Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Looking at Thrulines

 

AncestryDNA Thrulines from Anne Carter via my Mom.

Before diving into the Carter family research from yesterday's post, above is a snapshot from the AncestryDNA Thrulines I administer for my Mom, descending from Anne Carter (appearing as 5th-great-grandmother for her). This shows DNA connections from several of Anne's known children.

My research on the children of William Heslop and Anne Carter needs some attention. I also have yet to locate a will for William and Anne, although I have some references to them in Spotsylvania County land records.

So far, I have the following children (not confirmed):

- Ann Graham Heslop (my 5th-great-grandmother)

- Elizabeth Kenyon Heslop, 1782-

- Sarah Kenyon Heslop, 1783-1857

- Martha Carter Heslop

- Horace Heslop

- William Heslop (Jr), 1787-1846

- James Heslop

- Lucy Heslop

- Robert Heslop

- John Heslop

There are extensive files in the Virginia chancery records on Sarah Kenyon Heslop and the children of Horace Heslop. She died without issue and provided for Horace's children in her will. There's more to this story and I will cover it in a separate post.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Revisiting Virginia Families

 

Google Maps. Spotsylvania, Virginia.

After reading a post from fellow family history blogger Jacqi Stevens as she revisits the Carter family of Virginia, the names seemed familiar. I checked my own tree, and sure enough, these names were also on my Mom's side of the tree through my 6th-great-grandmother Anne Carter, and her father John Carter.

On Tuesday 16 January, Jacqi posted that she was looking for a copy of John's 1778 will in the Spotsylvania County records. I had made a photocopy of this will when I visited the Spotsylvania County Court many years ago. The copies are also now available on Ancestry's Virginia Wills database, and I was able to find the same entries at image 316 (Spotsylvania County Will Book E, page 560).

I'll admit I have not documented this side of the tree very well in my own records and I've been sitting on these copies for over 8 years, maybe longer. But with our daughter looking at colleges nearby, this is as good a time as any to revisit the research and correct old errors. Some of the original works on the Carter family also have errors, and there's quite a bit of confusion about the wives of John Carter.

As we'll see when diving into the wills and chancery records on the Carter and related families, there's the ugly reality of slavery. I'll have quite a few posts to unpack these findings. My connection to the Carter family goes up from my 4th-great-grandmother Emily Ann Heslop Ballard, a daughter of Benjamin Ballard and Ann Graham Heslop. Ann was a daughter of William Heslop and Anne Carter. More to follow on the Heslop family as well.

Monday, January 29, 2024

Never Gets Old

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Santa Monica sunset. 10 Jan 2024.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Ronstadt Collections

 

Source: Ronstadt Collections at U. of Arizona.

Picking up from Wednesday & Thursday's posts, I've previously explored my Suastegui and Vasquez connections to the Ronstadt family. In doing this research, I've looked at two separate collections donated by the Ronstadt family, one to the Arizona Historical Society (PDF), and another to the University of Arizona.

In 2019, I received a set of scans from the Arizona Historical Society. The scans included research provided to the Ronstadt family in 1998 and 2000 by distant cousin and Suastegui researcher, Raclare Kanal. Raclare and I exchanged email between 2012 and 2015, and she provided me with many helpful suggestions that cleared up my own research (see this post from November 2012). She died on 24 February 2016 (see this remembrance article from the University of Arizona), but I still refer back to her research on the Suastegui, Vasquez and Campuzano families quite often.

I have a research query in with the U. of Arizona Special Collections for scans of photos from the Ronstadt Collection. I am trying to see if there are additional photos that I don't currently have for the Suastegui/Vasquez and Dalton families

Food Memories

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Santa Monica. 10 Jan 2024.

When we first moved to Los Angeles in 2006, we lived in an apartment right behind Caribbean restaurant Cha Cha Chicken. I walked by there when in town for meetings earlier in the month. It's nice to see the place still thriving. Their coconut fried chicken is amazing.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Somos Infinitas

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Montevideo. 13 Jan 2024.

Friday, January 26, 2024

Ripples

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Montevideo. 13 Jan 2024.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Portrait Photo

 

Arizona Memory Project.

Continuing from yesterday's post, above is a portrait photo of Fred Ronstadt (2nd from left, back row) with first wife Sara Levin (next to him on right), his brother Ricardo Ronstadt (4th from left), with possibly his wife Matilda Martin. I don't know who the others were. The photo is from the Arizona Memory Project. Ricardo (who went by Richard) married Matilda in Tucson on 4 August 1897.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Tucson Family Connections

 

Ronstadt Family Collection. Tucson, 1924.

In July 2016, I had a series of posts on the family of Concepcion Suastegui, referenced in the memoirs of Federico Ronstadt. Concepcion, called Tia Chona by the Ronstadt family, was the grandmother of Guadelupe "Lupe" Dalton. Lupe married Federico "Fred" Ronstadt in 1904, and is seen above with Fred and sons in a family photo taken in 1924. Fred and Lupe are the grandparents of performer and national treasure Linda Ronstadt, so we have a family connection. We are both directly descended from Francisco Suastegui (my 5th-great-grandfather), an early resident of Los Angeles (1835). More on the Suastegui family can be seen in this post from July 2017.

I'm using this post to call attention to a fascinating article on the Ronstadt family first published on Tucson.com in January 2020 (updated in February 2022). This article was overlooked during the pandemic, but popped up in a recent search as I was revisiting links to the Suastegui and Vasquez families while reading Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes' 2022 book, Feels Like Home, A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands. The article by David Leighton recounts the family's arrival in Tucson, and explains the recent naming of two streets in Tucson for Fred and Lupe - Corte de Federico and Calle de Lupe. That's really cool to see. 

I'll have more on the connections to the Suastegui and Vasquez families in another post.

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Caution among the sun rays

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Montevideo. 14 Jan 2024.

Monday, January 22, 2024

View from the office

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Montevideo, UY. 17 Jan 2024.

I'm back from ten days of travel to LA and Montevideo, Uruguay. Above is a view from the top terrace at the Montevideo office. More photos to follow.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Revisiting Montevideo

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Montevideo, UY. 18 Jul 2019.

In the near term I'll be returning to our Montevideo office, for the first time since before COVID. I shared this photo, and a couple others previously. I made a similar trip in January 2014, and shared a series of street art photos in February 2014. See also part 2.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Eight Years Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. LACMA, 4 Jan 2016.

Another throwback shot to night running at LACMA in Los Angeles, of Chris Burden's Urban Light. I see from my original post eight years ago that I mislabeled the photos as taken in 2015.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Four Years Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Marina del Rey, 8 Jan 2020.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Two Years Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Santa Monica, 6 Jan 2022.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

One Year Ago

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Los Angeles, 6 Jan 2023.

Friday, January 5, 2024

Santa painting

 

K.D. Jones. Santa, 1961.

I intended to post this painting by my Gumpy over the holidays. He completed this winking Santa in 1961.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

View of the Court

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Capital One Arena, 31 Dec 2023.

The shot above is from Sunday's Wizards v Hawks game on New Years Eve. We had pretty great seats. While the Wizards are not a good team, they kept it close against Trae Young and the Hawks.