SNGF on Monday

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings, has posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, it is: Tell us about one (or more) "Satisfying Genealogy Moments" from your family history and genealogy research. What was it, and how did it make you feel? You can make a Top Ten list if you want to!This challenge is based on a post by Leland Meitzler, "Top Ten List of the Most Satisfying Genealogy Events".

For Flipside, there was no time over the weekend to participate in SNGF, but I had to put in my ten cents worth….this is a very intriguing meme. Some I have already written about on Flipside. Some I need to get organized and put finger to keyboard in the future.

1. At the top of the list—the visit several summers ago to the Old Harner Homestead in Sabraton, West Virginia (outside of Morgantown) and actually getting inside. As I walked about the house I could just picture my paternal ggg parents, Phillip William and Sarah Fear Harner and my young gg grandmother, Sarah Harner Pool, conducting their daily routines and celebrating family events. It still brings goose bumps to my arms just thinking about it.

2. Visiting the small village of Houston, Scotland, outside Glasgow and seeing the remains of a tower from the original Houston castle. Old genealogical documentation from my paternal side lists Robert Houston of Delaware as a descendant of the Houston’s of Houston, Scotland.

3. Meeting and learning about my Hughes family when we visited Hartlepool, England in the summer of 2003. This was an unbelievable experience for my brothers and I and was made possible through the efforts of an internet friend, Heather, who lives about 15 miles away from Hartlepool. With her help, she filled in most of my UK family brick walls.


4. Attending my first VanGilder reunion at the Winfield Community Cabin, Marion County, West Virginia. This was a tremendous opportunity to meet and greet cousins and share genealogy information. My entire family attended two years in a row.


5. Discovering that the Civil War soldier in the old family tin type was my maternal great grandfather, Charles Stark. When I received a copy of his Civil War pension file I was shocked to learn that in 1890 he was declared a lunatic and incarcerated into an asylum. This prompted my husband to declare, “Why that must be where the term--Stark raving mad originated!” lol

6. The day my cousin, Karen, sent me a copy of the George Ethelbert VanGilder autograph book. He is my paternal great grandfather and the autograph book is from the mid 1880’s. There are signatures of all of his siblings, his mother and aunt. Once, when I visited Karen years back, I actually held this piece of my family history.

7. Receiving the oldest piece of my family history—a civil war letter which was written for my paternal great great grandfather, Sampson Frum Pool, by a fellow soldier. I had first heard of this letter back in the mid 1990’s. My Aunt Faith told me that she had sent it to one of my Michigan cousins to use in conjunction with a school project back in, perhaps, the 1970’s. My Pool/Poole genealogy networking family was most anxious to see this letter. Unfortunately, the letter was not to be found among my cousin’s attics and basements until one moved to a new house. The letter was mailed and the day it arrived, I opened the mailbox to see the large manila envelope was NOT sealed. With trembling hands I lifted the envelope out of the mailbox praying that the letter was still inside—it was!


8. The Columbiana County cemetery trip taken on Christmas Eve 1993. My two brothers, Mother, and my family piled into the family car and took off to visit our maternal Frederick/Cannon/Orr roots in Columbiana County, Ohio. I have often told readers of Flipside of my family’s indulging me with these far flung genealogy expeditions. Through the swirling snow we drove from cemetery to cemetery. Even now, when we gather for our Christmas holiday, there is much laughter remembering that trip and the humorous events at each stop.

9. Finding and the subsequent visit to the Old Frum Cemetery on the Kingwood Pike outside Morgantown, West Virginia. Yet another of my “far flung” genealogy trips with my family in the car. The Pool/Frum genealogists were in a “need to know” frame of mind when it came to the final resting place of this branch of our family tree. The day of “the find” took us to various front porches in Morgantown—finding new family relations and soliciting their help until we finally found the old family burial plot. This was my “Dorothy finding the Emerald City” experience. lol


10. Going out to the Ellis Island website and finding my paternal great grandparents, John George Hughes and Elizabeth Olesen Hughes, and grandfather’s, George Henry Hughes, immigration ship manifest from 1906.