The latest

The new design is up and running.  

I haven't been doing any research during the time it's taken to get the site up, although I've just started to track down the burial site of Baltis Lemon.  Maybe this summer I'll plan a trip to Canada and see what I can find in person.   It helps that I purchased a new car for myself last week.

I need to send away for William and Sarah "Sallie" McKinley Oglesby's death certificates in Oklahoma.  I hope to find more clues regarding their parents.  

I sent the new information regarding William to Vic Oglesby and he's incorporated it onto his One Name Oglesby site.  It would be nice if I could find more information on the rest of Daniel and Nancy's children.  

Bits of This and That

New genealogy site is being constructed.  I went ahead and hired someone to do it.  Only waiting on final payment (payday) for the site to become active.

Found and spoke with more descendants of Mary Ann Lemon Mason.  One of them said words that gave me goosebumps:  "I remember Uncle Ike."  Uncle Ike being my great-grandfather, Isaac B. Lemon.  I now have information on all of Mary Ann's children, including the daughters' married names.  Of course this means that I owe additional information packets.  I still have quite a few to get out and I hope to work on those this week.

Received in the mail a copy of a photo of William Joseph Oglesby Sr. and his wife and some children.  It's taken from a newspaper article so it's not really suitable for putting on the site, but it's wonderful to even have a hint of the faces of people I've traced so relentlessly.  I also found a link to a bio of him on the Union County, Kentucky website.  I have sent off an email asking for a copy of the bio and hope to hear something about that today.  I am hopeful that it will give more information on his parents and siblings.  That would be wonderful beyond words.

I've not been working too hard on genealogy lately as things are rather strange here at home.  My mother has been very sick and has basically withdrawn from everyday life.  It's put quite a strain on my father.   I'm also waiting for my income tax refund.  When that comes I'm going to get a new car and hope to start making trips to places my ancestors lived.  That sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Family Genes

                                                                         

I'd been staring at the picture of the family of Cyrus and Rose Ruby Meredith for days, thinking there was something familiar about Cyrus himself when it finally dawned on me:  my brother, Alan, is the spitting image of Cyrus!  It's uncanny, really.  

Oklahoma Oglesbys

Talked by phone to a living descendant of William Joseph Oglesby, the brother of my great-grandfather, Morgan Oglesby.  It was a most enjoyable conversation.  While this person didn't have a lot of information on the family of Daniel and Nancy, Morgan's parents, he was a font of knowledge on the history of his own branch.  He was also very appreciative of the information I've already gathered on the beginnings of his branch.  He gave me the phone number of his brother, who has, he says, more information on the family.  He also did know of Morgan and says members of his family had met him.  

I find it astounding that I've been able to find this branch as they were a true brick wall for me a little over a year ago.  I've gone from knowing only the names of my great-grandparents (and nothing more) to discovering the names of their parents and siblings and actually speaking to descendants of the family.  I guess I have a knack for this genealogy thing (and I definitely believe I have help from Uncle Dick.  It sounds crazy to believe that your dead relative is helping you find your family roots, but for me, there can be no other explaination.  So go ahead and call me crazy, I don't mind.).

I've completed customizing the front page of the genealogy website.  I'm torn between wanting to put it up immediately or waiting until I've customized the other pages as well.  I really love the design I came up with and am quite proud it.  But I'm thinking too that now that I have the design I want I could hire the rest of the customizing out so the whole thing looks polished.  I don't know why genealogy is so important to me, but it is.  I don't think it will cost much to hire someone to finish the files now that I've come up with the actual design, and I do believe I have just right this minute made up my mind that I'm going to do that.

Family Photos

Haven't updated in a while.  Work last weekend wiped me out.  But I did work on Census records and made some progress with those.  And I received copies of photos in the mail yesterday of the families of Cyrus and Rose Ruby Meredith and Charles and Rebecca Meredith Herr.  They're wonderful.  The picture now gracing the front page of my genealogy site is of my grandmother as a girl.  I think she's beautiful.  These pictures mean more to me than I have words to express.  I actually cried when I looked at them.  To see the faces of the people I've been searching for is almost overwhelming.  I only wish I had pictures of the Lemons.  What did Baltis and Mary look like?  I can't even imagine what Eva Wilder looked like.  And I'd love to see a photo of Isaac B. Lemon as a young man.  Somewhere there are pictures of these people, someone has them tucked away, not realizing how important they are.

Oglesby-Lemon Census frustration

I thought I had the answer to the disappearance of John M. Lemon's family after 1920.  I should be able to find his son and/or grandson in the 1930 census, but they've just disappeared.  The only thing I've been able to find has been a Clayton Lemon living in Los Angeles, California with a wife and two step-children in their 20's.  Clayton Lemon is in his 40's, drives his own truck, and was born in Michigan around the right time.  But I can't find his son, who would still be young enough to be with a parent.  I've tried searching the census by looking for his first name and the name of his mother, thinking his parents divorced and his mother remarried, but if that's the case, his mother gave him her new married name because I can't find an Ella with a son named John Lemon.  I have found a John C. Lemon with the same birthdate who died in Pontiac in 1997.  An obituary would be nice.   My theory has been that the Lemon name got mangled in the 1930 census and that's why I can't find them.  I also figured out how to get a family's address off the census, which only works for those who live in cities, and spent hours trying to find the address of John Lemon in 1930.  I finally found the house, but other people were living there.  I wish access to land records were online.  

And the Oglesby family continues to ellude me from 1880-on.  I tried a similar search strategy in where I located neighbors in relation to the Oglesby property in the last census I found them, then searching for those people in the next one, but didn't have any luck.  Then I tried searching in Illinois as I had found at one time a record of land being bought in Illinois by a Daniel Oglesby, but I couldn't find them there, either.  What happened in 1880 to the Oglesby family?  They must have lost their land and split up, but why?  It's so frustrating not having answers to these questions.

Masons found!

I've talked tonight to three people directly connected to Mary Ann Lemon Mason and to say I'm happy and excited is an understatement.  Isn't it strange how just when I feel ready to give up, I find that one piece of information that starts the chase anew?  

Thank you, Uncle Dick.

I now know when John Mason died, and the dates of death for one of his sons and a grandson.  This is as exciting as finally finding Bessie Finch.  I've now found almost every single descendant of Isaac and Ann Tiffin Lemon.  I feel so energized that I want to try to find the descendants of John Lemon, too.  

Cold-calls work.  Just make sure you have your facts at hand and don't be afraid or shy.  Like my friend Deborah says, "They can't eat ya."  And like B. Caldwell, RN says, "They can't take away your birthday."  The most they can do is hang up on you, but I've never had a single person do that yet.  

I've promised two more genealogy packets to Mason descendants and just finished emailing packet information to the mother of a third.  I'm so blessed to be able to find the descendants of my ancestors.

This is me, doing my happy dance.  :)