Saturday Night Genealogy--The 1940 Census

I can't wait to get a peek at the 1940 Federal Census and thank Randy over at Genea-Musings who has challenged us to think about it for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

A cousin of mine just sent me the blank 1940 census so I could see what the questions would be.  I did notice one, that I don't think has been on a census in the past:  Highest grade of school completed.  I have no idea how far some of my ancestors went in school.  I have heard that all my grandparents....maternal and paternal....completed 8th grade.  I believe that was the norm in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  They all went to work after graduation.....one as a draftsman, one as a numbers cruncher, one as a secretary and one as a stenographer.

There are several people I am particularly interested in finding after the 1940 census opens. I have not been able to locate my paternal great grandmother and my paternal great great grandmother in 1930 and I know they were either living in Woodlawn or Monaco, Pennsylvania. Hopefully, I will be lucky in 1940.

Lately, I have been blogging about my Pinyerd family and I am curious to see if the husband and wife are still living together in 1940 as my research had lead me to believe that they may have separated.

Of course I want to find my Mom and Dad, who would both be nineteen and in college.  I wonder if they will be included....did they enumerate college campuses?  It will be my Aunt Faith's first census.

My primary targets will be family whose whereabouts I already know....and I think I will only search for those in smaller towns.

I can't wait!!!!  I hope I make it for the 1950 census opening as it will be my first enumeration.  WAHOO

FYI on the 1940 Federal Census:
- Questions asked on the census report.
- Copy of a blank 1940 census report.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however if they are inappropriate, they will not be published. 

PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2011, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



SNGF on Monday: My Other Interests

Following a weekend of work related activities, I am getting around to the latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has issued this challenge: Tell us about your "other" hobbies or interests outside of genealogy and family history research, writing, speaking, etc.


Contrarary to popular family belief, I DO have a life outside genealogy. The issue arises out of the fact that many of my hobbies seem to always circle back around to some form of genealogy research. I love to travel, but try as I may, travel always finds me in a cemetery, taking photos....any cemetery....anyone's family. It is just common policy now that if we drive past a cemetery, someone will ask, "Do you want to stop here?"


I love to visit towns, especially the small towns that dot our country. Again, I tend to be looking up...up at the top of old buildings for those family surnames and a date in stone, which I turn around into my blog series, Stories in Stone. I just can't help it!!!

I think my love of water sports is beyond the genealogical realm. I love to swim and kayak. This summer we do plan to take two separate trips to kayak, however one will be outside Morgantown, West Virginia which will leave me within a short drive away from the WVU genealogical library and the other is very near where my Hughes cousins' mother and about 100 years of her descendants lived.....do we hear genealogy here....again....

Gardening. I love to dig in the dirt and perennials are my passion. This one is genealogy free.....OR do I love gardening because some of my ancestors were farmers ;-)

I love to read. I have stacks of books ready to open, but it seems that my reading always goes back to genealogy related articles and books.

Photography. Miss Snap Happy is my nickname. Have Camera Will Travel. I do take photos of non genealogical places, people and items, however, with my blog, it seems that more and more snapping is for photos to accompany my writing....which means GENEALOGY.

I guess I am just hopelessly and HAPPILY addicted.




© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

SNGF--Most Recent Unknown Ancestor

Randy at Genea-Musings has presented this Saturday Night's challenge. 1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA?4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or a comment on Facebook or some other social networking site.

Saturday Night on Sunday Morning for Flipside

After checking my chart, the winner is # 24, my maternal great great grandfather--Unknown Stark. There are two reasons for this mystery person. First, my maternal Great Grandfather, Charles (listed as Carl) Stark, emigrated from Germany, arriving in the U.S. on September 15, 1860. He was a young man of 18 and came to the U.S. alone. I do not speak German and have not searched for German records. The most information I have about him is his Civil War pension file. From it I am able to determine where in Germany he was born--Dasseldorf, Prussia.

I have his death record from Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, there is no record of his parentage on it.

Now for the second issue--my great grandfather was declared a lunatic, sent to the city home in April, 1890 and died there on April 26, 1895. Apparently no one discussed him in the family. Various cousins who I network with have conmunicated that their grandparent (Charles' child) never spoke of him. My own mother (his grand daughter) had no idea who he was or that he was in the Civil War, even though we have a tin type of him in uniform. His wife and widow never spoke of him to her grandchildren.

A couple of leads that I have not followed:

1. When Charles (written as Carl) Stark and Wilhelmina Catherine Schwarz married in St. Louis on February 6, 1878, it was a Rev. Charles Stark that officiated. Was this a relative? Why did Charles and Wilhelmina travel from Pittsburgh to St. Louis to marry? There is also information as to where my great grandparents came from on the marriage documents. Charles from Elberfeld in Prussia and Wilhelmine from Wurttemberg, Germany

2. I have been told that there were relations living in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when Charles arrived in 1860. An educated guess it that they were his relations and not Wilhelmina's. On the flipside, she might also have had relatives in town as she supposedly was a woman who came from Alsace-Lorraine in 1877 to marry Charles Stark and she was in the Pittsburgh area before the marriage took place. Frankly, her parentage is also shrouded in mystery and I do have her death certificate!

What I have gleaned from this SNGF--I need to pursue the German ancestry of my chart as numbers 24, 25, 26 and 27 are all unknowns.

SNGF--Halloween in the 1950's

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has challenged us this Saturday to remember a favorite Halloween. I can't remember a specific one, but rather, my memories are of all the Halloween trick or treats I had when the family lived on Washington Drive, in the north hills area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was my elementary school years.

My brother, Ken, and I were just reminiscing about them today as we were driving around in Amish country, Ohio. One of our stops was Loudonville, Ohio to watch this village's annual Halloween celebration for their children. In years past, the kids would trick or treat walking up and down the town main street during the afternoon and the various merchants would have treats for them. A safe Halloween celebration.

Today we found that the celebration now consists of a band concert and then a costume judging with various age groups represented. All the participants received a prize bag filled with goodies. The younger age groups were so adorable in their little costumes and their shy looks when they walked up to receive their prize. This is small town Ohio at its BEST.

Driving back home, Ken and I began to trade Halloween stories from Washington Drive. Those Flipside readers who grew up in the 50's probably all had similar experiences. Trick or treating until late at night.....filling up several bags full of goodies--the regular sized candy bars not these minis that the kids get nowadays.....neighbors who had hot chocolate and donuts to serve to the kids (we were actually invited into their home).....homemade popcorn balls and candy apples that we weren't afraid to eat.....making and using a handmade contraption that whirred against a glass window and made an awful sound (created from a wooden thread spool that was knotched on the edges with toothpicks or wooden matches on either end that were connected by a rubberband).......cloth masks attached by elastic bands that became pretty grimy after one wearing......and finally, my Mom going through the bags of candy and picking out all the Hershey chocolate bars after we had gone to bed.

It was a good time to be a kid at Halloween.

Photo: Linda in a Japanese outfit that was purchsed for her by her Dad while he was serving in the Korean War. I still have it.

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.

SNGF--My Dad's Homecoming from Korea

This Saturday's challenge from Randy Seaver over at Gena-Musings is to write about a childhood memory. I have many. Some are probably triggered more from old family photos than from actual memory, however, my Dad's homecoming from Korea is definately part of my childhood memory bank.

In 1949, my Dad, George VanGilder Hughes, signed up as a Captain in the Medical Corps of the National Guard for the additional income. He had already served with the U.S. Army in local hospitals as his payback for medical school tuition. In 1950-51 he was setting up his medical practice in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. In the fall of 1951 he received a letter from the U.S. Army stating that he was to report to the U.S. Army Medical Hosptial at Camp Carson, Colorado. Family life and his new practice suddenly were put on hold.

After my Mother's birthday on December 4, 1951, she and I traveled by train to Camp Carson to live on the Army post with my Dad and to await the arrival of my brother, Ken. We lived on post until sometime in May of 1952 and returned to our house in Pittsburgh. Dad followed a few weeks later and stayed at home for a couple of months before he was shipped to Korea.

He served as the head of an aid station on the front line for several months. He took and passed his medical boards and was immediately moved to the 121 Evacuation Hospital in Seoul, Korea as the Chief of Medical SVC. His actual time in Korea was not that long....less than one year...but for me, at age five, it seemed like an eternity.

We would wait anxiously for a letter from Dad. I always knew when they came as the envelopes had red, white and blue around the outside. Dad would always have a little drawing at the end of each letter for Ken and I. The three of us would sit together on the living room couch and Mom would read the words to us.

Dad's discharge and homecoming was cause for great celebration. Our friend and neighbor, Dr. Joseph Arthur, made a large sign which stretched across the front yard. My maternal grandmother made me a new dress and the family drove out to the airport to greet Dad upon his arrival.

Dad never spoke of Korea. There are many photos, Army documentation and only one of his letters that remain. When I interviewed him for the Veterans History Project, he had only sketchy memories of his service.

Memories faded for Dad....but his time away and his homecoming have not for me. Thanks Randy for presenting this challenge. It was good to reminisce.

SNGF--Ahnentafel Roulette

Once again, Randy over at GenaMusings has come up with something fun for Saturday night. 1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number." 2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person? 3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number." 

     My Dad, George VanGilder Hughes, was born on July 1, 1921, sooo he would have been 88 this year thus the ahnentafel number I am looking for is 22. And the winner is......my paternal great great grandfather, Sampson Frum Pool. 

     Sampson was the son of William Lanham Pool and Ann Louise Frum. He lived his entire life in the Morgantown, West Virginia area. He was born on February 20, 1843 and died on December 14, 1909 in Sabraton, outside Morgantown. He was moved to his daughter's home in Sabraton, my great grandmother, Jessica Pool VanGilder, so he could be closer to medical help. 

     He is buried beside his wife, Sarah Harner Pool in Mt. Union Cemetery, north of Morgantown, West Virginia. 

     Sampson served during the Civil War as a private with Captain L.S. Hayes "B" Company, West Virginia Union Militia. I have a letter written for him while he was stationed in Martinsburg. He had a farm north of Morgantown near coal mine#5, which he worked until his death. In other Pool genealogical work, I have seen him referred to as "Bub" Pool. 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2009, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun --Trading Card

This Saturday's edition of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun over at Randy Seaver's Gena-Musings is to create your own trading card. I had seen this earlier this week and thought it would be a fun idea. I'm glad that Randy suggested it for Saturday night.

Saturday Night Fun

A couple of days late and a dollar short, but hey, I’m on vacation! Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has challenged us to blog about our great great grandparents and their dominant ethnicity or nationality. I don’t know, Randy….making me work on my vacation at the beach……here goes.

1. George Henry Hughes: born 1851 Wordsley, Staffordshire, England; married December 25, 1870, Stranton, County Durham, West Hartlepool, England; died May 8, 1930, West Hartlepool, County Durham, England. ENGLISH

2. Mary Ann Storey: born May 18, 1852, Hartlepool, County Durham, England; died March 14, 1935, West Hartlepool, County Durham, England. ENGLISH

3. Christian Invart Olesen: born 1844, Denmark; married August 3, 1874, West Hartlepool, County Durham, England; died October 17, 1892, West Hartlepool, County Durham, England. DANISH

4. Ferdinande Weiss: born November 14, 1835, Hamburg, Germany; died February 15, 1942, Monaca, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. GERMAN

5. John Oliphant VanGilder: born February 22, 1829, Monongalia County, (West) Virginia; married July 14, 1853, Monongalia County, (West) Virginia; died February 14, 1909, Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. DUTCH

6. Mary Louise Hill: born November 21, 1832, Monongalia County, (West) Virginia; died January 24, 1908, Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. ENGLISH

7. Sampson Frum Pool: born February 20, 1843, Monongalia County, (West) Virginia; married August 26, 1866, Monongalia County, West Virginia; died December 14, 1909, Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. ENGLISH

8. Sarah Harner: born October 23, 1843, Fayette County, Pennsylvania; died August 5, 1911, North Charleroi, Washington County, Pennsylvania. GERMAN

9. Unknown Stark. GERMAN

10. Unknown Stark’s wife. GERMAN

11. Unknown Schwartz. GERMAN

12. Unknown Schwartz’s wife. GERMAN

13. Joseph C. Frederick: born 1808, Pennsylvania; married August 31, 1834, Columbiana County, Ohio; died June 4, 1853, Franklin Square, Columbiana County, Ohio. GERMAN

14. Mary Betz: born August 8, 1811, Salem Township, Columbiana County, Ohio; died September 24, 1898, Salem Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. GERMAN

15. William Morlan Orr: born April 28, 1813, Ohio; married October 15, 1835, Columbiana County, Ohio; died February 11, 1849, Elkrun Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. IRISH

16. Nancy Cannon: born April 1817, Elkrun Township, Columbiana County, Ohio; died between 1900-1910 somewhere in the USA! SCOTTISH

And the grand percentage total is:

German Ancestry = 50%
English Ancestry = 25%
Irish Ancestry = 6.25%
Danish Ancestry = 6.25%
Scottish Ancestry = 6.25%
Dutch Ancestry = 6.25%

LESSON LEARNED: When I first married my husband, my inlaws gave me some grief one day that I was the first person to marry into the family that was not of German ancestry. Well folks, I’m NOT the first person to marry into the Hiser clan that has no German roots!!!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun--Small World Department

This Saturday Randy over at Gena-Musings has posted our task--1) Think of three things that you learned about Genealogy or Family History today and 2) Tell us about them in a blog post or a comment to this post.

This falls under the small world department. I was at work ringing up a customer. I noticed her last name was FIFE. When I had finished with her sale, I mentioned that I was a genealogist and that one of my surnames was Fife. The customer became very excited, telling me that her husband's Fife's lived in East Liverpool, Ohio. I told her that mine were up in Madison Township, Columbiana County, Ohio and the chances were good that they were from the same original Fife's in Upper St. Clair, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Now, I really had her interest! She told me that her husband's descended from William and John Fife. And my response was....so do mine.

She gave me her card and I told her to say hello to her husband---my cousin.

My three new genealogy items are:
1. I met the wife of a cousin who was new to me
2. I learned of the Fife's who lived in East Liverpool, Ohio
3. I learned where these Fife's were buried.

It was a good day at work ;-)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun on Sunday Night

I know it is Sunday, but I am just getting around to Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Fun over at Genea-Musings . It looked like such a good time, that I am doing it tonight.

This weekends task is to find out with of your ancestors were alive in 1909, tell where your ancestral families were living in 1909. What country, state, county, city/town, etc. Who was in the family at the time? Use the 1910 census as "close enough" and have you found each of these families in the 1910 census?

Paternal Ancestors

John and Elizabeth Hughes (great grandparents) were living at 2403 Wright Alley, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (South Side) with my grandfather, George Henry Hughes.

Ferdinanda Olesen (great great grandmother) was living at 73 South Parade, West Hartlepool, England.

George Henry and Ann Storey Hughes (great great grandparents) were living at 70 Florence Street, West Hartlepool, England.

Jessie Pool VanGilder (great grandmother) was living in Morgantown, West Virginia with her four daughters, Mary Louise, Anna Estelle, Sarah Margaret (my grandmother) and Jessica Virginia VanGilder.

Sampson Frum Pool and Sarah Louise Harner Pool (great great grandparents) They were living on their farm in the Morgan District, Monongalia County, West Virgina. Sampson died December 14, 1909

William Lanham Pool (great great great grandfather) was living on his farm in the Clinton District, Monongalia County, West Virginia.

Maternal Ancestors

Alfred Frederick (great grandfather) and Lucinda B. Orr were living at 67 Jackson, Bellevue, Pennsylvania with Martha (my grandmother). Lucinda died on December 15, 1909 at home.

Wilhelmina Stark (great grandmother) was living at 530 Marie Avenue, Avalon, Pennsylvania. Living with her were Charles E. (my grandfather), his brother, Alfred and sister, Dorothy Stark.

