How can someone ask me to pick ONE (1) Favorite Picture? (#52 Ancestor Challenge). I’ve spent multiple hours and years digitizing many of the pictures accumulated from my parents. Currently there are over 17,000 and there are still more than 10 photo boxes, 8 carousels and 10 albums left to be digitized. This doesn’t include the ones we have taken as our three boys grew into the wonderful men they are today. So, I must admit, after much angst, one has been chosen. I made the decision that it had to demonstrate family, fun and fond memories.
This picture was taken from an album entitled 1961, Halifax, Cape Cod, Boston and Nova Scotia. This picture is one of many taken from a summer trip to this area. We traveled, as we often did, with my cousins (Jimmy and Steve) and their parents (Jim and Margaret). In this picture the group had just finished fishing and were showing off their success. Included from left to right are Fred Coffman (my father), Sally Coffman (my sister), Jimmy Coffman, Dan Coffman (my brother), Jim, Steve and Margaret Coffman. My mother was probably taking the picture, as she was the official photographer. So why wasn’t I included in the photo? I would have been seven (7) at the time, and probably was not involved in this adventure for the day. Or more likely, I was upset about not being able to hold a fish! The story told to me, is that while everyone was fishing, I walked around the edge of the stream where the fishing was happening. As I was walking, I explained that I wasn’t allowed to fish to anyone that would listen. I also was concerned that my family wasn’t going to catch anything for dinner and was asking for handouts from others. I did come home with several, no one remembers how many fish, but mom and dad weren’t pleased with my actions. So maybe the picture was taken without me as a punishment, since I had not really “caught” the fish. But what this picture depicts are the vacations. We traveled the USA every summer during my dad’s three-week vacation. Always by car. Always camping as a five-person family in one tent. And we looked like gypsies. But we had fun. My parents believed that we should see all of the national parks and enjoy the splendors of nature. We traveled to Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Bryce and Zion parks, to name just a few. We covered all of the states and driving from our home state of Ohio. My parents’ goal was to have us see every national park in the US, before my brother left for college. Many of the trips were with my cousins, but some were just our family of five. When the cousins get together today, we often share memories and how much trouble each and everyone of us got into during the trips. We laugh at my mother burning her tongue as she cleaned a rock in the Grand Canyon. Or my sister who would not get out of the car after seeing a dead snake on the side of a road as we traveled into our campsite. Or the time I woke from a nap and was told to stay in the tent, as a bear was rummaging in our food outside the tent. At times I don’t remember the experiences as vividly as the others, being the youngest of the group. But I do remember the scenery and the beauty of the land called the United States of America.
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A genealogist never stops finding new records, information, and context about our ancestor. Sometimes we are chasing (although we should not do this for efficiency’s sake) BSO’s (bright shiny objects) that seem to appear when we are searching for other research results. But other times, as a result of a well written, focused research question, we find the document that we were looking for. And many times that document is full of surprises. My favorite find (#52 Ancestor Challenge) has to do with my 2nd great grandfather John Lewis Miller, pictured above. His daughter was Jennie Miller who married Clark Whipkey King.[1] Their oldest daughter was Virginia King, my father’s mother, and my grandmother.[2] John was born on 21 March 1842 in Maryland. This fact came from a copy of a bible record my father obtained in the 1970’s.[3] But beyond that record and his death on 19 October 1921, little was researched about this man.[4] As it turns out, the pension file for his service in the Union Army in the Civil War told a story about this man and his life. A trip to the National Archives in 2016 found me hurrying to get the entire 96-page file copied before closing time. It was later that evening in a hotel room, that I realized what all was contained. John’s claim began on 16 September 1887 where he was filing out a “Declaration for Original Invalid Pension” and sending it to the government. John had enrolled on the 10 day of August 1863 in Co B of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry. He served until 28 June 1865 when he was discharged in Harper’s Ferry.[5] He was injuring in November 1864 “while on drill by practice jumping our horses over a pole and ditch drilling them to jump. My horse nipped the ditch and I fell over his head and my privates caught on the pummel of the saddle. I receive a rupture and was taken to a hospital at Martinsburg then to Frederick MD, and from there to Annapolis, MD.”[6] His request was received on 27 December 1887 by the Bureau of Pensions. Fortunately they found the Assistant Surgeon, Dr. Ainsworth who determined that he had been admitted in June 1864 (not November), then moved to Fredericksburg on 27 June 1864, then to Annapolis on 4 July 1864, before being returned to duty on 4 April 1865.[7] Unfortunately, the muster records never show him as absent during the November time period that John listed which are the dates the Adjutant General’s Office checked.[8] The times in June were not researched until later in this story. So, additional testimony was requested, as well as documentation from John. This continued through 1893, with him receiving the general allowance allowed under his service, but not additional allowance due to the disability. John reapplied sending along affidavits from a E.M. Rager and S. S. Dowlan regarding his injuries.[9] On 26 July 1893, the commission stated that they could not find these two men on the rolls of the 1st Regiment.[1] Even though both stated that they had been employed by the government as teamsters to manage the horses and may not have been listed on the soldiers’ roles. A Surgeon’s Certificate dated 12 October 1898 was a result of a visit with John Lewis Miller. The rupture was causing problems which were outlined. The surgeon declared him disabled and stated that he should be receiving $30.00 per month as a result of the injuries.[2] However, included in the pension was a note from 1909 that his pension had been increased to $24.00, so no disability had been allowed.[3] John’s paperwork to the Bureau of Pensions continued. In 1917, he became 75 years of age, and asked for an increase.[4] One came in 1920 for $72.00 when the Bureau of Pensions checked the appropriate roles for June and July 1864, finding John assigned to the hospital.[5] John had one year of that payment, prior to his death in 1921.[6] But the largest surprise came on 12 May 1921 on yet another paper in the pension file, almost at the end of the 96 pages. John was having to answer more questions regarding himself and his family. His wife, known as Sarah, was listed as Sarah Yantz – (YES!!!) her maiden name. And he provided their marriage date as 25 August 1868 in Fayetteville, Franklin County, PA. But the largest surprise was that Jennie, his daughter was not their only child. John and Sarah also had Henry P. Miller who was born on 14 April 1877 and John who was born on 6 November 1879.[7] They both are listed in the 1880 census, but neither was found after that time.[8] That is because John had died at the age of 3 in 1882, and Henry died at the age of 8 in 1885. Sarah, John’s wife died in 1883. Knowledge of these deaths led to their graves, carved on either side of their mother’s gravestone. To learn more about the Pension files from the Civil War, be sure to look at the article on the NARA website titled “A Reasonable Degree of Promptitude” that appeared in the Prologue magazine in 2010.[9] They do a wonderful job explaining the process and the term “disability,” at the time of the Civil War.
It seems appropriate to start the new year talking about my mother and her genealogical research. She is the person who served as my foundation for my love of genealogy. And “Foundations” was the first prompt for the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2022. Mom’s first notes occurred in 1943. She was living in Memphis at the time, as my father was still involved as a lieutenant in the Navy and was stationed at the base in Memphis. They had been married in 1941 in Washington DC on December 5th, 2 days before Pearl Harbor. After being stationed initially in Hollywood Beach Florida, dad was transferred to Memphis. But their love story is for another time, but this picture taken in Memphis in 1945 says it all! Mom’s first genealogy notes reference the work she was doing on the Fox line. She was researching the relationship of her grandparents Walter Abraham Fox and Eva Leona Fox. She wanted to determine if they were cousins. They were cousins, actually second cousins once removed. But this determination didn’t stop my mother from continuing to research her ancestors, and eventually my father’s ancestors. She continued working on genealogy until the early 2000’s. She left me 40 boxes and 4 filing cabinets filled with her genealogy research, upon her death in 2006.
Today in my personal library there are over 500 letters my mother wrote. Most have the result attached from her request. Now they are ordered now into notebooks by surname. She wrote to courthouses, family members, genealogical societies, museums, and libraries. Remember she did most of her research before computers, but made the transition to computers for typing notes and pedigree charts in the mid-80’s. She took me on numerous genealogy research outings. As a child I was the person running through the cemetery looking for a specific name on a tombstone. Or I was the person helping to roll and unroll the microfilm on a machine in a library while she was searching for a specific document. She took me to courthouses, the National Archives, the DAR library, the Library of Congress and the Family History Library all before I went off to college. She encouraged me to research my husband’s ancestors when his family admitted that they had little information on their ancestors. She taught me about census records, church records, tax records and land records and how to glean information from each one, before looking for a new one. Most importantly, she taught me that genealogy is not just about birth, marriage, and death records. Instead it is about the social and historical context that surrounds the life of an individual. This key foundation has meant researching for the deeper context of the lives of my ancestors. Each find deepens my understanding of their experience during the time period in which they lived. Every time my research ends in a path of frustration, I simply ask myself “What would my mother have done?” “Where would she have gone to research?” “Who else should I be contacting?” The right questions and foundation for any genealogist, but questions carrying meaning and memories of my mother. |
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January 2022
About this BlogThis blog has been designed to serve two purposes. The first is to leave the written histories of my ancestors.
The second purpose is to offer some of my own stories, so that my children and grandchildren can learn more about my direct family and my childhood. Categories |