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.

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day we'd like to introduce our oldest known relative who served in the Armed Forces, our great-great grandfather, Henry A. Grubb. Henry served in the Civil War and this is an image of one page of his 80 page long pension file that we obtained from the National Archives. Below is Henry's great grandson, David Austin Grubb III(known to us as Dad), who served in the US Army.

Let us introduce ourselves

Now that we've been around for a month, we think it's time that everyone got to know a little bit more about the Style My Tree family. You are probably wondering how 3 sisters from a medium-sized Ohio city came to be owners of their very own business. Well, maybe that's not the most pressing question that you have but SURELY you have some questions. So, take a minute to ask one (or more) questions and we will answer them in upcoming posts. Look for individual posts from each of us describing a little about ourselves and how we will use our unique talents to benefit the business.
Ok, let's go -- start asking questions!

Who Do You Think You Are?

NBC just finished airing the first season of Who Do You Think You Are? and has announced that they are planning a second season! I highly recommend that you check this show out if you haven't already. Go here to watch any of the seven episodes from the first season in their entirety. If you don't know anything about the show, it follows seven celebrities as they research their own family history. It is amazing some of the discoveries that they make. I was excited to see the first episode featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, especially since she makes a visit during the episode to her hometown of Cincinnati, OH! She discovers that she had relatives who were part of 2 significant historical events- the California gold rush and the Salem witch trials. It is amazing what a little research can tell you about your family history.
Please share with us what interesting facts you come across as you discover the marks that your ancestors have made in history!

So what's this blog all about?

Our goal at Style My Tree is to be more than just a successful business, although we certainly would not mind that! Our products are personal and meaningful to us and a main goal of ours is certainly to share this with our customers. However, we want to offer you more. We want to craft this blog in a way that both compliments our business AND provides something extra for our customers and fellow small business owners. So, our intent here is multifaceted. First, it is to offer tips for investigating your own family genealogy. Perhaps we can inspire you to start thinking about your own family history by sharing fascinating information and pictures from our own family tree. Second, we plan to share information that we run across in this venture that may help other small business owners succeed.
Finally, we would love for this blog to become a place for sharing information about family, genealogy, and just life in general. There is so much that we can share and learn from each other. We'd love for you to join us on our exciting adventure so please drop by again soon!