Friday, January 28, 2011

Friend of Friends Friday - William Hargrove Papers Part 2

So how about an explanation of how I came upon the slave inventories that I found for William. Before I go into that, I want to advise that William is not a direct ancestor of my slaveowner James, but I believe they are closely related. I gathered this information for my benefit while I was in the meantime attempting to determine the relationship between William and James Sr. I believe they may be first cousins. Until them, I sincerely hope this documentation can be of value to Somebody. Please note that William lived in Granville (now Vance) County North Carolina and eventually moved to Alabama. I am attempting to resolve conflicts between information found in this microfilm and info on this website. I expect I will come to closer understanding when I am able to obtain a copy of The Hargrove Family Study by Dorothy P. Beebe and Johnny L. Hargrove. Something else I also really need is William's will. Some of these transcribed documents state that William's will is contained on these films, but I didn't see it.

The 3rd edition of The Source was published June 2006 and Tony Burroughs wrote the African American Research Chapter 14. (Have you been to Tony's site lately?) My local Family History Center got a copy of The Source right away and I was able to take advantage of the wealth of information in it. Reading it carefully, I found that there was a reference book that needed to be accessed in hopes of finding many more records. In The Source, Chapter 14, Tony Burroughs identified the book titled A Genealogical Index to the Guides of the Microfilm Edition of Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War by Jean L. Cooper. At that time I had not heard of this index book. If you want to follow along, get The Source 3rd edition. btw, The Source is one of the free books available for viewing at Ancestry.com. Start at page 664, The Transition from Slavery to Freedom. I found through Worldcat, at that time the nearest library with a copy of Cooper's book was the ACPL. I was able to ILL the book from some library (name not available) through the Dayton Library system. I was able to view the book but it had to remain in the library facility. I realized at that time I should have had the ILL sent to my nearest branch instead of downtown. It was my first ILL; we live and learn. The spring of 2007, the Cincinnati Public Library system obtained 2 copies of Cooper's book. I also identified that the Cincinnati Library Genealogy & History department has the entire 1500 microfilm set.

Do you use Worldcat? If you do and you have been following the dialogue here, you can see that searching Worlcat for Stampp, Kenneth and you will find the nearest library to you that has the 1500 films. When I went to the Cincy library Spring 2007, I was unable to find the Cooper book on the shelf. I inquired at the reference desk and she rechecked the stacks with me and couldn't find it either. Then she looked thoughtful and told me to wait a few moments, she knew where to look next. She found it on her colleague's desk. Her colleague was Mr Daly (sp) and he had a copy on his desk preparing for a presentation that I didn't know of at that time. The reference librarian loaned me the book to browse but I had to return it directly to her so she would know where to return it to Mr Daly's desk. In the meantime, I found out what presentation Mr Daly was preparing for. It was for the Federation of Genealogy Society's 2007 Conference in Fort Wayne, IN. I should add a tidbit that the brand new Allen County Public Library had just completed construction in December 2006 and the library move was over the next couple of weeks after that. (Another tidbit here, [correct spelling of Mr Daly's name and the title of his presentation] cannot be confirmed at this time because my FGS syllabus for 2007 is in storage).

Cut to the chase, I went to Mr Daly's presentation and it was excellent! He described in pretty good detail how to use the Cooper book. Other long story short is that I requested and the Dayton Public Library was able to purchase a copy of their own. I am pointing you to LibraryThing to see the cover because neither Worldcat nor Amazon have the cover on their page.

I should also explain, just in case some of you have seen them, that there are other indices to Stampp's collection. Martin Schipper also created indices University Publications of America, 1993. I don't want you to be confused if you go to your local library and find the Schipper books but not the Cooper book. Schipper's books have the same content as the cooper books and then some. I don't want to suggest that as a problem of the Schipper books because both Schipper's and Cooper's books are both valuable in their own right. Cooper's book is more concise and Schipper books are more thorough. To expand, they are both indices but to take a rough guess, there may be 35-40 volumes of the Schipper books that covers all of the information contained in the Cooper books and then some. The one volume of Schipper where I found William HARGROVE covered Stampp's Series J, part 13. There are 40 microfilm reels contained in PART 13. Granted, you know that you don't want to scroll through 1500 microfilm looking for one slave family. You also probably rather not scan through 40 volumes of Schipper to find which film you want. In an ideal situation, you would have access to both the Cooper book and then the Schipper indices. But if you do not have access to Cooper, Schipper is still better than scrolling 1500 microfilm.

Here is the pages from Schipper describing the William HARGROVE papers. It maybe that the entire content of this blog has been discussed on previous blogs but it may have been years ago, like when the Source 3rd edition came out . An additional note is that Cooper has updated her book using a different publisher and the title is Index to Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations: Locations, Plantations, Surnames and Collections, 2d ed.


Series Description from Schipper
{P1010870}
Account book belonging to William Hargrove of Granville (now Vance) County, N.C. This volume which has loose sheets of paper and other sets of bound pages inserted into it, contains birth records for William Hargrove's slaves; stud records for his horses and cattle; lists of household and plantation expenses; blacksmith and store accounts; tax records; planting and harvest notes; and some genealogical information on the Hargrove family.

While I am preparing this post Part 2, I went to the FamilySearch Wiki (LOVE the Wiki!) and found the reference to Ante-Bellum... and was going to link to it. What else do I see? Lexis-Nexis (L-N) has their links on the Wiki, Research Wiki — African American Slavery and Bondage. I had seen the L-N links from some other university site years before, but they were dead. I can suppose the linker hadn't paid the rent. Anyway, the links on the Wiki to L-N are in *.pdf format. If you hit one of them, you will find what are the actual Schipper indices. So yeah, you are closer to doing a lot more research online, but there are 55 *.pdf files. The Schipper book I was using is Series J, Part 13. 128 pdf pages on L-N. Some are not searchable. IMHO, the Cooper book (after The Source) is still the best place to start after you have determined your slaveowner surnames. Even if you narrow down which L-N pdf file you want, you still don't have the Hargrove papers themselves, only a description of what's on the film. It Is a valuable resource to know which ones of the 1500 films you want to order if you have to go that route. In addition to the L-N *.pdf files, the Wiki page with the links also has links to the library catalog of the 1500 microfilms.

Referencing back again to the Cooper book and The Source, if you know the slaveowners' surnames AND you have a good understanding of what I have explained in this post, go ahead to Cooper. If you don't know the slaveowner surnames OR this post has turned your brain to mush, Go to The Source, Black Roots or where ever else you need to go to get that information.

1454 words

Friend of Friends Friday - William Hargrove Papers Part 1

This post was originally drafted in May 2010. I was reading Mavis Jones blog post recently about The 1870 Brick Wall. I felt compelled to finally finish and publish this post for Friend of Friends Friday.

I am sure it is not unheard of, but I would guess is certainly uncommon is to have slaves names listed with their dates of birth. Not just the year, but with the date. OK, that was a teaser. We also have, for most of the slaves I am posting here, their Mother's Names!!! From the analyst' perspective, I wonder what happened in 1840. That's when the mothers' name began being recorded. I kept looking at the documents that I had saved and see that it appears some backtracking was done and the mother's names were added to other documents. That's why there are color coded. The documents with duplicate information were not duplicate documents but the same info and some with variations. That's why I colored them. This coloring has nothing to do with the color coding I do for my folks. It's just to alert you there was duplicated and sometimes slightly conflicting info on different pages. I'm wanting to get this published right away. But come back to visit, especially if anything pertains to you and yours. I will be adding the P#s. These are simply my document #, nothing more. Also note that any and all typos were copied verbatim. Square brackets [] are copied as is and my notes are in curly brackets{}.

As we research our African-American ancestors, those who do that research also know that the slaveholders' families need to be researched as well. It is through that research of the slave holder families that we eventually come to find the info we need to come up with our own family lines, sometimes intermingled with the slaveowners and sometimes not. In either case, it would be through researching those slaveholders, their wills, deeds, family bibles and in this case, their estate business records and inventories that we find our own families. These records of William HARGROVE were kept for tax purposes as well as profit and loss statement purposes.

For the HARGROVE family, there is also available The Hargrove Family Study. 755 page book written by Dorothy P. Beebe and Johnny L. Hargrove. Details of The Hargrove Family Study will not be covered in this 2 part post. And Now, The List!

The Negroe and Ages

{P1010855 P1010932}
Jacb was Born March the --- 10 ------ 1785
Darease was Born December --- 5 ------ 1791
Abram was Born August ------ 12 ------ 1791
Sittey was Born July ------- 15 ------ 1794
Willis was Born July ------- 8 ------ 1796
Jim was Born September --- 24 ------ 1798 Phill the same age of Jim
Loson was born November 3 Day 1800
Ansel was born November the 14 Day 1803 dyed in Sep 1806
Bob was Born January ------- 16 ------ 1804
Sary was Born November ----- 27 ------ 1805
Cyrus was Born July -------- 19 ------ 1806
Christeaner was Born April - 19 ------ 1808 Hannah child Born
Tiney was Born January ----- 8 ------ 1809 Suck child
Amey was Born August ------- 17 ------ 1809 Hannah
Lucy was born {dead this word is typed inserted text above the typed line} January 22 Day 1809 Eady Born
Clin was born July the 11 Day 1809 Dareas first child

{P1010856}
Fuzzy
Copy over again

{P1010823}
Damon & Eady was Born March --- 16 ---- 1811 Eady twins
Eliza was born May the 7 day 1811 Dareas child
Jim Mason was Born February 25 ------ 1812
Hennry was born june 26th day 1813 Dareas
Liddy was Born January --- 27 ------ 1814
Eveliner was Born June --- 30 ------ 1814
Joe Straten was Born March --- 24 ------ 1814
Anabella was Born February ---- 2 ------ 1819 Dareas
Davie was Born June --- 30 ------ 1821 Dareas
MatildY was Born October --- 17 ------ 1821

