My Ancestors Were Calling

Oh so many years ago I remember I would go and visit my dad on his weekends (my parents were divorced). My hands down absolute favorite thing to do was to head down into his basement were he had 3 or 4 boxes of my grandma's papers, photos and oodles of Rebekah memorabilia. The connection I felt as I held some of the more special items, like the two tin types and the recordings she made of birthdays.
I remember coming across an old letter folded until it was a tiny square. I recall ever-so-gently unfolding it and slowly revealing more and more of the wonderful writing until it was sitting in my lap. I read the letter and asked my dad who these people possibly were? He had no idea, none of the names mentioned in the letter were written on any of the other papers that my grandma had kept.

The letter now sits in my office and I know more of the story behind it.
The key items in the letter were:
1) the date Dec. 14, 1883,
2) the address 93 Glenarm Rd., Lower Clapton,
3) people - addressed to Uncle and Aunt and signed M & R Brock

Once the 1881 English census was available I found the people living at 93 Glenarm Road  -

Robert Brock - listed as son, age 23
Martha Brock - listed as daughter, age 25
Henry Brock - listed as son, age 21
Edward Brock - listed as son, age 17
No parents listed at all.

Over time and research I discovered that these Brock children had lost their parent's, first their mother Martha in 1877, and shortly thereafter their father Robert in 1879.
The children stayed together as we see in the 1881 census.

The letter goes on to describe the loss of their brother Henry who fell ill and how they miss him. They also speak of their younger brother who headed to New York for work but came back again as he had "altered his mind".

At least now I knew the letter writers and I suspected that the Uncle that they wrote to was Richard Lee Norton who was born in Great Yarmouth in 1819. I assumed that this must come from Richard's family because he was my only ancestor from England that I knew of on my grandmother's tree. I have since been able to show that this is most likely the case.

 I have not been able to find the marriage record between Robert Brock and Martha Norton which would be the one item that would tie this story up into a pretty package. I have located Robert and Martha Brock from the 1851 census when they were living at St. George in the East, then St. Luke and their last residence at 6 Red Lion Market where the family was before they moved to Glenarm Road.

I have not uncovered all the clues in the letter, I have yet to find out who is mentioned in this portion - "Richard was at Yarmouth in the summer they are all well except Aunt she being very feeble". I feel like they are waiting, wondering what is taking me so long.

I am so thankful as I look back on those times when I was able to go to my dad's and drag box after box upstairs. I chuckle remembering the lack of understanding of my family who would groan as I slowly drifted downstairs to lug another box up to a spot in the middle of the living room to see the same items I had just viewed the month before.

My ancestors were calling.

Brock letter page 1

Children and Genealogy

After working with my daughter on the video that I posted on a previous blog post Sharing Names my daughter is begging me to do another. I am trying to come up with an idea for another one and I have had to tell her it will have to wait.
Lately though, she has been working on a book. I didn't know anything about the book, as she has been adding to it at night in her room (instead of sleeping), and early in the morning (she is an early riser).
This morning I was presented with her completed book.

April 2013 - Jordan age 6

Leafing through it she talks about what she loves to spend time doing and the friends she enjoys spending time with. I have to find ways to hopefully encourage her to continue exploring this self-reflection. I am thrilled to see a little spark of interest in herself and documenting her life!

Another picture from the book explains she is in ballet class, one of her favorite things to do!

Jordan at ballet class

2nd Part of Wills at Family Search

When I wrote my blog post the other day, Wills At Family Search I did not realize there would be a part 2. I am happy to announce that there is!
 After having success with locating my husband's 3x great grandmother, I decided I would have a look at the Manitoba Probate Collection 1879-1930. I have been putting this off, why you may ask? Well I hesitate to say it, but for the simple reason that they are not searchable... I guess I have been a little spoiled with all the information available by entering a name, and the thought of looking through these wills page by page had me avoiding this task.  Today I decided to give it a try and I was wrong about not doing this sooner!
True, the records are not searchable --- but there is an index!!

Once you select the Manitoba Probate Collection at Family Search you arrive at a page to select the Judicial District, with the following choices -
Central, Eastern, Northern, St. Boniface, Dauphin, Manitoba, Southern & Western.

