Definitely an ancestor

I just discovered this photo today (thanks to my cousin Lewis) and thought my family might enjoy it.
This is my 3rd great-grandmother on the Lewis side, Catherine (Wilson) Bishop. She was born 1828 in Lincolnshire, England. She came to Michigan in 1840, when the State of Michigan was only three years old. She died 1914 in Freeland, Michigan (which is near Saginaw.)

She and her husband, Samuel Bishop, also an immigrant Englishman, had eleven children together. Six of Catherine's children survived her. Her oldest daughter, Sarah, was the wife of my 2d great-grandfather, William Thomas Lewis.

She looks very much like Grandpa Lewis and Dad, I think.

Robert K. Smith and the Great War - A Veterans Day Remembrance

Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, after the Armistice which ended the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, the guns fell silent on the Western Front. This did not happen until the Great War had claimed the life of my great-uncle, Robert Kedzie Smith.

Robert was born 23 May 1898 to Thorn and Mertie Belle Smith. He was the oldest child in the family. (Our Pompo, Rossman, was not born until 1907. Pompo was the fifth child, preceded by Robert, Millard b. 1900, Thorn Jr. b. 1903, and Katherine b. 1905.)

Robert was the namesake of my Uncle Bob, and through him, my brother and cousin.

Robert's first and middle names came from Robert Kedzie, who was GGrandpa Thorn's professor and mentor at the school now known as Michigan State University. Prof. Kedzie was unusually lettered (both an MD and an LLD) and accomplished.

Robert Kedzie Smith

Robert was a Bugler (which was an Army rank during WW I) with the U.S. 32nd Infantry Div., 3rd Battalion. The division fought with great valor, and was given the nickname Les Terrible.

Our Robert was killed in action on 4 Aug 1917, during the Argonne offensive. On the day he was killed,

[t]he authorized strength of the 3rd battalion was 20 officers and 1,000 men, but by 4 August it had only 12 officers and 350 men on the line. As they advanced over 2,100 yards (1,900 m) of mostly open ground, the Germans targeted them with intense artillery and machine gun fire.

The division later penetrated the Hindenburg Line, and became the first Allied unit to reach German soil during the war.

Robert was nineteen when he was killed. His remains are interred at Fere-en-Tardenois, Departement de l'Aisne, Picardie, France. It is a beautiful, green place, born of great tragedy and sadness.

The American Cemetery, Picardie, France

RIP, Uncle Robert.

The Pump-house Project

Photo courtesy Tom Lewis

The Freeland property at Omena - called "Freeland's" during its days as a summer resort - was a property that bound together five generations of my family on my mother's side. The first Omena property owned by our family was several dozen acres acquired by Thomas Edward Hart McLean, who was the uncle of Mary (McLean) Frazier. This Mary was the mother of Mary (Frazier) Freeland, who was the mother of my Nana, Mary (Freeland) Smith.

Embracing My Inner Jew: A Brief History of the Friedlanders

Mary (Frazier) Freeland and Albert Luke Freeland

I got back my DNA results from ancestry.com a few months ago. Ancestry performs a type of test called autosomal DNA. I'll be writing about DNA testing in another post. DNA testing for genealogy is really very new and exciting.

One of the things autosomal testing does pretty well is figure out your ancestral roots. My results were not too surprising. I'm more than 50% "Western European," and another 28% British/Irish. No Native American, but a dash of Greek/Italian and Middle Eastern, leavened with Caucasian (the region, not the race) and Scandinavian.

One fraction that came in right where I expected it: I am 1/8th Ashkenazi Jew. (Ashkenazi is the name of the Jews of Europe.) Both of my law partners have tested, and both were surprised to find that they too have some Ashkenazi Jewish blood. We now refer to one another as "our people" in the firm, unlike the goyim in the outfit. One of my partners found he also has a smidgen of Gypsy blood. He says, "I may steal your wallet, but I will invest the money wisely." We get to make jokes like that because we are Yiddishe.

But I digress.

