One Lovely Blog

I am excited to be included in this award. I was nominated by Heather Wilkinson Rojo, author of Nutfield Genealogy, one of my favorite bloggers. Thank you for thinking of me, Heather! 

The rules for the "One Lovely Blog Award":

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog. 
2. Share seven things about yourself
3. Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!)
4. Let your bloggers know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

Seven things about myself:

1. I credit my Carter and Cotton family lines for helping me grow up with a sense of history. The farm settled by my 4th great-grandfather, Dr. Timothy Carter, has been in my family for seven generations. I grew up surrounded by my family's history. I could wander around the house and meetinghouse he built and see the names of my ancestors on stones in the cemetery behind the meetinghouse. My Cotton line is linked into the Ellingwood surname. There was a book about the genealogy of the Ellingwoods that was updated after I was born so I could peruse a book of ancestors while visiting my grandparents. I thought it was fascinating. 
2. I teach U.S. History and psychology at Windham High School and this is my twenty-first year of teaching. I love the teaching part but could do without the work that comes before and after my classes. I've even found some cousins amongst my students as they work on family history projects. 
3. I have four sons from my first marriage and my husband has two daughters from his first marriage. Together we have children spanning the ages of 22 to 32 - one every two years. Nick 22, Katie 24, Rachel 26, Ben 28, Josh 30, and Steve 32. The middle names of my sons are all in honor of family members: Stephen (for my favorite uncle), Thomas (for my father and grandfather), John (for my only male Carter cousin and my former brother-in-law), and Carter (my maiden name). 
4. I was lucky enough to know three of my great-grandparents and many great-aunts and great-uncles. 
5. I love horses and learned to ride using the saddle that my 2nd great-grandfather, Augustus Carter, used in the Civil War. My family still has his uniform, spurs, and sword too. 
6. I love to travel. I'd love to be able to go more often. England is my favorite and I'd like to see more of Scotland. I've never been to Ireland or Wales and I'd love to go there too. 
7. I really like to cook and I credit my grandmothers. My dad's mom made the best rolls, biscuits, baked beans, and molasses cookies! My mom's mom worked as a pastry chef at resorts in Florida and New Hampshire. Her cakes were amazing! 

Many of my favorite bloggers have already been tagged but figuring that some of my readers may not have seen them, I will list some of them again. Here are a baker's dozen to check out. 

1. Shakespeare's Mom by Kate Parlin is not a genealogy blog but a parenting blog written by a good friend and amazing writer! She has three girls under the age of 5, including a set of twins! She's starting to gain national attention for her writing and I have no doubt that someday she will write a great American novel. 
2. Some Pig by my friend Caroline is another parenting/teaching/modern woman blog written by one of the best writer's I've ever met. If you like snarky, wise-cracking, wit, this is a blog for you. 
3. Life from the Roots by Barbara Poole is a great blog with awesome photography. 
4. Digging Down East by Pam Schaffner
5. Boston 1775 by J. L. Bell is a great place to dig around and learn more about the American Revolution. I've found several ancestor stories here. 
6. Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog by Jana Last in awesome in many ways but it's one of my favorite sites to check out for her Fab Finds posted every Friday with great topics I might have missed. 
7. Acadian Ancestral Home by Lucie Constantino is not only and interesting blogger but a great speaker. Check out her blog to see if she is speaking in your area. 
8. Granite In My Blood by Midge Frazel is a great collection of all things genealogy and Midge is a great inspiration to always keep learning. Some day I might be half as organized as she is! 
9. One Rhode Island Family by Diane Boumenot. I especially enjoy the posts where she elaborates on her process as she searches for information about her ancestors. 
10. Of Loons and Lady Slippers by T. K. Eldridge is a blog I discovered through the 52 ancestors challenge. I love the name too! 
11. Maine Genealogy by Chris Dunham has been a great resource for me. Not only the blog but the entire site with many features. 
12. West in New England by Bill West has already been nominated but Bill is my inspiration and the person most responsible for starting my blog so I can't leave him out. 
13. Genea-Musings by Randy Seaver is a blog I always check out and a previous nominee. 

I will be contacting the bloggers above but don't expect those who have already done the challenge once to do it again. 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Many Cousins Do You Know You Have?

From Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1) Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2) Extra Credit: Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.

3) Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to.

4) Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names? Do you care? 

5) Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own. Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work.

Here is my entry: 

I struggled to come up with respectful terms for non-biological children. It is something that is tough to describe but easy in real life because they are just considered part of the family and equal to all other family members. For simplicity's sake, I will refer to all children the same but understand that a few of these relationships are based on love, not DNA. 

Part 1: 
My Carter grandparents were Thomas Richard & Fern Lyndell (Cotton) Carter. They had four sons. My father is the oldest. 

Son #2 has two daughters and one son. Child #1 (female) has one daughter; Child #2 (male) has no children; Child #3 (female) has one son and one daughter. 3 first cousins, & 3 first cousins, once removed. 

Son #3 had three daughters. Child #1 two daughters; Child #2 has one daughter and one son; Child #3 does not have children yet. 3 first cousins & 4 first cousins, once removed

Son #4 had three daughters. Child #1 has three daughters and one son; Child #2 has one son and one daughter; Child #3 has no children. 3 first cousins & 6 first cousins, once removed

My Blake grandparents were Clayton Leonard & Linona Alice "Peggy" (Yates) Blake. They had three daughters. My mother is the oldest. 

Daughter #2 has two daughters. Child #1 has three daughters; Child #2 has no children. 2 first cousins & 3 first cousins, once removed

Daughter #3 has two sons and 1 daughter. Child #1 (male) has no children; Child #2 (female) has two daughters; Child #3 (male) has three daughters. 3 first cousins & 5 first cousins, once removed

I have 14 first cousins and 21 first cousins, once removed. None of my first cousins have grandchildren. I am the oldest of the Carters and I have the first grandchild - born in October 2013. 

Extra Credit:
My great-grandparents:
1) Edward Mellen & Fanny (Capen) Carter - Had 5 children but only two had children and one of those was my grandfather. 

• Edward Augustus Carter had one son & one daughter. The son had three daughters and the daughter had no children. Of the three daughters, only one has children - two boys and one girl. 
• Rebecca Williamson (Carter) Bailey
• My grandfather, Thomas Richard Carter had four sons.
• Stanley Capen Carter
• Paul Albert Carter 

Total = 2 second cousins & 3 second cousins, once removed & 3 second cousins, twice removed. I know everyone in this line. 

2) Ray Everett & Annie Florilla (Gibbs) Cotton - Had 8 children but only three had children.  

• Albert Francis Cotton had one daughter. She had a son & a daughter. There are at least 4 grandchildren for Albert and at least 3 great-grandchildren. 
• Nina Mae (Cotton) Laflin died at age nineteen without children.
• Marion Elizabeth Cotton died young.
• Ray Everett Cotton, Jr had one daughter and five sons. I know of 12 grandchildren of Ray, Jr. and I'm sure there are some great-grandchildren but I do not know their names. Yes, I wish I did. 
• Thelma Jane Cotton died young. 
• Leonard Henry Cotton died young. 
• Ada Lillie Cotton had one son and two daughters. The son had 3 daughters & the daughters had 2 sons and a son and a daughter, respectively. I know all their names but I lose track of some at the next generation. I know of 4 great-grandchildren of Ada. 
• My grandmother Fern Lyndell (Cotton) Carter had four sons. 

Total = 4 second cousins & 11 second cousins, once removed and bunch of second cousins, twice removed. I feel pretty good that I at least know a few of the second cousins, twice removed names. 

3) Harriet Blake - never married and had only my grandfather. No second cousins here. 

4) Estes & Eva Delphinia (Hayes) Yates - Had 8 children and these are harder for me. 

• Lawrence Yates had at least two sons and two daughters and then I lose track. I know one of his daughters has one son and two daughters. 
• Georgie Anna (Yates) Haines had at least three daughters and one son. I know the two children of the son. 
• Carroll Yates had two sons but nothing further on this line. 
• My grandmother Linona Alice (Yates) Blake had three daughters. 
• Russell Yates had no children. 
• Viva (Yates) Whitman had one son (no idea if he has children) and one daughter. I know the daughter has two daughters and several grandchildren. I know the names of her daughters but not Viva's great-grandchildren. 
• Laura (Yates) (Adams) Hutchins had one son and one daughter. I know the daughter has one son and two daughters and several grandchildren. 
• Bryce Yates had one daughter and two sons. I believe that both sons have not had children and the daughter has at least one daughter, one or two sons. 

Total = at least 17 second cousins & an unknown number of second cousins, once removed.  

At least 23 second cousins, and 27+ second cousins, once removed. 

Geography seems to play a part in this. Some lines I know more of the descendants because they lived nearby, went to the same schools, and family got together more often. On my mother's side, the extended family did not have the same get-togethers that my father's side did. I know more of the families of my mom's cousins who lived in the towns in our school district but not those who lived just a little bit further away. I wonder what it will be like for my children because the family is becoming increasingly separated by geography but increasingly connected by social media. 

http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-many.html

Genealogy Fun

The mission, according to Randy Seaver, at Genea-Musings is to find out several things about the date one's father was born and share online. Now, he titled his post Saturday Night Genealogy Fun but I'm a little behind due to limited internet access at the camp so mine will be Sunday Afternoon Genealogy Fun.

1)  What day of the week was your Father born? Tell us how you found out.

April 27, 1939 was a Thursday. My father was born in Berlin, N.H. but lived in Bethel, Maine.

Where I found the day of the week

2) What has happened in recorded history on your Father's birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.
1805 - U.S. Marines attack the shores of Tripoli   

1865 - The steamboat, "Sultana", explodes on the Mississippi River, killing up to 1, 547. Many of those onboard were Union POWs on their way home

1937 - The U.S. Social Security system makes its first benefit payment

1967 - Boxer Rocky Marciano retires as undefeated champion

1994 - Richard Nixon is buried

Where I found what happened on this day

3)  What famous people have been born on your Father's birth date?  Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

1791 - Samuel Morse - Inventor of the telegraph

1822 - Ulysses S. Grant - Civil War general and U.S. President

1922 - Jack Klugman - actor

1948 - Frank William Abignale, Jr. - con artist turned security consultant, played by Matt Damon in the film, Catch Me If You Can

1951 - Ace Frehley - of the rock band, KISS

Where I found famous birthdays

4)  Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a status or comment on Facebook.