Artistic

            My mom loves to quilt – she does handmade quilting.  I can remember who doing what is called “crazy blocks” where the fabric was cut in different pieces and sewn together.  There was also a nine-patch.  Then she started doing other designs like Log Cabin and Wedding Ring.  Now, she is finishing up the projects she has started.

My paternal grandfather loved working with wood – he made lots of things.  I still have the doll crib and the vanity he made me.

I’ve mentioned some of these in the past as well as the people themselves.

·      Creativity from 2024

·      Favorite Photo was about my paternal grandfather

·      My Mother from 2014

·      Favorite Female Relative, also from 2014

Wedding Bells

           First, I’ll take a look at what I’ve written about previously.  Last year there was a topic entitled “Love & Marriage” where I talked about siblings marrying siblings and descending from two siblings.

   

    Wedding photos in my collection include mine.  This is both families.  We were married 31 August 1985 in Olympia, Thurston County, Washington. I also have a faded photo of my parents, who were married 30 August 1957 in Rochester,

Thurston County, Washington.  Mom gave me a bad time for not getting married on their anniversary.  Funny thing is, if you look up it up in the state/county records, you will see that our pastor goofed and used the 30^th of August as the date.

        Other photos include Henry Carl Kludt and Alma Nelson from 1907 and Oiver Wendell Belles and Henrietta Louise Niehaus from 1919.

I thought I had more . . . oh well.

Reunion

        Family Reunions and Class Reunions are common for us.  Growing up I remember Mom’s class reunions.  Mom (Joyce Keesee) graduated from Rochester High School in 1956.  The class size was very small – between 20-30 people.  I can remember helping her put together reunion booklets detailing the life of the classmates – what happened since the last reunion.  Rochester also put on all-class reunions every year.  We would go to the family picnics. Dad (Bill Kludt) never went to his class reunions.  He graduated from Centralia High School in 1955.  Although, he stayed in touch with a few of his buddies.  His grade school, Galvin, also held student reunions.  But he didn’t attend those either.  Although, his sister did.  Of course, the school no longer exists – it closed in 1961 as a grade school but was used by the college for an electronics class and was headquarters for the ESD 113 Film Library from 1971-76.  It was offered for sale in 1984.[1]

       I graduated from Centralia Senior High School in 1978.  I remember attending our first class reunion 5 years later – it was held at the old Scout Office in Chehalis on a Saturday with a family picnic the following day at Borst Park.  We also had a reunion at the former Centralia Eagles (it’s now a church).  The last two reunions have had a social at Dick’s Brewery on Friday night with the main reunion being held on Saturday evening at the Grant Hodge Legion Post 17 building in Centralia.

       My husband, David, graduated in 1969 from Tumwater High School.  I remember we attended his 20-year class reunion.  It was the first time I met his buddy, Stan.  Stan was in his Dress Whites (Navy).  We also discovered that one of David’s classmates is the mother of a girl in our son’s daycare.  We’ve attended several more reunions as well as annual socials.

       Our son, Nathan, graduated in 2007 from Tumwater High School.  Unfortunately, he has not been able to attend any of his class reunions.  The first one was when he was in the Navy and now, he lives on the East Coast.

       Family Reunions were popular on my mom’s side.  We didn’t have any on my dad’s.  Mom’s immediate family always got together on Thanksgiving.  We got so big we could no longer hold them at people’s homes – we had to go to community halls. Every year they were held someplace different – alternating between Washington and Oregon.  Then we started having a family camp-out every summer.  These also moved around.  This tradition is still continuing.  Although, I haven’t been able to attend.

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[1] From History of Centralia Schools, https://www.centraliaschooldistrict.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=3715672&type=d&pREC_ID=2427241

 

 

Military

           I have lots of veterans in my family.  I’ve written about some of them.  Last year we had a prompt entitled “War”.  Within that blog entry are links to the American Revolution and Civil War.  I have another blog entry entitled “Family Veterans” which has a link to an earlier post on the same topic.

I recently joined Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War using my ancestor Thomas Stead.  I referenced him briefly in the post on Veteran Ancestors in 2016.  He enlisted as a private on 16^th of August 1862 and served in the company of Capt J W Jewhursts, Regiment #9 from New York as heavy artillery.  His service ended (via telegram) on 6 July 1865 (160 years ago!) as a corporal.

Thomas was born 7 January 1847 in England to James Stead and Mary Ann Tolson.  The family immigrated to the United States when he was very young (age 0-3). They initially settled in Seneca Falls, Seneca County, New York.  Sometime between 1860 and 1870 the family moved to Dundee, Kane County, Illinois.  Thomas married Arabella Brown, daughter of Daniel Brown and Ann Barge,  on 1^st July 1873 in Kane County, Illinois.  He died 5^th of October 1910 in Dundee, Kane Co, Illinois.  Thomas and Arabella had five children.

         I could submit a supplemental on Arabella’s father, Daniel.  He was a private in the 124^th Illinois Infantry as of July 1863.  Another record indicates that he was in Company D of the 52^nd Illinois infantry.  Daniel was born in England circa 1819 and died 18^th of September 1863.  He married Ann Barge on the 14^th of August 1852 in Red Bank, Monmouth Co, New Jersey and they had a total of five children.

Wheels

           Oh my . . . lots of thoughts here.  Let’s start with road trips.  Growing up, our family did a lot of Sunday drives and camping trips.  We had one camping trip that was several weeks long.

       The year was 1976, the bicentennial of our nation.  The last bale of hay went into the barn (that tells you it was July).  The next day, we pulled out of the driveway with our tent trailer.  I think our first night was spent in Spokane with Uncle Vic.  We then continued on Highway 2 towards Glacier National Park.  We had a flat tire on the tent trailer and the nearest place that could fix it (on a weekend) was in Missoula, Montana (we were in Kalispell).  So, we headed south to get the tire, then back north.  Only made it to Hungry Horse just outside of Glacier (west side).  Next day, we entered the park.  Oh oh . . . we are too long.  Had to leave the trailer behind.  So we only went halfway.  I can remember seeing The Weeping Wall.  The road was very narrow.  Remember seeing several motor homes hitting their mirrors on the rock walls.  Once we reached the summit area, we turned around and went back to get our trailer then drove around the park.  We continued across Montana into North Dakota when we turned south to go to Herriod, South Dakota.  Mom had a classmate that lived here.  We stayed on their ranch for several days.  I can’t remember if we did Theodore Roosevelt National Park (before it was a park) before getting to Herriod or if we did it afterwards.  I just remember us driving through it.  We also did the Badlands (before it was a national park).  I remember us staying the night in Pierre (after Herriod).  It was pouring down rain and lots of thunder and lightening.  The next day we went to Mt. Rushmore.  We then continued on into Wyoming to see Bighorn National Forest and Yellowstone National Park.  We spent several days at Yellowstone touring the park.  We then went on to Oregon and stayed a few days with another of mom’s classmate in Prineville before heading home.  I think we were gone for at least three weeks.

       I have done other road trips after reaching adulthood – some were for genealogy like flying to Kentucky (1982) and staying with family for about two weeks driving all over the area in Pike County and flying to Iowa with my aunt (1984) to do research in Fayette County and visit with family for about a week.  I also flew to South Dakota to stay with a former classmate for about a week (1980).  My aunt & I also drove down the Oregon coast after looking for headstones in a cemetery in Warrenton, Oregon (either in 1981 or 1983).

       Of course, after I married my husband, we went on several trips – the first was our honeymoon.  We drove down the Oregon Coast all the way to Disneyland in California.  Spent three days at Disneyland, then a day at Knottsberry Farm and a day at Universal Studios before driving back home.  We’ve done several other road trips and cruises that are written up in my blog.

·      2014 Vacation Road Trip

·      2015 Our Caribbean Cruise Vacation

o  Boston

o  Sea Days before Puerto Rico

o  Puerto Rico

o  Sea Day & Bonaire

o  Curacao

o  Aruba

o  Jamaica

o  Grand Cayman

o  Cozumel, Mexico

o  New Orleans

·      2021 Retirement Road Trip – Route 66

·      2022 Cruising Alaska

·      2023 New England/Canada Cruise

·      2024 Panama Canal Cruise

·      2025 Road Trip – Historic Lincoln Hwy (not finalized)

Hmm . . . I can see some road trips missing that I haven’t written up (at least in my blog).

·      2008 Train Mountain, Chiloquin OR

·      2009 Washington areas

·      2010 Everett/Marysville/Washington Coast into Oregon.  We also had a flight to Chicago to see our son graduate from Navy Boot Camp.

·      2011 Flight to South Carolina

·      2013 National Park tour including Craters of the Moon, spending time with family in Colorado, Garden of the Gods, 4 Corners, Arches National Park, Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats.

·      2016 Flight to Virginia – drove to Washington DC, then to Pennsylvania before flying home.

·      2017 Bellingham loop

·      2018 Another Caribbean cruise

·      2019 Another National Park tour including Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone, and Canyonlands.

      We also did a Columbia River road trip with my parents when our son was in grade school.  We drove to the beginning of the River in British Columbia, Canada.  The plan was to follow it all the way to the mouth at the Pacific Ocean.  Storms in Grand Coulee prevented us in completing the trip (although we did continue to at least Portland).  We finished it up a year later by starting in Portland and then went down the Oregon coast.

       Oh, besides road trips, I do have mechanics in the family.  My brother was a heavy duty diesel mechanic.  My dad was a mechanic in the National Guard as well as spending 37 years driving school bus.  And his dad also did mechanical work for Weyerhaueser.

At the Library

           Community libraries are a fantastic source of information.  I can remember going to our local library (a former Carnegie Library) to join the summer reading program and check out books to read.  What a great way to get to learn things – I remember reading the Little House on the Prairie books, and biographies about Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, the Spaldings, and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce as well as books about nurses like Clara Barton.  By the time I was in 7^th grade, I was reading adult books by Daphne Du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Georgette Heyer, and any books in the Harlequin Romance & Presents series.

       So, when it came time to do genealogy, where did I go – the local library!  At that time, you can order census records through interlibrary loan and use the libraries microfilm readers to search for your ancestors.  Then I learned about the Family History Library (now Family Search Center) where you can also order census records and church records on microfilm to view there at the library.  You can tell I’m dating myself – this was in the early 1980’s.  Then we learned about the Seattle Public Library – it had almost an entire floor devoted to genealogy and history.  Nothing doing but plan a Saturday and spend the entire day at the library doing research.

       Now, almost everything is online.  Even libraries.  Not many have microfiche or microfilm readers.  Some have even done away with the genealogy section.  Parking is almost nil and could be expensive depending on how much time you spend there.  Covid also did a number on our libraries – I walked into one of my local libraries and the shelves were half empty!  That’s sad.  There’s nothing like reading a good book in your hands (not digital or audio).

DNA

 Has DNA helped me in my genealogy research?  Yes, it has.  I’ve touched upon this on a previous blog entry in January 2024 titled Origins.  Interesting how the companies have updated their estimates.

First, let’s look at the ethnicity.  Ancestry reflects that I have six regions.  These are as follows:

·      48% England & Northwestern Europe (reflected in the map as green)

·      40% Germanic Europe (reflected as blue)

·      5% Ireland (Orange)

·          3% Central & Eastern Europe (purple)

·          3 % Scotland  (brown)

·          1% Sardinia (teal)

The Central & Eastern Europe as well as Sardinia are regions I have not traced ancestry to.  Those must be my brick walls.

I have also uploaded my DNA data to other websites including MyHeritage, myFTDNA, and myLivingDNA.  You have to check all these sites periodically as they keep changing as more and more people test or upload their information.

 

MyHeritage has a different breakdown but still in Europe.

·      27.5% English

·      21.7 % Scottish & Welsh

·      21% Germanic

·      13.2% Dutch

·      5% East European

·      4% Danish

·      2.6% French

·      2% Breton

·      2% Irish

That really changed from earlier estimates.  East European must be the brick wall area as I haven’t traced families to those regions.

FTDNA has similar results with their myOrigins.

·     

71% England, Wales, and Scotland

·      20% Ireland

·      6% Greece & Balkans

·      <2% Central Europe

·      <1% Finland

Interesting results there too.  What’s real interesting is that Central Europe, which includes Germany is so low, when I have traced most of my Dad’s ancestry to Germany.

LivingDNA shows only Great Britain & Ireland – no Germanic or Central European.  So, here’s their breakdown:

·      29.3% East Anglia

·      26.4% Southeast England

·      9.9% South Central England

·      5.5% Northern Ireland & Southwest Scotland

·      5.4% Northumbria

·      4.6% Aberdeenshire

·      4.6% Northwest England

·      3.7% Cumbria

·      3.3% Ireland

·      3.1% South England

·      2.2% Central England

·      2.1% North Wales

This is great for breaking down the areas of England but I know I have Germanic ancestry.

Let’s create a chart to see the similarities and differences:

REGION	Ancestry	MyHeritage	FTDNA	LivingDNA
England & Northwestern Europe	48%	27.5%	71%	86.7%
Germanic Europe	40%	21%	Incl in Central Europe	Not incl
Ireland	5%	2%	20%	3.3%
Central & Eastern Europe	3%	27.8%	<2%	Not incl
Scotland	3%	21.7%	Incl in England	5.5%
Sardinia	1%		Not incl	Not incl
Finland	Not incl		<1%	Not Incl
Greece & Balkans	Not incl		6%	Not incl
Totals	100%	100%	100%	95.5%

 

I have traced my ancestry to Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France.  So, where does that leave Central & Eastern Europe?  How is Europe divided up into different regions?  Well, that takes us to the World Atlas to get the definitions.

·      Northern Europe consists of Iceland, United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland), Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  This region is also known as Baltic, British Isles, and Scandinavia.

·      Eastern Europe includes Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia & Ukraine,

·      Western Europe has Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, France, Liechtenstein, and Monaco.

·      Southern Europe has Portugal, Spain, Italy, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, and Vatican City.  This region is also known as The Mediterranean.

The highlighted are the parts of Europe that I have traced ancestry to.

How has DNA helped besides the ethnicity breakdowns?  It was able to break some of my German brick walls for the Kludt, Ahrendt, Reisner, and Haueisen surnames.  Actually, I’m still working on the Reisner & Haueisen families.  I looked at shared matches and locating the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) and narrowing it to my paternal side.  However, I need to be careful as the Kludt & Reisner’s had siblings marrying each other.  This information has been covered in the blog entry entitled “Brick Walls in Family Research”.