We strive for excellence in everything we do here. lately however, some have noticed typographical errors as well as simply weird word placement in our postings. The reason: the Bloggcast Center has begun using voice recognition software. Frankly, it’s pretty cool software. It’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8.0. It’s become necessary because typing with any speed has become the next to impossible for me, for reasons that I’ve alluded to before. The manufacturer of the software says that it’s about 97% accurate , and I find that to be basically correct. But occasionally it will misunderstand a word or fail to capitalize properly. I try to catch these issues whereever they occur. inevitably I miss some. So hang in there with me and I’ll get this software trained properly.

VA-marked graves in private cemeteries also added to database

The grave locations of more than three million veterans and dependents buried in national cemeteries can be found more easily now because the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has added maps of burial sections online that can be printed from home computers and at national cemetery kiosks. The latest improvement builds upon a service begun two years ago, in which a VA online feature permits family members to find the cemetery in which their loved one is buried.

In a related development, VA recently added to its database the cemeteries in which 1.9 million veterans were buried with VA grave markers. These are mostly private cemeteries. This addition brings the number of graves recorded in the locator to approximately five million. Those with maps are in VA national cemeteries and in state veterans cemeteries and Arlington National Cemetery if burials were since 1999.

Read the rest of the VA press release here.

Use this link for the VA gravesite locator.

Quentin Vennis Harold Manson was born on June 20, 1913 in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. He was the eighth and final child of Otis Manson and Betty Sanford of Rockdale. He appears on the 1930 census with his parents. At some point after that however, he headed for the Gulf Coast. In Rockport, Aransas County, he met and married Jesse Bowie. Their wedding was on August 30, 1931. The following year, they became parents when my father was born. A lot of the rest of the story I simply don’t know. But my grandparents broke up sometime before 1940. My Grandpa Quentin was a jazz trumpeter, and served with a band in the Army during World War II. At some point after the war he moved to Los Angeles. There he made his living as a musician. In the meantime my father remained on the Gulf Coast of Texas and in Houston with his mother and other relatives. In 1948 Grandpa Quentin came to Texas to fetch Dad and together they traveled out to Los Angeles. On the way they stopped off in Midland, Texas, where Otis and Betty and their other children had moved. It must’ve been somewhat of a strange visit to Midland. My father had never been there before, and had never met the relatives who live there. One day while my dad was in a house in Midland, a man rode up on a horse and stared at my dad through the window. Then and suddenly as he arrived the horseman departed. A relative said to my father “do you know who that was?” Dad replied that it looked like a white man on a horse. “That was your grandfather,” he was told. Dad’s encounter with his grandmother Betty was even stranger. He saw her from a distance and she stood in a field. In the 1930s according to Milam County records, Betty Sanford Manson had been adjudged non compos mentis. As a result of her mental condition the rest of the family wouldn’t let Dad interact with his grandmother.

One of the relatives Dad met in Midland was his cousin Lee Chester Manson. Lee and his brother Roy were the sons of Leroy and Estelle Manson. They were a few years older than my dad. Lee rode out to Los Angeles with my dad and Grandpa Quentin. Los Angeles was also the home of my father’s Uncle Carl, Quentin’s oldest brother. My dad spent the 1948 school year living with his father in south-central Los Angeles.

Well this is supposed to be about Quentin, but the fact is I really don’t know that much about him. I think the first time I saw my grandfather I was probably a teenager. He was a tall light-skinned man. He seemed to me to be of good disposition. And I’m sure I never spent more than a few days in my life talking to him. I do know that he was married perhaps twice more, and his last wife is still alive in Los Angeles. About 15 years after I first met him, he died in Los Angeles. He’s buried in Los Gatos, California, near my parents’ home in San Jose.

Today would be Grandpa Quentin’s 93rd birthday. I do wish I’d gotten to know him, about his music, his family — our family — and what life was like growing up in Texas in the early part of the 20th century.

So I decided to celebrate my Grandpa Quentin’s 93rd birthday by doing something I’ve never done before. I wrote a letter to cousin Lee Manson who’s still alive in Midland. I’m eager to see what sort of reply I get. In the meantime, happy birthday, Grandpa Quentin.

Missouri State Archives aids in hunt . . . .

Ezekiel Johnson was my great-great-grandfather. I’ve mentioned him probably three times in this blog before. And New Year’s I set as one of my goals finding Ezekiel Johnson’s parents. And now with help from our friends at the Missouri State archives, it appears I may have achieve that goal.

Here’s what I knew until the other day: according to the 2004 Gines family calendar published by my aunt Delorise Gines, Ezekiel Johnson was the father of Mary Elizabeth Liza Jane Johnson, who married James William Long. The ninth of their fourteen children, Annie Florida Corrine Long, was my grandmother. Over the last several years I’ve been searching for the origins of Ezekiel Johnson was only modest success. Using census records, I found that he was probably born around 1846. According to marriage records from Clay County Missouri, Ezekiel Johnson and Sarah Gilbert were married in Clay County on September 5, 1867. By analyzing census records and talking to family members I concluded that the Ezekiel Johnson died around 1940.

Here’s where the Missouri Secretary of State’s new death certificate database came in to the picture. In the database I found that a Zeke Johnson had died in Kansas City in 1933. Since the images in the database are complete only through 1924 as of this writing I had to request a copy of the certificate by mail. Because I was eager to have it soon, I made my request through the Friends of the Missouri State Archives, rather than directly to the archives itself. As I’ve noted before, both the archives and the friends group are very responsive. Requesting a copy through the friends group costs five dollars. Yesterday just about a week after I mailed my request, I was thrilled to find an envelope with a death certificate for Zeke Johnson.

The death certificate that I received indicated that Zeke Johnson was born on June 14, 1847 and died on August 8, 1933. I was able to authenticate the death certificate as the one that I sought by looking at the informant. The informant on the certificate was Mary E. Long. A death certificate indicated that Zeke Johnson was born in Clay County, Missouri. But as is usually the case in genealogy, the most significant information on the death certificate both answered my questions and raised more. Zeke Johnson’s father was described as Dan Carpenter, place of birth unknown. His mother’s maiden name was given as Harriett Mitchell, birthplace Kentucky. Never in my life had I ever heard either of those two names in connection with our family history. Of course I immediately set out to find more information about Dan Carpenter and Harriet Mitchell.

The first thing I did was check the Missouri death certificate database for Dan Carpenter. Indeed the database had a death certificate for Daniel Carpenter in Clay County, Missouri. Daniel Carpenter was described as a married white man born on March 7, 1825 in Ohio. According to the death certificate he was a retired farmer and merchant. His wife’s name was Pauline Carpenter. His father’s name was William Carpenter and his mother’s name was Hannah Clark. He died on June 14, 1920 and was buried at a place called “Gashland.” I found no record that Dan Carpenter had ever been married to Harriett Mitchell. But more about that later. Analyzing census records I determined that William Carpenter was born on July 27, 1790. It appears that he was actually born in Virginia and not Ohio. He died on June 4, 1873 in Weston Platte County, Missouri. His wife Hannah Clark, was born on February 14, 1798 also apparently in Virginia. She died on September 18, 1881 in Weston, Platte County Missouri. According to Clay County, Missouri cemetery records, Hannah Clark was the daughter of one Samuel Clark. Samuel Clark was born in New Jersey on March 11, 1768. He died in Gallitin, Clay County, Missouri. Next I sought a death certificate for Pauline Carpenter. The Missouri death certificates database had a death certificate for a Martha Pauline Carpenter who died on March 7, 1924. She was born on April 24, 1831 in North Carolina. Her father was Joseph D. Gash (hence, “Gashland”), and her mother was Eliza Killian. Census records place Joseph Gash in Morgan, Buncombe County, North Carolina, in the early 19th century. Census records for both Clay County, Missouri and Platte County, Missouri, show a number of individuals named Gash starting around 1840.

There is a family tree posted at Rootsweb.com that purportedly traces this Carpenter family back to the 11th century in England. Regrettably, no documentation is provided and most unfortunately the creator of the site has died. I am now in the process of attempting to verify the information on that site.

I found no records indicating that Dan Carpenter and Pauline Carpenter had any children.

What is also missing is record reference to Harriett Mitchell. As I noted above, Ezekiel Johnson had been born in 1847. Clay County marriage records show that Dan Carpenter and Pauline Gash were married on December 29, 1853. It is also apparent from the records that the Carpenter family and the Gash family were prominent landowners in Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri.

So who was Harriett Mitchell? And why does her son Ezekiel Johnson bear neither her surname nor the surname of his father Dan Carpenter? As I looked for Harriett Mitchell in Missouri Census records, I found a significant family named Mitchell. They were slave owners. But no evidence of a Harriett Mitchell. I also find a large number of individuals named Johnson in Clay County. One man, Emmons Johnson, is listed as owning about seven slaves in on the 1850s slave scheduled for Clay County. One of those slaves is a female aged 24 and another is a male age 3. These these could correspond with Harriett Mitchell and Ezekiel Johnson. So a theory could be that Dan Carpenter had a relationship with his neighbor’s slave Harriett Mitchell which produced the Ezekiel Johnson. I’m looking . . . .

A Brief Update

Last week, I wrote about getting Sam Bryant’s obituary from the Corpus Christi Public Libraries. I mentioned briefly Uncle Sam’s surviving brother, Monroe. Citing family lore, I noted that Monroe “had wanderlust.” In fact, I’d been told that Monroe was “a drunk.” About the time I wrote about Sam’s obit, I had just learned that Monroe may have died in Sacramento County, California, where the GeneaBlogie Bloggcast Center is now located.

Today, I had to be downtown for awhile and on the way back, I stopped by the county recorder’s office to look up Monroe Bryant’s death certificate. He did in fact die at the Sacramento County Hospital on December 3, 1953. The cause of death: cirrhosis of the liver. He was a “restaurant worker.” The information was provided by Elias Bowie, the son of Monroe’s sister, Hattie Bryant.

Monroe Bryant is buried at Sacramento’s East Lawn Memorial Cemetery.

Here’s the obituary of Sam Bryant as published on July 4, 1951, in the Corpus Christi Caller.

Before I read the obituary, here’s what I knew about Sam Bryant: he was the son of Guy and Maria Bryant (see 1900 census, Aransas county, Texas). His siblings were named Mandy, Hattie [my great-grandmother], Aldelia, Thomas, Ada, Pearl, Monroe, and a half-brother, Isaac Pane. (see 1900 & 1910 censuses, Aransas County, Texas). His draft card from World war I gives his birth date as March 2, 1881. Aransas County records compiled online indicate that his parents weren’t married until June 28, 1882 (their surname is rendered as “Bryan” in these records).

Sam married a woman named Ida [who I actually met in 1962], and they had a son named Oscar, born in 1905 (see 1920 census, Aransas County, Texas). Curiously, no mention is made in the obituary of Oscar. According to the Social Security Administration, an Oscar Bryant born in 1905 died in Brazos County, Texas, in 1976.

The mention of the surviving siblings is particularly interesting. I know that Sam’s sister Hattie died in 1944. Family legend holds that Monroe had wanderlust and spent time outside Texas. He died in Sacramento in 1953. I don’t know what became of the others, except Pearl. As far as I know, Pearl Bryant married Eddie G. Richardson in 1916 (see volume 3, Aransas County Marriage Records). They had four children, the youngest of whom was born inn 1924. The surname “Pullam” is unfamiliar to me from family lore. I do know that Pearl lived in Taft, San Patricio County, Texas, for awhile. I visited her there in 1962 at the cafe she owned.

I went looking for “Pearl Pullam” in the available records to no success. But I did find a fair number of Pullams in Aransas, Nueces, San Patricio, Kleberg, and Goliad counties, all of which are more or less adjacent to each other in south Texas.

So as often happens in genealogy, the answers to some questions just lead to more questions.

Pearl Bryant Richardson? or Pearl Bryant Pullam?

This past weekend, I mentioned the obituary archives maintained by the Corpus Christi Public Libraries. I noted that the Libraries’ Local History Department will respond to e-mail requests for scanned copiees of archived obituaries from the Corpus Christi newspapers.

So I tried the service, e-mailing a request for two obituaries (one from 1951, and one from 1989). And three days later [remember, it was Saturday that I sent my e-mail], I received both via reply e-mail with a nice message from Veronica Martinez of the Local History Department. Now that’s customer service!

. . . another sleepy, dusty Delta day. . .

Bobbie Gentry [nee Roberta Lee Streeter] wrote those words forty years ago about the Mississippi Delta. She was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, and went to school in Greenwood, LeFlore County, before moving to California at age 13.

The Delta is home to many people named Manson, Bowie, Birdsong, and Gines.

This third of June won’t be exactly sleepy or dusty out here in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but it’ll be hot . . . and ain’t nobody out “choppin’ cotton” or “balin’ hay”!

Another Neat Little Site: Corpus Christi Public Libraries

For a small institution in a relatively small city, this site is surprisingly rich. My favorite part is the searchable Obituary Index, which is maintained in cooperation with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The index has over 200,000 names with the dates that funeral notices or obituaries [and sometimes both], appeared in the Corpus Christi newspapers. The index lists the page number of the paper where the information appeared. The Libraries’ Local History Department has microfilm of the newspapers from which patrons may read the actual story. But here’s the cool part: the Local History Department will scan and e-mail requested obituaries! There is a limit of two requests per month–perfectly reasonable. They’ll also photocopy and send via the Postal Service up to five requests per patron per month.

The Obituary Index consists of two parts: indexed obits from 1950 to 2006; and a “select” index covering the years 1883 to 1903. The select index includes not just deaths, but births, marriages, divorces, and articles about the African-American community in Corpus Christi.

The earliest Corpus Christi newspaper, the Caller, was founded in 1883. It merged with the Times in 1920 to create the present day Caller-Times. The paper has local news from Corpus Christi and Nueces County, as well as Aransas, Refugio, and San Patricio counties.

In the Libraries Obituary Index, I found that the paper published the obituary of Uncle Sam on July 4, 1951! No need for alarm, however; the decedent was my dad’s uncle Sam Bryant.