Posts Tagged city directories for genealogy research
#52Ancestors – No. 3 – Benjamin C Woodburn
For this week’s installment of the 52 Ancestors Challenge to write about one ancestor a week, I chose to stay in the Woodburn family. This post is about Benjamin C Woodburn, the father of last weeks number 2 post, Josephine Woodburn. Benjamin is the father who signed off on the marriage bond that allowed 12 year old Josephine to marry.
I am trying to grasp why a father would allow his very young daughter to marry. The average age of women marrying in the 1880’s was in the early to mid 20’s. It might be that Benjamin didn’t have the cash flow to take care of his family. Having one less mouth to feed may have kept them out of the poor house. I think this line of Woodburn’s are the poor relations in the family.
Benjamin C. Woodburn (Ben), born in Christian County, Kentucky is the son of Alexander Woodburn and Charlotte Lacy. Alexander Woodburn is a prosperous farmer in the area. In November 1862, Ben enlists in the Civil War for the next three years. He participates in many skirmishes and battles as a Private in the Third Kentucky Calvary Company “A”. I don’t have all his muster cards some indicate his pay or when his unit was detached (not assigned to regiment). I do have one indicating that he was sick for two months in Nashville, TN right after he enlisted in November 1862. According to wikipedia, 168 enlisted men of this company died of disease. Ben was darn lucky to survive.
Through Google, I discovered a group of Civil War Cartes de visite (photographs) of the officers of the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry. They were donated to Baylor University-Texas. For more information check out the flickr link at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52505743@N05/sets/721576272092093/65
Civil War soldiers were allowed furlough from the war and could come home. I am hoping that is the case as you will see later. Ben returns from the war between 1865-1866. He gets married on April 28, 1867 to Theodocia Rachael Sims. Maybe this is the event were he is cast out of his family. But, then again, this is Kentucky. Theodocia is Ben’s first cousin. She is the daughter of Catherine Woodburn and William A. Sims or Simms. Catherine is the brother of Alexander Woodburn, Ben’s father. Maybe the family is not into kissing first cousins.
Ben and Theodocia are living in Decker Station, Indiana per the 1870 Census. They are listed with their three children. There is a transcription error on their last name, Woodham, instead of Woodburn. Their first child is Charles Woodburn, age 6. That means he was born before Ben and Theodocia got married. So maybe Ben came home on furlough and met his cousin in the hay barn. Or, Theodocia was married or co-inhabiting with some one else. I did look for other marriage certificates for Theodocia and didn’t find any. Their daughter Fannie is born in 1867 and presumed dead by 1880. I find no record of her after the 1870 census. Then I considered maybe she got married off at 12 or 13 like her sister. Charles names his first daughter Fannie, and I have a feeling that his sister did pass away. Next is James William, all listed as being born in KY.
The next two girls, Josephine (my great-grandmother, 1872) and her sister Addie Decker Woodburn (1875) are born in Decker Station. I couldn’t figure out why Addie’s middle name was Decker. There are no Decker’s in my family tree. I happen to come across an article about the building of the railroad station in Decker. I guess the family wanted a remembrance of where she was born. Ben is listed as a day laborer in the 1870 Census. I could not locate other Woodburn family members in the area. I am curious as to why they moved there. Was it to find work or get away from the fracas of marrying his cousin?
The family moves to Boggess, Muhlenberg Co, Kentucky by 1880. Ben works in a stable, 15 year old Charlie is working the mines. Ben files for an invalid pension in September 1882 for his service in the Civil War. Could this be also be a reason that he may not have been able to support his family? I could pay Fold3 to look at more Civil War records on Ben, but I am not in a paying mood. Theodocia files a claim for a widow’s pension in March 1892. I have not yet found a death or burial record for Benjamin C Woodburn. I find it frustrating that I can find records on a dozen or more Woodburns’ but none belonging to my direct ancestor.
I don’t know why Ben and Theodocia let Josephine get married at 12 years old. I found a record of her sister, Addie getting married at 24 after Ben has passed away. Charlie gets married in 1885 to Claudia Fortney, who is a cousin to John T. Pittman, Josephine’s husband. Maybe with fewer mouths to feed, the family holds on.
Next week, I will write about Theodocia Sims. How a clue in the Civil War pension record confirms a remarriage.
#52Ancestors – No. 2 – Josephine Woodburn Pittman
I chose this ancestor because I feel the need to go back in time to ask why this marriage took place. What was happening in the family environment that led to this event? What would compel the parents to give their permission for the marriage? I cannot accept that the couple married for love.
My first record of Josephine Woodburn is from my grandmother Olive Roll Howes 3×5 index card listing her parent’s family names. Grandma Olive was way into genealogy back in the 60’s. She would so get a kick of the records we have access to today. Josephine was my first brick wall outside of the Polish side.
Grandma Olive’s 3×5 card
I knew she died young and her husband John Thomas Pittman remarried and had more children. My next clue was the 1910 Census for John Pittman. Josephine is not listed. The three oldest girls and the new wife are in the record. So this implies that Josephine died sometime after her third daughter was born and John’s remarriage. Long before computers, I searched the microfilms of the 1870 and 1880 Censuses looking for her. I had two possibilities and logged them on my Dad’s old letterhead and keep them in the pile of records. Year’s later I added them to my Ancestry Shoebox for future reference. The information just wasn’t quire right. They were for two separate Josephine’s. One born in 1862 had a mother named Martha, I have an Aunt Martha. The 1880 record of a Josephine had all the matching info, except the age was off.
I searched over the past 25 years to no avail. As computers came online I searched again, but I needed records. I so needed the 1890 Census lost forever to fire and water. I was sure that would tie everything together. I scoured various Internet sites looking for records; again, I needed more records online.
My favorite genealogical website is KYGenWeb – Online Kentucky Genealogy Resources. It is definitely the go to site for your Kentucky and Indiana ancestors. I would spend hours search their records for information. This was before they added a search engine. I would open every single link and comb through line by line looking for references, sources, any clue to long lost relatives. I check back every so often to see if they added more records that I could search. A few years back I found my wrecking ball at KYGenweb. That elusive piece of information that would finally bring down that brick wall.
I don’t think I will ever have empirical sources on Josephine Woodburn. The records I have found do demonstrate both direct and indirect evidence. The indirect evidence is my wrecking ball. KYGenWeb provided a listing of burial records at the Old Dovey Cemetery in Central City, KY. It is an original transcription from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Cemeteries Vol. 1 by Marian G. Hammers. 1976. There near the bottom, a record for J.K. Woodburn, wife of J.T. Pittman, December 11, 1872 – February 12, 1893.
But was it my Josephine Woodburn? I use the dates given searching for birth and death records, nothing is found on Josephine. I do find records for the girls linking them to Josephine and John Pittman. It would take another year, before the index of Josephine and John’s marriage is online. Their marriage date in October 28, 1885. I am still haunted by that 1880 Census. The birth date on the cemetery listing fits the Josephine listed on the census. The brick wall in my brain will not accept it at all. That Josephine born in 1872 is too young to be my Josephine.
What in Sam’s Hell was going on in the Woodburn family in 1885? I am beginning to think that this Woodburn line were the poor relations of the family. Struggling financially to get by raising and providing for the family. Did Josephine’s father Benjamin C Woodburn injuries from the civil war affect his ability to provide for his family? Where is my time machine? I have a lot of questions to ask you Benjamin and Rachael (Sims) Woodburn!
Marriage Bond for John T Pittman and Josephine Woodburn
I found the marriage bond for John Thomas Pittman and Josephine K. Woodburn at Familysearch.org. Agreeing to the marriage was B.C. Woodburn. The wedding took place at the home of B. C. Woodburn, witnesses were Levi Eaves (family relation) and Josephine’s brother, Charles Woodburn. John Pittman is 22 years old, Josephine is listed as 14. FOURTEEN! Who in the ^*&*% let’s their child get married at FOURTEEN?! But Josephine is not 14, she is 12 years old. She will be 13 years old six weeks later. I just cannot fathom why a 22 year old would marry a 12 year old.
Their first child, Grace Pittman Holmes is born in 1887, followed by Mable Laura Pittman Roll in 1889. Mary Katherine (Kit) Pittman Jackson is born in August 1892. Josephine Woodburn Pittman is dead six months later.
At the age of 36, John T. Pittman marries Ella McDowell, 29 in 1900. They have four children together. By the 1910 Census, Josephine’s daughters have left the house. My grandmother Olive, says that John Pittman demanded a lot from his girls, housecleaning and taking care of their younger siblings. They left as soon as they were able. John out lived both his wives, Ella passed away in 1936. John lived to be 93 and passed away in 1956.
I was not able to find Josephine’s headstone listed at Findagrave. It may be lost to time or just overlooked. I think the headstone has a story to tell. In a time when men rule and women have no rights, maybe Josephine’s family wanted her to be remember forever as a Woodburn. Because the stone does not say J.K. Pittman in a time where women lost their identity. Her stone reads J.K. Woodburn.
Truth or Fiction – Genealogy Records
My original intent for last week’s post was to write about analyzing records. How accurate or reliable is the information? Is the information in the record correct or truthful, does it offer clues, does it spin off another weave in the time continuum. As a genealogist, to you obsess over the record or log it for future review. I felt my Unweaving The Stories Woven thread topic needed more explaining, generating a post of its own. The evening was late, dream sleep was calling, and my analysis could wait another day.
I pulled a city directory record related to one of my ancestors from Ancestry.com. The rational Gemini side of me says log the record as a curiosity, to label it as an error on the part of the printer. The inquisitive side wants me to dig deeper. I find myself fantasying what the information means. Weaving my own tales of possibilities gleaned from this little thread.
I learned about the valuable information garnered from city directories long before I became interested in genealogy. I was about 10 years old when I was given a city directory to address postcards for one of my father’s political campaigns. I sure there is a repressed memory of helping him use the directory for marketing his business also. In my teen years, I used the city directory to locate the address of record of one or more high school boy crushes. The beginning threads of my informational analyst job skills.
I used to peruse the directories at the local library for fun. Really, I did. In the early 1980’s, I would go to the Burton Historical Collection at the downtown Detroit Library for genealogy research. The overlords of the keys to the records intimidated this anti-trait shy Gemini with their policies and processes, so designed to keep you away from the locked records hidden in bowels of the library that you so seek. Afraid even to ask, “Can I have one more record, please” so that you are not silenced further by the glare of death.
Enough storytelling, or is it? I created a couple of fictional stories in my mind for this 1912 Pittsburgh, PA City Directory record. The record is for my missing great grandfather Adam Budny? Adam Budny disappeared or left his family in 1917. I have been looking for clues as to what happen to him. So why is this source causing trouble? My great grandparents first settled in Pittsburgh after immigrating from Poland. Family lore is that they lived in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and then finally Detroit. So far I have no record of them living in Chicago. Adam’s brother-in-law, Ignacy Frank Borucki did live in Chicago for awhile.
Four of the Adam’s & Mary’s eight children were born in Pittsburgh, the last four in Detroit. My sources include a death record with an address for their first child born in America, Peter, who only lived a few weeks in 1902. Stanley Budny’s 1902 birth record and a 1903 Pittsburgh city directory listing the same address as Peter’s death record. Adam and Mary Budny arrived in Detroit sometime in late 1906 or early 1907. Adam is listed in the 1907 and subsequent years in the Detroit City Polk Directory. During my search, I could not find Adam in the 1912 Detroit City Directory. So when I discovered him in the 1912 Pittsburgh directory, bells went off. Adam went back to Pittsburgh or so I thought. I eventually found Adam’s listing in 1912 Detroit city directory. The indexer recorded the first letter as an “R” and that’s why it didn’t show up in the search engine.
Was this Pittsburgh record for a different Adam Budny? How or why, can my great grandfather be recorded in two different cities in the same year. Did he go back to Pittsburgh for a job? I know, as I fantasized, he went back to retrieve buried treasure or something he hid in the apartment? That’s my favorite fictional interpretation of the record. So what is wrong with this record? What has me worked up about this record you ask?
It is the address listed in the record. The address listed in the 1912 city directory is the same as 1902/1903 sources I have on file. They lived at 2808 Spring Alley, Pittsburgh. What are the odds that if Adam did go to Pittsburgh sometime in 1911 or 1912, that he would go to the address he lived at in 1902. That he would get recorded as being a resident in the same house, 10 years later.
His occupation is different in the listings. In 1903, he’s a laborer; the 1912 directory has him as a cleaner. So just maybe, he was there after all. There are missing pages in the online version of the directory for me to crosscheck by street name. I am not even sure Pittsburgh used the same process as Detroit City Polk Directories. In the Detroit directories, the streets were indexed in the back. That index also listed the residents’ name. A useful method in hunting an ancestor in a census, if cannot find them through an index. I would like to surmise that this was a printer’s error.
Then again, there is a rumor that the last couple of children didn’t belong to Adam. Some other man fathered those children. That maybe Adam left long before 1917.
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