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Genealogy Gains
Sep. 19th, 2023 03:52 pmHubs ventured into the office last week because his American co-workers were visiting and, to say the least, they brought with them interesting germs that challenged his immune system. I tried avoiding it, but alas...at least it's not COVID.
I can barely think but I can work on my family tree. One of the things I love about Ancestry is how timelines of your ancestors lives are automagically put together and it challenges a lot of my assumptions about the past. For example, I knew my great-grand aunt (my great-grandmother's sister) was the second wife of a particularly well-known man, let's call them R and C. C's first wife died in 1937 and together they had seven boys, wow! But the timeline made my eyes pop because my great-grand aunt, who was a single mother, was 32 when she married C and he was 63. No judging, but I always assumed they were closer in age.
I dove into clippings about the seven boys and the clippings paint a picture of a very athletic, community-focused family until World War 2, when five of the boys were old enough to serve. I can't find much on the youngest brother, just that he was married, had children (marked private in Ancestry because they're still alive) and died. Who were you Melvin??? *shakes computer monitor*
The vital statistics department also got back to me fairly quickly and for $10 I now have my grandparents and great-grandparents marriage certificates. I laughed; my grandfather got his mother's middle name close, but wrong. Granny was only 18 when they married in 1941! She worked at a meatpacking plant and her husband's occupation is listed as soldier.
Now my great-grandparents...I got a lot of info for my $5! My great-grandfather's parents were named Peter and Anna and he hailed from the village of Zarubintsy, Ukraine, or Galicia as the certificate reads. Galicia no longer exists in the administrative sense. My great-grandmother was marked as a widow when they married in 1922. I wrote back to the vital statistics department to see if they can locate her first marriage certificate.
What else will I find in the future? All I can hope is future relatives appreciate my efforts :-)
I can barely think but I can work on my family tree. One of the things I love about Ancestry is how timelines of your ancestors lives are automagically put together and it challenges a lot of my assumptions about the past. For example, I knew my great-grand aunt (my great-grandmother's sister) was the second wife of a particularly well-known man, let's call them R and C. C's first wife died in 1937 and together they had seven boys, wow! But the timeline made my eyes pop because my great-grand aunt, who was a single mother, was 32 when she married C and he was 63. No judging, but I always assumed they were closer in age.
I dove into clippings about the seven boys and the clippings paint a picture of a very athletic, community-focused family until World War 2, when five of the boys were old enough to serve. I can't find much on the youngest brother, just that he was married, had children (marked private in Ancestry because they're still alive) and died. Who were you Melvin??? *shakes computer monitor*
The vital statistics department also got back to me fairly quickly and for $10 I now have my grandparents and great-grandparents marriage certificates. I laughed; my grandfather got his mother's middle name close, but wrong. Granny was only 18 when they married in 1941! She worked at a meatpacking plant and her husband's occupation is listed as soldier.
Now my great-grandparents...I got a lot of info for my $5! My great-grandfather's parents were named Peter and Anna and he hailed from the village of Zarubintsy, Ukraine, or Galicia as the certificate reads. Galicia no longer exists in the administrative sense. My great-grandmother was marked as a widow when they married in 1922. I wrote back to the vital statistics department to see if they can locate her first marriage certificate.
What else will I find in the future? All I can hope is future relatives appreciate my efforts :-)
