Wheaton Wood

Justus Warren SHELDON in Eaton Rapids, Michigan & the power of Colorized Photos

Posted on October 22, 2022 2 Comments

I have written posts about my great grandfather Justus Warren SHELDON before but this one is going to focus on his time in Eaton Rapids, Eaton County, Michigan. It seems that Matthew LaRue “Rue” PERRINE owned a large 472 acre farm on the banks of the Grand River but he died of Typhoid fever in September of 1894 at the age of 82; upon which time the farm was purchased by Justus Warren Sheldon. I am unable to locate the exact location of the farm but from this plat map from 1873 and the designation of 472 acres I can come close.

Hamlin Township, Eaton County, Michigan from 1873 Atlas Showing Perrine lands and possible dotted line connection

The large parcel that was listed as DW Perrine is “Rue’s” son and given that the property later became the VFW Children’s Home we can place that parcel here. This is listed as 148 acres so the farm would have been much larger than I have shown below. Note the S (saw) Mill on the above map. This is where the oaks were felled, milled and transformed into Justus Warren’s House in the town of Eaton Rapids.

Current Google maps of Hamlin Twp Eaton county Michigan

So based on the sale of this property we can place Justus SHELDON’s arrival in 1894-5. By the year 1900 he is listed living in Ward 1 of Eaton Rapids City, Eaton County Michigan census. So at this time he would have been living in the city but also owning the large property bisected by the Grand River. I have written about the property above as the Grand River Stock Farm.

According to a recent property listing his house at 221 State street is a “Superb Victorian Era home built in 1901 by Warren Sheldon. Original and beautiful white oak woodwork throughout. Enter this home and enter an era of Grace and style 5 bedrooms , 2 baths, gorgeous!” A newspaper article from 1904 mentions Justus serving his second term as mayor of Eaton Rapids. He was first mayor in 1899 and then again in 1904.

Part of the reason for this blog post is to share photos that I have of the exterior and interior of the house. These have been graciously colorized. Let’s start with the exterior. Click to expand each photo. We can date the photos as about 1903 based on the sheet music in the Music Room.

EXTERIOR

Note the size of the trees and in the first photo the block identified J. W. Sheldon.

Front Porch with Justus Warren, Lois Eurette and daughters Helen and Louise colorized by Melanie Bevill Arrowood

INTERIOR

If you would like to compare the recent photos of 221 State St to those in my collection click on bolded link.

Helen? or Louise Sheldon in Hall colorized by Judy Knesel

Justus SHELDON in Library colorized by Ted Altizer

All of the photos are original black and white photos that have been colorized by individual artists or the new (currently free) Palette.fm website. While we can only guess at what the colors and house originally looked like—these renditions do help bring the house to life. Obviously this was a house of which the owner was quite proud. It’s not often we have interior photos of a private home in this time frame.

What Is It About Boxes? Writing Challenge

Posted on August 31, 2022 4 Comments

I am rather sure I was a cat in a previous life. Don’t all cats love boxes?

box. noun: a container with a flat base and sides, typically square or rectangular and having a lid.

I love boxes—all sorts of boxes. Big cardboard appliance boxes, the kind we made into forts or houses or castles. Little bitty jewelry boxes, metal boxes, wood boxes. All sorts of boxes. I like nesting boxes, the kind for birds and the kind of box where one box fits inside another. Really, Is there any one who doesn’t like boxes? I have 3 boxes sitting on my desk at the moment. (Who knew?) One, is a tin box that I bought at the Stuttgart airport in Germany. It had dark Fedora Chocolates in it, each wrapped in a facsimile of painting. Two, is a handmade box, I think of Myrtlewood, my mother had, that I inherited. Third one, is a hinged wood box with an anchor, my grand-daughter gave to me for Christmas, that looks like a treasure chest. And lets not forget flower boxes! I even have a collection of flower box photos. Although not really a box in the proper sense unless you consider the flowers its lid. Why not?

And this is a photo of the three boxes that reside on my desktop. Although someone pointed out the one on the bottom is properly called a “tin” or as I say a tin box.

There’s so many things I love about boxes where to begin? I admire both the utility of them and the mystery of what may be inside. Or even what I can store in it… As my last blog post was about my Grandmother’s Trinket box, I feel I am not alone. In fact I know I am not. My mother saved boxes and on the day after Christmas “Boxing Day” we delighted in seeing how many boxes we could fit inside each other, before packing them away in our special stash. This was back in the day where Department store purchases were boxed in fancy boxes from “The Emporium”, “Capwells” and “Gumps.” Special boxes were treasured and passed down, sometimes re-appearing at Christmas and repurposed over and over again. Hat boxes, shoe boxes, file boxes, recipe boxes. These specialty boxes are going extinct replaced in part by generic Amazon boxes and electronic files. Gifts, more often than not, are given in “gift bags” with tissue. Just not the same, is it? I was wondering how often I have written about boxes tangentially and it is quite a bit. Here are two.

And here are a three boxes I have yet to write about. The first two were handmade by my father. The last is a gift from my husband. And each is a story not only of how the box came to be and how the box came to me, but what is stored inside.

The box below I made a couple of decades ago from a shoebox covered in greeting card images I liked. The inside of the lid is decorated too! The box is chock full of greeting cards from family and friends. Some now gone…

Each box tells at least one story and sometimes quite a few. Each item inside the box, a memory; a story waiting to be told. Do you have a box waiting for you to tell it’s story? If so this writing challenge is for you.

BOXES WRITING CHALLENGE

Pick a box — what you call a box is up to you
Write something about the box
Could be where the box came from, who gave it to you
Or could be what was/is inside the box
Or maybe what you store there now
Are there cuff links from your great grandfather, your mother’s watch, earrings from a favorite auntie
Are there photos or mementos of trips or performances
Newspaper Clippings, a card, a love letter
You can use the broadest interpretation of box you would like
Maybe it’s a cereal or cracker box, just let it speak through you
Cracker Jacks, chinese candy box…

For this writing challenge describe what it is. Does it have a smell, a feel, an emotion the box or object evokes. Describe it in words so that even without a photo someone can picture it in their mind’s eye. You can use this as a very simple writing prompt to describe something in a few paragraphs or you can use it as a jumping off point for something much more. Up to you. And please find someone to share your story with. Use your imagination, and have fun.

Property Map Treasure Hunts: Finding the Places Your Ancestors Lived

Posted on August 29, 2022 6 Comments

1853 Part of Cato Township, Cayuga County New York

One of the many wonders of Google Maps is the ability to travel down many streets and roads via “Street View.” And then of course there is aerial view that allows you to locate your ancestors properties of a bygone area by comparing old Platt and Ownership Maps with current ones. I am always amazed I don’t see more people doing this. Roberts Estes who writes one of my favorite blogs DNA Explained is a shining exception. There are several things required to do this but none are that difficult. If the ancestors you are hunting appear on a census from 1850 or later (and sometimes before that) you are likely to find a community, a township or a post office they lived near listed on the census. If it is 1900 or more recently you may find an actual street address. Sometimes you need to go back or forward a page to see the street name usually written vertically in the first column. Here’s an example from the 1920 Census for San Francisco, California for my great grandparents Frank S & Lulu P Mosier at 1435 Oak Street.

Another source of actual physical address in 20th century is City Directories. Sometimes you may have a photo or letter with an address as well.

What if all we know is the township they lived in? Well that is going to be a bit trickier but certainly worth the work if you are successful. Some old land ownership maps are fairly obscure and hard to find but it is always worth and internet search using the Township and county as many of these are available on line. In England there are Tithe Maps which can be quite helpful and in America we have the historic Sanborn Fire Maps. Among my favorites are the County Land Ownership Atlases. There are many places to look for these from Historical Societies to subscription services like Ancestry or MyHeritage to free services like FamilySearch. But there are other places you should check. The Library of Congress Map Collection , New York Public Library Map Collection, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, The Harvard Library Map Collection, The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center of the Boston Public Library and last but not least the US Bureau of Land Management which includes Land Patents, plat books etc for the west, Midwest and some of the South (including exact section locations within a township or county). Please note that Map collections often include places well outside where you might think. Just because the Collection is in Texas doesn’t mean they do not have Maps across the globe.

So let’s look at a couple of recent ones, that I just uncovered. My 2nd great grandfather Jonathan Blynn HALL according to The History Of Kent County Michigan came to Kent County in June of 1844 purchased land there and then returned to his native Middlebury, Genesee County (now Wyoming) New York where he married my 2nd great grandmother Sarah Jane MERRITT the first of January 1845. They settled in Grattan Township, Kent County Michigan. We can locate their farm on the 1894 Land Ownership Map as seen here:

1894 location of Jonathan Blynn Hall’s Farm

This particular map is quite helpful since it has many lakes that make the locating easier. Although I have zoomed in here doing a search on Google for Grattan Township located the top right corner which made this easy. What is fascinating here is how close the cemetery is to the family farm.

Google Map of Jonathan Blynn & Sarah (MERRITT) HALL Farm

The proximity to the family’s final resting place is probably a clue for many to the proximity to which they lived. My cousin visited the cemetery where our Sheldon’s are buried in Cato, Cayuga, New York never knowing that the family farm was nearly across the road. See map at top of this post. Note the graveyard (Crossman Cemetery) and then Justus Sheldon’s Farm across the road. Here is the Google version.

Google Map Cato Twp, Cayuga county, New York.

Now sometimes it is much more difficult the farther back in time we go. I have spent months trying to locate the original plot of Robert WHEATON in the 1643 Division of lands of Rehoboth, MA (originally Seacunke). The original map looks like this:

Robert Wheaton’s 6 acre lot is now located off Greenwood Avenue in what is now Rumford, Rhode Island. In working with archivists at the Carpenter Museum in Rehoboth and the Hunt House Museum in Rumford it is still a bit squishy where exactly his lot was because the old map does not conform to current reality. Sometimes we can just get close and not arrive precisely. Rivers, roads and other land contours can and do change. This may not be precise but it is fairly close. My best guestimate is Robert Wheaton’s lot was between what is now Huntington Drive and Berwick Place. Most likely between Huntington Drive and Haywood Place. The south edge of the lots originally was the Ten Mile River (crossing what is the current Agawan Hunt Golf course). (I am still going to work on this and it may be a future blog post.)

Annotated Google Map of Rehoboth, MA now Rumford, RI

Also note that some of the Map sites include modern overlays—so they superimpose the modern map over the old one. Most have a slider where you can adjust the degree of opacity-transparency. Here is a small example below of a map from Essex County, New York. The gray portions are the old map and the Green and yellow are the current roads etc.

Where to look for ANCESTOR LOCATIONS

Old letters
Old Photographs
City Directories
Census records
Land Records
Probate Records
Historical or Genealogical Organizations

MAP RESOURCES

A must is U nderstanding Land Descriptions

Have fun! It isn’t always possible to find out where your ancestors lived but it’s almost always worth a try.

Semper Fi: The Secrets They Kept

Posted on August 22, 2022 6 Comments

We ask our young men and woman to don the uniform and go off to fight wars in foreign lands. We mouth the words, “Thank you for your service”, but how much do we know of their losses? The wounds that we can see and the many we can’t see. The loss of friends, comrades, the loss of innocence, the loss of support from a country that said, they’d have their backs. Just look at how politics prevented the passage of the Honoring our PACT Act, to help soldiers exposed to hazardous burn pits, until John Stewart and others shamed them into passing it. No wonder our soldiers kept secrets only to be shared amongst themselves and their dwindling band of brothers (and more recently sisters). I feel a responsibility to share these secrets from two soldiers I loved. They lived and died carrying burdens that no one wanted. Semper fi.

Some time after my father died I became curious about his service in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. I was lucky to have a 20+ page transcript of an oral interview he did for the Camp Tarawa Project in Hawaii and an article that Dad had written for the 1990 2nd Marine Corps Reunion. Even luckier was the fact that I was still in touch with his childhood friend Dave, who had been the one asking for the article from my Dad. My Dad and Dave had met as boys in Weaverville, California. They stayed friends through moves to San Francisco, joining the Marines, serving during the war, going to the University of California at Berkeley, weddings, the Korean Conflict, children, jobs and retirement. So when I asked Dave for help in understanding my Dad’s Marine Corps service I had picked just the right person. Not only did Dave know my Dad; they had lived through some of the same horrendous battles, although in different units. The medallion above was sent to me by Dave.

Duane & Dave in San Diego; Restored & Colorized by Mary Griffiths Cooperman

According to the article my Dad wrote at Dave’s urging, entitled ‘Why Me?: “I moved to San Francisco for my senior year and following graduation in the spring of ’42’ Dave came to S.F. so we could become able bodied seamen or cabin boys on one of the last sailing vessels still is service, a Chilean fertilizer ‘Bat Guano,’ ship. For some unremembered reason this great adventure did not materialize and we decided that joining the Marine Corps was ‘Second Best’. Unfortunately I was not yet seventeen and Dave couldn’t wait.…On my birthday in late ’42’ I was at the recruiting office in the Palace Hotel hours before it opened. Unfortunately the Recruit Depot (Boot Camp) in San Diego was full up and I suffered a long wait, til January of ’43” In this article he recounts many stories but fails to mention the Battle of Tarawa except in passing. In the 76-hour Battle of Tarawa (also known as Betio Island), the U.S. Marine Corps suffered almost as many killed-in-action casualties as all U.S. troops suffered in the six-month campaign at Guadalcanal Island. Suffice it to say that the amphibious landing at low tide turned out to be a disaster– the ocean turned red with blood. 1,009 US Marines died in 72 hours and 2,101 were wounded. From John Wulkovits’s ‘One Square Mile of Hell‘ “The smell was inescapable…it was everywhere, and it was not the kind of smell one gets accustomed to. It suffused the Marine’s hair, their clothing, and seemed to adhere to their bodies. They smelled it for weeks after the battle, and like all pungent odors, it evoked instant and nightmarish memories.” p 200

My father writes in a letter home to his Mom November 26, 1943 : “I was in the attack on Tarawa Island. And it’s a miracle I’m still kicking. I am aboard ship and headed to a safe port… I lost everything I owned in action and am now wearing Japanese and Navy clothing. I could use some pictures of the family. Well Tally Ho.” PFC Duane F. Mosier, HQ Co. Note the differences in the versions. They glossed over the tough spots to make it all more palatable for those at home.

Over several years, I pieced together what I could through letters, histories and the interview transcript and then I would email it to Dave for further insight and feedback. I knew that my Dad was injured in the Battle of Saipan and received a purple heart medal. I had seen the scars on his leg from shrapnel. As close as I was with my Dad, he never elaborated and I never knew the full story. Both my dad who was in the Marine Corps and his father who was an Electrician in the Navy were stationed on Tinian Island during WWII. Tinian is famous for being the departure base from which the bombers laden with left: Little Boy and Fat man.

It was in a letter my grandfather, Milo, sent to my grandmother dated Tinian Island September 16, 1944 that I learned the truth. “Duane’s wounds are not thoroughly healed but he gets around as if he didn’t have them. He’s got about six of them. I would have seen him months ago but he refused to be evacuated and stayed here. He is just the same Duane, only he is a little too strained, too much tension. I will be glad to see him out if it. There isn’t any part of the worst that he hasn’t been through.

When he got his legs burned up he was on the bottom of a pile of men who had dived into a hole to escape a shell burst. Those on top were blown to bits. That was rather violent but it didn’t bother him much. Maybe someday he’ll tell you of the things that did bother him, He is a very good boy. Incidentally his top sergeant used the same words when I first met him.”

My Dad’s service included the Battles of Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa and the occupation at Nagasaki. Those may lead to other posts, but at the end of my research, suffice it to say, I had a totally different view of what hell my father had lived through. He was just barely 18. Both Dave and Duane joined the Marine Corps Reserves while attending UC Berkeley. A way to stay in touch with Marine Corps buddies and bring in some extra money. Then the Korean conflict arrived and Dave was sent to serve overseas. My Dad was luckier and was stationed stateside in San Diego. He wrote his parents October 4, 1951: Dear Mom & Pop, I don’t know whether this year in the corps is going to mature me or bring about a premature second childhood. Since I last wrote I have done a lot of thinking about the Marine Corps lost time and I find that the facts regarding the Corps achievements in the past haven’t changed much, but my sense of values has and I feel that I fear, misinformation, disregard for human life, narrow mindedness, naive pride and prejudice tied together by mutual suffering and so called guts have made the Marine Corps what it is and was — a myth that accomplishes its end by drawing a curtain in men’s minds– like a religion—if you begin to believe there are no questions, no problems, no nothing, but glory.

In a letter from another of my Dad’s friend Ken, wrote to me April 10 2007: “He [my Dad] once told me of an incident of seeing a Japanese soldier getting out of a truck where he was camped several hundred yards away; Duane had a rifle on his lap; he aimed from the hip and fired one round—the soldier fell out of the truck; that really bothered Duane about killing a man.” In the interview below, my dad speaks more broadly from the interview:

Q. So did you take prisoners? A. Occasionally, sometimes we did on Okinawa. It’s a long drawn out battle, but when you’re confronted with enemy civilian forces they’re coming toward you. Any time they find anything like food, help, anything, they stop, that’s as far as they are going. That really plays havoc fighting a war, going out and hunting down their military brethren and so forth. So people do things like the My Lai [Viet Nam] incident, only much worst, you know, just get rid of these people.

Q. Did it happen to you? A. I was present when that order was given to somebody other than me. And had it rejected—“If you want to get rid of then, do it yourself.” But also, “Oh boy, we’re in seventh heaven, we’ll carve a few more notches on our rifle butts,” -–just slaughter.

