Donna in the News – New July 8th 2019

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Don Taylor

“Donna in the News” is my reporting of newly found newspapers articles and advertising regarding my grandmother, Madonna Montran (aka Donna Montran and aka Donna Darling). I am always excited when I find a new venue for my grandmother’s exciting show business career of the 1910s and 1920s. 

This week I received a notification from Newspapers.com that I had 36 new hits on my alerts – 15 from “Montran,” 15 from “Walter Wills” (which suggests “Chin Chin”), and 6 from “Dona/Donna Darling” from seven different newspapers dated between 3 May 1920 and 5 March 1928.

The articles related to six shows during her career.  Four of the shows I had previously in my list of Donna’s performances. They were:

  • Lyceum Theatre, Paterson, PA – May 7 -8 1920 – “Chin Chin.”
  • Colonial Theatre, Lancaster, PA – April 17, 18, & 19, 1922 – “Special Easter Show.”
  • Grand Theatre, Saint Louis, MO – July 7-9, 1923 – Donna Darling show.
  • Majestic Concerts – Brooklyn, NY – Mar 5, 1928 – Donna Darling and Somory [sic] Clark in “The Princess and the King.”

Can anyone translate?

Adding more clippings to what I already had is always good.  However, what is particularly cool about the Grand Theatre clipping is that the newspaper that speaks of Donna is written in German. I don’t know what it says.  I tried OCRing the words and transcribing the text to no avail. All I really know is that the article mentions “Donna Darling” and was published during the week Donna was in Saint Louis, Mo.  Hopefully, someone who reads German and German font will help me out.

The other two venues were new to me.

  • Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, PA May 29, 1920 – Chin Chin
  • Keeney’s Theatre – Brooklyn, NY – Aug 1921, Donna Montran.

So, I’ve been able to add two new shows that Donna was a part of. I will add All of these clippings to future venue writeups.

Have a great week.

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Sketch – Lydia (Cockeram) Blackhurst (c. 1777-1827)

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Don Taylor

Ancestor Sketch
Montran-Barber-Blackhurst-Cockeram
By Don Taylor

It is always “fun” when the surname changes. Lydia’s surname has been represented several ways including Cockeram, Cochran, and Cockram. Cockeram seems to be the most commonly used form.

Research Family 2019 – Ancestor #125

List of Grandparents

Lydia Cockeram (c. 1777-1827)

It is not clear when Lydia Cockeram was born.  Possibly as early as 1775 and as late as 1778 nor who here parents are because two Lydia Cockerams were born in Mackworth, Derbyshire, England within a year of each other. One to Adam and Elizabeth Cockeram and the other to John and Helen Cockeram. For more information about the parents of Lydia, please see “Lydia Cockeram’s Parents.”

If Adam and Elizabeth are her parents, then she grew up the 7th of 8 children. At least two of her siblings died before she was born (Catherine-1, and Thomas). Her other siblings included Mary, Elizabeth, Catherine-2, Alice, and Adam.

If John and Helen were her parents, then she had at least one sister, also named Lydia, who was baptized on 7 July 1772 and was buried on 4 March 1773.  I have much more research to do on this possible parentage. Hopefully, I will find something which clarifies who Lydia’s parents are.

Marriage & Adulthood

St. Peter’s Church – Derby, Derbyshire – Photo by Jerry Evans.

Lydia married Stephen Blackhurst on 14 Jun 1802 at St. Peter’s Church in Derby, Derbyshire, England.

Lydia and Stephen would have at least nine children. The first two were born in Derby, and the other seven were born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.

The Children Stephen and Lydia Blackhurst

Name

 Born Death
Stephen[1] 1803 1869
Eliza 1805 Possibly[2] 1806
Mary c. 1806 Possibly 1877
Matthew 1808 1846
Francis 1812 Possibly 1820
William c. 1813 Possibly 1880
Lydia c. 1815 Possibly 1894
John c. 1818 Probably after 1844
Adamson c. 1819 Possibly 1901

It appears that Stephen and Lydia moved from Derby, Derbyshire, to Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1805 or 1806.

Death & Burial

Lydia (Cockeram) Blackhurst died on 6 May 1827, probably at the age of 50.

Further Actions / Follow-up

  1. Further research on the parents of Lydia is necessary to confirm which set of parents, Adam & Elizabeth or John & Helen are Lydia’s parents.
  2. I need to determine any additional children for John & Helen besides the two Lydia’s.
  3. I need to confirm births, marriages, and deaths for all of Stephen and Lydia’s children.

Sources

  • Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 (Mackworth, Derbyshire, England, ), Com, Lydia Cockeram – 22 Apr 1777 – Mackworth, All Saints, Derbyshire, England.
  • England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, Family Search, Eliza Blackhurst. “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NGNQ-4MJ : 11 February 2018, Stephen Blackhurst in the entry for Eliza Blackhurst, 09 Mar 1805); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 422,207, 422,208, 498,068, 498,069.
  • England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, Family Search, Stephen Blackhurst. “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NV78-7MZ : 11 February 2018, Stephen Blackhurst in the entry for Stephen Blackhurst, 13 Jul); citing yr 1662-1810, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 422,208.
  • England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537-1918, Family Search, Marriage – Stephen Blackhurst & Lydia Cockran – 14 Jun 1802.
  • England, Pallot’s Marriage Index, 1780-1837, Com, Lydia Cockram & Stephen Blackhurst – 1802. Accessed 28 Jun 2019.

————–  Disclaimer  ————–

ENDNOTES

[1] Stephen Blackhurst (1803-1869) is my 3rd Great-grandfather.

[2] Items identified as “Possibly” or “Probably” have not been verified or confirmed by me.

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Donna Darling Collection – Part 50

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Don Taylor

Monache Theatre & Gypsy

Treasure Chest Thursday
By Don Taylor

Photo of Don Taylor with cat Nasi.For this week’s Treasure Chest Tuesday, I’m looking at two pages from the Donna Darling Collection because two of the four clippings are related.

The first one (#1464) is a tiny clipping that filled in a memory gap I just couldn’t fill. I’ve seen photos of Donna with her little Pekingese dog many times and, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the dog’s name. On this page is part of an article which says,

“On the Country club links tomorrow early golfers will see Donna Darling and Sammy Clark doing 18 holes. A little pekingese most likely will be in tow. It is “Gypsy,” the prima donna’s pet,

Reading it, I said to myself, “that’s it.  The dog was Gypsy. I remember now.”

The second clipping on the page is for the Monache Theatre playing the “Donna Darling Revue with Sammy Clark.” What is great about this clipping is that Donna hand wrote “Porterville, Calif. Oct 19” on it.

I knew Donna and Sammy played the Yost Broadway Theater in Santa Ana on October 7-9 and played at the American Theater in San Jose on October 23-26, 1926.  Porterville is about halfway between Santa Ana and San Jose. This clipping provides information about a new venue for the show.

The second page consisted of two clippings. The first clipping was for the Burns Theatre in Colorado Springs, Co. I wrote about that clipping earlier in Part 21 of this series.

The second clipping “Vaudeville to Boast Plenty of Diversity” has a note handwritten across the top which says “Porterville, Calif.” The article also mentions the Monache Theatre, so it clearly belongs with the ad from 1464. The article reads, in part:

Recollections of famous beauty contests are revived with the presentation of the Donna Darling Revue, the headline act. Miss Darling was the winner of the Madison Square Garden beauty competition in New York city a few years ago, and was afterwards featured with “Chin Chin” and also with George White and Flo Ziegfeld. With Sammy Clark, “The Juvenile Komik” Rarring and Lazur, and Hal Dixon she will present a routine of songs and dances, garnished with comedy. Special stage setting and appropriate costumes enhance the beauty of the act making it worthy of more than passing potice.[sic]

Key features:

  • Donna’s dog’s name was “Gypsy.”
  • The Donna Darling Review played at the Monache Theatre in Porterville, California, on 19 Oct 1926.
    • The Bill included
      • Zuhn and Dreis
      • Curtis & Lawrence
      • Morrell & Elynor
      • Princess Winona
      • On screen “The Fighting Edge”
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Lydia Cockeram’s Parents?

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Don Taylor

Who are the parents of Lydia Cockeram, the wife of Stephen Blackhurst?

It is important to remember that other people’s trees are really only hints and you should not rely upon them as truth.  Such is my experience researching my 4th great-grandmother, Lydia Cockeram. I had known that she married Stephen Blackhurst in Derby, Derbyshire, England in 1802 and that she had (at least) nine children.

My basic research practice is to find my ancestor on Family Search. In this case, she is Lydia Cockeram, spouse of Stephen Blackhurst and parents of Adam and Elizabeth Cockeram. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/27SC-YWL. Awesome, I now have potential names for her parents.  Next, I review all of the sources for the individual’s facts.  In this case, there were 33 sources. I determine what facts can be attributed to each of the sources. In this case, many of the sources were duplicated or even triplicated, but 10 were solid sources. Many of the records dealt with the children of Lydia. If a son or daughter of Stephen and Lydia was baptized/christened, it is likely they lived in that location at that time. In the case of Stephen and Lydia, their first two children were born in Derby, Derbyshire, while the other seven children were born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, thus making it evident they moved from Derby to Sheffield in 1805 or 1806.

Lydia, Daughter of Adam and Elizabeth Cockeram baptized 22 Apr 1777

In my research, I saw where Adam and Elizabeth Cockeram had a daughter Lydia who was christened on 22 April 1777. I aso saw that John and Helen Cockeram had a daughter that was christened on 21 March 1778. Look as I may, I could not find any source that would corroborate who the parents of the Lydia that married Stephen Blackhurst were. Are my Lydia’s parents Adam & Elizabeth or are they John and Helen?

Lydia, daughter of John and Helen Cockeram baptized 22 Apr 1778

Next, I went to Ancestry.Com. What did other people’s trees there say. Three of the trees indicated Lydia’s birthday was 12 March 1777 (her Baptism Date). Eight of the trees indicated Lydia’s birthday was 12 March 1775.  I looked very closely at those trees and found none of them had a source indicating that date.  Again, eight of the trees indicated that Lydia was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire (By the way, it was a different 8 trees) and none of the trees had a source for the birthplace, although several had her baptism/christening in Derby, Derbyshire in 1777 as I did.  Finally, all but two had Adam as Lydia’s father and, again, none of them appeared to have a source other than the sources I had for her baptism. I didn’t find any sources that people cited on Ancestry that I hadn’t already found on Family Search.

The bottom line is that I’m confident that Lydia Cockeram, who married Stephen Blackhurst,  was born in Mackworth, Derbyshire, England. She was born before 21 March 1778 and possibly born before 21 April 1777. Her parents are either Adam and Elizabeth (Hewitt) Cockeram or John and Helen Cockeram. From currently known and understood sources, Lydia, the wife of Stephen Blackhurst, parentage and birth date are still in question.

Feeling a brick wall rising, I’ve opened a discussion/collaborate on Family Search on this topic.  See: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/collaborate/27SC-YWL. Hopefully, someone will have a source record that identifies Lydia’s parents and will let me know about it either here or there. Also, I’ll continue my research. Maybe I’ll find something that will definitively answer the question of Lydia’s parents.

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Researching Ferdinand Lenz

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Don Taylor

Durand Project
By Don Taylor

Photo of Don Taylor with cat Nasi.In researching my (half) Aunt Barbara’s maternal line, I came to her great-grandfather Ferdinand J. Lenz.  I found that trying to sort her Ferdinand Lenz from the others was very difficult. There were three Ferdinand Lenz’s in the 1890s in Chicago. I believe one of them even married a Lena in 1869, so separating the Ferdinands is difficult. I decided to try to differentiate Barbara’s great-grandfather through his immigration and naturalization information.

What I think I know about Ferdinand Lenz:

The 1880 Census indicates Ferdinand and Lena lived in Effingham, Lucas County, Illinois.

The 1900 Census is very helpful. It indicates that Ferdinand was born in March of 1850 and that he and Lena have been married for 30 years. It also indicates he came to the United States in 1862, 38 years before and he had naturalized.

The 1910 Census indicates he came to the US in 1867 and was naturalized. Finally, Ferdinand’s death record indicates he was born on 12 Mar 1850 in Stargard, Germany.

Ferdinand Lenz

  • Born: 12 March 1850 in Germany
  • Immigrated: Between 1862 and 1867.
  • Naturalized: Before 1900.

I have not been successful finding Ferdinand in the 1870 Census.

Family Search

I searched Migration and Naturalization records for Ferdinand Lenz born about 1850 and who immigrated between 1862 and 1867.

Several candidates were eliminated for various reasons. There ended up with two potential candidates.

A Ferdinand Lenz naturalized on 17 Oct 1868, at the Supreme Court of New York County. This Ferdinand lived at 199 East 4th Street and was formerly Prussian.[i] After the Austro-Prussian War, much of what would later be called Germany was part of Prussia. So, this Ferdinand Lenz is a possible candidate. I should confirm that the Ferdinand Lenz who naturalized 17 Oct 1868, at the Supreme Court of New York County is or is not mine.

Next, there was a Ferdinand Lente who was born in Germany and naturalized on 10 May 1892 in the Circuit Court, Cook Co., Ill. Certificate No R-35 P-279 should show for certain. Unfortunately, this record is not available online, yet, and is available only at the Family History Library.  It is film:

Naturalizations, v. 34-35 1892
Film Number: 1024202
DGS Number: 7781542
Page Number: 279 (and associated)

Germans to America indicated three potential candidates, but all were eliminated from my consideration for various reasons.

Ancestry

A search of the records at Ancestry.Com only found the same records I found at Family Search. So, basically, I am at an impasse (brick wall). I have not been successful finding Ferdinand Lenz’s immigration or naturalization records for certain.

I have two tasks.

  1. Determine the best way to find a copy of a Naturalization Record from 1868 at the Supreme Court of New York County. Once determined, attempt to receive a copy of the record.
  2. Add to my “Tasks for the Family History Library” a task to review FHC Film 1024202, Page 279 for the record.

In the meantime, Ferdinand’s death record indicated his father was William Lenz. Next time I work on the Durand Project, I’ll attempt to do a surname study of Lenz in the Chicago area before 1900. Hopefully, I will be able to determine the siblings of Ferdinand and learn more about his parents.

ENDNOTES

[i] New York Naturalization Index (Soundex), 1792-1906,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVTW-322L : 15 March 2018), Ferdinand Lenz, 1868; citing , New York, New York, United States, Index to Naturalization Petitions filed in Federal, state and local court in New York, 1792-1906, NARA microfilm publication M1674 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 150; FHL microfilm 1,420,416.

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