Pets - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week #17

This is a weekly challenge from GeneaBloggers called 52 weeks of personal genealogy history.

Week 17. Pets. Did you have any pets as a child? If so, what types and what were their names. Do you have pets now? Describe them as well. If you did not have pets, you can discuss those of neighbors or other family members.

The first pets I remember were a couple of turtles and some tropical fish in a small aquarium. We also had a really long lived goldfish named Goldfinger that my sister won in a local carnival. One day my sister and one of her friends came home carrying a cute little puppy named Sadie. Her owner was moving and said that he couldn't take her with him. She was so adorable that my parents caved in and we adopted Sadie. Her eyes were a striking golden color and she had a brown nose and white and brown coat. She was a beagle/wire-haired terrier mix. (I can hear anyone that knows a lot about dog breeds going up oh!) She was fairly quiet in her new home at first, but we soon found out she was a bundle of energy and loved to bark at any critter she saw in our backyard, especially the squirrels.

Sadie is no lady... That was something my father said often as we attempted to mold her into a well trained dog. It just wasn't happening! While we easily trained her to do tricks like shaking hands, sitting, and begging, training her to do useful things like come when you called or heel while walking proved to be much more difficult. She could do them just fine, but only when she wanted to. She definitely had a mind of her own. One day, we went out in our boat and had a picnic at a little island in the Indian River. She was in heaven and ran around exploring the island to her heart's content. When we left, she jumped overboard and swam back to the island! She loved to run and swim, so I guess that would have been her ideal home.

Sadie was barking loudly in our backyard, so we went out to see what was going on. She came over and dropped a baby rabbit at my Mom's feet! She went back and gently picked up the other babies and brought them over. We kept an eye out for the rabbits' mother, but didn't see her. We'll never know if something happened to the mother or if she was just scared off by Sadie!

My sister and I took Sadie with us one time when we went riding on a friend's horse. Sadie had never seen an animal like a horse before and didn't know if it was friend or foe. To cover her bases, she got behind me and barked loudly at the horse from between my legs. As soon as we got on the horse, she was fine with it and happily jogged along with us as we rode. Thankfully, it was a very patient horse that didn't mind a little dog running around her legs. None of us have pets now, but we sure have a lot of memories of our adventures with Sadie!

Wordless Wednesday - Two great-great-grandmothers!

Anna Rohrer Niehaus and Mary Ann Matson Creeden, 1919

Pictured are two of my great-great-grandmothers in Celina, Ohio in 1919. I sure would love to know what they'd been talking about!

Wordless Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to help them post content on their sites.

Military Monday - US Army to Canadian Expeditionary Forces?

Edward Creeden was the sixth child of Mary Ann Matson from Ohio and Timothy Creeden from Ireland. He was born on April 10, 1884, but much of his life is a mystery. His parents bought land in Mercer County, OH in January 1884, but Edward is not listed in the Mercer County Probate Court Birth Records for 1882-1888. I also didn't find him in the Clinton County birth records where Timothy and Mary Ann's first five children were born. I have found no records of a wife or children.

In the 1900 census, he is living at home with his mother and 5 of his siblings in Celina, Mercer County, Ohio. He is 16 years old and working as a clerk at a dry goods store. He did not attend school that year. The census shows that he was born in April 1884 and that he was born in Ohio.

This US Army Register of Enlistments shows that Edward Creeden, enlisted in the US Army on Jan 14, 1904 at Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born in Celina, OH, is 21yrs, 9 months old, occupation is a clerk, he has blue eyes, dark brown hair, fair complexion, and is 5' 11". His regiment was  the 12th infantry D and he was discharged on Jan 13, 07 at Fort Porter, NY. Similar enlistment registers showed that he reenlisted in 1907 and 1912 and was honorably discharged in 1915. According to these registers, his birth year would have been 1883.

There is an Edward Creeden listed on a Return from the Philippines in 1908, but it doesn't give enough personal information to know if this is my Edward. A 1910 Muster Roll of the US Marine Corp lists an Edward Creeden in Puget Sound, WA, but again, it is hard to tell if this is the same Edward. However, in the US Census for 1910, there is an Edward "Creedman" in the Marine Barracks at Puget Sound, WA. He is listed as 28 years old, born in Ohio, with an Irish father and mother born in Ohio. This fits my Edward even though the age is off a bit, but still hard to tell if it's the same Edward.

Here's where it gets really interesting! This record shows an Edward Creeden enlisting in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces on August 31, 1917. He was born on April 10, 1884, which matches my Edward's birth date. It lists his current residence as Minneapolis, Minnesota and his birthplace as Erie, Ontario, Canada. His next of kin is listed as his brother, Charles Creeden. Charles is my great-grandfather and he named his first son Carl Edward. But.... It also gives the residence of Charles as Company D, 9th infantry, US Army. As far as I know Charles never served in the military and his obituary made no mention of it, although he did register in the WWI draft in June, 1917. This record says that Edward has never served in any military forces and his occupation is given as a painter.

The physical description says he is 5' 11", blue eyes, brown hair, dark complexion and is Roman Catholic. I noticed that his complexion changed from fair to ruddy on the US Army Enlistment Registers, so if he was an outdoor painter, it would make sense that his complexion had darkened. Otherwise, the physical description and religion fits. So, is this my Edward? If so, he lied about his former military experience and possibly about his birthplace and his brother Charles' military experience. Very curious!

There is an Edward Creeden, age 35, born in Ohio listed in the 1920 census for Sedgwick, Kansas, with Irish parents. That doesn't quite fit, but could be Edward. The last mention I have of Edward is in his mother Mary Ann's obituaries on her death in 1925. The obituary from Celina, OH says that Edward is living in Briggs, CA and the one from Lima, OH mentions "Edwin" of Kansas City. I have been unable to find any other records on Edward.

I know more information can be ordered on the Canadian records at Library and Archives Canada, but would they shed any light on whether or not this was the correct Edward? I can see that I have more to investigate here! Would love to hear comments or suggestions from anyone with experience with military records.

Updating to add that I just found an interesting record for an Edward Creeden on the National Archives site. There's that 04/10 birthdate again, but 1882! This matches the 1910 census listing Edward Creeden in Puget Sound in the Marine Corps.

Creeden Edward -- [Date of Birth] 04/10/1882, [Service Number] 000041480, [Date of Enlistment] 01/26/1910
ARC Identifier 2250588 / Local Identifier MC20296005

Textual Records from the Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. U.S. Marine Corps. Personnel Management Division. (ca. 1947 - )

Daniel Creeden - Sunday's Obituary

Daniel Creeden was born on April 29, 1877 in Clinton County, Ohio to Timothy Creeden and Mary Ann Matson. Timothy was my gg-grandfather. Daniel was married to Lena Gleagall and they had two children together, Ned and Ida Belle. Both children died young and Lena and Daniel divorced. Daniel was a deputy sheriff when my great-grandfather Charles Creeden was sheriff of Mercer County, Ohio. I don't know much about Daniel's life after that, but it appears that he stayed in Mercer County.

From the Lima News in Ohio, March 22, 1962:

          DANIEL CREEDEN
  CELINA - Daniel Creeden, 84, Rt. 2, Elida, died Wednesday at the Colonial Rest Home in Rockford.
  He was born April 29, 1877 in Clinton County.
  He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Harvey Stout, of Celina, and Mrs. Julia Balleweg of Pueblo, Colo.; a brother, Joshua of Pontiac, Mich.
  He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
  Funeral services will be at Vale and Stein Funeral Home Friday at 10 a.m., Rev. Dale Withers officiating. Burial will be in North Grove Cemetery.
  Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. today.

Rohrer - Surname Saturday

Anna Rohrer Niehaus in 1899

My Rohrer family comes from Ellwangen, Germany and eventually settled in Mercer County, Ohio. It has been one of the more difficult lines to research due to the many variations on spellings of the names.

In 2004, I ordered the Social Security application for my great-grandmother Anna Niehaus Creeden. Her mother's maiden name was listed as Rohrer which was the first I'd heard of this surname in my family. I attempted to do some online searches, but didn't turn up too much. The picture to the left was in my father's collection and was labeled Grandma Niehaus, 1899. Anna Rohrer married Henry Niehaus on January 25, 1881 and they were married until his death in 1923.

In 2005, a Niehaus cousin Marj B. found a funeral card for Anna Rohrer. The card states that she was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 13, 1851 and died in Celina, Ohio on Oct. 28, 1938 at the age of 87 years, 3 months and 15 days. I ordered Anna's death certificate which confirmed these dates and added her parents names: Walburger Fisher and John Rohrer, both from Germany. Anna's death certificate had been listed under Anna Niehans, so yet another name variation.

Even using various spelling variations, I wasn't having any luck locating the Rohrers in the census records, so tried searching for Walburger or Wallburger with no last name.  Finally, some success, but again, different names!

1860 census, Saint Marys, Auglaize, Ohio

Name                Age
William Gisler     62
Walburga Gisler  42
Albert Gisler       13
William Gisler       9
Anna Gisler        10
Henry Gisler        8
John Gisler          4

Walburga's birthplace is shown as Wuerttemberg, Germany. All of the children have that with dittos, except for the youngest (John) which says Ohio. The last names were all just written as dittos too. Walburga had remarried to William Gisler and possibly had more children.

1870 census, Saint Marys, Auglaize, Ohio
Name                 Age
Wallburger Rees 53
Albert Rees        22
Anna Rees         19
William Rees      18
Henry Rees        17
John Gisler         14

This time, it shows Wallburger and Albert's birthplace as Prussia, Anna's as Pennsylvania and the others as Ohio. The last names are just dittos again except for John Gisler. William Gisler died in the 1860's, so it looks like Walburga is using the Rohrer name again.

Marj located birth records for the children of Anna and Henry Niehaus that spelled Anna's maiden name as Rear. With that clue, I was able to find Anna and Albert in the 1880 census, but the name was listed in the index as Bear! The 1880 census for Jefferson Township of Mercer County, Ohio lists Anna Rear, age 24 living with her brother Albert. Anna is listed as being born in PA and her parents were born in Baden, Germany. By now, we were pretty sure that we had the correct Anna and that she had a brother Albert. We wanted to know more about Albert's origins in Germany.

Family Search's IGI records has this listing for an Albert Roehrer:

Birth: 02 DEC 1847      
Christening: 05 DEC 1847 Sankt Vitus Katholisch, Ellwangen, Jagstkreis, Wuerttemberg

His parents were listed as Albert Roehrer and Waldburg Fischer. The next question was whether or not this Albert Roehrer was the same one we saw in other records as John Rohrer. Everything else here seemed to fit and if it was the right Albert, this gave us a church and birthplace. There is also a marriage record listed for Waldburg Fischer and Albert Roehner on 19 OCT 1846  at Sankt Vitus Katholisch, Ellwangen, Jagstkreis, Wuerttemberg.

Another possible record is from a passenger list:
Ship: "Zurich"
Date: Arrived New York 3 May 1849
On board: Albert Roher aged 39 born about 1810
Wallburga Roher aged 20 born abt 1829
Albert Roher (9 months old) born abt 1848

Marj made a trip to Germany and stopped in Ellwangen to research records at the St. Vitus Church. She was able to confirm that Albert John was the correct Rohrer and the father of Anna's brother Albert. This has really been a joint research effort and required both online and on site resources. Thanks to Marj for all the information she has provided!