52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1 - Start at the Beginning

The prompt for this week is Start at the Beginning. According to The Sound of Music, "the beginning is a very good place to start." Who was the first person you wanted to find when you began your genealogy journey? Was there a family member who sparked your interest, perhaps by giving you a treasure trove of genealogy "stuff"?

It's been a while since I've posted about my initial genealogy quest. The first person I wanted to find out about was my Irish great-great-grandfather Timothy Creeden. My dad was the one that sparked my interest with stories passed down from his grandfather. He had a treasure trove of family pictures, but none of Timothy. He had done some research in the 70s and 80s, but we didn't make much progress until more things became available online in the 90s and early 2000s. He put together a tentative family tree with the names he remembered and that was enough to get me started.

 

Eventually I was able to find that Timothy was born in 1846 in Clondrohid, County Cork to Patrick Creedan and Mary Coakley. He had two sisters and several half siblings from Patrick's family in Ohio. In addition to the children my dad knew of, Timothy had Patrick, James, Mary Elizabeth, Dennis and Edward.

At about the same time, one of my uncles was researching my mom's families and put together a set of family trees for us. They were a great starting point for my research on that side of the family. His trees contain living people, so I'll just post this intriguing snippet from a letter he sent along with the trees.

 

So far, I haven't been able to verify the Wales origins of my Godwin family or that my Sparks ancestors came over on a ship called the Dove. This is probably referring to the pair of ships called the Ark and the Dove that sailed from the Isle of Wight off of the coast of Hampshire, England to Maryland in 1633. I think my Sparks may have come over a few years after that, but it's possible some of their relatives were on the Dove. From DNA testing, I know that my mom and I do have some Welsh ancestry, so that's a possibility to keep in mind for my Godwin ancestors.

While I've learned a tremendous amount about my ancestors since my initial quest, there are still a lot of mysteries to solve. I'll address some of those in future posts this year.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Origins

The theme for this week is "Origins". Genealogists often get the question, "Where is your family from?". 

I do get asked that question, so I'm using this post to document what I know about my family's origins and what is still a mystery. Most of my maternal ancestors eventually settled in Queen Anne's County, Maryland or nearby counties. The chart below shows some of my maternal immigrant ancestors and my best guess at where they're from. Italics indicate data where I haven't found any supporting records. While some of these lines can be traced down to my ancestors, some of them get a bit murky in the middle and it's presumed that my lines are related to the immigrant ancestors.

The origins of my Chilcutt, Covey, Godwin and Meredith ancestors are unknown and I haven't traced my Councill line back further than Henry Councill. There was a Dennis Councill/Councell in the estate records of a Jacobus Seth in Talbot County, Maryland as early as 1698. It's possible that he is Henry Councill's father or other relation, but I haven't seen any proof of that so far.

Maternal Immigrant Ancestors

The next chart shows the main lines for my paternal immigrant ancestors. Most of them arrived in the US in the 1800s so the relationships are easier to prove than with my maternal side. The exceptions are my Matson and Clevenger lines. John Matson still remains mostly a mystery. He is the ancestor of my great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Matson Creeden. He was married to Nancy Ann Clevenger and they moved from Virginia to Clinton County, Ohio in the early 1800s. Mary is also related to the Clevengers through her mother Dortha Clevenger.

Paternal Immigrant Ancestors

A final note is that these origins match up pretty well with the ethnicity estimates from Ancestry DNA tests for me, my sister and my mother. My estimates show roughly 1/3 England/NW Europe, 1/3 Germanic Europe and 1/3 a  mix from Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Sweden/Denmark. The English and Welsh are from my maternal side, while the Germanic Europe and Sweden/Denmark are paternal. I have Irish and Scottish ancestry on both sides. The Meredith surname originated in Wales, so that's a possibility for the Welsh ancestry.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 11 - Flowers - Rose Creeden

The theme this week is "Flowers."  Spring isn't far off for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and with that comes thoughts of flowers — which, not coincidentally, is this week's theme! Any Roses, Daisys, or Petunias in the family?

 

Rose Creeden was the half sister of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden. I've posted about Rose before, but have found a couple of new records for her since then. Timothy became her guardian after their father Patrick's death in 1883 and the guardianship papers showed that they moved from Clinton County to Mercer County, Ohio. These records helped to provide proof that Timothy was the son of Patrick Creedan of Clinton County.

