52 Ancestors Week 20: Nature

Question

Ready for Week 20 of the 52 Ancestors challenge?

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

Nature

From Amy Johnson Crow:

The theme for Week 20 is "Nature." Any farmers or gardeners in the family? How about someone who simply loved to be out in nature? How about an ancestor with a nature-inspired first name or surname?

 

Share below!

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Comments

52 Ancestors Week 20 - Nature

When I was living in California, my ex in-laws loved to go camping. They would leave either Thursday or early Friday and go up to the mountains, and we would follow them Friday after work.

You need to know that I am the last person you would think would love to go camping. I like the finer things in life - like a toilet and bathtub. Ona and Bob had a beautiful very large 5th wheel.  We had the top of the line tent. Big enough to fit two adults and an adolescent boy, who didn't really want to be there. We didn't sleep on the ground - oh no - not us. We slept on cots. And Ona crocheted afghans for us, so we would be warm. Every weekend we would trek up the mountain and spend our time - the boys fishing, Ona and I crocheting and cooking - then cleaning up. My son complaining that he didn't want to be there. Sunday's we would rush home. Oh - and I forgot to tell you that I had a side job, doing medical transcriptions for a Doctor.  Since I lost three days (a weekend) because we enjoyed ourselves camping, I had to hurry when we got home, cook supper, get all of the clothes clean, and type as much transcription as I could, so I wouldn't be so far behind.

I guess my ex-husband finally got the hint. After that first year of laying out in the rain and the cold, we went shopping for a 5th Wheel. We ended up with a very nice 35' one. And I made sure it had a bathtub. I also made sure I was able to hook up my electric typewriter. (Is this dating me a little).

After that - camping under God's beautiful Moon in the great mountains of California was a lot more fun. I think my son even enjoyed it more.  He had his own bunk room in the camper.

So this nature lover enjoyed the next five years of camping until I moved back to Illinois.

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I come from a family of farmers/ranchers. My paternal grandparents owned a farm in Comstock, Nebraska...another family farm in Batesland, S.D. One of my paternal aunts had a sheep farm in Casper WY. I remember when I was 3 years young, of visiting one of the farms in the spring. The barn stalls were filled with every kind of baby farm animals, plus puppies & kittens. My uncles and cousins raised cattle. My father left Comstock shortly after he graduated from high school (c1935) , to help one of his sisters (who lived in Akron, Ohio) with raising her daughter after her first husband died. It was a joyous time when my family left Akron to visit with our western relatives. Growing up watching  Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Kit Carson, etc. WE WERE GOING TO VISIT THEIR STOMPING GROUNDS!. They all had their vegetable gardens. We, (in Akron) only had a two lot yard, but we ALWAYS had our 16'x24' vegetable garden filled with produce. I helped my mom can vegetables & fruit every summer. As dad got older, I took over the gardening chores. LOVED IT! That's one of the things I miss now.

Answer 1

I have been adding Census Records for many of my family. In our family tree. 95% of our family were farmers. Coming from a farming community this is no surprise. Many of the families who came to the Lycoming County are became farmers. I myself am not a farmer but I grew up riding horses bareback and raising barn kittens just as my other family had done as well. I even have an old butter churn in my attic from the family farm.

Answer 2

My distant cousin, Margaret Tilghman Carroll, was an avid gardener and horticulturalist.  Besides designing her own gardens and landscapes at Mount Clare in Baltimore MD, she also assisted George Washington with the design of his gardens and greenhouse and gave him saplings from her estate to help him get started. 

See my blog at [https://annesgenealogyadventures.blogspot.com/2019/05/52-ancestors-2019-week-20-nature.html  "Margaret Tilghman Carroll, gardener extrordinaire "] for more detail. 

Answer 3

I have a number of Agricultural Labourers in my tree on the parental side. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-74 son https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-100 and his grandson https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Langridge-104

My great uncle Frank gave up an office job to work as a gardener handyman https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Streeter-503 

Answer 4

One of my best library book sale finds was a copy of the reprint of the 1860 New York State Gazetteer which has been many times worth the 50 cents I paid for it.  An interesting part of the book is the detailed information about the geology of the state on the county and town level with an emphasis on the type of soil.  The nature of the land would clearly something farmers would have a great interest in. 

I've not had the opportunity to go to New York and see first hand where my ancestors lived - all of whom seem to have passed through that state on their way West - so being able to glean a little information about what there surroundings might have been like from another source to get a deeper understanding of what their lives were like is helpful. Looking at the generation of my 2xgreat grandparents the last generation which I have a complete list, of the sixteen, fourteen were born in New York state, one was born in Ohio, but his older siblings and father were born in New York and two were immigrants to the United States born in England and first arrived at the port of New York City in the 1830's.

John Hill who lived in Edinburgh, Saratoga County, New York is my choice for this week's topic as the nature of the land probably influenced his early move to Michigan.  In 1860, Edinburgh is described in the gazetteer as mountainous, the "whole mountain region is wild, rugged and rock, and scarcely susceptible of cultivation." But, "the soil on the river flats is a good quality of clayey and gravelly loam."  It has been difficult to find out much about the place during John's time as the first round of settlers moved on to greener pastures and left few records behind.  Edinburgh is now  within the Adirondack Park and much of the area is submerged in a reservoir known as Great Sacandaga Lake created in 1929.

Answer 5

This one is a bit more difficult.   I guess I'll go with my 2x great grandfather William Sanders (Sanders-2828)   who was a farmer who spent is whole life living in the mountains 

Answer 6

Both sides of my family have plenty of farmers to choose from; with dozen's more Ag Labs thrown on. John  Fowler Bourne is one of many who I have much more research to do around (but that's the fun!).

Answer 7

Ok, this is my first time participating in the event. I am new here to wikitree and I am enjoying myself.

As farm as having farmers in my ancestry, this is a given.  Almost all of my great grand parents and even some of my grandparents started off as farmers.  Whatever, summers we would go visit, we would end up working on the farm and helping out while we were there.  Some of them I did not know were farmers until I started doing research and in the census reports I keep seeing farmer as the occupation.

Looking back to the family I met and the ones that I can remember my grandmother had the greenest thumb of the all, she could grow just about anything she wanted.

As far as the nature inspired name:  I believe I have that covered as well. My mother's maiden name is Figg.  So almost a quarter of my maternal family has a nature inspired name.

Answer 8

I am running late with the 52 ancestors prompts. I chose my grandfather Stan Ellis for this week's theme of Nature, but due to time constraints, I have not yet been able to write a blog post. This is where my post will appear when I have time to complete it: 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 20 - Nature - Stan Ellis

Answer 9

My nature is Jonathan David King is profile is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/King-29197. He married Amanda Emma Fine who she married Andrew Johnson Leonard first and after Andrew died she married Jonathan. All three are buried in my mom's Leonard Family Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is above the church that my sister and her husband goes. I have been going to their church. So June 2 since my sister is going out of town because of her job I thought I will go to see it and maybe take pictures of some new headstone that we have put in there before we moved up here last year. On his death certificate it said his occupation was a farmer.

Answer 10

My grandfather, Daniel Joseph Viemann was an avid gardner and a lumberman. He had a beautiful vegetable and flower gardens in front of his house which everyone commented on. He would often sit in his window and watch people stroll by and admire it, often going out to meet them and giving them bouquets. My mother loved the garlic from his garden and said it had a spicy taste that was very distinctive. 

Answer 11

For this weeks Challenge I chose my Father, the "Chicken Mother"...Due to the fact that my father is still living, My Blog does not contain any links or names, but as I said in the blog, I'm descended from farmers on both sides of my family tree and I don't have enough interesting information to write about them, and the only other person I know that has any interesting stories having to do with nature is me. To learn about the "Chicken Mother" known as my father...you will have to read the Blog, (which is also published on My Twitter Account and my Facebook Time Line)

Answer 12

Any farmers? All of my ancestral families migrated to Kentucky at a very early date, many before statehood in 1792. I think all of them were farmers during their lifetimes, although some also engaged in other professions as well. It was hard not to be a farmer of some type if they wanted to survive.

I grew up on farms of my grandparents, helping to milk a cow before age 3. My own parents always kept a garden about an acre or more in size, and raised a small crop of tobacco as a cash crop.

In addition to other hats my father wore, I can only describe him as a lifelong Agriculturist who severed several years as Kentucky State Executive Director of the US Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS), a branch of the USDA.

Answer 13

My grandfather, David Wooten, was a great gardener.  He grew the most beautiful flowers around his home in Memphis, and kept a kitchen garden in the back yard.  He even had a grape arbor and a few stalks of corn back there!  I vividly remember, when I was a little girl, sitting on the front porch and watching him tend his flower beds in the front yard.  It's one of my favorite memories of him!

Answer 14

I don't know if I answered this 52 Ancestors Week 20 - Nature, and now I'm confused. My family of farmers were mostly in Mississippi and Louisiana. At 11 years old, I was transplanted from an entire life up north to my aunt & uncle's 20-acre farm in the south! My uncle still used his mule to pull the plow, and walked his own fields. He got up at 4 am every day, had bacon and eggs, then milked his cow, fed the dogs, picked up eggs - all before going to work. 
He was quite a character, and lived a long life. 
Aubrey Alton Aymond

Answer 15

My mother's brother Marvin Hardy, owned a farm and dairy for a number of years before becoming a ballon artist and international magician :D Oh, the parties!