WEDDING WEDNESDAY - Or should I say Where Were They Married?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly had my share of trouble finding marriage records for some of my ancestors.  Not all, but some.

They aren’t always married when or where you think they should be. Let’s take my grandparents, Harry W. GOULD & Marie W. LINDSAY.  They were both born in Detroit, Michigan, grew up in Detroit, had their son in Detroit and lived there until their early 70's.  Oh, and all their immediate family on both sides were in Detroit.  Then you would expect them to have been married in Detroit.  Right?

I was pretty sure they were married around 1912 or shortly before. 

Why?

o   Because they weren’t married in the 1910 census. 

o   Because my Dad, their son, was born on 31 Dec 1912. 

o   I have a photo album (you know the ones with the black pages) with pictures of my Dad as a baby.  The photos are labeled “5 months, 1913,” and others similar to that. 

CONCLUSION:  They were probably married between 1910 and 1912

Beginning in 2003, I wasn’t able to find any marriage records for them on familysearch.org or Ancestry.com.  I even Googled their names using various methods and came up empty.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Never give up the search!

Fast forward to September 2011.  I am, yet again, performing searches on the usual sites for their marriage record.   BINGO! FOUND IT!

I located an index of the record on Ancestry.com

In Detroit?  NO! 

In the United States?  NO!

They were married in Windsor, Essex, Ontario, Canada. 

Yup, they drove “across the bridge” from Detroit into Windsor and got married over there. 

YIPPEE!   Doing my happy dance.
I went over to familysearch.org and found the image!

They were the first couple who's marriage was found to be "over the bridge" in Canada, but they weren't the last.  

MY GRANDFATHER, HARRY GOULD, LIVING WITH HIS PARENTS & SIBLINGS IN THE 1910 CENSUS IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN

Ancestry.com record for marriage

Actual image of marriage certificate for Harry Gould & Marie Lindsay - located on familysearch.org

Marie W. LINDSAY & Harry W. GOULD on their wedding day 6 June 1912

Was this wait and the search worth it.  OH YES!  Here's to my grandma & grandpa.  I love you both very much and would give anything to be able to talk to you again.
  
TIP:  If you have grandparents who are still alive.  TALK TO THEM!  Ask them questions about how they met, where they met, how long they dated, where they got married etc. etc.  You'll never regret asking, but you sure will regret not asking.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall

      Away for a few days

         I'm out of town for a couple of weeks.   No family history here, but spending time with my husband.....priceless.  

I have prepared a few articles of interest that I will post while I'm gone.

                                      

So stay tuned in to learn about:

OUR BOGGS ANCESTORS

AN EASY WAY TO EDIT/FIX DOCUMENT IMAGES
and
UNEXPECTED MARRIAGE LOCATIONS

See you soon,

Michigan Girl

HOW MANY DAYS OLD ARE YOU?

A Little Extra Saturday Fun

HOW MANY DAYS OLD ARE YOU?

This question was posed by another blogger that I follow.  You can find his blog at GENEA-MUSINGS

What a fun question.  So, I did the math and here is my answer, plus a little extra 

I was 63 years young last March 13.  I was born on a Monday.  I consider 13 a lucky number.  

This makes me, as of tonight:

22,995 days old 

551,880 hours old

1 billion 986 million 768 thousand seconds old

That is a LOT of numbers.  

Do any of you remember the little ditty about the days of the week you were born?

It goes like this:

Mondays child is fair of face,

Tuesdays child is full of grace,

Wednesdays child is full of woe,

Thursdays child has far to go,

Fridays child is loving and giving,

Saturdays child works hard for his living,

And the child that is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I don't know about the fair of face thing or any of the others, but this was something fun to think about tonight. 

Let me know what your numbers are. 

Til next time,

Michigan Girl

CREATING PHOTO BACKGROUNDS FOR YOUR FAMILY TREES

SATURDAY FUN

 

How about creating some family trees with various backgrounds?  I don't spend enough time doing this and I probably should.  I need to create some fun things for our grandchildren and other family members.  Then they can just look at the picture on the wall and say "that's my great grandfather or great grandmother."  

It's important to teach them about family.  And doing these kinds of things is fun for us.  I created these in Legacy Family Tree by going to "Reports" and then to "Family Picture Tree Report."  You can change the backgrounds and use any picture from your hard drive, or one of the pictures they provide.

 

HALL FAMILY - WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

HALL HISTORY

 

CREATING FAMILY TREES WITH VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS

SATURDAY FUN

To stay with the Surname Saturday theme.

