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 sister 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.

 

Sunday's Obituary - Jeremiah Creeden (1841 - 25 Nov 1916)

Jeremiah Creeden came from Ireland and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife Mary Toomey. I have a DNA match to a descendant of Jeremiah, but don't know for sure if they connect to my Creeden family. I don't recognize any of the other surnames in the trees I've seen for Jeremiah, so he seems like a possible connection for this match.

This funeral notice for Jeremiah was published in 1916 in The Indianapolis News. From the notice, Jeremiah died on November 25, 1916 and was buried at the Holy Cross cemetery.

I did a little digging in other newspaper articles and found that Jeremiah and Mary had a large family including the following children: Daniel G., John B., Catherine, Jeremiah M., Nora Gertrude Mosher, Rev. Leo Francis, Hannah R., Mary, Margaret A. Finn and William Henry Creeden. Most of them also lived in Indianapolis and were buried at Holy Cross.

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.