Occupations are one of the most coveted gems of genealogy research — they give us a glimpse in to the daily lives of our ancestors in a way that few other raw details can. But if you’ve spent some time digging through old records you’ve probably come across jobs that you have never heard of, most likely because …
10 Common 19th Century Occupations That You’re Not Likely to See Today Read More »
By Susan Wallin Mosey Excerpts from the childhood of my mother-in-law, Donna Garver Mosey, in her own words: I was the seventh born of fifteen children. (The fifteenth one, William, had a bad heart and lived only a few days.) I was born at home, as we all were. When a new baby was about …
Michigan Farm Life in the Great Depression, Part One Read More »
By Susan Wallin Mosey More died from flu than from bullets that year… That was the sad truth in America in 1918. World War I was raging, but so was an influenza epidemic like the world had never seen. Theodore Peterson—my great uncle Ted—was an engineering student at the University of Nebraska when duty called. …
Even a “man of the cloth” can be a black sheep… Consider the case of Rev. George Washington Hays. I used to be church historian at the church where I grew up. One summer I decided to read all the board minutes, starting at the beginning—1858. Not far into the project, my eyes were drawn …
My husband’s great-uncle Wayne Nedry Alwood (1893-1948) had a Model T automobile similar to this one, pictured. Those puppies could be hard to start, and sometimes a person had to get creative. But Wayne’s brother-in-law, Walter Garver, discovered a system that worked. Dale Garver, a cousin of my husband’s and a top-notch genealogy researcher, wrote …
Mosey, my married name, is an unusual American surname, with no obvious ethnic origin. But I have learned that it’s English in origin—Yorkshire, to be specific. My husband’s great-grandfather Robert Mosey was one of his “gateway ancestors”—an ancestor who came from elsewhere to settle in America. Robert Mosey (1821-1884) was born in Bishop Wilton, a …
Thank you to the free family history research site Crestleaf for contributing this fun guest post. It is not uncommon for people to believe that their ancestors changed their surnames upon arrival at Ellis Island. And although we now know that this tale is actually quite a tall one (see the fascinating article on the topic from …
10 Famous Immigrants Who Changed Their Names After They Came to America Read More »
My ancestors ran the gamut from black sheep to outstanding citizen. But life isn’t fair… Those who honor faith and family, who play by the rules, sometimes suffer the most tragedy. Consider my Peterson ancestors. My great-grandparents were Nebraska pioneers Carl Peterson (1861-1917) and Emelia Fryksdal Peterson (1861-1933). From all indications they were a close …
I’ve had Amish friends for a long time. I took this picture from the back seat of their buggy—one of my favorite places to be… When I first got to know my original Amish friends, their eight children ranged in age from two to eighteen. Now the youngest is out of school (which means eighth …
My husband has a great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War and lived to tell about it (although barely). His name was Lewis Alpheus Mosey (1843-1925). A few years ago I found Lewis’ Civil War Pension Index Card and 1890 Special Veteran’s Census Schedule on ancestry.com. The census said that he had a “rifle wound …