Genealogy Jottings

Supposedly, if you go back far enough back in time, someone has already researched your ancestors or else someone else concurrently works on them. Together the researchers build the family tree. Problem is, this rule of thumb works for my husband/tech advisor but not for me.

Several times he has found a new ancestor, and others promptly pick up on the information and disseminate it. Several people work on these lines simultaneously and all contribute something.

This week he located the birth record for his ancestor Maria Joanna Keulers in 1799 in the Limburg Province of the Netherlands. You can bet that other Keulers researchers will take this information once we post it, and they will run with it. The work will advance.

I never seem to encounter such luck. The researchers I worked alongside for years are either too elderly to continue or have passed away. How I wish I could find someone else working on any of my troublesome ancestors:

• Daniel Sherman, born around 1800 in New York. Married Rebecca Howe Day in Morgan County, KY on 4 Sep 1826. Children included Polly A., Anderson O., Evaline, Emily E., Eliza A., Thomas, Gilla Ann, John, and Jasper. Who were Daniel’s parents?
• Unknown mother of Anna Petronellia Sherman. The daughter was born 1 Apr 1865 in Indiana to Thomas Sherman and, according to family legend, a German girl named “Katherine Stillenbaugh”. After the death of the German wife, Thomas remarried. He and Alice Farris were parents to Anna Petronellia’s half-siblings, Charles, George, Ethel, Claude, and James Sherman.
• John Davis Riddle, born around 1821 in Pennsylvania. Married Olive Hall Dunbar in Summit County, OH on 12 Jan 1843. Children included Tamson Rebecca, Theodocia Orlinda, Isaac Newton, Ethan Henry, Laura Ruamy, John Hoxey, Seymour Alfonso, and Olive Delila. John and Olive also raised their grandson, Aden Ralph Riddle, son of Tamson. Who were John Davis Riddle’s parents?
• Unknown father of Grace Riddle. She was born in Palisade, NE to Laura Ruamy Riddle on 30 Aug 1896. Grace had three identified half-brothers on her mother’s side: Francis, Louis, and Joseph all born in Michigan to Laura and George Edmonds.

Surely some of the people mentioned above have descendants who enjoy family history. How I wish I could find them.

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