Climbing the Family Tree

We’re told to study history in an effort to avoid repeating mistakes. Unfortunately, it often seems that some things never change. A vaccine has finally shown enough promise to be safe and effective that it’s been approved in several countries to combat COVID-19, which is currently raging in the United States. As with all decisions arising during this pandemic, there are plenty of conspiracy theories and scare tactics being preached against the vaccine. These modern crackpot anti-vaxxers of 2020 have nothing on my 6th Great Uncle, Benjamin Butler (1779-1872).

Ben founded the town of Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio when he was just 26 years old. He and his brothers were some of the early pioneers in this part of Ohio, hailing from (West) Virginia.

The 1862 county history includes many stories about Ben, including his recollection of meeting Dr. Henderson in Mount Vernon back in 1805.

“Henderson spoke up and said he had just been inoculating a child, and wanted to inoculate Butler’s, Ben. said ‘G-d d-- n you, haven’t I moved away up here to get rid of the d--d small-pox, and now d--d if you shall inoculate my child. I didn’t then know exactly what inoculating meant, but I was mad, and I threatened to put my knife into him, and scared him so that he would not attempt to ‘noculate any more in that town. He stayed about for a time, until he ran away with a woman; and no other doctor dared to show his face there during my stay. We had no lawyers, either, in them days.’” [1]

Don’t be like Ben. It’s 2020 and we can do better than swearing at and threatening our neighbors and doctors. Take a lesson from history. We can get through this with more of us still living if we work together and support each other.

[1]Norton, Anthony Banning. A History of Knox County, Ohio, from 1779 to 1862, 1862.

James Charles Birse was born 17 October 1884 in Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; the 3rd of six children born to my Great Great Aunt Isobel Milne and Alexander Birse.

1891 Scotland Census Parish: Aberdeen Old Machar; ED: 29; Page: 35; Line: 12; Roll: CSSCT1891_54

The 1901 census shows James at age 16, living in Edinburgh with the Purvis family employed as a “Whole Sale Druggist”.  

At 19, on 30 April 1904, James left Glasgow aboard the Buenos Ayrean destined for Quebec, Canada. He spent some time in Grand Rapids, Michigan before enlisting in the Canadian Overseas Battalion in London, Ontario, Canada on 17 August 1915.

31 March 1916, upon arriving in the UK, James wrote a letter to his Brother George about Edinburgh “Auld Rekkie” “She is still my favorite city and I have visited quite a few during my twelve years of rambling.”

6 October 1916 in a letter sent to his brother, George from a hospital in England where he was recovering from a gunshot wound received two weeks earlier.

“Well, I am thankful to say I have nothing to worry me at all- unless it is that I am getting well too rapidly. You know it isn’t very much to look forward to – another trip to H_ll. That is what it is over in France – at least on the Somme.“

James returned to duty 12 December 1916.

He was killed in action on 5 November 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. His widowed mother, Isobel Milne Birse was notified on 24 December 1917.

James is buried at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. His name also appears on the monument with the rest of the Birse family in the Allenvale Cemetery in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Date: Saturday, January 26, 1918 Paper: Muskegon Chronicle (Muskegon, Michigan) Page: 11

The Michigan newspapers announced his death as at the Battle of Cambrai, and while the cemetery monument reads Passchendaele. Since he died on 5 November 1917 it is clear that the family had the accurate information inscribed on the stone.

We are approaching another presidential election in the United States which once again leads me to reflect on the voting habits of my ancestors. They were just as passionate about their political opinions as we are today.

My ancestor-in-law, Elijah B. Dixon age 36, wrote a letter 31 July 1844 to the Otsego Republican from his home in Butternuts, Otsego County, New York.  

Elijah explained his reasons for leaving the Democratic Party for the Whig Party.

“I have become more thoroughly convinced that although that party claim to be democratic, they do not advocate democratic principles; and that they have changed so often that democracy is but an empty sound with them, used to deceive the people; and I believe that the democratic principles are only embodied in the Whig party, and believing that, I ought to vote with that party who advocate principles that will effect the greatest good to the greatest number.”

The Locofocos were a faction of the Democratic Party, and Elijah wasn’t interested in joining them either. “I am not to be deceived by the demagogues of the Loco-Foco party”.  

27 October 1859 issue of the Holmes County Farmer on page 3, my ancestor, John Harris at age 92 was interviewed after the recent Ohio gubernatorial election. John had been a Whig since the 1836 presidential election when William Henry Harrison was on the ballot. The Whig party dissolved in 1856 and John had presumably joined the Republican party.

“During the past campaign, Mr. Harris became satisfied that the so-called Republican party is fanatical and sectional, and at war with the best interests and threaten the overthrow of the government he has a thousand times periled his life to save and he determined to act with it no longer.”

t's Johnny Appleseed Day today. Here in Ohio we celebrate the birthday of John Chapman 26 September 1774. Growing up we used to have a special day in school where the PTA would give an apple to every student. We'd hear the story of Johnny and how he wandered around planting appleseeds and growing the first apple trees in Ohio. It was fun  just to be out of the classroom for an afternoon.

 Researching my early Ohio ancestors, I came across references to Johnny Appleseed and realized they actually crossed paths. Today, I found an old transcription of the deed where John Chapman bought land in Knox County, Ohio in 1809. 

This land was in Mount Vernon, a town which my very great uncle, Benjamin Butler laid out in 1805. Apparently John did not build a cabin on this land, rather he stayed with Uncle Ben and other early settlers. In 1999 a historical marker was placed on this property. 

John Chapman transported his seeds via canoe along rivers including the Mohican River where my 5G Grandfather, James Butler lived during this same time period about 1809 until his death in 1827. John Chapman lived in Knox County from about 1806 to 1828 considering the small population and the fact that Chapman was known to be acquainted with James' brother, Benjamin, I'd say it's extremely likely that they did know each other. James probably even drank his share of cider from those early apples. Benjamin Butler would have likely served some of the hard cider at his tavern in Mount Vernon. While I'll never know too many details of their lives, I like to think they had some good times and intellectual discussions with characters like Johnny Appleseed on the Ohio frontier. 

I've started to do some packing tape photo transfers and have my ancestors all over the house.  They provide a great opening for telling a story, and they remind me of my family. Most of these are just upcycled items, a bit of fun for crafty types. Some packing tape, a printed image and you're good to go!

Even 12pt font came out without a problem, so it's great for names or bios. The ink really transfers well. Just make sure you use a laser printer. One thing I found is that the photos really look best if there is white or ivory behind them. So, I painted the inside of this bottle white on one, and the other is clear.

Candy Jar with my Great great grandmother, Engelina Grada TeGrotenhuis with vitals on the back.

Some bath accessories...

A jar of buttons... the possibilities are endless.

Some tutorials on creating the transfers.

https://thegraphicsfairy.com/diy-packing-tape-transfers/

Today marks 100 years since the armistice was signed ending the "war to end all wars" at “the eleventh hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.” This monumental event shaped the history of the world, as well as the personal lives of our ancestors. A few years ago, I blogged on my WWI veteran grandfather, Adolph G. Zimmerman. As is often the case with family history, this event caused me to revisited some of his history related to the war.

                              Adolph Gustav Zimmerman (1893-1972)

From his discharge card, I found Adolph enlisted on 22 July 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 23. Nearly a year later, on 6 July 1918, he boarded the SS Belgic bound for Liverpool, England.

Under the White Star Line the Belgic was a troopship in WWI, later became the Begenland on the Red Star Line.  During the fall of 1918, as part of Co. A 16th Machine Gun Battalion, Adolph saw action in Gerardmer Sector in Vosges, France from 3 September to 12 October and Meuse Argonne from 1 November until 11 November, when the war ended.

It wasn't until 10 June 1919 that Adolph boarded the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria in Brest, France to head for home.

Recently I've been researching my Scottish ancestors, making sure that I have all readily available records. The National Records of Scotland has a website, ScotlandsPeople which has many vital and census records available to view for £1.50. Some of these baptism records are also available to view on FamilySearch, which is free.  I've been spending some time trying to figure out what I can get on FamilySearch.

Surprisingly, the census images are on FamilySearch, although you have to be at a FamilySearch affiliate library to view them. This is also true of many of the baptism records as well. So, when I was at the Ohio Genealogical Society library this weekend, I was able to find my family in the 1841, 1851 and 1891 censuses.  The other censuses are there, but once again I stayed at the library until closing time. First thing I noticed was the census images are "courtesy of Find My Past, Ltd".

Find My Past has an index for the UK censuses and images for England and Wales, but not for Scotland. There is also an index to these Scotland censuses on Ancestry.com. So, why if there are these images not available on Find My Past if they are provided to FamilySearch?

Whatever the reason, these images are not easy to navigate and may well be worth the ease of downloading from ScotlandsPeople. I tend to be frugal and all, but time is money. However, if I hadn't gone through this exercise of plodding through the rather baffling organization of these unindexed files, I would not have made a bonus discovery. My 2G grandfather, George Milne was an enumerator for the 1891 census!

This is the first signature of his that I've ever seen. Quite fancier than I would have imagined for a retired blacksmith. Now I have pages of his handwriting where he enumerated himself and his neighbors. He was a bit cleaner in his signature than the rest of the pages, but that only makes sense. Also made his capital M differently on his own name compared to his Murray neighbors. 

Sometimes spending some extra time pays off. If I had merely downloaded the image where George was enumerated, I would have stopped there. No reason to pay another £1.50 to the previous page where this information was located.

The rabbit hole of genealogy brought me to this interesting story because the map was found in a house of the neighbors of my Milne 2G grandparents. I previously blogged on George Milne and his blacksmith shop Vulcancroft, This is not really about my family, but perhaps they saw the map?  Great restoration project at any rate. 

My daughters and I made a list of things to find in the cemetery 14 years ago. We just did it again last week. We separate into teams and check off our list. Originally we took photos for proof (many are now on FAG), but then went to the honor system to save time. We all agreed that it’s probably better played in cooler weather. Pokémon GO has gotten a bad rap from some people about playing in cemeteries. Since I’ve been a long proponent of enjoying graveyards, I see no reason to change my mind now. Just be respectful of both the living and the dead. Don’t go running and laughing around mourners. Find a time when it’s not crowded (they rarely are) and see how well you do.

Cemetery Scavenger Hunt

1) Someone with the same name as you (first or last)

2) Someone who lived to be one hundred

3) Someone who died as a baby

4) An epitaph mentioning God

5) An epitaph not mentioning the word “God”

6) A headstone that mentions the cause of death

7) A last name beginning with the letter T

8) A last name that begins with Q

9) A boy’s name that begins with E

10) Someone with a three letter last name

11) Someone with a three letter first name

12) A headstone that has a crack in it

13) Someone born the same year as you

14) Someone who lived to be your age

15) Someone who died this year

16) Someone who died the year you were born

17) A tombstone with an animal on it (can be a picture on the headstone)

18) A headstone with an American flag in front of it

19) A soldier who died during a war

20) A name with more than 9 letters (example: Zimmermann)

21) A headstone with more than 2 names on it

22) A headstone that reads “Mother”

23) A headstone that reads “Father”

24) A headstone that reads “Baby”

25) A headstone that reads “Grandmother”

26) A headstone that reads “Grandfather”

27) A headstone that reads “Friend”

28) A headstone with an Angel on it

29) A headstone with a stuffed animal near it (i.e. in front of, on top of, etc.)

30) A headstone with real flowers in front or on top of it

31) Someone with a picture of themselves next to their grave

32) A curse word on a tombstone (example: Assman)

33) Someone who has a street, road, park school or library named after them

34) A headstone that lists the profession

35) A headstone with a foreign country named on it

36) A headstone with only dates in the 1800s

37) An all white tombstone

38) Tombstone that has been knocked over (on its side, or on its back, etc)

39) A grave with a piece of trash on it

40) A new grave (i.e. looks like fresh soil)

41) A headstone that has the first, middle and last name on it (just one person)

42) A headstone that has the name of someone you know

43) A headstone with name, birth year and no death year

44) A headstone statue

45) Mausoleum

46) An obelisk

47) Foot markers

48) A bench

49) Trash can

50) Water spicket

Nothing has intrigued me more about graveyards than finding a good epitaph. Perhaps the expense prevents them from being common, and few of my ancestors have any on their headstones. This past weekend I visited the grave of my 5th great grandmother and sadly found it had fallen face first to the ground. It's symbols and epitaph now hidden along with the information recording her death.

Grave of Catherine Cunningham Harris 1776 - 1842 in the Nashville, Cemetery in Nashville, Holmes County, Ohio. 30 June 2018

 Grave from 2009 when it was still upright

With fire bright did her example shine Her love to mortals told its source divine And while her friends her death bed wept around She calmly told the comforts she had found And beged them all to praise redeming love Answered instead reign with Christ above

This is an example of memento mori, which is Latin for "remember that you have to die". It is to remind the living of their own mortality. We may walk through the graveyard alive today, but someday will be among the dead.

This was another example I found nearby. It was difficult to read in the bright sunlight, so I took a photo. Then playing with the contrast settings and coloring, was able to read most of it. Fortunately, when I googled the words that I could make out, there were quite a few examples of the full transcription from other stones. It's very common for an epitaph to be repeated on other graves.

 Stop my  friends O take another view The dust that moulders here Was once beloved like you No longer then on future time rely Improve the present And prepare to die

 The National Genealogical Society Conference was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week. Since my father’s family is from that area it was nice to be in their old stomping grounds. Between health issues and attending the conference, I didn’t get to see many of the sites, but did get to see the house where my grandfather, Robert  Kenneth Milne died at age 28 in 1931. 

This also helped to identify this as the back drop for a baby photo of my father with his mother at the foot of the front steps.

Baby Robert D. Milne with mother Alice Youngberg Milne at 441 Elmwood St. NE, Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1931.