52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 4 – Wilma Falk

The theme for this week on 52 Ancestors is “Invite to Dinner” and today, January 27^th, was my mother's birthday, so I decided to write about some of the foods my mother, Wilma (Falk) Albertson, served to our family. Of course she enjoyed eating also.

                                                           Thanksgiving 1977

We lived on a farm and had our own beef and my father was a hunter and fisherman, so had lots of kinds of meat and fish to eat. Some of my favorite dishes included Swiss Steak, which was a thick beef steak cooked with onion and tomatoes; heart with dressing, the beef heart had been boiled and then sliced in a casserole dish with dressing on top and baked; duck and dressing, again the duck was boiled and then the meat taken from the bones and placed in the bottom of a casserole dish with dressing on top and baked; (you might think I really liked dressing not just with turkey); meatloaf, made from the recipe on the Quaker Oats box which is still one of my favorite recipes; Texas hash, which was hamburger, rice, onions and tomatoes; macaroni mixed with tuna fish and cream of mushroom soup; baked salmon; and fried salmon or stealhead steaks. It looks like I had a lot of favorites. That is my style, I like lots of different things.

Well, did my mother ever serve any vegetables? Yes, of course she did. If you count potatoes as a vegetable they showed up most days. It seems like one of the ways I helped in the kitchen often was peeling potatoes. During the summer from our garden, we had green peas, green beans, corn on the cob, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We usually grew some winter squash which would be ready in the fall. I did like the acorn squash when served with cinnamon and sugar. During the winter we had home-canned green beans and frozen vegetables purchased from the store. It seems like my mother used a rotation of frozen spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. While growing up it was only the spinach that I liked. As an adult I have learned to enjoy broccoli and cauliflower, but still am not fond of brussel sprouts.

We can't leave out dessert. After one of our neighbors put in a blueberry farm, I learned how much I enjoyed blueberry-peach pie. For my birthday I often would request prune cake, which my mother could make so well. I didn't even care if it had any frosting. For family Christmas dinners, I remember my mother was asked to bring the pumpkin pies. They were really good. A dish that I haven't had for a long time was floating island. This was soft custard with meringue floating on it. She only made this for special dinners when we were using the best china and pretty glass dishes. Another dish I liked was a baked apple dessert.

This has been an enjoyable trip down memory lane for me.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 3 – Jemima Booth

Today's ancestor, Jemima Booth, was my 4^th gt-grandmother. She was married to Benjamin Townsend (who I wrote about on 10 Dec 2017) and was the mother of Edith (Townsend) Marsh (who I wrote about on 8 Dec 2017.)

If you tried to read about Jemima on my genealogy website, you would find very little information there about her. See http://www.joanneskelton.com/p15.htm#i369

The main source of information about Jemima that I have found is the Quaker record of her marriage to Benjamin Townsend, as his second wife, at the Concord Monthly Meeting in Chester County (now Delaware County) Pennsylvania in 1784. I will try to do a transcription of that record sometime soon.

There are a number of public member trees on Ancestry.com (at least 40) which include her. However, as often happens they don't all agree. About 2/3 of them list her parents as Robert Booth and Elizabeth Cloud, while the rest show unknown. Since the Quaker record names her father as Robert Booth, at least that appears to be correct. There was a Robert Booth in that Quaker community who married an Elizabeth Cloud in 1741, so if they were the same Robert, her mother would probably be Elizabeth Cloud.

Most of the public trees show her birthdate as 1759 in Pennsylvania or Delaware. The Delaware may mean Delaware County, Pennsylvania, but Elizabeth Cloud was from Delaware. Looking at Jemima's death date I found that most with a date listed 1803 and a few gave 1805 and all but one gave her death place as Pennsylvania. The one which showed her death place as Ohio was most likely the correct one. I base this on an item I had found in the History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties Ohio, by J. A. Caldwell, published 1880, pg 554. It was in the section about Smithfield Friends Church and said that original members of the church in 1802 were Benjamin Townsend and Jemima his wife. It also said that the first grown person to be buried at that church's cemetery was “Jemima Townsend wife of Benjamin Townsend.”

This Quaker record from the Westland Monthly Meeting in Washington County Pennsylvania showed that the Townsend family, including Jemima, were planning to go to the Concord Monthly Meeting in Ohio in June of 1803.

I checked in the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, edited by William Wade Hinshaw, Volume IV for Ohio, page 161, Concord Monthly Meeting, and found in the Townsend listings, Benjamin and w. Jemima, as well as 5 of their children were received on certificate there 1803, 9, 17.  Smithfield, or Plymouth, and Concord were in the same basic area. So it appears that if Jemima died in 1803 it was after the 17^th of September. I am fairly confident that she had died before 1807 since Benjamin married a third wife then.

Although public member trees can give clues about an ancestor, often a part or even all of the information can be incorrect. We need to do our own research, even though sometimes we can find very little.

Sibling Saturday – Ivy Augusta Bond

At the beginning of this year I stated I would sometimes write about some of my ancestors' siblings. I want to try to do it on some Saturdays, so here is my first effort.

John and Ivy Stewart

Ivy Augusta Bond was an older sister of my grandmother, Florence Edna (Bond) Falk. I do have “Aunt Ivy” on my website: http://www.joanneskelton.com/p17.htm#i409

She was the second child of John Howard Bond and Mary Ann O'Neal, born 138 years ago today, 13 Jan 1880. I believe she was born in Lane County, in the area west of Creswell. When Ivy was a teenager, about 1894, the family moved north to Gilliam County Oregon in the vicinity of Lone Rock. On the 1900 census the family was living in Lone Rock and her father was working as a mail carrier. Ivy was 20 with no occupation listed.

It was just the next year, on 12 May 1901, when Ivy was married to John F. Stewart in neighboring Morrow County. The marriage certificate stated that Ivy was of Gilliam County and John was of Morrow County.

When the census was taken in April 1910, Ivy and John were living on Isabelle Street in Lone Rock in Gilliam County and now John was working as a U.S. Mail Carrier. By then they had 4 sons, Clifton, Cecil, Delwin and Rodger, ages 8 to 1 9/12. I expect they kept Ivy busy, especially since she was expecting their 5^th child. Vernon was born on the 3^rd of June 1910.

Then sometime before the end of 1912 the family moved to California, since Alma was born there 27 Dec 1912. It was almost 3 years later when their last child, Ada, was born 7 Nov 1915.

Soon after her father died in March 1919, her brother Roy filed a document with the court, listing the heirs and it included Mrs. Iva A. Stewart age about 38 years, residence Blythe, Riverside, California. Two years later when he filed the final account, she was shown as Mrs. Iva A. Stewart, age about 40 years, postoffice address, Cornville, Arizona. In the probate file I found the following receipt signed by “Mrs. J. F. Stewart” from Cottonwood, Arizona, in 1921. Apparently Cornville is about 5 miles east of Cottonwood and was an agricultural community in the 1920s.

It appears that the family moved to Arizona between 1920 and 1921 since they were still in California in Palo Verde Township in Riverside County when the 1920 census was taken. At that time John was a farmer on his own farm.

When the census was recorded in 1930 the family had moved again and they were in Inola Township, Rogers County, Oklahoma. This was a little more difficult to find, since the census index on Ancestry.com listed her name as Irma and his name as Julius. Looking at the image it really is John and Iva. The children's birthplaces were written as Kansas and Oklahoma, so I am not sure who gave the information since the children were born in Oregon and California. John was still working as a farmer, now on a rented farm.

It was some time between 1935 and 1940 when John and Ivy moved from Rogers County Oklahoma to Thurston County Washington. The 1940 census taken in April showed just John and Ivy living in Rochester Election Precinct where John was a farmer. This census gives us the added information that John had completed 7 grades in school and Ivy had completed 8. It was about a month later, 19 May 1940, when John died and was buried in Grand Mound Cemetery, Rochester, Washington.

Ivy lived as a widow for a little over 13 years. She moved from Rochester to Centralia about 1944. It was there at her home in Centralia that she died 3 Aug 1953. She then was buried at the Grand Mound Cemetery at Rochester.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2 – Anna Rosina Leu

As I wrote last week (3 Jan 2018), today I am giving my conclusions or speculations about Anna Rosina Leu, my 2^nd gt-grandmother who was the mother of Anna Louise Boehm. I might call Anna Rosina a mystery ancestor. I do know her name, but I have not yet discovered her identity. Anna Rosina never came to America so it has been more difficult for me to research her. I did found a record of her in the German Lutheran church records for Nakel in Posen Province where she was listed in 1832 as the mother of Anna Louise. Last week I noted that the father shown was Michael Boehm and he and Anna Rosina were “still not married.” Anna Louise was born 30 Aug 1832 and I believe the record says she was baptized a little over a week later on 8 Sep.

On Anna Louise's marriage record at Nakel in 1850, she was shown as the illegitimate daughter of Anna Rosina Leu of Polichno. Anna Louise was of Josephkowo. If you check the map on the post about Michael Boehm you will see that Polichno Hauland and Josephkowo almost adjoin each other.

When I checked the Poznan Project, which is a listing of marriages in the Province of Posen, I found there were 2 marriages at the Protestant Church in Nakel for women named Anna Rosina Leu. In Nov 1832, a few months after Anna Louise was born, there was a 46 year old widow, maiden name Hein. She was the widow of Mathias Leu. Her new husband, Michael Fratzke, was of Polichno. The other Anna Rosina was married in 1838 to Johann Mueller, when she was age 26, the daughter of Mathias Leu. So these were mother and daughter. There was also a marriage in 1806 for a woman indexed as Johanna Rosina Lech. There are some other researchers who have identified her as a Anna Rosina Leu also. This marriage was to a Martin Giese. They had a son named Johann Giese who married Anna Charlotte Boehm, the daughter of Michael Boehm, Anna Louise's father. So there are at least 3 possible candidates to be my 2^nd gt-grandmother.

There is a burial record at Nakel in 1841 for Rosina Giese, maiden name Leu, age 56 of Josephkowo. On a part of the record I haven't yet deciphered it does mention the name Martin Giese, so I suspect this was the mother-in-law of Anna Charlotte Boehm, my number 3 candidate. I tried checking the birth records at Nakel after 1838 to see if the Mueller couple showed there. I didn't find any and noticed that the marriage record showed that Johann was from Gorzyn, which appears to be in a different kreis about 90 miles from Nakel. So if they lived there, would the 1850 record still say that Anna Rosina was from Polichno? Also if all these women were married by 1850 would the record still use the name Anna Rosina Leu?

But what about that DNA match? If they were related to Anna Rosina as well as Michael, wouldn't the amount of DNA show a difference. I checked that and a 3^rd cousin once removed and a ½ 3^rd cousin once removed have very similar amounts of DNA and my match would fit in either one.

So if any of you have ideas about what I should try next, please contact me.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 1 – Michael Boehm

Last year, 2017, I wrote about my parents, grandparents, gt-grandparents and 12 of my 2^nd gt-grandparents . So my 1^st ancestor for 2018 will be from the 2^nd gt-grandparent level.

Michael Boehm has been difficult for me to research as he never came to America. I have found a record of him in the German Lutheran church records where he is listed in 1832 as the father of my gt-grandmother, Anna Louise Boehm. On her confirmation record from 1846 her father is named as Michael Boehm, but it includes a cross which is said to mean that he was deceased.

This was at the church at Nakel. The birth was shown as at Josephkowo, which is a small village about 5 kilometers or 3 miles southwest from Nakel, across the kreis (similar to a U.S. county) border into Kreis Schubin. Nakel is in Kreis Wirsitz. These were in the Province of Posen in Prussia. This area is now a part of Poland. According to one source, in 1833 Josephkowo had 24 residences with a Protestant population of 164.

Since he and the mother were not married, I was unable to find any marriage record for them. I was very happy several months ago when a DNA match contacted me who was also a descendant of Michael. Her line goes through his “first wife” so we are cousins. She shared some more information about him so I did find more records. Ancestry.com has a database “Germany, Lutheran Baptism, Marriages, an Burials, 1567-1945.” Church records from Nakel are included. Of course they are handwritten in German so I have mostly used the transcriptions done by Ancestry or other researchers.

Michael was married 4 Feb 1810 at Nakel to Rosina Frederich. They had two daughters, Henriette in 1811 and Anna Charlotte in 1813. Then Rosina died in 1815. Henriette was married in 1829 to Andreas Stenzel. Anna Charlotte was married in Feb of the next year, 1830 to Johann Giese. Then I believe it is my Michael who was the father of Wilhelmine born 21 Dec 1830 and baptized at Nakel 23 Jan 1831. The mother was listed as Rosina Leu. Sadly Wilhelmine died at less than 5 months old on 18 May 1831. My gt-grandmother Anna Louise was born 30 Aug 1832 to Michael Boehm and Anna Rosina Leu, who were “still not married.” It was less than a year when Michael died, 13 Feb 1833, at age 45. So we can estimate his birthdate as about 1787 or 1788. I still have not found a birth record for him, so do not have his parents identified. Next week I will try to share some of my conclusions or speculations about Anna Rosina Leu.

Genealogy Goals for 2018

At the beginning of 2017 I posted the following genealogy goals:

     Review each ancestor on the day before their birthday as shown on the calendar on my website.

     Organize some of the materials about that person, both paper and digital.

     Write something for my blog each day. Have it be about the ancestor on his or her birthday.

     Enter some missing information or make corrections about the birthday ancestor in my database.

     Digitize family documents, especially those not already on-line.

How did I do? I did check each ancestor on the birthday calendar. A few of them got better organized. My database was mostly neglected. A number of documents were digitized.

Yesterday (31 Dec 2017) I posted some of my statistics for writing 365 blog posts in 2017, so I did get that goal accomplished.

This year I want a less rigorous schedule so will try to write about one ancestor per week. I am taking the challenge of “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” These will mostly be those where I don't have an exact date of birth, or have not yet entered into my database so they didn't show on the calendar. Then if I want to write more that week, I plan to write about siblings or cousins or share documents or photos. Writing has really helped me to get to know my ancestors and other relatives better.