Wheaton Wood

The Case of the Missing Birth Certificate

Posted on June 23, 2021 2 Comments

Records are funny things. There are many caveats we must keep in mind when requesting and searching for birth certificates. My grandmother Carrie requested her birth certificate some time after she married my grandfather. Well that did not go well. She ended up having to provide sworn affidavits by people who were knowledgeable about her birth. Among my grandparents papers I found a copy of just such an affidavit.

It was sometime later I requested her birth certificate and it was NOT FOUND. I later discovered why it had not been found originally. I suspect it is not entered in the INDEX. Now that the records are online a search for any variation of the father’s name in the index yields “NO RESULTS FOUND.”

However even though it comes up with no results if you search manually by year you can find this:

An odd result. Who is J Iney? We are looking for a Carrie Henager born in 27 September 1893 daughter of John L. Henager and Lucy Jane Franklin. This child has no name.

So although she does not have a name on this birth certificate and although spelled properly the record does not show up in the index. Father’s name is correct as John L. Henager and mother’s name is right but incomplete and transcribed incorrectly. The index lists her as “J Iney” but this reads Lucy J which is correct but does not give her full maiden name. Her full maiden name is Lucy Jane Franklin.

What is the moral of this story? Records are funny things.

If you know a thing should exist try, try again.
Do not rely on indexes alone.
Always try to review the original record.

Confessions of a Rabbit Hole Genealogist: In Defense of Inspired Genealogy

Posted on June 19, 2021 3 Comments

This post has been brewing for at least a decade. It won’t be long that I will be celebrating a half century of pursuing genealogy. I have learned much over these many decades but still I feel guilt every time I read an article about how to do genealogy “properly.” What finally brought this to the fore was a post in January of 2019 by Paul Chiddick, “Top Ten Sin’s of a Genealogist“. I am certainly guilty of Sin 2: “Not noting every search” and Sin 5: “Adopting the scattergun approach”. More on these later.

So here is my confession, I don’t think I ever shall do genealogy “properly.” I do not disparage all of you who do manage it quite well. Those who follow the rules and proper protocols and carefully document based on the Genealogy Standards of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. (And yes I do have a copy and do endeavor to cite properly), but let’s face it, some of us are just not cut out for always following the rules. It’s not that we don’t know how to color within the lines, or stay on task…we do. But we just can’t be depended upon to always do so. We start off on one path and before you know it we are following rabbits down holes hither and dither. Even our most carefully constructed research questions might take a U-turn and we end up somewhere completely unexpected.

Ah, but before I lose you dear reader I want you to know I am not disorganized. Far from it. When I go to the The Family History Library in Salt Lake City or any Archive for that fact I peruse the catalogs before going and have very organized checklists of all the resources I want to consult. Generally when I am limited for time I grab all the books off the shelf I can mange in a certain section, take them to a table where I bookmark pages for photocopying or scanning and then proceed to scan or in some cases photograph. I do not stop long to evaluate what I am copying if I will be there for more than a day—that’s what night’s are for! I always start with the title page and copyright pages. For printed pages I do very well with keeping them together and filing them (eventually) but digital files are another matter. Sometimes it can be months or years before a file gets named and put in its proper place. I should be better but I am not. And I have come to the sad truth that I am not likely to change for the better.

There are plenty of books and blog posts to keep you on the straight and narrow. They will urge you to stay on task, and they may be right to do so. What I want to explore with you is that inspirational and unconventional approaches to genealogy may be just as fruitful and may be more in tune with your natural style. I just finished a Zoom genealogy research session and when faced with a given question the four of us went out searching in different directions and what happened is those different directions and ways of doing things offered new perspectives and new bits of information. Had we all done the same thing the results might have been less rewarding. When we drive home the exact same way we miss things that we might have seen had we taken a different route or saw the world anew from a different perspective.

I am not a cook but I do like to bake. If you are given a recipe you can follow it precisely or you can be innovative and try different ingredients or experiments. They may improve the final product or they may not, but the experience definitely informs your future baking. It is as much art as science. The same can be said for genealogy.

