Saturday, June 6, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Best Research Find In May 2015

It's Saturday Night, 
time for more Genealogy Fun!!


For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:


1)  I am away at the SCGS genealogy Jamboree this weekend, having too much fun (I hope!).

2)  What was your best genealogy research "find" in May 2015?  It could be a record, it could be a photograph, etc.  Whatever you judge to be your "best."

3)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, or in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or google+ post.

Here's mine:

While doing research to add content and context to my 52 Ancestors sketch of Humphrey White (1757-1814), my 4th great-grandfather, I found the following records:

*  Four deeds in Bristol County, Massachusetts for Humphrey buying/receiving and then selling two parcels of land in Westport on the west side of the (now) Westport River.  I wrote about two of the deeds (to date) in:

*  Amanuensis Monday - Post 269: 1794 Deed of Jonathan White to Humphrey White in Bristol County, Mass. (25 May 2015)
*  Amanuensis Monday - Post 270: 1792 Deed of Stephen Gifford to Humphrey White in Bristol County, Mass. (1 June 2015)

Then, I found the location of the Humphrey White house in Glocester, Providence County, Rhode Island based on an 1870 historical map, a vanity book article about the family, a photo in his profile on Geni.com, and Google Maps street view.  My post was:

*  Finding Humphrey White's House in Glocester, R.I. (27 May 2015)

That's it!!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/06/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-best.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

12 comments:

Mary Rohrer Dexter said...

Here is a link to my blog on my May 2015 find.

http://skeezicks1957.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-farmers-wife-magazine-1906-1939.html

Janice Harshbarger said...

Without a doubt, my best find was figuring out who "Aunt Esther" was, learning she was my great aunt, and that she spent at least 27 years of her life from about 1890 to 1917 as a missionary in Tura, Assam, India. She was Esther Stanard Dring, the wife of Rev. William Dring and the mother of one child, Flora. I have pictures of Esther and of Flora but I didn't know who they were. Genealogy happy dance time!

Janice Harshbarger

Mary Rohrer Dexter said...

I just realized mine is probably actually found more June 1915. Although the back ground info was laid in May.

Scott Lackey said...

Made a lot of progress with marriage records in Texas via FamilySearch. They've added a ton of images to their online database

Lacey F. said...

I found my sister's biological paternal grandmother's California Death Index record which lists her mother's maiden name! I had to wait for my sister to remember the maiden name of the grandmother before I could find the indexed record which had the great-grandmother's maiden name on it. Now to uncover the great-grandmother's first name.....

Mel said...

May was awesome research wise. I finally found evidence that my great great grandfather's brother, John Charles Jones' line had descendants.
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2015/06/sngf-in-may-i-learned-nellie-jones-was-helen-phelps/

Janice M. Sellers said...

My best find in May was actually an index. I've posted about it on my blog:

http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2015/06/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-best.html

MJ Rice said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MJ Rice said...

My best find in May is the direct result of one of your previous blog entries. (Knapp Entries in Probate Records for Dutchess County, New York - Post 1: Will Books from March 25, 2014).
http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/03/knapp-entries-in-probate-records-for.html

I was exploring your archived blog posts and came across this entry detailing your search in Family Search's New York probate records for Dutchess County, NY. I just happened to be working on a tangled branch that was there during revolutionary times, so your post inspired me to dig into these records again. The comment added by "Goneresearching" also helped me interpret the data, some of which was filmed in reverse chronological order.

I found a treasure-trove of records documenting my Gorsline/Gosline ancestors during the revolutionary years in Dutchess County, New York, including court cases where Samuel Gorsline's executors took Samuel's half-brother, Thomas Gorsline to court because he was a known loyalist. Each of the executors also provided their own oath of allegiance to the colonial government.

Unknown said...

I decided to google a man whose YDNA came up as a match to my brother's. His ex-wife had posted the results and was the contact person, and she just blew me off when I contacted her.
I wrote him a letter, explaining that our County Fermanagh ancestors shared that last name (which few of the YDNA matches do, which is disconcerting).

This was at least the fourth I have googled and sent a letter, and the first time I got a call back a couple of weeks later! He not only told me what he knew, but told me about his uncle in Texas who is more knowledgeable and I talked to him as well. Said uncle sent me a subsequent email saying it is ALL my fault and now he resubscribed to ancestry and is into genealogy again.

We still do not know the name of our common ancestor, but suspect he is likely only one generation back from names we do know. They are talking about us getting together!

I feel so much hope. These are the ancestors with my own last name, and I have a prayer at last of finding them!

Unknown said...

I apologize, I went in as unknown, but I am kathybaxter@gmail.com.
Kathleen Baxter

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

My best find was the home town in French Canada of the family I'm researching for a client. I'm now learning to read French baptism/marriage/burial records from the Druoin Collection!