Monday, December 16, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Coincidentally...

Recently when I've gone to Find A Grave there's been an amusing advertisement for a psychic's hotline.  The tag line was something like, "Want to speak to the relatives who've passed?"  Or something like that.  I laughed and then got a little angry because it felt a little disrespectful.  Then I moved on.  Today I signed up for something called Genealogy Wise.  I thought it was a sort of research site, and I guess it is, but not in the way I thought.  My biggest problem with it is that it has a chat room that you're automatically logged into when you as a member go to the site.  Yeah, no.  I don't like chat rooms.

While on the site I visited the Forums page which is where people post questions and comments and information.  One post jumped out at me: Genealogy Research and the Paranormal.  Um, okay.  I read some of the entries and comments.  The original poster stated that he'd gone to Gettysburg with divining rods, the type used to find water.  I guess they can also be used to find spirits.  The poster has several entries where he describes his divining rods leading him to a cemetery and to a specific headstone of a woman named Rebecca Little.  He posts about "talking" to her using a flashlight.  Mildly interesting, but not really my particular cup of tea.

I wrote on my birthday how the phone rang once and didn't ring again and how I imagined it was my father calling from beyond the grave to wish me a happy birthday.  I know that's not what happened.  Someone dialed our number and then changed their mind is all.  But between that, the ad on Find A Grave and the posts I read today, I'm just a tiny bit spooked by all the coincidences.

When I got back into researching family after not having done it for almost 10 years, I used to thank my Uncle Dick out loud for helping me find people.  It was sort of a joke, but not really.  Richard Lemon, my father's twin brother, was an avid amateur genealogist who was relentless in his quest to figure out our Lemon family tree.  He died in 2003.  He was a bit angry with me for stopping in the middle of our research and moving to another state after I divorced my husband.  We were only in contact once after I left and before he died; he wrote me a letter telling me of his latest findings and told me he wouldn't tell me anything else until I wrote him back.  I'm ashamed to say I never did answer his letter.  I can say I was too busy starting a new life in a new state, but the real reason was that I had lost interest.  During that time I was also busy learning to build websites and writing, writing, writing.  The things I learned back then have been very useful now as I made a website for my genealogy research and I write in this blog.

I left Michigan in 1998.  I started back into genealogy research in 2007, four years after Uncle Dick died.  It hasn't been as much fun without him to share my findings with, but I do feel sometimes he's up there, watching me research and fleshing out his original theories.  Sometimes it feels like he even helps me out now and then.

But probably not.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Fumbling Towards The Obvious or Reinventing The Wheel...Again


I'm disheartened and delighted.  The first because all that I've been researching has already been found and documented, the second because I'm pretty darn good at this for someone who is unskilled and pretty much unworthy of any pride I take in my ability to hunt people down for the purpose of tracing their ancestors and descendants.

I have done a pretty good job of documenting at least one mystery in the Lemmond Tree; who was Margaret Charlotte Lemon?  She was really Margaret Catherine Lemmond, and the rest is already written about in many previous entries in this journal.  I'm delighted that I solved that mystery.  I'm pleased that the profile for her on WikiTree is no longer empty, but filled with all that I've discovered about her and her family.  I feel like an expert on Mrs. Margaret Lemmond McCord.

Of course there have been some mistakes along the way, some roads that led no where, some very wrong turns, some grossly ignorant assumptions, but these mistakes serve (I tell myself) only to sharpen my skills (HA!) and make me a better researcher.

I have managed to find some information that was not found (so far as I know) by other people;  probate records for Margaret's grandmother giving the approximate date of her death of the deaths of others that haven't been recorded in any other trees, census records no one else found, burying places in at least one case.

But my personal life has suffered, to be sure.  Knapper was extremely upset with me most all of yesterday because I've been in front of this computer for days tracking these people down and ignoring his needs.  (I say, dude, if you're hungry, FIX SOMETHING TO EAT!  Don't wait for me to fix it for you.  You're grown, for goodness sake! But he's gotten used to me waiting on him almost hand and foot and has not taken kindly to be being rudely pushed aside for the sake of dead people who no longer need to eat or have their houses cleaned or their clothes washed.)  I did try to make it up to him by fixing him a wonderful meal last night, one that involved many pots and pans, fresh mushrooms and chicken stock that I turned into a delicious gravy to go with pork steaks I simmered until the bones fell off.  It's not my fault I didn't constantly remind him to get me some potatoes from the storage he built in our old well pit, I asked him 3 times since before Thanksgiving, and even then I had to buy a bag at the store because I can't get down in the pit to get them and he kept forgetting.  Then yesterday when he finally got around to it, he discovered the potatoes had all frozen.  We had the gravy over rice.

In all it's been a fascinating journey, and who knows?  These Lemmonds may well turn out to be related to my own Lemons yet.






Sunday, December 8, 2013

When Life Gives You Lemmonds, Search Them Every Day!

I'm ashamed to admit this, but it seems I do nothing all day but search the internet for people who are not even related to me.  I have no idea where this obsession with the Lemmond family came from, but it's driving me crazy and may lead to my early demise from pressure sores on my...well.  I sit all day, that's enough of that.

I found more information on this family; burial places for minor characters, census records that no one else had found, documentation for people who had none.  Every day I find more and more information which only adds fuel to the fire burning in the pit of my stomach to get these people sorted out and be done with them.

I need to get back into my own family lines.  I've got new research finding subscriptions and I use them to find...Lemmonds.  I'm disgusted with myself, but like an addict searching once again for that first "high", I can't seem to stop.

Here is a photo of the beautiful Flora Adeline Lemmond who married William W Davies:




I find her to be quite lovely.  There's something about her eyes.  The photo comes from David Hunter Brown from Ancestry.com.  Thank you, Mr. Brown, for sharing your family tree and giving me permission to use her photo.  Flora was the daughter of Milas Madison Lemmond and his wife, Mary Virginia Means.  Mary Means was the sister of Harriet, the mother of the woman who started me on this quest: Margaret C Lemmond McCord.  So Margaret and Flora were cousins.  I wonder if they had any type of family resemblance?  I'd like to think so.

It's almost 2:30 in the morning.  It's time to stop seeking and get some rest.  The Lemmonds records will still be waiting for me when I wake up.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Birthday, Genealogy, Live Family, Dead Relatives


It's been a long day and I'm tired.  My birthday is officially over, and that's good.  I'm uncomfortable about my birthday.  Not because I dread getting older, I'm not a vain woman, but because I get anxious from all the attention a birthday brings.

Two of my sons and their wives brought me cake and presents and that was nice.  I got to play with 5 of my 10 grandchildren, whom I adore.  We all laughed and I told about the Lemmond family I've been working on and they managed to hide their boredom pretty convincingly.  I was appreciative.

The phone rang off and on today.  I answered some calls and let the machine take others.  Then the phone gave a single ring and went silent and for a moment it crossed my mind that it was my father, who passed in 2010, calling me as he'd always done on my birthday.  Of course, says my rational, logical mind, it wasn't him.  But it could have been, says my magical, dreamy side.  I've been working so hard on other people's families lately, maybe I was given a small birthday gift, even think it could have been my beloved father calling me with birthday wishes.  And for a moment his face was so clear in my mind; his smile, his laugh, that tears welled up.  They didn't fall, and I went back to researching this other Lemon family that has become so important to me for reason I can't explain.

I have to remember to never take the living family I have for granted.  That I even have to remind myself of that means I'm getting too consumed by this passion for names and places and dates of people long, long gone.


Friday, December 6, 2013

North Carolina, Estate Files, 1663-1979, Cabarrus County, "M", Means, Margaret M (1864)


So this has been a fascinating journey.  Harriet C Means, daughter of John W Means and his (insane) wife, Margaret McCamey (not spelled like that at ALL in any of the records) Wilson, married John Q Lemmond. I first pieced together this family by working first on the family of Harriet and John's daughter, Margaret C Lemmond McCord.  When I first adopted her profile on WikiTree, she had the middle name Charlotte and her maiden name was spelled "Lemon", which was what got me interested in the beginning.  The profile listed her husband and using that, I was able to find online her death certificate which stated that her father was John Q Lemmond and her mother was (no first name given) Means.

I started an Ancestry.com family tree for the "Lemon Family", naming it Wiki Lemon Family to keep it separate from all my other trees.  First I worked on John M McCord, Margaret's husband.  I found his family and I added the children of John and Margaret, discovering that they had named their son as detailed above.  That was an interesting name and I was sure it was significant, but then again, people name their children strange things all the time, so I could have been wrong.

I found the spouses and children of McCamey and Carolina Brite McCord, John and Margaret's surviving daughter.  Carolina married a man named Amos Philmore Whitley and supposedly committed suicide by blowing a hole in the center of her chest with a shotgun.  Um, what?  How on earth does one do that to oneself??  Haven't found anything other than the death certificate on that one.

Then I started on John "Lemon", Margaret's father.  I thought I'd found him (and I actually HAD) in Union County, but it didn't seem to add up, so I abandoned him, thinking that a Margaret Lemmond I had found living with another male Lemmond in the family of a couple named...oh, I forget now, but they were much older and had different names than this Margaret and the male Lemmond.  I worked on that theory for awhile until I started finding death records for other Lemmond children with the parent's names given as John Q Lemmond and Harriet Means.  That's when everything started to break for me.

I found Harriet and John Q in the census records.  Everything added up except they had a daughter, Catherine, born in 1847.  Harriet and John didn't marry until 1852.  I eventually found this Catherine living with Harriet, John W, Margaret M, and John M W Means in Cabarrus County in 1850.  On all records for this Catherine, whose name ended up being Sarah Ann Catherine Lemmond, her father is given as John Q Lemmond, but I think she was born illegitimately to Harriet before John Q entered the picture.

In the 1850 census, Margaret M Means is listed as "insane".  She's also listed that way in 1860.  I have been unable to find this family in census records after 1860, but that's because Margaret died, leaving a LOT of land and property which became the subject of a dispute between the heirs.  From the records, it looks as if Harriet is not the only one who married a Lemmond.  She had a sister, Mary, who married M. M. Lemmond, who I found when I thought I'd found the breadcrumb trail of Margaret McCord.  John Q and M. M. are brothers.

Margaret Means' estate file is 71 pages long and the images are available on FamilySearch.org.  I can't believe I've been lucky enough to find all this information just by adopting a "Lemon" profile.  They may or may not be my Lemmonds, but either way, they've been fascinating to follow.


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Addendum to the Lemmond Tree


After buying a month subscription (Knapper is going to kill me, but it's only 8 bucks a month) to Archives.com, I have learned that yes, Margaret was the Catherine listed in the 1860 as being born abt 1854, her parents were John Q Lemmond, who died in 1893, and Harriet Means.

The truly funny part is that she is the 3rd great granddaughter of William Marr Lemmond.  I find that coincidence unnerving, to say the least.  I had been on this trail right after I adopted Margaret's profile, but had rejected the information because I didn't have enough information.  I was even emailed a woman on whose site I  had found William Marr Lemmond to tell her of our possible relationship, based on the Marr name, and to ask her about Margaret.  She wasn't able to tell me anything about Margaret and John, but she was very curious about the Marr name in her line and in mine.

Yes, folks, when you get right down to the nitty-gritty, we are all related.  If not by blood, then by marriage.


The Lemmond Tree


I'm not sure why I adopted Margaret Charlotte Lemmond McCord on WikiTree, probably because when I was adding my Lemons to the tree, her name popped up and I clicked on her.  I have the idea in the back of my mind for a one-surname website for Lemons.  The idea being that it would be a resource for everyone searching for Lemons.  And I was intrigued by Lemons in North Carolina because somewhere at some time I had seen that some of my New Jersey/Pennsylvania Lemons had wandered down south and started families.  Of course I can't remember now where I found that information.

I had no idea the magnitude of the responsibility one takes on when adopting a profile.  It's not just one person, you know, it's a family.  And Margaret's family included her unsourced father, her husband and his entire family who were almost all abandoned profiles.  And while it wasn't the McCords I was interested in, they were the ones with all the information spread all over and every where.  So having gotten most of the McCords cleaned up, I went back to Margaret and tried again to find this elusive John Lemmond.

I think I found him today.  Yesterday I paid for a subscription to GenealogyBank.com.  It was a birthday gift to myself.  I thought I was just getting a free trial 30 day subscription, but, once again, my memory failed me and I had already had one of those and used it up.  Instead of getting a free trial, I just paid for a year, and I'm glad I did.  I plugged "McCord" into it and "Charlotte, North Carolina" and got back loads of newspaper articles on various McCord doings in Mecklenburg County.  Again, the McCords were everywhere and their information has been relatively easy to find.  Most interesting has been the families surrounding them.  I kept coming across names associated with McCords and started looking them up and in a long, round-about way, I found, I think, Margaret's father.

