Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts

Reading Old Bones - And Our Families Connection

"I shall never forget the looks of those people for the most part of them were crazey   their eyes danced & sparkled in their heads like stars. " - Eliza Gregson, writing about the Donnor Party.

 In 1844 my great, great, great, great Aunt & Uncle, James & Eliza Gregson, traveled by wagon across the country to California. In 1847, they were living at Sutters Fort when the Donner Party was rescued, and they lived beside and interacted with the survivors.  

In 1880 James Gregson was interviewed for a History Of Sonoma County.   "Feeling that the pioneer women had been neglected by the historians, Mrs. Gregson proceeded to write her own “Memory.” This she did on the blank sides of old bill-heads, letters, and other scraps of paper. It was preserved and copied by her daughter, Mrs. Eliza Butler"  

Both of their memoirs are fascinating, and full of American History. They experienced the Bear Flag Revolt, lived with the Donner Party Survivors, and James Gregson was one of the first to find the gold that began the Gold Rush.

 "During the Bear Flag Revolt, from June to July 1846, a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic. The republic was short-lived because soon after the Bear Flag was raised, the U.S. military began occupying California, which went on to join the union in 1850. The Bear Flag became the official state flag in 1911." 

In Eliza's "Memory", she has a good bit to say about her time with the Donnor party survivors. It's shocking and graphic if you are not familiar with the story of their story.  I've included that section of her writings later in this post .

I remembered that when I had first read her memory, it had mentioned that someone had been accused of stealing money, and that I had researched it at the time and read that the money was, many many years later, found, clearing the name of the accused man long after his death.


So when I saw the blurb for the new Jeffery Deaver book, I could not wait to read it.

"Nora Kelly, a young curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called "Lost Camp" of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who earned a terrible place in American history when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder-and cannibalism.

Benton tells Kelly he has stumbled upon an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it-to reveal its long-buried secrets."

To be clear, this book is fiction.  The gold they talk about in this story is fiction (although there was gold that was lost on this trip, found many years later), the diary they refer to is fiction.  But true history and experiences of the Donnor party are also included, and it's a fast, fun, read, even if the "whodunnit" is patently obvious.  I enjoyed it immensely, quite possibly because I've been intrigued by my 4th great aunts memoir, but have never taken the time to read more about the Donnor party.


Our Genealogy
For family members who are wondering how they may connect, James Gregson was the brother of Mary (Gregson) Smith.  Their parents, Nicholas & Mary (Bowles) Gregson were Heather's 5th great paternal grandparents, through our Lumbard line.  So in addition to the diary of Joseph Lumbard, recounting his time serving in the civil war and at Gettysburg, this line of our family also includes the memoirs of a wagon train to the West, the Gold Rush, and living with the Donnor party.    It appears this is the branch of our family with all of the writers.  

Eliza Gregson's Memory 
of her time with the Donnor Party Survivors
Well the winter passes away & early in the year 47 the startling news arives at the fort that some emigrants [members of the Donner party] had just come in from the sirranaveds [Sierra Nevada] almost starved to death. & that they had left a large party starving in the mountains. So what was to be done there was but a few people at the fort. & old Captain Sutter sent out his vacquars [vaqueros] that is the indians that he had trained he sent them out to bring in about 12 head of the fatest [steers] & they did as they were told. they killed the beefs & barbaqued the meat & packed it on the best mules that was to be found & started them off. there was a few white men went along with the indians to rescue the starveing people. amongst the white men that went out was one young man that had just come in from the mountains he volenteered to go back again. he had no relations nor any intrest but humanity & a big heart promted him & taking of his waikcoat & his watch & a letter to be sent to N.Y. to his sister in case he should never return. poo[r] man he was froze to death.

*Charles T. Stanton, a native of New York but more recently a resident of Chicago, with William McCutchen had left the Donner party about September 18, 1846, somewhere in eastern Nevada and had pushed through to Sutter's Fort. There he left McCutchen, who was ill, and traveled back with food, seven pack-mules and two Indian vaqueros, rejoining the party on October 19—the first to bring back supplies. He later led the way three times over the pass, but on December 21, snow-blind, exhausted, and starving, he dropped behind and was left to die. George Rippey Stewart, Jr.,Ordeal by Hunger (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1936), pp. 55, 77, 125, 301, and 302.

there was but a few white women but we did all in our power for them. in two or 3 weeks back again some of them came. the mules allmost all dead & 3 or 4 indians besides white people. & they wanted more food for the starving ones that could not come. I shall never forget the looks of those people for the most part of them were crazey & their eyes danced & sparkled in their heads like stars. among the first lot that came out were 18. 5 girls & wemen the rest were men. the[re] were only two men survived a Mr fowler & Mr Edey.
* & 4 of the females were named Graves the youngest one was about 11 years old & one maried lady Mrs Fosdick her husband died & she buried him in the snow.

