Sibling Saturday - Charles Creeden and brothers

Charles Creeden and brothers

This photo was labeled "Charles and brothers". I know that my great-grandfather Charles is the one in the middle, but I haven't been able to identify the other two. Charles had three older brothers: Daniel, Dennis, and Edward. He also had a younger brother, Joshua. Charles was born in 1886, so I'm guessing the picture was taken sometime in the 1900s or 1910s in Celina, Ohio.

Follow Friday - Week of June 7, 2013

Maryland State Seal Photo by Diane P. Evartt

Here are a few of my favorite finds for this week:

• Maryland Manual on Line is published by the Maryland State Archives and has a great set of links for Maryland government and research. The site is updated daily.
• Beverly of Reeves, Reaves, and more Rives posts about her ancestor's journey through the Cumberland Gap in 1806.
• D.E.B. posts about her mother's college scrapbook on a Pathway to Remembrance.
• Carl has research and photos of the Sparks and related families on The Sparks Family Genealogy Pages and the World Connect Database.
• Dan and Carolyn continue their musical journey through South America in FollowTheSong.

The obverse of the Great Seal of Maryland pictured above shows Lord Baltimore as a knight in full armor mounted on a charger. Obverse of State Seal, State House entrance door, Annapolis, Maryland, January 2001. Photo by Diane F. Evartt and posted by the Maryland State Archives.

Workday Wednesday - Newspaper Man

Ad in 1916 Mercer County Farmer's Directory

I knew my great-grandfather George Pulskamp was publisher of a German language newspaper, Der Mercer County Bote, but I didn't know anything about his early career. Thanks to Notre Dame putting the Notre Dame Scholastic student weekly online, I now have some details.

George graduated from Notre Dame in June 1896 with a Bachelor of Letters. By October, he was helping to edit the Mercer County Standard in Celina. Ohio. Interesting that they slipped a bit of political commentary in.

Notre Dame Scholastic, October 10, 1896

By 1887 he was a foreman in the Standard office and was also spending his spare time getting subscribers for the Bote. I thought this second clipping was especially interesting since it includes an article from the Mercer County Standard that quotes the Bote talking about George and the Standard. Both newspapers give high praise to George.

Notre Dame Scholastic, January 23, 1897

A little more than 3 years after graduating from Notre Dame, George purchased the Bote. I was surprised to find out that he bought the paper that early. The paper was discontinued sometime after WWI, but George continued to run a print shop until his retirement in 1947.

Notre Dame Scholastic, November 26, 1898

In addition to the info on George's career, I found a lot of fun facts about him in the Notre Dame Digital Archives. There were a couple of papers that George wrote while in school and reviews on a play he was in. I also found his dorm, classes he took, and some of his grades. I highly recommend this resource if you have ancestors that attended Notre Dame. One last thing... Can anyone tell me what the meaning of "Hock!" is in the last article?

Military Monday - Documents of the American Revolution

The American Archives site hosted by Northern Illinois University provides free access to documents of the American Revolution covering the years 1774-1776. The site can by searched for documents or keywords and there is a detailed page on how to search.

I came across the site while doing a search for my Godwin surname and found a document listing the Minute Company that marched from Queen Anne's County, Maryland in 1776.

  

Included in the list were three men with my Queen Anne's County surnames: John Godwin, Thomas Meredith, and James Gould Sparks. One of the Corporals was Thomas Meredith Bryon, so there could be a connection there too. Very interesting to see that some of my families may have participated in the American Revolution. Now if I could just make that link back!

Census Sunday - Godwin Family in Queen Anne's County, Maryland

I posted earlier about finding my Godwin family in the 1850 census. It's an intriguing record since it has family members with four different surnames living together: Godwin, Sparks, Meredith, and Davis. Other families headed by Ann Sparks and Robert Sparks were living nearby.

3rd Election District, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1850 US Census

I don't know too much about my Godwin family. I found a Maryland marriage record that said Samuel Godwin married Ann Davis on March 23, 1824 in Queen Anne's County. My uncle had put together some family trees in the 1990s and he had a note that the family came from Wales. Samuel's occupation is listed as sailor and I've wondered if that could lead to some other records.

First, I decided to see what else I could find out about the family in the census records. From their ages in the 1850 census, Samuel and Ann would have been born around 1795 and 1804. I didn't have any luck finding Samuel or Ann in the 1860 census. Samuel and Susan Sparks are living on their own by then.

A search for Sam* Go*dwin in the 1850 census for Queen Anne's turned up 4 matches, all born in Maryland.

From their birth years, the last 2 Samuels would have been around 12 in the 1840 census, so I would not expect to see an entry for them. That leaves my Samuel and a second Samuel with the middle initial "P". My Samuel is in District 3, while Samuel P. is in District 1. Both families had 1 child living with them in 1850, but Samuel P.'s was a newborn.

The same search for 1840 turned up two Samuels.

This time, there is a Samuel with no initials and one with a middle initial of Z. Someone on Ancestry added Samuel T. Godwin as a correction to Samuel Z. Godwin.

I'm looking for a family that has 1 male, 45 years old, 1 female, 36, and 1 female, 8. Samuel Z. does not seem to be a match since the oldest male is between 30-39, there is 1 male child between 10-14, a female between 20-29, and a female between 50-59. The family for the other Samuel does not match either. Opening the search up to all of Maryland only produced one more Samuel that was not a match.

I did one final search in Maryland for all Godwins or Goodwins and still didn't find a match. The 1840 census is tough since it doesn't list family members and it's possible that they were living with another family. In my next searches, I'll see if I can track down some of my other Queen Anne's surnames in 1840 and also see if I have any luck finding Samuel's neighbors from 1850 in the 1840 census.