This week we take a look at the lineage of the Richards surname as it pertains to my family’s history.

Richards Family Portrait: Ann, Benjamin, May, and Frank

Earliest Known Ancestor

My 3rd great-grandfather was Benjamin F. Richards.  Benjamin was born 14 May 1821 in Kentucky, and died 18 Jan 1911 in Eagle Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana.  He married Ann (nee Henderson or Smith) around 1858 and the couple had two children that survived to adulthood: Francis “Frank” Richards (1861 – 1936) and my 2nd great-grandmother, the lovely May Richards (1866 – 1959).

The general Fisher research community seems to agree that the line goes back to Johannas Frederick Wolf Reichert who was 1660 in Augsburg, Wurtenberg, Germany.  He brought the family to the USA and died in 1748 in New Hanover, Montgomery, Pennsylvania.  Johannas would be my 7th great grandfather.  However, I have not done the research to prove this line fully.

Lineage of the Richards Family

Lineage

Jessica Marie Cole > Douglass Lyal Cole > Florence Mae Fitzgerald > Jennie Mae Fisher (1909 – 1993) > May Richards (1866 – 1959) > Benjamin F. Richards (1821 – 1911) > Samuel Richards (1794 – ) > George Peter Richards (1755 – 1822) > Matthias Reichert (1719 – 1775) > Johannas Frederick Wolf Reichert (1660 – 1748)

Items of Interest

• Benjamin and Ann Richards are listed on the 1910 US Census, Eagle Creek, Lake County, Indiana (ED 43, Sheet 4B, Lines 64-65).  Benjamin is 90 years old and his wife Ann is 82.  They have been married for 52 years, and had five children but only two survived.  Curiously, he is listed as being born in Ohio and his parents in “The United States.”  She is born in Ohio while her father was born in Vermont, and her mother in Tennessee.  I am very intrigued by the words under Benjamin’s occupation: “Own Income.”  Was he independently wealthy?  Very interesting.

Family Notes

• I’d like to locate the three children of Benjamin and Ann Richards that did not survive that are listed on the 1910 Census.
• In a letter from Harold Richards to my father Douglass Cole dated April 30, 1982, he said that he thinks Benjamin and Ann may have had a baby girl that died young.
• Harold Richards also said that Benjamin Richards’ father, possibly Samuel Richards, was “probably married twice.”
• I’d like to locate the graves for Benjamin and Ann Richards.

Additional Information

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for Benjamin Richards.

Kendall / Pine Grove Township School Class Portrait circa 1926

This adorable class portrait has been passed down in the Green family for 80 years.  My husband’s grandfather Max Earl Green is seen here posing with his classmates in circa 1926.  He lived in Pine Grove Township within Van Buren County.  He may have attended school in Kendall or Gobles, Michigan.

Max is the cutie in the middle row, third from the left.  He has on overalls and his fire red hair shines through even in the black-and-whitest of pictures.

If anyone out there can identify anyone else in this photograph, or perhaps clue us in as to what school this was, please leave a comment below.  Thanks!

What is RSS and how can it help you organize all the genealogy blogs you like to read? Let’s find out.

RSS is a web syndication platform.  Simply put, it “feeds” information to you that you wish to see.  You may have heard “RSS feed” or “web feeds” when looking at some of the blog content.  The most popular RSS readers are Google Reader and Feedburner.  Both of them are now owned by Google.  I use Google Reader and it works perfectly.

Google Reader Categories

Let’s say I want to “subscribe” to your blog (or any website, for that matter).  I simply paste in the URL to the website I want to get “fed” content from.  For example, the URL for my website is https://jessicagreen.com/wordpress.

If you “subscribe” to that URL in your feed, anytime I post new content here it will show up in your reader program for you to enjoy.  This includes text, pictures, audio, video and any other type of content that is posted.  The RSS reader will standardize the format (sometimes in a good way, sometimes it can mess things up!) and present it to you in an easy to review stream of posts, kind of like reading through your email.  If you’d like to visit the site, simply click on the title in your RSS reader and it will take you there in your browser.

