Granny Whetstone was missing but now she's found!

Granny Whetstone near the back boundary of their "Farm"
on Midlothian Road in Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland.

 

 

In the previous post I wrote about Mom's Granny Whetstone, and you can see it here. In short, I'm trying to find official records for her to complete an application I'm working on so that Mom can, hopefully and if all goes well, get admitted to the NSDAR, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And Granny Whetstone is a key player on the line back to our patriot. I've been on a mad hunt for Granny's death certificate. Death certificates are a boon in doing this particular work because they come with a big payload, if they were properly filled out. Think about it. If you get a good one you also get confirmation of birth date, birth location, death date, death location, names of both parents and if the wind is at your back, their birth places. And if you're that kind of curious (and Mom and I are) you can find out what they died of. Cool, huh?

 

So my guy at the Maryland State Archives who knows their web site and facilities like the proverbial back of his hand, did a search there for Granny and came up empty. No Granny, and no death certificate!

 

Once I had a good pout about that, I circled back and thought about how I was going to make up for this loss of birth and death dates and locations and parents, thus linking her back a generation. I checked my research notes in the spiral binder for this project and I have to say that I didn't think I missed a thing. Obits, cemetery, census records, a fruitless hunt for a birth record. Probate stuff, court records, a library card. OK, not that last thing but you get what I mean. I found nothing that was going to satisfy the genealogists that look at DAR application in that big nice building in Washington DC, like a good death certificate. Oh sure, I could piece her life together based on census records and her marriage record, but I needed that death certificate or the application was going to be a patchwork quilt of sources. I wanted clean and streamlined.

 

Feeling like a puppy chasing it's tale, I took my grief to the Facebook group for DAR members working on applications and told them everything. Boo-hoo, Grammy has no death certificate. They were good, really good. There was a flurry of "did you check the ___" questions in which they made sure I hadn't overlooked the obvious, which could happen to anyone. Then the questions turned to the slightly more obscure records and at the end we were down to insurance policies. No one suggested a library card;)

 

I was left thinking about two possible things I might do. The first was to get someone in Frostburg to go over to the cemetery offices and check the records for me, if there were any. It's been my experience that if you go over and ask to look at something and chat a bit and share the story of who and what you're looking for, people get involved and really try to help. So maybe I could get a relative in town to do that.

 

The second thing was that I could try a bit harder to track down some church records in hopes of finding a burial record in a dusty corner. I knew it wouldn't be as complete as the death certificate but hey, it was a shot because it might give a date of death and some other goodies. They were not Catholics so that was out which is too bad because the best church records in town were the Catholic records, and I had already checked those just in case. Maybe they were Lutherans? Maybe. But the minister who married them was a Baptist. And this in a small town where churches come and go almost as fast as the bars. Was not optimistic.

 

Then one of the DAR daughters came forth and offered to look and double-check to see if she could find Granny in the Maryland State Archives online. Wow! That was real nice, but DAR daughters are like that. They love to help each other and the community. A lot of people do, and that's one of the things I like about genealogy and genealogists:) So I took her up on it. "What was her name?" she posted. And then I remembered something. Something very important.

 

Granny's name! In working on her life and the records that captured glimpses into the moments of it, I noticed a distinct pattern. In her early years she was recorded as Catherine Elizabeth or Catherine Eliza, and even rarely, Eliza. Then in later years she went by Kate and Katherine. (You can see this coming, can't you?) I took a quick look at the email request for research sent to my guy at the Maryland State Archive and whatta ya think it said? "Catherine!" I had asked him to look for Catherine! If she was more likely to have gone by Katherine, then no wonder he didn't find her in the records!

 

My new DAR friend found her in the online index in under five minutes! WOW!

 

 

See there? Katherine, with a "K".
And look there, she died in 1945?

 

And the index said that she died, when? 2 January 1947! Mom said that after I was born in the fall of 1946, she talked to Granny on the phone and Granny asked her when she was bringing me over so that she could see me. Fall of 1946 and Granny Whetstone was still alive. Yes, Mom, you were right, she was alive and we did go see Granny Whetstone that winter. Right before she passed on the second day of the new year. 1947.

 

I'm wondering what happened that the year of her death ended up as 1945 on her stone?

 

 

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/10/granny-whetstone-was-missing-but-now.html 

Wisdom Wednesday: Why Did I Not See That Before?

This week I'm feeling like I have on new glasses. Well, actually I do, so maybe that's why I'm drawn to this metaphor. I can see a couple of things more clearly now, beside the monitor and TV.

Maryland, My Maryland! (That's the title of the state song of Maryland.) It dawned on me that I am doing a lot of research in the state of Maryland. All, and I do mean all, of my ancestors going back at least the last three generations lived and worked in the state of Maryland, and some go back to my fourth or fifth great grands. That's a lot of Marylanders. I do have a couple of state guides for researching genealogy in Maryland, as well as West Virginia/Virginia, and Pennsylvania guides, but I need more than that. And I need it now. So my educational goal for April is to devote myself to all things Maryland. And I have people to help me. Mom, of course, has been guiding me along and she's born and bred in Maryland and still lives there and has been doing genealogy there sine the early 1970s. Plus, and this is a real blessing, I have a genea-pal who is willing to give me a tour of the Maryland State Archives online. She says it's a beast, but it's our beast:) Pass the Maryland crab cakes! (And I don't mean those weak imitations they offer on the appetizer menu here in San Diego! Yuck!)

Tree Sync. How, oh how, did my work habits get so bad in this one area? I have lost the sync feature between my Family Tree Maker (FTM) tree resident on the desktop computer (and safely backed up online) and my Ancestry Member Tree (AMT)! Discovered it quite a while back but have been ignoring this blister on my tree for too long. Those two buddies need to sync up! How did I not see that? Actually I did but ignored because I didn't know where to turn for answers... and now I do: the email group for Family Tree Maker!

And another thing I did not see before this week: have not updated either the FTM or the AFT with good info from member messages sent to me through Ancestry, after that new information is verified, of course. Remember, Mom started her Big Tree way back when and it's to be expected that there might be mistakes or updates and we find them all the time, some pointed out by other Ancestry members. We like that because those Ancestry members are probably looking at someone close to them but way out on a branch connected to another branch on our tree. Ya gotta love community:)

Cousins and such. Here's something else I've not been looking at: cousins and degrees and removals. Oh, I've known it in a general way so that if someone said, we're third cousins, I'd be looking at a shared great grandparent. And I did vaguely know that if there was a removal, it meant the cousin had kids who were removed down the line from us.
But the other day my laxity in this area stared me right in the face when I realized that my DNA matches on 23andMe who were 4th cousins shared a mutual ancestor not that far back and that for 4th cousins we should be looking at 3rd great grandparents. So the cousin who replied back to my inquiry and said that we probably shared an ancestor too far back to know about didn't have it right. Mom and I know who the 3rd great grandparents are... but maybe that cousin match doesn't.
Here's how I'm remembering it: whatever degree cousin we are, subtract one to find the degree of great grandparent. Example: 4th cousin = 3rd great grandparent. And for gosh sake, if this is wrong, wrong please tell me!! Remember, I'm slightly dyslexic and very math-challenged:)

Photo of the Day from Aunt Betty's Archive:

Jane Price Williams (1862 - 1939)

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/wisdom-wednesday-why-did-i-not-see-that.html

Let's Explore Some Local History!

Am reading "Best Dressed Miners" by Katherine A. Harvey. It's a real treasure for me because, as I've said before, there's a lot of coal dust on my ancestors. It paints a detailed picture of the life and times of those mining coal in the Georges Creek area of Western Maryland, one of the richest mining fields anywhere, simply called The Big Vein. In 1892 it secured over 3 million long tons from the area mines, all mined by hand. Down from the previous year! I don't know much about coal mining but that sounds like a lot to me.

Before the Harvey book I read, "Allegany County - A History", by Stegmaier, Dean, Kershaw, and Wiseman, 1976. It's a wonder and treasure chest of information about the area compiled on the occasion of the county's Bicentennial. It traces the long history of the county and eventually gets around to mines, miners, and the economy of the area. AC - A History also underlines the importance of mining to the area and how the entire economy changed as the mines got mined out in the early decades of the 1900s.

Harvey gives an interesting picture of the miners and their work in her book, which is increasingly scarce as it was published in 1969. She contrasts the miners and their families of the George's Creek area with miners elsewhere. In reading it I've come to a better understanding of the area, the work, and my ancestor's relationship to it. And I've come to see yet again how important history is to a deeper understanding of genealogy!

One of the things I've often wondered about is why my ancestors all stayed so long - for generations - in this one small geographical area contained within about 15 square miles. Now I know: good work at a fair wage.

The earliest of ancestors arriving in the late 1780s were in search of farmable land and they found it in abundance. Then in the early to mid-1800s the ancestors came in dribs and drabs, often making their way from eastern parts of Maryland or Pennsylvania. The final wave came in the mid-1800s. They all stayed until work in Western Maryland became scarce after WWII. Then family members increasingly moved away. Today the cousins reside from coast to coast.

So here's a recap of salient points that shed light on my own ancestors. And I have both of those books, as well as Mom and Aunt Betty, to thank for it!

The miners of the 1800s were Welsh, German, and Irish. Some had their passage paid for by the mining companies who recruited them from mines fields in their native lands. While the various nationalities tended to live and worship with their former countrymen, they shopped and entertained together, thereby smoothing the assimilation process.

My Welsh miner ancestors lived near Welsh Hill in Frostburg and worshiped at the Congregational Church that was known early on as the Welsh Congregational Church.

Ladie's Aide Society of the

Welsh Congregational Church
Of Frostburg, Maryland
Their Picnic, about 1932.

My Irish ancestors were mostly railroad men. Interestingly, the RRs ran on Georges Creek coal. And of course they all worshiped at St. Michaels Catholic Church.

My grandfather wasn't lucky enough to be higher in the birth order so while his older brothers worked for the railroad, he had to go work in the mines. He eventually suffered from "black lung disease". Uncle Delbert remembers him coming home with 25 cents for  a day's work during the Great Depression. Good thing his father in law was the town's prosperous barber and had trained him how to cut hair in the little shop in back of the house. The income from haircuts given to miners on Saturday night carried them through the Depression.

