A Well Traveled Postcard

 

Every summer I get together with college friends and spend several days telling stories while we scrapbook times in our lives. 

This summer, I was working on 1988-1989 when my husband (then boyfriend) and I studied abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland our junior year of college. While going through all of the negatives and scrapbooking paraphernalia I came across a postcard written in German to an address in Detroit, MI. When I saw it, I thought maybe it was a postcard I picked up while in Germany on our travels thinking that it was pretty fun that it was to someone in Detroit, MI?

         I thought I would investigate the addressee and figure out this person’s life. Here’s the postcard:

And here’s the writing and address on the back:

Using this address, and recognizing that this was written in 1929, I found Benno (a 32 year old single man) and his mother, Betty (a 71 year old widower) renting the house at 4918 McClellan Ave in the 1930 census.

I was curious about his life and searched out other censuses, finding him in the 1940 census and then again in the 1950 census. But now he has a wife and 3 children and lives at 17173 Centralia in Redford.

17173 Centralia in 1991

This is when my mind was blown! 

In 1991, my husband and I purchased our first house….17173 Centralia! Yes, clearly, we must have found this in the house and somehow got amongst my Scotland travel things, which I haven’t looked at in over 30 years. (I might add that since 1991 we have moved into 4 different houses, from Redford to Saratoga, Wyoming to Kalamazoo, Michigan to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to Riverside, Pennsylvania!)

Neither my husband nor I recognized the postcard, but my husband is a very handy man and renovated the upstairs of our cute bungalow at 17173 and the only thing we can think of is that he found it in his deconstruction and we’ve held onto it since then?!

Reconnecting the Post card

In 1991, I would have never had the resources to figure out how to reconnect this post card with the owners, but with the tools today it was easy!

From the 1950 census I had 3 childrens’ names and through obituaries and other on-line tools, I found a relatively current address for one of the daughters, who is now 78 years old. She married and lived in Canton, Michigan. Although I found a street address for her, I didn’t just want to send the original postcard without knowing that she was still alive and living at that address.

Daughter's High School Photo

I sent a letter through US Mail to the address on Monday, July 21st explaining who I was and how I came to have this postcard I believed was her fathers, including a photocopy of the front and back. I included my email address and phone number so that if she was interested, I could send them to her.

On Saturday, July 26th, I received the following email response:

“Thank you for sending the information about the postcard. Yes it was sent to my father many years ago. He was born in Germany and came to the U.S. as a teenager so he left many friends and family there. They kept in touch thru the years. I will try to translate the message. 

I would love very much to see the pictures of your remodeling of the upstairs of the house. My sister and I slept up there for our childhood and teen years until we got married in the sixties. Thank you again. It brought back so many memories.”

So, there you go, 34 years after finding a postcard which began its journey in Bremen, Germany 96 years ago to a 31 year old man in Detroit and traveled to Redford to Wyoming back to Michigan to Pennsylvania and back to Michigan, it is now reconnected with the daughter of the recipient!

Oh, what a find!

I am volunteering again this summer at the Tecumseh Historical Society & Museum, helping to organize and catalogue their vertical files. Last week, I came across a set of photos donated in 2006 by a woman whose aunt was a subject of some of the photos with the family she married into. This family was the Rosacrans family from Tecumseh whose family owned the Rosacrans & Sons dry goods store for 95 years, closing in the 1960’s.

A few of the photos were particularly interesting because she claimed that they were taken in 1922-24 at their cottage on Sand Lake! This is the lake that I have spent every summer of my life. I have spent hundreds of hours researching many of the people and cottages around the lake with my father and was curious where this cottage was.

After a week of various investigations…searching deeds in the court house and tax rolls at the Lenawee County Historical Museum, looking for people/photos at the Tecumseh Library, watching the 1980’s Oral History of Ned Rosacrans (a young boy in the photos), and posting the photos to two different historical facebook pages, I had nothing!

I learned a lot about the Fred Rosacrans family, their kids, and grandchildren. I even learned that they lived (and Ned grew up) in a house at 207 N. Union St, which was next door to my husband’s family! (A house that my husband’s great-great-great-grandmother, Harriet Spofford Webster built in 1850 and 4 generations of his family lived in for almost 100 years! In the 1920’s Jim’s great-great grandmother Eliza Virginia Webster would have still lived in the house, although her husband Myron Conklin died in 1922 after over 50 years of marriage.)

