Our Cousins are Married to Each Other

I happily made another discovery today that one of my cousins was married to one of my husband's cousins.

My husband Larry Jamison is a 5th cousin 2 times
removed of Charles S. Bickerstaff.

I am a 2nd cousin once removed of
Rachel Dietz. 

You can see that Rachel Dietz (1921-2007), my cousin, was married to Charles Bickerstaff (1923-2008), my husband's cousin.

Memorial Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Jean ღ
Record added: Dec 29, 2007 
Find A Grave Memorial# 23618548

Memorial Created by: John F Covey
Record added: Aug 21, 2008 
Find A Grave Memorial# 29219240

Charles's obituary from FindAGrave: 

Memorial services for 1st Sgt. (retired) Charles "Chuck" Bickerstaff, 84, of Junction City, Kan., will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 630 S. Eisenhower Dr., Junction City, Kan.The graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday a the Kansas Veteran's Cemetery at Wakeeney, Kan. Visitation was held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Penwell-Gabel Johnson Chapel 203 N. Washington. Mr. Bickerstaff passed away Sunday (July 20, 2008) at Mercy in Manhattan, Kan. Memorials may be made to Immanuel Lutheran Church, 630 S. Eisenhower Dr., Junction City, Kan., 66441. He was born August 8, 1923, in Grant Town, the son of Martin and Hazel "Tennant" Bickerstaff. He graduated from Fairmont High School with the class of 1941. He married Rachel Dietz on May 16, 1945 at Olympia, Wash. His wife Rachel preceded him in death on Dec. 7, 2007. They moved to Junction City in May 1966. Mr. Bickerstaff served 22 years in the U.S. Army and served his country during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In addition to five bronze stars, a silver star, a meritorious medal, he received other commendations. Upon retirement from the military, he was a salesman for Modern Woodman of America. Mr. Bickerstaff was a member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church and numerous civic organizations. He was a Hixson Award recipient and past president of the noon Kiwanis, past commander of the VFW, past commander of the American Legion, and a member of the Salvation Army board. In addition to his wife, he was preceded in death by his parents; and his brothers, Martin Jr., Richard and Roger. Survivors include his daughter Constance Sue Collins, of Van, Texas; his sons Charles Ludwig, of Dixon, Ill., and Henry Martin and his wife Harriet, of Alva, Okla.; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and two great-great grandchildren; his brothers M. John and Thomas E.; and sisters Ivah Mae Haught, Ida Virginia Stalnaker, and Helen Patricia Law.

I just discovered a new fact about my great grandparents

During my recent visit to the Family Discovery Center in Salt Lake City I realized how important it is for me to upload photos, stories and source records to the individuals on my Family Tree if I can. One of the displays lets us touch a button to bring up a photo, and any information available for that individual is shown on the huge screen. It can put me to shame if I have that information and yet nothing shows up due to my failure to share it on the site. 

At this display I touched my maternal great grandfather's photo and this profile came up that includes photos. But you can see under 'Stories' that it says 'No stories available'. I need to get busy. 

This afternoon I reviewed my research on my paternal great grandparents, George "Jacob" and Mary Katherine (Winter) Margheim. This is the family I was looking at.

My grandfather John Ludwig Margheim is the youngest boy
between his parents in the front row. 

Until two years ago I thought this was the entire family unit. As I was searching Find-A-Grave I learned that an infant son Heinrich (Henry) was also born to this family (6 Aug 1891-8 Jun 1892). 

Today I looked at the 1910 Census for this family.

For the first time, I noticed that it says that my great grandmother Mary (Katherine or "Katie") had 12 children, with only 9 living in 1910. My genealogy database shows this family unit:

I do have baby Henry listed, but evidently Katie had two more children that I have never known about. I'll bet one was born while the family was still living in Russia, between 1883 and 1886, and perhaps one was born between 1887 and 1891. Oh dear, will I ever know? 

Here's the 1895 Census for this family:

This shows daughter Lena age 5. In the 1910 census above she is age 20. So she might have been born in 1890. However, I got her birth date of 7 May 1883 from the family Bible. A second "Oh dear". 

