52 Ancestors: #7 Thomas Greenslade Blackmore (1828-1898)

Thomas Greenslade Blackmore was born in 1828, probably in Somerset, England.  His parents were John Blackmore and Sarah Greenslade.  It appears that the family emigrated from England before 1850, since Thomas had a brother Henry born in New York about 1835.  (This is speculation; no documentation yet.)

Thomas married Jane Frances Lemon in 1853 in Peoria County, Illinois.  They had seven children: Mary Frances, Charles, Benjamin, Henry, George and twins Callie and Calvin.    Thomas appears to have been a successful farmer as the 1870 census stated that his real estate value was $13,200.  I found Thomas and family in Livingston County, Illinois, in the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records.  Sometime between 1870 and 1880 the family moved to Nebraska, in the North Platte area.  Then, by 1896, it appears that Thomas and at least some of the family moved to Colorado because he is listed in a Colorado State Business Directory as the owner of a confectionary shop.

 

Thomas died in Granite Colorado in 1898 and was buried in the Granite Cemetery. 

GRIP - Here I Come!

I don't want to brag.  Well, maybe I do. 

I just finished registering for my third visit to LaRoche College in Pittsburgh for GRIP.  Yes, I'm very excited. 

I'm going to be in the Practical Genetic Genealogy course.  The recommended books have been ordered.  So, next week I can start reading. 

I wish all of you who registered got your first choice.  Unfortunately I'm sure that some of you didn't because there are already two waiting lists, and it's just 30 minutes into registration.  Still, I hope to see all of you in Pittsburgh in July.

By the way, I sort of yelled at my husband about 10 am MST.  Here I am, getting ready to hit the registration button when it shows.  And what does he do?  He wants to talk to be about coffee.  Yes.  Coffee.  And this is even after I talked about 10 am Wednesday for the past week.  And, yes.  Before I began writing this I went and apologized and we laughed about it.  After all, we're retired.  And we don't "clock watch" any more.

RootsTech From Home - Recorded Sessions Available

For those of us who were unable to watch five talks, plus keynote talks, each day, this is to let you know that they are all available at RootsTech.  Just look for the link to the recorded sessions and then search through and decide which one/ones you want to hear.

There are some great ones.  And don't miss the keynote addresses.  Each day the keynote address was different.  You won't want to skip them. 

Have a great time.  And remember, you can pause any time it's necessary for you to continue your life outside of genealogy.

RootsTech 2014 from Home

Even though I'm not at RootsTech, I've been watching/listening to some of the presentations.  I printed off the schedule of streamed sessions, but I forgot that the keynote addresses were also available to watch.

So, on Thursday, I was a little late checking in.  But I was able to go back and listen to the keynote addresses during the "lunch" break.  That's really nice. Ree Drummond was really fun to listen to.  I'm not sure I want to blog about my family now, but I wish I had thought about that when me children were younger and at home.  Oh, yes.  That was before computers and blogging, etc.  Well,  I was definitely planning on tuning in early enough on Friday morning.

I loved Tammy Hepps presentation on working from home.  Unfortunately I missed some of Ron Tanner's talk on FamilySearch Family Tree.  I'll check that one out again, once the 2014 sessions are available.  The DNA talk was "Intro to DNA for Genealogists" by James Rader.  I was quite confused with this one.  And I felt that he wasn't prepared to speak for the time period, since he kept checking the time and then deciding whether or not to continue or not.  I started watching the "Genealogy in the Cloud" but then household stuff got in the way.  I'll definitely check that one out later.

Friday, I was much better at tuning in on time, but still a little late. The keynote addresses were fantastic, in my opinion.  I loved Judy Russell's comment about truth and a good story.  I went back to listen to that part to make sure I had her exact words.  I'm hoping that she'll let me use them in a couple of presentations I'm going to be making soon.

I missed the morning streamed session but watched Lisa Alzo.  I need to watch that one again, because I wasn't aware of some of the social media options she mentioned.  I understand blogs and facebook, and twitter, a little.  But there's SO... much more.  Then, I was really enjoying Crista Cowen's talk.  BUT, the phone rang.  I muted the talk and spent a great hour talking with my daughter-in-law, knowing that I could back up and hear Crista's talk after the phone call.  No such luck.  The feed stopped working.  I refreshed, shut the computer off and started again, changed from IE to Firefox and back.  Nothing worked.  Well, that's another one to go on my list for later.

Overall it was a good two days, with lots of interesting info.  I did post on facebook, asking if a company was recording any of the other presentations so that I could purchase them later.  Unfortunately, I just kept getting the response that the live-streamed ones will be available later.  That wasn't what I meant, but that's OK.  I'll contact someone next week and ask.  What I was hoping for was that recordings (video or audio only) of other speakers would be available for purchase since I can get them at SCGS's Jamboree, FGS and NGS. 

I'm looking forward to Saturday's talks, although I'll probably miss the first one (things to do in my non-genealogy life). 

I'm hoping that all of you who have been reading my rambles check out the RootsTech.com web site and watch the sessions, once they are recorded for 2014.  Of course, if you missed any of the 2013 talks, it appears that they are still available. 

52 Ancestors: #6 - Mary Elizabeth “Polly” Blincow Blackmore (1869-1951)

Mary, who in most records was listed as Polly, was born in England in 1869 to William Blincow and Betsy Wikes Howe.  She immigrated in 1872 and she and her family moved to Nebraska, soon thereafter.

 

Polly married a York, Nebraska, neighbor, George Blackmore, in 1887.  They had eight children, including 5 boys (Henry, Harold, Leonard, George and Clifford) and 3 girls (Ada, Mattie and Reba), born between 1888 and 1904.  Two of their boys died young: one as an infant (Leonard) and one at age 10 (Henry Irvin). 

 

This Blackmore family lived in Nebraska until at least 1891.  Then by 1893 they lived in Colby County, Kansas.    By 1895 they were in Colorado and lived in Granite and Rifle. 

 

Polly died in 1951, two years after George.  She was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery, in Rifle, Colorado, next to her husband.

52 Ancestors: #5 George Marlin Blackmore (1865-1949)

George Marlin Blackmore, the son of Thomas Greenslade Blackmore and Jane Frances Lemon, was born in 1865 in Livingston County, Illinois.  By 1880 George and his parents were living in Nebraska.  In 1887, in York, Nebraska, George met and married Mary Elizabeth “Polly” Blincow.

George and “Polly” had eight children (Henry, Clifford, Ada, Mattie, Harold, Leonard, Reba, and George)

               

Henry Irvin;  born 1888 in Nebraska; died 1898 in Colorado.

Clifford Franklin: born 1890 in Nebraska; married Mary Blincow; married Anna; died 1970 in California. (A more complete bio is included in this series for Clifford.)

Ada Florence:  born 1891 in Nebraska; married Edward Loesch in 1913; died 1982 in Colorado.

Mattie Hazel: born 1893 in Kansas; married Otis Mallory in 1914; died  1958 in California.

Harold Robert: born 1895 in Colorado; married Florence Moore in 1923; married Alta Gwynn in 1935; died 1979 in Colorado.

Leonard: born 1898 in Colorado and died 4 months later.

Reba Martha: born 1900 in Colorado; married Emery Harlow in 1921; died in 1974 in Colorado.

George Raymond: born 1904 in Colorado; married Nettie Wright; died 1967 in Colorado.

               

At various times, George’s occupation was listed as teamster, house carpenter, farmer, owner of a meat market and owner of the Granite & Winfield Stage Line.

 

George died on 13 November 1949 in Rifle, Colorado and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in that city.  

I would like to thank Amy Johnson Crow for the idea for this blog stream.  Her blog is  No Story Too Small.

52 Ancestors: #4 Clifford Franklin Blackmore (1890-1970)

What type of black spider would reside in Hemet, California in 1912?  I’m guessing that it was a black widow.

 

According to a 1912 newspaper clipping Clifford Blackmore, who was born in 1890 in McCool, Nebraska, suffered from a bite of a black spider in Hemet, California and was recovering well.  At this time, it appears that Clifford's parents and siblings were still living in Colorado (newspaper clippings and city directories).  So Clifford must have been either visiting or living with cousins in the Hemet, California, area.  Since the article didn't say anything about him visiting, I am guessing that he was living there. 

 

Clifford married Bertha Jane Bryan in 1914 in Riverside County, California.  The wedding announcement stated that his parents were in California at this time. 


Clifford and Bertha had 4 children; the three boys were born in California and their daughter was born in Arizona.  They had land patents in the Casa Grande area of Arizona and spent some time there.  According to one of their sons, their “house” was four poles with canvas sides.  Because of the heat during the summer, Bertha and the children returned to California while Clifford improved the land.

 

Clifford’s occupation was listed as stationery engineer for Indian Irrigation Services in the World War I draft registration card.   I would really like to know what a stationery engineer did.  Clifford worked in the oil fields according to the 1930 and 1940 census records and the family lived in Brea, California.  This area, near the California coast, had many oil fields and wells even in the 1950s.  In fact, you can still see pumps working and some huge oil tanks are still being used. 

 

Bertha died in 1943 and Clifford married Anna.  I believe her name was Anna Beatrice LaValley and she may have been married before.  Clifford built a house in Yucaipa, and Clifford and Anna lived in the house until Clifford died in 1970.