About six weeks ago, we wrote here about the next iteration of the PBS series African-American Lives. Applications for one “regular person,” i.e., non-celebrity, were taken until May 4. The selection process is now underway or over. E-mails have gone out to the non-selectees. The e-mail (which I have seen) says that there were about 2000 applicants.
The new series will air in 2008.
I don’t know much about the creative talents in my family. I don’t doubt that there was and is a lot of creativity in the family. But I suspect that folks just didn’t let the lamp out from the bushel basket until recent generations. Here are a few:
The Dancer: Annie Florida Corrine Long
All she ever wanted to be was a dancer. No doubt dancing was on her mind every night after supper, when the family read the Bible. There were dancers in the Bible, after all.
But her father was the pastor of the Sunnyside Baptist Church. Even if there were dancers in the Bible, there would be none in the Baptist Church—especially not in Rev. James William Long’s Baptist Church. Flo almost gave up her dream of dancing. Since she couldn’t take lessons, she managed to sneak away to places where people–man and women–danced together. And maybe that’s what the Lord wanted. One evening in 1925, in a dance hall, Flo met the irresistably handsome, irrepressibly happy, Eddie Gines who had come to Kansas City from Shreveport. And their “creative genes” led to six children and “a lot” of grandchildren (including me), great- grandchilden, and great-great-grandchildren.
The Pianist: Rosetta Bell Long
She was Flo’s older sister. Who knew she wanted to be a pianist, until at age 65, she taught herself to play and became a church music minister? That’s talent!
Aunt Rosie at age 77 (1977)
The JazzMan: Quentin Vennis Harold Manson
Born in Rockdale, Texas, Quentin (for reasons not clear) attended high school in Corpus Christi. Somehow, somewhere, he got his hands on an old clarinet and found he could play! He could also play the trumpet and the xylophone. Music became his passion. In the war, he was in the band, “blowin’ eight to the bar.” Afterwards, he went to Los Angeles where his oldest brother Carl lived and where the postwar music 
scene was exploding. Although he was known in the Central Avenue clubs, he preferred the swing style in other venues. He passed his love of music to his son, my father (who also played the trumpet and is a published songwriter).
Then that generation-skipping thing happened to the creative gene . . . I can’t sing or dance and I was an utter failure at the trumpet. But I am a passable writer and a reasonably entertaining storyteller sometimes. I won’t speak for my siblings (but the Osmonds we’re not!) But creativity lives on in the next generation:
The Hip Hop Artist: David Mannuel Manson
David M. Manson
National World War II Memorial, dedicated May 2004
(Photo by Rick Latoff – American Battle Monuments Commission)
After the numerous announcements last week (all of which I appreciate and think will be great), I thought about the one item I’d love to see digitized. It would be the collection of SS-5′s (Application for Social Security Card). [Okay, that's why it's called a wish list!]
What’s on your one-item-make-my-research-easier-but I-know-it-won’t-happen anytime-soon wish list?
These days, you can find genealogy articles just about anywhere.
A friend sent me a recent article from the Wall Street Journal which describes how Wells Fargo & Co. uses genealogy to court wealthy potential clients for its “private banking” business. Private banking is wealth management services for clients with at least $1 million in balances at Wells Fargo.
The article describes how the bank’s chief historian has been researching the family histories of wealthy prospective and current clients as a way of opening the door to their further investment with Wells Fargo. He discovered for example that one wealthy woman had a grandfather who had been a Wells Fargo stage driver in the 1880′s. After a genealogical presentation, the woman transferred funds to Wells Fargo.
The article is full of poignant stories and some rather surprising discoveries. The title is “A Bank’s Historian Shakes Money from Family Trees.” It appeared in the May 19, 2007, edition of the Wall Street Journal. It’s available free to subscribers at wsj.com, and after May 27, will be available to nonsubscribers for $4.95.
Over the last few days, I’ve been examining the family of my great-grandfather James William Long (1866-1945). When I first described his parents and siblings from the 1870 census of Shawnee, Kansas, I identified his then-two year old sister as “Regetha.” I was reading the names from an image provided by a certain large Utah-based company. I then accessed the image from another company that provides service to one of my local libraries, but that I can reach from home. Again, I read “Regetha.”
I went back to You-Know-Who dot com and tried to find a record searching for “Regetha.” Nothing turned up.
I’ve lately spent some time transcribing for FamilySearch Indexing and this has honed my skills at reading census enumerators’ handwriting. So I enlarged the image and studied it carefully. Aha! It actually says “Rozetta.” And this makes sense because James William Long named one of his daughters “Rosetta.”
How does Biggest Company dot com index this name? Eventually, I found that they have it as “Rosetha.” The Johnson County GenWeb Project transcribed it as “Rogetha.”
Now here’s a little test of your handwriting decoding skills. If you have online access to the 1870 census for Johnson County, Kansas, go there by searching on James Long. Then look at his father, Richard Long. How old was Richard Long in 1870?
There are several ways to improve your handwriting reading skills, but one that I recommend is FamilySearch Indexing, because you’ll be contributing at the same time.
This week we resolved the question of whether I’d been researching “wrong Longs” as the parents of my great-grandfather, James William Long. I said that in an upcoming post we’d show how we did that.
Out here in the hinterlands, the NGS NewsMagazine arrived a couple of days ago. As usual, it’s got a number of excellent articles. One that I found particularly interesting is What is the standard of proof in genealogy? by Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL. Dr. Jones goes through a case study showing how the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) applies.
Our problem is not much different from the case presented by Dr. Jones. His study is to find the parents of on Jonathan Tucker. We apply the GPS to the question of whether I’ve been researching the “right” Long family as the parents and siblings of James William Long.
We know that James William Long was married to Mary Elizabeth Liza Jane Johnson. We know that because (1) we have living witnesses who affirm the truthfulness of that and (2) we have a copy of their marriage certificate.
The first test of the GPS is Was the underlying research reasonably exhaustive? To establish the family of origin of James William Long we have:
[See citations below]
We haven’t found any other records or papers that pertain to James William Long in public records or in family records. Is this a reasonably exhaustive search?
Clear and accurate source citations
We take care to cite the sources carefully and accurately so that others can assess the research and evidence supporting the conclusions. Other researchers should be able to replicate the work.
The other three steps are:
Analysis and correlation of evidence
Resolution of Conflicts
A Clear conclusion
In this case, the question is who are the parents and siblings of James William Long. We know that he lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Therefore, we start our research there. We find the following:
Analysis and Correlation of Evidence
The death certificate of James William Long correlates with the 1870 Shawnee, Kansas, census in terms of his age and also correlates in terms of his birthdate with the 1900 Kansas City, Missouri, census. The Kansas City censuses are consistent with the Shawnee census with respect to the birth places of James and his parents.
The death certificate is not consistent with the census records with respect to his place of birth.
Information about his birth place on the census records was given by his parents and himself; on the death certificate, this information was given by his daughter who was in less of a position to know.
The death certificate is consistent with the Shawnee census record concerning his father’s name.
With respect to his mother’s name, it would appear that the Shawnee census record may contain a misspelling of “Paulina.” If so, that would be consistent with the oral history. The census record is consistent with the death record of Paulina Long.
Stated Conclusion
The parents of James William Long were Richard and Paulina Long, who resided for some period of time in Shawnee, Kansas.
Citations
2. James Long & Mary E. Johnson, Marriage License, County Clerk, Jackson County, Missouri, License No. 1888K0000315.
3. James W. Long, Death Certificate, Missouri Secretary of State, State Archives,
Callaway County, State File no. 33339.
4. James Long household, 1870 United States Federal Census, Kansas City Ward 2, Jackson County, Missouri; National Archives microfilm M593 roll 782; Page 572.
5. Richard Long household, 1870 United States Federal Census, Shawnee Twp., Johnson County, Kansas, National Archives microfilm M593, roll 435, page 646.
6. James Long household, 1900 United States Federal Census, Kansas City Ward 5, Jackson County, Missouri, National Archives microfilm T623, roll 861; page 12B.
7. James Long household, 1910 United States Federal Census, Kansas City Ward 3, Jackson County, Missouri, National Archives microfilm T624, roll 785; Page: 7B.
9. Mary E. Long, Death Certificate, Missouri Secretary of State, State Archives,
Jackson County, State File no. 5725.
A few days ago, I wondered if I’d been pursuing the wrong set of parents and siblings for my great-grandfather, James William Long. The catalyst for this musing was information on my great-grandfather’s death certificate which I had just received. Now I have concluded that I was following the “wrong Longs.” In a upcoming post, I describe how I reached that conclusion using the Genealogical Standard of Proof. Now I introduce the “right Longs,” as they appeared in the 1870 census of Shawnee, Johnson County, Kansas:
LONG, RICHARD……………..37……..M……..B………Farmer………….Kentucky
LONG, PALINAY………………30………F………B……………………………Virginia
LONG, JOSEPH…………………16………M……..B……….Farmer……….Missouri
LONG, JOHN………………………7………M………B………Farmer………..Missouri
LONG, JAMES…………………..4………..M………B……………………………Missouri
LONG, ROZETTA…………….2………….F……….B……………………………Missouri
LONG, ELIZA J……………4/12………..F………..B……………………………Kansas
This census entry raises several interesting issues, not the least of which is the description of seven year-old John as a farmer!
First, notice that all of the children, except young Eliza, were born in Missouri. [CAVEAT: The 1870 census did not show relationships. Thus, not every group of children living with adults constitutes a parents-children family unit. It is, however, an odds-on likelihood, and can be corroborated by other evidence such as other census records that do show relationships, probate records, family bibles, letters, etc. In this case, the 1870 census is the only record where this "family" is found altogether. For reasons explained in an upcoming post, I have made the assumption that this is a family unit]. This suggests that the family moved to Kansas sometime after Rozetta was born in 1868. [In a previous post, I identified her as "Regetha." In an upcoming post, I explain the discrepancy].
Second, there is a nine year “gap” between the birth of Joseph and the birth of John. This is unusual because nineteenth century families typically had children more frequently than that. The “gap” could be explained several ways. The family could have had more children in the “gap,” but these children did not survive. Or Joseph could be the son of Richard from a prior relationship and not the son of Pauline. Notice that Pauline is seven years younger than Richard and would have been 14 year old when Joseph was born. Or indeed it could be the other way around–that Joseph is Pauline’s son from an earlier relatioshp. Another explanation is that Jospeh is not the son of either Richard or Pauline, but some otehr relation living with them. And finally, iy’s just possible that Richard and Pauline stiopped having chiledren for nine years.
The most interesting issue is just why this family was in Kansas in the first place. They didn’t (apparently) come there during the Civil War or to escape slavery. They came after the war and after Emancipation. And James went back to Missouri.
Now it must be said that Shawnee, Kansas, is just across the river from Kansas City, Missouri. And the Rev. James William Long was the pastor of the Sunnyside Baptist Church, of which it was claimed the pulpit was in Missouri and the congregation was in Kansas. Today, some of his descendants live near State Line Road. So may be it is that they were never very much in Kansas!
Here’s what else we know about the “right” Longs:
Missouri State Archives
Pre-1910 Death Records
Long, Pauline 14 Mar 1886
Long, John 19 Feb 1886
Long, Eliza Jane 26 Aug 1885
The 24th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is now posted. The Carnival has been a lot of fun, to showcase particular bloggers, to meet new friends, to read very interesting stories. The topic this time was Mothers! I didn’t officially participate because I didn’t think my posts met the standards that my fellow genea-bloggers continue to set in the Carnival and every day.
Well, I suppose that Jasia thought they were good enough because she posted them in the Carnival! And I am most grateful . . . . Thanks, Jasia!
GeneaBlogie