John Q Lemmond b. abt 1821 in North Carolina, m. Harriet C. Means in on 2 Feb 1852 in Union County, North Carolina.  Margaret's mother's maiden name is listed as "Means", no first name given, on her death certificate.  I found Margaret in 1870 living with her parents and a virtual SLEW of siblings in Goose Creek, Union, North Carolina.  She's not listed in the 1860 census with them though.  However there are two Catherine Lemmonds listed in 1860 with John and Harriet and perhaps one of them is Margaret.  One Catherine is the oldest child, born in 1847, the other is 5, born about 1855, which works for Margaret, who was born in April of 1854, according to her death certificate.

I think I found Margaret's family.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Finding George Levi Meredith



WikiTree forces one to be accurate when detailing people's lives.  Or maybe only I feel forced.  Because there are no online connected sources, I have to look them up and verify their accuracy.  This has been a learning process.  I was so spoiled by just clicking on a census record and having its contents magically appear as a source on Ancestry.com.  I don't ever just click on other people's trees and then add them to mine anymore.  I mostly use them as hints on where to look and names to research. 

So George Meredith presents a challenge.  He's well documented, except for his death.  I searched most of the day, following his children around the state, until I found a headstone on Billion Graves for him.  The date of birth on the marker is off by 9 years, but whatever.  I'm sure it's him.  His wife is there, and a lot of his children, so it's a pretty safe guess that it's him.  Of course, to be sure, I should have his death record.  I can't find it.  It's like John Bowman all over again, only this time, because of the headstone, I know when he died and where he's buried.  I just can't get his name to come up with a death certificate on Family Search, no matter how hard I try. 

And speaking of death certificates, I'll never be able to express my gratitude to the Mitten State for allowing so much family history to be put online.  I was trying to find a family for someone on WikiTree last night and discovered that Maryland is a VERY hard state to research in.  There are only 3700 death and burial records for the entire state on Family Search.  Here in Michigan if someone died between 1897 and 1952, I'll find their record eventually.  There's the Library of Michigan site for actual death certificates online from 1897 to 1920, and Family Search just indexed all death certificates for the state of Michigan from 1921 to 1952.  To show my appreciation, I downloaded the software to index from the Family Search site onto Bruce's computer and indexed a batch of marriages for North Caroline.  Believe me, if they'd had anything to index for Maryland, I'd have done them instead.  Indexing records makes me feel good, like I'm contributing instead of just taking. 

If you'd like to try, go here.

Monday, December 2, 2013

And This Is What Happens When You Have A Break With Sanity While Trying To Prove Ancestors...



Sources, sources, SOURCES!  They are so important when documenting genealogy.  What happens when you've tried to write one too many biography with too little sourced information?  The following...

All that is really known about Charles Meredith is that he was married to Miriam Griffin and they had children together.  Okay, so a little more is known, but I can't find sources for it. I'll put it here anyway.

Muster Roll of Capt. Eli BRANSON's Company of Independent North Carolina Volunteers Attached to the New York Volunteers from 25 August 1783 to ye 24 of October following- Captain Eli BRANSON
Lieutenant Samuel JONES
Ensign John BLOXHAM Absent with leave
William BRYAN
Moses STARN
William WHITWORTH
Charles MEREDITH
Philip HENRY
Thomas FRANKLIN

Charles received a land grant in York, NB
MEREDITH, Charles
Volume: B
Page: 41
Grant: 106
Place/Parish: St. John River
County: York County
Date: 1787/02/20
Accompanying plan: No
Acreage: 200
Microfilm: F16302
Comments: New York Volunteers

Esther Clark Wright's "The Loyalists of New Brunswick" listing of the loyalists, did note one Charles Meredith who was in the NCV (North Carolina Volunteers) attached with the New York Volunteers. He settled in Keswick.

Charles received land in Grimsby Township in 1794. Lot 7 con: 10, Date ID 1, Issue Date 1794 1212, Trans Type: FG, Archival Reference RG Series: MF Ms81, Vol. 050 page 055. He is listed in the Sons and Daughters of American Loyalists as being born in Pennsylvania. Charles' son William told the census takers that his father was born in North Carolina. Charles was probably a Methodist. He was one of the early Loyalists to settle in South Grimsby Township, which qualified him and each member of his family for a Land Grant. His name is on the first map on Lots 7-9 conc. IX near Smithville.

In October 1797, Charles signed a letter addressed to D. W. Smith, Acting Surveyor General complaining that the survey of Gainsborough and Grimsby townships wasn't carried out as instructed by a law of 1794. This letter was signed by the following (among others):
Charles Murredeth, Jonathan Griffin, Solomon Hill, Smith Griffin, Nathaniel Griffin, Isa Griffin, Stephen Roy, Hooks Roy, Abraham Griffin, et al.
!West Lincoln: Our Links From the Past 1784-1984: 1985, West Lincoln Historical Society.

