Saturday Night Fun

Join Randy at Genea-Musing for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here's tonights assignment:

1)  Sunday, 16 June, is Father's Day.  Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about our Father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather).

2)  What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him?

3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post.

Since my Dad passed away when I was a baby and I have no memories of him, I've decided to write about my maternal Grandfather.

My Grandfather was Bartley Roger Bestor (1921-2007)born in Kankakee Illinois.  He was the only child of Don Bestor and Harriet Cyrier.  He married Virginia Stanley in 1945 in Florida and they had six children; five daughters and one son. He died in Sun City Arizona surrounded by his family.

Three things I vividly remember about my Grandpa are:

1.) His passion for photography.  He loved spending his days out in nature taking magnificent pictures of animals, tree's and the outdoors.  After his passing my Grandmother gave me two of hi prints he had entered into a photo contest..both winning first place ribbons.

2.) His pride about his family.  At the time my grandfather passed away he had 6 children, 19 Grandchildren and 9 Great-Grandchildren.  Being an only child himself, he loved how his family had grown and being surrounded by his "broad" as he called us, brought a smile to his face.

3.) His sense of humor.  My Grandfather loved to laugh and was a great jokester.  When I was about 11 years old my mom and I were visiting him and my grandmother and nonchalantly he removed his dentures when no one was looking.  He said something to my Mom and gave her a great big gummy smile and my Mom nearly fell out of her chair.  It was the funniest reaction I had ever seen.

About.com Reader's Choice Awards

Stop by the About Genealogy site to cast your votes for the 2013 Reader's Choice Awards.

There are some great nominees.

The Ancestors' Geneameme

I haven't posted in a very long time....just too little spare time these days.

I came across a blog today with a fun little activity I decided to participate in.  Visit Geniaus to participate.
The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type

Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)

Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item
Which of these apply to you?

Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents

Can name over 50 direct ancestors

Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents (I have 6 of 8.....both my paternal great-grandfathers remain elusive.)

Have an ancestor who was married more than three times (well, my great-grandfather was married 3 times exactly)

Have an ancestor who was a bigamist (well, in reference to the above Great-grandfather.....he got his second wife pregnant before he was divorced from his first wife...does that count??)

Met all four of my grandparents (both my paternal grandparents died long before I was born)

Met one or more of my great-grandparents (2 of my maternal great-grandparents died while my mother was pregnant with me.)

Named a child after an ancestor (Emily)

Bear an ancestor's given name/s (variations of.....My Great-Great-Grandmother was Christina, My middle name is Christine, My Great-Great-Aunt was Hilda, I am Hillary)

Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland

Have an ancestor from Asia

Have an ancestor from Continental Europe

Have an ancestor from Africa

Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer

Have an ancestor who had large land holdings

Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi

Have an ancestor who was a midwife

Have an ancestor who was an author (Great-grandfather was a famous song writer in the 20's & 30's.  He wrote Animal Crackers in My Soup, Shuffle Off to Buffalo and the J-E-L-L-O Jingle to name a few)

Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones

Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng

Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X

Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z (Zachariah

Have an ancestor born on 25th December (a 1st cousin actaully)

Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day

Have blue blood in your family lines

Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth

Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth

Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century

Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier

Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents

Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X

Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university (University of Houston graduate)

Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (Great-grandfather mentioned earlier spent 4 days in an Illinois jail for failure to pay child support)

Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime (not my line, but my husbands.......rape)

Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine (Tell us where) here on this blog and at ancestry.com

Have published a family history online or in print (Details please)

Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries

Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family

Have a family bible from the 19th Century

Have a pre-19th century family bible

Wednesdays Child -- Hilda A. E. & Edith L.V. Stanley

Hilda A. E. Stanley

1892-1895

Edith L.V. Stanley

1907-1909

These are my 2xGreat-Aunts.  They were the daughters of Arthur Richard & B.Christina Stanley.

While I don't know how Hilda died, this is one of my many research "To-Do's" for this family

, I do know Edith died from a ruptured appendicitis at the age of 2.

I'm always surprised to learn how often history repeats it's self.  This is one of those cases. 

My aunt, at the age of 2, also nearly died from a ruptured appendicitis in 1966.

Thanks to advances in the medical field, my aunt survived.

Tuesday's Tip #2 -- Interviewing

I have interviewed my grandparents multiple times over the years and each time I always learn more information.

This past Sunday I spent the enitre day with my Grandmother and ofcourse we discussed family history.  I had brought with me a small album with copies of pictures my Grandfather had given me about 15 years ago.  AMong the pictures there were several photos of my Grandmother as a little girl and on the back it said "Gin, Baboosic Lake, New Hampshire."  I knew her parents had a summer home on Cape Cod and I asked her why there were so many photos from Baboosic Lake, had they had a home there as well? 

"Oh no" she says, "my grandmother's brother lived there and we woiuld visit him."

"WHAT???" I said stunned.  Never in ALL the years had she EVER said her grandmother had a brother!!!  Two sisters, yes, brothers....NEVER!!!!!   

It turns out she had TWO brothers!  One, Andrew Nielson (Nilsson), lived with his wife Sarah in New Hampshire, while her other brother, Peter lived in Connecticut with his wife Jeanne.

So with that new discovery I've been reviewing my "list" of questions, and learned one vital rule..............MAKE YOUR QUESTIONS VERY SPECIFIC!!! Do not ask general questions!!

Another thing I learned......always, whenever possible, have handy visual prompts, which may help the person you are interviewing "remember" more detail.

A blog that currently has a list of 50 great questions to ask a relative is Family History with the Lineage Keeper  This is a great list to get you going, but again, whenever possible make the question very specific!!

Surname Saturday -- Things that make you go "Hmmm?"

About a year ago my mother and father-in-law asked me to do some genealogy research on their family lines.  I was excited to do so.

I started with the paternal line of my Father-in-law..............MARVIER.  I figured it was an unsual name and would be fairly easy to trace.........more so than GREEN anyway.

This is Tony Marvier, my husbands grandfather and my Father-in-laws Dad. 

Tony was an only child, who came to America from England in 1908 with his widowed mother, Julia.  He would marry Margaret O'Connell and have 5 children; 4 sons & a daughter.  Tony died from Parkinsons in 1968.

So, armed with the knowlegde provided by my father-in-law, I started working my way backwards in time.

First bit of information I discovered came from his WW1 Draft Record on which he states his name as Vivian A. Marvier.  Ok not so unusual, we though he was Anthony Vivian...names refeversed.

Then I found his immigration records for 1908...again name is Vivian Marvier.  Perfect!

Then I find he and his mother Julia Marvieron the 1901 England census for Camberwell.  Julia is a widow and Tony is listed as Vivian Marvier.

Armed with the location information from the 1901 census, I search for a birth record in 1899 of which I do find.......

He was not born Vivian Anthony MARVIER at all...he was born Vivian Anthony DUPONT!!  There was no father listed!!

I have searched high and low for any marriage information for a Julia Dupont, both in England and in Port-Louis in the Island of Mauritius which is where Julia was from.  Nothing!

I have asked family members and no one can recall a father's name, some think perhaps the father was Edward Marvier, but again I can find no information for an Edward Marvier.

So I am left with the mystery of where on earth did the MARVIER name come from?  And WHO was Tony's father??



Friday Follow -- My picks for the week

This week, hectic as it has been for me, I found and started following these blogs.....

Remembering Those Who Came Before Us

A Grave Curiousity

Finding Kline

Clue Wagon

I also enjoyed post from these blogs I already follow.........

Stories Connect Love Heals

A Hundred Years Ago

Gretas Genealogy Bog

West In New England