* Mrs. Gregson probably means William M. Foster, from Pennsylvania, a son-in-law of Mrs. Lavina Murphy. His wife, Sarah A. C. Murphy, survived, but their baby son died in the mountains. Foster was a member of the fourth relief party. In 1847-48 he kept a furniture store in San Francisco, and later was a storekeeper in the mines. Foster's Bar was named for him. Bancroft, op. cit., III, 745; see also Stewart,op. cit. William H. Eddy, a carriage-maker from Illinois, was one of the most active in saving other members of the party. His wife Eleanor, son James P., and daughter Mary all perished in the Sierra. Eddy married Mrs. F. Alfred in 1848, and Miss A. M. Pardoe in 1856, and died at Petaluma in 1859. Bancroft,op. cit., II, 788-89; and Stewart,op. cit.
Mary Ann (20), Ellen or Eleanor (15), Lavina (13), and Nancy (9). Their father and mother—Franklin Ward Graves and his wife Elizabeth—and brother Franklin, Jr. had died in the Sierra. Stewart, op. cit., p. 299; and Bancroft,op. cit., III, 764. 
Sarah Graves Fosdick (22), wife of Jay Fosdick and daughter of F. W. Graves. See Stewart,op. cit., p. 142. In 1848 Mrs. Fosdick married William Ritchie, and in 1856, Samuel Spiers. She died near Watsonville in 1871.
Bancroft,op. cit., III, 744.


praphs I might as well speak a little more about Mrs fosdick. the wemen would take the lead over the snow & beat the track for the men to walk in. but for all that the men sunk down & died. the wemen even led them by the hand & made the camp fires & gave them food one morning Mrs fosdicks husband was dieing he tried to travel but did not succeed & the rest of the party could not stop for him to die. So she told them I will stay with him untill he dies You go I will overtake you in about 2 hours she was seen 10 coming with her husbands black silk Neckercheif around her neck She told them he is dead. Fowler said can we have him to eat. She said you cannot hurt him now. so some of them went back & brought some of his flesh & cooked it. So speak about womens rights say they are weak & ought to have no rights.
the second party that came out were Mrs reeds family  & one servant women  & a part of the two donners familys. Jake & Gorge donner the[y] were two brothers with their wifes & children. of the gorge donner family  there was 5 girls elithey [Elitha] & Leah [Leanna] & frances and gorgeana [Georgia] & Elza [Eliza]. of jake donners family  two sons I was gorge donner & one girl named Mary donner. poor girl both her feet were frozen & they were in shocking condition the flys had blown them & there was maggots in them & she suffered a great deal. there was a doctor at the fort he came & put some medesien on them but her feet was ruined  another women by the name of Kesburg she left one dead baby in the camp & started with one little girl 2 years old it died & she had to bury it in the snow. She left her husband behind I shall speak of him 

*Margaret W. Reed, wife of James Frazier Reed; the Reed children: Martha J. (Patty), James Frazier, Jr., and Thomas K.; and Virginia E. Backenstoe, generally known as Reed, for she was Mrs. Reed's daughter by her first
husband. Stewart,op. cit., p. 300, and Bancroft,op. cit., V, 690.
Eliza Williams, half-sister of Baylis Williams. Stewart,op. cit., p. 300.
See Bancroft,op. cit., II, 783; and Stewart,op. cit., p. 299.
Ibid.

Mary's foot, frozen and numb, had fallen into the fire at Starved Camp. After the party arrived at Sutter's Fort, Mary was carried through to San Francisco, where her foot was treated by Andrew J. Henderson, surgeon of the U.S. Ship Portsmouth. Eliza P. Donner Houghton,The Expedition of the Donner Party (Chicago, 1911), pp. 128, 313. She was married in 1859 to S. O. Houghton, but died the next year, and he, in 1861, married her cousin Eliza, the author of the book just cited. Bancroft,op. cit., II, 783. 

