Precious Memories: Tying Shoes

Miriam and Pixie on the front steps at our home
on Bayview Boulevard, Klawock, Alaska, 1971.

My dad taught me how to tie my shoes when I was probably five years old, about a year after this photo was taken 

First he taught me how to put my shoes on the correct feet by showing me how the tips of the shoes matched the shape of my feet: slightly larger on the inside by my big toes and curving down to the outside by my pinky toes. Next I learned how to pull the tongue straight so it wouldn't fold under or wrinkle and make my foot uncomfortable (it made me giggle to hear that a shoe had a tongue, just like me!).

Then he showed me how to cross the ends of the shoelaces ("make an X"), take the bottom lace up and over the other, through the "hole" at the bottom of the X, and pull the ends tight. Finally, I made "bunny ears" with each of the laces and repeated the previous steps. I was so proud that I could tie my little blue Keds all by myself!

Henry Jacobs: A War of 1812 Veteran Ancestor?

View of the Camp of Col Laight's Regiment of Militia
from the New York Public Library's Digital Collection

Back in January 2017, I made an accidental discovery about a man whom I believe is my ancestor. 

I was doing some research in old, out-of-copyright county histories for Tioga County, New York at the Internet Archive, searching for any and all of my many family lines who lived there in the second half of the nineteenth century, including my Strong, Curtis, Jacobs, Lane, Mead, Wright, Clark, Rockwell, and Partridge lines.

In the 1907 history, Owego: Some account of the early settlement of the Village in Tioga County, N.Y.... by LeRoy Wilson Kingman, I found a chapter of the military history of the village from the American Revolution through 1850. At the end of the chapter, it said that in March 1867, the Owego Gazette published a list of the survivors of the War of 1812 then living in Tioga County, with their ages. Henry Jacobs, age 83, was listed among them.1

My 4th-great-grandfather, Henry Jacobs, fits this bill. He was born about 1786 in Westchester County, New York,2 so he would have been more or less the right age in March of 1867. He resided in the Town of Spencer, Tioga County, New York when the 1810 Federal Census was taken,³ and was in the Town of Candor in 1820,⁴ so it was likely he was in New York during the war. 

I have looked at the pension records available for War of 1812 Veterans and their widows at Fold3. The only one for a man named Henry Jacobs was a soldier who died 29 June 1861 in Morristown, Pennsylvania.5 My Henry Jacobs lived until 11 November 18766 and died presumably in the Town of Candor, where he was last enumerated in the 1875 New York State Census with his daughter and son-in-law, Esther and James Cortwright.7 Pensions for veterans of this war were not offered until 1871,8 and if his daughter's family was able to support and care for him, there would have been no reason to apply for a pension.

A little digging into this to see if I can find some solid evidence that my Henry is the same man mentioned in the county history is warranted. If true, this would be my fifth identified ancestor who was a veteran of the War of 1812.

Sources:

    1. LeRoy Wilson Kingman, Owego: Some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego (Owego, New York: Owego Gazette Office, 1907), pp. 391-2; imaged, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/owegosomeaccount00king/ : accessed 7 January 2017).

    2. 1855 census, Tioga County, New York, population schedule, Town of Candor ED 2, p. 5, line 29, Henry Jacobs; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7181/ : accessed 5 August 2016); citing Tioga County Clerk's Office, Owego.

    3. 1810 U.S. census, Tioga County, New York, population schedule, Town of Spencer, p. 85 (stamped), line 20, Henry Jacobs; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7613/ : accessed 18 June 2016.

    4. 1820 U.S. census, Tioga County, New York, population schedule, Town of Candor, p. 38, line 22, Henry Jacobs; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7734/ : accessed 18 June 2016.

    5. "U.S., War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, 1812-1815," database with images, Fold3.com (https://www.fold3.com/image/314331865/jacobs-henry-page-20-us-war-of-1812-pension-files-1812-1815 : accessed 3 September 2024) imaged untitled document: Henry Jacobs, Capt. John Huston's Co., Pa. Mil.; citing Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Applications Based on Service in the War of 1812; Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs (Washington, D.C.: National Archives).

