Making progress on my Genealogy Do-Over

I have been working on my do-over since 2015.  After 2 years and a few months, I have accomplished two very important goals.  I had an overwhelming amount of digital information that needed to be logged and added to my rootsmagic tree.  I am very please that I have complete not only 1 surname, but 2 surnames (out of four).  I'm still working on the remaining files but I also still have a lot of paper not digitized at all.  So sorting and scanning is still in the future.  But I am very pleased with my progress!  

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 3

We ended up getting three test kits from 23 & me.  One for my husband, one for my father and one for his wife, who does not know a lot about her biological father and was interested in seeing where she fit in.  Waiting for results can be painful and my father's results took a week or so longer than the other two.  But I was super surprised at the outcome. I seriously consider that the result may have been mixed up with another client.

Seriously???  29.8 % Scandinavian??  And my father wasn't fazed by this at all.  I personally had a bit of a identity crisis.  All my life, I was told "You are Dutch" and now I find out that I'm more Scandinavian?  What is up with this!

But since my father didn't panic, I am just going to keep looking into the dutch lines and see if I can find a Scandinavian transplant.  Because it turns out that a number of Scandinavians did migrate to the Netherlands and took dutch names.

Challenge excepted.

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 2

Time went fast because of all the holiday stuff.  But when January hit, I was ready to see the results!
(We only had to wait until February.)  My mother's result were significantly different from her brother's.  I knew they wouldn't be the same (not twins) but my mother's largest percentage (75%) was for Europe West. For the same region, my uncle's percentage was 36%.  What!?

This really opens up more questions that I expected.  I have done research on my mother's ancestor's but not much past 1830.  And all of them were from the Europe West region (Dutch/Bentheim) originally. But how does my uncle's results fit into the picture?  And who was born in England and moved to the Netherlands?

So this made me very interested in seeing my father's results.  Maybe I'm not as Dutch as I thought.  Luckily, my husband was open to getting a test for himself and my father.  But I decided to try 23&me instead to see how the two sites compared.

Jumping on the DNA bandwagon pt. 1

So it's not that I don't have any interest in DNA, because I am, but rather not sure how it would contribute to moving my family tree back farther.  Plus the $$ output could get out of hand if you are testing everyone with every kind of test.

But it started Thanksgiving 2016.  My mother's youngest brother had results back from his DNA test.  (His wife had done one also, so thanks to her!)  It was interesting because he was a real mix of European with the largest (put not over 50%) percentage actually British rather than Netherlands.  This does make sense because his surname isn't very Dutch. (Naber = German, British, etc.)  This got my mother very interested to do a test as well.  So she ordered one and sent it out right away.   [They both used AncestryDNA.]  Then we just had to wait for the results.

Blue Willow Love

I always have liked the blue willow pattern.  No, I didn't grow up with it in my house and I don't
remember any of my grandparents having it either.  I did have a friend in grade school whose parents owned a nice house (at least it was to me) and had a beautiful side board with china.  I think that is where I saw it and remembered it in part of my mind.

When I really look at the pattern now, I like the boarder with the geometric shapes and the two birds flying free plus the bright blue color (that's the dutch side).  I also have a fondness for willow trees.  We had two in our yard as a child that we used for swings and they were beautiful.  But there were many things I never noticed about it also.  I never looked at the buildings and thought China or saw the three men charging over the bridge.

I bring this up now because we are moving stuff out of my father-in-law's house due to a move to a different state.  I kept on coming across pieces of the blue willow here and there, a lot of it damaged.  Then there was a WHOLE box full of it.  It was covered in dust and a few pieces cracked but still beautiful.

Out of all the different patterns and types of china we are uncovering, this one seems unloved and unappreciated, even though someone else must have loved it too, at one time.  I think it is time that it was loved and had some tender care.  And hopefully my children will love and care for it as well.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Great Grandparents #1

Ira W and Phebe (Flint) Green were married June 1849 in New York.  They had three sons together, the oldest one was born in New York and the younger two were born in Michigan.  Ira was born November 17, 1823 in Duanesburg, New York and died April 20, 1872 in Sidney, Michigan at the age of 48.  Phebe Flint was born in 1829 in New York and died April 13, 1872 in Evergreen, Michigan at the age of 43.  I have not found the cemetery where they are buried yet.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Great-Grandparents #1

Clark and Jennie Green are buried in the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Boyne City Michigan.  Clark V. Green was born March 19, 1859 in Kalamo Township, Michigan and died June 8, 1930 in Marquette, Michigan.  Jennie Kidder was born December 10, 1859 in Irondale, Missouri and died January 12, 1934 in Boyne City, Michigan.  They were married July 3 or 4 in 1886 and had three sons together.  Clark was well known in the lumber industry as a young man but died in prison.  Jennie was a gifted midwife in the Boyne City area.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Grandparents #2

Duncan and Ida Livingston are buried in Maple Lawn Cemetery in Boyne City.  Duncan was born in 1857 in Scotland and Ida May Cook was born in 1884 in Petoskey.  They were married in 1901 in Charlevoix, Michigan.  They had 9 children together.  Duncan died in 1945 in Boyne City.  Ida remarried in 1948 to James Johnston.  Ida died in 1970 in Petoskey, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Great-Grandparents #1

Philmore and Edith Green are buried in Maple Lawn Cemetery in Boyne City, Michigan.  Philmore was born in 1893 in Stanton, Michigan.  Edith Nelson was born in 1891 in Elk Rapids, Michigan.  They married in 1914 in Boyne City, Michigan and had six children, one who is still living.  Philmore died in 1959 in Boyne City, Michigan and Edith died in 1958 in Petoskey, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday: Paternal Grandparents

Margaret L. and Raymond N. Green are buried in the Maple Lawn Cemetery in Boyne City, Michigan.   Margaret (aka Leta) Livingston was born in 1922 in Boyne City.  Raymond was born in 1919, also in Boyne City.  They married in 1939 and had two sons, one still living.  Raymond was a veteran of WWII and had a shoe repair business.  Margaret remarried in 1972 to Leon E Brooks who died in 2002.

Organizing Genealogy Photos: Part 1

some of the photo boxes plus the slide box

Organizing photos is actually pretty personal in that everyone has their own system.  I had been scrapping and scanning my own pictures since I had kids but there was a lot of pre-kids pictures that was just stashed in boxes. Then my mom gave me a ton of photos that she had from her mother and I needed a system.  I did search the internet but not a lot really seemed helpful.  Then I asked my father-in-law for his pictures because I knew they were just in boxes in the top of the closet and I wanted to discover that side of the family.  Now I really had a problem and needed to find a solution fast!

First off I don't have a lot of extra money so I knew I had to do all the scanning and organizing myself. So the first problem I had to tackle was where to put the pictures after I scanned them.  I just could not return them to the plastic bags or boxes or old albums since they would get more damaged that way.  I knew I needed to get archival boxes (and already had gotten 1 box for old slides) but how many?  At this point I decided that I needed to divide into four groups.  My parents are divorced so having their family pictures separate works and my mother-in-law had also died so that seemed to work okay as well.  So I purchased four regular size boxes for each family surname (Groenhof, Naber, Green, Vorce).  But I also had quite a few pictures that were bigger than the standard size picture box.  So I purchased three boxes for pictures up to size 12x9.  (The reason I went with three is because my side just didn't have a ton of large pictures so I could easily store them in one box.)  But I also had some really large pictures of my kids as well as heritage pictures that needed a bigger box. So I purchased one box (19.5 x 13) to hold all those really large pictures that would not be brought out much.

I wrote on the side of each archival box the size so I would know which box fit which picture and added initials of the family (G/N for my side).  Plus I labeled the four small boxes with the family name as well.  So now it was time to start scanning!

