Memory Tree Genealogy Journal

Ever since I received my AncestryDNA results and discovered my Turkish/Persian/Caucasus ethnicity and – even more surprising – my LACK of Central European ethnicity,   I’ve made a concerted effort to look further into the lives of my immigrant ancestors and their lives across the ocean.   Most of my time until recently has been tracing family roots on American soil; diving into international genealogy is a completely new ball game.   My first experience with international research was working through my husband’s Norwegian family history…and involved learning new terms in a new language (words like church, parish, baptism, marriage, death, etc.).   It also involved in-depth geography lessons, advancing my understanding of migration, patronymic naming systems, and even digging into common routes of immigration from Norway to the United States.   Thanks to Google Translator, I have been able to use the wonderfully-detailed Norwegian Archives website to lo...

Daniel Frederick "Fritz" Miller and family - Cincinnati, Ohio.  Pictured are Daniel, Anna, Catherine, Fred, Freda, Lela, Ethel, Evelyn, and Anne (to my own family...I hope I have the correct names!). I've posted this photo previously on our family blog , but wanted to include it today in conjunction with a few notes I've taken while researching this particular family.  Daniel Frederick Miller, and wife Anna Margaretha (Koch) Miller, are the parents of my maternal great-grandmother Catherine (Miller) Smith.  Catherine is the mother of my maternal grandfather, Russell Lee Smith. When I began my foray into family history research a year or so ago, my grandfather graciously shared a document of collected names, birth dates, and memories that he had organized while doing his own genealogical research.  I combed through each line and added information to our tree.  It has been so fascinating to fill in some of the blanks for him - thanks to the wonderful resour...

While doing your own family history research, have you stumbled upon any particular family members with fascinating careers...or even inventions? When I am in need of research inspiration, I enjoy picking a few relatives' names off of the "tree" and searching for any mention of them in historic newspaper articles.  Today's find...a family of inventors. A little background on my engineering relatives: Who? Jacob B. Luden (1824-1864) married Sarah Ann Musser (1822-1896) in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1858.  Jacob and Sarah had the following children*: Caroline Mary Luden (1853 - ?) Edward Musser Luden (1854-1920) -- my grandmother's grandfather Alburtis Musser Luden (1857-1864) William Henry Luden (1859-1949) Sally Ann Luden (1861-?) Jacob Charles Luden (1864-1926) *SO...notice the fuzzy familial math?  I did, too.  Without going into too much detail here, I'll just note that until a couple of months before her marriage to Jacob B. L...

Image Source Two days ago, I received a much-awaited email from an archivist with the Children's Aid Society in New York City in regard to a research request I placed at the end of January.  Just in case you're wondering, I'm finding genealogy to involve a lot of what I call "fishing" for information.  Sent out a baited line (ie: email to a historical society, archive, family member, etc.) and wait for a nibble.  Maybe I'll be lucky enough to land a HUGE fish in the form of a break in a brick wall.  Other times, I might catch a shoe (like this week).  Cast, tug, wait, reel-in, repeat. So, back to the Children's Aid Society. Paul's paternal great grandfather, a gentleman named Joseph W. (William?) Daly {1869-1934}, was an orphan train rider.  Until a few months ago, when we started to suspect that he was in fact an orphan, I had never even heard of the Orphan Train Movement in the United States.  Reaching out to one of Paul's cousins enabl...

So...I'm back after a brief blogging "hiatus"!  February and March are busy months in our household...with three birthdays, an anniversary, and that other "Hallmark" holiday we celebrate on the 14th :).  Feel like I'm finally coming up for air!  In the past few weeks, my daily break time (when I usually do most of my research) has been otherwise occupied by the adventures or mis-adventures of our crazy family. You may or may not know....but we currently live in Sicily!  Just outside of Catania, Sicily to be exact.  For any fellow genealogists whose ancestors or ethnicity can be traced to particular areas of Sicily, I'm more than willing to snap photos of places and spaces if you wish.  Just send me a message, and I'll see what I can do.  Given my lack of exciting research news to post (currently in what I'm calling a "dry season" for groundbreaking revelations)...here are a few photos from our family outing today to a beautiful city...

These days, I'm thoroughly enjoying digging into the searchable databases of archived newspapers online - whether it's GenealogyBank , Newspaper Archive , or Google News.  I've read about a 2nd great-grandfather's antique collection, lively city council meetings, legal proceedings, advertisements, marriages, baptisms, burials.  The details found in historic newspaper articles breathe new life into the two-dimensional names and dates filling my tree.  A little snapshot of life as our relatives knew it! Here's one such clip - one of many, many social snippets I've found while researching both of our families.  On November 13, 1930, the Moorhead Daily News published the following comments in the social section: IMAGE SOURCE "...Mrs. O. E. Olson of Laurel and Joe Nelson of Pelican Rapids motored to Barnesville Monday.  They are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Morben and Miss Esther Olson on Sunday.  Mrs. Olson will return to her home accompanied by Ralph...

This week, my brain has been on overdrive.  As in, mind-exhausting working.  Twisting, turning, stretching, crunching, typing, wondering, connecting, wondering, searching, finding, giving up kind of work. Can you relate? Here's my genealogical topic of choice for the week.  You know, the one that's driving me crazy?!? Here's where it all starting.  Going to just blame this one on my dear ol' Dad  (he's the Hughes, after all!).  He blessed me with a surprise bundle of historical digital photos of our Parrish, McMath, and Mercer families.  One such piece of info he shared was an obituary for his mother's late sister, Christine Parrish (1927-1941).  In the article was a mention of a "Betty Hughes" (she and Christine both died in a tragic car accident) and "Otis Hughes", Betty's brother (a passenger in the car).  This got me thinking about, well, one of my biggest brick walls at the moment - my HUGHES family line beyond my great-gra...