Archive for the ‘Family Tree’ Category

by Sherry Stocking Kline
01 August 2010

Off and on for several years, I’ve tried to get started scrapbooking and journaling my photographs.  But it takes a lot of room to gather it all up, and spread it all out.

And I seem to be one of those people who have to change background papers and photographs over and over (and over) till I finally find the combination that I like.  Takes hours. (And usually two more trips to the scrapbook store!)

Then I found digital scrapbooking with a Twitter friend on-line.

So, instead of cutting up my photographs, and then wishing they were a different shape and size, or worse yet, wishing I had never cut them up at all,  now I can digitize photos, crop, re-size, and re-shape to my heart’s content, leaving the originals alone.

I love it!

Below are some of the 12 x 12 scrapbook pages for my family history book that I’ve created.  First, is the page for my great-grandparents, Roderick Remine and Frances “Fanny” (Hitchcock) Stocking and their four sons.

My grandfather is standing on the far right, Elmer Leverett. He passed away before I was born, and I never got to meet him.  (I sooo wish that I had been able to get to know him.)

The Roderick Remine and Frances (Hitchcock) Stocking Family

The photo below here is my great-grandmother, Maggie (Corson) McGinnis and her daughter and son-in-law, Maud and Elmer Stocking.

It looks to me like they are sitting on the east side of  Maud and Elmer’s home near Mayfield, Kansas.  Maud and Elmer’s home was on their farm on the NW 1/4 of 18-32-2W, where they had a quarter section of land. (160 acres).  Later, my parents bought this farm from Maud and Elmer and I grew up here as well.  The house burned down several years ago.

Maggie McGinnis with daughter Maud Stocking & husband Elmer Stocking

The photograph below is of my dad’s parents and his siblings.  What a great photograph! (I wish I knew when it was taken!!)  I really like the burnt sienna colored paper below with it’s hints of other shades, and I added just a few “starbursts” to it to ‘gussy’ it up a little.

My grandfather is seated on the left and my grandmother is seated on the right. My father, Harold Stocking, Sr., is standing on the back row, third from the left.

The Elmer Leverett and Maud (McGinnis) Stocking Family. Standing: Frank, Carl, Harold, Sr., and Alma; Seated, Father Elmer Leverett, Herbert, Frances, Peggy, Mary, and Mother Maud.

While researching and preserving history is very important to me, my scrapbooking is not all about preserving the past, it’s also about preserving and enjoying the present, too, and being able to enjoy it again and again for the future.

Below is the cover from “Giggles”, an 8 x 8 scrapbook that I created this summer for my two darling little granddaughters.  There are several of my favorite photos and fun times that we’ve had in the past few years, and the book is a favorite with the girls as well.  I also think it will help them remember all the fun times that we’ve had!

Jordyn Savannah "Savvy" & Chloy Celyse star in their own Book created especially for them.

Below is a photo of the girls reading their very own Storybook Scrapbook!

Jordyn reads their Storybook to her younger sister, Chloy.

Currently I am using a Family Photo Tree template at www.TurnMemoriesIntoBooks.com to create a 12 x 12 scrapbook page of our family tree. I am  also working on a Storybook for my mother, who is nearly 99 years old, so I’m working with some really neat old photographs, and preserving some fun stories!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
7 May 2010

Mayfield, Kansas Blacksmith Shop - Otto Breneman Blacksmith

The Mayfield Blacksmith Shop…

This is a photograph of Otto Breneman and his father, Constantine Breneman, standing in front of Otto’s blacksmith shop.  The blacksmith shop was located  in Mayfield, Kansas (about 10 miles west of Wellington, Kansas) till at least sometime in the 1930′s when Otto passed away.

Otto’s mother was Salinda Breneman, and he was married to Nancy Virginia Hoyt, daughter of Joseph and Wilhemina (Dewein) Hoyt, and they had a daughter, Bernice Breneman.

According to information in the book “Mayfield: Then & Now”, Otto  served as mayor of Mayfield from 1927 to 1929.

Otto was my great uncle, and he passed away before I was born, (his Tombstone photo can be found here).  If the shop or the home was there when I was small I don’t recall it.  I wish I had taken an “after” photograph so you could see what it looks like today, but there is a nice white ranch style home there, with a large grassy area in front of it.

