Monday, February 29, 2016

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah "Sallie" P. Heath (About 1771 - 1837)

When her father Abraham Heath* volunteered to join the Virginia line of the Continental Army in 1776 he left his wife Winny** and their growing family behind, including little Sallie who was about five years old.

From land grant records we know the Heaths had removed from Virginia into eastern Georgia by 1786 when Abraham was allotted 200 acres next to land he already owned in Burke County and a further 550 acres in Wilkes County. And that's probably where Sallie married John Chappell; their oldest child Nancy was born about 1790 in Washington, the county seat of Wilkes.

[Georgia, from the latest Authorities. B. Tanner, sculpt. N.Y. Published by J. Reid, L. Wayland & C. Smith, 1796.
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]


By 1798 John and Sallie had moved to a bit farther west to Hancock County where my direct ancestor Sarah Heath Chappell was born in about 1812.

[Map Of The State of Georgia Prepared from actual Surveys and other Documents for Eleazer Early By Daniel Sturges. Entered According to Act of Congress by Eleazer Early Proprietor. Engraved by Saml. Harrison 1818. Published & Sold By Eleazer Early Savannah Georgia and By John Melish & Samuel Harrison Philadelphia. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]


When Abraham Heath died in 1807 (in Warren County) Sallie's share of her father's estate was five slaves: Fanny, Mary, Lydia, Ambry and Henry.

[Administration of Estates and Wills, 1798-1852. Ancestry.com. Georgia, Wills and Probate Records, 1742-1992 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Georgia County, District and Probate Courts.]


The Chappell family continued residing in Hancock County at least through 1820 as that's where we find them in the U.S. Census of that year. However when John made his will in 1825 they were in Monroe County*** where the will was presented for probate in December of 1828.

[Wills, Vol A-B, 1824-1866. Ancestry.com. Georgia, Wills and Probate Records, 1742-1992 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Georgia County, District and Probate Courts.]

[The state of Georgia. Gridley sc. (Philadelphia: Robert DeSilver, 1827). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]


The last record we have for Sallie is the 1834 Monroe County Property Tax Digest.

[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.]


The date of death we have for Sarah P. Heath Chappell is December 13, 1837 in Lumpkin County, Georgia, but I'm not certain of the source of this information.


*The surviving records of Abraham Heath's military service were covered here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI.
**We know her given name was Winnifred and her surname may have been Rives.
***Monroe County was one of five counties created out of the Creek Indians lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers ceded in the Treaty of the Indian Spring on Jan. 8, 1821.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Sunday Drive: Slater-Currey

Here I'm checking out the Balboa Park Miniature Railroad, probably in 1949.

[From my personal collection]




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Media History Digital Library

Just in time for this year's Academy Awards, the Media History Digital Library's Fan Magazine Collection provides links to extensive runs of classic magazines like Photoplay (1914-1943), Motion Picture [Magazine] (1914-1941), and Radio Mirror (1934-1963).

[Photoplay, November 1914, Internet Archive]


[Motion Picture Magazine, November 1916, Internet Archive]


[Picture Play, October 1923, Internet Archive]


[Silver Screen, May 1934, Internet Archive]




[Motion Picture, February 1938, Internet Archive]


[Screenland, December 1944, Internet Archive]


[Modern Screen, March 1956.  Internet Archives]


[Screenland "Plus TV-Land, July 1958, Internet Archive]


Of course this is only one section of links you can find at the Media History Digital Library which describes itself this way:
"We are a non-profit initiative dedicated to digitizing collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access. The project is supported by owners of materials who loan them for scanning, and donors who contribute funds to cover the cost of scanning. We have currently scanned over 1.3 million pages, and that number is growing."
WARNING: It's far too easy to lose track of time while paging through these old magazines (all those ads!), but if you feel that you haven't seen enough movie-related information after spending time at this site, try Classic Movie Links here.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Fantastic Find: Tracing African Roots - African American Results

From Wikipedia's page on Slavery in the United States.  Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, and David Eltis, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, Harvard University. Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas". Stephen Behrendt (1999). "Transatlantic Slave Trade". Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. New York: Basic Civitas Books. ISBN 0-465-00071-1. 

For some reason this seems like a low number, but maybe that is just me?  I might be thinking of the much larger set of people who were sent to the Caribbean and Central and South America.  From Wikipedia.  "Assessing the Slave Trade: Estimates". "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database". 



We are entering into a genealogical golden age.  Alex Haley would have loved it!  I continue to be amazed that after all those centuries of Black people in this country not being sure where their ancestors came from in Africa there are now tools, like DNA and digitalization of records, that is allowing hope of revealing some answers.  You can go to Youtube and see all the young people who discuss the results of their DNA tests.  It actually makes a big difference to know where in Africa you might originate instead of just "Africa" which is an awfully broad generalization.

I saw Fonte Felipe's ongoing thread on Ancestry.com's Support Center "Post your African breakdown (incl. Trace Regions!)" a while back and finally checked out his website, Tracing African Roots: African American Results

If you have African ancestry, particularly if you have both parents identifying as African American, this could be a very interesting and useful site, particularly if you are interested in discovering your ethnic makeup.





© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Family Friday: Webb/Slater

This snapshot of my maternal grandmother and my cousin Susan was taken in 1957, probably in Niwot.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

August Ernest Buchholz Filed First Papers, But Which One Is He?

How Ernest August Buchholz is related to my husband.



His daughter Dora was born in Elgin, Kane County in 1890, and another daughter Ida was born in McHenry County in 1893, so by the 1900 Census they had likely been living in McHenry for at least 7 years.



Squint and you can see the "pa" notation under the Citizen/Naturalization column, which means "first papers".  1900 U.S. Census, McHenry County, Illinois, population schedule, McHenry village, enumeration district (ED) 160 p. 2B, dwelling 49, family 50; August Buchholz; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 February 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll ? [there are 1854 rolls].


Ernest August Buchholz (1855-??) is my husband's 2nd great grandfather through his daughter Dora Louise Buchholz (1890-1969).

So far, we don't know where in Germany he and his wife M Louise Malchow (1862-??) came from.  On their 1900 Census they both had 1888 as the year they migrated (I will show in a later post the two separate journeys, from Hamburg to New York, that I think they took to get here), and as you can see above, August had filed his "first papers."  I did not look for his wife's papers, as I don't think wives had to file separately for naturalization until the early 1920's.

I am assuming this means he had not completed his naturalization process when the 1900 Census was taken, so whatever preliminary paperwork he had done was incomplete.  Using the scanned microfilm publican NARA M1285 ("Soundex Index to Naturalization Petitions for the United States District and Circuit Courts, Northern District of Illinois, and Immigration and Naturalization Service District 9, 1840-1950) on FamilySearch, I found four possible August Buchholz's who might be my guy:

If this is him, I wonder who George Boe is?


This is probably a minor, so probably not him.


Probably not him due to the earlier file date.



Court order only?  Not much on this, so possibly him?






© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Working on Wednesday: Lewis Cecil Slater (1893 - 1966), Chemist, Professor, College President (Part 1)

Clearly my great grandmother Fina Tomlinson Slater had fallen prey to the Little Lord Faultleroy fad still lingering after the publication in 1886 of Frances Hodgson Burnett's sentimental tale of a darling little boy in a black velvet suit when she dressed her youngest child for his visit to the photographer, probably around 1896-7.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Little Lord Fauntleroy, Burnett, Frances Hodgson. New York, Scribner’s, 1886.
Illustrated with drawings by Reginald B. Birch. (Large 8vo) original pictorial brown cloth.
Custom clamshell box. First Edition. Source: book-aesthete]


History is silent regarding little Cecil's opinion of his garb in this portrait and I haven't identified any other early pictures of him. 

In 1905, two years after his father's death, 14-year-old Cecil passed an examination and was awarded a diploma from the local Severy common school but he hadn't finished his education. No occupation is given for him in the 1910 U.S. Census when the family was still living in Kansas, by 1911 Cecil had probably begun his studies at the University of Colorado in Denver.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]


The scholarly portrait below appears to have been a Christmas present from Cecil to his mother. On the back he wrote:
To My Dear Mother from her
youngest son, Cecil, who hopes
to graduate from the University
of Colorado June 1914.
Motto - "The first Slater to
graduate from a higher institution
of learning but by the power
of the living God not the last."
Lewis Cecil Slater
December 23, 1913


[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

After receiving his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1914, he went on to get his masters in chemistry and engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU) the following year.

The next record we have for Cecil finds him listed as a chemistry instructor in 1916 at LSU's Audubon Sugar School.


Although this photo of a chemistry lab at the Audubon Sugar School was taken in 1909 I doubt if much had changed by the time Cecil was teaching there.*

[Laboratory for Qualitative Analysis, Audubon Sugar School of LSU in New Orleans, 1909. #a50000342 LSU Photograph Collection, 1886-1926, Louisiana State University Archives, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, LA. Location: Range AA:29, Box 2, Folder 1 [Audubon Sugar School] "The Science of Sugar" blog post: news.blogs.lib.lsu.edu/2015/01/14/science_of_sugar_lsu/ Images from LSU University Archives concerning Audubon Sugar School located in the Louisiana Digital Library.]


Sometime between 1917 when he registered for the draft and the 1920 U.S. Census, Cecil and Clara Eloise Ethridge got married and were living in rented rooms in Baton Rouge. He was still teaching at Louisiana State.

[Registration State: Louisiana; Registration County: East Baton Rouge; Roll: 1684672. 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.]


[Enumeration District : 0025; Description: Baton Rouge City, Ward 2 (part), Precinct 1 (part), Police Jury Ward 2 (part) including St Joseph Orphan Asylum?, from north side of Convention to north side of Main and from Mississippi River to west side of St Anthony. 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. ]


By 1929 Cecil and Eloise had moved back to her father's house on Wood Street in Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, where he worked as a manager at the National Investment Company and she taught at the local high school.

[Title : Monroe, Louisiana, City Directory, 1929. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory.]


And a year later, in the 1930 U.S. Census, Eloise was still teaching but by then Cecil was reduced to working as a bookkeeper for a service station and in 1933 the city directory listed his place of work as North La Motor Co. with no indication of what his role there was.

[Enumeration District : 5; Description: MONROE CITY (PART) BOUNDED BY (N) RAILROAD TRACKS; (E) 8TH; (S) OAK, OAK EXTENDED; (W) OUACHITA RIVER. 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.]
[Title : Monroe, Louisiana, City Directory, 1933. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Original sources vary according to directory.]


In the 1940 U.S. Census, Cecil and Eloise were still living at the same address although her father was no longer listed as a resident and her mother (who did not appear in the previous census) was now head of the household. Eloise was still teaching at a local school and Cecil had returned to teaching at LSU's Junior College.

[Enumeration District : 37-5; Description: POLICE JURY WARD 3, MONROE CITY BOUNDED BY (N) ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD; (E) 8TH; (S) OAK, OAK EXTENDED; (W) CITY LIMITS; ALSO MONROE CALABOOSE, OUACHITA PARISH JAIL, ST. MATTHEW´S PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 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.]


Here's Cecil's 1942 Draft Card:

[Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147. National Archives and Records Administration. Full Source Citation.]


In 1950 Cecil became the third president of his college,** which describes his career thus:

Slater joined the Northeast Center of LSU staff in 1938 as head of the Department of Biology and Natural Sciences. Between teaching assignments, he was the chief chemist for Bogalusa Pulp and Paper Company and the Bastrop Pulp and Paper Company. Slater was named president of the newly-designated Northeast Louisiana State College, a four-year institution, in 1950. He retired from the institution in 1958.
What the above paragraph doesn't say is that Cecil was forced to retire and later sued to be returned to the faculty which I've just learned through reading old newspaper reports. I think this deserves a closer look so I'm going to finish my great uncle's story at a later date.

*Flickr has a collection of 58 images from LSU University Archives pertaining to the Audubon Sugar School and Experiment Station located in Audubon Park, New Orleans, 1887-1925.
**Now known as the University of Louisiana at Monroe; you can read about its history here.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Spring Cleaning: Toolboxes and Tabs For Better Organization

Look at how many of my ancestors, especially on my dad's side, are being neglected.  I've got my work cut out for me.

I don't know if they are Pages (as Blogger calls them), or tabs or what, but today I am inspired by Linda Stufflebean's post "A New Look at Bloggers' Toolboxes" and how you can use tabs to organize these genealogical toolboxes.

A while back my mom suggested we utilize the tabs better, and started an Ahnentafel list of my ancestors, half of which are hers, of course, under the "Christine's Ancestors" tab.  Since I am apparently rather slow, I only began using this in the past day.  I really have been neglecting my paternal 3rd and 4th great grandparents!

This seems like a great solution to cleaning up my right-side links bar, and putting together some of my own toolboxes (particularly for maps and geographical-specific sites) so I can spend more time writing up my 3rd and 4th great grandparents profiles, and less time scrolling around and acting a fool.







© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Monday Is for Mothers: Dorothy "Dolly" Gates (1742 - 1805)

Dorothy was born on March 25, 1742, in Preston, Connecticut, the daughter of Daniel Gates and his wife Mercy Heald. She was their youngest daughter and didn't marry until after her father's death in 1767 when Dorothy was 27.


[Ancestry.com. Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: White, Lorraine Cook, ed. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002.]


Her first husband was Jesse Seaton, a resident of Plainfield (in neighboring Windham County about 12 miles north of Preston), whom she married on November 15, 1769.

[Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: White, Lorraine Cook, ed. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994-2002.]


Less than a year and half later, on March 23, 1771, Jesse Seaton died before he was able to sign his last will which one of his doctors had written at his direction and this noncupative will was admitted to probate. Except for a token sum "that he gave to his Brothers & Sisters to Prevent them from Braking his will in the disposing of his Estate," Jesse gave everything to his 28-year-old wife. There is no mention of any children.

[Notes : Probate Packets, Pope, Seth-Shepard, John, 1747-1880. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]


Five years later Dorothy married her second cousin Joseph Gates,* a 54-year-old widower with six children (five daughters and one son). The couple had three sons, the oldest of which, also named Joseph (1776-1854), is my direct ancestor.

In 1795 when Joseph Sr. died at the age of 75, he had made provision in his will for his "loving wife Dorothy" including a life estate in his dwelling house, all his household furniture, and "one Good Riding Horse, Side Saddle & Bridle, & a Cow."


[Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]

Dorothy survived Joseph by ten years, dying on February 9, 1805, at the age of 62. The first entries in the inventory of her estate give us a view into her style of dress. She owned cotton dresses made of "callico" and chintz** for everyday wear but Dorothy could deck herself out in a black silk gown with a silk "cloke" and bonnet when she chose.

[Notes : Probate Packets, Gardner, David-Geer, H, 1748-1880. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]


And among her household goods there was a mirror and a rocking chair with a cushion for comfort.


[Notes : Probate Packets, Gardner, David-Geer, H, 1748-1880. Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]


She and Joseph are buried in Hopeville Cemetery in Griswold, New London County, Connecticut.

My descent is through their granddaughter Mary "Polly" Gates whose daughter Mercy Ann Darling was the mother of Jesse David Webb, the father of my maternal grandmother Anna Delilah Webb.

*They shared great grandparents Stephen Gates (1634-1707) and Sarah Woodward (1642-1707).
**For an illustrated discussion of these fabrics look here and here.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.