Throwback Thursday | Eva Fisher

In the past week I have been on a roller coaster ride of discovering lords and ladies, kings and queens, pilgrims and patriots - my epic family tree!

Going into the process, I thought I knew a lot. Meaning I could get back to the early 1800s on my dad's side of the family and always thought my heritage was predominantly German. Not so! My mom's side of the family is almost entirely from England! There are some Swiss, French, German, Dutch, Welsh, Scottish and Irish lines there too. 

Uncovering your ancestry is really a game of clue more than anything else. You've gotta be a detective, connect the dots, check and double check connections and more. On my fan chart of 16 great great grandparents, I have birth and death dates for almost all of them. Those usually help in some shape or form with finding christening dates and that leads to parents, which is what you're always trying to find. The goal is to extend the tree as far and wide as possible. My personal goal is to chart when all of my ancestors landed in the US because I believe those records are pretty strong. I've gotten back even further to kings and queens, but I think I'd like to get better at research to confirm those connections. 

So here's where I'm at now - I'm adding in the info I have - from photographs of my grandparents and their parents, aunts and uncles to birth, christening, marriage and death dates in an attempt to fill in some of those empty branches.

a never before seen (to me!) photo of my great grandma eva.

Let me give you an example. My mom's grandma, Eva B. Fisher (pictured, Right) was the daughter of Issac Edward 'Ed' Fisher and Ora C. Miltenberger... but I only had the year of great-great granny O's birth. When a record reads something like '1871-Deceased' under a person's name, i've found that it's usually a dead end. I kept looking around and I uncovered some marriage registrations for her daughters (by searching for documents tied to her husband Isaac 'Ed' Fisher (see tip four below) but the mother of the bride came up as Lea Mittenberg for one but Ora C. Miltenberger on another. Then I found a Ella L. Cripe Miltenberger and wondered if that could somehow be her.  What was Eva's mom's maiden name (and it's spelling?) and more importantly, would that lead me to the next generation - my great-great-great grandparents? A lot of old records and hand writing can be hard to decipher, or in some cases, as I believe with the US census takers, just misheard and written down incorrectly. 

In this case I had to jump off the genealogy site and just Google it. Bingo. Not only did I find Ora Miltenberger Fisher, but I was able to confirm her husband Ed, daughters (including my great grandma Eva) The site also gave me leads on the names and birth/death years of her parents. I took that info and punched it into FamilySearch, which yielded a match in the system. What was initially a dead end now took me as far back as 1620, including early American colonists! I LOVE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!

A photo of my mom posing with her grandma at my mom's high school graduation party. Eva handmade this suit as a gift for my mom (and also taught her how to sew! And yes! I know I look like a twin of my mom! 

I cannot put into words the thrill of making these discoveries. When multiple puzzle pieces add up and open a new doorway to the past - it's just that - thrilling!! Here are my suggestions and what has helped me most as I fill in my tree!

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I hope you find tracing your family roots as thrilling as I do! So many of you have watched my Instagram stories that I've posted immediately after making some sort of discovery and have remarked how excited I am. It's true!  As I carefully trace each line I hope to share more stories with you here! If you find this information helpful - please pass this page along to anyone who could benefit! And if you see some names in my posts that look familiar - please say hello! I'd love to connect with my extended family! 

A Walk Down Memory Lane

CHECK out this old timey photo including my paternal grandfather Walter (bottom right). He was the youngest son in the family and only to inherit his father's copper locks, earning him the nickname "Red". We see a little strawberry in our blonde Beatrix! 

Last Sunday morning, I woke up to a comment on my blog that hinted to having some history on my home and the original owners. What followed were half a dozen emails back and forth with a family member (hi Marilyn!) I learned a lot about my house (the original owners had a farm stand and sold apples and pears! We're growing apples and pears!!!) and piqued my interest in getting more solid details. 

My first hit was a 1940 census report from my street with a lot of names I recognize! Both of my next door neighbor's parents are on it! People stay put around here! The land we live on was in the same family back to 1870 from what I've uncovered. Such a gift to find this information as we near the one year anniversary of buying our home. We love this piece of earth so so much. But I digress! 

As for my family, I've traced my ancestry to early American colonists in some lines and as far back as 1544 in Switzerland in others (I only learned of my Swiss ancestry in the past few years!) The records are absolutely amazing! I've done this kind of research before but this time around I am yielding so much more. I'm using the LDS Family Search site and it's really good! And free! 

Like I said, I want to go even further in depth with this and I will but I'm so excited I had to put post something now. Maybe for Mother's Day you take a little time with your own moms to work on your family tree or share some stories of your grandmothers this weekend. History is so precious - and by that I mean the tales of the people who came before us - not just the family lines and birth dates.

Speaking of history and Mother's Day, last week Adam gave me the surprise of my life... we're seeing Hamilton!! In less than a month! Since I started listening to the soundtrack I have wanted to get more background so I'm reading the epic 818 page whopper by Ron Chernow. And it's the little stories, the many many little stories that color his life. 

So, long story short, I've assigned myself some homework and I want to record it here. I've been spending a lot less time on social media (guys... try it!) and spending more of my life getting in the faces of the people I love. It's awesome. Anyways, I'm going to flesh out my family tree, get some stories to go with it, organize my photos and reach out to family members for more! I've received some tips among the historians and researchers who follow my little blog and would love for more in the comments!  

Thanks guys and Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there! 

Notes from the Field | 007

I told myself I wanted to sit down and write more, but every time I turn around it seems like another week has gone by and I haven't made it much of a priority. Which is actually alright with me, because I've been doing a lot of fun things around the house and outdoors, spending time with my husband and kids, visiting and doing projects with my brother and really enjoying life these days! 

I think the weather has something to do with it. Spring is in full effect here and we're outside more than we're in. Yesterday my brother and I wrapped up a project we started Monday morning and it feels so good to say "I'm gonna build a window box!" and then just do it. And I should clarify there because I just designed and spec'd it out and my brother built and installed it. It's all part of my front porch makeover which has been many months in the making, but its nearing completion and I'd like to take photos and show you soon. 

Speaking of being outside, do you remember playing as a kid? It seems like in the summer we'd have breakfast and go out exploring the neighborhood, without adults, for hours at a time. When we were tired or hungry we'd come home, only to go out again until dinner time. I remember chugging a huge glass of cold milk after sitting down at the dinner table and then shoveling down food and back outside until it was too dark to see or too many other kids had been called home. 

I was thinking about all of this the other day as I watched my own kids play in the yard. Now that we have space, far from the road and other people, it only feels right to give them a little room to do their thing. Felix digging in the mud, Bea picking flowers. The two of them on the swing set together, brother with his arm around little sister. Watching them hold hands, fall down, chase one another, get into a spat, make up, and repeat all over again. I want to be around to see it happen, but I want them to really enjoy being a little kid and feeling some independence like I did when I was young.

On the subject of childhood, I'm not sure if I've shared here that my brother is staying with us for the summer and he's been here a couple of weeks already. I haven't lived with him in about fifteen years and we've lived in different states all over the country since then. It's been so great to have a friend to chat with, a partner for projects, and having the kids get to know their uncle. Believe it or not, of the dozen or so words Bea says regularly "Uncle Dan" are two of them. It's hilarious and we egg her on to say it all the time. "Uncle Dan Dan! Uncle Dan Dan!" I can't tell you how many times a day I hear one of the kids ask about him and it's been so cool to have him as a neighbor.

In the pop culture front, I am like... at least two years behind on some things and right up to the minute on others. We don't have a TV so we watch our "shows" on the laptop at night and right now I am so into The Handmaid's Tale. It's got the perfect combo of religious cult plus dystopia which is my favorite combination of evils. It's dark and so effed up but... I like what I like! If you're into that you might also like Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime or if you can find it (don't ask me how I tracked it down), a British show from a couple years ago called Utopia. And of course there's Black Mirror on Netflix.

So even though I'm up to the minute on my dramatic TV programming, I'm a few years behind on HAMILTON! Gah! I am so obsessed. I have a biography on hold at the library and I told Adam that if I could do one thing this summer, it would be to see the show in Chicago.  I have some ducks to get in a row before that can happen (see also: night weaning and saving up) but when mama has a goal, mama achieves the goal. 

Well, a huge storm is about to roll in, so I better go sit on my front porch and watch! Have a great Thursday everyone! 

Jessica Bakes | Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

It's strawberry rhubarb season and that means it's time to whip up some pies, baby! I use my grandma Dorothy's recipe as a base. I've made some really minor changes and the end result is quite near pie perfection! And it's not hard at all! 

Part of the ease (at least for me!) is that I've given up making my own pie crusts. This stage in the process always stressed me out and it wasn't fun so now I just use two pre made (but not baked) pie crusts. And I always get compliments on them too! I think the way you handle them does have an impact on the final pie, so I'll tell you more about that in the recipe. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

• 2 premade pie crusts, frozen
• 2 C rhubarb, diced
• 2 C strawberries, quartered
• 1 C sugar
• 3 eggs
• 4 T flour
• 3T milk
• 1 T freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 T butter, cubed plus a little extra for pie plate

Chilled pie dough is an essential part of getting a flaky crust, so I like to keep mine in the freezer and take them out about 45 minutes before I plan to assemble my pie.

Pre heat your oven to 400 F.

Chop strawberries and rhubarb into small pieces. I like to cut the rhubarb stalk into 4 inch pieces and then halve it before I dice it up. I usually quarter small strawberries or further cut them down for larger berries. Put into bowl and set aside.

Mix sugar, eggs, flour, milk and nutmeg together to create custard.

Once dough is easily pliable yet still cold, lay into buttered pie plate. Sprinkle a small amount of flour onto crust. Layer fruit next, turning strawberries outside up for a pretty top. Cover with custard, distributing evenly. Finally top with cubed butter before layering the second pie crust over top.

Here's your chance to get fancy fancy and make a pretty topper! I dust my counter with a little flour before I unroll out my top crust. Then it's up to you! For this pie I used the wide end of a icing tip to cut out holes, but you can do a lattice, braids, where ever your creativity takes you! If you check out the tag #jessicas100pies on Instagram, you can see all of the variations I've made over the years! (I'm on pie 56/100!) Crimp your top and bottom crusts together.

Lastly - use the custard on the sides of the bowl to coat the pie top with your fingers. If you're a real sweetheart, dust the top with a little more sugar (although this isn't necessary!)

Bake the pie for 50 minutes and then let it cool in the oven. If the top is getting too brown, just place some aluminum foil over the top. Whip up some cream and enjoy! 

You might also like... a Key Lime Pie, Pumpkin Pie or my personal favorite - Mulberry Pie!