Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Unbroken Chain of Tombstones

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge by Randy Seaver is:
Determine what is your longest unbroken line of ancestral gravestones - how many generations can you go back in time?  Do you have photographs of them?

Thanks to a Find-a-Grave volunteer, I can go back five generations on my maternal grandmother's side:

Above:  My maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald, 1907-1997.

Below:  Her father, Louis Henry Wolfe, 1872-1929.

Above:  My great-great-grandfather, Joseph William Wolfe, 1845-1918.

Below:  His mother, Malinda Jane Smallwood Wolfe Peden, 1823-1874.

Photo courtesy Kathi Lynn King.

Above:  My 4th-great grandfather, Alfred Smallwood, ABT 1800-1868.

I have a lot of information about Sara, Louis, and Joseph (see also the links within these links).  I don't know as much about my Smallwood ancestors.  

Malinda Jane Smallwood Wolfe Peden was born about 1823 in Pennsylvania.  She married William C. Wolfe (1820-1855) in 1840.  They had eight children.  After his death, Malinda married William Peden (born ABT 1830) and had four children with him.  Malinda died April 9, 1874, and is buried at the Highland Cemetery in California, Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Malinda's father, Alfred Smallwood, was born about 1800 in Virginia.  By 1840, he was in East Pike Run, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and the 1850 Census lists his occupation as millwright.  

According to page 1133 of the 1861 Boyd´s Pennsylvania State Business Directory, Alfred Smallwood owned a saw mill in Pike Run, Washington county, Pennsylvania, although the 1860 Census lists his occupation as farmer.  He died September 24, 1868, "in the 68[th] year of his age," and is buried at the Howe Cemetery in Coal Center, Washington County, Pennsylvania.

© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Surname Christmas Tree

This was the prompt from a week ago for Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, but I'm only getting around to it now.  This tree-shaped word cloud was made using Tagul, and the size of the names (from both my tree and that of my husband) reflect how close the generation is (Jones is big because my husband's great-grandfather Jones also married a Jones).  Therefore, the smaller-size names are ancestors further out the trees.  Happy Holidays, everyone!

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Two Degrees of Separation

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy Seaver is:
Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means “you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor.”  When was that second ancestor born?

 I can go back to great-great-grandfathers on both sides, born in 1845 and 1847, via my grandmothers, AND I have the photos to prove my grandmothers actually knew (and remember) their grandfathers (and weren't just held by them as babies, or born while they were still alive):

Above left is me with my dad, Fred Pape, and his mother, my Nana, Elizabeth Massmann Pape (1903-2000), taken in August 1983. Above right are Elizabeth (seated right) and my grandfather Paul Robert Pape (1896-1970, standing second from left) on their wedding day, September 3, 1924.  My great-grandmother Elizabeth Dienes Massmann (1876-1946) is also seated, and the other gentlemen standing are my great-grandfathers John Pape (1851-1945) and Frederick Massmann (1876-1948), and my great-great-grandfather, Nana's grandfather, Carl Massmann (1847-1929).

Above left are my maternal grandmother, "Nani," Sara Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997), me and my son Eric, and my mother, Geraldine Guokas Pape, in December 1987.  In the photo above right, which was probably taken in 1916, Sara is seated at the lower left.  Her paternal grandfather, Joseph William Wolfe (1845-1918), is seated above and to the right.  His son, my great-grandfather and Sara's father, Louis Henry Wolfe (1872-1929), is seated just above Sara.  The boy seated between the two men is Sara's older brother Lloyd (1906-1993)  - I have no idea who the boy in the background is!  Seated next to Sara are her sisters Neva Marie (1912-1995) and Edith (1910-2006).

My great-grandmother Addilee Shelton Wolfe (1890-1977), "Big Nani," died when I was 20, and was at a number of family gatherings, most evidenced in home movies, although the only photograph I have of the two of us is the one at left, taken in 1958, where she is holding me.  My mother is to the left and Nani is to the right.  Big Nani surely knew her grandmother, the elusive Leah Lucy Pickering (or Pickens) Barton Spikes (1835-1903), as they both lived in Winn Parish in 1900, but I have no proof.

© Amanda Pape - 2012 - click here to e-mail me.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: My "Heritage Pie" Chart

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for today is to list all 16 great-great grandparents, their dates and places of birth, death and marriage, then make a pie chart of the birthplaces.  I like this one because it also gives me a chance to see if that part of my Ahnetafel on this blog needs updating:

As I keep telling everyone, I'm more German than anything else, because ancestors of my USA great-great-grandparents also came from Germany.  Here's what I know about my great-great grandparents - I made a couple assumptions about birthplaces:

    16. Jacob (Jakob?) Pape  was born before 1830 in Germany. He married Elisabeth Gierse on 18 Aug 1846 in Boedefeld, Westphalia, Germany.

    17. Elisabeth Gierse  was born before 1830 in Germany.

    18. Joseph Cramer  was born in Germany. He married Catharina Becker.

    19. Catharina Becker was probably born in Germany.

    20. Carl Massmann  was born on 22 May 1847 in Hanover, Germany. He died on 7 Feb 1929 in Evanston, Cook County, Illinois, USA. He was buried in February 1929 in Skokie, Cook County, Illinois, USA. He married Minna Freicke on 4 January 1870 in Hanover, Germany.

    21. Minna Freicke  was born on 10 February 1847 in Germany. She died on 14 March 1917 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA.

    22. Frederick Dienes  was born in August 1828 in Germany. He died on 25 March 1896 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA. He married Regina Matheis on 11 September 1861 in Sangamon County, Illinois, USA.

    23. Regina Matheis  was born on 17 August 1837 in Bavaria, Germany. She died on 4 May 1916 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA.

    24. J. Guokas  was born before 1852, probably in Lithuania. He married Marie Sukytes.

    25. Marie Sukytes  was born before 1852, probably in Lithuania.

    26. ? Bonewitz/Boenewitch/Bovits/Banavich, probably born in Lithuania.

    27. unknown, probably born in Lithuania.

    28. Joseph William Wolfe  was born on 14 January 1845 in East Pike Run Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 30 October 1918 in Monongahela, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA. He married Margaret Melzen? Melzina? (Maggie) Carroll on 31 October 1868.

    29. Margaret Melzen? Melzina? (Maggie) Carroll  was born on 12 November 1846 in Pennsylvania, USA. She died on 3 December 1911 in Monongahela, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA.

    30. Levi Marion Shelton  was born on 28 January 1863 in Winn Parish, Louisiana, USA. He died on 27 May 1941 in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, USA.  He married Sara(h) Ann [Sarianne?] Spikes on 30 December 1884.

    31. Sara(h) Ann [Sarianne?] Spikes  was born on 28 September 1871 in Sardis, Winn Parish, Louisiana, USA. She died on 10 April 1935 in Montgomery, Grant Parish, Louisiana, USA. 

© Amanda Pape - 2011 - click here to e-mail me.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ancestral Name List Roulette

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has come up with this fun activity for a cold, drizzly evening:

1) How old is one of your grandfathers 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 ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick a grandmother, or yourself, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

My grandfather Paul Robert Pape would be 114 if he was still alive.  Divided by 4, that rounds up to 29.  Number 29 in my ahnentafel is a great-great-grandmother, Margaret Melzina "Maggie" Carroll.  I wrote a post a while back with all the facts I know about her.  Two bits of trivia:  my grandmother Sara Wolfe shares her middle name, and Maggie is supposedly descended from the famous Carrolls of Maryland, although I don't have any proof of that yet.

If I had used my other grandfather, Charles Peter Guokas, he would have been 107, which when divided by 4 rounds up to 27.  Unfortunately on my ahnentafel, that would be his maternal grandmother, my unknown great-great-grandmother in Lithuania.

© Amanda Pape - 2011