I've always wanted an Opa

We all have 16 great-great-grandparents.  Two of mine were born in Germany, and one was born in the US of German parents.  Three out of 16 great-great grandparents means I'm 3/16 German.  Wunderbar!!

I randomly Googled the following ancestor and had a surprise.

Family member name: Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Goesch
Tree branch: Goesch
Relation: My 2x great grandpa.  My mom's mom's mom's dad.

Turns out there is another crazy person out there (probably a lot of them) who blog about their ancestry.  They had an entire post about Grandpa Ernst!  In fact Ernst was his great grandfather, but through Ernst's first wife Amelia.  Ernst is my 2x great grandpa through his second wife, Bertha.
Ernst was born September 8, 1848 in Grammentin, Pommern, Prussia which today is known as Mecklenburg – Vorpommern, Germany.  On March 17, 1869, at the age of 20, Ernst sailed from Hamburg, Germany on the ship Saxonia bound for New York.

They moved between Chicago, Minnesota and finally Nebraska, where generations of Goesch family members were born and still live.  Ernst had 6 children with Amelia then another six with Bertha.  The 12th child was my great-grandmother Martha.

The German word for grandfather is Opa.  Here's my great-great Opa.

And this is Ernst and Bertha's home in 1915 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Building a 19th century resumé

Was Grandpa Smith a go-getter? An intentional seeker of new horizons? Or did life just happen? You decide as you read his resumé below.

Family member name: Charles H. Smith
Tree branch: Smith
Relation: My 3x great grandpa.  My dad's mom's dad's dad's dad.

The carpenter - Young Charles' first occupation was a carpenter. He lived in Chatham, Massachusetts which is the elbow of Cape Cod. (Make a fist and flex your bicep. That's Cape Cod. Now use your other hand to point at the flexed arm's elbow.  That's Chatham.) Chatham was a fishing and whaling town, so perhaps he made a good living repairing boats. We can't really know for sure. But this skill surely would have helped him in his next jobs.

The lighthouse keeper - Light house keepers have always held a beloved position in their community. Their role was to keep the town's mariner sons and husbands safe.  Grandpa Smith was entrusted with this position for over ten years, three of which were during the Civil War.  Normally lighthouse families were isolated because their homes are often located on islands or on remote peninsulas. Not so with Chatham Light. It is on Main Street in the middle of town. So I imagine their interaction with the community was as normal as their neighbors. Speaking of neighbors, Angeline Nickerson lived next door with her children. She is a local Chatham legend. Her husband was the light keeper until his untimely death. She took over the post and "manned" (pun intended) the station for 10 years until she was about 50 years old.

The twin lights as they would have looked in the 1860s.

I have yet to locate the lighthouse logs from Grandpa Smith's tenure. The logs generally recorded how many ships passed by daily, significant storms, sea rescues and lighthouse repairs. The Chatham Historical Society does not have them, the Chatham Eldredge Library does not have them. I have not yet contacted the current lighthouse keeper (the US Coast Guard), but often the logs were thrown away when the Coast Guard took over in 1943.  The result of these missing logs is that we know almost nothing about his service. In fact, he is barely (if ever) even mentioned in books about lighthouse histories. But he's on Wikipedia, so... it's all good.


The inn keeper - Grandpa and Grandma Smith transitioned from the rescue business to the hospitality business.  The Chatham Monitor local newspaper shows the chain of events.

Advertisement for Nauset House

Newspaper announces sale of Nauset House Aug 1872

Monthly advertisement for Nauset House

Nauset House is often listed in the paper as hosting town events on their large front lawn.  Unfortunately, Grandma Smith died just three years later, yet was remembered as a gracious hostess to town visitors in her obituary. 

Nauset House is still an Inn 150 years later (not run by family members that I know of). Consider staying there on your next trip to the Cape.


The tax collector - Holy career change Batman!

Here is Grandpa Smith's obituary, kindly sent to me by the Chatham Historical Society.

