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.

1 Comment »

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.

6 Comments »

Funeral Card for Charles Winfield Osborne

1848 Shelby Co., TN – 1926 Gray County, TX

1 Comment »

This week’s Genea-Bloggers prompt is to take a genealogical day trip and blog about it.

As it happens, I was lucky enough to take a small road trip last week with my brother.  I flew into Houston Hobby and he and I headed to East Texas for a day and a half.  As we drove, we reminisced about the last time we’d been to East Texas together.  It must have been over 50 years ago as he was a baby and I was about 7.  I reminded him that he threw up bacon in the back seat of the car–you know he loves having an older sister with such a good memory.  Our great aunt and uncle had a new Mercury (the back window rolled down) and they took our family of five with them to visit relatives in Palestine in Anderson County, Texas, and who knows where else.  I do remember stopping at at an artist’s home in Weatherford and meandering through their garden (with real live goldfish in their pond!) while Aunt Eva visited inside.  A little surfing reveals that this must have been the Chandor Gardens, recently restored and re-opened in Weatherford.  And I also remember the dogwood trees in bloom–my “scorched earth” Texas panhandle eyes had never beheld anything so glorious.

Traveling through East Texas in January isn’t as glorious, but it was still a meaningful journey.  Much of our family was in East Texas early.  This trip I was chasing Mitchells.  I’ve written about my 2nd great-grandfather John B. Cooper who perished in the Civil War, along with 3 of his brothers.  My 2nd great-grandmother, his wife, was Mary Mitchell.  I knew her father’s name was Ephraim M., and her mother was Rebecca Jones.  And I believe I have finally determined that Ephraim’s father was John Mitchell, who died in Mexico during the Mexican War.  I’ve recently gone back through some family letters another researcher shared with me and have been able to make some connections that I wanted to explore further.

I had a photocopy of a photograph of Rebecca’s tombstone from Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Shelby County, Texas.  It looked huge.  When I actually located it, it was a very small stone, only about 18″ high.  It was about 5:30 pm when we finally  made it to the cemetery, and the sun was setting.  The pictures are back lit by the setting sun, but I managed to get decent shots.

R.B.Mitchell 1819-1898

The cemetery is a mixture of really old graves and new ones.  It is behind a country church–we passed lots of those in East Texas–and it is evidently still in use.  There is contact information posted on the gate.

In a day when people freak out about the lack of privacy because of the Internet, I thought it was interesting that these folks have their names and phone numbers posted right up front.

The church looked well kept–I’d like to know how many folks attend on Sunday morning.

I’d also like to know if this is a church where my family attended.  Rebecca is buried here with one of her younger daughters and her family.  I don’t know if this means that Rebecca was living with them at the end of her life and so that’s where she was buried, or if they all lived in this neighborhood and that’s the reason she is buried at Pleasant Grove.  Another big hole left by the lack of the 1890 census records.  Finding a larger “Mitchell” plot was helpful in locating Rebecca’s marker.  She is buried near-by–that’s her marker on the right in the foreground.

Laura L. Mitchell and her husband David Holland Mitchell are buried in the Mitchell plot.  (Laura L. Mitchell married David Holland Mitchell, creating a little Mitchell confusion for me for a while.  I still don’t know if David H. was a distant cousin or not.)  Laura is the daughter of Ephraim and Rebecca.

The light was golden and I had to concentrate to remember that it was 2009 and I was in a country cemetery in East Texas.  This sense of being transported happens to me in cemeteries–I don’t know what it is.  But there’s never enough time to stay and figure out what’s going on.

Before I left, I took some pictures of some Confederate soldiers’ graves.  There is some biographical information about William R. Pate and David B. Webb at Findagrave.

James C. Chapman 34 Ala Inf

William R. Pate 5 TX Cav

J. C. Warren 23 AL Inf

David B. Webb 6 Miss Inf

Rest in Peace.

6 Comments »

Written for the 9th Edition Smile For The Camera – A Carnival Of Images

I’ve posted this picture for the 4th Carnival of Genealogy in which we were to choose a favorite photo.  And I posted it and a companion photo in an even earlier post.  Could be that I’m a little obsessed with these photos.

The guy on the left is my paternal grandfather, Thaddeus Morrison Osborne (1888 TX – 1982 TX).   One of my nephews looks like him in this picture.  You can see at the bottom of the picture someone has written “T.M.O.”–I don’t know who was the identifier, but I do know my dad’s cousin gave me this picture.  Her mother was T.M.O.’s sister.

But the question is, who is the other guy?

And what about the “other guy” in this one?

I don’t think they are the same person with Granddad in each photo, but who are they?  And what got my grandfather to a studio to have these pictures taken?  (I’ve also written about how I have copies of studio pictures of all of his siblings, even of his father, but no such photo of him.)

I really want to know.  Who are the other two guys in these photos?  At the bottom of that question, of course, is another quest–I think I am hoping if I know who they are, I’ll know more about my granddad.

3 Comments »

The Carnegie Library in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory (OT) was built 1901-1903, opening 4 years before statehood in what was then the state capitol of Oklahoma.  [Do you know the story about the state seal being stolen from Guthrie and moved to Oklahoma City?]  It is a beautiful building now used as the Territorial Museum.  Carnegie was evidently peeved that the building included a dome–right over the librarian’s desk.  It’s actually a pretty good design–the librarian’s desk was in the middle of the reading rooms around the perimeter.

This week I found a book that was evidently held by this library, and pasted in the front were the rules for using the library.  The book was published in 1908, so I assume these rules were in effect about that time and shortly thereafter.  I found the rules fascinating–the hours were long–open until 10 pm during the week and then there is Rule No. 7–pertaining to library books in households with contagious disease.  This actually made me wonder if these rules might have been formulated during the influenza epidemic, but I can’t determine that for now.  It does indicate the depth of concern about health in those pre-antiobotic days.  Here are the rules:

No. 1 — The Library will be open from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M. on all days of the week except Sunday–on Sunday from 10 A.M. to 9 P.M., for reading only.

No. 2 — Books of reference and periodicals may be used in the Library, but must not be taken from the building.

No. 3 — Only persons holding membership cards are entitled to draw books from the Library.

No. 4 — Each person receiving a book shall be responsible for any injury it may receive while in their possession and for its safe return to the Library.

No. 5 — No person shall be allowed to hold more than one book at a time, nor shall any book be retained more than two weeks, nor a five-cent book over seven days.  Any person retaining a fourteen-day book over two weeks or seven-day book over one week, will be fined five cents per day, until the book is returned.

No. 6 — Writing, or in any way defacting a book is prohibited, and any injury to books beyond reasonable wear must be adjusted to the satisfaction of the Librarian by replacing the book or paying for damage.

No. 7 — Any Library book in the possession of a member of a household where contagious disease exists MUST NOT be returned to the Library under any circumstances, and the member will be held responsible for the price of the book.

No. 8 — Immediate notice of change of residence must be given at the Library.

No. 9 — Transient people may make a deposit of $1.50.

So you not only couldn’t return the book if the measles were at your house, you had to pay for the book!  The other thing I noticed here is that the fine is a nickle a day–my local public library charges $.10 a day–not much of a raise in a 100 years or so and a much smaller portion of income.  Interesting.

And, of course, I love that the Librarian comes with a capital L. 

3 Comments »

My job requires me to do research in old newspapers on occasion.  And I am constantly amazed at what I find printed. 

This week found me researching a murder that took place here in Oklahoma City in the early part of the 20th century.  I found the story in a regular column in the newspaper that reported the court news.  The columnist referred briefly to a couple of men who’d been sentenced to life and 20 years in the state penitentiary for murder.  But the focus of the article was the “Patterson case,” predicted to be the “center of interest for a week or more.“ This convoluted story may be the subject of a later post, involving a young female school teacher named Vernon, Wade, a young man with whom she had been “keeping company,” Wade’s father, with whom Vernon was also evidently simultaneously “keeping company,” and the school teacher’s father, whom Wade had shot and killed the previous year.  The current story told of the young woman’s suicide, and her brother Orban, a local attorney, shooting and killing Wade’s father, probably as retribution for his own father’s murder as well as his sister’s suicide.

That sensational story required that I follow it up for a few weeks, of course, to find the outcome.  I thought it was interesting, though, that the column ended with

Outside of the Patterson murder trial, only a few minor state cases are set to come up for trial this week.  The courts will be closed on Friday.  Saturday is divorce day in in the district court, and twenty-seven divorce suits are set for hearing.

It was almost too big a gap for me to process–going from the murder case to informing the reader that, by the way, court was closed Friday but since Saturday was the day appointed to deal with divorce, and there were 27 cases, court would be held. 

Life, and the search for justice, goes on.

No Comments »

Check it out–high-tech tombstones in Japan can provide photos and audio clips to a cell phone.

No Comments »

Since I’ve gone to work at a place where I look up other people’s relatives in the census on a daily basis, I’ve been amazed at the institutions that are enumerated, and the information found within. I learn something new every time I find one of these. I’ve posted previously about the prison population posted in the 1900 census for Detroit, Michigan.

The most recent find is the 1900 enumeration of the “St. Louis Insane Asylum” in, where else, St. Louis, Missouri. There are 15 pages of records–the first page and half or so are employees and the rest are listed as inmates. Hugo M. Vollmer, census taker, appears to have done a very thorough job. I wonder how he did his work–did he go through records, did he interview staff, did he interview inmates, how did he gather all this information? A check on him reveals that he is a 26 year old clerk employed at the Asylum, born in Missouri to Germany-born parents. That makes me believe that he probably did his work from the records at his disposal.  1900 is the census year that gives the month and year of birth, the year of immigration and citizenship, plus the place of birth and that of the entry’s parents. Most of the places of birth for parents is entered as “unknown” for the inmates. But, a profession listed for each person, including Alice McCormack, Irish-born 28-year-old prostitute. There’s 68-year-old female physician Sarah L. Jones–what is her story? I kept coming across “nihil” listed in the profession column. It took me a while to realize this meant “none,”–as in “nil,” I suppose.

It would be interesting to compare the demographics of this population with those of St. Louis at large–for example, many of the inmates appear to have been foreign-born. I was somewhat surprised to find a few more males than females listed.

There’s more information about the Asylum at Early St. Louis Hospitals, Homes, and Asylums.

6 Comments »

Here are Miriam’s prompts for this week. I guess I’m not really late if we consider that George Washington’s birthday isn’t until Friday–we just celebrated last Monday, supposedly.

*As a child, do you remember celebrating either Lincoln or Washington’s birthdays? How did you celebrate them? What do you remember learning about either of these men?
It’s been so long since grade school. But it seems to me I remember acknowledging both–along with the shoebox covering for the Valentine’s exchange, we cut out silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington each February.

Of course, I remember the “Honest Abe” stories–his hard beginnings, his mother’s death and his studying by candlelight, and his walking so many miles to return a penny or so he’d shorted his customer. Honesty seemed to be a big theme for emphasis because I also remember the cherry tree and “I cannot tell a lie” story for George Washington. And his wooden teeth.

The other thing I remember is that when I would visit my grandmother in South Dakota in the summers, we would sometimes stop by a little house in Blunt. The house had belonged to one of Abe Lincoln’s teachers back in Illinois who had lived in Blunt at the end of his life. His name was Mentor Graham–though I don’t know if that was really his first name or a title–but I loved going there and feeling a direct connection to Abraham Lincoln. In 1981, my grandmother and I got to take my sons there–one was an infant and the other was 3, but it is a meaningful memory for me even if they can’t remember it.

*Did you get a day off of school, have an assembly, or was there a play performed?
Not that I remember. But those were the days before “Spring Break.” ahhhh, the good ol’ days

*Do you ever remember reading any books or watching any movies about these two leaders?
I don’t remember anything specific, though I have some recollection of Sam Waterston playing/reading for Abe Lincoln in Burns’ The Civil War.

*In your opinion, who was the greatest leader of our country, and why?
I don’t know that I want to do this one here. I can say that I have a great deal of admiration for both Lincoln and Washington–for their vision and their sacrifice and their humanity.

*In your current career, do you get Presidents Day off? Why or why not?
It depends. I’ve had jobs that we did not have the day off–teaching at University, working in a public library. I now work at a state historical society and we had that day off. Who knows the reasoning?!!

*In many communities, Presidents Day weekend is well-known for sales and special deals. How do you feel about this? Do you like to go shopping on this weekend? Or do you feel this emphasis on commercialism is disrespectful?
I can’t say that I think it’s disrespectful, but I don’t shop on that weekend. Of course, I don’t shop any weekend and as seldom as I can get by with, so I’m probably not typical in this respect.

*Presidents Day is also a day when veterans and Purple Heart recipients are honored. Are or were there any Purple Heart recipients in your family or ancestry? Have you written about what they did to earn this great award?
I don’t know anyone in my family who was awarded the Purple Heart. I do remember that one year we were doing a display for Veteran’s Day at the library, and one of our security guards brought his medal for our display. That’s really the first time I can remember seeing a medal and the person to whom it was awarded.

The other things I remember about Lincoln and Washington are that the summer we took the boys to South Dakota, 1981, we also visited Mount Rushmore. What a huge undertaking that must have been.

And my husband and I visited the log cabin ?replica? in which Abe Lincoln was born on one of our vacations before the kids were born–I just remember how beautiful Kentucky was and how much it smelled like whiskey.

Another favorite memory is going through Mount Vernon on one of our trips to D.C. I loved being there and looking at the gardens as well as the house. I thought His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis was a strong biography of Washington–I tend to like to get inside people’s heads, and I thought Ellis did a good job of describing the “why” of many of Washington’s decisions.

No Comments »