Stories From The Genealogist: Why

 I’m a detective. I’m a history buff. Searching in the past requires detection skills like rooting out and sometimes solving problems. These skills I have always been good at. And I love it so much so that my main source of entertainment is mystery shows and books. I’m in tune with the amateur detectives and can ferret out a bad guy before the show is over. (Though I admit I’m not always right.)

As for searching out my family history many might ask, why would anyone want to search the past; those people we came from?

Kids on my Dad’s side of my family, from around 1800 to 1910.

I recently found a World War I draft card for my great grandfather showing me what he looked like. He was stoutly built, with black hair and had gray eyes. And on a passenger ship from Italy that my husband’s great grandfather was dark skinned, brown eyes, and 5 feet tall.

I started searching out my family when a friend ask me to accompany her to the New Jersey Archives in Trenton, New Jersey where she was going to continue her own family tree. Her mother had started their family history before her death and my friend decide to go on with it. I helped her with her until we came to a loll in the subjects we could root around in. We where were I myself could already in the place where my family history would be found since I come from Paterson, New Jersey, and the Archive in Trenton housed some much of the states history I was in the right place to start my family tree. I always loved research. Early on in school I found that to understand a subject I have to know much more than the basics to grasp any topic. I had to ‘see’ the subject to understand it. Though dyslexia wasn’t known at the time, I believe that was my problem and a major part of how I came to be such a good researcher. So I began ferreting around in the archive to see what I could find about my family. Which started my journey into genealogy.

You can find the exact place where your family lived and what their time period was like. How they traveled. What they wore. What type of jobs they had to work. What it took to keep the family going. Did they own their house and property. Or did they rent. What size house they lived in might be found when you see they amount their property was worth which can be found on some USA government census and how many people were in the family. See how much money they made. Census were taken, depending on where you are in the country, every 5 to 10 years through the 1800s. Many countries over the last few centuries have also kept records. 

With each new invention you could almost see the improvements to their lives and bring them closer and closer to us here in the present. The past is a look into how we got here. You can by searching find out the things that have happened to your ancestors. Some good, some really bad. 

Research puts you in their world.

If you are lucky there are photos and documents to be found from other individuals and their family trees who might be related to you whether closely or distantly on the many genealogy sites out there on the internet, both paid and free. Schools, churches, local governments and family history books can be accessed in the areas your ancestors lived.

The one thing you must know right up front you have to look through the records yourself. This will be a must to insure you are finding your real ancestors. People do not always do research correctly. So copying from other trees and the hints from genealogy sites is not enough. You need to find and read documents yourself to verify a relationship to you.

If any of this appeals to you below are a few sites I like that you can get started.

Paid sites to start a personal family tree:

https://www.ancestry.com

https://www.myheritage.com/

Free sites for searching and collaborative trees (meaning, anyone can change your information):

www.familysearch.org/

www.wikitree.com/

Some of many FREE SITES For Research:

https://books.google.com/ Find books and look inside them and copy and paste information you find.

www.findagrave.com Find your ancestors graves and more. Though sometimes some info is wrong there can be names and dates of their family members you didn’t know about.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

http://www.searchforancestors.com/

https://catalog.loc.gov/

Free sites to search and videos for important information (I don’t have a subscription to any of these youtube sites):

https://www.youtube.com/@GenealogyTV

https://www.youtube.com/@GenealogyGems

https://www.youtube.com/@AncestryAimee

https://www.youtube.com/@FamilyHistoryFanatics

A Mystery to me.

 I have for years been trying to decipher the signatures on two documents for the maiden name of an ancestor, Sarah Ann Day. Sarah’s last name appears on two of her sons’ marriage records though not recognizable to me at first.  I couldn’t come up what the exact name for her. Was it an S like Sutsil on her son John’s marriage record? (right below). I had tried all of these: Suchel, Suchal, Sushel, Sichel or even Gutsil, Gushel and a few more. GASKILL was my last search once I analyzed the G in George, G was it. 

This images is on Sarah’s son IRA’s marriage record. (Both documents seem to be filled out by the same person back in the 1880s.)

 With DNA, I was able to make a solid connections with people with the name Gaskill as well as some of my other ancestors in their trees, my search was over!  ~JAN

Rev. Hiram Fuller Day

Hiram Fuller DAY:

Reverend Hiram Fuller Day

Birth: 17 May 1858 - Wesley, Washington Co., Maine

Death: 18 December 1901 - Yarmouth, Cumberland, Maine

Mother: Joanna Anderson Stinchfield

Father: Elias Foster Day

Born in Wesley, Washington Co., Maine on 17 May 1858 to Elias Foster Day and Joanna Anderson Stinchfield. Hiram Fuller Day married Mary Jane McRAE and had 2 children. He passed away on 18 December 1901inYarmouth, Cumberland, Maine.

