Once again I have procrastinated this week. Last year we moved and we are still settling. I thought I knew where all my Genealogy stuff was but…I must have a box somewhere that still has files in it. I had some little notes that I want to use with this blog…but I can’t put my hands on it right now so I will lead in a little bit different direction.

This is a school picture from Wells County, Indiana. Everett is standing in the back row the fifth child from the right. I have sent out several emails trying to identify this school but so far not luck. This is likely 1911 or 1912. In the 1910 Federal Census, Everett and his family were living in rural Jefferson Township, Wells County, Indiana.

The second picture is probably from a Wells County School. It could be the same school but I can not be certain. The windows are a bit different between the two picture. It looks like there are four windows in a row where as the previous picture had windows in sets of two. When I asked my Grandfather where he grew up, he told me Roanoke, Indiana yet I never found them living in Roanoke. In the second picture Everett is seated on the ground in the front row in the center. He identified himself (or Grandma identified him) with the arrow on the picture. The family left Indiana in 1918 or 1919. If they left in 1918, Everett would have been 14 years old and likely have finished 8^th grade. I wish I could ask him a few more questions.

After leaving Indiana, Everett obtained employment in the Automotive Industry. He sold batteries and Electrical automotive parts. When Everett and Lillian married in 1923, He listed his occupation as a “Battery Man” on his marriage certificate. Seven years later at the time of the 1930 Federal Census, he was working for General Motors at the “Body Plant”.

This picture identifies Everett on the left and a friend on the right at the “Body Plant” on Dort Highway in Flint, Michigan. In 1925, Everett’s father, Alvin, died of a heart attack while working on the factory line. Six years later his daughter, Lucille, died in January of 1931 after a short illness of Strep which went to her blood. These were troubling financial times with the stock market crash and a looming depression. Everett made the difficult decision to leave his family and go to college. It was time to make a change and he decided to become a minister. He went to Adrian Seminary for about one year while Lillian and Harold remained in Burton, Michigan near family. Everett wrote Lillian and Harold regularly sweet notes on post cards, which he stuffed in envelopes and mailed. But Everett felt that the security of the ministry was worth all the trouble. Lillian and Harold were being taken care of because they had family close by.

Everett received his license to practice as a Methodist Minister on August 28,1932. There will be a two year period where he practiced with a License before he could be officially Ordained as an Elder of the Methodist Church.

Everett was assigned to the Swartz Creek Unity Church and the Second Methodist in Flint for his first assignment. This brought him back to his family and the Flint area where they lived. By September 1, 1933, he was reassigned to the Genesee Methodist Church.

In September of 1936, the Richfield Church was added to his assignment. After extensive renovation of both the church and the parsonage at Genesee , a re-dedication service was held in 1940. In the Dedication program, Everett and his work were highly praised. Everett was very involved with local civic affairs and chairman of the Civil Defense Council of Genesee.

 “The pastorate of the Rev. and Mrs Smith and son Harold have been a happy one. The Smiths Came in September of 1933. During those seven years, Rev Smith has lead the church in many projects that has not only served as a blessing to the church but to the entire community.” 

In January of 1943, Everett and his family were called to the Marine City Methodist Church. A very reluctant Genesee Church sent a letter to the Marine City Church praising Everett’s abilities. The Genesee Church wanted Marine City to know what kind of a man they were getting and to be sure that Marine City knew that if they did not like him that Genesee wanted him back!!!

On January 24, 1943, Rev Everett Smith presided over the Marine City United Methodist Church for the first time. Almost one year later, on the night of January 22, 1944, a fire broke out in the furnace room. The fire spread through the walls and up to the roof. While Everett and Lillian were eating dinner a passerby knocked on the door to tell them that the church was on fire. The Fire Department, which was directly across the street, promptly arrive and began fighting the fire. The fire was mostly on the interior of the building with dense smoke which made it impossible to fighting from inside. A large amounts of water had to be poured on the church from the outside. When the flames were finally extinguished, the inside of the brick church was badly damaged, especially basement dining room, Community room, the organ and the tracery stained glass window on the Broadway Street side of the church. After surveying the damages, it was decided that the church would be rebuilt. The church did have insurance and most of the cost to rebuild was covered. The remaining funds were raised by fund raising events and donations. Services were held in St Mark’s Episcopal Church until September of 1944 when restoration was complete.

Everett, Lillian and Harold remained in Marine City until 1949 when they were called to move on to the Monroe Street Church in Lapeer, Michigan.

They would remain in Lapeer for the remainder of his career. He was always very active with the youth of the church and understood that they were the future of the church. He took a very active role in Summer Camps for young adult Christian kids. These camps were held at the Lakeport Methodist Camp along the shore of Lake Huron. Everett began going there with young adult groups when he was at the Marine City Church. In the Marine City days, the campers did many projects to help fix the camp and keep it updated. Around 1950, Grandpa and his campers built an amphitheater on the beach which was used for outdoor events for camps and retreats. It is still there today.

Sometime in early 1950, Everett was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis while he was serving in the Monroe Street Lapeer Church. At the time, this disease was new, hard to diagnostic and very misunderstood. There was little that they could do for him. He worked very hard in an effort to continue to use his limbs and be able to walk on his own. He told his wife, Lillian, that when he could no longer stand behind the pulpit, he could no longer be a minister. That day came in way too soon in 1956. He remained an assistant pastor for a time assisting Rev Lamb, who was assigned to the Lapeer Church after Everett stepped down. The Monroe Street Church had outgrown it’s building. The church bought 5 acres of land across the street from the Lapeer General Hospital on M-24 and broke ground. The new church was completed in 1960 and would be called Trinity Methodist Church.

When the Trinity Methodist Church was dedicated and the corner stone laid in September 15, 1960, my Grandfather spoke from behind the new pulpit. It was the only time I remember my Grandfather preaching. I was 5 years old. I could hardly see over the back of the pews, straining to sit up straight so I could see this man whose familiar voice billowed among the rafters of the brand new church. With the aid of a cane, he stood one last time behind a pulpit and delivered a sermon.

Everett and Lillian moved to a small house on Carlson Drive in Davison soon after the completion of the Trinity Church. The Trinity Methodist Church would always be their home church. Everett went to work for the Flint Radio Station WMPR. I spent a week with my them in either 1962 or 1963 during the summer. Everett no longer drove so Lillian took him to work and then returned at the end of his shift to bring him home. I rode along with her the week that I was visiting. The first day we pulled into the parking lot about 15 minutes before his four hour shift ended. She turned off engine but left the ignition. She turned on the radio to hear the end of his radio show. I sat in stunned silence, listening to my Grandfather voice as it drifted from the speaker of the car radio. I looked at Grandma with a wide eyed grin! “That’s Grandpa! ”, I exclaimed. “He must really be famous if he’s on the radio!” I said, which caused Grandma to chuckle.

For the remainder of the week I sat and listened to the daily hog, corn and bean report with renewed interest because the voice coming out of the radio was this famous man that I had known all my life! I learned a lot about farming and local news that week. On Friday, she let me go into the station with her to see Grandpa Everett as he worked. She made me promise that I would be quiet because after all they were “On Air”. I’ll never forget it. There he was in a room encased with glass windows. There was a lot of lights and dials, funny looking things on a table that he was sitting in front of. So many things that a seven year old had never seen before. A large shiny metal box was hanging from the ceiling, that he talked into. He was seated in a special chair and was wearing these funny things that covered his ears. There was a large red “Quiet, On Air” sign lite. I had never seen anything like it. He went on with his show never skipping a beat after we came into the station. He winked at me and gave me a quick smile.

It is quite evident that the trajectory of Everett’s life was radically changed by his choice at age 26 to go to college.

Happy Hunting,

Jan

#52Ancestors

Alvin Oliver Smith – 1892

Alvin Oliver Smith lived near Zanesville, Indiana. Zanesville is located south west of Fort Wayne where the Indiana counties of Allen, Wells and Huntington intersect. Alvin married Cora May Crites on December 24, 1892 in Zanesville. Cora was born and raised in Uniondale, Indiana which is located in Union Township, Wells County. In the 1900 Federal Census, Alvin and Cora live in rural Wells County. Alvin states that he is a general farmer. By the time of the 1910 Federal Census, Alvin and his brother, William, are living next door to each other. Both men are general farmers and it appears they are working together. Alvin’s WWI Draft Registry in September of 1918, states that he is employed as a truck driver by the George L. Hatter Creamery in Roanoke, Indiana. George L Hatter Creamery had three Cream Stations : the Zanesville station was in Wells County, the Roanoke station was in Huntington County and the Laud station was in Whitley County.

