FOLLOW UP FRIDAY ~ Harland B. Hart–son of Leonard A. Hart & Georgia Wetherell

I’d like to present more information as a follow up to yesterday’s post about my 2nd great granduncle, Leonard Almanson Hart & his family.

Leonard and his wife, Georgia had four sons; Harland B., Charles A., L. Clayton and Harry S.

I stated in my post, which you can read here, that I did not know when Harland B. Hart, the oldest son, died.  I learned from looking at the 1900 census that he had probably died prior to that year.
 
Thanks to my cousin, Charles, I now have more information.  

According to some old family papers that are in Charles’ possession, here is what is known:

Harland Benjamin Hart was born 21 Jun 1866 in Armanda, Macomb, Michigan.  He died 18 Dec 1890 in Lansing, Ingham, Michigan.  He was buried 19 Dec 1890 at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Lansing, Michigan, in Section B, Lot 104, Sub 5.  He was removed to Section B, Lot 253, Sub 8 on 4th May 1893.

He would have been only 24 years old at the time of his death.

I’ve created a memorial for Harland on FindAGrave.  You can see the memorial here #17839487.  I’ve submitted a request for a photo of the headstone.

In the meantime, I searched on Newspapers.com, which I know carries Lansing newspapers, hoping for an obituary.  I didn’t find anything for Harland B. Hart.  I also tried Genealogy Bank, with no luck.

Then I went back to Ancestry and updated Harland’s information, based on what I’d learned.  I know that I need more solid proof as to his date of death and burial location.  However, I enter this information on my tree in order to create more hints.  I use the the search feature and the card catalog also.

It worked.  Up popped two City Directory hints for him.  They were Detroit City Directories.  Knowing how many of my family members, including Hart’s were in Detroit, this was not a surprise for me.
 
He is listed in the 1888 Detroit directory on page 660 as follows:

Hart, Harland B., clk E H Patterson, rms 374 Woodward Av.

I could find no other Hart’s in this directory that were listed as living at 374 Woodward Ave.   My next step was to find out what kind of company E. H. Patterson was.

 On page 1049 I located the following listing:

Patterson, Edward H., Undertaker, 374 Woodward Ave., h 308 4th Tel 1414

 Conclusion – Harland B. Hart was working for E. H. Patterson and boarding/rooming at the business.

1888 directory listing for Harland B. Hart

1888 directory listing for Edward H. Patterson, Undertaker

Next I find Harland listed in the 1890 Detroit directory on page 566 as follows:

Hart, Harland B, asst T H Roberts, rms 25 Adams Ave.

Again, I find no other Hart’s in this directory that were listed as living at the same address, 25 Adams.  Let’s see what kind of company T. H. Roberts is.

 On page 934 is the following listing:

Roberts, Thomas H, Funeral Director, 23-25 Adams Ave., h 28 Edmund Pl, Tel office 268, h 4412

Conclusion – Harland B. Hart was working for another funeral home, T. H. Roberts and living on the business premises.

1890 directory listing for Harland B. Hart

1890 directory listing for Thomas H. Roberts, Funeral Director

Thoughts – Could there have been another Harland B. Hart.  Certainly.  And, until I can find his death record, an obituary or a burial record from the cemetery, I cannot be positive this is my Harland.  But, most of us have learned over the years that  when we add A & B together, along with other evidence we can come to a conclusion.

Try as I might, I cannot locate a death record on either Ancestry or Family Search for this young man.  The search continues.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FRIDAY FINDS ~ ALPHABETICAL LIST OF DEATH DATES IN A CITY DIRECTORY

We all know that city directories can be wonderful resources for information about our ancestors.  I continue to discover more and more surprising and wonderful things in these directories.

Most of my experience with directories involves Detroit, Michigan.  Just last year I wrote about finding an exact death date listed in the alphabetical name and address portion of a Detroit directory.  You can read that post here.  I was very happy to find that reference to the death date for my 2nd great grandfather, William Lindsay.  One more piece of evidence is always welcome.

At the time, I didn’t explore the rest of that particular 1899 Detroit directory.

Fast forward to this week.  I’m doing a little research on some great grand uncles, who are listed in a probate record, as living in Detroit, Michigan in 1884.  These family members were born over in Devonshire, England and I knew some of the immigrated to the U.S.

Sure enough in a search on Ancestry.com, there is a reference to the 1884 Detroit city directory.
 

William Burgess

in the U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

Name:
William Burgess

Residence Year:
1884

Street address:
33 Leverett

Residence Place:
Detroit, Michigan, USA

Occupation:
Packer

Publication Title:
Detroit, Michigan, City Directory, 1884

Here’s the image for this entry.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

The next thing I wanted to look for in the directory was the listing of specific addresses, which will usually tell you the person who owned or rented at that location.

Instead of finding that I found, in “Miscellaneous Information” 

LIST OF DEATHS IN DETROIT from May 15th 1884 to May 6th 1885 – Compiled from City Mortuary Reports



WHAT?

I didn’t know this list existed.  Do the directories from other years contain this list?  I know information can vary from year to year.

I quickly created a search list in Legacy using the exact criteria.



And, got the following results:



I know that Elizabeth’s married name was Burgess. 
I located here on page 86.

• Burgess, Elizabeth……………May 16, 1884

I didn’t  locate William G. Thorpe.  He was just a baby who died at one month and two days of age.  Perhaps they didn’t list children?  Or, he wasn’t taken to a mortuary, since this list results from mortuary records?

I plan to continue my search in the Detroit directories for more death dates.  Who knows what I’ll find?

Have you found records like this in directories from your research areas?  If so, I’d love to hear about them.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

DETROIT ~ Street Addresses Renumbered in 1921–Here’s a list with the old and new numbers

Here’s a quick tip for those of you with ancestors who lived in Detroit, Michigan.

On January 1, 1921 new address numbers were assigned to many streets in Detroit.  There is an explanation at the beginning of this book as to why this was done.

So, if your ancestor was living at 107 Clarendon Avenue N. prior to the renumbering in 1921, the new address would be 8868 Clarendon Avenue N.  That’s quite a change.
 
This kind of change would have to be recorded in our family history in order to properly represent the location.  Sort of similar to when all the county lines changed over the decades.

NOTE:  Any location we list for our ancestors should always be recorded as it was at the time.  Not, as it was later on.  This is true of cities, counties, states, countries or street addresses.

This list for Detroit is published by Steve Morse on his website stevemorse.org.  We are all familiar with Steve Morse for his publication of immigration information from Ellis Island and Castle Garden.  But, his website contains much more than that now.

Here is a list of the resources on this site for Detroit, Michigan.



Here is the direct link to the PDF containing those old to new numbers.  Detroit Old and New House Numbers effective 1 Jan 1921.  It downloaded pretty quickly for me.  I immediately saved it to Evernote and tagged it for easy reference.

I didn’t know about this specific resource until it was posted on one of the many genealogy Facebook pages I belong to.  In this case it was the Detroit Genealogy group.  My thanks to Richard Nolan for sharing it.

I think I’ll go back to the Steve Morse site right now and see what other hidden resources he has that I didn’t know about.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Detroit Free Press Newspaper Now Onine - 1837-2015

City Directories - A Treasure Trove of Genealogical Information

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP–Street Guide included in City Directories –Have you used this handy resource?

If you read my recent post about William H. Thorpe, you know that I used the Detroit City Directories extensively.  It’s certainly not my first time using those directories.  I have used them over the years and find them incredibly helpful and full of information.  However, there was an area of the directory I only recently learned about and it proved to be incredibly helpful.

It’s called the STREET AND AVENUE GUIDE

Here is an explanation of what the guide contains

It’s a list of all the streets and their addresses with the occupant of each.
 
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND HELPFUL?

As an example:  When I was trying to locate the death record for William H. Thorpe, I found his widow, Kittie, in the 1916 Detroit directory, living at 154 Alger Ave.  Looking at the other Thorpe’s on the page, I found none of them at that same address.



Who was Kittie Thorpe boarding with?  

NOTE:  Many times you will see boarders on census records and in directories.  Those boarders often turn out to be family members.  It’s not how we think of boarders in our current time, but it was how they were frequently listed during our ancestor’s time.

I then went to the Street and Avenue Guide in the back of the directory and looked for 154 Alger Ave., to see whose name is listed for that address.

     Guess who I found listed at 154 Alger Ave?
** J. D. STANTON – son-in-law of Kittie Thorpe **



Kittie’s daughter Grace M. Thorpe married John Davies Stanton on 24 Jul 1907 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.
 
This is good evidence that I have the correct Kittie in the 1916 city directory.

LEGACY 8 TIP – I CREATED MY OWN EVENT FOR CITY DIRECTORIES.  I WANTED THEM TO BE SPECIFICALLY LISTED AS “CITY DIRECTORY LISTING” AND NOT JUST AS A RESIDENCE.  THIS ALLOWS ME TO SEARCH FOR ANYONE WHO HAS A CITY DIRECTORY LISTING EVENT AND I’VE FOUND IT VERY USEFUL.

Here is an example from another one of my Thorp’s who has quite a few events.  You can see all the city directory listing’s.



I checked the 1909 Binghamton, New York city directory to see if they too included a Street Guide.  The answer is YES.  I found this one at the back of the directory, just like the Detroit guide.  I find them by browsing, as they don’t seem to be listed in the Table of Contents.

I don’t know if every directory in the United States has a street guide, but I would suggest checking for it in your particular directory.

I hope you’ve found this information helpful.  Please tell me how city directories have helped you in your research.
OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
CITY DIRECTORIES - A treasure trove of genealogical information
AN EXACT DEATH DATE in a City Directory
THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY - Why Don't I Have a Death Date or Record for William H. Thorpe? 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

AN EXACT DEATH DATE IN A CITY DIRECTORY LISTING

Page 953 - Detroit City Directory - Listing for Wm. Lindsay (deceased) 

I know that city directory listings can be great sources of information for our ancestors.  I use them all the time.

I’ve seen the women listed as “widow of John Smith.”  However, today, I found a listing for my 2nd great grandfather, William Lindsay in the 1899 Detroit City Directory.  I wasn’t looking for him specifically, but for another of our Lindsay clan.  As I’m going down the list I see this entry:

Lindsay, Wm (aged 68), died July 4, 1898.

I wouldn’t have thought to look for a listing for him in the 1899 city directory, knowing that he’d died in 1898. 

This gives one more piece of evidence as to his death date.  I already have a death certificate, his headstone photo and his burial record from Woodmere Cemetery.  But, isn’t it nice to have one more piece of evidence that confirms what I already have?   
Can we ever have too much evidence?  NO!

This gives me motivation to look at other city directory listings in the year following an ancestor’s death, and see if they are listed.
 
Was this just a one time thing, done only in 1899?  I guess I’ll find out.

Have you found death dates in city directories?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
 CITY DIRECTORIES - A TREASURE TROVE OF GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION
MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS ONLINE - WHERE CAN YOU FIND THEM?

Happy hunting,

Copyright ©  2010-2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

CITY DIRECTORIES–A TREASURE TROVE OF GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION

One of my favorite sources for information are city directories.  They can tell you so many things about your ancestors.  

City Directories aren’t always easy to locate on Ancestry.com.  They often don’t show up when we do searches, or perhaps they are several pages into the search listings. 

I use the general search feature up at the top of the home page to conduct a specific search for directories.  Once I've clicked on "search," I do the following:

- Go to the right column and scroll down to “Schools, Directories & Church    Histories” and click on City & area directories. 
- Then I click on USA and from there I type “Detroit” in the title. 
- If I type Detroit in the keyword box instead, I get 96 hits and some of those are not for Detroit.

By typing Detroit in the title box I get EVERYTHING in the Detroit directory category.  I had 50 results when I did it this way.

If I go straight to the card catalog and type “directory” in the title box and then put “detroit” in the keyword box, I get 86 results.  HOWEVER, those results also include Bay City, West Bay City, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek and even an Iowa Gazetteer & Business Directory.  

Someone else may have a better way to bring up the exact results and if so, please let me know.

