Grandma's Granny's Family Album

 Next step!    I sent in my documentation for Generations 14 through 11, since I have those documents pretty readily available.  (see Sulzbach and Spence Pedigree charts) I have now heard back from the Mayflower Society's Assistant Historian with her evaluation.   Any records newer than 1900 have very strict guidelines.  Each person has to have birth, marriage, and death certificates, and their spouse does too.   And the records have to give their parents' names.  Urggh.   Generation 13 - Anne Augusta Robertson Sulzbach & Spouse No good!   No parents' names, even tho their parents' names are clearly listed on all their other documents.  Doesn't the Mayflower Society know how pathetically sparse New York City documents are? Now I have to send for a New York City marriage certificate with parents' names, if there even is one.  How long do you think that will take, with the Health Dept overcome with COVID? All the following documents are OK: Generation 12 - Bes

A baby named Johann Georg Richters was baptized on 10 August 1759, in Wechmar, a town in what is today Thuringia, Germany, but then was part of the German staat Sachsen (Saxony).  He was only one day old.  His parents were Johann Gottfried Richters and Barbara Christina Hanwin Richters.  I think this baby is our Original Rector Ancestor in North America, Franz Georg Richter. Six years later, he had a sister named Catharina Eleonora. This sister may have been the first Ellen/Ellenor/Ella in our family, and she is why I really like this family to be ours.  I have never seen another German with the name Eleonora.  (see Spence Pedigree Chart).  the village church in Wechmar Germans in the 1600s through 1800s had a lot of given names, all of which did not make it into every record.  It's quite possible that his full name was Johann Franz Georg Richter.  In German naming patterns, the first name, the Vorname or forename, is shared with many or all the brothers, father, grandfather.  The

Remember from Part 1, we are looking for the First Rector in Nova Scotia, or the father of my foremother Ellenor Rector Spence, who I hope is the same person (see Spence Pedigree Chart).  As we left our last episode, we had just hit the jackpot! Crown Land Grant Map If all those Samuels are named after the first Spence man I can find, and all the Roberts are named after Ellenor's possible brother, and all the Reubens are named after the "ugliest, meanest, bad-tempered man that God ever gave breath to," then who are all the George Francises named after?  Surely, the First Rector in Nova Scotia - the Original - the Founding Father? So I was not at all surprised when the jackpot, a land grant petition, was signed by the mark of George Rector. The petition is made to His Excellency Sir George Prevost Baronet, Lieutenant Governor and Commander in chief in and over His Majestys Province of Nova Scotia.  Our George had petitioned for land before, to the previous governor, Sir Jo

 If you listen to any Spence stories or look at any Spence documents (see Spence Pedigree Chart), there are 3 things that stick out after a while: 1) The Spences and Rectors intermarry A LOT 2) There are a lot of Reuben Spences and Reuben Rectors 3) There are a lot of George Francis Spences and George Francis Rectors I can hear Aunt Anna talk over and over about "Fred Rector, Fred Rector, Fred Rector."  The man was never Fred.  He was always Fred Rector.  Less often, there was Jim Rector, his brother.  Fred Rector moved to Australia.  Somebody there corresponded with my grandmother Bessie, and we got thin blue airmail postmarked Tasmania with kiwi stamps.  My mother visited his children, Carl and Betty.                                   It turns out that Fred and Jim Rector grew up on Aberdeen St., Springhill, affectionately known as Spence's Island because almost everyone there was a Spence.  They moved from next door to Uncle Sam and Aunt Mary Ann, to living with them,

Did you think the story of Alexandra eloping to marry outside of her religion and then disappearing was interesting?  Or did you prefer Amelia's son Benjamin, who married a woman 40 years younger and promptly died, leaving a 20-something in affluent Manhattan during the Depression who spent 70 years as a widow? Just wait till you hear the story of Josephine.   Are these my grandmother Arabella's snobby sisters about 1910? (see Sulzbach Pedigree Chart) Do you think this describes Josephine on the right? Recap :  My cousin Ann Smith told me the story of how our grandmother, Arabella Katherine Zoeller Sulzbach, was looked down on by her sisters because her husband, our grandfather Jacob Sulzbach, silk factory owner, didn't make as much money as their husbands.  We have decided that Amelia was a snob and Alexandra wasn't, and that leaves us to examine Josephine, Annie, and Kate. I found Kate in 1892 living with Arabella, helping take care of the kids.  I hadn't noticed

What led to this exciting discovery?  (  See Presbury - Mayflower Pedigree Chart, West Pedigree Chart, and Spence Pedigree Chart.) First, I had always heard the legend, (from Cousin Howie Spence, storyteller extraordinaire, and my grandmother Bessie Spence Robertson) that we are related to Sir Charles Tupper, a founding father of Canada, the first premier, and a governor of Nova Scotia.  Super important guy.  Sir Charles is supposed to be a cousin of Grannie, Phoebe Esther Rushton Spence, mother of Bessie.  Of course when I was a kid I thought all cousins had the same grandparents, and I was a little disappointed to learn that Sir Charles could be our 2nd, 3rd, or 4th cousin. I looked him up in the encyclopedia, and I found that his father, Rev. Charles Tupper, was a minister in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.  I knew that our Rushtons lived in Cumberland County since the time of the Revolution, so that made sense, even tho the encyclopedia didn't show any connection. When I joine

Remember, we are searching for my grandmother Arabella's snobby sisters, who looked down on her because her husband didn't make as much money as theirs did. (see Sulzbach Pedigree chart). My choices are:  Amelia, Barbara Josephine, Alexandra, Annie, or Kate.  By 1870, they were 23, 21, 17, 13, and 8, but the oldest three weren't at home.  Where were they? Then, a Eureka! moment.  Familysearch put New York City marriage records on their website, and they had considerable info.  Turns out that the Alexandra Zoeller in the record who got married at the unlikely age of 15, really was 15!  Even more incredible, she married Charles Plettau, age 19, at the rectory of the Lutheran minister.  Complete heresy for a Catholic family.  15 years old, wrong boy, wrong religion?  She definitely eloped.   Just as certain, she could never come home again, and probably even contacting her family would be verboten.  The child who was named Alexandra Theodora after her father turned out to be a