Family Tree Musings

Depression Era Cooking

2008-12-05T17:10:00.002-06:00

This is a lovely set of videos posted by a grandson who taped his now 93 year old grandmother Clara cooking and talking about the Great Depression. As we are in a recession ourselves, it's something to keep in mind!
My own grandmother Laura experienced the Great Depression herself on the Hildebrand family farm in LaClede IL. Now that she is gone, I wished I had learned more about it. Grandma always said she was the "runt" being the youngest of 11 children. One of our favorite meals Grandma made was, of course, "Scrapple", but this was not the ordinary Scrapple that you can buy in the store. Hers was more of a firm cornmeal mush, almost like a fried polenta. Grandma said that during the Depression they ate a lot of scrapple. She died never leaving a recipe behind.
I have worked very hard to recreate Grandma's scrapple recipe, and my last batch was made at Christmas time last year as a gift for my dad. The Divinity candy I tried to make didn't come out so good, but the Scrapple was about as close as someone has gotten. This year's batch should be even closer. I think we've gotten a few of her meals recreated pretty well for her never working from a recipe.

Veterans Day

2008-11-11T09:31:00.003-06:00

As today is Veterans Day, please take a moment to think of and thank your family Veterans for their service to our country.
In genealogy, there are lots of military veterans one comes across. As I find them, I take a moment to learn about the wars they served in, and try to think about what the times must have been like for people then. What calls a man to service in times like the times they lived in?
So bring out your poppy, and wear it to remember our veterans.

Philadelphia - part 2

2008-10-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

On the other side of my family tree, on my dad's side, the Buechele's came into the country vis ship passage in 1864. They quickly settled in Phildelphia, and set up a Boarding House called the Weeping Willow. Now, I don't have many records yet to back this up. It's family tradition at this point that the Buechele's had an establishment called the Weeping Willow, with a Weeping Willow tree out front. My hope is to find some city directories and see what comes up. I know that in 1880, the family was already in the Chicago area, making shoes. Not a large timeframe, but long enough to apparently have had a child, and my great great grandfather left his sister behind, who married the Sondregger's, of which I am still trying to find record of.

Philadelphia

2008-10-07T11:34:00.004-05:00

Last month, my husband and I took a trip to Philadelphia to visit his dad. While the boys were at the football game, I took the time to visit the sites of downtown Philly. For the family tree, there's lots going on in Philly.
First off, there's Christ Church. This church is very close to Independence Hall, and after walking there from the major sites, I can see why it had a significant role in Philadelphia life. A family of ancestors were members of the church, William Robinson, and his wife Susanna (nee Shead/See).
These Robinson's had all of their children baptized at the church, and records still survive. Their marriage record also survives. I have sent for these copies already.
In addition, the graveyard holds Susanna's grave. I was lucky to have access to go to the DAR library in Washington DC with my friend Janice a few times. What a wonderful genealogy library they have there. The book of graves was published in 1864, and I copied the pages I thought might be related to my family. Now going back to that research, yes indeed, that was hers. The graveyard is well kept, but the materials the grave markers were made from were poor, and her grave is unknown at this time. I am considering writing to the church to see if perhaps they know where it may be located approximately.
I did enjoy the cemetery for it's famous folks, and I may try to sort out at what time period the Robinson's would have been at the church, and what famous folks may have been their parishioner friends.

Finding old documents- Making His Mark

2008-08-23T12:02:00.003-05:00

Part of working on the family tree is backing up info with real documents. It's one thing to say that someone was married on a particular day or year, but another thing to find that document in historical records. Record searching means writing a lot of letters, sending fees and paying postage, and a lot of waiting. Sometimes the waiting is to only have a letter returned as "no record found".
Another part of the hunt is: in what county or state did something happen in? Just because someone lived in one area at their death certainly doesn't mean that they were married or born there.
Records also include military service files, widows' pension files, newspaper accounts, and also US census records.
Part of what makes the search so fun is getting copies of very old documents back. Then the hard part begins, because old handwriting is very hard to read!
One thing I find interesting as time goes back, is how little our ancestors knew how to read and write. On many documents for Andrew Johnson, an ancestor in Illinois on my mother's side, he "made his mark". This was an "X" scratched in the presence of someone who could write, and they wrote his name around it. This was true of the affidavit he signed to marry his "minor" 20 year old son to Miss Elizabeth Yackey. Someone else wrote the document out, and his scribbly "X" signed it. Back then, many people didn't even know what they were signing, if the person who could read and write were unscrupulous.

Austin Flint- a recent discovery

2008-08-10T20:39:00.002-05:00

This is Austin Flint, an ancestor who married into the Lucas family, and a American Civil War veteran. I researching this fellow, I found that he was part of a unit in Illinois, the 64th Illinois Infantry, which was also called "Yates' Sharpshooters". This was one of a very few regiments that had a name. They even had a special flag.

Life in the regiment was very hard, and they participated in several key Civil War battles. While no "Gettysburg" or anything like that, but other key battles, like "Shermans march to the sea" among them.

As a new found family member and I try to help piece together Austin Flint's life, through letters that this family member has of Austin's that he wrote home during the war, there is another group participating in civil war re-enactments of this particular unit.

Close to me out here in Will County is a re-enactment group who are living demonstartions of the 64th Illinois Infantry. Their next big battle re-enactment is October 17th in Minooka. I plan to be there to talk to the re-enactors and help understand life for my ancestor.

Civil War research

2008-07-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

I have just begun a search on some of our Civil War ancestors. Some of them were quite "characters" and some were upright honest folks who became prominent in their towns after the war.
I recently made a connection to a researcher in Texas who has some exciting new things to share.
Most of them are on the Lucas side, and I will post little biographies soon.
I'm also getting my research together for my annual trip to Fort Wayne IN to go to a large genealogy library there.

More about Robert Sherman Robinson

2008-07-08T09:23:00.003-05:00

Robert Sherman Robinson served in the Virginia Militia during the war of 1812. He was mustered in as a volunteer and served 119 days in 1814. He was one of 13 children. He married into the prominent Haymond family by taking Maxa as his wife in 1816. They lived in what was at the time "Virginia" but is now West Virginia, somewhere around Clarksburg.
Once he married Maxa, he took his new bride to Clay County, Illinois. In 1852, he exercised his Military Bounty (reward) to purchase 80 acres of land in Illinois. He was a farmer according to census records.
As Robert lay dying of cancer, Maxa was apparently in hysterics. He was supposed to have exclaimed "Maxa, be still and let me die in peace." He was remembered as being blunt and soft spoken. I still have not found an obituary for him. His will survives, and records that his debts be paid, and that Maxa have the house and it's contents until her death, which afterwards it passes to his sons.
After his death, Maxa was eligible for a widow's pension, which military wives can apply for to take care of them after their husbands pass. Maxa's pension was held up by the fact that she did not have proof of her marriage to Robert, and had to obtain a legal signature of a doctor stating that she was too frail to travel back to West Virginia to obtain the proof. She had to appear and have her neighbors (who were relatives) give testimony to their cohabitation. Her pension was approved for $8 per month.
The pension record is very cool, if not darned difficult to read due to the unusual script handwriting of the authorities who took Maxa's depositions. It has lots of interesting bits about Robert making other pension claims, as part of his over all file. One cool bit that I can make out reads:
"That after he enlisted in said service he (unknown word), with his Company to Richmond, Virginia, and from the latter place was cornered by (unknown word) to Norfolk, Virginia, and was stationed in and near said place during his period of service. That the only duty he performed was "Guard" duty and "Drilling". That he recieved a discharge and lost said discharge in moving from place to place. That he cannot remember the exact time and place.
That he, at no time during the late rebellion against the authority of the United States, adhered to the cause of the enemies of the Government, giving them aid or comfort, or pretended authority in hostility to the United States, and that he will support the Constitution of the United States, that he is not in reciept of a Pension under any previous Act..." So, that late rebellion, being that this part was taken in 1871, would have been the Civil War. Robert was made to swear that he did not give "enemies" (that would be the Confederates) comfort or aid in order to claim part of his pension.

Family Patriotism

2008-07-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

One thing that I discovered doing my family tree is that we have a large number of veterans amongst our ancestors. And while we have obvious connections to World War 2 in our own recent generations, and links to the Revolutionary War in the ones further back, there are a few surprises throughout.
For example, on my father's side, there is a fellow named Robert Sherman Robinson, who served in the War of 1812. Being a child of the Illinois/Chicago Public Schools, I had no recollection of what the War of 1812 was about. This lead to lots of book reading about the war for me to understand his role in it. Did you know that this was was basically the "second Revolution" in which the British tried to take the colonies back? Our ancestor was from the Virginia militia, and served in the Artillery division. That means he fired cannons.
While I was living in Baltimore, there was lots of 1812 war history about, including historic places to see cannonballs still stuck in the walls from that very war. In addition, the War of 1812 and the attack the British made on the port city of Baltimore in 1814 was the inspiration for the "Star Spangled Banner" to be written.
So while I continue to study the movements of the artillery division that my ancestor served in, the research on the tree has lead to many revelations about America's history that we can be proud of.

Welcome to the Family Tree blog

2008-07-03T11:10:00.002-05:00

I guess blogging is second nature lately, and it's an easy way of letting people see what research I have been up to. Granted, I've been slow at the research lately due to lots of personal, and artistic, reasons, but I still do it.
Previously, I have been putting my research on my annual Christmas website, which was not as accessible, and had to be completed right during the holidays, which is not a great time for me to be reformatting family tree data for general consumption. This way I can post through out the year on the findings I make, and you get to follow at your own pace.
I hope you like the stuff I find and post here.