Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Grandma B's geneology

Grandma did a bunch of research on her genealogy some years ago and has the info in a big binder. I have read it once before and I had fun going back through it on my last visit. I think it is so interesting to learn about my relatives. Here are some of the fun facts I found:

Great Grandpa Ames:

* Oldest of 4 children
* Family came to Thurstan County from Illinois and before that Virginia. The oldest
traced family member came to America from Wales in the late 1700s.
* His mother was just 15 when she married his father and 16 when she had him!
* His grandma (his dad's mother) was named Adda and she was a midwife. She
delivered many babies in Thurston County, possibly himself and a few siblings.

Great Grandma Ames:

* Her parents immigrated to American from Poland. Spent years in Pennsylvania were
they experienced poor conditions, illness and disease. Lost twin babies (unsure
of cause of death)and a infant boy named Lewis (died from diarrhea).
* Came first to Chehalis WA and settled in Pe Ell were there was a Polish
population.
* Grandma was born in Pe Ell and the family moved to Olympia when she was about 3.
* Her parents had a total of 13 children (10 who lived to adulthood) including another set of twins! That is 11 pregnancies! By my math her mom was well past 35 before she was done having children.

It is crazy how different our lives are from our ancestors. We sure are spoiled with modern convinces!

2 comments:

Candace said...

Thanks so much for sharing these details! It is SO interesting. Love the name Adda.

Anonymous said...

I LOVED reading about grandma and grandpa. I was very interesting and most of what you said I didn't know! Thank you SO much for sharing. Love, mom