Looks like as the new tax collector, he whipped them into shape! Was he the type of person who could recognize a problem, devise a solution and had the power and energy to implement it? I admire those people.

From his various careers over his lifetime, it seems that Grandpa Smith was always reinventing himself, a catchphrase from the 2010s. What a diverse and interesting person.

Hingham

Hingham, Massachusetts holds a special place in my heart. It’s where I would visit my Grandma and Grandpa Webber and spend much time with my two cousins. My dad grew up in Hingham. I had no idea of our connection to Hingham other than knowing that my grandparents moved their young family there in 1952/53.

Family member name: Ralph Smith
Tree branch: Smith
Relation: My 10x great grandpa.  My dad's mom's dad's dad's dad’s dad’s dad's dad's dad's dad's dad

Why did my grandparents move to Hingham? They grew up in Needham and New Bedford. Maybe they just wanted to be commuting distance to Boston?  My Grandma Webber’s maiden name was Smith. Normally a difficult surname to research, but there have been mountains of information on this family with deep New England roots.

When reading a history of the Smith family in New England, many generations lived on Cape Cod, in the towns of Chatham and Eastham. But when going back further, a Ralph Smith lived in Hingham for almost 20 years, from1635 to 1653. He lived on Main Street and ran a store. When researching the history of the town of Hingham, it was founded in 1635. In fact, Ralph Smith, his three brothers and four other men originally arrived there in 1633 to begin clearing land and building huts in order to cultivate the land the following spring. Though it was called Bare Cove at that time, when they set up a town government, they renamed the area Hingham. Why? They had just arrived in the new world from their hometown - Hingham, England.

It’s so exciting that my dad grew up in the town that was founded by his direct ancestor, who was a pioneer of distinction.

Here is a plaque placed by the Association of the Descendants of Ralph Smith.  Disclaimer: I did not take this picture.  I copied it from another website. :)  But I hope to visit it someday.

Tree Branches

What is a branch of a family tree?

Is it the family line through my grandparents?  If so, each person would only have four tree branches.  And while this is technically a true statement, for this blog's purposes, I'm going to narrow it down a little further.

Going forward, when I reference a branch of my family tree, I'll be referring to the branch beginning with my (or Dru's) great-grandparents, as shown in the red box below.

Therefore, we each have eight branches.  Mine are: Webber, Pearson, Smith, Bromley, Boyle, Anderson, Sullivan and Goesch.

Meredith's Family Tree's branches

Dru's branches are: Hargreaves, Cottam, Jones, Newman, Kekos, Papoutsaki, Stevens and Papas.

Dru's Family Tree's branches

Each post will also be tagged with the tree branch so as to find information easily.  Hopefully this will add some clarification to what may be a bunch of random family stories and research findings.

Bath time!

My dad's middle name is Bromley.  It is his grandmother's maiden name.  I knew that the Bromleys were from England.  It's time to see life through their eyes.

Family member name: William and Anne Amelia Bromley and their son Henry Bromley

Relation: My 2x great grandfather (Henry) and my 3x great grandparents

William and Anne lived in Bath.  Ah, Bath! Known for its beautifully preserved white Georgian style buildings and its curative hot springs, Bath has been a destination for who's who of British society for centuries. 

And the Bromleys lived right in the middle of it. Anyone who has lived in Bath or has ever visited Bath for even one day is familiar with where they lived. 

In 1858, they moved into the downtown area of Bath.  They lived on the 3rd and 4th floor attic of 25 Union Street.  The ground floor and second floor was used for retail.  Union Street is a pedestrian shopping area in the heart of the town. And just across the street is the Roman hot baths along with the famous Pump Room restaurant. The Pump Room is named for the actual water pump that brings the mineral water up from the deep spring below directly into the restaurant. Centuries old plumbing! 

Here I am directly below their apartment. Downstairs is now a clothing store called COS.  Their windows would have been the ones above the letters COS. The Bromleys were so downtown.

Jane Austen, who lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 wrote about the Bromleys' corner.

