Monthly Archives: October 2014

52 Ancestors Challenge: Week 42 Recap

Posted in 52 Ancestors Challenge on by .

52ancestors-week42Week 42. You know what that means…  Only 10 more weeks to go! We can do it!

My ancestor this past week was my great-grandfather Edward Winfield Starkey. Where did that middle name come from?

There were lots of great posts in Week 41. Be sure to check those out. For this week’s posts, leave the link(s) in the comment below.

Edward Winfield Starkey: What a Name (52 Ancestors #30)

Posted by

I’ve reflected before about how some of the names of my ancestors fascinate me. Perhaps my children should be thankful that I hadn’t discovered Abisha Danison or Melzena (Kelly) Ramsey before they were born 😉

Another such ancestor is my great-grandfather Edward Winfield Starkey. Where in the world did “Winfield” come from? There aren’t any others in the family (at least, not that I’ve found so far). Edward was born in 1881. Could the middle name have come from Winfield Scott Hancock, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1880? If so, that would shed some light on the politics of his parents, Peter and Elizabeth Starkey. At this point, it is just conjecture.

Edward Winfield Starkey registration card, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.

Edward Winfield Starkey registration card, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, Ancestry.

Edward was born 7 March 1881 in Perry County, Ohio, the youngest child of Peter and Elizabeth. Edward married Clara Skinner on 10 October 1901. He worked various jobs, including as a laborer for Central Silica (a quarry company). Edward died 13 September 1960 and is buried in Olivet Cemetery in Perry County.

Edward and Clara Starkey tombstone, Olivet Cemetery, Perry County, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 2004.

Edward and Clara Starkey tombstone, Olivet Cemetery, Perry County, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 2004.

52 Ancestors Challenge: Week 41 Recap

Posted in 52 Ancestors Challenge on by .

52ancestors-week41As we move closer and closer to the holiday season, it will be easy to allow our blogging to take a back seat. Don’t do what I did before I went on vacation back in June! I didn’t plan ahead :( I took “a short break” from blogging, which ended up being a much longer break than I anticipated. (I’m still trying to get “caught up” on my own challenge!) Don’t let this happen to you!

Do more writing now while you still have the chance. But don’t publish it all now. Schedule your posts for publishing later. You know what will happen? You’ll see comments come in, so you’ll still interact with your blog even when you’re not writing. I believe that seeing your blog and interacting with those who made comments will make it easier to get back in the swing of things when your schedule becomes less chaotic. That’s my theory, anyway…

Last week, I wrote about Lavada Jane McKitrick Mason, my great-great-grandmother, and speculated on whether there was a rift between her and one of her daughters. Take a look and see what you think.

Also be sure to look at the other posts from last week’s recap.

For this week, leave your link in the comments below. Happy blogging!

Lavada Jane McKitrick Mason: Estranged from Her Daughter? (52 Ancestors #29)

Posted by
Lavada Jane and Eber Mason with unidentified child. Photo from mtngeek.

Lavada Jane and Eber Mason with unidentified child. Photo from mtngeek.

Lavada Jane McKitrick Mason is my great-great-grandmother. She was born in Noble County, Ohio 4 August 1863, the oldest daughter of Isaac and Margaret (Morrison) McKitrick. She married Eber Mason on 10 June 1882 in Washington County, Ohio. Between 1910 and 1920, Eber and Lavada moved from Washington County to Licking County, Ohio. Lavada died 8 December 1930 in Newark of “pulmonary TBC” (tuberculosis). She and Eber are buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Newark.

Here’s where I start to wonder about things.

Lavada had 7 children: Sherman, Clara (my great-grandmother), Arthur, Ella, Nettie, Esther, and Susan. Nettie, per the 1900 census and her death certificate, was born in February 1890. Nettie does not appear with Lavada and Eber in the 1910 census; in fact, I have yet to find Nettie in the 1910 census. I don’t believe that Nettie was married by 1910, as she marries Henry W. Smith in 1913 and uses the name “Nettie Mason.” (Of course, she could have reverted back to using her maiden name.)

Sadly, Nettie died from eclampsia on 1 April 1919 in Bridgeport, Belmont County, Ohio. Her husband Henry was the informant on her death certificate and listed her father as Eber Mason and mother as “not known.” Why didn’t Henry know the name of his own mother-in-law? She was still living at the time.

Nettie lists her residence on her 1913 marriage license as Gracey, Ohio (which is in Washington County). Henry lists his residence as Washington County, Ohio. Yet they got married in West Virginia. And not even just across the river in Parkersburg. They went 100 miles north to Brooke County.

Nettie wasn’t with her parents in 1910. She’s living in the same county they are in 1913 (as was her husband). Nettie and Henry go 100 miles away to get married. Henry doesn’t list Lavada on Nettie’s death certificate. All of this leaves me asking “Why?” Were Lavada (and/or Eber) and Nettie estranged? Or is all of this just a matter of coincidence and it really doesn’t have a bearing on their relationship?

Sometimes, the records create more questions than they answer.

Sources:

  • Eber D. Mason and Lavada J. McKitrick marriage record, Washington County marriage volume 7, entry 791, Washington County Probate Court, Marietta, Ohio.
  • Eber Mason household, 1900 Federal census, Washington County, Ohio, Cow Run precinct, p. 175B, household 89, family 93.
  • Eber Mason household, 1910 Federal census, Washington County, Ohio, Lawrence Township, ED 139, sheet 2A, household 25, family 25.
  • Henry W. Smith and Nettie Mason marriage record, Brooke County (WV) volume unknown, page 488. Digital image at wvculture.org.
  • Lavada Jane Mason death certificate, certificate number 73421 (1930), Ohio Historical Society.
  • “Mrs. E. D. Mason obituary,” Newark (Ohio) Advocate, 9 December 1930, page 8.
  • Nettie Smith death certificate, certificate number 30603 (1919), Ohio Historical Society.

52 Ancestors Challenge: Week 40 Recap

Posted in 52 Ancestors Challenge on by .

52ancestors-week40Ok everyone, we’re getting really close now! Week 40!

Now that the end is getting to be in sight, have you planned out your last few posts?

By the way, in case you’ve wondered, that light at the end of the tunnel is the end and not an oncoming train :-)

Leave a link to your latest posts in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out the posts from Week 39!

52 Ancestors Challenge: Week 39 Recap

Posted in 52 Ancestors Challenge on by .

52ancestors-week39Week 39. Let that number sink in for a moment. Its meaning might not be as obvious as “26” was, but Week 39 is a milestone. We have now completed 3/4 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge!

Whether you’ve been doing it since the beginning or just started…  Whether you’ve done 39 posts or have missed a few weeks…  Give yourself a hand! No matter where you are in the Challenge, here’s what I have to say:

Anything you’ve written is more than what you had before you started!

My contribution this past week was my troublemaker great-great-grandmother Ann Stephens Johnson.

Leave a link to your post in the comments below. (Reminder: leave a link to that post, not your blog in general.) Also, there was lots of good reading from Week 38 – make sure you check that out!

Happy blogging!

We are 3/4 of the way there!

We are 3/4 of the way there!

That Little Troublemaker: Ann Stephens Johnson (52 Ancestors #28)

Posted by

I wrote recently about the wedding of my 3rd-great-grandparents David Stephens (Stevens) and Rebecca Dickinson in Robeson Monthly Meeting. They were married 22 May 1829. Just a few weeks later on 10 July, David and Rebecca requested a certificate of removal to Short Creek Monthly Meeting in Ohio. They eventually ended up in Deerfield Monthly Meeting in Morgan County, Ohio.

Here is where some of my notions that I formed as a young genealogist (way back in the day) had to be challenged. For some reason, I never considered David and Rebecca following their Quaker faith in Ohio. Perhaps it was because at least one of their children (my great-great-grandmother Ann) had married a non-Quaker. I just never followed up on it. (Remember, I was a young genealogist when I originally discovered they were even Quakers.)

So off I went to one of the mainstays of Quaker research, William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. As I (now) expected, I found David and Rebecca’s admittance to the Deerfield Monthly Meeting on 13 January 1831. It also lists the family register in Deerfield MM for David, Rebecca, and their six children.

Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia is great in that it covers not only the vital records, but also indexes the monthly meeting minutes, which is where you find the requests for certificates of removal and various disciplinary actions. That’s when I noticed it…

Ancestry.com. U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607–1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Hinshaw, William Wade, et al., compilers. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. 6 vols. 1936–1950. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991–1994.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607–1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Hinshaw, William Wade, et al., compilers. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. 6 vols. 1936–1950. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991–1994. Citing vol. IV, p. 1078.

 1850, 3, 14. [14 March 1850] Ann dis disunity

My great-great-grandmother had been kicked out of the Quakers.

“Dis disunity” is Hinshaw’s way of saying that she was disowned (kicked out) for disunity. Unfortunately, Hinshaw didn’t bother to say what the disunity was. Was 17-year-old Ann speaking out of turn after the meeting had reached a consensus? Had she run afoul of some of the mores of the group and refused to acknowledge her wrongdoing?

In fairness, her brother Elwood and sister Elizabeth were also kicked out of the Quakers, though both of them were for “marrying contrary to discipline.” (In other words, they married non-Quakers.) This wasn’t Ann’s offense. Hers was “disunity,” plus this was a full three years before she married Eber Johnson.

I won’t know what Ann’s offense was until I can track down the Deercreek Monthly Meeting minutes. All I know right now is that whatever it was, it was enough to get Ann kicked out of the Quakers. That little troublemaker…

Ann Stephens/Stevens Johnson was born in Morgan County, Ohio 15 March 1833 and died in Lawrence County, Ohio 9 June 1923.