FO Fri....wait, nope...

Normally, Fridays would be all about FOs and while I do have an FO, I haven't uploaded photos and you've kind of already seen it (I added the earflaps and i-cord ties to the hat for Sweet Girl)...so that's no fun.

I have something completely different today. Today, it's all about genealogy in my house (note: if you don't want to read about genealogy, then you can stop right **now**).

A couple of months ago, I was perusing a lovely site called Find A Grave and updating information (specifically, my mother's information and her parents' information). I decided to do a search on my grandma's parents, James Edward Johnston and Martha Louise (Fagerlind) Johnston. I was connected to their sites and gained a host of information, including information about their parents, grandparents, some siblings, etc. I also contacted the person that supplied the information, Joe Johnston, asking if he knew more about the families because, well, I was interested.

Turns out that one set of his great-great grandparents are a set of my great-great-great grandparents: Rachael (Smith) Johnston and Joseph A. Johnston.

So, did he have information? Oh yes...tons. We've been e-mailing back and forth now for a couple of weeks with information and pictures and websites and all of that. Yesterday, when I picked up the mail, there was an envelope from Joseph Johnston from Libby, MT. The envelope contained two copies from newspapers in the Eau Claire, WI area, the Dunn County News (which is still in existence, actually).

The first one is an obituary for my great-great grandfather, John Abner Johnston, from the Dunn County News on March 3, 1941. It reads:

John A. Johnston, son of Joe and Rachel Johnston, was born at Dry Wood, Penn., in 1858 and died at the age of 83 years. He was united in marriage to Lydia White in 1883 who proceeded him in death four years ago. Nine children were born to this union, Lafe [Lafayette, maybe Lafyette], Eau Claire; John, Banks, ND; Cole, Leve [unknown city, can't read the copy very well]; Pearl, Mrs. Nels [Nelson] Taylor, Eau Claire; James, Eau Claire, Hazel, Mrs. Joe Reidinger, Eau Claire; Bernie [Burney], Durand; Margaret, Mrs. Ray Myres [Meyers], Eau Claire; Charlie, Hammond, Ind; one sister, Ann Hoig, White Fish, Mont., 29 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, other relatives and friends also survive. 

Funeral services were held Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m. at the Downsville M. E. church. Burial made in the Downsville cemetery. Rev. Chas. H. Butcher, pastor of Wesleyan Methodist church of Eau Claire, officiated. 

There are a few "funny" things with this. The obituary says he was born in 1858 but the headstone says 1857. Based on the fact that he was 83 when he passed in March 1941 and the fact that he was born in December, it would appear that the headstone is correct. However, I know record keeping wasn't anyone's strong point in the mid-1800s so it's possible that he really was born in 1858 and the newspaper got his age incorrect. It's not like I can go back and ask anyone because, let's be honest, anyone that would know absolutely 100% for sure has long since passed away.

Anyway, moving on...

The second thing was a copy about my great-great-great grandmother, Rachael (Smith) Johnston's accident and subsequent death from the Dunn County News, October 10, 1890. It reads:

Fatal Accident

Last Saturday, Oct. 4, Mrs. Joseph Johnson [Johnston], whose home is a couple of miles south of Downsville, met a violent death in Eau Claire. She had gone to that city by team to visit a married daughter, Mrs. Schutte [Mary Emma (Johnston) Schuette]. While passing along the street the horses became frightened and ran away. Mrs. Johnson [Johnston], in attempting to jump from the wagon, fell beneath the wheels and sustained injuries from which she died in a few hours. The remains were brought to Downsville and interred on Wednesday of this week. The deceased was about seventy years old.

Mrs. Schuette accompanied the remains to Downsville and on Tuesday was the victim of another accident caused by the runaway of the same team that wrought her mother's death. She was thrown from the wagon, a collar bone and a rib broken. Dr. Reed was called and reduced the fractures and the lady is no rapidly progressing toward recovery.

Because this is such an old article, I'll translate it into the very short version: Rachael (Smith) Johnston, approximately seventy years old, went to visit her daughter, Mary Emma (Johnston) Schuette in Eau Claire. She hooked up the horse team to the wagon and off she went. While she was out and about, something spooked the horses who decided to run off. In her attempt to jump from the wagon to avoid (further) injury, the wagon rolled over her and she died as a result of her injuries.

Old articles like this are kind of amusing to read, if only because they're so full of flowery language. I guess people wanted to know the extra details back then (like my great-great-great aunt Mary Emma also being thrown by the same horse team). *sigh* Whatever, it makes for interesting stories for me.


Let me tell you more about Rachael (Smith) Johnston and her husband, Joseph A. Johnston...because I can :)

Joseph A. Johnston was born in either 1823 or 1824 somewhere in either Elk or Cameron County, Pennsylvania. I've heard from other distant family members (in the Johnston line) that he was born in  Gibson Township, PA which is actually a township in Cameron County (which is the county directly east of Elk County). Of course, counties changed borders, just like states did and it's quite possible that at the time of his birth, Gibson Township was in Elk County because Cameron County may not have existed. I'll have to dig into that. Anyway...he was born, probably at home, the nearest large city being either Harrisburg or Allentown, both a good distance away, especially if you were traveling by horse and buggy, as they would have been at that time. There is a possibility that his parents were named William and Sarah (Clark) Johnston and were living in Buffalo Township, Washington County, PA in 1850 with their son, Joseph (aged 25 years), daughters Sarah A. (aged 26) and Mary (aged 23). At that time, William was 72 years old (which would have put his birth around 1778) and Sarah was 61 years old (which would have put her birth around 1789). However, at this time, more research is needed to determine if this is, in fact, the correct family. It may not be.

In 1860, Joseph A. Johnston is living in Gibson Township, Elk County (Cameron County), PA with his wife, Rachael (Smith) Johnston. Joseph is listed as being 31 years old at that time but that cannot be correct. He would have to be 36 years old, at least, based on his birthday...or his birthday is wrong and he was actually born in 1829 or 1830. I'm going to have to look into that a little more closely. My guess is that someone doing the transcription did not hear correctly or the year of Joseph's birth is incorrect or whoever transcribed the age had difficulty reading the numbers on the census page (this comes from census information). Rachael is listed as being 25 years old in 1860 and having four children living at home: sons William (8 years), Joseph C. (6 years), and John A. (4 years - the one in the obituary from above), and daughter, Gillette J. (2 years). The children are listed under the surname of Barker, which may have been William's middle name. In 1860, Joseph is a farmer and his land is worth approximately $200.

Rachael (Smith) Johnston, on the other hand, was supposedly born in approximately 1820 to George Washington Smith and Elizabeth (Overturf) Smith (based on the obituary article from 1890). Whether that is the actual year or not I am unsure about at this time. If the information from the 1860 census is correct, then Rachael was actually born in 1835...but I cannot imagine that she is a full decade (or more) younger or older than her husband, especially if the obituary article is correct and she was approximately seventy in 1890. I imagine that she was actually 25 1860 considering that their oldest child, William, was 8 years old in 1860...so Rachael would have been 17 years old when he was born which, while somewhat improbable, is more likely than her having been 32 years old, having her oldest child.

Anyway, sometime between 1860 and 1870, the Johnstons moved to Dunn County, Wisconsin, specifically to Dunn Township. Joseph is listed as being 40 years old, Rachael 36 years (I'm just going to go with these numbers as being "correct," for my own sanity). From an obituary from Rachael's family, it sounds like the Johnstons moved to Wisconsin soon after the Civil War, in 1866. Living with them are their children: William (18 years old), Joseph C. (16), John A. (15), Gillette (listed as "Jane," which was her middle name, 12 years old), Emma (Mary Emma, 9 years), Elizabeth (6), and Jeremiah (2 years). They're still farming; the farm being worth approximately $600.

By the next census, 1880, their oldest son, William, and, apparently, John have moved out of the house but the rest of the children are still living at home. Joseph is listed as being 55 (seriously, he aged 15 years in the span of 10? I don't think so; he was more likely 50 years old), and Rachael is listed as 47 (which would be correct). The children living in the house are: Joseph C. (26), Jane (Gillette Jane, 22 years), Emma (Mary Emma, 18 years), Elizabeth (15), Jeremiah (12), Thomas (9), Jacob (7), and James (4). Rachael's younger brother, Alonzo Smith, is also living with them (29 years).

Joseph supposedly dies in 1885 but more research is needed to find out for sure. Rachael dies in 1890 and although the newspaper article says she's close to 70 years old, I suspect that she's closer to 57 years old.

I'm going to have to get a subscription to Ancestry and do a bit more research about this. It's a lot of information and it makes me think more and more about my family. I'm rather disconnected from most of my family, actually. I mean, my mom's immediate family are all gone so I have to rely on great-aunts and great-uncles and second (and fourth and sixth and third and gazillionth) cousins for information. It's disheartening. I do not want Little Man to go through not knowing his family...but it's going to happen anyway. *sigh*

The next time I discuss my family roots, I'll discuss John Abner Johnston and his wife, Lydia (White) Johnston.

Pearl Harbor: 70 Years Later

Seventy years ago on this date, Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Seventy years ago on this date, my grandfather, Roland Arthur Zerbel, was in the navy on a ship out in the Pacific Ocean. He was about twenty-one or twenty-two years old.

Twenty years ago on this date, I was eleven years old and it was the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My mother said that I should call my grandpa and ask him about it because he was there. So, not knowing what I was getting into and wishing to God now that I had paid a bit more attention then, I called my grandpa and asked him about Pearl Harbor.

For those of you that are not familiar with WWII history from the US standpoint, Pearl Harbor is located on the southern coast of island of O'ahu in the state of Hawai'i. It is the best place to anchor huge battleships in not only the Hawai'ian Islands, but the whole of the Pacific Ocean. And it was ours. Granted, Hawai'i was still just a US Territory at the time, but it had an US Air Force base and, obviously, naval ships. It is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the city of Honolulu, now the capital of Hawai'i. Pearl Harbor is the reason the US got involved in WWII and we were fighting against the Japanese. The whole deal about the US troops liberating concentration camps in Europe and storming the beach at Normandy, France were secondary to the Japanese. In fact, the US Government had no idea about the concentration camps until they ran into them while storming across Europe and wondered, "WTF is this?!"

I could get into the logistics for why the Japanese felt it necessary to bomb the hell out of us at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 but let's just say our sanctions against Japan caused it and we pretty much deserved it. You cannot choke someone and not expect them to fight back.

But, back to twenty years ago and an eleven year old me asking my grandfather, then in his early 70s, about his experience of Pearl Harbor. My grandfather was in the navy and had been stationed at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. I wish I had paid more attention to my grandfather's story but what I remember him clearly telling me this: his ship left Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941 because they realized the planes on the radar were coming from the wrong direction to be the supply ships that were supposed to be coming from California. They tried to warn the other ships in the area, telling them to look at the radar: there was no way that planes flying in from the west could be the planes from California because California is not to the west of Hawai'i.

His ship was one day out of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed it on December 7, 1941. He survived because of that.

Whether his ship left under orders or without orders, I do not know. Whether any other ship listened and left with them, I do not know.

My grandfather died in August 2002. He was in his early 80s. We never spoke of Pearl Harbor again after the discussion we had in 1991. Now that I've been doing my family research, I wish I had asked him more about Pearl Harbor and his time in the navy. I hope to ask my step-grandmother more about it, she knew him much better than I ever did.

And, as a side note, she was only eleven or so when the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred...about the same age I was when I asked him about it.

Genealogy Wednesday....

Today isn't a "Knitting WIP" type of day...but as for my genealogy research, it's been a good week.

My cousin, Richard, was here from Washington state for work. We're of the same "generation" of cousins, so to speak (we share a set of great-grandparents), though he's 18 years older than I am. For my entire life, he's always lived "away" from here though his father and step-mother live here in town. The first time I met him, I was maybe five or so. It was right after he graduated from college (which would have been 1985 - Facebook tells me wonderful things sometimes). I knew he lived in Washington state, and lived there for as long as I can remember.

Anyway, Richard's father, Jerry, is my maternal grandfather's nephew.

We talked of some of the family history last night and it was good. I have a bunch of photographs, things that neither Jerry or Richard have. We're planning to get them photographed (not scanned - scanning could damage the original photos) and digitized so that they can have copies of everything. We talked about how great-grandma Green (Margaret Mary Mikelbook/Michaelbook Green) didn't like anyone that took up with either of her boys (my great-uncle Vernon's first wife, my grandpa's first wife, Vernon's second wife, and my grandma) and she was always that way. We talked about how my grandparents were when they were younger.

But, the true gem of the evening...I learned about my grandpa's first wife. I knew he had been married and divorced before he met my grandma (and, consequently was kicked out of the Catholic church). I learned that when I was very young...I think my mother let it slip. When my grandpa was in the nursing home before he died in 2008, I started pressing him for information. He never told me anything about his first wife, only what transpired...

They got married young because, apparently, she was "pregnant." I use the term loosely. She skipped a period. She was 18...the whole "cycle" thing isn't perfect at that point. So, it was the 1940's and they were Catholic. So, they got married. Of course, she wasn't pregnant. She skipped a period. But, they were married. I don't know if my grandpa enlisted in the army willingly or if it was the thing to do or what...but he wound up in the army. I don't know if he was divorced before then or if he got divorced while he was in the army or what happened with that. What I do know is that he got divorced. I asked him why and he told me that he caught her with someone else. She tried to keep him by using the, "I'm pregnant" line again. Grandpa divorced her anyway (screw waiting for an annulment from the Pope!). He met my grandma while rollerskating with friends (Gil Zank, his army buddy, and Gil's girlfriend - whom he later married, Margaret). Grandpa was honorably discharged from the army in November 1946, he and grandma got married in December 1946, and my mother was born (premature) in May 1947. The rest is history, so to speak. But, back to the first wife and the divorce and all that...I asked grandpa if she really was pregnant and he told me, "I never knew."

Now, fast forward almost two years to last night when Richard and Jerry were here. They mentioned Muriel a few times. I finally asked, "and who's Muriel?" Jerry looked at me like I was crazy and said, "well, that was George's first wife." Okay, first gem of information: grandpa's first wife's name was Muriel. So, I started asking questions. Apparently she died about six or seven years ago. And she had a son named Michael, who died young (sometime in the late 1960's or early 1970's, by the sounds of it). I then asked the million dollar question: was Michael George's son? Yes. He was. But what happened was that Muriel married someone else and her second husband adopted Michael as his own. Apparently when that happened in the 1940's, any record of the birth father goes away...though it may be on the original birth certificate.

So, my gems of information: Muriel was my grandpa's first wife, Michael was their son. So, I had a half-uncle that I never knew about. I'm not sure if my mother ever knew of his existence, either. I'm not sure my grandmother knew about him. Now, if Jerry knows about it, then I'm sure my grandpa knew about it...but he never admitted it.

I guess that means I have more work to do. But it was a good start :)

According to Jerry, my great-grandmother is the reason that Muriel and my grandpa got divorced. That wouldn't surprise me but it also wouldn't surprise me that grandpa caught her with someone else. I'll never know the absolute truth because everyone involved has long since passed. Oh well.

Whether Michael had any children of his own...no idea.

Oh, and if you're interested, Richard and I are related this way:

Me --> Shirley Ann (Green) Zerbel (Thomas George Zerbel) --> George Anton Green (Agnes Lucille Johnston Green) --> Anton Edward Green (Margaret Mary Michaelbook Green)

Richard Green --> Gerald Green (don't know his first wife's name) --> Vernon Green (Idelle Green) --> Anton Edward Green (Mary Margaret Michaelbook Green)

We share a set of great-grandparents.

Not Another Genealogy Post! Too bad for you :)

What's with the lack of knitting? Oh yeah, that's right...I have to wait until at least tomorrow before I can post some of my knitting things.

But, genealogy, on the other hand...major SCORE this weekend.

I knew I had this information somewhere but I hadn't seen it since before we moved into my grandparents' house (which, incidentally will be my house come January 2014). I was cleaning in my office yesterday and I came across a bunch of genealogy stuff.

In particular, I found something my step-grandma, Ann (Miller) (McElrath) Zerbel had given me after my grandpa, Roland Arthur Zerbel,  died in 2002. It was a family tree that my great-aunt, Dorothy Wilhelmina (Zerbel) (Steward) Heidner had compiled several years earlier (before she died).

If you don't want to read about genealogy, I suggest you stop reading **NOW** and skip down a bit until you start reading about something else....

It contained several generations of my father's family's information as well as some information that my grandma further provided on separate sheets of paper.

I have been trying to remember what my great-grandma Zerbel's name was...could not think of it. Luckily, it's contained on this sheet: Doretta Anna (Holzwarth) Zerbel. I knew my great-grandpa's name was Lewis (Louis) Richard Zerbel. His parents (my great-great grandparents) were Herman Carl Zerbel (I've seen Carl Herman on some websites - I'm working on which is correct) and Dorthea Wilhelmina Schultz. My great-grandma Doretta's parents were Christian Holzwarth Jr., and Augusta Wilhelmina Plath (my great-great grandparents). I also know all of my great-great-great grandparents' names: Johann Zerbel & Maria (Zastrow is the surname I've found in several places); Fredrick Schultz & Dorthea; Christian Holzwarth & Maria (Mary) Kurz; and Carl Frederic Wilhelm Plath & Henrietta Fredreicka Schulze.

Combine this finding with a family tree that my mother must have "helped" me fill out years ago...based on my handwriting, I'd say I was probably in second grade. Anyway, It has several generations on my paternal grandmother's side, and my mother's family.

So, in addition to the find for my Zerbel line, I also found information on the Green/Michelbook/Schrantz/Lorge (Lorgy) line (my maternal grandfather's family), the Johnston/Fagerlind/White/Bostrom line (my maternal grandmother's family), and the Wideen/Beckner/Carlson/Schilf line (my paternal grandmother's family).

Now I think I can delve in further...I just have to pony up the dough to pay for an Ancestry membership. And other things. It's all good information :)

I also found myself a copy of my paternal grandfather's obituary (still contained in a newspaper - I'll have to cut it out and laminate it), my paternal grandmother's obituary (fully laminated - the kind you get from the funeral home) and I know I have a copy of some information that I posted from information that I never kept track of......

It's all exciting. Eventually I'll post pictures.

Also, Mother's Day was yesterday...my first "real" Mother's Day (as I was pregnant at this time last year). Husband made breakfast and dinner. He helped me out with watching Little Man so I could get some cleaning done. He tried to help me by starting his laundry...but I had to finish it and put it away (I'm anal about it and he'd heap it all on the floor if I'd let him - so I just put it away for him so it doesn't get too wrinkled).

Other than that, it's been a little crazy around here. Little Man and I went to check out a daycare here in town this morning. I like it and I think we'll be going there...the only thing I don't like, and all daycares appear to do this, is that if we're gone or miss more than our allotted "vacation" time, we have to continue to pay, even though Little Man wouldn't be there. It's kind of commonplace and I can see why daycares do it...it's just annoying and a waste of money, to me. But, that's just how it is.

I went through my yarn today...it's the Madison Knitters' Guild's last meeting of the season which means we are our own vendors, so to speak. So, I went through my stash and I have a large knitting bag full of yarn to sell...and it's all decent stuff. I also finished my stuff for Brown Bag Exchange but I can't share until tomorrow because, well, the person may read my blog and know what they're getting.......which isn't all that likely but it's still possible. So, I'm going to hold off on posting those until tomorrow, at least.

This week is going to be just as crazy. Tomorrow is the only day that isn't crazy. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are all going to be taken up by Little Man's doctor appointments. With his metabolic disorder (remember this post?), he has to see some "extra" doctors that most children won't have. He had his first appointment with his cardiologist last week. His EKG looked fine and he sounded fine but there are just some things you don't know without actually looking...so, on Wednesday, he's going in for a(nother) ECG. He had one when he was a week old but he's going to need one every six months or so until he's two and then yearly for awhile...then every couple of years and so on and so forth. So, his ECG is on Wednesday. On Thursday (through Friday), he's going in for a 24-hour heart monitor. He's not going to be too happy about it. He has to have it strapped to him, under a onsie and I have to keep track of his meltdowns so the cardiologist doesn't misread the printout as him having a problem when he was just all worked up for some reason or another. And then on Friday he has his regular 6 month checkup.

It's going to be a long week.

I hope to find time to knit. Or spin. Or something...

Genealogy research...

Sometimes, I wish I had kept better records when I started my genealogy research a decade ago. Things that were so readily available and easy to find a decade ago are eluding me today...and it's driving me NUTS!

I've been trying to find out what ship my father's family came on when they came to the US.

Do you think I can find it?! No. I know they came from Bremen to New York and I thought it was in the late 1850s...I'll have to dig out my genealogy research to see if I kept any notes that were useful. Hrm.

I even tried looking at the other side of my family...to no avail either.

It's going to be one of those days.

Genealogy...and other things

I've been cleaning (per this post). Last night I found some amazing things. Actually, let's be honest, I knew these existed but I took some time to actually look through them.

What am I talking about? Something that doesn't involve knitting, amazingly. I found some old photograph albums that were from my maternal grandfather's family. Unfortunately, 95% of the photographs are not labeled and I'm not sure who the people are in the photographs. I can recognize my grandfather and his brother, and their parents. Other than that, I'm not sure. I know there are some people labeled as "Aunt Katherine" or "Grandpa Mousel" and I kind of know who they are. Grandpa Mousel was my grandpa's maternal step-grandfather, if I remember correctly. Aunt Kate was my grandpa's aunt...but I don't remember if it was his mother's sister or his father's sister. I suspect it was his mother's sister. Katherine isn't exactly a German name (my great-grandfather's name was Anton and they were a German Catholic family).

I want to get copies of the photographs and send them to the remaining members of the family. There really aren't many left in the Green family. My grandpa's niece and her husband (in Arizona), nephew and his wife (who live here in town), and his nephew's children and their child (in Washington state and Georgia, if memory serves) are really all that remain from that family. I think it would be nice, especially for Roman (my grandpa's great-great nephew), to have these photographs. But, you can't just scan them using a regular scanner because it will damage the original photo. So, we're going to have to get a digital camera set up to photograph the photographs. I'm also going to look into proper archival of them. I know there's a building at the University of Wisconsin that does this but I can't, for the life of me, think of what it's called. I suppose I could look on a campus map...that would be the most obvious answer, wouldn't it?

I've also found old letters from both sides of the family, my parents' wedding album (I knew where that was), and other more recent photo albums. Oh, and I've found copies of obituaries and other information that some members of my family would give their right arm to have...not that I won't share :)

Ultimately, I think I'm going to have to spend some time at the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Library.

Other than that, I've been spending some time knitting. I'm almost done with my item for the Madison Knitters' Guild Brown Bag Exchange. I'm going to photograph it and I'll post them after I've given the item back to the owner of the yarn I'm using. I frogged my sock. I tried it on and it was way too loose in the cuff/leg. I was at the toe decrease...and I completely frogged it. I'm also still working on Little Man's blanket and a cabled hat for him.

I've been good about using yarn already in my stash. Obviously the sock I frogged and re-started was yarn already in my stash. The cabled hat for Little Man is using some Cascade Pima Tencel that I had in my stash. The blanket has been on-going and the yarn for the Brown Bag Exchange isn't even mine.

Sometime I'll photograph things and post pictures. I like pictures :)