Happy Mother's Day!  

While searching for a favorite photo of my mom, I got caught up in a time-waster of making a family tree of photo's of the mothers in my lineage.  Of course, I don't have photo's of many of them, but I do have quite a few.

Amazing and miraculous to me is the thought that if ANY of these pregnancies, births, childhoods etc. had gone wrong, many of us would not be here. One cell dividing incorrectly. One genetic birth defect and this tree would fall apart. It is kind of mind boggling.

The root person on this tree is Amy Spaulding Barker who was the daughter of one of our Revolutionary Patriots! We are looking at the FACE of the American Revolution! Actually she was born after the war, and was the daughter of his 2nd wife, but he was only 33 when she was born, but hey, it's kind of cool.




Also of note is that Mike, Patrick and Kasper are not pictured here. It's a Mother's Thing. And we do know what they look like.  I'd like to add that some of the mothers depicted here really have to work on getting photos taken of themselves and their kiddos. Just sayin'. I might have worked harder at finder better pictures, but this had already sucked up more time than I wanted it to. The by-product is that it helps me organize my genealogy photos.

If anyone wants me to replace their photo with one that they prefer, you can send me the photo and I will do so.

Here are the alternate photos of Mom and Grandma that I considered. They're all good ones!

Ten on Tuesday Challenge!

The Ten On Tuesday prompt for Tuesday, May 3, 2016 is 10 Favorite Foods Your Mom Used To Make:

My first understanding of this challenge was that we were to choose 10 foods that we LIKED that our mom made. Sorry Mom, but that was really a challenge. Now just 10 items is easier!

1. Tuna Casserole  
2. Halibut steaks with a corn flake crust
3. Navy bean soup
4. Hamburger Soup
5. Banana Nut Bread
6. Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
7. BBQ Chicken
8. Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding! 
9. Chocolate Fudge
10. Christmas Fruit Cake 

What did I miss siblings?

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

    Catherine Lydia Phillips Johnson - 1826 – 1916    90 years old

Mary Jane Crance Todd      1841 – 1946    105 years old

2012 was the last time I posted! I am such a serious blogger, eh?

For some odd reason, this genealogy challenge caught my eye.  
The challenge came from GeneaMusings, where you can see the analyses of other professional and amateur genealogists! 

Here is the challenge: 

1)  We each have 16 great-great grandparents.  How did their birth and death years vary?  How long were their lifespans?  
2)  For this week, please list your 16 great-great grandparents, their birth year, their death year, and their lifespan in years.  

And here we go: 

On my side, Sara Byron's Great-great grandparents:

Francois Joachim Biron                     1821 - 1903     82

Harriett Thibault                                1824 – 1907    83

Edward C Johnson                             1823 – 1900    77

Catherine Lydia Phillips                     1826 – 1916    90

Charles Barker Todd                          1838 – 1900    61        lead poisoning from CW minie ball

Mary Jane Crance                              1841 – 1946    105

Wheelock Parmly Thayer                  1836 – 1884    48         accidental GSW

Elizabeth Sands                                  1840 – 1874    34       Typhoid

Johann Daniel Christ                          1793 – 1842    48

Anna Katharina Bakker                      1799 – 1844    44

I added the reason for death of the three GGG's that died earlier than the norm.  Charles Barker Todd had surgery on a minie ball that was lodged in his hip three times. My assessment is that the ball slowly poisoned him, based on diary entries by his wife and daughter and their lists of his decline and symptoms. 

Wheelock Parmly Thayer accidentally shot himself while chasing a rabbit out of his garden. Other diary entries and notes lead me to believe that he also suffered from PTSD from his experiences in the Civil War. Perhaps that's why a rabbit pissed him off so much. 

Wheelock's wife and 2 year old daughter both died of Typhoid. 

67	average age
63	avg age men
71	avg age women
1824	avg year of birth
1892	avg year of death

On my husband's side,  Robert Jeffers Great-great grandparents:

Michael Jeffers           1800 – 1855                55       

Elinore Mullen           1825 – 1897                72

John F. Brown             1817 – 1888                71

Margaret Johnson       1832 – 1868                36

Peter Gebhard              1829 – after 1920       91

Maria Ziegernweidt     1839 – after 1900       61

Caspar C. Pip               1828 – 1897                73

Agnes Spitzley             1831 – 1903                71

John Mahan               

Mary Jane McCarty     1820 -

Daniel Leary                1818 -

Mary Sullivan              1818 – 1882                64

Florent LeGere            1827 – 1904                77

Anne Cormier             1828 – 1908                80

Olivier Robichaud       1835 – 1914                78

Rosalie LeBlanc             1829 – 1930                101

72	average age
74	avg age men
69	avg age women
1825	avg year of birth
1897	avg year of death

It is notable that each of us had GGG's that lived to be over 100! I didn't see that in many other family trees.  
My other conclusion is that those French breed like rabbits and live forever.

Sara Byron
Ancestry Family Tree: Byron-Crist09