Tag Archives: Genealogy

2025 Week 8

23 Sunday Feb 2025

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Mary Frances Arnold has been found! I did not locate her in the Pike County Newspaper, but I did find her in her sister Bertha’s obituary before locating her own obituary in the April 30, 1938 edition of the Princeton Daily Clarion (shown here). Mary Frances married Marcellus Chew and they had two children. Other researchers trees with Mary Frances in them make my head hurt. One such tree has documents with three different sets of parents. How does that even make sense?

The Chews are providing me with plenty of material this week. A second interesting puzzle was found in the 1940 census for Clarence and Audi Fowler Chew. Clarence was the son of Mary and Marcellus. In 1940, Clarence and Audi were in their early 50s. There was, presumably, a 7 month old girl named Carolyn Sue listed as their daughter. While not completely impossible, the probability of Carolyn Sue being the biological daughter of this couple is not very high. Checking the birth records for Pike County in late 1939, a birth certificate for Carolyn Sue Roberts born in Jefferson Township in September was found. Checking FindAGrave, Carolyn’s birth parents Floyd and Jewel lived long lives and Carolyn’s memorial was attached to theirs. Still not convinced Carolyn was a Chew, I flipped a couple pages back and found Floyd and Jewel at the bottom of Sheet 10A. Clarence and Audi were at the bottom of Sheet 10B. Carolyn was listed at the top of 11A. I then compared the household numbers…BINGO! The pages were recorded out of order! What a mess!

Tip of the Week: Leverage those FAN Clubs!

This week’s take away…check those FAN Clubs! You would be amazed how many questions can be answered by checking out those Friends/Family, Associates and Neighbors.

Sadly, I have discovered several individuals who died at a relatively young age for various reasons. One was an apparent suicide, one an overdose, and two were casualties of war. Sgt James Herschel Arnold (1916-1945) served in the US Army 152nd Infantry during World War II. His younger cousin, Pfc. Charles Ajay Arnold (1924-1945), was a member of the 132nd Infantry and fatally wounded assisting a wounded teammate to safety during battle. Both men lost their lives in the Philippines. We will be forever grateful for the sacrifice they made for our country.

I added two new DNA matches on my mother’s side of the family tree. One was fairly easy to add as his daughters are already tagged as matches in my tree. The other only required a small number of updates to add.

With the new updates Ancestry has added to their site, they now give trees a score. Mine is 9.4. They then give you hints to bring that score up. I was given three tasks to do.

  • One was for a floater which I decided to delete.
  • The second was for a distant cousin who did not have any dates associated with her. I found her marriage record which listed her approximate birth year to clear that one.
  • The last one had a census record dated before her assumed date of birth. Considering she was born around 1870, there was no official record of her birth. The birth year on her death certificate likely was a guess and her age was actually underestimated. I made an executive decision that she was born in 1869 not 1872.

We’ll see what my new score is tomorrow.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
217 years ago – Birth of Gesina Brake Sievers (4th ggm)
217 years ago – Birth of Eva Korz Keller (4 ggm)
196 years ago – Marriage of Isaac Lowe (5th ggf) and his second wife Sarah Beckner
186 years ago – Marriage of Suzanne Board (4th ggm) and Isaac Catt (4th ggf)
185 years ago – Birth of Amanda Newcomb Butler (3rd ggm)
161 years ago – Death of Sarah Ireland Reeve (4th ggm)
152 years ago – Death of Zeresh Puckett Coppock (3rd ggm)
115 years ago – Death of Joseph E. Cardinal (3rd ggf)
113 years ago – Death of Michael Kaiser (2nd ggf)
107 years ago – Birth of Samuel T. DeMoss Sr (gf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,220 people
End of Week: 27,340 people
Change = +120 people – goal MET!!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac and Rebecca Arnold descendants. Barring any rabbit holes, it could take into early or mid April to complete.

2025 Week 7

16 Sunday Feb 2025

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I feel like I have made some progress this week, closing out the family of Martha Cassidy Rhodes on Monday. She has quite the extensive family that was and still seems to be mostly concentrated in Central Illinois and in Central California.

Moving on to Martha’s sibling Sarah, I cannot find any information on her after the 1850 Census. She was born about 1849 most likely in Perry County, Indiana. After that it would seem she has vaporized. I can only speculate at this time that she died as a young child between 1850 and 1860 in either Perry County or Pike County, Indiana…or somewhere inbetween. Her mother died in 1855 in Pike County and the remaining family was still there in 1860. Maybe something useful will surface as I flesh out her other siblings. There is at least one researcher on Ancestry who has attributed some facts to her that belong to her sister Rebecca Jane who is now the focus of my research. I’m fairly confident that they were two different persons as they were both listed in the 1850 Census.

Rebecca Jane married Isaac Arnold in Pike County, Indiana. I’m a bit remiss in that I don’t know a whole lot about this county which borders the one I grew up in. On initial review, it would seem the Arnolds, for the most part, remained in the Pike County area. As best as I can tell Rebecca and Isaac had seven children. Their oldest, Mary F, is already giving me heartburn.

There seems to be no trace of Mary after 1880, and other researchers seemingly are confusing her with her younger sister Martha. I usually try not to fall head first down rabbit holes, but I really want to try and find something about Mary Arnold. The Pike County Democrat is available on the Hoosier State Chronicles website and the pages are transcribed using OCR technology. The newspaper is a weekly publication and issues up to 1900 are available for viewing. Local community information is included on page 3 of the paper and I’m up to 1886 at the moment looking for any trace of the Arnolds. Hopefully I can find something about Mary.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
311 years ago – Marriage of Jeanne Duguay (7th ggm) and Jacques J. Cardinal (7th ggf)
273 years ago – Birth of James C Butler (6th ggf)
244 years ago – Death of Abraham Short Jr (7th ggf)
199 years ago – Marriage of Sarah Carroll (4th ggm) and Joshua Frost (4th ggf)
197 years ago – Death of Sybilla Braun (5th ggm)
187 years ago – Marriage of Francoise Courtright (4th ggm) and James D. Cardinal (4th ggf)
130 years ago – Birth of Magdelena Kaiser Keller (ggm)
107 years ago – Death of Mary Sievers Gravel (3rd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,182 people
End of Week: 27,220 people
Change = +38 people – goal not met.
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac Arnold descendants.

2025 Week 6

09 Sunday Feb 2025

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This week was a busy non-genealogy week, and I’m surprised I was able to find much time to work on the family tree. While I met my people goal, I was not as successful with the completion of the Jarboe family. I still have two of Sara Rhodes Jarboe’s children left to research. I’m confident that I can finish that task in the coming week. This will also wrap up the Rhodes family as well. Sara was the youngest daughter of Sylvester and Martha. I can then move on to the fourth known daughter of Luke and Martha Cox Cassidy…yet another Sarah.

For the most part it was a fairly unremarkable genealogy week. No DNA matches added to the tree. No murders, tragic accidents, or unusual deaths. Just very large farm families who made their roots in Central Illinois. Maybe the coming week will be more exciting!

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
292 years ago – Death of Susanna Whitehead Bunnell (10th ggm)
257 years ago – Marriage of Hannah Sanderson (6th ggm) and William Johnson (6th ggf)
255 years ago – Birth of John Coppock (4th ggf)
214 years ago – Birth of Sarah Ireland Reeve (4th ggm)
200 years ago – Death of Margaretha Nikolaus (5th ggm)
191 years ago – Marriage of Eva Korz (4th ggm) and Michael Keller (4th ggf)
185 years ago – Birth of Apollonia Braun Keller (3rd ggm)
171 years ago – Death of Nicolaus Sievers (4th ggf)
152 years ago – Death of Francis W Gravel (4th ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,112 people
End of Week: 27,182 people
Change = +70 people – GOAL MET!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and finish up Sara Rhodes Jarboe’s family.

2025 Week 5

02 Sunday Feb 2025

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I was a little overly optimistic thinking I could finish up Martha Cassidy Rhodes family this week. Her youngest daughter Sara Rachel Rhodes Jarboe had eight children. I’m not quite half way complete on fleshing out her descendants.

The Jarboes originally remained in Perry County, Indiana, but then moved to east central Illinois in the late 1910s. The family initially settled in Piatt County, but as the children started families of their own, they were mostly concentrated in Champaign County, with farming as the main means of support. Up to this point, very few from the younger generations have moved away from the area.

My place name clean up was focused on Champaign County this week. In addition to the county in Illinois, there were several locations in Champaign County, Ohio that were standardized as well. As a result of my efforts, nearly 40 place records were removed. The changes impacted facts for more than 100 people so it wasn’t for naught.

I also had a new DNA match that I documented in my tree. She is a third cousin on my mother’s side of the family. There wasn’t much to add since I had her parents in my tree already.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
375 years ago – Birth of Daniel Quincy (9th ggf)
359 years ago – Death of Charles Garnier (10th ggf)
225 years ago – Birth of Rebecca Pea Catt (5th ggm)
199 years ago – Death of Lydia Smith Ireland (6th ggm)
199 years ago – Birth of Mary Sievers Gravel (3rd ggm)
181 years ago – Birth of Josephine Lankford Winkler (3rd ggm)
172 years ago – Death of Mary Westerfield Vanderipe (5th ggm)
169 years ago – Birth of Magdalena Keller Kaiser (2nd ggm)
155 years ago – Marriage of Caroline Nagley (3rd ggm) and Joseph Nagele (3rd ggf)
149 years ago – Death of Sarah A Catt Cardinal (3rd ggm)
132 years ago – Death of Mary Caywood Cox (3rd ggm)
126 years ago – Birth of Zeda Mattox Fielden (ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,037 people
End of Week: 27,112 people
Change = +75 people – GOAL MET!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and finish up Sara Rhodes Jarboe’s family.

2025 Week 4

26 Sunday Jan 2025

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One more Rhodes line and I can move on to the next Cassidy!

I came across an interesting find this week in my research. One of my distant cousins married a man who was born in Hawaii. What made this interesting was that it was well before Hawaii became the 50th state. Included in the documents I found for this gentleman was the US Census from 1910. For the most part, the form looked just like that used for the states currently in the Union. However, the header for the Hawaiian census was just a little different as it included a field for the island where the residents were enumerated. Hawaii only has four counties; some counties consist of multiple islands. This was something Phil and I discovered on our vacation last year.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
319 years ago – the birth of Reverend William Smith (7th ggf)
164 years ago – the death of Elihu Puckett (4th ggf)
163 years ago – the death of Rebecca Wilks (4th ggm)
158 years ago – the marriage of Isaac DeMoss (3rd ggf) and his 2nd wife Laura
– the death of Rebecca Pea (5th ggm)
140 years ago – the marriage of Frank Cox (2nd ggf) and his 2nd wife Emma
138 years ago – the death of Joseph Reeve (4th ggf)
127 years ago – the birth of Frank Fielden (ggf)
118 years ago – the marriage of Frank Cox (2nd ggf) and his 4th wife Mary
113 years ago – the death of Benjamin Coppock (3rd ggf)
86 years ago – the death of John F Thompson (2nd ggf)

Beginning of Week: 26,954 people
End of Week: 27,037 people
Change = +83 people – GOAL MET!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people

2025 Week 1

05 Sunday Jan 2025

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I do this every year. Resolve to blog regularly and then it falls to the wayside. Let’s see how long I stick with it this year. I’ll start with a summary of what I accomplished last year and move on from there.

I’m continuing to work on the ancestry of my paternal grandfather, Samuel Thomas DeMoss, Sr. I moved on from the DeMoss line to the Cox line in 2024. With the release of the Full Text Search functionality on FamilySearch last year, I have found some interesting details about the family of my 4th great grandparents William J. DeMoss and Elizabeth Lowe DeMoss. Divorce records and land deed records cleared up several details that were still out there for me. Their son Isaac (my 3rd great grandfather) has a ton of land deed transactions on the books in both Knox and Daviess Counties. Every month or so I will do a quick follow up search to see if anything new and exciting pops up.

I put the DeMoss line on pause with my 4th great grandparents. The documentation currently available for Fleming County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s doesn’t amount to much for William and Polly DeMoss. It doesn’t appear that he was too involved in local politics or was at odds with the law, but it’s not clear exactly who he descends from or where he was prior to Fleming County. At this time, the only thing that might solve this riddle is if we had Y DNA results from my male cousin or his male descendants.

I’m about a year into my research on the Cox line. I am cleaning up what I already had and filling in the branches downward. My 2nd great grandfather Frank Cox lived quite the life and I continue to find more documents on him every time I search. He’s now up to four (4) wives! I’m still looking for definitive proof that John S Cox (my 3rd great grandfather) is the son of Gabriel and Nancy Cox. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that needs to be sorted through before I can feel confident in this parental assignment.

I am currently building out the descendants of Martha Ann Cox who married Luke Cassidy. I have six confirmed DNA matches through Martha. Luke and Martha had six known children and resided in Perry County, Indiana. Some of their descendants still live in the general area in south central Indiana, while others have migrated to the Pacific Northwest. This week I am specifically working on the family of Martha Henrietta Cassidy Rhodes and discovering my “5th cousins”. She and Sylvester had six children that I am aware of. I’m currently working on daughter #2. I expect the Rhodes family will take me a month to complete, depending on how much basic information I can find.

There were two individuals that stood out to me this week. These are usually younger individuals that catch my attention. The first was a 30 year old male in the late 1940s who died of a stabbing to his femoral artery. According to the man who ultimately was convicted of manslaughter, the victim had tried to rob him and he was merely acting in self-defense. The other was a 23 year old woman who was driving to work at a hospital in Evansville. Apparently the roads were slick and she was trying to pass another vehicle on or near a bridge. She lost control and died instantly from her injuries.

Unrelated to my Cox research, I had one new DNA match that I was able to place in my tree down my Roderick branch.

Progress: Tree contains 26,821 people
Goal: Add 50 new people this week