SNGF: Semi-Random Research

Randy Seaver's  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun at Genea-Musings:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  We're going to do a little bit of Semi-Random Research tonight...

2)  Go to your family tree database of choice (you know, like RootsMagic, Reunion, Ancestry Member Tree), and determine who the very last person on your list of names is.

3)  What do you know about this person based on your research?  It's OK to do more if you need to - in fact, it's encouraged!

4)  How are you related to this person, and why is s/he in your family tree?

5)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook Status post or Google+ Stream post.

The last person in my Legacy database is Henry Zwilling, my 4th great-grandfather, who was married to Anna Maria Gossman/Gassman and had at least one child, Elizabeth.  In a somewhat unrelated note, this Elizabeth is probably one reason I have the middle name Elizabeth.  She is my grandma's great-grandmother and I wonder if that is where her parents got her middle name (also Elizabeth).

And that is all the information I have...

So to Ancestry.com we go.  Thanks to some enterprising relatives, there is quite a bit on Ancestry for Henry.  He appears to have been born in the Alsace region of France around 1804.  He emigrated to America and lived in Lancaster, Erie Co., NY, where he died in 1890.

There are the usual census and tax records and confused family trees.  The most interesting are the scanned image of his citizenship document and the land ownership map.

Henry is on my "to research someday" list.

SNGF: Where Were They 100 Years Ago?

From Randy at Genea-Musings:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 January 1913 - 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

• My great-great grandparents Joseph Acquard, Jr. (1855) and Mary Kollin (unknown) lived in Bennington Center, Wyoming, NY with their children including my great grandfather Florian (1899).


• My great-great grandparents Franciszek Karpinski (1880) and Jozefa Szydlik (1886) were living with their daughter Genevieve in Buffalo, Erie, NY.  It is possible their parents were living in Poland, but I have not done any research there yet.


• My great-great grandparents George Nuwer (1869) and Anna Zeapfel (1874) were living with their children, including my great grandfather Albert (1906), at their house on Westwood in Alden, Erie, NY.  I have photos of this home.  I am not sure where George's mother, Elizabeth Nitcher (1843) was at this time.


• Anna's parents, Joseph Zeapfel (1837) and Elizabeth Zwilling (1847)  lived with some of their children in Lancaster, Erie, NY.


• My great-great grandparents Marco Casillo (1868) and Caroline Izzo (1876) lived with their children, including my great grandfather Alfred Casell (1906), in  Buffalo, Erie, NY.


• My great-great grandparents William Eichhorn and Augusta Tross were also living in Buffalo, with their children including my great grandmother Lillian Eichhorn (1908).  William's mother Catherine Weiss (1849) was also probably living in Buffalo at this time.


• Augusta's mother, Maria Strassheim (1841) was living in Buffalo with her daughter Catherina's family.


• My great-great grandparents Charles Whitehead (1872) and Anna Sanderson (1871) were living in Buffalo with their children including my great grandfather William (1896).


• My great-great grandparents Jacob Gress (1869) and Elizabeth Fink (1867) were living with their children, including my great grandmother Vera (1900), in Buffalo.


• Jacob's mother Sophia Passel (1849) was also living in Buffalo.  She had a few boarders at this time.


• Elizabeth's mother Barbara Fleeman (1846) was living in Buffalo with 2 of her children.

I do not have many photos of the homes of my ancestors.  I now have a project for the next time I'm visiting Buffalo.

SNGF: Ancestral Name Roulette

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy at Genea-Musings is:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What year was your paternal grandfather born?  Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick a grandmother, or yourself, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

My roulette number is:

1) 1933/100=19.33 rounded to 19

2) Number 19 on my ancestral name list is Jozefa "Josephine" Szydlik (1886-1973), my great-great grandmother.

3) ---She was born somewhere in Poland on 26 Sep 1886.  I just ordered her SS-5 and am hoping for the exact place of birth in the next 20 business days;-)

---She was married to Franciszek "Francis" "Frank" Karpinski and they had 6 children, Florence, Thaddeus, Genowefa, Roman, Stanislawa and Alfreda.

---Her parents were Thomas Szydlik and Barbara (last name unknown) and she had at least two siblings, sister's Stefania and Apolania.

 

SNGF: Two Degrees of Separation

For this weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy Seaver:

1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

2)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.

Nuwer Line: I remember my great grandpa, Albert Nuwer (1906-1989).  He would have known his grandmother Elizabeth Zwilling Zaepfel, who was born in 1847 and died in 1929.

On the Acquard Line: I have a photo of myself with my great grandma, Stella Karpinski Acquard (1916-1987) and I think I remember going to a dinner with her where we had the most generations in the room (I need to ask my mom about this).  She would have known her parents, born in 1880 and 1886.  I have not yet found her grandparents vital statistics, but it is possible I will be able to push this back.

On my mother's side, all of my great grandparents had passed on before I was born.

For the Whitehead's, however, I do know my great aunt Lois would have met two of her great grandmother's (though not remember said meeting, most likely), Barbara Fleeman Fink who was born in 1846 and died in 1929 and Sophia Passel Gress who was born in 1846 and died in 1928.

On the Casell side, I met my Grandpa Casell (who I do not remember) who would have known his great grandmother Katherine Weiss Eichhorn,who  born 1849 and died in 1936.

This is pretty amazing to think about.

SNGF: Wordle

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, from Randy,  is to:

1)  Go to the Wordle site - www.wordle.net and create your own unique Wordle  - it's a word cloud.  You can use either a clump of text, enter your own words (say, surnames, or given names), use a blog page address, or something else.  Your choice!  Be creative with the fonts, colors, backgrounds, and layout.

2)  Save it as an image (I used Print Screen, pasted it to a Word document, used the Windows snipping tool to edit it, and saved it to a file).  Tell us how you did it.

3)  Show us your handiwork!  Add the image to a blog post of your own or on a web page of your own.

Mine for my blog is:

SNGF: Count Your Trees

Today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun brought to us by Randy at Genea-Musings:

1)  Open your genealogy database in the software of your choice, and use the Help function to determine if your software can count the number of separate family trees you have in that database.
2.  Follow the directions if the program can do it, and Count Your Trees.

3)  Tell us about how many trees you have, and who is the "root" person in the biggest tree.  Tell us if you have any big surprises - did you find any disconnected trees that should not have been disconnected?

4)  Write your own blog post, write a comment on this post, or write a Facebook status or comment.

In Legacy, I have 2 trees.  My first has me as the start with 735 people.  The second has my mom's cousin Lori as the start and she is the only person in the tree.  Not sure why she is in her own private tree, but I will be fixing that now.  How many did you find?

SNGF - Ancestral Name List Roulette

Courtesy of Randy at Genea-Musings:

Instructions:

1) How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

Theodore Frank Acquard was born 21 Sept 1933, so he would be 77.  77/4 = 19.25, which we will put as 19.  Spinning the ahnentafel chart, we get Jozefa Szydlik, my great-great-grandmother.

Jozefa was born 26 Sep 1886 in Poland.  One of my goals for 2011 is to look into my Polish ancestry more and figure out where in Poland they came from.  She came to New York state with her family and died in Warsaw, Warsaw Co., NY 4 Apr 1973.  She was married to Franciszek Karpinski.  Good thing we only need to give three facts because that is about all I have on her.

SNGF - Make a Genealogy Wish

Courtesy of Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  If you found a bottle on the shore, and it had a genea-genie in it, and rubbed it and you had ONE WISH to make about your genealogy and family history research, what would it be?

This is an easy one for me.  I would want to talk to my great-great grandmother Anna May (Elizabeth Anne) Sanderson Whitehead.  It is most likely that after being married and having a few children, she then left them, married my great-great grandfather, moved to Buffalo and had a whole other life.  I just want to know for sure if she did and then ask why.  No judgement, of course, people do what they need to do, just curious for the story.  I will post more about her for Madness Monday.

SNGF: Feeling lucky?

A fun Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy at Genea-Musings

1) Go to http://www.google.com/ and enter a search term and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
2) Try your name, your local society, favorite genealogy terms, whatever you want. Do at least three, and as many as you want if you have time. Be creative! Have fun!

3) What did you learn from this exercise?

4) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, as a comment to this post, or as a Note or comment on Facebook.

Mine is through google.de, as it is the default in Germany

"Amanda Acquard" - My Facebook page

Genealogy - http://www.genealogienetz.de/ (so weird)

"Amanda's Athenaeum" - http://gonnabelibrarians.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-club-burlesque.html (my friends post where I am listed on her blogroll.  Ironically, I gave her the idea for this post)

"amanda genealogy" - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~amandataylor/pafg15.htm (looks like a nice site)

"acquard genealogy" - http://distantcousin.com/SurnameResources/Surname.asp?Surname=ACQUARD

What did I learn?  I obviously need to start paying Google.de;-)

SNGF - Time Capsule

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

1) Go to the dMarie Time Capsule Website - http://dmarie.com/timecap/

2) Select a date in your family history that you want to know about. You might pick a birth date or wedding date of your parents or grandparents.

3) Enter the date into the search form, and select the news, songs, toys, books and other things that you want to feature.

4) Share the date, why you picked it, and the results of your Time Capsule study on your own blog, in a comment to this post, or in a comment or post on Facebook.

I chose 26 January 1869, the day my great-great grandfather Jacob J. Gress was born.

Top headlines were:


Feb 2 - James Oliver invents the removable tempered steel plow blade   Feb 3 - Booth theater at 23rd & 6th opens in New York NY (Romeo & Juliet)   Feb 6 - Harper's Weekly publishes 1st picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers   Feb 15 - Charges of Treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped   Feb 19 - US Assay Office in Boise ID authorized   Feb 20 - Tenn Gov W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis

The president was: Andrew Johnson

Other people born that day are:

1948 - Corky Laing rocker (Mountain)

1880 - Douglas MacArthur Little Rock AR, General of the Army (WWII), he did return!

1925 - Paul Newman Cleveland OH, racer/popcorn mogul/actor (Hud, Hombre, Hustler)

1928 - Eartha Kitt South Carolina, singer/actress (Catwoman-Batman) This is a really interesting and useful site, particularly if you are writing a book or report on a family member.  The information from their birth or marriage date really makes the history come alive.  I will definitely be using this more in the future.

SNGF: Matrilineal Line

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun for Mother's Day from Randy at Genea-Musings.


1) List your matrilineal line - your mother, her mother, etc. back to the first identifiable mother. Note: this line is how your mitochondrial DNA was passed to you!

2) Tell us if you have had your mitochondrial DNA tested, and if so, which Haplogroup you are in.

3) Post your responses on your own blog post, in Comments to this blog post, or in a Note or status line on Facebook.


1. Mine is:

1. Me, Amanda
2. My Mom
3. My Grandma
4. Vera Julia Gress (1900 - 1976)
5. Elizabeth Fink (1867 - 1957)
6. Barbara Fleeman (1846 - 1929)
7. Barbara Griss (1824 - 1870)

2. I have not done this, but am looking into it.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Gratitude Story

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy is:
* Read Megan Smolenyak's article 120 Years of Smolenyaks in America: A Note of Gratitude from a Great-Granddaughter

* Do you have an ancestor like Megan's great-grandfather that was the first one to come to America (or your present country of residence) that you would like to thank?

* If so, tell us about that ancestor - and why you are thankful for their effort.


