It's Saturday Night, time for some Genealogy Fun after your frustrating week of finding phantom ancestors in online family trees and trying to keep up with everybody on Twitter, Facebook and Genealogy Wise.
Here is your assignment for this Saturday Night (if you decide to accept it, of course - you can't have fun if you don't try):
1) Let's go time travelling: Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?
2) Tell us about it. Write a blog post, or make a comment to this post, or on Facebook, or in Genealogy Wise.
Here's my time travel wish:
1834 in Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont. Just after Sophia (Buck) (Brigham) Newton gave birth to her daughter, Sophia Newton, daughter of Thomas J. Newton. Hopefully, I would find all members of the Newton family at home, wherever it is.
I have one simple question for Thomas J. Newton: Who are your birth parents? I have lots more questions of course, but that one is the most important one. An answer would unlock about 200 years of genealogy research in New England on one of my highest brickwall problems.
My information about Thomas J. Newton is very sketchy - see Mystery Monday - Thomas J. Newton of Maine (19th century). I'm not even sure that the birth places for the son Thomas (Cambridge VT) or for daughter Sophia (Springfield VT) are correct. All I know is that there are no records in those places (that I've found) for the births. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!
Hi Randy,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic. I posted at:
http://geneadiva.blogspot.com/2009/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-time.html
Thanks,
I would travel back to when I was in grade school working on an ancestor project. I would ask my great grandparents more questions like when Uncle Lee and Uncle Alfred were born and where. When did they die. Was Leda you grandmother or the woman who raised your mother?
ReplyDeleteJune 1, 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the day after the Flood of 1889. I would like to ask my great-grandparents, who lost everything but their lives, how they managed to survive. Was it a case of heeding a warning or were they somewhere else when it hit? And I would thank my great-grandmother for saving her parents' family Bible (if that legend is true.)
ReplyDeletehttp://asimplecountrylife.blogspot.com/2009/07/time-travel.html
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to settle on any one person! I think I would like to go back to 1860 to Jefferson County, Kentucky and find my great great grandfather Charles Hays, who would still be with his parents. I would ask for his parents, grandparents, and siblings information and I would take pictures with my digital camera that I would bring back in time with me. Of course, I would have someone take a picture of me with Charles and his family. :)
ReplyDeleteRandy - I'm up for this one. Thank you.
ReplyDeletehttp://worthy2be.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-time-travel/
Russ
I would like to go back to 1975 armed with the information I now have and don't have. This was before all my relatives started to pass away, and I would remember to ask the good questions. Or then back to 1923 to find out who my grandfather really is.
ReplyDeleteDestination: Nov 1895 – Peabody, Kansas
ReplyDeletePurpose: To interview Harry Henry Nelson, if that is his real name.
Background: Harry Nelson states birth date in 1873, either in New Jersey or Massachusetts. This record cannot be found. Expose Harry for his fraud, before his marriage to Lulu Reed. But carefully; this marriage must go on, if I am to be born.
That was fun! Here's mine . . . benotforgot.blogspot.com . . .
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic to ponder!! I've posted my contribution over at Random Relatives. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteEasy one for me, I think. I'd like to meet my great grandma - Mary Ann White (c.1840-1897) - in about 1892 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This would be after she was married for the second time.
ReplyDeleteMy question - "Please, please tell me all about your life so far." I know so little - and long to know more.
Hoping her life was a bit more comfortable by this time and so she'd have time to talk (and reflect). I think though she likely had to work very hard all her life.
I would go back to Ellis County Kansas early 1900's and talk to my great grandparents. I'd like to know about thier familie, parents and what life was like befroe they came to America. WOW it would be great!
ReplyDeleteStarr
I would love to meet GGGGrandad Henry Huffman who fought in Rev War and hear the rest of his stories.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to get to know Silas Jones SR and sons better. Abel especially. So I guess I would love to go back to about 1750 in the Mid Atlantic and NE states and have a better understanding of (why) things.
SusiCP
I would go back to before 1991 and ask my dad about his family. I would also listen harder to the things that were said over the years. I wish I had been interested in genealogy 30 years ago...
ReplyDeleteI am a little late as it is Sunday morning. I would go back to about 1832, to the home of my ancestor Thomas Graves, hopefully, this would let me find out when, exactly, and where he was born, who his first wife was and how many children he had. He was married by this time. Also where he lived at that time.
ReplyDeleteThe question I would ask is,"Who are your parents?"
Lots of fun, as usual for your Saturday night games. My answer is at http://gretabog.blogspot.com/2009/07/time-travel.html. There was an obvious first choice for me, though I can think up many more (and have, inspired by some of the answers so far).
ReplyDeleteRandy, my post is at http://tinyurl.com/lgoahp
ReplyDeleteRandy, this is too hard. So many ancestors, so many questions. But I made a short list primarily based on why I started looking into my roots: wanting to know where the families came from.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if time travel was possible, would that be included in my Ancestry subscription, or would that be an extra like a DNA test kit?
ReplyDeleteGreat fun, mine is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://xrl.in/2rwq