Profile Accuracy Theme of the Week: Mother's Day

Question

This week's theme: Mother's Day.

To participate, simply:

1. Choose a profile that fits this week's theme.
2. Review and improve the accuracy of the profile.
3. Reply with an answer below to let us know which profile you chose.

Also see: Photo Sharing Theme of the Week:Favorite

Answer 1

I did an update to my mother Evelyn Stielow's http://wikitree.com/wiki/Stielow-18 profile and now I want to add "Parenting by Evelyn" which I wrote on April 29, 2021, on her 107th birthday, about how she handled my bad behavior.  Happy Mother's Day, Mom.  I miss you.  I will try to add a photo.   

Comments

Thank you so much Wikitree G2G for these challenges.  Excellent idea. I thought I was finished on Monday but woke up this morning with the necessary commentary in my head that was missing from the original memory. At the time I didn't question the woman's conclusion.  I do now.  This type of parenting is not unique.  Millions of parents guide their children this way. Perhaps not the same details but the spirit of teaching is alive and well.  I added a postscript comment.

Answer 2

I've been busy with another branch of the tree, but if I get the chance this week, I'll work on improving the profile of my great-grandmother, Margaret Monroe Koehnline, who was the subject of my photo of the week post last week.

Answer 3

In the UK mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday in lent and traditionally was a day when domestic servants (usually young women) were given the day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers. My 2xg grandmother Susanah Hichens was a servant and would have been grateful for that precious day off. I will add her siblings and children and improve the biography for her this week.

Answer 4

I looked to see the year that Mother's Day was first celebrated in the United States, and I found it was 1907. My first cousin once removed Mildred Lovelace Patterson was born in 1907. She wrote me a nice letter in 1973, and it contains some great family history. I will work this week on the accuracy of her profile and add two more of her children. I will also write a better biography for her. 

Comments

Two thumbs up Alexis! 1907!

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Thank you Scott. She told me in her letter in 1973 that I was eligible to be a DAR.

Answer 5

Well it's difficult to pick a profile for this, but about half of them qualify. I selected an orphaned profile from a GEDCOM import (Olive Irene Leaker) and cleaned it up. Olive was one of her mother's 11 children and had 3 children of her own. In 1900 she was living with her mother and 3 of her siblings. Her father was living next door with one of his other wives.

Answer 6

Since everyone has a mother and it is impossible to improve the profiles of all mothers in one week, this week I decided to select Apollonia Magdalena Römer, née Schmiedecke (1684-1755) and improve her profile.
 
She gave birth to 10 children in the period from 1707 to 1728 and since she had the unusual name Apollonia, she immediately caught my eye.

I will work this week to make her profile more accurate.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Schmiedecke-4

Answer 7

Here in Britain it's not Mother's Day this week because our celebration is tied to Easter and Lent. Regardless, I thought a holiday like this was a great time to work on my matrilineal line, and since my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are all still living I took to working on my great-great grandmother, Katherine Mary Powell, whom is one of the oldest relatives I have a photograph of.

I also plan on working on Katherine's mother this week, Kate Trendell, (who sadly didn't seem to have quite the longevity of her descendants) to continue the matrilineal line.

Answer 8

I had to really look and think to decide who I was going to pick this week. I have been working on my maternal line mostly so I went to my paternal line for this one. I picked Martha Jane Gunter/Markum, (Gunter-1184) 1834-1909. Alexis Nelson said Mother's Day was 1st celebrated in 1907, so Martha would have seen 3 Mother's Days.

Comments

Very cool photo Stacie!

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It's interesting that it was taken by a traveling photographer who signed his name. I think a lot of traveling photographers took pictures of the family in front of the farmhouse, and some had a pony for children to pose on, but I don't think I've even seen one like this. "Put on your good dress, Martha! There's a man who will take your picture! I'll bring your chair out for you."

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Joyce, I think that is close to the conversation that happened. I just wonder if the book was hers or if it was a prop he traveled with.

Answer 9

I propose to work on the wikitree profile of Charlotte Frances Dana, my 3rd great grandmother https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dana-435 She had a scandalous divorce and later emigrated to Australia. I don't think a very easy life. My father and I have recently written a book about her family and life https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/books/c-f-c-crespigny-nee-dana/ (the e-book is free to download)

Answer 10

Since I don't know what day some of my old photos were taken, I chose a first cousin twice removed, Roy Neal Johnson who was born in 1907.  I will try to complete this profile that I created back in 2019.  Thanks for the idea Alexis!

Comments

Roy went by his middle name, Neal.  His real father, Cornelius Johnson, left his mother before he was born.  Neal was born at his Aunt's house in Lowry City, Missouri.  Neal's mother remarried when he was just 11 months old, to a man named Marvin Johnson, no relationship to Neal's real father, Cornelius.  Neal became known as Marvin Johnson's son.

Answer 11

I'm glad this question was about Mother's Day, not just about mothers. When I started thinking about celebrating this holiday, I remembered going with my sister, our mother, and her mother, to the Mother-and-Daughter banquet on Mother's Day. My grandmother's friend Mabel Sawyer did not have a daughter, just two grown sons in California, so she would "adopt" me as her daughter and go to the banquet with us. I had not thought of Mabel in years, but now the memories come back. She had a peach tree in her back yard; she owned the first automatic washing machine I ever saw; she was a practical nurse who wore practical shoes; she earned a degree from North Adams State College when she was about  70 years old. Later she moved to California to be near her son. Then what happened to her?

So the Mother's Day question got me to thinking about her. Find A Grave told me that she died in California, but that she is buried in Pittsfield with her husband Jim. When the library is open again, I will look for the newspaper story about her college graduation.

Answer 12

You can get a lot of genealogical information on Mother's Day. How? Well....

https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2021/05/52-ancestors-week-19-mothers-day.html

Answer 13

There are so many mothers to celebrate.  So how do you pick one?  I could pick my own mother, but I think I won’t.  I think what I will do is continue from last week’s challenge of crime and punishment.  Ralph R. Lynch (Lynch-12713) was married when he went to prison in about 1933.  No doubt, his wife, Mary Elizabeth Wiggins (Wiggins-3619), had a tough time with four children.  I will improve her biography for this challenge.

Answer 14

First a Parent and then a Mother and Grandmother: Celine Parent Latterell
This week I took an orphan who had no sources other than a tree and added a small biography, sources, and found her parents.  Celine lived her entire life in St. George Township of Benton County, Minnesota.  She married her next door neighbor (about 10 years older than she was), Julius Latterell and they had 5 children.  Toward the end of her life, one of her daughters and grandchildren lived with her and her husband.

Answer 15

I decided that most mothers would want their children's names to be remembered, so I would go through my maternal maternal side to find a mom whose children have not all been added to the tree.  The most recent one I found was Zubie Kimball, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Salisbury-963, b 1764 in Rhode Island.  This family seemed to migrate from RI to among more than one home in Berkshire Co MA to Pownal VT, and it seems some of the town records are imperfect in those days after the Revolution.  But some research found a son, Martin Kimball, who ended up in Easton Michigan, where he died in 1875, with a family.  So he is now in the one world tree, and his mom would be happy.  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Kimball-4591

Answer 16

I recently did my mtDNA test, and I reviewed what I know about maternal line (so far).

https://rhymeschemesanddaydreams.wordpress.com/2021/05/15/52ancestors-in-52-weeks-mothers-day/

I added sources to my grandmother Willie Stevens Cook's profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stevens-10547 and to my great-grandmother Mollie Pittman Stevens' profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pittman-1905

Answer 17

I chose as profile for the Mother's Day topic the aunt of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johanna Melber. She gave birth to 11 children, only 4 survived her, but Goethe describes her in one of his books as joyful, warmhearted and a child-loving person. I improved her profile, added her husband and the children for who I could find a name and the children-in-law.

Answer 18

It has been more than 17 years since my mother passed away. I had a very basic profile in place for her, but almost no biographical information. At first that was because I didn't understand the WikiTree format and sourcing requirements, and there is very little easily available online information for her, other than Find a Grave. I have my personal eyewitness recollections, which I think are fairly accurate. But this was the week I wrote her biography, finally. I tend to find it sad and emotionally draining work, but I feel I owe it to her. I also dug through old emails and family history files and found the text of her obituary, which I also wrote, and my father's email to family and friends reporting her death. So I put those in the sources section as well. All that really remains is to add a picture, but I will save that for another editing session, when I have my husband to advise on the photo editing and selection.

My mother's profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Maffett-41