A Practice Run

 This past year I gave the most wonderful gift to my in-laws which they embraced and it turned out to be an amazing gift for the whole family. The gift was a year's subscription to Storyworth which resulted in two beautiful books filled with stories by each of them. Each week, they were sent a question (you can write your own or use pre-populated ones) via email that they thought about and then responded. We now have a collection of wonderful stories about them from their memory. (I highly encourage this, even if the recipient doesn't use email, you could ask the questions and transcribe their answers.)

A Fun Coincidence

In October, I asked about their most memorable Halloween or costume. My father-in-law shared about the first costume he made entirely by himself. He mentioned that he had won an award for his town of Three Rivers, Michigan for his creative costume and a photo of him in his costume was in the newspaper. 

As a family historian, I just had to look for this newspaper photo! Searching through my subscription services for newspapers.com and free Library of Congress didn't net a digitized version of the Three Rivers Commercial. My search took me to the Three Rivers Public Library website and a call to the library. I asked if they could share their collection in some digital way, they couldn't, but they offered their research services to look for it.  I took the bait and just over a week later, I had what I wanted and MORE!!

Since I didn't know the exact year for the Halloween he was referring to, I had them search the newspaper for the week before and after Halloween for about an 8 year span. I asked them to send me anything they found about Bill or his parents during this time. They found the newspaper photo of Bill in his horse costume in 1944.

Three Rivers Commercial, Nov. 1, 1944

Three Rivers Commercial, October 24, 1939

What I didn't expect was the second photo! At first, I couldn't believe it. Why did they send me a photo of Ruth Bowker (his eventual wife) at her 6th birthday party? I didn't tell them that she was his wife or that she lived in Three Rivers. Well, Billy was at her party, so while the library had no idea who Ruth was, they were searching for Bill and found him! How lucky was I that Ruth's birthday fell within 2 weeks of Halloween?! And that they lived in a small town that covered little girls' birthday parties. (It probably helped that her father was a pastor in a local church.)

What Did I Learn? 

Don't ever limit my search, because you can find unexpected treasures when you cast a wide net and search far and wide! And I definitely needed to go myself to the Three Rivers Public Library and search the Three Rivers Commercial newspaper myself!

The Practice Run

We spent Christmas with my in-laws, which is close to Three Rivers, so I wanted to go to the library and start searching for myself. My husband's family spent four generations in Three Rivers, Michigan, so there is much to investigate. I only had 1.5 hours to spend at the library, but it was a start to allow me to practice in person research and more importantly, document my search so that I can pick up where I left off when I return again. There were numerous articles I found, but I learned something else:

• When you have limited time, focus on the dates of "big events" in a life, like births, deaths, and high school graduations!

I have included here the high school graduation (and end of the school year announcement) for my husband's great-grandmother, Mary Ann (Mattie) Pealer Breyfogle in June 1889 because it's a fun reminder of how the newspaper in a small town was more than just reporting the news:

And the most impressive find was impressive only because of the man it was written about. The obituary for my husband's great-great-grandfather, Russel Ralph Pealer was on the front page with his photo in the Three Rivers paper The Daily Commercial March 7, 1919 issue. Definitely a man to be admired.

Russel Ralph Pealer, The Daily Commercial, March 7, 1919

If you would like to read the entire obituary, please click here.

My journey is about to begin and I think the practice run was a success!

A Journey in the Making

This is my first blog posting. Ever. I'm nervous. I'm excited. And I'm ready....I think! 

The Beginning 

My family history journey first began like so many others...in 8th grade, I was assigned a family tree project. Fortunately, my maternal great-grandmother, Florence Mary Stoddard (a member of DAR) had given my mom a copy of "Ancestors of Rodman Stoddard of Woodbury" (1893) by Edward Deacon.

Florence Mary Stoddard with daughter Virginia, c. 1907

This allowed me a start, but my father's family had (and continues to have) many deadends. Both of my father's paternal grandfathers (Emanuel Mazziotti and Alonzo Sedlock) were immigrants to the US in the late 1800's/early 1900's. One was an orphan from Italy (affectionately known as "mystery orphan baby" in my immediate family), the other wasn't an orphan but his parentage wasn't known and he came from Hungary/Slovakia.

Louisa Hillman-Ruth-Alonzo Sedlock, c. 1908

Emmanuel Antonio Mazziotti &
Concetta Mortelliti, c. 1908

I dabbled for much of my adult life whenever I had chunks of time..usually in the summers since my work follows a school-year calendar...and became much more serious since beginning an Ancestry.com membership in 2009.

• My family tree (Mazziotti-Martelliti-Sedlock-Hillmann-Tubbs-Stoddard-Leach-Orcutt) has over 25,000 names, just shy of 24,000 records and nearly 2,500 photos.
• My husband's tree (Breyfogle-Pealer-DeBoer-VanDam-Baucher-Howell-Conklin-Howell) has nearly 4,000 names and over 6,000 records. And, yes, I know there are two Howell's, they are actually (at this point) unrelated branches in my husband's family. 😀

I've learned a lot since I started these trees and there are problems with them! I know it and am slowly correcting them. (Happy to collaborate and share with anyone, my trees are open and available...always looking for photos to bring our ancestors "alive".)

DNA Beginnings

Staying close to home during COVID gave me the opportunity to jump into DNA. My parents, daughter, sister, niece, 1st cousin, and myself have done either AncestryDNA, 23andme, or both. I have also taken advantage of myHeritage, GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA, and DNApainter.

Some family members would say that I have become a bit obsessed with DNA, maybe that's my mathematically trained brain, but I truly appreciate analyzing matches, categorizing families, and using the DNApainter tool to map my and my parents' origins to their DNA segments. I also learned how to use the WATO (what are the odds) tool and am now fairly certain that I have identified Emanuel Mazziotti's father (aka "mystery orphan baby") and similarly certain that Alonzo Sedlock's mother Elizabeth is the biological sister to Frank Christoff.

      

Some Helpful Resources

In the past year, I have become A LOT more serious about family history and learning to become a better historian. I have invested in a few really amazing and worthwhile resources and for anyone else who is just starting out and wants to learn, I make a few recommendations:

• GenealogyGems by Lisa Louise Cooke. This is a MUST! You don't need to be a Premium Member to take advantage of her Gems, but for $49.95/year it is most certainly worth it!
• She has been hosting podcasts since 2013 and has YouTube videos and as a Premium member she has shownotes and exclusive information that supplements all of her podcasts and videos and it is totally worth it!
• Lisa Louise has truly been my guide and inspiration for my recent deep dive. Her book The Genealogists Google Toolbox and all of her tricks and advice to better researching has made me an incredible investigator and so much more efficient. Thank you, Lisa Louise, I truly appreciate you and everyone who works at GenealogyGems!

• FamilyTree Magazine. I started with the paper subscription of the magazine and really look forward to it arriving in my mailbox every other month.
• For example, in the January/February 2023 issue, I appreciated the article "14 One-Day Organization Projects" and also the link to the extremely helpful FREE worksheets. There are over 100 FREE worksheets or hints that every family historian could use. In my searching yesterday, I came across the standard family group sheets and 5-generation trees all included in the "10 Essential Family Tree Forms", but also some very helpful compilations like an Old Occupation Glossary Was one of your ancestors an "accomptant", "slopseller" or a "bluestocking"? (Maybe you already knew these occupations? Then maybe you don't need this glossary, but I do!) I also downloaded the State Census Chart which provides a quick reference guide to the years that various states have state census records.
• I now also purchased access to the digital archives with hundreds of past issues. I will say that I have found Family Tree's constant emailing and marketing sometimes a bit overwhelming and I still haven't figured out the various subscriptions, but the benefits of the magazine outweigh the intrusiveness of the marketing for me.
• YourDNAGuide by Diohan Southard is also an amazing resource.
  
  
  Thanks to Lisa Louise Cooke and Family Tree Magazine, I was introduced to Diohan. Her free resources like her blogs and YouTube videos are also amazing, but I have now started taking advantage of her classes. Right now I am finishing up the myHeritage DNA Tour and even though I have figured out much of it on my own, I have picked up a few gems including how to better utilize my results more efficiently.
• Rootstech 2022 and 2023!! Last year, as a result of COVID, Rootstech hosted by FamilySearch held their conference virtually and I tried it! There were an incredible number of sessions and speakers and I couldn't get enough. This year, I'm going in person and I cannot wait! You can still be one of the millions of virtual participants, if you want, and it's FREE!
  

Why Now?

In 2023, I will be on a sabbatical from my regular job and while I will have obligations and deadlines to meet, my time will be a little more of my own. As a result, I have decided to devote more of my time to my family history and maybe break down some of these "brick walls" and do some real "in person" and "dig into the archives" research!

I thought that the best way to hold myself accountable and also do a better job chronicling my research is to share it with the world. Maybe no one will be reading my journey along the way? Honestly, that's okay with me! I imagine it will be helpful and motivating to me anyway. But maybe my journey this next year will be helpful or even inspire someone else in their journey. And who knows, maybe I will even connect up with some new cousins along the way?!   

What Now?

I have HUGE plans for this calendar year! Some may not pan out, but some are already planned! Starting in January, I will begin planning and preparing for my trip with Ancestry Seekers to spend a week at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City and then Rootstech, but before that, I will stop in at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, IN. I can't wait to dig in!

I *think* I'm ready for drinking from a firehose!