Saturday, October 6, 2018

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- 20 More Questions

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)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings wrote 
20 More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You this week and Linda Stufflebean thought it would be a great SNGF challenge.  I agree!

2)  Copy the questions from Ellen's post or from my post below, and insert your own replies.  Be sure to comment on Ellen's blog so she knows you wrote about it.


3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

Thank you to Ellen for her post and to to Linda Sufflebean for suggesting this topic.  If you have an idea for an SNGF topic, please let me know.  


Q1:   Why do you love doing genealogy/family history?
A1:  The hunt.  The challenge.  I love solving problems.  My ancestry is unique

Q2:  How far have you traveled to research an ancestor?
A2:  Norway and England.  Mine in England, Linda's in Norway, in the Voss area.   

Q3:  What do you think your favorite ancestor would think of our lives today?
A3:  My favorite ancestor is Devier J. Lamphear Smith (1839-1894).  He was a livery man, horse trader, land speculator, and inventor.  I think he would be amazed by the science and engineering feats that have created the fields of transportation, communications, health and education.

Q4:  What do you think that your ancestor would like/dislike?
A4:  I think he would love the health care, and would dislike the ostentatious wealth of the elites.

Q5:  What was the most unusual cause of death that you’ve found?
A5:  2nd great-grandfather Henry White (1824-1885) died of locomotor ataxia in Killingly, Connecticut.  His wife, Amy (Oatley) White (1826-1865) died of a strangulated hernia. 

Q6:  Which ancestor had the most unusual occupation?
A6:  In the 1885 Kansas State census, Devier J. Smith (1839-1894) was a "speculator."  I think it was land, but it might have been horses.

Q7:  Have you ever gone to where your ancestor lived and it felt like home even if you’ve never been there before?
A7:  Yes, Leominster, Massachusetts, where my father grew up was like that.  So was Hilperton in Wiltshire where my Richman ancestors came from.

Q8:  Do you have a distant ancestor  (several generations back) that looks like someone in the family?
A8:  Not that I can tell.  

Q9:  What is the oldest ancestral photo that you have?
A9:  The oldest photo is probably the ambrotypes in the Union Case photos of my 2nd great-grandparents Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver from about 1864.

Q10:  Did you have an ancestor that had an arranged marriage?
A10:  Not that I know of.

Q11:  If you could live in the time period of one of your ancestors what year would it be? Where would it be?
A11:  About 1835 in Sterling, Massachusetts.  I could ask my 3rd great-grandfather Thomas J. Newton where he was born and who his parents were.

Q12:  Which ancestor was married the most times?
A12:  2nd great-grandfather Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) was married three times - to Juliet Glazier in 1846, to Lucretia Smith in 1851, and to Alvina Bradley in 1884.

Q13:  If you’ve tested your DNA what was the biggest ethnicity surprise?
A13:  The 1% of Native American that 23andMe and two others said I have on Chromosome 12.  I think it's from my mother's ancestry.

Q14:  Did you have a female ancestor that was different or unusual from other females from that time period?
A14:  Perhaps Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869), who became a schoolteacher and moved 50 miles or so from Cape Cod to Dedham, Mass.

Q15:  Did your ancestor go through a hardship that you don’t know how they managed?
A15:  I can't imagine how Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) managed losing his father at age 2 and his first wife after a year of marriage and one baby.

Q16:  How often do you research? Are you a genealogy addict?
A16: Every day, almost all day, 8 to 10 hours on average.  Yes, "geneaholic" is my Facebook name.

Q17:  Do you have someone in your family that will take over the family history?
A17:  Not yet.  I'm hoping one or two of the grandchildren will become hooked on it.

Q18:  Have you had a genealogy surprise? What was it?
A18:  That Devier James Lamphear Smith (1839-1894) was adopted as a baby in Jefferson county, New York.

Q19:  Are you a storyteller? What’s your favorite family story?
A19:  Not very good - I get my tangue tongled usually, and go on and on.  My wife is great, though!  My favorite family story is how my life changed with a phone call the Friday before I was going away to a new job.

Q20:  What was your greatest genealogy discovery?
A20:  Early on, it was discovering the Mayflower connections that excited my aunts and uncle and cousins.  

=============================================

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2018/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-20-more.html

Copyright (c) 2018, 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.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

6 comments:

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Great questions!

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2018/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-20-more.html

Seeds to Tree said...

Randy, I love your story about how one quick decision can change your life's course forever. These questions are great. My answers are here:

https://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2018/10/20-great-genealogy-questions.html

Ellen T-J said...

Randy, Thanks to you and Linda Stufflebean for enjoying my questions and for your answers. I really enjoy reading everyone's answers.

Janice M. Sellers said...

These were some interesting questions!

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2018/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-20-more.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

These were really fun questions. Thank you, Ellen and Randy. https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2018/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-14/

Nancy Ward Remling said...

I finally got around to completing this.

https://remlinggenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/10/saturday-challenge-playing-20-questions.html