GraveObsessions
Digging up my roots!
Stories from an addicted genealogist
From Colonial New England to Minnesota, Norway to the United States..
learn more about the families I’m researching.
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Ernest Loren Simpson
Ernest Loren Simpson – my grandmother’s father and my namesake (Well, his middle name at least!)
Susan Belle Stanwood
Susan (Stanwood) Clark Simpson was my grandmother’s mother, and the person whose roots I’ve spent my life searching!
Julia Christine Veland
Julia (Veland) Uphouse provides me with opportunities to research my Norwegian heritage! Her mother, Lisbet (Gravdahl),
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Discovering the real John M. Simpson AKA Morse!
Genealogy research is not for the faint of heart. One must have grit, determination and be of sound constitution to spend the hours often required to break through brick walls. My particular brick wall has been nearly 35 years in duration, and while not yet solved, it is getting close to toppling. For three decades
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Obed Sisco (1805-1898)
Obed Sisco, my 3rd great grandfather, was apparently a colorful character, as you will see from the letters and newspaper advertisements describing him. At 5’ 7”, Obed was a blue-eyed with a fair complexion and dark hair. He married three times and had at least 9 known children. Little is known of his early years,
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Susan A. Simpson
Susan Ann Simpson was born in Fort Covington, Franklin County, New York on 15 June 1847, the second child of six born to George W. and Achsa (Sisco) Simpson (and their only daughter). Aunt Susie (she was the sister of my great grandfather, Ernest L. Simpson) had surgery when she was young to have a
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Lumbering in Minnesota in the early 20th Century
If your colonial family came from Maine like mine did, they were likely engaged in or supported the lumber industry. Later, when the local forests were depleted and barren, many of those Mainers headed west to Minnesota and other regions where pine was still plentiful. Thus it was with my grandmother’s maternal family who relocated
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Time for a Happy Dance! Grandma Caroline Stanwood appears in Northfield, Minnesota!
Nearly fourteen years ago I posted (um, more like lamented) about my 3x great grandmother who seemed to completely disappear after the 1885 census. (Original post here.) I strongly suspected she was still alive in 1893 even though she was not listed as a survivor in the death announcement of her mother, Mary (Scott) White
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John Mayel Simpson – my 3x great grandfather
Brick walls in genealogical research are created often when we do not analyze information closely and instead make assumptions about what we are visualizing. Such is the case with my third great grandfather, John Mayel Simpson. In over thirty years of research, I’d made little progress on this family. And the reason? John rarely used
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Sifting census data with Maptive’s mapping to find the needle in the haystack!
Maps are every genealogist’s friend. When you understand where your ancestor’s lived, their proximity to towns, villages and others around them, it helps reveal those elusive details that we all hope to uncover. Sometimes, however, mapping is an absolute necessity, as in the case of identifying when and where my 3x great grandparents, John Mayel
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Welcome to the family, Uncle Bill!
Last week I wrote about finding the parents of my third great grandmother, Mina Wilson, by combing through clusters of autosomal DNA matches. Well, this week I get to add another person to the family tree: Uncle William M. Simpson! But first, some background: Far little is known about our Simpson family prior to my
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DNA demonstrates parentage of Mina Wilson
Who are the parents of Mina Wilson, wife of Obed Sisco? It wasn’t until I started playing with clusters of DNA that an answer appeared! Like most women of the early 19th Century, Mina didn’t have opportunities to leave much of a paper trail to give us hints about her origins and family roots. In
Lauren Rogers
Addicted Genealogist
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