Thriller Thursday - Hootch!

My great-grandfather Charles Creeden was county sheriff of Mercer County, Ohio from 1923-1927. One of the issues he dealt with was illegal liquor production during the prohibition era in the US. This article was published in the Lima News on November 28, 1924.

The article goes on to name the farmers and what each of them were caught with. Most of them had stills hidden on their farms and several gallons of whiskey. The lowest fine was $300 for having 1 1/2 gallons of whiskey in the house. The highest was $600 for having a 32 gallon barrel full of liquor, plus 12 gallons of "hootch" in jugs.

According to my father, resentment from the farmers remained a long time after my great-grandfather's term as sheriff. Sometime in the 1940s, Charles took my father to see the farmhouse he grew up in. The farmhouse was on a farm north of town and was no longer in use. The current land owner yelled at them to get off of his land and the farmhouse was burned down a short time after their visit. Charles told my father that the bad blood was due to the arrests he made during prohibition, so it was interesting to see a story about the raids.

Wordless Wednesday - Creedens

This group shot of the Creeden family was taken in 1934 in Celina, Ohio. From left to right, the adults are Lena Gleagall Creeden and her husband Daniel Creeden, Ida Belle Creeden Stout, Julia Creeden Balleweg and possibly her husband Lorenz Balleweg?, Anna Niehaus Creeden and her husband Charles Creeden. The two little girls in the front are Julia's daughters. I'm not sure who the boy and the other girl are, but they are probably either Julia's or Ida Belle's children. The Creeden adults are siblings.

Tombstone Tuesday - Anna Marie Schaefer

Mother
A Maria Pulskamp
Born Nov 17, 1833
Died Jul 1, 1886

Anna Marie (or Maria) Schaefer was my 2x great-grandmother. She was married to Herman Henry Pulskamp in 1854 in Cincinnati, Ohio and they made their home in Celina, Ohio. She was the mother of my great-grandfather, George F. Pulskamp. She is buried in the Northeast Section, Row 17 of St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Celina, Ohio. Thanks to tut of FindAGrave for taking the photo.

Military Monday - Memorial Day

Arlington National Cemetery

Memorial Day is a day to remember the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US Armed Forces. My great-uncle Julius Councill was killed in action on August 12, 1918 in a battle in Fismette, France during WWI. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Top photo is from Wikipedia. Thanks to Laura for posting the photo of Julius' grave on FindAGrave.

Sunday's Obituary - Herman Pulskamp III

This short notice was published in the Van Wert Daily Bulletin in Ohio on February 20, 1912. Herman Pulskamp, one of Celina's foremost business men, died quite suddenly, the result of pneumonia. He was fifty-two years of age.

Herman was the son of Herman H. Pulskamp and Anna Marie Schaefer and the grandson of Herman H. Pulskamp and Katharine Maria Staenke. Herman was a senior member in the H&J Pulskamp firm which was one of the largest furniture dealers in Celina, Ohio. He was married to Katie Heim and they had four children: Frederick, Clara, Elnora, and Ada. He is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Celina, Ohio.

Surname Saturday - Anna Marie Schaefer

When I did some "to do" lists for my 2x-great-grandparents, I realized that I didn't know anything about Anna Marie Schaefer other than her name. I'm not even entirely sure which version of her name is correct. I've seen Anna Marie, Mary Anna, and other variations and I've seen her last name spelled "Schaeffer". Whichever one is correct, in most of the records I've seen, she went by Mary.

Anna Marie Schaefer Pulskamp

I knew that she married Herman Henry Pulskamp around 1854 and they lived in Celina, Ohio. I have a family tree from a Pulskamp cousin that says she was born on November 17, 1833 in Hanover, Germany. The 1880 census agrees with that data and shows that she was 46 years old and that she and her parents were from Hanover. My great-grandfather George is listed as "Geo" and is 7 years old.

Mary's husband Herman was also from Hanover.  I've noticed as I've researched my German ancestors that many of the census records actually give a location, while records for my Irish ancestors never say anything but Ireland! I suppose some of that had to do with changing territories and borders in Germany.

A Google search turned up a match in A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio, published in 1896. The biography was about one of their sons, John Bernard Pulskamp, but included a bit of detail on Herman and Mary. The biography gives her year and place of marriage as 1854 in Cincinnati. It also states that she came to the US in 1848 and lists the seven children that were living in 1896.

With the info that Mary came to the US in 1848, I found a possible match in a passenger list for the Mary Adeline that arrived from Bremen, Germany on August 15, 1848.

  

A census entry for 1850 in Crawford County, Ohio appears to be the same family, so it's a possibility that this is Mary's family.

I also checked some online family trees, but didn't find anything definite for her parents. She was only 52 when she died and one tree mentioned that she died of consumption. I'm still not sure who Mary's parents were, but at least I have a few clues to follow up on now.

Sources:

• Year: 1880; Census Place: Celina, Mercer, Ohio; Roll: 1048; Family History. Film: 1255048; Page: 457B; Enumeration District: 187; Image: 0627. Ancestry.com online database
• Google Books: A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio, published in 1896 by A. W. Bowen & Co. in Chicago, IL
• Year: 1848; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237; Microfilm Roll: 74; Line: 1; List Number: 916; Page Number: 4. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 [database on-line]
• Year: 1850; Census Place: Jackson, Crawford, Ohio; Roll: M432_671; Page: 369A; Image: 105  Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]
• Thanks to LDarcy for posting the picture of Mary on FindAGrave.

Follow Friday - Week of May 24, 2013

Here are a few of my favorite finds for the past week:

• Follow Carolyn and Dan on Follow The Song as they take a musical trek through South America.
• Watch a mama falcon care for her four chicks on Ameren Falcon Cam.
• techshout lists the six best free genealogy software programs.
• Maryland Genealogy 101 has a great set of links for Maryland research.
• Cnet explains how to get your feeds and data out alive before Google Reader goes away.
• Randy posts a review on the "Tracing Your Colonial American Ancestors" special magazine and gives advice on how to research German ancestors on Genea-Musings.

Thrifty Thursday - Free Military Records for Memorial Day Weekend

Several sites are offering free access to their military records over the Memorial Day weekend.

From FindMyPast: With more than 34 million U.S. and International military records available at findmypast.com , we are offering free access to our military records and collection of veteran's gravesites to explore and learn about the heroic efforts in your family tree this Memorial Day weekend. Anyone can access the records by registering for free at findmypast.com.


From World Vital Records: In honor of Memorial Day we are providing free access to all our military records from now until May 28th. See what you can find today.

To commemorate the NARA-Ancestry.com agreement on the eve of Memorial Day, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Military Collection -- the largest online collection of American military records -- available for free to the public. From May 20 through May 31, people can log on to http://www.ancestry.com/military to view more than 100 million names and 700 titles and databases of military records, the majority of which come from NARA, from all 50 U.S. states.

From MyHeritage: Memorial Day in the US  is May 27, and millions of Americans will remember the men and women who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. In honor of this special day, we are proud to provide free access - through May 28 -  to our most popular collections of US military records.

From Fold3: Today marks the 150th anniversary of the USCT, and the National Archives is pleased to announce the completion of the USCT Service Records Digitization Project. In partnership with Fold3, the project provides online access to all service records—more than 3.8 million images—of Union volunteers in USCT units. From May 22 to 31, the digital collection will be free on www.Fold3.com.

Do you know of any other sites offering free access?

Wednesday's Child - Ida Belle Creeden

Ida Belle Creeden

Ida Belle Creeden was the only daughter of Daniel Creeden and Lena Gleagall of Mercer County, Ohio. She was born on December 8, 1904 and died on August 11, 1916 at the age of only eleven years old. Daniel and Lena had lost their only son Ned the year before. One of Daniel's sisters was also named Ida Belle. Thanks to tut on FindAGrave for posting the picture of Ida Belle's grave. She is buried in the North Grove Cemetery in Celina, Ohio.

Mystery Monday - Which William is Which?

I've been trying to find information on each of the children for Patrick Creedan and Hannah Hoover of Clinton County, Ohio. I believe Patrick is my 3x great-grandfather and he had several children by his second wife, Hannah. Their son John Creedan was born in 1853 and died in 1923 in Mercer County, Ohio. John's brother Patrick William was born in 1864 and is more of a mystery.

John married Minerva McFarland in 1875 in Clinton County, Ohio and they had 3 children: Hiram H., Flora, and Estelle/Stella. John married a second time to Ida Phillips in Darke County, Ohio in 1896.

The following census record is from Darke County, Ohio and looks like a definite match for John. He is listed with his wife Ida and daughters Flora and Stella. Right next to him is William Creedan with his wife Mary and several children. William is the same age as my Patrick William and living next to my John Creedan, but is this the same person? It's possible that Patrick William used his middle name since his father's name was also Patrick. For both John and William, their father is listed as being born in Ireland, while their mother was born in Ohio. This would be correct for my family.

John Creedan and William Creedan in Darke County, Ohio - 1900

I looked through the family trees on Ancestry.com and found that several list William Creedan as the son of Timothy and Ellen Creeden. However, they reference the same 1900 census record shown above as one of their sources. None of the trees mention a John Creedan, but I decided to do a little investigating on Timothy and Ellen Creeden.  Here they are in the 1870 census for Hamilton County, Ohio:

Timothy and Eleanor Creden in Hamilton County, Ohio - 1870

Surprise, they also have a son John born around 1854! His brother William is 7, so these ages are close to the ones in Darke County in 1900. Below is the same family in the 1880 census for Hamilton County, Ohio. They also have a son named Laurence in this census.

Timothy and Eleanor Creeden in Hamilton County, Ohio - 1880

The Ancestry trees indicate that William and his family moved to Kansas where William died in 1909. Here is the family in Sedgwick, Kansas in the 1905 Kansas Census:

W.P. Creeden in Sedgwick, Kansas census in 1905

I also found an entry in the 1900 census for a William Creeden that looks suspiciously like the son of Timothy and Ellen from Hamilton County. Notice that he is the correct age and has a son named Laurence. Both of his parents are listed as being born in Ireland.

William Creeden in 1900 census in Hamilton County, Ohio

I found the above William's marriage record on FamilySearch. William and Margaret were married in 1883 in Hamilton County and by a stroke of luck William's father Timothy gave consent on the marriage form. So, this William is the son of a Timothy. I went back to the family trees on Ancestry and there are a number of them with this William as the son of the same Timothy and Ellen.

So, which trees have the correct William? My suspicions are that the William that stayed in Hamilton County is the son of Timothy and Ellen and the William that moved to Kansas is a different William. The information I've found so far seems to suggest that he may be my Patrick William, but more investigation is definitely needed.

Sunday's Obituary - Catherine Creedon O'Connor

FUNERAL SERVICES MONDAY

FOR MRS. JOHN O'CONNOR

   Funeral services will be held Monday at 9:30 a. in., at St. John's Catholic church, for Mrs. Catherine O'Connor, 52, wife of John M. O'Connor, who died Friday at 4:30 p.m. at her home, 124 W. Circular-st. Interment will be at Gethsemani.

   Mrs. O'Connor was born in Mallow, County of Cork, Ireland.    A brother, Patrick Creedon and a sister, Mrs. Daniel Corbett, still reside in Ireland.    Mrs. Richard Tobin, Greenlawn-ave and Mrs. Dennis O'Connor, S. Union-st, are surviving sisters.

   Of her immediate family, the husband and a daughter, Mrs. H. C. McElroy, 122 W, Circular-st, and two grand-children, Joanne and Harold McElroy, Jr., are left. Mrs. 'OConner had been a resident of Lima 34 years.

This obituary was published in the Lima News, Ohio on March 11, 1922.

Friday's Faces From the Past - Robert F. Creeden

This picture of my grandfather, Robert F. Creeden wasn't dated, but he was born in 1911 in Celina, Ohio. I'm not a great judge of ages, but would guess he's around 5 or 6 here.