How many surnames are in your family tree?

Yup, that's right, let's count those surnames.

I won't have to manually count mine because my Legacy database will do it for me.  Here's how.......

 First click on the "Reports" menu

If you don't have the Reports icon on your top menu you can find it on the text menu across the top of your page

             
Second - once the small window opens, click on the "Books/Other" tab and select "Surname Summary"

Next you'll see a box pop-up that is titled "Surname Summary."  Click on the "preview" box.  

NOTE:  Be sure you have selected "screen/printer" as your report destination (at the bottom).

     Once you've selected "preview," Legacy will immediately    generate a report. Mine was 18 pages long. Showing every surname, how many times the surname appears in my database and the date range for the names.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

 So, how many surnames do I have in my database?

987

Do this in your database and tell me how many you have.

Happy Counting,

Michigan Girl  

 

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

THOSE PLACES THURSDAY

Armada, Macomb Co., Michigan

Armada, Michigan is located north of Detroit

Armada is a village in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,730 at the 2010 census. The 2008 Census Bureau Estimate places the population at 1,657. The village is located within Armada Township. Wikipedia

Area: 487 acres (197 ha)

Weather: 52°F (11°C), Wind SW at 0 mph (0 km/h), 100% Humidity

Local time: Thursday 2:27 PM

Population: 1,729 (2012)

Why am I posting about Armada, Michigan?

1. Because my Great Grandfather, William Val GOULD (aka Vivaldo William Gould) was born there.
2. Because his father & mother, John C. GOULD & Sarah HART, were married there in 1858.
3. Because many other family members were born, married & died there.

I first heard of Armada, Michigan very early in my research of the GOULD family.  The more I researched the more intrigued I became with this little "town" of Armada.  

Where was it?  How many members of my family have links to it?

In 2007 I was able to go back to Detroit for the first time since 1970.  I spent 8 days there, going to libraries, cemeteries, courthouses and meeting long lost cousins, nieces & nephews.  What a treat.

I had my whole trip planned out.  What I was going to do each day, where I would go, what I was looking for.  This took a LOT of pre-organization (I'll cover genealogy roadtrips in another post).  Since most of the family were working during the days, I knew I could spend the daylight hours doing research and then spend the evenings with family.  That's exactly what I did.

On about the 3rd or 4th day, it was time to drive north from my hotel and go to Armada.  YEAH!

It's about 73 miles and takes about an hour to make the drive.  Once I was out of the Detroit metro area, the scenery was lovely.  When I reached Armada I stopped at the welcome sign and took this photo.

 

 WOW!!!  I was finally here.  Armada is just a small town.  The town hall consisted of about 6 employees.  There was construction on main street so I had to park and walk.  Not a problem.

I didn't find any information at the town hall as far as old records.  I was kind of hoping I would, but apparently the records are kept at the county level, as most records are.  But, you never know when you might get lucky.

I knew that several family members, including my 2nd Great Grandparents, Henry HART& Olive Doten HART were buried at a small cemetery called Rose Hill Cemetery.  It's located on Coon Creek Rd.  You have to take GOULD Rd. to get to it.  Yes, a road named after my father's family.  My maiden name.  And another road nearby is named PRATT Rd.  Another family I'm linked to.  This was very exciting.  

Here are some photos from Rose Hill Cemetery.

As you can see it's a small country cemetery.  It's located in between homes on a dirt road.  Just a small chain link gate is the entrance.

Once there I was able to locate the headstone for my 2nd great grandfather & his wife and their son.  In addition, as I walked the cemetery, I found many other family surnames.  I took as many pictures as I could because I wasn't sure who I might find connected to me, that I wasn't familiar with at this time.

TIP:  Whenever you visit a cemetery, large or small, always walk all around and look for other family surnames.  You can check at the office, if there is one.  If not, as in this case, then just document what you find by taking pictures and/or notes.

Note:  After I got home I was able to connect our family, by marriages to many of those buried at this cemetery.

Headstone for Olive Hart

My 2nd Great Grandfather, Henry HART, was born about 1785 in New Hampshire and died 26 Apr 1879 in Armada, Macomb, Michigan.  He married Olive DOTEN bet 1830-1835, possibly in Canada.  She was born in 1805 in Vermont and died 10 Apr 1887 in Armada, Macomb, Michigan.  They had 9 children.  Several of those children are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.  The HART children married into the following families in Armada: PRATT, RICHARDS, GOULD, HEAD, TIBBETS, BEALS, GAYLORD, WETHERELL & INGRAHAM.

There's so much history here and many stories to uncover.  I've found a few, but still have more to find.  

Visiting places that your ancestors lived is so very rewarding.  It can reveal clues to their lives, give you information you didn't have before, lead to new family finds and expand your family.

Who knows?  You might even find some cousins among those still living in the area.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

 

AMANUENSIS MONDAY - WILLIAM PENN DOCUMENT

 

 

AMANUENSIS MONDAY

Transcription of Land Document from William PENN to William FRAMTON

1684, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Definition of Amanuensis?  John Newmark who writes the Transylvanian Dutch Blog, started this Monday theme many months ago.  I want to give him credit for it, as many bloggers have now begun using this theme.  The definition given by John is this "a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

With that in mind, I have below, a picture of a document photographed by a cousin. Since we have ancestors that hail from Pennsylvania, she was looking for evidence and documents during her visit.  She located this very interesting land transaction from William PENN to our ancestor, William FRAMTON also spelled FRAMPTON. 

NOTE:  William Framton/Frampton is my 8th Great Grandfather. 

LAND TRANSACTION BETWEEN WILLIAM PENN & WILLIAM FRAMTON, 1684

Below is my first attempt at transcribing this document.  I have left blanks where I was unable to read the word or words and have highlighted in yellow words that I am unsure of.  Both my cousin Amy & my brother, John are also going to take a crack at transcribing this document.  Having more than one set of eyes will, I'm sure, give us more insight and help identify the words I have not been able to.  Between the three of us I hope we can fill in most of the blanks.

Finding documents like this can enhance your understanding your family and certainly enrich the stories behind the names.  Having a connection to William Penn, the founder of the province of Pennsylvania, and English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher and early Quaker, connects our family to a part of our countries early history. 
Here is a picture of William Penn 

To learn more about William Penn you can go to this link at Wikipedia.

So keep searching for those records and I hope you find some interesting documents.  Please let me know what you find.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl  

Copyright ©  2013   Diane Gould Hall

 

COUSINS, COUSINS AND MORE COUSINS

1. What could be better than finding new cousins? 
2. Why are cousins so important to your research?
3. How do you find your cousins? 

Those are the questions I will be covering today.

• Let me start by saying that finding your cousins can not only bring you information about your family, but can also bring new friends into our life. My family was pretty small growing up. Just my Dad, Mom, my younger brother and me. Yes, I knew there were some cousins out there and I remember meeting a couple way back when, but we never stayed in touch. We moved away from the core of our family when I was only 7 yrs. old. My Dad was an only child and my Mom's sister had two sons. Not much in the way of cousins there.

Once I began researching the family my first cousin experience came when looking for a 2nd cousin. Fortunately she had kept her maiden name and surprisingly lived just 3 hrs. from me.  Next it was a cousin up in Detroit, after that it was my Mom's first cousin, after that a 3rd cousin in Detroit and on and on it goes.  Over the past 8 or so years I have now expanded my family, met many people I never knew existed and learned oh so much about my family.

Why are cousins important to your research? 

• They can provide new information that you were unfamiliar with
• They can have family photos that may include your direct ancestors
• They may know other family members who have a wealth of information
• They have a different view of the family than you do

Here are some examples of FANTASTIC FINDS from cousins:

1. Many photos left by our grandmother, Florence Milne.
2. Also from Florence Milne, a journal including 183 family member names, dates of birth and sometimes dates of death.  Also in this journal were old recipes, wedding anniversary dates and other tips from life back at the turn of the 20th century.
3. A portrait of my 2nd great grandfather, Horace Thorp, hanging on the wall in my 3rd cousin's house.  Also from that cousin (now my friend), have been other photographs of family and stories & information previously unknown to me.
4. Another 3rd cousin sent me a photo and said she didn't know who the 2 people were in the front of the photo.  THEY WERE MY GRANDPARENTS!!!
5. Names of other living relatives you never knew about.
6. Copies of birth, marriage & death certificates and other important documents.  

 Here are a couple of those finds I mentioned above.  

Birth dates & some death dates from January from my Grandmother's journal

Portrait of my 2nd Great Grandfather, Horace Thorp

So, keep hunting for those cousins.  I've found them by using Intelius.com, which I covered in a recent post.  A few have contacted me from my posts on findagrave.com and Ancestry.com, and others I've met from various facebook.com pages I belong to. You can also use the old fashioned method of checking phone books or the yellow pages online, in those areas you think cousins might be living.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl