Following my post from two days ago, I am presenting the obituary for Julia Maria Austin Thorp.
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| Published in the Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, 13 Jun 1914, page 7 |
Happy
hunting,
Michigan Girl
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| Julia Maria Austin Thorp |
Today I’d like to talk about the wife of my half 2nd great granduncle, Julia Maria Austin.
It wasn’t until I was a few years into my research that I realized my paternal 3rd great grandfather, Monson Thorp, Sr. had been married prior to him marrying my 3rd great grandmother, Lany Cooper.
In finding that out, I came to also learn that his two oldest children, Ann Maria and Wallace Walter were children born to this first wife, Ann Eliza Armitage.
Then I was fortunate to visit with a 3rd cousin and his wife in Northville, Michigan and obtain a photo of Julia Austin. That’s when I learned she was the wife of Wallace Walter Thorp, my half 2nd great granduncle.
In doing further research on Julia I have located her death record, burial location and obituary. BUT, I had always wanted to find her parents and/or siblings. None of those records gave me the names of her parents.
There is an 1850 census in Chenango, Broome, NY that has a Julia, age 5 in a household with parents (William & Mary Austin) and siblings. Then in an 1855 NY state census this same family is enumerated and Julia is 10 yrs. old. Is this “our” Julia? That has always been my question.
By the time of the 1860 census I find a Julia Austin living in the Geer/Gere household with her age being 16 and she is listed as a domestic. The importance of this is her location, which is Skaneateles, Broome Co., New York.
That’s the place her future husband Wallace Walter Thorp was born and grew up. By about 1860, he was attending Auburn Theological Seminary, just 13 miles from Skaneateles.
I don’t know how Wallace & Julia met, but they were certainly in the same area at the appropriate time.
While I was writing this post a light bulb went off in my head.
You
all know how this feels. You’ve
researched a particular ancestor off and on for years and SUDDENLY it dawns
on you!
If 16 year old Julia is working in a household with a husband and wife, could they be part of her family? Is Elizabeth Geer her older sister?
Off I went back to the 1850 U.S. census and the 1855 NY state census to see who was enumerated in that household that I suspect to be Julia’s family. GUESS WHAT?!
There she is, Elizabeth Austin age 17, an older sister of Julia. And also in the household is baby Sarah Ann Austin, Julia’s younger sister.
CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT
In
the 1855 NY state census on the same page as Julia Austin’s family, is her
sister Elizabeth, with new husband, Fayette Geer and Julia’s youngest sister,
Sara. Although the census lists “sister” as the relationship between head of
household, Fayette Geer and Sarah Austin, she is really a sister to his wife.
I have just put this family together!!! Woohoo!!
Why sometimes, does it take us so long to put the pieces together? I honestly don’t have an answer to that. But, it has happened to me many times. I think as we research we remember different details and then they just fall together.
This process made me smile today.
What are your recent finds? I’d love to hear about them.
OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
A STATE CENSUS RECORD THAT LEADS TO A LOT MORE QUESTIONS–The Monson Thorp family
Happy
hunting,
Michigan Girl
This presentation will be put on by the San Diego Genealogical Society. You do not have to be a member to attend. This will be online via Zoom.
REGISTRATION is FREE and OPEN TO ALL
Here is the link https://www.casdgs.org/event-6104668
I look forward to seeing you there.
Happy
hunting,
Michigan Girl
Another year has come and gone and so has another Rootstech. This was my 5th time attending this conference.
Here
are my previous posts. Some of these
will give you a good idea of the things you can do, the fun you can have and my
preparation before going. It’s pretty
critical to have some kind of game plan if you intend to spend time at the
Family History Library. For me, that’s the biggest part of the Rootstech
experience, other than seeing friends, of course.
ROOTSTECH
PREPARATION (2018) – In this blog I share what I did to prepare when I
attended for the first time. It was not
my first genealogy conference and not my first time to the Family History
Library. However, preparation is a must,
at least for me.
And here is a post about attending "after" Covid.
ROOTSTECH
2023 ~ An overview of our week (2023)
Now
let’s talk about Rootstech 2025.
I
flew in on Sunday, March 2nd.
This gives me time to get a good sleep and be prepared to hit the FHL
first thing Monday morning.
I was getting my laptop up and running so I
could just “sleep” it for the next day. I
use Legacy Family Tree software and
all notes, references and sources are stored there, on my laptop. At home I use a desktop PC, but for travel I take my laptop. Worse thing that can happen, well one of the
worst. Your laptop decides to give you the
dreaded spinning blue circle and error messages. WHY? I
had just used this laptop for the entire previous week at home.
Two long and stressful hours later all was well. Thankfully, I’m a bit of a computer geek and not afraid to dig in and fix things. Whew! This is a perfect example of "anything" can and will happen.
My
friend and fellow blogger Debby Warner Anderson (Debby’s Family Genealogy
Blog) arrived about 6 p.m. Dinner
and back to the room to prepare for the next day.
This was Debby’s first trip to the FHL and Rootstech so I was excited for her to experience the incredible chance to be there among all those millions of records. It did not disappoint.
Later on Monday
afternoon our friend Pam Mohrman Paxton arrived after driving over from
Colorado. She and I have attended
together on all 5 times I’ve been to Rootstech.
Tuesday
and Wednesday were spent researching at the library. Some good finds were made
by all of us.
On Monday, I got to do something on my bucket list. Be a guest on Mondays with Myrt. Pat Richley-Erickson has been doing this podcast longer than I’ve been researching. She had retired a couple of years ago so I figured I’d never get the chance to appear on the show. But, because she came out of retirement and is hosting the show again, I got this chance. What fun!
You can find me at the 34 min mark and actually
speak at the 39:35 minute mark. Thanks
again Pat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6PKg22rbE
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| Debbie Gurtler, Asst. Director of the Family Search/History Library, me and Fran and of course Dear Myrt on the far right |
We picked up our badges on Wednesday afternoon. This year instead of walking over to the convention center, they offered to check us in, right there at the FHL. Very convenient.
There was a nice gathering at Dear Myrt’s (Pat Richley-Erickson) hotel where some of us got to laugh and chat in a more intimate environment.
The actual conference began on Thursday and ran through Saturday. There were lots of great classes offered. They ranged from beginner to advanced.
The first place I like to visit is the Exhibit Hall. I enjoy visiting booths that are associated with companies or websites I am familiar with. I do love collecting the ribbons and adding them to my badge.
As is usual for me, I attended just two classes, but enjoyed them both. My plan is to watch a few of the others that will be offered online.
Here
are the classes I attended: Finding Genealogical Gold in New England Probate
Records, presented by David Allen Lambert.
I always enjoy David’s presentations and this was no exception.
I
also attended Reasonably Exhaustive Research – Ireland presented by Richard
G. Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA. This was my
first time listening to Mr. Sayre and I thought he was engaging and extremely
knowledgeable about Irish Research.
On
Friday afternoon bloggers met up near the media center and took the usual group
photo. Unfortunately, this year, there
weren’t as many of us gathered for the photo.
But, nonetheless, it was fun.
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| The gathering of bloggers at the Exhibit Hall - What do you call a gathering of bloggers anyway? |
As to
the rest of the trip. The preparation I
did for the library and it’s fantastic holdings of records, paid off. I found many good bits of information on mine
and my husband’s ancestors. Stay tuned
in a future post for more on that.
My
flight home was uneventful and I’m always happy to be greeted by my husband,
Ron and my sweet dog Libby.
Here
are some scenes from Rootstech.
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| Me, Debby and Pam on our last night before we all head in different directions |
I will be back again…………………….see you in 2026
I’d
love to hear your thoughts about your time at Rootstech.
Happy Hunting,
Michigan Girl
