Use A Relationship Calculator to Help with DNA Matches

If you are like me, whenever you get a DNA match that says the match is possibly a 3rd or 4th cousin, you can't remember or are not sure how to figure out where your common ancestor might be in your ancestry - a grandparent, a great-grandparent....??  In other words, how do you narrow the list of suspects candidates? 

Read more at

A Relationship Calculator Helps with DNA Matches

Favourite Canadian Genealogy Site?

Now's your chance to nominate your favourite site for Canadian genealogy.  Nominations are open until August 3rd so don't delay.

I'm happy to see Olive Tree Genealogy website on the list of pre-nominated sites! Check the list and see if there are some missing that you think need to be considered.

The Coffin Plates Of Jonathan Abrams And Mary Abrams

Jonathan Abrams 

Died April 28th 1918

Aged 64

Mary Matilda Abrams 

Died April 27. 1924

Aged 66 years 10 mons

This group of Coffin Plates is for a husband and wife. I am told Jonathan Abrams was from Ontario Canada.

Submitted by Brad Abrams

View more Coffin Plates at http://ancestorsatrest.com

J K Rowling on Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are? “J.K. Rowling” (US premiere, originally aired in the UK)

Tune In: J.K. Rowling’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? airs Sunday, August 2 at 9/8c on TLC

 Ancestry.com , the leading family history company, is teaming up again with TLC as a sponsor. As part of the show sponsorship, Ancestry provides exhaustive family history research on each of the featured celebrities to help make discoveries possible and build out the story of each episode.

Famed Harry Potter author and philanthropist JK Rowling is eager to trace the  French roots of her maternal side, having always been very close with her mother who’s passed away. She knows that her great-grandfather, Louis Volant, received the Legion d’honneur for his WWI efforts, but she doesn’t know why. 

She embarks on a journey in France to trace her mother’s roots. She discovers that a family war story might not be what she thought when military records reveal a surprising truth. Tracing the trail even further back, Jo learns of her 2x great-grandmother, who had plenty of struggles both as a poor, single mother and a witness to German invasion during wartime, which forced her family to choose sides in a time of turmoil.  

Digging up Bodies of Those Buried in Bedlam Insane Asylum

The Bedlam mental health hospital was established in 1247. A burial site, called Bethlehem and the New Churchyard, was opened after graveyards around London started to overflow.
The poor from London and inmates from the asylum were buried there and recent excavations have uncovered bits and pieces of skeletal remains.

Read more:

Digging up Bodies of Those Buried in Bedlam

Ancestry DNA Available in Canada

Great news! Ancestry DNA test kits are now available to Canadians. If you've been waiting for the chance to order a kit to Canada, now's the time.

I've had my DNA (and my parents) DNA tested at other companies and now is my chance to do the same with Ancestry DNA in Canada  

The more places you test, the better so I'm eager to do this! So far, with our DNA tests we've learned many new things - not just our ethnic background but family secrets. That's right.

We learned, for example, that the family rumours were true and that my grandfather's father was not the man married to his mother. Nope, the rumour that Great-Grandma had been messing around with the hired man named Cooper turned out to be true! DNA connected my husband and his mother with first cousins through the Cooper family. 

We also were able to verify our paper research showing my wife's Native American heritage, and my black ancestry. 

So if you live in Canada, why not find out what secrets lie in your family tree? Take the Ancestry DNA now.

Betsy Ross Buried in Neglected Abandoned Cemetery in Pennsylvania

Imagine a cemetery, an abandoned cemetery, the size of a small town. 

Well that is what Mount Moriah Cemetery in Pennsylvania is like. It is over 400 acres in size and in complete disarray with crumbling tombstones, weeds and thick vegetation. 

Betsy Ross (of American flag fame) is buried here. I'm sure she's turning over in her grave!

Continue reading this story at http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.ca/2015/06/such-huge-abandoned-cemetery-in.html

Why is Great-Grandpa's Death Registration Missing?

How many times have you looked for a Vital Registration of a Birth, Marriage or Death in Ontario and come up empty? Lorine of Olive Tree Genealogy tells us why this happens! Anyone searching for Ontario ancestors needs to read this.

Read more: Why You Can't Find Great-Grandpa's Death Registration

350 Year Old Body found in France with Heart of Husband

  The body of Louise de Quengo, a widow who died in 1656, was found in France, She was fully dressed and buried  with the preserved heart of her dead husband

Read more: Fully Dressed 350 Year Old Body found in France

Celebrate Canada Day with FREE Access to Ancestry....

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Celebrate Canada Day with FREE Access to Ancestry....: To celebrate Canada Day [FN1] , Ancestry.ca is providing free access to all 235 million Canadian records on their site.



The offer is in effect until July 1, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

Read more: http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/06/celebrate-canada-day-with-free-access.html#ixzz3eNk988ts

Find Your Ancestor in Ships Passenger Lists

Visitors to the website Olive Tree Genealogy often ask  for a list of all the free ships passenger lists the site has published online.

 

Read the list at Find Your Ancestor in Ships Passenger Lists or Naturalization Records

Ancient Human Remains Found

Ancient human remains have been found at a construction site in St. Catharines Ontario Canada. Experts believe the bones may be over 200 years old. 

Read the full story at http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2015/04/20/ancient-human-remains-found-at-downtown-construction-site

Happy DNA Day! 20% off on AncestryDNA Kits

AncestryDNA is celebrating their annual DNA Day this April by offering a 20% discount on AncestryDNA. The special will run from April 23-April 27, 2015. Happy DNA Day! 

This link takes you to their offer DNA Day 20% off AncestryDNA 

If you don't have your DNA kit yet, maybe it's time. Don't miss out!

Keeping your genealogy research safe and sound is so important

Most of us spend years working on our genealogy. Keeping your genealogy research safe and sound is important. And the award winning iDrive is extending their special offer to the end of February.

iDrive is offering 1TB of automatic Online Backup Storage PLUS 1TB of Sync Space file storage, for $14.88 for the first year. This is a 75% savings off the regular price of $59.50 and saves you almost $45.00. Offer good until Feb. 28/15

iDrive just received the prestigious PC Mag Editors Choice award for online backup for 2015. iDrive is easy to install and easy to use. There's no learning curve and you can start protecting your years of genealogy research immediately. 

Use this link for the exclusive iDrive offer

The Coffin Plate Of Elisha Caleb Cary

Elisha Cary

Elisha Caleb Cary

AGED

13 years 2 mo 6 days

It is hard to tell from this photo if Elisha was 13 or 73. More research is needed.

For more Coffin Plates go to ancestorsatrest.com

Decorating My Genealogy Christmas Tree

Genealogy Mystery: What Happened to Cyril (Charles) De Meulenaere?

Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy is posting her Top 10 Genealogy Mysteries, and encouraging others to follow suit with their own.

You can read her Genealogy Mysteries at Top 10 Genealogy Mysteries

Here is my Top Genealogy Mystery: What Happened to Cyril (Charles) De Meulenaere?

My great grand uncle Cyrillus (Charles) De Meulenaere was born in Tielt Belgium in 1888. On 27 February 1937 he died in Detroit Michigan. The family lore has always been that he was killed - stabbed to death outside a bar in downtown Detroit.

Here is what I've been able to find out about Cyril (Charles):

• November 1915: Border Crossing states his last permanent residence was Berlin Canada (now Kitchener Ontario) and he is heading to Detroit. Has no relatives there
• March 31, 1916: Joined the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Forces) during WW1. Says he was born in 1881 (a lie) and living in Berlin (Kitchener) Ontario
• June 5, 1917: Joined the American Expeditionary Force. Says he lives at  2166 Mack Ave, St Clair Michigan and works for J. A. Cornille (of Cornille Bros) driving a team of horses.
• May 15, 1919: A document from the US Pension service states that Cyriel was discharged from service on May 15, 1919, and provides the date of his death as February 27, 1937. His name is written as Charles Demenllenere & Demeulenere. 
• September 3, 1932: Cyril/Charles attempts to cross from USA into Canada at Windsor. Says he is going to visit brother "Arthur" [Note: this is actually his brother Archie] in Bridgeport Ontario. Lives Detroit Michigan, American, sister Marie in Tielt Belgium. He was REJECTED.
• February 27, 1937: Cyril dies in Detroit Michigan
• March 1, 1937: his brother Archie tries to go to Cyril's funeral in Michigan but is deported. Archie's son always said that his father was escorted to the funeral by officials (Border Guards? Police?) and then taken back to the border and deported. 

I contacted Mt. Olivett Cemetery , Detroit Michigan where Cyril is buried. Here is their information:

Cyril Demeulenaere

Date of Death: FEBRUARY 27, 1937
Cemetery: Mt. Olivet Cemetery
Location: Section 44, Tier 25, Space 84

The cemetery owns the grave and buried him for free due to a financial hardship of some sort.  They did not have an address of where he lived at the time.  Below is all the information that the cemetery had for him:

Date of death - 2/27/1937
Date of interment - 3/3/1937
Funeral home - VanLerberghe
Church - Our Lady of Sorrows
Age - about 48 

Next step was to contact the funeral home and the church.

VanLerberghe Funeral Home answered re Cyril's death:

Cyril Demeulenaere
Age 45, passed on February 27, 1937
Born in Belgium
Buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan
Funeral Services held at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on March 3, 1937 at 10am.

Our Lady of Sorrows Church burned down 1963 but I found the new church where the parish and the records went. They also replied to my email with this information:

Our Lady of Sorrows death records indicate that Cyril Demeulenaere died on February 27, 1937 and was buried March 3, 1937,at Mt.Olivet cemetery here in Detroit following a mass at Our Lady of Sorrows celebrated by Rev. H. Syoen. There is no further information listed.

I would like to know exactly what happened to Cyril!  There are two things I am hoping for:

1. An obituary or death notice or newspaper article about Cyril's death on 27 February 1937. I'm willing to bet there is a write up in a Detroit Newspaper. If anyone has access to these papers, I'd be very grateful for help.

2. A photo of Cyril's grave at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Homeless Man Arrested for digging in historic Salem graveyard

A historic Boston graveyard was vandalized recently when a man managed to dig about 4 inches into the ground of a grave, exposing the original headstone. A new stone had been placed on the grave and the original laid flat and buried with the grave.

The graveyard, which dates back to 1637, is supposed to be locked at night, but rarely is. Read the full story at Homeless Man Arrested for digging in historic Salem graveyard

The Coffin Plate Of Frank Brown 1899

Frank Brown 1881~1899

Frank Brown

Died Nov 11. 1899

AE 18Yrs 10Mos 10Dys

For more coffin plates go to

http://ancestorsatrest.com/

Important ancient tomb discovered in Greece

The Tomb

For the past few years archaeologists have been working on excavating a massive burial mound not far from the ancient city of Amphipolis in Greece. Located just 370 miles north of Athens and dating from the era of Alexander the Great, many have speculated that one of Alexander’s military commanders or family members may be buried inside. Archaeologist Katerina Peristeri dates the burial tomb to between 325 B.C. and 300 B.C. in the era just at the end of the reign of Alexander the Great. Archaeologists have not yet entered the tomb but expect to in the next few days.

King Richard III to be burried in Leicester Cathedral

King Richard III

Officials have finally decided on the re interment details for the remains of the 15th-century English ruler King Richard III.

His remains will be laid to rest on Thursday, March 26, 2015, in Leicester Cathedral during one of three services to honor the English king.

The king's remains, which were found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, in 2012, will be placed in a tomb made of Swaledale fossil stone and black Kilkenny marble crafted by Michael Ibsen, a descendant of King Richard III's sister Anne of York. 

The Wine Cup Of Pericles

A ceramic wine cup that is believed to have been used by Classical Greek Athenian statesman Pericles has been found in a pauper's grave in north Athens. The cup was found smashed into pieces but after piecing it back together, archaeologists were amazed to find the name "Pericles" along with the names of five other men.

Pericles

Experts are sure that the cup was used by Pericles, as one of the other names listed is that of Pericles elder brother Ariphron. The name Ariphron is extremely rare so having it listed above that of Pericles makes a strong case that these are the two brothers.

Pericles died of the plague in 429 BC. The cup is to be displayed at the Epigraphical Museum in Athens.

Militants blow up Prophet Jonas’ tomb in Iraq

The monument to the purported burial place of the prophet Younis was erected around 1393

In a sad act of vandalism The shrine of Jonas – revered by Christians and Muslims alike – has been turned “to dust” near Iraq’s Mosul.

Ancestor Death Record Finder now available as an E-Book on Amazon

Lorine McGinnis Schulze of The Olive Tree Genealogy has just published!   3 Guides to help you find alternate sources for  Vital Statistic records. If you want to have a peek, here are the links for each guide. Oh and did I mention they are only $1.15 each?

Also, you don't need a Kindle reader to read these. The Kindle Cloud Reader is free and it allows you to read any Kindle book on your computer  and the free Kindle Reading App works on your smartphone, tablet and computer.

Ancestor Birth Record Finder: Tips on Finding a Birth Record When You've Hit a Brick Wall is available on Amazon as an E-Book for only $1.15

 Ancestor Marriage Record Finder: Tips on Finding a Marriage Record When You've Hit a Brick Wall available as an E-Book on Amazon for only $1.15

 Ancestor Death Record Finder: Tips on Finding a Death Record When You've Hit a Brick Wall available as an E-book on Amazon for only $1.15

You can also see a list of all Olive Tree Genealogy's published E-books on the Author page

Twenty-five skeletons found on farm

Archaeologists have unearthed more than two dozen skeletons in what is thought to be an ancient cemetery at Chester Farm, near Irchester.
It is hoped the exciting discovery may shed further light on the 2,000-year-old Roman settlement and give another glimpse into what life was like in Roman Britain.

Read More About The 25

Living With The Dead

HIDDEN between tomb stones and ancient crypts, this Filipino graveyard has become an unlikely living city for poverty stricken families.

North Manila Cemetary in the Philippines is home to more than 10,000 people too poor to afford rent in one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
Originally home to caretakers, the living population of the cemetery started to grow as generations hit by poverty moved into their family crypts, sleeping with the deceased remains of parents and grandparents.

Read More

 

Skeletons of war dead from 11,000 BC go on display

Oldest War Dead

Lying on their sides, curled together, the two skeletons on display for the first time at the British Museum look peacefully laid to rest. But the razor-sharp stone flakes scattered around and among the bones are the remains of ancient weapons, with a myriad breaks and slash marks on the skeletons. The two are among the oldest war dead in the world, men who died a brutal death after violent lives 13,000 years ago.
The cemetery they came from, on the banks of the Nile in what is now northern Sudan, is famous among archaeologists: dating from about 11,000 BC, it is among the oldest organised burial grounds in the world. However, the finds, including the shattered bones of scores of men, women and children and the remains of the weapons that killed them, have never been exhibited before.

Read More About War Dead

The 'oldest tree in Europe' discovered in a Welsh cemetery

5000 year old yew tree in Wales

I don't normally blog about trees (well perhaps Family Trees) but as this one is in a cemetery its worthy of note. Experts say a yew tree found in St Cynog’s churchyard in Wales, is probably Europe’s oldest living thing.

The tree is more than 5,000 years old, that's 3,000BC. It started growing about 500 years before the Pharaohs in Egypt built the Great Pyramid of Giza. And it was a sapling at about the time work first began on building Stonehenge.

If only it could talk.

Down syndrome in medieval France

The 1500 year old skull of a young girl with Down Syndrome

New research by archaeologists in France have discovered what is believed to be the oldest case of Down syndrome in the archaeological record. Archaeologists had originally discovered the skeleton of a young girl aged about 6 years old in 1989, when they excavated it along with 93 other skeletons from a 5th to 6th century cemetery located near the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in northeastern France. Researchers had suspected at the time of the excavation that the child may have had Down syndrome, but they believe they can now confirm the diagnosis.

End of the World in in Ancient Egypt

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an epidemic in Egypt so terrible that one ancient writer believed the world was coming to an end.

Read More About The Epidemic

The Coffin Plate Of William Burke 1898

The Coffin Plate of William Burke

This simple coffin plate is for William Burke who died at the young age of 12 in the year 1898. Its not a fancy or expensive coffin plate so I would say that Williams family were not wealthy.  

The Oldest Pants in the World

The Oldest Pants in the World

A team of scientists has recently discovered the worlds oldest pants in some ancient tombs in northwest China. Radiocarbon dating puts them at 3,000 to 3,300 years old.

I wonder if my Levi's will be around in 3,000 years.

Eight decades in the wrong grave: Map collection helps solve family mystery.

WW1

For 84 years, Private William Phillips was missing, lying underneath another man's headstone.

The soldier was killed in the final months of the war, when the front lines were moving quickly. He was buried on the battlefield near Bray-sur-Somme, but when the graves were moved into cemeteries in 1919, he was recorded as missing, his body classified as an unknown soldier.

