Catching You Up

     I've been trying to figure out a way to catch you up with the basic work I'd done prior to starting the blog, in a way you could see it [as opposed to yet another long-winded post.].  [Update: I figured out a better way to post it. (Click on the picture to embiggen.)]

      Prior to the start of the blog, I began working my way up the family tree, starting with my maternal grandmother, Mabel LeRe Erwin, and going up through her mother, Fannie S. Hartman Erwin. In order to have the picture stay on one page, I've begun the started tree below with Fannie. My Great-Grandfather, Vernon Erwin, was Fannie's second husband. I have some information on my grandmother's half-siblings, and on other siblings/children and every level, but for the purposes of the above tree, I limited the information displayed to the direct line ancestors to keep it from being too busy to look and and understand easily (these people have big families!). These are the people I've documented as being in our family tree through my first pass through of checking Ancestry.com's little wiggling leaves (that's how Ancestry indicates it has "hints" to be looked at relating to this person).

      Based on what I know so far, as I dig deeper into their lives and history, I'll be learning a lot more about the history of Wayne & Hancock counties in Ohio, and certain portions of Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Johan Gorg Whonsetler and his son Nicholas may have been born in Germany the country...or in Germany Township, Adams Co. Pennsylvania. I have something that says Germany, but since everything else in their lives says Pennsylvania, and I know there's a Germany Township in PA that was being created about then (the benefits of going to college in Pennsylvania...) I'm not sure but what they may have come from Germany township, rather than the country. This is one of the points I intend to nail down in later research into these people. [Catherine Meyers' and Frances Speicher's potential parents were among those I had to take off because I couldn't truly document the connection; that's were I lost another Germany connection. But, who knows, I may get them back in later research.] From now on I'll be reporting weekly on what I've done and/or discovered; foundation and catch up posts are done.