{They left old Mr & Mrs [George and Tamsen] Donner with no one else but Keysburg [Lewis
Keseberg] whose cabin was about 8 miles this west side of the nevada line. The old man Donner was too sick to travel and one of his hands were very sore. Mrs Donner would not leave her husband. So they left her some beef and promised to return for them in a short time. Mr. & Mrs.Jake Donner died in a short time after the arrival of rescueing party to them. In due time the men went out again and the weather was getting milder and the snow not so deep in the mountains. The first camp was Keysburgs they found him in his cabin cooking his supper of human flesh. they followed the tracks to the other camp but found no one, but the foot prints of Mrs Donner where she had apparently been cutting meat from a steer which had been buried in the snow, showing, plainly that she had not died from starvation. returning to Keysburgs camp, they asked him where is Mrs Donner? He said she died and he cut her flesh up and had it in a box and her husbands too for there was the sore hand. There were boxes filled with human flesh all cut and packed in butcherly style. The next thing where was her money, for Mr & Mrs Donner had about $800.00 dollars it was not to be found Keysburg denied any knowledge of any money.} *so that one man by the name of big Ofallen * put a rope around his neck & strung him up to a tree two or three times untill he was black in the face. & then he told where there was $500 but would tell no more. so they brought him down to the fort. where he & his wife stayed that winter. 

*William O. Fallon [or o'Fallon], an Irish trapper, was known as “Mountaineer,” “Big,” or “Le Gros” Fallon. He was a member of the fourth Donner relief, and his diary, published in the California Star, and quoted in J. Quinn Thorton,Oregon and California in 1848 (New York, 1849), II, 232-39, was the foundation of the charges against Keseberg.

one day old Mrs Lenox we thought we would like to see the maneater I told the old lady you go in first & I will follow. during the conversation Mrs Lenox asked him how human flesh tasted & he said it was better than chicken & several times that winter his wife would arrouse the people by 11 screaming murder at midnight she said that he wanted to kill her. Kesburg got offended at the folks for saying that he killed Mrs Donner & he sued them at law. during the examination he said that he got 4 pounds of tallow out of her. once he called one of the little donner girls to come to him but she answered him no you killed my mother he stayed about the fort for some time afterwards I saw but very little of him*

Cf. Stewart,op. cit., pp. 259-65, 287-93; see also Charles Fayeette McGlashan,History of the Donner Party (San Francisco: T. C. Wohlbruck, 1931), pp. 184-206. McGlashan and Mrs. Houghton,op. cit., pp. 360-70, did not believe that Keseberg had murdered the Donners, nor did Bancroft. Keseberg died in the County Hospital at Sacramento, on September 3, 1895, aged 81 years.

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Making A 6 Generation Family Tree With Cricut


Quick Tips:

  • Use print then cut!!  I used the draw feature - but Print then Cut would look almost identical and take a fraction of the time!
  • I would also use a posterboard or thicker board next time - rather than the white kraft roll paper I used for this.  (A couple of years later, I redid this on a matte board )
  • The font I used for Drawing was Montepetrum.  (Long list of single line fonts that write can be found here )
  • The frames are super lightweight with plexiglass instead of glass.  I found them on sale at Michaels last year.
  • If you happen to be connected to my genealogy, you can find all of that info here: Heather's Genealogy Notes (Click on the tabs across the top for paternal lines, maternal lines, etc, or search by surname in the search box)
  • For a step by step (ha!) literally, on how to I did the stairs  - go here.
  • The frames are 24 x 36
I used a precise v5 pen for the one on the left, and the thin tip of the leisure arts marker for the one on the right.  But I REALLY recommend just using print then cut!  I finished the last section on the one on the left with print then cut, and you can barely tell the difference between those and the ones done with the marker - and it wqas SO much faster!

When you look for Cricut Family Tree ideas, there are lots of ideas.. usually for immediate families.  I wanted to put up large displays going 8 generations back...  that I could quickly look at while working on our genealogy.  My handwriting is not great, and i did not want to hand write into a tiny chart.  So this is what I came up  with, for now.  Eventually I want to come up with something prettier - but as a reference chart, this works really well for me.  It's only six generations, but by separating my lines from my husbands lines, I was still able to get a lot of information displayed.


Making The Tree


I started with a plain tree silhouette found on google images.  
Then I created an 11.5 square, and sliced the tree into 3 sections to cut it on 12x12 paper.



For the names at the bottom, I used FontLab Pad to create my text, saved it as an svg, uploaded it, then welded it so that it would cut as once piece. 

Using FontLab Pad 
(Design Space now does a MUCH better job of using system fonts, FontLab Pad is not as necessary these days...  but I still use it, myself)



Sizes
  • The white squares for the first 5 generations are 1.878 x 0.883
  • The black backings for those squares are 1.847 x 0.944 cut 65 (that can't be right?  But I'm looking at the project in design space, and those are the measurements...)
  • The 6th generation, which is smaller, is sized 1.7 x 0.462
  • The black backing is solid, I cut 4 pieces 1,9 inches wide, and pieced them as a solid black line, down the side.




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Alternative Markers For Cricut
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Using Gedmatch to Better Analyze My Raw DNA from Ancestry.com

This is my Ethnicity Estimate, as given by Ancestry
For a basic explanation of what is shown here, read this: More Than A Pie Chart

I keep telling you all to download your raw DNA from your ancestry.com DNA tests, upload it to gedmatch, and run some of the algorithms there.  It can be a little overwhelming, there is so much to learn with our DNA, so today I'm just going to run a few quick projects to show you some of the things Gedmatch can do. 

 Gedmatch is a very barebones site  - it does a lot, but it does not explain a lot.  If you want to learn a lot more than what I am showing you here, go to this amazing site that breaks down what each option is, and why you should, or should not run it.  For instance, if you are not Jewish and you run the "Eurogenes Jtest" you may get false Ashkenazi (Jewish) results.  So you don't really just want to blindly run each test and believe the answers you see.  

First you have to download your raw DNA.  If you did an Ancestry test, I know this is easy, because I have done it myself.  I explain how to do that here: http://heathersgen.blogspot.com/2017/07/ive-done-dna-test-now-what.html  If you have taken a test through another company, google "how to download my raw DNA from ----------" and I'm sure you will find your answer.  :-)  Upload your results to Gedmatch, (also explained at the link  I gave for downloading the raw dna) and you will receive a kit number.  Once you have a kit number, lets Analyze Some Data.


One to Many and One to One comparisons are such great tools for genealogists - but for this post, I'm just going to concentrate on the ethnicity estimates, as that seems to be what most of you are most interested in.

Click on Admixture (heritage), and choose MDLP.  Enter your kit number, and leave the default option - MDLP K11 Modern.  This is the VERY basic overview, and shouldn't really tell you anything that your ancestry results didn't already show, and in my opinion, it just makes the results look more confusing -   Mine gives me this result:
Although our family is believed to have native american ancestry, a .56% Amerindian result on this calculator is not enough to confirm this trace ancestry, as an amount this low could amount to what some call statistical “noise”.  My great great grandfather was born in Indian Territory, reportedly to Cherokee parents, although I cannot find any evidence or records of his parents anywhere.  I would need my grandmother to take a DNA test to get a better percentage here, as an indicator.  
WHG = Western Hunter-Gatherers, the most indigenous modern humans of Western/Central Europe
EHG = Eastern Hunter-Gatherers

So now let choose The Eurogenes Project (because most of you who have asked me about this are going to have a lot of European roots.  If your results at Ancestry do NOT show a lot of European roots, then you will want to go here, scroll down and find the descriptions of the options and choose one that better fits your results).  Choose the Eurogenes K13, which is the default, to start - because that will be the broadest option for most of us with European roots.  It just takes a minute or so to run, and then you will see something like this:


Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 North_Atlantic 43.85
2 Baltic 23.54
3 West_Med 17.81
4 West_Asian 7.33
5 East_Med 5.18
6 South_Asian 1.38
7 Oceanian 0.92


You an actually map your admixture by chromosome.  This will show you what percentages of each of your 22 chromosomes are most commonly found in which populations/ethnicity.  For more information, I'm sending you back to my favorite site  for this stuff - http://genealogical-musings.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-gedmatch-admixture-guide-parts-3-and-4.html


The next admixture project I ran was the Eurogene/ Hunter Gatherer.  I could not find much information on this, but after running it, then looking at the map here, it's essentially the same break down as above, just with different labels.



And because I am now bored with this (there are absolutely no surprises here for me, I already knew what my results would be), I tried the eye color option.
My eyes are Hazel, so this was pretty accurate, but not exact.  They state that the results should be better from the 23andMe test - mine is from Ancestry.


Predicted Eye Color for Kit A772390 (F2)

/opt/gedmatch/databases/kits/V0A772390.bin Resource id #5
1323980
Read rules from top to bottom. In some cases, a rule cancels out results from rules above it.

