Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Is Your LAST Immigrant Ancestor?

I actually knew the answer to this question as soon as I saw it on Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post tonight!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

1.  Which of your ancestors was the LAST immigrant to your current country?  When did they arrive?  Where did they arrive?  Why did they migrate?

2.  Write your own blog post, or leave a comment on this post, or write something on Facebook.

My most recent immigrant ancestor is on my mother's side.  All four of my great-grandparents on her side were immigrants, coming to the United States between 1905 and 1911.  The last one to arrive was my great-grandmother Minnie Zelda (Nowicki) Meckler (about 1880–1936).  She was born in the Russian Empire, probably in Porozowo, which is now in Belarus.  She departed Antwerp October 14, 1911 on the Vaderland with three young children in tow and arrived in New York City on October 23.

She came to this country because her husband, my great-grandfather Morris Meckler, had immigrated earlier, in 1906.  The family was separated for five years.  They came primarily for economic opportunity.  Other family members had come earlier to pave the way.

As far as I currently know, on my father's side my most recent immigrant ancestor was my great-grandmother Jane Dunstan (1871–1954).  She was born in Manchester, England.  She departed England October 8, 1890 on the Lord Olive and arrived in Philadelphia on October 21.  As far as I can tell, she was traveling by herself.

Less than a year later, on September 2, 1891, she married Thomas Kirkland Gauntt in Greenland, New Jersey (although I don't know if it was the Greenland that is part of Magnolia in Camden County or the one that is part of Edison in Middlesex County).  Their first child, Frederick Cleworth Gauntt (named for Jane's father), was born a mere four months later on January 7, 1892.  My grandmother was their second child, born a year after her brother, on January 14, 1893.

I have never heard any story within the family of why Jane came to the United States, but her brother Frederick Dunstan (1868–1932) came here first, about 1888 (I still haven't found a passenger list for him).  Maybe he made New Jersey sound absolutely wonderful, and Jane just had to come.  Or since she hooked up with my great-grandfather relatively quickly (apparently at the latest by about April 1891, only roughly six months after she arrived), maybe Fred was being a matchmaker?

I will say, however, that I still have not identified the biological father of my paternal grandfather, and while I have a good candidate, who was a native of New Jersey, it's possible that Grampa's biological father might have been an immigrant and might have arrived later than Jane did.  The latest he could have arrived would be about July 1902, as my grandfather was born in April 1903, so my most recent immigrant overall would still be on my mother's side.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Three Things about an Ancestor

Tonight Randy Seaver has us thinking about the details of our ancestors' lives for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

1.  What are three things about one of your ancestors that you have learned doing genealogy research?

2.  Write your own blog post, or leave a comment on this post, or write something on Facebook.

I chose my great-grandmother Laura May (Armstrong) Sellers Ireland.

• Laura May Armstrong was born May 7, 1882 in Burlington County, New Jersey to Joel Armstrong and Sarah Ann Deacon Lippincott.

• Laura bore at least ten children, only four of whom survived to adulthood:
Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. (1903–1995)
Cornelius Howard Sellers (about 1904–1905)
Amelia Sellers (after 1904–before 1920)
Catherine Marie Sellers (about 1907–1989)
George Moore Sellers (1908–1975)
Nellie Elizabeth Sellers (1912–2004)
Harry J. Sellers (1913–1913)
Herman J. Sellers (about 1914–between 1915–1920)
Birdsall Sellers (1916–1916)
Bertolet Grace Sellers (1921–1927)

• Laura was apparently a bit of a wild woman for her time.  She gave birth to my grandfather in 1903 without benefit of a husband; his birth certificate, which took quite a while to track down, has merely the socially disapproving "OW" (out of wedlock) on the line where the father's name would normally appear.  She married Cornelius Elmer Sellers seven months after my grandfather was born.  Then, in 1921, almost three years after Elmer had died, she gave birth to another child who did not have a father's name on the birth certificate.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Top 10 Genealogy-related Books That Helped You

I suspect that most of my choices for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge will be different from those of other posters.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

1.  What are the top 10 genealogy-related books that helped you the most in your family history research?

2.  Write your own blog post, leave a comment on this post, or write something on Facebook.

Here's my list.

• Finding Our Fathers:  A Guide to Jewish Genealogy, Dan Rottenberg

• Professional Genealogy, Elizabeth Shown Mills (editor)

• Where Once We Walked (revised edition), Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Amdur Sack, with Alexander Sharon

• A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire (revised edition), Alexander Beider

• Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names, Alexander Beider

• Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia, Alexander Beider

• Sephardic Genealogy (second edition), Jeffrey S. Malka

• The Jewish Encyclopedia:  A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1925)

• Black Roots:  A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree, Tony Burroughs

• Red Book:  American State, County, and Town Sources, Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG (editor)