My Trails into the Past

   Randy Seaver of GeneaMusings has a fun activity on Saturday afternoons and asks other genealogists to join in the fun.  This week's activity is to find the number of your ancestors you have identified in your research.  If you have researched back 10 generations, that would add up to 1023 ancestors, including yourself.  Wow, that's a lot of people!  I wonder how many I have found?    I use RootsMagic to record my genealogy and created a report called "Ahnentafel of Lisa Suzanne Hork".  It lists my ancestors using the Antentafel Numbering System.  1 is for myself, 2 is my father, and 2+1=3 is my mother.  Now you double your father and my grandfather's number is 4, and add 1 to that number for his wife, my paternal grandmother and she is 5.  Do the same for my mother (3X2=6 (maternal grandfather) and 6+1=7 (maternal grandmother).  Here's a short chart to illustrate the numbering system: me father mother...

Today is the 178 th anniversary of the birth of Susan Nicholas Davey (1834- ).  She was the second child of my husband’s great-great grandfather and an older sister of his great grandfather, Frederick Henry Davey (1853-1915). Susan is one of my researching mysteries that I have been actively working on.  As you can see, I have a date for her birth but no date for her death.  Susan was born 11 Aug 1834 and baptized at St. Agnes parish in Cornwall, England on 2 Nov 1834 (1).  Familysearch.org has placed the Cornwall Parish Registers 1538-1900 online and although there are no indexes, I was able to find the baptism record because I knew her birthdate from a photocopy of the Davey Family Bible.  The family was living at Mount Hawke. St. Agnes Parish, Cornwall, England - Susan Davey baptism November 2, Susan Nicholas, daughter of, Thomas & Mary Davey, Mount Hawke, Smith, George Bellomy, Curate. I found the family in the 1841 & 1851 cens...

My great grandfather, John Anton Hork, had one sister who also immigrated to the United States.  I do not know if he ever knew she came to the U.S. She settled in Brooklyn, New York and worked as a dressmaker.  I have found her in several city directories and the 1900, 1910, and 1920 census. 1902 Brooklyn, NY city directory, p 600 for Clementine Hork (1) She lived her final years at the Home for the Aged, which was run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.  She died 5 Sep 1928 and I have just received a copy of her death certificate.  It says she is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery. Clementine Hork death certificate 1928 (2) Happy 161st Birthday, Clementine! (1) Lain & Healy, Lain & Healy's Brooklyn Directory , digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), 1900: 600, Clementine Hork; <http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Jan 2011. (2) Clementine Hork, death certificate 18531 (1928), City of New York Municipal Archives...

1961 Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past

Our genealogy society had a meeting this month at the Concord Family History Center.  Actually, we call it a workshop, so members can use the computers, books, and microfilms after the center has closed.  I let other members have access to the computers and checked out the binder listing all of the microfilm records the center had available.  The films were listed by locality and I saw many films of Louisville, Kentucky and got excited. I'm looking for Louis W Wollenweber, my husband's gg-grandfather, who was from Germany.  He married Phillapena Voehringer, also from Germany, in 1858.  We had the date based on a transcript of a family bible.  Now I have the record as recorded in the marriage register: Louisville, Kentucky Marriage Register, Sep 1858, p 98 (left side of register) This side of the page reads:       Sep 3, Louis W. Wollenwebber & Phillippena Voehringer, Augustus Bargas  Augustus Bargas is the person who marri...

Last week, Michael John Neill wrote about German maps found on Ancestry.com.  I decided to give it a try and find the home town of my Horks:  Oberhundem.  I followed the same instructions Michael gave and found it in no time.  Oberhundem in part of Westfalia, which today is the German state of North Rhein-Westphalia.  According to Wikepedia, it is "the most populous state with 4 of the countries' 10 largest cities." Here is the map from Wikepedia: Oberhundem is a small town and is near Arnsberg at the edge of Sauerland.  The maps on Ancestry are historical maps.  I made the map large and then cropped it so I could see just the three towns where I found church records for the Hork, Trosster, and Soemmer families. Germany, Topographic Maps, 1860-1965, 1898 Attendorn map, Ancestry.com I found church records in Oberhundem, Kirchhundem and Altenhundem.  If you look close enough, you can imagine one of the little squares was their house...

Ancestry.com just released some New York state census records.  I have not been able to find my great grandfather's sister, Clementine Hork since a 1902 Brooklyn city directory and a 1910 census in Brooklyn, Kings Co, NY.  She arrived in America in 1891 with her brother, Albert M. Hork. In Brooklyn in 1900 and 1902, Clementine was listed as a seamstress.  My great grandfather was a tailor.  When I find her in 1925 in Brooklyn, she is living in The Little Sister of the Poor Home for the Aged. 1925 New York State Census, Kings Co, Brooklyn, block 4, ED 8, p 42, line 24, Clementine Hork Now to find her between 1910 and 1925.  I will look in the 1920 census again and in more Brooklyn city directories. I also want to find when she died.  I should research this Poor Home for the Aged.  It probably was run by Catholic nuns. Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past