Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends and to any who find this blog.
I am thankful for my family, my wonderful husband and great kids daughter 17 and son 15.
I am also thankful for my sweet mother, she is 84 this year. We cook dinner and take it to her house, she can't get into my house because of the steps. We don't have a big crowd just my family, my mom and my brother his wife and son.
I wish I knew more about what our ancestors might have done for Thanksgiving dinner. Growing up we spent Thanksgiving with my mom's mother and father, they lived next door.
My grandfather's mother (Sallie Ziegler) lived to be 98 years old and she and my great aunt (Christan Ziegler) always came over and ate with us. Sometimes my uncle, his wife and daughter came, most of the time they spent Thanksgiving with my aunt's family. We spent Thanksgiving with my mom's family and Christmas with my Dad's family.
My husband said they always had a crowd 5 kids and their mom and dad, sometimes they brought over their grandmother Brumley.
I am also thankful for meeting wonderful people on the Internet who have been so kind to share the information they have.
Happy Thanksgiving 2008!!

Brumley's Then and Now

When I did yesterday's post I remembered these
two pictures and how much fun it was to discover
the family resemblance.

A couple of years ago we had the chance to get a copy of a picture of my husband's father when he was a small boy. We never knew that our son looked like his grandfather Brumley until we got this picture.

My son has blue eyes and his grandfather had brown eyes.

Grandfather taken about 1928
My son taken about 1995

It is always fun to look at old family pictures and

see who looks like their ancestors.

Brumley Pictures

The lady who e-mailed me the Brumley pictures also sent a picture of a baby who she didn't know. She asked if we knew this baby, she wasn't even sure if it was a Brumley or not. I guess a part of me would like to think it was a picture of George Paul Brumley's brother Hill Brumley who died as a small child. Maybe someone will know who this baby is or something about the small pictures beside the baby.

Disappointments

I don't want to give the impression that every thing you check out will lead to wonderful information on your family. There are disappointments, you write or e-mail someone and never hear back from them. Sometimes the e-mail is no longer being used. The information you found is no longer there or now you must be a member to see the information. Always try to save and print your finds.
Once a lady had asked about a house that her uncle Woodrow Benton lived in. I knew from the things she said that this was the same Woodrow Benton that was married to Martha. She was related to my mother. My mother has a picture of this house. I tried to e-mail the picture to the lady but it came back. I was so sorry that I didn't get to share this with the lady.
Another disappointment can be when you think you have found an ancestor. Then you check with the person that posted the information and find that this is not your ancestor.
Keep working, don't let the disappointments get you down. The good information that you find more than makes up for the disappointments.

The Thurber, Texas Story

I remember hearing my grandmother (Mama Kelley) talking about living in Texas when she was a young girl. Oh how I wish I could remember the stories. I asked Donna (the Newby cousin I found) if she knew where they lived in Texas. She send me some information and a link on Thurber, Texas. www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/print/TT/hnt21.html

Thurber, Texas is a ghost town now but at one time was a thriving town. A company town, a coal mining town with a fascinating story. I found they had a cemetery and looked it up on findagrave.com. There is a memorial for the unmarked graves there. I e-mailed a man from the Thurber, Texas site and asked if there was a list on line of the names on the memorial. I gave him last names from the family that might have been in Thurber, Newby and Woodley or Woodlee ( Lydia Newby's maiden name was Woodley or Woodlee) she had a brother in Texas. The man e-mail me back with some Woodley's that were buried there. I don't really know much about the Woodley's but will file this information away.

To me this is interesting. What was Thurber like during the late 1800's when my grandmother lived there as a young girl. Her father David Henry Newby was a coal miner and that is probably what took them to Thurber. Why did they move back to north Georgia? David H. Newby's father was also a coal miner. Who knows maybe K. H. Newby died in a coal mining accident.
Coal mining was a very important part of our country's history as well as our family history.

I was so interested I asked for a book about Thurber, Tx. for Christmas. Ok I ordered it for my husband to give me. I promise I haven't read it yet.

Christmas background

Well I thought I would try adding a new background. I know I jumped ahead to Christmas. I liked this background, kinda old fashioned and the Families are forever fits with a genealogy blog.

