Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Who Are Your 32 3rd-great-grandparents?

I'm not sure how many names I'll be able to come up with for tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music), is:

1.  Who are your 32 3rd-great-grandparents?  List them (with birth names).  Tell us when and where they were born, married, and died.  [NOTE:  This is easily done in your genealogy software program or online family tree by making an Ahnentafel or Ancestors report from yourself as #1, then copy and paste.]

2.  Share your list of your third-great-grands on your own blog post or in a Facebook, SubStack, or BlueSky post.  Leave a link on this blog post to help us find your post.

Let's see how well I do.

32.  Unknown.

33.  Unknown.

34.  Unknown.

35.  Unknown.

36.  Franklin Armstrong:  born about 1825 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County; married Unknown before 1849, probably in Burlington County, New Jersey; died September 13, 1870 in Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.

37.  Unknown:  born before 1832 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County; died before October 8, 1850, probably in Burlington County, New Jersey.

38.  Abel A(mos?) Lippincott:  born about January 26, 1825 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County; married Rachel R. Stackhouse before 1846, probably in Burlington County, New Jersey; died May 28, 1888 in Florence, Burlington County, New Jersey.

39.  Rachel R. Stackhouse:  born about 1825–1826 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County; died November 15, 1890 in Chester Township, Burlington County, New Jersey.

40.  Hananiah Selah Gaunt:  born about January 25, 1795 in Burlington County, New Jersey; married Abigail Atkinson 1826–1829, probably in Burlington County, New Jersey; died April 15, 1852 in Burlington County, New Jersey.

41.  Abigail Atkinson:  born about August 19, 1804 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County; died February 1883 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County.

42.  John Gibson:  born before 1814 in New Jersey; married Mary before 1832, probably in New Jersey; probably died in New Jersey.

43.  Mary:  born before 1814 in New Jersey; probably died in New Jersey.

44.  Richard Dunstan:  born about June 9, 1813 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; married Jane Coleclough December 25, 1833 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; died after April 7, 1861, probably in Lancashire, England.

45.  Jane Coleclough:  born about 1811 in Lancashire, England; died April 12, 1865 in Chorlton, Manchester, Lancashire, England.

46.  Thomas Winn:  born about 1792 in Lambrook, Shropshire, England; married Mary Parr(?) about 1812, possibly in Shropshire; died in England, possibly in Lancashire.

47.  Mary Parr(?):  died before June 7, 1841, probably in Lancashire, England.

48.  Zvi Mekler:  born before 1854 in Russia; married Esther before 1872 in Russia; died before 1903, possibly in Kamenets Litovsk, Russia.

49.  Esther. born before 1854 in Russia; died in Russia.

50.  Unknown.

51.  Unknown.

52.  Abraham Yaakov Nowicki:  born before 1839 in Russia; married Sirke before 1857 in Russia; died before 1896 in Russia.

53.  Sirke:  born before 1839 in Russia; died before 1893 in Russia.

54.  Ruven Yelsky:  born before 1841 in Russia; married Frieda Bloom before 1859 in Russia; died about 1898 in Russia.

55.  Frieda Bloom:  born before 1841 in Russia; died about 1898 in Russia.

56.  Gersh Wolf Gorodetsky:  born before 1823 in Russia, probably in Orinin or Kamenets Podolsky; married Etta Cohen?/Kagan? before 1840; died after 1905 in Russia, possibly in Kishinev, Bessarabia.

57.  Etta Cohen?/Kagan?:  born before 1823 in Russia; died before 1891, possibly in Kamenets Podolskiy, Ukraine.

58.  Joine Schneiderman:  born before 1841 in Russia; married Anna Ida (Chane Etta?) Kortisch? before 1868 in Russia; died before 1893 in Russia.

