Grandma's Granny's Family Album

These are some of my oldest photos:  pictures of Elizabeth Rushton Worden and her husband, Samuel Worden.  See Rushton Pedigree Chart.  Elizabeth is the daughter of Sarah Hall Rushton and Jeremiah Rushton.   Sarah and Jeremiah were newly married with a baby when they left Westchester County, New York Colony.  Elizabeth was born in their new home in Westchester, Nova Scotia.  Samuel was also from a Loyalist background born in Nova Scotia.  They ended up moving to Ontario.  This couple was born in 1793 and 1792, so if you think they are about 60, then these pictures were taken in 1850. Here's another really old picture.  This one is sweet baby Connie, this time with her mother, Phoebe Esther Rushton Spence.  (see Spence Pedigree Chart).  It's the oldest picture of Phoebe (Grannie, Grannie English) that we have and the only one where her hair is not gray.  If Constance Lenore Spence Robinson Thompson is, what do you think, 2 ...

Yes! I love death certificates!  See Spence and West Pedigree Charts for where these people fit in. Here's our ancestor, Grampa or Grampa English, William Mariner Spence. He died at 13 Aberdeen Street, Springhill, Cumberland County, his residence.  He had lived in Springhill for 70 years and all his life in Nova Scotia.  He was a male Canadian of English origin (hence the name Grampa English) and a widower.  He was born in NS on March 27, 1873, so when he died, he was 86 years, 3 months, and 4 days old.  He was a miner in the coal mining industry for 50 years, and had last worked there in 1947.  His wife, Mrs. Phoebe Spence, was deceased, and his parents, John Spence and Almira Pettigrew, were both born in NS.  The person giving all this info was his son, Harmon Spence of 4 Aberdeen St.  He was buried in Springhill on July 3 and the undertaker was R. H. Brown.  His date of death was July 1, 1959.   His doctor had been attending him ...

Here is one of my favorite records, a birth registration in the County of Cumberland, Nova Scotia, 1865.  (see Spence Pedigree Chart).  I love the way they are laid out, where you can see all the babies in the area, and the fountain of info they provide. Halfway down the page, you can see  #144 Samuel Matthew  Male Date and place of Birth................................................ 4 April 1865 Halfway River.   Name, Occupation, and Dwelling Place of Father...... John Spence, Laborer, Halfway River.   Name, and Maiden Name of Mother.......................... Ann Almirah Pettygrew.   When and where married............................................ 1 Aug 1865, Halfway River.   Informant......................................................................John Spence.   Deputy Registrar......................................................... Geo. B. Fullerton.   It sounds just like those German birth cer...

Yes I do! It's 2020, the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims on the ship Mayflower in Plymouth Colony, North America, the 28th European settlement in Atlantic North America.   The first 3 are: about 1000 - Norse in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland 1492 - Spanish in La Navidad, Hispaniola 1493 - Spanish in La Isabela, Hispaniola But how many of those 28 settlements were successful, you ask?  Well, that's a matter of interpretation.  How long does a colony have to last to be considered successful?  How about, were they permanently occupied from then on? The first 3 permanent European settlements in Atlantic North America: 1496 - Spanish in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 1519 - Spanish in Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, Mexico 1565 - Spanish at St. Augustine, Florida Plymouth is the 7th permanent European settlement. How about permanent AND English-speaking? OK, now it is sounding more familiar. 1st - 1607 - Jamestown, Virginia 2nd - 1620 - Plymouth, M...

If you want to see some beautiful intricate German script ( and official print) from the late 1800s, here's your chance. (see Wendel Pedigree Chart) The following documents are the marriage certificate of Friederike Wilhelmine Emilie Bettin and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Tetsch and the birth certificates of their 3 daughters born in Berlin.  If you ever thought the German language isn't pretty, you're wrong.  The bride's name is pronounced Freed-er-eek-a Vill-a-meen-a A-meel-ya.  The groom is a pretty straightforward Yo-honn Freed-rick Vill-helm. Yes, they have a lot of names.  But they called each other Emilie and Wilhelm, as Germans generally used the last one of their forenames, and when they got to New York, that became Emily and William. Nr. 262 Berlin, am achtund zwanzig Maerz, tausend acht hundert siebenzig und sechs.  Vor dem unterzeigneten Standesbeamten erstdiensten heute zum Oh!  You wanted it in English!  Oh, okay.  In Berlin, on eight-a...

 Their time in Rockenberg was healing.  (See Our Own Gesangverein ~ the Story of Katharina & Jakob Sulzbach, Part the First; see Sulzbach Pedigree Chart)  Every day Katharina stared out at the field over the gate and the brightness of the sun brought out salty tears that needed to come out.  The three of them, the four of them, seemed to take their place in long rows of ancestors in the fields, planted and harvested, some as tiny buds and others dried-out stalks, all in God's good time.                                                 In God's good time she cried over Margareta's clothes on the day when there were no longer any dresses to hand down to Barbara, since Barbara was now older than Margareta would ever be.  She put 3 favorites wrapped in soft paper, away in a box, and put all the others in a different, bigger box, for the new baby...

Ten thousand years ago, our ancestors lived on the coast of Norway, according to my son Erich's matrilineal DNA test he took, back when DNA testing first came out.  They say those original tests weren't that accurate and they have been taken down, but it makes sense to me.   That means 1000 years ago they were Vikings, exploring the unknown seas and terrorizing coastal communities.  They had equal rights for women, relatively speaking, so our foremothers were out attacking and plundering too.  See Spence, Rushton, West, Scholfield Pedigree Charts                                                              Matrilineal Ancestors Anne Elizabeth Sulzbach ...