COUSINS ~ What treasures can you find when you visit your cousins?

 

I can never say enough about how wonderful cousins are.  Why?

·       They are often your very first friends outside the family circle.

·       If you are an only child, they may be as close as a sister or brother.

·       Later on you can talk about family stories and share memories and photos with each other.

·       If you meet these cousins later in life via your research or DNA or whatever method, they might provide very valuable information about your ancestors.

·       As bloggers, we often call our blogs “cousin bait.”

Here’s my cousin story for this week.

My cousin Paula lives about 3 hours up the coast from me, here in California.  She and I reconnected in 2003, well into our adulthood.  We had last seen one another in 1966.  Since then we have become very good friends and fellow family researchers.  It’s been an interesting journey, with discoveries on both her side and mine.

Our grandmothers were sisters, which makes me and Paula 2^nd cousins.

It had been a couple of years since I’d been to Paula’s home and I knew we were overdue for a visit.  When I spoke to her, she told me that her sister, Shirley, was coming into town for a couple of weeks.  Most of our family still lives in Michigan, including Shirley.

I knew right away that I should make the drive up there, as I had never been able to spend much time with Shirley. 

We cousins enjoyed one another for 3 days. 

A surprise during the visit was that Paula and Shirley’s grand nephew was in town from Michigan.  We were able to have dinner with him.  I’d not met him before.  What a nice young man.  In the scheme of family relationships, he is my 2^nd cousin, twice removed.

During my stay, Paula brought out an envelope of photos that she had gotten during her last trip to Michigan, from her other sister.

As we looked through these mostly black and white photos, we all found treasures.  For me it was pictures of my own grandmother, Marie Lindsay Gould and my grandfather Harry W. Gould sharing moments with Marie’s sister’s family. Additionally, it was seeing a picture of my granduncle Bill Lindsay’s wife Matilda Vera Ena KIDD for the first time.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

Matilda Vera Ena Kidd Lindsay

Left to right - Marie Lindsay Gould (my paternal grandmother), Shirley Hockster, Edith Curry Jessop, Elizabeth "Betty" Hockster, Paula Hockster, Mary Ortell Hockster and Bessie Lindsay Hockster (Marie's sister)
Shirley, Betty & Paula are my 2nd cousins and Mary is their mother

Back row - William "Bill" Lindsay, Bessie Lindsay, Everett Hockster, Joyce Lindsay, Robert McConnell, Harry W. Gould - Middle row - Marie Lindsay Gould, Matilda Kidd Lindsay, Ellen Hockster McConnell, May (in her lap is Betty Hockster) - Front row - Patricia McConnell, Shirley Hockster and Ralph Hockster

I’d call those things great finds.  Thanks Paula!

Any photo find is always a bonus.  I’m going to put this out there right now.  If you are LINDSAY descendant, belonging to our particular line, and you have photos, we’d love to see them.  We are willing to share any of our own photos with all the cousins out there.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY–Who In My Family is Buried at Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan?

I thought I would do a bit of a different take on Tombstone Tuesday.  I wondered who in my family is buried at Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan?
 
I knew of Grand Lawn Cemetery long before I ever became interested in genealogy research.  My paternal grandfather, Harry W. Gould died in 1960 and I knew he was buried there.  I was just a young girl, but remember when we went to Detroit from our home in Florida for his funeral & burial.

My paternal grandfather, Harry W. Gould

My paternal grandmother, Marie W. Lindsay Gould

I began by conducting a search in Legacy 8.  I went to the “Search” tab and then “Find.”  It took me a couple of tries to come up with the correct parameters for the list I was trying to create.

For a complete tutorial on using the SEARCH function in Legacy 8, please see my post at Legacy 8 - The Search Function - What Can You Find?

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you what I did and the results.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)


My search revealed that there are 36 individuals in my Legacy database for whom I have recorded Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan as their burial location.



I then created a report from this list, using the options function.  In this report I added a burial column, giving the date and the relationship to me.  There are many other options you can use.

What I noticed right away was the absence of some relationship values.  Let’s look at Mary Lamond.  When I calculate her relationship to me, using the Legacy 8 relationship calculator she comes up as my Grand Aunt’s Husband’s Mother.  Since that is not a “direct” relationship I notice that Legacy does not pick it up on the report.  Nor is she labeled in my database on the Family View.



Let’s get back to those Grand Lawn burials. Here is the list created by Legacy, based on my search criteria.

Again, in creating a blog post, I have learned new things about Legacy and also noticed some errors in my tree, which I’ve now corrected.

Here are just a few of the headstones from burials at Grand Lawn Cemetery.

PLEASE contact me if you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

CEMETERY RECORDS - What Can They Tell You? How Do You Use Them? 

FIND A GRAVE - Submitting Records Using Their Spreadsheet 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SOMETIMES RECORDING MY ANCESTOR’S LIVES BREAKS MY HEART

 Chester, Helen, Walter & Adolph Ortell

This is one of those days.  I’m continuing my goal to get all of those 33 death certificates I downloaded from the seekingmichigan.org site in March, entered and sourced in my Legacy database.  When I wrote the blog post about this process I had only recorded 4 of them.  I am up to 21 as of this afternoon.  Progress is good.
 
However, in doing my entries today, I am reminded of the terrible heartbreak that occurred in many of the lives of our ancestors.  Today it concerns the Ortell family.
 
The Ortell’s are related to me via my 2nd & 3rd cousins, Paula, Shirley, Betty & Debbie.  I’m closest to my cousin, Paula, but am proud to call all these ladies family.
 
Shirley, Betty & Paula are daughters of Everett Hockster and Mary Sophie Ortell.  It is the story of Mary Ortell’s siblings and father that I share with you today.

Here is the story of the Ortell’s as I recorded it today.
 
6 May 1936 – Chester Ortell, age 23 dies of a broken neck in a tractor accident on the family farm.
17 Nov 1936 – Helen Ortell, age 22 dies of pulmonary tuberculosis.
7 Feb 1937 – Ladislaus “Walter” Ortell (father of Chester, Helen & Adolph), age 47 dies of a fractured skull in an auto accident.
22 May 1944 – Adolph Ortell, age 26 jumps to his death from the 7th story of a hotel.

Within 9 months, between May 1936 and Feb 1937, Walter Ortell’s wife Sophie lost two of her children and her husband.  Then 7 years later she loses another son.  In 1920 she had lost a son at the age of one month to convulsions.

I cannot help but be affected by these events.  Our ancestors are very real people with the same joys and sorrows that we have in our lives.  I never want to forget that.

Here is a family group photo of some of the Ortell children, including Chester, Helen & Adolph
 

Here are the death certificates for Chester, Helen, Walter and Adolph

Death certificate - Chester Ortell

Death certificate - Helen Ortell

Death certificate - Walter Ortell

Death certificate - Adolph Ortell

Newspaper article about the death of Walter Ortell and one that tells of the families sad losses.

There are memorials created for the Ortell family on findagrave.com.  You may visit them here:

Chester – Memorial #93489947
Helen – Memorial #93490009
Walter – Memorial #89393193
Adolph – Memorial #93489344

Do you have stories like this in your family that have made you stop and think of what they went through?  If so, I’d love to hear about them.  Please share in comments here or on your own blog with a comment and a link to your blog.

If you think you might be related, even remotely, to anyone mentioned in this blog, please contact me!

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
WEDDING WEDNESDAY - Walter Ortell & Sophie Warchol – 1908
THRILLER THURSDAY - Hobart B. Stewart Murdered – 1936

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION