Heck, one cousin I consider as close as a sister is a bit more distant than that in the family tree. Let’s see….my eleven times great-grandaddy had two wives. The first wife’s children is who she is descended from and I am from the second. Or is it the other way around? I’ll have to go look. Needless to say, it amused us no end to find that out, since we’d been friends for years before we realized it. Even more amusing is that she is most likely a cousin to my son from both my side of the family and his father’s side of the family. Closer on his father’s, but still. What can I say? I’m easily entertained.

On a totally different subject…There is this homeless man who stands on the corner with a little sign that says “Lear jet out of fuel”. It always makes me chuckle when I see it. That man is always there. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of days I’ve headed to work and he’s not been there. And, every time, I worry about him. Is he ok? Did he have difficulty? Has he gotten sick? He’s by no means young. He always has a smile and a kind word. And always nary a whiff of alcohol, nor a glaze in his eye. I don’t ever recall having seen him smoking, either. He’s always so sweet. And…he’s always there. Day in and day out, he is there.

Today, it is cold and rainy out. Nasty weather. Yet, he walks up and down that little stretch of road with a smile and a kind word for everyone who takes the time to see him. Just see him. I’m not the only one won over by this gentle, old man. I saw someone the other day do something I do for him from time to time. She gave him her lunch. I, sometimes, stop for coffee on my way in to work in the morning. Almost every time I do so, I get him one too. Especially on days like today.

I want to make him this big, toasty scarf to be able to wrap up around his ears and lower face to help keep him warm – maybe brown with a darker brown jet worked into the end of it. Just because I want to do something for this man who inspires me. And, he does – if that man can be on that corner every day…in weather like this…at the age he is. I can sure as heck manage to survive in my comfortable office, sitting on my arse.

You know the one reason I hesitate to do such a thing for him, though? And, I find myself so ashamed of the comfortable people for this…but, if he had a nice scarf on, along with other warm clothes so he could more readily withstand the weather he braves every day…the thought that would go through people’s minds who see him (and I dare any of you to deny it) is that he has money enough to afford something nice and how stupid would it be to pander to him even more?

Maybe he could get a job – even at his age – I don’t know. I do know, if he did, whoever his employer was would have one of the most reliable employees they had ever had the good fortune to employ.

_{**Photo: Portait of Homeless Man in a Pensive State By: Leroy Skalstad, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,USA, Formerly Homeless. This photo looks much like the gentle man I am speaking of.}

My great, great, yeah many great grandfather Piercifor was fostered in Uniontown, PA. Family history has it that he and his family came over from Wales to the Philadelphia harbor. His parents died either en route or in quarantine. The lovely man, of course, goes and puts that he was born in Pennsylvania on every bloody census. I swear, if I ever meet him I’m going to kill him.

Anyway, the lovely people at Great Bethel gave me the list of ministers back through the centuries and I found the Rev. William Brownfield. Per the census of 1820, he was the proud head of the household to one child. That one child was between the ages of 10 and 15. Piercifor would have been 13 on that census. Lovely people that they were in the 1820s, the only person whose name mattered was the head of the household. So I cannot know for certain that it was Piercifor; but, the evidence seems to indicate that it very well could have been. I’d give it a 3 out of 5 for source. Certainly nothing to build bridges on…but enough to keep me poking around.

Along that vein, I contacted the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. They will happily poke around records that I can’t get to (since I’m so far away) for a fee, of course. Almshouse records, Orphan Court records, cemetery records, etc. Though they then point out that the Almshouse records do not cover the 1820s. Of course not, that would be too easy.

Right now, my only real shot at tracking this blasted ancestor down is the Orphan Court – or maybe church records. The church records really depends on the church and what they considered pertinent to their parish.

I have found a copy of the passenger arrivals to Philadelphia over that period at the local University library. I hope to get over there this weekend to poke around. Passenger arrivals, 1819-1820; a transcript of the list of passengers who arrived in the United States from the 1st October, 1819, to the 30th September, 1820. by United States. Dept. of State. If I am right and the 1820 census of William Brownfield is indicating Piercifor as the child, and if family history is correct…then my ancestor would have arrived prior to the census and prior to the cut off of the book’s listing (30 Sep 1820).

On to a different branch all together, and it appears I’ve found a source for the arrival of Hans Gartner in 1752. HACKER, WERNER. Auswanderungen aus Baden und dem Breisgau: Obere und mittlere rechtsseitige Oberrheinlande im 18. Jahrhundert archivalisch dokumentiert. Stuttgart [Germany]: Konrad Theiss, 1980. Page 342. Now, if I could get a hard copy of the book, I’d be thrilled. An English version would be even nicer since I develop a rather nasty headache about 10 minutes into trying to decipher German.

And on toward another branch, I got in touch with a cousin the other day. It was really neat getting to talk to him. Actually, I’ve gotten in touch with two cousins in the last week. One is in Texas, and the other in Illinois. Both are genealogy buffs. I only got to actually speak with one cousin. The one in Texas and I are playing phone tag at the moment. However, the cousin in Illinois had all sorts of fun facts, and I loved listening to him talk about the family. He’s 77 and is the nephew of one of my great grandmothers. He is searching around for a copy of the last revision of the Bushue family book and is going to send it to me. This makes me very happy.

So, all in all, it’s been pretty productive. Even if Piercifor is making me want to pull my hair out…

Ok. I must be a masochist, I know. But, really – it’s a lot of fun.

I was never able to quite track him down…but, today, I found his obit in The Idaho Statesman. I figured he would have passed on by now, but it was still sad to read. However, I did decide to try a white pages search for his son and found him…well, his wife. I left my information since he was out and about and look forward to hearing from him.

It’s really pretty neat. Even as far removed as we are from each other – it’s family. And that’s just nifty.

Right now, I am combing the Philadelphia Harbor records trying desperately to find my so many times great grandfather’s family. See, when they came over from Wales, his parents died. Either en route or in quarantine afterward. The kids (a twin brother – questionable, another brother and two sisters) were split off to various foster homes and lost track of each other.

I know he was fostered to the Baptist minister in Uniontown, PA in the early 1820s; but, of his siblings, parents or life before America there is this void. I don’t even know the name of the Baptist minister at the time. However, I have a call in to the local historical society in Uniontown and I hope to verify the number of Baptist churches that were present in that time frame. If it was only one – I have their historical pamphlet of ministers and will be able to pinpoint who the minister was who took my ancestor in. Anecdotal information, but information worth adding to the family records, I reckon.

I think I’ve found his brother Samuel in Iowa in the 1880 and the 1885 census. It may or may not be him, since family stories have him potentially winding up in Tennessee before the civil war. If it is the one in Iowa, then he met and married his (much younger) wife in Wisconsin. Only reason I’m fairly certain of that is because the youngsters listed in the 1880 census show Wisconsin being their place of birth – and the birth place of their mother as WI, and their father as Wales. We’ll see.

I’m trying to crawl down that side of the tree and see if I can find any living cousins who might have a bent for maintaining the family archives. Maybe they will have information about the Richards family that I cannot locate. Even if they don’t…it’s always a great thing to find new relatives.