A source I hadn't thought of before

Jessie Mack's Wedding Guest Book

photo courtesy of Nancy L. Hall

Listed on the page above (the ones I know, and in relation to me) are: Harold Dean Mack (grandfather), Burton A. Mack (great-grandfather), Blanche E. Mack (grandmother), Ethel S. Mack (wife of Aubrey B. Mack, (grand uncle), Minnie D. Mack (great grand aunt), Ethel M. Sparks (grand aunt) Willard Sparks (husband of Ethel), Robert Sparks (1st cousin 1x removed). 

For reasons known only to my inner self, I grew up as a virtual hermit. I know I had a family, a mother and a father, an older brother and a younger sister. I grew up surrounded by my mother's family. I have a handful of memories - happy ones mostly - of all of them. That is what it feels like - I hopefully have a lot more locked up inside somewhere). If I wrote a book today about my life growing up it would indeed be a short one, composed mostly of vignettes.

(Skipping over a lot of stuff) 

I don't have memories of people I never met, but I do have knowledge of them. Take my father's family for instance. I "know" them by names and dates. I have met some of them, but I think I can count the times on just my hands, and most of them on one hand. Who knows why? Does it even matter now?

The important part of this is that I am so very grateful to the people who have entered my life at this stage, who know and share my greater family. Some very good and generous people. While some are pretty distantly related, others are pretty closely related. Others are not related at all, but whose family members knew my family members.

All it takes is a little thread that meets at a certain connecting point with another little thread. Whether by design, or by chance, we have connected.

One of my favorite connections is my grandfather's sister's grand-daughter. She is a veritable fountain of family information and I cannot wait to meet her in person! I got inspired one day to ask if she had any family photos. Did she ever! I now have photo's of my great-grandfather Burton Augustus Mack (wish I had known him!) and some of my grandfather's siblings and their families. (I don't know who has my father's family photos. Wish I did. Do you?) So, Nancy - hurry up and get on Skype!

The new source of family information: the Wedding Guest book. I am fortunate to have my mother's mother's Wedding book. Sadly, no pictures, but I do have a clipping or two, a piece of the veil, the names of the some of the attending guests. Last summer, while visiting my cousin in Connecticut, I found out she had the wedding dress! Why do I never think to ask these things???

Thank you Nancy! Thank you Susie!

.

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Mary D. Mack, 1868 - 1921

Right under our very noses.

Mary D. Mack has been bugging me since I first discovered her listed on the gravestone for Burton Augustus and Minnie Mack. Located initially by a search in Findagrave.com, and by the grace of someone who recorded it and posted it on that website, I got a picture of the gravestone. [Yes, Jane and I did get to the graveyard last year but that's another story]

It turns out they aren't the only Burton and Minnie out there in the greater world, but they are the only Burton and Minnie Mack buried in Plymouth, MA. Which isn't Sandwich, MA  - where Pop said his grandfather was buried, but close enough - within 6 miles. I hadn't been able to find Burton in Sandwich, despite the efforts of the good people at the Sandwich Historical Society.

So who is Mary D. Mack?

Burton and Minnie's children were living in Everett, MA. Their grandchildren did not include a Mary D. Mack. Burton had two sisters, Mary "Minnie" and Etta Ellen Mack and a half-sister Martha Desire Mack that lived with his family back in 1871 in Nova Scotia. Maybe one of them?

Or maybe a second wife after Minnie died? An adopted child late in life? A relative from the "old country"?

Lying in bed the other morning trying to sort out the Drews, I was thinking that maybe it was time to go back and take a good look at the copies of the pages from John Dean Mack's family bible that Jane got from Aunt Marnie. Hah! Now I know it wasn't Martha Desire Mack - she died in 1874 and Etta Ellen died in 1908.

The last entry looks like _any Drew Mack, died 13 February 1921. Mary Drew Mack died in 1921. My best guess is that they are the same person. So, who wrote the entry in the family bible? That is another good question. Since the page are pretty worn, the color of the ink is consistent with the other entries, and the hand writing is pretty darn close, it may be Burton's. I do have samples of his handwriting - he was the enumerator for the 1891 census for Mill Village, Nova Scotia.

second page of Mack Family Bible

excerpt from 1891 Mill Village, NS census

I'm not sure. On closer examination, I can't tell if Burton ever wrote in the bible. So much for that course I took in graphology! My instinct tells me it was probably the women who wrote family information in the bibles. That leaves Drucilla, Minnie, Blanche (Nana/GiGi) and Marnie, but I don't have samples of any of their handwriting to inspect.

There seems to be a family resemblance in the handwriting. Have you noticed the same with your handwriting compared to your parents' handwriting?

When I was younger, my handwriting was very like Mom's... straight up and down, smallish, legible. Now my handwriting is more like Pop's - slanted to the right and a bit more flamboyant and at times erratic. Really hard to read sometimes, even for me. Dick's handwriting is like Pop's, distinctive and legible. Jane's is in between. Sometimes I can't tell whether I wrote note or she did. Funny. I don't think I consciously changed my handwriting; maybe some latent genes kicked in and made my handwriting change.

Looking back at the bible page, it looks like there were at least three, maybe four or more different writers.
The last one might be Marnie's handwriting. I wonder when she got the bible - and who had it before her.

I really would love to know who has it now.

Who is this fine fellow?

Shhhhh.
I've started a new project (don't tell Alex!).

Yesterday, I scanned the photos from Mildred Dikeman's photo album. Yay grandmother Mildred! She actually identified every photo but two. So, now we know who these fantastic people are.

Or do we? His name is Rufus G. Russell. I did not even know he existed until I started the photo project. So, last night I started poking around in ancestry.com and found out that he is Mom's great grandfather:

Marcia Stoddard (Mack) Ahlefeld > Mildred Dikeman Stoddard > Lillian Adella Russell > Rufus G. Russell.

Rufus was married to Elizabeth, and they lived in New Haven, Connecticut in 1880.

Lillian's brother is Byron G. Russell:

He was a minister in Rockport, Massachusetts in 1877. He was married to Sarah E.

It is so tantalizing to learn a few little facts... but even with these tidbits of information we can now dig a little deeper and find out more about them...

Elizabeth Ann Sanford Russell.

I wonder if this is Rufus's wife Elizabeth? I'm thinking it might be, but I haven't found proof of her other names. I need to find the marriage and death records - places where the parent's information would often be listed. The only identification of the photo was her name.

And does anyone know where this lady fits into the Russell family?

Loly Tirrell Russell wife of Ransom R Russell.

The inscription on the border of  the album said Mildred's great-grandmother. Rufus's mother I suppose. Unfortunately I can't tell from the U.S. Census reports from 1850, Prospect CT. The family is listed as:

Ransom Russell, 54
Lola, 48
Edwin, 20
Henry, 19
Caroline, 15

My guess is that Rufus is already out of the house - he would be about 22 at this time. I found Rufus on an 1880 U. S. Census, New Haven, CT ...

R. G Russell, 51
Elizabeth, 55
Oscar Dikeman, 33
Lillian A. Dikeman, 30

So let's do the math. 1880-1850 = 30 years ... Lillian is 30 years old. So it is likely that Rufus Russell is married to Elizabeth by 1850 and probably enjoying fatherhood as well. If we add in the birth dates of Byron was born in 1846, and Lillian born in 1849... well, I believe we have our answer.

It would be good to get the marriage and death records to verify this information. They are probably located in New Haven, or maybe the records are old enough to be in the Connecticut State Archives Library in Hartford.

Do you see why I'm hooked?