My cousin-bait worked!

I don't remember whose blog I was reading when I first came across the term "cousin bait". It was mentioned that blogging about our family history is a good way to "troll" for unknown relatives. The hope was that someday someone googling a family name would come across a blog post that had mentioned the mutual ancestor and contact could be made between previously unknown relatives. I remember smiling at the term and thinking it was a great idea. I didn't seriously expect it to work for me though!

Last week, I got a comment on one of the blog posts I had made last summer in which I mentioned I was traveling back east to meet previously unknown descendants of my immigrant ancestor, Joseph Zeiler, my great-great grandfather. This poster is a previously unknown 2nd cousin (once removed)! Her family descends from my great-grandmother's brother, Theodore A. Zeiler and his 2nd wife, Carrie E. Belknap.

Elmdale Cemetery
Jefferson Township, PA

Theodore A. Zeiler
1885 - 1936

Grace E. [Brown] his wife
1873 - 1903

Carrie E. [Belknap] his wife
1871-1922






 My great-grandmother was Theodore's younger sister, Hannah Zeiler. This new cousin and I have been busily exchanging emails back and forth and comparing family information. We are both hoping that with our new connections we can find previously unseen photos for some of our ancestors. She is hoping to see a photo of her grandfather, Theodore, and I am hoping to find a photo of my great-grandparents, Joseph Zeiler and Margaret Mack.

My Heritage Pie

I know I'm a little late to this but here is my Heritage Pie. Randy Seaver first blogged about this on
16 July 2011on his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your "Heritage Pie" Chart. The following 'pie' shows the distribution of the birthplaces of my 16 great-great-grandparents.

Birthplaces: 8 in Germany, 2 in Canada, 2 in England, and 4 in United States (Rhode Island)

Paternal great-great Grandparents -

Joseph Goff Grant - born 1 Aug 1819, No. Providence, Rhode Island

Lydia Boomer Leach - born 13 May 1827, Warwick, Rhode Island

Ernest Lord Mellor - born 2 Mar 1832, Chadderton, Lancashire, England

Hannah Worthington  - born 7 May 1833, Royton, Lancashire, England

Zophar Skinner  - born 12 Sept 1843, Valley Falls, Rhode Island

Eliza Jane Carpenter  - born 12 April 1847, Coventry, Rhode Island

John William Betts  - born June 1844, Wallace, Nova Scotia, Canada

Susan Fulton - born 13 Feb 1839, Wallace, Nova Scotia, Canada

Maternal great-great-Grandparents -

Johann Martin Veith - born 9 April 1825, Altdorf, Wurttemberg, Germany

Anna Maria Heller - born 4 Oct 1828, Hudlach, Wuttemberg,Germany

Joseph Zeiler - born 21 Dec 1826, Wuttemberg, Germany

Anna Margaretha Mack - born June 1827, Wuttemberg, Germany

Christoph Badendick - born Germany

Friederike Spierling - born Germany

Gottfried Zerull - born 4 March 1812, Garnseedorf, West Prussia

Wilhelamine Kroening - born about 1835 in West Prussia

Third cousin meet-up

I'll be traveling back east soon to northeastern Pennsylvania to meet up with at least 2, and possibly 3 or 4 third cousins. We are all descended from the children of Joseph Zeiler and Anna Margaretha (Margaret) Mack of Jefferson Twp, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

According to the 1900 census, Joseph Zeiler and Margaret Mack married around 1856. This census indicates they had 8 children but only 5 were living in 1900. These children are:

Mary Zeiler born August 1857
Karolina (Carrie) Zeiler born 28 June 1859
Casoline (Cassie) Zeiler born July 1863
Theodore A. Zeiler born Dec 1865
Hannah Zeiler born 21 May 1869 (my great-grandmother)

All these children, (except Karolina who had no children of her own) have living descendants and some of us will be meeting for the first time. It looks like we might have at least one descendent from each branch! I'm hoping that we can all exchange photos, documents, family records and family stories.