The "Gift" of Indexing

Both a Receiver and a Giver

For almost two years I have served as a volunteer for Family Search doing "indexing" which means I look at a digital copy of an original record and then "transcribe" the information onto an online form which is then used to make "indexes" for people to use in  research.

The reason why I decided to volunteer as an indexer is because I have been grateful that I have been the recipient for so many years of records that others have "indexed" for me and others to use and decided it was my turn to be a "Giver."  Without their efforts, I wouldn't have been able to obtain so much information and in such an easily accessible manner.  Either records were not available or the microfilms had to be ordered and then searched.  With indexing efforts, it takes just moments to do a search!

At this season of the year, as we think of giving, I decided that it would be appropriate to share my gratitude as a recipient of family history records by reciprocating and making records available for others by doing indexing.  I plan to continue to do this volunteer work and find great satisfaction in providing a way for others to find records of their ancestors.

Over the past two years, I have indexed a variety of records:  Oklahoma school records, marriage records, World War I and II records, veteran's burial records, obituaries, etc.  for different parts of the United States and for different  time periods.  It has been an interesting endeavor!

Anyone can do indexing.  Just go to this website:  https://familysearch.org/indexing/get-started-indexer#/desktop and  GET STARTED!

Background of Family Search Indexing Project:

Since 1921, indexing has been essential to making records available, but in the last 7 years, the digital revolution has made it easier for everyone everywhere to participate.

FamilySearch indexing is a volunteer transcription effort that makes valuable genealogical records freely searchable online. Since FamilySearch indexing began in 2006, this unprecedented crowd sourcing effort has produced more than one billion searchable records.

Hundreds of thousands of volunteer indexers have participated from around the world. Through this selfless effort, millions of people worldwide have found information and discovered stories about their ancestors.

More about Indexing

The project aims to create searchable digital indexes for scanned images of historical documents.The documents are drawn primarily from a collection of over a billion photographic images of historical documents from 110 countries and principalities. They include census records, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, military and property records, and other vital records maintained by local, state, and national governments. However, to access the billions of names that appear on these images, indexes are needed to be able to search them efficiently.

Volunteers install proprietary software available at no cost on their home computers, download images 

from the site, type the data they read from the image via the software, and submit their work back to the 

site. The data is eventually made publicly and freely available at Family History Centers or at 

the FamilySearch website for use in genealogical and family history research. FamilySearch anticipates 

that the number of names and associated genealogical data indexed is expected to accelerate as more 

people volunteer to index.

Documents Vs. Reality

I taught a class last month to the Family History Society of Arizona, Glendale Chapter on the subject of personalizing your family history by writing narratives of our ancestors based on documents we find for them.  I gave them a homework assignment to write a one page narrative, so I took it upon myself to do the assignment as well.

The outcome of the assignment just goes to show that documents we find in research follow very closely what happened in real life.  I researched my husband's great, great grandfather, Jesse Reuben Kemsley, and found several documents which I then used to write a  narrative.  The completed assignment is as follows:

The Documents:

Jesse Kemsley, son of Jesse and Martha Ann Kemsley, was born in 1857 in Boxley, Kent, England

and christened there on September 13, 1857.  Boxley is located in the Maidstone District of Kent County,  England, about two miles northeast of Maidstone and lies below the slope of the North Downs (a ridge of chalk hills in southeastern England).

Jesse lived in England until he left in 1875 for the United States during the agricultural drought. His mother had died before 1861 at which time he was living in Boxley with his widowed father, who was a Farm Bailiff, and his siblings Ellen, Phineas, Lewis, Mark, and Walter.  A farm bailiff was one who

was appointed by a landowner to oversee farming operations.  Ten years later, at the age of

thirteen, Jesse continued living in Boxley and was employed as an agricultural laborer perhaps for his

father who at that time continued his occupation as a Bailiff but was also listed as a shepherd.

Some of his siblings had passed away by this time and only two were living at home with Jesse.

When Jesse was almost eighteen, he left England for New York state and arrived there on July

14, 1875, with his occupation listed as a farmer.  Most likely, shortly after his arrival, he made his way to Onondaga County where he met his future wife, Eliza King, who, in 1875, was living in Van Buren,

Onondaga, New York.  They were married in 1877.  Farming in the area included crops of wheat, corn,

fruit, and tobacco.  The town of Van Buren was located in a valley with several small streams and fertile farm land.

 However, sometime between the Kemsley’s marriage in 1877 and 1880, they left New York state

and were settled in Centerville, Davis, Utah, where Jesse continued his work as a farmer.  At the time of the 1880 census, he was temporarily unable to work because he had the measles as did his young

daughter, Mary.   A short time later, they moved to Sublett, Cassia, Idaho, where several of his children

were born:  Charles, Carrie, Grace, Jesse, and  Amy.   A land purchase was made there on September 23,1890.  In 1877, the area had been settled by Mormons from Tooele, Utah.

 After the death of his wife on July 27, 1897, he married a second time on September 23, 1898, in

Sublett, Cassia, Idaho, to Rebecca J. Argus, a widow, in Sublett, Cassia, Idaho, where they continued to live for a few years until at least 1910 at which time they returned to Utah and were  living in Willard,

Box Elder, Utah.  Jesse was doing general farm work.  A few years later, they returned to Idaho, this time to Twin Falls but by 1920 they returned to Utah again and were living in Ogden at 1214 24^th Street where Jesse worked for the Imperial Cement Company possibly as a janitor--the occupation listed in the Ogden City Directory in 1922.  They remained in Ogden until at least 1925 and probably around this time moved to  Los Angeles where he was employed  a Zoo Watchman, probably for the Griffith Park Zoo which had opened in 1912.  He died there two years later in 1932.

Sources:

England Birth and Christenings

England Birth Registration

1861 Boxley, Kent, England Census

1871 Boxley, Kent, England Census

1875 Van Buren, Onondaga, New York Census

Idaho Birth Index

Idaho County Marriages, 1864-1950

1900 Census of sublet, Cassia, Idaho

1910 Willard, Box Elder, Utah Census

1920 Ogden, Davis, Utah Census

1930 Census of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

U.S. City Directories

Obituary of Eliza Kemsley

Land Deed dated September 23, 1890

Fultonhistory.com

After I completed the assignment, I did a google search with Jesse Reuben Kemsley and three short biographies appeared in the search!  So I did a comparison of what I wrote and what the "reality" was.

A few examples are below and are underlined to show how the reality compares to the  narrative I wrote.

The Realilty

On arriving in New York he learned many people from Kent County lived up near Syracuse so he went up there and found the King and Dapson families.

This explains how Jesse and Eliza met and married.

They left Baldwinville, New York to honeymoon in California to hunt for gold.   On the way, they stopped in Utah to stay with Jesse's uncle and ended up living there for a few years.

The 1880 Census shows the family living in Centerville, Utah.

Jesse built a two room log cabin near Sublett, Idaho.

Both a land document and the 1900 Census show the family living in Sublett.

Eliza Kemsley died in July 1897 leaving seven children, the eighth one was buried with her.  He married Rebecca Jane Jewkes in 1898.

There was a death record for Eliza and a marriage record for Rebecca and Jesse Kemsley.

In later years, he sold out his farm and moved into Ogden.  He moved to California in 1924 after his daughter Pearl died.

The Ogden City Director shows Jesse Kemsley living in Ogden in 1920 and the 1930 census shows him living in California.

The reality matches up with the facts!  It was nice to know how well aligned my narrative assignment compared to the biography written by Jesse's daughter.  The only thing that was incorrect in  my narrative was my assumption that Jesse was a zoo keeper for the Griffith Park Zoo.  In reality he worked for the Zelig Zoo.

I LEARNED THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO WRITE A FAIRLY ACCURATE BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE BASED ON DOCUMENTS.

It's All About That Dash! Personalizing Your Family Research

Finding a Maiden Name: Mission Impossible?

My great grandmother Fanny Sands Butcher was raised by her father and stepmother Philadelphia.  By 1841, Fanny had been married for two years and was not listed in the 1841 census with William and Philadelphia.  In 1851, Philadelphia's mother, Philadelphia Elliot, age 90, was living with William and his wife Philadelphia.  Was Elliot the maiden name of William's wife?  Quite possibly, unless the mother-in-law had been widowed and remarried at some point in time.

There was a marriage record for a William Sands married to a Philadelphia Reader in 1823, a year following the death of William's fist wife.  So was Philadelphia's maiden name Reader and not Elliot?  Or had she been married before?  A "Phillis Elliot" married John Reader in 1812 and a John Reader had died in 1822.  Could that be Philadelphia Reader, a widow, who married William Sands?

A Philadelphia Elliot was born in 1794 to James and Philadelphia Elliot.  So it is quite possible that Philadelphia was married in 1812 to John Reader, at the age of eighteen.  Philadelphia Elliot, the mother, was living with an Alice Reader in the 1841 census.  An Alice Elliot had married a Thomas Reader in 1814.  So Alice was the sister of Philadelphia and their mother lived in both of their households at two separate times.  Both sisters married men by the last name of Reader!  Additionally, in 1851 a Reader family lived next door to the Sands family and were probably relations.

With all of these facts or evidence in mind, I determined that Fanny's stepmother was Philadelphia Elliot Reader Butcher and that Fanny would have been about three years old when her father remarried.  I also found christening records for two sons born to Philadelphia and her first husband, John and James Reader who were ten and eight years of age, at the time of the marriage.  So not only did Fanny have a stepmother but also two stepbrothers.  Her one and only biological brother died as an infant in 1822.

So though it may seem like Mission Impossible when trying to determine a maiden name, sometimes going through the back door or side door leads to a discovery!  At least in this case it did!

It's Official, but Is it Always Right?

Death certificates are one of the most accurate sources of information and are official government documents.  But is the information on those documents always correct?  Human error can happen.  The informant for the death certificate may not know the information or may give information that is not accurate even though they think it is.

Recently, I came across a name on a death certificate that had me wondering how accurate the name was--even though at first I was really excited to have finally found the name of the father of one of the persons I had been researching for a few years.  This is what I came across:

For the past several months, I have been busy writing a family history for my Butcher ancestry of Kent County, England.  One of my great, great aunts was Eliza Butcher born in 1854.  She worked as a house servant in Maidstone, Kent, England during the 1870's.  All of her siblings with the exception of my great grandmother, her older sister,  had left England for Canada or New York state.  In September of 1877. at the age of twenty-three,  Eliza gave birth to a son in Maidstone, England.  The digitized index record  registered his name as "Ernest William A Butcher."  Sometime after his birth, Eliza next shows up in 1880 in Ontario County, New York using the name of Eliza Anderson, although no record of a marriage was found in England.  Family records kept by a great aunt state that Eliza married a "Mr. Andrews" [sic] " and I am assuming the A in her son's name was an abbreviated version for his last name of Anderson.  Ernest Anderson was listed  in the Seneca, Ontario, New York living with his grandparents and was listed as a grandson. Later census records in Canada state his last name as Anderson as well.

When Eliza Butcher aka "Anderson"  married Charles Draper in 1885, the marriage record indicated that she was a spinster.  Looking up the term spinster, I learned that it meant that she had never married.  The  1880 Census also stated that she was single not widowed or divorced.  She probably used the surname Anderson to protect her son and to avoid embarrassment to herself and  her parents.

For a few years, I have tried to find out the name of the father of Ernest Anderson.  Recently, Canaddian death records were indexed and digitized on ancestry.com and I discovered his death certificate which indicated that his father's name was Charles Anderson.  Finally, I had found his father's name and I was pretty excited.

Then, the  more I thought, the more I began to doubt the accuracy of the name.   For this reason, it is better to have more than one record to verify information.  I had tried to verify his father's name on the birth record or a marriage record for his parents, but could not find either.  The informant on the death certificate was Ernest's daughter Rhoda Anderson Evans.  The only grandparents on her father's side that Rhoda, born in 1903, knew were  Charles and Eliza Butcher Draper, although Charles Draper would have been her step grandfather..  Could she have given the name of Charles for Ernest's father and confused his biological father's name with his stepfather's name?  Or was Charles Anderson really the name of Ernest's father? Taking it a step further, I tried to find a "Charles Anderson" in the vicinity of Maidstone, England but nothing turned up during the 1871 time period when Eliza lived in Maidstone.  That doesn't necessarily mean that he would have been from Maidstone or could not have lived there during the 1870's.

Anyone who could shed some light on the subject has long since passed away.  Ernest himself probably never knew or even remembered his father, although it is quite possible he may have told his children his father's name  However, I hesitate to assume that is the case because of the circumstances and the coincidence of the name Charles for both his father and his stepfather, Charles Draper.  Eliza Butcher  Draper could also answer this question but she died in 1916.  Does the father of Ernest even know that Eliza had a son illegitimately by him?

Sometimes, no matter how accurate something may seem, we still  need to question the information and find as many sources as we can to verify information. Sometimes we may never know the truth.

History in a Hospital

Who would think that a hospital record could shed light on the biography of an ancestor--especially if there were no other available records excepting his namee, location, and age

on a few census records?  This was the case with Allen Goodale, a distant relative.

The only biological son of Mary Ann Griffin and Joseph Dwight Goodale was Allen, born in Galland’s Grove on April 10, 1867.[1]  Born mentally handicapped, at the age of three, Allen was labeled “idiot” in the census taker’s notes.  In 1870, an idiot was defined as “. . . a person the development of whose mental faculties was arrested in infancy or childhood.”  Ten years later, he was labeled “idiotic” and “perfectly dumb but not deaf.” Ten years after that, at the age of thirteen, his name appeared on the 1880 Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Class special census.   This particular census provided more details on Allen’s condition than the other two.  It stated that Allen’s idiocracy had occurred at birth and that he had spasms.  Five years later, he was labeled as both deaf and dumb, although an earlier census stated he was dumb but not deaf.  These contradictions were an indication that with each passing census, the diagnosis of Allen’s mental condition, from his birth to the age of eighteen, was described more accurately--perhaps so, because shortly after this, Allen was sent to live in the Glenwood Iowa Institution for Feeble Minded Children.   His family had cared for him until he reached adulthood, but the burden must have been so difficult that the state took over his care at that time.  He lived in the institution for the next seven years, entering it in March 1885 and leaving it in September 1891.  The institution cared for those who were not capable of much or any mental improvement.  After seven years’ time, the commissioners of Mills County, where the institution was located, adjudged him

to be insane; and this evaluation may have been the next step in the process of admitting him to the state hospital in Clarinda on September 25, 1891. 

                                                                Clarinda State Hospital

Admittance there would provide better treatment suited to his mental capabilities.[2]  Dr. Hester’s initial medical examination of Allen affirmed that Allen was “insane and a fit subject for custody and treatment in the Hospital for the Insane.”  His medical evaluation included the fact that the first symptoms of his mental state occurred in infancy and that gradually his mental disabilities had increased over the years, corresponding with what the census takers had written.  However, the 1891 diagnosis of “mentally insane” was not necessarily an accurate one since his mental condition originated from birth, whereas one who is mentally insane is usually diagnosed as such at a later stage in life.  Allen, far from home and family, must have felt be-              

trayed and perhaps displayed  his anger with various behaviors such as trying to injure himself and jumping from and through windows.  

Interestingly enough, about six months after his mother passed away, Allen, though severely mentally handicapped, inherited the Goodale estate; and his brother- in-law William Crandall was appointed as his guardian and as the estate’s administrator.[3]   In February 1901, a petition by the Shelby County Court was filed against the estate for $1622.67—a figure derived from the expenses incurred for Allen’s support and care.  The petition stated that if Allen and William did not appear in court by September of 1902, that they would be responsible for paying the claim.[4]  Following the petition in 1902, a sale of property from the estate was a timely transaction which would have paid the state’s claim.   Two years later, William Crandall, preparing for his move with his family to Nebraska, filed a petition to be discharged from guardianship responsibilities.  Allen may have had little contact with any family members after this time, as all but Minnie, his younger sister, had moved away.    

Allen was institutionalized from the age of eighteen until his death, at the age of sixty on September 14, 1927, due to “exhaustion from psychosis with mental deficiency.”   Unlike his siblings, there was no obituary when he passed away, just a few scattered notes from his medical records which describe the mediocrity of his hospital life.  On December 30, 1902, “Is in fair condition physically.  Is in fair flesh and quite muscular.  Is eating well and is resting well.  Is careless about his personal appearance.”  On January 1, 1909, “Is much demented and has made no improvement during the past year.”  On January 1, 1912, “Has undergone little change for the past several years.”   Last, January 1, 1914, “Is quiet and orderly and in very good physical health.  Is quite badly impared mentally.” [5]

So there we have it! And if it wasn't for the hospital record, all we would know about Allen was that he was, according to the census, record labeled an "idiot" and that he lived in a state hospital for almost forty years.

---

[1] Glenwood State School for the Feeble Minded Archives, email message from <DBorck@dhs.state.ia.us>

[2] Allen Goodale Medical Records.  File No. 624.  Clarinda State Hospital.  Clarinda, Iowa. 

[3] Shelby County Court Record.  County Clerk’s Office, Harlan, Iowa, February 1901.

[4] Ibid., September 1902.

[5] Ibid., Allen Goodale Medical Records, Clarinda State Hospital.

Vacations and Family Research Fun!

While vacationing along the Great Mississippi River Road a couple of weeks ago, my family and I were able to supplement our trip with a little bit of family history.  We were in the area of La Crosse, Wisconsin and with the help of the innkeeper at the bed and breakfast where we were staying, we found directions to the site of historic Oehler's Mill which was built in the 1850's and t on the site of an old logging camp where my husband's ancestors, Isaac Newton and his brother Joseph Goodale, lived and worked for a short period of time.   It was a bit difficult to find because the directions were minimal and the place is not marked; in fact, we passed the site at first and a few miles down the road we asked two different people if they knew where the mill was located before we found it.

A little background history why Isaac and Joseph worked at the logging camp is explained below:

Nauvoo, Illinois, where the main body of the LDS (Mormon) church was located, witnessed rapid growth due to the increasing numbers of converts during the early 1840s.  This growth produced a high demand for building materials for homes and for the building of the Nauvoo Temple.  In order to meet the demands of lumber, Joseph Smith commissioned Lyman Wight, one of the apostles of the LDS church, and George Miller, the presiding bishop of the church, to organize the Black River Pine Company.  This lumbering operation consisted of four sawmills and a dozen logging camps located in a vast tract of pine trees near the Black River in Clark County, Wisconsin.  The Mormon employees of the pine company were the first to settle the area in 1841 when the first company of men was sent from Nauvoo.  Isaac worked in the pineries in 1844 at the request of the Prophet Joseph Smith, while Joseph worked there sometime during its operation between the years 1841-1845.  (Source:  Dennis Rowley,  The Mormon Experience in the Wisconsin Pineries, 1841-1845,  BYU Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Provo, Utah:  Brigham Young University, 1992), 141.)

Joseph and Isaac would have lived in a shanty in a logging camp along with anywhere from 25 to 100 men.  Their job duties may have included one or all of the following: a chopper, those who cut down the trees, a skidder, those who prepared the logs for being transported, or a crew member with a teamster, those who hauled loads of logs down the Black River.   Logging was done during the fall and winter; and, when winter snows melted, the logs were released in the river and a crew of men would follow the floating logs down the river, where they eventually were taken to Nauvoo.   The work was hard and a loyalty was produced between some of the laborers and their leader, Lyman Wight.

  A majority of Wight’s following were members of the Black River Pine Company who, by 1844, had established themselves in Mormon Coulee (LaCrosse), Wisconsin.  Two of his followers were Joseph and his wife Elvira Kay Goodale while his brother Isaac Goodale, along with the majority of LDS church members, returned to Nauvoo.

It was only a small segment in the life of these two Goodale brothers but because we were in the area, it was fun to take the time out of our vacation schedule and locate the site and take a picture.  It gave us an idea of what the area may have looked like, although nearly 180 years have passed since the time they were there working for the logging company.

A few years ago, while vacationing in Indiana, we drove through the small town of Medora, Indiana where many of my ancestors, the Hunsakers and the Weddells lived in the time period of the 1830's and later.  There we located the site of the home of one of them as well as taking a good jaunt around the little country cemetery and locating graves.  Again, visiting this site  added a little dimension to my family history.

So think about fitting in a little family history next time you take a trip and explore where your ancestors lived and worked!  It will make you feel a connection to them.