    6. Daughters of the American Revolution, Beulah Patterson Brown Chapter, Tioga County, New York, cemetery records of the towns of Berkshire, Candor, Newark Valley, Owego, and Richford (New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1928), p. 114; imaged, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7S-S9S7-W : accessed 11 September 2024).

    7. 1875 census, Tioga County, New York, population schedule, Town of Candor ED 2, p. 18, line 44, Henry Jacobs; imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7250/ : accessed 7 April 2014); citing Tioga County Clerk's Office, Owego.

    8. Stuart L. Butler, "Genealogical Records of the War of 1812," Prologue Magazine (Winter 1991, Vol. 23, No. 4); online article, Archives.gov (https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1991/winter/war-of-1812.html : accessed 11 September 2024).

The Death Certificate of Rose "June" (Barber) Morarity Eaton Wrone

Death Certificate of June Wrone¹

While I have hardly been blogging at all the past few years, I have not stopped doing genealogical research at genealogy websites, ordering documents from courthouses, archives, and libraries, or expanding my genealogy education. My focus lately has been to identify the parents of my most recent "brick wall" ancestor, my paternal great-great-grandfather James W. Barber (1841 - 1912). I have blogged about him before here, here, here, and here.

One of the targets of my research plan has been to obtain death records for all ten children of James and his wife Elizabeth Ann "Betsey" Cole to see if a specific birthplace other than "England" is listed for their father's birthplace. I was challenged, however, to find any mention after 1955 of their youngest daughter whose name has been spelled Rose, Rosie, Rosa Bell, Isabel, Rosman, Rosamond, and Rosemond and who was often nicknamed June, which is what I will call her. 

In attempting to locate a death record for June, I once again came across a challenge that has often frustrated me: there is an unfortunate nearly two-decade gap, 1952 - 1971, between available online death records indexes for the state of Michigan, June's presumed final residence. Ancestry has a death records index, "Michigan, U.S., Death Index, 1971-1996." FamilySearch's "Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800 - 1995" is incomplete, according to the Michigan Deaths and Burials page at the FamilySearch wiki. At Michiganology's "Death Certificates 1897 - 1952" collection, death records created between 1921 and 1948 include an image of the death certificate, while records from 1949-1952 are only available in an index. I suspected June had died during this record gap, as I had been unable to find her in my many searches in the the above collections.

Fortunately, I have found obituaries for six of June's nine siblings, and four of them mentioned her specifically, giving me information that I did not have previously about her and narrowing the search time frame. The first was the 1945 obituary of sister Clarissa "Clara" Jane (Barber) Goodwin Sines which named Rose as "Mrs. Rose Rhome of Detroit".² The surname Rhome was new to me (although I found out later it was an incorrect spelling of Wrone). I had located two marriage records for June, neither to a man with a surname of Rhome or Wrone. The first record was for a marriage on 23 September 1896 to William Morarity in Lapeer, Lapeer County, Michigan.³ The second record was for a marriage to William A. Eaton on 15 May 1906 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.⁴

The next sibling obituary was for sister Lavina Elizabeth (Barber) Wilson Streeter in 1949.⁵ This one named June as "Mrs. Rose Wrone of Detroit". Sister Caroline "Carrie" (Barber) Smith Hutchinson Poole's 1951 obituary provided another clue, naming June as "Mrs. Michael Wrone of Detroit."⁶ And finally, younger brother Alexander Barber's 1955 obituary names her as "Mrs. Michael Wromes, Detroit."⁷

So began my search for a marriage of Rose/Rosa Bell/Rosemond or June Eaton nee Barber to Michael Wrone between 1955 and 1971. These searches involved many variations of their first and last names. I was able to find their marriage record in Lucas County, Ohio on 1 March 1930,⁸ less than two months after she divorced William Eaton on 9 January 1930 in Wayne County, Michigan.⁹ (I have yet to locate a divorce record for her marriage to William Morarity or a death record for him.) June signed her marriage application as "Mrs Rosemond J Eaton," which leads me to believe that June was her middle name and not just a nickname.

Michael Wrone's parents were listed on their marriage record as Peter Wrone and Teckla Bennett. However, his obituary mentions his brother Joseph Wronikowski, which led me to other documents confirming that this was the original spelling of his last name.

Michael's 1971 obituary in the Detroit Free Press at Newspapers.com¹⁰ described him as "Beloved husband of the late June", so I knew that she had to have died sometime between her brother Alex's death on 28 February 1955 and Michael's death on 26 May 1971. The obituary mentioned a funeral home, R. G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Home of Detroit, and I was able to find current contact information for them. I sent them an email to ask if they had any information on a burial, cremation, etc. for June, but never received a reply.

Meanwhile, I located a memorial page for Michael at Find a Grave.¹¹ He was buried at Oakview Cemetery in Royal Oak, Oakland County, Michigan. My next task was to contact the cemetery to see if they had any death and/or burial information for June. I received an email from them stating that although they did not have an exact date of death for her, she had been interred on 1 May 1958 in Section Q, lot 778, plot 2. Michael was buried in plot 1.

Obtaining an interment date was beneficial in that it considerably narrowed down a potential time frame for her death. With this information, I sent off to the Wayne County Clerk's office for June's death certificate. It arrived on 3 February 2024.

Finally, I had a death date and location for June: 28 April 1958 in Detroit. Unfortunately, the death certificate had no fields for birthplaces of the decedent's parents; only for their names.¹² 

Despite the many searches I had done in online newspaper websites, I had not been able to find an obituary or death notice for June until after I obtain her death certificate. Narrowing down the time frame, I was able to go page by page through the Detroit Free Press in the days after her death and finally located her death notice, published 30 April 1958.¹³ The Optical Character Recognition had simply not been able to find it in all of my many searches over the years.

I felt a sense of accomplishment and closure having finally determined when and where Rose June (Barber) Morarity Eaton Wrone--with many variations of her first name and with a surname originally spelled Wronikowski--was buried. With all these names and variants, no wonder it had been a challenge to find her!

---

Future posts will discuss the other death records of James and Elizabeth (Cole) Barber's children and what information was given on them for James's birthplace.

Sources:

1. Wayne County, Michigan, death certificate 5860, June Wrone; County Clerk’s Office, Detroit.

2. “Mrs. Clara Jane Sines,” Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan), 7 May 1945, p. 11, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : viewed 6 January 2023).

3. "Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DYJ9-TXS?cc=1452395&wc=9663-T3D%3A1041533201 : viewed 15 January 2019), image 304 of 670, entry for Wm. Morarity and Rosa B. Barber, 23 September 1896, Lapeer, Lapeer County, record #1423; citing Secretary of State, Department of Vital Records, Lansing.

4. “Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, ” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61378/ : viewed 6 January 2023), image 83 of 250, application and return for William A. Eaton and June Moriarty, 15 May 1906, Cuyahoga County 1906-1907, p. 165, application #46658; citing original data from Marriage Records, Ohio Marriages, various Ohio County Courthouses.

5. “Deaths: Mrs. Lavina E. Streeter,” Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan), 10 January 1949, p. 14, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 22 March 2022).

6. "Mrs. John B. Poole," The Time Herald (Port Huron, Michigan), 25 May 1951, p. 26, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 6 March 2022).

7. "Barber, Alex," Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan), 1 March 1955, p. 22, col. 8; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 23 March 2022).

8. "Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61378/ : viewed 23 March 2022), image 1404 of 1420, application and certificate for Michael W. Wrone and Rosamund J. Eaton, 1 March 1930, Lucas County 1929-1930, p. 530, application #84338; citing original data from Marriage Records, Ohio Marriages, various Ohio County Courthouses.

9. "Michigan, U.S., Divorce Records, 1897-1952," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9092/ : viewed 6 January 2023), image 1652 of 4401, divorce record for Rosman Eaton and William Eaton, 9 January 1930, 1924-1947 Wayne County certificates 29,290-33,636, state file #82 30937; citing original data from  Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing.

10. "Wrone," Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan), 28 May 1971, pg. 34, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 23 March 2022). 

11. FindAGrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/262037463/michael-w-wrone : accessed 11 January 2024), memorial page for Michael W. Wrone, Oakview Cemetery, Royal Oak, Oakland County, Michigan. Includes a tombstone photo.

12. Wayne County, Michigan, death certificate 5860, June Wrone.

13. "Wrone," Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan), 30 April 1958, pg. 29, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : viewed 12 June 2024).

A Busy Day for Weddings in the HOLST and ROBBINS Families

I've been busy cleaning up items in the Downloads folder of my laptop.  In many cases, I downloaded an image of a record from a genealogy or historical newspaper site and then used my photo editing software to make a copy of it, clip or resize it, rename it to fit my digital filing conventions, and then file it in the appropriate genealogy folder.  But sometimes I didn't delete the original image.  Other times, I downloaded an image but forgot to clean it up and move it to a folder.  My Downloads folder was very full at over 1400 items, but it is slowly getting cleaned out and is down to about 550!

Today I once again came across the October 17, 1940 edition of the Coopersville (Michigan) Observer that published my paternal grandparents' wedding announcement on page 8, column 3:

Grandma and Grandpa had a simple wedding in the Methodist pastor's parsonage on a Saturday morning.  They wore their Sunday best outfits, as seen in the photo below.

Their best friends, Geneva Parish and Raymond Adams stood with them during the ceremony, although my Great-Grandmother Nellie Holst signed the marriage certificate rather than Geneva. I know that Geneva would have been about 16 years old, just like my grandmother, so she would not have been of legal age to sign the marriage certificate. I don't know if my Great-Grandfather Alfred Holst or my Great-Grandparents Robbins (Bill Sr. and Marie) attended the ceremony.

After the ceremony, they had a "dinner", probably held at noon, at my Great-Grandparents Holst's home with immediate family.  I'm guessing that would have been both sets of parents of the bridal couple, my grandfather's four younger siblings (Bill Jr, Shirley, Jack, and Joyce) and perhaps my grandmother's older married sister and brother-in-law, Lucille and John VanderHorn.

When I was double checking to make sure that I had clipped, renamed, and copied the announcement into both my grandparents' genealogy documents folders, the surname Klinger in column 2 of the same page caught my eye.

I knew that my Great-grandfather Holst had a sister named Margaret ("Maggie"), who had married Johan H. Klinger.  Taking a closer look, I realized that Margaret and Johan's daughter Ethel Klinger, who was my grandmother's cousin, got married to Steve Hulka on the same day that Grandma did, only in the afternoon in Muskegon, rather than in the morning in Coopersville:

While Grandma and Grandpa had a simple and informal wedding, Ethel and her groom Steve Hulka, had a more traditional church ceremony at a Lutheran church.  Ethel wore a "...white satin gown with train and fingertip veil...."

I was able to identify everyone in the article.  Mrs. Theo. Klatt was Jennie (Holst) Klatt, another sister of Alfred Holst, and Mrs. William Scheile was Jennie's daughter, Ellen.

Next mentioned were my grandparents' wedding party and immediate families!  Miss Geneva Parish, Miss Shirley Robbins, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Robbins (my grandparents), Mrs. Alfred Holst, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Adams (so Ray's wife would likely have been at my grandparents' wedding, too) and Mr. and Mrs. John VanderHorn were all named.

It sounds like nearly the entire two families and wedding party left after dinner at my Great-Grandparents Holst's home and drove up to Muskegon, about 25 miles north, to attend Ethel and Steve's wedding and reception.  I did notice my Great-Grandfather Holst was not mentioned, nor three of my grandfather's siblings: Bill Jr, Jack, and Joyce.  We don't know if Bill had to work that day; he was an 18-year-old young man.  Jack and Joyce were 13 and 7, respectively.  Perhaps they stayed home, or perhaps they weren't mentioned due to lack of print space.

Also, one member of the Klinger family was not mentioned.  Joh(a)n and Maggie had at least three children: Earl, Jennie, and Ethel.  Jennie was mentioned as the maid of honor, but Earl is not mentioned.  

At any rate, it would have been an extremely busy day for both the Holst and Robbins families, and an especially busy day for my grandparents to get married in Coopersville, have a family dinner, drive to Muskegon, attend another wedding and the reception, and then set off for their honeymoon!

A New Blog: Shirley's Diary: A Depression-Era Girl's Story

Today I started a new blog.

Yes, I can hear what you're thinking!  "She hasn't kept up with her original one, and she's starting another?!"

Life has calmed down a bit (knock on wood) since my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2019, followed by his death five months later, caring for my mom, and a pandemic.  Several months ago, I came across the diary of my paternal grandfather's sister, Shirley Robbins, in the things we had packed up from my parents' home.  I had to share it, not just with family members and close friends, but with those who are genealogists, family historians, general historians, and descendants of the friends and community members mentioned in the diary.  It's a wonderful perspective of Depression-era life through the eyes of a 10- and 11-year-old girl.  It reminds me of the Kit books my daughter used to read from the American Girl series. It's real, and it will be unedited, although it will be published with comments and clarifications.

Please join me over at Shirley's Diary: A Depression-Era Girl's Story.

Before MLK, There Was Elizabeth Peratrovich

Seventy-five years ago today, the first anti-discrimination law was signed on American soil.

It was more than two decades before the Civil Rights Act. Before Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech. Before Rosa Parks's act of defiance on a Birmingham bus.

And it was brought to fruition by a soft-spoken Alaska Native woman you have probably never heard of.  It's long past time to learn her story.

Elizabeth Jean Wanamaker was born in Petersburg, Alaska on the Fourth of July, 1911, the daughter of a Native woman and an Irish man.  She was a member of the Tlingit nation, a tribe in Southeast Alaska, Northwest British Columbia, and the Southern Yukon Territory with a complex language and rich in culture, art, natural resources and oral history; a nation with a history of fierce warfare and a love of politics that transposed in modern times to powerful leadership.  Tlingit people are keenly aware of their heritage and can proudly cite their moiety and clan.  She would have been able to inform you at an early age that she was of a member of the Raven moiety, Lukaax̱.ádi clan and that her Tlingit name was Kaaxgal.aat.

When her biological parents were unable to raise her, she was adopted by another Tlingit couple, Andrew J. and Jean (Williams) Wanamaker.  Andrew was a fisherman, a lay minister for the Presbyterian church, and a charter member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), a lodge for Native men which worked to combat discrimination.  Jean was a skilled basket maker.  Elizabeth's growing up years included several Southeast Alaska communities:  Petersburg; my hometown of Klawock where she met her future husband Roy Peratrovich; and Ketchikan, where both she and Roy graduated from the public high school, which had been integrated after the school board was successfully sued by a Tlingit couple more than a quarter of a century before Brown vs. Board of Education.  Elizabeth continued her education at Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska and the Western College of Education (now part of Western Washington University) in Bellingham, Washington.

At the time Elizabeth was born, neither women nor Natives could vote.  Native Americans were not even given citizenship until 1924--four years after (white) women were given suffrage--and the last state to fully guarantee voting rights for Native people was Utah in 1962.  Alaska Natives, although in the majority population-wise, experienced a great deal of prejudice and discrimination from the Caucasian population in what was then Alaska Territory.  Segregation was common everywhere in Alaska. It was this world in which Elizabeth and Roy grew up and were married, on 15 December 1931.

