Daily Obits

For about a year I have been receiving the obits from our local newspaper the Spokesman Review via RSS feed, and so every morning when I opened Google Reader I would have the obits from the Spokesman Review (note the Spokesman Review charged an extra dollar to put an obit online so a few did not show up in my RSS feed). Saturday the 29th the RSS feed quit, so Sunday I went to the newspaper website to see what had happened. Obits are not on the newspaper website any more, they are now Powered by Legacy.com. While you can search for a recent obit for free they do not offer a RSS feed, but will send you obits to your E-Mail for a FEE. They have a few options one for $199.99 a year to search all the newspapers and send E-Mail for the FIVE keywords you pick (You can change them when ever you want). Second option same keywords but just one newspaper $14.99 a year. Third package is Genealogy Package for 19.99 a year and they search for five surnames in all their newspapers. All three packages have a FREE 30 day trial.

Saturday Night Fun

1) Write down which of your ancestors that you have met in person (yes, even if you were too young to remember them).

2) Tell us their names, where they lived, and their relationship to you in a blog post.

Claude Hansen (1906-2008) my dad, last of this group to die, just over a year ago, he was born in Minnesota, grew up in Columbus, Montana and died here in Spokane.

Margaret Kelly (1914-1994) my mom she was born in Trenton, Missouri and with her parents moved to Spokane in 1918, she died here in Spokane.

Charles Kelly (1890-1954) my grandfather he also was born in Trenton Missouri and grew up there, in 1918 moved to Spokane And died here in Spokane.

Cleo Travis (1890-1984) my maternal grandmother, she was born in Mill Grove, Missouri second oldest of 17 children. She also died here in Spokane.
Notice my grandparents and mom died in years ending in 4 so we were pretty worried for my dad in 2004, but he kept on going for another four years.
Of all my great grandparents Orville Travis came the closest to being alive when I was born, as he died a month before I was born.

Anton Hansen (1870-1961) born in Humble parish, Svendborg, Denmark came to Austin Minnesota in 1887 three months before his 17th birthday when he would have been drafted into the Danish military. His older brother Peter was already in Austin, Minnesota, and later John, Martin and Lawrence Hansen would join Anton and Peter. In 1910 Anton moved to Columbus Montana to run the creamery there, and in the 1920s he moved to Blanchard, Idaho, and died at Blanchard.

Anna Dillingham (1872-1960) my paternal grandmother Born in Lyle Minnesota and married to Anton Hansen in Nunda, Illinois, she died of pneumonia at Spirit Lake, Idaho and Anton seemed to lose the will to live and he died just a few months later.

The First Hansen Family Reunion

 

My Sister Jacque Lane and I are kneeling in front of our six cousins. Jean Koch, Patty Milligan, Clara Watson, Dorothy Anders, Alice Porter and Beulah Whitman.

My sister Jacque Lane decided in 1990 that we needed to have a family reunion of the Hansen family. My dad Claude and mom Margaret Hansen were getting pretty old and so they might not be around a lot longer to get together with the rest of the family.

Jacque sent out letters to every Hansen she knew we were related to and asked them to forward a copy to anyone else in the family. She also got some old addresses from a cousin and sent letters to those addresses too.

One of the letters we got back was from a Lorraine Erickson in Arizona. She was a volunteer at the local Family History Center and sent us some family group sheets of the Hansen family and the five Hansen brothers that came to Minnesota from Denmark. She also sent us some blank group sheets and suggested we send copies to everyone in the next mailing and ask them to fill out the blank group sheets for themselves, their children and their parents and grandparents if they knew them.

Now the group sheets started coming in and I started entering the data in a program I had found called the Enhanced Family Tree. It did a lot of nice charts and tables and so I eventually printed a book for the reunion. I knew nothing about sources, so I did not write on the group sheets who they came from, but I have 350 group sheets on the family. Many are duplicates although quite a few duplicates do not have duplicate information on them. It is amazing how few people know where their parents were born, they did get the dates correct. We asked for the group sheets about a month before the reunion, but one of the letters Jacque had sent to an old address had been forwarded FIVE times and finally caught up with Evelyn and Caroll Anderson. Carroll was a minister and the letter had been forwarded from one church to the next that he had been a minister, so the last group sheets came in just a few days before the reunion. I then printed out the book and made copies for everyone that was coming and a few that could not make the reunion that still wanted copies.

Jacque has a big back yard and she borrowed a couple of picnic tables and we got the one our parents had and with a few other tables about half of her back yard was filled with tables and chairs. Since the book was not collated I figured with the early people that came we could use the tables to collate the pages and then put them in the three ring binders I had purchased. We started putting out the pages and about that time the wind came up and blew all the pages on the ground, we looked for weights for the pages, but finally gave up and moved the tables into Jacque's garage, collated the pages put the books together and moved the tables back into the yard.

One of our cousins brought a video camera and filmed the reunion, including collating pages in the garage, and a small interview with most of the people that came. He made copies for all that wanted one and so the Hansen Follies video tape is really fun to look at. About every three years after that we had a new Hansen reunion till 2003 when so few showed up they just kind of died off.

I made a couple of mistakes in doing the book, one was not recording sources, and the second was using the Enhanced Family Tree. While it was a good genealogy program it did not have GEDCOM and so a couple of years later I had to retype all the data I had in the Enhanced Family Tree. Not to long after I had retyped all the data a GEDCOM for the Enhanced Family Tree became available, but by then I did not need it.

Since we still did not know a lot about the family we enrolled in a beginning genealogy class at the community college, and since then we have kept researching the family

Wordless Wednesday Wylie Way Coaches

This picture is of the Wylie Way Coaches used to tour Yellowstone National Park in 1915 from the photo album of my great aunt Latisha Vanderpool. You an click on the photo to see a larger version of the photo. Notice the tents in the background. Those tents were used for the tourists.

Tombstone Tuesday

This is a picture of the tombstone for Orville Travis my great grandfather, He was the son of Daniel Columbus Travis and Mary Elizabeth Travis (her maiden name was Travis). He married twice first Dona Vanderpool, my great grandmother and when Dona died he married Bessie Keith. Here is his obit: (Spickard is in Missouri.}

Obituary "Funeral Rites Held For Orville Travis
Funeral services for Orville Travis, 75 years old, who died Wednesday at his home in Spickard, were held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Spickard Christian church with Rev. Harry Clifton in charge.
Music for the rites was furnished by G.W. Alexander, D.G. Dennis, N.J.
Young and Darrel Marlow with E. Don Porterfield playing the piano accompaniment.
Pallbearers were John Thompson, Cliff Coon, Gwin Stamper, Waitman Clemens, Irvin Covey and Bert Purcell. Wives of pallbearers were the flower bearers. Interment was in the Spickard Masonic cemetery.

Saturday Night Fun

This is from Randy Seaver and his Saturday Nigh Fun:

1) Answer these questions:

* What is your UGG - your "Ultimate Genealogy Goal" for the genealogy research that you wish to leave to your heirs, descendants and the genealogy community?

Well I have published 3 Hansen books, so I need to work on my mom's Kelly family more. For the genealogy community I want to be remembered as a long time researcher for Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. The two previous researchers did the research for twenty years or more.

* How long do you think you have have left to fulfill this ultimate goal?

Well I am 61 now and my father made 101, mom 80, three grandparents 90 or close to 90, so I expect at least another 30+ years.

* Are you prioritizing your time adequately in order to achieve this goal?

I hope so.

* If not, what should you do to achieve the goal?

Keep taking care of myself and my health.

* Will you do what you need to do? Yes.

2) Tell us about it in a blog post on your own blog.

Historical Records Volunteer Recognition Awards

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Washington State Library Historical Records Recognition Event at the Yakima Museum. Today they have posted the pictures of those getting awards certificates from Sam Reed the Washington Secretary of State.












Jeanne
Coe
and
I each
received
an
individual
award
and
then
we
accepted
one
for
Eastern
Washington
Genealogical
society.























Maggie Rail receiving her special award
























Terri Huntley on left of table, She is the volunteer coordinator.

Tombstone Tuesday

This is the tombstone in the Union Cemetery at Crystal Lake, Illinois of Stanislaus Potoski Dillingham born 8 Aug 1835 in Dixfield, Oxford, Maine and died 25 June 1919 in Algonquin Twp, McHenry, Illinois. He married Eliza Minerva Hellenbolt 1 Dec 1870 in Rochester, Minnesota. She was born 1 March 1845 in Town2, Rock Co., Wisconsin and died 3 Sept 1933 in Algonquin Twp, McHenry, Illinois.
They had two daughters Anna M. Dillingham (my grandmother) and Abbie Fredelene Dillingham. Fredelene is also buried next to her parents but when we were there no stone for her, so after telling our cousins they have had a stone placed there for Fredelene. Stanuslaus had a brother and sister that were twins, named, Frederick and Fredelene, so he named his second child after his sister. Fredelene was born 3 Feb 1876 at Lyle, Mower, Minnesota and died 18 Jan 1960 in Woodstock, Illinois.

Saturday Night Fun

List your great great grandparents, and figure their ethnicity.

Fifth Generation

16. Mikkel MADSEN was born 11 May 1807 in Magleby, Svendborg, Denmark. He died 8 Sep 1888 in Humble, Svendborg, Denmark. DANISH

17. Kristen HANSDATTER was born 21 May 1804 in Humble, Svendborg, Denmark. She died 23 Jan 1880 in Humble, Svendborg, Denmark. DANISH

18. Jorgen PEDERSEN was born about 1791 in Tullebolle, Denmark. DANISH

19. Johanne Margrethe JENSDATTER was born about 1803 in Tullebolle, Denmark. DANISH

20. Enos DILLINGHAM was born 10 Aug 1804 in Freeport, Maine. He died 12 Jun 1876 in Dixfield, Oxford, Maine. ENGLISH

21. Clarissa VIRGIN was born about 1806 in Maine. She died about 1855. ENGLISH

22. Richard HELLENBOLT was born about 1815 in New York. GERMAN

23. Rhoda PRESTON was born about 1816 in Canada. CANADIAN

24. Thomas D. KELLY was born 25 Apr 1827 in near Louisville. He died 1 Mar 1896 in Trenton, Grundy, Missouri. IRISH

25. Margaret Josephine FORSYTH was born 29 Dec 1833 in Quincy, Adams, Illinois. She died 28 Jul 1905 in Trenton, Grundy, Missouri. SCOTTISH

26. Joseph HERT was born 29 Jun 1830 in Indiana. He died 12 May 1912 in Jackson Twp, Grundy, Missouri. ????

27. Sadie Jane SELSON was born 19 Mar 1832 in Indiana. She died 26 Jul 1913 in Harriaon Twp, Carroll, Missouri. ????

28. Daniel Columbus TRAVIS was born 4 May 1833 in Lawrence, Illinois. He died 27 Mar 1905 in Mill Grove, Mercer, Missouri and was buried in Coon Cemetery. IRISH

29. Mary Elizabeth TRAVIS was born 10 Sep 1833 in Green, New York. She died 27 Oct 1927 in Mill Grove, Mercer, Missouri and was buried in Coon Cemetery. IRISH

30. Joseph "Joe" VANDERPOOL was born about 1831 in Campbell, Tennessee. He died 1 Oct 1929 in Clinton, Oklahoma. DUTCH

31. Margaret LOE was born 3 Aug 1837 in Ray, Missouri. She died about 1901 in Mercer, Missouri. GERMAN

25% Danish
19% Irish
12% German
12% English
12% ???
6% Canadian
6% Dutch
6% Scottish

Washington State Library Special Collections

1) NEW WSL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS WEB PAGES

New web pages focusing on Washington State Library’s Special Collections are now live and online! Here you will find dedicated pages representing the:

* Territorial Collection
* Rare Publications
* Rare Maps
* Manuscripts Collection
Links to digitized content, catalog browsing searches, and related materials are included on each page. There are also pages for:

* Frequently Asked Questions
* Guidelines for handling collection materials
* Information on donating items to the Special Collections

They will be adding more content in coming months, so be sure to check back regularly. To access the main page for Washington State Library’s Special Collections, please visit

Tuesday Tips

In the Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill he tells about taking a page of bibliography to the library as research notes. I expanded on this when I travel to a distant library for research. I printed out a book from my genealogical program with all the ancestors even slightly connected to that area. I then when go to that library and do the research I was planning, and when done I donate that book to that library, putting how to get in touch with me in the front. This does two things, one frees up some space in my suitcase and hopefully some time in the future a connection with someone looking for the same family.

Saturday Night Fun

1) Tell us your three responses to the questions:

* Three genealogical libraries I frequent
Spokane Public Library
Washington State Archives Eastern Branch Library
?

* Three places I've visited on genealogy trips
Crystal Lake, Illinois (Dillingham)
Sebeka, Minnesota (Hansen)
Trenton, Missouri (Kelly)

* Three genealogy societies I belong to
Eastern Washington Genealogical Society
Great River Genealogical Society (Illinois)
Grundy County (MO) Genealogical Society

* Three websites that help my research
Family Search
Washington State Digital Archives
World Vital Records

* Three ancestral graves that I've visited
Union Cemetery, Crystal Lake, Illinois (Dillingham)
Spickard, Missouri (Travis)
Trenton, Missouri (Kelly)

* Three ancestral places I want to visit
Humble parish, Denmark
Oxford, Maine
Plymouth, Mass

* Three brickwall ancestors I want to research more
Enos Chandler
Richard Hellenbolt
John Vanderpool