August in the Mountains and other thoughts

I have been enjoying the coolness of the Colorado mountains this last month, it has been a nice break from the Phoenix heat. I have gotten some genealogy research and writing done. Not as much as I would like, but - it all takes time!

Another note on Mickey (check my November and July posts). I requested his death certificate from Washtenaw County, Michigan, and it should be waiting for me in Phoenix when I return. I am anxious to see what details it might reveal that I don't already know. I suppose there could be "one more note" on Mickey later, depending on what the death certificate reveals.

I did go through letters that I have been saving from various family members to my grandparents. I will be writing about the correspondence between my grandparents (to each other, while they were dating) in a book - hopefully that will come out in the winter/spring. It is a larger undertaking than anticipated.

Among others, I have letters written by Dorothy Bruner Beckington (Mickey's mother) to Garth and Edna Beckington (her new husband's parents), after her marriage to Garth (my uncle Toot). Some of the early letters were written when he was stationed at Fort Atterbury, Indiana, where he was stationed for training during WW II and before he was shipped out to England. She was able to live on the base (or near by) with him after their marriage. They married June 6, 1942. As I wrote about in the previous posts mentioned above, Mickey was her son by a previous relationship. He would have been about six years old when Toot and Dorothy married. I am guessing he stayed with his grandparents, William Gross and Alice Marenger Bruner Gross, Dorothy's mother and step-father, while Toot and Dorothy were in Indiana. At least, I assume. She never mentions him in her letters. Where is he? She doesn't say she misses him, or anything. She always (even in the years to come) addresses her in-laws as "Mr. and Mrs. Beckington."  I don't think any other in-laws in the family did so. She did write many letters to them over the years so I do have to give her credit for staying in touch and keeping them apprised of their lives. But she never mentions Mickey - before or after his death.

At one point I assumed that Toot lived with the boy (and Dorothy) from their marriage until Mickey's death in August, 1946. Actually with WW II intervening and Toot having enlisted (or been drafted?), he was away from the family most of the time between 1942 and the fall of 1945. He made one comment in a letter home that he felt they didn't let the soldiers come home earlier (the war officially ended in Europe in May of 1945) because there were no jobs for the soldiers to return to. Toot spent most of his time during his service in England but he was in France for a short time in 1945 because he describes the destruction he sees all over France, including Paris. So, actually, he probably lived with Mickey (if at all, assuming Mickey did not continue living with his grandparents) for less than a year before Mickey died on August 28, 1946 of polio.

Michigan and Mickey

I just spent a great week in Michigan. I attended a beautiful family wedding and then stayed with my sister and her husband for a few days. While there, my sister and I took a road trip to the northern area of Michigan - not the UP. I have a cousin in Hillman and another in Elmira and we visited them both.  They were gracious hosts and they allowed me to "pick their brains" for memories of our grandparents. That part of Michigan, with all the little lakes is beautiful. It has been years since I did any traveling in Michigan. I thank my sister for allowing me to drag her along (and do the driving). It gives us a little "sister-time" also.

We left Monday morning and got back Tuesday evening. On Thursday, we made it to the St. Thomas Cemetery in Ann Arbor to look for the grave of Mickey.  I wrote about this step-cousin on my blog last November 11th and 15th, in two parts. I wanted to visit his grave and get a picture. We found it easily, with the directions given to us by the cemetery caretaker. Mickey is in the middle of three stones in a row. The names on either side of him have no connection to our family. I assume his parents bought this one plot and none others. Kind of sad as he not only is buried by himself, but there is really no one to visit his grave site, but the cemetery is well maintained.

Here is a picture of his stone:

I also asked the cousins if they knew anymore about Mickey or his father, mother, and her family. They did not. They pretty much knew exactly what has traveled down the family grapevine - he died of polio when he was about 10 years of age.

Ira Union Cemetery, Ira, New York

I have been trying to sit down and write this article for my blog for days.  Today is the day. 

I was in Syracuse and the surrounding area for a week and returned last Friday. It was a good trip. I got to spend the week with my husband and eat out every night (actually, I get tired of that pretty quickly). We spent the first weekend in Montreal. Neither of us had ever been there. What a beautiful city - clean, friendly and with a very interesting history. We did a guided walking tour of Old Montreal on Saturday. It is a very French city and 70% of the people are bi-lingual. Friday night we ate at a restaurant that served "rare horse" - I talked Bruce out of ordering it! But I had wild boar which tasted like pork ribs (as the waitress had assured me).

Back in New York, I did some roaming around the countryside of Cayuga and Oswego counties. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Ira Union Cemetery (also known as the White Cemetery or the Old Floridaville Cemetery) in Ira, so I headed in the direction of Ira and Cato to look for it. The countryside alone was worth the drive. It was one beautiful farm after another, rolling hills, green and peaceful - the word bucolic seems to fit here. I LOVE the old barns. I thought about taking pictures of the best ones - but I don't know how I would ever have chosen. My current residence, Arizona is not known for its green landscapes - now mind you, we live in a more central area of Phoenix that does have trees. We have a huge Aleppo pine in our side yard, a Brazilian Pepper tree in the front and a pecan tree in the back. Plus there are a couple of other big trees which help with shading, and palm trees. We also have a green lawn.

In Cayuga county, the cemetery was close to Floridaville Road and White Cemetery Road - that must be where the name came from :-) - in Cayuga County. I found it after many u-turns and traveling roads that seemed to lead nowhere. I stopped twice at little markets to ask directions. One in Plainville and another near a 'major' (two-lane) intersection. But, you know, if you want directions you are more likely to get them from people in a local market, not employees of a major gas station/convenience store. The Plainville market was in a very small area and a father and son helped me out. I did have my iPhone with Google maps, but sometimes the reception wasn't always available. There were also two old churches in Plainville. I wonder if either church was attended by the Lane or Rhoades families? One looked like it was now a home and the other was closed down.

I finally found the cemetery. The above is a picture of the (former church?) building that was within the cemetery grounds, near the gate. It wasn't open and no one was there, so I don't know what is inside. I was looking for the graves of my third great-grandparents, Roswell and Jerusha Rhoades Lane.  I already had pictures of their tombstones from another source, but I wanted to see the site and placement of the graves and who was buried around them. These things can be important. I knew that Jerusha's father, David Rhoades (sometimes this name is spelled Rhoads or Rhodes, among many other spellings) was buried near them. But, where was David's wife, Jerusha Hitchcock Rhoades buried? She died one month after he did in 1834, so she should be there. There is no stone for her.

Above is a picture of the gravestone of Roswell and Jerusha.  Roswell's name is on one side, and Jerusha's is on the other. The star you see in the picture is for his service in the War of 1812. The smaller stones on either side of the larger one say "Mother" and "Father." 

 This next picture is of the stone for David Rhoades.  He has an emblem with a small American flag attached for his service in the Revolutionary War. It was put there by the DAR Chapter in Ypsilanti, Michigan, requested by Mary Ella Hazelton Childs, my great-grandmother. I do think there is space for David's wife, Jerusha, next to his stone. Roswell's parents, Ezra and Sarah Chapman Lane, were also in that area when they died, but no records of where they are buried exist. Now that I can see the whole area, I think there is space for them in this same plot.

 If you look closely at this picture, you will see the Lane stone in the middle and a space to the left, then a square looking stone (more on that one ahead), a larger space and then David Rhoades' stone at the far left.  There is also space on the other side of David's stone - plenty for three more people.

This last stone, pictured above, the square one between the Lane and Rhoades stones, is for Adelbert Lane, Roswell and Jerusha's youngest son, and his wife, Sarah Earl. Adelbert and Sarah still have living descendants in this area.

So, because I was able to visit this cemetery, I was able to prove to myself that there is space, albeit no stones, for Ezra and Sarah Chapman Lane and David Rhoades' wife, Jerusha. Does that mean they are buried there?  No. Maybe some day I will hire a dowser. Google 'Dowsing' or check out articles by Brenda Marble ("Grave Dowsing: Basic Techniques for Dowsing Burial Sites" by Brenda Marble and Debbi Lehr, 2003). Or then again, maybe I will learn to do it myself.

Time Lines

I have grown to respect and enjoy Timelines for genealogy. If you have never created one - you must!  At our last study group meeting our "homework" assignment was to create a timeline. We had discussed them at the previous meeting: how to put them together, what to include and how to use them. There are several ways you can do this depending on what you want to it to accomplish.

I have one that is about five pages long for my Hitchcock/Sears Brick Wall problem. It starts with Samuel Hitchcock's (#3) birth in 1731 in New Milford, Litchfield, CT. The last entry is for Samuel Bradley Hitchcock (Silas Hitchcock's son, b. 1822) dated 1881. It states that a land record indicates he is homesteading in Yuba, CA. Silas is Samuel's fourth child, third son, but his first - and only child - by his second wife, Betsey Sears Hitchcock. I think his first wife is Sarah Sears (Betsey's sister). For more details on this dilemma and what I know, or more apropro - what I don't know - about these two families, go to my webpage www.freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jbmbtrees. This particular timeline might be a little too detailed for some people and for certain situations, but for this problem it works for me.

The other important timeline I have done, is for Ezra and Sarah Chapman Lane. This one starts with their marriage in 1792 in New Marlborough, Berkshire, MA.  They are my 4xgreat-grandparents. The reason I started it with that date, was because I am mostly interested in Ezra and Sarah and their 11 children, where they lived and for how long. I have been searching for documentation on the events in their lives for several years. Ezra was the middle of three children born to Roswell and Sarah Dudley Lane in 1768, in Guilford or Killingworth, Middlesex, CT. I have baptism dates from the Church in Killingworth for his older sister, Sarah (b. 1767) and his younger brother, Luman (b. 1769), but alas! not for middle-child Ezra. Some people put a fourth child, Polly (b. abt. 1780) with Roswell and Sarah, but I can find no proof of this and they can not tell me what proof they have for this assertion. And really, more important to me, Polly is never mentioned in my greatgrandmother's genealogical notes. Mary Ella Hazelton Childs (1857-1941) did a lot of research and had many handwritten notes which I received from my mother's things after her death. Mary Ella never indicated a fourth child. I find with my research and documentation to verify her claims - she is usually right in her assertions, despite not necessarily having the documentation.

The timeline for the Lanes is two pages and continues through the 11 childrens' births, marriages and deaths and ends with Ezra's son, Roswell's (my 3x great grandfather) death in 1870. Ezra died in 1859 at the age of 91. They left New Marlborough fairly early in their marriage and moved to Norfolk, Litchfield, CT. They were there for about 12 years. The first seven children appear to have been born there, but no records for the births of the children exist!  Except for land records indicating that Ezra and his brother, Luman, bought and sold land in the area, Norfolk has nothing.  In 1806, they moved to NY. Ezra brought his father, Roswell, with him. I assume Roswell's wife, Sarah Dudley, died in Norfolk, but can not document the place or date for sure. There is some indication that they are both buried in NY. I can not find burial places for Roswell and Sarah, or Ezra and Sarah. They were in the Oswego County area of NY, mostly in the town of Oswego, for several years and the remaining children were probably all born there. They then settled in Hannibal in Oswego County. Sarah Chapman died before 1850 when she does not appear in the 1850 Federal Census with Ezra, who is living with his son, Jackson, in Ira, Cayuga, NY. We assume that Ezra died in Ira. Roswell, the son, lived and died in Hannibal. I have a record from a book ("Hannibal's Historical Highlights" by Gordon W. Sturge, Mayor and Town Historian) indicating that Ezra and sons bought pews in the Congregational Society (Church) in Hannibal in 1826. No other records are available for Ezra and/or Sarah. I could write much more on this couple, but I started this column on timelines.

What do you want your timeline to show?  A particular family followed through their lives? A particular person and his life? What about a locale and how it either was impacted by your family or your family was impacted by what happened there? Do you want to use the timeline as an outline to eventually write a story of your family? In that case, you could add historical data found on the internet or in books, add flavor to make the story "pop." Use pictures of the area of residence, as well as any pictures you have of the family members you are writing about.

If you are creating the timeline for a family or person, I think it is important to include as much detail as you can. Maybe using dates at the beginning of each entry. An example from my Lane timeline:

1792 - Mar 6: Ezra Lane and Sarah Chapman m. in New Marlborough, Berkshire, MA.
1794 - Almira Lane b. in Litchfield Co., CT.
1796 - Lovina Lane b. in Litchfield Co., CT.

... and so on.  I like starting with dates because I can get a picture of what years I have something happening and what years I don't. How detailed can I get their lives? Then, I can see where I need to fill in. Obviously, you can add and delete as required.  I like to put as complete a date as I can, full names and complete area information available. Keep it consistent in the way you list your entry.

So, give it a try and let me know what you learned. I had one member who found information she forgot she had when putting her timeline together. Another, discovered what she needed to do in order to get a more complete picture. Send me a comment about any additional "tricks of the trade" you have found when creating a timeline. I will be glad to share them. 

May 1 - Margaret Edna Beckington's birthday

Unknown neighbor? Tom and Margaret

May 1st - My mother's birthday. May Day. What do I miss about my mother?  Probably the same thing I miss about my dad.  They were always there for us. We always knew we were wanted and loved. My parents waited 7 years after marrying before they had my sister. I understand part of that reason was because Margaret had TB about a year after they married. I wrote about that in an earlier post.

Margaret and Ken gave us a "normal" childhood. Daddy came home from work every night. Mother didn't start working until we were 13, 8 and 6. Then we had a babysitter "Aunt Lottie" who came to the house for a year of two when we were young.

It was always a treat for us when a Saturday of shopping came around. Mother and we three girls would go to Ann Arbor. The first stop was usually Goodyear's in downtown Ann Arbor. Almost immediately we would have lunch. Goodyear's was (it is no longer there) the kind of store where you would go to the fitting room, tell the saleslady what you were looking for and she would bring you several things to try on. Gone are those days for sure. There are still some small upscale stores that do that, but they are rare.  And, occasionally we would go to Hudson's in Detroit to shop. They had a Cobb Salad on their lunch menu that we always ordered. Anyone else remember that?

After Mother started working, she had more of a social life. She was basically a shy person, but she did join a golf team, bowling (Daddy bowled too) and an investment club over the years. They occasionally went out to dinner with another couple, but mostly it was family. Margaret's or Ken's brothers and/or sisters and their spouses were their social life, and our social life, when we were young. They were not church goers. They did like to travel and over the years they went on a few cruises and trips with groups and always seemed to enjoy it.

Margaret's children and grandchildren could do no wrong. She wasn't very demonstrative or a big talker, she didn't interfere with her children's lives as we got older, but we knew she cared. She was a very loyal person and I am sure she took secrets to her grave. We never had a curfew growing up, but we just KNEW what we had to do to keep the "parental unit" (my son's term for us) happy. Somehow it worked. I don't know if she was happy, I think she was the kind of person that felt things were never perfect (except her children and grandchildren).  She brought us up to be very independent, we could do anything we put our minds to.

She died too early. But, if there is a consolation to that it was that it gave her daughters a chance to get to know their father better over the next 19 years. And we certainly enjoyed that. We miss him still.

Census excitement

Most everyone in the genealogy world was anticipating the arrival of the 1940 census in April. I was. But I also made a point of staying away the first day or two. Good thing. The NARA website apparently crashed for awhile early on April 2 - not my fault! Now everyone appears to be in a race to get it online and be the first to have it indexed. I hope there isn't another 'crash' when the indexing comes online. I can always wait a day or two for that also.

I tried to find my parents, Ken and Margaret McDougall, on the Pittsfield Township portion of the Washtenaw County, Michigan census. I know right where they SHOULD be. But, I guess someone forgot to tell the census taker in the area that there was a small apartment above Cady's Food Market. Cady's was on the corner of Platt Road and Michigan Avenue, on the southeast corner. The Cady's lived around the corner and down Platt Road from the Market. My sister, Pat, remembers in later years, Mrs. Cady sitting in a rocking chair by the stove most days in the Market. Her daughter, Donna, would help out everyday after school.

Pat was born April 19 of that year, so I know she would have missed having her name there by 18 days. The census, even though there may be other dates at the top of the page - I see: May 6, April 11, May 7, on just a few I looked at - is supposed to be a list of the people who reside in the house at that address as of April 1, 1940.

I did find my maternal grandparents, also in Pittsfield Township. Garth and Edna Beckington. They are on Bemis Road, near Fosdick Road. They are listed along with my Uncle Garth (Toot), 29, Uncle Tom (24) and his wife, Aunt Dorothy (20) and daughter, Karen (1), Aunt Mary (20) and Aunt Jim (Alice) (16).  Toot and Tom are both working for King Seeley Corp. My mom eventually worked there, starting when I was about 8 years old. Also, the ages listed would be the age at their last birthday.

My parents purchased land on 105 W. Bemis Road, where they eventually lived (moving there about 1942), but the house hadn't been built yet in 1940.  We lived there until I was about 9, when we moved down the road to another house. It was much bigger and put us in a different school district. We kept the original house, and when my parents retired, they added another story and moved back. We sold it a couple of years after my father died in 1996. The land was in the family for almost 60 years.

It was fun 'going up and down' the roads in that area of Saline/Milan/Ypsilanti (Pittsfield and York Townships) and seeing all those familiar names from my childhood. They are still familiar after all these years, and the descendants of many continue to live in that area. I need to spend more time looking for other family members. Another day, another time.

Boy, life has a habit of getting in the way!  It has been a busy month, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We had another great meeting of the Study Group on Wednesday. Everyone enjoyed the trip to the Mesa Libary and learned a great deal - mostly about the library and what it has to offer, but some also found exciting things to add to their research. We are excited about planning another field trip - maybe this time to the State Archives and the genealogy library in downtown Phoenix - at the State Capital.

But first we are going to tackle a case study. We have talked about doing this but just haven't had the time. One of the members, MaryLu, prepared a 4-generational pedigree chart on an ancestor, Cassandra Brashears, she is interested in finding more information on Cassandra and her family. She found the information she has on a 5-generational chart in Belmont County, Ohio. No resources, just "family lore."  This is a collateral line for her. Other people have come up with the same information but again, no real documentation.

I think this will be a great learning tool. Taking people/places that are completely unfamiliar to us and trying to track down information and, hopefully, sources. This is what you would do if you were helping a client. It is a good exercise  in "thinking outside the box." I think sometimes you get so focused on your particular lines, think you have done everything possible to locate more records on them. Maybe having to look at a family/person/locale completely foreign (so to speak), will help open up some new ways of approaching our own research. MaryLu has found, in preparing this information for us, new data she didn't already have for this family. She is sending an email to the members with further information for this project. It will be interesting to see the different tactics the members take to gather data and sources. Everyone will do what they have time to do and go about it any way they want.