Adney was Born August --- 23 ------ 1821
Cadmy was born August 23 Day 1822 Hannah believe Adney and Cadmy to be the same child
Edmond was Born June ---- 8 ------ 1823 Dareas child
[illegible] was born September 25 1823 Sarey child
Silvey was Born January --- 26 ------ 1824 Sue child
Lucindy Lusindy was Born April ---- 1 ------ 1824 Christeener child
Ansel was Born June --- 14 ------ 1825 Sarry child
Jack Jackson was Born March 2 – 1826 Sue child
Charlot was Born June --- 10 ------ 1826 Christeener child
Fanny Fanney was Born July --- 13 ------ 1826 Tempy child
Cheary was Born October --- 13 ------ 1826 Tiney childe
Andy Anda was Born October --- 13 ------ 1827 Amay childe
Marcus was born March 10th 1828 Liddy childe
Levinia was Born March --- 20 ------ 1828 Sue child
Penelope was Born March --- 24 ------ 1828 Christeener child
Lue Lucas was Born March --- 31 ------ 1828 Tiney child
Tom was Born April --- 20 ------ 1829 Sue child
Letty Letey was Born April --- 25 ------ 1829 Dareas child
Alee Alice was Born May --- 6 8 ------ 1829 Sarry child {the 8th is correct, I went back to check the original transcription and realize it is fuzzy}
Absolam was Born January --- 18 ------ 1830 Eady childe
X was Born June 11 1830 Christeener childe
Hanner Dyed Hannah was Born August --- 17 ------ 1830 Sue childe
Mistake it dyed L. Jacob was Born September 10 1830 Dyed Tiney childe


{P1010858}
Rosetta was Born June 19 - 1831 Dead Amy childe
Lueyan was Born February 8 – 1832 Dareas childe
Lillyan Lilleyan was Born March 10 ------ 1832 Sue childe
Ben Thomas was Born June 2? ------ 1832 Sary childe
Elizabeth was July 20 – 1832 Tiney childe
Dyed Julyan was Born April 28 1833 Dyed Christeener childe
Melvina was Born September 9 – 1833 Milly childe
Billey was Born February 25 - 1834 Dead Amy childs
Cosson was Born February 26 – 1834 Sue childe
Billy Socrates Socerites was Born July 30 – 1834 Tiney childe
Jinny Inny was Born August 12 – 1834 Sary childe
Keesor was Born October 19 1934 Daroase childe
Henry was Born March 12 – 1835 Christeener childe
Jerry was Born December 9 – 1835 Amys childe
Frances was Born August 19 – 1836 Milly childe
Luisa was Born August 31 – 1836 Sue childe
Isabella was Born April 31 – 1837 Christeener childe {NOTE: there is no such date as April 31}
Motgomery was Born May 21 – 1837 Sary childe
Wesley was Born February 10 – 1838 Amy childe
Agney was Born May 11 – 1838 Milley childe
Narcissa was Born October 12 – 1838 Sue childe
Amay was Born February 25 – 1839 Christeener childe
Kphran Ephram was Born September 9 – 1839 Amy childe
Althea was Born September 18 1839 – 1839 Milley childe
Richard was Born November 6 1 - 1840 Sue child
Baldy Boldy was Born April 14 - 1841 Milly child
Hissey was Born May 21 - 1841 Amy childe
John was Born June 13 - 1841 Christuner childe
?ady {blank} was Born February 12 - 1843 Sue childe


?ary (Mary?) was Born October 10 - 1843 Christuner childe
Otway was Born August 20 - 1844 Amay childe
Betsy was Born January 6 - 1845 Lets childe
Ded was Born February 7 - 1845 Fanny childe
[Page torn] Child it February died 1845
Ded was Born March 24 - 1845 Charlot childe
Lusinday [Page torn] was Born May 11 - 1845 Penelop childe Penlope child
[Page torn] July 27th 1845 Viny’s child J
Suckey was Born January 13 - 1846 Christuner childe
[Page torn] January 15th 1946 Hanah child
________ was Born August 11 - 1846 Charlot childe
Henry was Born September 12 - 1846 Amay childe
________ was Born October 13 - 1846 Milley childe
Ded was Born December 1 - 1846 Lets childe
________ [Page torn] was Born December Decr 5 - 1846 Sue Sues childe
________ was Born April 8 - 1847 Penelop childe
________ was Born November 13 - 1847 Christuner childe
________ was Born January 5 - 1848 Fany childe
[Page torn] June 4 1847 Suckys child
Mary February 11th 1848 Caroline child
Coleman April 10 1848 Hanah child

________ was Born June 5 - 1848 Amay childe
Billy August 15 1848 Andys child
Charlotte January 19 1849 Sue’s child
Caroline May 15 1849 Christina’s child
Rosetta March 27 1850
Edward April 6 1852
William June 24 1853
Abraham May 13 1854 Narcessas child
Fany May 23d 1856 Caroline’s child
Athis Sep 25 1854 Suckys child
Amy Apl 19 1857 Hanah’s child
Sam Dec 25 1857 Louisa’s child
Robert Sept 30 1857 Aryes child
Gibson May 31 1858 Caroline’s child
Rachel Sept 26 1858 Narcessa child
Dead Feb 25 1858 Hannah’s child
Betsy June 15th Eady’s child
Olivia Sept 15 1862 Louisa
June 20th 1863 Little Sucky’s
July 19th 1863 Minta




As I look at this list, previewing before I hit the publish button, I think to myself, why don't you go through and catalog all the mothers with all of their children? That would be a medium challenge. Is Fany and Fanny the same person? Probably. What about Amy, Amey and Amay? Maybe not. I see at least two different Amays. If I do this, here is an example of what you would get. I'm going to single out Darease for this example because she appears to be the star producer.

Darease born 5 December 1791. Her children are:
Clin 11 Jul 1809
Eliza 7 May 1811
Henry 26 Jun 1813
Anabella 2 Feb 1819
Davie 30 Jun 1821
Edmond 8 Jun 1823
Letty 25 Apr 1829
Lueyan 8 Feb 1832
Keesor 19 Oct 1834 Darease' name is spelled Daroase, but I'm sure that is her.

It's not specified but I would surmise that Daroase lost at least one child from 1814 to 1818 and another from 1823 to 1828.

Information contained here is copyright by Southern Historical Collection, Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stay tuned for Part 2, which includes the citation and discovery process.

1675 words

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Writing Commitment for February 2011

As I read Lynn's post at the Armchair Genealogist, I realize I am likely overcommitting to have a goal to write 1500 words each week for the entire year. So, I'm combining the commitment that I already made with Lynn's challenge for 28 days. 6000 words for the month of February. That's my final pledge. Still not committing to post Every day, we all know, that's not going to happen. Without changing the numbers, I decided to not even goal to post six days per week. If I look at my 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Home post, you can see from the word count of 2488, I could probably get away with posting three times and be done! LOL, I'm not going to do that. I just know I can be wordy, sometimes. OK, wordy a Lot. So wordy maybe I could pledge 12 words for February instead of 6000. NOT! That also means I should take my badge dwn after February. Maybe. I think instead, I will change the caption to be correct.

178 words

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

How Many Words Are in You?

Went around visiting other Geneabloggers' pages and found from Dr Bill's page has a link, The 250, 500, 1000 word a day challenge. It's a writing challenge to whatever writing goal you want to set for yourself.

The actual goal I am challenging myself to is 1500 words per week. So If I don't write every day, I'm OK with that. Seeing as how my blogging slowed down last summer, can I anticipate that is going to happen again. Maybe. The goal of only 250 words per day has that possibility built in. This challenge also allows you a day off. That's how I calculated my 1500 words.

You can give yourself a badge if you want. The badge reflects whichever goal you have chosen; 250, 500 or 1000 words per day.

A quote I picked from the says, writing begets writing, Chris Brogan. I hit the link that has Chris' name and it was dead.

I also found recently the 28 day writing challenge on the Armchair Genealogist Page. Not sure I can do that. Well nobody's looking and I could cheat. Yes, that's true, but I would know.

Blogger does not have a word counter widget. See help page. So, I'm going to paste into MS Word and do my counting there.

211 words

Monday, January 24, 2011

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Home

Week #4 – Home Week 4: Home. Describe the house in which you grew up. Was it big or small? What made it unique? Is it still there today? This challenge runs from Saturday, January 22, 2011 through Friday, January 28, 2011.


This is my Grandmother Clara's house. It was her husband's home too. You can see from my previous post that they had previously separated but they eventually got back together before he died because this was also his address on his death certificate. I had also previously told you that there were eight of us and we shared one bathroom. I'm going to take you on a tour of this home and then a short tour in the neighborhood. First, from the outside and you can see the home is three stories high. Counting the basement that is four. It's hard to tell but there was a window in the basement. See next to the water hose and under that window in the first pic? So the grand tour? Let's go.

Starting from the sidewalk, you can see that we have to go up six steps, about two steps then four more steps to the front porch. We used to have a glider on the porch and really enjoyed especially afternoons and evenings on the front porch. The house faced the north, so evenings we would have shade because we had one of those roll up screens on the west side of the porch to shade us. Going in the front door, you are then in the living room. We used to have a piano on the west wall of the living room and some of us took piano lessons. The east wall had a couch under the window and the north wall had an easy chair in front of the window. During the holidays, the easy chair was rearranged because the Christmas tree always went in front of that window. Continuing on from the living room, go straight to the dining room. Furnished with dining room furniture but also had a console b&w television in the northwest corner. There was some space between the table and the wall so if you wanted to sit on the floor and watch tv or you could sit in a chair at the table and still see tv. Go past the table and hang a right then a quick left, then you are in the kitchen. Wait a minute. Just one step before you go into the kitchen, there was a corner to your left. I didn't make the drawing exactly right to display this corner but that was where you would almost always find grandma. The thing is that the wall that created the corner carried the ventilation from the basement up throughout the house. Therefore that corner was right above the furnace. That's why grandma sat there, because it was warm. Go on into the kitchen. It was a large kitchen. Stove, fridge, table and the kitchen sink was on the far east wall under the window. Lots of counter space and cupboard space and plenty of extra floor space too. When I was little, I had one of those table and chair sets. It was located under the west kitchen window. When my cousins came to visit from Pittsburgh, us younger children would sit there for dinner. Take a left in the kitchen past the kitchen table that was against the south wall and you would be at the back door. Step outside and there was room on the back porch for about three or four to stand out of the rain while we were coming or going.


Backtrack and go back into the dining room. I forgot a couple of things. This dining room was a bit bigger than that. Against the west wall in the dining room was my Aunt Agnes' sewing machine. All of us girls learned to sew on that Singer machine. Later years, Aunt Ag got a serger but she kept that old Singer serviced and it lasted her many years. Well, if we had to eat at separate tables for dinner then how did we do that for holiday dinners? The dining room table had one or two leaves and the table that normally sat six, was forced to seat ten with room enough that we weren't really crowded. The youngest two of us still sat at my little table in the kitchen. After my Aunt Emma passed away and three of their five kids came to live with us, (that's how we got to eight). So then, for Christmas, the dining table would sit all eight of us and Uncle James who came to have Christmas with his children.

While you are still in the dining room, see the door that is on the east wall? Go through that door and turn left you'll be going down to the basement. The basement was not finished so it was pretty much one big open room. So to speak the furnace provided some kind of division because it was just about in the center. This was a converted coal furnace and was I guess an efficient gas furnace. You can't tell, but it there was a coal chute converted to a window on the driveway side of the house. On the northwest corner of the basement you can see there is one divider. It was a small room. We called it the fruit cellar. It had plenty of shelves on all four walls and during canning season, it would be plumb full of tomatoes, beans, corn, jelly, greens and lots of fruit. Before when I said there was one bathroom, I left out the commode in the basement on the south wall at the east corner. I didn't lie, we just didn't use it for the most part. I would use it only in case of emergencies because it was functional. Also if necessary, up until about ten, I could also take a bath in one of the laundry tubs. You know those iron and cement ones. They came in handy when we used to have one of those washing machines with a wringer. Before we got a dryer, all the open space next to the fruit cellar had clotheslines for the winter or rainy days. Outside clotheslines were also available. The first couple of feet on the north wall could only hang short items because there was a deep freezer there. It was a huge freezer, I'm going to guess 20 or 25 cubic feet. Big enough for a couple bodies. Every fall, we would get a pig, a half cow and a bunch of chickens from the slaughter house. We also used to go to the bakery and get dozens of loaves of day old dread. When the freezer was full, I didn't mind much to run the 'what's for dinner' errand to the freezer. If it were near empty, I was scared, fearing to fall in. Who would know I was there?

Continuing the tour, go back to the threshold from the living room to the dining room. Soon as you step into the dining room, you can take a left turn, one step up and a right. You are headed to the second floor. At the top of the stairs, you can see there is a window to your left. At the top of the stairs, turn right and then a quick left, you are in the bathroom. Nothing special, except you can see it has a large linen closet. Spare tp, toothpaste, vacuum cleaner. Come back out of the bathroom and you can take an immediate left from the hallway and you'll be in my cousin JGHM's room. Hers was my Mom's room before that. JGHM was the only one among us who had a room to herself. I was jealous. Back out into the hallway and go all the way to the end. You will be in my room with grandma and another cousin FHNM. Three twin beds, three dressers and a student desk. It was a full room but not overcrowded. Go back into the hallway and immediately turn left. One step up and turn right again going to the third floor. For some reason we didn't call it an attic. Before you go upstairs, you might notice there was what used to be a door in front of you. We almost never used this door but you could go through it and go downstairs from the outside. If you do continue to the third floor, you will find the two boys' room and my Aunt & Uncle's to the front of the house. Both these rooms were a bit smaller because of the sloped ceiling but were finished rooms and again were not overcrowded.

Before we go back outside, I want to take you back to the top of the stairs on the second floor. Right in front of you at the top of the stairs is a full length window. I am going to digress a little bit. I lived in this house until I was twelve. Then I went to live with my dad. When I left to go to basic training, I had to lol when I noticed that there was a full length mirror at the exit to the dormitory. The purpose of both mirrors was to take a good look at yourself when you are fully dressed; no run in your stockings, slip is not hanging below your hemline etc. Except I hope you lol with me when I say that in basic training we also had to salute that mirror every time we passed by it. I guess the point was to salute yourself but more than that for the practice to watch yourself properly salute.

OK, we go back outside on Myrtle Ave and you can see that probably for safety and security reasons, the basement window, coal chute window, second floor door and outside stairs were removed and security lighting added. Probably also for safety and security, there are bars on the first floor doors and windows. All of that would be some occupant after us. When we lived there, the neighborhood was quite secure. We closed the front and back doors but almost never locked them at night. I remember when we used to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend there would be a 'find the front door skeleton key' exercise. I remember when I came back from Youngstown taking these photos, I showed them to one of my coworkers, and he was the one explaining to me that this is called a shotgun house. You can shoot a shot through the front door and it will come out the back door. Well this isn't truly a shotgun house but I get the point.

This street Myrtle Ave is on a city street and a block that is a city block long. I have heard tell that a city block has an accurate measurement and three city blocks are a mile. Grandma's house was about the fourth or fifth house from the corner. The church I was mentioning before was about a half block away from us down the street. I don't want to suggest that we were the most popular kids on the street but is true that in front of our house was where the majority of the kickball games were played. There was a hopscotch drawn on our sidewalk almost all summer long and hide and seek was most often based at the telephone pole you can see to the west in the second pic. I was saying before I lived there until about twelve. The rest of my family moved out about a year or two later. The house stayed in the family for quite awhile. It was rented out for a few years, then my oldest cousin inherited it from grandma. I found out only a few years ago that the same cousin was supposed to have paid the other six of us $200 each as our inheritance. We'll never see it.

Remember I was saying before that grandfather was a barber? There was a barber shop around the corner. If you leave our house and walk the four or five houses east to the corner, turn right or south and walk to Kenmore at the next corner, there is the barber shop. This block from Myrtle to Kenmore was not a full city block, only about two or three hundred feet. According to Steve Morse' One Step pages and the Sanborn maps Kenmore Ave used to be Mckinnie.

During my hunting for roots throughout Youngstown, tracing city directories, I have also tracked other families who lived in this house before my grandparents bought it. This house used to be a front for a business. There used to also be an outbuilding in the back. According to word passed down, this other building was a dairy. These other families include but have not been determined to be limited to:

MN Smith
Mrs E Ackworth
William P Henry
Joseph T Morgan
Lee J Cook
JJ Rudzik

The SMITH family lived there in 1918 so the house is at least that old and the RUDZIKs in 1949-50. My family was on N. Blaine Ave and E. Cherry in 1949-50 but had evidently reconciled, living on Myrtle in 1951-52. I guess I could probably check property deeds to determine exactly when they purchased, but I'm thinking I am not that curious unless I happen to go back to Youngstown and get to the courthouse. I may eventually do that. I do have some unfinished business there that is not urgent. We'll see. So last I checked the old homestead is still there. I cannot check using Google street view because only the main streets in Youngstown are photographed. But I did check using satellite view and it's still there.

Before I close up, I want to tell you a funny. I took these photos during my last visit to Youngstown that happened to be a high school reunion weekend. I took the first photo from the east side then walked over to the west side to take the second one. Just about that time one of the occupants came home. He asked what I was doing, I explained that I used to live there and wanted a couple of photos. His response, "What you want to do that for?".

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin are some genealogy blog prompts to document your personal genealogy. There are 52 in all, one for each week of the year. Amy says,
"I hope you like it and do take the time to write down the details of your own life.

Please make this a fun event. Don't get upset if you don't do all 52 weeks. That was never the intention."


2488 words

Saturday, January 15, 2011

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Cars

Week 3: Cars. What was your first car? Describe the make, model and color, but also any memories you have of the vehicle. You can also expand on this topic and describe the car(s) your parents drove and any childhood memories attached to it.

This challenge runs from Saturday, January 15, 2011 through Friday, January 21, 2011.



My first car? I had a love/hate relationship with that thing. Love? Kind of a gift from Daddy. Well, he didn't give it to me. He sold it to me for $10. It was four years old and I was So Grateful! Grateful that I didn't have car payments to make. I kind of didn't like the color but that was a trivial thing. 1970 Ford Fairlaine 500. Mine was a pukey pea green close to this.

Mine was a four door with a black interior. I put an 8-track player in it and ja ja ja jaaaamed to work everyday. Please note that I didn't have a lot of 8-track tapes. Playing mostly The Tavares, my favorite tracks over and over again. Too Late, It Only Takes A Minute, Remember What I Told you To Forget and Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel. Maybe New Birth, Dream Merchant or It's Been a Long Time, Stylistics... You get it. You might be a youngster and you don't get it. LOL

Oh, my goodness, this is bringing back great memories!!! I was just going to do a quick love/hate. While I'm reminiscing, it reminds me of the cost of gas! I'm remembering about $0.85. Timeframe I'm talking was from about the fall of 74 to summer of 75. OPEC oil embargo, lines at the gas station. Youngsters also have to remember that we weren't in so much of a hurry then. We complained a little about the high cost of gas but otherwise life was pretty good. Waiting in line at the gas station was an opportunity to socialize... with the other people in line. And there was still plenty of excitement going on in my beloved Youngstown. I left the following year. Oh yeah, the love/hate and back to the Ford.

OK Hate. This car caused me to never consider ever owning another Ford again, and I haven't, currently driving my 7th car. Back then, I was considering that I just happened to be the stuckee of one 'defective vehicle'. About two or three years ago when I was charting my vehicles (yes, I have them all imaged), there stirred up a discussion of our first one. An older and wiser gentleman explained that some of the manufacturers were building vehicles 'well enough' in the 70s. Mine had some kind of electrical problem that I, nor my mechanic had ever found. Whatever this electrical problem was would cause me to have to get a jump frequently, let's say about once or twice a month. The battery, alternator and regulator had all been checked out. What's left? Wiring in the steering column and wiring in the firewall.

Well, time was quickly passing by during that year. I decided to go into the military and had to decide what to do with Betsy. My first consideration was to get her rewired, get some minor bodywork done and get her painted black. She would have been beautiful! Circumstances changed my mind. For one, the transmission started to slip. Then about a month before I left for basic training, some speed demon hit me. More the transmission than the accident changed my mind to have her restored. I also had nobody trustworthy to leave her with. Somebody who would accept the money I gave them, get the work done and not drive her as if she were their own. Nobody. So about a week before I left home, I sold her. You know what's funny? The guy I sold her to had a long way to go to school, one of my classmates' brother. When I saw David at our 30th reunion, he said his bro drove Betsy for several years with no problems.


52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin are some genealogy blog prompts to document your personal genealogy. There are 52 in all, one for each week of the year. Amy says,
"I hope you like it and do take the time to write down the details of your own life.

Please make this a fun event. Don't get upset if you don't do all 52 weeks. That was never the intention."

Friday, January 14, 2011

Oliver HARGROVE

Today is 59 years since my grandfather passed. He was born 18 Oct 1888 according to his WWI, WWII draft records and according to his death certificate. Looks like he may be one of the few persons in my database with no name or date conflicts. His WWI draft registration was my first knowledge of him having a middle name, Turner. After connecting with my 2nd cousins, I learned that his nickname was Uncle Bud. I got a kick out of that. I wonder what it would have been like to know him. I expect it may have likely been something similar to the relationship with my dad; I love him but... I'll get back to that in a few moments.

I was able to determine from his WWI draft card that Oliver's middle name was Turner. I expect that was a name passed down from the slaveowner family. I have seen at least two Turners in the caucasian HARGROVE group and at least one last name TURNER associated with them. He and my grandmother Clara married 12 Feb 1919 and their daughter, Agnes was born 30 Nov 1919. Just in time huh? Legacy, RootsMagic and PAF calculated that as 9 months 18 days. Second child, James was born November 1920. In November 1921, Clara was six months pregnant with their third. Moses was born Feb 1922 and Obie November 1923. Four children in five years. Fast forward to September 1927. Can't specifically say when, between 1923 and 1927 did they move to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania but I was saying before that Mom was the only one of them not born in Georgia. Mom was born in Pricedale, Westmoreland County, just southeast of Pittsburgh in 1927. Also between 1924 and 1926, there was a pair of twins stillborn to them. I don't know and will probably never discover if that was Georgia, Pennsylvania or between. Note to self: You actually have no evidence that Oliver himself, ever lived in Pennsylvania.

1928 found them moved from Pricedale to Youngstown. Couple of things confirmed their move to Youngstown in 1928. On my inaugural visit to the OGS, I was able to look at a lot of Youngstown City Directories. They were not in the 1927 but were in the 1929 I found them on Oak Street, confirming the address they were in the 1930 census. I had found his WWII old man's draft online (prior to that first OGS visit) and did see that the address on Rayen Ave in 1942 was changed to Berkley Avenue in 1943. I thought nothing of that, assuming that the family moved. From that OGS, visit, I saw the family did stay on Oak Street until 1936/37. They all moved not far to Rayen Ave. I found no City Directory addresses for any of them on Berkley but did see that Clara and the children went from Rayen to Blaine Ave. Oliver wasn't there. Wait a minute, he was still alive. Oliver lived on Cherry Street in 1949. I admit I did do some skipping in the 1930s. And the HARGROVES were not the only family I was following. I was also searching for the BARNES, BRIMMERs, DRAPERs and coincidentally also found some WORKMANs. I know it's supposed to be the stay with one family group... but my logic, this being a one day visit to OGS, find everybody I can, in each book I search. Well finding Oliver at these different addresses and Clara not being with him on Cherry Street (and I think I also found him on McGuffey Road, but missed documenting that one or making a copy). By that time, I was so caught up in the realization... They were separated! My calculations say for at least seven years, 1943-1950. One other thing I was doing during this OGS visit was tracking all the residents of Oliver & Clara's home on Myrtle Ave. This is Clara's home that I remember and where I also lived for 12 years. So, my logic takes me back to his WWII registration and saw that his registration changed Oliver's address but not Clara's. Clara continued to be his alternate contact on Rayen Ave but he moved by himself to Berkley Avenue. Looking him up in these City Directories also found him working in the steel mill when they first arrived in Youngstown but later that Oliver was a barber. The detective genealogist in me did some further investigation and found that they were also evidently separated at some time or another in Georgia. When my cousin, Fran sent Uncle Obie's photo, she also included his birth certificate. Looking again at Obie's birth certificate, 16 Nov 1923, I see the residence of his mother in Athens, Clarke County Georgia and residence of his father, Oliver, as DK! Did Oliver move away from Georgia during or before 1923? My thought was though, even for those husbands fathers who moved away from their family to find better jobs etc, the wives & mothers still knew their address, didn't they? Maybe he moved to Pennsylvania but likely not to Ohio until 1928. Oliver's death certificate specifies that he lived in Youngstown for 24 years as of his death. This again confirms that Oliver moved to Ohio in 1928, again whether he lived in Pennsylvania or not. So I expect that when Obie was born, that Oliver was still in Georgia but Clara didn't know where. To Do List: Check to see if there are City Directories for Athens in the 1920s. Hopefully, if they do exist, they include colored people.

Fast forward again to about a year and a half ago. I was talking to my cousin Benny and mentioned to him that our grandparents were separated. He asked, "yeah, you didn't know that?" Earlier I said that none of then nieces and nephews were born before Uncle Obie died. Also true that grandfather Oliver passed about 3 weeks before his first grandchild was born. Continuing the conversation with Benny... He told me of grandfather being a barber. Confirmed. Then he told me that when Oliver was a barber, he used to hide money in the center pole of the barber chair and grandmother busted him. Benny's saying that's why they were separated. Well, my thought process tells me it's not that simple. They probably separated, not simply because he was hiding the money but for what reason he was hiding the money. In any case he wasn't bringing it home to take care of his family. I have suspicions that alcohol may have been involved and likely other women. Someday, I hope to hear his side of the story.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Look Again - Look Next Door


I found my great grandmother, Pinky Ann HOPE as a child! Her name was actually HANCOCK. And where was she living? Next door to Smith (My Simon & Nancy), who eventually became her husband. This was my very first census page find back in 2002. (Yes folks, I know. I have since backtracked starting from me to get back to them). You have to consider, me being a genealogy newbie, very excited to find that I had ancestors, was hoping to have descendants and was wondering "Who are these people?"

