EOW, EOM -- So . . .

It's no big deal, but next month is almost here, less than 24 hours to go until the month that summer will begin anew. Here in Northern California it is confusing sometimes as to the weather and what season it really is. The last couple of weeks the mornings have been very cool and very dreary.

The yard though contains lots of color and it offsets the dreariness and then too, the afternoons have been very sunny and warm.

The Search Goes On

This week -- yesterday actually, I tuned into the
special webinar (for subscribers only) at Legacy Family Tree.

This webinar appealed to me because it had to do with Iowa and a how-to about searching in that state.

Both Gail and I have relatives and ancestors who lived in Iowa. So I was anxious for the webinar to be over so that I could try out some of the suggestions that were given.

And that is what I did -- I went to the first place that the presenter recommended:

Iowa Gen Web Project



And started plugging in surnames from our tree that I knew lived in Iowa. I started with Bumgardner as that is my mother's maiden name and her father's family were all over Iowa.

I found a reference to a Sarah Bumgardner and decided to follow up with her.

I knew about several Sarah Bumgardners but this one had a middle name (I only knew an initial) and I uncovered a lot of details about her life.

She married a man 28 years older than her, a man that had lost his first wife (Mary) two years prior to their marriage in 1859.

David Powell Johnson was a prominent doctor in Muscatine.


A few years after the marriage they had a son and named him David Powell Johnson, that was in 1863, unfortunately that David Powell Johnson died in 1865. Apparently Sarah was pregnant with another son that was born later in the year 1865 and they chose to name that son David Powell Johnson Jr.

Sarah lived until 1920 -- 78 years of age, her husband, Dr David Johnson, passed away in 1900 at the age of 86. Their son David Powell Johnson Jr, who also was a medical doctor, lived until 1956 passing away in Chicago, Illinois.

I was fortunate enough to find a photo of Sarah on the find-a-grave site and also a photo of the very impressive Dr David Powell Johnson residence in Muscatine.

Before this search I did not know about Sarah's marriage and life.

If I get to Muscatine again, I'll be sure to visit some of the key places in her life.



When Gail and I visited Muscatine back in 2003, we visited the one cemetery that we found for several of the Bumgardners, but Sarah and family are buried in a different cemetery.

Below left is the name of the cemetery: Greenwood and it looks very well maintained.

On the right is the most impressive monument that I've seen for a family member yet.

I would definitely like to visit that cemetery. It apparently has 18,000 or more interments.

I have a lot of other surnames to check into in Iowa -- it never ends, a good thing.


Lastly

The San Francisco Giants moved into first place in their division this week -- how long will that last?

We'll watch and find out including in a few minutes when we watch the game SF Giants vs Atlanta Braves . . .

While writing this, Gail pointed out to me that Dino was patiently guarding two of his favorite soft chew toys in the hallway while he looked out the front door . . .

That is a bit of our week -- see you all in a few!