Families that we are researching

O.k.

So, now for all the vital information that most people want to know about when it comes to their family history; the names of families that we are researching.

Over the last six years, we have collected quite a bit of information on our ancestors and we are beginning to piece it all together with a genealogy program. The hardest part was finding the information. We have done that and now comes the project of putting together this massive 50,000 or more people puzzle of names, dates and places and the complexities that come with inter-marriages between the families that produce children who are their own cousins! For example, I am related by blood (very distantly) to my wife's step-father Bill. And, we are both related (again, very distantly by blood) to my wife! How, you might ask? Well, all 3 of us share at least one common ancestor in William the Conqueror.

So, without further delay, here are some of the families that we are researching:

On my side of the family are the families and descendants (or ancestors) of.....

1) Bonaventuro Incardona (from the 1600's in Trabia, Palermo, Sicily)
2) Charles Jones (from 1840 in Wales)
3) The Eckert family of Germany through Ulster County New York
4) Henry Dugan (from 1800 in Ireland) and his wife.....
5) Bridget Doran (from about 1800 in Ireland)
6) The Van Keuren family (from the early 1500's)
7) Johann Seeba (from about 1825 in Germany)
8) Giuseppe DeMartini (from about 1800 in Lorsica, Italy)
9) Frederick Nicholas (from 1864 in France) as well as his wife Mary Giraud

Other grand-parents in one generation or another from my side include the families include: Giraud, Cereghino, Goletta, Silvestre, Greco, D'anna, Bondi, Birchier, Comerford and Buston.

* * * * * * *

On Michelle's side of the family are the ancestors and / or descendants of.....

1) Joseph E. Tatman (1744 in the United States)
2) John William Neff (1849 in Ohio) and his real father John William Cummings (born in 1798)
3) Emma C. Newcomer / Boone (1857 in the U.S.) And this Boone family is the one that includes Daniel Boone
4) Cyrus Harris (born 1817 in Mississippi) Chickasaw Indian
5) James Logan Colbert (1721 from possibly Scotland) Also Chickasaw by marriage.
6) William B. Ratchford (1812)
7) Christopher Aclin (1820)
8) Lemuel Boswell (abt. 1823)
9) William H. Adams (abt. 1808)
10) Edward B. Combs (abt. 1811)

Other family names include: Bryan, Fobush, Boone, Darding, Davis, Hand, Clements, Walsh, Puckett, Wiman, Tharp, and Ellis.

* * * * * * * * *

Now, there are plenty more of direct ancestors, but in the interest of space, I only listed about 20 of them. All the above names are grand-parents of generations ago for either my family or my wife's. We are also looking into the families (Aunts and Uncles by marriage) that are (or were) close to us in our lives (or the lives of those close to us).

Those families include the Tonini's, Lodin's, Scheppen's (Aunt Janet), Forgy's, Schmidt's (Aunt Carm), The Grace's, Cremeen's, Greco's, Cancilla's, and Alioto's among many, many others too numerous to mention on this little page.

More info to come soon on each individual family.......

The Grace Family

In honor of my cousin Jessica's birthday on October 14th, I thought I would post a little bit about her family heritage. Jessica and I were born a year and a day apart and have had a really close relationship over the last 25 years. The photo below is from her CD which was released about 12 years ago. If you can still find a copy in a record store, pick yourself up one. You won't be disappointed. Jessica is the 3rd one from the left. : )



Anyway, the following information on the Grace family will only list Jessica's direct ancestors as far back as I have found so far. After this post, I will start writing about all the families that I am researching which includes the Grace's. To the left of each name are generational numbers from the furthest person back to the present day.

1) Nathaniel Grace was born in Ireland in 1648. He married a lady by the name of Mabel. Together they had.....

2) Abel Grace Sr., who was born in the United States in 1690. Abel married Lydia E. Ozwell and their son was......

3) Abel Grace Jr. Abel Jr. was born in 1710 and married a woman by the name of Rachel Kemp. Their son was.......

4) James Grace. He was born about 1750 and married a woman by the name of Levan Grace, which I assume was a cousin of his, although I don't know how close that relationship was in terms of blood. James and Levan had a son by the name of......

5) John Grace. John was born about 1805 and married Jamina Morris. Together they had a son by the name of .......

6) Jesse Grace. Jesse was born in 1827. It is unknown whom Jesse married at the moment, but together they ahd a son by the name of.......

7) Rufus Grace. Rufus was born in 1848 and again, his wife is not known at the moment. It should not be hard to find. Rufus and his wife had a son named.......

8) Charles Edson Grace. He was born on February 1, 1884. Charles married Martha Elizabeth Henton and together they had.......

9) Clifford Henton Grace. Cliff and his wife Eva Abel are Jessica's Grand-parents.

