In Memory of Tom Pallone, 1953-2019

For Iris and Ray, who lost a good friend this week. 


Tom was in NYC hat horrendous week in September 2011. Bless him!


A few articles from Newspapers.com of Tom and his family, beginning with the stork that "brung" him:


His parents' wedding announcement:


Tom made an appearance in the children's BIRTHDAY column for several years. Here's one example, when he turned NINE:


The Eagle Scout is honored with Boy Scout's highest award!


See three pages showing news about his dad, mom, and brother:

Sorry. Can't lighten the images to make his family clearer.


While attending college in Kentucky, he was in a play as a character named BirdBoot:


Here's to you, Tom! 


-- I appreciate Diane W. for sharing Tom's story. 

Christa Stalcup's Autosomal Chart For Ancestry Users

The DNA Detectives Facebook group has a fun calculator for those who've shared their autosomal raw data to one of the leading genealogy/genetic companies and now receive notifications of shared chromosomes with strangers. A few thousand new cousins, that is. 

This is a handy guide unless your family suffers from endogamy.

I use"suffer" because cousins marrying cousins can only complicate your quest to determine kinship with one of your GGG-Grandparents' descendants.

Aye, there's the rub.


Aunt Bea's Husband, Fred

          I never met my maternal great-aunt's husband, Fred Steeves, but my mother enjoyed talking with him when visiting her aunt. Said he told many stories about his work and travels outside North America. Best of all, Elta said Aunt Bea seemed very happy with Fred.

          Fred was also photogenic. I was happy to find this article in Newspapers.com this morning:



          Fred missed his 103rd birthday by twenty days:


--  The first article was published in the Napa Valley Register in Napa, California on Friday, August 19, 1988, p. 12.

A Sad End For A Third Cousin--Twice Removed

Many states are digitizing death certificates and uploading images of older deaths to genealogy databases. North Carolina is one such state.

230+ years ago my mother's ancestors lived in Davidson and Montgomery counties, North Carolina. This was long before her branch split and moved to Texas. Several had moved after fighting for the losing side in, you know, THAT war. This year I was surprised to learn from Ancestry that I have many many cousins still in those same two counties. 

One day while browsing death records of these distant cousins, I did a double take on one death certificate. See the cause of death? The handwriting makes it difficult to decipher:



WTH? I immediately went to newspaper archives in search of articles.

An ugly story unfolded. A particularly horrific shock for their families, I would imagine.


Was it murder or murder-suicide?  I found no further news articles. 

She Was Known By Her Husband's Name

Euphemia, my paternal first cousin 3x removed, and her husband David Calhoun Palmer (yes, in his native South Carolina "Calhoun" was ubiquitous) had three known children: Thaddeus, Lillie, and a female. I've just learned of their children and am adding them to my tree.

But, horrors! I found a link to a brief memorial of the nameless third child. Girl Palmer is only known as "Mrs. E. C. Moore." She is accorded no given name other than her husband's initials. REALLY? Was this data copied from a grave marker or a cemetery list of burials? Why has she no name, I silently scream? 

No headstone picture has yet been uploaded. But a kind volunteer shared her death certificate. (Texas is marvelous about sharing birth/death certificates online, did you know that? How else could I have learned of the several gunshot victims on my mom's side).


Good gravy, the State of Texas in 1920 did not require her first and middle names even on her very own death certificate. No informant's name is given. She was only 42. Not a widow, yet the form didn't ask her husband's name. Or did they? 

The fireworks are getting louder in our neighborhood this 4th of July evening. For now, I will put aside my search for the good missus' name. I will find her in a census at another time.

UPDATE:  Her name was Lela.

She and several siblings appear on the 1880 Fed. Census with the surname "Smith." Yet it lists her as the daughter of D.C. Palmer and his wife, Euphemia. Where the heck did "Smith" come from? Just another silly census vagary, I imagine.

But, hark! Another record surfaced showing a December 18, 1901 marriage in Matagorda, Texas.  Miss Lela Palmer married Emmett C. Moor. But keeping with the exasperating use of initials, Mr. E. C. Moor hides behind that spelling.

Not to worry! The 1919 City Directory for Brownwood, Texas SAVES THE DAY! It lists names, addresses, AND phone numbers of both their home and their cafe. I can smell those hotcakes now!  

Abraham Prim Married Nancy Cook in 1819

Source: Ancestry.com. Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1780-2002 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002. Nashville, TN, USA: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Microfilm.


          This couple married in Wilson County, Tennessee on February 19, 1819, They MAY BE my maternal 4th GGrandparents. I can't say for certain. Do you have a source showing Abraham's parents or children? Grrrr, locating proof of people prior to the 1850 Federal Census is challenging. 

          Family lore is that Mary Ann Prim(m), wife of William Flemon Cowan, was born to John Abraham Primm.

          But family lore is OFTEN incorrect. I don't find a Prim or Primm by that name--only an Abram or Abraham in Tennessee. Several censuses record Mary Ann Prim Cowan as having a birthplace of Tennessee before moving to Arkansas, and later Texas. 

          Do I know more? No. Will update should the genealogy gods throw me a sign. 

          Until then, I'm re-doing my tree. Chopping limbs' worth of ancestors who have no sources. Or shared DNA. Leaving only those with whom I share blood kinship (and their spouses). 

Ailsey Marries Jacob

Ailsey Willhelm married Jacob Cline in Alabama on September 5, 1849.  Even though a marriage record exists, genealogy geeks find it way more fun to locate a newspaper spread describing the glorious wedding ceremony. 

Or not. I found only a paragraph on page 3. This Huntsville paper doesn't say where they wed or from which county the record was filed. Only that the couple lived in nearby Marshall County. See the third sentence that I clipped from Newspapers.com:  


It was a second marriage for both, as this couple's previous spouses had died. Neither Jacob nor the widow McCulley were spring chickens. Ailsey (how DOES one say that name?) was about 56, and is only identified as "Mrs. McCullouch." And no, I did not spend extra time reading later papers for a retraction of her misspelled name. Papers were (and are) often rife with errors. 

Should any cousins read this, Ailsey was our 4x GGrandfather's little sister, and the daughter of Tobias Wilhelm.

But, hey!  Let's not stop there. What's the news of the day in Huntsville, Alabama? See three clips from The Democrat's front page. Mind you, on the FRONT PAGE:


You saw the motto under the paper's "flag," right?    (stirring background music plays here)


                  "Unawed by the influence of the rich or the great, the People must be heard, 
                    and their rights vindicated."


Fine words for rich white guys. Not so much for females or those enslaved. 

In Madison County, Alabama on 5 Sep 1849 several enslaved people were mentioned in an ad in the Huntsville Democrat paper. Their slave-owner appears to be Richard Pryor. See the article below. 

Knowing this may appear in a Google search, I'm listing the names of the enslaved humans for family historians who may be looking for them:  Rachel aged 34, Nancy aged 45, Judy and child aged 16, Moses aged 10, Amanda aged 7, Patty aged 13, Eliza aged 8.


I hope their descendants can trace back to these seven people.


                  "A married woman or feme covert was a dependent, like an underage child or a slave, 
                  and could not own property in her own name or control her own earnings, except under 
                  very specific circumstances. When a husband died, his wife could not be the guardian 
                  to their under-age children."


#TheyHadNames

Ola's Query In A 1970 Missouri Newspaper

          Long before search engines and digitized databases, family historians shared data via newsletters and newspapers. Today I found this query in a Springfield, Missouri paper submitted by a maternal fourth cousin in 1970. Thanks Newspapers.com!

          There are two pages attached, with the second one showing the rest of the article.


          I am familiar with the surnames mentioned by Ola Johnson. But I did not know George Wilhelm was allegedly "shot from ambush." What's that story! 

          Among the many lines in my database, the family that has met death through violent means more than other kin is my Wilhelm family. Or is it just that the Texas Wilhelms were um, careless with guns? Needless to say, I enjoy trailing them. 

          Mrs. Ola Johnson was born in Morgan County, Alabama in 1914 to William Walter Aldridge and Mabel Olive McCulley. Mabel descended from our earliest known Wilhelm immigrant. It was in Tennessee in 1810 that said immigrant's granddaughter Ailsey married William McCulley. Ailsey and William's son was Ola's great-grandfather. 

          Over the years Ola corresponded with my family's historian, Beatrice Willhelm Steeves. Unfortunately, Bea's considerable research was lost, save for her Willhelm/Hurley Family manuscript. That document she had shared with many before retiring. It frequently cites Ola Johnson's research as her source. Would love to have seen the letters exchanged between Aunt Bea and Ola, along with the notes that didn't make it into Bea's manuscript.

          I wonder how wide a net Ola cast when mailing her queries to other ancestor-hunters. Did she receive replies to her Springfield newspaper post? It showed her home address, word! What other networking tools did Ola employ in the 20th century? Did she place a lot of long-distance calls on Sunday nights when rates were cheaper?

          On my to-do list is a "Must-Look" for Wilhelms in southern Missouri. My 3x GGrandfather Pleasant Willhelm ended his days just south of Springfield, near Fayetteville. I like to think he might have taken the new MK&T Railroad north and visited family. Or maybe they met halfway in Eureka Springs for a dip into one of the healing hot springs.