Family Lines

Jesse's Civil War Pension Claim

2010-03-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Family lore has it that after the Civil War, Jesse Clark Osgood was never the same physically. He was described by family members as being frail afterwards.

Jesse volunteered for service in Company A of the 26th Massachusetts volunteer infantry and was enrolled in the unit on September 30, 1861. He served throughout the war and was discharged in Savannah, Georgia on August 26, 1865. One of my research interests is what happened to my great-great grandfather in between.

I recently received from the National Archives Jesse's pension file. It is a treasure trove of facts and information about his service, as well as his wife's widow's pension. There is too much to put into one post. So I will start with a transcription of his original declaration for an invalid pension, signed in 1883 and filed on September 8, 1883:

State of Kansas, County of Marion. On this ___ day of ___, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, [For some reason the exact dates are left blank in the document.], personally appeared before me, the clerk of the District Court, a court of record within and for the county and State aforesaid, Jesse C. Osgood, aged 46 years, a resident of the City of Florence, county of Marion, State of Kansas, who, being duly sworn according to law, declares that he is the identical Jesse C. Osgood who was ENROLLED on the 30 day of September, 1861, in Company A of the 26 regiment of Mass, Inft. Vol. commanded by Col. Edward F. Jones, and was honorably DISCHARGED at Savannah GA on the 26 day of August, 1865; that his personal description is as follows: Age, 46 years; height, 5 feet 6 inches; complexion, Light; hair, light brown; eyes, hazel.

That while a member of the organization aforesaid, in the service and in the line of his duty at Forts Jackson & St. Philip in the State of Louisiana on or about the 19 day of April 1862, he took cold from wading in the swamps at the Quarantine station near Fort Jackson which brought on an attack of asthma of a severe and malignant character. That he was treated as follows: in camp; and at the regimental hospital at New Orleans by the Surgeon of the regiment Dr. JG. Bradt between the 25 of July and through the 30 of September 1862. That he has not been employed in the military or naval service otherwise than as stated above.

That since leaving the service this applicant has resided in the town of Greenville in the State of Illinois, and at Florence, Marion County, Kansas, and his occupation has been that of a Dentist. That prior to his entry into the service above named he was a man of good, sound, physical health, except slight asthmatical affection from youth, being when enrolled as a farmer. That he is now three fourths disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor by reason of his injuries, above described, received in the service of the United States; and he therefore makes this declaration for the purpose of being placed on the invalid pension roll of the United States.

He hereby appoints, will full power of of substitution and revocation, W.F. File of Florence, Marion County, State of Kansas, his true and lawful attorney to prosecute his claim. That he has not received nor applied for a pension. That his Post Office address is Florence, County of Marion, State of Kansas.

The document is signed by Jesse C. Osgood with two witnesses.

This first claim for a pension was rejected because he admitted to having some slight asthma from his youth. This is great for those of us who are interested in Jesse's service, because he then had to go get multiple declarations from individuals who would attest to his health problems being related to his service. The file contains declarations from fellow soldiers, doctors, and friends who knew him before and after the War. There is also a more detailed declaration from Jesse about the experience he had wading in the swamps that led to his physical disability. Stay tuned, readers!!

In the meantime, you can read up on the battle he was involved with. The battle of Fort Jackson & Fort St. Philip was fought officially from April 25 through May 1, 1862 in New Orleans. This link will take you to a description of the battle, along with a map of the Mississippi River where it was fought.

Happy birthday, Lucile Fox Osgood!

2010-03-08T14:17:00.001-08:00

Today is my Grandma Osgood's birthday. She was born in 1921 in Saffordville, Kansas. She died a little over 5 years ago. I miss her!

Lucile was one of ten children born to William and Lillie Pearl Fox. Only seven daughters survived childhood. Grandma was the third oldest. After high school graduation i n1939, she spent 2 years at the State Teacher's college in Emporia, Kansas. She taught in a one room school house in Florence Kansas. That is where she met a handsome young farmer by the name of Everett Osgood. From what Grandma told my sister and I, Everett would go out of his way to go pick up the daily mail--a route that would take him right by the little schoolhouse. The kids would see him coming and singsong to their teacher, "Here comes Mr. Osgood!" Here is a photo of "Lucie and her kids" in front of the schoolhouse in the early 1940's,

Lucile and Everett were married on April 30, 1944 at the home of her sister in Elmdale, Kansas. They spent their young married life in Florence, but moved to Idaho in about 1953. (I'm sure my mom or uncle Milt can be more specific about this date).

Grandma gave birth to seven babies. Her second, Anita Rae, died at birth. If memory serves me correctly from conversations I had with her and my mom about the event, the baby was breech. The doctors told her that the baby was stillborn, but Grandma heard Anita cry. After that, Grandma had her next baby, my mom, at home.

Grandma was a beautiful, strong lady, yet very gentle at the same time. She had a great sense of humor and she loved the Lord. Even though I miss her, I know that one day we will see each other again.

Here Grandma meets her newest great grandson, Olivier. This was taken in about 2000.

A fallen hero

2010-02-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

Lloyd Shelton was my great grand uncle. He was the younger brother to my great grandfather, Ira Shelton. During the past year when I started looking through the compiled histories that my Grandma Graham sent me, I took note that Lloyd was killed in France in 1918. But since he was not a direct ancestor, I put learning about his service in the back of mind--on my endless "to do someday" lists.

A new found cousin,who is also a niece of Lloyd's, sent me these photographs and it has me itching to learn more about what happened to Lloyd. Born on 29 October 1891, Lloyd was one of 8 children born to Nathaniel and Sarah Shelton in Memphis, Missouri. His younger brother, John Benjamin Shelton, also served during the Great War.

The Missouri State Archives reports that Lloyd was inducted into the Army on June 3, 1917 in Nebraska City, Nebraska. when he was 22 2/3 years old. He served with Company B of the 6th Nebraska Infantry, and then was in Company L of the 59th Infantry. The Nebraska connection was odd to me, but I learned from a very wise genealogist friend that this is probably where the military recruiter was from. All of his recruits he essentially had inducted in his home area.

Lloyd served overseas from June 29, 1918 until his death on December 4, 1918. The Missouri State Archives remarks that Lloyd "DIED 4 DEC 1918 OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION; MOTHER, MRS SARAH SHELTON, MEMPHIS, MO NOTIFIED." Another distant relative who has an excellent website here reports that Lloyd died in a military hospital in France.

Lloyd died just two weeks after peace was declared on November 11, 1918. How tragic. Imagine the relief Sarah must have felt when she heard about the Armistice. Then two weeks later to learn that one of her two boys would not be coming home in the way that she had hoped.

Although a student of history, I have never learned that much in particular about the American involvement in World War 1. This family connection makes me want to learn more. I've learned from a quick search that one of the greatest battles fought by Americans was the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. It went from September 26, 1918 until the end of the war on November 11th. I'm assuming (maybe not a wise thing to do), that Lloyd was wounded in this battle.

Lloyd's unit, the 59th infantry, was a part of the 8th Infantry Brigade, 4th "Ivy" Division of the American Expeditionary Forces. (Interesting note-my brother who is currently in the Army was part of the 4th infantry division!)

I think I need to see what the National Archives has about this battle, as well as Lloyd's military records. Anyone else interested?

A Cool Guy

2010-02-03T10:21:00.001-08:00

Today is my great-grandfather, Guy Graham's birthday. Guy was born Horace Guy Graham on February 3, 1877 in Centerview, Missouri. He was the seventh of eleven children born to Civil War veteran Robert Barnett Graham and Nancy King Graham.

Guy grew up on the family farm in Missouri. His childhood was described as, "a farm-bred boy who divided his time between the acquirement of an education and the work of the fields." (1) According to an Idaho historical book, after Guy attended the State Normal school as well as the Missouri State University at Columbia. (2) I did some research and contacted the archives at the University of Missouri-Columbia. According to their records, Guy was a student for a winter short course in agriculture for the school year 1900-1901. The archivist described the course to me as one that would be taken by farmers for training in a specific area without going for a four year degree-the precursor of today's extension programs.

Guy enlisted in Company L, fourth Missouri Regiment during the Spanish American war. I have not done much research on Guy's military record. I do have a copy of the muster roll that shows his service dates from April 27, 1898 to February 10, 1899. This is an area where I would like to do some research in the future.

Guy married fellow Centerview resident Jennie Olivia Shipp on February 25, 1904. The couple soon relocated to Fruitland, Idaho, where they purchased a fruit farm. There he became known as an expert on apple farming. He, "closely studied every question relating to fruit raising, the condition and needs of the soil, the best methods of protecting the trees and evertying that has to do with the propagation of fine fruit." (3) He testified before the United States Congress in 1936 on agricultural matters. (4)

Guy was active in politics as well. In 1915, he was appointed horticultural inspector for the state of Idaho. He later became the Commissioner of Agriculture for the state of Idaho. He also served terms in the state Legislature in both the house and Senate. This is another area I would like to learn more about and verify. I would welcome any comments from fellow grandchildren of Guy's who many know more about his political life than I do at the moment. In 1952 he was a delegate in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention.

Guy and Jennie had eight children. My grandfather, Don, was the second youngest. My grandpa followed in his father's agricultural footsteps and became a fruit farmer as well. My dad told me that the farm he grew up on in Fruitland was adjacent to Guy's place. On his last birthday, dad shared some of his memories of his Grandpa Graham. His first comment was that, "He was just a really cool guy!" I regret very much that I did not have a voice recorder at the table that night! (Lesson learned)

I would love to learn more about Guy's character and personality by hearing other descendant's memories and stories about him. I encourage anyone with anything to share to leave a comment in the box below so we can all learn about this really cool guy!

Below is a picture of three generations of Graham men: Guy, my dad Greg as a child, and Donald.

Notes:

1. "History of Idaho. The Gem of the Mountains." Illustrated, Volume III, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1920, page 761.

2. Ibid

3. Ibid, page 762

4. "Long and short haul charges: Hearings on H.R. 3263, May 11 to May 28, 1936 by Unite States Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate Commerce.

Family History Blog Success!

2010-02-02T14:15:00.001-08:00

One reason I started this blog was to connect with distant relatives who may also be researching our common family lines.

I'm happy to report that my first connection was made recently, thanks to this blog! I received a letter in the mail from my Grandmother last week. She forwarded me a letter written to her by her cousin. (I need to double check the relationships to be exactly sure). This lady's grandmother was the sister of my great-grandfather, Ira Shelton. She also is a granddaughter of the mysterious Nathaniel Shelton! She was doing some searches online and ran across one of my blog posts about Nathaniel Shelton. Like we are so apt to do while online, she navigated away from my blog and couldn't find it again. But she figured I belonged to my Grandmother, so she wrote her a letter asking to find me. Viola!

Like me, she is an amateur family history researcher. We've exchanged some of the information that we each have on Nathaniel. Some of it conflicts, and like my information much of it needs to be verified and sourced. So there is some work ahead of us. But I would like to share with you something she e-mailed me today--a photograph of Nathaniel and Sarah Deen grave site in Memphis, Missouri. I'm excited to get to know this new cousin and work together with her in discovering more about our common ancestor.

A History of "Pioneer Sarah" - Part Two

2010-01-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

The article continues:

"Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Henry Fordyce and Rachel/Sarah, along with the Thomas J. Sampson family, joined a wagon train going west for about two years. It is thought they had relatives there. (Note: Thomas J. Sampson was Henry and Rachel/Sarah's son in law. He married their daughter, Mahala Fordyce. TJ was the one who sacrificed his own health and life for his team of horses).

In Iowa, another tragedy struck the hearts of the two families - and that of Rachel/Sarah in particular. Her little namesake Rachel, daughter of Thomas and Mahala Sampson, came too close to the fire where trash was burning. She burned to death.

The lure of free homestead land drew them to Kansas, and the families once more packed their belongings. Two sons had been born to the Sampsons while in Iowa, and when they arrived in Marion County in October of 1869, John Wesley Sampson was only a few weeks old.

The two families chose adjoining land on section 14-18-5 in Clear Creek township. Eight months after their arrival, a federal census was taken on June 21, 1870. It listed Henry Fordyce as age 69, white, a farmer born in New Jersey, a citizen, with property of $1,717.00 in value. His wife is listed as Rachel, 71, female, white, b. West Virginia. They lived in Clear Creek township about five miles east of Lincolnville. Living with the Fordyces was an 18 year old youth named Frank Vanmeter.

In the months that followed, the aging couple met yet another young adventure, building a home, setting up their farming operations, coping with weather and soil vastly different than the lush green land of Indiana. But they were survivors who could meet a challenge. Stone houses were built, orchards planted, fences built, three new grandchildren arrived to be cuddled, and older children needed to be told tales of adventures. Their twilight years could not have been lonely nor empty. In the year of 1878, Rachel/Sarah died. In the months that followed, neighbors by the name of Howell were making a trip to Indiana and offered to take Henry with them. In his luggage Henry packed the Fordyce family Bible and went to Indiana to see his son and relatives. The Howells did not bring him back. According to information in the Marion County (Kansas) Court House, (Book P.P. 176, Register of Deeds), the Howells induced Henry to sign on March 4, 1879, a paper agreeing to give John Howell and wife 80 acres of land in Marion County, Kansas, in exchange for "clothes and board and necessary medical treatment during his life, and, at his death, the said John Howell to furnish the said Henry Fordyce with a respectable burial outfit." Henry, according to the date of death on his tombstone died the same day the agreement was signed, March 4, 1879. The Howells waited seven weeks and filed their claim on April 21, 1879, then waited until February of 1892 to file in Marion County an affidavit or claim to the land, SW quarter-section of 14-18-5 "containing 160 acres, more or less."

Henry died the same month as his son-in-law, Thomas Sampson, husband of the Fordyce's daughter Mahala. Thomas died 29 March 1879 of dust pneumonia, leaving his wife with 10

children, one an infant. Thomas must have been something of a powerhouse of a man to have accomplished all that he had in his less than 10 years on the prairie; he had bought expensive machinery, including a threshing machine and well pump. There were notes on the machinery and livestock. He had not expected to die at age 47. Mahala simply could not go to Indiana to see about her father's affairs. So the Howells were able to "absorb" the Fordyce land Mahala and her children sorely needed.

As to the real name of Rachel/Sarah, we would like to suggest that both Biblical names eminently suited her. She was strong, patient, loving, fruitful, faithful, courageous, and though uneducated because of frontier conditions, she was a splendid teacher by precept and example. She was proud of her heritage and the heritage of her children. She taught her daughter that her ancestry went back to the Mayflower and also the ancestors who arrived with William Penn. Lee Sampson has suggested that Sarah was probably Rachel/Sarah's middle name and that she may have become known as Sarah because she preferred that name. There was both a Sarah and a Rachel among the Thomas Sampson family children. Thomas' mother was named Sarah Grear.

Though there are more records to be searched, and more to be written, it seemed appropriate to write as much of the story of this ancestress as is now available for the reunion of the Sampson family on June 12, 1983, so that it can be distributed and hopefully preserved by someone who may be able to someday find all the remaining story of a gallant lady."

A History of "Pioneer Sarah" - Part One

2010-01-18T15:21:00.001-08:00

For some time, I have wanted to share about Pioneer Sarah. She is an ancestor who has inspired me, even though I know very little about her. Over the next couple of blog posts, I'm going to transcribe an article written by my grandmother, Lucile Fox Osgood's, third cousin, Vida Soyez Vinduska. I hope other descendants of this great lady find the story interesting. This photo of Sarah's final resting place actually was something that inspired me while in labor with my daughter, Isabelle. Knowing I came from such strong stock helped me through the difficult times!

The beautiful tribute to "Pioneer Sarah" in the Marion County Record of May 25 is greatly appreciated by her family, and, though it is wished that her grave could have been surrounded by kinfolk, she has always been in their hearts as is exemplified by the stone erected to her memory by her great-grandchildren, among whom are the children of Miles Elsworth Sampson and John Wesley Sampson. The stone was especially the project of William Thomas Sampson who supervised its production and installation.

For more than twenty years I, Vida Soyez Vinduska, have periodically worked at learning the history of Rachel/Sarah, and about five years ago two cousins joined in the search. Beulah Fisher Boyer and retired Lt. Col. Edward E. Sampson, an excellent researcher, have helped to gather some interesting lore.

Over the years, we have puzzled over how she became known as "Sarah." Col. Sampson found her in an Indiana (1850) census as Rachel, 53, born in West Virginia. her husband, Henry Fordyce, was listed as aged 49, born in New Jersey. her children at that time were listed as Jane, 20; Mary, 18; Mahala, 14; and William H., 12; all born in Ohio. Also living in the household were a daughter, Ann, and grandchildren, Elvira Allen, 4; and Emore (Elmore?) Allen, 3.

A Kansas death record for her daugher, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, who died in 1931, gave her mother's maiden name as Clark. In the Kansas census of 1870, she is listed as Rachel, 71, born in West Virginia. On a recent (April 1983) visit to the Mormon Archives in Salt Lake City an 18 Jan. 1838 birth record for William Henry Fordyce gave his parents' names as Henry Fordyce/Rachel Stackhouse.

Family tradition has it that Rachel was married twice, but we have not been able to find her marriage records which would help sort out which name, Clark or Stackhouse, was her

maiden name. Mrs. Grace Soyez of Marion remembers her grandmother, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, telling her that her mother was married twice, having had 15 daughters during her first marriage, and that Mahala and William Henry were born to the second, or Fordyce, marriage.

A descendant of Rachel/Sarah Clark Stackhouse Fordyce, whose name was Rebecca Fordyce Deardorff of Ellendale, North Dakota, and who was a granddaughter of Rachel/Sarah wrote a Fordyce family history which gave the information that Henry Fordyce married Rachel Clark, of Dutch descent. She had no information on the possibility that Rachel/Sarah was married twice, but did relate that she had 17 children, 16 daughters and one son, William Henry Fordyce, born 1 Jan 1838 in Clinton Co., Ohio. The daughters she named were: Betsey, b. 15 March 1821; Jane, b. 5 Oct. 1829; Mary b. 1 June 1833; Mahala b. 18 Feb. 1836,and she gave Sarah, Ann, and Annie, whose birth dates she did not know. Rebecca related that the other nine girls died in childhood.

In 1847, Henry Fordyce and his brother James decided to move their families from Ohio to Indiana, and in oct. of that year the two families arrived in Wabash County, Indiana. The trip, made in oxen-drawn covered wagons, had been slow. There were no roads. Often they had to cut down trees to make a road so they could get through. At their destination in Wabash County, they had to cut down trees to build a small log cabin where both families lived until they could build a second cabin...

Life could not have been easy for Rachel/Sarah. Born on the frontier of West Virginia in 1799, she was to make homes in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, possibly Illinois, and Kansas before she died. She had buried nine little daughters by the time she was 32. In all she bore 17 children. The last was her only son, William Henry, born Jan 1. 1838, when she was 40. When she was 62, she saw both her handsome young son and her husband, aged 60, march off to fight in the Civil War. Henry was enrolled as a private in Company C, 40th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers at Peoria, Ill., on the 13th of Nov. 1861, by Capt. Leaming and was mustered into the military forces of the United States at Lafayette, Indiana in December 1861 for a period of three years. His physical description: eyes, grey; hair, grey; height, 5 foot 8 1/2 inches; complexion, light. His nativity, New Jersey, Essex County, occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, March 17, 1863. Reason: disability.

The son, William Henry, told of a severe eye infection he himself contracted during the

war. The best the medics could do was to tie him hand and foot to railroad rails so they could pour a solution of lye into his eyes to fight the infection. There was some damage to his eyes. But, still sighted, he wrote a letter to his sister, Mahala Fordyce Sampson, in 1915.

The photo here is of Rachel/Sarah's son, William Henry in his military uniform. Much thanks to Loretta Klose (another descendant) for this picture.

Stay tuned to my next post for the continuation of the story!

Happy Birthday, William Lemuel Shipp!

2010-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

My great-great grandfather on my dad's side is William Lemuel Shipp. He was born on this day 155 years ago in Springfield, Missouri. (January 15, 1855). He was the second of nine children born to Rufus Earl Shipp and Olivia Freeman Shipp.

By his teenage years, William's family had moved to Johnson County, Missouri. This is where William would live the rest of his life. William married Mary Roop when he was 22. Together, they would have four children. Their eldest daughter, Jennie Olivia, was my great-grandmother. The family lived in Centerview, Missouri.

On the federal census, William always listed his occupation as "farmer." However, he was very involved in local affairs. He was the Justice of the Peace for Centerview Township in 1882. He was elected as County Officer in 1902 on the Democratic ticket. He was also very invovled in educating the children of Centerview. He was the Principal of Centerview school and was elected school superintendent in 1905, 1907 and 1909.

William died on September 1, 1933 at the age of 78. His death certificate is interesting in a couple of ways--I'm adding it here to see if anyone can help decipher and add meaning to it. Where it lists his area of work, it looks like "Poet Master and Teacher." A poet? I knew about the teacher part. But perhaps William had a talent for prose as well. If so, it would be amazing to find some of his writings. Any of my Graham cousins know anything about this??

As for his cause of death, the doctor who completed the death certificate has the sterotypical doctor's writing. It looks like William suffered from prostate cancer. Anyone want to take a try at translating? Leave a comment!

A new image of Karl

2010-01-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

Karl Kline is my great-great grandfather. He has been a frequent subject of this blog. You can read one of my former posts here .

Anyway, one of my joys of 2009 was finding another granddaughter of Karl's, who still lives in Kansas. Her mother was my great-grandmother's older sister. Connecting with this cousin has been great for me, as well as for my mom.

This wonderful cousin sent me this picture this week in the mail. It's of Karl! The back of the photo says: Karl Gottlieb Kline. Driving water wagon in Marion, KS. Main street, just west of bridge.

I thought other descendants of Karl would like to see it too.

Enjoy!

Sampsons and Klines-my maternal line

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share some photos that I was so graciously sent by a new-found cousin who is also a descendant of the Kline's and Sampson's. I know that my Osgood family will probably enjoy them. Consider it a New Year's gift! I hope you all are as thrilled with them as I am!

This is a photo of Amelia Wendel Kline. She is with her son in law, George Cutler. Amelia lived several years after her husband, Karl, died in 1907. The 1910 census lists her living with another daughter and son-in-law, the Linn's. Her occupation is listed as a "washerwoman." Apparently, Amelia spoke mostly German, and very little English. She died in 1923. Her

daughter, Caroline Juliann, married Miles Ellsworth Sampson.

Miles Sampson's mother was Mahala Fordyce Sampson.

Here is a fantastic photo of her. She was born in 1835 and died in 1931. She looks like a very strong

lady, doesn't she? It was her husband, TJ, who died after saving his team of horses from a dust storm in 1879.

Mahala's son, Miles Ellsworth, was the father of Lillie Pearl Sampson. As mentioned above, he married Caroline Kline. Here are two photos of them, one early on and another at their 60th wedding anniversary.

The children in this picture are their four eldest: Lillie Pearl (born in 1894), Effie (born in 1899), Albert (born in 1898), and Mabel (born in 1901). Since she looks the oldest, I'm assuming the girl on the left is my great-grandma Lillie Pearl. I just love the curly hair and ribbons!

Going back on the Shelton/Dean side and finding a cousin

2009-12-30T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've got a google alert set for anything that pops up in the internet having the words "Nathaniel Shelton" and "Memphis, Missouri." As regular readers will recall, Nathaniel is a brick wall of mine and I'm always on the lookout for anything that will help me find his parents or even give me an idea of what his life was like.

Yesterday, a hit came for Nathaniel's death certificate on someone's website. I have had the document for some time, but it was exciting to see that there was someone else out there who had been researching Nathaniel. First off, the website is AMAZING and very well documented. I'm sure it took years of work to compile and document everything. There are over 49,000 individuals in this person's tree, and over 1,300 photos. It is searchable and is really a treasure.

Who is the website owner, exactly? The website is called "The Families of Dennis W. Brumm." Perhaps he is a distant cousin? I do believe we are some sort of

cousin, since I found the following picture on the website. It is the cabin of John Dean and Mary Nicely. John and Mary were ancestors of Nathaniel's wife Sarah Dean. They are my 5th great grandparents, they are Dennis' 4th great grandparents. This is what the site shared about this cabin in West Virginia:

"This is the house in which my fourth great grandparents, John Dean and Mary Knicely, lived. They were married January 12, 1787 in Rockingham County, Virginia. These were kindly provided by Jim Shelton, another descendant of John and Mary. Jim kindly provided the photographs and the following information, (November 2008):

"...Attached are a couple of pictures of the John Dean cabin that I had taken while we were there. The log cabin is in very good shape for its age. It had been sided and a tin roof put on it. The cabin was lived in by the Dean family for many years after old John had died [1813]. John Dean built the cabin in the 1790's. And at the time we were there, Dean Gap was owned by a Mr. Teeter...

John Dean was buired on the hillside over looking his cabin in Dean's Gap, along side his father-in-law, Anthony Knicely. There are two stones there marking their grave site. A distant cousin of mine was there 5-6 years ago and saw them. When we were there 3-4 years ago with him, it was so overgrown that we could not find them."

My research at this point does not go beyond John and Mary on the Dean family line. But I'm hopeful that with the new connection with this cousin and his connections that I may learn more about the Shelton/Dean lines.

A Sampson Story...with a picture!

2009-12-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to get some new photos of some of my Sampson ancestors. A recently found cousin (2 times removed) has shared them with me on Facebook. I'm loving seeing these pictures-its like a holiday gift! This photo is of Miles Ellsworth Sampson and his wife, Caroline Kline Sampson, with their three eldest children. The picture was probably taken around the turn of the century. The oldest daughter, Lillie Pearl, is my great-grandmother. Since I don't want to just throw up a picture without a story, here is one that happened a few years before this photo was taken.

Lillie Pearl Sampson was born near what was Elk, Kansas, on the Stowers place on Middle Creek in December 1894. The next year she and her parents Miles Ellsworth and Caroline Julianne Kline Sampson traveled by covered wagon to homestead newly opened land in Arkansas. Baby Lillie rode for 5 weeks on the dusty trails to her new home. Her father built a cabin and cleared new land. The future looked promising for this young couple who homesteaded in this new state. But they soon found out "Yankees" weren't welcome in Arkansas. So after approximately four years of hard work Lillie awoke one morning to the sounds of angry "neighbors" cross plowing her parents beautiful crops and abundant garden. The civil war had left hostile feelings and they were told to get out. So the family with five year old Lillie and her baby brother Albert William who was born in Arkansas in 1898 returned to Kansas.

Back in Kansas, Miles and Caroline went on to have six more children.

Stay tuned for more on the Sampsons!

My Family History wish list

2009-12-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

As I consider the past year of research and look ahead to 2010, here are some of my family history wishes. Some are areas where I would like to break through brick walls. Others are just things I would like to get my hands on. Here goes:

I wish that some kind Osgood relative lets me see Jesse Clark Osgood's diary. Jesse is my 2nd great-grandfather. Regular followers of this blog will remember I had a sample of his handwriting analyzed in October. I know the diary exists. It has been at Osgood family reunions that I was not at. It is probably in the hands of one of my second cousins. I'd even be happy with a photocopy. If I were to get it, I would transcribe it and give copies of that to all Osgood's who wanted it. It is a treasure! This blog would benefit too!
June is going to be a good month for family history. One of my Osgood first cousins is getting married in June. I'm excited to go to the wedding, of course, but I'm also excited that this will be an opportunity to have a family reunion. I hope to do some oral history interviews with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also hope to be able to walk through Grandma and Grandpa Osgood's house one last time, if it hasn't been sold by then. I also want to spend some time at the Payette courthouse and look up some probate records of my Graham ancestors. I've also had some contact with a branch of the Graham family that we never knew (my Grandpa Graham's brothers and sisters and their kids). I'd like to be able to meet some of them during this trip.
I'd like to be able to get my hands on some farm schedules from the censuses. From other census records I have of my ancestors, I know which number the family is on the schedule. It would be so neat to be able to see the details on Robert Barnett Graham's farm, say in 1870 and 1880! It's just a matter of getting to a place where I can look them up, since they are not online. Hmmm....I probably need to get to know my local family history library.
The Kline family is still a mystery to me. I would like to be able to find Karl Kline's death certificate. He died before the state of Kansas started collecting birth and death certificates, but perhaps there is a record in Marion county. I also would like to find more census records of the Kline's. I'd like to find them before 1880 to document their migration from Ohio to Kansas. I'd also like to find a record of Karl's military service during the Civil War.
Pioneer Sarah. I haven't done much research on her yet. She is an enigma, and someone who's story needs to be told. I'll share what I do know of her soon.
I'd love to have new cousins make contact with me. It doesn't matter from which branch of the tree they come from. It is so amazing to make connections with others who have been doing research and happen to be related. I've got my "tentacles" out on bulletin boards, Ancestry.com, and this blog. Any day could be the day to meet new cousins!
I also hope to be able to keep up with this blog. I'll admit, it has been hard this fall. We moved and are getting settled into our new house. I haven't had the time to think much about family history, much less organize my thoughts to be able to post. I'm hoping that in 2010 I will be able to pick up at a better pace.

This isn't an exclusive list! I'm thrilled at every new lead, every new tidbit of information. Anyone out there with a family connection have any information that they would like to have me find out? (Not that I'm taking orders or anything!) Leave a comment!

The value of a good pair of horses

2009-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

This is the story of my 3rd great grandfather on my mother's side, Thomas Jasper Sampson. He was known as "T.J."

This is a photograph of some of his children taken in 1886, about 7 years after Thomas died. Their son, Miles E. is in my family line. He is the first man standing on the left. He married Caroline Kline, the daughter of Karl and Amelia Kline. (See previous posts with my musings on them!)

TJ and his wife Mahala lived on the Kansas prairie in Marion County during the 1870's. Prior to living in Kansas, they lived in Wabash, Indiana and Wapello, Ohio. They had fourteen children between the years of 1853 and 1879. Three daughters died before reaching adulthood. Sarah was 11 months old when she died in 1854. Rachel was 3 years old when she died in 1868 and Mahala was 15 when she died in 1877. I am in awe of how strong this couple must have been to have so many children-and be able to move interstate with so many! My family just moved 3 miles away with 3 kids. It was one of the most difficult things we have ever done as a family. But moving from Iowa to Kansas, probably in a covered wagons, with 8-10 kids!? I am convinced we do not know difficulty these days.

According to the 1870 census, the Sampson's were a farming family. The value of his real estate is reported as $1,100 and personal estate $837. They lived near Mahala's elderly parents, Henry and Rachel Fordyce. (Otherwise known as Pioneer Sarah.)

