genealogy break through--eureka!

I am so stinkin' ecstatic right now. I've been working on family history lately and just now I found my gold.

I finally have proof of what I slowly came to realize to be true...after first rejecting it, then investigating, then believing, then knowing but needing proof...this breakthrough in my genealogy has only taken me at least 15-20 years to accomplish.

So, what is the find that is literally making me feel a bit berserk?

Brooklyn Eagle
Thursday, July 28, 1887
Page: 3
Section: none

NEWMAN--On July 27, Mrs. Hannah Newman, aged 76.
     Funeral services at the residence of her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller, 685A Hancock st, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday, July 29th, at 2 P.M.



Those few words her son in law, Mr. John H. Miller bring such joy to my heart.

You know what's kind of interesting? Last Thursday night Glen and I went to the temple with his parents and we did the names of 4 people from this family (father William and son Thomas and sisters Catherine and Frances--plus a brother-in-law). Maybe they were guiding me from the other side.


The journey (since Glen isn't here to share my story and I need to let it out, so here it goes):

I knew from info given to me 35 years ago by relatives that my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Ann Newman, married my 2nd great grandfather, John H. Miller. According to an article, Sarah's parents were named Hannah and Thomas Newman.

As I hunted for her parents in the 1850 census in New York before the days of the internet using book indexes in the Salt Lake library, I came across only one Sarah Newman that was the right age (20) in the right place (Brooklyn), but the father's name was William, not Thomas, and the mother's name was Anna, not Hannah. But there was a brother named Thomas along with sisters Mary Jane, Frances, and Catherine. My Sarah named 2 of her daughters Mary Jane and Frances (and Caroline and Emma...none were named Catherine and her son was named Charles, not Thomas).

I ordered my Sarah's death certificate a while back. It listed her father as ------- Newman and her mother as Hannah Westover. So I now had a maiden name for her mother, but it didn't help with the father.


Thanks to the internet, Ancestry.com, and familysearch.org, I tracked William and Anna and family and discovered that in all other census records, Anna's name was Hannah! William was not to been seen again...I guessed he died in between the 1850 and 1860 census and I have found a record of a William Newman dying in 1857, I think it was, but the records kept at that time didn't help me identify him as the William I was seeking.

I discovered that "the other" Sarah's sister Frances had a son named Charles O. Latimer around 1866...my Sarah had a son she named Charles Latimer Miller in April of 1866.

So, how to prove it all. I finally tried to track "the other" Sarah's siblings to find their death certificates to see if their mother's name was Hannah Westover...but I couldn't find out when any of them died. Their names were too common and there were too many choices.

One day I was looking at the New York state census and discovered that next door to "the other" Sarah's sister Mary was living a Ferdinand Allen and his family...the same Ferdinand who later became Sarah's son-in-law (after his wife passed away). So I "knew" William and Anna were my 3rd great grandparents. But I needed proof.

I spent 4 hours recently in the Salt Lake Family History Library looking at reel after reel after reel of Brooklyn death records (I believe I looked at 27 reels) looking for any Hannah Newmans. (someone needs to invent and/or install viewers in Salt Lake that don't need my arm to go around 100,000,000 times to wind and rewind films, by the way).

I was afraid there'd be too many, but I only found 2 and one was the wrong age. The other record was so faded I almost couldn't read it (but considering the next 2 records were so faded as to be totally illegible, I'll take the highly faded one). I wasn't sure of the age (70? 76?) or death date (except the 1887 part) but I could read the death certificate number. I ordered it and it came the other day. Best $18.50 I've ever spent. Turns out this Friday will be the 125th anniversary of her death.

The info didn't confirm or refute anything, however, but it did list a cemetery...a misspelled cemetery that took me a bit to figure out what it was. I tried contacting them (Cypress Hills) through their website, but as of yet, I haven't heard from them.

This afternoon, I took that death date and went to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle site where I found the above obituary proving my Sarah and "the other" Sarah are one and the same. Proof. I'm so happy!


Now, John H. Miller's death certificate lists his father as John Miller of Staten Island and his mother as Hannah V. Miller of Long Island. Do you know how many John Miller's there were back then? Too many. I hope to find more on John Henry Miller, though.

And I want to figure out when William and Hannah came to America (and who their parents were, of course)...did they marry in England and then come here, or meet here after immigrating? Genealogy never ends. You fill in one blank, and 2 more are now begging to be filled in.

good stuff.

cabinet doors, design star, and stamping

Glen, Ryan, and Hannah will be back this afternoon from the Youth Conference Pioneer Trek. I'm hoping they are having a wonderful time. Yesterday, while the others were gone, Eric, Thomas, Alex, Ben and I went to see the movie Ice Age IV. LOVED it!

meanwhile, I've been crossing things off of my summertime projects list. This week I worked on the bathroom and kitchen cabinets as well as getting the food together to put in our 72 hour emergency backpacks.

back bathroom before:

back bathroom after (it was my practice room):

 kitchen sink area before:

kitchen sink area after:

kitchen before:

kitchen after:

So, it's a definite improvement, and my skills are increasing, but I did have some difficulty here and there. Of course, now I have to do something with the cabinets themselves (not real wood) to help it match the wood doors.

Every summer we love watching Design Star on HGTV and Who Will Be the Next Foodnetwork Star on the foodnetwork, of course. While at my parents house we were able to catch a few episodes of each. We don't have dish anymore, so yesterday I started watching the previous episodes of Design Star. I really love it.

Catch it at hgtv.com/designstar

I haven't watched any foodnetwork star since we've been home, but I plan to.
 http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-next-food-network-star/index.html

I had stamping this week:

my card

Tina's

Michelle's

Tami's

Becky's

Can't wait to see what next week will bring.

celebrating the 4th on the 7th

Every year the Perazzo clan celebrates the 4th of July with tons of food (beans, burgers, dogs, 4 types of salad, chips, soda, cookies--almost 30 dozen, and ice cream), games (croquet, volleyball, canasta, pinochle, rummy, and dominion) , visiting (about 46 of us attended), and an evening program at the firebowl. This year was no different...except that the 4th fell on a Wednesday, so we had to change our party to Saturday the 7th in order for all of the California cousins to come. It wouldn't be the same without the Tubbs clan.

We started off with pizza and games and then the firebowl on Friday night. The firebowl program includes singing patriotic songs, skits, and our Eagle scouts retiring any flags that have been given to us for that purpose.

Madison and Michael MCed, Pat (and John) reading why the Lord created dogs and cats

Rod, John, and John with Mom and Dad in a skit about multiple births

the 2 grand-nieces waving the flag while we sang

 

 

Tonya in her role as our music leader

Daniel, Eric, and Michael with flags; Joseph, Dad, and Glen in a reading of "Old Ragged Flag"

watching a flag burn

Saturday brought more games, a barbecue lunch with leftovers and sandwiches for dinner, and even more games. Heidi brought her face painting gear this year and some of us got "decorated."

Madison and Hannah show off Heidi's skills while playing with Joseph and Kenny

Andrew on the couch with his Snidely Whiplash mustache and his girlfriend Babes with face paint

The 4th of July party is one of the highlights of my year. I told Glen I love the food so much that I prefer the 4th over the Thanksgiving menu. The company is the best and we have a great time winning and losing our games as we visited.

just back from vacation

We went up to Brookings, Oregon to visit my parents for the week--we, minus Andrew that is, who is busy with summer term at BYU right now.

It was rainy at first, then just foggy and cloudy. Finally on Tuesday and Wednesday the sun came out and stayed out (until this morning, that is), but I don't think it even reached 70 while we were there.

looking south--my first view of the beach on Saturday

Wednesday's view looking north

Glen spent the first day under the house as a pipe had broken after we got there. Glen saved the day...and the cost of a plumber. He also gained some skills, which might be useful to us in the future.

While Glen, Grandpa, and Ryan were working, Hannah and Eric "jammed" at the Brookings Activity Center (aka Senior Citizen's Center). They sang things like "Tom Dooley," "A Poor Wayfaring Stranger," "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain," "Sound of Silence," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and "Edelweiss." Hannah had brought her ukelele and someone there lent Eric a guitar. We didn't look our best since the we couldn't shower until the pipe was fixed, but we had some fun.

Friday night, some of us went to see the community theatre group put on the play "The Boardinghouse." Very silly.

Saturday, we went and saw the movie "Brave" and really enjoyed it.

We didn't seem to spend as much time on the beach as we usually do (though they did take a little trip with a kayak and a rubber raft on the river), but plenty of time was spent at yard sales and thrift stores. Glen's favorite find--an ice cream/frozen yogurt maker. Hannah is really into vintage these days and bought some old books (that I don't even want to touch) and a suitcase. Alex scored himself a digital camera.

We also played games and watched some fun shows on TV. I think Alex might want to participate in "Storage Wars" when he gets older. We also might want to redecorate our house and cook wonderful things thanks to HGTV and the foodnetwork trying to pick their next stars.

Alex, Ryan, and Eric are playing electronic games, Hannah is reading

note on the above picture...before we left on vacation, Hannah used Kilz to seal her bedroom walls before painting them a new color and she wiped her hands on her legs--now she can't get the Kilz to come off. That stuff really clings.

On Tuesday we spent some time up at the Manley Art Center pulling some weeds and helping to make the flower garden they have nicer.

Ryan, Hannah, and the cow--notice they are in shorts but...

Grandma and Alex--notice they are in jackets...it was chilly

Glen and Eric finishing up

being Oregon, snails were everywhere

We were able to watch the fireworks last night on a bridge that spans the Chetco river--the fireworks reflected in the water makes the view extra breathtaking. Eric had my camera and came up with these shots:

see what I mean about the reflection?