Friday, April 24, 2026

Genealogical Sketch of the Jeremiah McKnew (1804-????) and Frances Allethia Pickrell (1810-1845) Family of Maryland and District of Columbia

This is a genealogical sketch of the lives of the Jeremiah and Allethia (Pickrell) McKnew family of Maryland. They are my wife Linda's 2nd great-grandparents.


=============================

Jeremiah McKnew’s Early Life

Jeremiah McKnew was born about 1804 in Prince George's, Maryland, the second son of Nathan McKnew (1771-1834) and his first wife, Mary --?-- (1775-1806), who married in about 1800 in Prince George’s County. They had three children:
  • Samuel McKnew, born about 1802, Prince George's, Maryland; married Mary --?--, before 1831, Maryland
  • Jeremiah McKnew, born about 1804, Prince George's, Maryland; married Frances Allethia Pickrell, 26 March 1829, Washington, District of Columbia; married Sarah --?--, before 1848, Maryland.
  • Basil McKnew, born about 1805, Prince George's, Maryland; married Caroline Duvall, 28 September 1831, Washington, District of Columbia.
Jeremiah’s mother died before 10 February 1806, when Nathan McKnew and Jennet "Jane" Prather were married on 10 February 1806 in Montgomery, Maryland.

Nathan McKnew and Jennet Prather had the following children:
  • Thomas McKnew, born before 5 June 1807, Muirkirk, Prince George's, Maryland; married Martha Maria Wall, 23 November 1827, Prince George's, Maryland; died 15 May 1856, Beltsville, Prince George's, Maryland.
  • Charles McKnew, born about 1809, Prince George's, Maryland; married Sarah --?--, before 1830, Maryland; died before 1850, Maryland.
  • Rachel McKnew, born about 1812, Prince George's, Maryland; married Joseph King, 28 February 1835, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland.
  • George McKnew was born about 1820 in Prince George's, Maryland; no further record.
  • Nathan R. McKnew, born 30 October 1823, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland; married (1) Catherine Stevens, 12 April 1844, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland; married (2) Milka Baker, 9 February 1845, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland; married (3) Mary A. Wonn, 16 November 1847, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland; married (4) Mary Ann Wilkerson Riggs, 2 September 1855, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland; died 30 December 1890, Baltimore, Baltimore (city), Maryland.
  • William McKnew was born about 1825 in Prince George's, Maryland; died October 1882 at the age of 57 in Prince George's, Maryland.
  • John Thomas McKnew was born about 1826 in Prince George's, Maryland, United States; no further record.
The Nathan McKnew family resided in Prince George’s County, Maryland through 1834.

Frances Allethia Pickrell’s Early Life

Frances Allethia Pickrell was born about 1810 probably in Prince George's, Maryland. She was the daughter of Benjamin Pickrell (c1780-c1845) and Allethia Prather (c1786-1841), who married in about 1802 in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Benjamin Pickrell and Allethia Prather had the following children (there may have been other children- the records are sparse):
  • Catharine Pickrell, born 1804, Washington, District of Columbia; married Elijah Ourand, 20 November 1823, Washington, District of Columbia; died 17 October 1888, Washington, District of Columbia.
  • Frances Allethia Pickrell, born about 1810, probably in Prince George's, Maryland; married Jeremiah McKnew, 26 March 1829, Washington, District of Columbia; died 3 May 1845, Prince George's, Maryland, United States.
The Benjamin Pickrell family resided in Washington, District of Columbia from 1804.

Jeremiah and Allethia’s Married Life Together

Jeremiah McNew and Allethia Pickrell were married on 26 March 1829 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States.[1]

Jeremiah McKnew and Frances Allethia Pickrell had the following children:
  • Jeremiah McKnew, born February 1831, Prince George's, Maryland; married Rosalie B. Taylor, 29 October 1852, Washington, District of Columbia, two children; died 27 March 1860, Washington, District of Columbia.
  • Catherine Louisa McKnew, born 18 October 1832, probably Prince George's, Maryland; married Elias Thomas, 9 December 1852, Powhatan, Baltimore, Maryland, nine children; died 2 October 1910, Pikesville, Baltimore, Maryland.
  • Elizabeth Jane McKnew, born 1835, probably Prince George's, Maryland; married Andrew Aitcheson, 25 August 1853, Laurel, Prince Georges, Maryland, eleven children; died 1901, Alexandria, Alexandria, Virginia.
  • Elijah Pickrell McKnew, born 29 March 1836, Prince George's, Maryland; married Jane Whittle, 12 November 1865, Tuolumne, California, eleven children; died 4 April 1912, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
  • Benjamin Pickrell McKnew, born 25 December 1840, Prince George's, Maryland; married Diana Houston Aitcheson, 30 November 1865, Prince George's, Maryland, six children; died 14 October 1905, Prince George's, Maryland.
  • Maria Louise McKnew, born about 1842, probably Prince George's, Maryland; married Peter Aitcheson, 25 December 1866, Prince George's, Maryland, five children; died 14 February 1885, Alexandria, Alexandria, Virginia.
Jeremiah’s father, Nathan McKnew, died on 27 March 1834 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In his 1832 will, he left Jeremiah and the other two sons of his first marriage $5 “and no more”. The children of Nathan’s second marriage received the real and personal property. In the estate account, Jeremiah McKnew was paid $20 for house rent for his deceased father.

“Jerry” McKnew was enumerated in the 1840 United States Federal Census in Prince George's County, Maryland.[2] The household included:
  • 3 males under age 5 (likely son Elijah and two unknown children)
  • 1 male aged 5-10 (likely likely son Jeremiah)
  • 1 male aged 30-40 (certainly Jeremiah)
  • 2 females aged 5 to 10 (likely daughters Caherine and Elizabeth)
  • 1 female aged 20-30 (certainly Allethia)
Frances Allethia (Pickrell) McKnew died 3 May 1845 in Prince George’s County, Maryland at the age of 35,[3] leaving Jeremiah with at least six children.

The death date and parents of Frances Allethia Pickrell are known only from this unusual record:
During a visit at the home of Louise and Elizabeth Marshall (Linda's cousins through the McKnew line) in Alexandria, Virginia in 1998, Randy Seaver was allowed to review family papers and a family Bible. In the process, the two little scraps of paper (approximately 1 inch by 2 inches each) fluttered to the floor from the Bible. He picked them up and read:

"Allethia MacNew the daughter of Benjamin & Allethia Pickerell deceased May 3d 1845."

"Elizabeth Barnes the mother of Benjamin Pickerell deceased June 2d 1825."
The paper scraps were placed back in the Bible, and no image of them was taken.

Jeremiah’s Later Life

Jeremiah McKnew and Sarah --?-- married before 1848, probably in Prince George’s County, in Maryland. Sarah’s parents are unknown.

Jeremiah McKnew and Sarah --?-- had the following child:
  • Horace McKnew was born in 1848 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He died before 5 December 1850 in Washington, District of Columbia.
In the 1850 United States Federal Census, the Jeremiah McNew family resided West of 7th Avenue Turnpike in Washington, D.C.[4] The household included:
  • Jeremiah McNew - age 41, male, a laborer, born Md, over 20 years, and cannot read or write
  • Sarah McNew - age 26, female, born Md, over 20 years, and cannot read or write
  • Benjamin McNew - age 9, male, born Md
  • Maria McNew - age 8, female, born Md
  • Horrace McNew - age 1-8/12, male, born Md, dead
Jeremiah McKnew died after 1850 and probably before the 1860 United States Census was taken. No death date, death place, burial location or probate records have been found for Jeremiah or Sarah. Some family trees have an 1860 death date for Jeremiah, but that record is for his son, Jeremiah McKnew (1831-1860).

Sources:

1. “District of Columbia Marriages, 1811-1950,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org), Jeremiah McNew and Allethia Pickrell entry, 26 March 1829; citing Records Office, Washington D.C.; on FHL microfilm US/CAN 2,079,251.

2. 1840 United States Federal Census, Prince George's County, Maryland, population schedule, page 7 (image 41 of 64), Jerry McKnew household; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M704, Roll 169.

3. Marshall Family Bible (No title, edition number or publication date noted), handwritten loose paper scrap. Transcription made in 1998 by Randy Seaver, 1154 Via Trieste, Chula Vista CA 91911.

4. 1850 United States Federal Census, Washington, District of Columbia, Page 261A, Dwelling #30, Family #30, Jeremiah McKnew household; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 57.

