SNGF – Ancestor Fun

Each Saturday evening, Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings challeges other geneabloggers to participate in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Tonight, the theme is Ancestor Fun. The mission (should we choose to accept it!) is to pick a great-grandfather, divide his birth year by 100 and round up to the next number. Then, go to the ancestor on the ahnentafel list and find the ancestor with that number and give three facts about that person.

I chose my maternal great-grandfather, Joseph Napolean Wilt (father of my maternal grandmother), who was born in 1869. After dividing his birth year by 100 and getting 18.69, I rounded up to 19.  I use Family Tree 2011 as my genealogy program. I am the home person so I clicked on Publish at the top, then under “Charts and Reports” I clicked on Genealogy Reports. I chose the Ahnentafel Report. After the report came up, I scrolled to number 19 to see which ancestor I would write about. It was my 2nd great-grandmother, Louisa Bookless.

The line from me to her is as follows: my dad, his dad (Lloyd William Amore), Lloyd’s mother (Mary Angelina Werts Amore), “Annie’s” mother was Lousia Bookless. She was born to David Bookless and Mary Cartmell on April 13, 1834 in Muskingum county, Ohio. She married William Washington Werts (my 2nd great-grandfather) on August 24, 1852 in Coshocton county, Ohio.  I found the marriage entry on FamilySearch.org in the database – “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-1994” and downloaded the digital image. Louisa married a second time after William died to John Simon on April 28, 1861 in Coshocton county, Ohio. Louisa died of “apoplexy” on July 26, 1912 in Coshocton, Ohio and was buried in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Coshocton.

Three facts about Louisa Bookless:

1. Most of the documents I have found concerning Louisa, has her maiden name spelled “Buckless” – especially census records.
2. Louisa’s parents died when she was young, so she is found living with relatives in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. In 1850, Louisa and her older brother, William, are living in the James Rice household in Franklin Twp, Coshocton county, Ohio. I have not discovered if he was related to Louisa. In the 1860 census, Louisa is living with her late husband’s sister, Susannah (Werts) Shirer and her husband, Quincy.  The two children she had borne while married to William Werts were living in other households which seems to indicate that Louisa did not have any means of supporting her children and needed to rely on family for support.
3. Louisa’s first husband – my 2nd great-grandfather, passed away five years after they were married. Their oldest child, George Wesley Werts, was born five months after their wedding and my great-grandmother came along two years later. Four years after William’s death, Louisa and John Simon married.  They became parents of a daughter (Sarah Ellen Simon) three years after they married.  I did not realize my great-grandmother had a half-sister until I kept coming back to the census listing her in the same household as Louisa and John as their daughter. When I checked the newspaper account for a reunion held at my great-grandparents, I discovered that Ellen’s family came to that reunion.

Louisa’s Death Certificate