52 Ancestors Challenge Week 39: "Road Trip" - My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping

I live for road trips. I love them. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, I did wait quite awhile to get my license. Most of my peers rushed out to get their learner's permits as soon as they could, which here in New York is 16. I don't know if I was scared to drive really but I simply was not eager to drive; which now is not at all true. I waited until I was 20 to get my license but now I can't wait to drive. I live to road trip. I find real comfort in driving.

I am not underplaying my road trip experiences either. I have driven to 49 states. You can't drive to Hawaii. For any of you who may be familiar with the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" by Mo Willems, while in Hawaii, I was that pigeon. I was with a tour group but I begged and begged and begged that tour bus driver to just let me drive the bus if only so I could say that I have driven in all 50 states. Guess I'll have to go back. Oh well! 

I have also been to all of the Canadian provinces and 2 of the 3 Canadian territories. I am missing Nunavut but so are most Canadians I bet.

My most challenging travel experience has to have been driving around Ireland. Although I can drive a 5-speed transmission, I was fortunate to get an automatic because that driving on the other side of the road business while on the other side of the car was brutal.

My most frequent travel companions are, of course, my cousins! Most frequently Cousin Pete. Cousin Kelly takes a close second. But there have been many others: Jenny, Meghan, Andrew, Rachel, Ashlee, Zach, Adam, Vanessa, Elizabeth...  And they will attest to the fact that nearly every trip includes a little family history whether it be a stomp around a cemetery or a little bit of research time. I mean, you're headed out there, you might as well walk in your ancestors' foot steps if you have the chance.

My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping have to be the following. All of which I have blogged about before but are worth revisiting and which you can read more about at the links below to old posts:

#3. Running from cicadas in Dayton National Cemetery: Third Great Grandpa, John Joyce, Dayton National Cemetery

The giant cicadas are only part of what makes this most memorable. Imagine bugs the size of half a Twinkie, flying at you. And not just one but dozens of them surrounding you at every step. Yeah, traumatizing.

This cemetery stop was part of my goal last year, 2021, to locate and visit the burial locations of all my direct ancestors back to and including all my 3rd great grandparents. I did pretty well. At the start of that project I had 30 graves to visit out of the potential 59. You have the maximum potential of 62 direct ancestors back to your 3rd greats. With living parents and a nonagenarian grandma, I had 59. I mean, I'm a genealogist, I visit cemeteries. But still there were many graves I had never been to. 30 is a lot. At present I have only 9 I have not visited; 1 great-great grandparent, and 8 3rd great grandparents, many of which are somewhere in Quebec. When I figure out where they are, I'll visit.

Another project that came out of my 2021 cemetery adventure that I am very proud of is the replacement of my great-great-great grandfather, Victor Henry's headstone which you can watch a presentation about on YouTube called, simply, Victor Henry's Headstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw53oHpcfgA

#2. Stumbling upon the Morleys in a random cemetery abroad: Tombstones in Templenoe

I tell my students and researchers I work with that sometimes there are some relatives that just do not want to be found. And then there are others screaming to be remembered - that would be my cousins', Jenny & Kelly's maternal line.

The Morleys are not my relatives and I wasn't in Ireland doing genealogy research. I wasn't even with Kelly or Jen. I just happened to stop into a random cemetery with Cousin Pete while driving the Ring of Kerry and - BOOM - there they were; Cousin Jen & Kelly's great-great grandparents, Daniel Morley (abt. 1839 - March 17, 1914) and Abigail Meara-Morley (March 1844 - July 7, 1885) of Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland.

Photo by John (Paul) Hallissey taken from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2551046/templenoe-burial-ground-(old)

#1. Meeting a Desjardins cousin - my mom's side from Montreal - on Earle family property in Newfoundland: Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 1 & Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 2

Not all discoveries take place in cemeteries or even archives and libraries. Some discoveries happen right where you stand.

Again, on this trip I was not actively conducting genealogy research at this location. However, I think I have come to realize I'm always kind of conducting genealogy research. Anyway, I had just traveled back to where my great grandfather was born with my paternal uncle, Thomas. I most certainly did not plan or even consider finding living connections to my mother's side of my family while there. Both lines have Canadian ancestry but Newfoundland is really quite far from Montreal, 2,258 kilometers or 1,403 miles for my imperial system friends.

