My Trails into the Past

It’s a new month and a new surname: Davey. Matilda Pearl Davey is my husband’s grandmother. He may have met her twice; the first time when just a toddler in 1954 with his brother, the sons of Matilda’s only son, George Gorrell. They visited again in 1957. Childhood Matilda was born on 18 April 1880 to Frederick Henry Davey and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber. She was their second-born child. [1] She had three brothers from Fred’s first wife, one brother from his second wife, and two step-brothers from the third wife. [2] Her mother died when she was five years old. [3] In the beginning, her mother’s sister, Julia Wollenweber, came to live with them and her father married her on 28 July 1887, however, the marriage did not last and they were divorced by 1892. [4] The story as told by her son, George, Matilda was sent to live with aunts and perhaps spent time in a children’s home. [5] One aunt may have been Catharine Rose (Davey) McFall, who lived in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and lat...

A value that my husband’s grandmother held was service. Throughout her adult life she valued providing a service to others. There is no documentation as to why she did this. Perhaps her unorthodox childhood had something to do with it. Matilda Pearl Davey was born on 18 April 1880 to Frederick Henry Davey and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber. She was their second-born child. [1] She had three brothers from Fred’s first wife, one brother from his second wife, and two step-brothers from the third wife. [2] Her mother died when she was five years old. [3] In the beginning, her mother’s sister, Julia Wollenweber, came to live with them and her father married her on 28 July 1887, however, the marriage did not last and they were divorced by 1892. [4] The story as told by her son, George, Matilda was sent to live with aunts and perhaps spent time in a children’s home. [5] She married Joseph Norman Gorrell on 19 December 1900. [6] He was a lineman for a telephone company. In their first ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, is to: 1)  Are there ancestor's occupations that you know nothing about? 2)  Pick a great-grandparent or earlier ancestor who held an unfamiliar job (cooper, cordwainer, hostler, etc.). Look it up and write a short description of what their daily work life might have been like.  Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this week's SNGF challenge! Here's mine: One of my husband’s family kin, Joseph McFall (1836-1908), was married to his great-grandfather, Frederick N Davey’s, sister, Catherine Rose Davey. On the Civil War draft registration, Joseph was listed as a caulker. [1] He lived in Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana, which is located on the Ohio River. There is a wonderful website, “Dictionary of Old Occupations: A-Z Index,” on Family Researcher ( https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/glossary/Dicti...

It’s February and time to move on to another genealogical couple, this time, my husband’s paternal 2x-great-grandparents, Frederick Henry Davey (1853-1915), and Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber (1859-1885). Introduction Frederick Henry Davey was born on 10 October 1853 in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, the only child of Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas born in the United States. He married Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber on 26 June 1878 and they had four children: Fred James, Matilda “Tillie”, William Edward, and Leon Thomas. Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber was born on 27 August 1859 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Ludwig “Louis” Wilhelm Wollenweber and Philappina Margaretha Voehringer. She was the oldest child of five. She died on 1 November 1885 in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Fred married her sister, Julia Wollenweber on 28 July 1887. They had one son, George Thomas Davey. Julia divorced Fred in 1892. He married Angeline McDonald Grace on 16 Mar 1898 in Jasper Coun...

During the government shutdown, Brian Rhinehart of CivilWarRecords.com, presented a webinar, “Researching Your 19th Century Ancestors,” about researching military records at Fold3 . His pitch was to help support his employees since they could not work at the National Archives while it was closed. Learning to do better searching at Fold3 is always welcome, and I liked the idea of supporting those who were caught in the shutdown. I didn’t attend live, as I had other obligations, and watched the recording later, which turned out better because we had exercises to try out his methodologies. Seeing the recording allowed me to work on the problems without any stress. The way Fold3 is set up is different from most websites, where you enter a name in a search field and you’ll get all the documents about that person or persons with similar names. You can do that at Fold3, but you won’t get everything. Fold3 is better searched using their browse feature. He used the analogy of file drawe...

In 1943, my husband’s grandmother filled out a family tree on binder paper. She described her grandparents as Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas. She listed their children, including her father, Fred H. Davey. One of Fred’s sisters was listed as Lydia N. Colby, who had two sons, Albert and Alfred, and she identified them as twins. [1]  She included no dates and no locations for this family. I do not have much to work with, but I want to know if the boys were actually twins. Obituaries of Thomas and Mary Davey Thomas Davey died on 6 February 1886. The survivors included Mrs. Lydia Jackson of New York City. [2] Five years later, Mary Davey died on 18 September 1893 in Indianapolis. Mrs. Lida M. Colbey of New York was listed as one of the survivors. [3] The obituaries give two surnames for Lydia: Jackson and Colby. Both obituaries list her residence as New York City. An 1891 city directory lists a Lydia Colby, widow, living at 410 W. 57th Street. [4] This was the only directory fou...