October . . . 'Tis the Season!

Yes, it's October and yes 'tis the Halloween season.  But did you know it is also National Family History Month? In 2001, Congress acknowledged the month of October as Family History Month and it has been observed annually for almost twenty years.

So what do Halloween and National Family History Month have in common?  Maybe a few "skeletons in the closet?"

Let me relate a "spooktacular" story I uncovered in the family tree of one of my clients.  The discovery and its timing makes the perfect Halloween tale.

Thomas Cornell and his wife Rebecca Briggs Cornell  were married in 1620 and left for the Americas in the late 1630's where he  became an innkeeper in Boston for a short period of time.  In 1643, they left the Massachusetts Bay Colony for Rhode Island, where Thomas became acquainted with Roger Williams  where he eventually settled in Portsmouth and obtained a 100 acre land grant known as the Cornell Homestead.  Thomas and his wife Rebecca lived there until his death in 1655.  His son Thomas Jr. and family lived with the widow Rebecca as he had not received an inheritance upon his father's death.

On a wintry day in February in 1673, the son Thomas and his family were dining in one room, Rebecca's charred body was lying in her bedroom.  No one heard her cry out or said anything. It appeared his mother had been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire or her pipe, and she was burned to death.  However, it was inferred that she was set fire to and that her son was the last one to see her alive.  The townspeople knew they did not get along well.  He resented her for holding onto his inheritance.  Thomas was found guilty of murdering his mother and was hanged for it on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death and said: ‘See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred that she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it.  On this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder. A local record of the account stated, "Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land." On May 23 her son Thomas was charged with murder. 

You can read the whole story  in the book "Killed Strangely: The Story of Rebecca Cornell," by Elaine Forham Crane. Excerpts from the story follow.

Killed Strangely:  The Death of Rebecca Cornell

 It was Rebecca's son, Thomas, who first realized the victim's identity. His eyes were drawn to the victim's head, and aided by the flickering light of a candle, he 'clapt his hands and cryed out, Oh Lord, it is my mother.' James Moills, a servant of Cornell... described Rebecca 'lying on the floore, with fire about Her, from her Lower parts neare to the Armepits.' He recognized her only 'by her shoes.'"

On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narragansett Bay, Rebecca shared her home with Thomas and his family, a servant, and a lodger. A coroner's panel initially declared her death "an Unhappie Accident," but before summer arrived, a dark web of events—rumors of domestic abuse, allusions to witchcraft, even the testimony of Rebecca's ghost through her brother—resulted in Thomas's trial for matricide.


Adding even more suspense to this mystery murder is the fact that a descendant of this Cornell line was none other than the infamous Lizzie Borden, accused axe murderer, and sixth great grandchild of Thomas Cornell, Sr.!

So what kind of skeletons in the closet might you find? Maybe, just maybe, you might have a "bat in the belfry" or even worse!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! (Newspapers.com)

Recently, while doing a huge research project,  I decided to try out a week long trial for the website newspapers.com.  It was a smart move.  I was able to find so many newspaper articles pertaining to the people I was researching.  I suggest to anyone doing research in the 19th or 20th century to try it out.  There are fun stories about  people if they lived in a small town, there are obituaries that give clues for further research, and there are other articles which help add to your quest for finding out more about your ancestors. 

My own personal experience with newspapers.com and how it helped me find out more information about a person I was researching follows.

Frank Levy was born in the mid 1840s in Bohemia.  He and his wife Mary were in the 1870 Census of Braidwood, Illinois, a mining town outside of Chicago, Illinois.  In 1885, they were living in Saunders County, Nebraska.  It was common for miners to farm somewhere during certain times of the year and live elsewhere to work in the mines during certain times of the year.  This was the case with Frank Levy.  In the 1900 Census, I found his wife Mary, a widow, living with her two youngest children in Nebraska.  There had been a fifteen year lapse between the two census records, so I assumed Frank had died in Nebraska sometime during that time period.  I could not find a death record nor could I find a cemetery record.  However, after doing a search for Frank Levy using my trial subscription of newspapers.com, I found out the real story of what happened to Frank Levy.

In a local newspaper for Saunders County, Nebraska, I saw a short clip of information from published court cases.  This article was dated in the fall of 1894.  It read:

"Frank and John Levy vs. Mary Levy . . . involving distribution of property following . . . a                               separation of Frank and Mary Levy.

Then, another search, from the Chicago Tribune, in February 1895:

"Frank Levy because of domestic trouble . . .  Levy has a wife in Nebraska, with whom he has not lived for eight years.”  This same article proceeds to describe Frank’s attempted suicide which led to his death. 

So Frank did, in fact, pass away between 1885 and 1900, but it was on different terms (separation from his wife for several years) and it was in a different city and state.  

But the research didn't stop here.  The same newspaper article mentions that Frank was living with his sister Josephine Schneider.  That tidbit led to finding the names of his sister plus two brothers, all living in Chicago, as well as the names of his parents!

From two newspaper articles found on newspapers.com, I was able to search additional records and was able to find a death date, a death place, and additional family members for Frank Levy.

So when I "read all about it, " I found "extra, extra" information about Frank Levy.  You, too, should give newspapers.com a try.

Missing Margaret

It is always a challenge to search for a missing person.  Recently, while researching a family, a young mother passed away, in 1926, leaving behind her widower and four children.  The obituary named the four children:  Madeline, Margaret, Benjamin, and Michael.  By 1930, her husband Michael had remarried; however, Madeline, Benjamin, and Michael were the only children living with her widowed husband and his second wife.  Where did Margaret go?  My first thought was that she had passed away between 1926 and 1930.  But I could not find a death record.  Madeline's death occurred shortly after the census was taken in 1930.  Both  Benjamin and Michael went on to marry and died in their old age.  But there was no trace of Margaret living in town with relatives or another family.

Then, I found a 1947 marriage record for Margaret Long who married Edward J. Walter.  The marriage record listed her parents--Josephine and Michael--but with their surname not the surname of Long.  Had she married someone by the last name of Long or had she been adopted?  Then, I remembered that Josephine had a Grandmother Tillie who had married a Long (her third marriage) and Josephine also had an older sister who married a Long who happened to be the stepson of her Grandmother Tillie.

Further research showed Grandma Tillie living with her granddaughter Mary and stepson Ferdinand Long who was Mary's husband.  The census record listed the children of Mary and Ferdinand.  Two of the children were the same age with the names Phillip and Margaret, age eight.  Were they twins?  Or could Margaret possibly be the Margaret Long of the 1947 marriage record.

My theory is that after the death of Mary's sister, Josephine, she "adopted" or perhaps became the guardian of Margaret and so her name was listed as Margaret Long in the census.  Or the census taker may have assumed her last name was Long because she lived in the Long household.  I believe "Missing Margaret" had been found!  But I may never find the answer to the question, "Why was Margaret the only child that appears to have been "farmed" out after the death of Josephine.  After all, she was the second oldest of the children and it would seem that out of the four children, the baby would have been the most likely to have been adopted by a family member.

Unraveling Unsolved Mysteries

In the obituary of Matthew John Pischke, it stated that his parents were  Elizabeth and John Stewart.  However, his older sibling, Christopher Pischke, who is also mentioned in the obituary, was the son of Lawrence and Elizabeth Smith Pischke (Obituary of Elizabeth Pischke Stewart). By reviewing these two obituaries, it was puzzling that it appeared that Matthew and Chris had two different sets of parents although they shared the same surname.  The mystery was: Why was Matthew's surname listed as Pischke if he was the son of John Stewart?

