Girdwood Family

View my family tree on Ancestry.com [link here] [search for username: JohnRobertGirdwood].  For anything that I do not have proof of in my possession (which I may or may not have uploaded yet), I have provided second hand uploaded proof (e.g. census obtained from ancestry.com that matches the data that I have).

How to view the Girdwood family history on this page…

I begin with the “Current Generations” that include family members from myself to my grandparents.  Then, I divided sections into maternal and paternal, each beginning with the first great-grandparent.  When you view the tree, in each section you can count the “greats” starting with 1.  In other words, my first paternal section starts with Laurence Girdwood who is my great-grandfather and then continues from there. Another thing to keep in mind is that, in the Current Generations, the indentations represent a generation with the blue/red as the heads of household for my lineage.  However, the italicized names do not fall within the generational indentations. The red/blue heads of house do follow the generational indentation system.

KEY: Fa=Father; Ma=Mother; Bro=Brother; Sis=Sister; Sp=Spouse; Son=Son; Dgthr=Daughter; b.=born; d.=died; aka=”also known as”

Current Generations

Here is a video of my dad's mother, Marjorie Hubbard-Girdwood.  I met with her toward the end of her life (roughly 2009) and in this video, she discusses her only great-grandchildren at that time (Emily Girdwood's twin boys: Brady and Ethan).

  • Fa1: James Griffy
  • Fa2: Rudy Junior Woll

Notes

When I was born in 1979, I knew all of the heads of house (in bold) except for Ira French, who died in 1957.  That’s 12 of 13!  In sum, I knew both living parents, all four (plus 1) grandparents, and 5 out of 6 known great-grandparents.  Unfortunately, when I began this genealogy project at age 31, the only living relatives were 1 parent, 2 (out of 5) grandparents, and 1 (out of 6) great-grandparents.  In total, I’ve gone from 12 living to 4 heads of house (in bold).

How to view the Girdwood family history in the following sections…

In these sections, generations are still indicated by indentations.  Males who are head of blood line are blue and females red.  Each section starts with a “great.”  The headings indicate those in the section.  For example, Paternal-P-P indicates my father’s father’s father’s lineage.  Maternal-P-M would mean my mother’s father’s mother’s line.

Here is an oral history interview [link] done with Grandpa Bob (Robert Laurence Girdwood) in Berkeley, MI during 2011.

 

Paternal – P – P

 

Special Section on “The Other John Girdwood”

On Christmas Eve 2011, I had the chance to meet “The Other John R. Girdwood” who is roughly my age and also attended Michigan State University around the same time as me (him 1995, me 1997).  He is a professor, too, and wrote a book even!  I have a couple “you have to be a Girdwood” stories like (i) “Hey, he’s girdwoo1!”; (ii) “A lady once called me from East Lansing stating she had my debit card, but my debit card was definitely in my wallet.”; and (iii) “Nice to know you outside of Google images now.”  I met a lot of really cool Girdwoods that evening and here is how we are related… (the gray font represents non-Girdwood bloodline)

 

Special Section on Charles Hilton DeWitt Girdwood

The Girdwoods wanted to know “where did the name ‘Charles’ come from?”  To assist in answering this question, I found this Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913 Record for Charles Hilton Dewitt Girdwood (19) which is really cool and shows “Charles” and his mother Mary Jane and father Joseph H Girdwood.  I also found this U.S. Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995 Record for Charles Hilton Dewitt Girdwood (21) showing “Charles” on the record.

The occupation of Mary Jane is listed as “Bible School Teacher.”  Laurence and his sister Dorothy, along with Joseph’s new wife Alice, do not show up until this census from 1910 – and Chalres Hilton DeWitt Girdwood is not listed as part of the household 1910 United States Federal Census Record for Larence Gerdwood (21)

During 2011, a visit to my grandpa Bob’s house (Robert Laurence Girdwood) turned up 514 photos in a historic red covered family album.  To give credit where it is due, I believe the album was originally crafted by Marguerite Girdwood (Dean).  Here are snapshots of the album in its entirety.

Slideshow:
Fullscreen:
Download:

 

Paternal – P – M

 

Special Section on Streeter Family History

Anna Sarah Streeter Dean Pimpernell has a long name and an interesting history.  She is my oldest living (in 2012) great grandmother’s mother.  Her maiden name is Streeter.  Then, she married a Dean.  Finally, she married a Pimpernell.  For purposes of this section, I’ll refer to her as Anna S. Streeter.

Streeter Family Anomalies (Naomi Ruth Streeter b. 1854)

So, what do we make of the Naomi Ruth Streeter listed in the initial family history given to me?  I believe she existed!  But, she just never made it to the United States.

Also, not to be confused with Naomi Adelaide Streeter (b. 1869; whose parents were Thomas Hinton and Caroline Slager, and who died in Allegan MI USA).

Streeter Family Anomalies (Ruth Naomi Streeter b. 1852)

Originally, my family history given to me listed Naomi as a daughter of James Reed Streeter.  Another “Ruth Naomi Streeter” was also uncovered.  Her father was James Streeter (but, not the James Reed Streeter!).  Another oddity, Ruth Naomi Streeter-Peters’ mother’s name was also “Pratt” which is the same last name of Sarah Pratt, James Reed Streeter’s wife!  Here are the multiple anomalies listed:

Streeter Family Anomalies (Sarah Streeter)

There are two: b. 1814 and b. 1835

George Streeter has a mother, sister, and wife named Sarah Streeter and a brother-in-law named George!  Furthermore, there were 2 George married to Sarah Streeter in England on 1891 census with the exact same ages, one couple in Rotherfield, Sussex England and the other in Amberley, Sussex England.

 

 Paternal – M – M

 

Paternal-M-P

 

 

Maternal – M – M

 

Maternal – M – M – The Pinson Heritage

Updated: 03 May 2012

When I was young, my oldest living maternal relative was Birdie French.  Her grandmother’s maiden name was Pinson (Pierson) and her grandmother’s great-grandfather was Aaron Pinson III who has an extensive history.  Here is more on the Pinson line.  The following information comes from elrodfamilyhistory.com

Maternal – M – M – The Sanders Story

From Lois Woll: “Ella Sanders (my Mom’s mom) shows up in a census record [1880 US Census] when she was 6 yrs old listed as a boarder in the home of the Holberts [resident list below].  I do know that they (Holberts) were cousins to my Mom.  The one cousin that she kept in touch with was Gladys Hubler who lived in MI also.  I met a Holbert when I visited MO last summer and they have a family reunion each year (some of them spell their name Halbert).  Maybe I’ll try to contact him again.  He has a gravel business and prepares all of the graves at the Sweider (sp) cemetery in Steelville MO.”

Turns out, Joshua Sanders (b. 25 Sept 1873 in Crawford County, Missouri) was drafted into the Civil War (Missouri).  Draft Card – Second Congressional District, Saint Louis Missouri 1963.  In 1860, Joshua Sanders (age 29) lived with wife Elizabeth Jane McMillan (age 25), children John – Theodosia – Nancy and boarder Saphronia McMillan (b. 1844).

 

 

Maternal – M – P

 

 

 

Maternal – P – Biological

My maternal grandmother (Lois Woll-French) is still living so I will work to clear up this lineage with her verbally.  In prior discussions with her, she indicated she does not know very much at all about James Griffy.  I was informed by my mother’s brother (Craig Woll) that James Griffy died recently, within the past two years approximately.

 

 

Maternal – P – Adoptive

At the current time, I do not know the name of my maternal adopted grandfather.  However, my maternal grandmother (Lois Woll-French) is still living so I will work to clear up this lineage with her verbally.

 

 

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