Fearless Females 2017 :: Week 3

Social Butterfly:
What social organizations or groups did your mother or grandmother belong to? Sewing circle, church group, fraternal benefit society or lodge? Describe her role in the group.

Yes! Yes and yes! Let's talk about my grandmother. The Queen of Genealogy! She was heavily involved with the So Cal Gen Society back in her day, she was also Regent of her DAR chapter. My mom was our Girl Scout leader for a time and participated in our grade schools as Room Mother at various times. Does that count?

Special Talent:
Shining star: Did you have a female ancestor who had a special talent? Artist, singer, actress, athlete, seamstress, or other? Describe.

As I shared last week, my great grandmother apparently liked to paint. I am fortunate enough to possess a painting done by her. Were there others? I don't know. Mine is not signed, but it is pretty good I can't imagine it was a one-and-done.

Surprising Fact:
Have you discovered a surprising fact about one of your female ancestors? What was it and how did you learn it? How did you feel when you found out?

My 2nd great grandmother gave me quite the surprise. My 2nd great grandfather was not her first husband. She was divorced with a 6 year old son when she met and married my 2nd great grandfather. My great grandfather had a half-brother! I was shocked and surprised - and I really, really want to know more. The ex husband went on to remarry and have another family too. I was working a 'puzzle' - the 1860 census listed the newly married couple (my 2nd great grandparents) along with their first born son, plus a 10 year old boy and a 16 year old girl! I pounced on the girl first, the surname was the same as my 2nd great grandmother, who was a mystery as far as parents go - I thought she might be a lead. Nope. Then I tried the boy with a completely different surname. Jackpot! It was several years ago so I don't remember the details, but let's just say it involved a very deep rabbit hole ....

Brick Wall:
Is there a female ancestor who is your brick wall? Why? List possible sources for finding more information.

One?? One! Bwahaha! I have far too many, so many that I recently started a new series on my blog just for these Brick Wall women. Crowd sourcing! But, to answer the prompt, sideways research. FAN research. Go big, cast the net wide because sometimes that great-aunt of the second-cousin of the brother-in-law just might have the answer .....

Leading Lady Life:
If a famous director wanted to make a movie about one of your female ancestors who would it be? What actress would you cast in the role and why?

Easy. My great grandmother Bessie Twining Potwin. And her early married life when she and her husband left Des Moines for the frontier of Oklakoma. The couple lived there for three years before her husband came to his senses and returned to 'civilized' life. She told her daughter once that she swept the yard to keep the dirt flat - there was no grass! Also easy. Merle Streep - she has a strong family resemblance already and I could just picture her in the role.

Similarities:
Do you share any physical resemblance or personality trait with one of your female ancestors? Who? What is it?

Oh Geez! When I look in the mirror my mother looks back. I also resemble my maternal grandmother and her mother as well. Personality-wise I'd say I share their spirit of adventure and certainly my grandmother's obsession with genealogy!

..........until next week..........

©2017 Anne Faulkner - AncestorArchaeology.net, All Rights Reserved

Finding Faulkner: Part One | The Backstory

It started, as good quests always do, with a family tale. 

As a child we were told stories of our maternal ancestors but heard very little of our paternal side. There were a few allusions of family ties to famous historical figures that, as children, we boasted about in the schoolyard. Genealogy was the weird hobby that my grandmother pursued. 

Later, when I had a child of my own I really started to get curious about my heritage. Quizzing my grandfather was not an option. He was not a talker and did not care for family history. (Or anything in the past, actually.) My father had pieced together what he could, talking to his various cousins. The Faulkner family was not a close family, whereas on my maternal side, there were reunions, holiday meals, weddings, family vacations, etc. I never really gave it a second thought, it was what it was.

I contented myself with working on my maternal line. My grandmother was over the moon that I had been bitten by the genealogy bug and would supply me regularly with packets of family info; all badly typed, accompanied with handwritten notes that I'm still convinced are written in cypher. I dutifully entered it all into my Family Tree Maker program on my Windows 3.1 boat anchor and spent my days writing (yes! writing) to distant relatives for information.

Time passed. Children grew. Grandparents died. Life moved ever forward. 

Then my dad died. 

On Father's Day.  

In the days leading up to the funeral my mother was a whirlwind of activity. Pulling out boxes of family memorabilia I was never aware existed. Old family photos, correspondance my dad had kept with various cousins, and a folder marked "Operation Grandpa".

Operation Grandpa? 

The time was not right to question this odd file, we were planning a wake. A magnificent wake. A party to end all parties. Just the way my dad would have wanted it. A grand party with him at the center. And it was wonderful, and he would have loved it.

Several weeks later my mom presented me with 2 large boxes filled with photos, documents, notes, letters, etc. "Operation Grandpa" was there too.

Seems my dad was trying to find out more about his Faulkner lineage, about his own grandfather and where he came from. He had check lists, correspondence, photocopied pages of  books. A small family tree that he was able to put together. He had sent away for coat of arms, family crest and name origin information. (This was prior to the internet!). It seemed he believed our Faulkner was of Scottish descent.

And then, there it was, in a notation written in my mother's hand:

 "His ancestor came to the Colony of New York from Scotland as a young man." 

Game on.

Old Stories, New Eyes; Verifying Family Lore: Tales From The Cave, part two

Sunday morning.

Labor Day weekend.

Anxious to get back in the Cave to solve the problem I uncovered yesterday.

I knew the answer was there - or at least an explanation. I needed to dig deeper.

{Palm slap to forehead} The obviousness hit me. I needed to look at every city directory between the years 1911 and 1920.

Feeling a bit stupid, I settled in for a session of flipping through electronic records, year by year, verifying my great grandfather's address.

An hour or so later, my grandmother's story was proved correct, partly. The family did move in 1911 and again in 1920. BUT that still didn't prove that the house was built in 1919 and not 1916.

Argh.

Back to the city directories. This time instead of the name, I  employed the handy street index located towards the back of each directory. Looking up the house number and street, I flipped through the virtual pages, electronically unindexed, of course. Knowing both addresses all I needed to do was look for the year the address of the second house first appeared.

Tedious. Time consuming. Oddly rewarding, I must confess.

I felt a little like a time traveller, maybe that is part of the draw of genealogy for me. Anyway, another two hours passed and guess what?! Yup. The second address did not appear until 1920! The Genealogy Queen was correct!

But what about the Zillow listing? What about that?

Again I had to resist the urge to hop in the car and drive the 300 miles to Polk County to show them what I had discovered, and maybe could their be a chance that their records were wrong?

I gave myself a good talking to and decided to just let it go. For the sake of my story I had the proof that I needed. I did put it on my spreadsheet (thanks Thomas MacEntee!) for future research.

OK. On with the story. This should wrap up nicely now, I thought.

I worked my way through the 1920's. The marriage of my grandmother, the career of my great grandfather. Everything was lining up with the "family story" left by my grandmother.

Until 1929.

Oh, oh. Another discrepancy. Or perhaps merely an omission of more detailed information? Rats!

The tale was told that my great grandfather was so successful in his business that he was able to buy a house for his in-laws to retire in. That's not exactly what the records were telling me. I did find my 2nd great grandparents in the 1930 census - but they were living with my great grandparents - AND they were all living in a apartment!?!

Back to the city directories and the year 1929. Shoot. The (extended) family was living in the apartment. The 'big house" had a different family residing in it. 1929! We all know what happened that year. Could my great grandfather have lost everything? Was he forced to sell the big house and move to an apartment?

Noooooo!!

Apart from driving to Polk Co and looking at the real estate histories for the house and the apartment, I had to just let it go, for the moment. (Put it on the ol' spreadsheet for a later looksee)

OK. The Queen has been correct up to this point, why would I doubt her now? I continued to dig into those city directories.

My great grandfather remained in business, his ad ran in the city directory every year. Good.

I took a look at my 2nd great grandparents. 2nd great grandma passed away in December 1932, and 2nd great grandpa in April 1933 Hmm. The foursome was listed as living in the apartment every year from 1929 to 1933. Hmm.

Then I looked at 1934.

Well, well, well. Guess what!? My great grandparents were back in the "big house"!

