Resolving to resolve

#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
 #52: Resolution

Resolving to resolve 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

I knew I was in trouble when I first saw that Week 52’s “prompt” was “Resolution.” My choices were limited to make a firm decision to do or not to do something — and that is not likely to happen at my age. The other option is the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.

 In genealogy there are many “problems,” not to mention a few disputes, and even some contentious matters. However, most of these deal with records and data that argue with each other — not with our family and friends. Although I have some cousins who insist I don’t know how to spell one of my family surnames. But, I’m stubborn and believe that finding creative spelling of names is what makes one a good genealogist. I also refuse to blindly accept 12-year-old mothers and 105-year-old ancestors. 

While it would be nice to make a resolution to try to solve my various genealogical problems, the solutions may be beyond my capabilities or access to records that I need. There’s also the possibility that some records simply do not exist — a price one pays when descended from so many Colonial ancestors who deliberately chose to live in places where courthouses burned, wars were fought, and stubborn folks refused to leave paper trails. 

I’ve even played around with the idea of compiling a list of all of my female ancestors for whom I have no, or an unproven, maiden name and resolve to find answers. That resolution would last until some bright and shiny potential new ancestor came along and I’d be off on another hunting expedition. Alas, I know myself well. 

I could resolve to continue the almost daily updating and housecleaning of my several one-name databases, but this is an endless thankless job I do because, well, just because — I blame it on my Dutch and German genes. 

Speaking of genes, DNA research is fast becoming a tool and a curse. As more people participate and post their trees, I’m finding connections to many new cousins. I’m ever hopeful that some will have family Bibles, photos and other material to share. But I certainly don’t need a resolution to do this. DNA matches are almost as addictive as searching genealogy trees and GEDCOMs. 

2019 is going to bring another #52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and I don’t need a resolution to do that either. Writing stories about ancestors instead of placing them on colorless trees is much more fun and offers a creative outlet too.

 So, I guess if I’m going to resolve to do anything — genealogically — this coming year, it will be to keep on keeping on. Watch out ancestors in hiding — I’m coming after you.

Making My Nice List

52Ancestors Week 51—Nice

Making My Nice List 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

It’s nice to be related to someone famous or rich (or both) and it’s nice to find cousins who share their years of research with you. But at the top of my “nice” list are two cousins I have never met personally. 

My maternal grandma use to remind me (jokingly) to be proud because I was a Peacock — a descendant of the Peacocks of Atlanta, in fact. Well, that didn’t mean much to me as a kid on a farm in Oklahoma. Even years later when I began to explore my ancestry seriously, my tendency was to brush aside the family legends about any purportedly rich or illustrious lines, and try to focus on just the facts. 

However, my granny knew what she was talking about — her mother-in-law — Elizabeth (Connally) Fricks, a widow, lived with her son and his wife (my granny) for many years. And Elizabeth (Connally) Fricks was a descendant of Louis Peacock, an early Atlanta-area pioneer. The details about the Peacock-Connally-Fricks connections I did not learn overnight, or by clicking on an online tree, or figure it all out in a weekend, but eventually I discovered that my great-granny was the only child of Elizabeth Jane (called Jane) Peacock who married “Big Charles” Connally at the tender age of 15 — much younger than my other female ancestors. In 1849, my great-granny was born in Atlanta — and her mother — Elizabeth Jane (Peacock) Connally died in 1852 at the tender age of 22 — the mother of only the one known child. 

I has no pictures of Elizabeth Jane Peacock (1830-1852) or any of her husband, Charles William “Big Charles” Connally (1817-1886), but fate smiled on me. One of my nice cousins (and a double cousin at that) shared with me some pictures of her ancestors — Thomas Whipple Connally (1809-1884) and Temperance Arnold Peacock (1818-1896). Thomas Whipple Connally is an older brother of my “Big Charles” and Temperance is an older sister of my Elizabeth Jane Peacock. 

Thomas Whipple Connally and Temperance Arnold Peacock

How nice is that? 

Another cousin, while cleaning out the attic, found a treasure that had been kept in his family for many generations. It was the 1800 Bible of a couple who married that year — my ancestors — Isaac Awtrey and Araminta Bankston. 

This super nice cousin of mine scanned the images and shared with us. Most of us had been researching for years, tracing the descendants of this couple but dead-ended at proving their parents. The Bible provided the date of marriage and the names of fathers of the couple, plus additional genealogical material on their children and more.

 It doesn’t getting any nicer than this.

Scrutinizing My Naughty List

#52ancestors Week 50- Dec 10-16
 Prompt: Naughty

 Scrutinizing My Naughty List 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018

 Picking a “naughty” ancestor to write about this week was a monumental challenge. Which one? 

While it is fun for us genealogists to joke about our horse thieves, outlaws, and less-than-sterling ancestors, when you have a tree full of them, it is a bit embarrassing to have so many from which to choose. How on earth did I come to have so many “colorful” progenitors? Is that a special gene? If so, where is it located in the DNA? 

I started to write about my 3great-grandmother, Margaret (George) Awtrey, who in April of 1871 in Haralson County, Georgia filed a Civil War Damage Claim before the Southern Claims Commission[1] claiming that she had been loyal to the Union during the Civil War and had had $279 worth of property taken by or furnished to the Union Army during the rebellion. Her claim included a horse, seven hogs and some potatoes. 

But, I don’t know whether Margaret was actually a pro-Unionist or not. Perhaps she was naughty and lied. Perhaps she was telling the truth or filed because she was in dire circumstances after losing her husband and their home. One can understand a lie in such a situation, but a lie is still a lie. The U.S. government denied her claim. While she said she had been loyal to the U.S., her husband had been a Confederate Army spy, and the witnesses for her claim were her sons and sons-in-law — all former Confederate soldiers and probably not the best witnesses to call upon. 

However, I changed my mind about which ancestor to write about when I recalled that once upon a time I stumbled upon some others with shady pasts while I was reading dull dry deeds of Etowah County, Alabama. Therein, I had found a record that Randall Hensley was indebted to a fellow for $500 for signing an Internal Revenue Bond . . . for the personal appearance of his son, Francis Marion Hensley. 

Oh, no! The latter is my great-grandpa. His father, Randall Hensley, mortgaged his 120-acre farm to pay for the bond and Francis Marion Hensley was charged with violation of the Internal Revenue Law of the U.S. He had been arrested on the Coosa River and charged with “engaging in and carrying on a business of a distiller of Spirituous liquors without having paid the special tax or given bond as by law required.” [2]

Gulp! Dodging taxes is usually unwise, and moonshining, even with its interesting historical past in America, had been discouraged during the Civil War when several Southern states passed laws prohibiting the use of grains for anything but food. After the war a federal tax on home distilleries became law and during the 1870s, this law began to be enforced and in early 1875 they nabbed my great-grandpa. 

By Original: Pfly, using a base map template made with US Federal public domain GIS data;Version 3: John Lambert - This is a modification of File:MobileAlabamaCoosa2.png, which is in Wikimedia under GFDL license., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065758

Now, a moonshiner in the hills of northeastern Alabama is not how I had pictured my ancestor, so I was somewhat relieved when I read the court case wherein Francis Marion Hensley claimed that he just happened to be tending the still when the Revenuers came by — he was “watching it for another fellow.” 

Well, of course, I wanted to believe him. And did, briefly until I read the name of the fellow for whom he was tending the still — who was, good grief — his father-in-law!

------

 1 "Barred and Disallowed Case Files of the Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880" (NARA M1407) records. Southern Loyalists (those who were Union sympathizers) made 22,298 claims for property losses totaling $60,258,150.44. However, only 7,092 claims (32%) were approved for settlements totaling $4,636,920.69. Each claimant sought to prove their loyalty and loss through the testimony of others. The paper trail created by the claimants and the people who came forward to testify, for or against a claimant, provide a wealth of information about individuals living in the South during the Civil War.

2 Jason Sumich, "It's All Legal Until You Get Caught: Moonshining in the Southern Appalachians," article, Appalachian State University, Anthro.appstate.edu (https://anthro.appstate.edu/research/field-schools/ethnographic-and-linguistic-field-schools/summer-2007-Alleghany-county : online 9 December 2018); Department of Anthropology-ASU-Boone, NC.

Winter Wonderland

#52ancestors Week 49- Dec 3-9

Winter Wonderland

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

Sometimes I wonder about some of my ancestors. I mean, really. 

Whatever possessed a man, who apparently had a comfortable life with hundreds of acres, horses, mules, and cattle, and a large family nearby, to pull up stakes in Rowan County, North Carolina and at age 73 go to Union County, Illinois — more than 600 miles away? 

Not only did he, his wife and most of their family make the move — but they did it in the winter. What were they thinking? 

Jacob Fricks, of Germanic-Swiss ancestry, was born about 1750 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A first-generation American, he served during the Revolutionary War in North Carolina; married in 1788 to Eva Elizabeth Earnhardt, also a first-generation American of Germanic heritage. They prospered in Rowan County, North Carolina where they raised a large family. Paul, their youngest of 12 children, was born in 1816. 

So how do I know they made the move from North Carolina to Illinois in the winter? 

From the obituary of their youngest child who died in 1897. It reads: 

Jacob Frick was born in Pennsylvania and married in Rowan County, North Carolina to Elizabeth Earnhart [sic]. They had 12 children, of whom Paul Frick was the youngest. Jacob was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and came to Union County [Illinois] Christmas Day, 1823. 

I think the least they could have done is to have left a written report explaining why the move and a record of how high the snow drifts were. 

DNA vs. Paper Trail

52 Ancestors Week 48

When DNA and the Paper Trail Disagree
 by Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

 This week’s prompt “Next to Last” stumped me, so I chose to write about “When DNA and the Paper Trail Disagree.” 

Finding a new clue to the ancestry of the Rev. Wilson Henderson (1762-1847) sent me off in several directions trying to prove or disprove the claim that he was the son of an Edward Henderson who left a will in 1790 in Chester County, South Carolina. 

A number of online trees provided bits and pieces of information and cited their source as “Will” or "Abstract of SC Will” or “Ancestry.com—Chester County, SC Will.” Eventually, I found the latter, which actually is from a book of abstracts of South Carolina Wills, that also had been microfilmed at some point. 

I found the “Will of Edward Henderson” which was, according to the source, “Probated Dec. 3, 1790; Recorded in Book A, page 60. It is typewritten. Since the typewriter was not commercially available until about 1878 — nearly 100 years after the Will was written, obviously this was a derivative source. But one thing was clear, my ancestor, the Rev. Wilson Henderson, was not mentioned in that abstracted Will. 

A bit more digging and I learned that these abstracts were “Verbatim Copies of Old Wills Recorded in Will Book A” (South Carolina) and were a C. W.A. Project #3342. C.W.A. stands for Civil Works Administration and that was a Depression-era temporary jobs endeavor. I almost forgot about this information, thinking that the father of my Wilson Henderson had not yet been identified, and so I put the project on the back burner — temporarily. Then a DNA discussion in re the Henderson Clan caught my eye and someone remarked that it was strange that the Henderson DNA line from Wilson to Edward matches, but the paper trail doesn’t. 

I decided to see if I could find the original Will and read it for myself. Using the catalog at FamilySearch.org, I was able to find the Family History Film 23308 listing this will and there was a digitized version (DGS4753542) available online. 

Off I went, and Images 47 and 48 were my reward. Following the request that “my lawful debts to be paid and my estate as follows: Item. I give and bequeath to my son Wilson Henderson one shilling sterling . . . “ 

So my ancestor is mentioned in Edward’s Will. He apparently is the eldest son, but it impossible to ascertain the order of birth of the 12 children mentioned in the Will. I was gratified to find the evidence that makes the DNA and paper trails agree in this instance. 

Of course, what happens now that I know Edward Henderson (ca 1739-1790) is the father, and I have the name of the purported mother — Johanna Ferguson— is that I’ll put some other genealogy quest on the back burner and dig some more in pursuit of my Henderson Clan. 

Celebrating with the Pilgrims

#52ancestors
Week 47 Nov 19-25—Thankful

Celebrating with the Pilgrims

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018

 My ancestors were not in what became the United States in 1621 when the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving. My family started arriving a few years later to settle in New Netherland, New Sweden, and Virginia. However, my husband’s family participated in the 1621 feast as he descends from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. 

It has been my genealogical duty and great pleasure to share this information with all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, which now totals 13 generations with the great-grands.

 I am thankful for the genealogists — amateurs and professional — who came before and to all who have shared their research and data with me. Their generosity has made my work (if you can call it that) much easier. 

Along the way I’ve met (in person and electronically) numerous distant cousins-in-law, and some I know only by their published works. 

Our connection to Mayflower passengers, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, winds back through history via ancestors named Pierson, Ayers, Byram, and Alden — from Missouri to Ohio, New Jersey and back to Massachusetts. It has been an historical adventure and a genealogical journey to trace this line, and I’ve enjoyed every mile of the trip. 

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Making the News

#52 ancestors Week 46—Random Fact

Making the News 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley ©2018 

Joseph Warren Baird, a son of Alexander Baird and Nancy Vanderpool, picked as his first wife, Rebecca D. Hartley. They lived in Ashe County, North Carolina, but soon after their marriage in 1860 removed to Tennessee where their first three children were born. 

By 1870, they were living in Benton County, Kansas, and by 1880 their family had grown to five children. Rebecca died in the autumn of 1881 in Kansas, and a cousin shared the information that Joseph Warren Baird removed to Oklahoma Territory, where he died in 1905. 

Research often takes interesting turns and twists and when I found Joseph Warren Baird and his second wife, Jane, and three more children, they were enumerated in Alabama in 1900, but all the children had been born in Kansas between 1884 and 1888— at least according to the census. It appears, based on the birthdates of his second family, that Joseph Warren Baird had not remained a widower long after his first wife died. 

What puzzled me was that my cousin claimed he died in Oklahoma Territory in 1905. That was a bit of geographical hopscotching from Kansas to Alabama to Oklahoma Territory. I had assumed (the sin of all genealogists) that his second wife was probably a neighbor in Kansas, but I was wrong. 

While researching in North Carolina newspaper for another ancestor, one of those random facts fell into my lap which answered the question about Jane, the No. 2 wife of Joseph Warren Baird. Published 15 March 1882 in the Lenoir Topic (Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina), with a dateline of Cove Creek (where Joseph Warren Baird was born) was the following: “The people are still marrying and being given in marriage. Mr. J. Warren Baird, of Kansas (late a widower) has taken unto himself a wife and returned to Kansas. He married Miss Jane Lewis of Cove Creek.” 

This one was almost too easy. I opened up my Vanderpool database and found Jane Lewis. She was the daughter of Abraham Lewis and Nancy Emely Lewis (who were first cousins), and a granddaughter of Daniel Lewis and Betsy Vanderpool. Jane Lewis and her husband, Joseph Warren Baird, are 1C1R (first cousins once removed) as he was the son of Alexander Baird and Nancy Vanderpool — and Betsy and Nancy Vanderpool were sisters. 

Now that I know when and where Joseph Warren Baird and Jane Lewis were married, I should be able to find their marriage record and quit hunting for it on the Kansas prairie. 

Brothers and Cousins in Arms

#52ancestors
Week 45 —Tribute to Veterans

Brothers and Cousins in Arms 

   — Some Never Came Home 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

What started out to be a blog about some of the men in my family who served during World War I, took a sharp turn when I received an e-mail from France on November 2, which reads:

 “I volunteer at Epinal American Cemetery to do guided tours and today I will do a tour and we will put French and American Flags on the gravesite of Ervin Vanderpool! I always do the same to honor a soldier for the anniversary of his D.O.D. I just wanted you to know this! I was surprised to learn about his age (36) and I saw he was married with a daughter. I don't know what he did as Technical Sergeant but he is an HERO with his two Silver Stars! Thinking of him and his family this afternoon . . .” 

The 48-acre Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in France is sited above the Moselle River in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. It contains the graves of 5,254 American military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the campaigns across northeastern France to the Rhine River and beyond into Germany. The cemetery was established in October 1944 by the 46th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company of the U.S. 7th Army as it drove northward from southern France through the Rhone Valley into Germany. The cemetery became the repository for the fatalities in the bitter fighting through the Saverne Gap, and in defense of Allied positions in the Vosges region, during the winter of 1944-1945. 

Epinal American Cemetery will host a Field of Remembrance beginning November 10, 2018 through November 18, 2018. Poppies will be placed at every headstone, and in front of the memorial building as a visual reminder of honor and remembrance. 

Touched by this act of kindness by a stranger, I did additional research on T/Sgt. Ervin Vanderpool who was killed in action 2 November 1944 during World War II. 

Search ABMC Burials and Memorial 

T/Sgt. Erwin Walker Vanderpool was in Company K, 157th Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, along with his “kid brother, T/Sgt. James Otis (called Otis) Vanderpool. On 25 October 1944, their unit was involved in a bayonet fight in the woods near Housseras (France). There was bitter fighting, against strong resistance, plus horrible weather. During a battle in the Vosges Mountains near the German border, the battalion commander Felix Sparks, heard that K Company was in trouble. He rushed up a hill, only to see Otis Vanderpool on a stretcher, his leg blown off at the knee. When Sparks made it to the front, he never told Ervin Vanderpool about his brother's injury. He didn't have time. The older brother was shot in the stomach and died on the battlefield. Ironically, Erwin could have been promoted and would never have been in that battle. Officers had talked of promoting Ervin, sending him to battalion headquarters, but he refused to listen. He wouldn't accept a promotion. He wanted to stay near his brother. 

Erwin and Otis were sons of Levi Franklin and Ellie Potter. A cursory look at the family of Levi Franklin Vanderpool (1880-1968) and Ellie Potter (1884-1929) reveals they had 12 children — four daughters and eight sons — born between 1903 and 1929. Three of their children did not survive to adulthood. Closer inspection reveals a patriotic family with four, and possibly five, of their sons serving during World War II. 

• Brothers, Ervin Vanderpool (1908-1944) and Otis Vanderpool (1919-2004) served in the Army, Company K, 157th Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.

•  Their brother Arthur Harrison Vanderpool (1910-1989) enlisted in the Army on 20 Nov. 1940. • Their brother Eldee Vanderpool (1917-2005) was a Tech-5 in the Army; he enlisted 6 June 1945 in California and died in a Veterans Home in Napa County, California. 

• Their brother Evert Odal (1922-1995) appears on a World War II draft registration on 30 June 1942 in Montrose County, Colorado. Whether he served, and if so, in what capacity, is not known.

SS Leopoldville

Fourteen Vanderpools are listed on the U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945, in a database of those buried overseas and other sources. On this 100th anniversary (11 Nov. 2018) of the end of World War I — the war to end all wars — I thank them for their service and sacrifices — may they rest in peace. 

They are: 

1. Marion F. Vanderpool, Seaman 2nd Class, Navy (Washington). MIA, died 23 January 1942. Honolulu, Hawaii Memorial. 

2. Vane I. Vanderpool, Seaman 1st Class, U.S. Naval Reserve (Washington and Oregon). Memorial North African American Cemetery, Tunis, Tunisia. 

3. Clifford S. Vanderpool, Private, Army (Nebraska), 15th Tank Battalion, 6th Armored Division. Hamm Cemetery, Hamm Luxembourg. 

4. Cecil L. Vanderpool, Coxwain, Navy (Washington). KIA. Mountain View Cemetery, Lakewood, Pierce County, Washington.

 5. Erwin W. Vanderpool, T/Sgt. Army (Colorado).157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Epinal Cemetery, Epinal, France.

 6. Fred A. Vanderpool, Private, Army (Tennessee). Enlisted 16 March 1944. Co E, 264th Infantry, 66th Infantry Division (nicknamed Black Panther Division). Died 24 December 1944 on the SS Léopoldville when torpedoed by U-486 in the English Channel, off Cherbourg, France. Ridgewood Cemetery, Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee. 

7. Fred L. Vanderpool, Private, Army (Texas). 163rd Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division. Died 24 April 1944. Manilla America Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippine Islands. 

USS Casablanca

8. John Wesley Vanderpool, Private, Army (West Virginia). Enlisted 29 December 1943. KIA in France 20 October 1944. McCloud Cemetery, Dingess, Mingo County, West Virginia. 

9. Orville R. Vanderpool, Technician 5th Grade, Army (Arkansas). 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. KIA 6 June 1944 near Magneville, France. See also:

https://shakingfamilytrees.blogspot.com/2014/02/7-52-ancestors-orville-vanderpool.html

 10. Payton Lafayette Vanderpool Jr., Fireman 2nd Class, Navy (Missouri). KIA at Pearl Harbor 7 November 1941. Honolulu, Hawaii Memorial (recovered).

 11. Ralph Maynard Vanderpool, Sergeant, Army Air Corps (Pennsylvania). Radioman and gunner, 446th AAF Bombardment Group. KIA over Italy 20 February 1945.

 12. Robert J. Vanderpool, 2nd Lieutenant, USAAF (Illinois). KIA in a B-25 crash 20 January 1945 over the Adriatic Sea.

 13. Walter Vanderpool, Private, Army, 517 Parachute Infantry (New York). KIA. Sospel, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Département des Alpes-Maritimes. He was killed along with four others in the blast of a bobby-trapped house in Sospel. German engineers had rigged it with a time-delayed device. Forest Home Cemetery, Waverly, Tioga County, New York.

 14. Dean Burke Vanderpool, Ensign, USNR. Commissioned in May 1943; served on the USS Casablanca in the Pacific. Died 26 June 1944 of wounds at Naval Hospital, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington. Ewing Cemetery, Ewing, Mercer County, New Jersey.

 Attention: Genealogists! 

The United States World War One Centennial Commission is accepting stories about the service of Americans in World War I. 

Submit WWI Stories here:

Facing Uncertainty

#52ancestors Week 44—Frightening

Facing Uncertainty 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

On the eve of his voyage in 1641 to the New World, my ancestor, Anthony de Hooges, reflected on the “certainty of death, as well as the uncertainty of the hour” at which death would overtake him. He made out a Will even though he was single and only 21 years old. A week later, on 23 July 1641, he boarded den Coninck David (King David) in Amsterdam on a voyage to New Netherland where he was to begin a new job for the West Indies Company and a new life. 

"Anthony de Hooges was baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 14 December 1620, the eighth and last child born to Johannes de Hooges and Maria Tijron. Both of Anthony’s parents were probably Calvinist immigrants from the Southern Netherlands (likely from Mechelen and Antwerp, respectively, in what is now Belgium). The family was evidently solidly middle class: Johannes [de Hooges] worked as a bookkeeper for the West India Company and was a shareholder in that company as well.”[1]

Anthony de Hooges kept a journal of his long voyage. It begins: "In the year of our Lord 1641, the 30th of July, I commenced this journal in the name of the Lord. May the Lord conduct us to the place of our destination in order that on our arrival we may offer to the Lord the offering of our lips to His honor and our salvation. Amen."[2]

It was an unusually stormy passage and no doubt frightening to all aboard. It took four months to reach its destination. The ship set sail from Texel with about 35 or 36 other ships. On August 19, it reached Plymouth [England] where it stayed until the 30th. Setting sail again, this time with five other vessels, it passed the Madeira Islands on September 16 and 17 and on the 19th and 20th passed the Canary Islands, leaving the other ships, except for one galley, there. By October 4, it was running short of water. It reached the Leeward Islands on October 16th, and anchored at St. Christopher on the 18th. Here it took on water and remained until the 23rd. 

On November 29, den Coninck David sailed past Sandy Hook and Anthony closed his journal saying: "At daybreak we ran to the sand point (Sandy Hook) and we rounded it too close. We got aground on a reef which had formed there within a year. After two hours we got afloat again. God be praised we suffered no damage and with good speed passed between the Hoofden (the headlands at the sides of the Narrows) and in the afternoon came to anchor at the Manhatens, in front of Smits Vly (on the East River). Thus the Lord delivered us at last, after much adversity, for which He be praised forever, Amen. — "Journal of Anthony de Hooges, of his voyage to New Netherland beginning 30 July ending 29 November 1641."[3]

For some passenger lists of ships to New Netherland/New York, including den Coninck David in 1641 see:

 https://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nnship53.shtml 

Six years later in New Netherland Anthony de Hooges married Aefje Albertsen “Eva” Bradt, adding some Norwegian to my family bloodline. They had four daughters and one son who was my ancestor, Johannes de Hooges (1654-1738), who married Margarita Post (1657-1700).  See The POST Family of New York and New Jersey -- Descendants of Adriaen Crijne Post, by Lorine McGinnis Schulze online at 

http://olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/surnames/post.shtml 

Johannes de Hooges and Margarita Post were parents of six daughters and only one son, who died before reaching adulthood and thus the De Hooges surname has “daughtered out” in America. Johannes and Margarita’s daughter, Cathrina de Hooges married Wynant Vanderpool, my ancestor, in 1706.[4] 

Anthony de Hooges probably has many living descendants today, as he had 25 grandchildren and 143 great-grandchildren, but they will be found under various other surnames, and spelled variantly, such as Bries, Hornbeck, Van Etten, Rutgers, Quick, Oostrander, Roosa, de la Montagne, and Vanderpool. 

He is a fine ancestor to have because there are so many records written by him and/or pertaining to him available. If you have New Netherland ancestry, perhaps he appears in your family tree, too.

 [1] From the Introduction of The Memorandum Book of Anthony de Hooges, translated by Dirk Mouw; publication of the New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute, 2012. Retrieved from: https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/2713/5543/9527/DeHoogesTranslationFinal.pdf 

[2] Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1908), p. 580. Retrieved from: https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/files/4813/8679/0228/NY006011163_1908_VR_Bowier_Manuscripts.pdf

[3] Ibid

[4] Col. William Van Derpoel Hannay, compiler, Dutch Settlers Society of Albany Yearbook, Vol. 41 (Albany, New York: Dutch Settlers Society of Albany, 1966-1968), p. 12.

Mangled

#52ancestors Week 43—Cause of Death

Mangled 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

Walter D. "Buck" Fricks (1884-1914), left; brother, Edward W. Fricks (1885-1963; sister, Dora M. Fricks (1892-1955)

Photo taken about 1910, Muskogee, Oklahoma

The headline of the page 1 story in the Muskogee Times-Democrat (Muskogee, Muskogee County, Oklahoma) on 18 September 1914 reads: MANGLED: Body of Man Identified as ‘Buck” Fricks, Muskogee Lineman and Well-Known Character, Found on Railroad Track at Wells, Okla., South of Here. 

Many years ago, I walked the Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma and recorded all of my known kin buried there. I had also walked it as a child many times with my grandmother, but after I became an adult and a professional genealogist I wanted to verify the information, double-check names and dates, and not rely on memory. 

Greenhill Cemetery is resting place of many of my Fricks relatives — and I knew the man called “Buck” was the brother of my grandfather. I also know that he had been killed in a railroad accident. It was a subject that was never discussed much, so I did not know any details. I had never read the newspaper account until years later. From it I learned that W. D. “Buck” Fricks, whose given name was Walter, was run over by a Katy (Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) train at small station named Wells, located just north of Eufaula, and about 25 miles south of Muskogee where the family lived. His body was found on the track by trainmen. 

Fricks was either asleep on the track or was thrown beneath the wheels while trying to catch a moving train, according to the newspaper account. George Miller, of the county attorney’s office at Eufaula went out to look at the body and found a letter in Fricks’ pocket from a young woman in Muskogee. The body was fearfully mangled, according the news story. 

The Katy Limited, ca 1910 

It further noted that “A brother of Fricks, who lives in the country near Muskogee was notified by telephone and this afternoon passed through town on his way to Eufaula.” That brother was my grandfather, Charley. I know because my grandfather told me about that sad trip he made to identify his brother and see to it that he was buried in the family plot in Greenhill Cemetery. 

Also per the newspaper account, “Buck Fricks was a well-known character here, and was employed from time to time as a lineman by local public service corporation.” The family history claims he worked as an oil rigger and as a lineman for Western Union Telegraph. He never married and left no known children. 

He was only 30 years old when he died, and I sure wish I knew what the newspaper meant by calling him a “well-known character.” I could use a “character” in the family tree, especially a good one. 

Fatal Affray: Murder at the Courthouse

#52ancestors Week 42—Conflict

 Fatal Affray: Murder at the Courthouse 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

While not as well-known as the showdown at the OK Corral, a famous fight that took place 26 October 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, an Arkansas conflict had all of the same elements, plus more. Two antagonists faced each other — one armed with a large hickory walking cane and a double-action Smith & Weston .44-caliber 6-shooting pistol and the other with a pocketknife. When it was over Judge James D. Coates was dead and the ex-sheriff of Desha County, Arkansas, Isaac Bankston, lay dying with three stabs wounds — on a street in Arkansas City, Arkansas not far from the courthouse in early June of 1884. 

Desha County (Arkansas) Courthouse; which is on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The story behind the conflict began when Bankston went up the Mississippi River about 200 miles from Desha County, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee in late December of 1883 and married Missouri Bradford. This created two legal problems. Isaac, a white man, was already married with two children, and Missouri was a “woman of color” according to newspaper accounts. Apparently Bankston was guilty of bigamy and of breaking Tennessee’s anti-miscegenation law, which reads: 

The Constitution of Tennessee, Article 11, Section 13, reads, "The inter-marriage of white persons with negroes [sic], mulattoes or persons of mixed blood, descended from a negro [sic] to the third generation inclusive or their living together as man and wife in this state is prohibited."  

See: Article on Race, Marriage and Law  

Isaac Bankston, the son of Ignatius Bankston (ca 1801-1862) and Rosey Ward (ca 1810-1850), was born about 1832 in either Chicot County, Arkansas Territory or Bolivar County, Mississippi. He was the sheriff of Desha County, Arkansas from 1876-1884. He had married first Martha Elizabeth White in 1858 in Washington County, Mississippi. They had two children (according to the 1880 federal enumeration of Desha County) -- Isaac Jr., born in 1872, and Laura, a daughter, born ca 1874. He married secondly Missouri Bradford in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, 28 December 1883. They were married by the Rev. J. E. Roberts, an A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal church) minister. 

When news about Bankston’s marriage to Bradford broke, it was published in a number of Arkansas newspapers. At first Bankston denied it and threatened to sue the newspapers for libel. However, in a newspaper story that appeared in Arkansas Gazette on 12 Feb. 1884, the Rev. Roberts said he had married the couple and that Isaac Bankston and Missouri Bradford were boarding at the same place (as he and his wife were) and, "I thought he was a colored man. He has a dark complexion."  The minister also mentioned that he has talked to Missouri Bradford and she had a little boy and that she had been living with Bankston for three years. 

The calendar for the criminal court of Judge James M. Greer in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee was published in the Memphis Daily Appeal on 23 May 1884. Among the cases for petit larceny, assault to murder, and retailing liquor on Sunday, was a charge against Isaac Bankston and Missouri Bradford, (for) intermarrying with a colored woman. Bankston had been arrested on 5 May. 

Isaac Bankston was indicted for miscegenation (not bigamy) by marrying Bradford, but was acquitted because no evidence was produced against him, and he claimed he had a mixture of Indian blood, which apparently allowed him to legally skirt Tennessee’s anti-miscegenation law. However, in a courtroom drama, under instructions of presiding Judge Greer, the jury returned a verdict of “not guilty” without retiring from their seats and the costs of the case were charged up against James D. Coates, also of Desha County, Arkansas, who was prosecuting the case and who had acted as both a witness and special prosecutor. In an article in The Weekly Democrat-Times (Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi), published 7 June 1884, it also was shown that the prosecution was malicious.

 In a wrap-up story about the Bankston-Coates Tragedy, as it was labeled in the Memphis Daily Appeal on Friday, June 13, 1884, the report of the coroner’s jury in Arkansas City, Arkansas, said that “after said acquittal, Gen. G. P. M. Turner, the attorney general of Shelby County, Tennessee, encouraged Bankston to commit violence on J. D. Coates by making the remark to wit: ‘Bankston, if you don’t go down to Arkansas City and cowhide Coates you are not the man I take you to be.’ "

Bankston then returned to Arkansas City via steamer on 2 June 1884. He came unarmed, but shortly after arrival procured a pistol and a heavy walking stick. He called out James D. Coates, the lawyer who took part in the indictment against him. A fight ensued and Bankston hit Coates with his cane two or more times and Coates rushed at Bankston with a knife in his hand and stabbed him a couple of times, and then they broke loose. Bankston then shot Coates with his pistol, and yet another scuffle ensued at which time Coates gave Bankston a third stab in the back. Coates died first and Bankston soon thereafter.

 For Arkansas City, the county seat of Desha County, with a population of only 500 or so in 1880, this duel to the death must have been a subject of discussion for years as no doubt it would have touched the lives of many of the residents. For genealogists and historians this story presents several challenges on many fronts — about ethnicity, family history, laws, the legal process, and weighing evidence of various sources. It raises numerous questions and provides several additional mysteries to explore. And one is left wondering “what happened next?” 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

#52ancestors — Week 41

October 8-14  SPORTS

Take Me Out to the Ball Game . . . 

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

 Tall, medium built, with gray eyes and auburn hair, Wilburn Everett Bankston was listed as a “ball player” on his World War I Draft Registration Card dated 26 May 1917 in what appears to be Providence, Rhode Island, but the handwriting of the location is difficult to read. However, his date of birth: 25 May 1893 in Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia helps to identify him as a son of Hiram Everett Bankston (1859-1946) and Sarah “Dee” Askin (1865-1946). He was one of their 13 known children and a twin to his sister, Evelyn Bankston. The father and son both went by their middle name.

In an article in the Macon Telegram (Macon, Georgia) headlined “Gulls Off To Majors — Fillingem and Bankston Leave to Join the Athletics,” dated 23 July 1915, it was announced therein with a dateline of Charleston, S.C. that Pitcher Fillingem and Outfielder Bankston of the Charleston South Atlantic league team left here today (July 22) to join the Philadelphia American league club, to whom

they were sold several weeks ago. Bankston’s career with the major-league Athletics was short as the team finished last in the American League that year. The Athletics owner Connie Mack refused to match the offers of the newly created Federal League teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players, according to sportswriters. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation.

The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and 8th (last) place in 1915. At the time, it was the third-worst winning percentage in American League history. The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As they had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. (American League) and N.L. (National League) teams for players. While Bankston’s exact salary for his brief major-league career has not been ascertained, two 1915 Philadelphia Athletics pitchers — Bob Shawkey and Bruno Haas — made $3,249 and $1,200 respectively. Translating those numbers precisely into today’s dollars is difficult, but the range is about $30,000 to $80,000.

When he registered for the World War I draft, Bankston gave his occupation as “ball player” and his employer as Richmond BB Club at Richmond, etc. [sic]. On March 22, 1918, the Atlanta Constitution published a story with the headline “Everett Bankston, former Cracker, quits baseball.” The story notes that he hit .325 in 1916 and .300 last season (1917) and was “secured from the Yankees, the last three seasons with Richmond and formerly a [Atlanta] Cracker, has been lost to the [Memphis] Chickasaws.” It also reveals that he owned a farm at Barnesville, Georgia and “on account of shortage of labor he would be obliged to remain at home and look after the farm.”

However, he served briefly during World War I as Seaman Second Class Wilburn Bankston, having enlisted on 4 June 1918, and training at the Naval Training Camp, Charleston, South Carolina. He was honorably discharged 11 November 1918. He apparently returned to playing baseball after the war. On the 1920 census he is enumerated with his parents in Monroe County, Georgia, but he is listed as “professional ball player.”

 By 1930, still enumerated with his parents, he is recorded as a laborer (farm). Evidently by age 37, his baseball career had ended. His career lasted much longer than “one year” as indicated on a website, although that reference may refer only to his brief career with major-league Philadelphia Athletics. Bankston played with Charleston, Greenville, Charlotte, Augusta and Columbia as well as several other minor league clubs. He broke into the professional game about 1912 when he was 19 years old. In July 1927, he voluntarily retired after being sold by Richmond to the Raleigh club of the Piedmont League. He had a life-time batting average of over .300.

He died 26 February 1970 in Georgia and is buried in Fredonia Church Cemetery in Lamar County, Georgia where his parents and other kinfolks rest. Some websites claim he was married, but a marriage record for him has not been found — to date.

On his paternal side, Wilburn Everett Bankston descends from the Swedes on the Delaware:
Colonial Swedes

He was the son of Hiram Everett Bankston (1859-1946) and Sarah Dixon (1865-1946), who was the son of Welburn Henderson Bankston (1805-1892) and Amanda Rebecca Bush (1829-1896), who was the son of Hiram Bankston (ca 1779-1800) and Susanna Slaydon (ca 1782-after 1815), who was the son of Lawrence Bankston (ca 1755-1844) and Nancy Anne Delphia Henderson (1758-1849), who was the son of Peter Bankston (ca 1732-1804) and Priscilla [--?--] (d. after 1804), who was the son of Lawrence Bankston Sr. (ca 1704-1771) and Rebecca Hendricks (ca 1710-before 1786), who was the son of Andrew Bankston Jr. (ca 1673-after 1746) and Gertrude Boore (ca 1676-after 1740), who was the son of Anders Bankston Sr. (1640-1705) and Gertrude Rambo (1650-after 1705).

Counting to 10

#52ancestors Week 40
 (Oct. 1-7) --Ten

Counting to 10 

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley (C) 2018

William Vanderpool (1808-1884) had 10 known children by his first wife, Mary “Polly” Fuson (1803-1849). They married in 1828 and never seem to stay in any place very long. He was a restless soul and they lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. 

Their children, born about every two years, were born in six different states. Of these 10 children, their daughter, Artemissa Vanderpool, born ca 1842 in Missouri, also had 10 children. She married Christopher Columbus Pitts, son of John Pitts and Frances Ann Gaulding, soon after the Civil War ended — somewhere in Missouri. Their children were apparently all born in and grew up in Hickory County, 

Missouri Christopher Columbus PITTS and Artemissa M. VANDERPOOL had the following children: 

2 i. Lucy Josephine "Josie" PITTS, born 1 May 1867, Hickory County, Missouri; married Ruzan H. GIST, 22 Mar 1885, Hickory County, Missouri; died 29 Nov 1939, Wheatland, Hickory County, Missouri. 

3 ii. Charles Lysurgus PITTS, born 1 Oct 1868, Wheatland, Hickory County, Missouri; married Sara Etta SANDERS, Dec 1902, Hickory County, Missouri; died 15 Jul 1959, Argus. San Bernardino County, California.

 4 iii. James Edwin PITTS, born 31 Mar 1870, Hickory County, Missouri; married Margaret Elizabeth MASHBURN, 10 Apr 1892, Hickory County, Missouri. His place of death has not been determined, perhaps Oklahoma or California about 1967. 

5 iv. Annie May PITTS, born 1 May 1872, Hickory County, Missouri; married Daniel HEWITT, 9 Oct 1889, Hickory County, Missouri; died aft 1940, Texas. 

6 v. Gussie G. PITTS, born 16 Mar 1874, Hickory County, Missouri; married John W. JORDAN, 11 Dec 1891, Hickory County, Missouri; died 29 Apr 1952, Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas.

 7 vi. Oliver Silvester PITTS, born 25 Apr 1876, Hickory County, Missouri; married Grace BRYANT, 18 Apr 1899, San Bernardino County, California; died 1957, Ashland, Jackson County, Oregon. 

8 vii. Mary Beach "Beachie" PITTS, born 24 Apr 1879, Hickory County, Missouri; married Edward Monroe BASS, 27 Dec 1896, Hickory County, Missouri; died Nov 1964, California.

 9 viii. Viola Frances PITTS, born 10 Jun 1884, Hickory County, Missouri; married Robert Marvin DAVIS, 14 Jun 1908, Missouri; died 25 Aug 1967, Mentone, San Bernardino County, California.

 10 ix. Alfred Foster PITTS, born 17 Apr 1886, Hickory County, Missouri; married Elsie Retta WATKINS, 25 Aug 1907, Wheatlands, Hickory County, Missouri; died 12 Mar 1960, Atwater, Merced County, California. 

11 x. Arizona M. "Zona" PITTS, born 14 Oct 1891, Hickory County, Missouri; married Paul Emil HERZOG, 17 Apr 1907, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado; died 15 Feb 1968, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. 

These 10 children had approximately 35 children and most of these grandchildren of Artemissa Vanderpool and Christopher Pitts have been identified. The Vanderpool family has been researching all of its American branches since about 1974 and has created a large one-name database. One of the unsolved mysteries pertains to Artemissa Vanderpool. She was born about 1842 in Missouri (the county is in dispute). 

She is listed as an eight-year-old, with her father, stepmother, six brothers and older sister, Rachel, in 1850 in Dade County, Missouri, taken on 27 August 1850. But, she is not with them when they were enumerated on 6 November 1850 in Decatur County, Iowa. She is not with the family in 1860 when it was recorded at Fort Riley, Kansas Territory. 

She did not marry until 1866, but the marriage record to Christopher Columbus Pitts has not yet been found. No known pictures of her have surfaced. Her 1932 Missouri State Death Certificate lists her birthplace as Madison County, Missouri, but I have been unable to confirm or find any evidence her family was ever in that county. 

Hopefully, with the wonders of the Internet some of her descendants will make contact and somewhere out there someone has a picture of Artemissa to share. 

If so, that will be a No. 10 day for me.