This came up in our Zoom today. The forgetting of a resource we had visited before. Remember Sin 2 above: Not noting each search. I still have a dozen pages or more of my first few years of noting my searches on Research registers. It’s a great idea in concept—but practically speaking—it would take me more time going through all my previous searches and determining whether I had looked there before than doing the search again. And here is the benefit of doing the search a second or third time—we do so with more experienced eyes. Not to mention the originals may be enhanced or give a better reproduction. Maybe when I searched the 1800 census back in 1975 at the National Archives branch in San Bruno I got excited after scrolling through pages and pages of microfilm when I finally found who I was looking for. Maybe I didn’t look at the rest of the town for others that might be related to my family—but maybe in 1995 I would check the indexes for other related families. And perhaps if I searched on Ancestry, Family Search or My Heritage today I might spend some time just perusing the pages looking for anything that “caught my eye”. I have found that going on instinct and revisiting past searches almost always yields more bountiful information and understanding. When we start out in genealogy we don’t know what we are looking for and often collect too much or too little. When we go through our binders or folders, or online files with fresh eyes we see things we missed years ago. Or sometimes we re-remember them. We chide ourselves for ending up here again. Oh I already copied that. I already decided that was not my family, etc. But then there are the aha moments. “Well, will you look at that, she was married to John Smith before she married his brother Abel.” Or, “Oh dear how could I have missed that she died before that child was born, she can’t be his mother.” What is obvious to you today may not have been obvious to you then. So who cares how many times we retrace our steps, if every now and then we find something new?

So what is inspired genealogy? It’s going to be different for each of us. It is the instinct or imperative to follow our nose, to explore a subject more fully, to chase the elusive clue. Sometimes we end up far afield from where we started. Some find this approach terribly distracting and annoying. I love this sort of research. Rather than think of it as lost time I always feel it inspires me. Many is the time I have been looking for one family and just by happenstance ran into an unexpected record of another relative from a completely different part of my tree. I liken it to when you are expecting or a family member is, and suddenly you see expectant mothers and babies everywhere. Some one hands you a ring of keys. Two of the keys you know where they fit but the other 3 you have no clue. So do you throw out the keys? Not me. Fifty years and I periodically look to see what chest, door, cupboard or record they may unlock. I depend on some inspiration or intuition to remind me to check the key at the proper time. This is my own version of the scattergun approach. The throw the spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. Cast a very wide net. And I never stop trying—especially with those brick walls. I know you have tried the key before but when you go to try it again you might see something you missed the ten previous times.

My deepest dives in a subject, are the inspired ones. They are the questions I ask to explain the why of the story. Why did the shoemaker and his brothers and sister from a small village in Germany immigrate to Philadelphia? Why did my great grandmother marry at 14? What were the circumstances of my two 2nd great grandfather’s Civil War service. Asking those questions means lots of contextual research. It can lead you to forums, ebay searches, books and documents you never would have consulted otherwise. Yes, this leads down rabbit holes. The truth is you aren’t going to find the richest records and the best maps and the most interesting stories without the willingness to go down dead end streets and ’round corners where you lose your way. I am writing to say this is okay. If you are like me, and enjoy a good hunt down the rabbit hole, celebrate your perseverance and inspiration. It’s okay to do genealogy any way that works for you. I am at times sloppy and inconsistent. I have decided nearly fifty years in—this is how I work best. Below is a photo of a corner of my bulletin board which illustrates my recipe for genealogy: 1 part chocolate, 1 part chaos, 1 part reality. Find out what feeds you and do it. Don’t spend another minute playing could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. If you manage to resurrect one lost story, solve one inexplicable riddle, or straighten out out one tangled part of your tree, then celebrate the journey that led you there! If you took the long road whose to say who had the better journey?

REFORMED GENEALOGISTS: Turning Trees into Stories

Posted on June 18, 2021 11 Comments

This sprang out of a 2015 Facebook post. Then I created a webpage in 2020 but for those who haven’t seen it, here goes.

A REFORMED GENEALOGIST is one who has moved from filling in their Family Tree—-to making the tree bloom through the telling of its family stories.

A Reformed genealogist pledges to make unearthing the past and resurrecting ancestors their primary goal.
A Reformed genealogist shares with others freely, without excuse. This is the best insurance their legacy survives. Ancestors are shared: so too shall be their stories.
A Reformed genealogist knows nothing is ever perfect, complete or without need for improvement, we are undeterred by such odds.
A Reformed genealogist pledges to write at least one story each year.
A Reformed genealogist travels in person or through cyberspace in search of whispers of the past.
A Reformed genealogist finds joy in reconnecting our life histories to that of our ancestors.
This page began as a post on the Organized Genealogist FACEBOOK page in September of 2015. Within minutes there were more likes and comments than I have ever had to a post, anywhere. That suggested I had hit a nerve. Here is the post.

“This is for NEW GENEALOGISTS or those looking to revamp their systems. First I apologize for sounding like a broken record. I have nearly 45 years of experience so I have seen/done it all. Most of the systems for organizing are just fine when you start out or even ten years in but somewhere along the line the color coded, numeric, alpha numeric, file folders, binders etc is going to break down.

You may be able to remember 200 ancestors and where they fit into your tree but you aren’t going to remember 10,000. Computerized programs are nice for that. When most of us start doing genealogy we may not have a well thought out GOAL and so the plan to achieve it leads to a breakdown in organizing. As we get older our goals change. We no longer are worried about filling in every blank and shift as I have to telling stories. Perhaps individual 9457 means something to you or FT436. Great. But ask yourself what is this going to mean to your children, grandchildren etc. If they are going to look at all your hard work and either not be able to make sense of it or worse yet not care….then what you have done is fascinating and it may be beautifully arranged but if it isn’t retained or read— well it was just a nice past time.

What is most compelling about genealogy is the STORIES. Not names and dates but a ticket stub from the World’s fair where grandma met grandpa. Its letters, diaries, photos, its knowing that great grandma married at 14 and searching to find out why. If you start NOW to organize with the idea of telling these stories I guarantee, not only will you be happier, more organized and your research more focused—but so will those that come after you.

You can use any system you want but please think about the stories. Perhaps you have a binder or binders that are organized by surnames, or Irish immigrants or Revolutionary war Veterans. Just make sure to put all the information on any individual or family together. That means everything, not photos here, census there, birth certificates in that folder.

Think of it this way…..do you want to be scattered across files, boxes, cabinets? A bunch of vertebrae in that box and hip bones on the other shelf? If a forensic scientist was trying to reconstruct your skeleton would they not lay out all your bones, put them into order and then if they were trying to reconstruct your life and what you looked like they would slowly add meat to the bones.

Your job: should you choose to accept it, is to resurrect the people that made your life possible. Choose the ones that call to you and start assembling them now. You will be happier and all those that come after you as well. Trust me on this. Organize to tell stories, do not tell stories of how wonderfully you organize!”

“As a reformed genealogist I have come to realize that names and dates or even photos without context are nothing. It’s who the people are and the stories that need to be recorded that we need to focus on. We may have boxes of photos, but unidentified and devoid of context, they will be lost to our descendants as unknowable.”Random Researching for Reformed Genealogists: Ways to enhance and research your stories

Look to free websites like Chronicaling America for newspapers on the date your ancestor was born, married etc.
Look to state archives for photos, maps diaries that may be relevant to your ancestors lives.
Postcards are often a great way to find illustrations of a village, town etc where your ancestors lived.
If your ancestor was a member of the armed services, a fraternal association, alumni of a school, member of the clergy: do a web search and see what you turn up.
Check Wikipedia: information, maps and photos you may use in your stories under of the Creative Commons Licensing Agreement.
Do a Google search. Maybe your ancestor worked at a garage in a small town. Give a search a try– you might get lucky.
Look on Ebay, yes Ebay.
Do a search of your local library’s card catalog for places your ancestors lived. Do not reject fiction as a source material. Historical novels are particularly rich in getting you into the feel of the time. Movies are good too. If you don’t like reading, try books on tape.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Break up your story telling with photos, maps, deeds, ephemera.
Less is more. Good story tellers know that editing is key. Make the words count, don’t count the words. A tight 3 page story is better than a 30 page essay that no one will read.
Many historical books that are out of copyright are available on-line. These are sometimes obscure manuscripts that you would never have found in a million years.
Children’s books are wonderful sources of information. They often use out of copyright illustrations, wood block cuts and photos in the public domain. Once you find such illustrations you can often do a web search and download them for your own purposes.

Knotted Strands: The Misattributed Heirloom

Posted on May 30, 2021 3 Comments

The one thing you learn in doing genealogy is that just like the old children’s game of telephone things get a bit muddled when passed from child to child or generation to generation. As I have written elsewhere there is usually some truth in the stories and legends passed down through families, even if they sometimes become unrecognizable. It is often that different parts of the family have different pieces of the story.