As of right now, the Nathaniel Grace at the beginning of this post would be Jessica's 8th great grand-father. I don't know if she has ever seen how far back her father's side of the family goes, but I wanted to share this with her since she has stopped by this little space on the web.

Happy Birthday Jess,

I love you......... : )

Those gone still live on......

"I was born on October 23, 1895 in Los Angeles, California at my folks (Daniel Eckert and Clara Dugan) home on Crocker Street which was in the area now occupied by the Union Railroad Depot.

• At an early age (about 4 years old), my family moved to Lordsberg, New Mexico, a small town about 20 miles east of the Arizona border, located in the southwestern part of New Mexico. While here, I recall going down to the railroad station to see President William McKinley. President McKinley was passing through Lordsberg on a special train. He arrived about 6 p.m. and his train stopped for about 5 minutes during which time the spectators had the priveledge of talking to him and shaking his hand. About 500 people were at the station. I was priveledged enough to shake President McKinley's hand. This had occured in the latter part of 1900 or early 1901. President McKinley was assinated at the Buffalo, New York fair on September 14, 1901. We lived in Lordsburg, New Mexico for about 18 months.
• 
  From Lordsburg, we moved to El Paso, Texas. Here I think I should state that my father was a Locomotive Engineer. We lived in El Paso for about a year. I recall that the town was devided into two sections; one section known as Sonora Town was where the Mexicans and the Spaniards lived; the other section was for the Americans. We made a number of trips by horse and buggy to Juarez, Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande River. It was a rather wild place.
• 
  From El Paso, my father was transferred to Benson, Arizona. This little town is located in the southeastern part of Arizona, about 80 miles from the Mexican border. Later, my father was transferred to Bisbee, Arizona, which was about 60 miles south of Benson, and 20 miles north of the Mexican border.
• 
  At Bisbee, my father took a position with Copper Queen Mining Company and was a Locomotive Engineer of the trains which hauled from the smelter, the molten slag coming from the mining and the smelting of the copper, silver and gold ores. This slag was transported in open top steel cars. At the slag dumps about 4 miles from the Smelter, the molten slag would be dumped over the side of the mountain. At night, this would make a pretty sight as the hot molten slag flowed down the mountain side and it would light up the mountain side with a red glow, much like the fire ball, (but on a much larger scale), that is dropped at night during the summer at Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point, California.
• 
  Bisbee is located mostly in a canyon. The homes are all on the mountain side. The little town was located on flat land. Frequently, there would be cloud bursts up in the mountains. When this occured, a cannon would be shot off up higher in the canyon to alert the natives of Bisbee that there would undoubtedly be a flood. The natives, or townspeople, would then rush to close the floodgates to divert the flood water around the town. These flood gates were each about 40 feet in height and 30 feet in width. There were 2 gates of this size. Additionally, sacks of sand would also be placed in back of the gates.
• 
  Every so often, the cowboys would come to town on their horses to celebrate. They would ride swiftly in town, shooting their 45 Colt revolvers into the air. Some of them would even ride their horses through the swinging doors of the saloons. I do not recall whether anyone was ever hurt.
• 
  In Bisbee, I first attended school. I had a desire to sell the afternoon newspaper and after asking my folks for permission, which was usually forthcomming, but this time wasn't, I took it upon myself to go to the newspaper people and get some papers to sell. This, I would do every week day. With selling the papers, it was my priveledge to enter the saloons, which were also gambling casinos. Each saloon would have about 10 or more tables which would be covered until about 5 p.m. with a green table cloth known as billiard table cloth. At 5 p.m., the game dealers would uncover the tables and set up stacks of gold coins, consisting of $5, $10, and $20 increments. The $10 coins were called Single Eagles and the $20 coins were called Double Eagles. It was quite an impressive sight. These saloons also had gambling machines which were in the nature of a roulette wheel, but upright instead of laying flat. You then selected a color that you thought would win, place a nickle or dime in the slot, and pull the lever. If you guessed right, you would win some money. At times, I was permitted to play these machines.
• 
  I recall, while living in Bisbee that we made a trip by train to a town called Douglas, Arizona which was about 25 miles east of Bisbee and about 5 miles north of the Mexican border. The purpose of the trip was to see a new general merchandise store which had installed for the first time in history, plate glass show windows. I believe that the first time that these windows were ever used was in Arizona.
  While residing in Benson and Bisbee, we would make periodical visits by train to visit relatives in Tuscon, which was about 80 to 100 miles away. We had to carry our own food for the trips which usually consisted of fried chicken, fruit and cake. It was an all day trip.
• 
  I recall, while living in Lordsburg, New Mexico and Benson, Arizona, that the hobos and transients would knock at the back door of our house and ask my mother for something to eat. My mothers requirement of them was that food would be given to them on condition that they chop some wood for our stove. They would normally be asked to do this before my folks would give them a meal. Some of them would do a good job, but others would ask that they be fed first and promised to cut wood after being fed. A good many of these latter persons, after being fed, would chop a few sticks of wood and when my folks were out of sight, would drop the axe and jump over the fence and be on their way to the next hand out. I recall one instance where a young boy who was about 18 who had left his home in the east to make a stake in California, and having failed, was hitch hiking his way back home by train. He asked for food. He chopped some wood and my mother made him some ham and eggs for breakfast. He had eaten some of this food and then fainted. When he came to, he told my mother that he had not eaten any food for two days. My folks gave him a room and fed him until he was strong enough to travel. My father arranged with the conductor of the train to give this boy free passage to his home in the east. Each conductor would pass word to the next to let the boy continue to ride. When he got home, his folks wrote my folks thanking them for their kindness.
• 
  Each year while we were living in Arizona, we would in the summer months, go by train to the beaches in Santa Monica and Playa Del Rey, California.
• 
  We next moved to Cananea, Mexico which was a mining town of about 100 Americans and 200 Mexicans. My father was the Locomotive Engineer for the same mining company that we ahd in Bisbee, but this one hauled all types of freight instead of just slag. The engine burned wood for fuel. I would go with my father on the engine for a ride, and each time it seemed I would lose my cap when I stuck my head out of the cab window.
• 
  The period of time that we lived in Benson, Bisbee, and Cananea was during the years 1901 to about 1905.
• 
  During our stay in Cananea, Mexico, my mother was a witness to a robbery by a Mexican. The authorities arrested the Mexican and when his trial came up, my mother was required to be a witness. The authorities had a two horse buggy, with a driver who picked her up and brought her back home. This buggy and my mother were guarded by a large squad of Mexican soldiers both to and from the court house.
• 
  Also at Cananea, I recall my sister and I were playing and sliding down a hillside near a place where formerly a home had been, but which had been torn down. It was quite a windy day and sliding down, my sister ahd her arms in the air when the wind blew something into her hand.......it was a 100 dollar bill!!!!
• 
  I also recall that at Cananea, all thoughts I had of Santa Claus being what I was taught to believe were destroyed when at a Church Christmas party "Santa Claus" was distributing presents and inadvertantley got too close to the Christmas tree which was lighted with the old fashioned candles. His false whiskers caught on fire and it was necessary to pull them off his face, thereby disclosing that Santa Claus was simply a family friend!
• 
  We left Cananea and moved back to Los Angeles in 1905.
• 
  While in Los Angeles, I recall that the Los Angeles River usually dried up in the summer and became a raging river in the winter months and flooded over its banks and washed away a number of bridges. Also, I found it necessary for spending money to pick up junk and animal bones and take them to a junk dealer who paid me what the articles were worth. This money I used to cover transportation charges fro my electric train to the beaches and other places. I also recall that the day after San Francisco had the 1906 earthquake and fire that we were told of this at school. The classes were dismissed for the day with the request that the school children would bring to school the next day cans of food and other things for forwarding to San Francisco for use by the distressed people. Also that day we experienced an earthquake in Los Angeles which frightened us considerably.

• In 1907, the financial crash occured. No work was to be had by my father. We had no money to buy food. We raised chickens, ducks, pigeons and geese, and used these as well as their eggs to barter and trade with the butcher and grocer, thereby being able to get some meat and other necessities.
• During the latter part of 1907, my mother's girlhood chum, who had been living in San Francisco for a couple of years wrote my mother and said that there was plenty of work to be had there. We then moved there and since early 1908, I have been a resident of San Francisco.

• I attended John Swett Grammar School which was located on McAllister Street near Gough. While attending school, it was necessary for me to sell newspapers after school to help support the family. I used to sell newspapers on Fillmore Street from 3:30 in the afternoon to about 8:30 in the evening. I fared fairly well, earning from a dolalr to a dollar and a half each week day. The saloons on this street have very nice free lunch counters, which some of them would permit me to come into their place to sell papers and help myself to the free lunch. Other places would squirt charged water on you if you attempted to help yourself to the free lunch.

• Due to financial reasons, and to help the family, it became necessary to leave school while in the 7th grade, and take a regular job. At age 15 1/2, I started to work for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company as a messenger at a salary of $25.00 a month minus 50 cents for hospital dues. I advanced through all of the positions in the Freight Traffic Department and later became an office manager with supervision of departmental help in the territory from Bakersfield, California north which included offices in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Nevada.

• I retired on January 1, 1963 after 51 years of service.

• I have an older sister still living and a brother who is deceased.

• I am married, have 3 married daughters, 7 grand-children and one great grand child."

Love,

Grandpa Eckert

The above letter was written between 1963 and 1965 by my Great Grandfather Harry Milton Eckert, for his grandson Greg who provided me with a copy of the letter for my own use. Grandpa Eckert passed away in 1965, but thanks to this letter, his life still lives on in his own words about a time that most of us cannot fathom in this day and age.