Sunday, May 20, 2001 - London

Resuming my posting of my vacation in London and Ireland 2001

Cloudy on occasion – some sun, warm.

Up around 6 am, breakfast at 7 and off early – an all day pass on the ‘tube.’  First stop – Notting Hill and Portebello Rd.  Everyone had assured us that the markets were open on Sunday, and either they didn’t know or we were too early (many shops said they opened at 11am and we were there at 9:30).  The streets were deserted and strewn with garbage from Saturday market.  We asked directions from many citizens and finally found the Travel Book Store and what we believe was the blue door (which is now brown).  Nice neighborhood on a Sunday.

The ‘tube’ lines were being repaired in the direction we wanted to go, so we had to ride a ‘double-decker’ bus a ways (Edgeware Rd to Baker Street).  There we saw the long lines for Madam Tussauds’ but Brenda asked around and found we could go right in to the planetarium, then into the museum – cost £5 and saved us over an hour in line.

The Planetarium was good, but we went through a lot of film in the wax museum – we both had to pose with all our favorites.  The ride (London Thru Time[Spirit of London]) kept breaking down on us, but we finally got through.
 [Spirit of London – Hop into a black cab and take a journey back in time. Our special, mini versions of London’s world famous taxis have room for two and will drive you through the historic and cultural events that have shaped London into the great city it is today. So sit back and enjoy the ride! Your journey begins in Tudor times where Sir Francis Drake is riding the high seas. Quill in hand, Shakespeare is busy working on one of his masterpieces so don’t expect him to look up when you drive past. You’ll rush through a London haunted by plague and fire, slowing down just in time to see the new city being built by architect Sir Christopher Wren. Queen Victoria reigns over the London of the industrial revolution and you’ll hear the air raid sirens before you enter a London at war. But don’t worry; your cab will drive you safely through the blitz and into the swinging sixties, dropping you back off in today’s Madame Tussauds.]   

Back to the ‘tube’ and on to St John’s Wood to get a picture of Abbey Rd (Beatles’ album cover) – a popular spot with lots of tourists around.  A quick walk back up to the ‘tube’ and on to St Paul’s Cathedral.  It is closed on Sundays and we had limited photo opportunities cause it too was under repair. 

Next stop, Liverpool Street.  Brenda wanted a photo by a sign so she could surprise her friends – something about a popular song they all like about sitting in Liverpool all alone and depressed.  First we had to eat cause we were getting cranky.  Liverpool Street is a large ‘tube’ and rail station with lots of shops and cafes.  We got fish & chips at a pub there (JD Witherspoon Freehouse).
 
After the photo we went on to the British Museum.  We got help from a girl from Oxford who’d moved into the city – she directed from the station, but having spent 2 whole days together, Brenda and I decided to go through the museum on our own and meet back outside in 2 hours (6pm when it closed).  My feet were really sore so I only went through the Egypt, Greece and Roman exhibits (Brenda paid to see the Cleopatra exhibit).  I looked for souvenirs but found none.  When we were done we went through a shop across the street having a close-out sale.  There were kilts in there but I didn’t know the McMillan plaid.

My collection of CATS found in London architecture

On the way home we stopped at Picadilly Circus, bought souvenirs and ate at a steak house.  The ‘tube’ ride was a welcome relief – to sit down and chat for a while.  At the motel we sat with Richard and Sue while they finished dinner and all recapped our day.  Sue had a ‘Bailey’s ‘ Irish drink and I had an ale.  We’re leaving early in the morning so we spent a while packing and getting ready.

Memorial To My Sister - Christina Winne

Christina Williamson

Christina Winne Williamson, 73, of Emmett, passed away on October 22, 2010. She was born March 18, 1937 in Cascade, Idaho, the third of ten children of Cecil and Rachel (Crawford) Logue. Christina attended several grade schools as her father followed jobs across ID and WA. The family grew larger so they settled in Garden Valley, where Christina graduated from high school. After several years of providing nanny and elder care she met Frank Williamson and they married on July 19, 1969 in Winnemucca, NV. Christina and Frank settled in Emmett where she raised animals while he worked at the sawmill in Horseshoe Bend. After Frank passed away in 1988, Christina centered her life around her daughter and grandkids. 