 
Read More

Remains of 40 Confederate soldiers discovered in Virginia cemetery

Their remains sat, unmarked, in shallow graves at the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va., for decades. Now, some 150 years after the Civil War, the bodies of 40 Confederate soldiers discovered over the past two months will receive a proper memorial.

Read More About The 40 Confederate Graves

Large mudslide reported at Baltimore cemetery

In what could have been a very upsetting event, video captured Thursday a huge mudslide at Western Cemetery in Baltimore. The video shows several headstones that were dislodged. Some ended up at the bottom of the mudslide. Officials at the cemetery stated that no graves were damaged.  They said while some tombstones were dislodged, the area where the mudslide occurred was where those tombstones are stored.

To read more about the mud slide at Western Cemetery in Baltimore go Here

Were Ancient Romans poisoned by lead?

A Roman Lead Pipe

Some historians argue that lead poisoning plagued the Roman elite with diseases such as gout, and may even have hastened the Empire’s fall. How far the gigantic network of lead pipes used in ancient Rome compromised public health in the city is unknown. However, lead isotopes in sediments from Portus – the harbour of Imperial Rome  – register the presence of a strong anthropogenic component during the beginning of the Common Era and the Early Middle Ages.

Read More

Coffin Plate Of Emanuel C Beam

Emanuel C Beam

This coffin plate for Emanuel C Beam is without a date but we can tell from the style of plate and the frame it is displayed in that it dates from around 1880~1890. The photo was taken in Washington NJ so I went and had a look in the 1880 USA Census and found Emanuel living in Mansfield, Warren, New Jersey.

1880 United States Federal Census

Emanuel Beam born 1868. Son of Joseph and Mary living in Mansfield, Warren, New Jersey.

 For more Coffin Plates try Ancestors at Rest

GGGGGGREAT Gramps was a Neanderthal

Is he in your family tree?

Neanderthals and modern humans, tens of thousands of years ago, had sex with each other in Europe and Asia. For this reason, we as modern humans still carry Neanderthal DNA in us. Researchers from Edinburgh University and Wageningen University come to this conclusion based on a comparative statistical analysis of DNA from Neanderthals and humans.

Read More

Saxon bones are significant archaeological discovery

Bones unearthed by landscape gardeners laying a driveway at a house in Purley have been hailed as a significant archaeological discovery after it was confirmed they are at least 1,200 years old.
The skull and thigh bone discovered in Riddlesdown Road on April 14 have been analysed by experts who say they are Saxon and date back to between 670 and 775AD.

Read More On The Saxon Bones

Sharing Memories Week 12: Gardening

Olive Tree Genealogy blog has a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

This week's prompt is Gardening

For some reason I didn't inherit the Gardening gene that runs in my family. My paternal grandparents loved to garden, as did my great grandfather Massey. My grandparents always had a huge vegetable garden chock full of tomatoes, potatoes, even asparagus.

My parents always had a vegetable garden and grew their own tomatoes, beans, onions, cucumbers and more. My sister is the same. But not me. I hate weeding and all the work involved. The sun is too hot, the bugs are thick, all in all it's not fun.

Flower gardens are the same thing. Many of the females in my family have beautiful gardens. In fact my mother's garden was on a Gardening Tour in town. I appreciate how great their gardens look but it seems like an awful lot of work!

The only kind of gardening my wife and I do is a small herb garden. That's my wife's thing but I help out with watering. Other than that, I keep away from it!

52 Ancestors: Crabby Uncle Bill Massey

I'm writing about my Uncle Bill Massey as part of Amy Crow's Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks .

 

Bill Massey in WW2

Every family has its characters and one of the characters in my family was my Uncle Bill. Everyone called him Groundy but I don't have a clue how he got the nickname or what it meant. A life-long bachelor, he was one of the crabbiest people I ever met! 

He was my grandfather's brother and was the second oldest of 9 children. I remember Uncle Bill vividly because my grandfather took me to visit him frequently. But I didn't know him well at all because I was very young and he never spoke to me, nor did I speak to him. I just sat and listened. He probably didn't care for children much. And I was only 13 when he died.

What I remember most is the image in my head of him at the kitchen table drinking with my grandfather. Uncle Bill was a heavy drinker and always had a whiskey nearby. His house was almost empty of furniture but he kept it very tidy and clean. I remember sliding in my sock feet on his hardwood living room floor. You could get a good run at it and slide a long way as nothing got in your way. Everything had its place and nothing was ever moved.

His early life is a mystery to me but someone once told me he worked at the St. Mary's Cemetery at some point in his life. I have a vague memory of being told that he once lived in a trailer by a gas station. It seems sad to not know anything more. 

He volunteered in WW2 and I was told that he drove a jeep in Europe as the driver for a film crew. But the one and only time I asked Uncle Bill if he ever got any medals, he scowled and told me it was all a bunch of "BS". So I never asked again. My grandmother told me that the only time Bill talked about his time in WW2 was when he was very drunk. 

While Bill was a life-long bachelor I know that during the war he had a girlfriend. It didn't work out but he must have cared for her very much because he kept her photograph until he died. I now own this photo but I don't know her name.

Uncle Bill was an amateur woodworker and a blanket box that he made is in my house. 

When I was 13 years old, Uncle Bill died of a heart attack while shovelling snow. His death came as a shock to me because he was a family character and as such you figure they will always be around. In some ways he is still with us because he's one of the members of our family whose name comes up most frequently when I'm talking with anyone else in the family. Everyone remembers Uncle Bill.

More ancient skeletons uncovered

 

Black Death

Yet another clutch of ancient skeletons has been uncovered during excavations for the Crossrail transport project in central London. It's thought that the group of skeletons dates from the time of the 'Black Death' - the plague which wiped out about a third of the British population in the middle of the 14th century.

Read More

The Coffin Plate Of Elizabeth Scafe 1878

Elizabeth Scafe Coffin Plate

Elizabeth Scafe

DIED

June 2 1878

Aged 23 Years

For more Coffin Plates go to Ancestors At Rest

Coffin Plates

Sharing Memories Week 17: One Ringy Dingy Two Ringy Dingy

Olive Tree Genealogy blog has a Genealogy Writing Challenge. It's 52 weeks of writing your own memoirs.  Lorine will be posting a weekly prompt each Sunday on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic Sharing Memories

The first week's prompt was about Kindergarten. You can read Lorine's blog post for the first week at Challenge: 52 Weeks of Writing Our Memories - Kindergarten Days

This week's prompt is One Ringy Dingy Two Ringy Dingy  All about telephones.

When I was little all the phones were rotary dial. I don't know if pushbutton phones had been invented but no one I knew had one. I imagine there are lots of young people who have never seen or used a rotary dial telephone.

My mother told me that when she was a little girl they had an old-fashioned crank phone and were on a party line. She said everyone on that line listened in on everyone else's conversations. You had to memorize your ring (2 short or 1 short 2 long for example) as everyone on the party line had their own ring.

My grandparents had a party line and I could never figure out whether or not we were supposed to answer it. I couldn't remember our pattern of short and long rings. But that didn't matter because my grandparents didn't believe that children should be answering the phone anyway.

My grandmother, who lived in a very small town, was an operator for Bell Telephone for many years. I remember her telling me how the operators liked to listen in on other people's phone calls even though that was strictly against company policy. She said that way they knew all the gossip. So if you are worried about Google and big tech companies looking at our stuff online, guess what? It's been going on forever, just in a different format!

Credits: "Vintage Telephone" by Daniel St.Pierre on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

52 Ancestors: Oscar Massey Accused of Stealing Rifles in 1919

March 1919. Pueblo Chieftan

My cousin 3 times removed was Oscar Massey. He was born in Colorado in 1893. While researching him (because I research all siblings of my direct ancestors) I found some interesting news articles about him being arrested in 1919.

It seems that in March 1919 Oscar and a buddy Grover Roberts were arrested and charged with stealing rifles and pistols from the Sante Fe Railway. Oscar got off eventually but I've never been sure he didn't do it. I think it might have been a case of having friends on the jury and being well-known and liked in the town.

In any case here's his story in newspaper clippings:

 Accused Burglars Attend Courts of Numerous Degrees Prisoners, Charged with Robbing Box Cars Arraigned before Justices (News Article)

Date: 1919-04-05; Paper: Pueblo Chieftain, published as: The Pueblo Chieftain

Jury is Picked to Try Oscar Massey (News Article)

Date: 1919-05-24; Paper: Pueblo Chieftain, published as: The Pueblo Chieftain

Massey Freed of Burglary Charge (News Article)

Date: 1919-05-25; Paper: Pueblo Chieftain, published as: The Pueblo Chieftain