Surprising Connections

I recently acquired all of my mother's files on her genealogy research, including reams of printouts of email exchanges from the 1990's with fellow Wandell researchers from various genealogy message boards. One of these researchers (cousins), contacted her last week and discovered her memory decline. I connected with him by phone and explained about her issues, and also shared my DescendDance blog with him. It inspired me to spend a couple of afternoons sorting through all of Mom's files and purging duplicate or useless papers. It is now reduced to a manageable pile. Some of the cousins with whom she corresponded sent her some invaluable copies of original documents that I did not have. I am looking forward to incorporating them into my research.

On another note, my sister and her husband (Holly and Clayton Bernick) were going through the last of his mother's storage boxes of memorabilia. They found a piano recital program that listed his mother's name (Jane Ramsey), and surprise! It also listed the names of our beloved Aunt Teeny (Miriam Lukhard) and cousin Peggy (then Page, now Baldacci)! Jane was about 14, and Teeny and Peggy were around 10 years old in 1946. When I told Teeny about it today, she told me that Gramp used to take her and Peggy to piano lessons in his truck every week and they hated it. But they loved the piano teacher, a little old Dutch man named A. J. Pennartz. He was the organist at the church where the recitals were held. Teeny and Peggy quit lessons as soon as they were allowed, but Jane continued with the same teacher until college and corresponded with him long after her lessons were through.

The times dispatch. September 15, 1912, Page 10

New Haven, Connecticut

I have traced several branches of our family tree back to New Haven during colonial times.

Capt. Daniel Hall, my maternal 7th great grandfather, lived in nearby Wallingford with his wife Thankful Lyman from Middletown, CT.  Abraham Hall, my 6th great grandfather, lived in New Haven with his wife, Sarah Doolittle. Abraham is buried in Center Street Cemetery, Wallingford, which is close to Doolittle Park.

Capt. Daniel Hall > Abraham Hall > Medad Hall > Elisha Hall > Alfred King Hall > Andrew A. Hall > Ada C. Hall > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

John Hopkins, my 7th great grandfather (maternal), operated a grist mill in New Haven built by his father Stephen Hopkins of Hartford.

Lt. John Hopkins > Mary Hopkins > Abraham Hickcox > Jared Hickcox > Hannah Hickcox > Anna Dillingham > Horace C. Crofford > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

Some of our ancestors, both maternal and paternal, are buried in a famous graveyard on what is now called, "Center Church on the Green."  The original cemetery is gone, but many of the gravestones are preserved underneath the church building.
http://www.newhavencenterchurch.org/history.html

I will add the names of our ancestors buried there as I discover them.

From my maternal grandfather's lineage:

Eleazer Brown 1642 - 1714 (my 8th great grandfather)

Sarah Buckley Brown 1640-1723 (my 8th great grandmother)

From my paternal grandfather's lineage:

Nathaniel Bradley 1661-1745 (my 7th great grandfather)

Ruth Dickerman Bradley 1668-1725 (my 7th great grandmother)

Alice Prichard Bradley 1625-1692 (my 8th great grandmother)