This blog prompt comes from Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist . She has created 31 blog prompts in honor of Women's History Month. If you haven't read her blog yet, take some time and check it out. March 30 — Did you receive any advice or words of wisdom from your mother or another female ancestor? I received the best advice ever from my mom recently. I truly have come to savor every time she comes over to visit. I see so thoroughly that I come from her. Looking at her feels often like I'm looking into the future at some older wiser reflection of myself. We are not identical in thought but the similarities between us are abundant and obvious. With that being said, we had a lovely conversation at my dining room table. As usual, it was me sipping on coffee while she talked about her day's events and things she planned to do later in the week. She is a gorgeous woman. Mom always takes the time out to make sure that not a hair is out of place and her ensemble

This blog prompt comes from Lisa Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist . She has created 31 blog prompts in honor of Women's History Month. If you haven't read her blog yet, take some time and check it out. March 29 — Create a free Fold3 (formerly Footnote) Memorial Page or a Genealogy Trading Card at Big Huge Labs for a female ancestor. Some of you may have created your own card back in September 2009 following Sheri Fenley’s post over at The Educated Genealogist. This time, the card is for your ancestor.   The ancestor I've chosen to make a Genealogy Trading Card for is my maternal great grandmother Ophelia Jones Bryant. Her image inspired me to begin the journey of discovering my ancestors. I send a thank you out to my grandmother Mary Horton, her daughter, as well as my great grandmother up in heaven. There was a beautiful portrait of Ophelia that hung in my grandmother's bedroom when I was a child that I would gaze at and wonder -- Who was this lady? What was she

My husband told me about this sometime ago and it came up again in conversation today. That's when I thought...ya know, I think that's a blog post. I love my husband to bits. It's a cliche, but I knew that he was "the one" when I met him. After our first date, I came back home and told my roommate that I had at the time that if Tom was indeed "the nice guy" he kept telling me he was, I was going to marry him. Turned out he was telling the truth.  We've had our ups and downs like in any marriage, but we always come back to the place we call us.  Now getting back to that thing that came up in conversation again today; it was regarding the meaning of the name Kelleher.  On Ancestry.com, they describe the Kelleher name meaning as "companion-dear" or "lover of company." Image courtesy of Ancestry.com One of my husband's friends told him that the name translated more closely to "a man who overly loves his wife."

Image courtesy of dream designs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net  image ID: 100106353 Like so many of you out there, I couldn't help myself when 23andMe dropped the price for their test to $99 last December. I took full advantage and ordered a test for my husband as well as one for myself. Well, my results came back late last week and I found them reaffirming and interesting all at the same time.  Image courtesy of 23andme Maternal Haplogroup Result: L3e3b In a prior post, My MtDNA Result Are Back! , I revealed the results of my first MtDNA test. I tested with FamilyTreeDNA last year and they determined that my Haplogroup was L3e3b. It was reassuring to see that 23andMe came up with the same result this time around. I think I can now safely claim L3e3b as my Haplogroup. Ancestry Composition: Okay, now we're going to get into the meat of the situation ---my ancestral breakdown. I have taken three other Autosomal DNA tests, first with African Ancestry, next with An

Image courtesy of 23andme. I don't think I've ever sounded better. My 23andme results are in and I am currently looking over everything to figure out what this stuff all means. I love this idea of a DNA Melody. If you want to hear what my DNA sounds like, click on the following link: My DNA Melody

Microsoft Office Downloaded Image If you missed part one, here's the link:   Mystery Monday: Did I Just Find One Of My Father's Cousins? So what happened to Leon or Leroy Kuylen, my father's first cousin?  I decided to do a little more reading up on the New York Foundling Hospital. On Wikipedia, I came across this: The Foundling Hospital (1880–1957) In response to an increasing need for skilled medical and nursing care for mothers and children, The New York Foundling began providing health services in addition to social services, changing its name to The New York Foundling Hospital to more accurately reflect its services. While The Foundling provided medical treatment in addition to adoption and support services for mothers-in-need, it wasn’t until the 1930s that a Social Service department was established to assist those who could not properly care for their children. It appears that my aunt Hilda Dixon Kuylen was not able to take care of her son Leon and

Microsoft Office Downloaded Image Last year, I wrote about the mysterious circumstances involving one of my father's relatives. That post was called  Thriller Thursday: The Kidnapping of Geraldine Kuylen . My father sometime ago shared with me the story of a kidnapping that took place involving one of his aunt's children. Hilda "Bernice" Dixon was the sister of my grandmother Ethel Murrell. When she was young, she apparently had married and had two children of her own. The story was that the oldest child, Geraldine was kidnapped by a family friend. My father said that the other child, a boy named Theodore was eventually taken away from his aunt by social services. This all took place before my father was born so this story was based on information passed down to him by his mother. In 2012, I came across a newspaper article on ProQuest that gave further detail regarding the kidnapping. I learned of my aunt's married name --Kuylen. After finding the article

Rosa Mitchell Jones July 17, 1861--October 3, 1931 Maternal 2nd great grandmother In Celebration of Women's History Month, I am following along with some of the blog prompts provided by Linda Alzo of   The Accidental Genealogist . If you are not aware of her "Fearless Females" Blog Prompts, take some time out and visit her blog. March 15 — Write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors. Rosa Mitchell Jones:  Landowner, Family Oriented, Intelligent, Strong, Spiritual. For more about my 2nd great grandmother, you may want to check out the following posts: So our people owned land... The audacity to own land. Keeping up with the Joneses

Spongebob --by my daughter. Age: 5 Pants --by my son  I think he was 3 when he made these. He used to make me pants daily by cutting out a rectangle from a piece of construction paper and then making a simple slit to make the legs. I love the simplicity of these. Here's a whole wardrobe of pants made by him.

That's right there's my feet again folks. If you have been following me since last year you may remember I took a similar picture to this one for our trip to Pass-A-Grille, Florida. Well this year we decided to visit Siesta Key, which is near Sarasota, Florida.  I have to say I have never felt sand that felt like this stuff. It was just like powdered sugar. Loved it! There's my hubby thinking deep thoughts by the sea. "This is alright!" My son digging away at the sand. "Dude, that's a big hole." "Oh, Hi Mom."

In Celebration of Women's History Month, I am following along with some of the blog prompts provided by Linda Alzo of  The Accidental Genealogist. If you are not aware of her "Fearless Females" Blog Prompts, take some time out and visit her blog. March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family? Ophelia Jones Bryant November 20, 1894--February 20, 1939 Age at time of death:  44 Carrie Whitney Harrison October 11, 1897--August 1, 1939 Age when she died:  41 Both of my maternal great grandmothers died before my mother was born so sadly she didn't get the opportunity to know them. When they passed away, they left children who still needed rearing. The ages of Ophelia Bryant's three youngest were 16, 13, and 11. The three sisters, Mary, Rosa, and Eloise were going be sent to live with different relatives, until their older sister stepped in to he

In Celebration of Women's History Month, I am going to try and follow along when possible to some of the blog prompts provided by Linda Alzo of   The Accidental Genealogist . If you are not aware of her "Fearless Females" Blog Prompts, take some time out and visit her blog. March 7 — Share a favorite recipe from your mother or grandmother’s kitchen. Why is this dish your favorite? If you don’t have one that’s been passed down, describe a favorite holiday or other meal you shared with your family. I have decided to share some thoughts on my favorite holiday when I was a child, Thanksgiving! Thanks to my paternal grandmother, Ethel Murrell, she ensured neither of her grandchildren would go home hungry on that day. WhoooWee! Where to begin. Well, let's start off with who would be there. My grandmother would invite over her two sisters, Hilda and Edna. Usually, this would be the one time of the year that we would see them. My sense of things growing up was th

To the man I love, thank you for making this vacation possible.  It is good to see you smile :)

In Celebration of Women's History Month, I am going to try and follow along when possible to some of the blog prompts provided by Linda Alzo of   The Accidental Genealogist . If you are not aware of her "Fearless Females" Blog Prompts, take some time out and visit her blog. March 6 — Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc.) Here is a post I originally published back on June 3, 2012, which I believe is fitting for this particular prompt. These Artifacts Are My Time Machines When my grandmother, Mary Horton, passed away my mother  asked me, "What would you like from her house?" I told her, "The Hands." I am sure that some of you out there who read my blog probably can relate to this. I have i

In honor of Women's History month I am going to try to follow along with some of the blog prompts provided by Lisa Alzo of the  The Accidental Genealogist . I am away on vacation this week, so I can't promise that I will be able to keep up with this daily. If you haven't been over to The Accidental Genealogist to check out the blog prompts, you should check it out.  Today's prompt -- March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one. I don't have a copy of their marriage record, but I do know that my paternal grandparents were married in 1932 at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York. Abyssinian Baptist Church Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Picture by DennisInAmsterdam An interesting side note would be that they were married by Adam Clayton Powell Sr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. 

Microsoft Office Downloaded Image Yes! Now the first thing your probably thinking as you read this is, "Where did they make it to?" Next question would be, "Who is we?"  I'll answer the second question first. The "we" would be my husband, our two kids and I.  The answer to the other question, I will get to a bit later. Well it turns out that my husband was able to take some time off from work, so we have taken a break to somewhere sunny and relaxing. I found the above featured picture online and I think it perfectly describes the joy my husband and I felt upon arriving to our destination. You see, the last time the family and I were on vacation it didn't go so smoothly. That fiasco started off with us getting up at 3:37 AM, which my son still remembers the precise time to this day. Ha! I guess that made an impression on him. Our early morning flight was initially delayed and then eventually cancelled due to mechanical issues. Th