Memory Tree Genealogy Journal

Taking a break from unpacking our household belongings to blog a little about family history.  Always a great excuse for a diversion!  We just completed a transatlantic move from Sicily to Yorktown, Virginia...and I'm so happy to be back HOME. This weekend, FindMyPast is offering FREE access (thanks for the heads-up, Kathy!).  While I wasn't sure exactly what I would find, I'm happy to report my research break definitely proved fruitful. Here is a snippet of a marriage record from the parish records in Thirsk, Yorkshire (North Riding), England from 1799...including my 4th great-grandparents, John SMITH and Jane WAIN : Yorkshire: Bishop's Transcripts of Marriages.  Thirsk, North Riding, Yorkshire, England.  Borthwick Institute for Archives.  Accessed via http://www.findmypast.com While a little difficult to read, here's a transcription of the record: John Smith, bachelor, and Jane Wain, spinster, both in this parish, were married in this chu...

Source:  Deed of Sale from Amos B. Yeager to Jacob Luden, 1855 (filed 2 April 1855), Berks County, Pennsylvania, Deed Grantor 1752-1926, page 2. Recorder of Deeds Office, City of Reading, Pennsylvania. <https://portal2.recordfusion.com/countyweb/disclaimer.do>     In my two previous posts, HERE and HERE , I outlined an intriguing family mystery from my mother's maternal line - specifically involving the LUDEN and YEAGER families of Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Nutshelll summary: I have lingering paternity questions about my 3rd great-grandfather, who was born just before my 4th great-grandmother and grandfather divorced.  Until I started working on our family history, I was unaware that my 4th g-grandmother had been previously married (with two children, no less); quite a bombshell discovery.  Autosomal DNA testing is casting some doubt on my 3rd great-grandfather's paternity.  A very complicated mystery indeed! Just last ...

Portrait of Edward Musser Luden,: McAtee, William.  The Members of the Legislature of Pennsylvania and Heads of Departments: Session of 1895 .  Harrisburg, PA: J.H. McFarland Company, Mount Pleasant Printery.  1895.  11 February 2015 https://archive.org/details/portraitsbiograp00mcat Portrait of Frederick Musser Yeager: Yeager, James Martin (1857-).  A Brief History of the Yeager, Buffington, Creighton, Jacobs, Lemon, Hoffman, and Woodside Families and Their Collateral Kindred of Pennsylvania .  Lewistown, PA.  11 February 2015 https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofye00yeag Yesterday, I started the slow, winding description of one of the l argest mysteries in my family tree .   It’s one of those continuing stories over which I have continued to mull over, setting it down for a month or two only to pick it back up again to ascertain whether or not I missed a detail here, a document there. A...

 There is a huge, genealogical elephant in my living room.   Every so often, he nudges me with his trunk, he asks for fresh water, and bats his long eyelashes at me in hopes that I will scratch behind his giant elephant ears. My theory about family history research is that nothing is as cut and dry as it seems at first.   Dig a little deeper – search a few newspaper archives – and you’ll either make your particular research question a) more complicated, or b) exceptionally clear in a way you never expected. By the time I actually his “POST” on this article, I will most likely have re-written it several times.   This elephant is giant.   HUGE.   Effecting the way an entire branch of my family will view its identity – even its surnames.   I’m putting on kid gloves.   But most importantly – I want to outline for my extended family and my future family exactly how I arrived at my present hypothesis.   I feel deeply convicted that ...

Every so often, I browse through the new searchable resources available on Ancestry.com.  The majority of my research these days is done on the local level, or using free sites such as FamilySearch.org , Castle Garden (for immigrants arriving in New York before 1890), newspaper archive sites such as Genealogybank.com and Newspapers.com , and Fold3.com for military information.  I still pay pay a monthly subscription (begrudgingly!) to Ancestry because of my DNA testing and results; also, I occasionally use the local search features by state or county.  This week, I noticed a GREAT new resource for anyone with veteran ancestors who served in the US Navy - "Registers of Patients at Naval Hospitals from 1812-1934" .  My husband is the one in our household with family members who served in the US Navy (he's doing his job to keep that tradition alive!).  Since our surname - Melvey - is very uncommon, I always start there when searching a new database.  Neve...