This photograph comes from Otto’s daughter, Bernice Breneman Thomas’ collection of photographs, now in her son’s, Orlan Thomas’ collection, and can also be found on Page 71 of the “Mayfield: Then & Now” book.  Orlan and his wife recently came to visit and loaned me his genealogy and photograph collection to scan, and nearly 200 scans later, I have many more photographs that he is allowing me to share digitally with other family members.

Ask a Lot of Different Questions…

Looking at this photograph reminds me that until I began working with a friend on the book “Mayfield: Then & Now” and began asking questions of everyone, including my mom and other family members I had no idea that some of our Breneman family lived in the Mayfield area, let alone owned a blacksmith shop.

According to a cousin that I visited with recently, her father told her that Constantine served as a blacksmith in the Union Army when he was a soldier in the Civil War.  So, if there is a moral to this story, ask your older generation (as many as possible) and even your siblings and your cousins, a lot of different questions a lot of different ways…

Other Related Posts:

Tombstone Tuesday: Otto and Nancy Breneman

Constantine Breneman and His Buggy Horse Photograph of Ott’s father, Constantine driving a buggy with his beautiful buggy horse.

Constantine Breneman’s Buggy Horse - Photograph of Constantine’s Buggy Horse

My Poem to My Ancestors

Salinda E. (Rose) Breneman - Photograph of Ott’s mother,  Salinda, and her tombstone. Ott’s parent’s, Salinda and Constantine, divorced in later life.

Too Young to Die – Photo of  Ott Breneman and his siblings, and a photograph of Albert’s tombstone. Albert was killed in a Motorcycle Accident.

Photograph of May Breneman Jones Willey - Sister of Ott Breneman.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
10 April 2010

Here is this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge from Randy Seaver!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Tell us: Which ancestor or relative do you readily identify with? Which one do you admire? Which one are you most like, or wish that you were most like? Which one would you really like to sit down and have a heart-to-heart conversation with?

2) Write your response in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or response to this post, or in a comment on this post.

Oh my, which ancestor or relative do I most identify with?  I think my ancestors, especially the women, were brave and courageous, so in some ways I wish I were more like them.  My great-grandmother Frances Hitchcock Stocking picked up her life, packed up their belongings, and followed the man she loved, Roderick Remine Stocking, here to Kansas, a flat prairie with tall grass and no trees for firewood (read they used buffalo chips to heat their homestead with) or they drove their wagon about 15 miles south into Oklahoma’s Indian Territory (which was illegal, mind you) to pick up firewood.  They also lived within a few miles of the Chisholm Trail, and those who still traveled up and down it, even after the cattle drives ended.

And then there is my other great-grandmother on my mother’s side, Salinda Rose Breneman, who lived out on the prairie in Nebraska, where Indians might (and did) poke their heads in the window wanting food.  And Indians wouldn’t have been their only danger.  They would have lived in fear of prairie fires as well as rattle snakes, and her children, even at a young age, were sent out on horseback, sometimes with their lunch in a pail to herd the cattle, often being out of site of the homestead for the whole day.

Could I do what they did?  I don’t think so.

Who would I most want to sit down with?  My great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Laird Jones Crabb!

I would ask her what her first husband’s name was and thereby break down that brick wall!  I would learn first-hand from her what her husband died from (or if they were divorced!) and I would ask her what brought them here to Kansas, and did they miss their home state of Kentucky and their daughter who stayed there?

And maybe I would just ask them how they ‘managed?’  How did they cope with the hardships, water that came from a well and wasn’t the clear liquid that we’re used to today, growing and canning and preserving much of their food, and sewing many of their clothes?

And particularly, where did they find the courage to go on when they had to bury their young children because their lives were cut short from disease and farm accidents?

So many questions that I would ask these courageous women!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
07 April 2010

I love this cool photograph of one of my mother’s favorite cousins, Kenneth Jones, fishing!   It looks like he is fishing on a fairly large lake, perhaps even Lake Superior itself.

He also fished and hunted for agates (he was an avid and knowledgeable rock hound!) on many of the lakes in Minnesota near their home in the outskirts of Duluth, Minnesota.

Kenneth Jones - Fishing

Thanks to Kenneth, and those fun vacation days of hunting agates along the shores of Lake Superior and another beautiful Minnesota lake, I’m still a bit of a rock hound!

We’ve lost touch with Kenneth and Lois’s children, and would love to re-connect with them, so if by chance one of them (or their children) find this blog, I hope you will stop and say ‘hello’ and leave your e-mail address!

Other Related Posts:

Kenneth’s Mother – May Breneman Jones

Kenneth Jones Toddler photo taken in Wichita, Kansas.

Kenneth Jones in front of his Kingman Kansas High School.

Kenneth’s Grandfather, Constantine “Tom” Breneman and his buggy horse photograph.

Kenneth’s Grandmother, Salinda E. (Rose) Breneman, photo and tombstone photo.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
05 April 2010

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and fellow educator astronauts, Richard Arnold and Joseph Acaba - NASA photo

Usually when our ancestors, or even ourselves become a bigger part of history we’re just not aware of it at the time.   It’s when the history books write the story and we read it later that we know, even if they did not, that they helped shape the events of that time.

But today, my cousin’s daughter, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, went up in space and for all time she became one of those whose names go down in history books, one of those brave and courageous ones who went into outer space and helped shape history.

Dorothy is one of three educator astronauts, and she will see our world, our earth, in a perspective we can only try to imagine!  Just think of what she can share with her students, and those she will speak to in the future.

Dorothy told me that her job will be on the flight deck as the flight engineer for ascent and entry, and she will be flying the Shuttle’s robotic arm, helping move 18,000 pounds of science and engineering equipment.

Dottie said that during the spacewalks, she will be inside as the crew member leading them through the spacewalk.

The launch this morning (Praise the Lord!) was picture perfect, and for the next 13 days, Dottie will be doing what she’s trained for the past several years to do, and those of us here, friends and family will pray for her safety and watch their mission on www.NASA.gov and our local television channels!

Other Related Links:

Denver Channel News – Dottie’s parent’s interview from Ft. Collins, CO
Video:  http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/22747395/index.html

Article:  http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22746823/detail.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Metcalf-Lindenburger

Runner’s World Article: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/1,7124,s6-243-410–13448-0,00.html#

Wellington Daily News: http://www.wellingtondailynews.com/features/x1336921704/Astronaut-has-Sumner-County-ties

Other Related Posts:

Follow the STS-131 Astronauts on Facebook

What’s Going Up in Space with Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger

April 5th ABC News Launch Video

by Sherry Stocking Kline
03 April 2010

This week has been a busy week, so I’m late posting again!  Maybe next week will be more on time, but spring is here, and my green thumb is itching like crazy, so we’ll see!

Kenneth Jones Baby Photo - Taken in Wichita, Kansas

This is a neat photo of one of Mom’s favorite cousins, Kenneth Jones.  The first time I remember meeting Kenneth, it was at their home on Morris Thomas Road in Duluth, MN when my folks took us all for a visit.

Kenneth was a ‘rock hound,’ something he and my mom had in common, and we enjoyed looking for agates along Lake Superior and another lake.  We also had great fun swatting mosquitoes while picking wild strawberries, riding the neighbors little pony, and picnicking.

We’ve lost connections with Kenneth’s children, and I hope that somehow, someway, we can re-connect, and that if they find this website, they’ll take a minute to say “Hello! “

Related Posts:

Kenneth Jones – in front of his high school in Kingman, Kansas.

Kenneth’s Mother – May Breneman Jones Willey in front of the Jones’ home on Morris Thomas Road in Duluth.

Kenneth’s Grandfather – Constantine “Tom” Breneman and his horse and buggy.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
24 March 2010

I enjoy finding and looking at these old photographs, especially when they have names on the backs so we know who they are, and can figure out how they ‘fit’ in!

Abraham Dorsey "Doss" Rose

Abraham Dorsey “Doss” Rose is my great-grandmother, Salinda Rose Breneman’s brother, and she and “Doss” are the children of Eden and Elsie (Ames) Rose.

