Wedding Wednesday: Llewellyn and William

Posted on 25-Jan-2017 by Kathleen

Welcome to another Wedding Wednesday! When I started posting this GeneaBloggers Daily Blogging Prompt, I never imagined I’d have more than that first entry. Until I run out of weddings to post about, I will keep posting. I’ve done my Grandma and Grandpa Moore’s 1951 Wedding in 3 posts (one, two, three) and my Grandma and Grandpa Mays’ 1947 Wedding. I also threw in a post for my Grandma Mays and her 2nd husband Wayne.

I’m moving up a generation in my Genealogy Do-Over, so it’s time for my Great-Grandparents to get their turn! We’re starting with William Lawrence Moore and Llewellyn Josephine Thorward. For an extra treat, you can always go back and read the Diary of Llewellyn.

June 12, 1926

1926 Wedding Invitation, William Lawrence Moore, Llewellyn Josephine Thorward, Llewellyn’s Boxes, 1986; privately held by Kathleen Moore, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lexington Park, Maryland. 2005. This collection was taken from Llewellyn Thorward-Moore’s house after her death. They resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore.

One of my favorite finds from Llewellyn’s boxes is this wedding invitation from 1926. It’s almost 100 years old now, but in great condition. I have a few more items that pertain to their wedding day. A cool thing with this record is that to date, this is one of two mentions of Lewis’ middle name. There is clearly a G. after his name and I’ll have an eagle eye on all the other records I go through to see if I’ll finally learn what his middle name is. Probably George after his father, but you never know!

written on the back: “Llewellyn on her wedding day”

I love this picture, it’s definitely on the list of favorites. It’s even on my wall as I type this entry. I don’t know when I made the decision to re-scan most of my older documents and pictures but I sure did. Unfortunately, this one isn’t coming off the wall right now. I used those picture hanger strips from a well known name brand and I don’t have anymore to put it back up when I’m done. That means Llewellyn stays on the wall for now!

The Wedding Article

The wedding article is a favorite of mine because it helps to verify a lot of my other “evidence.” For example, it describes Llewellyn’s wedding dress, that helps me to confirm that the writing on the back of the above photo is correct. It also helps me to verify the wedding invitation is for the same couple as the newspaper article. It also parallels what I learned from Llewellyn’s diary by bringing in all the cast of characters I read about for the 3 year period before her wedding.

There is one thing that the article got wrong. The couple didn’t move into their home at 42 Park Avenue, it was 84 Park Avenue. I know that because I have all the mortgage and legal documents to prove it! Some time between when they moved into the house in 1926 and when Llewellyn died in 1986, the house address changed to 86 Park Avenue.

The last picture on the top right is a current view of the home from Google Street View. The rest are from a collection of photos found in Llewellyn’s house.

Why must you do that?

Posted on 07-May-2010 by Kathleen

I know it’s an old complaint. Everyone has it. I just don’t know why people can’t just get last names right! I’m not even just talking about record keepers. I’m talking about people too. I don’t have the problem on my Dad’s family, or on the Taylors. I have the misspelling problem with the Mays family. That I can deal with.

The Moyer family has been a whole new frustration though. For some reason the family goes by both Moyer and Myers/Meyers/Moyer. I thought at first it was a miscommunication with the census. However, when I looked again at the Moyer tree that was sent to me a few years ago, some of the Moyer children chose to go by Myers/Meyers eventually.

Oy, this just makes things difficult. :\

Dilemmas are the Spice of Life

Posted on 03-May-2010 by Kathleen

The beauty of starting your family file over is that you know everything in there will be correct. The dilemma I have is I would never delete my old file. It’s been the file I’ve edited for many years now. I could never throw it away like a used shopping bag. (Actually I use the reusable bags now so that was a bad metaphor.) The problem I’ve come across is how much of my old file and the original (not entirely trustworthy) family tree to use.

It’s easy to say I’ll just use it as a guideline and I’ll back it up with documents as I go. Sure that’s the obvious choice. What about that first time I come across something that isn’t documented though? Kentucky was pretty sporadic in their death records before 1911. So what do I do about all those infant children that passed away in the Taylor family? I can’t immediately back them up, but surely they existed. I can look up cemetery records, and newspapers when I’m in Kentucky but what about now? If I just say I’ll go back to it later, that’s the old me talking. I always say I’ll do it later, and then I forget and never go back. My family file will never be restored that way.

So my solution for now is to source it as the Undocumented Family Tree, and make myself a list of records I need to find. This list is a start, but that could become quite crowded quickly. So maybe an Excel file will be my better option. One for the documents I need, and one to keep track of cemeteries I need to visit.

This may seem like rambling to you, but if I don’t hash this out now, I’ll never come to a decision…

Oh, and for those that remember or read this blog post I made? Yeah I’m going to be making a private family tree on Ancestry.com for each of the lines, just like my website. I won’t be doing it right away though. Most likely when I hit the inevitable brick wall.

Madness Monday: You can kill yourself with Insanity

Posted on 26-Apr-2010 by Kathleen

I never thought I’d have anything to contribute to Madness Monday at GeneaBloggers. Sure I have plenty of dementia in the family but I doubted I’d ever have any good stories about this subject. A while back (meaning I can’t remember when), I got the death certificate for my Great-Great Grandfather. I got quite a surprise when looking at his cause of death.

That’s right folks. It reads “Acute Insanity” as his cause of death. The Contributory causes seem to say: “Worry over sickness of the other 3 ??? family.” This certificate was the Ancestry.com copy, I’m going to order a certified copy and see if the writing is clearer. I have reason to believe it will be. 😉

Now looking into his family situation I can’t really blame him. By the time of his death, four of his eleven children had died as infants. 1913 is still a little early for the “Super Flu of 1918,” unless there was a very localized epidemic I’m not aware of. I will probably spend a day going through the newspaper archives on my first Kentucky genealogy trip. 🙂

I’m sure it wasn’t worry that was his downfall but maybe stress induced heart attack? Stroke? Brain Hemorrhage? Who knows, but I’ll always be able to say he died of Acute Insanity.

Madness Monday is Daily Blogging Topic I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Madness Monday simply create a post with the main focus being an ancestor who may have suffered from some form of mental illness or an ancestor who drives you “mad” because you have trouble locating them or locating more information about them.

Follow Friday: Never Give Up

Posted on 23-Apr-2010 by Kathleen

For many many years (okay for 4 years), I have been trying to locate where the New Zion Cemetery in Pendleton County, Kentucky is located. I found the New Zion Cemetery listed on James William Applegate‘s death certificate. He is the second generation of Applegates and his father died fairly young, so information from that time is hard to find. So having a cemetery to go to and look around might solve some things for me. Maybe he’s in a family plot? I don’t know until I find it.

Unfortunately for me, all mentions of this cemetery are vague at best. My Google-fu obviously needs polishing. However, I was adding in James’ source information on my website last night and I was re-checking some websites. I got the most pleasant surprise!

James and his wife were added into the Find a Grave database! Not only that but there was a photo of the headstone to boot! This record was only added on March 25th of this year. So my checking back was a very good thing! To think if I had given up on New Zion Cemetery, I never would have gotten the extra gusto needed to keep on task. Now that I see there is proof, I could add that in to my file, but I am not adding photos unless they are taken by me. Just a little thing I want to do for myself. I want to visit all my ancestors eventually.

So that’s where I got the idea for this “Follow Friday”. Find a Grave is such a valuable source! Especially if you can’t get to the cemeteries yourself right away. I’m even signed up as a Contributor and Photo Volunteer. So if you need any pictures from cemeteries in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, just let me know!

In fact, something new to Find a Grave since my last visit is the ability to add Relationship Links and Transcriptions! I’m going to have to check that out!

Find a Grave

Follow Friday is a Daily Blogging Topic I got from GeneaBloggers. To participate in Follow Friday, simply create a post in which you recommend another genealogy blogger, a specific blog post, a genealogy website or a genealogy resource. Tell us why they are important to the genealogy community and why we should follow.