Posts Tagged ‘Stocking’

Sherry Stocking Kline
December 9, 2009

When I was growing up, my Grandma Maud (McGinnis) Stocking lived an hour and a half away in a little town named Cedarvale, Kansas .  And though we went to see her and brought her to see us, it didn’t always happen exactly on Christmas.

So Grandma Stocking would pack up a little package for our family. It was all wrapped up in brown paper with packages inside for each of us, and oh, how I looked forward to that little package!

I watched for the mail man to turn the corner and drive down our little country road and when I saw him coming, I would run down the driveway of our farm to the mail box to say hello and check and see if today was THE day.

When the package came, I would run back up to the house with it and begin badgering and begging my mom to let me open it early. Most of the time, she made me wait at least until closer to Christmas. So then it was time to shake, squeeze, and guess what the package had in it.

The present I remember best is the one she made herself.

I can’t remember every present that Grandma sent, and I don’t remember anything that she sent my folks, but the present I remember best is the one she made for me herself.

It was a crayon apron.  It was a pretty pink, girl-y looking with colored braid stitched on it and stitched into  it were slim little pockets for crayons and each pocket had a colorful crayon in it. (I think there might have been a coloring book, too) It was designed to keep my clothes clean I’m sure, but I loved that little apron.

I was thrilled with it, proud of it, and I wore it and used it for many years.  Finally, one of the ties came lose, and we didn’t instantly repair it. And, I was beginning to ‘outgrow’ the tiny little apron.  For a long time, I left the crayons in the apron, and used it to organize my crayons.

I hope the little crayon apron will be there…

I’m not sure what happened to that little apron, but I hope (and pray) that when I go digging through my attic for the keepsakes I stored there many years ago that the little crayon apron will be there.

Sherry Stocking Kline
December 7th, 2009

Christmas Parties? My first thought when I read the challenge was “We didn’t go to Christmas parties when I was a kid.” Then I read Randy Seaver’s Christmas Party Challenge at Genea-Musings and realized, well, maybe we did. (And by the way, Congratulations to Randy for his much deserved “Genea-Speak Award.”

Below, from Thomas MacEntee’s Geneabloggers website is today’s challenge!  What did/do you and your family do to celebrate Christmas?

Holiday Parties

Did your family throw a holiday party each year? Do you remember attending any holiday parties?

We didn’t do parties, we had “Christmas”…

We didn’t do parties, we had “Christmas”.   When I was very young, we used to get together with the aunts and uncles who lived close enough to drive home and draw names to exchange gifts.  I’m not sure why and when that stopped, but it may have simply been the result of the next generation marrying, moving further away for jobs, and it becoming too difficult to find a date when all could attend.

Later, it was our own family who gathered as my brother’s grew up, married, and had families.   We gathered on Christmas Eve to eat supper (we called it supper then) and exchange gifts.  And because my oldest nephew was just two and a half years younger than me, and they stair-stepped down at two year intervals till I had five nephews and nieces,  I had ‘partners-in-crime’ to shake packages and impatiently try to hurry the adults up!

I can’t for the life of me remember what we ate on those nights!  As a child, it wasn’t about the food, it was about the gifts, and it seemed unbelievable that the adults could think about food when there were so many surprises waiting for them (and more importantly for us) in the other room under the tree.

They actually ate dessert before they let us open the packages, and I think maybe they prolonged the dessert eating just to torture us!

Can you imagine?

Finally, they declared we had waited long enough…

Finally, they declared we had waited long enough, and everyone gathered in our tiny little living room and my Dad began to hand out packages to everyone.  He didn’t dress up like Santa, but his Christmas spirit is something that I remember today.

Dad was all about giving the gift and watching the recipient while they opened it.   Their enjoyment was the gift that gave him the most  joy each Christmas.

After Dad passed away when I was just shy of thirteen, there was something important missing from our Christmas gatherings each year and I didn’t even come close to finding it again till my own children were born.

Merry Christmas…

Sherry Stocking Kline
December 4th, 2009

When I was just a little girl, I looked forward each year to my Uncle Frank Stocking’s Christmas card.

It was unique, shaped like a little stocking, with a verse about each member of the family and their travels, triumphs, and sometimes the trials of their life.  I still have most of them, stored away.

Sometimes this little Christmas card was my “show and tell” for school, I was that proud of it!

After I married and had children, Uncle Frank’s example became my inspiration. Nearly every Christmas I drew up a little picture (usually of children in old-fashioned sunbonnet and overalls) to depict my two kids doing something representative of our year, and wrote a poem that reflected the years happenings,  joys, and sorrows.

2001 was a year of incredible sorrow intermingled with small joys and it is that poem that I’ve chosen to share here:

Kline Christmas Card 2001

I want to be a kid again, it’s Christmas time you see.
I want to hang the tinsel on a lop-sided Christmas tree.
I want to lick the frosting bowl and nibble cookie dough.
I want to call up all my friends and Christmas caroling go.

But most of all I want to wish you Peace and Joy and Love.
And thank our Lord for all His blessings and strength from above.
I hope that kids of every age receive their most-longed-for toy.
And find each day filled with love and the season’s Christmas Joy.

There are days that bring us sunshine, while others bring us rain.
There are years that bring us joy, while others bring us pain.
2001 was such a year of sorrow and sadness in our life.
We pray for comfort and healing from life’s sorrowful strife.

Nancy, my brother Fred’s wife and friend lost her cancer’s fight
In the wee hours of the morning on a January night.
Fifty years of marriage, with five children they were blessed.
Nancy’s smile, her laugh, her faith, her courage, all are sorely missed.

We lost my brother, Gary, on Memorial Day’s afternoon.
He was too young, he was so loved, he died much too soon.
His mom, his wife, his daughter, his brother and “step” sons three,
We each and all miss him so very much you see.

Amidst our grief, we pray for leaders and our troops overseas.
We ask the Lord on bended knee for Peace and safety, Please.
We look forward with hope to the year 2002,
And pray for healing of our hearts and joy that comes anew.

Jarrod’s in K.C., and lucky to be working still at Sprint
We’re thankful that his job was not one of those that ‘went.”
And soon wedding bells will ring in February 2002,
When Marya and Marc tie the knot and happily say “I do.”

Norman hopes each plane he inspects is up to Cessna’s best.
Sometimes he flies with the pilots when they run their tests.
Sherry writes for the Wichita Eagle’s magazine “Active Life”
Web design, “The Mayfield Book”, Sherry has an “active life.”

May this your Merriest Christmas be,
May whatever you wish for be under your tree.
And May God hold you safely in His hand,
As you travel around our beautiful land.

Merry Christmas!
Norman, Sherry, Jarrod & Marya

My Christmas card has changed in several ways. I no longer draw the ‘sunbonnet kids’ as our family has expanded.  I now have two adorable granddaughters, and their picture sometimes graces the card’s front.

My oldest granddaughter loves to draw, and I think I will soon be asking her to draw the picture for the front of my card!

Thanks to the inspiration of my niece, I now also include a photo collage with my Christmas cards that I create on my photo software, and so we have a year of our life in word and picture for close family and friends.

Looking back through those cards, it’s easy to see just where we ‘were’ in life, and what was going on each year!

Sherry Stocking Kline
December 3, 2009

Thomas MacEntee’s Advent Calendar Challenge can be found at GeneaBloggers here.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Did your family have heirloom or cherished ornaments? Did you ever string popcorn and cranberries? Did your family or ancestors make Christmas ornaments?

There are two ornaments that I remember from childhood as being special, the angel for the top of the tree and the ‘bubble’ lights.

She Bravely Clung to the Top of the Tree…

Our angel was small and short and bless her heart, she bravely clung to the top of the tree year after year, even though her wings became a little tattered, and her robes a little worn.

She often leaned to one side or the other, depending on which way the Christmas tree leaned, but the tree wasn’t done until she was placed on the very top and even though we could have bought a new angel, it wouldn’t have been the same.  It wouldn’t have been our angel.

The beautiful bubble lights came into to our family before I did, (or before I remember anyhow) and they were the first thing to go on the tree each year.

They looked like miniature candles, and the candle part was glass with a colored liquid inside which bubbled up to the top when the light became warm. One by one, the bubble lights quit bubbling, and we replaced them with the newer tiny little twinkling lights, but it wasn’t the same.

I remember stringing both cranberries and popcorn, but as Carol said in “Reflections from the Fence” the cranberries were hard as rocks, and hard to penetrate with a needle” so I believe that was a one-time thing, and there were always the paper chains to bring home from school and add to the tree each year.

Dad Didn’t Care What he Received for Christmas…

We gathered on Christmas Eve to exchange presents, and though my father never dressed up, Dad loved playing Santa.  My dad really didn’t care what he received for Christmas, his joy came from watching his family open the gifts he and mom had bought.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November 29, 2009

How is it that something becomes an heirloom? Is it the value of the object, the age of the object, or the love inside the object and its history?

One birthday present that stands out is one that I still have. One that is destined to become a hand-me-down heirloom. And one that I still enjoy.

We were in South Dakota, my mom, dad, and I.  It would be our last vacation with my dad, but we didn’t know that then, or at least I didn’t.

We had been to Minnesota to visit family,  my Great-Aunt May Breneman Jones Willey, her son Kenneth Jones and his wife, Lois, and their family, Lawrence, Lynn, Patty, Charles, and Kenny, and we were coming back down through South Dakota, seeing the sights.

My Parents Laughed…

We visited the “dead Presidents” (Mt Rushmore) which was very impressive, went to the Passion Play (the re-enactment of Christ’s life and crucifixion), and I met a girl at the motel that night who was about my age, (soon to be eleven years old) and what was so impressive was this girl had her life already mapped out.

She told me who she was going to marry and that they were going to raise horses together.  I was so impressed (Here I was at eleven still waffling between being a jockey or an archeologist!) and hadn’t even thought yet about who I would marry and what WE would do that I told my folks all about the girl I met on the motel swing set who already knew who she was going to marry.

My parents laughed….

Mom and I Huddled Inside the Car…

The next day we traveled through the National Park where a herd of several hundred buffalo thundered across the road in front of the car right  in front of us. My mom and huddled inside the car while my dad, unafraid, in typical guy “I ain’t afraid of nothin'” fashion stood outside the car and watched.

Before we came home dad took Mom and I to the Black Hills Gold Jewelry store where the jewelry was actually being made.  Dad had promised Mom that when they went to where the Black Hills gold jewelry was made he would buy her a set.  So we went into the store where we could  see people working on the jewelry.

It took them quite awhile, looking at one necklace and then another. Mom tried on one set, and then another and I kept busy watching the workers, peering into the jewelry cases, and watching the necklace and earring fashion show between Mom and Dad.

But I Had My Sights Set on a Cowboy Hat…

Finally, they had the perfect set for Mom. Then they turned to me.  They wanted to buy me a ring for my birthday.

Uh, Oh.  My little soon-to-be  eleven year old heart had its sights set on a cowboy hat. (Did I mention that I was a tomboy?)  I just hadn’t decided if I wanted it to be black hat like the bad guys or a white hat like Roy Rogers yet, but that’s what  I wanted right then, a cowboy hat.

I didn’t have the horse to go with it, but I wanted that, too.  Mom and dad definitely  had other plans.

They wanted me (a tomboy) to pick something elegant…

So we spent some time picking out a ring. They really wanted me to get something fancy, something a little ‘elegant’.  I wasn’t then, nor am I now, ‘elegant.’

I remember them saying, “Look how much longer this ring makes your fingers look.”

I didn’t think a ring was going to help my fingers look long and ladylike too much. My fingers were short and stubby then and they’re short and stubby now.

I picked out a simple gold band with the Black Hills Gold signature pink and gold leaves on it. Simple lines. Very similar to a wedding band, but I liked it. After some time spent showing me lots of fancier rings to try to get me to pick out something larger, longer, and more elegant, they gave in and let me get the one I liked.

Landstrom's Black Hills Gold Ring

They chose it for one of my larger fingers, hoping I could wear it when I was grown, and they chose wisely there. I can still wear it.

It looks almost exactly like this one, except it has more than 30 years of wear. It’s plain and simple, perfect for my size 4 1/2 to 5 short little fingers. It’s still my favorite.

A little over a year later, my father was gone…

My father was only 50 when he passed away. Just a few years later, heart by-passes became standard practice, but they weren’t then.

I wonder now, if he somehow knew, that his time was getting short, and he wanted us to have these special reminders of him.

Years later, I can look at the Black Hills gold ring that we picked out that day, and remember the whole vacation, the people we met, the good times we had, and feel the love of my parents surrounding me.

12-01-09 Author’s note: After posting this article, I found the ring that was nearly like mine, and so have updated the photograph, and added the name of the ring’s creator. My dad didn’t know he was beginning a new family tradition between myself, my mother, and my children that day, but he did.

I do think he may have known his time was getting shorter as by that time he had had heart disease  for more than ten years and wanted us to have something we could remember him by. My mother, treasuring that memory purchased a cross necklace and another ring at different times in my life, all with that first gift in mind.

Sherry Stocking Kline
November 19, 2009

This photograph is of Margaret “Maggie” (Corson) McGinnis taken on her 100th Birthday, January 19th, 1949.  The photograph was taken at her daughter’s home, Maud McGinnis Stocking, in Cedarvale, Chautauqua County, Kansas.

Margaret (Corson) McGinnis on her 100th Birthday with gr-granddaughter Sherry Stocking

The chubby little urchin sitting on Maggie’s lap is myself, Sherry Stocking.

Great-grandma McGinnis died on March 26, 1950, and I do not remember her.  How I wish I did!  She is buried at Osborne Cemetery, in Sumner County near Mayfield, Kansas.

by Sherry Stocking Kline
November 7th, 2009

It’s Saturday Night and time for the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge!  The following comes from Randy Seaver, http://www.geneamusings.com/.  Once again, Thanks, Randy!

Hey, genealogy fans – it’s Saturday Night, and time for some Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music…), is:

1) Find out the geographical distribution of your surname – in the world, in your state or province, in your county or parish. I suggest that you use the Public Profiler site at http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/, which seems to work quickly and easily. However, you cannot capture the image as a photo file – you have to capture the screen shot, save it and edit it.

2) Tell us about your surname distribution in a blog post of your own (with a screen shot if possible), in comments to this post, or in comments on a social networking site like Facebook and Twitter.

It was interesting to see where the Stocking surname was scattered, and also where it is predominant.  It still appears to be more dominant in the United Kingdom, where it originated.

My Stocking immigrant ancestor, George Stocking, came to America in the 1630’s on the ship Griffith from Suffolk, England. It appears there are still many family members in England today.

It was interesting to see the break down for the FPM or Frequency of Family Members Per Million by Countries of the Stocking Name:

Country

United Kingdom   9.72
United States         8.53
Canada                      5.73
New Zealand           1.41
France                       0.05

The following is what the map looks like by Regions:

Idaho, United States  76.85
Utah, United States 62.83
West Midlans, United Kingdom  30.65
East Anglia, United Kingdome   24.78
Wyoming, United States  24.36

And then the Stocking surname in my State!  And if you look to the county just south of Wichita, which is Sumner County, you will see there are several of the Stocking family represented in this area!

The Stocking Surname in Kansas!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 31, 2009

The following is the Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge by Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings!  Thanks, Randy!

Hey boys and girls, it’s Hallowe’en, and time for some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Play either before or after your trick or treating experiences, or even on Sunday morning after your extra hour of sleep (you did remember to set your clocks back, didn’t you?).

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1) Think about your most memorable Hallowe’en – was it when you were a child (candy, games, carnivals), a teenager (tricks and treats), or an adult (perhaps a party)?

2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post of mine, or in a comment on Twitter or Facebook in response to this post.

3) Have fun!

Looking back at my own memories I realize how lucky we were. We lived in, or in my case near, a wonderful small town where the residents were patient and the bank roof was sturdy.

What was so important about the bank roof being sturdy?

The goal each Halloween, for at least two generations, was to block off the three-block Main Street so no traffic could get through, (at all) soap car and business’ windows, (there were five in my time prior to that six or seven) and to …

Pile as Much Stuff on the Bank Roof as Possible!

In our defense, it didn’t start with my generation.

In my father’s time, horse drawn buggies were pushed, pulled, and hauled up on the bank’s roof.

In my time, for whatever reason, it became the preacher’s kid’s swing sets that made their way onto the bank roof each Halloween.

Just in case one of the p.k.’s (preacher’s kids) read this someday it didn’t mean we didn’t like you or your folks, i.e. it was not a negative reflection on the preacher’s popularity, it was probably because the family was well liked.

And, it was also because the swing sets were handy to the bank and very easily moved.

In Mayfield, in the 1950’s, it was safe…

In Mayfield, in the 1950’s, it was safe for children to go around by themselves. Maybe it wouldn’t be now, maybe not even in Mayfield which is still has about 100 residents, and isn’t that a sad commentary on our times.

My very first Halloween memory is when I was about three or four years old and not much taller than the paper grocery sack my mom sent me off to trick or treat with.

One of the ‘big girls’, Anita Biles or Ginny Barry, took me by the hand, and walked me around the town along with a crowd made up of all ages and sizes.  I felt very short, very small, and kind of scared.

My next memory is being big enough not to hold anyone’s hand and going around with friends in home-made costumes. I remember being a hobo often, because the bandannas and ratty clothes were easy to come by.

By the Time We Were Old Enough, the Privy’s were gone…

By the time my generation was big enough to join in with creating havoc, some of the buggies and horse drawn wagons still sat in yards and town fields, but the outhouses (privy’s) were gone. My dad’s generation was known to push over outhouses.(Occasionally some resourceful person moved the outhouse, and the prankster’s fell IN the outhouse hole) and one Hallowwen someone was actually IN an outhouse when it was pushed over.

Looking back, I marvel at the patience of the men who got up the next day, and took everything back to its proper home, because if it was movable, if it could be drug, rolled, pushed or pulled, it made its way to Main Street on Halloween night amidst joyous laughter and much camaraderie. (And for those who cleaned up the next day, please know that I’m grateful.)

We Were ‘Too Old’ to Go Trick or Treating…

As teen-agers, though we considered ourselves too old to go trick-or-treating, we were still expected to make an appearance in each of our town “Grandma’s” homes to receive our treats.

We started out at Grandma Mabel Stayton’s, where my mom, Dorothy Stocking, and my best friend’s mom, Wanda Stayton, both farm wives, sat with Mabel to hand out candy along with Mabel. From there, we traveled to visit at Grandma Eva Downing’s, Grandma Jenny McCreary’s, Valley Heasty’s, Mrs. Washburn’s, Dode and Bonnie Anderson, and Nancy and Rosa Weber’s home.

At each home, we were welcomed with candy and choruses of “My how you’ve grown!”, “What grade are you in now?” and “Be sure and come back next year!”

We had no idea then, how lucky we were to grow up in a small town with such a family friendly atmosphere.

But Traditions Change…

It wasn’t too many years after we Tricked and Treated that the traditions were changed to ones that were safer and were less work for all involved, but looking back, well, memories just don’t get any better than the ones we were lucky enough to create.

The following challenge comes from Randy Seaver of http://www.geneamusings.com/

Hey, genealogy fans – it’s Saturday Night – time for more Genealogy Fun!

In honor of Surname Saturday (the new, official genealogy blogging prompt for Saturdays), let’s consider this, assuming you accept the challenge to play along (is it Mission Impossible?):

1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database – in your ancestry.

2) Tell us about this person in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

3) Okay, if you don’t have a really good one – how about a sibling of your direct ancestors?

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 24, 2009

Because Most folks laugh when I tell them my maiden name, Stocking, I picked an ancestor from that side of the family.

When folks asked me how to spell my maiden name, I’d say “Just like you wear, just like it sounds.” When my brother was in high school, his friends nicknamed him “Sox” a name that stuck with him, and after he graduated and I entered high school a few years later, my friends called me “Sox”  as well.

The ancestor’s name that I’ve been curious about ever since I read it in the family history book, was Deacon Samuel Stocking, son of George and Anna Stocking who immigrated from Suffolk, England on the ship Griffith in the 1630’s, and traveled to Hartford, Connecticut with Thomas Hooker’s party. George became one of Hartford’s founders.

According to family records, Deacon Samuel married Bethiah Hopkins on May 27th, 1652. A quick Google search brought his will to light in several places on the internet. Awesome, considering 10 years ago, it was only available in one place.

My question has been, was Deacon Samuel his name, or was Deacon his church title? And I realized when I re-read the wills, one after the other, (for what was NOT the first time) that George’s will refers to his son Samuel, not his son, Deacon Samuel.

So surely Samuel’s “Deacon” is a church title. On the other hand, Deacon Samuel’s will does refer to him as Deacon Samuel, sen.

So, while I think the question is answered tonight, I’d be happy to hear comments from those with more experience.

A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records: Hartford district, 1635-1700

By Charles William Manwaring

Page 136.

Stocking, George. He died 25 May, 1683. Invt. £257-09-00. Taken by Nath. Willett, Tho. Bunce, John Easton. Invt. in Middletown taken 8 June, 1683, by Nath: White & John Warner.

Court Record, Page 73—6 September, 1683: An Inventory of the Estate of George Stocking was exhibited in Court. Adms. to Samuel Stocking.

Page 78—18 December, 1683: This Court haveing viewed that presented as the Last Will & Testament of George Stocking in the circumstances of it, together with what George Stocking hath declared to George Stocking & Capt. Allyn, & his declaration of his will in part contradicting, doe Judge that the will presented is of no value, & therefore the Court distribute the Estate as followeth: To Samuel Stocking, £100; to Hannah Benton’s children, £41; to the wife of John Richards, £41; to the wife of Samuel Olcott, £41; & to John Stocking, who hath lived with George Stocking, his grandfather, for some years, the remainder of the Estate, being £34, we distributed to John Stocking; and desire & appoint Marshall George Grave & Thomas Bunce to make this Distribution. (See Will, Vol. III.)

Page 168-9.

Stocking, Deacon Samuel sen., Middletown. Died 30 December, 1683. Invt. £648-08-08. Taken by Giles Hamlin, William Ward. The children: Samuel 27 years of age, John 23, George 19, Ebenezer 17, Steven 10, Daniel 6 years old, Bethia Stow 25, Lydia Stocking 21 years. Will dated 13 November, 1683.

I Samuel Stocking of Middletown do leave this my last Will & Testament : I give unto my loveing wife Bethia Stocking my whole Homestead lying on the both sides of the Highway with all ye Buildings thereon thereunto belonging, with my whole Lott in the Long Meadow, with my Lott at Pistol Poynt, & half of my Meadow lying on the other side of the Brook, that part of it that lyeth next to the Great River, with all my Meadow Lands at Wongunk, together with all my Stock & Moveables; these I give my wife during her Widowhood, and upon marrying again I Will to her £4 yearly to be raised out of that Estate which I have agreed to my son Daniel Stocking.

I give to my son Samuel Stocking my whole Allottment upon the Hill between the Land of Lt. White and Israel Willcox, only excepting 6 acres adjoining to the Land of Lt. White, which I give to my daughter Bethia. Moreover I give to my son Samuel the remaining half of the Meadow over the Brook, with 10 acres of the Swamp adjoining to it. I give him my whole Allottment at the Cold Spring on the west side of the Way to Hartford. I give to him, sd. son Samuel, the whole of my Lott at Pipe Stave Swamp, with the half of my Allottment next unto Wethersfield Bounds, with the halfe of my Lott at Pistol Poynt, upon his Mother’s decease.

I give unto my son John Stocking the whole of the Land and Buildings at my Father Stocking’s decease bequeathed me by his last Will, within the Bounds of Hartford. I give unto my daughter Lydia my Lott lying next unto Thomas Ranny’s, and butting upon ye Commons West and Dead Swamp East, with a good Milk Cow, to be delivered her within 12 months after my decease.

I give to my sons George & Ebenezer all my Lands on the East side of the Great River, to be equally divided between them, excepting the y2 of my Great Lott next unto Haddam Bounds.

I give to my son Steven my whole Lott upon the Hill, bounded upon ye Lands of Thomas Rannie North, the Commons East, West & South, with my whole Allottment in Boggy Meadow, with all my Meadow & Upland in the farther Neck, giving the Improvement of the Boggy Meadow unto my son Samuel till the abovesd. child is of age to inherit.

I give to my son Samuell (Daniel, see original paper on File) my whole Homestead lying on both sides of the Highway, with my Lott in the Long Meadow, with half my Lott at Pistoll poynt, with ^ of my Lott lying on the West side of the way as you goe to Hartford, adjoining to the Land of Anthony Martin on the North, the Land of Thomas Ranny South, the Highway & Commons West.

This I say I give to my son Daniel, that is to say, the West end of it, the other halfe of sd. Lott to be to my son Samuel. These aforementioned parcells of Land as specified I give to him my sd. son Daniel & his heirs forever, with the other halfe of my Lott next Weathersfield Bounds.

I give to our Pastor, Rev. Nathaniel Collins, £3, my son Samuel to be sole Executor.

After the decease or marriage of my wife, my Estate to be equally divided amongst my children. I desire Mr. Nath. White & John Savage sen. to be Overseers. Witness: Nath: White, Samuel Stocking Sen.

John Savage sen.

A Codicil, without Change of the above, signed 25 December, 1683.

Court Record, Page 85—6 March, 1684: Will proven.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – A Family’s Increase
By Randy Seaver
Click here for Randy’s original post.

Hey, genealogy fans, it’s Saturday Night! Time for some Genealogy Fun!

Your task, if you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music), is to:

1) Pick one of your four great-grandparents – if possible, the one with the most descendants.

2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program.

3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents.

4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don’t use last names of living people for this – respect their privacy.

5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook.

How Many Descendants Do My Great-Grandparents Roderick and Frances “Fanny” Stocking Have Now?

by Sherry Stocking Kline
October 18, 2009

My Great-Grandparents were Roderick and Frances “Fanny” Stocking. Roderick was born in Butler, Michigan on Dec 25, 1853, and his wife, Frances Hitchcock, was born November 9, 1858 in Crescent City, Illinois.

They had four children, all sons,  Elmer, Ralph, Roderick Porter, and John.

Elmer had nine children, one of which died at birth.

Ralph adopted three children, one died young.

Roderick had three children, one  son and twins, a boy and girl.   He  died young. He was electrocuted while working on high lines. Electricity was fairly new to the area then, and people often did their own wiring, and so accidents happened.

John and his wife did not have any children.

Generation 1  –  4  children – all dead (Roderick Remine’s Children)

Generation 2 –   15 children – 12 dead      3 alive

Generation 3 –   33 children –   4 dead   29 alive

Generation 4 –   39 children –    3 dead   36 alive

When I printed this report out and looked at it, I was shocked that I had so many new entries that needed to be made in my Family Tree Program.

91 members to generation 4, and I think there are at least 30 more individuals that could be added. It has been quite some time since I’ve sent out questionnaires to the families and asked them to fill them out.

We plan to have a family reunion next summer, so it looks like I certainly  have my work cut out for me!  Now I’ve got to get busy and get those questionnaires sent out so that I can learn just how many descendants Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Stocking really do have!