THE CUTEST COUPLE!

Robert and Jean Brooks

Phoenix AZ

September 2013

My semi-annual trip to Arizona just ended and it was a great time with my parents.  We did a lot of family history and I exported 4 gedcoms.  The Brooks gedcom has over 1500 names and the Hammon/Slater/Belnap gedcoms have 3000+.  Silly me - I had originally thought about doing this all by hand.

I also spent time with my mother going through 600 photos that my amazing cousin, Jimmie Lee Guinn, scanned from her mother's unsorted stash.  I will get around to posting some of them soon.  There were many I had never seen and my mother's ability to go through and recognize people was fantastic.  She may not know remember who is coming when but she knows all of her father's siblings on sight!

My other big job is preparing my mom and dad's annual Christmas card.  Here's some pictures we took for that:

We celebrated my brother's birthday and our anniversary in the private Sagewood Dining Room.

Guess who Robert and I look like most!

Our Growing Family!

We are overjoyed to be expecting our first grandchild.  This weekend Jessi and I hosted a shower for Dani.  It was an occasion for family to gather.  The theme was "your favorite storybook" and Dani's baby will now have an amazing library of books to choose from.  Three months to go before we can start reading them!

A perfect ballerina dress!

Jessi, Christine Guymon and Dani

Sometimes family doesn't come by birth.  Mary Jane Guymon and I have known each other for almost 30 years.  She is the sister I never had and it's always a treat to get together.

A Lost Family!

The Palmer family seems to enjoy reusing names, especially Truman. So you can imagine how confused I was to find another Truman. This one came from a second family of the eldest Truman.  The Truman Palmer who was born in 1798 in Vermont lost his first wife, Meribah or Merab, in 1837. But I found him in the 1855 New York census with a wife named Elisa M. His daughter, Sarah Cecilia, was also there. But she was from his wife Merab. Only after locating the graves of Truman and Merab did I find two more children both to Elisa.  Truman and Robert were born in 1839 and 1845, respectively. Sadly they died a week apart in December 1851.  Both Trumans, Merab and Sarah are buried in the same cemetery. I will have to look for Elisa. And there are more Trumans in the family. Alvah Palmer, the elder Truman's brother, named a son Truman. And there is a Walter Truman Palmer in the family!

It was sad to learn that neither of Truman's young sons lived to carry on his name. But I was glad that I pursued the 1855 census to find his second family.

New York New York!

I am coming to the realization that all of Phil's family - both Norton and Palmer - were in upstate New York within a 100 mile radius during the 1800s.  Yet the two families didn't come together until Doris Palmer (from Pennsylvania) and Clinton Norton (from Michigan) met at the University of Rochester in the 1950s.  Nearby were the final resting places of their grandparents.  The Palmer side  stretches from Buffalo (where the Pattisons are buried) to Alfred (where the Palmers are buried).  The Nortons can  be found in Geneseo with status as founding pioneers of Groveland.  And just over the line in Pennsylvania we have the Hacketts.

Now I just need to organize my thoughts and research to spend a week or two driving the backroads!  But at least this week I'll be able to get to Geneseo and Temple Hill Cemetery for a visit with Asahel Norton. More picture to come I hope!

Pictures to come!

Our 4th of July Tradition

Our home in the Wisconsin Dells is the gathering place for Phil and I each Independence Day holiday. Phil makes waffles that we decorate in red, white, and blue. This year our numbers are few.  Rose, Dani, Dave, Phil and I made the trek along with dogs Riley and Sonny.  But the waffles (including gluten free) were great!  Lisa was across the pond in London, Jessi celebrated with Zach in Boston and Phillip joined Paty's family for their annual BBQ and picnic. Maybe these pics will bring them up to the Dells next year!

The big news?!

IT'S A GIRL!!

Pappy's Old Homeplace - Russellville Ark

Thanks to Mariruth for sending these photos from the only Brooks reunion in 1988.  We visited Nanya's place at 302 E 5th St.  I love the 80s hair on Bev and Mariruth!  I can see my father in the background of these pictures.  I was back in Russellville in 2004 with my father and mother.  What I remember most was the amazing magnolia trees and flowers in the Russellville cemetery.  I'll have to see if I took a picture then.

William Wellington Norton & Jennie Belle Lewis Marriage

I know that part of being a genealogist is locating original records.  But all my past attempts have met with silence on the part of the governmental unit contacted.  This time I went through the internet and found the record in Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota!  For $9 this is what I got:

Many things fascinate me about this marriage license -
1.  It is certified!
2.  It lists William's father as Reverend A.W. Norton and a licensed minister.  A.W. is also listed as having an address in St Paul.  Though I knew A.W. was a professor and college president.  I was unaware that he was actually an ordained minister.  I also thought of him as living in the Dakotas, not Minnesota.  Not sure when the move happened.
3.  It leaves the mystery of how William and Jennie Belle met.  I believe that William Wellington was a student at the University of Minnesota.  I would love to know the real story.