FRIDAY FINDS~Obituary of my husband's great grandfather Thomas C. Hall, Civil War veteran (1845-1897)

How excited was I when I was looking on a website for one piece of information, and came across something else?

I was on the Fulton History website (over 51 million old newspapers are scanned and available on this free site) trying to locate information about my husband’s 2^nd great grandfather.  I came up empty on him.

Then I thought, why not see if there is anything for my husband’s great grandfather, Thomas C. Hall.

BINGO!!!!!

HIS OBITUARY!

This is a record I have looked for in the past, but never located.  Perhaps I never looked on this website or maybe it wasn’t yet available.  Either way, I have it now and here it is.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it)

Obituary published in the Albany Evening Journal, 20 Jan 1897, page 6

This particular obituary is a bonanza of genealogical information.

Here is my transcription.  The words I had difficulty reading are indicated with an underline.

Thomas Cornelius Hall whose sudden illness from apoplexy was reported yesterday, succumbed to the stroke ten hours later.  Mr. Hall never rallied. He was born in Elisabeth, N.J. and was 52 years of age. His father was the Rev. George Hall, a Congregational divine, whose parents were among the first settlers of Keene, N.H. Mr. Hall went to Saratoga in 1870 and has since resided there. He married Miss Cora E. Brown February 5, 1877, and is survived by her and one son, Charles S. Hall. He also leaves two sisters, Mrs. A. A. Smith of Irvington, Iowa and Miss Emma Griffing of Hampton, Miss. Mr. Hall was a veteran of the late war having served with Company C One Hundred and Second New York Volunteers. When he entered the service he was not old enough to enlist. Mr. Hall was employed by W.H. Granger as baggage express messenger. He was at the time connected with the _____Journal. He was a communicant of Bethesda Episcopal church and a member of it's choir.

Most of the information in this obituary are things I already knew about Thomas’ family.  However, this can be added as yet another source.  And, there were things I didn’t know such as which company he worked for and his church affiliation and singing in the church choir. 

I have sent the church an email asking what records they might have pertaining to Thomas & Cora Hall.

Obituaries are such incredible sources of information for us as family historians.  I’m saddened to think of future genealogists, as the tradition of families having obituaries published is fading from our society.

What obituaries have you located that have given you treasures of information.  I’d love to hear about them.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

CIVIL WAR PENSION FILE ~ Cora E. Hall widow of Thomas C. Hall ~ What gems does it contain?

CORA’S SCRAPBOOK ~ Episode 2 – Thomas C. Hall & Cora E. Brown marriage announcement, 1877

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

MILITARY MONDAY~Civil War Pension File of Wilson Bowen Boggs 1819-1900

 

Page 1 of the pension file

Wilson Bowen BOGGS is my maternal 3^rd great granduncle.  He is the son of Andrew Elliot BOGGS and Hannah Jane BOWEN.

Born about 1819 in Gallia County, Ohio, he was the youngest of 9 children born to Andrew & Hannah.  Six boys and three girls, who all lived to adulthood.

Wilson’s older brother, William Allen BOGGS, is my 3^rd great grandfather.

Wilson went by his middle name of Bowen, according to nearly all records I’ve located.  I’ll refer to him by that name for the rest of this narrative.

I don’t find any of Bowen’s brothers serving during the Civil War.  And, in fact, Bowen would have been about 42 yrs old when he enlisted. 

He served in the Indiana Volunteers, as a Private in the 85^th Regiment, Company B.  Here is his Pension Card.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

The pension file card for Bowen Boggs #125,177

When I review a pension file, I like to use a spreadsheet to keep track of the pages of the file that I think are important.  And, I take screen shots of those pages to add to my blog posts.  This helps when you go back to look at that pension file again at a later time.

My Excel spreadsheet for the pension file - please click on it to enlarge it, if you need to

As you can see we have uncovered quite a bit of good information about this ancestor/soldier. Here are some of those facts:

·       His address, the dates he applied for the pension and later the increase of pension, his physical description

·       A list of his injuries and various physician’s certificates

·       His children’s names and dates of birth

·       The date of his death

Below are the images of some of the pages described above.  I have made no improvements to these images so you can see what they look like after nearly 150 years in storage.  

How fortunate are we that these records have been saved?

 

On the left - a letter from Bowen Boggs to the Secretary of the Interior, dated 25 Sep 1899 and on the right, page 18 - a Physician's certificate outlining Bowen's health issues

On the left - page 72, with children's names & dates of birth and on the right page 114 the original invalid pension request May 1871

I collect signatures of my ancestors from any source I can find them - left is Bowen's son, John A. Boggs and on the right of course Bowen Boggs himself

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

COUSINS ~ What treasures can you find when you visit your cousins?

 

I can never say enough about how wonderful cousins are.  Why?

·       They are often your very first friends outside the family circle.

·       If you are an only child, they may be as close as a sister or brother.

·       Later on you can talk about family stories and share memories and photos with each other.

·       If you meet these cousins later in life via your research or DNA or whatever method, they might provide very valuable information about your ancestors.

·       As bloggers, we often call our blogs “cousin bait.”

Here’s my cousin story for this week.

My cousin Paula lives about 3 hours up the coast from me, here in California.  She and I reconnected in 2003, well into our adulthood.  We had last seen one another in 1966.  Since then we have become very good friends and fellow family researchers.  It’s been an interesting journey, with discoveries on both her side and mine.

Our grandmothers were sisters, which makes me and Paula 2^nd cousins.

It had been a couple of years since I’d been to Paula’s home and I knew we were overdue for a visit.  When I spoke to her, she told me that her sister, Shirley, was coming into town for a couple of weeks.  Most of our family still lives in Michigan, including Shirley.

I knew right away that I should make the drive up there, as I had never been able to spend much time with Shirley. 

We cousins enjoyed one another for 3 days. 

A surprise during the visit was that Paula and Shirley’s grand nephew was in town from Michigan.  We were able to have dinner with him.  I’d not met him before.  What a nice young man.  In the scheme of family relationships, he is my 2^nd cousin, twice removed.

During my stay, Paula brought out an envelope of photos that she had gotten during her last trip to Michigan, from her other sister.

As we looked through these mostly black and white photos, we all found treasures.  For me it was pictures of my own grandmother, Marie Lindsay Gould and my grandfather Harry W. Gould sharing moments with Marie’s sister’s family. Additionally, it was seeing a picture of my granduncle Bill Lindsay’s wife Matilda Vera Ena KIDD for the first time.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

Matilda Vera Ena Kidd Lindsay

Left to right - Marie Lindsay Gould (my paternal grandmother), Shirley Hockster, Edith Curry Jessop, Elizabeth "Betty" Hockster, Paula Hockster, Mary Ortell Hockster and Bessie Lindsay Hockster (Marie's sister)
Shirley, Betty & Paula are my 2nd cousins and Mary is their mother

Back row - William "Bill" Lindsay, Bessie Lindsay, Everett Hockster, Joyce Lindsay, Robert McConnell, Harry W. Gould - Middle row - Marie Lindsay Gould, Matilda Kidd Lindsay, Ellen Hockster McConnell, May (in her lap is Betty Hockster) - Front row - Patricia McConnell, Shirley Hockster and Ralph Hockster

I’d call those things great finds.  Thanks Paula!

Any photo find is always a bonus.  I’m going to put this out there right now.  If you are LINDSAY descendant, belonging to our particular line, and you have photos, we’d love to see them.  We are willing to share any of our own photos with all the cousins out there.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FRIDAY FINDS ~ The image for my Granduncle William Lindsay's marriage to Gertrude Watson in 1912

Finding my granduncle’s marriage record to his first wife.

Whether these items were missed by you, the researcher, or came online after your last search, it pays to keep going back.

That’s just what I did for my granduncle, William Lindsay’s marriage record to his first wife Gertrude Mae Watson.

I had located his other 3 marriage records, but not this one.  I had a note that the image “was not available” in the dataset I checked back in 2013.  I did find the index for it though.

To read about William’s other marriages WEDDING WEDNESDAY ~ William “Bill” Lindsay & his many wives–the story of my Granduncle Bill

Here is the marriage index I downloaded in 2013.

You can click on any image to enlarge it

Today, I checked that same dataset on Ancestry.com – Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927, and located the image I'd been wanting to see.

As we all know, it’s always better to see an original image, than just to rely on a transcription/index.  Mistakes can and are made and interpretations can vary.

Did I learn anything new from seeing this image? Yes! 

  Here is what the index didn’t tell me…

• Places of birth for both William & Gertrude – U.S. for both

• Their nationality – Scottish for him and Canadian for her

• Religious denomination – Protestant for him and Methodist for her

• Residence for each – Detroit, Michigan

• Occupation of their fathers – Machinist for William’s and deceased for Gertrude’s.  That’s a big clue about her father.

• Names & addresses of witnesses

• That he was a Bachelor and she a Spinster (meaning both were previously unmarried)

• That they were not being married in Windsor for any purpose of evasion or other improper purposes.

• The name of the person solemnizing the marriage – not very readable on this document.

That is a LOT of missing information when compared to the index.

Do those additional items help me to be certain I have the correct couple?  Absolutely! 

There is a noticeable error on both the index and the actual document.  That is the maiden name of William’s mother.  It is listed as Fitzgerald and should be Fitzcharles.  Did William speak with a Scottish accent, since both his parents were born & raised in Scotland?  Was he misunderstood or was he simply misheard?

All together with my research, I can confidently conclude that this is my William’s marriage record.

I’m very glad to have this original document in my database now. 

Have you gone back & located items that were not available to you earlier? I’d love to hear about them.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

ON THIS DAY ~ Who in our family was born, married or died on this day - July 15th?

JULY 15th

What important events occurred in our family on this day? 

BIRTHS

BOGGS, Lucinda born 15 Jul 1834 in Virginia, wife of Richard R. EARLES & Lewis GIBSON – She is my maternal 1^st cousin 4 times removed

HARTWIG, Mary born 15 Jul 1871 in Michigan, wife of Edgar J. GOULD – Both she and Edgar may be links to my Gould family, but I don’t know at this time, how they are connected.

SAPP, John Wesley born 15 Jul 1911 in Torrington, Goshen, Wyoming, married Hazel C. SPARHAWK – He is my maternal 4^th cousin once removed.

SMITH, Homer Glay born 15 Jul 1873 in Lawrence Co., Ohio, married Rachel Caroline GILLEN – he is the husband of my 1^st cousin 4 times removed.

WITCHELL, Rodney Allen born 15 Jul 1967 – he is my paternal half 4^th cousin twice removed.

Lucinda Boggs

Homer Clay Smith

Rachel Caroline Gillen

                 

MARRIAGES

BULLOCK, Alice Evelyn married Robert W. Hall on 15 Jul 1929. This couple divorced between 1938 & 1940 – she is the wife of my husband’s paternal Uncle.

DAVIS, Thomas W. married Gladys Olive GROUT on 15 Jul 1916 – Gladys is my paternal 2^nd cousin twice removed.

GILLEN, Isaac Frampton married Lennie KITE on 15 Jul 1910 – he is my maternal 2^nd cousin 3 times removed.

HUMPHRIES, Willie D. married Nellie Isophene FINK on 15 Jul 1900 – he is my maternal 2^nd cousin 4 times removed.

Alice Evelyn Bullock - 1929 

DEATHS

FISHER, John died 15 Jul 1638 – he is my husband’s paternal 7^th great granduncle.

HART, Lucy A. died 15 Jul 1881, wife of Jeremiah HOOVER – she is my paternal half 2^nd great grandaunt.

JUSTICE, Frances Deborah died 15 Jul 2001, wife of William Wallace “Pat” DAVIES – she is my sister-in-law’s mother.

VAUGHT, Gilbert died 15 Jul 1832, husband of Mary MARTIN – Mary is my maternal 5^th great grandaunt.

VAUGHT, Gilbert C. (son of the Gilbert listed above) died 15 Jul 1857 – he is my maternal 1^st cousin 6 times removed.

Frances Deborah Justice

If you are connected with anyone listed in this blog post, please get in touch.  Perhaps we can exchange information or photos?

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION