My Trails into the Past

This is week 17 of the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge” by Amy Crow from  No Story Too Small .  I am a bit behind but intend to catch up. Ernie & Mary  My husband’s great uncle, Ernie Nilsen and his wife, Mary, never had any children. Because of that, there are no descendants who would be wondering about Mary’s family. We’ve put together a very nice story about Ernie and Mary in the book  The Nilsen Family: From Jönköping to America, but at the time of the printing, no research had been done on Mary’s immediate family. [1] Well today, I did some poking at Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org looking for some hint about Mary’s ancestry so her story could be complete. Mary Wilson McConnell was born 4 Apr 1893 in Tennessee and died 16 Sept 1986 in Los Angeles County, California. [2] That much I know from death indexes in California and the Social Security Death Index. My husband’s aunt, Bernice, is the keeper of many of the Nilsen records and she...

The Book of Me, Written by You is a blogging theme where one can write about their own life using blog themes posted each week.  More information can be found at Anglers Rest here . This week's prompt is - What's in your bag/pocket? Do you routinely carry a bag? What do you carry? Why do you carry it? What do you carry it in? Do you carry differently things on specific days or to specific places? I have never been a big fan of the “purse.” I have owned a few but usually only use them when I’m wearing nice clothes such as slacks, dress, or skirt.  My preferred bag is a backpack/knapsack. You know, the kind that carries books to school. I sling it over my left shoulder mostly, though sometimes over both shoulders if it’s heavy with too many books or the laptop. That way my hands are free. Right now I own two backpacks made by JanSport. One is navy blue and the other is brown and tan plaid. If I had my druthers, I would have lots backpacks in a vari...

Peter Hayden Hutson was my great-great maternal grandfather. He was born 22 Dec 1853 in Georgia. [1] His family was found in Salacoa, Cherokee Co, Georgia in the 1860 census. [2]   His father was Robert Hutson and his mother Amanda Davis. The next time Peter was found was in the marriage record of Peter and Sarah Helena Selman on 11 Sep 1879 in Cherokee Co, Texas. [3]  At first I wasn’t sure this was the correct marriage record, because of the name for R.H. Hudson, but looking at the image, the "R" really looked like a "P."  So P.H. could easily be Peter Hayden. And Hudson and Hutson can be easily interchanged. Plus Miss S.H.S. Selman most likely is Sarah Helena “Sallie” Selman. Marriage record of Peter H. Hutson & Sarah H. Selman, Hood County, Texas Marriages, Bk B, p 42. They were married by R.S. Proffett, Minister of the Gospel, on 11 Sep 1879. Researching R.S. Proffitt, I found he was a minister in the area and also the postmaster. Peter...

This is week 15 of the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge” by Amy Crow from  No Story Too Small .  I am a bit behind but intend to catch up. Today I am writing about the oldest Hork ancestor I have found, Röttger Horoch. Notice the spelling of Hork in the earlier times? I found the spelling in a variety of ways: Horrock, Horroch, Horock, and later in the 19th Century, it was spelled Hork. These were all from German church records. I have two records found in church books about Röttger: the marriage record to Dorothea Voss and his death/burial record. From the death record, he died on the 13th day of February in 1816. [1] He was approximately 87 years old. This would make him born about 1729 plus or minus a few years. There are church records going back that far in Kirchhundem. When I get better at reading the old handwriting, I will search for his birth/baptism record. Here is the death record. Don’t you love that old German handwriting? From the wee...

Urselle Clementine Hork was the sister of my grandfather, William Cyril Hork, making her my great-aunt. She was the ninth child born to Johann Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert and Cyril was the tenth and last. She was the only child born in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, on 23 Mar 1892 to parents who moved around a lot. [1] By 1900, the family was living in Hamilton, Ravalli County, Montana, the last place that they would live as a family. [2] Even though she was 8 years old in the 1900 census, she was not listed as attending school as her older brothers and sisters were. Ten years later she was listed in the 1910 census with the family as attending school at the age of 18. [3]   It is believed that she graduated from high school as she stated in 1940 that her highest education achieved was 4 years of high school. [4] After finishing school, Urselle worked as an operator for the Montana Independent Telephone Company. [5] This company was located in the Chamber ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has wonderful exercises for us to do on Saturday Nights. I don’t always participate but today’s assignment intrigued me. I knew just the images I wanted to have alongside my post. Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) It's Father's Day in the USA on Sunday, so let's talk about our fathers. 2) What did your father really like to do in his work or spare time? Did he have hobbies, or a workshop, or did he like sports, or reading, or watching TV? 3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. My father, William J. Hork, loved sports: football, baseball, and golf. He played football in high school and could throw right or left handed as a quarterback.  Later he learned to play golf, but with a large family of six children, he found he didn’t have the resources to keep up with that sport. It didn’t keep him from w...