                                                                                            Fred Rosacrans House, 207 N. Union St.

Webster-Conklin House, 211 N. Union St. c. 1980s

Webster-Conklin House, 211 N. Union St. c. 2023

There was one last place I learned about to look…it turns out that there were home movies that Fred Rosacrans made. So yesterday at the Tecumseh District Library, I watched the Fred Rosacrans home movies that he took in 1928 and 1929. It was an amazing silent film filled with every day and special occasions. There were images of boys ice skating on a local pond, playing baseball, men bailing hay, Memorial Day parades, GAR gatherings…and then there it was!

Unexpected and so surprising... nothing about Sand Lake...instead there was a home movie of Eliza Virginia “Jenny” Webster in 1928 (Jim’s great-great-grandmother)! I have seen plenty of photos of her and in fact last year I found a few more (check out blog Sometimes you really luck out!) but I never imagined I would ever see a video of her! This is NOT AI or just animating a photo, this was really truly Jenny sitting on her front steps welcoming (I think her granddaughter) Georgianna Conklin. I wish I could hear her voice, but this is an absolutely amazing find, so I will take it!

This is a reminder to me to keep my eyes open, you never know when you will come across something completely unexpected and totally wonderful!

Grandparents of my Grandparents

 Anyone who has read any of my postings knows that family is incredibly important to me. I feel so lucky with the family members related to me and the role they have played in making me who I am today. Grandparents were those very special people to me. I was fortunate because I knew all four of my grandparents as a child and also as an adult. My first grandparent to pass away was my paternal grandmother, Dorothy Emma Sedlock Massey, in 1993, when I was 25 years old!

Today’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posted by Genea-Musings asked the question, “Did your grandparents know their grandparents?”

Paternal Grandfather, Rocco Joseph Mazziotti (1909-1995)

Rocco Bellantoni

As I have recorded in other blogs, my grandfather’s father was a “wheel baby” in Calabria, Italy and never knew his biological parents. He was adopted/fostered by Rocco Bellantoni (1842-1920) and Grazia Bova (1847-1900). While my grandfather, Rocco, might have known his namesake since they overlapped 11 years, to my knowledge Rocco Bellantoni never came to the United States and my grandfather never traveled to Italy.

My grandfather did, however, know his maternal grandparents:

• Giuseppe Antonio Mortelliti 

• b. 26 Feb 1843 in Scilla, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy

• d. 29 Jul 1915 in Elmsford, Westchester, New York

• Santa Morabito

• b. 3 Aug 1857 in Scilla, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy

• d. 3 June 1945 in Elmsford, Westchester, New York

These grandparents are the people who immigrated in 1893 (Giuseppe) and 1902 (Santa). Giuseppe travelled back and forth a few times before all of the family finished arriving in 1902 when Santa and her daughter (my great-grandmother Concetta) were the last to arrive. Unfortunately I have no photos of this couple to date, but I’m sure there were some taken and I just haven’t found them yet!

Paternal Grandmother, Dorothy Emma Sedlock (1910-1993)

Emma and Otto, 1 Oct 1911

My grandmother, Dot, had a difficult childhood. Her parents, Alonzo Sedlock and Louise A. Hillmann, both struggled with their mental health at various points in their lives. They separated and divorced around 1913, when my grandmother was just 3 years old. My grandmother didn't talk much about her childhood, but my grandfather shared with my father the following story. After the divorce, Dot and her sister were living with her mother who left them in a hotel room when she was working as a clothes buyer for a department store. At one point, the hotel caught on fire when the daughters were there by themselves. I have not been able to verify this with any records but in 1915 Census little Dot was living with a neighbor and her sister living with her grandparents. By 1920, Dot and her sister Ruth were living with their maternal grandmother, Emma Amanda Sackmann and her 2nd husband, Otto Schmidt. (Dot’s biological grandfather Johannes Willheim Hillmann died in 1906 so she would have never met him). My grandmother knew and loved her grandmother very much and “Granny” eventually came to live with her family for a bit and my father knew and loved her too.

