About Me

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Lake Mathews (Perris), CA, United States
Born in Illinois, I grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother. I am married, for the 2nd time now, to Butch & got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me grandmother 25 times over & great-grandmother to over 20!. After many years working in industry, I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication, & was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 & returned to school & got my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore & genealogy - & add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/author/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play many folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I write the "Aunty Jeff" column for the Informer, newsletter of the Jefferson County NY Gen. Soc. I work in partnership with Gena Philibert-Ortega & Sara Cochran as Genealogy Journeys® where we focus on educating folks about Social History. More about that: genaandjean.blogspot.com. More on our podcasts: genjourneys.podbean.com. More about my own projects: Circlemending.org.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Treasure Chest Thursday - Great-grandmother's brooch

Great-grandmother Caroline Maria TRAPSCHUH HOLLANDER. The cameo brooch she is wearing is now in my possession and I wear it when I do a program where I impersonate her. I treasure that piece of jewelry.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Wordless Wednesday, 4 November 2009

The Spokane, Washington TRAPSCHUH family. Date unknown. Photo courtesy of Melody Murphy.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday, 3 November 2009



Anna Estell TRAPSCHUH was born 3 February 1879 in Ohio. She married(1) Mr. CLARK about 1898 and divorced him. They had two children. She married(2) John HERMAN about 1904 and they had two children. She died 4 November 1956, at age 77 (53 years ago tomorrow), in Spokane, Spokane, Washington, where she is buried in the TRAPSCHUH plot.



Her offspring are Hazel and Helene CLARK and Elaine and Russell HERMAN. They would be my second cousins, once removed and their children (if any of them had any) would be my third cousins. I would love to locate them!