In honor of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.
March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.
I don’t know that I have a favorite female ancestor, but I do have those female ancestors that I always seem to go back to when writing posts or thinking about my family tree.
The top 2 would be Lillian Eichhorn Casell, my great-grandmother, who I wrote about here. The other would be my great-great grandmother, Anna May Sanderson Whitehead.
Anna May is the catalyst to my becoming a genealogist. Long story short, she was probably born Elizabeth Ann Sanderson, married, left her husband and family to marry my great-great grandfather, moved to Buffalo and never returned to her family in Canada. Many years ago my grandmother was contacted by a possibly-very-distant relative about this mystery and I thought it was fascinating. After this, I started researching, on and off, through my teenage years and college, the story of my family. Anna May will probably always be the biggest mystery to my search, though I am planning my proof argument for ProGen to be about her. I will post that when the assignment is due in a few months.
Courtesy of Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings:
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) If you found a bottle on the shore, and it had a genea-genie in it, and rubbed it and you had ONE WISH to make about your genealogy and family history research, what would it be?
This is an easy one for me. I would want to talk to my great-great grandmother Anna May (Elizabeth Anne) Sanderson Whitehead. It is most likely that after being married and having a few children, she then left them, married my great-great grandfather, moved to Buffalo and had a whole other life. I just want to know for sure if she did and then ask why. No judgement, of course, people do what they need to do, just curious for the story. I will post more about her for Madness Monday.
March 16 — If you could have lunch (or another meal) with any female family member (living or dead) or any famous female who would it be and why? Where would you go? What would you eat?
This is a tremendously easy one for me. I would have lunch with my great grandmother Anna May Sanderson Whitehead. We could go where ever she wanted as long as she answered my questions about who she really was and, if I am correct in my assumptions, why she left her family in Canada and started a new one in the US. Having lunch with her may be the only way I ever find out for sure about her life.
Fearless Female prompt from Lisa Alzo at The Accidental Genealogist
Posted by: Amanda E. Perrine, MSLIS in acquard, casillo, eichorn, fink, gress, izzo, karpinski, kollin, nuwer, pautler, roll, sanderson, Saturday Night Fun, szydlik, tross, whitehead, Zaepfel
From Randy over at Genea-Musings: Here is your SNGF assignment for the evening (if you choose to accept it – this is not stump the genealogist or even Mission Impossible):
1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 – 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4) If you don’t know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.
5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.
- Joseph Francis Eugene Acquard, Jr.: born 17 Jan 1855 in Cheektowaga, Erie, NY; married 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 10 Sept 1943 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. FRENCH
- Mary Ann Kollin: born 15 Oct 1878 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY; died 5 Feb 1938 in Bennington Ctr., Wyoming, NY. 1/2 GERMAN and 1/2 BELGIAN
- Franciszek Karpinski: born 16 Sep 1880 in Poland; died 22 May 1943 in Erie or Wyoming, NY. POLISH
- Jozefa Szydlik: born 26 Sep 1886 in Poland; died 4 Apr 1973 in Warsaw, Wyoming, NY. POLISH
- John George Nuwer: born 21 Mar 1869 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; married 19 Apr 1893 in Lancaster, Erie, NY; died 1 Feb 1948 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
- Anna M. Zaepfel: born 28 Sep 1874 in Elma, Erie, NY; died 7 Aug 1943 in Alden, Erie, NY. 1/2 GERMAN & 1/2 FRENCH
- Edward Roll: born about 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; married 22 Jun 1910 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 12 May 1941 in Alden, Erie, NY. FRENCH
- Lidwina Agnes Pautler: born 16 Jan 1888 in Alden, Erie, NY; died 11 Oct 1975 in Batavia, Genesee, NY. FRENCH
- Marcantonio Casillo: born 11 Jan 1868 in Italy; married 5 Sept 1901 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 26 Nov 1937 in Colden, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
- Carolina Izzo: born 3 May 1876 in Italy; died 2 Oct 1934 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ITALIAN
- William Fred Eichhorn: born 22 Jun 1874 in Chippewa, Ontario, Canada; married 14 Jun 1899 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 9 Mar 1931 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
- Augusta M. Tross: born 6 Sept 1877 in Germany; died 1 Jan 1939 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
- Charles William Whitehead: born 12 Jun 1872 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; married prior to 1896; died 27 Dec 1927 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
- Anna May Sanderson: born 17 Jun 1871 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada; died 29 Apr 1928 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. ENGLISH
- Jacob J. Gress: born 26 Jan 1869 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; married prior to 1888; died 11 Aug 1932 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
- Elizabeth Fink: born 6 Jul 1867 in Buffalo, Erie, NY; died 24 Apr 1957 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. GERMAN
That gives me 31.25% German; 28.125% French; 12.5% Polish; 12.5% Italian; 12.5% English ; and 3.125% Belgian. The French and German parts are hard to tell as most of my fathers family came from the Alsace-Lorraine region which kept changing hands. The fact that my 3rd great-grandmother was born in Belgium (like the waffle) has always been cool to me. Oddly, I most identify with the Italian part of my heritage, even though it is way down on the list.
Posted by: Amanda E. Perrine, MSLIS in buffalo, casillo, eichorn, family history center, fleeman, halsted, knockholt, Roccaromana, sanderson, schneider, strassheim, tross, whitehead
Yesterday my two other microfilms arrived at the FHC. I went through the Halstead marriage records, still none for my ancestors, but a few for their siblings. The roll also happened to have marriage banns from Knockholt, Kent, where I have relatives from! Again, none for direct ancestors, but some for siblings, including one of the siblings from Halstead, who married a man in Knockholt. That was a nice surprise:-) The records from Roccaromana, Caserta, Italy also came in and I can’t read them. Now, obviously I realize I can not read the Italian, but it is so tiny (it’s one of those small microfilms) that I cannot make out any of the words/letters. I am going to buy a magnifying glass, but I’m not sure that will help enough. Any recommendations are more than welcome!
Today my birth/death/marriage certificates came in from Buffalo. It took just a week and a day from ordering them, which is really decent time. Unfortunately, the marriage record couldn’t be found, but the index was fuzzy, so I think I must have guessed the wrong year. Next time I’m there I’ll check the library microfilm, which might have the record.
I received death certificates for:
- Charles Herman Eichhorn, which has his parents names, Nicholas Eichhorn and Dora Schneider, and shows I had the right family in Canada! Now I have to continue my search there and eventually back to Germany. He was buried at Buffalo Cemetery and hopefully his wife is next to him, as I have no idea when she died.
- Elizabeth Whitehead, my great aunt, who died at 9 days old. The death cause is different than the one listed in the church records; this one makes more sense (cerebral hemorrhage).
- Maria Tross, which has her maiden name as Strassheim (on a marriage record of her child it looked like Crossheim or Crosshein). It also says she was buried in Buffalo Cemetery, so hopefully I can find some info on her husband (Wenzel/Wesley Tross) there and in her obituary.
- Mrs. A. [Barbara] Fleeman. She died in 1870, so there is pretty much no information, other than she was born in France about 1824, but no maiden name. Also no cemetery, but based on her probate file, they might not have been able to afford burying her.
- Adam L. Fleeman. Not my ancestor as hoped, but rather his grandson, who died at 3 months, 24 days. He is buried in Forest Lawn, so I will go visit next time I am in Buffalo.
I received birth certificates for some of the siblings of my ancestors as follows:
- William Tross Eichhorn, son of William F. and Augusta (Tross) Eichhorn.
- Clara Evelyn Eichhorn, daughter of the same.
- Adeline Whitehead, daughter of Charles and Anna M. (Sanderson) Whitehead.
- Amelia Angela Maria Casilla [sic] daughter of Marcantonio and Carolina (Izzo) Casillo.
Time to go update the Legacy file:-)
Scanned at my Aunt Lois’s home in Florida. I am not sure who the child is.
