ANCESTORS IN THE NEWS ~ Betty Eleanor Bright, only 15 yrs old, dies in car accident

Betty Eleanor Bright was born on New Year’s Day 1919 in Latrobe, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.  Her parents are John W. Bright (1882-1967) and Nellie Dallas (1883-1971).  She had one sibling, an older brother named William E. Bright.

Three young people were killed in this car accident.  Betty, age 15,  a 23 year old named Clarence Greeawalt and Howard Foster, age 21.
 

Here is the news article about the accident

Pittsburgh Post Gazette - 22 Jun 1934, page 17

Here is my transcription of the article

Front page, Section 2, column 5
GIRL, TWO YOUTHS KILLED IN CRASH
Titusville Party Wiped Out on Speed Ride
Special to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
OIL CITY, Pa - June 21 - Warning against excessive speed on Venango county highways came from Coroner J. Irwin Zerbe and state police today, following fatal injury to three Titusville young people early today on Titusville-Oil City road, near McKinney Memorial spring.
The dead are Clarence Greenawalt, 23, near Titusville, who died before reaching Oil City Hospital; Betty Bright, 15, Titusville sophomore, and Howard Foster, 21, who died seven hours after the accident happened of a fractured skull.  Greenawalt's neck was broken.
The automobile driven by George W. Hinske of Oil City, en route toward Oil City, had almost come to a stop when the Titusville car, traveling 60 miles an hour or faster, bore down upon him and his wife.  He pulled partly off the highway.
The Foster car hit it a terrific side blow, pushing the radiator against the engine.  Mr. and Mrs. Hinske escaped with bruises.

How sad for the families of these three young people.
 
Betty was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery.  You may visit her memorial here #25967355.

If you are related to anyone mentioned in this post or have a comment or correction, please contact me.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW DNA LED ME TO CHANGE MY HUSBAND'S DIRECT LINE

I consider myself a novice when it comes to DNA.  Although I've taken many classes and seminars, I still have a lot to learn. I'm getting there......slowly.

One of the most Aha! moments I've had came when I was looking at my husband's DNA on GedMatch.   This was the number one match on his One to Many list.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

This match has a total cM of 75.6 with a 3.8 MRCA (most recent common ancestor).  That would mean the match is at about the 3rd cousin level, sharing 2nd great grandparents.  Other possibilities are 3rd cousin once removed or even 3rd cousin twice removed.  For any of those it would mean sharing 2nd great grandparents.

The exciting thing was that I noticed there is a Gedcom associated with this match.  That means I can go into the Gedcom and try to find those 2nd great grandparents and see if I can locate the match.  

NOTE: When I click on the GED link a screen comes up with "Individual Detail Display"  This gives me some information on the specific match, but not what I'm looking for.  So, I always click on "Pedigree." 

This pedigree is pretty full, which is exciting.  I count back from the point person to the level of 2nd great grandparents.  I browse down that level in the pedigree chart to see if I recognize any names.  BINGO!  There is a surname I immediately recognize as being associated with my husband's line, CUPPS.  And the location in Pennsylvania also fits.

I immediately go to my Legacy database and find the only Cupps entry I have, which happens to be the first wife of my husband's 2nd GREAT GRANDFATHER.  Now that's exciting as it is in line with what the shared DNA indicated.  

I didn't even know that my husband's 2nd great grandfather, William W. Bright (1835-1916) had a first wife until I received his Civil War pension file.  I only knew about his second wife, Mary Jane Flynn, which is whom I thought my husband descended from, based on dates and other records.  
Mmmmm..........could I be wrong?  I'm certainly anxious to find out.  

Was my husband's great grandfather, Ellmer E. Bright the son of Mary Jane Flynn or Catherine Cupps?

I set out on a research mission to find out all I could about the CUPPS names listed in that Gedcom file that was a match to my husband's DNA. 

The first thing I did was try to find the 2nd great grandparents listed on that Gedcom in GedMatch, Henry Cupps and Catherine Strauss.   I went over to Ancestry.com, where my husband's DNA is located.  I immediately found a public tree with the same pedigree as the one on GedMatch.

There are Henry Cupps and Catherine Strauss and two of their children, Sarah and Catherine.  

That, of course, isn't good enough for me, but it's surely a strong indication.  

I located Henry Cupps and his wife Catherine in the 1850 census and guess who two of the children were......that's right, Sarah and Catherine Cupps.  Further proof. 

Next, I began reviewing the dates of marriages for William W. Bright and his two wives and the dates of death of both women.

We all know that prior to about 1900 anything is possible.  You may or may not find records.  A strong indicator of when William's first wife Catherine Cupps died is in his Civil War pension file. In his deposition he states that she died "during the war."  That puts her death between 1861 and 1865.  Also in the pension file is the date of the marriage of William to Catherine Cupps, 1853 in Sharpsburg, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.  Further reading in the pension file gives her death date of August 1862.  Also listed in that pension file are the names and years of birth of all of William's children from both marriages, including Ellmer E. Bright (my husband's direct line), who is said to have been born in 1861.  I had a year of birth for him of 1859.  Either way, he was born prior to Catherine Cupps death and prior to William marrying his second wife in Feb 1864.

I have more research to do to bring out all the details for this family.  

CONCLUSION:  

• First of all, I didn't look closely enough at the Civil War pension file.  I read though it a couple of times and caught, what I thought, were most of the details. 
• I didn't consider or look closely enough at the years of birth for all six children born to William W. Bright.   I don't have a death certificate or register of death, but I do have an obituary and a probate record for Ellmer.  The obituary gives his age at death of 29 years and 5 months.  Given his date of death that would indicate he was born in November 1859.
• This family was one of the very first I worked on back in 2003-2004.  Not an excuse, but certainly a reason for all of us to review ALL of our work.
• I have officially changed my husband's direct line and now have Catherine Cupps as his 2nd great grandmother instead of Mary Jane Flynn.  

This has been a LOT of fun and really points out the value of our DNA tests.  Not only that, but making sure your DNA is uploaded to every possible site.  
This match showed up as the first hit on GedMatch.
On Ancestry it is buried several pages down with the 4th - 6th cousin matches.

I have yet to check on MyHeritage and FtDNA where my husband's test is also uploaded.

Have you had similar experiences?  Are you using your DNA matches to verify or disprove your paper trail?  

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST 
AMANUENSIS MONDAY - The Last Will & Testament of Ellmer E. Bright

SURNAME SATURDAY - Who Was Daisy Bright? (my husband's grandmother) 

If you are connected with the families mentioned here, I would love to hear from you.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SUNDAY’S OBITUARY ~ ELMER E. BRIGHT and his wife MALISSA HUNT–1889 & 1892 - Week #4

Elmer/Elmer E. Bright and his wife, Malissa Hunt are my husband’s great grandparents on his paternal side.  They are two of the first people I researched when I began this ancestor hunt nearly 15 years ago.  They were the parents of 3 children, one was a twin who died at birth, another was a little girl who lived to 10 months and the third was the other twin, Daisy Bright, who thankfully grew to adulthood and became my husband’s grandmother.  I’ve written Daisy’s story and you can read it here Surname Saturday – Who Was Daisy Bright?

Elmer E. Bright did at age 29 of Consumption (Tuberculosis).  Malissa, his wife, died a little over 3 years later of “possible heart failure.”  These events and the death of those two siblings left Daisy an orphan at the age of 9.

Here are the transcriptions of the obituaries:

DIED – BRIGHT – On Wednesday, April 24 at 6:40 a.m., Elmer E. Bright, aged 29 years and 5 months.
Funeral from his late residence, Breckenridge Ave., Tarentum, Pa., TO-DAY at 2 p.m.  Friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend.

DIED – BRIGHT – On Tuesday, February 16, 1892, at 8:30 p.m., Mrs. Melissa, relic of the late Elmer Bright, aged 30 years, suddenly of heart disease.
Funeral from her late residence, Brackenridge Avenue, Tarentum, Friday, February 19, at 10 a.m.

It doesn’t say much in the obituaries, but Elmer was survived by his parents and several siblings.  Malissa was survived by 3 siblings.

I plan to visit their graves and many other locations around Allegheny County, PA this fall.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

A STEAMBOAT EXPLOSION ~ The death of Nelson Klinefelter in January 1862 - age 35

The Baltimore Sun - 5 Feb 1862, page 1

So, who was Nelson aka Horatio Nelson Klinefelter?

Nelson Klinefelter was the first husband of Mary Jane Flynn/Flinn.  Mary Jane later married William Bright, my husband’s 2nd great grandfather.

I had learned about Mary Jane’s marriage to Nelson Klinefelter from the Greenwood Cemetery website, back in August 2008.  Here is a link to the FindAGrave page for Greenwood Cemetery.
Following is an excerpt from my notes for Mary Jane Bright.

“Bright, Mary J. , (view ), 1839 - 1903, Section 2, Range 18, Lot 7, [was the second wife of William Bright of Sharpsburg. She was first married to a Kleinfelter in Virginia, according to researchers at Ancestry, and when she married William Bright, she brought 3 children into the household from her first marriage. She and William had at 4 children, bringing the house total to 9 children]” contributed by Diane Nichols

I was able to locate the marriage record for Mary Jane Flinn and Horatio N. Klinefelter.  They were married 27 Nov 1851 in Wood County, Virginia.

This record was found on the West Virginia Culture website.  Wood County became part of West Virginia in 1863.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



Nelson and Mary Jane had 3 children: Horatio born in 1854, Mary born in 1856 and Anna born in 1859.

The family can be found living in Collins, Allegheny, Pennsylvania in the 1860 census.  Also enumerated on this page is Nelson’s brother, Jesse and family and his father Jacob and family.

Nelson’s father, Jacob, was also a River Pilot.



As I began conducting a search on newspapers.com, I came across the sad story about the explosion of the steamboat, Advance, and the death of Nelson Klinefelter.  I also located one article in Chronicling America.
All images of these articles are screenshots.

The first article I located was the one at the top of this page.  Then I also located the following articles.

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer - 31 Jan 1862, page 3

Cincinnati Daily Press - 3 Feb 1862, page 3

Pittsburgh Daily Post - 4 Feb 1862, page 3 - talking about an investigation into the explosion

The Local News, Alexandria, Virginia - 5 Feb 1862, page 1

The Pittsburgh Gazette - 4 Feb 1862, page 3

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer - 5 Feb 1862, page 3

The article above, on the left gives us the exact date of death for Nelson.  The explosion occurred on Tuesday, January 28, 1862.  Based on the statement in this article, Nelson died 3 days later, on Friday, January 31, 1862.

“The other pilot, N. Klinefelter, was asleep, his head and one arm lying over the edge of the bed.  His face and arm were terribly scalded and it is believed that he inhaled steam.  He died of his injuries on Friday morning, some hours after the arrival of the Hornet, after being removed to that boat.”

These excerpts are from the article, above, on the right.

“The late explosion of the Steamer Advance – Another Victim – N. Klinefelter, one of the person’s injured by the explosion of the steamer, Advance, at Matamoras, has since died.  The explosion appears to have been one of the most terrific and disastrous on record.”

“The Captain was not on board, one of the pilots named Stweart, filling his place.  He escaped with a severe burn on the right hand.  The other pilot, N. Klinefelter, was asleep, his head and one arm lying over the edge of the bed.  His face and arm were terribly scalded, and it is believed he inhaled steam.”

When I first began reading the articles only stated that N. Klinefelter had been “terribly” burned.  As I continued to locate more articles, I learned of his death.

Nelson’s death left behind his 28 year old widow, Mary Jane, and their three young children, ages 3 to 8 years.  Mary Jane married (in Feb 1864) William W. Bright, a widower with two young children, ages 7 and 5.  The couple went on to have 4 children of their own.

I have searched high and low on the internet and cannot locate a burial place for Nelson.  There were few, if any, actual death records back in 1862, so the only record of his death are these articles and the statement in the Civil War Pension of William Bright saying that Mary Jane’s first husband, Klinefelter, was deceased.

If you have any additions or corrections to anything written here, please contact me.
 
If you are related to anyone mentioned here, I’d love to hear from you.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

SURNAME SATURDAY - Who was Daisy Bright?

AMANUENSIS MONDAY  - Elmer E. Bright - Last Will & Testament – 1889

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TREASURE CHEST THURSDAY ~ Several obituaries for the BRIGHT Family of Pittsburgh, PA

It’s always a good day when you locate any record for your ancestor.  This week I’ve been working on my husband, Ron’s, paternal grandmother’s line.  The Bright family of Pennsylvania.

It had been several years since I’d looked at this particular family.  Since then, more records have come online and I now have a subscription, full access, to newspapers.com.  I have found hundreds of obituaries, news articles, notices of probate, marriage announcements, military information, travel and visiting notices and more on this website.

Here’s what I located this morning.

Funeral/death notice for Elizabeth C. Eastland Bright, first wife of William C. Bright.  William is my husband’s great granduncle.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT) 



I notice that they are asking Detroit, Michigan papers to copy.  I believe that is because her son, Elmer Charles Bright had moved from Pennsylvania to Detroit.

Obituary for Catherine E. Sawert/Sewart Bright, 2nd wife of William C. Bright.



The article states that she will be buried at Homewood Cemetery, but she is actually buried at Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

Obituary for William C. Bright.  William outlived both his wives, and was 94 at the time of his death.



I have the death certificates for all three of these family members.
 
It’s obvious from the obituaries that William and his wives were involved in the Masonic organization.  Perhaps I will be able to find more information about them through that source.  Although I’ve found the Masons to be pretty tight with the information they will share.
 
This is a good day for genealogy research.  I have added all these obituaries to my Legacy database.
 
NOTE:  When you locate any article on Newspapers.com you have the option to clip that article, then view the clipping.  I do this every time.  When viewing the clipping you can then add the article directly to your Ancestry tree, which I also do.  The next thing I do is download or print the article to PDF.  I then convert it to JPG, which allows me a bit more editing freedom and then I add the image to Legacy.

I also use Genealogy Bank, although it doesn’t yield nearly as many hits for me as Newspapers.com.  And as far as Chronicling America, I have never located one single article.
 
Have you had luck finding newspaper articles on your family?  If so, from which site?  How often do you look at the newspaper websites.  I do so, almost daily.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

New York Newspaper Links Online

Tuesday's Tip - More Detroit Newspapers Online

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION