4 Lines After 30 Years

Year end is always a time to look back. Today instead of looking just at this past year, I'm looking back to when I started keeping track of my family history. In the beginning I kept it on paper. Then in 1995 I got my first home PC and family tree software, and in 1997 connected to the internet. What I wanted to know at that time was the country of origin for each of my family lines. 

As a hobby genealogist working full time, I do the best I can. Going to court houses and anywhere at a distance requires taking vacation days, so while I know things I need to do I just don't have many opportunities to get them done. 

So, I'll just briefly recap my four Grandparents' lines today.

MENKE - my Grandpa Kenneth was the son of Charles Albert, who was the son of Henry Menke. Those three generations are well documented with the basic four (birth, marriage, death and burial) and much more. Henry came from Germany about 1859 "with his parents" according to one biography of him, but I have not learned their names. I have seen online more specific locations of where Henry came from, but I don't see where they're getting the information. Finding Henry's parents would be the next great thing to find on this line.


MANN - my Grandma Doris was a daughter of Clarence, who was a son of William Mann. William came from England about 1851, but I've never found any reference to an exact location. I've also never seen any reference to siblings or parents. I have his birthdate, and if there was an online database where I could search by that it would help. There is one called FREEBMD, but the records there start in 1837. William was born in 1830. I'm stuck at William without knowing his parents' names or his birth place.


BELL - my Grandpa was Stan, his father was Cicero, Cicero's mother was Martha (father is something that "they never talked about"), Martha's father was John Silas and his father was David Bell.  This line is well documented back to David, his children were mentioned in land records. David's place of birth may have been Augusta County, Virginia or Buckingham County, Virginia. His father may have been Joseph Bell and his mother may have been Elizabeth Henderson. I need to work with online Virginia records to see if I can confirm something there. The Bell's in Virginia are believed to be Scots-Irish people, in the US before 1780. I have faith that the Bell line does come from Scotland or Ireland.


McGRATH - my Grandma Violet was a daughter of Arthur, Art was the only son of John McGrath. John was from Dublin, Ireland according to most records. He was in Illinois by 1858. I have his second marriage certificate which gives his parents as Arthur and "R. McCarty". I believe the R stands for Rebecca because that's the name of John's oldest daughter. John's birth year varies a lot in different records so I'd love to find an official birth record for John, But more than that I need to find his first marriage record to Rachel Jane Simmons. This is one of my goals for 2020. A family Bible would really help here, if only I knew of one.


This is only a small part of the work I've done in 30 years. I'm looking forward to retirement, but it seems so far off yet. Hoping 2020 will be a good year!

Newspaper Clippings - Rock Creek, Nebraska, 1910

I've been living life lately and my blog has been somewhat of a low priority. Not apologizing, but I will try to keep posting things I have of family history value. Winter will be here before long and I'll be home more.

This little bit of news is from Rock Creek in Saunders County, Nebraska. Transcribed as it was, it looks like they tried to correct their error in the last few paragraphs and have some lines turned around. The death of Nancy Bennett is relevant to one of  my Smith families.  Nancy was the daughter of my Fourth Great Grandparents Jonathan and Rachel Smith.

From the Wahoo Democrat, Wahoo, Nebraska, January 27, 1910

ROCK CREEK

Wm. Bennett, who at the present is making his home in Lincoln, where Mrs. Bennett is under the care of a physician, came up Tuesday to attend the funeral of his mother.

Word was received Monday of the death of Mrs. Nancy Bennett. Mrs. B. had made her home, since the death of her husband, with her daughter, Mrs. G. S. Lambert. Last fall she went to spend the winter with her daughter, Mrs. C. J. Haggerman, who lives in McCool, York county, where 

she passed away Monday, the 24th. The remains were brought here Tuesday. The funeral will be held at Mt. Zion church Wednesday and the remains laid to rest beside her departed husband.

Grant Mills, a brother of J. W. Mills, of this precinct, was found dead in a hotel in Omaha Friday morning.

George and Sadie Ethel of Green, were visiting friends and relatives on the Creek Monday and Tuesday.

D. L. Beaman arrived Thursday for an extended visit with his brothers, I. K. Beaman and J. O. Beaman.

O. L. Bennett and Walter Stewart attended the auction sale of hardware and implements at Valparaiso Saturday.

J. O. Beaman, J. H. Vanlandingham and Grace Beaman attended the funeral of Dr. R. D. Bush at Wahoo on Thursday.

Miss Ina Larson, teacher in district 40 spent Sunday with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lamson, [sic] near Raymond.

Have you seen the comet?

J. J. Wondra transacted business at Wahoo Thursday.

Miss Grace Hodge of Stella, is visiting her friend, Miss Edna Nelson.

Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Bennett and daughter of Lincoln, were visiting on the 

Miss Ina Lamson teacher in district [sic] the creek Saturday and Sunday.

Inez and Eva Stewart helped Everett Beaman to celebrate his 11th birthday Tuesday evening.

Women Involved in the Fight

With March being Women's History Month, and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment coming in just two years, I've been trying to find out more about my female ancestors and their political interests.  Nine of my direct female ancestors living in 1920 were of eligible age to vote.  The oldest was Mary Roscoe at 84, my Third Great Grandmother.  My emails to local election offices have not been answered, so I don't know if any of them were registered. I can't get to court houses unless I use vacation time, so I turned to online Nebraska newspapers with high hopes. Unfortunately, the papers local to my ancestors are not online and their names didn't make the papers on a state-wide level.

Still, it has been interesting reading these old newspaper articles on the suffrage movement here.  The Nebraska Women Suffrage Association was organized in 1881 and worked for almost 40 years for the cause.  The women listed below were involved as state officers, committee members, even delegates to national events.  This is by no means a complete list, but I want to recognize and remember some of the Nebraska women who were involved in the fight.

Nebraska Herald, Plattsmouth, March 10, 1881

Mrs Ada Bittenbender, Osceola  (1848-1925)

Mrs Harriet Brooks, Omaha  (1828-1888)

Mrs Clara Bewick Colby, Beatrice  (1846-1916)

Mrs B J Thompson, Hebron

Mrs E L Warner, Roca

Mrs P Nicholas, Omaha

Mrs J S Burns, Scribner

Mrs C C Chapin, Riverton

Mrs D B Slaughter, Fullerton

Gertrude M McDowell  (1848-1922)

Mrs Russell, Tecumseh

Mrs Lizzie Abbott, Grand Island

Jennie F Holmes  (1842-1892)

Mary Smith Hayward, Chadron  (1842-1938)

Mrs Amanda J Marble, Table Rock  (1846-1910)

Mrs Getty Whitcomb Drury, Pender

Mrs J F Spirk, Wilbur

Mrs Edna Taylor, Johnson

Mrs J E Lewis, Broken Bow

Clara A Young, Broken Bow  (1855-1907)

Mrs Helen M Goff, Minden

Stella Groves Freese, Pender

Miss Laura A Gregg  (married Joseph Cannon in Arizona) (1869-?)

Mrs Emma Shuman, Nebraska City

Mrs Alice Isabel Brayton, Geneva (1847-1911)

Mrs Anna Kovanda, Tecumseh  (1857-1946)

Gertrude Hardy, Lincoln  (1871-1961)

Mary Garard Andrews, Omaha  (? - 1936)

Miss Mary H Williams, Kenesaw 

Dr Inez Philbrick, Lincoln  (1866-1966)

Mrs Edith Dumont Smith, referred to as Mrs Draper Smith, Omaha  (? - 1959)

Thank you ladies!

2017 Year in Review - Accentuate the Positive

I was thinking about doing a "year in review" post when I discovered that Jill Ball, author of the GeniAus blog, has an annual year-end challenge she calls "Accentuate the Positive". This is my first year to take part in this. She has 20 sentence starters, but I will finish just a few of them. For all of Jill's prompts see her post Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2017.

An illusive ancestor I found was... Potter Smith, father of Azor C Smith of Connecticut. According to the death certificate of John Potter Smith, his parents were Azor C Smith and Mehitable "Potter". An Ancestry hint showed a marriage record of Azor C Smith to Mehitable "Watrous". Further searching led me to a death record for Azor C Smith, whose father was named "Potter" Smith. I haven't confirmed this yet, but I believe the informant for the death certificate may have just assumed John's middle name came from his mother's maiden name.

A great newspaper article I found was... Years ago a fellow researcher gave me a date of December 24, 1879 for the death of Lebbeus Simmons, but could not tell me the source of that date. In nearly 20 years, I have never found the source. This year I posted a message in the Facebook group for the Fulton County, Illinois History & Genealogical Society for some help. The President of that society (and local DAR chapter Registrar) did some research for me and found the newspaper article announcing Lebbeus' death which happened on December 24, 1879. 

A geneajournal I took was... a one day stop in the little town of Peotone, Illinois spending some time in the library and a cemetery. Wasn't able to find a marriage date I had hoped to, but narrowed the date down to within a few weeks.

An important record I found was... Two women's death records that I consider very important 1) because records for women in the mid 1800's are very hard to find and 2) they both are in my direct line for the Patriot Libbeus Simmons. I've worked on this line for many years and these two documents were well worth the money I spent on getting them from a Civil War pension and Genealogybank. 

A newly found family member shared... photos of my Great Grandmother's sister, Laura Kyle and her family. I had a photo of people who I assumed were Laura and her family. I searched Ancestry and found a photo of Laura & Joseph Kyle and contacted the man who posted it. He helped me identify the people in a few photos and even had a copy of one of the photos I had which was labeled with the names.

A geneasurprise I received was... a photograph of my Great Grandparents Cicero & Allie Bell about the time of their marriage. A first cousin once removed sent it to me in the mail. It's an awesome photo!

My 2017 blog post that I was particularly proud of was... Two Different Frank Roscoe's  I was able to find several records to differentiate the two men.

A new piece of technology I mastered was... scanning slide film. I've had a scanner a long time, but had never figured out how to scan slides. Now I've added 900 digital photos to my collection.

I joined... several #genchat sessions this past year. They are informative, helpful and a lot of fun!

A DNA discovery I made was... not a discovery yet, but I might be on the right track about Isaac Burnett being somehow related to John Adair's wife Mary.  I'm working on finding her maiden name and with some of my matches having Isaac Burnett in their trees, I hope to discover the relationship.

I taught a genimate how to... well, I can't say for sure but I've tried to include some helpful things in the newsletter I edit for my local genealogical society. No one has told me they've learned anything, but there's a chance.

I am excited for 2018 for... the chance to get to the Midwest Genealogical Center in Independence, Missouri. I've wanted to go for a while and don't have set plans yet, but will try to get there.

Another positive I would like to share is...the volunteer services I've spent time doing like editing the newsletter and doing some transcription for articles in the Nebraska State Genealogical Society publications. Also a couple of blog posts for the Slave Name Roll Project.

My focus in 2018 will be on getting the last few needed documents for my fourth (and final) DAR supplemental. With this last one, all four of my Grandparents will be proven descendants of Revolutionary War Patriots - provided the one I sent in this year will be approved (supplementals take about a year to process). 

Nebraska sunset, August, 1961

Amanuensis Monday - Photo Developing, Printing and Enlarging 1915

Some of my ancestors owned their own camera, I'm almost sure of it.  So I'm always looking for information on the history of personal photography and developing and printing those photos.  This advertisement from 1915 is one possible place where my family might have sent their film to have it developed.

Omaha Daily Bee, August 15, 1915

After the Pictures Are Taken --

Leave Your Film With Us for Correct

Developing,
Printing and Enlarging

For the past fifteen years we have assumed that there were enough discriminating kodak users in Omaha who would appreciate superior results and who would not be satisfied to have their efforts handicapped by ordinary methods of amateur developing and printing, to give us a steady growth year by year.  The generous patronage bestowed upon us has simply proven that our assumption was correct.  We have steadily maintained our original policy, permitting nothing short of the best to be delivered by our Finishing Department, which is only a part of our large wholesale and retail photographic supply store located for the past twenty-five years on Farnam Street.  We have at all times, and still insist that correct developing is most important.  Prints are made from negatives, consequently the properly developed negative produces the best print.  All our prints are made on Velox paper - the paper with kodak reputation; they are printed with kodak masks which means even white margins, and they lay flat without being mounted on cards.

Our Special Service  By this we mean that all Roll Films, Film Packs and Dry Plates left with us for developing are carefully examined by our "Special Service" department and where possible, printed suggestions that we think will help improve your next exposures are returned with the order; but we suggest that you talk to our expert, there being no charge and you may receive information that will greatly improve your work.   We want you to get the best possible results, which will mean more work for us.

Enlargements  Many pictures are much more effective in an enlargement than in the original size.  We make beautiful enlargements in Sepia, Buff, and Black and White.  We have several original styles that are made up with broad margins, suitable for framing.  We also furnish Colored Enlargements, either in water colors or in oil.  The oil process is new, giving you a finished picture with all the rich lustre of an oil painting.

Prices  Our volume has increased until it has now reached a point where we enjoy a decreased cost of production, maintaining our high standard of workmanship; therefore we have revised our prices, workmanship as before and the "Special Service" an added feature.

Developing  Film  . . . . .  per roll, 10c  Any size up to
Film Packs, per pack, 25c  and including 4x5

Time of Delivery - Work always ready when promised.  You will not be asked to "call later."  We make good on our promise or make no charge for the work.

Kodaks and Supplies   Our stock is complete, our prices right, and most important, our out right.  If you have an instrument and are looking for information, come in and ask; we will be pleased to help you to the full extent of our knowledge and experience.

The Robert Dempster Co.
Eastman Kodak Co.
1813 Farnam Street  Branch - 308 So. 15th St.

Wordless Wednesday - Surname Tree

A Sense of Accomplishment

Platte River, Alda, Nebraska March 2014

When I started this blog last July, I decided on a plan to write a narrative on each of my 15 Great-Great-Grandparents (yes, 15).  Eight of the 15 were born in the U.S.  All but 2 of them made Nebraska their final home.  I've given my interpretation of the information I have found on each of them.  Everything is always open for discussion.  The research I have back to this generation is work I've done myself for the most part.  Things I've learned from my living relatives.  From books, marriage certificates, and other things that were in the old trunk in the attic, or documents or information I've been able to get myself through libraries and online.  Beyond this generation I've done some work myself and other researchers have shared a lot with me.  Writing these posts has made me focus on each individual and see what I need to try next with them.  

So, would my ancestors be happy that I have publicized their lives on the internet?  Would they be glad that I'm sharing what I've learned about them with anyone who might read these?   Some of my living family may feel that I've put too much information online. Things will get trashed without my knowledge for fear it will "wind up on the internet".  Do they even read the posts?  I've heard from a few of them either by blog comments, facebook comments or "Likes".  I got a comment from one before-unknown cousin and I offered to share more with her, but that was all I've ever heard from her.

Nice comments have come from fellow bloggers that are greatly appreciated.  I've made some new online friends.  I'm grateful for all of my followers and I'm always thrilled to find that someone lists my blog in their list of blogs they follow.  Thank you Filiopietism Prism, Susan's California Roots and A Tangled Trail for that!  

I've accomplished my first goal.  Now I don't have a plan for future posts and I'm not going to for a while.  I'll be free to participate in some of the challenges or memes that go on. And I plan to post things I have that may be of help to someone else.  I hope to keep your interest.  

Thank you for reading!

My Cyber History

 I’ve worked on computers since you had to boot them with a floppy.  HAD to get my own PC at home so I could do family history research on the internet.   The thing to do at that time was create your own web pages.  GEOCITIES was the place to be!  NO FTP software required was the life for me!  I picked out my little house on the curvy street in the Heartland neighborhood.  My address was Heartland/Flats/1291.   

I had created pages for census records, photos, and a lot of links to other web pages for genealogy research.  If I connected with someone through a mailing list, I directed them to my pages where they could find the information I had.  There wasn’t much interaction with people through that.  My “Hit” counter didn’t get very high.  Then GeoCities was bought out by Yahoo! and they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Mailing lists and message boards were the next best way to connect with other people researching the same families.  I “met” some new cousins that way.   Still in contact with a few of them.  Mailing lists and message boards still work with people who haven’t taken the next step…

“Social media”.  I had a MySpace page.  I didn’t do much with that space.  My daughter was coming of the age to getting into these things.  I opened a Facebook account just to find out about that.  I had it for several years before I really started adding friends.  It took off for me when friends from high school added me.  I created a group for our school, which doesn’t exist anymore.  That went over great!  Lots of interaction!  The 9 people I invited grew to over 20 just overnight!  Fast for a small school. 

I don’t know a lot of people personally who like to do family history research.  It’s fun to compare experiences with other researchers, even if it’s only in text.  Facebook is becoming really popular for genealogy groups.  I’m in several.  Works very well to interact with people immediately.   Feedback on questions or ideas is instant.

So now I'll try a blog.  What I know about blogs I learned from “Julie & Julia”.   I have no experience, no journalism education.  I’m not a professional or certified genealogists, just have 20 plus years experience.  I will appreciate it if anyone reads this, and will graciously accept any constructive criticism.   Be kind, I’m a beginner. 

Today, there is a new kind of trunk in the attic.  What do you have in yours?