British Ancestors? Check Out the National Archives' Currency Converter

The National Archives

When researching your British forebears sometimes you come across records that mention a sum of money but have no idea what that sum was worth. For instance Peter Worden (my maternal 11th great grandfather) was born in Lancashire around 1569; opened a hat shop in nearby Preston; became a member of the city government; and lent eight shillings to the Borough of Preston in 1629. Eight shillings? It doesn't sound like much, but the currency converter tells me that it was equivalent to five days labor for skilled tradesman. 

Another example comes from the probate record for a friend's great grandfather:

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941. Ancestry.com

When I plug in the value of his Effects, here's the result:

The National Archives

Of course all these calculations come with a disclaimer:

© 2021 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From The North Adams Evening Transcript, January 10, 1914: Clergyman Gives History of Stafford Hill Settlement

Any history of the Baptists in Western Massachusetts would have to include my 6X great grandfather Peter Werden (Worden) and after a general description of the area, Rev. Pease discussed the important position my ancestor had in his community.*

[10 Jan 1914, Page 8 - The North Adams Transcript at Newspapers.com]

 *There's even a mention of my 4x great grandfather Richmond.


© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Peter Worden - Berkshire County, Massachusetts - 1808

Note: This afternoon Christine asked me if I was ready to resume blogging and my answer was a firm "NO." However...

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) through its American Ancestors website has been a useful source for a large part of my early American family tree. An email from their blog today reminded me to check if I could find any more information about my 6X great grandfather Elder Peter Worden (or Werden as he spelled it) who died in western Massachusetts in 1808.

The results are too good not to share:

Berkshire County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1761-1917.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org)

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2725/i/48367/2541-co2/68553665

The file's 20 pages include his original 1804 will and the March 9, 1808 inventory. I'll share more findings at a later date but here's the sum total of his worldly estate:

You can read more about Peter Worden here and here.







© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 8th through 14th

Two of my known direct ancestral couples were married during the second week of December:
maternal 6X great grandparents Moses Cooper and Mary Mathewson were wed in Glocester, Rhode Island, on December 10, 1732; and maternal great grandparents Lewis Logan Slater and Rufina Tomlinson in Severy, Kansas, on December 13, 1885.

[Lewis Logan Slater & Rufina Tomlinson Slater-undated double portrait

courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The following two couples also married during the second week of December but I'm less certain of my relationship to them: paternal 10X great grandparents Thomas Ford and his first wife Joan Way wed in England on December 13, 1610*; and maternal 5X great grandparents William White and Jemima Wright were married on December 13, 1781 in Adams, Massachusetts, by my 6X great grandfather Elder Peter Worden.**

*This is a line that I haven't looked at in years and so I'm not certain of my connection. In any case, I would be descended from his second wife Elizabeth Charde.
**This couple's relationship to me is entirely speculative and not to be relied on. If it's true they are the grandparents of Hannah Leonard, the wife of Porter Worden (my 3X great grandparents)



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Vern Poff Rowing

Vern Wesley Poff, one of my distant Worden cousins*, was a native of Washington State. This photo was posted by her granddaughter Suzanne Koch, who is on my Ancestry.com DNA match list (5th - 8th cousin).

[Vern Poff rowing, Chelan County, WA-undated, courtesy of Suzanne Koch]

Here's our relationship:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Repost: Old Genealogies: Research Sources, Book Shelf and a Hat Tip

This was first posted almost three years ago. Since then the Internet Archive has nearly tripled its genealogy resources. (And it's still free.)

Just last week I consulted (via the Internet Archive) an 1868 book whose lengthy title begins "Some records of persons by the name of Worden" where I found a physical description of a sixth great grandfather, so I was excited to read a recent post in Vita Brevis by Emily Baldoni, New England Historical Genealogical Society's Technical Services/Metadata Librarian, about their project to make many of their late 19th and early 20th century genealogical writings available online. This is a big deal because, as Emily explains:

"NEHGS is sometimes the only library that holds a copy of the resource. In these cases, we are particularly happy to be able to preserve a digital copy and put it online so that it can reach a wider audience, now and for years to come."

I will certainly be checking out their collection.

The Internet Archive is also a great resource for books of interest to genealogists* This is how they describe their online holdings:

"The Archive's ever-expanding collection of genealogy resources includes items from the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Robarts Library at the University of Toronto; the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library; Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah;, the National Library of Scotland, the Indianapolis City Library's Indianapolis City Directory and Yearbooks Collection, The Leo Baeck Institute Archives of German-speaking Jewry Leo Baeck Institute Archives, and the Boston Public Library.  

Resources include among many things books on surname origins, vital statistics, parish records, census records, passenger lists of vessels, and other historical and biographical documents."

Here's a tiny sample of the titles they have available.

[Source: Internet Archive]

And I found another Worden Book to peruse. (I've heard of it but have never seen a copy before.)

[Worden "a weir in the valley" by Waite W.Worden, 1992.

Source: Internet Archive; original source: Allen County Public Library.]

I've also found old genealogy publications via Google Books but, unlike Internet Archive, not every listing there is available digitally.


*They're claiming 53,534 results from a search for "genealogy."And it's free.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Aunt Ann?

I believe the woman in this portrait from my great grandmother's photo album is Elizabeth Anna Worden Peregoy (1839-1887) because there's a note that says "Aunt Ann" and she's the only relative that I know of who could be called that. If I'm right she's one of my maternal third great aunts--her brother Dick Worden* is my great great grandfather.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

Originally born in New York State, she moved to Iowa with her parents in the early 1850s and married Stephen W. Peregoy (1836-1883) in Brown Township, Linn County, in 1862.

Stephen enlisted in Company G, Iowa 4th Infantry Regiment just after the birth of their second child C.J.** in 1864 in Fairview, Jones County and served about seven months before he was mustered out on May 31, 1865.***

By the 1870 federal census the Peregoy family, with the addition two more children, were living in Richmond Township, in Ray County, Missouri. Ten years later they had moved on to Bourbon County, Kansas, with their five surviving children.***

Records indicate that Stephen died in Fairview in 1883 and his wife survived him by almost five years, although we don't know the exact date or place she died.



*I've written about my ancestor's Civil War experiences on this blog, starting here.
**We only know his initials and C.J. died in 1867.
***Given that date and that he was in Washington DC at the time, it's very likely that he had marched in the Grand Review of the Armies a week earlier.
****Their daughter Rachel, born in 1866 died at the age of 11.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Rosie Joslin McGowan & Ed McGowan

Emma Rosettabelle Joslin, better known as Rosa or Rosie, is one of my maternal first cousins, three times removed. She was born in Fairview Township in Jones County, Iowa, in 1871 and married Edward Calvin McGowan (1870-1949) there in 1890 which is probably when this portrait was taken.

[Scanned photo taken from album owned by Hilda Maxine (Ellison) Willison

found on Ancestry.com]

Here's Rosie's 1943 obituary in the Anamosa Journal from the Digital Archives of the Jones County Library:

[The Anamosa  Journal,  Thursday, December 9, 1943, page 4]

And here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

*We had found a portrait of Rosie taken when she was a baby in my great great grandmother's photo album during our scanning session in 2011:

[Rosa Joslyn, cousin of Nora Webb, from Floral Album of Webb family photos,

courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

1st Cousin 4x Removed Mattie Bell (Groves) White Was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sewer

Some footage of women at work for the WPA (the specific locations of the footage are unknown).

I thought this was an interesting find today as I was hashtagging people in my tree--a then widowed cousin Mattie Bell (Groves) White, employed by the WPA in a sewing room in Hawarden IA in the 1940 Census.

"To Expand WPA Sewing Room"
The Hawarden Independent (Hawarden IA)
Thursday, 20 Nov 1941, page 1, col 4
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25230049/the_independent/?xid=637 : accessed 8 Nov 2018).

Women to Make Necessities for Relief  

Clients in 30 Counties 

Hawarden will have the only WPA sewing room in Northwest Iowa in a few days.
With the decision of the board of supervisors to close the sewing room at Rock Valley, the Hawarden project will inherit additional sewing machines and the job of furnishing sheets, pillow cases, towels and bedding for relief clients in 30 counties. 

Seven other sewing rooms will operate in the 30 counties, making other necessities for relief clients. 

Twenty or more women will work in the Hawarden project, under the direction of Mrs. Ella Larson.  They will work an average of 30 hours a week, and will receive $47.20 a month [CManczuk note: about $850 in today's dollars]. 

The materials used in making the household goods will be paid for by the counties in which they are used. The sewing room women, however, will be paid by the WPA, as in the past. 

The local sewing room was moved last week from its former location over the Sioux Theatre to larger quarters in the Margolin building.

Mattie's mother Rosetta (Worden) Groves (1857-1912) and children.  Mattie is the little girl on the left.  Probably about 1892.  Image courtesy of Olive Kennedy.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Myrtle Ruby Worden (1882 - 1962)

Myrtle is one of my maternal first cousins, three times removed--her father Schuyler Colfax Worden was one of my great great grandfather Dick Worden's brothers.* She was born in Iowa, was taken to Nebraska as an infant by her parents and at the age of 21 married John Davison (1873-1949) there.

By 1919 the Davison family had relocated to Siskiyou County, California, but by the 1930 U.S. Census they had finally settled in Oregon.

This photo of Myrtle, her grandson Cecil Vernon Davison (1944-1992) and his mother Lorine Marjorie (Wells) Davison was probably taken in 1945/46.

[Originally shared by Ardis Patton to her Ancestry.com family tree]

Here's her obituary that Christine found in the Albany, Oregon, newspaper:

[Newspapers.com - Albany Democrat-Herald - 4 Dec 1962 - Page 2]

*Another child of Porter and Hannah (Leonard) Worden.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Emma Maria Worden (1861 - 1939)

While working on last Friday's post I realized that we have a portrait of young Emma that hasn't been shared here. It was probably taken in Jones County, Iowa, sometime before her marriage to Madison Monroe Kuder in 1884.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

This picture from my great grandmother Elnora Worden Webb's photo album that we scanned during the epic session with Cousin Sue and her husband Bob at her mother's house in 2011.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Emma Maria (Worden) & Madison Kuder

Emma is one of my maternal third great aunts--she's the sister of my great great grandfather Dick Worden. I've already shared a family portrait of Emma, Madison and four of  their seven children.

[Madison & Emma Kuder-=Waterville, Douglas, Washington.

Originally posted to her public Ancestry.com family tree by FrancesGilmore45]

After Emma's marriage to Madison Monroe Kuder in Iowa in 1884, the couple moved to the Dakota Territory briefly before returning to Iowa where they remained until about 1898 when they re-located to Waterville, Washington.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Luella May LaJuett (1895 - 1977) Carnival?

I don't know what to make of the comment one of her descendants added to these photos: "luella 32 years old when she was with the carnival." I've not been able to find any information about what Luella's role was.

[Brenda Tabor posted these photos to her public Ancestry.com family tree]

Luella is one of my maternal third cousins, twice removed:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

RePost: Monday Is for Mothers: Hannah M. Leonard & her Mother, Jemima White

This is the first post for Monday Is for Mothers way back on October 13, 2013. (I don't think we know any more about Hannah and her mother than we did then.)

Here is a portrait of my great great great grandparents, Porter Worden and Hannah M. Leonard; the earliest of my ancestors that I've seen a photograph of. Both of them were born in New York State in the second decade of the 19th century, where they got married in 1838. It was most likely taken in Iowa, where they moved in 1853 and where they are to be found in subsequent censuses, although they apparently also lived in Missouri and Nebraska at times.

[Photo courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

From the style of her dress, I think this photo was taken in the early 1860s (or possibly the late 1850s). Although her husband looks like he just showed up for the photographer, Hannah has taken some pains to look her best. She's wearing a broach with three white stones or pearls attached to her stiff white collar; her earrings are hoops that may have something longer hanging from them; there appears to be a ring on one hand and a handkerchief or gloves held in the other.

Probate records have confirmed that Hannah's father was Isaac Leonard who was born in Montgomery County, New York, about 1780 and died in Jefferson County, New York, near the end of 1862 and whose will is recorded there.

