My father-in-law, William, was apparently named for his great uncle William Keetley according to some writing in his baby book about why he was given his particular name. The writing was placed there by his mother, Helen (Legare) Keetley. A picture of that writing can be seen below.

Did Helen mean “great” or “grand” uncle? Those terms have been recently debated on Facebook as to which is the correct phrase for which generation.

If she was referring to “grand”, what I would have incorrectly called “great” up until a few years ago, she would have been referencing a sibling of William’s grandfather.

If she was referring to “great”, she would have been referencing a sibling to William’s great grandfather.

I know of no connection to a William Keetley in this family. My father-in-law’s grandfather was Jesse and he is the only one that I have knowledge of so far. I do not know who his parents or siblings were.

Considering she wrote “Uncle” William first, and then corrected it to “Great” uncle, I am thinking that she was leaning towards a sibling of her father-in-law. Then she realized that she was supposed to be writing this from her son’s point of view, and corrected herself.

Unfortunately I have no idea what she actually meant, but it gives me hope that I can find a William Keetley somewhere in South Carolina, giving me new leads on this record-scarce family!

Last year I wrote about a possible family for Jesse (you can read about them here!). There was a William listed in that family so maybe that is a path to investigate next.

My next step would probably be to research that family a little more, and see if there are any connections to them in William’s DNA matches.

I am hoping for a breakthrough on this line this year!!

One of my husband’s lines descend from a very long line of Daniel Legare’s. This line of Legare has been in the U.S. since at least 1691. This is when Francois Legare and his 2 sons, Daniel and Stephen, were admitted into the colony of Massachusetts.

Another son, Francois Solomon Legare, had gone against his father’s wishes and married, he also came into the country around this time. This son is the one my husband descends from. He moved to Charleston County, South Carolina and started his family.

Solomon, as he was known, had at least seven children that I know of. One of these children were named Daniel. Was he named for Solomon’s brother? Was it a common name in the Legare family back in France?

Daniel Legare was born in 1708 and died in 1790. (You can read his will here). Daniel had a son Daniel (1737-1791) and his brother Nathan also had a son Daniel (1781-1854). It seems like there are at least 2 Daniel’s for each generation.

This line of Daniel’s comes all the way down to my husband, who was named after his great grandfather Daniel Legare (1888-1966), and several of his cousins, who also have the name , albeit with differing surnames.

The Daniel’s in our line end with my husband, and I am not sure how many are left in other lines!

This week I decided that the procrastinating I’ve been doing for the last several years is not working for me anymore. I am not getting any younger, I am finding more and more “stuff” that I really don’t need or use, and life would be much easier if I finally put my decluttering plans into action.

My husband bought me a new desktop computer for Christmas, so now is the perfect time to get started. I have created folders and started scanning papers in order to cut down on all the piles and boxes of paper I have been “collecting”.

I have decided to take the same action with my genealogy!

I will start with my genealogy do-over, (started by Thomas MacEntee @ Abundant Genealogy) which I have been looking into for several years.

I need to get my tree and DNA paperwork organized, as I have a hard time finding documents for my blog posts, and I have DNA messages that I still have not responded to due to a variety of reasons.

I will start putting my paper files together, so that everything is all in one place, and organized. All other papers will be sorted into surname folders, or thrown away. Then I need to start scanning and sorting photos.

Alot of these plans are part of the Do-Over process, so following those steps should help clean up most of the mess. I also hope to be adding to my blog more consistently, starting with adding some links to my favorite websites.

UPDATE – So my plan has already had an issue as we lost power due to a snow/ice storm. Power was out for some people for 8-10 days, luckily we got ours back around day 5. Now to catch up and get back on track.

Lastly, if you are one of the people that have sent me a message on DNA and I haven’t replied yet, please bear with me, I am getting back to you soon!! Thank you.

Writing or talking about myself is something I usually don’t like to do, but I will try my best to give a quick overview of who I am.

I was born in 1972 in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. I am the only daughter, and oldest of 3 children, born to John McConnell and Lynette McKenzie.

My family has been in the Warrnambool area for a long time, beginning in about the 1850s. The majority of my family still live within 30 minutes of Warrnambool.

Growing up, my weekends were spent visiting family, going to Football and Cricket games, or fishing. My school holidays were divided between my 2 grandmothers, Rhoda (Absalom) McKenzie and Florence (Russell) McConnell.

In 2000, I moved to the U.S. and married my American husband. Since then, I have spent most of my free time researching his family tree, as his family is scattered across the U.S., and some of his lines are completely unknown to him and his parents.

I grew up close to family, having spent time with both sets of grandparents and 2 of my great grandparents, the others passing before I was born. I think I spent more time with my cousins than I did with my friends, and some of my cousins I classed as friends, rather than just as family.

I have 3 children, 2 of whom still live at home. My oldest has her own apartment, and my son is graduating high school this year. My days are spent helping my husband with our computer business, helping the kids with their online schooling and doing genealogy, when time allows.

Just while writing this blog post, I realize that I do not spend enough time writing about family or about myself, which I must remember to put on my To-Do List for next year. Thanks for listening!

Most people in the U.S. that I have talked to, think that because I come from Australia, my ancestors were convicts, but that is not the case. So far I have not found any ancestors that were convicts, most of my relatives came over from the U.K. between 1850-1875. Some of them I am still looking for their immigration details.

John Fuller Rose, as far as I can tell, is my earliest immigrant ancestor. He sailed from London, England to Sydney, Australia where he arrived on 18 May 1838 aboard the “Orontes“, with his wife and children.

John is listed below at the top of the page on line 35. He is 30 years old, married and is travelling with 3 children, 2 boys and 1 girl. He was brought into Australia by the government and was engaged by Mr. Dawson of George Street in Sydney.

The following card shows that John is the son of John and Elizabeth Rose from Shadwell, London. He is 30 years old and his occupation is a Brassier and Smith. Ann is the daughter of William and Elizabeth Newman also from Shadwell, London. She is either 31 or 32 years old and her occupation is a House Servant.

Their children are listed as:

1. F. 11 years 7 Apr. 1838
2. John 6 years died 5 Nov. 1837
3. Male child born 20 Feb. 1838 at sea
4. Mary Ann 4 years July 1837
5. Elizabeth 3 years died 28 Jan. 1838

Now, here’s where the catch comes in. Of all the children listed only 3 are supposedly alive when they arrived in Australia. That would be: F. the 11 year old, the male child born at sea, and Mary Ann the 4 year old girl. Two boys and 1 girl, like the passenger list at the top says.

John and Ann went on to have at least 4 more children after they arrived in Australia. Thomas in 1840, Charlotte in 1843, Sarah in 1846 and Catherine in 1849.

The other 2 children, John and Elizabeth supposedly died on the journey, however, according to records I have found, they both got married and had families. I am still looking for more passenger list records to sort this out. I had thought that maybe they were named after the deceased children, but their birth years are the same.

I definitely need to do more research on this couple and their children. I am just glad that little Mary Ann, my 3rd great grandmother, survived the journey. As for my 4th great grandmother Ann, giving birth on a ship, I cannot even begin to imagine what that was like!

A few weeks ago I wrote about Jack Keetley, a “Legend”, who rode for the Pony Express in Missouri and had a town named after him in Utah. In this post I will write about some of the family members that I have found so far. I hope to be able to follow them down through the years at some point soon to see if they come up as DNA matches.

In Jack’s obituary in 1912, it mentions he has a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Richards who was living in St. Joseph, Missouri. So I started there and looked for a 1910 census. I found a few Elizabeth Richards but nothing conclusive.

I searched for a death certificate next at Missouri Digital Heritage, part of the Missouri Secretary of State website. There were 16 results but only one mentioned Keetley in the name.

The death certificates states that Elizabeth was born in January 1837 in England, was a retired nurse, and was divorced at the time of her death in 1913 in St Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri.

Her parents are listed as John Keetley and Louisa Parrott, both born in England. (Jack’s death certificate also mentioned John as his father, with the mother’s name unknown).

Armed with this knowledge, and Jack’s obituary that listed his mother as dying in about 1902, I looked for a 1900 census for Louisa. I found her listed with 2 daughters in Washington Township, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri.

Louise was 90 years old, born in England in September 1809 and immigrated in 1850. She was widowed, a nurse, and a mother to 14 children, only 5 of whom were still living by 1900. She also owned her own home. Maybe there would be property records to look for!

In the household with Louise was Helen Keetley, a daughter. Helen was born in January 1853 in New York. She was 47 years old and single. Helen was not listed as a surviving sister to Jack when he died, so she must have passed before 1912.

I went back to the Missouri death certificates, and found one for Helen. This record states that she was 65 years old and born in 1844 in England. (Obviously something is wrong with the date and location of birth when comparing it the census). She passed away in March 1910, in Washington Township, Buchanan County, Missouri. Her parents names are listed as John Keetley and Louisa Parrott, both of England, and the informant was Elizabeth Richards.

The third person listed in the 1900 census was Emma Richards. She is a daughter of Louise, aged 63 and widowed, having been married 20 years. Her birth is listed as January 1837 in England, which is the same date as Elizabeth. She is also listed as a Richards. Is this Elizabeth? It also says that she is a mother to 4 children, 1 still living.

I searched the Missouri death certificates and couldn’t find an Emma Richards.

In 1880, Elizabeth was living with H. K. White, presumably this is the same man as listed as the Informant on her death certificate, and the Executor of her will. He is living with his mother, S. K. White, and he is working as an Attorney at Law. Elizabeth is 43 years old, working as a Domestic/Servant and is divorced.

I looked for a will for Louisa, Helen and Elizabeth, unfortunately Elizabeth’s was the only one I found.

Elizabeth wrote her will on 9 May 1905 and added a codicil on 10 May 1905 and listed several people by name and relationship.

1. daughter, Julia Richards
2. son, John Richards
3. sister, Louisa Riley
4. sister, Hettie/Harriett Keetly
5. niece, Cappie Cyle
6. daughter, Alice Fisher
7. executor, Henry K. White
8. witness, Emily B. White
9. witness, Sarah K. White
10. children of Henry K. White:
    1. Hilda K. White
    2. Anna White
    3. Sarah White
    4. Mildred White
    5. Marion White
    6. Jean White
11. witness, C. V. Hickman
12. witness, Sidney S. Wilson (died in the latter part of 1911)

Elizabeth then added a second codicil on 23 September 1910, due to the death of her sister, Hettie/Harriett. She also revoked the inheritance to her niece Cappie Cyle and adjusted the inheritance to her daughters Julie Richards and Alice Fisher. Witnesses to this codicil were C. V. Hickman and Lloyd E. Thompson.

Hopefully this outline of the family so far shows how it all fits together. Most of the information corroborates other sources, with only a few discrepancies that will possibly be answered with more research. For now, without knowing if Jack’s family are actually related, it’s hard to invest more time. Maybe one day someone will read this post and have the answers I need, or even if I need future blog post ideas I can revisit this.

If you are related to any of the Keetley, Parrott, Richards, Riley, Fisher or Cyle names in these posts, please send a message. I’d love to hear from you. Thank you!

Casper Born, my husband’s 2x great grandfather, lived in Dahlgren, Carver County, Minnesota. He was born in 1844 and died in 1901.

While searching newspapers I came across the following article in the Weekly Valley Herald, dated 13 October 1898.

Casper Born left in our office last week a few potatoes which he raised for the first time this summer. They are called “New Salzer’s Champion of the World Potato,” said to be the greatest yielder in the world. They are a large handsome potato, and of superior cooking and keeping qualities. He will raise them for seed next summer.

This week I will write about Mrs. Augusta (Look) Buescher, and something that happened to her that could have been avoided. A simple mistake using flammable liquids around an open flame.

Augusta Look, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Look, was born in about 1880 in Minnesota. In about 1903, she married Ernest Buescher, son of Ernst and Maria Buescher. They lived in Young America, Carver County, Minnesota.

Augusta and Ernest had at least 6 children:

1. Lorena born 1905
2. Marvin born 1913
3. Roland born 1916
4. Wilford born 1918
5. Ernest born 1920
6. Louella born 1923

In December 1933, Augusta was washing clothes in the laundry room while her son, Marvin, was dry-cleaning a suit with Naptha, a flammable cleaning fluid.

There was a buildup of gas fumes in the room and when Marvin lit a cigarette, the gas exploded causing a fire. Both Marvin and Augusta were engulfed in flames. Augusta was seriously injured.

On 16 December 1933, Augusta passed away, on the way to the hospital in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota. She was buried on the 19 December in St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery, Young America, Carver County, Minnesota. You can see her memorial #96351465 on Find-A-Grave.com here.

This week Ancestry.com offered free access to their database – U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999, so I went in and looked up some family names. Unfortunately they didn’t have a lot for the places my husband’s family lived, but I did find his father in 1961 and 1962.

Here is Bill’s entry for his Senior year. The photo is from 1962 at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida.

Several years ago my mother-in-law gave me her high school yearbook for her senior year in 1966. She attended Hibbing High School in Hibbing, Minnesota so I decided to include it here too.

If anyone reading this has family in the 1966 Hematite yearbook, feel free to send me a message. I have the whole book, complete with photos and messages from several of Sharon’s classmates.

I also have a copy of the 20-year reunion booklet for the 1966 graduating class, that has a wealth of genealogical information for some of the people included.

John Clements was my 2nd great grandfather, the son of Thomas Clements and Ann [maiden name unknown] from Warwickshire, England.

John was born in about 1800 and was living in Victoria, Australia by 1856. Very late in life, in 1869, he married Sarah Sedgley, originally from Gloucestershire, England. She was born in about 1845, the daughter of William Sedgley and Phoebe Hunt.

On the evening of 11 May 1887, he was killed by a falling tree branch, aged 87. He left behind a wife, and two children, William John aged 18 and Eliza Jane aged 16. The following is a newspaper article that details the event.

I also have a copy of his death inquest, held 12 May 1887, it is 8 pages long. It gives the accounts of the evening from Dr Thomas Scott, who examined the body, his wife Sarah, his son William, Donald McQuin, a man who was working for the family, and Constable Hibblett from the Warrnambool Police Station.