Follow Friday: Are My Roots Showing?

It's Friday again, which brings us to another edition of Follow Friday!  Today I'm highlighting Jenny Lanctot's blog, Are My Roots Showing?  Now, I have to admit the original reason I chose to look at Jenny's blog was because of the blog's title.  It's a cute title and I giggled as I pictured a woman looking over her shoulder in a mirror behind her, asking her husband if her roots were showing.  And my reasoning for looking at her blog is a good lesson in marketing.  Give your items an interesting title and it will bring people in.

Jenny's posts are informative and, at times, humorous.  I found her post on FGS 2013 - Helpful Hints for Conferences to be very helpful.  I've not attended a large genealogy conference yet but I hope to in the future and I think her tips will be very helpful.  I thoroughly enjoyed her post Does This Count as an Ephiphany?  Not only did it provide some interesting insight into what could have happened when ancestors disappear during a census year but it also gave a good tip to about checking the pages before and after your ancestor's census listing to see if there are any other possible family members.

I recommend taking a few minutes and checking out Are My Roots Showing?  It'll be well worth your time.

Follow Friday: AK's Genealogy Research

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday.  Today we're looking at AK's Genealogy Research.  Annette's blog was created for the same reason most of the amateur blogs were created - to document her research and progress.  And that's why I love these blogs.  Blogs like AK's Genealogy Research show the ups and downs and successes and mistakes of genealogy research.  A good number of her blog posts make reference to the use of DNA in genealogy research, which I haven't been able to take advantage of yet.  However, I will be marking those posts for later reading.

Annette's writing falls somewhere between conversational and instructional, which I feel makes her posts a very good read.  She had a very interesting post on Service Records of Volunteers, 1784-1811 and another really really good one on Learning Evernote. I've just started using Evernote so finding posts about how others use it is like a goldmine to me.  Take a minute to check out her blog, it's well worth your time!

My Brick Wall: Sarah Ann (Craig) McKee

A brick wall.  Every genealogist has one at one time or another.  My genealogy is no different.  With Constitution Day being this week (September 17 to be exact) my thoughts have been centering on my brick wall.  You see, the Daughters of the American Revolution work very hard to celebrate Constitution Week (for obvious reasons) and, as I mentioned previously, I've been working very hard on gathering up genealogical proof for my application to join the DAR.  Thus, in a roundabout way, we arrive at my brick wall.  So a few basic facts:

Name: Sarah Ann (Craig) McKee (my third great-grandmother)

DOB: 20 February 1830

Place: Tippecanoe, Marshall, Indiana
Parents: William Craig and Katie Helms (nothing further known about parents)

Married: Ephraim Adams McKee

Date: 7 December 1848

Place: Danville, Vermilion, Illinois

Death: 13 May 1906

Place: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri
Children: 6 (5 boys and 1 girl): John William (#1), John William (#2), Sarah Ann, John William (#3), George Washington and Robert Marion.

Sarah Ann (Craig) McKee
Photographer: Unknown
Year taken: Unknown

Now that we have the basic facts that have been proven through census and vital records, let's talk about the "myths and rumors" that haven't been proven yet:

• Sarah Ann (Craig) McKee was married two other times, probably after marrying my 3rd great-grandfather, Ephraim Adams McKee.  Her other two husbands were William Coslet and Samuel Coslet (order of marriage unknown); a listing for a marriage between Samuel Coslet and Sarah A. Coslet has been located in the Illinois State Archives Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900 (marriage date of 7 August 1878, five years after the death of Ephraim Adams McKee).
• According to my maternal grandfather, Sarah Ann was of Native American ancestry.  Though we're not certain of the tribe, Grandpa Edward always referenced "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too".  A little bit of research revealed that "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was a campaign slogan for William Henry Harrison and his running mate John Tyler in the 1840 presidential election (information courtesy of "The Meaning of Tippecanoe and Tyler Too").  In short it references Harrison's victory over the Shawnee tribe chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.
• Sarah Ann supposedly had enough Native American blood in her that she was granted some land in Mount Washington, Jackson, Missouri.  Research on the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records website under Jackson County, Missouri has proved fruitless for her name or Ephraim's name, the last name of Coslet or the last name of Craig but did bring up some other McKees.  Research on the area known as Mount Washington has turned up that it was the area that is now Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri, where several of my family members are buried, including Sarah Ann (Craig) McKee (in a currently unmarked grave) and her daughter Sarah Ann (McKee) McCabe (also currently in an unmarked grave).
• Further research has led me to believe that Sarah Ann could have been a member of either the Shawnee tribe or Potawattomie tribe due to dates and locations of Sarah Ann during her migration trail and the history of the removal of the Pottawatomie Indians from Indiana in 1838 via the Trail of Death (though the timeline is not the same, the migration trail is).  Again this could be completely off, as all I have are stories and not much in the way of solid evidence.

Let's look at a brief timeline of Sarah Ann's life.

• 20 February 1830: Sarah Ann is born in Tippecanoe, Marshall, Indiana
• 7 December 1848: Saran Ann marries Ephraim Adams McKee in Danville, Vermilion, Illinois
• 1860: Sarah Ann is listed in the federal census with husband, Ephraim in Clinton County, Illinois
• 1870: Sarah Ann is listed in the federal census with husband, Ephraim in Vance Township, Vermilion, Illinois
• 16 January 1873: Sarah Ann's husband, Ephraim Adams McKee dies
• 7 August 1878: Sarah Ann possibly marries Samuel Coslet in Douglas County, Illinois
• 1880: a possible listing in the 1880 federal census of a Samuel and Sarah Coslet located in Bowdre Township, Douglas, Illinois
• 1900: a possible listing in the 1900 federal census of a Sarah A. McKee, listed with one son named Edward, located in Allen, Noble, Indiana (I consider this a good possibility because the age is very close and the number of children living is exactly the same, it's questionable because I don't know of any son Edward but since she was married after Ephraim it could be a step-child)
• 13 May 1906: Sarah Ann dies in Kansas City, Missouri

My current project with Sarah Ann is checking all the federal census records.  I've been unable to locate her on the 1890 census at all.  I'm not sure where she disappeared at in the 1890 census but searches for McKee, Coslet and Craig return nothing at all through HeritageQuest.  I plan to verify that search with Ancestry the next time I go to the library.  I haven't had the chance to check the 1840 or 1850 censuses at all yet.

 

My goal with this post is primarily to put the information out on the WWW in hopes that someone might have some information about Sarah and/or her husband, Ephraim and their daughter Sarah and/or her husband, Chester.  Secondly, it's my hope that someone, somewhere might be able to give me suggestions on where to look next to either prove or disprove these myths.

Wow brick walls can be frustrating!

Follow Friday: a3Genealogy

It's Friday again (and who doesn't love that?) so here's another edition of Follow Friday!  Today we're going to look at a3Genealogy.  A brief disclosure: a3Genealogy is a professional genealogy consultant, but in my opinion, Kathleen also writes a great blog post.  Her post on Tips to Researching WWI War Brides focused on a subject I hadn't thought of before, though my darling husband's family did have a war bride in the family (though it was not WWI).  That post may have hooked me, but she has several others that also contain very good information.  As a matter of fact, there are few that I didn't read in their entirety.  Even though her post on Tips for Researching Performers and Showmen doesn't apply to my family (that I know of) I found it worth reading, if for no other reason than it was interesting.

Kathleen's posts are well written and very informative.  I find myself looking forward to her next post to see what wonderful new information she'll impart.  I encourage my blog readers to take a minute and read one of her posts, I'm sure you'll also end up hooked on her blog.

An interesting find

I love going to estate sales. Some people might find it a little creepy to go sorting through the personal items of someone who's deceased but I've discovered many interesting treasures at estate sales. It shocks and disturbs me to see family pictures and possible heirlooms being sold and I'm heartbroken that I'm not always able to afford to purchase these items and re-home them.

D1, most wonderful mother-in-law and I recently stopped at a not-so-extraordinary looking estate sale and as I was browsing the items for sale I happened across this book in a box of items marked at $0.50. 

The book is obviously old and I thought it had an interesting look to it so I began to peruse the aged and well-worn pages.  The first couple of pages had been pasted over with recipes, which was somewhat disappointing because the title page had been pasted over so I couldn't see what the book's title was.

As I got further into the book I realized I was looking at a ritual for some type of fraternal organization. I knew this because I'm a member of a similar fraternal organization and the ritual read similar but wasn't quite what I had at home so I knew it wasn't an Eastern Star ritual. After showing it to D1 he confirmed it wasn't a Masonic ritual. 

Hmmmm, a mystery. I do love a good mystery. I must have stood in the bedroom of this house for 10 minutes or more looking at this book before I found something I could search the Internet for to help me identify what organization this book was a part of.  And what D1 and I discovered was very interesting indeed. 

