#52Ancestors: First

Henry Cryder (1856-1935).
Inset: Mary Rosalie Greenwalt (1863-1916).

Well, here it is again... another new year! I didn't make it quite as far with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge that I hoped to last year but hope springs eternal and I'm giving it another whirl this year!

The first prompt of the year is "First" and I immediately flashed on the first foray I made into searching for a genealogical record. As I've written about before (Start), my dear friend, Monika, and I took a genealogy course together after graduating from college. 

After I learned a few of the basics, I decided to try my hand at finding my first census record. Based on a few details included in a hand-drawn chart I'd received from my great-uncle, it seemed possible I might be able to locate my great-great grandparents in the 1880 Jackson County, Oregon, census. My great uncle was confident his grandfather's name was Henry Cryder, as he'd grown up with him. He was less certain of his grandmother's name but thought her maiden name was Greenwalt.

Armed with these scant details, I sat myself down at one of the microfilm readers among the many film cabinets in the deserted basement of William Jasper Kerr Library at Oregon State University. They had the 1880 census for Oregon! I gingerly loaded the microfilm for Jackson County and began slowly reading, advancing the film one page at a time looking for the name Cryder and Greenwalt, or something like it.

Turning, turning, turning, I kept advancing the film. I was little accustomed to reading the 19th-century handwriting and it was slow going. I can still remember the elation of discovering Henry Cryder at the bottom of the page in Eden Township. I eagerly looked around for someone, anyone, to share my discovery with... but it was just me! I was so excited, I could hardly believe my eyes. Proof, in black and white, from over a hundred years before, of one of my ancestors.

I was still completely incredulous that this genealogy thing really worked! Giddy with success, I decided to keep looking for the Greenwalt family. I hit the jackpot again when I found a Greenwalt family just a few pages later with a daughter the right age to be my great-great-grandmother. I knew from my great-uncle, Henry Cryder had been a schoolteacher. I was a little scandalized, however, to discover his future wife, Mary, listed as a student! I later found their marriage certificate confirming I had the correct families. Not only had I found my great-great grandparents, but just like that I also added another generation because both of them were living with their parents! Cowabunga!

I was still a long way from really knowing what I was doing, in spite of this success. Looking at the census, common sense told me Mary's mother's name was likely Louisa. I still have the Post-it note I affixed to the printout I made that day where I wrote "Leonica?" as I tried to decipher the names the enumerator wrote for the members of the Greenwalt family. I  keep it as a reminder of how much I've learned over the years.

I hope I never forget how excited I was by this first discovery I made now over 30 years ago. (Yikes!) It was the first step down a yellow brick road that has brought me hours of entertainment and satisfaction over the years and many trips down backroads following in the footsteps of my ancestors!

  

“1880 United States Federal Census,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 January 2019), entry for Daniel W. Cryder, p. 131C, Eden, Jackson, Oregon; citing “NA film no. T9-1031.”

“1880 United States Federal Census,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 January 2019), entry for Abraham Greenwalt, p. 135C, Eden, Jackson, Oregon; citing “NA film no. T9-71031.”