Research – Page 4 – The Misadventures of a Genealogist

Wedding Wednesday: William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

Posted on May 24, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Today’s Wedding Wednesday is for my great grandparents William Harmon Mays and his second wife, Iva Belle Moyer. Next week I will post the record for his marriage with his first wife.

1918 marriage of William Harmon Mays and Iva Belle Moyer

As far as I’m aware, there are no known photographs of William or Iva. There are a few family members who remember them at the end of their lives but I haven’t been able to find any pictures of them.

There is a lot of jumping around going on with my posts since I’m working on my Do-Over. To help orientate anyone who is confused on where people belong on the tree and just how far back I’ve gotten into my Do-Over, just scroll a little further for an updated pedigree screenshot.

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Parkin Children in 1905

Posted on May 8, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my Genealogy Do-Over is to fill in blanks I missed before. One of those big blanks is the state census records. For my Mom’s side, I’m not even sure if there were state censuses taken in Rural Kentucky or Virginia. I’m going to look and be sure though. My Dad’s side is much easier because I know New York and New Jersey had state censuses. This week I’m going to highlight what I would have missed if I didn’t look at the 1905 New Jersey State Census.

We have to start in 1900

The above screenshot shows the Parkin family in the 1900 United States Census. Your eyes don’t deceive you, the census shows them as the John Walter household. This is the family though, and it took me years to find them under John’s middle name instead of his surname. Here you can see all 4 children with their parents. We have Anna who is the oldest, Hazel and Jennie who are close in age and the youngest Walter who is just under a year old.

The family is living in Newark, New Jersey at the time of the census. John’s family is living nearby in East Orange, New Jersey. Jennie’s family is unknown to me at the time. In the 1880 Census the family was living in Baltimore, Maryland but I have found no sign of them after that.

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Wedding Wednesday: Clifford Redford and Jane Parkin

Posted on May 3, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

My other paternal Great-Grandparents

Sometimes I get caught up in the fact that my Grandpa Moore’s mother and father were great record keepers. It’s easy to forget that there are plenty more great-grandparents to go around, they just didn’t leave as much extra documentation. They didn’t leave me empty handed though!

I was able to order an “official” marriage certificate for Clifford and Jane because of this family heirloom. It lets me know that Clifford and Jane were married in Newark on December 1, 1923. Edith McKane and Walter Parkin were serving as witnesses. They were the siblings of the couple.

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Tombstone Tuesday: William and Llewellyn

Posted on February 21, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Prospect Hill Cemetery, Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey

My great-grandparents, William and Llewellyn Moore, are the topic of this Tombstone Tuesday. Their tombstone looked like the top picture when it was placed there in 1980. When Grandpa Moore passed away in 2012, we buried him in the family plot and added Llewellyn’s death date to her stone.

On their stones are symbols for the Freemasons and the Order of the Eastern Star, both of which were a big part of their lives.

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.com. For a full list of topics, visit the website for details.

Wedding Wednesday: Llewellyn and William

Posted on January 25, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Welcome to another Wedding Wednesday! When I started posting this GeneaBloggers Daily Blogging Prompt, I never imagined I’d have more than that first entry. Until I run out of weddings to post about, I will keep posting. I’ve done my Grandma and Grandpa Moore’s 1951 Wedding in 3 posts (one, two, three) and my Grandma and Grandpa Mays’ 1947 Wedding. I also threw in a post for my Grandma Mays and her 2nd husband Wayne.

I’m moving up a generation in my Genealogy Do-Over, so it’s time for my Great-Grandparents to get their turn! We’re starting with William Lawrence Moore and Llewellyn Josephine Thorward. For an extra treat, you can always go back and read the Diary of Llewellyn.

June 12, 1926

1926 Wedding Invitation, William Lawrence Moore, Llewellyn Josephine Thorward, Llewellyn’s Boxes, 1986; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2005. This collection was taken from Llewellyn Thorward-Moore’s house after her death. They resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore.

One of my favorite finds from Llewellyn’s boxes is this wedding invitation from 1926. It’s almost 100 years old now, but in great condition. I have a few more items that pertain to their wedding day. A cool thing with this record is that to date, this is one of two mentions of Lewis’ middle name. There is clearly a G. after his name and I’ll have an eagle eye on all the other records I go through to see if I’ll finally learn what his middle name is. Probably George after his father, but you never know!

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Just Call Me Confused

Posted on January 20, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

My Mystery Monday to do list just keeps getting longer and longer. I’m currently scanning documents that pertain to my Great-Grandfather, William Lawrence Moore. Some I’d scanned before but could use a fresh scan. Others, I never scanned before so I’m getting my first look at them.

Perpetual Care

I know you guys must be getting sick of me saying what good record keepers my Great-Grandparents were. It bears repeating though since I just spent 20 minutes scanning correspondence between multiple family members about the family lot at Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. The above diagram was sent to William when he inquired in 1970 about keeping up the graves. From what I can tell Robert J. Moore Jr and his wife Gertrude were taking care of the graves until Gertrude’s death in 1970. Then Gertrude’s family and the Moores split the costs of perpetual care for the lot.

I had known the names of the people in the grave, but not in this detail. We called the cemetery back when we originally got the deed from my Grandfather. We just had the names, not the dates or anything like the detailed diagram above.

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Wedding Wednesday: Wayne and Emogene

Posted on January 4, 2017February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Today’s Wedding Wednesday comes with a reminder for myself! It is ALWAYS better to search out the original document that an index is referencing. Today’s wedding is my Grandma and Grandpa Wayne. My mother’s father died when she was just 17 years old, so I never got to meet him. From the time I was born to 2005, I had my Grandpa Wayne though. He was my Grandma’s second husband. They were married in 1982.

Grandma and Grandpa Wayne in New Richmond, Ohio.

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Treasure Chest Thursday: The Bibles Part 3

Posted on December 29, 2016February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Happy Thursday everyone! I’ve made some time to make sure we get another bible put up on the blog today! It’s been a few months, but I haven’t forgotten about these bibles sitting on my dresser! For those who want to catch up: Bibles Part 1 and Bibles Part 2!

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Genealogy Do-Over: It’s not a Relapse, it’s Prep Work!

Posted on December 20, 2016February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

This series of posts are based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂 I just want to say there are parts of this workbook that I am not posting about, so if you would like the full set of tasks, then visit Thomas’ page or purchase the workbook.

Oh No! What did you do?

I can only blame today’s events on the craze of holiday preparations. There has been so much going on that I haven’t been thinking straight. This doesn’t mean that I regret what I just did, because you’re going to be excited for me too. In the interest of full disclosure though, I just did something that probably should have waited longer in my Do-Over.

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Wedding Wednesday: Stanley and Emogene

Posted on December 14, 2016February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Let me give you a small bit of background

There is a bit of a story behind this marriage record. This record has always been a bit of a dirty secret to me. Not because of the contents, or the events surrounding it. It was because it was a record so close to the current generations and I didn’t have it! It was this big blank spot in my documentation. I’ve always known the marriage date of my maternal grandparents. Not only do I have Grandma’s copy of the family tree from the 1980s, but it’s always been a known day since Grandma’s birthday was May 6th and her first wedding anniversary was May 3rd. We’d call up Grandma and say, “Happy Birthday and Anniversary!” Mostly because my Mom said she could never remember which was the day for either event! Oops! haha.

p. 7-B, Taylor-Webb Family Tree, Nov 1980; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2001. This tree passed to me from Grandma Emogene Taylor.

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