Wordless Wednesday - Fine Scratches Removed and Edges Repaired

Before

After

Another picture that I scanned from my step-father's (James Trunzo) side of the family.  I really need to identify the people in the pictures that I scanned though!

Tuesday's Tip - Inputting Data on the 1840 U.S. Census

1840 U.S. Federal Census

It's that time again.  Time for another census form!  If you thought that the 1830 census was looking a bit cramped, well creating a one-page spreadsheet for the 1840 census was very challenging, but it's done and legible, even when printed.

The information is getting better.  At least we're asking for pensioners this time and asking about jobs even if it's a generalization of occupations...it's something.  Also, there are questions about education and this group is broken down into various degrees/types of education which is quite nice.  Finally, we've got the old "cannot read and write" block to mark which we're all familiar with other later censuses.

The same discriminatory features still persist in that white people have more age brackets to assign members of the household which is very helpful in narrowing people down or excluding them from our branches.  Slaves and Free Colored People are treated the same as far as there are fewer brackets which gives the researcher a more general view, making things potentially more difficult to narrow down or eliminate erroneous branches in our family trees.  Again, we must take it in historical context.  That's the way of things back then.  I don't have to like it, but I can't change it.

The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledges that the 1840 census closely mirrored that of the 1830 census with some adjustments:

"No population questionnaire was prescribed by the Congress—the design of the questionnaire was left to the discretion of the Secretary of State, and closely followed that used in1830. The law did specify the inquiries to be made of each household."

You can view the "Compendium of Enumeration" as well as the "Census of Pensioners" on their webpage via a .pdf listed as Volume 3 and 4 respectively by clicking here.

On www.1930census.com you can again watch our nation expanding, by viewing a map of the changing states' boundaries, and a timeline-history of that decade.  Sadly, the tab for "Census Questions Asked" and big blank.  Ah well!  You can't have everything!

As always, if you have any trouble viewing or downloading the spreadsheet, just comment or send me an email and I'll see what I can do to fix it.  So far there hasn't been any trouble since the very first sheet I posted.  I'll cross my fingers!

Let me know if there are any mistakes as well.  I'm sure you can imagine my eyes were starting to go crossed by the time I was done with this form!  Corrections and suggestions are always welcome!

To access the form simply click on the image at the top of the page or click on anywhere it says "1840 census."

Good luck and have fun tending those roots!

Military Monday - Central Texas Casualties 2008

Faces of the departed - 2008

Roll Call

 

SGT Phillip Anderson
SPC David J Badie
PVT Charles Y Barnett
SPC Cory J Bertrand
SSG Ronald C Blystone
SPC Seteria L Brown
SGT Douglas J Bull
SPC Donald Burkett
SSGT Chad A Caldwell
SGT David K Cooper
SSG Victor M Cota
SSG Nathan M Cox
PFC Michael R Dinterman
SGT Alejandro A Dominguez
SSG Brandon W Farley
SPC Jorge L Feliz Nieve
CPL Reuben M Fernandex III
SPC Stephen R Fortunato
PVT Jair D Garcia
2LT Michael R Girdano

PFC Joseph F Gonzales
SPC Alex D Gonzalez
PFC Corey L Hicks
PFC Theron V Hobbs
SPC Geoffrey G Johnson
PVT Eugene D Kanakaole
SPC Marques I Knight
PFC Keith Lloyd
SSG Bryant Mackey
CPT Torre Mallard
PFC John Mattox
SSG Kenneth W Mayne
PVT Colman J Meadows III
CPT Michael J Medders
SGT Preston R Medley
SPC Andre D Mitchell
SPC Keisha Morgan
SPC Matthew T Morris

SPC William J Mulvihill
PVT Micahel W Murdock
CPT Michael A Norman
SSG David L Paquet
CPT Andrew R Pearson
SGT John M Penich
SGT Jose Regalado
SSG Kristopher D Rodgers
PFC Tavarus D Setzler
SPC Corey M Shea
SGT Corey Spates
SPC Joel A Taylor
PFC Bryan R Thomas
SGT Shaun Tousha
SPC Ronald J Tucker
SGT Gregory D Unruh
SGT Richard A Vaughn
PFC Joshua E Waltenbaugh
SFC Miguel A Wilson
PVT Vincent C Winston Jr
CPT Robert J Yllescas
SPC James M Yohn

May our Soldiers come home soon.

Sunday's Obituary - Octavia Villers nee Wagner

I've actually got 2 wonderful obituaries for Octavia.  One was sent to me from a cousin that I met through the absolutely wonderful world of message boards (I love those darned boards so very much!).  The other I found during Scanfest last Sunday.

Yes, can you believe that I had the obituary published in Wisconsin for years and didn't know it.  That's why I'm forever grateful that I finally remembered to tune in and do a scan fest.  I knew I had lots to scan, but never seemed to get to it.  This find has certainly motivated me to get down to it and get it done!

So for you long-time readers of my blog (there are one or two of you out there)...you may recall the murder trial of Martin Joseph Villers that I posted on back at the end of 2010.  Well, Octavia was his wife.  She is my husband's great-great grandmother.  I'm posting both obituaries, because they are a bit different and they therefore give slightly different genealogical information.  It also makes for a pretty good comparison.

The Bismarck Tribune

The following is from the Bismarck Tribune, July 1940:

"OCTAVIA VILLERS, AGED CO. PIONEER, PASSED AWAY TODAY

Funeral Services Will Be Held At St. James Church Monday

Mrs. Octavia Villers, aged pioneer resident of Jamestown and Stutsman county, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary LaJoie, at 6:30 o'clock this morning.

Mrs. Villers came with her parents to the United States 84 years ago from her native land, Belgium, where she was born December 18, 1842.  The trip was made in a sailboat and took six weeks.  The family went to Rosiere, Wisconsin, near Green Bay.  It was 54 years ago when Mrs. Villers came to Stutsman county to Montpelier.  She came to Jamestown over 30 years ago and for nearly 20 years lived with her daughter, Mrs. Ella Naze and since that time has lived with Mrs. LaJoie.

Mrs. Villers was active until about two years ago.  She was a member of St. James Catholic church.  Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. LaJoie; Mrs. Eli Cayemberg, Pulaski, Wis.; Mrs. Agnes Tardiff, Duluth, Minn.; and a son, Louis Villers, Green Bay, Wisc.; 24 grandchildren; 36 great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren.  Mrs. Naze, a daughter, died several years ago.

Funeral services will be held at St. James Catholic church Monday morning at 9:00 o'clock.  The body is at the Daly Funeral Home.  The family requests that no flowers be sent.  The rosary will be said Sunday night at 8:00 o'clock at the funeral home."

The date is hand-written in as July 5th.  No year is given.  Octavia died in 1940 at the age of 97.  She missed her 98th birthday by 6 months. You can also note that her husband is not mentioned in her obituary at all. Not surprising I guess considering his crimes in the region. He is mentioned in the Wisconsin obituary below.

This obituary was taken from a local Wisconsin newspaper.  It's a clipping, so I'm not sure which one, but I'd be willing to bet it wasn't the Green Bay newspaper.  Perhaps Algoma's newspaper:

"Former Rosiere Woman Dies in North Dakota

Word has been received here of the death of Mrs. Octavia Mary Villers, 98, which occurred Friday morning at the home of her daughters, Mrs. Felix Lajoye, Jamestown, N.D.  She was a former resident of Rosiere.  

Unknown Wisconsin newspaper

Mrs. Eli Cayemberg and Walter Cayemberg, Pulaski; Henry and Wilfred Cayemberg, Manitowoc; Mrs. Russell Anderson, Green Bay, and Hubert Guillette, Anston, attended the services which were held this morning at St. James Catholic church with burial in the church cemetery at Jamestown. 

The deceased was born in Belgium Dec. 22, 1842, and came to America in 1854 with her parents Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Wagner, settling in Rosiere.  She married M. J. Villers in 1864 and lived in Algoma for 10 years before coming to North Dakota 54 years ago. 

