Have you ever found out things through your genealogy research that made you raise an eyebrow, or two? How about something that made you pick up the phone, call a family member, and say “guess what!?” These are mine.
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 …
10 Common 19th Century Occupations That You’re Not Likely to See Today .
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 to be born, we would go outside to play, if we could, in the old corn crib if it was empty. There was no telephone, so Dad would go and bring the midwife. I remember once telling my teacher that when I grew up I wanted to have lots of children, like my mother did.
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. He never made it to Europe.
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 to the word “alcoholic”— and I knew I had a story.
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.
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.
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 Mental Floss), many of us do have ancestors that changed their names after coming to the US for a variety of reasons.
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.
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 in hip left” and was a “prisoner at Libby.” I was intrigued!