Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Same Birthday as Yours?

1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?


2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.


One ancestor shares my birthday, and he is the end-of-line ancestor at the top of the pedigree chart. James Russell was born 2 Jun 1728 in England. I got this information from a gravestone transcription (Old Gravestones of Ulster County, Town of Plattekill) which was recorded as, "Russell James, Jan. 31, 1805, 76-7-29." My genealogy software tells me that makes his date of birth June 2nd. I would love to see this tombstone but it is not on findagrave.com yet and I have no plans to travel to New York to find it, although I'd love to!

A lot more research needs to be done on this line. I sent for a copy of his will several years ago. What I have found so far, and this hadn't been verified by other sources yet, leads me to say that James' wife was Anna. They had nine children, four daughters and five sons, including their son Benjamin Russell (Abt 1780-abt 1840) who is my great-great-great grandfather. There are several Russell families in Ulster County and I need to take the time to sort them out.

I used the calendar feature in Legacy software to find this information.

A(nother) New Project

I need a new project! I only have 500 photos of mom's to scan and about that many for another nameless project, since the recipient of that one reads this blog. And then there's getting copies of the Russell archive printed and bound for my aunt, the stories I want to write after being so inspired by the conference this last weekend, plus two boxes of mom's stuff I haven't touched in almost a year, storage unit contents threatening to topple over on me in the living room, a room that's getting painted this week and and and ...

So naturally, with so little to do, I signed up for an online class! My daughter told me about it and I could not resist. It is a Family History Album class at JessicaSprague.com I have often told my co-workers, when they wonder how I know some of the tricks to working in Microsoft Publisher and Word, well, if you are under pressure to learn it, you will! And I have been wanting to learn Photoshop Elements for many months now. And here's my chance. I have two weeks to learn how to create these beautiful family history pages. Well, actually, once you sign up, you have access to the class material and videos forever. But I'm going to ignore that for now and try my best to learn all I can in these two weeks. A good kind of pressure. But this won't be stressful, this will be fun! It will be the frosting on the cake, something to look forward to every evening. Yeah, no stress. Uh huh. Ok. So off I go.

(Daughter dear, I have your number and may be sending you a distress call these evenings...be sure to have your ringer turned up!)

John Colletta

I spent a wonderful day in Lincoln yesterday attending the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society program featuring John Colletta, one of the top genealogists in the country. He wrote "Only a Few Bones" which I wrote about here. It was so inspiring to hear him talk about "How to Write a Narrative Family History", with examples of different ways to do it. This part was broken down in to 1: Creating a Reliable Record and 2: Writing a Readable Story. In the afternoon he told us about and showed examples of research in the Library of Congress and also talked about Understanding Archives. Wow. What a wealth of information. He told us he was condensing his week-long class he gives in Utah once a year into a one morning format. Genealogy conferences of any kind are hard to come by in Nebraska so I'm very thankful to the Society for putting this on.

As he talked, I made a new notes about the stories I want to tell. I'm anxious to get started but I'm still putting the house and everything in order from the passing of Jim in May and mom last November. Tons of photos to scan before Thanksgiving, too. Lots to do! But getting away for this wonderful day of family history talk was energizing!

Revisiting Goals 2010

I suppose I wouldn't be revisiting my 2010 goals now except that I've met one - or nearly have - so I guess I can crow a little about it. I have scanned a large part of the Russell family archives and all of the photos I have found so far. That is a BIG deal for me. Scanning gets mighty boring, especially when what I really want to do is dig into some family roots or climb some neglected family tree limbs. The numbers: 241 documents such as letters, report cards, newspaper clippings, funeral notices, obituaries, invitations; about 45 postcards, front and back; about 110 photos, also front and back

The other part of that particular goal, #4, was to post them here. Well, I haven't done that yet - obviously... but I will! I think the plan is to begin at the beginning...I tend to have to do things chronologically...except for several very important digressions. An example will be the story of a smart, accomplished young woman who became a nurse in the early 1900s but who died too young. It's not a dramatic story, but it is a heartbreaking one, especially for her sisters who grieved a long time for her.

There are still several parts of the archives to scan, including the diaries of the Russell sisters. I photocopied the pages years ago and scanning shouldn't take long. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other things that will prove more challenging to scan. I may set up my camera to take digital photos of them. That will be down the road a bit. I don't anticipate being able to start posting this until after Thanksgiving, and most likely after the new year.

There are no scandals in the story, no black sheep or fallen women. The story of the Russell family up to the middle of the 20th century is the story of an American family seeking to earn a living and take care of their family responsibilities, which meant they had to move several times to find work. They lived through many historic changes. But the diaries and letters they left do not talk about that. They record the personal stories of the how they earned money to help pay for necessities, of giving up a dream to care for a parent, and of their struggles to live up to their spiritual ideals. To quote from Agnes Russell's diary: "How can writers describe such dull, drab, lonely lives of country people. Maybe some families live such lives - we didn't."

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Birth Order

Another fun Randy Seaver puzzle:

1) Pick one of your ancestral lines - any one - patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc. Pick a long one if you can.

2) Tell us which position in the birth order that your ancestor was in each generation. For example "third child, first son." Also list how many children were born to these parents.

3) Share your Birth Order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.

Patrilineal:

1. Only child of my father

2. Hugh Russell (1912-1995) was the oldest child of his father and the fourth son of his mother, her sixth child out of nine.

3. Benjamin T. Russell (1878-1963) was the oldest son of Henry and Elida (Newcomb) Russell; they had seven children

4. Henry Russell (1849-1937) was the oldest son of Rev. Daniel and Maria (Hunter) Russell; they had three children. Daniel remarried and had five more children.

5. Daniel Russell (1824-1902) was the seventh son and youngest child of Benjamin and Martha (Dayton) Russell; they had 14 children

6. Benjamin Russell (about 1780 - about 1840) was one of five sons of James Russell but I don't know their birth order. They had nine children. James is the end-of-line ancestor on this branch.

Matrilineal:

1. Youngest child of my mother

2. Grace Jones (1923-2009) was the oldest daughter and oldest child of Frank and Elizabeth (Worth) Jones; Frank and Lizzie had two children.

3. Elizabeth Worth (1888-1985) was the third daughter and sixth child of George and Flora (Swift) Worth; they had 13 children.

4. Flora Lucinda Swift (1859-1927) was the second daughter and fourth child of Charles F. and Eunice (Robinson) Swift; they had five children. Eunice remarried and had two more children (possibly more?)

5. Eunice Calista Robinson (1832-1906) was the first daughter and second child of Aaron and Rachel (Walker) Robinson; they had 10 children.

6. Rachel Walker (1807 - after 1880) was the fourth daughter and sixth child of John and Rachel (Cochran) Walker; they had eight children.

Saturday Night Genealogical Fun

"Her there, genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Determine which event in your ancestral history that you would love to be a witness to via a Time Machine. Assume that you could observe the event, but not participate in it.

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook."


When I read tonight’s challenge, my first thought was of Luther Kallam, 1760-1845. Luther joined the fight against Britain when he was 16 and returned home from the war four years later. Here is a capsule review of his service gleaned from his pension record.

Luther Kallam served in Babcock’s Regiment commanded by Col. Lippett. They marched to New York Island under the command of General Washington; he participated in the retreat off New York Island and White Plains while he was under Capt. Lemuel Bailey. They went from White Plains, New York, to Kings Ferry, Morristown, New Jersey and crossed the Delaware at Easton and travelled on to Bethlehem where his term of service expired 1 Jan 1777. He immediately volunteered for one more month and crossed the Delaware River at Bridgetown. He was in the battle at Trenton and also Princeton, then on to Morristown and New Brunswick. He was discharged again 31 Jan 1777. He enlisted again under Captain Heeney in February 1777 for three months and marched to Providence, Rhode Island, in Col. Richmond’s regiment. Again his enlistment expired.

In the spring of 1780 he enlisted under Col. Jeremiah Halsey for nine months and was attached to Capt. Hall’s company, in Col. Swift’s Regiment, 1st Connecticut. They marched to Herrington, then down the Hackensack river, back to Herrington to the north river at King’s ferry, on to the Highlands where they assisted building the Barracks or “Hats”. He was discharged December 1780.

What student of history wouldn’t want to tag along with Luther during these four years! There was no certainty the revolutionaries would win and in fact many times it looked like they would be defeated. The crossing of the Delaware was treacherous and the victories at Trenton and Princeton were almost miraculous. The battles. The marching. The hunger. The frostbitten fingers and feet. The knowledge at the end of it all that he and his fellow soldiers had been instrumental in setting up a new nation. What a wonderful trip back in time that would be!

I will again highly recommend the book Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer for anyone interested in learning more about George Washington and this part of the war.

~Source: "Revolutionary War Pensions." Database and images. (Footnote.com. www.footnote.com.), (www.footnote.com : accessed 23 Sep 2009); Luther Kallam; online images of pension application including affidavit.

Fantastic old photos

Couldn't resist posting this even though it is not related to my family history. These are prints from colored slides from the 1930s and 40s. Amazing photos.

Come to think of it, I do have some slides Grandma Lizzie and Aunt Nellie took in the 60s. I'll add scanning them in to my computer to my ever-growing To-Do list!

Foto Friday

Mom took photos in the late '50s and early '60s of the cattle and gardens and this one of dad building a haystack. This post needs to come with an essay on "how to put up hay" but that may have to wait. But the hot summer days like we're having now always bring back good memories of helping dad in the hay field.

Foto Friday

Taken July 4, year unknown but between 1957 and 1964 on the Lakeman Place. Dad is in the photo on the left but I'm not sure who the others are. The 1957 blue and white Ford Fairlane is in the background. I learned to drive in this car as well as the 1960 red Ford pickup. We moved from the Lakeman place to the Miller place in March, 1964.

Foto Friday

This isn't the best quality picture but mom captured an action photo here. (It's large so you can see dad in the tree.) This was on the Miller Place about 1967 and our rope swing had broken. All spring Dad was too busy to put up another one. His cousins, Verleen and Fay Sams (Fay was a man's name in the last century) and their kids visited us one day and Fay convinced dad it was time to put up the swing. (I think that is the back of Fay's head at the bottom of the photo.) So here is dad, age about 55, climbing a tree and tying a rope to what looks like a branch with the outer limb broken off. The deal with rope swings is that you leave the swing up until it rots off because of rain and snow, then replace it. The seat is a 1 by 4 or 6 or whatever, with notches carved into the sides, usually by a drill since this leaves a nice half-circle into which fits the rope. Usually the seat remained in the swing even when we weren't using it.

We had two rope swing locations on the Miller Place (not at the same time). This was just west of the house. I remember swinging here and looking at the orange tiger lilies that were along the edge of the house and in the spring the peonies bloomed further north along the sidewalk.