All My Ancestors

9 April 2011

Good News for Oklahoma Researchers

If you have tried to do research for Oklahoma from afar, you know how scarce online records for this place are.  Today I learned of two new to the internet resources.

The first is that early burial records for Fairlawn Cemetery here in Oklahoma City has gone online.  This is one of the oldest burial grounds in Oklahoma City, which if you recall was established overnight by the land run of 1889.  The images are of Fairlawn’s record books and they are not searchable.  However, it is fairly easy to browse them, and the benefit of being able to look at the book is that you actually get more information.  There is no public index for deaths in Oklahoma so this is a wonderful resource for central Oklahoma.

For now, the information begins in 1901.  My source tells me the earlier books have been scanned and will be up within a month or so.  We look forward to having access to these records for so many of Oklahoma City’s early citizens.

Secondly, I have just found marriage records for Oklahoma counties have been put up at FamilySearch.  As with many states, Oklahoma has no statewide index to marriages.  This database has images where available–I found an image of my parents’ 1950 marriage in Beaver County, including images of the index–one for the grooms and one for the brides.  However, I found only an index entry to what I believe is probably a 1909 marriage between my the great-great aunt and uncle in Alfalfa County. (My great-grandfather’s brother (Simon B. Unruh) married my great-grandmother’s sister (Josephine Buller)–I was hoping for the record of my great-grandparents 1904 marriage, but because of the pre-statehood date, I really believe it is only available in the church book.)

The entire state is not included–my understanding is that some counties declined to have their records filmed.  I hope you are one of the lucky ones!

6 Comments »

14 December 2010

Fruitcake: Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Filed under: Holidays, Memes, Mom, Texas by allmyanc

December 14 – Fruitcake – Friend or Foe?
Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

This is a repost from 21 Dec 2007–it seemed to fit today’s prompt.

I’m looking for a fruitcake to arrive in the mail.

Not just any fruitcake–it has to be one from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas.

This fruitcake has lots of memories for me. To begin with, when I was in band (5th grade through senior year) in school, we sold these fruitcakes every year as a fundraiser. As far as I can tell, the sales financed our trip to Hemisfair in San Antonio my junior year in high school. (Who thought taking 200+ high school kids to San Antonio in the summer on school buses was a good idea? I remember melting in my wool uniform slacks and our chairs sinking into the asphalt.) It may have also financed some of our weekly trips to out of town football games and various contests. I don’t remember selling them to anyone other than my mother who loved them.

Fast-forward 30 years or so, my husband and I are driving my parents home from what proved to be my mom’s final visit to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. We sail through Corsicana and Mom starts waxing eloquent about the fruitcakes. Hubbo turns around and we go back to Corsicana to buy a fruitcake. Mom, of course, says we shouldn’t and that just because she thinks one sounds good doesn’t mean that she can eat it what with all the chemo. But she digs into it and sure enough, a bite or two satisfies her. Six weeks later, she is gone, but the fruitcake stays in my freezer for 2 years. When the fog lifts, I finally gather up the courage to discard it, blue tin and all.

The next year, someone from our church sends us one in the mail. My sons start their “ewwwww, fruitcake” spiel, but I am comforted by the site of the tin and all the pecans and sugary fruit and memories inside.

I’m still waiting.

1 Comment »

4 December 2010

Untruths in 1900 Indian Territory

Filed under: Native American Research, Oklahoma by allmyanc

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

But at work I’ve had about 3 genealogical break-throughs this week and I need to write about at least one of them.

I’ve been working on a family in which a youngish widow with 4 children marries a man who was Wyandot and Shawnee.  They marry about 1890, and until reading these documents, I did not have an exact date or place.  This man’s mother married a white man and he is considered to be 1/8 Shawnee.  I know that some of these children attended Haskell Institute, and later, in 1903, that the oldest daughter worked at Haskell and at Winnebago boarding school, probably in Nebraska.  After her marriage about 1905, she and her husband worked at the Sac and Fox sanitarium in Iowa.

I found these children on the census and in the Haskell records using the last name of their stepfather.  I don’t know yet if he “officially” adopted them.

What I did find is that he claimed them when making application to the Dawes Commission for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.  (The Cherokees “adopted” the Shawnees and there are several Shawnee enrolled into the Cherokee Nation.)

I have always heard that sometimes applicants did not tell the truth when making application to the Dawes Commission.  This was the first time I saw an absolute example of this.  We know that lots of persons who were actually Indian were not granted citizenship because they could not prove their connection to a person on an earlier tribal roll.  And we also know that many persons who were NOT Indian ended up on the rolls through fraud.

Remember that the main purpose of getting the Dawes Rolls done was to distribute the land that had been held in common by the Indian Nations.  Persons had to prove their citizenship in one of the tribes (Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole) in order to receive their land.  So I assume that’s what was on the mind of this man, who WAS actually of Indian descent, when he tried to put his step-children and his wife on the rolls.  If each of those 4 children had been put on the rolls, he would have received more land.

The file is fascinating.  He spins a tale of marrying this woman when she was 15 or 16 and that they married in Colorado.  He claims each of the children as his own.  He says the oldest daughter is in bed with consumption when in reality, my research shows she was probably in Nebraska working at the Winnebago school.  He says his wife cannot travel to testify before the Commission because of a heart condition.  The Commission tells him they have received a complaint that those children belonged to his wife by her first marriage.  He continues to maintain that this was her first marriage and that the children are his.  This goes on for pages.

Eventually, his wife appears and in short shrift, she establishes that she is indeed the mother of those children by a first marriage, and that she was a widow when she married her current husband.

Outcome:  he ends up on the Roll but the Mrs. and her children are denied.  Which is as it should be except she really should have been able to be enrolled as an intermarried white.  Reason for her denial requires more research.

No genealogy research is easy, but American Indian research continues to confound and amaze me.

2 Comments »

1 December 2010

O, Christmas Tree

Filed under: Dad, Holidays, Mom, Texas by allmyanc

At Thanksgiving, I was able to go through my brother’s pictures and I was able to find some of our childhood pics.  This one is from about 1957.  My fat little brother in this pic was born in December of 1956.  That’s our Dad holding him.  Check out his hat and the boots–we had to rent shoes for him to wear with his tuxedo for our wedding in many years later.  Looking back, I’m not sure why we thought he couldn’t wear his boots, but it was before the cowboy clothes craze hit.

Anyway, this is where I remember our Christmas tree being every year that we lived in this house on the farm. (Just the year before, we’d been living in town–I was never sure of the reason for the moves, but we went back and forth several times.)  I’d forgotten that Mom pinned the Christmas cards to the curtains–I’m sure she made those curtains and I’m sure she flocked the tree with that terrific fake spray snow.   The bureau was borrowed from my bedroom and I know Mom painted it to match our wallpaper.  I wish I remembered what was in some of those packages.  When we lived in this house, this was always where the tree was.   We always had a real tree until after I was in college.   I don’t remember helping to decorate it until we got a little older–by high school, my dad and I usually did the decorating.  I do remember that about this time, when I was in the first grade, I had to take an ornament to school and Mom helped me make a Santa out of a blown egg.  The face I drew on was a little cross-eyed, and Mom made a red hat trimmed with fake fur.  I had that ornament for years until one of my brothers stepped on Santa and crushed him.  I like to think he got coal in his stocking that year.

I’m still hoping to find the picture of our tree the year Mom decorated a tumbleweed.  We lived in the Texas panhandle and they were plentiful.  We all thought it was some sort of sacrilege, but perhaps she was just a Southwest decorator ahead of her time.

written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010

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28 November 2010

Pink Salad: 100th Carnival of Genealogy

Filed under: Carnival of Genealogy, Mom by allmyanc

Jasia said:

And the topic for the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is… “There’s one in every family!” Bring your stories of colorful characters, unique heirlooms, mouth-watering recipes, most dearly beloved pets, whatever! Interpret as you like. Every family has “special” individuals, you know, the ones with a green thumb, the black sheep, the lone wolf, the blue-ribbon cook, the story-teller, the geek! I know you have treasured recipes and amazing heirlooms you’ve yet to share! Tell us about them and become a part of history in the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy!

Though I haven’t been blogging much lately, I do want to do my part to make Jasia’s dream come true of 100 entries for the 100th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.  I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a topic and finally I decided to blog about my mother’s “Pink Salad” that usually made an appearance at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas dinners.

Then I noticed that the instructions read “treasured recipe.”  This one doesn’t fit that category for me.  But it is memorable.

When I started looking for the recipe for this concoction, I knew I wouldn’t find it in my mother’s handwriting.  She didn’t really save recipes except in a jumble in the top drawer to the left of the cooktop.  They didn’t survive the cleaning out of the house–she may have thrown them all away herself as she did clean out their house at least twice before we had to move dad out.  I could remember that it had Eagles Brand (aka sweetened condensed milk), Cool Whip, and cherry pie filling.  So when I did a little investigation online, I found this one at www.allrecipes.com, which allows you to put in some ingredients and provides recipes with them included.  There were several variations of this salad, all with rave reviews.  Which surprised me.  So maybe it does fit the “mouthwatering” criteria.

Ingredients
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 (15 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1 cup shredded coconut
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

    1. Mix together the cherry pie filling, condensed milk, oranges, pineapple, coconut, marshmallows and whipped topping.
    2. Chill for several hours and top with crushed pecans if desired.

    My mom sliced bananas into it right before serving, and I don’t think we ever had coconut in it–too many members of the family disliked this particular ingredient.  And there weren’t always mandarin oranges, but it was always large and pink and fluffy, and usually served in her large yellow pyrex bowl–maybe it was the color combo that didn’t appeal to me.

    Actually, while I am far from a health food nut and am known to say “There is no such thing as too rich for me,” this salad just seemed not worth what I knew was a decadent “salad,” and not it a good way.  I would have no problem consuming the same number of calories and fat grams if chocolate had been involved.

    But it was traditional and when I started thinking about it, it reminded me of the story I heard about some members of the Clinton family insisting to their White House chef that Coca Cola Jello salad be prepared for their holiday meal, much to the chef’s consternation.  And then I remembered we’ve had that one too.

    We do love our congealed salads at holiday times–I found this whole post on a foodie blog devoted to them.

    4 Comments »

    14 October 2010

    The Lawyer’s Files

    Filed under: Hagar Family, Native American Research, Oklahoma by allmyanc

    Today I had the opportunity to consult the Melven Cornish papers.  At the OHS Library we have this collection on microfilm.  The original is housed at the University of Oklahoma’s Western History Collections.

    I’m putting in a plug here for the Western History Collections. If you research western history, or if you had family working or living in this area, you owe it to yourself to learn about this special collection.  This link is just to what’s digitized and available online–wonderful resources.  The Indian Pioneer History Papers are interviews that were done by the WPA with persons who were living in Oklahoma and/or Indian Territory before and during the statehood years.  Browse through some of the photos on this website–cowboys, Indians, civil rights, OU history, football and otherwise–just a sample of what this collection holds.

    But the collection I was perusing today was the Melven Cornish Collection.  [Take a look at all the Native American related collections digitized at their site http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/whc/nam/browse.asp?sub=7.]

    Why is looking at this particular collection important for my search for information about the Richard Hagar MCR 7334 file?  When the enrollments were being done, in between 1898 and 1906, the tribes hired attorneys to protect their interests.  The persons who were applying often hired attorneys to work their applications through the Commission.

    The bottom line about the Dawes Commission was that it was a way to determine who was going to get land, and, as you can imagine, this attracted lots of folks who were not entitled to an allotment from one of the Indian tribes.  I don’t know if this was Richard Hagar’s motive.  But I do know that the Chickasaw and Choctaws hired a firm from McAlester, Oklahoma, that included Melven Cornish.   Mr. Cornish had begun his involvement with the Dawes Commission as a stenographer for the persons applying for citizenship as Choctaw freedmen back in 1898.  Here’s the description of this collection:

    Cornish, Melven (b. ca. 1870)
    Papers 1876-1940
    20 feet
    Attorney. Case files (1903-1904) and letterbooks (1900-1905) relating to Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians citizenship claims; dockets (1903-1904) for the central and southern divisions of the U. S. District Court; an account book (1899); and a record book (1876) entitled Proceedings of the Court of Claims, Choctaw Nation, along with clippings (1896-1907) and published court documents (1900-1940) relating to Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian cases represented by the law firm of Mansfield, McMurray, and Cornish in U.S. courts.

    I thought there might be something in his papers related to this Hagar case, but if so, it is not a major part.  Thee name index does not include the Hagar name or any thing that might be an alternate spelling.  I was hoping that the answers, or at least the response, to the 5 page (single spaced!) questionnaire sent to the deponents Richard Hagar has introduced into the record–John D. Layne and Caswell Griffith, both from Arkansas [sic].  No such luck.

    April 6, 1904, a letter to is sent to Richard Hagar’s attorney in Sulphur Springs, Texas, J. A. Hurley, informing him that the Commission has rendcered its decision “refusing the application for identification as Mississippi Choctaws of the several persons included in the case of Richard Hagar et al.”  The letter is signed by T. B. Needles, Commissioner in Charge.  A similarly phrased letter is also sent to Richard Hagar whose address is given as Fort Towson, Indian Territory, and a third copy is sent to “Mansfield, McMurray & Cornish, Attorneys for Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, South McAlester, Indian Territory.”

    Not everyone thought the law firm was behaving legally nor in the best interest of the Choctaws and Chickasaws.  Here’s a link to an article protesting the actions of this law firm from the 1910 New York Times.

    Another view, included in the obituary of partner George A. Mansfield states

    He removed to South McAlester, Indian Territory, and became the senior member of the law firm of Mansfield, McMurray & Cornish. This law firm represented the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Indians from 1899 to 1908, their most notable achievement being the defeat of the citizenship claimants, known as Court claimants, and the restoration to the Tribes of claims, for lands and property of the value of several million dollars.

    Kent Carter’s book on The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1914 is the source to help you understand all the forces at work during this time.  There are no easy answers.

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    12 October 2010

    More from MCR 7334

    Filed under: Hagar Family, Native American Research, Oklahoma by allmyanc

    So when Richard Hagar was given a month to provide additional information as to why he and his children should be admitted to the Mississippi Choctaw rolls, he submitted a statement by Joe Toten, a resident of Suqualak, Noxubee County, Mississippi.  The name Toten is “corrected” throughout the statement with a pen, so I’m not positive that is the name–it might be Taten.  And I believe Suqualak should probably be Shuqualak, which is a small town in Noxubee County, Mississippi.

    Richard says that he expects to prove by this witness that his (Richard’s) grandfather was Steely Hagah and resided in Mississippi until 1857 and then moved to Arkansaw [sic].  Toten says Steely Hagah was a half-breed Mississippi Choctaw and that his wife was full blood Mississippi Choctaw, that the said Streely [sic] was registered by the US Commissioners in 1837 as a Mississippi Choctaw and was enrolled and recognized as a Mississippi Choctaw by the commissioners.  As such a recognized and enrolled Mississippi Choctaw, he received lands from the government of the U.S., and resided on same for a period of more than five years.  That Steely Hagah was recognized among the Mississippi Choctaw Indians of Mississippi and known and accepted as such in 1830.  That Joe Toten was personally acquainted with the said Steely Hagah and personally knew all the members of his family.  That he personally knew Stirling Hagah to be the son of the said Steely Hagah, and that the “said Stirling Hagah is the father of your applicant R. Hagah.”  That Joe Toten personally knew the said Stirling Hagah and the members of his family.

    And then, in closing, the statement says,

    That the said Joe Toten is now 97 years of age, and is not unable from age and infirmatives to personally appear before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes to give his testimony in person.

    This sent me straight to the 1900 census for Noxubee County, Mississippi.

    I was not surprised to find no one who matched this person.

    So I went back to 1880.  For this year, I found, in Noxubee County, a fairly good match.  If Joe was 97 in 1903, that means he was born about 1806.  Here’s a J. H. who was born about 1810, AND who is living in the said county.

    J. H. Tatum 70

    S. A. Tatum 59

    Jane Reed 42

    Did Richard use a person his father had known in Mississippi and construct supportive testimony for his 1903 application?  Richard sends this statement from his home in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in April 1903, a month after his personal appearance before the Commission.  How did he get this statement from a man, who, if alive, lived almost 500 miles away?

    Also enclosed is the testimony of a man named John D. Layne, whose residence is given as Rockey Comfort in Little River, State of Arkansaw.  Mr. Layne’s age is given a 82, and I did find a good match for this witness.

    1900  Jackson, Little River County, Arkansas

    John D Layne 79

    Elizabeth Layne 76

    William Smith 17

    Margaret Smith 16

    Robert Smith 12

    Willis Smith 9

    Wayne Jackson 7

    Layne professes to have know Mary Hagah, the wife of Steely Hagah, that she was the mother of Stirling Hagah who was the father of the applicant, that she was a Mississippi Choctaw Indian, that Stirling Hagah and Dan Hagah his brother always claimed to be Choctaw Indians and that they looked like they had Indian blood in them, and that they claimed kin to Robert Jones of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.

    He, too, is unable from advanced age to appear before the Commission.

    A third deponent, Caswell Griffith, also from Little River County, Arkansas, provides about the same information, though he does provide Mary’s maiden name as Huckbee and that Steely and son Stirling both spoke the Choctaw language.  He notes that Mary’s father’s name was John Jones and that Mary had the appearance of a full blood Choctaw, and that all the Hagahs claimed to be Choctaw.  He says he was about 18 at the time of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which was signed in 1830, making him born about 1812.

    The closest I can get to a person with this name is in 1880 in Little River County, Arkansas

    Caswill Griffith 52

    Allice Griffith 30

    Cisero Griffith 22

    Rocksiana Griffith 20

    Nancy Griffith 18

    Edward Griffith 14

    There are Griffiths still living in the area in 1900, but I did not find Caswell.

    All three of these oaths are submitted with a notary from Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas, where Richard Hagar is living, saying that R. Hagar is known to him and that after being duly sworn, says the facts set out in the foregoing documents are true and correct to the best of his information knowledge and belief.

    If I’m reading the packet correctly, these depositions are added to the application packet, but the Commissioners also sent a 3 page questionnaire to Richard’s attorney in Sulphur Springs, to be administered to each of the witnesses.

    I did not find any responses among the 60+ pages.

    There is another letter that states it encloses a certified copy of the marriage license and certificate between T. R. Hagar and Mary Fowler.  Unfortunately, no copy of the marriage record is in the packet, nor is the date or place of the marriage provided. [Other records indicate Richard Hagar is also knows as Thomas Richard Hagar.]

    So what to make of these statements?  What parts of the depositions are true and what parts are not?  I would very much like to believe that the maiden names for the women are correct–I find other documents online that have these names for the wives, but what are the sources?  I believe that the information about the westward movement from Mississippi to Arkansas to Texas (in Richard’s case) is accurate.

    I’ll post more about this case later.

    I’ve been working in the census records and have found data on Richard’s family in Texas and Arkansas.  I’ll continue that search.

    In addition, at the OHS Library, we have copies of the Melvyn Cornish papers.

    So who is Melvyn Cornish, you ask?

    Melvyn Cornish was one of the attorneys for the Choctaw Nation during this time period.

    I can hardly wait to see what’s there.

    2 Comments »

    11 October 2010

    Dawes Packet for Richard Hagar MCR 7334

    Filed under: Hagar Family, Native American Research by allmyanc

    OK.  So yesterday I told you I’d try to follow up on the applications to the Dawes Commission by the Hagar families.  Yesterday I discussed the application of Arthur Lee Hagar for his 5 minor children.  Today, I will discuss the application, also rejected, of Richard Hagar, made 13 July 1903.

    This packet is over 60 pages in length–much longer than the documentation found in the AL Hagar materials.  Richard states that he is 60, that he was born in Tennessee, lived in Itawamba County, Mississippi for a while, and is now residing in Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas.  Arthur, born in 1875, would have been about 28 at the time he made his application, though his age is not provided in the materials.  There is some thought that Richard may be Arthur’s uncle, but we haven’t gotten that far yet.  (I worked on these families years ago and evidently lost the database in one of my computer upgrades–but I still have the paper!!)

    Richard gives the name of his father as Sterling Hagar and his mother as Mary.  He states that his father’s father’s name was Stelly Hagar and that he was married to Mary Ann Jones.  It is through Mary Ann Jones, daughter of John Jones, according to Richard Hagar, that he is claiming to be 1/4 Choctaw.

    Richard is repeatedly asked if any of his family were part of an earlier application process–were they a party to the Treaty of 1830 (commonly called the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek).  He consistently answers “no” or “I can’t say.”  He does answer “yes” when he is asked if he wants additional time to present further evidence.  He’s given 30 days.

    In closing for this first appearance before the Commission, he is also asked if he speaks or understands the Choctaw language.  A:  No

    Is there any further statement you wish to make?  A: No

    Have any of your relatives been before the Commission?  A: No

    And then this observation recorded by the clerk:

    This applicant has the appearance of a white man; shows no indication of possessing Choctaw blood; hair formerly brown, now gray; blue eyes, light complexion, mustache formerly sandy; he has no knowledge of the compliance on the part of his ancestors with the provisions of article 14 of the treaty of 1830.

    Are you getting a sense of what the answer’s going to be?

    The final decision appears to have come down 15 Mar 1904.  A paragraph long sentence essentially says that while there are persons named John Jones  and Mollie Jones McGee Hagah/Hagar in the territory where the Choctaws resided in Mississippi and Alabama,  that none of these persons ever applied for or were granted Choctaw citizenship, either in Mississippi nor in the Indian territory.

    That’s the short version.  The packet also includes some fascinating testimony from persons who supposedly knew Richard Hagar’s father and grandfather.  I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

    No Comments »

    10 October 2010

    Another Family Story Confirmed

    Filed under: Hagar Family, Native American Research, Oklahoma by allmyanc

    This week another family story was confirmed by a record.

    My mother in law, now 94 and youngest of the 12 children born to Arthur Lee Hagar and Samantha Hawkins, always said that Pappy (Arthur) had “gone up to try to get on the rolls” from their home in Eastland County, Texas.  Their family has a story of Native American heritage, and like many of the persons I work with at the Oklahoma Historical Society Library, “look” like they might have Indian heritage.

    Early in my genealogical searching, I looked for a connection and did not find one.  But this week another family researcher shared one sheet from the rejected application to the Mississippi Choctaw New Born rolls made by Arthur Hagar.  In 1906, he applied for membership for 5 of his and Samanthan’s children–Clarence, Cecil, Vera, Velma, and Vernon.  All of these children were under the age of 8–Clarence was 7, wins Vera and Velma were age 5, Cecil was 2 and Vernon was just a year old.

    Here’s where it pays to look for the records.  I’d always thought that the Hagar family thought their Indian heritage came through Samantha Hawkins’ line, but I was wrong.  In some of these applications, it is Arthur who is claiming to be Choctaw.  I say on some.  On others, it appears that they both claim Choctaw tribal membership and on others neither claims to be Choctaw.  I don’t necessarily believe these people were trying to be deceptive–their statements are on forms typed by a clerk and I’m not sure the clerk’s typing is accurate in every case–not to mention that copies appear to be re-typed on another form rather than using carbon on these particular documents.

    In any case, the reason for refusal is based on “Section 2 of the Act of Congress approved April 26, 1905 (Public No. 129), provides:

    That for ninety days after the approval hereof applications shall be received for enrollment of children who were minors living March fourth, nineteen hundred and six, whose parents have been enrolled as members of the Choctaw, Chickawaw, Cherokee, or Creek tribes, or have applications for enrollment pending at the approval hereof.”

    So the children were denied because their parents were not enrolled  on any of the tribal rolls nor was an application pending.  These papers are in packet 291 on the Mississippi Choctaw packets.  I found them through my subscription to Footnote.com–they are also available on microfilm in the OHS Library.

    This Hagar family did not meet another criteria for enrolling onto the Final Rolls through the Dawes Commission–they did not live in Indian Territory.  I will have to investigate if there were exceptions for those who were attempting to enroll as Mississippi Choctaw.  From Kent Carter’s The Dawes Commission and the Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribe, 1893-1914, I do know that some of the Commission traveled to Mississippi to locate Choctaws who had remained there when most of the tribe had been moved on west into what is now southern Oklahoma.  But so far I’ve found nothing that provides an exception for persons living in Texas.

    So despite the failed attempt to enroll, these documents do support the family story.  It is also, perhaps,  a lesson to re-create and confirm some of those early findings.

    Tomorrow (or so) I’ll post about another Hagar who appealed the decision to not be admitted and talk about some of the records generated by that process.

    1 Comment »

    12 September 2010

    The Joy of Searching Collaterals

    Filed under: Osborne Family, Tennessee by allmyanc

    Earlier this month I attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Knoxville, Tennessee.

    As always, I took the opportunity of being in another place to check out what might be there about my relatives.

    I knew that my direct line, my great-great grandfather John Osborne (1808 NC-1865 TN) was actually in West Tennessee (one of Tennessee’s grand divisions, as we heard multiple times that week).  But I also knew his brother Thomas (1810 NC-1871 TN) had been in East Tennessee.

    One of the sessions was at the Knox County Public Library, a building holding a wonderful collection of agencies for east Tennessee research.  The East Tennessee History Center is there, which holds the Knox County Archives and the McClung Collection, among other treasures.

    The McClung Collection was where I hit paydirt.  In one of the “120 linear feet of genealogical manuscript collections,” I found a folder on the Thomas Osborne family.  Titled the “Rhea Alexander Collection,” it was obviously the papers of one of Thomas’ descendants.

    In that folder, I found that there’s a good chance that the home Thomas Osborne lived in is still standing.  This home was a wedding present to him and his first wife, Mary Jane Wright (ca 1812 TN-1843 TN) from her parents.  This brick home is referenced in their son John Wright Osborne‘s (1841 TN-1922 AZ)  Tennessee Civil War Questionnaire he completed about 1920 from his home in Tacoma, Washington.  There was a photocopy of an old photograph of the house and there was reference to the folks who were living in the home in the 1970′s–the date of most of the papers in that folder.  It’s name is Sunnyside and I hope to return one of these days to visit the place.

    The other treasures I found in that folder are photos of Thomas’s daughter Martha Osborne Siler (ca 1835 TN-1895 CA), the sister of John Wright.  In his Questionnaire, he references his nieces and nephews named Siler, and here was a photo of their parents!  There was even a note in that file that indicated that David W. Siler had been previously married, and that his previous wife had been identified as Catherine Osborne, a cousin to Martha.  I have yet to verify this and there was no indication as to the source of this information.

    But, here are Martha and David.  It’s obvious these copies were made in Tacoma, Washington, but one of the letters in the Rhea Alexander file referred to the originals.  Another name to try to track!

    And another example of what can turn up when searching the siblings of your ancestors.  I have no pictures of my line, but I am most gratified to have these.

    

    Martha Osborne Siler and David W. Siler photos from the Rhea  Alexander Collection, 512.190,  McCLung Historical Collection, Knoxville, Tennessee.

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