ctgc genealogy

A transcription of the death certificate from Philadelphia, PA of Elon Carman (1792-1866)  name: Elan Carman death date: 22 Jun 1866 death place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania gender: Male race: White death age: 74 years birthplace: Philadelphia marital status: Married occupation: Labourer street address: Huber Street above Montg. place of residence: Philadelphia 20th Ward cemetery: American Mechanics Cemetery burial place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania burial date: 25 Jun 1866

Being the youngest in my family I am sensitive about telling family stories accurately. Growing up it always seemed that everything happened before I was born or was old enough to remember, so everyone else in the room remembered the story better than I did.  So, while I enjoy reporting facts and finds on this blog, I have for the most part avoided telling stories about my family history. I do not want to get it wrong. I've realized however that I do hold some things in my head that possibly no one else still alive knows.   Writing family history is in some ways an attempt at immortality for our ancestors. Even if what I remember is not entirely accurate, I can share my imperfect memories of my family and through that they might live on a little longer before fading into that obscurity to which we all will inevitably succumb. In that spirit, I am going to share what my grandmother told me about the picture below which happens to be my favorite photograph of her. She tol...

One of my more exciting discoveries with the addition of the Bridgeton Evening News to GenealogyBank.com, the obituary for my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Ansel Irelan : Ansel Irelan, one of Bridgeton's oldest citizens, died at his home on Atlantic street early this morning, after an illness of several weeks with kidney affection. Mr. Irelan was born in this city 76 years ago last July and has lived here nearly ever since. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Addi Ayars, and six children were born to them, four of whom are living. His wife died several years ago and deceased has since lived in the old home, Atlantic just above Broad street. The children who survive him are Emma, wife of James Garrison; Mary Ann, wife of John Neukirk; Lizzie, wife of Joseph Westcott, and Ansel, Jr., the only son. Deceased was a ship carpenter by trade and when the gold fever broke out he was one of the original "forty-niners" who left this city to seek their fortune in the Golden S...

One of my weekend shows that I sometimes watch is "Life After People" on the History Channel. The premise is basically if humans disappeared today, how long would it take for human-made things to break down. Today I saw an episode that used my great grandmother's hometown as an example. In the 1960's a fire started underground and made its way into the abandoned coal mines in Centralia. In the 1980's most of the residents left in the town were relocated, and the fire still burns. According to Wikipedia, there were still 9 people living in Centralia in 2007. Here's a Google search if you'd like to read more. Life After People used Centralia as an example of how a town would look twenty-five years after people. I don't think it was the best example, since most of the building were torn down after the people relocated. But, it was interesting none the less. My great grandmother Sophia Levens left Centralia for Philadelphia before the turn of the cent...

This week I am going to highlight someone who is not really related to me, but I am fascinated by the name. Maria Sara Knieriemen was the wife of my first cousin five times removed. (My computer program, TMG, figured that out for me). I had never heard of this name before, so when her marriage to David Hornef on January 7, 1845 showed up in my genealogy this week, I thought I would look into it. Like many names, Knieriemen has many variant spellings. The Knierman DNA Surname project includes these variants in their project: Knearem, Knerien, Kniereman, Knieriemen, Knierim, Knierinm, Knierman, Knireman, Nearman, Niermann. In their description of the origin they state: "The German word Knerem is defined as a shoemakers' strap or stirrup, a cobbler, Knieriemen." A search on Knieriemen also brought up the Ancestry surname page . They didn't have a meaning for Knieriemen, but they did have some other statistics. In 1920, there weren't very many Knieriemen househol...

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to post more to this poor neglected blog. So I've decided to start a weekly post, This Week in my Genealogy, highlighting some of the people in my Conrad-Todd-Garrison-Carman database. And to show how far behind I am in updating the web version of that database, I am going to start with two people who are not even on that site, along with their brother whose information is way out of date. Georg Peter & Johannes Hornef were born December 28, 1824 in Otterberg, Germany and are one of the few pairs of twins that I have in my database. They were born to Georg Peter Hornef & Katharina Cherdron. I found them through the FamilySearch Record Search pilot. Their older brother, Jacob Hornef , was my Great-great-great grandfather who emigrated to Philadelphia in the 1840's. He was born on January 2, 1819 in Otterberg. I've already posted about my Hornef discoveries through Record Search, which is also where I found Jacob...

I came across Katharina Horneff's obituary by accident. I wasn't expecting to find it. Horneff 1 is one of the few unique surnames I have and I search it on any new database I find. In this case it was in GenealogyBank which has the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1834-1922. In my results was an obituary for Katharina Hornef from 1911. It stated that the funeral would be at her grandson, Jacob Carman's house. Seems cut and dry, but I still had to check to make sure it was my Jacob Carman since there were two of the same age in Philadelphia at the time. It took me awhile to be convinced, too, despite the unique name and the grandson being named. The truth was I thought I would never find Katharina Hornef. Indeed, I didn't even know that was her name. My grandmother's grandmother was Catherine 2 Hornef Carman and she passed away in 1913. I had no luck in finding her on the Census records 3 before she married and only her father was listed on her death certificate. ...

This was so right on, I had to share. Well, I guess I haven't lost my South Jersey/Philly accent, even after being contaminated by the south and southwest. :-) And yes, people have told me I talk a little weird. ;-) What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard. The Northeast The Midland The Inland North The South Boston The West North Central What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

People do genealogy for a lot of different reasons. They enjoy collecting family stories. They want to discover where they come from. They love the feeling of being connected to history. I like filling in names. It's a bit of an obsession for me. There's nothing I hate worse than seeing 'unknown' in the name field. So I do what I can to find the names, especially the maiden names of the women. Yesterday, I received the SS-5 for my 2nd cousin, twice removed, Frank L. Craner . The reason I requested it was there in all its glory: his mother's name was Mathilda Shepard Ogden. I rejoiced. But, then I began to wonder. Shepard and Ogden are names I've run across in my NJ research. Who are her parents? I looked at her dates. Oh no, she'd probably be in the 1880 census. But, maybe not with her parents. Maybe there'd be hope for me. No . Her parents were Isaac S. & Ann E. Ogden. Another unknown. What was Ann's maiden name? The search continues.