When I was growing up my mother had a box on her dresser in which the following items were stored.

Human Hair Jewelry [*Hårarbete in Swedish*]

The story she told was that her great grandmother, known to her as Elizabeth Olson Vanstrum (born Asloûg Olson Elifsdotter) made these ornaments from her hair brushings on the passage from Kragerø, Norway to New York. It wasn’t until my second cousin once removed, Lois Lundberg Sando, took a trip to Vrigstad, Jönköping, Sweden to visit our mutual Lundberg cousins and shared photos and the story of her trip that the mistake was exposed.

My mother had misattributed the hair jewelry to the wrong paternal great-grandmother! The jewelry was crafted by Anna Olofsdotter born in Bjuråker, Dalarna, Sweden 13 February 1837 who came to America in 1880 with her husband Johan Soloman Lundberg and her six surviving children. They settled in Minneapolis where she died 11 March 1895. It was passed to her son Carl Johan Lundberg and to his son Roy Sidney Lundberg and then to my mother and then to me.

Anna Olfsdotter Hair Jewelry a brooch and a watch fob.

But there’s much more to the story. Anna Olofsdotter and Johan Solomon Lundberg were born and lived 450 miles apart. She in Bjuråker, near Malung, Dalarna, Sweden and he at Vrigstad, Jönköping, Sweden. The hair jewelry is what brought them together!

Traditional Peasant attire from Malung, Dalarna Sweden
“Malung” Kvinna i dräkt. Akvarell av P Södermark c 1850
Wikipedia Commons

Anna was a traveling saleswoman who hand crafted the human hair jewelry and traveled to Vrigstad to sell her wares. The family thinks she stayed at Sunnerby Norregard, Vrigstad during the market, where she would meet Johan Lundberg and wed him the 1 May 1863 at Aneboda, Kronberg, Sweden. My mother said she was of peasant stock and not well accepted by Johan’s family and this was part of the reason they immigrated to America. She was 26 and he was 23. It took the strands of three family stories to identify the correct artist who crafted the hair jewelry!

**Market Stands in Vrigstad** by Ferdinand Boberg 1916 Courtesy of Nordiska Museum

The art of making hair jewelry was brought from Finland to the Mora area in Dalarna, Sweden in 1824. It was quite popular throughout Europe during the Victorian period.

In a lovely twist a member of the family in Sweden realized that the hair jewelry she owned was Anna’s and arranged for my cousin, Lois, to receive it as a parting gift before returning to America! I had just sent this story to her as well and as luck would have it she is visiting the grave of Anna Olsdotter Lundberg tomorrow at Lakeview Cemetery in Minneapolis for Memorial Day. Wow that is some serendipity!

I found this lovely box made of ash from the Dalarna Museum which has been decorated by burned dots. Perhaps she kept her hårabetes in something like this one from Bjuråker, Yttermalung, Malung.

Ash Box from Bjuråker, Yttermalung, Malung Courtesy of Dalarna Museum

PS If anyone should have a photograph of Anna Olsdotter Lundberg or her husband Johan Solomon Lundberg, please get in touch. My cousin and I have been searching for many years in vain.

Genealogy & Greed Don’t Mix

Posted on May 20, 2021 13 Comments

The genesis of this post goes way back to my early days in genealogy. Back in the days of Everton’s Genealogical Helper, a publication full of personal ads for genealogists looking to contact others with the hopes of making a genealogical connection and sharing information. Back then information exchange took time. We mailed off letters with a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) and waited for a reply. Sometimes handwritten and sometimes typewritten letters or large envelopes arrived weeks or months later. A trip to the mail box was fun—never knowing what the mailman would bring. There was a polite and congenial exchange of information. Often a check was sent to cover the cost of copies and postage.

Back when I was a teenager just starting out, so many people helped me so very much. It’s a debt that I continue to pay forward. Most of those who helped me back in the 1970’s are long gone, but I hope that they would be proud of what their sharing enabled me to do. So many brick walls have been scaled and mysteries have been solved that I am sure, were they still alive, they would be delighted. And at the end of the day isn’t that what genealogy is about? Sharing and caring for our common ancestors in an attempt to share their stories for future generations.

Sadly in the last few years I have noted more and more greed slipping into my beloved hobby. Sometimes it’s masked as “protecting” one’s privacy or my tree is a mess so it can’t be “shared.” But it isn’t just individuals hoarding ancestors, photographs and family trees. It is also seen in organizations which try to maintain some exclusive hold on what they have acquired and keep it from all but their paying members. Personally this is counterproductive and unbecoming. Like the old adage you attract more bees with honey than vinegar.

Collaboration is not a new idea in genealogy—it is the foundation upon which all genealogy is built. We all have pieces to the puzzle. We work in isolation to the detriment of all. We share and more comes our way than we could ever imagine. If individuals and organizations operate under the banner of GREED, opportunities for the joy of giving and receiving vanish. What is better than sharing with another a photograph you own of a second great grand-mother someone else has never seen? Rather then view it as “stealing” when someone adds a photo you posted, to their tree—consider it sharing the joy for future generations. So what if all your hard work is “adopted” by someone just starting out. I did that when others got me started. Without their help where would I be today?

Here is my urgent plea. Please do not be a greedy genealogist. We share ancestors, we are family. Let us embark on our journeys of discovery together in the spirit of fun, camaraderie and collaboration.

Serendipity in Scaling Brick Walls

Posted on March 31, 2021 2 Comments

Perhaps you are thinking that it is hard work that brings down brick walls. Or perhaps time at the game, diligence, persistence or any number of worthy attributes. I have to say in my experience two things have helped the most—and they are a bit of a surprise to me—and maybe to you as well. As the title says the first is a heavy dose of serendipity. And the second is asking for help.

Let me give you a few examples.

CASE ONE: Back in the 1970’s I found a church record in Minneapolis for my 2nd Great-grandmother Elizabeth OLSON who was born in Vinje, Norway and immigrated first to Chicago where she married Charles Gustavus VANSTRUM ( Wennerstrom, Warnstrum) and then settled in Minneapolis, MN. Since I was not sure which Vinje I wrote to all the archives having a place name spelled Vinje or anything similar. Came up empty at all of them—and even with the exact birth dates of Elizabeth and her sister Sigrid’s birth date some years later.

Fast forward about 40 years. At 23andMe I got a 100% Norwegian match in 2013 and sent him my information. He did not know how we were related, but he said he had a Norwegian Facebook group, would I like him to post my query there. Sure, I said even though I was not on Facebook—

What happened next was nothing short of unbelievable. The next morning I got an email from him. A wonderful researcher had found Elizabeth, her sister Sigrid, their emigration records and everything matched except names. “Hi, this needs to be proven but we have this birth in VINJE, TELEMARK: Asloug, entry number 12, born March 30, 1827 in Vinje, Telemark.” We have subsequently proved that this is OUR Elizabeth but she was born Asloûg Elifsdotter. Her father was Eliv OLSON, so it seems she took an Americanized version of her name. Sure enough her sister is also recorded on the proper date a few years later. But it gets better—in short order had a complete tree for Asloûg reaching back to the early 1600’s and more help than one could imagine including a book sent to me on the Farm histories of Vinje (aka Bygdeboks) and help translating the old archaic farm histories including stories about my ancestor “Lazy Lodford” who literally bet the farm, lost it all and became a wandering minstrel.

**Vinje, Telemark, Norway Baptismal record for Asloûg Elivsdotter**

CASE TWO: This one recently happened. The question was asked on Twitter by American Ancestors about a marriage records. I had a photograph of my great grandparents on their wedding day (colorized below). It was taken in Minneapolis and the date was on the back of the photograph. Years ago in the 1970’s I had dutifully written to the Hennepin County Clerk and subsequently the surrounding counties in search of their marriage record. I still have the returned letters saying the marriage record could not be found (notice a pattern here?) Well I posted it on Twitter and later that day I received copies of the banns and license and was able to find a listing in a Norwegian Minneapolis paper. “Ask and ye shall receive.”

