Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tomstone Tuesday - Thomas Wells

First Hopkinton Cemetery
Hopkinton, Washington, Rhode Island



Thomas Wells 
b. April 22, 1755  Rhode Island
d. April 20, 1829 Hopkinton, Washington, Rhode Island


Thomas Wells was the son of Thomas Wells and Sarah Thompson Wells.  He was married to Mary "Polly" Robinson.  Thomas is my husband's 4th great-grandfather.


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Otters

My treasure for today is a pair of otters.  My grandfather, Ross Hannon, was an avid outdoorsman.  He made his living outside - farming, hunting, fishing.  He owned the ceramic otter shown below (on left) and sometimes carried it in his pocket.  I was lucky enough to receive it when he died.  My daughter created me the one on the right one day when she was about about 12.  She knew I cherished my otter and wanted him to have company in the display cabinet.





Now I am lucky enough to have two otters to cherish! 

It's a good day.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Salvatore and Congetta Nocito

Saint Francis Cemetery
Wakefield, Rhode Island



Salvatore "Sam" J. Nocito
b. November 24, 1912
d. October 25, 1975

Congetta "Connie" T. Faella
b. July 6, 1915
d. July 20, 1980

Uncle Sam and Aunt Connie were my husband's paternal aunt and uncle.  Congetta was one of the twelve children of Gaetano and Pasqualina Faella. Salvatore served in the Army during WWII.

Rest in Peace.




Monday, August 23, 2010

Family Search Gold!

Inspired by somebody's blog post about the number of records that have been indexed on the Family Search website (unlike most of you, I was not organized enough to remember who posted the article), I went surfing on over the other day.  From the Pilot Family Search home,  I clicked on Search or Browse our record collection.  From there I chose North America to see what databases were available.  One that caught my eye, marked by a red star indicating that it was New or updated, was the New Brunswick, Canada, Death Certificates.

Quite a few members of my father's family were originally immigrants to the US but were loyalists to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War and consequently moved on to Canada when the war ended.  I have found the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick to be quite helpful for searching out these ancestors.  However, in the Family Search collection were actual copies of the death certificates for two time periods, 1920-1934 and 1935-1938.  No index is yet available but I was unable to resist just searching the whole database.

I was lucky in that for the 1920-1934 time frame, for Queens County, there were only 1,086 records to peruse.  In no time at all (well it did take some time, but it flew by!), I had located three ancestors death records. One that I found quite exciting was for my great-grandfather George Byron McKiel.


Byron, as he was known, was born on March 31, 1868 to Eliza Eva McKiel.  He died on November 25, 1925 in Wickham, Queens, New Brunswick, Canada.  The death certificate told me that he had been sick for only 3 days when he died from Lobar Pneumonia.  (Lobar meaning of, or pertaining to, one or more of the lobes of the lungs)

Although at least three of his children were still alive and living in the area, the informant for the death certificate information was a non-relative.  Why does this matter?  Byron was born to Eliza, along with another son, while she was still single.  She later married Jacob Van Wart and went on to have more children.  However, Byron and his brother Melvin, retained the McKiel surname.  One of my aunts who had done lots of genealogy work and visited and talked with many of our canadian ancestors, has not been able to determine who Byron's father was.  Although she believes that some of the older relatives know the answer, no one has been willing to tell.  The death certificate lists the father as John McKiel.  Could this be the one?  Eliza did have a brother John who was 7 or 8 years older than she.  Could he have been the father?

It would be a shame if those who know the answer to this question, however shameful they feel the information to be, were to let the answer stay hidden now when Eliza, Bryon and Melvin have all died.  I hope that by writing about it here, someone, somewhere, who knows the truth will be inspired to tell.

In any case, I found Byron's death certificate.  It was a good day!!

I have indexed records for the Family Search project for quite some time.  Now I am inspired to continue and hope that some of you may be as well.  Just go to the FamilySearch Indexing home page to learn how.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Flying the Coop!

Our daughter Katie is off to graduate school in Charleston, South Carolina. She is also recently engaged.  So this move might just signal the end of her years of living at home with us.  It is rather sad, but also what we hope for with our children - that they find their way in the world and start to build their own lives.  So it is with sadness and thanksgiving that I say good luck to my first child, my treasure, Katie.

First day of kindergarten

Katie off to South Carolina with Hershey her dog

Be happy, be safe, have fun!   
Love, 
Mom

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Boy Scout Camping


In the spirit of summertime, I share this photo of the family picking up my brother, the scout on the left, after a week at Boy Scout Camp Yawgoog in Rockville, Rhode Island.


Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Lucy Maria Turner Hannan

Hannan Cemetery
Palermo, Waldo, Maine

Lucy Maria Turner Hannan
b. June 19, 1824  Liberty, Waldo, Maine
d. April 13, 1915  Liberty, Waldo, Maine

Maria was the wife of Richard Hannan.  She was the daughter of Daniel and Sardine (Jackson) Turner.  She was the mother of Daniel, George, Newell, Charles, Bertha, Rozilla and Ulmer. 

Maria is my great-great-grandmother.

Rest in Peace.

Lucy Maria Turner Hannan on findagrave.com

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Endless Summer Enjoyment

Me with my bike in front of my childhood home


Summers lasted forever when we were kids!  I never remember them being too hot or too rainy.  I was lucky to grow up in a neighborhood full of kids, on a dead end street where we could ride our bikes in the road, or play kickball, or tag without fear of being runover.  We built forts, we played marbles, we had games of all kinds with very little help from the grown-ups. We were outside from morning till night.  It was a great time in my life! I wish more kids today had the freedom and opportunity to experience summer like I did.
Here's hoping you can remember some fun summer days from your childhood!