My Trails into the Past

A newspaper account of the marriage of Frederick H. Davey and Matilda Wollenweber was a bit surprising by the title, “More Trouble.” [1] There were two marriages listed under this title and Fred and Tillie’s was first. What was the trouble? ( Jeffersonville, Indiana) Evening News, 26 June 1878, p. 1, col. 1 A transcription in case you can't read the image: “Married, June 25, at the residence of the bride’s mother, on Prison Hill, by the Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Sheets, Mr. Fred Davey to Miss Tillie Wollenweber.” There is not much in this announcement. They were married the previous day. They were married at Tillie’s mother’s home on Prison Hill. They were married by Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Sheets. Each of these statements bring questions I want to answer: Is there a marriage record? Where is Prison Hill? Is it in Jeffersonville? Or is it in Louisville, across the Ohio River? Tillie’s mother was Philippina Wollenweber. Where was she living in 1878? Who was Rev. Sheets? Whic...

Another assignment from Randy Seaver at Genea-musing : Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  What was your best research achievement in 2016?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it!   2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2017?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.   3)  Put the answers in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. My biggest accomplishment in my research in 2016 was finding the probate packet for Robert Lancaster. This was a big estate and the inventory was several pages. What excited me most was learning that he had two whiskey stills. I wanted to learn all about how whiskey was made in the 1840s and I even got to taste some bourbon whiskey. I made the posts on my ...

We began the search for David Shotts’ estate records from a newspaper notice submitted by the administrator, Daniel Shotts asking for debtors to pay up and anyone with debts against the estate to come forward. The complete story about the notice is here . Because the notice was found in the newspaper, the probate records were searched for David Shotts. In the Testamentary Docket, the index gave two pages for David Shotts. [1] Index for Testamentary Docket showing David Shotts, decd. So on page 180, there was a summary of what happened when Daniel Shotts came to the October Term 1825 term on the 14 October 1825. “On motion and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the widow has relinquished her right of administering. Ordered that Letters of administration be granted unto Daniel Shotts on the estate of David Shotts decd on his being qualified and giving bond and security to the satisfaction of the court whereupon the said Daniel Sho...

In the 27 October 1825 issue of the Scioto Gazette , a newspaper published in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, there was a notice put in by the administrator, Daniel Shotts for the estate of David Shotts, late of Huntington Township in Ross County. [1] Scioto (Chillicothe, Ohio) Gazette, 27 Oct 1825, p. 3 The administrator of the estate was responsible for collecting any debts owed to the estate and any debts that the estate owed to someone. This newspaper ad, that was likely in several consecutive issues, was asking that anyone who has a claim against the estate to “present them within one year” and that those who do owe money to the estate were “requested to make immediate payment.” This is also a clue to me that there should be probate records concerning this estate. So on to FamilySearch.org to search for a probate record for David Shotts around 1825 in Ross County, Ohio. The records are online there but are browse only records.  David Shotts was my daught...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has his weekly SNGF mission. Our mission to day is: What goals do you have for your genealogy research, education and writing during 2017? My goals for 2017: Research: I have planned two (2) research trips to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library. The first trip will be the week following SLIG (Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy) where I will move from the Hilton to the Plaza Hotel and research for a week at the library with the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society’s group. The second trip will be in April when I take a group of genealogists from the California Genealogical Society to research for a week at the library. In March, on our way back from a trip to South Texas, I will stop in Little Rock, Arkansas, where I’ll take some time to visit the archives there as well as the Capital building and the Clinton Library. A day trip up to Conway in Faulkner County might be in order, too, to collect some more land records ...

This is a continuing story about the Official Personnel Folder for my great-aunt Beryl Johnston Russell. [1] See part 1 here . I had always known that my great-aunt Beb (that was what we called Beryl Johnston Russell) had worked for the federal government and lived in Greece. I had no idea who she worked for, but guessed it was the State Department. However, she worked first for the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers. She had been working for the Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento on the Central Valley Project. On 11 July 1948, she accepted the position of Clerk-Stenographer, CAF-4, at $2992.50 per month. This money included a differential to begin when departure from the U.S. Once at the Apergis Hotel in Kifissia, Greece, she filled out an application for employment in the Foreign Service of the United States. This is the best application as it had all of her previous employment history. It also had the addresses of the previous ten years. None of these addresse...

Today I received a thick envelope from the National Personnel Records Center for the civilian records of employment for my great-aunt, Beryl Johnston Russell Taylor. [1] It measured at one-half inch think, probably about 125 pages. I haven’t counted them yet but I have looked at every page. So how did I get this file? I wrote a letter to the National Personnel Records Center at the address in Valmeyer, Illinois asking for the Official Personnel Folder (OPF) of my aunt who worked for the federal government for about 30 years. I gave all of her names (she was married twice), her birth and death dates, and her Social Security Number. One of many of the forms in Beryl's file I had known little about her work. I knew that she worked a year or so in Greece after World War II (from her passport) and that she worked in Sacramento until her retirement (from her obituary). But I didn’t know what she did for a living. I will keep the pages in the order in which they came...