Tag Archives: Sterling

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Ancestor Name Roulette

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Ancestor Name Roulette

Hosted by Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What year was one of your great-grandfathers born?  Divide this number by 50 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your “roulette number.”

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an “ahnentafel”). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the “roulette number.”

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on Genea-Musing blog post.

5) If you do not have a person’s name for your “roulette number” then spin the wheel again – pick a great-grandmother, a grandparent, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!

Here is mine

I chose my great grandfather Arthur C. McCartney (1889-1971), divide 1889 by 50 and you get 37.78 rounded to 38 and that brings us to

2)  My third great grandfather Charles B. Starrett (Sterrett) vital information that I have on Charles B. Starrett are from the 1880 and  1850 United States Census for Ohio. His birth year is given as 1820 and the birth state is Maryland. His spouse is Sarah Sterling Starrett. He and Sarah where residing in Franklin, Wayne Co. Ohio in 1880. The census also gives Ireland as his fathers birthplace and his mothers birthplace as Pennsylvania as well as Sarah’s birthplace. Charles surname is spelled Sterrette on his daughter Sarah Jane Starrett Cutter death certificate.

3) Three facts about Charles B. Starrett (Sterrett) are:

a. Charles and Sarah Starrett had at least two children:
Sarah Jane Starrett b. 6 Jun 1863 Wayne Co. OH d. 4 Jan 1924 she married Harry M. Cutter on 25 Oct 1883 Wayne Co., OH. (my second great grandparents)
John Beatty Sterret  b. 26 Apr 1858 Ohio d. 3 Nov 1933 Shreve, Wayne, Ohio he married Margaret Carson.

b. Charles’ fathers name was David. Mothers name Jane (1850 Census)

c.  He had possibly two sisters Ann and Elizabeth. (1850 census)

Happy Hunting!

Friday Family History/ Happy 189th Birthday William Sterling

The branch that  William Sterling sets on in my tree is an Uncle. He is the brother of my 3rd great grand-mother Sarah Sterling Starrett wife of Charles B. Starrett of MD.

William was born I believe in Ohio and more specifically Prairie Township Holmes Co. Ohio as we find his father there in 1850, of course that is not conclusive enough to say beyond a doubt, just too many years between birth and this census. I will need to find the earlier censuses and confirm this. His father was from Westmoreland County, PA so that is another direction to look.

I believe as an adult William lived with his wife Katy/Kate in Cleveland, Whitley Co., Indiana, for I find a gentleman with the name of William Sterling born in 1822 in Ohio in both the 1860 and 188o census for the state of Indiana. In the 1880 census we find him with his wife and 3 of his children and possibly a grandchild. Flem. (short for Fleming ) age 24 Male, Hopkins age 21 Male, Cassius age 18  Male and Kittie Money age 5 female.

Image from ancestry.com

In the 1860 census we find him with a Mary aged 41 F. I am guessing this is a first wife as in the 1880 census Katy is younger and not older than William, or she may well be Mary Catherine, something I need to look into further and the age is incorrect and we know that just never happens when dealing with the ladies! Son James age 7, son Fleming age 4 and it looks like Wolkins age 1 ( I am thinking that is Hopkins).

There are still many questions that need answered and another road which to travel in this search for ancestors.

If you are part of this family I would really love to hear from you!

Happy Hunting!

Amanuensis Monday/ Silas McCartney and Emma Berger

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. From The National Standard Encyclopedia

Amanuensis Monday was started on the Transylvanian Dutch Blog. This link will take you to the page concerning Amanuensis and why one should transcribe the records !

Below find my first offering for Amanuensis Monday.

In looking for information on my Second Great Grandfather, Silas Jackson McCartney. I came across this article. My first thought after reading it was, my how journalism has changed in the last 100 years. Sometimes for the better, but sadly I think  more often then not, journalism has suffered greatly from the “politically” correct syndrome that we are now plagued with.

I doubt that this article would have been printed in this way now.

From The Mansfield News, Saturday, October 7, 1911

Old Courtship Was  Renewed
It Resulted in a Wedding of Big People in Wooster Thursday.

A couple whose combined weight approached, if it did not exceed, 450 pounds, became man and wife in Wooster Thursday forenoon the ceremony being performed by Dr. W. B. Slutz, superintendent of this district of the Methodist church.

The man was Silas J. McCartney, of Barberton, formerly of near Fredricksburg, and the bride was Mrs. Emma N. Berger, of Fredricksburg. The groom told the clerk in probate court that he was 49 years old while the lady gave her age as 44 years.

The wedding was the result of a courtship of long ago, the couple having been close friends in their youth.  A cog in the wheel of love slipped at that time and they went separated ways, the woman, Miss Emma Sterling then, marrying in her girlhood. Her husband died some years ago, her old friendship with McCartney was renewed and it resulted in a wedding Thursday.

The couple came to Wooster, in an automobile Thursday morning, and all unknown to them a big banner bearing the words. “Are We Big Enough to be Married.” floated in the breeze back on the machine all the way from Fredricksburg. When they stopped at the court house the banner was removed, but as the machine was cranked up preparatory to going to the home of the minister it was again placed on the machine. Mr. and Mrs. McCartney will live in Barberton — Wooster News
The Mansfield News, Saturday, October 7, 1911

In closing, I find the fact that Grandpa may have had issues with his weight is a medical plus for me as I struggle with the same issues in my life. This all may have been negated had it been written today as the “Are We Big Enough to be Married” without the explanation  could have well meant “old enough”.

Note: Emma was not my grandmother. Silas’ first wife Nancy “Nannie” Curl Terry was my grandmother.

Happy Hunting!