New Feature/New Page

I'm adding a new feature and a new page/tab to this blog.  I will also, eventually add it to my other blogs.  You can see the link to the new page at the top of the page menu, next to last item.

I'm currently taking medication that is causing symptoms that makes it difficult to travel any distance or any length of time because access to a public bathroom is necessary.

So, not easily discouraged, I've decided to identify public bathrooms in my area of research.

My area of research is most of New York State, parts of eastern and northern Pennsylvania and very northwestern New Jersey.

The information about bathrooms I'm familiar with appear on a page with D for definite and P for potential after the name and address.  The Ps are those I assume would be available but I haven't verified that they are.  These will, hopefully, change as I verify their availability.

It may seem odd, weird or silly but age and other causes make access to public bathrooms a necessity for some of us to be able to travel.

A woman's concern

 For some time I've had the inkling that many of my female ancestors had been baby-makers whether coincidentally or of their own choice.  As a single mother of a single child, I have my opinions about childbearing and the status of women.  I also have strong opinions about population numbers. I knew that many of my ancestors had many children.  I also knew that at least one of my ancestors died very shortly after her last baby was born.  I knew that one of my grandmothers had her last baby quite late in her life.

We now know that childbearing include risks to the mother, if not the fetus, that increase as the age of the mother increases although women still have babies into their late 30s and early 40s.  I was curious about the age of my female ancestors when they had their last baby.  This is what I found:

This is, of course, not all my female ancestors but those I was able to collect these facts.

Thinking about the various aspects of these facts can be interesting:  the time period of the last births, the ages of the mothers, the number of children these women had, how the age of the mothers might have affected their children.

My grandmother, Ida Mattice O'Dell, told me that her doctors didn't think she could carry a pregnancy to term because she was small, 4' 11", yet she had 7 children and didn't seem to feel that giving birth was difficult.

Note that Mary Hendrickson Hulse died shortly after giving birth to her last child; generally thought to have died in childbirth.

Note that Anna Hendrickson was 54 when she had her last child.  I can't imagine.

Note also that Mary Hogancamp Vandermark gave birth to 16 children.  I can't imagine.

The lives of many of our ancestors was quite different from ours and not that long ago.

This was an interesting exercise. 

The Status of the One Name Studies and the One Place Study - A Report

I'm either a member or coordinator of the following One Name Studies and One Place Study:

The Beismer Name Study and @ WikiTree

The Wormuth Name Study and @ WikiTree

The Swartwout Name Study and @ WikiTree

The Flower/Flowers Name Study and @ WikiTree

 The Butler Name Study @ WikiTree - There's a wealth of information there that I haven't begun to look at.

and

The Rockland, NY (Sullivan County) Place Study and @ WikiTree

Over the past few months, for various reasons, I haven't been working much on any aspect of my family history research, including these projects.

I'm the only member of the Beismer and Wormuth ONSs so work on both will be slow unless and until there are other researchers.  I was able to finally find the origins of my particular branch of those families which I attribute to the process of a One Name Study.  Still there is much to to in all these projects.

In addition, there is just the constant addition of family members, relatives, ancestors to my family tree, corrections and improvements to the profiles.  I love it.  It's what I wanted and planned to do in retirement; it's a very good way to spend my time.

Please comment when you read this post so I know if people are interesting and better, what you're interested in.  Thank you.