Revisiting Goals 2010

I suppose I wouldn't be revisiting my 2010 goals now except that I've met one - or nearly have - so I guess I can crow a little about it. I have scanned a large part of the Russell family archives and all of the photos I have found so far. That is a BIG deal for me. Scanning gets mighty boring, especially when what I really want to do is dig into some family roots or climb some neglected family tree limbs. The numbers: 241 documents such as letters, report cards, newspaper clippings, funeral notices, obituaries, invitations; about 45 postcards, front and back; about 110 photos, also front and back

The other part of that particular goal, #4, was to post them here. Well, I haven't done that yet - obviously... but I will! I think the plan is to begin at the beginning...I tend to have to do things chronologically...except for several very important digressions. An example will be the story of a smart, accomplished young woman who became a nurse in the early 1900s but who died too young. It's not a dramatic story, but it is a heartbreaking one, especially for her sisters who grieved a long time for her.

There are still several parts of the archives to scan, including the diaries of the Russell sisters. I photocopied the pages years ago and scanning shouldn't take long. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other things that will prove more challenging to scan. I may set up my camera to take digital photos of them. That will be down the road a bit. I don't anticipate being able to start posting this until after Thanksgiving, and most likely after the new year.

There are no scandals in the story, no black sheep or fallen women. The story of the Russell family up to the middle of the 20th century is the story of an American family seeking to earn a living and take care of their family responsibilities, which meant they had to move several times to find work. They lived through many historic changes. But the diaries and letters they left do not talk about that. They record the personal stories of the how they earned money to help pay for necessities, of giving up a dream to care for a parent, and of their struggles to live up to their spiritual ideals. To quote from Agnes Russell's diary: "How can writers describe such dull, drab, lonely lives of country people. Maybe some families live such lives - we didn't."

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Birth Order

Another fun Randy Seaver puzzle:

1) Pick one of your ancestral lines - any one - patrilineal, matrilineal, zigzag, from a famous ancestor, etc. Pick a long one if you can.

2) Tell us which position in the birth order that your ancestor was in each generation. For example "third child, first son." Also list how many children were born to these parents.

3) Share your Birth Order work with us on your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a comment on Facebook, etc.

Patrilineal:

1. Only child of my father

2. Hugh Russell (1912-1995) was the oldest child of his father and the fourth son of his mother, her sixth child out of nine.

3. Benjamin T. Russell (1878-1963) was the oldest son of Henry and Elida (Newcomb) Russell; they had seven children

4. Henry Russell (1849-1937) was the oldest son of Rev. Daniel and Maria (Hunter) Russell; they had three children. Daniel remarried and had five more children.

5. Daniel Russell (1824-1902) was the seventh son and youngest child of Benjamin and Martha (Dayton) Russell; they had 14 children

6. Benjamin Russell (about 1780 - about 1840) was one of five sons of James Russell but I don't know their birth order. They had nine children. James is the end-of-line ancestor on this branch.

Matrilineal:

1. Youngest child of my mother

2. Grace Jones (1923-2009) was the oldest daughter and oldest child of Frank and Elizabeth (Worth) Jones; Frank and Lizzie had two children.

3. Elizabeth Worth (1888-1985) was the third daughter and sixth child of George and Flora (Swift) Worth; they had 13 children.

4. Flora Lucinda Swift (1859-1927) was the second daughter and fourth child of Charles F. and Eunice (Robinson) Swift; they had five children. Eunice remarried and had two more children (possibly more?)

5. Eunice Calista Robinson (1832-1906) was the first daughter and second child of Aaron and Rachel (Walker) Robinson; they had 10 children.

6. Rachel Walker (1807 - after 1880) was the fourth daughter and sixth child of John and Rachel (Cochran) Walker; they had eight children.

Saturday Night Genealogical Fun

"Her there, genealogy buffs - it's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Determine which event in your ancestral history that you would love to be a witness to via a Time Machine. Assume that you could observe the event, but not participate in it.

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook."


When I read tonight’s challenge, my first thought was of Luther Kallam, 1760-1845. Luther joined the fight against Britain when he was 16 and returned home from the war four years later. Here is a capsule review of his service gleaned from his pension record.

Luther Kallam served in Babcock’s Regiment commanded by Col. Lippett. They marched to New York Island under the command of General Washington; he participated in the retreat off New York Island and White Plains while he was under Capt. Lemuel Bailey. They went from White Plains, New York, to Kings Ferry, Morristown, New Jersey and crossed the Delaware at Easton and travelled on to Bethlehem where his term of service expired 1 Jan 1777. He immediately volunteered for one more month and crossed the Delaware River at Bridgetown. He was in the battle at Trenton and also Princeton, then on to Morristown and New Brunswick. He was discharged again 31 Jan 1777. He enlisted again under Captain Heeney in February 1777 for three months and marched to Providence, Rhode Island, in Col. Richmond’s regiment. Again his enlistment expired.

In the spring of 1780 he enlisted under Col. Jeremiah Halsey for nine months and was attached to Capt. Hall’s company, in Col. Swift’s Regiment, 1st Connecticut. They marched to Herrington, then down the Hackensack river, back to Herrington to the north river at King’s ferry, on to the Highlands where they assisted building the Barracks or “Hats”. He was discharged December 1780.

What student of history wouldn’t want to tag along with Luther during these four years! There was no certainty the revolutionaries would win and in fact many times it looked like they would be defeated. The crossing of the Delaware was treacherous and the victories at Trenton and Princeton were almost miraculous. The battles. The marching. The hunger. The frostbitten fingers and feet. The knowledge at the end of it all that he and his fellow soldiers had been instrumental in setting up a new nation. What a wonderful trip back in time that would be!

I will again highly recommend the book Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer for anyone interested in learning more about George Washington and this part of the war.

~Source: "Revolutionary War Pensions." Database and images. (Footnote.com. www.footnote.com.), (www.footnote.com : accessed 23 Sep 2009); Luther Kallam; online images of pension application including affidavit.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

When I created a calendar as Randy Seaver suggested, I decided I had to post, even a day late. Several birthdays of note happened in January, including my paternal grandmother, Della May (West) Patch Russell, who was born 131 years ago. And with all the research I've done on Luther Kallam this past year, including applying for D.A.R. membership because of his military service, you'd think I would have noticed that 3 January was the 250 anniversary of his birth! Another January birthday was Betsey (Kallam) Newcomb, daughter of Luther and mother of Enos Newcomb, who was born on 30 January. Here's his story that I have so far...

On 30 June 1815, Enos Newcomb was born to John and Betsey (Kallam) Newcomb, in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. He was 12 years old when his father died. It doesn't appear that his mother remarried, although I haven't done an exhaustive search for this. He was a farmer. He was 30 years old on 12 Feb 1845 when he married Susan Ann Westervelt in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. They had seven children, Edgar Enos, Rachel Ann "Minnie", Salina Madaline, Elida May, John, Susan Emily and Edwin Marlin. John and Susan died in childhood. I am descended from Elida May, who married Henry Hunter Russell 22 Oct 1872 in Manchester, Delaware, Iowa.

On 2 April 1863, Susan Newcomb died. She was 40 years old. On 14 March 1866 Enos married Margaret (Hutton) Creedy or McCredie. They had one son, Charles Leon Newcomb who lived from 14 Dec 1866 to 20 May 1878.



In 1888 it appears they moved to Kansas. I spent quite a bit of time looking for a death record for him in Kansas, but then just last summer I checked the USGenWeb, Iowa, Delaware County site and saw a listing for Enos "Newsome" on the Death Register Index. I sent an email and received an email reply that this Enos died in Greeley, Delaware County, Iowa. The record says he died 11 April 1891 at 2 p.m. of heart failure of 20 minutes duration, apparently a sudden heart attack. The date of birth matched so I am fairly confident this is my ancestor. It also says he was a 25 year resident of the state of Iowa. Did the plans in Kansas fall through? Had he moved back to Iowa from Kansas already? Was he back in the state visiting family when he died? I hope to follow up some day with newspaper research to find out more. I also hope to receive an image or paper copy of this record so I can double check the spelling of the last name to see if it was transcribed wrong.

I don't have a photograph of Enos although it is very likely one or several were taken.

His wife, Susan, is an end-of-line ancestor and is one I want to focus on this year, trying to find out more about her and to discover who her parents were.

Newspaper source: Manchester Press, Manchester, Delaware, Iowa, 8 Jun 1888, page unknown, column 2

Rachel Ann "Minnie" (Newcomb) Terpening Fenner

A lovely vacation day spent mostly on family history! I traipsed down another sidetrack today and it paid off. I decided to look for a date of death for Rachel Ann "Minnie" (Newcomb) Terpening Fenner. She is a sister to my great-grandmother, Elida (Newcomb) Russell, and the daughter of an Enos and Susan (Westervelt) Newcomb.

Minnie was married twice, first to Lawrence Terpening and second to Theodore Fenner. She had no children. This is a relative it would have been interesting to meet because she didn't seem to like to stay in one place very long. She lived in Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas.

I followed her through the census from Pennsylvania, to Delaware County, Iowa, to Fort Pierre, South Dakota, where in 1910 she married Theodore Fenner when she was 60 years old. (No retirement in a rocking chair for this woman!) In 1920 they lived in Middle Creek, Miami County, Kansas. Clues on ancestry.com suggested Coffeyville, but most cemeteries are not transcribed and online for those two counties.

As I thought about where to look next, I said to myself, I wish she would have died in Missouri! I wish all my ancestors who died between 1910 and 1958 died in Missouri! Through the generosity of the State of Missouri, we have free access to PDF images of death certificates through www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/#search. I have found death certificates for relatives on the Jones side, the Mayfield tree and now this one, on dad's side. It's a genealogist's dream and something I wish every state would copy.

So I decided to give it a try. I typed Fenner in the search engine and got a list of 60 Fenners with death certificates. And when I saw her name, I got that little buzz of electricity I get sometimes right before I find what I'm looking for. It was "my" Minnie Fenner!

Info from the death certificate: Minnie Fenner lived at 116 W 36th Street in Kansas City, Jackson, County, Missouri. She had lived in Missouri four years. She was the widow of Theodore Fenner. She was born 25 June 1847 in Montrose, Pennsylvania to Enos Newcomb and Susan. The certificate says Van Dyke but I believe her maiden name was Westervelt. The person giving the information was Mrs. O. B. Whitesell who lived at the same address.

Minnie was seen by the doctor from 7 Nov until 9 Nov 1927 and died 11 Nov 1927 at 4:05 a.m. The cause of death was Senile Arteriosclerosis of 20 years duration. Contributory cause of death has a check mark but no additional information. There was no operation preceding death and no autopsy.

She was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery (no city given) on 12 Nov 1927.
---

Theodore Fenner is not listed in the Missouri Digital Heritage Death Records Certificates database under this name. Minnie may have been buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Kansas City but I couldn't find any online transcriptions of this cemetery.

Climbing Trees

Too busy flushing ancestors out of ancestry trees to post! I'm working on the Luther Kallam family. With help from the Susquehanna County PA Genealogical Society, Google books and ancestry.com, I've been able to discover information about most of his 8 children and some of his grandchildren. I'm preparing several letters to send to various courthouses and genealogical societies, because, of course, not everything is on the 'net. And besides, I LOVE to get snail mail! Of course, the ultimate research is on-site, but I don't see that happening for a few years at least.

Sometimes when I post like this, I feel like I'm just giving a teaser and not anything of substance to those who may be interested. So let me add 3 tidbits about Luther Kallam.

1. He joined Lippitt's Regiment, Capt. Simeon Martin's Company of the Rhode Island State Troops in September of 1776. (Revolutionary War) He was 16 years old. (His surname was spelled Cillum.)

2. Two of his 8 children preceded him in death, Samuel in 1815 and Lucy (Kallam) Ramsey in 1822.

3. According to his obituary, "four aged gentlemen were pallbearers one of whom, Mr. Eseck Thayre was a revolutionary soldier." Luther was 86 when he died. I wonder how old the pallbearers were.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Scavenger Hunt!

I added census records from ancestry.com for Allen West in Nebraska and Wyoming and his father William West in Iowa. Taking a snapshot of Allen and Mary Alice West's neighbors in 1900 is an interesting study in extended family. Allen and Alice's daughter Della married Louis Patch, the son of their neighbor, Charles and Eliza Patch. (Her first of two marriages.)

Allen and Alice's grandson Hugh Russell married Florance Predmore, granddaughter of their neighbors, Nelson and Fannie Predmore, daughter of Rufus. (His first of two marriages.)



Source citation: 1900 United States Federal Census, Custer County, Nebraska, Lillian Precinct, population schedule, Enumeration District 70, Sheet No. 3, Allen West family, dwelling 51, family 58; Allen and Mary Alice West; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com; accessed 22 August 2009); citing NARA microfilm T623.

The stumper of the night is George Harry Worth. I've looked for this several times with a variety of spellings in the 1930 census. He should be in Loup County, Nebraska, right where he was in 1900, 1910, and 1920. He died in 1934 at the home of his daughter Elizabeth Jones in Loup County, but he is not enumerated with Frank and Elizabeth Jones. Where is George Worth in 1930?!?

on the 97th anniversary of dad's birth

Hugh Benjamin Russell, about 1 year old.



Brothers Hugh and Wayne Russell, about 1918.



Probably taken in the 1920s at Antelope school playground. Dad in a tree with his friends.



1937, Hugh Russell with his light green 1931 Chevy Sports Roadster.

***

Hugh Benjamin Russell was born in the Antelope Community southwest of Sargent, Custer County, Nebraska, on 23 April 1912. His mother, Della (West) Patch was the widow of Louis Patch. They had five children: Earl, Lola, Glen, Ralph and Eunice. Louis died on November 20, 19071.

Ben had a small stock farm and also did work for neighbors. He worked as a hired hand for Della. Della and Ben were married on 4 Aug 19112 in Broken Bow. Dad was the oldest Russell, followed by Wayne, Irene and Violet.

As many farm kids did, dad helped with chores from a very early age. One of his chores when he was about five was to bring in the cows at night. He hated the job because it involved going into a canyon and getting the cows out of the plum thickets. On a moonless evening as the sun set, it was very dark and he would be scared. His older half-brothers were happy to tell him ghost stories which added to his fear.

Dad graduated from the eighth grade at the Antelope community school. He planned to attend high school at Round Valley, and in fact started two separate years. However, because his mother depended on his work on their farm and his income from working out for the neighbors, he had to quit both times and he never went back.

Dad's relationship with his father was not an easy one. Their father, as dad used to say, was a poor provider. At some point in dad’s childhood, Ben moved into his own house, or perhaps back into the house he lived in before he and Della were married. Dad remembered that he would come for Sunday dinner, when his mother would kill a chicken and bake a rhubarb or mulberry pie. That would be the only meat they had all week. They mostly ate potatoes...boiled potatoes, dad said. Dad and his sister Violet recalled the time Della ask Ben for money as he was leaving after eating Sunday dinner. “I need money to feed and clothe these kids,” she said. Ben got on his horse and laughed and rode off. His response to Violet and Irene’s desire to go to high school was, “they’ll do it without any help from me!” And they did. With help from their brother. I’m not sure if Round Valley High School closed about this time or not, but Irene and Violet went to high school in Sargent. They were two years apart in age, but Irene waited two years so they could go together. Dad drove them to their boarding rooms on Sunday evenings and picked them up on Friday evenings.

Whenever Della had work that need done, she expected dad to do it. When he asked why the older boys didn’t do the work, she said they didn’t have to, someday they would “inherit land”.

Dad stayed on the home place and helped his mother until he was in his late 20s or early 30s. Then he moved to the place we knew as the Lakeman place, about five miles west of Sargent, along the "River Road" south of the Middle Loup River. He planted corn and put up alfalfa and prairie hay to feed a growing herd of cattle.



1.Obituary of Della West Patch Russell, Sargent Leader, Sargent, Nebraska .
2. Marriage License, Custer County Courthouse, Broken Bow, Nebraska

If you have any questions or something to say about this post, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!