Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Gratitude Story

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy is:
* Read Megan Smolenyak's article 120 Years of Smolenyaks in America: A Note of Gratitude from a Great-Granddaughter

* Do you have an ancestor like Megan's great-grandfather that was the first one to come to America (or your present country of residence) that you would like to thank?

* If so, tell us about that ancestor - and why you are thankful for their effort.


Maria Strassheim Tross, on the 24 June 1884, you arrived in New York City and then traveled to Buffalo from Eberstardt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany with 6 children, all under the age of 10, including an infant, and only 3 pieces of baggage.  I believe your husband had died in the prior few months and yet you still set out to a new country, relatively alone.  I cannot even imagine doing something like that, even in todays world of quick airplanes.  Thank you great-great-great grandmother Tross, for being such an incredible, strong woman.

Fearless Females: In the News

Publish Post

From an unknown Buffalo, NY newspaper.  Ironic that one her daughters married a Democrat who was very politically involved and town supervisor a couple times.  Vera (Mrs. William H.) Whitehead was my great-grandmother.


Fearless Female prompt from Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist

ProGen - Month 1 Complete

As a newly minted member of the ProGen Study Group community (in group #6), I am now finished with month number one and have begun the readings for month number 2.  Month 1 focused on our genealogical resume, which was rather daunting.  I have namely done self-training, through reading, some online lessons and a lot of trial and error.  I have always learned best by going to the library and reading books and that is how I approached genealogy.  If there is a genealogy book in the Syracuse public library system, you can bet I read it or have it on my "to request" list.  In the future, I am going to try to attend more workshops and conferences to supplement my reading.  Everyone else seems much more experienced, but they are all very friendly and offer a lot of excellent advice!  I am looking forward to strengthening my skills as a genealogist through this program over the next 19 months.

I finally broke down...

And got an Ancestry.com subscription.  In the past I have always used the library version, but being so far from home for so long, I thought getting the subscription would be a good idea.  So I now have a 3 month world subscription, which is already paying off in relation to some English parish register information.

I have also decided I should start looking into my fathers side of the family, even though I have a great aunt and great uncle who have already done a lot of it.  n particular I am going to work on the Karpinski family, my paternal grandfather's mother's family, as this one has not been searched very far back.  I have already found some promising leads on Franciszek Karpinski (my great-great grandfather) and a new cousin!

Surname Saturday: Hayman

Each Saturday this year I am posting one of my surnames, going in alphabetical order.  This weeks surname is Hayman.  The names in red are my direct line ancestors.



1-William Hayman
 +Anne Killick
|--2-Susanna Hayman bap. 25 Sep 1796, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|--2-Thomas Hayman bap. 10 Jun 1798, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d. 22
|    May 1867, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|   +Susan Whitehead b. Cal 1802, Chelsfield, , Kent, England, d. 6 Apr 1867,
|    Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-William Hayman b. Abt 1836, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, bur. 8
|  |    Jun 1851, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-George Hayman b. 1839
|  |--3-Benjamin Hayman b. Abt 1841, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Robert Hayman b. Abt 1843, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|  |--3-Mary Ann Hayman b. 11 Mar 1845, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England, d.
|  |    16 May 1877, Barton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |   +Charles Whitehead b. 10 Oct 1840, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |    d. 12 Oct 1902, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Benjamin Thomas Whitehead b. 31 Oct 1866, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent,
|  |  |    England, d. 11 Apr 1906, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Joseph Whitehead b. 2 Nov 1869, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |  |    d. 4 Apr 1936, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |  |--4-Charles William Whitehead b. 12 Jun 1872, Burlington, , Ontario,
|  |  |    Canada, d. 27 Dec 1927, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA
|  |  |--4-Rosanna Whitehead b. 5 Jan 1875, Barton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada,
|  |  |    d. 2 Dec 1924, Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada
|  |--3-Harriet Hayman bap. 8 Feb 1829, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England,
|  |    bur. 30 Mar 1829, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
|--2-William Hayman bap. 22 Mar 1801, Halstead, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
-----------------------------

Can You Document 10 Generations?

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has written a few posts on the documenting of 10 generations, with yourself as #1.  I have been following his and other blogs on this subject with much interest.  I have not been able to source 10 generations of my tree, yet, but I am probably closer than many genealogists and readers for one simple reason.  I was born relatively recently.

As such, I have two generations, mine and my parents, that others do not have.  To get back 10 generations means I am researching in the early to mid-1700's, not the early to mid-1600's.  My 8th great-grandparents, for example, were born in the late 1700's.  Even at each of their parents being 35 when my ancestor was born puts 2 more generations back at about 1725-1740.

I think many other young genealogists will be able to source a majority of 10 generations (I can on parts of my tree and with a few more years of searching, I will be able to get most if not all of them).  However, for us, 15 generations will be near to impossible, even if, like me, you get duplicate ancestors early on, such as in generation 4...

Tombstone Tuesday - Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany

According to the plaque next to these tombstones, these were originally in a Jewish cemetery in Spandau.  The oldest stone there is from 1244.  In the middle ages, during a time of Jewish persecution, the stones were taken and used to build the Spandau Citadel.  This was discovered in the 1950s and the stones were salvaged.  These are the oldest remains of Jewish civilization in the Berlin area.