Archive for April 28, 2009

The UPS Man Cometh

April 28, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Finally! Back in January, I ordered from Amzaon.com the book, Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, originally published in 1890 by Southern Publishing Co. For several months, I kept getting notices from Amazon that shipping would delayed and they would give a date range during which it would ship. All truned out to wrong until the last notice, which suggested that I could expect to get the book by April 27. And it arrived on that very day!

The book covers Avoyelles, Bossier, Caddo, De Soto, Natchitoches, and Winn parishes where I have identified ancestors, and Bienville, Claiborne, Grant, Rapides (misspelled “Rapids” on the cover), Sabine, and Webster parishes where I most likely will find ancestors.

I didn’t any family names in the index. I did peruse the chapters on Caddo and De Soto; those parishes being where many, if not most of my Louisiana forbears lived.

What good are books like this if they don’t specifically mention one’s research subjects? Well, books like this give a great deal of context to one’s record research. Context is all important! This book, published in 1890 (just eight years before my grandfather was born in Bossier Parish) describes the history of the parishes from their founding. Historical events and famous people are put into context.

Fpr instance, on the 1900 census, my great-grandfather’s occupation is described as, “fireman, electric roundhouse.” I surmised that this was some sort of railroad job. The book reveals that in 1890, there were at least four intracity electrical street car lines in Shreveport. Apparently, Grandpa Dick and his son, Frank, worked for one of them.

The book seems, on initial perusal, to be quite thorough in its detailed descriptions of each parish. At various places, however, one is reminded of the context of the times in which it was published. For example, in describing De Soto Parish, it states that the town of Keatchie was “named after some lazy Indian,” who is not further identified.

I’m eager to get into the rest of it and I may post relevant passages here from time to time.

2 comments Books, Bossier Parish, Caddo Parish, De Soto Parish, Gines, Louisiana

Memorial Monday

April 27, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Edna Mary Penny Wells, 27 April 1941-24 April 2008

No comments African-Americans, Birthdays, Micheau, Penny, Wells

The Mailman Cometh

April 25, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

“Was there anything in the mail today?” I ask.

“Yeah, a lot of stuff. But nothing really exciting,” she replies. “It’s there on the table.”

I look there on the table, and wade through the usual bills, sales flyers, charitable solicitations, junk mail disguised as first class mail, until I finally come to a big brown envelope marked “Louisiana Secretary of State.”

“I thought you said there was nothing really important here.”

“There isn’t.”

As every genealogist knows, one of the most exciting times of the day is when the mail comes. The envelope from the Louisiana Secretary of State contained five death certificates which I had found listed on their web site at http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/640/Default.aspx. The five death certificates are for:

1. Syntrilla Brayboy LeJay, my great great grandmother who died on July 24, 1923.

2. Sandy Lejay, Syntrilla’s son, who died on March 10, 1946.

3. William Brayboy Sr., who died on January 14, 1933.

4. Jane Jefferson who died on October 29, 1918.

5. Egans Gines who died on March 8, 1948.

Each of these death certificates may hold the answer to particular secrets that I’ve been researching. On first blush however they raise more questions than they answer.

Syntrilla Brayboy LeJay was my great-great-grandmother. She was the mother of Sylvia LeJay, who was the mother of William Edward Gines, who was the father of my mother. I’ve been trying for awhile to sort out Syntrilla’s paternity. I had thought that her father was William (Billie) Brayboy (c.1795-?). The death certificate gives her father’s name as Jim. So the first issue is: might William Brayboy and Jim Brayboy be the same person?

As I ponder that issue, I peruse another death certificate, that of Jane Jefferson. Karen Burney has written a number of times about Jane Brayboy Jefferson at Louisiana Lineage Legacies. Jane would be Karen’s great-great-grandmother. According to her death certificate, her mother was Phoebe Morris. This was no surprise to me, because that’s what Karen’s research has shown. Phoebe Morris had been known as Phoebe Brayboy. For awhile at least, Karen had the same thought that I did–namely that Phoebe’s first husband had been William or “Billie” Brayboy. But the death certificate gives her father’s name as Jim Brayboy, the same as Syntrilla’s father! The informant was Issac Jefferson, Jane’s husband. He certainly would be in a position to know her father’s name, having apparently lived in the same parish.

Another death certificate I got was for a William Brayboy Sr. He died in Frierson, De Soto parish, on January 14, 1933. The death certificate gives his age at time of death as 70. That would make his birth date sometime in 1863. His father is is listed as Billy Brayboy and his mother is listed as “Feebie” Jones. Could Feebie Jones be the same person as Phoebe Brayboy Morris?

Karen says that nobody really knew the name of Jane’s father, but many surmised it was Billy Brayboy because Jane had a brother named Billy. Karen also points out that Jim Brayboy is also listed as the father of Boykin Brayboy (1900-1966). Could the same Jim Brayboy have fathered children nearly 60 years apart? Well, it is biologically possible.

Clearly, we have some issues that need further exploration.

No comments African-Americans, Brayboy, Caddo Parish, De Soto Parish, Jefferson, LeJay, Louisiana

Credit Where Credit is Due

April 24, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Our motto here at GeneaBlogie is “Learn, Share, En joy, Appreciate!” To which we often add, “Express Gratitude!” Today, I am grateful for the following:

In early February, I went on the site Find-A-Grave.com to update some family grave postings there. While I was there, I thought it would be nice to add photographs of two gravesites in particular: those of my great-grandparents, Otis Manson and Betty Sanford Manson. I knew both were buried in Fairview Cemetery in Midland, Texas. The only problem was that I didn’t have any such photographs.

Find-A-Grave has a feature that allows users to request a photograph be taken by a volunteer near the cemetery which contains the particular grave. Likewise, users can make known their availability and willingness to take photographs. As we used to say when I was in the credit union business, it’s “people helping people.”

I requested a photograph of the graves of Otis and Betty. Yesterday, I was thrilled to find a message from Find-A-Grave that there was a photograph for me! At the page for Otis Manson, I found that someone had posted this photo:

Gravesite of Otis Manson and Betty Sanford Manson, Fairview Cemetery, Midland, Texas

The same photo was posted on Betty’s page. The photographer and poster was identified by the Find-A-Grave pseudonym, Knightchow. This is the inveterate Find-A-Grave contributor and occasional GeneaBlogie reader named “Michelle.” I immediately went to her Find-A-Grave profile page and left her a message thanking her for this kindness. Then I conitnued surfing through Find-A-Grave. I came to the page for one Ed Featherstone, and (“Saints preserve us!”), there was this picture:

Grave of Ed Featherstone, Fairview Cemetery, Midland, Texas. He apparently was born in 1911, not 1920 as the headstone says.

Posted by the self-same Knightchow! Indeed, she had created the entire page back in 2007, and somehow I had never come across it. Ed Featherstone was married to Myrtle Serrita Manson (1906-1987), daughter of Otis and Betty.

I wrote her again to thank her for this photo. I asked her to transfer the page to my ownership, which she did cheerfully and almost instantly.

This experience was just great! So today we recognize Michelle with the first-ever Geneablogie “Gibraltar Award.”

Thank You!

5 comments Cemeteries, Featherstone, Find-A-Grave, Manson, Midland County, Texas

My DNA Adventure, Part II: The Search for Sarah Gilbert

April 21, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

When last we met, I had been going over the results of my DNA submission to the DNAAncestry.com project. Frankly, nothing I saw came as any huge surprise. My Y-DNA places my ancient ancestry in West Africa; my mtDNA also seems to be grounded in West Africa.

There were three “exact matches” on my mtDNA results. All three of the profiles of these persons had a link through which they could be contacted via Ancestry.com. The profiles also indicated that each such person had last signed onto their DNA account many months ago. They likely had not seen my results matched with theirs.

I contacted each pf the three individuals through Ancestry.com. It’s been several months now and I haven’t heard back from any of them. Their profiles show that none have signed on since before I contacted them.

The reason the mtDNA is so important to me is that it may give me a clue about Sarah Gilbert (1843-btwn 1880-1885) who was the first wife of Zeke Johnson (1847-1933), mother of Mary Elizabeth Johnson Long (1870-1946) and thus my great-great-grandmother. Sarah Gilbert has shown nothing of herself save for a record of her 1867 marriage in Clay County, Missouri and her residence in Kansas City at the time of the 1880 census. Supposedly, she was an Indian.

I decided to take some alternative steps to locate the three mtDNA “matchees.” I started with the first one and ran the name against several “people finder” databases. One of them produced five possible matches in an eastern state. The five matches appear to be the same person. I think this is likely the mtDNA person. The search directory has a middle initial that is consistent with the middle name that the DNA results reported. (And the whole name is, if not “unusual”, at least, “uncommon.”)

The search database indicated that the person may have been born in the late 1920s or early 1930s. This bit of information told me that there was a chance that the person might be on the 1930 census. There were two persons with nearly identical names on the 1930 census. One person was born in Texas in 1902 and was eliminated as being obviously too old. The other person was born in Kentucky in 1927.

But I felt I needed some additional evidence on this issue. So I went on to examine birth, marriage and death records. This yielded a number of persons with similar names, but who were also either too old or too young to be the person I’m seeking. But two individuals piqued my interest.

One person of interest was born in a northeastern state in 1922 and died in 1985. This is obviously not our subject because our subject was alive in 2007 to submit a DNA sample (additionally, the person just slightly beyond our age parameters). But this person could be a relative of our subject–again, the name we’re seeking is not all that common.

The second person of interest was born in 1885 and died in 1976. This person has the same name as our subject and is old enough to be the subject’s parent. And also tantalizing is the fact the person died in a county in a southern state, which county has a large population of people with my mother’s maiden name.

I then was moved to examine passenger manifests for New York. There I discovered that a person with the same name and middle initial had arrived in New York from a European country in 1956, traveling on an American passport. The US passport and the name of the ship made me relaize that this person was in some way affiliated with the US military. The person was accompanied by a child, but appparently no other adult. This fact, though explainable, is unusal for a military family returning from overseas.

To further locate and identify this person, I checked the child’s name against various databases, but came up with nothing. I’m willing to bet that the person I found in the search directory is the same person who submitted the matching sample. So I’ll try to write a letter.

The other two people with whom I had matches on the Ancestry site I could not reasonably identify further because too many similar names exist.

But there are other alternatives. Once you have DNA results, you can submit them to a number of other puicbl DNA databases and look for matches. I did that with the sites described below.

The first one is called mitosearch.com, sponsorted by the folks at Family Tree DNA .

Above is the mitosearch Welcome page. On the page below, one can enter mtDNA values from any test.

I entered my Ancestry.com mtDNA values here.

On the following page are the registered mitosearch users whose mtDNA “matches” mine.

Three individuals had exact matches with me for HVR1

As you can see, three people matched my HVR1 value exactly, and several others were with one mutation. Using the “Compare” feature for the matches produces a page like this one below:

A "match" compared

I can now contact the “matches” through mitosearch. I can also determine if their most distant female ancestor appears in my family tree. I did not find any of these in my files, but I will be contacting several of the individuals for more information.

Another database in which to enter mtDNA results is the Sorenson Molecular Genetics Foundation (SMGF) database.

Sorenson Molecular Genetics Foundation mtDNA Database Search

The page below is produced by my search. There were 14 “zero mutation” matches in all, molstly in Africa. Notice the pedigree symbol at each of the matches.

SMGF mtDNA Comparison Page

Some of the pedigrees were useful; some were not because all the data was marked “private.” Here’s mine so you can see what they look like.

My pedigree as shown on the SMGF site

The SMGF site has the smallest database and most of the other users seem not very easy to contact.

But I’ve gotten some ideas from the other databases, so next step: Contact!

3 comments African-Americans, DNA, Gilbert, Johnson, Sorenson

An Overdue Visit to the Cemetery

April 20, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

While I was in San Jose over the weekend, I went with my parents to visit the grave of my grandfather, Quentin Vennis Harold Manson, who died in 1987. He was 74 years old at the time. When he died, I was stationed far away in the Air Force and could not attend the funeral. Somehow, over the years, I never got to the cemetery, Los Gatos Memorial Park, just west of San Jose.

Grandpa Quentin was born in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas, in 1913. He was the last child (of eight) of Otis Manson (1874-1950) and Betty Sanford (1872-1955). At about age 16, he moved to Corpus Christi where he met my grandmother, Jessie Beatrice Bowie. They were married in 1931, but divorced in 1940.

Quentin was a musician. He played the clarinet and the xylophone among other instruments. Early after he married Jessie, he worked as a longshoreman in Houston. But music was always on his mind.

When he went into the Army in World War II, Quentin was sent to Camp Wallace near Galveston. He was assigned to the band. After leaving the Army, Quentin went to find his fortune as a musician, first in Chicago, then in Los Angeles. He became part of the vibrant “Central Avenue” jazz scene.

Grave of Quentin Vennis Harold Manson in San Jose, California (Note that the initials "H.V." are transposed on the marker)

One comment African-Americans, Manson, Milam County, Texas

An Impromptu Family Reunion

April 20, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

A number of unusual circumstances came together this past weekend and the result was an impromptu family reunion at the San Jose home of The World’s Smartest Sister. All of my parents’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren showed up!

Harold V. Manson and Lillian G. Manson (front, center) with all of their descendants, San Jose, California, April 2009

One comment African-Americans, Family Reunion, Gines, Manson

A Texas Uncle Keeps On Driving

April 15, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

My great-uncle Herman Walker was born in 1906 in Taft, San Patricio County, Texas. His parents were Hattie Bryant (1888-1944) and Toby Walker (1878-?). He graduated from high school in Rockport, Texas and then attended Paul Quinn College, which was then located in Waco, Texas. He later moved to Houston where he was the chef at the renowned Ye Olde College Inn during its heyday. He was a proud and independent man who lived to be ninety-six years old.

As I grew up, Uncle Herman’s was the only other black Catholic family I knew of . I don’t think he was born a Catholic; rather I think he converted when he met and married his wife Ida Mouton, a French Creole Catholic from Louisiana. But he was a devout Catholic. His funeral program noted that he had attended St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houston for sixty-six years and that he was a member of The Knights of Columbus and the Holy Name Society.

For sometime after Uncle Herman turned eighty, various relatives began to suggest that it was time for him to give up driving. It was apparent that his eyesight was not good, and it was difficult to understand how he navigated intersections in particular. On a visit to see Uncle Herman, my father learned Uncle Herman’s strategy for dealing with intersections. Upon seeing what he thought might be a stop sign 0r traffic light, he would slow down, and blow his horn loudly. If nobody else blew their horn, Herman would keep on going!

Craig and Uncle Herman Walker, Houston, Texas, 1962

Parts of this post (minus the photograph), originally appeared in GeneaBlogie on April 1, 2007, and February 10, 2008.

Uncle Herman’s Uncle Sam

Sam Bryant (1881-1951) was Hattie Bryant’s older brother. Thus he was Uncle Herman’s uncle as well as my father’s great-uncle. Uncle Sam lived a good and simple life in south Texas. After he died in the summer of 1951, he was buried on the Fourth of July. Really!

3 comments African-Americans, Carnival of Genealogy, Catholics, Houston, Texas, Walker

April 12, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

“He is not here . . . He has risen!”

Mark 16:6

As He rose from a tomb of stone, He allows us to rise from our hearts of stone.

3 comments Uncategorized

My DNA Adventure, Part 1

April 10, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

There’s much to be said about DNA testing in genealogy, but most of it is best said by Blaine Bettinger on his blog, The Genetic Genealogist, which I highly recommend. So please visit there soon. But for now, I’d like to describe my recent experience with Ancestry.com’s DNA offering.

I got in on one of Ancestry’s DNA “sales” where the price was affordable for me to do a 46-marker test (a relatively “high resolution” test). The results came in about 18 days. They were posted in my “DNA account” at Ancestry.com. Note you don’t have to be an Ancestry subscriber to get DNA results.

Ancestry.com DNA Results

The screen shot above is what one first encounters on the Ancestry.com DNA site. On the left side below “Welcome” are buttons that toggle between “Paternal” (Y-DNA) and “Maternal” (mtDNA). Below those buttons, we can “Find Matches,” “See Ancestry,” “View DNA,” or “Visit Groups.” We are toggled to the Y-DNA section; let’s go “See Ancestry.”

A generic description of my Y-DNA results

This generic description of my “deep” paternal ancestry shows my DNA belongs to Haplogroup E1b1a [formerly known as E3a]. This group is associated almost entirely with sub-Saharan Africa, although some authorities say that is too broad a statement to make at this point in our understanding of the issue. It can be stated confidently that E1b1a has a high frequency in West Africa among Bantu-speaking peoples such as in Cameroon. E1b1a is now well-dispersed throughout Africa.

My Y-DNA

The screen above turns up when we click on the “See DNA” button.

Now the fun part. Let’s “Find Matches!”

The location and names (redacted) of 84 matches!

Here we find the locations and names of 84 people who “match” my Y-DNA results.

The "best match" is a person (name redacted) in California

Now I have a name and location for the “best match.” But our “Most Recent Common Ancestor” is likely more than 30 generations away!

My mtDNA Deep Ancestral Results

When we toggle over to the “Maternal” side, we get this screen showing that my mtDNA is classified in Haplogroup L. Like my Y-DNA, this shows a connection to Bantu people in West Africa, although the haplogroup is now spread over the entire African continent. Haplogroup L has subdivisions L0, L1, L2, and L3. I evidently have some connection to these subgroups. L3 is said to be the progenitor of “all non-African haplogroups alive today.”

This is my mtDNA!

And we can see the alleles in the shot above.

Three people in the Ancestry.com database match my mtDNA exactly.

The top three people “match” my mtDNA. Again, I’ve redacted the names. The list actually has all names with bewteen 0 and 2 variations. The top three had zero variations. Unlike the Y-DNA page, there is not a way to ascertain the physical locations of mtDNA matches in this set. So all I have are names. Could one of them hold the key to my most uncooperative ancestor, Sarah Gilbert Johnson?

6 comments African-Americans, Ancestry.com, DNA, Genetic Genealogy, Gilbert, mtDNA

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