The Goat and the Old Bachelor

#52ancestors Week 10 (March4-10) 
Prompt: Bachelor Uncle 

The Goat and the Old Bachelor 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

Forever intertwined in my childhood memory is a goat and an old man — my grandpa’s best friend (the old man, that is). While not an uncle, he was a bachelor, and almost family. 

The goat was called Billy, but the man was called “Bill” or W. C. by adults. However, he was always known to me as “Mr. Carter.” His given names were William Charles, which was the reverse of my Papa’s names — a subject they talked about frequently and found amusing. One of them being W. C. and the other C. W. 

Mr. Carter drove an old banged-up panel truck with lots of dents on the outside and in the inside, well, Billy rode it in often and he nibbled at the interior — eating anything he could put in his mouth. He also left his special odor everywhere. 

Mr. Carter and Billy the Goat lived down the road a piece from my Papa’s Oklahoma farm. The goat went with him about everywhere. So did Papa and me. We were a dynamic and unlikely quartet of two old farmers, a little girl, and a goat. 

We often toured the “bottom lands” — a fertile commercial farm area of what was then Griffin Grocery Company, north of Muskogee, Oklahoma. There the soil was rich from the many spring-time floods of the Arkansas River. Those old farmers, with my assistance, would check out the corn, alfalfa, watermelons, peanuts, soybeans, and cotton — then on to the stockyards we’d go on a fairly frequent schedule in the spring and summertime. 

Mr. Carter, crippled up badly with arthritis, could barely walk, and relied on his wooden cane as he tottered and shuffled about. He had lost two middle fingers on his right hand in a farming accident years ago. I found that fascinating and asked him many questions about the accident, and about when he had come to Indian Territory and why he had stayed (talk about a born nosey journalist).

He and Papa were twin figures, born the same year — Papa in Georgia and Mr. Carter in Iowa. They were both big men always dressed in the Oklahoma uniform — faded blue overalls. I listened to their conversations about the “good old days,” the war, those rotten Communists, politics — local and national — and the high cost of living, and always, about the weather, and how the crops and livestock were doing. 

Mr. Carter had no wife and no family — at least none I ever knew about. I always invited him to our family get-togethers, especially Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter feasts, and later to my country school activities including its annual pie supper and a Christmas program. He always came and seemed pleased to be included. One year at Christmastime he brought me a package of dates. I thought they were the best treat ever — so sweet and gooey. He smiled at my delight in them. 

He and I also shared a great love for my grandmother’s vinegar pies and bread-and-butter pickles. We were sure that she could win the blue ribbon at the Oklahoma State Fair for anything she cooked. When I was about six years old, he subscribed to Jack and Jill magazine for me as a birthday present. I was in heaven. It arrived in the mailbox monthly or bimonthly — I have forgotten which, packed with stories, poems and artwork. A couple of years later he gifted me with my first desk, and then he bestowed a most precious present on me when I was nine — his mother’s piano. On it I learned to play, and it became my most treasured possession. 

Years later, when I was in Germany working for Stars & Stripes newspaper I sent Mr. Carter a Christmas card (something I had always done — my mother taught her children good manners) but that year, for some reason, I also included a long letter telling him about my budding career, travel adventures in Europe, and how much his gifts and friendship had meant to me. I’m so glad I did. Mother reported back later that the old gentleman just beamed when he told her about receiving my letter and card. 

My grandparents were both gone by then and I was aware that I would not have my special friend forever and that he might not be there by the time I returned from Europe. So, in my letter that year I had reminisced about the good times with him, Billy the Goat, and my Papa. And what memories they were — including the time Mr. Carter and Papa got lost at the stockyards and I had to go to the office and turn them in, then wait for someone to go find those old farmers so we could get home in time for supper. You didn’t want to make my grandmother angry by being late. 

It was a tough job looking after those two old men — and Billy the Goat was of no help. 

Where the Secrets Reside

#52ancestors 2019 Week 9—Feb 25-3 mar
Prompt: At the Courthouse

Where the Secrets Reside 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

Research at courthouses is seldom dull or predicable. You never know what you will find or what morsels of long-hidden or forgotten family secrets might turn up. Here’s a sampling of things I’ve collected from court records about various family members. 

Spelling and punctuation are creative and fluid, as well as unedited —for the most part. 

New Jersey: 1740 Assault (Vanderpool)

ESSEX COUNTY. 23 Sept. 1740.

Esriakim Case and Malachi Vanderpool having in a most contemptious and outragious maner fought and made an assault upon each other in the face and in the presence of the court on motion of Phl.?? Kearney . . . It's therefore ordered by the Court that the Constables do diligently make search for the said Esriakim Case and Malachi Vanderpool and that they be forthwith taken into custody and comitted into the Goal of the county, and there to remain until they be delivered by a Due Course of the Law."

Malachi V.D. Pool gave bond to behave himself and not to leave the county. Thos Serjant, bondsman. 

24 Sept. 1740. Grand Jury indicted Ez. Case and Malachi V. D. Pool for assault. Both confess, indictment required to furnish bond for good behaiour. —John V. D. Pool is security for Malachi V. D. Pool.

28 Sept. 1742 -- Essex County NJ. Court Records 'C" page 100

—George Smott agt. Malachi Vdp (Case #10c) 

Georgia: 1822 Deed: Hill to Peacock 

Written: September 3 1822—Jasper County, Georgia—Deed Book A, page 60.