Maria Strassheim Tross, on the 24 June 1884, you arrived in New York City and then traveled to Buffalo from Eberstardt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany with 6 children, all under the age of 10, including an infant, and only 3 pieces of baggage.  I believe your husband had died in the prior few months and yet you still set out to a new country, relatively alone.  I cannot even imagine doing something like that, even in todays world of quick airplanes.  Thank you great-great-great grandmother Tross, for being such an incredible, strong woman.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Life Outside Genealogy

From Randy at Genea-MusingsYour mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

* Tell us about your "other" hobbies or interests outside of genealogy and family history research, writing, speaking, etc.

When not doing genealogy, my hobbies and interests include:

• Hanging out with my fiancé Aaron, my family and friends - we get tea, play board games, watch movies and chat.
• Traveling - I love cities, history and subways the most.  I cannot ever imagine traveling to lay on a beach, when there are so many old buildings, churches, museums and world heritage sites to see.  My favorite places I have been include South Africa, Prague, Savannah, and Ottawa.
• Reading - Mostly nonfiction and magazines.  Recently I have been reading the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, which I highly recommend.  I also hang out in bookstores and libraries as much as possible.
• Musicals - I used to be in them constantly, but it is too difficult with work and school, so now I just listen to the CD's and go watch them whenever I get the chance.
• School - I am not sure this can be counted as a hobby, although I love learning new things and attending conferences and classes.  Most of my time has been tied up in this, but I have found a way to combine it with most of my other hobbies...

As you can see, I do have a life outside of genealogy, although most of my interests are still tied to the overall theme of family, history, and research:-)

SNGF - My Superpower

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun task:

Dean Richardson posted What’s Your Genealogical Superpower? on his Genlighten Blog - Genealogy Documented blog last week, along with a nifty picture of a young lady with a big S on her shirt flying (is that Dean's wife?). I thought Dean's question was a great one for SNGF - so your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to...

1) Answer the question: Do you have a genealogical “superpower”? (i.e., a unique research ability or technique that helps you track down records or assemble conclusions that others can’t?) If so, what is it?

My superpower is luck.  I have always been a lucky person, which to me means working hard, paying attention to what occurs and taking the opportunities presented to me.  I hear about a new book at the library or an interesting website and I make sure I go check it out, which usually leads me to finding something useful.  Sometimes luck runs out, though, in which case I use my handy jedi-whip pictured above to get what I want;-)

Make yourself a superhero at The Hero Factory

SNGF - The Best 2009 Genealogy Moment

For this weeks SNGF (which I'm actually going on Saturday this week!) Randy asks:
1) "What was your best Genealogy Moment during 2009?" This could be a research find, a fabulous trip, a found family treasure, etc. Your choice!



My best genealogy moment was, beyond a doubt, going to Florida with my grandmother to visit two of my great aunts and their families.  I had an amazing time hearing stories, viewing and scanning photos and documents and getting to know my extended family (whose blogs I now follow!).  My favorite find, while there, was a tin-type of my ggg-grandmother Sophia and seeing the strong genes she had, which we passed to her granddaughter and all of her daughters, my Aunt Holly and myself.  It is amazing to see a photo of an ancestor, born almost a hundred and forty years before you, who you can see yourself in.

SNGF - What I received for Christmas

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:
1) What gift that you received for Christmas is your favorite for genealogy purposes? Book, magazine, hardware, software, website subscription, research time - what was it, and how will it affect your genealogy research?

2) Tell us about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook in response to this post.


I received a fantastic genealogy present on Christmas - a reply to a blog post from my second cousin, once removed!  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  Thank you Alan, for a fantastic present!

SNGF - My 16 great-great-grandparents

From Randy over at Genea-Musings: Here is your SNGF assignment for the evening (if you choose to accept it - this is not stump the genealogist or even Mission Impossible):

1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don't know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

