Colorized picture

I was privileged to have a kind person fix and colorize the only known picture of Grandma Mc and her husband Alfred Johnson.  I am kind of wondering if it was their wedding picture or possibly a picture of them right before or right after they were married.  They look so young!  I would love to hear what you think!

The picture I had wasn't completely clear, so it isn't the best picture in the world, but I still love it!

Edward Hartshorn

Grandma Mc's grandpa was Edward Hartshorn.  He was born in Wales and immigrated with is family to the United States in 1850.  They made their home in Iowa where he met his sweet wife, Alice Confer.  They married and had 4 children, one girl and 3 boys. Before Edward met and married Alice, he served in the Civil War in Company A, Regiment 7 of the Iowa Calvary.  He did become ill at one point during his service and was put on light duty, but he did later rejoin his unit and served the entire length of the war.

Not long after their last child was born, Alice died from burns she sustained from oil from a kerosene lamp.  It must have been a very sad moment in the family to lose their mother as such a young age.  She was only 31 years old at the time.  This was in 1875.  In April of 1879, Edward married Matilda Horn who was only 17 years old at the time.  In December of the same year, Edward passed away.  He was working for Thomas Blackburn in a coal mine.  He was killed in a coal bank while igniting coal that exploded.

After Edward passed away, the 4 young children were split up and sent to live with various family members.  Matilda did not stick around to help take care of them in anyway.  She did apply to receive his pension though.  She lied several times on the application and it seems she was a very dishonest person.  On the application she listed that her and Edward had a child together who born just the month before Edward died.  She says the child's name was Sarah Hartshorn.  I have search everywhere for any sign of Sarah with no luck.  In fact, don't you think she would be living with Matilda in the 1880 census as a little girl?  Matilda has no such child with her and there is no birth record of Sarah.  I have also searched every other place for her and nothing can be found.  Matilda also lied about not remarrying.  She stated that she had not remarried since Edwards death.  All of this information was dated in the year 1882.  The truth of the matter is that she actually married a man named Thomas H. Payne in 1881!  I think she was just trying to say everything she could to get the pension.  Another thing she lied about is the way Edward died.  She said he died of an inflamed bowel instead of in the coal bank!

One last note I found out about Edward is that he was only 5 ft 4 in tall with light hair, light complexion and blue eyes.  I wish we had a picture of him!  If anyone has one, I would love to see it!

New blog

I'm still here!!  I have been doing some research on grandma Marie's brother James.  I know I had told you before everything I had found on him, but I wanted to really document everything.  So, I started another blog just to show a little more on my research.  Here is the link if you would like to see it:

http://www.fhrofasahm.blogspot.com/

So far everything on the blog is about uncle James.  I would love to hear what everyone thinks.  We have pretty much determined that James' daughter Alice was not his real daughter.  She is actually listed as his niece in most documents.  I have determined that she was the biological daughter of one of James' sisters.  The only clue to who it might be is on her death certificate when it lists Marie Gurley as her mother!!!  Do you think grandma Marie could have given birth to Alice just 5 year before she married grandpa?  I would love to hear what you all think.  You can see all the information on the other blog.  Oh the fun things we find when we are doing research!  It's like a great big mystery game (thanks for that idea Adrienne!).

Thomas Hartshorn

After I published the last post, I found something so cute!  If you look at Thomas Hartshorn (our great uncle) in the 1880 census where he was living with his Aunt Mary you find something so fun!  Here is the census record:

You can see Thos Hartshorn listed as being 6 years old and the Nephew of the Head of Household.  Do you notice who is living next door?!!!  The Shoemakers!!  He married Amy Shoemaker. Amy is the little girl listed last in their family...even though it does say Ana.  So fun that he lived next door to his future wife!  I love finding these wonderful pieces of history!

George Bennett's Children

I discovered another one of George's children the other day and thought I would share this bit of information with you!  First, let me give you a bit of background if you are aren't aware of how this all fits together.  George's daughter Rebecca is my 4th great grandmother (3rd to many of you!) and we are all related through her daughter, Alice Confer.  Alice died in 1875 when her youngest son was just a little toddler.  Her husband, Edward died a few years later. This left four little kids with no parents.  The kids were sent to live with different relatives, but they still stayed close to each other.  We all know that our grandfather, David Hartshorn, lived with his uncle, David.  Thomas lived with his aunt Mary.  I don't know who William lived with, do any of you?  I figured out where Mary went though and that helped us out!  Here is a link to the census record that told us the information:
Mary L. Hartshorn in 1880 Census

She is listed as the grand niece of Edward and Mary Roberts.  Well, since I know that Edward Roberts was not from her father's line, I figured it must be from her Mother's line!  As it turns out Mary fits in perfectly as the missing daughter of George Bennett and Prudence Kime.  So....that is who Aunt Mary lived with until she married and moved away.  I had heard the story that she was treated like a servant but lived a very good life compared to her brothers.