Charles John LUNDBERG & Emma Mae VANSTRUM on their Wedding Day

CASE THREE: Where did Robert WHEATON live? On a trip back to Rehoboth, MA in search of Robert WHEATON (1606-1696) we took a ride down WHEATON Ave but had no idea which property was his. So we drove along and I spotted a lovely farm ahead and asked my husband to pull over so I could take a photograph of it. As I exited the car, a woman across the road, asked if she could help us. I said I was just taking a picture of the farm—that we were both descendants of Robert WHEATON and she said “well that is the original WHEATON farm!” She told us her husband who was the Rehoboth Fire Chief knew more and that if we came back n about an hour he could help us. When we came back they showed us original paintings of the farm and he gave us a map book to help us get to the original “Ring of Green” now located in Rumford, Rhode Island. We later learned that Roberts home lot was on the “Ring of Green” and his property from the second division (his farm and wood lot) was just where we were on WHEATON Avenue!

CASE FOUR: Since the 1970’s a group of MOSER researchers believed that they were all related but there was no proof. Almost everyone had heard the family legends that these MOSERS were from Alsace area. A random search and I found part of an answer from a MOSER researcher who had paid German genealogists for help. He had pulled down his website as it had been stolen by others and replicated but I was able to contact him and he shared his work with me. Over subsequent years and finally with DNA we were able to prove that all these men who thought they were related in the 1970’s were indeed from the same root in Bavaria Germany and the immigrants to Pennsylvania were 6 brothers and one sister. A random search yielded a gold mine.

CASE FIVE: For forty years I struggled to find out what happened to my 3rd Great grandfather John L. MOSER who disappears after 1840 and nothing can be found of him or his family until the children begin marrying in the early 1850’s in Hancock Co, IL and Lee Co, IA. One of those cute little shaky leaf hints on Ancestry led to the answer. John and his brother Joel MOSER died at Nauvoo, Hancock IL in late May and early June of 1845. John died first of tonsillitis (quinsey) May 29th and his brother Joel followed 9 days later 7 June of pneumonia (lung fever). I was later able to locate the transcription of the Sexton’s records for Nauvoo.

For many years everyone believed that my 3rd great grandfather Andrew J. Stewart was the son of his father, Daniel Bertine STEWART’s and his 2nd wife Ruth Arnold FULFORD. But someone posted a little note on ANCESTRY that suggested that he was the son of the first wife, Olive SCOVILLE. In fact there was a Ohio Supreme court case on Andrew’s maternity and over twenty pages of testimony showing he was indeed the son of the first wife although raised by the second wife and immigrated west to live with his father when he was grown. This meant I needed to lop off this whole part of my tree and rebuild with the proper mother. He was her only child, all the others born to the second wife. Interestingly I had no DNA matches with any line associated with Ruth Arnold FULFORD but when I attached Olive SCOVILLE, matches magically appeared.

My ADVICE: Keep an open mind, retrace old steps, follow your hunches, pay attention to shaky leaves and others notes and most of all ask for help.

The Inherited Object Revisited

Posted on March 25, 2021 11 Comments

“Stories are a kind of thing, too. Stories and objects share something, a patina. I thought I had this clear, two years ago before I started, but I am no longer sure how this works. Perhaps a patina is a process of rubbing back so that the essential is revealed, the way that a striated stone tumbled in a river feels irreducible, the way that this netsuke of a fox has become little more than a memory of a nose and a tail. But it also seems additive, in the way that a piece of oak furniture gains over years and years of polishing, and the way the leaves of my medlar shine.”

― Edmund de Waal, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss

Among the things I inherited from my parents are many objects, that they in turn inherited from their parents. Many are objects for which the stories are no longer known and many for which the details are slim. I visited this object a few years back and made many discoveries but a closer look just now has yielded a few new ones.

What I knew:

My Grandfather served in France in WWI

This water resistant book cover was with him in France

It covers his self-published book of Poetry “Artifacts” (1967)

But not just a copy of that book but his personal copy with his notes.

So what I knew is both the cover and the book were cherished possessions of my grandfather, Milo and my father and finally me. The many comments and annotations inside are illuminating and when I read them I hear my grandfather’s voice. I can watch his mind at work. Upon reflecting the cover covers something of value—but that belies the covers intrinsic value. Take note.

For the longest time I really did not pay close attention to the cover. And when I did I noted the cross and the Fleur de Lis and I looked up the meaning of “Voici La France” as “Here is France. ” And finally when I turned the cover over it dawned on me that these were all places in France. Duh!

So I made a list of the places and started to plot them out on a Google Map.

And then I found a copy of the History of Army Artillery Park which was the unit to which he was assigned as a medic and all the places matched. Mystery solved! This was a record of all the places Milo had been in France during WWI. So this simple waterproofed canvas cover may have held something else long ago that has not survived and of which that story died with my grandfather…and yet this object held a few more surprises.

