52 Ancestors Week 9: Disaster

Although I have been unable to find an example, surely in my nearly nine years of blogging I have alluded to the fact that my Grandpa Jack's family home burned sometime shortly after he returned from the service in WWII. It is a fact of which I have long been aware, and is the reason that so few photos from Grandpa's side of the family exist. Some of the few that do survive are actually singed around the edges, physical artifacts of that disaster.

For some reason, though, I never could seem to find any independent information on the fire. All I knew was the little that Grandpa told me. However, a mere two weeks ago, I finally found my first independent source: an article appeared in the 18 Aug 1948 edition of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil. So now I finally have a date for that fateful blaze. It must have happened on 11 Aug 1948.

The article reads:

Interior of Home Damaged by Fire

Fire, heat and smoke damaged the interior of the two-story home of Francis A. Hoyt, 1102 South Thirty-fifth street, Wednesday.

Two companies of firemen brought the blaze under control. It is believed a kerosene stove in the kitchen caused the fire. Hoyt told firemen he heard what sounded like an explosion in the stove.

 

Though brief, there is some valuable information contained in that article. First of all, as aforementioned, I can finally put a date to the incident. Secondly, the address is given. From city directories and other sources, I know that the Hoyts lived in that house from at least 1940 and continued to live there until at least 1957. There must have been some serious renovations made. Thirdly, it was a two-alarm fire. This makes me certain that this article is truly the correct event. In the past I have managed to find another article concerning a fire at the Hoyt house, but that one was a minor chimney fire and quickly put out. This one bears much more the character of the fire Grandpa spoke of. Lastly, the article says that the fire was believed to be caused by the kitchen stove. That rings a bell somewhere deep in my memory. It seems that Grandpa once told me that.

Incidentally, the Francis A. Hoyt referred to in the article was Grandpa's dad, my great-grandfather.

Citation:

"Interior of Home Damaged by Fire," Council Bluffs Nonpareil, 18 Aug 1948, p. 12, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 Feb 2020), World Collection. 

52 Ancestors Week 8: Prosperity

The theme of Prosperity brings to mind my great-grandfather Walter Underwood's sister and her husband. The newspaper article celebrating the couple's golden wedding anniversary makes them sound very prosperous indeed.

Maldon Golden Wedding

Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Bell.

To-day (Saturday) Mr. John William Bell, J. P., and Mrs. Bell, of Spital Road, Maldon, will celebrate their golden wedding. They were married at the Wantz Road Methodist Church, Maldon.

Mrs. Bell was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Underwood, of Hawkwell. Mr. Bell is a native of Westgate, near Weardale, Co. Durham, and came to Maldon in 1886 to assist in the construction of the Maldon-Southminster-Southend railway. On the completion of that line he remained in employment with the old Great Eastern Railway as a foreman platelayer, a position he held until he retired on reaching the age limit of 65.

In 1907 Mr. Bell was elected delegate for the G.E.R. Permanent Way Department on the Joint Conciliation Board, representing the extensive Ipswich district. For some years he devoted his spare time to endeavouring to improve the conditions of railway workers, and he played a big part in the reduction of hours and the increase of wages. When the Maldon branch was formed, Mr. Bell was appointed chairman, and he held that office until the branch was amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen 17 years later. Mr. Bell has always been an ardent Trade Unionist.

Mr. Bell was for some years chairman of the Maldon Co-operative Education Committee. In 1918 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the borough, and is about to commence his sixth successive year of office as chairman of the Juvenile Court. For three years he served on the Town Council, and for some time was a member of the Maldon Board of Guardians.

Mr. Bell is 74 and his wife 71. There is no family, but Mr. and Mrs. Bell have brought up a niece, who is now a Sister under the L.C.C. at the Eastern Fever Hospital, Homerton.

Source:

"Maldon Golden Wedding," The Essex Newsman, 31 Dec 1938, p. 1, col. 2; digital images, British Newspaper Archive (http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk : accessed 26 Dec 2012), Brightsolid in partnership with the British Library.

Abraham Amos' parents - part 2

A while ago I traced the parents of my 3great-grandfather Abraham Amos, determining them to be Thomas Amos and Amy Dunn. Since then, I have continued pushing the line back, and have gone back quite far--to the seventeenth century--on one of the maternal lines. Recently, however, in a Google search for something else, I stumbled across an apparently well-researched genealogical site that threw my conclusions into doubt.

The site is called Faded Genes, and is a project to trace the ancestry of some Kentish soldiers who died during WWI. Two of my 2great-grandfather George Amos' nephews, Ernest Richard Amos and Fred Amos, are featured. They are sons of his brother Thomas, and therefore share his ancestry on their paternal side. The information on the site agrees with my research that their grandparents were Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock. It also agrees with my research on the Cock family, and even gives me a hint that one of the Simon Cocks may have had a second marriage I didn't know about. However, when looking at the Amos line I had a great shock.

The line read " Thomas AMOS, born Abt 1795. He married Mary [maiden name unknown – marriage not found]." My initial reaction was that the researcher simply hadn't been able to find out as much as I had. Abraham's parents were Thomas and Amy; likely the mistake of Amy for Mary was the cause. But then I continued reading. Children were listed:

i          Jane AMOS, born Abt 1817, baptized 6 Apr 1817 at St Augustine, East Langdon (Kent).

ii         Margaret AMOS, born Abt 1820, baptized 6 Feb 1820 at St Augustine, East Langdon (Kent).

These were not the siblings I had discovered for Abraham. Yet they were baptized in the same parish he was, making them more likely candidates than the group I had found. But if his parents were Thomas and Amy, and these girls' parents were Thomas and Mary, the likelihood was surely decreased. I had to refer to my sources.

And that was when I realized that I had no primary source for his baptism. I had only an index entry. The "England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975" database at Ancestry, which cited the "England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975" database at FamilySearch, which cited FHL microfilm 1,786,622 was my solitary source. It claimed that his baptism had taken place at East Langdon, Kent, on 7 April 1821, and that his parents were Thomas Amos and Amy. Surely in all my digging through parish registers I had verified this record? But a search through my Evernote account, where I store all my in-progress documents, proved that I had discovered only that East Langdon is not a parish included in FindMyPast's "Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913," where I have been finding original images of so many of my family's records.

St. Augustine's Church, East Langdon, where Abraham Amos was baptized no matter who his parents were.
Nick Smith / St Augustine's church / CC BY-SA 2.0

So now, since I couldn't see them in the usual place, it was time to figure out where I could see images of East Langdon's parish registers. I could find them in none of the databases at FindMyPast, nor at Ancestry. FamilySearch had only Bishop's Transcripts and transcribed excerpts. I searched the catalog of the British National Archives and Kent Archives. A guide, provided by the Kent Archives, to the locations of parish registers in Kent indicated only Bishop's Transcripts for East Langdon. After about two days of using all my spare time to search every possible repository I could think of, I came to the conclusion that the original parish registers must have been lost. Even the databases covering East Langdon used the Bishop's Transcripts as their source.

And these databases had me worried. The one at FamilySearch, as I had discovered before, recorded Thomas and Amy as Abraham's parents. But the "Kent Births" database at FindMyPast gave his parents as Thomas and Mary. This was disheartening and inconclusive. Even though I have seen errors in Bishop's Transcripts in the past, in this case it would have to serve as my best possible source. I would have to consult it. That meant visiting my local FHC, which I would not be able to visit until Sunday afternoon. It was going to be a long, suspenseful week.

Finally Sunday arrived. When the time came, I hopped into my car to make the drive, just as my phone buzzed to remind me of a workshop I was supposed to attend, which had nothing to do with genealogy. With a heavy heart, I turned my car the opposite direction. The suspense would have to last another hour. It turned out to be an hour and a half before I was able to dash to the FHC, checking my clock and noting that I had only an hour and twenty minutes to solve this mystery. Had I spent a large quantity of time and effort climbing the wrong family tree? Would I have to add an editor's note to my recent blog post about the Shrubsoles that further research had proved that they were not actually my ancestors? Soon I would find out.

Within two minutes of entering the building, I was seated at a computer, and scrolling through images from the appropriate microfilm, searching for the beginning of the section filming East Langdon. It took a little while to find; East Langdon was quite far into the roll. But not too long after locating the right item, the 1813 baptism of a child with the surname Amos appeared. His parents, however, were named William and Ann. Perhaps he was a cousin, but that would have to wait. A few more images passed, and then came another Amos baptism. Ah, now we were on the right track; this was for Jane Amos, the supposed sister of Abraham. In both the FindMyPast and the FamilySearch databases, as well as the tree at Faded Genes, her parents were Thomas and Mary. The real question was the names of the parents on Abraham's record. The Bishop's Transcript, though--the source of most, if not all, of these of these entries--provided a surprise. Jane's parents were Thomas and Amy! That possibility had never entered my mind. I had felt certain that either Abraham was the brother of Jane and Margaret, and not the son of Thomas and Amy, or that he was the son of Thomas and Amy, and not the brother of Jane and Margaret.

Quickly, I looked up the information I had on Thomas and Amy's children, and saw that Jane and Margaret would fit nicely into that gap I had noticed between the births of Abraham and his older sister Susanna. Perhaps all my research would not have to be scrapped after all. Margaret, too, and Abraham, all were the children of Thomas and Amy according to the Bishop's Transcripts, despite databases claiming their mother's name was Mary. And thank goodness for that, because tracing a Thomas and Mary Amos through Kent would be a far more difficult task than the more unusual combination of Thomas and Amy. Plus, I can still claim to be a descendant of numerous John Shrubsoles. Now, if I could just find Thomas' parents...

52 Ancestors Week 7: Favorite Discovery

Although I could never choose one all-time favorite discovery, there is an easy candidate for my favorite discovery of the past week. It happened on Sunday, when I was sitting at the computer at my local Family History Center. Scrolling through images of original parish records, I suddenly had to laugh. Of course, being surrounded by other genealogists, there was avid inquiry into what I had found.

The parish records were for the parish of Tilmanstone, where my Cock line was residing in the early 1800s. (I learned that they lived in the nearby community of Thornton, about halfway between Tilmanstone and Knowlton.) Simon and Mary Cock were my 4great-grandparents, the parents of Isabella Cock. On 26 Jan 1820, they brought their twin sons to St. Andrew's Church for baptism. 

St. Andrew's Church in Tilmanstone
Josh Tilley [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

The first of these infants was christened Edward Simon. The second was christened... Simon Edward. I repeat, the twins were named Edward Simon and Simon Edward.

I cannot imagine why my ancestors would wish these inverted names on their children. If they ran out of ideas, why would they not have simply named one Simon and the other Edward? None of their other children were baptized with middle names. A previous child had been named Simon, but they could not have been superstitious about naming one child after another, deceased, child. They named a son John after his brother John's death.

If you read my earlier post on this family, you may wonder why I am so astonished by this discovery. After all, the index at FamilySearch contains two entries for that date, one for Edward Simon and one for Simon Edward. However, it seemed so much like a transcription error that I was almost wholly convinced that's what it was. There existed only the smallest grain of a doubt, and to see that grain expand into a certainty--and a certainty of such a ridiculous fact!--is intriguing, astonishing, and endlessly amusing.

Sources:

St. Andrew (Tilmanstone, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms 1813-1874," record for Edward Simon Cock's 1820 baptism, p. 11, no. 85, image #12; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 9 Feb 2020).

St. Andrew (Tilmanstone, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms 1813-1874," record for Simon Edward Cock's 1820 baptism, p. 11, no. 86, image #12; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 9 Feb 2020).

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Oct 2017), entry for Edward Simon Cock's 1820 baptism; citing Tilmanstone, Kent, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,835,794.

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Oct 2017), entry for Simon Edward Cock's 1820 baptism; citing Tilmanstone, Kent, England, index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 1,835,794.

52 Ancestors Week 6: Same Name

This week's prompt is another one that has caused me difficulty, but this time because of the wealth of options. I could write about the string of Walter Underwoods in my family, beginning with my great-grandfather, or the intriguing Luxembourgish habit of naming children after the godparent of the same sex, regardless of any siblings with the same name. I could write about the complexities of dealing with multiple John Howards fathering children in the same English parish, or the large number of men in my family named Simon Cock. My most recent research, however, has been on a string of John Shrubsoles (and phonetic variations of that name).

I have previously written several times about my great-great-grandfather George Amos, who ran the Creeksea Ferry, both pub and ferry, on Wallasea Island in Essex, England. As I have written before, he had been born in Kent to Abraham Amos and Isabella Cock. Abraham Amos, as I wrote about in a previous post, was the son of Thomas Amos and Amy Dunn. Thanks to finally recollecting that I could access FindMyPast at my local Family History Center, I have been able to push Amy Dunn's line much farther into the past.

Nick Smith / An eclectic mixture of styles on Lyminge church / CC BY-SA 2.0

Amy Dunn was baptized Emara in Lyminge, Kent, on 17 Jan 1780. Her parents were John Dunn and Mary Shrubsole. The original parish records for the year 1752 in Lyminge were completely unreadable, but the Bishop's Transcripts at FamilySearch came to the rescue with the information that Mary Shrubsole had been baptized there on 5 Apr 1752, the daughter of John and Mary Shrubsole. This is the first John Shrubsole of my research. John and Mary Shrubsole had eight children that I know of, two of whom were also named John. The first was baptized on 10 Mar 1754. He evidently died within the next six years, as the next John was baptized 17 Aug 1760. The second John's surname, however, is spelled as Shrubshall in the records.

John and Mary Shrubsole were, if you weren't keeping track, my 6great-grandparents. John himself was baptized in Lyminge on 13 Sept 1722, a son of John and Elizabeth Shrubsole. This John, my 7great-grandfather, was baptized in Lyminge on 6 Nov 1692. And the names of his parents? John and Ann Shrubsol.

My research on these Shrubsoles and allied families is ongoing, and I have been delightfully astonished by how far back the line is traceable. I look forward to untangling the various Shrubsoles in the records--not just multiple Johns, but also Marys, Anns, Elizabeths, Davids, and more--enough to write a cohesive history. I am greatly looking forward to the research that will enable me to breathe a little life into the memory of these people.

Sources:

Ss Mary & Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms & Burials 1767-1812," record for Emara Dunn's 1780 baptism, p. 23; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 19 May 2019).

St Mary and St Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Bishop's transcripts for Lyminge, 1563-1852, "Baptisms, marriages and burials, 1563-1812 (missing: 1565/6-1567/8, 1572/3-1575/6, 1579/80-1582/3, 1584/5, 1585/6, 1587/8-1592/3, 1596/7-1602/3, 1604/5-1606/7, 1608/9-1611/2, 1613/4, 1621/2, 1627/8, 1640/1-1661/2, 1708/9, 1711/2. "1564/5 return probably not for Lyminge. Does not relate to register or names.)," record for Mary Shrubsole's 1752 baptism, image #397; digital images, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 30 Dec 2019).

Ss Mary & Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms & Burials 1678-1766," record for John Shrubsole's 1754 baptism, image #14; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 19 Jan 2020).

Ss Mary & Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms & Burials 1678-1766," record for John Shrubshall's 1760 baptism, image #16; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 19 Jan 2020).

Ss Mary & Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms & Burials 1678-1766," record for John Thrubshal's 1722 baptism, image #9; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020).

Ss Mary & Ethelburga (Lyminge, Kent, England), Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913, "Baptisms & Burials 1678-1766," record for John Shrubsol's 1692 baptism, image #5; digital images, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020).

52 Ancestors Week 5: So Far Away

This prompt has proven the most difficult for me thus far this year, although "So Far Away" should seem an easy prompt for an American genealogist, with the necessity of immigration in one's history. However, I have struggled to think of someone in my tree who (a) was "so far away" from his/her family, home, or something else, (b) I had enough information to actually write about, and (c) I haven't already written about. I'm not going to write about the Underwoods' 1903 trip to America; it's already been covered in Aunt Elsie's typescript, and I currently have nothing to add. Likewise, I've already written about John and Mary Craig's eventful trip on the Mauretania. Harry Stroesser made a long journey from Luxembourg to Iowa, but I have yet to discover his name in the ship manifests.

All week I have pondered a subject for this post (with the Carole King song running through my head), and, now that the week is nearly over, one has finally come to me. The research is so fresh that it should have been obvious! Last Sunday I visited my local Family History Center and used their portal to access to Newspapers.com. Perhaps it slipped my mind because it was not my intended research topic, but a quick dipping of my toe before I moved on to my main plan.

In my speedy foray into the world of newpapers, I stumbled across several articles about the Brosius boys away in France during WWI. The earliest of these is dated 18 Oct 1917, before Ormond Brosius had left for Europe:

Likes Army Life.
Ormond Brosius, Sergeant in Artillery stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, writes his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Brosius, that army life suits him and that his already dark skin is now so thoroughly tanned it is difficult to distinguis him from the Mexicans. Ormond volunteered in the regular army last April in company with Frank Ward and Bert Sherrod and they were in San Francisco until June when Ormond and Frank were transferred to Fort Bliss.

This article enabled me to add a few more details to my knowledge of Ormond's movements during the war. It also lines up to a certain extent with Ormond's own account of his enlistment:

There was three of us. When war was declared there was three of us... Frank Keller and myself and Bert Sheridan. We got on the Missouri-Pacific and went up to Wichita to enlist. Well, they told their right age. I was 16, see, and they was 18. So we got in this line... Ol’ Bert says, “I’m 18.” This old boy wrote it down. “Go on.” And Frank Keller was a-next... When they come to me, I told the truth. I said, “16.” And he said, “Young man, you come back in a couple of years.” So, the next morning I got right in this line, and when I got there I told him, “18.” “Go right ahead.” See? That’s how that happened. See. Boy, it pays to be a liar sometimes.

The first names are identical, even if the last names are not quite the same. Sheridan is quite similar to Sherrod, though. I also enjoyed the reference in the article to Ormond's dark skin. I have come across similar references on his mother's (Wade) line, and it is interesting to see how the trait is passed down the generations.

The next article helps to clarify the confusion between the names "Frank Ward" and "Frank Keller."

Mrs. E. A. Keller this week received a card announcing the safe arrival in France of her son, Frank Ward, who was at a cantonment in Texas. Ormond Brosius was with the same detachment.

It seems that Frank and his mother had different last names, and that Ormond was simply giving them the same surname. The date of arrival in France makes sense, given that the company had departed from Hoboken aboard the Aeolus on 23 Apr 1918. The 16 May 1918 printing of this note allows for the time for the troops to arrive in France, Frank to write the card, and the card to travel back across the ocean and then across land to Kansas.

It seems it took a little bit longer for Ormond to send news to his parents, but when he did it was not just a card but a whole letter.

Ormond Brosius writes his parents Mr. and Mrs. John Brosius of this city from somewhere in France, a cheerful letter telling of his safe arrival, good health and some of the quaint customs of the people of that land, which are a source of wonder and amusement to our soldier boys. He was enthusiastic over the country and well satisfied to be there under his own flag. Ormond enlisted early in the activities.

I can only wish the newspaper had printed the entire letter, as it did with one of his half-brother Harry's, which I transcribed in his Military Monday post and will not repeat here.

Speaking of Harry, the next clipping finally mentions him. Admittedly, I was more interested in finding articles regarding Ormond, in whose cabin I spent a wonderful vacation, than in Harry. When I have more time to dedicate to this newspaper research I will do a more thorough job.

John Brosius and wife are among the few Sedan parents who have received no letters from France since the armistice. Ormond is with the 18th Field Artillery and Harry with a Gas Regiment.

This clipping is dated 26 Dec 1918, the day after Christmas. The family must have spent an anxious Christmas waiting to find out if two of their members had survived to the armistice. It would have been the second anxious Christmas, the previous year still during the fighting.

They finally heard from their boys the next month.

Mr. and Mrs. John Brosius received word from their sons, Harry and Ormond Tuesday, the first they had received since the big fight ended and were greatly relieved to know that the boys are all right. Both are with the armies of occupation.

It surprised me that none of these clippings mentioned Lee, the third brother in the service. I don't believe that he ever went overseas, but some of these articles were about army life before prior to shipping out. Perhaps this lack of Lee has more to do with my search terms during my limited research time than anything else. When I return to this line of research, I will specifically seek information on Lee.

Sources and Citations:

"Likes Army Life," Sedan Times-Star, 18 Oct 1917, p. 7, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020), World Collection.

Ormond Brosius, Lowell Brosius (Portland, Oregon), recorded conversation, Aug 1979; audio cassette privately held by Amber Brosius.

"General News," Sedan Times-Star, 16 May 1918, p. 8, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020), World Collection.

"U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939," online images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 Jun 2018), manifest, Aeolus, 23 Apr 1918, entry no. 40, for Ormond J. Brosius, service no. 1,042,684.

"General News," Sedan Times-Star, 20 June 1918, p. 10, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020), World Collection.

"General News," Sedan Times-Star, 26 Dec 1918, p. 2, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020), World Collection.

"General News," Sedan Times-Star, 30 Jan 1919, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2020), World Collection.