One of the more perplexing aspects of genealogy is getting to the root and truth of certain family lore. Some stories get told over and over and over again and their mere repetition seems to lend them credibility. And some are so compelling that debunking them seems such a shame.

I’ve shared the story in my family, debunked on this very site, that my great-great-grandmother Matilda Manson was “Spanish.” Indeed the real story is much more interesting.

There is another story in my family that, like the “Spanish” story, emanates from Georgia. This story is that some ancestor or another in Georgia was Jewish. Soon after I began my research, my dad asked me whether I’d identified the Jewish relative or not. A variation on this story is that a relative in Texas was the Jewish relative. this version of the story goes like this: my great-grandfather Otis told his sons, including my grandfather Quentin, that if ever they were in trouble and needed money they could go to a certain man in town [the town being Rockdale, Texas] and he would give them money. This man was a Jewish man according to the story. Apparently on one or more occasions, Grandpa Quentin had needed to test this admonition, and indeed, received money from a kind Jewish gentleman in Rockdale who never asked anything in return.

Recently, I spoke to a cousin in Midland, Texas, whom I’d never met before. As we exchanged family history information, I told her the story of our great-great grandfather, George Preston Birdsong. She had never heard the name before. As I told her the story she remarked, “Oh, that must be the Jewish one!” To that point in the conversation I had not mentioned the alleged Jewish connection. So this is a widely held belief in our family — that there is some Jewish relative.

In December 1873, two brothers, Ben and Joseph Loewenstein, arrived in Milam County, Texas. They set up a general store near the center of what would become the city of Rockdale. this was the beginning of a large and thriving Jewish community in Rockdale. By 1879, there were more than 100 Jews in Rockdale. In the 1880s, a Jewish school was established. there is a Jewish cemetery in Rockdale that was open for burials from 1878 to 1939. Some of the surnames in the cemetery include: Block, Cohen, Crown, Emsheimer, Goldsticker, Kestenbaum, Philipson, and Steinberg.
[source: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/milam/cemeteries/jewish.txt]. but I’ve documented no connection between any of these people and the Mansons or Sanfords of Rockdale.

I’ve been unable to find any evidence of a Jewish presence in Talbot County or Upson County, Georgia. I don’t doubt that there were Jews in these counties in the 19th century; I just can’t find them.

So at this point I can’t confirm or deny the story that we have some Jewish relatives.

I was surprised to learn recently that my father’s great uncle Monroe Bryant (September 8, 1900 — December 3, 1953) is buried in Sacramento, just about 5 miles away from the Bloggcast Center. He was buried on December 17, 1953, in East Lawn Memorial Park in the well-to-do neighborhood of East Sacramento. East Lawn is Sacramento’s oldest and most “prestigious” cemetery. Many members of “old money” families are buried there.

Monroe Bryant was 53 years old when he died of cirrhosis of the liver. He had been born in Rockport, Texas, and had spent a great portion of his life wandering the country. Apparently, he left most places just one step ahead of the sheriff.

Since it was so close I decided to visit Monroe Bryant’s grave. It was 104° outside, but East Lawn’s self-description sounded perfect:

Described as a “peaceful oasis in the heart of the city”, East Lawn Memorial Park offers over 40 acres of serenity and solitude away from the hectic city pace, just minutes from the freeway. Lush greenery, mature trees (many hundreds of years old) and timeless architectuure define the beauty of the park, which has become a community landmark for those in the area.

However, as can be seen, Monroe Bryant didn’t get the true East Lawn experience. This was a shocking and disappointing moment for me. On the other hand I’m not sure what I expected: Monroe Bryant was an alcoholic drifter.
Monroe Bryant’s unmarked grave in Sacramento, California.

It is saddening, however, to find a relative’s final resting place in such unsatisfactory condition. This grave is located in section S, Row 14, plot 82. It’s in the “non-endovved” area of the cemetery. Apparently, there are plans to upgrade this section. In the meantime, however, I’ll be working on getting marker for Monroe Bryant’s grave.

We are on the trail of Velma Mitchell, born 1910 in Rockport Texas. We’ men identified her family of origin and we think we may have found at least two marriages and one child for her. She died in 1998 in Seattle, Washington. When last we met, we were examining records having to do with one of the putative husbands, Artie Dervin. The Texas birth index indicates that Artie O. Dervin and “Velma Mae Brady” had a child together in 1932. Could this Velma Brady actually have been Velma Mitchell?

Well, let’s look back at the Texas Census records again. In 1930 the last year for which census records are available, Artie Dervin was living at home with his parents and five brothers in Wharton County, Texas. Artie would be about 17 years old at this time. Living next door to the Dervin’s, was a 65 year-old widower caring for his 16 year old daughter Velma. So we know that this can’t be the same person as Velma Mitchell. But what are the chances that Artie Dervin of Wharton County, Texas, would be involved with two women named Velma? And what about the Aransas county records showing and in 1939 Velma Mitchell had married Steve Marlin Hunt?

Let’s continue our examination of records related to Artie Dervin. The next record is Artie Dervin’s World War II enlistment papers. This record depicts Artie as 29 year old, born in Wharton County, Texas, and as divorced with dependents.

Clearly, what has happened is that Artie married Velma Mae Brady sometime in the early 1930s, and divorced her sometime before 1942. And Velma Mae Brady is not the same person as Velma Mitchell.

The records simply don’t show when or where Velma Mitchell and Artie Dervin married. Apparently it was after 1942, but before 1954. It may be time now to find a knowledgeable relative. A relative tells us that he knew Velma throughout most of her life. He says he has no knowledge of Steve Hunt. The relative did say that at some point near the end of World War II, Artie and Velma were in Alaska, where the relative says, Velma gave birth to the first black child ever born in that state. The relative says that Artie and Velma thereafter returned to Seattle where they lived until they both died.

And, folks, that maybe all were able to learn from record sources about Velma Mitchell. Here’s our lessons learned: first, understand what other names your subject might have used. Understand your subject’s marital status at any particular time. Search surrounding counties. Examine the relatives of your subject.

Keep in mind that this was a research exercise, not a documentation exercise. Documentation is all-important in genealogy, and without it, your research loses value.

Just because you wanted to know: Pat Mitchell Sr, also known as Worth Mitchell, is believed to have been born on April 2, 1887 and died in January, 1966 in San Antonio, Texas. It is also possible, that Pat Mitchell Sr., was the son of a farmer named Manning Mitchell, and was born in 1872 in Austin County, Texas. Austin County is adjacent to Wharton County, and is not to be confused with Texas capital of the city of Austin, which is located in Travis County. The area of Wharton County where the Dervins lived is now known as El Campo. J.B. Mitchell’s wife, Bernice, died in 1972 in Corpus Christi.

We’ve been tracking Velma Mitchell to get a more complete picture of her life. We know she was born in Rockport, Texas, in about 1911. We know her brothers’ names were Pat and J.B. We think we know that she married a man named Steve Marlin Hunt in 1939. We also think we know that she had a daughter named Stevie Kaye Hunt. Finally, we think at some point she moved to Dallas where she died in 2004.

To give us more confidence in what we think we know, and the flesh out the picture of Velma Mitchell’s life, we’ve decided to track her brothers. So we’ll start with the oldest, Pat. Let’s see if we can determine when and who Pat married. We check the aforementioned Aransas County marriage records to no avail. So perhaps he got married in a neighboring county; our assumption being that he remained in the general area. We can look for marriage records in Nueces, San Patricio, and Refugio Counties. One way to do this expeditiously is to go to the Texas GenWeb site and run the search engine there or to go to the specific county sites. Having done that, we turn up no marriage records for Pat Mitchell.

Another approach is to look at the aforementioned Texas birth index. If Pat Mitchell had children we could get a general idea of when he was married and his spouse’s name from this source. That effort turns up a Pat Harley Mitchell as the father of a child born in 1970 in Nueces County. That’s certainly not impossible but highly improbable. So where to next?

Once again let’s work backwards: let’s look at the SSDI. There are four Pat Mitchells who last resided in Texas, according to the Social Security Administration. But none come even close to the approximate 1913 date of birth of our Pat Mitchell. We’ll have to go to some other source. That other source would be the index of obituaries maintained by the Corpus Christi Public Libraries. And here we find an obituary which ran on February 25, 1954, for a Pat Mitchell, Jr. Now this is interesting: we hadn’t been aware of the “junior.” The 1920 census gave Pat and Velma’s father’s name as “Worth.” Furthermore, if this is our Pat Mitchell, he died very young. So while we’re here on the Corpus Christi Public Libraries site, let’s search for an obituary for the other Mitchell son, J.B. There is an obituary for J. B. Mitchell which ran in the paper on September 8, 1960. [Note: to get this search engine to accept initials as a first name, make sure that there is a space between the first period and the second initial.]

Unlike the form SS-5, we can order these obituaries and have them in a matter of a few days at no cost. So let’s do that.

[Two days later:] we have received by e-mail, in JPEG format, scans of the obituaries which ran for Pat Mitchell, Jr., and J.B. Mitchell in the Corpus Christi newspaper. [Thanks to Veronica Martinez at the Corpus Christi Public Libraries local history department!]

Now for the little surprises: both obituaries indicate that the men were survived by their father, Pat Mitchell, Sr., of San Antonio. Pat’s obituary says he is also survived by an aunt, Pearl Pullam, of Taft, Texas. These two bits of information serve to confirm that we’ve got the right individuals. First of all they have the same father. Second, we know independently that Pearl Pullam was one of the daughters of Guy and Maria Bryant. But the big surprise is that both obituaries say that the brothers were survived by a sister, Velma Dervin of Seattle, Washington!

Surprising as this is, it’s not impossible that Velma may have married Steve Hunt in 1939, had a child with him in 1944, and then by 1954, be married to someone else. Thinking quickly about this, the SSDI comes to mind as a handy tool. Maybe Steve Hunt died between 1944 and 1954. The SSDI lists Steve Hunts, but none of them come close to matching anything we know about Steve Marlin Hunt. But the SSDI does list four “Dervins,” including a Velma B. Dervin, born July 3, 1910, and whose Social Security card was issued in Texas. The others are Artie Dervin, born 1913; Elvis Dervin born 1925, and whose Social Security card was issued in Texas; and Paul Dervin born 1952.

Let’s go back to the Texas Census records and see if we can find evidence of the Dervins. From the 1930 census, we learn that Artie O. Dervin was born in about 1913 in Wharton County, Texas. He was one of six sons of George H. Dervin and Louise V. Dervin. One of his brothers was Elvis G. Dervin, born in about 1927.

Once again things get interesting at this point. The Texas birth index tells us that Artie Dervin fathered a son in 1932 with a woman named Velma Mae Brady. Could this be Velma Mitchell having been married to yet two someones before Steve Marlin Hunt?

Tomorrow: Lessons Learned

One of our informal mottos here at GeneaBlogie is “learn, share, enjoy.” So I’d like to share a learning experience I had recently and I hope you enjoy it.

Our task is to track a relative throughout her life using available records. We are interested in Velma Mitchell, who’s a cousin on the Bryant side of the family. Here’s what we know about her to start with: she was born in either Nueces County or Aransas County, Texas, probably before 1920. We also know that she had two brothers, Pat, and J.B.

Let’s start with the census records. We’ll go to Aransas County first because it’s alphabetically first. Our search of the 1930 census finds no one surnamed Mitchell in Aransas County. But in the 1920 census, we find the family of Worth Mitchell, which includes his wife Alidelia, and three children. ["Aliadelia" is probably a misspelling that should be "Aldelia." This would be Aldelia "Allie" Bryant, daughter of Guy and Maria Bryant]. And we see the sons Pat and J.B. The entry for the first child, a daughter, appears to say “Z. Velma.” Her age is given as nine years old, which would mean she was born in about 1911. Given that, she probably does not appear on any earlier censuses. But let’s have a look at the 1910 census for Aransas County in any event. And quickly we find no evidence of Velma or any other member of her immediate family on the 1910 census.

Okay so now we know she was born in about 1911, so by 1930, she would be 19 years old. At that time in our history there was a good chance that a 19 year old woman would be married and no longer living at home. This may pose a challenge because of the change in surname that accompanied marriage for women. So, how we proceed from here? Well, I would try to find marriage records. And fortunately, Aransas County marriage records are available at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txaransa/marrrec.htm. These records cover the years 1872 through 1999. We would focus on the years that she would likely have married: let’s say 1929 and on. This can be a tedious task, but there in volume 6, is a marriage between Velma Mitchell and Steve Marlin Hunt. The marriage took place on October 24, 1939, before the Honorable Joe Smith, Justice of the Peace. But we’re left with a little bit of a sense of unease about this. It seems to fit. On the other hand she would be 28 or perhaps even 29 years old at the time of this marriage. Was there an earlier marriage? Well, there doesn’t seem to have been, at least not based on the records currently available to us.

We decide that despite some vague sense of unease, we’ve found a Velma Mitchell’s married name and the name of her spouse. Now let’s see where that takes us. We’re beyond the 1930 so there no more census records available. But what we might do is go back over in the available census records and find Steve Hunt. We’ll look in Aransas County, Nueces County, and San Patricio County to begin with. In San Patricio County, we find a Stephen Hunt, born 1914. So if this is a possibility except for one thing: if he’s the groom this would have been an interracial marriage. Not likely in South Texas in 1939. But we don’t find any other possibilities in any of the other counties. Our best assumption is that for some reason Steve Marlin Hunt simply does not appear in the available census records.

To continue tracking Velma Mitchell, perhaps Velma Hunt, we might check another available source: the Texas birth index. These records are available from 1903 through 1997. Here we find in 1944, in Nueces County, a female child born to Steve Marlin Hunt and Velma Mitchell. Now we’re feeling more confident that we’re on the right track. The child’s name is Stevie Kaye Hunt, born July 31, 1944. [Yet there is still something that gives me some discomfort about this Hunt-Mitchell marriage.]

What to do next? Let’s go to the other end, so to speak, and see if we can tell when Velma Mitchell [Hunt] died. For this purpose we use the Social Security Death Index. Not only might we learn when she died, but where she may have lived at the time of her death. To zero in on the right person, we make some assumptions at the outset; these may change depending upon what we find. The first assumption we make is that she continued to reside in Texas for most of her life. The SSDI has five “Velma Hunts” whose last residence was listed in Texas. Two of these women were born in 1900; one in 1909; one in 1914; and one in 1917. We can quickly eliminate those born in 1900. Let’s focus on the ones with birth dates in 1909 and 1914. The Velma Hunt born in 1909 last resided, according to the Social Security Administration, in Dallas. She died in December 1979. Based on her birth date, she may be our most likely candidate. It’s plausible that she could have moved from the Texas Gulf Coast to Dallas. But let’s take a look at the 1914-born Velma Hunt. Her last listed residence was in San Antonio. It was very common for denizens of the Gulf area to migrate to San Antonio. That was the pattern followed by a number of members of the Bryant clan, including Velma Mitchell’s aunt, Hattie Bryant.

The Velma Hunt who last lived in San Antonio had a middle initial of “B.” That slightly lowers my confidence that we have the right person, but not by much. She passed away on September 11, 2004. Now to be certain about this we could at this point order the form SS-5 for this Velma Hunt. The form SS-5 is the application for Social Security card. It’s filled out by the applicant, and contains information such as the date and place of birth and the parents’ names. But that will cost is $27 and take about six weeks to receive. Perhaps we can figure this out in less time and with less expense than that. One way to do that is to track Velma’s brothers.

Next: Remember, “There are no easy cases in genealogy.”

Ancestor was Major Figure in Early Prosperity of Kansas City Area

A few weeks ago I wrote here about discovering Dan Carpenter of Clay County, Missouri, as my third great-grandfather. As it turns out, Carpenter was a significant figure in Clay and Platte counties for a number of years.

I came across an article entitled Dan Carpenter, Pioneer Merchant and Horticulturist. The article can be found at volume 22, page 285, of the Missouri Historical Review, April 1928. The article is written by David W. May, an agriculture expert originally from Liberty, Missouri. His collaborators included Lucy Simmons, the noted Missouri historian, and Ethel Grant Inman. Thanks to the great folks at the State Historical Society of Missouri for forwarding a copy of the article.

A large portion of the article consists of notes written by Carpenter himself. These describe his genealogy and and his business interests in Missouri. The notes also describe Dan Carpenter’s 1850 trip to take advantage as a merchant of the California Gold Rush. He ended up in Placerville, California, a notorious gold rush town sometimes known as “Hangtown.” Modern-day Placerville is about a 45 minute drive east of the GeneaBlogie Bloggcast Center. In 1851, Carpenter returned to Missouri. Presumably he had amassed a small fortune from selling goods to gold miners. Unfortunately, his brother Benjamin died on that trip to California.

Carpenter’s own notes describe himself as a writer, “both religious and secular,” an expert on fruit growing, and a songwriter. He was also an elder of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Barry Missouri. (I learned from other sources that the actual name of the specific church is the Church of the Cross Cumberland Presbyterian church; “Cumberland Presbyterian” being a sect of the Presbyterian Church, based now in Memphis, Tennessee.) Carpenter was also the Sunday school superintendent for more than 50 years.

The article also describes the area around Barry, Missouri, on the Platte-Clay county line, all of which now is part of Metropolitan Kansas City. As I may have noted before, Carpenter and the family of his wife Pauline Gash, were significant land owners in the area. Much of which is now the city of Gladstone, Missouri, is built on Carpenter/Gash property. Kansas City’s Metro North Mall also occupies land once owned by the Carpenter and Gash families.

This was the first time I had read and historical article about one of my ancestors. Although the article is written in a fawning, Victorian style, partly because of David May’s great personal affection for Dan Carpenter, the article is of great genealogical and historical value.

I also learned from another source, that Dan Carpenter in later life was a member of a group called the Kansas City Old Men’s Association. This organization was described thusly:

The Old Men’s Association was a Kansas City area social organization for men age 60 and over. It provided a place for older men to gather and reminiscence about the past and their involvement in it. The organization’s meetings started in 1893, just 40 years after Kansas City’s second incorporation in 1853. There were many members who could recall the early years of the city’s history. As well as Kansas City memories, members could speak about the Mexican War, Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic meetings, travel on the trails West, as well as their world wide travel adventures. Partisan politics was absolutely prohibited from discussion at the meetings. Another purpose for the group was to promote camaraderie among the members. This sometimes involved visiting sick members, preparing tributes when they died, attending funerals, corresponding with each other, and sharing life’s stories and experiences. In its height, the membership was around 50-60 members.

The Kansas City Public Library has Dan Carpenter’s journals for several years including the year he spent in California. The University of Missouri at Kansas City has in its Western Historical Manuscript Collection the Gash Family papers. I may be going to Kansas City later this summer, and if I go, I’ll certainly look up these manuscripts.

Dan Carpenter led an interesting and useful life. The biographical information that is available about him notes that he and Martha Pauline Gash had no children. That he may have had children with another woman not his wife doesn’t diminish the usefulness of his life. It is a shame, however, that for so long, his story was hidden from his descendants.

“Cold Contact” leads to Warm Results

Recently I said in this space that I was going to write a letter to my cousin Lee Manson of Midland, Texas. A cold contact of that sort is something that I hadn’t done before and had some apprehension associated with it. But I wrote the letter and mailed it anyway. I came home yesterday to find a message on my answering machine from Midland Texas. I called back and immediately got my cousin Lee on the phone. I won’t go into all of the details of that call here but I can say that he confirmed some important genealogical information and ate some current information. All in all it was a great time. My next call was to my dad to fill him in. More details to follow in the coming days.

My thanks to Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings for his favorable mention of GeneaBlogie. Randy’s own blog is quite a good read all the time. You’ll find the link on the left side of this page. It’s one of my regular stops.

Fifth great-grandfather was cousin to signer of the Declaration of Independence

Just a few days ago I wrote about Ezekiel Johnson and his paternity. He was the son of Dan Carpenter (1825 — 1920). Dan Carpenter’s mother was Hannah Clark (1798 — 1881). Hannah Clark’s father was Samuel Clark (1768 — 1854). Samuel Clark was the great-great grandson of Richard Clarke, who was born in the 1630s and died in 1697. Richard Clarke was also the great-grandfather of Abraham Clark (1726 — 1794). Abraham Clark served New Jersey in a variety of public ways, one of which was signing the Declaration of Independence on behalf of New Jersey. Quite a lot has been written about Abraham Clark. For example, see here, here, and here. For some relatively decent documentation on Clark family genealogy, see here. I have seen independent documentation linking Samuel Clark to Richard Clarke and I would be glad to describe that to anyone who asks.

The point of this is that Samuel Clark is my fifth great-grandfather and he was a first cousin of Abraham Clark. Granted that it’s not like being a direct descendant of a Mayflower passenger, but it’s a typical example of many Americans’ connection to the Founding Fathers. So it doesn’t make me special; it does make me typically American.

For another example of how America has levelled the playing field, see the article linked here.

I had intended to start this post by noting that I have no genealogical connection to any of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. However in the interest of accuracy and out of some curiosity I took a look at the list of signers of the Declaration, and as it turns out I may indeed have some thing of a genealogical connection to one of them. More about that later on.

A lot of Americans are related to signers of the Declaration of Independence, and many more who are not claim to be. In any event that’s not what’s really important. What’s really important is the fact that all Americans are related to people who had the fortitude to come to this continent seeking freedom, whether they came 300 years ago or three weeks ago. And no, I haven’t forgotten that despite the Declaration’s assertion that all men are created equal, that the writers of that sentence were aware that some on this continent were at that point in bondage. I’m related to to those who were in bondage as well as those who held them there. That’s the story of America. But the essential part of the story of America is that unlike any other society that has existed on Earth, America is constantly fulfilling its promise. So those who were in involuntary servitude are no longer. And not because some superior force from outside liberated them, but because Americans themselves corrected the nation’s moral compass. That’s what happens every day in this country: we continue to fulfill our promise as a nation.

The great poet Langston Hughes wrote a poem entitled “Let America be America Again.” The refrain in that poem is “America never was America to me.” I understand why Langston Hughes, a black man, wrote that in the midst of the Great Depression. But for me, America always was the America Hughes longs for in the poem. And perhaps that’s because there were heralds like Langston Hughes. Hughes wrote:

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

Like no other land in history, America rededicates itself to that promise every single day. While the poem is pessimistic for the most part, Hughes does describe why America is a land that can achieve its promises:

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

But he Hughes makes it clear where he stood when the poem was written:

O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath– America will be!

Let me be plain, however, as well. For me to be an American, is to be the descendant of both slaves and slave owners. It means to have sprung from the root of those of many hues who’d dreamt the dreams of freedom. O, yes I say it plain, America has been America to me, and yet I swear this oath — America will be!

I was fortunate enough to reach high office in government and the military. But I’m retired from the all of that now. Only in America could I have reached those heights. And only in America could I leave those supreme offices for a higher one — that of a citizen.