More: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/DAY-25614

Day Genealogy. He is referenced in connection with a specific book: The Day genealogy; a record of the descendants of Jacob Day and an incomplete record of Anthony Day. The book was published by the Genealogical Committee of the Day Association in 1916. 

Original book:  https://archive.org/details/daygenealogyreco00daya/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Hiram

About The Day genealogy

• Primary focus: The book primarily focuses on the descendants of Jacob Day and also contains an incomplete record of Anthony Day, who arrived in America in 1635.

• Publication: Originally published in 1916, it was a work of the Genealogical Committee of the Day Association.

• Availability: Multiple reprints and editions of this public-domain book are available from various publishers [1.g.1]. 

Day Family from Paterson, New Jersey - Generation 1: Ira Day and Ruth C Dunn Family

Dunn

DAY Third Generation: Family of Ira DAY and Ellen GORMAN

Woman stood guard with Garden Hose as she refuses to allow painters to work!

My great-uncle, Halstead J. Day and two others were caught in a battle with Mrs. Whitford over painting of her neighbor's house.

A garden hose was her weapon!

 

Ads from PATERSON Daily Press, Paterson, NJ 1903

COAL, delivered CLEAN!
Lowest price of the year!

~

$4.00 a PAIR and guaranteed for 1 YEAR! 
Don't forget to pick up a garden hose! Just 3 cents per foot!

Excellence of Design, Tone and Flexibility of ACTION!

Get a new automobile for just $650!

A heartfelt words of sympathy from George Washington to Mrs. Stephen Day

 From A Brief history of Chatham Morris County, New Jersey by Charles A.  Philhower - pg.  21. 

After the battle of Springfield, General Washington on his return to Morristown sent word ahead to Mrs. Stephen Day (2nd wife of Captain Stephen DAY) that he would stop off to see her on his way through Chatham.  Accordingly, Mrs. Day dressed herself in a fine black silk gown with a large white scarf about her neck and awaited the coming of her distinguished visitor.  A small mahogany table

(Not the Caldwell attack.)
Battle of Long Island, an 1858 painting
 by Alonzo Chappel

was placed on the lawn in front of the house, and a pleasing repast was prepared for the General.  The call was made and heartfelt words of sympathy were extended to Mrs. Day in behalf of the horrible murder of her sister Hannah (Ogden) Caldwell at Connecticut Farms.  Much appreciation was shown by the General for her hospitality and often afterword's it is said the Washington called at the Day Mansion.  Captain Stephen Day, the husband of Mrs. Jeremiah Ogden Day was on of the staunchest patriots.  He was justice of the peace under both the British and Continental rule, served in the army, and was on of the first to aid the Continentals when requisitions for supplies were made.  It is said the he gave a whole beef when the first call was issued.  

Historic Stephen Day House c. 1936

~~~~~~

Captain Stephen Day was my 5th Great-uncle.  -Jan

Born about 1733 in Newark, Essex, New JerseySon of  Joseph Day and Hannah Sargeant Day. Stephen Day commanded a company under Colonel Ford, Eastern Battalion, Morris County, New Jersey Militia, at the Battle of Springfield, Union Co., New Jersey, June 23, 1780.  This was one of the last major engagement of the Revolutionary War in the North and it effectively put an end to the British "ambitions" in New Jersey.  General Washington praised the New Jersey Militia in this battle, writing later, "They flew to arms universally and acted with a spirit equal to anything I have seen in the course of the war."  

Hannah (Ogden) Caldwell.  Hannah, wife of Rev.  James CALDWELL & daughter of John OGDEN of Newark, was killed at Connecticut Farms by a shot from a British soldier, 25 Jun 1780. 

Recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a female patriot. 

htps://www.americanrevolution.org/hannah-caldwell-biography/

Grave Inscription 

"was killed at Connecticut Farms by a shot from a British Soldier.  Cruelly sacrificed by the enemies of her husband and her country" 

Historic Stephen Day House image:This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Borough,_New_Jersey#/media/File:Historic_American_Buildings_Survey_R._Merritt_Lacey,_Photographer_April_30,_1936_EXTERIOR_-_NORTH_ELEVATION_-_Stephen_Day_House,_62_Elmwood_Road,_Chatham,_Morris_County,_NJ_HABS_NJ,14-CHAT,2-1.tif

 

Pvt John Craig, who died in World War 1.

John Craig was my 1st cousin twice removed sharing with him grandparents John Craig b. 1834 and Mary McQuillan b.1835. John was born on 26 Apr 1892 in Belfast, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
He was a Private in WW1 and died in battle of  Flanders Belgium on 31 Mar 1917, age 25 and buried in Aix-Noulette Communal Cemetery Extension Aix-Noulette , Departement du Pas-de-Calais , Nord-Pas-de-Calais , France. He was in D Company, 2nd Battalion, Leinster Regiment. And the son of Patrick and Agnes Craig, of 22 Lady St., Cullingtree Rd., Belfast.

His father and mother received pension after his death. They are listed on the pension.

More at: https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Craig-17948-2

 

1899 Thanksgiving Menu in CENTS!

 

Family relationships

First-degree family links are those between parents and children. 

Second-degree links include brothers and sisters, and grandchildren and grandparents. 

At the third degree, there are great-grandparents, uncles and aunts, and nieces and nephews. 

At the fourth degree, we find a person’s first cousins.

MORE in the diagram.

In short, the degree of kinship represents the number of intermediaries between two people, going back to the common ancestor, then returning to them. 

 

A Prescription from Winston Churchill’s Doctor, 1932.

 

How Poor was Poor.

 There were times in history when urine was used to tan animal skins. AND, when a whole family would pee in one pot and the contents sold to a local Tannery.

These were poor families. Once a day they would take the pot and sell the urine to live on the money.  

These people were said to be, “piss poor.”  And worse than that, there were families that could not afford a pot, there for “didn’t have a pot to piss in”.

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History from McGee Equine & Livestock Farrier Service, Rescue, and Rehabilitation

Found at: Mc Gee Equine & Livestock Farrier Service, Rescue, and Rehabilitation – The Horse Manure Problem of 1894
The 15 to 30 pounds of manure produced daily by each beast multiplied by the 150,000+ horses in New York city resulted in more than three million pounds of horse manure per day that somehow needed to be disposed of. That’s not to mention the daily 40,000 gallons of horse urine. Read the rest and check out their posts. https://www.facebook.com/McGeeEquineLivestockFarrierServiceandrescuecenter

 

A Major Find for MY Family Tree

www.familysearch.org/en/blog/1850s-fashion-trends

For many years I have searched for the surname of my great-great-grandmother, Sarah Ann. A few years ago I found the marriage records for two of her sons which I blogged about at this link. A Mystery To Me: 

https://jdswritersblog.wordpress.com/2023/08/07/a-mystery-to-me/

Pair of Ankle Boot from the 1850

From the marriage records the spelling of their father’s name, George, was a major clue.  Until I realized this Sarah’s last name looked to me to start with an S and spelt something like, Suchel or Siskil. But once I saw the similarity from the G in George to the first letter of Suchel/ Siskel I realized my search was for something more like Guchel of Giskil. 
From there I searched the family trees of the people related to me through DNA looking for our common surnames. In this case the surname was GASKILL. Then I looked to see if the surname we shared linked us through common ancestors and especially Gaskill. That was how I found Sarah Ann Gaskill.

So You're a Cook. What Else Can you do?

 Doris "Dorie" Miller, Hero of Pearl Harbor, was born on 12 Oct 1919 in Waco, Texas, United States. His parents were Conery Miller, who was a farmer and Henrietta Murray.  

 ​He was a​ large man and had played high school football​. 

Dorie was a​ cook aboard the battleship USS West Virginia when it was struck by Japanese bombers in Pearl Harbor on ​December 7​, 1941. He help​e​d ​​take the wounded men below deck​. ​Then D​orie did not hesitate to defend the ship ​by grab​bing a machine gun.

His actions awarded​ him the Navy Cross, which was presented to him by Adm. Chester Nimitz, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was the first African American to be so awarded.

Award

His citation reads: "For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge."

Dorie ​Miller did not live past the war. He died on November 24, 1943 aboard the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), an escort carrier, at sea during the Battle of Makin in World War II.

Memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9955928/doris-miller

"MY COUSIN'S A SUPERHERO! Kids Tell TRUE STORY of DORIE MILLER: WWII HERO | Kidsplaining™️ | Ancestry." Ancestry (channel). 22 May 2021.

