Uncle Moses

Here is another episode of Celebrating Ancestors. My Uncle Moses HARGROVE is shown here with his girlfriend, name unknown. To the best of my knowledge, Uncle Moses never married nor had any children. He was the third child of Oliver Turner and Clara (DUNCAN) HARGROVE. This uncle is the one I know the least about. Born 13 Feb 1923 in Georgia, died 12 Jul 2004 in Los Angeles, California. I do believe that Uncle Moses was in the CCC with Uncle James and that he moved to Cleveland when he left Youngstown. I believe that he also lived in Chicago. Looks like he may be the few of my ancestral family members that liked big city life. I specify ancestral family members here because I do have 1st cousins that live(d) in larger cities. So I just want to specifically say that he would be the few of previous generations, preferring larger cities.

I have been able to determine that he and neither of his brothers ever lived on Myrtle Ave. That means they were all grown and gone.

Note to descendants: if you ever happen to find the book I hope to write, you will find there two other tidbits that I prefer to not publish here.

208 words

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.

Agnes Grayce HARGROVE

Agnes Grayce HARGROVE
b. 30 Nov 1919
d. 11 Sep 2003

James HARGROVE

James HARGROVE
b. 27 Nov 1920
d. 9 Jun 1992

Agnes & Elmer

Agnes Grayce HARGROVE and Elmer WHITE. That is them on the left. This photo was taken late 1940s or early 1950s. The couple on the right may be their friends, Mr & Mrs Smith. Mrs Smith's name is Katherine and Mr Smith was always called UC; his first name was Ulysses. If that couple is not Mr & Mrs Smith, then I have no idea who else it might be. I recently got Agnes' & Elmer's marriage certificate from Montgomery County Probate Court. They married 22 November 1952. Agnes was my mother's oldest sibling and only sister.
Happy Anniversary Aunt Ag and Uncle Bo.

Emma Lee WORKMAN

Emma Lee WORKMAN HARGROVE
b. 17 Nov 1918
d. 25 Dec 1963

Uncle Obie

Uncle Obie was born 16 Nov 1923 of Oliver Turner HARGROVE and Clara DUNCAN. He was the youngest son and the fourth born of five living children. I wasn't told much about Uncle Obie when I was a child other than he was in the army, died bathing in a Korean river and I had seen this picture of him. One other item of info I knew as a child is that he gave my Mom her silver service as a wedding gift. It must have been an engagement gift because they weren't married yet when he died. Now that I am researching, I find a bit more information about him. Just as I have other family members, I followed him around the city of Youngstown and also away from Youngstown. After high school graduation, he and at least one other brother, worked at CCC. CCC is Civil Conservation Corps. I have to do more research about CCC but not before I complete my 1940 census preparation work.

I don't know what all kinds of work CCC trained, but Uncle Obie and Uncle James appear to have learned construction trades there. Heck maybe my Dad did also but I have not yet found evidence that Dad was a CCC worker. Last week while visiting the new OGS facility, I found Uncle Obie in the 1947 Cleveland City Directory. He lived two blocks away from Uncle James. Funny thing is that I didn't know either of them ever lived in Cleveland. It appears that both of them left Youngstown, moved to Cleveland and then to Pittsburgh. They may have possibly moved back to Youngstown before Pittsburgh.

I also didn't know Uncle Obie ever lived in Pittsburgh until I found him on the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). That was also when I found that he has two death dates; 7 July 1950 and 12 February 1951. I found his 7 July 1950 death date on his headstone when I went to Youngstown for another funeral. I found his 12 February 1951 death date on the ABMC website about five years ago. All this time I wondered why did he have two death dates and how could there have been a mistake like that? I did figure, actually guess that the 7 July date was correct because it was the earlier one. How could anybody die after they were already dead? And besides, his mother would have been the one ordering his gravestone and would not have allowed a mistake there to go uncorrected. So now I have determined that the 7 July is the correct one because of two things. There is this newspaper obituary, copy obtained from my cousin and also recently found that the 12 February date was coincidentally his parent's wedding anniversary.