Survivors are four children, (Florence) Mrs. Eli Cayemberg, Pulaski; (Mary) Mrs. Felix Lajoye, Jamestown; (Agnes) Mrs. Joseph Tardiff, Duluth, Minn.; and Louis Villers, Green Bay; 46 grandchildren and several great grandchildren.  A daughter, Mrs. Prosper Naze, died four years ago." 

No date on this one, but again, I know when she died.  I this obituary they state that she's 98 years old even though they listed her birth date.  Ah well...math!  It's a small point either way.

This last one is the one that I "found" last weekend, and I'm glad that I did.  I've been scanning obituaries that my husband's paternal grandmother collected and have been wondering how they are going to fit into our family tree, if they will at all.  This last obituary gives some pretty great information on her children.  And you know what?  I recognize some of the names.  Scoreboard!  Naturally, the search isn't over with just this obituary.  They are prone to errors.  After all, they aren't submitted by the deceased.  All second-hand information, which may or may not be accurate.  I mean look at the birth dates.  They were off.  Either by the person submitting the information or the person writing the story.   It does give me a great starting point to continue that research though!

Follow Friday on Saturday?

A day late, but not a dollar short!  There were so many posts I wanted to mention this week and I know I won't even be able to touch on a fraction of the great blogging I read this week!  Since I had a Friday post already, I figured I'd get this out today...I rarely find something to blog about for Saturdays!

So on to the good stuff...

Lynn Palermo over at the Armchair Genealogist had a wonderful post "When Fear Holds You Back From Doing Your Best Research".  A very timely article for me since I'm finally getting back home and will be entering the Luzerne County Courthouse for the very first time in search of probate for my ancestors.  I'm excited, I'm nervous and I certainly needed the reminder that preparedness is the key!  Thanks, Lynn and if you haven't read the post yet, head on over!

Lorine McGinnis of Olive Tree Genealogy's post "Worldictionary - an Interesting iPhone App" was very interesting.  I love all the new apps out there and I really want to download this one and play with it.  A translation tool like no other.  Still won't translate handwriting, but Lorine's got a great work-around for that!

Renee Zamora from Renee's Genealogy Blog had a post on merging and splitting .pdf's.  Something I think most of us would be interested in.  I usually have to use a little cheat to do this, but if there's software that does it, how much better is that?!?  It's also free, although they would appreciate donations.  Check out Renee's blog "Merge & Split PDF Files" for the details!

And lastly for this Following (and I am leaving out so many, but will catch up!) Ancestry.com for this weekend only is offering the membership applications for the Sons of the American Revolution (1889-1970).  There are more than 145,000 applications/1.2 million records.  Jump on this while you can!

Have fun tending those roots...and writing all the awesome blogs!

Funeral Card Friday - Happy Birthday, Jeff

My cousin, John Jeffrey Ryan Jr was born on July 1, 1971.  My aunt Cathy and uncle Jeff had three children.  My mom and dad had three children.  We were all of comparable ages.  Their oldest, Allison, was close in age to my oldest sister so they always spent time together during visits.  I'm 3-1/2 years younger than my older sister so there wasn't much hanging out going on there when we were kids.  Too much of a gap.  So when we visited my aunt and uncle, my younger sister (18 months younger than me) and I would hang out with their two youngest, Jeff and Patrick.

Me and Jeff

I don't really know how Pat and Jeff felt about being stuck with 2 girls to play with all the time, although we were not dainty girls at all so maybe it wasn't too bad for them!  I've got nothing but wonderful memories.   I loved going to see them all.

Then life happens.  My parents began divorcing when I was in 2nd grade.  The divorce lasted for a very long time (and is a very long story), but the result was that we eventually didn't see my aunt, uncle and cousins anymore.  It didn't happen immediately.  My dad had custody of us (another long story about a very manipulative man), but my mom still wanted us to be able to go with her to see her family.  Eventually those trips stopped.  I don't remember why exactly.  It may have been us kids acting like little poop-heads and whining about it (my dad really manipulated us to make my mom feel like crap), or it may have been because with my mom having to pay child support to my perpetually unemployed father, she had no money to take us.  Either way, it happened and I went without seeing my cousins for eight years or more.

Jeff's 1st Communion

When I was a senior in high school, my cousins came to Pennsylvania for a visit.  I was living with my mom by now so I got to see them.  I was in shock at the change (and I'm sure they were too).  I still had memories of the little children I played with and they were all grown up.  What did I expect, right? My uncle is a very tall man and my cousins took after him so my sisters and I were pretty much the midgets of the party.  It was wonderful seeing them again, but because they were adults now (or almost adults) it would be another 5 years and me joining the Army before I saw them all again on a regular basis.

I was learning Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and as coincidence would have it, my uncle was stationed there at the same time.  He was a military doctor at the medical clinic.  This meant that I got to spend some wonderful weekends with them all.  My other uncle lived in the area as well so it was like a wonderful family reunion whenever I got over to their house.

Pat, Jeff and Allison

Time passed and the Army sent me elsewhere.  My uncle retired and they moved to Hawaii.  As luck would have it, that's where my husband (boyfriend at the time) transferred to and I followed.  We loved spending time on weekends with my aunt and uncle.  I cherish those memories so much!  My cousins would come out to visit a few times a year from California and my husband and I would make sure that we had time to spend with them all.

We got to see Jeff get married.  He loved his fiance/wife so much, although I can't really say that we all did.  She was in the adult entertainment business.  I don't remember the details of her nasty little life, but I believe it was still pictures and stripping that she did...not movies.  Despite what she did for a living my cousin seemed truly happy when he was with her.  You could tell he loved her.  Would do anything for her.  In fact "anything" included having a pirate wedding...at sea.

Jeff and his bride Angel

Pat and Jeff

Jeff had gone through some hard times emotionally in his life and probably spent a little too much time hanging with the party crowd, but he had made it past all that now.  He was really getting his life together and he saw all this as a new beginning.  As a tribute to his parents, his wedding was held on their anniversary.  So on December 27, 1999 we all went out to Honolulu Bay and boarded a little boat for the wedding.  The bride and bridesmaids were dressed as wenches.  The groom and best man, as pirates.  The Jolly Roger was hoisted and the wedding vows were recited.  Jeff looked so happy.

Angel and Jeff the day after the wedding

Cutting the cake the day after the wedding

He and his bride left a few weeks later.  Life went on and within a few months I heard that they were divorcing.  She had been unfaithful to him.  Needless to say I would have liked to ruin that little face of hers...no one messes with my cousin...and I knew it was breaking his heart.  Sometimes you don't have to ask.

Jeff spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii with his mom and dad.  I was very pregnant.  Jeff seemed to be doing pretty well.  He talked about scripts he was reading and famous people he'd gotten to meet in Los Angeles.  Despite the divorce (which wasn't discussed) he seemed to be at a peaceful place in his life.  I took no pictures that Thanksgiving.  It haunts me still.  I will regret it always.

My parting words to my cousin before getting into my little Saturn to drive back to my side of the island was, "the next time you see me, you'll be able to meet the newest member of the family!"  I hugged him and left.  I would never see my cousin again.

Jeff and his guitar

Jeff didn't want to spend Christmas in Hawaii in 2000.  He wanted to take a trip to Greece.  A great opportunity.  He didn't say it, but we all could guess that his marriage ending hurt him and the fact that he dedicated it to his parents and had hoped it would last just as long, hurt him.  To be back where it happened on what would have been his 1st anniversary was just too much.  I truly believe that's the reason he really went to Greece.

I received a phone call from my aunt a few days before New Years Eve.  Jeff was vacationing in Greece with two female friends and was critically injured in a car accident.  The roads were wet and a semi-truck hit the car they were driving.  They told me he was in bad condition.  That he had been intubated and was on life support.  My uncle and cousin, Patrick, were getting everything together that they needed and were flying out to Greece.  As a doctor my uncle could hardly sit by and wait for news.  He needed to make sure that Jeff was getting the care he needed to recover.

