Beginning a New Year has always meant reviewing what was accomplished in the previous year and setting new goals for the future. The year of 2020 is now in my rear-view mirror, so looking back is something I've been contemplating. My family came through (so far) unscathed by the COVID-19 virus. Looking back at my last blog post in March 2020, was one of hope that COVID-19 would go away quickly. As we have all discovered it has not, and in fact is raging throughout the world in 2021. But the vaccine is here and hopefully everyone will think twice about getting it as their "number" is called.
I had an extremely busy year in 2020, despite the virus. I assumed the new position of registrar for The Flower Mound NSDAR in June 2020 and everyone who was staying home decided that is was a good time to apply to become a DAR member. So my summer became extra busy and we saw a record number of new members apply and being accepted into the DAR. The same busy elements affected with my genealogy business, as I accepted multiple new clients and worked to research without the help of the libraries and courthouses. Some of these research efforts are now complete, others are on hold until we can get back out to the place where many records are held or where derivatives allow us to search for a lead. So, looking back it was a great year. I'm a coordinator for ProGen49, which started in the summer, and I learn monthly from a group of talented genealogists who are working to hone their skills. I'm also working as a mentor for NGS for one of their courses, and again enjoy helping others learn to research and write. I'm also still teaching for OLLI-UNT, and offered a class in the fall on land records. This spring will see a class on Military Records and Publishing your Genealogy. So where does that take me for 2021? I'm working on writing about the family. It is something I have really wanted to do. I've submitted 3 articles to genealogy societies so far, and hope to do several more this year. My hopes is to write a story on each of my 5 patriots, and doing that has already shown me that I have 2 or 3 more patriots for which I should complete a supplemental application. This year also offers me the opportunity to write more blogs. I plan to work on the 52 Ancestor challenge, but not necessarily use it regularly. Sometimes moving off of research to write a blog was frustrating for me, and not what I felt was a good use of my time. Yet, there were prompts that just fit! And when they did, how much fun to tell the story. So, I'm declaring this the year of writing! When you don't see a blog, know that I'm probably writing something longer, but I'll be back to tell you who the newest story is about.
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So for me, March was not the month for writing a blog or participating in the #52Ancestors blog challenge. So much is happening in the United States and globally with the Coronavirus 19, I found it difficult to find the words to write. Fortunately as I write this all members of my family and extended family are doing well. But then the prompt for this week came out, Nearly Forgotten and I realized it was time to write, especially as a point of history for all of us.
At the time of the 1850, 1860 and 1870 census, besides counting the number of people that were alive, there was a mortality schedule created. This schedule listed all of the people that had passed in the year before 1 June 1860 (for example). The questions may have included: Name, Age at last birthday, sex, race, marital status, profession or occupation, state, territory or country of birth of person and parents, length of residence in county, month in which the person died, disease or cause of death, place where disease contracted and name of attending physician. In the 1860 mortality schedule for Tippah County Mississippi there were 159 individuals reported in the Northern Division and 149 individuals reported in the Southern Division of Tippah County Why so many? The answer is offered by Jno. Siddell the Assistant Marshall for the Southern Division in two additional pages of information he offered at the end of the county mortality schedule. He writes: “The hog cholera first made its appearance in Tippah county in 1858 and killed an immense number of hogs in that year and continued without abatements until in the Spring of the present year. Since which time I have heard nothing of it. . . . . It effects closely resembled the disease (Cholera) in the humane species to wits: Violents, Vomiting, ad Purging which terminates life frequently in a few hours. . . . .There is no remedy yet known, many preventatives have been encouraged but none have proven effectual.” Approximately 150 were children younger than 10, meaning they would never have been listed on a census report and in some cases their births might not have been registered. Without the mortality schedule we might not find them as part of our research. Some are listed as having died with croup or pneumonia, whooping cough or fever. One