Find A Grave

My new favorite genealogy website is www.findagrave.com. I'm pretty sure I am late to the party as there are 36 MILLION graves listed.

My best find so far, is B. H. Shamblin. He is my husband's great-grandfather's brother. With the date of death and cemetery info, I was able to order the death certificate from the state of Tennessee. Hoping for info on B.H.'s parents.

Hardy Benson and family

This is Isaac Benson's brother, Hardy Benson, his wife Nancy and their kids.
Hardy was born in Arkansas in 1860. He married Nancy Bowser in 1883. I believe they had 7 kids, all born in Texas: Olive, Millford, Lillie, Isaac Hardy, Rosa, Charlie and Minnie Ruth.
Hardy died in 1904. He is buried in Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Dallas County.

On the 1910 Census, Nancy and her kids are living next to Isaac, Sabrina and their family. However, the head of household is listed as Nancy's son, Millford. By the 1920 Census, they seem to have a whole Benson compound and are living on "Benson Tap Road."

Nancy died in 1929. However, she is not buried with Hardy. I found her death certificate but I still haven't found where she was buried.

Here are a few pictures of some of their kids. One is a snapshot, the rest almost look like engagement photos.

This is labeled "cousin Hardy and his wife." I believe his name is Isaac Hardy Benson (b. 1890) and the wife is Mary Bayless (b. 1896). They married in Dallas County in 1913 and had 5 kids.

Charlie Benson (b.1896) and his wife Mae Haynes (b. 1902 d. 1988)

Lillie Benson (b. 1888) and her husband. His last name is Miller, don't know his first name.

Rosa Benson (b. 1894 d.1976) and her husband Robert Lee McFadden (b.1887 d.1954) They were married in Dallas County in 1910. They had one son, Cecil McFadden.

Benson Family Bible

Isaac Benson's family Bible.

Inside is stamped "Hull & Tipton Booksellers & Stationers Harrison Ark."


As you can see it is pretty bad shape. The below pages have come out completely.

Isaac Benson

My great grandfather, Isaac Benson was born 1853 in Tennessee to William Rodman Benson and Jane ______. When he was about 3 years old, he, his parents and at least one sister, Margaret, moved to Arkansas. Over the next six years, Jane had three more boys; Jackson, Hardy and William.

In 1871, Isaac's Mother died. Jane is buried at Zion Hill Cemetery near Green Forest, Arkansas. In 1872 William Benson (Isaac's Dad) married Nancy Johnson. They had three kids, Rosa, Milfred and Lottie. William died in 1876 and is also buried in Zion Hill.

In 1876, Isaac married Sabrina Florence Arney. Between 1877 and 1888 they had six children. In 1890, Isaac bought 40 acres of land in Carroll County. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/

Around 1892, Isaac and Sabrina move to Rowlett, Texas. The story is that all the kids walked except the one boy who had a very dark complexion because Sabrina thought the Indians would believe they had stolen him.

Either Isaac's brother Hardy and his family come with them or shortly thereafter. At some point, Sabrina's Father, Henry and step-mother, Minerva Baker, also come to Texas. In 1894, Isaac and Sabrina have one more baby.

Isaac, Sabrina and their kids, probably taken around 1895.

Isaac standing in front of what I believe is his house in Rowlett. No idea who the lady is standing on the porch.

I cannot figure out where in Tennessee Isaac was born. I have not been able to find anything else out about William Rodman and his wife Jane.

This is a Spangler Family Tree that my Grandmother had. This is not her handwriting and I do not know who did this. I also do not know how accurate it is.

Also had this laminated picture labeled Jacob Spanger. Not sure which Jacob Spangler as we have more that one.

Mary Montgomery Searcy

Obit for Mary Montgomery Searcy, I scanned it for someone so thought I would post it. Hopefully if you click on it, it becomes big enough to read. Very sad, she was only 23 with two small kids and got TB.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day started as Armistice Day after World War I. This is my grandfather's letter home written the next day.

In 1954, November 11 became the day to honor all veterans. Here are my veterans:

Vietnam my cousin

Korea my Dad

World War II my Dad and Uncle, my Father-in-law and his brother. A cousin who was taken prisoner and received Combat Infantry Badge

World War I my grandfather, and my grandmother's brother (who possibly served his tour in Africa)

Civil War
Benjamin Griffith 140 Reg’t Indiana Infantry enlisted September 15, 1864
John Leachman 54th Kentucky
Charles Brooks 155 Illinois Infantry enlisted February 15, 1865
John H. Cate 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted February 1862, captured London, Kentucky August 1862
Elijah Cate (John’s son) 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted January 1863 died May 1863
Andrew DeShields 2 Reg’t Missouri Infantry enlisted August 7, 1862

Revolutionary War

Richard Lewis
Joseph Spangler

Seems like William Rodman Benson and Henry Arney should have served in the Civil War based on their ages and locations. They were both in Arkansas, although Henry went to Illinois and then came back after the war. There are also lots of Shamblin from Tennesse that served in the Civil War so probably some of those are related somehow.

19th Amendment Women's right to Vote

The 19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Passed August 18, 1920


My grandmother told me about the first time she could vote. She said she was so proud to able to vote and then realized she and my grandfather (she had been married for 2 months) had voted for different people for President.

According to wikipedia, the 1920 election was Warren Harding (R) versus James Cox (D). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1920

So if they had bumper stickers in those days, one of my grandparents could have proudly displayed, "Don't blame me, I voted for James Cox."

It's Election Day, go VOTE!

Dancing with the Stars and Cloris Leachman

I had always heard that Cloris Leachman was somehow my distant cousin. I thought I would see if I could confirm this without spending too much time on it. A quick look at wikipedia showed that she was born in Des Moines, Iowa to Cloris Wallace and Berkley "Buck" Leachman. (And that she was Miss Chicago in 1946 and her website is http://www.cloris.com/.)

Then family trees on Rootsweb showed Berkley's father as Robert Parker Leachman and his father as William Leachman. This same info was found on the Census records. I then got out my Leachman genealogy compiled by the unknown cousin supposedly trying to get into the DAR.





There is William Leachman, brother of my gg grandfather, Leonard Leachman. William and Leonard are the sons of Leonard Leachman and Sarah Sanford.

I had previously posted the obit for William's wife, Sarah.
http://youlookirish.blogspot.com/2008/03/sarah-parker-leachman.html

If I was really clever I could tell you exactly how Cloris and I are related, what cousin how many times removed. But I do know her gg grandfather and my gg grandfather were brothers.

Layla

This is our new baby, Layla. She is Husky and Catahoula Leopard thus the blue eyes. We adopted her from "Animal Services"; they don't call it "The Pound" anymore.

Her name was Layla when we got her. Of course now the Eric Clapton song is forever stuck in our heads.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

I'm a Yankee doodle dandy
A Yankee doodle do or die
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam born on the 4th of July

We all know the song. When we were little my brother and I always thought it was so cool that Leonard Leachman was born on July 4, 1776.

This is according to Leachman genealogy that my grandmother had. My Dad said it was done by a cousin trying to get into the DAR. Unfortunately it does not have the cousin's name.

Leonard (my great-great-great grandfather) married Sarah Sanford in 1804 and they had 11 children. Baby number four was Leonard who married Pauline Lewis, whose anniversary articles are posted below.

Happy 4th

To Leonard and Pauline

These are copied from Pauline Leachman's scrapbook

Newspaper articles about her grandparent's anniversaries.

Wish I had the gold and silver nugents :)

Back up your files

We were robbed on June 3 between noon and 1pm. I assume they saw me leave the house. They took all the usual things thieves take when they rob houses. They took the computer which was 6 years old so no great loss however all my files went with it and that's what I miss. YEARS of pictures and family videos. And MY FAMILY TREE MAKER PROGRAM with thousands of names and dates and census records and military records. So ... today's genealogy lesson is back up your files. And I know everybody says it but I never did it because this was never going to happen to me!!!! Actually once, in December 2004, I did back up the Family Tree program. As much as I enjoy genealogy, if I had to go back and start by entering my own name in Family Tree Maker, I might have to get a new hobby.

I also had lots of things scanned. If I scanned it, I have the hard copy but most of those things are so old I hate to keep touching them. I scanned them so I could just look at them on the screen. And then some things I had scanned because I wanted to post them here.

The police did get a lot of fingerprints so I have not given up hope of getting some of my things back.

Ellen Goodman's column

Ellen Goodman is a columnist for the Boston Globe her column Sunday was "The secrets buried under my family tree." The secret is that her grandparents married just five months before her Mother was born. I really liked this paragraph.

But what we really want from the generations past are not just the facts or the DNA. We want the stories. Love, passion, success, disappointment, humanity. There may be no way to know - really know- their interior life. But how many of us would trade in the data for one good diary?

I don't know how long the link work but this is the column.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/04/18/the_secrets_buried_under_a_family_tree/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Ellen+Goodman+columns

I love quilts

I love quilts. Love the colors, the patterns, the fabric, the creative / artistic part, the social part that was a quilting bee ... did I mention I love quilts?

This double wedding ring quilt is hanging in my den now. It was made by Almira Griffith, my great great grandmother, for my Dad. I also have the one she made for my uncle. She had six grand kids so I guess she made one for each.

I sew but I don't like to hand sew so I can't image
all those tiny stitches.

William Leachman and The Frontiersman

Copied from Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 7, Number 4 dated April 1972 contributed by Robert Jobson of Jeffersontown, Kentucky

“Regarding the article on Leachman Family Bibles in Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 5, Number 1, July 1969, I thought it appropriate to bring to your attention the following story which I have extracted from various sections of The Frontiersman, a narrative by Allan S. Eckert….

Simon Kenton, born April 3, 1755, in Price William County, Virginia (now the northeastern section of Fauquier County), fell in love at the age of 15 with Ellen Cummins, three years his senior. She, however, did not reciprocate and married in 1770 William Leachman, born 1750, son of Sam Leachman. In 1771, Simon, previously beaten in a fight with Leachman, beat Leachman unmercifully and, thinking him dead, departed for the Middle Ground and his place in Kentucky history. He changed his name to Simon Butler, by which name he was known until 1780, when he learned that Leachman was living. Meanwhile, due to Leachman's bloody appearance and Simon’s disappearance, Leachman was tried for his murder but was acquitted.

William and Ellen had a son born 1772, and she died a few months later. William with his son removed to Kentucky in December 1784, and settled at Simon Kenton’s Station on Lawrence Creek, where he was given land by Simon. He hung himself April 1, 1804.”

I borrowed The Frontiersman from the library. I did not read all 400 plus pages but enough to decide that the summary does match the book. The funny thing is the author spells Kentucky as Can – tuck – ee. Which reminded me of the Ben Stiller spoof from Last of the Mohicans.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=66350
Watch all the way to the end where he says “Can-tuck-ee”

The Leachman Bible, which I posted earlier, says Sampson Leachman went to Kentucky with Simon Kenton.

Mattie 1999-2008

I know this is supposed to be about family history but Mattie was a part of our family. We adopted her Christmas Eve 2000 from the SPCA. We were often asked, "What kind of dog is she?" Our answer was, "Only God really knows what kind of dog Mattie might be." The SPCA said she was part spaniel, our vet said she had some basset hound because she was too short for as big as she was otherwise. From the neck down she looked like a Chow. She also looked somewhat like a cattle herding dog, and she loved to run laps around the yard.

She knew to stay off the furniture, well except that one chair when no one was home. But you could feel that it was warm and you knew she had been in it. She did not bark much. She had stopped jumping up on people. She walked well on the leash. And she was our sweetie-pie.

Bummer Part II and the great grandmother

I got my husband's great grandmother, Viola D'Augustine's death certificate. I was hoping for a place of birth but all it has is Austria ... I knew that. For her parents, it says Father's name Jacob _________. Maiden name of Mother Augustine Barbara. So, maybe that is supposed to be first name Barbara last name Augustine. But I have Viola's maiden name as Augustine from the SS-5 of one of her kids. So that means Jacob's last name would be Augustine and Barbara's maiden name probably not Augustine.

I am going to try again for Gioacchino Salvaterra's death certificate. When I filled out the form I was looking at the pictures from the cemetery. But, I think he Americanized his first name to Jacob. So I guess it is worth $9.00 and a two month wait to see if there is a record for Jacob Salvaterra.

No record found, Bummer!!!!

Two months ago, I ordered death certificates for my husband's great grandparents from the state of Pennslyvania. Today one of them finally came and said, " No - Record Certification." At least it's printed on very nice heavy paper with the official seal of the Department of Health, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - like that's suppose to make it all better.

Gioacchino Salvaterra died in 1929 so I thought there was a decent chance of finding a record. I was really hoping for a specific place of birth and maybe his parent's names.

Maybe I'll have better luck with the great grandmother's certificate.

Happy Easter