The made-up world of

This is the first in a series about my preparations for the release of the 1940 census on April 2, 2012.

With no index available at release date, the 1940 census presents some challenges for the genealogist. My great-grandparents, the Todds, will hopefully be the easiest of my ancestors to find . . .  continue reading

You may have heard about this. President John Tyler’s grandson is alive and well. That would be the tenth president of the United States, born in 1790. Now, I always felt like my grandmother was so much older than other kid’s grandparents when I was growing up because she was sixty-three years older than me. Harrison Ruffin Tyler’s grandfather was 138 years older than him.

This whole thing fascinates me because in genealogy one talks of how many generations back one has gotten in their research. Mr. Tyler goes back two generations and he’s in the eighteenth century.  Two generations back and I’m still only in the twentieth century, the same century in which I was born.

To get back to my ancestor Rebecca Venable, born 1788, I needed to trace back six generations. She is my great-great-great-great-grandmother. She’s also the longest lived of my ancestors that I have found so far, having passed away in 1885, which means that my great-grandmother knew her, but my grandfather did not.

Now, I am only about half the age of Mr. Tyler, but still this is sort of amazing.  My grandfather, whose great-great grandmother was born around the same time as President Tyler, would be 106 years old if he were still alive today.

New York Magazine interview with President Tyler’s grandson

Lucy H. Ogle Moore was my great-grandmother. In 1911, her family had a picnic at the local park, commemorating it with a group photo that made it into the local newspaper.

Continue reading and see the photograph –>