WDYTYA??

Who Do You Think You Are aired last Friday night.  I sat with my arms crossed with tears running down my face.  Not because I was sad and not because I was happy.  I cried because I was so jealous.  An emotion I have never really experienced before.  I am not a jealous envious person, so those emotions are so new and so raw.

I was jealous because these people had all the resources and people at their finger tips.  They had everyone else braking down their brick walls.  I am excited the show is on, don’t get me wrong I love the idea and the reason behind it.  But really, I wanted to be the one that was helped through my family tree.

It had definitely lighted a fire under my  bum, to pull out old files and get reacquainted with people I hadn’t visited in awhile.  I am looking forward to seeing another episode on Friday.

So on Saturday I tried looking for the Howell family.  I was a little successful.   I had found Sara Howell who married Henry Brezee.  Together they had a child Rosa Bella Brezee. I found information on Sara’s parents. Her mother was Rebecca Limbers and her father was Nehemiah Howell, so now I have another name to look up and that really excites me.  I found an excerpt from the book “The History of Barbour County of West Virginia. I don’t know the author.  There is a handful of info for me in this book and I am so excited.

The only problem with the Howell family is that I can not find Nehemiah anytime before he was married to Rebecca.  I have my work cut out for me on this one. So my goals for this week are;

1. Find out who Nehemiah father is.
2. Find all the Census on Nehemiah.

Fred Walker Brush

Oh Fred, where are you?  Who are you?  I feel like I have been running in circles trying to locate the real Fred Walker Brush.  The obituary of his father Fred Brush mentions nothing of Fred Walker.  I am stumped.  I may never find out.  But I will sure try to uncover this alluding secret.

Albert C Lynn

Albert was a fireman with the fire department in Boston Massachusetts.  I don’t know that much about him except that he is the father of May Whiting Lynn.  She is the Great Great Grandmother of Martin Gessler Gerth, Stephens Grandfather.  I spent a good 3 hours last night going through they newspaper documents at Ancestry, to find this.

This little tiny paragraph gives me a lot of information I did get this from the Portsmouth New Hampshire newspaper.  I am currently looking for his wife.  She apparently died before him.  Yea for me!  I love finds like these.

John M. Gessler

I am having such a hard time finding any information on John M. Gessler’s family its beginning to really frustrate me to a point that I don’t even want to look for anyone anymore.  I feel defeated.  I feel like I am stuck to only information I can get off the web and pay for.  I need to get to the library.  But really I have no idea where to start.

So John M. Gessler was born abt. 1843, he married a Sarah, and had a few children.  I have tried to look him up for the 1850’s census, but without any other information I a really stuck.  How do I find someone that I know nothing about. I want to fly to Pennsylvania, right now.  I want to find my information now, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.  I have a book I am working on.  I wanted to give it to grandma at Christmas, I don’t think that is going to happen.

Tombstone Tuesday

I have decided that I am going to start following the Genebloggers themes for every day of the week.  I will see if it is too much for me to do.

Since I do not have pictures of tombstones of my own since I am deciding this on a whim.  I will use the pictures that I found on Find A Grave.  And hopefully I don’t offend or piss anyone off.  And if I do I apologize right now.  I will try to source all that I can and I will only use the pictures of stones from my family.  I do not claim the following pictures as my own

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So this is not a great picture of this tombstone, but it is all that I have until I get to Cloverdale, California.

This plot is of Fred W. Brush.  He is my grandfathers grandfather. So that makes him my Great Great Grandfather.  He was born on January 22, 1869 and died Apr. 1964. He was the son of William T Brush and Lucy Brush.  Fred was married to Lena A Cheeks they had three children; William T. Brush b:1894, Lucille Brush b 1897; and Fred Brush b: 1902; this is my Great Grandfather.

Fred lived in Cloverdale his entire life.  And he has been quite hard to research.  When looking for his headstone, I noticed that there were two different cemeteries that claim to be the final home of his resting place.  I have a feeling I am going to have to take a quick trip to Cloverdale, and find out which one is the correct one.

I suspect that there was move and the original cemetery is no long there.  Now that would have interesting to watch; them moving all of the caskets to a new cemetery. 

I will am going to post the obit for Mr. Fred W. Brush this afternoon.

I’m Beginning to Second Guess Everything…

Agghh! I searched and searched last night and had no luck in finding anything that supports my findings on Paul Lysuaght or Lysaght.  I did however find a death certificate for Charles Lysaght, but I can’t confirm that until I find more information.  I  haven’t been able to find 1870 Census with any of the parties involved.  I am beginning to feel really defeated.  Hopefully today will be better.  I have sticky notes everywhere! 

It seems that everything I thought that was right seems to be wrong.  Do I really know what I am doing with this Genealogy stuff or am I just going around in circles.  I am feeling really undone about all of it.  Hopefully today I will have something that will bring me out of this funk.  I wish I could just jump in a car and drive to South Carolina.  That would be really helpful.  I don’t know what else to do.

Paul Lysaught or Lysaght

While researching some of Grandma’s family I have noticed first hand how surnames change, and why they change.  Don’t get me wronged, I fully believe Grandma thinks she knows what she is talking about, but its hard not to believe the fine print that has been around for a really long time.

Like Lysaught, Grandma thinks this is the correct spelling of her ancestor.  However, I have not found this spelling to exist within this family tree.  I have only been able to find Lysaght.  Having this conversation is not an easy one.  First she is not my biological Grandmother, and believing me with regard to her family history is very difficult for her to imagine. Second, she is a very strong minded women (which I love, but not when I am right).  So I am spending most of the time researching the family name. 

Paul Lysaught or Lysaght, was a young boy when his mother married a man named Jasper Newton Cantey.  Paul and his brother Charles, became stepchildren to this man.  I know that they had brothers and sisters however, I have not been able to obtain birth years for them so I am unsure if they are half or step I do know that they are Jasper’s biological children.  Jasper and Paul’s mother Caroline or Carrie were both married prior to there nuptials.  I have been unable to locate Carrie’s first husband Lysaght and I am still actively looking.  Jasper’s first wife had died in childbirth from what I have been able to recover.  I am not sure if the child died as well.

The only source I currently have is the 1880 Census or Allendale Barnwell, South Carolina.

Because Paul was born in 1876, there is only one Census that remains (well that I have found) because of the loss of 1890 Census, the next one I have is 1900, and he was already married to Florence Eugenia Munn. 

My goal today is to get to the bottom of the marriage of Caroline Elizabeth Carrie Lysaght Canty, I believe her maiden name was Jones.  So I will be going through marriage documents to find a connection between her and her first husband.