Things Go Better With Coca-Cola, Things Go Better With Coke!

Me (left) and my sister (right) before the Blondie concert at the Hollywood Bowl, July 9, 2017.

James R. Shannon US Navy 1943-1946

Calling Into The Past

As you already know, I found out my grandfather is buried in New Orleans, LA and, if you have read the comments on my post about finding him, you know I sent away for his death certificate. It came last week and it provided me with three new pieces of information. First, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, second, he had lived in New Orleans for twelve years before he died, and, third, he was married to someone other than my grandmother when he died.

All of these things were a surprise to me. The first because I was expecting to find out he had killed himself or had an accident while drunk but instead he just dropped dead of a stroke at 8:10 PM one night in 1956. The second because he just disappeared after 1942 and the last address I had for him showed him living in Peoria, IL with his mother. Now I find out he moved to New Orleans sometime in 1945. I went from 14 missing years to only 2 in the blink of an eye. The last bit of information is the most fascinating to me. I found a marriage record for my grandfather listed in the Vital Records of Louisiana so I know he was married to what was either his second or third wife, but it begs the question, had he divorced my grandmother before he remarried or was it a case of like son, like father? Now that I know he had married again I've sent away for that record to see if I can find more information about my new step-grandmama.

As you can surely tell, I find this whole genealogy thing quite captivating. I'm finding the answers to questions I never thought to ask before and in some ways it's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together knowing that some of the piece are missing and will never be found. This is find with me since before all I had was a box full of what I thought were mismatched pieces that would never fit together. How can partially complete picture not be better than that?

All Those Years Ago

Jeanne Deverick ShannonJune 5, 1928-March 22, 2002

Go West Young Man And Woman!

I signed-up with ancestry.com last month and have been digging into my past again. I usually sign-up for a month, work frantically, and then wait another six months to sign-up again. This time I only waited about four months and signed-up for a three month stretch. I hit them at a good time as they have added a great amount of new records to their site. I had reached a dead end on my mother's side but was delighted to fine that baptismal and death records for New Jersey had been added and that other family trees had posted additional information which led me to other records.

What has been most interesting for me is finding the links between seemingly unsubstantiated bits of information. For example, I managed to track my father's grandfather's (Samuel L. Ramsey) migration westward from where he was born to Illinois using the 1850, 1860, and 1870 census. In 1860 he was 16 years-old, still living in West Virgina and working on the family farm. Sometime between 1860 and 1870 he, his parents, and his siblings, moved to Illinois and the census for 1870 shows the family still farming. In 1873 he married Alice Virgin and by 1880 they had two daughter and were living in Wichita, Kansas where he worked as a dray driver.

While searching the Illinois State Archives Death Records I discovered the family had moved back to Illinois by 1844 1884 as that is where and when Alice Virgin Ramsey died at age twenty-eight. In 1889, at age 45, Samuel married my great-grandmother, Lela Mick, in Murrayville, Illinois. The 1900 census shows both, along with their three children and Lela's sister, living in Murrayville and Samuel either owning or working in a livery stable. In 1910 the Ramsey family, minus Lela's sister, is still living in Murrayville where Samuel owns a Livery and Feed Barn, Lela works as a telephone operator, and my grandmother works as a bookkeeper in a bank.

By 1920 my great-grandfather is no longer living with his family but living with his great-niece in West Virgina. My great-grandmother was still living in Murrayville with her youngest child and has been promoted to a telephone manger at the telephone company. The last piece of information I had on my great-grandfather was from other family trees. According to the other trees my great-grandfather died in 1931 at age 88 in Devils Lake, North Dakota but is this true? If so, how in the world did he end up dying in North Dakota?

This is where I left off back in July as I could not find anything that connected any family to North Dakota. For some reason I had never looked up records for any of my great-grandfather's daughters from his first marriage. Tracking women relatives is always frustrating if you do not have their married names but if the women you are looking for has an unusual first name it becomes easier. My great-aunt's name was Zella May and on Sunday I finally got around to searching for her. Imagine my excitement when I found a 1930 census record for a Zella May Cunningham who lived with her husband Edgar in Devils Lake, North Dakota. But was it my Zella May? I then found other family trees that confirmed Zella was my great-grandfather's daughter.

At this point I thought I was done with Zella May but something told me to type her name into the Google search box. I don't usually do this because I've found in the past that it turns up nothing. This time I was surprised to find that doing so led me to books.google and a book called Women's Who's Who In America from 1914-1915. There on page 222 was a listing for my great-aunt:

CUNNINGHAM, Zella May (Mrs. Edgar Wright Cunningham), Larimore, N. Dak. Club pres.; b. Fairbury, Ill., Aug. 9, 1875; dau. Samuel Lazzell and Alice (Vergin) Ramsey; ed. Jacksonville (Ill.) Female Coll., '93; m. Jacksonville, Ill., Dec. 30, 1896, Edgar Wright Cunningham; one son: Emory Lazzell. Identified with Presbyterian church work. Favors woman suffrage. Republican. Mem. Order of Eastern Star. Pres. Tuesday Club, Larimore, N.D.; chairman Conservation Com., N.D. Federation of Women's Clubs. Mem. Civic League of Larimore. Resident of N.D. from 1905.
(Woman's Who's Who of America (1914-1915). New York: American Commonwealth Co., 1914.)

I like the fact that my great-aunt was a lady suffragette and that she may have been the one whispering in my ear. I also find it amusing that her mother's maiden name is spelled wrong,  it should be Virgin and not Vergin.  Typo or deliberate?

Digging In The Past Again 2

My great-great grandparents on my father's side. I can see my father in my great-great grandmother's face.

Digging In The Past Again

Name: Elizabeth Collins
Gender: Female
Birth Date: 23 Sep 1865
Birth Place: Newark, Essex, New Jersey
Christening Date: 26 Sep 1865
Christening Place: Saint Patricks Pro-Cathedral-Catholic, Newark, Essex, New Jersey 
Father's Name: Patrick Collins
Mother's Name: Bridget McCormick

My great-great grandmother on my mother's side.

How To Disappear

Did you miss me? I've been distracted by both yard work and genealogy research the last few days. The outside temperatures stayed mostly in the 90's last week so I was outside as much as possible trying to stay ahead of the weeds in my yard. The wet weather last Spring caused the weeds to proliferate at a remarkable rate and our week away on vacation brought numerous squatters who just could not resist settling in and trying to take over.  I could blast them with pesticides but with dogs I don't consider that a viable option.

When I wasn't outside ripping up vast neighborhoods of unwanted green growth while visions of new garden designs danced in my head (Shades of Robert Moses), I was online searching government records for information about my father's family. I just may have found my great grandparents who seem to have been part of an unknown-to-me family tradition of starting families late in live  life. If the man I think is my great-grandfather is my great-grandfather he was born in 1844 and fought in the Civil War with the Illinois Infantry. The woman who I think is my great-grandmother was his second wife and my grandfather would have been born when his father was in his early 50's. The connection I found to these people is an address my grandfather put on his World War II draft registration card showing that he lived at the same address as the woman I believe is my great-grandmother. I found her in an old Peoria, Illinois city directory where she had listed herself as "widow of ____" and by searching the Illinois State Archives online records found out that at various times one or both of  them lived in the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home.  I have sent away for copies of their records and hopefully will find something that will connect them to my grandfather. 

So, if in the future I disappear once again you'll know where I'll be- either digging in the dirt or digging in the past.

Reunited

And it's feels so good
-Peaches and Herb

I see I haven't posted since last Tuesday and part of the reason was a major migraine that knocked me out for almost three days. The other reason is I have been on an Internet hunt for information about my grandparents. If you think the Internet is a black hole of time try genealogy research. I have found census reports, WWI and WWII draft cards, cemetery listings, phone books, and death records that contain my ancestors. I have looked at old high school yearbooks, Civil War records, military pension records, lunatic asylum records, and prison records but so far I haven't found anyone related to me yet.

I did find, a great-uncle I never heard of before who died at age forty-four way before I was born, the second husband of my aunt who's name I had forgotten until I saw it again, the real name of an uncle who I only knew as "Uncle Danny", and the reason why I remember my great-aunt's husband as being very old but nice when I was about three years old- he was, she married for the first time in her forties and he was more than ten years older than her.

So, I will probably be missing in action for most of the week as I get drawn deeper into the hunt for my long-lost relatives. I actually went missing while writing this post when I went to check a fact I had mentioned in the above paragraph. Fifty-three minutes later I remembered I had been writing this post and came back to finish it.

Which I have now.