The Ghosts of Christmas Past

For my December blog I have decided to do something a little different. I’m sharing photos of Christmas heirlooms and my ancestors during the season.  Enjoy! 

  

A postcard from 1908 sent to my Great-Grandma Mildred S. Bishop-Hunter, from her Aunt Hattie Brewer.

Taken in the late 1920's my G-G-G-Grandparents John J. and Eliza E. (Wilson) Bishop in their Greenwood, Ind home. (Oh, how I wish I had that spinning wheel!)

From the Elwood Call-Leader, my Great-Grandma Mary Melissia Webb-Eurick-Smith's letter to Santa Claus.  

Christmas ornaments that my maternal Grandma Bernice Hunter-Smith put on her tree as a teen in the 1950's. They now go on my tree!


   

     

A poem that was written and published by my step-Great-Grandma Georgia A. Fowler-Ellis in 1971.

                                    

             One of my favorites! My Great-Grandma Mildred Hunter's "Shiny Brite" tree. She had this for years and years

                     

Here is a gem from the past. These are the children of John and Eliza Bishop. The sons are Jacob (my G-G-Grandpa), Fred and Frank. The daughters are Mable, Carrie and Flora. We believe it was taken in Christmas 1894.

                                     

                                              My Great-Grandma Anna Marie Hahn-Gwinn-Cornwell, with Santa in the late 1980's.

       

A copy of  the Christmas postcard my G-G-Grandma Jessie Brewer-Bishop sent out to family and friends in 1906. These are the two children she had at the time Mildred (my G-Grandma) and Clarence.

              

       This is a poem that my cousin Amelia Nicole Williams and I wrote, it is not yet an heirloom but it will be some day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

The Two Annas

This is the story of two women both named Anna. I am not related to either one of them, but each played a big part in my family history. My mom’s paternal grandparents are Rev. William Byus Smith and Mary Melissia Webb-Smith. Mom’s maternal grandparents are Rev. Oscar Green Hunter and Mildred Sarah Bishop-Hunter. Before William and Mary, there was William and Anna. Before there was Oscar and Mildred, there was Oscar and Anna.

I’ll start with Oscar Hunter’s Anna, as I knew more about her from the beginning of my genealogy research.

Anna E. May 

Anna Elizabeth May, born 8-Dec-1902 to William May and Lucy Tomlinson-May in Kentucky. She married Oscar Green Hunter, 24-Oct-1919 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was sixteen and he was twenty. I’m lucky enough to have a little bit of insight on Oscar and Anna when they dated; there are many letters that Oscar wrote her during his service in World War I. Anna’s letters however are not to be found. Nearly every letter he would start off with “Dear Little Friend.” I have been able to gather from his responses to her that she was working in a shop of sorts and that she was close with his family that also lived in Cincinnati. I was able to get their marriage application, listing her as a hat maker. Oscar was a listed as a clerk.

One day after their first anniversary, Anna gave birth to a daughter, Dorothy Ruth Hunter. 1920 census lists only Oscar and Anna, as Dorothy was not born when it was taken. 

Oscar and Anna with Dorothy 

Then the little Hunter family suffered a terrible blow. Anna died of tuberculosis on 4-Feb-1922, she was only nineteen. Oscar was a twenty-two-year-old widower and Dorothy sixteen-month-old baby without a mother. Her obituary said, “She was the beloved wife of O. G. Hunter” Oscar’s dairy listed 4-Feb-1922 simply as “A dark day.”

Anna Hunter 

Years later, in 1935, Oscar married Miss Mildred Bishop, but that is a story for another time…..

Now to William’s Anna.  This is what I knew when I started. William a.k.a. Bill was nineteen and Anna Omega Balser who was thirty-four, a little unusual for the time. She died at the age of fifty on 4-Nov-1940 in Elwood, Indiana. Bill and Anna had no children and Her parents were Henry and Stella Balser. I had a lot of work to do. 

The only known photo of Annie, with her is her husband Bill

It took a while and my big find was found by mistake. Bill’s mother Eliza Olive a.k.a. Lida Bright-Smith’s sister Clara’s 2^nd husband was Rev. Jasper Newton a.k.a. Nod Alderman. Clara and Nod had two children and while looking for birth records for them I found birth records for Nod’s son (from a previous marriage) Richard’s children, their mother was listed as Annie Balser. Sure enough it was Anna Omega Balser.  Now Anna’s story was getting interesting. 

