A new leaf has arrived!

When my husband and I found out we were expecting our first in 2012, we set out to set some guidelines for choosing a name. My husband has a very common name and calling it in class or any place, really, would yield multiple people looking to see who had called them. My name is a bit unusual and I spend a good portion of the time spent in the presence of employers, patients, co-workers, classmates, etc correcting them.
What we decided was this- no overly common names, no difficult to pronounce names, and we wanted something that was in line with our shared heritage. For that, we opted to stick with mostly Scottish, Irish, or Welsh names and the middle name would be selected from our family tree.
My husband found a great name for our oldest, Callum. I had my heart set on a specific name for his middle name- eying my father's maternal line for the namesake. Alexander. After Alexander Brady, my second great grandfather.
Alexander had a rough beginning- rumored to be sold into indentured servitude at a young age. He escaped and worked for the railroads, working his way across the country and eventually settling in Marysville, Washington in 1901 as their preacher at the Congregational church. Alexander battled his demons all his life, and in 1932 starved himself, ultimately causing his death.

Alexander Brady

News of our second child came in October of 2014. We were having another boy. Names were more difficult this time around but the middle name, was again, the first selected. Milton - after my husband's paternal grandfather. Milton served in the military in 1944 and went on after to run the grocery in Esbon, Kansas.

Left: Milton Rogers

Owen is a long-standing name in my family- on my mother's maternal line. There is at least one in every generation in the direct line, for now, five generations; sometimes as the first name, sometimes as the middle name.

We wanted to incorporate something of our history into something of our future. We wanted something that was rooted in our ancestry. I hope that someday when we tell our kids where their names come from that it sparks an interest in finding out where they came from. In the very least, an interest to know the people they are named after.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to the newest leaf in our tree- Owen Milton Rogers. Born June 3, 2015, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Owen

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"There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children - one is roots, and the other, wings." -- Hodding S. Carter

Finding that long lost leaf. At last!

This is a post that I have been putting off writing. Partially because it is a rather emotional topic and story, and my now pregnant self is already simmering over in the emotional area. Also, because many of those directly involved are still with us and I do not want to violate privacy. However, today is as good as any and I would like to do this before I forget any of the wonderful details.

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I got started in genealogy as a result of my father's doing. We were to take a trip with my grandparents (mother's side) and we all needed passports. Everyone in our family that needed on got theirs without incident. Except my father. His came back as being filed under an alias and he would need to correct the paperwork and refile. He wound up finding out that the name he thought was his most of his life, was not his. His surname had never been legally changed from his surname at birth. However, everything was under the assumed surname- marriage, business, accounts, house, everything. So he began looking and asking questions and thus began his journey into genealogy.

He started talking to me about what had been going on and it got me curious. I was not in school at the time and had all kinds of free time to really look into it that he did not have at his disposal. I also remembered a file that I had looked through for a project (and then hoarded it) that had some genealogy done on one line from my mother's side. So I grabbed those files and bought a copy of Family Tree Maker and started inputting what I had in the file and what little I knew about my father's side. He was able to help with what little he had found, but there were still many dots that needed connecting. I started a trial with Ancestry and the tree exploded. I was soon in contact with a Brady researcher (my father's maternal line) that had been working on the line for over 60 years and had questions about our particular line. I went to the cemeteries, went to the the courthouses, connected with local researchers and made strides on the lines that I had available.

There was one line that I had very little. My father's paternal line. I was able to find the marriage certificate of my biological grandmother and grandfather's wedding. That confirmed his name and that they were married, but little else. I needed access to more resources and I needed more information. Efforts of inquiry to my grandmother were left unanswered. My father helped with the rumors and stories he had heard, and though they were just rumors, they proved to be helpful.

The rumor was that my grandfather had passed away in a car accident in Alaska. I searched Ancestry time and time again and found nothing. I Googled his name, and again came up empty handed. It was only after I got an subscription to Newspapers.com did I find something.(Click for larger image.)

This was wonderful news! He was, in fact, in a major car accident, but he did survive, despite the rumors being otherwise. After finding these I knew I needed to show my father. We were celebrating Christmas at their house the following weekend so I took them with me.

Shortly after we arrived I sat my father down and broached the subject. I asked him if he was sure what he was being told was true and showed him the articles I had found. After he had some time to read and absorb the news, I told him that I had sent a DNA kit off 2 weeks before and we should have results in another 6 weeks or so. It was very optimistic to think we may find a connection, but that's all we had at this time.

Fast forward 6 weeks. My results were in! I went to Ancestry to see what they said. Apparently, there was a lot of Scandinavian ancestry in me. Which was surprising as the lines I had worked with were predominately Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and German. I then went to look at the matches. One user came up with multiple people in their tree as being very closely related. So I clicked around and nothing really clicked. None of the names, etc. The majority of the places were Washington, and I figured it must be somewhere in my mother's line or my paternal grandmother's line. The results were overwhelming and confusing to me so I didn't look at them much more.

It wasn't long before this user contacted me. We had close relation and my tree was private. I told her I didn't recognize the names but she was welcome to take a look around and see if anything matched and where. I sent her an invite to view my tree and then I left for work. When I got home I came back to the following messages:

"OK, I just had a few minutes to look. What I found so far is the Rice family Joseph and Helen Rice is also my family. Helen G Rice (maiden name is Thompson: see my tree at "All in the family Tree") is my grandmothers sister. So if you are one of Joe and Helen's grandchildren or ?? that is our match. You have to have Helen as part of your DNA. But if not we need to keep looking. I will try to look more later tonight also."

"OK I just look again and Helen and Joe are your great Grandparents I believe. Welcome. I would be happy to share Helen's family...."

And then I kind of freaked out. This is what we were hoping for and it was a one in a million chance that a relative on that line had also taken the DNA test. She concluded the second email address with her email and we got in touch quickly. A couple emails led to a 2 hour phone call, which then led to a 2 hour phone call with my Aunt Sandi, Tom's sister. This led to yet another phone call. This time from my grandfather. Neither of us knew what to say but you could tell there was some true happiness on both side of the line.

I called my father and told him the news. I updated him on what we had heard versus what I was made privy to, gave contact info, etc. Eventually they began talking and talked regularly, and still do, I believe.  We went out in August to meet them and had a wonderful time. I really connected with them and we are looking forward to having them out our way this coming summer. All iin all, a hapy ending.

 Shirley, Travis, Tom, and Kyle

Kyle, Joe (my father), Tom, and Travis

"Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."

~David Ogden Stiers

Road block... now what?

Road block. The evil "r" word of genealogy. We all hit one and many of us are able to break through them.

This one I am not sure of.

I have very limited information on my dad's bio father. I have a name from a marriage certificate and the name J. R. Rice listed as a witness, from what I have been told is his father- my great grandfather. I am on the search for Thomas Richard Rice. He and my grandmother married when they were young. Like 16 young. I was told he is from the Chicago area, however the marriage certificate states King County, Washington. I have not been able to verify his existence in the 1940 census, mainly because I am going off an assumed name for his father and have not been able to find anyone that would give me a straight answer.

My family has been pretty stand- offish about him - even going so far as to say he died at the age of 26 yet no records can verify this. What is even more strange is that as this is coming out I am seeing these changes show up on a family tree that my aunt has been "working on".

So, where do you turn when your family doesn't want you to find someone? I have some leads for even more distant family members that have also been working with that side of the family tree. But I am worried I will get the run- around as well.

As anyone who has worked on family trees for any period of time knows, when researching, you often find the skeletons that others had hoped were buried forever. I have a feeling this is one of them. I can only guess by the strange behavior that has been exhibited by family m,embers that he must have done something horrible. It doesn't matter to me at this point.

My dad never knew who his bio-father was and that is no way for a person to grow up. I really want to find some info- even a bit. I think he is still alive and remarried and living in Washington. I have found several records to suggest this but nothing concrete.

So, to my much more experienced researchers: what would you do? What methods do you utilize to break down these road blocks? My go- to methods are not usable at this time as family will not cooperate.

I know he is out there somewhere, I just have to find him!

holy update!

Hello fellow bloggers!

It has been a while since I have posted an update and boy has life gotten crazy!

I got married in July! By the time it was the week of- I was so ready for everything to be done!  A year of planning and stress- not everything went of perfect but the night was still amazing! I was a lucky girl to have my friends and family present for the occasion.

As if the wedding wasn't exciting enough, three months prior to our nuptials we found out we are expecting! Our baby boy is expected to arrive mid December.

Hubby got a job a the beginning of the year and we moved to a very small town. I have been struggling to adapt and hope is on the horizon- he may be moved after the end of the year to a larger town. Still small in comparison to Omaha, but much larger than where we are now.


I have also made some strides in the family history department- I will post more about that later.  There are so many resources I have yet to dip into and I am very excited to get going with all of them. It seems that as fall slides in, I will have more time to do research as I am not working as much.

With the help of a fellow family researcher, I have made contact with another distant relative that has been wonderful in offering information on members of his side of the family that have left us with many questions- some that he was even able to answer.

Speaking of family- we have decided to have our son's middle name be Alexander- after my aforementioned relative that was a white slave.  His story is so rich and intriguing to me- I felt a connection with him from the start.  This connection is shared with few of my deceased relatives.

I will update once again with more family history research.