All parts of these favorite family discoveries made while on road trips had an obvious element of surprise but when you are planning to take a road trip, whether to do genealogy research or not, you have to do a lot of planning, almost to avoid surprises. You want your car at top condition, your hotels all booked, your route surveyed for stops at attractions, gas, and grub. You'll have lists of things to pack; clothes, food, emergency equipment, etc. Add to that a desire to research while on the road and you will want to make sure you have research location addresses, hours of operation noted, and a detailed list of what you are looking for - not only your questions but also a review of the resources the research facility has that you want to see. For cemetery stops, I recommend you call ahead to whomever manages the property to ask for a location. Even with a section, range, row, plot, and grave number, it can take quite a bit of roaming around to find the spot you are looking for. 

Most of all, though, leave lots of time to just marvel at the happenings. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 38: "New to You" - Great-great Grandma Mayme's Ring

Below is a photo of my chubby little hand decked out in 2 relatively new rings. 

The one on my ring finger is really a mother's ring. I am not a mother. A mother's ring, though, is one that presents the birthstones of all of a mother's children. My grandma has a lovely one with her birthstone and that of her 5 kids. This one has 4 birthstones representing my beautiful nieces; Sofia (October - really should be an opal but they use some pink stone. Pink tourmaline, perhaps), Breanna (March - aquamarine), Emilie (July - ruby), and Molleigh (June - should really be a pearl but they use some purplish stone. I think it is alexandrite.). I bought that ring for myself for my recent birthday.

The ring on my middle finger was given to me by a cousin I recently connected with through AncestryDNA. It was a gift from her and her mother. It belonged to my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp-Gardner (October 2, 1891 - January 25, 1961). She is the woman on the left in the photo below.

I am sure it is not of great monetary value but it is of great value to me. I am not sure when she acquired it. I wear it on my middle finger because that is where it fits me best. I don't want to have it resized. I like that it has evidence of being shaped to Mayme's finger.

Maybe someday one of my magnificent little nieces will inherit their great-great-GREAT grandma Mayme's ring from me.

Thank you, Cousin Kristen and Cousin Anita.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 37: "High and Low" - Not in the 1950 Census

Every presentation I attended regarding the recent release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census has gone on and on about the great lengths the government went to ensure that every household and individual was recorded accurately. Welp, my dad is not there, nor are his parents, or his paternal grandparents who were, by all accounts, living together. I have searched "High and Low" for my father in the 1950 census with no success.

I know the exact address they were living at in 1950, 15 Berkshire Road, Merrick, New York in Nassau County. My grandfather bought the house shortly after he returned from service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. I believe he purchased it in 1947. He lived there until his death in June of 2001. In fact, my grandparents met on that block.

The story goes that there was a terrible blizzard while my grandmother was at her sister's house on the very same block. My grandfather went over to help his neighbor, my grandmother's brother-in-law, shovel and that is when they met in the great blizzard of December 1947 which began on December 26. You can read the Life magazine coverage of the storm here in this blog post by Ben Cosgrove: https://www.life.com/nature/snow-blizzard-of-1947-photos-of-new-york/  My grandparents were married less than 2 years later in February 1949. In late December of 1949, they had their first child, my dad.

Now, my grandmother's sister, brother-in-law, and their two eldest children are on the 1950 census as are all the even numbered houses on the block. But the odd numbered homes aren't there.

Everyone I have asked to look have told me, "Well, they lived very close to the boarder of the next enumeration district (ED)." Yes they did. They are very close to the southern boundary of ED 30-338, in Nassau County, New York. However, the block south of them is recorded in ED 30-338. The house directly behind my grandparent's is there, where expected, in ED 30-338 but not my grandparents and not any of the other odd numbered houses on the block.

Now, let's for a minute consider that perhaps they weren't living where I know they were. Maybe for that month they were all living somewhere else. I don't know. Let's pretend the house was being renovated and they were staying with some friends somewhere in a whole other state. Didn't happen but let's pretend.

Where are their neighbors? Where are the odd numbered houses on their block? Not there. Not in ED 30-338 of New York; not in any of the surrounding EDs either.

I am 100% convinced that the people I so eagerly waited to see recorded in the 1950 census (my dad, his parents, and paternal grandparents) were missed. 

Mistakes were made, people. Mistakes were made!

Prove me wrong. I dare you. And I would be eternally grateful if you could find them.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 36: "Exploration" - Or not so much

Hmm...exploration. I am not sure how to interpret this theme in the context of my family history. I don't feel like I have explorers in my family history. In fact I feel the very opposite. I feel like my family got off the boat and was like, "Heck with that, we're staying right here!"

I have cousins everywhere but when there are stories of brothers, the one who went off and made his fortunes and the other who stayed at home and held down the homestead, I am always descended from the latter.

When I was in the 3rd grade we had to do a report on where one of our grandparents came from. Some of my classmates did reports on Ireland, Israel, Greece, etc., etc., etc. or about other states like Georgia, Maryland, Oregon, etc., etc., etc. I could practically walk to where each of my grandparents were born.  I was really jealous.

According to Google Maps it would take me just over an hour to drive from where Grandpa Earle was born in Bellmore, NY to the far off location of Astoria, Queens, NY where Grandpa Gardner was born, while passing both my grandmothers' birth locations. I guess Google hasn't driving the Cross Island Parkway recently though because that is going to take way more than an hour.

In any case, I did my 3rd grade report on the Town of Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Boring (Sorry, Hempstead).

As genealogist I have come to value the fact I live in close proximity to where my family has lived for hundreds of years. All my documentation is right here! Well, not all of it but quite a bit. And New York is pretty good about holding on to all their records. They aren't great about freely sharing their records but they got 'em. Pay up!

I don't have a European immigrant in my family tree until my great-great grandparents and even then, only 2 of the 16 were born across the pond. I've got many ancestors who emigrated from Canada but from Europe there are only these two:

1. My great-great grandfather on my mother's maternal line, Johann Nepom Prinz (May 2, 1853 - April 21, 1929), was from Mladá Vožice, in the Bohemia region of what is now the Czech Republic. He arrived with his family in New York on November 28, 1866 when he was just 13 years-old.

AND

2. My great-great grandmother on my father's maternal line, Annette Hinch-Henry (February 22, 1868 - March 2, 1952), was born in Barnamelia, by Knockanna, in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. She came to New York sometime between 1886 and 1890 when she was in her late teens or early 20s.

That makes Annette my most recent European immigrant. Again, not big on explorers in this tree o' mine. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 35: "Free Space" - 3rd Great Grandma, Sabina "Lean" Krantzel-Prinz's Death

Hmm, I am interpreting this week's theme to mean I can write about anything I want.

I am always especially intrigued by pieces of the puzzle that don't quite fit together. What I mean by that is when you find documentation that you are sure is associated with one of your ancestors but it doesn't quite fit. For me, this often happens with my family members who Anglicized their surnames but sometimes, like in this case, there is some typos going on. Ah, human error. I love it.

My great-great grandmother, Sabina Krantzel-Prinz, was killed by an automobile on the streets of Manhattan on April 24, 1926. She died on April 25, but she was struck by a car the day before. I learned that from her New York City issued death certificate. 

This very sad discovery prompted me to look for a newspaper article. Newspaper articles are juicy bits. They add so much detail to ones family history. They tell the story.

So what the death certificate says is that Sabina died at 6:45 a.m. on April 25, 1926 at Flowers Hospital in Manhattan due to a "fractured skull, laceration of brain, struck by auto at 76th St. & First Ave. April 24, 1926."

Now I know my family lived at 1465 1st Ave from the 1920 census record which you can see below but you will note that she is listed as Lena Prince, living there with her husband John (or Johann) and grandchildren, Albert Kamm (age 10) and Margaret Kamm (age 9). I have other records in which she is recorded at Lena.

I am sure that the death certificate and 1920 census record are for the same woman.

