Something to doooo! Genealogy?

[digitS']

Nooooo!

I have about 5 non-genealogy books from the library. There is a chance that they will all go back - unfinished.

DW is on an end-of-the-year house cleaning trip today. I'll have to help or she will make me so nervous, I'll have to get the heck outta the house!

My dear Mormon cousin, one from 2 families in that denomination, sent me a nice long email. She talks about her genealogy research. I should respond . . .

So Lucky got me started on this! I thought about that picture, letter & story of my great grandmother that I shared on TEG in the fall of last year: Sylvia (link)

When I checked Google Maps several years ago, they showed me where Bancroft Missouri was. There's no town. On Streetview, I could see the little red Google marker off down a dirt road. There was evidence of a square foundation in the ground at the intersection of that road and the little farm-to-market that the camera guy drove down. This year, Google couldn't even show me that. . .

I found a historical map from 1916 and another from 1935. Shown are several dozen names of the property owners in several sections of the township. I decided to look carefully at the names even tho' my grandmother's family had left in 1895. Down near the bottom on both maps is the name Sarah M. Thompson. Sylvia was a Thompson!

Sylvia father had died when she was 12 leaving her mother with a house full of children, ages 3 to 21. The family moved, first to Kansas, then to Missouri. Sylvia and her husband, now the parents of several children, lived near St. Joseph, Missouri. The nearest town to their farm is now Gilman City. It is metropolis with less than 400 souls as recently as the last census.

Here is Bancroft Avenue in Gilman City these days maps.google.com.

If you place your your little Streetview guy on Bancroft Avenue and look west, you are looking over that corn field at Bancroft Prairie and, there in the distance - the Thompson land.

I will be able to find it on a Geological Survey map. I've already downloaded 2 and missed it both times! Between a Google map, the 1935 map (showing townships & ranges), a HomeTownLocator map (showing Pilot Grove Creek), and 1 of those USGS maps -- I have been looking at 4 maps at the same time this morning!!!

Further, I have found John & Caroline Thompson's headstone in the Gilman City Cemetery! Sylvia had a brother John but this John (born 1843) would be about 25 - 30 years older than Sylvia & her brother - an uncle?

I am thinking of all sorts of ways that I might check these things out! Nooooo!

I know that these people didn't want to be forgotten but . . . The last time I did something like this, I was fortunate enough to find distant relatives -- Sylvia's husband's sister's grandchildren . . . Supposedly, one was searching for information on his family. I caught up with him in India!!!!!! After he returned to the States and I had shared the location of the Idaho homestead with him, I never heard from him again!! His brother had no interest but his sister-in-law sent me some things that her daughter had gathered. This must have been nearly 10 years ago.

A good subject for bonding with my Mormon cousins? I . . . don't . . . know . . .

Steve

 

[so lucky]

There is a loosely knit organization that locates graves for people: if you kind/sorta know where an ancestor is buried, you can get someone to go there and look for the grave, and take a photo of it, I believe.
Of course, for still-cared-for cemeteries, there may be a registry or some such information.

Speaking of Mormons, My paternal grandmother always said we were related to Joseph Smith.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have some family history that was passed down from my dads side, there is documentation that seems accurate. That's according to my sister who has an investigative bent. There is a family history of sorts written on my moms side too, by one of her cousins. There are some glaring inaccuracies in that one. :/

I believe that a lot of family history can get so distorted as it gets passed along. Some people want their ancestors seen in the best light, or events get amplified or people credited with the wrong actions. The basics, like dates of birth, homesites and all of that can be verified usually, but the less concrete actions are lots of times romantic exaggerations. IMO anyhow.

Take my version of family history...things I heard growing up, or thought I heard, I've recently discovered were hugely inaccurate. Good thing I didn't write down this perspective to be passed along to my heirs! I could have been in the same boat as my moms cousin!

 

[digitS']

So Lucky! I'm blaming you if I get into this again!

