William and Cornelia Mix in 1925

My last post from yesterday saw my maternal Great-Grandparents William and Cornelia Mix in 1915 via the New York State Census.  I also found the 1925 state census so we can take a look at them 10 years on.

Two more children have been born in the last 10 years - a boy, Leslie, and a girl, Anna (who is my maternal grandmother).  The eldest boy, Floyd, is not listed here, he's now 18 and has likely moved out.

William and Cornelia also have a boarder living with them: Clifford Hyna who is a Teamster.

The census lists them as living in Dryden, Tompkins County, New York.  But when I looked at the map, the "Brookton" road that they are on is actually a road very near the Caroline Depot Road they lived on in 1915.  So the official town is Dryden for the records, but in reality there are just a couple miles from where they lived before.

William is listed as being a Carpenter on this census - usually he is a farmer working the land the belongs to others.  They moved very frequently to wherever the work was and my Great-Grandmother Cornelia kept lists of where they lived.  For this time of June 1, 1925, she says they were living at the Miller's.  They had moved there just 2 months before and would stay through the next year when Cornelia was surprised with another baby.  I'm sure she thought my grandmother would be the last but oh no!

The oldest living at home, Spencer, was working as a Building Laborer.  Laurance, Masie, Daisy and William E. were all at school.  So only 7 year old Leslie and 5 year old Anna were at home with Cornelia.

I always think about Cornelia with all those kids because my grandmother Anna told me of a strong memory she had at the dinner table where her Dad, out of patience with the kids, said to his wife: "Nelia, can't you control these kids?".

Of course, all that might explain why they ended up getting divorced in 1935!

Below is a photo from 1923 of the twins, Masie and Daisy, and my grandmother Anna, so in this census, they are all now 2 years older.

What's really interesting is that today when I looked at that building, I realized I saw it yesterday when searching on Caroline Depot Road for yesterday's post.  It is in fact, the Caroline Depot train station!  It's now gone, but here it is in 1923.

There's another photo from 1923 that shows it as well (it also shows my cutie-pie Grandma!):

And here's a link to what I looked at yesterday:  http://nytompki.org/PhotoAlbum/CarolineDepota.jpg

The link is from the Town of Caroline page which is part of the Tompkins County NYGenWeb site.

So now I know where these 2 photos were taken!

And finally, here is a photo of the oldest boy still living at home in this 1925 census, Spencer, taken the next year in 1926:

1933 is the year Spencer left the family and never returned.  His whereabouts were a mystery to his parents and siblings until I started doing genealogy and found him in census records.  He had passed away long before I started my research though.  No one knew why he left the way he did.

So that's the state of William and Cornelia in 1925!

William and Cornelia Mix in 1915

What a treat for me - spending some time on genealogy research during my Christmas break!  It was a busy year - what time I did have I spent on my Domelle line and got a lot of breakthroughs - so now I want to turn my attention back to my Mix line to see what has popped up in the interim.

I did a search on Ancestry on my maternal great-grandmother Cornelia Elizabeth (Akins) Mix and the first thing I noticed was a New York State census from 1915 that I hadn't seen before.  Yay for New York!  On pg 4 of the NY State Census for Election District 03, Assembly District 01, City of Caroline, in Tompkins County they were listed.

So without a doubt, there's my family - my maternal grandmother is not yet born in 1915 but her old siblings and parents are listed:

They are listed as living on the crossroad between Caroline Depot Road and State Road 1004.  I found Caroline Depot road right away on a current map, but State Road 1004 must be an old name for something because I searched and was unable to locate it.  But they were on one of those crossroads.  Caroline Depot was named this because there was once a railroad line from Ithaca to Owego.  This little road and the depot was about 8 miles southeast of Ithaca.  The depot station and the railroad are both long gone but the name remains.

So in the house at the crossroads, we've got my 38 year old Great-Grandfather William H. Mix and his 28 year old wife Cornelia E. (Akins).  They were married Christmas Day in 1904 - this is a photo I have of Cornelia that says it's from 1904 - maybe it was taken during her engagement?

And now, 10 1/2 years later, they have 6 children (which includes one set of twins). 4 boys - Floyd (age 8), Spencer (age 7), Laurance (age 4) and William (age 56 days).  The twins were 2 year old girls Mazie and Daisy (listed in this census by her birth name Mable).

That must have been a boisterous household!!  At least the 3 oldest boys went off to school during the day!

I found a photo of Cornelia with the twins were they were just babies in 1913:

So in 1915 those little girls are now in their terrible two's and there's also a 2 month old baby to care for - YIKES!

William's occupation is listed as "Farmer" which is what he did all his life - I don't know that he ever owned his own land, as far as I know he always farmed for others, or worked as an itinerant farm laborer once the economy got bad in the 1930s.  The family moved A LOT - following the work.  I have a list that my Great-Grandmother kept of all the places they lived and at which houses the kids were born in.  Cornelia was wonderful for keeping lists of all kinds of things - birth/death dates, addresses, etc.

For when this census was taken - June of 1915 - this corresponds to when Cornelia's list says they were living at the "Bates Pl." which means the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bates.  So it was Mr. Bates land that they were farming.  She also lists her son William as being born at that house.

They lived at this house listed in the census from 01 March 1915 through 01 April 1916 when they moved on to another farm.

And so that completes my analysis of the state census I found!  Maybe I'll come across an old map that shows the State Road 1004 or the name of Bates on farm land.  We'll see!

"My Mother's Poem"

My long-living maternal Great-Grandmother Cornelia Elizabeth Akins Mix Simpson (1886-1987) was very anti-smoking. 

Her youngest son Donald Thomas Mix (1927-2009) told my mom about a little poem he said she would always repeat to her boys (she had 10 children - 7 of them were boys!).

He quoted it in an email to my mom back in 2008:


hi debbie

MY MOTHER'S POEM

TOBACCO IS A FILTHY WEED
FROM THE DEVIL IT DID PROCEED
IT ROBS YOUR POCKETS, BURN YOUR CLOTHES,
AND MAKES A SMOKESTACK OUT OF YOUR NOSE.

LOVE UNCLE DON.


:-)

Sounds just like something a Mom would repeat to her boys back in the 1930s to get them to stop smoking.

I researched the little poem and found it is a variation of lines that are attributed to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, (1754-1846) the Harvard Medical School founder and doctor who was the first to test the vaccine for smallpox.

His version is:

"Tobacco is a filthy weed,
That from the devil does proceed,
It drains your purse,
It burns your clothes
And makes a chimney of your nose."

It's interesting how both versions are english and get the same point across, even have the same cadence and yet use different words.  It reminds me of the little childhood songs you learn that vary across regions but mean the same thing.

Dinner at Victoria & Albert's in Walt Disney World

Just last week we had a family vacation at the most magical place on earth - Walt Disney World! 

And just to make things even more wonderful, we spend an evening in Queen Victoria's Room in the Victoria & Albert's restaurant in the Grand Floridian hotel.  In fact, we were halfway through our 4+ hour dining experience exactly one week ago!

The Queen Victoria's Room is a small room set off from the main dining room - there are only 4 tables in it and you get a 10 course meal.  We also selected the suggested wine pairings because if you are going to go, you might as well go big!

Our 2 servers for the evening, Rado and Amy were just fantastic.  This dinner is a foodie paradise.  It's small portions of amazing foods paired with outstanding wines.  I was on cloud 9!!!

For those of you interested, I've got a list of our course below, along with photographs. 

Course 1 was the Amuse-Bouche.

It's a Maine Lobster "Jar" with Siberian Osetra Caviar.  This was my first time with this type of caviar - and I loved it!  It was paired with champagne of course!  Piper Heidsieck Cuvee 1785 NV Brut.

Then they brought us little personal baguettes.  The good news was that my gluten-free sister was fully accomodated - she had her own gluten-free breads brought to her as well!  In fact, let me take a moment to state how FANTASTIC Walt Disney World in general was in accomodating her gluten allergy, all the way down to fast food restaurants.  They are truly the gold standard in restaurants dealing with allergies.  Kudos to them.  I will talk them up to anyone who will listen!

Course 2 was Octopus "A La Plancha" with Black Garlic Aioli.  It was paired with a delicious Spanish wine: Granbazan "Etiqueta Ambar" Albarino, Rias Baixas 2011.  I'm not a big white wine person but I would sit and drink this down all by itself!  I'm also not a big octopus person but I had no troubles eating this.  The red triangle was paprika, the line at the top was balsamic vinegar, mustard down at the bottom - the flavors were just wonderful with the wine.

Course 3 was a big production number!  4 waiters swooped in, each with this little covered dish.  They set one down in front of each of us and....

 Voila!!  It was Applewood smoke inside that wafted around the table!  The dish is Hot "Smoked" Niman Ranch Lamb with Fuji Apple and Curry Dressing.  They paired it with a German Riesling - Reichgraf von Kesselstatt, Piesporter Goldtropfchen Kabinett Riesling, Mosel 2011.  Again, this is why I love going to restaurants like this - this Riesling was outstanding - on the dry end of Rieslings and just amazing with the apple-y lamb.  The curry in the lamb was just right - not too hot, just flavorful.

Course 4 was a Fennel Pollen Crusted Diver Scallop in a Salt Bowl.  It was paired with "Old Vines" Ernesto Wickendon Vineyard Chenin Blanc, Santa Maria Valley 2011.  Again, just fantastic.  We were exclaiming over the fennel with the scallop.

Course 5 was our "breakfast" course as our server Amy called it.  :-)  It was Poached Chicken Egg and Sausage, paired with our first (and outstanding) red of the evening: Hartford Court Land's Edge Vineyards Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast 2010.

It's been a while since bread, so they brought us more!  I wish I could tell you what kind of bread it is, but it's now been 5 glasses of wine/champagne and you are all lucky I was still able to work the camera.  I can tell you that the butter for this bread was white truffel butter - they had a huge, like foot-high mold of it that they shaved pieces off of for us.  They then gave us little bits of white truffel to put on the bread as well.

Course 6!  It was Colorado Bison with Caraway Seed Vinaigrette, paired with a fantastic Spanish red, Palacios Remondo Propiedad, Rioja 2008.  Again, it was a flavor that normally I don't enjoy (Caraway) that here I fully and completely enjoyed!  Yay for Chef Scott Hunnel!!!!

Onto Course 7!  Australian Kobe-Style Beef Tenderloin with Tamarind Jus.  It was paired with Chateau Lassegue Bordeaux Blend, Saint-Emilion 2004.  Delicious!!!!

Our last bread course!  Some sort of crusty wonderfulness.  :-)

Once my sister moved her arm OUT OF THE WAY...

I was able to get a photo of the Course 8's Cheese Trolley!

Again, I'm on 7 glasses of wine at this point, so my memory is a bit murky - for cheese they gave us some sort of tripe creme (on the left), something soft and gooey with olive oil (in the middle), and real honeycombs.

The rest of the cheese sampling was a smoked gouda, a parmesan and a bleu - accompanied by almonds, fruit gelee and sugared walnuts.  It was paired with our last wine - a smooth port: Quinta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Porto 2007.

Thank goodness coffee made an appearance at this point, even though all we had to do was stumble upstairs to our rooms, it was nice to have.  :-)  And magical!  These contraptions are amazing!

And onto our first dessert course and overall Course 9!  Apple Quark Panna Cotta!  Even the sugar (colored green on the left) tasted like apple!

Last course - second dessert course and overall Course 10 - Peruvian Chocolate Timbale with Roasted White Chocolate Gelato.  I actually wasn't able to finish it - I finally hit my wall!  But it was outstanding!

