All My Ancestors

Have you seen this book?

Tricking the Tallyman

author Jacqueline Davies and illustrated by S. D. Schindler.

It’s meant for children but most genealogists I know would love this story of the first census in the new United States of America.

It’s the story of Phineas Bump who is assigned to deliver a “fair and true” count of every citizen in his territory, which is Tunbridge, Vermont.

But the citizens of Tunbridge don’t want to be counted.

At least initially.

It’s the first census in the new nation, and it’s interesting to see the response of the townfolks.  Some things never change.  Rumors fly as to the reason for the census–to raise taxes, to draft soldiers, to build roads, to increase votes, to develop mail delivery–all as planned by those rascally fellows in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Penelope Pepper attempts to play the poor tallyman (census taker)–the ensuing story is both entertaining and educational.

In librarian terms, this book is known as an “easy.”  That means it’s meant to be read to young children, before they can read for themselves.  The illustrations are wonderful and kids will indeed enjoy the story AND the pictures.

But so will grown-up genealogists.

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I went looking for the daily blogging theme for Friday and apparently there are no prompts for Friday and Saturday.  Wouldn’t you know?  So I’ve had to come up with my own.

A few weeks ago my husband insisted on buying me a MacBook Pro.  I am conflicted.  I have been a PC user since the beginning–we had a personal computer very early.  I remember one I had had two pop-up disk drives on top.  All of my files, including my considerable genealogical materials, are all on my PC–both desktop and laptop. I bought Office for Mac since that will evidently allow me to use my documents and powerpoints, etc., ,etc.

But what am I going to do with my genealogy data?  Do I want to continue to try to use both platforms?  Reunion is the only genealogy software package I know of for Mac.  I did see one other program in the store last night but it didn’t seem like a good choice.  I know Reunion has been around awhile and is highly regarded by those who use it.  So I bit the bullet and bought it.

My thinking is that I will enter my husband’s line into this software.  I had his family info in some version of my TMG about 4 computers ago.  When his sister got interested in researching that line, I sort of stepped away from it.  And now who knows where the disks are that have his family data?  I know it was some of the first research I did so doing the data entry again will probably yield a much stronger database.  I still have all the documentation and I do have printouts from the original database so it won’t be like starting all over.  And I’m so disenchanted with what happens when trying to import data via gedcom, I wouldn’t try it even if it were a possibility.

Some of this decision is driven by the fact that Nathan Murphy has selected my husband’s immigrant ancestor to be part of his dissertation study of 100 prisoners sentenced to transportation to the colonies–I wrote about this possibility earlier.  I need to get the data I have into a better format to share.  I have a collateral relative’s application materials for the Sons of the American Revolution.  I scanned all that in using my new ScanSnap, which I love.  It scans both sides with one pass and the document feeder handles a stack of paper in about 3 minutes that would take 3 hours to scan one by one.  It’s truly amazing and I now have some hope for clearing my office of so many stacks.

But I digress.

So far, I’m struggling a bit with Reunion.  I can’t figure out how to make the source function work well and I MUST be sure to do a good job of entering that data.  I’ve worked with TMG and its predecessor for years and know how to make that work.  For some recent work for some clients, I’ve entered the data into Legacy and like working with their source templates.  I’ll keep reading and working at it.  I need a manual to have beside my computer as I work through the steps–there is help, of course, but no printed manual comes with the rather pricey program.

So let’s just say that Friday’s theme is Frustration.    I’ll keep you posted from time to time on my progress.

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Hubbo had a conference to attend in Rogers, Arkansas over Fall Break.  Knowing that I can always use an opportunity to prowl around ancestral remains in Benton and Washington Counties, I tagged along.

On Thursday, we drove out to Butler Creek Cemetery in Sulphur Springs, AR.  To get there, we had to go through Missouri.  Actually, as our pal at the hotel said, “Why would you do that?”  We evidently didn’t have to go that way, but it’s what all our various mapping programs said.  And it was scenic.

There was this barn, that I initially thought was built of logs, but upon closer inspection, appears to be just roughly hewn wood.

We stopped and ate at a cafe in Noel, Missouri and also admired the view from the gas station.

We chose to try to ignore the conversation in the next booth about the website showing how many people had been killed by a former president.  And also the person sitting in the back smoking.  Can you still smoke in restaurants?

The church and the cemetery could have been anywhere–what I imagine New England looking like in the fall.  I felt like a certified leaf-peeper.

The land for the church and cemetery had been donated by a John C. Givens (1806-1885).  There were cattle in the field back behind the trees and they evidently were trying to persuade us to come feed them based on their mooing.

We had a good time despite it being a cold, misty day.  That might even have added to the day.  The cemetery is old.  The 3rd great-aunt I have buried there died in 1898.  I actually had just found out that she was buried here–I blogged about her in an earlier post and another descendant wrote to tell me where she and some of her family were buried.

I think it’s fairly safe to assume this marker was placed long after her death in 1898.  There is an old crumbling concrete footing around her grave, but the stone looks much newer.  There are no dates on the stone nor are any other names included.  She was Mary Esta Ball and married to John W. Shelman.  Another interesting thing to notice is that the surnames on the four stones from these family members are spelled two different ways–sometimes with two “ls” and sometimes with only one.

Two of Mary’s six sons are buried nearby:  William John Nelson (1864-1943), according to my California correspondent, and George Washington (1873-1923).

You can barely note that the surnames are spelled differently–William’s is Shelman and George’s is Shellman.

Also buried nearby is a young man who is probably the son of one of these men, but I don’t know the story yet.  Perhaps another contact with Diana will help me know more about John William Shelman.

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My great-grandfather George Charley Cooper 1859 TX – 1935 TX

clipping contains no date or place

probably from the Lubbock Avalanche

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Military records scare me.

There.  I said it.

I am finally somewhat comfortable with Civil War service records–more comfortable with Confederate ones than Union, probably because of the number of Rebels I have in my own family than Feds.  I’ve worked more with Civil War records–many of them are now available on Footnote.com and I ordered many of them from NARA before that kind of access was available.

But then comes John Mitchell, born about 1790, probably in Orange County, North Carolina.  His family moves to Tennessee, and I believe to Mississippi, and in May 1847, at the age of 56, John Mitchell joins the army in Rusk County Texas to fight in the Mexican War.  One of my fellow Mitchell researchers shared a letter written by John from Austin, Texas, while he was awaiting deployment.  He mentions his horse Charley and assures his son Ephraim that both he and Charley are getting plenty of food.

I found John Mitchell, Sr. indexed in Charles D. Spurlin‘s Texas Veterans in the Mexican War:  Muster Rolls of Texas Military Units.  The first time I ordered his record from NARA, I got a reply that the record was not found.  (The good news is that I did not get charged for the search and it was all done electronically, so the pain was quickly over.)  I took the opportunity to pick Craig Scott‘s brain a little after his presentation on the Mexican War and its records at FGS in Little Rock.   This conversation convinced me that the record was probably indeed held at NARA, but it also planted the seed of wondering if it might be held in Austin.  So I wrote the Texas State Archives and received a wonderfully educational and thorough response.  The author of the letter notes all the inconsistencies in Spurlin’s abstracts of John Mitchell’s records–not because of Spurlin’s work, but, I suspect, because of the common name AND, perhaps, the enlistment of a Mitchell son also named John.  At any rate, the record was indeed at NARA, and a second attempt with a note that it was the second effect, I finally got the file.

It is slim.  Only 4 muster cards–for June to August,  September and October , and November and December for 1847.  The final card is for January and February 1848.    Spurlin notes that Mitchell died in Carmargo in Mexico.  The muster roll cards confirm that he was left sick in Camargo as of 4 Sep 1847.  None of the cards confirm his death using that actual term.

So what other records might exist for this man?  And what about those other John Mitchells who could also be relatives? or not relatives but from the same general area of Texas?

I’m considering hiring a researcher in DC to look into this.  I think I need someone who can look at all the records at one time and make some decisions.  On the other hand, if I had access to them, I could do it myself.  Dallas Public has good military holdings.  Maybe I’ll try them first–

The search goes on.  A pension record would be so helpful, but as far as I can determine, no one applied for a pension based on John Mitchell’s service.  I believe his wife was in Marshall County, Mississippi, living with daughter Mary E. Mitchell Boyd.  John admonishes son Ephraim to “take care of your mother” in the letter,” but so far, I cannot get beyond this point.

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These are the flowers a co-worker brought me when my blog was nominated for one of Family Tree Magazine’s Top 40 Genealogy Blogs.  How nice was that?  I feel like I’ve already won–flowers AND being nominated with some really terrific blogs.

Thanks to all.

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I’ve begun indexing court records at my job.  The box I’ve worked on so far contains divorce cases from district court in 1914. The files are much like probate files I’ve used in other courthouses.  For the most part, legal sized pages are folded into fourths, placed into a cardboard envelope, and tied with a red twill ribbon.

These records are a gold-mine of information, and for now, I’m very frustrated by not being able to do more in-depth indexing.  For a variety of reasons, I’m only recording which court, the type of case and the names of the defendant and the plaintiff.   Because of lack of space, we cannot unfold and put these documents into a file folder.  I hope to eventually be able to scan them so they can be more easily accessed and indexed.  Right now, they are in a basement storage in a huge stack of boxes.  My efforts are the the beginning foray into organizing these records for use.

I have not worked in divorce records before.  The information found in these petitions nearly always includes the date and place of the marriage.  One I read today indicated the marriage took place in 1899 Havana, Cuba–was the groom a soldier?  How did the bride get to Cuba?  Neither name appeared to be a Cuban surname.  I want to know the story of this wedding.  A surprising number of the marriages did  not take place in Oklahoma, the site of the divorce.

In about 95% of the cases I’ve processed so far, the woman is suing the man for the divorce–she typically states that he does not provide support, and, in many cases, that he has disappeared.  This is substantiated by the files containing some documents such as returned mail as well as notices published in the newspaper requiring the defendant to respond to the summons.  Too often the woman describes being verbally and physically abused–again, substantiated by restraining orders.  One case names the person with whom the defendant has been “committing adultry,” and another phrase is handwritten in–”…and with other persons known to the defendant.”

AS I’ve said, the majority of the records in this box are divorces.  But today I came across a case filed for breach of promise.  The plaintiff/woman was asking for $10,000 in damages.  She said she’d quit her job at the telephone company and made arrangements to be married as she had been promised.  She even included a letter he’d written her from Texas.  From my non-legally proficient eyes, it looked like she had a good case.  Unfortunately for my curiosity, there was nothing in the file that showed the final disposition of the case.

There was also an annulment petition.  Evidently the groom was only 17 when he married and his “next friend,” his father in this case, was petitioning for annulment–the basis for the petition was that the groom was not 21, there were no children, and the couple was not living together.  Another story to pique my curiosity.

One of the few cases of the husband suing the wife for divorce was a man stating that he’d met all the duties and responsibilities of a husband only to find that his wife would not cook meals or mend his clothes.  He stated that he’d made arrangements for her to be able to shop at the best grocers and butchers, but that she insisted he eat out, incurring additional expense.  He also spelled out her unwillingness to mend his clothes, also incurring expense since he had to hire a tailor.  In addition, he said he made money available to hire household help, but she refused to hire anyone.  So he was asking for their marriage to be dissolved.

This peek into 1914 matrimony and law has been fascinating. The names and ages of the children are included, and, in some cases, the name and address of the business and it’s financial worth, usually owned by the husband.  In one particularly sticky custody case, the names and addresses of both sets of grandparents was in the file.  Often the woman asks that her maiden name be restored so there’s another valuable piece of information.

The gloves I wear while processing the papers are filthy after handling about 20 of the packets.  Refolding the documents and putting them into their cardboard envelopes goes against everything I know about preserving such documents.  But for now, we need to record enough information to make them minimally identifiable and accessible.  Here’s hoping they retain their fascination for me.

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Charles Winfield Osborne and Gertrude Susanna Mobley Osborne

My great-grandparents

Fairview Cemetery

Pampa, Gray County, Texas

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Here’s this week’s genealogy blog prompt:

Week #39: Did your ancestors come by boat? Talk about the documentation that records their departure and arrival.

I have only one family line that I know of that came by boat.  They are my Mennonite Germans from Russia who came to the US late in 1874.

This is a group of folks not widely known outside of those of us who descend from them.  And, honestly, I didn’t know all that much about them growing up.  The short version is that groups of German farmers were invited into the steppes of Russia by Catherine the Great because she want to settle southern Russia and because she knew they were very good farmers.  Some of them came from Switzerland, originally, but some of them had also gone to Holland.  The went into Russia because they had a deal with Catherine that they could retain their own language, have their own schools, and, perhaps most importantly, not be subject to the draft into the Russian army.  My branch were Mennonites and, as such, did not believe in bearing arms.  There are also groups of Catholics and evangelical Lutherans in the larger group of Germans from Russia.

When the US wanted to develop what had been called “The Great American Desert” in the middle of the country, much of the land was ceded to the railroads.  The railroads began to market this land to persons from Scandinavia as well as to these Germans in Russia.  As it happened, these offers came at an opportune time.  Catherine was dead and her son Peter was re-thinking some of her policies, military service being foremost among them.  So the Germans who were still living in Russia began to leave.  They went to Canada, to Mexico, to South America, and large groups of them came to the plains in the US–the Dakotas, Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and Kansas.  They brought their ways with them and they also brought what is today known as turkey red wheat, the a strong part of the economy of this area for decades.  This was wheat that would grow over the winter with large yields the following summer.

Passenger lists indicate that my Buller and Unruh family members departed from Antwerp aboard the Vaderland.  I have gleaned this story from various sources–from family members, from a publication entitled Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need: A Scrapbook about Mennonite Immigrants from Russia, 1870-1885, and from a family publication entitled The Genealogical Record of Henry Schmidt and his Descendants (1807-1954) by Mae Koehn Curtis I was fortunate enough to receive from one of my grandfather’s cousins.  (I have a faint memory of making a photocopy of this book on yellow paper at the church in my rural hometown–the only place in town at that time that had an accessible photocopier.)  The Brothers in Deed book was a treasure for Germans from Russia Mennonite researchers–it really was a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and passenger lists.  I had no idea at the time about the existence of passenger lists, much less how to locate one. Clarence Hiebert included them in this publication.  Later, I could confirm what he’d re-printed as well as the stories recorded by Mrs. Curtis.

All of these sources said my families came aboard the Vaderland, a ship from the Belgian Red Star line.  According to Ancestry.com‘s Passenger Ships and Images, the maiden voyage for this ship was January 1873, sailing from Antwerp to Philadelphia, a route followed by my ancestors a two years later.  The ship was built in England and its sister ships were Nederland and Switzerland, ship names that occur frequently in the Germans from Russia passenger lists from this time period.

Toward the bottom of this passenger list, accessed at Ancestry.com, my 3rd great-grandparents, Peter David and Eva Schmidt Buller and their family are listed–

The family listing continues onto the next page of the passenger list, which confirms that one of the little Buller girls, Anna,  died 12 December 1874, enroute.

The story of this group of Mennonite’s arrival in Kansas is recorded in Abe Unruh’s The Helpless Poles. Due to the various boundary changes, these people from Volhynia, the area my family lived, were often referred to as Poles, or from Russia-Poland.  This created a great deal of confusion for me as I was starting looking for these folks.  (To add the mix, my granddad’s nickname was “Dutch.”)  The ship had severe problems due to rough seas–propellors broke.  Some accounts indicate they had to return to England for repairs.  It delayed the trip and they finally arrived Christmas eve or day (accounts vary) in Philadelphia.  They almost immediately boarded a train for Hutchinson, Kansas, (recorded as Atchison on the passenger list) but no one was there to meet them in the below freezing temperature.  This was partially due to all the delays that had happened on the journey.  They were finally able to move into a store a merchant opened for them, but my understanding is that they spent the rest of the winter in unheated box cars.

They were, however, industrious and hardy.  My family homesteaded in Lone Tree Township in McPherson County.  They soon grew fairly prosperous and within a few years, had enough land and money to move further south into Oklahoma Territory to homestead in what is now Alfalfa County.  I can remember visiting some of these farms as a young child and again, as an adult, a few years ago when I was invited to one of the collateral family’s reunion.

This is a photo of my Buller family a generation or so after immigration:

The father in this family, seated on the front row, is Jacob Peter Buller, shown as aged 14 on the passenger list.  He married Else Jantz, and they were the parents of 11 children.  The back row of this photo is comprised of in-laws.  The second man from the right is my great-grandfather, John Benjamin Unruh, and directly in front of him is his wife, my great-grandmother, Amanda Matilda Buller Unruh.  Down on the other end, the second man from the left is John Benjamin’s brother Simon Benjamin Unruh and in front of him is his wife Josephine Buller Unruh.  Two more of these Buller sisters married Jantz brothers.  It was a close-knit community.

So that’s the one immigration story I know from my family.  Thanks to a combination of early published and unpublished resources, including some family stories and contacts, I was able to piece together their story.  Most of the published resources were from small publishing companies that family members told me about.  Passenger lists are now much easier to access, thanks to online databases, and it is also wonderful to be able to correspond with others from this extended family.  My other family lines were here much earlier and I have yet to find their origins and dates of arrival.  I suspect the vast majority of them came from the British Isles, including some pesky Scots-Irish, but I have not jumped the pond yet.  Studying my Germans from Russia gives me a whole other perspective on my family lines and their origins

Sources:

Ancestry.com. Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.  Roll M425_92; Line: 15.

Hiebert, Clarence. Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need: A Scrapbook about Mennonite Immigrants from Russia, 1870-1885. Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1974.

Curtis, May Koehn.  The Genealogical Record of Henry Schmidt and his Descendants (1807-1954).  Washington, DC: author, 1955.

Unruh, Abe J. The Helpless Poles. Montezuma, KS: author, 1973.

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