Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Two Degrees of Separation

I've missed some fun while I've been on hiatus.  One of the fun things I missed was a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings.

Here's the scoop:

It's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!!

The genealogy world was reminded (again) of how time flies, relatively speaking, by the news that there are two living grandchildren of President John Tyler (1790-1862).  This past week there was the Robert Krulwich blog post about persons knowing people who knew famous people long ago.

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I want you to:

1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?


2)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.
 

1) Since I'm somewhat limited for time right now, I'll do one line.  On my Dillman/Day line, I met my great-grandfather Clyde J. Wyman Day back in 1973 before he died.  I was about six years old at the time.  I actually visited him several times, and have some vague memories of him as a tall, thin man, rather soft-spoken. 

Clyde was born way back in 1880.  If I make an assumption that he met his paternal grandfather, James Day of Sheffield, Lorain, Ohio, then my two degrees of separation get me back to 1807, when James Day was born.  This is feasible, as James Day died in 1896, well after Clyde was born.  However, Clyde was born in Weeping Water, Cass, Nebraska, so seeing his grandfather would have involved some fairly serious travel for the time for one or the other of them.  I do not have any evidence that they ever met in person.

One thing I can be sure of, though, is that he knew his father, Frank Milo Day.  Frank was born in 1841 in  the vicinity of Sheffield, Lorain, Ohio, though I'm still working on documenting exactly where.  Frank died in 1920 in Weeping Water, Cass, Nebraska, where Clyde was born and grew up. 

So with reasonable certainty I can get back to 1841 in this experiment, and with some feasible assumptions that are left unproven for now, I can look all the way back to 1807.  How did you do on yours?


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Roulette

Coiurtesy of Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings comes another edition of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What year was your paternal grandfather born?  Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick a grandmother, or yourself, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Here's mine:  

1) My paternal grandfather was Estel Elmer Dillman, and he was officially born 21 Dec 1908.  I say 'officially' because some sources list different, earlier years.  Same for his brother Orville.  This is likely because a bad family situation caused the two oldest boys to 'grow up' faster to enlist in the Navy early, which both did.  So, 1908/100=19.08, which rounds to 19.  This is my roulette number.

2) Person #19 on my list is Mary Olive Gleason, and I have almost no information on her. 

3) She was born on 19 Sep 1863 in Crawford County, Indiana.  She married Abraham Wiseman on 3 Jan 1878 (yes, very young!), and she died on 24 Mar 1938 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.  Those three facts are all I have on Mary.

Did you try this roulette experiment?  How did yours come out?


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Where is everyone?

This is just a brief note to let everyone know, I have not died or left the planet.  However, I am on a bit of a hiatus due to lack of available time and some lack of motivation.  I will be back when at least one of those conditions improves.




This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman