Year: 2014

52 Ancestors: #1 Nora Melinda (Houdeshell) Hoover (1891-1965)

Kris Hocker on 11 Jan 2014

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about my great grandmother Nora (Houdeshell) Hoover a lot recently. I never had a chance to meet her, but from the few stories I’ve heard, I think I would have loved her. So, I thought I’d start my 52 Ancestors series writing about her.

Clyde & Nora (Houdeshell) Hoover

Clyde & Nora (Houdeshell) Hoover

Nora Melinda (Houdeshell) Hoover was the eldest daughter of George Westfall/Wesley Houdeshell and Lovina Caroline Force. She was born 25 October 1891 in Wooster, Cameron County, Pennsylvania.1 She died of an acute myocardial infarction, possibly brought on by complications of diabetes, on 11 May 1965 in Pine Glen, Burnside Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania and was buried 3 days later in the Advent Cemetery in Pine Glen.

Great grandma was one of 12 children, 10 surviving to adulthood. She grew up in rural Pennsylvania where her father worked as a lumberman and also supported his family by farming. According to family stories, when she was 16, her father told her she was to either get married or get a job. So, she took a job as a cook in a lumber camp. Apparently, that’s where she met my great grandfather, Clyde L. Hoover. They were married 16 April 1908 in Dubois, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.2 He was 21 (nearly 22) and she was 16. Clyde and Nora were the parents of 12 children—seven sons and five daughters.

Nora was a believer in education. She ran a small library from her home in Pine Glen. Today, it probably would be the equivalent of a small personal collection, but it provided an opportunity for Pine Glen residents to experience the world of books. She also wanted her daughters to wait until they were 21 before marrying, probably so that they would have a chance to fully grow-up, get an education, and experience life a bit before settling down to raise their families. My grandmother was married a month after her 21st birthday.

During the war—World War II, I presume—she planted a pine tree for every Pine Glen boy who went off to war, including four of her sons. I wonder what she thought as she watched those trees grow.

Family stories also allege that great grandma had Indian blood. I think that story arose mainly because she had straight dark hair as I’ve found no reason to believe her ancestry was anything other than northern European. Perhaps, one day one of my Hoover or Houdeshell relatives will have a DNA test and we’ll get proof one way or the other.

This post is part of an on-going blogging challenge entitled 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, created by Amy Crow of No Story Too Small. Participants must write about one ancestor every week. This post is part of week two.

Tuesday’s Tip: Search Mailing Lists

Kris Hocker on 7 Jan 2014

Mailing lists can be a great tool for collaboration with other researchers in your area of interest. They can also be a great source information. But you don’t necessarily need to be on a list in order to benefit from it.

The RootsWeb mailing lists are archived—and searchable.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about a series of emails from several years ago which included marriage and death transcriptions from a Lancaster County newspaper as a possible source for information. But I haven’t been able to find them in my inbox. I’ve changed computers since then, and those old emails apparently didn’t make it to the new computer.

Luckily, I remember which mailing list they were from. A quick search and I was able to pull up a list. Here are links to the archived emails for information from the 1848 Lancaster Intelligencer:

This information was transcribed by Maria Campbell and sent to the PALANCAS-L mailing list in 2010. For more examples with different years and newspapers, check out the archives of the PALANCAS-L mailing list or search for your ancestor.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks — A Writing Challenge

Kris Hocker on 5 Jan 2014

Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small has issued a challenge to geneabloggers to blog about an ancestor each and every week for 2014. Anything and everything is fair game, as long as it is devoted to 1 specific ancestor.

I actually spend a lot of time writing about folks that I’m not related to in any way. Most of the Hoovers in my Hoover Surname Study are—to the best of my knowledge—not directly related to my Hoovers (except perhaps back in the fog of times long gone). So, accepting this challenge would mean that I would have to focus on my own family. Not a bad thing.

The big question, however, is can I actually find something to say about 52 of my ancestors? I’ve already written about the ones I’ve researched. Can I find 52 more to write about? Have I even done that much research on my various family lines?

I’ve decided to accept the challenge, so I guess we’ll find out. Who knows, I might even surprise myself! Stay tuned.