#25 Earliest Photos

I saw this idea from Amy’s review of Week 25: “Debi shared the earliest photos of various ancestors. (I like how she broke them down by maternal and paternal sides).” So I’m going to give it a try!

Maternal

My 3rd Great-Grandfather, William Dillon Bolt (1835-1901)

My 3rd Great-Grandmother, Mary J. (Everitt) Bolt (1837-1918)

 

My 2nd Great-Grandmother, Mina Adell (Bolt) Moore Thompson, (1866-1942)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, Archibald Thompson (1838-1931)

My great-grandfather, John A. Wilson (1874-1930)

My great-grandmother, Mary (Thompson) Wilson (1872-1940)

My great-grandmother, Mae Dillon (Moore) Oakes Smiechowski Johnson (1892-1971)

My grandfather, Charles Wilson (1907-1989)

My grandmother, Helen Oakes (1912-1988) on her mother Mae’s lap

My mother

Paternal

My 3rd Great-Grandmother, Margaret (Rhost) Gisel (1848-1939)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, Arthur Belknap (1869-1955)

My 2nd Great-Grandmother, Martha (Gisel) Belknap (1869-1925)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, William S. Bost (1859-1932)

My Great-Grandmother, Nannie Jane (Clark) Wells (1880-1969)

My Great-Grandfather, Earl E. Belknap (1895-1960)

My Great-Grandmother, Florence E. Bost (1896-1961)

My grandfather, Edward L. Wells (1905-1955)

My grandmother, Velma Belknap (1913-1999)

My father

Week 25 (June 17-23): Earliest

#14 Margaret Rhost’s Mom

Most of my brick walls are mothers that have died early. One example is my great-great-great grandmother Margaret Rhost’s mother. I don’t even know her name. I do know Margaret’s father, Conrad Rhost, was born in 1825 in Switzerland. He and his unknown wife had a son named John in about 1847 in Switzerland and Margaret was born in June 1848. The family came to the United States between 1850 and 1853 (year of immigration varies on the 1910 and 1920 censuses).

Conrad married Mary Gertrude Ginder in Fulton County, Ohio on October 9, 1855. They had 8 children between 1856 and 1873 in Ohio. In the 1860 census and beyond, it looks like John and Margaret are Gertrude’s children.

I’m not sure if Margaret’s mother died in Switzerland before 1850, on the journey over, or soon after arrival. She is a true brick wall!

Week 14 (April 1-7) – Brick Wall

#4 Margaret Rhost (1848-1939)

One ancestor I’d like to meet is my great-great-great grandmother Margaret Rhost Gisel. She was born June 6, 1848 in Switzerland (or it may have been Germany at the time). Her father was Conrad Rhost and she had one full brother, named John. I have no idea who her mother was, but I believe she either died in Switzerland, on the way over, or soon after arrival because Conrad remarried to Mary Gertrude Ginder on October 9, 1855 in Fulton County, Ohio. Conrad and Mary had 8 more children.

I first found Margaret in the U.S. in the 1860 census. Conrad, Mary, John, Margaret, Mary, and Henry were living in Clinton, Fulton County, Ohio. Conrad was a farmer. John and Margaret were listed as 14 and 10 and attended school. Mary was 3 and Henry was 1.

Margaret married John Gisel in 1868. They had 9 children. Margaret and John lived in Fulton County, Ohio all their married lives. John died November 1, 1923 and Margaret lived to the age of 90. She died April 20, 1939 (11 days after her great-great grandson, my dad, was born). They were buried in Wauseon Union Cemetery.

Week 4 (January 22-28): I’d Like to Meet

#13 – John Gisel

John Gisel was born September 27, 1843 in Wilchingen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland to Leonard Gisel and Elizabetha Bachtold.  He had an older brother, John, who died in Switzerland in 1842.  His family came to the United States in about 1852.  It is believed that his mother died while on the journey over and she was buried at sea.  In the 1860 U.S. census for Franklin, Fulton County, Ohio, his father Leonard is listed with four children: George (aged 20), Anna (19), John (16), and Mary (15).  John married Margaret Rhost in about 1868.

In the 1880 U.S. census, John and Margaret were living in Franklin and had 7 children: Ella/Mary Ellen (aged 13), Martha (my great-great grandmother) (aged 10), John (8), Lydia (7), Libbie/Elizabeth (5), Samuel (3), and William (9 months).  They had a daughter, Anna, who was born in 1875 and apparently died before the 1880 census.  In 1881, they another son, Albert.

In the 1900 census, John and Margaret were still living in Franklin and had been married for 31 years.  Out of 9 children born to Margaret, 8 were still living.  By the 1910 census, John and Margaret were living on Cedar Street in Wauseon, Ohio.

On June 2, 1913, their grandson Earl Belknap (Martha’s son) married Florence Bost at their home.  From an announcement from the local paper:

The marriage of Mr. Earl E. Belknap and Miss Florence E. Bost, occurred at the home of Mr. John Gisel on Cedar Avenue Monday evening, at 4:00 o’clock, Rev. J. H. Williams, officiating.

In 1920, they were in the same place, John was 76 and Margaret was 71 and employed as a laundress.

John Gisel died November 1, 1923 of pneumonia and an inguinal hernia.  He was buried in Wauseon Union Cemetery.

Their daughter Elizabeth Bingman died April 9, 1924 of mitral regurgitation, and their daughter Martha Belknap died in an auto accident in Michigan in September 1925.  In the 1930 census, Margaret was an 83-year-old widow living alone on Cedar Street in Clinton Township, Fulton, Ohio.  She died April 20, 1939 at the age of 90 and is buried in Wauseon Union as well.

52 Ancestors #13 – No theme

Tombstone Tuesday – Martha Gisel Belknap, 1869-1925

This is a photo of a photo of Arthur Belknap (1869-1955) at the grave of his wife Martha Gisel Belknap (1869-1925) in Wauseon Union Cemetery in Wauseon, Ohio.  She died in a car accident that was mentioned in this previous post: A Tragedy and a Mystery.

Martha Gisel was born 21 June 1869 in Ohio.  In the 1880 Federal Census, she was living with her family in Franklin, Fulton County, Ohio.  Her parents were John Gisel (1843-1923) and Margaret Rhost (1848-1939), both were born in Switzerland.  Martha had a daughter Minnie on 31 Mar 1887 and married Arthur Belknap in Fulton County, Ohio on 5 March 1890.  They had four sons and a daughter (Floyd, Earl, Belva, Orville, and Kennard).  As mentioned in a previous post, Martha died in a car accident in Michigan on 15 September 1925.

Martha and Arthur Belknap with Minnie and Floyd, abt. 1893