YIKES !! My Images Disappeared

As a new blogger, I was shocked today when I checked my postings (one published and 2 scheduled) and found that my key images had DISAPPEARED.  Well, I had copied an excerpt from records and then just did a copy/paste into the blog. They looked fine in preview .. then they vanished, replaced by a ? in a box.


Well, since they were key to my story I decided to try to copy them as jpegs and re-post them ... and they look OK now.


If they happen to disappear again, please let me know.  I'm dancing my way through this new application. Thanks.

Rosina Hankinson of Garston/Liverpool: Her Name was Key to Finding a Missing Person

The Hankinson family of Liverpool, England had 9 children, the oldest of whom was William born in 1865. He was with his parents in the census of 1881, aged 16 and a plumber. I could not find him 10 years later in the 1891 census -- not with the family, not alone.  

Who knew that John Quigley remarried !

John Quigely married Anna Sheils in 1917, just a year before her untimely death. When checking the Ulster County Marriage Archives for the specific date of their marriage, a second entry was found for John.

Ulster County Clerk's Office. Marriage Record Index

 Groom Name             Bride Name               Date of License

Quigley, John J. Jr.   Sheils, Anna M.           04-12-1917   

Quigley, John, Jr.     Feigert, Wilhelmina     11-18-1932   

Get to know the in-laws

I do believe that knowing the in-laws, finding the cousins, discovering how families intermarried makes the family history story richer ... and sometimes does help you piece together otherwise unknown relationships.  Finding someone listed as nephew or mother-in-law can breakdown your brick wall.

Occupations Matter: Liverpool Marriage Banns

Many of the families I have been researching in Liverpool, England had commonly used names, particularly those of Welsh heritage such as Williams and Jones. Often ten individuals of similar age could be found in Liverpool with a name like Edward Jones. Soon I realized that knowing the person's occupation could be a key in identifying them.  Knowing their father's name and occupation is equally important.

Looking for the Sangaline Family in Saugerties

German immigrant Peter Sangaline was known to be living with his wife Margaret and children in Saugerties, Ulster County, New York from the early 1870s until after 1910.  Searching through the federal census records online, I initially could not find them. I searched both ancestry.com and Heritage Quest hoping to find a match in at least one of those sources. I just could not find them even if I varied the spelling. The German spelling might be Zangline, but no luck there either.

Bryan Craghill: A Liverpool Butler

The family always knew that many of their ancestors were " in service" and even knew that Bryan was a butler. They knew he had married Fanny Krebs and that their daughter Rosina was born in 1842.  That was about all they knew. 


The only census where Bryan was found was 1851 stating that he was born in Yorkshire about 1813 and was a servant in Liverpool. In attempting to build a story, a family history, it is tough when you have such limited information. But, with some curiosity and a little investigation, a tale can emerge.  

Piecing Together My Genealogy Finds

After five years of researching for myself and others across the U.S. and in the UK, I feel that I've developed some great techniques and uncovered a myriad of resources.  I've hit roadblocks and dead-ends, like everyone else.  Unless you were lucky enough to have been handed a complete, well-researched, fully documented family tree that fulfilled all your family history needs, you too will be struggling with genealogy puzzles.  I certainly don't have all the answers, but will share what works for me.


Luckily, I became interested in genealogy in an era when many online resources were available and more were being digitized every day.  I had decades of professional experience collecting, organizing, and analyzing data for research and business applications, so the tech approach suited me.  By nature, I am a questioner.  Probing for the "answer", the proof, the documents to back up the assumptions is how I work.  However, I've had to accept that at times I can't prove my assertions to my own satisfaction.... so, I report what I know or suspect, note how I came to that conclusion, and then add the item to my follow-up file.  Maybe next year I'll find the definitive proof.


The intent of this blog is to document how I've been solving genealogy puzzles and putting pieces together into stories from what I've found.  It will wander around through my family and the families of others I've been researching.   Occasionally I find a great story on someone not really related to my research subjects, but that's interesting too as it reveals something of the time and I'll write it up too.  Overall it's an attempt to document some really interesting lives I've uncovered and hopefully will aid others in seeing how I found out about them.


I hope you enjoy -- come back soon !