My sister, Sue, has also done a considerable amount of family research over the years on our Wilder family.  She mentioned to me via Facebook recently that she had a birth record for our great-grandmother Margaret Wilder.  However, she noted, as she recalled, it didn’t contain much useful information.  Well, as she was locating that [...]

Government records can appear, on their face, sterile, statistical and indifferent to the human lives they document.  Last evening, I was looking through Michigan Births, 1867-1902 on the beta records site for FamilySearch.org and located some original birth records for several people on my “hit list.”  In the process, I came across a record for [...]

Below is the transcript of the Mandan, ND obituary for my great-grandmother, Margaret Jane Wilder. Oddly, included in the listing of surviving family members is “a brother.”  I have not been aware of any brother of Margaret’s.  Is it possible that Frank Wilder, Sr. is including as a “brother” the “step-son” named Vinal Bulin, the [...]

Finding James Naylor’s obituary today helped to fill a gap.  Previously unable to find a death certificate, I was only aware that he passed away some time prior to Margaret Wilder Welch Naylor’s 1923 death .  I was not expecting to find that the couple died within six months of one another – Jim on [...]

Sylvester R. Bentley’s Civil War Pension file comprises some 100 documents – including those associated with Ann Kitson Bentley’s Widow’s Pension claim following Sylvester’s 1873 death. In 1889, Ann made a startling revelation about the conception of her first child, Edward N. Bentley.  In a January 29, 1889 affidavit presented by her attorney, William W. [...]

A few months ago, I was able to pull the Civil War Pension file of Sylvester R. Bentley, the grandfather of my great-grandmother, Maude Bentley Clemence Combs.  Maude is the daughter of Sylvester’s son George R. Bentley. There were more than 100 pages of documents in the files, including several family surprises.   I will [...]

It came as a surprise to find Frank Wilder, “Sr.” in the 1920 ND Census [of employees of the ND State Penitentiary] living with a woman, twenty-two years his junior, named Jeannette on January 1, 1920 – exactly one year after the death of his first wife, Julia Barber Wilder.  The Census enumerates the employees [...]