Lower Skippack Mennonite Cemetery

After flying into Philly, my mom and I hung out with my dad and his sister. It was my first time meeting her. She's pretty cool. Together they're hilarious. When we left his sister's house, we took a slight detour from our journey and stopped at a cemetery. What is a vacation with no cemeteries?

So my great great great........ ok 9th great grandfather and his wife were buried in this cemetery. I googled and ancestried and findagraved the crap out of it. Not only was he buried in that cemetery, but a few miles away this guy's house and barn were still standing. Crazy right?? So needless to say we went to visit him. Unfortunately, there was no one home at the house, but there were plenty in the cemetery.

So my line goes like this...

there's me, my dad, and his mom.

Then...

Ellis H.Turner--Harry V. Turner--Hiram Turner-- George W. Turner-- Susanna Cressman-- John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmit Cressman-- Anthony Cressman-- Anna C Hallman-- Anthony Hallman/Heilman

So it was Mr. Anthony Hallman and his wife Marie Salome that I came looking for first. He lived between 1671 and 1759, she between 1673 and 1745.

As before, I took a million pictures of the cemetery and the stones there. But to save time I won't put that many up.

Anthony's is on the left side in the back. It was pretty easy to find since it's a newer stone.

There is a piece of his wife's stone in the back of his stone.

Has a lot of fun that day. Hotter than hell, but had fun. We passed the same area on Monday before we flew home again. Saw the church he helped build. It's still standing today. pretty amazing.

Well folks, more pictures to come lately!

What's in a name?

I hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday and a successful first week of census searching.

After the initial frustration on release day I've been pretty successful so far. Only a handful of relatives missing.

The first batch I was able to view was on my dad's side, the Turner and Melick families in Mount Pleasant Twp, Pa. I found his mother, my grandmother and her six siblings. Yes, six. Holy cow. Elaine Turner is a twin, I don't know if I mentioned that in one of my other posts. Her sister was Eilean Turner and she passed away a few years ago. One of the other Turner sisters is named Della Jane. I kind of like that name and I don't know why. Anyway the parents (Ellis Turner and Minnie Melick) were listed there too and her father's occupation was a farmer. Shocker in Pa woo! Lol. I also found Ellis Turner's parents Harry and Lovina. A few other Melick's as well but I'm not 100% sure on a connection, if any.

I figure that was a good start considering I didn't know anything about those guys and never talked to any of that side of the family. Onto the next one!

I was finally able to get into Ralpho Twp that night YAY! I found Clinton, Ida, and Dora Pitner in one place. Then I found my great great grandfather Marion Hauck with Ruth Pitner and my great grandmother Eleanor and her brother Wilferd. In Shamokin I found Morris Yeager with Florence Persing and their brood including Elizabeth/Betty Yeager who I met last December. I also foun Russel/Rudy Persing with Jessie and someone named Doris. Walter Persing (my great grandfather who married Eleanor) was living with his mother Cora in Shamokin. It said he worked in a dye and paint mill. Next I found E. W Persing who is Earl, confirmed by the fact his occupation is listed as Potato Chip factory.

Those were all pretty easy. The Polish on the other hand. Sheesh. I tweeted that they were harder to find than  Waldo, Carmen Sandiego, and Voldemort's nose.

Well apparently they weren't hiding in Shamokin Borough like I thought (or not all of them anyway)

The borough is apparently inside of Coal Twp. and has completely different ED numbers. Today I finally realized this and looked in 49-11 and 49-12.

I found some type of cousins. Or aunts and uncles. I don't know anymore. Stanley Kozloski married Frances Lapinsky so I found those two and their children WITH Anthony Lapinsky. Oh wait sorry. The census says Lipinski have to be correct here. He would be my great great grandfather (Mildred's father). He was 79, not working (duh) and had 0 education. Cioci Francy (aunt there it is I remembered) had a 3rd grade education.
Next up is Frank Yucha and his wife Charlotte (Frances' daughter I think) with 2 of their children. Charlotte just passed away in March.
Then I found Lawrence Matlock (?) with Louise Lapinsky (also goes by Julie. see these people can't make up their minds!) Their kids are shown along with two daughters (+ on of their husbands) from Louise/ Julie's first marriage (surname Glock/Gloc).  One of the Gloc's was lucky enough to be in the extra questions but only thing I learned was Polish was spoken in the home.
Then we have Stanley Lapinsky (actually spelled Lapinsky) with his wife and 2 children.

Ok so the Lapinsky/Lipinski thing I've seen before. No surprise.

But these damn Bieda's are going to kill me.

I mentioned before there was a name change to Biedzinski but my great grandfather Ludwik/Lewis/Louis changed back to Bieda. Well apparently not until after 1940.

The census lists Budzinskie. Louis, Mildred, and my uncle Emil (my Busia's brother). I found them after remembering I had a directory saved to Ancestry.com from 1930 and 1941. 1212 Hemlock St. Shamokin Pa. I actually passed them by the first time I looked through the 49-12 section.

So then I went back to the Shamokin Borough and the million of pages that section. I had Joseph and Mary in a directory for 1928 saying they were at 442 Pearl St. and Jakob and Anna were at 440 Pearl St. Well I only found Joseph and Mary. I think Anna had passed away by then but I still didn't find Jakob. In 1950 he's listed as living with Jozef in the directory. Anyway, you would think Jozef would be listed under Biedzinski or Budzinskie. Nope. Beginskie. I'm tellin ya they want to drive me mad!

But if you think of it, in Polish the dz combo sounds like a dg sound. I think.

So I still need to find Jakob Bieda... or whatever.... and then Aleksander/ Alex/ Alexandor is somewhere in Philly at this time. But I have no address or anything so I might have to wait until the indexed version is out. And then of course deal with the possible name combinations. But I won't think about that now.

Sorry this was so long! Gotta go, I'm going out tonight. Titanic 3D Yes!!!

The Other Half

This is called the Persing & Bieda family history for a reason. Up until about a week ago, I had no idea about the other half of my tree. My dad's side. Never met the guy. It awkwardly came up in conversation last week (how would that conversation not be awkward?) but I'm glad I know now. Besides. Every tree has some interesting tidbits in it. Some good some bad. But it is what it is.

I usually don't include names of living people in my blog, but I think I'll make an exception. Maybe I want him to randomly google something and find out that I exist, or to remind him that I exist. Maybe because they'res a teeny part of me that's angry and hurt and wants other people to know he's a jerk (maybe not 100% jerk. perhaps coward is a better word?)

So who is this man and his family and how much do I know? And how did I get past the little info I was given initially? Sit back and I'll tell you.

His name is Darrin Kay Snyder. He has a sister named Donna. His parents are Donald and Elaine K Snyder. The names of his parents I actually found on mylife.com. You know, that creepy website where you can find terrifying amounts of information. Hah. I have a free account but it didn't really help. I found more by not signing in. Anyway the names were confirmed by my mom so I know I have the right people. Another good tip for finding living relatives? Check the white pages online. If I wanted to I could call Darrin or send him a letter. Doesn't mean I'm going to.

Based on the birth dates of my grandparents, Ancestry.com couldn't help me with what I had. Well, not until the 1940 census comes out anyway. But I was googling here and there. And I found a Gedcom file online. I've never seen one or used one or anything before so the code took some getting used to. I think I could be a pro now.  Here is the link that I found: http://www.colcohist-gensoc.org/gedcoms/melich.ged

It shows all of them. I learned that Donald passed away in 1999 and he was a Korean War vet. It even said an occupation for prison guard. The file shows that Elaine's maiden name was Turner. Her mother's maiden name was Melick. The file has the Melick/Moelich family going back to the 1500s in Germany. So last week I had no idea.... and now I'm in the 1500s? In WDYTYA drinking game talk... thats like 10 shots right there.

Does it end there? Of course not! I plug everything into Ancestry.com... all generations from that page. No hints for Donald, except a ss. death record and military record. I was able to find my great grandparents, Minnie Melick and Ellis Turner. And guess what? THERE WERE PICTURES! You all know how I am with pictures. Heck how all of us are with pictures. There was even a picture for Elaine's sister. Apparently they were twins! I found more twins further back. Anyway long story short I found a crap ton of people back there. Mostly German ancestry. But all of them were in America since the 16-1700s. Another branch I found, now this is exciting, goes to England. I love the UK and Ireland. You have no idea. When I saw England on the ancestry tree I was about as excited as Amy Farrah Fowler on Big Bang Theory when Sheldon gave her a tiara. At this point I'm in the 12-1300s in England. And there's a castle.

I think I'm starting to ramble a little bit so this is where I'll end it. As always leave me comments. Please? Or if you are related to me don't hesitate to let me know :)