My Trails into the Past

This month, I am working with my Tierney family, who are of Carleton County, Ontario, specifically Nepean, which is now part of the Municipality of Ottawa. John Tierney and Ann Murray had a large family of eleven known children. The youngest, Mary Martha (1857-1950) entered the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns of Ottawa) at the young age of 16 years, 5 months on 24 December 1874. Three years later, she made her profession on 13 December 1877. [1] She was known as Sister St. Melanie. I have written about her before: Spirit – Mary Martha Tierney & her Spiritual Connection to God as Sister St. Melanie . After reading Sunny Jane Morton’s book, Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States (Genealogical Publishing, 2026), I have not been able to put her out of my mind. My cousin was named after her, and I took Melanie as my confirmation name. So, I feel a connection to her. I have a photograph of her as well as a couple of obituaries, which can he...

I have a census enumeration that has puzzled me for years. The head of the household in the 1900 Mitchell, Davison County, South Dakota, census is John Gleeson, my 2x-great-grandfather. With him in the household is his wife, Margaret, and children, Martin, William, Margaret T, and Frank T. Gleeson. These people are known to me and their information is consistent with other sources I have. There are also a woman and two children, Mary Frink, May Frink, and John Frink, listed as daughter and grandchildren, but I am not sure who these people are. Gleeson, John, w, m, Jan 1834, 66, mar. 40 yrs, b. Can, parents IR, imm. 1880, 20 yrs in US, no nat., rents, house.    Margaret, wife, w, f, Apr 1836, 64, mar, 10/10, Can, IR/IR, 1880, 20 yr    Martin, w, m, 21, son, Jan 1861, mar, 7 yr, Can, Can/Can, 1880, 20 yr, farmer,    Willie, son, w, m Jun 1874, 25, sing, Can, Can/Can, 1880, 20 yr, rr laborer    Margaret T, w, f, dau, sing, Jul 1876, 23, sing,...

On a trip in the Spring of 2024, I made a research trip to Texas, spending time researching my mother’s family in Comanche, Dallas, Erath, and Rockwall Counties. This was my second trip to Texas. I had previously made a visit to Stephenville in Erath County with my grandmother in the late 1990s, and had taken photographs of resting places of her side of the family. This trip, I spent time visiting the cemeteries in Comanche County for the gravesites of my grandfather’s side of the family. Most of the Johnston family were buried in Hazeldell Cemetery. There is a discrepancy about the spelling of the name. The sign at the entrance spelled it Hazledell Cemetery. [1] Hazeldell Cemetery, Comanche Co, Texas Find a Grave spells it as Hazeldell or Hazledell Cemetery. [2] Wikipedia has Hazel Dell Cemetery. [3] This is probably the original spelling and the sign is just missing the extra space to support it. Hazel Dell was a small community in southeastern Comanche County. It had a schoo...

Last year after attending the National Genealogical Society’s Family History Conference, my husband and I visited Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, to locate the gravestones of his Voehringer/Vohringer family members. I had a list created from their Find a Grave memorials and stopped by the office. I am glad I did, as I received paper copies of the cemetery records. He also marked on a map where the locations of the stones were. That cemetery is huge and it is easy to get lost. The marks on the map were in the general location but I still had to walk around a bit to find them. Yellow marks the spots Mary Agnes Vohringer, born 3 Aug 1811 and died 25 Dec 1898. Her stone is shared with her bachelor son, Fred Vohringer (1849-1895). [1] She was born Mary Agnes Reiff, and is my husband’s 3x-great-grandmother. [2] Mary and Fred were not the only people on this stone. On the opposite side was the surname Nolting. [3] On the side was the name: Rosina Nolting (1843-1915). [4] ...

A question that cannot be answered yet. I am not even sure it is a valid question. In my notes, my husband’s aunt, Ada Gorrell Thomason, wrote a note about her great-grandmother, Philippina Wollenweber. “She lived in Wertenberg [Württemberg], Germany.  Two lawyers came to see her in Jeffersonville [Indiana] about an estate in Germany.  She would not sign papers. no one knew why -- may have been cruel to her.  She made a fair living sewing for soldiers (navy blue flannel).” [ 1] Let’s break apart each of the facts as best we can. It is true that she was born in Württemberg, and it makes sense that Ada would spell the place phonetically. [2] Philippina lived in Jeffersonville from about 1870 to about 1907. [3] So, a lawyer coming to Jeffersonville makes sense. Lastly, the part about her sewing for soldiers can be broken down as well. Her occupation in 1900 was a seamstress. [4] There was a Quartermaster Depot in Jeffersonville that was active especially du...

Growing up, pancakes were a special Sunday morning treat. No homemade pancakes from scratch for us—not when Bisquick could do the trick. Mom used an electric griddle, making lots of pancakes at once. My favorite were the tiny pancakes made from the stray drips. I love anything miniature. A stack of hot cakes came with dabs of margarine between them, and homemade syrup from sugar and maple flavoring or imitation maple syrup from the store. We were too poor for real butter and maple syrup. Sometimes we had strawberry jam that hadn’t set well which made a good syrup substitute. With our own kids, we made pancakes from Bisquick but had real butter and maple syrup, though my youngest preferred powdered sugar on top instead. French Toast was preferred over pancakes and we used a recipe in the Cooks Illustrated cookbooks. Their paternal grandmother made Swedish pancakes, either the traditional dollar-sized ones from a special pan or larger ones from a crepe pan. She served them with but...

It is not often you learn about someone’s occupation from the person themselves. This happened to me this week in researching newspapers for articles about Ludwig Wilhelm (Louis W.) Wollenweber. I located an ad he put into a Cleveland, Ohio, newspaper weekly for nearly a year about his business. I learned quite a bit about his occupation and what his business did from the ad. [1] “Wollenweber’s New Bakery and Confectionery,”  Cleveland Daily Express , 5 Jul 1854, p. 4, col. 1. There are lots of clues in this ad. I have the name of the establishment: Wollenweber’s New Bakery and Confectionary. Its location is on Pearl Street in Cleveland, opposite H. Stone’s residence. I checked out Pearl Street on a map, and it is a long street, so that wasn’t helpful. In 1850, he was enumerated in the third ward, which if his establishment was close to his residence, that might help. [2] Unfortunately, the census does not provide addresses. The 1850 census did not have any candidates for H. Stone...