http://www.moniteau.net/cemetery/tiptonmasonic/draffen-bessie-ray.JPG

- Photograph by Alan Sparks,  Moniteau County coordinator of the MOGenWeb Project.

For my first Tombstone Tuesday, I am sharing this link to a photo of my maternal Grandfather and Grandmother’s grave site.  I discovered this photograph on the Internet yesterday while using a search-engine to “refresh” my memory for the name of the cemetery in Tipton, Missouri (Platial map) (Aardvark map) where my grandparents’ final resting place resides.  I found more than I expected.  The search took me to the Tipton Masonic Cemetery page of the Moniteau County, MO project site.  This county site is part of the MO GenWeb Project.  The MOGenWeb Project is the Missouri state site of its parent,  US GenWeb Project .  I was surprised to see a photograph of my Grandmother’s gravestone on the Internet considering she passed just 2 years ago.

HENRY P. DE GRAAF.
HENRY P. DE GRAAF, one of the promintent merchants of New York City, was born at Herkimer, New York, on the twenty-fourth of November, 1825. His parents were formerly residents of Schenectady, and his grandfather was a sterling patriot in the war of the Revolution, commanding a regiment in that great struggle.

Until the age of fifteen years, young De Graaf remained at home actively employed on his father’s farm, performing with alacrity and zeal the general work incident to his calling, though disinclined to make that a business for a lifetime.

In the year 1840 he left his home-farm and went to Little Falls, N. Y., residing there three years with G. B. Young. During this time, he acquired a knowledge of cabinet-making, and worked as a journeyman ; after which time he traveled two years, and then commenced business for himself.

Cabinet-making twenty years ago was not so remunerative as now, and becoming somewhat dissatisfied with his slow progress at money-making, about the time that the golden charms of California allured its tens of thousands in quest of wealth to the far West, he disposed of his little business in New York, assisted in forming a company, and was chosen treasurer, and afterward embarked for the Pacific, on the Henry Harbeck, June 8, 1849.

California was then a far-off land, and not, as now, to be reached in a few days by railroad, traveling in palace cars. The bark was six months out at sea before reaching San Francisco, and Mr. De Graaf, when approaching the Golden Gate that was about to usher him into the eldorado of the Pacific shore, found himself destitute of money ; but notwithstanding, he was enthusiastic and hopeful for his future progress.

There he commenced work as carpenter at sixteen dollars per day, but this pay did not meet his expectations or necessities. He then tried mining, but this also proved too uncertain and capricious for his glowing anticipations, and with disappointed and unrealized expectations he returned to San Francisco, and commenced a trading business with Mr. John Webster between the mines, San Francisco, and New York.

After three years’ residence in California he returned to New York, and commenced the furniture business at No. 450 Pearl Street, with a capital of seven thousand dollars, and in [illegible] removed to No. 87 Bowery, into a store erected by himself, and soon enlarged by a new building at 65 Chrystie Street.

In the autumn of 1859 he formed a partnership with Robert M. Taylor, securing a large southern trade thereby. In the year 1860 the firm experienced very heavy losses financially, but were not disheartened, and passed through the crisis unaided save by their own resources. Their trade was then changed to other sections of the country, and prospered abundantly ; and at last they were compelled again to enlarge their establishment and extend their furnishing business, adding also carpets and mattresses.

The firm then made it a specialty of furnishing hotels and steamboats ; many who have traveled on the Hudson will remember those elegant and magnificent steamers, the St. John, Dean Richmond, Drew, etc. These “floating palaces,” so tastefully and magnificently arrayed, were furnished from the house of “De Graaf & Taylor,” and reflect much credit on the firm.

In 1864 Mr. De Graaf revisited California and established a branch business of the firm. After remaining in California six months, he returned to New York City, and soon afterward was elected director of the Bowery National Bank, and in 1868 was unanimously chosen president of that institution. Subsequently he was presented with nine pieces of soled silver plate, as a testimonial of the due appreciation of his successful exertions to promote the prosperity of the bank.

Mr. De Graaf is a worthy, self-made, self-reliant man ; a noble example of perseverance, industry, and enterprise, Of such an embodiment the basis of our free and glorious republican institutions must be formed, to be enduring. When we consult written or unwritten biography, we learn the fact that the greater number of our prominent men, in all the occupations, positions, and professions of life, are self-made, stout-hearted ; men who have not loitered in byways or highways, or sat whiling away time in the easy chairs of life ; but who, like Mr. De Graaf, have practised self-den[illegible] have persevered, and at last accomplished patent and imperishable facts, and many of the noblest results of life.

The lad of fifteen years who left his paternal home, with self-denial, a few years ago, that he might learn the cabinet-maker’s trade, is to-day senior partner in one of the largest and most flourishing firms in New York City. The young man who, twenty years ago did not hesitate to work as carpenter in San Francisco, is now president of one of the most reliable and flourishing banks in New York City. This worthy example is fraught with much encouragement to young men to make “excelsior” their motto ; for if they desire eminence, they can, step by step, ascend the topmost round in the ladder of distinction.

The other day I completely uninstalled Firefox including my bookmarks and installed a fresh copy of the web browser.  I simply had too many bookmarks many of which I originally saved and never visited again, and they were not organized well.

These are some of my brand new bookmarks and findings during the past week:

MoultrieCreek’s Research Toolbox, A collection of tools to help genealogists and family historians researching their roots.  9 Firefox add-ons.

New Mexico Genealogical Society Blog shares many free research sites that are helpful to genealogists everywhere not only New Mexico.

I signed up for an account at Diigo.  I saw Diigo was a favorite of MoultrieCreek’s , and I also like what I see.  I started my own list titled “Free Genealogy Research” beginning with the links shared by NMGSB.

I then saw MoultrieCreek had a group at Diigo titled “Genealogy Research Resources” which includes over 1000 links.   There is also a group for Geneabloggers at Diigo.

Learned about GotGenealogy.com at Ancestories.

First spotting of my blog at GenBlog !  Thanks Julie !

A must read every week: Randy’s Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings

I am one of this weeks 14 new genea-blogs at GeneaBloggers.com

A great article on gravestone rubbings and photography at Modern Software Experience

Genea-Musings’ excellent advice for a “Study Program for Genealogists” . This article includes a “10-point blueprint that would provide solid grounding and enhanced skills for any genealogist”, by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

List of Online Digitized Collections for Genealogy by Genealogy’s Star

Cool, my Great-Great-Grandfather DeGraaf was quite the athlete. But this find detoured me from my original goals of finding a middle-name and cause of death for William. I was, for a moment, more interested in the question; did this Frank Lenz complete his journey of bicycling around the world? The first hit on NYTimes.com for the term “Frank Lenz” lead me to the article:

KURD MURDERERS ESCAPE.;
Slayers of Frank Lenz of Pittsburg
Out of Their Turkish Prison.

The United States Minister, Mr. Alexander W. Terrell, has appealed to the Supreme Court here to secure their recapture and trial. In all eleven men were arrested on the charge of being concerned in the murder of Mr. Lenz, and several of them escaped from prison some time ago.

1. “KURD MURDERERS ESCAPE.; Slayers of Frank Lenz of Pittsburg Out of Their Turkish Prison.,” The New York Times, June 13, 1897, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DEEDC1F39E433A25750C1A9609C94669ED7CF. PDF file: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=990DEEDC1F39E433A25750C1A9609C94669ED7CF

Want to know more about the story of Frank Lenz? Check out Sports Illustrated article from October, 14 1974 found here: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089118/index.htm

WILLIAM H. DeGRAAF, A BICYCLE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD, and MURDER

Yesterday I began searching for more information on my 2nd Great-Grandfather, William H. DeGraaf (1851-1893) . I had a couple of key questions I wanted to find answers for. First, what exactly was his middle-name? Was it his father’s first-name, Henry? Was it his son Leland’s middle-name and 3 generations there after including my middle-name, Hugh? The second primary question was; what was the cause of his death at the age of 41 in 1893 ? The information I had to work with was his name including middle initial, census records indicating residence in New York City, birth and death dates.

My budget and geographical distance from New York City led me to Google.com and NYTimes.com for their free online resources. The New York Times offers an archive of their newspapers dating back to 1851. The newspaper articles, including obituaries, published between the years 1851-1922 are considered in the Public Domain and can be accessed for free. These articles are offered as scanned photographs that are downloaded to the viewer’s computer in .PDF format.

I didn’t have much luck with searching for “William H. DeGraaf” . I knew he had gone by the name “W. H. DeGraaf” because of an old store receipt from “DeGraaf and Taylor Furniture” dated 1874 of which I own. My first relevant NYTimes.com search-hit led me to a very short but interesting article:

BICYCLE RIDER LENZ AT ALBANY.

Albany, June 6.–Frank G. Lenz, who left New-York City Saturday for a trip around the world on a bicycle, rode into Albany shortly before 10 o’clock to-night. With him was a single companion of the many who left New-York. He is W. H. Degraaf. The last to drop out was Fred Simpson, at Castleton, nine miles south of here.
1. “BICYCLE RIDER LENZ AT ALBANY.,” The New York Times, June 7, 1892 p. 3 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980CEEDC1538E233A25754C0A9609C94639ED7CF links to PDF file download: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980CEEDC1538E233A25754C0A9609C94639ED7CF

Cool, my Great-Great-Grandfather DeGraaf was quite the athlete. But this find detoured me from my original goals of finding a middle-name and cause of death for William. I was, for a moment, more interested in the question; did this Frank Lenz complete his journey of bicycling around the world? The first hit on NYTimes.com for the term “Frank Lenz” lead me to the article:

“KURD MURDERERS ESCAPE.;”

to be continued…

I will be documenting my genealogy findings essentially in chronological order here.  All information I learn about my family which has been shared to me by our members will be given the appropriate credit .  I will contact the member(s) first and ask for permission to use their full name before posting.  If members don’t want their full name used, only the first name given at our group listed as “nickname” will be used.  I do not plan to write about living persons.  If I do, I will ask for express permission from the member and share the post with them before posting.  Any information about our members DNA haplotype will ONLY be used anonymously AND ONLY after their express permission.

I also want to add, that any media shared at the group including photos, video, and stories will not be shared here unless I have the express permission from the contributor of the file.  All appropriate credit will be given and stated as such.

While you visit the blog please subscribe.  Comments are welcome and encouraged.

If you have any questions or comments please reply.  Thanks!

After I deleted the Ancestry.com family tree (see First Post – part 1), I began a new family tree using Family Tree Maker 2008.  FTM 2008 software included  the ability to do research at Ancestry.com and automatically adding the site’s findings into the user’s FTM 2008 file.  On this new family tree of mine, unlike my previous attempt, I worked slowly (well more slowly anyway) and actually viewed the sources before adding them to my file.  I began adding my ancestors with their proper  source-citations, media links and files found at and provided by Ancestry.com to the FTM 2008 file.   I did this without being completely familiar with FTM 2008’s features and capabilities.  I later became aware of  the fact this FTM 2008 file had many errors including missing source-citations missing, missing media files, duplicate source-citations and duplicate media files.  I am not sure if this was because of my unfamiliarity with the program or because FTM 2008 was very buggy.  FTM 2008 has had a reputation of being very buggy, especially in the initial release version before its several service-pack updates.  My problems were probably a combination of the two; my inexperience and FTM 2008 messing things up.

I am now beginning a brand new family tree file using Family Tree Maker 2009.  Early adopters of FTM 2008 received a free upgrade to FTM 2009 because of the numerous complaints from 2008 users.  I understand FTM 2009’s stability is sound compared to the early 2008 version.  I sure hope so.

As the title of the blog suggests, I’m a beginner genealogist.  My resume consists of some experience with Ancestry.com and Internet search engines.  Shortly after I received the paper copies mentioned above, I signed up for a paid Ancestry.com subscription.  I typed in this new family tree information and within a day or two had thousands of newly discovered ancestors.  So I thought.  After viewing just a few too many 8-year-olds having babies and persons living 120+ years, I realized this indeed was too good to be true.   Ancestry.com’s “leaf” technology is very helpful but, as I learned, a user needs to proceed slowly and check the data.  I deleted this huge family tree and started over.