1900 United States Federal Census

Roll T623_941; Page 2B; Enumeration District 182
Home in 1900: Omaha, Thurston, Nebraska

Abraham Rose – 51
Alfreda Rose – 42
Abraham Rose – 26
Carrie Rose – 18
Bessie Rose – 14
Richard Rose – 4
Myrtle E. Rose – 6 – photograph here.
Silas Rose – 3
Ira – Breneman – 26 (his sister Salinda’s Son)

1860 United States Federal Census

Doss’s Parents & Family
Roll M653_31; Page 1002;
Home in 1860: Grandview, Louisa, Iowa

Edan Rose – 38
Eley (Elsie) Rose – 32
Abram Rose – 13
Salinda Rose – 7
Absolam Rose – 3

Civil War Info:

11th Iowa Infantry
Union
Company A
Soldier’s Rank In: Pvt.
Soldier’s Rank Out: Pvt.
Alternate Name: Dorsey/Rose
Film Number: M541 Roll 23
http://www.itd.nps.gov/swss.soldiers.cfm

Other Related Posts:

Photograph of Myrtle Rose, daughter of A. D. Rose,  and her McBride cousin.

Photograph of Salinda E. Rose Breneman, sister of A. D. Rose.

Click here to see the photograph of Salinda E. Rose and Constantine Breneman’s children on my Tombstone Tuesday post about Albert Breneman.

And as always, when I post family information I hope to connect with my not-yet-met cousins and share information and photographs.

If that’s you, then please leave your name and contact info in the comments!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 19th, 2010

My mom and I have been going through old, really old photographs recently, and we’ve found some wonderful gems, such as these two lovely young ladies.

One is my cousin, (and until I put her into my computerized family tree) I won’t try to tell you how closely related. The only downside with this photograph is that I’m not sure which one is cousin Myrtle Rose, and which one is her McBride cousin.

The back of the photograph says “Myrtle Rose and cousin McBride” then “Doss Rose’s daughter.” Through my research and visiting with Mom, we know that Doss is the nickname of Abraham Dorsey Rose.

So, if one of you who visits this site are a descendant of Doss, Alfreda Jane, or Myrtle Rose, please share with me which beautiful young lady is which!

Myrtle Rose and cousin "McBride"

Abraham Dorsey Rose is my great-grandmother, Salinda Rose Breneman’s brother, and they are the children of Eden/Edan  and Elsie/Elcy Rose.

According to the 1900 Census, Myrtle was six years old at that time, was born in Nebraska, and the family was living in the Omaha, Nebraska area.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
March 12th, 2010

Here is my almost Wordless Wednesday, a photograph of my Great-Aunt May Breneman Jones Willey in front of her son’s family’s home in Minnesota.

1959 - May Breneman Jones Willey - age 79

May’s parents were Constantine “Tom” and Salinda (Rose) Breneman. May’s first husband was Evan Jones, son of Willis W. and Martha Ellen (Smith) Jones. Willis W. and Martha Ellen originally came from Kentucky, and moved to the Midwest, living in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

Evan and May’s son’s name was Kenneth Jones. Kenneth and his wife Lois had five children: Lawrence, Lynn, Patty, Charlie, and Kenny, and I hope one of the children, or even their children find this post, and will leave a message.

I have many happy memories of visiting Aunt May and their family in Minnesota, and we would love to re-connect with them.

Sherry Stocking Kline
February 18, 2010

Oh, be still my heart!  This might not be quite good enough to do a Happy Dance, but almost!  I was doing research on Ancestry.com on my father.  I hadn’t done that because I knew who my father was, where he was born, where he died, that he had heart disease, and where he is buried.

So I hadn’t done census research on him. Big mistake!  I did the census research, and learned that in the 1930 census, shortly before he and mom married, he was living with another family as their farm worker.  That wasn’t surprising news.

But the next thing that popped up on Ancestry was a “Corson” family book that stated that it listed my father, his siblings, and his parents, etc.

That’s where the Happy Dance comes in.

The book is titled “Three hundred years with the Corson families in America” by Orville Corson, Middletown, OH., 1939 (2v). V2: 161, 205

Now, all I need to do is beg, borrow, or maybe even purchase this book at Higginson Book Company, and I’ll have a springboard to research my Great-Grandmother Margaret “Maggie” Corson McGinnis, mother of my Grandma Maud McGinnis Stocking, and their ancestors. (I’ve already called my favorite local librarian!)

And if I’m really lucky, there may just be a few glimpses into their personal lives, occupations, and military service  in this book, giving me numerous clues to where to research and flesh out who they were.  Woo Hoo!

Yeah, maybe this is enough for a “Happy Dance”!