Christina is survived by her daughter, Christiana and grandchildren, Amethyst and Devin of Emmett, brothers, Cyril and Roger Logue of Boise, Tim (Mary Jo) Logue of Caldwell, and Gerald Logue of Albuquerque, and sister, Reba (Lyle) McMillan, of Nampa, numerous nieces and nephews and many dear friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, a sister, Miriam, and three brothers, George, Tom and Adrian Logue Memorial services will be held at Potters Funeral Chapel, Emmett, on Wednesday, Oct 27, 2010 at 4pm with an informal gathering following.

 posted in the Idaho Statesman newspaper, Tues, 26 Oct 2010.

 

From notes by Christina Williamson:

In Cascade we lived in a collapsible house.  Then at McGregor, in a tent (Dad was piling brush for Boise Cascade).  In Emmett Dad bought a trailer house.  Cyril was born May 13, 1941.  His doctor was CE Carver and when mother named Cyril the nurse, who was the doctor's wife, came in and asked if she wanted to give him the rest of the doctor's name - CE = Cyril Ellis.  Mother had found the name Cyril in a book and liked it and Ellis is the only name she could find to go with it, so he wasn't really named after his doctor even if it might have looked that way.

Trail Creek in a trailer house on Salmon River three years, wintering in Cascade.  Then Emmett, in a house across from the storage building.  Dad helped Grandpa Crawford build a house below the cemetery.

While living in Boise, when Dad was going to sheet metal school, Christina had measles and then pneumonia and was in the hospital in Emmett.  A lot of her stuffed toys were lost while they lived there.  When they moved to Walla Walla, Christina fell off a sign board and tore a large triangular gash in her arm.  She remembers going to the carnival while there, but not with Dad.

When they moved to Lewiston, Mom left Dad.  Christina started school in the first grade at a church school.  It was about six weeks after school had started, but because of the war and so many people moving in to work on the air bases, they weren't letting six year olds start school.  When they moved to Payette, Cyril had measles, mumps and whooping cough all at the same time.  It enlarged his tonsils.  There are pictures of Christina's birthday, with Tommy, Cyril, and a boy friend (yes, she did have boy friends).

They then moved to Emmett and lived in a small house on River Street, right next to the canal.  There was and still is a pipe across the canal there and a very small shallow spot where they played in the water a lot.  Tommy, Cyril and Christina stayed alone a lot and went to sleep listening to western music on the radio.  A kid who was allergic to poison oak had Christina and Tommy rub some all over them.  But they never broke out but the boy who told them which leaves to pick really got a bad rash.

Mom went back to Dad because she couldn't get any help from her family to help support them.  Her parents wouldn't even take care of use so Mom could work.  Dad fathered a son to a woman in Boise - it must have happened while he was there going to school because from leaving Walla Walla to going to Mountain Home was all one school year.  In Mountain Home they rented a place while Dad worked on the air base.  It was a tent in a place like an unkept trailer park, with whatever kind of temporary housing they could put up.  It was across the road from a service station and motel just south of the underpass.  Dad had friends named Bennett.  Christina learned about colored people.  She had a red headed friend who's parents whipped him until his legs were a mass of sores.  Then babied him and doctored them until they healed.  They would put money on the railroad tracks so the train would run over it and flatten it.  An older lady lived in a very small trailer house with a Boston bulldog.  She was very upset and cried a lot when FDR died.

Christina had a spell where she couldn't see and had to set on the curb until she could see before going on home after school one day.  her eyes were checked but they weren't bad (I know now it was a sinus problem).  Mom was the one who needed her eyes checked.

Peggy and Jim H  lived in the same park for a while and their son, Gary, killed our goldfish with a fork.

Cyril disliked eggs and if Tommy told him that cake had eggs in it, he wouldn't eat the cake.  Cyril didn't talk much.

We lost out first pet dog, a small black and tan about the size of a Chuhuahua.  We were playing in the park next to the service station and motel and the dog was setting back a ways from the road, waiting for us to come home.  A car came along and went clear off the road to hit him.

Christina cracked a bone in her arm falling out of a tree in the service station park.

Mom tried to teach Christina to dance.

Jim H got drunk and told Dad the hunting story of shooting the deer and the deer shooting him.

Cascade - rented a house across from school.  It was one of Johnny S's houses.  Adrian was born March 23, 1946.  Christina didn't sleep good because of Tommy's wetting the bed and would come home after school and go to sleep in a chair.  Donkey Campbell lived next door to Grandma and Grandpa Logue.  He got the name Donkey because he worked on a machine that was called a donkey.  It used cable to haul logs up the mountain and Donkey to do to a cable what a good cowboy could do to a rope - like making loops and braiding it back into itself.   Later Dad bought a 8' X 16' cabin on South 4th Street (pictures).  Christina accepted Christ as her Saviour at the Community Bible Church during a revival.

High Valley - Dad worked for Art Hanson.  He built a tent frame and we lived there summers - the first year by ourselves then Earl Allen moved in just up the creek from us.  He was married to one of the Pattons.  The pastor from the church at Cascade visited us that first year but he had moved from Cascade by the time we went back to school that fall.  Reba was born in November, 1947.

Wash days were a real chore when we had to do the whole wash on the wash board, but the second year we were in High Valley, Dad wanted a power saw and Mom wouldn't sign for the loan until he agreed to get enough and get her a washing machine.  It was still alot of work but so much easier especially when all Reba's messy diapers had to be soaked and rubbed on the wash board.

There was fishing, hunting - bear, deer, grouse - huckleberry picking and trips to town.  

 

 

As the family grew and moving around was not helpful to their education, they moved to Garden Valley in 1950 and there Christina graduated from high school.

She then left Garden Valley and stayed with different single mother families, watching their kids while the moms worked.

Christine stayed with Aunt Kate after her husband died.

 

 

 

 

Finally she met and married - Frank Williamson.

Then came Christi.  And later, the two grandchildren.

Ame

Devin

Saturday, May 19, 2001 London

Although we were to bed early, we managed to sleep until 7, getting up and showering.  I woke about every 2 hours.  Our rooms are tiny and the tub/shower is small and deep.  The view from our window is the dirty bricks of the backs of other buildings.  (I woke with no voice – laryngitis)

Sean gave Brenda and I a personal talk on what tube lines to take to the sites we want to see (the London Eye, Tower, etc).  Took tube to Westminster, walked over Thames [via the Westminster  Bridge] to London Eye (long lines).   We paid £4 for a day pass on the tube – Best Bargain.

[ The London Eye next to the Aquarium.  What an adventure, viewing that part of London from high above the Thames River.  We were able to see the ‘changing of the guard’ at Buckingham Palace.]

BIG BEN

We visited the aquarium after getting off the ‘Eye, ‘ taking many pictures of sharks, eels, stingrays, etc.  Talked with a family from Sweden.



Dali Exhibit in front of Aquarium.  




Then past Parliament to Westminster Abbey (Brenda went in and I waited for her).  While Brenda was in Westminster, a ‘Media March’ came by – up Victoria Street.  We saw them again at Trafalgar Square [later in the day].  Also running up and down the streets were a motorized sofa (complete w/lamp) and a motorized bed.  They zipped by so fast we couldn’t get pictures.  I went inside St Margaret’s Church (beautiful stained glass, gravestones mounted on the walls.

 Westminister Abbey

Media march

St Margaret's stained glass window.

A quick walk past St James Park to Buckingham Palace.  (Pictures of Diane’s Walk)  The guards changed at 11 am while we were riding the ‘Eye,’ but we got pictures of the guards.

St James Walk

Diana's Walk

 

 

 

 

 

Guard at Buckingham

From there we walked to Trafalgar Square.

[There were large lion statues around the middle – Nelson’s Column, seen in center of photo above.  I had been taking pictures of lions and these I added to my photo collection.]

Note: this was in 2001, but notice the 'Put SADDAM on Trial Now' sign.

From Trafalgar we went to Charing Cross station and took the ‘tube’ to Tower Hill.  We took pictures of the Tower of London and walked across Tower Bridge.  It was too late to tour the Tower so I ate fish & chips while Brenda shopped in the souvenir shop.  (At the aquarium we had bought tickets to a play, ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ which started at 7:45pm, so we had to get back to the hotel and freshen up before we headed out to Covent Gardens area.)

Tower Bridge

Brenda with Beefeater Guard

Tower of London

We took the ‘tube’ to Leicester Square and walked up Charing Cross Rd to the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Rd.  The walk was crowded and busy as many people were headed out to plays and dinner.  When we saw the theatre we still had 20 minutes so we ducked into a lingerie shop where Brenda bought a cute purple number, skimpy with black fringe.  (She’s young and in love.)

The play, a musical, was very good.  See the enclosed brochure for info.  The highlights were the dancers ringing the bells, the dead girls dancing, and the wonder voices of the priest and the poet.  I should have bought a program – they cost £3.
 [It is based upon the novel Notre Dame de Paris by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The music was composed by Riccardo Cocciante (also known as Richard Cocciante) and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.
The play, a musical, was very good.  See the enclosed brochure for info.  The highlights were the dancers ringing the bells, the dead girls dancing, and the wonder voices of the priest and the poet.  I should have bought a program – they cost £3.

Original London Cast
•    Tina Arena : Esmeralda
•    Garou : Quasimodo
•    Daniel Lavoie : Frollo
•    Bruno Pelletier : Gringoire
•    Steve Balsamo : Phoebus
•    Luck Mervil : Clopin
•    Natasha St-Pier : Fleur-de-Lys
Female artists who later assumed the role of Esmeralda include American vocalist Patti Russo and Australian singer Dannii Minogue -this was the Esmeralda we saw.]

We got the ‘tube’ right across from the theatre, climbed down steep stairs, and went one stop where we caught another line (Picadilly) back to Earl’s Court.  All the ‘tubes’ were packed all evening – standing room only.  Brenda was tired and cross and went right to bed.  I came down to the lobby to write this.  Now I’m off to bed. (12:10am)

Friday, May 18, 2001 London (Gatwick)

Had banana nut muffin and banana/strawberry yogurt on plane.  Landed abt 9am and had to wait at airport for other flights to arrive.  The bus trip in (through Surry, Chelsea) took over an hour so it was almost 2 pm before we got into our rooms [at the Hogarth Hotel in Kensington].  

  

 

[Hogarth Hotel, Kensington, London; from our window, our room]




Brenda and I freshened up and walked to the Museum of Natural History (dinosaurs, etc).  Richard and Sue Lewis were there also.  Talked with a couple from Washington DC.  [see pictures following  - many of the people in our tour opted to go on a guided tour of London, but Brenda and I decided to ‘go it on our own’ by foot, underground rail (the ‘Tube’), and bus.]

Taken on our walk to the museum, on Cromwell Rd.

Natural History Museum

We stopped at Bram Stoker’s Pub on Old Brampton Rd.  I had a half-pint.  Before that we stopped at a small café and had a ‘vegetable bake’ dish and watched kids congregating in the streets after school (having cursing/yelling matches and showing off). 


[Bram Stoker Tavern -  A hell of a bar
Address:   148 Old Brompton Road – South Kensington
SW7 0BE – Kensington/Chelsea   London
Nearest Bus or Train:  South Kensington
Open Hours:   11a-11p M-Su
Found within easy reach of the museums and restaurants of South Kensington, The Bram Stoker Tavern serves the spookiest pint this side of Transylvania. Decked out to create the ambience of Dracula’s Dungeon – right down to the toilets that are reached through a secret door in a false bookcase – this is a fun place to drain some drinks before sinking your teeth into an unsuspecting burger or  anini.
Pints come in cheap at Bram Stoker’s, but you’re better off opting for the “seven deadly cocktails”, which are named after the sins.
Gothic does not come any better than this. The Dracula theme at The Bram Stoker Tavern is fascinating, eerie, and most compelling with a waxwork model of the master himself looking down over a scene that includes a reproduction of a private library, scientific odds and ends, and much creepy memorabilia – all in an impressive setting. Silent horror classics can be seen constantly on the television, and even the outward appearance of the building itself plays a major part in the realistic ‘fangs and fiends’ atmosphere. Must be seen.]
 

Bram Stoker’s Tavern was a unique pub.  It had Dracula’s image painted outside and inside it was dark with lots of dark woods and tables situated in hideaway areas.  The lighting flickered and was eerie.    A library area with a fireplace was in the back of the room – the books were fake fronts and  if you pushed on one section, you entered the men’s restroom.  Another section hid the ladies’ restroom.  They were not marked.  The toilets were the very old kind with the water closet placed very high on the wall and a chain for flushing.  Walls were lined with old apothecary bottles.  Some drinks for sale were the ‘Seven Deadly Sins.’  There was quite a crowd gathering when we left – Friday night, 5:30 pm.

 We found several private gardens like in “Notting Hill.”

 We were late getting back to the hotel for our briefing by Sean [our tour guide] (from Belfast).  He previewed our tour, gave us hints, and then we all went off to bed (at 8pm).

Thursday, May 17, 2001 Minneapolis MN

Our plane was delayed in landing because President Bush was at the airport.  We had to circle a couple times.  Brenda [Waters, my selected room mate] talked with Joe, a truck driver, returning to Florida because of illness. 

( lunch – ham and cheese sandwich and apple)

From Minn we were in the center row with Richard and Sue Lewis [an employee of BSU and his wife] and a man from England (returning home from a business trip).  *note in margin – the plane had 9 seats across – 2 on each side and 5 in the middle.

(dinner – chicken, salad, cherry crisp)                                                                                                                    

Joe played games on his computer.  “Family Man” was the in-flight movie.  I watched the movie rather than sleep.  Brenda had one of those inflatable pillows that fit around your neck, so she was able to sleep.  Many people slept but others, like me, stayed awake.  We watched the sun rise early and at about 7am the stewardesses brought hot towels to freshen up before the meal.     

Every Woman Travel Journal

In May 2001, I took a tour of London and Ireland.  As I traveled I kept a journal.  I just came across that journal and have typed it up and will present it here.  Enjoy.

(Here I am aboard the London Eye)

Following is my record of travel to London and Ireland in 2001 – a gift to myself to celebrate my graduation from BSU Graduate School with a BS in Instructional and Performance Technology (IPT).   This was a tour guided by my then boss, Dr Suzanne McCorkle, acting Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Administration at Boise State University.  The written journal is enhanced by photos I took and photos and information from the web.

Itinerary:

Date:  May 17,2001 

Depart:  Boise 2:15 pm

Arrive:  Minn  6:00 pm

Date:  May 17, 2001

Depart:  Minn 7:10 pm

Arrive:  London  May 18, 2001 9:00 am  (Gatwick)

Accommodations…… Hogarth Hotel 

Date:  May 21, 2001

Depart: London  (Heathrow)

Arrive:  Dublin

Accommodations…….  Harcourt Hotel (off St Stephen’s Greens)

Date:  May 24, 2001

Depart:  Dublin

Arrive:  Cork

Date:  May 25, 2001

Depart: Cork

Arrive:  Kenmare

Date:  May 27, 2001

Depart:  Kenmare

Arrive:  Galway

Accommodations….. Imperial Hotel

Date:  May 30, 2001

Depart:  Galway ->  Shannon

Arrive:  Boise

(Map similar, but not just like our tour – left from Shannon not returning to Dublin)

Record of Expenses:

  Credit Card charges:

Play tickets – £20                                   5/19   London   

Souvenirs  at aquarium -  £8                5/19   London   

Book & ticket – £18.5                            5/20  Madame Toussads

Dinner – £33                                           5/20  Angus Steak House

Souvenirs – Picadilly circus – £34       5/20  various shops

Souvenirs – £46.99                                5/22  various shops, Dublin

  Cash:

Stamps/postcards –£ 4.5                      5/18  Gatwick Airport

Entry fee – £4                                          5/18  Museum of Natural History, London

Dinner – £4   9p                                      5/18  Old Brampton

Entry fee – £5                                          5/19 Aquarium, London

Entry fee – £9                                          5/19  London Eye

Fish&Chips – £5                                       5/19  London Tower area

Tube day pass – £4                                 5/19  Earl’s Square London

Tube day pass – £4                                 5/20  Earl’s Court, London

Fish&Chips – £9                                      5/20  Liverpool Street, London

Lozenges – £4                                             5/21  London

Lunch – £5.5                                           5/23  Powerscourt

Gifts – £7                                                 5/23  Powerscourt

[I guess I quit keeping track at this point]

TODAY'S POSTINGS

I've realized that I may lose my other blog, so decided to go ahead and repost the entries from it to this blog. So the following is postings I've made to my Genealogical Research Blog.  Hope you enjoy and continue to read.

One comment - people who have ancestors who kept journals or diaries are so fortunate.  I'm currently doing research for my other blog (Mary Winne Dexter Logue's Mayflower Line) and, being curious about how exactly the Dexter family came to Idaho and ended up in Long Valley, have been reading some histories of other pioneer families in Idaho.  One, 'Life on a Homestead - 160 Acres and a Passel of Kids', is based on journals kept by the author, William Humphreys' father.