All this time I had been connecting Pinky Ann to the HOPE family (Henry, Mariah, Simon & Lula) in Burke County, GA. This HOPE family is the family I found within weeks of my initial searching and I was headstrong believing that was my Pinky, until now. I did get clues that there was something wrong with my logic when I got Pinky's death certificate. Her death certificate specifies her parents as Thomas HOPE and Fannie HOPE. In actuality, it is likely Thomas HANCOCK and Frances/Fannie HOPE. Note that her husband, Smith, provided the death certificate information. He just lost his wife of 46 years. I'm sure he was heartbroken, probably not thinking clearly. Smith lost his only living daughter almost three years before that and now he has three grandchildren to care for by himself, the youngest being about 3. His two living sons? One moved to Alabama where his wife lived and the other, my grandfather moved his family to Pennsylvania then Ohio. Don't leave out that he was about 75 years old.

Then I further sidetracked after getting Pinky's death cert. Because of the other HOPE family being in Burke County, I was also attempting to follow them connecting to the John HOPE family in Richmond County. It certainly is not my desire to necessarily be related to someone famous, I'm just trying to find my folks. For those not aware, that John HOPE is the one who eventually became to be president of Morehouse. Coincidentally, his Mother's name is Mary Frances AKA Fannie/Fanny. So I guess for now, I can drop Burke County from my Georgia map. I'm going to unlink Pinky Ann from the Burke County family but I'm not deleting them from my database. Keeping them as a family, individuals of interest until I prove otherwise; they are not related to me at all. And I can return this ILL, A Clashing of the Soul, that I recently borrowed from Cincinnati. That is John's biography.

This is GREAT! It's been almost a year now since I have had an epiphany or any significant genealogical find. So now, anybody heard of any HANCOCKs? jk Remember the movie Out of Time, when Alex inquires of the entire squad room, "Cabot, anybody hear of a (forgot his first name, Jeffrey?) Cabot". They weren't dissing her but nobody answered until she asked again. Substitute Cabot for HANCOCK. Anybody heard of any HANCOCKs? LOL

So besides wanting you all to see my significant find, I was going to ask you to help me identify Pinky's brother and sister's names. Reading this handwriting is pretty bad along with some fading ink. Another light bulb moment, look them up in Familysearch. The record page will show all of the household member's names. Sure did!

The LANDANs are an indexing mistake. They are in a different household from the bottom of the previous page.

I'm also going to keep an eye on these HANSEL people. There are HANSELs living in the neighborhood of Smith & Pinky along with Pinky's (brother?) Tom HOPE in 1910. I feel so intoxicated, I just can't stop. OK, time to calm down, Darlene. You have to cite this find then follow up. Before I close, I just want to add a couple more things. I suspect Pinky's brother John (look there is two of them) also changed his name to HOPE. Pinky's oldest child that lived, his first name was Ben along with one of my first cousin's middle name Benjamin, nickname is Benny. My middle name is Frances.

Last, you know better than this. Let this be a lesson learned to you. When you find somebody new, study the entire document; along with several pages before and aft if it is city directories, cemeteries, census, etc. I'm going to let you off with a short scolding this time, only because you were a rookie when you found Nancy, Smith and Simon! For that matter, consider yourself already punished. Just think how much farther eight years of research in the right direction would be.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

ANOTHER Upcoming Special Event

I am subscribed to the Allen County (Fort Wayne, IN) Public Library Genealogy Gems, monthly E-zine on their website. One thing I can say about their Genealogy Gems is that it comes promptly, on the last day of every month. Last Friday evening I got my January issue and it included the announcement shown below. Don't be confused. There is an International Genealogy Summit and a National Genealogy Summit. To put it simply, Curt Witcher and his folks are wanting to continue supporting the African-American genealogy community as they did for the 2009 IBGS.


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National Black Genealogy Summit--Save The Date
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The African American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne and the Allen County Public Library with its Genealogy Center proudly present this unique opportunity: National Black Genealogy Summit. The theme of the summit is African Diaspora: Awakening Our Legacy. Prospective, novice, intermediate, and advanced genealogists will convene for the National Black Genealogy Summit, October 20 – 22, 2011 at the Grand Wayne Center and Allen County Public Library (ACPL). This conference promises an innovative, comprehensive, and hands-on approach to genealogical and historical research. Experts in African American genealogy will demonstrate research strategies, provide useful tips, and explore new resources. Extended research hours in the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center will be available exclusively to conference attendees.

The ACPL Genealogy Center is internationally acclaimed for being the world’s second largest repository of genealogy resources. The comprehensive collection contains more than one million textual items and access to billions of searchable records offered through major online genealogical databases. All are available for free use in the Center. Expert staff, well-versed in genealogical research, is always available to assist researchers.

Conference Planning Committee consists of the Allen County Public Library (Curt Witcher and Josette Jordan); African American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne (Roberta Ridley); It is Well With My Soul & Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (A Public Service Organization) Fort Wayne Alumnae Chapter (Dr. Ruby Cain); African/African American Historical Museum (Dr. Miles S. Edwards and Condra Ridley); and It is Well With My Soul & The Links, Incorporated Fort Wayne Chapter (Linda Durril).

Information about lodging accommodations and the program for the National Black Genealogy Summit will be available in January 2011. Save the dates October 20-22, 2011. And visit the website often for new details; www.BlackGenealogyConference.Info.


This was only an excerpt of their monthly newsletter. I highly suggest that you might want to subscribe and keep in touch with the haps at the ACPL Genealogy Center.