First,  I found that Lawrence Pischke, Chris' father,  died in June 1957 from a fall in the Grand Canyon, leaving his wife Elizabeth, a widow, at the age of 37.  Two years later, an affidavit for a marriage license, dated in July 1959, for  Elizabeth Pischke to John Herbert Stewart, resolved some of the dilemma.  Matthew was born in November 1960--about 18 months after the marriage which verifies the fact that his parents were John and Elizabeth Stewart.  So why was his last name listed as Pischke instead of Stewart? Even as early as 1977, when Matt was 17, I found him in a Coronado High School yearbook listed as Matt Pischke.

Further investigation into the life of John H. Stewart after Matthew's birth might shed some more light on the subject.  Mention of  Matthew, but no mention of Matthew's other siblings (who were the stepsons of John Stewart) nor his wife Elizabeth was made in the 1987 Florida obituary of John H. Stewart.  Other children were listed in the obituary but none were the children of Elizabeth Pischke Stewart.  This was a clue that the Stewarts may have divorced early on in the marriage.  Elizabeth's Stuart's obituary, dated in 1993, implied that she had been living in Arizona for a time, and no mention of former husbands was made.

The obituary for John Stewart stated that he had moved to Florida from the state of Vermont in 1970.  .  Further research showed that in December 1962, John married Wanda Ann Johnston in Clark County, Nevada.  He was separated from her in 1967 and had two children during the five years of marriage.  John and Wanda's divorce was finalized  in  1972.  Her residence was listed as Manchester, Bennington, Vermont and his was listed in Florida, where, according to his obituary he had lived since 1970 since his move from Vermont.  From this information, it appears that the marriage of John to Elizabeth Pischke lasted from the summer of 1959 and was over by December 1962 when Matthew was only two years old.  Therefore, at the time of his divorce, his mother may have decided to have him use  the name of Pischke, although she kept her married name of Stewart.  After looking at the Social Security Death Index, hoping to find Matthew's legal surname, there was no Social Security information listed under the name Matthew Pischke nor Matthew Stewart.

The marriage record of John to Wanda indicated that he had been married twice before, with the death of one wife and the divorce of another.  The Phoenix City Directory listed John H. Stewart married to Florence from about 1947 through 1957 at which time Florence must have passed away.  The second marriage, to Elizabeth Pischke, would have been the marriage that ended in divorce.  The two children by the third marriage were probably a son John living in Virginia and a daughter Tammy, living in Vermont, mentioned in the obituary; however, two additional daughters, Jennifer and Megan Stewart, living in Florida, were also mentioned in the obituary.  Matthew's obituary mentioned that he was survived by two step siblings, Tammy Collins and Chip Brewster.  Was Chip Brewster the same person as the son "John" mentioned in the obituary of John H. Stewart?  Another surname mystery to be resolved!  However, another search revealed  delayed Vermont birth registrations in the mid 1970's for  a Tammy Stewart Webster (born 1966) and a John Howard Webster (born 1964)with parents listed as Wanda Ann Johnston and Roger Webster.  They were both probably the two children from John Stewart's third marriage and apparently legally adopted by Frederick Webster, thereby taking the name of Webster rather than Stewart  The next question was:  Who were Jennifer and Megan Stewart?

Looking in the Florida records, there was a marriage in April 1974 of John H. Stewart to Beverly J. Maffei with a divorce recorded in November 1978.  It is my guess that during the four years of marriage, it was possible that they had the two girls, Jennifer and Megan Stewart, who, by the time of John's death in 1987, would have been under age because the obituary does not list a married name.  Tammy Stewart, his other daughter, had not married by 1987 but had the married name Collins by 2012 at the time of Matthew's death.

Unraveling the Unsolved Mystery of Matthew John Pischke's surname by researching his father John H. Stewart revealed several marriages, divorces, and children.   Then it all began to make more sense. The statement in Matthew Pischke's obituary:  ". . . was born at St. Joseph's hospital in Phoenix, AZ on November 14, 1960 to Elizabeth and John Stewart" was finally resolved!

This research project depicts several surname variations, whether legally or for convenience, and causes additional complications for the genealogy researcher.

The Pickle Family: A Big Dill!

If you aren't familiar with googling on the internet,  then you are really missing out- on an especially valuable family history research tool.  To put this statement to the test, I chose one of my husband's ancestors , whom we knew very little about.  The ancestor caught my eye because of his unusual name:  Baltus Pickle.  Below are five separate findings from a google search:

1.  Some basic information on the Pickle surname:

In the late 1720s, the Pickel family settled in areas of Hunterdon County, including Readington and Whitehouse. Descendents of the Pickels still reside in Hunterdon County. . . .  ancestor, Johan Balthazar Pickel, coming to the United States from Germany.. . . Pickel, Pickell or Pickle, it was all in the family." 


2.  Specific family history on Baltus Pickle:

Transcribed from the MILLER - MOOK FAMILY HISTORY written by Larry & Judy Miller - 2005:
"Somerset County, New Jersey was the location of the birth of Baltes Pickel II on December 8, 1723 to Baltes Johan Balthazar Pickel I and Anna Gertrude (Charity) Reiterin. Sophia (Phidia) Van Horne became his wife on November 10, 1746 in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey.
We don't have a lot of information on this family. We do know that Sophia (Phidia) died May 17, 1764. Baltes was said to have married Anna Gerhart after Sophia died and had three more children with Anna. Baltes died November 25, 1786 in Germantown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He is buried in the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery in [New]Germantown (now Oldwick), New Jersey. It has been said he is buried near his parents. When the church was expanded they moved the headstones but not the bodies to a new location in the cemetery. Therefore, Baltes Johan Balthazar and Anna (Charity) Pickel still lie beneath the new addition of the Zion Lutheran Church. "

Balthazar (Baltis) Pickel The following comes from pages 95 and 96 of the 1957 reprint of "Traditions of Hunterdon" by Lequear. It was originally published in 1869-70. 
"Baltis Pickel, son of the first Baltis, was born in 1720 ten years after his father and mother came to America. He grew up amid the first experience of the colony and knew all of its sufferings. When he accumulated property, after his father's death he gave $100 to the church. He was an active member, and his handwriting appears in different places upon the old church record. It is a fair, bold hand, such as the best business man might be proud to imitate. The Lutherans have always been liberal educators, for education is a part of their religion. It was because the Roman church then refused the Bible to the people that Martin Luther cut loose from them and spread the gospel over the world. When Baltis Pickel died, he was buried at the foot of his father's grave, and his wife, 'Suffah,' was buried there beside him."

3.  A search of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church from the previous search where I found that Baltus Pickle was a member of this particular church:

Most of the charter members of the Zion Lutheran Church were from the Palatinate area of Germany near the Rhine River.  They had fled their homeland and its long series of wars and severe tax burdens for the promise of America's colonies.  In 1710, over 2,000 Palatinates were resettled in the Hudson Valley.  When their intended work project failed, most of them sought prospects elsewhere.  Some came into the Raritan Valley of New Jersey.

4. And two other google searches of the church:

New Jersey's Oldest Lutheran Congregation's first service was conducted on August 1, 1714.  Baltes Pickel, who attended the first service, built the first church and contributed generously to construction of the current church in 1749.

Johann Balthazar Pickel (1687-1765). He was christened on 2 September 1687 in Bad Durkheim, Pfalz Bayern, Germany, as the son of Hans Balthazar Bickel and his wife Anna Eva; the sponsors names are unreadable in the record. He died on 5 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Johann Balthazar Pickel and Anna Gertrude Reiterin were married on 16 August 1718 in the Lutheran Church on Staten Island, New York, by Rev. Rosscher, recorded by Rev. Justus Falckner. Anna Gertrude Reiterin was born in 1694 in Germany, and died on 4 December 1761 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Early services of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hunterdon County, New Jersey were held in the home of Baltus Pickel. He built at his own expense the Racheway Church (located today at Potterstown) in 1729 and the Leslysland Church about 1735. In 1749, when the Zion Lutheran Church was built at Oldwick, Baltes Pickel contributed money to its constructiion. In his will of 1765 he bequeathed the Zion church 1000 pounds.

Now this last search was a big "dill" to me.  I was able to go back one generation further because it listed the names of Baltus Pickle's grandparents!  Not only can I add these names to the family tree, but I also know a little more about the Pickle family history.  Try your own google search by typing in the name of your ancestor, using quotation marks around the name and then adding a location.  You never know what you may find.  

The Coverup

Most obituaries, at least those from long ago, were a mini-version of a person's life story.  Husbands, wives, and children and sometimes dates were quite often mentioned.  However, the following example from research I did a few years ago proves otherwise.  Don't take what you read in an obituary as proof for all of the facts in a person's life.  Read it, use it,  but delve deeper to verify the details  before making any assumptions.

The example:

Reuel Glen Crandall, born in 1893 in Iowa, was living in Casper, Wyoming prior to World War I. 

An article in the December 1917 edition of the Casper Record newspaper is a source document for his marriage to Doris Bruce.

Rev J. J. Gibbs Wednesday night united in marriage Glen Crandall, popular employee of the Caspar Pharmacy, and Miss Doris Bruce, formerly a stenographer for the Binghenheimer Lumber Company.  The young couple left immediately for Denver, where they will enjoy a brief honeymoon, returning to Casper to make their home.

Doris and Glen were living in Manville, Wyoming by 1920 where he had a cleaning business.  In November 1921, their daughter, Helen was born (obituary).  Helen's obituary indicates that her parents were Doris and Carl Schmidt with no mention of Reuel Glen Crandall as her father.  A birth certificate would be proof of her parentage; but in all likelihood, being that her parents were in the 1920 census and she was born in 1921, it appears that Reuel Crandall was her father.

By 1930  Reuel Crandall, residing in Casper, was listed in the census as single.  In the column "age at first marriage" there was no entry written, which would imply that he had not married.  Although his marital status should have been listed as divorced and his age at first marriage should have been 24, for whatever reason he made no claim to having been married.  One can assume he divorced between 1921, when his daughter Helen was born , and 1930 when he was listed in the 1930 Census living by himself. 

 Doris, on the other hand,  married on April 21, 1929 in South Dakota.  South Dakota school records as well as her obituary,  show Helen, her daughter, using the last name of Schmidt, the surname of her stepfather.  Although her obituary states that she was the daughter of Doris and Carl Schmidt, the 1940 Census proves that Helen was the adopted daughter of Carl because it states "adopted daughter" in the relationship column.

Doris Schmidt's obituary mentions  her move to Casper where she graduated from high school, skips her marriage to Reuel Crandall,  and then mentions her marriage to Carl Schmidt at Yankton, South Dakota. 

It appears that, for whatever reason, neither Reuel or Doris wanted to reveal their marriage after the 1920 census record nor in the two obituary records of Doris and her daughter Helen.  Various newspaper articles, including the one stating their marriage, and the 1920 Census are the only sources that reveal their marital relationship even though all indications in the two obituaries point to Carl Schmidt as the only husband of Doris and the father of Helen.

It was all just a "cover up" for a probable bitter divorce, so don't use an obituary as absolute truth!

Hattie and Hilda: Sisters?

During the fall, I started a new research project and began researching my granddaughter's maternal line which is Italian and English ancestry.  While researching her English line, I came across the following post:

              HELGERSON
              Looking for anything on the following families: James FAIRHURST and Hilda                                   HELGERSON of Dell Rapids. (Hilda d. 1985.) Andrew LARSON and Hattie Helgerson.                     (Hilda and Hattie were sisters.) (Brian Gaber, hodag@t-online.de)

Hilda Helgerson is my granddaughter's great, great, great grandmother.  I found seven siblings for Hilda and their birth records listed in the South Dakota Birth Index, 1856-1917, with Peter and "Dena" Helgerson as the parents.  There was no daughter by the name of Hattie Helgerson listed.  I was determined to find Hattie so that there would not be an unaccounted for child in the Helgerson family!