Q. You mean they were killed? A. Yes. And we’re talking hundreds.

Q. And you saw it? A. Yes. These things happen and who knows what’s the right move.

Q. This was outside of which town? A. Oh, this was on Okinawa, south of the Kunishi Ridge.

George Feifer in Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb Chapter 25: American Atrocities speaks in more detail. When men are trained to kill and placed in a steady diet of cortisol and adrenaline bad things happen. We lose our humanity and respond like machines trained to do a job—but not able to discriminate and turn the training on and off at will. Seems like there are echoes in our current news diet of endless, breathless, anger, horror and manufactured rage. Study history, it is the stuff of authoritarian regimes…

65 years later in 2016 I received an email from Dave’s daughter telling me that he was in the hospital and he wanted me to call him. It took a couple of attempts, I finally reached him not long after he had a meeting with his doctors and wife, Ruth. He had received sobering news that there was not much more to be done. When I asked what he wanted he said, “I want to walk out the front doors of the hospital and if I have a heart attack and die that will be okay.” I felt he was a yearning for one more bit of normalcy. He wanted to go home. He wanted to tell me something about what had happened on Saipan. I could tell it was important to him. I said: ” I am not a priest, but that if it would help him I would listen.” He was a devout Catholic and said he had tried talking to a priest, but he was too young and didn’t understand. It was flattering to think, he thought I would. He then proceeded to tell met me about a woman who surprised him coming around a corner where he was on guard. He shot and killed her before he could completely assess the danger and it had haunted him ever since. I hesitated then responded, “War is hell. It is kill or be killed. You didn’t know, she could have been armed—and you could be the one that was dead. God knows you had no malice.” He listened attentively and I added, “On behalf of a merciful and benevolent God, you are absolved of your sins.” He was grateful and seeed satisfied. He died a couple of days later and when speaking to his daughter I assumed that she knew the story. As it turns out he had not shared it with his family. These are the secrets soldiers keep. These traumas they carry in a lifelong rucksack of memories, horrors and regrets.

These are not pretty secrets—but they are the secret casualties of war. They are important components of our family histories, but also of the toll of war on all humans and our collective history. We dare not shy away from the unpleasant stories. We owe it to our veterans to remember them and to learn their bitter lessons.

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
― Plato

And What About Frank?: A Soprano’s Aria Chapter 37

Posted on August 8, 2022 7 Comments

Not everyone in our family trees are people we admire. Sometimes they are unsavory characters that people want to bury the details of—but I think we need to know about the good bad and the ugly. Here’s my follow-up piece to Lulu’s diary.

This is Lulu’s husband Franklin “Frank” Stewart MOSIER my great grandfather. Frank Mosier had a drinking problem and anger management issues. He may have suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder which is also called emotionally unstable personality disorder. He was certainly that!

Criteria for BPD. Five must be present:

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
Unstable and intense interpersonal relationships
Lack of a clear sense of identity
Impulsiveness in potentially self-damaging behaviors, such as substance abuse, security, shoplifting, reckless driving, binge eating
Recurrent suicidal threats or gestures or self mutilating behaviors
Severe mood shifts and extreme reactivity to situational stresses
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Frequent and inappropriate displays of anger
Transient, stress-related feelings of unreality or paranoia

I started to wonder about what caused, as a cousin called it, a “mean streak” in Frank. While writing a piece about his mother Catherine Adeline STEWART MOSIER I discovered a few clues which may help explain Frank. Franklin “Frank” Stewart MOSIER was Catherine’s 9th child of 12. He was born two years after his twin sisters Luella & Louisa which might suggest Mom was a tad busy when he arrived. He was followed by a brother less than 3 years later who died as an infant. Then another son, the next year, and finally a daughter when he was 6, who also died as an infant. Among the environmental factors that may cause BPD are:

being a victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse
being exposed to long-term fear or distress as a child
being neglected by 1 or both parents
growing up with another family member who had a serious mental health condition

While no one can know what the family dynamic was it is easy to see how young Frank may not have received the attention he craved. He had an 18 year old older brother who leaves when he is about 3. And two brothers 9 & 11. His oldest sister marries before he turns 7. And I suspect Mom and Dad were busy with twins and then dealing with the loss of two children so young Frank would have been exposed to lots of early loss and perhaps a depressed or stressed mom. When he was 11 his oldest sister dies of complications of childbirth so his world view may have been supercharged with stress for a young boy. We do not know whether his father was a drinker, but he may well have been—and we know Frank had run-ins with the law.

I am not sure if this clipping is for John Wesley Mosier (Frank’s father) or Frank, but somehow it feels like Frank. The Mosier in question was umpiring a game and it seems his calls way off base (pun intended).

Here newly married [8 Nov 1889] Frank Mosier is arrested for assault. I wonder if Lulu was worried even then what she had got herself into.

Frank Mosier arrest 18 Nov 1895 Fremont Tribune

Fremont Weekly Herald Frank Mosier 19 Nov 1895

In a correspondence between my grandfather to his sister in 1964—some family secrets are disclosed about their Dad, Frank. “I don’t know why I got started on this but guess you brought it all back when you said you left home because you didn’t like the way the old man was shoving me [Lolita] around. I don’t think I was aware of why you left.” Lolita letter to Milo April 7, 1964.

Milo replies.”[After] I came home from France. You told me, a day or so after the incident, that the Old Man had said, ‘Now see what you did– You made Milo Leave home.’ I went in (to the bathroom, I think) to see what he was doing to you, and he grabbed me by the vest front and threw me out like a bean-bag.

I think it possible that my leaving might have had some effect on him; I don’t know—He always liked me, but I didn’t know that he had beaten you, the way you described…He was the product of an era when violence was a way of life; and to drag a man through the sagebrush at the end of a lariat was an occasion for great hilarity. I knew him very well. I worked with him in wrecking yards; on construction jobs in the mountains; and drank with him in speak-easys. The only credit I can give him, is that he was as tough to men, as well as women and children; at least in my experience, And he enjoyed a certain respect from those of his ilk with who he worked….

From a moral standpoint the Old Man was a lascivious worm.” April 11, 1964

Lulu’s divorce decree was finalized 23 July 1918. True to form Frank is involved in a drunk driving accident the following year.

In spite of the accident he is listed as a truck driver in 1924. I have not located him on the 1930 census but in the 1940 census he is living with his daughter Jessie MOSIER MILLER and her husband Sylvester. We do learn on this census he only had an 8th grade education. There was both affection and disdain for Frank from his children. In spite of a tough life he lived to be 78 years old. The informant on his death certificate was my grandfather Milo. He was admitted to San Francisco Hospital on 5 Nov 1949 and died on the 8th. Remarkably my father was relatively silent about all his grandparents. Neither my father or grandfather were drinkers. My grandfather was a kindly, gentle soul with a sometimes tough exterior. I suspect there were some tender parts to Frank as well, much overshadowed by his demons. We have nothing to tell of your story great grandpa, Frank — from your perspective. May you rest in peace.

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, California

The 36 earlier chapters of A Soprano’s Aria: Lulu’s Diary are found here.

When Genealogical Evidence is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

Posted on August 8, 2022 5 Comments

The great thing about having half a century of genealogical research under my belt is that it’s easy to recognize when an official has got it very wrong. But what about when you are starting out and you tend to take these pieces of evidence: birth, marriage, death, census records as pronouncements of truth? Well it can really mess with your research let me tell you. I recently came across my great grandmother’s 1930 census record and it was so badly wrong I just had to share it with you. And it’s an honest mistake by the census enumerator.

1930 San Francisco Census for Karl B Anderson & his wife Lulu P

As above it has Karl B Anderson’s birthplace as Illinois and his parents born in Ohio and Indiana. Well this is a simple transposing error as it is Lulu who was born in Illinois and he in Sweden.

I have a 3rd great grandfather, John L. (Loy or Lafayette?) MOSER, who was born 27 MAR 1800 in Orange County, North Carolina, USA. However that did not prevent his children from inventing all sorts of places for his birth. And not a single one I have found got it right!

1880 John Wesley Williamson MOSIER said his father was born in AL (not yet a state)
1880 William James Jasper MOSIER said his father was born in Tenn
1880 Madison Columbus MOSIER missing
1900 John Wesley Williamson MOSIER said his father was born in PA
1900 Madison Columbus MOSIER said his father was born “At Sea“
1900 William James Jasper MOSIER said his father was born in PA
1910 John Wesley Williamson MOSIER said his father was born in SCOTLAND
1910 William James Jasper MOSIER said his father was born in AL
1910 Madison Columbus MOSIER missing

So we have PA, Tenn, AL, At Sea and Scotland as the place of birth of their father! None of which is correct!!! Their 2nd great grandfather Frederick MOSIER was born in Breitenau, Ansbach, Bayern [Bavaria], Germany. He immigrated to PA with his father Johan Martin MOSIER. Their grandfather Nicholas MOSER was born in PA then moved to Orange County, NC, then to Madison County, AL and finally to Anderson County, TN. Their mother Nancy WILLIAMSON’s family is believed to have roots in Scotland so this may be where some of these places have their genesis. What is clear is that with 7 CENSUS records NONE is correct. This should be a cautionary tale to others. All records are fallible. Not everyone knows where their parents are born. Please take all evidence with a teaspoon of salt.

The above are extreme examples but they are more common than you might think. And let me tell you, they can send you on some wild goose chases if you aren’t careful!

Comfort Laps: Writing Challenge

Posted on August 8, 2022 3 Comments

Our reminiscences are important parts of who we are. As we stitch them into narratives they connect us to our ancestors, sometimes in unexpected ways. I urge my readers to not shy away from writing about uncomfortable and challenging topics.

My mother, for reasons that remain somewhat of a mystery, did not like to be touched. Whether she was mildly autistic or physically or sexually abused or some combination, we never knew for sure ( and it wasn’t for lack of asking). However, I was programed to seek and need human touch. Yes, an extraordinary bad combination. I can remember as a very young child trying to climb up into Mom’s lap and being rebuffed. And yet my mother delighted in repeating a story of how I climbed into the lap of a black woman as we were waiting in a Kaiser hospital waiting room in Richmond.

Mom would recount this as evidence of the lack of racism with which I was raised. I always felt it was so much more. This would not be the first time I would seek comfort in a lap of a black woman. For a short period of time we had a housekeeper named Sylvia. She had deep ebony skin, and a powerful personality and how she could clean. Even my mother bent to her will. Before long our house which had looked like an episode of the television show Hoarders, now sparkled. It was Sylvia who taught me how to iron, beginning first with my Dad’s handkerchiefs. (Yes there was a time when they had to be ironed!) It was Sylvia’s hugs which enveloped me in warmth. It was Sylvia who had the house clean enough to open the drapes and “let the sunshine in!” When she left, the darkness returned. I thought of Sylvia when I read the novel Yellow Crocus by Lalia Ibrahim. The story is about Mattie an enslaved wet nurse who takes care of Lizbeth, a white woman’s infant, while forced to relinquish her own son. Why am I drawn to black women’s stories?

This is a photo of my first birthday party. I am the one being held up by my mother—I always felt this photo (and the ones taken along with it) is particularly unnerving. My mother is not holding me like Ruth is her son, of about the same age. Maybe I am being too sensitive or critical—but it does speak to me even now. Is she just playing the part of a mother? It sometimes felt that way.

Half way through my high school career I opted to attend the majority “black” high school rather than the “white” high school I had been attending. And perhaps it would shock you to know I felt very comfortable there. A page from my yearbook:

And then back in 2011, as I have mentioned before, I was browsing books at my library’s book sale and came across Pearl’s Secret: A Black Man’s Search for his White Family by Neil Henry. It was to be a foreshadowing of things to come. (Although mine was in reverse.) A few weeks later my autosomal results revealed that I had two African segments. I was surprised, but not disappointed. And ever since I have been looking to discover who was my African ancestress. I suspect it was a female that was the first who had African heritage in my tree. I go back to her a thousand times and wonder if these yearnings are some how callings from my DNA. It’s not much in percentages (depending on the DNA company .6%-2.8%) but likely a 3rd or 4th great grandparent.

The part of my tree where the secret resides

Was it Eleanor BROOKS born about 1731, Elizabeth wife of Thomas SPARKS born about 1689 or Agnes wife of John BARNES born in 1737? A few hundred years ago and my ancestry takes a different path. I know she comes from this part of my tree because of who matches these segments and how I match them. It may well be on the SPARKS line as I have pedigree collapse here and matches indicate a HENAGER with SPARKS ancestry which matches the SPARKS here. To date I have not a single African match on these segments, but it does not keep me from hoping I will find her someday. We talk of the rainbow bridge for our deceased pets. For me the rainbow bridge includes—-a yearning for a long lost great grandmother’s lap. Perhaps a strange sort of yearning for a mostly white woman, but it has been with me for a very long time. A feeling of connection in an unexpected place.

It was my paternal aunt who confirmed that there were rumors about my grandmother having mixed race ancestry. My DNA bears that out. When I first got my atDNA results I corresponded with an African American woman in her 70’s. She told me in high school she took German. Her friends couldn’t understand why. She was attracted to all things German and when her husband was stationed in Germany she sang in a German choir. It wasn’t until she tested her DNA she realized she had German ancestry. It always makes me feel as if our ancestors have a pull on us whether we are aware of it or not. And so it goes.

WRITING CHALLENGE

Pick a vivid memory, that speaks to you
What echoes can you identify that memory with?
Could be a book someone read, a movie you saw, or an incident
Flesh out whatever you can whether it makes any sense or not
Wait a few days or weeks and let it percolate
Revisit and see what comes up

Sometimes it is only in the writing that the pieces knit into place. Its okay to have lots of little vignettes like the one above. Not quite a full story—more of a question.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Genealogy Intersections: Revisiting the 1719 Deed of Little Packington in Warwickshire

Posted on August 7, 2022 1 Comment

You can’t do genealogy for long before you realize what a small world we live in and how everything and everyone seems to have some sort of relationship. I call these genealogical intersections and they often crop up when doing gophering. I wrote about a very important one in my story of A Tale of Two Soldiers. Quite a few blog posts ago I wrote Who Should own Historical Documents about an Indenture I purchased between George SHAKESPEARE of Coleshill and Waldive WILLINGTON of Kingsbury (both in Warwickshire). This involves a Messuage or tenement and lands, meadows etc in Cliffe in Kingsbury Parish and a Messauge & lands known as Fisher’s Farm and Bromefields in the parish of Little Packington. So I thought I would take a little closer look at some of those names and some interesting intersections.

I find this kind of research quite rewarding and I highly recommend it even if it appears to have no connection to any of your own families, you just never know what might turn up. I know I have many families in Warwickshire. And I know of many families that intermarried with the SHELDONS of Warwickshire. To date I cannot connect my SHELDONs to those of Warwickshire but I suspect they do connect. Let’s do a little Kevin BACON 6 degrees of separation. The document I purchased:

The Indenture with George Shakespeare’s seal dated 1 April 1719

For those who might be interested here is the transcription. Feel free to scroll through. (the hastags are in the original):

This Indenture made the ffirst ####### day of April### in the ffifth year of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Georg of Great Brittain ffranc & Ireland King # defender of the faith & Anno Dui One Thousand Seaven hundred and Nineteen. Between George Shakepeare of Coleshill in the County of Warwickshire of the one part & Waldeve Willington of Kingsbury in the said County ow Warwick Gent of the other part Whereas in and by one indenture triparte bearing date the sixth day of September in the one and twenty of year of the Reign of our late sovevainge Lord King Charles the second and made between John fflamstead of Little Hallam in the County of Derby Gent Robert Dix[ie] also Repington of Cliffe in the sd County of Warwick Yeoman of the first part Thomas Coton of Coton Bridge in the County of Warwick Gent Samuell ffrankland of the Citty of Coventry Gent and John Ensor of Whateley in the said County of Warwick Yeoman of the second part and Alice Ensor of Whateley aforesaid widow of the third part the said John Fflamstead for the consideration of the sum of one hundred fforty six pounds therin mentioned did grant bargain & sell release infeoffe and confirme unto the said Thomas Coton Samuell ffrankland and John Ensor their heires All that messauge or tenenment with the appteuments scituate standing and being in Cliffe in the parish of Kingsbury in the said County of Warwick with the barnes & buildings gardens orchyards abd backfields there unto belonging to have and to hold the same unto the said Thomas Coton Samuel ffrankland and John Ensor their heirs & assignes forever And afterward & by Ind. Bearing the date the sixth day of october in the said one & twentieth year of King Charles the Second Renteing the said indenture of ffeoffement the sd Thomas Coton Samuell ffrankland John Ensor & Alice Ensor did declare that the said dum of one hundred fforty six pounds in the siad indenture of ffeoffement mentioned to be paid by said Alice Ensor to the said John fflaumstead was not all the said Alice Ensors proper money only part there of viz of Ninety pounds & that twenty pounds other part thereof was the money of George Repington son of the Robert Dix[ie] & als Repington & grandSon of the said Alice Ensor ## and thirty pounds residue of the said One hundred fforty six pounds was the proper money of Isabella Repington daughter of said Robert Repington and grandDaughter of the sd. Alice Ensor therefore ##the said Thomas Coton Samuell ffrankland & John Ensor declare their names to be used in trust for the said George Repington Isabella Repington & John Ensor for the raising Severall sums of money out of the rents & profits of the premises and offer uses there in mentioned And it is by the same Indenture declared that the said trustees and heir heires shall stand seized of the premises to the use of the said George Repington and the heirs of his body Lawfully to be begotten and for want of his issue to the use of Isabella the daughter & the heirs of her body Lawfully to be begotten And it is by the Same Ind. # further declared that if the sd. George & Isabella both dye without issue then if Robert Repington his heirs or assignes pay Alice Ensor Ninety pounds then the trustees shall be seized of the premises to the use of Robert Repington his heirs and assigns forever. And Whereas the sd. George Repington son of the said Robert Repington Long since dyed without issue and the said Isabella survived ## and marryed to Thomas Knight of Nether Whitacre in the County of Warwick Gent while Isabella is since dead Leaving issue two daughters Jane the now wife of the said George Shakespeare party to ## kepe Payents and Mary now the wife of Thomas Swift of Hinckley in the County of Leicester Yeoman The said Thomas Swift & Mary his wife by lease & Release bearing the date the ninth and tenth dayes of October in ## the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred & Nineteen made or eclipsed to be made between the said George Shakespeare and Jane his wife of the one part and Waldive Willington of the other part for the consideration in that Release mentioned Did convay all the said mesuage or tenement with the closes lands meadows pastures grounds & premises with the apptentues there unto mentioned to the said Waldive Willington and his heires. Now The Indenture Witnesseth that the sd. George Shakespeare for the consideration in the said in part impart rented Indenture of Release mentioned and for the better ## securing the said mesuage or tenement closes lands meadows, pasture grounds & premises with their apptennmens therein mentioned to the said Waldive Willington & his heirs free & cleare from the clayme Of any person whoever by vertue of the said in part willed Deed of trust Hath demised rented bargained & sold lett & to farme lett and by those presents doth demise grant bargan lease lett and to farme lett into the said Waldive Willington his { Et^esAdm. ^Esand assigns Ass those two closes of pastures pacells or enclosures of Land with their ap#purtements lyeing and being in Little Packington in the sd. County of Warwick comonly called and knowne by the names of the Broomefields contayning by estimation thirteen acres of land (be the same more or less) and are parcell of a farme of his the said George # Shakepeare there commonly called or knowne by the name of ffishers farme are now in the tenure or outbarow of Richard ffalkesbridge and # his assignes or undertenants togeather with all woods underwoods wayes waters watercourses commons here ditam ^ts& apptenueumens whatsoever to be the said two closes of pasture grounds & premises belonging or in any wise appurtaining or there witnsesed or injoyed # To have and to hold the said two closes of pasture grounds & premises with their appt^#en^#es unto the said Waldive Willington his { and et ^es Adm.^es & assigns from the day before the date of these p’ymentsfor & during and unto the full end & terme of ffive hundred years from hence eo & Feusueing fully to be compleate and ended Yielding and paying herefore yearly & eny year dureing the said terme ## unto the said George Shakespeare his heirs or assigns the yearly rent of one peper due att the ffeast of St Michaell the arc Angell (if the same be lawfully demanded &) Provided always Nevertheless ## and upon this p’ys conditon abd ut is the true intent and meaning of those pYents & of all parrtyes here unto thay is the said mesuage or teneme. And ffarme with the Closes Lands meadows pastures & apptenuences there unto belonging and only part there if the said in part writed Indentures of Lease & Release men’oned & are lyeing and being in Cliffe in the parish of Kingsbury aforesaid and granted bargained & sold # to the said Waldive Willington and his hers doe & shall from time to time & att all times hereafter be remaine & routine unto said Waldive Willington or his heirs and assignes forever free and clear and freely and # nearly acquitted & disaryed or herewise we & huely lar’d harmless and kept indemmifyed by the said George Shakespeare his heirs assignes of & from the Lawfull entry clayme & demand wilsoever of # the heirs or assignes of the said Alice Ensor Robert Repington George Repington Isabella Repington or any person claiming or to clayme from by or mq or them or any of them by vertue of the said in part # writed deed of trust and from all costs or damages that may arise or happen in here upon that thou his pYent indenture of Lease & every Coven clause & ayreem^therin contayned shall lease end determine and be # uttelry bound frustrate & of none effort in the Law Any thing herin contayned to be contrary there of in any wise not withstanding AND the said George Shakespeare for himself his heirs & et ^es and Admin^es.Doth # herby covenant ? Puise and grant to & with the said Waldive Willington his E er ^es. Admin^es & assigns that he the said Waldive Willington his er ^es. Admin^es & assigns shall & may imediately after breach of # the said proviso peaceably & quietlly have hold possess & injoy the said two closes called the Broomfields with their ap^#ptu^#mes hereby demised & for the said terme of ffive hundred years without the lawfull lett suits trouble hinderance molestaton or disturbance of the said George Shakepseare his heirs and assignes quietlly and peaceably to have hold & injoy he herby demised pLinjes with the said George Shakespeare his heirs and # assignes that it shall & may be lawfull to & for the said George Shakespeare his heirs and assignes quietlly and peaceably to have hold injoy the herby demised pLinjes with their ap^#ptu^#mes until the Premisses in the # said in part rited & Indentureds of Lease & Release mentioned or any part thereof shall be legally entered & upon claymed & demanded by the heirs of Assignes of the Said Alice Ensor Robert Repington George ## Repington or Isabella or and of them by vertus of the said Deed of Trust without the Lawfull lett suite trouble hindrance molestation or disturbancce of the Said Waldive Willington his E er ^es. Admin^es & assigns or # any other person by his or their Act Deed means title covnent or purement those Pyents or anything here in contayned to the contrary here of in anywise notwithstanding In WITNESS where if the parties above named to these pYent [present] indentures interchangebly have putt their hands & seales the day and year first above written #

St. Bartholomew Little Packington Reproduced from the “Our Warwickshire” website under CC

One of my Warwickshire ancestors is Nicholas BROME (1450-1517) my 13th great-grandfather. In an obscure thesis I find reference to the Manor of Little Packington which originally belonged to the cathedral Priory but was then at the dissolution granted to William WILLINGTON and William SHELDON. This is William WILLINGTON father of Mary WILLINGTON (1502-1553) who married William SHELDON (c1495-1570) of Beoley son of Ralph SHELDON of Sheldon tapestry fame. And just a few years later it is in the possession of Thomas BROME and his wife of Woodloes. Thomas BROME is the great grandson of Nicholas BROME [my 13th great grandfather] of Baddesley Clinton and Woodloes. In 1653 the manor was sold to Thomas Fisher and it has since generally followed the descent of Great Packington. What is interesting is that the Indenture contains both a Brome fields and a Fisher’s farm. The parish church of St. Bartholomew Little Packington is no longer a church but has been turned into a residence. George SHAKEPSEARE in his will dated 30 May 1719 gave to the churchwardens and overseers £10 to be laid out in land or secured, in order to lay out 10s. in bread yearly to the poor of Little Packington. (on map below it is shown as Pakington parva. Also Bermingham=Birmingham; Colshill=Coleshill)

Map of Hemlington Hundred in Warwickshire by Robert Vaughn 1656

At this point I do not know of any SHAKESPEARE’s in my family tree—although my cousin Dale SHELDON has some. The George SHAKESPEARE of Coleshill and of the indenture, was born to Thomas and Grace (HARBERT) SHAKESPEARE and baptised 9 January 1657 at Little Packington, Warwickshire. Thomas was born 26 April 1610 at Little Packington and married about 1645 to Grace HARBERT who was born about 1624, making his mother about 33 when George was born but his father 47.

How these SHAKESPEARE’S relate to the famous William is yet to be discovered. But the deed is connected to my BROME family and perhaps to my SHELDON family. And whether the deed’s George SHAKESPEARE shares an ancestor with the scribe William SHAKESPEARE, who knows. And there are the surnames COTON, FRANKLAND REPINGTON and ENSOR which could lead in many directions. All good fun following the gopher holes.

ANCESTRY DNA’s Beta Chromosome Painting

Posted on August 4, 2022 Leave a Comment

This one sneaked up on me—I didn’t know it was there! It’s a new feature at ANCESTRY DNA currently in BETA. If you have tested there you should check it out. My favorite part was probably the questionnaire where it asked whether I would want to see the segments of my matches? HELL, YES! We dedicated genetic genealogists have been begging for this for many years. So PLEASE do me a favor and tell them you want this feature.

A CLOSER LOOK

If you followed my earlier posts on Ethnicity/Ancestral breakdowns at Ancestry you have heard my complaints about the assignments. The assignments have not changed but the painting of the assignments onto your chromosomes is new. So first off the Finnish on Ch 19 is actually Norwegian at least back to the earlier 1600’s. I know this from Chromosome painting at DNA Painter which shows that all of the segments on my mother’s side of chromosome 19 are Norwegian matches. And since I have this family well documented back to the 1500-early 1600’s I am confident this isn’t Finnish, at least not in the last 500 years. The next thing I looked at was the Germanic Europe segment on Chromosome 8. This one is a bit more intriguing. So at Ancestry it shows one half of chromosome 8 as Germanic Europe. The other half as Scotland with a bit of English Unassigned on the right most tip.

There’s many things I want to draw your attention to and scrutinize. First the 2 gray segments on Chromosome 8 & 10 are actually assigned at 23andMe. These are my African segments and neither of these chromosome paintings show them correctly! They are actually on my PATERNAL side.

The PATERNAL side of Chromosome 8 includes mostly matches on my German lines of HENAGER and REMSBURG (RAMSBURG, RIEMSBERGER) and on my English SPARKS/BARNES lines. The segment shown as Ghanaian at 23andMe and Unassigned at Ancestry is from matches on the SPARKS/BARNES line which is from my father’s side so the painting is showing part from my Mom and part from my Dad on the same side of the Chromosome. Known of my MATERNAL matches on the Scandinavian (23andMe) or Scottish (Ancestry) has any African DNA. Furthermore the part of my tree in question had ancestors who were enslavers so my guess is somewhere a child was born between the Master or male relative of a plantation who later passed as white. (Another mystery yet to be resolved). One of the people in the tree below is likely responsible for my African segments.

Part of my ANCESTRY tree where my African Ancestry lies

The second African segment on Chromosome 10, I have no segment matches for. However the segments on either side of the African segment are both related to matches on the SPARKS/BARNES lines.

FOR A DEEPER COMPARISON

Let’s take a look a closer look at Chromosome 1 from Ancestry. Basically it shows MATERNAL side on top with mostly Swedish/Danish and a bit of Norwegian on Right Tail. On my father’s side it shows England and Northwestern Europe.

Let’s compare with the 23andme version:

In this matchup Ancestry wins. My maternal side shows matches just as shown with the bulk Swedish and some Norwegian on the right end. On Paternal side it is similar to the bottom half of what 23andME shows. SHould read Scottish/English/German/English which the broad Ancestry tag encompasses.

So what does this all mean? It means that all of these tools must be taken with a teaspoon of salt and yet there is important data to be mined here. To date none of these tools gets things precisely right—but as you can see they are useful. Particularly in trying to sort out where segments come from. Here is the major CAVEAT: Anything Northwest European can be mistaken ie Scottish might be Swedish, Swedish might be British and Finnish may be Swedish. If you are lucky enough to have some more DNA outside the NW European Bucket the accuracy of these predictions can go up.

If you are not already doing so keeping track of matches on DNAPainter is what allows me to know where individual segments come from. I highly recommend this tool.

Check it out and feel free to share your Opinions here or on The All Genetic Genealogy Facebook page.

Serendipity Strikes Again!

Posted on August 2, 2022 1 Comment

Most every Sunday, SheldonGenealogy.org sponsors a free Zoom chat, where anyone with SHELDON ancestry around the globe can join in to exchange information or get help on their SHELDON genealogy. Well this weekend we were joined by Steven SHELDEN who told a story about his grandfather and great uncle being surrendered to a VFW home in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, after their mother died and their father was unable to care for them. Steven belongs to the Godfrey line of SHELDONs which traces back to Derbyshire, England and I to the unrelated John SHELDON of Kingstown, Rhode Island, speculatively from Warwickshire. I have never been to Eaton Rapids, but knew the place immediately. The VFW home is located on a farm previously known as the Grand River Stock Farm. I found this plaque (sold) on Ebay—another touch of serendipity.

The 472 acres was originally acquired from the government by Matthew La “Rue” Perrine in 1838. At Perrine’s death in 1894 it was purchased by my great grandfather, Justus Warren SHELDON. Where according to the book The Only Eaton Rapids on Earth by W Scott Munn c 1952 Uncopyrighted: ” J Warren Sheldon, [who] erected a commodious farm house, a mammoth barn and outbuildings and it became known as the Grand River Stock Farm.” (p352). It was later purchased by Corey J Spencer who was instrumental in making the VFW Home a reality.

The farm which was originally timbered was the source of the oak that was used to build Justus Warren Sheldon’s Home in Eaton Rapids. More on that in a later post. Here is a colorized photo of my great aunt and great grandmother on the farm.

Louise and Lois Eurette SHELDON on Grand River Stock Farm (note the large barns)

There are 2.43 BILLION acres of land in the US. What are the odds that two people would have knowledge of a 472 acre plot of land with connections to two different SHELDON families? Things like this happen everyday in the genealogy world. I guess that’s what I love about genealogy.

And a further bit of serendipity was shared by Steve SHELDEN. He had posted in a local Facebook Group in England where the Derbyshire SHELDONs hark from and lo and behold there are still SHELDONs living there! The first ones were in the 13th century!

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