Saturday, September 19, 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ahnentafel Roulette

It's Saturday Night - time for some Genealogy Fun (even though I'm stuck in Santa Cruz without Internet access).

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

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 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 ahnentafel. Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

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

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

Here's mine (I had to go into Ancestry.com to find this out...):

1) My father was born in 1911, so he would have been 97 right now. Dividing by 4 gives me 18.75, rounded off to 19.

2) #19 in my ahnentafel is Edward Hildreth, born 30 April 1831 in Townsend, Middlesex, MA to Zachariah and Hannah (Sawtell) Hildreth, and died 26 April 1899 in Leominster, Worcester, MA. He married Sophia Hildreth on 25 December 1852 in Northborough, Worcester, MA, and they had two children - Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920) and Clarence Hildreth (1874-1878).

I don't think I've written about Edward Hildreth before on Genea-Musings. He's a second great-grandfather that my father and his siblings never met since he died before his grandson Frederick Walton Seaver was married in 1900. There were no memories of him passed down by his daughter to her grandchildren that I know of.

3) Three facts:

* Edward Hildreth was listed as a combmaker in the 1860 census, worked in a machine shop in the 1870 census, and was listed as a machinist in the 1880 census.

* The Edward and Sophia (Newton) Hildreth home was located at 146 Lancaster Street in Leominster, Worcester, MA.

* Edward Hildreth died intestate. His probate records are in Worcester County Probate Records, Enclosure 25,255 B (reviewed at Worcester County Court House in Worcester, MA). Administration was granted on 24 October 1899 to his widow, Sophia Hildreth, who posted a bond on $3,000 on that date. No inventory was made or filed. The heirs-at-law were listed as:

** Sophia Hildreth, Leominster, Mass., widow.
** Hattie L. Seaver, Leominster, Mass., daughter.

4) I did it in this post!

PS: Will someone please post a link to this on Twitter and Facebook for me? Thanks!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

tweeted it for you!

Diana Ritchie said...

Hey Randy - 97 divided by 4 is 24.25....I think you need to spin the wheel again ;-)

Anonymous said...

Mine is up. Thanks for the fun that has given me some insight to my research.

GrannyPam said...

Mine is here: http://xrl.in/35jv

Tracy said...

Mine is up! Thanks for the writing prompt.

Greta Koehl said...

Mine is at http://gretabog.blogspot.com/2009/09/sngf-ahnentafel-roulette.html. Just happens to be the guy I'm working on. Interesting guy, 27 children.

Bill West said...

Here's mine at

http://tinyurl.com/lzkdup

Anonymous said...

I will post here this week. My number was 17 and it was Clois Mae Dickerson, my husband's maternal Grandmother. She was born in 1911 Arkansas and died 1997 in TN. She was an Army Nurse and had career in Nursing, married a Dr. She told stories of the flood and of dancing at the Memphis Peabody Hotel when it was newly built. She would visit there with the politicians and wealthy in the Memphis areas. We miss her. We all called her "Nanny".

Tina Sansone (Gtownma)

Mel said...

My ancestor is Rosa de Medeiros Pacheco of Maia, Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel Island, Azores http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2009/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ahnentafel-roulette/

galleri (Sundee) said...

Thanks!! This is my first genealogy blog post..and I think with your Saturday Night Genealogy Fun I may just learn a lot more about my ancestors!!!
Mine is here:
http://galleri-randomthingsbyme.blogspot.com/2009/09/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-ahnentafel.html

owlhart said...

My dad was born early 1931 - making my number 19 or 20 - technically closer to 20. #20 is g-g-grandfather, John R Chambers.
1) Born Oct 18, 1837

2) His brother Isaiah died Apr 8, 1863, his son born Apr 10, 1863 - was named Isaiah - I think I see why.

3) From his obituary, "He was a highly respected citizen, an agreeable and accomodating neighbor, a most endearing parent and husband".

Keith Hart

Sara Beth said...

Mine is up at:
http://lessonsfrommyancestors.com

Thanks!

Ed Hamilton said...

#26. William Rogers of Kilbroney Parish, Co. Down, Ireland, of whom I knew nothing at all until last month when a very kind soul found the birth records of his daughter (my gr-grandmother) and two of her siblings.

M. Diane Rogers said...

Hi, Randy. Hope you are having fun in Santa Cruz (although to be without the Internet sounds terrible!).
My answer is up at CanadaGenealogy, or, Jane's Your Aunt

Anonymous said...

Thanks for providing some motivation to get me to write a new post. Here's my post

Diana Ritchie said...

Coming in a little late, but finally done. I've posted my SNGF over at Random Relatives.

Thanks for the fun topic!

Cyndi Beane Henry said...

Here's mine on Sunday afternoon!

http://mountaingenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/saturday-night-challenge-on-sunday.html

Unknown said...

Hi Randy! Just posted my first SNGF: http://bit.ly/11KlWM

Thanks for the challenge!

gsgenealogy said...

A Little Late, posted on Monday: http://gsgenealogy.blogspot.com/
#18 Ada Coon

N. LaRue said...

This was really fun and I loved reading about everyone's subjects. I posted my own at http://genealogist-in-training.blogspot.com/

GeneRooter said...

Hmm. What if your/my ancestry.com is broken up into four lines? Hmm. Guess I'll pin the longest. Since this listing doesn't include siblings yet, it goes way back, real fast. Lessee now... hum I get the unknown father of the slightly known father of my father's maternal grandmother. Hmmm...

Brett Payne said...

Mine's very late, I'm afraid, but I have it posted here. Thanks for the nudge which motivated me to collate in one place all that I know about this ancestor, and made me think about what I still need to find out. Regards, Brett