My Genealogy Do-Over Finds: BARBER and FREDENBURG Cemetery Records and Plat Map

I've had to slow down on my Genealogy Do-Over. Currently, I'm in a one-week break between working late supervising students during 7th grade basketball games and the beginning of my latest five-week round of genealogy classes for the Community Colleges of Spokane. Also, the following week, the 8th grade basketball games begin. There won't be another pause until Spring Break during the first full week of April.

But what I've done is placed a box of miscellaneous genealogy files and documents on my dining room table, and as I have five or 15 minutes between tasks or when I'm waiting for my water to boil for tea, I'll do a little decluttering or filing.

One of the items in the box I've been going through this week was a binder my paternal grandmother, Jeanne (HOLST) ROBBINS, an adoptee, put together of family tree records I sent her in 1997 when I found her biological family. I weeded out duplicate copies of things and filed the original documents I had given her. Within the binder, I found two documents that I realized I had not given her. In fact, she herself had obtained them when she and my grandfather reunited with her biological cousins and aunt and they went to visit the graves of her biological mother, maternal grandmother, and a maternal aunt. These were new documents for me and they gave me a lot of information about their specific burial locations.

Stiles Cemetery Office (Mayfield Township, Lapeer Co., Michigan), plat map, citing the Barber family, lot 443.
Click to enlarge.

Stiles Cemetery Office (Mayfield Township, Lapeer Co., Michigan), plat map.
Click to enlarge.

The lot records list my great-grandmother, Mary Jane (BARBER) DUNLAP, her mother Mary Jane (FREDENBURG) KELLER, and her sister, Clara May (BARBER) REYNOLDS. One grave space belonging to the family, Grave 5, remained unused by 1997.

In the cemetery plat map, I recognize the writing in the left and right margins as belonging to my paternal grandfather, Bob Robbins, Sr. The writing in the right margin is the inscriptions on Jeanne's mother's and grandmother's headstones, as compared with photos I have of said headstones, mailed to me by my cousin.

Besides being elated at discovering documents I did not already have, I realized something. Years ago, I obtained the death certificate of my grandmother's biological father, Howard Merle YORK, which stated he also was buried in Stiles Cemetery. I attempted to get a photograph of his grave through the Find A Grave photo request service, but was told by someone that his grave must be unmarked and that the cemetery records had all been destroyed years ago in an office fire. I'm still looking through all my hand-written research logs to determine who sent me that information. At this point, it matters little, because I have discovered that this is indeed not the case. This misinformation was part of the reason I did not attempt to locate the exact lot location of the Barber women graves, because I thought it had been lost in a fire. I figured since I was in touch with family members who knew where the graves were located, were tending the graves faithfully, and who had sent me photographs of them, this would be adequate for locating them myself if I ever had the opportunity to visit. My next step will be to contact the Stiles cemetery office to see if I can obtain a lot record for my great-grandfather's grave.

It just goes to show that it's good to 1) revisit your folders once in a while to see what "new" things you may discover; 2) question information you get from others, and do a little following-up yourself; and 3) never give up on trying to locate original or substitute records.

What discoveries have you made since you started your Genealogy Do-Over?

EWGS Presents "Walking With Ancestors"

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society (EWGS) is proud to present an all-day event, "Walking With Ancestors," in partnership with Fairmount Memorial Association. Guided tours, a barbecue lunch, displays, and how-to classes are all a part of the day-long FREE event, to be held Saturday, July 31st at Fairmount Memorial Park, 5200 West Wellesley Avenue, Spokane, Washington (marker A in the map below).

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Beginning at 9:00 AM, there will be a short opening ceremony, followed by a choice of three guided tours of the cemetery. Attendees will be led to graves where costumed actors representing either the deceased or the deceased's relative will be giving a sketch of the individual's life. Famous Spokanites and ordinary people will be equally represented; their graves were chosen and their lives thoroughly researched by the participating actors. The three guided tours will repeat approximately every 45 minutes, and attendees can attend as many of the three as they wish.

In addition, members of the 1st Michigan Artillery Unit of the Washington Civil War Association, a Civil War reenactment group, will be on hand in full military costume, complete with a cannon! The display tables will be manned by members of EWGS, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, Creative Memories Scrapbooking, Fairmount Memorial Park (to assist attendees in finding a loved one's gravesite), Honor Flight, the World War II Memorial Registry, and Nostalia magazine will be on hand to answer questions and hand out materials.

Free "how-to" classes will also be available. They include:

• Beginning Genealogy, by EWGS members Bette Topp and Lola McCreary
• Photographing Tombstones, by Northeast Washington Genealogical Society and EWGS member Susan DeChant
• Gravestone Rubbins for Beginners, by NeWGS and EWGS member Karen Struve
• Properly Cleaning Headstones, by EWGS member and Fairmount Memorial Association historian John Caskey

A free barbecue lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers will be provided by Fairmount Memorial Association from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. No tours or classes will be held during this time. The event will conclude at 3:00 PM. For more information, contact Shirley Penna-Oakes at firebugvw@directv.net.

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Please note: Due to street construction on West Wellesley from Division to Maple Street, it is recommended that those travelers heading from the central part of the city take either Garland or Francis Avenue west to the Maple/Ash corridor, follow that corridor to where it intersects with Wellesley, then travel west to Fairmount. Another good alternate route is to take Northwest Boulevard.

Forgotten Remains Get Burial Rites

This story in my local paper, from North Idaho, reminds me of Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Unclaimed Persons Project. In this case, it's about forgotten remains of veterans or their spouses, and what the Missing In America project is doing about it. It's a national project, but it started in Idaho.

