Shotgun Wedding?

When I discovered and confirmed the identity of my third great-grandparents recently, I was extremely excited. My husband had the fortune of a distant relative on his mother’s side that was a genealogist. Without any effort on his part, we had the history of one side of his mother’s family back to Europe in the 1600’s. So to say that I was elated to have information that went clear back to the early 1800’s for one side of my father’s family was a vast understatement.

Needless to say, I wanted to know more about my third great-grandparents and their family. To start, I wanted to get a complete list of the children that I knew about. Based on the 1850 and 1870 US Census data, Samuel was estimated to be born about 1804, and his wife, Rachael was likely born around 1811. I ignored Adam Neff and the other Neffs from the 1880 Census for now, not knowing if they had any kinship with the Gochenours. Based on ages in the census, the Gochenour children were:

• Mary C Gochenour – About 1832 – Female
• Caroline Gochenour – About 1835 – Female
• Elihu H Gochenour –  About 1838 – Male
• Luviza Elizabeth Gochenour – About 1840 – Female
• William A Gochenour – About 1843 – Male
• Angeline Gochenour – About 1846 – Female
• John W Gochenour – About 1849 – Male
• Silas E  Gochenour – About 1852 – Male
• James J  Gochenour – About 1855 – Male

When I started looking at the ages and birth years of these children, I came to a realization, and did a quick look back at this 1870 US Census:

I had set aside the Neff records when I started looking at this, but now I focused in on one person: Mary C Neff. Her age appeared to be 37, which would mean she was likely born in 1832 or 1833. This would put her at an age almost identical to Mary C Gochenour. Perhaps this was coincidence, but what if it wasn’t? What if both Mary G and Mary N were the same person? Could Mary Gochenour have married Adam Neff?

Back to my favorite site for West Virginia vital records I went and looked a while. In the end, I searched under Grooms named Adam and Brides named Mary in Lewis county and hit the jackpot!

The two records for 1850 are for the pair I was looking for. One record is the marriage license, while the other one is a statement from the minister that married them. Adding  extra credibility, the bride’s father, Samuel, had given consent. The wedding date is August 17, 1850, which means Mary and Adam were married about a month after the census was taken.

Then, I started thinking of the 1870 census data again. Columbia, who I felt was very likely Adam and Mary’s daughter, was 19 at the time. This would put the estimated year of her birth as either 1851…or 1850. That made me wonder more; exactly when did Mary become pregnant?

“Shotgun Wedding” by wood carver Andy Anderson

 

How often has a shotgun wedding taken place? While that may be uncertain, the concept of a forced marriage because a girl got “in the family way” has been around for a while. In times when a child being born out of wedlock carried with it not only social stigma, but could even affect (in some places) things like the right of inheritance, there certainly was reason to get the parents to tie the knot before the baby was born. Even then, some people will speculate, as in this, a favorite comeback of mine from “Dear Abby”:

Dear Abby: Our son married a girl when he was in the service. They were married in February and she had an 8 1/2-pound baby girl in August. She said the baby was premature. Can an 8 1/2-pound baby be this premature? —Wanting to Know
Dear Wanting: The baby was on time. The wedding was late. Forget it.

I know I am characterizing myself as Wanting to Know My curiosity is whether or not social pressures might have influenced the timing of this marriage. Legitimacy issues that were prevalent for centuries started waning in the late 20th century. While there may be some places in the world where they still exist, many nowadays hardly raise an eyebrow when a baby comes before a wedding (or without a wedding at all, for that matter). Had Mary been born one hundred or so years later, would it have made any difference in her choice to marry?

To find out when Columbia was born, I was not going to be able to search for birth records in Lewis County. Why? Because Columbia was born before 1853. Why did that make any difference? You see, Lewis County records are only available from 1853 forward. To be thorough, I did look for all sorts of variations in all counties for Columbia, but, as expected, I found nothing.

I was not sure when Columbia died, and whether she was married or not at the time. I did a search in the Lewis County marriage records, and after a few false starts, I found a record for a Corambia V Neff that married a Cornelius V Rollins in 1871. Looking into it further, the parents for the bride were Adam and Mary Neff. Unfortunately, the marriage record did not have a date of birth, so now I turned to a search for a death record for Columbia V Rollins.

While I was able to find a death record, it was a ledger and not a death certificate. It did not list date of birth. So birth record and death record were strikes. Where else could I turn?

Fortunately, I got a hint from Ancestry for a record on FindAGrave. It was there that I found the date of birth:

So, Columbia was born May 6, 1851. This was almost exactly nine months from the date of her parent’s wedding. So, it might not have been a shotgun wedding, but it must have been one heck of a wedding night.

So, some of my curiosity was settled about the Neff family. I still wondered where Adam might be, since by 1870, he was no longer in the household. Had he perhaps been a casualty in the Civil War? It was a question that I would likely have to visit at another time, as my searches for Adam after 1850 have yet to discover a likely match. So, my next goal was to explore the Gouchenour family further to see what else I might be able to find.

My Trek: The Next Generation

Tags

birth, Chrisman, Civil War, death, death certificate, Gochenour, marriage, Oldaker, trek, Typhoid, West Virginia

In my last journey into records, I had used information from Fold3 to discover the identity of the father of my great-grandmother, Georgianna Chrisman. Georgianna was named after her father, George Chrisman, who died of Typhoid Fever about six months after joining the Union Army in 1862.

After learning of his fate, I searched the muster records to see if George may have seen some battle prior to his illness. Other than him being present at muster, the only entry prior to his death noted that he was in the hospital due to illness in August. I further looked into it, and Typhoid Fever is usually due to contaminated food or water, though people can also contract it from an infected person. It does not sound like an easy way to die, especially since it appears he was ill for three to four weeks before succumbing to the disease.

I also wanted to fill one gap I had in records from the life of my great-grandmother. I had found census records available for every decade she had been alive except one: the 1880 US Census (since 1890 records were demolished by fire, 1890 would remain a mystery unless I could find state census records). Since she did not marry until 1883, I felt it likely to find her living with her mother and her step-father, Henry Oldaker. I did a search for the Oldakers, and this is what I found:

So, we have a Henry and Levisa Oldacre listed with several children, but none of them are my great-grandmother. We know Georgianna is alive at this time, and she has a few years before marrying my great-grandfather, so where is she? Was this even the right Henry and Luviza Oldaker?

My searches were turning up nothing regarding my great-grandmother in 1880, so I decided to look into confirming the 1880 US Census record I found really was her mother and stepfather, and then to see if I could trace Luviza’s line back further. Since I could not find out about her daughter Georgianna, maybe I could find out about Luviza’s parents.

I wanted to see if I could find birth records for children born to Henry and Luvisa, to confirm that I had the right group of people for 1880. I ran through my known facts:

• This Henry and Luviza were living in Lewis County, West Virginia in 1880.
• My Henry and Luviza were married in 1872 in Lewis County, West Virginia.
• If this was a correct match, the three older children (Grandison, Mary L., and Sarah M.) would have been Henry’s with another woman or women.
• If this was a correct match, the two youngest children (Lucy Alice and Wm. Marion) would be children Henry and Luviza had together.

I have a great deal of luck with vital records available through the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, so I went in search of birth records for Lucy Alice and William Marion. I did the search first for Lucy Alice looking for a female with the last name Olda*, using the wildcard search so that both results for “Oldaker” and “Oldacre” would show up. Searching in Lewis County turned up nothing, so I expanded the result to all counties, restricting it to birth records within three years either way of 1875. This time, I got a hit, but not where I expected:

 

Where was Braxton at? And did they give Louisa’s married name, or her maiden name?

This was not the first time that I had seen a variation of “Louisa” for Luviza. I also knew it was possible that they had used the mother’s married name instead of her maiden name. Braxton County had never hit my radar before. While it was possible Henry and Luviza could have married in Lewis County in 1872, moved to Braxton County, had Lucy Alice in 1874, and then moved back to Lewis County by the time of the 1880 Census, how likely was it? When I looked at a map showing the area around Braxton County, it made a bit more sense.

Braxton County is adjacent to Lewis county. This might mean it wasn’t the Oldakers that moved; it was the border. Even if the people moved, it could have been a short distance, and would be a more likely move back and forth than moving across the state and back.

My next step was to see if I could find a birth record for William Marion Oldaker, and see if it might allow me to match the 1880 US Census record without question to my great-great-grandmother and her second husband.

I turned once again to the West Virginia vital records search.

 

Back in Lewis County, but the record is still inconclusive. What’s my next step?

The birth records for both children showed as likely matches to each other, but there was still nothing I felt tied them with certainty to my great-great-grandmother. So, the birth records didn’t pan out; what about marriage or death records?

This time, I started with William’s death record. The death record had the date of birth as November 21, 1876 in Lewis County. This was slightly different from the birth date I had found of November 22, 1875. I re-checked the West Virginia records to make sure I hadn’t missed something; there was no male Oldaker (or variation of Oldaker) with any first name born in November of 1876 in Lewis County. This made me believe once again, a secondary record had a slight error on it.

The parents’ names gave me some hope:

Not only do we have parents both born in Lewis County, but we have the correct spelling of Luviza, and Goechnaur vs. Gochenour. How would we fare with Lucy Alice?

At first, I thought I would have to look for a marriage record for Lucy Alice, but I searched once with her maiden name in case she never married. I found something:

My only question – Did Lucy Alice marry another Oldaker, or did she revert to her maiden name after her husband died?

This is from the death record for Lucy Alice Oldaker. The date and county of birth are a match to the birth record found in Braxton County (note that someone did correct the year of birth, but it’s still a year off). We now have a middle name for Henry, and while poor Luviza’s name has once again been mangled, Gochner/Gochenour is similar enough, and since both William and Lucy have death records that point to what appear to be the same set of parents, I feel the evidence points to the fact that they are not only brother and sister, but that their mother is my great-great-grandmother, and they are the group I discovered in the 1880 US Census.

So, I started working backwards again. Luviza’s estimated date of birth was about 1840. I already had records for 1880 and 1870. In 1860, I found Luviza and George “Christman” living in Lewis County. In 1840, the census only shows the head of household and then shows the gender and age of others in the household. My last chance to tie Luviza to her parents would be the 1850 US Census.

It was not easy at first. Searching with Luviza specifically did not turn up any match that seemed plausible. I started playing with spellings, and still did not get what I was looking for. I then decided to strip back information. I looked specifically in the 1850 US Census for someone with the last name of Gouchenour born about 1840 (Luviza’s estimated birth year) in the state of Virginia (this because it was prior to the formation of the state of West Virginia). This time, I got a record that seemed interesting; it was for a Louisa E Geochenour born about 1840 in Lewis County Virginia. The record showed the following family members:

Adam Neff was listed as part of this household. Who was he? A family member? A farm hand?

The Geochenour family:

• Samuel Geochenour – 45 – Male – Farmer
• Rachael Geochenour – 36 – Female
• Mary C Geochenour – 17 – Female
• Caroline Geochenour – 14 – Female
• Elihu H Geochenour –  12 – Male
• Louisa E Geochenour – 10 – Female
• William A Geochenour – 7 – Male
• Angeline Geochenour – 4 – Female
• John W Geochenour – 11 months – Male

Could I now confirm that Samuel and Rachael were my third great-grandparents? Would I be able to make the link back one more generation on my family tree?

I have so far been unable to find a death record for Luviza. While I found a marriage license from 1856 for her and my two times great-grandfather, George Chrisman, it unfortunately did not list either set of parents. I thought I had struck out, and then I thought of something. Luviza had remarried after George’s death. Would the marriage record for her and Henry Oldaker yield the information I sought?

Again, it wasn’t easy. Searches with both names did not show anything. Searches under the estimated year (between 1870 and 1880) had no results. Once again I stripped back the search, deciding to search marriage records for Henry Olda* as the groom, omitting any name for the bride, and searching for any date in Lewis County. If this did not pan out, I planned to search all counties before setting it aside. Luckily, I got a result, though at first glance, I wasn’t sure if it was right.

The good news was that it showed Henry Oldaker and a bride with the last name of Chrisman. Her first name was listed as *iza. This likely meant that the transcriber had not been able to read the name, so they only put the portion they could make out clearly. At least *iza and Luviza made this a likely match, so this was more good news.

The bad news was that it showed that the marriage record was from 1892, a full twenty years after the wedding was supposed to take place. There was only one way to know for sure; I selected the option to view the record.

When I looked at the record, I breathed a sigh of relief. The clerk who had made entries in the book would sometimes make a squiggle at the top of some numbers (it looked like it might be a method of writing two numbers without lifting the writing instrument). What someone had transcribed as a nine looked to me like a crazy seven; the year listed looked to me to be 1872, a more likely year for the marriage.

When I got to the bride’s name, I started to smile: Luviza E Chrisman. I’m not sure why the person was unsure of the name. I just knew that this was the correct record. So I went to the next page, where the parents’ information would be listed.

The first portion showed both Henry and Luviza were widowed; this confirmed that Henry had been married previously. Henry was born in Lewis County; Luviza in Hardy County (a new piece of information). Henry’s parents were Anthony and Sarah Oldaker. And Luviza’s?

Yep! You got it! Saml and Rachel Gochenour! I looked at these names and realized I had just made a trek into the next generation! When I started my journey a few years ago, I didn’t know much beyond my great-grandparents, and in some cases, I didn’t know much beyond my grandparents. Now, here I was, about 200 years back in my family history, back before the Civil War. Could I now use this information and work forward and maybe see if I could find my great-grandmother?

I tried to find an 1860 US Census record for the family, but I was unable to do so. I was mainly looking for this to see which family members might have died, moved out of the home, etc.. I then went to 1870, and found Samuel and Rachel with several of their children. The family list:

• Samuel Gochenour – 66 – Male – Farmer
• Rachel Gochenour – 59 – Female – Keeping House
• Caroline Gochenour – 35 – Female
• William  Gochenour – 25 – Male – Farm Laborer
• John  Gochenour – 21 – Male – Farm Laborer
• Silas E  Gochenour – 18 – Male – Farm Laborer
• James J  Gochenour – 15 – Male – Farm Laborer
• Mary C Neff – 39 – Female
• Columbia Neff – 19 – Female
• Lavina C Crisman – 30 – Female
• Gorgia A Crisman – 8 – Female

Wait a minute…Lavina and Gorgia Crisman? Haven’t I seen this record somewhere before?

