Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

I've been trying to play some serious catch-up recently in my genealogy research, so one of my tasks has been to finally incorporate details from a specific page of the 1860 US federal census into my online family tree for my 2nd great grandfather, Christian, and his Eggenberger branch. While information on censuses is usually fairly straightforward and easy to extrapolate, this particular one has given me some extra grief, and I'll explain why. The census page I'm interested in is for sheet number 57 of Chippewa Township, Wayne County, Ohio, USA. Take a look at how it's displayed across the two most accessible genealogy sites: Ancestry.com FamilySearch.org On MyHeritage.com, you can't even find the record via search, as they do not allow page-by-page browsing and they were unable to index any of the residents on this page due to the poor digitized microfilm image.  Oddly, I had an inkling that the original microfilmed image by NARA must have been of better quality,...

As the family story goes, Simon George Mills was a wife beater, and his spouse ran him out of the house because of it. Unless any court documents testifying to this fact (or contrary to it) come to light, this is the disparaging image we're left with of my 2nd great grandfather. But he probably was not brought up to act in such a manner. Simon George Mills alias George Simon Mills He was raised by parents, Lewis Mills and Ann (Jackson Smith) Hopkins, who both originally belonged to the Quaker faith. The official name for their religion is the Religious Society of Friends. It's said that the word "Quakers" was an insulting nickname bestowed upon them by others to describe the way their bodies shook while experiencing spiritual energy, but over time they've come to embrace it. Quakers believe that every individual is capable of experiencing the divine nature of the universe and receiving messages from God or finding their "inward light," even to this moder...

  DECEMBER 11, 2021 In addition to having ancestral lines in my family, I also have ancestral Lynes in my family. The surname Lyne sits on the paternal side of our tree. My 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Ellen, was born a Lyne. Margaret Ellen (Lyne) Scheetz, ca. 1880. Week 50: Lines My Lynes are thought to have originated in Bristol, England around the mid to late 1600s. It’s thought my 6th great grandfather was a Lyne who came to America with his brother. The two allegedly split up when they arrived, with my ancestor settling in Westmoreland County, Virginia and his brother settling in Granville, North Carolina. My Lyne married Miss Mary Edwards and raised a large family. One of their sons, Thomas Lyne, was my 5th great grandfather, born about 1745 in Westmoreland. This was during the colonial era when Virginia was still under British rule. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Thomas joined as a private in the 6th regiment of Virginia. He survived the war and started a family w...

  JULY 19, 2021 Ester Sauvain came to America from Switzerland in the mid 1850s with her parents. While she left her homeland behind, she brought with her the customs of her religion, including the modest outfits traditionally worn by women of her faith. Week 29: Fashion Ester was a worshiping Christian of the Mennonite faith. The Mennonite church is a denomination of Anabaptists named after Menno Simons, who typically practice adult baptism and stand for pacifism. In the United States, there is common confusion and a lack of distinction at times between the Mennonite and Amish communities as they are both sometimes referred to as “plain people” and tend to wear plain dress, however, the general difference is that Mennonites live a simple life, but do not avoid advancements in technology or electricity like the Amish do. While it’s not confirmed if Ester’s parents or church practiced specific costume guidelines in Switzerland, there is photo evidence proving it was institutionalize...

  JUNE 27, 2021 In Disney’s The Lion King, the Pride Lands were the areas that King Mufasa and his pack of lions had control over within the kingdom, as a group of lions is traditionally called a pride of lions. In my ancestry, Pride remains a proper noun, but instead of describing a block of land, it resembles a branch of my family tree; in other words a group of people in my ancestral line. Week 25: Groups Copyright: Disney. When I first took up researching my family’s genealogy on my mom’s side, I studied a lot of the notes and information shared with me from my grandparents and great aunts. Their trees stretched back to my 2nd great grandparents definitively, Nathan & Elizabeth (Rockwell) Dixon. But my 3rd great grandparents on the Dixon line were shrouded in a bit more mystery. Nathan Dixon and Elizabeth (Rockwell) Dixon, tintype portrait. Nathan Dixon’s father’s given name was thought to be something along the lines of James, Joseph, or John. As of yet, I believe it to ha...

  MAY 23, 2021 I’ve been having a lot of new correspondence with distant cousins ever since this year’s RootsTech conference, because I made sure to make good use of the Family Connect feature. Week 20: Cousin Bait My 2nd great grandfather, Christian Eggenberger, was born 29 April 1838 in Switzerland, but the first written record I have recording his existence is the 1860 U.S. federal census, when he was already 22 years old and living in Chippewa, Wayne County, Ohio. 1860 United States Federal Census , population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA; NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. 1860 United States Federal Census , index, population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA. This census is not onl...

  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...