Tombstone Tuesday - December 8, 2009

Addie Mae (Densmore) Anderson - Andrew Anderson

Born: 10/12/1890  Died: April 1955   -   Born: 12/16/1883 Died : 12/10/1970

These are my Anderson Grandparents. My mother’s parents, Grandma Addie died before I was born so unfortunately I never knew her. She had breast cancer. The cancer was in its advanced stages by the time saw a doctor about it. My mother told me that I was quite a bit like her. She quilted and loved to sew and so do I. Her favorite beverage was tea, green tea. So is mine. For years I tried to learn to drink coffee because that was what “everyone” drank but my stomach really did not like the acid it produced so eventually I gave up and started to carry tea bags with me. I was thrilled to discover that it is good for you! And on a not so good note, Mom always told me that “you have the Anderson tummy”. The larger than it should be waistline… She said “the Anderson woman, the Densmore woman and the Hayner woman, they all had it” and mom did too. So do I! It was hard to get rid of in my 40’s and seems impossible in my 50’s. I wish I had known my Grandmother.

I have a feeling that I was more like her than Mom would ever admit. I have the old family photos and in them I have found my Grandmother was not always the conventional “lady” of the 1920’s. I have several pictures of Grandma Addie with Grandpa and with her friends and she is smoking a pipe. I tend to think that my Grandmother did not necessarily “follow the rules”. You know the standard norms of society in 1920. Women did not smoke pipes in the 1920’s but Grandma did.

Well, like my Grandma, I did not exactly follow the rules of society 50 years later. I got pregnant at sixteen and got married. The last few weeks of my junior year, (and before I was married) the school confronted me about the rumors which were circulating around the school, the rumor that I was pregnant. I very defiantly stood my ground. They tried to throw me out of school. I told them that I would finish my school year I told them that I would come to school everyday and they would give me the credits for my classes. And I did finish my junior year. I told the school officials that I would follow their “rule” for the fall semester when I was big and pregnant but I warned them that I would be back for the winter semester. I did go back to school after my son was born. I finished school and graduated with my original senior class in the spring. It was the first time that a teen mother came back after giving birth and finished her senior year. It was one of the hardest things I have every done…Take care of a newborn and do home work but I had told the school I was going do it and I was going to do it. As it turned out, my younger sister was in Jr High school  and due to over crowding, the school implemented a split school schedule so the High school building could be used for Jr High and High School. She went in the afternoon and I went in the morning so she watch my son (with the assistance of Grandma), while I went to school. I could never have done it with out her. Let’s just say quite a few of my Mother and Dad’s gray hairs came from me…

I never took the easy path. I tested every rule and followed the path least traveled. I have come to believe that it was the way my Grandma did it too. My Grandpa sailed the Great Lakes and was gone for weeks on end. That meant that Grandma was left at home to raise 8 children and run a household by herself. It meant that she made many decisions because she could not wait until Grandpa came home to help her. That is no small feat for a lady in the 1920’s and 1930’s. So I think that we were very much alike, my Grandma and me. She gave me my “spunk” that I am very proud of. Thank–you Grandma!  We'll talk about Grandpa Anderson next time!

Kisiah, Kesiah, Kiziah, Kaziah......

Sometimes when you are looking for your ancestors, a unique given name can help you track a family with a common surname like Smith. Early in my search, I found a clue that James and Susannah may have come from Darke County because of a unique given name. Her name was Kisiah Smith and she married Daniel Overly in Darke County. Daniel is Susannah’s brother. Kisiah was not married to Daniel very long. I made an assumption that she died (maybe in child birth which was more common then) but I couldn’t be sure of that. I had first found James and Susannah in Allen County Indiana and I knew that they were the parents to James W, who was the father of Alvin, who was the father of Everett, my Grandfather. I knew they were from Ohio which lead me to search for a Marriage record for James Smith and Susannah whose last name was unknown. With that search I found the marriage record for James Smith and Susannah Overly. It was the only marriage record for a James Smith and Susannah. So with that information I decided to take a close look at the Overly family. As luck would have it they had been well researched and there was quite a lot of data on them.

When I searched on the Overly name, I found the marriage record for Daniel Overly and Kisiah Smith on October 12, 1824. The name Kisiah jumped off the page at me. James and Susannah had a daughter named Kisiah and it made me wonder if they were related. Did James have a sister Kisiah? Daniel Overly had two sons in the 1830 Federal Census, one under 3 and one between 5<10 and there are two women in the household between 20 <30. I assumed that this was Kisiah and maybe a sister of hers or of Daniel’s. Later I would find a marriage record which would indicate that Daniel had married Mary Ann Glasgow by 1840. They would have Samuel, their first son in 1840. They settled in Miami County, Indiana by the 1860 Federal Census. Mary Ann has died by the 1870 Census.

I would later find a Kesiah Overly living with Henry Smith in Darke County, Ohio in the 1870 Federal Census. Are Henry and Kesiah are siblings? Is the spelling different because the census taker wrote it wrong? Could this be the first wife of Daniel Overly? Kesiah is ten years older than Henry; she is listed as 70 in the census. If this is her, where has she been for the 1850 and 1860 census? What happened to the children listed in the 1830 Census? I find a William Overly living in Pleasant township, Allen County, Indiana near the other Overly families in the Nine Mile area. He was born in 1825. This could be Kisiah and Daniel’s child? My Smith family traveled in family groups when they moved from Ohio to Indiana. Siblings and their families moved together settling in close proximity of each other and in some cases on the same plot of land which they would develp together. Nephews are found working with Uncles.

I have spent many nights trying to answer these questions. So far I do not know. Hopefully with continued research someday I’ll find this “needle in the haystack”. So much for thinking a unique given name would help me with a common surname.

Tombstone Tuesday - December 1, 2009

Rock Fall Cemetery, Harbor Beach Michigan

 Leah M Smith    Harold A Smith

 1928-2009       1928 - 1996

And a cute little cemetery story......

When my Grandkids were small I took them for a ride one day. I had planned to visit the cemetery where my Grandparents were buried. I wanted pictures of their tombstones and ride. I could always find a cemetery to visit. I wanted a photo of their tombstone and that of several other relatives. The Grandkids seemed to enjoy themselves because of the wide open space a Cemetery presents. A game of tag ensued, while Grandma snapped a few photos. It did not take too long before they were wondering what I was doing. Then they wanted to be in photos too. As the photo above shows and I did not have the heart to tell “Biscuit” that I really had not planned on her being in the photo. I explained to them that I was taking pictures of tombstones of family members who had died. Death was not an easy concept to understand so before long I quit trying to explain. Once they realized that I was taking photos of these “rocks” which had names on them, they were curious about these people we should know. In their mind each tombstone represented “someone we should know”.

After trying to explain that we did not know everyone who was buried in the cemetery, I decided to give up and take them to McDonalds! Nothing like a Chicken McNuggets and a French fries to take their mind off of something they did not understand and an hour of playing in the play yard helped too!