Thorward - The Misadventures of a Genealogist

March 17th

Posted on March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and so I thought I would look up March 17th in my family tree file and see how many people were born on this day. Turns out so far, only 2 in my clean file. In my old file there are 14. The most significant one for me to celebrate today is Llewellyn Thorward, my great-grandmother. Everyone who has been here awhile also knows her from my Diary of Llewellyn series.

This is Llewellyn’s 1899 birth certificate. You will notice that her name isn’t actually on it. It is her certificate however. Her parents names are there, their address is also correct. I also have that beautiful diary that chronicles three of her birthdays on March 17th 1923 through 1925.

Today I think I’ve decided to use Ancestry’s new Network feature to put together the people from Llewellyn’s diary. I have no idea what the new feature will do, but it would be cool to gather all the people together again and maybe upload some of those crowd pictures and try out the facial recognition search that was also recently released. You can be sure I’ll chronicle it here.

March 2010 is also when this blog was originally started. I was posting every single day for a long time and then it’s been sporadic for a long time now. May will be the 23rd anniversary of this website. Pretty awesome to think I’ve been sharing things here that long. I do wish I had been more consistent over the years but its very nice to have all these thoughts to look back on as I revisit a lot of my old research.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone and I wish you luck in all your searches today! 🍀

Identifying Locations

Posted on March 21, 2024February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

Last time I posted, I mentioned I’m working on identifying some slides left to me by my Grandpa Moore. I’m going to share some of my identifications today. This has been a challenge for but also very fun. The challenge being that most of these slides are from the 1960s and not all of these locations exist anymore or look even close to the same. I’ll share how I identified them as I go.

1. Ca’ d’Zan

Photo 1. Llewellyn Thorward-Moore at Ca’ d’Zan in Sarasota, Florida, 1962. Photo 2. From the Ca’ d’Zan website, photo credit to their website.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Invite to Dinner (Week 04)

Posted on January 25, 2018February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

Which relative would I invite to dinner?

Oh boy! This was a tough one. There are plenty of people in my family tree I’d love to have over from dinner and conversation. Narrowing down my prospects wasn’t easy. I decided to pick someone from my Dad’s side of the tree since I picked Mom’s side last week.

George Thorward obituary. Taken from Llewellyn Moore’s box of records.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Favorite Photo (Week 02)

Posted on January 11, 2018February 16, 2025 by Kathleen

This is a special treat for those that followed along all those years ago when I posted The Diary of Llewellyn for 3 years. Many will recall midway through the Diary, my Great-Grandpa Bill started showing up with his future wife. One of their favorite activities to do was dance.

I miss the Diary entries but I love filling in the gaps like this…

In fact, if you search this blog for “we danced” it comes up more than once!

This is one of my favorite photos because 50 years later and you can tell she still loved dancing with him!

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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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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Treasure Chest Thursday: The Bibles Part 1

Posted on September 22, 2016February 17, 2025 by Kathleen

Welcome back to another post where I brag about my Great-Grandmother Llewellyn Thorward-Moore. Ha! Sorry, but I had to do it. As you all know, I’ve been doing my Genealogy Do-Over for the last few months. In the process of that, I’ve been revisiting all the wonderful things that were in what I’m calling “Llewellyn’s Boxes.” In those boxes were a bunch of bibles. Not all of them were Llewellyn’s and they don’t all have names in them, but I thought it would be cool to highlight one a week here on the blog.

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