HAPPY DANCE TIME ~ What Have I Found?

Just a couple of days ago Cheri Hudson Passey published a blog post about her recent happy dance. Celebration Sunday-Genealogy Happy Dance: An Unexpected Find!

I hadn’t written a happy dance blog post in a while and I thought “wonder when I will find something worthy of a happy dance?”

Well, I didn’t have to wait long because I’m doing the Happy Dance right now.

I’ve recently been researching my maternal line, the Gillespie family.  In doing so, I’m trying to find out as much as I can about the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of my 3^rd great grandparents, Thomas Gillespie and Susannah Barrowcliff. To read more about them please click here 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS–Week #2–Thomas Gillespie–My 3rd Great Grandfather-1794-1868

My most recent couple were Clifford George Gillespie, great grandson to the above mentioned Thomas Gillespie, and his wife Bessie Haydon Griffin.

I had located the burial for Clifford and his wife Bessie at Danygraig Cemetery, Risca, Caerphilly, Wales. I wrote a blog post about this discover Tombstone Tuesday Tombstone Tuesday - Clifford George & Bessie Griffin Gillespie - Danygraig Cemetery, Wales

I my quest to learn more about Bessie Haydon Griffin, I went to newspapers.com and hoped I could locate an obituary for her.  BINGO!  Mission accomplished.  But…..that wasn’t my happy dance moment.  Bessie died in 1965, but Clifford had died back in 1942.  Might there also be an obituary for him?

I entered his name on the newspapers.com website and up popped an article dated 2001. HUH? That’s 59 years after his death.Is this really my ancestor, Clifford Gillespie or someone with the same name?

(PLEASE CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

I clicked on that link/article (because that’s what we should do) and WOOHOO!!!!!

I CERTAINLY DID NOT EXPECT TO FIND THIS

An entire article, including a group photo, of a reunion of the Gillespie family!!!!

WOW! doesn’t even cover my excitement as I began to read.

In the article is described a chance meeting during a vacation in Italy, between 2 couples who both turned out to be descendants of Thomas Gillespie & Susannah Barrowcliff via Clifford George Gillespie and his wife Bessie Griffin!

https://www.newspapers.com/article/south-wales-argus/165972718/

South Wales Argus, 12 Nov 2001, page 30

Not only does the article describe the meeting, but it goes on to give a background of how Clifford came to Risca, Wales, married Bessie, where he worked and the names of all their children.  Happy to say I had all the children in my database. 

But, going further the article discusses the history of the Gillespie family coming to Tiverton, Devon, England in the early 1800’s.  Then goes on to name children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Clifford & Bessie. 

I saw the beautiful group photo and was thrilled to find that all the identities, row by row, are listed in the article as well. More dancing at this point.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

I will be continuing work on this family as I fill in names, gather evidence of relationships and learn more about them. 

I’d love to hear about your happy dance moment(s).  Please share them in comments.

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 ©  2010-2025   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FINALLY~I have figured out the calendar dates in this photo! A great way to end the year

 

This is the original photo as it looked after I scanned it years ago.  This would have been at my great grandmother, Mae Gould's home in Detroit, Michigan

What are the dates on these two calendars?

For many years I have had this photo of my Dad, Harry Norman Gould and his grandma, Mae Eve Thorp Gould, holding calendars.

I have tried to see the month and year on these calendars, but been unable to clear them up enough to do so.  I used my Photo Shop Elements as well as My Heritage photo enhancement, but the month and year were still not clear.

Then today, it suddenly dawned on me.  Why don’t I use the calendar feature in my Legacy program and try to match the calendar configurations with those in the photo? 

My suspicion has always been that these calendars had something to do with 1924, which was the year my great grandfather, William V. Gould (1859-1924) died.  He was the husband of the woman in the photo.  My Dad would have been 11-12 yrs old at the time, depending on the dates.  Based on other photos I have of him, this picture would be about that same time.

Lo and behold, I went to the Legacy calendar feature and started going through 1924, month by month and seeing which one matched either of the calendars.  I use the Legacy calendar feature very often, probably at least once a week. It is quite useful in my research.

FINALLY, I located it – DECEMBER 1924.  Then I looked at JANUARY 1925 and it matches the other calendar perfectly.

December 1924 on the left and January 1925 on the right - they match up perfectly with the images in the photo

So, there it is.  My great grandmother, Mae is holding the December 1924 calendar and my Dad is holding the January 1925 calendar.  Now that I've figured it out, you can zoom in and see the word at the top of my Dad's calendar looks like January. Perhaps they were saying goodbye to 1924, a sad year for the family, and welcoming the new year?  Another thought.  My Dad's 12th birthday would have been December 31, 1924.  Were they commemorating that? 

Happy dance here.

TIP – Never give up on solving photo mysteries.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gone back to a photo I’ve looked at over and over again, and finally figured out who was in it.  Or, in this case, what the dates were in the image. 

Do you have mystery photos?  I’d love to see them.

And, Happy Birthday to my Dad who was born 110 years ago tomorrow.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

HAPPY DANCE WEDNESDAY ~ Church records for Thomas C. Hall, his wife Cora & their son Charles

 

What treasures can I share today?

 
How about church records recently received from a church in New York?
 
I called Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, New York, last month.  I was interested to see if they still held any records from 1877-1900. 
 
I was specifically looking for records for my husband’s great grandfather and his wife, Thomas C. Hall, Cora E. Brown Hall and their son Charles S. Hall.

 
While we can find some records online, we all know, many are still not available.  Some are indexed, but even viewing an index or transcription is not the same as looking at the actual record.  There could be any number of errors on an index or transcription.
 
I did my happy dance this morning when I received an email from the church with 4 records attached!!!
 
Images of actual church record pages from church registers of Baptism, Marriage, Confirmation and Burial.
 
Here they are: Please click on any image to enlarge it.

MARRIAGE OF THOMAS C. HALL & CORA EMMA BROWN

on 5 Feb 1877

BAPTISM OF CHARLES SCHUYLER HALL 

16 Jun 1878

CONFIRMATION OF CHARLES SCHUYLER HALL 

28 Apr 1892

BURIAL OF THOMAS CORNELIUS HALL 

13 Jan 1897

I already had a marriage date & and the marriage certificate for Thomas & Cora.  You can read all about that find here:
CORA’S SCRAPBOOK–Her wedding cake & marriage to Thomas C. Hall–1877, New York
 
But, this image of the church record for their marriage was new to me and gives one more piece of evidence to this fact.
 
What I didn’t have was the other 3 documents – the Baptism and Confirmation for Charles S. Hall and the Burial record for Thomas. Those will now be added to my Legacy database and sourced and added to my Ancestry tree as well.
 
What records have you recently received that made you do a happy dance? I’d love to hear about them.
 
Have you considered calling or emailing a church, funeral home or cemetery to obtain records or information?  This is not my first time doing so and I have found it to be very rewarding.
 
TIP: Keep a record of any calls or emails.  Whether you use your genealogy program for this (I use Legacy), or a spreadsheet, notepad or some other method.  It’s important to keep the date and make note of what you said, who you spoke with, who you emailed etc.
 
When or if I receive information as I did in this case, I not only send an email of thanks, I write a thank you note and many times include a gift card.

 
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