Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Yes, Library Cards Can Be Genealogical Documents!

As we've moved into the digital age, library cards have become a thing of the past. Someone asked me just the other day if a library card could be considered a genealogical document and I said, "Why, of course! If it has a name, date, & place on it, then I would consider it a genealogical document." Just think of all the library card treasures that could still be floating around out there! Please rescue them for future genealogists.


For example, a girlfriend gave me a book out of her homeschool library her children had read, because I am studying about steamboats on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. She must have picked it up at a book sale somewhere as it was stamped with the name of the former repository -- Saint Augustine School, which has since closed.





Although there are no family members of mine or my husband's on the library card below, I have transcribed the names and dates for a future generation to find. The stamp inside the book cover has given the school's name and address and the little card inside the library card pocket has given clues to a child's name, when the child attended school there, what they were interested in at the time, and what classroom they were in.


Due Date -- Borrower's Name -- Room Number
5-22-1966 -- Mike McMurray -- 205
1-19-1968 -- Joe Davis -- 206
11-25-1968 -- Tom Turner -- 205
2-5-1969 -- Marie Brancato -- 206
10-27-1971 -- Mark Seilold -- 205
no date -- Shahon -- no room
Library Card for: Frontiers of America Series: Steamboats to the West. By Edith McCall. Children's Press, USA., 1959.
Repository: Saint Augustine School, 1800 East 79th St, Kansas City, Missouri.

Update (9-21-2016): This library card has been added to the Jackson County, MO USGenWeb site and approved here! My very first contribution!

More to Read:
1. I have found many of the riverboat pilots mentioned in the book on Findagrave and added them to a virtual cemetery here. I eventually hope to find information about a ferry and/or other boats my 3rd great-grandfather may have traveled on.
2. "Finale: St. Augustine's, KCMO" By Curmudgeon. Blog post.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

The Rush, Stout and Wyckoff Allied Family Tree

STOUT 
Penelope Van Princis Kent Stout (1622-1732) + Richard Stout (1615-1705) = 10 children
|
#9. David Stout (1667-1732) + Rebecca Ashton (1672-1725) = 8 children
|
#4. James Stout, Sr. (1694-1727) + Catherine Simpson (1692 - 1749) = 7 children
|
#2. James Stout, Jr. (1715-1754) + Jemima Howell Reeder (1719-____) = 6 children
|
#1. Abel Stout (1740-1797) + Williampy Wyckoff (1750-1782) = 7 children
|
#2. James Abel Stout (1770-1855) + Abigail Holloway (1777-____) = 6 children
|
#2. Margaret Stout (1802-c. 1880) + Henson Rush (1794-1848) = 6 children
|
1. James M. Rush (1826-1890)
2. Ephraim Henson Rush (1828-1895)*
3. John William Rush (1831-1904)
4. Joshua Rush (1832-____)
5. Amanda Jane Rush Loveall (1835-c.1880)
6. George O. Rush (1838-____)
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WYCKOFF
Pieter Claesen Wyckoff (1625-1694) + Grietje Corneli Van Ness (1627-1689) = 11 children
|
#6. Cornelius Pieterse Wyckoff (1656-1746) + Geertje Charity Simonse Van Arsedalen (1659-1746) = 4 sons
|
#1. John Cornelise Wyckoff (1682-1746) + (1.) Geertje Stryker (?) = ?
(2.) Neeltje Roelofse Schenck (1683-1757) = ?
|
Jacobus Jan Wyckoff (1725-1800) + Catlytie (Catelyntie) Gulick (1722-1775) = 9 children
|
#4. Williampy Wyckoff + Abel Stout (1740-1797) = 7 children
~~ <> @ <> ~~
More to Read:
1. Penelope Stout on Wikipedia
2. Penelope Stout's Memorial on Findagrave,  6082496
3. Stout Family History. By Captain Nathan Stout (1748-1826). Philadelphia, PA, 1823.  
          (Source received from Treva Poe.)  
4. Bill Stout's Rootsweb List of 12 Generations of Stout Descendants.
          (Source received from Treva Poe.)
5. Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam. By Jim McFarlane.
6. The Story of Penelope Stout: As Verified By the Events of History and Official Records.  Thomas Hale Streets, 1897 reprint.  
7.   The Stout Family of Delaware with the Story of Penelope Stout. Compiled and Published by Thomas Hale Streets, Philadelphia, PA, 1915. Internet Archive.                       
8. As Good as Dead: The Penelope Stout Story. By Paula E. Phillips. 2006. (Treva Poe also owns this book.)
9. Descendant - David Stout's obituary on Fold3 
10.  Descendant = Zebulon Montgomery Pike
11. Abel Stout, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) genealogical records.
12. The Stout Family of Delaware. By Thomas Hale Streets. Reprint paperback, 2015.
13. Stout & Allied Families. J. D. Stout. Privately published, Chariton, IA, 1991.
14. Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie. By John Mack Faragher.
15. William Bowne, of Yorkshire, England and His Descendants. By Miller K. Reading. p. 8
16. Wyckoff House Museum, Brooklyn, New York. Genealogy CD available.
17.  Cornelius Pieterse Wyckoff, Franklin Twp., New York.
18. The First Record Book of the Society of the Daughters of Holland Dames. June, MCMVII.
19. A History of Monmouth & Ocean Counties. By Edwin Salter. 1890.
20. The Rush Report. By Gaynelle Jenkins Moore. 2003. Internet Archive. 
21. Genealogy Roadshow, Season 3, Episode 1; May 18, 2016 television series. 
22. A Stout Bible Record at the Allen County, IN Public Genealogy Library
23. The Forman Genealogy also mentions the Wyckoff family. 
24. Stout and Allied Families. By Herald F. Stout, Captain, United States Navy. The Eagle Press, Dover, OH; 1951. Vol. 1. pp. xxii, 1, 5, 16, 40, 85, 158. Internet Archive.
25. Primitive Baptist churches in New Jersey. 
26. Founders and Patriots of America Index. National Society of Founders and Patriots of America, Park Lane Bldg., #615, 2025 Eye St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20006. Mrs. Herman E. Weston, National President (1973-1976). Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1975, reprinted 1989. p. 212, 246. Home Library.
27"Four Women In A Violent Time" by Deborah Crawford. 1970. (Treva Poe)
28. "His Family History" YouTube Playlist
29. Descendant = Brett Allen. Flickr family tree. 
30. The Story of Penelope Stout as Verified by the Events of History and Official Records. By Thomas Hale Streets. Press of Alfred J. Ferris, Philadelphia, PA, 1897. (Kessinger's Legacy Reprints) 


Researched by Lori Frisch, Terry Heaps, Dorthy Mack (Lincoln; Boone Society) Gaynelle Jenkins Moore, Treva Poe, David W. Rush and Carolyn Vosburg. Typed by Dolores J. Rush. Updated: 6/14/2022. 

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Decoration Day

Facsimile of US Flag
In the Rush family, I have observed that Decoration Day is practiced religiously. I don't know how it came to be such an important tradition in the life of this family, but it has been practiced every year by both David's grandparents and continuing the custom, his parents. 


 Right after I met David, I was invited to come down to meet his grandparents and to their Decoration Day commemoration picnic at the Rush Chapel Cemetery. I was unfamiliar with this ritual of eating together at a cemetery, because my immediate family did not observe it nor did any in my circle of friends. Most of our family members were scattered across Kansas and Oklahoma and we only saw them twice a year -- during Christmas and mid-summer holidays from school. Only after I had become a member of the Rush family, did I learn there had been a pioneer Methodist church on the spot where their picnic was held that had been torn down sometime in the 1960s. Family came from near and far to decorate the graves of their loved ones with flowers and it was almost a family reunion of sorts. Since the cemetery is located in hilly terrain between Mary's Home and Tuscumbia, Mo., when driving between all the parked cars on the downhill slope of the gravel road became somewhat of a problem, someone suggested moving the family reunion to Eldon where it has been held every year since then at the Air Park, however, decorating the graves is still practiced. 

Recently I learned about how Decoration Day came to be. It seems that on May 5, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Commander-in-Chief, John A. Logan, Jr. of Illinois, by General Order No. 11, had assigned May 30, 1868, as a memorial day which was to be devoted to the strewing of flowers on the graves of deceased comrades who had died in the defense of the country during the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a national organization begun in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866 for former Civil War Union soldiers and sailors who served between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865. It was organized to preserve brotherly feelings between veterans and to provide for those in need of assistance -- orphans, widows, and disabled servicemen.

Ironically, John A. Logan, Jr. was the son of Dr. John Logan, Sr. whom Logan county, Illinois was honorably named for as suggested by his friend, Abraham Lincoln. My third-great Grandfather, Elder Martin White, was the first elected representative of Logan and (Dane) Christian Counties in the Illinois State House of Representatives (1840-42) after both counties were divided from Sangamon County, IL. in 1839. The surveyor, friend of Lincoln's, John Calhoun, began a petition to have them split off.  

Decoration or Memorial Day has come to be a national holiday, not only for decorating soldier's graves but also for decorating the graves of family members who have passed on. To David's knowledge, there were no GAR members in the Rush or allied families, however there were several who fought on the Union side, namely Jacob Bittle, Granville Carrinder, Wm. S. Golden, Levi Morgan, Rufus B. Roberts, James M. Rush, John Wm. Rush, and Alexander Sullens. 

 More to Read:
1.)
How Rush Chapel Came to Be
2) The Photographic History of the Civil War: Armies & Leaders. Edited by Robert S. Lanier. Fairfax Press, New York, 1983.
3.)
Elder Martin White biography

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Ancestor Trading Cards

I just found the coolest thing on Pinterest -- Ancestor Trading Cards. This website will tell you how it's done:

 
These cards are similar to the Kansas State Historical Society's Trading Cards: click here for details about them.

Updated: 4 May 2023

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Paper Trail: Postcards

What’s the official name for postcard collecting? Deltiology. Postcards are the third-largest collectible, behind coins and stamps according to the Flea Market Style magazine. Postcards reflect history and cultural customs with pictures that depict buildings, travel destinations, advertising, and photographs of people like your ancestors.

To date old postcards, therefore getting the approximate date your ancestral photograph might have been taken, this list gives the general times as to when these types of cards became available or were popular.

US Post Cards -- to 1898

Private Mailing Cards (1898-1901)

Undivided Back (1901-1907)

Divided Back (1907-1915)

White Border (1915-1930)

Linen (1930-1945)

Chrome (1939-Present)

Real Photo Postcards (1900-Present)

~~ <> @ <> ~~

I guess what instigated my interest in postcards was my Oklahoma grandparent's postcard collection. They had a wonderful card collection that they kept in a big shoebox upstairs in a closet in their old two-story home. I loved looking through it when they lived there. Many of the postcards were from extended family members who sent Christmas postcard greetings, vacation "wish you were here" notes, and some were postcards they had collected from gift shops while on vacation as little mementoes of their trips. Sadly, the whole collection was stolen from the old house just after they moved into their new house in the 1960s while they were shopping in town to pick up groceries. The closest town was 18 miles away, so the thief had plenty of time to get in, look round and take what he/she wanted. 

I compiled a "Paper Postcard Unit Study" for our son when he was homeschooled. Click here if you would like to review it.

I learned while researching people for my History Nut of Missouri blog, that the Kansas City Library was gifted a postcard collection from Mrs. Sam (Mildred) Ray, a newspaper columnist who often told a story from a postcard in her collection. 

(2017): My hubby and I went to a Postcard Convention in Lenexa several years ago and I could not believe the variety of postcards that were being sold. In addition to the historic genre, they had artsy postcards and papers as well. Check out this website for other shows being held near you. You might just find a missing relative's photo, a photo of their business, the church they attended, or an event they participated in just like the postcard we found on vacation below. This mountain in Colorado was named for one of my hubby's distant Stout cousins, Zebulon Montgomery Pike. To read a short biography of his life, click here.

(2018): I ran across this YouTube video of postcards from Fitchburg, Massachusetts where a girlfriend grew up! 

(2022): I contributed to Jim Miller's website some time ago called PHILGEN or Philatelic-Genealogy. It was down for a little while, getting an update to the software. It's back up now. 

(2022): Postcard History website

D. Noble. Cooper Post Card Co., Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

~~ <> @ <> ~~

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 5/9/2022

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Missouri Cemetery Law

Here is the current Missouri Law concerning protection of cemeteries and the consequences of defacing or destroying any part therein:

From the Missouri Revised Statutes -- Chapter 214, Cemeteries, Section 214.131 (passed into law in 1987); Section 214.385; and, 214.455. 

Tombstones, fences, destroying or mutilating in abandoned family or private cemetery, penalty--abandoned or private burying ground, is defined as

214. 131. Every person who shall knowingly destroy, mutilate, disfigure, deface, injure, or remove any tomb, monument or gravestone, or other structure placed in any abandoned family cemetery or private burying ground, or any fence, railing, or other work for the protection or ornamentation of any such cemetery or place of burial of any human being, or tomb, monument, or gravestone, memento, or memorial, or other structure aforesaid, or of any lot within such cemetery is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. 

For the purposes of this section and subsection I of section 214.132, an "abandoned family cemetery" or "private burying ground" shall include those cemeteries or burying grounds which have not been deeded to the public as provided in chapter 214, and in which no body has been interred for at least twenty-five years.

If the operator of any cemetery or another authorized person moves a grave marker, memorial or monument in the cemetery for any reason, the operator or other authorized person shall replace the grave marker, memorial or monument to its original position within a reasonable length of time. 

Source: "History Spotlight: MoSGA Fights to Protect Abandoned Cemeteries." By Martha Henderson, MoSGA Historical Director. Show Me State Genealogical News, Columbia, MO, Spring 2014. Vol. 35, No. 1.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Heritage Crafting Supplies

 
Brand: Craft Smart #409173

Found this tombstone rubber stamp in the bargain bin at our local Michaels Craft Store this afternoon. Must be a leftover from last Halloween. 

You'll have to copy and paste these brand names into your search engine to find their websites and/or YouTube Channels. Their product works beautifully for heritage scrapbooking. 

Brand: Highlander Celtic Stamps

Brand: Seven Gypsies

Brand: Kiwi Lane Scrapbooking

Brand: Tim Holtz Products

List Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 4 May 2023.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Ancestral Sayings for Crafts and Scrapbooking

  1. A birth certificate shows that you were born, a death certificate shows that you died, but a scrapbook shows that you lived.
  2. All in the Family
  3. A man is born with his relations; he picks out his friends for himself.
  4. Ancestors Activist
  5. Ancestors run in my family
  6. Ancestors R US
  7. Any family tree produces some lemons, some nuts and a few bad apples.
  8. Ask me about my ancestors!
  9. Beware! Genealogy Fever is Contagious!
  10. Blessed is the man who hears the gentle voices call him grandfather.
  11. Born to be an Ancestor!
  12. Clan Chronicler
  13. Days gone by.
  14. Every family is a history in itself and even a poem to those who know how to search its pages.
  15. Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.
  16. Families are tied together with heart strings.
  17. Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at the people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future. 
  18. Family History: A Neverending Story!
  19. Family Skeleton
  20. Finding my roots bit by bit
  21. Folk Finder
  22. Forebears & Heirs Genealogy’s Law = The one document you need to prove your ancestor’s line is lost due to fire, flood, or war!
  23. Genealogy: A Celebration of Heritage
  24. Genealogy: A Key to the Past.
  25. Genealogists are ancestrally challenged!
  26. Genealogists are into Relative Riches
  27. Genealogists are pioneers into the past!
  28. Genealogists are Time Travelers
  29. Genealogists are Tree Tracers.
  30. Genealogy is my cup of tea!
  31. Genealogy Detective
  32. Genealogy Fever: It's Inherited!
  33. Genealogy: Life in the Past Lane!
  34. Genealogists Haunt Cemeteries
  35. Genealogy is a Past-time.
  36. Genealogy -- Piecing together the Past
  37. Genealogists Invest in Family Bonds!
  38. Genealogists look for lost leaves.
  39. Gone Ficheing!
  40. Grandma's are antique little girls.
  41. Hangin’ with the Family.
  42. Have Roots, Will Travel
  43. Heritage Hunter
  44. =HEIR+MAIL=
  45. He who has the most surnames in the end "WINS!"
  46. How blessed I am, how fortunate I've been that you are my Daughter-in-law and also my friend!
  47. I'm the crazy aunt everyone warned you about
  48. In Loving Memory.
  49. It’s all in the Genes!
  50. Leaves of Time
  51. Love and laughter makes a happy family.
  52. Love the people God gave you because one day he’ll want them back.
  53. My family tree is full of nuts.
  54. My life in a nutshell.
  55. My Roots.
  56. One Big Happy Family.
  57. Our family is like fudge sweet with a few nuts in it.
  58. Our family is a patchwork of memories and love.
  59. So Many Ancestors, So Little Time!
  60. Success is relative. The more success, the more relatives!
  61. The best antiques are grandparents.
  62. There are many treasures in Grandma’s attic, but the old button box is my favorite.
  63. This is our branch of the family tree.
  64. This is what an awesome dad (brother, uncle, granddad) looks like!
  65. Treasured Times
  66. When A Child Is Born, So Is a Grandmother
  67. When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.
  68. Years Gone By
  69. You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives.
  70. You won’t make a place in the sun by sitting in the shade of the family tree.
See corresponding Descendant sayings here.

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush. Updated 4 May 2023. 

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Descendant Sayings for Crafts and Scrapbooking

  1. A Daughter (son) is a gift of Love
  2. Civil War Descendant
  3. Descendant of the American Revolution
  4. Granddaughters are forever . . . I'm so glad you're mine.
  5. Granddaughter, You are very dear to me. Please always journey life safely!
  6. How blessed I am, how fortunate I've been that you are my Daughter-in-law and also my friend!
  7. I'm the big brother.
  8. I smile because you're my sister. I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it
  9. Just Brothers -- You mess with him, you'll mess with me!
  10. Mom likes me best!
  11. My life in a nutshell.
  12. My sister has the best sister in the world!
  13. The kind of ancestors we have had – is not as important as the kind of descendants our ancestors have.
  14. Veteran Descendant
See corresponding Ancestral sayings here.

Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, updated 4 May 2023.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Short Quotes

A Cousin a Day Keeps the Boredom Away.
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“All true civilization is ninety percent heirlooms and memories—an accumulation of small but precious deposits left by the countless generations that have gone before us. ~ Robert I. Gannon. S.J.
----------
"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants."– Macauley.
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"A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture, is like a tree without roots." ~ Marcus Garvey
----------
"Back in the day, we were trained - as part of our professional ethics - that you don't destroy things. These (Confederate monuments) are all artifacts. They tell us something about the past. At my heart, I'm a scientist, which means telling the truth, warts and all." ~ Lawrence Kuznar, Professor of anthropology at Purdue University.
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“By the early nineteenth century, the naming of sons for preachers whom parents admired had become a common practice; the names “Dow” and “Linzie,” so common in Appalachia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, originated with the Methodist circuit riders Lorenzo Dow and Marcus Lindsay.” ~ John Sparks, The Roots of Appalachian Christianity.
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"Each tradition weaves its own colorful, thick-spun thread into the inimitable fabric of a family, strengthening it through." ~ Wendy Connelly
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"Family traditions mark time in a happy way and give a sense of both anticipation and continuity. Research shows that traditions, routines, and rituals boost physical and emotional health. And they're fun." ~ Gretchen Rubin
----------
Every time a person dies, a whole library of knowledge is lost.
----------
“Fortunes are amassed and dissipated: dynasties rise and pass away, but one’s name is yet safely transmitted from father to son—an inheritance of today from a remote, and otherwise unknown ancestry.” ~ Bowditch
----------
Gemstone Label: You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. 1 Peter 2:5a
----------
Home is where the heart is. ~ Pliny the Elder
----------
How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood when fond recollection presents them to view. ~ S. Woodworth.
----------
If a man cares not for his roots, how then can he care for his branches? ~ Doyle M. Davis
----------
If you don’t know your family’s history, you are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ~ Michael Chrichton
----------
I’ll note you in my book of memory. ~ William Shakespeare.
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Inheritance is priceless. Heritage is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast. ~ Charles Dickens
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"Knowing our family history creates a sense of belonging. A deep connection to the past, and understanding how the past continues to influence us today." ~ Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Finding Your Roots.
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“Little grains of sand make the earth; little drops of water make the ocean, and little bits of genealogy make the history of the world.” ~ Alexander Brown.
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"Let's be a channel of blessing to all our family." ~ Rev. Daniel Daida
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“Man is but the sum of his ancestors.” ~ Emerson
----------
Memory is the guardian of all treasures. ~ Cicero
----------
No society is so precious as that of one's own family. ~ Thomas Jefferson.
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Parents should consciously organize the history of their family into a story of divine providence; they should not let the events of family history simply be lost or forgotten." ~ Kent & Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Family.
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Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with. ~ R. B. Sheridan, 1775.
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Remember always that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionaries. ~ F. D. Roosevelt.
---------
Shotgun wedding - A case of wife or death.
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The joys I have possessed are ever mine; out of thy reach, behind eternity, hid in the sacred treasure of the past, but blest remembrance brings them hourly back. ~ John Dryden.
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There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings. ~ Hodding Carter, Jr.
---------------
“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” ~ Edmund Burke or Winston Churchill.
---------------
“Those who do not treasure the memory of their ancestors, do not deserve to be remembered by posterity.” ~ Edmund Burke.
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Treasure each other in the recognition that we do not know how long we shall have each other. ~ Joshua Loth Liebman
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"Unless you make notes as to the sources of your information they may not be available later for rechecking. Trust nothing to memory. Information that cannot be checked, compared or examined in the original will not bear much weight in genealogy. Be ready to back up all statements with the facts in black and white. Thus being able to check sources of information is one means of determining the accuracy or competence of a report." ~ Harry W. Mills, Mt. Sterling, KY. Advocate
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We are all omnibuses in which our ancestors ride, and every now and then one of them sticks his head out and embarrasses us. ~ Oliver Wendall Holmes
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We hold the firm conviction that family is ministry and that the most effective spread of the gospel occurs through family. We are also convinced that we were never more effective in evangelism then when we had children at home. ~ Kent & Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Family.
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What is research but a blind date with knowledge. ~ Will Henry.
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What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead give away.)
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"When parents and children cultivate traditions, every time they go back to that tradition it renews the emotional energy and bonding of the past." ~ Stephen Covey.
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Why pay money to have your family tree traced? Go into politics, and your opponents will do it for you. ~ Mark Twain.
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With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
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Without genealogy, the study of history is lifeless. ~ John Fiske
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"You might be a redneck if . . . your family tree does not fork and you view the upcoming family reunion as a chance to meet women." ~ Jeff Foxworthy.