Oroboros, free image courtesy of Magnific.com Oroboros, or: Haven't I been here before? The value and danger of digging into FAN club members who are part of an "allied family" and part of the pioneer generation of settlers, is finding the same names over and over. Sisters marry brothers, people marry spouses of their same surname or their mother's surname, and occasionally first or second cousins. I  became dizzy as the tree filled. I imagine the snake in the ancient symbol above is feeling woozy too. F amily, Friends,  A ssociates & N eighbors sometimes play all three roles in the early generations and rural locations. Lately, my first action when looking at a census record is to open the index and scan the neighbors, before looking at the person and their family in the image. When I've researched more deeply into their history, another look at the index reveals even more, as future spouses lurk nearby.  Moving back to an earlier generation reveals more ...

Back in the late 80’s when I was first starting to do family history, I had a burial mystery that I couldn’t figure out. It began start with my parents, then grandparents. Nothing seemed right with my maternal grandmother’s burial, and I had a mystery around my maternal grandfather’s death, as he seemed to have died young, and I didn’t know how, and nobody talked about it. I found out that he had committed suicide, which was why nobody talked about it, but why had he done it? At the time I didn’t realize how they tied together. This is the story of the death and burial of my maternal grandparents, William and Augusta ‘Gusty’ Westphal. By early 1932 Augusta had been having health problems for about year and had an operation for gall bladder and appendicitis, but did not to survive the operation. Shortly after, on Saturday, March 26, 1932, she passed away at the age of 51 years, 1 month and 17 days. She would be buried three days later on March 29 at Saint Paul's Lutheran Church Ceme...

Mob tars and feathers revenue agent during Whiskey Rebellion 1794 Down the Rabbit Hole I don’t know what gave me the initial thought, whether it was the word "revenuers" or the Whisky Rebellion, let’s just say that one or the other led me down a very interesting rabbit hole. The Whiskey Rebellion was one of the first challenges for our young nation to face. It occurred in western Pennsylvania in 1794 when the farmers there had difficulties transporting their crops across the Allegheny mountains. It was much easier to distill their grains, producing whiskey that could be transported over the mountains. Eastern distillers, who produced much more whiskey did not like competition that the western distillers presented.  At the same time our young United States government needed money. So Alexander Hamilton As the first Secretary of the Treasury, attached a tax to whiskey. The tax on the western farmers was higher than that charged to the eastern distillers. Needless to say, people...

kellytf via pixabay.com: Public Domain Have you ever discovered something shocking in your research? I've found terrible tragedies, murders, accidents, and such, but not often something that blindsided—jolted me physically. To be "blindsided" means to be caught completely off guard by an unexpected event, particularly one that is harmful, distressing, or leaves you unprepared to react, according to Dictionary.com. Google adds that the term originated in sports like football—referring to a blindside tackle, a hit delivered from outside a player's field of vision. I shouldn't have been shocked to find Alexander Hamilton (not the famous one) in this place and time as a slaveholder, or to see his name in the 1850 Slave Schedule in Grainger County, Tennessee. But my research there so far had turned up little evidence of slaveholding, so I'd neglected to seek out those records. I'm not alone—few other researchers on Ancestry, FamilySearch, or WikiTree had li...

Dorothea-Lange-Florence-Thompson-and-her-children-in-a-pea-pickers-camp.- Nipomo-California.-March-1936; courtesy of PBS Until you begin the hunt, you never know what you'll find . When I began a research report for my great-grandmother, Nancy Jane Booth, (my mother's father's mother) I thought that I knew all about her from previous research. So I was shocked to see a Newspapers.com hint about a Sheriff's sale in Hugoton, Kansas. I knew that they had briefly lived there with their daughter's family, but had no clue they ever owned property there. The text isn't that interesting, but the details matter, so here is a transcription: (First published June 29, 1917) Notice of Sheriff's Sale Notice is hereby given, that in pursuance of an Order of Sale issued out of the District Court of Stevens County, Kansas, on the 13th day of June, 1917, an action wherein J.D. Newcomer Company, a corporation, is plaintiff, and Samuel McBee and Nancy McBee his wife, are defend...

Probably a Seattle Middle School--June, 1954 When a picture speaks a thousand words, are you listening?  Are you following the obvious pathways as well as the subtle hints that whisper in the shadows? Recently, SKCGS received a large box of photographs that had been stored in a shed beyond the demise of the people in the photos. We have taken on the task of sorting and identifying snapshots and looking for people who are researching the families involved. Do you love solving mysteries? We're looking for volunteers; write to resources@skcgs.org with your offer of help. Some of the photos are beyond snapshots.  The image above is obviously a school photo; a stamp on the back is for the Perkins Studio, 507 North 68th St., Seattle 3, WA. There is nothing that tells us which school it is so we have to put on our observation hats to try to solve the mystery. Stamp on back of the photo "June 1954" is written in white in the lower right corner of the photo.  In the lower left c...