 Don't **** with rodeo clowns. That's what I take out of this. Yeah Hi, I'm Mindy Silva Welcome to the wiki tree challenge where in one week our team of volunteers will work together to uncover as much as possible About the family history of a notable person Are you ready for this? I am I am Paul your week was led by team captain Cheryl Hess Karen Lowe earned the most bounty points and Kathy Ravenstein was the MVP of the week And of course we had Mindy our challenge coordinator and host wiki tree researchers from all over the world worked around the clock scouring records newspapers wills and much more to find stories photos and 280 new relatives for you Here's a little glimpse of what that collaboration looked like the amazing thing is is that you guys have still come up with a ton of discoveries Because sometimes we just get second wins. We're like, I'm going to go to bed. Good night guys And then you find the one thing and you're like, oh wait, this tab was still open Uh, I I had to finish this So, you know, it might continue like two hours in the morning You go to bed at like three o'clock. That's one of the times when the collaboration is really key You know, because there were so many people that touched that family what I really like is the research notes though because um Today I found someone else same name same city of birth same birthday sort of birth year But I found his death certificate and it wasn't the guy I was working on because he had a different father So I put a research note in the one I'm working on and said this is not the guy That's what I'm trying to do is is Since I have his address I can focus on his address, but I still need to make sure that we collect all these other Williams recommendation might be for some of these launches to keep pushing back I probably would really tell him to consider taking a dna test. I'm new to this. This is my first Like uh collaboration like this is very cool. Thank you for all your hard work And I really do appreciate everything you found this week in your branches We found a lot of tragedy and young deaths with the occasional humor and longevity mixed in Now we did try and pick from some of the more positive stories we found but those of course weren't as plentiful as the sadder items were Well, it all makes sense now Now and galley the first is the first ancestor I want to introduce you to and she's your second great-grandmother And for her line, we're reaching out to your second great-grandparents on the male gillmartin line It goes from you to your father to your grandfather, william To your great-grandfather thomas and then to his parents patrick gillmartin and and galley And she wasn't she was an interesting character Ann did not get along with some of her neighbors once she was a widow and then after that there are numerous complaints filed between her And mostly two other families for cattle a mule four pigs and 12 geese trespassing on the other's property So this was yeah, this was a bit amusing and appeared to have issues One of the neighbors she had issues with was john malby now She was a defendant in a koala case on the 9th of may 1867 and john malby was the complainant The issue was a trespass of her cattle on their land Two years later a case was heard for ann gillmartin who accused john malby of letting his cattle Trespass on her land the case was dismissed for no appearance She appeared again in the court records in 1872 when she made a complaint That the cattle of cat donahue damaged her oats and potatoes and here she's getting more specific the oats and the potatoes were damaged The witness was daniel gillmartin. So i'm assuming her son And the case for the trespassing cattle was adjourned to the west court In august of that same year She made complaint that thomas bork's male mule and 12 of his geese did trespass on her property At the same time pat was complaining that her four pigs trespassed on him's line So i guess we can get from this that nobody had fences And they just weren't okay with everybody's animals crossing the line not sure how they were supposed to know where that line was but Ann was assessed a penalty for uh for the pigs trespassing if you look at that last entry You can notice the names for the main ninth record And that was a catherine galle that made complaint against ann galle gillmartin So i'm not sure of the exact relationship, but it appears it was a lively one Catherine was the informant on the death record for a martin galle who was the most likely ant's brother Ann lived her days out there in that small town And the final trespassing case was her in 1873 less than two years before she died She died in 1875 at the age of 68 She had survived her husband patrick by 18 years Her sons daniel and charles remained in callala as well both working as farmers Her middle son thomas however migrated to the united states at the age of 18 settling in pennsylvania He worked as a laborer at the coal mine and later a watchman at a department store We'll go for a fun ancestor this one took us across the path of james j jerry macormick starting on your father's side Going to his father william gillmartin Then to mary macormick his mother and she's your great-grandmother And then finally over to her brother jerry Now jerry was the son of william acormick and rigid mcfaddy He played professional baseball debuting with a baltimore orioles on the first of may 1883 Positionally he played third base first base and left field during his career He had a 262 batting average and it wasn't a long career You know, but he was a third baseman in major league baseball for the orioles Of the american association And also the following year for the philadelphia keystones and the washington nationals of the union union association And then here's what the stadium looked like in 1883 when he was with the baltimore orioles Wow Another story you didn't know, huh? No kidding Okay, my My dad would have loved to have known that because he was a Baseball nut So it's it's too bad that information never never got down to him Now we're going to go to your second great-grandfather another one This is huo donnell and he was another irish immigrant And he was on your father's side of the tree So we go to his mother rebecca o donnell hill martin Then to your great-grandfather joseph ignatius stana slaw o donnell That's quite a mouthful. Yeah And finally reached your second great-grandfather huo joseph o donnell and his wife rebecca o neil Now huo was born in 1831 in ireland for his death record And then huo and rebecca migrated to pennsylvania in 1866 settling in philadelphia Now huo was a laborer when the 1880 census was taken And at that time they had added 11 children to the family It was noted that huo could not read or write His wife hannah took care of the home and family Their daughters hannah annie and rose were all bread makers Their sons arthur and joseph attended school So it was really only gracey that stayed home with hannah during the day And although the 1880 census didn't collect this data only six of their children were living When it was taken So here was another one, you know, where they'd had a lot of loss And it was the 1900 and 1910 census records that showed us she had birthed 11 children in total Good lord I know And you know either way losing this many would be just so tragic and your direct ancestor by the way was number 10 So if you look they lost john was seven kate was eight grace was nine And you had a sturdy one joseph made it so But despite the hardship faced by this couple their hard work and dedication paid off now Huo was employed as a watchman by the railroad By 1900 he owned their home free and clear He'd become a naturalized citizen of the united states And his children went on to become nurses and other professionals So, you know, huo and rebecca really did experience what people call the american dream This one we're going to go along a little bit of a different branch from your father to his mother rebecca To her mother mary and finally to her parents alexander mccoy and julia kennedy mccoy Now per the 1900 census alexander emigrated in 1862 and became a naturalized citizen His wife julia emigrated in 1863 Now both were born during the potato famine so their families must have been experiencing financial difficulty alexander and julia had 16 children over 27 years I know God bless that woman. That's all I can say Yeah, only eight of the children reached adulthood Now many of them died as babies from scarlet fever diphtheria or other conditions, you know Which now we vaccinate against or we can cure but back then those were a big deal And under nourishment too. Yes. Yeah And you know, they were a close knit family, but why likely not well off financially You know, and I say that because you'll see that when you look at the records for this family They stuck together. They really did, you know, they didn't kids didn't go. Oh, I'm 18 and move off You know, some of them stayed within the home there and and helped out But some of their children actually worked at a fairly young age instead of attending school. So in 1880 their 14 year old daughter annie worked at a shoe factory And her 13 year old brother john worked at a cotton mill alexander. He was a cooper by trade So he made barrels He lived to 59 julia to 67. So once again the the mom outlived the the dad She was a widow in 1910. She had children and a grandchild in the home with her still So there were seven other adults in the house Her children and their spouses all helped jobs Julia was home for her granddaughter winifred while they worked She had led what looked like a difficulty yet fulfilling life And it's apparent that her children carried on the sense of family And hard work that they had gotten from their parents Well, that ended with me That ended with you, huh? You weren't because you weren't carrying on the big family trait or Or the work ethic. Oh or the worth it. Well, now you work I do I do So next we're going to go ahead and take a look at your maternal great grandfather frank e fisher And this one starts on your mother's side Goes to her father alfred fisher to his father frank fisher And then we get to frank's is avie fisher who is actually born francais avie la boisignette to francais avie la boisignette and henry at francoor in 1868 the family lived in port fairfield and grand island main And in st. Leonard new brunswick among other places And I noticed she did have a number of the ancestors in grand isle though Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's where my grandmother was was raised. She did actually spoke French until she was about six and then she learned english Oh, wow That's a that's a really nice way to do it. Yeah Now he married twice first in 1892 In fort fairfield main to marie. Helen nelly poitras They were the parents of four children including premature twins who died within a day Pearl agnes and alfred joseph But what we did find interesting was that he was a dealer in horses carriages and slays in port fairfield and in grand isle slaves did you say or slaves? Slays, sorry a big difference We're not dealing. We're not dealing with the slave people. No, right? He also owned a hotel in grand island and this was really fun It was called the frank e fisher boarding house and restaurant He owned it from 1908 to 1912 And there's a picture actually taken um around that time period This is one of the photographs featured on main memory dot net now It was taken in 1905 when frank would have been a carriage dealer there You know, I don't know about you, but I just love seeing the clothing of the era And you know the horses and carriages on the unpaved main street all the stuff that was the norm back then Yeah Such a trip and here you can see that frank was also a deputy sheriff for some time in grand isle Now he seemed to have been kind of a jack of all trades and very involved in the community for this connection We went to your grandfather fred And then over to his sister pearl fisher Her husband was arthur buska And his father was philip buska and this is who the story's about I know right Can you see why we had to share this one? We found a lot of information about philip Oh Yeah So it says that philip buska he was 75 years old at the time Uh, he'd been residing in great falls montana for about 35 years And he was living in just a small shack, you know, he made a modest living on the outskirts of town He was raising his chicken to make a living And so on the day in question buska had been in town to sell some of his chickens for which he received 22 dollars That was probably quite a bit back then. Yeah Unbeknownst to philip his chicken wealth did not go unnoticed in great falls in town that day There were two shady characters or two shady clowns to be more precise Both men worked as rodeo clowns when they worked ray blacky brooks was an ex-convict Who's criminal record included arrests in washington state and nevada for intoxication robbery and assault Paul miller was a native of boseman montana and had been arrested previously for intoxication and assault They were both intoxicated that night according to a written confession later made by miller He and brooks had been drunk that day and continued to drink in town until 8 p.m At that point the two clowns hatched their dastardly plan They would go to the home of buska and steal his chickens Things did not go according to plan the two men severely assaulted buska Though miller claimed not to remember the assault because of his drunkenness the men stole two of buska's newly earned 22 dollars They took his watch and they took buska's shotgun as miller explained They were afraid that buska would shoot them with it if they didn't steal the gun They did not get away with any chickens Don't f*** with rodeo clowns. That's what I take out of this. Yeah So brooks was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment with no chance of parole And miller who you know, they determined was a bystander to a lot of the attack was sentenced to five years imprisonment And philip philip himself lived on for another 14 years dying at the age of 90 in great falls Wow, what a trip I know right Starting on your mother's side again We go to elaine morneau your grandmother her mother And then to elaine's father charles jawn orno And finally to charles his father and your great-grandfather. This is another one of the remaining buildings and grand isle They preserved that and they preserved several homes from the original community But the house we're going to look at is the morneau house This home was built back in 1857 the morneau house is believed to have been built in 1857 by charles morneau your second great-grandfather and a french-canadian immigrant He settled in the grand isle main area in 1856 and the next year married flavie tibodeau your second great-grandmother charles was a merchant trader and provided space for a post office in his home When members of his family served as postmaster In 1973 the house was donated to our living heritage by norman go pray and her husband adi She is charles's great-granddaughter and your second cousin In 1975 the house was moved to the acadian village where it still stands to this day So if you ever want somewhere to visit Yeah, that's on my bucket list of places to to go to i've never been to may Oh, see now that would be great. You could go walk in the house Like a big shot. Uh, excuse me. I know what i'm doing. Uh, this is i belong here. I belong here back up I want to talk to you about another second great-grandfather Alexis sear and here we travel on your mother's line again to her mother elaine to elaine's mother susanne And finally to susanne's father, which is your second great-grandfather, alexis sear Now alexis was born on the 7th of december 1836 in st. Lucille matta wasca new brunswick the son of paul sear and I'm not sure how you say that salami tibido He was first listed in a census record in 1850 At that time his family was living on the van vuren plantation in new brunswick His father paul was working as a farmer and owned four thousand dollars of real estate Three of his brothers worked as laborers Eight of his nine siblings including the three worked at that worked attended school So here we see that his father was born in maine and his mother was born in brunswick His sister elinor died the following year at the age 11 Three years later his brother remi died age 27 and alexis and filamine had four children between them one son and three daughters Nine months after christine was born filamine died and so here's you know alexis with these four children Now several years before his death alexis represented his district in the state legislature He was later said to be one of the principal citizens of aroustak He died in 1887 and he was buried there And you know once again you just had so many interesting People in grand isle it was just so fun to go through there crazy I I can't believe the amount of research that uh You guys did it's so in-depth Not many people know that abraham lincoln the 16th president of the united states faced a lifelong battle with depression You and president lincoln are connected through marriage. Your third cousin joseph cormier Married abraham's second cousin melanie hanks jim carrey a fellow comedian has also struggled with depression throughout his life You two are related by blood jim is your seventh cousin once removed Your common ancestor is a woman named jennadiv saroh who was born in kebek in 1667 All told you have 29 million four hundred and eight is actually 483 984 cousins now through blood or marriage On wiki tree with almost 900 thousand of those being living wiki tree years Wow That's a lot of presents for christmas I love genealogy presents. They're so much fun And now I do want to say a special thanks to all the people who made your challenge week so successful So every one of our researchers You know whether you did a lot whether you did a little it just is incredible and you put it all together And then of course i want to thank them as well So what do you think of all the cool new stories that you got? It's amazing seeing the documents and the pictures and it going back A couple of generations further than than I was aware of was just really Really cool Really cool. It's uh I can't imagine how much work went into that Yeah, thank you so much mendy