Farewell To 2013 - It's Been Nice To Know You

I end my "blog year" in November each year.  I usually get a discount from Blog2Print in November that acts as a reminder to get it closed up for the year.  Also, this way I have the book printed and in my hands in December.  It is fun to open it up and sit and review the year as soon as I receive it.  I have Blog Books starting in 2007.  They are nicely done and someday some of my descendants may enjoy reading them.  They are a bit too expensive to make one for each person though.

So with that intro, I say farewell to 2013.  Yes, I would like to slow down time, but alas, it is not possible.  So the next best thing is to think back on the year and relive some of the events.

I had a busy year of public speaking engagements.  Not many genealogy societies, but various groups and of course, the Inservice Lessons at my Church. These are done quarterly for the staff members at the Family History Center in Fort Collins.  This year started out with a new online way to record family genealogy, Family Tree, and to reserve Temple Ordinances.  I had to learn it to help a patron in the Family History Center, and slowly became a big fan.  So the second lesson of 2013 was how to use it.  Within a week of my lesson --- it was changed!  So I had to write an update and send it out to the staff.  Little did I know this was to be a trend for the year.  Later, I planned to do a lesson on PERSI at the request of the staff members.  Would you believe it?  The VERY next day it was announced that PERSI was bought by an English genealogy company and would be completely revamped!  That plan was scrapped because why take the time to do a lesson in something that is changing?  This trend continued as I designed other lessons and classes about features on FamilySearch and those were changing before my eyes as I prepared the lessons.  But, I will say it taught me to expect change, and that is a good tool to have as we age.  Change doesn't come with a welcome mat for most older people, however, I believe we have to stay flexible to survive.  I spoke at a Women's Association, Civil War Roundtable, Larimer County Genealogical Society, several Church groups, Pioneer Women's group. Of course this meant creating and updating Power Point presentations, and that is something I love to do. This made 2013 a really fun year for me.

Probably the most momentous event was the birth of my first great granddaughter. She is Stella Evelyn Lewis and she was born August 5, 2013.  She was welcomed by a large family of adults, an older brother, Oliver, and two older cousins, Jack and Grant.  It is hard to describe the feeling that your progeny will continue on and on into the future.  Long after I am no longer in this world, Stella will be out there living, learning and growing and accomplishing all sorts of things.  I made a "Foremothers Chart" for her. Five generations of her female ancestresses.  I can imagine her, as a young girl and a young woman, looking at those names and wondering about them.  If only my great grandmother had been able to do that for me, what a gift that would have been.

I made a "Foremothers Chart" for my granddaughter, Logan.  It seems only yesterday that she was the new baby girl in the family and she is age twenty eight now.  I am so proud of Logan, she takes care of herself, is independent, is lovable, and is beautiful.  She lives on her own, in Hawaii, and is a wonderful sweet young woman.  

I didn't do any traveling this year -- but I DID buy a car.  My old Chevy S-10 may have made it another few years but it was acting tired, so I traded up one year and now have a Toyota Corolla.  I am not so sure this Toyota Corolla is related to my old Toyota Corolla, Orange Bird.  I haven't even named it yet. So that tells you our relationship is not close -- not yet anyway. IT reminds me of Herbie, the VW Bug that had a mind of its own.  To say I am a savvy car dealer is far from the truth, so we will see what happens to IT.  Maybe that is the new car's name "IT".

My friend, Kitty Girl, has gone downhill significantly this year.  So I am facing some hard to do things in the near future.  I will survive her passing, but it will be sad.  She is a sweet and gentle spirit and she is my constant companion.

I sort of got hooked on Bingo this year.  My friend, Sharon, and I have been going to the Knights of Columbus Family Bingo once a month.  It is fun, but it IS gambling, so I have to watch not to get addicted to it.  An addiction to genealogy is about all I can handle.

Laurie visited me twice this year.  Both as she was coming and going to and from Hawaii.  I love to have her come and I am sad to see her leave.  It is such an empty feeling to see her off.  It takes me a few days to get over the feeling of being alone. Then I get used to it again.  It makes me think about how our immigrant ancestors must have felt as they left all that they knew and loved to try something new.

Cindy came to see me on Mother's day and on my birthday.  Another goodbye when they left.  I am getting more and more "anti goodbye" as I get older.

One of the most memorable things for me was when I finally learned about the parents of my 2nd great grandfather, Dennis Meech.  For years I thought I would never find Katherine, I didn’t even know her first name. Her two sons were evidently not that interested in family history and left no records that I had ever found about their mother.  It seemed impossible.  And yet I have always known that when a person in the next world wants to be found – you will be led to them.   To make a long story short, I discovered that Katherine’s maiden name was Huffman and she married second to Henry Huffman, so she died with the same last name she was born with. Once I figured that out I found her first marriage to John Meech in Ohio in 1825.  This was through FamilySearch.org posting Ohio Marriages on their website, and now there was a loud rumble in heaven, as I am sure there was some rejoicing going on. Katherine was born in 1810 and died in 1857. She was the mother of two Meech sons and five Huffman children.  She died at age 47.  Hers was a relatively short life, but a very important life.  She survived trials, tragedies, and enjoyed the joys of her mortal life and was so pivotal to the many descendants that are living now.  I am so happy I finally got to meet her. Oh yes, I am now on the hunt for the parents of my 4^th great grandmother, Caroline French.  I love to solve the female mysteries in my family. And of course it meant writing another book. This one is entitled Katherine's Children, The Meech and Huffman Familes of Franklin County Ohio.

It was fun to write this book, and as I did that I connected with the people I was writing about.  In searching for  Katherine, I studied all of her children hoping to find a clue to her full identity.  I needed to share the vast amount of information I had gathered on these collateral lines. 

It is hard to list all of the people that I met this year. I am so blessed to live in a good community, with good and friendly people.  I am blessed to have reasonably good health, and a curious mind.  So I say farewell to 2013.  It has been a very good year and I am thankful for it.  Stay tuned for 2014!   Patj

The Thrill Of Finding A Maiden Name -- You Can't Beat It

Catharine Huffman Huffman.  Who would have guessed that the mother of Dennis Meech married 2nd Henry Huffman, and her maiden name was also Huffman.  I have been "dancing" around this lady for about six months -- always with that quiet voice whispering in my ear, "You are close, keep trying."  Admittedly, I was about to put this family back into the manila folder that has been their home for years.  I would get it out, work awhile with no success, and put them away again.  But something kept me interested longer this time.

It all started when I discovered Ohio Probate and Guardian records had been recently published on FamilySearch.org.  I started looking at Franklin County records and soon found the guardian records for Henry Huffman's younger children.  These children are the children of Catherine Huffman Huffman as well.  Granted, they are not my ancestors, as I am descended from Dennis Meech, Catherine's first child with an unknown Mr. Meech.  But a combination of curiosity, and the thought that one of these people may solve more of the puzzle for their mother's identity kept me searching. 

I decided to write about, Catherine's Children, after I found so much good information about them.  Of course, as I started this project, I kept going back and looking for more information about them.  Mainly, because I had fallen in love with this family, but also to fill in the details in my book.

On Saturday, April 13, 2013, I experienced a thunder bolt of a breakthrough.  The grandson of the youngest child of Catherine Huffman Huffman joined The National Society Sons of the American Revolution in April 1939.  Ancestry.com has recently published these application on their website.  In searching for this man's grandmother, Sarah Huffman Reaver, in Ancestry.com, that application popped up.  At first I thought it was interesting because she is listed on it, but that was about all.  It said his great grandmother was Catherine Huffman and I wrote it off as another instance of her married name being all that was known.  Then I looked closer.

On the back page of this man's SAR application it referenced his MOTHER's DAR National #!  Wait a minute there --- I am a DAR Registrar and I have extra special access to DAR membership records. In just a few minutes I had located Nellie Reaver Kasten's application as it has been indexed at DAR. It said her grandmother was Catherine Huffman MEECH. 

It was a dream come true.  DAR knew about my ancestress and her first married name.  A record copy of this application is available for $10 and believe me, I had ordered that application in about two minutes.  I gave them my credit card # and received the original application in a few minutes via email as a .pdf file.  Imagine my excitement when I read the DAR genealogist's note that wrote in the name MEECH for Henry Huffman's 2nd wife.  I knew that, but I didn't think anyone else in the world knew that.  The other exciting thing was that Nellie Reaver Kasten's documentation packet was available for order.  I filled out the form and a check and ran it to the Post Office immediately. This is one record you can't order by email.  What a fantastic day this was --- and no one in the world cares but me.  I finally called a friend and gave her the whole long story, another genealogist is the only one that would understand and half way share the excitement. I am anxiously awaiting the documentation packet from NSDAR, but nothing can beat the thrill I had on April 13.

The death certificate for Catherine's son Henry Huffman, Jr did state that his mother's name was  Katherine Huffman and she was born in Ohio -- but I wrote that off as another case of the informant telling the woman's married name rather than her maiden name.  The informant was Henry's widow Jane, and that makes it more acceptable, as the spouse usually knows more than the children and grandchildren as informants.  But I still ignored it.  Come to find out, it was exactly right.  Catherine and her second husband, Henry Huffman, may well have been cousins -- or not related at all. Of course, that is the next puzzle -- who are her parents?  That is for tomorrow.

For today, I am so happy to have finally solved this bit of the puzzle.  Females are the biggest challenge in genealogy and it is one I love to solve.  Welcome Catherine Huffman -- I am so glad to finally know you. 

The line in this story is:
1. Catherine Huffman married 2nd to Henry Huffman  (she married 1st Mr. Meech)
2. Their daughter, Sarah Huffman married to WilliamReaver
3. Their daughter, Nellie Reaver married to Charles Kasten (she joined DAR in 1928)
4. Their son Karl Frederick Kasten (he joined SAR in 1939)

Patj