Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Response- Ancestor who experienced or did something unique

Welcome to another Saturday Night Genealogy challenge (on Sunday) from one of my favorite genealogy bloggers- Genea-Musings. You can see the original post Here.

Last night's challenge was: 

1. Choose an ancestor who experienced or did something unique or memorable (such as an event, family life, trip, etc.).

2. Share about your ancestor and his/her unique experience and how it may have affected their life in your own blog post or on your Facebook page. Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

Here's mine: 

There are a few ancestors that come to mind with this challenge and two that I definitely want to write about....but I think I'm going to go with-- 

My 7th Great-Grandfather- Richard Mendenhall

Richard Mendenhall was born on 01 Nov 1737 in Fredrick County, Virginia to Mordecai Mendenhall (1713-1803) and Charity Grubb Beeson (1715-1809). He was the eldest of 10 children.

At the age of 20, Richard married Jane Thornbrugh (1737-1796) on 24 Jun 1758 in New Garden, North Carolina. Together, they had 8 children- John, Richard Jr., Jane, Benjamin, Charity, Margaret, Joseph, and Aaron. 

The thing that makes Richard unique is that he would often go scouting for land with Daniel Boone and Daniel Boone's eldest son, James. On October 10, 1773, was the first recorded Indian massacre on the Powell River in Lee County, Virginia. This massacre took the lives of Captain William Russell, James Boone (only 16 years old), a servant boy and then a negro slave and Richard Mendenhall and his brother John. The men were buried where they lay slain.

Richard was only 35 years old.

The spot around where the men were killed, there is a memorial (10 miles east of Cumberland Gap)- this is what it looks like: 

Transcription for easy reading: 

Death of Boone's Son:

In this valley, on 10 Oct. 1773. Delaware, Shawnee, and Cherokee Indians killed Daniel Boone's eldest son, James, and five others in their group of eight settlers en route to Kentucky. Separated from Daniel Boone's main party, the men had set up camp near Wallen's Creek. At dawn the Indians attacked and killed James Boone, Henry Russell, John and Richard Mendenhall (brothers), a youth whose last name was Drake, and Charles (one of two slaves in the party). Isaac Crabtree and Adam, a slave, escaped. This event prompted Boone adn his party to abandon their first attempt to settle Kentucky. 

Transcription for easy reading: 

Pioneer Graves

This marks the burial place of a party of white settlers who were surprised in camp and slain by Indians at daybreak, October 10, 1773.  Those killed were James Boone, son of Daniel Boone, Henry Russell, son of Capt William Russell, Robert and Richard Mendenhall, brothers, and another unnamed white man. Two escaped, Isaac Crabtree, a white man and Adam, a negro slave of Russell Boone, and Russell buried their sons and the others at the scene of the tragedy and gave up temporarily the first effort of white men to settle Kentucky. 

Erected July 10, 1951, by M. Wheeler Kesterson, a native of Lee County, Virginia, age 59 years and a descendant of Mary Russell. 

Please comment and share this post via Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media. Any personal comments or questions, please feel free to reach out via Carriesmith11411@yahoo.com. 

Copyright (c) 2024, Carrie Smith

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Response- Were Your Parents Related to Each Other?

Happy Sunday! Welcome to another Saturday night genealogy question from Genea-musings-- here is the original post to refer to: Read here. 

Last Night's question was: 

Were Your Parents Related to Each Other?

Do your paternal and maternal lines have any surnames in common? Are they related or is there no known connection? Are there possible connections? 

This one is interesting for sure because the world is a big one-- but a small one at that. If you've been doing genealogy for a long time, you may find that your parents are distantly related.

Here's Mine: 

~Biological Father and Mother: I didn't find a connection between my parents-- mainly because my father's paternal side is very German and then his mother's side is from the Netherlands and other places. My mother's side is very English. 

~My mom and her second husband, my step-father, however, I did find a connection. My step-dad is actually my 10th cousin, 1x removed-- which makes him my mom's husband and 9th cousin.

Please comment and share this post via Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media. If you have any questions or personal comments, please feel free to reach out to me via email: Carriesmith11411@yahoo.com. 

Copyright (c) 2024, Carrie Smith

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Share a Childhood Memory

Randy Seaver's "Genea-Musings" mission for us this week is: 

Your Mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 

Have you written your memoirs yet? If so, please share with us one story from your childhood. If not, then start your memoirs! The story could be a memory of your family life, your schoolwork, your neighborhood, etc. It doesn't have to be a certain length-- just something you recall. 

Here's mine:

In 1991, my family and I moved from Round Rock, Texas to Humboldt, Arizona (probably the smallest town you will ever step in if you visit). My twin sister and I were in the 1st grade and our brother would have been in high school. Our rented house was right off of the main highway- highway 69. It's now a busy 4 lane highway, back then, it was only 2 lanes. In our little "community", it was our house, then to the left of us were the Hellman's. Down the ways a bit in front of our house was also the Hellman's (Brothers) and then up the hill behind the first Hellman's was also the Hellman's (their parents). 

Now, I have no idea if they owned that house or not. I loved that house though. It was spooky and I swear, to this day, that it was haunted. Things would go missing and I constantly heard things around that place- especially at night. It had 3 bedrooms. Coming into the house from the drive way (there was a separate garage), you entered a separate small room for laundry. I guess today, it could easily be called a "mud room". Off that, when you entered the house, was a small kitchen. I remember there being a wood burning stove in there. I don't think the house had an actual heater, we always had to keep logs burning. Then, off the kitchen was a very long dining room. Off of that dining room were the bedrooms. Facing away from the kitchen, to the left was one bedroom and then to the right, was a hallway that led to the other bedroom and the master bedrooms. I honestly don't remember how many bathrooms- probably only one. On the other side of the dining room was the entry way for the front door (rarely used) and to the left was the living room. Off of the living room was a small greenhouse that led to a back porch. (This is all based on MY memory, so who knows if it's all correct LOL).

The floorboards in the master closet opened up to a tunnel! We were told it led over to the Hellman's house (first one mentioned), although, I don't think any of us actually tested that rumor. 

There are so many memories of this house for the short time we lived there. One in particular-- in the middle of the night, we heard a huge CRASH. A car had run off the highway and hit a tree that was literally in the middle of space between our house and the highway (so basically, if the tree hadn't been there, the car would have hit our house). The lady driving was the mother of a friend at my school. I remember her being hurt very badly- several broken bones. My mom went and got the Hellman's (first one) since he was a fireman. All the adults worked together to keep her comfortable and to keep each other safe. I remember it being a long night.

We moved out of that house around 1993 (I think). The road was being expanded to 4 lanes and we were forced to move. We moved to a larger house in Prescott Valley, about 10 minutes away and the city tore that house down- along with The Hellman's (both brothers). I believe the Hellman Parent's kept their home. Whenever I go home to Arizona and I'm driving South on highway 69, heading towards Phoenix, I'm driving right over where our house used to be. It's a little sad sometimes to be honest. 

 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

The genealogy blog called Genea-Musings has a little "mission" every Saturday night. I haven't done one in awhile-- here we go! 

The mission tonight: 

1) What was your mother's father's full name?

2) What is your mother's father's matrilineal line? That is, his mother's mother's mother's ... back to the most distant female ancestor in that line.  Provide her ahnentafel number (relative to you), and her birth and death years and places.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, or in a Comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please put a link to your post in Comments here

(You can view the entire post here)

Here are my answers: 

1. What was your mother's father's full name? 

   My mother's father's name was Harold Earl Mendenhall.

2. What is your mother's father's matrilineal line? 
~Harold's mother was Edna Grace Niles (1894-1933). She married 2x- Earl Dwight Mendenhall (1916-1993) & then later, Fillmore Hax Chapman (1886-1941). She died at the age of 39 of a coronary embolism 6 hours after the birth of her 4th child.

~Edna's mother was Anna E. Shomber (1868-1947). She married Joseph Niles (1857-1933) on 19 Jul 1884. She died at the age of 79 of cancer along with cholecystitis.

~Anna's mother was Mary Elizabeth Catharine Zacharias (1839-1911). She was born in Germany. She married John Shomber (1836-1917) on 22 May 1859. She died at the age of 72.

Sadly, that's where I hit a brick wall.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- My Tombstone

Every Saturday, the blog Genea-Musings posts a segment titled "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun". I've done a few blog posts taking on his challenges, but I haven't done one in awhile...here we go! 

This one is from September 7, 2019; find his blog post Here.

The assignment:
1) Create your own tombstone at Tombstonebuilder.com
or create one for a relative who doesn't have one.
2) Share your creation in your own blog post, or on Facebook or Instagram. 

Here's Mine: 

Like Randy from Genea-Musings, I made myself 100 when I died.

I also made one for my 6th cousin, 5x removed- E.J. Mendenhall because he doesn't have a tombstone. You can read about E.J. in two separate blog posts: First Post & Second Post.