Charles served on the Township Council in 1798 and thereafter until 1815, when it may be assumed that he died. He was overseer of Roads in 1798. In 1803 and 1815 Charles was again listed as an overseer of Roads. According to a family historian he was buried at Smithville with members of his family but only one stone inscribed with the Meredith name yet stands in the United Church yard there, and it bears the inscription Abraham Meredith, 1800-1882, Susan, wife of, 1811-1888.

Sons and Daughters of American Loyalists book refers to Charles and his family as being from Grimsby, Niagara, Ontario, Canada. Annals of The Forty, No. 6, Loyalist and Pioneer Families of West Lincoln 1783-1833, compiled by R. Jane Powell also include information about Charles.

Birth:
Birthplace is not known for sure. Charles may have been born in Pennsylvania or North Carolina. North Carolina seems best supported by the evidence. Daughter Deborah, in the 1880 census, gives Maryland as the place of birth for her father.See 1st sources entry.

Some trees have a date of marriage for Miriam and Charles, but I can't source it.  I'll just say they were married sometime before the birth of their first child, Richard in 1791, in Canada.  Miriam herself was born in the United States and is first found in any census record living with her son Abraham and his family in Enumeration District 7 in the Township of...anyone's guess because that information is on another page.  No, this isn't very scientific, is it?  Well, I'm a bit upset with these ancestors who didn't leave hardly any records to document their journey through life, leaving ME to grasp at straws to try to prove they existed at all! So all I can really say is that Charles Meredith existed.  I think.  He was born, he grew up, he married and had children, he was given land too far away from me to prove, and I'm only here because one of his sons was Jesse Meredith, and Jesse was my 3rd great grandfather.  I can be relatively sure of that because it says so on the death records of my 2nd great grandfather's siblings.  And they must have been my 2nd great grandfather's siblings because he's mentioned in a couple of their obituaries.  Since I am descended from one of my 2nd great grandfather's daughters, I can't use DNA to tell me for sure that I am descended from Charles, but I'm claiming him anyway.

Charles Meredith died, probably in Canada.  There is no known headstone to mark his final resting place.  When I die, I'm going to ask him if we're related.  I'm sorry I won't be able to document that answer here, but at least I'll know, finally and for sure.




== Sources ==
Information from: http://don.lisaandroger.com/getperson.php?personID=I25462&tree=Don.  This link is no longer valid and takes the user to Roger Moffat's new website, which DOES have a genealogy site, but there are no Merediths in its database.  I have left a message on the new site and am awaiting a reply.



When The Thrill Is Gone

As usual, I was up at the crack of dawn and on the computer "doing" genealogy.  Ya know, there oughta be a verb for what I do, for what a lot of people do.  Why isn't there one?  Oh, I know, "research".  But that's dull, isn't it?  And implies tedium and spectacles. Whereas what I do is immerse myself in records and names and photos and stuff with great joy and abandon!  It's hardly ever tedious (I'd be lying if I said it wasn't.  I just got done looking at the entire population of St Clair county, Michigan in census records for 1840.  That got to be tedious.) and almost always exciting.

Anyway, I was wondering how Emilene Jane Kellogg came to be living in Port Huron in St Clair county.  She was married there in 1845.  She had stated in many census records that she was born around 1824 here in Michigan.  That's awful early.  Maybe not too early for the lowest part of Michigan, the Detroit and surrounding areas, but up further?  That was woods and bears and Indians in the 1820's.  Of course Port Huron, being on the western shore of Lake Huron, would be a bit more settled, I think, being a port and all.  Waterways were the main transportation highways before there were roads.  So I was looking at the 1840 census records of St Clair county and I found...a Kellogg.  Benjamin Kellogg.  He was in the village of St Clair.  There was one male aged 40 through 49.  That was him.  Head of house.  Also in the household were: 1 female under 5, 2 females 5 thru 9, 1 female 10 thru 14, and 1 female 30 thru 39.  That would be his wife, I'm thinking.  Four females under 15.  That could easily fit my Emily Jane.  But her father's listed as John Kellogg on her death certificate, and someone else has a female in their public tree on ancestry, having Emily as her sister, and her death certificate says her father's Palmer Kellogg.  Could this Benjamin be a relation of Palmer? Who is John Kellogg?

I haven't found Benjamin Kellogg in St Clair county after 1840.  I just have to keep digging.

