Category: Research

More Verification

Posted on by Kathleen

Can you tell I’ve been obsessed with city directories? Well I am. I’ve hit many roadblocks while researching my father’s side of the family. It comes from being the only person that I know of researching them. This doesn’t mean other people aren’t researching them, it just means they may not be googling me. I guess I’m not surprised at that. ha. One of the familial lines I’m going solo on is the Parkin side of the family. I have suspicions once I link this family to England, the heavens might open and I’ll be showered with information… No? Well a girl can dream.

1900 US Census, Newark, NJ
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Huff Photo Studio Research

Posted on by Kathleen

In my previous post, Mystery Monday: The Baby, I decided to research a little bit about the photo studio that took the photograph. I was hoping by researching the studio, I’d at least have a ball park figure for when the photo could have been taken. Little did I know I’d get immersed in looking up the studio in question!

The journey started when I found another photograph, from the same studio, but it’s name was slightly different and the address had changed. I decided my next plan of attack was going to have to be the Newark City Directory on Footnote.com. I’m posting my results not only because I found it fun and interesting but because I want other researchers to benefit from these dates!

F.L. Huff Advertisement, 1869.
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Verification is Wonderful

Posted on by Kathleen

Ever since I started this journey into genealogy, I’ve learned something new everyday. It’s wonderful to learn so many different things. Whether it be a technique to searching the census or what exactly a Sawyer is. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in genealogy is to verify, verify, verify. I’m still learning all the different types of sources you can use to learn millions of different facts.

Awhile back, I found my William H Moore in a Chicago city directory. In fact, I found him in Chicago directories for the years 1866 through 1870.

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Those Places Thursday: Park Avenue House

Posted on by Kathleen

One of the places that I often think about is the house on Park Avenue. Anytime we have a family get together, this house always comes up. Everyone on my dad’s side of the family has memories of this house. Whether it be the layout of the house, the renovations done, or the way the porch was screened in during the winter. Unfortunately, I don’t have any memories of the house. So I soak up any information that people give to me about the house. Now I just have to remember to type it all up and keep it in my files for later.

Park Avenue house, October 2010.
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Gladys Crisp

Posted on by Kathleen
1930 Census. Roy Williams household. Rowan County, KY

I’ve been looking for various Crisp children in the 1930 census. I finally found Gladys (child of Jacob Crisp) living in the household of Roy Williams as a lodger. I noticed that there is a child, Roy, listed. For a minute I was sure it was Gladys’ son because it shows his last name as being the same as Gladys’ and it says Lodger son. Taking a minute to view the rest of the incoming information, I realized that maybe there was a miscommunication, because Roy shared a name with his mother’s landlord.

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Finding Helen

Posted on by Kathleen

I decided to take a break from my Mays family this weekend. I love them, but they’re migraines waiting to happen. Researching the Mays family gives me the same feeling I get after I’ve taken a dose of Benadryl. Like I’ve got a head full of fog.

When I got started, I just typed in Helen Menzies at FamilySearch. She’s one I have information on but I still wasn’t able to find her after she left the family house between the 1841 and 1851 England censuses. I know from William Menzies letter that Helen/Ellen was married to a man named Charles, who traveled, and she had more than one son.

I found this record on FamilySearch and it matches beautifully!

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GEA: Prospect Hill Cemetery

Posted on by Kathleen

Two weeks ago, I visited Prospect Hill Cemetery in Caldwell, New Jersey. This cemetery is most likely overflowing with ancestors of mine. Until I research more, I think I’ve hit the limit of my knowledge of them.

Prospect Hill plot layouts

This is the closest I can come to laying out where my family plots are. They could be slightly off though. We weren’t exactly in the cemetery hunting mode. We were in wedding mode!

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Paying Attention to your Surroundings

Posted on by Kathleen

When I was a kid, my Mom used to hate taking us to the store. It was a guarantee that one of us would get caught in the excitement at whatever store we were at, and we’d lose track of her. More than once my Mom has told the story of my sister walking into columns at the store, despite numerous warnings of  “Amanda. Amanda. Watch out Amanda. AMANDA.” BAM. Of course I never did that… I did use to follow the wrong Mom around the store though… Okay so I did that last week.

Never has this handicap of ours become more apparent then it did today. I have a few hours to myself. So I decided to finally add some tombstone photos I took at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Caldwell to Find A Grave. First thing I noticed when reviewing the photos I’d added a few years back was that I missed a few! Somehow when I got all the Thorward photos from my very helpful Photo Volunteer, I forgot to add some of them! He left it to me, and look what happens!

Step 1: Admitting you have a problem
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