Source: Microfilm of the actual Jasper County, Georgia, Deed Book, FHL microfilm #158497. 

State of Georgia Jasper County. Know all men by these presents that I, Mordica Hill, of the County and State aforesaid being of sound mind and memory and in my perfect senses and having lost my eyesight and not able to take care of myself nor my property of any kind and being disposed to live with my son-in-law Lewis Peacock and he having agreed to take care of me during life and I feel it my duty to give to him all that I possess both real and personal. 

Now know ye that the said Mordica Hill as aforesaid do hereby give grant & bequeath unto the said Lewis Peacock, his heirs and assigns all the real and personal property that I possess that is to say all that tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in the 17th District of original Baldwin but now Jasper County and known by part of lot No. (207?) in the Dist. aforesaid and containing sixty acres of land more or less together with one Negro woman named Priss about 50 years of age, one sorrel horse, one brown bay mare or filly 2 years old, one cow and calf, and all my hogs, one bed and furniture, and all my working tools of all kings [sic] together with all papers debts dues and demands due me from all persons whatever. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal & by making my mark in the presence of the undernamed persons this third day of September 1822. 

Signed Mordica (his X mark) Hill 

Martin Cochran William Roberts Rocheford Mays Georgia } Jasper County} Personally came before me William Roberts who being duly sworn deposeth and saith that he saw Mordica Hill assign the within Deed for the purposes within mentioned and he at the same time assigned the same as a witness and saw Martin Cochran & Rocheford Mays assign it also. 

Sworn to & subscribed before me this 28th Dec 1822. 

Signed : James Ramsey, J.P., and William Roberts 

Illinois: 1847 Will Extract (Henderson) 

Saline County. The Rev. Wilson Henderson [Sr.] left a will dated 12 September 1847 (probated 15 November 1847). Will Book 1, page 1, in which he mentions his sons: Wilson [Jr.], James, Edward, Davis, and Robert; and his two daughters, Sally Carpenter and Martha Gasaway. 

He spelled out specifically what his son James was to receive, towit: "I give and bequeath to my son James Henderson the following named property, towit: One shirt that he wore partly out at my house, and one log chair and one clevis and bot. that he took possession of and carried away. For--I believe the above named articles to be his share of the estate.” 

Alabama: 1853 
Cherokee Claims (Shoemake) 

State Alabama} Jackson County. 1 Dec. 1853

 [some punctuation edited/added] 

This day came John A. Shoemake and my mother Anna Shoemake & Eli B Shoemake & John W. Shoemake my sons, before me an acting Justice of the Peace for said county them being Cherokees men and woman claiming the rights of the Cherokee nation under the Treaty of 1835-36 which we never have received the benefit of said treaty and has [sic] never had the opportunity of informing ourselves to the parole (?) until this present time and for the want of our Cherokee friends and information represent us to the government of the United States, which now we will refer to our relations that we are of Parch Corn family and Caty Thorn and the Big Bear and John and James Thorn and Anny Shoemake lived at parchcorns on the Bank of Tennessee River where John fortook [?] his reservation on the path leading to Crowtown, then moved to the place where John Benge took his reservation, now called Bolivar then her & husband John Shoemake moved to the west fork of Crow Creek where they took there [sic] reservation and there lived until dispossed [sic] of by the laws of the country; now she refers to her family her husband deceased the 2nd day of November 1852 which she is entitled to his per capita of all Just Dues under the treaty of 1835-36. 

She refers to her son John A. Shoemake, the only child she has or ever was known to have. She refers to her grandchildren and son’s wife Elizabeth Shoemake, my son’s children now refer to the names and number: John A. Shoemake & Elizabeth Shoemake, his wife; Eli B. Shoemake thire [sic] son & Elizabeth Ann Shoemake thire [sic] daughter, Died on the 8th day of September 1853, and claims her per capita under the treaty of 1835-36 and all Just on the Government and John W. Shoemake and George W. Shoemake & James D .Shoemake ,and William H. Shoemake and James P. Shoemake. Anna Shoemake aged about 70 years of age and John A. Shoemake aged 50 years. Elizabeth Shoemake, wife of John A. Shoemake, aged about 45 years and William H. Shoemake 29 years of age, and James P. Shoemake, 27 years of age, and Eli B. Shoemake, 26 years of age, and Elizbeth Ann Shoemake, 24 years of age, and John W. Shoemake, 22 years of age.

 Elizabeth Ann Shoemake, Deceased, having three children, George W. Shoemake, aged 7 years old, James D. Shoemake, aged 2 years & 11 months lacking 7 days, John E. Shoemake, aged 7 months. She claims of twelve of the family. They claim under the former treaty of themselves and family which have been debased of their rights in consequence of Siler, the agent, not coming through the country in which we lived which we are able to prove. he said he would not go so far through the country for one or two familys, [sic] this can be proved by Samuel Keys.

 Now the said Shoemakes claims for themselves 12 in number the amount due them under the Act of 1835-36 and there [sic] removal and subsistence and also there [sic] per capita which amounted to ninety two dollars & 70 cts apiece when paid to other Cherokees and a balance before the House of Congress of the United States of Eighty five dollars apiece which the petitioners now begs leave to be represented to be attached to that appropriations Bill the under signed Cherokees as duty Bound will Ever pray to the Congress of the United States Recieved [sic] our petitions State of Alabama, Jackson County. 

