Tuesday's Tip: Obits vs Death Certs (Dig Deeper!)

Sometimes a death record is more informative than an obituary...and then there are other times when the opposite is true. Here's a case where digging deeper to get the obit was a phenomenal help and broke down a long-standing brick wall.

I've been looking for Benjamin McClure's ancestors. He's my hubby's great-great-grandfather and for years I've actively sought his parents' names.

The very nice folks in Friends of Falls Cemetery in Wabash, Indiana, have photographed his grave for Find a Grave and "calculated" relationships with other relatives buried there (correctly). They (and I) had no way of knowing that Benjamin didn't die in Wabash--he died in Conway, Michigan.

Finally, I got a clue and checked Family Search's Michigan Deaths/Burial Index, finding this:

Just to be sure, I ordered the microfilm and checked it and this is a mostly accurate transcription, from a ledger book that summarizes all deaths in Michigan, by county, during that year. I just didn't believe everything it says. The birth year is right, but the death date is one day off. And it's VERY unlikely that Benjamin and his parents were from New York, and the name "Enos" appears nowhere else in the family. What I really needed was to see his obit.

The kind librarian in Petoskey, Michigan (near Little Traverse) sent me Benjamin's obit from the Petoskey Record of February 26, 1896. It told me that Benjamin, the father-in-law of locally-known Reverend John J. Cook and father of Mrs. John J. Cook, had died at Conway after a short illness. His body was brought back to Wabash, Indiana, where he had resided for nearly 52 years, but no mention was made of McClure's birthplace or other survivors.

Posting a query on a Wabash genealogy message board, I got a note from a historian who told me that Benjamin's obit had appeared in two local Wabash papers, and he gave me the dates, suggesting I send for these. I tried a few different ways to get the obits from libraries, but no luck.

Then I joined the Indiana genealogy Facebook group and, from one of their posts, got the idea to contact the Indiana State Library.

Bingo! They quickly sent me the obit (excerpted at left) for Benjamin -- which includes his likeness. It includes a very complete family history. Benjamin, as I strongly suspected, wasn't born in NY, he was born in Ohio. His parents were John McClure and Ann McFall McClure. What a gold mine!

Thank you, wonderful librarians of Indiana State Library! Now I have literally dozens of leads to follow, including exact counties where the McClures lived and the dates. Digging deeper made the difference.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Ceramic Heirlooms

Zebra sculpture by Marian McClure Wood, 1950

My late mother-in-law, Marian Jane McClure Wood, became interested in ceramic sculpture as a hobby in the late 1940s. She took classes at Oxford Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, with a well-known ceramicist, Edris Eckhardt.

Edris lived on Monticello Blvd, around the corner from the Cleveland Heights Blvd home where Marian and her family (Edgar J. Wood plus 3 children) lived. Edris was an internationally famous artist whose Alice in Wonderland sculptures had been displayed at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and who had been a leader in Cleveland's Depression-era Federal Arts Project. She was deeply involved in the local art community and the Oxford school was one focus.

Marian quickly became so interested in ceramics that her husband Edgar and her father (Brice Larimer McClure) built her a kiln in the basement of Marian & Edgar's home, and arranged special electrical wiring for it.

Duck sculpture by Marian MccClure Wood (undated)

 Rather than make the usual ashtrays, Marian studied a book on animal anatomy and made ceramic animals. Hubby and I proudly display two zebra sculptures and a duck sculpture that she made. Marian also created a lovely series of ceramic creche figures, which my sis-in-law puts on display every Christmas.

Like all Cleveland-area artists, Marian aspired to have her works shown in the Cleveland Museum of Art's prestigious May Show. I found out when I checked the museum's database that she succeeded with four works: In 1948, she showed a zebra sculpture; in 1949, she showed "Spring Night" and a zebra; in 1950, she showed "The Champ." (Her son, my bro-in-law, had a painting in the 1960 May show; her daughter, my sis-in-law, had a textile design in the 1959 show.)

Inscription inside zebra sculpture - "1950 M Wood"

Marian's peak achievement was a three-foot-high Alice in Wonderland sculpture that she had fired in a commercial kiln and donated to the Oxford Elementary School in Cleveland Heights, in the late 1950s. This school houses an excellent collection of Federal Art, much of it produced under the supervision of or using the processes of Edris Eckhardt. Perhaps Marian's Alice is still there today?

2022 update: I wrote about Marian's ceramic artistry in an ancestor booklet that all heirs received. This means her story will be bequeathed along with her ceramics.

Monday Mystery: James & Alice Wood's divorce

Yesterday I learned that James Edgar Wood, hubby's paternal gfather, was married to Alice Hopperton Unger in 1926. Alice had previously been married and divorced (by 1919) but kept her Unger name until she married James.

Edgar (my father-in-law) told my hubby during an interview in 1983 that he thought his father James had "got a housekeeper and he married her." Edgar kept his distance after that. But clearly James's life took some other turn, because he was married to Caroline Cragg by the time of the 1930 Census.

What happened in between? Apparently, Alice and James were divorced sometime between 1926 and 1930. My best guess is they were divorced around 1929, because James seems to have gone to Jackson, Michigan in 1929, but more sleuthing is required. By the time Alice died (at only 46), she had assumed the "Unger" name once again (see below).   UPDATE: I learned about the Alice/James divorce in 2018, and you can read it here.

Alice died on April 5, 1930 in Cleveland. The informant was Mrs. Brinker, Alice's sister (see obit abstract, below, from the Cleveland Necrology file).

d#: 0369015
Name: Unger, Alice
Date: Apr 6 - 1930
Source: Source unknown;  Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #081.
Notes: Unger: Alice, beloved daughter of Mrs. Rachel Hopperton and sister of Edward F., George C., Frank J., Mrs. H. O. Brinker, Mrs. O. C. Hughes, and the late Arthur S. Hopperton, Saturday morning. Funeral Monday, April 7, 1930, at 2:30 p. m., from the home of her brother, George C. Hopperton, 2106 Overbrook Road, Lakewood.
 

Sunday Surprise: Grandpa Wood's 2d marriage

This morning I followed one of Ancestry's "hints" and discovered a relationship that nobody in the family even suspected: James Edgar Wood's second marriage to Alice Hopperton Unger, on 1 September 1926, in Cleveland, OH. James was hubby's paternal grandpa.

This is definitely the correct James E. Wood--all the details fit. His first wife, Mary Slatter Wood, had died on 24 April 1925. So who was Alice and how did they meet?

BTW, sometime later, James married a 3d time, to Caroline (Carey) Cragg, the mother-in-law of James's nephew, a match the family helped to arrange. The couple lived in Jackson, MI at the time of the 1930 Census.

Obviously I now have to find out what happened to Alice between 1926 and 1930. Stay tuned!

Sorting Saturday: Archival Boxes and Found Treasures

This was "getting organized" week. I've been threatening to put photos and other treasures into archival boxes...and this week, I finally did it. The photo shows just some of the archival boxes I have stored on my bookcase, each with photos/documents/etc for a specific branch of my family tree.

Not all individual photos have labels (yet!) but at least they're separated by family name, a very good first step. Well, almost. One box, you might notice, is "to be sorted," but I can identify almost everyone in that box's photos and so it's a matter of putting them into the correct boxes. And did I mention how much I love my little label-maker, which makes everything look so neat and organized?

Sorting through documents in my "E.J. Wood" file, I came across a photo I didn't remember, showing Edgar James Wood (my late father-in-law) at top right, his wife Marian McClure Wood at left, and between them, her father Brice Larimer McClure. Ed & Marian's three children are in the front row. My hubby is the camera-shy older son at left, his younger brother is in the middle, and their sister is at right.

Another treasure: Ed's certificates of copyright registration for songs he composed. This one is for "High on a Hilltop," which he registered in April, 1950. He also registered "Shaker Heights Polka" in February, 1961, and "Love Is a Boundless Ocean" (music by Edgar J. Wood, words by George W. Teare) in October, 1932.

Ed had played his way across the Atlantic with college bands during the 1920s and was a part-time professional piano player for many years, working mainly on weekends to supplement his day job as an insurance adjuster. He played a couple of numbers during my wedding to his son!

Workday Wednesday: John Slatter, paper hanger/cleaner

Thanks to the Ohio Genealogy Research Community on Facebook, I found out that John Slatter (hubby's g-grandpa), born in England, was a paper hanger/cleaner in Cleveland, Ohio from about 1887-1901 (when John died). I had hit a brickwall on Slatter's life in Ohio and especially his 2d wife, and I posted a note to this Facebook page. Derek answered, suggesting I check Cleveland city directories (on Fold3). I did, and jackpot! Thanks, Derek.

Here's the page from the Cleveland directory of 1893, showing John and his 2d wife, Louisa, living and working at 433 1/2 St. Clair. Some years, John is listed by himself in the yearly directory; other years, John has a partner, such as Samuel Phillips (in 1889) or Samuel W. Mead (in 1892).

Louisa died in 1895 and John lived on until 1901. John was living with his daughter Mary Slatter Wood at 242 Lake St., Cleveland during the last months of his life.

When and where did Louisa & John marry? What was Louisa's maiden name, and how did they meet? More importantly, when and where did John's first wife Mary die?

I've sent for Louisa's death cert from the Cuyahoga County Probate Court. Maybe more clues will show up on it!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Edgar J. Wood, Tufts '26

Just a few days ago, a box arrived from my sis-in-law. Inside: The elaborate college scrapbook kept by my late father-in-law, Edgar James Wood, who attended Tufts College in Massachusetts, starting in 1922! Above is a close-up of the cover, showing Tuft's logo and Ed's name and expected graduation year.

I checked with Tufts, as suggested by Bryna in her comment below, and learned that Ed didn't graduate, although he attended classes and was active at the school until at least the middle of May of 1926 (graduation was in June, 1926). His major was economics, another fact the family didn't know. The reason Ed didn't graduate was because he didn't complete his foreign language requirement. (2022 update).

College must have been the time of his life, because Ed kept all kinds of memorabilia, including dance cards (which I didn't know men even had), menus from banquets, ticket stubs from shows, photos, etc. He was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity, and much of the memorabilia related to his frat brothers, trips, shows, etc.  

What a treasure chest: My husband and his sibs don't remember Ed ever showing them this scrapbook. We're all mesmerized by the exuberant life Ed led more than a decade before he married and settled down for good in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I'll be transcribing the names of Ed's frat brothers (and their home towns) in future posts.

Above are the cover from the frat "annual banquet" Ed attended on December 9, 1922, at Boston's famous Parker House, and the inside page where he is listed as "neophyte" of the 1926 class. More to come!

 

Matrilineal Monday: Daisy's Ticket to College (unpunched for 30+ years)

My mother, Daisy Schwartz, graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx, NY in January, 1936, at age 16. She didn't get this "college entrance diploma" until June, 1936, because (1) she had to pass statewide exams in certain subjects and (2) the state education department had to certify her coursework.

In those days, an academic diploma was required for college entrance in New York state. To get such a diploma, the high school grad had to have passed exams representing 4 years of English, 3 years of a language (hers was French), and intermediate algebra, plane geometry, and American history. Notice that no science was required, luckily for Mom. She went straight to work to help the household (this was, after all, during the Depression) and so her twin, Dorothy Schwartz, could go to Hunter College in New York. (Her older brother had already graduated college by that time.)

Nearly 35 years later, Mom returned to college to accumulate credits and earn raises, as a school secretary. She enjoyed the literature courses, in particular, but often said she would not go for a degree because she could never pass the science or math courses. Working during the day, going to classes in the evening, and studying at night was no picnic but she did it! And she insisted that every one of her children go to college (which we all did, and then some).

Daisy's matriarchal line: Daisy Schwartz's mother was Hermina Farkas Schwartz (1886-1964); Hermina's mother was Lena Kunstler Farkas (1865-1938); Lena's mother's name in NagyBereg, Hungary (now Berehi, Ukraine) was Toby Roth.

Mystery Monday: Daisy at the Revlon Dance, 1941

On May 17, 1941, Revlon Products Corp. held its 4th Annual Dance at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York City. Art Paulson & his orchestra entertained.

Here's the mystery: My mother saved this panoramic photo for decades, rolled up in a tube as it was mailed to her from DK Relopf (or D Krelopf), 444 E. 98 St., Brooklyn, NY. I've cropped the photo in half so the faces can be seen a bit better.

Sure enough, Mom (Daisy Schwartz) is in this photo. Like nearly every other lady, she's wearing a flowered dress. She also has on a corsage. Did she come as the date of someone who works at Revlon? (Maybe the light-haired young man on her left side?) Did she work there for a time? She was a typist, stenographer, and secretary during these years. At 22 years old, she had been earning a living for several years while her twin sister Dorothy attended Hunter College.

Reading through the letters written to Mom by her friends during this time period, I have only one possibility for a boyfriend, "Dave." That would fit the first initial of the person who sent Mom this photo (alas, no readable postmark on the mailing tube).

Below, an excerpt from a letter to Mom, dated in August, 1941, about Dave (who seems to have squired Mom around town to some nice places). My guess is that the "Dave" incident was a kiss. It's a mystery!

Was glad to hear from you again and doubly happy to hear about the “Dave” incident. How does it stand now? Do you feel any differently to him now? Evidently he does to you! Hold on to him for the present anyway. The Spanish Gardens and Radio City aren’t to be laughed at, you know.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: WorldCat

A chain of events, starting with a post of a family photo on this blog, led me to my first clues about Captain John Slatter's long and illustrious career with the 48th Highlanders Regiment of Toronto, Canada. I've been in touch with the regiment and with its museum for a few months now.

To find out even more, I used WorldCat to locate any printed materials about this famous regiment. On the top of the list was George W. Beal's book (cover above), Family of Volunteers: An Illustrated History of the 48th Highlanders of Canada. And it's available from the Library of Congress, an easy inter-library-loan away from me.

My local library was kind enough to request the book (for a very minimal charge) and it arrived just 5 weeks later, for use only in the library. I read through, and then took out my new portable scanning wand and captured several pages of info about Captain Slatter, including photos and more. Also, I photographed the same pages and the cover.

Here's a shot of the index entry for Capt. Slatter: 

 

Thanks to WorldCat, I now know more about the history of the 48th Highlanders, and more about my husband's great-uncle Jack, who served as bandmaster for 50 years.

WorldCat is free and you never know what you'll find--like me, you might come across a book or two that will give you new insights about your family tree.

Workday Wednesday: John Slatter of Oxfordshire, College Cook

On the trail of my husband's Slatter ancestors from Marylebone and Oxfordshire, I e-mailed the Slatter genealogist in Oxfordshire to ask whether his family and hubby's family are related. Twelve hours later, this wonderful gentleman wrote back to say no relation...but he did a lookup for me and found more info about John Slatter in Oxfordshire!

John Slatter, college cook, of Oxford (St. Ebbe parish), was married by license to Sarah Harris of same parish on 1 May 1832.

On the baptismal records for John & Sarah's first three children, John's occupation is shown as "college cook," then "cook at ch. ch." (probably Christ Church), then "cook at ch. ch college."

In the 1841 UK Census, John Slatter (Senior) was shown as a cook, living in Banbury parish, Oxfordshire.

By 1859, when John Slatter Jr gets married, John Slatter Sr is listed on the marriage license as "deceased" father of the groom, along with his occupation, which is "cook."

2022 update: Now I know more about Sarah Harris, who saved grandchildren from terrible poverty by taking them in. The story is here!

Next steps: Find out more about Sarah Harris and check the records of the Oxfordshire Family History Society, as recommended by the Slatter genealogist.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy: Tools--Ancestry (I married him for his ancestors)

For years I've resisted posting my family trees on Ancestry. But toward the end of 2011, I decided to begin posting what I've gathered about hubby's ancestors, because this will make it easier for everyone in the family to see the tree, no matter where they are. And the little waving green leaf is a welcome sign of hints, sometimes valuable and sometimes not. That makes documenting the tree online a little easier, and has pointed me in the direction of new info. 2022 update: I've also been using RootsMagic to sync with Ancestry and look for hints (again, not always useful but must be checked out just in case).

My family comes from Eastern Europe, and of course I've run into brick walls on both sides of the tree. Many records are available only in offices somewhere deep in Hungary, Latvia, or Lithuania...and even then, language can be a challenge. But I have found more than expected!

For example, my grandma Henrietta Mahler is shown at left in the 1930s, at the wedding of her younger daughter, Miriam. Henrietta was born in Eastern Europe, as was her older brother, and their parents. Someday I hope to have more info about where they came from, but details have been elusive up to now. UPDATE: I've been exploring some Riga records that show Henrietta's husband Meyer Elias Mahler was married before he courted my grandma.

My husband's family, however, is from England, Ireland, and possibly Scotland, with some stopovers in Canada. Searching for his ancestors is a lot easier than searching for mine--the documents and indexes for his family are almost always in English, and many are online! Plus I've met several very kind genealogy "angels" who helped along the way, thanks to Ancestry's surname and geographical message boards.

Now you know my secret: I married him for his ancestors. LOL!

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy--Blogs: Geneabloggers Connections

Here we are, starting the new 52 Weeks series by Amy Coffin, and I want to give a new year's shout-out to Amy, Thomas MacEntee, and the many Geneabloggers who have shared their stories, methods, support, and ideas!

I've learned so much from you...been inspired to try new things...discovered resources I didn't know about...and most of all, I've enjoyed being part of this community. Thank you!

Here's to more in 2012!

2012 Genealogy Resolutions: Post, Scan, Store, Label, and Share

Welcome to 2012, the year when I plan to:

• Post my family trees on Ancestry (partly, I admit it, as cousin bait):
• Finish the Wood/McClure/Steiner/Slatter tree (including the Larimer and Shehen families).
• Start the Schwartz family tree.
• Start the Mahler family tree.
• Scan more Wood and Burk photos and documents, add to family trees on Ancestry. 2022 update: Still scanning but I removed most family photos in 2021 due to Ancestry's change in terms of service. Read more here.
• Store all my original documents in archival boxes, categorized by family. This isn't just for my convenience--it's also for the genealogists of tomorrow (you know who you are). 2022: Done!
• Label the rest of my photos and categorize by family. Nearly done.
• Share the best family photos and videos from the past 7 years (meaning since I went digital) via DVD with my immediate family. This will keep our shared history alive into the next generation and give my loved ones a head start on genealogy. Years from now, no need to scan treasured photos when everyone received the same image on DVD at the same time! Done, and also shared via cloud and other methods.

No matter what the technology in 2022, 2032, and beyond, there will still be images and names, I'm sure. Whether the Flip videos will survive, who knows? 2022 update: No, the Flip went obsolete years ago, sorry to say.

Happy new year to you all, and happy ancestor hunting!

Wordless Wednesday - Loser Socks (Again)

Future genealogy trivia: Which contestant has an unbroken record of losing the annual Christmas Day "silly" (or "surprising") sock contest?

Before I reveal the answer, take a look at the above silly, surprising crocodile sock devouring my leg.

Now the answer: I'm the perennial loser. My crock didn't even come close in this field of silly sox, which also included an alligator sock, whale socks, and other assorted silliness. The winner: the blue fuzzy snowman slipper socks at center. (The judge's arm and leg are barely visible in this sock portrait.)

Next year's sock contest will have two rules: Embellishments allowed, and fuzziness required. Stay tuned!