Recently in Genealogy Category

From today's Carmi Times:

Ted H. Matsel, age 83, died Thursday, October 23, 2008 at Wabash Christian Retirement Center in Carmi, Ill.

It would appear that Mr. Matsel was related somehow to Alice Matsel, who married John Sturm, son of James Clinton Sturm and Arrena Alldredge.

Alternately, the obituary says Mr. Matsel is survived by - among others - Mary Alice Brashier, who might be the widow of Vernon Brashier, who was the brother of Raymond Brashier, who - stay with me, now - was married to Lena Felty, who was the granddaughter (via Orlando Felty) of Sylvanus Felty, my great-great-grandfather.

Which, I suppose, means he's not related to me at all. But I figure I'll add him to my genealogy database anyway.

Long ago, my mother told me that there's a Cherokee somewhere in the higher branches of the family tree - "five generations back," she said. I've been looking, off and on over the years, but as yet have found no trace of him (her?).

Mail yesterday from cousin-twice-removed J., who reports that Arenna Aldredge - my great-great-great-grandmother, wife of James Clinton Sturm - is the long-sought Cherokee connection.

I wonder where I might find some documentation for this. Perhaps an afternoon at the library is in order.

From today's Carmi Times:

Lester Lionel Chastain, 87, of Madison, Ala., formerly of Carmi, faithful husband, loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather, went to be with his friend, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at 8:20 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007 at his home in Madison, Ala.

Mr. Chastain was the brother of Robert S. Chastain, who was married briefly to my great-grandmother Dorothy Sturm (née Dean), from 1975 until her death in 1978.

Small world, etc.

(The obituary says Mr. Chastain had two brothers and five sisters. I knew about the brothers - Robert and Carl - and four of the sisters - Dorothy, Doris, Louisa and Jean - but it's news to me that he had a fifth sister. I suppose that means I have something to research, next time I'm in the library.)

Spent a few hours in the Archives this afternoon - first time in a long time - poring over two of their recent acquisitions: Welman & Thiery's Encyclopedic Directory of Clay County, Indiana, published 1896; and The Backward Book: Extracts from White County, Illinois Newspapers, 1899-1905 and 1949-1955 by Barry C. Cleveland, published 2006.

The former mentions one L. E. Akers of Carbon; this is probably Luke Akers, who may or may not be my great-great-grandfather. (I've been trying to prove or disprove this hypothesis for a few years now, but haven't made much progress. I suspect a few research trips to the right places in Indiana would clear things up, but who has time?)

The latter is full of interesting factoids about close (and not-so-close) relatives of mine who lived in White County, e.g.,

Jasper Sturms of Old River lost a horse this week to buffalo gnats.
--May, 1904

(Jasper Sturm was my great-great grandfather.)

The only problem with The Backward Book is that there are no source citations. So there's no telling which newspaper carried any particular item (or what page it was on, etc.). Even so, it was a pleasant read.

Today is Jack LaLanne's 93rd birthday. Happy birthday, sir.

In today's Carmi Times:

Eileen E. Englebright, 93, Carmi, died Monday morning, Aug. 27, 2007 at Wabash Christian Retirement Center in Carmi.

Ms. Englebright was the daughter of Fred and Catherine (Burkhardt) Sefried; Catherine Burkhardt was the sister of Barbara Burkhardt, who married Sylvanus Felty, my great-great-grandfather; which apparently means Ms. Englebright was my first cousin, three times removed.

Small world, etc.

From today's Carmi Times:

Minnie Denny, 99, Carmi, died at 9:05 Friday morning, Aug. 24, 2007 at Wabash Christian Retirement Center in Carmi.

The obituary doesn't say so, but it appears that she was - at some point - married to Robert S. Chastain, who later married my great-grandmother, Dorothy Dean (who was Dorothy Sturm at the time).

Small world, etc.

I am no longer Lord High Treasurer of the Champaign County Genealogical Society: after one final round of paperwork in the Urbana Free Library Archives this evening, I handed over my satchel and left the building a free man.

It was fun, at first, but spending an hour every week writing checks, filling out deposit forms and scribbling in the ledger wore me down. It became a chore, which meant it was time to let someone else take over.

Now I get to be a plain old genealogist again, which will be nice.

The Mecklenburg County Recorder of Deeds has a pretty spiffy web site, with lots of genealogically-interesting databases online. In particular, they have death records online & searchable, which is quite convenient (especially compared to, say, driving to North Carolina).

One of my genealogical projects (on hiatus for the last year or so) involves one Thomas Stirling, who died in Charlotte, North Carolina, in January 1969. My current hypothesis is that his wife, Rose, was the daughter of Anna Ziegler, who in turn was the sister of Jacob Maurer; but I'm having a hard time collecting sufficient information to prove or disprove it.

I need to get a death certificate for Mr. Stirling, and an obituary. In theory, the former can be obtained from VitalCheck, and the latter from the (presumably) friendly & helpful researchers at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County; but I'm too lazy to figure out how to send research requests to either of them.

Mail the other day from Leister Productions: Reunion 9 is now available, only $59.95 for users of Reunion 8.

I seem to recall being promised, when I bought Reunion 8 last year, that the upgrade to Reunion 9 would be free; but there's no mention of that on the Reunion web site, and nobody's complaining in the Reunion Talk forums that they've been ripped off. Perhaps I am misremembering.

I suppose the next time I have $60 lying around, I'll upgrade.

(Not that I do much genealogy these days. No time for it, alas.)