[Source: Seeking Michigan website, owned and operated by the Michigan History Foundation, all rights reserved]

It's her mother that's been the mystery here because she appears to have died before the 1840 U.S. Census and of course never appeared as more than a tick mark in those earlier censuses. From the death certificate of one of her other daughters, Cynthia (Leonard) Belcher, we learned that her name was Jemima White, always assuming that the information written there is correct. (I would like to confirm the name through other sources, but haven't been able to.)




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Richmond Worden (1758 - 1837) Soldier with the Green Mountain Boys, Vermont

Richmond Worden*, my fifth great grandfather, served in the Vermont Militia under Seth Warner during the American Revolution.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Richmond volunteered at several different times, serving in militias in Massachusetts and Vermont as this 1834 Massachusetts document describes:

[NARA M804. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files. Fold3.com]

But the index card shown at the top of the page only credits him with his service as a Green Mountain Boy.


You can read more about my ancestor's military history here.

Here's how I'm descended from Richard Worden.

[Ancestry.com]

*Note the three different ways his surname was spelled in records.






© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Pauline, Bernice & Kenneth Brown - About 1909

I love this studio portrait of Hattie Pauline (1903-1981), Lillian Bernice (1905-2004) and William Kenneth Brown (1907-1979) who are some of my maternal third cousins, three times removed.* They were born in LaGrange County, Indiana and appear to have lived in that state their whole lives.

["Top to Bottom: Pauline, Bernice, Kenneth Brown about 1908-1910." 

Added to her Ancestry.com family tree by elynn7.]

*As you can see we're related through the Worden line.

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Rosie, Winnie, Polly & Lula

Fortunately someone noted the full names of this quartet so we don't have to guess who's who:
                       Rosie McGowan nee Joslin (my first cousin, three times removed)
                                Winnie McGowan Northrup (Rosie's sister-in-law)
                              Polly Worden Joslin (my third great aunt)
                                  Lula Northrup (presumably Winnie's daughter)

[Posted to her ancestry.com public tree by jeanandorf (who's not related to me

but manages two DNA tests of distant Worden cousins]

The location isn't mentioned but it's almost certainly in Jones County, Iowa.

I've posted pictures of Polly before that were shared with my by another cousin.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Bertha Louise Huitt (1920 - 2007) LIft Truck Operator

Local newspapers loved this story about this fourth cousin, once removed, in my maternal Worden line* because I found several versions of it. Bertha and her husband Bernard Elligner jointly owned the B & B Construction Company in Michigan and she obviously took an active role in the company.

[21 Oct 1971, Page 10 - Battle Creek Enquirer at Newspapers.com]

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: The Grand Review of the Armies, Washington D.C. - May 23, 1865

On this day 153 years ago, 90,000 soldiers from the Army of the Potomac marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on the first of two days of military parades to celebrate the Union victory.*

[Mounted officers and unidentified units on Pennsylvania Avenue, May 1865. Source: Library of Congress]

And where was Dick Worden, my great great grandfather, at the time? Was he one of the marchers in Washington D.C.?

Alas, no.

After being invalided out shortly after Vicksburg in 1863, he had reenlisted early in the next year and went back to his old Company G of the 24th Iowa Infantry Regiment, then part of General Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah in Virginia, which was in Georgia when the Grand Review took place.



*The men from General Sherman's Army of Georgia, 60,000 strong, traveled the same route the next day.
**Either Savannah or Augusta.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Texas and the Civil War

Half of my eight great great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. One, Willet O. "Dick" Worden, was a private in the Iowa 24th Infantry, and of the three who were Confederate soldiers*, two were in Texas and I've never been able to locate them in online military records.

So when this email from the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) arrived in my inbox this morning I jumped at the chance to learn more about what happened in Texas during the war.

Of course I don't expect to find any mention of those ancestors who reputedly enlisted in Texas regiments, but since we do know where they were living at the start of the war this information may help me focus on likely military units they would have served in.




*They were John Warren Avery (of Mississippi); the Texans were J.T.S. Warren and Abner Webb.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.