1. Joseph Francis Eugene Acquard, Jr.: born 17 Jan 1855 in Cheektowaga, Erie, NY; married 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 10 Sept 1943 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. FRENCH
2. Mary Ann Kollin: born 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 5 Feb 1938 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. 1/2 GERMAN and 1/2 BELGIAN
3. Franciszek Karpinski: born 16 Sep 1880 in Poland; died 22 May 1943 in Erie or Wyoming, NY. POLISH
4. Jozefa Szydlik: born 26 Sep 1886 in Poland; died 4 Apr 1973 in Warsaw, Wyoming, NY. POLISH
5. John George Nuwer: born 21 Mar 1869 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; married 19 Apr 1893 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; died 1 Feb 1948 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
6. Anna M. Zaepfel: born 28 Sep 1874 in Elma, Erie, NY; died 7 Aug 1943 in Alden, Erie, NY. 1/2 GERMAN & 1/2 FRENCH
7. Edward Roll: born about 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; married 22 Jun 1910 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 12 May 1941 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
8. Lidwina Agnes Pautler: born 16 Jan 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 11 Oct 1975 in Batavia, Genesee, NY. FRENCH
9. Marcantonio Casillo: born 11 Jan 1868 in Italy; married 5 Sept 1901 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 26 Nov 1937 in Colden, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
10. Carolina Izzo: born 3 May 1876 in Italy; died 2 Oct 1934 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
11. William Fred Eichhorn: born 22 Jun 1874 in Chippewa, Ontario, Canada; married 14 Jun 1899 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 9 Mar 1931 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
12. Augusta M. Tross: born 6 Sept 1877 in Germany; died 1 Jan 1939 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
13. Charles William Whitehead: born 12 Jun 1872 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; married prior to 1896; died 27 Dec 1927 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
14. Anna May Sanderson: born 17 Jun 1871 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; died 29 Apr 1928 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
15. Jacob J. Gress: born 26 Jan 1869 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; married prior to 1888; died 11 Aug 1932 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
16. Elizabeth Fink: born 6 Jul 1867 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 24 Apr 1957 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN

That gives me 31.25% German; 28.125% French; 12.5% Polish; 12.5% Italian; 12.5% English ; and 3.125% Belgian. The French and German parts are hard to tell as most of my fathers family came from the Alsace-Lorraine region which kept changing hands. The fact that my 3rd great-grandmother was born in Belgium (like the waffle) has always been cool to me. Oddly, I most identify with the Italian part of my heritage, even though it is way down on the list.

Saturday Night Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line

Since I was at the symphony for Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings Saturday Night Fun, we'll have a little Sunday morning fun instead:-)

* What was your father's mother's maiden name?  Nuwer (She is still living)

* What was your father's mother's father's name? Albert Emil Nuwer, born 24 Mar 1906 in Alden, Erie, NY and died 24 Dec 1989 in Alden, Erie, NY.  Buried at St. John's Cemetery, Alden, Erie, NY.

* What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?  My grandmother's brother has done a lot of research on this part of the family.  Here is the information I have from him, with much thanks:

- John George Nuwer, 1869 - 1948

- Henry Nuwer, 1845 - 1911

- Jean Nuber, 1819 - 1897

- Antoine Nuber, 1796 - 1857

- Franciscus Antone Nuber, 1760 -1818

- George Fancis Nuber, Unknown - Unknown

- John George Nuber, 1698 - Before 1748

* Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)?  If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further. As mentioned earlier, my great-uncle is still alive.  I will have to email him to see if he is interested in DNA testing.

Saturday Night Fun - Who's Number 21?

A bit later than Saturday night, here's my #21 for Randy of Genea-Musings prompt.

My #21 on my Anhentafel is my great-great grandmother Anna M. Zaepfel.

Anna was born 28 Sept 1874 in Elma, Erie, New York.  She married John George Nuwer 19 Apr 1893 at St. Mary's Church in Lancaster, Erie, New York.

Anna had 17 children, including my great-grandfather Albert Emil (he was number 9).  She must have been an amazing woman, especially since at least 16 of them reached adulthood.

She died 7 Aug 1943 and was buried in St. John's Catholic Church Cemetery, Alden, Erie, New York.

This photograph shows her with her first 10 children.

"Were You There?," (Alden) Alden Advertiser, 23 Oct 1975, p. 15, col. 1.