Periodically, I have been known to surf through the Wills and Probate Records Ancestry.com has recently added. And we have to admit, that genealogy would be so much easier if all our ancestors had wills.
For instance, my great-great-great grandfather, John Stearns Percival, who died in 1841, died intestate. Granted he was only 48. A young man by current standards, extremely middle-aged by the standards of the time. Young, as his own father died in April of 1841 at the age of 81.
I've long looked for any ancestor who had a will. One of my favorite ancestors, great-great-great grandfather, Alexander Oliphant, surveyor, actually took the time and wrote two wills, one in 1872 and one in 1875. Alexander traveled a lot as a surveyor, so maybe he thought he should provide for his loved ones.
It was curious, therefore, when I discovered his will on Ancestry.com. He left one third of his estate to his son Ralph, one third to his daughter, Mary G. Maitland nee Oliphant and one third to his grandchildren James and Mary Black, children of his late stepdaughter, Joanna Nesbit.
Nice, huh? His widow is not even mentioned. I hope he assumed their children would provide for her. They did. Both his son and widow refused to qualify as executors and instead recommended Alexander Maitland, son-in-law, for the position, which he accepted. All of this information was record on September 28 1878. I don't know how many times I typed it before I realized the significance of the date. One hundred one years prior to my marriage!
Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Monday, January 11, 2016
Organization Nut!
Okay, I really do like to be organized, but that pile-o-paper that was on my desk was making me nuts. Or nuttier.
This is how I work. I madly pull all the information I can find from an online database and it sits on the top of the pile on my desk until I add the person/information to my database. Lately, I've been spending less time on the input than I like. Or I get distracted by seeing what else I can find on the subject of the record. This leads to my Obsessive Compulsive Family Research Disorder.
Last year, I even found a solution to some of my piles-o-paper in this wonderful file box.
Yeah. The second from top is the "file" section. I finally got to the filing and now that is all put away.
Then I sorted everything in my pile-o-paper. This is what it looked like after sorting.
But I wasn't done. I bought something to keep all this stuff OFF my desk except when I wanted it there. They call them wall pockets. This is clear plastic and open-ended and holds my legal size file folders. Love it.
And now my desk looks like the bottom photo.
Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes
This is how I work. I madly pull all the information I can find from an online database and it sits on the top of the pile on my desk until I add the person/information to my database. Lately, I've been spending less time on the input than I like. Or I get distracted by seeing what else I can find on the subject of the record. This leads to my Obsessive Compulsive Family Research Disorder.
Last year, I even found a solution to some of my piles-o-paper in this wonderful file box.
Yeah. The second from top is the "file" section. I finally got to the filing and now that is all put away.
Then I sorted everything in my pile-o-paper. This is what it looked like after sorting.
But I wasn't done. I bought something to keep all this stuff OFF my desk except when I wanted it there. They call them wall pockets. This is clear plastic and open-ended and holds my legal size file folders. Love it.
And now my desk looks like the bottom photo.
Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes
Monday, January 4, 2016
Ringing in the New Year
My DH, Older Daughter and I rang in the New Year. Well, actually, DH didn't make it that long. Older Daughter and I watched Annie - the new version and Steel Magnolias - the old version. So we were well into the New Year before we went to bed.
The menu for dinner is simple, usually. We usually nosh on cheese, crackers, salami, pepperoni, kielbasa, and whatever else we can think of. This year, Santa brought me a small snack sized crock pot setup with three crocks. I added a warm spinach dip, pumpernickel bread, a salsa and cheese dip with nachos and a chocolate dip with strawberries, oranges, angel food cake and french bread to the menu. Along with the appropriate alcoholic beverages that is.
New Year's eve, DH came home with the Blu Ray of "A Walk in the Woods" based on the Bill Bryson book of the same name, which chronicles his attempt at walking the Appalachian Trail. After two updates of our blu ray player via a 25 ft ethernet cable, we discovered it was never going to be compatible with that disc. Now, we've had that player for maybe four or five years. It was a hand-me-down from Older Daughter.
Do you remember when Betamax and VHS players came out? They were hundreds of dollars. I think we got our first one in the mid 1980s. Such wonderful things. But expensive. At least for those times when we had two small children.
The new one was much less expensive and what the heck we bought a sound bar with a separate subwoofer, and now the sound on our UHD TV is awesome.
It really makes watching movies and even regular television programming an event. I wonder if we started a new tradition?
Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes
The menu for dinner is simple, usually. We usually nosh on cheese, crackers, salami, pepperoni, kielbasa, and whatever else we can think of. This year, Santa brought me a small snack sized crock pot setup with three crocks. I added a warm spinach dip, pumpernickel bread, a salsa and cheese dip with nachos and a chocolate dip with strawberries, oranges, angel food cake and french bread to the menu. Along with the appropriate alcoholic beverages that is.
New Year's eve, DH came home with the Blu Ray of "A Walk in the Woods" based on the Bill Bryson book of the same name, which chronicles his attempt at walking the Appalachian Trail. After two updates of our blu ray player via a 25 ft ethernet cable, we discovered it was never going to be compatible with that disc. Now, we've had that player for maybe four or five years. It was a hand-me-down from Older Daughter.
Do you remember when Betamax and VHS players came out? They were hundreds of dollars. I think we got our first one in the mid 1980s. Such wonderful things. But expensive. At least for those times when we had two small children.
The new one was much less expensive and what the heck we bought a sound bar with a separate subwoofer, and now the sound on our UHD TV is awesome.
It really makes watching movies and even regular television programming an event. I wonder if we started a new tradition?
Copyright 2010-2016, ACK for Gene Notes
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