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Follow Friday: Two Weeks Worth of Favorite Finds

March 23, 2012 Filed in Follow Friday4 comments

I have had a very busy couple of weeks.  We took a great vacation around Arizona and hit many National Parks – so much fun!!  I’m currently taking a spouses’ leadership development course (ie. how to be a Sergeant Major’s wife) which is every night from 5-10 for a couple of weeks.  It has been making for some long days.  Oh, and I’m going to be walking my first marathon this weekend – the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range.  Whew!!

Before I go on to my favorite posts, I want to mention that Google Friend Connect is no longer working with WordPress blogs.  And I have a WordPress blog.  That means that if you had me in your reader through this service, then I’m no longer there.:(  Please add me again!!

On to some of my favorite finds…

  • Never Make Love in a Buggy.  Sounds like good advice.  I’d never heard of this little ditty before, which was posted over at A Hundred Years Ago.:)
  •  I’m excited about the new series premiering this weekend on PBS – Finding Your Roots.  If only I was going to be at home when it aired.  I wonder if it will be available online afterwards.  I will have to check and see.
  • I was interested to see the new genealogy textbooks for kids by Jennifer Holik available from Generations.  I would love to try them out with my own kids in our homeschool and I’ve often thought that I might like to teach a family history class in our homeschool co-op.   It would be nice to have a textbook to use in class rather than coming up with my own materials.  I think it’s so important to include family history along with world history in a child’s education.
  • There are some interesting GeneaWebinars coming up this week.  I would really like to take the one entitled Juggling Complex Projects While Staying on Track and maybe The Pursuit from Genealogy Hobbyist to Professional.
  • I love seeing how much places have changed (or stayed the same over years).  Karen at Ancestor Soup posted an old and new house picture on her blog.
  • I have a lot of ancestors of Irish descent, so I found Seeking the Flock of St. Patrick over at Catholic Gene to be a very informative post!
  • Who Do You Think You Are? is on tonight!  I love Helen Hunt, so I’m looking forward to this episode.
  • There won’t be any Geneabloggers radio tonight – taking a week off for spring break.  Good, because it will give me a chance to get caught up on my podcasts.:)
  • The Masterpiece over at Family Archaeologist is a great read.
  • A very happy blogiversary to Debi Austen over at Who Knew?  Love the birthday cake pictures.:)

Some pictures from this past week:

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Sepia Saturday 118 – Going Out – no bagpipes please! | Images Past - March 23, 2012 - 5:04 am

[...] we pack up and get in the taxi, Jen at Climbing My Family Tree says that Google Friend Connect no longer works with WordPress blogs, so if you follow me using [...]

Jo Graham - March 23, 2012 - 5:09 am

Great photos, Jen, and hope the marathon goes well. Cheers for the alert about Google Friend Connect and WordPress! Jo

Jen - March 23, 2012 - 7:42 am

You’re welcome Jo!

Debi Austen - April 16, 2012 - 5:26 pm

Thanks for the mention, Jen. Now I need to figure out how to get you added back to my reader.

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She died in the workhouse

March 21, 2012 Filed in English Genealogy,Pewsey1 comment

Yesterday I posted Thomas Pusey’s death certificate.  I also received the certificate for his wife, Anna (or Joanna) and am sharing it today.

The first thing I noticed is that she lived to be 102 years old!  Wow!  Her cause of death is listed as old age.

And the next thing I noticed is she died in the Union Workhouse in Cranbrook, Kent, England.

I”m assuming that she wasn’t actually doing any work in that workhouse – I mean could you really work at 102?  I know that workhouses were places where the poor could find a place to live and employment.  I’m assuming that she was being taken care of there.

How sad to die alone and poor.  Her husband passed away 25 years before her, which I’m sure left her without an income.  She had 12 children that I know of, but as far as I know the majority of them died at an early age.  If she lived to be 102, then her children were at the very least in their 60′s and 70′s – probably not in any shape to be caring for an aged parent.  I wonder that she didn’t have any grandchildren or great-grandchildren that could have cared for her.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever know the circumstances of her life in the workhouse, but I did find a site that contained pictures of the building, which is still standing.

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Cherie Cayemberg - March 26, 2012 - 11:02 am

Jen,

She may have been in the workhouse with family. I believe that there are lists of people that went to workhouses, although I’ve never gone in search of them. Just something we were told at the NGS conference. You may be able to see if any of her surviving children/grandchildren were there. It certainly could be that she was there alone and just living out the remainder of her life, but she may have had others from her family with her.

Great post (as usual!)

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An English Death Certificate: Thomas Pusey, d. 1850

March 20, 2012 Filed in English Genealogy,Pewsey1 comment

I just got a death certificate in the mail – always a happy day for me.  My husband thinks I’m morbid, but that’s okay.:)

This is the first time I’ve ever ordered an English death certificate before and I was excited with what information it contained.

Thomas Pusey (Pewsey) died on 18 May 1850 in Hawkhurst, Kent, England at 81 yrs of age.  He was my husband’s 4th great-grandfather.

I had previously found him in the census in Hawkhurst, so I already knew that was where he lived.  I also knew that he was a carpenter.  His wife, Ann Pusey (Pewsey) was present at his death. I believe it says that he died of disease of the prostate glands.  Then it says gravel (I’m assuming a kidney stone).  I’m not quite sure what it is saying under that – can anyone decipher it?  Something was crossed out.

I’ve been very happy with the www.findmypast.co.uk website.  I was easily able to find this certificate in the index and then order it.  The service from the General Register Office was very quick also!!

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Jo Graham - March 20, 2012 - 9:53 am

Jen, I can’t read the word that begins with B (or P?) and I think “years” will relate to the duration of the illness. Not sure about the bit underneath though, then possibly “certified”? You’re right about gravel – kidney stones. Hope someone else can make more sense of the handwriting!

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No clues in the Death Certificate

March 19, 2012 Filed in Bergman,Swedish GenealogyTags: 5 comments

One of my pet peeves is when a death certificate has unknown written for the parents.  Really?  You really couldn’t find out who this person’s parents were??

I had really been hoping that the death certificate of my great-great grandmother, Christina (Söderlund) Bergman would list her parents’ names.  I know who her mother was, but she was born out of wedlock and her father was not listed on her birth certificate.  Her mother married Jonas Söderlund about 10 years after she was born and I’m not sure if he was her real father or not.  I was hoping that this might clear that up, but it didn’t.  Her parents are actually listed as “unobtainable” which surprises me.  She lived with her bachelor son, who is old enough to have known his grandmother (her mother).  I’m not sure why at least her name isn’t listed – especially since he was listed as the informant.

She died tragically – she was hit by a car.  Maybe the trauma of the event clouded his memory.

It looks like I’m going to have to do some serious digging in the Swedish parish records to solve the mystery of her birth father.

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Judy G. Russell, CG - March 19, 2012 - 8:49 am

It’s always frustrating when the death certificate is so unhelpful. My own great grandmother’s death certificate in OK has “don’t know” for both parents and only lists her married name (Mrs. M.G. Cottrell) for her name. Grrrrr! But, I suppose, better no info than wrong info!

NoOceanInKansas - March 19, 2012 - 11:55 am

Great post! Nothing I hate more than getting a vital record in the mail, that I’ve been waiting and waiting for, and it doesn’t have all the info I hoped.

Amy Coffin - March 20, 2012 - 4:48 pm

I have a similar situation with a tragic, sudden death. The informant was a sister, who clearly would have known the information. I just think it was too much to bear at that moment.

Sheryl - March 20, 2012 - 8:31 pm

Great post! It’s so frustrating when information that seems like it should be there is missing. Maybe her son couldn’t remember his grandmother’s first name, so he didn’t provide that information.

Kyle - January 26, 2013 - 6:11 pm

How were you able to get the death certificate if you did not know the parent’s names? Like it seems that you got the record in order to figure out who the parents were, but when I request one for my great great grandfather, it requires that I list who his parents were, which I don’t know, it’s the whole reason I want the document in the first place.

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Sunday’s Obituary: Cyrus P. Baker, 1883, Albuquerque, NM

March 18, 2012 Filed in Baker,Sunday's ObituaryNo comments

It always pays to look for obituaries in small towns where your ancestor may have lived many years prior to their death.  Many people in town might still know them and would like to hear news of them.  That was the case with Cyrus P. Baker.  He moved away from Indiana County, PA in 1869, yet when he died in 1883 they still ran an obituary on him.  Many members of this family suffered from consumption, as it appears he also may have. How horrible to have died so far from home, apparently without any family nearby.

 From the Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, PA, dated 11 April 1883.

Death of Cyrus Baker.

Mr. Cyrus P. Baker, of Lawrence, Kansas, died of consumption at Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 28th. He was a son of Mr. James Baker, formerly of Rayne Twp, this county and who moved to Tennessee in 1869 and from thence to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1876, where he still resides. The deceased, while in Kansas, suffered from lung difficulty and started west in the hopes that the trip would benefit his health. He first went to Colorado and thence to New Mexico and from there he journeyed to California. But he got no relief and started back to his home in Kansas and reached the town above mentioned where he died. Though surrounded by strangers he was kindly cared for. He leaves a wife and one child to mourn the loss of a kind husband and affectionate parent. He was a printer by trade and visited this place some two years since.

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