From chapter 7 of Northanger Abbey:

Half a minute conducted them through the pump-yard to the archway, opposite Union Passage; but here they were stopped. Everybody acquainted with Bath may remember the difficulties of crossing Cheap Street at this point; it is indeed a street of so impertinent a nature, so unfortunately connected with the great London and Oxford roads, and the principal inn of the city, that a day never passes in which parties of ladies, however important their business, whether in quest of pastry, millinery, or even (as in the present case) of young men, are not detained on one side or other by carriages, horsemen, or carts.  This evil has been felt and lamented, at least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in Bath.

In the 1860s, William was the manager and editor of a newspaper, also listed as a printer, which I think is fantastic since I also work for a publishing company. Maybe that's where I get some of my obsession with grammar and punctuation. (I know I get some from you too mom!) That profession meant he was educated and no doubt well-known around town. Anne Amelia was a dressmaker. Did she create fashion-forward clothes for the high society ladies to show off at the theatre? How cool would that be?  Anne made enough to support herself since William moved out of the home in the late 1860s. We don't know why.  Anne lived there until 1874. 

Here are some pictures of the sources I found at the Bath Records Office.

Bath City Directory 1860-1861

Bromleys listed in Bath 1860 Directory at 25 Union Street

1852 map of Bath.  I added the star at 25 Union Street.

On the road in Wales

This was not an ancestry road trip.  But if we find some ancestors along the way, we might as well stop, right? #genealogistmotto

Dru's dad's side of the family is from Wales and England.

Dru from LA
His dad Gary Hargreaves born in Canada
Gary's mom Mary Edith Jones born in Canada
Mary Edith's dad James Caradoc Jones born in Wales
James' parents William and Mary Frances Jones born in Wales

William Jones was a clergyman in the Church of England in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He served in a couple different areas in the north of Wales, not too far from Liverpool.  One town is called Brynford, Holywell.  He lived there with his wife and children for a few years around the turn of the century.  He later changed parishes and ended up passing away in the new location years later. Brynford must have been special to them because the family plots are here.

We came to visit.  Here is Dru at the grave of his great great grandparents.  The headstone is damaged and sadly not well maintained.

This is the church.  The grave is in the churchyard.

We caught the current rector as she was leaving.  Another church member, perhaps her assistant, offered to retrieve the burial records.  How nice!  These were in the Burial Register with records from 1917 on.

It is interesting that William Jones was a clergyman. That was a very good profession in those days. The job usually came with a home to live in called the vicarage. Each little town in England has one. One of the locations they lived in had 14 rooms. That's a lot even by today's standards!

Makes me wonder what kind of a person he was. Was he a spiritual person? Why did he become a clergyman? Did he always want to know God and the Bible? Did he see the difference between the Bible and what the church taught? How did he feel about that? Did he instill a love for God in his children?  Did Dru's family's values trickle down in some way from this Welsh family?

Genealogy Jackpot

The dilemma
Almost 7 years. I have been researching my family for 7 years. There was one name that I never touched.  My grandma's maiden name was Smith. The misconception is that such common names would yield so many search results that finding your relative is like finding a needle in a haystack.

The rationalization
Why should I even try? It's the road leading to frustration and disappointment. I have other family members to research anyway. Yeah.

The glutton for punishment
Ok I might as well take a look. Zero expectations.

The search
1. Starting point: My dad's mom's maiden name was Charlotte Ellen Smith. Her father's name was Charles Nelson Smith. That's all I know.
2. Hold on.  I remember receiving info about this family once. In an email, I found that Charles Nelson was born in Chatham Massachusetts and his father's name was Nelson. (Makes sense). And his middle initial was F.
3. Ok Ancestry.com, whatcha got? Don't fail me now. I entered in the above info and got a hit! Nelson F's father, born in the same town, was named Charles H. Smith (Makes sense). Yay! I just found my 3x great grandpa. There's the family in the Mass state census of 1865. Nelson F is 6 years old.

The joy
What else can I learn from this census?  What was Charles Smith's occupation?  My ancestors were usually shop keepers. I had no expectations, but maybe a mariner? I had to make sure I was reading this right...  Do you see it?

 "Light keeper".  Cue the inspirational music.  Charles H. Smith was the lighthouse keeper of Chatham Light on Cape Cod from 1862-1872. His children, including Nelson F, grew up in the light house quarters. I now need to know everything about this entire family, Chatham Light and their whole life. Stay tuned.


The lesson
Don't skip the Smiths! If you have other family names, dates or auxiliary details, you may find a genealogy jackpot.

He hath done what he could

Is genealogy just a compilation of facts? Plain data entry?  No.  If we read between the lines and put two and two together, sometimes we can gain insight into the personalities of our ancestors.  And today I'm darn proud of them.

Family member name: John O. Pearson

Relation: My 3rd great uncle

Huh?: My dad's dad's mom's dad's brother

John O. Pearson was entered into auxiliary census records.  They are called the Schedules of Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes.  Apparently, they weren't so concerned about political correctness in 1880.  Schedule Type: Idiots.  Horrible! Of course we know that word's usage has completely changed in the last one hundred years. But it still hurt my finger tips to even type it in and it hurts my eyes to read it. 

When I looked back at the "regular" US Census, this is what I saw.

What do we learn?

1. John O. Pearson was 25 years old, was living as a "Boarder", was single, not employed, and "idiotic".  (Cringe!)

2. He was living with his older brother Moses and his family.  This is heartwarming, for a few reasons.

• Their parents had died within the past 3 years.  From other documents, we learn that his mother was 47 when he was born.
• His brother could have sent him to some kind of asylum when his parents died, but instead took him in to his own family.
• It appears that Moses and family lived in the same home as Moses and John's parents, thus John continued to live in his childhood home, by the way his cousins lived next door.

Here is John's picture.

What do we learn?

1. He is no doubt mentally challenged.

2. The family cared enough about him to provide him with nice clothes

3. The family loved him enough to spend money and travel to have his picture professionally taken.

Last year when visiting John's hometown of Cumberland, Maine, I learned a couple more things after visiting his grave.

1. His headstone was the same size and in the same area as his parents and siblings.

2. No other family member has an epitaph except him.  It reads "He hath done what he could".

3. He was well-loved.

Headstones don't lie. Do they?

What would you conclude from this headstone?

James Alexander Hargreaves was married to Ellen G. - ok got it.
He died in 1950, she died in 1959. Ok got it.

So, that means that Ellen G. was buried with her husband 9 years after he died. Right?  And James was her "beloved husband" when she died, right?

I emailed the Union Cemetery management and asked for information regarding James Alexander Hargreaves.  They sent the picture and the background information.  Ellen G. Malcolm was buried with him. Malcolm? What happened to Ellen Hargreaves? 

That information prompted me to research more. We found Ellen's death certificate. When she died, her husband Isaac W. Malcolm, signed the certificate. 

Did any of the grandchildren know that their grandma was remarried about 6 years after James A. Hargreaves' death?

Do headstones lie?  Maybe not lie.  But mislead, yes.

William Williams

I'm on a frantic quest to find a castle.  There must be a castle somewhere in England or Wales that is related to Dru's family.  Yes, it's Hargreaves time!

After researching my side of the family for so long, I'm knee deep in Hargreaves and Jones (Dru's dad's mom's maiden name) genealogy.  I thought I was stuck, but then found that Dru's dad's mom's dad's mom's dad was named William Williams.  Wow!  That should be easy to find records.  Who names their kid with a duplicate name like that?  It must be unique.  So I thought.  How inexperienced I am in Welsh anything.

On just one town census in 1861, I found the following names.

* Not one, not two, not three, but seven William Williams
* 2 Robert Roberts
* 1 Evan Evans
* 2 Hugh Hughes
* 1 Owen Owens
* 1 Lewis Lewis

Therefore, I'm stuck again.