Mary "Polly" Guest, 1842 - 1882

Mary "Polly" Guest, 1844-1882, was the first wife of John Tyler "Jack" Henderson (1839 - 1923) and the mother of John's first five (?) children, including our ancestor Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson.

Mary Guest was born around 1844 to Miles Jackson Guest (1810 - 1865) and Hulda Kight (1812 - 1882). She appears as a five-year-old in the 1850 census for Ware county, Georgia.

Miles J. Guest, 41
Huldah, 40
Allen, 18
Hiram, 16
John, 13
James, 11
Elizabeth, 7
Mary, 5
Franklin, 2.

The 1860 census for Ware county lists this household (Mary is listed as 'May', now 15) with four additional children: Dorcas, 9, Willis, 6, Francis, 6, and Candorse, 1.

In 1880 Mary is shown married to John T. Henderson and living in Coffee county, Georgia, with four children, including nine-year-old Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson. See previous post for details.

Mary Guest Henderson is buried at Antioch Baptist Church cemetery in Kirkland, Georgia. Her birth year is 1842 on the stone, but as she was reported to be five years old in the 1850 census, a birth year of 1844 is probably closer.

Her husband, John Tyler Henderson, remarried Mary Overstreet and had ten more children.

Here is the information from Volume I of Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia by Folks Huxford concerning Miles Jackson Guest, father of Mary "Polly" Guest. Note that Huxford lists Mary Guest as having married Andrew Henderson. This is an error, as she actually married John Tyler Henderson.

MILES JACKSON GUEST was born in Barnwell District, South Carolina, March 8, 1810, son of William and Agnes and grandson of John Guest, R.S., who died in that county in 1828. William Guest had a sister, Nancy (or Ann) and her husband, John Rice, who moved to Georgia also and resided in Clinch County. With his parents, M. J. Guest moved to Tattnall County, Georgia, and soon after was married to Miss Hulda Kight who was a sister of Hiram Kight of Clinch County. She was born April 10, 1812, in Georgia and died at her home in Clinch County, September 30, 1882. Their children were:

1. William Allen, b. 1832, m. Eliza Wilkerson 

2. Miles Jackson, b. 1833, died in boyhood.

3. Hiram Walker, b. 1834, m. Annie Waldron.

4. John Powell, b. 1837, m. Sarah Ann Stanfield of Tattnall Co.

5. James, b. 1840, m. Serena miner, daughter of Win. of Ware Co.

6. Elizabeth, b. 1843, m. Kindred C. Cowart.

7. Mary, b. 1845, m. Andrew L Henderson.

8. Benjamin F., b. 1848, m. Mary Waldron.

9. Darkis Matilda, b. 1851, m. David Henderson. 

10. Francis Marion, b. 1854, m. Tobitha Ann Griffis, daughter of Juniper.

About 1834-1836 Mr. Guest removed to Ware County and granted lands from the State, mostly in the 8th district of his county. He built his home on some of these lots, cleared up and operated a large plantation with slave labor, near the present village of Manor, Ware County. In 1861 he exchanged these lands for the holdings of Duncan Giddens in northern Clinch County, consisting of about 3000 acres, plantation, millpond and watermill, etc. He moved there and continued to live there until his death March 7, 1865. He and his wife are buried in the nearby Guest Millpond Cemetery. His widow and Rev. Guilford Lastinger were the administrators on his estate, and sold the Guest holdings except the dower-lands, to Fisher Griffin in 1866. John Moore became the owner of this property at sheriff's sale in 1868, and operated the farm and water mill until the 1880s when he sold same to Francis Marion Guest, youngest son of Miles J. Guest, and who owned the same until his death in 1907.

Mr. Guest served three terms as Sheriff of Ware County: 1836-1838, 1844-1846 and 1850-1852. He was deputy clerk of the superior court a short while, also in the Indian War he served as a private in Capt. David J. Miller's company of Ware county militia in 1838.

Census References: 1830, Tattnall; 1840, 1850, 1860, Ware.

Miles married Hulda Kight. (Hulda Kight was born on 10 Apr 1812 in Georgia 1 and died on 30 Sep 1882 in Clinch County, GA 1.)

Sources:

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Volume I, 12 (Georgia: Folks Huxford, 1951), 1. 

Here are undated pictures of Miles Jackson Guest and his wife Hulda Kight Guest, photocopied from the Huxford books. In exploring the possibility of native American roots, I've considered that both of these ancestors may have had Indian mothers.

I have visited the Guest Millpond cemetery, also known as Langs Church cemetery, on Lang Church Road off Highway 441 between Homerville and Pearson, Georgia. Here is a photo of Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight Guest's gravestone.

There is a William Guist on the 1800 and 1810 census for the Barnwell District of South Carolina, but we can't know for sure that this is our ancestor. These early census records did not include the names of the children,. Note that as you go back in time you will see the name spelled several different ways. 'Guest' and 'Guess' are the most frequent, but variations such as 'Gist' also show up. The census takers and even the families themselves were not always consistent with spellings.

Returning to the Huxford books, we can find out more about William Guess. Keep in mind that this is a secondary source.

William Guest was born in North Carolina in 1778, a son of John Guest (Vol. II). The family removed to Barnwell District, S. C. in his youth, and it was there that he grew up and married. His wife, Agnes, was born 1790 in Barnwell District. Her maiden name so far is unknown. Their known children were as follows;

1. William P., b. 1800, m. Elvira Tanner.

2. Thesley A., b. 1803, m. Elizabeth

3. Allen, b. 1805, m. Elizabeth

4. Miles J., b. 1810, m. Hulda Kight. (Vol: I).

5. Benj. W., b. 1814, m. Georgia Ann -.

Mr. Guest removed to Georgia about 1818, and located in Appling County, being among the first settlers there. He lived in the 3rd land district of Appling when he drew lot 405, 8th district Early County in the 1820 land lottery. He moved to Camden County and granted land there. Some years later he removed to Ware County and settled in the portion cut into Clinch County in 1850.

He lived in the Magnolia district. He dropped dead in his field in June, 1851.

Census Refs: 1800, 1810, Barnwell Dist., S. C.; 1820, Appling; 1830, 1840, Camden; 1850, Ware (Clinch).

William married Agnes. (Agnes was born in 1790 in Barnwell District, S. C.)

Sources

Folks Huxford Judge, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, 12 (Georgia: n.p., n.d.), 3. 

Huxford cites several census records for this information, but I have not been able to find records that would conclusively identify this family. Some genealogies exist online but unless they are sourced they can't be considered reliable.

I continue to work on these lines and will update as I find information. One final note about Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson's possible native heritage - she had been told that she was one quarter Indian. We will later see that her father's line is well established back to its European roots. Her mother's line, detailed in this post, contains more unknowns. We know nothing about the Agnes who married William Guest in South Carolina. We also know nothing about Hulda Kight's mother. (Her father may have been John Cecil Kight.) These areas of South Carolina and Georgia were still part of the frontier at this time. Many Indians were assimilating. It was at least two generations before the mass removal of native peoples in the 1838 Trail of Tears. If both of Mary Guest's grandmothers were Indian women who married white men, which was not uncommon in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, both of her parents, Miles Jackson Guest and Hulda Kight, pictured above, would have been half Indian, and Mary "Polly" Guest herself would have been half Indian. Her marriage to John T. Henderson would have resulted in children with one fourth native blood. It's mathematically elegant but flies in the face of Occam's Razor, which says that the simplest solution - the one with the fewest steps - is more often the correct solution. A simple DNA test of any of the females in this line (must be female all the way down to determine Mary Guest's origins) would possibly provide this answer. I can't afford it but if anyone reading this can do a mitochondrial DNA test, please don't leave me hanging. Let me know what you can find out.

Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson

Ask anyone who does a lot of genealogy and they will tell you that there is one line that, for reasons usually unknown to them, interests them more than the others. For me this is my grandmother Nell Stange's line. Not only is Nell the grandparent I've been closest to, her line is the first one that broke wide open back in the 1990s, when internet genealogy was new. Once you connect your line to a well-documented family you find a wealth of information.

But first things first. Goldie Wynelle Stange's parents were Sam Jones Jowers (1888 - 1963) and Rena Mae Brown (1895 - 1986). Here is an undated photograph of Rena Mae Brown Jowers.