family, in the Southern Division lost 3 children in that previous year one in January and two in December all to Scarlet Fever, all under the age of 6. I was researching this schedule looking for the death of a man who seems to have disappeared from the census after 1850. I didn’t find him. What I found was a story of the Nearly Forgotten. Children that would be missed from our genealogy research if not for these mortality schedules. I wonder if the 2020 census should have a special census dedicated to those that pass due to the Coronavirus. However, Jno. Siddell didn’t stop with the explanation of the deaths. He went on two provide two sketches of the land in the Southern Subdivision and a description of the area as he describes three specific regions: the Sand, the Pine and the Marl. He described in detail the types of crops and timber that can be found in each area. He was more than a census taker, he was a historian helping us all understand life in 1860 in Tippah County, Mississippi. The mortality schedules that are available by state and year are listed on the United States Census page: https://www.census.gov/history/www/genealogy/other_resources/mortality_schedules.html. The ones for Mississippi were found on FamilySearch. A moment in time in 1860. I wonder what the moment in time in 2020 will look like 160 years from now? There is no question that the theme for this week evoked the need to write about Clara Coleman, the grandmother of my husband. Clara’s move to eastern Montana in 1916 to become a schoolteacher, is just one of the elements that speak to her strength. Let the story begin! Clara Alice Coleman was born on 23 January 1896 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Halbert Armine Coleman and Lulu Barney. She was the oldest of two sisters, the other being Zillah Louise. The pictures of her as a young girl growing up in Milwaukee, showed her smiling and well-dressed whether she was playing in the yard, or in the hands of her mother. Clara’s life changed at the age of 11 when her parents divorced. She moved with her mother and her sister to Clear Lake, Wisconsin where she was found living in the 1910 census. A later postcard dated 1924 and sent with a note to her son showed the State Normal School in Superior Wisconsin, where she attended school for certification. At the age of 20, Clara moved to Carter County, Montana to find work as a teacher. Her diary was later found and transcribed and here are just three of the comments from that time period. January. 7, 1917 I gave my Christmas program Sat. afternoon Dec. 23. Just the parents were present, but all enjoyed the tree etc. I got handkerchiefs from all the pupils and a crocheted chamois skin from Clara W. Not much excitement all week. I had only 6 pupils. All I’ll have the rest of the winter, I think. Wednesday Eve. February 14 Valentine’s Day. I hope I won’t hear that word again for another year. I had the White twins all day today. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to manage them next year or not. Mrs. White came over in the afternoon. We played games, etc. all afternoon and ended up with a picnic lunch. The diary also provides the reader a look into the life of a young woman in Montana. Her diary is full of notes about Ezekiel Lee Richardson, who she calls Lee, some of them quite telling. Sunday, January 14, 1917 After dinner it was all aboard for Five Mile Again. Lee and I were all along (All Alone) coming down. Between the schoolhouse and Zimmerman’s just ahead of us, a coyote crossed the road. IT being the first one I had ever seen, Lee stopped the car so that I could get a good look at it, but before we went on, coyotes were note the topic of the conversation. Things were becoming sentimental. I don’t know just how it came about, but before I knew what was happening Lee was telling me he was tired of living in a house and that he wanted a home and someone to take care of it for him etc. Sunday night. May 6, 1917 At last we’ve decided to settle people’s curiosity and do as they expect us too. Lee and I decided Friday night that it would be best for us to be married right away. I’m letting Lee do all the planning. Even now I can’t realize that another week may see me a married woman. It’s impossible. I had never imagined that I would be married this way when I thot of it at all. I haven’t got a thing ready and I won’t even have a wedding dress. I wonder what Mother and the folks will think when they get my letter. I hope they don’t disown me! I ought to write Dad, but I won’t. I’ll just send him a telegram after its all over with. I’m so glad Lee is going to settle up my debit scores right away. I couldn’t marry him was a clear conscience otherwise. Clara Alice Coleman married Ezekiel Lee Richardson sometime after the last diary note, on 12 May 1917 in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. They had their first son James Louis on 29 AUG 1918 and Willis Barney “Bill” on 4 December 1919. Lee continued as a merchant in Alzada and Clara ran a confectionery store. In