SNGF (but on Sunday) - Ahnentafel Roulette

So the rules are that I'm supposed to take my father's age, divide it by four, and then find the person listed as that number on my ahnentafel report and write at least three facts that I know about him/her.  For me, this leads to a woman who I need to research further, my 2nd great grandmother Katie Lamb.

"The British are coming!!!"

A couple years ago, Jennifer and I went to Boston for our 15th wedding anniversary.  We were riding a tour bus around the city hearing about some of the Revolutionary War sites that we passed and found that one of the historical sites we passed had a direct connection to our family.  Remember the story about the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere?  The road along which this ride took place is now part of Minute Man National Historic Park, and Hartwell Tavern is one of the locations on the road.  As it turns out, this building and its residents played an important but lesser known role in the story of Revere's famous ride.

Questions from high school

My son just began his freshman year in high school this month.  In "American Experience," the class that my generation simply called "U.S. History," he's been given an assignment that boils down to a unified genealogy and history report, with an emphasis on migration patterns across the country.  This week, students are working on their four-generation pedigree charts, which connects back to their great grandparents.  Sure, I could just print a pedigree chart from the database, but that would be cheating for this assignment.  He's got to do that part on his own, and then when he's done that, we'll check it over and compare it with the data that I have in my genealogy database.

The more interesting part of this assignment is the section where he will show how our family's migration fits in with national migration patterns and the events of the day.  His teacher gave him a set of questions to guide researching and writing the report, and I think they should also be answered by genealogists who spend a little more time researching than most of the students will.  The research questions are:

1. Why did the movement happen? What pushed people out of where they were and what pulled people to where they went?
2. Was there a turning point in history that prompted your family's move? Explain.
3. How was their life in the new place different from their life in the old place and how was it the same?
4. How did your family's life change as a result of this movement?  How significant was the change in your family's life?
5. How did your family adapt to their new environment?
6. How did the move affect your family's ethnic identity?
7. How is your family's ethnic identity today similar to or different from the past?
   
8. How complete was your family's assimilation to their new environment?
9. Why did your family choose the places they went?
10. What were your family's experiences getting into the United States if they moved from another country?
11. How was your family treated by the people in the area once they came to the new place?
12. How did your family travel in their movement?
13. How was your family's movement affected by any major pieces of U.S. legislation?
14. How was your family's movement affected by any major historical events?
15. How was your family's movement affected by wider patterns of settlement and movement in history?
16. Has your family's movement affected or been affected by any type of music, food or religion?
17. How has education affected your family's movements?
18. How have political events or violence affected your family's movements?
19. How has your family's movements helped shape the "American" identity?

Answering a couple of these questions as they relate to stubborn research subjects, our "brick wall" ancestors, we might be able to make a few breakthroughs and continue our research in other directions.

Another location named for my ancestors

The Meharry family line, of which I am descended from Alexander "Red" Meharry III (1763-1813), left their mark in a few place names in western Indiana.  I've known about the Meharry Cemetery in Wingate, Indiana, where many of this family is buried, for a while now.  Since I'm actively researching this family, I've been looking around recently at other history references that deal with this part of the state.  Here's a fun tidbit from the History of Montgomery County (published in 1881) about another place that carries the family name:

Meharry Grove
If there is one spot in Montgomery county more celebrated than another (and there certainly is), that spot is Meharry Grove.  Located on Coal creek, one and a half miles north of Pleasant Hill, a high and beautifully shaded place, it has been the favorite campground for over thirty years.  The grounds contain about forty acres, a large number of seats are provided, and water is plentiful.  Here it has not been an uncommon occurrence for thousands of happy faces to congregate.  The eminent divines, Cyrus Nutt, Pres. Berry, Bishop Bowman, Dr. Brenton, have preached to immense audiences.  Here was held a mammoth temperance rally about 1875, addressed by the "Broad Ax," or M. D. Chance.  Here too, have ex-Gov. Col. Robert Hawley, of Centennial fame, Gov. S. M. Cullom, of Illinois, Hon. G. S. Orth, Judge T. F. Davidson, and other renowned statesmen, proclaimed American principles to vast concourses of people.  In all these gatherings the prevailing characteristic has been good order and universal enjoyment.

Satellite view of Coal Creek in western Montgomery County, Indiana, a little north of Wingate. View Larger Map

There's a 1916 obituary for Charles W. Meharry published in the Crawfordsville Review that mentions the "widely known Meharry family of Western Indiana" held a number of annual family reunions at Meharry's Grove, placing it on the border between Montgomery and Fountain Counties, which would place it on the western edge of Montgomery County.  But, I have yet to find a map that shows this location more precisely.  Looking at current satellite images of the area, there are a few areas surrounding Coal Creek that look like they have not been farmed.  I suspect that Meharry Grove was a parcel of farm land that was once owned by the family, and that Meharry Grove was an unofficial name for the farm.  But again, I don't have any proof of this yet.

Wordless Wednesday, but with a few words...

Okay, so this post isn't strictly about someone with a connection to the family lines I'm currently researching.  But, as I've seen mentioned in other genealogy publications, the history of a building can be just as interesting to research as the family that used it.  I'm always fascinated when I look at historical buildings around me to find evidence of previous tenants.  This building on State Street here in Madison has always been one of my favorites because of the visible history in the storefront.  But, there's more history to this building beyond the coal company offices.  According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, this building was originally built in 1857 as the home of Madison Fire Engine Company #2.  A filing with the City of Madison for landmark status for this building has a more complete history of the structure.  It mentions that the Castle & Doyle Coal façade was added in 1921.  The building now houses one of State Street's many arts and gifts stores.  I haven't been inside the current store yet, but always take a moment to look at this building when I pass it.

Wordless Wednesday - Sigma Nu 1910-11

 

Sigma Nu fraternity, University of Colorado, Boulder.  Herbert Richard Mosley is fifth from the left in the front row.

Take pictures now!!!

So I was sitting on the bus on my way to school this morning listening to the current episode of The Moth podcast. It was a story told by a former New York City cop about his job going after fugitives. As it turns out, the young man he was sent to arrest in the story he was telling had himself been shot and killed a week earlier. The suspect's fate had been noted in the police rolls, but it was never matched up with other records to vacate the warrant for his arrest.  In his apartment, when the cop tried to arrest him, the cop met the fugitive's mother and sister who both tried to tell him that the person he was trying to arrest was already dead. To confirm that they were all talking about the same person, he showed the mother the suspect's mugshot from a recent conviction. It was him. A police mugshot is definitely not a flattering portrait for anyone, but the mother asked if she could keep the photo. In further discussions, the cop learned that she had absolutely no photos of her son. She had photos of other family members, but because of all the problems that her son had had with the law, he was never around to be the subject of a photo, and the mugshot was the only photograph that she had ever seen of him.

It got me thinking about how lucky we are when we take so many photos of the people we know. On my model railroad website, I'm always encouraging readers (and listeners on my own podcast) to go out and take photos of every building they want to build in model form because in a week, that building will probably be torn down and the chance for a reference photo will be gone. As genealogists, we know that people die, more often sooner than we expect, which makes my old saw just as appropriate here as it does for model railroaders. Take as many photos of your family and loved ones as often as you can.  Then label them with the names of the people in the photos before you forget their names (and you will forget at some time in the future or you won't be around to ask when someone needs to know); use the file metadata for digital pictures. Don't be left wishing for more time to photograph family and friends.

We're all bozos on this bus

Last year at Thanksgiving, we got everyone together again for a big family holiday dinner.  Since I'm in the middle of a career change to become a professional photographer, I was naturally asked to take the family reunion photo for the event.  I got everyone lined up, put the camera on self-timer and got in the shot.  Then, since we can't just let it go at just sitting for a standard group shot, I asked everyone to point at something off to their right when the shutter clicks.  Everyone had a great time and we try to get together like this as often as we can, but just like the Firesign Theater album title from 1971 says, "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus."  B-)

Probably not a royal connection, but Prime Minister...

When I started doing genealogy research, I got a postcard from one of my relatives suggesting that there might be a connection to Mary, Queen of Scots.  For the entire time that I had known of this family legend, I thought it was a bit too unlikely to possibly be true.  After all, I had only this one postcard to go on for this story, and I haven't seen anything in the rest of my research that might suggest a connection.  So I haven't really tried to prove this connection with very much vigor at all.  The closest that I've seen was in the 1925 history of Alexander Meharry's descendants, where it mentions that the Meharry line emigrated from Scotland to America as a way to flee religious persecution during her reign.  It may not be as glamorous a connection as a blood relationship, but this is one explanation that I can believe.

However, in looking around on a different topic this week, I found many resources that show a probable blood connection to another very well known British leader.  He wasn't an ancestor, but turns out to be a cousin.  Sir Winston Churchill (b. 30 November 1874; d. 24 January 1965), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 1940s and 1950s, was descended from Mehitabel Beach (b. 1749; d. 1807), who connects into my Beach line through her great, great grandfather, John Beach (b. 1621; d. 6 November 1677).  John was the first of the Beach line to live in North America, and making the leap back to the British Isles has proven very difficult for a number of researchers.  I'm still digesting the assertions and trying to fit various people into my lines.  So now I have another avenue to research in proving my distant Beach relations.

Another family legend - Cotton Mather

Today's family legend is one that is told for my wife's side of the family.  For a while now we've heard the story that the famous Reverend Cotton Mather is related into her ancestry.  There may be some truth to this, but we have yet to prove it.

Cotton Mather circa 1700. The Wikimedia commons description page for this image asserts that it is in the public domain.

Reverend Cotton Mather was born on 12 February 1663 as the son of Increase Mather (b. 21 June 1639; d. 23 August 1723) and Maria Cotton.  There are a few references that I can find that mention a niece to Cotton Mather named Lucinda Mather.  Such a notation is made in American Ancestry; volume I, the city of Albany by Thomas P. Hughes in 1887 (page 71) and also in Genealogical and Personal Memoirs ... of Massachusetts; volume IV by William Richard Cutter and William Frederick Adams in 1910 (page 2280).  Both of these books state that she married David Shepard (b. 1744; d. 1817 or 1819) and explicitly state that Lucinda was Cotton's niece.  In American Ancestry, there is further evidence of a Shepard/Mather connection in the use of Mather as a recurring middle name within the Shepard family.

Our family records show Lucinda Mathers (sic) married to James Goodhue, with their daughter Mary Jane Goodhue born in Albany in 1819.  Some of the family papers suggest that Lucinda's father was named Eli Mathers and then go on to suggest that Cotton Mathers (sic) was Eli's father.  The eras between the Lucinda Mathers in our family records and Lucinda Mather in the above noted references seem to loosely coincide, and it is entirely possible that James Goodhue was a second husband for Lucinda after David Shepard's death.  What I haven't seen so far is any connection between Increase Mather and Eli Mathers; if the legend holds and the two women are the same, then Eli should be a son of Increase.

Is our family's Lucinda Mathers really the same woman as the aforementioned Lucinda Mather, niece of Reverend Cotton Mather?  Clearly more proof is needed to make this connection.