Arkansas: 1891 Adultery (Vanderpool) 

U.S. Western District Court. Catherine Vanderpool was charged with adultery in U.S. Western District of Arkansas (district court) August of 1891 with H.C. Miller. She denied it, and mentions both W. C. Vanderpool Jr. and Sr. 

1859 Georgia: 
Deposition (extract) (Bankston) 

Butts County. 8 June 1859, Isaac Bankston appeared before Thomas J. Saunders, a Justice of the Peace, in and for said county. Isaac a resident of said county. Gives his birth place, thinks he is about 93 years old — his father was named Daniel Bankston and he was the brother of Jacob Bankston who was the father of Elijah Bankston — the deceased husband of Mrs. Elizabeth [née Morris] who lives in this county ... 

[ed. she was trying to get widow's Revolutionary War pension]. 

Says his father, Daniel and his father's brother, Jacob moved from the state of North Carolina and settled in Wilkes County, GA about the beginning or just before the commencement of the Revolutionary War . . . says that Elijah Bankston was older than he [Isaac] . . . says that Andrew Bankston was his father's brother, and he moved to and settled about Beech Island in South Carolina and before the war and that the said Andrew had two sons — named James and Daniel (did NOT have a son named Elijah) . . . that Peter Bankston, the brother of deponent's father moved from North Carolina after the Revolutionary War and settled in Wilkes County, Georgia and that the said Peter had four sons — Larry, Andrew, John and William (did NOT have a son named Elijah) . . . 

Signed Isaac Bankston. 

1832 Indiana: Guardianship (Vanderpool) 

Marion County, Indiana. January Term 1832. 

Guardianship of Mary Vanderpool — John Vanderpool appointed guardian of his sister, Mary Vanderpool, about 35 years of age, being an idiot . . . her estate is worth about $150.

—Darlington, Jane Eaglesfield. Marion County, Indiana, Records Miscellanea. Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis. 1986, p. 37d 

A Stair-step of Cousins

#52 ancestors Week 7
Feb. 18-24 Family Photo

A Stair-step of Cousins

 By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

Left to right (surname FRICKS): Norma Jean, Sherman, Kathleen, Leon, Helen, and Lorene. They range in ages from about 12 to 6. The date of the photograph is estimated to be about 1937. Norma Jean, Kathleen and Lorene are the daughters of Teck P. Fricks and Mildred Inez Smith. Sherman, Leon and Helen are the children of Homer N. Fricks and Virgie Dee Shirley. All are grandchildren of Charles W. Fricks (1873-1958) and Ida Mae Hensley (1879-1959). 

Like many old pictures, this one did not have any information recorded on the back — no date, place, or any names. The photograph appears to have been taken a few miles north of Muskogee, Oklahoma, near where the paternal grandparents resided. Homer and Virgie moved to Houston, Texas between 1927 and October of 1929 as their daughter, Helen, was born in the Lone Star state. Their two older sons were born in Muskogee County, Oklahoma in 1925 and 1927. Evidently, the Texas cousins had returned to Oklahoma to visit both sets of their grandparents, and someone had a camera handy to record the get-together of the six cousins in what appears to be summertime. 

The maternal grandparents of Sherman, Leon and Helen were William Henry Shirley (1863-1954) and Martha E. Waymire (1869-1954), who also lived in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, near Fort Gibson. 

1922 map. Muskogee County, OK. Thanks to MyGenealogyHound.com

Who took the snapshot is not known, but it was probably Virgie (Shirley) Fricks. The picture was part of my mother’s collection and she was an aunt to all these children. Mother provided the names of her nieces and nephews who appear here, and other cousins have confirmed the names, position, and approximate ages. 

While other copies of this snapshot may exist among my family members, I don't  know that for sure so I want to share it just in case I have cousins who have never seen it. 

For the Love of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

#52 ancestors Week 7
Feb. 11-17 2019 LOVE

For the Love of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019

Illegal Aliens Nabbed in Virginia
Forced into Indentured Servitude
by Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood 

JAMESTOWN (Virginia Colony). December 1717-January 1718. Recently, Captain Andrew Tarbett delivered here about 70 illegal aliens from Germany on his ship, the “Scott.” The voyage was delayed in London for about two months while the captain served time in debtors’ prison there. As a result, the immigrants, who had paid the captain to take them to Pennsylvania, depleted most of their supplies and money.

 “These immigrants did not pay their passage money,” Captain Tarbett claims. “In order to recoup my losses, Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood has paid for them and negotiated a contract for their labor for the next seven years.” 

A spokesman for the immigrants, speaking in halting English, claims that in London the captain gambled away the money they had paid for transportation to Pennsylvania, not Virginia. He also says they are being forced into indentured servitude (which they consider a form of slavery) and required to sign a contract they don’t understand and can’t read.

By K. Jähne - own work, using SRTM3 data, Image: Eisenbahnstrecken noerdliches
aden-Wuerttemberg.svg. Kraichgau border line taken from [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7064637

 It is believed that most, if not all, of these families came from the Rheinpfalz (Palatinate) and the Kraichgau area — the latter is a hilly region in Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. One immigrant said he was from the village of Stetten am Heuchelberg; another is from Neuenbürg; and others are from Gemmingen. This entire region has suffered economically since the extremely harsh winter of 1708-1709 killed fruit, grape vines and trees. It also killed birds and livestock and even froze wine in the casks. Additionally, the French continued invasions into the region have left many villages in ashes. 

