Saturday Night Webinar: Legacy Family Tree Webinar presents "Thinking About Becoming An Accredited Genealogist?"

"Thinking about becoming an accredited genealogist?"  Why, yes!

Apryl Cox and Kelly Summers, ICAPGen Testing Co-Chairs, present the ICAPGen overview and the accreditation process (1hr 28 minutes).  Most of the Legacy Family Tree Webinars are for a (ridiculously small) fee, but this one is actually free!






© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Tomlinsons in Hats

Actually only a couple of these fashionably attired young women are Tomlinsons--my great grandmother Fina's two half-sisters, Martha "Matt" E Tomlinson Burke (standing, top) and Mabel May Tomlinson Scott (seated, right). The picture was probably taken around 1893-96 based on the style of their clothes and hats.

Sadly we don't know who their friends are.

However the photographers are well known, Joseph Bevier Sturtevant, a colorful character who called himself "Rocky Mountain Joe," and his first wife Anna who opened a studio in Boulder in about 1884.*

*You can check out some of the Boulder scenes Sturtevant photographed during his career here.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Throwback Thursdays: School Days at Encanto Elementary

Me, probably in 3rd grade (about 1979). I went to Encanto Elementary in southeast San Diego from 1977-1983.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Harry Allen Slater (1888 - 1956), Pharmacist, Farmer, Contractor

His widowed mother Rufina Ellen Tomlinson Slater wanted her children to seek professional careers (like their father Lewis Logan Slater, the lawyer) so my paternal grandfather Harry Allen Slater trained as a pharmacist while he was still living in Kansas, receiving his license in 1908. 

[The National Druggist, Volume 38; Publisher: H. R. Strong, 1908.

Original from the University of Michigan. Digitized: Nov 5, 2009]

According to the 1910 U.S. Census, 22-year-old Harry was boarding in the township of Greenfield in Elk County, Kansas, and working as a pharmacist.

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Greenfield, Elk, Kansas; Roll: T624_439; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0119; FHL microfilm: 1374452. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls).

Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. ]

We know that Harry played baseball for his employer's team in Kansas. (Unfortunately I haven't been able to decipher what the drugstore's name was.)

[Harry-second row center, Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

By 1916 Harry moved to Colorado, probably following his Tomlinson relatives, and he was working as a registered pharmacist as noted in the newspaper announcement of his marriage to Anna Delilah Webb (1891-1973) on September 15th of that year.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

But Harry wasn't happy with a job that kept him indoors and he left the pharmacy behind soon after his marriage.* He listed his occupation as a self-employed farmer in Niwot, Colorado, on his June 5, 1917, World War I Draft Registration Card.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.]

Just as Harry was entering into farm life, a lot of  national attention was being given to the advantages of building silos out of concrete. It's clear from the pictures below that Harry was familiar with the silo building techniques shown in this bulletin from the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Colorado Agricultural Station published three years earlier.**

[Silos and Silage in Colorado, H. E. Dvorachek, Agricultural Experiment Station of the Agricultural College of Colorado, 1914.

Source: Google Books. ]

[Harry (right) building a silo 1917. Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

And that draft registration form is the only time I've found that Harry called himself a farmer. I think he found a contracting business more rewarding than farming.

After his brother Pete returned from serving in the Marines in 1919, they went into business together.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

In the 1920 U.S. Census, the focus of Harry's occupation is building silos "etc."

[Year: 1920; Census Place: Niwot, Boulder, Colorado; Roll: T625_156; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 29; Image: 51. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls).

Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. ]

[Detail of above]

But by the 1930 federal enumeration the Slater Brothers had left silos behind.

[Year: 1930; Census Place: Niwot, Boulder, Colorado; Roll: 230; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0025; Image: 957.0; FHL microfilm: 2339965. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.]

[Detail of above]

In the 1940 U.S. Census, Harry and Pete were living on the same street; both were engaged in plastering. From the columns on the far right, we can see that Harry worked 29 weeks during 1939 (and earned $800) while Pete only worked 12 weeks during the same period for $350.***

[Year: 1940; Census Place: Niwot, Boulder, Colorado; Roll: T627_457; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 7-24. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.]

[Detail of above]

The Harry and Pete are listed in Polk's Boulder City Directory for 1951.

[Residence date: 1951 Residence place: Boulder, Colorado. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.]

My grandfather died from stomach cancer on October 8, 1956 at the age of 68 and is buried in Mountain View Memorial Park in Boulder. Apparently some of the walls he built are still standing in Niwot.


*And apparently his mother Fina never forgave his wife Annie for letting him do this.
**Google Books lists a number of other titles on the subject.
***Family stories tell us that Harry also became a stone mason and that he "bossed" a crew of workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. (There are several photos and a description of the CCC camp in Boulder here. To read a short history of the CCC in Colorado, look here. (PDF)

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Kingston, Linn County, Iowa: Comparing 1868/1869 and Now

Kingston was on the west side of the Cedar River opposite Cedar Rapids, as seen in this land ownership map.  D. W. Ensign & Co., "Map of Linn County, Iowa," Thompson & Everts (Geneva, Il.); digital image, Library of Congress: Maps (https://www.loc.gov/item/2012587552/ : accessed 8 Dec 2015).

Both of my parents had direct ancestors (Porter Worden/Hannah Leonard and George W Hartley/Rebecca Paul) living in Kingston City, Linn, Iowa in the 1860 Federal Census.  I have no idea if they knew each other.

Porter Worden (Ancestry's original indexer put Wooden) and family in "Rapids," yet their post office was Kingston.  Am I to assume they were west of the river, maybe in the rural area immediately outside Kingston?

George Hartley and family appear to be in Kingston proper.

Kingston does not come up as a place on modern maps.  It's existence is referenced by a modern apartment development at the terminal end of the old Kingston area limit:

Google Maps snapshot of the Kingston area.

I am not sure where exactly my ancestors lived in Kingston, but the northern part of it can be seen in this 1868 birds-eye view of Cedar Rapids:

These birds-eye maps are always fun.  A Ruger, "Birds eye view of the city of Cedar Rapids and Kingston, Linn Co., Iowa 1868." Chicago Lithographing Co.; digital image, Library of Congress: Maps (http://www.loc.gov/item/73693391/ : accessed 8 Dec 2015).

A closeup shows remarkably little in the layout of the area has changed compared to a snapshot from Google Earth today:

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Rufina Ellen "Fina" Tomlinson (1863 - 1943), Part 1

One Monday last month I posted some photos of this maternal great grandmother but deferred writing a more complete profile to a later date. Today I'll cover roughly the first half of her life, up until she was widowed in 1905.

Born in Washington County, Iowa, during the Civil War, Fina lost her mother very soon after she was born. Her father, George Marion Tomlinson, married a second time in 1866* and by 1870 the family, which now included two more children, had relocated to the Fall River Township in Greenwood County, Kansas.

[Detail from Colton's Kansas. Published By G. W & C. B. Colton & Co. No. 172 William St. New York.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Fall River, Greenwood, Kansas; Roll: M593_434; Page: 208B; Image: 433; Family History Library Film: 545933. 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.]

We can track the expanding Tomlinson family through Iowa's 1875 Census and the 1880 U.S. Census.

[Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1875 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: ks1875_7; Line: 1. Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.]

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Fall River, Greenwood, Kansas; Roll: 382; Family History Film: 1254382; Page: 282B; Enumeration District: 091; Image: 0211. 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. 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.]

By the 1885 Iowa State Census, 22-year-old Fina was a "Milliner & Dressmaker" in Severy, Kansas, although she was still listed as living at home in the same enumeration.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1885 Kansas Territory Census;Roll: KS1885_51; Line: 1.Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.]

[Map of Greenwood County, Kansas Historical Society]

[Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1885 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: KS1885_53; Line: 1. Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. 1885 Kansas State Census. Microfilm reels K-1 – K-146. Kansas State Historical Society.]

[Fina (standing, center) with her father, step-mother and half-siblings, undated. Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy.]

I don't know how they met, but Fina and Lewis Logan Slater bought their marriage license on December 11, 1885.

["Kansas, County Marriages, 1855-1911," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-16091-19039-85?cc=1851040&wc=M6VS-CM9:166157501,166197301 : accessed 21 May 2014),

Greenwood Marriage records, 1882-1887, v. C image 127 of 198.]

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

By 1893 the couple's four children had been born, all in Twin Groves, Kansas: George Logan "Pete" in 1886; my grandfather Harry Allen years later; Opal May in 1890; and Lewis Cecil in 1893.

[Pete and Harry, Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Opal and Cecil, Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

In the 1895 Iowa State Census, Lewis Logan was practicing law and Fina was still working as a dressmaker in Severy.

[Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1895 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: v115_54; Line: 1. Ancestry.com. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.]

In the 1900 U.S. Census it doesn't appear that Fina was continuing her dressmaking business.

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Twin Groves, Greenwood, Kansas; Roll: 482; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0062; FHL microfilm: 1240482. 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 1905 Iowa State Census is the last record we have of the family before Lewis Logan's death.

After her husband's short illness and death at the age of 49 on July 19, 1905, 42-year-old Fina was left with four young children to raise.

(To be continued.)

*His second bride Amanda Darling happened to be the sister of my great-great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling Webb.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Car and Homemade Trailer

The title of this 1936 Farm Security Administration photograph by Dorothea Lange says it all:

Car and homemade trailer on U.S. 101 near King City, California. Man and wife middle-aged, from Wisconsin. "Old Man Depression sent us out on the road ... You don't know anything about how many people are living in trailers till you 'hit' Florida."

[The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1936 Feb.). Car and homemade trailer on U.S. 101 near King City, California.

Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/02f9f0a0-c5da-012f-f460-58d385a7bc34]

Check out the photos in the Tin Can Tourism section at Florida Memory* to see what he was talking about.

*The website of the State Library and Archives of Florida


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.