First Family of PA Comes to Life!

This week, two exciting things came together for a really interesting week. 

LiveMemoryTM 

First, Geneamusings (Randy Seaver) announced a new feature available on MyHeritage APP called "LiveMemoryTM " that uses AI to make a 5 second video out of a photo. It's more than just animating there is significant movement. Right now it is free to try and I tried it on 3 photos so far. There are problems, of course, but it is fascinating and really brings the people to life! I tried it on Jim's 3rd great-grandfather, Jacob Breyvogel/Breyfogle who was born in Berks County, PA in 1805. This photo (based on his necktie and wide lapels of his suit) was taken between 1860 and 1870. He died in 1871, so that is the latest this could have been.  Try the video and tell me what you think!!

Jacqueline_Wolfe shared this photo 

on Ancestry.com in 2016.

First Families of PA

Second, I learned about an opportunity to record Jim's lineage through the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. It's not really a Lineage Society, more like an opportunity to record and allow others to learn about their history. The program is First Families of PA and they have four "levels" of membership based on the time frame for when your ancestors arrived to PA. 

Wedding Announcement in the Bloomsburg, PA
Newspaper "The Star of the North" 1861

You can probably tell where this is going. Yes, I spent about 15 hours putting together all of the documents required to "prove" Jim's family back to Jacob Breyvogel who fits early in the Keystone and Cornerstone (1791-1865) category. The packet ended up being nearly 50 sheets of paper that includes everything from birth/marriage/death certificates for those that existed for both members of the couple at each generation to newspaper clippings when records aren't available, like this newspaper clipping for John H. Breyfogle and Elizabeth Harriet Santee in 1861. Apparently getting names wrong in the newspaper is not a new thing....Driefagle is Breyfogle. Yep!

This is John and Elizabeth(Santee)
Breyfogle in their younger years.
Photo provided by Holly Prescott
in 2014 in Ancestry.com

The documentation to Jacob's father, Daniel Breyfogle (1775-1849), is not yet to the level the society accepts and although I have documentation that puts the Breyfogle's in PA as early as 1744, proving the connection between generations can be a little tricky. I will work on it, once I know that this first application was accepted! 

Jim's grandfather (Russel Pealer Breyfogle) and his mother (Mary Ann Pealer) were born in Michigan, but everyone else in this tree were Pennsylvania residents. None of these family names were yet to be listed among the First Families, so I have a little work (and investment, each application costs $75) ahead of me, but it is my goal to prove them. 

Pioneer Certificates

I don't know if every state has some sort of equivalent to First Families or Pioneer families, but Michigan does, too! In an earlier blog (Michigan, my Michigan) I shared that my mother's family has every grandparents and their ancestors coming (or being born) in Michigan back to at least the 1860s. Michigan has only two levels: Pre-statehood (prior to 1837) and First Families.

After finishing Jim's PA First Families I decided that I would work on an easy line for me in the Michigan Pioneers. Again, none of my family names are already recorded so I have lots to choose from. I decided to go with the Stoddard family, my mother's maternal grandmother's side. This took me less than 10 hours and the application fee is only $25. I'm not sure if I am getting faster or because I have already submitted to DAR on this family I knew I had acceptable proof. 

So, the application is submitted for Rodman Stoddard and Mary Matteson as a couple and we'll see in about 4-6 weeks what the Michigan Genealogical Society has to say about my application. 

Mary Matteson Stoddard
(1809-1893)

Rodman and Mary have an interesting story, they actually met in 1822 in Canada when Mary's father (Epaphras Matteson) kept moving west with his family and Rodman was into lumbering. With Michigan opening up, Rodman ends up buying land in Michigan (in Detroit) and Epaphras buys in Ann Arbor around the same time in 1824. When Epaphras dies in May of 1828 and his wife about 6 months later Mary at 19 is left an orphan. Rodman and Mary get married a few short months after. 

The most interesting thing that I found while digging in to the documents were the Probate Records for Rodman Stoddard who died in 1853. Mary lives for another 40 years a widow spending her last decade in Reed City, where my great-grandmother (who I knew!) knew her.

I tried my hand at transcribing these Probate hand written documents from 1853 which clearly show that Henry Clay Stoddard was the son of Rodman and Mary and along with the headstone of Rodman and Mary I could prove their relation. Lots of fun!