Next Up

I’m making this for a friend’s 94 year old WWII veteran dad. 

I also want to make one to donate, soooo… since I’m going to be cutting lots and lots of fabric to get a scrappy look, why not make 2 quilts at once?

Still need to cut the small squares for the star corners

I want it a bit bigger, so I get to redo the math too. It’s not a big deal, except for that pretty star that’s full of half-square triangles. I think I got the sizes right… but if not, it’s scrappy and I can fudge it until it fits, right???  (Why do I do this to myself??) Hoping that once the stars are done this will be a fast sew. A quilter can dream. 

My sister sent me a photo I’d never seen before, passed on from a cousin in Tennessee. That’s me, Teena and infant Donna, with our parents, at Easter 1957. Donna was born April 7, so I’m guessing this is late April. So cool. We were stylin’ in those hats and dressy coats. 

Bits and Pieces

One of the last pieces of the bathroom remodel went in this week.

Everybody should have their own kraken, right?? And mermaid and pirate ship! Everyone loves it except Donovan, who hasn’t made up his mind yet. (Love the curved shower rod too.)

Leo and Jac, waiting for tutoring to start. I love Tutorific. We’ve been going here for over 2 years and I’m still impressed that every kid I’ve seen is happy when they go in and happy when they come out. 💕

Donovan, 5, drew, colored and cut this out for me today, then taped it to the fridge so I would find it later. Hand drawn, not traced. The boy has talent!

I’m converting another of hubby’s family’s 70+ year old albums into a book so we can all have a copy, and treated myself to a toy essential equipment to make it easier. 

Using my phone to photograph the pages is soooooo much faster than scanning, and with better quality. The ‘brick’ - an extendable selfie stick - has LED fill lights on both sides by the phone and the arm rotates 360° and extends up to over 3’. Definitely worth the $. (Plus, I love toys.)

I think our total rainfall last week was 5.5”… and we’re due for more next week (or so they say.) We may still float away.  

OMGeeeeee!

My genealogy book is here!!

I ordered both a hard-cover and a paperback from Lulu.com to see how they’d look - the hardback is much nicer - and to check for printing problems. 

No big issues, but I want to change a couple of things that bug me. Very pleased with the quality and the price ($22 for hardback, $13 for soft, plus shipping. Shutterfly was around $40 due to the extra pages.) Hoping to fix, re-upload and order multiple copies this weekend. So excited!!!

Catching Up

The genealogy book is done - for real this time. I said it was finished on Sunday too, but then I added 2 more pages today. Final page count is 62 - just a few more than I thought there’d be. Hope the printing goes well tomorrow.

Bought Jac and Donovan matching shirts. ($2 each on sale at Old Navy Outlet.) 

So dang cute.  

One of my sisters had a heart attack on Friday and passed away Sunday in Oregon. She was 65. The only positive is that all her kids and grandkids had an opportunity to say goodbye before she passed. I’m so grateful for that. 

Donovan came over last night to bring me flowers and my favorite cake because he knew I was sad. And then asked if he could spend the night cause he loved me. 

He’s just about the sweetest kid ever. And his parents are pretty nice too. 

Finishing Up

 Got the cortisone shot in my shoulder yesterday so I’m hoping - really, really hoping - it works and I can start quilting again soon. These past 4 months have been a bummer crafting-wise. Doctor said it could take up to a month for the pain to go away . . . as long as it GOES I’m ok with that, but sooner is definitely better.

I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on the genealogy book too (hubby says it’s a locomotive heading my way. He’s so funny. 😂😂) Still waiting on one birth certificate from Ireland but it shouldn’t be a big surprise. I hope. 

All the text is written (2nd draft, with at least one more pass-through to go), the individual branch charts are almost done, and my plan is to sort and scan photos starting tomorrow. Still hoping I can get this done and have rough drafts printed in time to share on our Alaska cruise. . . 

Curve Ball!

Side note - my blog host has started eating photos (look back at April 7 and the following 5 or so posts; it eats a new post almost every day) so I’m going to limit photos until I figure out what’s going on. So annoying. 

Remember the brick wall I hit with hubby’s Wales line? I ordered an official marriage certificate from England for the Wales’ bride and after much drama and $$$  - the first one still hasn’t arrived after 4+ weeks (sent “air mail” which must mean they are walking it across the ocean…) and the second one cost $$ for “next day delivery” that took a week. 

But! It arrived today and boy oh boy was it a curve ball. Yes, it had the bride’s father’s name (John Jones) and profession (carpenter - hooray for something a bit uncommon!) so I can start researching that. It also had the groom’s father’s name and profession … and it was NOT the one I’ve been researching and writing up in hubby’s book (6 generations worth ☹️). In my defense, the groom’s name and age are the same in both families, they’re from the same area and … yeah. The worst of it is I was pretty attached to some of the people in the ‘other family’ - I’m really going to miss them. 😂 Now it’s back to the drawing board census files for me. 

Tales of Wales

One of the most annoying things about working on hubby’s family history - and the thing I’ve spent the most time on so far - is the brick wall that is his Welsh line. 

There are literally hundreds of Mary Jane Joneses (or slight variations there of) born near Cardiff in 1860. And it doesn’t help that every document I’ve found, including the various censuses - the best way of figuring out who’s who from 160+ years ago - lists a different approximate date of birth for her. I’ve found several MJ’s that might be a match, but if I can’t find her parents (or siblings or cousins or anybody!) I’m stuck with no way to verify which Mary Jane is my Mary Jane. 

So imagine my excitement when I tracked down a 1935 funeral notice for Mary Jane’s husband and listed among the mourners are two “step-brothers.” I know HE didn’t have step-siblings, sooooo maybe I’ve found a link to HER family?? Finally?

George and the Cleves

That’s a no. Turns out the Cleves family were brewers in Cardiff and 15-year-old George was sent to live with them, to learn the trade (guessing here, based on the census…), in 1871, EVEN THOUGH his mama had him listed as still living at home in England on her 1871 census form. So he wound up on two different census forms, in two different countries. 

England Census for Keziah and William

I’d spotted a “George Purnell” living near the Cleves in the 1881 census but the entry was so weird (a 24-year-old has a 20-year-old granddaughter and 17-year-old grandson??) that I figured it was an error and disregarded it. Turns out it’s Charles and Susan Cleves’ grandkids living in the same house as their “nephew*” George. 

Wales Census for  Charles Cleves Sr.

And since I had George on each ‘correct’ census, I didn’t follow up on this outlier - and probably wouldn’t have known this was “my” George if I had. But once the pieces came together, finding those names in George’s obit lead to a cool story - so much more than you’d expect to get from a few century old pieces of paper. I really love that part of the search. Now, if I could just find a link to Miz Jones …

* Pretty sure the Cleves aren’t blood relatives since I haven’t found any other Cleves in my search, but they were obviously an important part of George’s life. 

Organizing

Still working away on hubby’s family tree, organizing all the paper - print and digital- I’ve accumulated so far.

With 120+ people in the tree - not including siblings and others listed in things like the census - there’s a lot to keep track of. Good news is, I’ve got most of the names and BMD dates (birth, marriage, death) penciled in for all 4 branches, going back 4 to 7 generations. Whoop!

Now I’m looking for confirming documents - birth registrations, obituaries, news articles, passport applications - and fun tidbits to make things more interesting. Two of this week’s favorite finds - stumbled onto a link to George Edward’s obituary … with the misspelled last name. No wonder I couldn’t find it before. Also love the physical descriptions in the passport application - the usual height, weight, eye and hair color, plus ‘Forehead: “high” and Nose: “sharp”.’ Definitely including that in the final product.

Paper Treasure

A few treasures from the King branch of the family - my MIL’s father’s side.

The 1911 England census is the only one where the respondent filled out the form, rather than the  enumerator (census taker.) 

So this beautiful handwriting was done by either hubby’s great-grandparent or great-aunt. Also,  the questions changed for each census - this census asked not just who was residing there, but for the # of children born and the # still living. In some cases, where the child died young and wasn’t yet baptized, this could be their only record of having lived. Interesting note - every other document I’ve found lists “James” as “Charles”. Since someone in his immediate family filled in this form, did he actually go by James? Or is it a mistake? So fun finding these little quirks. 

Marriage record for John Foster and his first wife, Damaris Hind, dated 24 December 1795. Both were able to sign their name so I think it’s a good bet they were educated. Many people back then, especially women, couldn’t read or write, so made their “x” mark on documents instead (note the 2nd record on the right-hand page above.)

Birth record for Samuel, son of Samuel and Ann West, dated 1656. I found this by accident - it was attached to a family (same names) from the 1700’s. Don’t know yet if it’s part of hubby’s family, but it’s super cool!

6 Gen Goal

Making progress!

I was hoping to go back 6 generations on each branch of hubby’s tree, and got my hopes up for going even further when the first branch was so easy to research. (Several cousins* had been there before me, highlighting the way.)

But on the second branch - hubby’s paternal grandmother - I’m hitting dead ends a lot sooner. Could be because Smyth/Smith is a common surname? Or record keeping was done differently in Ireland than England? Plus, it appears to have been tradition to name boys after the dad, and girls after the mom. Which is great, until you get 3 generations of “John Henry” and two of them married women named Hester. Confusing! Planning to try this one again after I finish the last two branches. 

Favorite finds - probate records for Henry Broadway Foster, farmer and woodsman, from 1873,  - hubby’s 2x great granddad on his mother’s side - 

and marriage records for Benjamin Foster and Sarah Davis, from 1764, Henry Broadway’s grandparents, so hubby’s 4th greats? So amazing. 

* I’m digging through all the available records, one by one, to make my own accurate (as possible) timeline. But it’s nice to see what others have put together as verification (or for laughs. A couple have gone waaaaaay off the rails. See 3 consecutive John Henry’s, above.)

4 x 4

Jac stayed home sick with her mom today, so I had four hours of uninterrupted time to work on my genealogy project.

 Joseph’s baptism dated 1752

Researched another four individuals, including Joseph, born 1752, and his wife, Dinah, born 1758, who are (if I counted right) hubby’s 4th great-grandparents. Hubby has a grandparent from each of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I have two more people to research before I’m done with England, then it’s on to Wales. 

Today’s favorite find was this baptismal record for “William, son of William Franklin and Hester, his wife”  dated August 14, 1700. The fact that the original record has survived over 300 years and is available - in super clear images - on my computer halfway around the world just boggles my mind.

Obsession

My fav SIL recently finished sorting and dividing up my late in-laws family photos, which reminded me that I wanted to do an ancestry book for hubby, 

kinda like the one I did for my side of the family awhile back.  

Since I need a break from quilting*, I re-upped my Ancestry subscription, thinking I’d spend a couple of hours sorting records and looking around…

and -poof!- just like that, the entire weekend was gone. This stuff is addictive. 

I’m maybe a quarter of the way done with researching, planning to go back 6-ish generations from hubby’s parents. ~cracks knuckles~ This is going to be fun. 

* hurt my “good” shoulder and can’t lift that arm much at all. Getting older is a PITA.