How Did I Get Here? My Amazing Genealogy Journey

Harold Murrell and Janice Murrell My paternal grandfather and my aunt. Unfortunately, I don't know where this was taken but I am guessing from the size of my aunt the year was probably 1939.

For details about The Book Of Me, Written By You project created by Julie Goucher, of the Anglers Rest blog, please refer to this link:  http://www.anglers-rest.net/book-of-me-written-by-you.html The prompt for week 7 is Grandparents What were their names? Where were they from? Were they related? – Cousins perhaps Where were they born, another Country or state/area Photos What did they do? Did you know them? What was your relationship with them? If you didn't know them have you researched about them? I decided to divide this prompt into two parts with part one covering my paternal grandparents. If you missed part one, here's the link:   The Book Of Me: Prompt 7 --Grandparents --Part One Maternal Grandparents My maternal grandparents were a Lemuel Richard Harrison and Mary Cole Bryant I have always found it kind of funny that my maternal grandparents met when they came to New York, when both of them were born in cities within 35 miles of each other....

 Pictures of my paternal grandmother Ethel Murrell and my brother.  

For details about The Book Of Me, Written By You project created by Julie Goucher, of the Anglers Rest blog, please refer to this link:   http://www.anglers-rest.net/book-of-me-written-by-you.html   The prompt for week 7 is Grandparents What were their names? Where were they from? Were they related? – Cousins perhaps Where were they born, another Country or state/area Photos What did they do? Did you know them? What was your relationship with them? If you didn't know them have you researched about them? Paternal Grandparents:  My paternal grandparents were Harold Osmond Murrell and Ethel Smith Murrell. Granddaddy was born on August 16, 1903 in St Philip Parish, Barbados in an area of the island called Marley Vale.  His parents were a George Murrell and Frederica Augusta Innis/Ennis. Image courtesy of Google Maps View of the Caribbean  Image courtesy of Google Maps Marley Vale, Barbados is located on the east coast of the islan...

Dinner with my peeps at Kampai Restaurant Vestal, NY

Image courtesy of Nuttapong/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net For details about The Book Of Me, Written By You project created by Julie Goucher, of the Anglers Rest blog, please refer to this link   http://www.anglers-rest.net/book-of-me-written-by-you.html Prompt 6: Journals and Diaries Do you keep a journal or diary? How far back do they go? What do you record? Where do you keep them? Do you always buy the same one or vary them? Have you inherited any? Do you intend to pass along your journals or destroy them? Pictures - Do you have a favourite? What do you use to write with – biro, pencil, ink or fountain pen? Do you keep a journal or diary? I wish I could say I had this magical collection of beautiful journals stored in a closet or bookcase or something.  The truth is I don't. I am one of those people who has had all good intentions of starting a journal and maintaining one and once I get past a week or two of having one, I usually give up. Ain't that terrible? ...

Image courtesy of  Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Okay, this is something that crept into my head while I was making my kids lunches the other day. Make a time and space for the words to come. Don't want the words scampering  towards me like scared little children. They need an environment of calm. A sanctuary of peace. A space that is trusted. And time devoted solely to them. I haven't been doing this lately. I've been trying to squeeze in a moment here, a second there. I haven't felt good about it either. I have to schedule writing time in from this point forward. No more excuses! 

Six years ago today, this happened. Me about to burst :) These folks were there.  My sister-in-law, JoAnn, and my husband. Then they took me to a room like this. Image courtesy of digidreamgrafix / FreeDigitalPhotos.net And then I met this sweet little lady. My little princess. We celebrated with family this past Sunday. Happy Birthday Ladybug!

World War I and II Draft Registration Cards I have found to be extremely helpful when trying to locate male ancestors who moved and settled away from their birthplace. Henry C Jones, my 1st cousin 3x removed, was a prime example of this. He was another child of William Henry Jones and Emma Shepard Jones of Morehead City, NC. William Henry Jones and my 2nd great grandfather, Alexander Hamilton Jones, were brothers.  In this particular case, the last census I could find Henry listed living in Morehead City, NC was for the year 1910. Here he is at 18 years of age shown living with his parents and several of his brothers and sisters. Image courtesy of Ancestry.com:  Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. When I first started researching my Jones line, I was quick to go searching those individuals that stayed close to home. Why? Because it was easy. It was known. I kne...

For details about The Book Of Me, Written By You project created by Julie Goucher, of the Anglers Rest blog, please refer to this link  http://www.anglers-rest.net/book-of-me-written-by-you.html. The prompt for week 5 is Your Childhood Home When did you leave home? Where was it? Where did you move to? Was it rented or owned? –  with parents/Grandparents Was it inherited What was it like – describe it – each room. Were there a favourite room? Is there anything you particularly remember from the house? Pictures The road & area I decided to break this prompt up into two parts because in a way it is how I view my childhood. First, there were the years my family and I lived in Cambria Heights which I wrote about in  The Book Of Me: Prompt 5 --Your Childhood Home --Part one .  Today's post is about my childhood home in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. House in Lake Ronkonkoma Spring 1983 Side of house leading to the back yard. A view of th...

For details about The Book Of Me, Written By You project created by Julie Goucher, of the Anglers Rest blog, please refer to this link   http://www.anglers-rest.net/book-of-me-written-by-you.html . The prompt for week 5 is Your Childhood Home When did you leave home? Where was it? Where did you move to? Was it rented or owned? –  with parents/Grandparents Was it inherited What was it like – describe it – each room. Were there a favourite room? Is there anything you particularly remember from the house? Pictures The road & area I had three different childhood homes out of which only two I remember. I was only a year old when my family moved from my first childhood home. Our family rented an apartment at 133-24 Dennis St, Jamaica, NY.  Here's a picture of my mom pregnant with me standing next to my older brother in front of the house. Here's a present day view of the place. Image courtesy of Google Maps. The owners, the Scruggs, lived on th...

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office Images. So a couple of weeks ago I finally took a trip to my local Family History Center to look at images of records that I couldn't view at home on my laptop. I wrote about this on my post  A Trip To The Local FamilySearch Center Yields More Information About Morrison Goodrich . Silly me for taking so long to finally do this. Anyway, while there I printed up a couple of copies of things, one of them being this, the marriage license for Genevieve Goodrich and Leroy Betz. My tie into the Goodrich family is through my 1st cousin 3x removed Dr. Oscar Dunn Jones. Dr. Jones was married to a Ula Goodrich who was Genevieve's younger sister. First, here's a little background on Genevieve Goodrich. She was the third oldest out of the five children born to Henry Goodrich and Alice Stevenson Homan. I found what I believe to be her date of birth in the District of Columbia, Births and Christenings, 1830-1955, index on FamilySearchorg...

I've been taking a break from researching my Goodrich family branch the last two days to review a copy of a cemetery census that I obtained a few years ago. The census is for Mt. Olive Church Cemetery in Riverdale, NC. Riverdale, NC holds a special place in my heart because I know this where some of "my people" came from. My 3x great grandfather Mortimer Mitchell purchased property in this area in 1878. That same property remained in the family until it was sold in 1998. For more information about that property, check out my post  Mappy Monday: Now I Know Where To Go .  Well anyway, I felt the itch to check out this census again and I am glad I did. Now I have a better sense of who the people were who lived near my ancestors. These were neighbors and fellow church members. They were there to help my ancestors in their time of need. They laughed with them and they cried with them. The names on this list just mean more now. Knowing their stories will help me further fles...