Sports Center Saturday - Morse Chain 1952 Golf Team

I was sorting through files this morning and came upon three issues of the Morse Chain Echo. The reason these three were kept is because each featured a photo of my father, Edward Nunn. Previously, I had found his photo in the issue, but never took the time to really look through the rest of the magazine, until this morning.

I will continue to share photos of the people and events in these three issues. The photos of the department Christmas parties are wonderful, and each photo is labeled.  The issues I have are Aug-Sept 1950, Nov-Dec 1951, and May-June 1952.

Below is a page from the May-June 1952 issue and features the Morse Chain Twilight Golf team. 

Tuesday's Tip - Preparing for 1940

I confess that I am probably the only genealogist who is not counting down the days to April 2 and the release of the free 1940 census.  I can wait. The data will still be there when the servers are not so stressed! 

And since I had not thought much about this census, a recent presentation at the Fredericksburg Regional Genealogy Society did get my attention. The talk focused on the amount of preparation needed in order to successfully find people.  At first release this census will not be indexed – oh, how we have become so spoiled by that – and genealogists will need to know the Enumeration District in which their ancestors lived.  If you are lucky enough to have ancestors who aged in place, you can easily get that ED number from the 1930 census. If you suspect they did relocate in that ten years, you have any number of ways to help you determine their 1940 address. And we all hope our ancestor is listed on Line 14 or 29!

The speaker listed a few ways to find a 1940 address: city directories, WWII Draft Registration Records, Naturalization Petitions, family letters, land/tax records to name a few.

A good resource for preparing for the 1940 census is the National Archives, and to find that elusive ED number, Steve Morse comes to the rescue again! 

Family Search is in need of volunteers to index this census. Check their website for volunteer opportunities.

Although I won’t be logging onto the census on April 2, I will be prepared!!

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Favorite Free Online Tool

I feel somewhat like a broken record responding to this prompt. Because my favorite and most helpful free online tool has been and continues to be the Fulton History website.

Although other sites are frequently used, like Linkpendium, for those of us tracing Upstate New York ancestors, Fulton History remains the go-to site.

At this point over 18,269,000 newspaper pages are name searchable; that number changes frequently as new pages are scanned and put online.  There are now many newspaper pages from New York City, and into Connecticut.

The Fulton History site is a wonderful research tool for filling in the dash of your ancestors’ lives.  You learn about the friends and family they visited, to what church or civic committees the belonged, if they were active politically or ran for public office, and their obits provide a wealth of information. 

I learned of the unbelievable tragic events of 1904 that affected the Washington Hardenbrook family, and that my great-grandparents Enos and Laura Wortman Hardenbrook worked in a small Willow Creek Evaporator plant before they were married.

From Fulton History I learned that one of my relatives, Bertha H. La Clair, worked at the Craig Colony for epileptics in Sonyea, New York.  The Craig Colony was set up about 1896 to house 200 epileptics (many from Madison County) that were deemed to be self-supporting – to serve the indigent and not the insane. However, the colony, only reaching 50% self-sufficiency, received funding from Madison County as well as the state of New York.

And thanks to the Fulton History website, we continue to find very interesting articles on the elusive Lena Stanley Myers Blaskett and her ill-fated marriage to Joseph Myers, pretty much disputing the fact that although they both testified in their divorce hearing the marriage was never consummated….the newspaper articles found on Fulton History lead you to believe otherwise.  Determining the father of Lena’s son remains our great mystery to solve.

Thank you, Mr. Tryniski for providing genealogists with such a great resource!

Surname Saturday - Searching Tucker Cousins

When the 1830 family bible of my great-great-grandfather, William Lanning Tucker (b: 1839; d: 1859), came into my possession I was thrilled. That source provided names and birthdates of the ten children of Ezra D. and Caroline Lanning Tucker.

Ezra D. Tucker was born 25 August 1817 in New Jersey He died in 1898 at the age of 81. Ezra married Caroline Lanning on 21 February 1837 in Enfield, New York. Caroline was born 7 July 1817 and died 31 December 1894.  Living in their household was Caroline’s father, William Lanning. 

With this information in hand, I traced and “filled in the dash” of most of the children in that family line.  Although I have names, dates, and spouse information I do not have any photos of this family.  I would love to connect with any cousins who may have photos of this large family.

I was also fortune to acquire William Lanning Tucker’s diaries – a few he kept in the early 1920s when he was in his 80s.  Although sparsely written there are some precious entries, one in which he described the events surrounding the birth of my mother in 1924.  From his diary I learned how long my grandmother was in the hospital following the birth, and that she and the new baby were sent home in an ambulance!

The Genealogy Label I Am Most Proud To Wear

I have been pondering the question posed this morning on Geneabloggers, which was, as a genealogist, what do you want to be called? Examples suggested: amateur genealogist, professional genealogist, etc.

I hadn’t given much thought about what label I wear as I pursue my genealogy hobby.  Having said that, when the subject comes up, I describe my husband and myself as “genealogists.”   Since there are so many levels of knowledge in genealogical research, and always more to learn, I feel it unfair to add a qualifier. 

There are times I say, with a smile, that at the very beginning of my genealogy quest I was a “baby genealogist.”  When I was a baby genealogist…  After fourteen years of genealogy research, having produced one monograph with another almost ready for publication, I think of myself as a “genealogist.”

But the position I hold most dear is the one bestowed upon me by family members and that is of “family historian.”  I am honored to have been designated as the one who preserves our family history, photos, bibles and diaries.

Genealogy Goals for 2012

Since we will be in transition for the first three months this year, I am keeping my genealogy goals list short and hopefully attainable.

Journaling – I’m glad I kept a journal last year; consequently I will continue this habit of documentation.

Tompkins County Rootsweb – I will continue to provide the Tompkins County, New York genealogy website with old photos and typed obits for their scrapbook section.

Hardenbrook Monograph – Yes, darn it, I am going to finish the monograph on the Hardenbrook family of Upstate New York this year.

Nunn Monograph – I began my genealogy journey with the Joseph Nunn family of Germany and New York City. This family has been my nemesis from the start.  Maybe if I concentrate my efforts, I will have some luck knocking down the brick walls.  It was last year at this time I was contacted through my blog by a member of this family – related to the key person, my grandfather’s sister, Elizabeth Nunn Siebert Piepenburg. I was so excited.  I responded to the comment, but never heard from this woman again. What a heartbreak!  

Fredericksburg Genealogy – I will get involved with a local genealogy group here in Fredericksburg, Virginia.