I am introducing a new blog series today! Family Story Friday. This is where I will share your stories, so keep them coming. Today’s blog post is a story told by my mother Linda (Royer) Szymanski about her father Alfred Joseph Royer. I don’t ever remember my parents living in…
Wedding photo of my 3rd Great Grandparents Richard Watchorn and Elizabeth (Howley) Watchorn. Wedding photo of Richard Watchorn and Elizabeth (Howley) Watchorn. Richard and Elizabeth were both born in Ireland in the 1820s and immigrated to Canada in the 1840s, where they raised their nine children. I haven’t had the…
Sharing a story about my grandfather Alfred Joseph Royer in my last blog prompted my “aunt” Robbie, who is technically my maternal first cousin 1x removed, to share a story of her own. I love hearing the family stories please everyone keep them coming….. Please contact me if you have…
If you had an opportunity to read my last blog post “Thriller Thursday: Brother Shoots Brother” you will remember that I shared a story about two brothers that weren’t really “feeling the love” to say the least. Today, I would like to take the opportunity to share a different type…
This article found in the August 21, 1936 edition of The News-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan) describes an incident between my great grandfather Orlie Charles McKenzie and his brother Lawrence C. McKenzie. The article states that Lawrence McKenzie, age 34, was being held in the Montmorency County jail in Atlanta, Montmorency,…
I received several photos of the Hawley family from my grandmother Edna Jean (Burt) McKenzie. The photo below is one of these photos. The only description I have is “Unknown Hawley Man by Cabin” Unknown Hawley Man by Cabin Unknown Hawley Man by Cabin – Close up There are a…
I always find it interesting to follow a single family through the census records. It is interesting to see what has changed? Did they move? have more kids? lose a child? Buy a home? Change professions? In this blog, we are going to follow the family of Edouard Royer, my 2nd…
There is one cemetery that I have visited more times than I can count. The cemetery is the Briley Township Cemetery in the village of Briley in Atlanta, Montmorency, Michigan. Briley Township Cemetery I had visited this cemetery many times as a child, but once I really found my passion…
In honor of siblings’ day being yesterday Friday, April 10, 2015, this blog celebrates two sisters Christina Ann Kay and her younger sister Mary Ann Kay who were married on the same day in Algoma, Ontario, Canada. Christina and Mary were born to parents Alexander Kay and Armina (Waybrant) Kay….
In the 1880 census, Mary “Ann” Hawley is list as the daughter of William Hawley, age 5, born approximately 1875. The family is living in Wilson, Alpena, Michigan. My assumption has always been that Mary Ann Hawley was the third child, second daughter, of William Hawley and Sarah Anne Healy….
Lillian Elnora Burt was born on November 23, 1911, in Comins, Oscoda, Michigan to Ernest Nile Burt and Lavina May (Hawley) Burt. Lillian was blessed by Elder E.D. Fultz on December 14, 1911, in Comins, Oscoda, Michigan. I believe that shortly after Lillian’s birth and blessing, Ernest, Lavina and their…
Sarah Anne (Healy) Hawley, my great-great-grandmother, remarried after her first husband William, my great-great-grandfather passed away in California in 1914. The man she married was Asahel Atherton. They got married on October 30, 1919, in Beaverton, Gladwin, Michigan at the L.D.S. Church. Their marriage was officiated by another member of…
I, like many genealogists, can find myself getting lost in my research. Spending many hours in a library, family history center or searching online. Something that I need to remind myself of is that genealogy research is about family! This means that is should not be solo research, or at…
My McKenzie family has experienced two significant losses over the past year and seven months. My paternal grandmother Edna Jean (Burt) McKenzie passed away on August 26, 2013, and my father Tom Orlando McKenzie passed away on November 6, 2014. Both my father and his mother were amazing people that…
Finding this 1930 census record makes me remember that even though a pedigree chart follows a specific line, sometimes those lines intersect in ways that aren’t obvious. I have looked at this census several times for two different families, one on each side of my family tree. Joseph Royer in household…