On a blustery March day in 1879, a 46 year old Thomas hitched a team to the wagon and set out for Council Grove for supplies. On the way home a dust storm caught him, and T.J. feared for the lives of his valued horses. He removed his jacket and tied it around "Kit's" head. next he removed his shirt and wrapped it around "Kip's" head. Evidently, he had no other piece of cloth to protect his own lungs from the dust laden cold March wind. A week later he was dead of dust pneumonia. His youngest child, Maggie May, was only 2 months old.

This just goes to show how valuable a good team of horses was to a farmer on the Kansas prairie.

Monday Memory-Grandma Osgood's collections

2009-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ever since I can remember, my Grandma Osgood (my mom's mom) was a collector. I don't know if she was earlier in her life, but I sure do remember her enjoying her collectibles. But I have many memories of Grandma's various collections. This is a photo of Grandma on Christmas in 1976. You can see a gift on her lap that she is getting ready to open. Perhaps it is going to add to one of her collections?

For a long time, it was understood that Grandma collected frogs. All kinds of frogs. Wind up frogs that would hop across the table, frogs that would swim in your bathtub, glass frogs, stuffed frogs, you name it. I don't know why she liked to collect them, but she did. I remember going through her frog collection with her when we were visiting in the summer. So whenever we would see a frog item, it had Grandma's name written all over it. At some point as I got older, somehow word got out that Grandma was kind of tired of frogs.

The next collection I remember was her collection of cartoon glasses. Hanna Barbera cartoons, to be exact. I seem to vaguely recall that there was some kind of promotion at a local store or fast food place that got this collection going. Mom told me over the Thanksgiving holiday it was in soap boxes. They were great glasses, perfect for that one soda we were allowed each day from her vending machine in the back. She had all the characters: Bugs Buggy; Daffy Duck; Pepe LePeu; Speedy Gonzales; Elmer Fudd; and that rooster whose name escapes me now. After Grandma died the brothers and sisters (my aunts and uncles) got together and divided up some of the personal property. Mom came home with a couple of these glasses. Sometimes when I'm at her house and I'm helping myself to a drink, I see them in the cupboard and a flash of memory of grandma goes up. It's nice. Without even knowing about this post, Mom had them out on Thanksgiving for us to use.

The collection I most identify with was Grandma's doll collection. I have a bit of one of these myself. ;-) I remember in the early 1980's being enchanted with her Prince Charles/Lady Diana wedding set. Jr. High girls like me were enthralled with Lady Di and her story of becoming a princess. Another one that jumps to my mind is Scarlett O'Hara. It was around Jr. High that I became a history buff, and the Civil War was one of my favorite subjects. The glamour of the Southern Belles, of course, was enchanting to me as well. So once I saw the movie, "Gone With the Wind" I fell in love with Grandma's Scarlett doll. (I fell in love with the movie too, its probably my all time favorite picture.) Scarlett was dressed as she was when she is going to the Wilkes' barbecue/ball. Grandma told me that "Gone With the Wind" was a movie that she and Grandpa went out to see on a date. That made it even more special to me.

She had other dolls too. I remember mom getting her a Madame Alexander doll that looked like Betsy Ross. When I went to the Provence region of France for the first time, I got her a local doll called a Santon. Grandma kept most of the smaller dolls in a cupboard with some wavy glass over it. So you couldn't really see the dolls unless she would open up the case and show you. It was a highlight of a trip to Idaho to have Grandma display her dolls for us.

There probably were other collections too, but these were the ones I most remember.

Guy's Grandfather, John Graham.

2009-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Another gem in the mail from the Missouri Historical Society. It's a death announcement for my 3rd great grandfather, John Guy Graham. It gives me the perfect opportunity to share a little bit about what I know about him.

He was born in Wythe, Virginia, in 1811, the son of Robert Craig Graham and Catherine Crockett. As mentioned in a previous post, Robert and Catherine moved their family of 7 children (ranging in ages of the eldest, John, at 22 to the youngest, Mary, being about 3 years old) to Missouri in 1833 with a few household possessions. The overland trip of over 560 miles took the family forty-two days. (That's about 13 miles a day) They spent the winter in Boone County and later moved on to Johnson County.

John Guy married Nancy Hobson in 1838 when he was 27 years old and she was 16. Nancy's father, Joseph Hobson, gave the couple a 6 year old slave girl named Ann as a wedding present. I found an 1850 slave schedule for the Federal Census that shows John Graham as owning a 16 year old female slave. Family lore says that Ann had 2 children of her own and continued to live in a little house on one corner of the farm until her children were grown and married. John and Nancy had 12 children, 11 of which grew to adulthood.

According to a County History of Johnson County published in 1895, at the time of his death, John owned 540 acres of land. He possessed the "sturdy and fearless qualities necessary to the pioneer, and met all misfortunes bravely. His death on July 3, 1878 was felt to be a public loss and his old friends and neighbors still hold his memory dear." I wonder what misfortunes they encountered? The County History does mention John and his brother, Samuel, helping their father clear the land of trees and farm it. There were also conflicts with the Osage Indians in 1837 and the "Mormon troubles" in 1838. Of course, in his elder years, the nation was held in the grip of the Civil War. It was particularly brutal in Missouri, a border state that had both Confederate and Union units-not to mention guerrilla gangs with shifting allegiances.

The Journal-Democrat newspaper from Warrensburg, Missouri printed this on July 12, 1878 on page 3, column 7:

"DEATHS-GRAHAM-At his residence near Centreview, in this county, on Wednesday, the 3d inst.. John G. Graham, in the 68th year of his age. Mr. Graham, (or "Uncle Guy" as he was familiarly called) was one of the oldest citizens of Johnson County, having resided on the farm where he died exactly forty years, on the day of his death. His preeminent virtues may be epitomized in the statement that Johnson county never had a better citizen. We hope next week to publish a biographical sketch of the good man, from the pen of Rev. S.H. McElvaine, who is well qualified for the task."

It is interesting that he was known as "Uncle Guy." We know John had siblings who all had their own families. There must have been a lot of nieces and nephews around at the end of his life for him to be known by such a nickname. Or perhaps he was just the kind of person that everyone felt a connection to that the moniker spread.

I am excited at the prospect of a larger biographical sketch of John. I plan on contacting the reference specialist there who found this for me to see if she can find the article mentioned in this death notice.

Notes:

Yet another thanks goes to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website for the photograph in this post. One of their volunteers in Johnson County made several trips to local cemeteries to get dozens of photos of Graham gravesites.
The County History mentioned is available on the Missouri Digital Heritage website. (A fantastic site, by the way). The book also gives some information on other Graham's who lived in the County. It is called "Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson and Pettis Counties Missouri. Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the Counties. Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States." Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co. 1895

A Happy Announcement

2009-11-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

As a member of the Missouri Historical Society, I am able to request newspaper announcements at a reduced rate from the Society. I got a copy of the marriage announcement for my great grandparents in the mail today that I wanted to share with everyone:

Warrensburg Journal-Democrat

March 4, 1904, page 4, column 3

"GRAHAM-SHIPP-On Thursday evening of last week, Mr. Guy Graham to Miss Jennie Shipp, both of Centreview. The ceremony took place at the home of the bride in Centreview and was performed by Rev. J.W. Sullivan. Only relatives and a few immediate friends were present. The groom is a son of Judge R.B. Graham of Centreview township and the bride is a daughter of Prof. W.L. Shipp, county superintendent of schools. The young couple expect to leave for the west soon to make their future home. The best wishes of a host of Missouri friends go with them."

This is a scanned image of their marriage license. Now if someone would find a picture of them on their wedding day and send it on to me..... (hint, hint!)

The legal records of Robert Craig Graham

2009-11-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

The first of "my" Graham's to come to America was Robert Graham. He came from County Down, Ireland around 1774. His son was also named Robert Graham. Robert Jr. is my 4th great grandfather. He was born during the Revoluntionary War while his family lived in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. They soon moved to Southwest Virginia, to what would become Wythe County. (Incidentally, there still are many Graham's in the area.)

Robert Jr. married into the Crockett family. His wife was Catherine Crockett. There is some family lore that Catherine is related to the famous "Davy Crockett." This may be true, but there were a lot of Crocketts around at the time. I haven't done exhaustive research on this connection, but haven't found any direct relationship there. Still, it would be fun to nail it down sometime in the future.

Robert and Catherine had several tracts of land and there are still many documents in the basement of the courthouse in Wythe, Virginia. What got me started on this angle was a piece of family lore that said Robert was well off financially until he co-signed a note for a friend. He ended up having to make good on the debt, which ruined him financially. He felt that Virginia was no place for a poor man so he took his wife and six children and set out for Missouri around 1834. I thought it would be neat to verify this by looking at some of the recorded documents in Wythe County.

Through a wonderful service called "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness" a kindhearted volunteer spent several hours and a couple trips to the basement of the Wythe County Courthouse to make copies of the documents that had Robert and Catherine's name on them.

It is good I have a legal background! Reading these old documents was a real exercise, even after being accustomed to legal jargon. Property never was my favorite class in law school. But perhaps if I had to read legal descriptions like this, I would have liked it better. Robert and Catherine are selling 53 acres of land in 1829 to a man named Jezreel Harmon for $62. But check out this legal description (I've highlighted the legal description part) :

This Indenture made this seventh day of February one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine between Robert Graham & Catharine his Wife of the County of Washington & Jazreel Harmon of the County of Wythe both of the state of Virginia witnefseth that the said Graham for and in consideration of the sum of Sixty two Dollars to him in hand paid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath this day bargained and sold and by there presents do bargain and sell unto the said Jazreel Harmon a certain tract or parcel of land lying and situated on the waters of the north fork of Holstein River and Bounded as followeth to wit Beginning at a poplar corner of said Harmon land conveyed to him from Solomon McDaniel and from thence S. 72 ½ ° E 100 poles to a Lynn & Beach S. 75° E. 140 poles to a Cucumber N. 14° E 58 poles to a sugar tree S 17° E 62 poles to a beach South 30 poles to a Sugar tree N 72° W. 70 poles to a beach West 47 poles to a beach on the top of a ridge & thence N 72° W. 126 to a stake poles Thence N. 15° E 28 poles to the Beginning with all and singular the appurtenances thereto belonging to have and to hold the said Tract or parcel of land containing fifty three acres by survey be the same more or lefs with its appurtenances to the sole ure and behoof of him the said Jazreel Harman & his heirs and the said Robert Graham & Catharine his Wife for themselves & their heirs the said land free from the claim or claims of all and every person or persons whatsoever unto the said Jazreel Harmon and his heirs forever.

I know its hard to read--the whole thing is a continous run on sentence! Plus, there are spelling conventions that have changed since then. (Like using an "f" in place of "s" in some spots). But isn't it interesting how they reference the area not by metes and bounds or by lot numbers like our modern deeds do. No, they walk you around the property starting at a poplar tree by a river, to a sugar tree, etc.

I've got several documents that this angel/volunteer copied for me. One of the latest in time (1833) is between Robert and Catherine and their son John G. Graham for $1. In it, they give John (also in my direct line), all of Catherine's interest in the estate of her uncle, Robert Sayers.

Someday I would like to travel to Wythe County for myself and be able to peruse the originals!

Great Grandma Jennie

2009-10-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

In my post about turning 40, I mentioned that I did not have any pictures of my dad's grandmother Jennie Olivia Shipp Graham as a younger adult. (40 is younger, right?!) The only photos I had were either of her as a teenager or in her older years.

That all changed this week, and I've "found" a whole branch of Graham's that I did not know much about. That is going to change in the near future, too.

My mom gave me an address for a cousin of my dad's who was supposed to have a bunch of Graham family photos on CD. She got it from my Grandma June Graham. So I wrote a letter to a first cousin one time removed that I didn't know I had. I introduced myself and asked for a copy

of the CD.

It arrived yesterday, and I am so excited to see these photos. I've got to share a couple, just because it addresses the "hole" in my photo's that I mentioned earlier this week. My grandfather is Donald Lyle, the little guy on Jennie's lap. Check out those outfits!

Grandpa was born in 1916 when Jennie was 35. He looks to be around 1 in this photo to the right, which puts Jennie at around 36.

I'm tickled at this "stairstep" picture of the Graham kids outside. I have a lot of "stairstep" shots of my Osgood aunts/uncles, but this is a first that I've seen of the Grahams. Another thing I like about this one is that they are outside in front of an orchard. Guy was a pretty successful and renowned apple farmer, so its pretty neat to see the family in front of some of his trees. This photo has my Grandpa Don labeled as being two years old, so Jennie is in the 36-37 year old range.

My newly found cousin gave me the address of her brother who has been collecting information on their branch of the family tree, so I plan to write to him and ask for a copy of his information. The CD has lots of photos of all of Guy and Jennie's kids and their families. I'm very excited to make this new connection---its like a slightly belated birthday present!

Billy Fox

2009-10-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Among the stacks of papers my mom gave me that she had collected on her family's history was this note. It was written in my grandmother Lucile's handwriting. It reads like an obituary--I don't know if grandma copied it to have for herself. I haven't found the obit in any Kansas newspapers yet. Grandma was one of William's older sisters. Recall from my "Turning 40" post that William was the third son to pass away as an infant. I remember my mom telling me that her mom told her that some neighbor kids had whooping cough and that they thought he caught it from them.

William Wesley Fox, infant son of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Fox was born April 22, 1934 and departed this life March 17, 1935 at the age of 10 months and 26 days. He leaves to mourn his departure his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Fox and seven sisters, Elnora, Myrtle, Lucile, Roselma, Minnie, Lillie and Mildred. His Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. M.E. Sampson of Lincolnville and a host of other relatives and friends. Two brothers, John and Walter preceded him in death.
Billy was a loving baby and during his short stay had won a place in the hearts of all who knew him.
"A precious one from us is gone, a voice we loved is stilled;
a place is vacant in our home which never can be filled.
God in His wisdom has recalled the boom his love had given and through the body slumbers here the soul is safe in heaven."
Card of Thanks
We wish to thank those who were so kind to us during the illness and loss of our dear one.
-Mr. and Mrs. William H. Fox and family

40 years old

2009-10-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

On this day forty years ago, I was born. The year I turn forty is 2009. The President is Barack Obama, and the country is at war with terrorists around the world. (Or at least we used to be). We also are in a global economic recession, some commentators say its the worst it has been since the great depression. I'm married to a chemist by training, executive by life's happenstance. He works for a French company as the Vice President of U.S. Operations out of our home. We have 3 kids aged 10, 8 and 15 months. We are getting ready to move into a bigger house. Overall, I feel blessed.

Turning 40 can be traumatic for some. On this day, it has put me into a contemplative mood and made me think about my female ancestors. What were their lives like when they turned the big 4-0? I decided to look at my four great-grandmothers and see what life looked like for them at my age.

Florence Martha Partridge Osgood

Florence turned 40 in the year 1915. The President was Woodrow Wilson. The world was at war, but the United States was not yet engaged. The Lusitania had been sunk in May of that year by Germany. Model T Fords were popular...the 1,000,000th was manufactured that year.

In Marion County, Kansas, Florence Osgood was busy. She was the wife of a hard working farmer Clark Osgood. This is a photo of the Osgood's, although I am not sure of the year.

At the age of 40, Florence was the mother of nine children. Her kids ranged in ages from 19 to 2. She was not done having babies--a year later she would give birth to my grandfather, Everett Harlan Osgood. She would go on to have an eleventh baby, a daughter, who would die at the age of five months. But at the age of 40, she would not know of this heartache. She was probably too busy!

Jennie Olivia Shipp Graham

Jennie turned 40 in 1921. Warren Harding began his short Presidency that year. Charlie Chaplin's famous silent move, "The Kid" opened in theatres. Babe Ruth was wowing crowds with home runs in baseball parks nationwide-he would set a record of 137 career home runs shortly after Jennie celebrated her 40th birthday.

Jennie was the wife of Guy Graham, a fruit farmer who had become an expert in horticultural affairs in the state of Idaho. During his career, he was the state horticultural inspector, the

commissioner of agriculture for the state, as well as a legislator in the state house in Boise. In 1921, Guy was also on the Board of the Idaho State Fair Association.

When Jennie turned 40, she had borne 8 children. One, a daughter, Dorothy, had died as a five year old. Like me, she had a one year old baby. This was Jennie's youngest child. Her oldest

surviving child was nearly 14. The family lived in Fruitland, Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman reported that at the end of July, 1921 (which was just a couple weeks after her 40th birthday), the family went on a short vacation to Payette Lakes with the Bossen and Bishop families.

It seems that life was full for the Graham family when Jennie was my age.

Alice Nerissa Dutton Shelton

My great grandmother Alice turned 40 in the year 1935. Bob Hope made his radio debut that year. Amelia Earhart was making records in aviation. The board game Monopoly hit the market for the first time. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt was early into his first of three terms as

President. Life was hard, especially for farmers.

Alice was the wife of farmer Ira Shelton. Ira was employed as a farm manager. He managed a 200 acre farm for $1 a day and a place for his family to live.

Alice had her children when she was young. By the time she turned 40, her two children were nearly adults. Her son Richard had married the year before, and her daughter June was 15.

Alice was an extremely hard working woman. According to her daughter, she would pick apples in local orchards each morning. She could pick more apples than anyone, and then come back home at 11 a.m. to cook lunch for all the hired help.

The family's income did not allow for any extras--just money for basic needs, which the one dollar a day hardly covered. Her daughter June writes, "Mother never felt we were poor and did everything so we wouldn't feel it."

One entry in a journal that my Grandma June wrote is interesting to me, given my background: "If Dr. Reynolds came by and ask if she'd go to help deliver a baby, she'd grab a clean apron and go. Dr. wanted her to start a maternity home in Emmett but she didn't do it." It seems that my great-grandmother had some natural talent for midwifery, even if she did not have the formal training. (Actually, family lore says that Alice's own grandmother was known to be a midwife in the 1800's) Given June's perception of the midwife as someone who did not have any formal training and would just go with nothing but a clean apron, its no wonder she was a little concerned at my decision to have two of my three babies at home with a midwife!

I never knew Alice, but I think I would have liked her a lot. She died in 1959.

Lillie Pearl Sampson Fox

Like Alice, Lillie Pearl turned 40 in 1935. While Alice was in Idaho, the Fox family lived in Kansas. This photo of her was from her teenage years--I only have pictures of her at this age, or much older in group shots.

Lillie was the wife of farmer William Harrison Fox. The family raised hogs, chickens and sold graded eggs. She loved to bake angel food cakes, tend garden, and raise houseplants. She braided her waist length hair and wound it on the back of her head every morning. She baked bread and had wonderful Christmas celebrations at her house.

The year Lillie turned 40 was a year of heartbreak for her. She had to bury her youngest child, a son. William Wesley Fox died at the age of 10 months on March 17, 1935. She had buried her two other boys as well: John Delbert in 1915 (3 months old) and James Walter in 1929 (1 week old). I have a heart rendering note written by Lillie's daughter, Lucile, about William Wesley. Space does not permit in this post, but I'll share it soon. All in all, Lillie Pearl birthed 10 babies and raised 7 daughters to adulthood.

In thinking about the lives my great-grandmother's led, I cannot help but feel that I have it easy. While the world was different for each of them in 1915, 1921 and 1935, I can still identify with life's struggles, heartaches and joys. They all had to work physically so much harder than I do--they had to be extremely strong an resilient women. Knowing this, I feel fortunate to know that I hold a piece of each of them in me. On days when I think I have it rough, I can reflect on that and draw strength from it.

Amelia, his wife

2009-10-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

In the never ending battle for paper organization of my genealogy "stuff," I ran across a death certificate that I received last summer from Topkea, Kansas. I was so thrilled when I got it, but had trouble reading it at first. I put it on my table and it sank into the paperwork and got lost. Until the other day.

I've blogged a few times about my great-great-great grandfather on my mom's maternal line, Karl Kline. This is about his wife, Amelia. What I can gather about her life from what little family lore I have, the sparse census records, as well as some reading on life for women as Kansas pioneers, she had a tough life. I'm not ready to blog about some of those details, as I'm still working on some of the research.

Amelia survived her husband by about 17 years, passing away on July 28, 1923. They are buried together at Highland Cemetery in Marion, Kansas. I put the death certificate up on my Facebook page and solicited some help in reading the document from my friends.

One of my new Facebook friends is also a descendant of Karl and Amelia. I had seen her posts on family history bulletin boards and websites, but didn't know who she was. I did a little digging and realized we were related...her mother was my great-grandmother's little sister. So my new friend and I are first cousins, 2 times removed. She still lives in the area that Karl and Amelia lived in. I'm hoping we can collaborate more in the future on our mutual family lines. She gave me some interesting insight into Amelia as part of the death certificate deciphering.

Some of what was reported on the death certificate confirms information I had before. Here is what I learned about Amelia from her death certificate, with much thanks to my friends and family on Facebook for some additional insight:

She was born in Germany. Some earlier census records report it as "Prussia," which by 1923 had become part of Germany.
At the time of her death, Amelia lived with her youngest daughter, Daisy, and her husband George Powell. In fact, George is the informant for the death certificate.
Her maiden name was Windel. It asks for her father's name it says "Don't know, Windel" I've seen the name spelled elsewhere as Wendel, as well. Where it asks for the mother's maiden name, it also says "Don't know." My new-found cousin tells me that Amelia did not speak much English, so it was difficult to get information from her on her ancestry. (Did Daisy not speak German?) Perhaps this wasn't considered important by them at the time. I know many people who don't seem to think their stories are important. (How wrong they are!)
She died a week after her 81st birthday.
Her cause of death was central stenosis, a heart valve disorder that involves a narrowing or blockage of the opening of the mitral valve, which separates the upper and lower chambers of the left side of the heart. She suffered from this disease for 2 years, 3 months and 10 days.

Karl and Amelia have captured my interest for some reason. I have a lot more to share about them, but its too soon yet. I am still in the process of learning and gathering information. I was thrilled to connect with my new cousin who also is a granddaughter of the Kline's. Are there any more of you out there?

Here's the actual death certificate:

Monday Memory - funny times in Idaho

2009-10-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

This post isn't going to be free flowing narrative. Just a collection of memory snapshots of funny things that happened to me as a kid while on vacation in Idaho.

One afternoon I was at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's house. I remember being inside the dining room with my mom, my aunt, grandma, and maybe even my little sister. If she was there, she was pretty young. The men were outside doing....I don't know. Man stuff. Anyway, my brother came walking in with a dead mouse in his hands. The women freaked out! Apparently, Grandpa Osgood told my brother to bring it in and show it to us, knowing the kind of reaction it would get. Grandpa was a real jokester, I'm told.

Grandpa and Grandma Osgood both wore dentures. Grandpa had this ability to "pop" his teeth out while still in his mouth. I remember him joking around with my brother, chasing him around with his teeth popped out. It was real funny to me. Of course, I wasn't being chased! I probably would have been scared to death if it had been me!
Grandma & Grandpa Graham had a 3 wheeler that they would let us kids ride. I didn't do it a whole lot, but my brother did. Characteristically, he would drive fast and nutty. I remember Grandma telling afterwards (well, maybe hollering at him), that he was driving like a "bat out of hell!" He just laughed it off.
I also had a cousin who lived up in Idaho. She was a year older than me. Her sister was a couple years younger than me. When I got older, I would go and spend a couple days up at their place. That was a lot of fun. My cousin lived on a big farm that her dad, my uncle, ran. One summer it was thick with grasshoppers. I was not used to big bugs like that, much less in biblical proportions! My brother was up there as well that time. Typical boy, the bugs didn't bother him. My cousins were unaffected as well. I was the only one who had an issue with the beasts. Well, they saw the chink in the armor and decided to taunt me with the bugs. We were in the house, and they brought one in and put it out towards me. I ran into the bathroom, thinking...aha! I'm safe! Not so. My brother put the bug underneath the door (there was an unusually large space) and that dang bug literally came flying right at me. Well...maybe not as bad as that. But it sure seemed like it then.
Listening to Bill Cosby's "Chicken Heart" album with my cousin and getting freaked OUT. I can still hear the rhythm of the chicken heart...
Taking a walk outside in the evening with Grandma Graham one time. She started singing, "I'm in love with the man on the moon...." It was nice. But I thought it was strange that there would be a man on the moon...didn't they come back home?
"Washing" my hair with fresh chickens' eggs. I thought that it made my hair really nice and shiny. How nice of Grandma Osgood to let me use 4-5 eggs to do this.

For my Graham and Osgood relatives---what funny memories do YOU have? I've invited you all before to comment and few have taken me up on it. But seriously--please leave your comments here. It's a great way to get all the memories documented in one place. I'm starting to feel like the tree that fell in the forest but didn't make a sound because no one was around to hear it. Or maybe they heard it, but didn't mention it to anyone.....

My Grahams of the Borders - Ne Oublie!

2009-10-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

My family traces its Graham line back to Robert Graham, who was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1749/50. Although born in Northern Ireland, Robert was of Scottish descent. There were many of these Scots-Irish families in Northern Ireland. Like mine, many of them migrated towards the colonies and heartily participated in the American Revolution. It's a very interesting history, and one of the triggers to my personal family history obsession.

Still, I wonder: just what brought Robert's ancestors to Ireland from Scotland? I've done only a small bit of research on Scottish/English history. I've also been in touch with the genealogist from the Clan Graham Society, Nellie Lowry.

There was a group of Graham's who inhabited what was termed the "Debatable Lands" between the Scottish and English border. They who lived there were known as "border reivers." It's Nellie's opinion that my Graham's probably come from this border area.

The following are excerpts from Nellie's article about the Graham's of the Borders in the Clan Graham News, Vol. 14, Number 2 Summer 1998:

"By 1552 the Debateable Land had already been partitioned between England and Scotland. Scots Dyke is the modern name of the dividing line. This border was closely watched every night by many men. The Grahams of Netherby and Mote made their "fair livings" by the service of having their horses ready and keeping the night watches of the border.

In 1583 there appear to be three Graham clans in this tiny area:

Grahams of the Leven lived on the banks of the Lyne from Solport to its junction with the Esk. These were "great riders and ill-doers to both the realms".

Another great clan of Grahams—the Grahams of the Esk—occupied the banks of that river from the Mote Scar, where the Liddel joins it, down to the sea. There they feuded with the Story family and took their land.

Out west, on the edge of the Debateable Land, dwelt the Grahams of the Sark, English on this side of the stream, Scottish on the other.

According to family tradition, the Grahams had been banished from Scotland and settled along the banks of the Esk and Lyne Rivers (just north of Carlisle) and from there into Northumberland. By the middle of the sixteenth century they were 500 armed men strong under William "Lang Will" Graham of Stubhill, to whose son, Fergus of the Mote, arms were granted some three years later. By the end of the century it was estimated that Rob Graham alone commanded 2,000-3,000 men useful to England.

Not only did intermarriage and self-interest enable the Grahams, from their base in the Debatable Lands, to be useful to England or to Scotland at will, but their loyalties seem to have been curiously divided even among themselves!

The Borderers were happy to fight each other for their own ends; their natural cussedness would become evident. They might be led, but on no account would they be driven, least of all by officialdom to whom they were naturally allergic. It was often difficult to know on whose side a particular surname might be operating. Thomas Musgrave wrote "They are a people that will be Scottish when they will and English at their pleasure." The Grahams were known as a clan with a soul above nationality and an eye directed almost exclusively to the main chance. They obeyed no master unless it happened to suit them.

Since 1548 when the young Queen of Scots set sail for France, the Border had been the scene of constant bloodshed and pillage by rival factions. Robbery, murder, blackmail and kidnapping; the Grahams indulged in them all....

...The Grahams had lots of friends: in 1597 two notorious thieves, Jock Graham of the Peartree and Will of the Lake of Esk, were sent to the Queen's gaol here, yet the gaoler kept them in his house, and the next day, his friends came and took away the prisoners, having horses ready, while others with guns and dags lay in wait outside the city gate, to shoot any who should pursue, and followed to protect their retreat...

...Finally the Grahams saw the handwriting on the wall and tried to appease the government but when James I came to the throne, he showed the utmost zeal and determination in uprooting the landed families of Liddel, against whom he naturally bore a grudge. He arranged for their passage to Ireland from the port at Workington, County Cumberland, England to Roscommon, Ireland at the expense of the county.

The whole sept of the Grahams, under their chief Walter, the gude man of Netherby, was exported to Ireland. The reason stated was because they had been troublesome on the Scottish border. The sept at this time consisted of 124 persons, nearly all bearing the surname of Graeme or Graham. Their land was forfeited, and was sold in 1629 to Richard Graham, second son of Richard Graham, of Plomp, son of Matthew Graham of Springhill, beyond which it is impossible to trace the present family of Graham of Esk and Netherby.

Not all of the troublesome Grahams were deported to Ireland. Many had taken refuge among their friends and relations and many had defenders in the family. Even the Earl of Montrose came forward to protest the arrest of his cousin in the borders.

Since they were exported to Ireland in 1606, they were not long in the Cumberland area, yet many of the Grahams didn't stay in Ireland a year. Some came back to the borders, others went into Scotland, some to Yorkshire and Northumberland and others to the New World within a few years. All tried to hide their identity and some even changed their names! The Border Reivers were not "nice guys". They seemed to get into lots of trouble in the few short years that they lived in the area."

It's a fascinating history, and one I plan to learn more about in the future. Not only do I want to learn about the history of this place and its people, but one of my long term research goals is to trace Robert Graham's ancestry further back. My dad has taken a Y-DNA 67 marker test and has had his results submitted to the Graham DNA Project. As more Graham men have their results submitted, the more likely we will be able to make some of these ancient connections.

For further reading:

Graham, John. The Condition of the Border at the Union: destruction of the Graham Clan. 2nd Ed. 1907

Fraser, George MacDonald. The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers. 1971

John N. Osgood....who are you?

2009-10-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

Ebay struck again. Now I have another Osgood mystery on my hands.

I bid and won a photo of a "John N. Osgood." I don't think he is a direct ancestor of mine. The last John Osgood in my direct line died in 1725. But I went ahead and bid on the item, thinking that if I did win it, perhaps I could find out who he was. At the very least, I could upload the photo to DeadFred.com and hopefully help another family researcher out there.

I have a book on CD-Rom entitled, "A Genealogy of the Descendants of John, Christopher, and William Osgood." It was compiled by Ira Osgood and tracks the descendants through 1890's. It's a pretty good resource, but I find it a little difficult to navigate as a PDF document. Being over 500 pages, its hard to quickly browse for specific information.

Be that as it may, I looked "John N. Osgood" up in the index. There is one listed, born on 26 March 1843 in Bradford, Maine. He was a soldier in the Union army and died in a hospital in Hampton, Virginia on 15 Sept 1864. (Interesting side note--this John's brother in law died of starvation at Andersonville prison).

Could this be that John? I don't know much about dating photographs. (Perhaps I need to contact the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor.) It may be that this photo was taken prior to 1864.

There were three original Osgood immigrants to the New World in the 1630's: John, Christopher, and William. All Osgood's in this country can trace their ancestry back to one of these three men. John's family and William's family both came to America aboard the same ship, "Confidence" in 1638. They were probably related, although there are various explanations as to exactly how. The John N. Osgood in the book was a descendant of William Osgood. I am a descendant of John Osgood. Even if we assume this John and the John in the book are the same...the exact relationship is still unknown since the relationship between the immigrant John and William are not known.

Of course, I am very open to other identifications of the man in this photo. Do you know who he is?

Flossie's family

2009-10-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

My great grandmother on my mom's side was named Florence Martha Partridge. Everyone called her "Flossie." She married the son of Jesse Clark Osgood, Jacob. He went by his middle name, Clark.

Flossie was born on August 30, 1875 in Woodburn, Illinois. Her mom was an English immigrant named Elizabeth Palmer. Her husband was named Rufus Partridge. She was the third of seven children.

Up until this week, I only knew of three of these siblings: John Palmer Partridge (b. 1868 d. 1880); Rufus E. Partridge (b.27 Aug 1872 d. 31 May 1957); and Seth Pendelton Partridge (b. 3 May 1879 d. 29 Sept 1882). Of these four, two of the children did not survive until adulthood. I don't know (yet) why this is. A subject of future research, I suppose.

Anyway, I've been using Ancestry.com since the beginning of the year. Recently, they added this "member connect" feature where people who are researching the same individuals as you are can attempt to contact you through the Ancestry website. I've sent a few messages out, but never heard back from anyone. Yesterday, I got a message of my own about Flossie.

The sender is researching her husband's family. Flossie is his second cousin. She was happy to get photos I had posted to my Ancestry profile for Flossie and offered to give me the information she had on her family of origin. As it turns out, she has a record of 3 more siblings: Herbert James Partridge (b. 14 Dec 1882 d. 1947); Robert Henry Partridge (b. 23 July 1886 d. 1945); and Harriet Evelyn Partridge (b. 20 Oct 1889 d. 11 Jun 1918). Great Grand Uncles and Aunts I never knew I had! Nice! To reciprocate, I've sent this person information on Flossie's mother's family, the Palmer's.

I don't know much about my great-grandmother Florence Osgood. I'm hoping that perhaps some of my Osgood cousins (or second cousins) can comment here to give us some idea. Don't be shy, now!

Monday Memory - the new Graham place

2009-10-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

When Grandpa retired, he and Grandma Graham bought a smaller place in Fruitland. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I think it was the early 1980's. It still had a small orchard, although I don't know if Grandpa actively farmed it. It also had an oval dirt path that went around the buildings. There was a nice yard on one side of the house. I remember having some really fun badminton games there.

I was told that the house itself was a mobile home. It seemed pretty permanent to me! Parking was behind the house, and you would enter through a sliding door in the back. Coming from Southern California, my brother and I marveled at the fact that Grandma & Grandpa left the keys to their car in the ignition. We would never consider that where we were from. (People in our neighborhood would even steal an inflatable easter bunny from a little girl if it wasn't nailed down. But that's a story for another Monday!)

There was nice decking that went up to the back door, and led down to a game room. When you walked inside, the living room was on the right and the kitchen on the left. In between, was a small counter that a few people could sit at for quicker meals or less formal times. Like the old house, Grandma was in the kitchen a lot. Many of my memories of her are of her in the kitchen. If you went to the left through the kitchen, there was a utility room on the next left. That was another place Grandma spent a lot of time in. She often would spend a lot of time doing everyone's laundry while they were visiting.

Heading straight, however, was the dining room. When we all were visiting, this is where we would have meals together. Grandma and Grandpa used to have a big dalmatian dog named Pepper. At mealtimes, Pepper would sneak up next to you and try to get scraps. It kind of freaked me out to have a big dog be so demanding. Our family just had a little white mutt of a dog named Penny. She stayed outside and did her thing. (You can see Penny in the picture at the top of this post).

Going down a small hallway was a bathroom and two bedrooms. This is where we would stay. Mom and dad would get one room, and us kids another. There were two beds in there that wold accommodate us all. I remember these clown pictures on the wall in our room. In the closet were stacks and stacks of paperback books.

On the other side of the living room was Grandma and Grandpa's room. I don't think I ever went in there. I do remember hearing the radio on in there at really late hours. I vaguely remember someone telling me that Grandma listened to the radio all night.

The coolest part about Grandma & Grandpa Graham's place was the GAME ROOM. A whole room dedicated to fun and recreation! It had a big pool table that the men would play on. I would give it a try from time to time, but never was any good. I was always kind of embarrassed to try in front of the older relatives there. There were times when Grandma's brother, Uncle Dick Shelton, would come. He, Grandpa and Dad would play together and drink beer. When my brother got a bit older, he joined in. There was a refridgerator out there and I remember seeing cases of "Pabst" or "Hamm's" in there. I also remember them talking about "Billy Beer." This was referencing President Carter's brother, Billy Carter, who had his own beer label. I don't think I actually saw the beer, but I think maybe Grandpa had a sign our something. Or maybe they were just talking about it. They never got drunk or anything, they just enjoyed the time together playing and enjoying a few cold ones. Funny what things stick in a kids' memory.

The game room also had its own pinball machine. That was my favorite part. I don't remember what it was called, but it had clowns on it. You didn't need to put quarters in the machine for it to work. They also had a shooting game, but I never played that. There was a small bed out there, and a 1/2 bathroom. You could literally spend the day out there. If you got bored, there was an 8 track stereo with dozens of 8 track tapes. Now, it was a bit "out" of style then, but not too bad. At that time, cassette tapes and vinyl were the most popular formats for music. But the 8 tracks worked, so we could listen to music and play pinball. That was fun.

That was pretty much the limits of my experience in that place. I never really explored the land. I'm pretty sure there was a barn, but it wasn't a place I ever went. The last time I was there was when Grandpa died in 2001. I brought my second baby, Isabelle, with me. She was still too little to leave home.

I'd love to hear some recollections of my Graham relatives of the place.

Let's reminisce! Leave a comment with some memories of your own.

Who was Jesse Clark Osgood?

2009-10-01T01:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a loyal listener of Lisa Louise Cooke's genealogy podcast, Genealogy Gems. In one of her past episodes, she interviewed certified master graphologist Paula Sassi. I was intrigued by how much information Paula was able to glean about Lisa's grandfather by looking at some of his letters written during the great Depression. So I just had to take the plunge and see what Paula might show me about an ancestor that I have some writing samples from.

His name is Jesse Clark Osgood. He was born in March 1837. His mother died when he was a baby, and his father remarried several times. From what I've learned, he was very close to his mother's family, and they took care of him as he grew. The 1860 census lists him living with his uncle and his occupation as a farm laborer.

He was a soldier for the 26th Massachusetts infantry during the civil war. One of my aunts located four of his letters written to family members that are held in a special collection at the Louisiana State University library. If you've read this blog from the beginning, you'll know this is one of the things that lured me into the exciting world of genealogy.

I sent Paula the letters and here is what she says they reveal:

"The following report is based upon the handwriting of your great-great grandfather, Jesse Osgood.

His writing shows that he was schooled in the typical copybook writing of the time and the form level indicates that he was a traditional person who adhered to the standards of his generation. He functioned at an above average level of intelligence and was logical and future directed in his thought process. He was motivated by both business and social interaction and had very good manual dexterity. His energy and drive improved with time. [Note: this is from the 4 Civil War letters analzyed.]

It is interesting to note how he developed during his time as a Union soldier. In his letter dated June 22, 1863, he speaks of not feeling well and his writing reflects this in the smaller size and tension evident in the script. However, as he gained in experience and improved in his health, he actually developed into quite a vital man. His letter from Morganza, dated June 18, 1864, shows that he had good energy and probably enjoyed staying busy. He could be a very reliable and hard working individual who took his responsibilities seriously. His writing shows both dominance and care and I believe these are the two words that best describe him. He was working as a nurse and could be firm, yet understanding in the way that he administered to the seven men assigned to him.

His writing also shows some stubbornness and a tendency to be opinionated, but this could also be the natural formations of the writing of this period. He was an extrovert by nature and could gain in energy by interacting with people. His letter hints at this because, even though he could not be with his family, he mentions everyone each time he corresponded. He also provides evidence of the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” He talks of the fruit quite often and his writing shows that he maintained his energy and zest for life even during wartime. Other words that describe him are friendly, outgoing, energetic, assertive, caring, proud and honest.

Overall, he was quite traditional and both proud and humble with the ability to move forward in his life and take things as they came. He probably was pretty easy to get along with, but could take a stance if he felt he was right. He also was able to take people under wing and most likely grew into an admirable patriarch of your family."

From what I know about him, Jesse continued in the health care field by becoming a dentist after the War. He was the first dentist in Florence, Kansas, when he moved there in 1872 with his wife and son, Clark. (My great-grandfather). He later took up a 'tree claim' southeast of Florence and West of Cedar Creek. Later he bought a farm southeast of Florence, most of his time was spent at his profession of dentistry. He would often load his equipment in his buggy and go to his patients, often times getting paid in farm produce. He died in May 1918 of chronic Bright's disease.

I know there are diaries kept by Jesse that are in the hands of some of my Osgood relatives. I'm not sure who has them, but hope someday to be able to learn more about Jesse through these later writings. If you are the Osgood who has the diary, I hope you would please consider sending them to me. Even a copy is okay. I want to transcribe them and share them with the rest of the family. I encourage any Osgood's out there to share anything you know about Jesse in the comments section.

I hope you all have found this handwriting analysis as interesting as I have. I think I may have Paula look at some other ancestor's handwriting too...

Karl Kline...the mystery continues

2009-09-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

I blogged earlier this month about my 3rd great grandfather on my mom's side, Karl Gottlieb Kline. Specifically, I am on a hunt to track down his military record.

If readers recall, Karl had a G.A.R. emblem next to his headstone. This would indicate Karl's membership in the "Grand Army of the Republic," a fraternal organization of union veterans of the Civil War.

I learned of a book that could help me in my quest: "Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska Civil War Veterans: Compilation of the Death Rolls of the Departments of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, Grand Army of the Republic, 1883-1948" by Dennis Northcott. I looked for it in vain to be available in full text online. With a 2007 publication date, I shouldn't have been suprised not to find it. I also checked the library catalog of the Carlsbad library, but they did not have the book. According to World Cat, the closest library that held the book was in Los Angeles.

That led me to my first attempt at an interlibrary loan. I've never done this before, but the reference librarian at my local San Diego County branch library was very helpful. I went through the steps to make the request, but it came back in the negative. Apparently, the book is in the reference collection and not loaned out. Was I going to have to drive up to Los Angeles??

My genealogy angel friend, (I'll call her my geneangel from now on, because she is!), googled it for me and found that the Southern Orange County Genealogical Society had the book in their collection, held at the Mission Viejo library. Last Sunday, I convinced my hubby to hang out with the kids for the afternoon and I was off! This was my first trip to a library for family history research. Up until now, I've been able to do it all online. I'm not against library research, quite the contrary. It's just hard for me to get to a library with a 14 month old who thinks he is the center of the universe.

I found the book and copied the "Kline" page. Here is what I found.

Drumroll please.....

When I saw the name "Carl Kline" my heart leapt. This Carl was with a Wisconsin regiment, but his death date was listed as 1891. That couldn't be MY Carl, because we believe he died in 1907. Plus, I have a photo of the Kline family and the youngest daughter, Daisy, appears to be at least five. Daisy was born in 1887. When In looked in the death date column, there was a Kline who died on July 9, 1907. The headstone photo I have says my Karl died on July 7, 1907. That's pretty close. But the name of this Kline is PETER KLINE. He served with Company E, 40th Iowa. Peter Kline's death was reported in the Journal of the 34th Encampment of the Department of Iowa, published in 1908.

Could this be my Kline?

First the name issue. I've seen records with him listed as Gottlob, Gottolob, and Karl. But Peter is a new one. I'm not an expert in German, but I don't think "Peter" translates into Karl/Carl or Gottlieb. Any German experts out there, please feel free to educate me on this point.

Secondly is location. Iowa is not a state I would associate my Karl with. If it had said Pennsylvania, Ohio or Kansas, I would feel better about it. But I have no records, evidence or even family lore that would put Karl in Iowa. But who knows? I definitely have had trouble tracking down any records for this family. I do know Karl lived at least since 1880 in Kansas, and is buried in Marion County. Family lore says the family lived in Wellsville, Ohio prior to that. So Iowa is out of the blue.

I'll keep this nugget in my Kline file. But I don't think this Kline is my ancestor. So, for now, the search goes on.

Monday Memory - Spending the night at the Osgoods

2009-09-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

As I've described in previous posts. on our family vacations we would usually stay at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's. As I got older, once in awhile I got the opportunity to go by myself and spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa Osgood. The picture to the right is of Grandma Osgood on Christmas Day in 1976. She's in the living room of their home in Fruitland. The walls were turquoise. How neat was that?

If it was just me alone with Grandma & Grandpa, we would have the evening meal on a little table in the kitchen. The table had fold out sides that would make it big enough for us. I was fascinated with a bug zapper Grandma & Grandpa had that was right outside the window. Mosquitoes were an issue with me...I always seemed to get eaten alive on vacation. That juicy California skin, I guess. In the evening, Grandpa would watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. It seemed like we were staying up really late, because at home in California, Johnny Carson came on at 11:30 p.m. In Idaho's mountain time zone, it was 10:30 p.m. Grandpa would sit in his easy chair and have a cigarette while he watched. The room always had a faint smell of cigarette smoke. It's strange now--that smell is such a turn off, but as a kid, I barely noticed. It was there, sure. But it wasn't as off-putting as it is now.

Where would I sleep? I remember a few times sleeping in the upstairs bedroom that used to be my Aunt's. (My mom's too when she was younger). I remember once when I was a little older, maybe 12 or so, when my cousin came that night too. She was just a year older than me and we always had a great time together. We slept in sleeping bags on Grandma's dining room floor and talked about all kinds of things pre-teen girls talk about. It was great. When I was older, I remember sleeping on the sofa hide a bed. By then, Grandma had a thing about protecting pillows and mattresses. So they all would be covered with plastic. Every time you rolled over, the crinkly sound would wake you up. Plus, it would get kind of hot in the summer. But it was worth it.

The mornings bring special memories of a very special breakfast. Grandma always had Froot Loops on hand just for me. I don't know when I told her I liked them--I was too young to remember. But Grandma always remembered. There was never a time when I was there that she did not have this yummy breakfast treat for me. It was extra special because mom never bought the sugary cereals. It was all business, healthy stuff. Mom stuff. But Grandmas are different. They remember what you like, and don't mind indulging your sweet tooth.

Grandpa died in September 1996. Grandma followed him in January 2004. Since then, the house has been vacant. It looks like my aunts and uncles are going to finally sell the place and finalize the estate issues. A part of me hopes that the place does not sell until late next summer. I expect to be in Boise in June, and would love to be able to go back inside the house one last time. Here is how it looks on Google maps street view:

View Larger Map

Robert B. Graham and the 7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia

2009-09-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have a few "saved" searches set up on Ebay that alert me when an item of interest may be available. This morning, one of my saved searches pinged me. The search was "7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia." The item is a really neat collection here. (I don't know how long that link will work) For me, the best part of the offering is this photograph:

This picture is a 1/2 plate partially hand colored ambrotype image of six soldiers from the 7th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia during the Civil War. In their hands are playing cards and they have cigars in their mouths.

My great-great grandfather, Robert Barnett Graham, served with Company A of the 7th Cavalry in Missouri during the Civil War. Prior to that, he had served in the

Enrolled Missouri Militia under Captain Cunningham.

Could one of these six men be Robert?

I have a muster and descriptive roll card for Robert Barnett Graham. He mustered in on November 7, 1863 to the 7th Cavalry. He is described as 6 feet tall, light complexion with dark hair. His horse was valued at $120 and his horse equipment valued at $25. Admittedly, it is a pretty vague description and not enough to verify or identify him as one of the men in the photo.

Even if Robert is not among them, (and chances are he is not), it gives me a glimpse into how he may have looked, the uniform he wore, and the guys he served with.

I've started reading about the Civil War in Missouri with a book called "Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri." One of my research goals is to someday dig into the unit history for Company A and try to retrace some of Robert Barnett's actions during the war. His obituary says that he did indeed see a lot of action, and had some narrow escapes.

In the meantime, I can gaze at this photograph and imagine what it must have been like for these men. Fighting a war where you didn't know exactly who or where your enemy was. Chasing guerrillas into Kansas and defending the homesteads. Fascinating!

Anyone wanna give me $2,500 to buy it on Ebay??

My Cousin, America's First Postmaster

2009-09-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

September 22, 1789

On this day, the first postmaster general of the United States was appointed. His name was Samuel Osgood. I know this may sound strained, but he is my 3rd cousin 6 times removed. We're kin!

Samuel and I descend from the same grandfather, John Osgood. Of course, to Samuel, John was his second great-grandfather. To me, John is my eighth great grandfather.

Here's the line:

John Osgood, the immigrant (1595-1651). His son was also John Osgood (1631-1693).

This is where the family line splits. John Jr. had six children. Samuel descends from his son, Timothy (1659-1748). I descend from Timothy's older brother, John. I would have never figured out the relationship, but my genealogy software, Family Tree Maker, did for me.

In honor of this anniversary, I would like to share some information I've found about my cousin Samuel.

Samuel was born in February 1748 in the town our mutual grandfather helped to found, Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1770, intending to pursue a career in theology. Like so many young men of his day, he was caught up in the tumult of the American Revolution.

In 1774, Samuel represented Andover in congress. Keep in mind--at the time, this was treason to the crown. He participated in the battle at Lexington on April 19, 1775. In that fight, he was a commander of a company of minute men and joined in chasing the British back to Cambridge. He rose through the ranks of the Army for the next year but refused the command of a regiment of men in 1776. He turned to politics. He took a seat in the provincial congress of Massachusetts and was appointed a member of the board of war. He was also on the committee that framed the first state constitution. He was elected the first senator from Essex County in 1780. He was repeatedly re-elected to congress throughout this time of revolution and framing our nation's political system. He was one of the commissioners to manage the Treasury of the United States until 1789 when the Treasury department was organized and put under the stewardship of Alexander Hamilton.

On a personal side, he married Martha Brandon on January 4, 1775. Martha was described as a, "woman of rare accomplishments and great beauty." Sadly, she died in September 1778 before the couple could have any children. Samuel remarried in May 1786, to widow named Maria Brown (Franklin). Together they had six children. Their youngest, Caroline, was born in 1799 and died within a year. Another daughter, Eliza, died the same year as her little sister at the age of about seven.

Samuel was respected for his "talents and usefulness, for his urbanity and moral and religious worth." He loved literature. He was an original member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He had extensive correspondence with his friends, our Founding Fathers. Among them, George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. He also enjoyed reading and writing on theological subjects. His principal publications include: "Remarks on Daniel and Revelations," "A Letter of Episcopacy," and a volume on "Theology and Metaphysics."

Samuel Osgood died in New York on August 12, 1813 and was buried in the church where he was a member on the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets in New York City. I wonder if a church still stands there? Here is a street view, courtesy of Google:

View Larger Map

There is a movement among Osgoods in this country to have a stamp commemorate Samuel Osgood's contributions to this country. If you would like to participate in this effort, you can read all about it here.

Next time you go to the post office, or lick a stamp, or drop something in the mail, you can thank Samuel Osgood for helping make it happen.

Sources:

1. Holgate, Jerome Bonaparte. "A History of Some of the Early Settlers of North America and Their Descendants, from Their First Emigration to the Present Time With Their Intermarriages and Collateral Branches. Including Notices of Prominent Families and Distinguished Individuals, with Anecdotes, Reminiscences, Traditions, Sketches of the Founding Of Cities, Villages, Manors, and Progressive Improvements of the Country From Its Wilderness State to the Present Era." 1851

2. Osgood, Ira, Putnam, Eben, Ed. "A Genealogy of the Descendants of John, William, and Christopher Osgood Who Came from England and Settled in New England Early in the Seventeenth Century." 1894

Did Great-Grandma run around with outlaws?

2009-09-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

When I first became interested in family history, my mom brought over every bit of old family stuff she and my dad had collected or been given over the years. Among the pile was compiled family history entitled, "Family History of Dwight and Rosella Dutton" written in the 1980's. It looks like it was a project of Arthur Nelson Dutton, who is a distant cousin on my dad's side of the family. (He's my first cousin, 2 times removed).

Arthur collected old family photos, memories, and put it all together in a 140 page coil bound book. It really is a treasure.

Among the photos was one that jumped out at me. The caption identifies the following individuals, from left to right: "Butch Cassidy, ???, Clarence, Lottie, Sundance Kid, Alice.

Alice is Alice Dutton, my great-grandmother. Lottie is her sister. Clarence married Lottie. That accounts for those names. What are they doing in a picture with BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID?? Is this true? I don't know where that photo came from. I think I'll try and track down this distant cousin of mine to see where he got that photo.

Alice was born in 1895 in Lidgerwood, North Dakota. Lottie was born the year before. Their parents, Dwight and Rosella Dutton moved to Idaho in March 1902. According to another Dutton sibling, Clarence Moler and Lottie became an item in about 1905 or 1906. Thus, this photo can't be any earlier than that since Clarence and Lottie did not know each other before then.

Could this really be the infamous "Butch and Sundance?"

On the right is a photo of Butch, aka Robert Leroy Parker, in 1896. I can see a resemblance to the man on the left of the group photo, even through the

thin beard. Was he ever in Idaho in the early 1900's? Sundance Kid, aka Harry Longbough is a little harder to identify through the moustache. What do you think?

According to some quick internet research, Butch and Sundance connected in 1900 when Sundance moved to Utah to join Butch's "Wild Bunch." They held up trains, stages, and banks all around the West. In 1900 they robbed the Winnemucca National Bank in Nevada and then headed to South America, along with Sundance's girlfriend, Etta Place. (Could she be the unidentified woman in the photo??)

If you've seen the Redford/Newman movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" you'll remember the climactic end scene with the massive shootout with the Bolivian police that ended their lives in 1908 (or 1911 by some accounts). However, some believe they came back to the United States under assumed names and identities. I found this on a website Legends of America:

"Evidence exists, however, that Butch Cassidy reloacted to Spokane, Washington, where he lived under the alias William T. Phillips until he died of cancer in the county poorhouse on July 20, 1937. Persistent reports also claimed that the Sundance Kid returned to the United States where he allegedly lived under the name of Hiram Bebee until his death in Wyoming in 1955."

The question remains. If this is the real Butch and Sundance, why is great-grandma Alice Dutton (Shelton), her sister and brother in law in a picture with them? Did they run around with outlaws? Or just take advantage of an opportunity to sit for a photo with such an infamous duo? It looks like it was taken at a photographer's studio. It is a mystery. Are there any Dutton descendants out there have any more information? Perhaps there are some Butch & Sundance scholars who can add some insight. I would love to hear everyone's speculations and opinions.

Growing up without a Mama

2009-09-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Mother. Mama. It's one of the first words a baby learns to say. On the battlefield, it is often one of the last words uttered by the mortally wounded soldier. A mother is central to a family and especially to a young child. She is their world. She feeds, loves, protects, teaches, binds wounds, inspires, and passes on the values and traditions that she grew up with.

I go to a Tuesday morning bible study at my church, Calvary Chapel of Escondido. We are currently doing a bible study on the book of Esther. Beth Moore, the author of the study, made a point about how young Esther grew up without a mama. She pointed out how devastating that would be for any child and how formative that would be for them. It would shape their character and follow them for the rest of their lives.

Sitting in the study, I couldn't help but thinking about a few of my ancestors that I knew off the top of my head that grew up without a mama. I wonder how the loss of such a key person in their lives shaped who they grew up to be?

Jesse Clark Osgood (1837-1918)

His mama, Abigail Clark, died when he was 19 months old. His father, Thaddeus Osgood, remarried three more times. (I don't know...if I was wife #4, I'd think twice!) Jesse was raised by his mother's family, the Clark's. The 1860 census shows him living with his Uncle Jesse Clark and Aunt Lydia rather than his father. We also have several letters he wrote to his Clark relatives during the Civil War. I don't know if there was any bad blood between Jesse and his father, or step-mothers. There isn't any kind of family lore to say that there was. I can't help but wonder though, why he wouldn't be living with his father.

Jesse and his mama shared the same birthday, March 4th. I wonder if this made his birthdays bittersweet?

Sarah Warriner Hamilton (1843-1937)

Sarah's mother, Mary Stebbins, died when Sarah was 3 years old. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to twin siblings on Christmas Day, 1846. She died a few weeks later. This was 8 days after one of the newborn twins, Alfred, died. In Sarah's case, her father also remarried. His second wife, Katherine Dewey Collins, died in 1850. His third wife, Julia Blake Beach, was a widow and came to the family with four children of her own. She was a schoolteacher in the town where Sarah went to school. The Hamilton children loved Julia before she became their stepmother. The ten children of the blended family grew up in the love and affection of both Mr. Hamilton and Julia and were very close as brothers and sisters all their lives. In fact, after Mr. Hamilton died, Julia came to live in Florence, Kansas, near Sarah and her family. Julia died there in 1899. It's nice to see a blended family that grew up in affection rather than distrust and bad feelings.

I find it interesting that these first two ancestors that came to mind, Jesse Osgood and Sarah Hamilton, married each other. Losing their mother at a young age was something they had in common.

Robert Craig Graham (1780-1856)

Robert was named for his father, Robert Graham, who emigrated from County Down, Ireland. When Robert Jr. was six, his mama, Mary Craig, died. Robert had three brothers and three sisters at the time. When he was nine, his father remarried another woman by the name of Mary....Mary Cowan. This second Mary and Robert had seven children of their own. From all accounts, the children from the first Mary (Cowan) did not get along with their stepmother as adults. I have yet to document this, but apparently there were legal issues with the estate of his father. Robert married Catherine Crockett and the family moved to Johnson County, Missouri, in about 1834.

The descendants of Robert Graham Sr. with his second wife, Mary, stayed in Wythe County, Virginia. During the Civil War, this line of Graham's fought for the Confederacy, while Robert Craig Graham's grandson, Robert Barnett Graham, fought for the Union. If anyone is interested, there is a great website on the Robert Graham/Mary Cowan descendants in Virginia called Major Graham's Mansion and is worth a look at to learn about the impact Graham's had in that part of Virginia.

Nancy Jane King (1846-1929)

Hannah Magee was 27 when she gave birth to her daughter, Nancy, in March 1946. Baby Nancy was 5 months old when her mama, Hannah, died. This is one family line that I know very little about. I don't know if her 31 year old husband, Ambrose King, remarried. This is one family line that I certainly need to explore further.

Josiah Osgood (1739-1788)

Josiah's mama was named Abigail Day. She married Josiah Osgood Sr., at the age of 18. She gave birth four times before she died. Her last baby was Josiah in 1739. When Josiah was three, his mama died. His father married Hannah Kitteredge when Josiah was 10. But between the age of three and ten, Josiah was without any mother figure.

How did this impact their lives? It's impossible to know for sure. It probably made them have to fend for themselves more and grow up a bit faster. One thing is for sure....it makes me realize how fortunate I am to have grown up with a mama, who still is one of the most important people in my life.

If your mama is still alive, go give her a call and let her know how important she is to you.

Monday Memory-The Osgood house

2009-09-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

A word of disclaimer: The facts and assumptions that follow may not be 100% accurate. They are the memories of a little girl and there are most likely innocent or misunderstood things in this post. Please excuse any of these, and I bet your indulgence for a short while....

On our trips to Idaho, we would sleep at the Graham's, but we would spend days at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's house. I loved the look of the outside of the house with its turquoise accents. They had land that went far back as well. At one point when I was small, I remember Grandpa having cows! I also remember chickens and geese. Grandma also had a lot of farm cats. They stayed outside and did their thing, but it was always fun to see kitties running around.

As a young girl, I called Grandma Osgood my "pink" Grandma. I don't remember why-perhaps she wore a pair of pink slacks that impressed me once when I was young. But pink being a rosy and cheerful kind of color, it fit with my Grandma Osgood perfectly.

We would have to go down a long driveway to get to their house. There was a ditch that ran along the road that the driveway went over. My mom told me of times as a kid when asparagus grew wild along the ditch bank. I was always afraid we would fall in it! The driveway bordered a huge front yard. When I was small, there were huge apricot trees in the front yard. I remember eating my first apricots at Grandma Osgood's. The driveway ended at a garage. I was always kind of wary of this area, because they had two boxes with BEES in them hooked onto the building. I was told they weren't the stinging kind, but I still didn't want to be near them.

In between the driveway and the house was a contraption with a big stone wheel and a seat on it. It was kind of like a bike without wheels. I'm pretty sure now that it was a sharpening stone. If I'm wrong, I hope one of my Osgood relatives will comment here and correct me. Here is a picture of me when I was about 2 on it with my Grandpa holding me on the seat.

Grandma had a large kitchen garden in the back. There was also a good sized yard with trees. Grandma was a great gardener. Mom told me recently that there were times when she was young that Grandma's garden fed the family. I remember her making big "dinners" for the noon time meal. It was strange for us to have "dinner" at lunch time. I particularly remember some delicious rasberries that were partially frozen and sprinkled with sugar. I've never had raspberries like that since!

I remember summer days out on the back porch visiting. There were these funny chairs made out of tractor seats for everyone to sit on. Grandma & Grandpa had an old-fashioned Coke machine that took dimes. Grandma was a Pepsi drinker. No Coke for her. There was a difference, and you couldn't fool her. (Or was it the other way around?) The sodas (or "pops") came in glass bottles. We would drink them right out of the bottle, or pour them into one of Grandma's "Loony Tunes" glasses. She had a collection of glasses with all the Loony Tunes characters on them: Bugs Bunny; Elmer Fudd; Daffy Duck; Speedy Gonzales; Pepe le Pew; the Tasmanian Devil; etc. Mom let us kids have one soda per day. It was always kind of hard to decide when to take it. If you took it too early, you were done for the day.

I don't remember much of the house before they added some rooms onto the back. We would enter the house through the back, up a ramp built for my uncle who uses a wheelchair to have access to the house. The first room you would enter was the kitchen. There was a small room off to the side that had an old hospital bed and other stuff in it. The kitchen had a blue and white short carpet. Grandma's kitchen was a busy place. Her refrigerator was an old one...I think it said "Coldspot" on it. It had these complicated ice cube trays that I never did figure out how to use. This picture is from our trip during the summer of 1976.

The next room was the dining room. There was a huge table that we all would sit around and chat or play Uno on. It had claw feet on it. My mom now has this table at her house. The bathroom was off to the left and it would be freaky sometimes at night or in the morning to go in and see a pair of teeth or two in a glass by the sink! Both Grandma & Grandpa wore dentures and that took some getting used to. Grandpa used to play around with my brother by popping his teeth out of place, yet keeping them in his mouth and chasing him around. It was funny to watch...I was just glad he wasn't chasing me!!

Past the dining room and through some accordion doors was the original part of the house. There was an old living room that smelled of old cigarette smoke. Grandpa was a long time smoker. It didn't bother me as a kid. It was before the days where there was any stigma attached to it. I remember a big velvet painting on one wall of a matador fighting a bull. There was a window air conditioning unit on the opposite wall. There was a downstairs bedroom that my uncle used. Like my Grandpa Graham, Grandpa Osgood had his chair. There were two couches for the rest of us.

I was always fascinated with the doorknobs in this room. They were so pretty to me--like jewels-chiseled diamonds. One door led to the upstairs. When you would start up the creaky stairs, it would feel like an older house. At the top was my aunt's room. I'm told that at one time my mom and 2 of her sisters all shared this room. When I was a kid, my aunt still lived there. She was a high school cheerleader and her pom poms would be tossed to the side of the room. She would go out on dates and was just so stylish to me. She had these pretty shoes in a size 5. She was only 10 years my senior, so I looked up to her a lot. Kind of like a living Barbie doll!

There was a very short and narrow hall way with a bookshelf packed with books and old Archie comics. I remember the high school senior portraits of my mom and her brothers and sisters in 8x10 frames on top. I was so impressed by these pictures! The girls all got to wear these pink or blue boas--they all looked like movie stars. The boys were in suits and looked so handsome!

At the end of the hall was Grandma & Grandpa's room. I rarely went in there. It just didn't seem right. All I can remember of it was their being a lot of "stuff" in there.

Sometimes, we would spend a night with my mom's parents too. But this post is getting pretty long, so I think I'll save that for another Monday.

An Osgood Family History Mystery

2009-09-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

I've come into possession of some old photographs of some Osgood children. I found them on Ebay and bought them in the off -chance that they may be relatives. I figured that even if they weren't "my people," old photos are neat. Besides, I could always upload them to a website that has done me a great service in the past, DeadFred.com and perhaps help someone else in their family history search.

There are 3 photos altogether, but 2 are very similar.

This one says on the back: "1925. Robert Osgood. Ed & Lizzie's babe." There also is an address written: "2672 Poplar St."

There is another similar one taken with a wider lens, but at the same time and the same subject. It says "1925. Robert Osgood. Ed & Lizzie's babe."

I've looked in my database and the only Edward Osgood I have was my grandfather's older brother, born in 1900. I have two Robert Osgoods. One is another brother of my grandfather, born in 1898. The other is his son born in 1922.

I'm fascinated by the address on the back of one. I can't begin to imagine how many Poplar streets there are in the United States! This baby, Robert Osgood, may very well still be alive today, albeit an elderly man about 84 years old.

This photo says on the back: Ed and Lizzie Osgood Children. I don't know if these are additional siblings to the baby in the first two photos, or if the baby is the youngest boy in this photo. It looks like the same porch and house, though.

I'd welcome any clues anyone may have. It doesn't seem like these kids are my direct ancestors, though. I'd be happy to share the originals with their descendants.

For now, I'm off to upload them to DeadFred.

A soldier's story that has yet to be told

2009-09-11T11:30:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I'm able to share an ancestor's story on my blog. Other times, I want to post about questions I have been unable to find the answers for....yet. This is one of those posts.

His name was Karl Gottlieb Kline. He was born in Prussia and emigrated to the United States at some point. He married another German immigrant, Amelia Wendel. They were pioneers in Kansas during the 1880's. I first find them in Douglas County, then Marion County, where they are buried. They are my great-great-great grandparents on my mother's side.

The star shaped emblem to the left of their headstone has the initials "G.A.R. 1861-1865" The Grand Army of the Republic. This was a fraternal organization for Union veterans of the Civil War. It would seem then, that Karl was another civil war veteran in my family tree. Excellent!

Ever since 8th grade, I have been a Civil War buff. I'm not sure what initially captivated me. Our 8th grade social studies teachers showed us a lot of historical movies. We saw the entire series of "Roots," for example. We also saw a movie adaptation of the classic book, "The Red Badge of Courage." It starred Richard Thomas of "The Waltons" fame. For me, that movie put me in the shoes of that young soldier who was so ready to go fight...until he heard the sounds of cannon and gunfire ahead. Perhaps that was what did it. Anyway, I did a lot of reading and learning on my own since then about the Civil War. So I'm very interested in the details of any Civil War service I run across.

Try as I might, I have been unable to track down exactly where Karl's service was. I've gone through all the military databases on Ancestry.com. I've been to the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. I've even had a difficult time tracking down census records of this family. At one point, I wondered if they really even existed!

Through the kindness of a genealogist friend, (you know who you are...) I have found some census records, the earliest being 1880 in Eudora Township, Douglas County, Kansas. I found a great book online on Kansas Memory: Roster of the Members and Posts: Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Kansas, dated 1894. That would fit my time frame, since Karl died in 1907. I manually went through each of the 259 pages and scanned for any mention of a Karl Kline, Karl Klein, Gottlieb Klein, and all permutations of the three names and spellings as I could. NONE. I guess I could have missed it.....if anyone has some time on their hands and wants to try, I would welcome another set of eyes!

I have found records of another German immigrant who fought for the Union by the name of Gottlob Klien, but he was killed during the war. So he's not my Karl. I'll admit in the haze of frustration, I pondered the possibility that my Karl assumed this poor soldier's identity after he died!

The closest I've gotten to some evidence of Civil War military service is a hazy image on a Kansas census record, but I can't really make it out. The 1895 Kansas census includes information on military record (condition of discharge, state of enlistment, letter or name of company or command, number of regiment or other organization to which attached, arm of service.) It kind of looks like Ohio 122. I've looked into that unit, and can't find any names that are even close. I'll put the record at the bottom of this post for anyone who would like to take a stab at it for me. I'd be happy to email it to anyone who wants the file to enlarge to examine it.

So there you have it. One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place was so that others researching the same family lines as I could connect with me and we could collaborate on information. I'm crossing my fingers and saying a prayer to the genealogy fairies on this one.

On the Homefront-Sarah's Memories of the War of the Rebellion

2009-09-09T18:13:00.001-07:00

Sarah Warriner Hamilton, my great-great grandmother, was born in March 1843 in Greenville, Illinois. Her mother died three weeks after giving birth to twins when Sarah was no more than 5 years old.

Sarah attended Montbello College at Alton, Illinois and taught school for a number of years. According to a family history, Sarah could have been an author if time had permitted. She wrote a number of short stories and also wrote the lyrics to a hymn after hearing a sermon on John 3:1-2. It's called "My Advocate" and I'm pleased to have a copy if it. I look forward to having my son learn it.

It is my understanding that Sarah kept a journal. I have yet to locate it in its entirety, but have a copy of a few pages that capture her reminiscences of the Civil War. Enjoy

Part of a writing by Sarah Warriner Hamilton Osgood

To go back to the time, when our boys marched away. I am surprised now, when I remember the erroneous ideas, we entertained (that as we young people), of war. We supposed they would be taken right to the seat of war, in a very few days, and lined up in battle, and that all was needed, to make soldiers out of them was a “suit of blue” a sword and gun; little dreaming of the days of drill and dull routine of camp life, they must go thro(ugh) ere they are ready to meet the foe.

So when it came to pass our soldier boys found themselves settled in camp, not far from home, our hearts began to settle back into their normal condition; and life to move on in something of the old routine, only we missed them so. Buying, and selling. Sowing, and reaping, must still go on, tho hearts are breaking.

Now our boys are sent to the front, their furloughs become fewer, life takes on more, and serious phases, varied with letters from the front, and now and then a visit, of a few days from someone of them.

One, what a happy go-lucky fellow he was—and such extravagant stories he told of life on the Gun Boat Fleet on the Mississippi river. While he was at home he conceived the happy idea of taking all his girl friends to the artists-for their pictures to take back with him. There must have been near a dozen, who, sat for a picture. Between two of the prettiest, he managed to seat himself. They had on those ugly shaker bonnets, the fashion of that time. I could not see the roguish face, trying to peer into the demure face of the girl on his left. It made a very comical picture indeed. After he returned to duty he wrote what fine parties they had, with the girls’ pictures in places of honor. He was another of the heroes that died.

I was in the long, long funeral train, that bore him to his last resting place. I heard the ministers voice as in a dream say, his sun has set while it is yet day.

As the stress of those days grew upon us my father, (than whom a greater Patriot never lived), grew haggard, and old, fast. His great anxieties, for his country, caused him sleepless nights. One incident will take to illustrate his tender heart, for the soldiers. It was during the early days of the war, that the papers chronicled the event, of a young soldier found asleep, while on duty and sentenced to be shot. We all felt greatly exercised over it, but, particularly so, was my father. I never shall forget how earnestly he prayed for the life of that young soldier; as tho he were his own boy. And when news came of the reprieve, there was at least, one heart, full of gratitude.

With what intense anxiety we all awaited news, from the front; and especially if a battle were imminent. In order to facilitate the spreading of the news, a tall flagstaff was raised in my uncle’s yard, in sight of all the county about. Whenever there was news received of a battle the flag was run up. If won by Union forces, it proudly floated from the top of the staff; but if the Union suffered a defeat, then it was run up at half mast. How the whole region watched, for the sign of that flag, and could hardly wait the return of the swiftest messenger, to learn the particulars. Were any of our boys in the engagement? Were they killed or wounded? Were questions we tremblingly asked ourselves. And when our brothers were finally engaged with the enemy, and received severe wounds, and came home to us, we began to feel somewhat relieved from the pressure borne so long.

And so the weary months rolled on, the sky growing darker. And then, the clouds began to lift a little, and then to roll away, and Peace has come again. Our old friend, the flag, that has been a sign, to us all thro(ugh) these trying days---now floats from the summit, we fondly said, never to be raised at half mast again, and we are wild, wild with joy.

But how soon, as our joy turned into mourning. Only a few days, and our flag is floating, at half mast again for our beloved Lincoln lies dead. Dead, did they say? We cannot will not believe it, and that was the way we felt in those dreadful days.

Well my butter has come.

Monday Memory - the old Graham house

2009-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

On our annual vacations to Idaho, we generally stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's home. This is the house my dad grew up in. We would spend a good part of the days over at Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's, but always came back to the Graham place. It had more bedrooms

to put us all in. Plus, over at the Osgoods, at least when I was still little, I still had an aunt and uncle living there.

The "old" Graham place sat in between an apple orchard and a cherry orchard. Grandma & Grandpa bought the place in 1947. Grandpa was a farmer, like his father Guy Graham was. As you can imagine from the orchards, he grew cherries and apples. I remember them shipping our family in California a big box of apples in the fall.

It was great to be able to go and help pick cherries in the summertime. Grandma would give us a bucket and let us go on our way. We ate way more than we gathered! Fresh cherries right off the tree-delicious! I can still see my little brother red-faced with cherry juice and goo all over him! There was an oval "track" that went around the house and Grandpa's barn and garage. In between the two and around the house was a nice lawn. One winter we drove up for Christmas. I was probably around the age of 10. Dad hooked up a sled to a tractor and dragged my brother and I around that oval. It was so much fun....until I kind of fell off the sled and was dragged on the ground for awhile before Dad noticed!

On the edge of the apple orchard was Great-Grandpa Ira Shelton's trailer. He had lived there since 1961. His wife, Alice, had died a couple years earlier. (Great-Grandpa is the son of the mysterious Nathaniel Shelton that I blogged about a few days ago). I would often go and visit him in his trailer. He had stacks and stacks of paperback books out there. When I was around seven, I remember him asking me to guess how old he was. I had no idea, but knew it was pretty old. (At least from a kid's perspective...I realize as I approach 40 that the concept of "old" is relative). He held up 8 fingers and flashed them at me twice--eighty eight. He would give me bananas and we would hang out. Great-Grandpa rarely came into the house, but he did one winter when we were visiting for Christmas. It seemed to be a big deal that he was in the big house instead of his trailer. Great-Grandpa died a couple years later at the age of 90.

Great-grandpa's trailer is on the left of the barn.

Great grandpa shows us his garden in 1972

We would enter the house through the kitchen. Grandma always was able to cook enough for everyone. I found out later that when she was growing up, her mother would cook for all the farm hands in the area. She grew up learning how to feed an army!

In the living room was GRANDPA'S CHAIR. It was his and his alone. Nearby would be a TV Guide, an ashtray and some snacks. I discovered "Whoppers" there one summer. Those chocolate covered malted milk candies will always remind me of then. Grandma and Grandpa liked to watch TV. I remember them watching "The Price is Right" and a soap opera every day. I'm not sure which soap it was....I knew it wasn't the one my mom watched.

I usually slept in a bathroom. That may sound weird, but this was a big bathroom. As I recall, it was on a landing, with stairs going up on the other side of a ceiling, which was slanted. It was pink. There were two single sized beds in the room. On a table was a big shiny conch shell that we were supposed to be able to hear the ocean in. I remember trying to pretend to be asleep on the morning we would be leaving Idaho to go home. Maybe if I never woke up, we wouldn't have to leave! It didn't work. I hated those mornings.

I don't remember ever going up to the next story in that house. I'm sure I did, though.

TV was a big deal at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was on a lot. I was there eating a slice of watermelon on August 16, 1977 and hearing that Elvis Presley had died. I also remember watching the Donahue show with mom and grandma while the show topic was the Jonestown Massacre.

Grandma & Grandpa sold the place when I got a little older and Grandpa retired-it was in the late 70's, early 80's. They moved onto a smaller place in Fruitland and lived in a mobile home with less acreage to take care of. That will be the subject of another memory post in the future. It was a sad time for my dad when they sold the place. I suspect it was for others as well. A few years after that, there was a fire and the house burned down.

All you Graham relatives out there, I'd love to hear some of your memories of the old place. Leave a comment!

Mary's Story

2009-09-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

My mom's paternal family line in America goes back to the Puritan era. My first ancestor to arrive in the New World was John Osgood in 1638. He helped to found the town of Andover, Massachusetts. This is the story of his daughter in law, Mary Clement, who married his son, John Osgood, Jr. Mary is my 8th great grandmother.

Mary was born in England and came to the New World with her family, settling in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Her father was the local magistrate and united her in marriage to Captain John Osgood, Jr., in 1653. The Osgood's were held in high esteem by the town of Andover, which Captain John's father helped to found. Mary was described as, "remarkably pious and a good woman." She bore eleven children between 1654 and 1680, three of them dying as infants. Her last baby to die was Clement, in November of 1680.

In 1692, some girls in Salem village were supposed to have the power of detecting witches. The two supposed witch-finders, who were called "afflicted persons," were taken to the Andover meeting house, along with the accused. Mary Osgood had been arrested and was put before them. When Mary looked at them, they went into convulsions. On September 8, 1692, she was questioned before the magistrates.

Frantic from the endless badgering from the court, Mary confessed to being a witch. When pressed to admit an exact time when she began her covenant with the devil, her mind went back to about 11 years prior when she suffered from a "bit of melancholy" around the birth of her last child (which had died). Even her husband initially believed her confession. Mary recanted a month later, explaining that the confession "was no other than what was suggested to us by some gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it, and we knew it, which made us think that it was so. And our understandings, our reason, our faculties, almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition; as also the hard measures they used with us rendered us incapable of making our defense, but said anything and everything which they desired, and most of what we said, was but, in effect, a consenting to what they said."

Mary was imprisoned for fifteen weeks in Salem amid brutal conditions. It was so bad that some of the accused died in jail. Mary was released after her husband and other townspeople petitioned for her freedom and her husband posted bond in the sum of £100 for her freedom. Mary was indicted in January 1693 and was found not guilty by a jury later that month.

Source: Roach, Marilynne K., "The Salem Witch Trials, A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege." 2002: Taylor Trade Publishing

One web leads to another-Centerview, Missouri

2009-09-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

I'm dabbling on a new genealogy social networking site, GenWise. I joined the Missouri genealogy forum and was browsing through the discussion lists. Why Missouri? Well, several generations ago in about 1833, Robert Graham, Jr., moved his family from Wythe County, Virginia, to Johnson County, Missouri. 3 generations later, my great grandfather, Guy Graham, moved his bride, Jennie O. Shipp to Fruitland, Idaho.

I'm probably most familiar with the names of my dad's line, the Grahams. I know the names of the families that married into the Grahams, but not much else. In the past, I have seen the names of families that married into the Grahams: Roop and Shipp both come to mind. (Although there were Hobsons, McGees, and Kings that gave brides to Graham men). I don't know a whole lot about them past their names. However, my genealogy quest goes beyond knowing the names and dates of my ancestors, though. For some reason, I thirst to know who they were, how they lived, and how the events of their times that we now study as history impacted on them.

Anyway, in browsing the lists, I stumbled across a site on Missouri Genealogy, and specifically Johnson County, where Centerview is located. I found out some interesting facts about these other ancestors:

* William Lemuel Shipp, my great-great-great grandfather was a justice of the peace in 1882. In 1902 he was appointed school superintendent and later elected to that post in 1905, 1907 and 1909. This is a photo of William and his family. My great-grandmother, Jennie is the girl on the bottom left.

* Elhanan Roop was the first postmaster after the town of Centerview was officially founded in 1865

* The first school built after the civil war in Centerview was named the Graham school. (Sound familiar?) This was the only school in the township for some time and pupils from a radius of 6-7 miles attended. In 1868, the school district was organized and purchased the private school house. William Lemuel Shipp was one of the principals of this school.

So how does this all fit? Jennie Shipp, William's daughter, married a Graham. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth's maiden name was Roop. Her father was Elhanan Roop, that first postmaster. The possibilities only continue as I go farther back. In just browsing this one site on the world wide web, I ran into a web of relationships and lives that only mean hours of fascinating research for me. I'd better get reading!

Brick Wall #1 - Nathaniel Shelton...Who's your daddy?

2009-09-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

A friend, who happens to be a professional genealogist, defined a brick wall as a "solvable problem." I like that definition, especially when I feel like I'll never get past a certain point.

Like this one. I'm hoping that by gathering my thoughts enough to write this post, I may notice something I had not before. If not, then I'm hoping that perhaps another person researching this family line will have a piece of the puzzle I do not.

His name was Nathaniel Shelton. He is my great-great grandfather. He's the one sitting in the chair. It's my understanding that the man standing next to him is his nephew. I can't confirm that becuase I have NO idea about Nathaniel's family of origin. What I would love to find out is who Nathaniel's father was.

According to his death certificate, Nathaniel was born 19 Feb. 1839. This is not sure since the 1900 Census lists the year as 1843. The death certificate says he was born in Kentucky, although census records say different at times. (No town names are ever mentinoed). He died in Memphis, Missouri.

The census records are a mystery. I have been unable to locate him for sure prior to 1870. I know that 2 of his wives names were Sarah, and the names of his children. That is how I am able to say for sure in 1870 that it is my Nathaniel.

1840 Federal Census

I haven't done much here becuase the only named individuals are heads of households, and I don't know Nathaniel's father's name.

1850 Federal Census: Illinois>Hancock>Warsaw Ward 1>page 21

Thomas Shelton, age 36

Marena Shelton, age 25

Nathaniel Shelton, age 12

Nancy E. Shelton, age 7

Stephen Shelton, age 1

This may be him--I don't know for sure. One of my problems is that I don't know his father's name. His death certificate names a "Samuel Shelton" from Kentucky as his father. His widow was the informant on the record, so she may not really know herself.

1860 Federal Census: Illinois>Hancock>Warsaw Ward 1>page 21

Thomas Shelton, age 45, teamster, born in Kentucky

Angeline Shelton, age 29, born in Tennesee

Nathaniel Shelton, age 21, farm laborer, born in Tennesee (actually used " beneath Angeline)

Nancy Shelton, age 15, born in Illinois

Martha E. Shelton, age 9, born in Illinois.

Oh how I wish they asked about relationships in these early records!!

1870 Federal Census: Illinois>Hancock>Township 4, Range 9>Page 4

Nathan Shelton, age 27, born in Illinois, farm hand

Sarah Ann, 22, born in Indiana, keeping house

Cora, 6/12, born in Illinois.

The ages are a bit off here for Nathaniel. If the 1860 Nathaniel were the same as this one, he would be about 31, not 27. But look 10 years later...

1880 Federal Census: Missouri>Scotland>Union>District 87>Page 15

Nathaniel, 35, farmer, born in Indiana, fathers birthplace Kentucky, mother's birthplace Germany

Sarah Shelton, 24, born in Iowa, father and mother born in Virginia

Cora Shelton, 11

Thomas Shelton, 6

Viola Shelton, 2

Kate Brown, 18, boarder, domestic servant

Now Nathaniel is listed as being 35. He should be either 41 or 37!

I know all the reasons why there could be errors here (uninformed informant, human errors, etc).

I do know that the 1870 and the 1880 Nathaniel's are the same person since I do have compiled family records from his wife Sarah Deen Shelton's side of the family, which has the same names of the children.

Also, this is the first time we see anything about a foreign born mother. Interesting....

1890 Federal Census: Veteran's Schedules

Nathaniel is listed here as a Civil War veteran. This confirms other military records I have. Unfortunately, the 1890 census records are largely lost.

1900 Federal Census: Missouri>Scotland>Union>District 149> Page 11

Shelton, Nathan, born 1843, age 57, born in Indiana, Father born in KY, mother in Penn.

Sarah F. Shelton, 1855, age 44, mother of 9, 7 still living born in Iowa, parents birthplaces unknown

Hettie S. Shelton, age 18

Molly Shelton, age 16

Ira Shelton, age 12

Samuel Shelton, age 10

Bennie Shelton, age 5

Ruth L. Shelton, age 1

Some thoughts on this one, the age would match up with the 1870 census. However, it doesn't jive with the 1850 record (assuming it is the same Nathaniel) If he was 57 in 1900, he would have been 7 in 1850....not 12. If he was 7 in 1850, Marena (who was then age 25), could certainly be his mother, having borne him at age 18.

Also, a German born mother, or one born in Pennsylania? There were a lot of German immigrants in Pennsylvania. Could be one or the other. But again, I have NO clue about Nathaniel's parentage. Does Marena sound German? Could be...

1910 Federal Census: Missouri>Scotland>Mt. Pleasant>District 154>page 13

Nathaniel S. Shleton, age 68, married 3x, born in Indiana, Father born in KY, mother in Penn, farmer.

Sarah F. Shelton, age 55, married 2x, mother of 10 children, 7 still living, born in Iowa, parents born in VA

Samuel Shelton, age 19, born in Missouri, father born in Indiana, mother born in Iowa

John B. Shelton, age 14, born in Missouri, father born in Indiana, mother born in Iowa

Ruth Lu Shelton, age 10, born in Missouri, father born in Indiana, mother born in Iowa

Nathaniel died on May 19, 1915 in Memphis, MO at the age of 76 (maybe). The informant on the death certificate was his wife of 35 years, Sarah. Information she gave about her husband for the certificate:

Date of birth 19 Feb 1839
His occupation was a teamster. (Strange since census records all say farmer)
His birthplace was Kentucky (again, census records all say Indiana, except 1870, which says Illinois)
His father's name was Samuel Shelton (first time we see this name)
No birthplace of father or mother is listed, nor is mother's maiden name filled out.

After writing this over the past few hours are re-examining the census records, I've come to one hypothesis: Nathaniel's father was Thomas, his mother Marena. He was born in 1843. Thomas was born in KY, Marena in either Germany, or in Pennsyvania of German ancestry.

Of course, this all could be completely wrong. I suppose I now need to start researching Thomas Shelton (and Shelton's in general) in Kentucky??

My head is getting sore!

Monday Memory - The Summer Vacation, Getting to Idaho

2009-08-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

It's Monday and I'm in a reminiscent mood. So here are a few "lines" about the family:

I was lucky to have both sets of grandparents live in the same small town in Idaho. Fruitland, Idaho, in Payette County. As a kid, our summer vacation consisted of driving 2 days from Southern California up to see Grandparents and other relatives who lived in the area. The cars I remember us making the trek in included: a 1968 blue Volkswagen beetle; a white Chevy station wagon with blue & white checkered curtains that mom made to cover the back windows; a blue Volkswagen bus when the family got larger; and in the end, a 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan. With the minivan came the first air conditioned vehicle. By then, I was nearly out of High School, so I wasn't always going on those family summer trips.

We would usually set out at the crack of dawn (sometimes before) from our home in Rowland Heights. We would drive a couple hours and have breakfast at this casino restaurant in Adelanto, a tiny junction town in the desert. From there we would charge onwards. I remember stopping for lunch at Bishop, California and going to a restaurant called Hobo Joe's. It's funny how I remember the restaurants...but it was one of the few times we would get to eat out during the year! From Bishop, we headed towards Nevada.

The road seemed to go on forever. Us kids would either nap or have books or games to keep us busy. When there was a town ahead, we all would look up with eager anticipation to see something other than desert. Often the "town" consisted of a dumpy gas station and a few ramshackle buildings! Luckily, the law didn't require seat belts for kids, so we were able to lay down and stretch out.

If we were lucky, we would stop in a town called Hawthorne, Nevada, and stay at a motel for the night. If we were REALLY lucky, that motel would have a swimming pool! Sometimes, dad would push it and try to get to the next town. Sometimes, we would end up driving straight through to Idaho! When we did stop in Hawthorne, we often stayed in a Best Western that was right across the street from the "El Capitan" casino. The motel would give mom and dad a couple rolls of nickels and in the evening they would go play the nickel slots for awhile. Being the oldest, I was "in charge" back in the room. I'm certain I never abused my power. Mom and Dad would come back after having run through the nickel rolls and I remember a time or two them having "Club" cocktails in the room while we kids watched TV.

The next morning, we would have breakfast in the casino restaurant. Then it was on to Idaho! It was always exciting on the second day, because we knew we would get to Grandmas house that day. The car ride could get very long for a kid. I did a lot of napping on those trips. Once it was so hot (we were in the VW bus) that I remember taking a cup of water that I was drinking and throwing it in my own face. We would stop for lunch at Winnemucca, Nevada, usually at the A&W Root Beer fast food joint. Nothing could slow us down too much. That is, if we didn't run into car trouble. I remember a trip or two being grounded for awhile waiting for dad to magically get the car going again. When we hit Jordan Valley, Oregon, we knew we were close. It was hard not to want to drive faster, but the tiny town was known as a speed trap. Or at least, one very persistent sheriff with a radar gun. It had a reputation with us, at least, and kept dad under the speed limit.

Fruitland, Idaho is right next to the border with Ontario, Oregon. I thought it was strange but kind of neat that all the shopping was done in Oregon. When I was older, I learned that there was no sales tax in Oregon. Besides, there wasn't much in the way of commercial stores in Fruitland. To get to Ontario, you would have to drive past "Gay Way" junction, home of the pink "Gay Way" bowling alley. It was painted on the broad side of the building "GAY WAY BOWL." I learned later on that my Grandfather actually named the place after his daughter was born, back in the days when gay meant "happy."

We would stop at Grandma & Grandpa Graham's first and unload. We stayed there overnights because they had a bigger house with beds for everyone. After we had unloaded, we would head over to Grandma & Grandpa Osgood's to say hello. It felt so good to know we were out of the car, which had become dirty and just smelled like the road! Stepping out of the car for the first time and breathing in the smell of the Idaho country air was wonderful. Warm and clean, with a hint of mint in the air. It was great to know that we were at the beginning of a fun time in Idaho.

Getting my surnames out there

2009-08-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

I've been seriously hooked on family history since January 2009. I had a mild interest in it before, since I've always enjoyed history. I love historical fiction, where I can read and learn about history through fictional characters being in the context of a larger historical event. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that researching my own family history personalizes this long-enjoyed genre for me. Rather than fictional characters, it is my ancestors and family members who lived through historical events!

Two straws broke the camel's back during Christmas 2008. One was a book my mom got for all us kids: "Born Fighting. How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" by Jim Webb. As I was reading, I recalled a document my Grandma had given me about 25 years ago about the history of the family. I pulled it out and compared it with the book....and it was parallel! From Scotland, to Northern Ireland, to Southwest Virginia and then moving out to the Missouri frontier....my Graham's had very similar experiences to the rest of the Scots-Irish described in the book. For the first time, I can say I really felt an ethnic identity. Having been in America for so long, its nice to know we are something other than "White" or "Caucasian." We are Scots-Irish, and boy do we have the traits to prove it! (Maybe that will be a post later, subject to the permission from the clan.)

The other straw was courtesy of an aunt on my mom's side of the family. She had done some research and found some letters written by my great-great grandfather, Jesse Clark Osgood, during the Civil War. She found out he had enlisted in the 26th Massachusetts infantry. Four of his letters home are held in the Louisiana State Library. She managed to get copies from the library and transcribed them for the family. What a treasure! I've always been particularly interested in the Civil War, so to have an ancestor put there was a thrill.

Then I realized....Jesse was not the only one! Anyone alive during those years was touched by the conflict. I wonder how? It was over. I became a family historian.

In my never-ending quest to learn about the methods of genealogy research, I subscribed to a few podcasts for ideas and inspiration. In one of them, Family History: Geneaology Made Easy, the pocaster (Lisa Louise Cooke) has been encouraging her audience to get into the blogosphere. So here I am! I don't know if I have that much that is of interest to others, but I would love to get the surnames out there that I am researching so I can break down some brick walls and connect with some other researchers looking

into the same family lines that I am. Perhaps we each hold the piece of the puzzle for one another! I'm very happy to share research and collaborate on this fascinating subject!

So....to get my surnames out there and as an introduction to everyone out there, I'm on the constant hunt for the following:

Jamois (my husband's family in France)
Graham (Idaho, Missouri, Wythe County, Virginia, County Down, Ireland)
Osgood (Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire)
Partridge (Kansas, Illinois, New York)
Palmer (Kansas, England)
Hamilton (Illinois, Massachusetts)
Clark (Massachusetts)
Shipp (Missouri, Tennesee)
Dutton (Idaho, N. Dakota, Wisconsin, New York)
Floyd (W. Virginia)
Shelton (Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky)
Deen (Missouri, Iowa, Virginia)
Freeman (not sure where yet)
Roop (Missouri, Maryland, Germany)
Royer
Fox (Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky)
Sampson (Kansas, Indiana, Virginia)
Kline/Klein (Kansas, Ohio, Germany/Prussia)
Fordyce (Kansas, Ohio, New Jersey)
Collins (Kansas, Virginia)
Speir (Kansas and beyond)