Findagrave.com

A wonderful site I recently found is findagrave.com You can search by name or by cemetery. You may be surprised as I was that some of your family is already on the site. You can add your family members information, photo of their grave or their photo. I have added pictures for some that were already on the site and added memorials for others.The only bad thing is that I usually end up resizing the pictures before I can add them.
I found my uncle Eugene D. Kelly already on the site. He was killed during WWII and is buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery. I added a picture of the family the last time they were all together. An interesting thing about Eugene is that his name on many records is Kelly. The rest of the family spelled it Kelley, in fact got upset when it was not spelled right. Maybe Eugene just gave up getting people to spell it correctly.
I e-mailed a lady who had added a memorial for one of my ancestors. She was a distant cousin in the Long family (which I knew almost nothing about). She shared pictures and information on the Long family. It is always great to find new information on your ancestors.
My hope in adding information on this site is that someone in the future will be searching for information on these people and find this site. I know that my great aunt's grandchildren live in Arizonia they or their children my not know where their grandparents -great grandparents are buried. Maybe some day they will find this and be glad to find a picture of their grave.

Newby Family

At this point I guess I should say a little about the Newby family. My grandmother (Mama Kelley) was a Newby, Fay I. Newby. Her mother and father Olivia Jane (Jennie ) and David H. Newby are buried at the Chattanooga Valley Cemetery. Also buried there is Lydia Newby mother of David H. Newby.

My Aunt Betty told me a very interesting story about Lydia Newby's gravestone. It has her name and two other names Martha Burdick and Tom Newby. Aunt Betty said they were Lydia's daughter and son. They lived out west. Martha in Denver and Tom in Montana. When they died they were cremated. They died in the the 30's and their mother died in 1924. I'm not sure who had the ashes but Aunt Betty said she and Lydia (not sure if she meant her sister Lydia or her Aunt Lydia) had the ashes buried there and had a marker put down with all three names.

New people

It is always great to find new people to share your genealogy with. I found a cousin, we are both searching for our Great Great grandfather Newby. Donna's father and my father were first cousins. We have shared the information we have on King H. Newby, but feel we have hit a brick wall. King H. Newby just doesn't want to be found. Someday, maybe we will find his parents, when he died and where he is buried.

Brumley pictures

Another favorite genealogy story was finding pictures of my husband's family. One day I was searching around for more information on the Brumley family. To my surprise I found a lady who said she had pictures that had belonged to Geraldine Brumley (my husband's grandfather Brumley had a half sister named Geraldine. I couldn't believe my eyes. I sent an e-mail to her and waited for a reply, her posting had been from a couple of years before. She e-mailed me and sent pictures of the family which we didn't have. One was of Rebecca Brumley another half sister to George Paul Brumley.The group of people in front of the house is only labeled Brumley home Marion Co. Tennessee. The large group of people says front row Geraldine, Harry, Mabel and Allen, don't know the back row.

The other group is Harry, Dew, Paul, John and Becky. We were sure this was the right family because we had seen pictures of George Paul Brumley. Even if the posting you find is an old one always try to contact the person, you may be VERY HAPPY you did.

Girton Family

I'm not sure if the first posting is clear J. L. Girton born in England is Joseph L. Girton who was the father of John Lee Girton. Joseph Girton moved to Winchester, Tn at some point. Married again and had more children.
Mary Powell Girton died in Wisconsin she is buried in the Sandusky Village Cemetery (United Brethren Cemetery) Washington Township, Sauk Co. Wisconsin. She is buried next to her father and mother Joseph and Esther Powell.
http://www.interment.net/data/us/wi/sauk/sandusky/village.htm
I also found pictures of their markers. http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/cemetery/sauk-washingtontwp-sanduskyunitedbrotherhood.htm
The death of John L Girton was an interesting find. The obituary says John L. Girton Dies Suddenly on Train
John L. Girton, 55, 1801 Ringgold Road, baggage master on the Southern railroad, died suddenly yesterday moning near Tuscaloosa, Ala., while enroute to Chattanooga.
Mr. Girton was on the baggage car when he was stricken. The cause of his death was said to be acute indigestion.
Mr. Girton had been an employee of the Southern railway for twenty-seven years.
His body was brought to Chattanooga last night and was taken to Wann's .
He attended the Ridgedale M.E. church, south, and was a member of the Ridgedale Masonic lodge and the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen. Surviving are his widow and four daughters, Mrs. Paul Brumley, Mrs. W. J. Gill and Misses Hazel and Helen Girton. Other survivors include a sister Mrs. Laura Lavan; four brothers, Fred, Charles, and Roscoe, all of Winchester, Tn. and Joe Girton this city and two grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Brumley.
I know some would say so what you found this. It doesn't make a difference in your life, but it is pretty neat that you know who your (or in this case my husband's) ancestors were, where they were from and something about them.

Girton Family

All we knew about my husband's great grandfather Girton was his last name. The main reason we knew this was that it was his father's middle name. We knew that great grandmother Girton was a Cooke or Cook before she married.
On the Chattanooga Hamilton County Bicentennial Library website I checked the Obituary database. I found a Mabel Cooke Girton. Then I found a Mabel Girton on the 1910 Census with husband J.L. Girton, children Elizabeth, Helen, Hazel, and Louise. I found them again in the 1920 Census with his name listed as John L. Girton same wife and children. This had to be them since all the children's names matched. He was born in Wisconsin.
I then went to the 1880 Census in Wisconsin and found John Girton living with grandmother (Mary Lee). He was the right age 5 but I also found Joseph and Mary Girton in Wisconsin with children Jane, William, John. It looks like John lived with his grandmother part time and was counted twice.
At http://www.rootsweb.com/~wisauk/Reedsburg82.htm I found the following information.
J. L. GIRTON, for many years an implement dealer of North Freedom was born in Lincolnshire, England and came with his parents to America in 1850, locating in New York. From there the family went to Michigan, thence to Walworth County, Wisconsin, and in 1856 came to Sauk County. L. G. GIRTON married Miss Mary E. POWELL, a native of Lockport, New York.

I also found the following.http://www.rootsweb.com/~wisauk/qrybio003.htm#1135
J. L. Girton, dealer in agricultural implements, organs and sewing machines, North Freedom; he was born in Lincolnshire, England, July 13, 1848; came to America with his parents in 1850, and located in New York, then moved to Michigan, where his father died; then the mother and family moved to Walworth Co., Wis., in 1852 and September, 1856, moved to Sauk Co.; in the spring of 1877, Mr. Girton was elected Justice of the Peace; re-elected to a second term 1879. He was married Oct. 11, 1869, to Miss Mary E. Powell; she was born in Lockport, N. Y., Sept. 29, 1848; they have four children-Mary J., William R., John L. and an infant not named. Mrs. Girton is a member of the Latter Day Saints; in politics, Mr. Girton is a Republican.Contributed by Linda Wright
I found another lady on the internet who was researching the Girton family who shared lots of information on the family. Mary married a man named John Lee in Wisconsin. She also said that Joseph and Mary Powell divorced. Mary Powell Girton died in 1886 in Wisconsin.
I have more to share later.

Cemetery Album

Sound crazy? I found myself many times searching through albums looking for a cemetery photo. A cemetery album is a great way to keep up with your tombstone pictures. Take a picture of the cemetery sign, write out directions to the cemetery, pictures of markers and you have it all together.


The album I use is not expensive, it was $5.99 and hold 200 4x6 photos. It also has a space to write comments beside each photo. The space for comments is wonderful because the information on the marker is not always correct.



When saving digital photos make a folder for each cemetery.

Pictures

Who are these people?

Pictures are very important to a complete family history. I've tried to get pictures of people, houses they lived in and even their graves. A tip a great aunt gave me when I was a teenager is still very true "Always record the names of the people in the pictures." Many of my grandmothers pictures had no names. Even she didn't remember who some were after she got older. I have tried to record the names of the ones my mother knows but she doesn't know many of them.

Don''t forget to record the names of people when you put pictures on the computer.

Genealogy

Genealogy has always been of interest to me. It takes many years of hard work to become an experienced researcher, which I will never be. Don't be discouraged if you are interested in genealogy work on it when you can. It is a great hobby. Don't feel that you can't get into genealogy because you don't have the money to become a member somewhere. I 'm sure it is great if you are but not required to do genealogy research. There are lots of sites where you can get information for free. You don't even have to leave your home.

My First Try!!

I'm not sure what I'm doing. My husband's niece has a blog and I have enjoyed keeping up with her family through the blog. Then my husband said I needed a blog for my genealogy. I'm not a good writer and not an expert on Genealogy. I decided if I could come up with some things to write about I would set up a blog. I came up with about 20 things to write about. So here I am.

Before I could finish with the set up I had computer problems. I signed in and now I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing. So much for the easy 5 minute set up! Maybe I should delete and start over.

There are some very interesting stories in our families. Here is my attempt to record some of them.