Water everywhere! Happy frogs!

This isn't really research info, but I wanted to document the water.

We have had LOTS of rain in Iroquois County, Illinois. Last night we had a strong wind, lightning, thunder and RAIN storm blow through the area. Water is up over roads in the north part of Watseka. As of now, you cannot drive to the park pavilion where we are planning our family reunion in one week. I think I'll be checking into a new venue tomorrow, just in case.

At the farm, water is up in the pony pen and cattle pasture, higher than I have ever seen it. It was very eerie last night as I watched the rain pouring down and new rivers of water running across the barnyard. Of course the mosquitoes are getting really bad. I'm hoping all the FROGS that have come with the water can eat those mosquitoes! You'll see what I mean...

A work in contrast

Here's a nice winter snow, showing pony pen and cattle pasture between the trees

January 2015

Here's the same shot with high water in the pasture today. The brown river water makes it look like this is lakeside property!

June 2015

Now a video from tonight. It is pitch dark out, so you won't see much. The bright dot at the end of the video is the crescent moon. The frogs are happy, for sure. (At least, I think some of this is happy frogs.)

 

Amazing!

Big Focus, Small Goal

I am watching another Ancestry.com video by Crista Cowan, The Barefoot Genealogist. I just love her informative lessons on using Ancestry.com and the Family Tree Maker software. She also includes great research tips and general genealogical strategies.

The title of this video,

Using Ancestry.com Like A Pro

Crista Cowan, The Barefoot Genealogist

The first two questions help with the BIG focus, and the last question becomes the small goal. I need to remember to WRITE my goal. What do I want to know? Last question (not shown here): Where can I find the answers?

In my last post, I ended with this yearning and related story.

Now if I could just find the marriage of the daughter-in-law's parents, John Joseph Latz and Anna Kleinman or Klienman or Kleiman.

I think it is time to go back to the beginning and answer those first two questions again, with a fresh look at the facts and the sources to support them. I will find the answer some day.

Stay tuned...

Census Sunday - 1900 Samuel Mcclough and his wife, Jack. Really?

It's important to remember that names on the census did not always get recorded as we know them today. I could not find my great grandfather, Samuel McCullough in name searches of the 1900 U.S. Federal census records. I could not find his wife, Sarah or any of the children, all living at home. I had used all the search tricks and tips, wildcard characters, alternate name spellings. No luck.

I had an idea of where they were, near Cabery, Illinois in Mona Township, Ford County. Of course, Cabery is a town split right down the middle. The north side was in Kankakee County and the south side was in Ford County. I chose Ford County, and I did what any desperate family historian would do. Instead of doing a name search, I decided to browse the images. It was a small township, but this was at a time when the load speed for census images was slow, and the image viewer was not the best. But I found them!

1900 Mona Twp, Ford County, Illinois, United States

There they were, hiding in plain sight: Samuel Mcclough, wife Jack, and children Agnes, Mary, Thomas (my paternal grandfather), Sarah A. and Harold. Really? Wife's name is Jack? No, his wife's name was Sarah, and her maiden name was Jack.

Now if I could just find the marriage of the daughter-in-law's parents, John Joseph Latz and Anna Kleinman or Klienman or Kleiman. According to family notes, Myra Mary Latz was born in Portland, Oregon on September 13, 1893. Birth records in Oregon are hard to find around that time. I have a letter to John Latz from Northern Pacific Railroad Company about rates and stops from Chicago to Portland, Oregon, dated July 31, 1893. Sure sounds like a miserable train trip for Anna if she was in Chicago area at the end of July and she delivered baby Myra in Oregon in September.

Part of the letter from C.G. Lemmon, District Passenger and Land Agent for Northern Pacific states "I scarcely know what point to recommend with great North West for you to go for your best interest in your line of business. However I think you can suit yourself best in this way—now, as rates are reduced and never has there’re been a change to see the Northern Pacific country at such reasonable fare. We sell from Chicago to Portland Ore. a second class ticket at $25.00 which is good for a stop over of 10 days at Spokane Washington and any and all points west to destination, which will give you a chance to investigate for yourself at points like Spokane, Pasco, Yakima, Ellensburg, Seattle, Tacoma, Centralia, Olympia, Chahallis and adjoining country as 10 day stopover will afford you ample time to do so."

Another day...

Obituary Sunday - Thomas James McCullough 1885 - 1951

T. J. McCullough - 1885 - October 7, 1951

Published in Watseka Republican newspaper

The body was taken to the family residence on Tuesday afternoon, October 9, 1951

Pallbearers were Ernie Stephenson, Lawrence Gregory, Otto Gromer, John Sturm, Fred Sturm, and Clarence Norder. Cars for the flowers were driven by John Gromer and Ernest Ely.

Organist for the funeral was Grace Burnham, and soloist was James Miller.

Girls setting up flowers were Eileen Hayes, Betty Floriant, Virginia Gordon, Mrs. Milford Bunn, Mrs. Otto Gromer and Mrs. Helen Gossett.

T. J. also was preceded in death by a son Thomas James (1925-1926) and Dorothy Rosetta (1916).

From funeral book of T. J. McCullough, 1951

When I looked at the funeral book, I was surprised how many visitors' names I knew. These were people my parents would mention in conversations about the farm business or stories about their lives. My piano teacher, Mrs. L. E. (Simone) McShanog paid her respects, as well as my high school English/French teacher and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Sullivan. I didn't know they knew my parents before I was born.

There are lots of signatures of relatives I only know from researching my family tree. Since my parents were married in 1950, there were relatives from both sides of my family tree.