Week 20 of the 52 ancestors challenge is themed “black sheep”. I come from a family of doctors, politicians, preachers, and a lot of farmers. I’ve not found a black sheep among them. Okay, the politicians might be questionable. So, instead of writing about skeletons in closets or general bad behavior of black sheep ancestors,…
I love that Amy Johnson Crow has given us themes for the 2015 52 Ancestors challenge! This week (week 15) is “How do you spell that?”. Ha! I have a lot of short, easy surnames in my family tree – Moore, Davis, Douglas, Lindsey, Jones. I also have a few like Lemaitre that have a…
Just one photo. Is that really all I get to pick for week 14 of 52 Ancestors? Too bad. I’m picking two! Each photo is of my great-great grandparents, Jake and Anna Mueller. Jacob Mueller was born in 1870 in St. Clair County, Illinois to Jacob and Dorothea Mueller. Anna was born three years later in…
“Same” is the theme for week 12 of the 2015 52 Ancestors challenge. I’m always fascinated at how characteristics and features get passed to us from our parents and grandparents. Every now and then, I come across a photo of an ancestor that sends me into utter shock because of a family resemblance. The “sameness”…
The week 11 theme for the 2015 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Luck of the Irish”. I don’t really have an ancestor that fits the theme … we’re of Scottish and German heritage and, while the Celtic route would still sort of fit, I decided to focus in on family tradition this week in light of…
Stormy Weather is an apropos theme for the Week 10 52 Ancestors Challenge. It’s March and, in southern Illinois, we would normally be headed into spring and well on our way to “tornado season”. Not this year … our only two snow storms of the winter have happened in the last two weeks. They’ve been…
I initially had trouble deciding about whom to write given the week 9 52 ancestors theme, Close to Home. I live in the same area where my ancestors on all sides have lived for as many as 200 years … so everyone is close to home. Then it hit me. I was moving some books…
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Good deeds … the 52 ancestors week 8 theme … is an easy one for me. When my grandpa would tell stories about his family, his grandfather, Thomas James Rains, would always enter the tale. There are many characters that intertwine in stories of the Rains family, so I will…
Love is an apropos theme for week 7 of the 2015 installment of 51 ancestors … the week of Valentine’s Day. Of course, the theme draws me toward ancestors who fell madly in love with their spouse and lived happily ever after. Well … that would be too predictable. On Saturday, February 12, 1910, two…
Last week, I posted about Rev. Rowland Jones, my 9th great grandfather on my dad’s side. We descend from Rowland’s first son, Robert, who was born in 1676 in Williamsburg, Virginia. In a quest to clean up what was a very messy batch of “could be” children, I ran across an article in The William…
Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small gave us a new 52 Ancestors challenge for 2015. Each week, we have a different theme about which to write. It’s quite the challenge, but I love meeting it and reading how everyone interprets each week. Week six is “so far away”. “So far away” conjures many things … the…
Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small gave us a new 52 Ancestors challenge for 2015. Each week, we have a different theme about which to write. It’s quite the challenge, but I love meeting it and reading how everyone interprets each week. Week five is “plowing through”. My 3rd great grandmother, Veronique Voirol, was born in…
Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small gave us a new 52 Ancestors challenge for 2015. Each week, we have a different theme about which to write. It’s quite the challenge, but I love meeting it and reading how everyone interprets each week. Week four is “closest to your birthday.” Discovering an ancestor who has a…
Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small gave us a new 52 Ancestors challenge for 2015. Each week, we have a different theme about which to write. It’s quite the challenge, but I love meeting it and reading how everyone interprets each week. The theme for 52 Ancestors for week 3 is “strong women”. It’s…
The week 2 theme for 52 Ancestors is “King”. Gosh … my mind goes directly to royalty! Imagine that! It’s wild to imagine that a family that landed in America before it even was, then migrated from the Carolinas through Tennessee and up to Illinois would be descendant from any King, let alone Robert the…
Yikes! I just noticed the new 52 Ancestors challenge that Amy Johnson Crow gave us on her blog No Story Too Small … and I’m behind already! I love how she has added weekly themes. Week 1 was a fresh start … and that’s where I’m starting even though I’m a teeny bit late. I have…
I patiently awaited for the DNA kit at Ancestry to go on sale over the holidays. Finally, on January 3rd, I noticed the lower price tag … and ordered mine! Admittedly, a small tinge of anticipation went through my bones. I’m fascinated at our ability to use DNA in this manor and very excited to see what…
In honor of Wishful Wednesday … Have you ever been asked, “If you could sit down with anyone in history and have a conversation, who would it be?”. I have … several times. I always have a different answer, too. Sometimes it’s Eleanor Roosevelt, sometimes it is Mary Queen of Scots or Robert the Bruce….
I have been fascinated with cemeteries for as long as I can remember. It feels a little morbid, but there is great history lurking among the grave markers! I’ve wandered through my fair share of cemeteries, too … sometimes just to imagine the lives of those buried in them. As the family genealogy nut (one of…
Many of my Grandpa’s people are buried in Boucher Cemetery in Murphysboro, Illinois. Among them are Grandma Phoebe – Grandpa’s mother – and her parents, Scott and Margaret Douglas. Several siblings and many other Raines family connections were laid to rest at Boucher Cemetery. While it isn’t really “the family cemetery”, I have always felt as though it…
It always seems odd to refer to grandparents as ancestors. I suppose that’s because I’ve been raised around them or grown to know them well in my adulthood. They’re people who have helped me become who I am in ways that “dead people” ancestors haven’t. Alas, grandparents are ancestors, so this week I’m writing about…
As I continue to answer the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge set forth by Amy Johnson Crow over at “No Story Too Small”, I find myself doing more and more research on ancestors I know very little about. I’m determined to make it to number 52, but I think it’s going to take longer…
It stormed really bad this morning and well into the afternoon. The kind of storm that makes you wonder what’s coming next. When it quieted down a bit, Mom, Noodle and I made a break for our favorite museum and resale shop. Upon our return, I noticed the power had gone out at some point…
Joab was a very popular name in my dad’s family. My grandfather’s name was Joab. His grandfather’s name was Joab, and so on back to my 4th great grandfather, Joab Moore. This is as far back as I can reach in the Moore line. Joab #1 was born in 1785 in either North Carolina (1850…