WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                                                 Charlie's Movies

SHARING THE JOY OF FAMILY HISTORY

I try to share my love of genealogy with my family.  Of course, after a few sentences come out of my mouth, the "glazed over" look appears on their faces.  So, I have learned to do in "bite size" pieces.  I try to make it interesting to them.  Yesterday, I found out that one of our relatives died in "Defiance, Ohio".  Well, those of you who are "Scandal" (the TV show) fans, know that the "rigging of the election" took place in Defiance, Ohio.  Since my kids watch the show, I thought this would be interesting to them.

I also purchased the DVD set of the 1st two seasons of "Who Do You Think You Are?" (the television series that is now showing on TLC).  I bought it for myself to enjoy watching the episodes again, to see if I got any additional clues for my research and to just enjoy someone else finding out about their roots.  I started watching the DVD a few days ago and something  happened.  My daughter (who is home from college for the summer) started watching one of the episodes with me. It piqued her interest. Of course, maybe it was seeing the mosaic of  Emmitt Smith on the bottom of his swimming pool or maybe it was him traveling to Africa to find his relatives.  Of course, when one of the actresses said that finding out about her 7th great grandparent changed her life, my "math major" daughter wondered how when she had 511 other 7th great grandparents, how much effect 1 person  would make.

Last night when we sat down to watch TV, my daughter asked if we could watch the latest episode of "WDYTYA" (the one with Kelly Clarkson).  During the commercials, I had time to relate some of the documents I had found in my research as well as some of the emotions attached to finding about your relatives.  Who knows -- maybe I have a budding "family history" buff on my hands.  Well, it is in her genes!

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

One of the many places my grandparents (Charlie and Theresa Sherlock) visited on their great European trip of 1961 was the small town of Assisi in Italy.  Assisi is located north of Rome, in the province of Perugia.  Isn't Perugia the name of some delicious gourmet chocolate?

Behind Theresa (and I am guessing two of their traveling companions) is the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi.  It is a Franciscan monastery with an upper and lower church.  In addition to this church, there are several more churches in Assisi, including the Cathedral of San Rufino, the Basilica of Santa Chiara (Claire) and Church of San Pietro (just to name a few).  There are also two medieval castles in this town.

I am putting "Assisi" on my bucket list and also making a note to locate the chocolate factory in Perugia.

LOT MORE WORK TO DO

I love being organized!  Not that I am, but I constantly strive towards that goal.  Recently I discovered that I should have 512 7th great grandparents, so I decided to create a document to chart my progress towards finding all those elusive ancestors.

I created an Excel spreadsheet with my grandparents in the first column, then their parents in the 2nd column, and so forth.  The good news (after entering all the names that I knew) is that I do know the names of all my grandparents, great grandparents, and 2nd great grandparents.  Before too much applause, that is only 28 people.  Of course, when I get to my 3rd great grandparents, the number and percentage found goes down dramatically -- 17 of 32 3rd great grandparents, only 8 of 64 4th great grandparents, etc.

When I analyze it according to nationality of my ancestors, I find that I only have as far back as 4th great grandparents for my Irish ones, but that at least eclipses the Polish relatives, which I can only trace back to my 3rd great grandparents.  For some reason, my German ancestors rule the "research roost".  I can trace back my German roots to three 8th great grandparents, six 7th great grandparents and four each of the 5th and 6th great grandparents.

All this makes me think that I have a lot more work to do!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                           CHARLIE'S MOVIES

WIDENING MY WORLD

For the past 10 years or so, when I have conducted my genealogical research I have focused on special states and countries.  I thought I was lucky since my ancestors seemed to live in just a few states -- Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and California.  Yeah, a few relative retired and died in Florida or Arizona but that was a small minority.  One of my grandmother's cousins did live for a time in Minnesota but I thought that was an aberration.  However, today I found out that I have relatives and their families who lived and died in other states -- South Carolina, Iowa and more families in Minnesota.

A few weeks ago I "found" my 8th great grandparents Oster and Afra Hober.  I was thrilled and so proud of myself until I read a few days later, that I have 1024 8th great grandparents.  Okay, well, I only have 1022 left to research!  I did for the first time "locate" 8th and 9th cousins.  I didn't think those actually existed!  My research "discoveries" are begetting more research "discoveries".  This is way too fun!

But not all "discoveries" are always happy ones.  I did find out that I was related to the Gebhard line (that is good news and we share the common ancestors of Oster and Afra Hober).  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the three little boys named William, Charles and Henry (aged 7, 5 and 2) all died on the same day.  The above photo is their tombstone. I have to imagine that there was some sort of tragic accident to take the lives of all three little ones on the same day. How very sad it must have been for their parents and siblings!

Back to research ... and this time looking at a few more states ...

MORE ON SWEET ADELAIDE

For the past month, I have been distracted preparing to host a reception for 70 people -- incoming UCLA students and their parents.  We hosted the wonderful reception yesterday at our home.  I now am back on my "genealogical" track and will be devoting more time to my genealogical research and blogging.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Adelaide Mayer (the woman on the far right) was my Grandma Theresa's best friend since they were girls. Since she was an important part of our family (including godmother to my brother) I decided to do some research on her too.

Adelaide's father Bernard Mayer was born in Illinois but his parents were born in Prussia.  His father's name was Bernhard Meyer (interesting the name or spelling change).  Bernard was a printer and worked for a printing company.  Adelaide's mother Marguerite Heil was born in Germany and immigrated to the US in 1874.

Now, for a little bit about Adelaide's spouse Adolph Haberstroh, Jr, who she married on Dec. 31, 1919.  Adolph was born in 1897 to Adolph Haberstroh, Sr and Mary Price.  His father had been born in Germany but immigrated to the US, while his mother had been born in Illinois.  Mary Price Haberstroh died in 1906 after giving birth to Adolph's younger brother Joseph.  Baby Joseph died 13 days later.  Adolph also had a few other siblings -- older sister Ann (who died at 1 year of age), younger brother Harold and a younger half brother Edward.

Adolph Jr. was an apprentice seaman in the 4th Division of the Illinois Naval Militia during World War 1. In 1923, Adolph was an assistant buyer for Rothschild and Company (chicagoancestors.org).  In the 1930 census, Adolph was living in the Norwood Hotel in Chicago, listed his marital status as single and was a rug salesman.  In the 1940 census, Adolph was living with his father and stepmother and brother Edward in Maine, Illinois.  His occupation was rug salesman. Adolph died in 1948.

It looks as though Adelaide and Adolph were only married for a short time.  How long?  I am not quite sure. I do know that Adelaide had 3 siblings -- Marguerite, Veronica and Bernard.  I remember Adelaide as a very sweet and independent lady who loved us as if we were her grandchildren.