I am fortunate to have my grandmother’s account in her own words. I have transcribed it in full here, because her handwriting was a little difficult to read unless you are used to it. It was not all written at one time. The last part shows her hand was shaky. The use of capitals, dashes and quotation marks is hers. It was written between 1898 and 1991. “ My Life I was born on Nov. 11 th 1902. Long ago and far away, - not so far – in Newark, N.J. about 200 miles from here, Lancaster, Pa. My first recollection was waking up in an iron crib in a living room, with the upper part of the windows pushed down so all the cold air could come in. All the d...
ANCESTOR NUMBER 1: JAMES JOSEPH KIRNER I’ve decided to make a new start on this blog. I’ve decided to go through the ancestors in Ahnentafel table order, a numbering scheme widely used in genealogy software. And in order to speed up the writing process, I’ve decided to forego using footnotes, since this blog is mainly just for our family. I'm hoping to go through the ancestors, doing one a week. We'll see! My first ancestor was James Joseph Kirner, who I barely knew. So, I am using publicly available records and a private photo to describe him for you. He was born on 15 March 1931 at a hospital in Summit, New Jersey, the youngest son of Leo/Lee Kirner and his wife, nee Agnes Fennessey. This was during the Depression, but Lee and Agnes lived in Chatham, New Jersey, a well-to-do suburb of New York City. Many women still gave birth at home instead of in a hospital. Jimmy had only one sister, Mary, who was about ten years older than him. Jim lived in Chatham all during childhood, g...
Standing (L-R): Laura Masoner Christian Muse (1872-1951), Charlotte Masoner Freeney Stephens (1870-1946). Sitting (L-R): Mary Effie Masoner Price (1880-1941) and Martha Ellen Masoner Ross (1874-1944). We used to have this photo on display in the kitchen. It’s of the four Masoner sisters. Back in the 1990s, before Ancestry and FamilySearch, in the early days of internet genealogy, there were message boards so genealogy enthusiasts could find each other. I still have printed copies of emails from that time, and a distant relative kindly sent me a copy of this photo, with each person labelled. If you’re closely related to my husband, the woman of most interest to you will be Charlotte. She is the one standing on the right, with the smaller hat. They were the daughters of Thomas J. Masoner and his wife Sarah E. McCracken. Thomas, born in Illinois, and Sarah, born in North Carolina, likely met in Texas. [1] Charlotte was the eldest of their daughters. [2] She was named after her mat...
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