Minnie Welch Kelly's Autograph Book

Here is a quick view of my great grandmother's autograph book, which is a glimpse of her journey from Waterbury, Connecticut to Greenwood, Nebraska. It includes scans of each page and my transcription of the document. Minnie Welch Kelly's autograph book - Subscriber Home Pages

Fearless Females - Minnie Welch's autograph book

Lisa Alzo, who writes The Accidental Genealogist blog, has brought back a 31-day series of blogging themes called Fearless Females, in honor of celebrating March as Women's History Month. I hope to participate in as many of these blogging prompts as possible this month.

March 8 - Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, a journal or collection of letters?

A page from Minnie Welch's autograph book

Although not diaries or journals, I have some wonderful paper documents that capture a picture of the everyday life of my ancestors - autograph books. I have autograph books that belonged to my mother, to my father's mother and to my great-grandmother, Minnie Welch Kelly, and her sister, Nellie Welch.

It was the autograph books that belonged to the teenage Welch sisters that contributed to constructing the family group sheets of the Welch family. With entries such as "From your loving brother, Mark Welch" or "Love, Aunt Winnie," I've been able to learn about the family of Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Miss Minnie Welch
of Waterbury, Connecticut

I've scanned all of the pages in Minnie Welch's autograph book and have compiled them into a pdf book that is a work-in-progress. The pages appear as they do in the original book; I only wish I'd begun the transcription a few decades ago before the ink had not deteriorated as much as it has now. I've made an index of the people who signed Minnie's book and even started to do a little bit of research on Ancestry.com about Minnie's friends. What better way to learn more about my great-grandmother than to learn about the friends she associated with as a young woman. This part of the project is still in process.

Minnie's autograph book covers the period from 1883 - 1888, when she was 18 - 23 years of age. The autograph book takes her from her birthplace in Connecticut to the plains of Nebraska in 1888. The last entry in the book is dated January 1888. She married my great-grandfather in Greenwood, Nebraska in December of that year.

The time frame makes me wonder where and how they met. What was their courtship like? How did a young lady from the east fall in love with a hard-working Nebraska farmer whose family had traveled by covered wagon from St. Paul, Minnesota? The answers to those questions may never be known, but what these pages show is that Minnie had a wealth of loving friends and family who undoubtedly contributed to the woman, wife and mother she became.

First Blogiversary of Long Lost Relatives.net

Breaking Through Brick Walls
Is Like Icing on the Cake

It hardly seems possible that I've been blogging about my family history quest for a year.

My original idea about the blog was to post queries or "looking for" messages about ancestors and long lost relatives who had become brick walls. My first post, one year ago today, was a query searching for my mother's cousin, Evelyn Bellinger Gibbons. I still have not tied up the loose ends on that search. But I have found the source of her husband's obituary and his burial location, so I'm not too far away.

It didn't take me long to begin sharing the old family photographs, stories and obituaries on the blog. Then I added information about genealogy events in Nebraska. As my Tombstone Tuesday postings increased, I decided to start another blog of my tombstone photographs with a title that aptly describes it, Nothing But Tombstones.

Shortly after I started my blog, I discovered the Geneabloggers blog, managed by the one and only Thomas MacEntee. I was welcomed with open arms by the geneablogging community, and LongLostRelatives.net had about a dozen followers sign up within the first few days of my blog being announced by Thomas. Then I got hooked on following my fellow bloggers to see what they were writing about - and learning more and more about genealogy resources and research.

I had dabbled on Facebook before, but decided to focus my Facebook presence primarily on genealogy. I sent friend requests to a few people who I already knew, introduced myself as a genealogist to others with the same interest and my online network started to grow.

The Year in Review


Looking back over the past year, my genealogical world has literally exploded with new found friendships, contacts and distant (and not-so-distant) relatives.

Some of the highlights of the past 12 months:

