Death Certificates

So interesting to get your grandparent's death certificates in the mail.  Grandpa Mckee died in 1979, I was ten, remember some but to find out more details just adds to my family history story.  Grandma McKee died in 1990 and I remember being so thankful that she was able to meet and spend time with my first born.  I'm having fun on my genealogy adventure.

I've been organizing my new office/craft room area for the last few weeks.  In between working and mom stuff I sneak in some time to clean up my family trees.  I've noticed several people have repeat or multiple sources.  I've been checking everyone for correct source and info. 

For the last month I've been trying to clean up my trees.  I seem to have lots of misinformation and people listed 2 or 3 times. 
Moved my office to the bigger spare room.  Should help me be more organized.

My First Childhood Memories

The first memories I have are not very happy.  My parents divorced when I was 3 or 4.  I have several memories of fights and  police.  But I do remember one good thing.  We lived on a dead end street in Hanna City, Illinois.  The house was at the very end at the bottom of a hill.  The house was small.  I remember having a bedroom that was located kind of behind the living room.  One nice thing I remember about that house is my Grandpa John Clifton McKee making peanut butter fudge.  We would sit at the kitchen table and eat the fudge. I can still smell that fudge.  I loved my grandpa so much.  He died when I was 10.  I also remember visiting a house that was located a few houses from our house on the same street.  An older lady that I can't remember her name (I should ask my dad) made me a quilt that was black and blue.  All I can remember about her house was that it was white and had a silver metal screen door.  Hopefully in 2012 I can take a trip back to Illinois and visit this street.  It would be nice to see if my memories are accurate.  Sometimes I wonder if my memories are actual memories or from pictures that I've seen.

My New Years Day

 Yesterday I spent most of the day backing up my photos and organizing my genealogy "stuff".  I'm still working on my photo back up today because we have over 30 gigs of photos plus we are scanning every week.  I made my genealogy 2012 resolution list in my new "My family tree Research Planner" that I bought from shop family tree. Let's see if I use it all year long.  I'm setting up a little genealogy space in my basement so I will have all my things in one place.  Let's hope it works and I get all my goals accomplished.

My 2012 Genealogy Resolutions!

 

Gosh, it's been a long time since I've wrote.  I haven't had much time for my family history searching.  Now that things are slowing down and I'm on a break from work I find myself wanting to dive back in.  I've done some more hard drive organization this month.  I've searched on and off for my great grandfather William Frederick McKee aka Fred McKee. I sent for his death certificate and found out his parents are Peter McKee and Emma Perkins McKee.  On my list for 2012 is to find out his story, order my grandpa's (John Clifton McKee) death certificate and birth certificate and maybe order Peter's death certificate. 
I order the research calendar from Family Tree Magazine.  It's really cool and I'm hoping it will keep me motivated.  I'm also going to set up a craft, scrap book, genealogy research place in the basement bedroom.  I want a place that I can lay out stuff I'm working on and know it won't get mess with.
One of my genealogy resolutions is to write more on this blog and document the stories I find.
Picture below is my dad.  He was named after his Grandpa Fred (William Frederick McKee), the one I'm looking for more information.  Dad is still working hard in Illinois.  I'm hoping to make a trip back this spring to search through Dad's house to maybe find a picture of Fred McKee.

William Frederick McKee 1939

William Fred McKee

I thought I would just write down everything I know about my Great Grandpa, William Fred McKee.

He went by the name of Fred McKee
He was born 1881. (Headstone)
The 1900 Census states that Fred McKee was born August 1881 in Ohio.  He was 18 at the time of this census. He lives in Newtown Precinct, Scott County, Kentucky. Enumeration Distrist 58. He lives with his parents and 6 siblings.  Dwelling number 147
1910 Census-Fred(28) is living with his wife, Ollie B.(26) and their daughter Flora(1).  This census says all of them were born in KY which is different from the previous census.