52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 9 - Gone Too Soon

It’s time for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This week the prompt is “Gone Too Soon”. That brings to mind my cousin Maureen.

Maureen Elizabeth Malloy was born April 27, 1950 in Evergreen Park, Illinois. She was the second child of Clarence Malloy and Ruth Petrini. Maureen shared her middle name with her mother.

Maureen was a happy baby. She had sparkly eyes and dark curly hair. She brought joy to her parents, her grandparents, and her aunts. Sadly, just before her first birthday, Maureen became ill with what was probably a common cold. Within days Maureen was hospitalized with pneumonia. Sadly, Maureen passed away the day after her first birthday.

Maureen had an older sister at the time of her death. She had three additional siblings as well as many cousins. None of us ever got to meet Maureen because she was ‘gone too soon’.

12 Months of Photos: February - Homes

February is almost over and I haven’t yet shared a photo for the 12 Months of Photos challenge at WikiTree. The prompt this month is “Homes”. This month I am sharing a photo of the Hixon house in Michigan City, Indiana. This is a photo of Ella Herrold Hixon and her son, Julian Verne Hixon. They are standing in front of their house at 113 S Woodland Ave. Verne appears to be about 6 in this photo. The photo must have been taken about 1918.

 I found a street view of the house on Google Maps. This image was made in 2017. 

 

The house looks very much the same. The porch that spanned the front of the house is gone, but other features are still present. The leaded glass at the top of the front 1st floor window is still there. You can still see the double windows at the front on the 2nd floor. You can even make out the small round window at the side of the house. It’s amazing to me to see this house still standing 100 years later. I hope that someday I will have the chance to drive by the house.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8 - I Can Identify

It’s another week of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. The prompt this week is “I Can Identify”.

Several years ago my cousin’s daughter sent me scans of some photos from her grandmother’s (my aunt) collection, along with some notes she had made.The collection had been handed down from Tecla Kolk, her father’s cousin. Many of the photos are unidentified.This is a photo from the collection. 

The baby is unidentified, but Tecla said it was a ‘boy cousin’. My cousin’s notes indicated that the photo is on black cardstock and appears to be of the same vintage as a photo of Tecla taken 1898-1899. Tecla had five male cousins, including my grandfather William and his brother, Harry.

• Harry - born Sep 1895
• Arthur - born Apr 1898
• William - born Nov 1898
• Paul - born Feb 1902
• Albert - born Jun 1904

If this photo was really taken 1898-1899, it cannot be either Paul or Albert as they were not yet born. This baby appears to be about a year old, and certainly no older than 2. Harry would have been 3-4 years old at the time, so he this cannot be Harry. That leaves only Arthur or William as possibilities.

I have no photos of Arthur, but I do have a photo of my grandfather. This is a photo of William with his older brother Harry, taken when William was 8 months old. 

If I compare the photos, I can say that the face shape, particularly the jaw line, is very similar. The nose on both babies is also almost identical. The eyes are not the same, but with a baby that age, it is hard to say. It could be sleepy eyes in the unidentified baby. I do see both my sister and my grandson in the unidentified baby.

I can’t say that I have 100% identified the baby in the first photo, but I believe it is my grandfather, William Kolk. I can say that the baby is definitely a Kolk.

Question of the Week: Do You Set Weekly Genealogy Goals?

There’s a new Question of the Week up at WikiTree. This week the question is: “Do you set weekly genealogical goals?”

My answer is: I do not.  Setting goals would be pointless as I always get sidetracked. But that is what makes it fun! I do try to blog 52 Ancestors each week, and to answer the Question of the Week, but I haven’t really set a goal.

I also have a rough outline in my head. Right now I am working my way down one branch of my tree, double checking sources and info, and looking for missing sources. But I don’t have a time limit. I go where the path takes me.

I have instituted a bit of a monthly plan this week. The first week I concentrate on updating WikiTree. Week 2 is for new research. Week 3 is to work on scanning and organizing my photos and other family records. And the last of the month is for ‘catch-up’. I don’t expect to really stick to it, but it is an effort to balance, so that nothing gets neglected.

Your turn! Tell me about any goals you have for your genealogy, weekly or otherwise. You can leave a comment here or answer the WikiTree post.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 7 - Outcast

 It’s week 7 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge and the prompt is “Outcast”. This week I am going to tell you a sad story of Nellie Weiss. It contains some difficult information. It happened over 100 years ago, so I think it is okay to tell the story.

I came across Nellie in my research for my Weiss line. I’ve not been able to prove that she is part of my line, and suspect that she is not. Nellie’s father was William Weiss. It get’s complicated because my Weiss line is one of two that migrated to the area in the mid-1880s. Both men were named Henry Weiss, and both has sons named William. Sorting this out gets difficult sometimes. Anyway, back to Nellie.

