The Jefferson Springsteen- Anna (Connor) Springsteen family provided quite a few siblings for their daughter Anna Missouri Springsteen, who was the sixth-born of ten children. She was also one of just two girls, so she and her older sister Mary Elizabeth Springsteen would have been busy taking care of all those brothers!
You can see the whole family- well, all but one- in the picture posted a few days ago in the post Treasure Chest Thursday: The Springsteen Family. Today we will tell a bit about Anna’s oldest sibling, and follow up later this week/month with information about the others. Of course, Anna will get her own post on another day too, since she was the beloved grandmother of Mary Theresa (Helbling) McMurray.
We also have an upcoming series of posts of our Springsteen Family Bible, and all these folks will be mentioned in there. In addition, Anna is the one who kept the Beerbower Family Bible, which has already been posted, starting with “Beerbower Family Bible- Dec. 31st, 1873.” The Beerbower Bible was presented to Anna Missouri at the end of 1873, the year she married Edgar Peter Beerbower on 12 February. She was carrying their first child, so the family bible was a very fitting gift.
John William Springsteen of Indianapolis, Indiana, c1863? Cropped from family portrait.
John William Springsteen was the first-born of the children of Jefferson and Anna Springsteen. Their marriage date is unknown, but John was born on 26 November 1844. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, where they had been married.
John William was just nine when the family moved to Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, about 1853. His four younger siblings, who had been born in Brooklyn, made the trip as well. Their father was the town marshall in Indianapolis and involved in local politics. By the 1870 US Federal Census, John was 25 and still living with the family, as many did until they married. He was working as a painter, as were his two brothers (Thomas) Jefferson and Charles; their father was a painter and his brother Abram was a brick mason.
In December of 1870, John married Jennie Taylor in Indianapolis, the ceremony performed by Rev. Mr. Mendenhall. (The ’70’ in ‘1870’ is crossed out and ’69’ written above in the Springsteen Bible, but the 1870 census lists John as a single person living with his parents so, ??) Their son Harry Arthur Springsteen was born 5 April 1871 per his headstone, but he is listed as being 4/12 years old and born in January in the 1870 US Federal Census. Harry married Ina Johnson and lived in Texas; he died 1 June 1934.
Sadly Jennie died young, at age 36, on 4 June 1887.
She and John William are buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Jennie (Taylor) Springsteen- headstone in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find a Grave photographer.John William SPRINGSTEEN Headstone in Crown HIll Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Used with kind permission of the Find A Grave photographer.
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Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
The Springsteen surname is one you may have heard all your life, but it has not really been used for least 3 generations in our line because it was a matrilineal name. Abram Springsteen, “the youngest drummer boy in the Civil War,” was famous in our family. (Actually, there were quite a few drummer boys just barely into the double digits of age, and you can read more about Abram in our many previous posts- just put “Springsteen” into the search box.) The name “Anna Missouri Springsteen” (1854-1939) was quite a favorite- she likely was named for her paternal aunt, Missouri E. (Springsteen) Scotten, and was the sister of our young drummer boy. Anna M. married Edgar Peter Beerbower (1849-1916) in 1873, ending the name in our line (though they did name their son “Edgar Springsteen Beerbower”). They finally moved to Missouri too- wonder if that had been a dream, thus they used the name ‘Missouri” for daughters? I am so lucky to have one of Anna M.’s rings to wear everyday, and honor her memory.
According to the Dictionary of American Family Names, the surname Springsteen comes from the Dutch or North German language. It is what is considered to be a ‘topographic’ name, which is a name based on a place or a landscape object, such as the surname, “Hill.”
A ‘springsteen’ is a specific type of stone that is used as a stepping stone between houses or on unpaved roads. That seems somewhat foreign to us today- why were such things common? For a moment, time travel and put yourself into the context of older times: muddy, unpaved and rutted roads; no lawn services to provide a lush lawn; horses both with riders and pulling wagons, herded animals coming to market through town, dogs and cats running free through town and the farm, and all those critters leaving their mark on the road in piles that get run over and splashed- yucch. Let’s add in human critters spitting tobacco and etc. everywhere. (They were generally of the male species but there were some interesting female ones doing this as well.) Don’t forget that chamber pots were often just dumped outside, slop buckets of leftover food thrown out for the rummaging dogs and pigs, and wash stand water thrown out the window as well and into the street. Children and even adults may have had chronic vomiting or diarrhea due to parasites, infections, etc., with no antibiotics to make their life easier and reduce the filth being put outside the house. Now pretend you are a genteel lady with a long skirt that drags in the dirt- heavens, you would be a hussy if you showed your ankles, even with laced up shoes- and there is no such thing as an electric washing machine…
Yes, easy to see how they needed those ‘springsteens’ to keep out of the filthy muck.
Not sure that I like the idea of our family being compared to a rock, but maybe it was because the members of our family were useful and tough?
Our oldest Springsteen ancestor documented thus far is John Springsteen, the father of Jefferson and thus grandfather of our Anna Missouri (Springsteen) Beerbower; she was the mother of Anna May (Beerbower) Helbling who was born in 1881 and died in 1954. (Click on the family tree link at the beginning of this post for more details.) We believe John was born about 1782 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, but do not know his wife Mary’s maiden name nor the names of either of their parents. New York is a tough state to research, so it has been hard to trace John and Mary. The family did migrate to to the new frontier called Ohio, and then to the newer frontier, Indiana, where their son Jefferson and his brother Abraham were living by about 1839.
Springsteen families in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1896. R. L. Polk & Co. Indianapolis, Indiana City Directory, via Ancestry.com. Note that siblings spell the name differently: John W. has changed the last ‘e’ to an ‘i’ and thus his son Harry spells his name the same way.
There are stories that Jeff had returned to New York (which he did) but also visited in New Jersey where possibly his grandfather lived. There are quite a lot of Springsteens in New Jersey and New York, so more research will need to be done to sort them out and find the ancestors of our Springsteen line.
Looking at early immigration records, there are very many Springsteens who came to New Netherlands, which was Dutch New York. The first and middle names definitely look to be Dutch, such as “Joost Casparse Springsteen” or “Geertje Jans Springsteen.” Later arrivals who could possibly be John Springsteen’s parents immigrated to Long Island, New York, or possibly Orange or Albany. Jefferson did live in Brooklyn, New York, for a time, where he married his wife Anna Connor, so they may have had family there- have not found any information yet, but NYC is a good place to start researching again.
Ancestry.com has an interesting page on the website where one can research a family name. Using census data, they state 10-18 Springsteen families in 1840 lived in New York, and 4-9 in New Jersey, but this surely does not take into account all the spelling variations of the name. (Springsteen, Springsted, Springston, etc.)
By the 1880 US Federal Census, Ancestry.com shows 85-167 Springsteens in New York state, 29-84 in New Jersey and Michigan, 1-28 in various other states including Indiana. In 1920, Ancestry.com lists just 36-69 Springsteen families in New York, 13-35 in New Jersey and Michigan, and 1-12 in Indiana, Ohio, and 21 other states.
Ancestry.com also looked at the 1880 US Federal Census for Springsteen occupations, and compared the percentage to that of the general public. Slightly over one-third of Springsteens were farmers in 1880, similar to the general population. Springsteen’s also had a similar number of laborers (9%), 1% less farm laborers at 2%, 1% more working as blacksmiths, at 2% of Springsteens, and 5% working as painters when the general public was just 1%. (Both Jefferson, his brother Abraham, and his father John worked as painters at various times in their lives.)
Keeping house (6%) as an occupation was the same as in the general public, but this makes me wonder how these statistics were generated- they are probably only counting ‘head of household’ Springsteens, as theoretically there would be about the same number of wives named Springsteen as husbands.
Ancestry.com has 54 Civil War service records for Springsteens, and all fought on the Union side. (Not really a surprise since all lived in northern states.)
The inevitable question? Are we related to Bruce Springsteen? Possibly, since there is that New Jersey connection, but no link found as yet. We’ll keep you posted.
Notes, Sources, and References:
Ancestry.com
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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
Mrs. J. E. Neville, Colorado. Talbot Photographer, Loveland, Colorado. On the front Mrs. J. E. Neville (very faint pencil); 1900 census shows them in Buckhorn, Colo. James E. born 1858 Penn., Martha E. born 1865 Michigan.
These are the remaining photos in Fannie Chapman’s photo collection. As the owner was sorting through her grandmother’s trunk, she found many images of persons not related, and would like to see them ‘sorted’ into the albums of those who are actually related to these friends of the family and/or students. A. Beerbower (possibly one of our cousins) was in one of the photos in this collection, so he may have also known some of these folks.
Please see previous posts for more about the collection, and contact us if you have an interest in any items in the collection. The owner is eager to find the right homes for these wonderful photos!
Mrs. W. C. Sanderson, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Mrs. W. C. Sanderson, no info. The studio is embossed- almost impossible to read but I think it is Gray Brothers in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Maggie Richer, New Hampshire
Maggie Richer appears to be the daughter of John C. Richer; he was born in 1844 in New Hampshire.
Eva B. (Buchannan) Goss
Eva B. Buchannan was born circa 1874 in Missouri and died 1943. She married William A. Goss who was born 1869 also in Missouri. Her father was John H. Buchannan born 1835 in Iowa, and her mother Mary was born 1844 in Canada.
Minnie Parsons
Alice Parsons Allen, Bridge [Photography], Mechanic Falls, MaineMinnie and Alice were sisters, daughters of Addison B. Parsons. Minnie was born in 1864 in Maine, and Alice born 1866, Maine. Alice married Arthur B. Allen. Written on the back of Alice’s photo: “Mrs. Alice (M.) Parsons Allen died Jan 17, 1898 aged 32 yrs. Mc Falls, Maine.” Nothing on the back of Minnie’s photo.
Lillias Simpson. Nothing more known about her. Photographer also ‘Talbot, Artist’ in Loveland, Colorado.Ira Austin
Ira Austin
Ira Austin was born in 1812 in New York; he was the brother of Clement Austin in Boulder, Colorado. Ira was listed as a mill planner in the 1880 business pages of Boulder. Written on the back “Ira Austin Boulder, Colorado” – probably a friend of Volney Chapman, father of Verna and Charlotte Chapman.
George Bell Family
George T. Bell born 1862, Illinois; Minnie (MNU) Bell, born 1866, Nebraska; Maura Bell born 1891, Colorado; Winnie Bell born 1886 in Colorado. (Data from 1900 census.)
Susie Talbot Knapp and Carrie McDermott
Susie’s picture may interest someone. She was the sister of Talbot, the Artist/Photographer. Susie Talbot Knapp is identified on the album page. She looks good for her age born in 1866 I believe. Carrie McDermott died in 1898 I think if my memory is serving me rightly so the picture had to be taken before then. She was also born ten years or so later than Susie.
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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
This post contains more photos from the Frances “Fannie” Isabella (Brown) Chapman Collection. What is known about each person is noted in the caption or paragraph below, excerpted from the owner’s notes to me.
These family treasures are looking for their rightful owners- please see previous posts as well for more information about these images. Contact us if you are interested in these photos!
F. R. Chamberlain FamilyMrs. F. R. Chamberlain #3
Mrs. F. R. Chamberlain. She was a friend of Emma Jane Randall Hollowell and they corresponded regularly. I have three individual photos of her the youngest it appears taken in St. Augustine, Fla, no studio on the next youngest, Denver (where if I remember correctly most of her letters came from) the older picture and the family picture.
Mertie Weatherstone #2Mertie Weatherstone #1
Mertie Weatherstone was born about September, 1879 in Michigan. She married James Allan Taylor late in life, no children I think and I believe I offered these photos, I have two copies of one and the second just one.
Eda N. PetersonJohn S. Peterson
Eda N. Peterson and husband John S. Peterson. She was born in June 1873, in Sweden and married circa 1898. John S. Peterson was born April 1869, also in Sweden. According to census Eda immigrated in 1893 and John in 1887. In 1900 they were in Clear Creek, Colorado where he worked gold mines. Reverse of Eda’s photo states “Rising & Barnhart, Loveland, Colorado.” Back of John’s is “Artistic Photographer, G. (something like 2.v. maybe Q.v.) Stippler, Longmont, Colorado (maybe Stiffler instead of Stippler).
Eleanor Swanson Benson
Eleanor Swanson Benson was identified on the album sleeve but have not been able to find anything about her; nothing on back or front to tell what studio.
Mrs. Gifford?Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Gifford
Identified on the back as Mr. and Mrs. A. H Gifford, friends of Emma Jane Randall. They married late and she was older than him. I think, but am not sure the single is a photo of her in younger days, but nothing is written on the back.
Clara and Edith GilletteArthur Gillette
The names and studios are the only thing I know about these Gillettes. I don’t know if they graduated with Verna or Charlottte, though I think with Charlotte because they were in her album, but she and Verna were of similar age so they knew the same people. Nothing is on the back of Arthur’s photo, but his name written on the front in pencil. The names of the girls are written on the back.
(Frances Isabella Brown was born in 1845 in Michigan, the third child of nine born to Lemuel Brown and Catherine Lyman. Fannie trained as a teacher and moved about 1871 to Valmont, Colorado. In 1872 she married Volney Chapman (1823 – 1907). He was one of the original ’49ers but had moved back to his family in Michigan about 1860 only to remove to Colorado after 1870. He and Fannie built a house in Loveland, Colorado which is still standing. They had three children; Lloyd, born 1876, Verna born 1877, and Charlotte born 1879.)
Notes, Sources, and References:
The Frances “Fannie” Isabella (Brown) Chapman Photo Collection
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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
Any family historian lucky enough to find a batch of photos is likely to find some in that batch that are not labeled, or have incomplete labels. Sometimes a photo might include just a first name, or a place, or a date- frustratingly often just one of these, or just nothing. After all, the original owner knew who all the people were, so why put names on them??
Tuesday’s Tip: Study each photo individually to glean as much information as possible, but also look at the photo in context with others found with it, and others you may have.
These photos were in the Fannie Belle Brown Chapman Collection. The family believes these were friends and/or schoolmates of Fannie and her sister Ida, and hope that they can find descendants and give them the images. (Contact us if you are related!)
So how does one sort out who is who?
Keep collections or boxes, envelopes, scrapbooks, etc. of photos together; include the negatives if you have them.
Making a scan or taking a picture of them all laid out in the order you received them might be helpful.
If you are scanning a scrapbook, scan each page and number accordingly, then scan individual photos at a higher resolution. This will help keep the images in context.
Label your scans appropriately. Include the name of the collection, side of the family, type of image, and anything you can add to help ID the photo. An example of a file name for the above picture might be:Year_four digit month/day_SPEERY_Lizzie_fm Fannie Belle Brown Chapman Collection_tintypeThis will ‘automagically’ sort your images by date and person; I use individual family folders and when people become adults, they get a new folder with the two names:CHAPMAN_Unknown- BROWN_Fannie BelleI usually put the husband’s name first, as adult records are generally under that name for both of them.
Now that you have familiarized yourself with the collection as you scanned the images, and have a record of their context, look at each image carefully. Look at them in a variety of lights, and tilt them in the light to see if you can find any markings on them- both pencil and ink fade over time, but sometimes the ‘graphite’ of a pencil will glisten if angled just right in the light, or there may be an impression where the writer pressed hard. Enlarge your digital images- sometimes the camera will pick up something your eye did not.
Write down everything you know about the image, using metadata, and a text file that has the same name as the photo but ends in ‘.txt.’ (TextWrangler is a good text app for Macs.)
Look for clues in the photos. For example, the above photo was labeled as, “Lizzie Speery.” Looking at other photos, there was another, older Lizzie in the group:
Lizzie
It is hard to read the writing, but this photo definitely says, “Lizzie”- maybe ‘Hines’? Then it looks like the name of a city, and possibly ‘NY” after.
Think about the context- two Lizzies, the only person to have 2 photos in the collection. Different last names, but the first image was a young girl, the second a mature woman, and the different last name is likely a married name.
Could these Lizzies be the same person with some years in between photos? Take a look at her eyes, chin, nose- what do you think? (Let us know in the comments.)
Try to date the photos by dress, type of image, etc. Maureen Taylor, “The Photo Detective,” has excellent books, webinars, classes, speaks at genealogy conferences, and will even do video/phone consults; there are other resources as well to help determine approximate time periods. In the case of our two Lizzies, dating each photo might help us determine if they could possibly be the same person. Lizzie might have been a childhood friend or a distant cousin, possibly who moved away, but then the women exchanged photos in later years?
If there is information available about a photo studio on the back of the image, use Google to try to learn when and where the photographer was in business to give you clues. They often changed the backs of photos as they added a partner or one moved on, or just to update their look or logo. Sometimes images on eBay can even help one determine the years a photo studio was in business, giving you another clue to time period.
Crowd-source your detective hunt by posting your unknown photos on a blog, a website such as DeadFred, Facebook, etc.And, as always, keep copies of your photos and the description file on your own computer or media- online services may not be here forever, some use proprietary software that will not be readable in the future, etc. (Text (.txt) files should be readable for a long time.) This is redundant but redundancy is a good backup. Keep copies of all these images somewhere other than your computer- a drive you keep in a safe deposit box, give to a sibling, etc. The cloud is a good option too, but not failsafe, so always have your own copies.
Notes, Sources, and References:
Fannie Belle Brown Chapman Collection, with permission.
Lizzie Speery apparently worked as or with a photographer.
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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