You'll want to read this as soon as possible, because The Spokesman-Review archives its articles behind a subscription wall after only a day or two.

Memorial Weekend Open House 2009 - Heritage Funeral Home

Each Memorial Day weekend, the Heritage Funeral Home (508 N Government Way) puts on a weekend-long open house featuring a historic person. Past presentations have included John F. Kennedy, Ulysses S Grant, and even Elvis Presley! In addition to the historic display, military, aerospace, and vintage car displays are also available, along with free refreshments.

Don't forget to check out the thousands of flags at nearby Riverside Memorial Park and Greenwood Memorial Terrace, each one honoring a Spokane or Inland Northwest veteran.

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Memorial Weekend Open House 2009
Saturday, May 23 thru Monday, May 25, 2009
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day

Join us for our special remembrance of Amelia Earhart. We will have photos, memorabilia and special presentations honoring this "first lady of flight".

We will also have displays honoring our military veterans, an aerospace display, vintage car display, Tree of Remembrance, entertainment and refreshments. There will be a power point presentation at Noon each day by authors of books about Amelia Earhart. There will also be an organ concert each day at 2:00pm in the Heritage Chapel.

Please join us for this special time of remembrance!

Also:

Sunday May 24th

Band Concert at the Cross of Inspiration -- 6:00 p.m.
Join us for the annual Memorial Weekend Band Concert in Greenwood Memorial Terrace at the Cross of Inspiration. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets, have a free ice cream bar and enjoy the free concert.

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After 77 Years, Western (Washington) State Hospital's Patients' Graves Get Markers

From the Tacoma News Tribune via the Spokesman-Review (Spokane):

STEILACOOM, Wash. – For 77 years, patients who died at Western State Hospital were buried in graves marked only by numbers stamped in bricks of cement.

It wasn’t about money. It was about shame.

And it was about the law.

The state sought to protect families from the stigma of their relatives’ mental illness by barring state psychiatric hospitals from putting names on the graves.

Read here to discover how the Grave Concerns Association is rectifying this issue.

Confederate Grave Database - Georgia

I came across the Confederate Grave Database for Georgia in Cyndis List Mailing List of new websites added to her site. While neither my husband nor I have Confederate ancestors or relatives from Georgia, I thought it was a great resource for those who do. I noticed as I ran a search for Smith (the surname I usually chose when checking out a genealogical website where I don't have ancestry) that the search results page was set up very similarly to the National Graves Registration Database for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War website. While primarily featuring Union veterans' graves, the NGRD has Confederate graves as well; however, I think it's great that there is a Confederate-only database. Here's a quote from the site:

The Confederate Veteran Grave Database remains a work in progress. Currently, the database contains the collected grave information from the 17 counties in Georgia that make up the 9th Brigade of the Georgia Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans. The ultimate goal is to collect the grave information from all of Georgia’s 159 counties.

I hope they plan to add Confederate veterans' graves from other states as well!

Native American Burial Ground Uncovered in Flint, Michigan

From the Grand Rapids Press blog:

Police have contacted the Tribal Council in Mount Pleasant to determine how to handle what may be an Indian burial ground near Atwood Stadium.

On Monday, the remains of what a Michigan State University anthropologist says are those of a very old Indian man were unearthed at a construction site at Stone Street and Third Avenue. A day later, another set of skeletal remains were dug up about 150 feet away from the first site. The MSU anthropologist also believes those to be Indian remains, Flint police said.

Click here to read more.

Dog Walking Allowed at Holland, Michigan Cemeteries

The Holland City Council in Ottawa Co., Michigan recently dismissed a proposal to ban dog walking in two city cemeteries, Graafschap and Pilgrim Home, reports an article in the Grand Rapids Press. This one caught my eye, as some of my Hoekstra family members are buried at Pilgrim Home. I can't say I agree with the city council on this one.

The Biography of Martin O. HOLSTON

On May 29th, I posted an account of some Civil War veterans buried in Spokane, whose graves I had randomly picked to decorate during Memorial Day weekend.

Earlier this month I heard from Patrick Shade of Bridgewater, New Jersey, a great-great-grandson of Pvt. Martin O. HOLSTON of Illinois. We began a correspondence, and today he sent me a biography of his ancestor, which I have included below.

Martin O. Holston was a civil war veteran who served in the IL cavalry and infantry. There is little verifiable information about him until he enlisted in the Union Army. He served all of his time in the military as Martin Olson (Olsen). The best available information, at this time, indicates his parents were Jonathan Holston and Sophia Blanchard.

He enlisted on 4/18/1861 in Chicago, IL and was mustered into service on 7/8/1861 in Bellaire, OH by Capt Cram. He served first in Company C, Thielman’s Cavalry 16^th Cavalry Regiment and later in Company C 16th Cavalry Regiment. He was mustered out 7/16/1864 in Chicago, IL. He re-enlisted 3/10/1865 in Joliet, IL for one year and served in Company G 4th U.S. Veteran Infantry Volunteers. He was finally mustered out 3/10/1866 in OH.

It should be noted that Martin O lists his age as 22 when he first enlisted on 4/18/1861 and again as 22 when he re-enlisted on 3/10/1865. His exact birth date can not be verified at this time but it appears to be between 1839 and 1843. All available records consistently indicate that he was born in Rochester, NY.

Martin O explains in his Civil War pension file that his father was a Jonathan Holston who died when he was two years old. After that, he adopted the surname of his step father (i.e., Olson or Olsen). Apparently, during his time in the service, he decided to re-adopt his original surname. Immediately after he was mustered out of the Union Army for the second time, he took the name Martin O Holston.