the 1920 census of School District 56 in Carter County, Montana, Lee, Clara and their two sons are listed. Lee’s position is listed as a “freighter.” His brother Lewis is living with them. His parents are listed nearby (George and Nancy) with 6 of their 13 children still at home. His brother William Joseph is listed as Joe, a boarder in the 84th place on the census. Prior to the beginning of the school year in 1923, Clara and her two sons left Lee behind and moved to Hysham, approximately 200 miles away. In 1924 she moved into Rosebud, 40 miles from Hysham to teach seventh and eighth grade. According to an interview with Bill Richardson, the son of Clara and Ezekiel, in 1990, prior to his death, he stated that his mother told him that there was to be paid $300 in alimony, but it was never paid. Clara is shown in the 1930 census with just her two sons, living in Rosebud Montana and working as a schoolteacher. On 25 August 1930, Clara married Joe Barley, a child of Mathias Barley and Gertrude Yenko. They moved to his homestead filed for in 1907, and herded sheep on what was called the Barley Brothers Ranch, along with two of his brothers John and Frank. The ranch was fifteen miles northeast of Rosebud, and six miles from the nearest neighbor. On 14 December 1932, Valeria Clara Barley was born and became an additional mouth to feed and care for by Clara Alice, in addition to the growing boys, James and Bill. On 13 October 1936, Clara A. Barley, formerly Clara A. Richardson secured a homestead of 640 acres reading “Section twenty-eight in Township eight north of Range forty-three east of the Principal meridian, Montana.” This land was directly next to the land owned by the Barley brothers. This was during the time that the sheep herding was doing well, and thus there must have been the need for additional land at that point in time. Her daughter, Valeria Clara makes the following description about her mother’s life: The house was kept clean, the meals tasty, the garden painstakingly cultivated by hand; but still there was time for books, and games, and music and embroidery. The Needlework Departments of the Fairs in Forsyth, Miles City, Billings and Great Falls can all attest to her Blue-Ribbon entries in ‘cut work,’ white and colored embroidery, knitting, crocheting, etc. No one ever enjoyed a challenge at the Bridge Table more. And how many games of Monopoly, Rummy, Scrabble, etc. were enjoyed by her family and friends? As a Rebekah she participated wholeheartedly in the local Mary May Lodge in Rosebud; and she served as State President in 1954, visiting all the Lodges in the state and attending national and international meeting with honor. Quietly she took an interest in politics and served as Democratic Committee Woman in Rosebud County. A lifelong Episcopalian, she was a member of the Daughters of the King and worked with Guild Projects.” Sometime between 1958 and 1960 Joe and Clara divorced. The Barley Brothers Ranch was sold in 1961, and Joe moved in with his youngest brother, Martin, to the ranch originally owned by his parents. Just prior to the ranch sale, at the age of 60, Clara took a freighter across the Atlantic Ocean visiting multiple ports of calls and friends that she had corresponded with through postcards. She died on 24 December 1969 at the age of 73. Her strength was demonstrated in multiple ways. Moving to the unknown, marrying and divorcing twice were things not many women did in the beginning of the 20th century. She demonstrated warmth and love to her children and grandchildren, something that withstood the test of time. References: Wisconsin, Department of Health Services, birth certificate, 469-01169 (1896), Coleman, Vital Records Office, Madison. Montana, Department of Public Health and Human Services, death certificate, 69-6527 (1969), Clara Alice Barley, Office of Vital Statistics, Helena. South Dakota, Butte County, County Judge, dated 12 May 1917, marriage certificate, Ezekiel L. Richardson and Clara Alice Coleman, Department of History, Division of Census and Vital Statistics, Belle Fouche, South Dakota. Montana, County Marriages, 1865 – 1950”, FamilySearch.com (https://familysearch.org/ark:61903/1:1:F3Q2-XWB:7, accessed 7 December 2014), Joe Barley and Clara A. Richardson, 25 AUG 1930, citing marriage, Billings, Yellowstone, Montana, county courthouses, Montana. Clara and Louise Barney Coleman Photograph, ca. 1896; Clara Alice Coleman Photograph, ca. 1898; Clara Alice Coleman Photograph, ca. 1899, Coleman Family Collection, Privately held “Diary of a Young Teacher – 1917: Clara Alice Coleman,” (transcribed in 1985), privately held. 1920 U.S. Census, Carter County, Montana, population schedule, School District 56, Enumeration district (ED) 31, p. 5, dwelling 82, family 82, Lee Richardson, NARA microfilm publication T625, Roll 967. 1930 U.S. Census, Rosebud County, Montana, population schedule, School District #12, Enumeration district (ED) 44-15, p. 4, dwelling $78, Family #80, Clara A. Richardson, NARA microfilm publication T626. State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certified Copy of Birth Certificate, #7099, Valeria Clara Barley, 14 DEC 1932, Custer County, Miles City.. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, “Land Patent Search,” digital images, General Land Office Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov, accessed 28 AUG 2016), Clara A. Barley, formerly Clara A. Richardson (Billings, Montana) document no. 032457. Rosebud County Bi-centennial Committee, They Came and Stayed, p. 12. I’ve been participating in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, #52Ancestors. This week the theme offered is disaster and I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing my ancestors to see what could qualify as a disaster, as I didn’t remember finding anything that earth-shaking while doing my previous research. So, excuse me, if this isn’t what image of disaster means to you, but my 2nd great grandfather had a really tough life. John Lewis Miller was born in 1842 to Peter Miller and Elizabeth Hartman in Washington County, MD. He was the 4th child of 8. In 1853, his father died, leaving the family of 8 in financial distress, such that his mother had to sell the family farm, and then lease the home as a place for her and the children to live. Just ten years later, on the 3 August 1863, John Lewis enrolled in Company B of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Cavalry at the age of 21, as the regiment had just finished at Gettysburg where they lost most of their men. He was honorably discharged on 28 June 1865 at Harpers Ferry, but it could have been sooner, as he was injured in November 1864. 98 pages of a Pension file tells the story of how multiple individuals worked together to try to help him obtain his pension. John Lewis was hurt while drilling his horse in November 1864. The horse jumped over a pole and a ditch during the drill. The horse nipped the ditch and threw John over his head, while his “private parts” caught on the saddle. There was a rupture that resulted in a hospital visit at Martinsburg, and then on to Frederick MD, and eventually to Annapolis, MD. The rupture was treated but resulted in him having rheumatism throughout his life. When John Lewis first returned from the Civil War, he moved back into his mothers’ home where he worked as a boatman on the Chesapeake & Oil Canal. John married by 1880 and had three children. His wife, Sarah Katherine Yantz died in 1882, and then he experienced the deaths of his two sons, one in 1883 and one in 1885. Although I’ve researched all of their deaths, I’m unable to pinpoint the reasons for them, but 3 deaths in 3 years seems to be extreme. John then lived with his daughter Jennie Miller for the rest of his life. Little is known about the two children, except for that which is contained in his pension. John tried to obtain a pension beginning in 1887, shortly after the deaths of his family. Initially it was denied because there were no hospital records of his injury or his stay. John was notified in 1890 that the pension would be denied. John tried again in 1893 and then again in 1898 to receive a pension. Finally, in 1912 as a result of the act of 11 May 1912, John Lewis began to receive a pension of $24 per month. The pension continued until his death in 1921. Just prior to his death, on 27 April 1921, a letter was written by a friend to the Honorable Washington Gardner, then the Commissioner of Pensions. The letter states ”Mr. Miller is in great physical and financial distress, and I shall greatly appreciate it if you will give his claim early consideration.” The goal was to increase the amount of the pension that John was receiving. Unfortunately, John Lewis passed less than one month later, before any decision had been made. John Lewis died just 1 year after my father was born, and so he knew little personally about the man. John Lewis during his later life became the “father” to his daughters 7 children, because their father died in 1908. My dad explained that his mother, one of the seven, spoke little about him, as she believed nothing good could be said, and so she said nothing. John’s life was not a happy one, or at least I’m still looking for the positive stories in his life. Maybe one wouldn’t say it was a disaster, but I’m sure there are times, he might have felt that the world was conspiring against him. The picture above was a picture of John Lewis and his daughter Jennie taken just prior to her marriage in 1896. This week’s blog for #52Ancestors is titled “Prosperity.” I asked my husband when he thinks of this term, who in his line stands out. Our conversation reminded us of his great aunt on his paternal side, Clara Coleman (1867 to 1941). She was the daughter of William Werner Coleman (1835-1888) and Clara Valeria Metzl (1838-1924), German immigrants to the United States in 1850. They arrived separately, but both traveled from New York to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they met and married in 1858. Soon after 5 children were born to the family, with Clara being the third. She was the older sister of my husband’s great-great grandfather, Halbert Armine Coleman. William Werner Coleman became a newspaper man in Milwaukee who published Der Herald, touted at the time as one of the leading German daily papers of the country. Clara was actually in Germany studying when her father passed. Shortly after her return Clara married a steam pipe covering manufacturer, Thomas Franklin Manville who was born in Neenah Wisconsin, and was living in Milwaukee. Thomas worked for the company called the Manville Covering Company which had been founded by his father in 1885. The Manville Covering Company merged in 1901 with H.W. Johns Manufacturing to become the H.W. Johns-Manville Company, and by 1926 was renamed the Johns-Manville Corporation. By 1905 Thomas was in New York along with Clara managing the now growing asbestos company. Two young children, Thomas (1894) and Clara (1895) were listed in the state census of 1905. Halbert, Clara’s brother, visited the family in New York City in 1907 and sent the following postcard back to his mother. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as well as multiple others carried a story in July 1926, after Thomas Senior’s death in New York City. The story discussed that Thomas’s net estate totaled $22,179,049.00, the bulk being left to his two children, Thomas Jr. and Lorraine. His former wife, Clara Coleman was not mentioned in the will. Clara and Thomas divorced in 1909, at which time Thomas, Sr. was granted custody of his son and Clara was granted custody of her daughter.
The son, Thomas Franklin Manville, Jr. had been previously disinherited, according to the article as a result of his elopement to a ‘Follies” girl, but later reinstated when he divorced her. Overall Thomas, Jr. had 11 wives in 13 marriages during his life. Supposedly he spent more than $1.25 million in marriage settlements throughout this lifetime. His first marriage was to Florence Huber, the “Follies” girl, in 1911 and stayed with her for 10 years, the longest period of marriage that he experienced. Clare Lorraine Manville fared slightly better in terms of her love life, marrying 4 times prior to her death in 1959. She left the bulk of her estate to her daughter, Mrs. Lorraine Manville Amato, with just two clocks going to her brother. Maybe prosperity isn’t all it is cracked up to be, or at least it wasn’t in the Manville family when it comes to stability within the family unit. The oneThose who know me, know I’ve told this story before, because in so many ways the finding provided me a voice of the past. It seems to be the right story for the #52Ancestor writing challenge this week, title Favorite Discovery. When my mother passed, I received 40 boxes and 4 filing cabinets of genealogy research. She was a professional genealogist, doing work for others, while researching her family and that of my fathers. My husband was astounded that I accepted all of the information readily, and it sat in the bedroom over the garage for several months in early 2007. Finally one rainy weekend, I went into the room and decided that I would start to sort and figure out what exactly were in the boxes. Four hours later my husband found me sitting on the floor, crying. I had found a very small linen box in the 4th box I had opened. Inside that box were 52 letters on YMCA paper written by my maternal grandfather during World War One. The letters started after he was drafted and at Camp Sherman in April 2018 through to his return home in April 1919. He was a private and was a machine gunner who fought as part of the Hindenburg Line on the western front of the war. The letters were written to his future wife, his sisters and his parents and everyone of them is heartfelt. But it wasn’t just the letters in the box that caused my tears. The larger box also contained eight pages of typing that my grandfather had written upon his return home, that told the story of the war that he couldn’t tell in the letters. He had purchased pictures from the American Expedition Forces (the AEF) of the scenes he remembered in the war. The one here is of the Hindenburg Tunnel. His original map that he used throughout his trip, marking the stops that were made, was glued to a drawing of his family tree. Each of these items, along with his original service paperwork was kept by my mother in archival style. The writing was superb, the stories unbelievable. All came from the man I knew as grandfather, a farmer in eastern Ohio. A man who spoke little, other than grace at dinner, and never about the war. But his smile showed his love for his wife and my mother. These letters were left by my mother for me to find. And now I’m in the midst of publishing the story in his words, the story of faith, strength and determination by a man who wanted to return home to his family and his future wife. Here is just one letter for your appreciation of this man and his writing, written to his sister Mary, on September 28, 1918. Dear Sister Mary, I have a few minutes this morning and will reply to the fine letter I received a few days ago. I have the last of my ink in the pen, so will save that to address envelopes and write with this pencil stub until I can get some more. The girls are more than enlisting for overseas service, aren’t they? Well I fear there will be some very disappointed girls, because Sherman said “The Civil War was Hell” but it couldn’t hold a candle to this. If I ever get back and you people fully realize what it all is, you will be somewhat surprised. But if I don’t I would rather you would never attempt to locate my grave and carry my body back to the Land I love. (for it would be a very foolish attempt for reasons I cannot give here). Memories of me, my service flag you have gotten for me (and the Stars and Stripes which hangs in my room) the ones I loves so much will be the things I want you to remember me by and remember to that we boys are fighting to make this world safe and clean for our parents, brothers, and sisters, wives and sweethearts. You have always been good to me and it sure makes it a lot easier and after all “heaven is our real home and we are only here on a mission”. I think of you many twice each day and try to imagine what each of you are doing. But the best thing we think about is that our people and home are safe from the ravages of war and when this is over, we can come back to them and know they are open and a wonderful welcome awaits us. The Allies are certainly doing wonderful work and are staying a terrible offensive and capturing many prisoners, we often see bands of them going by working on roads, and performing other duties, so we hope it will not be long until it is all over and we can come back to you. As ever, Your only Brother, Earl My mother in 1943 started her genealogy research, and I am privileged to have many of those early letters and notes. The whole reason for the research was the marriage of her maternal grandparents, Walter Abraham Fox to Eva Leona Fox. They were married on 9 January 1894 in Carroll County, Ohio. They had 7 children, Esther Irene, Gladys Gretna, Fern Daisy (my grandmother), Margaret Ruth, Alfred Earl and Curtis Roscoe. In a family tree drawing done in 1913 the two were listed with both having the last name of Fox. My mother was convinced that not only were they probably cousins, but that was why her mother had only been able to have one child. And the reason why only one of her three aunts had one child. Both of her grandparents died in the early 1930s when my mother was 10 or 11, so I doubt she asked them the answer to her question about their relationship. None of her aunts or uncles knew the answer, and the drawing had stopped with Walter and Eva. Well, today we know the story. Walter and Eva are second cousins once removed. But what does that really mean? The diagram below helps. As you can see from the chart, Heinrich “Henry” Fox is Eva’s great-great grandfather. But the same man is the great grandfather of Walter Abraham Fox, Eva’s husband. Although there is only 8 years of age difference on when they were both born, Walter is a different generation then Eva, thus the “once removed.” Walter and George (Eva’s father) are second cousins – both having the same grandfather. But Eva is the child of George, so that makes them second cousins once removed. If you search on the internet for Relationship Charts + genealogy, there are wonderful charts and images that can help you figure out these confusing relationships. So, did this happen just once on the family tree to which I belong? No, it is present THREE (3) times. On my fathers’ side in the King family, first cousins married. Philip King (1709 -1783) had multiple children. One was John and another was Michael. They both had children who married, John (son of John) married Rebecca (daughter of Michael). But the story gets better. John King and Rebecca King had a daughter who they named Rebecca. John King, the grandfather of Rebecca, had another son Samuel. Samuel had a son, Charles Frederick King who married (wait for it) Rebecca King. So yes, Charles and Rebecca are also first cousins! Maybe this is why my mother never got around to writing the family history and left it for me to explain! The year 1853. The place Mussbach, Bayern Germany. Nearly one million Germans immigrated to American in the 1850’s, and they came for a variety of reasons including political oppression, religious persecution and poor economic conditions. Conrad Braun, his wife Anna Maria Wickert, and 3 children, Catherine (16), Jacob (14), and Michael (12) left Germany to travel to the United States. Their port was not the shorter route of New York, but instead they came to the port of New Orleans. Papers there reported that there was a higher that ever number of German immigrants for the past 4 years, surpassing those of the Irish. However, the trip did not end in New Orleans. The Braun family and many Germans traveled up the river to the Saint Louis, Missouri area. The Braun family chose to go across the river from New Orleans and settled in Mascoutah, Illinois.
A report in “An Early History of Mascoutah” by Herbert Lill, gives an account of another family from Germany who traveled to St. Louis. It took 46 days to cross the ocean and 9 more to reach St. Louis. Some ships provided provisions for the travelers, others just provided water, a method for cooking and a place to sleep. It is unknown what type of ship the Braun’s were on, but the trip could not have been easy. In Mascoutah, Conrad was noted as a shoemaker in the 1860 census. Most pioneers wore boots, and they needed to be made to be sturdy for the work in the fields. The boots were made of cowhide, unless someone was wealthy and then they were made of soft leather. Also, by 1860, they had an American son, Louis who was born in 1853. Conrad’s oldest daughter Catherine married in 1861, the same time that both of his oldest sons joined the Union forces of the Civil War. Although unknown exactly when, Anna died prior to 1870. At some point in time, Conrad and his youngest son Louis moved to Trenton in Clinton County Illinois, about 2 miles from Mascoutah. There Conrad continued to work as a shoemaker, while Louis continued his schooling. Conrad lived there until he passed in 1883 and is believed to be buried in the old Wakefield Cemetery. So why write about Conrad, my husband’s second great grandmother? In a car trip in 2019 from Denton, Texas to Indianapolis, Indiana, we happened to have the opportunity to stop in Mascoutah and Trenton Illinois to do some genealogical research. We also were hunting for the old Wakefield Cemetery now known as the Matsler Cemetery in Clinton County, Illinois. After receiving basic directions we headed towards Huey, Illinois. The snow was steady as we exited the main road and drove into Huey, a small one crossroad town. Finding the post office, we stopped and asked directions to the cemetery. The postmaster called the individual responsible for roads and he came and penned a map for us to get to the cemetery. We found the cemetery 15 minutes later, covered with beautiful white snow. We elected to go ahead and search but had no success in finding the tombstone of Conrad. My husband kept saying “we are a long way from home!” I kept thinking, we weren’t very far, in comparison to the trip of the Braun’s from Germany. This week’s prompt for #52Ancestors was Close to Home and immediately my mind jumped to something that happened with my father late in his life. My dad was born in Fayette County, PA, but moved to Sebring OH before he was 10. He went to college at Miami University of Ohio, and then became a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II, living in Washington, DC then Hollywood Beach, FL and then Memphis, TN. He married my mom at the beginning of the war (December 5, 1941), but once the war finished, they moved to Cleveland OH. So the theme Close to Home doesn’t work for his early life. About 1980, my dad took a new job in Philadelphia and my parents moved to West Chester, Chester County, PA. This was a dream for my mother, the genealogist, because the majority of her ancestors, and those of my father came from through Philadelphia prior to the American Revolutionary War, and then moved on to western Pennsylvania before ending up in eastern Ohio. My parents were constantly visiting courthouses and genealogical societies to work towards finding their ancestors. But one ancestral couple remained elusive. They were the parents of my fathers 2nd great grandfather, Samuel Coffman. My father would often comment, that if it was easy, he would be related to Jacob Kauffmann of Chester County, PA. Jacob’s history is written in the book The Search for My Kauffman Ancestors Through the Cobwebs and Shadows of Antiquity by Robert Jesse Kauffman. Jacob came from Germany and settled in Berks County, but in 1774 he purchased 123 acres of land in East Whiteland Township, Chester County, PA, about 5 miles from the home my parents purchased in 1980. Below is a map from the book of this land (page 28). The blue line added towards the top is about where my parents’ home was located. The blue line on the bottom along Route 30 is where you would need to travel to get to the Sunrise Living Center. The blue plot of land was that of Jacob Kauffmann in 1774. When my mother contracted Alzheimer’s in 2006, and it became too much to care for her at home, Dad moved her to a Sunrise Living Center in Paoli, PA. Upon her death, my dad also took up residence at Sunrise. Dad would often look out his window and comment, that Jacob’s land was just across the highway, and down about 1 mile.
Prior to my father’s death in 2011, I asked him to do another DNA test. He had been tested in 2001, when the tests first came out, but I felt an updated extended test might help us solve the mystery of Samuel’s parents. Dad took the test and his specimen matched to other individuals who were known relatives of who else – but Jacob Kauffman. Today those of us that are related to Samuel Coffman of Fayette County are still doing more research to determine whether Jacob was Samuel’s father, or whether there is some other relationship between the two men. I hope that one day I’ll actually have the answer to that specific question. But my dad so wanted his relative to be Close to Home that I can’t help but wonder if that musing led to selection of Sunrise Living Center, and when the preliminary results of Jacob’s connection came to be known, Close to Home meant something more to both my father and me. There is no question that the term “long line” can mean a variety of things. Standing in a long line at a grocery store check-out was the first thing that popped into my mind. However, when applying it to genealogy, there was no question that my “long line” is the line on my pedigree chart that goes back the farthest. So, my “long line” is through my maternal grandfather for 10 generations. That individual is Michael Langenegger born about 1564 in Bern Switzerland. Neither my mother nor I can take any credit for finding this connection. Instead the research was done by a variety of people and written about in the “Longenecker Family Newsletter” particularly in Volume 6, No. 1. The masthead for the Newsletter is shown below. Here is my lineage beginning with my grandfather (with the wives not listed except for Mary Longacre who was the introduction of the Langenegger family. Earl Vern Yoder (1895-1975) Son of Howard Harrison Yoder (1871-1934) Son of James Longacre Yoder (1832-1898) Son of William Yoder and Mary Longacre (1793-1890) Mary Clark Longacre (1832-1893) Daughter of Daniel Longacre(1765-1837) Son of David Longenecker (1706-1776) Son of Reverend Daniel Longenecker (1686-1786) Reverend Daniel Longenecker (the immigrant to the US) (1686-1756) Son of Hans Langenegger (1652-1691) Son of Christian Langenegger (1626-1673) Son of Ulli Langenegger (1593- UNKNOWN) Son of Michael Longenegger (1564-1602) So who was Reverend Daniel Longenecker, the immigrant? According to my mother’s files, he immigrated before 1720 from Switzerland along with his brother Ulrich. Daniel was persecuted at home and to obtain religious and civil liberty he along with his brother traveled abroad. Many of Daniel’s ancestors changed the spelling of their last name to Longacre; while those descendants from Ulrich remained Longenecker. Daniel was a Mennonite preacher in the Manatawny District by 1727, which was the area of Coventry, Vincent and Phoenixville areas outside of Philadelphia. In 1730 he was naturalized in Berks County. Daniel received an original land grant for 230 acres on the southeast side of the Schuylkill River from John Penn, Thomas Penn, et al. Daniel and Elizabeth had 8 children. Reverend Longenecker is thought to be buried in the Lower Skippack Mennonite Cemetery in Pennsylvania. David his oldest son got the farm and continued in his father’s footsteps as a Mennonite minister. There is a wonderful book if you can find it written in 1902 called “ History of the Longacre -Longaker- Longenecker History” written by John Longenecker. It has been also recently reprinted. More information about Daniel and his family can be found at the Mennonite Heritage Center: http://mhep.org/our-immigrant-heritage-longacre/. #52Ancestors 52 Weeks
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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 |