Who Tells the family? Follow-up

Two years ago I blogged the question, "Who tells the family?" where I asked the question of who tells the family "back home" when a distant family member dies. In that posting I asked, "Did they (the settlers of his estate, his local friends or someone else) put an inquiry into a Kentucky paper to locate the family of Garland Slemmons long ago resident? I don't know, but I would really like to find out."

Well guess what I found!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Granny M's Memory Bk pt10

Today's entry is going to be a long one because there are four newspaper articles on page 22 of the memory book. So without further adieu here goes:

The first newspaper article on the top left reads:

"Alf Bray Killed as Team runs away near Summer Shade - Alf Bray, 48 year-old farmer and part time minister of the Summer Shad community, was killed instantly on his farm Monday afternoon, May 13, at 3:00 p.m. when a team ran away throwing him from the wagon as he was hauling water. He suffered a broken neck.
The son of the late Jim and Louiza Harlin Bray, both of Monroe County, he was born July 18, 1908 in Barren County.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Mahalie Gilley Bray; two sons, Kenneth and Gerald Bray, both at home; four daughters, Mrs. Alma Jane Goode, Summer Shade; Mrs. Wandalane Page, Beaumont; and Brenda Sue and Loretta Gail Bray,, both at home; five brothers, Hobart Bray, Albany; Otha Bray, Glasgow; Walter Bray, Louisville; Bubby Bray, Rt. 3 Glasgow, and Ossie Bray, Rt. 5 Glasgow; a sister, Mrs. Florence Gooden, Randolph.
McMurtrey Funeral Home of Summer Shade has charge of arrangements and service will be held Wednesday at 1:30 at the Dripping Springs Church with interment in the Big Meadow Cemetery. Rev. Joe Richey will conduct services. The body will remain at the funeral home until time for services."

Ah, poor Alf.

Top right newspaper article reads:

"DR. E. S. Duncan, Edmonton Doctore, Dies Suddenly - Edmonton, Ky. - Dr. E. S. Dunham, 55, well known Edmonton physician, died at 11 p.m. Friday at another doctor's office in Nashville of a sudden heart attach. R. had practiced medicine in Edmonton for the past 26 years and was regarded as one of Metcalfe County's leading citizens.
A graduate of Berea College and the University of Louisville Medical School, class of 1931, he was a member of the Southern Medical Association Academy General Practice, Kentucky Medical Association, Kentucky Medical Association, and had been on the advisory committee of the Kentucky Tuberculosis Hospital located in Glasgow.
In addition to his varied medical interests, he was very prominent in civic and community affairs and was active in the Edmonton Lions Club and other community groups. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Dora Dunham, two daughters, Rose Marie Dunham, at home; and Mrs. George Webb, Louisville; his father, W. F. Dunham, Chucky, Tennessee; two brothers, Herbert Dunham, Beaumont, Texas; and Henry Dunham, Chucky, Tennessee; and four sisters, Mrs. Allen Maclead, Mrs. Sam Shanks, and Mrs. Doyle Lawing, all of Chucky, Tennessee; and Mrs. Lewis Chambless, Philadelphia.
Funeral ervices were held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Butler Funeral Home with burial in the Edmonton Cemetery."

Wow, I don't know that I would take very much from this obituary as correct. I mean, they even got the name of the deceased wrong in the title. Duncan/Dunham. Also have I ever told you all how much I really dislike obituaries with initials for the decedent? I mean why even bother with the obit if you are going to list them this way!

Anyway, the third newspaper article is in the bottom left corner. It reads:

"Overton Funeral Today - Hopkinsville, Ky., Dec. 1 - Frank Overton, 70, a retired State Highway Department employee, died Wednesday at Salubria Springs home for the aged near here. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Clint Hoppers; Princeton; two sons, Paul and Engene Overton, both of Atlanta, Ga.; three sisters, Mrs. Bessie Dulin and Mrs. Leonard Briggs, both of Crofton, and Mrs. Noble Sockett, Michigan, and two brothers, Fred Overton, Crafton, and Tom Overton, Madisonville. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Macedonia Baptist Church. The body is at Thomas Funeral Home, Crofton."

Ok, as I was transcribing this obituary, I was wondering what was the connection to my grandmother or the family. Then half way through I find it. The sister of the descedant, Bessie Dulin, is the mother to my grandmother's daughter-in-law. Huh? Ok, Bessie Dulin's daughter married the newspaper article clipper's son.

Anyway, on to the fourth newspaper article in the bottom right corner. It reads:

"Doctor's Widow Dies - Glasgow, Ky., Dec. 1 - Mrs. Sallie Pursley Edwards, 78, widow of Dr. Fidella Edwards, died Thursday at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Dallas H. Smith, Tunstall, Va. Also surviving is a sister, Mrs. Clay Coleman, Sr., Paris, Ky. The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Crow Funeral Home here."

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)
 

Treasure Chest Thursday - Granny M's Memory Bk pt9

Okay, I'm a little late today with the posting but my husband and I came back from vacation and I think I finally know what people mean by jet lag. I have been playing catch up all week long.

Anyway, here is the next installment of my grandmother/great-grandmother's memory book. When last we left my grandmother, in last week's posting found here, she was writing about what Zelma was doing. So this week we find out that....

Treasure Chest Thursday - Granny M's Memory Book pt 4

I know, I know you all are just waiting on pins and needles for the next installment of my great-grandmother & grandmother's memory book....SO, here it is!

Through out this memory book my great-grandmother and grandmother not only wrote about the death of friends, neighbors and relatives they also cut out newspaper clippings about various happenings. Today's postings shows an obituary that was between two pages of the memory book.

The obituary from an unknown paper reads exactly:
"Young Woman Passes
  The commuity was o'ershadow.
ed with sorrow Thursday morning
to learn of the death of Annie Mary
Glass, age 22. Annie Mary died at
the community hospital Thursday
evening at 7 o'clock. She had
been suffering for several weeks
from brain Hemorages and for the
past week had been in the hospital
but her condition was critical and
little could be done for her.
  She is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Clarence Shockley, and love-
ly young woman. She leaves sur-
viving. her husband Mr. Lonnie
Glass and 2 small sons John Wil-
liammage 5 years and Marshall age
3 years, her mother and father and
one brother Roy Shockley all of
Randolph, Ky. Several uncles
and aunts, to mourn her un-
timely death. Funeral services
were held at Pleasant Hill church
by Rev. Veachel Jones Saturday
afternoon at 2 o'clock. Burial was
in cemetery at that place, midst a
large and sorrowing crowd of rel-
atives and friends."

According to the Kentucky Death Records 1852-1953 found on Ancestry.com Annie Glass died on 15 Oct 1936 at T. J. Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky. She was born on 23 Sept 1914 to Clarence Shockley and Versie Shirley. She was buried in Pleasant Hill Kentucky.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)
 

Treasure Chest Thursday – Slemmons Album page 21

Here we are again with more pictures from this cotton-pickin’ album. :) I mean I really like posting these pictures that way other people can see them and they can be "saved" for posterity.  But come on how long is this album? Well I looked at it and there are four more pages before the album is done. So that is four more weeks before it is over. I think I can do that....no I know I will do that. Ok, enough of my non-private pep-talk to myself on with this week's edition.

Epiphany while entering family data!

Ok, so I’m entering my family research into a new program, again. Some day I’ll have to tell the twists and turns my databases have taken over the years. But I don’t look at this as a bad thing, after all it gives me an opportunity to finally source some of my earliest research that I did. You know the stuff that I just added to my files without stating from where it had come….”Oh I’ll remember where this death date came from!”

Treasure Chest Thursday - Asher Slemmons & Martha Franklin

Extra! Extra! See your extra bonus!

Today you get an extra bonus. Again my aunt has sooooo many pictures that I thought I would double up on the postings.

Here is a picture that is GREAT! From the definition found on the Daguerrotype FAQ page of the Dagurreian Society website I believe it to be an ambrotype photograph. The pictures are of Asher Slemmons and Martha Susan Franklin.

Here is the outside of the case:

And what it looks like opened up:

Here is a close-up of the left side:

This is Asher Slemmons, my great-great grandfather and he looks pretty young here. He was born 22 Mar 1821 in Barren County, Kentucky.

A close-up of the right side:

This is Martha Susan Franklin, my great-great grandmother, and like Asher she looks very young here. Martha was born 26 Aug 1824 in Sumner County, Tennessee, the daughter of Richard T Franklin and Mary Thompson.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Slemmons album pages 10 - 11

I'mmmm back with more pages of the Slemmons photo album. As I have said in past postings, these are digital pictures that I have taken of a photo album my aunt owns.

Today's pages are 10 & 11:

Treasure Chest Thursday - Slemmons album pages 2-3

As I posted last week I have taken digital pictures of a photo album that my aunt owns. This is pages 2 & 3 of the album.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Slemmons Album part 1

As I have said in past postings my maternal aunt is the keeper of the family material on my mother's side of the family. It could be family pictures, bibles, drinking gourds or a chocolate pot, you name it and she probably has one that belonged to someone in our family. Over the years she has been immensely helpful in getting me started with my research. In the past we have talked about me taking digital pictures of all the "stuff" she has so that a record can be created for future generations, especially since she knows so much about and has so many stories about the family.

So it was no surprise when she called me this past Sunday morning asking me to come over to her house because she had found some family pictures that she wanted to look over with me. So off I go with my kids, my digital camera and a full battery.

Slemmons' Bible entry regarding the Huffman family

While looking through some previously copied family records, I ran across a bible record that recorded births of some of the slaves that the brother to my 2nd great-grandfather, Asher Slemmons, owned. I had remembered reading the entry back when I first made the copies in 1993 (wow how time has flown), but I didn't follow up with it after that. This morning when I saw the bible entry, something told me to do a little digging on this family (and having learned a long time ago not to ignore my gut feelings) I decided to do a little more research on this family.

Sentimental Sunday - My Ancestors Approved Award !

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are reading something and in one part of your brain it is being understood and you are continuing to read like normal, but the other part of your brain is having a hard time registering what you just read because surely you misread a word that would have changed the whole meaning of the sentence? I find that it usually happens to me when I am reading something that catches me so off guard with its information that I have to read it about 3 or 4 more times to really digest what is being stated.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Earlier Researchers

My Treasure Chest Thursday posting for this week is the following letter. This letter was found in some of maternal grandmother's papers that my mother's sister had kept. My aunt has allowed me to go through these papers on a number of occasions. It seems like every time that I go through them I found some else that I had not noticed before. Of course I had probably looked at it on a number of occasions but never really saw it. You know how that goes. ;)

Anyway, when I did find this letter I was having a hard time finding the name of John Twyman's wife. I can't remember why, but I do recall being excited to have found this letter because it was going to help me make the connection that I had not been able to make. I also distinctly remember holding the letter, looking at my aunt and feeling very excited knowing that when I flipped over the letter it would tell me the name of another ancestor of ours!

So when I flipped it over and read the name WAIT, I really didn't know what to think. I don't remember being disappointed, but I do remember having sort of an anti-climatic feeling. But then once I composed myself, I was able to formulate the next steps that I needed to take with this new piece of information. And I was eventually able to find her father, but that will be another post at a later date. ;)

But now onto the reason I am posting this for my Treasure Chest Thursday entry. Earlier Researchers!

If it hadn't been for an earlier researcher from the 1920's, Mary (Mrs. Paul A) Twyman Klayder, it would have taken me a lot longer to find out the maiden name of John Twyman. This being the same information that she had already found 70 years earlier.

I know that some earlier researchers had the information all wrong and have led us down wrong paths, but for the ones that were right we should really consider ourselves lucky! I know I do.

Hope you enjoyed, glad you stopped by and please come back again ;)

Madness Monday - Can anyone tell me about this paper?

I think the title Madness Monday really fits this piece of paper.

We found this piece of paper, which measures only about 3 7/16" wide by 3 3/16" high, in some of the other papers that my aunt had inherited.

It says "1st class This is to certify that Miss Sarah B Munday left off head on friday evening November 30th 1860 H G W Bradley"  

LEFT OFF HEAD....what the heck! I thought at first it might be a train ticket, but then the word head comes in to play. I looked in the 1860 Barren County, Kentucky census and find that H G W Bradley looks to be listed as a farm laborer. So what is he doing that he is writing a "ticket?"

link to the above census is found on ancestry at
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7667&iid=4230633_00233&fn=Herbert+G+W&ln=Bradly&st=d&ssrc=&pid=39274494

Does anybody know what this is, or know what this wording means? It has caused me quite a bit of head scratching trying to figure out what this is for.

Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks for stopping by. ;)

Madness Monday: The search for my Mundays

What family has driven me "mad"....My Mundays. Little did I know when I started my research on this family back in 1989 that this one family would cause me so many hours of research just to prove four generations. Then when I finally made the break through to where they had previously lived in Virginia......I broke right through to a county that had not one but two Civil War battles which went plowing through the precious records that I would need to go any further back.  What a great day that was when I realized how few records are available for the time frame that I need in Prince William County, Virginia.

So, without boring you with how many twist and turns I have had to go through with this family, here is the information that I have to date on this family.

William Munday - b. bef 1765 d. bef 18 Sept 1815 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
unknown wife - d. bef 16 Apr 1814 when husband's will was written

Children
1. James - b. bef 1791 d. bef 19 Jun 1820 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
   m. Bef 20 Jul 1800 probably in Prince William County, Virginia to
   Mildred Foster (daughter of James Foster and Elizabeth) b. 1775 d. Bef 19 Jun 1820
   James and Mildred had at least 9 children
2. Thomas - b. bef 1791 d. bef 21 Mar 1814 Breckinridge County, Kentucky
3. Robert - b. 1776 d. after 1850 living in Meade County, Kentucky
   Robert is living with Catherine who was born in 1796. She is an African American woman who I have put down as his wife. This is because the census taker did not enumerate her as a servant or qualify her being in the household with an occupation. I tend to believe that they would have if she was a housekeeper for him and not his wife.
4. William - b. 5 Jan 1781 d. 5 Nov 1827 buried in Red River Cemetery, Logan County, Kentucky
5. George - b. between 1780-1784 d. bef 1847 Barren County, Kentucky
   George married unknown 1st wife. Then married Malinda C. Holtsclaw Bowles 29 Dec 1839 Barren County, Kentucky
6. Ann - b. between 1784-1794 d. bef 23 Nov 1835 Hancock County, Kentucky
   Ann never married but raised her brother James' children after his death
7. Nathaniel - b. 21 Apr 1788 d. 14 Sept 1833 buried in Red River Cemetery, Logan County, Kentucky
   m. bef 1820 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Mary Ann Brown - b. 26 Oct 1798 Prince William County, Kentucky
8. Rachel - b. 1790 d. 16 Nov 1836 buried in Blincoe/Mason Cemetery, Hancock County, Kentucky
   m. bef 12 Mar 1824 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Thomas Blincoe - b. 18 Feb 1791 d. 17 Jan 1847 buried in Blincoe/Mason Cemetery, Hancock County, Kentucky
9. Betsey - b. abt 1799
   m. bef 27 Feb 1820 probably in Breckinridge County, Kentucky to
   Benjamin Gambill/Gambel/Gambell

Over the years I have wondered if I would find any more records for them, hypothesized and speculated where those records could be found and wished that I could find more information about them. I can thank this family for helping me develop the skills of looking for alternative records when the traditional ones are not available.

Along the ride I have been able to find a couple cool pictures and letters that help make a more complete picture for this family.

This picture is of James William Munday, my great-grandfather, who was born 5 Jul 1852 in Barren County, Kentucky and died 12 May 1921 in Metcalfe County, Kentucky.

I am told that this is the same man but just older. I do see the resemblance to the younger man.