Another grey November Day...
To cheer up we went to drop letters off at the Post Office...no contact there and I used an antiseptic wipe to open the drop box. Then we recycled....there was one person there so we waited in the car until he left.
Then it was off to the cemetery where no one was alive. I needed a few photos of headstones to replace some bare grave photos. I need to go back there one day soon and get a few more photos...I have a list now. I made that list after I got home. I also need some obituaries...but that will have to wait until I can go inside the County Historical Museum and do some research. It is something I should have done last winter/before Covid. Anyways now I can make the list of what I need...it will be a start.
We had some exciting news...a relative got in touch with us... a fourth cousin of Far Guys on his Maternal side of the family...and it seems Far Guy could belong to the Sons of the American Revolution and our daughters to the Daughters of the American Revolution. I have to do a bit more research to back everything up ...but it is a real possibility...so fun to connect with someone else researching to share info with.
Then it was off to the old Linnell School corner to take a photo for a friend. The corner looks so much different after the new road construction.
I grew up on one side of this corner and Far Guy's Grandparents lived on the other side of this corner a long time ago. Far Guy's Mom taught at this school before she was married and then again after the war.
Far Side
I'm a first-time reader of your blog, but it impresses me that you are still living in the same region your family has been in for a long time. I was born in Iowa and ended up in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. We've been to Rollag, Minnesota, to attend the big tractor and steam engine show that takes place on Labor Day weekend. I love the accents of people in that area; they always tell me I sound like I'm from the south. I don't think I do, but I guess compared to what they're used to hearing up north, I surely do.
ReplyDeleteQuite a productive dreary day by the sounds of it.
ReplyDeleteWow, how interesting for Far Guy and you. I I remember correctly and I could be wrong. My paternal grandmother belonged to the Daughters of The American Revolution. Hope your research can prove this; that would be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed that you grew up and have lived in the same part of the country your entire life. So different than my own vagabond existence. I just looked at the list of your previous recent posts and notice that they are all different "days." :-)
ReplyDeleteThe nicest thing about living in a place for a long time are all the memories that surround the place, even the sad ones...but especially the nostalgic ones and the happy ones. I am glad Tom and I lived in the same house for over fifty years. We started a happy memory place.
ReplyDeleteI am eligible for the DAR, but I've never looked into it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are working on a genealogy project. I've been going in "spits and spurts" on my genealogy research again lately. I ordered a birth certificate from North Carolina back in August and now keep getting emails telling me it will be delayed. That is crazy!!
ReplyDeleteOne can have so much fun discovering family history! I used to call these finds Little Treasures :)
ReplyDeleteMy niece has started researching family history, and that makes me happy. She picked up where I left off a couple of decades ago.
ReplyDeleteSounds like life is humming right along on your homestead. Yes, the grey & dreary days of November... pooey. But they are what they are. I suppose it makes the sunny days all that more special. The sun is shining bright here in northwest Indiana and my heart is singing. ~Andrea xoxo
ReplyDeleteI have friends who go visiting family graves just to be able to get out of the house and go somewhere safe with no other people around!
ReplyDeleteEven with gray skies, I hope you have a good day!
That is exciting to discover your kids being sons and daughters of the American REvolution. I hope you can find all the paperwork and make it official. :)
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I have been talking about delving into our family's history. I know a little bit. My father maternal side were Pennysylvania Dutch, and came to Canada (Vineland, ON) during the Revolutionary War, because they were Loyalists. My father's paternal side is Welsh, though I don't know much more than that - My Great Grandfather was adopted by a family in Canada (Sudbury, ON). On my mother's maternal side, we are Scottish (Clan Campbell) - My great-grandfather came to Canada with his mother and brother when he was two - story is they were escaping his father who was a "right nasty fellow" and had been run out of Scotland for attacking a teenage girl. I'm not sure how much of that is true - but that's the family legend. My mother's paternal side lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, but where they originally came from I'm not sure - pretty sure the British Isles (last name is Baker), but we don't know when either.
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating though.
It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO exciting to get to move forward on a genealogy line. Yay for you!
ReplyDeleteDid you know that you can use 'find a grave' to search for photos of gravestones?
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the my in law's plot. Weird to see my name on a headstone...but it might be interesting for you to browse around:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88087994/alonzo-elmer-ewing
Isn't it strange to see places we knew well as a child change so drastically? I lived in many different places and cities growing up but my Grandmother's home was always my one special place. It is long gone now but I am still drawn to where it stood and sometimes look it up on Google Earth.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting that Far Guy could belong to the Sons of the American Revolution! My Grandmother was in the DAR. I remember she had a framed certificate from them. I know I could be a member but I have not contacted them to find out what I would need to do to provide proof.
Your last paragraph gives us some very interesting ancient history.
ReplyDeleteLast fall I made my first visit to the land where our family home stood - it burned down many years ago, and the fellow who lived there built another, but in a different area of the yard. It looked similar but so different.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a productive day regardless of the weather. Take care and stay well.
That's very exciting research on your family that you are doing! The picture of the corner sure looks desolate! I don't see a school there...but I imagine it was cold and windy during the winter school months! My husband's family (mom and 7 or 8 aunts and uncles) comes from northern MN (originally from Norway) and the way they talked about life on the farm in the winter made me shiver!
ReplyDeleteYou and your family have so much history in your area, We are much more scattered from our growing up places.
ReplyDeleteTom has been trying to connect with some distant cousins through DNA matching, trying to map out the illusive Reeder line.
It sounds like a busy day for you even if it was dreary. Our middle son, Jamie, has been researching our families histories for years. He's gone back several hundred years now. My Dad's family were german immigrants around 1899 and are mostly buried at the State Line Cemetery on the NE/KS state line near Beatrice, NE. My Mom's family was all over. Our immediate famiies, both Dennis' and mine are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Omaha. Lots of friends, aunts and uncles too. We have had our headstone in place there for 40 years! We have also arranged our cremations with the Neptune society already. Everything is paid for the the kids don't have to do much.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting to delve into family history isn't it? Dennis's Mom has always enjoyed it too. She used to take trips to Indiana with her siblings to research before they all got to old to travel much.
Blessings,
Betsy
Congratulations on making that connection. It's always so exciting. I have Loyalists AND Patriots in my lineage. Some of my cousins are in the DAR but I'm going for the UEL. My deep heritage is from Berwickshire, Scotland, in the Edinburgh area. We are Clan Herriott.
ReplyDeletei am a DAR member and i remember how exciting it was to find that all important revolutionary ancestor...from there on it was an exciting and continuing journey into our family's past history....so many revered ancestors of integrity and strong moral values...
ReplyDeleteCementreies are full of loved ones not the dead, ok they are dead because burying a live person is so wrong just saying.
ReplyDeleteWow, fourth cousin! How exciting! Sounds like you are closing in on a real possibility for those Sons and Daughters lineages. Email me if you need any research help. If you have a prospective local chapter of either organization, I know they should be able to give some research guidance, as well. Let me know how it goes!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got alot accomplished lately. How exciting about the possibility of being a member of the Sons or Daughters of the A.R. You're right....it is fun to share info with others like that. That's how I found out and became a member of the Mayflower Society...by meeting someone who could take me further in my research when I had reached a dead end. Good luck with all of that!
ReplyDeleteSomehow I did not know you are also a genealogist! Do you have your families online somewhere or do you just keep everything strictly offline? Just curious... I enjoy learning about other folks' ancestry and family history!
ReplyDeleteMy husband has some on ancestry, mine are all on paper:)
DeleteNovember seems to be a dreary month. Maybe because all that yucky weather makes us appreciate the crispness and beauty when nature spreads its white mantle over everything. I am battling mud in the horse pens, makes it tough to get my wheelbarrow of hay to them, or wheel my muck cart. This too shall pass.....
ReplyDeleteMy husband does a lot of genealogy research. I have just started trying to track down the family of my grandfather's first marriage; one of his sons who would be a half brother to my dad was born on the same day as me but in 1918.
Look how much more efficient you’ll be in your research when you have lists from lock down. Haha. I discovered in my genealogy that I too qualify for DAR. It was a shock to me for sure.
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