My Trails into the Past

Randy Seaver, of Genea-Musings, has a wonder fun activity on Saturday called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. This week his mission for us is: 1)   Make a map using the National Atlas map at ( http://nationalatlas.gov/streamer/Streamer/streamer.html ) showing the downstream course of a river that one of your ancestors may have traveled on.  What does it tell you?  What did you learn?  Did they live at other places on that river, or downstream of that river?  2)   Tell us about it in a blog post of your own (please show us the map you created - use an image snipping tool or take a screen shot), or make a comment here on this post, or write a Facebook status or a Google+ stream post. My husband’s ancestor, Amos Gorrell, kept diaries and described their trip from Chillicothe, Ohio to their new home in Tipton, Missouri in 1866. Here is Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. Even though it is near the Scioto River, Amos and his wife, Catherine, travele...

  Mary Martha Douras was my first cousin, three times removed. She was born 18 Jul 1868 in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada to James Douras and Honora Gleeson. [1]   Honora Gleeson was the daughter of Martin Gleeson and Ann Gleeson, Irish immigrants who traveled to Upper Canada in the mid 1820’s. [2]   Mary Martha was the fourth child of James and Honora Gleeson. The family attended St. Phillips Catholic Church in Richmond and Mary Martha was baptized there. Mary Martha Gleeson married Henry Thomas McCarthy on 16 Feb 1909. [3] This was Henry’s second marriage. His first wife, Anne Therese had died in 1906. Henry and Mary Martha had two children, Catherine Mary McCarthy and James Vincent McCarthy, added to the three children he had with Anne: Norbert F McCarthy, John L. McCarthy, and Newman S. McCarthy. Mary Martha died 22 Dec 1947 at the age of 79 years. [4] There is a photo of Mary Martha Gleeson in the Kilroe Family Tree on Ancestry.com: http://trees.ance...

Last week I wrote about finding Philippena’s Voehringer family through some newspaper research I had done using the Louisville Courier-Journal on ProQuest.com site. You can read about it here .   In that story, I found a newspaper article where May Agnes Haebe, Philippena’s sister, filed in court contesting the will. [1] What was so nice about the article was that Mary listed all of her living brother and sisters by name in the suit: “ her sisters, Mrs. Barbra Kilgus, Mrs. Rosina Noelling, Mrs. Philipine Woolenweaver, and her brother, Jacob Vohringer. ” Mary Agnes Haebe felt that her mother could not have written the will.   I had written that I should next search for Mary Agnes Voehinger’s will and saw that FamilySearch has Kentucky Probate records online. They are not indexed but are browsable. Luckily they are listed by county. In Jefferson County, there are only will records from 1784 to 1901. Since her will would have been filed sometime after her death in Dec 1898, ...

It all started with a newspaper article in the Courier-Journal , a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky. I was searching this newspaper in the ProQuest.com newspaper site that the attendees at IGHR at Samford University had access to.  There was a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky and I had Wollenweber ancestors in Louisville. So in my search I found an article about real estate transactions. Philippine Wollenweber, a widow, was selling her interest in the estate of Fred Vohringer to Rosina Noking. [1] Well, light bulbs went off in my head! Voehringer was Philippine’s maiden name. I knew this from her marriage record to Ludwig W. Wollenweber. [2] Selling an interest in an estate meant she had some connection to this Fred. Vohringer. And could Voehringer and Vohringer be the same name? The complete transaction as printed in the newspaper went like this:   “Philippine Wollenweber, widow, to Rosina Noking, interest in estate of Fred. Vohringer, deceased, and being one-half...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has challenged us to find where our ancestors were living on 1 Jun 1863.  This was very challenging but lots of fun.  I found that I need to do land research to learn more about exactly where my ancestors were living!  I have no photos of their residences.  Here are my father's side of the family: My second great-grandmother, Maria Catharine (Trösster) Hork (1813-1874) was living in Oberhundem, Westfalen (present day Germany).  I do not have a photograph of their residence, nor do I know exactly which house it is.  I would love to visit the small community someday.  My great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906) was part of this household, as he had not left for America yet. My second great-grandparents, Vincent (1823-1890) and Susanna (Raduntz) Sievert (1832-1911) were living in Joliet, Will County, Illinois.  I do not know where their residence is located, although in later years they lived on Hicko...

          Today would have been the 83rd birthday of my father, William Joseph Hork, born in 1930 on April 23. [1] According to his birth certificate, he was born in Ontario, San Bernardino County.  He had always said he was born in Cucamonga, California.  Maybe they were living in Cucamonga, or maybe he just like saying the  town's  name.       Bill’s parents were William Cyril Hork and Anna Marie Sullivan. [2]   Bill was the fifth and last child born to Cyril and Anna.  He had four older sisters, one who died just days after birth.       His childhood was tough.  He was born in the early stages of the great depression.  His father was a drinker and couldn’t keep a steady job.  He was but a young fella when his mother took the courage to leave Cyril and raise her four children on her own.       He did have fond memories...

Nils Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen    Nils Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen was born 118 years ago today on 15 March 1894.  His parents were Rev. Nils Malkom Nilsen and Hulda Charlotta Anderson-Carlson.  Arthur was born in Youngstown, Mahoning Co., Ohio, where his father was the pastor of the Swedish Church on Poland Avenue.  He was their first child and would be the oldest of six (four brothers and one sister) children.    Arthur was an avid reader and was self-taught in many subjects. He worked many different jobs, as a clerk at the post office, farmer, truck driver, electrician, and chicken rancher. Arthur c. late 1940s    Arthur was my husband's grandfather.  He died 19 September 1954 in Sacramento, California, when my husband was nearly two years old.  He never got the chance to know him. Copyright © 2013 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past