Sources who were able to talk to some of these immigrants said they had sold everything they owned in order to pay the emigration taxes to leave, transportation and custom costs down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, a ship to London, and then for passage on the “Scott” to Pennsylvania. “All total the cost to emigrate was about 30£ — equivalent to more than 330 days of wages for a skilled tradesman,” according to one of passengers. The occupations of these immigrants are weavers, tailors, coopers, vineyard tenders and there’s even a goose herder. 

Captain Tarbett, of Glasgow, claims bad weather blew his ship off course forcing it to land in Virginia instead of Pennsylvania. However, informed sources say there was collusion between Lt. Gov. Spotswood, some associates, and the captain to deliver the immigrants to Virginia to work in naval stores owned by Spotswood, Robert Beverly, and other partners. 

“They need more settlers to move onto the frontier land in order to lay claim to it,” a government official said, asking not to be identified. “Spotswood is embarked on a huge western land development program on the frontier.” 

News sources say that from Jamestown these immigrants are to be transported to the fork of the Rapidon and Rappahannock Rivers to just below the future site of Fredericksburg. This is as far as a ship can go because of the falls in the river. Then they will have to take a trip over roads that were built by the First Germanna Colony (1714) up to Fort Germanna. Once settled on the frontier, the first objective is to clear some land so they can grow food. Spotswood and his partners will supply them with cattle on a partnership basis. The Germans will be required to return the equivalent of the original. 

Additionally, it was revealed that Spotswood and his partners want the Germans settled on farm-sized acreages along the north shore of the Rapidan River. Houses are to be laid out at half-mile separations along the river, with another row paralleling these, but about a half-mile back from the river. Then, the Germans are to make naval stores. In the early 18th century, wooden ships required a flexible material, insoluble in water, to seal the spaces between planks. Pine pitch was mixed with fibers like hemp to caulk spaces and prevent leaks. Crude gum or oleoresin was collected from the wounds of living pine trees. England no longer had the resources to produce naval stores and relied heavily upon naval stores from its American colonies. As a result, naval stores were becoming an essential part of the colonial economy, and Spotswood understood their value. Moreover, this would be his justification for taking up thousands of acres of land, which he could then claim were being used to produce naval stores. 

Among these immigrants, later to be known as the Second Germanna Colony of Virginia (1717), were my ancestors, Hans Michael Holt (1696-1767) and Anna Elisabeth Schieble (1700-1765), who married, by estimate, about 1719. 

Today, there are many thousands of descendants of these Second Colony im-migrants. Some are actively researching their families, while others are not aware of their kinship to these ancestors who were brought to Virginia against their will in 1717 and forced to work as indentured servants for seven to eight years. 

Other surnames of those believed to have arrived in 1717 and were part of the original settlers are: Amburger (Auberge, Ambergey), Ballenger, Blankenbaker (Plankenbühler), Breuel (Broyles), Clore (Klaar), Cook (Koch), Crigler (Kriegler), Fleishmann, Holt (Hold), Kaiffer (Käfer), Moyers (Myers, Mayers), Paultisch (Paulitz), Smith (Schmidt), Shively (Scheible), Snyder (Schneider), Utz, Yager (Jäger), and Zimmermann, plus possibly others. 

See: http://www.secondcolony.org/familynames.html 

References/Sources:
 For a list of Germanna Settlers (various years),
   see: https://germanna.org/2013/09/10/list-of-original-germanna-settlers/

Story of the Second Colony: www.secondcolony.org/thestory.html

Germanna History Notes, by John Blankenbaker:    https://sites.rootsweb.com/~george/johnsgermnotes/

The German Colony of 1717, by Arthur Leslie Keith. The William and Mary Quarterly. Vol. 26, No. 2 (Oct., 1917), pp. 79-95. Published by Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914859. Accessed 7 Feb. 2019

WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Germanna_Descendants

Full Disclosure

Full Disclosure

 #52 ancestors Week 6 (Feb 4-10) — Surprise
By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

Family history research can be a humbling hobby. Just when you think you have found out everything there is to know about your ancestors, even years later something new can pop up. 

In my early childhood, I was lucky to have spent several years with my maternal grandparents and I had heard their stories many times. Grandmother was a delightful storyteller and I was a captive audience. She told me how she met grandpa at a local dance where he was the caller and her brother played the fiddle. She wanted to wait until she was 21 before she married, but when she was 20, Grandpa convinced her to marry him. They were married 15 October in 1899. Originally, Grandpa had wanted them to marry on his birthday, which was 15 September, but grandmother insisted on the October date. 

Fifty years later, preparations were underway for their Golden Anniversary celebration. It was a gala time as their seven children pooled their money and had their farmhouse painted and papered inside, purchased new curtains, put in new flooring, and spruced up the place in general. The children and their spouses, plus many kinfolks came for the party. Food was piled high on the kitchen table and every counter surface available. 

My cousins and I played and ate goodies until we almost burst. There was lots of singing and storytelling. I remember the laughter as my aunts and uncles told tales about growing up together. The older folks — kinfolks of my grandparents — added their collective memories to the good old days in Indian Territory when they had first arrived. I was nine years old and have a vivid memory of that bright October day and the celebration. 

 When I began genealogical quest, one of the first things I did was go to the courthouse in my hometown and look up the marriage records of both sets of grandparents. I dutifully copied the information and where I had found it (I had good teachers). 

Thus, I had the facts from an original source, I had the memories of the 50th anniversary celebration, and I even recalled what my grandmother told me that she had worn on her wedding day — a navy blue suit that was far too warm for an Indian Summer day in Creek Nation of Indian Territory. 

Imagine my surprise, while in search of another relative, I stumbled across a “Marriage” notice in the local newspaper about my maternal grandparents. While I had the wedding date and place, it revealed two additional bits of information. They were married at the home of the bridegroom in Muskogee, and the ceremony had been officiated by the Rev. S. G. Thompson. 

There they were: Answers to two questions I had never thought to ask. 

Peering into the Past

#52 ancestors Week 5 — At the library

Peering into the Past

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

It’s all my sister Jo’s fault. She was the scholar in the family and during her high school years (I was five years behind her), she often spent time after school at the city public library, which was kitty-cornered from our dad’s business. 

We lived in the country and rode the school bus, but on those days when she studied at the library, from about four to six, we’d catch a ride home with dad. I wasn’t allowed to ride the bus home without her so I trudged along to the library. I really didn’t have to be coaxed as I was a avid reader, but as a typical kid, I’d go off exploring for new books and any treasures at the library that were available. 

That’s how I discovered stereograms and the old newspapers on microfilm. It was fun looking at the images of the “olden days” of my locality and state, but the library had a limited supply of them.

However, the discovery of old newspapers on microfilm opened an enthralling adventure for me. Quite by accident, because I don’t recall any index being available, I discovered my maternal great-grandfather (N. B. Fricks) listed as a juror on some U.S. Court cases in the late 1890s, when the area was part of the Creek Nation of Indian Territory. 

Many of the crimes the juries heard were for larceny, forgery, counterfeiting, horse stealing, introducing and selling liquor (a no-no in Indian Territory, but a widely prevalent occurrence). Other crimes, some of which required me to use the “big” dictionary in the reference area, were: sodomy, gaming and seduction. 

A plea of guilty to horse stealing for one fellow resulted in him being sentenced to 5 years and 1 month in the Ohio state penitentiary (which lead to more questions about why he was sent to Ohio, when another man who pled guilty to forgery was sent to two years at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and yet another was sent to 2 years at reform school at Cheltenham, Maryland). The law was confusing, but I was fascinated by it, the local history, and of course, my family’s part. 

For the crime of “introducing liquor” a guilty plea could result in a sentence of $25 fine and one month in jail, or 90 days in jail and a $1 fine, but on the other hand, one Charles Anderson, charged with “selling whisky,” as opposed to “introducing liquor,” and who pled guilty and was given a sentence of $1 fine and one month. It didn’t say where the “one month” was to be spent. 

A “seduction” case went to trial and the verdict was “guilty,” but the man was not sentenced. The reason? He was charged with seducing Emma Hamilton under promise of marriage, but since conviction, he married the girl and the sentence was suspended and “he will avoid the penitentiary if he supports and cares for his wife.” A sidebar to this case: A witness in this case who testified for the defendant was arrested and placed in jail on charge of perjury.

 The old newspapers also were filled with ads and humor. One of the latter, and my favorite, appeared in 1893 just about the time my maternal grandmother and her family arrived in Muskogee from

Alabama. I doubt that she was into “high fashion” as a teenager, but I wish I had pictures of what she and her sisters were wearing in these “good old days.” 

The newspaper article, most likely written by a man, reads:

 “Muskogee girls know what’s what and any attempt on the part of shrunken and distorted and ill-proportion old maids of New England to get them to adopt hoop-skirts or any other device that will prevent a respectable display of face, form or figure won’t work worth a cent. We are with the anti-crinoline brigade.” What? I thought “hoop-skirts” went out of fashion after the Civil War. 

Sis, the librarians and those old newspapers are responsible for me becoming a genealogist, a history buff, and having a long newspaper career. How can I ever thank them enough? 

You Named Your Children What?

#52 ancestors Week 4 — I’d Like to Meet

You Named Your Children What?

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

While there are dozens of my ancestors I’d like to meet, mostly to quiz them about genealogical matters such as when and where they were born and the women’s maiden names, but I’ve long been intrigued with researching my direct maternal line, the mitochondrial DNA. 

As I understand it, everyone inherits mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from their mother — through her mother, her mother, her mother, her mother, and so on. And, while both males and females inherit mitochondrial DNA from their mothers, only females can pass it on to their children. 

As opposed to my paternal line, which now extends back 12 known generations, in just five short generations, my maternal paper trail ends with Tabitha Morgan (born 1797 in South Carolina), so I’d like to meet her daughter, Elizabeth Morgan Kirby (1828-1906), and learn more about her and her mom. 

I first met Elizabeth Morgan Kirby when I found her marriage record dated 9 July 1850 in DeKalb County, Georgia where she married David Gresham Awtrey. Locating the couple in the 1850 census provided some inconsistent information — first, they were enumerated on 18 October of that year, living with her parents (John Kirby and Tabitha Morgan) in Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia and secondly, the bride was four years older than the bridegroom. 

Interestingly, David Gresham Awtrey is also enumerated on 16 October 1850 with his parents (Eldridge Awtrey and Margaret George) in Flat Shoals, DeKalb County, Georgia. He was listed as their 18-year-old son, even though his marriage record plainly reveals he and Elizabeth were married in July that year. Don’t you love conflicting data? 

The bridegroom’s paternal grandmother was living in Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia in 1850 also. She was enumerated on the same day and just one page away from where Elizabeth Morgan Kirby and David Gresham Awtrey are listed with her parents. How well the families knew each other is anyone’s guess, but Panthersville was a small community (and still is) in metro Atlanta. 

Elizabeth Morgan Kirby and David Gresham Awtrey lived long lives (she died in 1906; he died in 1902) and produced 11 children. I’d like to know if I have all of their names recorded correctly and then ask Elizabeth what was behind her creativeness in the naming department? 

I know my great-grandmother, Araminta — their first child — was named for her paternal grandmother, but why were the two additional names — Rhody Ella — added? 

Most of their  children were given names with family connections, such as Margaret Ann Tabitha (1856-1943) who evidently was named for David Gresham’s mother (Margaret George) and Elizabeth's  mother (Tabitha Morgan), but why did you stick in the Ann? 

I am curious as to how you picked the name of David Ella for your seventh child? Obviously, she was named for her father, but whom was the Ella for? 

I haven’t figured out the origins or connections to some of the other names bestowed upon the children, such as Clinton Almanzer (1855-1897), Henry Crockett (1869-1901-10), Ophelia (1873-1960), or Wylie Hall (b. ca 1875). And, by the way, what happened to Wylie? 

Next, I have some questions about what you and the children were doing during the Civil War. I know David Gresham Awtrey served in the Confederate States Army and his company was captured in July of 1864. After the war, times were obviously difficult for your family, is that why you left the Atlanta area and removed to Saint Clair County Alabama? But why the move to Haralson County, Georgia by 1880? And, where were you hiding in the 1900 census? 

Additionally, tell me more about your mom – Tabitha Morgan. Where in South Carolina was she born and when and where did she marry your dad? Oh, never mind, just fill out this Family Group Sheet for me. 

Please tell me more about my great-grandmother, Araminta. Family stories call her the “dark and feisty one.” Do tell. I’m all ears. 

Untangling gnarled branches of family trees

#52 ancestors 2019 No. 3.
Prompt: Unusual Name

Untangling gnarled branches of family trees 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

While the name of Araminta is somewhat unusual, or so I thought, it was a fairly popular name in my family for several generations, including my maternal great-grandmother Araminta Awtrey (1851-1927) who was named for her grandmother, Araminta Bankston (1782-1861).

It turns out that a search for this given name shows hundreds so named in the 1850 U.S. census in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, as well as in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri, which means it was widespread in American families by the middle of the 19th century.

 “Araminta is one of the many literary coinages of the Restoration period, [1660-1714] in this case possibly a conflation of Arabell and Aminta,” according to The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (Withcombe, 1977). 

The first of this name I’ve found in my family was Araminta Bankston and it was her 1800 Marriage Bible that put me on the quest to find her father — a Jacob Bankston. See earlier blog: https://shakingfamilytrees.blogspot.com/2019/01/pass-sorting-hat.html 

Having eliminated a childless couple — Jacob Bankston (1720-1757) and Elinor Cock, of Philadelphia, listed in an old genealogy — as the parents of Araminta’s father, Jacob, I turned back to sorting through Georgia records looking for clues and evidence. Three records proved to be most helpful. Two appear in The Early Records of Georgia, Volume I, Wilkes County. (Abstracted and compiled by Grace Gillam Davidson, published 1933 in Macon, Georgia) and now available online at: http://www.giddeon.com/wilkes/books/early-records-of-ga-vol 1/index.shtml 

1. There is a 1786 deed in Wilkes County, Georgia, which mentioned that Peter, Daniel and Jacob Bankston sold 400 acres in Pennsylvania, which was “and from our father, Laurence Bankston.” (Wilkes County, GA, Deed Book AA — 1785-1787 p. 127.) 

2. This same trio also sold 37.5 acres in Philadelphia, mentioning that it was “willed to our mother, Rebecca Hendricks.” (Wilkes County, GA, Deed Book AA — 1785-1787 p. 125) 

3. On 9 June 1811 in Clarke County, Georgia, the following record was recorded regarding a Creek Indian Depredation Claim of 1782 [emphasis mine]: “Whereas I Jacob Banckston is about to remove to the Missippi state [sic] this to sertyfy [certify] that I have bargind and sold unto Elijah Banckston, my son all my right[s] and title to the claim that I did againstt the Creek Nations of Indians for property taken at McNabs Fort Wilk[es] County 1782 which property was valued to five hundred and fifty five dollars and I do hereby give over all my right[s] and title to the above mentioned claim unto to above Elijah Banckston or sum written and hereby in power him to Recept for the same in my name and this my order shall recept to whom may be impowerd to pay of [off] the claim. Signed Jacob Banckston. 

So, there is a Jacob Bankston who was the son of Lawrence Bankston and Rebecca Hendricks and he had a son, Elijah Bankston, and he planned to leave Georgia for the “Missippi state” [sic] which would have been the Mississippi Territory in 1811 as Mississippi was not yet a state. Is this Jacob the father of my Araminta, and was he also the Jacob Bankston who married Nancy Brewer on 5 October 1808 in Clarke County, Georgia and whose maiden name has been misread as Moore and Brown by various researchers? If so, then that was his second marriage. Is this why my Araminta Bankston or at least her husband, Isaac Awtrey, went to Mississippi about 1810 but only stayed a short time before returning to northeast Georgia? 

Some genealogical problems are not resolved easily and some seemingly are never solved completely. Figuring out where Jacob Bankston fit into the household of Lawrence Bankston (1704-1771) and Rebecca Hendricks (1710 -before 1786) required additional and in-depth research and a number of cousins working together. 

How we figured out when this Jacob was born:
 1. His parents, Lawrence Bankston and Rebecca Hendricks were married about 1726 in Pennsylvania and lived there first, but by 1744 Lawrence was listed as a taxpayer in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Land and court records pertaining to Lawrence’s estate reveal that he had five sons, and at least one daughter — who married James Lea. 

2. In a 1793 a deposition of James Lea pertaining to land owned by Lawrence Bankston in Caswell County, North Carolina, he said that Andrew was his (Lawrence’s) eldest son, Peter was the second son, Lawrence (Jr.) was the third, Daniel was the fourth and Jacob was the fifth son, and the youngest son. 

3. Children in this time and locality were frequently born about two years apart, so based on the eldest child, probably a daughter, being born within a year after the couple was married, say 1727, this couple could have had six children born from ca 1727 to about 1739, using an estimated time frame of about two years between each child (six children x 2 years apart = 12 years). There also is possibly another daughter that researchers believe is part of this family, but evidence is lacking. If Jacob is the youngest child (we only know he is the youngest son) of Lawrence and Rebecca, his date of birth could range from about 1739 to 1743. Of especial interest in figuring out the ages of the sons of Lawrence is the 1755 tax list of Orange County, North Carolina, where is listed Lawrence Bankson [sic], Esq. and sons — 5 white polls. To be counted in the poll, each son had to be 16 years of age or older, which verified that Lawrence had four sons in 1755 — all born before 1739, but his fifth and youngest son, Jacob, evidently was born after 1739.

 4. We also know the birthdate of this Jacob’s son, Elijah (probably his eldest child). It was 1765 (thanks to his Revolutionary War pension application). Men seldom married before age 21 in this time and locality, so it can be estimated that Jacob probably married about 1764, and that he was born about 1740, give or take a couple of years. 

So far my two Aramintas have given me enough genealogical puzzles to entertain me for years — one to untangle this Bankston line and the other to sort out the gnarled branches of the Awtrey/Autry family. Bless their hearts.

Pass the Sorting Hat

2019—No. 2.
Prompt: Challenge

Pass the Sorting Hat 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2019 

The problem is not finding ancestors, it is the challenge of sorting them (Where is that enchanted sorting hat of Hogwarts houses fame when I need it?). Another challenge is proving that a particular Jacob is the one that belongs in my tree — and is not someone else of the same name. Additionally, men who marry women of the same given name, thus eliminating one sorting tool, should suffer serious penalties, such as being forced to translate a thousand Latin parish records or sort out my Marys, Elizabeths, and Annes. 

One of my challenges is to disprove all the twisted, gnarled trees out there — in print and online. I realize that will never happen, but I can dream. My Jacob Bankston dangles upon dozens, perhaps hundreds, of trees. He has been linked to several wives (most of them incorrectly); his date of birth is unproven, and so is his exact date of death, but he appears in many records and a great deal of valid information about him exists. Unfortunately, the good has been tossed into a mix with the bad, creating a gallimaufry. 

What has really thrown a monkey wrench into the works is once upon a time many years ago there was a genealogy published. Like all genealogies, it has errors, and too many family historians have relied upon this one source without verifying its material. To confound the problem, the compiler seldom cited sources, or did not do so specifically, so it is impossible to determine which records were used for individual facts. (An example is a citation of “Index Holy Trinity Church, p. 10” — there are thousands of churches in the USA of this name and what is this an index to?)

I, too, started with this old genealogy, but when an 1800 Family Bible of Isaac Autry/Awtrey and Araminta Bankston who married that year was found in a descendant’s trunk in the attic, it revealed that my 4-great-grandmother, Araminta Bankston, was the daughter of a Jacob Bankston. I was elated, thinking I had solved a problem. But, a challenge promptly popped up. According to this old genealogy, there were two Jacob Bankstons (father and son); one born in 1731 in Philadelphia and one born about 1760 in North Carolina. My Araminta was born in 1782 in Georgia (I had her date of birth from her tombstone and the family Bible). So, technically, either of these Jacobs could be her father. I had no idea which one, so I started digging in the traditional records — vitals, land, probate and taxes. 

Georgia land records rewarded me with a deed which provided a wife’s name for one of the Jacob Bankstons. The deed showing Jemima as Jacob's wife was made on February 10, 1798 (Hancock County, Georgia Deed Book A-B, page 501). Some church records in Clarke County show a Jacob and Jemima Bankston as members. However, I still did not know how old this Jacob Bankston was, or if he was the father of my Araminta. Purportedly, he had died about 1817 in Georgia, but no record of probate could be found, and no exit deeds for him, although he more or less vanished from the tax lists of Georgia about 1818. 

According to Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig (1928-2009), the Swedish Colonial Society’s world-renowned historian and genealogist who specialized in 17th-century Swedish and Finnish immigrants to the Delaware River Valley, my Georgia Bankston family was part of the group that is known as the Swedes on the Delaware. (www.ColonialSwedes.net). Thanks to him, I had fresh avenues to explore to identify my Jacob. 

Luckily for descendants, many of the records of these early Swedish families have survived and have been microfilmed. I found a marriage record for a Jacob Bankston and an Elinor Cox dated 14 June 1753 (Gloria Dei [Old Swedes] Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marriages, Baptisms and Burials, 1750-1789, FHL #511,806, p. 11). That information matched what the old genealogy claimed. 

Gloria Dei (Old Swedes Church) Philadelphia

By Beyond My Ken - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32050102

However, I also found in those records that a Jacob Bankston

died there on 5 August and was buried 6 August 1757. He was 37 years old. That created another problem — this makes his birth year 1720 rather than 1731 as the old genealogy claimed. Additional research in Philadelphia records turned up a 1757 Will for Jacob Bankston. This Jacob had a wife, Elinor; she was named in his Will along with a brother, John, his mother, and some other relatives, but no mention of any children. That fact clearly eliminated this Jacob and Elinor as the parents of my Jacob or the other three children listed in the old genealogy. In the process, it also suggested that the birth date of 1731 used in the old genealogy had no evidence to back it up. 

The Reconstructed 1790 Census of Georgia (De Lamar and Rothstein, 1985) lists only one Jacob Bankston. It had been an early indicator that there might be a problem with the old genealogy. Next I tackled the Georgia Tax Digests (Volume I-V) covering the years from 1789 to 1817. In order to keep track of the many Bankstons and the numerous counties in which I found them in northeast Georgia, I created a spreadsheet. My conclusion is there was only one Jacob Bankston, and he was not born in 1731, and he was not the son of the childless Jacob Bankston and Elinor Cox. 

When a thorough search in pre-1850 Georgia probate, land, and tax records failed to turn up a Jacob Bankston Jr. (born ca 1760), more challenges surfaced. Where had the compiler of the old genealogy found him and who was the Jacob listed in the Family Bible as my Araminta’s father? 

Little did I realize that this genealogical challenge had just begun. Stay tuned for the next chapter(s).

Help! There are Walloons in my tree

2019—No. 1. Prompt: First

Help! There are Walloons in my tree 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley @2019 

Some of my ancestors, who were among the first settlers of New York in 1624, were not Dutch or Huguenots. They were Walloons — French-speaking inhabitants of what is today southern Belgium and an adjacent part of France. They were Protestants who fled the Spanish regime and went first to the Netherlands and then to New Netherland. 

They arrived in 1624, but so far it has not been determined whether they sailed on the de Eendrach [Unity] in January 1624 or on the Nieuw Nederland. The later sailed from Amsterdam on or after 30 March 1624. While no passenger lists for these two ships exist, “several passengers can be identified, based on records of dismissals from the Amsterdam French Church (1624) and records of the Dutch West Indies Company,” according to Henry B. Hoff in his article “The First Settlers of New York in 1624.” [1] 

This year marks the 395th anniversary of the arrival of the first known immigrant ancestors of mine. They were Ghislain Vigné and his wife, Adrienne Cuvellier, and (presumably) their three daughters — Maria, Christina, and Rachel. It is possible there were other children in this family who did not survive. Their only known son, Jan, who was born about 1624, is considered to be the first European male child born in New Netherland. 

According to Harry Macy, Jr. F.A.S.G., F.G.B.S. in his article “375th Anniversary of the Eendracht and Nieuw Nederland,” [2] those who can trace a line to one or more of the four first families of New Netherland — Rapalje, Monfort, du Trieux and Vigné — must number in the millions. So obviously I have lots of cousins out there. However, the Vigné line “daughtered out” and descendants today, including myself, will be found other surnames. 

My branch descends via Maria Vigné, born ca 1613, probably in Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais (now Hauts-de-France) who married first Jan Pieters Roos in New Netherland and after his death, married secondly, my ancestor, Abraham Isaacsen Ver Planck, about 1634. [3] 

They had nine known children, including my 8-great-grandmother, Ariantje Ver Planck, born 1646, who married Melgert Vanderpool Sr. in 1668, and had eight children. 

Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands 

While updating research on Ghislain Vigné and Adrienne Cuvellier, I made a couple of discoveries about them and the city in which they lived prior to coming to New Netherland. They joined the Walloon Church in Leiden (Netherlands) in 1618. Five of their children, including a set of twins, are listed in the Register of Baptisms there from 1618 to 1623. 

Leiden, at that time was a small city, located about 25 miles from Amsterdam. It had a population of about 45,000 in 1622. Among the famous people who called Leiden their hometown was Rembrandt Harmenzoon van Rijn (1606-1669) and other Dutch Masters such as Jan Lievens (1607-1674) and Jan van Goyen (1596-1656). Rembrandt even lived in the same district as the Pilgrim Fathers, in the area surrounding Pieterskerk — a late-Gothic church, also called the church of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

This raises the possibility that my New Netherland Walloon family might have known some of my husband’s Pilgrim ancestors — the Mitchells, and Francis Cooke and Hester le Mahieu (who married about 20 July 1603, in Leiden; Hester was the daughter of Walloons). These families were all in Leiden about the same time. Additionally, some of the Pilgrims attended the same church — the Walloon Church (Vrouwekerk). They might have worked together in the cloth industry as weavers, wool combers, carders, or cloth-fullers. 

Perhaps the Walloon ancestry of Hester le Mahieu connects to my Vigné and Cuvelliers. If so, such a connection would probably date back to the middle-to-early 1500s and would be a first for my genealogical research outside of Switzerland.

Endnotes:

[1] American Ancestors Magazine. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010. (Volume 11.1 (2010), pp. 28-28. Online database https://www.AmericanAncestors.org/

[2] Macy, Harry Jr., The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter, 1999, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society at http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/

[3] Ver Planck, William Edward, compiler, History of Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, and his Male Descendants in America (1892; reprint, Fishkill Landing, New York: J. W. Spaight, 1892). (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002040693997 : accessed 7 April 2016.