Grandparents Day Surprise!

I’ve always been fascinated with my grandfather’s genealogy. Mostly because his is the one I have the least information about, and the side with the least amount of pictures.

Pictures, to me, are the best thing you can have in your genealogy. When I do not have a picture, I feel like I can not connect with them as much as if I do have one. A picture really allows me to know who they were and what they looked like, rather than just a name or a date.

I have scanned every picture that my grandfather had in his possession, which was not many. I always ask my grandfather about his grandmother and what she was like. He would tell me, and I would ask do you know if you have a picture of her? He would always reply, “You know, I actually don’t remember any pictures of her.” But, I always still wondered if there was a picture of her somewhere.

I thought I might ask someone in my grandfather’s family. I messaged my first cousin once removed on Facebook and asked her if she had any. She loves photography and is also interested in family history, so I thought she would be the perfect person to ask. She messaged back saying that she indeed did have scanned photos that she could send me, and also a couple original photos. I was so excited that I could not wait! My grandparents were coming over for dinner that weekend because it was Grandparents Day. The mail arrived with the picture CD inside, with other things included. I popped the CD into the computer and looked at all the photos. They were amazing, they stretched from my grandfather’s grandfather, his aunt’s and uncles, young pictures of his parents, and even a picture of his grandmother. Ecstatic, I drove over to the picture development store and printed out copies for myself and my grandfather, along with an 8x10 enlargement of the picture of his grandmother. I got home in time and put everything together.

We had dinner and it was a great meal, but I waited to give them their presents until dinner was finished. I had gotten my grandmother a frame with seven 4x6 pictures in it. All of which, were pictures of her ancestors. She loved it and looked at all the pictures. Then, I brought out the 8x10 photo and said, “Does anyone in this picture look familiar Papa?” to my grandfather. He looked at it carefully and said, “Now, wait a minute. This is a picture of my grandmother!” At which point my grandmother asked, “Really!?” They looked on for minutes and talked about the stories he had told my grandmother about her. My grandfather asked, “Where did you get this?” and I told them. I also gave them the other prints. They looked on for about an hour at the around seventy photo’s I gave them. You could really see that he enjoyed looking at the photos and telling you who they were. These were pictures he had not seen in a long time, or never at all.

What a great grandparent’s day that was. What a surprise to my grandfather too! I wish I had caught that moment on tape, but forgot to. I will be eternally thanking my cousin for how nice and grateful she was! This really helped me! My grandparents now have the 8x10 photo hanging up in their living room. I printed out a 5x7 copy of that photo and will hang it up on my wall as soon as I get a frame.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com

P.S. I guess I’m always finding out information on Maxime and Séraphine. I recently found out that they moved the U.S.A in 1898 and lived in Connecticut and later to Massachusetts. Séraphine most likely died after the 1900 census, seeing as that she was in the Day Kimball Hospital in Connecticut. But Maxime lived until at least 1925 at the age of 86 in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. It’s actually more possible to find their gravestones now.

The Names Behind the Photo

As you can see below, I posted earlier in the year about my great-great-great-grandparents. I did not know their names, but hoped longingly that I could find them. Well, I have finally found them. Their names are Maxime Cadorette and Séraphine Bernier.

I had contacted St. Joseph's church in North Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut to see if they could locate the marriage record between George Cadorette and Alma Laurion, as wedding certificates show the names of parents. The very nice secretary called back and gave me the names and said she would send paper copies to me soon. I was thrilled and began my research for my Native American ancestors.

Unfortunately, when researching their family side, I see people born in France, which indicates that they were not full blooded Native Americans. But, they must be at least some Native American, I mean just look at them. They look it to me!

By just going off my memory, Maxime and Séraphine had about 6 children. I know one was named Maxime and lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts along with George, his brother. Maxime was a real estate agent and worked in architecture also. Maxime (the elder) and Séraphine had stayed in Canada all their lives.

They will no longer be identified at the unknown Cadorettes, but now can be respectively named. Maxime and Séraphine I'm very happy I found your names and very thankful for you and this lovely picture I have of you. You looked very nice and loving, I would have loved to meet you and wish next I may be able to find your graves somewhere in Canada.

They still hang on my wall, where they will hang with the rest of my ancestors for many years to come.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com

DNA Analyzation!

Whenever you're researching your family's history or even a genealogist you must come across the idea of getting your DNA analyzed. I have been thinking about this for a while now but had always been turned off at the idea that it could only trace on your paternal line (father's father's father's father ect.) maternal line (mother's mother's mother's mother's ect.) You couldn't get the DNA info for all the people in-between.

As I was watching NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? famous football star Emmitt Smith was trying to find his bridge in his family's history back into Africa. Unable to do so, he contacted someone in DNA analysis and had it done. He found out what he was. The DNA lady told him what percentages of what he was and laid everything out very nicely. I thought this was great and it started to get me thinking about trying DNA anylisis.

I also saw an episode of PBS's Faces Of America and they do DNA analysis on that show too! It's amazing to see what they can find out about your past just from your DNA. So I decided to actually look into it.

I found a great website named 23andme.com. It is actually the test they use on Faces of America. It's a great service that decodes your genome and tells you what you are basically. Unfortunately it costs $400 so I put it aside, but found out there was a discount from Oprah that took off a lot of money!

So I bought it! The test should be coming sometime this week. I have to spit into a tube and send it back in. It will take about 2 weeks to analyze everything, but it's worth it! I will post the results when they come.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com

The Unknown Names Behind the Photo

Just around Thanksgiving of 2009 my grandmother had found what she had been looking for, for a long time. She found a picture of her grandfather. Now sure, you're thinking why would that be a big find, wouldn't she have known him? And wouldn't she have more than one picture of him? Well, no. Little is known about him because he lived a short life, and died at 32.

George Cadorette was born in July of 1874 in Canada. He was a full blooded Iroquoui Native American. He later married my great-great-grandmother Alma Laurion in 1896. George was a drunk, and Native American's can not keep their liquor down. So he was sent to a rehab, and died there. In his lifetime he had three children. Ida, Rose, and George.

The only photo my grandmother had of him was a picture of him and his wife on their wedding day. She could not remember where she had it, but all she remembered is that it looked like her but with a mustache.

When my grandmother found the photo she also found some other cherishable photo's. She found an old tintype photo of Alma when she was just 4 years old, she found a picture of Alma's parents, Cleophas and Cordellia, and lastly she found a picture of George's parents who's names are unknown.

I knew from stories that I heard that George was Native American. But even more proof was that on the picture of his parents, it is written saying "Grandpa & Grandma Cadorette. Pure Indian Iroquouis." We do not know the names of the Iroquoui's.

Not knowing their names really made me think, would you rather have all the pictures of everyone with no names or information, or would you rather have no photo's but all the information, dates, marriages, that you could imagine. It wasn't a question to me, I'd rather have the photos. You would have a visual of every person in your family tree instead of dates. Dates just tell you when things happened. But the photo actually shows you what they looked like and dressed like.

Above are the Unknown Cadorettes, my great-great-great grandparents. Hopefully I will find out more information on them someday, but for now I have a 5x7 photo of them hanging up in my room.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com

Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandma

Recently my grandmother asked me if I wanted to come over and look through a box in her closet. She wasn't even sure what was in the box, seeing as she hasn't touched it in at least twenty-five years! So as we searched and searched we found some old photo's of my great-grandfather which I had never seen. There were also some newer photo's including my baptism pictures and baby pictures. As we were getting to the bottom of the box there were a majority of photo's from the 1970's. As I opened a photograph envelope I saw a small picture of an old lady. I originally did not think much of the old woman, I thought she could have just been a friend of my great-great-grandmother. When looking at old photo's my initial reaction is to check the back side, just incase of any writing or anything on the back. I turned the photo over the first thing I saw was "Grandma Sarah Allen" written by my great-great-grandmother.

My heart went through the roof! My jaw dropped as I held the picture. My grandparents were sitting right in-front of me and didn't even know what I had in my hand.

"Oh my god. Guess what I just found." I said.
"What?" said my grandmother.
"Grandma Sarah Allen." I said as I handed the old photograph to her.

I had just found a load of information on Sarah H Allen a couple weeks ago. Before a couple of weeks ago, I did not know much about her. I only knew that her name was Sarah H. and that she married Phillip Allen and they lived in New Bedford. I had contacted someone at the New Bedford Public Library and they very kindly looked up her death record and gave me a copy of it.

Sarah H. Smith was born November 23, 1805 in Dartmouth, Massachusetts to Perry Smith and Phebe Mosher. She married Phillip Allen and had six children. One of which was my great-great-great-grandmother.

Immediately I wanted to try to get this dated. I had also recently joined a fantastic website RootsChat.com. RootsChat is "an easy to use messaging forum for everyone researching their family history or local history" they also have a Photo Restoration and Photo Dating forum board. When I posted the picture I got two great restorations and two datings.

I learned that the photo was a Carte De Visite and was dated mid 1880's. When she died in 1894 she was 88 years old, so I would suppose she was 78 in the picture. Which is appropriate, she does look the age.

When I thought about it, it means I have 7 generations of pictures. Me, My mother, My grandmother, My great-grandmother, My great-great-grandmother, my great-great-great-grandmother, and my great-great-great-great-grandmother. That's a lot of greats and a lot of hyphens.

I feel that it was so strange finding this picture. That it was just thrown in an envelope of pictures taken in 1976. My grandmother doesn't even remember ever seeing that picture before. Even more ironic is that I had just found so much information on her and all of a sudden I found her picture. I think she was looking down and could see me going through all of these photos so she placed herself right there in that box. I wonder how it ever did get in there, while all other old photo's like that were preserved and put in the back of the closet in her room. She looks very much like her granddaughter, and my grandmother. This really makes me wonder if there are any other envelopes that have old photo's in them.

Now, on my desk proudly sits a big 8x10 picture of Sarah.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com