Adam Neff is no longer in the household, but Mary and Columbia Neff now show up. I may want to investigate the Neff family further to see if there is any tie-in to my family.

In the second installment of Off the Beaten Path, I had listed this to show where Luviza and Georgianna were living after the death of George Chrisman. Where are Samuel, Rachel, and Caroline you say? They are at the bottom of the previous page of the 1870 US Census, a page I had neglected to add to the previous post.  This shows I had already determined Samuel and Rachel were Luviza’s parents (DOH!). However, having more records confirming that fact just adds to the confidence in my findings.

After some additional searching, I was able to find what I had set out on a quest for at the beginning of this entry: where my great-grandmother was at the time of the 1880 US Census.

So, “Georieanna Christman” (once again misspelling made things difficult to locate) was not living with her mother. Instead, she was living with an uncle, who seems to be the person supporting his older, spinster sister and his widowed mother (Samuel died in 1878), as well as his niece. Did Georgianna continue to be supported by the pension for which her step-father was the guardian? I would hope so.

By searching for the gap in census data for my great-grandmother, I not only was able to fill in her whereabouts, I was able to learn more about the early life of my great-great-grandmother, and in turn, discover and confirm information about my three times great-grandparents as well. When I started this particular trek, I did not know it would lead me to the next generation.

 

Off the Beaten Path – Part Two

In my last entry, I was using information found at Newspapers.com, discovering new facts about some relatives on my father’s maternal side. Newspapers.com is not one of my normal sites for research; I chose to move off the beaten path of sites I had researched over and over again to see if I could pick up new leads on my ancestors.

While it was rewarding to get some insight into the travels of the McCombs and Slaughter families, and somewhat heartbreaking to view the information regarding the deaths of two Slaughter children, I really wanted to see if I could find information about someone I was directly descended from.

I decided to try to find my way a bit farther back on the line of Georgianna, one of my great-grandmothers. I had a little bit of confusing and conflicting information on her from a few different sources.

First off, there is her name. I have seen it as both Georgianna and Georgia Anna. I tend to prefer Georgianna, and in either case, her name was probably the basis for naming my father’s sister, my aunt Georgia.

Secondly, there was some conflicting information in two records I had found. The first was the death certificate of my great-grandmother, where her parent’s names were given:

So, her father’s first name was not listed, but the last name was shown as Chrisman or Christman. Her mother’s name was listed as Eliza Gouchnour. I tried several times unsuccessfully to find a marriage record to get my great-great-grandfather’s first name, but had no success.

This however, did not match up with some information I found in the 1910 US Census:

So, here we have the mother-in-law of William, which would be Georgianna’s mother, listed as Luveza. The last name of Olaker didn’t phase me as much as it was possible she could have remarried. Luveza to me seemed to be a bit distant from Eliza; only the -za at the end of the name was similar. So, which record was right? Or, was it possible they were both wrong? These are secondary records, after all. It is possible that either the person reporting the information, or the person recording it, could have made a mistake

One more record gave me a bit of a hint about the name. This time, it was from the marriage record for William and Georgianna:

So, Eliza was actually William’s mother, not Georgianna’s. The person reporting the information on the death certificate probably got confused, and who could blame them? A death can be a stressful event, especially for those closest to the person passing.

I had a hard time deciphering the initial for Georgianna’s father, but the mother is listed as L. Chrisman. This tended to confirm Luveza was more likely the correct name for Georgianna’s mother.

However, I will admit that just like some maps, I had neglected to update a change in information, so there was an error on my family tree. I had left Eliza in as the first name for Georgianna’s mother, and so every search I did for quite some time resulted in a dead end. It took a look at a hint given at FamilySearch.org to get me to make the correction. It was this hint that gave me the idea that it might be time to venture off the beaten path once more.

The hint was for the names of both of Georgianna’s parents. They were listed as George W. Chrisman and Louisa E. Gochenour. Here was another deviation; they listed the name as Louisa, whereas the one record I had found so far listed the name as Luveza. I could at least see more similarity between Louisa/Luveza than I did with Luveza/Eliza.

I could also understand Georgianna’s name a bit more. She was named after her dad. I don’t see girls named after their dads as often, but it does happen. Though my mother went by her middle name, her first name was Billie, and she was named after her dad, Bill (William). I decided to click on George’s record on FamilySearch, to see if there was any other information I could see.

I actually found a piece of information that sparked my interest. They listed military service for George. The record indicated that he had served in 1862 in Company D of the 10th West Virginia Voluntary Infantry. I noticed the fact that only one year was listed. That made me wonder. Did something happen to George in the Civil War? Had he been badly injured, and discharged? Had he been killed in battle?

I decided my first course of action would be to try and find George and Luveza in both the 1860 and the 1870 US Census. This would tell me whether George and Luveza had been married prior to 1860, and whether George had survived the war years long enough to hit another census.

Sure enough, I found George and Luveza in 1860, living in Lewis County, West Virginia:

Of course, the spelling is slightly different, It’s hard to tell if this is Louisa or Luvisa in this case. A case could be made for either.

So, now on to Lewis County, West Virginia in 1870 (the image was light, so I inverted it because I felt it was easier to read):

Once again, the name is Luvisa, and daughter Georgianna is listed as Gorgia A.. Sadly, they are not living with George. Instead, it appears that they are living with a male family member (Luvisa’s father, perhaps?), along with several other male relatives. There also seems to be another married (or widowed) female relative with a daughter.

At this point, I started operating on the theory that George died in the Civil War. That meant that Luveza/Luvisa/Louisa was a war widow and entitled to a pension. To search for it, my off the beaten path search went to a resource specializing in military records, Fold3.com.

Again, Fold3 is not one of my usual places to search. It has been helpful though. I found information about a cousin of my father’s that was a Prisoner of War in World War II. I also found information about my husband’s great-grandfather, who fought in the Spanish-American War. Up to this point however, I had nothing confirming that any member of my family had served on either side during the Civl War. Family lore says my great-grandfather Taylor was a Confederate soldier, so this would be interesting to confirm that his father-in-law was on the opposing side, since the 10th West Virginia Voluntary Infantry fought for the Union.

In the past, I had tried looking under the name of the soldier, and then wading through piles and piles of documents. This time, I decided that, like my efforts with Newspapers.com, I would focus on a specific set of records first. In this case, it was the Widows’ Pension records. I decided to focus only on the last name of ‘Chrisman’ and the search showed 401 records. I saw that I could filter by state as well. I asked it to show me only results from West Virginia, and of the 11 results that popped up, the top one was for George W. Chrisman, Company D, 10th Regiment. I held my breath as I clicked to bring up the record. What would I find?

This was the first page that came up. It was from the middle of the over 100-page document that comprised the application, but this one paragraph spoke volumes:

“I, J. Woofter Clerk of the County Court of the County of Lewis in the State above named do hereby certify that Henry Oldaker who made the within declaration for pension, was on the 8th day of April, 1873, appointed guardian of Georgianna Chrisman Minor Child of George W. Chrisman deceased, as appears on the record of the said Court, and that he is Still the duly legal acting guardian of Said Ward.”

At first, I had wondered if Luviza had died also, since I did not understand why Georgianna would need a guardian if her mother were alive. However, other later searches confirmed that Henry became Luviza’s 2nd husband, which would also have made him Georgianna’s step-father. Remember in 1910 how Luviza was under the name Olaker? That was likely a misspelling of Oldaker, her new married name.

As to George’s military service, it was summed up in a single sentence:

The Adjt Gen’l reports that Geo. W. Chrifsman was mustered March 17, 1862, and died at Beverly, Va September 12, 1862 of Typhoid Fever.

So, less than 6 months after joining the Union Army, my great-great-grandfather died of Typhoid. I have yet to see anything that shows whether he saw any battle action.

I have yet to go through all of the pages of the widow’s pension, and I will have to see if Fold3 will have additional service records for George. I did see one thing in the record that I felt I should share, my great-great-grandmother’s signature (witnessed by two people on the records), which puts to rest how she spelled her name.

So, as you can see, it’s Luviza E. Oldaker.

When researching, you may find that branching off from your usual sources of gathering information may help you in fleshing out research you have already done. Perhaps you may even find new information that, like in this case, gets you farther back into your family tree.

Off the Beaten Path – Part One

Tags

Carbondale, McCombs, news, Newspaper, Taylor

For a while, it seems like I have been spinning my wheels. The adventure has gotten bogged down, and less exciting. While I have been successful in broadening my knowledge of certain family members, the ones I really want to find out more about seem to be quite elusive. After a time, it just seems like I am getting nowhere fast.

Much of my searching has been through sites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. For relatives in Missouri, I have made use of certain state resources, particularly the search for death records. Going farther back, the West Virginia Division of Culture and History has a vital research records search that has been helpful.

To try to make some headway, I decided to venture off to a few sites that I have made limited use of in the past. These sites both do charge after an introductory period, but they also have the ability to link found records directly to Ancestry.com, which makes it easy for users of Ancestry’s site to add records not available on it.

So, I decided to go off the beaten path; away from the records I was very familiar with, and toward the unknown. What would I find? Would I find anything? And, would what I found be useful, either in adding information to people I already knew about, or in leading me to previously undiscovered relatives?

My first stop was to Newspapers.com. Up until recently, my searches had been on names of people only, and the results have been hit or miss. On a recent search for members of my husband’s family though, I found several records, not in the San Francisco papers that I expected, but in a small local paper in Petaluma, California, the Petaluma Argus-Courier.

The clipping above is of my father-in-law rehearsing for a local production of “Guys and Dolls”. I was able to find several clippings of Little League pictures of my husband and his brothers (some with their dad as coach), as well as an article that mentioned his grandmother. There were also lots of clippings of activities my in-laws took place in: local theater, square dancing, and cards groups to name a few. It was really nice to get an idea of their life in Petaluma, which was years before I became a part of the family.

So, I decided to apply the results I got for Petaluma to other local areas where family was located. What would I find in other areas?

At first, my searches came up with nothing. Unfortunately, Malden, Missouri and Flint, Michigan didn’t have their papers digitized on Newspapers.com, so I struck out on those places. I felt that Nebraska and Arkansas might not yield much, so I decided to try a state where I knew a few relatives lived, but wasn’t sure, since one was a cousin of my father, how much searching for them would reveal.

My father had a cousin, Thurmon Taylor, that lived in Carbondale, Illinois. It turned out that Carbondale did have a local paper, so I decided to do a search for Thurmon. It did not reveal as much as I had hoped. There was a list of property assessments that listed him, and a mention in an article. It did not give me the depth of information I had found for my husband’s family in the Petaluma paper.

I decided to try another line of inquiry. I knew that my father’s family on his mother’s side had often visited Illinois. I thought Carbondale was one of the places they went, so I decided to search the Daily Free Press for ‘McCombs’.

At first, I thought I was going to strike out on this as well. However, I happened to see in the thumbnail of an article the name J. J. McCombs (my great-grandfather perhaps?) and “Mal-” (Malden?), and decided to bring up the article. There, on the Society page, was this brief note:

Bingo! This was definitely my family. I knew Jimmie Ray Slaughter. He was also one of my Dad’s cousins, this time one from his maternal side. When I knew Jimmie and his parents though, they lived in the Detroit suburbs. I had not known they lived in the area of Carbondale, though it made sense why I had heard of trips from Malden to this part of Illinois. His mother was Jessie Rae McCombs, the sister of my grandmother.

I decided that it would be best if I searched Newspapers.com for the name “Slaughter” in the Carbondale paper. I got over 1,000 hits. However, most were for the word “slaughter” rather than the name. When I found the name though, I got a better picture of the Slaughters lives in the Carbondale area. Jessie was involved in a few social clubs, including sewing circles, Sunday School groups, and a club with the initials J. U. G., which my guess is that it stood for “Just Us Girls/Gals”. There were several trips by the family or its individuals to Malden, Missouri, and I found a mention of Paducah, Kentucky, and even a longer trip to parts of Texas and Mexico (Jessie’s sister, Donna, lived in Texas).

Most of the articles I found were quite pleasant, but there were two articles that were quite tragic. The first was about their oldest child, Bettie Joe Slaughter.

So, their daughter died in a fire that destroyed their home. I cannot imagine the total sense of loss. You not only have lost your possessions; you have lost what is at that time your only child. How heartbreaking that must have been!

This was not the only child they lost however.

So, now, their youngest son had smothered to death under the covers of his bed. I still cannot imagine how Uncle James and Aunt Rae would have felt. This was not a story I remember, and usually stories of loss I have found are those that are often kept under wraps by those of the earlier generations. Even my mother never really talked about the death of my younger brother a few days after his birth, even though I know she felt his loss even later in her life.

I would say that a search of local newspapers in areas you know your family has lived has a good possibility of turning up information that may help flesh out the lives of your ancestors. If you happen to be in an area near where your relatives lived, a trip to the local public library may yield information. Otherwise, search online resources to see what you may find.

Mad About Maps

Tags

Ancestry.com, atlas, California, Cedar Point, Central City, Columbus, family, genealogy, journey, Library of Congress, Map, maps, Merrick County, Nebraska, Ohio, Putnam County, San Francisco, Tennessee, West Virginia

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved maps.  Even from a fairly young age, I understood that a dot on a map represented something out in the world; a city, a place that I could travel to and explore.  I would consult maps whenever the family planned a vacation.  I wanted to see what roads we’d travel, and what cities we might go through.  Even for lesser journeys, I might check a map.  Our family would go to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio every few summers, and especially as the park added more and more rides, I would check the map to find the quickest way to get to the next roller coaster.  Even at the mall, I would consult a “You Are Here” map to see how to get to the new shop that just opened.

