Hall Research

I haven't worked on the Hall's in a very long time. I got a call yesterday from a woman I had contacted many many years ago. She talked to my husband and said she had found a bunch of certificates and records in her fathers stuff. I am hoping to get copies and them track down the graves. I think it will link into the line I am currently working on. They did marry a Titus in there so we'll see.

More Good News

If you go back in my posts, you will see a picture of lots of people on a porch. I may be finding out who they are. I found someone who is also researching Blackwell's and he has a similar picture. The great part is that his are all identified. He thinks they might even be on the same porch. So Cool. I am now waiting for him to send it to me.

Kindness of Strangers

Got a pleasant surprise yesterday when I checked my e-mail. Turns out the nice weather has people out finding graves again. Several graves I had put requests in for were posted. It's really cool to finally see them. Here they are.

Success

Yesterday I went back to this old Black Civil War cemetery. It's been abandoned and is very overgrown. The last time I went it was mid summer. I could only find 2 stones. It was very disappointing. I was determined to go back when things would not be so overgrown. I was able to push my way threw the branches and pricker bushes and I found 16 graves. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. I would spy one and make my way to it. After documenting and photographing, I would look up and see another farther back, and so on and so on. I only have one problem now. When I got home, two of the pictures would not download from the camera. The file says it's corrupted. It's killing me. I can see them on the camera, but them just won't come up. One of the pictures was a requested photo. Not sure if I want to go back and see if I can find them again. I found 4 ticks on me when I got back.

Rosario (Charles) Vento, 1900-1953

This is from Jim's mother's side. Rosario came of from Italy. He arrived from Milazzo, Italy on July 8, 1923. The ship was named Guglielmo Peirce. He went to live with Uncle Parisi Paolo in Brooklyn, NY. He was born 6 June 1900 and died 2 April 1953. Ship records list his father as Francasco Vento. He married Rose Anna Cannistra. Her family was also from Italy, but she was born in Chicago. I'm looking for more information about his parents.

Trugoschitz

This name is from Jim's father's side. John Trugoschitz came over from Hungary/Romania. He was born 18 January 1881 and died 11 April 1941. He was Jim's Great Grandfather. His wife's name was Margaret Meyer. She was born 30 August 1882 and died 18 November 1926. She was from Romania too. Her parents were John Meyer and Margaret Kehl. Both are buried in at St. Joseph's Cemetery in River Grove, Cook County, IL. Pretty much Chicago. They had 4 children; John, Fredrick, Margaret and Pauline. The name was changed by Jim's grandfather, Fred. The family story was that his grandmother refused to marry him unless he changed the name. John Jr. changed his name too. Some records say Hanz, but they just maybe how he said his first name. Really would like to find out more about John Sr.'s parents. There can't be that many people reseaching this name.

Mother and Child

Most of the pictures we have, we know at least one person in the picture. Then there is this one. I know it was from my mothers side of the family. I am pretty sure that it's from the PA dutch side, but could be from England too. I researched the frame it is in, but no real luck there. If anyone knows, please let me know. They could have the surname of Hahs or Cummins.

Who Are All These People??

This was a picture my Grandmother had. The note at the bottom said that the center woman in black is Aunt Ida, which turned out to be Ida (Drake) Blackwell. The man and woman on either side are Benjamin Wesley Drake and his wife Jane Lawrance. The little girls at bottom center is my Great Grandmother - Cora Drake. Other than that, I don't know. I think they are all Ida's family. I know she had 13 kids and over 100 grand and great grand children. Ida lived to 103 years. I think she is buried at the Pennington Pres. Church Cemetery in Hopewell, New Jersey. Ida was married to Joseph Pierson Blackwell and was the daughter of Lewis Drake and Elizabeth Titus. I little side note, see the man standing in front of the right column. When I was young, I remember my grandmother telling me he was not quite right and he had hung himself in the chicken coop.

William Hahs 1830-???

This would be the Pennsylvania Dutch portion of my family tree. Don't know to much. His wife was Sarah. They had 6 children that I know of. They were Orlando (1850-??), Amelia (1852-??), James (1855-1885), Susan (1856-??), Rachel (1857-??) & William (1859-??). They lived in the Reading, PA area.

Karl A. Langlotz 1834-1915

Karl, my GGGrandfather, is one of my most frustrating searches. Lets start with what I know. Karl was born on 20 June 1834 in Saxe-Meininger, Germany. He immigrated from Hamburg because he couldn't get a visa in his home town. He arrived at Castle Garden on 12 Sept. 1853 on the Deutschland. His first marriage was to Emma Rae. Together they had 4 children; Karl A., Clifton Adelbert, Rae & Emma. His wife Emma died about 1868 leaving his with the 4 small children. He then married Virginia Dunn in 1872. They had one child, Virginia Irwin in 1875. Karl was a teacher at Princeton University in New Jersey. He taught music and German. He then went on to write the music for "Old Nassau". For those non-Princeton fans, that is the alma mater song. I know from his autobiography that Karl's father was a musician in Court of Saxe-Meiningen and teacher of the piano to the Duke, who was then Crown Prince. I also know that he had 4 older sisters. The frustrating part is that it mentions his father, but not his NAME. It mentions his sisters, but not their NAMES. My big problem is that when ever I find someplace that might have the records I need, they are all in German. How can I know so much and yet still know so little to find the name of his parents. The stone below is from the Princeton Cemetery where Karl, his wife and some of his children are buried. His death record from Trenton, NJ does not list his parents names. Neither does the one marriage certificate. I am still working on finding the marriage records for the first marriage in Philadelphia, but it's not likely to give me what I want. PA records for that time period suck. If anyone knows where the first son Karl Jr. went to, please let me know. I know in 1880 he was a Lawyer still living with his father. Karl's obituary from 1915 mentions that on two daughters survived him, Emma and Virginia.

Titus & Blackwell in New Jersey

Last summer I took the long trip to the Pennington Pres. Church Cemetery in Hopewell, New Jersey. My Dad and I were hoping to find about 4 related graves. I ended up taking about 150 photos and identifying 35 related people. It was really great. Last Friday I was sitting at work with little to do and thought I would revisit some of the graves. I ended up pulling up the FindAGrave.com website along with my tree database and the Familysearch.org website and cross referenced the graves that I had not entered. I ended up find a whole other group of people that I didn't have in my tree. I guess I will be going back this summer. Hopefully the church will let me go through some of it's old records to verify what I found. I did see that one of them was in the Revolution. The grave has an extra marker. If anyone else is researching the Titus/Blackwell family in the Hopewell, NJ area, please let me know.

William Kirk 1831-1902

William is my GGGrandfather. I lost him at Castle Garden. For those that don't know, Castle Garden was used before Ellis Island. He was born in England and married Mary Toulding. Together they had 10 children. William, Mary and some of the kids are buried at Riverview Cemetery in New Jersey. You can view the graves on the FindAGrave.com web site. The children were William, George, Elizabeth, Harry (Henry), Thomas, Minnie, Alma (born Elmer), Emma, Mary and Arthur.

Surname List

Here is a list of surnames I am presently working on. If you are also researching these names, feel free to drop me a line.

Kirk
Drake
Golden
Blackwell
Titus
Ashton
Cummins
Hahs
Antrobus
Vento
Cannistra
Trugoschitz

New Blog

Hello everyone. I have set up this blog to help find the one's that got away. I have been working on my family tree for 9 years. My database has over 2500 people in it. I spend much of my time searching the Internet and walking around graveyards. My hope is that this blog will help find some of the people I am looking for and maybe help some that are search for the same people. Anyone is welcome to comment. By working together, we can find them all.