Alvin’s WWI Draft Record

Alvin must have become restless. He obviously felt out of place when he left his own farming enterprise and began driving a truck for the G. L. Hatter Creamery. It soon became apparent that even that did not satisfy him for very long. There would have been a lot of talk about the new Automotive Industry which had begun to really take off. General Motors was founded by William C. Durant ten years earlier in 1908 in Flint Michigan. He had been involved in the industry since the early days of motorized vehicles in the late 1880’s. In 1904, he assume control over Buick Motor company and by the time that he formed General Motors four years later in 1908, he had acquired and combined Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Oakland Auto Companies under the General Motors Corporation. Flint was 200 mile away from Alvin and his family. The thought of being able to go to work for someone and not having the heavy burden of owning and running your own farm must have had a strong lure. Can’t you just imagine how he must have felt. He would have to convince Cora that this was the best move for their family.

Listen in as Alvin talks to Cora….

“They say the work is really stable.”

“I can make more money and would not have to work so hard.”

“It will be better for the boys.”

“ They will be able to work there too when they are done with school.”

“ We will have a bright future to look forward too.”

“It is not that far from Indiana.”

“We’ll be able to get our own car.”

“ We can drive to Indiana to see our family when ever we want.”

Can’t you just hear him trying to convince Cora to leave her family in Indiana and move 200 mile away to the small town of Burton, Michigan, just outside of Flint. There were many new jobs at the new flourishing Buick plant.

Alvin convinced her because sometime between the 1918 WWI Draft registration and the 1920 Federal Census, they had moved. All their household belongings were loaded into a rail car including the Smith Cow and the dairy equipment. As he told Cora, “We’ll take the cow and the Dairy equipment just in case the “Automotive thing” does not work out.” Alvin and James Fredrick rode in the rail car to Burton with all their belongs and the cow while Everett and Cora rode to Burton in a motor car.

The Smith Cow

Not only did the “Automotive thing” work out, it brought about radical changes to our family, our country and society as a whole. It was relatively soon after that when most households could afford to buy a car. In 1920 the average cost of a car was $525.00.

A few months after Alvin and Cora moved, Alvin’s younger brother, Frank, came to Burton too. He is found living with Alvin and Cora on Term street in Burton in the 1920 census. Frank Smith got a job at the Buick plant and brought his family from Indiana to the Burton. In 1925, tragically, Alvin died of a heart attack while working on the factory line at Buick Plant #4 according to his obituary.

Everett and James Frederick standing and Alvin and Cora are seated in front of their home on Trem Street.

Alvin was the beginning of a pretty long tradition of Smiths working for GM /Buick. Frank Smith worked for Buick for over 30 years. Alvin’s son, James Frederick (Fred), worked his whole life at the same plant that his father worked and died at. He retired after more than 40 years. Frank’s son, James W Smith worked at Buick for 35 years and so did his son, Lawrence F. Smith.

Frank’s house under construction on Term Street.

Cora, Everett and James Fredrick (Fred) remained in Burton, Michigan after Alvin died. Alvin and Cora had built a house on Term Street in Burton. When Frank moved to Burton, he built a house right next door to Cora and Alvin’ s. Cora eventually remarried and move to Clio, Michigan. James Frederick (Uncle Fred ) live in the home build by his Mother and Dad on Term street all his life. Frank’s son, James W Smith and Grandson, Lawrence F. Smith eventually transferred to General Motors plants in the Indiana.

Happy Hunting , Jan

Alvin and Cora are my Great Grandparents. Francis Smith (Uncle Frank) is my Great Grand Uncle. Everett Smith is my Grandfather and James Frederick (Uncle Fred) is my Great Uncle.

#52ancestors

I am combining these two weeks for several reasons. First of all, I started the year again not on the ball enough to get week one complete yet and secondly because these two post tie very well together. I struggled through 2022 to keep up with my blogging. (I did not keep up…it fell off the radar.) We moved across town last spring. It doesn’t seem like that should be that big a deal after all you just moved a mile away but you still have to box everything and find a new place for it. It totally consumed our year and will continue for the better part of this winter too as I still have boxes to unpack, to sort and then to decided what to do with the contents.

The photo above is by far ONE of my favorites. It was found in a dusty old box of photos that belonged to my Grandma Smith. It was this box of photos that has inspired my 26 years of research into our family. Meet Emma (McGoogan) and John Crites. This photo gives my chills every time I look at it. They spoke to me the first time I saw this photo and we continue our conversation every time I look at it. They are very special to me.

One of my very first visits to the area of Nine Mile, Indiana, where my Smith’s originated from, was in 1998 or 1999. I had gone to visit my Mother in Harbor Beach, Michigan. I lived in the suburbs of Chicago and at least 2 hours of my trip involved traveling thru parts of Indiana, I decided on a whim to take a slightly different route home by way of Nine Mile, Indiana. I knew it would add time and miles to my trip but it would be great to get a feel for where our family came from. My intention was to locate the cemetery and take some tombstone photos of as many family members graves as I could find.. I knew many family members were buried in Hoverstock Cemetery.

As I entered this small farm town located a short distance off Interstate 69, I found a local meat market. I had such a short window of time to check out the cemetery before I needed to be back on the road toward home so rather than driving around blindly looking for the cemetery, I stopped into the market to ask where it was. I was told that it was just about a half a mile down the road. I chatted with the man behind the counter at the market explaining that I was doing family history research and looking for relatives in the cemetery. He suggested that I go and introduce myself to Melba Edwards. She lived right down the street at the end of the block. She was a well known local historian. He said that she was always home and loves to talk about the local history.

Before going to the cemetery, I decided to go look her up. I drove down the street as he suggested and stopped at the large house on the corner at the end of the block. She was indeed home and thrilled to talk to me about local history. She gave me the opportunity to peek intimately into the lives of my 2 times Great Grandparents, John and Emma Crites.

She lived in the house that was the local doctors office at the turn of the century. The doctor was Dr James McBride who was her Grandfather. She has a library full of old ledgers, Family Bibles, binders and old historical documents that pertained to the Zanesville / Nine Mile Indiana area. This area is located at the intersection of three counties, Allen County, Wells County and Huntington county. She asked me the family names that I was looking for and what I knew about them. I told her the surnames of Crites, Smith, and McGoogan. She had the medical ledger from her Grandfather’s practice. She opened it looking for these names. A treasure chest was opened.

In the ledger, Dr. McBride visited Emma 17 times in the fall of 1893 beginning on September 2nd and ending on October 31^st. Many of the visits were on consecutive days. The ledger showed a charge of 1.50 each for eight of those visits. The total bill for the two months was $20.50. The ledger does not indicate what her diagnosis was. In the ledger, there were many notes about John and how he paid for Emma’s doctor visits.

On an October 4^th entry, it shows that he delivered and stack a cord of wood for $1.25. In late August before Emma got sick he had delivers a cord and one half of wood on two occasions for $1.87 each time. He deliver 2000 pounds of Hay for $ 9.00 on October 16th. And in 1892 on December 26, he delivered a 153 -189 pound Hog for $ 7.56. When you add all these entries together it comes to $21.55. Melba felt that Emma must have been very sick based on the charges in the ledger.

In 1894, Dessie, their eight year old daughter became ill. Dr McBride visited Dessie on eighteen consecutive days and three non consecutive days beginning on September 16 and ending on October 9. On September 26-28, Dr McBride visited her twice daily. The total charges for Dessie came to 36.00. On October 11, John did some road work for Dr McBride for 2.50. On October 19 and 20^th he delivered 12 loads of gravel for a total of $4.80. The remaining bill was pay for in full on January 19, 1895.

Melba also had the ledger for the local Mercantile which also proved to be interesting reading. It seems that John liked tobacco. He often bought plugs of tobacco. Emma sewed, most likely she made clothes because there were several entries that indicted that John bought her bolts of material.

After spending several hours with Melba looking at local documents. I had used up every minute of my extra time so there was no time to visit the cemetery this trip. I had to get back on the road and head for home. I would need to be taking Interstate 80 West toward Chicago because of my little detour and traffic will be a nightmare in the late afternoon.

I have made many trips to the Nine Mile area thru the years now. And many of them were detours when I was journeying to and from visits to Michigan while living near Chicago. The following photo is another favorite of mine. I have learned that this was likely taken on June 10, 1917. Their church, the Uniondale Methodist Church, had a Re-dedication service on that day. They took a large picture of all the church members which I found in an antique store during my 2013 visit to Uniondale. I was able to find Emma in the crowd and she is dress just like she is in this picture.

I have thru the years written several blogs about John and Emma on different platforms. Sometime after 2010, I got an email from a young man named Shane Brown. He lived in Uniondale and the deed for his house had Emma’s name on it. He reached out to me to see if I had any photos of the house. He had been told that Emma was a fabulous gardener and he was hoping to restore the yard and house to its former glory. We exchanged several email about what I knew about John and Emma. I sent him this photo and several others.

During the summer of 2013 my husband and I decided to go visit the Allen County Library. It is located in Fort Wayne, Indiana which is very near Nine Mile and Uniondale. We took out travel trailer and camped in a State Park in Bluffton, Indiana. We love to camp so it is rather a WIN WIN when we combine a camping trip with a Genealogy Research trip.

After spending the most of the day at the library, we visited a couple of cemeteries and headed south toward our campsite in Bluffton, Indiana. The sky was extremely dark and a thunder storm was brewing. It may have been in Bluffton or it could have been further south, it was hard to tell. I was looking at the map and noticed that we were approaching Indiana Highway 224, I suggested that we take a little side trip while we let the weather near the campground die down. I could not see Greg’s eyes because he had them focused on the road and the storm ahead of us, I can imagine that they had the look of “again…another side trip”.

I told him, “You know, Uniondale is right down Highway 224 just a few short miles. That where Emma’s house is…” I dangled that little tidbit out there for him to contemplate.

“Whose Emma? “ Greg asked as if he did not know that she was somehow related to me.

“She my 2 times Great Grandmother” I proudly proclaimed.

“It’s the house that my Grandpa was born in. It’s the house that I could not find the last time I went looking for it…Remember I told you that some guy named Shane Brown emailed me recently after reading my blog about Emma and John Crites. Remember…he told me that he owned Emma’s house and that he was restoring it ..Remember? He found my blog entry, which showed a picture of it with Emma and John standing in front of it…”

“Don’t you remember, I sent him other pictures of it. He was so excited to find me…”

Well, I could tell that he did not remember any of it…

But he said “I think this is Highway 224 so does that mean you want to turn here? “

“YES” I replied.

“Which way? Right ? “He asked

“Yes” I told him….. “ Towards Uniondale! ” I told him. I am sure he rolled his eyes but I was busy looking west down Indiana Highway 224. After a few short miles, I saw the sign for Uniondale.

Uniondale is a small farming community. As we drove north on Main Street, I recognized Emma’s church on the right. Ten years ago when I visited Uniondale, I did not know that was Emma’s church. Since then my cousin, Helen Jane gave me a family keepsake that her family had cherished from Emma. It had been saved and treasured all these years first by her Dad (my Great Uncle Fred)and then her Mom (Aunt Hazel) and then Helen Jane (my second cousin) . She wrote me a note when she sent it to me. She said that, “ this was always in my Mother’s china cabinet.” They always said it was from “Dad’s Grandma Crites” After Mom died, I brought it home and now I am sending it to you” Helen Jane told me she thought I ought to have it since I was the “keeper” of all the family facts and had done so much work on our family history.

I told Greg, “Look there’s Emma’s church.”

“Yes…How do you know that?” He asked.

I explained, “Remember that paper weight that I got from my cousin, it has a picture of that church on it!”

“Oh, Yeah…” He replied

I said, “ Hey, wait…slow down…stop!”

“What? “ Greg said, “Why?” He stopped the truck…

“See that house? We have pictures of family members and that house is in the background!” I told him.

This is a picture taken of during a visit to see John and Emma. It was taken around 1930. Standing in the back row from left to right are Cora Crites Smith (my Great Grandma) and Everett Smith (my Grandfather), Cora’s son. Seated are Emma and John. My Dad is on John’s lap and my Dad’s sister Lucille is standing between them. My Dad, Harold Smith, was born in August 29, 1928. His sister Lucille died at age 6.

“So that means….” as I turned my head to look across the street! “THAT is Emma’s house!”

And sure enough it was! I instantly had goose bumps and have them again now as I write this! And Shane Brown was indeed making this house look like it did when Emma and John owned it. He had opened up the porch which had been closed in and it was obvious that it was a work in progress!

I told Greg, “ I need to get a picture of it!” So I got out of the truck with the camera to take a picture and he sat in the truck…in the middle of the street in this sleepy little farm town, blocking traffic!

As I raised the camera, to take the picture, a lady came out the front door. She had a puzzled look on her face which said, “What are you doing?” I thought to myself…well this is embarrassing…she must think I am nuts taking a picture of her house…

“Oh, I’m So sorry…Can I take a picture of your house? My Great Great Grandmother owned it many years ago. I have old photos of it.” I told her. “Would that be OK ? “ “Oh of course, take as many as you want.” She exclaimed . Then she said, “I have to call Shane and tell him you are here!”

So she lite a cigarette and called someone on her cell phone, “Shane, you have to come home now! It’s really important … Come home now!”

And she hung up. “He’ll be home in a minute,” she said. All the while smoking her cigarette with excitement….(only an former smoker would understand that!)

I protested and said, “Oh I did not mean to interrupt here…I just wanted to see Emma’s house and when I recognized it, I thought I would take a picture of it.”

She said, “Oh no, he has to meet you…he has to! You need to talk to him and he needs to meet you!”

She suggested that Greg parked the truck and we waited on the porch chatting about the house and Emma and John.

After a few minutes, she called Shane again, “Shane, you have to come home now! There is this lady here and you need to talk to her…. Come home!” and once again she hung up the phone. After a few minutes more of chatting, all of a sudden this car came speeding down Main Street, past the house and entered a drive way to the south of the house. It was Shane Brown, the young man who I had shared emails with a few years before.

He looked to be about the age of my oldest son. He looked at his wife, and he looked at me…In the mean time she begins to tell him “ this is the lady, the one you got the email from. The one from the blog about the house, remember. “

You could see a transformation take place in his face. He got the biggest grim and you could see the excitement take over his body. For the next hour, we talked on the porch about Emma and her house which he now proudly owned. He produced the original county abstract for the property. Contained within it are all the legal documents which show the history of all the families who purchased this house. All the legal transactions, the dates and the actual signatures for Emma, John, Cora and Dessie. Emma had purchased the home for she and John with inheritance money that she received from her Mother Hannah after she died. All the while as I reading the abstract I can feel Emma looking over my shoulder proudly.. Her presence was all around us. Shane let me scan in copies of the abstract. It was a day that I could never have dreamed of having all those years ago when I started this journey with the old picture of Emma and John.

Shane talked all about the projects that he has started or will need to do in the future to return his little house to what it looked like when Emma owned it. He had to do foundation work because it had settled badly. He re-opened as much of the porch as he could, he gutted the inside and added drywall walls. When we communicated through email, I sent him a photo of John and Emma taken in the living room of what is now his home.

He had found the wallpaper that was on the walls in that picture when he took the old walls out. I wanted to see the inside of the house in the worst way but I already felt bad that we had just dropped in on them. So I would not ask. Eventually, he offered…but his wife was a bit reluctant…She said, “ It isn’t really ready for company, I was cleaning!”

I told her, “It was OK, really, that is not important to me. What is important to me is to stand in Emma living room!”. So we entered, and I could feel her everywhere. I stood in the very room that this photo was taken in. I had goose bumps and tears. Time stood quietly still and it was a bit overwhelming! I wanted it to last forever. It was a truly unexpected gift!

I never dreamed all those years ago when I looked at those dusty photos of this couple that this journey would become so special to me. Needless to say I would love to meet this couple but there is something deep down in my DNA that tells me every time I see them in these photos that we have already met. Its the tears and the goosebumps….Emma and John’s way of saying “We love you too dear! “

Happy Hunting!

Jan

#52Ancestores52Weeks

Wow, 2022 is a wrap ! I can say that one year ago I never would have guessed that the year would have turned out as it did……

Bought a house….

Trip to Arizona….

Renovated a house…..

Packed up a house….

Moved our belongings….

Unpack our belongings (not complete)….

Prepared the old house to sell…..

Sell it……

Re-landscape the new yard……

Vacation……

Dog Bite…….

Arrival of a new Great Granddaughter……

A two month Illness……

Arrival of another new Great Granddaughter…..

A trip to Central Illinois for a special 50th Birthday…..

A Christmas trip to Southern Ohio…..

and a Christmas trip to Chicago….

It is no wonder that I had a hard time getting any blogs written. I have taken a small amount of time for research ….Mostly verifying DNA matches on Ancestry and My Heritage…I plan to get back at my blogs on a regular basis in 2023. Happy New Year and Happy Hunting! My 2023 goal is to verify James Smith’s parentage!

Jan