Then, just to be mean, they brought out Friandises - but they were kind enough to box them up and send them with us.  :-)

Yes, it's expensive, but if you are any kind of foodie into trying unusual pairings of flavors then I earnestly recomend this - it's a splurge but so well worth it!  We talk about it for years afterwards!!! 

Chef Hunnel even came out and said hello to us while we gushed all over him.  :-)  It was a super magical evening during a super magical week at Walt Disney World.  Oh and our reservation was at 5:30pm and we walked out of there at 9:50 that evening!  A leisurely and enjoyable meal!!

Finally, a scan of the souvenir menu they gave each of us.  Thank goodness for that - it's the only reason I have any clue what some of the later courses are!!!

A Limerick for the United States Post Office

The United States Post Office has inspired me to create this limerick in their honor:

 I ordered some eyeliner online
They wrapped it and packed it up fine

The Post Office dropped it
They punched it and popped it

It must be they think I am blind!

True Story!  :-)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Matches in the Box

It's not exactly a genealogy treasure, but a little treasure nonetheless - I re-discovered my collection of match books the other day.

I was in Washington DC in July and in one of the restaurants we went to there was an actual bowl of matchbooks by the front door so of course I grabbed one of those retro little gems:

Once I finally got around to locating my container of matchbooks I realized that it had been years since I had added any - these are real treasures! 

 

I then realized that some of them actually came from visits to Walt Disney World - imagine WDW enabling people to smoke 'em if they had 'em!!!   The world can change a lot in a couple decades!

Not only that - but here's a photo of the baby version of me passed out on my Mom's shoulder in line for one of the Fantasyland rides at Walt Disney World and see that in the upper right corner?  There's a man SMOKING right there in the line for the ride!  As my grandfather would say: "Horrors!".  :-D

 
One other little treasure in the matchbook box was this little remnant left over from my angsty over-wrought teenage years:

Sorry again for those years Mom and Dad!  lololol

One other pin in there was this one from Walt Disney World in 1990 when my family was there for July 4th:

And finally, my keycard I guess from the year 2000 - it has my dad's name on the front but my signature on the back.  Thanks for buying everything Dad!!!!

I do miss the matchbooks - they were always a tiny free souvenir that was fun to look at.  :-)

Plus really valuable now right?  LOL, I did intensive research on ebay and discovered that any one of these matchbooks could be worth up to 200-300 pennies!  For real!

Surname Saturday - Lots of German Names

So prior to what I like to call "The Great Brick Wall Collapse of 2012", when I researched my maternal Grandfather's line I only had 3 surnames:

Domelle
Obendorfer
Reiser

I still have zilch on Obendorfer - that was my great-grandmother and I'm pretty sure she must have been an Austrian spy because she kept her secrets close and never let them go.

That left me with Domelle and Reiser.  These 2 German names came from a region in what is in modern day Romania but for nearly two hundred years was settled by lots of Germans.

Thanks to my research on my ancestral towns of Triebswetter (a.k.a Tomnatic, a.k.a Nagy-Õsz) and Glogowatz (a.k.a Vladimirescu, a.k.a. Glogovác) I now have lots of new German surnames in my direct line.

My newly discovered surnames are:

Hüber
Klein
Lauer
Pfaff
Schneider
Schreiber
Strohoffer
Wolf

I'm still working on filling in the dots for these new surnames (as they relate to my direct line) but in the meantime I did a little word cloud to show a relative snapshot of the number of relatives I have for each surname so far.  It will be interesting to do this over time and see how they change.

My mtDNA and Matrilinear Line

So I sent off my DNA to the same place I sent my maternal Grandfathers (familytreedna.com).  With bated breath I awaited my results because I thought here's a great test, let's see if they figure out I'm related for sure to this other sample.  You don't expect me to just trust all this DNA voodoo-hoodoo stuff, right? 

Well, luckily for science, sure enough they came back and said I had some sort of relationship with my Grandfather's results, and they suggested a few, one of which was grandparent/grandchild! 

Chalk one up for Science, yay!!

I also found out what my mtDNA haplogroup is - I am a "W1".  From what I can tell in my 50 seconds of online research, this haplogroup occurs with a low frequency, so my status as a unique snowflake is confirmed.

Now that I know I am a W1, I took a look back at my matrilinear line to see how far back I go - here it is (only birth surnames, not married names, are listed):

Leah's Matrilinear Line

1. Me, the unique snowflake

2. My Mom, Deborah

3. Anna MIX, b. 1920 in New York

4. Cornelia Elizabeth AKINS, b. 23 Apr 1887 in Lockwood, Tioga County, New York.

 



5. Hattie Elizabeth KIRBY, b. 19 Mar 1866 in Bennettsburg, Schuyler County, New York










 




6. Laura Lunett KIRBY, b. 21 Mar 1849 in probably Waterloo, Seneca County, New York

7. Elucinda GIBBS, b. 23 Dec 1820 in New York


Two notes - yes, there are two "Kirby" names in a row - Laura had Hattie out of wedlock and died soon after.  Secondly, in the 1900 census, Elucinda (no. 7) stated her mother was born in New York.

I haven't tried to find more on the Gibbs family in a long time but now of course this has piqued my interest!

The Crafty Gene

That crafty thing?  Yeah, I don't really have it.  I don't really make things.  I don't sew, I don't scrapbook, I don't decorate cakes, I don't weave baskets, I don't crochet or knit or quilt...the list goes on.

My Mom and sister on the other hand...they have it in spades.

So I was cleaning out boxes of stuff I had in my parent's attic...

(Yes, it's true, I STILL have stuff in their attic - where else do you store the print-out of every iteration of a term paper you wrote in 1990?  I finally recycled the earlier drafts, it's probably safe to discard them at this point right?  :-D )

...and I found a few handfuls of Barbie clothes and accessories.  These were from back in the old days when they would sell tiny little perfume bottles that can easily be snorted up the nose of a 3 year old and frankly, if you did that, it was your fault, not the toy's.

The jewel in the midst of all that perfectly preserved 1970s plastic though was this:

Hand-made Barbie clothing that my mother slaved over, all perfectly preserved (well, I guess the wedding veil has seen better days).

Isn't she a great Mom to have made things like this?  I imagine she had to use tiny little Barbie-size knitting and crochet needles; it must have been a tough task!

Anyway, as non-crafty as I am, I'm quite impressed!

Surname Saturday: Domelle

Back in 2010 I wrote a blog posting on the DOMELLE surname.  Since then I've actually made huge progress on what has been a brick wall family line for me for many many years!

Knowing that my Domelle's came from a village whose german name was Triebswetter (now in modern Romania), I was mucking around online late last year and found there were many CDs available that showed transcribed church records for towns in that area. 

There were many ethnic Germans and French that moved south to farm empty land in what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire.  So many towns in what is now Romania were actually nearly entirely filled with Germans or French.

Today there are local historians who have gone through the trouble of transcribing church records for these towns.  And I found someone who had done Triebswetter and was selling the CD online.  Now, whether you can trust the information or not was certainly something I considered, but I figured with something that had been a brick wall for so many years, what would it hurt?

So I sent away for the CD and also began an online correspondence with the transcriber.  He recognized my family name and immediately began providing extra information beyond the CD transcriptions that he had in his own genealogy records.  His family line was from the same town.

I had hit the genealogy jackpot!  And so now, just a few months later, I have tons of information going back a few more generations.  I was so grateful to my new online friend because he had gone out of his way to answer extra Domelle mysteries for me.  The only thing I could think of to help him was to ask if he had any people in his family tree that had emigrated to America.  I figured I could research them and give him whatever I found.  I was so pleased to be able to pay him back with information on his tree.  :-)

And so, here is my updated Surname Saturday posting on my DOMELLE family line.


The surname DOMELLE (variants I've found are: DOMELE, DOMMELE, DOMLE, TOMELE, DUMELLE) first showed up in the US at the beginning of the 20th century. The surname also exists in Canada, apparently some family members went straight Canada, but I've been unable to connect the two families, although due to the rarity of the name, it's extremely likely they are related.

The main family members who emigrated to the US (both DOMELLE and DOMELE) listed their birth places as either NagyOsz or Gattaja. In fact, the same person would switch back and forth on which town was listed.  They all spoke both German and Hungarian.

Nagyősz is the old Hungarian name for the modern town of Tomnatic in Romania (Triebswetter is the German name for the same town). Gattaja is the old German name for the modern town of Gătaia in Romania (Gátalja is the Hungarian name).

My DOMELLE immigrants to the US were 4 siblings and a cousin and his family:

Siblings
William DOMELLE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 04 October 1911)

Nicholas DOMELLE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 26 June 1907)

Anna Magdalena DOMELLE (b. Gattaja, Hungary, arrival date still unknown, but before birth of first son in Chicago, in July 1911)

Lena DOMELLE (b. Gattaja, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 04 October 1911)

Cousin
John DOMELE (b. NagyOsz, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 30 March 1906)

wife Mary TUNNER DOMELE (b. Visesha, Hungary, arrived Port of New York, 30 March 1906)

son Anthony DOMELE (b. NagyOsz Hungary, arrived, arrived Port of Baltimore, 30 April 1910)

son Martin Anthony DOMELE (b. Visesha, Hungary, arrived Port of Baltimore, 30 April 1910)


Most ended up in Chicago, then moving down to Lake Village, Indiana to farm. Both sisters married and ended up in Michigan.

The etymology of the surname DOMELLE has stumped me for a while now. At first glance it looks French to me, but the family stated their ethnicity was German while they lived in Hungary. They spoke German and Hungarian. My family pronounces it "DOM-lee". Family lore also states that the move to Hungary (which appears to have happened in the late 1700s) was from the Alsace-Lorraine region, so we are back to French/German back and forth with that region.  My further research in the past few months confirms the Alsace-Lorraine origin of the name, but no further information on that.

As with the KLEYLEIN's, there aren't a lot of DOMELLE's out there. So if your last name is DOMELLE, it's highly likely we're related!

Here's my updated ahnentafel:

1. Leah KLEYLEIN - Me!

3. Deborah DOMELLE - my Mom!

6. William Adam DOMELLE - my Grandfather! He was born in Newton County, Indiana and grew up there on his father's farm. He moved to New York and met and married my grandmother, Ann MIX.

12. William DOMELLE, born 27 Oct 1882 in NagyOsz, Hungary; died 20 Aug 1943 in Jasper County, Indiana. He met and married his 2nd wife Elizabeth OBENDORFER in Chicago, Illinois. They later moved south to Lake Village, Indiana to farm, along with his brother Nick and cousin John.  William had a wife back in Europe prior to his emigration.  Her name was Magdalena THIERJUNG and they had 2 children, George and Anna.  They did not emigrate.

24. Adam DOMELLE, born Bet. 1850 - 1860 in NagyOsz, Hungary; died 1889 in NagyOsz, Hungary.  He was married to Christina REISER.

48. Baldasar DOMMELE, born 1814 in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary; died 1894 in NagyOsz, Hungary.  He was married to Maria KLEIN.  Baldasar was a master blacksmith, along with many other members of the Domelle family.

98. Baltasar DUMELLE, born 1790 in probably in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary.  He married Barbara PFAFF.

192.  Antonius TOMULE, born 1771 in Glogowatz, Austria-Hungary.  He married Regina STROHOFFER.

384.  Paul TOMULE, born about 1721.  He married Maria Anne KLEIN.

Happy 5th Blogiversary to Me!

I'm pretty sure 5 years of anything on the internet equals about 150 years in real time, so I'm pleased to see how long this whole blogging thing has lasted for me!  Who knew!

Thank you to everyone who reads and comments - I do enjoy having a forum to share research findings and photographs and I value all your comments.

And now, my favorite yearly tradition, the oddest search terms people have used to find my blog:

1. Empty Cat Bed

Aww.  This makes me sad.  :-(


2. Getting Undressed

It's true.  Once I wrote about getting undressed, but only to point out how I manage to trip and fall whilst doing so.


