WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ Andrew Charles Milne & Susan Anne Gillespie–married in 1880

Andrew Charles Milne married Susan Anne Gillespie on

June 9, 1880 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

 

Andrew C. Milne - possibly his wedding day

Susan Milne with her son Joseph and her infant daughter Irene

Andrew & Susan are my maternal great grandparents. He was born 8 Feb 1856 in Aboyne, Aberndeen, Scotland.  His parents are Charles Milne and Margaret Ritchie. Susan was born 18 Jul 1860 in England.  Her parents are Joseph Gillespie and Susan Burgess. 

Andrew came to the United States via Quebec, Canada, in June 1868, traveling with his sister, Mary.  Susan came over at the age of two in 1862 with her parents.

One question I wish I could ask all my ancestors is “how did you meet one another?”  Somehow though, they did meet and were married in 1880.  They were only married for 12 years as Andrew died of Consumption on 8 Dec 1892, while Susan was pregnant with their daughter, Irene.

This couple had four children:

 

Joseph Albert (my grandfather), born 8 Jan 1883 – died 27 Sep 1957, age 74

A.C., a son, born and died 30 Jan 1886 (premature birth)

Etta, born 3 Oct 1887 – died 26 Jan 1890 of Diptheria, age 2 yrs. 3 months

Irene “Peggy” Marie born 13 Jun 1893 – died 11 Jan 1989, age 95.

Here are the marriage records I have for Andrew & Susan.

ZOOMED & CROPPED FROM MARRIAGE RECORD

I have more information on this couple, but I’ll save that for another post.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

WEDDING WEDNESDAY - Martin & Wunderlich - Married 1745 in Germany

SCOTLAND - Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society

If you are related to anyone mentioned in this post, please contact me.  I’d love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MAPPY MONDAY–Using Legacy 8 to Map Your Family

I thought I would look at the mapping feature in Legacy 8 today.

With this feature you can see the migration of your family from one country to another, or one city to another.
 
To use the “Map Family” feature you can go to the View tab and then click on Map Family.  I personally have the feature saved on “My Toolbar” so that I can quickly find it.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)


Let’s take a look at my maternal great grandfather, Andrew Charles Milne.  Here is the Family View for Andrew and his Individual Information screen.  You can see that I have several Events for him.  Because those events contain locations, those locations will show up on a map.

FAMILY VIEW

INDIVIDUAL VIEW

Andrew was born in Scotland, came over to North America via Quebec and moved to Detroit.  However, somewhere along the way he and his wife, Susan also lived in Ohio as one of their children died there.

When I click on the Map Family icon and zoom in just a bit this is what I see.



Now I will zoom into the locations in Michigan and Ohio.



As you can see when I hover over the red pins that are on the map Legacy tells me exactly what event occurred in that location.  In this case it was the death of a child, Margaret E. “Etta” Milne on 26 Jan 1890, in Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.

If you have not taken advantage of this valuable feature in Legacy, why not give it a try?

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
Historical & Family History Societies - Great Resources for your Research
Adding a Record to Legacy from Ancestry - Step by Step Instructions

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

IN HONOR OF GRANDPARENTS DAY

MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS
  
                  Harry Whipple Gould 1886-1960                                      Marie Wallace Lindsay 1888-1970

MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS

  
                    Joseph Albert Milne 1883-1957                             Florence Lee Nora Bowden  1888-1986

I miss each and every one of them. 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FUNERAL CARD FRIDAY– Everett Pierre Roe

 

I have to be honest.  I haven’t written anything for this particular topic because I don’t have many funeral cards.  However, much to my surprise I actually had more than the two or three I thought.  

I’m going to start today and go through the list over the next few Fridays.  I will talk about who this person was to me and about their history and family.





Relationship to me:  Husband of my Grand Aunt
Born 12 Aug 1893 in Cornwall on the Hudson, New York to William & Matilda (Kempton) Roe
Married Irene “Peggy” Marie Milne on 19 Jun 1926 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan
One child born to this couple, a daughter, who is still living
Died 14 May 1959 in Mt. Carmel Mercy Hospital, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan
Burial at Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

Everett Pierre Roe was married to my maternal grandfather’s sister.  Sadly, I never knew either Everett or his wife, Irene.  We moved away from Detroit, Michigan when I was only 7 years old.  Most of the rest of my family, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles etc., all stayed in Detroit.  And many are still there.  

Here is a picture of Everett wearing his Navy hat, I’m told this was about 1919.  And one of his wife, Irene, the year not known.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)
    
The one daughter born to Everett & Irene is a first cousin to my mother.  I do remember meeting her when I was a little girl.  Fortunately, after decades, I was able to locate her in Michigan and got to meet and talk with her on my visits in 2007 and 2010.  I’ve even spent time with her oldest daughter.  It was during one of those visits that I was able to get copies of photos and documents.

NOTE:  I took my digital camera with me during the visit.  I photographed documents and took pictures of photos.  Doing this allowed me to capture these items, without asking Everett’s elderly daughter to part with them while I took them some place to scan them.  This was before the days of wand scanners and Flip Pal.  Always be prepared when you visit with family.  

Everett served in the Navy during World War I.  He enlisted on 21 Apr 1917 and was discharged on 15 Jul 1919.  Here is the military service card, recording his service.



Everett’s obituary states that he was associated with the R. L. Pope Furniture Company at 14751 Seven Mile Rd. West from 1946 to the time of his death.  He lived in Detroit for 36 years.   
 
Everett was 65 years old when he died and he and Irene had been married for 32 years.  I don’t have a cause of death for him or a death certificate.  I do know he is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.  I have personally photographed his headstone.  His wife, Irene, is also buried with him. Here is a link to the findagrave memorial I created for him: 
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49427451



It seems to me that I could learn more about Everett’s life.  There should be more records I can obtain.  I can also talk to his daughter and granddaughter and learn more about him.  It’s when we begin to write a story about one of our ancestors that we truly have a picture of their lives.  If all we have are names and dates, then we have missed so much.  For many, that is all we will ever have.  But, for Everett, I know I can do better.  It seems I better make a phone call or two.

HAVE YOU READ THESE POSTS?
FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - HOW TO KEEP HAIR CURLED BACK IN 1906 

CEMETERY RECORDS - WHAT CAN THEY TELL YOU? HOW DO YOU USE THEM?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FOLLOW UP TO PHOTO DUPLICATION REQUESTS FROM FAMILY SEARCH

Hi everyone.  On 7/13/14 I wrote about submitting photo duplication requests to familysearch.org.  You can read that post here PHOTO DUPLICATION REQUESTS ON FAMILY SEARCH PLUS A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LEGACY & EVERNOTE

On July 12th, I submitted five requests to Family Search for death certificates.  All five deaths occurred in the state of Michigan.

GILLESPIE, Mary Eva - 1949 - Eloise, Wayne, Michigan
GILLESPIE, Susan - 1933 - Detroit, Michigan
PICKARD, Ellen  - 1927 - Detroit, Michigan
THORNTON, Mary - 1929 - Muskegon, Michigan
THORPE, Catherine  - 1941 - Detroit, Michigan
 
Based on the timeline given on the familysearch website, I didn’t expect to receive these records, if I did receive them at all, until 4-6 weeks after my request was submitted.
 
SURPRISE!
 
On July 16, just four (4) days after my requests, I received four of the death certificates. Oh my gosh!  Was I every surprised to get that email.  Of course I was away from home and saw the email on my phone.  I didn’t get home for several hours, but couldn’t wait to download and view those certificates.
 
The only certificate I didn’t receive was the 1927 death of Ellen Pickard.  As of this date, I have still not received that one.  I sure hope I do because she is my grand aunt and my grandmother talked about her all the time.
 
But, the four others have been enough to keep me quite busy and have led to the discovery of a set of 4th great grandparents and other data.  
 
And to answer the question about whether I would receive the two certificates for the deaths that occurred after 1938.  The answer is YES.
 
Here are the certificates I received.
 
(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)





Unfortunately, I have only had the time to actually “work” on the certificate for my 2nd Great Grandmother, Susan Gillespie.  It’s just been one of those busy weeks.  I’m sure you can all relate.  

However, that one certificate has led me to the following information, some of it I already had, some of it was new.