Tombstone Tuesday - C. Maria E. Tebben Hagedorn

Birth: Sep. 11, 1786, Germany
Death: Oct. 1, 1877
Saint Rosa
Mercer County
Ohio, USA

C. Maria E. Tebben Hagedorn and her husband Hermann Hagedorn came to the US from Germany. I haven't found out what her first initial stood for, but I would guess she might be another Catherine in my tree. Hermann and Maria were my 4x great-grandparents and were the parents of Katharina Maria Hagedorn Gast. Thanks to Cousin Becky of FindAGrave for posting the photo.

Sentimental Sunday - 40th Anniversary of Skylab

Skylab I launch from Pad 39A, KSC

NASA is marking the 40th anniversary of Skylab this Monday with a televised discussion featuring Skylab astronauts.

From the NASA press release: NASA launched Skylab on May 14, 1973. It was the nation's first foray into significant scientific research in microgravity. The three Skylab crews proved humans could live and work effectively for long durations in space. The knowledge gathered during Skylab helped inform development and construction of the International Space Station, just as the research and technology demonstrations being conducted aboard the ISS will help shape a new set of missions that will take Americans farther into the solar system. 

This brings back a lot of memories for me since my Dad spent most of his career working at the Kennedy Space Center for NASA. The photos below are of the Skylab Activation Crew at Kennedy Space Center. My Dad is on the right in the first photo and the second from the right in the second photo. If anyone can identify the other people in the photo, please let me know! I would guess these were taken in 1972.

 

In 1972, NASA sent a bio and interview with my Dad to his hometown newspapers in Celina and Dayton and to the University of Dayton where he received his degree in Civil Engineering in 1958. It's a nice record of his career up to that point. He continued to work with NASA until his retirement in 1990.

I think my Dad would be sad to see a time when we don't have the capability to launch a vehicle to the Space Station. This quote from him was in the second page of the press packet:

"I believe that each new frontier opened to man must be explored and examined for all the knowledge it may yield," he said. "I think this is the responsibility for the leading nation of the world, and, for it to shirk from the responsibility may invite disaster at some future point of time, be it concerning space program, oceanographic research, or advanced medical and socialogical research."

Picture of the Skylab launch is from NASA's Skylab page.

Surname Saturday - 2x Great-Grandparents

I mentioned in my Gast surname post that I'd finally posted some information for each of my lines at the great-grandparent level. I've skipped around quite a bit and some posts were a lot more detailed than others, but these posts have really helped me to organize my data and see what's missing.

In the graphics below, I'm showing the parents for each of my great-grandparents and taking a quick look at how much research I've done on them to date.

I probably have the most data on the Creeden famly since they're the ones I started out researching. I'd still like to find an actual vital record for Timothy Creeden and find out more about Mary Ann Matson's grandparents. I think Timothy's parents are Patrick Creedan and Mary Coakley from Clondrohid, Ireland, but I'd like to find more evidence to back that up. The main mystery on the Niehaus side is what happened to Anna Niehaus' brother Albert Rohrer?

Next up:

• Do a detailed timeline on Timothy to see what records I'm still missing
• Follow up with Clinton County Genealogy Society. I wrote them in January to see what info they might have on the Creeden and Matson families and was contacted in March by someone that said she had information on the families. Updating to add that I should be receiving the information from the Clinton County Genealogy Society soon!
• Retrace steps on Albert Rohrer.

I've been going through the Queen Anne's County, MD probate records on FamilySearch for these families and I've found probate files or wills for Francis Councill, his wife Mary, and Samuel and Susan Sparks. I still have a lot of data to go through and posted earlier about how intertwined these families were. I don't know the parents for Mary Meredith or anything about her family, although some other Merediths pop up in the census records.

Next up:

• Organize the data I've collected recently and enter into my family tree.
• Transcribe the wills and probate info I've found on FamilySearch.

I haven't researched my Schaefer line at all and don't know too much about my Desch family. I just recently found the will of Catherine's father Ferdinand Desch on FamilySearch, so I'll transcribe that in a future post. I have quite a bit of info on the Pulskamps and Gasts, but some of it still needs to be sorted out.

