Month: October 2010

Surname Saturday: Parkin

Posted on by Kathleen

This is the last surname I’m highlighting on my Dad’s side for the blog! I didn’t mean to take so long in getting this written up but I had an early wake-up today and decided to get it done.

Where does the Parkin name originate from?

This surname has been a source of frustration for me for a long time. First we thought it was Perkins, then Parkins, and finally Parkin. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was completely wrong at this point and I ended up with the surname of Parker. My Parkin family originates in England. The father of my “first family” came to America through Castle Garden in October of 1874 and his family followed in July of 1875.  According to the Public Profiler Surname Distribution Map, in 1881 the Parkin surname was most concentrated around the midlands of England. That would make sense because my Parkin family departed England by way of Liverpool.

Did the Parkins stay in New Jersey?

Yes. I haven’t found all the girls after they married yet, but it looks like the Parkin family was a small but close one.

Overview of the Parkin Family

Father: William R Parkin (about 1842 – 02 Aug 1881[1. Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths of New Jersey, 1848-1900, v10])

Mother: Ann ? (Sep 1839 – ?)

Children

  1. John Walter Parkin (Dec 1863 – before 1910) My 2nd great grandfather
  2. Mary Ann Parkin (Apr 1870 – ?) married Edward E Spencer, had 2 daughters
  3. William Matthew Parkin (Sep 1871  – ?) married Ida ?, had 1 daughter
  4. Joseph B Parkin (Dec 1874 – ?)

The men in the Parkin family seem to live short lives from what I can tell. Both John and William’s children were living with their mother in 1910. The grandchildren bounced between the families a lot. This fits well with what my Aunts tell me about the Jane Parkin (John’s daughter). They told me that they had the impression she lived a very hard life. To be frank, her parents were dead by the time she was 14. That can’t be easy in any respect. Then to add that they were bounced around between family members. Joseph seems to be the exception to the early death rule in the Parkin family. I have him all the way through 1930 on the census records.

Records to get for the Parkins

  • I need to get birth and death records for my great grandmother Jane. I have her marriage record already.
  • I need to find a marriage record for Jane’s parents John Parkin and Jennie Featherson. FamilySearch gives their marriage date as 17 Jun 1890. Hopefully this helps me find the New Jersey record easier.
  • I really am curious to get the death records for both John and Jennie. If they were both dead by the 1910 census, I want to see what would take them from their children. I feel like there’s a story there in my gut.

Parkin Links

Sources

Update from Yesterday

Posted on by Kathleen

I can’t help myself. I have to chart out all those children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Reuben and Anna Webb. See yesterday’s post for the catalyst to this list. For those that aren’t me and aren’t familiar with the way my family tree works. The Webb family is on my mother’s side of the family. My maternal grandmother’s to be exact. This family has been for the most part verified by me because for some reason I love the Webb family. Reuben’s family is actually all researched by me, so that’s why I’m so anxious to pinpoint all these kids. The hard part is not counting the kids born AFTER my 1905 target date for the article written and not counting children that had passed away before 1905.

Reuben Thompson Webb married Anna Sidwell 16 May 1835 in Brown County, Ohio [1. Brown County, OH Marriage Records 1818-1939, FamilySearch].

Living Descendants in 1905

Okay, I did leave in all 6 of Reuben and Anna’s children. Elizabeth died in infancy and I think James died after or during the Civil War. In all, I’m really surprised how off I am! This shows that you shouldn’t be too confident just by using census records! I had a few marriage indexes to help at the time but most of this research was done in the early stages of my genealogy. So really I’m anxious to see what else I could unearth now! I’m going to have to make time for that this weekend or during the week sometime!

Alternative Methods

Posted on by Kathleen

I like to keep things honest on this blog. So I have to tell you, I haven’t touched my genealogy since at least Sunday. I did index some records for FamilySearch during Glee this week, but that was about all I did in the genealogical sense. I also haven’t gotten any further on getting my WordPress design done. I’m about to the point where I’m going to have to call relatives for a bit of a pep talk. Low self confidence never helps these situations. I’ve been putting it off way too long!

I did have a comment on my last entry that was caught in my SPAM filter. I have both Akismet and a CAPTCHA image running though so it might not be SPAM. The poster said they were trying to view my blog on an iPad and it wasn’t working. So if any technology advanced people who have an iPad can let me know if this is a problem, I’ll try and fix it with the new design! It could just be that the iPad is like all those web browsers, it just doesn’t display proper coding like it should. Firefox and Opera are the only browsers I’ve seen that are most consistent when it comes to displaying code properly.

That’s not why I’m writing today though. I’m writing to inform you of alternative methods to finding genealogy records. A few years back (I can’t remember when), someone came across my family tree on Ancestry or this website (Can’t remember that either! Eek!). They said they had “found an eBay auction” they thought I’d be interested in. According to said auction, it was from an estate sale. At the time of the email, I wasn’t very good at checking my email regularly, so I was late for the auction. I did something I don’t regret though. I saved the preview pictures used in the auction.

Article for Reuben T and Anna Webb

After reading the parts of the article I could see, I can place the article around 1905. Unfortunately Anna died in 1906. My only headache is trying to place their 4 children, 27 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren. Oy! I have to make a chart for that I think! I’ve kept these images on my hard drive in a special folder since that day. Reuben is the brother of my 3rd Great Grandfather, George Washington Webb. They are two of the “orphans” mentioned in the little blurb at the beginning of my Grandma’s family tree. Also in this group of estate records were some Civil War records.

Discharge Paper for James A Webb

What’s great about this is even though I don’t have these records in my personal arsenal. I did learn something from them. Now I know there was a reason Reuben’s son disappeared after the 1860 census. Of course I suspected, but suspecting isn’t proof. The thing I’ve learned about the Webbs are that they were very involved in the Civil War. Reuben’s brother James F Webb allegedly died from wounds he sustained in the War. Reuben himself lost an eye and now it seems as if Reuben’s son was also in the war. You can bet that as soon as Footnote.com has the Indiana and Ohio service records up, I’ll be disappearing into them for awhile. I have found Reuben and his son in indexes but I’m so anxious to see actual records!

You want to know something eerie about my Webb family though? While I was going through the boxes of things from my Great Grandma Llewellyn (Dad’s side), I found a little booklet. In that booklet there was an advertisement for some kind of headache powder. In this add it had a testimonial from Mrs. Reuben T Webb of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. She endorsed the product with great passion as it relieved her very severe headaches! How crazy to think my Mom and Dad’s family had a LOST moment of path crossing!

These images are not mine. They were used to advertise an eBay auction years ago. I have no rights to these images and I am making no money off them. These images are in no way a source of documentation for my tree because I haven’t set my eyes on them. This entry is really to show how desperation for new information can lead to you saving images from anywhere, including expired eBay auction pages. I don’t condone or endorse this activity. I have no affiliation with eBay. I make no money from eBay. I didn’t even buy these records on eBay. I have no affiliation with the television shows LOST or Glee. Except that I love them. Don’t you love having fun disclaimer messages? I sure do. I can’t mention fluffy pajamas in this one though because it’s 1:30 in the afternoon and I am not in my pajamas… unfortunately.

Statistics: October

Posted on by Kathleen

I’ve decided to do a regular check on my family file and website statistics. I haven’t decided if it will be monthly or maybe more than that. I just want to see how on track I’m staying!

Family-File Statistics, October 2010

These stats are for the Family Tree Maker statistics. My RootsMagic file is identical for the most part so there shouldn’t be any difference.

Website Statistics, October 2010

These stats are skewed from the actual family file. I’m not adding any living individuals to the site, so obviously there aren’t as many people in the website database. The sources are slightly different because I’m using a ‘Personal Knowledge’ source for living individuals when I’ve asked them directly for information. I’ve also had emails that deal directly with living individuals, so those aren’t needed on the site either.

I’m currently in the process of sorting through the Mays family. They’re always a wild card. I’m thoroughly researching each individual through available resources before adding them onto the website. This means that I’m slightly ahead in my family file of where I am on the website. I probably have about 20 Mays ancestors that I’m still researching on the censuses and online vital records.

Mystery Monday: A Postcard

Posted on by Kathleen

It’s been a crazy week here in Maryland! The last few days have been spent dealing with flooding and repairs to our roof. Now that those crazy rain totals are behind us, I’m getting back into my genealogy. Here is this week’s Mystery Monday.

Things I know about this picture:

  1. This picture is on the front of a postcard. I’m assuming it’s from the same time period of the George Thorward car picture. His isn’t on a postcard but in a decorative postcard-like envelope. It is also labeled with ” 1st Car 1905″ and has a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it.
  2. Most likely the picture was from New York City. I’d have to look it up again to be sure. I’m thinking it was from the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. In fact, the car looks like the 1904 First Rolls Royce.  Which would fit in with the 1905 date written on the George Thorward picture.

Things I want to know about this picture:

  1. Who is the family posing in this picture? I’m not sure but the girl looks familiar. So I might have more pictures of her in my files somewhere.
  2. Was this in fact taken at the World’s Fair? That would give me a date on the photo to better place the family.

Mystery Monday is a weekly series that I do here on my blog. It is also a blogging theme at GeneaBloggers now. Feel free to post your own mystery photos or stories and comment with the link!