You might notice in the 1910 census above that the son age 17 is listed as "Samuel". I do know there was no Samuel in the family. That has to be Jacob Alexander "Alex", who is age 3 in the 1895 census (born 12 Dec 1892). The third "Oh dear!"  

I'm surprised that I hadn't noticed these details before. This proves that we need to go back and review our source documents. We just never know what we might discover.           

I visited the Family Discovery Center and made a great new discovery

When Larry and I went to Salt Lake City for RootsTech 2015, we arrived 2 days before the conference started. That gave us time to visit relatives and gave me time to shop at Deseret Book and attend a tour of the new Family Discovery Center that FamilySearch has built in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building east of Temple Square. 

As I waited for the tour to start at 10 am that Wednesday morning I was greeted by Shari Mehling Stone and her friend. It was coincidence that Shari was there at the same time. I met Shari at last year's RootsTech. Her great granduncle's daughter Mary Mehling married my great grandfather, George Koleber in 1931.  

Shari Mehling Stone is 3rd from right in the green sweater.

Shari is reviewing the Mehling information provided at this
display in the Discovery Center. 

After Shari and I visited awhile, another guest arrived for the 10 am tour. We recognized each other from Facebook! I met my new friend Michelle Ganus Taggart. 

I observed as Michelle visited a room that showed historical events about the locations where her ancestors lived.

As Michelle and I continued our visit in the Center, as all curious genealogists do, we shared information about our ancestral families. I told Michelle where I was living in Colorado and she told me her father's Ganus family had lived in Manassa, Colorado around the turn of the 20th century. This map shows the proximity of Manassa to my current residence of Canon City, CO.  

She was surprised to learn that my husband had ancestral connections to Manassa, Colorado too. This 1900 census below for Manassa, CO shows residents Aaron Hawkins and family.

This chart shows my husband's relationship to Aaron Hawkins.

Aaron Hawkins and Larry Jamison are 2nd cousins,
3 times removed.

It's so cool that I was able to personally get acquainted with Michelle in the "Discovery Center" and discover our family connections.   

My 10th Gt Grandfather's in the Joseph Smith Papers

In his LDS Media Talk blog this morning, Larry Richman wrote that FamilySearch has partnered with the Joseph Smith Papers saying "If you have an account on FamilySearch.org, you can see where your direct ancestors are mentioned in the papers of Joseph Smith. Find out if your ancestors interacted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and other early members of the Church at familysearch.org/josephsmithpapers." 
I went to the site and signed in to my FamilySearch account and found that my 10th great grandfather, Isaac Morley, was mentioned in the Papers. A brief biography follows: 

 This relationship chart shows my ascent to Isaac Morley.

If you think you have ancestors who might have been associated with Joseph Smith and mentioned in the Joseph Smith Papers, go to this site and check it out.

My Out-takes from RootsTech 2015

Before I have to re-enter the real world at work tomorrow, I want to spend my last few hours of vacation sharing with you my impression and involvement in the RootsTech genealogy conference last week in Salt Lake City. 

We flew into Salt Lake City on Tuesday so I had free time Wednesday morning to visit my favorite shopping spot downtown: Deseret Book. 

After I shopped, I took a tour of the Family Discovery Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Merrill White explains the procedure for exploring the Discovery Center. 

The first stop I made on my discovery journey was to find out the meaning of my name. 

This map shows where my ancestors lived. 

Also enjoying the tour was Shari Mehling Stone, whom I met last year at RootsTech. If I remember this right, Shari's great grandfather's niece was married to my great grandfather! 

This display tells me how many other people in the world share my first name of Mary. 

The 'Record My Story' room in the Center.

The ipad issued at the beginning of the tour is docked at this display which illustrates the migration of my family, with information taken from the familysearch.org site. 

Also on the tour was my Facebook friend Michelle Ganus Taggart. We had so much fun visiting about our ancestors and learned that some of Michelle's ancestors lived in the same community in Southern Colorado as relatives of my husband!

I call this new Family Discovery Center the "Magic Kingdom of Genealogy". It was exciting to see all the features and anticipate how it can help families get excited about their ancestry too. You can read more about the Family Discovery Center in this article. 

 My husband's brother and sister-in-law and their family live in the area so we were fortunate to have time Wednesday afternoon to visit with them and share old photos, dinner and lots of stories. 

As I was standing in line at 7 am for the opening of Hall D on Thursday, the first morning, for the Keynote Address, I was joined by friends Debbie Merrill Allen and Bobbi Twining Rogers. We met two years ago as we sat near each other at the opening Keynote address at Rootstech 2013. 

Bobbi Twining Rogers at left and Debbie Merrill Allen at right. 

Since we're members of the LDS church, I'm very supportive of FamilySearch and quite impressed with the advancements Dennis Brimhall has accomplished as its Director. He told us of those at the Thursday morning Keynote address. It can be viewed here.

The best class I attended on Thursday was given by D. Joshua Taylor on "30 pieces of tech I can't live without" which can be viewed here.

Watching the concert given by Alex Boye and the One Voice Children's Choir Thursday evening was the perfect end to our first day at the conference. 

Each morning Larry and I arose at 5:00 am so we could enjoy the breakfast buffet provided by the Radisson Hotel at 6:00 am. On Thursday morning we met Facebook friends Terri O'Connell and Jen Alford, of the In-Depth Genealogist, pictured below. 

Terri and Jen, photo courtesy of J. Paul Hawthorne. 

We also renewed our friendship and had a wonderful visit with Lisa Alzo, the Accidental Genealogist.

Lisa Alzo, photo courtesy of Randy Seaver, 2014

One of the greatest pleasures I experienced at the conference was listening to former First Lady Laura Bush, as she delivered the Keynote address on Friday morning. 

The very gracious and interesting Laura Bush. 

You can read good coverage of her talk here. This story in the Deseret News includes the photo below, where I happen to be visible at the green arrow!

My schedule on Friday was full of classes that were offered by FamilySearch for Consultants of the Family History Centers. I was particularly amused at the stories shared by Devin Ashby in his class on "What's New at FamilySearch". You can watch his presentation here.

On Saturday morning my day started with a wonderful visit at breakfast with fellow Blogger Renee Zamora.

I really, really enjoyed Donny Osmond's Keynote Address and the beautiful songs he shared with us. You can read about it here. He is still so very handsome and has a gorgeous voice! I was in high school watching the weekly Andy Williams Show when Donny made his debut as the 6 year old member of the Osmond Brothers. 

The sessions I attended on Saturday were part of the Family Discovery Day offered to members of the LDS church. R. Scott Lloyd of the Deseret News wrote here about the day better than I can. 

The Conference wrapped up Saturday evening with a concert by David Archuleta and a quick sketch session by the cast of Studio C. 

Bits and Pieces

Every year Larry and I visit with Janet, a member of the Salt Palace Housekeeping Staff, with whom we've become friends over the 4 years of our attendance at the conference. 

In 2013 Larry and I met Ruth Young Barnes as we sat together at one of the Keynote addresses. We've remained friends since and were able to meet up again this year and have a nice visit. 

Since I've been archiving my father's estate, and since I met Denise Levenick as we rode the hotel shuttle together last year, I attended her mini-class in the Expo Hall titled "Heirloom Roadshow". Denise is the author of "How to Archive Family Keepsakes".

Assorted photos as I wandered around

The FamilySearch Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Howland Family Chart showing famous descendants of John Howland, my husband's 10th great grandfather. 

The Salt Lake Temple in the early morning sun last Wednesday, February 11, 2015.

The temple through the trees.

The Salt Palace, home of the RootsTech conference.

The hallway outside the Expo Hall.

Attractive floral bouquets outside each room.

Registration Desk

The view from upstairs

The front Entrance

Bagpipes in the Expo Hall on Cultural Night

Polynesian Dancing in the Expo Hall

The view as we walked from the Salt Palace back to the Radisson Hotel.

My husband lost his wallet in the airplane and was blessed when the woman in the seat behind his noticed it under his airplane seat. He immediately bought a cord to attach it to his pocket! 

I will stop and have a chat with James Tanner and his wife every chance I get!

It was a pleasure to photograph Larry with Mary Tedesco (above) and Kenyatta Berry, (below) of the popular Genealogy Roadshow TV series. 

Caroline Cohoe Schultz and I were so happy to finally meet after being Facebook friends for several years!