A closer look this time I see that not only is there a cross with a Fleur de lis, but the cross resides atop what looks to be a grave or burial mound. What is the story here? A friend lost in battle?—a universal remembrance of the fallen? I do not know. But if combined with “Here is France”, a grave with a cross and “Fleur de Lis” perhaps it says in France —here is death, here is a remembrance. Lest you think I am off the mark here, return to the back cover and note four hourglass shapes. I do not think these are an accident. The hourglass is a symbol that human life is fleeting, and that the sands of time can and will run out at anytime for any of us. And never more poignantly does that become truth for an eighteen year old soldier in France.

**Milo Dean Mosier 4th from left in France**

And then finally at the bottom of the back cover is written “L’enfin de le Guerre” translated “The End of the War”. What more personal and poignant treasure or talisman of his youth spent as a medic caring for the injured, dying and dead in France in 1917 than this modest piece of canvas inscribed with the places he would remember forever.

Each family object was saved for a reason. Each object has a story. Some can be discerned, some can be discovered but each deserves our attention. “Perhaps a patina is a process of rubbing back so that the essential is revealed.”

Ask More Questions

Posted on March 24, 2021 2 Comments

Its been a very long time since I made a Blog Post and this is perhaps my first public one. I usually make posts a page. However this is too short to be a page and perhaps there is a value in a quick post.

1st Battalion 8th Marine BM2 sec HQ Company 1944 Saipan Duane F. Mosier Holding Flag.

I recently received a phone call from a 100 year old woman wanting help with her genealogy and her DNA. How could I turn that down? When I met with her she gave me 2 unsolicited pieces of advice. “Ask more questions and keep a diary of names, dates and places.”

Anyone who gets to a certain age feels this way, as they muse about their parents or grandparents and wonder what they did or remembered about some historic event. However more importantly we care about how they felt. If we are lucky to inherit stories, letters or maybe even a diary we get more of a feel for the answers to our unasked questions. Whatever we are lucky enough to have it hardly ever seems like enough.

I remember when I began doing genealogy at seventeen I interviewed 3 of my new husband’s great aunts.
I was incredulous that none of them knew where their parents were born in Sweden. And of course I am not immune… I never talked to my Dad about his service in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. Several years after he died I was able to research that service as a newly minted soldier in the Marine Corps. I was lucky to have a transcript of an interview he had done for the Camp Tarawa project. I had letters and I corresponded with his best friend who knew.

My father’s last words to me “When you come back, bring questions with you.” Yes, ask more questions…ask them now.

If you have not read my Page Reformed Genealogists: Turning Trees into Stories it might help with those QUESTIONS.

Nice Y Haplogroup Map of Eurasia for all our Groups

Posted on September 25, 2015 Leave a Comment

Just a recap of our Y groups within our project which are all R1b (M269 except group E and F which are I2. See below.

This is a very nice map via Wikipedia: “Haplogroups europe” by Selbst Wrstellt Robertius / Robert Gabel -Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

Group A: R1b M269 Likely R-L21*

Group B: R1b U152 L2 > FGC22501>FGC22538> etc

Group C: R1b U106 R-L48>Z346>DF101>DF102>FGC12993

Group C2: R1b M269 WAMH Likely R-L48*

Group C3: R1b M269*

Group C4: R1b M269*

Group D1: R1b M269 WAMH Likely R-L21*

Group D2: R1b -L21 >Z253

Group E: I-2 P37.2

Group F: R1b Likely R-L21 & R-L144

For those interested in going further back in the Y Haplotree who are in one of the * asterisk groups, you can find on your FTDNA page an upgrade button, then go to advanced tests, then under panels: R1b-M343 SNP Pack that will test 140 downstream SNPS . The current cost is $99 (and during the holiday season it might be even less.) Since individual SNPS are $39 this is a very good deal. I would suspect an I1 backbone test may be offered in the near future.

Two branches of a family reunited after decades apart

Posted on September 20, 2015 2 Comments

Kelly suggested I relate the story of how I and my cousins found each other through this project. So here goes.

Pictured at right is John Wheaton, who was born in Cape May County, NJ, in 1818 and died in Warren, RI, in 1897. He is our common great-grandfather, so we are second cousins. To be more accurate, second half-cousins, since we descend from different great-grandmothers.

