All My Ancestors

7 February 2010

Perspective and a Book Review

Filed under: Cooper Family, Mitchell Family, Texas — allmyanc @ 3:17 pm

I received and read this book this past week.


I discovered its existence last week.

As I’ve been blogging,  I’ve been working on my Mitchell line.  Mary Mitchell was the wife of John B. Cooper and they were the parents of George C. and Rebekah Ann Cooper.  Both of these children were orphaned by shortly after the Civil War.  I am descended from George C. Cooper–he was my great-grandfather.  The author of From Flour Sacks to Satin is the granddaughter of Rebekah Ann, or “Annie” as she was known.  I did not know my great-grandfather–he died almost 20 years before I was born.  But one of the chapters in this book is entitled “Grandma Hall,”–Annie, my ggrandfather George’s sister.  She knew her grandmother.

Some pages of this book were difficult to read.  It is illustrative of the point that we don’t all grow up in the same family.  My youngest  brother remembers events in our family much differently than do I, for example.  He wasn’t there for some of them, and I wasn’t there for others–his being 6 years younger and having siblings who essentially left home when he was 12, leaving him to be a type of only child, means we were reared in families essentially different in many ways.

That is the case with the story told in this book.  Her story is no less true or valuable or compelling for having been the descendant of Annie.  The bones of the story are the same–the children left Johnson County with their widowed mother after the War, were orphaned, were rescued from Fayette County, Texas from living with a Mr. Burns after the death of their mother, and were returned to Johnson County to live with their grandparents, Job and Elizabeth Landrum Cooper.

Other details and events vary.  According to Flour Sacks, George was offered opportunities to continue his education.  Annie was allowed to only attend school through the third grade, despite her thirst for more knowledge and formal education.  I do know that George was a school teacher–that’s how he met Sallie Duval, his wife.  Annie and her now-blind husband and children were “invited” to leave the Hall’s place.  The subtitle of the book tells the tale: The Story of a Sharecropper Family. These are events of which I have no knowledge–either from firsthand experience or from family lore.  And the author herself says in opening remarks,

“The purpose of this books is not to embarrass or slander anyone in recording the events of my early life, which I believe were unique in the circumstances I experienced.  Through the years I have come to dearly love all of my relatives and appreciate the people with whom I was associated, both living and deceased….”

I am indebted to her for writing this story.  It is on the shelf next to one of her books of poetry she gave me nearly 20 years ago–a collection that includes the thoughts of a young John B. as he looked out over his plowed fields, as the clouds of War approached.  They are treasures.  I wrote her a letter before I received the book, asking her if she wanted to know more about our Mitchell line.  Unfortunately, it was returned–putting it out on the mailbox for the postman to pick up evidently resulted in part of her address washing off the envelope.  I must revise and send it along again–none of us are getting any younger.

And I must express to her directly how grateful I am to her for putting down her story, which is, of course, part of my story.

1 February 2010

. . . and one more [WorldCat] thing

Filed under: How to, Memes — allmyanc @ 7:09 pm

Have you used the OAISTER part of WorldCat?  There was a Facebook posting about it after I wrote my original post for this week.

This is the answer to all of us who have wished for a catalog of materials that have been digitized and put online–“books and articles, audio and video files, photos, data sets, theses and research papers” to quote the WorldCat blog.

I’ve used it when it was housed at the University of Michigan, but I played with it some more and I was amazed at the breadth of what was available, including interviews and photos.

Have fun!

30 January 2010

The Researcher’s Toolbox: WorldCat

Filed under: How to, Memes — allmyanc @ 11:30 am

Written for  52 Weeks To Better Genealogy – Challenge #5

I love WorldCat.

I downloaded the app onto my iPhone, thinking, as a librarian, I should have it there, but not imagining that I would ever use it.  Not so.  I have used it multiple times when I’ve found myself away from my computer and wondering about the availability of a title.

WorldCat is an uber catalog.  When folks at the library where I work ask me about a title we don’t have within our 4 walls, I nearly always offer to do a lookup for them in WorldCat.  Most of them don’t know what WorldCat is, so it’s an opportunity to shed some light as well.  I tell them it’s one way to determine if that particular title is available in our area–we are privileged to have a wonderful public library system in our area and also to have the holdings of 4-5 college and university libraries available to us.  So sometimes it’s just a matter of visiting an area library.  Other times, I can tell them how to request the item through interlibrary loan at their public library.

This caveat regarding interlibrary loan is also always given–many libraries will not loan their genealogical titles.  BUT, customers can request photocopies of the table of contents or the index or perhaps the entries for a certain person.  Most libraries are willing to do this copying of a specific topic when they are not willing for their books to go out the door.

And of course, books are not the only format of information cataloged in WorldCat.  It’s possible to search for serials or microfilm or cds or musical scores or maps and even internet links.

One of the ways I used WorldCat is to find the actual title of a work.  Since I work in a historical society library, the library where folks come to do their genealogical research, I use it a lot to help customers who start by saying something like, “My mother’s cousin’s uncle’s grandmother wrote a book about our family.  It’s blue.  Do you have it?”

Using WorldCat, I can determine what titles have been published about that given family.  I ask about the family name–the customer doesn’t have to know the name of the author or the title of the book.  Then WorldCat can be searched using “Mitchell Family” as a subject search, and I can see what books have been published about the Mitchell family and also what libraries hold those titles.  For such a common name, I might also throw in a keyword search as well, such as including the name of the state where they lived or perhaps one of the collateral lines.

Knowing that the cover is blue, however, is not all that helpful.  :-)

With Amy and others posting about this tool, I encourage you to get acquainted with WorldCat.  I typically access it through my public library’s website–if “my” library system has the title, WorldCat lets me know that with a highlighted line.  Otherwise, I can look to see how many libraries hold it and where I might find it in my area.

Use it to see what’s been been published on a topic of interest–your family names or location where they lived.  You’ll feel so smart!

22 January 2010

NEGHS, Patsy, and John

Filed under: Mitchell Family, Tennessee, Vital Records — allmyanc @ 12:18 pm

Since I never met a database I didn’t like, I took advantage of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society’s offer to WorldVitalRecord subscribers for 10% off the membership fee.  I’ve heard such good things about this society and its holdings, I thought it was a safe purchase.

I have no New England ancestors that I know of.  I do have that one line that was in New York City fairly early, so maybe that counts.  I tend to think of New England ancestors as being in places other than the Big Apple.  But I am a genealogy librarian, so I think of this as a work-related expense.  I need to know what’s out there for my patrons, right?

So imagine my surprise when I found something in the NEHGS’s manuscript collection that a cousin and I recently discovered and have been trying to find one accessible to us.  Short of a trip to Boston, this one is still not all that accessible, but I can at least check into having a portion of it copied and mailed to me.  I sent off the request this morning.  It’s only money.

I’ve documented my quest for documenting “Patsy McClain” as the wife of John Mitchell.  We believe we have definitely connected Martha “Patsy” McLean, daughter of Ephraim and Mary “Polly” Boyd McLean, Jr., as the wife of John Mitchell.  They probably married about 1810 or so in Maury County, Tennessee.  My cousin recently unearthed a Maury Co., TN bond of some sort between John Mitchell and John McLean–but there is no date and no mention of Patsy!  It was sent to her as a “marriage bond.”  Of course she is pursuing it further.  But it is as close as we’ve come to linking the two. What do the headings on this hard-to-read document mean?  As with any bit of information, this one engenders the need for still more data.

And hopefully the manuscript will help as well.  IF portions can be copied.

If not, a trip to Boston may be in order.

9 January 2010

The End of an Era

Filed under: Dad, Osborne Family, Texas — allmyanc @ 4:40 pm

Another farm auction was held out in the Texas panhandle today.

It was the auction of my uncle’s farm equipment.  He’s my dad’s suviving sibling and tomorrow is his 82nd birthday.  He’s farmed my grandparents’ place since their deaths in the ’80s.

This was his last year to farm and when the family LLC voted to sell the farm, the bid submitted by my brothers and me was 2nd highest.

So the farm has passed out of the family.  And my uncle’s equipment was sold today.  It was probably very cold and my cousin said her dad was going to be there no matter the weather.  That didn’t surprise me.  That generation didn’t shirk from hard situations.

Tracing my family back to the 1700s shows no profession (with one exception) other than farming.  One of my two brothers would have loved to have farmed but couldn’t make it work.  Our other brother and I are not farmers.  This creates a little dissonance for me–I’m not willing to try to make a living farming, but it makes me incredibly sad to know that the end of farming has come for this branch of my family.  I think it would have been of some comfort if we’d been able to keep the land in the family, but that was not to be either.

3 January 2010

Irish Roots at Last. Probably.

Filed under: Carnival of Genealogy, Mitchell Family, Tennessee — allmyanc @ 5:55 pm

This is my post for the 17th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture:

The upcoming 17th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture will be a Genealogy treasure “show and tell”.   Here are the details:  Genealogists are treasure hunters of a different kind. Instead of searching for riches, we dig for information. Instead of prizing gold, we value documents – the visual proof of the life stories of families that have passed before us.

Share with us the image of and the story behind a document (or documents) that have been valuable to you during your search for an Irish branch of your family. How and where did you find these documents? What are their significance to your research and/or why are they special to you? Here’s your chance to show off some of your genealogical “loot” at our online “show and tell”.

I joined the “Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture” on faith.   When I signed up, I didn’t know of any specific Irish ancestors–I suspect I have quite a bit of Scots-Irish heritage but I have not jumped the pond, as they say.

In September of 2007, I went to Ireland and, like thousands before me, fell in love with the country.  I wanted to have relatives from this beautiful, pastoral, verdant place.

Lately I’ve been on a Mitchell quest, and those who follow my blog who are not all that interested in the particulars of my ancestral research, may be tempted to stop reading now from Mitchell overload.

But supposedly, the Mitchells are from Ireland.

I don’t know this from any primary resource so I have no document to share.  yet.  However, I have seen it in enough other sources that it makes me want to believe it, and of course, to continue my search.

In her “Let the Drums Roll: Veterans and Patriots of the Revolutionary War who Settled in Maury County, Tennessee,” Marise Parrish Lightfoot indicates that

John Mitchell, born in Orange County, North Carolina in 1760, was a brother of James and Andrew Mitchell, discussed above.  They were the sons of Andrew and Mary McGowan Mitchell, who emigrated from Ireland in 1752 . . . .

So my document for this carnival is not a precious marriage record or even an online passenger list.  It is instead a mention in an apparently well-researched, documented book.  It provides the beginning for a search for documentation that my this line were indeed from Erin.

I don’t have a firm plan yet for how to affirm this hope.  I feel the need to first explore the immigration history from that time period–I have read some pertinent histories but need to re-read portions now with this date in mind.  A quick check of my well-thumbed copy of “Voyagers to the West” by Bernard Bailyn indicates I may have to search for a resource that covers an even earlier time.   Were there lots of Irish who came to America during this early time period?  The same source that says the Mitchells were from Ireland also say the first settled in the “Scotch-Irish Colony” in western Pennsylvania.  What was this colony?  Somewhere else I read that Penn’s agents were traveling through Ireland talking up the benefits of the new country, and that they were so successful, they had to eventually “shut the door,” they had so many takers .  I do remember going by one castle ruin while we were in Ireland that our guide told us was that of William Penn’s father or grandfather.  William Penn lived 1644-1718, so if my Mitchells were influenced by his messages, it was not first-hand.

So it’s not a primary document but it is a clue.  And I’m very happy to have a semi-firm connection with Ireland.

31 December 2009

It Was A Very Good Mitchell Year

Filed under: Cooper Family, Military, Mississippi, Mitchell Family, Tennessee, Texas — allmyanc @ 12:11 pm

I began knowing only the unexceptional name of my great-great grandmother–Mary E. Mitchell–and that her first child was born in Texas in 1859.  I have yet to find any sort of marriage record for Mary E. and her husband John B. Cooper.

By consulting Texas school census records and comparing them to the federal census, I found her father’s name –Ephraim M. Mitchell.

This helped me make contact with others who were researching Ephraim and his wife Rebecca R. Jones, and their 13 children!

There is family lore about Rebecca being the daughter of Sam Jones and Itee– Sam, aka Arpeika, the fierce Seminole leader and Itee, 1/2 Irish and 1/2 Choctaw.

But what about the Mitchells?  No one in my family knew anything about them.  Mary Mitchell’s husband was killed in the Civil War and she died shortly thereafter, leaving my great-grandfather George C. Cooper and his sister Rebecca Ann.  The children were reared by their father’s family and very little was known about their mother Mary, much less her family.

But this year, with the help of some other Mitchell researchers, we have connected the dots, as one of them so aptly put it.  With all the apparent relationships so obvious after the fact.

Ephraim’s father has been identified, as have some of his uncles–indentifying the uncles is part of how we got to Ephraim’s father John Mitchell.  And, we found his mother, identified in Lightfoot’s “Let the Drums Roll” about Maury County Tennessee Revolutionary War veterans, only as “Patsy McClain.”   Just this week we not only found her name to be McLean, but we likely found her father and mother and more.

Of course the path was not straight.  John Mitchell apparently died in 1847 in Mexico as the result of illness contracted during his service in the Mexican War.  The probate file for settlement of his estate is missing from the Shelby County, Texas, courthouse.  (of course it is!)  There is another younger John Mitchell enlisted in the same unit–but he cannot be found after the war in 1850–at least not yet.  And is he even the son of John Sr. or is he a nephew?

Gratefully, someone saved some family letters and shared them with the rest of us.  It’s only the transcription of a letter John Mitchell wrote in 1847 from Austin Texas where he’s awaiting deployment to Mexico.  He talks about having stopped by Corsicana to visit his brother D.R., he mentions his horse Charley, and he admonishes his son Ephraim to take care of his mother.  D.R. turns out to be John’s brother David Reed Mitchell, living and working in Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, and early correspondent from Maury County Tennessee with President Andrew Jackson regarding his deceased brother James’ estate.  Charley the horse is mentioned later in another preserved letter written to Ephraim by an attorney on behalf of his cousin “H. R. Mitchell”–H.R. had evidently traded the sorrel horse Charley for 100 acres of John Mitchell’s head right land  in Rusk County.  H. R. turns out to be Hiram Reed Mitchell, probably the son of David Reed Mitchell.  Researching his family takes us back to Mississippi where there are indications that the Mitchells were between the time they were in Tennessee and Texas.

When a Patsy or Martha Mitchell who would be a good candidate for John’s wife cannot be found in the 1850 Texas census, I go looking in Mississippi.  Sure enough, there’s a good possibility living in an R. L. Boyd’s home, listed as “mother-in-law” and R. L.’s wife’s name is Mary E.  The longer I examine this family, the more convinced I am that this is John Mitchell’s “Patsy McClain” and Ephraim M. Mitchell’s mother.  The name Boyd keeps appearing, too, as a middle name for Mitchells–both Hiram and Ephraim have children with Boyd middle names.  Robert Louis Boyd dies too early for them to be named for him, so where did this name come from?  My search for more info on R. L. Boyd ends up in a dead end, but I believe the Mitchell search has yielded some more clues.

I am grateful that Martha “Patsy” McLean and John Mitchell broke out of the Mitchell’s inclination to name sons John, James, Andrew or David, and named my ancestor for his maternal grandfather, Ephraim McLean, Jr.  And Ephraim McLean, Jr. is married to Mary “Polly” Boyd.  The McLean line is well-documented–there’s even an DAR chapter named for Ephraim McLean, Sr., a Revolutionary War vet who lived to be +90, living in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.

So it’s been a very good year for Mitchell research.  Of course, I still have questions–and this is still a challenging search because all of the Mitchell families apparently named their multitudinous sons for their relatives–John and Andrew and James with an occasional David thrown in.  But it feels like a brickwall has come down, and much of it since the 4-days-ago Mad Monday post about the Mitchells.

It’s a great way to end one year and start another.

Still digging.

28 December 2009

Madness Monday: Mitchell Family

Filed under: Cooper Family, Memes, Military, Mississippi, Mitchell Family, Texas — allmyanc @ 1:53 pm

I’ve written about my Mitchell quest before.

This is a tough search because it’s a common name, the given names are also common (John, James, Mary, Martha), the family was apparently quite mobile, and most of what I want to know occurred before 1850 so the luxury of the every-name census records are not available.   Add that this family was often in territory before statehood (e.g., probably Mississippi) and in a state I have not extensively researched, and the result is a family that drives me a little mad.

Plus, I also have to question the sanity of a man 56 years of age (according to his service record) who joins up to fight in the Mexican War.

So while I’ve written quite a bit recently about this family, it still fits the Monday Madness meme for Geneabloggers–both because they drive me mad and I do think John Mitchell, Sr. might have been a little off his rocker.  :-)

Here is the latest information I’ve received on a person named John Mitchell, Jr.  I’m still not certain that he is the brother of my 4th great-grandfather, Ephraim Miles Mitchell, son of John Mitchell and probably Martha “Patsy” McClain.  I’ve mentioned before that I have a copy of a letter written by John Mitchell from Austin, Texas, as he is awaiting deployment to Mexico.  He mentions his brother “D. R.,” and his horse Charley, but no mention of a son in the same unit.

He does enlist on the same day in the same place as John Mitchell, Sr–20 May 1847 in Rusk County, Texas.

He enlists in the same unit–1st Texas Mounted Volunteers, Co. I.

Unlike John Sr., he apparently survives the war and he one muster roll card indicates he was mustered out 1 May 1848 by Captain Washington near Vera Cruz, Mexico.

His service record gives no other clues that I can see.  Do you?

I posted most of this info in my 20 Dec post, but by writing about it again, I guess I think I’m emphasizing how frustrated I am with these guys.

Through the years I have found pieces of information on this family that all started from my trying to search for info on my mysterious great-great grandmother, Ephraim’s daughter Mary.  I knew nothing about her family when I started, so with some perspective, I have learned quite a bit about this mysterious bunch–I knew her grandchildren but they knew practically nothing about her.  John B. and Mary are a bit of the “lost generation” in my family since both Mary and her husband John B. Cooper died young–he in the Civil War and she shortly thereafter.

Here’s hoping . . .

26 December 2009

A New Home: My Mom’s Wedding Rings

Filed under: Holidays, Mom, Spindle Family — allmyanc @ 11:45 am

A few weeks ago our youngest son announced the time had come.  He was going to propose to his sweetie and they were getting married in the summer.

I thought about it for a while and wrote both sons telling them I had their maternal grandmother’s wedding rings, and while there was only one diamond, they were welcome to think about using the stone and/or rings if they and their beloveds agreed.

They talked and the rings were examined while everyone was here for Thanksgiving.

In the end, the oldest son agreed that since son #2 had firmer plans than did he, he should have first crack at the rings.

So #2 son brought his beloved over to check out the rings.  My mom had saved the original 1950’s Zale’s settings when she had her diamond reset into newer gold  rings about 1975.  When Ang viewed both the updated gold set and the old white gold, stoneless set with a break in the thinned, well-worn wedding band, she fell in love.

With the older set.

I predicted this as Ang wears clothes from vintage shops that look very much like what I wore to college 40 years ago.  Except they look much better on her.  She manages to make those double-knit a-line dresses look great.

The end of this story is that Ang received the old, repaired, restored engagement ring that my mother wore so many years ago for Christmas.

Mom would be tickled–in the sense that her grandson is marrying someone who values the history of that set of rings, but also because she (Ang) prefers what she (Mom) set aside almost 25 years ago.

Welcome to the family, Ang.

20 December 2009

John Mitchell, Jr. in the Mexican War

Filed under: Military, Mississippi, Mitchell Family, Texas — allmyanc @ 9:16 pm

I know, I know.  We’re supposed to be blogging about Christmas.

But I received the second Mexican War service record I’ve ordered.  Ever.  And I’ve written before about my lack of confidence in dealing with military records–mostly because of my ignorance of them, particularly any record other than ones from the Civil War.

This one is for a man named John Mitchell, Jr.  He enlisted in Rusk County, Texas on 20 May 1847.  He is 30 years of age and he enlists in what becomes Co. I, 1st Regiment Texas Mounted Volunteers.  The commander for this unit is the colorful Capt. John “Jack” Coffee Hays.

In this same unit, also as previously posted, is John Mitchell, Sr.  Because of a copy of a letter passed down through the family, I am relatively certain John Mitchell Sr. is my ancestor.

But who is John Mitchell, Jr.  Can I safely assume he is the son of John, Sr.?  They enlist on the same day in the same place into the same unit and for the same length of time.  John Sr.’s horse was evidently of better quality as it is valued at $130.  Jr.’s is valued at $75, goes up to $100 by November and then at the time of mustering out, May 1848, is valued at $50.  Wonder what the process is of valuing the horses?

I looked for a John Mitchell, born about 1817, in Rusk County, Texas in the 1850 census.  I did not find anyone who fit this description.  So I went back to  Mississippi looking for such a person.  There is J. B. Mitchell who is the right age in DeSoto County in both 1850 and 1860.  The Mitchells are variously in DeSoto and Marshall Counties in northern Mississippi–I suspect they came into Mississippi from neighboring Tennessee.  I am stymied by the initials the census taker used for this family–John Mitchell is way too common a name to depend on initials.  I was hoping for a wife’s name that might help me track this John Mitchell.  It appears that J.B.’s wife’s name was Susan–in 1860, the oldest child in the household is Martha.  Wife Susan is not in the household by 1860.  Martha is the name of John Mitchell Sr’s wife.

And here’s another big question–what were the Mitchell men doing in Texas, signing up for the Army, when their homes and families were in Mississippi? Granted, one of John Sr.’s sons, Ephraim Miles Mitchell, had come to Texas by this date, but why were his father and perhaps his brother there as well?  This family seemed to move as land opened up in various places–but unlike Ephraim, these two men do not appear to have brought their families with them.  At least John Sr. did not–his wife Martha/Patsy is found back in Mississippi living in the household of her daughter Mary E. Boyd, wife of Robert Louis Boyd.

I still don’t have enough information to unravel the Mitchells.  But I’ll keep working.  I’ve put off working on this family–a common surname, common given names and much movement prior to 1850.  I keep trying to collect bits to fill in the puzzle, but so far, I don’t even have enough to build the outside edges.

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