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.

Mystery Monday - Making Sense of DNA Ethnicity Results

A few years ago I created an ethnicity chart based on what I knew about the origins of the main lines in my family tree.

This chart assumes that percentages were passed straight down through each generation, so a great-great grandparent represents 6.25% of my ancestry. I know the DNA passed down is much more random than that, so this was just a guesstimate at best.

For this chart, I put my Mom's origins at 100% British, but I've since found out that she may have some other European and Irish roots. My Dad's heritage was about 64% German, 12% Irish, 12% French, and 12% British/Unknown on paper. That gave me the following percentages:

British  - 55%
German - 31%
Irish  - 6.25%
French - 6.25%
Unknown - 1.5%

My Mom and I had our DNA tested through Ancestry.com last year, so I was curious to compare the DNA results to my original estimates based on my paper tree.

Here's my breakdown from Ancestry.com:

The first mystery was what happened to my Irish and German heritage? The second was where did all the Scandinavian DNA come from? I can guess that at least some of my German and Irish heritage is showing up as Scandinavian and/or British.

Even more surprising was my Mom's chart which looked more like what I expected mine to look like. She came up with 54% Great Britain, 27% Europe West and 13% Ireland and only 3% Scandinavian.

Given, that 50% of our DNA comes from each parent, this seems to indicate my Dad had a much higher percentage of British and Scandinavian roots than I can account for. Even if all of the DNA I inherited from my Mom was from her British lines, that would mean 23% of the British came from my Dad.

I transferred my results to Family Tree DNA and got the following breakdown:

Their definition of British Isles includes Ireland. This looks closer to what I expected, but shows an even larger Scandinavian percentage. On this chart, I have 22% Western and Central Europe vs. the 3-6% from Ancestry.com.  My British Isles percentage dropped from 73% on Ancestry.com to 50%. That's quite a difference!

I also took a look at some of the Admixture tools on Gedmatch.com. For another comparison, here are my results with the Eurogenes EUTest:

Interesting that my Mom's results are very similar to mine on the Eurogenes EUTest admixture. We both had around 30% Atlantic and 25-27% North Central Europe. Finding out exactly what the groupings mean on this chart is another challenge which I'll save for a future post.

So, what does any of this mean? Each admixture chart is based on different algorithms and population databases, so comparing them against each other doesn't mean too much. According to Ancestry.com, the number of reference samples for a region and the similarity of one region to another can affect the accuracy of the results. In particular, they state that their results for Great Britain and Europe West are less accurate than for most of the other regions.

I would think the results will become more accurate as more people get tested and the reference populations for each region are refined. While the charts are fun to look at and can provide some clues on your origins, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from them.

Mystery Monday - Patrick William Creeden

I've run into a bit of a brick wall in trying to find information on Patrick William Creedan. He was born in Clinton County, Ohio around 1865 to my 3x great-grandfather Patrick Creedan and his second wife, Hannah Hoover. The family is in Clinton County, Ohio in the 1870 and 1880 census records.

Patrick is 5 in the 1870 census which was taken on June 23, 1870 in Wayne Township in Clinton County, Ohio.

Patrick W. is 16 in the 1880 census which was taken on the June 6, 1880 in Wayne Township.

In 1883, his father Patrick died and left a portion of his estate to his son Patrick William. That's the last definite trace I have of Patrick William.

I've found several more records that could be for Patrick William, but the name given is William or W. P. Creeden. My guess is he may have gone by William since his father's name was also Patrick.

The marriage record shown above states that W. P. Creeden married Mary C. Snyder on August 24, 1885 in Clinton County, Ohio. Several Ancestry.com trees have this marriage as May 16, 1885 in Ross County, Ohio, but there are no sources. I've been unable to find any Creeden marriage records in Ross County.

In 1887, Quaker records from Clinton County show that a John and William Creeden were received by request. The record lists John's wife Minerva and his son Hiram, but no family for William. In 1889, there is a disunity record for John, Minerva, Hiram and William, meaning that they left the Quaker group or were asked to leave for some reason. Although I can't tell for sure who William is, the John in the records is a match for the son of Patrick Creedan and brother of Patrick William Creedan.

In the 1900 census, William and Mary C. Creeden are living in Darke County with their children Minnie, Elsie, Orval, Ralph, Elzworth, William, and Mary O. They've been married for 15 years. The entry right above them is for a John and Ida Creedan and their children Flora and Stella. This is a match for Patrick William's brother John and John's second wife Ida. William's birth date is May 1864 according to this census record.

Kansas had a state census in 1905 and William and Mary C. Creeden are living in Sedgwick County as of March 1, 1905.The same children are listed, plus Violet. It looks like Mary O. from the 1900 census goes by Opal in this census. John Creedan lived out his life in Darke and Mercer counties in Ohio and died in Mercer County in 1923. William died in 1909 and is buried in Pratt, Kansas. His gravestone says he lived from 1862-1909, so that birth date is a bit earlier than any of the census records.

There is another William Patrick Creeden of about the same age in Ohio during this time. This William was the son of Timothy and Ellen Creeden in Hamilton County. A marriage record for him showed that he married Margaret Nolan in 1883 and consent was given by his father Timothy.

In the 1900 census record shown above, William and Margaret Creeden are living in Hamilton County with children Thomas, Michael, and Laurence. William was born in Feb. 1863. Timothy and Ellen also had a son named Laurence, so that name seemed to run in their family. I mention this William since I've seen records for him confused with the William who went to Kansas.

A death certificate and/or obituary for the Kansas William might help clear this up, but so far, I've been unable to find one online. According to the Kansas Historical Society, death certificates weren't kept by the state until 1911. Records before that may have been kept at the county or city clerk's office, but not all of these survived. The historical society has microfilm for some vital records, but I don't see anything for Pratt or Sedgwick. I'll post an update if I locate any additional records.

Mystery Monday - Meredith or Godwin?

I've posted about this census record before, but I'm taking another look at it in light of some new information.

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

In the 1850 census for Queen Anne's County, MD, there are several people with different surnames living in the same household. Samuel and Susan Sparks are my 2x great-grandparents and they have a newborn named Martha Ann. Every tree I've ever seen for the family has Samuel and Ann Godwin as the parents of Susan Godwin, and Susan Godwin as the wife of Samuel Sparks.

There are a couple of marriage records to support this. From the marriage records for Queen Anne's County available on the Maryland State Archives site, Samuel Godwin married Ann Davis on March 23, 1824 and Samuel Sparks married Susan Godwin on July 16, 1849. There is a Rebecca Davis living with the family who is 6 years younger than Ann Godwin, so that indicates there could be a relation to the Davis family. There are also two Meridith children living in the household.

The new to me information is from the death certificate for my great-grandmother Arianna Sparks. I knew that Arianna was the daughter of Samuel and Susan Sparks and had thought that Susan's maiden name was Godwin. The death certificate says that Arianna's parents are Samuel Sparks and Susan Meredith! It's interesting that one of the Meridith children living in the Godwin household is also named Arianna, so it does seem like there is a relationship between the families.

 I can think of several possibilities for the difference in last names for Susan:

• The death certificate could be wrong. The informant was Arianna's daughter Ruby and perhaps she got the name confused with her other grandmother, Mary Ann Meredith, wife of Francis Councill.
• The death certificate could be correct and Susan's maiden name really was Meredith. That raises the question of why the Sparks and Merediths were living with the Godwins? I couldn't find any Queen Anne's marriage records for a Susan Meredith
• Susan could've remarried to a Meredith after Samuel Sparks died. This can be ruled out since Samuel died in 1899 and Susan's estate was filed in 1902 under the name Susan A. Sparks.
• Susan Meredith could've married a Godwin before her marriage to Samuel Sparks. I couldn't find any evidence to support this in the Queen Anne's marriage records.

For now, I'm leaning towards a mistake on the death certificate, although it's possible there was a marriage for Susan in another county. Investigating the Meredith children might shed some light on the relationship to the Meredith family, so I'll follow up on that in a future post.

Mystery Monday - Dennis Creeden Part 2

I first posted about the mysteries surrounding Dennis Creeden about a year ago. Dennis was one of the sons of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden and I hoped that tracing Dennis might shed some light on Timothy. Instead, it just raised more questions!

When I saw that FamilySearch.org recently added more indices to its California County Birth and Death Records, 1849-1894 collection, I searched again for Dennis and came up with a hit.

Death Certificate for Den Creedon, 1929, French Camp, CA

According to the certificate, Dennis died on January 17, 1929 in the town of French Camp, California. His date of birth was given as Sept. 8, 1882. his occupation was blacksmith and while his parents' names were unknown, Dennis' birthplace was given as Ohio. From other records, I think his year of birth was 1879, but the other data was a match.

There are several new pieces of information on the death certificate, the most intriguing being that Dennis was a widower. The certificate states that he had lived in California for 10 years and that he was buried in the San Joaquin General Hospital Cemetery, #2524 on January 19, 1929. The informant was J. Hogan. If he was in California for 10 years, then he should be in the 1920 census, but I haven't had any luck there so far.

Posts on RootsWeb in the CASANJOA-L Archives state that the graves in the San Joaquin General Hospital Cemetery were moved to either the Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi, CA or the Stockton Rural Cemetery in Stockton, CA in 1989. I didn't find anything on FindAGrave for any of these locations, so the search continues.

Mystery Monday - Who was Manda Bolls?

Last week I posted about some of the mysteries surrounding Dennis Creeden. Dennis used the name Daniel or Dan in some records which seemed very curious since he had an older brother named Daniel. Dennis and Daniel were sons of my 2x great-grandfather Timothy Creeden and I thought that finding out more about them might shed some light on Timothy. Instead, when I looked into Daniel's past, I found another mystery.

Daniel Creeden in Celina, Ohio, 1934

Most of the records on Daniel are pretty straightforward. He married Lena Gleadall (or Gleagall) in 1902 and they had two children, Ned and Ida Bell. Sadly, both children died young and Daniel and Lena eventually divorced. Daniel lived out his life in Mercer County, Ohio and died in 1962 at the age of 84.

Daniel and Lena's Marriage Certificate in Highland County, Ohio, 1902

Daniel's parents' names are misspelled as T. Creed and Mary Madison (should be Matson), but otherwise the facts for Daniel on the Marriage Certificate seem correct. I've seen Lena's last name spelled as Gleagall, but in this record, it is Gleadall. The marriage license was filled out on April 29 which was Daniel's birthday and Daniel's age of 26 places his year of birth at 1876.

Daniel's birth is where the mystery comes in. The only records I can find for a Creeden born in Clinton County, Ohio are for a David Creeden, born April 29, 1876 to Timothy Creeden and Manda Bolls. Timothy was married to Mary Matson, so who was Manda Bolls? I haven't found any other records for a David Creeden or Manda Bolls in this time period.

The birth took place in Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, but the residence of the parents was given as Clark Township. I knew from the 1870 and 1880 census records that Timothy lived in Richland Township, so maybe that was the residence of Manda Bolls.

I couldn't find a trace of Manda Bolls in the census, but in the 1870 census Clements and Nancy Bolls are on the same census page as Timothy and Mary Creeden. So it would seem likely that Timothy knew the Bolls family.

1870 Clinton County Census Records for Bolls and Creeden Families

In the 1880 census, Daniel is listed with Timothy and Mary and is 4 years old, placing his year of birth at 1876. I couldn't find the Bolls family in this census.

1880 Clinton County Census for Timothy Creeden and Family

The Creeden family moved to Mercer County in the mid 1880s and Timothy died in 1899. In the 1900 census, Mary is living in Mercer County with several of her children, including Daniel. Daniel's birth month and year are given as April 1876.

So, who was Manda Bolls? Was this just a mistake in the Clinton County Birth Index? If she was the mother of Daniel, would it be likely that the child was raised by Timothy and Mary? Another possibility is that there was another Timothy Creeden in town, but I haven't found any evidence to support that. Is it possible that Timothy's neighbor reported the birth for them and wound up being recorded in the index?

Daniel used the birth date of April 29 on his WWI and WWII draft registrations, so it seems likely to me that the birth index is indeed for my Daniel. His year of birth on the 1870 and 1880 census records was 1876, but it varied in later census records from 1874 to 1877. His draft registrations and obituary had 1877. I think it's possible that the name on the birth index entry is Daniel instead of David, but that still doesn't explain Manda Bolls being listed as the mother.

Name on birth index

Name on 1880 census

My initial searches for Manda or Amanda Bolls turned up a couple of possibilities, but nothing definite. An Amanda Boles lived in neighboring Fayette County, Ohio and was married to Henry Brown. She died in 1925 in Fayette County.

Amanda Boles Brown Death Certificate, 1925

This Amanda was born in Virginia in 1859 or 1860, so she would have only been 16 or 17 in 1876. From census records, she married Henry Brown in 1875 or 1876. According to the 1910 census, Amanda had 14 children and 7 were still living! I've tracked down a few of her children, but 14 will be a challenge.

I haven't come to any conclusions on this yet. Daniel was treated the same as the other children in his father's will and the 1910 census showed that Mary Creeden gave birth to 10 children and 8 were still living. Mary's sons James and Patrick had died before 1910, so Daniel would have been included in the 8 living children. The only record showing anything different is the birth index, so that is certainly a mystery.

Mystery Monday - Dennis Creeden

When I started researching my Creeden family, I tried to track down information on my great-grandfather Charles Creeden's siblings in the hopes I'd find out more about their parents. Charles' brother Dennis has turned out to be just as elusive as their father, Timothy Creeden.

Dennis Creeden

The first information I found on Dennis came from the Mercer County Genealogy Society. Someone had contributed a tree for my family, but there was no information on who did the tree or what sources were used. The tree contained this information for Dennis:

Dennis L. Creeden
    Born: 08 Sep 1879, Clinton County, Ohio
    Married Nellie Burton on 21 Jan 1901, Mercer County, Ohio
    Died: 1/17/1930

From a Clinton County Birth Register for 1879, the information on Dennis' birth appears to be correct. The birth register listed his parents as Timothy Creeden and Mary Ann Matson and his location of birth was Richland Township where Timothy's farm was located.

The data in the 1880 census for Clinton County also shows that Dennis was born in September 1879. Note that he has an older brother Daniel born in 1876.

The next record I found for Dennis was his father Timothy's will, written in 1899. Timothy left all of his children an equal share of his personal property except for Dennis, whom he only left $35. What did Dennis do to be singled out? I'll probably never know the answer to that!

After Timothy's death in 1899, Dennis' mother Mary moved the family to a house in the town of Celina, Ohio. Dennis was not living with them in the 1900 census. I found a possible record showing that Dennis was working as a blacksmith for the railroad. If this is him, he's using the name Daniel! His brother Daniel is listed as living with their mother Mary, so this is very curious.

A marriage record from Mercer County appears to verify the marriage information that the genealogy society gave me. I noticed that Dennis was using the initials D.J. which might explain why he was so hard to find. Then I noticed that his name was spelled out in the bottom of the Marriage Certificate and it was Daniel! What's the deal with Dennis using Daniel?

I wondered if it was really Daniel that married Nellie, but Mercer County records had information on Dennis and Nellie regarding his father Timothy's land. On June 15, 1901 Nellie Burton Creeden filed against Dennis Creeden for alimony money which involved Timothy's land.  On December 2, 1901 Nellie Burton (the court gave her the right to restore her maiden name) quit claimed a deed to John Kramer. This was "filed for record" on Dec 6, 1901. Wow! So, Nellie and Dennis divorced after only a few months of marriage.

The next record I found for Dennis was his WWI draft registration in 1918.

Now he's using Dan John! At least that fits with the initials D.J. that he used on his marriage license. Even though the birth date is off by a year, I'm pretty sure this is Dennis. The occupation is blacksmith again and he gives his brother Charles A. Creeden as next of kin. Interesting that he gives Charles' residence as Pueblo, CO. Their sister Julia lived in Pueblo, but I don't know if Charles ever did. The location of Biggs, CA is interesting too and might be a clue as to where Dennis was in the 1920 census. In his mother Mary's obituaries in 1925, Dennis' brother Edward is said to be living in Briggs, CA and the location for Dennis is just given as Cal. I couldn't find a Briggs, although there is a Briggs Terrace. It's possible Edward was in Biggs too.

There are a lot of mysteries here! Why did Dennis use the name Daniel? Why was he singled out in his father's will to only receive $35? Why wasn't he living with the rest of the family in 1900? Why did he and Nellie divorce after being married a few months? Where was Dennis in the 1910 and 1920 census records? Is his date of death correct?

I haven't been able to find census records for Dennis in 1910 or 1920 or a record of his death. I'm going to concentrate on California records next since Dennis was there by 1918 and still there when his mother died in 1925. I probably won't be able to solve all of the mysteries surrounding Dennis, but hopefully can find some more information in the census.

Friday's Faces From the Past - Woman and Bicycle

This is another one of my unlabeled mystery photos. It may be my step-grandmother Hilda Kleinhenz Creeden and was probably taken in Mercer County, Ohio. If it is Hilda, it was probably in the mid 1930s.

Mystery Monday - Which William is Which? - Part II

I posted earlier about trying to sort out a William Creeden that stayed in Ohio vs. one that went to Kansas. There was also my great-great-grandfather Timothy Creeden's half-brother, Patrick William Creeden who may have gone by William since his father's name was Patrick. Is he the same as the Kansas William? All three Williams are about the same age in the census records.

I found a marriage record for a W.P. Creedan in Clinton County, Ohio that matches the wife's name for the Kansas William, so it is looking more possible that they are the same.

The marriage record shows that a W.P. Creedan married Mary C. Snyder on August 22, 1885 in Clinton County, Ohio. Unfortunately, there are no ages or parents listed on the record. This information matches the William and Mary that I found in Darke County, Ohio in 1900 next to John Creedan. John's children are a match for the Clinton County John and William's are a match for the Kansas William.

The William and Mary C. in the 1900 census had been married for 15 years, so the 1885 marriage date is a match. It wouldn't be unusual for someone with the same name as their father to use their middle name, but would they switch their initials as was shown in the marriage record? It's still a mystery for now. My next step will be to try and find additional birth, death, and marriage records for the different Williams.

Friday's Faces From the Past - Mystery Girls

Two cute little girls, but no labels on the pictures. The photos were grouped together, so it could be the same girl. They were in my Ohio grandparents' collection, so they might be related to the Creeden or Kleinhenz families and were probably taken in Mercer County, Ohio.

Friday’s Faces from the Past is a way to highlight photos, of known ancestors or complete unknowns suggested by Smadar Belkin Gerson of Past-Present-Future.

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.

Workday Wednesday - First Airmail Delivery to Celina, Ohio

My great-grandfather Charles Creeden had several careers, including working as a foreman at the Mersman Furniture Factory, a stint as Mercer County Sheriff and owning a SOHIO service station. One of his longer careers was serving as Postmaster of Celina, Ohio from 1934-1954. Family legend has it that Charles was Postmaster during the first airmail delivery to Celina.

This picture lends a bit of proof to the legend. The picture was labeled "First Airmail Delivery to Celina, 1934". Charles is on the left receiving the mailbag.

The Record of Appointment of Postmasters above shows that Charles was named Acting Postmaster on July 25, 1934 and assumed charge on August 1, 1934. He was nominated and confirmed for the position in 1935 and 1939 and he retired in 1954. I'm not sure why there were two confirmations, but maybe the first term was only for four years.

Lima News, November 30, 1935

In November 1935, Charles spoke at the dedication of a new $50,000 post office building in Celina. A flag-raising ceremonial followed the speaking program. One of the speakers was Congressman Frank L. Kloeb.

This entry in the 1946 City Directory for Celina lists Charles and his wife Anna with their home address and phone number during his term as Postmaster.

My Dad took the above photo of Charles working in his office in 1953.

Lima News, Feb. 8, 1954

Charles retired from his post on April 30, 1954. According to a Lima News article on Feb. 8, 1954, Charles Creeden, Celina postmaster, has resigned effective April 30, after serving the position 20 years, longer than any previous postmaster. When he took the post in 1934, the Celina Post Office was a second class office doing an annual business of $32,000. Last year, as a first class office, its volume was $288,000.

Charles Creeden enjoying the water

This picture was taken near the time of Charles' retirement. He loved the water and fishing, so hopefully he got to enjoy them a bit in retirement!

Sources:

• Ancestry.com. U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971. NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls. Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group Number 28. Washington, D.C.: National Archives.
• Lima News articles, Feb. 8, 1954 and Nov. 30, 1935
• Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
• Robert T. Creeden's photo collection