3. Money Maker Flower

?  If i had one of those, I'd be sitting in a much nicer chair right now, that's for sure.


4.  Queen Victoria Funny

For her sake, I hope she was.


5.  Septum Keeper

I don't even want to know.  I wrote about my nose once but this just seems a bit odd.  Would one be keeping something in one's septum or would one be keeping one's septum in something else?  Or does one want to be sure to keep one's septum.  I do know that I like mine right where it is.


6. Thufir Hawat

What?  Don't all of you have posts that would lead this person to your blog by typing this in?  Just keep calm and keep the spice flowing.


7. just like she suddenly became

I'm worried about this person.  I feel like they are concerned about someone but don't know what to do.  She became what?  Agitated?  Angry?  Happy?  Sad?  Indifferent?  I hope they figured it out.


8. my diaper pins

So they are searching for "their" diaper pins?  I didn't realize people still used them - I figured that binder clips would work fine for that because they aren't pointy.  I've solved a lot of problems with binder clips.


9.  grim litany

I see I might need to lighten up a bit in my posts for the coming year.


10. mickey mouse tombstone

This is what I get for blogging both about genealogy and family trips to Walt Disney World.



And now, off to start year 6!!

Time Travel at the Microfilm Machine - Part 2

Back in January I did a post showing some wonderful doodles I found in church records while at the microfilm machine.

It was such a treat to see those little drawings while scanning through pages and pages of Latin church records.  I thought a lot about the man who made those drawings.

Well - the other night I came across my friend again!  Back in January I was looking at church records for baptisms.  This time, for the same town, I was looking at church records for marriages - and when the year turned to 1777, there he was again!  My artist friend!

Handwriting matches and everything.  :-)  For the marriage book it looks to me like he drew a field of some kind of grain?  Also there is a young oak tree in a pot with acorns, and finally what looks to me like a pear tree with one pear hanging.  I'm not sure what he drew under the numbers of the year.

And yes, I know a lot more church Latin now than I did a few months ago.

Also, I thought I had come across populations that liked to use the same names over and over - for instance I have New England ancestors where it's Thomas, son of Thomas, son of Thomas, son of Thomas - I'm not kidding!  And the women are all named Elizabeth or Rebecca.

But these Germans who were living in Romania - holy cow did they use the same names over and over.  When I was looking at the baptism records - it seemed like the witnesses/godparents, whatever they were (I'm not yet an expert on 18th century Catholicism for Germans in Romania - but don't worry I'll get to that) - the child ALWAYS had the name of one of the witnesses, depending on gender.

So what if you were a creative sort and wanted to give your child a name other than Joannes, Henricus, Petrus, Magdalena, Maria or Anna?  Seems like you were out of luck.

Even the unusual names, like Casparius - sure enough, the male witness/godparent had that same given name.

I find it so interesting to look at the original records!  It opens up a million additional questions, but it's totally worth it.

Domelle FamilyTreeDNA Results

I received results for the Family Finder DNA test from FamilyTreeDNA - a few years back, my maternal Grandfather William Domelle indulged me by allowing me to send in his DNA and I finally ordered the Family Finder test in December.

The website says that the Family Finder test provides an analysis of ethnic percentages.  Here is what it says about my maternal grandfather, surname Domelle:

So basically, very European!!

This does fit perfectly with the research I've done on the Domelle family.

My Domelle line emigrated to the US from early 20th century Hungary (now modern Romania).  They identified themselves as ethnic Germans who migrated south from the Alsace-Lorraine region (the Donauschwaben).

My grandfather's haplogroup is R-M198 (which is also known as R1a1a apparently).

His mtDNA results put him in haplogroup H.

And now full disclosure:  I have no idea what any of this means!!!  I'm so glad I got my grandfather to take the test, but honestly I know absolutely nothing about what all this really means other than the obvious - that 25% of me is definitely European.  :-)