All My Ancestors

17 October 2009

A Cemetery in the Ozarks

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Cemeteries, Missouri — allmyanc @ 4:33 pm

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.

barnweb

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

riverhorzweb

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.

churchweb

cemsignweb

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.

maryshellmanweb

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).

WJShelmanweb GWShellmanweb

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.

johnwmshelmanweb

4 September 2009

Serendipity at FGS

Filed under: Arkansas, How to, Oklahoma, Spindle Family, Texas — allmyanc @ 4:38 pm

Today for part of the today I staffed the booth for the Oklahoma Genealogical Society.  It is always fun to talk to people about their Oklahoma roots.  Persons researching family in Oklahoma express a great deal of frustration–Oklahoma won’t turn loose of their vital records, not even an index.  And since it’s a relatively new state, entering the Union in November 1907, vital records are really not all that consistent until the mid 1930s.  I was talking to a Texan who was frustrated by this, but she also asked some questions that reminded me how much we have to get out of our skin when doing research.  Because Texas kept birth records at the county level, she assumed Oklahoma did too.  Not so, as a general rule.  And then she asked how long people had to be deceased before their death certificate could be released.  In Texas, people have to have been deceased at least 25 years–I blogged about my extreme frustration with the Texas system earlier.  As far as I know, there is no time requirement nor do you have to prove relationship, as is also  the case in Texas.

One of my favorites was Meg Hacker’s talk about the criminal case files for Fort Smith housed at the National Archives in Fort Worth.  She says if you have family in western Arkansas or Indian Territory during the time period, you can probably find them in the index.  She said she usually makes this statement and some audience members are just sure that their relatives would not be in the index to criminal cases.  She says she hasn’t been wrong yet–there were just so many ways to get into trouble in Judge Parker’s court.  So if your family was in this area, take a look at the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) at NARA.  Some members of my family are in there–they were in western Arkansas and they were evidently in violation of one of the liquor laws.  Meg indicated that it was common to sell pound cake or candy and include a free shot of whiskey.  I’ll be interested to see if my family were this entrepreneurial of if they just went for the straight sale when I order a copy of the file.

My really serendipitious find today was a post card depicting the huge inn and livery stable building operated by my husband’s great-grandfather in Stamford, Texas.  There are little girls standing out front who may be family members–there were only 12 children.  :-)   I’ll post a picture of the postcard later–I evidently put it in my car with the load of books I bought for the library.  I was prowling through the Texas postcards to see if there were any for my hometown in the panhandle–didn’t find those but I was thrilled to find the photo of Thomas Spindle’s Stamford enterprise.

Tonight is the banquet and tomorrow it’s back home.  I picked up literature about the next conference in Knoxville.  Hope I can make that one too.

2 September 2009

FGS: Librarian’s Day

Filed under: Arkansas — allmyanc @ 4:42 pm

Today was Librarian’s Day at FGS, a day sponsored by ProQuest that included a free lunch. All you have to say to librarians is “free lunch” and they are so there. So many folks signed up the meeting had to be moved to from the Arkansas Studies Institute to the conference hotel, the Peabody, which was a good thing since it got me over there to survey the lay of the land. It also guaranteed that the butter was shaped in the form of the famous Peabody ducks–which didn’t keep most of us from slicing of a piece and spreading it on our complimentary rolls. mmmmmmm

I chose to stay in the nearby DoubleTree since there was free wireless and free parking. Since I am paying my own way, I thought I would save a buck. I’ve always had good experiences at DoubleTree hotels (can you say chocolate chip cookie?). It’s only a block and I can certainly use the exercise–and it’s unseasonably cool for this time of year so it’s a pleasant interlude to walk over.

Today’s schedule was not printed in the conference book that I could find. One of my colleagues had copied the list of speakers and times so I relied on her info to see what was coming next.

This day is designed to provide information to those of us who help family researchers in libraries or archives. We have formal lectures but it’s also a great opportunity to network and see what others are doing. First on the agenda was Russell Baker, recently retired from the Historical Commission who talked about building bridges between our customers and our agencies and our volunteers and our communities–you get the picture. Russell always has lots of excellent advice rooted in his own long tenure as a librarian on serving customers and educating ourselves as well as those we serve.  He handed out a wonderful list of “50 Things for Genealogists to Avoid,” adapted from Dr. Le Roy Barnett. Russell very carefully notes in the intro that genealogists and researchers certainly must have a list of pet peeves about librarians and archivists, but this is a list of 50 ways to irritate a reference librarian. He hopes it will be the beginning of a dialogue–I just think it’s an hilarious and accurate list of what we encounter (and deal with oh, so gracefully) on a daily basis.  (#49, my personal fave:  Send the same request for information to different members of the reference staff in the hope that the collective response to your question will be better than the answer you get from a single inquiry and individual.  Never mind that this approach requires numerous persons within a limited workforce to conduct identical searches.)

Next we were to hear about the American Memory Project, but the presenter was ill. Instead we were treated to a talk about collection development policies (I know, a topic only librarians could love) by Susan Kaufman, manager at the Clayton Library in Houston (one of my favorite research sites). I was thrilled to get to hear her speak on this topic because I have just finished teaching two semesters of “Collection Development and Management” for the library school at the University of Oklahoma. Lots of good ideas for revamping the course and for polishing our own collection development policy at the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center.

Lunch brought a presentation from the ProQuest folks–oh, for all the money in the world. I salivated over the Historic Maps Works product, again, having first learned of it last year at NGS. Their newspaper product looks wonderful as well. I was reminded of just how many books they have digitized on their site and they will soon be adding 2700 more titles to their already 26000 unique titles. I was also reminded that I can use their Freedman’s Bureau records for my current study of African American Civil War vets in the 1890 Oklahoma Territory census.

After lunch we heard from Lisa Parry Arnold about the African American databases at Ancestry. She talked about the portion of Ancestry.com that filters for African American data–can I just say I was shocked?! I’ve used Ancestry since the beginning–one of the early home subscribers–and I didn’t know about www.ancestrycom/aahistory. You can bet I’ll be trolling through there for my soldiers. Amazing what you can learn at these conferences.

Final speaker was David Strickland, director of the Arkansas Studies Institute. He talked about his career as a “recovering academic,” which I can identify with. He also talked about building the current center–from two historic buildings with a magnificent addition for manuscripts and research. Someone asked him if there was anything surprising to him as he went through the building process–he talked about how some meetings were devoted to how long the bolts had to be and then went right on to “visioning.” Having sat through a year of meetings planning a new public library building in Oklahoma City, I could certainly identify. He was an entertaining speaker and it sounded like a wonderful building, but my feet wouldn’t endure one more hike.

Now, will I be able to hike back to the Peabody for the session on blogs, social networks and podcasting?  Maybe a change of shoes will get me back over there.

24 December 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Anderton Family, Arkansas, Cromwell Family — allmyanc @ 1:14 am

My great-grandmother, 2nd from left, Roxy Grace Cromwell Anderton (1887 AR – 1965 CA),

with 3 of her 5 daughters.

from the left, Katy, Grace Anderton, Elois, and Inez

probably at 7681 11th Street Buena Park, California about 1948 1952

where Auntie Lois lived for over 50 years

(thanks to Cousin Kitty, daughter of Katy, for the update)

14 May 2008

Notes from NGS in KC

Filed under: Arkansas, Cousin Kitty, Cromwell Family — allmyanc @ 5:50 pm

Everything’s up to date in Kansas City, y’know.

It really is a great conference. I’ve spent some of the time working in the OHS booth which is great fun–I love discussing their Oklahoma relatives with folks.

So far, my best find came from the goodie bag with a copy of Everton’s Genealogical Helper inside. There’s a very small 1″ ad at the back of the magazine, advertising a CD version of the May-Keith Families of Arkansas by John Schlaud. Cousin Kitty and I have been trying for ages to reach this man to see if we could buy a paper copy. And here’s the new phone number and email. The Helper may have just earned another subscription.

Yippeee.

17 February 2008

Serendipity in the Cherokee Nation, 1890

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Oklahoma — allmyanc @ 6:03 pm

I’ve always heard of genealogists finding their family while searching for something else. In my 25 years, plus or minus, of searching this has never happened to me.

But yesterday it did!

I was researching a family that was in Vinita, Indian Territory, very early. (For Oklahoma, that means prior to statehood in 1907, which, in the scheme of things, really isn’t all that early.) I did not find that family, but while scanning through the C’s in the index, my eyes fell on Ball, Simson.

Simpson Ball is part of my Ball family I’ve written about before–they started in New York City (late 1700s) and ended up in Arkansas (late 1800s) via Iowa. Simpson is the oldest son of Dr. and Mrs. Ball–2 of his brothers perished in an ill-fated wagon train west.

I knew Simpson had married twice–first to Martha Jane Perkins but I didn’t know who his second wife was. From an interview with a descendant, I knew he had at least two daughters with this second wife–Eula and Hallie.

I’d sort of lost track of Simpson after the 1870 census where I’d found him in Carroll County, Missouri, until I found him in 1900, living in Sevier County, Arkansas, with his son Cyrus. His father had done some business in Montgomery County, Kansas in 1871, and I suspect Simpson was there, too. However, I cannot find Simpson on the 1880 census.

So, I was very excited to see an index entry that might be “my” Simpson. The index I was searching is to non-Cherokee persons who are in the Cherokee Nation in 1890 under permit. The index lists only the heads of household, and although the name was Simson rather than Simpson, I felt like this was probably my guy. When I pulled out the microfilm, sure enough, there he was.

On the actual census, it looks like to me that Simpson’s second wife’s name is Martha as well. I’m assuming the 35 year old female listed right under his name is his second wife. I know Clay is from his first marriage, so I believe the 4th entry, which looks also like Simson, age 12, is the first child with his second wife.

cropped

I can’t yet confirm the rest of children as his–they could also be grandchildren because I don’t know their names for sure. But I’ll keep looking.

This census was taken, as the title implies, of people who were in the Cherokee Nation, but who were not Cherokee Indians. To be there lawfully, they had to have a permit. Those who were not there legally, and there were plenty of those, were called “Intruders.” (Sharron Standifer Ashton has a terrific set of books called “Indians and Intruders” in which she abstracts mentions of intruders in Indian Territory.) Evidently, Simpson came legally, came in September 1889, and is working livestock for Ed Carey. Now I have to find out what all this means–who is Ed Carey and does a copy of the permit or application for the permit exist? Delaware County in the Cherokee Nation is the northeastern-most part of Indian Territory–it shares its west border with Benton County, Arkansas, which is where his parents were on the 1880 census.

In the meantime, I’m glad to have finally found some relatives in the Indian Territory.

I was starting to think I was the only person in Oklahoma who never had family there.

For me, I guess serendipity just takes a little longer.

25 January 2008

Dinner with 4

Filed under: Alabama, Anderton Family, Arkansas, Ball Family, Carnival of Genealogy, Cemeteries, Indiana, Iowa, Landrum Family, New York City, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas — allmyanc @ 8:15 pm

This version of the Carnival of Genealogy asks which 4 ancestors I would invite for dinner, whether we would meet in my time or theirs, and what I would tell them. I can’t hope for my version to be as clever as The Genealogue’s conversation over pizza rolls, but I’ve chosen 4 of my ancestors that I have some questions for. We’ll meet in “my” time and it probably won’t be all that enjoyable an event for them as I plan to quiz them hard!

Jonathan Osborne (c 1771 NC-1826 NC) 3rd great-grandfather
Jonathan’s father Christopher is my brickwall–the family brickwall for over 50 years. I just want to know where he came from and why he didn’t leave deeper tracks. :-) My theory is that if I talk to Jonathan rather than his father Christopher I can find out more about the succeeding generation as well as the preceding one–conservation of resources, don’t y’know? Christopher

I want to know if Jonathan’s brother Christopher had children in his first marriage. I want to know why this Christopher’s mother-in-law, Mary Stutts Furr, disinherited her daughter, Catherine, his wife–did it have anything to do with Christopher’s first marriage or that in 1818 he moved to Alabama with other families to start Valley Creek Presbyterian Church in Dallas County, Alabama?

sign

I want to know if Jonathan and Christopher had another sibling born after their father’s death in 1789–their father says something in his will about his belief that his wife might be pregnant. I also want to know who all his sisters married–there are names like Brown and Smith and Polk among Jonathan’s brothers-in-law and I want to know first names, marriage dates, and where this tribe ended up. Not too much to ask, do you think?

Delilah Jackson Landrum (1780 SC-1870 TX)4th great-grandmother
I’ve written about Delilah before. I first wanted to know here when I read my great Aunt Marge’s memoirs. She was writing about going to a youth camp where there were racial tensions. She was very much for accepting everyone, regardless of color or creed. She was discussing this with her father and he tells her, “You are very much like my Grandmother Delilah.” I found that statement fascinating because as far as I knew, her father, born and reared in Texas, did not have contact with his Grandmother Delilah who lived in Tennessee. On the other hand, she did spend her later years in East Texas with her youngest daughter, so perhaps he did know her. I love her self-possession when she refused to join the frenzy at the revival as I wrote about here. I have lots of questions about her Jackson family back in South Carolina, and I particularly want to know about the “Dutch fan” that her father left her in his 1817 Union County, South Carolina, will.

William Green Ball (1806 NYC-1881 IA) 4th great-grandfather

WGBDr. Ball is chosen as another bridge between generations. I definitely want to know more about his father–even though he was a young boy when his father died, he must know about his origins, and those of his mother. His parents were married in Baltimore, I think, in 1797, and then his father was a shipwright in New York City. After the death of his father, his mother and family moved to Clark County, Indiana and then some went on to Delaware County, Ohio. His sisters married well–one married twice, first to the district attorney and state congressman, and then to another attorney who was a national congressman. What was the basis of these sorts of alliances? And I also want to know what kind of medical training Dr. Ball went through–I believe he did that while he was living in Indiana, but who was his mentor and how did he come to that profession?

What can Dr. Ball tell me about his wife’s family? Why did they move from Tennessee to Indiana? Who was the minister, John M. Dickey, who appeared on so many of their records? How did his being an abolitionist fit in with their own beliefs?

It was Dr. Ball and his wife who reared their granddaughter Martha Jane after her father was killed enroute to “the West” and then her mother died shortly thereafter. How did they learn of their sons’ deaths? What were the circumstances under which those two sons were moving? Did Dr.and Mrs. Ball plan to join them in the west?

And, finally, what was the impetus for this man to move from New York City to Indiana to Missouri to Iowa to Kansas to Arkansas and then back to Iowa?

Sarah Ann Davis Anderton (1841 AL-1915 OK) Great-great grandmother
I don’t know very much about my Anderton and Davis lines from Alabama. There were about a zillion Anderton families in Marshall County and most of them were named John or James. I believe I have the right line back to a James Anderton, b. Virginia about 1760. This is not work I’ve done myself, but I believe it’s probably correct.

I don’t even have all of Sarah Ann and her husband James’ children all documented. Some of the older daughters stayed in Alabama when they came to Oklahoma after the Civil War. I always have questions about what makes a family move that far to an area that must be unfamiliar to them, not to mention what would possess them to move to the Oklahoma panhandle, aka “No Man’s Land.” Their granddaughter, my grandmother, told me that they did logging back in Alabama–they floated the logs down the river. That kind of work was certainly not a big draw here in Oklahoma. I suppose it was the opening of the land that drew them. They were still in Alabama on the 1900 census, but by 1910, they had “proved up” on their land in Beaver County, Oklahoma. I have their homestead files and they worked hard.

I found this picture of them in a county history, she’s on the left and he’s on the right. One reason she is dear to me is that she doesn’t appear to be “dainty.” :-) And doesn’t he look like the stereotypical Civil War vet?

Andertons

Sarah Ann is buried out in Blue Mound Cemetery in Beaver County, Oklahoma.Sarah's tombstone

My grandmother told me she really wanted to go back to Alabama but she died before that could happen. Her husband James got his Civil War pension here in Oklahoma– he’d served in the artillery back in Alabama. He was approved and apparently went back to Alabama. Years ago, I sent for his death certificate only to be told that it could not be located. Then a few years ago, I was at Samford Institute in Birmingham, Alabama with some friends. The husband of that group was going out to do some research and I told him if her ran across a tombstone for James Anderton, to be sure to let me know. Amazingly enough, he did. He’s been my genealogical hero ever since. James evidently died in March 1918 and he’s buried in Cochran Cemetery.

Anyway, I have lots of questions for Sarah. Her mother’s maiden name was Campbell–another name I haven’t pursued due to the overwhelming amount of info and my lack of familiarity with records in that part of the country. Her father left all of his 1868 estate, 1450 acres, to his youngest son, Joseph Montgomery Davis, with the proviso that he care for the oldest son, William B. Davis. What were the circumstances that required this sort of care? The will did not stand and the estate was eventually equally divided among the widow and 8 children, including Sarah.

So those are the folks I want to interview, two from the maternal and two from the paternal. I want them to know how much I’ve enjoyed learning more about them and how much I honor their lives and their sacrifices. It’s not surprising that I’ve already written about some of these folks–their lives and times are the targets of some of my greatest curiosity.

I don’t know yet what we’ll have to eat, but I’ll definitely cook. I’ll bet those grandmothers could use the rest.

29 July 2007

Mary Esta Ball Shelman (1848-c1885)

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Indiana, Iowa, Photos — allmyanc @ 7:42 pm

This is Martha Jane’s aunt Mary, sister of her father John Washington Ball.

Mary Esta

and here is another photo of her, which looks like it was taken about the same time.

Mary Ball Shelman

I think she looks like her father’s daughter. And I also think these photos were taken around the same time. Mary died sometime between 1885 and 1890 at the age of 40 – 45. Her last child was born in 1885 and I don’t know if her death was related to childbirth.

Do you think she looks older here? I need lots more work in the styles and ways of earlier times as portrayed in photographs. I would have guessed she was at least 60 here, and I don’t know if it’s that her life was hard so she does look older or if the styles made women look older, or both.

Mary was likely born in Missouri, though I don’t know where. I believe her family went there from Clark County Indiana about 1842 and then was in Warren County Iowa by 1845. Some of the census records say she was born in Missouri, and I keep finding scraps of info about the “Dr. Ball family” who came to Warren County from Missouri. My initial searches of Wm. Green Ball’s land records did not indicate where he was in Missouri, but then again, when I was looking, I didn’t know he’d been there.

So that’s a lesson learned–I’ll have to go back now and look at those records again to see if there’s a hint of their location in Missouri. They might be in his Indiana records or they might be in the Iowa records–I just know that I’ve used land records before to track down the former residence of a person. Or to prove that the two men in separate counties are the same person. This happened with Dr. Ball himself–I did find records in Iowa of him having been in Montgomery County, Kansas. When these sorts of moves are in between census years and are stays of only 3-4 years, land records are one of the best ways to track them. Deeds will say something like, “Wm G. Ball of Benton County, Arkansas, formerly of this county. . .” in Montgomery County, or perhaps he’s sold the land after he left the county so it’s registered also in Benton County. You have to be a detective, and that’s the addictive part for me.

15 July 2007

A tombstone for Martha Jane

Filed under: Arkansas, Ball Family, Cromwell Family, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas — allmyanc @ 8:14 pm

Martha Jane Ball Cromwell’s grave is unmarked. I feel fortunate to know her resting place because of a trip I took to California in 19??. I took my parents out there to visit my brother who then lived in Fresno, but we also visited Auntie in Buena Park. As in any worthwhile family visit, we went to Olive Lawn to see her mother’s grave, my great-grandmother Roxy Grace Cromwell Anderton. Then we drove to Rosemead to see where Roxy Grace’s mother, Martha Jane Ball Cromwell was buried in Savannah Memorial Park, aka El Monte.

Martha Jane, born 1858 in Iowa, survived the attack on the wagon train that killed her father and uncle in 1862, went on to Nevada with her mother who shortly remarried and then died, and by 1870 was back in Iowa to be reared by her grandparents, William G. and Elizabeth Charlton Ball in Warren County, Iowa. She subsequently moved to Arkansas, married Daniel W. Cromwell, reared 8 children in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Sometime after Daniel’s death in 1925, Martha Jane went to California where some of her children were living. [Daniel is buried in a country cemetery named Blue Mound in Beaver County, Oklahoma. His grave is marked by the funeral home marker set in concrete. You can see it here.]

Her grave is not marked. No other family members are buried in this cemetery. I have since confirmed with the Southern California Genealogical Society that this is the site of Martha Jane’s burial. You can see the placement of her grave on a map I’ve posted with her entry on the family website at www.allmyancestors.com. And I’ve finally made a call to Valley Monument Company in neighboring San Gabriel to see what it would cost to put a marker on her grave. Here’s what I found–we can order a small (12″ x 24″) dark gray or black granite marker for $260. The cemetery’s setting fee 4 years ago was $100–the person I spoke with is checking to see if it’s gone up. So for probably less than $400, we can mark her grave. What do you think?

It’s been almost 70 years since Martha Jane died. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if by the 70th anniversary of her death on 21 April 2008 we could have a marker in place? You can use Paypal to make a donation using the button below or I will most definitely accept personal checks, money orders and particularly cold, hard cash. I’ll keep a running total available so you can see how close we are to reaching the goal. Please, if you are one of Martha Jane’s descendants, consider helping with a small donation to mark Martha Jane’s resting place.

For more information about using Paypal (it’s free), check out this link.

11 June 2007

Burial Permit: Elizabeth Mary May Cromwell

Filed under: Arkansas, Cromwell Family, Vital Records — allmyanc @ 7:35 pm

Burial Permit Today I received this in the mail. Remember I posted about this great-grandmother who some sources say died in St. Louis. I still don’t know if this is she, but this column is from the St. Louis Post, from 22 January 1897, p. 3. St. Louis Public Library sent an invoice for $1.25, which, of course, I will pay. But I would like to have a copy of the beginning of the column–note that it says this is continued from page one. There might be a bit more information about the permits or there might not be, but it would be worth another $1.25 for me to know. Or, perhaps this newspaper is available through my GenealogyBank subscription. I’ll check.

The age for this person is right as is the name, but there were lots of Cromwells and lots of Elizabeths. I checked Rudy’s List of Archaic Medical Terms, aka Antiquus Morbus, to see what was meant by “chronic enteritis.” It appears to be a inflammation of the intestine, particularly the small intestine.

To be continued . . .

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