"Bear"

My brother Mike was born today in 1951 and died today in 2005. 

 My brother Mike was born on December 30th. He was 2 years younger than I. He died on his birthday at age 54. He was my second and last brother to die. My brother Bill had died 15 years before. Mike had knee surgery in June of 2005 and had developed a staph infection in his knee. He had 3 surgeries to try to clear up the infection. He died following the 3rd surgery. He came out of surgery alright, but sometime that night, his heart stopped and he died. 

 Mike was a small kid, always small for his age. However, as an adult, he put on lots of weight and was nicknamed "Bear", because he was so big and always had a beard and just kind of looked like a bear.

 Mike was the kind of kid who was never in trouble. He always did what he was told to do, never talked back, never got in trouble. It used to make me crazy because I was just the opposite and was always in trouble. But, boy, you couldn't make him do anything that he wasn't supposed to do. Perfect child at home and at school. He even started out that way...he was about 10# when he was born and would have to be woken up to eat. The perfect baby...never cried, just slept. I guess as he got a little older he began to make up for it. By the time I left for college, he had started drinking and had some "incidents" that were alcohol-related. He finally wasn't the perfect child, which was fine with me! Mike finished high school and tried junior college, but just wasn't interested in school. He loved cars and became a mechanic. He got involved in tractor pulls and had an old tractor that he competed with in the tractor pulls. Everyone knew "Bear" and he was well known for being someone who would do anything for anyone. He was a truly generous person, never talked badly about anyone, and had a great sense of humor.

Goals and hopes for 2010

I am going to spend the next couple of days working on goals for 2010 in several different areas of my life, but genealogy is probably the number 2 area, only preceded by wanting to work on health and wellness! I will post when I have finished determining my goals. Meanwhile, I would love to hear what goals others are setting for genealogy in 2010!

I printed out a Problem List (I use RootsMagic) that is 6.5 pages long! So that has been my project this week. I began from the end of the list and am working backwards. It is amazing what all can be found when you start to correct some of the errors in the database!

Advent Calendar-Christmas Shopping

As I wrote in an earlier post, one of most favorite memories of Christmas shopping are the years that my dear " Nanya" took me on the Rocket (train) from Peoria to Chicago to see the Christmas sights and do some shopping! Great fun! 

 I was so lucky to be the first grandchild! I was my grandparent's "angel on top of the tree". I don't remember my parents doing shopping, but I know that most of our presents were hidden at my grandparent's home, so we wouldn't find them! Which is exactly what I did when my kids were small, too!

 I have always gone on Christmas shopping trips. When my kids were young, I always went with either my mom or some girlfriends. Since my girls have grown, we have begun a girl's Christmas shopping weekend each year. After my son married, his wife, is part of our girl's weekend, too. We have a great time! For the last 2 years, we have shopped literally until we have dropped in St. Louis. It is great fun, with lots of laughter, talk, shopping and eating! We wouldn't miss it for anything!

 As far as my husband's shopping, he does some himself, but he also relies on our daughter, Maggie, to be his Christmas helper. She pretty much has free reign and he then reimburses her. Works out well for him and for me!

Can't find Lucina

Last night I searched the Illinois State Census (on Ancestry.com) for some of my Adamson ancestors, mostly in Richland County. I was hoping to find something that might help me solve a long-unsolved mystery of what became of my great-grandfather's sister, Lucina Adamson.

 In October of 1861 in Richland County Illinois, Lucina married John Dewhirst, who was from Clay County, Illinois. John then, at age 22, came down with typhoid and died in March of the following year, leaving Lucina as a 19 or 20-year-old widow. 

 What follows is a huge puzzle, that I have had no luck in solving. I checked the Illinois State Archives Marriage Database online and found a record showing that Lucina Dewhirst married Washington Lewis in October of 1863 in Clay County. I was thrilled to have found that, but quickly became aware that Washington Lewis had married Nancy Wattles on 4/6/1862 and Nancy is listed with him in the 1870 and 1880 census'. So it obviously was not this Washington Lewis whom Lucina married. I sent for a copy of the marriage record and, sure enough, it is clearly written on there "Washington Lewis", so it wasn't a transcription error. I have gone over and over census readings for Lucina Lewis in 1870, but no luck finding mine. So when I realized that I could check the 1865 census for Illinois, I was hopeful that perhaps this would give me some answer. Alas, no...still no luck. 

 So, Lucina still remains missing. The only other piece of information that I have is that she was not living in 1900 according to her mother's census information. I am guessing that she did marry, but that the groom's name was incorrect on the marriage record. Could that be? It wasn't a lost night, however. I did find census readings for other family members that helped add to their family information. 

 NOTE: January 2015-an update to this post. Lucina was found! See the post dated October 4, 2014!