Later, I found a Hattie Larson, wife of Andrew Larson, who is the person listed in the description above.  Hattie was born in January 1856 in Norway, married Andrew Larson in 1890 (according to the 1900 Census), and had one child who had died previous to 1900.  I also found Hattie in the 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1930, and 1935 census records.  She was tied to the Helgerson family in three of the census records, 1910, 1920 and 1930.

In the 1910 Census Minnie Helgerson, age 14, was living with Hattie and Andrew Larson and was listed as their "adopted" daughter.  Hilda had a younger sister named Minnie Helgerson who was born  in 1896.  Hilda and Minnie's parents lived a few doors down from the Larson residence in Dell Rapids, South Dakota.  The Helgersons had seven of their eight children living with them in 1910, including a duplicate listing for Minnie Helgerson born in 1896.  This was the first connection between the Larson family and the Helgerson family.

By 1920, Henry Helgerson, Hilda's younger brother, was living with Andrew and Hattie and was listed as a "nephew".   If Henry was the nephew, then Hattie would be his mother's (or father's) sister.  However, ten years later, the 1930 Census shows Hattie living with Peter and Dena Helgerson,  and she is listed as "mother-in-law" of Peter Helgerson, which would mean that she was the mother of Dena Helgerson, born in 1863.  Since Hattie was born in 1856 and Dena was born in 1863, Hattie was seven years old when she gave birth to Dena--an impossibility!  It is much more likely that they were sisters as was the case in the 1920 Census where Hattie was listed as an aunt to Henry Helgerson.

Hattie and Dena came to the United States, the former in 1885 and the latter in 1887,  prior to their marriages in 1890, according to the census records.  I was unable to locate either one in immigration records using the last name of Amundson.  However, in a history written by Brian Gaber, he indicated that Dena immigrated to the U.S. in 1887.

It appears that Hattie and Dena were sisters which would make Henry Helgerson a nephew and Hattie, a sister-in-law, not a mother-in-law, to Peter Helgerson.  "Adopting" Minnie Helgerson in 1910 was probably not an official adoption but rather a common tradition where family members lived with extended family for one reason or another, as was the case with Henry Helgerson living with Hattie and Andrew in 1920. Because Hattie had lost her only child, born in 1896 and who had died by 1900, it is very likely she would have taken in nieces or nephews from time to time.

In a family history written by Brian Gaber, there is an entry listed as follows:

HerborgAmundsdatter Instanes, born 1854 in Instanes, Kinsarvik, Søndre Bergenhuus,Norway51; died in Dell Rapids, Minnehaha Co., SD; marriedAndrew Larsen

Notes for HerborgAmundsdatter Instanes:

Emigration lists forBergen, Norway, 1874 - 1924; Record #1426:

Herborg AmmundsdatterIndstanaes, born 1855, registered 29 Jun 1885, Svenska Line

Dena Amundson or Amundsdatter is listed later in this same history as the sister to Herborg.
It appears that Herborg Amundsdatter Instanes could be the Hattie Larson listed in the previously mentioned census records.  The name Herborg may have been Americanized to Hattie.  Arrival in the United States as well as the name of her spouse matches the census record information, although the birth date of 1854 does not.  There is a Herborg Ommundsdatter born on January 10, 1854 in Norway baptisms, although the 1900 Census for Hattie Larsen states that Hattie was born in January 1856.  It is still most likely that Herborg Amundsdatter is "Hattie Larson" sister to Dena Amundson Helgerson.


Therefore, the statement by Brian Gaber that Hattie and Hilda were sisters is incorrect.  Hattie was a sister of Dena, not a sister of Hilda Helgerson.

New Title:  Hattie and Hilda:  Aunt and Niece!