First pass of Mom’s Maternal line

In the past week I got as far as it appears I can on this first pass through of my Mom’s mother’s side of the family. Earlier, in the Catching You Up post, I explained how far I’d gotten up Mom’s maternal grandmother’s line in this first pass and posted a picture of the direct line pedigree chart starting from Fannie (Hartman) Hart Erwin (which involved the following surnames: Diehl, Hart, Hartman, Meyers, Speicher, Whonsetler, Wonsetler/Wonsettler, and Zimmerman). Since then, I’ve been researching Mom’s maternal grandfather’s family, and have gotten as far as I can go on this first not-so-very-in-depth pass. I’ve got some good hints as to where I’ll be going in the next step up in general, on several of the lines, but I just can’t find/make the next connection using the family papers I have, Ancestry.com, Google EBooks for county history books, Fold3.com, Google, and Newspapers.com, alone, right now.  [Yes, I know I originally said I’d stick to Ancestry.com for the first pass – I got enticed and distracted. ; ) ]

Mom’s maternal grandfather’s family tree, as I have it now, looks like this (click to embiggen):

It involves folks with the following surnames: Conley, Cosner, Craig, Erwin, Lewis, Miller, Wilson. 

I can tell that in the next pass I will be doing a lot more research into North Carolina, as I have indication in the documentation I have that nearly everyone I lost the trail of was born in or spent some time in North Carolina. It shows that Judge William Erwin & his wife Lydia Lewis were born in North Carolina, as were both Henry Conley, his father John, and his father John, and Henry’s wife Sarah Cosner. I have some indication that Judge William Erwin’s father, William, may have been born in Ireland. Adam Craig may have at one point been in Tennessee, since his daughter, Eliza Ann, was born in that state, but I really know very little about him. I know nothing about either John Conley's (1776-1853) wife or his mother.

Putting together the charts for my Mom's maternal line, the direct line chart of my maternal grandmother (Mom’s Mother, Mabel Erwin), as I have it now, looks like this (click to embiggen):

I’ve been reading up on lots of other possible types of searches for the second pass. That pass will take more time and more patience. I can see now too, that I will probably take some time off searching between the two passes to create and/or organize my physical files in a much better way as that will help me make a better and more successful search ultimately. I will probably also be sending out emails/letters to older relatives requesting memories/stories they have of their relatives/ancestors as those would both help my search and provide body & color to the bare bones of my document search to help me know my ancestors more as people. But first I must finish the first pass of the rest of the family.

This weekend I started the first pass of my mother’s paternal line of the family. I have some help with this side in the form of handwritten remembrances of her own family and family tree, and that of her husband, by my great grandmother, Pearl Pauline Bailey.  I started by entering her remembered connections and names as she wrote them into Ancestry.com and waited overnight for little wiggling leaves to show up to hopefully verify her memories. I’ve already discovered that her remembrances of family history aren’t entirely accurate. So, while it’s a start, it all must be verified. Fun!

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.