August 9, On This Day in My Family Tree

164 years ago in 1849 my 4th great grandmother Ædel Bergitte Hansdatter Friis died of typhoid and cholera in Norway, Racine County, Wisconsin at the age of 66. Her husband followed her a mere six days later of the same diseases. They had only been in America for just over a year before their deaths, having emigrated from the parish of Herad in Vest-Agder County, Norway. It's sad to think that came to America for a better life but had they not, they might have lived longer. They are both buried in Norway Lutheran Church Cemetery.

Ædel's name is spelled with a letter called "ash" which was common in Old English and is still found in alphabets of certain languages today, including Norwegian.

Source:

• Findagrave.com. "Aedell Bergitte Friis (1781 - 1849) - Find A Grave Memorial." 1886. Web. 3 Aug 2013. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36869971>.

August 3, On This Day in My Family Tree

130 years ago in 1883, my great grandfather Chester Harold Godshall (Senior) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the third child of five and the first born son of William Henry Godshall and Idella Williams.

There's a number of surviving photos of Chester, who went by Harold. But I chose an informal snapshot, with a woman I think might be one of his sisters, because he looks like he's goofing around and enjoying himself. His formal portraits always make him look bored or annoyed (perhaps he was).


Sources:

• "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Births, 1860-1906," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VB11-5DS), Chester H. Godshall, 1883.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Chester Harold Godshall.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Chester Harold Godshall.

August 1, On This Day in my Family Tree

Originally the Fever Ward of Oldham
Union Workhouse.

144 years ago in 1861, my 4th great grandfather John Fallows Sr. died at the age of 73 in Oldham, England. A farmer and laborer his whole life, he died penniless in the Oldham Union Workhouse, a place where people who could not support themselves due to poverty, age, or incompetence could find shelter, food, and work. Many workhouses later became hospitals and in particular, Oldham Union Workhouse is now Royal Oldham Hospital.

To the left is a Google Street image of what was originally the Fever Ward of Oldham Union Workhouse, now the Breast Care Unit of Royal Oldham Hospital. Though John Fallows may not have resided in the Fever Ward, it's an example of the architecture at the time.

Sources:

• Death Certificate of: John Fallows. Filed 31 August 1896. General Register Office. Oldham, Lancashire, Vol 8d, p395. Informant: George Milne, Master of Union Workhouse.

July 27, On This Day in My Family Tree...

253 years ago in 1760, my 6th great grandparents Jeremias Friis and Karina Nielsdatter were married in Herad, Vest-Agder County, Norway. Karina was 30 years old and Jeremias was 46. They had only one known child before Jeremias, a sailor, was lost at sea. To the right is the current church in Herad.

July 21, On This Day in My Family Tree

140 years ago in 1873, my second great grandfather, Edward William Bauer, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Allegheny was later annexed into Pittsburgh. Edward death date is unknown. It was originally thought he died in 1921 but this turned out to be a different Edward William Bauer who was born in 1867 and never married. "My" Edward can be found on the 1940 census living in West Virginia with his daughter and her husband so he probably died here. Though he can't be found on the West Virginia death index, it only goes up to 1969 for the county he was living in which suggests he died sometime after 1969. This would have made him at least 96 when he died.

July 20, On This Day in My Family Tree

Marriage record for my 4th great
grandparents from the parish of
Herad in Norway.

253 years ago in 1805, my fourth great grandparents Jeremias Frederick Hanson Friis and Ædel Bergitte Hansdatter were married in the parish of Herad, Vest-Agder County, Norway. He was 20 years old and she was 23. They resided on the Fulland farm until they moved to America in 1848 and both died a year later within a week of each other in Norway Township, Racine County, Wisconsin of Cholera.

July 15, On This Day in My Family Tree

199 years ago in 1814, my 5th great grandfather John Johnson Godshalk died at the age of 76 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Doylestown Mennonite Cemetery. He was a Revolutionary War Veteran despite being a Mennonite, a pacifist religion. Entering the militia went against the traditional beliefs of his religion but some Mennonites joined anyway while others supported the cause by donating money, food and other supplies. Others still entirely refused to support either side.

Sources:

• Findagrave.com (1856). John Johnson Godshalk (1737 - 1814) - Find A Grave Memorial. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=55384087 [Accessed: 13 Jul 2013].
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Image 140 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

July 10, On This Day in My Family Tree

207 years ago in 1806, my 4th great grandfather William G. McBride was born in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. 

Sources:

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915 about William Mc Bride. Ancestry.com
• "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VK8M-6Q6 : accessed 09 Jul 2013), William Mcbride, 1876.
• Headstone: William G. McBride. Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

July 8, On This Day in My Family Tree

On this day in my family tree . . .

229 years ago in 1784, my fourth great grandfather Charles Gilbert (Sr.) was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

And . . .

122 years ago in 1891, my fourth great grandmother Mary Ann Rorer died in Montgomery County at the age of 98. She was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Mount Airy. Her maiden name is unknown, her husband was George Rorer II.

Sources:

• Headstone: Charles Gilbert. First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Flourtown, Pennsylvania. 
• Headstone: Mary Ann Rorer. Ivy Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915 about Mary A Rorer. Ancestry.com. 

July 7, On This Day in My Family Tree

William Henry Mills

On this day in my family tree . . .

158 years ago in 1855 my third great grandparents William Henry Mills and Emma Elizabeth Sherwood were married in Wyandot County, Ohio. He was 22 years old and she was 17, though she claimed to be over 18. They were married in a state which neither of them were born in and which they were not living in 5 years later in 1860. Between that and Emma lying about her age, is it possible they eloped? Perhaps because one or both of their parents disapproved of the marriage?

And . . .

