Our Journey West

Judge Lindley's Court Room

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 17:22:00 +0000

I stumbled upon the following clipping from the St. Louis Republican online a couple years ago and just found it again while going through my files. It still makes me chuckle every time I read it.

I honestly have no idea about when this was printed or if we are related to the Judge Lindley mentioned in it. I do know that we do have distant Lindley relatives in the St. Louis area today, so it may be possible that we are related.

Obituary | Ruby M. Miller

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 19:00:00 +0000

The following are two newspaper clippings that are in the possession of my maternal grandmother. The publication date and newspaper origin are unknown for both obituaries.

Name:
Ruby M. Miller

Relationship to Me:
Maternal Great Grandmother

Transcription 1:
Miller, Ruby M.
BOSCOBEL - Ruby M. Miller, age 94, of Boscobel, died on Friday, January 5, 1990, at the Boscobel Memorial Nursing Home. She was married on August 11, 1915, to Charles Miller. He preceded her in death on June 30, 1954. She is survived by two daughters, Genevieve Zintz of Boscobel and Audrey (Ray) Little of Bensenville, Illinois; a son, Bernard of Excelsior, Wisconsin; 21 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mardella Flynn of Boscobel and Gladys Dyer of Lancaster; and two daughters-in-law, Doris Miller of Boscobel and Alice Miller of Genoa, Illinois. She was preceded in death by two sons, Byron and Verlin Miller. Funeral services will be held on Monday, January 8, 1990, at 1:00 p.m. at BEEMAN FUNERAL HOME, Boscobel. Elder Lawrence Shedd will officiate. Burial will be in the Haskins Cemetery. Friends may call on Sunday, January 7, 1990, from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., at BEEMAN FUNERAL HOME, where a prayer service will be held at 7:30 p.m.

Transcription 2:
Ruby M. Miller
BOSCOBEL, Wis. - Ruby M. Miller, 94 of Boscobel died Friday, Jan. 5, 1990, at Boscobel Memorial Nursing Home.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Monday at the Beeman Funeral Home, Boscobel, with burial in Haskins Cemetery, rural Blue River. Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Beeman Funeral Home, where the prayer service will be said at 7:30 p.m.
Mrs. Miller was a homemaker.
She was born on May 8, 1895, in Richland County, daughter of John and Estella (Haskins) Dyer. She married Charles Miller on Aug. 11, 1915, in McGregor, Iowa; he died June 30, 1954.
She was a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, rural Soldiers Grove, Wis.
Surviving are two daughters, Genevive Zintz of Boscobel and Mrs. Raymond (Audrey) Little of Bensenville, Ill.; a son, Bernard Miller of Excelsior, Wis.; 21 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Mardella Flynn of Boscobel and Gladys Dyer of Lancaster, Wis.

Tidbits of Note:
I have listed several tidbits from these obituaries that caught my attention for one reason or another.

The lack of supporting details in the first transcription is enough to drive a genealogist to drink! It doesn't even mention her parent's names!
The second transcription tells a story and provides more details about where and to whom she was born, her marriage, her work, and her religion.
In my opinion the only thing the first transcription has going for it is that it actually includes the names of her sons and daughter-in-laws. I was shocked that the deceased sons and surviving daughter-in-laws were completely left out of the second one.

Tombstone Tuesday | Charles and Ruby (Dyer) Miller

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:08:00 +0000

Tombstone Tuesday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Click on image to enlarge.

Names:

Charles Francis and Ruby Merle (Dyer) Miller

Relationship to Me:

Maternal Great Grandparents

Resting Place:

Haskins Cemetery, Richwood Township, Richland County, Wisconsin

Transcription:

Miller

Ruby M. 1895-1990

Charles F. 1891-1954

Tombstone Tuesday | Barzilla Gray

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 15:30:00 +0000

Tombstone Tuesday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Name:
Barzilla Gray

Relationship to Me:
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather

Resting Place:
Union Hill Cemetery, Mt. Zion, Crawford County, Wisconsin

Transcription:
1852
Barzilla Gray
1921

Marriage Record | Amasy Lindly and Nancy Bickerstaff

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 01:38:00 +0000

The following marriage record was one of the documents my mother, sister, and I found while poking around the archive at the Jones County Clerk's Office, in Anamosa, Iowa. The transcription is below:

Line: 328
Husband: Amasy Lindly
Wife: Nancy Bickerstaff
Date: May 19, 1855
Officiant: H. (sp?) Stewart, Justice of the Peace

Click on the image to enlarge.

Obituary | Barzilla Gray

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:17:00 +0000

Name:
Barzilla Gray

Relationship to Me:
Paternal 3rd Great Grandfather

Transcription:
OBITUARY - Gray
Barzilla Gray, well known and highly esteemed resident of the town of Scott, died Wednesday, March 14th.
Deceased was born in Ohio, March 18, 1852, coming with his parents to Richland county in 1863. In 1872 they moved to Iowa, returning to Wisconsin in 1876. July 21, 1878, Mr. Gray was united in marriage to Mary Pickett. They settled on the present homestead in 1882, where they have since resided. To them were born six children, 2 sons and 4 daughters: Mrs. Judson Wilkinson and Mrs. J.W. McDaniel of Scott, Frank of New England, N.D., Floyd and Lura at home and Mrs. Will Elliott, deceased. The wife and 5 grandchildren, with the above, survive.
Deceased united with the M. E. church and was baptized 43 years ago.
In failing health, Mr. Gray was taken to Parker hospital in Boscobel Feb. 24 last. For a period he continued to improve and hopes were entertained for his ultimate recovery, but unlooked for complications set in and the final summons came unexpectedly. Mr. Gray was the last one of his family.
Deceased was an excellent man and worth citizen, respected by the entire community. In the home he will be mourned as a loving husband and devoted father.
Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Ernest Jeffrey, Friday, March 18th, from the home and remains were laid to rest in the beautiful cemetery at Mt. Zion.
We desire to thank neighbors and friends for numerous acts of kindness and sympathy during the illness and death of our beloved husband and father.
Mrs. B. Gray & Children

This is transcribed from a scanned copy of an original newspaper printing of Barzilla's obituary on Ancestry.com. The newspaper or publication date was not included in the image or supporting text.

What's Your Ancestor Score?

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 04:08:00 +0000

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) is a popular blogging prompt created and maintained by Randy Seaver over at www.geneamusings.com. This week's SNGF prompt is titled What's Your Ancestor Score? and his directions included:

1) Determine how complete your genealogy research is. For background, read Crista Cowan's post Family History All Done? What’s Your Number? and Kris Stewart's What Is Your Genealogy "Score?"

2) Create a table similar to Crista's second table, and fill it in however you can (you could create an Ahnentafel (Ancestor Name) list and count the number in each generation, or use some other method). Tell us how you calculated the numbers.

3) Show us your table, and calculate your "Ancestral Score" - what is your percentage of known names to possible names (1,023 for 10 generations).

My Response:

I used my online family tree at Ancestry.com and manually counted the number of ancestors for which I have documented a first and/or last name. I then created the following chart in Microsoft Excel and used the built-in formulas to calculate my "ancestor score." I have hidden a few of the columns in the image below for ease of viewing.

Unlike Randy and many of the others participating in this edition of SNGF, my sourced tree only goes back 8 generations (my 5x great-grandparents). As you can tell in the table above, my "Ancestor Score" for 8 generations is 28 percent and I was actually surprised that it was as high as that!

I have spent the majority of my research time over the past few years concentrating on documenting the connections that my family has "collected" over the years. I'm finally starting to make my way back through my great-grandparents and have a 100% score through my 2x great-grandparents. I was very happy with my scores of 84 percent for my 3x great-grandparents and 52 percent for my 4x great-grandparents.

I still have quite a bit of work to do in researching my family tree. One of my research goals for 2014 is document two additional 3x great-grandparents, which will bring my 6th generation "Ancestor Score" up to 87 percent.

Military Monday | Earnest Lindley's WWI Draft Registration Card

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:58:00 +0000

Earnest Lindley registered for the WWI Draft on 5 June 1918 in Richland Center, Richland, Wisconsin. At the time of his registration he was residing at R.F.D. #3, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He was a laborer with Ike Sippy in Loyd, Wisconsin. The Registrar's Report lists him as having blue eyes and light hair. He is listed having been a natural citizen by birth on 19 April 1987 in Olin, Iowa, making him 21 years old. He listed his father's place of birth as Iowa and also listed his father as his nearest relative. At the time, Ulysses (his father) was living at Route 3, Richland Center, Wisconsin.

Click image to view a larger size.

Military Monday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Military Monday | Edward F. Heisz's WWI Draft Registration Card

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Edward F. Heisz registered for the WWI Draft on 12 Sept 1915 in Prairie du Chien, Crawford County, Wisconsin. He is listed as having been born a natural citizen on 25 April 1900, putting him at 18 years of age at the time of registration. At the time of the draft he resided at an address listed as (Route?) 1, Gays Mills, Crawford, Wisconsin. He listed him occupation as farm labor in Gays Mills, Wisconsin, and indicated that he worked for David Heisz. For his nearest relative is listed as David Heisz, of Gays Mills, Wisconsin. The David Heisz listed as his employer and next of kin is most likely his father, David Lincoln Heisz. Edward is listed as having brown eyes, red hair, and a medium height and build.

Click image to view larger size.

Military Monday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Family Recipe Friday | Cowboy Beans

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:08:00 +0000

With spring right around the corner, I have been preparing my favorite "winter" meals one last time. One of my favorite winter meals is Cowboy Beans. As a kid, nothing tasted better after a playing outside for hours in a Wisconsin winter than a heaping bowl of Cowboy Beans.

Many years have past since I've spent hours playing outside, but this dish is still one of my favorite comfort foods. Living a thousand miles away from where I grew up, I miss my family something fierce. When my homesickness gets to be too much to handle, I often pop this in the slow cooker and let the memories of my family gathered around our table on cool winter days settle my soul.

Cowboy Beans

Ingredients

6 slices of bacon
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion (chopped)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. vinegar
16 oz. can of pork and beans
16 oz. can of kidney beans
16 oz. can of butter beans

Directions
Cook bacon until crisp (then crumble and set aside). Brown the beef until no pink remains (drain and set aside). Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Set crock pot to high for 4 hours.

I often double the batch so that we can munch on it for a couple days. You can also easily substitute the types of beans to fit what you and your family like.

Family Recipe Friday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Sentimental Sunday | Family Road Trips

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Every summer my parents piled us kids into the family car, and together, we set out to explore the beauty of North America. We always had a destination in mind, but the path on which we would arrive there was organic and every changing.

Our trips weren't just about driving through the park. They taught us how to respect and mingle with nature. My father was never one to miss pointing out a specific plant, animal, or tree while on a hike. My mother shared stories with us about historical events and curiosities about each area we passed through. We frequented and grew to love historical markers and visitor centers.

Theses trips weren't just educational, they were a time for us to bond. A time for us to all step away from our busy schedules and relax. At the mention of spending two weeks stuck in a car with your family, most kids would protest... loudly. But not us Heisz girls, we would look at maps and plan outrageous side trips to see the locations of our favorite books (De Smet, SD, and Chincoteague) or the hometown of our favorite athlete (Kiln, Mississippi). We couldn't wait to get on the road.

Even in our excitement, we fought like all kids do when locked in a car together for hours on end. My parents devised a solution in the form of a "fight jar". The jar was an old 35mm flim container and for each fight we got into (no matter who started it) we had to put a quarter in the fight jar. The quarters collected more quickly on some trips than others and were always used for something super lame, like laundry or gas. I think I speak for my sister and I both when I say that our fondest fight jar memory was on a trip out to Montana with our parents and three cousins. Not a single coin was put in by us kids on the entire trip, but we can't say the same thing for our parents!

Not every trip went off without a hitch. I don't think any of us will ever forget our trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. That unforgettable trip started with all five of us packing into my Dad's Ford Ranger pickup (my older sister and I sat in the jump seats - cozy, right?) and ended up with me running a fever so I high that I was hallucinating and had to be taken to the hospital. Even with all of that kicking and sickness, I still have great memories from that trip and hope someday to repeat our ride on the Agawa Canyon Train Tour with my children.

Shortly after that fateful trip to Canada, my parents made sure that our future trips were taken in the comfort of the family van. We would load the van with camping gear (more often than not), picnic lunches, a snack box, and activity packs. My parents would take turns driving, and as we got older, us kids even took our turns at driving. I will never forget when I woke up from a nap and (loudly) freaked out when I saw that my newly-licensed older sister was driving the full-size conversion van down the freeway!

After our first few road trips, my sisters and I started ranking campgrounds (ones with showers and pools ranked highly), rest stops (Mississippi is a favorite as they gave out free cups of Coke, South Dakota ranked low because many of them have pit toilets), and hotels (just because we were on a budget didn't mean a pool and a continental breakfast with a waffle maker weren't important). My younger sister Courtney and I still rank amenities based on this scale today - having just added West Virginia to the short list of states with nice rest stops on our recent genealogy road trip due to their superb bathrooms and historical information features.

Growing up, I understood what an opportunity these trips were, but it wasn't until I was older that I was able to fully understand the sacrifices my parents made to make them a reality. My parents felt that it was essential to our up-bringing that we were exposed to different cultures, natural wonders and the experiences that came along with that exposure. I am eternally thankful that my parents worked as hard as they did to save up for these trips and sacrificed the finer things in life to teach us that the experiences we have in our lives are much more important than any monetary thing we could collect. As a result, many of my most cherished memories come from these family adventures.

Thank you.

Sentimental Sunday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Family Recipe Friday | Chocolate Balls

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:24:00 +0000

The weeks leading up to Christmas each year were a special time in our house while I was growing up. We prepped for the holidays like most families, cutting a Christmas tree, putting lights on the house, and hanging our stockings. One of my favorite holiday prep activities was my mothers baking. Every few days she would make a different type of baked goods.

My mother is an excellent baker, and as her loving family, we were ready to taste-test each of her creations. It certainly didn't matter if she used the same recipe year after year, we still needed to sample one from each batch. As each batch was finished, she would put them in tins and set then on our screened-in porch (there is no need for a freezer during Wisconsin winters).

As Christmas grew closer, her stock of cookies would dwindle between our repeated "sampling" and the various gatherings we attended. My favorite thing to sample from her porch stash were her Chocolate Balls. Seriously, who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate? To this day, I still prefer most of my cookies a bit on the chilled side, lol.

Chocolate Balls

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups rice krispies
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Mix ingredients and form into small balls that are approximately 1 inch in diameter. Chill balls until firm. Dip balls in chocolate. Keep cool until shortly before serving.

Family Recipe Friday is one of the many blogging prompts supported by www.geneabloggers.com to help genealogy bloggers record their family histories.

Genetic Genealogy | Genome-Wide Comparison

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:41:00 +0000

Now that the test results for both my personal and my maternal grandmothers tests are available, I've been using a lot of the features to run comparisons between our results. One of my new favorite areas to play around in has been the Family Inheritance section.

My favorite sub-feature is the GrandTree section. When placing myself and my maternal grandmother in the dummy family tree, it allows me to see which traits I inherited on my maternal side from my grandfather and grandmother. I've included the results from select traits below:

Weight/Body Mass Index

Genes related to weight/body mass index.

Maternal grandfather: 38%
Maternal grandmother: 62%
This makes sense as I do have the build of my maternal grandmother's family.

Immune System Compatibility

Genes related to histocompatibility.

Maternal grandfather: 100%
Maternal grandmother: 0%
Hopefully G-Ma doesn't need an organ transplant from me... I doubt with these results that I would be a match. Also, my immune system is crappy... thanks Grandpa!

Pigmentation

Genes related to skin, eye, and hair color.

Maternal grandfather: 38%
Maternal grandmother: 62%
I do have my Grandma's skin color and our eyes are similar in color too.

Genome-Wide Comparison

Lastly, I was able to run a genome-wide comparison that analyses 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes. For this purpose, the sex chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA are excluded.

Maternal grandfather: 48%
Maternal grandmother: 62%
My maternal grandmother and I share a special connection, so it makes me happy to know that even when distance separates us, she's always walking around with me.