Rose was born on 02 May 1861 in Clinton County, Ohio to Patrick Creedan and Hannah Hoover. She was baptized in St. Brigid's parish in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio. I've only recently become aware that a lot of my family's church records are in Greene County probably due to that being the closest Catholic church during the 1850s and 1860s. The baptismal record from St. Brigid's is shown below. The full record is available on FindMyPast.com.

Patrick's will of 1883 left two shares of his estate to be used for the care of Rose. According to the will and guardianship probate records, Rose was unable to care for herself. Timothy served as her guardian until at least 10 December 1895 when Rose was admitted to the Mercer County Infirmary. I don't know if she was admitted to the home because Timothy could no longer care for her financially or if her condition became worse. The money set aside for her care in Patrick's will may have run out by then. Timothy died in 1899 and there was no mention of Rose in his will.

In 1914, the infirmary underwent renovations and an inspection according to a newspaper article in The Coldwater Chronicle, published on 05 May 1914. The article states: "The women that were not too feeble to be about greeted the visitors warmly... Rose Creeden was busy with her day’s round of cleaning, in which she takes extraordinary pride.". Rose was also listed as a housekeeper in the 1880 census, so it does seem like she was able to do some tasks. The paragraph of the article the mentions Rose is shown below. The full article is available at The Coldwater Chronicle archives.

 

Rose lived out the rest of her life in the Mercer County Infirmary and died on 30 June 1922. 

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 23 - Bridge - Nowland Land Patents in Maryland

The theme this week is "Bridge." A bridge connects two things that are separated, whether it's land or people (maybe even time?).

I'm going to use this prompt to write about land records for tracts of land called Woodbridge and Bandon Bridge in Cecil County, Maryland. Bandon Bridge was granted to Darby Noland and Woodbridge to Dennis Nowland.

My Nowland ancestors came from Ireland to Maryland in the 1600s and settled in Cecil County. I'm still sorting out some of the relationships, but my current Nowland tree is shown below. Dermond and Dennis are thought to have been born in Ireland. Dermond's wife Anne is referenced as Anne Browning/Browne in some of the land sale and probate records, so she most likely remarried to a Browning. The Browning name is also mentioned in the Rent Rolls for the land.

The book Settlers of Maryland, 1679-1783. Consolidated Edition has the following entries for Dermond and Dennis: The book is available on Ancestry.com.

Note that the entry for Dennis Nowland should be for Woodbridge and not Moodbridge. I included the entry for Pierce Noland since he was in Cecil County at the same time. He sold his land without developing it and settled in Virginia. His will didn't mention Darby or Dermond, so I don't know if they were related.

The patent record for Bandon Bridge is in Book NS B, page 535. The patents are available on the Maryland Archives website. The patent record entry is long, so I'm showing a shorter transcription from Book 22, page 351 below.

 

The record shows that Darby Nolan was granted 60 acres of a tract of land called Bandon Bridge on the South of St. Augustine Creek in Cecil County in May 1687. It describes the location of the land and says that it bounds a tract of land called Woodbridge and also mentions a tract called Coch's Forrest.

The patent record for Woodbridge is in Book EE 6, page 76 and is dated September 9, 1714. 

 

The record states: "Patent to Dennis Nowland of Cecil County, son heir at law and devisee of Dermond O'Houllaughane aka Nowland late of the said county for a tract of land lyeing in the said county called Woodbridge originally laid out in the year of our Lord 1680 for one David Mackinna for two hundred acres and by him conveyed to one Cornelius Machneahin? and the Dermond in Joint Tenancy with said Dermond being the survivor became possessor of the whole."

The names given in the Woodbridge record are interesting and I'm guessing spellings may have been mangled. I can't find any references to the surname O'Houllaughane, although I found a few with similar spellings. Darby can be a nickname for Dermot, so Dermond might not be the correct spelling either. An index of Irish surnames from 1659 lists Holaghan,    Hologhane, Hologhan and O Hollahan and a Hoolihan name study lists variants for Ó hUALLACHÁIN including Nolan.

I found a little more history of Woodbridge on page 200 of The History of the Society of Jesus. The text states that David Mackenny sold Woodbridge to Darby Nowland and that his son Dennis sold the land to James Heath.