CT at: rs17762363 - Increased melanin production. Adds yellow, amber, or brown. Some darkening. Contributes to brown.
AG at: rs4778138 - Adds melanin. Adds yellow, amber, or brown. Some darkening. Contributes to brown.
CT at: rs1800407 - Penetrance Modifier - Blue
CT at: rs3947367 - Contrasting sphincter around pupil.
CT at: rs1129038 - Adds Yellow.
AA at: rs4778241 - Medium melanin on Anterior Epithelium. Brown.
GT at: rs1470608 - Medium melanin on Anterior Epithelium. Gives dark eyes.
CT at: rs1667394 - Medium melanin production on Anterior Epithelium. Adds yellow, amber, or brown. Some darkening.
CT at: rs916977 - Adds melanin. Adds yellow, amber, or brown.
AG at: rs7174027 - Adds Yellow.
CC at: rs12203592 - No pigmented Collarette.
AG at: rs11634406 - Flecks (Nevi).
GT at: rs1448485 - Inhibits weak amber gradient.



And then the "Are Your Parents Related"- 
No shared DNA segments found
No indication that your parents are related.
(I know I'd get different results if I ran this on some of the grandparents in our lines...)


There is a lot more you can do with gedmatch, but that's a quick overview.

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I have two blogs for my genealogy - Heathers Genealogy Notes for direct relatives of myself and Dan, and NOT Heathers Genealogy, for indirect ancestors, research I have done for others, and research that I did to rule out ancestors.

Genealogy Albums On Shutterfly

New to Shutterfly ? You can get a FREE 8x8 photo book - just in time for Christmas.  :-) I have one of Grandma Truckenmiller, a recipe album (Truckenmiller recipes) and a couple of other genealogy albums all premade that you can order (shipping is not free unless you spend over $39), or you can of course make your own, and when you do, I then also get another free 8x8 book.

First, sign up here:

Then click on any of the links below, if they are the albums you are looking to order.  (Or create your own! )

 The Brown Genealogy is an 8x8 album  -

Aikey Oberdorf (this is a 12x12 album - so it would not be free, but they will credit the amount of the 8x8 album towards the price) http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNmTJm5YsWrFoA

Truckenmiller Recipe Drawer Album 8x8

The Smith Family - (this is a 12x12 album - so it would not be free, but they will credit the amount of the 8x8 album towards the price)

Mary Ellen Lewis' Photo Album - This is an 8x11 album -


You Can't Take It With You - the Watsontown Christian Academy Play -

Using Google My Maps to Plan a Trip



When our kids were little, we once passed a sign for a waterfall and our youngest piped up with "well there's another hour added to our trip".  LOL!  I do love to stop and see everything along the way on our trips. To balance out my need to stop at every interesting sight, with my husbands need to actually get where we are going, we plan ahead with My Maps.

It's a google app, separate from google maps, named My Maps.  This is the most awesome app ever. (I may say that about several apps.  Many of them made by google actually.  But I always really mean it.)

You can create as many maps as you want.  You can add many layers to each map.  You can add routes to maps, to show distances between locations.  You can color code locations, use different icons for different locations...  You can share your maps.  So when I create a map for a trip we are taking, I share it with my husband.  We can both then use the map to navigate to the locations.


You can go to  https://www.google.com/mymap and you can download an app for your phone.  The two sync, of course, this IS google after all.  :-)  

It's really just awesome.



Here are a few of my public maps, to give you some ideas:

Pa Road Trips - 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QvfavMSj4P7G80ZmXGDWKMAYrAI&usp=sharing

Columbia County Pa Covered Bridge Tour
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vP180EhBv9P9MmhITmlpticZ7iE&usp=sharing

The Pine Creek Rail Trail
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WBfhFICiTKJZ62lAM-jUrefCsJU&usp=sharing

Where to see the Elk Near Benezette Pa - 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wvcY5EEx3ti5E8nNJpyKgU853hA&usp=sharing



Other Uses - 
My maps is also great for mapping out genealogy.  I've traced where our ancestors have fought in the civil war, and some of their properties, etc, along with homesteads, graves and places to visit.

It's also useful for geocaching.  Have you ever solved a BUNCH of geoart puzzles and then were not sure how to tackle them in a logical order?  Plug all the coordinates into mymaps and it's easy to plan your route.  :-)