Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

In a previous blog post on my Great Grandaunt Mary , I wrote about her quilting hobby and how I coincidentally found a photo of her sewing a pattern that wound up in the hands of a cousin whom I had just met online (all due to this blog!). Quilt made by Mary (Dixon) Stalnaker Hogg and gifted to Nancy Hogg.  Photo supplied by Nancy Hogg, 2022. Mary wasn't the only quilter in the family though. Her mother, Lizzie (Rockwell) Dixon, and grandmother, Elizabeth (Pitcock) Rockwell, had also been avid quilters. In 2009, our family attended a small reunion outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma at my Great Aunt Frances (Dean) Wise's home to celebrate her 90th birthday and her sister Thelma's 81st. It was the perfect opportunity to raid Frances' closet, figuratively speaking! She gave us the low down on several family heirlooms and photos hung about her bedroom, including the many handmade quilts she had stored in a box, as well as two garments she produced herself. Both she and Thelma are n...

Westward migration along the Oregon Trail was booming throughout the mid 1800s. The initial footpath had been carved and planned out by fur traders and trappers, but was eventually widened to accommodate wagons, in which families, settlers, miners, and all sorts of wanderers could traverse with all their belongings in tow across nearly 2,000 miles of land, creeks, and mountain terrain. Stretching from Independence, Missouri all the way to Olympia, Washington, the trail and its many offshoots became the thoroughfare to the west coast, and even today, is utilized by car on major interstate highways built right through some of the same towns. "Line Of Original Emigration To The Pacific Northwest Commonly Known As The Old Oregon Trail," map, 1907; Ezra Meeker, The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail 1852-1906 (1907); database with images, Wikimedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org : accessed 10 Feb 2024); courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austi...

  DECEMBER 20, 2021 Week 51: Holidays I have a pair of twin treasure chests that sit underneath the stairs in my house. They belonged to my maternal grandparents, and they’re filled with family picture frames, wartime correspondence, loose papers, little trinkets and other ephemera. A lot of the stuff that fills the chests has been placed in them at different times, so most of it is completely random and unrelated to the other stuff, which makes it even more fun to sift through, because it’s one surprise after another. Mary Dixon, “Post Cards”, scrapbook, Sutton, West Virginia, ca. 1908; privately held by descendant Kira D. Foltz. One such item is a very old scrapbook whose cover is pre-printed with POST CARDS. With a quick scan through the pages, it’s clear the collection belonged to Miss Mary Dixon of Sutton, West Virginia. Mary Lucretia Dixon was my great grandmother Beatrice’s older sister. She was born 30 November 1892 in Wadestown, Monongalia, West Virginia to Nathan and Eliz...

  DECEMBER 06, 2021 It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The yule log is burning and the family heirlooms are on full display. Week 49: Homemade Each year I look forward to seeing the custom yarn stockings draped from the mantle over the fireplace at my parents’ house. They were handmade by my maternal grandmother, Edna (Dean) Millhouse. Although all made in the same style and colors, not all were produced at the same time. As an example, mine and my sister’s could not have been made until our births, 1985 and ’87, respectively. However, they all look identical! My only regret is that the ‘K’ that starts off my name resembles more of an ‘X’ in the cursive yarn writing. My grandma even made an extra one left unnamed which came in handy when my sister married. My mom was able to stitch my sister’s husband’s name at the top in the same style to match. My mom believes the pattern was incorrect and thus, my grandmother left it unfinished. It worked out quite well in the end. My mom...

  NOVEMBER 04, 2021 A bride’s fashion choices on her big day typically wind up as the most important outfit of her life….and one that she’ll likely never don ever again! After the wedding zips by in a flash, she’s left with the question of, “What do I do with this dress?” Week 40: Preservation My mom had a very unfortunate story surrounding her wedding gown, where her aunt Frances had hand-beaded an extravagant dress for her that tragically did not arrive in the post by the day of the ceremony! My mom had been the one to design the dress, and Frances patterned it in Oklahoma and sent a muslin back to California for her to try it on. Her mom, Edna, helped pin it and they sent it back to Frances for finishing. But when Frances shipped out the final product, the airlines went on strike, and the dress was stuck on a plane in Texas! So, the night before her wedding, my mom drove to the Del Amo Fashion Center (then called the Del Amo Fashion Square) in Torrance, California with her soon-...

  JULY 31, 2021 Born 8 March 1812 in Dunkard, Greene County, Pennsylvania, Harriet Americus Wildman, was the daughter of Elizabeth Sams and Jerry Wildman. While her parents reportedly only lived into their sixties, Harriet had the distinction of nearly hitting the centenarian marker! She died less than one month short of her 100th birthday on 1 February 1912 in Springhill, Green County, Pennsylvania. Week 30: Health Harriet’s near achievement made nationwide news, noting she had all of her faculties about her and had never even needed to wear a pair of spectacles during her lifetime. It’s thought that Harriet married John Ott in 1829 at the age of 17. Though her first recorded child was a daughter, Mary, born in 1840. In total, she had eleven children! And by the time she passed away, her family had grown to include 70 grandchildren and 200 great grandchildren! She outlived her husband by more than 50 years. Sadly, she even outlived 3 of her own children. Her longevity was outstand...

  JUNE 07, 2021 Take a gander at the uniform patches I’ve inherited from family members from their military service. Week 22: Military ROY ALAN FOLTZ. The ASA patch (left) stands for Army Security Agency and was worn throughout the Cold War in the 1960s-70s. From 1945-1991, the ASA was the US Army's electronic intelligence brand. Its motto was "Vigilant Always." The patch depicts a griffin clutching two lightning bolts; the griffin symbolizing vigilance and the lightning bolts symbolizing communication and speed. The blue background represents the Intelligence units, while the black feathers allude to the covert nature of gathering intelligence. The Berlin patch (right) was worn on the Army Class A uniform jacket and displays the insignia of the US Army in Europe, specifically for the Berlin Brigade, of which, Roy was a part of while stationed in Germany. RAYMOND LEE MILLHOUSE. This is the Class A patch for the United States 5th Army, which was first activated on 5 Januar...

  APRIL 26, 2021 When you feel like you’re constantly chasing down different ancestors across the globe, it’s hard to choose just one location as your most treasured. But I’ll give it a shot here! Week 17: Favorite Place There’s a particular village which I like to refer to as “the motherland.” It’s the ancestral home of my paternal 2nd great grandmother, Ester (Sauvain) Eggenberger, and it’s half way around the world in Eschert, Bern, Switzerland. Ester (Sauvain) Eggenberger with granddaughters Vera, Louise, and Alta circa 1915. This little pocket of land near the border of France has likely been deemed my favorite, because Ester was my most recent immigrant ancestor to the United States. It was also one of the first international homelands of my ancestors that I was able to pinpoint the actual town name. Ester came over at the age of 13 in 1854 with her parents, Emmanuel and Sophia. The excerpt of the 1860 federal census below was the first enumeration of the family together in t...