I was able to find more about the Nowlands in the rent rolls, land sales and probate records for Cecil County, so I'll follow up on those records in future posts.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2021 - Weeks 11 and 12 - Fortune and Loss - Edward C. Councell

Week 11's theme is "Fortune." Merriam-Webster gives several definitions for fortune: A large sum of money; prosperity attained partly through luck; or destiny, fate. Week 12's theme is "Loss." Loss is universal. There are many ways to explore this theme, whether it's the loss of a loved one, a livelihood, freedom.

Edward C. Councell was working for The Charleston Daily Courier newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina when he had the good fortune to win $15,000 in the Union Canal lottery of May 1828.  

The Charleston Daily Courier, May 16, 1828

In June of the same year he married Agnes Wallace, daughter of Thomas Wallace of Charleston.

The Charleston Daily Courier, June 09, 1828

Edward worked at several newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina before branching out to run his own book and job printing business. He was running a successful business in 1852 when misfortune struck and he was forced to sell his shop due to rapidly declining health. Edward died in May of 1854 due to consumption.

One of my Maryland ancestors is Edward Carey Councell of Maryland, so I was intrigued to see whether or not the lotto winning Edward C. Councell from Charleston was related to him. An obituary for Edward from May 19, 1854 in The Baltimore Sun confirmed my suspicion that Edward was from Maryland.

The Baltimore Sun, May 19, 1854

Another article from the Charleston Courier printed on June 22, 1854 states that Edward was a native of Talbot County, MD and left behind a widow, sister and an only son.

I found some mentions of Edward in Talbot County records that show he was the son of John Council. Edward C. Council was indentured to a printer in 1813 at the age of 15, placing his birth year at 1798. The following image is from the book Bound to serve: the indentured children of Talbot County, Maryland by R. Bernice Leonard. The book is available on FamilySearch.org.

Indenture of Edward C. Council in 1813

Edward was named as a grandson in the will of Elizabeth Browning written in 1807 and filed in 1809 in Talbot County, MD. She left most of her estate to her three daughters Eleanor, Elizabeth and Mary and grandchildren Edward, Eleanor and John Council Jr., but also mentions her daughter Ann Council, wife of John in the will.

From Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1655-1850 on Ancestry.com, Eleanor Counsell married Henry Newcomb in January 7, 1823 in Talbot County, MD. Eleanor Newcomb was named as a niece in the will of Mary Browning in 1826 in Talbot County.

In a Talbot County land sale recorded in book JP 62, page 288 Edward C. Councell and his wife Agnes sold land to Nicholas Willis. The record states that Edward and Agnes are living in Chatham County, GA and are selling land in Island Creek, Talbot County, MD. The tract of land was known by the names Hier Dyer Lloyd and Clora Dorsey and was from the estate of their deceased mother Ann Marie Councell. The deed was recorded on September 25, 1849.

There are additional land records in JP 59, starting on page 510 that show sales of parts of Hier Dyer Lloyd and Clora Dorsey from John Councell and his wife Ruth and from Ellen Newcomb. Both of these sales are also to Nicholas Willis and mention their deceased mother Ann Marie Councell. The land records are available on MDLandRec.net.

The records and articles listed above establish that John Councell and his wife Ann Marie Browning had at least 3 children: John Jr., Edward C., and Eleanor and that their child Edward was the one from Charleston. I believe that John the father may be the brother of my 4x great-grandfather Edward Carey Councell, but need to do more research to be sure.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow. Newspaper articles in this post are available on Newspapers.com.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2021 - Week 8 - Power

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is Power.

This is a new prompt in the 52 Ancestors series this year and it reminded me of an article I came across about the power of Mother Nature. The article tells the story of a young girl who was struck by lightning in her home in Clinton County, Ohio. My Creeden family also lived in Clinton County, but had moved to Mercer County, Ohio by the time of this story.

The following article was published in The Journal Republican in Wilmington, Ohio on March 26, 1913. Mary Creeden was dressing for school when a lightning bolt struck the house and knocked her unconscious. The article mentions that she was in the house of Mrs. John Creeden.and that Mary was the fourteen year old daughter.

   During the hard thunder shower that prevailed for several hours Tuesday morning, the house of Mrs. John Creeden in south-east Wilmington was struck by lightning and the fourteen-year-old daughter, Mary, was very seriously injured. The sharp dash of lightning came at about twenty minutes of 8 o'clock as many people about town remember. Mary was in her room dressing for school when the bolt struck the house. She was rendered unconscious and for a time it was believed that she had been killed. Others of the family in other parts of the house did not feel the effects of the lightning to any serious extent. It seems that the full force of the bolt was directed upon the room in which Mary was dressing and she alone of the family felt its deadly power. Some members of the family were at the church and they, with Rev. Father Higgins, hastened to the home. Dr. Austin was summoned and rendered medical aid to relieve her sufferings. Though she was badly burned about the face and the right side of the body, it is believed that she will recover. The fright and great pain have produced a nervous condition that augments the gravity of the danger.

Given how severe Mary's injuries were, I wondered what became of her. From census records for Clinton County, Ohio, Mary was the daughter of John Creeden and Margaret Ann Dooley. Mary's father died in 1909 in Clinton County according to Ohio death records. In the 1920 census, Mary is living with her sister Sarah in Washington DC and both are working as clerks for the government. Mary is working for the Department of the Treasury. In the 1930 census, Mary is living in Alexandria, VA with her mother and has a government job as a clerk. Her brother Joseph is also living with them and is a fireman. 

In the 1940 census, Mary is again living with Sarah and still working as a government clerk. She owns her home and is making a salary of $2000 a year. The census shows that she completed 4 years of high school and that Sarah completed 4 years of college.

A short obituary for Mary appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer on March 8, 1976. It appears that she moved back to Ohio maybe to be closer to family after retiring.

 

 #52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow. Newspaper articles are available on Newspapers.com.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2020 - Week 2 - Favorite Photo

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is Favorite Photo.

This was one of the first photos I saw in my dad's collection and it's always been one of my favorites. It's one of the few photos I have of my great-grandfather Charles Creeden when he was younger. I love the clothes and hats in the picture. The back of the photo is labeled with "Charles and brothers". I know that Charles is the one in the middle, but I'm not sure which of his brothers are in the picture.

Charles Creeden (middle) and brothers

Charles was born in 1886 and was married in 1907. The family picture in the header of my blog shows Charles and his young family around 1911. I think he looks a little older in the family picture, so maybe the picture of the brothers was taken before then. The clothes in the picture are consistent with being in that time period and may provide some clues.

My guess is that Charles' younger brother Joshua is on the left and his brother Edward is on the right. Joshua was born in 1894 and Edward in 1884. Just for fun, I uploaded the photo to Microsoft's how-old.net site. This site is not known for being accurate and I do think it's quite a bit off in this case! It did suggest that Charles was the older brother in the picture and I agree with that.

Age guesses from how-old.net

The other possibilities for brothers would be Daniel, born in 1879 and Dennis, born in 1878. Since they were both a few years older than Charles, I don't think they are in the picture. I don't have any other photos of Edward and the ones of Joshua were taken when he was quite a bit older. The brother on the right doesn't look like Joshua, so I'm going with the theory that he is Edward for now. And of course, one other possibility is that the picture was labeled wrong and those aren't Charles' brothers after all!

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2020 - Week 1 - Fresh Start

I'm once again going to do some blog posts based on Amy Johnson's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompts. Thanks to Amy for developing the prompts!

The first 52 Ancestors prompt for 2020 is Fresh Start. The themes are meant to be open to interpretation :-) Perhaps you have an ancestor who had to make a fresh start after a loss or setback. Maybe you had to make a fresh start on researching a particular ancestor.

I'm going to use this prompt to make a fresh start on my genealogy goals for 2020. Every once in awhile, I refer back to a post about my 2x great-grandparents and my research progress for each line. A lot of those goals still apply and I plan on doing a more detailed update of my progress for each line as I review my research.

Here are my initial 2020 goals. I hope to apply these to each of my lines shown below.

• Review my digital files and identify information I haven't posted yet.
• Update my surname posts for each line with any new information.
• Identify areas to concentrate my research on for 2020.
• Continue with the 52 Ancestor prompts. 
• Use Family Tree Magazine's 2020 Genealogy Research Plan as a guide to setting additional goals. There are some great ideas here! 
  

The graphics below show my great-grandparents and 2x great-grandparents.

