Wisdom Wednesday: Let's Go!

Here we are and it's time to use the GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays. Doing this post keeps me moving through the work while taking a moment to take stock and evaluate. This week I do need to get my stuff in a bag because I'm going to see Mom back east real soon. We'll have some time to compare notes and dig deep into her files and copy everything except the two cats! Our kinda' fun, and I bet yours too:)

Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland... where Mom lives.

Visit Mom: organization!! Oh, gosh. I do need to be organized and have a list ready when I go visit Mom or I just know Mom and I can gobble up time enamored with one little doo-dad or other. We're like that. It's an advantage when we slow down and stop to analyze records or objects and photos, but it can stand in the way of getting her files copied, which I must do on this visit. And we want to go see a library and a museum and a historical site plus of course, cemeteries! So I've got a list, and here it is.

1. Copy as many files as possible. I could use Mom's pocket scanner but it moves too slowly for me. I'll photograph the files with my trusty camera, transfer the images as a group to a file folder on Mom's computer and copy that file over to my external hard drive that I'm taking with. I'll also be testing out DropBox capabilities as I send each folder into the cloud for safety. Feeling good about this plan... even though I'll probably be working day and night!

2. See Mom's paper doll collection from the 1920s. Why would you not want to see that!?

3. Find the House Heirs Association papers from that meeting in 190? in Hamilton, Ohio. I'll photograph those papers and maybe bring them back to San Diego. (If you don't remember recent posts about the HHA, use the search box to the right. It's complicated.)

4. See the love letters my 2nd GGF wrote to my 2nd GGM while he was traveling away from the family and working over in West Virginia as a stone mason. Can not believe that I haven't copied these before!

5. Go to Allegany College's Appalachian Collection and Genealogy Resources at the Library for a visit. Mom used to practically live here but now they just give out her name and phone number to anyone working on our family surnames. That's how we found Cousin Karen.

6. Go to the Frostburg Museum to pick up a couple of books and say Hi.

7. Go to the Evergreen Heritage Center to see what resources they hold and meet Janice who has been a wonderful help. Here's what their web site has to say about it:
The Evergreen Heritage Center (EHC), located on approximately 130 acres of “Federal Hill” in the heart of Allegany County, is an historic Maryland estate that pre-dates the Revolutionary War. The EHC includes the Evergreen mansion (now a museum), beautifully landscaped grounds and gardens, trails, streams, and forest, all in a picturesque setting adjacent to the Great Allegheny Passage and Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.
And the Center isn't just about history, no, it's all about the environment and education too. See a recent article here in Allegany Magazine. Hope it doesn't rain too much because we want to explore!

8. Visit Percy Cemetery in Frostburg. It sits right behind Grandma Kelly's house so we sure know where it is. Mom wants to show me all of the graves of the ancestors who are buried there.

Oh, there's more but you're probably tired of reading this mess. It's not your trip and if you're still reading, I thank you for your attention:) I'm thrilled to be able to think about the upcoming trip and plan it out! Watch out Mom, here I come!

 

Late breaking weather report: rain, rain, and mo' rain. Good for brother's tomatoes but not for slogging around in cemeteries!

The Percy Cemetery behind Mom and Dad.

Photo taken about 1942.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/wisdom-wednesday-lets-go.html

House Heirs Association: Part III, Where Did They Get All That Land?

If you've been following along on this crazy journey to resurrect the collected facts, trivia, and stories about the House Heirs Association (HHA) you'll remember in Part I we checked out the basics of it all and in Part II we followed the money. In this post we'll try to figure out and untangle what's known about how the House men got possession of that land in the first place. But first the usual recap of the HHA.

Here's a recap of what the House Heirs Association is all about. In a nutshell, the descendants of one Andrew V. House (1700 - 1797) believed that he and his son, John Valentine House (1739 - 1843), had supposedly been swindled out of payment from the US Government for a 99 year land lease on an immense tract of land they owned, reported to be as large as 64,000 acres. At the end of the lease the government and people living on that land in about 1884 or 85, located roughly in Frederick County, Maryland, all forgot that the House family were the rightful owners.

So where the heck did they get all that land? I'm still curious even though lately I've been suspicious that we're actually related to this House line! In an old document in Mom's possession our connection through Samuel Albert House, my 2nd great grandfather, is outlined. It was about 1900 and times were hard and people must have seen this as an opportunity to enjoy wealth, because the estimate was that everyone would get $2 million. Now, you need to know that Samuel Albert lived in a small rural village in the back woods of West Virginia and scraped by, as best we can tell. It amuses me to think what he might have done with a $2M pay day:)

Back to the main question of the day: where did they get that land? It was a gigantic parcel, some 64,000 acres. Where would they get that?! There are mentions about the original land grant in HHA documents but the attorney who represented the HHA states in a letter (with no date but presumably after the 1901 Kokomo Indiana meeting) that "much time and effort has been spent in writing to parties who were said to have papers and records but none have been found to throw any light on the matter." He goes on to say, "we have found nothing, except, perhaps family history".

That said, the next posting by Mr. Granger to the RootsWeb message board listed as House Heirs Association meeting Williamstown, KY, Jan 9th, 1899, concerns a letter dated December 18, 1899, reportedly coming from "a London Law Office" and here's what it said, in a nutshell. (I've underlined the descendancy stuff for easier reference.)

1.  The House records and estate of Andrew House by metes and bounds was first ceded to Count Frederick Edward Van Hautzen by Pudshers from the English Government, in the 16th Century.
2. It was attached as part of the Commonwealth of Maryland to the Calvert Government, which with the Estate of Lord Baltimore, it reverted back to the Crown, being regranted in the 17th Century to Andrew House, who was the Great Grandson of Count Frederick, from the latter Frederick County was named.
3. This land was given to Andrew House as a birthday present, if he would enter this grant: he was also given the coat of arms: signatures and seals (a different House Mediveael Coat of Arms), cord and dagger.
4. From Andrew House it descended to John Valentine House, the eldest child and his heirs.
5. Neither patent or grant was ever recorded in Maryland, but a search of the British Colonies Offices in the 17th and 18th Century will reveal the Grant and old will of those records.

The writer of this letter, who sounds awfully certain of it all, states,"The search for you will cost about ten pounds, or fifty dollars. But before coming to England, it might be well to satisfy that there was no assignment or quit-claim from John Valentine House, who was son of Count Frederick Edward Van Hautzen, who was a son of Andrew Van Hautzen, in times the last of the Counts of the Barony."

Confused? Yeah, me too. Next time, Dastardly Deeds!

(Insert Cheezy Coat of Arms Here;)





Update, 6/25/2013: Here's a link to the page on Len Granger's web site where he talks about the House Heirs Association. Thanks, Len!!
http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=len1932&page=31


The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/house-heirs-association-part-iii-where.html

Wisdom Wednesday: The Error of my Ways

Hey, it's Wednesday! It's time for me to confess the error of my ways and use the GeneaBlogger's blogging prompt called Wisdom Wednesdays. I make a lot of mistakes, follow misques, and even go down blind alleys that have a big sign saying "blind alley ahead" and generally waste too much time stumbling around. Every error that I can see becomes a blessing in disguise as I eventually figure out a new way to proceed. Hopefully.

This week I have a couple of doozies! I got all enamored with a story about a family line and didn't first stop to double check our connection to it and make certain that it was solid. Yikes!

But to the good, I helped Cousin Rich and Mom as best I could (from 2,000 miles away) and saved him wasted time in a library archive. Throughout watching them (by email) I learned some stuff about research, sources, and what it means to do this work over the long-haul with a commitment and love that comes from doing your own family history research as you carefully vet each and every document and fact as you go along. So here we go: the error of my ways!

House Heirs Association story. OK, so I did get all excited because this is a really good story, but now I come to find out that we're probably not even related to that House line after all! I've done two posts about the story of how descendants of Andrew House and John V. House tried to negotiate a settlement from the US Government in payment for a large parcel of land they supposedly owned in Frederick County, Maryland, reportedly valued at $3 billion, and you can read them here and here. I tell ya', I really got into this whole mess, but good! Whatta story! But now it looks like they aren't even our people. But then again, maybe they are!
I'm going to keep on posting about it because it might be useful to someone and it is fascinating.
Plus Mom has some sort of report or notes from a meeting of the House Heir Association in the early 1900s in her files and I want to review and report on that next time I visit Mom.
Had to laugh at myself real hard on this one!! We might not even be related! Funny thing is that we don't yet know where our House ancestors actually came from before they got to Virginia/West Virginia, and maybe it was Frederick over in Maryland because that's all real close, geographically, but there's no proof.

Mom and Cousin Rich. I learned a lot watching Cousin Rich and Mom this week. I say "watching" but I was no where close enough to see what was going on. Here's the deal.
Cousin Rich's wife started corresponding with Mom over 10 years ago. Then Rich got into genealogy and had pretty much finished up his family so dove into his wife's ancestors. Mom and Rich compared notes on the Hartley - Farrell - House - Biggerstaff lines that all intersect in Hampshire County, West Virginia / Virginia from the later 1700s on to the mid-1800s. Take my word on this: it's real complicated.
Following Mom and Rich along on this adventure I learned a lot and here's what I saw.
1. Finding and maintaining contact with fellow travelers is magic. Mom and Rich's wife met on a surname message board over a decade ago. Once in contact, they exchanged what they knew and kept updating over the years. You can tell they were in it for the long haul. What one didn't find, maybe the other did or went to look for and then shared. They knew they were not alone in the pursuit of their family's history. I find it magic that they found each other using the internet and magic that we're all related and know it.
2. Sourcing records can be easy... and useful! Mom started her adventures with the ancestors back in the 1970s. She had a simple system using surname binders. When she found a document or record for someone it went in that surname binder. The only exception is the two big binders with BMD records, and of course the photo file. Her surname binders are a treasure trove! Each record or note has a handwritten inscription about where Mom got it.
Mom was able to pull out her Farrell binder and read to me notations she made many years ago when she was over in Morgantown, WV, in the West Virginia University Library, Regional History Collection and archive. I typed as Mom read from her notes and then I emailed that document to Rich. He was able to go there on his research trip/vacation and locate the information right away because he was already in contact with the librarian who pulled the boxes before he got there. Mom's notes were simple and accurate and Rich was able to find his way to that source. And that's the way that works!
The error of my ways notation here is that I need to get better at maintaining contact with those who contact me about a particular family line and think more in terms the long-term and it never being a "hit and run" thing. Am thinking about making a Quick Guide table of these contacts including surname of interest, their name, contact info, and notes. Then, at a glance, I'll be able to tell where I stand with each so that I don't lose them.
Another error of my ways notation is that it's more important for me right now to capture all of the source information for every thing I do and not be intimidated about the form of it. Get every last detail about the record down and worry about making it pretty later.

Grandpop Kelly on his trip to Florida in the 1950s.

John Lee Kelly 1892 - 1969.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/05/wisdom-wednesday-error-of-my-ways.html

House Heirs Association: Part II: Follow the Money

If you missed the first installment of this new series you can find it here. I promise, this is interesting to more people than just Mom and me!

Here's a recap of what the House Heirs Association is all about. In a nutshell, the descendants of one Andrew V. House (1700 - 1797) believed that he and his son, John Valentine House (1739 - 1843), had supposedly been swindled out of payment from the US Government for a 99 year land lease on an immense tract of land they owned, reported to be as large as 64,000 acres. At the end of the lease the government and people living on that land in about 1884 or 85, located roughly in Frederick County, Maryland, all forgot that the House family were the rightful owners.

In this installment we'll follow the money and watch the numbers in an attempt to uncover some of the tangled plot. So here it is, by the numbers.

1. The value of the land, if one can believe its size, is estimated at 64,000 acres, was claimed to be $6 billion in 1899 by the National Secretary of the House Heirs Association (HHA).

2. The US Government offered the House heirs a deal of $30 million sometime before the first large general meeting of the HHA in 1899. If accepted, this deal would have resulted in approximately $2 million for each of the House heirs, and ... a $2.5 million dollar pay day for the attorney. (Too bad they didn't take it!)

3. The attorneys. By the meeting of the HHA in1900 in Chicago, funds had been collected from the 300 members (or continued to be collected) for paying an attorney. It seems that Messrs. Marchant & Clay (perhaps the guys who had negotiated the deal mentioned in #2 above) were no longer involved. A Mr. Hutson, who was put forth as the man to do the job, stated through his representative at the meeting, that he "gained a great deal of valuable information through his recent investigating" and that he was "confident" that a "settlement could be reached in 18 months time".

4. Where is Mr. Huton? At the meeting of 1901 in Kokoma, Indiana, Mr. Huton was a no-show. He said that he "found it impossible to be present", but felt that a meeting with himself and the House heirs was still necessary. He also reported by letter that a settlement was possible "but it would take time and a considerable amount of patience." (He was no longer talking about that 18 month time table!)

5. Dissatisfaction with the representation? The HHA notes from the 1901 meeting indicate members discussed that Mr. Huton should be "investigated." A committee was formed to take a closer look at the contract with Mr. Huton.

6. Mo' money needed. A collection was taken at that 1901 meeting for "current expenses".

7. Circular letter, date unknown. Throughout this whole HHA saga, letters were circulated informing members of what was going on. The problem expressed in one letter is that Mr. Huton is slow in gathering supporting documentation. By the time of this particular letter it is reported that the attorney has found "no important records."

8. Time and trouble. In a letter dated 26 Sept, 1906 from the HHA Secretary, it's stated that there are now over 450 House heirs. The letter goes on to say that, "We have never been able to raise sufficient money to carry it through," referring to documentation that was already in hand and important documents that needed to be found. It's at the point, I think from reading this, that the attorney (not mentioned by name and likely not Mr. Huton) consulting with the HHA Secretary believes that an deal could still be reached.

Yikes! Looks like no one got anything out of this House Heirs Association, except the lawyers! I'd guess that Messrs. Marchant & Clay worked on contingency. When they saw the House heirs not jumping at the $30 million settlement, they bailed. Looks to me like Mr. Huton milked them for what he could doing as little work as possible himself and letting members bring him documentation. I surmise this because it was about that time that the House heirs started submitting whatever they had about the matter of the land as well as their ancestral history tracing back to John V. House. Just my guess.

I feel especially bad for the writer of that 1906 letter who had worked tirelessly on this for four years investigating what she could. By that time people might have gotten weary of contributing to a case that went no where. By 1923 the HHA is disbanded when someone absconds with whatever funds are left... but I'm getting ahead of myself!

Next time, more about how the property came to Andrew V. House. That's really interesting!

Marriage record for Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917) and Mary Elizabeth Farrell (1835 - 1919), dated 20 Aug 1855.

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/house-heirs-association-part-ii-follow.html

House Heirs Association: Part I, The Basics of the Case

This is a case that has some real juicy bits: land swindles, embezzlement, fraud, malfeasance, and a whole lot more including a group that tried to do legal battle with the US Government. It starts almost 200 years ago and even today some riddles still are not solved! But let's begin at the beginning, and I'll tell you how it all started, at least as I see it.

One day not too long ago Mom said to me, very casually, "Oh, those are the papers from the House Heirs Association meeting held about 1900 or so." And I nearly flipped my wig. What?!! What's the House Heirs Association, I bleated over the phone?! Poor Mom. I've always been the kid asking all the questions.

In a nutshell, the descendants of one Andrew V. House believed that he and his son, John Valentine House, had been swindled out of payment from the US Government for a 99 year land lease on an immense tract of land they owned reported to be as large as 64,000 acres. At the end of the lease the government and people living on that land in about 1884 or 85, located roughly in Frederick County, Maryland, all forgot that the House family were the rightful owners.

Around 1887 a bunch of descendants of those two House men got together, thinking, "It ain't right", and decided to sue the government. (Good luck with that.) They called themselves the House Heirs Association. At the first there were about 30 or so individuals who claimed to be House Heirs and chipped in to pay for the services of a lawyer. By 1900 there were 300 to 400 individuals involved, and from all reports, even more money for more lawyers.

The really cool thing for researchers is that in order to make claim to being a House Heir people had to provide their ancestral history tracing back to John V. House as well as report on all that they knew about the land lease. You can still find some of the correspondences online on a RootsWeb message board listed as House Heirs Association meeting Williamstown, KY, Jan 9th, 1899. The author of the bulk of these post is Leonard Granger who began the lengthy and laborious task of transcribing the minutes of the meetings as well as the letters and posting them to the RootsWeb board. He started posting on 25 March, 2002 and got most of it posted by 19 May of that year. Looks like he went back and updated and edited the posts around 17 November of 2003. I sent him a message through Ancestry.com messages system and hope to hear back... please let me hear back. I thanked him for transcribing and posting all he did, without which we'd surely be losing another piece of our shared history. Bless him.

I also stumbled over a RootsWeb orphan page about the House Heirs Association that looked promising but goes no where. No name or contact info is available and I can't tell when it was set up so that's a dead end. One more dead end is the link on the House Heirs message board about a GeoCities web page on this topic. That page is long gone.

My thought is to post here for a while and see if anyone else is interested in this aspect of the history of our House ancestors. If this topic interests you or you are a House descendant, please email me at dianew858@hotmail.com . And let me be clear: I have no intention of reviving that suit! Makes me laugh to think about it:) Mom has some papers that are relevant and Cousin Karen does too, so maybe we can share what's known with our House cousins thereby keeping this story alive and moving it down the road a bit. Imagine: 400 of them intended to sue the US Government... for $300 billion dollars!

Overview
The best short overview available online comes from that old and now orphaned and archived RootsWeb page mentioned above, with no date or name attributed. As you can see, for a very long time these descendants hoped to get payment from the government. They were from "the middle walk of life" and saw this as a way to improve their lives and provide a better life for their families. Here's the text:

Welcome to a website I created to provided information on the House Heirs Association of years 1889 to 1923. The House Heirs at that time felt a real injustice had occurred on their ancestors, Andrew V House and his son John Valentine House, when the United States Government failed to make payment on a 99 year lease for a large estate located in State of Maryland. The organization held several meetings around the eastern and mid-west states, appointed several investigation committees and asked all House Heirs to submit their family ancestry lists, if they felt they were related to John Valentine House. Many House families of the time submitted letters, some up to six pages in length, when making their claim. The letters will be listed as found in the files, and I hope no one is upset if a House relative talks about their family. They all meant good and saw a real opportunity to have a better life, as most had experienced a difficult time around the turn of the century.

I have no idea who the "I" is in the first line and would love to know, as well as when he or she created it. Too bad it all got lost to the vagaries of time on the internet.

Just the facts
Here's a short list in no particular order of the facts gleaned from the copious material Leonard Granger posted to the House Heirs Association message board on RootsWeb. Without his posts, there would be close to nothing on the web about the House Heirs Association.

Timeline (short) of the House Heirs Association (HHA):
1896: A few (estimated at 30 people) House Heirs "instituted proceedings" against the government.
Jan 9, 1899: First meeting in Williamstown KY. About 300 to 400 in attendance.
1900: Meeting of HHA in Chicago
1901: Meeting of the HHA in Kokoma Indiana
1902: Meeitng of HHA in Ohio (?)
1923: HHA, one family accused of embezzling money collected to fund the suit. HHA disbanded.

About the land:
64,000 acres
Value in 1785 was about $6 billion.
Origins of House ownership: 1715, attributed to inheritance from a member of the English Royal Family.

Lease:
Began in 1785 just about the time iron mines discovered on the property.
Lease length: 99 years
Terms: 14 cents per acre per year
Lease would have expired in 1884.
Terms at end of lease: ownership to revert to House heirs.

There's more, way more! Next time let's have some fun and follow the money:)

My 2nd great grandfather, Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917).

Wonder how much he knew about the House Heirs Association?

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/house-heirs-association-part-i-basics.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Look What's Here!!

I opened my Olde Treasure Chest and what popped out? Mom!! She's my greatest treasure, in the genealogy sphere and otherwise! So today's post is about her and her love of genealogy since the early 1970s, the stories, and the ancestors... which she has shared with me. Lucky girl am I! So here are some select items from the Olde Treasure Chest, chosen especially for you on this occasion celebrating Mom.

Cute photo, isn't it? That's Mom on the right and her sister, Dot, on the left. Mom has a bunch of photo binders with old family photos and stacks of photos of us kids and our family. She and I never met an old photo we didn't like! I'm really glad Mom kept them all... and super glad that she wrote what she knows about each photo on the back. When I copied them over for my digital files I made sure to keep them in perfect order and get an image of the front as well as the back with Mom's notations. There are, amazingly, only a handful for which she doesn't know who the people are.

 

 

Here's Mom sitting on the front porch of the Kelly house on Main Street in Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland. It was 1938 and she and Dad were probably talking about getting married which they did the next year. See how happy she looks!

Mom is great with people. That's why she has so many long-time genealogy friends who were so willing to work with her to find what all could about shared ancestors. They pooled any and all with her as she does with them. It continues today as a new list of people seek her out for advice and information on finding their ancestors. Mom has a reputation as someone you can go to to ask any and all questions. She just looks like someone who'd be happy to help you, doesn't she? And she is.

She always went out to local meetings too and knows everyone in the area, and that is especially good because our ancestors have been in Western Maryland for a couple of generations.

 



 

There's Mom and Dad in 1942. Mom won't tell you this, but I think she likes finding her ancestors about 10% more than she likes finding Dad's! Shh, our secret;) But she remembers them all equally well and is happy to have any information about any ancestors. The more the better! Last year we decided that it was time to put her Big Tree with over 60,000 people on it on Ancestry.com. I called it Virginia Kelly's Big Tree:) It opened the door to even more contact with people looking for their ancestors, as well as people who caught a random and rare goof-up on a date or place.

 



 

 

Here's Mom just a couple of years ago. She'll be 95 in July and is sharp as a tack and has relatively few complaints. Shouldn't we recommend genealogy for longevity? I think so and so does she. But it should be a balanced approach between sitting for days on end exercising the mind as well as getting out walking those cemeteries and exercising the body.

 

A young genealogist called Mom two weeks ago inquiring about a relative and Mom asked her what computer programs she was using. The woman told her that she wasn't using a family tree program because she was afraid she's lose her work, Mom scoffed and said that's why you back it all up! I talked to the woman later who was still having a good laugh at the unusualness of a 94 year old woman giving her computer advice!

 

And Mom makes genealogy fun and exciting! Just this morning I was talking to her and she said something about the House Heirs Association and the big lawsuit over a land deal gone bad. I hadn't heard anything about this!! Mom's done so much research on all of our lines, no wonder she's always coming up with something new for me. Here's what one web site, no longer online, had to say about the House Heirs Association. Now doesn't this sound delicious? Can't wait to start working on this!

 

Welcome to a website I created to provided information on the House Heirs Association of years 1889 to 1923. The House Heirs at that time felt a real injustice had occurred on their ancestors, Andrew V House and his son John Valentine House, when the United States Government failed to make payment on a 99 year lease for a large estate located in State of Maryland. The organization held several meetings around the eastern and mid-west states, appointed several investigation committees and asked all House Heirs to submit their family ancestry lists, if they felt they were related to John Valentine House. Many House families of the time submitted letters, some up to six pages in length, when making their claim. The letters will be listed as found in the files, and I hope no one is upset if a House relative talks about their family. They all meant good and saw a real opportunity to have a better life, as most had experienced a difficult time around the turn of the century.

 

Mom has documents from one of those House Heirs Association meetings about 1900 or 1910 held in Ohio and you just know I'll be all over them when I go see her next! "Oh, yeah. That's in my file," she said nonchalantly.

 

Mom: I want to be her when I grow up!

 

 

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers.

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/treasure-chest-thursday-look-whats-here.html