am thinking that has to do with his maternal Great Grandmother’s line Marguerite Brucks Bass, as her parents were from Germany.
As I said previously his entire tree is a surprise to me.
As you can see there is a lot of Irish in there. I will admit as there is so much Irish it is super slow going for me. I am honestly thinking the next time there is an institute or conference I need to get my feet wet with Irish Genealogy.
I did find his Butler and Hurley lines came from Canada and spent several years their before coming to the United States. I haven’t found them entering Canada from Ireland as of yet but I am sure I will.
I am excited to see what the next surprise I can find on his tree. It is an ongoing process and I am sure I will fill in more and more blanks as we go.
We all know about those shaky leaves on ancestry. See these leaves here they sit for a long time. These in particular because they deal with Irish Ancestry. I you look you will see a lot of Peter, Marys and Bridgets. They give me a headache after a while. Decoding a leaf for me is a long process. If the hint is another tree, I hit the ignore button. While trees are great hints for a starting point the facts have to be verified so I would rather not have any preconceived notions.
The following trees I am trying to set up research questions for and concentrate on finding answers. Having a research plan will hopefully keep me more organized and help finish some lines.
This is the Maxwell tree. This one has so many fabulous names. I am going to start with who was Byrd C. Maxwell and some basic facts of his life.
Another thing that hints from Ancestry that I love and do spend time perusing is photos. I stumbled across this one of Byrd Maxwell.
Byrd is seated in the front row and he looks like a character. I wonder the stories he could tell.
Below is what I have termed the Hoffman family tree. Charles Hoffman is actually a Robinson. HE was adopted. I am in search of his actual obituary and not the copy I found online.
I also love the fabulous names in this tree including George Wesley Collison and Cornelius Collison. These families came from the East and moved west. I am trying to piece together Cornelius Collision and am having a hard time as their is either another Cornelius or it is possible the had 2 families (not unheard of). I recently bought some poster board to see what I could find out. Sometimes I have to revert back to old-fashioned paper and pen research to figure things out.
Here is another tree I am loving. This one has some fabulous names. I am trying to flesh out some Revolutionary War Ancestors for someone. I am also trying to find the immigrant ancestor on the deeply Irish side. This tree currently has over 200 hints I need to review. I timed myself one day. Each hint takes me around 5 minutes to decide if it is correct.
This last tree I am loving. I showed you a portion of this family in my last post about Israel and Golde Angert. This is a different branch but equally as interesting. Number one, what a fabulous name Monteville is.
Also that Sylvanus Judson is a twin. This tree has so many names on both sides speaking to me that I am deriving several questions including the first one of who is Rose Gross. We know she was adopted but we need to find out more. This is where the release of the Birth and Death Records that Reclaim The Records is pursuing is so important.
I am thinking of offering a history of one ancestor snapshot – 30 minutes of research for the fee. If interested email me at Chiara@decodingthefamilytree.com and we can chat.
Decoding the Family Tree 