Researching Family Trees

When I first realized I could research my family history if I patiently learned how to move around on a computer, I was fascinated by the info available.  My first desire was to learn about my grandpa's family. (my dad's dad who we lived with when I was a kid) Shown here with his four sons, my dad, (in white shirt) his twin, Uncle Jim on the left,  and  Uncles George and Arthur.

I learned as I went along and was thankful that so many other folks were into genealogy and would share their findings with you.  My biggest surprise was how many Blankenships there were in this country.  Especially since I thought Blankenship was kind of an usual name. Nope.

LewGene was the only grandparent I ever knew. My mother's dad died when I was three but I have no memory of him and the rest died in the 1930s.  I knew my mother was adopted and after a lot of work, I was finally able to get her adoption papers opened and learn of her biological roots.

After a few years, I put the genealogy paperwork aside, knowing that I'd get back into it at some point as there were several loose ends I wanted to finish up on.  One of those is my great grandmother, Jane Downs. Once she married Lewis M. Blankenship, I was able to follow her whereabouts from marriage to death but I have a lot of digging left to establish what her middle name was, who her mother was, and how she ended up in Illinois after living in Delaware.  I know her father was Benjamin and I have other clues that I'm suspecting might put me on the right path.

Meanwhile, I continued to have the most interest in Blankenships as they were the only family members I was acquainted with during my life.   I had a few old pictures to work with and I've studied them several times.  I noticed on Facebook that there were groups you could join and I promptly signed up.  One was Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness. Another was Lost & Found Vintage Pictures and Ancestry Helpers.  I posted the family picture I had of my grandpa LewGene as a teen while standing with his siblings and mom and dad.

(click to enlarge)

My dad's dad, Lew Gene, is third from the left in back and I was able to find a lot of information on the other family members.  All except the boy sitting in front.  Charlie is the mystery that I continue to research.  I typed up all the clues I have that he existed and posted a class picture on the Vintage group page asking for help. I knew it was a long shot but I hoped maybe somebody else had this picture in their family collection and could tell me when and where it was taken.

I'm fairly certain Charlie is in this photo because Charlis as written on the back. I also suspected that the scratched out face is Charlie. Not sure why I thought that but I did. (see boy on right)

The comments I got on what people thought were interesting.  One wondered if it was an orphanage since several were barefoot and some heads were shaved. Others thought kids didn't wear shoes all the time because they were expensive and that the heads could have been shaved because of flu or even lice. They thought several kids were siblings that were side by side as they looked alike and one lady even saw the cameraman over his camera in the reflection  on the right hand window.

Since the Blankenships left  Illinois (at least as close as I can figure) in 1892, this photo could have been taken in Illinois or Oregon as Charlie would have been around 11.  I think the family group shot also reflects he might have been 10 or 11. My cousin, Claude Walker, who gave me this family group photograph, said our grandpa was about 14 when it was taken and he would have been about 3 years older than Charlie.

Much to my delight, one woman repaired my class picture of Charlie's face. I had sent her two other photos that I thought was him and she estimated from them to make the picture below.

By the way, she repairs photos for people. Anywhere from $10 to $30 and you can contact her on Facebook. Her name is Marjorie Robertson Kramer and she lives in Virginia. Uses a program called Ribbet.

Another website I learned about is historicmapworks.com.  One lady sent me an old map showing Blankenship land.

Not sure who J. Blankenship is but I'll find out. I do recognize the neighbors named Bolt, however.

So now I'm all gung ho to get going to research the old family tree.