Great-grandparents for my Councill and Sparks families - Maryland

Great-grandparents for my Willis and Chilcutt families - Maryland, Delaware

Great-grandparents for my Pulskamp and Gast families - Ohio, Germany

Great-grandparents for my Creeden and Niehaus families - Ohio, Ireland, Germany

If anyone is interested in any of these lines, please leave me a comment on this post. I'd love to hear from you and would be glad to share information.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 12 - 12

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "12". If you look at a numbered ancestor chart and you're at the beginning of it, #12 is your mother's father's father. You could also write about someone with a birthday or anniversary in December or on the 12th of any month.

My mother's father's father was John Wesley Councill and as I looked through my blog posts I realized I haven't written too much about him.

John was born on Feb. 9, 1959 in Centreville, MD to Francis Councill and Mary Ann Meredith. John married Ariana Sparks on Feb. 2, 1887 in Maryland and the couple had 14 children from 1888 to 1907. My grandfather Royce Councill was one of the younger children and was born in 1902 in Queen Anne's County, MD. 
 
In the 1860 census, John is listed with his parents in Queen Anne's County, MD. His father Francis is a farmer. I've found that his birth years vary quite a bit in the census records and in this one, he appears to be 6 years old, placing his year of birth around 1854.

1860 US Census, District 3, Queen Anne's County, MD

In the 1870 census, John's age is given as 13, placing his birth year around 1857.
 

1870 US Census, District 3, Queen Anne's County, MD

In the 1880 census, there is a 21 year old John Councill living with his uncle Thomas Councill in Talbot County, MD. John is working as a farm hand.

John's father Francis died in 1887 and he inherited a section of land in Queen Anne's County. By 1900, John and Ariana have 9 children. Some of his wife's family are also living with them on their farm in Queen Anne's County.

1900 US Census, District 3, Queen Anne's County, MD

A newspaper article published in the Baltimore Sun on May 20, 1908 shows that John had a Queenstown, MD address and was opening a boarding house called the Chester Hotel. It's not clear from the ad whether the hotel was in Queenstown or Baltimore, but this may be the same boarding house as the one listed in the 1910 census.

In 1908, John and Ariana sold their land in Queen Anne's County and according to the 1910 census, they were operating a boarding house in Baltimore, MD. There were 8 boarders living at the house. This census shows that they had 14 children with 12 still living. Their son Julius didn't want to move to the city and was living with an aunt and uncle in Queen Anne's County. I couldn't find their oldest son Herbert in the 1910 census, but he is living in Pennsylvania in the 1920 census.

1910 US Census, Baltimore, MD

John died on Dec. 5, 1916 in Baltimore and his occupation on his death certificate was listed as a watchman in a bank. He is buried in the Baltimore Cemetery on 2500 East North Avenue, Baltimore.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 52 - Resolution

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Resolution". It's the time of year when many people look ahead and make resolutions. Is there an ancestor you plan to concentrate on researching next year? (Maybe that brick wall ancestor?) 

It's hard to believe we're on the last week of 2018! First of all, much thanks to Amy Johnson Crow for the 52 Ancestors prompts. I didn't have as much time as I'd like to spend on the blog this year and they helped keep me going.

I've posted previously on my 2x great-grandparents and where I'm at with research on each of them. I have more mysteries to solve on my maternal side, so plan to concentrate on that next year. Most of them are from Queen Anne's County, MD and the surrounding counties.

2x great-grandparents for my Councill and Sparks families

For my Councill and Sparks lines, I plan to concentrate on the Meredith and Godwin families. I have some DNA matches that might help with these lines, so plan to delve into that a bit more.

2x great-grandparents for my Willis and Chilcutt families

For the Willis and Chilcutt lines, I plan to concentrate on George Chilcutt. My brick wall for most of my Queen Anne's County lines is finding the evidence to link my direct ancestors with the research others have done on these families.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 38 - Unusual Source - Sisters of Charity Email

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Unusual Source". The prompt had the following questions:

What is the most unusual source you've ever used? An email from a nun working at the Sisters of Charity Archives in Mount St. Joseph, Ohio.

What did it tell you? The email told me that Julia Creedan entered the Sisters of Charity convent in Cincinnati in 1870. She took her vows in 1872 and received the name of Sister Mary Felix. The email also gave some of Julia's work history with the Sisters and gave her date of death as February 18, 1918. A big surprise was that the email included a picture of Julia. It's the only picture of her that I've seen and she showed a resemblance to her brother Timothy, my 2x great-grandfather.

What question were you trying to answer when you found it? I was trying to find the names of Timothy and Julia Creedan's parents and where they came from in Ireland. Timothy was one of my biggest brick walls and I'd been unable to find any records for him that showed his parents' nsmes or his place of birth in Ireland.

With Julia's new name, I was able to find Julia's Ohio death certificate which named her parents as Patrick Creedon and Mary Coakley. That led to her baptism record in Ireland which gave her address as Carrigapooka in Clondrohid, County Cork, Ireland. Since Patrick Creedan's will stated Timothy was her full brother, I finally had names for my 2x great-grandfather Timothy's parents and a specific location in Ireland!

Timeline for Julia Creedan/Sister Mary Felix

Before receiving the information from the Sister, my only information on Julia was from the 1860 census and a clue in her father Patrick's will stating that she was a "religious" in the Sisters of Charity. With the Sister's information, I was able to fill in the timeline above. (Click on the image for a larger picture.) Since then, I've located Timothy's obituary which told the story of their mother dying in Ireland and their immigration to the Port of New Orleans sometime between 1849-1850.

I thought this was a long shot when I sent the email to the Sisters requesting information on Julia and I'm still amazed that it unlocked so much information!

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 34 - Non-Population Schedules

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Non-Population".

The federal census that we use in the US is sometimes comprised of more than one schedule. The one that we usually use is called the "population schedule." However, there are some censuses that have addtional schedules, such as:
- 1850-1880 Agricultural schedules
- 1850-1880 Industry and Manufactures schedules
- 1880 Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes
- 1890 Schedule of Union Veterans and Widows

Have you found your ancestor on one of these schedules? What did you find?

I've found quite a lot of information in the non-population schedules. Here are a few of my previous posts about them:

Timothy Creeden - Down on the Farm - The 1880 Agricultural schedule was one of my favorite finds since it gave me so much insight into the farming life of my 2x great-grandparents Timothy and Mary Creeden in Clinton County, Ohio. I'd pictured fields of single crops like corn or wheat, but they had so much more going on!

Hannah Hoover Creedan - 1880 Mortality Schedule - This schedule lists information about people that died in the year before the 1880 census was taken. It links the deceased to their family in the 1880 census and gives some additional information such as cause of death and length of residence in the county. Hannah lived in Clinton County, Ohio and was the second wife of my 3x great-grandfather Patrick Creedan.

John Matson in 1890 Schedule of Union Veterans and Widows - This schedule provided more insight into John Matson's service and included the reason for his disability which was "wounded hand".

This last one is a bit of a mystery. I was surprised to find a Mary A. Matson in the 1880 Agricultural schedule for the Hopewell township of Mercer County, Ohio. According to the schedule, she was renting the farm land for a fixed amount of money. The rest of the information on the schedule is blank for Mary, so maybe she wasn't actively farming the land.

I would guess this was the same Mary Matson listed in the 1870 census for Mercer County. If so, she was born in Virginia in 1833. This is intriguing since my Matson family came from Virginia to Clinton County, Ohio. It appears that some of the Matsons went to Mercer County instead, so I'll have to see if I can figure out her relationship to my Matsons.

One thing to be aware of is that the non-population schedules are only available online for certain states. This is the information for the schedules available on Ancestry.com: "This database contains U.S. federal non-population schedules from 1850-1880 for the following states: California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington Territory. Additional states will be added in the future. Non-population schedules contained in this database include: agriculture, industry/manufacturers, social statistics, and supplemental schedules".

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 33 Family Legend - A Bible and a Gun

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Family Legend". It isn't unusual for a family to have some sort of legend. Maybe it's a legend surrounding the family's arrival in a country or that there's an ancestral castle waiting to be claimed. Maybe it's a story about how you're supposedly related to someone famous. You could explore how you proved or disproved the story. Then there are the "tall tales" that seem to get taller at every telling!

My father told me quite a few stories about his grandfather's adventures as county sheriff during the 1920s. Charles Creeden was the County Sheriff of Mercer County, OH from 1923-1927. One legend I've been able to prove during Charles' time as sheriff involved a skirmish at the opening of the Mercer County courthouse where Charles turned the fire hoses on an unruly mob. I was also able to find an article about the arrests of farmers for having stills (or hootch!) on their farms during prohibition.

