Month: March 2020

RIP Keith Neill

My father passed away on 7 March 2020 near his home in rural Carthage, Illinois. This is the obituary that we had published for Dad on the website of Printy Funeral Home in Carthage, Illinois. Keith I Neill, 78, of Carthage, passed away at 8:43 AM Saturday, March 7, 2020, near his home in Carthage. […]

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A Real Grass Widow

<attempted humor alert> I have a relative who was a Grass widow. Yes, a Grass widow and not a grass widow. There is a difference. You see my ancestor was Johannes Grass and when he died in the 1880s, his wife survived him. That makes her a Grass widow.  The phrase “grass widow” has a […]

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Post-Roads in 1873

Googlebooks contains a scan of an 1873 Congressional Act “Revising and embodying all the Laws authorizing Post-Roads, in force on the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.” To be frank, I stumbled upon it while looking for something totally unrelated. That’s often how the best things are found. The title pages have been reproduced […]

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An 1807 Record of Tattoos

This 1807 seaman’s proof of citizenship from Philadelphia provides an interesting physical description: a number of tattoos. The statement drew my attention as the description section is usually not as complete as it is in this document. Curtis has quite a few tattoos for a man only about twenty-three years of age. Actually Curtis might have […]

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It’s 1900: Where are Your Ancestors?

On 1 January 1900, I had the following ancestors alive: Great-grandparents: Charles Neill Fannie Rampley George Trautvetter Ida (Sargent) Trautvetter Frederich Ufkes Trientje Janssen Mimka Habben Tjode Goldenstein Great-great-grandparents: Samuel Neill Nancy (Newman) Rampley John Michael Trautvetter Ira Sargent Johann Ufkes Noentje (Grass) Ufkes Jans Jansen Fredericka (Sartorius) Janssen John Mimka Habben Anke (Fecht) Habben […]

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Another Oceanic Crossing for Focke Goldenstein

Immigrants occasionally return to their homeland for a visit. Unfortunately for my research, ancestral visits home were not all that common. Of my twenty-seven 19th century immigrant ancestors, only one went back for a short visit. It turns out that he returned twice. Focke Goldenstein was born 12 January 1857 in Wrisse, Ostfriesland, Germany and […]

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