The story of my family history?

I recently entered Ancestry.com's Branching Out contest. As part of the requirement for entry I was asked to write a short piece on my family history story. It made me think about how this all began in first place...read on.

My family history story is one that started very young and yet too late. As a child, I loved to listen to the stories my Grandparents would tell. In fourth grade, I took my maternal grandfather with his WWII Navy war stories as my show and tell. I didn't know it, but I was bit by the genealogy bug. When my maternal Grandfather was sick and I was away in college, I dreamt of having the chance to interview him one last time and get it on video. After he passed away, life rolled on. I graduated college, got married and then another sickness. This time it was grandma. It was pancreatic cancer, stage 4. In her favorite recliner, still in her pajamas, Grandma struggled through reading a storybook on tape to preserve her voice and sickly image. I know now, no one really wants to be remembered that way; but she knew it meant the world to me and never mentioned she'd rather not be on video. After that, I have done what I could when time would allow it.

Fast forward to the present, 10 years after Grandpa's passing and I finally have a good start at my family history. A great uncle shared a wealth of information on my paternal lineage; a cousin thrice removed shared great detail on my husband’s mother’s side. I have some great family stories from my mother and her 8 siblings, and a few great aunts and uncles left whose brains must be picked before the Alzheimers steals their memories from them and us too. I have found many census records and located some family treasures within the family.

But my story isn’t complete. The family treasures have led to more questions, the yearning for more answers. Some online records seem to indicate perhaps the dry goods store my maternal grandfather’s family owned, whose ledger books are still held by my mother, might have been passed down from the generation before where we thought it began. The notes in those ledger books are priceless. Hand written in the margin “family – will never pay.” Who are these mysterious “family” members? How are they connected? Where do they all fit in?

Oh, if only I had unlimited time and resources!

Exploring the descendants of Robert Lang (1670-1763)

I'm off on my first genealogical research trip today. Just a short jaunt down from where we are vacationing to meet a cousin of hubby's maternal Grandmother. We will explore the descendants of Robert Lang (1670-1763). I'm so excited!

Anna Mae Haney Phillips (July 5, 1920 - June 19, 2013)

It's been a while, but I have something to share.

A few weeks ago during a visit with my husband's grandparents, I hit a genealogical gold mine of sorts. I took my iPad loaded with the Ancestry.com app, signed up for the 3 month trial membership that came with my Family Tree Maker program and got the chance to sit down each evening with Grandma and pick her brain. I'm not sure who had more fun, me or her. I truly came back with a treasure trove of information and many pictures! She had pictures that go back 2 or 3 generations after her, so we have at least 6 generations in pictures on that side of the family.

In our chats and searches, I "met" a lot of new ancestors. Perhaps most exciting was the report we found. It was sent by her cousin in 2007. His research seems to have been well documented from what I can tell based on the report and his emails. It included dates and family members of 6 generations starting with Grandma's parents. That means if we add on her descendants, I have information on a total of 10 generations including my son. What a treasure to be able to pass on to the future generations.

Sadly, this blog post is about one of those ancestors I "met" chatting with Grandma just a few weeks ago. Today Grandma shared the obituary for Anna Mae (Haney) Phillips (July 5, 1920 - June 19, 2013). To view the obituary, visit this link: Anna Mae Haney Phillips Obituary. Below is a copy of the text.

Anna Mae Phillips, age 92, formerly of 85 Country Lane, and widow of Hobert Phillips, died Wednesday June 19, 2013 at NHC of Clinton.
She was born in Avery County and was the daughter of Jeff Haney and Thula Haney Phillips.
Mrs. Phillips is survived by her son Reese (Gay) Phillips of Taylors; her daughter Wanda P. Babb (Steven) of Clinton; five grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by four brothers, Sherman Haney, Rosco Haney, Bill Haney, and Lee Haney; and two sisters, Amanda H. Painter, and Atlas H. Green.
Funeral Services will be held Saturday June 22nd, at 4:00 p.m. at the Gray Funeral Home Chapel with burial in Pinelawn Memory Gardens.

May she rest in peace! She'll forever live on in the hearts of those who knew her and in the family genealogy texts.

Back on the horse

It's been a while since I've made the time to sit down and write anything so while I'm killing time at work, I thought I'd see what I can come up with.

I always thought it was great to hear stories about the house my maternal grandparents lived in. They built it, and started out in what we now use as the garage. As many times as I've heard the stories and seen the garage, I still have a hard time picturing it. When we found a picture of the garage house in their belongings after they passed away, I still had a hard time placing the house on the property in my minds eye. It was so strange to see the garage without the rest of the house as I knew it.

As their family grew, they added on a living room which eventually became the breezeway. They had so many children and so little room that as the story goes, two kids would be put to bed in my grandparents bed and then moved to the living room when my grandparents were ready for bed every night. Eventually, they built the house I grew up visiting. The runing joke was always that it was still never finished even after they had lived there for many years. In fact, I don't remember the full story, but the upstairs bathroom was never in working order when I was a kid. Finally when I was in high school I think it got finished. And I don't think the trim ever got totally finished.

As a kid, I always wanted to live in the house when I grew up.

That's what I had time for. More later.

Family History Writing Challenge: Day 6 - Memories of Up North

My biggest challenge the past two days is being to exhausted to sit down and write by the time I actually have time in my day. Yesterday I'll be honest I didn't even think about the fact that I didn't write anything.

Today, I blame the lack of nap on my son's part. I'd have had an hour to write if he'd have slept like he usually does. Oh well... Here I sit, ignoring my poor husband downstairs, trying to get my 250 words done as fast as possible so I can end my day.

When in doubt, write about what you know, right? Well, here goes.

I love thinking back on my family's time up north. Spending summers up north where we didn't have running water or electricity were the best of times for me. I probably enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to shower everyday a little more than I should have, or than I should admit to publicly. My mom referred to our set up as "a step above camping." And she would know, because she grew up camping in a huge tent with her parents and 8 brothers and sisters. With that many kids, it was the only kind of vacation they could afford.

My brother and I had it a little better. We camped the first year after my parents bought the 80, but we didn't use the property all that much. It wasn't long before my parents had contacted a builder and the 24 x 40 pole barn with heavy duty rafters went up. The builder needed sand to level out the area my parents had picked for the barn, so the building of the barn led to "the sand pit" out off of the go-cart loop. That provided hours upon hours of entertainment for my brother, cousins and me over the years.

The barn had to have the heavy duty rafters because the top of the barn would be used as a loft. This is where we slept and played games and constructed puzzles on rainy days. My dad built bunk beds modeled after Mom's Uncle Bob's set-up which she slept on for many years and are still in use at his cabin today, some (I don't even know how long) years later.

Somewhere, my parents found some huge "walls" that we set up as a changing room so people would have some privacy in the large open communal bedroom. I'll never forget the paining those walls. My brother had a friend up with us and when my parents were in the process of painting the walls, one blew over and fell on my brother's friend. We had to take him to urgent care to have his ankle checked out as it was pretty swollen. Luckily, he turned out to be okay.

After a little while, maybe a few years, my dad and Uncle Joe converted the kitchen out of an RV to be suitable for use in the barn. In the bottom of the garage, they walled off the last 16 feet and that served as our kitchen until Mom and Dad bought the place on the lake. We had one light that ran off the car battery if it was parked out back and hooked up. That was the only light aside from flashlights and Coleman lanterns. The tiny RV oven ran off a propane tank (the size you would use for a barbecue grill) and cooked many a Stauffer's lasagna to feed our crowd. The water tank had to be filled regularly from the trash of hose water we brought up from the neighbor's house until my parents finally put in a well after we'd had the place a good fifteen years or so. The shower consisted of a ring with a showerhead mounted on the underside of the stairs. We connected a rubber hose to the "kitchen" sink and that was the water source. Our bathtub, half a blue barrel that normally one might fill with ice to keep a keg of beer cold. Oh, and about now, you’re probably wondering about the toilet part of the bathroom. That was down the trail a bit. An outhouse. Pretty fancy if you ask us, a two-hole-r (take a friend) complete with a moon in the door. I remember pre-building the outhouse at Aunt Louise and Uncle Bob's place. We have some great pictures which Mom now proudly displays in the bathroom at the lake house.

For some unknown reason, the house we lived in downstate when my parents bought the place up north had a wood burning stove in it so that got moved up to the 80 and heats the barn in the winter. There were a few winter nights Dad would over fill the stove and you might be in three layers of clothes when you went to bed, but would undoubtedly be down to a few pieces of clothing as possible because he'd have it over 90 in the middle of the night.

 

Word count: 730. I guess that makes up for not writting anything yesterday.   Total FHWC word count: 2423.

Family History Writing Challenge: Day 4

I really didn't feel like writing this evening and procrastinated by taking care of other computer related business for about 2 hours before I finally forced myself to get writing. My thoughts are not very clear tonight as I am tired, but I still managed to get 320 words down on paper. That brings my total after only four days of the challenge up to 1393 words.

Just like my treadmill this morning, I'm glad I sat down and wrote even though I really didn't feel like doing it.

~Morgan

Who came over on the boat? Bloink Edition

Word Count: 403 Today, 1373 Total

Who came over on the boat? Ahhh, the question that started it all. That was exactly what I wanted to know when I began this journey of family history research. Well, okay, that AND does my family have in its possession any of the trunks that came on the ships with my immigrant ancestors. I've long had a fascination with those trunks in which our immigrant ancestors packed their entire lives and most prized possessions to make the trip from the homeland to America. Oh, the stories those trunks and the artifacts could tell. Stories of the journey, yes. But also of who and what had to be left behind.

So far, I've yet to unearth a trunk in my family lines. My mother has never seen or heard of one. My grandparents never mentioned one, and being the pack rat family that we are, if one were around on that side, I'm reasonably sure we'd have found it by now. On my father's side, well, I haven't done as much research, but if one is around, it's likely that it was passed down through another branch of the family. We just don't seem to be as sentimental about things on that side of the family.

On to the ancestors for this post. Who immigrated on my maternal grandmother's side? (See the chart included below which shows the relationships)

As I was answering this question for my cousin recently, I was delighted to find that in my early days of researching and grabbing as many documents as I could reasonably assume were my relatives during my Ancestry.com trial I nabbed a passenger list that includes Franz and Katerina (Schmitz) Klaes with their 8 month old son, Heinrich. From that document, I know they left from Bremen, Germany and arrived in New York on 31 October 1884. Check out lines 50-52 on the passenger list below! How cool!

The next ancestor on this branch of the tree I assume immigrated is Catherine Bloink. I know her to have been born in Prussia in 1810 and found her in the 1860 census in the township of Hamtramck, Michigan. The census lists her living with who I assume is her son, John. He is listed as 13 years old. Check out the 1860 census below. Catherine and John are on lines 33 and 34.

This branch of the family has yet to reveal any other immigrants.

List of ancestors shown in the chart below: Conrad Joseph Rebandt (1926-2003), Margaret Ann Bloink (1929-2009), Frederick William Bloink (1881-1955), Anna Klaes (1896-1950), John Bloink (1846-1914), Maria Jacobs (1848-1918), Franz Klaes (1863-1946), Katherina Schmitz (1863-1926), Catherine Bloink (1810-?), Johann J Klaes (1833-?), Anna Marie Schneider (1831-?), Johann Schmitz, Christina Pitzen

Who came over on the boat? Rebandt edition

Word Count: 248 Today, 970 Total.

The question of which of my ancestors came to America from another country is the whole reason I got into family history research in the first place. Recently, a cousin asked me the same question. Since I have my notes handy from answering him, I thought I'd share the news with the rest of you as well. The chart pictured below shows the ancestors I'm referring to and how they are related to my more recent ancestors.

According to the 1900 US Census, Joseph Conrad Rebandt (b. 1850 d. 1910) arrived in 1874. In 1900 he was in Detroit, Michigan with his wife, Albertina. The two owned a dry goods store there which they later passed down to their son, Adam Boniface Rebandt (b. 1893 d. 1980). Albertina arrived in 1875 according to the same census. Joseph and Albertina were wed in 1880. Joseph and Albertina's great grand daughter recalls her father (their grandson) telling her the name of the store was "Mrs. A Rebandt's Dry Goods, Ladies & Gents Furnishings" on Junction and Buchanan in Detroit. Google map's panorama shows only one building remaining on this corner when searching the address of the store. Check it out here: https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=42.335144,-83.114613&cbp=13,102.8,0,0,0&cbll=42.335144,-83.114614&q=Junction+and+Buchanan,+Detroit,+Michigan&ei=vzFlUpbgIcbl4AP-oYGYAw&ved=0CCoQxB0wAA. 

Per the 1910 census, Joseph or George Girsch (b. 1873 d. 1966) arrived in 1880. In 1910 he was in Detroit, Michigan also. He married Mary Bosman (b. 1877 d. 1931).

Mary Bosman's parents, Rudolph Bosman (b. 1842 d. 1919) and Josefina Albertina Balk (b. 1852 d. 1915) arrived in 1870 according to the 1900 census. They were married in 1870. There is some discrepancy on the actual date that Rudolph arrived however. The 1910 census lists him as arriving in 1865. Obviously I have more research to do.

Truly, there is plenty more research to do on all of these ancestors and their families.

~Morgan

List of ancestors in the chart: Conrad Joseph Rebandt (1926-2003), Margaret Ann Bloink (1929-2009), Bernard J. Rebandt (1882-?), Adam Boniface Rebandt (1893-1980), Helen Cecilia Girsch (1905-1966), Joseph Conrad Rebandt (1850-1910), Albertina Bosman (1855-?), Joseph or George Girsch (1873-1932), Mary Bosman (1877-1931), John Bosman, Dorothyea Bosman, Mary Girsch (1824-?), Rudolph Bosman (1842-1919), Josefina Albertina Balk (1852-1915)

Family History Writing Challenge: Day 1

Word count: 726

Had a good writing session today. I'm rusty for sure with this writting business and creative writing wasn't my strong suit in school so I feel challenged. The hardest part is puting my memories onto paper in words that create the picture as I see it in my minds' eye. My memories are so precious to me that I find it hard to do them justice on the page.

Practice, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect. Practice, and editing! Ha.

Today I wrote about cherrished memories of attending church with the Rebandts at Our Lady of the Woods in Woodhaven, Michigan.

I hesitate to share, but why not, thats what this challenge is about, isn't it? Leave feedback, or share your memories too!

Building Faith through Family  2/1/2013

After my family moved away from the downriver area and stopped attending Our Lady of the Woods in Woodhaven, church was never quite the same and our attendance fell off dramatically. My grandparents, Conrad and Marge (Bloink) Rebandt and their family helped establish the church. In fact, Conrad’s brother, Ralph also started the Baptist church right next door. There is a family story that says the Baptist church still owns part of Guddith road because Ralph was stubborn and refused to sign the land over to the city when they put the road through.

Growing up, most Sunday mornings followed a similar routine. My mother would get us up if we weren’t already and make sure we picked out “church clothes” to wear. That phrase continued to indicate nice clothes throughout my life. Whenever I had an occasion to pick an outfit for, I’d ask, “does it have to be ‘church clothes?’”

Once we got to church, we always sat in the same spot. We’d dip our hand in the holy water by the door and the head down the left side of the church to the pew just behind the longest pew in the church. I remember feeling that it was as if the church members knew that that pew was where the Rebandts sit. It was like they reserved it for us. There was another family that would sit at the end of our pew on the side closer to the middle aisle, but the rest of the pew was always ours. And we usually filled it. One of the benefits of having such a close family was that we got to see each other often, and only two of Conrad and Marge’s nine children moved out of state. So, our family would gather, there in “our” pew and listen to the word of the Lord.

Once church was over, we’d head to the vestibule to chat with family members, greet the priest and see other church members as well. I remember it was in the church vestibule where my cousin Michael, got to announce to the family that he would soon be a big brother. Family news was often passed along this way, in the church vestibule. Many times, my cousins would play while the adults chatted. On sunny days, we’d head outside and then we cousins had lots more fun. Playing in front of the statue of the Mother Mary was a favorite pass time, as was climbing on the surrounding walls in typical childlike fashion until one of the adults noticed what we were doing and hollered at us to get down.

Many Sundays after church, the family would head over to Millie’s restaurant which was around the corner from church, just past Grandma and Grandpa’s house on the north side of West Road. Millie’s had a few names over the years, most of them I can’t remember any more, but the inside never seemed to change; nor did our Sunday morning routine.  Most of the time, there was a large round table up in the back of the restaurant that could accommodate our group of 10 to 15. If that table was already taken, the wait staff would drag tables together for us and we’d sit down to share breakfast. Most of us anyways, Becky never wanted breakfast. She would always order spaghetti. And she’d devour a full plate and sometimes want a more. I’ve never seen a small child consume so much spaghetti!

Once in a while, we’d head back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house after breakfast, or we’d go to their house and cook breakfast instead of going to the restaurant. Playing in the yard at Grandma and Grandpa’s was always the best. There were plenty of cousins to play with and trouble to be made. We loved the old swing set that was so big it had to have come from an old park. It was always scary when you got swinging high enough to make the front legs come up off the ground. Thank goodness we never tipped it over. There were many a time I thought we might.

The glidder on the back porch also holds many special memories. More often we got to spend quiet moments with Grandma and Grandpa here as they watched the rest of the cousins play.

 

~Morgan

Old Iron Butt from Buzzy Jackson's Shaking The Family Tree

In the past three weeks, I've consumed 4 of the 6 library books I checked out on family history. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I've really enjoyed getting back to reading and reading for enjoyment! I'll be off to the library tomorrow to turn in books and renew the other 2 for sure!

As I was reading Buzzy Jackson's Shaking The Family Tree, I couldn't help but identify with her description of Old Iron Butt! And it made me chuckle, so I had to share. 

According to Jackson, the nickname Iron Butt was one given to Richard Nixon in college for his ability to sit in the library and keep studying. Searching for genealogical records, Jackson explains, requires a similar "stick-to-itiveness...[and] being an optimistic idiot helps." (101)  I thoroughly enjoyed both descriptions.

That is all for now.

In the coming weeks, I must begin to tackle the mess I have created by over-zealous linking of records from Ancestry as a newbie. I have to admit, I've been avoiding it for a couple of reasons. One is that my tree already includes over 500 names and organizing that and cleaning it up is a daunting task and one I know I cannot finish to perfection in the amount of time that I have available to dedicate to it right now. That said, I must find a way to break it into more manageable chunks and get at it. My greatest excuse to myself has been that I don't know how to do it. It is true, I do not know every detail of genealogical research. But, between the recent library books, the online reading I've done and the hours I've spent viewing Ancestry's archived videos on Youtube.com, I have more than enough knowledge to begin. If only I would allow myself.

~Morgan

Who Do You Think You Are? The Book

I ended up having a lot of down time at work today so I took the opportunity to finish reading Who Do You Think You Are?  By Megan Smolenyak. I happened to find this book on the shelves at my local library and being a fan of the show, decided I'd check it out. Boy am I glad I did.

This book has many references to websites and books that are considered the standards by many genealogists. The author also includes the basic how-tos for the basic records that many people new to family history will check out first. I was particularly happy to see the summary of the censuses and what they included as well as what makes certain ones unique or particularly good tools for the genealogist. I had seen similar information before but couldn't find it when I needed it recently. Now, I'll have my notes from this book. I also enjoyed the section on military records. I know this is something I will want to delve into more in the future as I research more about my maternal Grandfather. I loved hearing his stories from the time he spent in the military during WWII and look forward to learning more of the specifics about his service to our country.

With all the great website references and information included in this book, I found myself seriously considering adding it to my birthday list to have in my reference arsenal.

Morgan

Family History Writing Challenge...I'm In!

I've long had an interest in my family history. I was the only teenager I knew that owned (a now ancient copy) of Family Tree Maker. (So old that when I recently got back into doing family history research and asked my Husband if I could update my old copy he actually laughed out loud at me. In the most loving of ways, of course.) 

What really got me on the hunt for my ancestors again is the desire to get down on paper all of the wonderful stories that I heard growing up. They are my families legends in my mind. And I believe they should be shared. They're still entertaining to me after all these years and I believe others will find them entertaining as well. (The fact that in the past 5 years, I have lost two of my three living grandparents has also been a huge kick in the pants.)

My inspiration for what I imagine my family history book might look like is a thin paperback that was shared with my parents by my great uncle. He picked it up from a man known as "The Lilly King." His book is a collection of short stories in which he tells stories he heard as a boy and what he learned from them, stories of his boyhood adventures, and how he became known as The Lilly King and developed his day lilly business.

That said, I'm in...I'm committing to 250 words a day for 28 days. One month of writing about my family history and what I know. Putting down the stories I heard. Making sense of the notes I've written when I was so excited about a family history discovery that I couldn't sleep. (Sorry for the light and the scratching of the pen at all hours of the night, honey.) I've got to start that book I've been envisioning some time. Might as well be now.

Find out more  about the Family History Writing Challenge at The Armchair Genealogist.

What will you write?

~Morgan

Ste. Anne de Detroit

I spent this afternoon adding some details to my work in Family Tree Maker.

Most of my time was spent hunting down information related to my Paternal Grandmother's baptism record. I sure learned a lot about Ste. Anne's Parish in Detroit, Michigan where she was baptized. It is a beautiful Church. One day I hope to visit it and the surrounding buildings which have been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places. I have probably driven past that church a few dozen times having grown up in Michigan, but now that I know my Grandmother was baptized there, I feel like I'm seeing it again for the first time. It has a new layer of meaning for me. (Besides the fact that another one of my loves is historic buildings. In fact, what draws me to them are the stories I know they would tell if the walls could talk.)

My "you learn something new every day" moment for today was discovering what I assumed was French in the baptism record was instead Latin. It was also an "ah-ha" moments of sort. I figured the record was in French because I knew the church and Detroit was founded by the French as a fur trade post on the river. What I should have remembered however is that before Vatican II in the 1960's, the main language of the Catholic church was Latin. I knew masses were conducted in Latin, but somehow it never occurred to me that the records would also be in Latin until a friend recognized the phrases when I posted them on Facebook looking for help translating.

Most of the phrases were easy to guess, but based on the names, I wasn't sure if Nomina Patrionrum was Names of the Godparents or Names of the Grandparents. In the case of my Grandmother, it could have been either. With the help of my Facebook friends, I was able to determine it indeed means "Names of the Godparents" (or Sponsors).

Family History Search: Rebandt, Weeg, Therrien and Phillips

I'm baaaack.....It's been a long, long time, but I have a new passion I'd like to use this blog to share. With a 2 year old running around the house, I'm sure I won't have a ton of time to blog, but check in for new posts every once in a while.

I've been researching my family history recently and having a lot of fun with it. I have learned a lot from www.Ancestry.com. And particularly love the video archives at www.livestream.com/ancestry.

I am researching all branches of my family tree which includes the surnames: Rebandt, Weeg, Therrien, and Phillips.

Most recently, I've been working on transcribing the documents I found at Ancestry.com with my free trial. Here's what I learned from the marriage record for Adam B. Rebandt and Helen Cecilia Girsch.

 20 Oct 1925 in Detroit, MI. Michigan Department of Health lists Adam B. Rebandt, age 31 married to Helen C. Girsh, age 20, on record number 300304. Date of License: 12 Oct 1925. Both living in Detroit, Michigan. Both born in Michigan. Adam works as a Clerk. Helen works as an operator. Adam's father is Joseph, mother is Albertina BOSSMAN. Helen's father is Gorge. Mother is Mary BOSSMAN. Neither have been previously married. They were wed on 20 Oct. 1925 by Catholic Priest Patrick T. DUNNE. Witnesses to the marriage were Nicholas DAVIS of Detroit, MI and Eleanor URBANISK (sp could be URBANICK).

What have you learned about your ancestors?