I went to google maps and decided I needed to look at the Southern option to find wills for Thornhill, Manitoba where some of my Mordy family moved to.
 I selected Southern, and low and behold, there is an index! I was so happy to see that index!

 I found my way to the M's and it wasn't long till I found that Ann Jane Mordy of Thornhill had made a will. I was surprised to see that as I had thought if I was lucky I may find her brother Brock's will. After locating her in the index I made sure to copy down the number, book and folio that was listed by her name. I left the index, went back to the previous page where I selected index but this time I picked Estate Files. Once that page opened it did not take me long to see that the wills were arranged by Number. With a bit of looking to find her Number among the pages, her will was on my screen.

Ann Jane Mordy did not marry, so she divided her holdings between different family members, mainly her nephews and nieces.

What I learned:  Next time I am looking at the records at Family Search and the option is browse images, I am going to go in and see if there is an index already done.

P.S. Thank you Family Search!

What To Do With the Paper...?

I am still unpacking my genealogy after our move and came across these wonderful papers pertaining to a court case between my family members. It seems there was a disagreement about who would inherit from their aunt Harriet Milligan, she died in Chicago without issue. 

Norton Court Case from the Superior Court of Cook County

My question is ---  where do I put it? Do I create its own file in my file cabinet? But with over 100 pages maybe it is better to put it into it's own binder. What do you do when you acquire a large amount of paper? How do you organize it? I have thought of digitizing it but feel like it would take a LONG time!

Wills at Family Search

I was very excited to find out that Family Search has Saskatchewan, Canada porbate on-line. Pouring over those records has been a wonderful way to delve into the lives of people that I long to learn more about. My husband's 3rd great grandmother Matilda (Whitman) Burkholder's will was written 6 of November 1905 in Arcola, Saskatchewan.

Matilda is, like quite a few women, very difficult to trace. The Burkholder line in Ontario has been well researched and the consensus is that Matilda descends from Enoch Burkholder and Harriet Stockton. Why we have not been able to confirm this is that on Matilda's marriage record, she states her parent's names as Enoch & Susannah Burkholder. One option I have contemplated is to try and find a female descendant of Harriet Stockton and see if my husbands uncle's mtDNA is a match. He has inherited Matilda (Burkholder) Whitman's DNA through his mother, Dessie Armstrong.

Today I received the photo duplication of Matilda's will from Family Search in an email. What a great service they provide. When you have found a document that you would like a photocopy of head over to Photoduplication services, here you will find a wiki page that gives directions for submitting a request.

 The great part of getting this will is that Matilda mentions her children and other key bits of information. In her will I was able to discover who was married, or not, and their locations in 1905. Great starting points, especially when you are trying to track down daughters.

Here is an excerpt from the will to highlight what can be gleaned from it -

I bequeath to my son Charles Albert Whitman the South-East quarter of section six (6) in the township eight (8) and Range Three (3) west of the second meridian in the Province of Saskatchewan, and all the goods and chattels upon the said land including households furniture, horses cattle and farming implements, but not to include and securities for money or money itself, upon the condition that my said son shall pay to my executors the sum of $$$. In other words my said son is to have the privledge of purchasing from my said executors the foregoing land and goods and chattles for the sum $$$.

 After payment of debts, testamentary and funeral expenses, I direct that the residue of my property to be divided among my daughters in the following proportions that is to say:

 To my daughter Susan Maria, wife of Thomas Armstrong of Mar in the Province of Ontario, $$$

 To my daughter Annie Levina Whitman of New York, $$$

 To my daughter Mary Elizabeth wife of William Meredith of Glenboro in the Province of Manitoba, $$$

To my daughter Honor May wife of Abraham Bennett of Arcola the sum of $$$

Matilda goes on to explain that if her daughter Annie remains unmarried where her inheritance is to go. I didn't know that Annie was in New York so this is a great lead for me. Matilda used her two other sons - William Ashford and Edward Youngman as executors.

I am sure there is a lot more information to be found in Matilda's will, but for now I am going to head over to Ancestry.ca to see what I can find on Annie Levina Whitman.