Relationship

Jeremiah McKnew (1804-????) and Allthia Pickrell (1810-1845) are maternal 2nd- great-grandparents of my wife, Linda (Leland) Seaver (1942-still living), through:
  •  her great-grandfather Elijah Pickrell McKnew (1836-1912) who married Jane Whittle (1847-1921) in 1865 in Tuolumne County, California.
  • her grandmother Edna Catherine McKnew (1884-1974) who married Paul Frederick Schaffner (1879-1934) in 1906 in San Francisco. 
  • her mother Edna May Schaffner (1913-1979)  who married Leo Severt Leland (1911-2002) in 1937 in San Francisco.

========================================

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Ask AI: "Describe Amy Frances Oatley's Life At Age 14 in 1840 in Connecticut"

  I wondered if the FREE AI tools could provide me with a story about about the life of my 2nd great-grandmother Amy Frances Oatley in 1840 at age 14 in East Killingly, Connecticut.

 My genealogical sketch for Amy Frances Oatley is ABC Biography of #23 Amy Frances (Oatley) White (1826-1864) of Rhode Island and Connecticut, based on my genealogical research.

(AI NotebookLM Infographic of the life of Amy Frances Oatley at age 14 in 1840)

1)  My Prompt to free Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 was:  "Please describe the life of Amy Frances Oatley at age 14 in 1840 in East Killingly, Connecticut."

2)  The AI tool responded with this description (yes, it is historical fiction, but the way it might have been), based on family and social history resources: 


Amy Frances Oatley’s Life in 1840 in 

East Killingly, Connecticut


Based on the historical records and research about rural Connecticut life in the 1840s, here's what life would have been like for Amy Frances Oatley at age 14 in East Killingly, Connecticut in 1840:

Family Life in a Crowded Household

At 14, Amy Frances lived in a bustling household with her parents Jonathan and Amy, and numerous siblings. In 1840, the census shows several siblings still at home, creating a lively and crowded domestic environment. As one of the middle daughters still at home, Amy Frances occupied an important position in the family hierarchy—old enough to take on significant responsibilities but still young enough to be under her parents' authority. Her older sisters, Almira and Nancy, had recently married and moved out of the Oatley household.

Women and their daughters played an important role in the subsistence farm, typically managing dairy and poultry operations, making soap and candles, and spending a great deal of time producing cloth. Amy Frances would have worked alongside her mother and sisters in these essential tasks.

The Oatley household was unique in East Killingly—her father was both a Baptist minister and a granite worker who owned a quarry near Killingly Old Pond. This dual identity meant Amy Frances grew up in a home where spiritual matters were discussed daily, Bible reading was central, and the physical labor of stonecutting was ever-present. Her older brothers worked the quarry with their father, and the distinctive sound of stone being cut and shaped would have been a constant backdrop to daily life.

Daily Work and Responsibilities

Amy Frances's days would have begun before dawn and extended well into the evening. Girls usually helped inside the home, cooking, cleaning, sewing and spinning. But on a farm combined with a quarry operation, her work likely extended beyond purely domestic duties.

By far the most common occasion that put women in the fields was haying, the most urgent farm labor of all, and a Litchfield, Connecticut farmer remembered of his youth in the 1840s that "all hands, women 'n' all, would turn in 'n' rake and get in" the hay. During the critical haying season, Amy Frances would have worked alongside her entire family in the fields.

Her regular domestic duties would have included:

  • Textile production: As late as 1840, farm women produced more cloth at home than all American textile mills combined, with women providing one set of clothes for each family member every season. Amy Frances would have spent countless hours spinning, weaving, and sewing.

  • Food preparation and preservation: Cooking over an open hearth, baking bread, churning butter, making cheese, and preserving vegetables and fruits for winter

  • Cleaning and laundry: Hauling water (there was no running water), scrubbing floors, washing clothes by hand in large tubs

  • Poultry and dairy care: Feeding chickens, collecting eggs, milking cows, making butter

  • Gardening: Tending the kitchen garden that provided vegetables for the family table

Education

The school year was divided into two terms: a winter term from November to March, and a summer term from May to late August or early September. At 14, Amy Frances was at a transitional age for education. Girls could usually stay in school until they were seventeen or eighteen, since they were not expected to go to work like the boys.

Classes could be composed of a few students to as many as thirty, and students living in rural, agricultural communities sometimes received science lessons tailored to teach skills and knowledge that would be helpful to them on the farm. Amy Frances likely attended the local one-room schoolhouse when farm duties permitted, particularly during the summer term when her labor was less critical to the family.

The subjects she would have studied included reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, geography, and possibly some basic sciences. Much of the learning involved memorization and recitation. Without school supplies always available, much of the students' learning involved memorization and recitation, with students called to the "recitation bench" at the front of the classroom.

However, her education extended far beyond the schoolhouse. She was learning the essential skills of running a household through apprenticeship with her mother—skills that were considered just as important as book learning for a young woman of her era.

Religious Life and Social Activities

Sundays provided respite from labor and served as the primary opportunity for social interaction, with church attendance being both a religious obligation and a social necessity in rural Connecticut, providing one of the few regular opportunities for community gathering.

For Amy Frances, church was particularly important since her father was the Baptist pastor. She would have attended services every Sunday, likely sitting with her mother and younger siblings. Sunday school, prayer meetings, and church socials were central to her social life. The time after services allowed her to interact with other young people in the community, and these gatherings were among the few opportunities for supervised socializing between young men and women.

It was likely at church or church-related activities that Amy Frances first became acquainted with Henry Arnold White, the young man she would marry four years later in 1844 when she was 18. Henry developed friendships with peers, including William Oatley, whose family resided nearby and were quarrymen, and it was likely during this period that Henry first became acquainted with Amy Frances Oatley, a sister of his friend William, who would have been about fourteen years old in 1840.

Entertainment and Fun

Entertainment in rural Connecticut in 1840 was simple and largely homemade. Amy Frances's leisure time was limited, but when it existed, it took several forms:

  • Family evenings: Storytelling around the hearth, singing hymns, simple games, and conversation. Her father would have had stories from Rhode Island and from his years as a minister.

  • Seasonal activities: Berry picking, nutting expeditions in the fall, ice skating in winter on frozen ponds

  • Church socials: Singing schools, church suppers, quilting bees where young women gathered

  • Simple recreation: Walking with friends, fishing in local streams, perhaps some informal games

  • Occasionally, traveling shows and peddlers passed through Killingly, offering entertainment otherwise unavailable, including musicians, jugglers, or other performers who brought novelty and excitement to isolated rural communities—such events, though infrequent, were memorable occasions for farm families.

Any form of dancing would have been strictly forbidden in her Baptist household, as would card playing or other activities considered "worldly" by the church. Her entertainment was filtered through the lens of religious propriety.

Transition to Young Womanhood

At 14, Amy Frances was on the cusp of young womanhood. In just four years, she would be married. This period of her life was one of preparation—learning all the skills she would need to run her own household, developing the physical stamina required for farm life, and becoming acquainted with the young men of the community who might become potential suitors.

She was living in a time of transition for American women. Mill girls earned $3-4 weekly during the 1820s and 1830s, twice what women made teaching or sewing, paying under $1.25 for room and board each week. Some young Connecticut women were leaving farms to work in textile mills in places like Lowell, Massachusetts, gaining unprecedented independence. But for Amy Frances Oatley, daughter of a minister and granite worker in rural Connecticut, her path was more traditional—from her father's household to her husband's, carrying with her all the skills her mother had taught her.

Her life at 14 was one of hard work, strong faith, family bonds, and simple pleasures—a typical rural New England girlhood in the 1840s, preparing her for the responsibilities and challenges that lay ahead.

==============================

3)  Here is the Video Overview of this story by Google NotebookLM:  

4)  This is historical fiction based on the facts that are available for the Jonathan and Amy (Champlin) Oatley family and Amy Frances Oatley's life.  It is based on social history and society norms at the time and place, so it is likely realistic and might have happened this way. Amy Frances Oatley (1826-1864) married Henry Arnold White in 1848, had six children, and is my 2nd great-grandmother.

5)  I had to tell this story. Each ancestor faces challenges in their life, and telling stories about them helps our descendants understand their ancestors' lives and their own lives. 

==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page.  Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com. 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Added and Updated MyHeritage Record Collections - Week of 17 to 23 April 2026

The following Record Collections were ADDED or Updated in the MyHeritage Collections Catalog during the week of  17 to 23 April 2026:

                                       =========================== 

There are 5 ADDED record collections in the list this past week, and MyHeritage now has a total of  7,541 record collections (an increase of 5 collections from last week.  The overall set of MyHeritage collections has 39,610,971,457 records or entries (an increase of about 326 million entries from last week).  

NOTE:  The last three collections on this list  were not on the MyHeritage collection list last week for some reason.

The number of entries in the family tree collections were last updated this week. 

See previous Genea-Musings posts about MyHeritage record collections and features in https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/MyHeritage.com.

                          =========================================

Disclosure: I receive a complimentary PremiumPlus subscription to MyHeritage, and have received other material consideration in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products. I am a paid subscriber to Family Tree Webinars and love it.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/04/added-and-updated-myheritage-record_0976161028.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

The Golden Shore -- A Schaffner Family Story: Parts 5 and 6

 After writing ABC Biography of Frederick Schaffner (1828-1899) Family of Germany, New York and San Francisco, based on my genealogical research, I asked Anthropic Claude to tell the family story of the Schaffner's migrating from New York City to San Francisco by sea. 

The first part of the story was posted in The Golden Shore -- A Schaffner Family Story: Parts 1 and 2.  The second part is in The Golden Shore -- A Schaffner Family Story: Parts 3 and 4. Here is the third and last part of the story:

(Infographic created by Google NotebookLM - Parts 5 and 6 of The Golden Shore)


The Golden Shore
A Story of the Schaffner Family

New York to San Francisco, 1855


Part Five -- The Pacific

Aboard the SS Sonora, northward toward California

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company's SS Sonora was newer and larger than the Illinois, and their second-class berth — Frederick had spent the difference, recklessly, because it was either that or steerage for three more weeks and he was done with steerage — was a small room with two real bunks and a porthole of genuine, non-salt-filmed glass. Herman sat on the lower bunk and bounced on the mattress three times to test it.

"Better," he pronounced.

"Yes," Frederick said.

"Much better," Martha Matilda said, and sat down on the bunk beside Herman and closed her eyes for a moment, and Frederick understood that she was exhausted in the bone-deep way that she never admitted to and that he only saw in these unguarded moments. He sat beside her. Herman climbed between them and fell asleep almost immediately, with the easy unconsciousness of the very young, his head against her arm.

"We're nearly there," Frederick said.

"Ten more days," she said, eyes still closed. "Give or take."

"We've been traveling for three weeks. Ten more days is nothing."

"Nothing," she agreed, and smiled without opening her eyes. "Absolutely nothing at all."

He took her hand. Outside the porthole the Pacific was a deep, dark blue, nothing like the Caribbean — quieter, older somehow, vaster. The sun was getting lower.

"Thank you," Frederick said.

She opened one eye. "For what?"

"For coming."

"You didn't give me much choice."

"I gave you a choice."

She was quiet for a moment. "You gave me a choice between going with you and staying in New York without you. That's not much of a choice."

"No," he said. "It isn't. I'm sorry."

She closed the eye again. "Don't be sorry. If I'd wanted to stay in New York I would have stayed in New York. I'm Irish, Frederick, not a houseplant." A pause. "I want to see California."

"You'll see it."

"I know I will."

Herman made a small sound in his sleep. The ship moved steadily north. Outside, the sun touched the horizon and spread itself wide and red across the water, and the Pacific turned the color of hammered copper for ten minutes before the dark came.

— ★ —

The Pacific was not always peaceful. On the fourth day out of Panama, they ran into a squall that lasted eighteen hours and reduced the saloon to a largely empty room. Frederick found that he had his sea legs now, at last, and spent the storm on deck in a borrowed oilskin, partly for the air and partly because watching the waves was better than not watching them. The Sonora was a big ship and she rode the swells without panic, but the ocean in a squall has a way of demonstrating its complete indifference to human enterprise, and Frederick stood at the rail and felt this demonstration with his whole body.

He found Frau Bauer beside him, also in an oilskin, also looking at the waves.

"You should be inside," he said.

"So should you," she said.

They stood together for a while.

"My husband died on the crossing from Germany," she said eventually. "In 1838. I told you I came over in 1838."

"You did."

"He died of fever, in the third week. They buried him at sea. I had never seen anyone buried at sea. They wrap them in canvas and slide them over the rail and that's that." She was quiet for a moment. The ship lurched and she gripped the rail without visible concern. "I always thought the ocean was his now. The Atlantic. I've been afraid of it ever since. But this one —" she looked out at the Pacific — "this one is all right. This one is new."

Frederick looked at the water. He thought about Susanna, about the years in New York. He thought about Herman asleep in the bunk below.

"Yes," he said. "New. That's the right word."

— ★ —

On the seventh day, the coast of California appeared.

Frederick was on deck at dawn, as he had been every morning for the past four days, hoping for first sight, and he nearly missed it because it came from the east, landward, a darkness against the early light that resolved itself gradually — over the course of perhaps twenty minutes — into cliffs. Brown cliffs, enormous, the kind of cliffs that looked as though the continent had been cut with a knife and the cut face revealed. Above them, hills the colour of dried grass. And above the hills, a sky in the process of becoming extraordinary.

He went below and got Martha Matilda and Herman.

Herman came up in his nightshirt, barefoot, blinking, and stood at the rail between them. The cliffs were closer now. The California coast ran ahead of them to the north in a long curve.

"Is that it?" Herman asked.

"That's it," Frederick said.

The boy looked at the coast for a long time. The sun came up behind the hills and lit everything gold. A pelican flew past at rail height, enormous and prehistoric, utterly indifferent to the steamship and all its cargo of human hope.

"It looks like nothing," Herman said, with four-year-old directness.

Frederick laughed. "Wait," he said.



Part Six -- The Bay

San Francisco Bay, July 1855

They came through the Golden Gate in the afternoon.

Frederick had read about it — had read the descriptions in the newspapers and the emigrant pamphlets and the letters from men who had gone before — and none of it had prepared him for the reality of standing at the bow of the Sonora as the ship moved through the gap between the headlands and the bay opened before him. It was not the biggest body of water he had ever seen. It was not the most dramatic landscape. It was something else: it was the sense of arrival so complete and physical that it hit him in the sternum like a shove.

The bay was enormous and silver in the afternoon light. The city climbed the hills on the southern shore in a dense, improbable jumble of buildings — white and brown and grey, flags flying, smoke rising from a dozen stacks, and everywhere the sound of it, even at this distance: hammering, machinery, the shouts of men working on a hundred different projects simultaneously. A forest of ships' masts clustered along the waterfront. New buildings going up along the ridgelines.

Martha Matilda had her hand on the rail. She was looking at the city with an expression Frederick couldn't entirely read — something between calculation and wonder, as if she were already measuring it for curtains.

Herman was on his shoulders. The boy's hands were on Frederick's head, gripping his hair in a way that was mildly painful but that Frederick did not mention. He could feel Herman's weight leaning forward, toward the city.

"It's big," Herman said.

"It's very big," Frederick agreed.

"Bigger than New York?"

"Different from New York. It will be bigger someday."

Herman was quiet for a moment. The ship moved steadily toward the docks. Around them the other passengers crowded the rail, and there was a sound from the crowd that was not quite cheering and not quite sighing — something in between, involuntary, the sound a hundred people make when they simultaneously understand that something is over and something else is beginning.

"Vater," Herman said.

"Yes."

"Can we stay?"

Frederick looked at the city. He looked at Martha Matilda, who was still studying the shoreline with those measuring eyes. He looked at the bay and the hills and the light on the water.

He thought: I have crossed an ocean and a continent and another ocean. I have sweated through Panama and survived the Pacific and stood at a ship's rail at dawn watching California come out of the dark. I have two trunks and twenty-three dollars and a four-year-old on my shoulders and a woman beside me who came all this way because she chose to.

He put both hands on Herman's ankles to steady him.

"Yes," he said. "We stay."

— ★ —

The Sonora docked at three in the afternoon. The gangway went down and the passengers surged forward and Frederick and Martha Matilda and Herman moved with them, out into the noise and heat and impossible energy of San Francisco, California, in the summer of 1855.

They stood on the dock for a moment, the three of them, with their two trunks at their feet, watching the city pour itself past them in every direction. A wagon loaded with lumber. A man arguing with a mule. Two Chinese workers carrying a beam between them. A woman in a yellow dress reading a newspaper. A dog asleep in the sun, unbothered by everything.

Herman put his hand in Frederick's.

Frederick looked at Martha Matilda. She looked back at him.

"Well," she said.

"Well," he agreed.

And they picked up their trunks and walked into it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note

This story is a work of historical fiction. The characters of Frederick Schaffner, Martha Matilda, and Herman Schaffner are based on real people documented in genealogical research by Randall J. Seaver. The known facts of their lives — Frederick's birth in Darmstadt in 1828, his naturalization in San Francisco in November 1856, Martha Matilda's Irish birth and death in 1875, Herman's birth in New York in 1851 — form the skeleton of the story. All dialogue, scenes, supporting characters, and interior thoughts are imagined.

The historical details of the Panama route are accurate: the SS Illinois and SS Sonora were real Pacific Mail and US Mail steamships operating this route in 1855. The Panama Railroad was indeed completed in January 1855 at a terrible human cost, primarily borne by immigrant and enslaved laborers. The crossing of the isthmus by railroad took approximately four to five hours. The fare from New York to San Francisco via Panama in 1855 was approximately $150–$300 in cabin class.

Frederick Schaffner went on to become a saloon proprietor at 315 Lombard Street, San Francisco, and a member of King Solomon Lodge No. 260, Free and Accepted Masons. He died in San Francisco on 29 June 1899. Herman Schaffner, the boy on his shoulders, grew up to be the great-grandfather of Linda (Leland) Seaver.

===============================

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:   

This is historical fiction based on known events in the lives of my ancestors - it might have been this way. The family mentioned is my wife's ancestral family (Frederick Schaffner is her 2nd great-grandfather), and I have significant information about their lives from the available records, but know nothing about their day-to-day lives.

After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit the Schaffner family in New York and San Francisco and witness their daily lives.  I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.

Information like this is very helpful to add historical events and social history content to a person's biography. 

==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page.  Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1840 U.S. Census Record for Isaac Lanfear Household in Lorraine, New York

 It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1840 United States Census record for Isaac Lanfear (one of my 4th great-grandfathers) in Lorraine, Jefferson County, New York.


The Isaac Lanfear household information:


The extracted information for the Isaac Lanfear household (with my educated guess as to the names of the family members, assuming that they are all from the Isaac Lanfear family):

*  Name of head of family:  Isaac Lanfear
*  Males aged 15-20:   one (probably son John born 1824)
*  Males aged 20-30:  one (probably son Latham (born 1814)
*  Males aged 50-60:  one (certainly Isaac born 1777)
*  Females aged 10-15:  one (probably daughter Sarah born 1828)
*  Females aged 15-20:  one (probably daughter Malinda (born 1823)
*  Females aged 20-30:  one (probably daughter Eleanor (born 1818) or Polly (born 1814) or Susan (born 1812)
*  Females aged 50-60:  one ( certainly wife Rosina age 59)
*  Total:  7

There are five living children for the Isaac and Rosian (Laun) Lanfear family in 1840, but several children had married before 1840 (daughters Anna and Elizabeth had married before 1840).  

The source citation for this entry (census date 1 June 1840) is:

1840 United States Federal Census, Jefferson County, New York, Lorraine town, page 4 (image 11 of 24), Isaac Lanfear household; imaged, "1840 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8057/records/2390522 : accessed 15 June 2023); original image on NARA Microfilm publication M-704.

Some readers may wonder "why post pre-1850 U.S. census records - you can't be sure who is in the household."  That's true, but it can still provide some clues to the age of the head of household, and tracking a household through the years may indicate family additions or subtractions, plus narrowing the location of the residence by using the neighbors.  This is especially useful for same-name problems in a community. 

In this case, I'm still searching for the birth parents of Devier J. Lamphear Smith (1839-1894, my 2nd great-grandfather) whose name was changed in Wisconsin from Lamphear to Smith in 1866, and is identified as an adopted child in the name change record and Ranslow Smith's will (his adoptive father).  One of the young women in the 1840 census may be the mother of Devier.  Unfortunately, a male child age 1-5 is not enumerated in this record.  This is a "negative result" -- an expected result was not supported by the record; it was also "negative evidence" since the child was not in the record, and therefore may be enumerated elsewhere; one hypothesis is that the child was born in May 1839 and adopted by the Smith family before the census was taken.  

Another clue that may be helpful is that the person enumerated just above Isaac Lanfear is Philander Smith, who is probably the one born in 1807 in Jefferson county, New York. I have not been able to connect Philander Smith to Ranslow Smith but they may have been related. 

I share significant DNA segments, consistent with descent from common 4th great-grandparents, with descendants of Isaac and Rosina (Laun) Lanfear.  If Devier's mother or father was a child of Isaac and Rosina Lanfear, then Isaac and Rosina would be my 4th great-grandparents.

                                      =============================

Disclosure:  I have a paid All-Access subscription to Ancestry.com now.  Ancestry.com has provided a complimentary subscription and material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and has hosted events and meals that I have attended in Salt Lake City, in past years.


Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  All comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately after posting.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com. 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 16 to 22 April 2026

  Welcome to Genealogy Education Bytes, posted on Wednesday afternoon for the past week, where we try to highlight some of the most important genealogy and family history education items that came across my desktop since the last issue.




1) Upcoming Conferences and Institutes

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for and/or view seminars, conferences and institutes.

* 'Navigating the Future' - Guild of One-Name Studies Conference 2026 ($$, In-person, Portsmouth, England) - 24 to 26 April 2026.

* National Genealogical Society 2026 Family History Conference ($$, In-person and virtual, in Fort Wayne, Indiana) - 27 to 30 May 2026.

2 ) Upcoming Webinars and Online Classes (times are US Pacific):

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for and/or view seminars, webinars and classes.

* FamilySearch MonthlyWebinars (Free)

* RootsTech 2019-2026 On-Demand Sessions (Free)

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Wednesday, 22 April, 11 a.m.: Fields of Hope: African Americans, Immigrants, and Women in the Homesteading Era by Angela Packer McGhie.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Wednesday, 22 April, 5 p.m.: From Research to Data with AI 5 of 5: Your AI Research Assistant—Logs, Notes, and Citations by Andrew Redfern.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --   Friday, 24 April, 11 a.m.: Essential Skills for New Genealogists 2 of 12: Vital Records—Records of Hatchings, Matchings & Dispatchings by Dave McDonald.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Tuesday, 28 April, 11 a.m.:  Using MyHeritage to Create Interactive Family Histories by Lisa A. Alzo.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Wednesday, 29 April, 11 a.m.:  Mastering the ICAPGen Accreditation Process: Your Path to Professional Success by Torhild Shirley.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Friday, 1 May, 11 a.m.: Insight into State Archives: ARCs, IRADs, ONAHRs, and Other Branches  by Paula Stuart-Warren.

    3) Recent Podcasts:

    * Ancestors and Algorithms:      Ep. 34: How to Use Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT & Gemini to Find a California Gold Rush Ancestor


    4) Recent YouTube Videos




    *  Carole McCulloch Geneablogger:  How AI assistants work together on a One Place Study.  
    *  Carole McCulloch Geneablogger:  Gemini simplifies adding historical context





    * Denyse Allen - Chronicle Makers:  AI Found the Genealogy Error No One Else Could
     








    *  GenTales Genealogy:  My DAR Pins and Memorabilia

    *  How We Got Here:  The Family Historian's Roadmap

    *  Int'l Institute of Genealogical Studies:  Good Deeds Anatomy of a Canadian Land Document
    *  Int'l Institute of Genealogical Studies:  Sieges of Fortress of Louisburg-US Colonial Genealogy

    * Italian Roots and Genealogy:  My Ancestry DNA Led Me to a Hidden Military Archive
    * Italian Roots and Genealogy:  Ancestral Roots in Italy

    *  Kathryn Lake Hogan - Looking4Ancestors:  After RootsTech: Now What? A Practical Plan for Your Genealogy Research
      








    * Trace Your New England Roots:      This Colonial Founder's 'Disappearance' Was All Wrong  
    * Trace Your New England Roots:  Your DNA Ancestry Test Decoded | Autosomal DNA!

    *  Write Your Family History With Devon Noel Lee:  Don’t Write Your Family History Until You Decide These Things

    5) Did you miss the last post in this series -- Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 9 to 15 April 2026?

    Read past Genealogy Education Bytes here.

    ==============================================

    NOTE: If I missed an upcoming conference or webinar, or a useful podcast or video, in this time period, please let me know in a comment or an email.

    The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/04/genealogy-education-bytes-week-of-16-to.html

    Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

    Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share your comment on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.

    Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using https://www.Blogtrottr.com.

    Posted by at No comments:
    Labels: , , , ,
    Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)