Last January, I sent to the ABMC to correct the spelling of Uncle Obie's middle name as well as sent them his photo to post on their website. I have been wanting to add the photo for a long time but didn't get a copy until late last year. I do still need to write them again and correct his death date. I'm going to do that after my next trip back to the Ohio Historical Society where I can view for myself when his obit was published. It was most likely published sometime between Monday the 10th and Friday the 14th. For your reference, if you apply to the ABMC, they will send you a full color page memorial of your veteran like the one shown for Uncle Obie. Allow plenty of time. I sent the correction and photo on 28 January and got the memorial page back about the end of May.

Being the next older in age to my Mom, I believe she was closer to Uncle Obie than to any of her other siblings. I also believe that his death really affected her in some ways. Uncle Obie passed before any of his nieces and nephews were born. My guess is that he would have been the koolest Uncle. Rest in peace Uncle Obie.

Pinkie and PeeWee's Photo

And here they are. I understand that this was their engagement pic.

I did that backwards didn't I? I should have put the pic up as a Wordless Wednesday post and then the text. I guess it's OK anyway cause this post is not wordless.

What do their expressions say to you?

Hers: I got me a Man!

His: How in the heck do I get out of this?

Pinkie and PeeWee's Anniversary

About two years ago, Karen, the director of my local Family History Center was helping me with some research. The question came up of my parents' marriage date and I didn't specifically know what the date was. My mother's older sister, who provided the information for Mom's death certificate, provided that their marriage was April and two years ago, I didn't remember if it were 1951 or 1952. So up until now, I had used only Apr 1951/52 as documentation of their marriage. I had looked when Karen was helping me and last week I looked again at the Mahoning County Ohio Probate Court site looking for information to send for their marriage license. In the meantime, on one of my research trips to OHS where they have a lot of Ohio newspapers, I found their license application date was 5 April 1951. I finally emailed the Probate Court last week and got their marriage date and the citation info. Their wedding was 28 April 51, Volume 88 – Page 302. The great news is that Mahoning County Probate will send me a genealogy copy for ten ¢ (that is 10 cents) plus a SASE or a certified copy for $2 plus SASE. Isn't that Awesome? I expected around $10 and no genealogy copy.

So, while celebrating this couple of folks, let's take a look at some parts of their lives.

PeeWee was born 27 September 1926 in Fitzgerald, Ben Hill, Georgia. He was the son of a sharecropper, John Pink DRAPER and Ella Lee BRIMMER. His name at birth was Clovis Lee DRAPER. He was the fifth son born of this union, also having several sisters and a brother from John P's first marriage to Minnie Lampkin. John was quite a bit older than his second wife, so his father was 52 when PeeWee was born. PeeWee went to public school up until the sixth grade. I often heard of that story. I think his intent to relay that was not that he was bragging but quite proud of what he accomplished in life with only a sixth grade eduacation. I also often heard the story of how he got his nickname, that we was twelve years old and weighed 90 pounds. Not included in the story but was also true is that he was relatively short as most men go, about 5' 6" or 7". He was a veteran of WWII, serving as a cook in Germany and at Fort Benning Georgia. I have attempted to send for his service record but have to take another shot at that because of the fire at the National Military Records Center. Without sending for those records, I have a suspicion that he lied about his age and somehow got into the US Army as maybe a 16 or 17 year old.

That suspicion is based on that he was in the army and back out again, serving a full enlistment (two years?) before his father died in 1948. OK, I know it's not necessarily so bc in 1948 PeeWee turned 21, but his father died in February, PeeWee was 20 1/2. Regardless how old he was, it's a genealogical question that I didn't bother to ask, nor cared to know until I started researching. I will most likely find the answer when we eventually meet again. After John Pink died, the family moved to Youngstown Ohio in the vicinity of one of Ella's sisters and brothers. I have traced the DRAPER and BRIMMER Families from the 1920s through the 1950s around Youngstown using city directories. At one point, for maybe three or four years, PeeWee disappeared. That will have to be another blog someday. PeeWee was a construction worker employed by the Torrello Construction Company for over twenty years. Chester Torrello owned a small company, and PeeWee was one of his cement finishers and laborers.

Pinkie Ann HARGROVE, was the second daughter, fifth living and youngest child of Oliver HARGROVE and Clara DUNCAN. Pinkie Ann renamed herself to Anna Mae at some time after the age of maturity, so at that point Pinkie became more like a nickname. In actuality, I thought it was her nickname until she died. That's one of the many things I am looking into. I may never know specifically why until we meet again. I am trying anyway to decipher when was that occurrence. If you are one of my faithful blog readers, please do not confuse Pinkie Ann with Pinkie Ann HOPE HARGROVE, that's her grandmother after whom she was named. So for clarity of the two, I will call mom Anna Mae. Anna Mae was unique among her brothers and sister, the only one not born in Jackson County Georgia. Sometime after the birth of her next older brother in 1923, the family moved to Pricedale, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Anna Mae was born there, 20 September 1927. In 1929, the family moved again to Youngstown. I have also tracked the HARGROVEs around Youngstown from 1929 through to the 1960s. LOL My memory can pick a lot of it up from there.

Besides when did Anna Mae change her name, something else I was curious about for this couple is 'how did they meet?'. Only because I have been researching have I come up with a few conclusions. One is that one of his aunts lived on Park Ave at the same time as one of her sister in law's family. Another is that one of his cousins lived on Oak Hill Ave at the same time as somebody else that she knew. I have to look again to see who that person was. A third conclusion is that they were both out, maybe at some weekend event or maybe that they both happened to be celebrating their birthdays in the same establishment. You notice that their birthdays are a week apart, or actually a week short of one year apart. My most plausible guess is that they met at some combination of the three; birthday celebration, aunt's neighborhood and cousin's neighborhood. In other words, I remember meeting my husband through a mutual friend, then ran into him somewhere else and remembered from where we were introduced previously. Then once more, I 'ran into him' again, with all three of these events being within about thirty days. I should have known by that time that I was being stalked.

PeeWee and Anna Mae's marriage did not last very long, but long enough to have bore one live birth. According to my birth certificate, there were two miscarriages before me. That's enough for now. Happy Anniversary Pinkie and PeeWee.

Celebrating Ancestors

Ella Lee BRIMMER was born 1890 in Hawkinsville, Pulaski, GA. She was the oldest of her three brothers and two sisters. Both of her sisters always called her by her nickname, Sister. I remember when she died, 5 February 1969, there was a discussion as to when she was born (ha, that means my dad didn't know how old his mother was). I don't remember in the discussion aka argument who else sided with my dad for her birth to have been in 1891 but both her sisters argued that it was 1890. Their logic was that because she was the oldest and that Uncle Willie was born in 1891. I think to myself now, that it's a wonder I didn't get the geneabug then. I vividly remember my thoughts as I was listening to this 'grown folks conversation', "How do any of you know when she was born? None of you were there!" Well the sisters won the debate and they were correct. I have confirmed that:
parents marriage 18 Oct 1889
Ella born 5 Aug 1890
Willie born 10 Aug 1891

Something else I remember from the day of the 'discussion'. There was the accusation that the sisters raped our house of most of her mementos. Well, I have Ella's bible.

Since Sister is the focus person for today, I'm looking at the copy of the map that I got from the cemetery. The sexton's secretary wrote the note for Ella and four others of my folks buried in this cemetery. The note reads, "Ella Draper - Greenlawn Rg 2 Gr 37" and the date of her death. I was adding this detail info to my Legacy, when I thought to myself, "What is Rg?" It almost looked like Pg to me. So I called the cemetery today and got the scoop. It is Rg, which is Range; their designation for 'Row'.

Also since I'm focused on Ella today, I linked the original unmarked copy of cemetery map shown here to the cemetery address in Legacy and the copy shown here is now linked to Ella and the other three of my folks you see here. You like how I marked the grave with the colored dot along with the RIN # of the person buried there? I am thinking I may link the saved census images and city directory pages to her Legacy record. I wonder does anybody else do this.

It's Saturday Night!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Open your genealogy software or family tree program of choice and make yourself the highlighted person.

2) Find out how to create a Calendar to show birthdays and/or anniversaries of yourself and all of your ancestors (or all relatives, or all persons - your choice!). The "Help" button is your friend here!!! It can be done in all of the current software programs.

3) Create your calendar. Pretty it up if you want. Save it. Can you show us a page from your calendar - say January 2010?

4) Which of your ancestors (or relatives, or descendants - your choice!), if any, were born on 30 January?

Have fun with this. How can you use this information during the coming year?

Here's a SNGF activity I get to participate in. Why? Because I already have it done. Yeah! Welllll, I did have to make a screen shot but the calendar was done. I noticed that Legacy did not have a way to include the death dates. It's OK, there are only about twenty of them already done out of 112. About 25 are still living. The other 67? About fifteen are death dates that I know but don't have entered and the other fifty or so still have to be researched. But of course, that is the reason for my focus on ancestors day. I decided to call it Celebrating Ancestors. Again, I got the idea from Michael Neill Use their Birthdays and decided to take it a step farther.


You can see here that I have two birthdays and one anniversary. Not showing are two death dates in January. I penned them in and they show up here in red text for visibility. That completes January except for Elizabeth's death in January. I don't know the date of her death. It's on my list of research to do next time I go back to OGS.

How can you use this information during the coming year?

To sum it up, I have those fifty or so death dates to do, about twenty birth dates that I have no clue and about 85 marriage dates I don't know. WOW! When you look at those numbers like that, maybe I'm being too ambitious to complete this birthday thing this year. I already wrote when I realized in my last post that I couldn't do more filing until I rearranged a little bit and I couldn't do the Celebrating Ancestors thing until I did more filing. OK. I'll just do the best I can. Filing, is after all, the priority for this year along with identifying brick walls. See? This stuff is in my head but not documented.

Celebrating Ancestors

Today is 17 January and is the wedding anniversary of my great grandparents Smith HARGROVE and Pinkey Ann HOPE. They were married 46 years until Pinkey died in 1928. They had eight children according to the 1900 census but only three lived to be adults. Smith and Pinkey are blessed to have about 200-250 living descendants spread from Connecticut to Florida and I don't know how far west; at least as far as Mississippi.

Their marriage license is available at the Georgia Virtual Vault. Looking at their marriage entry in the book, looks almost like January 14 to me, but the IGI Index says 17.

They are my favorites! When I first saw their photograph almost eight years ago, I said "Who are these people? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?" And wondered why I had never seen this picture before. That was the beginning for me. Almost eight years of finding more about my folks and finding more about myself that I didn't know before.

Ah hem. There goes my folks getting equal time.

Joseph F. GRIFFIN

According to his WWI draft registration, Joseph F. GRIFFIN was born 1 Jan 1879. I have noted discrepancies of his birth being 1876 but for some reason, I believe the 1879 to be the correct one. This was an uncle by marriage of my maternal great grandmother's sister. He with his wife and three children are who my grandmother lived with after her parents died. His WWI draft reg card is shown here. Notice how the corner is not snipped off like it is supposed to be for black people. Both his and his son Rufus' draft registrations are not snipped. I thought that was interesting.

I also have Joe's marriage record to my Aunt Ida J. BUTLER in Jackson County GA in December (can't read the date) 1897, which I found when I went to Salt Lake City in 2006. I need to find info on his death, probably also in Georgia but could possibly be in Pennsylvania. In that case, I may never get it. When I get to the Pennsylvania City Directories within the next year, I should be able to closer confirm at least where he died. Finding his death information may help me to determine who followed who when my maternal grandparents left Georgia, moved to Pennsylvania before moving to Ohio. Joe GRIFFIN's wife Ida J. BUTLER died in Pittsburgh in 1967. I think I am supposed to remember her but I don't. I do remember their oldest two children, Louvenia and Rufus. I don't know what happened to either of the three children or where they lived.