As you can see, there are lots of coasters. It seemed like every few years, another one would open.

In my family, I typically took the task of the navigator on long trips.  I would keep the road atlas with me, and would look at it from time to time, and let whichever parent was driving (usually my Dad), know when the next turn was coming up.

In a genealogical journey, you don’t necessarily have a map to follow.  You might get some data that might point you in the right direction, but the final destination can be ever elusive.  However, maps do have their use in genealogy.  In particular, I’ve found that historic maps can be quite helpful in finding out more about the places my ancestors lived.  Today, I’m going to share with you a few resources that I’ve found helpful in my own research.  Clicking on any map will take you to its source.

Old Maps Online

From 1000 AD until the present, there are maps available from several sources that can be viewed online.  You can use a map feature to find what you’re looking for, or you can type in a place to search for it directly.  The maps show everything from topography and resources, to city streets.

This map shows San Francisco as it was prior to the 1906 earthquake. This was the San Francisco where Bill’s maternal grandmother was born.

David Rumsey Map Collection

While the maps of the David Rumsey collection can be viewed through the previous link, I wanted to make special mention of this group of maps.  Many of these maps are rare maps of North America (the map above is part of the collection).  The interface is virtually identical to that of Old Maps Online, however, I prefer the darker background of the Rumsey site for viewing.

My paternal great-grandparents migrated from West Virginia to Nebraska. Five children were born in Nebraska, and I believe their first-born, Annie died there. A draft card pinpoints the birthplace of one child in Central City, Nebraska.

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

Borders have a way of changing through the years.  As territories became states and states sometimes spawned new states or disputed ownership of land with other states, the lines that designated where one place ended and the other began evolved.  Even within states, counties grew, shrank, were created, or disappeared.

You can view these changes on this atlas.  Choose the state you are interested in, type in a date, and you can view the borders at that time.  You have the option of also comparing them with the current county borders.  I have found it useful when trying to track down relatives when they haven’t moved, but the borders did.

My maternal great-grandparents resided in Putnam County, Tennessee, and I believe the family stayed in the same area for several generations. This is a map of the borders around the time of the county’s original formation in 1842. The black lines represent the county boundaries as of that date; the white lines indicate the current county borders.

As you can see, this map, showing the borders as of June 1, 1850 doesn’t show Putnam county. That’s because its initial formation was declared unconstitutional. I would need to look in the counties that took over the land to see where the family is. A hint on Ancestry.com leads me to believe that in 1850, they were enumerated in White county, which comprises a big chunk of southeastern Putnam county’s future borders.

In 1854, Putnam County was officially reestablished and back on the map. This map as of June 1, 1860 shows that the shape was redrawn differently than it originally looked in 1842, and its shape was a lot closer to that of its modern place on the map.

Data Visualization:  Journalism’s Voyage West

Stanford University compiled data from the Library of Congress‘ “Chronicling America” project to create this unique map.  Over 140,000 newspapers in over 3 centuries are represented.  What I like about this map is it helps me to determine what newspapers were in print for a particular place at any given point in time.  There are also links that will show where archives of these papers can be found in libraries across the country.  Best of all, several papers are available digitally and be searched and viewed for free.

Bill’s paternal great-grandparents settled in Columbus, Ohio after immigrating from Hungary. This image shows how many papers they would have had access to in 1920. There was at least one publication that was printed in both English and Hungarian. I wonder if they were subscribers.

As you can see, maps can help in our research of our ancestors.  They may give us a better view of the land as it was when they lived.  Maps can show the surroundings and give us a better understanding of how things looked before modern streets, roads, and buildings became part of the landscape.  Maps can show the changes in boundaries between counties and states, and perhaps help us track down a relative.  Maps can even be used to give us a visual representation of data that might help us discover records unlocking key clues in our genealogical journeys.  I hope that some of these resources might help you as much as they have helped me.  If you have other map resources that you have found, please share them.

Sidetracked

Tags

adventure, journey, Lawson, Newell, path, road, side track, US Census, Whittaker

Sometimes, on a journey, you veer off the path you had chosen to take.  Perhaps you saw a sign offering you a chance to see some great local sight.  Maybe you just happened to look over and see something to the side of the road, and you wanted to check it out.

In one instance, my husband and I, while on our honeymoon trip, were enticed by a tape.

Though the Polaroid I took was slightly damaged, it still shows the “Sky Blue Journal” set of tapes that offered us insight into history and sites as we traveled through Minnesota. In the background, you can see one of those sites. You can also see our travelling companion, Blue. That’s another story. 😉

The tape happened to mention there was a statue of the Jolly Green Giant just a few miles away from where we were travelling.  Of course, I wanted to see it.  So, we went, and sure enough, there he was!  You almost expected to hear the “Ho, ho, ho!” from the massive, 55 foot tall guy.  We didn’t stay long, but we got pictures and enjoyed a quick break from our cross-country trip.

Lately, with my research, I’ve felt pretty much the same way.  I try to focus in on one person, but I might catch a glimpse of something that leads me off my path.

For instance, I started researching my great-grandmother, Bessie Mae Layne Newell Massey.  I was hoping to find some additional records about Herbert Newell, her first husband and my great-grandfather.  Instead, I wound up getting more information about George Massey, her second husband.  While interesting, it was not what I was looking for.

I did find one item today on one of these side trips that gave me some additional information on my grandmother’s family.  I was looking for information on another great-grandfather, Manford Lawson, and came upon a death certificate for one of his sons:

You can see that James died of whooping-cough. This is just about the time that the whooping-cough vaccine was developed. Too bad it didn’t save him.

James was another of the family’s “One Hit Wonders”.  He made his one and only appearance in 1920 on the US Census.

James in the 1920 Census.

Sometimes, being sidetracked can be fun, but at other times, it can be frustrating.  I’ve had a particular post in mind, and it just seems like every time I start the research for it, I find myself on tangents.  Even fruitful moments like finding the death record for James don’t make up for the fact that, right now, I should be finding other records for other family members.

Have you ever been sidetracked like this?  If so, how do you break away from the side trips and get back to your genealogical path?

A Milestone and Some News

Tags

cemetery, family, familysearch.org, genealogy, indexing, journey, milestone, Newell, news, photographs, Whittaker

In my email today, I received a note from FamilySearch Indexing.  Apparently, last night, I indexed my 50th batch of information.  Most of the batches that I’ve indexed have been for the 1940 US Census.  I’ve indexed over 1,700 names since I started.  It’s probably not all that much, but every bit counts.

If you don’t believe that, check out the numbers from a few weeks ago on July 2nd:

Over 46,000 people indexed and arbitrated over 10 million records in one day!  Pretty impressive, especially considering that they had set the goal at 5 million.  In 16 hours, we had surpassed that goal.  Yes, I participated that day, and I was able to post 400 names that day, all from the 1940 Census.  So far, I’ve indexed records in 11 states, as well as in the District of Columbia.  Most of the states I have indexed are those in which ancestors of myself or my husband have lived.

If you’re a regular visitor, you may see that the picture of my header has changed.  The person that took the photo is Bobbie Creech, my first cousin, once removed.  He has been a wonderful ally in my genealogical journey.  We have shared many pieces of information back and forth, primarily on the Newell and Whittaker lines.  In an email the other night, he said, “I think all this Genealogy should be open to all and you do have my permission to reproduce any and all of the photos I send to you.”  I am very excited about this!  I really don’t have any of the family photos myself, other than what my Dad or others have sent to me via email.  Bobbie allowing me to share photos he has shared with me allows me to introduce other family members to you in both words and pictures.

The cemetery above is Henry Cemetery, located in Putnam County, Tennessee.  Many of my relatives are buried there, including two of my great-great-grandparents, and several of their family members.  It sounds like it’s not an easy place to get to.  According to Bobbie, “It was so far back in the woods they had to pipe sunlight in…”  It looks like such a wonderful place though; I’d love to visit it one day.

I’m going to post a Wordless Wednesday this week.  I plan to introduce you to my Mom’s oldest sister, whom I’ve mentioned a few times before.  So get ready to meet Anna Mae shortly.

In Search of…Baby Taylor

Tags

adventure, birth, death, In Search of..., investigation, marriage, mystery, Nebraska, path, road, search, Taylor, US Census, vital records, West Virginia

Does anyone else remember the television show “In Search of…”?  I used to love watching it.  My Dad turned me onto it at first.  It was in the late 70’s and early 80’s; about the time I was in high school.  The show was hosted by Leonard Nimoy, and was done documentary style.

The focus of the show was to explain mysteries and phenomena.  Some shows dealt with natural occurences like tornadoes.  Others delved into things like ESP or UFOs.  Several shows dealt with mysteries of historical significance as well, like Jack the Ripper, the lost colony of Roanoke, Virginia, or even Dracula (Vlad the Impaler, but of course, they did touch upon the vampire as well).

“In Search of…” never claimed to have the correct answer.  It gave the facts, provided some possibilities, but ultimately, it left it up to the viewer to make up their minds as to what the explanation really was.

In going through my family history, I have a few mysteries.  One that keeps drawing my attention is a child without a name.  So today on my genealogical journey, I’m going ‘In Search of…’ Baby Taylor.

I’ve actually mentioned this baby before.  I first discovered information about this child on the 1900 US Census when tracing my great-grandparents’ travels from their native West Virginia.

My Grandfather and His Family

My great-grandmother has eight living children, but had nine children in total.  The ninth child, Baby Taylor, is our mystery.  When and where was the baby born?  Was it a boy or a girl?  How long did the child live?  When and where did it die?

Assuming the child was not born out-of-wedlock, the date of birth would be some time after my great-grandparents were married.  My great-grandfather’s obituary stated:

He was married on March 15, 1883 to miss Georgia Chrisman and to this union nine children were born….

I was able to confirm the date of the marriage using data from a vital records search at the West Virgina Division of Culture and History site (West Virginia has been probably one of the easiest places I’ve found to search for such information, and if you have family members that are from West Virginia, I would recommend searching there).

The date of the 1900 US Census was the 29th of June.  So, I was looking at a window of birth somewhere between March 15, 1883 and June 29, 1900 (about a 17 year window).

Looking further into my great-grandfather’s obituary, it provided me with more information:

He moved with his family to Nebraska in 1884 and for nine years resided in that state. In 1893, he moved to Gallatin, Mo., where he made his home for sixteen years, moving from there to Arkansas, where he lived for three years.

So, unless born on the move from West Virginia to Nebraska in some state between those places, the baby would have been born in West Virginia, Nebraska, or Missouri.  Those were the three states the family lived in within that 17 year window.

The birth months and years on the census of the 8 children known are:

• Millard D. – October 1885
• Oscar R. – March 1887
• Boyd – July 1888
• Lucy D. – April 1891
• Ethel – November 1892
• Anna M. – February 1894
• Hazel – May 1896
• Floyd R. – April 1900

I decided to look at the gaps between events:

• From Marriage until birth of Millard D. – 31 months
• Between Millard D. and Oscar R. – 17 months
• Between Oscar R. and Boyd – 16 months
• Between Boyd and Lucy D. – 33 months
• Between Lucy D. and Ethel – 19 months
• Between Ethel and Anna M. – 15 months
• Between Anna M. and Hazel – 27 months
• Between Hazel and Floyd R. – 47 months

I excluded any gap that would be too small for another baby to be born (assuming a normal term of 9 months for each baby, that would mean less than 18 months).

So, that left me with the following possibilities for Baby Taylor’s birthday (assuming the baby was not a twin of a sibling):

• Between March 1883 and January 1885
• Between April 1889 and July 1890
• Between January 1892 and February 1892
• Between November 1894 and August 1895
• Between February 1897 and July 1899

The third one I found highly unlikely.  My great-grandmother would have been almost constantly pregnant!

One day on familysearch.org, I was searching for more information on my great-grandparents, and I got a suggestion for an ancestral file.  I went to look at it, and it showed the names of both my great-grandparents, and there were correct dates, including the date of their marriage.  Underneath that it said “Show Children (9)”.

I figured that perhaps when I clicked on it, I would get eight names and then some “?” type entry for Baby Taylor.  Instead, I got a name:

name:	Amy C TALOR
gender:	Female
birth:	15 Dec 1883 ,, WV
death:	11 Aug 1885
afn:	6WK2-VK

AFN stands for Ancestral File Number, and is a unique indicator for that file.

Whoa!  Not only a name, but a birth date and a death date too!  The birth date and place listed was plausible; it was exactly nine months after my great-grandparents were married (that must have been some wedding night)!

But, before getting too excited, I wanted to check this out.  Could I find the records that matched the information?  Was Amy C. Talor (not sure why the different spelling) truly Baby Taylor?

So, back I went to my favorite vital research page in West Virginia, typed in Amy C. Taylor (figuring the Talor was a misspelling), Lewis County (last residence place of my great-grandparents), 1883, female, and hit search.  I got back…nothing.

I started playing around with it.  I changed the search to All Counties.  Nothing.  I changed the spelling to Talor.  Nothing.  I changed it back and just tried Amy.  Still nothing.

Finally, out of frustration, I decided just to search just the last name.  Show me all female Taylor babies born in West Virginia in 1883.  That time, I got a list.  Two results on the list of 25 caught my eye:

7

Annie C Taylor

1883

Lewis

1390 Kb

23

Taylor

13 Dec 1883

Upshur

856 Kb

My great-grandparents were also born in Upshur county, and the date was two days off from the date given on the AFN record.  While record 7 said Annie C. instead of Amy C., it was the same initials, and Lewis county was a possibility as well.

The unnamed Taylor girl did not turn out to be the right one.  While the father’s name was listed as Wm., the mother was Idella M. and not Georgianna.  Would I fare any better with Annie?  See what you think:

The father’s name is hard to read here.  It looks like a W and another letter.  On the opposite page is listed the mother’s name, and the name of the person who reported the birth.  The mother’s name is listed as “Georgie”.  I wondered…would someone have heard the name Georgianna and thought it was two names instead of one (Georgie Anna)?  I looked over to the name of the person that reported the birth.  It happened to be the father, and he was listed as W. H. Taylor.  The birth date was December 15th, an exact match to the record for Amy C.!

I thought of what that would mean that my great-grandparents had a child in 1883.  They would have traveled miles with the baby in a wagon across several states to reach Nebraska.  Where was she when she first started to crawl?  In which state would she have taken her first steps?  How would she have been kept occupied while her father worked on building their home?

Of course, I thought too about the death date that was listed.  Annie would not have been quite two before she died.  What happened?  A sickness?  An accident? Where would I find confirmation of the death date and would that provide other information?

Unfortunately, answers to those questions have yet to be answered.  I have yet to confirm the death date, but I’m working on trying to reach the submitter of the AFN to see if I can get more details.  I’m still looking for any other data on the family.  I was hoping the 1885 Nebraska State Census would be helpful, but it hasn’t.  I haven’t found any record of my family in it, even though I know they were there for Millard D.’s birth in 1885.  They were supposed to have moved to Nebraska a year before that.  Had something delayed them on the journey?

If I find out more information, I’ll share it when we go ‘In Search of…’ Baby Taylor Annie C. Taylor.

Strolling Through the Old Neighborhood in 1940

In starting my research into the 1940 US Census, I started to wonder about where I grew up and how it would have looked back then, over twenty years from when I was born.  At one time, my grandparents had lived in the house that was home to me from the time I was just a few years old until I was almost thirty.  I was pretty certain that my grandparents would not be living there in 1940, and I was right about that.  My father had told me he grew up on Knickerbocker, which was a few blocks away from where I grew up.  And Knickerbocker was right where I found them.

My paternal grandfather and his family in 1940.

I learned a few things about the family from this census.  First, they had lived in the same place in 1935.  I know that in 1930 my grandparents had lived within the city limits of Flint, Michigan.  Now, they lived just outside the city limits.  My grandfather worked in an auto factory doing motor repair.  I had already known he worked at the factory, but now I knew what he did.  From what my father has told me, he was a participant of the Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37 in Flint.

I was surprised to see that neither of my grandparents had completed high school, but knowing that, I wasn’t surprised to see that my grandmother had two more years of schooling than my grandfather did.  Since her father, Joseph McCombs, was a school teacher, I have a feeling that he would have done his best to see that his girls received an education.

The children listed are my aunt and my two uncles.  My father was the youngest and would not make an appearance on the census for another ten years.  I know that my grandparents were married in Missouri, but their first child was born in Illinois.  Their oldest son was born in Missouri, and the youngest at this time was born in Michigan, as my father would be.  I wondered what had prompted the move from Missouri to Illinois and then from Illinois back to Missouri.  I knew my great-grandfather had not had his first stroke until 1931, and my uncle’s age said that he was born a few years before that event.  Was there perhaps some other family issue that caused the move, or perhaps was it a result of the financial complexities that resulted from the Great Depression?

Regardless of why my family moved from Illinois to Missouri, I know that my grandfather came to Michigan to get a job in the auto industry.  He was not alone.  As I began my journey down Genesee Avenue, I was able to find many people whose place of employment was listed as “Auto Factory”.

As I went through the records, I could see that the census takers were walking down the streets as far as they could go, and then back up to Saginaw Street, the border between Mount Morris and Genesee Townships.

1940 Enumeration District Map showing the area where I grew up. You can see both Genesee Avenue and Knickerbocker Avenue on the map. It is a distance of about one mile from Coldwater Road to Carpenter Road, the northern and southern boundaries.

In case you are wondering why there is such a large gap in the middle of the map, that is no accident.  Between Downey Avenue and Cass Avenue there were three places that I know of that were there when I grew up (I’m not sure however, if all of them were there in 1940).  From Saginaw Street to Summit Street was the grounds of Saint Francis of Assisi Church (this was the most likely structure to have been there in 1940).  The spacious (and mostly treeless) grounds made it a wonderful place for us to fly kites growing up, and they had a playground that we would often visit to swing or to go down the big slide (probably about three times the size of the one on our swing set at home).  Facing Summit Street on its west side was Summit Junior High School, and facing Detroit Street on its east side was Buell Elementary School, with a large field running the rest of the distance between them.  Past Detroit Street, I don’t know, because Detroit Street was the border my parents set for us to the west.

So, when the census takers started their walk, they had just finished with South Cornell on its western edge, and were walking east on Genesee Avenue back toward Saginaw Street.

The first thing I noticed was that the street numbers were all different from when I was younger.  I wasn’t sure why they had been renumbered.  That in some ways made it more difficult to figure out where I was on the street, but as I got closer to where I lived, it got easier.

I stopped as I found familiar names.

Two names stood out for me in this section.

The first name that stood out for me was Trovillion.  My family knew a family named Trovillion, and I wondered if this might be the parents of the Trovillion that they knew.  Since I knew that the Trovillions we knew were about my parents’ ages, I decided that, like my father, they hadn’t been born at the time of the census.

The second name that stood out for me was Leo France.  Now, the part that surprised me was that in this census, that Leo was widowed.  The reason that it surprised me was that while I don’t think that I ever met Leo, I did know his wife quite well.  You see, his wife was the grandmother of three girls that lived only a few blocks down the street from me (probably closer than what I guessed Leo lived to that location in 1940).  I became friends with all of them, lost touch when they and I moved out of the area, but, thanks to the wonders of social networking, we now keep in touch on a more regular basis.

I do have reason to believe that this is their grandfather though.  During one of those times when my own searches were hitting road blocks, I did some research into their family tree a bit.  I confirmed with them some of the things I found.  Their great-grandparents’ names were William and Marion and they were born in New York and Canada, respectively.  Mary I believe would be a shortened form of Marion, so I believe the parents he has living with them are my friends’ great-grandparents.  He would then have married again, and had more children, since my friends’ mother was born a few years after the census.

More familiar names appeared.

The last name Nelson was one I knew.  There had been a Nelson family living at the corner of Genesee Avenue and Summit Street.  Perhaps this gentleman was related.  I saw that he was divorced and had a live-in housekeeper.  The housekeeper’s last name was also familiar, as I went to school with one or two girls with the last name Schwalm.  The name Royal sounds familiar too; I think one of them named their son Royal.  I think it is likely that this would be their grandmother and perhaps also their father.

Finally, we got closer to Saginaw Street; closer to where I lived and I could tell because the names were extremely familiar.

Three names showed up on this page on Genesee Avenue that I knew.

I knew a Healey family that lived just down the street from us.  They lived across the street and a few doors down from the three friends I mentioned earlier.  However, the Healeys here would have been much older than the Healeys that I knew growing up.  Perhaps they were the parents of Mr. Healey.

I knew where I was when I got to the Pero house though.  I don’t know if I had ever met Mr. Pero, but Mrs. Pero (I don’t think I ever knew her first name) I did know and would visit from time to time.  The were actually our next door neighbors; there was an empty lot between their house and ours.  Well, in reality only a portion of the lot was empty, but I’ll come to that in a moment.  Mrs. Pero kept a nice garden in her yard, and I would go over once in a while when she was outside and talk to her.  She was a sweet lady.  Her son lived in the house after she passed away.

The Ayottes were our next door neighbors on the other side.  They were nice people too, but I didn’t get to know them as well as the Peros because they weren’t there as long.  I got to know the family that moved in after them much better.

I thought I was about done with my journey through my old neighborhood, when I spotted one last set of names.

While the neighbors to either side of us were important, so were the neighbors on the street behind us. The Henrys were our neighbors for longer than any of the others.

The Henrys were great neighbors, and I knew them the best of any family that was living in this area in 1940.  Our yards were separated by some fencing that aged to the point of non-existence by the time I was in my teens.  Again, I don’t think I knew the senior Mr. Henry, but I did know Old Mrs. Henry, as I called her (the designation Old was likely as much to do with her age as to distinguish her from her daughter-in-law.  Remember that mostly empty lot between the Pero house and ours?  It belonged to the Henrys and that’s where Old Mrs. Henry kept her garden, and a wonderful garden it was!  It would begin to bloom as soon as Spring arrived, with Crocus, and then would come the tulips and daffodils.  She didn’t just have the yellow daffodils that grew in our yard.  She had other types as well.  And the tulips were so varied as well.  She had single and double varieties.  There were variegated ones, and solid colors from bright white to a deep purple that almost looked black.  In May there would be Periwinkles and Lilies of the Valley.  There were bushes of beautiful lilacs that would bloom in early June, and several varieties of peonies and some roses as well.

I can remember playing in the backyard, and seeing Old Mrs. Henry going back to work in her garden.  There was an old, tiny trailer (an Airstream perhaps) that held her tools, and I would often hear her whistle a tune as she worked (she’s the only woman who I had ever hear whistle a tune before or since).  I would get permission now and then to pick flowers, and I was careful not to pick too many of any one type.  After Old Mrs. Henry died, I would sometimes go out into her garden and admire her flowers, and though her son kept them watered and weeded, they did not thrive for him the way they did for her.

I would visit over the fence with Mr. and Mrs. Henry from time to time, and I made occasional visits to their house.  I would sometimes cut down their driveway when I was going to and from school in Junior High.  It became an accepted practice, and I often would say hello to them as I was getting ready to cross over from their yard to mine.

My last visit to them was the day Bill and I got married.  They were not able to come to our wedding, but we paid them a visit our way to the reception.  I can remember Mrs. Henry’s sight was failing then, and I don’t remember her being in the best of health.  But I can still remember her face lighting up as we talked to her, and I was so glad to see them one last time before leaving for California.

It amazed me how much taking a stroll through my old neighborhood years before I ever lived there would help me to remember so many things.  I would recommend looking at where you grew up, even if it was years before you were born.  Even if your family wasn’t living there, perhaps there were neighbors there that you’ve forgotten that the Census could help you remember.

From Roots to a Branch

Tags

adventure, Air Force, Ancestry.com, Bunny, genealogy, investigation, journey, military, mystery, Taylor

I found you!  Kunta Kinte!  I found you!

— Alex Haley, Roots:  The Next Generations

I remember very well watching both Roots and Roots:  The Next Generations when I was in my teens.  I think in some ways, watching the story of Alex Haley’s ancestry unfold planted some of the first seeds for my own interest in family history.  I just watched the ending of the sequel to make sure I had the quote above correct, and got to again experience the elation expressed by James Earl Jones as Alex Haley when he discovered that he had indeed found the people from which his ancestor, Kunta Kinte had been taken from.  Even more touching though, was the scene where Haley was about to leave when a young man came running up.  It turned out that this man was a long-lost cousin of his, and the two men embraced as Haley broke down, sobbing with the overwhelming emotions he must have felt.

This past year, our only niece graduated from high school in Michigan.  Unfortunately, our budget didn’t allow the two of us to be at her graduation or open house.  However, we were able to afford a plane ticket so she could visit her aunt and uncle in California.  She came to visit us in August, about a month before she started college.

The first weekend she was here, Bill came back from the mailbox and handed me a large, thick, manila envelope.  I took one look at the return address, and I got excited.

The minute I saw this, I knew exactly what it contained. My uncle's military records!

I contained my excitement enough to open the envelope without ripping the contents.  Though I wanted to go through the documents in more detail at some point, my goal the first time through was to skim through to see if I could find any mention of my Aunt Bunny.

So, through the pages I went, as fast as I could go without missing any mention of a name.  Place names were popping up on every page.  Street names were familiar; Knickerbocker Avenue, Genesee Avenue, and Wheeler Drive were all places I knew the family had lived at one time or another.  Then came places that my Uncle was stationed like Korea, Casablanca, Texas, Michigan, and others.

It wasn’t until almost the very last pages in the packet that I found what I was looking for.  On the page, the typing was very faint, so it was hard to read.  “7 Jan 52:  Amn (Airman) married Miss Ethel….”

Ethel?  Was Aunt Bunny’s real name Ethel?  There was one way to find out.  I went in and changed the name on my records at Ancestry.com and I got a new leaf!

One of the things I was pointed to were some family trees, and a few of them had a picture attached to their record of Ethel.  It was a picture that I had never posted on Ancestry.com, but it excited me even more when I saw it.

That's right! It was the same picture of Bunny and her children that my Dad had given me!

I was certain that whoever had this picture was a member of the family somehow.  I just didn’t know who.  It could be one of my cousins, or it could be another relative of my Aunt.  I was hoping that whoever it was would be able to help me find Aunt Bunny and my cousins.

So, to the two people who I saw with the picture, I sent an email.  Basically I said that I had come across the name in my Uncle’s separation paperwork, that I had seen the picture and it matched one my father had given to me, and asked how they might be related and that I was trying to find out if my Aunt and cousins were still living, and if so, would there be a way to get in touch with them by email or phone.  I did not include any names in my email at the time.

The first person I sent the message to didn’t respond for a few days, and while they were helpful, they were not a relative of mine (it was a relative from Bunny’s side of the family though).  The second person I sent the message to was the first to respond.  The reply was brief, but thrilling:

Hi Pam,
Bunny was my mother. Who was your uncle?

I had my own little Alex Haley moment when I read that.  I found you!  Cousin!  I found you!  I immediately wrote back, this time filling in the details so that she knew exactly who I was talking about.  I eventually was given contact information for all my cousins.  I also found out that the two oldest actually were Bunny’s children from a previous marriage, so they are not actually blood relatives, though I still consider them to be my cousins.

Unfortunately, I found out my Aunt Bunny passed away a few years ago.  It was the one sad thing amid this joyous moment.

The greatest thing though was that while my niece was still with us, we were able to talk on the phone with one of my cousins.  He actually had been the one that, several years before had called around to find my Dad, and they both unfortunately lost touch with each other after that brief re-connection.  I was able to put them back in touch with each other, and my cousin visited Michigan last fall to spend time with my Dad.  My brother and his family also got to meet him.  I am hoping that I will get to meet him and my other cousins soon.

So, I had met the challenge my Dad had originally set for me; it took just over a year to do it.  By tracing our roots, I had just discovered a branch on our tree that had been hidden from view.  While that portion of the journey was over, my adventuring in ancestry was just getting started!