Genetic Genealogy | Test 4 Results

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:30:00 +0000

For the past few years my research has primarily focused on my maternal lines for two simple reasons: that side of the family has always been interested in our family history and I had more information to start my research with.

Last summer, I started to dive deeper into my paternal family history and asked my father if he would be willing to take a DNA test. Being the amazing "I'll do anything for my girls" father that he is, he said yes and we ordered a test through the first release of Ancestry.com's AncestryDNA.

My family has previously tested with FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe and I wanted to see how it compared. The AncestryDNA test allows both the maternal and paternal lines to be tested by analyzing the entire genome (all 23 chromosomes). Our test with FamilyTreeDNA was taken by my uncle and we ended up with Y-chromosome and mtDNA results. Our tests with 23andMe were taken by myself and my grandmother and only reported on our mtDNA.

We received my father's Ancestry.com DNA results several months ago. At that time I should have posted about the results, but I shared them with my family and never got around to posting them until now (I know...!).

AncestryDNA Test Results
The results are in and there were quite a few surprises. As far as I have been able to trace in my limited (3 to 4 generations past my father) research, his family seems to hail from Germany and the British Isles.

Central European = 71%

I was not surprised by these result as it appears the majority of my father's paternal branches can be traced back to Germany or Austria.

Scandinavian = 21%

I was quite surprised to see such a high percentage of Scandinavian ethnicity.
I have not found any documents that document locations in Norway, Sweden, or Denmark (Ancestry's "Scandinavian" locations).

Uncertain = 8%

This is quite a large percentage! Most of the results I have viewed have between 0% and 3%.
Maybe this is where the British lines come in, but it would seem odd that such a well known ethnicity would not show up.

In conclusion, it looks like I have a lot more research to do to help uncover the Scandinavian results. Also, I hope that as more people are tested that his uncertain results decrease.

Genetic Genealogy | Comparing Top Relative Surnames

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:54:00 +0000

This is a follow-up to my two posts on our individual results from 23andMe's Top Relative Surname finder that shows the popularity of the surnames in our relative finder matches. I currently have 988 people in my relative finder, while my maternal grandmother only has 986. Our numbers are different because the test incorporates both maternal and paternal lines into it's results.

In my previous posts about this feature, I just shared our top five surnames. The service actually let's you view any surname that is listed at least five times in the profiles of your matches. I currently have 124 surnames and my grandmother has 51.

Below I've listed the top 10 surnames in my grandmother's list and have indicated in parentheses where they were found on my list. It's interesting to note that six of her top 10 surnames were not in my list.

Wells (#84 in my list)
Palmer
Mitchell (#81 in my list)
Johnston
Hunt
MacDonald
Adams
Moore (#109 in my list)
Hansen
Smith (#115 in my list)

Below I've listed the top 10 surnames in my list and have indicated in parentheses where they were found on my grandmother's list. It's interesting to note that only two of my top 10 surnames were in her list.

Pragle
Gawton
Andriessen
Garner
Walker (#17 in her list)
Allen (#48 in her list)
Payton
Custer
Peyton
Gibbs

As you can see, even though we are closely related, our results are quite different. These results should be fluid and I will explore them periodically to see how they have shifted.

Genetic Genealogy | Test 2 Top Surname Results

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:52:00 +0000

Having recently posted about my personal 23andMe Top Relative Surnames, I figured I would also post about those from my maternal grandmother's test. The Top Relative Surnames feature shows how popular the surnames in my relative finder matches. Currently, my grandma's relative finder section is showing the results for 986 participants.

Her top five surnames are Wells, Palmer, Mitchell, Johnston, and Hunt. In the image, the count column shows how many times the name is shown in the profiles of my matches, while the enrichment columns shows how common a surname is in my entire relative finder matches.

Genetic Genealogy | Test 3 Top Relative Surnames

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 22:03:00 +0000

I was recently looking back over my personal 23andMe genetic genealogy results (Test 3) and discovered an interesting feature: Top Relative Surnames. The Top Relative Surnames feature shows how popular the surnames in my relative finder matches. Currently, my relative finder section is showing the results for 988 participants.

My top five surnames are Pragle, Gawton, Andriessen, Walker, and Garner. The count column shows how many times the name is shown in the profiles of my matches, while the enrichment columns shows how common a surname is in my entire relative finder matches.

I'm interest to see how often this changes as more people are tested and added to the database.

Genetic Genealogy | Test 3 Results

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:53:00 +0000

Those of you who know me well, know that I'm a bit competitive and I don't like sitting on the sidelines. This trait has crossed over into my family history research and I ordered a genetic genealogy test for myself. I know that my maternal like has been thoroughly tested, but I just couldn't stop myself. I ordered the test, took it, and then waited impatiently for my results to come in. (Patience is not one of my virtues!)

Knowing my maternal grandmother had just taken the same test a few months earlier, I wasn't surprised to see that my haplogroup results matched hers exactly: H2a2a. This has now been confirmed through three different tests, and I think it's safe to say that it won't change any time soon. :D

The Ancestry Composition (provides you with a percentage breakdown of your DNA in the 22 worldwide populations) results were a different story. These results are a combination of both my maternal and paternal lines, so I knew they wouldn't match G-Ma's exactly, but I wasn't expecting the results.

My results showed that I am 99.7% European, 0.1% East Asian & Native American, <0.1% South Asian, and 0.2% unassigned. I was pretty confident that my European percentage would be that high, but was not prepared to see East Asian, Native American, or South Asian.

Obviously, these results are reflected from my paternal line and I am not sure my reach will ever be deep enough to match ancestors with these areas. Of course, that's not going to stop my from trying and explore this through the relative finder area of the 23andMe database.

While I'm not going to share them in detail here, I was even more intrigued by the health results of my test. It broke down my disease risk, carrier status, traits, and drug response. My disease risk showed elevated risks for things that have effected my family members. My carrier status showed that I had absent variables for many of the genetic variations that have been strongly linked to diseases. My traits correctly guessed the detail of my amount of hair curl and hair color. And lastly, my drug response showed "greatly increased odds" of toxicity to a drug that I have taken and to which I have had a sever allergic reaction. Quite fascinating...

Genetic Genealogy | Test 2 Results

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:35:00 +0000

After receiving the results of the genetic genealogy test my maternal uncle took, I was excited to branch out and see if anyone else wanted to take a test. Being new to the genetic genealogy world, we wanted to have my grandmother take a test to see if the results matched those from the first test. With this in mind, we ordered a test through a different company.

I had been seeing a lot of good things online about a company called 23andMe and so that was the company we selected for this test. The test that 23andMe uses not only calculates your ancestry breakdown, but also does a health breakdown that tells you what diseases you are at greater risk for and what traits are common in people with a similar genetic background.

As I live a thousand miles away, my dear mother (aka Saint Marla) walked G-Ma through the test and dropped it in the mail. A couple months later I received an email stating that her results were in. While the nerdy science girl in me really wanted to dive into the health analysis, I headed over to the ancestry results page first.

As expect, the results of this test confirmed the haplogroup results from our first test. Grandma's maternal line clearly belongs to the H2 subgroup: H2a2a. The map for this test (click on the image to enlarge) looks a bit different from the first test and I found this one to much easier to understand.

The next section I explored was her Ancestry Composition. The ancestry composition provides you with a percentage breakdown of your DNA in the 22 worldwide populations. This result combines both your maternal and paternal lines and reflects where your ancestors were roughly 500 years ago (before ocean-crossing ships and airplanes were available).

G-Ma's results showed that she is 99.6% European, 0.1% Sub-Saharan African, and 0.3% unassigned. Overall, these results accurately reflect my research and support the first test my maternal uncle had taken. I was a bit surprised that only 0.3% was unassigned, as I have heard higher numbers from others who have taken the test.

At my grandmother's request, I have not shared the health risks with her or anyone else, and as a result, will not be blogging about them here. They are a different kind of personal and she didn't want to know about them. In her mind, she has lived a long life and doesn't need anything else to worry about. I respect and support her decision to not familiarize herself with this information.

Tombstone Tuesday | Oxford Cemetery

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Click on the image above to view a larger photo size.

While these headstones are not kin, I was intrigued by the unique grouping. The photo was taken in the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Ohio.

Tombstone Tuesday: Cephas Lindley

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Click on photos above to view larger image sizes.

Cephas Lindley

Died

Sept 16 1853

Aged

(the rest is has sank into the ground)

Cephas was laid to rest in the Gopher Hill Cemetery, Warren County, Indiana.

Tombstone Tuesday: Abigail (Day) Lindley

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Click on photo above to view larger image size.

Abigail

Wife of

Isaac Lindley,

Died Oct. 13, 1849,

Aged 78 years

& 2 days

Laid to rest beside her husband, Isaac, in the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Ohio.

Tombstone Tuesday: Isaac Lindley

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Click on image above to view larger photo size.

In memory of

Isaac Lindley

who departed this life

Oct. 16th 1840

Aged 71 years & 23 days

Laid to rest beside his wife, Abigail, in the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Ohio.

Genealogy Road Trip | Warren County, Indiana to Dubuque, Iowa

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:05:00 +0000

My sister Courtney joined me for a three-day genealogy road trip in June 2012. I am writing a series of posts that shared the stories and sights of our adventure. This is Part 14.

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After paying our respects at the grave of our 5th great-grandfather, Cephas Lindley, in Warren County, Indiana, we wondered our way back to the freeway and once again headed west.

We hauled it across Illinois, stopping for food and fuel and one very important ice cream break. ;) We didn't have time for much else as we needed to reach Courtney's house in Dubuque by nightfall. We didn't want to have to get another hotel (money that could be put towards vital records) or post-pone our plans for the next morning. Our mom would be driving down from Wisconsin the next morning to join us for the third and final day of the great genealogy road trip of 2012.

As we drove, we chatted about how much we had accomplished in the past two days. My trip planning may have seemed a bit lofty to most, but Courtney and I are well-worn road trippers and we were confident that we could do it without issue. Which, we did (not that I'm bragging or anything). :D

When we rolled in to Dubuque later that evening we headed straight Target. I'm not even joking here, lol. One of our aunts, a cousin and her daughter happened to be in town and were shopping there, so we just had to stop in and say hi. Our visit quickly turned in to an enjoyable dinner and some much needed catching-up.

After dinner, we made our way to Courtney's house. She had recently moved to Iowa and I had yet to visit her, so it was nice to see where she was living these days. Not ones to waste the last minutes of daylight, Courtney drove me around town showing me where she was working and where her and her friends hung out. I hadn't been to Dubuque in years, so I enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

Genealogy Road Trip | Gopher Hill Cemetery

noreply@blogger.com (test) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:54:00 +0000

My sister Courtney joined me for a three-day genealogy road trip in June 2012. I am writing a series of posts that shared the stories and sights of our adventure. This is Part 13.

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Click on image above to view a larger photo size.

We made it to Warren County, Indiana in the early afternoon. Unlike our first few stops, we were easily able to navigate to our next stop using the map on our phones. There were so many roads and turns that I'm glad we had a bit of extra guidance as we drove past fields and farms.

The Gopher Hill Cemetery was not only the smallest cemetery we had visited on this trip, but also the most rural. Considering the size of the cemetery, we thought we would have more luck in finding the headstone of our 4th great-grandfather, Cephas Lindley.

As per usual, Courtney and I split the cemetery in two and started our search for Cephas. Not long after we started, it seemed that we both came up empty hanged. We quickly narrowed our search to an older section of stones that were broken (some were even stacked).

It was in those broken stones that we found the VERY weathered stone that belonged to Cephas. His stone was broken in half right along the line where his name was carved over a hundred years ago. The only way I could verify that it was his, was by tracing the fading letters with my fingers (I've confirmed this with some images of a distant cousins). I was shocked by the state of his stone considering that the stones of his parents and grandparents are still standing and in excellent condition. Pictures of the stone can be seen below:

Click on image above to view a larger photo size.

I'm not sure what can be done to repair Cephas's stone, even if it can be salvaged. If not, I wonder if there is something that can be done to this type of stone to stop further damage. Anyone of you genea-bloggers have any ideas?