This just opened up all sorts of questions.

Why did they move to the apartment?
Why did they move back to the big house?
Why, if they were caring for the elderly relatives, did they not just care for them in the house?

Argh!!!!

Resigned to the fact that I would not know the answers, at least not today from the comfort of the Cave; I accepted, grudgingly, that I had reached the end of my quest.

I still don't feel the story is "wrapped up", but the ending is a happy one. And further research revealed that the house remained in the family until at least 1960 - the last year I was able to find a city directory online.

I really need to get to Polk Co one of these days .....

Old Stories, New Eyes; Verifying Family Lore: Tales From The Cave, part one

I had finally committed to catching up with my 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks challenge.

I miraculously had the entire house to myself for a full three days over the Labor Day weekend. No distractions, no obligations. I could hunker down in the Cave, clad in the athletic apparel of the genealogist (pj's and slippers), and power through some major research!

On Saturday I got up at a reasonable time, shuffled into the Cave and laid out a plan. Eight ancestors in three days. Should be doable. I had a good outline on all of them. This time I decided to be a little more methodical. I would concentrate on my maternal side. I would start with my four maternal great grandparents and continue with my four 2nd great grandparents on my maternal grandfather's side. (I had done the four on my maternal grandmother's side previously). Easy peasy.

My grandmother, the Genealogy Queen, had written a family story in the early 1980's. I started my research there using her facts and anecdotes. First up: my grandmother's father. Again, easy peasy. She had already written his story. All I needed to do was double check the facts and lay it down "on paper".

This should be a breeze!

Enter modern technology. What my grandmother did from memory, many hours at the microfiche, and personal correspondence with other relatives to produce her "finished" story was only the tip of that genealogical iceberg! (We knew this, didn't we?)

Nine hours later, bleary eyed and needing a shower, (and well past wine o'clock!), I walked away from the computer to sort out all the new information I had found, and to contemplate the discrepancies I had discovered. So much for eight ancestors in 3 days! I hadn't even finished one!

To clear my head I binge watched Who Do You Think You Are (naturally), poured myself a glass of wine, and found something to heat up. Once I was "all genealogied up", I shuffled back into the Cave for another look. I had to be missing something.

The bones of the story worked with all the proof I could find except for one detail. In my grandmother's recollection, the years of 1916 to 1920 were not lining up with what I was finding. Sure, she would have been 12 to 16 years old - her memory of the sequence of events could be off.

But she's the Genealogy Queen!

She would not have written something without exhaustive proof. Even from her own memory.

To match up her time line I looked at all the records available to me online. I  searched newspapers, scrutinized the census', checked the city directories. What was throwing me off was the dates listed for the construction of the houses her father was said to have built, and the timeline of where the family resided.

The story went that my great grandfather built a new home for his family shortly after 1910. He then built another larger new home right next door after WW1, around 1919, on the site of the family's Victory Garden. Great story!

I wanted to verify this, of course, before I wrote about it as truth. I took another look. Ran it all again. Maybe I was seeing it wrong?

The census did not help, as I could only verify the 1920 address with this story. I looked at the city directories for 1910 and 1911, and the family did in fact move during that time. The 1911 address was different than the 1910 address (which matched the 1910 census) and the 1920 address would, 9 years later, be right next door! Cool. That works.

Next up Google Earth. Where the problem started.  I put in the address and "flew" right to the house. I looked at the 1911 house, still standing, and the 1919/20 house right next door. Zillow helped me along from there. Both houses had some photos included so I got to look inside and poke around a bit. Then I noticed something disturbing. Zillow lists the second house as being built in 1916. What??? No, how could this be? This does not line up.

I checked the description on the 1911 house and it was correct: Year built 1911.

If the second house was built in 1916 and not 1919/20 then what else is off in my grandmother's timeline? And the charming anecdote she told of the Victory Garden that stood where the new house was later constructed. What about that?

I resisted the urge to get in my car and drive to the Polk County Recorder's office right then and there to solve this. Besides, it was a holiday, ... and Saturday night, .....Oh, and well over 300 miles away.

Tired and frustrated, I decided to call it a night.

...to be continued ....