52 Ancestors Week 12: Popular

Question

Time for the next 52 Ancestors challenge!

Please share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches this week's theme:

Popular

From Amy Johnson Crow: 

Any tales of ancestors being lucky? What about a discovery that you made with the help of a little luck?

Share below!

You don't need to share every week to participate, but those who do will earn badges. If this is your first time participating and you don't have the participation badge, or if you pass a milestone (13 shared profiles in 13 weeks, 26 in 26, or 52 in 52) let us know here. For more about the challenge, click here.

Comments

The text of this challenge seems to have been repeated from Week 11. Just, FYI. (No complaint here!)

---

This is standard practise. Eowyn doesnt have time to be mucking around rewriting the same thing every week.

Just copy and paste and change the theme and that's it - DONE.

The only thing that changes is the weekly theme.

---

The text is published elsewhere: Week 12's theme is "Popular." Do you feel like you have an ancestor who everyone is researching? How about a first name that's popular in your family? Maybe there's a story of a particularly popular ancestor.

---

My famous relative would be May Barnes https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-411282

Hung for being a witch :(

Answer 1

I haven't found anyone who's really famous in my lines yet. But my Grandfather ran an aquarium store in San Diego that was really popular back in the 60's and 70's. He had a huge back area where he raised his own fish to sell. Dave Cyphert

Answer 2

Week 12 - Popular. This week I'll select William Farnham Molesworth-184, [www.wikitree.com/wiki/Molesworth-184] whom I have found to have had such a massive amount of mentions in newspaper articles. Being a lawyer, it would be half expected, but he and his brother seemed to have been socialites. Mentioned for attendance at dances, for membership at the golf club, tennis club, football club, fishing club, not to mention boating, and whatever else he was doing.

At the same time, he seems to have been unpopular in the family, for not marrying his partner, and making his children legitimate.

Answer 3

I seem to have a popular ancestor Enos Howard-17694 Lots of people have him on their trees. (487 on ancestry alone) Unfortunately he must have arrived on a spaceship as there is no record of his parents or siblings. 

Born 5 July 1760 in Hillsdale, Columbia, New York 

Husband of Martha B Soule — married 1783 in Hillsdale, Columbia, New York, United States 
Died 15 May 1844 in Duanesberg, Schenectady, New York 

Father of 12 children. Isaac, Sarah (m. Davidson), Ebeneezer, John, Benjamin Squire, Samuel, Mary (Polly) (m. Thompson & Ariss), George Washington, Rebecca (m. Ketchum) , James Mckown, Matilda (m. Durfee) and Rachel (m. Britton & Gardner). 

His son Isaac had 16 children. Benjamin had 11 children. 

Surely with as many progeny as he had, someone must have a record in their files? 

One tree has his father as John Easgan Howard and another as Henry Enos Howard but they show no sources. John Easgan and some of his family died in South Carolina.  

A newspaper article I found (with no source info) says We are descended from John Howard, the prison reformer; William Howard, knight of Wiggenhall; Sir John Howard, lord treasurer, who was imprisoned 3 years in the tower of London. Our American ancestor (NO NAME) settled in Massachusetts and was an officer in the Revolutionary war. His son was Enos Howard. 

The family was extensively researched but they couldnt find his parents either. 

https://archive.org/details/descendantsofeno00youn/page/n5/mode/2up

week 12 of 13

Answer 4

My great grandfather, Charles Austin, whom we called "Grandad Austin," seems always to have been a popular man.

 

During the Depression, as the owner of a hardware and farm implements store in the tiny town of Sylvia, in the middle of Kansas wheat country, he kept many farmers afloat by extending credit when they needed farm equipment but couldn't pay for it.

 

My mother told me that when she was growing up, she thought her grandfather was the most wonderful person in the world.  Mom's family lived down the street from her grandparents.  Mom and Grandad would sit together in church because they both loved to sing.

 

I was lucky to know my great grandfather for a short time, most of which I don't remember.  My aunt tells me that he and I liked each other.  He died when I was five years old.

Comments

Great story. Love your picture.

---

Julie,  great picture. Where did your Grandpa live?

---

Sylvia, Kansas.  I amended my post.  Should have said in the first place.  (While editing, I finally got that tiny type back to the size I wanted!)

---

Julie, thank you - it would have been easy for me to go to his profile also. Sorry. I live in Illinois and we have a family - the Astle's, that owned a Hardware store forever.  I have a picture that is almost identical to yours, of their hardware store back in the day.

Funny that Kansas and Illinois stores were set up almost the same way. He inherited his store from his dad. The store was opened in 1860, and when it closed in 2000, it looked almost identical to the day it opened.

I remember when we purchased our 1914 home and we needed a skeleton key. My husband went in there and Chuck found one for us. I bet that was the way it was with your grandpa's store.

Love your picture. Thanks for sharing and for the memories. 

---

Cheryl, you should not have to go to the profile.

Since we're talking about history--as you know, of course, Kansas is west of Illinois.  Sylvia was not built until the railroad ran through the area.  My second great grandfather, William Alfred Austin (my Grandad Austin's father), moved to Sylvia around 1886 when it was quite young.  He went to work in the hardware store, then bought it around 1892.  He then sold it to Grandad in 1910.  Grandad sold it to his daughter in 1941.

By the time I visited Sylvia, I think the store had not been in our family for some time.  Today Sylvia is one of those dying little midwestern farm towns, a process accelerated some years ago when the freeway was rerouted.

Answer 5

Helen, was the wife of my 2nd great-uncle.  She was a popular artist, and art teacher in the Richmond area.  There are many of her pieces around the Richmond area, and I believe back in her home state of Indiana, a museum.  Her decendants also treasure her works from home.

Answer 6

Like many other families, mine would give the names of popular or famous figures to some of their children.  Mary Antoinette Ward was named for the tragic French queen, Edward Wellington Crossley may have been a nod to Napoleon's nemesis, and my grandfather Victor Emmanuel Stromsted had the penultimate King of Italy as his namesake.  These are just three examples; both my parents' ancestors would name children for famous or accomplished people.

Answer 7

Pelagia "Pauline" Brodniak came with her family at age 14 to Mukilteo, Washington from Minnesota.  She attended the old Rosehill School in Mukilteo and soon was well known in town.  In the days of the old medicine shows, Pauline beat out Florence Bandy for the title of "Most Popular Girl in Mukilteo."

She worked as a waitress with her sister Mary at McDonald's Restaurant on the waterfront and later at Butler's Hotel.  Pauline's profile is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brodniak-8

Answer 8

In my Hardie family the names "William Alexander" or "Alexander William" were very popular! Every generation had at least 1 set of them, if not both, even in the same line.

Answer 9

I'm glad I read the detail because I was struggling until I saw "popular name". The surname Mark is also popular in my immediate family as a first name. My brother was named Mark Ernest after his grandmother's maiden name (Mark) and his grandfather's name. He died a number of years ago, but I named my son for him (and Grandma truth be told) by naming him Mark Amon.

Answer 10

I'm sharing a 8x great-grandmother, Hepsiba Dibble (of the Connecticut Dibbles) today. For some strange reason, Hepsiba/Hepsibah/Hepzibah/Hephzibah is not a popular name this century. It doesn't even make the top 100 list. But it means "my delight is in her", which is really a sweet sentiment, especially coming from those New England Puritans. And her LNAB -- I don't know any modern Dibbles, but I can imagine kids today being teased if that was their last name. I wonder if that happened to her? She was one of 9 children of Thomas Dibble of the PGM. She married Samuel Gibbs, and was the mother of 11 children. In the 1600's that was plenty of reason for a woman to be popular. So I honor her today and hope to learn more about the details of her life someday.

Answer 11

This was a tough topic for me. Instead of writing about ancestors, I wrote about genealogy websites. https://rhymeschemesanddaydreams.wordpress.com/2020/03/22/52ancestors-in-52-weeks-popular/

I did include a photo of my grandmother and some of her friends.

Willie Cook: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stevens-10547

I would like to receive the participation badge, please.

Answer 12

The topic of popular is a tricky question. My family was never popular. Sure we had a few stars here and there but do I really have any one popular person? No, we don't.

Looking at it this way I can say being a farmer or logger in my family is abundant and pretty popular. That is after all what you did/do in PA.

Answer 13

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hess-4123

52 Ancestors Week 12: Popular

For this week - I would like to share with you, Charles (Charlie) Hess. Charlie was born in 1865 in Momence, Illinois. He was a store clerk in a store owned by his father. He went on to become a school teacher. After that career he went into the lumber business eventually owning Hess Lumber Company.

Charlie was very popular in Momence. He was concerned about the preservation of the Kankakee River, so became chairman of the Kankakee River Protection committee, and a member of the Park Board. He was a member of the school board and worked untiringly for the Momence Public library.He recognized the splendid work and real value of the Red Cross and was one of the active members of all of the Red Cross committees and drive. He was on the building committees and one of the trustees of the First Baptist Church. He was a member of the Masonic Order and the Eastern Star, and the Modern Woodmen, serving in several official capacities.

The city council and the Building and Loan association had the benefit of his advice and fellowship. He was director and president of the Building and Loan association for many years and served on the city council for several terms.

Charlie was one of a small group of men who organized and developed the Minne-Monesse Golf Club, was among the first stockholders and served on the board of directors.

He was just and fair in all of his business dealings.

He was so loved by the town of Momence, that all businesses closed during his funeral.  I can't remember another person since Charlie that the town has respected as much, that they have closed for during a funeral.

A very popular man indeed.

Answer 14

I have a cousin three times removed who was popular with his local townspeople.   John Henry was born in Ireland in 1842 and emigrated to New Zealand by the ship “Himalaya” in 1866.  He was originally a store keeper but sold the store to buy a farm.

His popularity arose out of his active social conscience, as he joined and led many worthy concerns: Chair of the Dunsandel School Committee, a member of the Dunsandel Domain Board, a member of the Farmers Union and a delegate for the Dunsandel district.  For a time he was chairman and Managing Director of the Central Dairy Company. He was also Chairman and treasurer of the committee to establish a local library in Dunsandel.
An article written about John Henry has this to say:
"For his special success in the matter, Mr Henry was presented with a marble clock, bearing the following inscription: “Presented to Mr John Henry by the inhabitants of Dunsandel and surrounding Districts, as a token of respect and for his valuable services to the Library and other matters of local interest 1878”. This was accompanied by a silver Tea Set for Mrs Henry."

Answer 15

        

My grandmother https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Picken-180 

Her wedding write up describes her as “a charming Scotch lassie, well known in the settlement” 

Comments

Ok well I tried 3 times to make the font size bigger on the quote and failed.

Answer 16

Popular named i my family would definetly be Jacobus, Johannes and Petrus.

this three names is woven into about alll the lines of my ancestorers. My Brother Johannes Petrus. Myself Petrus Johannes. derived from both Paternal and Maternal grand fathers. my youngest brother Petrus Jacobus Niemann from my father.

My Father Petrus Jacobus Niemannand his brothers Jacobus Gerhardus, Johannes Petrus and Barend Johannes and then Godlieb Rudolph Opperman

Answer 17

My husband’s grandfather, John Dill,  was the Mayor of Augusta Kansas, a very small town. His name , along with four other men, is carved into the cornerstone of the Masonic Hall in Augusta.

Answer 18

POPULAR

I am 9th cousin once removed to Elvis Presley and 10th cousin to Marilyn Monroe, two relatives about as popular as anyone can be.

"That and a nickel will get you a ride on the subway."