Honors To This Generation's Great-Grandmothers

A 2025 edited and re-published article first posted in 2018.   

Fifty Norway Spruce Trees will be planted in a clearing off our western woods in the Town of German Flatts, Herkimer County, NY, USA. The containerized seedling spruce trees were purchased from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Tree Nursery in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA.  The baby tree plantings are scheduled between Earth Day (22 Apr  2018) and Arbor Day (27 Apr 2018), with honors and grateful thanks to the fond memory of our generation's four great-grandmothers. And as Mother's Day 2018 approaches on Sunday, May 13, it is certainly as important to acknowledge the strongly important role these fine ladies played in our ancestral family history. Without their high dedication to family, we obviously would not be present to post these thankful thoughts today.   

 

Multiple biographical updates done in early May 2025

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Our mom's (Lillian Agnes Ouellet-Paul) paternal Grandma Suzanne Agnes (LaLonde) Wagner-Ouellet, born 8 Jun 1864 at Moose Creek, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Alexis and Julienne (Campeau) LaLonde.  Ms. Suzanne LaLonde-Wagner married Emile W. Ouellet in Roman Catholic ceremonies at Roxborough, Ontario, Canada on 26 Sep 1887. The couple has six children: Ida, Alexander, Bertha, Ector, William, and Doris. Suzanne also has an older son John Wagner from her first marriage to Richard Wagner, Richard died unexpectedly at a young age in 1885. Suzanne died while living at a Tupper Lake, NY retirement property owned by her eldest daughter Ida on 14 Dec 1946. She is interred with her beloved husband of fifty-nine years Emile W. Ouellet (he died earlier in 1946) at Saint Alphonsus Cemetery in Tupper Lake, Franklin County, NY, USA.

Note: The Ouellet surname links our family directly to France via more recently to Frenchmen in New France (aka Quebec, Canada), the first settlers and our stone-masonry French colonial progenitor Rene' Ouellet (1635-1722) and his articulate and well-educated young wife Marie Anne Rivet.  Marie is a French "King's Daughter" -- an orphan raised and schooled by Catholic Nuns in a Church-based residential institution (aka orphanage) supported by the French King Louis XIV.

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Our mom's maternal Grandma Agnes M. "Angie" (Anderson) Seney, born 30 Oct 1863 at Campbellford, Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of James and Caroline Griselle (Kiernan) Anderson.  Miss Angie Anderson married Joseph Seney Sr. at Campbellford, Ontario, Canada on 18 Jun 1883, and the couple has twelve children: Lillian, Caroline, William, James, Adolphus, Clara, Minerva, Edna, Pearl, Mary-Ellen, Fannie, and Joseph Jr. Angie died 18 Jul 1938 at home in Ilion, Herkimer County, NY, USA.  She is interred with her beloved husband of thirty years Joseph Seney Sr. (he was killed in a December 1913 accident) at Oak Hill Cemetery, West German Street, Herkimer, Herkimer County, NY, USA.

Note: Angie's parents James and Caroline Anderson -- James hailed from eastern Scotland (Aberdeen); whereas, Caroline was originally thought to hail from Ireland... but it's now believed from several DNA estimates and matches that Caroline probably hailed from western Scotland.  (updated May 2025)  

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Our dad's (Stephen Paul Jr,) paternal Grandma Petronelli "Anna" (Serva) Poceus-Paul, born 2 Oct 1872 at Janapole, Telsiai, Lithuania, the daughter of Anthony and Petronella Serva.  Miss Anna Serva married Dominick "Dom" Poceus-Paul in 1889 Roman Catholic ceremonies at an unknown Lithuanian location. The couple emigrated to the United States and became USA naturalized citizens in 1900.  Anna and Dom have six children: Stephen, Peter, Anna, Stella, Matilda, and Alexander. She died 28 Dec 1951 at a hospital near home in Whitesboro, Oneida County, NY, USA.  Anna is interred with her beloved husband of forty-eight years Dominick Poceus-Paul (he died 1937) at Saint George Lithuanian Catholic Cemetery, Wood Road, Whitesboro, Oneida County, NY, USA.   

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Our dad's maternal Grandma Effie Julia (Odell) Gorton-Moegling, born 15 Oct 1862 at Summit, Schoharie County, NY, USA, the daughter of Albert and Elizabeth A. (Clegg) Odell. Ms. Effie Odell-Gorton married Edward William Moegling 4 Jul 1889 in Christian ceremonies at Utica, Oneida County, NY, USA. The couple has two children: Edna and Elizabeth.  Effie also has twin daughters Alice and Agnes (born 1885) from a previous marriage to Jim Gorton, that short marriage ended in divorce -- Jim being "an unreliable husband" according to the significant genealogical research complied by our paternal Aunt Margaret Rosella "Pudgie" Paul-Eccleston.  Effie died 9 Sep 1924 at home in New York Mills, Oneida County, NY, USA.  She is interred with her beloved husband of thirty-two years Edward Moegling (he died 1921) at Forest Hill Cemetery, Oneida Street, Utica, Oneida County, NY, USA.

Note: The Odell Lineage and the various more distant surnames more distant and off our Odell Line Tree (icluding Smith, Brainerd, Hubbard, Stanton, Sheldon, Seldon, Denison, Richardson, etc., etc.) take us back to our early-to-mid 1630 New England colonial progenitors.  

The four "Great Grandma Norway Spruce Trees" were planted on Arbor Day, April 27, 2018 in accordance with our plan.  In twenty years these trees will likely be about 25-to-39 feet tall.  These are the same "Grandma Trees" that are now about 10' tall in May 2025, and all healthy and doing well.  

How our "Grandma Trees" look today -- in May 2025:

A Couple Of Thoughtful Ancestry Based Expressions

Cousin Wende of the FaceBook based ancestry group The Sheldon Family Association reminded us of this very fine ancestry poem expressed here to help brighten your day:  

Dear Ancestor

"Your tombstone stands among the rest; 

Neglected and alone.

The name and date are chiseled out

On polished marble stone.

It reaches out to all who care

It is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

In flesh, and blood, and bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse

Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

One hundred years ago,

Spreads out among the ones you left

Who would have loved you so.

I wonder how you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot,

And come to visit you."

- a poem by Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932), allegedly written in 1906 while Mr. Palmer visited the cemetery where his great grandparents are resting.

And too...  

a few months back, these scholarly written words by Ms. Della M. Cummings-Wright were re-published for your kind consideration -- click HERE to view. 

     

On FindAGrave.com-To-Ancestry.com Linkage

A Couple Stones No Longer Missing

Statements by some "Graver" contributors that FindAGrave.com (FAG) is not a genealogy website are flatly untrue. This incorrect opinion stated by some long-time gravers grossly understates the historical value of well-prepared FAG profiles. The truth about marginal FAG profiles created by some is – "GIGO" – Garbage-In-Garbage-Out.  This is true: FAG profiles created with untrue, unknown, or wishful thinking are not genealogically helpful. In the Internet Age, poorly written FAG profiles are now a direct cause of significant misinformation in current Ancestry.com family trees -- peppered with many errors in beginner genealogist's trees.  Time for long-time gravers to recognize and accept that for over a half-dozen years now, FindAGrave.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the leading genealogy service offered by Ancestry.com. Profiles created at FAG are increasingly more closely linked to all family trees at Ancestry.com via their well-designed database search and hint criteria.  It is time for all FAG contributors to accept that the graver mission at FindAGrave.com is changed – please consider your continued caring graver work under this new management reality.

A happy personal note was the July 2020 discovery of our 3rd Great Grandparents James and Julia Clegg, a couple unsuccessfully researched for a decade or more, and finally found via a welcome Ancestry.com "Hint" leading to FindAGrave.com.  This welcome Ancestry hint was presented by what seems to be updated and better-defined hint criteria in Ancestry.com's growing genealogical database. The value of this improved FindAGrave.com-to-Ancestry.com database linkage seems to be paying strong dividends in current genealogical research – and this is very much appreciated.  Thank you.

Click  "Julia": to see Julia Clegg's memorial and where additional links are inserted to her family. 

Not just for ourselves, but for unknowable future generations

The structure of the DNA double helix

The number of current Ancestry.com customers may now approach 15+ million, and perhaps a similar number are inactive or deceased former DNA or Family Tree customers – where their formally active accounts have now lapsed.  But even these inactive public family trees remain available for current and trial customer genealogical research. Ancestry.com management claims over 10 million customers have taken an Ancestry DNA ethnicity test.  These folks have current active profiles in Ancestry's growing DNA database. Test takers are all eligible and invited to create trial Ancestry family trees.  Ancestry.com may be the largest family tree search application, but there are a half dozen or more other firms providing these lineage/DNA services. Other competent DNA firms include FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritage, 23andMe, Living DNA, etc.

Writing for MIT Technology Review, author Antonio Regalado claims “...More people took genetic ancestry [tests] last year [2017] than in all previous years combined.” Perhaps surprising to some, on Facebook alone, there are a significant number of public and closed groups dedicated to the genealogical interests of members, many of these dedicated to the research of specific surnames or geographical locations like Early New England or French Canadian. The aggregate number of people in pursuit of personal lineage data may easily top 25 million. The Internet has provided the means to do quicker genealogical research, but there remains an amazing number who still research the old fashion way by visits to historical societies, churches, public record facilities, cemeteries, and the like. 

A good share of individual genealogical researchers do it not just for themselves, but for others with similar interests and for their unknowable generations perhaps in two or more future centuries.  So I'm not sure what point those folks who fail to comprehend ancestral pursuits are making -- I for one don't understand them. Caring more for deceased ancestors than for the living seems a patently absurd argument the uninterested sometimes make. Take a look at this 1906 poem authored by the professional engineer, family historian, and breeder of trotting and show horses Mr. Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932). His thoughtful poem provides a clue by correctly illustrating some of the motivation felt by those actively engaged in genealogical research.

Dear Ancestor

"Your tombstone stands among the rest
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished marble stone
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn

You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh and blood and bone
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so
I wonder how you lived and loved
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot
And come to visit you."

-Walter Butler Palmer

Note:  The image presented at the top of this post is a public domain photo by NASA found by a simple Internet search.