Jeff, Patrick and Allison

My uncle and Pat arrived in Greece only hours after he passed.  They hadn't made it to him in time.  My aunt, all alone at her house was actually hesitant to call me because she worried it would effect my pregnancy. I found it incredible that at such a time she was worried about my baby, but I suppose the loss of one child was enough.  We asked to come over.  She wanted to be alone.  It's such a hard position.  You sit there and wonder if you should go over anyway or give the person space.  It was a situation I was unfamiliar with.  We did not go over though until she was ready for us.

I cried harder that night than I can remember ever crying in my life.  He was one year older than me.  He was 29 years old.  He couldn't be gone.  Even knowing how critical his condition was the possibility of losing him never had crossed my mind.  He was my counterpart in my aunt and uncle's family.  I was the middle child and so was he.  I always looked at my cousins as siblings.  Siblings that I didn't see as frequently as my own, but I loved them all that way.  In my heart I lost a brother that day.  I still feel that loss today and I cannot even write this tribute to him without using so many tissues.

My uncle and Patrick made the arrangements to have his body sent back to the states.  He was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled at sea.  That's what I remember anyway.  The time was a blur and I tend to block out bad memories.  I don't know if there was an obituary notice published.  The burial happened in California and being at the end of my pregnancy, I wasn't there.

Uncle Jeff and Patrick after the LA Triathlon 2002

At the end of my time in the military I was again stationed at the Defense Language Institute.  Each year around September, Los Angeles holds a triathlon.  Jeff used to compete.  Now his family would come out each year to compete in his name.  Those that weren't competing would watch and support those taking part.  It was an event I didn't miss when I was stationed in California.

Every year, my calendar reminds me that today is Jeff's birthday.  He would have been 40.  I won't ever remove that reminder.  I will never forget him.  And while he may never have been able to hold "the newest member of the family" I have no doubt in my heart and mind that he has seen him.  Has seen both of my children.  I know he watches over us all as the years go by.  He's not missing a moment and he will always be with us.

UPDATE: I have gotten a few comments/emails from people who remember and love Jeff.  Even though he does not have a physical memorial to visit, I created a virtual one on Find A Grave so everyone that wants to can leave a message for Jeff.  I love getting all the comments/emails from friends that knew and loved him.  It is more meaningful and special than I can say. You can view the memorial by clicking here.

Uncle Jeff after the swimming portion of the triathlon

Uncle Jeff beginning the biking portion of the triathlon

Uncle Jeff heading for the finish line

Treasure Chest Thursday - I Know I'm Extremely Lucky

 

Almost every family reunion clipping!

I know I'm extremely lucky to have these.  I'm lucky to have them in my possession and I'm lucky that my husband's paternal grandmother put these together.  They are a true treasure.  One that I let collect dust for far too long!

A few years ago my mother-in-law passed on to me several family artifacts, including these two books.  I was delighted to be given them, but life got in the way of me doing anything with them, so I put them aside and kept telling myself that I would get back to them soon.

Pages and pages of obituaries

As I mentioned before, I attended my first Scanfest on June 26th and had a blast.  I had a box of clippings to scan and got through them all.  They were clippings that had fallen out of the pages of these scrapbooks.  When I got done with these loose clippings, I was "in the zone" and didn't want to stop.  I pulled the scrapbooks out and began paging through them.  I found so many important obituaries and wedding announcements that I wanted to kick myself for not getting to them earlier.

And pages of wedding/engagement announcements!

I had to stop eventually to spend time with the hubby and kids (after all, I do this all for them), but I'm going to make sure I put a little time each day to preserving these albums.  I could scan them, but the pages are already falling out of the books, so I will most likely use my camera to capture the data.  It will be worth it in the end.

I've got less than 2 weeks before heading back to Pennsylvania on vacation with the family (and to do some research...gotta have my fun too!).  We'll see how much I can get done.  I'll be set for Wedding Wednesday, Military Monday and Sunday's Obituary until about 2015!

Have fun tending those roots!  I love this stuff!!!

Military draftees and service members...

...Some never came home.