Christine Bichler (wife of Christophe Decker) 1794 - 1888
She emigrated with a group of family members, including my second great-grandmother (her niece Catherine Decker) from Hottviller, Moselle, France, to the United States (ultimately settling in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania). They left from Le Havre, France, aboard the bark "Camille" and landed in New York on the 20th of May 1848.
Today would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday, but he's been gone for nearly 18 years. I lost Uncle George, my Mom's brother, earlier this month; he was born the same year as my Dad.
In the wake of Uncle George's passing, I have been doing a lot of genealogical research into the wee hours, placing pieces of the puzzle into my family tree.
I would encourage you to conduct an oral history interview with all of your loved ones, especially the old-timers. Vast amounts of knowledge are lost when one of them passes; putting their recollections down on paper or (even better) in their own voice will provide an invaluable record.
My Mom's older sister had a faint recollection of the name of a small town in Germany that she had heard the elders mention. That bit of information led to my finding one of our great-great-grandmothers. (My Mother is two-and-a-half years younger than her sister, and did not recall this vital clue.)
I'm in the middle of another family mystery as I write this and am waiting to hear from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh with some details about a great-grandfather. One of my aunts provided a clue that (knock on wood) has enabled us to identify him.
So, Happy Birthday, Daddy! Farewell, Uncle George! I can hear them now, swapping stories behind the pearly gates.
One of the most exciting gifts to me in the early days of my genealogical research was receiving this photo of my maternal grandfather's parents and sisters via email. I had located a long-lost cousin who had this photo along with at least one-hundred more from my mother's side of the family. She generously shared them with us and they have been disseminated to the rest of the cousins.
My great-grandfather, Thomas Galbraith, the only male in this photo, was a California Gold Rush '49er. He kept a journal of his cross-country adventures, but the journal ended as soon as his party found gold. He returned by boat to the East Coast, completed medical school, and practiced medicine in Pennsylvania for many years. Family legend says that he attended the birth of his future wife, my great-grandmother Martha Jane, who was twenty-two years his junior.
Anna Altmeyer was born on 9 July 1844 in Michelbach, Saarland, Germany, and died on 18 October 1889 in Mifflin, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Nicholas Altmeyer and Catharine Baecker.
She arrived in New York City at the age of ten with her parents and three brothers and three sisters on 4 August 1854. The ship "Marcia C. Day" had sailed from Le Havre, France.
She married at the age of seventeen on 18 January 1862. This portrait dates from approximately 1865 when she was twenty-one years of age.
She was my paternal grandfather's maternal grandmother. My cousin Ron generously shared this image with me.
This amazing early photo was sent to me by a long-lost cousin along with some genealogical research done by her son. What a gift! My mother's family comes from Vermont, and this photo was taken in Caledonia County.
I know quite a lot about my Great-Aunt Jean Elizabeth, who is pictured on the far right at the table (click the photo for the full image). She had been a school teacher for many years, then married a distant cousin and returned to the family homestead from Pennsylvania, where she was born.
In May of 1910 she gave birth to a daughter, but tragically my great-aunt died in September of 1910 of an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. She was just 36 years of age. Her daughter was raised on the homestead in Vermont, married and moved to Ohio, and lived a long life (she died at 88 years of age).
I love working with the puzzle pieces of genealogy and am overjoyed when bits like this fall into my lap. I will leave you with an image of Jean's infant daughter, being bathed by her mother, and one of her being held naked in the summer garden in a rare candid for the time. Women hold up half the sky!
As you probably know from my earlier posts, I am participating in National Novel Writing Month this November. Part of my inspiration is family stories from various parts of world.
A little corner of Vermont is where my Scottish ancestors chose to settle in 1774. Last year after I began researching my roots on Ancestry.com, I made the acquaintance of a long-lost cousin whose husband is descended from the little girl on the left in this photo, the daughter of one of my great-aunts. She shared a number of vintage family photos which we had never seen.
I love the innocence of this toy wagon ride from about 1914, the rare candid shot of the baby being bathed below, and the sheer joy on the face of our dear Jean as she is given a wheelbarrow ride by her older cousin.
Images like these make it easy for me to conjure up parts of my novel that honor the intrepid spirit of this line of early Vermont pioneers.
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