Surname Saturday: Allen, but a different line
Yes, it's another Allen line, but this is one that I have exceptionally little knowledge about. Last time, I told you about the ancestry of Elva Allen, and then gave you an update with a few more details that I found in the U.S. census after the original post. This time, the Allen connection is my wife's 7th great grandmother, Frances Allen. I really know almost nothing about this woman except that she married Peter Lehew (M; b. Apr 1762, France; d. Apr 1780, Prince William, Virginia) and together they had nine children, of whom, other than their names (which will be listed in a future post) I know only one birth date and one spouse. The priority on researching this line should therefore be to find the vital dates and locations for Frances Allen and then to find more details on her children. I still need to research an American colony to learn more about the family, but this time the location is a bit farther south.
Wordless Wednesday - a postcard from the past
So what does this postcard of UCLA in the 1960s have to do with my family? My parents are the couple right there in the foreground; they were students there at the time this photo was taken.
Surname Saturday: Birdsey/Birdseye
Okay, it's another Saturday, so it's another surname. Today we'll look at one that connects at my 8th-great grandmother, Joanna Birdseye. Being so many generations ago, and judging by past Surname Saturday posts, you might be able to guess what region this surname connection starts in and where it goes after that, and you'd probably be right. So let's look at it.
Call for articles - Genealogy Stories, Halloween edition
I've been kicking around this idea for a while and now it's time to act on it. I'm starting a new blog carnival for genealogy bloggers called Genealogy Stories. As I put in the carnival description, the pursuit of genealogy is all about finding and telling family stories. While many genealogists concentrate on finding only birth/marriage/death information, there is quite a bit more to the family story than those dates and places. I'd like to have a series of carnivals posted on a monthly basis with various themes, but to share the fun, I'd like to have the host for each edition rotate around various blogs, posted on the last day of the month. The focus of this carnival is the stories beyond the vital statistics; dates and places by all means can be included, but they shouldn't be the main focus of the story submitted for the carnival.
When I started this blog a little over a year ago, the first article that I thought about writing was a story about a real skeleton in the attic of one of my ancestors. And now that I've started on the post that I want to add for Halloween 2010, it seems to me that this theme would be perfect to start off the Genealogy Stories carnival. So, write a post to your blog containing a Halloween-inspired story from your genealogy. It could be about the scariest Halloween you ever had, a story of the first thing that scared the bejeebus out of you, something that happened to an ancestor around the holiday, an unusual death story or even a photo of a Halloween costume. Once you've got your post prepared, submit the permalink to the carnival (the deadline is October 29) and then join us on Halloween to read all the stories.
Let's have some fun with this!
When I started this blog a little over a year ago, the first article that I thought about writing was a story about a real skeleton in the attic of one of my ancestors. And now that I've started on the post that I want to add for Halloween 2010, it seems to me that this theme would be perfect to start off the Genealogy Stories carnival. So, write a post to your blog containing a Halloween-inspired story from your genealogy. It could be about the scariest Halloween you ever had, a story of the first thing that scared the bejeebus out of you, something that happened to an ancestor around the holiday, an unusual death story or even a photo of a Halloween costume. Once you've got your post prepared, submit the permalink to the carnival (the deadline is October 29) and then join us on Halloween to read all the stories.
Let's have some fun with this!
More handwriting interpretation
Every once in a while, I take a ride through the links available through the Stumble Upon toolbar. Since I can specify exactly which kinds of links that I want to look at, I always find something interesting. Today's tour was no different, and it reminded me of a topic that has popped up a few times recently.
Last month I wrote about my thoughts on cursive handwriting. Conversation at a wedding reception that I attended on Saturday also turned to cursive and generally mirrored my thoughts there (yes, we were all nerds there). Finally, today I came across a link through Stumble Upon that took me to a page at the Library of Congress. The specific article that was presented to me detailed a change that Thomas Jefferson made while he was writing the American Declaration of Independence. The article detailed the change from "our fellow-subjects" to "our fellow-citizens", a change that symbolizes the change in thinking for the population of the American Colonies. But it struck me that he simply wrote the new word over the old word. It seemed to me that this might be one reason why it can be difficult to interpret handwriting sometimes. Well, it's at least something to keep in mind as I continue my research.
Last month I wrote about my thoughts on cursive handwriting. Conversation at a wedding reception that I attended on Saturday also turned to cursive and generally mirrored my thoughts there (yes, we were all nerds there). Finally, today I came across a link through Stumble Upon that took me to a page at the Library of Congress. The specific article that was presented to me detailed a change that Thomas Jefferson made while he was writing the American Declaration of Independence. The article detailed the change from "our fellow-subjects" to "our fellow-citizens", a change that symbolizes the change in thinking for the population of the American Colonies. But it struck me that he simply wrote the new word over the old word. It seemed to me that this might be one reason why it can be difficult to interpret handwriting sometimes. Well, it's at least something to keep in mind as I continue my research.
Surname Saturday: Aldis
Today for Surname Saturday, we'll look at another line that connects through Massachusetts Colony. We alternate back to my wife's side of the family and start from her eighth great grandmother, Hannah Aldis. As with many of the families from this era, I don't have a whole lot of information on this line yet, but I do know about three generations.
Why didn't he hire a genealogist?
So I'm sitting here looking at my own records and furthering my research with NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday on the radio in the background. They just played a story about Benjamin Kirk, an amnesia patient. The story went through a few of the different methods that he used to try to find his past, including a DNA test and a check for his fingerprints in criminal databases. But there's no mention of the one professional that is trained and finds people's histories on a daily basis. He should have hired a genealogist to find his past!
Surname Saturday: Beach
Okay, time to alternate back to one of the lines on my side of the family. This week, we will look at one of the most heavily researched lines in my family. It connects back to some of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts Colony and continues all the way to close family members who are still living today. There are quite a few researchers looking into this line from the early-1800s back to the 1600s, possibly due to the line's connection to Sir Winston Churchill (yes, that Winston Churchill), so this will be a fairly long post with nine generations listed, but there seems to be one universal stumbling block when we go back far enough.
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