Serendipity - Building A Case for a Biological Father for Jennifer

There are some things that happen that you cannot explain.  Random messages reaching the wrong person, but for the right reasons.  That's how I came to do genealogy research for Jennifer from Walla Walla, Washington.

In 2015, Jennifer sent me a Facebook message telling me she was looking for a man she believed to be her biological father - I had the same last name as him and she wanted to know if any of it sounded familiar.  I told her it did not, but would be willing to help her if she ever found ties to NJ.  Fast forward to August 2019, Jennifer sent me a random video thinking I was someone else. We exchanged a few messages and went back to talking about her initial message about her father.  She had not located him.

I suggested she do an ancestry DNA test.  I had learned a bit about it in the last few years and would be willing to help her build out a family tree based on her matches.  She was nervous, excited and for the first time in a long time she told me she had hope. 

She decided to order a test, she took it and waited.  Her results came in and we spoke on the phone on Sunday.  I walked her and her husband through the process of sharing her tree and DNA matches with me. She had a lot of 2nd and 3rd cousin matches to work with.  I told her this may take some time as I had to build out her mom's side to determine which parent's side each of her close matches were on.

She told me that her mom did a tree on ancestry a while back.  She helped me find it.  I was really impressed with her mom's trees (she had one for each line of the family).  WOW! This was a HUGE help in determining which matches belonged to her mother's side. This saved so much time!

Once I labeled the matches for her mom's side, I was left with a few second cousin matches that had trees for those ancestry users and did not match anyone labeled for mom's side. 

These two matches had trees that each listed the same man "George" Scherer.  I started with K.S. as his tree had dates and more names.  I looked for an obituary for his father, Howard Scherer in 1992.

Bingo, he had a son with the initials K.S. and learned his sister Darlene's married name was Wiersma.  I started building out a tree for George and his wife Blanche and all of their children. 

I learned a little tidbit from a newspaper mentioning their marriage license in the Evansville Press, a few things that I had passed by had finally made sense.  George's legal name was Henry V. Scherer and he often went by George.

The first time I saw the name George was in the 1920 Illinois census as shown here with his wife Blanche and first two sons Vernon and Howard.

George and Blanche had 6 children that I know of.  They were: Vernon, Howard, Albert, Mary, Herman and Darlene.  Several of these names are in Howard's obituary.  The next match was H.S. which turned out to be another grandson of George and Blanche's.  His tree listed his parents as Herman and Joyce.  I plugged him in the tree and ancestry hints pointed Herman to his parents.  This is the correct family.

Next I worked up the rest of the siblings.  Trying to pinpoint one that may have lived in the Portland, Oregon area.  The only one that lived in Oregon was their eldest son, Vernon.  I obtained a copy of his obituary:

Bingo!  This was most likely the break I was looking for.  He connects to Illinois and his sister is Darlene Wiersma!  I dug a little deeper and sadly, came across these pieces from April 1969.

 

It appears that Vernon was married to a woman named Frances, had two sons and a daughter.  Then I turned my focus to Frances.  I found a marriage record for Vernon and Frances in Kankakee County, Illinois in 1948.  Her maiden name was Nally.  Then I looked for her in the 1930 census.  She's living with her parents James and Vina Nally.  When I looked at Frances' Social Security application, it listed James Nally and Vina Lemenager as her parents.  I worked up her parents in the tree and knew there were a few 3rd cousin matches with the last name Lemenager.  Time to figure out how they connect.

I started with M. Lemenager as she had a tree attached.  She is the great granddaughter of Vina's brother Ulysses, making their common ancestors their great-great grandparents Jules Lemenager and Delia Poskin. They are true third cousins!

This all pointed back to Vernon Scherer and Frances Nally as Jennifer's grandparents!  Based on Jenn's date of birth and the time of Vernon's son James' passing, he could not be her father.  The only other possibility for her biological father would be Jack Ray Scherer. He passed in 2003. This was not what we had hoped for but at least it was an answer.   This is his pedigree chart.

I am so grateful that Jennifer accidentally sent a Facebook message to me in August. She received my message asking her to consider turning to DNA on her birthday.

During this process, the best part for me was when Jennifer searched her matches for the original surname, she thought was her father and guess who came up as a 5th - 8th cousin match? - ME!

                                        

For more information on DNA and how the amount of cm's is measured this article can be very helpful (especially the green chart): https://thednageek.com/the-limits-of-predicting-relationships-using-dna/

Gifts from Anne

I never met my father's cousin Anne in person although she made a huge impact on my life.

When I was about 13, I wanted to know more about my family history.  My grandmother recommended that I write to my grandfather's sister, Elizabeth Bell and see what she could tell me. So I sent off my letter to Aunt Elizabeth.

Shortly there after, I received a response from Mrs. Anne Cosby Smith.  She explained that she was Aunt Elizabeth's niece which makes her my father's first cousin.

Every time I read this letter it brings tears to my eyes.  The impact it 14 years later, reading it shortly after the passing of my father, helped fuel my desire to pursue my own genealogical research.

Reading it again several years later, unfortunately lead me to find Anne's obituary.  I so wanted to find her and thank her for this single act of kindness to my 13 year old self.  Instead, her obituary lead me to her children.  Who have opened up their hearts and homes to me.  They share their stories,  family photos, momentos, and Aunt Helen's research.  I cried the day I first met them all.  They were happy tears because they each are a special gift from Anne.

Thank you Anne!

We Both Leaped

Dad,

The last time I visited you, you handed me this single piece of paper. A notarized copy of a page from your great grandparent's family bible.

 

Weeks later, on February 29, 2000, you leaped out of this life.  

During my week of bereavement, I picked up that special piece of paper and I leaped into genealogy.  

Dad, we both leaped. 

I miss you.

Cape Cod

Oral Family History - Grandma's Other Sister

I was looking through my Tutela notes last week and came across a tidbit I never followed up on before.  The note simply said, "Grandma had a sister that died young from a fire caused by the candles from the Christmas tree."  Grandma would be Bob's paternal grandmother, Jean Tutela Campanelli. 

Grandma's parents names are Joseph Generoso Tutela and Anna Minotti.  They had four children, but I only had 3 in the family tree.  Off to the archives I go!

I found her death certificate.  Her name was Helen (or she was at least called Helen).  The age on her death certificate should read 3 years old not 2.

She died from burns on her body, clothes caught fire from stove.  This sounds like the correct cause, but what about the part about the Christmas tree?

I also looked up her birth certificate.  This listed the matching birth date as the death certificate, but listed her name as Elena Tutela. She was child 3 of 3 at the time of her birth.  Makes sense, Uncle Arthur was the youngest being born in 1918.

Then it was off to the state library to see if there was ever anything in the newspaper about this child and sure enough there was an article about the accident in the paper.  The accident happened on Friday, January 2, 1920.  This article was published in the Newark Evening News on Saturday, January 3, 1920.

Grandma was bout seven years old when this happened. From what I was told, she was at her aunt's home when the accident happened.  I can only imagine her as a 7 year old hearing bits and pieces.  Her oral history from this event makes perfect sense.  No one talked to children about these things back then.  Kids heard whatever they heard when grown ups spoke and made their own sense out of these adult conversations.  Her oral history was based on her 7 year old self interpreting what happened to her sister.

The Newark Evening News Monday, January 5, 1920 reported Helen had passed on January 4th.

I can only imagine the impact it had on the family.  Just looking through a few days of one newspaper, there were way too many children that passed from accidents like this.  Gives me a new appreciation for the generations that have come before us and the times they lived in.  It also gives me a greater appreciation for the picture of grandma's parents.

Joseph Generoso Tutela and Anna Minitto Tutela

An Early Christmas Present - A Biological Grandmother

DNA is a wonderful thing.  It holds the secrets to who we come from.  It is both amazing and terrifying at the same time.

My maternal grandmother's first cousin, Dorothy, was adopted.  She looked for her biological parents but did not find them in her lifetime.  Dorothy passed in 2011.  Dorothy was born Joann Vitiello.  Her name was later changed to Dorothy Jean Martian by the parents who raised her, Catherine McQuaid Martian (AKA Aunt Kitty) and George E. Martian.

Dorothy's daughters Cathy and Terry, wanted to find their biological grandmother.  They started their journey with DNA testing earlier this year they got their results.  Through DNA matches, building out their family trees, Dorothy's notes and obituaries we were able to piece it all together and find Dorothy's biological mother!  Dorothy's birth certificate listed Rosalie Vitiello as mother and Fred Murray as father.

We hit gold with a 3rd - 4th cousin DNA match to N.D. who shares 117 centimorgans shared across 8 DNA segments with Cathy & Terry.  Thanks to the wonderful tree they had attached to their account, I was able to look up his grandparent's obituaries and discover that his grandmother's maiden name was Vitiello!  I think we're on to something! We also discovered that she married Michael Belangio in 1954. Then I was able to build a mirror tree and built out the family tree collaterally.  A trip to Trenton uncovered N.D.'s great grandparent's names on his grandmother's death certificate.  They are the common ancestor which makes N.D. a second cousin to Cathy & Terry.  He was easy enough to find on Facebook.  I sent him a message.

N.D. was quick to respond to my message.  He confirmed that his grandmother had a sister that went by "Ronna".  He shared: "She was special. Lol. She use to rob my pennies when I was a kid while playing poker. Haha".  He was unsure what cemetery she was in, but would check with family and get back to me.  He also was going to look for photos of her as well.

Now that we knew she went by "Ronna" we had another name to go on and found her obituary.  Unfortunately, it did not list her entombment.  Another trip to Trenton and I was able to find her death notice and published obituary. The death notice was not available online and this was key to finding the cemetery.

Death Notice

Obituary

 During that same trip to Trenton, I was able to look up her birth record as well.

The parents matched N.D.'s grandmother's parents. This is her!

Due to Cathy's awesome google search skills, she found a book that was written by N.D.'s father.  Naturally, both Terry and Cathy ordered the book.  This photo was in there. Standing in the center of the back row is Ronna with her siblings and parents.

Ronna is entombed in Hollywood Memorial Park in Union, NJ.  Visiting her grave revealed one extra surprise...she is with her parents.

 

The icing on the cake, she is less than 4 miles from Dorothy who is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Kenilworth, NJ.

 

Rest easy Dorothy; they found her!

Edith June Weller Turner - A look at her first 34 years

Thirty years ago today my paternal grandmother, Edith June Turner, passed away.  She was 73 years old.

When I look at Grandma Turner's time line with both genealogical events and historical events, it makes me see her differently.  I had no idea how many ups and downs she had in the 30's and 40's.

June 1, 1914           Born in Manhattan to Charles and Edith (Wegener) Weller.

Nov. 16, 1916         She was 2 years 5moths old when her brother Charles Weller was born.

April 6, 1917          At age 2 years 10 months The United States enters World War I.

Nov. 11, 1918         Age 4. World War I ends.

1920                       Age 6. Prohibition Starts.  Her maternal grandfather owned a bar in NYC at this time.

June 25, 1928        When she was 14, her paternal grandfather dies - Charles Weller buried at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, NY.

Oct.29, 1929          She was 15 on Black Tuesday - the stock market had crashed for the 4th time kicking off the start of the great depression that lasted 10 years.

Dec. 5, 1933            Age18, prohibition ends.

July 1934                 Age 20, she takes a cruise with her aunt and meets her future husband.

Dec 20, 1936          At 21, her maternal grandfather dies. He is buried in Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Queens, NY. There is no marker on his grave.

Feb 26, 1939          When she was 24, her father Charles Weller dies in Summit, NJ and is buried at Lutheran All Faiths in Queens, N.Y.

Oct. 6, 1939           Eight months later at age 25, she married Hugh D. Turner.

April 22, 1940       She was 25 when her paternal grandmother dies - Anna (Panzer) Weller buried at Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, Queens, NY.

December 7, 1941    She was 27 when she received the news that Japan attached Pearl Harbor. The United States enters WWII.

April 22, 1943           When she was 29, she gave birth to her first son.

June 6, 1944             D-Day happened 5 days after her 30th birthday.

Feb 27, 1945            Still at age 30 when her brother Charles Weller KIA. Buried in Holland. He was only 29 years old.

Feb 26, 1946          At 31, she gives birth to her second son.

December 4, 1946  She was 32 when her father's body is moved from Queens, NY to Restland Memorial Park, East Hanover, NJ.

December 11, 1948    She was 34 when her brother was moved to Restland Memorial Park, East Hanover, NJ.

 

For me, it comes in to focus why she didn't like to talk too much about the past. Remembering her today and will try to keep the tears in check if I hear Fleiz Navidad on the radio today. It was one of her favorite Christmas songs.

History in Pictures - Morro Castle

The Morro Castle was a ship that traveled between New York City and Havana, Cuba in the 1930's.  The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company began construction on her in January 1929.  She was christened March 1930.  She had her maiden voyage from New York City to Cuba on August 23, 1930.  

My grandfather, Hugh D. Turner, was born and raised in Newport News, VA.  He was a Merchant Marine and lived in New York City in the 1930's.  I am not sure if this photo was taken in VA or NY, but know it could only be taken taken between March 1930 and September 1934.

On September 8, 1934,  a fire broke out on the ship.  137 passengers and crew members lost their lives that day.  This changed how ships were designed with fire prevention in mind.

83 years after the disaster, here is Hugh's great grandson, Jack, at the memorial placed in Asbury Park, NJ. Near the location where the ship's hull came aground.