Posts Tagged city directories for genealogy research
#52Ancestors – No. 41 – William H. Woodburn
This post is number 41 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.
William Woodburn and his two wives are listed on one headstone.
All Inclusive
Wives can be forever lost in history. This is not the case for my first cousin 5 removed, William H. Woodburn. William’s headstone lists both his wives names along with his name.
Williams first wife was Martha Frances Chandler. This union had four children. Martha may have died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. She died in 1864. Her last child, William Thomas Woodburn was born in 1864.
On October 14, 1868, William married America E. Baker, widow of Joseph Coffman. America had two children with Joseph Coffman. William and America had three daughters. Both William and American died in 1874.
Sources
Find A Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=100413699&ref=acom
#52Ancestors – No. 40 – Harry Trevelyan Saves Winston Churchill in 1899
This post is number 40 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.
Harry Trevelyan Saves Churchill
Who is Harry Arthur John Trevelyan and did he really save Churchill’s life during the Boer War? According to an article in The Dearborn Guide on January 27, 1965, written shortly after Churchill’s death, the answer is “Yes.” Is it true, I don’t know for sure.
I have tried searching various Churchill accounts regarding his escape from the Boers to learn more and was not able to pin down the details. The article states that Trevelyan was one of a group of British soldiers who saved the 26 year old newspaper correspondent. Churchill later became Prime Minister of England. The article states Trevelyan was a Lieutenant in the Cavalry.
Trevelyan was a Canadian who join the fight against the Boers. I do not know if he joined the British military for fought under an Canadian group.
Who was Harry A. Trevelyan?
Harry’s naturalization papers state he was born in Winnipeg, Canada, on July 14, 1876. On May 15, 1901, he entered United States at Pembina, North Dakota, on the Great Northern Railroad. He states he settled in Michigan on November 1, 1908. A search has not yielded any clues of where Harry was from 1901 to November 1908.
On December 24, 1909, in Detroit, Harry marries Edith H. White, my great Aunt. The marriage record lists his parents as Samuel Trevelyan and Anne Barcroft. A search of Manitoba archives and other online databases sheds no light on this family. The couple, Harry and Edith, have no children of their own. My grandmother, Mildred Edith Anderson, as a young child, comes to live with them sometime after 1925. They considered her their daughter.
A man of many talents
Clerk Invents Calendar
Photo of Harry Trevelyan and Edith H. White
Trevelyan was an automotive engineer for Cadillac, Packard, and Studebaker. He was a member of the Composite Lodge No. 499 (Masons), his hobby was statistics, he wrote, collected British Royalty stamps, and he invented a perpetual calendar. My father has told me stories, that Uncle Harry had many travels, was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and once was a Detroit Sheriff’s Deputy.
The RCMP officially started in 1920, after Harry’s immigration to the US. However, it’s predecessor the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) served the Canadian West. Harry could have been a constable in this unit. Members of the NWMP unit did join the fight against the Boers in 1898. In 1938, Harry is employed by the Federal Clerk’s office in Detroit. In his role as a clerk, he was mostly like deputized during the 1943 Detroit Race Riots. I don’t believe he was actually employed as a police office
Harry died on April 1, 1955. Somehow, I think he is playing the ultimate fools game on me. As I can find very little records regarding his birth and family origins. His death certificate and obituary imply that he his interred at Woodmere Cemetery, in Detroit. His ashes were actually interred elsewhere.
Sources:
He Saved Churchill’s Life in 1899, Dearborn, MI, The Dearborn Guide, January 27, 1965, page 6, col. 1. Microfilm located at Henry Ford Centennial Library, Dearborn, MI. Reel 29, December 10, 1964 to June 24, 1965.
Harry A. Trevelyan obituary, Dearborn, MI, The Dearborn Press, April 7, 1955.
Duane De Loach, “Clerk Designs Calendar Good for 500 Years.” Detroit Free Press, Detroit, MI, November, 27, 1942
Photograph of Harry and Edith Trevelyan, circa 1950, Dearborn, MI. Copy in possession of Caroll Budny, Lynnwood, WA. Texas.
#52Ancestors – No. 34 – Just A Photo In A Box – Ervin & May King
This post is number 34 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.
During a scavenger hunt in my sister’s attic, I found a box of photos that originally belong to my grandmother, Olive. The box was most likely put there after my mom and her sisters cleaned out Olive’s apartment when she went into a nursing home.
I found a couple of photos that had names I didn’t recognize and set about to see if they were related. There were a set of photos that named three Roll sisters and one identifying two children as Ewin and May King. My great grandfather Ollie C. Roll had four sisters. Researching marriage records for my great aunts, I found that Addie (Ada) Yvonne Roll married a man named Ewin O. King.
Both Ewin, Sr and Addie died in their early forties. They had three children, Ewin, Jr., born 1912; Mae (May), born 1913; and a son James, born 1921. The children looked to be about five and four years old in this photo. There is no date on the photo. Based on the approximate ages, I would say the photo was taken between 1917-1918.
A Photo in a Box
Ewin, Jr; served in WWII and married Jeslyn Fiddler of Chicago, IL. They ended up living in Casper, Wyoming. I was not able to find information on Mae or James King.
#52Ancestors – No. 25 – Gladys Schneider
Posted by Caroll in Genealogy, Polish Genealogy on June 25, 2014
This post is number 25 in the series of the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year. To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy Johnson’s site at Amy’s website.
The stories about the wife of my Great Uncle Stanley Budny were not nice. A cousin said she was much older than Stanley and that she wasn’t pretty, whilst Stanley was said to be quite handsome. That Stanley married her because she came from a wealthier family.
I do not have a photograph of Gladys M. Schneider to debunk that piece of gossip. I do know that she was only two years older than Stanley. There wasn’t much money in the Schneider family. Though they owed a candy store in Detroit. In the mid to late 1920’s I don’t think it was making a lot of money to support the large Schneider family.
Gladys is the daughter of Christoph Schneider and Eva M. Bleser. Both her parents lived in Detroit where they married in 1897. The relocated to Grand Rapids, MI shortly after their marriage. Christoph worked as a confectioner while living in Grand Rapids The family moved backed to Detroit before their daughter Ruth died in 1908.
Gladys and Stanley are married on April 25, 1924 in Ecorse, MI. The couple have no children, despite Stanley’s white lie he told the police in 1927. At least none I could find listed with her on subsequent censuses. Stanley dies in a gun struggle on March 24, 1927. You can read about Stanley’s final escapade from an earlier post.
Gladys is living in her parents household in 1930 with her siblings, and Evelyn’s husband and children. Gladys is a clerk in a candy store, most likely her fathers. Christoph is into real estate by 1930 and the store may be sold or closed shortly after that. Gladys has take a position as a clerk for the State of Michigan Treasury Office. Which I find a bit ironic since her husband was a thief.
I assumed that Gladys never remarried after Stanley’s death. I found some information today that she may have married a man named John Scuttle. The marriage would have taken place after 1941. Gladys moves to Lansing, MI to continue her career with the Treasury Office. I can find her listed in the 1954-1956 Lansing City Directories under the name Gladys Scuttle, but no listing for John Scuttle.
Gladys passes away in 1970 in Detroit. I have no idea if she kept in touch my great aunts. Darn what stories she could have told about Stanley!
Other Family Information
Gladys’s Siblings
Evelyn Schneider Reppert
Grace Schneider Peters
Ruth Schneider (1906-1908)
Harvey Schneider
Marie D. Schneider Bentley
#52Ancestors – No. 4 – Theodocia R. Sims
This post is part of the 52 Ancestors Challenge were we blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.
In this weeks’ challenge I chose Theodocia Rachael Sims. Theodocia is the wife of last week’s ancestor Benjamin C. Woodburn. I had assumed early in my research that she most likely passed way before 1890. I was not able to find a record of her in later years. Years have come and go and new information has bought a series of dots to connect on this line.
Theodocia was born in 1841, near Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky. She is the daughter of William Sims/Simms and Catherine Woodburn. William Sims dies within a year or two of Theodocia’s birth. This leaves her mother with seven daughters to rear. Her mother Catherine stays close to the Woodburn family and is enumerated on the same census page in 1850 and 1860. Her farm, if she had a farm, may have been next door to her father’s James Woodburn or brother, Alexander Woodburn. The Wilson family between the two families, is Catherine’s oldest daughter, Amanda Woodburn Wilson.
- Woodburn’s and Sim’s 1860 Census
Theodocia didn’t go too far to meet her husband. He was just across the field at her Uncle Alexander’s house. Theodosia married her first cousin, Benjamin Woodburn who was four years younger. Benjamin enlisted in the Union army in 1862 and returned home sometime before 1867. He and Theodocia married in April 1867 in Christian Co., Kentucky. I have not been able to find an image of the marriage bond or license.
On the 1870 Census, they reside near Decker Station, Indiana. Four children are listed, with the oldest one, Charles, born in 1864, three years before they married. Benjamin was in the Civil War for at least 3-4 years. He could have furloughed from the war and had pre-marital relations with Theodocia. Or, Theodocia was married before or had relations with another man. I have not found a marriage record for an earlier marriage.
Fast forward to Civil War Pension records. Theodocia applies for a widow’s pension in 1892. So now I know she is still around. I am still not able to find her in the 1900, 1910 or 1920 Censuses. While researching her daughter Addie Decker Woodburn, I found information leading me to Theodocia. I found Addie’s death certificate listing her mother’s name and Addie’s married name (Morris) and residence. Addie is living in Dallas and/or Fort Worth area of Texas. I started looking to see if I could find Theodocia. By that time Texas records were added to Ancestry.com.
Eureka! A death certificate is discovered for Theodocia R. Sims Thacker. Theodocia’s death certificate lists Billie Sims and Katherine Woodburn as her parents. The date of her death is August 3, 1926. The informant on the record is Jimmie Morris, Addie’s husband. At findagrave, there is a headstone for Granny Thacker, no first name. The spouse on the headstone is M. L. Thacker.
I have not found any record that definitely connects Theodocia to this M. L. Thacker. M.L. Thacker is allegedly Marcus Lafayette Thacker born 1831 in Tennessee, died 1920 in Fort Worth, TX. I do know that M. L. Thacker lived in Christian Co., Kentucky in 1860. He is enumerated in the same district and not too many pages from the Woodburn’s and Sims.
I continue to search for any listing of Benjamin Woodburn. I was rewarded a couple of weeks ago when his name came up in a Civil War Remarried Widow Pension Application. Filed in May 1920, shortly after Marcus Thacker’s death, Benjamin’s widow filed for a pension. The name on the application is, Theodocia R Thacker. I’m slowly connecting the dots and tearing down the walls.
Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: , Christian, Kentucky; Roll: M653_362; Page: 596; Image: 94; Family History Library Film: 803362.
“Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FWBK-CVC : accessed 25 Jan 2014), Benjamin H. Woodburn and Theodocia R. Sims, 28 Apr 1867.
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