My Grandfather,
John Lee Kelly, right,
and his brothers,

With their father the railroad man,

about 1912.

Employment in the mines was steady so miners often bought their own homes and put down roots, married and had large families. My GGF Daniel Williams was a mine supervisor and owned his own home... as well as two mines, which is another story I'll save for another day:)

This was not the case for the vast majority of mine fields. Workers tended to roam from mine to mine and sometimes state to state. They had no vested interest in the community and tended to be single and drinking men.

I keep reading and learning, soaking up as much as I can. It gives me a fuller picture of my ancestors.

If you'd like to peek into the daily lives of those living in the Georges Creek mine field in the late 1800s visit the Frostburg Mining Journal, some of which is now online through the gracious and wise auspices of the Maryland State Archive's state newspapers project. Find it at:
http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/newspapers/cfm/dsp_number.cfm?id=1024
Click here to find the microfilm now online: http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/cfm/dsp_film.cfm?speccol=5130&newsid=1024

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/07/lets-explore-some-local-history.html

Any Quality Copy Is A Good Copy, If...

March 7, 1896 issue of the Frostburg Mining Journal, above, carried the obituary of the sister of my Great Grandfather, Joseph E. Whetstone. Mrs. Elizabeth J. Clise (nee. Elizabeth J. Whetstone) was, according to my Family Tree Maker relationship calculator, my great grand aunt. I don't have a photo of her, although I sure wouldn't mind having one. Bet there's one floating about in some relatives closet:)

If you happen to scroll down you'll see older posts about the Frostburg Mining Journal. It has not been available online until now, but quite recently the Maryland State Archive began the task of scanning all 10 rolls of microfilm. Good for them... and a blessing for the rest of us who are from Western Maryland and find in it wonderful bits about our ancestors! I've been having a load of fun parked on their web site looking through page after fascinating page, soaking up the place and time of the late 19th Century in Frostburg and vicinity.

The only problem I'm having is one of quality. Above you'll see what I mean when I titled this post, "Any Copy Is A Good Copy, If...". If it's the only copy you have access to.

Today's photo from my Archive, such that it is:

Enoch Clise, Husband of Elizabeth J. Whetstone,

Mentioned in the above obit,
in his Civil War uniform.

He was mayor when his wife passed.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/any-quality-copy-is-good-copy-if.html

 

Frostburg Mining Journal Online: A Dilemma

Can your read that? It's difficult, right? That's the quality of the Frostburg Mining Journal online at the Maryland State Archives based on the Baltimore microfilm. (See below.) Some bits are better than that and some much worse. Mom and I decided that it is not as clear as the microfilm over at Frostburg State University's Ott Library's Special Collections.

So the dilemma is this: wait for the FMJ to be put online at some future point by Frostburg State University or go ahead and sponsor pages at the Maryland State Archive. Something is better than nothing, I guess. And I did find the mention of my GGF, Gus Zeller seen above. That's worth a lot, although I don't think I'd be able to make out the words if I didn't already have that text from my file on him... taken from the Frostburg State University's library microfilm.

The URL of this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/frostburg-mining-journal-online-dilemma.html

A Big WOOP!

Two things to report and then I gotta get goin'. First, both of the films I ordered from the Family History Library have arrived at the local Center. The last time, the order process happened at mid-change over in the way they do it so it kinda got messed up. But this time, super fast and efficient!

The second item is a biggie for me, Mom, Aunt Betty! The good old Frostburg Mining Journal is going online!! First I need to explain what the Frostburg Mining Journal is. It was a small newspaper that chronicled life and times in the Frostburg Maryland area during the boom-time of regional coal mining in Western Maryland. From small news to big events, joyous and tragic, the FMJ covered it all. The FMJ was published from 1871 to 1904 and a good many of the original issues and the microfilm of those issues reside with Frostburg State University's Ott Library's Special Collection. They are preserved as best they can be but time is the enemy.

The library admin and staff know how important the FMJ is to researchers. They located the original masters of the film and that was the last I heard of progress toward getting it online... until yesterday!

From the FMJ, January,1898

Long story short, The Maryland State Archives is doing it from the City of Baltimore microfilm! And individuals can sponsor a roll for $60! There are 10 rolls and two have already been sponsored. Think I know what I'll give Mom for Mother's Day;)

Here's a link to the inventory of films and FMJ issue dates. As you can see, two have already been digitized and are ready for browsing:
http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/cfm/dsp_film.cfm?speccol=5130&newsid=1024

If Western Maryland history is your interest, here's the link to the sponsorship form:
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/refserv/forms/pdf/microfilm.pdf

Print out the form and fill it in then mail to:
Allison Rein
Special Collections Manager
Project Director, Maryland Newspaper Project
(410) 260-6477
Maryland State Archives
350 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, MD 21401
allisonr@mdsa.net

Photo of the day from my archive:

My GGF, Gus Zeller, often mentioned in the FMJ

Me and Grandma Williams, Emma Susan Whetstone Williams.
Not relevant but I just like it:)

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