The Mystery of the Lewises

Top: Sarah Ann (Bishop) Lewis, William Thomas Lewis

Bottom: Susannah Lewis, Laura Lillian Lewis

Photo courtesy of Lewis Harvey, Susannah's grandson

Update 3 Apr 2016:

Through the diligent sleuthing of cousin Lewis Harvey, we have discovered that William Thomas Lewis had at least one, and perhaps two, brothers. The death certificate for brother John tells us John was born in 1850 in Toronto, Canada. His obituary in the Saginaw Daily News (July 1922) tells us he reached Saginaw by 1865.

Importantly, John's death certificate also reports Nicholas Lewis (of New York) as John's father, and Margaret French (of Ireland) as his mother. So there is at least one additional substantiating source for Nicholas and Margaret.

John's second wife was Phebe Duele. Phebe had at least one sister. Phebe died in the mid-1930s. John had two children, Willie and Gertie. Both died too young to leave issue, in circumstances that must have been nearly unendurable for dear Uncle John and Aunt Phebe. It's too sad to write about here; you can check out my ancestry.com tree for details.

The 1880 US Census for Tittabawasee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan shows John, Phebe, Willie and Gertie, as well as Stephen Lewis, who is listed as John's brother. John is shown as 26, and Stephen as 22.

Research in 1850s Canadian records has revealed nothing yet.

John and William (together with some other Lewises) are buried in the Freeland, Michigan cemetery. Freeland adjoins Saginaw.

So, Nicholas and Margaret are still the Lewis brick wall. But at least we have some additional documentary support for them, as well as for our ancestral name of Lewis.

End of update. Original post follows.

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One of the challenges facing genealogical researchers is what is known as the "brick wall." This refers to the situation where there are no available records that allow the researcher to determine lineage beyond a certain ancestor.

The photo above shows the Lewis brick wall: William Thomas Lewis, who is my 2nd Great-Grandfather.

I have been trying to trace my family lines back to the original immigrants to America. I have been successful with a lot of them (mostly because I can borrow from the hard work of other genealogists, including Aunt Dianne,) but a few remain a mystery.

One of the mysteries: Where did our Lewises come from?

The Winthrop Woman

Here's another historical novel about an ancestor: The Winthrop Woman, by Anya Seton. Rita read this book many years ago, and I just finished it a couple months ago. Seton was a prolific and entertaining author.

The subject of this historical novel is Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett, b. 1610 in England, immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631 and died 1665 in Connecticut Colony.

Elizabeth's first husband was Henry Winthrop, the son of John Winthrop, who was the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Henry came to the colony in 1630 without Elizabeth; she was pregnant and the sea voyage would be too arduous in her condition.

Henry promptly managed to drown after getting to the colony. Elizabeth came shortly thereafter with her baby daughter. John Winthrop, who was a fire-eating Puritan, arranged for her to marry a fellow by the name of Robert Feake after she arrived.

Robert Feake was my 10th g-grandfather. He went insane, but not until after he fathered Hannah Feake, who will get her own post because she has a similarly fascinating history. (For point of reference: Hannah's daughter Martha married Joseph Thorne, who was the source of "Thorn" as a first or middle name in Uncle Thorn, Great-grandfather Thorn, and Uncle Rossie's son William Thorn.)

Twice blessed: Our dual lineage to Benjamin and Martha Waite

There are two historical novels I am aware of that discuss the lives of our direct lineal ancestors. Both are well-researched and have a lot of detail about the times and lives of the characters. But a pure non-fiction work often cannot capture the same sort of story as an historical novel, where the author takes license to flesh out the characters and action.

The first is Captives, 1677. This novel deals with my 8th great-grandparents, Benjamin and Martha Waite. Martha was captured by Indians in 1677 while pregnant with her third child. The Waites were living in Massachusetts; Martha and her two little girls were taken by the Indians all the way to Quebec.

Horseback, walking, canoes. The little girls were handed off to Indian women for their care, so Martha did not even know if they were alive. Martha was frantic about her babies, but knew resistance meant death for her, her unborn baby, and her little girls if they were still alive.

While in captivity, Martha gave birth to a third daughter, who was later named Canada. Canada Waite is my 7th ggmother. Canada had eleven children.

Here's how our descent works from Canada Waite: