So now that the holidays are over and life has calmed down a bit I have finally found some time to work on my genealogy research again. This has brought up it's own set of problems and questions. How far do you go? I'm currently working on the Meeks family tree, my maternal grandfather. Of course you always want to trace your ancestry as far back as possible, but how far sideways & forward do you go? For example, my family tree on Ancestry has exploded with hints for the descendants of my great-great grandfather's sister. My great-great grandfather only had 2 siblings, a younger brother and a younger sister, only one of whom had children. But it still begs the question, how far do you go? Do you trace her lineage down as far as you can, or do you just include her, her children, and her grandchildren?
Part of me wants to stop at her children, so I don't add any more to my already full genealogical plate. The other part of me, the part that needs to join Genealogists Anonymous, just wants to know everything out there that I can possibly get my fingers on. I feel like the further down I trace her lineage the better chance I have of going back. Tracing her life down to her grand-kids might actually give me the ability to find out some really cool stuff. Or at the very least maybe uncover some family photos.
So that my friends, is the question of the night on my genealogical quest. How far do you go? How far have you all taken your family trees? Do you think you shouldn't have gone as far as you did, or do you wish you had gone further?
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Why I do what I do
I realized today that I haven't written in my blog in quite some time. I apologize for being absent for so long; as I'm sure is the case for many of you, this time of year seems to fly by before you even realize it's over. I haven't been keeping up with my genealogy research as much as I would like to lately. Once October hits I am kind of in decorating mode. First it's Halloween, which I must admit is my all time favorite holiday and I take a ton of pride in my decorations so I spent the whole darn month wrapped up in that, and before I knew it Halloween was over. Then you move on to Thanksgiving and everything that goes with that. Now it's Christmas. I know it's only the 11th, but this month is packed. First I have my parents annual Holiday Party this Friday, which I must say I look forward to every year. Since I still live at home I try to help as much as possible to make the prep load less for my parents. So all that being said I'm going to write a brief blog entry to night about why I do genealogy research and hopefully as 2013 rolls around I will have more time for research and keep this thing better updated. Bear with me, as it may get a little emotional.
Believe it or not I don't necessarily do all this genealogy research for me. This all started long before I can even remember with my paternal grandfather, Robert Panfil. My grandfather unfortunately passed away when I was 9.5 years old so I've never gotten to share all this with him. I think though, that I do it for him. He's the reason I got interested in my family history. He was interested in it an had spent time writing to family members and compiling what he could into a family tree, and now I've taken up his hobby. I think part of the reason I push so much with my research is because it gives me a connection to a man I didn't get to know as much as I would have liked. Through my research I can see what his life might have been like when he was a child and learn things about his parents and grandparents that I don't have the ability to ask him. As amazing as all of that it, it's so hard at the same time. It brings up so many unanswered questions and so many things I'd love to be able to sit down and talk to my grandfather about.
Lately I've grown to realize what an amazing gift my grandfather has given me. He's opened my eyes to a hobby and a passion I never knew I had and I only wish I could tell him how grateful I am. Not only that but he has given me the opportunity to create a stronger bond with my maternal grandfather, Carl Meeks. For whatever reason, as a child I felt much closer to my father's parents, especially my grandfather. My grandpa Meeks and I never had the kind of relationship I had with my grandpa Panfil. But now, thanks to genealogy research, we've gotten closer. Being able to see the look in your grandfather's eyes when you can tell him names of people he never knew he was related to is so amazing.
So in short, that's why I do what I do. Not just because I'm innately curious about where my ancestors have come from, but because it's given my a connection to both my grandfather's that I never had before.
Happy Holidays Genealogists!
Believe it or not I don't necessarily do all this genealogy research for me. This all started long before I can even remember with my paternal grandfather, Robert Panfil. My grandfather unfortunately passed away when I was 9.5 years old so I've never gotten to share all this with him. I think though, that I do it for him. He's the reason I got interested in my family history. He was interested in it an had spent time writing to family members and compiling what he could into a family tree, and now I've taken up his hobby. I think part of the reason I push so much with my research is because it gives me a connection to a man I didn't get to know as much as I would have liked. Through my research I can see what his life might have been like when he was a child and learn things about his parents and grandparents that I don't have the ability to ask him. As amazing as all of that it, it's so hard at the same time. It brings up so many unanswered questions and so many things I'd love to be able to sit down and talk to my grandfather about.
Lately I've grown to realize what an amazing gift my grandfather has given me. He's opened my eyes to a hobby and a passion I never knew I had and I only wish I could tell him how grateful I am. Not only that but he has given me the opportunity to create a stronger bond with my maternal grandfather, Carl Meeks. For whatever reason, as a child I felt much closer to my father's parents, especially my grandfather. My grandpa Meeks and I never had the kind of relationship I had with my grandpa Panfil. But now, thanks to genealogy research, we've gotten closer. Being able to see the look in your grandfather's eyes when you can tell him names of people he never knew he was related to is so amazing.
So in short, that's why I do what I do. Not just because I'm innately curious about where my ancestors have come from, but because it's given my a connection to both my grandfather's that I never had before.
Happy Holidays Genealogists!
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| My grandfather, Robert Panfil, and I. Around 1989 |
Thursday, September 20, 2012
cemetery visits with grandma
So for almost a year now I've been trying to plan I day for my mother and I to take my grandma Meeks to the cemeteries where her families are buried. Now unlike all my other trips to the cemeteries, this one was different. This time it wasn't just for me to show Grandma who I'd found and where they were, but it was for the 3 of us to find them together. The hard part was that the burial locations of these family members were a bit confusing. We started our day out at Mount Olive where my grandmother's parents and 2 of her brothers are buried. Her grandmother Emma is also buried there, but unfortunately for whatever reason she has no headstone so we just stopped by the general area to say hey.
Next stop was Graceland cemetery and that turned out to be an interesting visit. My grandmother had already known that her grandfather was buried there with his brother, the brother's wife and their daughter. What she didn't know was that I also found out her Great-Grandparents were also buried there with 2 of their sons and a daughter in law. The weird thing about both these Graceland plots was that there are also some other people we don't know buried there as well. For instance in Plot G; the plot with the great-grandparents, there are also a 46 year old man with the last name De Bellay and a 7 yr old boy named William Ratcliffe. We have no idea who those people are and we don't really know how to find out why they're buried there. In Plot D with her grandfather there are the 4 people we know are related to us, plus 6 other people! Again totally stumped on that one. I'm hoping I'll be able to figure that out some time soon; any tips would be helpful!
Last stop was up in Evanston at Calvary Cemetery. Now of course this cemetery has a similar dilemma to Graceland. Here there is a 12 grave plot (11 filled) that is owned by a man named Patrick Kelly. In this plot there are the following family members: Marion Larson (my grandmother's sister who died as an infant), Ellen Cochrane (wife of a Cochrane buried at Graceland, my grandma's grandma) Ellen's parents Bridget & Henry Taylor as well as 2 siblings John & Mary Taylor, David Cochrane (grandma's uncle) & Susan Lafferty (grandma's aunt). So I'm left with these 3 people: Mary Johnson (2 days old), Michael Cannon (2 yrs 9 mos) & John Kelly. Obviously John Kelly is related to the owner Patrick some how, but the other 2 i'm totally lost on again. Right now we're assuming the Kelly family is related to the Taylor family; both being Irish last names maybe it's some family member from the mother Bridget's side??
Needless to say every time I go to a cemetery I come back with great pictures and more questions than I had when I went to the cemetery to begin with. Here's to hoping I can get them figured out soon?
Happy Hunting friends!!
Next stop was Graceland cemetery and that turned out to be an interesting visit. My grandmother had already known that her grandfather was buried there with his brother, the brother's wife and their daughter. What she didn't know was that I also found out her Great-Grandparents were also buried there with 2 of their sons and a daughter in law. The weird thing about both these Graceland plots was that there are also some other people we don't know buried there as well. For instance in Plot G; the plot with the great-grandparents, there are also a 46 year old man with the last name De Bellay and a 7 yr old boy named William Ratcliffe. We have no idea who those people are and we don't really know how to find out why they're buried there. In Plot D with her grandfather there are the 4 people we know are related to us, plus 6 other people! Again totally stumped on that one. I'm hoping I'll be able to figure that out some time soon; any tips would be helpful!
Last stop was up in Evanston at Calvary Cemetery. Now of course this cemetery has a similar dilemma to Graceland. Here there is a 12 grave plot (11 filled) that is owned by a man named Patrick Kelly. In this plot there are the following family members: Marion Larson (my grandmother's sister who died as an infant), Ellen Cochrane (wife of a Cochrane buried at Graceland, my grandma's grandma) Ellen's parents Bridget & Henry Taylor as well as 2 siblings John & Mary Taylor, David Cochrane (grandma's uncle) & Susan Lafferty (grandma's aunt). So I'm left with these 3 people: Mary Johnson (2 days old), Michael Cannon (2 yrs 9 mos) & John Kelly. Obviously John Kelly is related to the owner Patrick some how, but the other 2 i'm totally lost on again. Right now we're assuming the Kelly family is related to the Taylor family; both being Irish last names maybe it's some family member from the mother Bridget's side??
.JPG) |
| Graceland - Lot D |
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| Graceland - Lot G |
.JPG) |
| Calvary Cemetery |
Happy Hunting friends!!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
1940 census update
Hey all! Just a quick update for now to keep you all interested! This week we're celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday! I'll be sure to let you all know how that turns out after it's over but the prep for that has demanded much of my time to get things ready. That being said I've had bits of time to work on my genealogy and am very happy to share that I am making great progress on locating my family members on the US 1940 census record. I owe this largely in part to Ancestry.com as they have finished indexing all of the census records so I can now find those hard to located people by searching for their names.
On that note, for those of you who are newer to genealogy research don't get discouraged if when you first start looking for someone you can't find them. I learned this that hard way after over-looking many documents because the name just didn't seem right. Something as simple as the last name Huffman can be incorrectly indexed as Hofman or some other variation of that name. Keep in mind that the people who are indexing many not always be able to read everything that was written. Hand writing can be a very hard to thing to decipher so you should always take a second look at names that seem close to yours because they may have just been misread
I'm hoping the newly indexed 1940 census records will help me clear up some questions about family members and lead me closer to the things I want to find. Hopefully I'll have more to update on next week after finding some more records and knocking some of these hints of my family tree.
Happy hunting genealogists!
On that note, for those of you who are newer to genealogy research don't get discouraged if when you first start looking for someone you can't find them. I learned this that hard way after over-looking many documents because the name just didn't seem right. Something as simple as the last name Huffman can be incorrectly indexed as Hofman or some other variation of that name. Keep in mind that the people who are indexing many not always be able to read everything that was written. Hand writing can be a very hard to thing to decipher so you should always take a second look at names that seem close to yours because they may have just been misread
I'm hoping the newly indexed 1940 census records will help me clear up some questions about family members and lead me closer to the things I want to find. Hopefully I'll have more to update on next week after finding some more records and knocking some of these hints of my family tree.
Happy hunting genealogists!
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