Maternal Grandparents:

• 

  Favorite photo of Ruth and Dot

  Johannes Willheim Hillmann

• B.18 Apr 1856 in Bremen, Bremen, Germany

• D. 13 Jan 1906 in Brooklyn Ward 25, Kings, New York

• Otto Fred Schmidt (step-grandfather)

• B. 1868 in Germany

• D. 3 May 1924 in Brooklyn Ward, Kings, New York

• Emma Amanda Sackmann

• 26 Jun 1862 in Germania, Potter County, Pennsylvania

• 2 Feb 1951 in Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont
  

I have evidence that she did meet and know her paternal grandmother but I do not know to what level. She never spoke about this grandmother to my father, so nothing was really known about her, but I am certain that she is the one who paid for one of the favorite photos I have of she and her sister.

Elizabeth Kristof Barath,
taken at the same photography studio

Paternal Grandparents:

• Janos Szedlak

• B. 31 Dec 1841 in Barca, Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

• D. between 1878 and 1885 in Kosice

• Elizabeth Szabo Kristof
  

• B. 18 May 1855 in Garadna, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Hungary

• 22 Mar 1919 in Port Jervis, Orange, New York

Maternal Grandfather, Walter Elliot Tubbs (1911-1994)

Although my grandfather was the youngest of the three Tubbs children, he did appear to overlap in life with three of his four grandparents. Although this was the case and I knew my grandfather into my 20’s, I never remember hearing a story about any of them. I asked my mother at dinner tonight and she doesn’t ever remember hearing any stories either, even about the grandmother who lived in the same town close to my grandfather into his teenage years.

Samuel Obed Tubbs

Paternal grandparents:

• Samuel Obed Tubbs

• B. 24 Feb 1834 in Ontario County, NY

• D. 30 Jun 1917 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

• Francis Eliza Randall

• B. 4 Jan 1837 in Watertown, Jefferson, NY

• D. 22 Oct 1924 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

Maternal grandparents:

Frances Eliza Randall

• Chauncey Gould Orcutt

• B. 25 Dec 1838 in Troy, Rensselaer County, NY

• D. 9 Oct 1919 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

• Susan Ann Bailey

• B. 8 Dec 1840 in Green Oaks, Livingston, MI

• D. 1 Oct 1904 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

Chauncey Gould Orcutt

Maternal Grandmother, Elizabeth Anna Leach (1914-1998)

Although I knew all of my grandparents into my 20’s, I was closest with my maternal grandmother, Betty. She was bright, an avid reader and bridge player, and a fierce advocate for women, although not in the feminist sort of way. (See Thankfully Celebrating My Grandmother's 110th Birthday for more about this grandmother.)

I think she learned from her mother never to be dependent on a man. Her father died young leaving her mother and two young children to fend for themselves in the 1920’s. She took away from this experience that women needed to have an education and a job that could support themselves and to always, always have a $20 bill in your purse and 20¢ for a phone call and to know how to drive!

Betty’s father was left an orphan at age 9. His mother died a week after giving birth to him and his father died of a stroke leaving Edward to be raised by his maternal grandmother. So she never had the chance to know her paternal grandparents.

Her mother’s father died also before she was born, but her maternal grandmother was still alive. And I have two stories I heard from my grandmother about her grandmother, Mary Bedell Stoddard. In Michigan, card playing is a common pastime, especially in the cold winter months or the summer vacation time. I’m not sure if my grandmother learned to play cards from her grandmother but I know they played together, because my grandmother told me that her grandmother “cheated at cards!” and she was partially deaf and used a horn like thing. My grandmother would say, “Grandma, you can't do that!” and she said that her grandmother would pretend not to hear or would put the horn to her ear and say, “What? What’s that you say?” knowing full well she knew what she was doing was not allowed! I also know that she was a beautiful artist, and my husband and I have one of her paintings she painted of a civil war soldier and young woman. I, unfortunately, don’t have any stories about what the painting represents.

Henry Edward Leach

Paternal Grandparents:

Henry Edward Leach

• B. 25 Jan 1834 in England?

• D. 15 Jun 1892 in Lake Linden, Houghton, MI

Flora Elizabeth Croft

• B. 1854 Canada

• D. 1 Sep 1883 in Lake Linden, Houghton, MI

• 
  

Flora Elizabeth Croft

Henry Clay Stoddard

Maternal Grandparents:

• Henry Clay Stoddard

• B. 25 Aug 1841 in Detroit, Wayne, MI

• D. 8 Apr 1909 in Reed City, Osceola, MI

• Mary Bedell

• B. 19 May 1852 in Nankin Twnsp, Wayne, MI

• D. 8 May 1933 in Big Rapids, Mecosta, MI

Mary Bedell

3rd Great-Grandparents?? How many can you name?

When I think of the early 1800s, I know it’s a long time ago but it doesn’t feel like 200 years! This is the time (within a 20 year timeframe) that my 3rd great-grandparents were born. Who were they, when and where did they live and die? Every once in a while, I have time for the Saturday Night Challenge sponsored by Genea-Musings and it is something that I think my readers might be interested in. This week, we were asked to list our 32  3rd great-grandparents with as much information about them that we have. 

Did you know that you have “32” 3rd great-grandparents?! They add up quite quickly when they double each generation! How many of your 3rd great-grandparents can you name? How about your 2nd or even 1st great-grandparents? And do you have any photos of a 3rd great-grandparent, someone born in the early 1800’s and lived until photography was available to the common folk in the 1860’s?

My 3rd Great Grandparents: 

Well, here is the list of 28 of my 32 3rd great-grandparents. I haven’t found 4 of them. The list was generated using the Ahnentafel Report option in Ancestry. They are numbered beginning with 32 because there are 31 ancestors of mine between me and them (16 great-great grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, 2 parents, and me=31) and from the top begin with my father’s father’s father’s father’s father down to my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother.

32: Dominico Vespia was born in 1801 in Italy and died on 11 Jan 1880 in Villa San Giovanni, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy.

33: Catarina Malerba was born in May 1804 in Cannitello, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy and died in Sep 1867 in Villa San Giovanni, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy.

36: Giuseppe Mortelliti was born in 1805 and died on 10 Jan 1886 in Scilla, Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italia.

37: Antonia Lofaro was born in May 1813.

38: Guiseppe Stefano Morabito was born on 5 Nov 1819 in Scilla Reggio Calabria, Italy and died on 15 Jul 1878 in Scilla, Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italia.

39: Dominica Nicolo

#47 Christina Dunker

was born on 13 May 1824 in Scilla, Reggio Calabria, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy and died on 17 Nov 1886 in Scilla, Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italia.

40: Joannes Szedlák

41: Catherine Liplak was born in April 1814 in zsebes, Kosice, Košice, Slovakia.

42: Janos Szabo Kristof was born on 31 May 1816 in Garadna, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Hungary.

43: Theresia Kotsis was born in Sep 1815 in Garadna, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Hungary.

44: Johann Herman Hillman was born on 27 May 1824 in Syke, Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany and died on 2 Oct 1871 in Bremen, Bremen, Germany.

45: Johanne Caroline Elisabeth Druckhammer was born in abt 1831 in Germany and died on July 9, 1902 in Bremen Germany.

46: John Heinrich Sackman was born on 31 Aug 1811 in Jork, Hannover, Preußen and died in 1870 in Abbotts, Potter, Pennsylvania, United States.

47: Christina Dunker was born on 29 Apr 1827 in Elmshorn, Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and died on 19 Aug 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

48: George W. (Washington ?) Tubbs was born on 3 APR 1802 in Bristol, Addison Co., VT and died on 7 SEP 1854 in Scio Twp., Washtenaw Co., MI.

49: Rebecca Sophronia Walter was born on 5 OCT 1807 in Norfolk, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA and died on 13 MAY 1855 in Scio Twp, Washtenaw, MI.

#48 George W. Tubbs

50: Timothy Castle Randall was born in ABT 1806 in Geddes, Onondaga, New York and died in abt 1849 in Cobourg, Canada.

51: Julia Ann Chapin was born on 8 JUL 1806 in Burlington, NY and died on 20 APR 1880 in Scio Twp., Washtenaw Cty, MI.

52: Harvey A Orcutt was born on 4 MAY 1802 in Pittstown, NY and died on 15 OCT 1858 in Cambridge, NY.

53: Elizabeth Walker was born on 17 JAN 1808 in Pittstown, Renn Cty, NY and died on 7 November 1885 in Thornapple Township, Barry County, Michigan, United States of America.

54: George Dolan Bailey was born in 1805 in On ship when parents came from N. Ireland to America and died on 16 MAR 1849 in Ann Arbor, MI.

55: Mary Ann Mosher was born on 18 JUL 1810 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, USA and died on 30 OCT 1887 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA.

58: William Croft was born in 1827 in Canada West, Canada and died on 15 Jun 1856 in Carlton, Ontario, Canada.

59: Margaret Carmichael was born on 28 NOV 1832 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland and died on 14 Dec 1905 in Hancock, Houghton, Michigan, USA.

60: Rodman Stoddard was born on 4 JUL 1797 in Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA and died on 13 MAY 1853 in Detroit, Wayne, MI, Michigan, USA.

#55 Mary Ann Mosher

61: Mary Matteson was born on 25 JUN 1809 in Genesee Co, NY and died on 21 DEC 1893 in Reed City, Osceola County, Michigan.

62: George W. Bedell was born in 1798 in Dutchess Co., N. Y. and died on 17 Jun 1869 in Nankin Twnshp, Wayne Co, Michigan.

63: Anna Samuels was born in 1809 in New York and died on 8 Mar 1887 in Nankin Township, Wayne, Michigan.

#61 Mary Matteson

#62 George W. Bedell

#63 Anna Samuels

 If you have been following my blog, you know that I’m all about photos. I was curious, how many photos do I have of my 3rd great-grandparents? Remember, they were born over 200 years ago! It turns out that I have 6 photos of my great-great-great-grandparents, one even of someone born in 1798!

My Husband’s 3rd Great-Grandparents:

For my husband’s family, I have found ALL of his 3rd great-grandparents. Here’s his 32:

#32 Jacob Breyfogle

32: Jacob Breyfogle was born on 1 OCT 1805 in , Berks, Pennsylvania, United States and died on 30 Aug 1871 in Briggsville?.

33: Elizabeth Keen was born on 11 SEP 1811 in Pennsylvania and died on 7 Dec 1876 in Briggsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

34: William Santee was born on 11 FEB 1811 in Pennsylvania and died on 11 FEB 1852 in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

35: Sarah McCafferty was born on 12 DEC 1816 in Pennsylvania and died on 9 FEB 1858 in Bradford Co., Pennsylvania.

36: George Pealer was born on 14 AUG 1818 in Fishing Creek, Columbia, Pennsylvania, United States and died on 9 DEC 1897 in Fishing Creek Twp, Columbia, Pennsylvania, USA.

37: Rebecca Boyd Hampton was born on 2 FEB 1820 in Bloomsburg, Columbia, Pennsylvania and died on 7 MAR 1876 in Fishing Creek, Columbia, Pennsylvania, USA.

38: Benjamin Miller Stephens was born on 13 JAN 1815 in Huntington, Luzerne County, PA and died on 9 JUN 1890 in Huntington, Luzerne County, PA.

39: Mary Ann Fellows was born on 29 MAY 1815 in Huntington, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, United States and died on 20 FEB 1892 in Luzerne, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, United States.

40: Pieter Joostz den Boer was born on 28 Dec 1804 in Elkerzee, Schouwen-Duiveland, Zeeland, Netherlands and died on 2 July 1848 in Duivendijke, Netherlands.

41: Lena Marinnusses Stoel was born on 28 June 1816 in Elkerzee, Schouwen-Duiveland, Zeeland, Netherlands and died in 1860 in Grand Rapids (Kent, Michigan, USA).

#33 Elizabeth Keen

42: Dingenus MOERDIJK was born on 12 Jun 1806 in Baarland, Borsele, Zeeland, Netherlands and died on 20 Jul 1845 in Baarland, Borsele, Zeeland, Netherlands.

43: Cornelia Huijzen was born in 1812 in Baarland, Borsele, Zeeland, Netherlands.

44: Jan Jurjines Van Dam was born on 3 APR 1803 in Eenrum, De Marne, Groningen and died on 11 DEC 1888 in Plainfield Township, Kent, MI.

45: Frouwke Wickers Rijpenga was born on 17 JUL 1803 in Loppersum, Groningen, Netherlands and died on 24 May 1898 in Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, USA.

46: Harm Pieters van der Veen was born on 8 JUN 1811 in Oosterwijtwerd, Loppersum, Groningen, Netherlands and died on 20 AUG 1889 in Wyoming, Kent, Michigan, USA.

47: Aafke Heikes Kamp was born on 16 SEP 1814 in Oldenzijl, Eemsmond, Groningen, Netherlands and died on 28 NOV 1862 in Garsthuizen, Loppersum, Groningen, Netherlands.

48: John Bachar was born on 7 January 1787 in Somerset, Pennsylvania, United States and died on 24 September 1858 in Ohio, United States of America.

49: Julianna Judith Rough was born on 24 Feb 1798 in Pennsylvania and died on 2 Mar 1832 in Franklin County, Ohio, USA.

50: John Monroe Fenstermacher was born on 23 Jun 1805 in Northumberland, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States and died on 1 Aug 1873 in Amanda, Hancock, Ohio, United States.

51: Mary Catherine Beck was born on 28 Mar 1806 in Nazareth Township, Northampton County, PA and died on 4 Sep 1887 in Ridge, Van Wert, Ohio, United States.

#36 Jacob Pealer

52: Simeon Maxson Howell was born on 9 Apr 1817 in Turtle Creek, Shelby, Ohio, United States and died on 9 NOV 1900 in Santa Fe, Auglaize, Ohio, United States.

53: Hannah Mahala Horner was born in March 1821 in Thirsk, Yorkshire, ENGLAND and died on 10 AUG 1862 in Washington, Auglaize, Ohio, United States.

54: Thomas Cochlin was born on 2 FEB 1825 in Maryland and died on 1 Jan 1881 in Ohio, United States.

55: Mary Elliott was born on 17 JUL 1829 in Licking, Co., OH and died on 27 Aug 1909; her mother died in 1838, so she was raised by Richard's 2nd wife, Sarah Howell d/o David 1777 in Auglaize County, Ohio, United States of America.

56: Samuel G. Conklin was born on 16 OCT 1808 in Livingston County, NY and died on 29 APR 1877 in near Tecumseh.

57: Lucetta Brazie (or Beazie) or Bresie was born on 25 FEB 1813 in Livingston County, NY and died on 12 AUG 1877 in Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan, USA.

58: Anson Bennett Webster was born on 15 AUG 1809 in Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont and died on 11 OCT 1854 in Darlington, Montgomery, Indiana.

59: Harriet Mariah Spofford was born on 16 JAN 1816 in Hopkinton, Merrimack, New Hampshire, United States and died on 30 JUL 1898 in Tecumseh, Lenawee, Michigan, United States.

60: Joseph Howell was born on 5 MAY 1803 in Covert, Seneca, New York, United States and died on 18 MAR 1888 in Macon, Lenawee, Michigan, United States.

61: Lutitia Van Duyn was born on 19 OCT 1803 in Ovid, Seneca County, New York, USA and died on 30 APR 1876 in Macon, Lenawee, Michigan, United States.

#52 Simeon Maxson Howell

62: James Leonardo Remington was born on 2 JUN 1814 in Hancock, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States and died on 26 MAY 1894 in Tecumseh, Lenawee Co, MI.

63: Elizabeth Ann Wheeler was born on 18 NOV 1823 in Alleghany Co, NY and died on 6 SEP 1900 in Tecumseh, Lenawee Co, MI.

And how many photos do I have from his 32 3rd great-grandparents? TEN!!

#56 Samuel G. Conklin

#57 Lucetta Brazie

#59 Harriet Spofford

#60 Joseph Howell

#62 James L. Remington

#63 Elizabeth Wheeler

What blows my mind to think is that my daughters can now name 60 of their possible 64 4th great-grandparents and have photos of 25% of the known 4th (!!) great grandparents. How many people do you think can say that?!