Aldolphus Ruby: FOUND

I was a little angry with ol' Adolph for quite a while.  His was the only death date of my 2nd great grandmother's siblings I could not find.  And believe me, I searched.  I tried every combination of his name I could think of and still couldn't find it.

Then today, riding high on the emotion of finally finding John Bowman's DOD, I decided to do something I hadn't done; I just entered "Ruby" as the surname and plugged in the county where he'd last been into the place of death field.  Bingo!  His name was misspelled, and it says he was born in New York, but it's him.  While searching for him, I hadn't found any other Adolphus Rubys in Michigan except for his infant son who died shortly after he was born.

So.  He's found and I'm dancing in my chair again.

Adolphus Ruby Death Record


Sunday, December 1, 2013

John Bowman: FOUND

He was lost, now he's found.  According to his death record, he wasn't born in 1854, but in 1849.  When one is searching for someone and has tried everything one can think of, one should remember that birth and death records are not created using information obtained directly from the individual in question, but from individuals who may not always be completely sure of the facts.  A parent is a pretty good source and generally reliable.  Mothers more so than fathers, I think.  For death information a spouse is pretty reliable.  A child giving information on a parent, maybe not so much.

In 1880 John Bowman told the census taker he was 27 years old, making him born either in 1853 or 1854.  He was married and had no children yet.  In 1900 he gave his birth month as April and his age as 57.  In 1910 he said he was 56.  (It is the same John Bowman: the spouse and children are exactly the same.)  In 1920 he was 66.  In 1930, 9 years before his death, he said he was 78.  I believe he was born sometime between 1852 and 1854.  His only surviving child, Hessie, would have been the one giving the information.  I couldn't tell you the year my mother was born without looking, though I do remember my father's birth year.

I'm convinced it's the correct John Bowman.  He died in West Bloomfield, Oakland County, Michigan, where he'd been living and farming since 1910.  I haven't been able to find a headstone for him or his wife or for Hessie, but I'm sure he died in 1939.

I sound calm, don't I?  I'm anything but.  This is what keeps me hooked on genealogy; the sweet success of finding something that I searched so hard to find.  I'm going to consider it an early birthday gift, this finding the date of death for John Bowman.  And you can't see me, but I'm dancing in my chair. 


Dreams Realized

I'm into this thing called WikiTree, which is awesome.  The goal is to create one massive tree that connects everyone to everyone else, something I'm very hip to as I've been discovering that everyone is related to everyone else since 2007.  It's very cool and it's very challenging and it's very hard because the emphasis is on documentation, something I've just recently become serious about.  I've added bunches of people to the tree and am starting to document the lives of these people and it is slow going.  I used to take all information I found as the gospel truth, which was naive at best and stupid at worst.  I was stupid a lot when I first started this genealogical journey, and I'm paying for it now.

This morning I found out that I could get a badge for being a blogger.  I'm not a badge, um, whore, but I've had this genealogy blog since I started seriously digging for family.  That means something to me.  It means a lot.  So I applied to be put on the bloggers list at WikiTree and then read some of the blogs of other WikiTree'ers.  I am not worthy.  If I could take back my request to be added, I would.  But something wonderful came from it because I went back and read the earliest days of this blog and realized just how far I've come.

Back in 2008 I was still searching for John M Lemon, the brother of my great grandfather.  I found him.  And his wives.  And two sons.  And his grandchildren.  And when he died.  So in the future I can order a copy of his death certificate and find out where he's buried.  When I do, I will have documented each of Isaac B Lemon's sibling's final resting place.  Except for one.  William Lemon will always be a mystery to me.  He doesn't seem to have come down into Michigan with the rest of Isaac M and Ann Hepzibah Tiffin Lemon's children.  If he did, I can't find him.  Every lead I've ever found ran into a dead end. Did he die in Canada?  Did he stay in Canada?

I found every one of Mary Ann Lemon Mason's children.  And their spouses.  And her grandchildren.  And I even received in the mail one of my most precious genealogical pictures; one of Mary Ann at about the age of 50 or 60.  Her hair is white, her eyes are clear and piercing, and she looks like what she was; a survivor.





So I am celebrating dreams realized;  I have found so much.  I have gained so much.  I'm so happy today that words can't describe it.  I am rejoicing in the knowledge that all of these people are a part of me, that I am a part of them.  That I know they were born, they married, they had families, they lived their lives and then moved on to whatever comes next and they are remembered.