FindAGrave Has Made Citation Easy

My great uncle Roy Alexander Fiester's FindAGrave entry.  The source citation can be found by clicking "View Source".

I'm on the fence about FindAGrave's new look, but I was pleased to see that they now have a way to quickly generate a source citation:

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh's Obituary - 1915

We have my great great grandmother's 1915 obituary thanks to research done by Findagrave's member Gayle Neuhaus, a resident of Winnetoon, Nebraska. Gayle added a transcription of it to Mercy's memorial, adding her source so I was able to locate a scan of the original* from The Creighton Liberal:

[Source: Digital Archives of the Creighton Public Library]

                  Obituary**
   Mrs. Mercy Ann Walsh was born on
the eleventh day of May 1835 at
Harvard, Courtland County, N y
and died Oct. 29, 1915 at Creighton
Nebr being 80 year 5 months and 18
days old
   In 1858 she was married to Abner
Webb of Jones county, Ia. Soon after
their marriage they moved 
to Collen County Texas
where was born to them a son
J.D. Webb who resides in Winnetoon.
When the country was in the throes of
war in the sixties her husband re-
sponded to the call of the South and
laid down his life upon the altar of 
his country.
   In 1864 Miss Webb married Joshua
B Walsh in McKenny Collen county
Texas from which place they moved
to Iowa in 1866. To this union four
children were born all of whom are
still living. Two sons F B. and J
S Walsh reside at Boulder, Colo.
Mrs Kitty May Pierce of Idaho and
Mrs Dr. Hazen of Creighton, Nebr.
During her entire life she has been
very healthy; and knowing she had
lived beyond her allotted time here
on earth she came to Creighton to
spend her last days with her daugh-
ter and also that she might at her
death be buried in the Millerboro
churchyard by the side of her hus
band  Mr Walsh served thorought
the Mexican was for which a pension
was received by his wife. He also 
fought under Gen. Jackson against
the Indians of Florida.
   For forty years Mrs. Walsh was a
member of the Church of God and
was very faithful in and to her reli-
gious beliefs. The funeral services
were held Sunday Oct. 31st at the 
home of Mrs. Hazen, Rev. Joseph
Stanford pastor Methodist Church
officiating  Internment was at Miller-
boro  Six of her grand sons, Claude,
Elmer, and Waymond Hazen;
Herbert Fred and John Webb, acted 
as pall bearers  Thus laid at rest 
a soul that feared God
                --------------
       CARD OF THANKS
   We sincerely desire to thank all our
friends and neighbors for their help
and expressions of sympathy. In the
sorror that has come to us in the
loss of our mother and grandmother.
   Dr. and Mrs. Hazen and family.
   Jess and Nora Webb and family.

This is very exciting because, although bits and pieces of Mercy's life with her first husband have come down to us, this is the closest we've gotten to the story she would have told about herself and her son (and my great grandfather) Jess Webb was one of the sources of the information printed here. Here's a portrait of Mercy that belonged to him:

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy. The handwriting is probably that of my grandmother Anna Delilah Webb Slater.]

Especially interesting is the statement that Mercy and Abner Webb moved to Texas shortly after their 1858 marriage.*** Abner's maternal grandfather Jesse Sill died in November of the previous year, leaving him a bequest of $300; could it have been the expectation of this money that encouraged the couple to relocate? If so, I'm afraid they were to be disappointed because at the time of Jesse Sill's death the country was experiencing a severe economic "panic" and his diminished estate wasn't settled for a very long time.

We've never been able to locate Mercy in the 1860 U.S. Census although we know that Abner was employed as a carpenter by attorney Fred L. Gates**** in Collin County on June 7, 1860 (less than six weeks before his son was born). Several sources has claimed that son Jesse David Webb was born in Galveston but not this obituary.

Although there's no record of Abner's military service (on either side*****) here it's stated clearly that his sympathies were with the Confederacy.

Thanks again Gayle, for finding this and posting it where I could find it.


*Looking at the obituary as printed, it's clear that whoever set the type wasn't particularly skilled and/or didn't proofread it carefully.
**Several corrections are in order: Mercy Darling was born in Harford in Cortland County, NY; McKinney is in Collin County, Texas.
***There's a transcription of a Jones County Marriage Book which lists the date of their marriage as November 6, 1856. Because it's not the original, that date could be an error.
****Gates later rose to the rank of a Captain in the 16th Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Fitzhugh's). Two other regiments included men from McKinney: 6th/15th (Consolidated) Regiment, Texas Volunteers; and 6th Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Wharton, Stone's).
*****I've even seen some claims that Abner served with Sherman on his march through Georgia.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Warren/Smith

As I've been examining the probate records for my fourth great uncle Jeremiah Warren* over the past month, it's clear that several of his relatives had said or done something that caused him to limit his bequests. One of them was his sister Elizabeth who had married William Smith in 1822.

[Marriage Records, Book, 1808-1879. Ancesrty.com. Georgia, Marriage Records From Select Counties, 1828-1978 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: County Marriage Records, 1828–1978. The Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia]

And here's Jeremiah's bequest to Elizabeth:

Item 5th. I give Elizabeth Smith twenty five dollars and the money due
me by William Smith her husband for rent.
And in Item 10th, he stated that she was one of his heirs who wasn't to benefit if it happened that the six enslaved persons had to remain in bondage:
[I]f they cannot have them freed by the Laws of our Country in that time are to be equally divided by my brothers and sisters or their heirs except Epps Warren and James Warren and Elizabeth Smith and Susan Johnson as I do not wish them to have any part in said division.
Elizabeth and William Smith had four children, two daughters and two sons. From the names given to both boys, Warren R. Smith (1825-1851) and Henry Warren Smith (1827-1897), the family's connection to the Warrens was maintained.

While Warren R. died within a year of his marriage and had no known children, his brother Henry Warren had two children by his first wife and six by his second. Of those eight children only one son, the youngest of all, was given Warren as a middle name.

However Henry Warren Smith's oldest son, William Horace Smith (1851-1922), named his second son Jesse Warren Smith (1874-1943) after his own great grandfather Jesse Warren Sr. (c.1747 - 1827).

Thanks to a gentleman in Texas whose wife is the connection to the Smiths, I've found a photo of Jesse Warren Smith, my third cousin, 3 times removed. He was a carpenter.

[From Jesse W Smith Ancestry.com Profile in kenhoc's tree]

Note that in the 1940 U.S. Census, he called himself "Warren Smith".

[Year: 1940; Census Place: Seminary, Covington, Mississippi; Roll: T627_2019; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 16-3.  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.]

*So far I've posted about his Life, the Caveat, the Said Will, and Item #10


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Cool Trick: Searching FindAGrave.com through Ancestry.com

But I want to search for all people with the first name of Sciotha!  snapshot of  the Find-A-Grave search form.

I just realized that searching the Find-A-Grave through Ancestry.com's database allows for more flexibility than on Find-A-Grave itself.

Sometimes all I have is a first name to search, but Find-A-Grave insists on a last name minimum for every search.  In contrast, I can search by first name, keyword, and spouse on Ancestry.

Search form for Find A Grave on Ancestry.com

You don't even have to have an Ancestry.com account to search!




© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.