Memory Tree Genealogy Journal

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...

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...

1896 Map of Henry County, Alabama.  IMAGE SOURCE Have you discovered interesting connections among ancestors in your family tree? Several years ago, I remember hearing my father speak about " two sisters marrying two brothers " somewhere in his family line...but I can't remember specifics.  Kept that tidbit in the back of my mind while setting out on this grand adventure of exploring our family history!  What do you know...I found one such set of siblings.  It's possible this isn't even the one to which was referring.  Maybe there are more to discover! Only a couple of generations back, I located sisters Minnie Cora McMath and "Dutch" Isabelle McMath.  I added the quotes to "Dutch", because it seems like a nickname; I'm not positive of its origins (maybe Dad can enlighten me?) or whether or not it was in fact a nickname.  All census reports list her name as Dutch.  Interesting! I also located brothers Johnnie Levey (I think this...

THIS article today on GENEALOGY and DNA TESTING gives a quick explanation of the three main types of testing offered to the general public for genealogical purposes.  Are you curious about your ethnicity?  Do you have holes in your family research due to "brick walls" or stalled research?  I've found much enjoyment from my experience with Ancestry.com's Autosomal DNA testing product as of late.  While it hasn't provided any huge "AHA" moments or broken down any brick walls in research, I've found several promising cousin matches and common ancestors, according to the results.  A few months back, I posted on my family's blog about my initial, shocking results.  See the article HERE. For a refresher, here is a snippet of my ethnicity profile: Persian/Turkish/Caucasus??  What gives?!? To my surprise, my mother also volunteered to take the test!  I eagerly anticipated her results, because I had a sneaking suspicion that the odd-ball ethni...

Paperwork got you down? Today's project  = print, file, organize. I'm a happy researcher now after having spent the past hour organizing my random collection of photos, sources, and comments saved on my already cluttered computer desktop.  Everything is now neatly arranged in family folders, photos have descriptive file names, and unnecessary files are in the recycling bin.  I even tackled the HUGE list of emails I've saved in a "family research" file in Thunderbird (Outlook for hippies...LOL).  Printed all and filed accordingly.  It's only taken me, oh, 9 months! If you are a fellow genealogist, what's your preferred method/system of organizing all of the random bits and clues you collect along the way?  Outside of Family Tree Maker (a fabulous Ancestry.com product, by the way) which stores all source documents...how do you like to keep track of the emails from family, historical societies, etc.?  Still working on my own system. ...

Today's "Wedding Wednesday" picture is definitely not "old" by antique standards!  But - it's a great starting place for this blog celebrating family. (6 March 2004, Navy Supply Corps School, Athens, Georgia.  Photo held by Sarah Melvey.) On March 6, 2004, my husband Paul and I celebrating our wedding in Athens, Georgia.  After a short ceremony in a packed military chapel on base (complete with blazing temperatures due to an early Spring heatwave), we commemorated the event at a casual dinner at the Officer's Club.  Chaplain Uhall officiated the service.  Family and friends numbered about 120.  How wonderful that our extended family and friends from Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Washington, D.C., California, Georgia, and Florida could travel to Athens for our simple (and quickly-planned) wedding. After two years of courtship, Paul proposed on New Year's Eve at the now-defunct Harry Bissett's restaurant in Athens...site of our first...

Here goes nothing... After nearly a year of working diligently on our family history (for both sets of families), I have taken the leap and decided to share my thoughts and research in blog form.  It dawned on me recently that all of my AHA moments, happy dances, dead-end frustrations have been exactly that - MINE - when they really belong to our extended family!  It's the least I can do after pinging them constantly for information, names, dates, random clues that might lead us down the right research rabbit hole.  After all, what good is all of this work if it's not shared with the ones I love?  So, here I present "Remember Me" - my research ramblings in presentable form (hopefully!).  My initial inspiration for exploring our family tree was to have something wonderfully interesting to pass along to our two boys.  Daily, I am awed at the machinations and serendipity (otherwise known as God's marvelous foresight!) that were required for my darling husb...