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Wordless Wednesday 5/3/23
Posted in Watkins, Wordless Wednesday
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Pets – Month 5 of 12 Ancestors in 12 Months
Great Grandma Anthony and her Record Breaking Chicken
Great Grandma Anthony achieved local fame due to the bizarre phenomenon connected to one of her chickens. This anomaly occurred in 1916 in San Bernardino.
According to the San Bernardino News dated April 18, 1916, Great Grandma Anthony’s Rhode Island Red chicken achieved the “world’s record, it is believed for double eggs.” At the time of this article, the author states, “Now the sum total has been thirty double eggs and she shows no signs of stopping.”
Double eggs yolks, while uncommon, are certainly not unheard of. In fact there have been instances of three or more yolks found in an egg. Guinness World Records substantiated the world record for most egg yolks found in an egg as nine. This happened in 1971 (Guinness World Records). There are no official world records for the most double egg yolks from a single hen, but Grandma Anthony’s chicken certainly seems to be the most prolific. According to www.calendar-Canada.ca, “The odds of getting just one double-yolked egg is one in 1,000, six in a row is one in a quintillion.” With these odds, Great Grandma Anthony’s hen was truly an extraordinary chicken.
Superstitions abound around double egg yolks. However, many people believe that finding double yolks represent good luck. Here’s hoping that the good luck flows down to Gertrude Anthony’s great great granddaughter, Leia, another chicken lover.
You may not know it, but May is National Egg Month. To celebrate, make some Mud Hen Bars (so mud hens are not chickens but the name is fun and the treat is tasty.)
Mud Hen Bars
(This is a version of a recipe that is over 100 years old.)
Ingredients:
¼ cup shortening
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
2 eggs, separated
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts – pecans are traditional (optional)
1 ½ cups mini marshmallows
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
Directions:
Butter or grease a 9- by 13-inch pan. In a large bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar. Beat in the whole egg and the yolks of the other two eggs. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Combine the flour mixture with the creamed mixture, blending thoroughly.
Spread the dough into the baking pan, patting with your hands if necessary. Sprinkle chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts over the dough. In a large bowl, beat the 2 egg whites until stiff. Fold in brown sugar until well combined. Spread brown sugar meringue over top of marshmallows and chocolate chips, spreading to touch the edges of the pan to prevent it from shrinking during baking.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. (Watch closely as oven temperatures may vary.) Cool completely before cutting into bars.
Sources
Briggs, Tracy. “Mud Hen Bars: Not Beautiful, but They Are Tasty.” Dickinson Press, Dickinson Press, 11 June 2019, https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/mud-hen-bars-not-beautiful-but-they-are-tasty.
Can You Get 22 Yolks in One Egg?, https://www.calendar-canada.ca/frequently-asked-questions/can-you-get-22-yolks-in-one-egg.
“Double-Yolk Eggs in Commercial Laying Hens and Parent Flocks.” Lohmann Breeders, https://lohmann-breeders.com/lohmanninfo/double-yolk-eggs-in-commercial-laying-hens-and-parent-flocks/.
Guinness World Records, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/search?term=double+egg+yolks&page=1&type=all&max=20&partial=_Results&#search-results.
Is There a Triple Yolk Egg?, https://www.calendar-uk.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/is-there-a-triple-yolk-egg.
“San Bernardino News 18 Apr 1916, Page Page 1.” Historical Newspapers from 1700s-2000s – Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/50300172/?terms=mrs.+john+anthony&match=1&clipping_id=123570199.
Posted in Anthony, Genealogy
Tagged Double eggs, Gertrude Anthony
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Wordless Wednesday 4/26/23
Posted in Padilla, Vaughters, Watkins, Wordless Wednesday
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Wordless Wednesday 4/19/23
Posted in Vaughters, Wordless Wednesday
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DNA – Month 4 of 12 Ancestors in 12 Months
Cousins, Cousins Everywhere
Who are these cousins? I have 49,356 DNA matches on Ancestry and 14,721 DNA matches on MyHeritage. None of my siblings, nieces or nephews, 1st cousins, parents, or grandparents have submitted their DNA to either of these companies. My closest match is a half-uncle who tested with MyHeritage. I have some 2nd cousins but most of my matches are 3rd to 5th cousins.
Each person receives 50% of their DNA from their mother and 50% from their father. While the same is true for your siblings, they do not receive the same 50% from each parent that you do. DNA is definitely random and over time it is inevitable that some DNA simply gets deleted and is no longer passed on. So while you may know through family lore and, more importantly, verified research that your family descended from a particular region or ethnicity, that information may not be found in your DNA. Also, it is important to remember that just because a person was born in a particular country does not mean that they have that ethnicity. People move; borders change. However, your DNA does not change though it may not tell the whole story of your heritage. Your DNA matches are real. Keep in mind that DNA and ethnicity are related but are not the same. Also, each company that you test with contains different reference samples and continually update their ethnicity estimates. “Accuracy depends on (1) the size of the reference panel, (2) how many regions of the world are represented, (3) the number of samples from each region, and (4) how genetically distinct each population is (Harrison).”
Here are the results of my ethnicity estimates from the three companies that have analyzed my DNA:
| Ancestry | MyHeritage | Healthy Nevada |
| England & Northwestern Europe 47% | English 68.5% | Northwestern European 58.6% |
| Scotland 20% | Irish, Scottish, Welsh 24.9% | Northeastern European 19.7% |
| Germanic Europe 16% | Ashkenazi Jewish 4.8% | Southeastern European 16.9% |
| Wales 10% | Finnish 1.8% | Southwestern European 3.5% |
| Ireland 5% | Ashkenazi Jewish 1.2% | |
| Sweden & Denmark 2% |
Ancestry also includes a DNA estimates map. This is mine:
Now, back to those unknown cousins. It is really helpful when those cousins have a public tree that goes back several generations. (Alas, most of my cousins either do not have a public tree or it only contains a few people. I have a few though that I have bookmarked and have appreciated when the tree points to additional names and relationships for me to research. It’s important to remember though that absolutely everything you find must be verified; so much information out there is wrong.) When you find shared DNA matches you are able to confirm your research and often find new information. For many people this enables them to break through “brick walls” and answer questions about their family and ancestors.
Recently, I discovered Kathy, a 2nd cousin once removed. My great grandfather, John Calvin Watkins, is her 2nd great grandfather. Kathy’s grandfather, Robert Lee Watkins, was the son of Frank Willets Watkins (her great grandfather) who was my grandfather’s brother. I found it interesting that Grand Uncle Frank’s middle name was Willets as this is definitely a family name.
Micajah Willets and Elisabeth Parker had a daughter, Sarah Willets. Sarah was my 5th great grandmother. She married Timothy Smith. The Willets and Smiths were Quakers.
Timothy was one of my Revolutionary War ancestors and I wrote about him in my blog post on June 3, 2022 https://journeyingwithjacque.com/conflict-month-6-of-12-ancestors-in-12-months/. Timothy’s story was unique enough that it was included in the DAR Digital Magazine Archive and his story was recorded on the DAR: Our Patriots Podcast.
Timothy Smith and Sarah Willets had a son, Micajah Willets Smith, who was my 4th great grandfather.
I don’t know if there are anymore Willets in the family besides Frank Willets Watkins. One way to learn more about your ancestors is to “work sideways” and add siblings and their descendants to your research. After all, most of our DNA matches will be the descendants of other children of our common ancestors. The common ancestors that Kathy and I share are John Calvin Watkins and his wife, Florence Lavina Clark. Donald, my grandfather, and Frank, her great grandfather, were brothers. The Willets family name goes through the mother of John Calvin Watkins, Susanna Osborne. Her maternal grandfather was Micajah Willets Smith.
Enjoy exploring some of your cousins and learn more about your shared ancestors. You may find this cousin chart helpful:
Sources
Cowan, Crista. “Ancestrydna | What to Do with All Those Matches | Ancestry.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 Jan. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv3_JCWUF-s.
Harrison, John. “Ancestrydna Updates Their Ethnicity Estimates.” The DNA Geek, 20 Aug. 2022, https://thednageek.com/ancestrydna-updates-their-ethnicity-estimates/.
Posted in Genealogy, Watkins
Tagged Micajah Willets, Willets
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Wordless Wednesday 4/5/23
Posted in Watkins, Wordless Wednesday
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Wordless Wednesday 3/29/23
Posted in Coble, Wordless Wednesday
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Wordless Wednesday 3/22/23
Posted in Coble, Wordless Wednesday
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Membership – Month 3 of 12 Ancestors in 12 Months
The Mennonite Influence
Mennonites focus on community and simple living. Members of the Mennonite faith are a peaceful group. They believe that it’s important to do something simply because it’s the right thing to do. Beyond that, “If someone does something evil to us, we are to do something nice back (Smucker).”
Being a Mennonite is more than a religious belief; it is a lifestyle.
Gary’s grandmother, Anna Mae Meckley Coble, gave Gary the Mennonite Community Cookbook in 1989 that features Swiss-German recipes. In her dedication of the book to him, Grandma Coble wrote, “This book contains all our good recipes.”
For the most part, these recipes were gathered by Mary Emma Showalter from the handwritten recipes of Mennonite women. Mennonite cooking relied on what was grown on the farm; it is simple, hearty, comforting, and practical. These recipes were shared wildly within the Mennonite community. Two of the recipes that Grandma Coble singled out were the White Mountain Cake (p. 226) that Grandma stated was “our birthday cake and Christmas cake we use to sing happy birthday to Jesus” and Apricot Delight. (And yes, the recipe for scrapple can be found on 78-79. However, the recipe for Grandma Coble’s family famous sugar cookies is different from the recipe in this book.)
Mary Emma Showalter also included the food that that one would need for a barn raising. “This bit of information was found in a quaint, old handwritten recipe book from Great-grandmother’s day (Showalter, p.455).”
- 115 lemon pies
- 500 fat cakes (doughnuts)
- 15 large cakes
- 3 gallons applesauce
- 3 gallons rice pudding
- 3 gallons cornstarch pudding
- 16 chickens
- 3 hams
- 50 pounds roast beef
- 300 light rolls
- 16 loaves bread
- Red beet pickle and pickled eggs
- Cucumber pickle
- 6 pounds dried prunes, stewed
- 1 large crock stewed raisins
- 5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potato.
- This is enough food for 175 men.
Religious membership provides a sense of community and identity and lends itself to supporting one’s beliefs. Mennonites are a group of religious people known as Anabaptists. They do not believe in infant baptism, but rather that people should only be baptized when they declare their faith in Christ and request to be baptized. The Mennonite religion traces back to Menno Simons or Minne Simens, an excommunicated Catholic priest (Menno Simons).
The Coble family connection to the Mennonite religion dates back at least to Gary’s 6th great grandfather, Peter Risser (1713-1804). Peter was most likely born in Bern, Switzerland (though his parents were probably born in Germany and it’s possible that he was born in Friedelsheim, Germany) on September 3, 1713. Peter was “a Mennonite minister and to flee religious persecutions he fled to Rhenish, Bavaria and migrated to Pennsylvania from Rotterdam aboard the ship, Robert and Alice, out of Rotterdam and arrived September 3, 1739.”
“Having arrived in America at 26 years of age, they received a grant of 271 acres of land for a homestead near Elizabethtown in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He built a mill on the site and soon became a prosperous farmer and miller. He donated land for the Risser Mennonite Meeting-House and adjoining cemetery (Peter Lehman Risser).”
Gary’s grandparents, J. Ira and Anna Mae Meckley Coble, as well as many other ancestors are buried in the Risser Cemetery which is five miles east of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.
Family values based on traditions and special food make life meaningful and provide connections and give us something to look forward to. Memberships help support the values and contribute to the perspectives that guide our lives.
Sources
“Anabaptism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Mar. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptism.
Meckley Coble, Anna Mae. “Family of Martin Nissley Risser (1850-1926) and His Wife Maria Brubaker Horst (1850-1929) – Research Collections.” LancasterHistory, https://collections.lancasterhistory.org/en/permalink/lhdo5508.
“Menno Simons.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menno_Simons.
“Mennonite Cuisine.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonite_cuisine.
“Mennonites.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mennonites.
“Peter Lehman Risser I (1713-1804) – Find a Grave…” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13409317/peter-lehman-risser.
“Peter Lehman Risser.” WikiTree, 22 Jan. 2020, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Risser-98.
Showalter, Mary Emma. Mennonite Community Cookbook; Favorite Family Recipes. Herald Press, 1988.
Smucker, Emily. “The Pros and Cons of Being a Mennonite.” The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots, 8 Aug. 2012, https://emilysmucker.com/2012/08/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-being-a-mennonite/.