I went off to look for newspaper articles that may have appeared in any New York City based newspaper on or shortly after April 24, 1926. I used Newspapers.com and all sorts of search terms but nothing came up for Sabina Prince or Sabina Prinz or Lena Prince/Prinz. Intent on finding something I did the Hail Mary search and just looked for articles that contained the word "car" and were published on a specific date. I did one day at a time starting with April 25. Crazy intense work but I was confident some newspaper would mention this fatal car accident.

And then I found this in the Daily News (New York) from Tuesday, April 27, 1926 page 6 under the title "Unlicensed Driver Speeds to 15-Day Sentence in Jail."

It reads, "John Lunnie, 35, of 348 East 118th st., a chauffeur, charged with having run down and killed Mrs. Lena Pringle, 65, of 1465 1st ave. when driving an automobile at 7th st. and 1st ave. on April 24; held in $2,500 for a hearing on May 4."

Pringle? At 7th street? I searched for New York City death records from the same date with the name Pringle and could not find one. I'm confident that this messed up little mention in the Daily News is about my 3rd great grandma, Sabina "Lena" Prinz/Prince. I'm sure of it.

With all the errors about Lena though, I can't say I am confident the man who killed her was really named John Lunnie. I can't find a John Lunnie in the 1920 or 1930 census in NYC. And I have tried looking for some mention of the hearing on May 4th but you know how the news is, you rarely hear about the aftermath. 

When you come across supportive evidence that seems really far off the mark though, hold on to it. Trust your gut a bit but also write yourself a solid justification for why the tidbit seems to make sense to you in your research. When something or someone comes along to prove otherwise, be willing to let your conviction be overturned. Until then, I think if he was unlicensed, I sure hope he got more than a 15-day sentence.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 34: "Timeline" - My Review of MyHeritage

The theme for this week, Timeline, immediately makes me think of the Family Tree Timeline feature in MyHeritage so I am going to take this opportunity to write a review of the genealogical research website. I have poked at it in the past but I was never had a subscription before this year and quite honestly, I do not think I will continue it when my membership expires. 

Don't get me wrong, it is a good website. It has many resources but it doesn't strike me as having more than Ancestry or anything all that different in terms of records I need to enhance or advance my family history research. It does, however, have some truly amazing, fancy, features some of which I will highlight in this post. I just pay so much for my Ancestry membership already and I use Ancestry so much with clients and students. I can't really afford to keep up with 2 sites. I prefer Ancestry.com. Truth be told, I find the abundance of fancy features on MyHeritage a bit overwhelming even though they are really cool. Maybe if I had started with MyHeritage it would be my go-to.

So let me tell you about some of my favorite features at MyHeritage:

1. DNA: For one, MyHeritage allows for the upload of raw DNA from other direct-to-consumer DNA test providers which AncestryDNA and 23andMe do not allow. By uploading your DNA to MyHeritage, one can increase the number of potential matches that they have. You never really know where that one needed match will be that will help you bust through your brick walls. One can also take a MyHeritage DNA test as they too sell a direct-to-comsumer DNA testing kits. In MyHeritage I have over 12k DNA matches. A lot of people use this site for DNA research. I tell all my adoptee clients to use it.

They also have DNA tools like auto-clustering and a chromosome browser which Ancestry does not have at present. A chromosome browser helps you view segments of DNA shared between you and multiple DNA matches which can help point to a common ancestor. Auto-clustering is much like application of the Leeds Method, if you are familiar with that, its a tool that organizes your DNA Matches into clusters or groups that likely descended from the same common ancestor.

2. PHOTO TOOLS: MyHeritage's photo tools have gotten a lot of publicity in the past couple of years since it added the tool to animate photos. Below is a head shot of me animated. It is very cool when applied to photos of long deceased ancestors that you may have. However, I find something kind of unnerving about it when applied to photos of recently deceased relatives. Kind of creeps me out. Fun feature though, not to mention the other photo enhancing and editing tools they provide. Ooo, but the creepiest photo tool they have, if you ask me, is DeepStory which actually can make your family photos speak. Yeah, worth checking out but not something I need on the daily.

