52 Ancestors Week 12: 12

Question

Ready for Week 12 of the 52 Ancestors challenge?

Please share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches the week's theme. This week's sharing prompt:

12

From Amy Johnson Crow:

No, it isn't a typo. The theme for Week 12 really is "12." If you look at a numbered ancestor chart and you're at the beginning of it, #12 is your mother's father's father. You could also write about someone with a birthday or anniversary in December or on the 12th of any month. Be creative!

 

Share below!

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P.S. You can see your numbered ancestor list by clicking the Ancestor List link on your family tree and tools page. 

Answer 1

Isaac Columbus York Sr. is my mother's father's father or simply my great-grandfather. 

By trade Isaac was a carpenter and a good wood craftsman. At the age of 22, he decided to enlist in the US Army. He enlisted for three years.

After passing his physical examination and aptitude tests with good remarks in Greensboro, NC he joined Troop A 14th. Regiment US Army in Fort Leavensworth, KS. Later he was sent to UT, joining the 15th. Cavalry Medical Corp. Troop F Regiment (Refer NO NBAN W01729129).

Isaac's parents in the interim had moved to Iredell County, NC. Isaac met and married a beautiful Southern Belle. A young girl at 15 years old. Isaac was 27. They lived in Statesville, NC Muskogee, OK, Kansas City, MO Stokesdale, NC, Oak Ridge, NC King, NC and at last in 1928 they bought 72 acres, with a house, a large barn, corn crib, Hen-house, harness building, a big garden space fenced, a Blacksmith's shop, and a beautiful flowing spring down under the hills. This plantation was the home of 13 children.

Few years later, 1932, Isaac died leaving the total responsibilities on his widow. The caring for the children, ages ranging from one to twenty-two, learning to grow tobacco, and all. It took some time, but the farm was eventually paid.

Answer 2

The twelfth profile I added to WikiTree was my 3rd Great Grandfather Henry Daniel Giesler (not to be mixed up with his first cousin Henry D. Giesler). He was married twice, he and his first wife, Nancy Hick, had seven kids including my 2nd Great Grandfather David who died of disease in the Civil War. 

His widow, Nancy Ann Mauk, applied for a pension after his death stating the only assets she had was a $20 a year allowance from his estate. In her application, she stated he was an enrollment officer for the Confederate Army and a member of the Home Guards. 

His cousin, Henry D. Giesler, was a Major in Tennessee 59th Mounted Infantry and among the soldiers captured at Vicksburg.

Answer 3

I've written about my mother's father's father before. I think I will write about my mother's mother's father, Mat Owens.

He passed away on 12 January 1942. My grandmother, Darlene Owens, was eight years old. He and my great-grandmother, Virgie, had nine children, eight living.

He is a bit of a man of mystery. He was at least 20 years older than Virgie. On the census record from a few years before he married Virgie, he is listed as a widower and had two teenaged sons. Those sons led me to a previous census record, where the father of the family's name is listed as James - next to a scratched out "Matison."  I found out records for a James M. Owens that seem to be the same man.

Apparently, his name was James Matison Owens, likely a misspelled honoring of President James Madison. It seems to have been common for sons to be named after presidents and generals in nineteenth century Kentucky. (The families with both a Robert Lee and a Ulysses Grant are amusing.)

He seems to have gone by James during his first marriage, and by Mat afterwards. All I have of his parents are names from a death certificate and from a marriage record, that one just for his mother. My mother's uncle is into MyHeritage, where he claims that his mother (Virgie) told him his dad was born out of wedlock and that he took his mothers names, Owens, rather than his father's name, Williams. His mother's name is listed as Dema on the marriage record and Dena on the death record. The death record lists his father's name as Chop (or maybe Chap?) Owens - but his last name wasn't supposed to be Owens.

Answer 4

My number 12 is James Elgey - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Elgey-12

He is no 12 on my ancestor list, his profile is number 12 - James profile is as with many a work in progress. There are various family stories about him as being a strong man of the North, a bear wrestler and other than mum's memory of the family stories and a bear skin rug in the hall nothing is evidenced .. yet.

Recent contact from one of his brothers descentants tells the same bear story just wish I could find some evidence to support the tale.

Answer 5

My mater-paternal great-grandfather (see what I did?!) was Richard Edward James. He was born in New Zealand on 21 January 1911, to parents who were both immigrants; Henry Raymond James was born in Lydney, Gloucestershire, England, while Jane Keily was born in Cork, Ireland. Richard's father Henry arrived in New Zealand with his parents and siblings aboard the Hereford, a 1149 ton ship chartered by the New Zealand Company for three voyages; on each voyage, the ship carried about 300 Government immigrants.

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He was gentle, quiet, and patient, and had a cheeky sense of humour. He loved his vegetable garden; when she was younger, my aunt Sharon would be outside with him as he planted, and as he planted she would dig them up and hand the plants back to him (good-natured, of course). He would never lose his cool; he would simply say "thank you, darling" and take them and plant them again. He was calmer compared to Vera (his wife); she was a firecracker, but he still "ruled the roost". 
His next door neighbours had a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Spotty, who would be stuck inside watching my mother and her siblings as they played outside while Spotty's owners were at work. Richard came to an arrangement with them, where he would care for Spotty all day while they were at work and then return her to them when they came home. He loved it; he was able to care for a dog without having to deal with the upkeep and maintenance. He would take Spotty with his grandchildren and him to the beach to play, and take Spotty for walks.

Richard was a waterfront worker during the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute, the largest and most widespread industrial dispute in New Zealand history. Up to 20,000 workers—Richard included—went on strike to protest against financial hardships and poor working conditions. It lasted for 151 days; during this time, the government introduced heavy emergency regulations, and the government also censored the press, made striking illegal, and made it illegal to give money or food to either strikers or their families. During this time, Richard picketted out on the waterfront along with other protesters, while Vera would quietly take clothing in to iron in order to make enough money to live off of.

He was a very honourable man. He was great at darts and an expert bowls player, and he had a hand lawnmower (without a motor) which he loved dearly.

Answer 6

I'm so impressed by all the people who have managed to get twelve or more generations back!  I have many brick walls from 1780s or later on my family lines so my tree is wide but not deep.

I have picked one of my relatives who died on 12 December.  She has one of my favourite family names, as it shows how things can get a little out of hand using the Irish naming conventions.

Minnie Helen Campbell Butler (Henderson) Clements was born and lived her whole life in New Zealand, but both her parents had emigrated there from Ireland a few years before her birth.  Her grandmother was Mary Campbell Butler so the name must have come from there.  Unsurprisingly she was known as Nellie, as I don't think calling "Come in for your dinner Minnie Helen Campbell Butler" would have been very practical!

Answer 7

My number 12 is Jesse P. Osborne (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Osborne-5539), my Mother's Father's Father.  He was born in New York in 1857 and later lived near Santa Barbara, California, where he was an attorney.  He was married twice and had four sons with his first wife and three daughters with his second.

Answer 8

If I count myself as 0 generation, I have 1024 ancestors in the 12th generation.

12 generations back from myself one of my 1024 ancestors was Lydia (Bunnell) French. Lydia was born about 1640 in Massachusetts. Her parents were immigrants. Her dad was a deadbeat, and her mother moved her to the New Haven Colony, where she was raised, living with another family. She married in 1661 Frances French who was a founder of Derby, Connecticut. Lydia had nine children, six survived to adulthood. She died in 1708.

Answer 9

Jan "John" Lupinski , was my great-great grandfather. He and my great great grandmother Wladiyslawa were married in Poland in 1890. John and some of the children (including my grandfather) arrived in the US in 1907 and lived in Massachusetts, probably North Attleboro, with close family friends. Unskilled and unable to find work, he moved to Yonkers, NY where he was able to gain employment at a carpet factory. According to their youngest daughter, Wladiyslawa did not hear from her husband for two years, so she sold their belongings and packed up the rest of the family and headed to the US. When she arrived, John decided he wanted to leave. She said no. John, daughter Maria and son Steven all worked at Alexander Smith Carpet factory for many years. He died at age 69.

Answer 10

#12. My mother's father's father. Joseph Richard OWENS was born three years after the Civil War in Mississippi, one of TEN children. He was a poor farmer, who had seven children - one daughter was born after his death, making it eight children. It was a difficult life, because there had been several yellow fever epidemics, and typhoid was especially dangerous because of poor water and health conditions.
Joseph died on March 22, 1905, followed by his wife going into the Natchez Sanitorium, for quarantine, until she died. All of their younger children went to the Methodist orphanage, while the older boys went to relatives.

Answer 11

Here is an oddball 12.

My husband is an anglophone Canadian, he is a direct male descendant of a British Loyalist who settled in the Gaspé region of Québec. His mother is descended mostly from Irish immigrants who settled in New Brunswick.

Both of my parents are almost exclusively descended from the original French colonists.

You would think we are not related in any way. However my husband's direct maternal line ancestress is a Mi'kmaq woman from the 1600's who married a French colonist. She also happens to be in my family tree as my only non French ancestor. His mother's 10th ggrandmother and my mother's 10th ggrandfather were siblings.

Which makes my husband and I, if my math is correct, 12th cousins!

Answer 12

I've got a couple to share.

Funny joke in my family: My dad was born in December either the 27 or the 28. I can't recall exactly when but my dad tries to celebrate Christmas with my kids on his birthday so I can recall his birth date... I have forgotten 5 of the 7 years my son has been alive.

My mom's dad's dad is Lloyd Franklin Burson Sr. (Burson-211). I've never met him and recently saw a photo of him and his brother "Cub" while searching ancestry. My great gandpa was a looker back in the day. I should also mention my pap (his son) does not go by his name because he's a Jr. So when we talk to family we all say we are "Juniors grandkids". Fun fact about my great grandpa, I have met him but I was less than a year old. He also died the day before my 1st birthday.

Answer 13

#12 John Aylward Churchill was my mother's father's father and has to be considered the black sheep of the family.  He was born in 1875 in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England.  The son of a doctor, he also became a doctor. He was married in 1900 and they had a son a year later.  But he left his wife and child behind in England and moved to China where he married my great-grandmother despite still being married, thus committing bigamy. His first wife filed for divorce back in England after finding out about the second marriage, shortly after their first child (my grandfather) was born in China.  Dr. Churchill did not live for many years after these events, dying of rabies in China in 1910.  His third child and his only daughter was then born in Hong Kong two months after her father's death.

Answer 14

For my 12 I'm going to go with my 3x great grandmother Martha McRae (McRae-1579) who had 12 children with my 3x great grandfather.  Some sources indicate she may have also had a daughter with a first husband who died young.    I haven't currently found any documentation of the 1st husband but the search continues

Answer 15

A little bit late again, but here is my contribution for last week's theme: 12.

I chose my great-great grandmother Margaret (Randall) Chambers as she was born on 12 September 1855. 

Here is my blog post:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 12 - 12 - Margaret (Randall) Chambers

Answer 16

Wrote about my ancestor, James McClurkin who fought in the war of 1812

https://genealogybyjanelle.blogspot.com/2019/03/twelve-james-mcclurkin-1787-1851.html

Answer 17

My mother's father's father would be 

Charles McGovern

I don't know much about him yet.

On the 12 theme, I can use my birthday 12/12

Answer 18

Woo Hoo!!!! I'm almost caught up...this one was easy to write a blog on, and definitely in my comfort zone, especially given the DNA results I received a couple of weeks ago. The subject of my 12 is my mother's father's father George Franklin Bates. The blog has also been published on Twitter and my Facebook timeline.

Comments

And this weeks will be done tomorrow...another easy one :) and that will catch me up.

Answer 19

Glen King Western is my mother's father's father and he has for years been a brick wall for me. I only recently broke partially through that wall, but it didn't get me far.

Glen was adopted/fostered by the King (hence the middle name) family and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He was born in Lapeer, Michigan which is where the Kings were originally from. I finally discovered the names of Glen's parents through a back door after I found a brother who was fostered.in a different family (he also took their surname as his middle name). I still wasn't completely sure I had the right names until I finally was able to get his death certificate which gave his mother's surname. The problem is I can't find anything about either parent beyond the names. George Western was supposedly born in Canada, but no idea when and Dora Jones was evidently born in Michigan, but no idea when. That her name was Jones is not helpful. It took many years to find that much so maybe someday... 

Answer 20

- August 12th is my parents wedding anniversary.
- The 12th colony to ratify the Constitution was North Carolina which is where my Cantwell ancestors first settled.

- My mother's father's father was a pharmacist in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  It is through him that I tie into three of the Towne siblings Edmund Towne, Jacob Towne and Mary Estey and to two of my Plantagenet Gateway ancestors Thomas Nelson and Olive Welby Farwell.