Today’s goal was a simple one — determine Sarah Jones’ mother’s surname as a part of my Angley Project.
I started with very little information. Sarah was born in October 1899 to James E and Catherine Jones. They lived in Edwardsville, Luzerne County, PA for many years.
The first step was to begin searching the 1900 Census. I really like the 1900 Census because it shows the month and year for the individual’s birth as well the number of years of the present marriage. Two important identifying items.
Using Ancestry.com, I quickly found the couple in Edwardsville loving on Slocum Street. Not only did the record show daughter Sarah but also three other siblings, James E (who would be proven to be a Junior in the 1910 Census), Annie and Mary. The census showed James & Catherine were born in November 1869 and June 1872 respectively. It also showed they had been married for 10 years. So now, I had their birthdates and Marriage date.
Marriage Record – James E Jones & Catherine Thomas – [ii]
Hoping for the easy look, I searched Ancestry.com and didn’t find a record fitting the criteria I had. I then went to Family Search and there they were. James was born on 2 November 1869 and Catherine was born on 22 June 1872. They were married on 21 October 1890[i]. All the pieces fit the and the goal was realized because the marriage record indicated her maiden name was Thomas.
As something of a side note, I noticed that the reverend W. D. Thomas married them. I wonder if there is a relationship there. Further research will tell.
The ultimate reason for this project is to find a common ancestor between two people’s trees who share a large segment of DNA. The comparison tree doesn’t have a Catherine Thomas in it, so we don’t have a match, yet. That said, the comparison tree does have other Thomas surnames living in Pennsylvania about 100 miles away at the same time. Therefore, the Thomas surname is definitely an area for further research.
My foster father, Duane Olson, took me hunting when I was in high school. He liked to “jump-shoot” ducks. He knew places where there were likely to be ducks. We would then stalk the ducks at those locations. Once we got close, we would “jump” the ducks into the air. We’d get a couple birds most every time.Often my genealogical efforts use the same method. First, it helps to know where the information might be. Then, I stalk the places and “bag” my information.
I was recently at a genealogical conference and saw a copy of the Maine Register. I was immediately struck with how useful the book could be. After I got home, I looked to see if there were on-line copies of the book. There were. I found three editions on Archive.Org:
Maine Register, State Year-Book and Legislative Manual
I don’t have many trees that have Maine roots, but I thought I’d take a quick and see if the Maine Register would shed light onto the families that I do have. I pulled up the 1912 edition to see what I could find. Sure enough – there were over twenty entries on a “Bickford” search and nearly as many for “Whitten.” Briefly looking at the search results, I saw noticed several known ancestors in the findings. I also found an interesting company, the Swan-Whitten-Bickford Co., wholesale grocers in Belfast[i]. I would speculate there must be some kind of connection between that company and the Whitten-Bickford marriage twenty-five years later.
Thanks to the Maine Register, I’ve jump-shot the ducks. Next, I need to clean them, and then cook them. (Document and interpret the findings.)
If you use the Maine Register, great! If you aren’t using it yet, I highly recommend adding it to your list of important sources to “jump shoot” when you are hunting for information on your Maine ancestors.
I’ll bet other states have them too. If you know of a similar book for another state, please let me know by posting a comment below.
[i] Maine Register, State Year-Book and Legislative Manual – No. 43 – July 1912, Published by Grenville M. Donham, Portland, Maine, 1912. Accessed via Archive.org. (https://archive.org/details/maineregistersta00port)
We know that Grandpa Dick (Clifford/Richard Brown/Durand) was in the Army in the late 1920s and early 1930s and was stationed in Panama where he and Donna met. We don’t know exactly when Donna and her husband Sammy Amsterdam went to Panama, but we do know they left Panama and headed for the States in April of 1930. We are also fairly certain that they were estranged at the time. Donna and her three-year-old son, Russell, indicate their address was her mother’s in Detroit, while Sammy indicated that his address was his mother’s address in Brooklyn[i]. Family oral history has long held that Dick and Donna met in Panama and that Sammy and Donna split up because of Dick.
While I was researching Dick’s activity in Panama I encountered An American Legacy in Panama: a brief history of the Department of Defense installations and properties, the former Panama Canal Zone, Republic of Panama by Suzanne P Johnson; United States; Department of Defense; Legacy Resources Management Program; U.S. Army Garrison (Panama)[ii]. In An American Legacy… there is a photo of two “Cabaret Girls,” one of whom looks just like Donna. I talked with Russell and he agrees, it looks like Donna to him. The photo is also from the correct time and place that Donna would have been in Panama, and finally, it shows here in a bathing suit, something that Donna started being photographed in when she was seventeen. She also starred in several Bathing Suit Revues over the ensuing years (See Donna Montran).
Family oral history also says that when Dick saw Donna in Panama, he told an army buddy that he was, “going to marry that girl.” Dick and Donna never married but they did have a child in January 1932. In any event, I consider this another photo of Donna. When I have a chance to visit the National Archives, I’ll do some more searching and see what additional information they may have about the “Cabaret Girls” of Panama
Sources:
[i]Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data – Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls); Records of the U.S. Customs Service, R), iOS Application, Year: 1930; Arrival: Microfilm serial: T715; Microfilm roll: T715_4710; Line: 1; List number:.
It has been a few weeks since I’ve had a chance to blog. I’ve been in Minnesota visiting friends and relatives. During my trip, I visited a relative with Alzheimer’s disease. I had hoped to be able to interview the individual and gain some more family stories. Sadly, to say, I wasn’t able to do so. The individual’s memory was just not reliable and I’m afraid that the stories I was hoping to get just aren’t available any longer. Certainly, there were times she was lucid, like when she remembered going to her grandmother’s cabin on Walled Lake, MI and going to the amusement park there when she was a child. But, my heart broke when she asked who her oldest child was. Other memories confused individuals and places; even the name of her brother was lost in her memory.
There is probably nothing that impedes our learning important genealogical information than Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. If you can support Alzheimer’s research please do so, our family histories depend upon it. For more information on how you can help, please see the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org) or the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (www.alzfdn.org).
Bio – Dora Spalding Faulkner Mowbray (1898-1960) – Ancestor MM-05
By – Don Taylor
Dora Spalding Faulkner was the born on 3 August 1898 in Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. She was the 4th child of Francis Child and Martha Barrett (Ripley) Faulkner.
The 1900 Census finds one-year-old Dora living with her father, mother, two older brothers, and an older sister, Katherine in a beautiful home at 61 Summer Street, in Keene[i]. Her father was an attorney and her mother was keeping house. Her brothers, 17-year-old Phillip & 13-year-old Francis, as well as her eleven-year-old sister, Katherine, were all attending school. There is a gap of ten years between the birth of Katherine and of Dora, so I bet that Dora was a bit of a surprise.
In 1903, when Dora was only four years old, her father died.
We know the family stayed in Keene through the 1910 Census, which shows the widow Martha still living at 61 Summer Street with her four children plus Martha’s mother, Mary C Ripley, and two sisters, Mary and Harriett Ripley[ii]. The census also indicates that Martha only had four children, all of whom were still alive.
We know that Martha, Katherine, and Dora returned from Europe aboard the SS Rotterdam, which departed Rotterdam, Holland, and arrived at Ellis Island, NY, on 18 May 1914. The manifest indicates they were still living on Summer Street.
The 1920 Census finds Martha and Dora as lodgers at 138 Newbury St, Boston. It was in a lovely location about a block from Copley Square and a Trinity Church[iii].
Dora married Boston resident, George Siddons Mowbray on 4 November 1922, in Dora’s hometown of Keene[iv]. They would go on to have three children.
Dora was somewhat conservative as is evidenced by her supporting the Mayor of Boston’s banning of Eugene O’Neill‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Strange Interlude.”[v] Productions which may have been suitable in New York were not suitable in many other parts of the country, including Boston in 1929.
The 1930 Census finds Dora, her husband (a treasurer in the insurance industry), their three children, and two servants, living at 49 Elm Street, Wellesley, MA[vi]. The family continued living there through the 1940 Census.[vii] The home, built in 1919, still stands and is valued at 1.3 million today.[viii]
One researcher suggests that Dora died on 17 November 1960, although I have been unable to confirm that.
Further Actions:
Confirm death date, death location, and burial location for Dora.
Find a Photo of Dora
[ii] 1910 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, Year: 1910; Census Place: Keene Ward 4, Cheshire, New Hampshire; Roll: T624_860; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0040; FHL microfilm: 1374873.
[iii] 1920 United States Federal Census (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data – Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Reco), Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 8, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_742; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 232; Image: 573.
[v] Boston Herald (Boston, MA), Genealogy Bank, 1929-09-24 – Boston Herald (Boston, MA) – Page- 2 – Dora Mowbray.
[vi] 1930 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, Database online. Year: 1930; Census Place: Wellesley, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: ; Page: ; Enumeration District: ; Image:.
[vii]Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data – United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627), Database online.
[viii] See https://www.trulia.com/homes/Massachusetts/Wellesley/sold/21947744-49-Elm-St-Wellesley-MA-02481
Finding John Vinson/Vincent’s Father
It is my goal to find ancestors in all of the census records that were taken during their lifetime. Based upon the 1870 Census, I’m fairly certain that John died between 1860 and 1870. I would guess most likely during the Civil War. So, I have a lot more research to do there. But, I really wanted to track him back earlier, see where he was in the 1840 Census. Hopefully, that would tell me his father’s name, something I did not have. I knew John’s mother’s name was Elizabeth. She was a widow in the 1850 Census.
Information I had:
Mother: Born abt 1786
Father: Unknown
John: Born abt 1817 in Halifax County, NC
Nancy: Born abt 1825 in Halifax County, NC
Using Ancestry.Com, I used the Card Catalog to select only the 1840 Census.
Knowing that John was born in Halifax County and lived his entire life in Halifax County, I searched for anyone with the surname Vincent in Halifax County, NC and had no hits. Then, I searched for people with the surname Vinson in Halifax County, NC and had 4 hits. I then compared my known information about the family to see if any of them fit the things I thought I knew.
Three of the family units had few to no similarities whatsoever, but the fourth one fit it what I think I knew about John exactly.
1840 Census – Halifax County, North Carolina – Source: Ancestry.Com
Burket Vinson’s household consisted of five individuals:[1]
A male 60-70 years old – Presumed to be Berket
A male 20-30 years old – Fits John who was 23 then.
A male 15-20 years old – Unknown (possibly a brother?)
A female 50 to 60 years old – Fits Elizabeth who would be 54 at the time.
A female 15-20 years old – Fits Nancy who would be 15 at the time.
So, everything in the Burket Vinson household matches up.
Additionally, John named one of his sons, Joseph Burkett, which kept the Burkett name in the family for another generation.
So based upon the 1840 Census record for Burket Vinson, the known birth location for John, the continuation of the given name Burket, I tentatively associate Burket Vinson as John’s father. I will continue researching to see if anything contradicts this assumption. But I’m pretty sure I’ve puzzled through this wall.
John Vinson/Vincent (c. 1817 – 1860-1870)
John Vinson was born about 1817 (Between 2 Jun 1816 and 1 June 1817) in Near Weldon, Halifax County, North Carolina.
In 1840, he appears to be living with his parents, Burket and Elizabeth Vinson, a sister, Nancy, and possibly a brother.[2]
He married Lenora Busbee about 1843, because their first child, Virginia was born between June of 1844 and June of 1845.
A second daughter, Elizabeth, was born between June 1846 and June 1847.
Their third daughter, Susan R Vinson, Mary-Alice’s Great Grandmother, was born 22 August 1848.
The 1850 Census finds the young farmer with a farm worth about $50. Living with John and Lenora was Eliza Beasley, age 30.[3]
Finally, their first son, James W., was born between June 1851 and 1852.
Another son, Benjamin I., was born 1855-1856.
Another son, Joseph Burkett, was born 1857-1858.
In the 1860 Census, the family is still living near Weldon in Halifax county. John is a farmer whose real estate value is $800 (a 1600% increase in value over 10 years) and whose personal estate value is $538.[4] This was a fairly valuable at the time for a farm being worked without slaves, as the Vinsons had no slaves.
As a quick aside — the 1860 Census indicates one of John’s children is “Barkhead.” I thought that was one of the funniest names I had ever encountered. Now, I sure it was Joseph Burkett. But is still interesting to think that maybe he went be “Barkhead” when he was young.
Living with John is Ellenior, a 35 year-old seamstress. The change in name from Lenora to Ellenior and the 7 year change in age made me originally think that Lenora and Ellenior might be two different people and that John remarried between 1850 and 1860. However, finding Lenora in the 1870 census with all the children put that consideration to rest (for now at least), but, it is still an area of concern.
Finally, another daughter, Ellen B. was born 1861-1862.
I cannot find John in the 1870 Census, but found Lenora and the children, which suggests John died before 1870, probably during the Civil War.[5] I need to research and determine if the 45 year-old John served.
Further Actions:
Follow Burket & John in the 1830 and 1820 Censuses.
Determine if John fought during the civil war.
Determine more about the life of Lenora Busbee
List of Greats
Susan R Vinson John Vinson
Burkett Vinson
Endnotes
[1] 1840 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, 1840; Census Place: Halifax, North Carolina; Roll: 362; Page: 2; Image: 674; Family History Library Film: 0018094.
[2] 1840 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, 1840; Census Place: Halifax, North Carolina; Roll: 362; Page: 2; Image: 674; Family History Library Film: 0018094.
[3] 1850 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, 1850;Census Place: , Halifax, North Carolina; Roll: M432_633; Page: 34A; Image: 73. [Family 636 – John Vincent.
[4] 1860 Census, 1860;Census Place: Western District, Halifax, North Carolina; Roll: M653_899; Page: 424; Image: 228; Family History Library Film: 803899. – John Vinson.
[5] 1870 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, Year: 1870; Census Place: Rapides, Halifax, North Carolina; Roll: M593_1141; Page: 545B; Image: 516; Family History Library Film: 552640 – Lines 26-31.