After the name change he quickly married his first wife, Elizabeth Forstmaier, on 3/14/1866 in Columbus, Franklin Co., OH. They had at least two children, Leonard Hayes and Lillian Elizabeth, who married and lived to adulthood. Martin O reports in his pension file that his wife Elizabeth died and was buried in Kansas City, MO.

Martin O married his second wife, Lana Dickens, on 5/19/1874 in Charleston, Coles Co., IL. They had at least three children. Two died as infants and one, Charles Marion, married and lived to adulthood. Lana died 5/31/1882 and was buried in Charleston.

The third wife of Martin O was Susan Easter, whom he married on 9/24/1883 in Charleston, Coles Co., IL. They had no children and were later divorced.

Martin O’s fourth wife was Eva Edna McGrath whom he married on 2/20/1886 in Marena, Hodgeman Co., KS. They had at least two children who married and lived to adulthood. Their first child, John A. Logan, was born on 12/15/1886 in Portland, OR and their second child, Jennie Augusta, was born on 1/29/1890 in Des Moines, IA. Eva died on 8/20/1921 and was buried in Warren Co., IA.

It was during this chapter in his life that he appears to first travel to the northwest. It’s not clear what drove him to go west but it was likely to seek employment. He was still in the Portland area by the end of 1888. By early 1890, he had relocated to IA.

Martin O drew a disability pension, on and off, for over 25 years. His pension file is voluminous. He worked as a laborer and even as a "pension attorney" for some time.

While working as a “pension attorney”, he apparently overstepped the legal bounds of his job and was convicted of forgery against the US government in October 1890. He was sentenced to 10 years at hard labor. He was extradited from Des Moines, IA and sent to the Oregon State Penitentiary on 1/31/1891. He served about 8-1/2 years and was released on 7/21/1899.

It was only during this period in his life when he used a first initial "F". The penitentiary records say the F is for Frank. Therefore, he was sometimes referred to as F.M.O. Holston.

After his release from prison, he relocated to Spokane, WA where he lived a modest life until his death on 10/29/1917. His death record indicates he had no living relatives although he had many.

If you are related or connected to "Frank" Martin Olson HOLSTON or any of the other individuals mentioned in his biography, please contact me, and I will put you in touch with Patrick Shade.

When You Can't Find the Cemetery of Your Ancestor

This has been a red-letter day in my genealogy calendar! I wrote in my last post of how I received a package of three CDs of scanned documents, photos and letters from scrapbooks belonging to members of my Robbins family--especially the memorabilia from my great-grandfather's World War I service. I received a letter from my mother's sister with some copies of commendation letters to my (step) grandfather DeVries for his many years of service in the U.S.P.S., as well as the obituary of my great-grandfather Hoekstra's second wife. AND, I received an e-mail from my mother's cousin with a copy of the death certificate of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Jan Martens HOEKSTRA. His anglicized name was John Martin HOEKSTRA, the same as his grandson/my great-grandfather.

I have been trying for several years to figure out where exactly Jan was buried. Our Family Record book, filled out by my Hoekstra great-grandparents, says he was buried in Muskegon, Michigan, which makes sense, since he lived there the last 14 years of his life, and I found his death record in the Muskegon County death libers (these county death records do not list cemetery information). But the Muskegon County Cemetery Records I ordered on microfiche did not list him, so I could not find the specific cemetery he was buried in. His wife, my ancestor Grietje JONKER, was buried in Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, and the information in those records made it clear he was not buried near her. I have suspected for some time that the Muskegon County Cemetery Records which I viewed on microfiche, published by the Muskegon County Genealogical Society, were created from tombstone transcriptions, and not necessarily from cemetery office records. Family records of other ancestral lines residing in Muskegon County mentioned burials of individuals in Muskegon County cemeteries not listed in the published cemetery records. I figured that ordering a death certificate would give me the name of the cemetery, but that was further down on my list of records I needed to order. Thanks to Mom's cousin Kathy, I now have my own copy.

As you can see by clicking on the image above for a magnified view, Jan was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. There are two cemeteries by that name in the county; one in the city of Muskegon, and the other in Holton Township (often referred to as Holton Cemetery, or Holton/Oakwood Cemetery, to distinguish it from the one in the city of Muskegon). Using the logic that he lived and died in the city and that the family records stated he was buried in (the city of) Muskegon, I conclude that the death certificate is referring to Oakwood Cemetery in the Muskegon. I did a search in the online cemetery listings, using Google, as the site does not have a search engine, and still came up without any listings for Jan or John Hoekstra. So while I don't have a specific lot number, I do have evidence of his burial ground. I will be contacting the cemetery office soon to see if I can determine his exact burial place. I also have the name of the undertaker, which may lead me to a funeral home that can verify the body was disposed of at that cemetery.

More About Charles F. Wightman, Musician, of Co. C, 26th Illinois Infantry

Talk about your creative genes! I blogged about Charles F. Wightman--buried in Greenwood Memorial Terrace--last week, and recently received an e-mail from Brad Hanner, who is researching the history of the 26th Illinois Infantry, having an ancestor that served in Company K. Apparently Charles was more than just a musician:

Seems like a rare tri-color lithograph after Charles' sketch of the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia is selling for $850 at OldPrintGallery.com! The website has an incorrect middle initial for Charles, but a little research proved out that he was the only Charles Wightman to serve in that regiment, or the state of Illinois.

Even More About Sgt. Walter Scott

This afternoon, I had about an hour in the genealogy room of the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. I wanted to see what I could find out about Sgt. Walter Scott, even though an hour didn't give me enough time to really do a lot of digging. First, I looked at the microfilm rolls of the Washington State Death Index for 1910 - 1919 and for 1920 - 1929. I was looking not only for Walter, but for his wife Josephine. There were many Walter Scotts listed in the WSDI, and I had to eliminate them by subtracting the age listed at death from the year of death to see if I could come up with a date of (or close to) 1847, the date Craig determined Walter had been born. I found only one Josephine listed in that 20-year-span, and her age was too young to have fit the Josephine found on the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses. I finally found Walter listed in the 1920 - 1929 WSDI, age 75, death on 6 January 1923 in the City of Spokane.

From there, I went in search of Spokane newspapers on microfilm for that week. In 1923, the city had three newspapers, The Spokane Press, The Spokane Daily Chronicle (which later became simply The Spokane Chronicle) and The Spokesman-Review, the only one of the three still in existence. Most people in those days did not have obituaries, unless they were prominent citizens or celebrities. Occaisionally, one might find a short "blip" of a paragraph or two tucked away behind the front page, notifying the public of the death of a well-known or beloved person in the community. Births, marriages, deaths, funerals, and cards of thanks were listed with the public notices directly before the advertisements, not unlike today's paper.

In The Spokane Daily Chronicle of Saturday, 6 January 1923, on page 14, column 1, I found Walter's death notice:

Scott - Walter. Age 75 years, passed away a E3604 2d avenue, January 6th. He is survived by his wife, Alice M.; a daughter, Eva M. Petway of Spokane; two sons, Miner [sic] L. of Seattle and Walter of Anaconda, Mont.; also a granddaughter of Portland. He was a member of the K. P. lodge and Reno Post. The body is at Smith & Co.'s funeral parlors.

The Spokane Press had a funeral notice two days later on page 7, column 2:

Walter Scott, Tuesday, 3 o'clock, from Smith & Co.'s. Rev. Johnson, Reno Post of GAR and Knights of Pythias to officiate. Greenwood.

There was nothing found in The Spokesman-Review. I ran out of time to check funeral home records, city directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and a number of records I could have accessed in the genealogy room, Northwest Room, or microfilmed newspaper section. On my To-Do list is to discover when and where Josephine died.

When I got home, I was curious to see what I could find on the Washington State Digital Archives website. I noticed that Walter's wife was listed as Alice M. in the death notice, so I figured he had married again after Josephine's death. My search for Walter Scott turned up many results, most of which were not the man I was researching. However, three were of interest: the 1910 Federal Census of Spokane County; a 1911 Spokane County (historic) marriage record to Alice M. Harris; and a Walla Walla Penitentiary record. The 1910 census listing is actually an index, and does not list other members of the household. Since Craig had already found this information (likely on Ancestry.com), I didn't feel compelled to dig deeper here. The marriage record was definitely a jackpot, because one can view images of these historic records! It confirmed Walter's birth in Ohio, and gave his mother's maiden name: Sophia Hall, born in Kentucky. His father's name was unknown. Alice had much more detailed information, including the fact that she was an octoroon, divorced, and her parents' names and birthplaces. The record contained the Scotts' signatures as well. I could not make out the last name of one of the witnesses: Belle Sear? The other witness was definitely a relative: W. E. Scott. They were married by F. L. Donohoo, elder of the A.M.E. Church in Spokane.

The penitentiary record was probably not this Walter, but may have been his son. A Walter Scott, Negro, was convicted of Grand Larceny in King County (Seattle) in 1915, and served time in Walla Walla.

There are certainly many more things I could research on this family. Currently, my curiousity has been satisfied. Perhaps having this information online may bring about a result for a descendant Googling Walter Scott's name.

Some Civil War Soldiers Buried in Spokane, Washington

As I mentioned before, I photographed a few Civil War veterans' graves in Greenwood Memorial Terrace here in Spokane on Sunday. Here's a list of the veterans, with links to their memorial pages and grave photos on Find A Grave:

C. R. Bardwell - Company C, 6th Minnesota Infantry

His wife, Mary E. Bardwell.

Eugene S. P. Bolton - Company A, 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery

F. W. Fiske - Company C, 8th Minnesota Infantry

Martin Holston - Company B, 1st Illinois Cavalry - UPDATE 23 Sep 2007: Read his biography here.

Pvt. Albert B. Hurd - Company H, 6th Minnesota Infantry (He already had a memorial page and photo, unbeknownst to me, but I added the photo I took.)

Hiram O. Johnson - Company H, 9th Indiana Infantry

Pvt. Joseph Litterneau - Company F, 12th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry

William W. Mason - 39th Massachusetts Infantry

John W. Proctor - "U. S. Soldier"

Corp. Christian Sanders - Company F, 6th Wisconsin Infantry

His probable wife, Elizabeth Sanders.

Sgt. Walter Scott - Company K, U.S. Colored Troops Infantry (I'd love to find out more of his story! African-Americans have always been a definite minority in this community, especially at the time this man would have lived here.) - UPDATE: Craig Manson, at GeneaBlogie, has created a "brief study" of Sgt. Walter Scott's life here.

John C. Squires - Company I, 2nd New York Heavy Artillery

Henry S. Walker - Company L, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry

James B. Warren - Company D, 18th Missouri Infantry

Musician Charles F. Wightman - Company C, 26th Illinois Infantry

I used the Sons of Union Veterans National Graves Registration Database to try to find more detailed information on these men. There wasn't much, but I did get some full names where I only found initials, a couple of dates (most of the stones did not list birth/death dates), and some explanations for some of the abbreviations.

These are but a handful of the 393 known Civil War veterans buried in this cemetery and the 803 total buried in this county. I want to know more about these men, and perhaps this summer I can do some research on them, or find their obituaries in the microfilmed newspapers in the downtown library.

An Afternoon at the Cemeteries

Yesterday afternoon, my 16-year-old daughter accompanied me to two local cemeteries so that we could honor the deceased of our families. I had planned to go on Saturday, which was a gorgeous warm day, but errands--including purchasing a new flag for the holiday and a bouquet of roses for the purpose of distributing them at the graves--took up most of my day. Sunday arrived with strong gales of wind, so strong I dared not put up my new flag for fear of bending the aluminum pole or snagging the banner on the gutters above. Thunderstorms were forecast for the late afternoon and evening, so I decided it was now or never.

The first cemetery we visited was Riverside Memorial Park, where a special little boy now rests in peace: Brandon Tyrone Chapman, a special-needs student I worked with for four years, who was like a second son to me. He is buried underneath some pines not far from the Spokane River. The cemetery was beautifully decorated, with hundreds of memorial flags fluttering along the roadsides and graves brightly trimmed with real and silk flowers, flags, and pinwheels. At the entrance, throngs of people milled, visiting Heritage Funeral Home, which normally has a historic display for the public every Memorial Day weekend. Last year, Ulysses S. Grant had been the focus; this year was Elvis, so I did not go in (I like his music, but I had hoped for a more "historical" figure). Classic cars were being shown in the parking lot, and I took a quick shot with my camera while my daughter picked up some free pizza from a nearby booth (yes, it's quite an event!).

We then crossed the road to Greenwood Memorial Terrace, where we noticed a large American flag was posted near the monument of Chief Spokane Garry. We drove up to the first terrace where a large Midkiff monument marks the lot where George Henry, his wife Arzella (Glasgow), and their son Samuel C. Midkiff are buried. I've done a little research on this family, and can trace George back to Kentucky, but how he may be related to my husband is still a mystery. There are no descendants; their only son Samuel died in 1918, so our family has "adopted" the graves to clean and decorate them on Memorial Day. My daughter remarked that Samuel was only 16 when he died (her own age), and I told her he had probably died in the Influenza Epidemic.

We then went up to the top terrace, where two of my cousins, Christopher Wrex Pierson Zaagsma and Caren Jeanne "Carrie" Pierson Zaagsma, are buried in the Inspiration block. We stayed for a while at their graves, while I told my daughter the stories of my cousins, what their personalities were like, memories of special times together, and how they had died. Then we went over to nearby Honor Lawn, where some distant Midkiff cousins are buried. I shared memories with Missy about Betty Lou(Midkiff) Bryant, a petite woman who had researched the Midkiff family in the area and had contacted us about 18 years ago to try to fit us into the family tree (she was my father-in-law's second cousin). Together, she and I organized the first local Midkiff Family Reunion in 1990. Betty's husband, George Wesley Bryant, is buried next to her; a salty-tongued WW2 veteran, he had worked on the Grand Coulee Dam as an ironworker. On the other side of Betty rests her brother, George Vernon Midkiff, a Navy veteran whose life was cut tragically short by an automobile accident.

When we were done with the graves of family and friends, we returned to the first level, where the graves of many Civil War veterans are situated around the Grand Army of the Republic monument. We chose graves that had no flowers or flags (and sadly, there were many) on which to lay the last of our roses. I took photographs to upload to Find A Grave. There was a nest in a pine above us and a baby bird fell out, fluttering around. My daughter was very worried, but I assured her the bird's mother would return as soon as we left, and that the good thing was there didn't appear to be any predators in the area.

We returned home tired from our outing in the wind, but satisfied in having enjoyed our time together, knowing our loved ones had been honored.

Selected Military Resources on the Internet

On April 21st, Eastern Washington Genealogical Society member Barbara Brazington taught a computer class entitled "Selected Military Resources on the Internet." I love attending Barbara's classes! Several years ago, our society had an educational program based on military records (it was not Internet-based). Every month during the year, a different member would teach on an American War or military era, starting with colonial wars and ending with the present war in Iraq. The instructor would give a summary of the war, and list resources where we could find records for our ancestors who fought in that war. Barbara did a fantastic, in-depth presentation on World War I facts and resources, so I was looking forward to her computer class on military records online. I was not disappointed!

We were given a long list of URLs for sites with military records, history, and resources, nicely categorized by Barbara. First off, she listed the major American wars starting with the colonial ones:

Records of military service before the Revolutionary War are kept in state archives.

Pequot War 1637 - 1638
Iroquois War 1642 - 1698
King Philip's War 1675 - 1676
King William's War 1689 - 1698
Queen Anne's War 1702 - 1713
King George's War 1744 - 1745
French & Indian War 1754 - 1763

U.S. Wars for which there are Federal records:

Revolutionary War 1775 - 1783
War of 1812 1812 - 1815
Mexican War 1846 - 1848
Civil War 1861 - 1865
(Union records only; Confederate records are found in state archives.)
Spanish-American War 1898
Philippine Insurrection 1899 - 1902
World War I 1917 - 1918
World War II 1941 - 1945
Korean War 1950 - 1953
Vietnam War 1965 - 1973
Gulf War 1991

SERVICE RECORDS
Ancestry.com - U.S. Military Collection - $
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
National Personnel Records Center - 20th-century records. In 1973 a fire destroyed most of the records stored there, except for Navy and Marine records. Eighty percent of Army records and 60% of Air Force records were destroyed. However, Army and Air Force records have been reconstructed using those stored in other places.

PENSIONS
Ancestry.com - U.S. Military Collection - $
HeritageQuest Online - available through many city or county library websites (check this list) - and coming soon to a Family History Center near you!
Cyndi's List (remember, Confederate pension records will be held in state archives)

UNIT HISTORIES
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center

SITES BY WAR
WWI/Doughboy Center
King Philip's War
Civil War - this site and this one

SITES BY SUBJECT
Medals and awards
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center - contains military info between wars

Burial sites
American Battle Monument Commission
Veterans Administration Gravesite Locator - much of this is duplicate information of what is found at the American Battle Monument Commission
Commonwealth Graves Commission
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War National Graves Registration Database - this was not on Barbara's syllabus, but I have added it here

Photographs
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center - choose digital documents, not photos
Library of Congress
U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center - another link

Oral histories
Veterans History Project

Other countries
Canadian
British

MISCELLANEOUS/GENERAL
National Archives - Home Page: "Genealogists/Family Historians," "Veterans and Their Families"; ARC - Archival Research Catalog: "Search," "Topics" - state summaries and copiled service records; AAD - Access to Archival Databases
U.S. Army Center of Military History
Naval Historical Center - Dictionary of American Fighting Ships here
U.S. Marine Corps History Division
Cyndis's List - Military
Olive Tree Genealogy
Online Military Indexes, War Records & Databases of Soldiers - Joe Beine's site!
Access Genealogy
Library of Congress Reference Guide
Office of Medical History

Barbara also recommends doing Google searches by state and by war. This is how she found many of the links above. Some great information is located on sites where you would never expect to find military information. For instance, the Missouri State Parks website contains Civil War battle site resources.

Thank you, Barbara, and happy hunting to all of you!

Some Civil War Resources for Genealogy

Memorial Day began in the United States with the observation of Decoration Day, which was a day when citizens decorated the graves of Civil War soldiers. It was a day for parades and speeches, featuring local Civil War veterans. Over the decades, it has become much more, from honoring all military dead to honoring all the dead.

The American Civil War, or War of the Rebellion, or War Between the States, or War for Southern Independence--whatever your preferred term--is of great interest to many, evident by the number of books, magazines, movies, and websites one can find on the subject. I can't begin to do justice to number of websites in which the Civil War relates to genealogy. However, I can list some websites that have proven very helpful in the research of my Civil War ancestors and relatives. First off, the list of my known Civil War people can be found on my website's military page here and my husband's family's military page here. These individuals are either our direct ancestors or brothers of direct ancestors. This does not include in-laws or cousins who were in the war, of whom there were many. I think these lists give you an idea of the magnitude of the war: everyone who possibly could serve, did (or perhaps, if wealthy enough, paid someone to serve for them...but that's another story). And because whole neighborhoods of men served together in the same units, the consequences were quite devastating; whole communities lost the majority of their young men in battle or to disease. This war affected our country in a way that none of the subsequent wars could or did. (A bit of trivia: one of the effects was that from this point forward in American history, women outnumbered men; a statistic that continues today.) It's important to find out whatever you can about your ancestors or relatives that may have served in one of the great conflicts of history; because what happened to them ultimately affects who we are today.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailor System website is a great place to verify that your ancestor served during this war. In searching for a soldier or sailor, you must use the exact spelling on their record to find them, so it may take some creativity on your part to find your man. Currently, only African-American sailors are listed in the sailors list. Once you find your soldier, his unit and company will be given, and you can click on the link to read about the history of the unit: where they served, traveled, and battled (sailors have information on enlistment dates and ships on which they served). In the upper left corner of the website, you will find a link marked "Tools." Clicking on it brings up a right-hand menu with information about the National Archives and ordering service and pension records. Military service records are indeed interesting, but it is the pension records that are most useful in genealogy, as they often list marriage dates, spouses' and children's names, and other relevant information.

If you would like to read more official correspondence regarding your ancestor's military unit, check out Cornell University Library's Making of America Project here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose either Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion or The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. While it is unlikely that you will find your ancestor by name in either of these multi-volume online books (unless he was an officer), you certainly can trace his unit's movements and various engagements through the war. From this site I copied and pasted pages upon pages of my 4th-great-grandfather Joseph Josiah Robbins' unit, the 58th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers for my records.

Civil War Rosters is a private website that is a directory of Civil War Rosters and Muster Rolls that have been found on the Internet. Named one of Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Websites for 2003, it is the only online location where I was able to find a mention of a possible burial place for my 3rd-great-grandfather, Sylvester Fredenburg.

Another site I use quite frequently is the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War National Graves Registration Database. Your ancestor need not be a Union veteran for his name to appear in this database; some Confederate veterans' graves are also recorded. You can freely search for your ancestors and relatives. If you would like to submit information, you must first register (for free). I am simply amazed at the number of Civil War veterans that are buried here in my home county of Spokane County, Washington...located far from any Civil War battlefields. The National Graves Registration Database lists veterans that died long after the war, not just those that died in or soon after from battle or disease. For this reason, you too may have a long list of Civil War veterans buried in your area.

An interesting site that also relies on submitters is Military History Online - Civil War Genealogy Database. Here you can freely search for and also submit your Civil War ancestor or relative, along with your contact information: name, e-mail address, website. You can edit or delete information as well.

On subscription websites, Ancestry has the Civil War Collection - a compilation of 26 databases. It also has the 1890 Veterans Schedules, a fragment of the 1890 U.S. Federal Census, and includes widows of Civil War veterans as well. Footnote contains Brady War Photographs, the Civil War Pensions Index, and Confederate Soldiers Service Records for Alabama, Texas, and Virgina in its Civil War-era collections.

For offline resources, check out the Family History Library's catalog Place Search for your ancestral locations (put the county name in the top box and the state name in the bottom box of the search page) and check out the cemeteries listed for that area. It may be that the Daughters of American Revolution or the Committee of Civil War Graves Registration transcribed Civil War graves in that county; the organization will be listed as the author of the cemetery records in the list of titles. If the title is on microfilm or microfiche, you can go to your local Family History Center (FHC) and for a small fee, have the microform shipped to the FHC from Salt Lake City for you to peruse. If the title is not filmed but is in print, go to your local FHC and ask for a "Request for Photocopies" form. For $4.00, volunteers in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will look up your surname in the book and mail you the results. For an additional $2.00 a page, they will also send you photocopies. For many titles of other microfilms, microfiche, and books relating to the Civil War, go to the Keyword Search of the Family History Library's catalog and use the boolean method ("civil war" michigan; "civil war" mississippi; etc.).

For further reading and information, check out Cyndi's List of U.S. Civil War/War for Southern Independence sites here. Happy Hunting!

Using Funeral Homes for Genealogy

Last weekend, I wrote about connecting with cousins using the cemeteries where your ancestors are buried. Today I would like to talk about another great genealogical resource with Memorial Day connections: funeral homes.

If you have obtained your ancestors' or relatives' death certificates or obituaries or even their funeral cards, chances are you have the name of their funeral home printed somewhere on that document. Funeral homes are an excellent source of information, much like cemetery offices. Keep in mind that families often utilized the same funeral home service for several generations, which can help you find missing information on ancestors and relatives. Also, it's my understanding that funeral homes did not really come into much use until the late 1800s.

First of all, you'll need to find the funeral home. The documents mentioned above may not have the funeral home listed, or perhaps you've done a little investigating and discovered that a funeral home by that name no longer exists in that community. Don't be discouraged! Here are some tips for finding a funeral home. A great website is www.funeralhomes.com. This link will lead you to a database of funeral homes in the United States and Canada--good for current ones in business now. If your ancestor's funeral home is not listed, look for one with a similar name in the same city (Smith Funeral Home becoming Smith-Jones Mortuary, for example). You can always call a funeral home in the area and ask where the records for the obsolete business are now located. Very often, when one funeral home went out of business or was absorbed by another, the records were archived by either another funeral home in town or by the business that took over.

Many public libraries may have old copies of the Yellow Book (not to be confused with the Yellow Pages business directory in telephone books). The Yellow Book's full name is The National Yellow Book of Funeral Directors, and by browsing through several years' worth, you can often see the evolution of a funeral home business from one name to another to sometimes even another (Smith Funeral Home > Smith-Jones Mortuary > Jones Mortuary > Jones-Brown Funeral Parlor). The Yellow Book has a website, but it is only accessible for industry practitioners (a.k.a. Death Care Professionals). You may also wish to check city directories as well. And check with the local genealogical or historical society in the area to see if they can help you locate where old funeral home records are archived. Cyndi's List of Cemeteries and Funeral Homes is also helpful.

Once you've found the funeral home, you'll want to make a call. I prefer calls rather than letters, because it's quicker and often in a conversation with the funeral home employee I will think of other questions I wish to ask. I've created a "Funeral Home Employee Interview" form on my website here. It's been amazing what I have discovered by calling a funeral home. I've also been able to get copies of death certificates and funeral cards, names and addresses of family members, occupations and causes of death of the deceased, and names and addresses of cemeteries (especially helpful when one isn't listed in a death notice). George G. Morgan has a nice list of other items that can be found in funeral home records in his article here. As we near Memorial Day weekend, I encourage you to contact an ancestral funeral home.

Happy Hunting!

Connecting with Cousins on Memorial Day

A Poem for Memorial Day

Years ago I found this poem in a book handed down from my maternal great-grandparents, John Martin and Lillian Fern (STRONG) HOEKSTRA entitled The Family Book of Best-Loved Poems, edited by David L. George and published by Hanover House/Doubleday & Company, Inc. in 1952. Some of my most precious childhood memories are of my father reading to us from this book after we were tucked in bed.

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

(The women of Columbus, Mississippi, scattered flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and the Union Soldiers.)

By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead;--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Under the one, the Blue;
Under the other, the Gray.

These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet;--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Under the laurel, the Blue;
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe,--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Under the roses, the Blue;
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor
The morning sun rays fall,
With a touch, impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all;--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
'Broidered with gold, the Blue;
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain;--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Wet with the rain, the Blue;
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done;
In the storm of the years that are fading,
No braver battle was won;--
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Under the blossoms, the Blue;
Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;--
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

--Francis Miles Finch


For a wonderful website on the observance of Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, go to http://www.usmemorialday.org/. Be sure to check out the "History" link.

Connecting with Cousins on Memorial Day

Three years ago, my husband, children and I traveled across the state of Washington to spend Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws in Vancouver, Washington, which lies just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. I always enjoy this cross-state visit, as the longest leg of it--driving along the Columbia River on the Oregon side--follows both the Lewis and Clark trail and the Oregon Trail. I enjoy imaging the explorers and pioneers traveling the same route, and seeing Mt. Hood towering in the distance.

While in Vancouver, we went with Norm's parents and sister to Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, to visit and photograph the MIDKIFF, TOLLIVER, DAVES (step-ancestor), LUKE, and CHAPLIN graves. The following year, 2005, we made the same trip, and I insisted that we were going to travel down to the Willamette Valley to visit and photograph the grave of one of Norm's great-great-grandmothers, Rebecca Catherine (SNOOK) WESTABY, buried in Salem, as well as the graves of my great-great-grandparents, Charles Frisbe STRONG and his wife, Mary Lucy WRIGHT. Charles and Mary are two of only four of my ancestors buried west of the Mississippi River, and the other two are nowhere near my home! My paternal grandfather, Robert Lewis ROBBINS is buried at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, and a 4th-great-grandmother, Lura Ann (JACKSON) PECK CRAPSEY, is apparently buried in St. Paul, Minnesota. So to actually be able to be within a few hours of an ancestor's grave is a big deal to me, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

When we arrived at Belle Passi Cemetery in Woodburn, Marion Co., Oregon, where Charles and Mary are buried, we found that the graves had already been cleaned and decorated. They were surrounded by other graves, obviously of the family of their daughter, Ethel Melissa (STRONG) HASTIE, who is buried there along with her husband, the Rev. Ezbon Roy HASTIE. I remember visiting the widowed Aunt Ethel in 1979, when we first moved to Washington State, and remembered meeting her son.

We were rather rushed on that visit, and so I didn't have time to try to find out how to contact the family. But on the way home, I had a couple of ideas that could work for you to help you connect with cousins on Memorial Day. Obviously, I could have looked up the Hastie family in the phone book in Woodburn, or on Dex Knows when I got home. But what if you are looking for descendants of an ancestor, yet you don't know your cousins' surnames?

First off, you need to know where your ancestor is buried. If their grave is in your hometown or nearby, you're in luck. If you are like myself and live far from your ancestral cemeteries, it's important to obtain death certificates and/or obituaries of your ancestors to determine their final resting places. I use Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness quite frequently to get obituaries of ancestors. They're easier and less expensive to access than death certificates. Once I have the name of a cemetery in hand, I use Find A Grave, Interment.net, Dex Knows, or Cemetery Junction to find an address and telephone number (check out Cyndi's List of Cemeteries as well).

My next step is to cold call the cemetery office during local business hours. I have had so much luck with this! You would be amazed at how helpful cemetery employees are! From phone interviews I have discovered the names of other ancestors and relatives buried in the same cemetery, the names of the funeral homes that provided services (I'll post more about this in the future), the names and addresses of the lot owners (which may be obsolete, but may provide relatives' names). I always try to obtain the lot number of the grave(s) I am interested in, and sometimes the employee will mail me a cemetery map. I ask the cemetery employee if it's okay to send them an info packet that they could place on my ancestor's grave (see following paragraph). In fact, I have been so successful in this type of research, that I've created a form that I use to help me remember all the questions I want to ask when I call.

The fourth step is to write a letter explaining that I am a descendant of the ancestor buried in that cemetery, and that I am doing genealogical research on the family. I leave contact information: a phone number, mailing address and e-mail address. This letter is folded and sealed in a zip-lock bag and then placed in an envelope which is addressed either to the cemetery office or to a volunteer in the area that I've contacted through the local genealogical society or Random Acts. The cemetery employee or the volunteer can then place the info packet (my letter in a zip-lock bag) on the grave, hopefully weighted with a small rock or wedged into a crevice of the headstone, so it won't blow away. If this is done about a week before Memorial Day weekend, there's a chance that I could connect with another descendant of that ancestor who has come to the cemetery to clean and decorate the grave! If the cemetery doesn't allow an info packet left on the grave itself, ask if your letter could be placed in your ancestor's file at the office.

So what's the purpose of this? To hopefully connect with other relatives of a common ancestor and exchange information...photos, documents, stories, etc. It's likely that the two of you have missing information that the other may be seeking. Perhaps you'll break down a brick wall! Memorial Day weekend is only two weeks away, so I hope you'll take advantage of this tip. Good luck to you!

May is Here Already!

I thought I would try to post a blog while dinner is cooking...Happy May! I looked it up, and May has traditionally been Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. May is also when both Mexico and Norway celebrate national holidays with Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) and Syttende Mai (17th of May), respectively. Neither my husband nor I have Asian, Pacific Islander, or Mexican ancestry. He is 1/8th Norwegian, however.

But, I digress. What I really meant to post was just an update of what's happening and what's to come, so y'all aren't wondering what happened to me if I disappear from time to time. As regular readers of this blog know, I work for my local school district, and as of today, we have 31 days of school left in the year. This means that life for me as both a parent and staff member will get simply crazy from now until June 15th. Actually, the insanity has already started. I'm halfway through the spring quarter Online Genealogy class I teach for Community Colleges of Spokane (four consecutive Monday nights). I am putting together auction materials to be sold during the Spring Seminar that the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society has put together (with Halvor Moorshead as guest speaker) coming up on Saturday. I've volunteered to help out with several track meets for my school this month (including a two-and-a-half hour one this afternoon).

So here's my plan: I want to finish my series on my direct ancestors that appear in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census, and I want to do some posts on cemetery research (since Memorial Day is coming up).

After things settle down, I'll be more likely join back in with the Carnival of Genealogy, as well as more frequent posts. In the meantime, I hope you'll visit some of my archived posts, as well as the blogs of my genea-blogger friends. Links to both archives and favorite bloggers are in the right-hand menu.