The Happy Dance
The latest Carnival of Genealogy prompt is The Happy Dance – The Joy of Genealogy:
“Almost everyone has experienced it. Tell us about the first time, or the last time, or the best time. What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy?”
I’ve had a couple instances where I’ve jumped for joy when researching ancestors, but the absolute best, in my opinion, was when I found information regarding my father’s side of the family. My mom and dad divorced when I was young, so I never had much contact with my dad. Then once I got interested in genealogy, my dad didn’t have much to tell me. His mom and dad were both dead so they had nothing to offer, and he didn’t know the names of his grandparents because he only knew them by their last names, for example “Grandma Bone.” I thought for the longest time that I might never find information about his side of the family past his parents.
But I did it. And with each new finding it seemed like I kept hitting the jackpot:
I started with census records, knowing that my grandfather’s name was Bruce Stiver and was born in 1900 in Pennsylvania, and that Bruce had a brother named Russell. I finally found them in the 1920 census in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, living with their parents Silas and Rosella Stiver. Finding the names of my great-grandparents in itself was something I’m sure I did a little dance over, but this wasn’t it.
After finding out their names, I did a little poking around on the internet and found someone’s family tree that had a TON of info on Silas and his ancestors for quite a few generations on both his mother’s and father’s side. It even had info on the Stiver clan back to when the name was previously spelled Staiber. I had always thought that the spelling ‘Stiver’ seemed wrong, and that it was likely spelled another way back in Germany, but I didn’t know what it would be. Now I know what it was (or at least have a better idea) and now I have an alternate spelling to do searches under.
After finding this data, I discovered a cousin through a mailing list who had been researching the Stiver name for over 25 years. She was able to confirm all the info I had found on the internet and to top it off she had info regarding Silas’s wife Rosella, whose maiden name, she was able to tell me, was Wells. She also had a photo of Silas, Rosella, and two children, likely their first son Harry, and Bruce when he was an infant:
I’ve gone on to document much of my grandfather Bruce Stiver’s genealogy from all of this info, including finding out that Rosella was the “Grandma Bone” that my father had remembered. She had remarried a John Bone after Silas had died.
Now I just have to find more info on Bruce’s wife’s side of the family. That will be a bit more tricky, as I have precious little to go on and her maiden name was Smith. I can’t wait until I can do the happy dance regarding that side of the family as well.
I found it interesting that your Stiver family were originally Staiber. My Stiver family were Stober or Stoeber. They were originally from Germany but travelled through New York to Canada back in 1794.
My Stiver web site is Stöber / Stiver Family< /a
[reply to this comment]
February 6th, 2009 at 8:05 pm“That will be a bit more tricky, as I have precious little to go on and her maiden name was Smith.”
I chuckled over that one. My paternal line is HILL. I’m happy for YOUR find.
I have awarded you a Kreativ Blogger Award. Please see my post at Oh Blah Vi, Oh Blah Va. Enjoy!
[reply to this comment]
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 am