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October 9, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday

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We’re back to Pioneer Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan for this week’s tombstone. This is the stone for Rebecca (Huntingdon) Porter, my 4th Great Grandmother and the first wife of Seth Porter. I believe she was born in Vermont in 1837. She married Seth in 160 years ago this month—Oct 4, 1852. She was the mother of seven children—Melissa Emeline, George Erwin  (my 3rd Great Grandfather), Rheumina, Minnie Isabel, Harry Clifford, Almeda Laverne, and Flora Ethel. She died at the age of 52 in February of 1890.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

October 5, 2012

Happy Birthday, Grandma Trotter!

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October 3, 2012

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

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My family has spent many a fall day stepping back in time through visits to the Michigan Renaissance Festival. I started to go with a close friend in middle school (or if any later, early high school) and have been attending ever since. Highlights include:

  • Multiple trips with people more interested in the current college football game than wandering Hollygrove.
  • The first year I drove and a row boat fell out of a truck in front of me after my mother, in the lead car of our caravan, lost me. And a pair of my cousins assigned to my car accidently handcuffed themselves together—don’t  ask, I still have no idea why.
  • The first year I danced as a guest of Aida Al Adawi’s Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble.

But a few years ago we introduced both my nephews to this strange, fun experience and this year we took my niece for the first time. It’s so much fun to see this all through their eyes. And I’ll always think of this day, when my then 5 year-old nephew strapped on his toy sword and swaggered after his father.

Happy Hunting,

Jess

 

 

October 2, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday

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Since I’ll be riding through roads that the Shea’s traveled and it’s just about 80 years to the day since his death, this week’s Tombstone Tuesday features Rufus Shea, my 3rd Great Uncle and the next older sibling of Cornelius Shea.

When Gran and Aunt June got me started looking for their family they tried to come up with the names of their great uncles—thinking that a few had visited the Shea’s when their father was still alive. One of the names they came up with was Rufus and it was just unique enough to help me find the Sheas in New York.

To the best of my knowledge Rufus was the 8th child and 5th son of Patrick and Theresa (Macumber) Shea. He was born in 1861 in St. Lawrence County, New York. Like his older brothers he worked for some time as a miner there. Later he moved west to the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan (same as his brothers John, Daniel, Gus, and Cornelius) where he ultimately became a farmer and married Hattie King the daughter of N. C. and Sarah King. They had one son,  Leroy King Shea.

Rufus, Hattie, and Leroy are buried together in Maplegrove Cemetery, Glen Arbor, Leelanau County, MI.

Happy hunting!

Jess

 

September 26, 2012

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

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This is my 2nd Great Aunt Grace (Packer) Elliott and my Great Grandmother Cora (Packer) Shea. It was taken at the home of their parents around about the early 1920s.  I could certainly be mistaken but I think Grandma Shea is wearing a wedding band which would make it 1922 or later. Ninety percent of my earlier pictures of Aunt Grace have a very sour expression. This one’s more “trying-not-to-look-like-I-could-possibly-be-happy” and it is very similar—both due to features and the expression—to at least two of my close living relatives. Any guesses?

Happy hunting!

Jess

 

September 25, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday

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These are the headstones of John Long and John Long Jr, at Pioneer Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan. Per John Jr.’s entry in Chapman’s History of Kent County, John Long brought his family to the area in 1844 and settled in Sec. 27. John Jr. married Maria Chaffee and they had two children William H. and Hiram. William H. married Almeda Porter the sister of my 3rd Great Grandfather George Porter.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

September 19, 2012

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

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I love this picture! These are the oldest of the Trotter brothers—three of my uncles and my father. This was probably taken around 1965 or 1966 based on their sister’s graduation photo on the mantel behind them.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

September 18, 2012

Tombstone Tuesday

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Today is the 126th Anniversary of my Grandma Porter’s birth. This makes her and Grandpa Porter’s headstone the perfect pick for this week’s Tombstone Tuesday. This is the resting place of Lula Vanche (Holden) Porter and her husband Charles Erwin “Winn” Porter. The photo is from Courtland Cemetery in Courtland Township, Michigan the final resting place of many members of the Holden and Porter families. It was taken by me in the winter of 2002.

Happy Hunting,

Jess

 

September 14, 2012

September: The 2nd Most Popular Birth Month

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This is a somewhat arbitrary fact pulled from my database program, given I’m still missing a bunch of birth dates. But with the dates that I do know, there are just short of 200 people born in September. And more importantly, there are nine people who have birthdays today—and three of those are very important people in my life: my Grandpa Bill would have turned 84, and my Great Aunts, June and Donna are both celebrating birthdays today.

    

For some reason I couldn’t find a nice 1960s shot of Aunt June.

The honorable mentions of the day are all more distant relatives:

  • Elizabeth Botruff (the sister-in-law of my 4th Great Aunt Livina Botruff)
  • Fannie Eldred (the 2nd wife of my 3rd Great Uncle Floyd Clifton Porter, Charles’s brother)
  • Peter Lorne Chesney (the grandnephew of my 3rd Great Aunt Sarah Maria (Packer) Chesney)
  • Peter Dowdall (the  first cousin once removed of my 2nd Great Grandmother Ellen (Cunningham) Shea)
  • George Delbert Covell (my 2nd Cousin, four times removed)
  • Robert John Rennick (an honorary nephew of my Great Grandmother Flora Packer)

Happy Birthday to you all!

Jess

 

September 12, 2012

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

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This is the only picture I’ve been able to find of my Great Great Grandfather William Amos Johnson. He is the young gentleman in the center of this Johnson Family picture.

This is a photo that was printed in Cannon Township 1837-1983, a publication of the Cannon Township Historical Society (Kent County, Michigan).  The others in the portrait are: his brothers Herbert and Freeman both standing, and then, seated in front: his sister Sarah (Johnson) Cramer, his father William Suffling Johnson, himself, his mother Mary (Gordon) and his sister Edith (Johnson) Miller. The picture was taken around 1890.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

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