52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy: Water (Cruising Along)

My in-laws, Marian Jane McClure Wood and Edgar James Wood, absolutely loved cruising to Europe and back. (I've written an entry about his college days, paying his way across the Atlantic by playing in bands.) Ed took photos and slides everywhere, as well as making notes during the journey, so we know where/when they cruised.

Above, for example, they're enjoying the "Farewell Dinner" aboard the Cristoforo Colombo on Wednesday, November 5, 1969 (according to the caption on back of the photo). Below, they're smiling at the Gala Dinner on the S.S. France on Monday, September 4, 1967.

My hubby and I love to cruise too. This year and last, we went to the Baltic. Nowadays, we each carry a camera and take photos (hundreds and hundreds). Then we choose 100 or so to put into a Shutterfly book. Here's a favorite shot from our visit to the Hermitage last month. Great memories!

Church Record Sunday: The McClures in Wabash County, Indiana

I'd love to see church records for Benjamin and Sarah McClure, both of whom died in Wabash County, IN, and are buried in Falls Memorial Gardens cemetery. The McClures are ancestors of my husband, but I can't get any further back in the McClure line without their parents' names (and Sarah's maiden name).

Benjamin McClure, born in 1812, died in Wabash County on Feb 21, 1896 

Sarah McClure was born in 1811 (I think) and died in Wabash County on July 29, 1888 

Unfortunately, the county clerk has no record of their deaths, and these dates are too early for their records to be on file in statewide archives. The county clerk suggested I check church records, a good idea once I figure out which church they might have attended and/or had their funeral in! As a start, I've written for information from the "friends" group that posted the McClure grave photos on Find-a-Grave. Maybe I'll get lucky?! 

Update: The historian who researched the McClures for the cemetery just wrote me back  to suggest I contact the Wabash Pres. Church where Benjamin was an elder, saying the church maintains excellent records. I'm going to do that. Thank you to this genealogy "angel" for the great idea!

Surname Saturday: Still Seeking the Slatters

Mary Slatter (born in England) married James Edgar Wood on September 21, 1898 in Lucas County, Ohio. Mary and Edgar are my husband's paternal grandparents. Mary's parents are, supposedly, John and Mary Slatter.

Grandma Mary Slatter's obit, dated April 26, 1925, mentions that she was the "sister of Mrs. James F. Baker, John, Albert and Harry Slatter of Canada." (See update below.)
One of the artifacts that my late father-in-law had in his possession was this card showing the location of the grave of John Slatter.

No city is mentioned, but the "union stamp" at lower left mentions Cleveland, Ohio. Now all I have to do is look for the death cert of a John Slatter Sr. who died in Cleveland on Aug 12 and was buried on Aug 15, 1901 or look up all the cemeteries in the area that have sec. 75, tier 6, grave 2. According to the Cleveland Public Library, John died at the home of his daughter at 242 Lake Street, aged 65.

2022 update: I know a lot about the Slatter family! See my ancestor landing page.

52 Weeks of Genealogy: Summer--Backstage at Cain (Pain) Park

This is a guest post by hubby, Wally, about his two summers working backstage at famed Cain Park in Cleveland Heights, OH, during the 1950s. The summer season at that time included 4 musicals (which ran for 2 weeks each). 

Cain Park in the 1940s - Cleveland State Library Special Collections

When I was 17 and 18 and still in high school, I worked as a summer apprentice at Cain Park Theater, and my younger sister worked on the paint crew. During the day, I built scenery and at night, I ran a follow-spot on actors during the shows. Because the stage was 90 feet wide, it needed a lot of scenery to fill it. We built almost a full-size house for Wizard of Oz, for example, and a working merry-go-round for Carousel.

It was a challenge because while one show was running, we were building the scenery for the next and handling backstage duties during the current show's evening performance. (We nicknamed the place "Pain Park" because we worked so hard.) Similarly, the cast had to rehearse the next show during the day while performing the current show each night. The cast included dancers and singers and up-and-coming performers . . . people like Dom DeLuise, for example, who I remember was just hilarious in The Red Mill.

The stage crew had a tradition of trying to distract the cast during the final performance of each show (as a prank). In Annie Get Your Gun, I ran a follow-spot from my position high on a brick tower (see two covered in ivy in photo above). During the show, Annie Oakley and her friends are returning from Europe by ship; they're hungry and Annie shoots into the sky to bring down dinner. I would then throw a stuffed seagull from the tower so it would land onstage. All the audience could see is that Annie shot into the sky and this bird dropped near her feet--except the night I missed and threw it into the orchestra pit. 

During the last performance, a friend was in the tower with me. When Annie shot, we threw every stuffed prop we could get our hands on: a pig, a roast turkey, a cat, a puppy. As these items rained down around the star, one of the cast adlibbed: "My, that's fine shootin', Annie!" Looking back, I'm surprised management didn't throw me out of the theater at that moment.
 

--

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.

Tuesday Time Travel: 1946, When Mom & Dad Married

 

In November, 1946, my mother (Daisy Schwartz) married my father (Harold Burk). They're shown in this wedding photo, seated together in the front row among my father's family (including his brother, Sidney Burk, standing at far right).

Apart from this being the year after WWII ended--and my father and uncle were now out of the Army--what was life like for them in 1946?

• Baby boom and housing shortage. Returning soldiers (like Dad), sailors, and Marines wanted to settle down with a family and a place of their own, but high birth rates and high demand for housing quickly led to a shortage. Mom and Dad started looking for an apartment as soon as they got engaged (New Year's Day, 1946) and within a few weeks it was clear that they'd have to wait till November to get married, to allow enough time to find a place. My suspicion is that they also needed to save money for the wedding and honeymoon. After all, Dad only got out of the service in October, 1945 and set himself up in business later that fall. The continuing shortage proved a challenge when Mom became pregnant in mid-1949 and they needed more room than their basement apartment in Queens provided. Ultimately they moved to the apartment building where Dad's mother, brother, and sister lived in the north-east Bronx.
• Broadway and Hollywood were thriving. Being native New Yorkers, my parents loved Broadway and saw shows while engaged and then after marriage. Which ones? I don't know too many specifics, but in 1946, they had lots of what are now considered classics from which to choose: Life with Father, Oklahoma, The Glass Menagerie, and Carousel. No wonder my parents would occasionally break out into tune (or my father would whistle) some of the show tunes from their younger days. Mom was an avid movie-goer, too, as letters written to her indicate. Among the movies that year were The Best Years of Our Lives, The Virginian, and Hitchcock's Notorious. Certainly they went to neighborhood theaters, which were posher then than now, but possibly also went to Radio City Music Hall for song/dance and movies too.
• Nuremberg trials continued. Since Dad and Uncle Sidney both served in Europe, they no doubt followed news of the Nazi trials in Nuremberg. Growing up, our family friends included a couple who had numbers tattooed on their arms from their time in concentration camps. The war was over, but the aftermath was real and close to home.
• New York City was growing and optimism ruled. Mayor O'Dwyer brought Robert Moses in to head city construction projects; Moses was part of the team that negotiated to bring the UN World Headquarters to Manhattan. Earlier, he had created Jones Beach on Long Island, where many NYers went (and still go) for fun in the sun; he also masterminded many of the main highways and some bridges that connect the boroughs. New York was on an upward path and many residents, including my parents, were excited about the possibilities of living and working in the city.

Military Monday: Civil War Ancestor Stories

Not from MY family (the earliest ancestor arrived from Eastern Europe more than a generation after the Civil War). But with this year's 150th anniversary of the War Between the States, some sites are posting stories passed down within families. I was intrigued by the following, just a small sample of what's online already:

• The Washington Post's readers submitted family stories they'd heard about ancestors who were involved in or affected by the war.
• The Journal Star in Lincoln, Nebraska printed family stories sent in by readers whose ancestors participated in the war.
• There's a Facebook page devoted to Civil War Roots, with contributors' stories included.
• The Civil War Talk message board includes queries and comments from people who have or suspect they have Civil War ancestors.

2022 update: Turns out, my husband's family tree has more than 18 Civil War veterans! I've written a booklet about each man and his family life during that period.

52 Weeks of Genealogy: Vacations (Escaping NYC Heat)

My mother's parents (Theodore and Hermina Schwartz) didn't have much money for vacationing, but they did try to get out of hot and humid New York City for at least a week every summer, when their wallets allowed.

Upstate New York was the economical and practical vacation place for city-dwellers like my family. One letter written to my Mom in 1939, when she was 19, is addressed to The White House of Accord, Accord, Ulster County, NY. Accord turns out to be a tiny hamlet midway between New Paltz and Ellenville, NY, very green and then very quiet (today it has a raceway!). 

During the summer of 1941, when my mother Daisy Schwartz was about to turn 22 and was earning her own living, she vacationed at Scaroon Manor in beautiful Schroon Lake, New York. This was, at one time, a well-known Adirondacks resort that's now a complete ruin. (The Thomas Cole painting above shows it pre-development!) Mom, like every other single young lady, was hoping to meet an eligible guy . . . but she came home empty-handed, I know from a letter written by her friend Eleanor.

The family also vacationed occasionally in Spring Valley, NY, which today is very close to the Tappan Zee Bridge that connects Westchester and Rockland Counties in New York. It's now quite commercial and built up. Decades ago, however, it was rural and bucolic, a country haven for city folks seeking clean air and green grass.

Wisdom Wednesday: Finding Blogs via Genealogue

Have you ever used the Blog Finder at Genealogue to look for surname blogs or other genealogy blogs? I found no surname blogs for my family's names, but there were a few locality blogs where I'm going to read and search entries in the hopes of a lead or two.

All in all, it was a good visit and I'm going to be back for ideas and, if I'm lucky, some connections to ancestor data. The site is still operating in 2022.

52 Weeks of Genealogy: Songs--Broadway and Beatles

Growing up, my parents were Broadway fans--not surprising, since they both were brought up in New York City and we still lived a subway ride away from the Great White Way.

Although Mom and Dad saw some shows and took me and my sisters to a few (Sound of Music stands out, for example), they also listened on the radio and bought an occasional album. I remember one of their particular favorites was South Pacific.

Some relatives (who shall remain nameless) still like to tell this joke from the era of the original South Pacific show:

JOKE TELLER: Knock knock!

AUDIENCE: Who's there?

JOKE TELLER: Sam and Janet.

AUDIENCE: Sam and Janet who?

JOKE TELLER: Some Enchanted Evening...!           [cue the laugh track]

My childhood faves were the Beatles. I was a Paul McCartney fan, my twin was a George Harrison fan. Burned into my memory are the nights when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and we sat glued to the TV waiting for the Fab Four to sing whatever hits were current at the time. No one song stands out as my all-time fave. I liked almost all of them! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Surname Saturday: Tillie Taube Rose Jacobs Mahler

Great-grandma Tillie Taube Rose (Jacobs) Mahler lived to nearly 100 years old, as I've noted in earlier posts. On her death cert, her son Morris Mahler said that Tillie's father was Julius Yaina (which may be his first and middle names). 

 
Where and when Tillie and her husband Meyer Mahler (my g-grandpa) met and married, I've no idea. Meyer and Tillie brought their two oldest children (Henrietta and David) to New York with them before 1900. 

She had one brother, Joseph Jacobs, who also came to New York City. I've traced Joseph's family by now (2022 update). See my ancestor landing page here.

52 Weeks of Genealogy: Neighbors--Steiner Sisters in Upper Sandusky, OH

The Steiner sisters (pictured at a Tea Party in an earlier blog post) were neighbors in and around Upper Sandusky, Ohio. My husband Wally remembers going there during post-World War II summers to visit his grandparents, Floyda Steiner McClure and Brice Larimer McClure.

On the same street or around the corner lived great-aunt Carrie Steiner Traxler and great-aunt Etta Blanche Steiner Rhuark (who owned a parrot that Wally remembers quite well because it knew how to say his grandfather's name, "Brice McClure"). Great-aunt Minnie Steiner Halbedel lived in a big house closer to "downtown."

Doors weren't locked, and Wally and his siblings would wander in and out of the neighboring houses visiting relatives all day. The summer visits to Upper Sandusky lasted several years, until Minnie and Floyda died. Then Grandfather Brice Larimer McClure sold the Upper Sandusky house and moved to Willoughby, OH, so his grandchildren could swim in Lake Erie . . . The end of an era by the time 1950 rolled around.

Wisdom Wednesday: Writing Queries for Surname Message Boards

Would you respond to this query on a surname message board? (Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)

Hidden family

  Help! Seeking info on Plain S. Hidden, wife Luellen, daughter Constant. I know the family lived in Crawford Co and also Washington Co.

The good news: Showing the patriarch's first name and middle initial, plus his wife and daughter's names, is a big help. Listing a "who" is the first step.

The bad news: This query has no specific "what," "when," or "where." What, exactly, is the researcher looking for? Looking for Plain's parents, perhaps, or Constant's descendants? When did Mr. Hidden and family live in these places? In what state(s) are Crawford and Washington counties located?

My six top tips for effective queries:

1. Who. List full names where you know them, and initials if all else fails. List as many of the immediate family (sibs or descendants or parents) as practical so readers can determine whether their family tree connects with the family you're searching for. Where possible, put surnames in CAPS or bold so they stand out.
2. What. What do you want to know, within reason? If you're hoping to be handed a complete family tree, complete with source citations, you're probably on the wrong planet. But if you want to know parents' names, for example, you just might get lucky.
3. When. Let readers know the approximate period that you know about or that you're hoping for information about. In this example, the query writer might have written, "Found in 1910 Census for Crawford county, Michigan, missing from later Census years."
4. Where. County names aren't much good without identifying the states. Even if you're posting to a locality message board where everyone knows you're talking about Michigan, it doesn't hurt to spell it out. After all, many states have a Crawford county (not just Michigan but also Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Kansas, just to name a few).
5. Play nice. Always offer to exchange information. Remember, you never know who you'll meet on a surname message board. If you want to take, you should be willing to give.
6. Include current contact info. Be sure your e-mail address or other contact info is available to someone replying to your query. If you change e-mail addresses, update your queries. You don't want to miss a message from that long-lost cousin!

Cyndi's List has a number of good links about how to write queries. Good luck!

Tuesday Time Travel: 1812, When Benjamin McClure Was Born

Benjamin McClure, born in April, 1812 in Ohio, was among the early settlers of Wabash, Indiana (where he died in 1896). According to Wabash County Early Settlers, he and his wife Sarah and their son, Theodore W. McClure, came to Wabash in September, 1844. Benjamin is hubby's great-great-grandpa.

In this latest entry of my "time travel" series, I try to imagine a little of what life was like for Benjamin and family in the Ohio of 1812.

T-shirt keeps Benji alive for next generation!

The 1812 War was the big news in Benjamin's birth year, but it was also the year Louisiana became a U.S. state (as Google News Timeline reminded me).

• Did war touch the McClure family? I don't know for certain. Benjamin was born a few months before America declared war on Britain in 1812. According to Ohio History Central, some former British soldiers were settled in Ohio and gave firearms to native Americans to resist the westward expansion of colonists. Once US forces won the war and the British gave up their claims, this practice ended. But war was in the air around the world: Napoleon was trying to expand France's claims in Europe and in Russia (!). The US was still a young nation and I imagine that the McClure family was uncertain about the country's ability to survive, let alone thrive.
• Ohio was a fast-growing farm state. Admitted to the Union in 1803, Ohio had 230,000 residents at the time of the 1810 Census (and more than double that amount by the 1820 Census). Most were farmers, but during Benjamin McClure's lifetime, Ohio's industry developed rapidly because of ore deposits and other natural resources. Having access to water and good roads helped build the business base (steamboats were just being introduced in Ohio when Benjamin was born). Some settlers may have been attracted by the fact that Ohio tolerated diverse religions. I'm certain that Benjamin's parents were farmers, not refugees in search of a haven from persecution. Home was probably a simple cabin on the farm property, with no frills, at least in the early days. Later, with prosperity and more land, the family's home was more elaborate.
• Financial ups and downs. Just a few years after Benjamin was born, the Panic of 1819 prompted bankruptcies and financial turmoil in Ohio and many other states. Farmers were certainly not exempt from the problems, although I imagine that Benjamin's family was fairly self-sufficient because of the farm. That said, weather extremes must have caused the McClures hardships and worries. They also needed to get through the winters financially and weather hot/dry summers that threatened crops. How did they manage their money? The family was large, as most were in that time, and yet Benjamin had enough money to acquire 80 acres in Wabash by at least 1875. Very impressive.

Wordless Wednesday: Wendell Washer Makes Me Smile

Have you seen Wendell Washer's GeneToons genealogy cartoons? Thanks for the laughs, Wendell. Enough said.

Tuesday Time Travel: 1878, when Brice L. McClure Was Born

This is another in my ongoing series of Time Travel posts, looking at what was happening at important points in my ancestors' lives.

Today's ancestor is Brice Larimer McClure, my husband's maternal grandfather, born on December 25, 1878, in Little Traverse, Michigan. Little Traverse is part of Petoskey nowadays, located in Emmet County, not too far (as the crow flies) from famous Mackinac Island. The county was named after Robert Emmet, an Irish nationalist born in Dublin.

And thanks to Mary Elizabeth's "ME and My Ancestors," which mentioned that Google Timelines had been featured on Genealogy Gems, I now know about the wonderful tool Google News Timeline to look up events of the era, as well.

So what was life like for newborn Brice, his 1-yr-old sister Lola, and his parents, William Madison McClure and Margaret Jane Larimer McClure? I have a few clues.

• Railroad fever and lumber demand fueled growth. A lot of railroads were active in Michigan at this time, as the US economy expanded. The first-ever Statistical Abstract of the US shows that the US treasury held a record $215 million in 1878! (The public debt was just over $2 billion, a direct result of the Civil War.) Petoskey was about to be incorporated, in fact, and lumber was a major industry, here and throughout Michigan. Water access increased the value of this area for industry. Rapid economic development meant work for Brice's father. Did he get his start on the railroad here? By the 1880 Census, Brice's father was listed as "worker on railway" and his home was in Millersburg, Elkhart County, Indiana.
• Cool summers, clean air = resort community. The area in and around Petoskey, a scenic stop on the railroads from Grand Rapids and beyond, grew into a haven for city-dwellers seeking to escape the heat in summer resort communities. Yellow fever was a problem in Southern states, and crowded cities were already viewed as unhealthy for those with fragile constitutions or chronic conditions. Of course, Brice was born on Christmas, when the weather was REALLY cool, and the family lived no more than 18 months beyond his birth in this resort community, so he never experienced the "resort" atmosphere. But he did live nearly 92 years...perhaps his healthy beginnings helped?!
• What about culture and education? Brice and family were probably busy trying to survive, so I doubt they were buying books or attending concerts at this point (LOL). Just a few years before Brice was born, however, a landmark court case in Kalamazoo affirmed the concept of tax support for public high schools in Michigan towns. Out in the wider world, Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer had been published in 1876, and Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore debuted, bringing "I'm Called Little Buttercup" and other classics to lips across Europe and into America. Brice's descendants became Mark Twain fans, he might have been pleased to know.