Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ~ Genea-Santa letter

From Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!  It's Saturday Night - take some time from the Christmas shopping and wrapping frenzy - and have a little Genealogy Fun!!  Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.  Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented dreams:

1)  Write your Genea-Santa letter.  Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy?  What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list?  They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue your ancestral quest.

2)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook status or comment to this post.

Dear Santa,
I think I have done a pretty good job of keeping track of all my sources this year.  I have made progress in my filing and updating my tree. I have met some new family and helped out some fellow Genies.  This year could you please bring me:

1.  The birth and death dates of my Gaertner & Nouvier family in France.
2.  The time to finish my Huguenot Lineage Application.
3.  The location in Germany my Rheinlanders came from.
4.  And last but not least, an Ipad! 

Thank you Santa!
kelly

Non-Paternity Events in Your Family

On the Transitional Genealogist's Email List this past week they have been discussing Non-Paternity Events vs. Adulterers.  Quite interesting I might say and if you are interested you can read the emails on the archives page at: TGF list  

Everybody has them in their families, the only difference is, do they talk about it or do they stuff the information in the back of the closet and in hopes that no one would come looking.  In my family there are two known non-paternity events, at least two that we know about currently.  One event was a secret and the other was just out there and everyone knew.  There is one adulterous relationship back in early Maryland that is rumored in the family, but that has yet to be proven.  We'll talk about that juicy bit another day...

My Granny's (Dollie) "non-paternity" event occurred in 1909 in Putnam County, Ohio.  The story goes that Carrie got pregnant from someone who was boarding at their house and worked on the railroad.  Frank & Samantha Littrick (Carrie's parents) sent Carrie away to a "farm" to have her baby.  Meanwhile, Samantha stuffed her dress to imitate a pregnancy.  When Carrie came back Samantha "had" her baby.  Dollie was raised as Samantha & Frank's child and Carrie was married off a couple of years later.  Carrie had nothing to do with Dollie's upbringing and did not see her much at all during her life. This was told to me by a few different cousins, but according to Dollie's children they knew nothing about the whole story (hence the reason it was a secret in our branch of the family).   Dollie's original birth record lists her mother Carrie and an unknown father.  All of Dollie's other records list a variety of combination of Samantha, Carrie and Frank as parents. To date, nothing has been found to point to a father for Dollie.

Our other "non-paternity" event was for my other side of the family.  My Great Grandmother, Ollie Minnie Laymire was working on neighboring farms in WV for extra money for the family when she was raped, according to her daughter, my Grandmother.  She gave birth to Rex Posten Laymire in 1918, two years later she married my Great Grandfather (John Rogers) and he "adopted" Rex and his name was changed.  As with Granny's birth, we don't know who Rex's father was, but our only clue is the name Posten.  There were people with the surname Posten in the area at the time that Ollie was living in WV.

I don't know about you, but I would choose to have the stories put out there and talked about.  Obviously it is a tender subject with some, (you should have been there they day I confronted my Grandma about Dollie!!) but don't you think that the family has a same right to the information about how they got here as the person with the knowledge?  My advice would be to step lightly but don't let the stories disappear with the last generation.

Kelly

The Frank & Samantha Littrick Family

John & Ollie Laymire Rogers, holding son Rex

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Jean Michel & Elizabeth (Nouvier) Gaertner

Recently, I discovered that my Gardner family were buried at the same little church cemetery in Canal Fulton, Stark County, Ohio as my Rheinlander family.  Jean Michael (John Michael) Gardner and his wife Elizabeth Nouvier are buried at St. Philip & St. James Catholic Cemetery.  Unfortunately, even though the cemetery readings show a gravestone for John, there is not one now.  Elizabeth's stone can be seen above.

Jean (John) was born to Jacob Gaertner and Marie Anne Meyet on 20 Feb 1800, in Arzviller, Moselle, France.  Elizabeth was born 4 Feb 1807, probably the same area in France as John.  They were supposedly married 5 Feb 1828 in Brouderdorff, Moselle, France.  I have not been able to document their marriage date yet.

According to the 1850 Summit County, Ohio census, the family came to the US in 1830 as their first child was born somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. They went on to have six more children, including my ancestress, Margaret born 12 May 1843, Summit County, Ohio.

Kelly

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week is:

1)  Go to the AnyMaking website (http://anymaking.com – it’s FREE to use) and …
2)  Doctor some of your priceless photographs using one or more of their photo effects to turn your photo into a cartoon, into a puzzle, into a wanted poster, etc.  Try it, it’s fun.  You can spend hours doing this.  Think about Christmas presents for your family or friends… [Note that if you want decent size photos - or real puzzles, portraits, etc., you'll need to subscribe to their Premium service.]

Do you have those cute unlabeled photos in your family?

I like engraved tombstones a lot....

What can you come up with?
Have fun!
Kelly

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Guy Daniel Rogers

 Guy Daniel Rogers was the second child born 3 March 1922 to John Robert & Ollie Minnie (Laymire) Rogers in Rowlesburg, Preston County, West Virginia. 

Guy spent his early years in Rowlesburg with the family.  Shortly after John and Ollie were divorced, John took Guy and their other son Richard to Rochester, New York.  There he grew up and enlisted in World War II. 

Guy served in the Asian Region.  During his enlistment he wrote letters to his sister, Ruby.  Unfortunately, Guy never made it home to the U.S. Guy drowned in Manila, Philippines on 9 February 1944 and is buried at Fort Bonifacio, Philippines.

Kelly

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - "I Like It"

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - "I Like It" from Randy Seaver!
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  A Facebook meme for women went viral this week - the "I Like It" meme which garnered responses like "I Like It ... On the Couch" or "I Like it ... on the Table."  The subject was "purse" - where to put their purse.  The mind boggled for awhile with some of the responses from supposedly proper genealogy ladies.

2)  Please write an "I Like It" post on the theme of "I like doing genealogy research" someplace, and why.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment or note on Facebook.

I like to do genealogy at Special Collections in the Akron Summit County Public Library, Akron, Ohio!  
Special Collections, Akron, Ohio 
They have the best Librarians, who are very knowledgeable and helpful.  They can track down just about anything you are looking for!  You can tell they really love their jobs.  They also have an awesome collection of not just Ohio, but other States and Countries.  They are always working on new projects and love feedback from their researchers, casual and professional.  There is always something new to read and check out. I love Special Collections!


Where do you like to research?

Kelly