The book I'd found was a ritual for a fraternal organization called The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, also known as The Grange.  It was an organization I'd never heard of before which was equally as intriguing for me.  As I read about what D1 had found on his handy dandy smart phone and paged through the book I ended up back at the front of the book and discovered something I had missed on the inside of the front cover.

The information on the inside front cover of the book shed a whole new light on the ritual.  This wasn't just an interesting piece of history, this was someone else's genealogy.  Somewhere I'm betting Miss Sarah A. Campbell from Parkville, Platte, MO has some distant relatives who might be interested to know that she was a member of this fraternal organization.  Why might this be interesting to a relative?  Fraternal organizations weren't just a way for people to be social.  They were avenues for businessmen to do business, a way to pass news from town to town, and a way for new settlers to build roots in a new community they settled in.  Having roots in a community was especially important when you're looking at areas that weren't fully settled yet.  Neighbors relied on neighbors, friends and relatives to assist them bringing in harvests, building barns and other large projects in largely unsettled areas.

There is no guarantee that a fraternal organization will release information on an ancestor, but it never hurts to inquire.  Many of them may not have the staff, resources or time to give much more information than a yes they belonged or no they didn't and what chapter the ancestor was a member of.  There might also be issues about releasing personal information, even if the person is deceased.  However, you don't know unless you try so this amateur genealogist says give it a go and see where you get!  I personally have requested information from the Grand Lodge of A.F. & A.M. and have received a wonderful bit of information on my grandfather that I was able to add to my genealogy.  What can I do with that information?  For me, not a lot but it was something I could add to my genealogical database and something I found interesting.  However!  If this was an ancestor I didn't know much about, it would be a different story.

Let's just say I didn't know much about my grandfather and I found out, by way of the emblem on his tombstone, that he was a Mason.  I did a little research, discovered the Grand Lodge website of the state where my grandfather is buried and decided to contact them to see if they'd give me any information.  So I use their contact me page to send them a brief inquiry (very important, as brief as possible is good with the basic facts you know about the person; make sure you give them enough information to actually do a look up though.  Remember, there are a LOT of Smiths in ANY database) requesting to know if they have any information on an Edward B. Conwell, Jr. who was buried in Kansas City, Missouri.  I make sure to thank them in advance for their time, hit the send button, and wait.  A few days later I open up my email to find a response from the Grand Lodge of Missouri.  Hooray!  A match to my inquiry has been found.  So what information did I get?  Just basics: his name, what Lodge he was a member of and the location of that Lodge, that he was a member in good standing at the time of his death (meaning he paid his dues) and that he was a fifty-year member.  Whoa.  So I now know the neighborhood he attended meetings in, which could potentially help me place where he lived and I know that he was a fifty-year member, which could help me pin down dates that I might not otherwise know, like a birth year.

Obviously I knew the death date because I said I had seen the emblem on his tombstone.  And I knew he was a fifty-year member when he died.  So, if I didn't know his death date I could do the math and get pretty close to determining his birth year.  I say pretty close because what you need to understand is, although I got the information that he was a fifty-year member, that doesn't mean it was EXACTLY fifty-years.  Many organizations will make a big deal about being a long-standing member.  They won't necessarily make a big deal about your fifty-first or fifty-fifth year in the organization.  Twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five are typically the numbers they'll note in their records.  Also keep in mind that different fraternal organizations have different age requirements for joining.  The Masonic order is 18 but other organizations have different age requirements.  But it will give you somewhere to go with that information.

Remember that dates and locations are always great finds, no matter how small or insignificant you believe them to be at the time.  You never know when that small piece of information you found might tear down a brick wall you've been staring at.  Besides the facts, information you might get about your ancestor's involvement in a fraternal organization, in my experience, helps to give life to that ancestor and show that they weren't just a stack of statistics.  They were real people who got involved in their communities and cared about things happening around them.

If you're still curious about The Grange, The Conner Prairie Interactive History Park has a great history of it here.  The National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry is still an active organization and they're official history page is here.  I was both saddened to see that Miss Campbell's Grange in Parkville no longer exists and tickled to discover an active Grange not that far from my location. I wish I could find Miss Campbell's family so I could pass her ritual back into the family fold, but since I don't have much more than a name and location I'll contact the local Grange and see if they're interested in the book.  I'd like to see this bit of history preserved because it was such an interesting read and a fun little side investigation for me.