John’s father, Joseph, was a farmer and carpenter, but John and his brother Lewis both left the farm for New York City sometime between 1840 and 1850. John became a butter merchant, then a wholesale grocer in Manhattan. (Lewis was also in the grocery business.)

In 1850, John was living in a boardinghouse run by Chauncey and Anna Watson. At some point, he was introduced to Anna’s niece, Laura Watson Atwood, and the two married in 1856. My grandfather, James Watson Wheaton, arrived a year later.

But Laura died, at age 24, in 1858. Two years later, John remarried, this time to Mary A. Blackington of Warren, RI. We are not entirely sure how they met, however.

In 1860 the Watson and the Wheatons were living in Brooklyn. James was being raised by his grand-aunt, Anna Watson. John and Mary lived nearby, but by 1870 had moved to Mary’s hometown.

James married young and had moved to Montreal by 1890 for work, then to Chicago by 1900. He and his wife, Emma Ketchum Wheaton, had one son, James Watson Wheaton Jr., and had adopted a girl, whom they named Gladys Wheaton.

James, however, remarried around 1906 to Anna Bergstrom, a Swedish immigrant almost 30 years younger than he. (The circumstances of their meeting and marriage are shrouded in mystery.) James and Anna had two sons, including my father, John Atwood Wheaton. They settled first in Queens, then in Nassau County, NY.

Meanwhile, John and Mary had raised two boys and two girls into adulthood. All grew up in the Warren area.

John William Wheaton became a successful hotelier and married Blanche Storer. They had no children. John and Blanche spent part of their time in NYC, and it seems James and John were close friends, their ages being only six years apart.

Charles Nathan Wheaton founded a handerkerchief factory with Henry P. Howland (his brother-in-law) and married Edith Cleaveland. They had one surviving son, Warren Wheaton, who had three children — my second cousins. More about them shortly.

Annie May Wheaton married Henry P. Howland, and they had two children. Their son stayed in the Warren area, while their daughter married a Cummings and settled in northern NJ. The Cummings had children as well. I have not yet tracked down these cousins.

Laura Antoinette Wheaton married the Rev. William Ackley, a much older man whom I believe was the Wheatons’ pastor in Brooklyn. Rev. Ackley and Laura had no children.

These five siblings apparently stayed in touch and visited each other, but in time their families grew apart. John William died in 1935, and Blanche in 1950. James died in 1942, and his half-brother Charles three years later. Laura, who had moved in Florida as a widow, died in 1950. And Annie May also died around this time. Their children did not spend much time together, so as the years passed, the two branches lost track of each other.

Let’s skip ahead a few decades. I moved to Kentucky in 1980, and stayed there almost three decades. I had no idea — nary even a suspicion — that I had Wheaton cousins living in the same state. In fact, by 1985 we were living only about an hour or so from each other, I in Louisville and they in Lawrenceburg and Frankfort!

At the time, I was resigned to the idea that I had no cousins on my father’s side at all. His brother had died young, and my dad had no clue what had happened to his father’s half-siblings.

Now I know, after meeting Timothy, Melissa and Collette Wheaton over the summer, that their father, Warren Wheaton, had left New York as a young man to start a business in Kentucky. But our paths never crossed.

Now, by chance two summers ago, I took advantage of a free weekend on Ancestry.com and found several Warren Wheatons in the 1940 census. One of those men was in Kentucky, but I considered it unlikely he was the same person as Charles and Edith’s son, despite being about the right age. I even found a photograph online of Warren Wheaton at a groundbreaking ceremony in Lawrenceburg.

Once the summer ended, the mystery of Warren Wheaton was pushed aside for more immediate matters.

In spring of this year, Kelly sent me an email to tell me that Timothy had contacted her and, given his details, was more than likely my cousin. Since that time, he and I have exchanged several emails and photos, and when I was in Louisville this August, I visited his sisters in Frankfort. We hit it off right away, and are looking forward to sharing more time together in the future.

Had I not joined the Genographic project four years ago, and this surname group shortly thereafter, such a reunion would have been unlikely. Kelly’s persistence and energy certainly helped make it happen, so I want to say, “Thank you, Kelly!” for bringing some of John Wheaton’s great-grandchildren back together.

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