Ancestry.com is so addictive!! I’ve been so involved, I’ve had very little to eat. I’m fixing a grilled cheese sandwich as I type this (with a tall glass of V-8). It is almost two o’clock and I’m still in my pajamas. I didn’t have breakfast, and I was trembling–perhaps from hunger?! Yesterday, I enjoyed a big slice of watermelon. Gospel truth: Last night and early this morning, I promised myself I would not start the day on Ancestry. But, I had a story in mind (for Mennonite Family History) and I needed a couple of facts. Well, one thing led to another and I was caught up in what will be another story. Without exaggeration, I worked in excess of six hours on one individual. Furthermore, she isn’t even my relative!! Martha “Mattie” Belle McClanahan was married to John Marshall Frantz.  He was a first cousin of Frank Christian Frantz, the last territorial governor of Oklahoma (my sixth cousin, two times removed). This isn’t “my tree”; this is another branch of the tree that is well-worth documentation.  All day yesterday–and this morning–endeavoring to clean up other people’s messes. I am so frustrated with the amount of erroneous information attached to individuals. When I compare my information with other individual’s trees, I see that most people just copied someone else’s information. Very few sources listed!! So I search and find Census, marriage, death, etc., etc., and document it in my tree. This morning, to solidly identify the John Marshall Frantz family, I added the city directory sources. (In many cases, I do not invest the time to document all city directories because one or two is sufficient.)

Mattie was born in 1881; her husband born in 1880, died in 1927. Okay, I’ll add her death date, too. That’s where the long hours began. I searched dozens of records (seemed like hundreds). The “hints” and individual family trees were no help; I had more information than they did!! I traced her through three subsequent marriages and eventually obtained her 7 Apr 1969 death. Imagine following McClanahan (maiden name), Frantz (first marriage), McGuffin (second),Schrader (third), Dunlap (fourth).  Below, see the record in a neat little package on Ancestry.com. Yes, in total I have twenty-six sources. Other “trees” only had eight, or less, sources.

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Changing the topic, but not the subject (lol). I wanted to find the connection to Samuel Mayer Marshall Frantz. He is a well-respected artist/illustrator. With a name like Samuel Marshall Frantz, he just had to be part of the family. Alas, on the Internet he is identified as Russian-born in 1890. Click this link to see many of his illustrations. ~~ Notable people in my tree: Joe B. Frantz, journalist and associated with Texas Highways magazine; Harry Warner Frantz, correspondent; Frank Frantz, Oklahoma governor. Others, too, but I don’t recall their names right now. (I feel an urgency to document the Frantz family while still able. So many acquaintances claim to have “senior moments”  but we know it is a problem that comes with old age.)