Saturday Night Genealogy with Randy Seaver

This Saturday I have time to indulge in the latest of Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here's the challenge: 1) Open your genealogy software program and search for a "Date Calculator." You could go exploring in your Tools or Options menu, or you could use the Help menu to find it.2) Open the "Date Calculator" and put in a death date for one of your ancestors and put in an age at death (use the one you know, or just make one up - we're just testing this feature today). Do the same thing by entering a birth date and a death date in the "Date Calculator" and see how old someone was when they died.3) Tell us what software you're using and where you found the "Date Calculator." Tell us the information you found out from using the "Date Calculator."

I have never tried the date calculator and didn’t know that my Family Tree Maker program had one. The date calculator is found in the Tools section. I also have not kept up with the more recent FTM programs and was surprised when I realized that mine is Family Tree Maker 2005. Probably time to update!

The first family member I tried was my paternal gggg grandmother, Elizabeth McElroy, from this past week’s Tombstone Tuesday. I put in her death date of January 8, 1848 and the tombstone reading that her age at death was 89 years and 11 months. The date calculator told me that her date of birth was Wednesday, February 08, 1758 and that the actual day of her death was Saturday. Knowing the day of the week is fun.

Next I tried my paternal ggg grandmother and daughter of Elizabeth McElroy, Sarah McElroy VanGilder. Her date of birth from the tombstone listing is June 11, 1797 and the date of death February 08, 1881. The date calculator added that she was born on a Sunday and died on a Tuesday and her age at death was 83 years 7 months 28 days.

THANKS RANDY for showing me this valuable tool on my FTM that I didn’t even know I had!

Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line

    

     This is my first time on Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. I have been spending the last week unloading my step mothers apartment and could use a little relaxation. Now that I think about it, a male cousin through the VanGilder line contacted me a couple of years ago saying that he was having his Y-DNA tested. When he received his results it only lead to puzzlement. He found he had Native American genetics.

Genea-Musings: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Paternal Grandmother's Patrilineal Line 

Provide a list of your paternal grandmother's patrilineal line. Answer these questions:

What was your father's mother's maiden name?

Sarah Margaret VanGilder born March 2, 1898 in Morgantown, West Virginia 

What was your father's mother's father's name? 

George Ethelbert VanGilder born January 27, 1861 in Morgantown, West Virginia 

What is your father's mother's father's patrilineal line? That is, his father's father's father's ... back to the most distant male ancestor in that line?

 

-John Oliphant VanGilder born February 22, 1849 in Monongalia County (West) Virginia. 

-Jacob VanGilder born January 20, 1797 in Frederick County, Maryland.

-Jacob VanGilder born May 13, 1752 in the Netherlands.  

This has been disproved through DNA.  The VanGilder line descends from Native Americans.  When family members, who were interested in genealogy back in the early 1900's, particularly women interested in joining the DAR through Jacob's service, they assumed that with the surname VanGilder, that he would naturally have come from the Netherlands.  NOT SO.

Can you identify male sibling(s) of your father's mother, and any living male descendants from those male sibling(s)? 

My grandmother, Sarah Margaret VanGilder Hughes did not have any brothers. 

If so, you have a candidate to do a Y-DNA test on that patrilineal line. If not, you may have to find male siblings, and their descendants, of the next generation back, or even further. 

That would be the brothers of George Ethelbert VanGilder and their sons since George had four daughters. 

-Jacob Young VanGilder--his 3 sons are all deceased and their sons are, too.

 

-Joseph Hill VanGilder--One of his great grandsons did the DNA test and was surprised to find that he had a Native American gene and we couldn't figure out where it came from.

The Native American Link

     When Ancestry began the option for DNA testing, there was a page of VanGilder tests of male descendants of Jacob VanGilder.  All had a Native American Y-DNA.  A VanGilder cousin of mine, Drew Blattner, has done much research in this area.  His research and story, New VanGilder Branch Confirmed by Y-DNA Testing, was featured on Debra Winchell's blog.

     When I was transferring my genealogy home page from the defunct geocities site, I added some information regarding the Native American link on Jacob VanGilder's story.  At that time, the thought was that Jacob descended from a New York Native American named Toanunck.  

Other Websites regarding the VanGilder DNA

VanGilder Dutch or Mohican? from Famiy Tree DNA

The Origins of the VanGuilders by Debra Winchell

The VanGilder Surname Project   IGENA Project

Updated September 2022

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2009, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser