Sunday Review: Ohio Ancestors 2014 Year in Review

A full 11 days into 2015, I'm still looking back at 2014 to help set the stage for my family history research going forward in 2015.  There's a lot more to get done.

I now list 35 Revolutionary War patriots in my kids' bloodline.  That's a growth of eight in 2014.  I don't expect a 20% growth in that list for 2015 though.  Confirming a few more might be nice.

I attended the wedding of my third cousin in December and met some living family members, including a convergence story that's borderline creepy.  Who would think that my third cousin from New York would marry someone who once lived just two doors away from where we live now in Ohio?

I count finding my fourth great grandmother Phebe's house a great find of 2014.  It will be made greater if I can schmooze an invite to see the inside in 2015.

We'll make a point to visit the Catholic church in Somerset, Ohio again in 2015 where my fourth great grand uncle was a priest more than a century and a half ago.  Richard Pius Miles would later become the first bishop of the Diocese of Nashville.  If a family trip takes us near Nashville, we'll even visit his burial location in the basement of the church. 

Whatever our 2015 Summer Vacation destination turns out to be, it will certainly include some family history stopovers.

2014 would have been a less-productive family history research year but for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania releasing their death certificates archive to Ancestry.com.  That lifted Pennsylvania way up on the list of states where family history research is friendly.  These death certificates helped solve some family mysteries and confirm some others.  My sister-in-law and Aunt, by marriage, are two families with Ohio and Pennsylvania roots that have been made easier to research thanks to this action.  Showing them my findings are on my list in 2015.

Not everything was merely electronic in 2014.  I visited the clothing store my great great grandfather owned in Meadville, PA.  It's now a coffee shop and bakery.

There are some regrets. 

I still haven't seen or gotten a copy of the marriage certificate for Andrew Alfred Baker and Beatrice Merz my Aunt mentioned in an email a year ago.  That information sparked a breakthrough that helped me complete my five-generation family tree.  I may have to send her a digital camera with a return envelope to get a copy.  Would that be too direct?

Figuring out once and for all whether the George Platt on the Brig Niagara at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813 is the same George F. Platt, my third great grandfather, who served at Lake Erie with the Pennsylvania Militia is a still-unfulfilled quest.  I just recently obtained the National Archives military file for George F. Platt and there's no mention of his service to the Navy in the file.  I'm still searching though.

 

I'm still waiting for some more photos from cousins.  The Bernard Family Reunion yielded one great find, but the promise of more is on my list to get fulfilled in 2015.  I'm really hoping my Cleveland second cousin once removed finds that missing box of photos with my great great grandmother's photo(s) in it too.

 

With my five-generation family tree now complete, the never-ending quest is to go deeper into the family tree.  With less records, less headstones, and less photographs from that sixth generation and backward, that's going to be tougher to accomplish.  That's 2015 in a nutshell.

Ancestry Saturday: Why Germans Chose Ohio

I wasn't in Germany for a full day and the answer was clear. Germans chose to emigrate to places in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, because of the similarities.

During a recent business trip, I found, shockingly, how alike the Southern parts of Germany are to my home state. The geology and geography match. The mix of manufacturing-oriented suburban towns and urbanized business centers is alike. Even the dry senses of humor and disciplined culture are similar.

I got to do zero ancestry research (no one who knows me will believe that statement), but it was a productive trip. When I shared how at home I felt in their country, the business conversation got easier with our business contacts too.

I have reasons galore to go back.

Ancestry Saturday: Paying For Digital Photos

It never happened, then it did twice in one day. I was asked to pay for the digital photos I had taken.

I'm pretty sure I don't like this. I'm sure I don't want this to become a trend.

At the office of the Recorder of Deeds in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, I paid $2.00 cash to the clerk who had said I had to pay 50 cents per image for a copy of the 1798 image of my sixth great grandfather's parcel, two other parcels, and the cover page.

The images were captured on my iPhone. My iPhone.

I would have been angry if I hadn't just encountered it at the same county historical society. There, knowing that these volunteer societies need to keep the lights on, I was willing to pay for the privilege.

Still, I think there's a better way.

And readers don't owe me anything for looking at my photos. It's gratis.

Sunday Review: Pennsylvania Death Certificates Online

I wrote about my frustration with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in November 2012.  The government's disregard for genealogical records availability was not so friendly.

 

I'm glad to report that it is changing.   Pennsylvania is getting friendlier.

 

I waited five months for the copy of my great great grandmother's death certificate to arrive through the pay-to-play system that Pennsylvania has for obtaining hard copies. 

 

Friday, I was delighted to discover that Ancestry.com had fulfilled the long-promised publishing of the Pennsylvania death records.  The death certificates are now online, at least those from 1906 to 1924, and the digital scans are in high-resolution color to boot.  See the same death certificate for Great Great Grandma Platt is below.

 

Very nice.

 

The records allowed me to search for many of the ancestors on my father's side who lived in Western Pennsylvania.  Friday night saw a number of discoveries for the Platt Family Tree.

 

I found that my third great grandmother died of TB in 1912 at a state hospital.  It wasn't her only ailment at age 86.

 

I confirmed family links that, until now, had lingering doubts.  Catherine Rittenauer was, indeed, the wife of Jeremiah Smith.  Multiple death certificates confirmed it.  She also may have been born in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey as some Census takers put it.

 

I corrected death dates for some of my Smith relatives, discovering, for example, that an index search for David Smith, even in one county, can be off a year.

 

I figured out who the mystery woman was who is buried with my Merz great great grandparents in Pittsburgh.  She was Mary (Coyne) Mogon, the first wife of their son-in-law Patrick.

 

One search yielded the fact that some of my hard-to-spell Rittenauer relatives switched to Wrightnour.  That discovery could be a big one as John Spratt Wrightnour published a book in 1916 on the Ritenour family, of which he descended.  I'm awaiting a West Coast library's scan of his 24-page book as I type this.

 

I could go on and on.  It was a late, but productive night. 

 

Since Pennsylvania collected the parents' names and their birth places on the death certificates, the clues to going further back are there.   Plus, the whole thing is searchable by parents' last name, date of death, and more.  Yes, I know data like this is suspect, but the hints are quite useful in the hunt.

 

For my viewpoint, this may be one of the best new items on Ancestry.com in a very long time.

 

A few key things to know:  If you aren't an ancestry.com subscriber but do live in Pennsylvania, you can get free access online to the death certificates.  Plus, the years 1925-1944 are expected to be published in June 2014 and the 1945-1963 group in November 2014.

 

Thanks to Ancestry.com for publishing these.  Thanks, Pennsylvania, for allowing it to happen.

Ancestry Saturday: Smith Brothers Clothing of Meadville

 

Visit 219 Chestnut Street in downtown Meadville today and the rear of the building looks like any restored old building in any old area of downtown.

My great great grandfather Nathan Smith's clothing store, Smith Brothers, used to be here, but you wouldn't know it today. The restoration is clean and, clearly, will give a longer life to the place. But it's left it non-descript.

It used to be a memory magnet, of sorts, to my Smith family relatives in Meadville though. Now that's gone.

Thankfully, we know how it used to look.

My Dad drove through and snapped this photo in 2001.


And the head of the Crawford County Historical Society shared this one taken in 1917. Her sister married into our Smith family.

Memory preserved.

Location:219 Chestnut Street, Meadville, Pennsylvania

Ancestry Saturday: The Albany-to-Elsewhere-to-Albany Geographic Loop

As I wrote last week, my Dad never knew his family tree led to a Revolutionary War Patriot buried nearby his office in Albany, New York. 

The Jeremiah Shontz-to-John Platt story has ironic east-to-west-and-return twists that bring this family tree in a geographic full loop from Albany to elsewhere and back to Albany.

Jeremiah would have a son, John, who would end up further west in Crawford County, Pennsylvania where his daughter, Miranda, would live her whole life. Miranda would marry and have a daughter Mary Ann who would have a daughter Grace. Grace would migrate still further west.

Grace Smith Platt's son, Richard would end up as far west as California where he graduated from UCLA in 1936.

The return East began in 1937. Richard would have a son, John, in Ohio in 1943.

My Dad, that's John, would live 53 years in Ohio but end up spending the last eight years of his life back in the same Albany, New York area where that branch of the family had begun in this country almost 300 years earlier.

Ironic.

Ancestry Saturday: On a Flatboat Down The Ohio River

I'm not sure I'll ever know for sure, but the wharf at Wellsburg, West Virginia was a highly likely place where my ancestors got on a flat boat that brought them down the Ohio River.

My fourth great grandfather James McConnell, the ancestor for whom our family gained pre-Ohio-Statehood First Families of Ohio status, was one of them.  This would have been the closest place to get on the mighty Ohio from his home in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Friend Cox, my sixth great grandfather, was one of the early settlers of this part of Virginia when he came here and built a fort, Fort Cox, in 1771.  The wharf likely brought his grandson and my fourth great grandfather, Isaac Newton Cox, down the river too.

The Downing, Gutridge, and Naylor families all could have gotten on the path that brought them to Southwest Ohio right here at this wharf.

I'm glad they did that.  I'm glad my kids can still visit the place.

Ancestry Saturday: Who Is Buried Here Anyway?

Smith Cemetery in East Mead Twp, Crawford County, Pennsylvania has a mystery.

A cemetery transcription from 1959 indicates Catherine Ritner Smith is buried here and, one can safely assume, had a stone in 1959, albiet one hard to read. Instead of birth and death dates, there are question marks.

Those aren't the only question marks in this case.

My third great grandmother Anna Catherine Rittenauer Smith was, undoubtedly, buried here. This transcription isn't the only reason that makes it very likely. The transcription indicates next to her is her husband. Further, it indicates her husband, Jeremiah, is the son of James. These elements in the 1959 transcription match the findings of modern researchers, including me for linking Jeremiah and Catherine Smith.

The dates in the transcription, 1858-1939, clearly don't match the Jeremiah who was the son of James and the husband of Catherine though.


Complicating things more is a gravestone where the transcriptions would predict it to be. There's no stone for Catherine any more. The modern one for a Jeremiah Smith, though, has those dates from the 1959 document. There's more.


A stone exists for Jeremiah Smith, my 3G, in nearby Blooming Valley Cemetery. The news article mentioning his death said he was to be interred at "the cemetery in Blooming Valley."
 

A 1938 burial card for him on file at the Crawford County veterans office would cause one to believe he had a stone there at least that far back.

What's going on here?

Clearly, there's a mix-up.

Here's my hypothesis.

My research shows Catherine died about 1875. Evidence is she died before Jeremiah.

It seems likely she got buried where Jeremiah's multiple ancestral family members got buried--Smith Cemetery.

Further, some record, maybe even a gravestone, was created for the future burial of Jeremiah. That would have been next to Catherine and in the same row as Jeremiah's father and mother, James and Ruth.


Then, in 1878, Jeremiah, living with family out of town, dies. He gets buried in Blooming Valley, the town he founded in 1845, instead of the family plot outside of town.

Time passes. Then, in 1959, someone misreads the headstone or records at Smith Cemetery, thus creating an inaccurate set of dates for history.

More time passes and someone, wishing to document the burial of a founder of the nearby town or a veteran, takes it upon themselves to create a new stone.

That someone uses the 1959 reading to create a new stone. For whatever, reason, they ignore the 1838 supposed birth date doesn't match his war service or his town founding.

That's my hypothesis.

Anyone have another?

Mystery Solved: The Marriage of Grace Smith and Royal Platt

Jamestown, New York. 

Jamestown is where the marriage record was found that brought an end to the mystery of the marriage of Grace Smith and Royal Platt, my great grandparents.  I wrote about the mystery in April.

My cousin suggested there are towns, known as Gretna Greens, where people went to get married near their homes but wanting a quick marriage. 

The researcher, Diane, at the Crawford County Historical Society suggested Jamestown, New York was the first place to look for a couple from Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

When my daughter called Jamestown, the mystery was solved.  It was July 24, 1902.

Ancestry Saturday: Named For Valley Covered With Flowers

From the looks of it, this sign was erected in the Borough of Blooming Valley, Pennsylvania on or about its 100th birthday in 1945.

It survives today as a reminder of the town's founding in 1845 and the thinking behind it's name.

My third great grandfather Jeremiah Smith was the founder of the town according to the History of Crawford County book.  I don't know if he picked the name though.

---------------------------
UPDATE:  Page 10 of the book, Around Saegertown by Joshua F. Sherretts has some more details on the history of Blooming Valley, PA.

Ancestry Saturday: Ancestors in Odd Places

Last week my quest took me to odd places.  The one below south of Meadville, PA was tops on that list.


These woods took a couple of passes. The write-up said a trail 18 feet north of the guardrail.  That was accurate, but the trail was barely visible.



I advanced 20 feet and then the flag was a sign I was in right place, even though I didn't recall my fifth great grandfather's patriotic service beforehand.


This was the burial place of James Wygant, a Revolutionary War soldier.    According to one report, a Pennsylvania DAR group had placed a new marker for him in the 1960's.

It's in West Mead Township in Crawford County, Pennsylvania in a cemetery labeled Wygant Cemetery.

The find was courtesy of the Crawford County Historical Society. Thanks, Diane.

Ancestry Saturday: Married, But Where?

Another mystery. This one, the hunt for a marriage record that is just around 110 years aged, should not be so elusive.

Where did Royal Platt and Grace Smith get married?



A note on the back of a postcard written to my grandfather from my great grandmother holds a clue. Grace Smith Platt was born in 1881 and reports to have been married at age 20.




An obituary for my great grandfather, Royal Platt, in 1940 holds another. In fact, the alleged marriage date July 24, 1902 is the date if the obit is to be believed.

Either way, it's likely 1901 or 1902 when my great grandparents got married, but where?

Crawford County, Pennsylvania, where Grace lived, where Royal went to college, and where one cousin's research had the event occurring, has no record. Somerset County, where Royal lived, has none either. Adjacent counties, including counties in adjacent states, have produced nothing either.

This was a scattered family for the times. Royal's father was a minister in Kansas. One brother was in Tacoma, one in California, and two others in Nevada. His mother would spend some time in California too. Could clues be in these places?

Whatever the case, no source I've found has anything to yield, yet.

Ancestry Saturday: The Simple Act of Finding Marriage Records

More lessons from the amateur genealogical researcher.

Don't miss the basic things.  Or first things first.  That's the lessons this week.  Those are lessons for me.

Having now visited genealogical mecca in Salt Lake City and having found ancestors to fill my family tree from overseas, I can pat myself on the back.  But, hold on.  I was just caused to realize that the lure and intrigue of that harder tasks was distracting me from things that should have been lower hanging fruit closer to my generation.

My family tree was missing proof for  marriages among my great great grandparents and later.  Sadly, a quarter of the marriages in those generations were without proof.  In fact, two sets of great grandparents lacked some marriage proof.

Sidebar:  Pennsylvania is at the heart of many of these lack of proof issues.  The public records to cash conversion that goes on there is getting more than a little annoying in this digital, free access world that most every other state offers.

Of course, I've had pretty reliable information passed to me from others so I wasn't doubting the marriages, but I have had good coaching (Thanks, David!) telling me to have proof in hand.

So, I'm fixing that, or at least trying to fix it.

The piece above was on my kids' Mom's side.  The date I had was actually off by one. 

I found that my great grandparents from my Mom's side weren't married where everyone said they were, or at least the marriage license was from a different county.  I also found the date for one Minnesota marriage that I was lacking and proof to verify another passed-down date in another.

I still have six more to find, including an elusive one for my great grandparents on my Dad's side.  The marriage date in Royal Platt's obituary and the location in a distant cousin's published family tree don't turn up in the printed or digital indices. I've checked surrounding counties in two states. No dice.  Yet.

Ancestry Saturday: You've Got A Frustrated Friend, Pennsylvania

The slogan for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is memorable. Yes, I've got a friend there.

I've got an ancestor in Pennsylvania too. Quite a few, actually. My Grandmother was born in Pittsburgh. Though Ohioans at one point or another, half my great grandparents lived in Pennsylvania.

I wish Pennsylvania were friendlier to genealogy researchers. Other states beat the Commonwealth for allowing unfettered access to historical documents. Ohio info is more readily found, by far.

The state government teased us with some recently-published indices of deaths. Send $3 and you get a more detailed death notice. I sent multiple requests in August and waited the supposed "10-12 weeks" only to be told to wait some more. My checks got cashed though.

The excuse? Requests are high, 28,000 and counting. Program income is higher than expected too, but the personnel to handle it reminds low.

You've got an ancestor in Pennsylvania? Learn patience.

Ancestry Saturday: Governor Ritner's Relative

The 8th Governor of Pennsylvania was a relative.  He's Joseph Ritner.

How close a relative?  That's the ancestral mystery.

Ask my Aunt and see the notes my Dad left and you'd believe he's my 4th great grandfather.  That's not correct, though, by any data I can find.  I have traced my great great grandfather with Ritenoeur as his middle name and make no grand parent connection at all.

Rely on the family bibles passed down in some families and a piece in one county history book and you'd believe he's a great grand uncle.  Those sources claim he and my 3rd great grandmother Anna Katherine Ritenoeur Smith were siblings.  I can't find anything that confirms that, though, and have many doubts.

A 1838 gubernatorial biography makes no mention of a sister Kate and every Census reference to Kate places her birth in New York and New Jersey, not Pennsylvania, where all the other siblings of Governor Ritner were born.

I have a distant cousin baiting me to debate her on it, but I'm believing the third option.

Still another county history source labels him "a distant relative."  My research puts David Ritenoeur appearing more likely to be Kate's father, not Michael Ritenoeur who is Joseph's.  Census records before 1850 didn't reveal any family members other then the head of a household, usually the father only.

I've used this last one for my family tree, but a conclusive connection from Kate to the Governor has not yet been made by my book.

Ancestry Saturday: Visiting Cemeteries, But Not For Halloween

Smith's Cemetery near Blooming Valley, Pennsylvania was the last among four cemetery stops this past weekend for my youngest kids and I.  Since the borough of Blooming Valley was founded by Jeremiah Smith, one of my third great grandfathers, and another of my third great grandfathers, Laban Smith, is also buried here, it's a safe bet that pretty much everyone buried there was a blood relative some way or another.

And, no, this wasn't some sadistic Halloween excursion.  It was ancestry research for me and lessons for my kids.  Intermingled with scenic stops at Youngstown's Mill Creek Park and a very rainy Cook Forest in Western Pennsylvania were research stops to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors.

We bridged eight generations in one short weekend.

My kids (1st) and I (2nd generation) had dinner with my Aunt (3rd).  We also visited gravestones for their great grandparents (4th) and great great grandparents (5th) in Youngstown as well as 3rd great grandparents in Meadville (6th), and 4th and 5th great grandparents in Blooming Valley (7th and 8th).

I think that's quite a lesson, and not for Halloween.

Ancestry Saturday: Resembling Great Grandpa Laban

That's me below. Above is Laban Smith, my great great great grandfather. He lived from 1820 to 1891 and made his living as a farmer on a farm outside of Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Any resemblance?

What if I grew a scruffy beard, wore a black hat, and posed with a lit stogie in my mouth? Then what?

Just sharing that family perspective part that's in the column description.