So...does anyone know who William lived with?  He doesn't show up anywhere that I can find.  I am hoping someone heard a story about it!

Picture of Grandma Mc

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma Mc.  I got it from our sweet cousin Linda.  Thank you!!!  I just wanted to share with all of you.  It is wonderful!

10th great grandfather's Death Record

Want to see my latest find?!!  While I was at the RootsTech conference I took the time to spend a few hours at the Family History Library.  I have been working with a distant cousin to try and figure out a few things on Prudence Kime's line.  Her mother was Elizabeth Donnaby and we have her line back to the 1500's., but with a few missing pieces.  Well, I found John Donabie, my 10th great grandfather (9th great for some of you!) in a burial record for Firsby, Lincolnshire, England on microfilm.  Want to see the record?

These are the same record only that the second picture is a close look at his name.  See if you can find it!  He died on the 3rd of September 1616.  Enjoy!  

RootsTech and Ireland Records

Last weekend I went to the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake.  It was so much fun!  I learned lots of new things, but there is one I wanted to share with all of you.  I went to a class taught by find my past which is a website that works a lot like ancestry.com, but it focuses on records in the British Isles including Ireland.  The class they taught was about finding records in Ireland.  I always try to learn everything I can about Ireland in hopes that one day it will help me figure out our Gurley line and who Thomas' parents might be and especially what Jane's maiden name might be.  Anyway, in the class the teacher started talking a little about Donegal, the county that our ancestors came from.  Of course I listened very carefully to what he was saying.  He then said something that broke my heart.  He said that he didn't understand why anyone would want to live there.  It is beautiful country, but it rains so much that it is miserable.  He then said that not many records survived because of the humidity and moisture.  Everything rotted or molded and didn't survive.  Wow.  I am now trying to figure out what to do next.  Cross your fingers that sometime, somewhere, we will be able to figure this all out.

I found Grandpa Bennett!

Grandpa George Bennett was the father of Rebecca Bennett who married William Confar.  They daughter was Alice Confer who married Edward Hartshorn.  Their son was David Hartshorn who married grandma Vera Hurlbut.  Does that make sense?  So...we don't have much information on Grandpa Bennett or his wife Prudence Kime.  We know that he lived in Burnside, Clearfield, Pennsylvania at one point, but that is about it.  He is listed on a census record as being born in Pennsylvania.  But that is about all!  We didn't know when he was born, where he died or when.  After talking to a distant cousin, he told me that a family story that had been passed down suggested that he moved to Iowa and lived with one of his daughters.  Well, only two of his daughters lived in Iowa.  One was a daughter named Anna Belle and the other was our grandma, Rebecca.  Rebecca is buried in the Bellefountain cemetery in Mahaska County, Iowa.  So I took a chance and searched for her father in the cemetery and luck was on my side!  Here is a link to what I found:

Iowa Graves Project

After I found him in the Iowa WPA Graves Project, I thought I would see if he was on Find A Grave.  Sure enough, I found him!  Here is a link to his grave:

Find a Grave Memorial for George Bennett

So...slowly but surely we are uncovering a big mystery.  I have a lady at the Historical Society in Mahaska county doing some research for me to see what she can uncover about George while he was in Iowa.  Cross your fingers that she finds his Will!  She is also searching to see what she can find on the Confer's and Hartshorn's who were also in the area at that time.

First Families in Huron County, Ohio

I know it has been awhile since I last posted on the blog.  That doesn't mean I haven't been working hard on our family history!  In December I worked really hard to complete the application for the Huron County Genealogical Society to list our ancestors as among the first families in the area.  I found out a few weeks ago that the application was accepted and they are going to honor them at their banquet in April!  Oh how I wish I could go.  I'm still holding out hope!  Adrienne wants us to go together and so I am going to do everything I can to make it happen, but it is kind of a crazy time.

Henry and Almira (Jennings) Hurlbut were accepted as First Families in the area.  We have proof that Henry was in Norwalk as early as 1817!  They are my 4th great grandparents.

Thomas Gurley was accepted as an early settler in the area.  They wouldn't accept his wife Jane because they need her maiden name to accept her.  So...we really need to figure out her maiden name somehow!  Thomas was proven to be in the area as early as 1837.  Thomas and Jane are my 4th great grandparents.

I was a little surprised, but excited that they also except James Hurlbut and Marie Gurley as families in the area since they were born or lived a good amount of life there.  They also accepted Grandma Vera Matilda Hurlbut Hartshorn since she was born in Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio.

If I don't make it out there in April, I will take a picture of the certificate they send me and share it with all of you!  I am so excited!