5 Questions for Heather

Q: Who are you?
A: I am the youngest of the family, but not by much since there are only 5 1/2 years between the four kids! I have lived in the great state of OH my whole life, with the exception of a year after college when I lived in DC. It was a good year. I am mom to a 1 1/2 year old with baby #2 arriving in December. Since my son was born I stopped working full time and now work 3 part-time jobs just to stay crazy.

Q: What is your favorite childhood memory?
A: Jeanne's answer of spending time with our grandparents was a pretty good one! There are so many that I can't just pick one. Cutting down a Christmas tree every year was always an adventure, and somehow we always ended up with a huge, fat, ugly tree! Birthdays were another great time at our house. We didn't typically have big fancy parties with friends, but we always had crazy family parties with imaginative gifts from Bop (our grandfather).

Q: Who are you named after?
A: I am named after my dad's sister, my Aunt Sue. How is that possible? Aunt Sue's real name is Heather, but apparently she didn't like the name and goes by Sue. Our mom and dad must like it though since they named me Heather. Either that or it was the first name they thought of for a girl since our mom was convinced she was having a boy! My middle name is Diane, which is our mom's first name.

Q: Do you have any special talents?
A: Unless you count the ability to talk almost incessantly, I'm not sure I have any! I have always been athletic and almost constantly participating in sports until just recently when I retired from rugby after an amazing 10 years of fun. I only wish I would have been introduced to rugby before college.

Q: What do you hope to do with the extra income that comes from the business?
A: I am constantly spending it in my head - but who knows what I will actually chose to spend it on. A little traveling would be nice and a new car to fit our growing family!

Census Records

When I first logged in to Ancestry.com in 2001, I had no idea what genealogy research was all about. The first thing I discovered was the thrill of finding someone from my family in an old census record.

When the 1930 census was released to the public in 2003, the first thing I did was search for my maternal grandparents (both were born in the 1920's and thus had never appeared in a published census record).

Below are pictures of the actual 1930's census records showing each of my grandparents as very young children. (You can click to enlarge the photos.)




Although I already knew the information that is listed here - the thrill of seeing their names on a document that was handwritten in 1930 (by the census taker that showed up at their front door) was something that I'll never forget. If you've never done any genealogy research, try searching for a census record - you just may get hooked!

How Far Back Can You Go?

David Austin Grubb II, David Austin Grubb III, David Austin Grubb IV, Carter Joseph Grubb

Even if genealogy is not really your thing, I think that everyone has to get at least a little thrill out of finding out information about their family's history. When it's something you have spent some time researching it's even bigger than that. On our father's side of the family, the Grubb side, we can trace the male line back 7 generations. While information like this, with names, birth and death dates and locations is interesting in itself, what really brings it to life is seeing the photographs of these relatives, many of whom were long deceased before you were even born. Photos bring so much more to the genealogical story by highlighting striking similarities among a family line including similar facial structures, body types, expressions, and even personalities! I think you will agree that there are amazing similarities in all of the aforementioned if you study these photos of 4 generations of Grubb men!

5 Questions for Jeanne

Q: Who are you?
A: I'm a 36 year old midwesterner. My most important and rewarding role is being a mother to my 3 year old daughter who had a rough start in life as a micropreemie and has Cerebral Palsy as a result. However, I am also a part-time government employee, avid reader and someone who loves to spend time with my friends and family.

Q: What is your favorite childhood memory?
A: It's hard to pin down just one so I will just say all of the many weekends spent with my grandparents as a child. We (siblings, cousins and I) LOVED to spend the night at their house because it meant doing all the things we did not get to do at home - staying up late, building forts in the closet, drinking brown cows, having Bop (my grandpa) push us on the swings at the park, watching the horses practice at the fairgrounds(go Benji), and playing video games at our favorite bar Kramers!

Q: Who are you named after?
A: My first name, Jeanne, is also my grandmother's first name and we both are called "Jeannie". My middle name is Marie which is not a family name that I know of but it apparently goes well with Jeanne.

Q: Do you have any special talents?
A: I don't know about talents but I think I have somewhat of an eye for fashion or at least what colors and styles are flattering on others. My family always says that they can tell when I don't "approve" of what they are wearing because I don't have much of a poker face. At least within my extended family I am the go-to girl if a fashion opinion is needed. If I had unlimited funds, buying clothes would be at the top of my list of splurges. For some reason, I am not that into shoes though. I probably have only 2 or 3 pair that I wear for each season and that's it.

Q: What do you hope to do with the extra income that comes from the business?
A: At first, probably just practical things like paying off debt etc but I'd also like to put aside some money to try explore some alternative therapies for my daughter. I am particularly fascinated by The Anat Baniel Method.

Weeksville

While in Brooklyn visiting Cypress Hills Cemetery - we also went looking for the house where Lucy was living when she died in 1938. Above is a picture. What we found was that this neighborhood is on the border between Bed-Stuy and Brownsville. And it has a very unique history - especially for those interested in African American genealogy and history. This neighborhood was once called Weeksville. It was founded by free African Americans in 1838. A few blocks from the above house is the Weeksville Heritage Center. We arrived after the normal tour hours, but the people there still took the time to give us a full tour of the historic homes (beyond generous - and we were so grateful). The Weeksville Heritage Center offers many programs for the local community, especially for local school children. If you're ever in the area - I highly recommend a visit.

The Mystery of Lucy

Above is the result of my first genealogy graveyard visit. I went to Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn (and Queens), NY a couple weeks ago in search of the grave of my husband's great-great-grandmother, Lucy. As you can see from the above picture - we were successful!

Unfortunately, Lucy is the oldest known relative in my husband's mother's family. I've recently requested (and received) the death certificates for Lucy and her daughter, Sadie. I was hoping that these might provide me with information about both Lucy's parents and her husband.

Up first - Lucy's husband: Sadie's death certificate lists her father as Melvin Motley. This information was provided by her son (my husband's grandfather), Lawrence. But - on Lucy's death certificate it lists her husband as simply Bennie. In addition, it lists her mother as Lucy Ridley (not Bagley as shown above). This leaves me with a number of questions about Sadie's father, Lucy's husband(s) and Lucy herself.

1. Who was Melvin Motley? Sadie's father, but not Lucy's husband? Or was he Lucy's first husband?
2. And were they never married, divorced - or did Melvin die?
3. Who was Bennie? Was he Sadie's father? Or just Lucy's husband? And is this where the last name Bagley (on the gravestone) comes from?
4. What was Lucy's last name at birth? Ridley or Bagley?

Next up - Lucy's parents. Her death certificate lists them as Billie Ridley and Mary Davis. But the 1900 census has Lucy Bagley listed (age 15) living with her father - William Bagley. Again - this only leaves me with a number of questions.

1. Was Lucy's father Billie Ridley or William Bagley?
2. If Lucy was born to Billie Ridley then was William Bagley (age 40) actually her husband (at age 15)?
3. Did William Bagley go by the nickname Bennie as listed on Lucy's death cerficate?

Lots of unanswered questions. But that is what makes genealogy research fun! I can't wait until I have the time to dig in and see what I can find out about all of the mysteries of Lucy.