Do You Know What Time It Is?

That's right it is time once again to take a walk on the wild side. Time to let your hair down and get your groove on. Time to. . . er, wait a minute. What day is today? Friday you say?

Well put your groove back in the box and save it for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

TODAY is a very special day! Follow me back in time to when "The Year Was 1867". HOWEVER get your shades on because when you see what we've done, you're going to be blinded by our BRILLIANCE!

SHADES - Our future looks bright!

Hint - My column begins on page 21

The Grandmother I Never Knew

Myrtle Mae Borgstadter Beffort 1918 - 2009

I had some news a couple of days ago. My Grandmother, Myrtle Mae Borgstadter Beffort passed away in Salina, Kansas. She was 91 years old. She was the only grandparent on either side that was still living. Well , not really living - I was told that she had been in a nursing home for the last 10 years suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

I never knew my Grandmother. She is my father's mother. Growing up, I know that we made a trip to Kansas to see them because I have photos. My mother says the last time we made the trip I was 6 years old.

My father and grandmother

My father never talked about his family, not really. I can only recall one thing that my dad said about his mother . After he had a few cocktails I remember him saying that he used to call her "Myrtle the Turtle." I do not remember why he called her that. I only remember him saying that he NEVER called her that to her face. My father died in 1988 at the age of 52. I was 19 years old. An age where I thought the world revolved around me and only me. I never got the chance to even get to really know my Daddy. At that time, it also never occurred to me that my Grandmother had lost her oldest son. Two weeks later, my grandfather dies. First her oldest child and then her husband. If she made any contact with my family during this time, I was not aware of it. I was in my own little world of shock and unbelievable sadness that my father had died. It was my first experience with death up close and personal. Here it is twenty years later and I still miss him. My grief is not over him dying. Not anymore. I grieve because I feel like a part of me is still missing. Not knowing about my father's life makes me feel like a part of me is missing.

As the years went by I began my journey researching my family history. I had always intended to make a trip to Kansas , knock on my grandmother's door and see if she would talk to me. Ask her if she could tell me why or what happened in the past that prevented us from having a relationship. Another couple of years came and went and I told myself "Next year, yes next year I will make the trip to Kansas."

My dad has 3 younger brothers. If any of them will talk with me, I still have a chance to begin to fill in the huge void. If I make that trip out to Kansas. I have, through my research, the basic vitals and information about my grandparents. I have some photographs of them. Through a couple of shirt tail cousins who found me a year or so ago I learned some basic biographical information. I was able to get a copy of my grandmother's obituary and it told me some things about her life that I can now add to her story.

I will find a way to honor my grandmother and her life. I need to straighten out my thoughts and feelings about this. I am feeling guilty for not having a meltdown when I heard she died. I have no memories of ever knowing her. I am saddened by the thought that I will never have an opportunity again to try and get to know her. Which in turn makes me mad because that is a very selfish thing to be thinking about.

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So take a few minutes and VOTE today, tomorrow - as many times as you want until November 5th .

Halloween Memories or Just Evil and Wicked Thoughts?

While I was at Samford attending the Institute for Genealogical and Historical Research in June, my instructor, Lloyd Bockstruck revealed to the class that "he had evil thoughts" [note - this quote is taken way, way, far away out of context, but I needed an opening for this article and it's all I got right now] Well, I have to tell you that I was certainly relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one.

Over at Genea-Musings, Randy Seaver is hosting the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -the Halloween edition. He challenges us to think about our most memorable Hallowe'en - was it when you were a child (candy, games, carnivals), a teenager (tricks and treats), or an adult (perhaps a party)?

Reading Mr. Saturday Night's memory of tricking the pastor of his church tells me that (along with Mr. Bockstruck) I am in good company when it comes to wickedness.

I have only a few memorable Halloween moments that remain near and dear to me. Like the time my ex-husband decided to attend his company Halloween party dressed as a Urine Sample. However, being the generous and giving kind of person that I am, instead of boring you with my life I present some of the most amusing costumes I have seen this year.

And people ask me where my head is

A little deviled egg

This one is for Sista Donner

This is why your parents tell you the Tooth Fairy isn't real

Online Land Records In North Carolina - I Found A Goldmine!

I have just spent the last couple of hours in Land Record Heaven. Surry County and Yadkin County, both in North Carolina have Grantor/Grantee indexes online. Once I had a book and page number, I emailed the clerk in the office of the Register of Deeds for each county and ordered copies of the deeds. The cost? 25 cents per page plus postage. Hip hip hooray for me and if you have ancestors in either of these counties, then hip hip hooray for you too!

The Surry County Register of Deeds has digital images of the deed books - both the Grantor and the Grantee books and you can access them here. It covers the years 1771 to the present.

The Yadkin County, North Carolina Register of Deeds Remote Access Website has the Grantor and the Grantee books covering 1850 to present.

These sites have been a goldmine for me. I am now able to make a solid connection between 20 families that I have been researching. Some of the surnames are: HARRIS, NAYLOR, WELBORN/WILBORN, VESTAL, MESSICK, BROWN, WALLACE, HAWKINS, DAVIS and FOOTE. These families all lived in Surry, Yadkin and Wilkes counties, North Carolina from at least 1800 and from 1869 to 1875 migrated to Poweshiek and Greene counties, Iowa in groups.

Bits and pieces of information have identified most all of these families as Methodist Episcopalians who lived in the same communities in North Carolina and stayed together when they arrived in Iowa. I have marriage records and census records. I have cemetery records and probate records. But now I have the records that I feel truly and most certainly prove kinship - Land Records!

My Musical Family - 83rd COG

The 83rd COG is all about "Musical Instruments."  Do you play a musical instrument or did one of your family members?  Which instrument was it?

The photo below shows my grandmother Maryellen Harris and her parents Hillary T. Harris and Hazel Berry Harris in front of their home in Allen County, Kansas about 1921.  I was able to ask my grandmother about this photo before she passed away.  She told me that her parents were the funniest people she knew.  They just loved to act silly and that is what they were doing in this photo. 

As far as I know, neither my paternal nor my maternal side of the family produced any musicians.  This photo is as close as I can get for a submission to this COG!

Hazel Berry Harris, Maryellen Harris and Hillary T. Harris in front of their home in Osage Township, Allen County, Kansas (c) 1921

Millionaire's Row - Tombstone Tuesday

"Millionaire's Row" - Stockton Rural Cemetery, Stockton, California

Some of the "Residents":

Bolen Green Ping - SNGF Most Unusual Name

. . . .And speaking of Mr. Saturday Night - time for fun and games of a genealogical nature over at Genea-Musings.    To play along, here are the rules this week:


1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database - in your ancestry.
2) Tell us about this person in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.
3) Okay, if you don't have a really good one - how about a sibling of your direct ancestors?






BOLEN GREEN PING - The name just kind of rolls right off your tongue.  Bolen is my 4th great grandfather.  He was born 24 November 1800 in Virginia to William Ping and Mary Bullock.  He married Sophia Barnes on 25 January 1819 in Pulaski County, Kentucky. 

I hadn't really done a whole lot of research on this ancestor in quite a long time and when I pulled his file it was pretty skimpy.  So I spent a few hours this evening learning more about him and found oodles of information.  Here are just a couple of places I found him.




On February 8, 1840, the following persons met at the house of Christian Clymer, or the purpose of ascertaining the number of disciples of Jesus Christ who wished to constitute a church, viz., Williamson Trent, Nancy Trent, John R. Lines, Dicy Lines, McCormac Zion, Sally Dunham, Bolen Ping, Sophia Ping, James L. Gilmore, Sally Gilmore, Christian Clymer, Elizabeth Clymer, Aaron Lines, Jane Lines, Maryann Clymer, and Polly Berry. They agreed to bring their letters the next day and enter into a constitution upon their articles of faith, and be known by the name of the Regular Baptist Church called West Liberty.


West Liberty Church united with the Des Moines River Association of Regular
Baptists in the year 1841.


I found the above information at:
The Primitive Baptist Library of Carthage, Illinois
The Church and Family History Research Assistance for Primitive Baptist Churches in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri page can be found here




Then I found him mentioned in the "History of Des Moines County, Iowa"  which is online at Internet Archive.

"Bolin Ping came from Pulaski County, Ky. in the fall of 1839 and settled on 320 acres purchased of Levi Larkin, now a resident of Burlington.  Mr. Ping's cabin was a mile and a half  southeast of present Dodgeville."

Happy Birthday Mr. Saturday Night!

No, it's not Saturday yet, but head on over to Randy Seaver's place anyway and wish him a Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PRESIDENT  DEAR RAAAAANDYYYY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

My Befort Family Increase - SNGF

Here it is, another Saturday Night and time to head on over to Seaver's place for a little Genealogy Fun. Our task is as follows:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.


Well the easy part of this assignment was in making the choice. Randy asked that we use the set of great grandparents with the most descendants. On my mother's side, one set of great grands had two children and the other had only one. On my father's side one set had five children which leaves the fourth set - John Befort and Elizabeth Ernst win the prize with 11 children.

John and Elizabeth came to the U.S. as children with their families from Obermonjou, Russia and settled in the town of Munjor, Ellis County, Kansas. They were among the hundred of thousands of Germans from Russia that immigrated in the years 1876-1880. Most settled in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and the Dakotas.

My Befort family, while in Russia for almost 150 years, had settled in a village on the Volga River that was entirely Catholic. All of the settlements were established by their religious persuasion. They were extremely clannish and rarely married or socialized beyond their village. They also continued to speak German, never assimilating into Russians culture, customs or language. When they came to America, they behaved the same way. My father's generation was the first to speak and use English as the primary language.

My grandparents Edmund Robert Beffort and Myrtle Borgstadter & sons.

My father is on the far right.

John Befort and Elizabeth Ernst created the following Befort dynasty:





11 children - I have met only 1: my grandfather. I believe that all 11 children are deceased



33 grandchildren - I have met 4: my father and his 3 brothers. Out of the 33 grandchildren I know that 4 are deceased.



27 great grandchildren - I have met 6 1/2: me and my brothers, the 1/2 is a cousin I recently came in contact with and we have talked on the phone but have not met in person. I do not know if all 27 great grandchildren are living.



21 great great grandchildren - I have met 8: my 3 boys, 5 nieces and 1 nephew. As with the above, I do not know if all 21 great great grandchildren are living.



That's it. A family increase of 92 that I can track down. I would like to think that there are more out there. Jeeeze Loueeze, I have some work to do with this branch.