Yours, Mine, and Ours

I come from a "yours, mine, and ours" family. Both my mother and my father were married, and had children from those marriages, prior to marrying each other. This can lead to interesting family relationships. For example, most of my nieces and nephews are fairly close to me in age; in fact, my eldest nephew is two years older than my youngest sister, his aunt. Let's not pursue this line of thinking!

To help family members who are reading my blog (and for others who may just be curious), I have created Ahnentafel charts for both parents and added them as pages here on my blog. You can reach the pages by clicking on the links at the top of the right hand column. So if you want to know whether a particular individual is your ancestor, as well as mine, you can go to the appropriate page and use the "find" feature to see if that person is listed.

Some disclaimers are in order. Much of the information in my family tree database was acquired when I was a "baby" genealogist so I have not proven all of the relationships, particularly those reaching back into the dark ages of history! I am in a continuous process of verifying information; I imagine it will last for the rest of my life.

And I did not include source citations on these pages, mostly because they take a lot of space and my family members won't read them. Although I now religiously record the source of every bit of information, it was not always so.

Oh, and by the way, "Ahnentafel" is a German word for ancestor!

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 29

1587: Edith Squire, my maternal 9th great-grandmother, was baptized in Charlton Mackrell, Somersetshire, England. She died on 21 January 1672/73 in Medfield, Massachusetts. [Source: D. L. Jacobus, "The American Genealogist," database, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 2 May 2011), "A Hitherto Unnoted Descendant of Henry Adams of Braintree"; 53:18.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 26

1844: My paternal great-grandfather, Ambrose Bryant Martindale, was born in Bismarck, St. Francois County, Missouri. He died on 29 October 1918 in Houston, Harris County, Texas, a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Houston. [Source: Texas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate 41191 (1918), A. B. Martindale; digital image, Footnote.com, Texas Death Certificates (http://www.footnote.com/documents/19419207/texas_death_certificates/ : accessed 20 Apr 2010).]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 24

1816: Houston T. Owens, my paternal 2nd great-grandfather was born, probably in Tennessee. He died 15 September 1895 and is buried in Hurricane Cemetery, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. [Source: Kelly Christian Priestly, "Hurricane Cemetery, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana," transcription, USGenWeb Archives (http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/claiborne/cemeteries/hurrican.txt : accessed 2 May 2011), Houston T. Owens.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - It's a Wordle

Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings, offers up a fun genealogy-based activity for each Saturday evening. This week it was creating a "wordle" at wordle.net. Here is the one I created using this blog as the basis for the words:

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

Reflecting on Genealogy: On Being a Grown-Up, Genealogically Speaking!

I've started a new blog so that can I post thoughts on general genealogy topics and not clutter my family history blog! Here's a link to the first posting:

Reflecting on Genealogy: On Being a Grown-Up, Genealogically Speaking!: "Last evening I participated in a webinar titled 'How Mature are You (Genealogically)?'. The presentation was given by Robert Raymond and spo..."

© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

On This Day: May 18

1802:  My maternal 3rd great-grandparents, Philip Jamann (Yawman) and Magdalena Hoffman were married in Schmittviller, Moselle, France. Philip and Magdalena had seven children who lived to adulthood: Elizabeth, Andrew (from whom I descend), Ann, Joseph, Nicholas, John, and Philip. [Source: Gary A. Yawman, The Yawman Family and Related Families PDF, The Yawman Family Home Page (http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/y/a/w/Gary-A-Yawman/index.html : downloaded 30 Mar 2011), 4.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 17

1821:  My maternal 3rd great-grandparents, George Parsons and Susannah Campbell, were married in Floyd County, Kentucky. [Source: "Kentucky Marriages, 1802-1850," online database, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Feb 2010), entry for George Parsons and Susannah Campbell.]

George and Susannah had six children: Nancy, Gabriel, Margaret (from whom I descend), Sarah, Lydia, and William.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 13

1813:  Catherine Sitterly, my maternal 2nd great-grandmother, was born in Guilderland, Albany, New York. She died on 3 August 1889 in Denison, Grayson County, Texas. [Source: findagrave.com, digital images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 2 May 2011), Catherine Yawman, Memorial #21373958, created by Gary Yawman, 5 Sep 2007.]

I took this picture of her grave marker when I visited Oakwood Cemetery in Denison in November 2007:

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 8

1772: Tamson Garrison, my maternal 4th great-grandmother, was born in Cumberland County, New Jersey. She died in 1809 in Trumbull County, Ohio. This information came from multiple family trees posted on the Rootsweb WorldConnect Project; further verification is needed.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 7

1695: My maternal 7th great-grandparents, Joseph Gilbert and Elizabeth Smith, were married in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. [Source: findagrave.com, digital images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 Apr 2011), Joseph Gilbert, Memorial #40916109.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 6

1647:  My maternal 8th great-grandparents, John Gilbert and Amy Lord, were married in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. [Source: New England Historic Genealogical Society, "Families of Old Fairfield, Connecticut," database and images, AmericanAncestors (www.AmericanAncestors.org : accessed 1 Apr 2011); John Gilbert; citing p. 220 of History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Connecticut.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock

On This Day: May 1

1560: My maternal 9^th great-grandfather, John Ames III, was born. [Source: Joiner, Rev. Darrell and Sallyann (carver@ime.net), Cary Family History.]

1798: Jurry Hendrick (George) Sitterly and Debora Hogeboom, my maternal 3rd great-grandparents were married in Schenectady, (now) Albany County, New York. [Source: Jonathan Pearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of the Patent and City of Schenectady, from 1662 to 1800 (Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1873); Schenectady Digital History Archive (www.schenectadyhistory.org) : accessed 2 May 2011.]

© 2011 Denise Spurlock