I'm placing these two links here because the question arose today from my favorite fair-skinned blue-eyed Celtic-descended warrior:
The documentary on this link gives more details:
Now I'm craving a Guinness. Here's another of my favorite guys who has Irish DNA:
Nearly all of us have 64 great-great-great-great grandparents. I'm getting to know mine.
Below are two pages on three sheets showing the marriage of Abram Prim to Nancy Cook in Wilson County, Tennessee on February 19, 1819.
The second and third image show the backside of the document. I flipped the last page so you could read the bridegroom's name.
Source: Ancestry.com. Tennessee, U.S., Marriage Records, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
The 1850 Fed. Census tells me Nancy Elizabeth Cook was born about 1798 in North Carolina. It follows she was about 21 when she married Abram Prim in early 1819.
Abram and Nancy were my mother's 3x GGrandparents through her father's side. If you too are related to Arthur, this shows how his dad descends from Abram:
Abram acquired some land in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Today it is the fifth-most populated area of Tennessee. But then? I wonder if his property was already cleared. Was it "wooded", flat, hilly? Was it good farm land? He and Nank appear there in the 1810 and 1820 Federal censuses.
Several land registers at this database mention Abram or Abraham Prim(m) as owner of property. He appears at the bottom of this second image:
Source: Tennessee State Library and Archives, Ancestry.com. Tennessee, U.S., Early Land Registers, 1778-1927 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
The 1830 census finds Nancy and Abram in Limestone County, Alabama--with six children. (It wasn't until 1850 that censuses gave names and ages of wives and children). And that's the last record I have for my Abram. I don't know his birth year nor when he died. The 1830 census indicates he was between the ages of 40 and 49 that year.
See Abram as the fourth name on the left of this 1830 Fed. census excerpt:
Abram's widow Nancy (also called Elizabeth) next appears in the 1850 Fed. Census in Johnson County, Arkansas. She is 52, gives a birth location of North Carolina, and lives with her eldest son's family. Both she and daughter Louise are "unable to read or write." That census did not ask marital status as did most others after 1850.
This is the last record I find on Nancy (Cook) Prim. No burial location known. She was not living with her son James in the 1860 census, nor with her daughters.
It is dangerous to assume in genealogy. Yet it is a fair assumption that Abram died in Alabama or Arkansas. Well, then. I can't rule out he didn't up and journey to California in 1849 with a few thousand others, can I? #GoldRush.
I've lost track of my maternal 2nd Great-Grand Aunt Elizabeth Wilhelm Conatser Whitmire.
Born in Tennessee about 1838, she moved with her family to Arkansas before 1850. She appears in the 1850 Fed. Census with her parents and siblings: Pleasant Wilhelms age 38, Jane Wilhelms age 38, Elizabeth Wilhelms 12, Mary A Wilhelms 9, Welcom Wilhelms 7, Archibald Wilhelms 5, James Wilhelms 1. Yes, that spelling of "Wilhelms" was used in the transcription. The family lives in White Oak township, Franklin County.
The 1860 Fed. Census shows them still in Franklin County as: "P. Wilhelm" age 47, Jane 46, Elizabeth 20, Welcome (my GG-Grandpa) 15, "C" 14 (Archey), James 10, Angelene 9, and Pleasant age 6.
An ugly war soon occurred, and their world turned upside down. Brother Archey was killed. Another fought and was twice taken captive.
Elizabeth meets recently-widowed Daniel Conatser. They marry in August 1871.
Marriage of Daniel Conatser and Elizabeth Willhelm by Lewis B. Phillips, justice of the peace. Daniel was 46, Elizabeth was 33 years old.
Knowing that she was 33 when married in August of 1871 is a strong hint as to her birth year. Census data also gives an approximate birth year. But is not always reliable.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. Arkansas, Compiled Marriages from Select Counties, 1779-1992 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
This marriage popped up in three different records--often misspelled, making CONATSER a challenging surname to research:
After her husband Daniel Conatser died shortly before April of 1880, our 40 year old Elizabeth was left to fend for herself. She appears on the census with her five-year old daughter "M.J.", living with her parents, Pleasant and Virginia Wilhelm. But the spelling on this document. Crimeny!
And next door to the Wilhelms are Bennet Whitmire and his wife, Mary. See the last two lines of this 1880 Federal census page:
Neighbor Mary Whitmire died in February 1891. Bennet later married Elizabeth Conatser in 1897. He was 74, she was 59. He died in 1903 and was buried near his first wife.
I last find Elizabeth in the town of Hill, Johnson County, Arkansas in the 1900 Fed. Census living with "Bennie Whitmire" 77 and her 86 year old mother, Virginia Wilhelm. Elizabeth's age is given as 61. Did her daughter "M.J." live nearby, I wonder?
The first two articles from The Paxton Record on April 25th and April 30, 1904 made my day. I've also included a few other articles from this paper published in Paxton, Ford County, Illinois.
File this gem under MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS:
Ahh, #Karma.
It was but a few years later that hungry descendants of these same floggers met with similar scorn and revulsion:
Once upon a time, Mary Jane Millikan (1833-1910) married William E. Baker (1833-1866) in 1854 Iowa.
They had eight children. Harry, the youngest, was born after his dad died in May of 1866.
I haven't yet found Harry's birth date. But the 1870 Federal Census indicates he is three years old.
That same census ALSO shows Harry with a disability. See where "Disability Condition" is indicated below with a "Y" to indicate "yes."
This is a wide view of that census page. Harry is on Line No. 28, in yellow:
He and his mother ("M.J. Baker") are living with her parents, John and Elizabeth Millikan. The recently-widowed Mary Jane works in their household.
Also with Harry are his older siblings, Frances Elizabeth and John K. Baker, on Lines No. 25 and 26. Luckily I know their names/ages from other records. If this was the only record I had on them, I'd go mad trying to guess their names. Crazy handwriting!
I am instead left with a one-word challenge. In the column asking what physical disability a citizen might have, is listed Harry's condition:
Help! Have you any idea what it might be?
BTW, Mary Jane Millikan Baker is my paternal 3x GGrandmother.
UPDATE: Two cousins found the answer. Poor little Harry was "idiotic." A term no longer used today to describe mentally challenged people. But it is a term often used in the 19th century--and specifically, the 1870 census. I've not found Harry in the next federal census of 1880.
But dear Harry, you are remembered here in the blogosphere. And thank you to Leah and Jaime for their keen grasp of cursive writing.
My Great-Grandfather Amiel Wiser died in Devers, Texas on a Saturday night, October 26, 1895. He was 50 years old. What illness he suffered is no longer remembered.
His pregnant widow Sylvina was left to raise eight children--the eldest at 15. The youngest was born seven months later.
I've found no obituary or death certificate. But I have this brief death notice from The Galveston Daily News on Wednesday, October 30, 1895 for "Mr. Weiser."
"One of the oldest settlers here" in Liberty County, Texas. A generous remark. But I think there were many alive then who had lived long in Devers. His daughter Nora recalls him saying he had moved from Germany when he was but six years old. (about 1851).
However, Amiel's older brother Louis told a 1867 voting registrar that he had lived in Texas for 13 years. (Arriving about 1854). The tax record indicates he was naturalized in 1859.
A certificate from April 1853 filed in Galveston County shows their mother Hannah's marriage to Sam Leeper, an early Liberty, Texas resident. It is my earliest record of Amiel's mother.
Both Amiel (known as "Lemuel"), age 15, and Louis, age 16, appear in the 1860 Federal Census with their mother Hannah Leeper, 36, living near Wallisville in Chambers County, Texas.
I hope to find more records of my German immigrant ancestor.
Indian Territory was chock full of colorful idioms and soap-opera drama. Or was it just the Teel family?
-- The Coffeyville DailyJournal on January 16, 1906, p. 2, Coffeyville, Kansas
-- The Kansas X-Ray paper, New Albany, Kansas, Fri., March 2, 1906, p. 6
My paternal ancestors moved from Pennsylvania to Indian Territory in the 1870s and lived--by permission from the Cherokee Nation, in rural Mayes County. A few are buried near where they once lived. The town called Bethel is no more. But its cemetery remains.
When I first searched for the grave of my father's great-grandfather, burial records were scant online. Findagrave had a mere four million memorials. I was new to genealogy. Where to begin?
My Great-Aunt Lois Childers told me her husband Sam's grandpa was buried in the Alberty Cemetery between Pryor and Chouteau. But warned me his tombstone had not been there when they last visited in 1989. The cemetery was knee-high with weeds that hot day they climbed the hill. Sam's first cousin, Adolphus "Bob" Ackley and wife Annie, had asked to see Bob's grandfather's grave.
Bob Ackley filmed their hike into the brush. The Alberty graveyard search begins one minute 55 seconds into this video:
Bob Ackley filmed their hike into the brush. The Alberty graveyard search begins one minute 55 seconds into this video:
I first visited the Alberty Cemetery in February 2005 after locating a copy of an article from The Daily Times newspaper in Pryor Creek. Writer Kathy Parker detailed the extensive cleanup performed that Spring by Florene Gass, her son Charles Gass, his wife Barbara Gass, and Florene's sister Della Mae Deason.
Just in time for Memorial Day. Stilwell family's search for the past finds forgotten cemetery -- Kathy Parker, May 23, 2004.
It had been years since Florene Gass and Della Mae Deason visited their grandmother's grave.
"I only remember being here one time (as a child)," Florene said.
So finding their way back to what had become a forgotten place proved to be a challenge.
The two women now live in Stilwell and were surprised to find old familiar landmarks such as Cry Baby Bridge were gone.
The two women now live in Stilwell and were surprised to find old familiar landmarks such as Cry Baby Bridge were gone.
"We only knew how to get here across the bridge (Cry Baby Bridge)," Florene's sister Della Mae said.
But eventually they found Alberty Cemetery, a place once called Bethel.
When they got there, they could hardly find the grave.
The cemetery had gone back to woods.There were big trees, small trees, briars, brambles, weeds and varmints.Trees had grown up through some graves. A once well-tended graveyard was impassable.
Buck Franklin who leases the land from the Corps of Engineers provided access for the sisters through a gate he had built off Highway 412A near the Chouteau power plant.
"I just thought somebody ought to see what they (Florene and Della Mae) have done in there," Franklin said.
What they've "done in there" is no small feat since there were only three and sometimes four to do the cleaning, all women save one. Making several trips from Stilwell, they brought their own equipment and bought the gas to run it.
Florene said it's what they had to do once they found the place.
"Mom thought a grave ought to look like a grave," she said, "so we pulled all the grass off."
The grave was Florene's grandmother Sarah Jane Shephard, whose headstone bears the years 1866 to 1934. They also have another ancestor buried in the cemetery, Katherine (Bond) Clinton.
Franklin and his father, who leased the land before him, put up the gate because the cemetery was being so badly defaced. Franklin's father also put a fence around the cemetery, which had people buried in it as recently as the 1970s.
Since that time the woods have reclaimed the burial plots.
In fact, about 10 years ago several of the gravestones were removed and thrown off Cry Baby Bridge. GRDA came in with their equipment to salvage the stones.
In 1941 DuPont Company began building a munitions plant near the Alberty Cemetery in Bethel. TNT and Tetryl (a detonator) were produced at this powder plant. It created thousands of jobs for workers during this Depression era. Much-needed jobs. Read this from the Oklahoma Historical Society. The numbers are amazing:Deason and Gass started with their grandmother's grave but the whole cemetery was such a mess, cleaning one grave was "like spitting in the ocean." So, along with Florene's son Charles and his wife Barbara, they have been cleaning and clearing the cemetery.
A map at Pryor's library calls the place Bethel Cemetery. Bethel Church once stood nearby along with a community including New Canaan School according to Franklin. The map suggests the area was at one time known as the McNair School District before World War II.
The road is now cleared to the cemetery, and I called the MidAmerica Industrial Plant to set up a time for someone to let me through the locked gate. Once through, it was about a mile into the woods.
The cemetery is T-shaped, divided into an older part running north and south and a newer part running east and west.
Buried in the older part are 19 people who were born before 1850. Over half the people buried in the old section died before 1890. It seems there are more children and infants than adults in the cemetery. One plot holds an entire family which died within a week of each other in 1932."
Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA)'s right-of-way crew, Bruce Willis, Jerry Harris, Nathan Willis and Todd Hayes, mowed the approach to the cemetery and Steve Stough of the excavating crew graded the road.
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If you had family who once lived near Bethel in Mayes County, you may be interested in what occurred there during World War II.
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OK069
German prisoners of war also lived and worked nearby. Imagine that!
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=PR016
Today that area is the property of MidAmerica Industrial Park. Those interested in visiting the Alberty Cemetery should first contact MidAmerica to request permission. https://maip.com/