 

When Nellie was 17 years old, she was sent away to a reform school. She had become difficult to control, sneaking out at night and leading a life of ‘waywardness. So she was effectively cast out.

What is sad to me is that Nellie was obviously acting out. Nellie’s father was in prison because Nellie was his victim of incest. Nellie needed help, and today she would get counseling. Unfortunately that was not the case in 1915. Instead she had a probation officer who sent her off to reform school. To be fair, the probation officer did seem caring, and was trying to help Nellie. Unfortunately, she was limited by the ‘help’ available at the time.

 

I do not know what happened to Nellie. I hope she was able to get the help she needed and live a happy life. I’ve been unable to find any mention of Nellie after the court case. You can read the full story here.

 

 

Question of the Week: What's a Favorite Discovery You've Made In Your Research?

There's a new Question of the Week at Wikitree.

I've made many discoveries through the years, but one of my favorite was the discovery that my 'bachelor' uncle, Harry Kolk, had actually been married! I blogged about it for the 52 Ancestors i 52 weeks challenge a few years ago. You can read about that discovery here.

Now it's your turn. Tell me about one of YOUR favorite discoveries you've made. You can comment below or add your comment to the post at WikiTree here.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6 - Social Media

 It's already Week 6 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge! This week the prompt is ‘Social Media’.

Many years ago I was helping to clean out our church library. I came across a stack of old newspapers from the small town where the church was located. The papers spanned the 1950s. One thing that struck me was how ‘chatty’ they were. Stories about who visited who, and what child suffered a dog bite or fell off the swings and needed stitches. There were stories about people traveling to St. Louis for the day, about 30 miles away. Now many people routinely make the trip daily for work or play. Definitely not newsworthy today!

This discovery of mine was before I got involved on Facebook. It didn’t take too long for me to realize those ‘social’ articles were the equivalent of a Facebook post today. So this week I am sharing a newspaper clipping. It tells of my great-uncle John Janco visiting my great-grandfather Paul Janco’s farm in Michigan.

Michigan Newspapers, 1817-2009, MyHeritage.com [online database], Michigan Newspapers, 1817-2009
MyHeritage.com [online database]

I created a simulated Facebook post to show how that news might be shared today. I guess sometimes we are more like our ancestors than we realize!

Question of the Week: If You Wrote a Novel About Your Family History What Would the Title Be?

Here is another Question of the Week from WikiTree.

I'm not very creative. But I think this title sums up how I feel about researching my family history:

Where Did They Come From? Where Did They Go?

What the title of YOUR family history novel be? Comment below or add your comment to the post at WikiTree here.

12 Months of Photos: January - Grandparents

This year there is a new photo challenge at Wikitree: 12 Months of Photos. Each month has a different theme. The January theme is "Grandparents".

By the time I was born, 3 of my 4 grandparents were already gone. I only knew my maternal grandmother. Consequently, there are very few photos of my maternal grandparents together. I think I only have 2 and one is very poor quality. This is the other one that I have—a photo of my grandparents with their two youngest daughters.

 To see photos of grandparents posted by other Wikitreeers, visit this thread.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 5 - Oops!

 

It’s week 5 of the 52 Ancestors challenge. The prompt this week is “Oops!”

If you’ve been involved in genealogy for any length of time, you’ve made a mistake. We all have. Sometimes this are little mistakes like misspelling a name. Sometimes they are big mistakes like adopting and following the wrong John Smith. Today I’m going to talk about one of my mistakes.

 

I have an Aunt Sis. Sis was not her given name, but it is the name she has been called by since she was a tiny tot. This is probably because she was the second girl in the family—the little sister.

 

I inherited my grandmother’s photo album many years ago. I was delighted to find a photo of the most adorable little girl. She was about 3 or 4 years old and had long blonde curls, sparkling eyes, and a beautiful smile. I didn’t recognize here, so I was lucky that that back of the photo had been labeled. “Sissy”! I’d wondered a bit about the blonde curls, since Aunt Sis has dark hair. But she may have colored her hair as an adult. Besides, I had shimmering blonde hair as a child, but it has been dark for years.

 

A few years ago my mom and I were visiting Aunt Sis, and I took along the photo album. The women had a great time reminiscing. The told me lots of family stories and identified several of the people that I didn’t know. Then I pointed out the picture of Aunt Sis and asked how old she was at the time it was taken. They set me straight immediately. That was NOT my Aunt Sis. That was Sissy, the daughter of their father’s cousin. OOPS!