59.  Anna Ida (Chane Etta?) Kortisch?:  born before 1841 in Russia; died before 1891 in Russia.

60.  Solomon (Zalman?) Brainin:  born before 1846 in Russia; married Yetta before 1864 in Russia; died in Russia.

61.  Yetta:  born before 1846 in Russia; died in Russia.

62.  Joseph Jaffe:  born before 1854 in Russia; married Anna Binderman before 1872 in Russia; died in Russia.

63.  Anna Binderman:  born before 1854 in Russia; died in Russia.

Not anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be.  Seven totally unknown names, and for one of those I do have a small amount of hypothesized information.  For the 27 with names, only four are missing surnames.  It could have been much worse.

Events in My Family Tree: December 25

I've heard from friends that being a Christmas baby is mostly a disadvantage, because you often don't have a regular birthday party and people want to give you a combined birthday/Christmas present.  This is probably not a big problem when you're Jewish, right?

Births

Mary Ann McGowan was born December 25, 1805 in Pennsylvania.  She was married to Joseph Gantt, son of Joseph Gaunt and Mary A. Lobaugh, who is my 1st cousin 5x removed via the Gaunts.

Pauline E. Smoot was born December 25, 1827 in Virginia.  She was married to Redden N. Gaunt, son of Joseph Gaunt and Phoebe Emily Severn, who is my 2nd cousin 4x removed via the Gaunts.

Wilma Elizabeth Norris was born December 25, 1912 in Orestes, Madison County, Indiana.  She was married to Neil Gaunt Clark, son of Oren Wilson Clark and Anna G. Gaunt, who is my 4th cousin 2x removed via the Gaunts.

Irene Bassie (Bessai?) Dubensky was born December 25, 1920, possibly in Ohio.  She was the third wife of Harry Herman Mackler, son of Morris Mackler (originally Moishe Meckler) and Minnie (originally Mushe) Zelda Nowicki, who is my granduncle.

Gene Paul Gaunt, son of Clarence Meridith Gaunt and Mary Grace Stewart, was born December 25, 1931 in California.  He is my 4th cousin 2x removed via the Gaunts.

Melanie Amron, daughter of Eli Morton Amron and Alice Gold, was born December 25, 1952 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.  She is my 4th cousin on my Nowicki line through the Amrons.

Edward James Ellis, Jr. was born December 25, 1977.  He is my 2nd cousin 1x removed.

Marriages

Nathan Gaunt, son of Samuel Gaunt and Achsah Taylor, and Sarah Coles were married December 25, 1823 in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey.  Nathan is my 2nd cousin 5x removed via the Gaunts.

Richard Dunstan, son of James Dunstan and Maria Hilton, and Jane Coleclough were married December 25, 1833 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.  They are my 3x-great-grandparents.

James Andrews and Mary D. Gaunt, daughter of Hananiah Selah Gaunt and Mary Elizabeth Rose, were married December 25, 1841 in Tuckerton, Burlington County, New Jersey.  Mary is my half 2nd-great-grandaunt.

Francis D. Matthews and Susannah H. Gaunt, another daughter of Hananiah Selah Gaunt and Mary Elizabeth Rose, were married December 25, 1876, probably in New Jersey.  Susannah is also my half 2nd-great-grandaunt.

Floyd Richard Williams, son of Preston Frank Williams and Priscilla Crawford, and Susie Lee Adams, daughter of Alma Adams, were married December 25, 1927 in Muscogee County, Georgia.  They are the paternal grandparents of my not-quite-cousin Angela Williams.

Deaths

Isaac Gaunt, son of Hananiah Gaunt and Rebecca Mulliner, died December 25, 1864 in Tuckerton, Burlington County, New Jersey at the age of 77.  He is my 3rd-great-granduncle.

James H. Fuller, son of Joseph E. Fuller and Lorina G. Tripp, died December 25, 1929 in Stony Creek, Warren County, New York at the age of 80.  He is the 2nd-great-granduncle of my aunt Mary McStroul and her sister Anna McStroul, and the 3rd-great-granduncle of my not-quite-cousin Angela Williams.

Janet Edna Weaver, daughter of James Henry Weaver and Ada Adelle Allen, died December 25, 2005, possibly in Whiting, Ocean County, New Jersey, at the age of 75.  She is my 5th cousin on my Gauntt line through the Allens.