Google Reader allows you to group your feeds together into categories which makes it easy to organize your content. I have groups for many of my favorite topics that I enjoy reading about, such as Baking, Crafting, Photography and Travel.

You can also take bundles of feeds that other people have shared and add them to your reader.  As an example, I have a category called “Geneabloggers.”  That category has a whole bunch of feeds in it that automatically show me all of the Geneabloggers topics that I am interested in, such as Tombstone Tuesday and Sentimental Sunday.  I don’t have to go to those blogs individually to see the content – it is “fed” to me via RSS.

To get started, simply create an account on Google Reader.  If you already have a Gmail account, then look up at the top of your inbox and you will see a link to Reader in the top menu bar.  Then, you can subscribe to my dear friend Sarah’s Genealogy News and Blogs bundle which she has kindly shared with the world. You may also wish to subscribe to my bundle of Geneabloggers Prompts.    There are just a few in this bundle; dozens more are also available on the Geneabloggers website.  Don’t forget to add their website to your feeds as well!

Google Reader's "More like this" feature

Once you have subscribed to the websites or bundles you would like to receive content from, reviewing them is very similar to perusing your email inbox.  Once you read an item it will be marked as read.  You can use your up and down arrow keys to move from one item to the next, or the keyboard shortcuts (use “J” to go to next, “K” to go to previous).

I’ve attached a few screenshots of how my Google Reader is set up so you can see an example.  It’s really excellent for reviewing massive amounts of online content quickly.

Did you know you can get lists of “Recommended Sites” based on what you read every day?  You can also choose a particular website feed click on it to read all of the content from that website.  Select “Feed settings” and show “More like this” and it will give you links to other sites that are similar to that one.  It’s amazing!

Geneabloggers Prompts

If you’re already accustomed to using RSS feeds to review your favorite blog content, then you know Geneabloggers is an absolutely incredible resource for the blogging community.  If you aren’t a member, you’re seriously missing out!  Their site makes using RSS feeds incredibly easy, because they have done all the work for us already, and deserve many thanks! You can send your thanks via any amount of monetary Donation right from their website using Paypal.

With that in mind, do you know how to take full advantage of the Geneablogger prompt roll-up widgets?

Let’s say you want to automatically get “fed” in your reader every blog post for Funeral Card Friday.  In the prompt post, there is a button at the bottom of the feed that says “View all” that you click on.  The URL that it takes you to will be the one you put in your RSS reader to “subscribe” to (for example: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/16209268016599136195/label/Funeral%20Card%20Friday).  Now, anything that shows up in the Geneablogger “roll-up widget” will show up in your feed.  It’s that simple!  Once you add all the feeds you want to see, everything will be delivered in a nice little organized package right to your RSS reader.  You can spend more time reading all the wonderful content put out there by all of our fellow bloggers, and less time searching for it.

I hope that helps you understand a little more about what RSS is.  It’s a tool that no genealogist who enjoys reading other genealogy blogs should be without.

I’d also like to thank fellow Geneablogger Patti who prompted me to write this post.  Visit her lovely blog, Fill My Cup…with Beauty to read about her genealogical journey.

Daniel Ray Dreffs, circa 1970

This is a picture of my wonderful Uncle Danny (Daniel Ray Dreffs) while he was serving in the US Army in 1970 at the age of 18.  The picture was taken inside his mother’s house in the living room by the front door.

What drives me crazy about this picture – and don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful – are the two portraits inside the portrait.

Did you notice the portrait of the graduate on the wall to the left?  Who IS that??  My grandmother had 12 children who lived to see 18 years old, and many of them did not graduate from high school so this portrait intrigues me.  It may have been one of my cousins.

Check out the portrait on the television.  Clearly it is a military portrait with a flag in the background.  It might have been Uncle Danny or it might have been Randall Dreffs, another family member who was in the Army.  I’ve never seen that portrait outside of this photo.

Did you see the portrait of the woman on the table?  I believe that is Uncle Danny’s mother, my grandmother Mary Rose Stroik.  I have never seen that portrait in person and cannot be sure.  It is a mystery, and it’s driving me mad!

Obituary for my beautiful cousin Shannon Elizabeth Roe, published September 24, 2009 on the Randall & Roberts Funeral Home Website in Noblesville, Indiana.

Obituary for Shannon Roe

Shannon E. Roe, 31, Noblesville, passed away Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at home. She was born July 28, 1978 in Crown Point, Indiana.

Shannon was a 1996 graduate of Noblesville High School and a server at the Olive Garden Italian Restaraunt.

She is survived by sons, Chad Pharis & Jacob Giordano; mother & stepfather, Patricia & Bret Cole; sisters, Courtney Cole & Sara Cole; and grandparents, Vernon & Vivian Roe.

A visitation will be held on Friday, September 25, 5:00 – 8:00PM at Randall & Roberts Funeral Home in Noblesville.

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for Shannon Elizabeth Roe.

This week we take a look at the lineage of the Fisher surname as it pertains to my family’s history on the Fitzgerald side.  I have tried to research on this family line with very little luck.  Outside of recording the family group sheets that my father created in the early 1980’s, there isn’t much for us to go on.  It is such a common name in Indiana in this time frame that I get lost in all the various families that could be matches.  Most of the information below was provided by my great-grandmother, Jennie Mae Fisher.

Earliest Known Ancestor

We know that Samuel M. Fisher came from an area of Ohio that was near the Ohio River.  He was a very strict man, and kicked his children out of the house when they turned 14 years old.  Samuel was a veteran of the Civil War.  His family possibly came from Ireland or Germany, we are not sure which.

My great-grandmother Jennie Mae Fisher told my father that her grandfather, Samuel M. Fisher, was born around 1827 in Ireland or maybe Pennsylvania.  He died sometime before Nov 1898 in North Carolina.  Sometime around 1852 he married Susannah Hale in Columbiana, Ohio.  I think she found this information with the LDS Church in the 1970’s.  I have found it on FamilySearch.org, and my research has show this to be totally incorrect.

I believe my 3rd great-grandfather, Samuel M. Fisher, was born in 1821 in Pennsylvania and died on 15 February 1901 in Wells County, Indiana.  His wife Susannah Hale was born in 1822 in Ohio and died in 1883 in Indiana.  They are buried in Nottingham Cemetery in Wells County, Indiana.  I also believe they were married on 12 Nov 1839 in Jefferson County, Ohio.

Samuel and Susannah had the following children: Frances (Frank) Fisher, Tom W. Fisher, Joe Fisher, William Green Fisher, Anna Fisher, Emeline Fisher, Addeline Fisher and Jane fisher.

Thier son, William Green Fisher, was my 2nd great-grandfather.  He rolled logs down the Ohio river during his early life.  He hunted and trapped a lot in the Columbiana area.  William had 4 children from a previous marriage: Ida F (Douglas Clemens) Fisher, Ethel Fisher, Delmer Fisher and Melvin Fisher.

William Green Fisher was born 03 Mar 1853 in Columbiana, Ohio.  He died 11 Jul 1918 in Valparaiso, Porter, Indiana.  His wife was my second great-grandmother, May Richards.  The couple married on November 1, 1898 in Hebron, Indiana.  They had four boys (Earl Benjamin, John W., Albert L., Samuel J.) and one girl, my great-grandmother Jennie Mae Fisher.

Lineage for the Fisher Surname (Fitzgerald Side)

Lineage

Jessica Marie Cole > Douglass Lyal Cole > Florence Mae Fitzgerald > Jennie Mae Fisher (1909 – 1993) > William Green Fisher (1853 – 1918) > Samuel M. Fisher (1821 – 1901)

Family Notes

• We know our Samuel Fisher served in the Civil War and that his records are probably found in Indiana.  I’m not positive, but I think I found the Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 Record for Samuel M Fisher.  The Samuel M. Fisher listed was born in Pennsylvania, age 42 in 1863, and was drafted in the 11th Congressional District of Adams County, Indiana.
• I may also have found the family in the 1880 US Census, but I haven’t found them in ANY other Census years.  Check out the 1880 United States Federal Census Record for Samuel Fisher.

Additional Information

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for Samuel M. Fisher.

See my Virtual Cemetery for this Fisher family members on Find A Grave

Check out the graves of Samuel M. Fisher and Susannah Hale on Find A Grave.

Request for Birth Date from Helen Stroik

This letter is another family treasure.  On February 8, 1968 my great-grandmother Helena Frances (Goretski) Stroik received this response from the Social Security Administration Office.  Apparently she had written to them asking for the birth date they had on file.  Their response was very clear: “Our records show your date of birth as December 5, 1891.”

Helen didn’t like that response.  On all the family documents we have prior to 1968 and afterwards, she continually stated her birthday was December 5, 1900.

Nine years difference.  Was it such a big deal?  To Helen, it was.

First all, Helen’s father Adam Goretski died in 1893.  If she was his child, there is no way she was born in 1900.

Marriage License Announcement

Another clue is that she was married to her husband Andrew Anton Stroik in September 1906.  I’ve heard of underage marriage, but at five years old?  Sorry Helen, I don’t think so.  It’s even a bit shocking that you were only 14 years 9 months old on your wedding day.

Next there is the whole problem about her having a child when she was eight years old.  Her first son Frank Stroik was born on October 2, 1908.  If Helen was born in December 1891 as the Social Security Administration believed, she would have been sixteen years old when she gave birth to her first child. This makes much more sense than if she were eight.

Grave of Helen F. Stroik

I’ll never understand why she continued to insist that she was born in 1900.

Helen Stroik died in Saginaw, Michigan on May 1, 1982 at the age of 90.  Thirty years later, her grave sits in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Merrill, Michigan as a monument to her unknown age.  While the birth year of 1891 stands correctly, her death year still has not been engraved.  Maybe this is one final, great testament to her unwillingness to share her true age with the public.

I have spent many moons scanning and cataloging images for my family archive.  It contains more than 6,000 images which were all painstakingly dated and fully detailed and tagged with descriptions and locations to the best of my ability.  Documents can be fairly straight forward since many of them contain a date written upon them.  Photographs, however, are often much trickier.

My Mom did an excellent job throughout the years of writing the exact date on the back of our family photos.  I thank her so much for that – it makes sorting and organizing the photos much easier today.  She often wrote the exact date and day of the week on the back of the pictures, which is amazing.

My DaD on the other hand…  he didn’t often write dates on things.  (Sorry DaD, it’s true.)  To his credit, he has tried to go back and write dates on photos decades later, but I have learned to take those dates as a starting point. :)  I recently came across a photo that has his handwriting on the back: “Diane and Carol, 1977?” just above the ink stamp from the developer that shows “June 1980” as the film date…  Thankfully he is getting much better at dating old photographs and has recently helped me to identify many pictures correctly.  Yay DaD!

I often get asked how I date photos, especially when I have no worldly clue when the photo was taken.  There are many books on the subject, including several that target specific time periods and help you identify dates based on clothing, backgrounds, style of portraiture, wardrobe and more.  They can be a priceless resource when trying to identify an ancestor’s photo from the earlier parts of the 20th century.

My mother, Diane

Since I grew up in the 1980’s, most of the pictures of my childhood are not covered in these types of books.  Instead, I have relied a lot on my knowledge of pop culture and family events to help date photos.  As an example, take this lovely picture of my mother.  I offer the following process of elimination which led me to a fairly accurate date for this one:

1. This photo was taken in the living room of the house I grew up in.  I know this because of the curtains behind her.
2. Since I know my mother moved out of our house in August 1987, I can safely assume this photo was taken before then.
3. I know she won the VCR that you can see behind her on top of the television in a radio contest sometime in 1985, so I know it wasn’t 1984 or before.  There’s also a bowling trophy on the TV which I believe she won in 1985 around the same time as the VCR, so that helps confirm the early side of the date spectrum.
4. 

   Close-up of Items

   If you look very closely at the items on the table behind her, you can see what appears to be a sewing kit and a magazine which doesn’t really help me much.

5. On top of the magazine are three heart dangle bracelets, which was a very popular thing for my sister to be wearing in 8th grade which would have been 1985-1986 for her.  This helps confirm my initial thoughts on time frame.
6. Then I realized the book Mom is sitting on is a comic book of the popular strip Cathy.  I inherited it from my sister as a hand-me-down a few years later and read it many times.
   • A little Google search for “cathy comic” led me to Wikipedia’s list of all the Cathy comic books published.
   • Using Google Images, I typed in each of the book titles that were published in the mid-1980’s until I found a book cover that matched the one in the photo: “Sorry I’m Late, My Hair Won’t Start” by Cathy Guisewite.
   • A quick search for that book on Amazon.com told me the book was published on November 12, 1985.  Bingo – my photo had to be taken after that date.  (And while I’m there, in case I feel nostalgic I can apparently pick up another copy for the bargain price of $2.00.)
7. I know my sister received the comic book as a gift.  It must have been received for Christmas 1985 or for her birthday in June 1986.
8. Based on my mother’s choice of long sleeve shirt and jeans, I have to imagine it would have been cold in Michigan when this photo was taken.
9. Based on all of those details, I believe this photo was taken during the first few months of 1986 – after Christmas and before it warmed up in the Spring.

This is a simple example of the types of details I look for in photos to help date them.  Does it matter whether it was taken in January or February or March in 1986?  Not terribly in this case.  I am satisfied with “Early 1986” as the date for this one. In the case of your photo, these extra-sensory detective skills might just make all the difference in the world.

I wish you the best of luck in researching and dating your family photographs!

Obituary for my great Uncle, Roy Allen Fitzgerald. Published in The Times in Valparaiso, Indiana on February 28, 2011.

Obituary for Roy Fitzgerald

ROY FITZGERALD

ROY FITZGERALD.  GRIFFITH, IN Roy Fitzgerald, age 61, passed away Saturday, February 26, 2011 with his loving wife by his side. He is survived by his wife, Susanne (nee Reidelbach); children: Norman Mantel of MA, Kimberly Mantel of NH, Roy Fitzgerald Jr. of CA, Marc (Kristen) Mantel of MA and Ralph (Mia) Fitzgerald of CA; eight grandchildren; several brothers and sisters; and many nieces and nephews. Roy was employed by Arcelor Mittal Steel, and proudly served his country in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam Conflict. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. He will be truly missed by all whose lives he touched. Friends are invited to meet with the family for a celebration of his life on his birthday, March 2, 2011 4:00 PM at the Griffith Baptist Church, 826 Harvey Street Griffith, IN 46319 with Pastor Rob Lemon officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations to the family would be appreciated. www.calumetparkfuneral chapel.com.

Visit my Ancestry Family Tree for Roy Fitzgerald.

This week we take a look at the lineage of the Jarrell and Fitzgerald surnames as they pertain to my family’s history.  I have researched this family extensively and have copies of many original records for the ancestors in this line.

Earliest Known Ancestor

Thomas “The Immigrant” Jarrell, my 9th great grandfather, was born about 1635 in England or Ireland.  There is a large community of researchers out there piecing together the Jarrell family history, none of whom have been able to definitively source the migration of Thomas into the United States.  Thomas was married on May 29, 1661 although sources differ on whom he married: it may have been Joan/Jean Cook, or possibly Margaret Knight.  He died 17 Jul 1713 in Surry County, Virginia.

