emily hennig - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

New Year, New Goals, New Themes: 2023

Happy 2023! I’ve officially been blogging for 15 years now. Crazy to think it’s been that long! There aren’t a lot of things I stick with for that long but here we are!

The first theme for this year is “I’d like to meet”. We recently lost my uncle, Max. We lost him shortly before Christmas. Today I was reflecting about him seeing and talking to my grandparents (his parents) a couple of days before his passing. I think about this a lot because it’s happened to so many people I know right before they passed away. In regard to my ancestry, there are a lot of people I’d like to meet. I know I won’t get to meet them all since we won’t all be going to the same place after death. Hopefully, I will meet the majority of them though.

I asked my husband today if he ever thought about this part of death – like, who would visit him and escort him out of this world when he died. He said no. Me? I think about it a lot. I think about the people I hope to see again after my death. I’m the opposite of my husband. In fact, I have a running list and have made requests for who escorts me from this life to the next. Never hurts to ask, right?

So, in addition to Jesus and a few prominent Biblical figures (I’m looking at you, Queen Esther!), I’d like to meet the two angel grandbabies that I never got to meet. I’d like to see my son again and my grandparents (Audrey, Gene, Jessie, and Troy) and great grandparents (Mark DRAKE, Edith HUBBARD DRAKE, Ralph LARKIN, Bessie WILLIAMS LARKIN, Albert BATES, Dettie GIBSON BATES, William RITER, and Laura BULLOCK RITER), but most of those are people I’ve already met and the theme was who would you like to meet. So, in addition to my angel grandbabies, I think I would like to meet Emily HENNIG or Lavina PILGRIM DRAKE. I’d like to know what they’re stories are and why I can’t find any information about them. Add in Lucinda DOW GIBSON. She had a crazy life. And maybe the great-grandmothers I didn’t meet – Laura BULLOCK RITER and Dettie GIBSON BATES (see links above). (I’d even settle for meeting the great-grandpas I never met: Ralph LARKIN, Albert BATES, and William RITER – see links above.) We could all sit down and have tea together and discuss the lives they led. I wouldn’t even mind if we discussed what I got right and what I got wrong about them on my blog. I could own up to mistakes in my research for this particular tea time.

Alas, I’ll have to wait. Hopefully they’re waiting for me in the place I intend to be after my death. I’m dying to find out…ha ha. Couldn’t resist that one. In the meantime, I’ll just have to keep researching and keep updating my death bed request list.

I apologize for the morbid start to 2023. Despite the morbid start (or maybe because of it), I recommend clicking the names above to read my blog posts about the people mentioned in this blog. I hope you have a wonderful year – meet all your goals, see all your dreams come true, and find all the love you ever wanted in your life.

All my love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Photo Friday: Two Mysteries

Photo Friday is a bonus post. I’ve been doing some research outside of what I’m writing about on the blog. I’ve made some potential discoveries that I’d like your input on. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Mystery #1: Emily Hennig Photo + A Mystery Photo

I’ve written about Emily HENNIG before here and here. She is potentially a great-grandma on my dad’s side. According to my grandma Emily was possibly a great-grandmother somewhere along the line but I have no information as to which line or how far back. I’ve posted Emily’s photo before but I’ll post it here for you again.

Emily HENNIG. A photo given to me by my grandmother.

I’ve been doing some research in preparation for a new project. In the process I came across an unidentified photo in Scott HANEY’s HENNIG family history and the woman in his photo resembles my Emily HENNIG. I don’t think they’re the same woman but I think my HENNIG and his (who’s family name morphed into HANEY) match closely enough that it warrants a closer look. While I’m digging into our HENNIG connection, I wanted you to see the resemblance. Scott has referred me to another researcher so I’m continuing to follow up on this photo.

Unidentified photo from Missouri Haney's collection. — Unidentified woman; HENNIG/HANEY line.

I don’t believe this is the same woman nor do I believe they’re sisters but I think they could easily be cousins. Let me know what you think in the comments. Just for ease, below is a side-by-side comparison so you don’t have to keep scrolling.

Side-by-side comparison. I’m not the best at facial recognition so I may be off.

Mystery #2: Nicholas Reiter + Augustus Nicholas Reuter

The next photo comparison is my mom’s line. My 2x great grandfather Nicholas REITER has been a long-time mystery for me. I’ve written about Nicholas quite a bit:

His marriage to Sarah DAVIS here (This is very much my old style of writing from way back in the beginning of this blog but still worth a look.)
Progress on the REITER line (or lack thereof) here
His final years and his death
His occupation
His military service
His role in a family legend
and, his twins

REITER is another line that frustrates me to no end and has for decades. This week I was comparing photos and found an intriguing photo. The first photo below is a photo of my 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas REITER.

Nicholas REITER – a photo I got from my mom and she got from her mom.

The next image is a photo of Augustus Nicholas REUTER (REUTER is a variation of REITER). Joe HEWELL originally shared this photo on Ancestry. This does NOT look like my Nicholas to me but you’ll see why I’m sharing it in a moment.

Augustus Nicholas REUTER, photo uploaded to Ancestry by Joe HEWELL.

This next photo is also tagged as Augustus Nicholas REUTER and was originally uploaded to Ancestry by Nancy WIBLE. This photo does look like my Nicholas so my hope is perhaps I’ve finally found the right family.

August Nicholas REUTER photo uploaded to Ancestry by Nancy WIBLE.

As I did above, I’ll put the 3 photos side by side so you can easily compare. Let me know what you think in the comments.

The two photos on the outer edges are the photos of Augustus Nicholas REUTER. The center photo is my Nicholas REITER.

I don’t believe that either of the first two men look like the third man even though the first and third man are labeled as the same man. Maybe it’s just me, though – I’m terrible at facial recognition.

In any case, the search continues. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Until next week,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Emily Hennig: An Enduring Mystery

I realized this morning that I missed the week 4 post. The theme was “favorite photo”. For the week 4 theme I’m going to re-run a post that I occasionally revisit. I thought I’d found the clue to solve this mystery a week or two ago but so far that lead hasn’t panned out. So today I’m revisiting Emily Hennig and hoping someone out there will have the key to solving who this is and how she fits into my family.
Mam (my paternal grandmother, Audrey) gave me a copy of this photo a couple of years before she passed away. The inscription on the back said “Emily Hennig” and was written in cursive and in pencil. It is HENNIG and not Henning. We had a discussion about that name.

Mam said she thought Emily was a grandmother somewhere back down the line but she couldn’t place the woman in our family history and that’s all Mam knew about her. More than a decade later I still have not been able to identify or place (or exclude) this woman in our family history (although I do have theories about who she is and where she goes on the family tree). If you have the answer, please speak up. I’d love to know about her.
I hope your weekend was everything you needed it to be. Enjoy your week!
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Emily Hennig: A Mystery

There is no scheduled blog post today but I do have a mystery for you to solve.
Mam (my paternal grandmother, Audrey) gave me a copy of this photo a couple of years before she passed away. The inscription on the back said “Emily Hennig” and was written in cursive and in pencil. It is HENNIG and not Henning. We had a discussion about that name.

Portrait of mystery ancestor, Emily Hennig.

Mam said she thought Emily was a grandmother somewhere back down the line but she couldn’t place the woman in our family history and that’s all Mam knew about her. More than a decade later I still have not been able to identify or place (or exclude) this woman in our family history (although I do have theories about who she is and where she goes on the family tree). If you have the answer, please speak up. I’d love to know about her.
Enjoy your Friday and don’t forget to come back here this weekend for the wrap-up on Saturday (it’s going to be a good one) and next week’s schedule which will be posted on Sunday.

Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Tag: emily hennig