We looked at Rena Mae's father, James Madison Brown (1858 - 1902) in a previous post. Rena Mae's mother was Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson, born April 17, 1870 in Homerville, Georgia, in Clinch county. Her parents were John Tyler Henderson and Mary Guest. This information was given to me by Rena Mae's younger sister, our Aunt Goldie (Etta Goldie Brown Jardine) when I was a kid. She wrote, "Mama's mother was a Guest." I wasn't sure what that meant at the time but she also pointed me to Folks Huxford's seven volume Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia. Eventually I found these volumes at a library somewhere. While historians regard books as secondary rather than primary sources, and the Huxford books have been shown to contain errors, they can be a great starting place for the names which can then be searched in primary sources for verification. The Huxford books gave me the names of Mary Guest and John Tyler Henderson as the parents of Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson, which matched what I had been told by Aunt Goldie.

Oral family tradition also says that Mary Henderson (known to my grandmother as her Grandma Wilson) was one-quarter American Indian. The ongoing joke in genealogy is that every family has a hidden native American ancestor, and that this is almost always untrue. I will expound on Mary's ancestors on her mother's side in the next post, and consider that possibility. I have also wondered if her unusual middle name of 'Arkansas' is a hint to a native ancestor. If anyone knows the source of this name, please let me know. I will have much more to say about Mary's father, John Tyler "Jack" Henderson, in a future post. His line is a gold mine.

Here is an undated photograph of Mary A. E. Henderson Wilson.

Mary Henderson was a baby in the 1870 census, living in Homerville in Clinch county, Georgia.

John L. (sic) Henderson, 27, farmer
Mary, 25
Balinda (sic), 3
Jackson, 2
Mary, 0

For this family as well as John and Mary's families of origin, first names will reappear in every generation. It can be frustrating trying to keep the Johns and Marys straight, especially when each family had so many children, but less common names like Argent, Belinda, Hulda, and Jackson can serve as clues that we may be looking at a cousin.

By 1880 the family was living in Coffee county, and another daughter, Hulda, had been born around 1875. As we saw in the post about James Madison Brown, on Christmas Eve, December 1885, fifteen-year-old Mary married James Madison Brown in Coffee county.

Most of the 1890 census records were destroyed, but in 1900 Mary and James Brown are living in Willacoochee in Coffee (now Atkinson) county, Georgia with their children Henry, 11, Rena Mae, 5, and Harry, 2. See James Madison Brown post for census images.

Mary's husband James M. Brown died around 1902, and she made ends meet by taking in boarders. By 1910 she had remarried Alexander Wilson. Each brought four children to the marriage. The family was living in Broxton, Georgia, in Coffee county. Alex Wilson was a foreman at a shingle mill. Mary was a "hotel propriator." Eula Wilson was two years old.

In 1930 Mary was living with 23-year-old Eula and Eula's son Harry in Douglas. Boarders are also listed. Alex Wilson, now age 70, was listed as head of household but at another address. In 1940 Mary, age 70, was living with Eula and Linton ("Unc") Taylor and their sons on Hicks St. in Waycross. Mary Henderson Wilson died in 1964 and is buried in Jacksonville Memory Gardens.

In the next blog I will look at the family of Mary Henderson's mother, Mary Guest.

John Judge, Musician

My grandfather Robert Stange's parents were Jacob Herman Stange (1893-1931) and Faith Julia Judge (1887-1973). See Those Dang Stangs for more on the Stanges.

Faith Judge's parents were John Judge (June 1, 1846 - ?) and Jane Bicknell (August 11, 1850 - ?). The first information I had about them was given to me when I was a kid. Someone told me that John and "Jean" Judge were married July 16, 1873 at St. Xavier's Church, St. George Hanover Square, Middlesex, England. The church at St George Hanover Square is a famous one, popular for 19th century weddings, and featured in the movie My Fair Lady.

Using this info, I found a record on the England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005, of a Jane Bicknell marrying a John Judge in the summer of 1873 at St George Hanover Square.

I caught up with John and Jane again in the England and Wales Census of 1881:

John Judge, 35
Jane Judge, 30
W. B. Judge (son), 6
Ellen B. Judge (daughter), 2

Their address was 70 Denbigh St., St George Hanover Square. Here it is today.

This census record also tells us the birthplaces of each family member. John was born in 1846 in Bermondsey, Surrey, England, Jane in 1851 in Exeter, Devon, England, and their kids in Pimlico, Middlesex, England. The family housed two boarders, and John listed his profession as musician. I sure would love to find out more about John. Maybe someday.

The couple had three children in England, according to oral family history. In addition to William Bicknell Judge (May 21, 1874 - Nov. 12, 1920) and Ellen Bicknell Judge (May 04, 1878 - ?), our records show a Jane Bicknell Judge, born July 04, 1876. I am not sure why she does not appear on the 1881 census. Sometime between 1878 and 1887, the family moved to New York. Their fourth daughter, my great-grandmother Faith Julia Judge, was born in New York on January 25, 1887. Her birth record lists father John Judge and mother Jane Bicknell, both born in England.

Our family records indicated that Faith's sister Jane died at age twelve, in 1888. I feel that this information may be in error, as there is a Jane Judge, born 1850 and died on the same date that I was given for daughter Jane's death - December 8, 1888 - in the New York City death index. That birth date matches the mother, Jane Bicknell Judge. The oral information was given to me over the phone about forty years ago, and if I remember correctly it was taken from a family Bible. I do not know whose Bible it was or whether it still exists. It is possible that the death date for Jane the mother was confused with Jane the daughter. Perhaps daughter Jane died very young, which would also explain her absence in the 1881 census. For now daughter Jane appears in my files but her information cannot be verified.

In the 1910 census records for Baltimore, Ward 19, a Faith L. Judge, age 23, is listed as a boarder in the household of George E. Newton. This Faith Judge was single, a clerk in a department store. She listed her father's birthplace as Ireland and her mother's as England. Her own place of birth is listed as New York. This would seem to be our ancestor, although it can't be verified for certain, and I don't know why her middle initial is listed as "L."

In 1920 Faith J. Stange is listed in Jacob H. Stange's household at 3741 Keokuk St. in Washington, D.C. with their three children, including my granddad, Robert Stange. Interestingly, Jacob was almost seven years younger than Faith. They would have been 26 and 33, respectively, but listed both their ages as 30. In the previous blog about the Stanges I wrote about Jacob's birth year, which was reported as exactly five years earlier than his apparent real birth year of 1893. He listed his occupation in 1920 as manager of a manufacturing company.

By 1930 the family may have fallen on hard times. Forty-two year old (Faith) Julia Stange appears in the household of her fifty-one year old sister Ellen (Judge) Montgomery on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. Faith's sons William and Robert appear as well. Daughter Ellen (Robert Stange's older sister), age 16, is shown living with another household in D.C. Faith lists her occupation as saleslady for a dry goods store. The fact that her husband Jacob does not appear to be living with his family here in 1930 lends credence to his being found on the 1930 census for Denver, Colorado, when he was apparently a traveling salesman for Frigidaire. See the Stang blog for details.

So far I have not been able to pin down John Judge's or Jane Bicknell's parents. I'm not as familiar with searches outside of the U.S., and those names are not uncommon in 19th century England. One of the purposes of these blogs is so that these ancestor names will appear in searches by potential cousins. In time I may be able to connect to people with more information, but for now this is the end of our trail for the Stange/Judge branch of the family tree. As always, if anyone has additional info, even if it's just hearsay, please leave it in the comments.

James Madison Brown

My maternal grandmother is Goldie Wynelle Jowers, born April 11, 1921 in Fitzgerald, Georgia to Sam Jones Jowers (Aug 11, 1888 - June 8, 1963) and Rena Mae Brown (March 28, 1895 - Jan 17, 1986). I'll cover the Jowers family in a future post. For now I want to concentrate on the Brown family.

Rena Mae's parents were James Madison Brown, born March 1858 in Georgia, and Mary Arkansas Elizabeth Henderson, born April 17, 1870 in Leliaton, Coffee (now Atkinson) county, Georgia. James and Mary were married December 24, 1886, in Westonia, Georgia. (If the birthdate and marriage date are correct, Mary Henderson was only sixteen years old.) Here is a copy of the marriage license entered into the Coffee county records.

James and Mary had four children over the next fifteen years, while living in Leliaton, in Coffee county, Georgia. Sometime after the 1900 census, James died or was killed. There is a gravestone for a James M. Brown in the Antioch Baptist Church cemetery in Kirkland, Georgia, in Coffee (now Atkinson) county. The date of death is listed as May 2, 1902, but the date of birth is March 2, 1865, rather than the 1858 year that was listed on a census record. The Find A Grave website does list this James Madison Brown as the first husband of Mary Elizabeth Henderson, but I have not been able to contact the contributor and it is possible that this is not our James Brown.

The only census record that can be definitively ascribed to James Brown is the 1900 census for Willacoochee, Georgia, Coffee county, where the following names are recorded:

James M. Brown, 42, head of household
Mary A. E. Brown, 30
Henry E. Brown, 11
Reva [sic] M. Brown, 5
Son, 2

All list Georgia as the place of birth. James listed his occupation as blacksmith.

The two-year-old son listed in the 1900 census was Harry James Brown, born in 1898 and died in 1922. Oral family history says that he died as a result of complications from one of the poisonous gasses used in World War I. A story that has only recently come to light is that he married a German girl and had a baby. Apparently this wife wrote a letter, in German, to Harry's family, but since they didn't know how to translate it, it was thrown away. I continue to hope that his family in Germany might know his name and will someday contact us, as, without names, I don't know any way of contacting them.

We know from oral history that James Brown died shortly after the birth of Etta Goldie Brown in 1900 (she was not listed in the 1900 census). Mary Brown remarried Alex Wilson and had a child with him by 1908.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find any information on who James Madison Brown's parents might have been. There are at least about a dozen James M. Brown's born in Georgia during the approximate time that our ancestor was born, and until we get more information I'm not sure we will ever be able to connect him to his family of origin. This particular dead end has been bugging me for thirty years. If anyone has any information, even if it doesn't seem important, I sure would appreciate an email or a comment here.

Those Dang Stangs

Everyone has that line or two that just won't go anywhere. For me it's the Stange/Stang line.

My granddad, Robert Lee Stange, was born on Nov. 15, 1918, in Washington, D.C. Here he is as a lad.

He was a very principled man - a loving husband and father and an inspiration to all who knew him. He lived his faith in a quiet way, always working behind the scenes to help others, although you would only find this out secondhand. I know he gave blood regularly during his life, and was an organ donor. He was active in his church as a trustee - he was often the one making repairs, arriving early to set up or staying late to clean.

He worked as a machinist with General Motors. I know for a time he worked for Sears doing auto repair. He was a perfectionist. His garage was full of tools and nothing was ever broken in my grandparents' house for more than about five minutes before he would have it fixed. He was into body building and physical fitness. He worked out or played tennis every day.

I had heard that my grandad Robert and his brother William spent time in an orphanage when they were children. His father, Jacob Herman Stange (Dec. 11, 1893 - Dec. 4, 1931) had contracted tuberculosis and had to leave his family in the Baltimore/DC area while he went out west to a sanitarium. The family said he had gone to Arizona. Evidently his mother was unable to take care of her three children, at least for a time. In the 1930 census, Robert, age 11, was living with his mother, Faith Julia Stange, 42, and his brother, William, age 13, with their Aunt Ellen Montgomery, 51, and several other people in Washington, DC.

I found a record of a Jacob Stange who was listed as a boarder in a house in Denver, CO, in the 1930 census, along with 43 other people, all with different last names. I had thought that this might have been a hospital or sanitarium, but the boarder's occupations are listed, and most of them recorded that they were actively working, or had worked during the last working day before the census. Jacob Stange is listed as a salesman for Frigidaire. He listed his age as 36 and that he and both of his parents had been born in Maryland.

Of course there is no way to know for sure that this Jacob Stange is our ancestor, so at present I have not included this census in my records. The details all match, but without more information it's not possible to know for sure.

How can we know for sure that Robert Stange's father was Jacob Herman Stange? This name was originally given to me when I was a kid, first beginning to research the family. I also have some census records that confirm the relationships.

1920 census, Washington, DC, lists Jacob H. Stange, age 30, born in MD
                                                          Faith J. Stange, age 30, born in NY
                                                          Ellen J. Stange, age 6, born in MD
                                                          William H. Stange, age 3, born in VA
                                                          Robert L. Stange, age 1, born in DC.

Those familiar with the family names will recognize this as Robert Stange's family. They lived at 208 Eastern Avenue, which is now near Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

There is a draft registration card for a Jacob Herman Stange dated 1917/1918. His birthplace is Baltimore, MD. The date of his birth is listed as Dec. 11, 1888, rather than the 1893 which has been recorded elsewhere. He records his occupation as a salesman with the Elliot-Fisher Company of Washington, DC. He claimed exemption from the draft because he supported a wife and two children. Other than the birthdate, these details match our ancestor. He also listed that he had had two years experience as a private in the "Coast Art" in the Maryland National Guard. He is listed as medium height, medium build, with grey eyes and light brown hair. Here is an undated photo that was generously given to me years ago.

If this is our ancestor, and it sure sounds like him, why would he have listed his age as five years older than we find it listed elsewhere? I'm going to speculate, which is a dangerous hobby for a historian, that he did not want to be drafted into the Great War, as he was supporting his wife and two children. If he was born in 1893, as reported on more than one census, he would have been about 25 years old in 1918, during the time of the draft registration. By stating that he was born in 1888, that would have put his age at 30, which I'm guessing would have bumped him back in the likelihood of being drafted. Of course I can't prove this. It's just a theory.

Jacob Stange married Faith Julia Judge. I do not have marriage info at this time and I will address the Judge family in a later post.

For thirty years I could find no other information on the Stange's. I finally broke through to one additional generation when the 1900 census records came online at familysearch.org. This 1900 census for Election District 4, Precinct 4, Baltimore, Maryland, United States lists a Jacob H. Stange, birthdate December of 1893 in Maryland, as a seven-year-old son living with his family. The names are

George W. Stange, head of household, age 31, born in MD
Anna Stange, his wife, age 26, born in MD
Jacob H. Stange, age 7, born in MD
Lillian M. Stange, age 5, born in MD
Florence A. Stange, age 3, born in MD
John W. Stange, age 1, born in MD.

The families had told me that Jacob Stange's mother was "a Fuhrer." I wrote this down at age fourteen but did not really know what that meant. The 1910 census for Baltimore Ward 19 shows an Annie, born 1875, married to Lewis W. Fuhrer and living at 1628 Baltimore St. The clincher here is that the children are listed as follows:

Jacob H. Fuhrer, age 16, born in MD
Florence A. Fuhrer, age 12, born in MD
John W. Fuhrer, age 11, born in MD
William E. Fuhrer, age 6, born in MD
Lee A. R. Fuhrer, age 4, born in MD
Evelyn Fuhrer, age 2, born in MD
Ruth A. Fuhrer, age 0, born in MD.

The first three children listed are clearly the Stange children (Lillian Stange is missing, but at about 14 years old may have already been employed and living elsewhere) from Anna's marriage to George. George must have died shortly after the 1900 census, as Anna was remarried with a son by about 1904. We can account for the Stange children being listed as Fuhrer because of the large family, with the husband and wife both being Fuhrer's. Whether the census taker was in a hurry or maybe the parents didn't bother to list the Stange children under their birth father's name, it probably didn't seem like a big deal to just list them all under their stepfather's name. We should note that Annie listed both of her parents' birthplaces as Maryland. Jacob, age 16, was listed as a driver for a bakery.

Annie and Lewis (spelled Louis this time) Fuhrer appear again in the 1930 census for Baltimore. Annie, now 54, has two children living at home, Irving B. Fuhrer, age 18, and Vernon Fuhrer, age 16, both born in MD. On this census Annie lists her mother's birthplace as Maryland and her father's as Germany.

Confused yet? By the time my grandad Robert Stange was born in 1918, his grandmother Anna (Annie) had been married to Lewis Fuhrer for at least a decade, so Robert never knew his grandfather, George W. Stange.

There is a George W. Stange buried at the old Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery in Baltimore. While I can't say for certain that this is our ancestor, the church belonged to a German congregation and was active through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are quite a few Stanges there, including Englehardt and Elizabeth, who had a son named George W, although there is no way to know for sure if this is the same George. This is Trinity Evangelical Lutheran in 1905.

Although the facade has been drastically altered, part of the building appears to still be extant, seen here on Trinity Street between High St. and Exeter St. in Baltimore.

I continue to work on this line but it doesn't give up its secrets easily. Considering that Annie had so many children, we may eventually find a step cousin from the Fuhrer line who may be able to give us more information on Annie's lineage. Baltimore was a major port for German immigration, and the German immigrants there in the late 19th century seem to have kept within their community. I have some leads on George W. Stange but nothing solid enough to publish yet. All of the records mentioned here can be accessed at familysearch.org.

If anyone reading this has any info, please leave it in the comments below (preferable) or email me at janisbmom23S@yahoo.com.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

I came across this challenge in my reading, and that's what inspired me to start this blog. I've never had a good way of publishing my info, and this will hopefully be at least moderately interesting. Maybe it will eventually help me solve some dead ends too.

The challenge is called 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. The idea is to focus on a particular ancestor with each blog post. Since I'm about two years behind the date that the challenge was actually issued, I'll just start now. The posts probably won't happen once a week, either. They'll happen when they happen. Right now I'm into this so expect a lot of posts.

I would encourage anyone who happens to be reading this to start your own blog and take this challenge as well. It's nice to share the info that we have.

Ancestry Versus Family Search

Ancestry.com is like the Walmart of genealogy sites. They have bought up a lot of the mom and pop sites to form a conglomerate which pretty much has the market. I love how easy it is to use. I love the interface. I love that you see pictures next to your ancestors' names, if they're available. I have a bit of a problem with the idea of encouraging everyone to submit their info, just so they can turn around and sell it to others. That has been the basis of their success. On the other hand, you are paying for their software and their organization of your info. It's up to you.

For the rest of us, the Mormons have familysearch.org. It's free and it's pretty wonderful. You can build your tree right there, and when you get a hint or need to do a search, all of their records are fully accessible and free.

I'm hoping that eventually most of the records available at Ancestry, including the user submitted family trees, will be available on familysearch.

WeRelate.org is another free service, although I don't find it as helpful as familysearch. Genealogy.com has some decent archived sites, including mine from back in the Day. The files there are a decent starting place if you are interested in the Ulery or Stange branches. You can find those here. Note that there are errors in those files. I have much more info now, as I will be posting in this blog.

If you're cheap like me, you can still build your tree at Ancestry for free, and you can click on their hints to get a peek at what they are. To see the actual records requires a paid subscription, but go ahead and use Ancestry to tell you what's out there, then search that particular record at familysearch.org.

Why Do This? Who Cares?

I can't totally explain why I've always been interested in my ancestors. For the most part all I can know is a name and a date, neither of which really tells me much about what they were like. So what is the point?

Let's start with the reasons that don't interest me.

I don't care about descending from royalty, wealth, or prestige. Just don't. Not a bit. This is one thing I've always been suspicious about with entities like Daughters of the American Revolution. I love history and I applaud people making historical records accessible. I just may be a little too cynical when I think about why a group like this might have been started in the first place. Was there a hint of anti-immigration, anti-antisemitism, or racism in celebrating that your family has a long American history? I honestly don't know.

Our ancestors, for the most part, weren't heroes. They were people who were subject to the prejudices and shortcomings of their times. While it would have been awesome to find an abolitionist or a suffragette in the family, it's not fair to place my politics onto my ancestors. Most of us are able at best to influence a small number of people in our immediate circles. We have slave owners in the family. That's not something I was happy to find, but half of my family is from the South, so it wasn't unexpected. Most of them weren't wealthy enough to own slaves. They were small farmers.

So, why do I feel compelled to continue to dig into my family's past? Growing up, no one I knew gave two shits about our genealogy. I got the impression that my asking questions was itself something my parents would I have preferred I not do. I don't know why, as I haven't unearthed any murderers or anything. I think my parents maybe just wanted to get away from the places where they grew up. They were thinking ahead, not behind, which made me feel kind of uncentered.

There is another reason, and it's not deep. I like to look for things if I know that they are there. This applies to arrowheads in the field, sharks' teeth at the beach, and family names in the record books. Everyone has, more or less, the same number of ancestors. They existed. Records vary according to time and place, but the idea that the information is out there somewhere just doesn't allow me to ignore the search. I enjoy it.

The internet has revolutionized genealogy. You can find out an awful lot about your family from your own recliner. And you don't have to pay for it. More on that in the next post.