Long Day of Research- Made a Lot of Contacts!

The day started in a pretty awesome way. From my Aunt Mary Smith, I got the email addresses for my Uncle Bob, and cousins Michael & Theresa. I emailed them right away and ended up with an instant message conversation with Terry. From that I learned birthdays, spouses, and children.

I also got an email address and phone number for Mary Pat McQueary from my Aunt Jackie. I heard back from her right away. Apparently, she's been working on the family tree for 20 years. The McQueary side, anyway. She sent me pictures from the reception the night before grandpa's funeral which gave me the names of a lot of my mom's cousins.

A family reunion is in the works for the Smiths this September/October.

While checking those emails earlier, my mom was on the phone with her cousin Jimmy. She found out that Zelma Irene has a half sister Etha. Jimmy is Charles Jr.'s son and she found out that he has three half brothers and sisters somewhere in the world. They remain unknown at present. Charles Seibert died at 46 which makes the year abt 1932. Mom told me Jimmy is four years older than her which gave me his approximate birthday. He has 5 grandsons and 1 grandaughter we'll get names for later. Mom also knew Charles Jr.'s wife's name to be Ella May.

The CA Birth Index for Michael R Smith gave me Borg for his mother's maiden name. It also gave me San Francisco for his city of birth. I found Theresa's also with the same city of birth.

I need to figure out which of my grandfather, Paschal McQueary's, brothers was nicnamed "Bud". None of the names give it away. It took me forever to figure out Sonny was Charles Edward McQueary.

I revisited some more of the US Census Reports gaining valuable information. The 1930 census for Charles Larsen (mispelled as "on") rented his home and lived on a farm paying $30 a month. The most important fact is that Marion is not a daughter. Marion was his son! Don't I feel stupid. Their ages at marriage were Charles, 38 and Ada, 19. Charles and his parents were born in Denmark. Ada was born in Connecticut and her parents England (father) and Ireland (mother). Charles immigrated to the US in 1880. Charles was a farmer on a fruit farm and Marion was a laborer on a general farm. Neither was a veteran.

From the 1880 US Census for Mary H Hartford, if I'm right that this is her, she lived with a family named Read. There was no relationship next to her name, but there were four other boarders without details as well. This does list the parents from the wrong states, but the time and location match up. Also, the wife Read was from Tennessee and one of Mary's parents was born in Tennessee.

The 1910 US Census for Charles A Larsen showed that he and Ada were married for 10 years putting their marriage abt 1900. This one lists Charles' mother from Germany, so I don't know which census has the wrong info. I got the birth years for Mildred (7), Pearl (5), and Marion (3). Also I figured out that a picture I have from somewhere between there and 1920 is of the three of them. Charles was the foreman on a farm. All three kids were born in California.

From the memorial notice for Marion Larsen (1907-1962) I learned that his final resting place is Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi, CA.

I've started a binder with documents. I'm printing out blank copies of census reports and writing in only my relatives information. I have all of the originals saved to my computer of course.