FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY ~ Massaging Cream ~ From my grandmother’s journal

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY

My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN  MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook,  which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure trove of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

Not only did she leave names & birth dates for many of our ancestors, but she left various types of recipes.  Some for cooking, some for making items that we can now purchase at a store.  This is one of those items.

MASSAGING CREAM


Transcription - Rub yolks of two eggs with 1/4 lb. of strained honey & 2 oz. of ground bitter almonds.  Then add slowly an oz. of almond oil & 1/2 dram each of attar of cloves and attar of bergramot, this is for use in massaging lower arms

What are attar of cloves and attar of bergamot?

I conducted a search on the internet and learned that “attar” is a noun that means perfume or essential oil obtained from flowers or petals.
 
Ok, we know what the attar of cloves are then.  But, how about bergamot?
 
From dictionary.com I found the following word origin for bergamot:

Noun

1. a small citrus tree, Citrus aurantium bergamia, having fruit with a rind that yields a fragrant essential oil.

2. Also called essence of bergamot. the oil or essence itself.

3. any of various plants of the mint family, as Monarda fistulosa, yielding an oil resembling essence of bergamot.

4. a variety of pear.
 

I’ve learned something new today.  Have you?  I had never before heard of bergamot.

Do you have “recipes” such as this, shared by an ancestor?  I’d love to hear about them.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - How to Make Shampoo
FAMILY RECIPE FRIDAY - How to Keep Hair Curled Back in 1906

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SATURDAY NIGHT FUN ~ Which of your ancestors have you met?

This evening’s Saturday Night Fun comes from Randy Seaver’s post on his Genea-Musings blog.  Randy writes a weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.  You can find his post here.

Our mission this week was as follows:

1) Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).


2) Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.

So Here Is My List:

Harry Norman Gould, my father (1912-1991), lived in Detroit, Michigan, Pompano Beach, Florida and San Diego, California.

Patricia Anne (Milne) Gould Cornelius, my mother (1924-2016), lived in Detroit, Michigan, Pompano Beach, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, Houston and Wharton, Texas and San Diego, California.

Harry Whipple Gould, my father’s father (1886-1960), lived in Detroit, Michigan and Pompano Beach, Florida.

Marie Wallace (Lindsay) Gould, my father’s mother (1888-1970), lived in Detroit, Michigan, Pompano Beach, Florida and San Diego, California.

Joseph Albert Milne, my mother’s father (1883-1957), lived in Detroit, Michigan his whole life.

Florence Lee Nora (Bowden) Milne, my mother’s mother (1888-1986), lived in Ashland & Covington, Kentucky, Detroit, Michigan and for a short time in Houston, Texas.

So, I’ve met six of my ancestors.  Unfortunately, I never got to meet any great grandparents.  If you have, you are very lucky and should ask them lots of questions, write everything down and cherish every minute.

I’d love to hear how many of your ancestors you’ve “met.”  Tell me about it here in a comment or on your own blog.

Thanks for this episode of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Gordon W. Flower, dead, only 3 days after his marriage to Lovina McNinch–What was the cause of death?

This is a follow up post from yesterday.  I wrote a post about finding potential problems in my Legacy 8 database.  This problems list helps identify various issues in your family tree, that may have gone unnoticed. You can read that post here.

There were two problems on my list.  I’ve cleared up the first one.  The second one had to do with Gordon W. Flower.  His marriage date is listed as being after his death date.  Yup!  I’d say that’s a problem. 

• Do I have the correct dates for the date of death and the marriage?
• If so, where did I get these dates?
• What other records might I locate that would give me more information?

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)


First I went to the sources I have listed for the death of Gordon W. Flower.  It seems I have only one.

• Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897 showing his death date as 4 Oct 1896

TIP:  I have a one page death record for Gordon, which I located on familysearch.org.  In the several years since I researched this individual, I have learned an excellent lesson.  ALWAYS look at the page before and after any record.  Had I done that at the time, I wouldn’t have been so surprised by his cause of death in my findings today.  I went back and found the 2nd page of the death record, today.

Now let’s see sources I show for his marriage to Lovina McNinch?

• Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925, showing they were married on 5 Oct 1896 in Hastings, Barry, Michigan.  His parents names are correct on the marriage record, as is his age & place of birth.

Here are the images of those records:

The death record below clearly indicates date of death as October 4th


The marriage record below also clearly gives the same date for the license and the date of the marriage, October 5th.



So, what I entered in my Legacy database wasn’t wrong, then, based on these records.  I may have located the records at different times, not noting the discrepancy it created.  OR, was Gordon married posthumously?  That’s always a possiblity.  However, what I found today, will refute that theory.

I also had located a FindAGrave memorial for Gordon W. Flower with his year of birth and death clearly visible on the headstone.  You can visit that memorial here.
 
The next step I took was to go to the online newspapers and try to locate an obituary, funeral notice or some other article that would give me further information about Gordon W. Flower.  I was not disappointed.

Here are the articles I located:





So, Gordon died by an overdose of morphine.  Only the one article mentions him being kicked by a horse.  Was that true?  Or was it said to protect the family?  Why was his father against his marriage to Lovina McNinch? (her name is spelled various ways) Lovina was only 16 yrs. old at the time of the marriage. I have not been able to follow her forward to see what became of her.  I’ve not located any children born to Gordon and Lovina.

Sadly, Gordon was the only son born to David Preston Flower and his wife Mary “Polly” J. Thorp, who are my 2nd great grandaunt & uncle.  Making Gordon W. Flower, my 1st cousin 3 times removed.  Gordon had four sisters.  How sad they must have been at the news of his death.

I have changed Gordon’s death date in my database, to October 8, 1896 based on the newspaper articles.  This is consistent with him dying 3 days after his marriage.  One article names the 8th specifically and the other states “thursday” which based on the date of the newspaper article, would have been Oct. 8th.
 
I’ve certainly cleared up the “problem” in my database.  In doing so I learned a very sad fact about this particular ancestor.
 
Is using the Potential Problems report a good idea?  I would certainly say YES.  It’s allowed me to complete Gordon’s story, as difficult as it is to find such stories about our family.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS LIST IN LEGACY 8 ~ What problems did I find today?

It’s necessary with any database, to check for problems, errors etc.  Legacy 8 has a built-in feature for doing just that.  It’s called “Potential Problems” and can be found under your Tools tab.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

 
Since I run this feature about once a month, my problems list is usually very small.  Of course, that wasn’t true the first time I ran it.  I can’t remember exactly how many I had, but I know it was dozens.  It took me a while to go through the list, but it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Today, I ran the list, and here’s what I got.



LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THIS LIST

• The name that is highlighted is Boggs, Virginia [3934].  I always have the RIN number listed after my individuals as it makes it very easy to find them quickly in the Index or write the numbers down, should I need to come back later.
• At the bottom of the screen, you can see that Legacy tells me exactly what the problem is.  In this case “The birth date for this individual is either after the mother’s death date or more than ten months after the death date of the father.”
• I can do several things directly from this list.

    1.  Print it
    2.  Mark as Not a Problem
    3.  Run the report in different ways
    4.  Report destination can be Screen, Text file or PDF file

I went to the family page for Virginia Boggs.  I can see that her birth date is listed as “Abt 1848.”  I have an 1850 census for her and her family which states that she is two years old.  The next census in 1860 lists her as 11.  So, the birth year of approximately 1848 is probably correct.

Now, let’s look at her father, Hamilton Boggs.  OH OH!  I have his death date as “Abt. 1842.”  Kind of tough for him to have been Virginia’s father if she was born 6 years later.  I don’t have a second marriage for her mother, and Virginia is the last child, of 6, listed for this family.

Hamilton Boggs is my 3rd great granduncle, and I can see that I have done very little thorough research on him.  I have one source listed and it’s an email from another descendant, that I received back in 2005.

My next step, as I sit here this morning, will be to go online and begin trying to piece together Hamilton’s life with more valid sources.  I’m sure there has been a lot of sources made available over the past 11 years.

Then I will move on to the other person listed on my Problems Report.

This report provides an excellent method for us to find the problems we might not have noticed and, in this case, to go back to a fairly close ancestor, and do more research.
 
Have you used the Potential Problems report?  What have you found?

Please visit the tab “Legacy 8 Tips” at the top of my blog for 12 other posts that are specific training tools for using Legacy 8.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY ~ Mary Cooper Swart–1729 to 1792–Albany New York

Photo placed on findagrave.com by Chip Rowe and used with permission

Headstone Inscription

Momento Mori

In Memory of Mary Swart

Wife of Evert Wynkoop Swart

Born Nov^r 1^st 1720:

Departed this Life March 7^th 1792:

Aged 61 Years 3 Months & 25 Days

A good Name is better than precious Ointment

And the Day of Death than the Day of ones Birth

Reader whoe’er thou art, behold they Doom

Time hurries onward to the silent Tomb;

Improve the Day of Grace before too late

The gloomy Monarch close your final Fate

This is the first time I’ve seen the words “Momento Mori” on a headstone.  I had to look up what it meant.  According to several websites, including Wikipedia, it is Latin for “remember you have to die.”  Other variations included “remember that you must die.”

NOTE: If you do the calculation of her birth date, based on here age at death, as stated on her headstone, it does not match the birth date given. Based on 62 years, 3 months & 25 days, her birthdate would have been 10 Nov 1729, not 1 Nov.  However, she was baptised on the 9th of November, so I’m concluding that the date of November 1st is correct and that the math for the age on the stone was done incorrectly.

I’ve been studying my Cooper line this past week.  My 3rd great grandmother, Lany Cooper married Monson Thorp, Sr.  It took me years to track down the Cooper line, but since doing so, I have traced them back to my 7th great grandparents, Obadiah Cooper and Cornelia Gardenier who were both born in New York circa 1690.

Maria “Mary” Cooper Swart is one of the 10-12 children born to Obadiah & Cornelia Cooper.  She is my 6th great grandaunt.  She married Evert Wynkoop Swart and they had one known child, John Swart.

Here is her baptismal record from the records of the U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989.  The name Cooper is also spelled Couper in some records.

I have not yet located the marriage record for Evert Swart & Maria Cooper.  However, I have located her probate record, in which she leaves everything to her “beloved” husband, Evert and her son, John.  I’ll transcribe that probate in another post.

Mary is buried at the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church Cemetery in Fishkill, Dutchess, New York.  You can visit her memorial here #76417698.

The cemetery is located at 1153 Main St., Fishkill, Dutchess, New York.  According to FindAGrave there are 567 interments at the cemetery.  Mary is the only Swart documented.  Here husband and her son are not buried with her.  There are 15 Coopers at the cemetery.  One of them is her brother, Cornelius Cooper.

I’m excited to continue my research on this Cooper line.  They are proving to be an interesting group. And, there are LOTS of them.

 

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

SURNAME SATURDAY - COOPER - Have I really gone back 3 more generations?

TUESDAY'S TIP - U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-2000

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TREASURE CHEST THURSDAY ~ The actual church record for the marriage of Jeremiah Hall & Elizabeth Bailey 22 Dec 1748

First let me start by saying that I better pay attention to what day it is.  I posted a Treasure Chest Thursday, yesterday, which was actually Wednesday.  I’ve now changed the title of that post and you can find it here WEDDING WEDNESDAY – A marriage record, of sorts, for Dr. Jeremiah Hall & Eliabeth Bailey.

To follow up that post today, I’m happy to share the actual, handwritten church record for that marriage.

I didn’t locate it myself, but, again, because of belonging to a Facebook group, I now have the record.  Another Hall family member, from the same group I spoke of yesterday, Hall Families of New England, has shared the image.  Thanks to Cheryl Hall for finding this record in the archival church records of the Congregational Church.
 
Here’s a link to the home page http://www.congregationallibrary.org/

And here’s the link to the actual entry for the marriage of Jeremiah Hall to Elizabeth Bailey

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)


Here are the first two pages from this digital record.

When I source this record, the one thing I won’t know is who made the entries into this record book.  They are all numbered and the volume is separated into meeting notes, admission to full communion, baptisms, births, marriages & deaths.  Most of the writing is the same throughout the record, with occasional differences.  This makes me believe that this is a transcription of various records, placed in the book, in order.

QUESTION? Is this a primary source?  I don’t think so because it appears to be a transcription of other records.  Meaning the person who wrote these records may not have been present at the time of the event.  But, we’re getting closer, and it’s certainly better than just having the entry from the book I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

Maybe this is all I’ll ever find to document this record from 268 years ago.  But, combining this record with other pieces of evidence certainly proves that a marriage took place in Hanover, between Jeremiah Hall & Elizabeth Baily/Bailey.

Stay tuned for more on this family.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ A marriage record, of sorts, for Dr. Jeremiah Hall & Elizabeth Bailey

Reference to the marriage of Jeremiah Hall & Elizabeth Baily

As you know from my previous post Dr. Jeremiah Hall writes a letter to George Washington, I’ve been researching this line of our Hall ancestors.  In doing so, I’ve been trying to locate as many vital records, probate records or other documentation for their lives, as I can.
 
The one thing I couldn’t locate was a marriage record for Dr. Jeremiah Hall to Elizabeth Bailey. I had a research note in my database from 2009 that stated I had located a reference to their marriage at the New England Historical Genealogical Society (NEHGS) website as follows:

“Hall, Jeremiah 1722 Wrentham 1807 Pembroke Pembroke HR 1785, 1775FS, 1775MS, 1779C; moderator 1780, 82, 83; major, lieut. colonel; M Elizabeth Bailey (c1730-1816) in 1747, 9 ch; MD. Served in the Revolution. He attended the HR sessions and accepted from one to four committee assignments. Wrentham VR 108; Pembroke VR 98, 410; DAR-PIc 1275; IGI for marr at Hanover; Hanover VR 21”

I found other references to their marriage, but no actual records.  Surprising, since Massachusetts is one of our states that has lots of historical records online.

What Did I Do Next?

Something I frequently do, I went to Facebook and asked my fellow researchers if they had or knew of a marriage record for this couple.  In this case I went directly to a group I belong to, dedicated to Hall families from New England.  You can go to that group by clicking here.



The value of joining Facebook groups cannot be overstated.  There are thousands of groups dedicated to genealogy research.  They range from surname groups to state, county or city groups.  Please refer to my link at the end of this post, about joining genealogy Facebook groups.

I posted my question about the marriage record last night, and by this morning, I had several responses, one of which gives an actual reference to a record of the marriage.

Here’s how I worded my question.  I like to begin any posts of this sort with a specific statement as to what I’m looking for.  This allows anyone who wouldn’t be able to help to scroll right past my post and not waste time reading it.

Re: Marriage record of Dr. Jeremiah Hall & Elizabeth Bailey.
Hello Hall families - I've been working hard on the Hall side of the family this past few days. I can locate many vital records on Ancestry for the Massachusetts Halls. However, I have been unable to locate a marriage record for Dr. Jeremiah Hall to Elizabeth Bailey circa 1748. The first child I have for them was born in 1753. It looks like all the children were born in Pembroke.
Do any of you have that marriage record? Or know where I might find it? Thanks!
 
One of the responses led me to a book, located on archive.org.  This book is downloadable or you can just search right on the site.  The name of the book is History and Records of the First Congregational Church of Hanover, Mass. 1727-1865. 

I located the reference to the marriage on page 90 of Volume I.

1747-48
December 22 Jeremiah Hall and Elizabeth Baily, Junr

both of Hanover

This is by no means a primary source.  However, it may be possible to view an actual church record, rather than this reference to the record.  Would they be available on microfilm?  That’s something I will check. An initial search of the FHL catalog has so far come up empty.  However, I will continue to look.

I will be writing more about this branch of the Hall family in upcoming posts.

Please contact me if you are related to anyone mentioned in this post or any of my other posts.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

TUESDAY'S TIP - How to Save a Book from Archive.org to Evernote or your Computer

Facebook - How it can be very useful in your research

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION