Use a photo as a starting point to tell the family stories.
We family historians have interviewed, researched, downloaded, copied, organized, and stayed up late nights/early mornings to find our ancestors and learn their stories. We have our family history saved as pixels, paper, and more in our brains than is probably written down. But how do we share those stories, to make them more a part of our family’s history? How can we ensure the stories will be passed to generations to come??
More importantly, how do we decide just where to start?
Photos tell us about relationships when there is more than one person in the image. Thus we can use photos as a way to think about family and friends, and as a way to limit us or give us a starting point for sharing stories. There are so many stories about so many people in our family’s history- obviously, since the number of people doubles with each generation! Sometimes it is tough to decide where to start with writing, or a new blog post. So in the near future, we will use the above image as a starting point for a series of articles about the family of John S. Roberts (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann (Murrell) Roberts (1835-1917), the parents of these three men.
We will also tell the story of the sister of these three, Mary Jane Roberts, and the infant son, Wilbert John Roberts (1877-1878), who died very young.
And how are we related to these folks? George Anthony Roberts was the father of Edith Mae (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck, therefore William Edward and Jason Lee were her paternal uncles, and Mary Jane her paternal aunt.
Stay tuned for more information about these ancestors and their families!
Notes, Sources, and References:
Image from family treasure chest of photos and ephemera.
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Original content copyright 2013-2016 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 or use of our blog material.
Those who rail against BSOS (Bright Shiny Object Syndrome, which distracts from the original goal) are probably missing out on some very cool stories. There is no finish line in genealogy, as there is always another ancestor to discover, and another record to be found. Family history is not all about the facts either- it is the stories that account for so much of the interest and understanding, both for the lives of our ancestors, as well as our own lives.
So I will no longer feel guilty about my propensity for BSOS, because it can give clues to interesting stories. Today we have such a story, having to do with William Edward Roberts, the great-uncle of Edward A. McMurray, Jr. (You can figure your relationship from there.)
Old family records collected in the 1970s told us that William Edward Roberts married Mary Margaret Main in 1881. New records online from both Ancestry.com and Family Search.org give us some additional information about this wedding.
In license #133, we see that W. E. Roberts, a farmer in Mound Prairie Township, was 23 years old, white, and born in Illinois; his father was John Roberts and mother E. Murray (which should be ‘Murrell’). An affidavit was sworn by M. H. Russell- but who was M. H. Russell??
W. E. Roberts- Mary Margaret Main Marriage Record,Headings, pp. 50-518 (right page), Returns of Marriages in the County of Jasper, [Iowa], Volume: 303 (Howard – Louisa). (Click to enlarge.)The second entry (under the blue line) is the continuation on the right-hand page of the W. E. Roberts marriage record. He married Mary M. Main, age 19, and born in Iowa; her parents were D. W. Main and Anna Keller. Witnesses to their marriage were H. Johnson and M. H. Russell- again that name. The Roberts-Main marriage took place on 20 January 1881.
If I give in to BSOS- which of course, I did, (hence the “Heritage Ramblings” name of this blog) one would look at the entry above W. E.’s marriage record, since it contains that same name, M. H. Russell. W. E. Roberts gave the affidavit… hmmm, there must be a connection. Following the information across the ledger we learn that the bride of M. H. was Sarah E. Main, age 23- the same surname as W. E.’s bride. Smart person that you are, dear reader, the thought must now cross your mind that the two women might be sisters, and looking at the names of the parents, we can confirm that. A quick check of the census just before the marriages reveals both girls in the household of a Daniel and Anar Main, with the correct ages.
Back to the two marriage records- looking at the marriage date for M. H. and Sarah, we realize that the two married the same day as W. E. and Mary! Both were married by the same Justice of the Peace, D. Edmundsen. M. H. Russell was a witness to the Roberts-Main marriage, and W. E. Roberts a witness for the Russell-Main marriage. So most likely the couples had a double wedding, since the parents of the two brides probably wanted to finance only one wedding feast.
Portrait of William E. Roberts, 1901.
William Edward Roberts is not directly an ancestor, but learning about this double wedding day can give us clues about where the rest of our family in this line was on 20 January 1881. Most likely, the wedding included W. E.’s parents, John S. Roberts and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts (great-grandparents of Edward A. McMurray, Jr.); W. E.’s siblings, including our direct ancestor, George A. Roberts (he didn’t marry until 4 years later, and became Edward A. McMurray Jr.’s grandfather); W. E.’s maternal grandparents, Wiley Anderson Murrell and Mary Magdalen Hons Murrell (also great-grandparents of Edward A. McMurray, Jr.). Unfortunately, W. E.’s paternal grandparents, John Roberts and Jane Salyers Roberts, had already passed away. It must have been quite a celebration, though, with not one but two young couples starting their lives together on the same day!
Notes, Sources, and References:
Marriage Record Images– Iowa State Archives; Des Moines, Iowa; Volume: 303 (Howard – Louisa) via Ancestry.com. Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Iowa Department of Public Health. Iowa Marriage Records, 1880–1922. Textual Records. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa; Iowa Department of Public Health. Iowa Marriage Records, 1923–37. Microfilm. Record Group 048. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.
W. E. Roberts portrait, 1901 from Family Treasure Chest.
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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 2013-2016 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 or use of our blog material.
from community happenings to the style of their house.
Thankfully most family historians have moved away from being collectors of names and dates, and now want to tell the stories of their ancestors lives. Without detailed daily diaries or bundles of old letters, how do we learn about their lives? Newspapers are a great way to learn what was happening in a community, and an ancestor might be mentioned in a story or obituary. Also, browsing the pages around where one finds an ancestor article can help us to fill in the blanks about the little things in their lives- or even the big things.
Politics can be messy, as we all have experienced these last two years of this what seems to be a never-ending election. (In Great Britain, they only have a certain number of WEEKS they are allowed to campaign- that seems much more sensible.) Elections in our country’s history have been just as bad, maybe even worse than this one, but learning about them will help us to understand our ancestors a bit more.
Edward B.Payne (1847-1923) and his wife, Nanie M. (Burnell) Payne (1847-1898), lived in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1888, the year of this article. Their only child, Lynette Payne (who later married William Elmer McMurray), was about to turn nine years old just eight days after this article was published. Rev. Payne was the pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian Church in Leominster. Further down this newspaper column about Leominster happenings was a report of the Porter-Davis wedding at which he officiated, but a few moments of browsing the paper turned up this nugget of context.
In 1888, the Democratic incumbent President, Grover Cleveland, desired a second term. The Republican nominee was Benjamin Harrison, and US tariffs were the biggest issue of the campaign. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods, paid by the importer, and until the Federal Income Tax began in 1913, tariffs were the main source of federal income- up to 95% of the total at times.
1888 Presidential Election- Tariff Reform poster for Grover Cleveland, via Wikipedia; public domain.
Since high tariffs, paid by foreign manufacturers and importers, provided income to our federal government, they reduced the need for taxes to be paid by our citizens. Sounds good- make the other country pay, right? Well, the bad part is that U.S. tariffs make the cost of imported goods higher to the consumer in this country- the cost just gets passed through to the buyer, of course.
Tariffs that are high make domestic products more affordable than imports, and thus more desirable. Therefore those in U.S. industries, including factory workers, preferred high tariffs so that their own production had a lower comparative cost, and they could sell more. Our own citizens would be in high demand as workers, too.
Since the country was prospering and there were no wars going on in 1888, tariffs became THE issue. Grover Cleveland was adamant that high U.S. tariffs were hurting the consumer. He knew that our citizens felt it every time that they bought an imported item, and it hurt their pocketbook. Cleveland thus proposed a large tariff reduction to Congress.
(But then would personal taxes go up? The money has to come from somewhere…)
Harrison, however, felt that high tariffs protected our workers and manufacturers.
Grover Cleveland-Benjamin Harrison presidential (1888) campaign poster about the trade policy of the two candidates. The map supports the work of the Harrison campaign. via Wikipedia, public domain.
Benjamin Harrison was a Republican from Indiana, and he gave speeches from his front porch in Indianapolis- our Springsteen ancestors, such as Jefferson Springsteen and his son Abram Furman Springsteen, may have been a part of those crowds. The Springsteens were Democrats, so may have been part of the hecklers, although they may have had divided loyalties. Their party’s man, President Cleveland, was against military pensions. Since Jeff had at least 2 sons who had served in the Civil War, one of which was Abram, the Springsteens may not have been so happy with Cleveland, either.
Back in Leominster, Massachusetts, where Edward B.Payne and family were living, the factory workers, as expected, were supporting Harrison with his views of keeping tariffs high. It is interesting that the shirt factory ladies were going to “unfurl one of the finest flags in town, bearing the names of Harrison and Morton.” (Morton was the V.P. nominee.) Since women in most states could not legally vote in a Presidential election until 32 years later, it was one small way they could voice their political opinions and help influence the outcome.
Rev. Payne was a Christian Socialist in his later years, and surely, with his devotion to the poor, he exemplified that philosophy even earlier in life. He most likely would have favored a candidate who had the middle and lower classes in mind. (Later in California, he registered as a Socialist; we have found no other documentation of his political leanings.) He worked quite a lot with factory workers though, so he too may have had a difficult time deciding between candidates when he was ready to cast his ballot in the Cleveland-Harrison contest. Although just 41 years old in 1888, he also was a Civil War veteran, thus probably liked the idea of a military pension in his future- after all, preachers really do not make very much income.
In 1888, America still was one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, and the costs for our products were among the lowest in the world. So the tariff issue may not have been of such importance after all, but it was the loudest of the campaign.
Harrison carried Indiana as well as Massachusetts, and received the majority of electoral votes. Cleveland, however, received the majority of the popular votes. It was a close election, but as one of only four elections when the popular vote did not match the Electoral College vote, the Republican Benjamin Harrison became the next President of the United States.
The context of our ancestor’s lives in 1888 included tariffs; today, ours include trade agreements, which can affect prices and demand in similar ways.
Our ancestors needed to educate themselves well before they voted, just as we need to do today.
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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 2013-2016 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 or use of our blog material.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections webpage is an unbelievable resource for those researching in New York City and beyond. They have so generously made a push to make their collections available freely on the internet, and they allow use of much of their collection without fees or even required citations. There is so much on the site, and they continually add to it- it will keep many a dedicated family historian from sleep tonight and long into the future.
We know that our Helbling ancestors, the Springsteens, lived in New York City at various times. Jefferson Springsteen (1820-1909), the great-grandfather of Mary Theresa (Helbling) McMurray, married the Irish immigrant Anna M. Connor (1824-1887) in Brooklyn in 1843, and they are found in the 1850 US Federal Census in Brooklyn with three of their children. By 1853 they had moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, but Jefferson’s father, John Springsteen (1782-1867), his grandfather, Abraham Springsteen (abt 1755-1844 or before), or his siblings, may have been in NYC in 1856, when the City Directory listed quite a number of Springsteens and associated names.
Springsteens in New York City, City Directory, 1856/7, page 781. Public domain.
An upcoming project is to go through this directory’s listings above, and determine exactly who each of these persons are, and how they might be related. Thankfully this publication places these Springsteens between the 1850 and 1860 US Federal Censuses, so those enumerations may help to sort out family lines, as might the occupations and addresses listed in the city directory.
Thank you, New York Public Library, for your Digital Collections and making public information truly public and freely usable!
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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 2013-2016 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 or use of our blog material.
Even when the occupation or another trait seems to “fit,”
do an ‘exhaustive search’ to make sure you have the correct ancestor.
Initial research on Mary Parsons as an ancestor provided confusing results.
Two women with the name of Mary Parsons lived in two of the same towns during the same time period. That is challenging enough, but during the early research, I knew that “our” ancestor had been accused as a witch. That was not enough to distinguish one from the other, however- both of these Marys had been accused as witches! WOW!- so were they the same person?
No.
The key to this problem was to find the maiden names of the women- not always easy to do, especially in very early records. For women, looking at their children is also a clue. Well, sometimes children can be a clue, however the same few names were often used, children died young, etc. But the number of children, their birth years, and names, can be tidbits that might also prove helpful to differentiate two people, or prove they are the same.
In our case, the children helped but maiden names were the definitive way to show they were indeed two different women.
Mary (Lewis) Parsons, wife of Hugh Parsons, lived in Springfield, Hamden, Massachusetts at the same time as Mary (Bliss) Parsons, our ancestor. We have posted extensively about both families in our series on Mary (Bliss) Parsons. Once we found the maiden names of “Lewis” and “Bliss” it was fairly easy to distinguish between the two women. Additionally, Mary (Lewis) was older and had fewer children than “our” Mary (Bliss) Parsons.
Interestingly, though, some additional research shows that “Lewis” was NOT the maiden name of the wife of Hugh Parsons. I have never seen this mentioned in any of the scholarship on the two families, however.
How do I know that? It’s that BSOS- “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome,” where one has to look at just one more piece of evidence… though at least this one did not take me far from the original focus.
American Ancestors, the website of the New England Historic & Genealogical Society (NEHGS), has a database with the papers of John Winthrop, Deputy Governor of Massachusetts. In a letter from William Pynchon in Springfield to Winthrop, dated 15 September 1645, Pynchon states:
I wrote to you… about one Mary Lewis the wife of Lewis a papist. [a Catholic- something abhorred by the Puritans.] she hath been aboue [about] 7y[ears] seperated from her husband, and is perswaded by others that she may marry by the lawes of England: she is easely perswaded to that bec[ause] she liues [lives] vnder [under] temptations of desyer [desire] of mariage and I vunderstand [understand] lately that she is falen into a league of amity [a “friendly” relationship] with a bricke maker of our Towne…
This “bricke maker of our Towne” was none other than Hugh Parsons.
Thus “Lewis” was the marriedname of Mary, from her first marriage. Some researchers do note that she was deserted by her first husband (the “papist”), but none that I have found note her maiden name; I have not found it either.
Gov. Winthrop must have approved the “league of amity,” as the marriage of Mary and Hugh is is recorded in the Springfield, Massachusetts Vol. 1, page 20 of “Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850” on AmericanAncestors.org. It is written as:
Hugh Parsons & mary Lewis joyned in m[torn] 8 mon. 27 day 1645.
Researchers have therefore assumed that Mary’s maiden name was Lewis. But it most likely was not, as can be deduced from Pynchon’s letter stating she had married a man named Lewis. Of course, her maiden name could have been ‘Lewis’ and she married a man named ‘Lewis’- such things did happen, but it was less likely. Either way, technically, her name should be genealogically written as “Mary ( __ ) [Lewis] Parsons.”
So another tip: don’t assume!
Notes, Sources, and References:
See resources listed in previous posts about Mary (Bliss) Parsons, Parts 1-4 beginning with:
Gov. John Winthrop Papers, Vol. 1-5, 1557 to 1649. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2016.) Originally published as: Winthrop Papers.Boston: Masssachuestts Historical Society, 1929 -. Vol. 5, page 45.
Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016).
Newer usage in genealogy includes using brackets around previous married names, in addition to the convention of parentheses around maiden names.
Reading colonial writing is not as hard as it seems- if stumped, say the words out loud, as they were often spelled as they were said, and with whatever accent was used. Also note that sometimes “v” and “u” were used interchangeably as in ‘vnderstand.’ Additionally, an “f” was often used as an “s,” especially if it was a double “s” in the word, as in “difmifsed” for “dismissed.”
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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 2013-2016 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 or use of our blog material.
![W. E. Roberts- Mary Margaret Main Marriage Record, Headings, pp. 50-518 (left page), Returns of Marriages in the County of Jasper, [Iowa], Volume: 303 (Howard - Louisa), Iowa State Archives; Des Moines, Iowa. Source Information- Iowa, Marriage Records, 1923-1937 Author Ancestry.com Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-15-at-2.25.58-PM-500x97.png?resize=500%2C97)
![W. E. Roberts- Mary Margaret Main Marriage Record,Headings, pp. 50-518 (left page), Returns of Marriages in the County of Jasper, [Iowa], Volume: 303 (Howard - Louisa), Iowa State Archives; Des Moines, Iowa. Source Information- Iowa, Marriage Records, 1923-1937 Author Ancestry.com Publisher Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-15-at-2.25.40-PM-500x69.png?resize=500%2C69)
![W. E. Roberts- Mary Margaret Main Marriage Record,Headings, pp. 50-518 (right page), Returns of Marriages in the County of Jasper, [Iowa], Volume: 303 (Howard - Louisa), Iowa State Archives; Des Moines, Iowa. Source- Iowa, Marriage Records, 1923-1937, Ancestry.com.](https://i0.wp.com/heritageramblings.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-15-at-2.25.14-PM-500x110.png?resize=500%2C110)