Sometimes the era in which we are born doesn't necessarily determine our childhood/upbringing, as much as the economic circumstances.  In this book on life on a homestead, I can relate to many of the experiences they had.  Sure we always seemed to have a car and later a television, but how many children of the 1950's were still bathing in a metal tub in front of a wood stove, drinking spring water from a milk can because the plumbed well water wasn't safe to drink, eating canned fruit from a fruit cellar dug into a hillside, or using an outhouse because there was no indoor facility.

A picture of me in the late 1950s at our last home in Garden Valley, Idaho (near the Forest Service) with our dog, Laddie.

Did you learn anything?

April 28-30th I spent in Salt Lake City UT at the National Genealogical Society Annual Conference.  From the opening session with its virtual tour of the granite mountain vaults where decades of record collecting is stored to the two hour session on certification, I learned a lot.  And if I had not gotten a cold before I left Idaho, I'm sure I would have enjoyed so many more minutes of workshops and seminars. 

Even the days of snow showers didn't dampen the excitement.  And I was able to get in a few hours of research in the Family History Library.  Since it was my first time at the SLC Library, I didn't get a lot of data, but I know what to plan for if I get a chance to return.  I do wish I had felt well enough to enjoy the concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and special guest speaker, David McCullough, author of "John Adams."  By the time we were supposed to go to the convention center, I had just spent myself and could not make it.

Now I am back home and already swamped with research in new applicants for the Daughters of the American Revolution.  For privacy reasons, I cannot share the research I do for these persons, but I will continue to blog on what I do on my lines.  And I will share bits of information I picked up at the conference.

So happy researching and I'll be back soon.

Posted by Reba McMillan at 5/4/2010 6:48 PM

My Brick Walls

Since my entry for yesterday disappeared into thin air, I will list again some of the brick walls with which I currently deal.

Maria Chatrina ARMSTRONG (?) BOLLINGER (b. 1741 in Cumberland Co PA, m. Isaac Bollinger in 1763, d. 3 Jun 1798 in Maryland)
George LOGUE (b. 1720, Derry Ireland, m. Elizabeth (lnu) 1764 in Ireland, d. 1778 in Carlisle PA)
George CRAWFORD (b. 1750 in Virginia, m. Rachel STRINGFELLOW (?), d. 16 Dec 1795)
Elijah BENSON (b. abt 1620 possibly England, m. Betty ROBERTS abt 1642, d. unk in possibly Virginia)
Elizabeth STEFFEN (b. 1668 in Switzerland, m. Johann BULLINGER, d. abt 1745)
Mary LEIGH (b. abt 1701 in New Jersey, m. 1725 to Jonathan STOUT, d. 1776 in New Jersey)
Sarah TAYLOR (b. 30 June 1676 in Virginia, m. Robert POWELL 1690 in Virginia, d. abt 1745 in Virginia)
Elizabeth MUMFORD (b. 1696 in Virginia, m. Wm BLEDSOE Aug 1727 in Spotsylvania VA, d. 1799 in Culpepper VA)
and oh so many more...

Posted by Reba McMillan at 4/6/2010 4:39 PM

Planning for the Conference

Wow, I spent 45 minutes filling out my blog entry and I look at it today and it is gone - all that is left is "undefined".  How disappointing!

Well, here goes again. 

What I was talking about was the new track at the National Genealogical Society Convention for people who are looking to improve their skills and possibly get certified as genealogists.  It is called BCG Skillbuilding and some of the seminars are:  Evidence Analysis,  How to Cope with Families of Common Names, Understanding the Process that Creates the Records,  and Meeting the Standards for Report Writing.  Since I am definitely interested in certification and would like to be sure it is something I will like, I want to sample the skills before I invest the $3000 it will cost to get a certificate from the Boston University Genealogist Research Certification Program.

I'm having a lot of fun with this blog and have already been contacted by someone who is interesting in sharing information about one of my brick walls.  And I will soon take over the position of Registrar with my local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, which will involve in researching direct descendant lines for prospective members.  If you are not familiar with the DAR application process, you must prove your direct descendency from a Revolutionary War Patriot.  This involves primary and secondary sources for deaths, births, and marriages.  DAR will accept the US Census Records as secondary sources (something that I found the Mayflower Society does not do).  So I have at least a year of fun researching ahead. 

I had listed a bunch of brick walls that I am researching, but since my data is not right here in front of me, I will have to add that as a new entry later.  Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any information or comments.

Posted by Reba McMillan at 4/5/2010 3:36 PM

Always an Adventure

You've got to love those brick walls.  Hours and hours can be spent trying to find those details and sources and if you are not diligent and record all those steps, a year or two later you may find yourself doing the exact same research all over again.  I found this true this past week as I was researching my Weaver line once again...

     I noticed some details were not meshing with one generation so I spent several hours going over online records to see why I had made the link from Samuel Weaver (b. 1755, Revolutionary War Patriot) to Daniel Weaver (1724) and from him to Thomas Weaver.  I finally came across a note on one website that said "the genealogical conclusions shown here about Daniel Weaver and his immediate family are based on very meager proof."  Following were deeds, Powers of Attorney, and census and tax records that made the same assumptions that I had made in my line.  Evidently I had read this at some previous time, but neglected to write the information down.

As frustrating as these times can be, I still love doing all these searches.  And I know the rewards when you finally get down to the facts.   

Posted by Reba McMillan at 3/23/2010 6:32 PM

Bullinger/Bollinger Line - Life is a Mystery

My Armstrong search the other day led me to search for Bullingers/Bollingers (Maria Chatrina Armstrong is said to have married Isaac Bollinger in 1783 in Berne, Switzerland).  So since I couldn't get much from the Armstrongs, I decided maybe I should look at the Bollingers, but guess what - they are as confusing, or maybe more so, than trying to find Maria Chatrina's ancestors. 

It reminds me of my adventures a few years ago working through the Yager/Yeager line of Virginia and Kentucky.  (All these are my maternal lines.)  There were so many John Yagers in the same area of Virginia, it was hard to determine which one was my ancestor.  But luckily a genealogist had worked through the sources and determined which John was which and I was able to determine that my ancestor is Piney Wood John Yager.  I found all this wonderful information online. 

So I guess eventually, if I do not have the opportunity to go to PA and Switzerland to look at original sources, I will find the research of some other diligent genealogist and be able to find my line.  I hope to one day be one of those diligent 'searchers of truth' myself and people can benefit from all my work.  The reason I made my Ancestry.com tree private was I found that many people were taking my research as sound, sourced information and it was just a work in progress.  I was finding my information in so many different lines and the owners were displaying it as correct. 

If you happen across my blog, please register a comment.  Maybe I can make a valuable connection.  Til then I'll keep recording my journey.

Posted by Reba McMillan at 3/13/2010 7:06 PM

Frustration 101

Sunday was another day of hours of research that ended me right back where I started. 

Maria Chatrina Armstrong (1741-1798) is my maternal 4th great grandmother.  At least I suspect her last name is Armstrong, she married first 'Isaac' William Henry Bollinger (1738-1770)  in about 1763 - and had Frederick Bolinger (1766-1843), my 3rd great grandfather.   After Isaac's death, Maria remarried Philip Ausmus.

I decided to research the data I have on Maria' maiden name.... whether she is related to the Armstrong family of Pennsylvania that brought us Colonel John Armstrong, Revolutionary Was hero (Hero of Kittanning) and friend of George Washington, and his sons who served in Congress.  (pictured is Johann Balthasar Bullinger, an ancestor.)

Four or five hours later, I still cannot prove that Maria Chatrina's last name was Armstrong.

Wow, I now have a start on the list of things to research at Salt Lake.  If I can make one break through on all my 'questionables,' brick walls, and unsourced data, I will consider the time and money spent well worth it.

I remember the sheer joy when after I had spent years trying to find my mother's grandfather's family - had posted queries on message boards and searched every source I could think of for John Crawford (such a common name) - one day someone answered one of those posts with images from the family Bible that listed John's mother, father, sister and brother with dates.  After years of searching that brick wall came tumbling down.  The person who had that information was descended from John's sister.

This made the years of work worth while and gives me the desire to continue on. 

Well, next time I'll try to work through another family tree 'mystery' and see where it takes me.  At least it is fun reading about the people who might be my ancestors.

Posted by Reba McMillan at 3/8/2010 10:55 PM