Saturday, February 23, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ancestor Roulette!


Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 
 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 

1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born?  Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ah
nentafel" - 
your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.


5) NOTE:  If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then "spin" the wheel again - pick a great-grandmother, a grandfather, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!


Here's mine:

1)  My great-grandfather, Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922), was born in 1852.  So my "Roulette number" is 18.52, rounded up to 19.

2)  Number 19 on my ancestor name list (ahnentafel list) is Sophia Newton, Frank's mother-in-law!  Her vital information includes:

** Born on 14 September 1834 (or 1835?), probably in Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont (or possibly Cambridge, Lamoille County, Vermont) to Thomas J. Newton (????-????) and Sophia (Buck) (Brigham) Newton (1797-1882). 
**  Married on 25 December 1852 in Northborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts to Edward Hildreth (1831-1899).
**  Died 29 August 1923 in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, of "old age" at age 88.

3)  Three facts about Sophia Newton:

**  My father knew Sophia (Newton) Hildreth ... she owned the Hildreth home at 149 Lancaster Street in Leominster from her husband's death in 1899 until her passing in 1923, and her daughter's family (Hattie Hildreth married Frank W. Seaver) lived with her in that house from about 1880 to 1905, and then lived less than one mile away after 1912.  
**  Sophia (Newton) Hildreth had two known children - Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857-1920) who married Frank W. Seaver (1852-1922), and Clarence Edward Seaver (1874-1878).  I've always wondered if there were other children, or perhaps miscarriages or stillborns.  Only Hattie appears in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records.  I need to check that out!
**  Since Sophia died after her only child that lived to adulthood, and that child's husband, the probate court filings for Frank and Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver were delayed until Sophia (Newton) Hildreth died in 1923.  The three estates were then probated in 1923, with the two living sons of Frank and Hattie (Hildreth) Seaver inheriting the estate.  The house at 149 Lancaster Street was sold in this process.  

4)  Done!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. My great-grandfather, Walter Cyrus Walker, was born 1865. So my “roulette number” is 18.65, rounded up to 19.
2. Number 19 on my ancestor name list is Anna Ellingsdtr Natvig, my great-grandmother, who was born 15 May 1853 at Ovretun, Sogndal, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway to Elling Erickson Natvig and Ann Ellingsdtr; married Torger Sjursen Leland on 30 May 1876; died 26 Oct 1911 at Madison, Dane county, Wisconsin; and, buried 1 Nov 1911 in Liberty Cemetery, Liberty Prairie, Dane county, Wisconsin.
3. She was the mother of ten children: one son died in infancy and one daughter died unmarried at age 24. Her father-in-law and mother-in-law, Sjur Torgerson Liland and Britta Olsdtr Midttun, lived in her home until their deaths. At one time eleven people lived in her home that was without electricity.

Liz said...

Here's mine:

http://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

wendy said...

Randy - I participated! Here it is: http://allmybranches.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/sngf-ancestor-fun/

Stephanie @ CornAndCotton.com said...

It's been so long since I got to play, but I finally took a night for my own family history!

Minnie Varney Chapman of Vermont
http://www.cornandcotton.com/?p=2623

Debi Austen said...

Here's mine! http://who-knew-it.blogspot.com/2013/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

shelley said...

This assignment was fun. I really needed to get back in the tree
heres mine:
http://shelleyskyline.wordpress.com

Unknown said...

Here is mine: http://www.genealogysphere.com/2013/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

I really enjoy your Ancestor Name Roulette posts!

cindy said...

This opened my eyes to some big holes in my family tree! Thanks for the opportunity! It was fun and insightful!
http://www.genealogycircle.com/2013/02/24/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-nancy-estice-nance/

Rosemary said...

Here's mine. I've neglected my blogging unfortunately.
http://rosebushclimbing.blogspot.com/2013/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ancestor.html

Jan Jones Bony said...

This was fun. 1st time to do this...
http://jan-genealogy.blogspot.com/