Category: Treasure Chest Thursday

Treasure Chest Thursday: The Original

Posted on by Kathleen

The last week, I’ve been slowly entering my mother’s side of the family into my new family file. It’s a little slower going because there are more of them than Dad’s side. I also had a master list of birthdays I made at the family reunion last year for Dad’s side. So I was able to put them in quickly and use the source I titled, “2009 Family Reunion Master List”. I’m new to citing Personal Family sources, so I was a bit baffled at first on how to really cite it. Then I realized I was once again over-analyzing something. So I gave the title as stated above, I’m listed as the other, and in the description I wrote that I compiled the list by going around to everyone at the family reunion and getting their birth dates and marriage dates where needed. It turned out to be a big project for me that year!

On my Mom’s side I now have the original copy of the Family Tree. This is the one my Grandma brought when I was in the eighth grade. I ended up photocopying it at my Mom’s work, and I later reproduced it in Excel and re-printed it. In that time though, I think I might have tried to “fix” it. I think things got a little turned around. I’ve decided to no longer use my photocopy version. I am lucky that my Aunt sent Grandma’s copy to Maryland for me.

Taylor-Webb Family Tree. This has been missing the letters for as long as I can remember!

This has the most complete list I’ve ever seen of the current Taylor family. I don’t communicate much with this side of the family so I don’t know if I would ever had completed this much of it without Grandma’s tree.

Taylor-Webb Family Tree. Page 2A.

It’s a great resource for quite a few generations  back. If you can see, Reuben Vincent Webb is listed as Family Member 2-1 in this tree. This tree counts forward from the earliest known Webb relative. So Reuben is actually my 2nd Great Grand Uncle. It’s his sister Mollie Jane Webb who marries into the Taylor family. My index number in this tree is listed as 6-54. Just to show you how it counts forward in time.

Taylor-Webb Family Tree

What my photocopy version was missing is what you see above. I was in 8th grade around 1997. My Grandmother didn’t pass away until January 2005. So in that time, not only had I been making changes to the family tree, so had my Grandmother! I found little handwritten notes all over the tree. Notes that weren’t there in 1997 when we photocopied it.

Taylor-Webb Family Tree. Living person information blurred for privacy.

Not only did I find notes in my Grandma’s handwriting, there were notes from another person too! This could have been from my Aunt. It could have been from someone who was just visiting and they were discussing the tree. It doesn’t really matter, what I do know is that even though this tree has some errors in it, it’s a wealth of information in other ways.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily blogging topic from GeneaBloggers.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Marriage Records

Posted on by Kathleen

Marriage Certificate of Clifford and Jane Redford

In my eyes, marriage records are a beautiful thing. I could say it’s beautiful to know a couple started their life together. That’s very true. However, my favorite part of marriage records is that they have maiden names and parent names for the women. One of my oldest and most often gripes is trying to figure out where the girls in the family disappeared to, or where they came from. It’s a common one among all genealogists.

This particular marriage record really opened up doors in my research. The biggest one being Jane’s last name. We knew it was Parkins/Perkins something. This verified for me that it was in fact Parkin. The great thing about this is it even went a step further and gave me her parents names. I’m not always so lucky to get all these facts. In fact, I was hesitant about this record when I got it because my Aunt had told me she always understood that Jane led a hard life and was orphaned young. That is all true. So I was worried that the information on her parents wouldn’t be known at the time of her wedding. From this record, I was even able to find that Jane and her siblings may have been orphaned and they did bounce around a lot, but it was always to other family members. I can’t speak for what happened in those households, but at least the family names were kept in memory so that I could find them today.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily blogging topic from GeneaBloggers that I occasionally participate in.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Wamboughs

Posted on by Kathleen

This is one of my treasures. This is a piece of music written by John and Tony Wambough. They are related to me through the Loves. John’s mother Agnes Love was sister to my Great-Great Grandmother Jennie Love-Thorward. Even though it’s not a direct relation, this is probably where my sister gets her musical talent. She played in band all through high school, and she could pick up any instrument you threw at her. I know she dabbled in writing her own music, so I can’t wait to show her that someone in the family actually did!

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily blogging topic from GeneaBloggers.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Great Grandpa

Posted on by Kathleen

Have I ever mentioned I’m a Genealogy Hoarder? Oh right, I suppose I have. Have I mentioned that my Great-Grandparents were also meticulous record keepers, who never threw out things that might later be important? Oh, I suppose I’ve told you that too.

Here’s one of my “treasures”, it really gave me a glimpse into the early life of my Great Grandfather, William Lawrence Moore. This is a resume he had from the late 1920s.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a GeneaBloggers daily blogging topic.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Cemetery Deeds

Posted on by Kathleen

If you told me 10 years ago that I would come to look at pieces of paper as treasure, I would have thought you were crazy! Sure I was curious about all this family tree stuff then, but not to the extent I am now. Reflecting on the great experience I had a few years ago, I decided I was going to do another Find a Grave photo request. However, I didn’t want to send someone into a Brooklyn cemetery blind. I knew I had the deed somewhere, which will give the plot number. It’s the least I could do, right?

In my quest for the Brooklyn Cemetery Deed, I found the one for Prospect Hill Cemtery in Caldwell, New Jersey.

Right next to the Prospect Hill deed was a big, thick envelope for The Evergreens in Brooklyn. In it was this transferred deed from William H Moore to his daughter Mary J Moore. William H Moore being the first Moore I know of in America.

Along with the original deed. What comes next is the great part apart researching my Dad’s family. My Great-Grandparents were probably the best record keepers in the world.

There is a remembrance card for Robert J Moore, Jr; William L Moore’s brother.

There is numerous correspondence between William L Moore and Chester Schmaeling. They were discussing the care and payment for the cemetery in Brooklyn. Chester being the brother of Gertrude, who married William L Moore‘s brother Robert J Moore, Jr.

There is a newspaper clip for a pilot who went missing during WWII. At first it’s unclear on why this is thrown into the mix.

Then I read that it was actually Marguerite Wambaugh’s (she’s Llewellyn’s cousin) husband. I’m going to have to research this further, because I don’t know if he ever made it home or not!

There is a big packet of papers pertaining to the Brooklyn plots. Including a funeral card for Marion Moore-Schroeder.

When I say that my Great-Grandfather was a very good record keeper, I wasn’t exaggerating at all. He was an accountant for AT&T. This was just what he did.

Always the accountant, William couldn’t help but figure out how exactly his money was being spent.

This is what I love. In this letter William inquires who all is buried in the cemetery plot in Brooklyn.

This is scribbled in pencil on the back of the deed. I’m unsure if this was done before William had a response from the cemetery. Maybe he was trying to figure it out for himself, or maybe he went to the cemetery and transcribed the tombstones. I can’t be sure.

I definitely don’t blame him though, because I wanted to know too! I called the cemetery and they gave us a count of 9 people and 8 plots. One of the people being a baby with no other information. The cemetery office said they couldn’t tell us over the phone anything other than the names of the people. We understood that, but this is the plot I’m going to see if someone can fill my photo request. I’m very curious about this cemetery. One day I will get to Brooklyn to visit it myself, but until then I hope this can give me something.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a daily blogging topic I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Treasure Chest Thursday simply create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family.