At first they lived in Klawock.  Roy was from a prominent Native family.  The Peratroviches, descendants of a Croatian man and his three Tlingit wives, were well-known in Alaska.  They were acute businessmen and politicians.  Roy's younger half-brother Frank served in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives, the Alaska Territorial Senate, the Alaska State House of Representatives, and the Alaska State Senate.  Both Roy and Frank served as mayor of Klawock.  Roy also served as a policeman, chief clerk, and the postmaster of Klawock.  Just as importantly, he became Grand President of the ANB, and Elizabeth became the Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS).  The couple and their three children eventually moved to the territorial capital of Juneau, where they could be more involved with politics.

It was in Juneau that the Peratroviches especially noticed how strong discrimination was.  Signs stating, "No dogs or Indians" or "No Natives Allowed" were posted in front of many businesses.  When Roy and Elizabeth attempted to obtain housing in a nice neighborhood, they were refused on account of their race.  Three-and-a-half weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they wrote a letter to the territorial governor, Ernest Gruening:

The proprietor of "Douglas Inn" does not seem to realize that our Native boys are just as willing as the White boys to lay down their lives to protect the freedom that he enjoys.  Instead he shows his appreciation by having a "No Natives Allowed" on his door.  

We were shocked when the Jews were discriminated against in Germany.  Stories were told of public places having signs, "No Jews Allowed."  All freedom-loving people in our country were horrified at these reports, yet it is being practiced in our country.

The governor befriended the couple and together they worked to pass an anti-discrimination law through the territorial legislature in 1943.  Unfortunately, it failed with a tie vote of 8-8.  But Elizabeth and Roy didn't give up.  They traveled tirelessly across the territory, encouraging Natives to support their cause and urging many of them to run for legislature.  Two years later, the bill again came to a vote.  Although expected to pass this time, there was much heated debate and many onlookers, including the Peratroviches.  Elizabeth sat quietly listening to the arguments while knitting in the back of the gallery.

Senator Allan Shattuck expressed the sentiments of many prejudiced Alaskans when he debated:

Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?

When it came time for public comments, Elizabeth set down her knitting needles and, poised and dignified, made her way to the podium from the back of the gallery.  Intelligent and beautiful, she would have had the eyes and ears of everyone in the room.  The last to speak, she was clear and eloquent:

I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind the gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.

Her passionate speech described what it was like to be treated as a second-class citizen in her ancestral lands, how difficult it was to be refused housing because of the color of her skin, and how dismaying it was for Native children to be barred from the theaters or stores.

No law will eliminate crimes but at least you as legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the evil of the present situation and speak your intent to help us overcome discrimination.

Her words were met with thunderous applause.  When the vote was taken, the bill was passed with a vote of 11 to 5.  On 16 February 1945, Governor Gruening signed the act with Roy and Elizabeth proudly looking on.

Elizabeth Wannamaker Peratrovich died of breast cancer on 1 December 1958 in Juneau and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery there.  Roy was laid beside her after he passed in 1989.

On February 6, 1988, the Alaska legislature declared February 16 to be "Elizabeth Peratrovich Day," which has been proudly celebrated by Alaska Natives ever since.

Every year a distinguished Native American is featured on the reverse of the U.S. Sacajawea golden dollar.  At the 2019 Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Camp, the design of the golden dollar coin commemorating Elizabeth Peratrovich was unveiled.

UPDATE: On December 30, 2020, Google honored Elizabeth Peratrovich with a Google Doodle beautifully created by Native Alaskan artist Michaela Goade.  You can read more at the Google Doodle page here.

Sister Trip to Michigan: Part III

Monday, May 6, 2019:  Our third day of our trip and second full day in Michigan.  And what a day it was!

We checked out of our hotel in Grand Rapids and headed to the public library.  As we were leaving the hotel, I walked across the street to photograph this historic site marker, as Grand Rapids was once known as the "Furniture Capital of America."  Several of our ancestors worked in furniture factories in Grand Rapids.

(Click photo to enlarge)

The downtown branch of the Grand Rapids Public Library is a beautiful building. It was built in 1904 as a gift to the city by Martin A. Ryerson.  The library has been in existence since 1871.  In 1967, a wing was added to the back, and in 2001 it was completely renovated.  When I first approached the entrance, I wondered how many of our ancestors had entered this building and enjoyed the pleasure of reading.

Detail of the masonry above the main entrance of the GRPL
(click to enlarge)

My sister photographed me on the steps of the GRPL.
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Phillips.
(click to enlarge)

We headed to the Grand Rapids History & Special Collections department, which includes genealogical resources, on the fourth floor.  My goal was to locate some newspaper articles about our 3rd-great-grandfather, Charles H. Robbins, a Civil War veteran; an obituary of our 2nd-great-grandmother's sister, Nellie (Ton) Houseman; and some school census records featuring our adoptive great-grandmother Nellie M. Concidine, a school teacher, and our great-grandfather William James Valk and his sisters, Jennie and Gertrude.  While I obviously could spend days or weeks in Special Collections with all our Western Michigan ancestral records, these were a list of items I knew were reasonable to research with the little time we had to spend there.  I had found references to many of these items in the online databases of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society ahead of time.

We had located two of the articles and the obituary by the time my genealogy friend, Chris Korstange, arrived.  This was the first opportunity to meet in real life after being online friends for about 10 years.  Chris and I had connected through the old Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website when he asked for a lookup to resources I had at my disposal.  In turn, he has done lookups for me at GRPL and local cemeteries. Chris is also a genealogy blogger, and with similar Dutch immigrant ancestry in Grand Rapids, it is pretty likely we will someday find an ancestral connection, either by being related to each other, or discovering our ancestors lived near, worked with, or worshiped with each other.  After a welcoming hug and introducing him to my sister, he helped us by looking up and making scans of the Kent County School Censuses while we finished looking for the rest of the articles.

Chris and I at the entrance of the Special Collections room
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Phillips
(click to enlarge)

Chris then drove us through the Heritage Hill Historic District with its grand homes (see what I did there?!) to what had once been the Delos A. Blodgett Home for Children, an orphanage where our paternal grandmother, Jane Marie York/Jeanne Marie Holst and her brother, and our maternal grandfather, William Valk, and his siblings, had once lived for short periods, at different times.

I had done some research in the past year, contacting the D.A. Blodgett - St. Johns non-profit organization to try to obtain records on our York and Valk families.  Although the full records have since been destroyed, I was able to receive scans of the index cards listing our families, with just enough information to confirm some of the theories I had made regarding their stays, as well as new information.  I will be blogging about this at a later time.  My inquiries to ICCF, the organization that currently occupies the Blodgett building, were never answered.  I had hoped to be able to tour the building's interior while we were in Grand Rapids. However, were able to get some good exterior photos.  As we wandered the front courtyard, I thought about the sad circumstances that had brought two of our grandparents and their siblings to this building.  Every family story I have ever heard on both the York and the Valk sides about Blodgett Home had the same theme:  it was not a nice place to be.  Whether it was because of the situations that led to their placement or their treatment while there, or a combination, I could feel the sadness of this place.  And yet, I felt personal gratitude, as well, because despite whatever occurred within these four walls, it was a place that filled a gap in family care that otherwise may have brought on worse trauma than what was already experienced.

The former D.A Blogett Home for Children, built 1908
920 Cherry St., NE
(click to enlarge)

Detail of the three-story pillars and balconies
(click to enlarge)

My sister and I in front of an ancestral home, of sorts
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Phillips
Taken by Chris Korstange
(click to enlarge)

Next stop, was Oakhill Cemetery, where our 3rd-great-grandmother, Maria Marina (Van Klinken) Ton Bijl, and very likely her husband Pieter Ton, are buried in unmarked graves in the Potter's Field. Chris helped us to locate the unmarked plot where Maria's brother Johannes "John" Van Klinken was buried. By then, it was starting to rain pretty hard.

Somewhere in this corner of Oakhill Cemetery, our 3rd-great-grandmother, Maria Marina (Van Klinken) Ton Bijl is buried.  Her husband Pieter Adriannse Ton is also likely buried here.
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While these tombstones do not belong to our ancestors, I photographed them to show the condition of the few marked graves in Potter's Field (Permit Grounds) of Oakhill Cemetery: broken, dilapidated, uncared for.  These graves aren't even listed on the cemetery's map. You can see that they are inscribed in Dutch.
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We were able to identify this spot as the resting place of Maria's brother, Johannes "John" Van Klinken (1840 - 1913) using Oakhill Cemetery's grave mapping website.  We used some sticks to dig down to see if there was a gravestone covered by dirt, but were unsuccessful. It likely was never marked.
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This grave of Peternella de Jongh just south of Johannes Van Klinken's grave helped us to locate his grave, as the Oakhill Cemetery's grave mapping site listed hers as being in the same lot.
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This marker was in Potter's Field, next to the cemetery road.
It made me very sad to look at, as there is no information as to how many Blodgett Home children there were buried here, or who they were.
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Phillips.
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Chris returned us to the library parking lot where our rental car had been parked.  There we discovered that we had lost our rental car keys!  At this point, the rain was absolutely pouring down, so after quickly searching Chris' vehicle, the parking lot, the steps of the library, and the courtyard in front of it where we snapped photos, we reentered the library, dripping wet, to see if they had been turned in to the front desk.  They had not.  Our next search was the elevator, Special Collections room, and restrooms.  We quickly determined that they probably had been dropped at the cemetery.  Chris was kind enough to not only take us back out there, but tromp around in the downpour to help us find them.  After about 10 minutes, they were located, and he returned us to our rental car.  Thankfully, he did not need to drive us out to the airport to the rental car office get another set of keys!

After parting ways with Chris, we headed to west of the river to a cafe to dry off and grab a cup of coffee.  After the cloudburst ended, we headed over to the John D. Widdicomb Furniture Factory where our step-great-grandfather, George DeVries, had worked. It's business complex now, but we got some great photos of the four beautiful yellow brick buildings located on both the west and east sides of Seward Avenue, parallel to the railroad tracks.  I could just imagine how noisy and busy it was in its heyday, with the busy railroad bringing in lumber and shipping out completed furniture.

The southwest building, from the south
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The southwest and northwest buildings, from the southeast
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The southwest building, from the east
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The southwest building, from the northeast
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The northwest building, from the southeast
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South end of the southeast (original) building, from the west
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Detail of the old doors of the southeast (original) building, from the west
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Detail of the corner stone, east building"Widdicomb Furniture Co. 1877"
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North end of the southeast (original) building and south end of the northeast building
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North end of the southeast (original) building and south end of the northeast building
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North end of the northeast building, from the northwest
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North end of the northeast building, from the west
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Then we headed west to Coopersville in Ottawa County, where our dad and his siblings grew up. After checking in at our hotel, we met our dad's brother and youngest sister at her place, which just happens to be across the street from the home our grandfather built and where they all grew up.

The house and auto body shop our Grandfather Robbins built
Coopersville, Michigan
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Phillips
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Our dad's brother and youngest sister
Photo courtesy of Katrinka Pillips
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While visiting with them, sharing photos with each other of our of children and grandchildren and looking at old family photos, I held my own little Scanfest on my Flip-Pal scanner, scanning our Robbins great-grandparents' little memo book from 1938.  I also took this photo of Aunt Jo's artwork.  Josephine Rebecca (Huff) Robbins was married to our Great-grandfather Robbins' brother Lloyd.  She was the Robbins family genealogist for many years before she passed away in 1987.  I had forgotten that she was also interested in art.

After a long, full, busy day, we crashed in our hotel room.  More adventures awaited us the next day!


Sister Trip to Michigan: Part I
Sister Trip to Michigan: Part II