Joseph W. Bonifas, son of Charles Dennison Bonifas, Sr. and Georgia Grace Gaunt, died December 25, 2011 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana at the age of 80.  He is my 6th cousin via the Gaunts.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Top End-of-line Ancestors

The Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post that Randy Seaver posted tonight is a rerun from 2018, and I don't have anyone else in my extended family I have researched to the same degree where I could readily pull up that information, so instead I went back and found an older Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, from September 2023, that I did not write about at the time.

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.  Show us your pedigree (or fan) chart.  Who are your end-of-line ancestors?  Describe the top five or ten of them.

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

Okay, bowing out of showing the pedigree/fan chart.  I have tried to create those in the new version of Family Tree Maker that I have, and I must be doing something horribly wrong, because it just isn't working.  So, feh.

But I can write about the end-of-line ancestors!  Not sure what Randy means by the "top" five or ten, though.  Top problem causers?  Top frustration generators?  Maybe just furthest back in time.  I decided to write only about my father's side, since I don't have a lot of real concrete data on my European-born ancestors on my mother's side.

• Paternal grandfather Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. (1903–1995):  Born out of wedlock to his mother, with no father listed on the birth certificate, he gained the name Sellers when his mother married Cornelius Elmer Sellers seven months later.  I proved with Y-DNA testing that he was not biologically a Sellers, but I'm still trying to find his biological father.  (I researched the Sellers line back to 1615 in Weinheim, Baden, so not much to worry about there,)

• 2x-great-grandfather Joel Armstrong (1849–c. 1921):  I know two more generations back on his paternal line (see below), but I still don't know who his mother was, because his father was apparently widowed by 1850.  With more information available nowadays than when I got hung up on this, I probably should be able to resolve this question if I simply get back to working on it.

• 3x-great-grandmother Rachel R. Stackhouse (c. 1826–aft. 1885):  Married Abel A. Lippincott before 1846, probably in New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandfather Joel Armstrong (c. 1798–1854):  Married Catherine Stackhouse in 1823 in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandmother Catherine Stackhouse (c. 1798–c. 1865):  Married Joel Armstrong in 1823 in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandfather Stacy B. Lippincott (?–?):  Married Alice Parker before 1826, probably in New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandmother Alice Parker (?–?):  Married Stacy B. Lippincott before 1826, probably in New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandfather John Gibson (?–?):  Married Mary before 1833, probably in New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandmother Mary —?— (?–?):  Married John Gibson before 1833, probably in New Jersey.

• 4x-great-grandmother Jane Coleclough (c. 1811–1865):  Married Richard Dunstan in 1833 in Manchester, England.

• 4x-great-grandfather Thomas Winn (c. 1792–?):  Married Mary Parr(?) c. 1812, possibly in Shropshire.

• 4x-great-grandmother Mary Parr(?) (?–bef. 1842):  Married Thomas Winn c. 1812, possibly in Shropshire.

So I included twelve ancestors, nine of whom are 4x-great-grandparents.  I really need to get back to work on this!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Longest Ancestral Marriage

It's Saturday, which means another interesting genealogy challenge from Randy Seaver for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!), is:

(1) Marcia Philbrick wrote Celebrating 50 Years today on her Heartland Genealogy blog and suggested it for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, so here it is:

(2) How many of your ancestors were married for FIFTY years?  What is the longest marriage of your ancestors in your tree (from marriage to first death of a spouse, or divorce)?  Consider, say, the last six generations to make it manageable!

(3) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers.

I saw this challenge and thought I was going to have only one pair of ancestors who made it to 50 years.  I was wrong about that!  On the other hand, Randy had 52 couples, while I have a total of only 18, and I had to go all the way back to 6th-great-grandparents to get that many.

Parents

• Bertram Lynn Sellers, Jr. and Myra Roslyn Meckler:  16 years (1961–1977)

Grandparents

• Abraham Meckler and Lillyan E. Gordon:  50 years (1939–1989)
• Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr. and Anna Gauntt:  0 years (They were never married.)

Great-grandparents

• Cornelius Elmer Sellers and Laura May Armstrong:  15 years (1903–1918)
• Thomas Kirkland Gauntt and Jane Dunstan:  59 years (1891–1951)
• Morris Meckler and Minne Zelda Nowicki:  36 years (1900–1936)
• Joe Gordon and Sarah Libby Brainin:  41 years (1914–1955)

Great-great-grandparents

• James Gauntt and Amelia Gibson:  38 years (1851–1889)
• Frederick Cleworth Dunstan and Martha Winn:  15 years (1858–1873)
• Joel Armstrong and Sarah Ann Lippincott:  about 22 years (1878–about 1900)
• Gershon Itzhak Nowicki and Dora Yelsky:  60 years (1876–1936)
• Avigdor Gorodetsky and Esther Leah Schneiderman:  about 19 years (about 1889–1908)
• Morris Brainin and Rose Dorothy Jaffe:  about 39 years (about 1881–1930)

Great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Selah Gaunt and Abigail Atkinson:  about 23 years (about 1829–1852)
• Richard Dunstan and Jane Coleclough:   21 years (1833–1865)

Great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Gaunt and Rebecca Mulliner:  about 14 years (about 1785–1799)
• Joel Armstrong and Catherine Stackhouse:  30 years (1823–1854)

Great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Joseph Gaunt and Elizabeth Borton:  44 years (1762–1806)

Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents

• Hananiah Gaunt and Ann Ridgway:  61 years (1730–1792)

The longest marriage I have recorded is 61 years, for my 6th-great-grandparents Hananiah Gaunt and Ann Ridgway.

The lengths of the marriages range from 14 to 61 years.  Two of the marriages were ended by divorce; the others ended with the death of one spouse.

The average length of the 18 marriages is 33.5 years.

Four marriages of the marriages lasted 50 years or longer.  That's 22.2% of the marriages.  Randy had 15 of 52 marriages last 50 or more years, which is 28.9%.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: 20 More Questions

Hmm, this week's questions for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun actually require a little bit of thought.

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

(1) Ellen Thompson-Jennings wrote 20 More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You this week and Linda Stufflebean thought it would be a great SNGF challenge.  I agree!

(2) Copy the questions from Ellen's post or from my post below and insert your own replies.  Be sure to comment on Ellen's blog so she knows you wrote about it.

(3) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

Thank you to Ellen for her post and to to Linda Sufflebean for suggesting this topic.  If you have an idea for an SNGF topic, please let me know.

Q1:  Why do you love doing genealogy/family history?
A1:  Solving the puzzles.  No two families are the same, so the answers are never exactly the same.

Q2:  How far have you traveled to research an ancestor?

A2:  Only to Connecticut.  But I sent my brother on research in Manchester, England. 

Q3:  What do you think your favorite ancestor would think of our lives today?

A3:  I'm not really sure that I have a favorite ancestor.  If I have to pick someone, I guess it would be my great-great-grandfather Gershon Yitzhak Nowicki (~1858–1948).  His occupation on the passenger list when he arrived was given as wood turner, but in the United States he became a Hebrew teacher.  From what I have been told, he was a pretty lively guy, even right up to the end and apparently adjusted reasonably well to living in this country after moving here at the age of about 64.  I think he would be curious about our lives today and willing to learn new things.

Q4:  What do you think that your ancestor would like/dislike?

A4:  That's a damned good question.  I haven't a clue.

Q5:  What was the most unusual cause of death that you’ve found?

A5:  I can't think of any particularly unusual causes of death that I've found in my own family.  In my half-sister's family, I did find four generations of men who all (but one) died of heart attacks before reaching the age of 60.

Q6:  Which ancestor had the most unusual occupation?

A6:  I must have a pretty boring family, because I don't recall any particularly unusual occupations.  The aforementioned great-great-grandfather, who was marked on his 1922 incoming passenger list as a "likely public charge", probably because of his age, was enumerated eight years later in the 1930 census with the occupation of Hebrew teacher, however, so he was still working at the age of about 72.

Q7:  Have you ever gone to where your ancestor lived and it felt like home even if you’ve never been there before?

A7:  Unfortunately, no.  That happened to me the first time I came to Portland, but I have no family connection to the city.

Q8:  Do you have a distant ancestor (several generations back) that looks like someone in the family?

A8:  Sort of.  I have a copy of a photograph of an unidentified man whom I believe to be my 3rd-great-grandfather, because he bears a strong resemblance to my great-great-grandfather (his theoretical son) and has the distinctive Gorodetsky ears.

Q9:  What is the oldest ancestral photo that you have?

A9:  The oldest photo I have is of my great-great-grandparents Victor Gorodetsky and Esther (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky and their first child, Etta.  It was taken in Kamenets Podolsky, Russia (now in Ukraine), probably about 1890.

Q10:  Did you have an ancestor that had an arranged marriage?

A10:  Not that I know of, although it's likely that some of my Jewish ancestors did have arranged marriages.

Q11:  If you could live in the time period of one of your ancestors what year would it be?  Where would it be?

A11:  About 1834 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the year after my 3rd-great-grandparents Richard Dunstan and Jane Coleclough married.  I especially would ask Jane who her parents were and where she was born.

Q12:  Which ancestor was married the most times?

A12:  My father and his father were each married three times, but my grandfather also had a long relationship with my grandmother without benefit of marriage, so he probably wins.  Grampa married Elizabeth Leatherberry Sundermeier about 1922, Anita Clarice Loveman in 1953, and Adelle Cordelia Taylor in 1961, and he lived with my grandmother Anna Gauntt from about 1934–1952.

Q13:  If you’ve tested your DNA, what was the biggest ethnicity surprise?

A13:  The 12% Irish ancestry that Ancestry said I have, and then also said that my brother has.  So far I have nothing in my research to substantiate that.  On the other hand, I don't actually believe it, either.

Q14:  Did you have a female ancestor who was different or unusual from other females from that time period?

A14:  My mother, who was not inclined toward domesticity and worked outside the home from the earliest that I can remember.

Q15:  Did your ancestor go through a hardship that you don’t know how they managed?

A15:  Not an ancestor, but a collateral relative.  According to information from the 1900 census, my 3rd-great-grandfather's brother's wife (I said collateral, remember?) had three children who were living, but in 1910 she reported that she had had three children and none of them was alive.  Losing all three of your children within a ten-year period would have to be devastating.

Q16:  How often do you research?  Are you a genealogy addict?

A16:  I do some research almost every day, but even if I'm not researching, I do something related to genealogy every day.  I'm definitely addicted.

Q17:  Do you have someone in your family that will take over the family history?

A17:  Not yet, and definitely not for my own family.  So far the most interest has been shown by my older stepson, in my research into his family.

Q18:  Have you had a genealogy surprise?  What was it?

A18:  By the time I finally got the results of the DNA test it wasn't that much of a surprise, but I did confirm that my paternal grandfather's biological father was not the man his mother married.

Q19:  Are you a storyteller?  What’s your favorite family story?

A19:  I am a pretty good storyteller, which works well when I'm giving genealogy presentations.  My favorite family story is about how my father competed on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour and came in second place to Gladys Knight.

Q20:  What was your greatest genealogy discovery?

A20:  Learning that the Sellers family is descended from Alexander Mack, the founder of the Schwarzenau Brethren (Dunkers), even though I've since learned that I'm not actually a descendant of Mack because I'm not biologically a Sellers.

Events in My Family Tree: April 12

This is one of the few dates that an actual ancestor of mine appears.  I wish I knew more about Jane Coleclough.

Births

Anna B. Folwell was born April 12, 1844 in New Jersey.  She was married to Charles R. Gaunt, son of Benjamin Franklin Gaunt and Elizabeth K. Frazer, who is my 2nd cousin 3x removed.

Elizabeth Ada Gauntt, daughter of Joseph L. Gauntt and Rebecca Elizabeth Coverly, was born April 12, 1903 in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County.  She is my 4th cousin once removed.

Tillie Steinberg was born April 12, 1921 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  She was married to Samuel Kardish, son of Dovid Kardish and Etta Gorodetsky, who is my 1st cousin 2x removed via the Gorodetskys.

Cynthia Ann Travis was born April 12, 1963 in West Virginia.  She is my 2nd cousin on my Gauntt line.

Jillian Newman was born April 12, 1995 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota.  She is my 1st cousin 2x removed on my Gauntt line.

Marriage

Charles Carter and Harriet Sellers, daughter of John Leonard Sellers and Elizabeth Wenger, were married on April 12, 1860 in Allen County, Ohio.  Harriet is my 3rd cousin 4x removed.

Deaths

Jane Coleclough died April 12, 1865 at the age of about 54 in Chorlton, Manchester, Lancashire, England.  She is my 3rd-great-grandmother.

David P. Gaunt, son of David Gaunt and Pamela Plummer, died April 12, 1889 at the age of about 70 in Gloucester, Camden County, New Jersey.  He is my 2nd cousin 4x removed.

Mary Catherine Bear died April 12, 1942 at the age of 63 in Lima, Allen County, Ohio.  She was married to James Byron Sellers, son of William B. Sellers and Sarah J. Buchanan, who is my 4th cousin 3x removed.

Dolly Garber, daughter of Zelig Garber and Ida Mekler, died April 12, 1962 at the age of 48, probably in Canada.  She is my 2nd cousin 2x removed via the Meklers.

Robert Allan Thomas, son of Samuel Eli Thomas and Esther Jane Ellis, died April 12, 1994 at the age of 56 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia.  He is my 2nd cousin on my Gauntt line through the Ellises.

Clarence Gilbert Lore, son of Clarence Newcomb Lore and Dorothy Mae Sellers, died April 12, 2015 at the age of 68.  He is my first cousin.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Ancestor Had the Most Children?

It's Saturday night, and time for more genealogy fun with Randy Seaver!  This week we're mining details from our family tree programs:

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you:

(1) The Family History Hound listed 20 Questions about Your Ancestor, and I'm going to use some of them in the next few months.

(2) Please answer the question "What ancestor had the most children?  How many?"

(3) Write your own blog post, make a comment on this post, or post your answer on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a link to your answer in comments on this post.

The most children I have entered for any couple in my database is ten.  I found two couples with ten children.  The first couple I am listing are my great-grandparents.

Jane and Thomas Gauntt, c. 1940's

Thomas Kirkland Gauntt, born May 23, 1870 in Fairview, Burlington County, New Jersey; died January 21, 1951 in Mt. Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey.  He was the son of James Gauntt and Amelia Gibson.  He married Jane Dunstan September 2, 1891, probably in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Jane Dunstan, born April 28, 1871 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; died August 1, 1954 in Mt. Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey.  She was the daughter of Thomas Cleworth Dunstan and Maria Winn.

The children of Thomas Kirkland Gauntt and Jane Dunstan are:

1.  Frederick Cleworth Gauntt, born January 7, 1892 in Rancocas, Burlington County, New Jersey; died March 17, 1910 in Rancocas, Burlington County, New Jersey.

2.  Anna Gauntt, born January 14, 1893 in Westhampton Township, Burlington County, New Jersey; died January 19, 1986 in Lindstrom, Chisago County, Minnesota.  She married Charles Cooper Stradling on November 3, 1913 in Masonville, Burlington County, New Jersey.

3.  Bertha Gauntt, born June 14, 1895 in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey; died before June 27, 1900, probably in New Jersey.

4.  Carrie Florence Gauntt, born September 9, 1896 in Rancocas, Burlington County, New Jersey; died April 19, 1985 in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey.  She married Levi Ellis on July 29, 1914 in Mt. Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey.

5.  Mary Louise Gauntt, born October 31, 1899 in Mt. Laurel, Burlington County, New Jersey; died 1971, possibly in New Jersey.  She married Oliver Goldsmith Holden on August 10, 1919 in Mt. Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey.

6.  Edna May Gauntt, born July 15, 1902 in Masonville, Burlington County, New Jersey; died January 29, 1981 in Orlando, Orange County, Florida.  She married Roscoe Sherman Flynn on July 4, 1920 in Hainesport, Burlington County, New Jersey.

7.  James Kirkland Gauntt, born August 7, 1905 in Masonville, Burlington County, New Jersey; died October 31, 1949 in Fern Park, Seminole County, Florida.  He married Katherine Boyle in 1932 in West Virginia.

8.  Thomas Franklin Gauntt, born July 14, 1908 in Masonville, Burlington County, New Jersey; died December 4, 1991 in Sarasota County, Florida.  He married Anna Marie Stayton on July 12, 1935 in New Jersey.

9.  Elmer Gauntt, born March 30, 1912, probably in New Jersey; died June 1, 1912, probably in New Jersey.

10.  John H. Gauntt, born December 30, 1914, probably in New Jersey; died March 16, 1917, probably in New Jersey.


The second couple are the great-grandparents of Jane Dunstan and therefore my 4th-great-grandparents.  I don't have as much information about them and their children.

James Dunstan married Maria Hilton on June 6, 1811 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

The children of James Dunstan and Maria Hilton are:

1.  Sarah Dunstan, born about March 11, 1812 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

2.  Richard Dunstan, born about June 9, 1813 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; died after April 7, 1861.  He married Jane Coleclough on December 25, 1833 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

3.  Maria Dunstan, born about January 10, 1816 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.  She married Robert Hill on August 12, 1832 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

4.  Harriet Dunstan, born about January 7, 1818 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

5.  Frederick Augustus Dunstan, born about December 20, 1918 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; died after April 5, 1891.  He married Bridget before 1844.

6.  Mary Ann Dunstan, born about September 25, 1822 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

7.  James Dunstan, born about July 7, 1824 in Manchester, Lancashire, England; died before 1832.

8.  Susannah Dunstan, born about April 27, 1828 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

9.  Caroline Dunstan, born about February 16, 1830 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

10.  James Dunstan, born about October 2, 1831 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Female Ancestors' Ages at Death

The project for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is kind of an extension of one Randy Seaver did this past April, when he asked people to figure out the lifespans of their great-great-grandparents.

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible music, please!):

1) Review your pedigree chart (either on paper or in your genealogy management software program) and determine the age at death of your female ancestors back at least five generations (and more if you want to).

2)  Tell us the lifespan in years for each of these ancestors.  Which of your female ancestors in this group lived the longest?  Which lived the shortest?  

3)  Share your results in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

So here are my female ancestors for whom I have at least approximate birth and death years in my family tree program:

Mother:
• Myra Roslyn (Meckler) Sellers Preuss, 1940–1995, 54 years

Grandmothers:
• Anna (Gauntt) Strickland, 1893–1986, 93 years
• Lillyan E. (Gordon) Meckler, 1919–2006, 87 years

Great-grandmothers:
• Laura May (Armstrong) Sellers Ireland, 1882–1970, 88 years
• Sarah Libby (Brainin) Gordon, about 1885–1963, about 77 years
• Jane (Dunstan) Gauntt, 1871–1954, 83 years
• Minnie Zelda (Nowicki) Meckler, about 1880–1936, about 56 years

 Great-great-grandmothers
• Amelia (Gibson) Gauntt, about 1831–1908, about 77 years
• Sarah Ann Deacon (Lippincott) Armstrong, 1860–about 1927, about 67 years
• Martha (Winn) Dunstan, 1837–1884, 47 years
• Ruchel Dwojre (Jaffe) Brainin, about 1868–1934, about 66 years
• Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky, about 1874–1908, about 34 years
• Dobe (Yelsky) Nowicki, about 1858–1936, about 78 years

3x-great-grandmothers:
• Frieda (Bloom) Yelsky, about 1838–about 1898, about 60 years
• Jane (Coleclough) Dunstan, about 1811–1865, about 54 years

And that's everyone I have entered in my database.  I have more names and dates for the Gauntt lines, but I haven't had time to enter that information.

The longest lived I know about in those five generations was my paternal grandmother, Anna (Gauntt) Stradling, partner of Bertram Lynn Sellers, Sr., who lived to be 93 years old.  The shortest by far was Esther Leah (Schneiderman) Gorodetsky, wife of Victor Gorodetsky, who died at about 34 years old.

The average age for these 15 women (I have fewer than half the number Randy has!) is a little more than 70 years.  (Well, I used to have more, until I went and proved that Elmer was my grandfather's adoptive father.)  The averages for each generation are:
• Mother:  54 years
• Grandmothers:  90 years
• Great-grandmothers:  76 years
• Great-great-grandmothers:  62 years
• 3x-great-grandmothers:  57 years

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Three More Ancestry Questions

Randy Seaver told us last week that he was splitting up this little genealogy quiz into two parts, so we were expecting this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun to be the final three questions, and indeed it is:

1) My friend and colleague Linda Stufflebean posted JUST FOR FUN – 4 X 6 = 24 FAMILY TREE QUESTIONS on her blog last week, and I thought we could answer half of the questions last week and half this week.

2)  Here are the last three questions:

*  Name four places on my ancestral home bucket list I’d like to visit:

*  What are the four most unusual surnames in your family tree?

*  Which four brick walls would you most like to smash through?

3)  Answer each of the questions based on your own ancestors, not the collateral lines.  If you didn't answer the first three questions, you can include them this week.

4)  Share your answers with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, in a Facebook post or a Google+ post.  Please provide a link to your response if you can.

So here are mine.  The hard part again was restricting answers to my own ancestors.

D.  Name four places on my ancestral home bucket list I'd like to visit.
This one was tough, because how do I narrow it down to just four?  But I decided to choose:
• Kamyanets Podil's'kyy, Ukraine (formerly Kamenets Podolsky, Podolia, Russian Empire)
• Kamyanyets, Belarus (formerly Kamenets Litovsk, Grodno, Russian Empire or Poland)
• Krustpils, Latvia (formerly Kreuzburg, Courland, Russian Empire)
• Porazava, Belarus (formerly Porozovo, Grodno, Russian Empire or Poland)

E.  What are the four most unusual surnames in my family tree?
• Brainin from Kreuzburg, Russian Empire
• Coleclough from Lancashire, England
• Winn from Lancashire, England
• Yelsky from Pororozovo, Grodno, Russian Empire

F.  Which four brick walls would I most like to smash through?
First I have to state that I don't have any brick walls.  "What??!" I hear you ask?  "How can she possibly not have any brick walls?"  I only count a research question as a brick wall if I have tried every possible avenue, and I haven't done that yet with any of my thorny problems.  My choices below are those where I have exhausted most possibilities and have only a couple left.
• Find out what happened to Raymond Lawrence Sellers (1945–??), the son that my 90-year-old aunt gave up for adoption.  He was born in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey and was placed for adoption in that county.  I hope he is still alive and is amenable to meeting her.  My aunt has tried twice to do the Ancestry DNA spit test, and neither was usable.  Now she's going to do the Family Tree DNA swab test.  I hope, hope, hope we find a close match once she's in the database.
• Determine the biological father of my paternal grandfather, Bertram Lynn Sellers (1983–1995).  I only recently proved via Y-DNA that this was not Cornelius Elmer Sellers.  I'm hoping autosomal and Y-DNA will help me solve this problem.  (This one was a no-brainer for my short list.)
• Learn something (anything!) about my great-great-grandmother Beile [unknown maiden name] Meckler (??–??), mother of Moishe Meckler.  She was born, lived, and died in the Russian Empire, probably all in or around Kamenets Litovsk, Grodno gubernia.  I have nothing but a given name.
• Make contact with some cousin from my Jaffe/Michels line.  My great-great-grandmother was a Jaffe, a very common Jewish surname.  Her sister married a Michelson.  Their son, Bere-Leib, was the only person I know from the Jaffe side of the family who immigrated to the U.S.  He changed his name to Barnet Michels and married Rose Yudelson; they had three children.  One died young but had surviving children, whose names I don't know.  The other two siblings refused to talk with me.