One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you Sarah B at Geneapprentice for choosing my blog for this award. Blogging has been a great experience.  I’m always surprised that people actually view my blog.  This has been an extra special month with a cousin in England finding my blog and getting in touch.

Accepting this award comes with some conditions.  You get the pleasure of reading new blogs and choosing 15 new blogs to pass on the award.  

The rules of acceptance are :

1. Accept the award; post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted the award and their blog link.

2. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Here are blogs that I’ve chosen, and they are all lovely:

1.      A Hundred Years Ago

2.      A Patient Genealogist

3.      Finding Kline

4.      Adventures in Family History

5.      All Things Alcorn

6.      Barking up Our Family Tree

7.      Blundering Blindly Backwards

8.      Finding Family Stories

9.      Foote Paths

10.  Jen’s Genealogy Pages

11.  More Than Names

12.  My Link to the Past

13.  Stories from Many Moons Ago

14.  The Door Keepers

15.  What’s My Lineage?

  .   

Congrats!  I look forward to reading more of your posts.  Thanks once again to Sarah B and those who read my blog.

Surname Saturday - DANSKINE

This is the maiden name of my great grandmother, Elizabeth.  She married my great grandfather, Francis Paterson, June 11, 1883 in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland. This has to be one of my favourite surnames.  I can’t help but like this surname as it is an unusual Scottish name. No matter how you spell it-Danskine, Danskin, Dansken, or Danshin.  My line seemed to like the Danskine with the e on the end.  As far as I can tell most people with this name are related in some way. It’s interesting to see the migration of the Danskines.  I’ve found Danskines in England, Australia, United States, and Canada.  

Danskines were in Denny, Stirlingshire, Scotland in the late 1600s.  My 4^th great grandfather, William Danskine was born in Denny, Shirlingshire in 1748.  He was in Lanarkshire, Scotland by 1777, where he married Mary Ann Maine.  His son James Danskine married Helen Hardie in 1811 in Cumbernauld, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.  James was a weaver.  His son, William Danskine, my 2^nd great grandfather was born 1816 and married Agnes Findlay in 1837 in Cumbernauld, Scotland.  William was listed as a grocer and spirit dealer in the 1861 census.  I have found a few spirit dealers in my family in Scotland. So if you recognized this surname, chances are we are related. 

The American Civil War – John H Littrell

Thanks to Bill West of West in New England for the Civil War Blog Challenge to mark the 150 anniversary of the start of the Civil War on 12 Apr 1861.  I’ve been meaning to blog about my third great grandfather, John H Littrell.  (See Fearless Females – Mini Profile, March 31, 2011 to read about his wife Letis Ellen Knox). I was quite surprised to find out how many American ancestors that I had, let alone an ancestor in the American Civil War.  My American ancestors are from my Mom maternal side who came to Alberta, Canada in the 1890s. 

Most of what I know about John Littrell comes from Pension No. 11273 (Applicant-Letis Ellen Littrell, Veteran-John H Littrell) and a couple of census records.  I have no parents for John and I’m not sure what the H stands for.  According to the records John was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1831. The year corresponds to his census record for 1860, taken in Mercer County, Illinois.  Although the census states he was born in Iowa. I tend to believe the pensions records as John probably gave them the information.

John Littrell was enlisted by Lieutenant S.S. Newberry of the Twelfth Regiment of Infantry at Dubuque, Iowa on November 29, 1861.  At this time John is married to Letis Ellen Knox and has five children.  He is to serve three years but doesn’t make it passed one.  On October 11, 1862 he’s discharged with a Surgeon Certificate of disability at Fort Hamilton NYH.  The surgeon, B. Randall, finds him incapable of performing his duties of a soldier because of a “pallid look, flabby muscles and broken down constitution”.  Somehow he makes it back to Dubuque, Iowa. His wife, Letis, in a letter to the pension office says that he died of his illness November 17, 1862.  

I believe that John H Littrell is buried at the Linwood Cemetery in Dubuque, Iowa. Although when I e-mailed the cemetery they replied they didn’t have records back that far.  But I have found mention of a John Littrell of the Twelfth United States Infantry whom grave is at Linwood on p 419 of a book on google “The History of Dubuque County, Iowa, a history of the County, its Cities, Towns, & C.” published in Chicago by Western Historical Company, 1880.  John Littrell is, also, mentioned as one of the soldiers’ graves decorated at Linwood Cemetery on May 30, 1868 from the Dubuque Daily Herald on Dubuque County IA GenWeb.

I’m still searching for clues about John Littrell and learning about the civil war.  My husband is quite surprised that I’ll watch the civil war shows on TV with him. But they’re so much more interesting when you have ancestors who lived during that time period.  I have a lot of unanswered question.  Who were his parents? What battles was he involved with during the civil war? Is he really buried at Linwood cemetery and does he have a grave marker?