Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Are Your Spouse/SO's Grandparents and Great-grandparents?

It's time for everyone's favorite weekend genealogical activity, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Have you researched the ancestors of your spouse (or significant other)?  Please list the names and vital records data for your spouse/SO's grandparents and great-grandparents as in an Ahnentafel report.

2.  Have you written a genealogical sketch and/or biography for each of them?

3.  Share your list of your spouse/SO's ancestors in your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, BlueSky, or other social media post.  Leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

Of course I've researched my ex's ancestors!  What kind of genealogist do you think I am? <grin>

Now, do I have the information handy?  No, because I upgraded my computer a few months ago, and I still haven't been able to hook everything up again and make all my files accessible, including my Family Tree Maker program.

But let's see what I can do from memory . . . .

Hugh's Ancestors

Generation 3 (grandparents)

4.  Kartar Singh Sandhu, born date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India (probably in Khatkar Kalan); married date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India (probably in Khatkar Kalan); died date unknown (probably before August 16, 1947, i.e., before Partition), probably in Punjab, British India.

5.  Raj Kaur, born date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India; died possibly between 1970 and 1971, possibly in Punjab, India.

6.  Hugh Vincent McKenney, born about May 11, 1886, possibly in Belfast, County Down, Ireland; married about 1913, probably in Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; died January 24, 1961, Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

7.  Honora McSweeney, born about September 3, 1879, Ballyvourney, County Cork, Ireland; died February 18, 1958, Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California.

Generation 4 (great-grandparents)

8.  <unknown given name> Singh Sandhu, probably in Punjab, British India (probably in Khatkar Kalan); married date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India; died date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India.

9.  <unknown given name> Kaur, probably in Punjab, British India (probably in Khatkar Kalan); died date unknown, probably in Punjab, British India.

12.  Patrick McKenney (unconfirmed).

13.  Mary McElaney (unconfirmed).

14.  John McSweeney, born about October 1826 in Ballyvourney, County Cork, Ireland; married about 1859 in Ireland, probably in County Cork; died 1910–1914, probably in Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

15.  Catherine O'Leary, born about December 1834, probably in Ballyvourney, County Cork, Ireland; died December 14, 1921 in Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

Well, that's what I am able to reconstruct at this time.  I'm pretty sure it's most of the information I have in FTM.  I might have nailed down some specific dates that I don't have here.

I haven't written a genealogical sketch or biography (particularly not with AI) for any of them.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Are Your Genealogy Highlights for the Last Month?

I'm a little late, but not too behind to jump in for Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge for the week.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  What genealogy fun have you had this past month?  What is your genealogy research highlight of the past month?  It could be attending or watching a Webinar or local genealogy society meeting, finding a new ancestor, reading a new genealogy book, or anything else that you have enjoyed.

2.  Share your January genealogy fun in your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, BlueSky, or other social media post.  Leave a link to your post on this blog post to help us find your post.

I haven't had much time for genealogy during the past month, because I've had to keep an 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. schedule, and that is way too early in the morning for me.  It makes my brain mush for the rest of the day.  But one recent blog post encouraged me to rethink a question I had posed previously.

For my mother's yahrzeit, I considered things that my mother hadn't told me, including the name of our poodle (Pepe) and how I acquired a scar on my left arm that I've had since I was very, very little.  Writing about those two items together made me suddenly wonder if the reason my mother never told me the name of our dog was because he in some way had something to do with the scar.  I'm sure I'll never be able to determine if that hypothesis is accurate, but it had not occurred to me previously, and at least it gives me a possible reason for why my mother "didn't remember" how I got the scar.

Not the most momentous discovery, but it's an example of how writing can help you look at things in new ways.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Errors of Omission?

Today is January 19, 2026, which corresponds to 1 Shevat on the Jewish calendar in the year 5786 (thank you, Steve Morse, for the handy-dandy Jewish calendar conversion tool).  My mother died on 1 Shevat; it is Jewish tradition to commemorate a person on the date of that person's death on the Jewish calendar, called the yahrzeit.  Part of how I remember my mother is by writing about her on my blog.

My mother is probably the biggest reason I became so interested in family history.  She and her mother (my grandmother) were always talking about family members, relating family stories, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.  I grew up knowing so many relatives' names and birthdays because of this.  But something I have been thinking about recently is things that my mother didn't tell me.

One of the most glaringly obvious things she never talked about is how she and my father met.  I heard about this from my grandmother several years after my mother had died.  I wrote about it ten years ago for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge.

My mother and her best friend (who happened to be my cousin) were on their way to a party when the car broke down.  My mother was fretting about how they would get to the party when her friend said, "Don't worry, my uncle is a mechanic.  He can help us."  And that uncle was my father-to-be, and that's how my parents met.

I have not yet filled in any of the holes in the story which I mentioned in that 2015 post.  One thing I did determine, though, is that my parents were apparently anxiously waiting for my father's divorce from his first wife to be finalized, because it was only about four days afterward that they were married.  I figured out when I was in 8th grade that my mother was three and a half months pregnant with me when they were married, and once I noticed how quickly the wedding came about, I figured they knew at the time that she was pregnant.

So did my mother never talk about how she met my father because it resulted in her getting married on short notice because she was pregnant?  I'll never know the answer to that question, but it is not an unreasonable hypothesis.

Chronologically in my life, the next thing my mother didn't tell me was the name of a dog we used to have.  She often told me about the dog, though.  I wrote a little bit about him for another Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post.