Stories From The Genealogist: Mary McNally 1812-1883

 My 3rd great grandmother on my mother’s side.

Mary, called Mamie, was born on Feb 19, 1812 in Leixpix, County Kildare, Ireland to Will McNally c. 1785 and Margaret Mary Kelly c. 1785. She and her husband, John C. Tyrrell Immigrated in 1848 with their children.

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Stories From The Genealogist: John C Tyrrell.

John was born in Ireland, probably Kildare due to his parents, Patrick and Jane both living there. He marries Mary McNally on Jul 1, 1833 Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. They immigrated to America in 1848. John and his wife, Mary lived in Paterson, New Jersey. John served as a Union Soldier in the American Civil War April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865.

John C. Tyrrell and Mary McNally were my 3rd great grandparents on my mother’s side. ~JD

Working On MY Family History: Just My Thoughts.

 

Working On Family History: Just My Thoughts.

Warnings: When on paid genealogy sites try to pay monthly. Many do not offer it that way. Usually it’s a yearly subscription but look and see. I say this having found that their help or support on a few of these sites can be non-existent.

I found this problem mostly with the DNA management areas. Trying to set up my brother’s DNA on my account was a nightmare. In the end my brother and I had to just stop trying and accept the loss of money we paid. It seems  to me they just wanted him to pay the full amount on an account of his own instead of letting me manage his DNA on mine.
These sites also can spit back what you’ve already put in on your tree in the form of hints. If you are on more than one site like I am, free and paid, they may find your information on another genealogy site send it to you on their site in a hint.

DNA is still relatively new and research into finding your past still has some flaws I think. For instead, the percentage amounts for the countries your ancestors came from change with every new country tested even if your ancestors had not lived in them. I think  DNA science might take some time yet to develop in this field and in the meantime this seems to be a money maker for this industry.
Just my thoughts.  ~JAN

Biography: Ira Reese DAY, Junior

Ike as Santa about
 1960 Prospect Park

 Ike was named after my father,  Ira Reese Day.  Ike was 13 pounds at birth. He was called Junior until he was 4, then they decide to call him Ike after President Dwight (I like Ike, was the saying ) Eisenhower. When I was five my father was asking the rest of us kids what we wanted to be when we grew

up.  Ike was three and he immediately started barking and said I want to be a dog.  At that time we lived in a house off a cemetery. I'm mother took Ike and the youngest brother for a walk in the cemetery in the dead end we lived on. Flags were on veterans graves. Ike was walking behind her plucking out the flags to wave. Mom had to ran around finding the graves and putting the flags back.

Ike Grad-Eastside High School 

We lived in Prospect Park New Jersey, a small community for some time that was adjacent to of Paterson new jersey, for about 7 years.  It was a Dutch community at the time and we were supposedly Irish so we thought, and weren't really accepted there.  Though now we know we had as much as they did.  My mother would get hang up phone calls in calls calling her names.  She always suspected The neighbors but I suspected it was my father's mother's friend old friend.  There was a small grocery store and butcher shop in the '50s and '60s on our block in prospect Park and my mother had an account there she would pay it weekly. 

One day Ike, age 5 or 6, not knowing you had to pay for things in store went into the corner store and told a candy bar and went on his very way.  The man called my mother and she said, sorry, just put it on our bill, thank you. 

Years later and after his parents died, his dad in June 1970 and his mom a year and a half later, Ike was orphaned at age 17 and lived in the YMCA, then with his closest friend, Tom G and his family. 

Ike went into the Navy. There was some high jinks with some friends one day and the police got involved and instead of going to jail the police drove him to the recruiting station where he enlisted in the Navy.  He much of his time on the USS Lyndsay McCormick (a battle ship) for about 4 years. After he got out,  for  a time he live with me, sometimes with Tom's family and sometime with his young brother and his wife in New York. He worked fixing cameras and as a letter carrier in the Post Office, Paterson, NJ. He along with Tom and his wife, Elaine, bought a house on 8th Street in Paterson. Ike finally received his college degree in history and Post Office a Postmaster. After his death, the family learned he would have gotten that promotion.

  I was working full-time and living next door to my mother-in-law during this time.  I wouldn't have lived there if I could have afford it somewhere else but it was a cheap place to live because it was lower middle class area.  My husband, Bud, a childhood name, as he was call was living in Pennsylvania with his aunt Lena, his mother's sister, while he interned at Temple University to be a nuclear medical technologist.  I always wanted to play the piano and Ike knew this and he wrote me a letter and said he was sending money for me to buy a piano.

Ike, and his friends Tom and Elaine had bought 2 houses together. One was on 8th Street Paterson.

It was a run down house but it was theirs. The other house was in Upstate New York and not in any better condition than the other one. 

Fortunately the property wasn't worth much with the house in less than livable condition. Heart disease in my family. Our Dad died at 49, and Ike died at 35 from a heart attack. We all care about Ike and he would tell us things that we felt were symptoms. He promise us all he was.  After he died, Tom and Elaine who lived up stairs in a house the three of them bought together told us Ike did not take care of himself. He would just tell us that. Ike would say I know I'll die young. Ike died on August 8, 1989. He was 35.