 

 

3. FAMILY EVENTS: I am going to miss this feature when I say goodbye to MyHeritage. This is basically a calendar of family birthdays and anniversaries based on the information you have put into your own family tree. You can add to it holidays from an assortment of countries and even display dates according to the Hebrew calendar.

4. FAMILY STATISTICS: This is a neat feature that presents aggregate data from your tree. Just fun factoids like I haven't set the gender for 27 individuals in my tree, thus 52% of my family tree is male, 47% is female, and 1% is of an unknown gender. The most common first name for males in my family tree is John and for females is Mary. 

And ta-dah, 5. TIMELINE: The Family Tree Timeline can help you visualize your ancestors’ lifespans, including whose lives overlapped and what major world events they lived through. It is a visual representation of the direct ancestors of one individual from your family tree, you are typically the default person. The lifespans of these individuals are presented on a bar graph. By default the Timeline shows 4 generations, from you to your great-grandparents. However, you can choose to display more or fewer  generations.

Each person’s name, profile photo, and age appear on a colored bar. If the individual is deceased, their bar is rounded on the right and their age at the time of their death appears at the far right. The bars representing living individuals are squared on the right and their current age appears there. If the date of birth or death is unknown, the bar will be faded towards the birth or death date, ending at an approximation of the time of their birth or death.

However, what I wish Timeline did was show the overlap of lifespans for family groups, not just direct ancestors. I'd like to see my siblings, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc. represented on a timeline. I think it would help my research in a lot of way. For example, such a feature might help pinpoint a date on which a group photo was taken. For example, I have a group photo with 10 people in it. I can identify 9 of them. I know it has to be taken before person A died and after these six kids were born. Maybe I could figure out that 10th person if I could see who was alive at the same time.

ABOUT THE 1950 CENSUS: MyHeritage came up with this awesome tool shortly after the recent release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census that kind of incorporates their Timeline capabilities. Under "Research" there is a new link for Census Helper. It generates a list of individuals in your family tree who are likely to be found in the 1950 census. In fact, it does this for any U.S. census you're researching in as well as censuses for Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, France, and England & Wales!

Again, MyHeritage has great features which if you have never explored before, you should!

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 33: "Service" - Three Henrys In Service

I have many ancestors and relatives who have served in the U.S. military - many. They extend back to the American Revolution and served as recently as the war in Afghanistan. 

You may have heard of gold star families. Those are families that have lost immediate family members in service during a time of conflict. Then there are blue star families. Those are families that have an immediate family member on active duty during a time of military conflict. These families often possess and display banners on or in their homes with the appropriate number of stars on them. That's right, sometimes the family has more than one immediate member on active duty, or God-forbid, who have died in service. You may see banners with multiple stars of mixed designations. Maybe they lost a child in the war and have another still actively serving.

My grandparents' generation was dramatically affected by World War II but thankfully none of them lost siblings. Both of my grandfathers served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. Grandma Earle had more than one sibling serving in WWII.

I truly love this article about my Grandma Earle's siblings and their service during WWII. All of them are now passed; Charles Aloysius Henry Jr. (April 24, 1922 - March 22, 1994), Regina Dorothy Henry-Drew (February 6, 1924 - March 7, 2010), Robert Victor Henry (October 21, 1925 - April 30, 2011). The article appeared on page 13 of the Nassau Daily Review-Star on Friday, March 2, 1945.

It reads:

The Three Henrys In Service

Charles A. Henry, Jr.    Regina D. Henry    Robert V. Henry

The Henrys are sons and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Henry of 15 Fenimore avenue, Hempstead. Miss Henry was not content to sit at home while her brothers were doing their part overseas to win the war. A senior nurse at St. Mary's hospital, Brooklyn, she will graduate in May. Private First Class Robert Henry is with the infantry in France. He trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., and was with the Grumman Aircraft Engineering corporation prior to entering the army. Second Lieutenant Charles Henry is with an antiaircraft artillery unit on Saipan. He was attending Hofstra college when he entered the service. All three are graduates of Hempstead High school. 

The photo of my great uncle Bobby, is much too dark and thus I have included a similar image of him taken during the same time period, if not on the actual same day, so you can check out that handsome Henry face.