Genealogy is a Science

Eleven generations ago, my husband's grandfather Isaac Goodale and his wife Patience Cook Goodale had this home built near Salem, Massachusetts and IT IS STILL STANDING!  Its history is described below:

This colonial home was built in West Peabody in 1668 by Isaac and Patience Cook Goodale. In 1928 it was reconstructed at 153 Argilla Road near Russell Orchards in Ipswich by Robert Lincoln and Susan Goodale. First Period elements include 5 fireplaces and a large central chimney, diamond leaded pane casement windows, hand carved raised paneling, a steep pitched roof, bare clapboards and trim, board and batten doors, and chamfered summer beams.

Most first-story summer beams run in a longitudinal direction from the end-to chimney-girt but in this house we find transverse summer beams on the first floor, functioning as binding beams. The first-story transverse summer is almost exclusively an Essex county phenomenon. The house is listed in theNational Registry of Historic Places.

More recently this  home was built in the 1930's in Laramie, Wyoming for William Goodale, also a descendant of Isaac and Patience Goodale. It is currently the alumni house at the University of Wyoming.

This home is located in St. George, Utah and was built after 1864 by John Alger who is my third great grandfather.

Finding pictures of homes, farms, land, etc. adds another dimension to family history research, making a connection with our ancestors more realistic.  Do a little internet googling and perhaps you'll discover something interesting for one of your ancestors! 

Church Records Shed New Light

Using government records for family history research are some of the most important sources of information.  However, researching church records should never be overlooked.  I was lucky enough to have ancestors who lived in a small country town in New York where their names and their "doings" were recorded on church records.  The little comments written in the records gave me some new insights into the personalities of these ancestors.

Martha and Erastus Graves, my great, great, great grandparents  were among the early members of the First Baptist Church of Christ in Sardinia.

 Both were baptized on April 16, 1826. The meeting house was erected by the Baptist Church and Society in Sardinia and was open for religious services on Wednesday, January 27, 1830 a few years after their baptism.

The entries recorded in the church minutes give a glimpse of Erastus’ personality.  The following example, dated October 24, 1840, is just one of many entries recorded in the church minutes with regard to Erastus and his religious dealings:  

Voted that the clerk inform Bro. Graves In writing, that the church  have the following items of complaint against him.

1. For general neglect of covenant obligations, and
2. For violating the Christian Sabbath.
 
Over the next 18 years, his cycle of interaction with the church includes a misdemeanor, his confession and repentance, and then his forgiveness by the church; then the cycle repeats itself until he was excommunicated in 1857.  By May 1858, his membership was restored and he was “dismissed” by letter to attend another Baptist church.

His oldest son, Joseph Franklin Graves was married to Delia Goodrich.    Both “Frank” and “Delia” grew up in Sardinia and both were members of the Baptist church.   Frank was baptized on May 1, 1842 and Fidelia was baptized the same year.  However, both were later excommunicated, Fidelia on February 18, 1846 and Frank on March 1, 1855.    In 1845 Frank was rebuked by the church “for attending balls, wishing himself out of the church, and indulging in profanity.”  The following year, in February 1846, a “complaint was brought against Sisters Fidelia & Maria Goodrich for attending a dancing school . . . “

Another son, Waters Graves, my great great grandfather, was baptized on May 30, 1858, about the same time  Erastus' membership was reinstated.  However, Waters, unlike his father and his older brother, Frank, seemed to be on good terms with the Baptist church; in fact, he was appointed as a Deacon for the church on July 2, 1864.  His wife Sally assisted him in his duties of the church when the church council “. . . appointed Br. Waters Graves & wife to visit Sister Nancy Childs . . .”

Martha, also called “Keziah,” was the younger sister of Waters.  Like her older brother Frank, she was baptized in 1842 and enjoyed dancing; however, she, like her brother, was excommunicated from the Baptist church on December 5, 1846:  “Covt. Meeting at which a complaint was presented by H. Bowen against Keziah Graves for attending Balls and dancing Schools etc. & the brethren being satisfied with the labour with her & believing there to be no hope of reclaiming her.”

What I learned from these records, is that I had some ancestors who didn't always live the standards of the church they attended and that the church had  a very strict set of guidelines.  It was kind of funny to find out that "dancing" was so appalling and how different life is today.

Delia Goodale, Inventor

       This month I'd like to share something interesting I found a few years ago while researching some Goodale ancestors.  Delia Goodale was my husband's distant cousin who started out as a dressmaker in Omaha, Nebraska, moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where she was employed as a housekeeper, and then started coming up with inventions that probably helped her with her daily occupational duties.  Between 1908 and 1923, Delia’s inventions included the following:   her first in 1908 was the invention of a skirt marker, [1] her second in 1911 was the invention of a paper cone-shaped, collapsible drinking cup,[2] and her third, in 1921, was the invention of a hexagon-shaped service tray,[3]. 

---

[1] United States Patent Office.  No. No.  995, 343. Online,

<www.google.com/patents/about/995343_DELIA_GOODALE.html?id=yexDAAAAEBAJ

[2] United States Patent Office, No. No. 179, 026.  Online,

www.google.com.tw/patents/about/D57968_DESIGN_FOR_A_SERVICE_TRAY.html?id=znxsAAAAEBAJ 

[3] United States Patent Office, No.  175,106.  Online,

< www.freepatentsonline.com/1457181.html

Research isn't always about the dates and places--sometimes you pick up some interesting glimpses into the lives of those you are researching!  Next time you drink from a cone shaped paper cup, think of the inventor!

WILL THE REAL HARRIET ASHENDER PLEASE STAND UP?

                Sometimes in the research process, the most obvious record is not always the right answer.  This happened recently when I was researching my great grandmother’s cousin, Harriet Mary Ann Butcher Ashenden.  She was born in 1838 in Strood, Kent, England and married in 1858 to Thomas William Ashenden.  I was interested in finding her in records after her marriage, which included the census records and her death record.  I found Harriet in the 1861 Census living in Strood, Kent, England.  I could not find her in any census after that.

                When I did a search for the death date of Harriet, assuming she died in Strood or in the vicinity,  the first item in the search listed the following:  Harriet Ashenden, born about 1839, died in 1891 in Strood, Kent, England.  Sounds like the perfect match, right?  But I didn’t have any other information from the death record to verify that this was the same Harriet that I was researching.  Was this Harriet Ashenden married or was Ashenden her maiden name.?  Who were her parents?  What was her spouse’s name?  These are questions that were not included on the records but would have helped me determine if I had the right Harriet.

A few lines below this entry, there was a “Mary Ann Ashenden” married to a Thomas Ashenden who was living in 1881 in York, Ontario, Canada.  This time I had a spouse’s name and I also knew that a few of Harriet’s siblings had emigrated to York.  The census record showed that Mary Ann was born in 1838 in England.  I made the assumption that Harriet Mary Ann began to go by her middle name of Mary Ann. It seemed like I had found the right one this time.  I even found her death record of November 30, 1890.  Again, no parent’s names on the death record but I was pretty sure this was the same Mary Ann listed with Thomas in the 1881 Census.  Not still completely satisfied because of the slight difference in the name, I wanted to dig a little more.

I frequently use two websites when I research:  familysearch.org and ancestry.com.  The above was from family search.  I decided to go to ancestry.com and do a search.  This time I found the following record:

Harriet Mary Ann Ashenden who died July 26, 1874 in York, Ontario, Canada born in 1838 in England.  Bingo!  This had to be the one I was looking for, specifically because of the unique name of “Harriet Mary Ann”.  But then who was Mary Ann Ashenden married to Thomas Ashenden in the 1881 Census?  Further research answered that question as well.  In 1875, Thomas Ashenden, a widower, married Mary Ann Shaw.  So that explained the confusion between Harriet’s death in 1874 and the name of Mary Ann in the 1881 Census. 

That marriage record led me to new findings for Thomas Ashenden, Harriet’s husband.  He married a third time in 1898, was in the 1901 Canadian Census, and died in 1907!  From these records, I was able to find his place of birth as well as his parent’s names.

So, after much delving, the real Harriet Mary Ann Ashenden, DID STAND UP!

Finding Some Pieces to the Puzzle --But Not All!

In my latest client research, I discovered that my client's great-grandfather was the fourth child born to his great-great grandmother, Emma.  Researching the three older children added some small missing pieces to the research puzzle. However, when I located the birth certificates of the other children, I found that the first two each had a different father.  This led to the conclusion that the mother of the four children had been married three times by the time she had her third child, and all were born within a five-year time frame.

Curiosity about the first two husbands led me on a search for the bigger missing pieces to the puzzle. Luckily, there was a marriage record to  the first husband whose name was Lorenzo Cupro whom Emma married in  June 1912.  Their first child, Niklas, was born in December 1913.  Just fourteen months later, the second child of Emma was born in February 1915 and the father was listed as Mike Cupro. In that short length of time, Emma had remarried and had a second child.  Two and a half years later, the third child was born in November 1917 and the father was listed as Frank Fink.   Finally, my client's grandfather and his younger brother were the last two children born to Emma, in 1919 and in 1921.  In the space of five years, Emma had married three times and had four children.

My question then was "What happened to Lorenzo Cupro and Mike Cupro*?  Were they brothers?   One was born in about 1881, the other in 1886, both in Austria and both were miners in Miami, Arizona. What added more confusion to this puzzle was the fact that Emma married a fourth time after the death of Frank Fink and the name of her fourth and last husband was Lawrence Cupich, very similar to the name of her first husband Lorenzo Cupro--in fact it could be an Americanized version of the name! At first thought, I believed that they were the same person but the following facts would indicate otherwise:
1.  The 1930 Census where Emma and Lawrence are listed with her children, Nicklas, her first child, was listed as a stepson to Lawrence.  According to the census, Lawrence was born about 1891 ten years later than the "Lorenzo Cupro" mentioned above.
2.  The birth record of Niklas Cupro indicates that Lorenzo Cupro was 32 years old, placing his year of birth as about 1881.
3. Naturalization records for Lawrence Cupich indicated that he was the father of one child and listed that child as Martha--no mention of Niklas.
4.  Lorenzo Cupro was a miner in 1913
5.  Lawrence Cupich since 1914 was in the fishing industry

I could not find a death record for Lorenzo Cupro, but I assume he divorced Emma or died prior to her marriage to Mike Cupro.  Researching the name "Lorenzo Cupro," along with its variation of spellings, brings up the name "Lawrence Cupich" in numerous documents which all relate to the fourth husband of Emma. These pieces of evidence are almost convincing enough--other than the ten year age difference--to believe that indeed her first and fourth husbands could be the same person but until further evidence is found, I will assume that they are two different people.  Something else to ponder is that there is a relationship between the city of Wilkeson, Washington and Emma. Emma's fourth husband, Lawrence Cupich, was living in Wilkeson by 1914 (possibly earlier), having arrived in the U.S. in October 1910.  Anton Cupro, supposed brother of Mike, was living in the same town in 1914.  Emma's older sister Kate was married in late 1910 in Enumclaw, near Wilkeson, Washington, placing Emma and her family there after the 1910 Census of South Dakota. There is a strong tie between the town of Wilkeson, the Cupro surname, and Emma's family.  In addition, Lawrence Cupich, Emma's fourth husband, moves from Wilkeson to San Pedro, California in the year 1924 where Emma and Frank Fink were living in 1926.

Now what about Mike Cupro?  An "M. Cupich" is listed as a miner in the 1910 Census of Calaveras County, California, having arrived in the U.S. in 1906.  Second, both the 1911 and the 1912 City Directories of Gray Harbor, Washington list a Mike Cupich working in that area--perhaps in the mining industry which was quite prevalent in that time period in that area.    In 1911, he was living with Anton Cupich, probably his older brother, who left the states in 1914 for Canada.  Did Mike go to Arizona around that same time period  to work in the mines and become the second husband of Emma?  They would have divorced after their child was born in 1914 and before her marriage to Frank and her third child  born in 1917. Mike was still in the Miami, Arizona area in 1916 when he had a mining accident.  Here is his mug shot from the year 1917 just before he was sentenced to prison on McNeill Island.

The World War I Draft Registration from McNeill Island shows his birth date as May 23, 1886 in Austria and his permanent residence in Miami, Arizona, where Emma and Frank resided which ties him into being the second husband of Emma and father to her second child.  Mike was arrested in October 1917 for transporting and smoking opium in San Diego and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.  In the summer of 1919, he was deported  to Laredo, Texas returning in 1923.  I haven't been able to track him after that time.

Though I don't know the whole life story of Lorenzo or Mike Cupro, I was able to add a few missing pieces to the puzzle, adding to the big picture.  Someday I would like to solve the whole puzzle!

*The name Cupich has variations in spellings including Cupic, Cupich, Chupich, and Cupro, adding more confusion to the research.