Interlibrary Loan and Edward McAllister

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Don Taylor
I know I mentioned it before, but I’ve got to mention it again, Interlibrary loan is one of your best friends. I wrote last January about the Georgia Virtual Vault and Edward Lamb McAllister. 
I still had many questions regarding Edward’s murder.  Could newspaper articles provide answers to the questions I’ve been looking for?
One of my favorite places to look for books, or anything is WorldCat. WorldCat is a huge network of library content. It will tell you the availability of all kinds of things at thousands of libraries. So, I wanted to see where I might find the newspapers I was looking.
It took some poking around WorldCat to find a Savannah newspaper from 1925 available.  World Cat showed The Savannah Press had issues from 1891 to 1931 available at two libraries.  Zooming in, I found it available at University of Georgia, only about 1-1/2 hour drive so certainly a possible road trip. (The holding at University of Rochester (NY) was a bit far for a visit.)  Looking more closely at their holdings, they appeared to have both a paper and microform versions and the microform has multiple copies. One more click and I see their status as “Not Checked Out.” I took that as code that they allow the film to be checked out and will allow interlibrary loan.  
Logging into my county library, I selected their interlibrary loan option, which opened their link to WorldCat. I found the same selection, Savannah Press, and ordered it.
Savannah Press
Jan 14, 1925, Pg 14
A few weeks later I receive a call from my county library, the microfilm has arrived.  Going through unindexed newspapers on microfilm is a brutal process. This one was like I expected.  The nice thing about having the film local is I didn’t have to review it all in one sitting.  I could take my time and review the material over several visits if I so desired. Nice. 
Anyway, the view was about 1/12 of the page, so it was necessary to make three sweeps across each page, top, middle bottom, looking for relevant articles. I read, the papers slowly looking for key words in headlines and the first paragraph of most articles. Luckily, I could skip over the Society pages, and the entertainment pages.
I found nine articles during the two weeks following his murder. Lots of detail about Edward’s life, a photo of Edward, a photo of the man arrested for the murder and a photo of that man’s wife. Could she be the woman he was “bedding,” as mentioned in the family oral history? There was even a photo of the grizzly murder weapon. 
What a treasure trove of information. Having the film available via interlibrary loan save me several hours driving time, parking hassles, (It is usually a hassle parking at a University.) and the frustration of using unfamiliar equipment. Yes, Interlibrary is one of my best friends. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Caroline Pankey’s Mother – Martha!

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Don Taylor

Needless to say when you begin a new genealogical subscription or service you want to check out if it might clear up one of your brick walls.  In one of my research areas, I have someone who died back in “the late 1960s or early ‘70s” and I am yet to find an obituary or death record.  I gave it a quick look, no such luck finding it.  Then I thought about another area I’ve been researching.  I knew Caroline M.A. Pankey, b. abt 1810, father was named Thomas Pankey but didn’t know Caroline’s mother’s name. 

Using Genealogy Bank, I searched for Thomas Pankey then narrowed it down to 1750 to 1860.  Walla!  Seven items, five of which were the same legal notice.  

Thomas Pankey is mentioned in a 1830 Powhatan County, Virginia, Chancery case. A quick read finds that it is the wrong Thomas Pankey, rather than Caroline’s father it is her (before unknown) brother.  The defendants in this case include, “Frank Pankey, Thomas Pankey, ____ Ellis and Mary his wife, _____ Calhoun and Henrietta his wife, _____ Pankey and Nancy his wife, _____ Scott and Elizabeth his wife, _____ Howel and Caroline his wife, which…. are the children of Martha Pankey, dec’d.  Not much doubt about it, Caroline’s mother’s name was clearly Martha and she had two brothers and four sisters that were unknown before. The case was William Pollock, et al, verses Mary Pollock, et al. 

One of my favorite genealogical sites is Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia. They have a great set of Chancery records.  Pick the County, Powhatan; Plaintiff equals Pollock, Defendant equals Pollock. Search.  One case, index number 1831-015. Click on View Details and there is the first of 109 pages, handwritten documents relating to the case.  Going through the case documents solidified the relationships. One page the same iteration of children of Martha Pankey speaks about Peter M Howell and his wife, Caroline, formerly Caroline M. A. Pankey.  Martha is the sister by half blood of Sarah Ligon formerly Sarah Pollock.  It was a wonderful find. In the maze of documents I find that Martha is the sister of William Liggon, which must be her original name. So, Martha’s half sister Sarah probably married one of Martha’s kin on Martha’s father’s side. So confusing. 

One problem with the Virginia Memory site is that the downloads, although easy to do, do not have the the resolution you would really like to have in your personal files. Downloads, and print to PDF do not have the detail to zoom in and be able to read the complicated documents. You can zoom in on the image to the level needed to read it, do screen shots, then use some kind of stitching software to assemble the desired images.  Alternately, you will just need to document the URL & Page number. 

Posted in Howell-Hobbs | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

More about Donna Montran from Genealogy Bank

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Don Taylor
Newspaper photo of Miss Donna Montran Boston Journal December 12, 1916 Page – 4.
Miss Donna Montran Boston Journal December 12, 1916 Page – 4

As I mentioned before there are 20 items in the Genealogy Bank regarding “Donna Montran.” After her, now famous, airplane ride she applied to represent Boston at  New York’s Crystal Palace Preparedness Bazaar.  It is amazing that in those days, the newspapers printed the names and addresses of all the applicants.  Imagine what would happen today if a newspaper published the home addresses of 49 contestants for a beauty contest. Wow.  Anyway, thanks to the policies of the time, we now know that in December if 1916, Donna was living at 64 Bennett in Brighton (Boston), MA. The house at that address today was built in 1920, so we don’t know what 64 Bennett was like back in 1916.  It is interesting to note that there were two Holdsworth girls who also applied to represent Boston.  Holdsworth was the name of one of Donna’s mother’s husbands — I wonder if there is a relationship.

By the way, Preparedness Bazaar referred to actions to prepare the United States to enter into World War I, which the US Didn’t do until the following year.

Newspaper clipping from the Baltimore American (Baltimore, MD) - Section 5, Page- 2 showing Donna Montran

Donna then began a run of “The California Bathing Beauties” with Donna Montran. In September and October of 1920, she played the Garden in Baltimore, the Cosmos in Washington, DC, and the Capitol Theatre in Wilkes-Barre, PA. 

In the spring of 1921 she played at the State Theater in Trenton, NJ, again at both the Cosmos in Washington, DC and the Garden in Baltimore. 

The Genealogy Bank newspaper articles added a substantial number of new and exciting details to our understanding of Donna’s life.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Virginia Memory – Chancery Database

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Don Taylor

It has been quite a while since I last blogged here. I have many other projects and activities going on. First, I was in Minnesota visiting my mother. I put together many questions and recorded about 4 hours of material, about one hour per session four of the 11 days I was there. I have a project to transcribe the information there and include in my personal tree.

I also did DNA tests for both my mother and me and sent them in to 23 and Me. The great thing about doing both of us is that any relationship matches for me alone must come from my unknown father’s side and any that match on both of us must come from her side. I have also been spending quite a bit of time working on a Burlison line out of Oklahoma for a friend.  I’ve had many interesting findings there as I’ve begun plucking lots of “low hanging fruit.”

I subscribe to many genealogy blogs. One of them is the “Search Tip of the Day – Almost Every Day.”  Michael John Neill’s May 31st blog reminded me about the Virginia Memory site, which is wonderful. He reminded me of the Chancery records there. There are over 220,000 cases indexed in the Chancery database and nearly 5.6 million images of Chancery causes available online. I’m back working on the Howell line, so I thought; I’ve got a couple difficult research areas. I’ll see if maybe I can find something in the Chancery records. 

A quick search for Howell yielded a case between JOHN P WILLIAMS and the administrator of the JOHN P PRICE estate. The case involves 90 pages of documents including a deposition by Peter Howell. It is always wonderful to find a document in an ancestor’s own hand with a signature. His deposition didn’t tell me anything new; Peter lived in Buckingham County in both 1830 (date of the event he wrote about) and 1938 (date of the litigation). However, it does indicate he knew both John Williams and John Price, which may be useful later. There are also many references to Mrs. Pankey who is probably Peter’s wife’s mother; (her father died  about 1829). There are also several references to Holman/Holeman. Peter’s half sister married a Holman about 1819-1820 and there are several Holman’s in Cumberland County during that period. I still need to go through all the documents with a fine tooth comb and see what I can find out about Holman’s as possible. The database includes so many records for Howell, Pankey, and Holman that I should eventually be able to make some new determinations and connections. Just the Chancery records at the Virginia Memory site should keep me busy for days. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Anna White – Death Certificate

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Don Taylor

I received Anna White’s (Hannah McAllister’s) Certificate of Death from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. (See my previous blog for details on ordering PA Death Certificates.) The certificate included some interesting information and insights.

Her mother, Margaret (Lamb) McAllister was the informant. She provided Anna’s birthdate of August 15th, 1885 which confirmed the year. Different documents indicated 1885 and 1886. Mother’s seem to remember those kinds of things so I’ll keep to the 1885 date.

1950 photo of a street scene at 335 Lincoln Ave

Interesting is that Margaret indicated that the place of death was at Margaret’s address of 335 Lincoln Ave. (Ward 12) in Pittsburgh. Anna’s ususal address was 509 Beechwood in Carnegie, PA. Google Maps indicates that 335 Lincoln is now either a vacant lot or a vacant barber shop. Back in 1950, the barber shop building was Fischer Groceries/Confections. I suspect that back in the day the grocery included a residence next to it. In 1917, Barnetta Dumm was the confectioner there at that shop. This may have been one of the many confection shops that Margaret worked at. The photo hints that across the street was Lincoln Elementary School, but the school wasn’t built until 1931. Google maps is inconclusive regarding 509 Beechwood. It appears to be a newer than a 1913 home to me.

Anna died July 11th, 1913, at the age of 27, of pelvic peritonitis due to a ruptured ovarian cyst.

According to the death certificate, she was buried at Chartiers Cemetery on July 14th 1913. I have created a Find-A-Grave memorial for her and have requested a photo of the marker.

Posted in Darling-Huber | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment