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.

Memories of My Dad

Tags

death, family, father, memory, Taylor

My Dad

On Monday, I received the news from my brother that our Dad had passed away. This was not unexpected; his health had been declining the past few months, and doctors had recently advised us that there was nothing more they could do medically for him. I am sad that he is no longer with us, but glad that he no longer is suffering.

I have had a lot of thoughts running through my head about my Dad, and wanted to share some of my memories of him.

My Mom may have taught me how to read, but my Dad taught me to love reading

I remember Mom working with me on learning to read when I was young.  I started reading before I was in Kindergarten.  However, when I think of who inspired me to read, it was my Dad.

Other than magazines, I don’t ever recall in my younger days my Mom reading much of anything. Dad, on the other hand, was always reading.  He loved science fiction in particular, and loved Star Trek books.  E. E. “Doc” Smith was a favorite author of his, and he, like me, would read favorite books over and over.

One of the things I remember most though was that Dad was the one to read me bedtime stories.  He had a book called “The Little Lame Prince” that had other stories in it as well.

The book was given to my Dad as a Christmas present by his Aunt Jeanette.

 

I was enchanted when I was little about the stories of the Brownie, and all of the mischief he would get into. Dad made reading come alive for me.

An illustration from the story “Brownie and the Cherry Tree”

Thanks to my Dad, I grew up on Star Trek and Godzilla movies

Dad’s love of science fiction extended beyond the page, and I grew up watching a lot of sci-fi with my Dad.  Most of the shows we watched were broadcast by the Detroit TV stations.  WXYZ (channel 7) showed a lot of monster movies, and Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and Gamera made regular appearances on our set.  WKBD (channel 50) was the channel to watch for Star Trek, and Dad made sure we were tuned in almost every week.

Dad had a lot of other shows he watched regularly.  Again, most of the shows I can remember watching with him had a sci-fi slant.

• Twilight Zone
• The Outer Limits
• Lost in Space
• Space 1999
• Battlestar Galactica

Dad almost wore out our video tape of Top Gun watching one scene over and over

He would start at about 2:48 and watch the multiple plane shots over and over. It amounted to less than a minute of film, but he would watch it for several minutes at a time. I don’t know what he was trying to see, but it was something on which he would really focus .

Dad loved cartoons, especially Yosemite Sam

Dad would watch cartoons with us sometimes. He liked Loony Toons in general, and his favorite was Yosemite Sam.  His all time favorite cartoon was High Diving Hare. He would get a chuckle out of watching Sam fall for every trick Bugs Bunny would play on him.

Dad could do a pretty decent Yosemite Sam impersonation, too.

Dad liked to play games

Times spent with family usually meant some type of game.  When we would go to my Aunt Marion and Uncle Howard’s, Pinochle or Euchre of some other card game was normal.  When we would go to Grandma and Grandpa Newell’s house, the adults would usually play Aggravation. They would play teams with my Mom and Dad against her sisters and their husbands. When we were at Aunt Georgia and Uncle Neil’s, it was usually Tonk.

Dad made this Aggravation board on his Shop Smith Mark V. That shows you how much he liked to play the game.

Games didn’t have to just be indoors. The male pastime in the summer was typically horseshoes. When we were younger (and they were still legal) we used to play Lawn Darts at our house. I can remember playing both football and baseball in our front yard, as well as badminton and volleyball.

Dad waiting his turn at the horseshoe pit.

Dad was competitive

Dad I think would have played sports more in high school if not for two things:

1. He twisted his knee in high school, an injury that gave him trouble on and off throughout his life.
2. He had Polio in high school, and missed time because of it.

I think part of his liking to play games was part of his competitive nature. There were other competitions as well. When we would go to my Aunt Georgia’s house, he would sometimes get together with my Uncle Neil (and if he was there, his brother, Howard) and do some type of shooting competition.  They would set up a target and take turns at it.

Dad taught my brother and I to fish

Fletcher’s Pond is the name of the place where I remember going one of the first times fishing.  However, it was not the last.  We fished at Crystal Lake on my Uncle Tom’s boat and caught salmon in the Betsie River.  We fished at the pond at Aunt Georgia’s farm.  We fished from our own boat on Mott Lake and Lake Nepessing.

1992 – Using the skills my Dad taught me.

Dad made sure I knew how to cast a line and reel in my catch, and he made me bait the hook as well.

One movie scared my Dad so much as a child, he would not watch it as an adult

While this seems rather tame by movie standards today, this movie scared the heck out of my Dad when it first came out in 1946. To a six-year old child, a murderous disembodied hand was probably extremely scary. As a teenager, I was up watching it one night (a late night movie in the dark), and my Dad came in, took one look at the screen, and retreated without a word. Perhaps a scene like this one brought up those frightening childhood memories:

Dad taught me girls can do the same things boys can

Dad didn’t keep me from doing things just because I was a girl.  I never had any interest in shooting a gun, so he never taught me to shoot, but he did teach me to fish.  I learned to leg wrestle, as did my brother.  I was included when there was a game of football, or baseball.  We played Horse together.  When I first started driving, Dad showed me how to check and maintain my oil and tire pressure, basics that he said any driver should know. I never felt that I couldn’t do something just because I was a girl.

Car trips with Dad were fun

Dad was always doing something to keep a car ride entertaining, especially if it were a long ride.  I am not sure if he was the one that came up with the ABC game, but he was always a participant when one started.  My brother and I, if tied and waiting for the last letter, would be waiting for the chance to spot the Zephyr station at Carpenter Road and Saginaw Street.

He had a few standards that he would pull out.  He did a parody of the old Ajax commercial that went like this:

Use Ajax (bom bom)/The foaming beer (ba baba ba ba bom bom)/Floats your guts/Right out your rear (baba baba baba bom)

And, at some point, he would usually sing the last verse of this song, beeping the horn at the last part:

There was also a word game that I believe my cousin Danny introduced to us one Christmas that came up from time to time.  The idea was to start with the first line and have everyone say that line, then continue adding lines.  If you made a mistake, you were out.

• A big fat hen.
• A couple of ducks.
• Three brown bear.
• Four running hare.
• Five fat females sitting on a fence.
• Six Simple Simons sitting on a stump.
• Seven Sicilian sailors sailing the seven seas.
• Eight egotistical egoists echoing egotistical ecstasies.
• Nine Nubian nymphs nimbly nibbling on gnats knuckles and nicotine.

My brother and I added a few more:

• Ten treacherous tarantulas torturing Turkish troops.
• Eleven Lebanese lions lurching on luminous llamas.

At one point, I had it up to twenty, but never played that far most of the time, so they are forgotten.

You have to remember, this was before the time of hand-held devices and video players in cars.  We were having fun, and scenes like this rarely, if ever happened:

Dad could sing and play the piano, but he wouldn’t always play/sing the whole song

Growing up, we had an old upright piano.  Dad would often go in and play.  He would never use sheet music, so he would play from memory.  I think though that is why he would only play up to a point.

One of my favorite pieces is this one, which he learned to play in high school:

Dad also played The Moonlight Sonata, The Lord’s Prayer, Cool Clear Water, Yellow Bird, Young Love, and Jailhouse Rock.  I learned the first part of The Moonlight Sonata because it was another favorites piece of mine, and, even though I do not have a piano now, I still have much of my Dad’s sheet music.

Dad was a good dancer

While I am not that great, Dad was a good lead, and though we didn’t have a lot of dances together, this one is the one I will always remember.

1999 – Dad and I dancing at my wedding

I love you Dad!

Three Records; One Life

Tags

birth, death, Taylor, US Census, West Virginia

In the last week or so, I have been trying to flesh out more of the family of one of my paternal Great-grandfathers, William Henry Taylor.  William Henry, or W H as he is often listed in records, was born in West Virginia.  A few years after marrying my Great-grandmother, they moved to Nebraska.  They moved around over the years, and in earlier blog posts I have detailed the moves.  Eventually, my Great-grandparents settled in Malden, Missouri, where they lived out their remaining years.

