A Mystery to Solve

Sometimes, especially when I am tired and just sitting around relaxing, I grab my ipad and surf around a little in Ancestry blogs, in on-line research sites and just read random genealogy articles here and there.  I have no plan other than to fill time avoiding whatever task I should be doing.  Obviously, I am following none of the advice I have learned in good genealogy research.

This is the accidental way I found the ship manifest of the May 1892 arrival of the ship, Oldenburg, into Baltimore from Bremen, Germany with my husband's grandfather, his first wife and two children listed.  This was a fabulous discovery which ran contrary to family lore.

Now, I have made another fluke discovery.  I have not been working on my blog for several reasons. (O.K. here come the excuses.)  I declared in August that Cousins was going on hiatus.  It was not my intention to be absent for so long.  Several trips, both large and small, as well as some health issues have interrupted the flow of stimulating prose authored by yours truly.  Or I could simply comfess that the dog ate my homework.

So, what might this discovery be?

One of the genealogy blogs I read, even when I am not writing, is called Empty Branches on the Family Tree.  Its author is Linda Stuffelbean, and I don't think the dog ever ate her homework.  She inspires me.

While surfing around randomly one day with no goal in mind, I read one of her posts in which she was discussing the move of a family in her husband's ancestry from Northampton, Pennsylvania to Botetourt County, Virginia. I vaguely remember my Grisso research shows the Grisso family in that area.  I started wondering if it was the same time period and if so what if some of our ancestors knew some of the ancestors current genealogist follow.  Populations were much smaller back then.  I thought it might be a fun exercise to compare dates and speculate about these possible encounters.

Before any of that happened, I read on in Linda's post and was amazingly surprised at a name that appeared in her research.  The name was Polly Gresso whose father was Mathias Gresso of Botetourt County, Virginia. Polly had married a Mr. Martin Miller.

Now I have an ancestor named Polly Grisso, daughter of Mathias Grisso of Botetourt County, Virginia who married a Mr. Martin Miller.  It must be a spelling error from Grisso to Gresso. There couldn't be another family with a Polly and Mathias who married Martin Miller, could there?

Now I have a project and a mystery to solve. 
Stay tuned.

Sick

No one is sick. I did get your attention though, didn't I?

It was another paper sorting day recently, and I came across something to share. I have noticed several bloggers in the blogosphere are retired teachers.  I have cousins who are teachers and many friends who have spent time in the classroom. Of course, all parents have undoubtedly experienced this as well. I think everyone will enjoy this poem. Also, now I have another piece of paper to throw out and can find this writing again on my blog whenever I want. Life is good. And Spring is coming.

Wright on Wednesday

A couple of years ago, I obtained a genealogy program called Legacy. I took a class here in my winter haven and decided to start the input with the notes I had on the Wright family, my paternal side.  Last year I started a blog to try to get my notes, papers, memories and information from all sides organized and into a form that could be shared with cousins near and far as well as my own descendants.  However, I have not blogged about the Wrights yet. This was my plan for the winter of 2016. I have even started with a yet to be published document written by my grandmother.  It has two parts and will be appearing soon.

I have connected with some second cousins on Facebook who are also the great-grandchildren of my Great Grandparents Charlie and Jennie Wright.  I have yet to straighten all of them out, but have decided it would be a fun winter project.

Last spring, my posts began with a dedication to my mother's brother and her first cousin who had passed away unexpectedly in January.  I am starting to think I don't like January. My own father left us in January 2010.

And now, we have lost his youngest brother, Gene Wright (January 25, 2016).The family is in shock. Gene was in great physical condition. I guess one never knows what tomorrow will bring. I have said it so many times. Enjoy today, tomorrow may not come your way.

Gene was Harold Gene Wright, son of Albert and Nina Wright. He was the seventh child of eight. As a young man he lived with us for awhile on our farm becoming an older brother of sorts to me. He was cool. He played the guitar and sang and had a bit of a James Dean persona... especially when driving his motorcycle.  I loved riding with him because it made me cool too. I will have to admit not many 10 year olds get to be so cool.

As I write about the Wrights this winter, he will be on my mind and certainly in my heart.         Rest In Peace, Uncle Gene.