BaZingA!

Two emails in one day, and that my friends is how genealogy is done.
You see after getting that reply to my post the fire was sparked once again and my thirst for answers returned. I scrounged the Internet for possible matches to my Joseph Maeder of Rochester, NY; not much was to be found, but there was another person looking for the same Joseph Maeder as me. It is such a rush putting yourself out there asking for help from possible relatives. I love it, they hold imaginary family secrets for me and a hope that I may know more.

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But I digress; I left my last blog post (and I am going off memory as I have no internet connection so bare with me) I talked of my awakening from my genealogy coma. I had received a reply to a post I had made on the Ancestry message boards of Surnames. I inquired about the last name Maeder. As I have mentioned my Great Grandmother on my paternal side was Luella Maeder and I have up until recently hit a major brick wall with her. I have been able to find nothing but questions about her. I found her on the 1900, 1905, and 1910 census listed as living with her Grandfather James Dunn(e). But nothing about her parents. 

George replied to my post saying that his (again going on memory..) Great Uncle Joseph Maeder had a daughter Luella Maeder. My Great Grandmother! George said how he knew my Great Grandfather, Dick Wurzer. He said how he used to deliver charcoal to his family in the winter. 

In all my searches I have never come across a Dick Wurzer so my interest is highly peeked. And even more so because my fathers middle name is Richard and so I have been told that he was named after a Grandfather, but like I said I have never come across a Richard yet. 

Tonight I emailed George back questioning who Dick Wurzer was. My thoughts are that he could possibly be my Great Great Grandfather. I am a young-in when it comes to genealogy, not many people my age care. But I do. I will be 25 this coming May. Anyroad, I am excited to hear back from him, he could hold so much family history to share with me. I would love to be able to call my dad and say, Hey I know who you are named after! How awesome. 

You would think I would be able to ask my Dads parents, but they can't remember.

So George is my hope. I would love to know if he knows more about Luella or Albert too.

There is a lot of hope in my heart tonight, and for that I am thankful. I don't have much right now, so this means a lot to me.

Nikki

Just HAD to share!

Since being awakened from genealogy coma I came across an archive of the Kodak Magazine, from July 1920 where Hazel "Mader" won the shoe race.

Kodak Magazine

It's down a little bit, and very easy to miss so thank you to whoever invited the 'find' button in Firefox!

And if I haven't mentioned it before, Hazel was my Great Grandmother Luella's sister! So that would make her my Great Great Aunt?

Nikki

Ding Dong - IM ALIVE!

Terrible terrible blogger ehhh? I won't bore you with the small details of my boring busy life.

A simple email has made my break my silence.

Scrolling through my ridiculous inbox I happened to notice a little ole email with the subject: "Message Boards: A reply has been posted to..." and if you have ever posted on Ancestry's message boards then you should have recognized that it was a message from them, well I did...hehe

Curiosity certainly killed that cat, cuz I had to open it at that moment. Memories of the posts I had made on the message boards flashed through my head, I was even more excited to see that it was a reply to a message that I specifically had made myself about the Maeder family.


That brick wall is not so solid anymore.

From the reply on my post I have learned that Luella's father was definitely Joseph Maeder, if you recall I had no idea of Joseph Maeder up until recently, because Luella is only found on the 1900, 1905, and 1910 census as living with her Grandfather, James Dunn(e). Tricky tricky, but I am that much closer to finding information.

Of course I will report back all that I learn.


Thanks if you still have been popping in to check on me. And if you are really curious as to what I have been up to, let me know and I will be more than happy to post about my busy boring life.

:))))))


Nikki

MIA

Yes indeed I have been missing. Missing indeed.

Life happened. The storm hit and with fierce powerful blows. Cancerous blows to be exact.

Cancer. It sucks major balls. In late May my grandmother "discovered" the lumps. The lumps that would shape the coming weeks. Then in early June it was confirmed that our worst suspicions were in fact reality. It was hard, I had so much worry and research. Research is my thing. My security blanket if you will. When faced with the big and bad I turn to research. I quiet literally drown myself in it actually. I feel that if I know everything I possibly can about whatever topic it may be that I feel slightly better. It can't intimidate me too bad if I know everything about it. Right?

I had to take a step back from genealogy, there wasn't enough time for everything I needed to do.

I digress; I am so unbelievably thankful and ecstatic to be able to come back and type the words I am about to.

June 26, 2012: "Cancer. Free."

Two words. And they meant the world to me. Still do. Even now I can't think of that moment without tearing up. Life knows exactly how to hit you where it's really going to kill, but at the same time life won't take you to where you can't go.

And yes I mean that faithfully.

So I'm back baby. I needed that break and I'm better now because of it. What should be has been restored, and that is how it should be.

My grandmother is a rock star, and I love her so much. She is the sweetest woman, and has always been there for me. And I mean always.

Here's to you Dee, I love you!!!

Nikki

Don't have much to add. I've had a lot of stress. But I wanted to come share my little, she started her 2nd dance class yesterday and uhh I just can not believe how grown up she is!

She took her first 5 week session of Introduction To Dance: tots back in February, she was only 2 1/1 years old so although she was excited and wanted to go each week she didn't really par take during the class. hehe. She was also the youngest in the class..so that probably had something to do with it. Every girl in the class was at least 3 years old so everyone was at least 6 months older than her. Since the last session ended in April she has been talking about dance class and wanting to go back. We've been practicing too. She is so adorable doing her different moves. During the break in between sessions she has even mastered doing a somersault by herself!

So yesterday we made our way back to the studio for her second sessions of Introduction To Dance: tots. Andd believe me she was 100% in her glory! All smiles, even was mad we had to wait in the car for a little bit when we got there too early and the studio wasn't even open yet.

Andd the big most exciting news not only was she super stoked to be back at dance class, she joined in with everything! Showing off her awesome somersault ability. Her teacher commented how she was super flexible and was impressed she could do that by herself already. My big will turn 3 years old in 5 weeks I just have no idea where this time has gone.

Sorry for the shameless post. Enjoy.

Nikki

My Word Is Good

Sometimes..

I emailed myself my favorite pictures. I am going to share one with you today.

Grandpa Joe with his collection of lanterns

I just love this picture.

Nikki

Great Weekend

So I didn't get to the pictures. Not that big of a surprise to me. I'll be at my moms later tonight so I hoping to get at least my favorite pictures sent to my email. There are a few that I just love so much, like my grandpa Joe and his collection of lanterns!

I met my cousin, Lynda for the first time yesterday. We were guided to each other when I first started my genealogy hunt and finally after a few months of back and forth emailing we met. It was really amazing, a lot of tears were spilled by both of us. It was just an emotional day, getting to meet someone I had no idea existed and then hearing stories of my 2x Great Grandparents. Stories that would be lost without Lynda.

Lynda filled me in on the family religion and what different things mean. It was truly just so amazing. I will be forever grateful that she wanted to meet with me, and I see more visits in our future. She talked about me and my daughter visiting at her house and us going through old pictures. That would be just amazing, I know I keep using that word to describe our meeting, but there literally isn't a better word to describe how I was feeling the entire time. Just cloud 9.

She took me to my 2x Great Grandparents graves. The graves I have looked for on different times and honestly I would have never found them without her showing me. I plan to return to pay my respects. Like I have mentioned before the family were practicing Jews, Lynda still is a practicing Jew and she taught me quite a bit. Did you know when visiting a Jewish grave you do not bring flowers ever, you bring stones. Stones to leave on the tombstone to represent that you were there paying your respect. Boggles my mind.

There was just so much that we talked about, I am honestly still processing it all so I am sure over the next few days I will have post after post of me just talking about Lynda.



What did you do this weekend?


Nikki