Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Where were they in 1909?

Randy Seaver on his blog, Genea-Musings challenges the blogging community to some Saturday Night Fun each week. I enjoy participating when I am not wrapped up with family activities. He comes up with some very interesting things for us to think about. Tonight's Genealogy Fun is to: 1) Which of your ancestors were alive in 1909? 2) Tell us where your ancestral families were living in 1909. What country, state, county, city/town, etc. Who was in the family at the time? Use the 1910 census as "close enough." 3) Have you found each of these families in the 1910 census? 4) Write a blog post about your response. Or write a comment to this post. 5) Have fun. Learn something! Great Grandparents: Emery Edwin (age 52) and Martha Ann (Alexander) (age 45) Freeman resided at New River Pct., Churchill County, Nevada with their children: my Grandfather Claude (age 24), Louis (age 20), RD (age 15) and Fay (age 6). Great, Great Grandfather: Charles (age 66) and fifth wife Ellen (age 60) and Stepdaughter, Phebe (age 17) resided at Bethany, Gratiot County, Michigan. Great Grandparents: Andrew (age 57) and Emma (Tillman) (age 54) Smalley resided at Norway, Coos County, Oregon with children: Benjamin L. (age 23), Emma King (age 19), Marcella (age 15), Mary J. (age 13), Mildred H. (age 11) and my Grandmother, Etta M. (age 8). Great Grandparents: Richard W. (age 42) and Sarah E. (Hutchison) (age 39) May resided at Columbia, Washington County, Oregon with children: Richard W. (age 16), Alta E. (age 13), Clyde E. (age 11), Hattie I. (age 9), Hugh M. (age 7), Arnold (age 5) and Chester M. (age 4). Great, Great Grandparents: James (age 70) and Susanna (Ballard) (age 66) residing at Columbia, Washington County, Oregon. Great, Great Grandmother: Margaret (Gilliland) Hutchison (age 79) died November 9, 1909. Not enumerated in the 1910 census. Great Grandfather: William Ball (24) and sister, Celia M. Ball (age 22) residing at Arnett, Ellis County, Oklahoma. Great, Great Grandfather: Ellis J. Ball (age 54) cannot locate on 1910 census. May have been away working crops in Oklahoma. Great, Great Grandfather: John R. Baley (age 62) resided in Day, Ellis County, Oklahoma with children: My Great Grandmother, Nora E. (age 24) and Archie O. (age 18). Great, Great, Great Grandfather: Ledra Hawkins (age 71) and second wife, Clara (age 60) residing in San Diego, San Diego, California. I located a total of: 2 - Grandparents 8 - Great Grandparents 6 - Great, Great Grandparents 1 - Great, Great, Great Grandparent This ended up being a total of 17 people from my direct line. I didn't realize that I had so many of them living at the same time. I noticed that most of the surviving spouses were my Grandfathers as it seemed like the women were the ones who died young. As I have been thinking about this, it is really strange that my grandparents, all have passed on and that the 4 of them born in a range of between 1887-1912 would be close to 100 years old all the way to 122. As time marches on, the elder family members are reaching their golden years, it's up to us, as cousins to continue to carry on the family get togethers and to make sure we keep the family ties strong.

Saturday Night Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line

Here is another fun project that Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has come up with to further challenge us. I am having fun participating in this exercise and wonder what he will come up with next week! Here is the challenge for this week: Provide a list of your paternal grandmother's patrilineal line. Answer these questions: * What was your father's mother's maiden name?

Etta Mae Smalley born June 21, 1901 near Myrtle Point, Coos County, Oregon and died February 15, 1993 in Medford, Jackson County, Oregon.

* What was your father's mother's father's name? Andrew Anderson Smalley born April 3, 1853 in Falls Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania and died March 12, 1943 in Myrtle Point, Coos County, Oregon. * What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line? Only Andrew Smalley's fathers name is Benjamin L. Smalley nothing else known about him and he is currently a brick wall. * Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? My Grandmother, Etta was one of 14 children. Six of them were brothers: David Jesse died at the age of 46 of a burst appendix was married once for a short time and never had children. Second brother, David Edgar was single all of his life, third brother, Andrew Jr. died as a young boy, fourth Christopher died as a baby, fifth Carl White married a woman with four children and had none. Sixth and last brother, Benjamin L. stayed single and was named after his grandfather. If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further. Unfortunately, Andrew's only brother Edgar was married for a short time before he died in a mine accident in Nevada and never had a chance to produce children. I would have to first break through and be able to learn more about Benjamin L. Smalley's family before this project would be of any help to me at this time.

Saturday Night Fun - Wordles

Once again, our creative and always keeping us bloggers on our toes, Randy Seaver, over at Genea-Musings has challenged us to some Saturday night fun. Tonight's topic is wordles were you type in a bunch of names, in this case, the surnames of your ancestors and then arrange them in artistic types of fonts, colors and layouts. It's actually quite fun trying to find just the right combination that is pleasing to you.

Here is what I came up with:

I had difficulties trying to get this image to come up bigger and clearer! I had to really try to find some clever way to get this on here so at least it wasn't blurry.

This was fun, and I will probably go back to the Wordle website and do some other variations.

Thanks Randy!