• Selecting some of my favorite photographs from my personal collection to share on the blog. Every picture tells a story (remember the old Rod Stewart album of that name?).
• In January, I took a risk and posted What if Your Ancestor Was a Axe Murderer? - a rather disturbing tale of my 3rd great grandfather killing his teenage daughter and then committing suicide.
• Genealogy hit mainstream television with NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? and PBS' Faces of America. We all tuned in and it seemed like the number of people researching their family history at least quadrupled overnight.
• Through shirt-tail kin who I had "met" online, I first saw a photograph of the tombstone of my great-great grandparents, Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally in Litchfield, Connecticut. By deciphering some penmanship and discovering the correct spelling of a surname, I connected one of Mark and Sarah's daughters, Agnes, to the Garrigus family and a wealth of stories and discoveries on FindAGrave emerged.
• The floodgates opened once I made the connection to my great-great grandfather's brother, Daniel Kelly, whose family remained primarily in St. Paul, Minnesota. A research trip to Ramsey county and a stroll down Summit Avenue is definitely in my future.
• In March, I took a two session class taught by local genealogists Marcia Stewart and Cynthia Monroe. Tips from the class helped me get out of my comfort zone and try additional research methods.
• Spring came and that meant some field trips to Wyuka Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery in Lincoln (Nebraska) and Rose Hill Cemetery in Waverly. Later in the summer was an excursion to Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery between Greenwood and Ashland, Nebraska. The cemetery had not yet been added to the FindAGrave site, so I added the cemetery to their database and added the photos of the graves I was able to document. My photographs on FindAGrave became the largest collection of photos of Sheffer Pioneer Cemetery to be housed in one online location. Since then, I've been able to transfer several of the memorials over to the direct descendants of some of those pioneers buried there.
• On St. Patrick's Day, I attended a wonderful presentation by the Ulster Historical Foundation on Irish and Scots-Irish research.
• In May, I attended the two-day conference of the Nebraska State Genealogical Society in Norfolk, Nebraska, featuring two fantastic days of lectures presented by Paula Stuart Warren, who immediately became one of my genealogical heroes.
• In May, I also made my first jump across the pond. Who would have ever thought that my Danish ancestors would be my first European connection? In Danish naming tradition, the surname changes every generation! I had resigned myself to never being able to go back to a prior generation. The Jeremiasens had been elusive to me in immigration records and passenger lists on Ancestry.com - until I splurged for Ancestry's world membership and within a few days, I found the Jeremiasens arrival record via Quebec! Shortly thereafter, I found the Jeremiasens in the Danish online database.
• Enter the power of social networking. I was following William Smith's Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories blog and we are Facebook friends. He had commented on a photograph of the Midwest Genealogy Center in Kansas City that was posted by Jenna Mills and a reference to the upcoming Midwest Family History Expo in July. Within a day I was registered to attend!
• I was invited to be a Blogger of Honor at the Midwest Family History Expo. Wow! I would be blogging and posting to Facebook about my experiences at the Expo.Within ten minutes after the opening session, I found myself at the Beacon of Bloggers area and my Facebook friends suddenly became my real life friends - Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers and Destination Austin Family, Jenna Mills of Desperately Seeking Surnames, Diana Ritchie of Random Relatives, the previously mentioned Dr. Bill, Lisa Alzo, Cheri Hopkins (aka You Go Genealogy Girl #2), Gena Philibert Ortega of Gena's Genealogy. That weekend went by entirely too fast!

Blogger Get Together at Family History Expo in Kansas City
Diana Ritchie, Thomas MacEntee, yours truly, Jenna Mills
photo copyright 2010 Jenna Mills
used with permission

• October was Family History Month and that meant a full day with John Colletta at the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society fall conference  and another full day at the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society fall conference two weeks later. It also marked the beginning of a six week course on the history of Lincoln (Nebraska) taught by local historian Jim McKee. It was very insightful to be able to place my family in context with local history. I suppose I'm one of the fortunate genealogists who lives in the same county where my family has planted roots for nearly 140 years. The streets where my ancestors worked and lived are all around me.
• October also marked the arrival of what I believe is the best product to hit the marketplace for genealogists in ages - the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner. I've made no secret of my enthusiasm for this product. I'm a scanning fool! My other product recommendation this year is to use the Kindle e-reader for genealogy. I'm now carrying thousands of pages of local history books in my purse all the time. I'll confess that I also use my Kindle for some game-playing - probably more than I should!
• November brought a new adventure when I decided to have my DNA tested at 23andMe. Fellow bloggers Joan Miller and Carole Riley and I decided to become DNA testing buddies. We'll be blogging about our experiences and serve as support for one another as we go through the process. Of the three of us, I probably have the most to learn, since I know nothing about the science of this process. We are located in different countries - Joan in Canada, Carole in Australia and me in the United States, so I think it will be interesting to see what kind of migratory patterns emerge for each of us. You can keep up on our adventure as well as read other pertinent blog posts on the subject by following this RSS feed.
• I love reading the blogs written by other genealogists and recently made the Follow Friday theme a regular feature on this blog with Around the Blogosphere - a review of my favorite posts from the geneabloggers from the previous week. I have learned so much from the rest of you this year!

It's been a fun-filled and eventful year in my genealogy and blogging world. My heart-felt thanks to everyone who has posted comments on this blog or personally contacted me. The genealogy community is by far the most friendly and helpful group of people with whom I've ever been associated. My thanks to my blog readers, followers, my Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Who would have ever believed I'd be using Twitter after my "Bye Bye Blue Birdie" post!

So, is this post a bit self-indulgent? Of course! It's okay, I'm only going to have a First Blogiversary once. Many thanks to all of the wonderful people I've networked with during the past year. You helped me get here.

Surname Saturday - Welch

The Welch Family of Waterbury, Connecticut

Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally of Waterbury, Connecticut were my great-great grandparents. I am descended from their daughter, Mary Janice "Minnie" Welch, who married Daniel Kelly.

Details about this family still remain a bit elusive for me, although a few more details continue to surface from time to time.

It was only this past January that a "cousin" discovered a photograph of Mark and Sarah's grave site at St. Anthony's Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Most of the family information that I've been able to put together came from the autograph books of Minnie Welch and her sister, Nellie.

Mark Welch was born in Ireland in 1826. His first wife was named Bridget and they had three daughters: Sarah, Catharine and Jane. After Bridget's death, he married Sarah Conneally and their children were Edward T, Mark Jr, Nellie, Annie, Mary Janice, Marcella, Agnes and William.

Besides my great grandmother, the only other member of the Welch family who I've been able to trace forward was Agnes Welch, who married Clarence Garrigus. My discoveries about this family are included in earlier blog posts.

Ancestry.com indicates the name Welch is an ethnic name for someone of Welsh origin. It also states that the usual spelling used in Ireland is Walsh. Top places of origin of Welch immigrants is Ireland, followed by England, Scotland and Germany.

I suppose that the families I have the most interest in are those who are the most elusive. I am hopeful that one day I'll have a much more comprehensive family biography of my Welch-Conneally ancestors.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Minnie Welch Kelly's autograph book

I've been quite fortunate to have several autograph books from the females in my family be passed along to me. I have the autograph book that belonged to my mother when she was a teenager; the autograph book that belonged to my father's mother; and autograph books that belonged to my great grandmother, Minnie Welch Kelly, and her sister, Nellie Kelly.

Minnie and Nellie's books are probably the ones I treasure the most because of the links they gave me to adding to the family tree. With inscriptions such as "Your Uncle Luke Conneally" or "Your brother, Mark Welch, Jr" and "Aunt Winnie" I was able to begin documenting family group sheets on the Welch family of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Minnie's autograph book begins in Connecticut and ends in Nebraska shortly before she married Daniel Kelly.

I've scanned the pages of Minnie's book and attempted to transcribe the entries the best I could. This is still a work in progress, as I am also attempting to trace some of the non-family members who wrote in Minnie's book.


View Minnie's autograph book here. Please note - this is a large Adobe pdf file and may take some time to complete the download.

Success Story: When the pieces come together . . .

After receiving the photo of the gravestone of my great great grandparents, Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally, I went back to work on filling in some pieces of the Welch family genealogy. I'd had a great start as I have the autograph books that belonged to my great grandmother, Minnie Welch Kelly and her sister, Nellie Welch. Members of the family signed their entries as cousin, brother, uncle, aunt, etc. This really provided me with the first instance of being able to connect family members together.

Email correspondence amongst my fellow Conneally "cousins" and family history researchers continued to present some more clues to family relationships. We became intriguted with the 1900 census which showed Mark Welch at age 74, widowed and living with (as indexed) Clarence Gawngus, Margartta Gawngus and their child, Alfred C. Gawngus.

Other searches of the Gawngus name showed a possible variation as Gaengus. Again, this produced very little in other records searches. So I began searching based only the first names of the family. This turned out to be successful and I discovered the correct surname for this family was Garrigus.

My next step was to, once again, look through my great grandmother's photograph album that included photos of the family members in Connecticut. There I found the photograph above. The handwriting certainly confirmed the last name of Garrigus and there was Alfred, who was listed as their son in 1900 census.

One of the Conneally "cousins" asked if the family had other children. I had come across a daughter, Ethel, in a later census. Back to the photograph album.



Alfred and Ethel Garrigus

Aha! Written on the photo were the names Alfred and Ethel. The connection to the Welch family was made! From that point, I was able to find several members of the Garrigus family which I have added to my family tree. I am hopeful that I can locate some obituaries and tombstone locations that may lead me to more of the Welch family members.

You just never know what will happen when one thing leads to another.

Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally - my great great grandparents

The graves of Mark Welch and Sarah Conneally in St. Anthony's Cemetery, Litchfield, Connecticut

Never underestimate the power of the internet. Today's email brought this photograph from a "long lost relative" - actually a distant cousin who shares some of the same family lines. Wow! This is the first tangible documentation I have of my great great grandparents. Both were born in Ireland and settled in Connecticut. One of their daughters, Mary/Minnie Welch and her sister traveled to Nebraska as very young women. Minnie married my great grandfather, Dan Kelly, and raised three boys.

Any time I'm able to see my family go back another generation, it's a pretty special day.