Book Shelf: Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts

First published in 1878 and available as an ebook here through the Internet Archive.

[Author: Green, Samuel A. (Samuel Abbott), 1830-1918; Coburn, Arthur Bruce

Subject: Epitaphs -- Massachusetts Groton; Groton (Mass.) -- Genealogy

Publisher: Boston : Little, Brown, & Company

Book contributor: University of California Libraries]

The earliest surviving grave marker dates to 1704, so that there is no entry for either Matthias Farnworth (d. 1689) or his son Matthias (d. 1693).

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Grenfell/Currey

Inspired by this week's reports of glorious desert blooms, I chose this color slide of Bernice Grenfell Currey (the mother who raised me) and me that was taken in the Anza Borrego State Park probably around Easter in 1949. 

[From my personal collection]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Denmark's Archives Go Online (Free)

If you have ancestors in Denmark, it's time to brush up on your Danish* because as I just learned via NEHGS Weekly Genealogist's link to the Copenhagen Post from February 20th:

[Danish archives store some 50 million images and over 100 kilometres of shelves with documents that will be added to the digital platform. (Text from Copenhagen Post, Photo: Wikipedia)]

"Denmark's largest digital photo album with nearly two million images will open to the general public today at 4pm.

Danes will have access to the online database at Arkiv.dk, which includes 1,841,254 documents such as photos, diaries, letters, and sound and video recordings. 

Since the late 1980s, all items from the country's more than 550 archives have been recorded electronically, and today a large portion of them becomes freely available to the public.

 All documents in the digital archive are covered by the general rules of copyright, the oldest of them dates back to the 1600s." 

And 25,000 more photos will be added to the website monthly.

It makes me wish I had Danish ancestors.

*Website is entirely in Danish.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Matthias Farnworth (1612 - 1688), Weaver

While we know that this paternal eighth great grandfather was baptized in St. Mary's Church in Eccles, Lancashire, on August 20, 1615, there are huge gaps in the surviving records until he appears as a resident of Lynn in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1657. There's no indication how long Matthias had lived in Lynn at that point or when he had arrived in the New World.

[Thomas Groom, British, active 1820-1825 St Mary’s Church Eccles Lancashire Lithograph (318 x 410mm)

Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/objects/79-449/]

By 1664, town records indicate that he had removed to Groton, where he was considered one of the original proprietors of the community. In May of that year he was one of a committee named to consider how to bridge religious dissensions that had arisen in Groton in the wake of political changes after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.* In November of the same year Matthias was allotted some land "to be laid out agaynst his house" and he was admitted as a freeman of the Colony in 1670.

[Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).]

During King Phillips's War, Groton was attacked by the Indians and all except four garrison houses were burned on March 13, 1676. The inhabitants fled to Concord where they remained for two years before returning to rebuild their homes.

[1677 Map of New England by William Hubbard.

 Source:http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/images/1677map.jpg]

Matthias was a respected citizen of Groton and served at times as a Constable and a Selectman.

He dictated his will on January 15, 1688/89 in which he stated he was "aged about 77 yers" naming his oldest son, also named Matthias,** to be joined with two neighbors to administer his estate. He died about three weeks later.

Sources agree that he was a weaver by trade and among the items in the inventory of his estate was a "Loom and tacklin" valued at 2 pounds which he had bequeathed to his oldest son in the final line of his will: "also I give my loam and tacklins for waving to my son Mathyas farnworth."

Matthias Farnworth is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton.

You can find more information about the Farnsworths here and here.

*After several meetings, the committee of eleven men were unable to do more than make general suggestions about should be required of church members.
**My direct ancestor, whose name is spelled Mathyas in the will. The early records spell the surname without the "s" which was added later.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Done!

So true.

I got NOTHING done on my own genealogy today. I'm taking the (awesome) Boston University genealogy certificate course and mid-semester brain drain has hit.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Heath Chappell (About 1812 - About 1876)

This paternal great great great grandmother was named after her mother, Sarah Heath, who married John Chappell in about 1789. Both parents were born in Virginia but were living in Georgia by 1790 and had possibly married there.

In his will, written in 1825 and presented for probate in December of 1828 in Monroe County, John Chappell directed that each of his children should receive $1,000* as an immediate bequest with the remainder, after setting aside property as a life estate for his wife, to be shared equally among their children (or their children's heirs). Sarah, whom we believe to be their youngest child, is the only one of his daughters not married at the time John made his will.

We haven't found a record for the marriage of Sarah H. Chappell and Alfred Ward Hardy, but it most likely occurred in Monroe County, Georgia, about 1830. Their first child was born on January 10, 1831.

The 1834 Georgia Property Tax Digest lists Alfred Hardy's family living on 100 acres in Monroe County** next door to his widowed mother-in-law. There are other Heaths and Chappells living nearby.

[Ancestry.com. Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Georgia Tax Digests [1890]. 140 volumes. Morrow, Georgia: Georgia Archives.]

We know that Sarah's mother died in 1837 and sometime, probably in the next year, Alfred, Sarah and family moved to Cotton Valley in Macon County, Alabama, where they are found in the 1840 U.S. Census. Of the 20 people in his household, 13 are slaves. My great great grandmother Martha Heath Hardy (born in 1834) is enumerated as one of the two "Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9" in the family. A Chappell relative is living next door.

[Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.  Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

With the 1850 U.S. Census, we finally have a record that lists Sarah by name. Alfred is shown as head of household when the count was taken on November 21, 1850, but his name shouldn't have been there as we know that he died on May 26th and the Census Instructions clearly stated that everyone should be enumerated as of June 1st of that year. I don't know if the census taker wasn't following his instructions or whether Sarah or another family member chose to include Alfred. My great great grandmother had already left home as the bride of J.T.S. Warren.

[Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

It's possible that Sarah left Alabama for Cass County, Texas, as early as 1852 when J.T.S. and Martha Warren moved there, but she certainly was a property owner in that county by 1855 when the tax roll showed her owning 380 acres and 17 slaves.

["Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13728-39795-24?cc=1827575 : accessed 24 February 2015), Cass county > 1855 > image 13 of 37; State Archives, Austin.]

From the 1860 U.S. Census, we see that Sarah, whose only child left at home is her youngest daughter 17-year old Sarah Elizabeth, had prospered as a widow. She is listed as owning real estate valued at $2,500 and personal property*** worth $11,935. There are lots of Heaths, Hardys and Chappells in the neighborhood.

[Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

[Ancestry.com. 1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.]

County Tax Records**** show that by 1864 Mrs Sarah Hardy owned 16 slaves worth $8,000 and 500 acres of land. But that was all about to change.

["Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13728-36953-32?cc=1827575 : accessed 31 Jul 2014), Davis county - 1864 - image 12 of 31; citing State Archives, Austin.]

In the 1870 U.S. Census we see that Sarah, who had her oldest daughter Ann Elizabeth's orphan children living with her, still owned 500 acres of land but now, after emancipation, only $100 of personal property. Family members, including my great great grandparents, J.T.S. Warren and his wife, her daughter Martha, live near her.

[Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: ]

The 1876 County Tax Rolls hold the last listing for Mrs. Sarah Hardy in her own right.

["Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910," index and images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13728-31651-7?cc=1827575 : accessed 31 Jul 2014), Cass county - 1876 - image 47 of 94; citing State Archives, Austin.]

For the next two years the tax entry for her 500 acres is listed as "Hardy Sarah H By J.T.S. Warren" so we presume that she died about 1876 and her son-in-law administered her estate during probate.

*Although each child was left $1,000, the final sum they were to receive from this part of his will was subject to an "understanding and limitation" whereby those to whom he had advanced money before his death would have that debt subtracted from their $1,000. This allowed the division of his estate to be more equitable.
**The first column in the Tax list shows the number of slaves owned by that person. Alfred owned 12 slaves and his wife's mother had 4.
***Almost all of this amount would represent the 17 slaves she owned. In the Slave Schedule shown above, her surname is misspelled as Hasty.
****From 1861 to 1871 Cass County was known as Davis County in honor of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Small World: The Cornwall Iron Ore Mines

It was a challenge to find a coal mining image from about 1810, but this is probably close to how it might have looked.  from http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/IndustrialRevolution/IREffects.html

My 5th great grandfather, Jeremiah Burnight (1779-1837), on my father's side, was known to have worked in mining in "Lebanon, Pennsylvania" in the very early 1800's/1810's.  A preliminary look at where Lebanon was reveals that it was likely Steitztown that became Lebanon, and was the location of the Cornwall Iron Furnace, a self-contained iron plantation.  I have not been able to determine what exact mining area Jeremiah was working at if not at this mine.  The strange thing is, one of my 7th great grand uncles on my mother's side, Peter Grubb, my 8th great grandfather John Grubb's youngest son, founded that mine in 1742.

Small world!



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Looking Forward: Ancestry Website Update

From Ancestry's blog we learn:

A New and Improved Ancestry Website
Ancestry is continually working hard to improve our site and make it easier to discover, share, and preserve your family history. While we constantly make incremental improvements, it has been a few years since Ancestry has made a major update to the site. We are sensitive to the impact changes have on our members. However,  substantial research into the needs of our members and the experience they are having on the website have helped us to see new and innovative ways to reinvent the way we help you do family history. The improved website makes it easier for anyone to discover and tell the rich, unique story of their family, while also helping them to become better researchers.

Here's what the new Life Story view will look like:

[Ancestry.com]

And the Media Gallery:

[Ancestry.com]

You can learn more about what's coming later this year and sign up for an invitation to try the beta version of the new website at the blog.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Slater

These are my maternal grandparents, Anna Delilah Webb (1891 - 1973) and Harry Allen Slater (1888 - 1956).

[Courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Birdseye View Maps

E.S. Moore's birdseye map of Coronado Island and San Diego, California, from the 1880s.(thumbnail .jpg image)

Big Map Blog, run by "59 King," has a fabulous collection of birdseye view maps.  As shown above, birdseye view maps show a 3-D look of a city or town from a particular vantage point.  Unlike the image above, you can zoom way in on any point of the map when you go to the website.  It's almost like an antique Google Earth.  There is a lot of detail on most of these maps.

This is worth a look if you are doing American genealogy in urban areas in the mid- to late-1800's.  Hours of fun for a map junkie.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Harold Delbert Currey (1902 - 1981), Electrician

Nicknamed "Shorty" for obvious reasons, the father who raised me was born in Bend, Oregon, on the last day of 1902. Shortly thereafter the Currey family settled in South Marshfield (now Coos Bay) on the south Oregon coast where his father, Delbert Artemus, opened a barber shop and later became a chiropodist.

Family circumstances forced Harold to leave school after the sixth grade and he got a job in the power house of the C.A. Smith Lumber Company's state-of-the-art sawing mill located at the mouth of Isthmus Slough on Coos Bay, reputed to be the largest of its kind in the world at the time.

It's there that Harold became an apprentice electrician and a life-long member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

[Union dinner, probably taken in Oregon, HDC second on left. Personal collection from Currey family photograph album]

I don't know what caused the Curreys to move to San Diego* sometime before 1920 based on city directories. In the 1920 directory shown below, Delbert is a "Licensed Chiropodist" and Harold is an apprentice at Hartwell Electric Company.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. 

Original data: Original sources vary according to directory.]

Domestic electricity was a new thing then: Dad used to reminisce about little old ladies insisting on having an electrician come to the house to change a light bulb. After he became a journeyman**, he and his helper would hop on the streetcar to get to the jobsite, reaching through the windows to hold the ladder against the outside of the car.

During the Great Depression jobs were scarce but Harold was fortunate enough to find work at a plating shop from February 1933 through July of 1935 when he found work at the California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park.

[Harold on the left]

[Harold on the left]

 

[Harold pretty much in the middle of this photo]

[From Currey photograph album in my private collection.]

The album page above not only has Harold's pass to the Fair, but also photos from his next job--wiring the small dome and the scientists' cottages on Mount Palomar by which time I believe that he had become an employee of California Electric Works (CALEWO). One of the other jobs he did was wiring the old Fox Theater in downtown San Diego for sound.

[From my private collection]

During World War II, CALEWO was a civilian contractor for the U.S. Navy and Harold not only worked on base but also on ships. On one occasion when he was working below deck on a destroyer, he recognized the sound of the anchor chains being hauled up and found himself faced with the real possibility of going to sea in wartime as the ship had been ordered to leave port immediately and no one was allowed to leave the ship or contact family members ashore. The submarine nets protecting the harbor had to be opened so the destroyer could pass through. Fortunately after spending several hours patrolling off the coast the ship was ordered back to San Diego later that night.

[Xmas party sometime during WWII, Harold third man standing on left; from Currey photo album in my private collection]

The disappearance of his only son, Harold D. Jr., during a bombing mission over Tokyo, Japan, in 1945 and the years it took to confirm his death caused Harold to suffer a nervous breakdown. Except for a job installing lead cable for one of the Los Angeles movie studios in the early 1950s, he never worked at his trade again.

*I do know they made the trip by boat.
**He was a journeyman electrician by the time he married in 1922.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Wolfram Alpha

Thomas MacEntee, of High-Definition Genealogy, Geneabloggers, and Legacy Family Tree Webinars fame, mentioned this great quick reference site, Wolfram Alpha, in his lecture at RootsTech last week.  The service has been around at least 4 years, but it was the first I'd heard of it.

Wolfram Alpha has the goal "to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone" and is designed to answer natural-language questions from the fields of mathematics, science, technology, statistics, finance, historical, and government sources.  For comparison, Google has offered some similar tools via its toolbar tricks.

Some nice genealogy-specific tools that can be useful on the fly:

• map family relations,
• use the date of death on tombstones and age of the deceased to calculate their birth date,
• pinpoint dates (helpful when an article referes to "last Saturday" instead of an exact date),
• convert Old Style dates to New Style dates,
• decipher illegible handwriting by giving a list of possible words using the known letters.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Leah Bixler (1813 - 1900)

Most likely this maternal great great great grandmother was born in Maryland, although Pennsylvania is a possibility--that 's where her earliest and last U.S. Census records* place her, but I suspect that's because someone other than Leah was supplying the information to the enumerator.

E. Bixler was head of household in Frederick County, Maryland in the 1810 U.S. Census and Leah, the daughter of Emanuel and Elisabeth Bixler, was baptized at Evangelisch Lutherischen Gemeinde Jerusalems Kirch in what is now Carroll County, Maryland, in 1815 when she was about two years old. There is some reason to think that her family may have been Mennonites or Anabaptists, in which case that baptismal record would be unlikely to be hers because neither group believes in infant baptism.

By the 1820 U.S. Census, Emanuel Bixler's family had moved to Brecknock Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and ten years later the Bixlers were living in Fawn Township in York County. A near neighbor was John Groves Jr., the rest of whose family was living in Hopewell Township to the west of Fawn. In 1832, two years later, Leah married his brother Frederick in Wayne County, Ohio, although we don't know how they happened to be there at that time.

The 1840 U.S. Census places the young Grove ** family in Richland Township in Fairfield County, Ohio.

[Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. 

Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Frederick, Leah and their children moved to Fairview Township in Jones County, Iowa, sometime in 1846.** Because the 1850 Federal Census is the first one to list all members of a household by name, that's where we first see a record for their daughter Delilah, aged five.***

[Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

[Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.]

And Jones County is where Leah and Frederick lived the rest of their lives, as shown by successive census records.

[Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

[Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Frederick died in 1882 at the age of 70 after suffering internal injuries from a bad fall and the 1885 Iowa State Census shows Leah as a widow living with her sons Levi and Jefferson, who is listed as "Disabled."

[Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.]

Jefferson's obituary***** on page 8 of the Anamosa Eureka, May 24, 1894, gives us an insight into the tragedies in Leah's life to that point.

"After a lingering sickness with that dread disease, consumption, Jefferson Groves died at his home in Strawberry Hill on Sunday, May 20th, 1894, at 1 o'clock a. m. He was one of twelve children, all of whom grew to years of maturity, and eight of whom, together with his father, preceded him to the grave, all with one exception, dying of the same disease. Three sisters survive, Mrs. Perrigo, Mrs. Worden and another, together with the aged mother. He was born August 21, l864 and was 29 years 3 months and 11 days old at the time of his death. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. A. U. Ballard, of the Baptist church, at Forest Chapel, where the remains were interred. Messrs. Ellis, Hartman, Keedick, Mirick and Strite acted as pall bearers. The sympathies of a wide circle cf friends go out to the aged mother who there followed the last of five sons to the grave. Husband and four daughters are also gone before, making her life a peculiarly sorrowful one."

Since the 1890 U.S. Census was almost completely destroyed, the next record we have for Leah is in the 1900 Federal Census dated June 5th when she is listed as Mrs. F.G. Groves, living alone in a rented house. We're not sure who her neighbor William Groves is but we do know that her oldest daughter Mary (Mrs Perego) was living nearby.

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

The Anamosa Eureka  for December 27, 1900, published her obituary on page 5, some of which is even true:

[Source:The Anamosa Eureka, December 27, 1900 p.5.] 

What did the obituary get wrong? Well, first of all, she didn't arrive in Iowa in 1838 as the 1840 U.S. Census shows the family still residing in Ohio and according to the 1856 Iowa State Census they had come there ten years earlier. Then there's the fact that her marriage was recorded in Ohio in 1832 and her first child was born the next year. It's unusual that the obituary begins with her maiden name, although they do name her as Mrs. Groves later in the piece.

The Biblical text for her funeral service is taken from the Twenty-Third Psalm:

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

*1850 and 1900
**Their anglicized surname, originally Grof or Graff from Switzerland, appears as Grove or Groves interchangeably.
***According to the 1856 Iowa State Census
****My great great grandmother, Delilah Grove Worden.
*****Since there are census records for Jefferson beginning in 1860, it's clear that the Eureka got his birth year wrong.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Frida Kahlo's Family Tree

"My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree)" by Frida Kahlo, 1936,
from http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78784

Would that all pedigree charts looked like this one!

From MOMA:

Kahlo collected eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Mexico retablos—small paintings on metal made to thank God or saints for curing illnesses and performing miracles—and adopted the medium as her own. In this fantastical family tree, Kahlo depicted herself as a fetus in utero and as a child inside her childhood home. While Kahlo celebrated Mexican culture by invoking its traditions in her art and wearing elaborate traditional attire, this painting is as much a tribute to her European and Jewish heritage. On the right is her German-born Jewish father and his parents, symbolized by the sea, and on the left her Mexican mother and her parents, symbolized by the land and a faintly rendered map of Mexico that appears above her grandparents’ heads. Kahlo was fluent in German and closely monitored the rise of Nazism in Europe. She made this painting shortly after Hitler passed the Nuremberg laws, forbidding interracial marriage. While the painting adopts the format of genealogical charts used by the Nazis to advocate racial purity, Kahlo uses it subversively to affirm her mixed origins.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Census Instructions

[Taking census; National Photo Company Collection, from glass negative taken between 1918 and 1920.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA]

The United States Census Bureau website has lots of great information but today I want to draw attention to their Census Instructions. Here's the Bureau's introduction:

"The decennial census has always required a large workforce to visit and collect data from households. Between 1790 to 1870, the duty of collecting census data fell upon the U.S. Marshals. A March 3, 1879 act replaced the U.S. Marshals with specially hired and trained census-takers to conduct the 1880 and subsequent censuses.

During the early censuses, U.S. Marshalls received little training or instruction on how to collect census data. In fact, it was not until 1830 that marshals even received printed schedules on which to record households' responses. The marshals often received limited instruction from the census acts passed prior to each census. 

Beginning with the 1880 census, specially hired and trained census-takers replaced the U.S. marshals. Door-to-door census by temporary census-takers was the primary method of conducting the census until the U.S. Census Bureau began mailing questionnaires to households in 1960. 

As more and more households received and returned their questionnaires by mail, the role of census-taker changed. Today, the majority of households are counted by mailed questionnaires. Census-takers visit places frequented by transient households (shelters and soup kitchens, campsites, etc.) and households that do not return their mailed questionnaires (during the "Nonresponse Follow-Up" phase of the census). As a result, the "Instructions to Enumerators" provided here include the congressional acts U.S. marshalls reviewed during the early census, specially-published instructions for door-to-door census, and lastly, guides used for the limited number of personal interviews conducted during nonresponse follow-up operations."

While researching Leah Bixler Groves*, I was puzzled by the entry of "N.G." in Column 19 which lists her occupation in the 1900 Census because she was 87 at the time. 

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

And that's what took me to the Census Instructions for that census, where I found this on page 38:

"Nongainful Pursuits.

218. If a person is attending school write 'at school.' No entry in column 19 should be made, however, for a lawyer, merchant, manufacturer, etc., who has retired from practice or business; nor for a wife or daughter living at home and assisting only in the household duties without pay (see paragraph 185); nor for a person too old to work, or a child under 10 years of age not at school." 

So it seems that the census taker, Arthur L. Remley**, wrote "N.G." meaning nongainful even though that column should have been left blank. And by listing her as Mrs. F.G. Groves, Mr Remley wasn't following instructions there either because he should have used her given name instead.

Perhaps you'll find that the Census Instructions can help you answer some questions that may have arisen when you're looking at an ancestor's records.

*Of whom you will learn more tomorrow.
**We know his name because he signed at the top of every page, as per instructions.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

What's in a Birthday? Could It Be a Valentine?

The August 6, 1837, baptismal record from Shoreditch St. Leonard in London allows us to work out the birth date for Charles Groves* because his age at the time of his baptism is written in the last column, 3 months and 2 days, which would make it June 4th of that year.

[Ancestry.com. London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Board of Guardian Records, 1834-1906 and Church of England Parish Registers, 1754-1906. London Metropolitan Archives, London.Images produced by permission of the City of London Corporation Libraries, Archives and Guildhall Art Gallery Department.]

In the 1900 Federal Census, Charles said he first arrived in the U.S. in 1862, although we don't have any other record confirming that. He was described as a resident of Montreal, Canada, when he married Jessie (or Janet) MacGilvray on March 20, 1867.

[Ancestry.com. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.]

Sadly his wife died four days before the baptism of their son on February 28, 1868 where the baby's parents are listed as "Charles Groves and his late wife Janet McGilvery."**

[Ancestry.com. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.]

The next record*** we have for Charles is his marriage to Mary Murphy in Boston, Massachusetts, in May of 1871 where the 33-year old's age is given as 30. By the 1880 U.S. Census, Charles was using 1843 as his birth year but by 1900 he appears to have settled on 1840**** which he used for the rest of his life.

When I first looked at his death certificate from 1915, I was puzzled by the birthday listed there. I was prepared for the birth year of 1840 but March 20th? Looking back through his life I realized it was the day he married his long-dead first wife.

[Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.]

We know nothing personal about Charles L. Groves.***** He was able to sign his name on every record we have of him that required it. His mother Mary Ann Ambridge came from a long line of people who were literate, so that's not a surprise. I certainly don't know if he was a sentimental man but I like to think that, when he was re-inventing himself, the birthday he chose was a tribute to the woman he married in the Knox Presbyterian Church in Montreal on March 20, 1867.

*The great grandfather of a friend whose family tree I've worked on.
**MacGilvray is one of those names that no one seems to know how to spell, even in Scotland where it originated. McGilvray appears to be the version favored by Jessie/Janet's family in Canada.
***Since there is no record of him in either the 1870 U.S. Census or the 1871 Canadian Census, I suspect that he may have left Canada on a date between the two enumerations.
****The 1900 U.S. Census lists his birth month as March.
*****Not even his middle name.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.