RESULTS OF MY SEARCH FOR DETROIT DIRECTORIES

When I select the highlighted 1884 directory this is what comes up on the screen.



You can see that on the right of the screen you can go into the directory and locate the General Index, Advertisements, Deaths in Detroit, Mayors, Business Directory & several other items.  That allows you to scroll through those sections, if you want to.  Or you can type a name into the search boxes and be taken directly to the page containing that name.

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE THINGS WE CAN LEARN FROM A CITY DIRECTORY

• Where your ancestor was living
• Where your ancestor worked
• What your ancestor’s occupation was
• Who else was living at the same address
• Who else might be living nearby with the same surname
• What organizations, lodges, clubs were in the area
• What churches were in the same neighborhood
• Who were the elected officials
• Deaths during a certain year
• What businesses were operating during that year      

UPDATE - On March 10, 2015 I located my great grandfather's listing in the Detroit city directory giving his exact date of death.  This listing was in a directory in the year following his death.
 
I find directories very interesting and informative.  Let’s take a look at some of my finds.
Here is an 1879 Detroit, Michigan city directory.  I will look at the GOULD’s listed on this page. (click on any image to enlarge it)

1879 DETROIT CITY DIRECTORY LISTING FOR GOULD

As I scroll down this page I look at each of the Gould surnames and find my family.

Gould, John C., teamster, h 254 Howard
Gould, Willard V, clk, bds 254 Howard

John C. Gould is my 2nd Great Grandfather and this information tells me where he is living as the “h” indicates home.  Willard V. Gould is another story.  John C. Gould’s son, was named Vivaldo William Gould.  He always went by William V. Gould.  So, is the Willard V. living at the same address as John, actually William V.?

I see no other names that I have proof as being related to me. 



















Let's take a look at the 1881 directory.

 

1881 DIRECTORY

 


























 Here we see Gould, Wm V, color mixer Detroit White Lead Wks, h 32 Church.  I believe this is my Wm. V. because he is known to have worked in the paint industry for many years and in many records I have found.   I don’t think the John C. listed here is my ancestor.  It’s possible, as we shouldn’t ever just discount something.  However, I know that my John C. was a farmer and a teamster in every other listing, census or record I have found him in.


NOTE:  If you look at the listings on this page you can see it lists Gould, Adeline (wid Allen).  This lets you know that Adeline is the “widow” of Allen.  If you didn’t know a death date for an ancestor this would be helpful.

Now let's check one more listing for John C. & Wm. V. Gould - 1885

1885 DIRECTORY LISTING

Here again, we see John C. and Wm. V.  This time they are both working at Acme White Lead Wks.  One is living at 368 1/2 Grand River Ave., and the other at 520 6th.





I became curious about what type of business this Acme White Lead Wks. was.  In the 1881 directory it seems to be named Detroit White Lead Wks.  Is it the same company?
I went to the pages of the directory that list information.  This is usually found at the beginning of the book.  I found on page 63 of the 1894 Detroit Directory, that they had a listing for Incorporated Companies.  There I found Acme White Lead and Color Works.

Here is the cropped information from the page I pulled up.

You can see that this is some sort of paint and/or varnish company.  They have several locations, they were incorporated on 9 Dec 1884 and they have capital of $25,000.  It also gives the names of the corporate officers. 

Working at a paint store or company is consistent with what I know my great grandfather, Wm. V. Gould did for a living for many years. 

Let’s take a look at the 1884 “Deaths in Detroit” and see what is listed.

The page states that the deaths are from Jun 1st, 1883 to May 15th, 1884.  Compiled from City mortuary reports.  Here is the first page from this section.



I don’t know about you, but this sure gets me excited to look at more city directories.  

TIP: Even if you were to use the search feature at the beginning of the directory, I would still check this section.  You never know if an indexer could have missed a name.  

I hope this post has gotten you thinking about the possibilities of information available in city directories.  I’ve demonstrated with Detroit directories because I am most familiar with them.  Which now leads me to tell you that I need to begin looking at city directories for many other areas of the country.  

Let me know what you find in those directories from your ancestor’s areas.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall