Happy 155th Birthday, Mollie

Born in Toledo, Ohio, on September 20, 1869, Mary Emma Wood (1869-1950) was always called by her nickname Mollie. She was the 14th of 17 children of Thomas Haskell Wood and Mary Amanda Demarest Wood, and the last of their 5 daughters to be born. In fact, by the time Mollie was born, her oldest sibling was already 23 years old. Mollie was my husband's great aunt. 

On May 3, 1892, Mollie married Francis Elmer Eagle (1864-1944) in his home county of Licking, Ohio. The bride was 22, the groom was 27. By 1900, the couple had moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Elmer was a boiler maker for railroads and Mollie was working as a dressmaker. 

According to that US Census, Mollie had no children of her own. But Mollie and Elmer were taking care of Mollie's nephew, Walter A. Lewis, aged 12 (see above). Walter's father had died suddenly several years earlier and his mother, Mollie's older sister Nellie, was living in Detroit and scrambling to support herself as a dressmaker. 

Then in 1905, Mollie and Elmer welcomed a son, Howard Paul Eagle (1905-1987). I wondered a bit about the timing, since the couple had been married for 13 years at that point with no children. The answer was in the 1930 US Census. As shown below, Howard's relationship to the head of household was "Ad-Son" meaning adopted by Mollie and Elmer. At age 25, Howard was working in an auto plant, like his father Elmer, all noted in that Census. Howard went on to a long career as a skilled machinist in the auto industry.

 Elmer died in 1944 of a stroke, age 79, and Mollie soon went to live with her son Howard and his family. In early 1950, Mollie died and was buried next to Francis Elmer, her husband of 52 years, in Westlawn Cemetery, Wayne County, Michigan. She was 80 and had not only adopted a son 45 years earlier, but lived long enough to meet her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

This week is the 155th anniversary of Mollie's birth. Remembering her, her family, and her life!

Black Cat, Hat, Jack O'Lantern, and a Broom, 1913

 

On Oct 28, 1913, Rachel Ellen "Nellie" Wood Lewis Kirby (1864-1954) mailed this Halloween postcard from her home in Chicago, Illinois to her 8-year-old nephew in East Cleveland, Ohio.

By this point in her life, Nellie had experienced many losses. Her first child (Nellie Lucy Blossom Lewis) sadly lived only two months, passing away in December of 1895. Earlier in that same year, her older brother Alfred Olando Wood died (1855-1895) and her younger brother Charles Augustus Wood died (1862-1895). Just two years later, she lost her husband, Walter Alfred Lewis Sr. (1860-1897).

Nellie remarried in 1907, to Samuel Arthur Kirby (1860-1939), and they soon moved to Chicago. Not too long afterward, she began sending holiday and birthday postcards to her Wood nephew in Cleveland, often signing "Aunt Nellie & Uncle Art." 

Unfortunately, Nellie's son Walter A. Lewis Jr. died in 1915, just shy of his 27th birthday. We have no postcards from Nellie after that date--either the cards didn't survive, or Nellie didn't send more. But her nephew treasured the cards from this favorite aunt, and the cards remain in the family to this day, shared among descendants.

Happy Halloween: Postcard from Aunt Nellie

 

Happy Halloween from my husband's Wood family! This colorful holiday postcard was sent to hubby's uncle in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 28, 1913. 

The sender was Aunt Rachel Ellen "Nellie" Wood Lewis Kirby (1864-1954). Nellie was an older sister of James Edgar Wood (1871-1939), my hubby's grandfather. James and Nellie were close and Nellie was very fond of his four boys. 

During the early 1900s, Nellie sent postcards to her beloved Wood nephews for every conceivable occasion. The recipients really enjoyed hearing from this favorite aunt -- so much so that the Wood family kept these postcards for more than a century!

Nellie's Story

Nellie married her first husband, Walter Alfred Lewis Sr. (1860-1897), when she was 20 and he was 24. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 37, leaving Nellie with a son to raise alone. She moved to Detroit to find work. In Detroit she also met the man who would become her second husband, Arthur Kirby (1860-1939).

Not long afterward, Nellie and Arthur moved to Chicago...and eloped to the "Gretna Green" town of Crown Point, Indiana, in 1907, where they could be married and return home that same day to the Windy City. According to the 1910 US Census, he worked as a barber and she worked as a seamstress. In 1920, he was still a barber but she was running a nursery from home. In 1930, he continued working as a barber but she had no occupation. 

The year 1939 was sad for Nellie. Her brother James (my husband's grandfather) died in January in Cleveland, Ohio, and then her husband Arthur in Chicago died in March. From then on, Nellie lived by herself in Chicago, but remained in touch with her Wood family back in Ohio until her death in 1954.

Remembering Nellie on Halloween with this postcard she sent to the Wood family 107 years ago today.

Happy Halloween to the Wood Boys in Cleveland

Penny postcard sent by Rachel Ellen "Nellie" Wood Lewis Kirby
to her nephew, Walter W. Wood, around 1910.

When my late father-in-law Edgar James Wood (1903-1986) and his three brothers were young, they would receive seasonal greeting cards like this from their aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Above, a postcard sent by Aunt Nellie, who lived in Chicago, to her nephew in Cleveland, Ohio, around 1910.

Wishing you only #Genealogy treats, no #FamilyHistory tricks, this Halloween.

Ancestors Had Large Families, Descendants Had Small Families

My pre-1900 ancestors and those of my husband usually had large families. Their late 19th/early 20th century descendants had markedly smaller families. It's a familiar pattern, repeated over and over again, with fewer children in each succeeding generation.

Wood Family: 17 Kids

Hubby's paternal great-grandfather Thomas Haskell Wood (1809-1890) and great-grandmother Mary Amanda Demarest (1831-1897) had 17 children together.

Unfortunately, 7 of the children didn't survive to adulthood. Of their grown children, one had 10 children but most had only a handful of kids. Rachel "Nellie" Wood had 2 children with her first husband, Walter A. Lewis, for instance. Families were smaller still in the following generation.

Descendants tell me that when the oldest of Thomas's and Mary Amanda's children were grown, married, and raising families, their much younger siblings were still in school.

McClure Family: 10 Kids

Hubby's maternal great-great-grandfather Benjamin McClure (1812-1896) and his wife Sarah Denning (1811-1888) had 10 children together. Two didn't survive to adulthood (still checking on the fate of one of them).

None of their grown children had as many children. One married but had no children. By the next generation, the largest number of kids was six; one in this next generation married but had no children.

Mahler Family: 8 Kids

On my father's side of the family, great-grandfather Meyer Mahler (1861-1910) and great-grandma Tillie Rose Jacobs (185?-1952) had 8 children together. All but one survived to adulthood.

Three of the adults had no children, the rest had 5 or fewer children, the usual pattern. By the time Meyer & Tillie's grandchildren were marrying, the families were even smaller.

Farkas Family: 11 Kids

On my mother's side of the family, great-grandpa Moritz Farkas (1857-1936) and great-grandma Leni Kunstler (1865-1938) had 11 children together. Two of the sons never married (and were "bachelor brothers"), one son married but had no children, and the other 8 married and had either 2 or 3 children apiece.

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for this #52Ancestors prompt.

Valentine Leads Me to Relearn Two Lessons

My husband's uncle, Wallis Wood (1905-1957), received a lot of penny postal greeting cards from "Aunt Nellie."

Most, like the Valentine's Day card at left, included the name and/or signature of "Uncle Arthur" (as shown below).

"Aunt Nellie" was Ellen Rachel "Nellie" Wood (1864-1954).

Nellie was a younger sister of Wallis's father. I know a lot about her. I've even written about her here, at least a dozen times over the years.

But this post is not really about the valentine. It's about how I had to relearn two key lessons.

Aunt Nellie married twice

For this week's #52Ancestors prompt of "love," I thought it would be fun to write a bit more about Nellie's two marriages: Her first to Walter and her second to Arthur.

Not long after Y2K, I added Nellie and her two husbands to my Wood family tree. So I clicked on the tree to check on what I know. Uh-oh.

Sources? What sources?

I found their names on the tree. I even had a marriage date and place for her Nellie's first wedding. But no sources.

Not good. I had put Nellie, Walter, and Arthur on my tree before I was consistent about citing my sources.

Now I'm forced to retrace my steps to demonstrate how I "know" what I think I know about Nellie, Walter, and Arthur. But that's not my only lesson.

Always read the original!

Nellie's first marriage, at the age of 20, was to Walter Alfred Lervis Sr. (1860-1897). Or so I had recorded all those years ago. I even had a specific date. But alas, no certificate attached.

After well more than an hour of finding nothing on the usual sites, I decided to look for Walter's son, whose existence I had noted on my tree, along with his wife's name.

Yay! I found his marriage cert. Gulp.

His father's surname is clearly shown, on the original cert, as Walter Lewis. Plugging that in, I immediately came up with Nellie and Walter's marriage cert. It showed LEWIS. Not Lervis. For all these years, I've had this man listed with an incorrect surname. Until now. Shame on me!

Capture the source as an image

Why blog about my mistakes? This re-do has one big advantage: Now that I've found the documentation, I'm doing screen shots and adding the media to my tree as genealogical proof.

This way, if the certs or other sources are ever withdrawn from public view or are otherwise unavailable, the images proving my sources will be on the tree. As images, not just links to online sources.