The Quest

Now I know I'm supposed to be researching the Stones, but the Gaults are tied to the Stones through marriage... so I'm in the vicinity of doing what I'm supposed to be doing. The family history states: After the [Civil] War, her (Kansas Elizabeth Gault Stone) mother (Great-Grandmother Gault) loaded her few possessions and three children (Cansas Eliz., Aunt Belle and Uncle John Gault) into an ox cart and came to Texas and settled near Honey Grove in Grayson County and that is where your Grandfather William Thomas [Stone] was born in September of 1884. Okay, so the census records show that Martha/Milinda Gault had the following children: John, Mary Jane, Kansas E., Belle, William and Ellen T. All of them were born in Tennessee. And all of them were living in Fannin County, Texas as of the 1870 census (the first census taken after the Civil War). So why does the family history only mention three children: K/Cansas, Belle and John? PS - Also of note is that Honey Grove i...

I am not a debater. I don't like conflict. It makes me uncomfortable, and I'm a lover of comfort. The last couple of days have turned in to debate, where I feared the consternation of others in response to my opinions. I realized that I really didn't want people to read my blog. I was afraid to post links to it. Scared of being judged. So today I'm retreating. I'm coming back to myself and the purpose of my blog. I'm finding comfort in genealogy and reading and music. I'm researching dead people who can't judge me. I'm reading humor that also enlightens. And I'm ignoring everything else. Just for a little while.

I can't shake the feeling that my last post about Chick-Fil-A was naive and largely missing the point. I feel guilty for eating at CFA, and it's not because of the calorie count in their food (I don't count calories anymore and I couldn't be happier about it). It's because my conscience is telling me that social justice trumps happy tastebuds. Ugh. I just hate that little cricket in my ear that tries to be my guide. This morning I was reading my blog feed. Alise of Alise Write  wrote a compelling item about why she does not patronize CFA. It didn't have anything to do with the beliefs of the CEO, but rather with the monetary support that the company has given to an organization that participates in anti-gay hate speech. Read the post here. I have no first-hand knowledge of the causes CFA supports, nor do I know what most of the companies I frequent support. But IF it is true that CFA supports hate speech, I don't see how I can - in good conscience - cont...

I've been reading a lot of rants lately about boycotting Chick-Fil-A because their CEO upholds a belief in "traditional marriage" and thinks that gay marriage is likely to be the beginning of the end of America. Or about supporting Chick-Fil-A because their CEO was "brave" enough to tell everyone. I have to disagree with everyone. Don't ban Chick-Fil-A. Don't ban gay marriage. Eat chicken. Love people. I don't think Chick-Fil-A should be banned in any city. Not if their only vice is having owners who are vocal conservative Christians. They have the right to be what they want and tell others about it. Now, if they were refusing service to gay people that would be a different story altogether. But they're not. So... let them do business with whoever wants to do business with them. If Boston and Chicago and whoever else really don't want them there, the stores will fail. Problem solved. They should be allowed to fail. Or succeed. I don...

I don't feel guilt about a lot of things, but one thing I can't ever seem to shake is guilt for not going to church on Sunday morning. I'm secure in my relationship with God, but any time I contemplate not going to worship on Sunday morning, I feel like I should have some verifiable excuse for not going. Like a doctor's note. This morning I woke up with a terrible pain in my shoulder. I've iced it, took Advil, stretched, massaged and slathered it with Icy Hot. It still hurts, and the pain is creeping into my neck. So my immediate thought is, "I should go to church. I could go to church, even though my shoulder hurts. But I don't want to. So... does my shoulder hurt bad enough  that it warrants skipping church?" Well, I guess the answer is no... but all the same, I'm skipping church. And feeling guilty. Maybe it's because I work at a church and depend on people (like myself) to support the church. It's my livelihood. If people abandon ch...

I don't think I've met anyone who would readily admit that they love themselves. Everyone I know has somethin g   about themselves that they wish were different. I suppose we all do. But I discovered some time back that I really do love myself. At the time, I thought I could love myself except  for how I look. I assumed there was something inherently wrong with being overweight. I should feel bad. Unhealthy. Ugly. But deep down inside, I didn't. I felt healthy (except for my allergies and a once-a-month hormone imbalance). I couldn't run a marathon or hike to the top of a mountain (and have zero interest in doing those things), but I could do the things I love... play in the flower beds, lop limbs off trees and bushes, walk quickly in and out of the grocery store, wander cemeteries for hours. I like my smile, my eyes, my hair. I like being a little bit messy. I like that dogs love me and I love them. I like being able to create things and research things and learn thi...

I follow several blogs. It took me a while to get into the world of reading others' instead of just writing my own and leaving them out there with no audience. I still have no audience, but I'm doing better at becoming a part of someone else's. I've just come across a new blogger to follow... Stacy Bias. One of her recent posts relates indirectly to my last post on Keeping Quiet . It's entitled "Insecurity: Imperfect & Unforgiven." Well-written and oh-so-how-I-feel sometimes. Insecurity: Imperfect & Unforgiven I want to talk about insecurity. Actually, I want to openly claim insecurity. I want to wear it like a badge instead of an anchor. I want to acknowledge that it has made me paranoid at times. At others, self-absorbed. I want to erase the shame in it. keep reading...

There have been many times lately that I have found myself keeping my mouth shut, my opinion to myself. I have a particular set of beliefs and opinions, just as we all do. But I am surrounded by people who don't agree - or at least my perception is that they don't. I have begun to wonder... do I do a dis-service by keeping quiet? Or is it okay to just maintain peace and not disagree with anyone? Does it matter if people know my opinion? Is it okay to just let them assume that I agree with them, when I don't? Case in point: I had lunch with someone the other day who was upset about their pastor's sermon that morning. I asked what it was about and she said, "Helping the poor." And went on to assert that this is further proof that her pastor "is a Democrat." In my head, I thought, "And that's bad because.... why?" Why is it bad to talk about helping the poor? Jesus did it all the time, and last time I checked this person claimed they are...

So I passed off the Edgren family, and found myself wandering around in cyberspace with no particular place to go. Luckily, Colby was on Facebook posting about his search for a connection within his family leading back to Thomas Stone, signer of the Declaration of Independence. What a noble cause to undertake on July 4th. Of course, I couldn't let that comment go without sticking my nose right in the big middle of his business. So I'm starting to try and trace the Stones to make a connection... or prove there isn't one. So if anyone knows who the parents of Matthew Robertson "MR" Stone are, please holler! It will save us some legwork. Matthew Robertson Stone :   Feb. 9, 1836 ( Tennessee) -  Feb. 7, 1917 ( Higgins, TX) m.  Kansas (or Cansas) Elizabeth Gault Stone (1855 - 1931)

I'm getting ready to deliver the Edgren family history. It's odd trying to find a stopping place in a never-ending project. Family trees never end. We never find all  of the information. So how do you decide when to stop? You could stop when you're stumped, but then that's no fun. Because this project was for someone else, I had to find a stopping point, and it had to be arbitrary. Basically, the stopping point became my trip to Chicago. I had visited the cemetery and seen the headstones that I could find. If I didn't stop now, I would be digging into this family's history forever and never be able to deliver a product. And so, the Edgren journey ends. For me, anyway. I do hope the family will find the time and interest to continue on without me...

In the course of researching the Edgren family, I had reason to visit the Oak Woods (or Oakwoods) Cemetery in south Chicago. This huge 186-acre historic cemetery is quite overwhelming. However, their office staff were exceptionally helpful in locating the Edgren graves in question. Unfortunately, they didn't have record of the grave of most interest to me. They are limited to two look-ups, which I can understand. I am sure the demand is great considering the number of burials in this cemetery. At any rate, we found some of the ones we were looking for. But what I found more interesting was the old Jewish section of the cemetery. I was shocked at the condition of this section. The Oak Woods Cemetery is quite distinguished, representing the turn of the century tradition of designing cemeteries as parks. It is landscaped and well-kept. Except for the old Jewish section. This section is overgrown. Many headstones are overturned and crumbling. It appears as if the he...

I've been reading this book - The Rapture Exposed - and have started pondering the beliefs that we take for granted. A few years back, when the Left Behind series of books came out, I read the first few, along with most of my evangelical Christian friends. I thought they were based on truth, because I had always been taught that the Bible explicitly described the Rapture... that it was TRUE. I'm not a historian, nor a theologian. I'm a consumer of history and theology. So I don't have the breadth of knowledge required to identify what is TRUE vs. what is HISTORY. Do you understand the difference? TRUTH - in it's purest form - is not dependent on what a person says or does or believes. Outside of seeing something first-hand, none of us really know what is TRUE. We only know what we believe to be true based on our personal experiences and the particular version of history we've been taught. As eye-witness accounts reveal, even first-hand can be iffy. And...

It's been a long time since I've found something really exciting in my own family tree. I have been working on mine long enough that all that remains are unfinished rabbit trails, dead-ends and holes. There are no more easy answers for my family tree... or at least none that I've found recently. But since I've been working on the Edgren family tree, I've been able to find some facts that the family didn't already know. I love that! There's nothing quite like being the first person to reveal a set of names that no one has heard before. I think that's why I like working on other people's trees. It's much more fun to start with nothing and gather a lot of "new" information for people than it is to search and search for some tidbit that you never saw in your own tree. Maybe I'm just lazy and prefer the easy "finds." Not maybe; definitely.

A friend of mine just posted a blog that has made me pensive. In said blog, he explored a very sensitive part of his life that at one point in time involved me. I can't say I enjoyed the part I played in his "coming of age" - but I do still like him as a person. In fact, on a personal level I still consider him one of the best friends I've ever had because he's pretty much just like me in a lot of ways (and, let's face it, I think everyone should be just like me). But it got me to thinking about my story. If you had asked me ten years ago... or maybe even a year ago... or a week ago... or a day ago... I might have said that my part in Shannon's story is one of the reasons why I'm still single. It was one of the first relationships I had, and I didn't really want to go through that again. But it's not fair to place blame. My singleness is not Shannon's fault, or anyone else's either. [I think I've posted about this before... or was...

I used to be so good at having thoughts. What happened to that? Seems like I just work, work, work... then veg when I get home and don't ever think critically enough to write a blog with substance. I have a sore throat. Squirrel! Starting a new e-zine at work... and I'm not even going to have time to write content! Farming it out to other people. What happened to the writer within? I think someone's holding her hostage.

I've been searching for our family in the 1940 census... have found some. Will wait for search to be available for others. My, what has changed in the last 72 years. My great-grandparents' home was valued at $2,000. I've seen pictures of it... it was not  a dive. Also found out this weekend that some of the other Dingler descendants settled in Sidney before  the Bryants moved to Texas... wondering if they even knew that their distant cousins were in the same teeny tiny Texas town?? They must have.

About two years ago, mom and I went on a trip to Georgia to research our ancestors. I was amazed to find that one of the descendants of my great-great-great-grandfather was still living on the family land. And that the home Oliver Gaines Barron built was still standing! This descendant was Thelma Pate. She was in her 90's, but still welcomed us into her home, shared stories and information with us and took us to see the homeplace. I will forever be grateful that I was able to spend that small bit of time with Thelma. I have thought of her often, hoping that one day I might get to go back and visit her again. I found out today that I won't get that opportunity this side of heaven. Thelma Pate went on to bigger and better things on Thursday, December 15, 2011. Thelma Jackson Rooks Pate, 98, died December 15, 2011. She was born on June 24, 1913, in Campbell County, just across the Chattahoochee River from the County Line area of southeastern Carroll County where she lived all her...

So I was browsing Kindle books for what I might read next and came across author Alice Zogg. Of course, I saw the name, saw that she was born in Switzerland, and I had to know more. After contacting Alice, I found out that she had married a Zogg, who was also born in Switzerland. They live in California now. She also shared this little tidbit: It is unlikely that the many Grabs Zoggs and the numerous Walenstadt Zoggs are closely related.  The family line of Zoggs from Grabs (and surrounding area) are mostly of protestant ancestry, whereas the Zoggs from Walenstadt (and surrounding area) derived  predominantly from people of Roman catholic faith.  In addition there is another group of Zoggs in the state (Kanton) of Graubünden. Interesting! I haven't read the book I purchase yet, but if you're interested in finding out more about Alice and her books, check out  www.alicezogg.com .

There is a line of Zoggs who came to the U.S. and settled in the northeast. Their patriarch was Ulrich Zogg, who was born in Grabs, Switzerland, in 1828. In our line, Florian Zogg was born in Grabs in 1831. So I couldn't help but wonder whether the two were related. It struck me that I might be able to find out by tapping Her. Thommen's records again. Alas, what he found shows no direct relation. But I still think - way back there - the families must have all come from the same bloodline. At any rate, here is what Roland had to say: If your birthyear  1828 is correct, I have the solution and the answer that the lines not are related. So Ueli *1828 is the  6th  child from 10 , from Ueli Zogg 1794-1837 and Margrith Vetsch 1798-1879, marriage 1817 And Ueli *1794 is the eldest from 6 children from Andreas 1772-1804 and °Ursula Zogg 1778-1823, marriage 1793 And Andreas *1772 is the eldest from 5 from Hans 1749-1790 and Ursula Schlegel 1748-1785, marriage 1771 And HAns *174...

A lot has transpired recently on the Zogg front. I found a couple of contacts in Switzerland who have been most helpful. One actually provided five generations of information that he has compiled from original records. Florian Zogg born 1831 marr. Anna Gabathuler, born 1837, from Wartau, daughter from Mathias and Anna Sulser, 10 children, Mathias is the 5th. Florian Zogg, born 1806 marr. 1826 Magdalena Bohner, 1805-1873 from Wartau, 9 children, Florian is the third. 5 sons had a family with children, so this family is today the greatest Zogg family Florian Zogg born 1769,  he marr. 1789 Agnes Stricker, Christians daughter from Grabs, he was a cattler-trader, 13 children, Florian was the 11th. Brother David was a french mercenary. David Zogg 1746-1788, marr. 1766 Anna Stricker, Grabs, 1746-1825, 8 children, Florian is the youngest. Three other sons had a family. Normally only one or two sons could marry. Florian Zogg marr. Before 1747 Maria Eggenberger, we know two children, Anna a...