This was when I was just a little baby, possibly up to young toddler.  The dog was a standard poodle, and he protected me as I were his own puppy.  If my mother was upset with me about something and yelled at me, he would stand between me and her.  And he died of an epileptic seizure.

And that's all my mother said about him.

It occurred to me after my mother had passed away that she had never mentioned his name.  Lucky for me, my father was still alive, so I asked him.  And he knew exactly who I was talking about and told me the dog's name was Pepe.

Why would my mother tell me about the dog multiple times but never say his name?  I can't come up with a good reason for that.  It's possible that she didn't remember, but she had an excellent memory, so I have trouble with that idea.  Maybe she just didn't like him?  Is that a good reason?

A very frustrating thing that my mother didn't tell me about is how I got a scar on my left arm.  I blogged about it for National Scar Appreciation Day a couple of years ago.

I've had this scar as long as I can remember, going back to when I was really young.  I have no recollection whatsoever of how I got it, what kind of injury caused it, nothing.  That suggests to me that I must have been pretty young when it happened, because I have a good memory.

I asked my mother once how I got the scar.  She said, "I don't remember."  And I took her at her word.

Many years after that, well after she had died, a little light bulb went on over my head.

My mother became hysterical any time one of her children was bleeding.  The size of the scar and its longevity indicate an injury that must have bled, probably quite a bit.  So it would have been noticeable and my mother would have been hysterical.  And yet she didn't remember how it happened?

blink blink

Um, that doesn't make sense.

Unless, somehow, she had something to do with it.  Because then it wouldn't really be that she didn't remember, but that she wouldn't want to talk about it.

There was no abuse in my family, so it wasn't anything like that.  Maybe she turned her head and I cut myself on something?  Maybe she dropped something and it hit my arm?

Maybe it had something to do with Pepe, and that's why she never said his name?

Another question that shall remain unanswered.  At least until either time travel or talking to the dead becomes more reliable.

What else didn't my mother tell me?

Poodle image by MissKaren via Pixabay.

Can It Really Be 15 Years?

I haven't been keeping up well with my blog during the past few weeks, but I knew I had to write a post today.  It is my 15th blogiversary, after all.

Lisa Hork Gorrell and I started our blogs the same day, lo those 15 years ago.  She started a couple additional ones with specific focuses, but I've kept only this general one, lumping all of my posts together.

Who knew we would last this long?

I didn't keep quite the same pace in 2025 as I did the previous year, but I had 125 posts, which averages out to about one every three days.  That isn't too bad.

I posted many more photographs from the "photo bonanza" that my sister's niece scanned.  I still haven't received the boxes of original photos, so I don't know if anything was missed or if there really are two copies of all the photos that have two scans.  But I have identified a lot more of the photos and used some unusual resources to determine more information about them.

I also wrote several posts based on "national day of . . ." prompts.  I found a few sites that promote these days (I'm pretty sure they all make money by getting companies and people to pay to have a "day of whatever" and then advertise the days on the sites).  I've discovered that they can act as prompts to remember events and stories from my family and my own life, so I've written about them.  Documenting ourselves is something genealogists are reminded to do, right?

And of course I sprinkled several Wordless Wednesdays and Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posts in there also.  Those are staples for getting me thinking of something I can write about.

I have a lot more ideas, too:  research I haven't written about yet, more "days of", more great photos to share.  I'm going to try to catch up during the next month and get back to my old pace.

Illustration:  https://pixabay.com/illustrations/billiard-striped-ball-brown-15-1433354/

Wordless Wednesday

 

New Year's Eve 1968

Among the photos in the scanned photo bonanza I received from my sister, I found some photos that pretty clearly are from at least one New Year's Eve party.  Obviously, New Year's Eve is a great time to post them!

These four all seem to be from the same party.  I'm pretty sure this was our house in La Puente.

This photo is why I think it was New Year's Eve 1968.

This is my mother in what kind of looks like a Gypsy costume.

That's my mother in the middle.  No clue who the other two people are.

Maybe the woman on the left is Aunt Sam?  No idea about the other woman.

And this one might be from a different year.  It looks like New Year's Eve with the hats and the garlands but doesn't seem to be the same mix of people as the other four.  I think this is also in La Puente.

My mother and father are the two people on the left in the front row.
Some of the other people show up in other photos,
but I don't know who any of them are.
Usually my father took photos; I wonder who was
behind the camera for this one!

Christmas 1967 (Maybe)

As I have noted previously, my father did not identify any of the many, many photographs he took.  So while I have been reveling in the photo bonanza that my sister's niece scanned, I am still trying to identify somewhat accurately the photos therein.

I have gotten much, much better at recognizing the people who appear in the photos, including my mother and father when they were significantly younger (although I still sometimes am not sure if a given photo is of my mother or her mother).  But getting the years right is more difficult, I have discovered.

These photos all seem to be around the same Christmas, although I'm not sure about the chronology.  But what year?  My sister Laurie doesn't appear in any of them, so I am pretty sure it is not 1968.  But is it 1967?  I would be about 5 1/2, my brother Mark 4 1/2, and my sister Stacy 3 1/2.  Or is it 1969, and we're all two years older?  I appreciate any insight into our ages and if the order looks right.  And I don't know who two of the people are!  I don't think the little girl toward the end is Stacy, because she's not wearing glasses, but I have no idea who she could be.  And the woman in the next to last photo is a mystery to me.  I think the last photo is our Aunt Sam.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!