What I originally set out to do was to locate the birth record for William Henry Taylor. I knew his birth information from his obituary and his death certificate.  There was a one day discrepancy between the two.  While both showed November, 1857 as the month and year, the obituary listed the day as the 10th, while the death certificate listed it as the 11th.  Which one was correct?

From the death certificate, I also knew the names of both parents:  John C Taylor and Eliza Ann Oldaker.  I hoped I wouldn’t have much difficulty in locating the birth certificate for William Henry.

My research was done on the search site for West Virginia Vital Records.  If you have family from West Virginia, I recommend using this site if you want to find records of birth, marriage, or death.  While most records start in the 1850’s, there are a few counties that go back to the 1790’s, long before West Virginia was declared a state in 1863.

Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped.  W H was proving to be elusive.  He however, was not the only child of John and Eliza Taylor, and I had more success with some of his siblings.

 

These are the names of the children of John and Eliza Taylor in birth order (name in bold type means I have found their birth record:

• Lydia A (have also seen Phoebe A M listed on a record as an alternate name)
• Benjamin Ison
• William Henry
• Joseph Elza
• Alonzo F
• Aaron L
• Luretta A J (have seen Lunetta R as an alternate name)
• Margarett J
• John C

This post deals with the youngest sibling I have found:  John C Taylor.

I believe John C was likely named after his father.  I don’t know much about naming traditions yet, but I have seen a lot of children whose names were a combination of their grandparents names (a hint on Ancestry.com that I haven’t followed yet shows that my 3x Great-grandfather could be Henry Taylor and I believe William could have been an Oldaker based on other hints I’ve received.

I found John’s birth record quite easily:

The year is 1880. As you can see, the date of birth is April 8th.

Being this was the beginning of a new decade, the US Census was likely to have a record for baby John, and I was not disappointed.  This was the household on June 12, 1880:

 

As you can see, the oldest four children, including my Great-grandfather, are no longer living with their parents. Notice that both mother and child are listed as ill at the time of the census. I cannot be sure, but it looks like the word listed there might be dysentry – possibly dysentery. Dropsy is also listed as an illness for the mother. The older John’s sister Catherine is living with them. Is she there perhaps to help take care of her sick nephew and his mother?

Wikipedia lists dysentery as “an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing blood and mucus in the feces with fever, abdominal pain, and rectal tenesmus (a feeling of incomplete defecation), caused by any kind of infection.”  Dropsy is edema or swelling, and could be caused by any number of factors, including diseases of the kidneys or heart.

Especially for such a young child, dysentery could have serious consequences, as the diarrhea could cause dehydration.  And, unfortunately for young John, that was the case:

The death record says the cause of death was not known. John died on June 16th, just 4 days after the Census was completed.

It is sad to see any life cut short.  For this one life, three records are all that we have to show the brief span of time that young John was on this earth.

 

 

The Happiest Place on Earth

Tags

Cat, Disney, Dog, fish, fishing, Horse, Old Yeller, Pet, Recreation

And no, I’m not talking about Disneyland. In fact, I’ve never been to Disneyland (or Disneyworld, for that matter).  That’s not to say I’ve never SEEN it.  After all, growing up watching Disney each weekend, every once in a while, you would get a feature about the park or, in the case below, plans for a new park.

But, for me, the happiest place on earth wasn’t an amusement park.  For me, the happiest place on earth was a farm about a half hour’s drive from our home in Flint:  the home of my Aunt Georgia and Uncle Neil just outside of Lapeer, Michigan.

My Aunt Georgia in front of her home in Lapeer, Michigan. Laying down is Litska, and Walter is sitting.

Now Aunt Georgia did not always live out in Lapeer.  Originally, she lived in a small house near Averill Avenue in Flint.  However, Aunt Georgia and Uncle Neil owned property out in Lapeer, and they had plans to build a house on it.

Aunt Georgia’s house in the process of construction. To the right is a covered pump that was already on the property.

The property was quite large.  Even the aerial shot that was taken does not show the full extent of it.

This picture only shows the buildings on the property. It does not show all the land or the woods that Aunt Georgia and Uncle Neil owned.

You can see on the right side that train tracks ran along side the property.  The road that Aunt Georgia lived on ended at the tracks and her driveway began on the other side.  The tracks at that point were up a small hill; there was no warning signal for the crossing.  You would have to drive onto the hill enough to look both ways, and then cross over.  Sometimes in the winter, it was too slippery for the car to cross and so you’d have to park and walk to the house (which was also up a hill, so it wasn’t easy if it was slick).  I can remember at least once where we had to stay the night because we got snowed in.  Of course, I didn’t mind. 🙂

The farm in Winter. This is a rather mild day, but you can see how pretty a place it could be even when there was just a little snow.

The seasons were always beautiful out there.  Autumn was always a wonderful time to be visiting.  Fall color in their woods was able to be seen from the house, and a walk on the property allowed you to see the variety of the season.

Caption on back written by Aunt Georgia: 1994 – Color just starting at our home

I spent many nights with Aunt Georgia in November.  Uncle Neil liked to go hunting up North on weekends during deer season, and Aunt Georgia preferred not to stay alone.  She would ask me to come stay for a few days, and of course, I would.  During those visits we would sit for hours in her living room and  talk of many things, including family and family history.  My biggest regret is that I didn’t think about writing any of it down at the time.  Aunt Georgia was the family historian, and between her and my Aunt Jeanette, I learned quite a bit, but much of it is locked away in memory that I cannot access.

Aunt Georgia in her living room. The rug covering the bench of her organ was originally my Grandma Taylor’s and it is in my care for the time being. Her cat, Felicia, is laying on the floor near her.

In Spring, things would begin to bloom.  On the hillside, a garden would be planted.  Typically, there would be corn, green beans, tomatoes, and carrots.  One year, Aunt Georgia put in some grape vines, and after a few years, she yielded Concord Grapes.  There were also some fruit trees on the property.  There was one apple tree in particular that I remember.  It was old and eventually died off.  I seem to recall that out of the dead stump a seedling came up.  I seem to recall us calling the old one ‘the pregnant tree’ because of it.

This picture of the garden (which appears to be late Spring because the corn isn’t that high) gives a good idea of the length of the hill, but it doesn’t seem to give as good an idea of its steepness.

In Summer, everything was green and beautiful.  Aunt Georgia also kept a flower garden which made use of an old feature on the property.

Caption by Aunt Georgia: small – Walter German Shep. Litska
Remember the covered pump I mentioned in the construction picture? Here it is, cover removed and built into a raised planter.

As you can see, animals were a big part of life on the farm.  I can always remember my Aunt Georgia having a dog, even from before when she lived in Flint.

Rags was the first dog of my Aunt’s that I remember. This was taken in Flint at her old home.

When my Grandpa Taylor died, he had owned a dog called Yeller (he looked a little like the dog in the movie “Old Yeller“).  Walter, if I remember right, was a stray, as was, I think, Nickla.

Caption by my Aunt Georgia: Nickla – 1994 Just came from the beauty shop.

Litska was another matter.  Litska was a retired show dog.  Her owners asked Aunt Georgia to take her because they were working with their newer dogs.  Even a retired dog needs to be put through its paces now and again, and they knew Aunt Georgia would give the dog both the structure and attention needed.  Every one of my Aunt’s dogs were well-trained.  She took each one to obedience training, and I remember watching her work with each one.  I learned a lot of things from her by observation that I eventually used in training my own dogs.  I can still hear her praising the dogs.  “Very nice!” she would say in an approving tone, and work time would end with a rub behind the ears, or a good petting. Even Felicia, the cat, was trained.  She would not come onto the furniture unless called, and even then, I believe the only furniture she was allowed onto was Aunt Georgia’s chair.  She also had taught her to sheath her claws when she was on people.  A soft tap on her paw if the claws came out was enough to get her to bring them back in. Only the cat was indoors full-time.  The dogs, with the exception of Rags, all slept outside.  They had their dog houses or kennels, of course.  However, in Winter, if it was bad outside, the dogs were brought in.  They were all well-behaved, and it was nice having them in with us. However, dogs and cats were not the only animals on the property.

Left to right: Shannon, Goldie, and Sand

I think the horses were one of my favorite things on the property.  When I wasn’t with Aunt Georgia, I would be out with the horses.  I would pull grass and clover for them, I would talk to them and pet them, and on occasion, I was able to go to the corn crib and bring them corn, or give them apples that had fallen from the tree.  There were five in all.  Goldie was the oldest, and I believe was mother of both Shannon and Sand.  She later had Kelly.  The fifth was a pony that was a Shetland/Welsh mix called Toby.  Toby is the only one I ever ‘rode’ (which my uncle leading me around).  He could be an ill-tempered beast; even Aunt Georgia called him a ‘booger’ on more than one occasion.

The horses had a lot of property to range on.  There was a large pond that was always a fixture on the property.  The fenced area allowed them to range between several fields.

You can see the pond behind Sand and Shannon in this picture.

We had a lot of fun at the pond, too.  There was an old raft made of oil drums and wood that floated around out there for several years.  My brother and I would swim out to it and the jump off.  The bottom of the pond was in places mucky with silt, so it wasn’t that great to come out.  I think we sometimes had to wash our legs off with the garden hose before we could go into the house.

Uncle Neil built a small dock later.  Usually, he had a cane pole sitting next to it, so it was easy to get some bait (he usually had some worms he’d dug up already), and go out and fish.  Even as kids, we used to fish at the sides of the pond, but growing up didn’t make fishing less fun.

1992 – I still had fun fishing even when I got older. I never cleaned a fish, but I did bait my own hook and I did take the fish off the hook.

You can see I was having a good time in this picture, and why not?  I was at my Aunt Georgia and Uncle Neil’s farm; for me, the happiest place on earth. 😀

A Tale of Two Irons

Tags

family, lore, Newell, Taylor

I had been struggling today to decide on what to write about.  Not having any particular thing in mind, I turned my attention to my Google Reader, to catch up on the genealogy blogs I follow.  In doing so, I came across a post made earlier this month by Sheryl Lazarus on her blog “A Hundred Years Ago” about ironing.  It brought to mind two pieces of family lore about irons and ironing.

The first story is about my Aunt Georgia and my Grandma Taylor.  When the ironing had to be done, Aunt Georgia told me that to pass the time, she and my grandmother would read poetry to one another.  They would take turns, one of them ironing, and the other reading aloud, until all the clothes were pressed.  My Aunt Georgia’s favorite was “The Fool’s Prayer” by Edward Rowland Sill:

THE FOOL’S PRAYER

by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

The royal feast was done; the King

Sought some new sport to banish care,

And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool,

Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!”

 

The jester doffed his cap and bells,

And stood the mocking court before;

They could not see the bitter smile

Behind the painted grin he wore.

 

He bowed his head, and bent his knee

Upon the Monarch’s silken stool;

His pleading voice arose: “O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

 

“No pity, Lord, could change the heart

From red with wrong to white as wool;

The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

 

“‘T is not by guilt the onward sweep

Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;

‘T is by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

 

“These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

 

“The ill-timed truth we might have kept–

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say–

Who knows how grandly it had rung!

 

“Our faults no tenderness should ask.

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;

But for our blunders — oh, in shame

Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

 

“Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool

That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!”

 

The room was hushed; in silence rose

The King, and sought his gardens cool,

And walked apart, and murmured low,

“Be merciful to me, a fool!”

“The Fool’s Prayer” is reprinted from The Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900. Ed. Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1915.

The second story of ironing is about my brother, Tim.  At one point in his young age, Tim liked to iron when he would visit my Grandma Newell’s house.  For hours I’m told, he would pretend to iron, using a container of baby powder as his iron of choice.  Back and forth his little arm would go, smoothing out the wrinkles of imaginary pieces of fabric.

At some point, the family decided that since he liked to iron so much, they would get him a toy iron so he could play with a “real” iron.  The gift was given, and the family waited to watch Tim with his new toy.  From what I’m told, he picked it up, set it aside, and went right on “ironing” with his baby powder box!

The toy iron did get some use though; when I was old enough, I played with it. 🙂

Thanks, Sheryl, for inspiring me to share these stories!

A Father is to…

In May, I shared a book I had written in about second or third grade (about 40 years or so ago) about my Mother.  Today being Father’s Day, I wanted to share the book I wrote for my Dad.  I don’t know how long it’s been since he’s seen this.

Again, the cover still looks good, despite its age.

The book formula is the same as the book I wrote for my Mom.  Each page starts with “A father is to”, and then the illustration and words relate to what I felt a father was supposed to do.

It is interesting looking at them side by side to see the differences in what I wrote about.  The roles of Mom and Dad are very different in the eyes of my younger self.

As I did with my post in May, I’m going to present the book page by page.  If you scroll over the picture, there will be my comments as an adult looking back on what I wrote.

A Father is to Let You Bat
by
Pam Taylor

A father is to give you an allowance.

A father is to let you bat.

A father is to watch you when your mother is gone to the store for some groceries.

A father is to wear a necktie to work and on special occasions.

A father is to hold your hand when a lion roars at a zoo.

A father is to let you play baseball with your brothers.

A father is to take you to the Detroit Zoo.

A father is to cook breakfast when your mother isn’t up yet. He is in an apron.

A father is to tell jokes as he gets home from work.

A father is to get a raise from his boss at work.

A father is to get a job is his workshop is on strike. He got a job at Hank’s and Herman’s

Though distance separates us, my Dad is always close in my heart.  Happy Father’s Day, Dad!  I love you!

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.

Memorial Day Memories

Tags

cemetery, Flint, Flint Memorial Park, genealogy, McCombs, Memorial Day, memory, Michigan, Taylor

While I don’t remember doing it every year, I can remember many a Memorial Day visiting the graves of my paternal grandparents.  On some occasions, I went with my Aunt Georgia, and I can remember her showing me how to use a knife to cut away some of the grass that was starting to encroach upon the edges of the headstones.  While I worked on my grandparent’s stone, I believe she worked on that of my Uncle Orvall, her first husband.  We also cleaned around the stone of “Poppa”, my great-grandfather (and my Aunt’s grandfather), Joseph Jeremiah McCombs.  I can remember being shown how to bring up the urn that was a part of my grandparents’ headstone, so we could place the flowers we had brought.

I can remember visiting with my Mother as well.  The area in Flint Memorial Park where my grandparents were buried was near to the area set aside to bury children.  By this time I knew I had a younger brother, Michael, that had died only a few days after being born.  I had wondered where he was buried, and I think I asked my mother that day.  I thought she and I would be walking over to where the children were buried, but I learned that day that Michael was buried at my grandmother’s feet.  No headstone marked the place where he lay.

The last time I visited Flint Memorial Park on Memorial Day, I was alone.  I was in college by that time.  I did the work by myself, cleaning around each headstone.  I think I had picked some early lilacs and had brought them with me (lilacs usually didn’t start coming in on our bushes until June).  I pulled up the urn and placed the flowers and stood there a moment, reflecting on the past before getting back in my car.  I went out that afternoon, not to a picnic or a barbecue, but to go visit my Aunt Georgia.  I would tell her of my visit that day, and listen to her tell me her memories of my father, my uncles, and my grandparents.