A stock photo that looks shockingly like the road where my maternal grandmother spent part of her childhood, which coincidentally, was around the country block from where i was raised.
SO WHAT ARE MITO-MONDAYS?
I realized a few years ago that my mom enjoyed talking about her childhood. In fact, she was the main reason I have gotten involved in genealogical research, but that's another story.
I lived a few states away from Mom and we would talk once a week or so on the phone, for an hour or two. When I look back on it, it's actually quite surprising because I had a stroke a few years ago and talking on the phone with anybody can be quite grueling. Somehow, it wasn't with Mom. We often turned to family stories of which I started making notes. Eventually I asked her about DNA and blogging, both of which she thought exciting.
So I started a blog we called The Mito-Trail. We concentrated on researching the last line I had not yet worked, because it was McMillen, Miller and Hutchenson, the latter spelled about a zillion different ways, and the others so common as to drive us bonkers!
And then Mom died.
Quite unexpectedly as it happened, and at the age of 82. I arrived in time for the DNA test I had gotten Mom for Christmas to be administered, and the next day she was gone.
I couldn't blog anymore. About a year later, I finally put her obit on the page but still, I couldn't write.
I did have this blog though, random stories about random lines I have worked on over the years. Some families are worthy of their own blog sight, they are so interesting. The airplane stories of my dad's family, the ancestor who hid in her Gettysburg basement as the battle raged on for three days, the women who didn't have children of their own but most certainly made an impact on many, many kids, the connection to George Washington's bathtub, and on and on. (Oh yeah, the lawsuit over the possessed cow, too.)
Thankfully, I come from a long line of story-tellers. I am quite sure that some stories become more "fascinating" as the years go on, but they are interesting stories, nonetheless.
A thought came to me, (was it you Mom?): Maybe a blog just about and with my mom and her moms, is just too difficult, especially since I had a stroke a few years ago and my emotions still get whacked out. Maybe, if I incorporate our mito-stories into Stray Branched, it wouldn't be so overwhelming.
I thought about it a while, and decide it was a really good idea.
So here we are: Mito-Mondays.
In memory of all of my, and my mother's, mothers.
On random Mondays :-)
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I realized a few years ago that my mom enjoyed talking about her childhood. In fact, she was the main reason I have gotten involved in genealogical research, but that's another story.
I lived a few states away from Mom and we would talk once a week or so on the phone, for an hour or two. When I look back on it, it's actually quite surprising because I had a stroke a few years ago and talking on the phone with anybody can be quite grueling. Somehow, it wasn't with Mom. We often turned to family stories of which I started making notes. Eventually I asked her about DNA and blogging, both of which she thought exciting.
So I started a blog we called The Mito-Trail. We concentrated on researching the last line I had not yet worked, because it was McMillen, Miller and Hutchenson, the latter spelled about a zillion different ways, and the others so common as to drive us bonkers!
And then Mom died.
Quite unexpectedly as it happened, and at the age of 82. I arrived in time for the DNA test I had gotten Mom for Christmas to be administered, and the next day she was gone.
I couldn't blog anymore. About a year later, I finally put her obit on the page but still, I couldn't write.
I did have this blog though, random stories about random lines I have worked on over the years. Some families are worthy of their own blog sight, they are so interesting. The airplane stories of my dad's family, the ancestor who hid in her Gettysburg basement as the battle raged on for three days, the women who didn't have children of their own but most certainly made an impact on many, many kids, the connection to George Washington's bathtub, and on and on. (Oh yeah, the lawsuit over the possessed cow, too.)
Thankfully, I come from a long line of story-tellers. I am quite sure that some stories become more "fascinating" as the years go on, but they are interesting stories, nonetheless.
A thought came to me, (was it you Mom?): Maybe a blog just about and with my mom and her moms, is just too difficult, especially since I had a stroke a few years ago and my emotions still get whacked out. Maybe, if I incorporate our mito-stories into Stray Branched, it wouldn't be so overwhelming.
I thought about it a while, and decide it was a really good idea.
So here we are: Mito-Mondays.
In memory of all of my, and my mother's, mothers.
On random Mondays :-)
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Audrey Akers -> Stephanie Woodward -> Debbie Moore -> Shirley Fleece Moore -> Claribel McMillen Fleece -> Jennie (Rachel Jane) Miller McMillen -> Sarah Hutcheson Miller Carnes -> Eleanor (Nellie, Ellie, Helen) Curtis Hutcheson.
All of whom lived within twelve miles of Belle Center, Richland Township, Logan County, Ohio and McDonald Township, Hardin County, Ohio. Belle Center is pretty close the county border and some of them bounced back and forth across it.
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The first four -- my daughter, my granddaughter being held by my mother, and me.
My maternal grandmother, Claribel Alverna McMillen Fleece, my favorite photograph of her.
My great-grandmother Jennie Miller McMillen, loved by all who knew her, and a LOT of people have told me that, including her son-in-law, my maternal grandfather Ira Fleece.
The generic icon for a female ancestor without a photograph from my ancestry.com account. My tree is private because I am clearing out the hot mess I made when internet genealogy became a thing around 1999 and people were copying trees willy-nilly without sourcing. I will respond to all inquiries either on ancestry.com or here.
Since Sarah lived until 1897, there has got to be a photo of her somewhere!
My third great-grandmother, the image of which has come down through another line and kindly shared with me. Because Ellie was born in 1811, it's quite possible the original is an oil painting or chalk, which I have seen in other ancestral photographs.
Eleanor Curtis Hutcheson (or) Hutchinson
1811 - 1886
Stories of these women, and the search to continue the mitochondrial line, will appear on random editions of Mito-Mondays :-)
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