• Her name
• Her date of birth
• Her husband’s name
• Her place of birth (I believe it should say Tiverton, England and not Twerton)
• Her father’s name
• Her mother’s maiden name (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her cause of death (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her place of death (NEW INFORMATION)
• The informant on her death certificate (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her place of burial
• The funeral home that handled the arrangements for the family (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her residence at the time of her death (NEW INFORMATION)
• How long she had been in the U.S. (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her length of residence in Detroit, Michigan (NEW INFORMATION)

I’d say that is quite a list, wouldn’t you?  Including 8 pieces of NEW INFORMATION.
I definitely did my genealogy happy dance
Thanks to finding that maiden name for Susan Gillespie’s mother, Elizabeth Gaden, I have used the website FindMyPast to locate more information about the Gaden/Gaydon/Gayden family from Devonshire, England.  

NOTE:  On my very first genealogy trip back in 2007, I went to Detroit, Michigan.  My birthplace and the birthplace for many of my family members.  On that trip I was able to go to several cemeteries in Detroit and photograph headstones.  It was an absolutely wonderful trip.  One of the headstones I photographed was for Elizabeth Gaden who’s married name was Burgess.  I have wanted to learn more about her ever since that time.

Here I am in 2007 at the headstone for my 3rd great grandmother Elizabeth Gaden Burgess

Here is the back of her headstone naming her husband, her date of death and her age

  

I can’t wait to explore the other three certificates I received and see what they will reveal.

TIP:  Even though I have looked over the information on this certificate and gleaned every possible piece of data that I could.  I will still go back another time or two as I am citing this source and making those entries in Legacy.  We often miss things when we first see a document and another look or three or four, never hurts.

This has been a very good experience and I am counting the days until I can submit 5 more requests to Family Search.  Until then, I have plenty to do.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PHOTO DUPLICATION SERVICE WAS DISCONTINUED BY FAMILY SEARCH - EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 5, 2014.  YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT IN THIS POST 

 http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2014/11/photo-duplication-service-to-be.html

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MY TRIP TO SCOTLAND–WHAT I DID RIGHT AND WHAT I DID WRONG

We have been back from our trip over to Scotland for about two weeks.  I think I’ve finally caught up with laundry, snail mail, email, appointments and sleep.  

It was a fantastic trip.  Being in a place that I have read about and heard about for most of my life, was truly amazing.  

We flew into Glasgow, rented a car and drove over to Dundee.  From there we drove up to Aberdeen and then down to Edinburgh.  Getting used to driving on the “other” side of the road from the other side of the car was not easy for my husband.  And being his passenger…..well, it had it’s moments.  He did very well though, even on the very narrow city streets.  The roundabouts are very useful and better than all the stoplights we have in our cities in the U.S.  

I have ancestors from both Dundee and Aberdeen.  Also Perth, Arbroath, Aboyne and several other locations.   

On my paternal side there are LINDSAY, WALLACE, FITZCHARLES & McGOVERN.  

On my maternal side there are MILNE, RITCHIE & LESLIE.

Those are the direct lines. 

I prepared for this trip by doing as much research as I could before we left.  Knowing that no matter how much I did, or how thorough I thought I was being, I would wish I had done more.

I have taken several other trips that were either dedicated to genealogy research or included some research, so I had an idea of how to prepare.

HERE IS WHAT I DID CORRECTLY

• Located as much information about the families who lived in Scotland as I could.
• Found vital records (birth, marriage, death etc.) prior to going on the trip.  I used the website Scotland’s People to gather much of this information. This site has actual images of the records.  You can find transcriptions on Ancestry.com, but not the actual images.

 NOTE:  Scotland’s People is a subscription site.  You pay for credits, that are good for one year.  They start at 30 credits for 7 pounds ($11.90 U.S.) and go up to 300 credits for 70 pounds ($119 U.S.).  I have been using this site for many years.  To learn more about how the credits are used, please visit the site.

• Located census records from Scotland for the periods that they have released, which are 1841-1911.  Again you can find the images on Scotland’s People, but only transcriptions on Ancestry. 
• Entered all the information including images into my genealogy database.  I use Legacy.
• Created a list of all people who had any connection to Scotland.  This was easy with the genealogy software we have available these days. 
• Created a list of names and the addresses where they lived.  This way you can Google the address (or use whatever map program you prefer) before you leave and see if the street or building is still in existence.  Whether or not you found the street on your map program you can still look for it once you arrive.
• Make sure you have a list of any other locations pertinent to your ancestors such as: Cemeteries, places of business, churches etc.
• If you plan to visit any libraries, courthouses, archives, historical societies or churches be aware of the days and hours they are open. You'll soon see how important this is.
• Contact the places you may be visiting to see if they have volunteers who can do any preliminary look ups for you.  There may be a small charge, but as you’ll see later in this post, it can make a big difference.
• Have some way to access your database while you are on your trip.  Whether you carry your laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, just have something.  You could even have printed group sheets.  I carried my iPad with me which has the Families app containing my current Legacy family file, including images, sources & events.

All in all I was as well prepared as I thought I could be.
 
HERE IS WHAT I DID WRONG

When we were planning our trip, we set up our itinerary for each location.  We knew we’d only have a short time in each place.  We made all our reservations at the B & B’s and had everything planned out as to what we would do each day.  

I knew we would be in Aberdeen on Sunday and Monday.  I knew the Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society would be closed on Sunday.  I’ve been a member of this society for about 5 years and know they have many records available that I wanted to see.  I planned to spend about 4 hrs. there on Monday morning.

NOTE:  I was traveling with my husband.  This was a vacation for us, not a genealogy trip.  He knew I would be wanting to go to cemeteries and historical societies, of course.  But, spending the whole day doing that wasn’t fair to him.  He’s not the genealogist, I am.  Whatever time I can get, I will take.

MY MISTAKE:  Not realizing that Monday, May 5th was a local public holiday.  Therefore, the Aberdeen Family History Society was CLOSED.

Should I have known this?  YES!  Could I have known this? YES!  Was I disappointed? BEYOND YES!  Could I have kicked myself?  A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!

How I did I deal with it?  I was thankful that I had sent emails back & forth to one of the volunteers at the society.  She had been able to provide me with birth records and a burial record before my trip.  The cost of those look ups was 10 pounds. Well worth it, wouldn’t you say?

I took a nice picture of the front of the building and spent about 10 minutes being angry with myself.  Life is too short to spend time on things that cannot be changed.  I moved on.    

Here it is.  My picture of the Aberdeen Family History Society office. 

Off we went to Aboyne to see if we could locate the headstones of my 2nd great grandparents, Charles Milne & Margaret Ritchie.

It was a lovely drive, through the countryside, to Aboyne from Aberdeen.    I even got to drive the car for a while.  I wanted to experience driving on the “other” side of the road. 
The weather was typical for Scotland.  A bit drizzly and chilly, but not bad.  Our GPS in the car led us right to where we wanted to go.  

Once we got to Aboyne we stopped and asked where the Aboyne Kirkyard was and were told it was just around the corner.  

We arrived and saw this beautiful old stone church with a cemetery on the church property.  Well maintained and not too terribly big, which should make hunting for headstones much easier.  The parishioners were arriving for church and were very friendly.




You can’t see the whole church yard in that photo.  It goes back quite a ways.

My husband is very sweet and always assists me when we get to cemeteries to begin the hunt.  I give him the surnames and he hollers when he finds one.  We spent about 30 minutes walking every foot of this cemetery and looking at every headstone.  There is a book of transcriptions for this cemetery and it does have my 2nd great grandparents as being buried here.  There is a note on the transcription, however, that says the stone is partially buried.  

TIP:  Having seen that note about the stone being partially buried I was looking for a flat stone.  There weren’t many of those at this cemetery, but there were some.  Never make assumptions, as I did.  This stone was NOT flat.

When we were just about to give up and I had walked this cemetery over and over, I looked down at the bottom of this small cross shaped headstone.  What did I see?
MARGARET RITCHIE!  I went over and took a closer look and there was another name on that headstone – CHARLES MILNE!  I did my genealogy happy dance and yelled out to my husband “I found it!”

There it was, nearly obliterated by years of weather, but I had found them.

   


What a happy moment.  Those names are written in our family bible.  For a long time it was as far back on this Milne line as I could get.  

I took pictures of other Milne’s & Ritchie’s buried at this cemetery, in case I can later connect them.  I also snapped a few additional headstone photos of other surnames, as I had checked on FindAGrave and noted that there were very few memorials listed for this cemetery.  Now I can add to it.

This post is already too long and I apologize for that.  But, I had a lot to say and hope you enjoyed reading it.

You can find the memorials for Charles & Margaret on FindAGrave #129545950 and #129546301.

OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY

CEMETERY RECORDS - WHAT THEY CAN TELL YOU, HOW DO YOU USE THEM?

ADDING SIBLING LINKS TO FIND A GRAVE

Happy Hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION