January - new year with new goals

The holidays are over, a new year is upon us. New goals have been set for both my writers group and my GenieGirls study group. How many can I cross off at the end of the year and how many new ones will be added?

I have completed an article on my COURT branch. I will try and highlight a few of the more interesting aspects of this article.

The original James Court came to this country from England about 1835. He married and lived in New York (Oswego County) all his life. He was a cooper (barrel maker) by trade. He married Martha Jennette Bocquet, who was born in that area and they had five children. There seems to be an inordinate amount of mental illness/suicide/childlessness and premature deaths of both children and adults in this family.  Only one of their children, my great-great-grandfather, William Wallace Court, had descendants. He eventually moved to Michigan (Washtenaw County) where many Courts still live.  As far as my research can ascertain, there are no Courts in NY remaining from the other four children. Only one had a child and that son died at age 17.

William was a Civil War Soldier for Oswego County, NY (more on him in a future column). He moved to Canada and eventually to Ypsilanti, Michigan. He married Esther Mary Corcoran (of Canada and Ohio) and they had eight children. Six lived to adulthood. But, again, only three of those left descendants. One son, William Jr., was in Pontiac State Hospital most of his life. He died there at age 53. Two daughters had children, one died in childbirth with the child and the other had three babies that were either stillborn or died early from "failure to thrive" (according to the death certificate). This second daughter mentioned, Marie, was married to Lewis Scramblin(g) mentioned in an earlier blog.

William's first son, James Madison Court, is my great-grandfather. He married Mary Elizabeth Klopp (maybe Brunck). They had two children including my father's mother, Bessie.

Dennis, their second son, had four children and at least 11 grandchildren known to me.  William and Esther's daughter, Martha Jennette (Nettie) married three times and had three children from her second marriage.

The article I am submitting for publication in the Desert Tracker for the West Valley Genealogical Society (WVGS) should appear in their Spring Issue.  When it does, I will send a link.

I have also been in touch with a distant cousin from Bruce's family - the Tibbetts of Maine and Massachusetts.  Lisa lives in Australia and we have been sharing information. This is a family I have not checked in on in years. I first need to organize and bring them up-to-date. But she is delightful and I am excited about sharing more information with her. And Bruce is already seeing travel in the future!

The Beckington Book - of which I have talked about TOO MUCH and done nothing with recently, is another goal still on my list. I am trying to figure out how to divide the work into segments to make it easier to complete. I have hopes anyway.

Another trip to Syracuse and more research will happen in early March. Of course that means a little more organization to make sure I know what I am looking for when I get there.

It is cold here in Phoenix this week. I know it is relative, but because our plants/flowers/citrus trees, etc. are not used to it, we have had damage to plants, or at least to the leaves.  I hope they come back. We did this two years ago and had to cut everything WAY back. Next month is trimming/pruning time. Also, I have a new pet - Sunday we heard and saw a mouse in the house.  I have a couple of traps out with peanut butter. Hopefully, that will do it. He is pretty inquisitive and has been all over the house, including Sunday night when I was reading in bed. He came into the bedroom three times. The first two times I made a noise and he turned and headed back out. The third time I thought - OK, where is it you are going? So I just watched him. He eventually made it under the bed and stayed for awhile. He did finally leave and I haven't heard or seen him since. Maybe he found his way back outside? 

Civil War Letter from 1861

This is the second letter I have from the Civil War era.  This one was written by Col. Jonathan Webster Childs. He is the older brother to Lewis E. Childs, the letter transcribed in the previous post. Again, this letter is written to my great-great-grandfather, James Webster Childs, of Augusta Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, while he was in the legislature for the State of Michigan. See more on J. Webster in the last post and watch for more detail on him in a future post.

     Jonathan was born March 14, 1834, in Laoni (Laona), Chautauqua, New York. This is near Jamestown in the southwest corner of New York. He was the first child of Aaron Childs and Hannah Bemis. He married first, Frances Crawford, born in 1840. They were married in Appalachicola, Franklin, Florida, on June 29, 1866. Frances died in December, 1871. They had no children that I could find. Nothing more is known about Frances. He married a second time on December 28, 1873, in Savannah, Georgia, to Frances E. (Fannie) Gause. They had two daughters, Elaine, born in 1875, in Richmond, Virginia, and a second daughter, Abbie Blanche, born in 1876 in Washington, D.C. Abbie only lived two months.  Elaine did marry and have a son.

     Johnathan died on May 24, 1896 and Fannie died in 1913.

There is a great deal written about Jonathan Webster Childs and his time in the service during the Civil War and discussion of the reasons he may have resigned.  If you are interested in further information about him, please refer to the following book:

The 4th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War by Martin N. Bertera and Kim Crawford.

Martin and Kim used the following letter and many others as background for their book and discussion of this very interesting episode in the Childs family and the Civil War.

As with the first letter, I have left the spellings, punctuation, etc. as they were written.

Headquarters, 21^st Mich Inf’y

Camp Union   Aug 15, 1861

Dear Uncle,

Several weeks has passed since I wrote you last. And notwithstanding I have not heard from gm. Allow me to try again.  You have doubtless been informed that our Regiment is brigaded under Gen’l Sherman, who ranks at the head of the Brigadiers, he had given him to make the selection thirty-two Regiments.  And the following are those he chose.

                9^th Reg’t Mass

                14^th Reg’t NY (Utica)

                 DeKalb, NY City (German, all of whom have seen service)

                4^TH Reg’t Mich

                Ayers Battery (formerly Shermans)

                Company I U.S. Cavelry 

During the past week there has been added to his brigade one other Battery, and a company of Cavelry.  It has been about a week since we came over here, and were placed in advance of all other Regiments.  The remainder of the brigade lies between us and the river. The enemy is at Falls Church and we are constantly expecting to have a brush with them. Our pickets are doing a little skirmishing each day. Our pickets until Sunday extended about a mile beyond the Rail Road, but now they are taken in and extend only half a mile this side of the R.R. Yesterday our scouts brought information that the rebels had advanced to the Rail Road with two pieces of artillery and several companies of cavelry. Several companies of our troops are stationed out with the furthest picket. I was out there one night with two companies. 

We are all of us kept constantly in the dark as to when where or how the next movement will be made. Defeat in a great measure seems to attend our armies, both here and in Missouria but our zeal in the cause does not relax in the least. The men are all anxious to have a fight and I venture to say when the “Fourth” is called into an engagement, they will fight most desperately. Many things has been said in Michigan against our Regiment, calculated to lower it in the estimation of people at home and abroad. Several of our officers have been spoken of by those same designing persons in a manner calculated to give a faulse [sic] impression as regards their ability to discharge the various duties devolving upon them. As regards our Colonel he is a man admirably calculated for the position which he holds. He is in a word beloved by the whole Regiment and not one could be found who would for a moment hesitate to _____ his own life for the safety of the Colonel. His devotion to the Regiment is unbounded.  unlike many commanders he is always to be found in the camp instructing his men and never leaves except upon business connected with the Regiment. As regard the proficiency of our drill, few Regiments if any now in the field can excell us in Battalion movements.  and had it been otherwise we should not have received the second post of honor in Gen’l Sherman’s brigade.  of which with pride, we can now boast. And furthermore a cordiality of feeling greater never existed between the officers of a Regiment. To my certain knowledge there has not a thing transpired to mar the good feeling which has ever existed. We believe there is one and only one exception. Dr. Turnicliffe of Jackson who at the urgent request of the Governor was placed upon the Colonel’s staff as surgeon with the rank of Major, has during the whole time he has been with shown great dissatisfaction.  and now particularly since the Col. requested him for his own good and that of the men also, to remain in camp and not visit Washington so frequently as he was in the habit of attending Congress daily and frequently would not return for many days. He is now in Mich on a furlough and we have information from good authority that he is saying all he can against the Regiment. Later information says he has received an appointment in the first Regiment. There is also another, the correspondent of the Detroit Free Press who signs his articles “Hamilton” & “H” (H.H. Finley) who went with us from Adrian to Washington expecting to receive the appointment of Captain or Lieutenant or anything else he could obtain in the Regiment but the Col. received word from the Governor not to give him any position. Consequently the Col. told him it was not likely any opening would occur for him. And from that time he has openly declaired that he was by nature vindictive and would do his utmost to ruin the reputation of the Regiment.  and he has constantly been putting in circulation false reports concerning as viz = that the officers were intemperate that there was no discipline, that the Col. and Quarter Master contrived to cheat on the rations, that the officers quareled amoung themselves and were dispised by the soldiers, etc. etc.  All of which are the bleakest bare faced lies. He made himself busy with the 1^st  2^nd & 3^rd Reg’ts circulating such reports. He is careful to keep without our lines, should he enter them the men would tar & feather him.  and no power could prepurt (?) them from doing so. There are other things in this connection that I will write soon. If outsiders would let us alone there would be nothing to mar the peace of this camp. Every report that has been put in circulation calculated to injure us, can be proven to originate from a spirit of jealouscy [sic] and envy.

Hoping to hear from you soon I remain Dear Uncle every your affectionately,   J.W. Childs

Civil War Letter from 1862

     The following is a letter written in 1862, during the Civil War.  The writer, Lewis Eugene Childs, was the son of Aaron Childs, one of the first settlers (from New Hampshire) in Augusta Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan.  Aaron and Hannah Bemis Childs had nine children.  Their first child was Col. Jonathan Webster Childs.  Next week I will transcribe a letter he wrote in 1861 while he served in the Civil War.  I have the originals of both of these letters.  Lewis E. Childs, was born on  May 25, 1836 and died February 1, 1889.  He married Frances Hazeltine Richardson on June 12, 1866 in Fitchburg, Worcester, Massachusetts. He served three years in the Army of the Cumberland. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Chickamunga, taken prisoner and later exchanged. They had five children with only one, Herbert Ward Childs, surviving to adulthood. Although Herbert married, there were no children and he died at the young age of 37. Lewis and Frances are both buried in Highland Cemetery, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

      Lewis wrote this letter to his uncle James Webster Childs. J. Webster was my great-great grandfather. He was a Representative and then a Senator in the Michigan Legislature in the 1860s and 1870s. I will write more on him later.  As you can see from the letter, Lewis was asking a favor. He had apparently done so before. 

     The spelling, underlining, and punctuation are as written.                                                                                            

                                                                                          Head Quarters

                                                                                          11^th Reg’t Mich Vols

                                                                                Belmont Ky March 31^st – 62

Dear Uncle

Knowing the willingness you have allready manifested to use your influence for my bennifit, I again ask a favor of you.

Lieut Col Stoughton (The man of the Reg’t) with some of the other officers of the Reg’t have written Gov. Blair to give me a Capts commission and Ephraim G. Hall a 2^nd Lieuts commission. The Col. requested me to write to you requesting you to recommend us to the Gov for the same. The Col’s letter was sent last Saturday. If you will write the Gov as soon as convenient and can conscientiously recommend us for those positions you will much oblige. The Col said there was no doubt but the Gov would grant them but he wished you to write so the Gov. would know and feel satisfied.

Fortune has seen fit to cast our lot in the Def. of the Ohio but not in the advance of that army which has lately moved its Head Quarters from Louisville to Nashville.

Four months have we been anxiously waiting to be ordered into more active service, but today finds us scattered for thirty miles along the R.R. guarding its depots and bridges. This line of RR is indispensable to our army and every bridge from Louisville to Nashville is guarded night and day. The trains run on the road so one can go to Bowling Green and back in a day. Some of us are talking of going to see the cave (?)In a few days, but situated where we are one does not want to go far to find scenes interesting and wonderful, to us who have never seen hills much higher than (our heads?).  Just to the South of our camp are three high hills and the one in the center which is a number of hundred feet high looks as if it was monarch of all it surveyed.  I went to the top of it a few days ago and for the first time in my life stood where I could look in every direction just as far as the eye could reach.

Today the paymaster is here and we are being payed off. The paymaster is late from Washington and he and his clerk were well acquainted with Webster. This afternoon as soon as they [sic] are through payin we are to ride out in the country. I am to be pilot and shall direct the way to where two young ladies live

And by the way you remember the Browns. They attended this school at Mount Washington, and have given me a whol history of their   __vadings?  in Ky. But I must clos for the room is full. They are paying in my room. Please answer soon and receive this hasty note from

                                              Your affectionate Nephew       Lewis E. Childs

New name for my blog

Greetings  -  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and found much to be thankful for - I certainly did, and do.

I decided to change the name of my blog to "Relatives in the Attic."  I should have done it when I started my new website awhile ago and then changed both names at the same time - but better late than.....

The study group met this last month at the West Valley Genealogical Society's library, had a tour and did some research. Thank you, Peggy, for a great tour and answering all our questions.

These last two months we have all been working (hopefully) on a new writing assignment. Many of us have either already written, or would like to write, stories about a relative or ancestor. I can't wait to start reading the stories at our November meeting.  I have mine almost complete, it just needs more fine tuning.  I will put it in the blog next month. Three of us from the study group had stories in the Fall edition of the West Valley's "Desert Tracker" publication that comes out twice a year. I submitted my story on "Who Was Mickey" - it was the same story that I detailed on this blog several months ago.

More to come, but wanted everyone to be aware of my new address. Watch for the new website name to come soon.

Fall and Writing and Scramblin!

Fall is coming to Phoenix. That means cooler evenings and mornings (great for walking) and days under 100. I know it still sounds warm, and it is, but it is a huge relief from over 100 and it is surprisingly comfortable.

It has been a busy summer with traveling (a wonderful family wedding in Michigan) and escaping the heat of Phoenix, for the cool summer in Colorado. I have been working on small projects, not getting a great deal done, but keeping busy. I am having trouble keeping motivated on the book I am working on about my Beckington grandparents. I have submitted an article locally to a society's publication in the Phoenix area about Mickey, which will appear in the Winter edition. I have written extensively about Mickey Bruner on my blog in the past. The Writer's Group I belong to meets next week so I need to get busy on another article. I am going to write about the Court family that stayed in New York. My great-great Grandfather, William Wallace Court, came to Michigan. He was one of five children born to James and Janette Bouquet Court, and the only one to migrate to Michigan. The others stayed in New York and didn't seem to fare as well.

I watch a blog called "Life from the Roots" by Barbara Poole. It is an excellent blog. She has the name Scramblin on her surname list. Maria Court, William's daughter, married a Lewis Wilson Scramblin. They lived in the Jackson County area of Michigan at one point. Maria had at least three children who died in infancy. Maria died at the age of 43 in 1928. I did some further research on the Scramblin name and am trying to figure out a connection to the family that Barbara highlights. Since Barbara is in the New England area and most of her ancestors are from there, we have a great many names in common.

Our monthly study group has been going very well. Everyone is trying new things and learning a great deal. I certainly learn putting the meeting and lessons together. This September was our one-year anniversary so we went over the goals we had set last year. It was amazing how many of those goals had been accomplished already or were near completion. We then started a new list of goals for this next year.

The group is heading for the West Valley Genealogical Society's library in Sun City in late October. It is a wonderful library (over 12,000 books and 1,500 periodicals) with an extensive map collection. Some of the ladies have never been. We are also all going to start a writing project on an ancestor who has an interesting story to tell, which we will work on over the next couple of months. Many of the group are avid writers already, but we are ALL going to start on a new project to write about and then will present them - and maybe do some editing - at our November meeting. I will be working on the Court story I mentioned above.

Final note on Mickey and new possibilities on my grandfather's wife

I did indeed have the death certificate for Mickey waiting for me on my return to Phoenix. What a surprise to actually find a name in the "father" category. I did not really expect there to be one. You have to wonder if Dorothy also named the father on the birth certificate (which I can't get because of privacy laws), or did she decide - now that the child had died, it didn't matter anymore? I, of course, immediately started doing research on this person. I will not give his name. There are several reasons for this - 1) did he know?  2) did his family know?  3) is he really the father?  4) I guess if someone else really wants to know, they can also ask for the death certificate.

By the way, Washtenaw County in Michigan, has a wonderful system for this very thing. For any death certificate (years available) and marriage certificates, you simply request online what you want with appropriate information and give your credit card information. If they have it, it will be mailed to you within a week or so, if they don't have it - you don't owe them any money. I wish more counties had this set up. Thank you, Washtenaw County!

Anyway, back to Mickey's father. I did some checking. There is a man with that name in Ann Arbor about that time. He is about a year older than Dorothy. He would have been 17, Dorothy 16, when she got pregnant. Did they go to the same high school? same church?  I don't know. This man died in 1982 and I noted that he was a Sr. when he died, so there is a Jr. I don't know if the family knew about Mickey. Since these two parents would have been in high school and Mickey died not even ten years later, maybe not. It solves a mystery for me. If this man is indeed Mickey's father, then there was no incest involved. Rape?  Maybe, maybe not. We will just never know.

The second "mystery" I have been researching is my grandfather, Garth Beckington, and the woman he married after my grandmother's death. Edna died in April, 1952. Garth remarried a woman by the name of Luddie in November 1954. He died in March of 1956. No one knows much about Luddie. Again, most cousins remember a small, round woman from the south, maybe Alabama. How did they meet? And who was she? His obituary does state that he married Miss Luddia M. Hensen. A start! I started searching Luddia/Luddie Hensen. I was amazed at how many Luddies are out there. Mostly in the south.

I found a very likely candidate. Luddia Mae Perkins was born in 1906 in Alabama. She married J. Chart Henson (spelled Henson in most cases) about 1920. I was able to follow this family through the 1940 census. She had two sons, Carl and Edward, and a daughter - the name is either Lion or Lucy, or something similar, all born in the 1920s. I can't find a death date or burial for J(ames) Chart, but assume he died between 1940 and 1954, when she married my grandfather. Or did she? Marry, that is? They were not married in Washtenaw County, in Lucas County (Toledo), Ohio or Chicago - three places that cousins suggested. Where did they marry? Why not marry in Washtenaw County, Michigan where he lived? How did they meet? She spent most of her life in Alabama, possibly some time in Georgia. Her sons lived and died in Alabama. I am having trouble finding descendants who might have an answer or two about this woman and if she was indeed the second wife of Garth. Did I follow the right woman and family? What happened to her after he died? I know Garth's children were not fond of her (for various reasons) and apparently one of her sons came in a "big car" to pick her up after Garth's funeral. That is the last anyone heard from her. She did not die with the name of Beckington, so maybe she remarried or just went back to Henson?  I can't find a burial for that name either.

I will keep trying to find a descendant mostly to learn if I have the right woman. Garth was born in 1878 and she was born in 1906. Most of the cousins were young and to a child - anyone over the age of 40 is "old."  There would have been 20+ years difference in their ages. My one surviving aunt was asked by her son if she thinks Luddie could have been that much younger than her father. She didn't live in Michigan during those years, but said yes, that was her understanding. Maybe a Henson will see this blog while Googling their name and make a comment.

Did I answer more questions than I added to my list of "don't knows?"  I guess I feel confident that I have answered some major ones anyway.

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.