My Trails into the Past

It’s February and time to move on to another genealogical couple, this time, my husband’s paternal 2x-great-grandparents, Frederick Henry Davey (1853-1915), and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber (1859-1885). Introduction Frederick Henry Davey was born on 10 October 1853 in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, the only child of Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas born in the United States. He married Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber on 26 June 1878 and they had four children: Fred James, Matilda “Tillie”, William Edward, and Leon Thomas. Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber was born on 27 August 1859 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Ludwig “Louis” Wilhelm Wollenweber and Philappina Margaretha Voehringer. She was the oldest child of five. She died on 1 November 1885 in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Fred married her sister, Julia Wollenweber on 28 July 1887. They had one son, George Thomas Davey. Julia divorced Fred in 1892. He married Angeline McDonald Grace on 16 Mar 1898 in Jasper Coun...

To start off this monthly task, I selected twelve of my daughters’ sixteen 2x-great-grandparents. Using a random number generator, no. 10 was selected, which is Nell L. Hutson, who married Thomas Newton Johnston. I will deal with her life as a married person when he is selected. For now, I will focus mostly on her parents and work my way back. This will include Hutson and Selman lines. Background Information This first part will cover what I already know about the family of Nell and her parents. This covers census, marriage, deeds, obituaries, death certificate, and cemetery markers. Laying out the background information will help see the holes where more research is needed. These will be listed as action items. Nell was born on 8 February 1888 somewhere in Texas. This information is from her gravestone. [1] Other documents point to 1889 as the year of her birth. Her parents are Peter H. Hutson and Sarah “Sallie” Selman, though no document states this. [Action1: write proof summar...

Two of my blogging friends select twelve different lines of their family to focus on, one month at a time. [1]   I think it is a wonderful idea and perhaps it will keep me from jumping to bright shiny objects (BSO) instead getting some real work done. I will still write my regular features: 52 Ancestors, Genea-pourri, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF), and Webinar Wednesday when I have a point to make after viewing a webinar. However, I need to work on some work samples for my BCG (Board for the Certification of Genealogists) renewal, which will come up in a couple of years. I plan to write some KDPs (Kinship Determination Project) and then choose the one that best highlights my research and writing skills. Another reason this is a good idea is FamilySearch ’s new full-text search feature includes so many more record types besides land and court, that it will be good to revisit some families that I have researched long ago to make sure I have fully done reasonably exhaustive ...