In previous posts, I wrote about my great grandmother Mae Arla (King) McKenzie and the letters she wrote to her daughter Cora. As in everything, timing and context are important when analyzing the lives of our ancestors. To catch up on the life of Mae and her family thus far, take a moment…
In previous posts, I wrote about my great grandmother Mae Arla (King) McKenzie and the letters she wrote to her daughter Cora. As in everything, timing and context are important when analyzing the lives of our ancestors. To catch up on the life of Mae and her family thus far, take a moment…
In a previous post, Letters From Home: Mae McKenzie I wrote about my great grandmother Mae Arla (King) McKenzie and the letters she wrote to her daughter Cora. As in everything, timing and context are important when analyzing the lives of our ancestors. To catch up on the life of…
My great grandmother, Mae Arla (King) McKenzie would have been 116 years old today. In celebration of her birthday, I would like to share a letter written by her to her daughter Cora. Several of these letters, as well as cards and photos, were given to me a couple of…
This isn’t the first time that my great grandfather, Orlie Charles McKenzie, has appeared in a “Thriller Thursday” post. Unfortunately, in this post, things don’t turn out well for Orlie. The story I am going to share today has been repeated many times in my family. There is a little…
This picture is of my great grandfather Orlie Charles McKenzie, with an unknown friend, very proudly displaying a bear that one of them had shot. The photo was most likely taken in Montmorency County, Michigan, and was given to me by my grandmother Edna Jean (Burt) McKenzie. Orlie Charles McKenzie…
Orlie Charles McKenzie – WW1 Military Photo Friday, April 7th, 2017, was the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War 1. This got me to thinking about my great grandfather Orlie Charles McKenzie, who served in the 330th Field Artillery, Battery C, which was a part of the 85th…
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,…
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…
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…
My grandpa Alex always joked about having an uncle that was also his grandfather… Before you stop reading and think that there is something a little strange happening in my DNA, let me fill in the details behind this story… My grandfather was Alexander Orlando McKenzie born in 1924 to Orlie C. McKenzie and Mae Arla…
