Helping others and yourself

I have spent much of the past 2 days with my family working on photographing and transcribing local cemeteries for Billiongraves.com.

They currently are running a contest with prizes including Subway gift cards, T-Shirts and  Billiongraves+ subscriptions for a year.  We are aiming to win all of the above at least once (7 of us here in the family, we'd sure like to win matching T-shirts hehe)  which is the prize if you are in the top 10 for either pictures taken or transcribed this month.

To take the photos you need an Android or an iPhone.  Then when you upload them you can let someone else transcribe them if you dont get to it.  This is the primary reason I  like BillionGraves, because I found that when I photographed cemeteries I never found the time to transcribe the photos afterwords to upload them to FindAGrave

This and the 1940 Census Project has kept us all rather busy with genealogy projects that don't always directly relate to our current family research areas.

I would imagine that you have brickwalls in your research.  They are likely not in your geographical area (or you would have read every record, visited every grave, etc. and solved it, right?), and you likely dream of being able to go to the area and work away at the problem with access to the local records etc that may help you to solve the mysteries.

If everyone worked in their own location we would soon have access to cemetery photos far away from us to use in our family histories.  

Jonas Friar

Jonas Friar married Anne Haskill 2 Oct 1834 at St. John's Anglican Church, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.


Children of Jonas Friar and Anne Haskill:

Angelina

David

Jonas

Phylander

Juliett

Lorenzo (adopted?)

Caroline C

Jonas Friar's parents have been a mystery to me for over 20 years and I am desperately hoping to break thru this brick wall.


Known descendants who have DNA tested for genetic genealogy:


Lewis Hewitt (23andme autosomal)

Pauline Hewitt Thompson (23andme autosomal)

Kris Hewitt Stewart (23andme autosomal)

Sandra Foster (23andme autosomal)

Brandon Gilby (23andme autosomal)

If you are a descendant of Jonas Friar and Anne Haskill click here for more info on how you can help!

Anne Haskill

Anne Haskill was born about 1807 in Ontario, Canada.

Anne was the daughter of William Dinsmore Haskill and Sybil Culver.

Anne married Jonas Friar 2 Oct 1834 at St. John's Anglican Church, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.

The witnesses were Eliza Culver and Isaac Johnson.

Children of Jonas Friar and Anne Haskill:

Angelina

David

Jonas

Phylander

Juliett

Lorenzo (adopted?)

Caroline C


Known descendants who have DNA tested for genetic genealogy:


Lewis Hewitt (23andme autosomal)

Pauline Hewitt Thompson (23andme autosomal)

Kris Hewitt Stewart (23andme autosomal)

Sandra Foster (23andme autosomal)

Brandon Gilby (23andme autosomal)

If you are a descendant of Jonas Friar and Anne Haskill click here for more info on how you can help!

Ellen Magaline Weaver

Ellen was born in 1849 in Ontario, Canada.

Ellen was the daughter of Walter Weaver and Magdaline Bradt.

Ellen married William Altoft in 1872 in Ontario, Canada.

Their children:

Eliza Ellen

John William

Charles

Charlotte Magdeline

Mary Jane

Ellen died 27 Jan 1928 in Ontario, Canada.

28 Jan 1928, The Niagara Falls Gazette

Known descendants who have DNA tested for genetic genealogy:

Brandon Gilby (23andme autosomal test v3)

If you are a descendant of Ellen, please click here to read about why *you* should consider an autosomal test.

Sources:

1851 Census

1871 Census of Canada

1881 Census of Canada

1891 Census of Canada

1901 Census of Canada

1911 Census of Canada

Ontario Marriages

Ontario Deaths

Oliver Poncia

Oliver Poncia was the son Thomas Francis Poncia and his wife Selina Rosetta (Allen) Poncia.

The members of this family appear to have colorful lives!

His brother Ernest Allen Poncia was on Birmingham Pub Black List in 1903.

Oliver was conviced of "larceny and receiving" in 1884 and sentenced to 4 mths in prison.

Later the same year he was convicted of "uttering co. coin [counterfeit coin] twice in the same day."

Oliver was convicted of a crime in 1886 and sentenced to 15 mths.

In 1889 an Oliver Poncia, likely the same one, in court at Derbyshire was imprisoned for 18 mths for "Felony, larceny simple".

In the 1891 census, Oliver Poncia is found listed in prison in Derbyshire, but the birthplace is listed as "Rome, naturalized citizen".  His occupation is listed as "merchant seaman"

Oliver was in Wormwood Prison in 1901.

Sources:

1871 Census of England

1901 Census of England

Ernest Allen Poncia

Ernest was the son of Thomas Francis Poncia and his wife Selina Rosetta (Allen) Poncia.

Ernest was listed in the Birmingham Pub Blacklist.  This is a fascinating source I came across today at Ancestry.com, which includes photos and great detail on those who were on a "do not serve" list.

This is for now the last record I have for Ernest.  I wonder, did he move on to another town that would serve him alcohol?  Did he die homeless?


Sources:

1871 Census of England

1881 Census of England

1891 Census of England

1901 Census of England

Birmingham Pub Blacklist

Thomas Francis Poncia

Thomas was the son of John Poncia and his wife Elizabeth.

Thomas was born in Birmingham, England about 1831.

Thomas married Selina Rosetta Allen.

They were misindexed in the 1861 Census of England on Ancestry.com.

Their children:

Thomas

Selina

Gertrude

Oliver

Howard

Ernest Allen

Aubrey

Sources:

1841 Census of England

1851 Census of England

1861 Census of England

1871 Census of England

1881 Census of England

1891 Census of England

1901 Census of England

Anthony Poncia

Anthony was the son of John Poncia and his wife Elizabeth.

Anthony was born about 1826 in Birmingham, England

Anthony married Jane Amelia Terry.

Anthony died in 1887 in England.


Sources:

1841 Census of England

1851 Census of England

1861 Census of England

1871 Census of England

Wednesday's Child - Warner children

Four children of Augustus Warner and his wife Margaret S (Ostrander) are buried in the Warner Cemetery.

photo by Kris Hewitt Stewart taken circa 2002 at Warner Cemetery, Ontario, Canada.

ERR born 29 Feb 1856, died 7 Apr 1856.

James Edmund Warner born 21 Apr 1862, died 14 Jun 1965.

Mary Jane Warner born 17 Aug 1859, died 29 Nov 1874.

Philip Augustus born 22 Apr 1877, died 25 Apr 1877.

Data Backup Day!

Did you backup your data today?  I actually backup my data EVERY day.  Until now I have been using Dropbox, but this week I have installed the new GoogleDrive.  The features sound very promising, and I am still exploring the service.

Tombstone Tuesday - Margaret Precoor Warner

Margaret Precoor, Wife of Christian Warner.  Margaret was born 10 Aug 1810 and died 13 Oct 1885.  Stone also lists their daughter Louisa Warner.

photo taken by Kris Hewitt Stewart circa 2002 in Warner Cemetery, Ontario, Canada.