George, where are you?

At a family reunion last summer, a cousin mentioned that she would like to know when the Malone line came to America. It got me thinking and looking closer at my family tree. Malone is my mother's birth name. I have traced the Malones from mom's dad back to my 2g grandfather, Jacob Mitchell. Jacob's parents are George W. and Nancy.

All I know about George is that he was born around 1814-16 in Virginia and moved to Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. Nancy Childs was born in 1820 in Virginia. I have not been able to find out either of their parents' names or George's exact date of birth and date of death.

I would sure like to get some more information about these two people.

SURNAMES

These are the surnames in my family tree that I am researching:

Anderson
Barton
Benson
Bowen
Bridgwater
Carter
Cartwright
Childs
Cleland
Darby
Davies
English
Estop
Gray
Harrison
Hickman
Hill
Houghten
Humphrey
Jones
Lisett
Lyle
Malone
Martin
McCartney
Mills
Morgan
Mullet
Parker
Parry
Plant
Richards
Ritchey
Satterlee
Shaw
Skidmore
Slover
Taylor
Troman
Watkins
Wells
Wiley

Mom

Today is my Mother's birthday. She died 26 years ago. I still think about her almost every day. When significant things happen, I sometimes still have an immediate urge to call her. She was the only person I could talk to about anything.

Find A Grave

A couple of months ago I discovered www.findagrave.com . It seems like a surprising and odd kind of web site, but I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount and usefulness of the information there. My first surprise was that someone had posted a picture of my Mother's headstone. Apparently, there are lots of people who take pictures of headstones for people they don't know. It's amazing!

Then I discovered a section where people post requests for pictures to be taken of headstones for people they know but are not near the cemetery. I looked at the list and found a request that had not been claimed yet, so I claimed it. They give you two weeks to fulfill your commitment.

I hoped that I would be able to find out from the cemetery where to locate the grave without going into the office, but that didn't work. I went on my lunch break, got directions for the grave, and took the photos. I found it satisfying to post a picture that someone requested. Now I am a requestor. I submitted a request for someone to take a picture of my grandfather, John William Bridgwater, who is buried in Aitkin, MN.

MHGS

I became a member of the Midwest Historical & Genealogical Society a few months ago. I've always been interested in Wichita history, but now I'm interested in genealogy, too, so it seemed the right thing to do.

A lot of people donate a lot of materials to genealogical societies, apparently. So much so that members are encouraged to 'adopt a box'. The goal is to inventory what is in the box and then make recommendations as to what should be done with the contents.

I finished inventorying my first box today. It contained some family histories, Ohio genealogical publications, published books, and some information from Civil War times. Some boxes apparently contain unusable items. Mine didn't.

One binder contains family tree information created by Shirley McLemore Stone. She went to a lot of trouble and it's put together nicely. I have made some attempts to locate a family member that it could be returned to, but have been unsuccessful so far.

Here is a picture of our MHGS building.



http://www.skyways.org/genweb/mhgs/

Malones

Last month I went to a biennial family reunion with relatives from my Mother's side. Mom's birth last name is Malone. I had a great time at the reunion, spoke with as many people as possible, and took a bunch of pictures.

I had genealogy documents with me and others that were interested looked at them with me. We had some good conversations. One of my cousins noted that I had my Dad's line clear back to about 1644, but I didn't have the Malones back that far.

So, I went to work researching my great great grandfather Malone. I had his name as Jacob. As I did my research, I found some sources that Had his name as Mitchell. Turns out, his name was probably Jacob Mitchell Malone. More research netted me a copy of his obituary from 'The Independent' in Cashion, OK. Here is part of it:

"Jacob Mitchell Malone was botrn in Virginia March 31, 1842; died at his home in Cashion Oklahoma December 24, 1916. He removed from his place of birth with his parents to Iowa in 1851, where he remained until 1860 when he went to Missouri. In 1872 he moved to Kansas where lived until he settled on the homestead south of Cashion in 1889.

He was united in marriage to Martha E. Slover Oct 27, 1967. To this union was born five children:  Victor S. of Roff Okla; Hadley H. of Moline Kansas; Etta Lee who departed this life in May 1899; Florence Minnie who died in infancy; and Effie Alma.

. . . He has always been a man who stood for right principles and every reform for the betterment of humanity. He was unselfish in his life always choosing the good of others rather than his own interests. . . . "

I wish I had a picture of him to post here . . .

Grandmothers

My first goal was to trace my mother's female ancestors back as far as possible. I have gotten back as far as my fifth great grandmother, Elizabeth Gray. She was born about 1775 in Dalton, Yorkshire, England. I haven't been able to get any more information about her.

Prior to a trip to a paternal uncle's house in Minnesota in June 2011, I worked for awhile on my Dad's line. I have been able to trace Bridgwaters back to 1644. Many generations lived in the same small area of England, so it wasn't very difficult. I did spend some time puzzling over the name of my great grandmother. Some sources on Ancestry.com listed her as Elizabeth Parry. One or two sources had the name Amy Haynes. I ordered my grandmother's birth certificate, which had the name of Amy Haynes. Much searching got me nowhere with this name, so I've settled on Elizabeth Parry. I would really like to have proof, but that may have to wait.

There are plenty of pesky ancestors that delight in making me jump through hoops in order to find out anything about them.