Cars – 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Cars – 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

My first car was a bright yellow Chrysler Newport.  I always thought it was a 1960, but when I pull up pictures, I think it was more a ’63 or so.  It looked a lot like this:

Only instead of costing $2,964, it was $100.  It was the car of a friend of my grandfather’s.  I can’t remember her name now, but she was so very nice and wanted me to have her old car.  So this Chrysler Newport sat in my driveway for almost a year before I got my driver’s license in 1983. 

Although these days this would be a classic car and a cool status symbol, at the time, it was just a big, yellow, very old car.   My friends called it, “The Banana” due to its length and color.  It comfortably seated 8.  No seat belts, of course.  We would pile in and pile out.  AM radio only, so I hung a tape player on the ash tray.  No air conditioning, so the windows were always rolled down (hand-cranked, of course).  The trunk was massive and frequently featured the worldly belongings of a teenager or two who’d run away from home (they knew I had the room…).

It was made of solid steel and had no working meter to tell me when gas was running low.  So I had to fill it up (10 gallon tank) and then could only go 100 miles before it would konk out on me.  That’s 10 miles to the gallon.  10.  

Summer nights, when there was no school and we were out too late to go home, we’d sometimes just sleep in the car (comfortably slept four).  We’d put the White Album or the Alarm on my clunky tape player and zonk out until the Creamery opened and we could go in for coffee and usually nothing else- I’m sure that thrilled the waitresses.

The Banana brought me so much joy and fun and freedom.  I have wonderful memories of that big yellow boat car. Which is a good thing, as I don’t think there are any pictures of it, either.

All timelines lead to...

1842.  Seriously, I have more people that I work on that were born in 1842 than in any other year.  1842 in Ohio?  They've gotta be mine.

I need to share the stuff I've found on my husband's side, but they aren't genealogists and sharing the charts would be a sure-fire way of making sure they didn't HEAR it.  So I printed the FGS for each of the eldest that I've found and I think next step is to timeline the two families and then tell the story of the two that came to California.  It's a little more difficult than I imagined it would be, as I really want to get it right.  I just ordered two Scioto County history books, so that may add some fluff to my story, too, but I sat yesterday with a blank page and a bunch of Family Group Sheets for about an hour before deciding a timeline may be be the best blue print. 

I'll be sure to share when I'm done.   I may do a little thing like Amy to go with it, too.  We shall see.

I want to catch up on my personal writing, too.  And on my family blog.  Lots of writing to do. 

Best get to it...

All roads lead to...

Ohio.  Not sure why, but I am nearly positive that EVERY branch of my family touches Ohio at some point in my research.  Luckily, I have family in Ohio, so I go there anyway, but it's odd to me that every time I find a new branch, it's in Ohio. 

My newest obsession is my husband's side in Scioto County.  So I've been spending a lot of virtual time in Scioto County, Ohio, getting to know it and getting to love it.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Do Some Random Research

Hey genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night and time for more Genealogy Fun! Play along with us and tell us about it.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to follow Chris Staats' rules (from Freaky Friday: Random Research Reports) for picking a random person's name and then doing some online research about that person.

Here are Chris's rules:1. Go to The Random Name Generator and click the red “Generate Name” button at the top of the screen

2. Go to Ancestry.com and enter your generated name in the search box on the main search page. [Randy's add: If you don't have Ancestry.com, go to http://www.familysearch.org/ and do it there - it's free.]

3. From the results, your research target will be the first census result for your generated name.

4. Using whatever online resources are at your disposal, see what else you can discover about your random person and write about it. It can be a formal report complete with footnotes, or just a “research story” about what you tried, problems you overcame, or success you had. Maybe you want to create a research plan for practice?

5. Post about it on your blog or wherever you wish, and link here to tell Chris about it. Tell Randy about it too as a comment here or a comment on Facebook or Twitter."

The name I got was: Harris Watson.

Starting at Ancestry dot com, the first census result was 1930. My Mr. Harris M. Watson was married to Lily and they had an 8-year-old adopted son, Henry. In 1930 they lived in Militia District 1199, Brooks, Georgia. Harris was 59, so born in about 1871. Lily was 45, so born about 1885. As I mentioned, Henry was 8, so born about 1922.

In 1930, Harris owned the farm they lived on. He’s a white male, who was 27 at the age of his first marriage. Lily was 16 at the age of her first marriage. Since when Henry was 27, Lily would have been 13, I’m not sure it fits that this is their first marriage. All three of these Watson family members were born in Georgia, as were their parents. Harris says he is not a veteran.

I thought I’d walk you through my process. Since I like to timeline my victims ancestors, I started by working backward in the census files.

In 1920, Harris and Lily are in Quitman, Brooks, Georgia. I made a note to research Brooks, Georgia to see if this place and the 1930 place are the same place, as Harris is listed as an owner of a farm here, as well. Harris is 49 and Lily is 36. Harris can’t read or write, but Lily can.

In 1910, they are in Barney, Brooks, Georgia. Again, look this up to see if it’s the same place, as this one is also owned. Harris is 39, Lily is 28 and Jesse, Harris’ brother is living with them (Jesse is 24). Harris and Lily say they have been married for 12 years, so I guess someone was wrong in 1930 when they said they were 16 at the age of their first marriage… also, I should note that “Lily” has been spelled differently in every census so far. 1930 it was Lily, 1920 it was Lilly, and 1910 it was Lillie.

In 1900, I can’t find Harris in the census. After doing the 1880 census find, I found the father and family in this census. But no Harris Watson. He would have been married right around this year, so I’ll skip this for now.

In 1880, there is a Harris Watson of the right age (9 years) in Quitman, Brooks, Georgia. Brother Jesse is in the 1900 census with brother Elzia that was in this census, so I’m pretty sure it’s the right family. His parents are William and Margarette. William’s father was born in North Carolina, while his mother and he were born in Georgia. Margarette and her parents were born in Georgia.

Since all of our Watson family seems to be in Brooks County, I put that into Ancestry as a generic search with Watson as the surname. Normally, I would go straight to usgenweb for this, but since I want low hanging fruit for my new Watson kin, I’ll stick to Ancestry for now.

Nothing easy in birth, marriage, death, but I did find a family tree that looked promising. The Wade Family tree lists Harris with no dob, but a marriage date of 2 Jan 1898 in Brooks County, GA. His parents are listed as William Watson and Margarette Watson. His spouse is listed as Lillie Spell. When I click on it, their sources are all the same census records I have. However, I would now take this as a clue to Lillie’s possible maiden name and look further into that.

But since it’s 9:20pm and I have genealogied out for the day, I’ll sign off here with “my” Watsons.

Picture Analysis

I posted a picture earlier this week. It's a family portrait and on the wall in the background there is another family portrait. I became greedy and really wanted that other family portrait, too. I coveted it. Desperately.

And then, a bit ago, I had an epiphany and did a side-by-side comparison of the only other family portait I have of ANY side of my family.

Here is the blow up of the picture in the picture:

And I'm pretty sure here is that picture.

Now to figure out what this is: Any clues? HELP ME!!!!

EDITTED TO ADD: This is a mourning lithograph. I wonder who they were mourning? I'm going to have to research that further.

A Big Nowhere

I tried to get somewhere with my Fishers from Bavaria yesterday. I just reached for low hanging fruit, but the tree was fruitless. As were my searches. So I need to jot down what I know and order certificates and look up naturalization records and and and. Makes it more fun, but for this line, I was sorta hoping for the fruit.

The Scioto County (Ohio) rootsweb mail list gave me a ton of great newspaper articles and things on the Fishers and the Smiths. Now to figure out who is who, since they were all Henry and Kilbourne (and all the spellings). I think I will write out both families with all I know and share that with the family now, rather than wait until I have more. I'll work on that for the next few weeks and see where it gets me.

For my Scotland researching friends, why would my grandparents live at and get married at 10 Maryhill Road in Carluke (now Glasgow)? Was this their home? A church? Both? Any clues on this?

Conner Homestead

This picture just arrived in my inbox from the Lucas County (Iowa) Genealogical Society. It's a picture of a visit that my great, great, great grandparents took to see the homestead of my great, great grandparents. My great grandfather is the young boy second from the left in the back. His father and mother are in the window glare. His grandparents are teh older two.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Lucas County Genealogical Society? I had never seen a picture of my great grandfather as a young child.