Curiouser and Curiouser

 

This lady is driving me and my sister crazy. She's my great grandmother's mother and I was named after her as was my grandmother. You would think we would know something about her but we don't. All we have is this portrait, a first name, Amelia, and about a dozen different ways to spell her last name. 

Using the spelling we got off my great grandmother's death certificate we found her at age 11 in the Washington City Asylum Orphanage. That's interesting.

We found her again in the 1880 census, now 23 and married to our great, great grandfather. Here she says she was born in DC and that her parents were both born in Rhinish Prussia Germany-which is pretty darn specific but no trace of them anywhere else. 

Using her married name I could get her death certificate, the birth certificate for my great grandmother and her marriage license from the DC Archives. Once again we found two different spellings of her last name and none of these documents could clarify her birth date which is all over the place. 

I've made some requests in other places that might have some information on her but until then I'm combing through my 1500 DNA relative's maternal haplogroups looking for a match to mine. Since the mystery woman is in my direct maternal line maybe I can find some people that might know the rest of her story. That haplogroup, much to my surprise, is the one linked back to the vikings. All of our maternal lines link us back to a single woman somewhere. Being a viking was rather unexpected to say the least. I can honestly say I've never had the urge to pillage or plunder. 

And.......this is for MojoJuicy my Barbie loving blog friend. Since it's Super Bowl Sunday I dressed Taylor up in her big floofy purple Speak Now Era gown that just arrived. It's not a close match to the one she wears on stage but it'll have to be close enough for now. I have no idea why doll clothes makers are not capitalizing on Swifty Mania. I'd be first in line to buy some of the things she wears on tour.