More Luke Ladies

From left to right, Sylvia (Mifflin) Luke, Mary Agnes (Leemon) Luke, and Marguerite Murphy (Luke) Treme holding Mary Elizabeth Luke.

Mary Elizabeth is the daughter of Aril Webster and Sylvia (Mifflin) Luke.

Hezekial should be Hezekiah

I have notes from family members stating that Hezekial Othnell Henderson is the correct spelling of the name of the man who married Lucinda Ann Booth in Texas on 24 Feb 1885. In a routine check of Henderson on Find A Grave, I found an entry for a Hezekiah Henderson with the same birth and death dates. The picture of his grave clearly shows the spelling Hezekiah. The notes on this second memorial also say that this man was married to Lucinda Booth.

I went back and checked the censuses. Here's the run down (year and first name):
1860 Kezakiah
1870 Hezekiah
1880 Hesekiah
1920 Hezekiah
1930 Hezekiah

I guess I should have taken the spelling in the censuses more seriously, and given less weight to what I was being told by members of one line in this family. A quick check on Ancestry.com turned up a bunch of people looking of Hezekiah...all married to Lucinda. I also located a Missouri death certificate (26433) and it too has the spelling Hezekiah. It's hard to read and could be an h or an l but I'm going with h. My next stop is going to be Random Acts to see if somebody can locate an obituary.

Mary Josephine (Hayes) White

I'm back to trying to track down obituaries. The file coding helps so much. All I have to do is look for obituaries and/or Find A Grave entries on people who have the Custom ID "D" for dead. My other codes are "L" for lurk, "F" for Find A Grave, and "O" for obituary. The ideal state for a Custom ID is "FO"; that is, I have an obituary and I've created a Find A Grave memorial.

Over the past few days, I've entered requests in Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK). I've also sent queries to a few libraries. Today the gracious Ava (Tipton County, Indiana RAOGK volunteer) sent me Mary's obituary. I've already put up the Find A Grave memorial (64397285). Virgil, Mary's husband, is in the Alexander McKee (b. 1827) line; so, she's an in law.

The Alexander line is the one that needs the most work. That's why I was so excited when Bryan contacted me; he a direct descendant. Alas, he's gone quiet. He's either digesting the reports I sent him (and I sent him a bunch) or he's distracted with his job (fixing helicopters somewhere overseas). Whatever the case, I'll be happy to hear from him when he gets back to me.

My next step will be using Pipl to track down info on Mary's children. I've already picked up an entry in SSDI on Mary's oldest child, a daughter named Ruby Thea (White) Bogue. With Mary's obituary, I'll take a stab at finding info on her other children.

Zouaves...a military fad

Slacking on my own genealogy research tonight. However, I'm sitting here watching the History Channel and a show about Zouaves. What a fancy uniform! The U.S. had Zouave military units, the 5th New York and a Louisiana division...all pre-Civil War. I don't have any Zouaves that I know of but it sure would be fun if I did have one or two.

McKee Name Carried Forward

When Alexander McKee (b. 1778) had his children, he had four boys and two girls that I know of. I'm sure that there were other children that either stayed in Ireland or England (no lead on any) or did not live to adulthood (more likely). With four boys, one would imagine that Alexander could be sure that the McKee name would be carried forward by all four of his sons. The reality has been quite different.

Joseph McKee (b. 1804) had three sons. His son Joseph (b.1843) died before he had issue. George (b. 1839) had one son who never married or had no children that I know of. Only Joseph's youngest son, Robert (b. 1853) had sons. This line of McKees have carried the name into the present.

William McKee (b. 1812) had one son, William (b. 1853). He died unmarried and without issue that I know of.

Robert McKee (b.1816) had no sons.

Alexander McKee (b. 1827) had three sons, all of whom had families that included boys, who in turn married and had sons of their own. This line of McKees have carried the name into the present.

Therefore, anyone who is looking for the contemporary bears of the McKee name from this family need to look at descendants in two lines:
--Joseph's youngest son, Robert
--Alexander's sons

The interesting part is that the producer of the most descendants in this family is the daughter of Joseph McKee, Mary Jane (McKee) Booth (b. l838). Mary Jane had ten children, who each in turn married and had many children of their own. When chasing information on this family, I spend fully half of my time chasing information on a Booth descendant.

Luke Ladies

Marguerite Murphy (Luke) Tremé (left) with mother, Mary Agnes (Leemon) Luke, seated, and older sister, Lillie May Luke in DuQuoin, Perry County, Illinois


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Find A Grave Success

I’m an advocate for advertising research projects. One of the best ways to make contacts is to advertise, advertise, advertise. To that end, I write articles about my family and have them published in society journals. I post queries to message boards. I maintain a family website. I started this blog for just that purpose.

Another advertising activity I engage in is adding memorials to Find A Grave where I'm Pam (#47140371). I try to always complete a bio for each person I add, many times adding details from the person’s obituary. My current count is 264 memorials in one year and seven months.

Well today all the work paid off. I received an email from Bryan, a member of the Alexander McKee line (Child 6 in the family list on the left). I’ve got pretty good info for this line starting from Alexander. My info begins to get sparse as it comes forward…the more recent the date, the less info I have. So being able to work with Bryan has the potential to answer so many questions.

I’ve heard great stories about contacts that were made thru Find A Grave, and now, I might just have my own story to tell. So Bryan, if you’re reading this post, email me again! We have lots and lots to correspond about.

Anderson Cornucopia Continues

The McArthur Public Library in Biddeford, Maine rocks! I asked them to check five names in an obituary index. They checked the index, pulled the obituaries, and tried to send them to me for free since it was my first request. I sent them a small donation anyway.

I received the five obituaries in the mail today. I dutifully entered them in PAF (Yes, I still use old PAF--It works!). My next step was to add them to the Woodlawn Cemetery in Biddeford. On a whim, I decided to check before adding the names. Well a Mr. Charles Baker (God love his generous soul) had beat me to it. He had added a bunch of Andersons. I've emailed him asking that he transfer all of them to me. I don't think all of them are mine but you can never tell. If someone contacts me, I'll transfer the ones that don't belong to me.

Anywho--The following Find A Grave entries exist:
Memorial Name
63738637 Augustus B. Anderson (not mine?)
63739093 Donna Lee Anderson (maybe mine, maybe not mine)
64018091 Elizabeth G. Anderson w/obit
63695715 Esther Anderson (lots of info to add)
63738792 Hannah Dennett Anderson (not mine?)
63738487 Henry P. Anderson (have an obit to add)
63738438 Joseph Anderson (I picked up death year)
63368182 Julia (Pierce) Anderson w/obit
63368793 Mary Hannah Anderson w/obit
63738975 Matilda H. Anderson (not mine?)
63738741 Maud L. Anderson (not mine?)
63738448 William Anderson (I picked up a death year)

As soon as I can, I'll add the remaining obits and links to start creating a family tree.

Samuel Smith

Hmmmm...While track down all census entries for the family of John James and Anna Ellen (Doran) Anderson, I got a surprise on the 1930 census. The household list includes Samuel Smith, a nephew, living with the Anderson family in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. John's sister, Agnes Elenor Anderson, married William Smith in 1893 and their youngest child was Samuel Smith born in the spring of 1900 in Ashton Under Lyne, Lacanshire, England. Time to backtrack!

The 1820-1957 New York Passenger List shows Samuel arriving at New York City on 5 Sep 1923 aboard the Olympic. The port of departure is Southampton. The confirmation item is that the list includes his nearest living relative in England. It's his older sister Dinah Smith, 2 Gosford Street, Ashton Under Lyne, Lacanshire, England. Dinah stays in England. I can find a marriage for her in 1924 to James Taylor Kay (St. John, Dukinfield, Cheshire, England Certificate CE21/6/86).

In 1931 I can find Samuel in a city directory. He's living at 790 Liberty, Springfield, Massachusetts. The directory says that Samuel is an employee of Westinghouse. His Anderson cousins--Edward and Norman--also work for Westinghouse. After the 1931 entry, I can find no other records for Samuel Smith in Springfield. I'm hoping that when the 1940 census is released that I can pick up a record on him again.

In the meantime, I'm struggling to find records on Samuel siblings: Jane A., Esther Ann, Dinah, and John William. Anyone from England out there looking for these Smiths?

Joseph Dodd and the English Census

Since I was contacted by a Scottish cousin (Vivian), I've been going back and looking at the English lines (Dodd and Anderson). I decided to confirm my census references for Joseph Dodd, because I didn't want to send Vivian on a fool's errand.

I started with the 1881 census, because I had a street address. Agnes (Anderson) Dodd's uncle (Robert McKee) died 17 Sep 1880 and his intestate letters include an address for the Dodd family in England: 33 Old Cross Street, Ashton Under Lyne, Lancastershire, England. With this entry, I could begin to track backward in the censuses.

1881 Census: Shows Joseph Dodd (46) with Agnes and a street address of 33 Old Cross St., Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, England. He's working as an Overlooker Cotton Weavers. They have the following children: Sarah (21), Fredrick (20), Albert (14), Louisa (11), Robert (9), George (7), and Agnes (5).

1871 Census: Shows Joseph Dodd (35) with Agnes and an address of Dukinfield, St. John the Evangelist, Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, England. They have the following children: Sarah (12), Fredrick (10), Albert (5), and Louisa (1).

1861 Census: Shows Joseph Dodd (27) with Agnes and an address of Dukinfield, St. Mark parish, Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, England. They have the following children: Sarah (1) Fredick (1 month). Agnes' mother (Agnes (McKee) Anderson) is with them.

1857 Marriage: Vivian sent me the marriage certificate for Joseph and Agnes. The certificate says that Joseph's father's name is Thomas Dodd. So I started looking for a Thomas with a son of Jospeh in Cheshire.

1851 Census: Shows Joseph Dodd (15) with the family of John Dodd (uncle). Thomas and Mary--Joseph's parents--are living with John's family. The address is Wirral, St. Mary parish, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. Joseph's birth place is listed as Wallasey, which is in Cheshire, England.

1841 Census: Shows Joseph Dodd (6) with his family in Wirrall (Lower Division), Birkenhead, Cheshire, England.

Unfortunately, birth registration doesn't start until 1837. However, I have a christening record for Joseph that shows that he was christened 21 Jun 1835. His parents are Thomas and Mary Dodd and their residence is listed as St. Hillary, Wallasey, Cheshire, England. So I'm pretty confident that the 1841 and 1851 census records are for the correct family.

I've sent Vivian the census records so that if she goes looking she will at least have what I think is correct. It will be interesting to see if she comes up with different information.

Rudolph Luther Faith

Rudolph died 30 November 2010 at Autumn House in Idalou, Lubbock County, TX. I found his obituary online and two Find A Grave memorials (62473260, 62473255)with Rudolph's obituary as his bio. The obituary mentions all four of his daughters (Mary Lucille, Evelyn Ruth, Dorothy Anne, and Margaret Lane). In addition, the obituary mentions those who predeceased Rudolph, including his first wife Minnie Lorene Uptergrove.

I've requested a headstone photograph, hoping that Rudolph was buried with his first wife Minnie. Currently, I don't have an obituary or grave location for Minnie. Tracking Rudolph may lead me to at least a grave location for her.