Kathy Wait Myers Genealogy» Where: Nebraska

Review – OBITS OF NEBRASKA Website

Kathy Wait Myers — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:10:09 +0000

I found a new website yesterday called Obits of Nebraska that specializes in pre-1930s obituaries for people who died in Nebraska. Having deep Nebraska roots, I thought I would give it a shot and see if they have any from Seward County. Since it’s such a rural county, there usually aren’t any clippings from their newspapers, but it was free to search!

So I typed in WAITS, and sure enough there was my 2nd GGF William! The listing showed his Name, Birth year, Death year, County, and the date of the publication. So I was absolutely certain that it was MY William! They have a handy “buy now” button right there that linked to their PayPal account, so I clicked away!

Obits of Nebraska charges $4.99 with 50 cents of each purchase donated to the Nebraska State Historical Society. Considering what it would cost me to find this image myself, not to mention the time, I was happy to fork over $5 for it (and even happier that they donate 10% to NSHS)!

There was an error on the landing screen after my purchase, so I forwarded a copy of it to the email address they provided.

According to my PayPal receipt, my order went through at 2:25p on 11/8/09 (Sunday). At 4:30pm the same day, I had an email from Barbara Starks along with a .pdf of William’s obituary! Two hours and 5 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Not too shabby!

Good afternoon, Kathy

Thank you for your support. Your selection for #20535, William Henry Waits is attached. If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to contact us at:obitsofnebraska@hotmail.com
Our email office hours are from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. In addition, I have forwarded the error message you received on to technical support.

Thanks again,

Barbara Starks
O’Bits of Nebraska

I was happy to see that the image was labeled with the newspaper name, county, and date. Very useful to include the Source!

Since the file was in .pdf format, I zoomed way out on the image until I could see the whole thing on my screen at once (without scrolling). Then I just clicked on the upper left corner of the image and dragged a box down to the lower right corner. The right-clicked and selected “copy image”. From there, I opened up Paint (which comes standard on almost everyone’s computers these days), clicked “Edit” and then “Paste”. Then “Save As”, named the file WAITS_William_Henry_1845_1927.jpg, then saved it. Taa-Daaaaa!! It’s now a photo. Now I just need to upload the photo onto my tree and I’m done!

I’m not sure why the file isn’t sent as a .jpg file, but in reality it only added a few more steps to my process.

Obits of Nebraska has nine more WAITs on their website, some I recognized immediately and a few from Fillmore County which I don’t think are related. One of those is William’s wife Elve and although I have a copy of her obituary, I may order it anyway. This version of William’s obituary was completely different than the transcript that I got from a cousin. And much longer!

I played around with the Search button and decided to see if I could find ALL of the Seward County obituaries. So I typed in “Seward” and it found 83 obituaries with Seward in them. Eight of which I believe are related as well, so I’ll probably be back to get those too! A few just had Seward somewhere in their name, but the rest were all from Seward County. As I mentioned, Seward County is pretty rural and considering that these are all pre-1930, I think that’s an amazing number!

All in all, I’m very pleased with the quality, service, and helpfulness of Obits of Nebraska and will definitely be back for more!

What do you think of this post?

Interesting (0) Useful (0) Funny (0) Cool (0)

Tombstone Tuesday – Edwin William Waits (1892-1963)

Kathy Wait Myers — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:05:04 +0000

I thought it would be fitting today to show you Edwin William Waits’ tombstone, since he was a major part of my day yesterday.

Edwin was born in Milford, Seward, Nebraska, USA and died in Marion, Oregon, USA. It’s my understanding that he was married with kids. Was it common back then to take someone’s body across country and not bury them with their spouse? That seemed to happen a lot in my family.

I took this photo at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Ruby, Seward, Nebraska, USA on Memorial Day, 2009 and noticed that a few of my family’s graves had flowers on them. Same thing in the Seward Cemetery. Assuming that the visitors are cousins, I’d really like to talk to them and let them know about my research and blog and see if they want to compare notes. Does anyone have any ideas on how I would get in touch with them? I’ve thought about leaving a note in a ziploc next Memorial Day, but that’s nine months away. Seems a shame to let it go that long if we live in the same area.

What do you think of this post?

Interesting (0) Useful (0) Funny (0) Cool (0)

Photo Request – William Henry WAITS (1845-1927)

Kathy Wait Myers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:00:19 +0000

William Henry Waits

Have you seen this man? This is my great great grandfather William Henry WAITS and I am looking for additional photos of him for a family project that I’m working on. If you’ve been reading along and thinking that maybe you think that I’d like to see some of the photos that you have of this family, you’re right! Now’s your chance! Scan them and send them in!

I’ve set up a special email account for photo submissions: GeneaKathyPhotos@gmail.com

If possible, try to scan the photos with a resolution of at least 300 ppi. The bigger, the better. My email can handle it.
If you inherited photos of William or anyone else related to his family and want to give them to another family member, I would gladly take them. I am archiving all of my photos and would be thrilled to add yours to my collection so I can protect them as well as share them with other family members.

Here’s the nitty gritty to help you find him in your photos!

VITALS:

b. 29 Sep 1845 – Miami, Clermont, Ohio, USA

m. 24 Jul 1877 – Elve Sonoria LONG PITT – Seward, Seward, Nebraska, USA

d. 30 Jan 1927 – Ruby, Seward, Nebraska, USA

FAMILY

James G Waits, William's father

Father:

James G WAITS (1816-1880) – son of Charles Waits (1790-1868) and Mary GOBLE (1799-1839)

Mother:

Susannah ARTHUR (1816-1901) – dau of William ARTHUR (1788-1865) AND Mary Polly REED

Siblings:

Rachel Waits (1840-1868)
Mary Lucinda Waits HULEN (1841-1902)
Sarah E Waits (1845-1869)
Rhoda C Waits (1848-?)
Charles Richmond “Dick” Waits (1850-1917)
James Turner Waits (1852-1929)
Moses Woodruff Waits (1855-1921)
Thomas Boyd Waits (1858-1927)
Ada May Waits PALMER(1861-1951)

Spouse:

Elve Sonoria LONG PITT – dau of Samuel LONG (1811-1887) and Permelia Ann ROGERS (1824-1916)

Children:

Samuel Melvin PITT (1869-)
Frederick Hiram WAIT (1876-1955)
Lavina Lenora Waits LUNNEY (1878-1966)
Simeon Andboy Waits (1881-1941)
Rhoda L Waits DAVIS (1884-1973)
Thomas Grover Waits (1886-1962)
Elizabeth Myrtle Waits DAAKE (1889-1974)

MILITARY

Civil War Veteran – Fought for Union
Co H, 54th Ohio Volunteers
Co F, 195th Ohio Volunteers
Battles: Harper’s Ferry, Winchester, and Old Town

RESIDENCES

Sterling, Brown County, Ohio, USA
Harrison County, Nebraska, USA
Ruby, Seward County, Nebraska, USA
Seward, Seward County, Nebraska, USA

OCCUPATIONS

Stonemason
Farmer
Laborer

What do you think of this post?

Interesting (0) Useful (0) Funny (0) Cool (0)