Right now, I am planning on doing no more than turn over this tiny bit of info to my cousins and walk away.

I think my interests have little to do with names and dates. I even did the math wrong above. That John would only be 18 years older than Sylvia. Might be her brother.

It has gotta be more than names and dates. What were they doing? I'd be delighted to " see" something of there life.

I did find another map, 1898. Sarah's name was on that land then. Who was she? What relation was she to John & Carolyn & Sylvia?

Sherlock

 

[digitS']

I have "related" this before. I know some Fosters.

Think for a moment where that investigation is gonna go. And, how many are "fosters?" I bet we all have such in our trees .

Anything wrong with that? Couldn't possibly be.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Didn't want to sound negative about family history, I am interested
also in what these folks I'm related to were doing, and what their characters were. The second point can often be discovered by knowing the first point.

On the last visit to my parents, my mom gave me a pair of cream and sugar bowls that had belonged to my great grandma.
G. grama had brought these with her on the boat from Prussia when she was pregnant with my moms mom. The complete set were stored in a barrel, and kept in the cellar at their dry farm in Swan Valley ID.
My great grampa was looking for something in the barrels one day that he couldn't find, and was also in a foul mood, and he was just flinging great gramas dishes behind him as he dug through the barrel. My moms mom was able to rescue the cream and sugar bowls, and they are the only survivors of the entire set.

I love to pick them up and think of that tiny woman, packing her dishes up and moving to a new continent and country, eking
out a living in such hard times.

 

[digitS']

I got nuthin'. Oh, a paperback book of Mom's favorite comic (Family Circus) has sat on my dresser for almost 10 years now. It won't last many more years and couldn't mean much to anyone else .

Mom and Dad were not put together that way. Kind of too bad. Pictures are nice and they did a little of that but something like a picture from the 1870's - remarkable! Mom knew that lady and I knew Mom.

I wish something like that for all of you!

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

You know...when i was born all my greatgrands were alive. I'm 37, and the last one just passed away at 102, in October this year. I knew them all, except 2 who passed when i was a child, as well as most people know their grandparents. I used to think that was normal. I realize now that i'm pretty lucky.

I have some small family heirlooms. But i do wonder what will become of a lot of those family mementos over the next 20, 30, 40 years and more. Mom keeps trying to give me more - i keep resisting! My tiny house is full! I did bring another suitcase back to MT on my most recent trip to PA - some glass candy, cream and sugar bowls, a beautiful quilt grandma made, some wool blankets from the greatgrandparents house. It all has fond memories, but i have to be practical and ask DO I REALLY HAVE ROOM FOR THIS!! I dont know what the solution is...

 

[thistlebloom]

Heather do you have siblings? My opinion is to take what is offered.
20 years ago I was more pragmatic and less interested in family treasures, (which have little to no monetary value), but now mean so much more to me. There are certain small things I would have loved to have, had they been offered, but my mom did not like being asked for these things. Well, anything actually. When she finally volunteered a few things and asked if I wanted anything else I was too shy to speak up. Now that opportunity is gone, the sibling squatter in my parents home has given away and destroyed most or all of what was left.

 

[so lucky]

Heather do you have siblings? My opinion is to take what is offered.
20 years ago I was more pragmatic and less interested in family treasures, (which have little to no monetary value), but now mean so much more to me. There are certain small things I would have loved to have, had they been offered, but my mom did not like being asked for these things. Well, anything actually. When she finally volunteered a few things and asked if I wanted anything else I was too shy to speak up. Now that opportunity is gone, the sibling squatter in my parents home has given away and destroyed most or all of what was left.

I guess I should ask my kids if there is anything they are wanting "someday." My mom was pretty fair about making sure all the sibs got a few things they wanted, but when we were finally disposing of all that stuff, I was so tired of looking at most of it, and had little room in my house for more "stuff." One sibling got most of the stuff, but he & his wife seem to cherish family hand-me-downs more than the rest of us, so I guess it turned out best.