I found that Anna Omega Balser married John Richard Alderman on 19-Jul-1904 she was fourteen and he was a twenty-five-year-old divorced man. As I said earlier, Anna and Richard had children, they had three, all of which died young. The eldest child’s name is unknown at this time. The obituary serves as the only record of this child’s life.

The following month their daughter Pansy May, died on 4-Jul-1906, she wasn’t even seven months old. Years had gone by and Anna and Richard had a son, Arthur William, born 12-Feb-1920 in Elwood, Indiana. He died 31-Oct-1921.

I saw from newspaper articles there were a hand full of times that Anna had filed for divorce; it wasn’t always easy for a woman to get a divorce back then. She filed for the last time in Jul-1924, coming to the judge with a black eye, and claiming among other charges that he would not support her. The divorce was granted 17-Oct-1924, and upon her request her name was changed back to Balser.

A month later Anna married William Byus Smith on 19-Nov-1924, Anna died fifteen days shy of sixteen-years of marriage.   

Branching out: The Cholos

A lot of family researchers are unsure if they should trace their step-families or not. I say go for it! My step-dad’s family is my family, because of love. Full, steps, halves, adoptees:  it’s all family, yet it is very important to state the hows and the whys, people need to know their own roots. This brings me to “Branching Out” I have learned so much about my step-dad’s family tree, I want to share a story from that side once and awhile.  

The Cholos. What can I say about the Cholos? They have an unusual surname, they were migrants and their story, it is full of mysteries.

The Cholos Andrew and Anna with Dorothy, George and Mary

My Step-Great-Grandpa was George J. Ellis, he was son of Dorothy Cholo. When I started genealogy, I looked at the photos my mom had scanned and copied a couple of years before. There in the photos was(were) the Cholo family. Dorothy was the little girl with dark hair. The parents’ names? The other girl and the baby?

George J. Ellis (who I miss dearly) 

I had a family story that Grandpa Cholo was in a Russian prison camp, and escaped by stealing a horse from a drunken guard and rode to Ukraine. The horse died and he met a farmer, he worked for the farmer and soon married the farmer’s daughter. They came to America and had Dorothy and the other children. That was about it. Then I started to ask Grandpa Ellis more precise questions, and I got some answers and I also used Ancestry.com.

I found the 1930 census with a single woman named Dorothy Ellis living in Roscommon, Michigan with her four children: Virginia, Robert, George and Leonard. Next-door were Andrew and Anna Cholo with their children, George and Helen, also two grandsons, Andrew and Nicolas Barber. It listed that Andrew and Anna were both from Yugoslavia.

Now I had names! I could search for Andrew and Anna. In 1940 they were still in Roscommon, this time they are listed as being from Germany. Living next to them was daughter Dorothy and her family; she was now married to Charles Phillips. On the other side of the Cholos was daughter Helen, now married to Gus Yak.

Then I found the 1920 census listing Andrew and Anna was being from Serbia, this time they had two other daughters, Mary and Rose. There are stories of another son, Stephan, that moved back to the old country. I have found no documents to back that up.  

Andrew and Anna Cholo about 1925

I wanted to find the names of both Anna’s and Andrew’s parents. Anna died in 1943, her death record lists her parents as Andrew Micholson and Dorothy Bechup. Locating Andrew’s death certificate, I see his daughter, Dorothy, was the informant, she didn’t know the names of her grandparents, so there were no parents listed.

Anna in the 1930's with her chickens 

    

I was contacted by the daughter of George Cholo, and she sent me a photo that turned out to be Andrew and Anna’s wedding photo.

Bride Anna and Groom Andrew(all others are unknown)

Shocked and amazed were two of the best words to describe how I felt. The timing couldn’t have been better, I was able to get it printed that day and take it to Grandpa Ellis (Andrew and Anna’s grandson) for Father’s Day. He called it the best gift he ever got. To see your grandparents as a young bride and groom for the first time in your eighty’s! I can only imagine how he felt.

I hit a dry spell in the Cholo story. Almost two years later, however, I had two big discoveries.

First I found the Americanization paper for Andrew, it listed, in his words, his place of birth! Selekluc, Austria. (So why was his birth places listed as Serbia, Yugoslavia and Germany earlier? Well, European boarders change all the time and for whatever reason, the Cholos seemed to like their secrets.)         

Then I found the marriage record for Andrew and his second wife Margaret McWatters-Ingles in late 1943. Andrew listed his parents as John Cholo and Thessa Barrow.

Andrew died in 1956, he and Anna are buried in the Elmwood Cemetery, in Grayling, Michigan. Maybe one day I’ll be able to trace the family back even further, but for now I’m pretty content.   

This photo of Andrew was taken only days before his death

      

There is a favor I would like to ask of any Cholo that might read this, please write to me with any info you have! 

Caught in the Webb: Understanding George W. Webb

George W. Webb 

 I think George Washington Webb is my most perplexing ancestor. His daughter is my mom’s paternal grandmother Mary Melissia Webb-Eurick-Smith. Sadly very little is known about George. It was said that he wasn’t a very loyal husband and that the family had very little. There are newspaper clippings that I have found that tell of his run-ins with the law, I tried not to look at George as a “villain” in my tree. Over the years some things have started to make since and I look at his past not as an excuse but a reason for the choices that he made.

The Webb family. George and Lou with children Kenneth and Harrison (in back) Hazel (girl on left), Mary (girl on right),
George E., Lloyd and and Virgil (front row l-r.) 

George died in Elwood, Indiana on the 24^th of November 1938, he was 65. He left behind eight children. His wife Georgia Lucinda “Lou” Clark-Webb, had passed in 1933. Finding George’s death certificate I see his parents are listed as William Webb and Lucida Penwell. The informant was George’s son Harrison Webb.

Looking to George and Lou’s marriage record we find that her parents are William H. Clark and Sarah E. Moore.  George’s mother is listed as Lucinda WEBB, and the father is listed as “unknown” these questions being answered by George himself.

I needed to find the earliest record on George that I could. He was born 8^th of May 1873 (some say 1876) near Perkinsville, Indiana. I found the 1880 census listing a “5” year-old George as the grandson of Anaias and Jemima Webb. Their sons Jacob age 25 and William age 23. Could this William be the same William listed as the father? I doubt it… Next door to the Webb household is the Penwell family. Alfred and Lucinda with their young son Jerome age 2. Lucinda Penwell, this must be the Lucinda Penwell listed as the mother on George’s death record (filled out by George’s son).

I looked for the marriage record of an Alfred Penwell. He married Lucinda Webb. My belief is that George was born out-of-wedlock to Lucinda Webb. She later married Alfred Penwell, giving Harrison an “easy out” by listing the mother as “Lucinda Penwell” and the making up a first name for the father, and giving him the “Webb” name.   

I know from family accounts and few documents that George had two half-brothers, Jerome and Roy, either living in Elwood or the Elwood area.  Neither Penwell brother had children of their own, leaving dead-ends on their part. In doing research I found that Alfred and Lucinda had two other sons. One whose name is unknown - all I know is that at the age of 2 he fell into his Uncle William Webb’s well, they were able to save him. Lucinda died having the fourth Penwell child, a son only known as A. M. Penwell in May of 1891.

 

My knowledge of George’s short life after the death of his wife Lou, was little until I met my Step-father’s great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Martha was the best friend to George’s daughter Mary’s daughters. She knew George and thought he was, “A nice old man.” She and her friends even hatched a plan to get George married to Martha’s grandma, it didn’t work out. I did however find another marriage for George, an unknown marriage that shocked many people. See, his daughter Mary was first married to Robert L. Eurick and had three daughters. Roberts’ mother Melvina and George married in April 1934, a fact found in the local newspaper.  At some point they divorced.

Melvina L.C.S. (Hollings)Eurick-Webb

I am still trying to sort out George’s past; maybe I will get lucky and find a DNA match on ancestry.com. I have no lead as to who the father of George is, other than he may have been related to a Davis family. Info from a note I found by George’s granddaughter Opal, saying “Grandpa Webb’s 3^rd or 4^th cousin is Frank Davis.”  

My beloved Great-Aunt Opal N.R. (Eurick)Bear- 1929-2007, Thank you for all of the genealogy to left behind.
Photo courtesy of Martha A. (Jackson)Murdock.  

Stewart vs. Gwinn: Who are we?

As a genealogist when you don’t know a direct surname you often think of a distant grandma’s forgotten name, that name that was changed when the family moved to another country or maybe even a family secret.

This is the story of a family that changed their name, well some that did and some that didn’t and it was rather confusing, and to some it still is.     

Marked as the Stewarts- Harvey, Lillie Mae and three of their children  

My paternal Grandmother’s maiden name was Gwinn, her father was Jasper N. Gwinn Sr. That is what I always knew. When I started doing genealogy I went to my Grandmother and she told me that her father was the son of Harvey and Lillie Mae (Potter)Gwinn.

Then she told me that her father was one of four full-blooded siblings, but one of the sons went by the name Stewart. My first thought was that they had to be half, but as she went on she told me that for reasons unknown her grandparents had named the eldest boy Harley Stewart and that the other three children Icel, Jasper and Herschel were all given the name Gwinn. Confused? I was.

So I took the notes that I was able to gather and went to ancestry.com. Now that I knew my Great-Great-Grandparents’ name I could find the “Gwinns” in the 1920 census, knowing that my Great-Grandpa was born in 1914 I knew he would be in it.

I found nothing. That is until I looked for the family under the Stewart name. So, even the children that later used the Gwinn name were Stewarts. I found them in Hillsdale, Indiana.

Then the 1930 census. Still in Hillsdale, still Stewarts.  

Stewart/Gwinn family about 1930 Harvey, Lillie Mae, Herschel and Jasper 

 Harvey E. Stewart died in 1932 in Vermillion co., leaving behind a widow and the four nearly grown children. I knew that Harvey had to have some record somewhere that would help, so I looked for a census that would have him at home in his childhood. 

I found the 1900 census listing a Harvey Stewart age 20, son of Delany and Elizabeth, with five other younger children. I looked at the document itself and saw a note that was not transcribed (at the time). Harvey was listed not as a son but a step-son. So now I know that Harvey was not born a Stewart, but was he born a Gwinn?

I looked for the 1880 census that would list a woman named Elizabeth and her one year old son Harvey. I thought to myself, was Elizabeth a Gwinn? Did she have a son out of wedlock? But why did Harvey go by Stewart, and why did two of his three sons change their name to Gwinn, naming their children Gwinn as well. After all they were listed as Stewarts most of their lives?

I did find Elizabeth and son Harvey, but she was married and the boy had a father John Gwinn! So what do I know about John Gwinn? He was 26, husband and father. I found that he married Sarah Elizabeth “Liza” Simmons in 1877 in Park County, IN.  He was out of the picture prior to 1885 when Liza married Mr. Stewart. Was it by death? I believe it may have been desertion, I know divorce was “uncommon” then but you didn’t need to file to just walk away.  

Harvey’s mother Liza died in 1914 she was only 47. I hope that her life was a happy one.

So now to the Gwinn/Stewart clan after the death of Harvey, the oldest boy was already married and had two daughters with the Stewart name. Icel was married to Isaac Petty.  Jasper married in 1940 to my Great-Grandma Anna Marie Hahn, their four children were given the name Gwinn. The young boy also named his children Gwinn. (Also Lillie Mae and the two youngest sons were listed as Gwinn in the 1940 census, they were now living in Anderson, IN.)     

Lillie Mae Gwinn and daughter Icel 

My family were Gwinns, that became Stewarts and became Gwinns once again.  

Sarah Sandlin: The Story of Little Grandma

In a large part, the early life of Sarah Sandlin is a mystery. Born in Owsley County Kentucky on the 6^th of May 1855 she was the sixth child born to Ezekiel Sandlin and Sarah “Sallie” Clark-Sandlin. Life was not easy for the rural Sandlin family, on the 18^th of November 1859 the father Ezekiel committed suicide, by hanging himself in the barn, leaving behind a young widow and eight children, he was only forty-four. Then on the 24th of August 1864 Sallie, the mother died at the age of forty-two.(Her cause of death is unknown) By the 1870 census there are three Sarah Sandlin’s age fifteen, in the Owsley County, KY area. According to family accounts Sarah was very young and had twin daughters, around this time, they were taken and raised by another family, much against Sarah’s wishes. Her life, for the next number of years was unconventional to the standards of the era.  

Sarah Sandlin

 

On the 8^th of April 1876, Sarah had a daughter named Martha J. Sandlin, the father is known to be John Sizemore. His info stops there.    

 

By the 1880 census Sarah was twenty-five, she and Martha J. age four were living with Sarah’s brother Morris Sandlin and his family. Sarah was also pregnant at the time.  On the 22^nd of November 1880 the unmarried Sarah gave birth to another daughter, Millie Francis Sandlin. Fathered by John Glenn(In later years Millie was John’s caretaker). Then in April of 1884 Ms. Sarah Sandlin had another daughter named Mollie Sandlin. Her father was Harvey Creetch or Creech(says her death certificate) Not too many people can list the fathers of children born out of wed-lock during those times.      

 

 

On the 16^th of February 1887 thirty-two year old Sarah married a widower and father of two, Abijah Smith, he was thirty-four. He was also the brother of Sarah’s brother Morris’ wife Martha.  

 

While living in Jackson County, Kentucky on the 14^th of August 1889 Sarah gave birth to yet another daughter named Lucretia Smith, named after Abijah’s mother, the family called her Lou.

The Smith/Sandlin family
Front Jasper Smith, Abijah Smith, Sarah Sandlin-Smith, Millie Sandlin-Hunter and Martha Sandlin-Hurst
Back Mollie Sandlin-Smith, Lou Smith-Banks and John Smith 

 

The 1900 census lists Abijah Smith forty-seven, Sarah Smith forty-five, John Dee Smith nineteen (his son) Lucretia Smith ten, Martha Hurst twenty-four (Sarah’s daughter) with Martha’s daughter Sarilda Hurst age three and Molly Sandlin sixteen (Sarah’s daughter). 

Abijah and Sarah with her brother Morris Sandlin(on right)

 

Sarah was established and in a loving marriage- Then on the 20^th of April 1922 Abijah died at the age of sixty-eight. Sarah was sixty-seven.  They were married thirty-five years. 

 

On the 13^th of September 1928 Sarah married a man named Fredrick Nantz he was seventy-nine and she was seventy-five, as children they lived in the same small town.  It is the 1900’s census that states Sarah was eighteen at the time of her first marriage to an unknown man. The census also states that Sarah had gave birth to a total of seven children, and that five are still living.  

 

 

At this time, I don’t know who all the five children are, other than Martha, Millie, Mollie and Lou. Fred Nantz died at the age of eighty-four on the15^th of October 1935.

 

In the 1940 census Sarah was eighty-five and living with her daughter Lou Banks and her family in Gray Hawk, it states that the highest grade in school completed is 0, so most likely she never went to school.

Sarah with daughter Millie, Millie's granddaughter Dorothy Hunter-Popham and her baby Terry

 

 

 

On the 26^th of February 1951 Sarah Sandlin-Smith-Nantz died at the age of ninety-five in Gray Hawk, Kentucky  

Sarah aka Little Grandma 

 

Sarah’s  Children

 

Martha J. Sandlin(1876-1917) married Gilbert Hurst                 

Millie Sandlin (1880-1955) married John Anderson Hunter               

Mollie Sandlin(1884-1925) married Henry Smith

Lou Smith(1889-1965) married Lewis Anderson Banks               

Mystery Child #1(twin)

Mystery Child #2(twin)

Mystery Child #3

Sarah was lovingly called Little Grandma, maybe because she was about 4’ 11” She was a small, sweet and sassy lady. I’m so thankful for her strength and love. She has always been one of the ancestors that has a special place in my heart. A few years ago my cousin Amelia Williams and I were in search of a joint penname; quickly we knew we wanted to use family names. It wasn’t long until Storm Sandlin was born. So now every Storm Sandlin event we have is in honor of Little Grandma and her family.   (Sandlin family fun fact. Sarah's sister Bettie was married to Ol' Joe Clark, whom the song was written about)

  

A Chill in the Air by Storm Sandlin