The Best Kind of Genealogy Research

Since August 6th I have been in Missouri with my mother - helping her with my grandmother.  Grandma is nearly 102 (Sept 20th if she makes it) and she is failing.  She has had several strokes and a heart attack, but like the energizer bunny she somehow keeps on going.  She needs help to move around but on her good days her mind is fairly reliable.  She retains her sense of humor - when I asked her how she felt she replied "with my fingers"!  We are trying to make her comfortable and help her to have a little variety in her days.   The goal is to keep her at home until the end.

She has always loved to take drives so we have devised a way to get her out of her 'home with many steps' and into the car and driven to some of 'her places'.  We have gone to the place where she was born, and even though the house is no longer there (it was 102 years after all) it is fun to see the area and I have the memory of the house which was still there when I was a kid.  When she was a kid it looked like this-

Her father (Walter) helped to make all the bricks that were used to build the house.  The man who built the house was  William Quint son of Frederich and husband of Amanda Jane Meals.  His son (Grandmas Father) was Walter Hymes Quint married to Charlotte Hamilton.

William built the big house where they all lived, he sold the house and later Walter bought the house back.   He raised registered Hereford cattle and farmed. Walter needed help to keep going in the early 20's and the bank refused to loan the money and he lost the house and the 2000 acres he owned, the family has often wondered, since the 20's were easy money for banks, who ended up with the property and if there were some hanky panky with the deed after the foreclosure.

Whatever happened then, the family had to move.  On our drive Grandma told the story of how she at the age of 12 had to drive one of the wagons all the way from Greencastle, MO to Elko, MO (about 20 miles on today's roads, they would have cut across some places) She said it took all day and the boy cousins that were driving the other 2 wagons would get down and go to the bathroom in the timber and maybe walk around.  She had such a big responsibility and she didn't really know what to do so she stayed on the wagon the whole time and didn't get to go potty until she got to the new house!  She said it was getting dark when they got there so she had been on the road all day.  She was almost sick with having to go.  I told her I felt bad for the little girl she was!

I will be going home in September so this month will be my genealogy in Missouri.  I have already trimmed the 'Find a Grave' photo requests in the Unionville Cemetery (a block from her house) from 101 to 40!  Hope to do a couple more of the local cemeteries while I'm here.  Hopefully I will have a few posts about the things I find here in the old family stomping grounds!

Of course then we took her to another favorite place KFC!  She and 2 of her 3 girls.

A new generation!

Yesterday we added another level to our family tree - Liliana Nellottie Gates - She came into the world at 3:13 on May 8, 2014. She weighed in at 8lbs and is 18 1/2 inches long.  She is our first grandchild!

She put her mom through 16 or 17 hours of labor and nearly an emergency C-section but her mom looks like she's forgiven her already doesn't she? 

Her middle name is a combo of Nellie and Lottie, her great, great grandmothers names put together, (Nellie Quint Medlin and Charlotte "Lottie" Kiehn) it is a little big for such a small girl but how fun for a genealogist to have family names!  I don't know if she will ever get to meet her but she comes into the world having parents, grandparents, a great grandmother and a 2x great grandmother still living!  Our current age group is from one day to 101 years.  Kind of cool I think!

So for today my research is going to consist of getting as many pictures of this new 'leaf' on our tree as I can get her parents to send me, and planning the trip to see her and get to know her.  I'll let the cemeteries slide for a few hours and look at the baby department in the store for now.   And then, someday soon she will come and visit grandma and we will talk about the old people and the stories of our family, and we will talk about the history of our country and how our families were a part of it, and she may even like cemeteries and museums like grandma does and we will make great grandma's cookies, and the other great grandma's cheesecake, and we will visit as we pick things in the garden and find bugs and butterflies.......but for now she will just sleep and grow and I will finish that baby blanket so I can deliver it to her in person!  Welcome to the family Lily!