Next up:

• Start researching the Schaefer line. Woot, a whole new line to investigate!
• Transcribe the will for Ferdinand Desch.

I've posted some information on my Willis and Chilcutt families, but still have a lot of research to do on these lines. I have even less data on the Adams and Covey lines. I have a head start for all of these thanks to people that shared their family trees. It is much appreciated!

Next up:

• Organize the data I've collected on these families and enter into my family tree.
• Continue going through the probate info on FamilySearch.

So that's a quick glance at where I am for my 2x great-grandparents. Looks like I have a long "to do" list!

Friday's Faces From the Past - Niehaus Sisters

From left to right: Agnes Niehaus, Roger Zimpher, Anne Niehaus, Charles Creeden, Bergie Niehaus, Frank Adair of Celina, Ohio

Charles and Anne were my great-grandparents. I'm not sure when this was taken, but I would guess around 1905. This is one of the earliest pictures I have of Charles and Anne and they look really young here.

Tombstone Tuesday - Hermann Hagedorn

Birth: Feb. 13, 1778, Germany
Death: Mar. 28, 1871
Saint Rosa
Mercer County
Ohio, USA

Hermann Hagedorn and his wife C. Maria E. Tebben Hagedorn came to the US from Germany. They were my 4x great-grandparents and were the parents of Katharina Maria Hagedorn Gast. Thanks to Cousin Becky of FindAGrave for posting the photo.

Amanuensis Monday - Index to the O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland collection

The O'Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland collection by Albert E. Casey is made up of 16 large volumes containing a huge collection of Irish records covering parts of County Cork and County Kerry. The Casey volumes were printed in the 1950s-1970s and are out of print now. They are in a few libraries around the world and show up on used booksellers sites from time to time.

The collection includes a separate index volume that can help narrow down which book contains the information for a topic and date range. I posted previously about Finding Aids for the volumes, but one thing I haven't seen is a Table of Contents for the index volume itself.

The index isn't quite what you'd expect. While it contains a Table of Contents for each of the 16 volumes in the collection, it also has additional data. Following is the Table of Contents for the index volume.

                                            TABLE OF CONTENTS
                                                                                                                
Introduction

Ireland - maps of provinces and counties - Pages 1-2

Table - the 100 most common surnames in Ireland, 1890 - Page 3

Munster province - map with counties and cities - Page 4

County of Kerry - maps, baronies, parishes, townlands - Pages 5-26

County of Cork - maps, baronies, parishes, townlands  - Pages 27-68 

Map and Table - baronies and parishes in North Cork and East
Kerry along the Blackwater River with identifying numbers
(includes adjoining baronies in Limerick, Tipperary) (see
index pages 8-9 & 29-38 for maps of over 1000 townlands)  - Pages 69-70

Map - streams and places in North Cork and East Kerry - Page 71

Map - North Cork and East Kerry, AD 1602  - Page 72

Most common surnames in North Cork and East Kerry (Griffith's
Valuations 1851) according to heads of families - Page 73

Frequency Distribution of surnames in North Cork & E. Kerry
1851 by parish - those indigenous (P.01) to a parish are
underlined  - Pages 74-77

Tax lists counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary
1851-1852 (Griffith's Valuations)  - Page 78

Tax list North Cork and East Kerry 1823-1834 (Tithes) - Page 79

Landowners, leaseholders counties of Cork and Kerry 500-1908 - Page 80

Diocese of Cloyne, Co.Cork Anglican Church of Ireland 568-1965  - Page 81

Religious Society of Friends in Ireland 1623-1863  - Page 81

Births, Baptisms, Marriages - Cork, Kerry 1291-1900  - Page 82

Diocese of Kerry (Roman Catholic)
   Marriages and Baptisms 1785-1900   - Page 83

Tombstone Inscriptions Cork, Kerry 1237-1908 - Page 84

Wills, Deaths, Administrations 3100 BC - 1900 AD - Page 85

Births, Deaths, Marriages, Events, Newspapers 1749-1948 - Page 86

Lineages and Family Data  - Page 87-93

Miscellaneous data in the O'Kief Series - Page 94

Tables of Contents Volumes I-XVI  - Pages 95-138

Books,Ledgers,Manuscripts Photoprinted, Reprinted or Abstracted - Pages 139-143

The index starts off with some high level maps and a list of the 100 most common surnames in Ireland in 1890. My Creedon and Coakley surnames aren't common outside of County Cork, so not surprising that they didn't make the list. The top five surnames are Murphy, Kelly, Sullivan, Walsh, and Smith. I think I'm lucky mine aren't that common!

Pages 4-72 contain lists and maps of the baronies, parishes, and townlands in County Cork and County Kerry. Each parish is assigned a number which is used on the various maps where that townland appears.

Page 73 lists the top surnames in 1851 in the areas of County Cork and County Kerry covered by the volumes. This time Creedon made the list and is listed as an Irish surname with 90 families.

Pages 74-77 have tables showing the frequency of a surname in each parish in 1851. Those that Casey deemed indigenous to the parish are underlined. This is probably one of the more useful items outside of the Tables of Contents, since it gives a quick overview of the parishes where a surname is most common.

The last line in the example above shows that the Creedon surname had 29 families in Clondrohid parish in 1851. The same numbering system used on the maps is used to identify the parishes and Clondrohid was given number 13. Since the 29 is underlined, that also means Casey identified Creedon as "indigenous" to the parish, but I'm not sure what Casey's guidelines were for that designation.

The next sections identify the Volume number and page ranges for various topics, including a fairly large list of lineages and family data. Finally, on pages 95-138, the actual Table of Contents for each Volume is listed.

The index ends with a couple of long, detailed "scientific" articles by Casey that aren't even mentioned in the Table of Contents. The first of these is called  Odyssey of the Irish Documented by Blood Group and Craniometric Analysis. I wonder what Casey would think of today's DNA analysis!

In future posts, I'll detail some of the individual sections in the index.

Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.

Sunday's Obituary - Barbara Borcherding Councill

This obituary was published in The Daily Times of Salisbury, MD on Tuesday, December 29, 1964.

Mrs. Geo. Borcherding
   OCEAN CITY — A funeral service will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Holloway Funeral Home, Salisbury, for Mrs. Barbara C. Borcherding, 74. She died yesterday at Peninsula General Hospital after a pro-longed illness.
   The Rev. William L. Dewees, rector of St. Paul's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church here, will officiate and will be assisted by the Rev. F. Howard Truitt, pastor of Berlin's Stevenson Methodist Church. Interment will be in Chesterfield cemetery, Centreville.
   She and her husband, George H. Borcherding, who survives, moved to W. Ocean City about 19 years ago from Baltimore. She was in Queenstown.
   Additional survivors are a son, William H., Riviera Beach, Md.; two granddaughters, three great-grandchildren; four brothers, Oscar F. Councill, Media, Pa., J. Herbert Councill, Chester, Pa.; Royce Councill, New Castle, and Hersey Councill, Deal, Md.; and four sisters, Mrs. Mabel Lee, Albany, N.Y., Mrs. Thomas King, Mrs. Edward Parlett and Mrs. Hilda Melka, all of Baltimore.
   Friends may call at the funeral home tomorrow after 9 a.m.

Barbara was born in 1890 to parents John Wesley Councill and Ariana Sparks of Queen Anne's County, Maryland. She was the sister of my grandfather Royce Councill.

Follow Friday - Week of May 3, 2013

Here are a few of my favorite finds for the past week:

• Yvonne of Yvonne's Genealogy Blog has some great First Communion pictures and a sad story on the brief life of Gaston Desgroseilliers.
• Diane of Nuts from the Family Tree shares some wisdom on jumping to the wrong conclusions, keeping track of contacts, and capturing source information.
• The Armchair Genealogist has a 10 Step Plan for getting sources and citations under control.
• The Generous Genealogists site offers free help with your genealogy research.
• The OShea Surname site has some good links to explore for Irish research.
• Heather of Leaves for Trees posts about a treasured screwdriver and has an interesting series about her abolitionist ancestor, Daniel D. Lightner.