Spring has Sprung

So that went by fast!  That is the time from my last post to this one.  I just didn't make the time to post anything and didn't have any inspiration either.  Plus I didn't get far into scanning since I still have hard drive storage space issues.  Now school is almost done and we will see what the summer brings!  Anyway, this is my daughter's tulip time picture from this year.

Knitting

So another thing I have neglected over the last few years is knitting.  I actually like to knit quite a bit although not during the summer.  In the winter time it is great to have some yarn and needles in your hand!

It is actually a family tradition to knit!  My mother (plus sister), my mother-in-law and both my grandmothers either knit or crochet.  Both my grandmothers crochet'd (is that right?) until they were quite old since it kept their fingers nimble!  I was actually surprised to see some samples of my paternal grandmother's rather delicate crochet samples.  I have a hard time picturing her doing this type of work since I don't remember her ever doing it in front of me. I do have a couple of ornaments she gave me.  My maternal grandmother actually made wash clothes which is why they are a favorite of mine.  Ever christmas we could pick one out.  Now I wish I had saved one...

So I have to get back into knitting, learn how to crochet and spend less time on the computer.  Good luck with that right?!

Death Certificate Found

Look what I found in the stack off stuff - Grandpa Green's death certificate!  I love finding something when you least expect it!  Now I didn't actually learn anything new but I am now one more step toward sourcing my file, yeah!!

I didn't know that social security cards were ever made of metal!  Behold the original social security card for my husband's grandfather.  I really have nothing else to add so this is a SHORT entry!

Mrs. Roxanna Kidder; 1895

Started scanning again.  This time I was going through a file folder of newspaper clippings and other stuff.  There were quite a few Livingston clippings and some other interesting things.  One of the great things was an 1895 funeral pamphlet for Mrs. Roxanna Kidder, Died Aug. 8, 1895.  This is actually one of my problem areas so it is great to have a specific death date!  This should be the grandmother of Jennie Kidder who married Clark Green in 1886.  I only wish there had been more information :)

Last Day of May

It is hard to believe that today is the last day of May!   This picture is from the Holland Tulip Time Festival's, stem festival. My daughter and two nieces are the only ones who still want to have their pictures taken.

I have once again been waylaid to a different task.  I started scanning photos but now my computer is acting up so I am afraid to add more files.  So now I am digitizing videos.  It is actually a lot of fun to see some of those old videos!  But now I am using up the memory on the other computer.  I just cannot win.  What I need is a new computer with a HUGE amount of memory!

Next week is the last day of school for the kidos.  That will guarantee that I will not be able to get anything done all summer.  Well it is exciting for them to be moving to different schools in the fall, I will miss my free days!

Sarah Jane Case Burnett Case Ramsey

Sarah 1880??

We believe this is a picture of Sarah Jane Case.  Comparing it to a known picture of her, it does look likely.  This is also the tintype that is in the best shape of the lot, very few serious scratches.  She is sitting in front of a backdrop and has nothing in her hands.  She does have something white on her lap, maybe a handkerchief.  She also has some type of jewelry that is gold tinted.  By 1880, Sarah was a widow with two children.  She remarried in 1880 to Truman Case, possibly a relative.

Unknown Person

Here is one of those older pictures I received from my in-laws.  I think this is a tintype since the photo is actually on metal.  There has been some damage.  One thing that surprised me is that there is actually some pink coloring on her checks!  I noticed this in a few other pictures of the same type as well.  We don't know the name of this women or if she is actually related.  Some of the others are more damaged and there are a few that are hardly scratched at all.

Harold Vorce, Boy Scout

abt 1920

Still going through pictures and came across this little gem!  Harold Edwin Vorce wearing his boy scout (I think) uniform.  This might be in Flint.  If I am remembering correctly, the family lived there.  (I will have to check the 1920 census.)  I don't think anyone in my family was part of the scouts but my son was for a while and my mother's husband was even an eagle scout!