Lineage

This is one of the few families in my research that divides and merges halfway through the line.  I am descended from one Jarrell family line that splits halfway down.  My second great-grandfather, George Maywood Jarrell (1867 – 1946) married his second cousin Emily Florence Jarrell (1874 – 1945).  Both of them are descended from sons of William Jarrell (1750 – 1818) and Susannah Parks (1751 – 1825).

Paternal Lineage for the Jarrell Family

Maternal Lineage for the Jarrell Family

Paternal Lineage: Jessica Marie Cole > Douglass Lyal Cole > Florence Mae Fitzgerald > Vondall Euart Fitzgerald (1899 – 1978) > George Maywood Jarrell (1867 – 1946) > Lewis Jarrell (1840 – 1900) > Thomas Jarrell (1798 – 1870) > Ansel Jarrell (1774 – 1880) > William Jarrell (1750 – 1821) > Henry Jarrell (1725 – 1818) > John Fitz Jarrell (1722 – 1742) > Thomas Jarrell (1673 – 1741) > Thomas “The Immigrant” Jarrell (1635 – 1713)

Maternal Lineage: Jessica Marie Cole > Douglass Lyal Cole > Florence Mae Fitzgerald > Vondall Euart Fitzgerald (1899 – 1978) > Emily Florence Jarrell (1874 – 1945) > Amos Davis Jarrell (1833 – 1914) > Parks F(itz?) Jarrell (1801 – 1881) > William Jarrell (1750 – 1821) > Henry Jarrell (1725 – 1818) > John Fitz Jarrell (1722 – 1742) > Thomas Jarrell (1673 – 1741) > Thomas “The Immigrant” Jarrell (1635 – 1713)

Items of Interest

• Lewis Jarrell was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War.  He served in the 1st Company B, 5th Kentucky Mounted Infantry.  He enlisted on October 26, 1861 in Prestonburg, Kentucky and was wounded in battle almost immediately. By December 31, 1861 he was listed as sick at home.  Lewis spent the remainder of the war at home in Morgan County, Kentucky.
• At some point between 1920 and 1930, my 2nd great-grandparents George Maywood Jarrell and Emily Florence Jarrell changed their last name to Fitzgerald while living in Porter County, Indiana.  I have not been able to pinpoint the name change to a particular year within the decade.  In 1920 the US Census shows Jarrell, and in 1930 it shows Fitzgerald.  The family did not move from one Census to the next, they simply changed their name.  None of the family knows for sure why they changed it.  Many of George and Emily’s children were born with Jarrell as their surname but changed it to Fitzgerald when their parents did.
• The legend for the name change is that George and Emily believed their ancestors were originally named Fitzgerald and changed the name to Jarrell when they came to the United States “to sound less Irish.”  The story I have always heard is that George and Emily were proud of their Irish heritage and decided to take the name back once and for all.  In all of my research, I have been unable to prove the family came from Ireland.  In fact, many of the Jarrell researchers believe the original surname was always Jarrell and the family came from England, not Ireland.
• Several of the Jarrell family members began changing their last names during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  Some of the variations are Jarrells, Fitzgerald and Gerald.  Many of these families have descended from this same group of ancestors from: Elliott County, Kentucky; Craven County, North Carolina; Surry and Isle of Wight Counties, Virginia.

Additional Information

There are several Jarrell family researchers throughout the country including Linda and Roger Jarrells of Sandy Hook, Kentucky.  This husband and wife duo have worked very hard to preserve the Jarrell family name in Elliott County.  Linda volunteers much of her time with the Elliott County Historical Society which has a vast library including many Jarrell family treasures.

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for Thomas “The Immigrant” Jarrell.

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for George Maywood Jarrell/Fitzgerald.

Check out my Ancestry Family Tree for Emily Florence Jarrell/Fitzgerald.

Find A Grave has several Fitzgerald family members in Hebron Cemetery in Porter County, Indiana as well as several Jarrell family members in the Jarrell Family Cemetery in Sandy Hook, Kentucky.