Ohio Ancestors 2013 Year in Review

I'm reading newspaper updates on the stories of the past year.  Why not a blog version?

Here's some updates on the ohioancestors.blogspot.com columns from the past year.

My column of the year was the eight-part series titled Solved: The Their-Disselbrede Mystery.  The update is that my father-in-law has, for the first time, visited the cemetery where his grandparents William and Barbara Disselbrett are buried.  It was a less than 30 minute trip, but he never knew where to look.

Trading Finds was about Elaine in Wisconsin.  She sent me a photo of my kids' third great grandfather as a trade for my finding some records for her.  I traded back again when I sent her one that included her great grandfather a few months later in Are These The Same People?

I preached, mostly to myself, the need to document vital records for my five-generation family tree in March.  I celebrated finding the elusive Gretna Green marriage of Royal and Grace Smith Platt in August though.

The digital photo matching search for which regimental band trombonist was my great grandfather proved right on.  More From The Mogon Attic brought an end to the mystery and showed the value of digital photo face matching software.

That great Mogon Attic find was a true highlight for the year too.  I'm Facebook friends with my second cousin once removed, third cousin, and third cousin once removed in Pittsburgh now.  There's little chance of losing that connection now.

I puzzled about Group Think in Genealogy that had me wondering who were the  parents of Thomas Worthington Sanders.  Now, months later, I found my cousin in Eastern Ohio admitting that he doesn't know where the name Worthington as Thomas' middle name came from in the first place.  I've taken that name down and posted an update to the columns on it.  Since I've now also located an obit and a photo of Thomas W. Sanders, I'll have more to say about this in the future.

In September, I sweated out the acceptance of my "proof" of James McConnell being in Ohio pre-statehood.  Not long after, I got accepted into the First Families of Ohio lineage society with the coveted pre-statehood status to boot thanks to James McConnell.  Oh yeah, they generously added some ancestors I hadn't even sought too.

On Veterans' Day, I put my first list of Revolutionary War patriots together and marveled that my kids could boast, by my research, at least 21 patriots in their bloodline.  This month, I grew the list to 27.

2014 has more mysteries to solve.  Stay tuned.