Dear Prospective Cousin, I think you and I may be leaves on the same family tree! According to the relationship chart below, your mother (or grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, sister, sister-in-law, spouse’s cousin) Alice Hester Clarke Jenkinson was my first-cousin thrice removed. That may sound distant but consider this; Alice’s father Elmer and my 2nd great-grandfather…
Something had clearly been erased and a new word written in it’s place. I assumed “farmer” was the erased word. That’s the occupation I most often associated with my 2nd great-grandfather William Penrod CLARKE. And optician? Why would the census taker have written that? William was the second of 11 children born to shoemaker Morgan…
Every person bitten by the genealogy bug knows the danger/value of exploring collateral lines. The Clarke branch of my family tree is a maze of interesting twists and turns. I often learn more about my Clarke direct line ancestors by focusing less on them and more on the people with whom they have connections. I’ve…
Several unrelated couples in my family tree eloped from Chicago to St Joseph Michigan. One day I asked my great-uncle (his mother was 1/2 of one of those couples) why? Uncle Fran said it was a lovely beach resort community and that people would not only elope to St Joseph, but honeymoon there as well.…
Franklin Whitfield Blake died on this day in 1955. Frank and I don’t share any DNA, but he does reside in a branch of my family tree. Seeing him on my Family Tree Maker calendar was a reminder to take another look at that somewhat neglected branch. Franklin Whitfield Blake married Zora Susan Clarke 05 Apr…
In the 1870 census, the Clark family of Funkstown Maryland looked like many families of their time. As the head of the household, Morgan was a shoemaker. His wife Susan stayed home to take care of their eight children: The next census tells a drastically different story: Morgan lived with his sister Henrietta and her…
According to the 1870 census, my third great-grandparents 40 year old shoemaker Morgan Clark and his 34 year old wife Susan have eight children. The census taker also recorded the families living near the Clarks. It was interesting to read the list of names, but it was far more interesting to see the neighborhood in 1877,…
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