Emma Elizabeth
Sherwood

159 years ago in 1854, my 2nd great grand uncle Jeremias Frederick Friis was born in Racine County, Wisconsin. He was actually the second son to be given this name, the first died only a few months old. It was quite common among Norwegian families such as the Friis' to name a child after a deceased one, especially considering it was a family name as it was also name of Jeremias' grandfather.

Sources:

• "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X865-2ZN : accessed 07 Jul 2013), Wm H Mills and Emma E Sherwood, 1855.

July 4, On This Day in My Family Tree

Happy Independence Day! What were your ancestors doing during the Revolutionary War? My Godshall and allied families branch were Mennonites who, as pacifists, did not support the war and took a nonresistant stance, which basically meant they did not support either side. When states began mandating “militia duty”, numerous nonresistant Christians, including Mennonites, Quakers, Moravians and German Baptists, refused involvement and so Pennsylvania applied a war tax on them. Many still refused to pay stating that they “find no freedom in giving, or doing, or assisting in anything by which men's lives are destroyed or hurt.” In some cases their property was confiscated to pay the tax.

However, not all Mennonites took this position and some who supported the cause in one way or another were excommunicated, such as Christian Funk and his followers. Funk was a Reverend who preached that Mennonites should be donating to the cause because he felt independence from British rule would allow them more religious freedom. He is my 1st cousin, 7 times removed so I am not descended from him but I am descended from his uncle, Christian Moyer (or Meyer) II. Christian was one of the founders of the Salford Mennonite Meetinghouse in Harleysville, PA and served there as a Deacon. He was involved in the decision to excommunicate his nephew and it must have put great strain on the Moyer and Funk families, who had formerly been very close.

My grandparents sharing a
romantic kiss for the camera

To read more on this (and view citations), see my history of Moyer/Meyer family.

I told this all to my husband but he burst out laughing when he heard "Christian Funk" because it sounded like a genre of music to him. His exact words were "All I heard in that was WW FM 103, home of the Christian Funk." Har har.

And more specifically to the date, happy anniversary to my late maternal grandparents, who were married on this day 68 years ago at Grace Lutheran Church in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. My grandfather was 29 years old and my grandmother was 27, although it was a first marriage for both.

I thought the photograph of them to the left was an appropriate one for their wedding anniversary.

July 2, On This Day in My Family Tree

On this day in my family tree . . .

Death/burial record of Inger Simonsdatter Bomen (later Narum)
from the parish in Gjerpen, Norway.

119 years ago in 1894, my 4th great grandfather James Frantz died in Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio at the age of 77.

And . . .

92 years ago in 1921, my great grand aunt Ruth Springer Pike was born in Columbiana County, Ohio. 

And . . .

182 years ago in 1831, my 5th great grandmother Inger Simonsdatter Bomen died in Gjerpen, Telemark County, Norway at the age of 58. (Document shown adove). Gjerpen has since been annexed into Skien.

Sources:

• "Ohio, Deaths and Burials, 1854-1997," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F6XB-XJD : accessed 29 Jun 2013), James Frantz, 02 Jul 1894.
• Findagrave.com (1894). James Frantz (1816 - 1894) - Find A Grave Memorial. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr [Accessed: 29 Jun 2013].
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011. Ruth S. John.
• Ancestry.com and Ohio Department of Health. Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Ruth S John.
• Ancestry.com. U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 1 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Ruth S John.
• Norwegian Digital Archives. Death and burial records 1829 - 1834, Gjerpen Parish, Telemark. Inger Simonsdatter Narum, Page 238. http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read?idx_id=1366

June 27, On This Day in My Family Tree...

I know I have been remiss in posting so I've come up with another feature which will detail events from my family tree that occurred on the same day as the post, however many years ago. I got this idea when it dawned on me that on December 7th of this year, my 2nd great grandmother died exactly 100 years ago. I don't think there's enough events in my tree to have each one be a milestone anniversary, like precisely 100 years, but I thought it'd be interesting nonetheless.

If you're interested in doing something like this yourself, I used FTM 2012 to create a calendar, including everyone in my tree. Just go to the "publish" tab and under "other" there will be the option for a calendar. On the right, under the options, choose "All Individuals". Also be sure to click the first icon in the toolbar row, shown to the left. Here you can customize what gets included (shown below) but I was a little disappoint that I didn't get the option to include any fact like I can with other reports. Only BMD gets included, I guess because they think those are the common anniversaries that people celebrate or mark. It's a shame they couldn't think of any other use one might have for a calendar, like this one! I would have liked to include facts like military enlistment, baptism, burials, immigration, etc. I wish FTM would add a feature that would basically be like a timeline of all the events in my tree. It's worth noting there is a Timeline Report but it's under "Person Reports" and is therefore only a timeline for one person. I realize a timeline of every event from every individual in a tree would be a lot of data but what use is a genealogy management program if it can't process a lot of data, right?

But I digress. The options you do have are things like how many months to include, whether to list people's ages or how many years it's been since that event, whether to use married names for females, etc. These are all up to you. The important ones that you make sure are UNticked are "Include births and marriages only if still living" and "Exclude marriage anniversaries if relationship status is "deceased". If you leave these ticked, you'll only get results for people still living.

You may wind up with a calendar full of names you can't remember, which is why I'll be looking up each person and getting more details of the event - but the calendar provides a quick and easy reference for finding what happened "on this day in my family tree".

So, on this day in my family tree . . .

118 years ago in 1872, my 3rd great grandfather Wilson S. Ramsey married his third wife Laura S. Vincent in Columbiana County, Ohio. His first wife, Susan Frantz, was my 3rd great grandmother.

And . . .

53 years ago in 1960, my 2nd great grand aunt (the sister of my 2nd great grandfather) Mary Louise Pike died in Ohio. She had never married.