Another of my father's stories involved a gunfight that broke out when Charles and his deputies tried to serve papers on a local pastor. They approached the person in question on his way to church and he pulled a gun out from under his bible and shot at them! A bullet grazed Charles in the head and left a scar. The sheriffs shot back and the shooter was arrested.

I've searched for a newspaper article on this story before with no luck, but this time I had some success.

The above article was published in the News-Journal in Mansfield, OH on March 24, 1925 and is available on Newspapers.com. It seems to confirm most of the story. It's interesting that it doesn't mention Charles being shot, but I'm guessing the injury was fairly minor. It also doesn't mention the details about a pastor or pulling the gun out from under a bible, so hard to say if that is true or if my great-grandfather was just adding a bit of color to the story! Given that Hein was on his way to church, it certainly seems possible.

One final thing I wondered about was the levy of execution mentioned in the article. According to Nolo.com, this is a court order authorizing a levy on (or seizure) of property or other asset to satisfy a creditor. No wonder Mr. Hein didn't want to answer the door when the sheriffs came to his house!

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 31 - Oldest - Photo from the 1860s?

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Oldest". How are you going to interpret "oldest"? The oldest child in one of your ancestral families? The oldest photo you have? The oldest document you've ever found? The oldest ancestor you ever met?

This prompt reminded me that I have a mystery photo that I'm still curious about. I first posted about this in 2012, but wanted to see if I could find some new information. 

My grandmother gave this photograph to my mother, but the identity of the woman in the portrait is a mystery. My mother's family was from Queen Anne's County, Maryland and the surrounding areas. Some of the surnames in my grandmother's family are Willis, Chilcutt, Adams, and Covey, so it's possible that the woman is from one of these families.

The photograph is in a hinged case which opens up and has a plush velvet-like material on the left side. From everything I could find online, the style of dress looks like it could be from the 1860s. Her jewelry looks like it might have been enhanced in the photograph. The photograph is behind a glass plate which is very reflective and a bit tricky to capture with my camera. I think the photo is most likely an ambrotype.

The Daguerreian Society has some good information on the history of daguerreotype and ambrotype photographs and their cases. The outer case for this photograph looks like a Union Case which dates it to sometime from 1855-1865. A Union Case was a mixture (or union) of shellac and wood fibers that were pressed into a steel mold. Phototree.com has some examples of women's clothing that also leads me to believe the photo is from this time period.

I wondered if the design on the case could shed any light as to its origins or time period. I found a match for the case on CivilWarTalk.com's forum where they were discussing the meaning of the six-sided star. It was mentioned there that the US Army Eighth Corps adopted the six-sided star as their insignia in the summer of 1864.

From Wikipedia, the Union Army VIII Corps badge looked like this:

A short history of the VIII Corps states that they were based in Maryland, so that at least matches the location of my mother's family. Of course, I don't even know for sure that the picture is of one of her ancestors! I can't really draw any conclusions from any of this, but it was interesting to find a match for the case. I don't know of anyone from her mother's family that served in the Civil War, but I don't have a lot of details on some of them. If anyone has suggestions on finding more out about this photograph, I'd love to hear from you!

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 29 - Music - Silent Film Pianist

The 52 Ancestors prompt for this week is "Music". This should be a fun prompt. Do you know of a musical relative? (According to my dad, my great-uncle Pete could play anything that had strings.) If not, what about an ancestor with a musical name? Place names can be musical as well. Any ancestors from New Harmony, Indiana or Trumpet Island, Maine? (Or take inspiration from classic rock: Chicago, Boston, Kansas... What was it in the '70s with naming bands after places?) I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Carrie Niehaus Myers was the sister of my great-grandmother Anna Niehaus Creeden. According to family stories, Carrie was a fantastic pianist and one of her jobs was playing piano at a theater during the silent film era. The 1910 census for Mercer County, Ohio shows Carrie was playing piano at a theater as early as age 17.

I was hoping to find some information on where she played, but haven't had any luck so far. Three theaters are mentioned in an article published in The Celina Democrat on September 4, 1914: The Rex and Bijou motion picture houses and The Eagle Theater. I would guess she played at one of them.

The Celina Democrat, September 4, 1914

By 1920, Carrie was busy as a wife and mother. She was married to Charley Myers and they had a 5 year old daughter named Marjorie. While she was no longer employed as a pianist, she continued to entertain family and friends for many years.

#52Ancestors is a series of weekly family history prompts developed by Amy Johnson Crow.