Week 18 – 2020: Where There’s a Will #52Ancestors

This old expression has a dual meaning for family historians. 

First, it refers to the stick-to-it-itv-ness of genealogists:

• I will find that missing ancestor

• I will break that brick-wall

• I will finish my family tree.[1]

 Secondly, it refers to – well – actual wills. I do a happy dance when I find an ancestor’s will. While the language of a will can be a challenge (all that pesky legalese), the payoff can be immense. As I’ve mentioned before, finding a woman in the records after she marries is particularly challenging. How delightful then it is to find her father’s will which identifies her married name! So many family connections can be found and/or verified through a will. A word of caution: you can’t always count on it to name every child born to the testator as some of them may have predeceased their parent or did something so obnoxious that they got cut out. But even under these circumstances sometimes the testator will name his/her grandchildren – more happy dancing!

One of my favorite states for probate records is Maryland.[2] A couple of lines in my husband’s family came to Maryland in the mid-1600’s and nearly every one of them amassed enough property to make it worth their while to leave a will. I’ve collected a dozen or more wills, even from a couple of women. One fun (or frustrating) thing about reading old wills is dealing with the spelling. In one will you can find same word spelled two or three different ways. Even proper names are spelled inconsistently in the same will. Remembering back to the good old spelling bees in school, there was a right and a wrong way to spell a word. But it was not always thus. As I understand it, it wasn’t until the early 1800’s with Webster’s Dictionary that spelling in America started to become standardized.[3]

One of my husband’s early Maryland ancestors was John Lowe (or Low). Born in England, John came to British America sometime in or before the 1680’s. A Major in the Maryland Colonial forces, John did quite well in the New World. He was a shipbuilder, planter, merchant, justice of the peace, and surveyor. Elected to the Lower House of the Maryland Assembly, he died while in office at about the age of sixty-two.[4] 

When I started drafting this week’s blog, I hadn’t intended to focus on John, but once I got into him, I did an insane deep-dive into his life and the probate of his estate. While I am tempted to tell you his life-story, I will resist for now and focus only on his will and its administration. 

Here are just a few things I learned or confirmed from his will and the administration of his estate:[5]

• He was quite ill when he wrote his will three years before his death.

• His wife’s name was Rebecca.

• He had at least five children: John, Elizabeth, Alice, Elinore, and Rebecca and some of them were minors at the time of the writing of the will.

• He owned six enslaved persons: Tone, Nan, Arler, Reb, Dick, and Abraham 

• He owned tracts of land called “Brothers Joint Interest” and “The Guardian” which he left to John and daughter Rebecca, respectively.

• He owned three ships (my favorite the sloop John and Rebecca) which he left to his wife.

• He indentured his kinsman Marshall Lowe to Charles Beckworth for five years for training as a shipwright and to convert him to Protestantism.

• When he died, his estate was valued at 445 pounds.

• His wife Rebecca married Thomas Mudd sometime before July 1706.

• His wife Rebecca died sometime before April 1709.

Lots of great little nuggets of information in these few pages! Maryland wills are not indexed, so finding these documents takes a little extra time. As they say, where there’s a will….

[1] This last one is a joke.

[2] Yes, I know I am odd.

[3] For a wonderful book on dictionaries I highly recommend Word by Word, The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper. 

[4] George Norbury Mackenzie, LL.B., ed., “Lowe,” Colonial Families of the United States of America, vol. 2 (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. Inc, 1966), 466; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 May 2020). Robert W. Barnes, “The Lowe Family of St. Mary’s Co.,” British Roots of Maryland Families II (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co. Inc., 2002) 140-142; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 May 2020).

[5] Maryland Prerogative Court, Will book 11 TB:175, John Low; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C914-GTVJ?i=91&cat=259693 : accessed 2 May 2020). Maryland Prerogative Court, Inventories and Accounts, 29:176; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C914-2HV6-S?i=429&cat=265626 : accessed 4 May 2020). Maryland Prerogative Court, Inventories and Accounts, 29:300; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C914-2H2N-W?i=491&cat=265626 : accessed 4 May 2020).

Modern reconstruction of a mid-sized sloop from 1680. William Avery Baker, “Vessel Types of Colonial Massachusetts,” Seafaring in Colonial Massachusetts, Vol 52 (Portland, Maine: Anthoensen Press, 1980), 18; digital image, Colonial Society of Massachusetts (https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1970 : accessed 7 May 2020).

Weeks 16 and 17 – 2020: Air and Land #52Ancestors

You would think with all of this time on my hands I could stick to the schedule and post my weekly blog, well, weekly. Not sure where all my time goes, but I can assure you that it is not going to anything productive. Not one single excuse to offer.

Anyway. 

 When I thought about “air” I thought about our European ancestors who came from cramped cities to the wide-open spaces of America. When I thought about “land” I had the same thought about the same people who had no land in the “Old Country” nor prospects for acquiring any. Lucky for me: the prompts for Week 16 and 17. 

My mother-in-law’s ancestors were predominantly English; sometimes immigrating as a family, but other times meeting and marrying in the U.S. John Bryant and Catherine Ann Appleby, my husband’s second great-grandparents represent both those situations. Born in 1831 in Padbury, Buckinghamshire, England, John immigrated (likely by himself) sometime in the mid-1850’s.[1] One of six children born to James and Mary (Evans) Appleby in Staffordshire, England, Catherine came to the U.S. in 1858 with her parents and siblings when she was twelve.[2] Both John and the Appleby family eventually made their way to Nebraska and settled in Douglas County, Nebraska Territory.[3]

 By all appearances, John and Catherine were your “typical” Nebraska farmers at the time: they had a large family and owned a 380-acre farm where they raised cows, pigs, and chicken and grew “Indian” corn, oats, rye and wheat (among other things).[4]Of course, no one is just “typical” and they present a bit of a mystery that I haven’t quite figured out.

 When Catherine was twenty and living in Omaha and John thirty-two and farming near Elkhorn City they applied for and received a marriage license on 22 August 1863.[5] In September of the following year, they had the first of their nine children, Arthur James Bryant.[6] Okay. Fine. Then, in December of 1876, while Catherine was eight-months pregnant with their seventh child, they again applied for a marriage license.[7] They were married on 5 January 1877 by Peter Van Fleet, a minister with the Methodist Episcopal Church.[8]

 This is odd and is going to take some teasing out.

 One reason I find it strange is that Catherine’s grandfather, Levi Appleby, was allegedly a minister with the Wesleyan Church having been converted by John and Charles Wesley themselves in 1747.[9] It’s also worth noting, although not surprising, the 1863 marriage date is cited in John Bryant’s biography.[10]

 As near as I can figure out, the closest town to the Appleby and Bryant families was Elk City and it did not have a ME church until 1888, meaning that members of that denomination had to rely on circuit/traveling ministers.[11] I guess in all those fourteen years since they first applied for their marriage license no minister came through. Well I don’t actually believe that, but I’ve got no other ideas. 

[1] I think. I haven’t found his immigration papers or a ship’s manifest with him on it, but he is enumerated in the 1851 English census and then the 1860 U.S. census. 1851 census of England, Buckinghamshire, Padbury, folio 287, p. 5, John Briant in household of father; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020). 1860 U.S. census, Douglas County, Nebraska Territory, population schedule, p. 117, dwelling 1208, family 840, John Bryant; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020), citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll not noted.

[2] Manifest, S.S. Kangaroo, 9 June 1858, p. 1, line 12, Kate Appleby, age 12; digital images, “New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M237, “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897,” Roll 184.

[3] Nebraska became a state in 1867. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), “Nebraska,” rev. 22:30, 22 April 2020.

[4] 1885 Nebraska state census, Douglas Co., Elkhorn Precinct, Schedule 2 (Agricultural), enumeration district 234, p. 8, John Bryant; digital images, “Nebraska, State Census Collection, 1860-1885,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020).

[5] Douglas County, Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1857-1872, p. 109, license granted to John Bryant and Kate Appleby, 22 August 1863; digital images, “Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1855-1908,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020); citing Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1855-1908, State Library and Archive, Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln. Elkhorn City, Elkhorn Station, and Elk City were different names for the same place. 

[6] 1900 U.S. census, Douglas Co., Nebraska, population schedule, Elkhorn Precinct, enumeration district 102, p. 247 (stamped), p. 4A (penned), dwelling 66, family 67, Arthur J. Bryant; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll not noted.

[7] Douglas County, Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1875-1879, license granted to John Bryant and Catherine Appleby, 30 December 1876; digital images, “Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1855-1908,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2020); citing Nebraska, Marriage Records, 1855-1908, State Library and Archive, Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Albert Watkins, Ph.B., L.L.B, History of Nebraska: From the Earliest Explorations to the Present Time with Portraits, Maps, and Tables, Volume III (Lincoln, NE: Western Publishing and Engraving Company, 1913), “Appleby, James,” 498-499; digital images, GooglePlay (https://play.google.com/books : accessed 8 October 2014). To be honest, the only reference I can find that says Levi Appleby was a minister is this biography of his son which may not be trustworthy. 

[10] Watkins, “Bryant, John,” 574.

[11] Despite a diligent search, the only thing I can find is that there once was a Methodist Episcopal church in Elk City - established in 1888 but closed 1990. Records relating to that church are in the United Methodist archives in Lincoln (currently closed due to the coronavirus). “UMAC Archival Catalog,” United Methodist Church (http://catalog.gcah.org:8080/exist/umac/umac.xql?start=4241&howmany=10 :accessed 20 April 2020).

An amazing photo from the Elkhorn Women’s Club, Elkhorn Centennial book, p. 3, digitized at http://www.elkhornhistory.org/67history/67-history.pdf

From the Elkhorn Women’s Club Centennial Book.

Week 15 – 2020: Fire #52Ancestors

Every genealogist knows about the roadblock caused by “burned counties.” Apparently, this phrase first came into use for Virginia research where many county courthouses were burned during the Civil War.[1] Courthouses hold key genealogical records including birth, marriage, and death certificates, probate records, land records, and more. When researching your ancestors who lived in burned counties, your strategy has to focus on substitute and alternative records, such as newspapers, legislative petitions, and censuses.[2]

Virginia wasn’t the only state in the U.S. to be affected by burned courthouses (and by “burned” we include courthouses destroyed by floods, wars, tornados, etc.). A particularly vexing situation in my research involves Montgomery County, Missouri. That courthouse was damaged by fire during the Civil War and later razed.[3] The courthouse burned again in 1901 destroying what they had left.[4]

My husband’s 2nd great-grandmother, Margaret A. Nunnelly, was born about 1839 in Montgomery County. The family tradition held that Margaret’s first husband was James McWeeney, an Irishman. Because the courthouse had been burned, direct evidence of that marriage was destroyed. Hmm. So now what? A couple of census records provide some evidence of James and Margaret’s marriage.

 First, the 1860 U.S. census shows that twenty-one-year-old Margaret living with her father, mother, siblings and her one-month-old daughter in High Hill, Missouri (Montgomery County).[5] Two things on that record are particularly helpful: Margaret and her daughter Louisa’s last name is shown as “McWany” and Margaret is shown to have been married “within the year.” Yay for those random bits on census records! Further, beginning with the 1900 U.S. census, Louisa’s father’s birthplace is identified as Ireland. In fact, the 1930 U.S. census taker wrote “Doublin” for his birthplace.[6]

 Do these records prove that James was Irish and that he married Margaret? Well, I’d say “probably” but by no means absolutely.

 It always bothered me that I couldn’t find anything more on James – other than what would have been in the courthouse. No immigration records, no burial records, no military records. Nada. And rats. 

 I continued on with my research on Margaret and the rest of the family. Married twice more, Margaret wound up living in Arkansas. Like his predecessors, her third husband William H. Walker, predeceased Margaret.[7] Because of William’s service in the Civil War, Margaret filed for a widow’s pension. It took me a while to get that pension record since there had been twoWilliam H. Walkers who served in the Civil War from Illinois and the National Archives initially sent me the wrong file. Once I got the correct file, I was in for quite a surprise.

 William had previously applied for and obtained a pension relating to his service and in order to obtain her widow’s pension, Margaret had to prove that she was, in-fact, his rightful widow. Because she had been married before, she had to provide evidence that she and William were properly married, i.e. that her prior husbands were dead or divorced. As a consequence, the pension file contains several affidavits relating to Margaret’s marriage to James and his subsequent death. 

·      Margaret’s sister, Mary C. (Nunnelly) Blankenship stated that she was present in the spring of 1859 when Margaret married James “McWinney or MacWinney” by William H. Pace, a justice of the peace for Montgomery County. 

·      Ninian M. Edwards and his wife Lucy (also from Montgomery County) stated that they met James in 1856 and that he boarded at their house, that Margaret and James separated shortly after they wed and that James died in 1861 or 1862 and was buried at the Jonesburg Cemetery. 

·      Mary J. Miller of High Hill recited some of the same basic facts, but added that she thought James had come to the Montgomery County area as a part of the crew that built the North Missouri Railroad. Also present at Margaret and James’ wedding she had heard that James died in 1861 or 1862.[8]

Well, I’ll be. You never know where you will find “stuff.”

Of course, I am diligently trying to verify what these folks swore to. Thus far, no luck, but if this exercise taught me anything it’s keep going and maintain a positive attitude!

[1] "Burned Counties Research." FamilySearch Wiki, rev. 21:41, 8 April 2019 (https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Burned_Counties_Research&oldid=3538350).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Missouri Counties and Historical Facts,” Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (https://raogk.org/counties/missouri/ : accessed 15 April 2020).

[4] Ibid.

[5] 1860 U.S. census, Montgomery County, Missouri, population scheduled, High Hill, p. 38 (penned), dwelling 208, family 208, Thomas W. Nunelly; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 April 2020); NARA microfilm publication M653, roll not noted.

[6] Don’t mind me – I’m gonna break the “rules” and only cite the 1930 census. 1930 U.S. census, Delaware County, Oklahoma, Beaty Township, p. 101, enumeration district (ED) 10, sheet 9A, dwelling 179, family 182, O.P. Baty; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 April 2020); NARA microfilm publication T626, roll not noted.

[7] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 April 2020), memorial 32111916. W. H. Walker (28 Sep 1838 – 3 Oct 1893), Mount McCurry Cemetery, Rudy, Arkansas; gravestone photograph by Frances Allen Titsworth.

[8] “General Affidavits” of Mary C. Blankenship (30 Dec 1896), Ninian M. Edwards (29 Jan 1897), Lucy A. Edwards (29 Jan 1897) and Mary J. Miller (6 Feb 1897), widow’s pension application no. 585,072, certificate no. 457,189; service of William H. Walker (Pvt./Corp, Co. H, 10th Ill. Cav, Civil War); digital images, Federal Military Pension File, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Top row: Lee Baty, Olive Baty, Frank Scholler, Don Baty, Inex (Baty) Scholler, Nancy/May Baty. Bottom Row: James Baty, Louisa (McWeeney) Baty, and O. P. Baty.

Week 14 – 2020: Water #52Ancestors

My husband and I met in 1979 when we were first-year law students at Notre Dame. As it happened, we shared a coat-locker in the basement of the law school building. Only first-years were provided lockers – I suppose they felt sorry for the shock we were about to experience and wanted something familiar around us. We didn’t know each other well that year, but I remember the big heavy coat he wore during the winter. Winters in South Bend were another shock to the system, but he had gone to ND for undergrad so was prepared. I learned later that the coat he wore was his dads from World War II.

Born 3 March 1921 in Parsons, Kansas, John Richard Baty was the second child of Lee and Kathryn McCormick.[1] Both John and his older brother Edward served in WWII – Johnny in the Navy and Eddie in the Army.  Because Johnny served in the Navy, I was able to obtain part of his service file. Side note: Army service files are almost impossible to obtain because of a fire in 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.[2]

Johnny began his college education at Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst University) in 1938. After two years there, he transferred to the University of Notre Dame.[3] When he was home in Kansas City for Christmas break in January 1942, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve V-7 program.[4] Immediately transferred to inactive duty, Johnny went on to complete his law degree at Notre Dame by August of 1942 under an accelerated program.[5] How he did that provides for an interesting side-story.

During WWII, ND fell on hard times. The student population fell dramatically; by the fall of 1941 most of the school’s upperclassmen were off to war. Continual reduction in the student body brought the school to a financial precipice and it almost closed its doors.[6] Fortunately for ND, the U.S. Navy came to the rescue when it established a V-7 Navy College Training program at the school.[7] The idea behind the program was to provide young men with a college education and train them to be officers. Johnny and about 12,000 other Notre Dame men enrolled in this program.[8] Navy paid ND almost $500,000 for its infrastructure needs and administrative expenses, thereby saving the school.[9]

After graduating from ND in August of 1942, Johnny went home to Kansas City. He was then recalled to active duty and directed to the Midshipmen’s School at Northwestern University.[10] He graduated in December 1943 and was appointed an ensign. The records I have now do not show where he was stationed in 1944 but by early 1945, he was stationed at the Willamette Iron & Steel Corporation in Portland, Oregon.[11] 

Navy records show Johnny on the muster rolls for the USS PCE-882 a “Patrol Craft Escort.” The ship was commissioned on 23 February 1945 and Johnny was part of the first crew that served aboard her, assigned to the “Combat Information Center.”[12] The PCE-882 was a weather ship and my husband remembers his dad telling him that was that since they broadcast their weather reports freely, they were never in danger of being attacked by the Japanese who also relied on those reports.

According to the biography of a machinist on the ship, they were based out of Guam. When they went out on patrol, they were assigned to a “station” 900 miles east of Guam. They would “kill one motor and run the other one at half speed, going in a large circle sending in weather information.”[13] They had enough supplies for a thirty-day stint before they returned to Guam for new supplies.[14] Johnny used to tell stories of the men shooting at sharks during patrol.

While the official military records verify my father-in-law’s story of his service in World War II there is a 4,000-mile problem. Johnny always said he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands (hence the need for the big heavy jacket my husband wore thirty years later). Yet the records clearly show he served in the South Pacific.  

Who’s surprised that a family story didn’t completely hold up fifty years later?

[1] Kansas State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, birth certificate no. 250 2821 (1921), John A. Baty; Kansas Office of Vital Statistics, Topeka.

[2] “The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center,” The National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/fire-1973 : accessed 3 April 2020).

[3] The Dome, 1941, “Class of 1942” (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1941), 106; “U.S, School Yearbooks, 1880-2010,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com). 

[4] John R. Baty Official Military personnel file, service no. 700-15-45; National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri; photocopies supplied by the Center 5 April 2012 without citation. 

[5] The Dome, 1942, “Seniors of 1942” (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1942), 62-63; “U.S, School Yearbooks, 1880-2010,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).

[6] Tod Leonard, “Notre Dame football owes a huge debt to Navy,” The San Diego Union Tribune, 24 October 2018; digital image, Sandiegouniontribune.com (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-college-football-notre-dame-vs-navy-history-20181023-story.html : accessed 3 April 2020).

[7] Malcolm Moran, “Notre Dame, Navy friends before rivals,” Notre Dame News, 14 October 2004; digital image, University of Notre Dame (https://news.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-navy-friends-before-rivals/ : accessed 3 April 2020).

[8] Natalie Weber, “Notre Dame, Navy partnership serves as a foundation of historic series,” The Observer, 17 November 2017; digital image, ndsmcobserver.com (https://ndsmcobserver.com/2017/11/notre-dame-navy-partnership/ accessed 3 April 2020).

[9] Bryan Fitzgerald, “How Navy Saved Notre Dame after World War II – the team’s (sic) shared histories,” IrishCentral.com, 31 August 2012 (https://www.irishcentral.com/sports/how-navy-saved-notre-dame-after-world-war-ii-the-teams-shared-histories-168127246-237526071 : accessed 3 April 2020).

[10] John R. Baty Official Military personnel file.

[11] “Muster Roll of the Crew of the U.S.S. PCE-882,” dated 31 March 1945, for John R. Baty; digital images, “U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1939-1949,” Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com : accessed 2 April 2020) ; citing Muster Rolls of the U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and other Naval Activities, 01/01/1939-01/01/1949, NARA Identifier 594996, roll 32862_252776.

[12] Wikipedia.org, “List of U.S. Navy acronyms,” rev. 05:23, 31 March 2020.

[13] James Glynn Jordan, Lifetime of Memories (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009), 58.

[14] Ibid.

John Richard Baty

John is third from right, top row.

USS PCE-882, Navsource.org (http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/02882.htm : accessed 13 Apr 2017); source: Mike Green.

Week 13 – 2020: Nearly Forgotten #52Ancestors

My second great-aunt, Philippina Glaeschen, was one of those ancestors I had trouble tracking down in her adult life. You would think with a name like “Philippina” I would have had more success, but she eluded me for years and I kinda forgot about her.

 As with all genealogy searches, you start with what you know – or think you know. 

 I was initially able to only find my Glacy-side back to the 1850 census. My second great-grandparents, their two German-born children and two U.S.-born children were living in Penn Township, Pennsylvania. That was where I first “met” nine-year-old Philippina. But I couldn’t go any further back with them: I couldn’t find when they immigrated or where in Germany they originated.

 The break-through came via a “random act of genealogical kindness,” when a fellow researcher clued me into the actual spelling of my family name and to the ships’ manifest showing when the family immigrated to the U.S. I remember sitting in the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri, when I first saw that manifest. The lynchpin that convinced me this was the correct family was my second great-aunt’s name: “Phillipina.” Finding her name and the original German name for the family [Glaeschen], opened many doors for me. 

 After that, I still had trouble finding Miss Philippina. My genealogical-sleuthing skills were inadequate at the time to figure out where she went, although I knew that she likely married or died. Married women are notoriously hard to find – once they change their name upon marriage, they disappear in the records. Since this family flitted back and forth between New York and Pennsylvania for about twenty-five years, I didn’t know where she might have been married or where she might have died. Frustrated, I put her aside and went on with other research.

 Sometimes patience or simple neglect pays off.

 In late 2018, Findmypast.com, published the marriage registers from over 200 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York. Again, another shiny object was dangled in front of me and I dropped what I was doing at the time to see what I could see. 

 And there she was.

 Philippina and her sister, Catherine, were married at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Manhattan, New York, on 25 April 1865.[1] In addition to the names of the brides and grooms, the church register included the bride and groom’s places of birth (both married German-born men) and parents’ and witness names. The church was busy that Tuesday as four couples were married that same day![2]

 Knowing her husband’s name helped me find her with husband, Joseph Messner, and three children in the 1870 U.S. census, but then not a darn thing after that. Crud.

 Once again, Findmypast.com came to the rescue with the publication of the Archdiocese of New York baptismal records. While the images of these registers are not yet online, I was able to find birth information for some of their children. Yay!

 The baptismal information for the children and Ancestry’s collection of U.S. City Directories, shows that from 1865 to about 1889 the family lived in lower east side of Manhattan, including East 6th Street, East 2nd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Avenue C. This predominantly German neighborhood was called “Kleindeutschland,” or “Little Germany.”[3]

 The 1892 New York Census shows Philippina and Joseph living in Brooklyn, but separately. She was living with daughter Mary and son-in-law Joseph Weigl. Joseph and their fourteen-year-old daughter Catherine were living with daughter Annie’s family.  Their youngest daughter, Matilada was with Philippina’s sister Catherine’s family nearby. Without more it is impossible to speculate why the family was so split up. I suppose it is encouraging to see that they all were living in Brooklyn, relatively near each other.

 For some reason, Philippina’s last name was spelled “Moeshner” in the 1892 census. I’ve seen before that an umlaut over an “o” (such as in Mössner), could be “translated” to an “oe” but Philippina was the only one in the family to do this. [Obviously she was.] I swear that girl was out to get me.

 Nevertheless, armed with the Moeshner name, I was (finally) able to find her death certificate. Of course, not only was her last name spelled differently, but so was her first name – now shown as “Mina.”[4]  Because the certificate provided her parents’ names, I was confident it was her. Sadly, she died in 1889 at fifty-eight years-old from cancer of the uterus.[5] By that time, all of her living children had married, with the exception of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Tillie. 

 I am glad that I didn’t forget Philippina as my research into her life taught me a great deal:

• Be patient

• Be open-minded in your searches

• Be creative

• And, most importantly, cite everything.

Thanks Mina!

[1] Most Holy Redeemer Parish (New York, NY), Parish Register, p. 118, Mössner-Gläsgen and Rebholz-Gläsgen marriages (25 April 1865); image, Findmypast, "New York Roman Catholic Parish Marriages," (http://www.findmypast.com : accessed 6 Dec 2018)

[2] “Weekday Calculator: What Day Is It?,” Timeanddate.com (https://www.timeanddate.com: accessed 28 March 2020).

[3] Stanley Nadel, Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New York City, 1845-80 (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 1; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 31 March 2020). MUCH more on Little Germany later.

[4] Can’t blame her.

[5] City of New York, certificate and record of death no. 20451 (1899), Mina Moeshner [Philippina Messner]; digital image received from NYC Municipal Archives, New York, New York (2020).

Most Holy Redeemer Parish in the lower east side of New York, New York. Photograph by Steven Hyatt, 1 January 2015 (https://photos.thechurchesoftheworld.com/New-York-City-NY-Churches/Most-Holy-Redeemer-Church/ : accessed 31 March 2020).

Nadel, Little Germany, 15.

Week 12 – 2020: Popular #52Ancestors

I’d always known that my grandmother, “MaMae,” was a sort-of publicity hound and that she thought she was “all that and a bag of chips.”

Born Mary Elizabeth McDonough, Mae was such a hoot. Before her death in 1975, she stood quite a bit less than five ft. tall, but her driver’s license had her at like 5’ 6”. While she added to her height, she was a typical ancestor in that she reduced her age. When she died at ninety-one years-old, I think we were a bit shocked to learn she was that old. She apparently lied about her for many years: 1940 U.S. census recorded her age as forty-six when she was really fifty-six.[1]

Mae was born in 1883 in the Hilton section of my hometown of Maplewood, New Jersey. She was one of six children born to Michael McDonough, a first-generation Irish-American farmer and Sarah Elizabeth (Lizzie) Goetter, a first-generation German-American. Mae was baptized at St. Leo Roman Catholic Church in Irvington; the same church were her parents were married.[2] Since Michael and Lizzie were from different towns and different ethnic groups, it may have been their Catholic faith that brought them together. St. Leo’s was established in 1878 and was the closest Catholic church to where Michael and Lizzie lived.[3]

I’ve mentioned before how much I adore old newspapers – so much good stuff! My only “problem” is that more old papers are being put on-line all the time so that you can’t ever say that you’re done with a particular search or website. A great aid in keeping up-to-date with newly published newspapers (and other things) is a website called The Ancestor Hunt (www.theancestorhunt.com). If you subscribe (for free), they will send you a weekly email with all of the new collections that have been published by many genealogy websites, including Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) and other historical newspaper publishers (e.g. Fulton Postcards at https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html). So, yay for me because the February 28, 2020, email noted that New Jersey had just added four new titles to Chronicling America and all were Newark newspapers – the only large city near my Maplewood ancestors! 

Of course, I was right in the middle of some other project, but I couldn’t wait to see what nuggets these newly published papers might have for me. I was happily rewarded for this detour as I found fourteen articles and even resolved the mysterious death of a great-uncle.

For my grandmother MaMae, I found two articles about her and her sisters parties. On 2 January 1912, the Newark Star and Advertiser reported that Mae, Cecilia, and Marguerite McDonough gave a New Year’s party for a number of friends.[4] Gosh, I would have loved to have been there.

Mae (“assisted” by her sisters) was also responsible for another party three years earlier – a “Chuck-A-Luck” party to benefit St. Leo’s Church.[5] Apparently, Chuck-A-Luck, also known as “Birdcage” is a game of chance where the player places bet on the outcome of the roll of three dice.[6] These days, it is most often played at carnivals and, as here, for a charity fundraiser.[7] 

I love this article because it mentions who attended including the five people who played music for the gathering (although it does not indicate what instruments were played). Attended by many people from the surrounding communities and from Brooklyn and New York, the article mentions Mae’s mother, sisters, a brother and sister-in-law, an aunt and an uncle. It also shows that Mae’s future husband (my grandfather) was one of the party-goers. She and Anthony J. Glacy were married three years later at St. Leo’s (of course). Noticeably absent is her father who I think was separated from her mother at this time.

The Newark papers recently added to Chronicling America account for only four years of publication. So as soon as I get a new alert from The Ancestor Hunt, I’ll be on the “hunt” for more great articles. 

[1] 1940 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Maplewood, p. 1B (penned), enumeration district (ED) 7-219, line 52, Mary E. Glacy; NARA microfilm T627, roll 02336. Mae and her children were living in the home she was born in and she had a pharmacist, butcher and stock clerk living there as boarders. 

[2] “New Jersey index to records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1848-1900,” “Marriages Atlantic-Warren v. 5 1880-1881,” McDonough-Getter (1880); digital image FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 July 2018), FHL microfilm 495696, image 103 of 430 .

[3] “Chronology of Parishes,” Archdiocese of Newark (https://www.rcan.org/offices-and-ministries/history-archives/chronology-parishes : accessed 19 March 2020).

[4] “The Misses May, Cecilia and Marguerite McDonough,” The Newark (New Jersey) Star and Advertiser, 2 January 1912, p. 12, col. 5-6. Throughout her life, Mae was spelled sometimes with an “e” and sometimes with a “y.”

[5] “Held a ‘Chuck-A-Luck Party,’” The Newark (New Jersey) Star and Advertiser, 20 April 1909, p. 11, col. 4.

[6] “Chuck-a-luck made its way to U.S. around 1800,” Detroit Free Press, 27 January 2016; HTML edition (https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/2016/01/27/mark-pilarski-casinos-chuck-a-luck/79143822/ : accessed 19 March 2020).

[7] Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), “Chuck-a-luck,” rev. 19:33, 14 June 2019.

Mae’s wedding portrait, 1915. She was thirty-one.

Love these suits and cloaks- so fashionable. From The Newark (New Jersey) Star and Advertiser, 2 January 1912.

Week 11 – 2020: Luck #52Ancestors

Luck. According to Merriam-Webster, luck is defined as 1) “a force that brings good fortune or adversity”; 2) “the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual.”[1]

When our fearless leader, Amy Johnson Crow, chose this week’s theme, I am sure she was thinking about St. Patrick’s Day and not Covid-19. However, I am stumped as to what to talk about today. Family history seems too lighthearted and you certainly don’t want to hear from a non-medical professional about how to protect yourself from Covid-19. So here are a few happy/interesting tidbits:

• Fifty-five years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave the “We Shall Overcome” speech: “The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong — deadly wrong — to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.”

• Today is the eighty-seventh birthday of Notorious RBG - long may she live!

• The Grapes of Wrath was published eighty-one years ago this month.

• Albert Einstein was born 141 years ago this month.

• In March of 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call. Instead of “hello,” Bell preferred “ahoy.”

• Of course, today is the Ides of March. Not such a happy event for Julius Caesar.

• “The Godfather” premiered in 1972.

Next week, back to family history.

In the meantime, wash your hands.

[1] Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com : accessed 15 March 2020), “luck.”

Happy birthday, Madam Justice.

Week 10 – 2020: Strong Women #52Ancestors

The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was officially adopted on 26 August 1920.[1] On that date, my grandmother, Catherine Josephine Spencer, was a single woman living and working in Newark, New Jersey.[2] Among some of the things that I got from her was a women’s suffrage pamphlet entitled “Objections Answered” by Alice Stone Blackwell (revised 1915), published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association in New York City. The NAWSA was founded by Susan B. Anthony and others.[3] I don’t recall ever discussing women’s suffrage with my grandmother, but since these were her pamphlets, I am happy to assume that she was a “suffragette.” 

So what about Alice Stone Blackwell? Talk about a strong woman born into a family strong women! Her mother, Lucy Stone, was the first woman to earn a college degree in Massachusetts, the first to keep her maiden name upon marriage, and the first woman to lecture full-time in support of women’s rights.[4] Her aunt, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, was the first woman ordained a mainstream Protestant minister in the U.S., a contributor to Frederick Douglass’ abolitionist paper, The North Star, and an early woman’s rights advocate.[5]  Another aunt, Elizabeth Blackwell, was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the U.S. and founder of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.[6] Elizabeth’s sister was the third woman to graduate from medical school in the U.S. and Alice’s mother and father founded the American Woman Suffrage Association, which later merged with the NAWSA.[7]

After she graduated from Boston University in 1881 (Phi Beta Kappa), Alice joined her parents in publishing The Woman’s Journal for the AWSA. She took over as editor in 1883 until 1917 when the Journal merged with The Woman Citizen and she became co-editor.[8] Alice also wrote poetry and edited several volumes of poems translated from Armenian, Russian, Yiddish, and Spanish.[9] She also penned a biography of her mother in 1930 entitled Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Women’s Rights.[10]

After passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Alice worked for the Massachusetts League of Women Voters, acted as a trustee for Boston University, was a member of the American Association of University Women, among other positions.[11] Alice never married saying, “… I never fell in love and I would not consider marriage without being first in love.”[12] Prior to her death, she moved into a small apartment and donated the family home in Dorchester to poor Russian and Jewish women for vegetable gardens.

In researching Alice on Newspapers.com, my search for her name in quotes provided me with 9,280 matches! The first was an article on the B.U. graduation where Alice gave a speech entitled “Social Drinking” (I forgot to mention that she was active in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union).[13] When she died in Cambridge, in 1950, her passing was noted in papers all over the country and in Canada.

In Alice’s biography of her mother, Lucy is quoted saying: “It is very little to me to have the right to vote, to own property, etc., if I may not keep my body, and its uses, in my absolute right.”[14]

[1] Wikipedia.org, “Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” rev. 13:32, 27 February 2020.

[2] 1920 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Newark City, 6th district, p. 13A (penned), enumeration district (ED) 191, dwelling 163, family 271, for Josephine Spencer in Henry Schild household; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1034.

[3] Wikipedia.org, “National American Woman Suffrage Association,” rev. 21:58, 3 March 2020.

[4] “Alice Stone Blackwell,” ArmenianHouse.org (http://www.armenianhouse.org/blackwell/biography-en.html : accessed 10 March 2020). Here’s a great story on Lucy Stone and the “Lucy Stone League” that fought for women to be able to keep their maiden names: Olivia B. Waxman, “’Lucy Stone, If You Please’: The Unsung Suffragist Who Fought for Women to Keep Their Maiden Names,” Time.com (https://time.com/5537834/lucy-stone-maiden-names-womens-history/ : accessed 10 March 2020).

[5] Wikipedia.org, “Antoinette Brown Blackwell,” rev. 8:54, 7 October 2019.

[6] Wikipedia.org, “Elizabeth Blackwell,” rev. 21:53, 2 March 2020.

[7] Ibid. Allison Lange, Ph.D., “Suffragists Organize: American Woman Suffrage Association,” National Women’s History Museum (http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/awsa-organize : accessed 10 March 2020). 

[8] Wikipedia.org, “Woman’s Journal,” rev. 20:16, 10 December 2019.

[9] John William Leonard, ed., “Blackwell, Alice Stone,” Woman’s Who’s Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915 (New York: The American Commonwealth Company, 1914), 104; Google (https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=GvwUAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA20 : accessed 10 March 2020).

[10] “Alice Stone Blackwell Dies; Suffragist Champion Was 92,” The Boston Daily Globe, 16 March 1950, p. 36, col. 6-7.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] “Boston University. Annual Commencement Exercises Yesterday,” The Boston Daily Globe, Supplement, 2 June 1881, p. 1, col. 5.

[14] Randolph Hollingsworth, “Introduction,” Alice Stone Blackwell, Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman’s Rights (Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1930), xviii.

Alice Stone Blackwell, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left. , None. [Between 1880 and 1900] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/93510733/.

Week 9 – 2020: Disaster #52Ancestors

Most of us know about the Irish Potato Famine and how it devastated the Irish people. Short course: from 1845 to 1852, disease and starvation caused the death of about 1 million people and caused another 2.5 million to flee the country.[1] My husband and I have many ancestors who came to the United States from Ireland during these years and immediately after. Sadly, their individual stories were never recorded. Indeed, for some of them, all I know is that they were Catholic and came from some place in Ireland. However, for Daniel and Johana (Roche) Quinlan, my husband’s third great-grandparents, we have enough information to piece together what happened to their family as a result of the Great Hunger.

Daniel and Johana likely married in County Cork sometime before 1827.[2] In 1828, Daniel and Johana were living in the townland of Downing (“An Dúinín”), north-east County Cork.[3] Knowing their townland was a key piece of information in my search for them.[4]

A word on land divisions in Ireland: the smallest “official” geographical division in Ireland is the townland and there are more than 64,000 townlands in Ireland.[5] Townlands group together to form the next geographical division, the civil parish (not to be confused with church parishes).[6] Downing and several other townlands formed the parish of Kilcrumper.[7] Knowing the parish opens the door to many more resources to help locate ancestors.

Pre-famine Kilcrumper had 1,408 residents and was primarily a farming community.[8] Of the 217 families living in Kilcrumper, 86% of them were “chiefly employed in Agriculture.”[9] I have located what is called a “Tithe Composition Applotment” record for Dowing in 1828 and it shows Daniel occupied a thirty-one acre farm.[10] These Applotment records were generated because occupiers of land had to pay the Church of Ireland a money tithe representing one-tenth of the produce generated on the farm.[11] We are lucky to have these records, even if the farmer-occupiers (especially Catholics) objected to paying the tithe.[12]

It is hard to determine the value of Daniel’s farm relative to today’s standards, but it appears to be on the “high-end” compared to the farms nearby. The land in Kilcrumper was reported to be of good quality and mostly under cultivation.[13] While this Applotment record is not a census, it is reasonable to assume that Johana was living on the farm at that time with their first daughter, Ann (b. 1827). Johanna and Daniel had four more children over the next eleven years: Michael (b. 1830), Daniel (b. 1833), John (b. 1835), and Catherine (b. 1838). 

The appearance of the potato blight (which lead to the famine) began slowly; first, in some parts of Europe.[14] Initially, the blight in Ireland was highly localized, but by 1846, the entire Irish potato crop was infected.[15] To grasp why this caused a disaster, it’s important to know that for the nine months following harvest, the average Irishman ate 10-12 pounds of potatoes per day.[16] As the potato crop continued to fail over the next 4-5 years, the government in London botched the relief efforts which caused massive starvation and disease.

 What happened to the Quinlan family during the famine years? I don’t have many records relating to the family during those years, but by the end of the famine, Johanna was a widow and her nineteen- and fifteen-year-old sons had left for America.[17] Instead of a 31-acre farm, the remaining family members were living on one-acre plot in a 6-foot tall 31 x 17 thatched roof house with stone or mud walls.[18] Living with Johana was her daughter Ann (24), son John (16), sister-in-law, Ann Molone (77), and a nine-year-old granddaughter, Mary Hendly.[19] I assume Ann Malone’s husband had either died or emigrated. John (my husband’s 2nd great-grandfather) left Ireland shortly thereafter and ultimately settled in Kansas. 

 What happened to the Quinlans wasn’t unusual. By 1851, the population of Cork had decreased by 28% due to death or immigration.[20] I haven’t been able to determine what happened to the Quinlan women left behind, but someday I will track them down.

[1] John Dorney, “The Great Irish Famine 1845-1851 – A Brief Overview,” The Irish Story (https://www.theirishstory.com/2016/10/18/the-great-irish-famine-1845-1851-a-brief-overview/#.Xlwxdi2ZPUY : accessed 1 March 2020)

[2] Marriage records for their Catholic parish do not begin until May 1828.

[3] Applottment for Vicarial Tithes of the Parish of Kilcrumper, Townland of Downing (1828), Daniel Quinlon; digital image, The National Archives of Ireland (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004587459/004587459_00214.pdf : accessed 27 January 2016).

[4] Even though a census of Ireland was taken every ten years from 1821 to 1911, a fire at the Public Record Office in 1922 and intentional destruction by the Irish government means that most of the pre-1900 censuses are not available. If you are lucky, you might find your ancestors in some of the fragments of the census records that remain. Grenham, “Chapter 2 – Census Records,” Tracing Your Irish Ancestors (Dublin: Gill Books, 2019), 18.

[5] John Grenham, “Chapter 4 – Property and Valuation Records,” Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, 57.

[6] Ibid.

[7] General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland: Based on the Census of Ireland for the Year 1851 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO, 1984), 386.

[8] Samuel Lewis, “Kilcrumper,” A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2nd ed., vol. 2, (London: S. Lewis and Co., 1837), 42; image, Internet Archive(http://www.archive.org : accessed 10 September 2019).

[9] Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, Vol. 15, Population of Ireland (England: 1833), 146. 148; Google (http://www.play.google.com/books : accessed 4 March 2020).

[10] Applotment for Kilcrumper, Townland of Downing (1828).

[11] John Grenham, “Tithe Applotment Books,” Irish Ancestors (https://johngrenham.com : accessed 4 March 2020).

[12] Chris Paton, “Tithe records,” Discover Irish Land Records (Australia: Unlock the Past, 2015), 50.

[13] Lewis, “Kilcrumper.”

[14] Christine Kinealy, “Chapter 2, A Blight of Unusual Character: 1845-46,” This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-1852 (Boulder, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995), 31.

[15] Kinealy, “Chapter 3, We Cannot Feed the People: 1846-47,” 71-72.

[16] Kinealy, “Chapter 2,” 32.

[17] Josephine Masterson, County Cork, Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co, 2000), 30; digital image, Ancestry, “County Cork Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 March 2020). Manifest, SS Regulus, 13 June 1849, p. 3, lines 13 and 14, Mike and Daniel Quinlan, ages 19 and 15; digital image, Ancestry, “Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 March 2020).

[18] “Ireland, Valuation Office Books, 1831-1857,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 3 March 2020), Cork>Kilcrumper>Downing North> image 4 of 4; from “Griffith’s Valuation 1847-1864,” database and images, findmypast (http://findmypast.com : 2014); citing various libraries, offices, and a private collection. Frances McGee, “Appendix G: Classification of buildings,” The Archives of the Valuation of Ireland, 1830-1865 (Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts Press, 2018), 214.

[19] Masterson, County Cork, 30.

[20] Abstracts of the Census of Ireland Taken in the Years 1841 and 1851 (Dublin: G.&J. Greirson, 1851); digital image, Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/op1247171-1001/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 4 March 2020). Cork lost another 100,000 people by 1861. Wikipedia, “Irish population analysis,” rev. 14:06, 16 February 2020.

From a collection called “Remarkable Old Photos of Ireland” posted by “Col,” on Irish Archaeology website (http://irisharchaeology.ie : accessed 5 March 2020).

From a collection called “Remarkable Old Photos of Ireland” posted by “Col,” on Irish Archaeology website (http://irisharchaeology.ie : accessed 5 March 2020).

Week 8 – 2020: Prosperity #52Ancestors

When my husband and I were in law school, I had the chance to visit him in Kansas City at the end of the summer of 1981. We had just finished our summer clerkships and I was driving from L.A. to pick him up in K.C. and then head to Notre Dam for our last year. He was living in his grandmother’s house at the time; she so kindly let him stay rent-free for the summer. I think his uncle was also living there at the time as had an aunt who passed away the previous summer. So, yes, a very large house. When I pulled up that day in my little blue hatchback “fresh” from my 1,600-mile drive, I was very much impressed. 

Today, 320 East 45th Street in Kansas City is owned by the Kansas City Art Institute and is used for offices and classrooms. It would appear that KCAI is planning to tear it down, but as of today it is still standing. The building is three stories tall and has high ceilings, large rooms, several sleeping porches, and (originally) a complete kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, and two full baths on the third floor. I cannot get a bead on its current value, even through Zillow.com, but the private homes of similar size in the area appear to be in the $1 to 2 million range.

Originally built about 1921, my husband’s grandparents (Lee and Kathryn Baty) purchased the property about 1938. You may wonder how, at the height of the depression, they could afford such a house. The story is that the owner of the house, Otho C. Snider, needed to sell the house “cheap” since, as an investment broker, he was suffering during the Great Depression.[1] It is interesting to see that in 1930, the value of the house was shown to be $75,000, but in 1940 it was down to $10,000.[2] In addition, my husband’s grandfather was hired by his wife’s aunt to work for her factory. Of course, if you’ve followed this blog any, you know I am talking about Ellen (“Nell”) Quinlan Donnelly Reed, one of America’s first female millionaires and the co-owner of said factory.[3]

Lee and his wife (the former Kathryn Ann McCormick) were born in Parsons, a small community in south-east Kansas. Lee and Kathryn went to school together and graduated from Parsons High School in 1911. Lee was a star athlete their senior year: captain of the baseball team; captain of the basketball team (7-6 season, state tournament champs); and, star of the football team (3-3 season; SE Kanas champs).[4]  According to a relative, Lee’s nickname in was “The Iron Man.” Not to be out-done, Kate was on the girls’ basketball team (10-7 season), the only sports team available to girls. Both were on the editorial staff of the yearbook where Lee was editor-in-chief and Kate was in charge of “Jokes and Exchanges.” Lee was voted “Best Bluffer,” and Kate “Wittiest.” Quite the big fish in a small pond.

Following graduation, Lee attended the University of Michigan for one year where he intended to study architecture.[5] He made the football team, but I don’t think he made the baseball team.[6] He did not continue at Michigan after that first year and returned home to follow in his father and brothers’ footsteps working for the railroad. He and Kate were married April 24, 1918 and he was inducted into the Army July 15, 1918. While he went through basic training at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, Kansas, Lee never served over-seas. The family story is that he was discharged (on March 1, 1919) because Kate was pregnant and had the flu. The evidence supports some of this in that Kate delivered their first child on February 15, 1919. Since the war had ended the previous November, it makes sense that Lee was no longer needed. While Camp Funston was the likely epicenter of the Spanish Flu epidemic, there is no evidence that either Lee or Kate had contracted it.[7]

 After serving in the Army, Lee continued to play baseball and work as a clerk for the railroad in Parsons.[8] He and Kate had three more children.[9] By all appearances, they were a happy and contented lot in little Parsons. The family story is that in the early 1930’s, Kate’s Aunt Nell convinced (ordered?) Kate to come to Kansas City to live and she would give Lee a job at her company. 

It looks like Lee first came to Kansas City for the job in 1932 without his family and lived with Aunt Nell for that year.[10] His first job at the Donnelly Garment Co. was “manager.”[11] The family joined him the next year and his job title was then “auditor.”[12] By 1938, the family had moved into the big house on 45th Street and Lee was a “vice president.”[13] I’ve heard that Lee was not happy about the move away from Parsons. Even money, a huge house, private high schools for the children, and all that went with living in Kansas City society could not assure happiness. 

I don’t mean to end the blog on a negative. Lee and Kate used their largess to help those less fortunate through the depression, the war, and beyond. While one of their sons-in-law was in his medical residency, that family lived in the third-floor apartment where five of their seven children were born. My in-laws also lived there when they were first married and had the first of their three children there. And it wasn’t just family that they helped: during World War II, they housed many passing through who needed temporary lodging.[14] One of Kate’s brothers lived there in the 1950’s and was known to give the needy who knocked on their door food and money.[15]

When I first saw “320,” it had clearly seen better days.[16] But even the passage of time and much wear and tear could not hide the beauty of the place.

[1] Janelle Ketcher, “Baty House: Studies for an increased awareness of the 320 East 45th Street property and its history,” Issuu.com (https://issuu.com/janelleketcher/docs/baty_house_bnim : accessed 20 February 2020.

[2] 1930 U.S. census, Jackson Co., Missouri, population schedule, Kansas City, ward 7, p. 9A, dwelling 88, family no. 161, Otho C. Snider; NARA microfilm publication not noted; FHL microfilm 2,340,932. 1940 U.S. census, Jackson Co., Missouri, population schedule, Kansas City, ward 7, p. 8B, dwelling 232, Lee Baty; NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 02171.

[3] See a little bit on her in my Week 11 post from 2019 (https://www.makingsenseofitall.rocks/?offset=1558390701077).

[4] 1911 Parsonian (Parsons, Kansas: The Foley Railway Printing Co., 1911); digital copy held by author.

[5] “Lee Baty,” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Eclipse, 28 September 1911, p. 6, col. 4.

[6] “Word has been received,” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Eclipse, 23 October 1911, p. 6, col. 4. “Lee Baty,” Parsons (Kansas) Palladium, 1 May 1912, p. 1, col. 5.

[7] Wikipedia.org, “Spanish Flu,” rev. 15:55, 24 February 2020.

[8] 1930 U.S. Census, Labette County, Kansas, population schedule, Parsons, sheet 11A (penned), enumeration district 50-22, dwelling 254, family 254, Lee Baty; NARA microfilm publication T626, [roll not noted on Ancestry].

[9] Ibid.

[10] Polk’s Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1933 (Kansas City, MO: Gate City Directory Co., 1933), 106; digital image, Ancestry, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 February 2020), image 45 of 1201. Lee’s address in this directory was 5235 Oak St., the same address as Aunt Nell.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Polk’s Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1934 (Kansas City, MO: Gate City Directory Co., 1934), 112; digital image, Ancestry, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 February 2020), image 43 of 1244. Kate is listed in this directory and the family residence was 4943 Forest Ave.

[13] Polk’s Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1939 (Kansas City, MO: Gate City Directory Co., 1939), 81; digital image, Ancestry, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 February 2020), image 33 of 801. Between 1934 and 1938, the family lived at 5349 Rockhill Rd, Kansas City.  Polk’s Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1935 (Kansas City, MO: Gate City Directory Co., 1935), 113; digital image, Ancestry, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 February 2020), image 54 of 1271. Polk’s Kansas City (Missouri) City Directory, 1937 (Kansas City, MO: Gate City Directory Co., 1937), 118; digital image, Ancestry, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 February 2020), image 47 of 664. Directory for 1936 is incomplete on Ancestry.

[14] Ketcher, “The Baty House.”

[15] Ibid.

[16] Lee and Kate’s many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren lovingly refer to the house simply by its number. 

320 E. 45th St., Kansas City, MO - back in the day.

Parsons High School Football Team, 1911.

Parsons High School Girls Basketball Team, 1911.

The Baty family on the front steps of 320 East 45th St.

Week 7 – 2020: Favorite Discovery #52Ancestors

One favorite discovery has to do with my great-uncle, Everett Linwood Spencer. He was the first of my great-grandfather’s five children, born in 1867 to Charles Edward Spencer and his first wife, Sarah Jennie Farr. I’ve written about Charles before: he of three wives (two overlapping in time); a made-up Civil War story; and a made-up birth year (what kind of nut ageshimself by nine years?). Anyway, I want to focus on Everett today because of a little serendipity.

Born in Rhode Island in 1867, Everett was the first of Charles and Sarah’s two children. Charles had been in living in Boston with his mother, step-father and step-brothers in 1865, but married Sarah that year in Rhode Island. Evidently, they settled there because by 1870 they were living in Scituate, RI with two sons and Sarah’s father. Charles was a clerk in a store.  Then, disaster struck. Sarah died in 1872 and, although I cannot find the younger son’s death certificate, he certainly died before 1875. 

Less than two-years after Sarah’s death, Charles married again. This was also a second marriage for Celeste who had a seven-year old daughter. By mid-1880, Charles and family were living in Providence and Charles was a grocer. They were well-enough off to have a servant and Charles’ uncle, Edward Ingham (half-brother to his mother) is living with them.

Sadly, Charles and Celeste’s marriage did not last long. Well, on paper it did, but not in real life. By January of 1883, Charles was in New York living with a woman he identified as his wife who had just given birth to a son. Charles and his “new” wife, Mary Josephine McGann (my great-grandmother) had two more children and continued to live together as man and wife until after Celeste died in 1900. It wasn’t until I found the baptismal records for Charles and Mary’s children that I found their marriage record from 1902.

Fine, but what of Everett, the focus of this blog? His dad and Celeste separated by at least 1882 when he was fourteen-years-old. He didn’t go to New York with his father, so what happened to him? A biography of him says that he was “orphaned” at nine and made his living operating a little fruit stand and selling papers.[1] Presumably, Everett contributed this information to the biographer, but why would he invent such a fanciful story? I can only guess at the shame associated with having been abandoned by one’s father. I assume he needed to re-invent himself and fabricated the reasons for his “orphan” status. 

I’ve been able to find a little about Everett’s early life after his father left. In early 1885, he was living with his step-mother, Celeste. Later that year, he was living H. DeWitt Smith, a jewelry manufacturer in Providence. He was identified in the census that year as DeWitt’s step-son, but there is no reason to think there was a true family connection. Everett’s biography noted he was an apprentice at the jewelry firm of Waite, Smith & Co. and since DeWitt was also a jeweler in Providence, so I assume perhaps some kind of family connection.

After working for a number of jewelry manufacturers, Everett opened his own firm in 1891. He married his first wife, Nettie James Waite the year before and that same year they welcomed a daughter, Evelyn. Everett L. Spencer & Co. must have been quite successful. By 1915, Everett and his family had two homes in Rhode Island, one in Providence and another one near the ocean in Barrington.

Everett’s first wife died in in 1921 and he married Irene Hurley the next year. They had a daughter, Dorothy Betty, in 1923. Everett passed away three years later at age fifty-nine. His death was noted in many large newspapers in the region, including the Boston Herald who described him as a “Prominent Manufacturer.”[2]

Learning about Everett was one of my favorite discoveries because it turns out that his half-sister, my grandmother, also worked as a jeweler before she married in 1921. My sister inherited her engagement ring which, the story goes, was designed by my grandmother. To find that the half-brother she likely never knew was in the same business sent chills up my spine. Then I found a picture of Everett’s daughter Dorothy from her obituary in 2011 and that was a shocker. Maybe you won’t be able to see it, but when I saw Dorothy’s picture, I thought I was looking at my grandmother or at least a woman who could be my grandmother’s sister. Made me smile.[3]

[1] "Everett L. Spencer," History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical (NY: The American Historical Society, Inc, 1920), 115-16.

[2] “Everett L. Spencer, Jewelry Man Dies," Boston Herald, 7 March 1926, p. 10, col. 5-6.

[3] Apologies for the lack of footnotes in this blog. Out of town and without sufficient resources. 

My grandmother, Catherine Josephine Spencer Maier

My first cousin, once removed, Dorothy Betty Spencer Fannon

Week 6 – 2020: Same Name

Like every genealogist I’ve ever met, I experience frustration with my ancestors using the same name over and over again. Although no less frustrating, it’s understandable as most of our ancestors chose names to honor people.[1] For the most part, my British and German ancestors followed the conventional pattern of the time[2]:

·      First son – named after father’s father

·      Second son – named after mother’s father

·      Third son – named after father

·      Fourth son – named after father’s oldest brother

And so on.

·      First daughter – named after mother’s mother

·      Second daughter named after father’s mother

·      Third daughter – named after mother

·      Fourth daughter – named after mother’s oldest sister

And so on.

 Depending on the situation, this is either a really bad thing or a pretty good thing.

 Let me explain.

 The “bad” part of this may be obvious: Let’s say your ancestors all lived in the same town and say that your third great-grandfather was named John, and he was the third son of a John. And let’s say your third great-grandparents had four sons. Under this scenario, all of their sons would name their first-born sons John. Ugh! And to make matters worse, if they all live in the same community, then all the men likely had the same/similar job. Good luck with that! 

Now for the “good” part. Let’s say you are looking for your second great-grandparents in the manifests for ships arriving into the port of New York between when they married in 1840 in Germany and when their first U.S.-born child came along in 1846. Well, I’ll tell you that it really helps when you know that mom had a sister named Philippina and you find a ship’s manifest with a daughter of that name showing them arriving in New York on 3 January 1845.[3] Those unusual names that survive generation to generation can be a boon to your research. 

My second great-aunt, Philippina (née Glaeschen) Messner caused me a few more problems with her name. For many years, I could not locate her beyond the ship’s manifest and her (as a nine year-old) living with her family in Penn Township, Pennsylvania.[4] You’d think with a name like that, it would be relatively easy to track her, but for some reason she gave me trouble. It wasn’t until Find My Past published the New York City Catholic marriage and baptismal records that I found her marriage in 1864 to Joseph Messner.[5] This was a great record to find because Philippina and her sister Catherine were married the same day.

I tracked Philippina under her married name until 1870.[6] I know she and Joseph had a number of children after 1870, but I had yet to find them in the census records until a week or so ago. With a bit of serendipity, luck, and using a broader-than-normal search I located her death certificate and a census record.  

I’ll cut to the chase – Philippina died of cancer 8 December 1899 in Brooklyn, New York and was buried 11 December in the same cemetery as her parents. The name on her death certificate is “Mina Moeshner.”[7] What the what? The only way I found it was through a wide-open search on FamilySearch.org with New York as the place of death and “Glacy” as the father’s last name (it wasn’t as easy as all that - I tried multiple iterations for the father’s last name). 

How did Phippina Messner get to be Mina Moeshner? At first, I thought it might be a mis-translation or a “simple” misspelling. You can never get too hung-up on spelling with historical records because you are at the “mercy of the person with the pen.” However, in this case, it seems that the change in spelling was deliberate. Using “Moeshner,” I found Joseph’s death certificate, and found Phillipina and two of her children in the 1892 New York state census.[8] However, both Joseph and the remaining Messner family went went back and forth between Moeshner and Messner for some time. Why? No idea. 

Thanks, Philippina for the unusual name but no thanks for randomly changing it.[9]

[1] I’m guessing you did too when you named your children. 

[2] James M. Beidler, “Understanding German Language and Surnames,” Family Tree Magazine, no date provided; digital images, Familytreemagazine.com (https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/understanding-german-language-and-surnames/ : accessed 9 February 2020). FamilySearch Wiki, “British Naming Conventions,” rev. 23:29, 2 February 2016.

[3] Of course, that’s not the only piece of evidence I had, but it was the lynch-pin that helped me put this family in the U.S. at the right time.

[4] 1850 U.S. census, Berks Co., Pennsylvania, population schedule, Penn Township, p. 66B (stamped), dwelling 169, Family 186, Joseph Glasy; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 February 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll752.

[5] Most Holy Redeemer Parish (New York, NY), Parish Register, p. 118, Mossner-Glasgen marriage (1865); image, findmypast, "New York Roman Catholic Parish Marriages," (http://www.findmypast.com : accessed 6 Dec 2018)

[6] 1870 U.S. census, New York county, New York, population schedule, New York Ward 17, District 16, p. 161 (stamped), dwelling not noted, family 531, Phillipina Mesner in household of Charles Scherl; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 February 2010); citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 1037.

[7] City of New York, certificate and record of death no. 20451 (1899), Mina Moeshner [Philippina Messner]; digital image received from NYC Municipal Archives, New York, New York (2020).

[8] 1892 New York state census, Kings County, Brooklyn, p. 8; "New York State Census, 1892," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6DQV-3V?cc=1529100&wc=3FG6-92G%3A69522401%2C70011301 : 22 May 2015), Kings > Brooklyn, Ward 26, E.D. 13 > image 6 of 11; county offices, New York.

[9] Thanks also for help from Deborah G., my 3rd cousin 2x removed with whom I share 17 cM.

I don’t have any pictures of Philippina. This is the ship that carried Joseph Glaeschen, his wife, Elizabeth, three year-old Philippina, my great-grandfather Joseph who was less than a year old, and Elizabeth’s sister and brother, Mararetha and Nicholas Rebholz to America from LeHarve, France, in 1845. The New York Herald on 11 January 1839 reported "Havre packet LOUIS PHILIPPE, Capt John Castoff made an 1838 passage New York to Havre, 3293 miles, in 13 days, 20 hours, a new course record." From 24 July 1837 through 31 Dec 1847 she made at least 28 voyages from LeHarve. 

Week 5 – 2020: So Far Away

While my family tree consists of mostly German and Irish, I do have one branch that is English and all are from the Greater Manchester area in Lancashire, specifically two parishes: St Mary the Virgin in Bury and St Mary the Virgin in Prestwich. When first researching this branch, I was confused by what exactly were “Bury” and “Prestwich.”  Apparently, this confusion was justified as these names were used for townships and parishes. Bury also comprised two subdistricts and a district in Lancashire.[1]

The furthest back I have been able to trace with any sense of accuracy is to the marriage of my seventh great-grandparents Samuel Horsefield and Mary Seddon on 12 October 1697 at Prestwich (St. Mary). In looking through the church registers to find records on my Lancashire family, I am struck by the number of people whose surnames are the same as the parish or towns they are living in. I’ve seen last names such as Ramsbottom, Lancashire, Heywood, Prestwich, etc. And these are not lords or ladies, just regular town folk whose ancestors likely adopted the town name as their own to distinguish themselves from other Toms, Dicks, or Harrys. I find it interesting to see first-hand the rise of surnames in the world.

Some form of church has been on the site of the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Prestwich since before the 12th century. Completed about 1530, the current church building went through many renovations over the years.[2] Now part of the Church of England, St. Mary was originally Roman Catholic.[3] Records from Prestwich are available beginning in 1599. It had numerous “chapelries” in the smaller towns in the parish, such as Oldham, Little Heaton, Great Heaton, and Tonge.[4]

The main church in Bury (also St. Mary the Virgin) was built on the highest point in the center of the town. Church records for St. Mary date back to 971 A.D.[5]  This St. Mary also had its companion chapelries of Edenfield, Heywood, Holcombe, Ramsbottom, Tottington Higher-End, Tottington Lower-End and, Walmersley.[6] The local chapelries were subsidiary places of worship, closer to the people than the main church and where services were held and many sacraments took place.[7]

Back to Samuel and Mary. They had four sons: Richard, John, William, and Jeremiah (my sixth great-grandfather). It is super great to have the baptismal records for them, but they don’t tell me much about the family. Later English church records identify the father’s occupation which helps in distinguishing one man from another. This is one of the reasons I haven’t been able to go back beyond Samuel and Mary – there are quite a few baptisms of people with the same name baptized at around the same time, living in the same area. As an example, when I search for Mary Seddon’s baptism in Lancashire during a ten-year period, I get nine results from two different databases.[8] Ugh.

When I got to my fifth great-grandfather, Robert Horsefield (Samuel and Mary’s grandson), I finally discover that his father, Jeremiah, was a weaver (1735).[9] The generations that follow were all involved in weaving, calico printing, or other jobs related to textile manufacturing. Not surprising, I’ve found that Lancashire was the heartland of the English textile industry.[10] Many of the “ground-breaking” weaving inventions were by Bury weavers. Things like the “Flying Shuttle” which “allowed cloth to be produced in wider bolts at twice the speed” was invented in 1733 by John Kay, a Bury weaver. [11]

[1] John Marius Wilson, “Bury,” Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72); digital image, A Vison of Britain Through Time (https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/846150 : accessed 4 February 2020).

[2] FamilySearch Wiki, “Church of St Mary the Virgin, Prestwich,” rev. 09:47, 16 September 2019.

[3] When we were in London a couple of years ago, we took a tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral, a stunning Anglican cathedral. One of the exhibits in the basement showed the church from its beginnings in 604 A.D. to the present day. I was struck that the exhibit didn’t mention at all the change in its religious affiliation. Hmmm.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Wikipedia,  “Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Bury,” rev. 08:24, 4 April 2019.

[6] I wanted to list all these names because they are so very English! FamilySearch Wiki, “Bury St Mary, Lancashire Genealogy Wiki,” rev. 13:03, 30 November 2019.

[7] FamilySearch Wiki, “Chapelry (England),” rev. 20:52, 25 December 2015.

[8] Family Search and OnLine Parish Clerks for the County of Lancashire.

[9] Bishop’s Transcript, Prestwich parish, 1599-1713, baptism of Robert Horsefield, 6 April 1735, unpaginated chronological entries; digital image, FamilySearch, “Bishop’s transcripts for Prestwich, 1599-1883,” (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6XK9-HL8?i=479&cat=367478 : accessed 5 February 2020), image 480 from FHL microfilm 004,007,121; citing Lancashire Record Office, Preston, England.

[10] Christine Goodier, MA, “The Lancashire Riots,” Lancaster Castle (https://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/further-articles/the-lancashire-riots/ : accessed 5 February 2020).

[11] Ibid. John Kay is a local Bury hero with several pubs named after him and a memorial in the town center. Wikipedia, “John Kay (flying shuttle),” rev. 14:03, 3 February 2020.

St. Mary’s Church at Prestwich. Photographer, Ian Peacock, Wikimedia Commons, Prestwich, St. Mary’s Church, 06:35, 18 September 2019.

St. Mary’s Church at Bury. Photographer, Peter Downs, taken April 2018 (http://google.com : accessed 6 February 2020).

Week 4 – 2020: Close to Home

As I mentioned last week, our European ancestors likely stayed in one place most of their lives. I recently did a deep-dive into my Wernersberg ancestors and found that from at least 1718 until today there are people living there with the name of Glaeschen or similar (my Glacy ancestor was a Glaeschen. See Week 3 from 2019 for explanation).

When researching this branch of the family tree, I have to be mindful of the various ways my family’s name was spelled and transcribed. Here are a few of the variants:

• Glaesschen

• Glaesge

• Glaeschen

• Gläßgen

• Gläsgen

• Glasgen

• Glaesgein

• Glaesgin

Okay, so you get the point. Even if you have an easy name (like Baty) you have to be aware of a few things:

1. your ancestors were likely illiterate;

2. The person writing their name in the record could have heard it a different way or had their own way of spelling it; and,

3. The person transcribing the record for whatever database you are researching may have misspelled it or misread it.

For Baty, I have found records for Baty ancestors with these spellings: Batey, Beattie, Batie, Batty, and Batz. These is where wild cards become your friends. While not all websites support searches using wild cards, those that do are super helpful. So, for a search for Glaeschen ancestors I use: Gl*s*e*. Yes, this will get me some results that are not helpful, but nine times out of ten most of the results will be spot-on. 

You’re maybe asking “What do you do with all those results, Cecelia?” Well, here’s one cool thing I did using FamilySearch.org. I searched all baptisms and marriages for Gl*s*e* in Wernersberg. From that, I easily exported my results to Excel.[1] Taking these results, I merged the Excel data into one spreadsheet and was able to group nearly everyone into a family group, focusing on 1718 to 1837.[2] The result was twenty-four family groups with Glaeschen or similar. My third great-grandparents Johannes Glaesgen (note the different spelling) and Anna Barbara Masser were married on 27 June 1796 and had five children. Through this research, I discovered that my second great-grandfather had a twin sister (Mary Ann).  

Estimating that my third great-grandfather was probably born between 1755 and 1775, spreadsheet shows that there are six possible choices for my fourth great-grandparents. “Six” you ask, how can there be so many in such a small village?[3] Well, beginning in the Middle Ages, German boys were almost always baptized with the name Joannes, Johannes or Johann.[4] However, they were also given a second name, known as the “Rufnme,” which would be used in throughout the male’s life.[5 ]It appears that my ancestor may not have been given a “rufname” when he was baptized, so the list of five narrows to just two, unless he is older or younger than my search perimeter. The only way I will be able to sort this out is to actually see the marriage record for my third great-grandparents which should name their parents. Sadly, the records held by Family Search exist still on microfilm. Anyone taking a trip to Salt Lake City soon?

[1] See the top right of your results for an “export” button.

[2] I did this only for Glaeschen grooms as I was tracking only the male line. I intend to do this for the female lines as well.

[3] About 1,100 current residents. “Community Statistics,” 31 December 2019, Werner Berg, Southern Wine Route(https://ewois.de/Statistik/user/htmlgen.php?stichtag=31.12.2019&ags=33701083&type=OG&linkags=0733701083 : accessed 28 January 2020).

[4] The girls were always named Maria, Anna, or Anna Maria.

[5] James M. Beidler, “Understanding German Language and Surnames,” Family Tree Magazine(https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/understanding-german-language-and-surnames/# : accessed 28 January 2020).

View of Wernersberg by Ali Aksi, 2019 (http://www.earth.google.com : accessed 28 January 2019).

Wernersberg (http://www.earth.google.com : accessed 28 January 2019).

Week 3 - 2020: Long Line

Have I regaled you of my love for my hometown of Maplewood, New Jersey? I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I want to do a deeper dive in this post.

In researching my family tree, I’ve learned that in the “old” country, our ancestors didn’t move around much. How would they? Why would they? It’s not like they had available long-distance transportation or that they had any reason to move away from their family and the community they grew up in. When searching for the illusive wife in an ancestral couple, it’s important to remember that she probably didn’t live far from her husband before they were married. You may not yet know her maiden name, but you can narrow the list of potentials by searching in the same small area as the husband.[1] However, when our ancestors immigrated, they seem to have hit the U.S. shores and kept going west. Not so for my McDonough/Dunigan family.

My second great-grandfather, Michael McDonough, immigrated to the U.S. in about 1846. Sadly, I haven’t been able to determine precisely when he came or what county in Ireland he came from. Sometime before August of 1850, he met and married my second great-grandmother, Bridget Dunigan.[2] In 1851, Michael acquired ten acres of land in Clinton from Eleazer and Mary Porter for $1,225. Although deed is dated 13 October 1851, it’s likely he was working on this property earlier as the 1850 census identifies him as a farmer.

Michael acquired a fair amount of property in Clinton over many years. Fromed from Newark Township in 1834, portions of Clinton Township became South Orange Township in 1861.[3] South Orange Township changed its name of Maplewood in 1922.[4] Got that?

To make matters worse, the area in Clinton/South Orange Township/Maplewood where the McDonoughs settled had other names such as Newark Farms, North Farms, Middleville, Camptown, and Hilton.[5] My great-grandfather’s birth record says he was born in Middleville, but his youngest brother was born in Hilton.[6] It took me quite a while to figure out that ALL of these names referred to the same place. 

Beginning in 1851, Michael and his sons acquired farm property in Maplewood.[7] On several census records and city directories, Michael is described as a “horticulturist.” I assume he adopted this highfaluting name because he was relatively famous for growing “Hilton strawberries.” Seth Boyden, the American inventor, is credited with developing this version of luscious strawberry, but evidently, Michael was also well-known for growing them.[8] Michael’s third child, Michael Sarsfield McDonough, followed in his father’s footsteps as a farmer/gardener in Maplewood until his sixties. His oldest daughter, my grandmother, lived with her parents until she married in 1915. Living for a time in other towns in the area, she returned to Maplewood after her husband died in 1927. She continued to live there until her death in 1975 at the age of ninety-one.

From at least 1850 until today, descendants of Michael McDonough have lived in Maplewood.[9] My parents moved out in 1979, although my sister moved back there in 1980 for about a year. An idyllic place to grow up, Maplewood had/has beautiful parks, an outstanding school system, a completely “walkable” community, and two fabulous libraries.[10]

My favorite Maplewood memory is the Fourth of July. The most important thing you needed for this day was a ticket to get you into all of the events. Red and in the shape of a firecracker, it had a string at the top to tie onto your shirt. The day would start at 7:00 am with a twenty-one-gun salute and foot races for the elementary kids at Maplewood Memorial Park. My sister regularly won her age-group. The next thing up was a parade at noon and then circus acts at the park. While various vendors sold food in the park, I recall that we always went home to eat. A beauty contest (ugh) and the high school jazz band started the evening activities. Just as it was getting dark, the aerial act from the circus would perform again under the lights. Then we would have the most wonderful display of fireworks I’ve ever seen.[11] In addition to the usual bombs bursting in air, two firework-illuminated battle ships on either side of the field in front would shoot fireworks at each other. All during this a man could be seen walking back and forth behind the display, presumably on the watch for any problems. I’ve read that 2020 will be the 118th fireworks display in Maplewood. My second great-grandfather died in 1903. I can only image that Michael loved fireworks as much as I do.

[1] Usually.

[2] Ditto with regards her immigration information.

[3] Not to be confused with the Village of South Orange. John O. Raum, The History of New Jersey: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. 1(Philadelphia: John E. Potter and Co., 1877), 242, 246; digital images, Google Books (http://books.Google.com : accessed 21 January 2020).

[4] John P. Snyder, The Story of New Jersey’s Civil Boundaries: 1605-1968 (Trenton: Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969), 128; digital images, New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water Supply and Geoscience (https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf: accessed 21 January 2020).

[5] “The Hilton Section: Many Names, One Identity,” Durand-Hedden House & Garden Association (https://www.durandhedden.org/archives/articles/the_hilton_section_many_names_one_identity : accessed 21 January 2020.

[6] New Jersey, Essex County, Births, Vol. I, 1848-1867, p. 168, McDonough (July 1854); digital image FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 July 2018), FHL microfilm 495696, image 233 of 533.

[7] Calling it Maplewood for ease of reference.

[8] Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org), “Seth Boyden,” rev. 15:09, 10 November 2019. G. Clifford Jones, “Hilton Boy,” Helen B. Bates, ed., Maplewood Past and Present: A Miscellany (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,1948), 131.

[9] A quick check of Anywho.com shows two McDonough families in Maplewood today. I assume they are decendants.

[10] I mention the libraries because it is such a small community (24,000 residents in 1960 and about the same now) and the librarians are fantastic. Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org), “Maplewood, New Jersey,” rev. 02:28, 16 January 2020.

[11] Granted, this is my memory.

1859 map of Middleville. Misidentifies M. McDonough as “M. Donehue.” Map of Essex County, New Jersey (New York: Baker & Tilden, 1859). digital image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2012593674 : accessed 22 January 2020).

Week 2-2020: Favorite Photo #52Ancestors

The first picture below is my favorite photo of my Nana. I’ve written about her before – a demanding lady with a heart of gold. I think this might be her high school graduation picture because the second picture is likely her wedding portrait and she looks a bit older in that photo. I love the dress she is wearing in the wedding picture. She was married in 1921 and this dress looks right out of that vintage. My other grandmother is also sitting for her wedding portrait, so maybe that was a “thing” back then.  

Catherine Josephine Spencer, born 1891, was married on 27 April 1921 at St. Columba’s Church in Newark, New Jersey, to Charles Peter Maier, Jr. A year before her marriage, she was boarding at the home of Henry and Anna Schild and working in the sales department of a jeweler.[1]  One of her fellow boarders, Edward Currier, was also working for a jeweler in the factory, but I don’t know if they worked for the same company. The family story is that when she was engaged, her boss told her to design an engagement ring and he made it for her as a present. I don’t know if this story is true, but the ring, which my sister has, is stunning. Several years ago, when I was researching her family, I discovered that her half-brother in Rhode Island was also a jeweler.[2] Kinda gave me chills.

“Of course,” she quit working after she was married. My mom was born two years later and my uncle three years after that. Her husband died in 1954 and she moved to our hometown in 1948.[3] She ultimately moved in with us in late 1969 – early 1970. She lived with us until she died in 1975.[4]

If you have ever visited me in Kansas, you know that my front stairwell has a collection of family pictures that I have gathered over the years. I spent a couple of years hunting for antique frames and digitized the pictures I wanted to display. Because some of the pics were pretty beaten up, I had to do a lot of photo restoration to make them presentable. My friend Christy helped me arrange them and, personally, I think the display looks great.[5]

A couple of years later, I made some slight modifications to the photo display and moved the photos of Nana and my other grandmother, Mae. You should know before I go on that Nana and Mae did not get along. Not. At. All. Each of them thought that their child too good for the other. Made for some lovely mealtimes. Anyway, when I moved the photos I wound up with Mae’s picture over Nana’s. All well and good until a couple of weeks later when Mae’s picture came crashing down and knocked Nana’s off the wall. Yikes.

I’m not a superstitious person, but you can be sure that I re-hung those pictures toot-sweet with Nana and Mae several feet apart. I can report that everything has been fine since then. 

[1] 1920 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Newark, District 6, Ward 9, sheet 13A (penned), enumeration district (ED) 191, dwelling 163, family 271, line 44, Josephine Spencer in Henry T. Shied household; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1034.

[2] 1920 U.S. census, Providence County, Rhode Island, population schedule, Providence, Ward 2, sheet. 20B (penned), enumeration district (ED) 189, dwelling 361, family 482, line 96, Everett L. Spencer; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1678.

[3] U.S. State Department, American Foreign Service, Report of the Death of an American, Charles P. Maier (28 February 1954), Montreal, Canada. Maplewood Memorial Library, “Maplewood Real Estate Files,” digital images of file for 19 Girard Place, Maplewood Memorial Library Digital Archive (http://www.digifind-it.com/maplewood/data/realestate/GIRARD%20PLACE/19%20GIRARD%20PLACE.pdf : accessed 11 January 2020).

[4] Orange, New Jersey, death certificate No. 799, Catherine J. Maier (1975), privately held by family.

[5] But, please come to see and judge for yourself.

Catherine Josephine (Spencer) Maier, circa 1910

Catherine Josephine (Spencer) Maier, circa 1921

Week 1 for 2020: Fresh Start

Happy New Year!

A “fresh start.” What does that mean for you? For me, that means (in part) shedding these excess “holiday” pounds and getting back to a healthier me.[1]

For my friend Sue, it means cleaning up the citations to the documents she has found relating to her ancestors. She and I chatted the other day about this and I could feel her pain. When I first started researching my family, I was so excited to find documents, photos, etc., that I neglected to properly record where I got them. Later, I couldn’t even locate them on my computer much less remember where in the world I had originally found them. I’ve since learned that if we are to leave a genealogical-legacy, those following behind us should be able to easily find our sources and not have to re-invent the wheel.[2]  

If you want to publish your genealogy, you have to follow Evidence Explained, an 892-page behemoth that is the bible for genealogy citations.[3] But for Sue and many others, you only need to be sure that your citation has enough information for others to know what the source is, who created it, and where to find it.[4] By providing this basic information you also convey the reliability of the source.

Outside of genealogy, this year will be an important year for America. The November election may test this country in ways never seen before. While a record turn-out is expected, not enough eligible voters actually exercise their right to vote.[5] So let’s start 2020 with making sure we are all registered. You can check your registration status by going to https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/. If you are not registered, get ‘er done! And once you are sure you are registered, get out there on November 3rd and VOTE! After all, your ancestors didn’t come to America just to let other people’s descendants decide your fate.[6]

I remember my grandmother Mae (Mary Elizabeth McDonough Glacy) voted the straight Democratic ticket. Back in the day in New Jersey you could pull one lever to vote a straight party-line. I recall her telling me that she voted for JFK because he was so handsome.[7] I suspect his Irish heritage was also a factor as Mae was very proud of her Irish roots. I also remember that she volunteered to work the polls, perhaps even for the 1960 presidential election when she was seventy-seven. 

 If you are lucky, published voter lists can be used to find your ancestors at a certain time and place. However, Ancestry.com has only a few voter lists and, while FamilySearch.org has few more, they are few and far between and very narrowly focused. As an example, Family Search has the 1872 list of voters in in the town of Simcoe, Norfolk County, Ontario. Bully for you if your ancestor lived there!

 For one of my husband’s ancestors, the California Voter Registers came in quite handy. John Longly Baty was my husband’s 3rd great-uncle. He was born in Ohio in 1817 and died in North Powder, Oregon in 1894.[8] He and his sons were “pioneers” in the true sense of the word and the California Voter Registers helped place them in Camp Bidwell, Modoc County, California in 1877.[9]

 Camp Bidwell was established between 1863 and 1866 in “Surprise Valley,” the corner where California meets Oregon and Nevada.[10] Its name was changed in 1879 to Fort Bidwell and a town of the same name grew up beside it. The fort was transferred from military control in 1890 to the Department of Interior which established a Native American school and headquarters for the Fort Bidwell Indian Reservation.[11] The reservation is 3,335 square acres and was established for the Northern California Paiute.[12] About 160 of the tribe’s 350 members currently live on the reservation.[13]

 I am pretty sure John Longly was living in Illinois in late 1875 because his wife died there in October of that year. Apparently, unencumbered by a wife, John ventured out to California in about 1876 to join three of his sons, including David S. who settled in California in 1864. John’s daughter, Elizabeth Jane, was one of his most interesting children. Married at eighteen, she had seven or eight children before her husband died in 1875. A few years later, she and her children are also out in Modoc County, California with her father and brothers. She then moves with her father to Oregon where she marries for a second time.[14]

 Talk about pioneers! Did they go by wagon train? Did they encounter Native Americans? What route did they take? How long did it take? Yikes. I see I have my 2020 cut out for me!

[1] Because I can never keep New Year’s Resolutions, I won’t call them that.

[2] Sue and I also kvetched about how to leave a “genealogical legacy” when no one in the younger generations care about family history. I’ll save that discussion for a later blog.

[3] Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 3rd ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2015)

[4] A relatively easy five-step process was developed by Tom Jones in his Mastering Genealogical Proof (Arlington, VA: National Genealogical Society, 2013), 33-35. 

[5] The voting age population in 2017 was 252 million but only 138 million voted in 2016. Department of Commerce, Federal Register, “Estimates of the Voting Age Population for 2017,” 83 FR 7142 (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/20/2018-03372/estimates-of-the-voting-age-population-for-2017 : accessed 1 January 2020).  Penn State, “Post-Election 2016 Recap and Resources (https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/post-election-2016 : accessed 1 January 2020).

[6] See how I brought us back around to genealogy.

[7] Don’t disagree and would have done the same (for other reasons). 

[8] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.som : accessed 1 January 2020), memorial 54529529, John Longley Baty (13 May 1817 – 3 April 1894), North Powder Cemetery, North Powder, Oregon; gravestone photograph by Tina Robson-Jones.

[9] Modoc County, California, Great Registers, John L. Baty, age 62, 1877; digital images, “California Voter Registers, 1866-1898,” Ancestry.com(https://ancestry.com : accessed 1 January 2020), image 18.

[10] Col. Herbert M. Hart, USMC (Ret’d), “Fort Bidwell,” California State Military Museums, digital image (http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtBidwell.html : accessed 1 January 2020).

[11] Ibid.

[12] Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org : accessed 1 January 2020), “Fort Bidwell Indian Community of the Fort Bidwell Reservation of California,” rev. 02:13, 19 December 2019.

[13] Ibid.

[14] “Pioneer Buried in King’s Valley,” The Oregon Daily Journal, 3 August 1907, p. 8., col. 3.

I found this photo on Ancestry.com. The person who posted it says it came from Eagleville Saloon and it shows some of the early settlers of Surprise Valley: From left to right, standing: Peter Peterson; David Baty; Patrick Horan. Seated: Max Fulcher, Sr.; Marshall Munroe; John Longly Baty Sr., John Riley Baty, Warren B. Wittemore. I went to the Eagleville Saloon Facebook page and there is the picture!

Fort Bidwell from about 1885. “Fort Bidwell,” California State Military Museums, digital image (http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtBidwell.html : accessed 1 January 2020).

Week 52: You #52Ancestors

“You”?

 “Me”?

For the last week of the year, our fearless leader, Amy Johnson Crow, wants us to write about what we want future generations to know about us. Yeah, no.

Rather, I would like to talk about YOU, dear reader, and thank you for your support this year.[1]

Shout-out to my good friend, Sue, for all of her positive comments throughout the year. 

Thanks to my family for not complaining when I mention them or post their pictures.

More shout-outs to all of you who “like” my post on Facebook. 

Thanks to two of the daughters of Martha Hudson and William Pearl whose grandchildren married each other and were my husband’s 3rd great-grandparents. Four fewer ancestors to hunt for!

Many thanks to my husband’s 3rd cousin, five times removed, Nancy Hanks, who married Thomas Lincoln in 1806 and gave birth to Abraham Lincoln making my search of the Hanks line quite a bit easier![2]

A side-ways shout-out to my husband’s 10th great-grandfather, John Evans, who named his son John Evans (9th), who named his son Thomas Evans (8th), who named his son John Evans (7th), who named his son John Evans (6th). Thank goodness for Thomas, although he also had a brother named John. Bless those British naming-patterns.

So, here’s to 2020 and more ancestors to find and write about![3]

[1] Okay, props to me for posting 52 blogs this year. YAY!

[2] Tom Hanks is also Abe Lincoln’s 3rd cousin, four times removed. Go see “Cousin” Tom in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Bring tissue.

[3] I know you won’t mind this truncated blog-post; we are all too busy this time of year to read or write! 

My dad, Anson J. Glacy and his sister, Janice Mary (Glacy) Brown. Aunt Mitzi passed away earlier this month. She was a special lady who will be greatly missed. This picture was taken in the early 1930’s at the beach in Belmar, New Jersey.

Week 51: Future #52Ancestors

Future. Hmmm. As a family historian, I don’t give much thought to the “future.” Yet, since this is the time of year to reflect on what the future holds, I’ll give it a whirl.

Here is something you, dear reader, can do to help keep genealogy affordable in the future. The USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), is proposing a huge fee increase for retrieval of late 19th/mid-20th century citizenship records for our ancestors. Possibly as much as a 492% increase. 

Until three years ago, obtaining these records cost $55 or less. The fees were increased in 2016 to a maximum of $130.[1]Under this rule, it could cost as much as $625 to obtain a single paper file.[2] Stiff increases in green card and citizenship applications were a part these fee hikes proposed in November. 

Should America’s historical records be used as a revenue stream? If you disagree, you have until December 30 to leave a comment. Go to www.recordsnotrevenue.com for more information and help with how to (easily) leave your feedback. 

As for my future, I’m going to continue to blog and I hope you will continue to follow me. I may try to expand the topics I talk about, but I will keep it primarily on genealogy. I’ve been following the prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow and will continue to use her guidance for topics. I hope to also do some writing beyond the blog and get my family tree done.[3]

Happy holidays to all of you!

[1] Kate Gibson, “Federal proposal would jack up the cost of researching ancestors,” CBS News, 9 December 2109; digital image (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-proposal-would-jack-up-the-cost-of-researching-ancestors/?fbclid=IwAR07BW9nPwgcFlB-R_gREdGQXqbLw7IcgyXrH-nIjRVKb0o0VT3rWokKmKY : accessed 16 December 2019).

[2] Susan Rowan Kelleher, “The Trump Administration is About to Make Tracing Your Roots a Lot More Expensive,” Forbes, 7 December 2019; digital image (https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2019/12/07/the-trump-administration-is-about-to-make-tracing-your-roots-a-lot-more-expensive/amp/?fbclid=IwAR3Rv_tYmPAL8-tFv3CMbm9WVxIWD5vJsnQcZprMfoHC0enFNNyBZ9rH9aM : accessed 16 December 2019). 

[3] Ha ha. That’s a joke. No one has ever finished their family tree.

Jay, Steve, and Cele Glacy - about 1958.

Kimmy Kat, our son’s cat who currently lives with us. Caught in the act!

Week 50: Tradition #52Ancestors

One of my family traditions involves desserts. Lucky me!

Last week, I wrote about my maternal grandmother, Catherine (Spencer) Maier, who was a fabulous cook. Everything she made was delicious: pie crust (with lard, of course), pot roast, soups, etc. I am fortunate-enough to have inherited (aka, stole) her box of recipe cards.[1] I love seeing her handwriting (beautiful), although some of her instructions require a “modern” translation. For example, what is a “moderate oven”? How much, exactly is a “lump of butter”? What is “top milk”?[2]

Nana’s specialty was dessert. She had recipes for “Thanksgiving Cake” with orange icing, “Chocolate Chip Torte,” “Spiced Nut Cake” [from someone named “Grandma” – hers??], and “Cottage Cheese Cake.” I’d estimate that 90% of her recipe cards are for desserts. She must have had some sweet tooth. One issue with this collection of recipes is that my mom added hers to the box and their handwriting is so similar that determining which ones are Nana’s and which ones are my mom’s is a challenge. Nana’s are likely the ones written in fountain pen and the ones with the “antiquated” instructions. Because both of them also clipped recipes from newspapers and glued them onto a card, it will be another challenge to figure out who clipped which one.[3]

Two little treats I found in the recipe box were tiny little recipe books for cocktails. One is a little 3x2 inch calendar/address/note book for 1946-47 put out by Calvert Distillers Corp. of NYC. I know this because at the bottom of each page, it says “Clear Heads Choose Calvert.” Random pages in the book have cocktail recipes for drinks like an Old Fashioned and Whiskey Sour. My favorite is the “Calvert and Cola”: “Here’s the latest from Havana – and how they hated to part with it.” Of course, the nerd in me compelled me to research Calvert Distillers. 

Calvert Distilling opened in 1933 right after Prohibition as the “Maryland Distillery.”[4] Apparently, Seagrams bought the distillery in 1939, renaming it Calvert.[5] Segrams sold this line to a Montreal-based conglomerate in 1991 and they sold it to Diago, a Birtish company in 2001.[6] The original plant in Baltimore shut down in 2015. Calvert-labeled whiskey, bourbon, and gin are now being made in Kentucky by St. Louis-based Luxco.[7]

The other little cocktail book was printed by Laird and Company, which still exists and is America’s oldest distiller.[8] What a great little story they have to tell! The first commercial sale for Robert Laird’s “Apple Brandy” was in 1780 in Scobeyville, New Jersey. Robert was the grandson of William who immigrated from Scotland in/around 1698.[9] The Laird website claims that George Washington wrote to Laird around 1760 asking for his “applejack” recipe and that their family provided the American troops in the Revolutionary War with said applejack.[10] I located records for Robert Laird, who served with Smock’s Company of Light Dragoons, 1st Regiment of the Monmouth, N.J. Militia. However, I haven’t been able to verify the family stories involving the Washington or the war. Perhaps another unproven family legend?

While this was a nice side-trip into distilling history, I really should get back to Nana’s desserts.

As a kid, I remember the only desserts we had for holidays or Sunday meals were Nana’s Coconut Cream Pie, her Lemon Meringue Pie, and the world’s best dessert, “Blitz Torte.” Makes my mouth water just to think of them. My memory is that my oldest brother, Jay, ate an entire Coconut Cream Pie once and became so sick that he could never eat that pie ever again (sad for him, more for us).

When Thanksgiving came around, we always had one or more of these family-favorites. What? No pumpkin pie, you ask? Yes, true. I remember having an unfounded prejudice against pumpkin: it was squash after all. When I was in Jr. High, my home ec. class made fresh pumpkin pie. We deseeded, cooked, and pureed the pumpkin and made pie. OMG, how yummy! I marched home that afternoon and confronted my mother with the travesty of her holding back one of the greatest desserts of all time. We were robbed! My mom simply shook her head and wondered (again) what was wrong with me. Nevertheless, while we still had our traditional “Nana desserts” for holidays, I did manage to add a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. 

I mentioned my Nana’s “Blitz Torte.” In addition to her being as tough as nails, I think it was this dessert that convinced me she had German heritage.[11] What could be more German than a dessert with such a name?  Apparently, there are other names for this cake and similar cousins, such as, Berliner Luft Torte, Himmelstorte, Tausenblättertorte, Jesnen Torte, and Schimmbadtorte.[12] Despite all these German-sounding names, I’ve read that it might be an American invention (I suppose that makes sense since Nana wasn’t really German). One story I found was that this was an old cake recipe that became popularized in the 1920s, even making its way into the Betty Crocker cookbook in 1926.[13] Since my Nana was married in 1921, it makes sense that this might be a recipe she found at that time and made it into a family tradition.[14]

 There are 100’s of blitz torte recipes on line most following a similar theme: yellow cake, meringue topping and whipped cream middle, sometimes with fruit. Allegedly, they are named “Blitz” because they are fast to make, although some of these recipes are more complicated than others. I’d say Nana’s falls in the middle. 

I wouldn’t go on and on about this cake without giving you the recipe. No fear, I’ve attached it to the blog. Enjoy!

[1] Note to my niece, Becca: I promise all of them to you as soon as I get them scanned. No promises on the date when this will be done.   

[2] A “moderate: oven is between 350° and 400°. A lump of butter is just enough to cover the pan. “Top milk” is cream.

[3] Although I am not sure why I care. 

[4] Heather Norris, “Diago bottling plant closing marks the end of an era,” The Baltimore Sun, 17 June 2015; digital image (https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-county/ph-at-diageo-memories-0616-20150617-story.html : viewed 14 December 2019).

[5] Kim Clark, “Seagram distillery get sobering news, Liquor lines sold; layoffs expected,” The Baltimore Sun, 2 November 1991; digital image (https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-11-02-1991306067-story.html : viewed 14 December 2019). 

[6] Norris, “Diago bottling.”

[7] Ibid. “Meet the Family,” Luxco (https://www.luxco.com/brands/ : accessed 14 December 2019).

[8] “Our History,” Laird and Company (https://lairdandcompany.com/our-history/ : accessed 14 December 2019). Distillery operations ceased during Prohibition, but apple production continued. 

[9] Frank J. Prial, “One Family’s Story: Apples to Applejack,” The New York Times, 4 May 2005; digital image (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/dining/one-familys-story-apples-to-applejack.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Of course, she was not and it was pretty silly of me to think that. In my defense, I didn’t know anything about genealogy then.

[12] Oma Gerhild Fulson, “Oma’s German Blitz Torte,” Quick German Recipes (https://www.quick-german-recipes.com/german-blitz-torte-recipe.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[13] “1926 Blitz Torte,” Betty Crocker, The Vintage Chiffon Cake Site (https://vintagechiffoncake.neocities.org/bettycrockerblitztorte.html : accessed 14 December 2019).

[14] St. Columbia’s Church, Newark, New Jersey, 27 April 1921, Certificate of Marriage, Charles Maier and Catherine Spencer; citing Marriage Register of the church.