Author Archives: suzieg1969

Florence Thompson

14 Thursday May 2020

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Florence Thompson was born on May 14, 1859, the first child of Stewart Thompson and Margaret Jones.  The new family was living in Madison Township in Pike County, Indiana in 1860, so it was likely Florence was born there.  She had five younger sisters and two brothers: Alice, Eleanor, Thomas, Nancy, Maggie, William, and Emma.  Alice, Nancy and Maggie died as children.

By 1870, Stewart had relocated the family to Johnson Township in Knox County where they continued to farm.  On September 2, 1879, Florence married John Leveron and they set up their household near Decker.  Over the next twenty years, they would build a family of eight children, seven of which lived to adulthood: sons Shirley, Levi , and Stewart and daughters Margaret, Annie, Ruth, Grace and Hilda.  Grace died shortly after her first birthday in 1898.

In March 1904, Florence’s father died at the age of seventy-one from tuberculosis.  Seven years later, at the age of sixty-nine, her mother died apoplexy.  Florence and John continued to raise their family in the Decker area, only for John to succumb to kidney failure in December 1917.  Shirley, Levi, and Stewart continued to help work the farm; Levi going so far as to be separated from his wife and seven children in Vincennes to assist.

On September 26, 1933, Florence passed away at home from a cerebral hemorrhage after several weeks of poor health.  She is buried at the Warth Cemetery in Decker Chapel next to her husband.

 

Florence Thompson was my 1st cousin 4x removed on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census – 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1930
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriage Collection
  • Find A Grave website
  • Princeton Daily Clarion, September 27, 1933 via Newspapers.com
  • Vincennes Sun Commercial, September 27, 1933

Joanna DeMoss

13 Wednesday May 2020

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Joanna DeMoss was born on May 13, 1813 in Fleming County, Kentucky.  She is believed to be the daughter of William and Polly DeMoss.  She had several siblings including Lewis, Polly, William J, Elizabeth and Sarah.  Joanna was one of the youngest of the DeMoss children.

Joanna married John G Wilson around 1832 likely in Kentucky.  Since most single families did not relocate alone, but rather in a group, it is likely that the Wilsons migrated to Daviess County, Indiana at the same time as her brother William and her sister Polly, who was married to Thomas Harmon.  These families can all be found in Reeve Township living fairly close together in 1850.

Joanna and John are thought to have had seven children: Minerva (m. John Scales), Nancy (m. Frank Malray), James, Sarah Jane (m. Phillip Scales), Rebecca, Deborah (m. Joseph Armes), and Indiana (m. Charles Mattingly).  John died just days before his daughter Indiana was born in October 1852.  It is speculated that Rebecca perished in the mid-1850s since she was missing from the 1860 census.

Joanna continued to work the farm near Alfordsville until her death on March 10, 1867.  She was fifty-three.

 

Joanna DeMoss was my 5th great aunt on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1850, 1860
  • Find a Grave website

Ruby Jewell Jones

12 Tuesday May 2020

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Ruby Jones

On May 12, 1913, a daughter was born to Cleburn Jones and Ruby Sims in Oklahoma.  She was named Ruby Jewell.  Because she shared her first name with her mother, some documents refer to her as Jewell, especially during her adult years.  A couple years later, Jewell was blessed with a sister, Estella, however, their father died suddenly while in Ft Worth, Texas.  The girls were raised by their mother, with the help of her Sims grandparents.  They mostly lived in the Beckham County, Oklahoma area, however, they did spend a few years in Kerrville, Texas, around 1930.  They returned to Oklahoma when the elder Ruby married John C Jones in 1934.  John was Cleburn’s younger brother.

It was in Washita, Oklahoma, where Jewell met Jesse Vernon Keas and they were married on October 28, 1938.   Jewell and Jesse started a family and raised their children to adulthood.  Jewell’s mother died in 1954.  The couple lived out their lives in Oklahoma until Jewell’s death on September 26, 1995.

Ruby Jones

Ruby Jewell Jones was my 4th cousin 2x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census – 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Oklahoma County Marriages
  • Find a Grave website
  • United States Social Security Death Index
  • Texas Death Certificates

 

 

Ara Belle Gilmore

11 Monday May 2020

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Ara Belle Gilmore was the seventh of nine children born to Robert Gilmore and Martha Jane Lankford.   She was born on May 11, 1873 in Steen Township, Knox County, Indiana.  Her older siblings, in order of birth, were Elizabeth, Bertha Ellen, Susan, Sarah, Benjamin and Nancy.  She was followed by younger brothers Irvin and George.  Elizabeth was the only child not to live to adulthood.  In 1884, Ara’s sister Ellen died.  Ellen’s son Charles was raised by his grandparents Robert and Martha.

Ara married on May 3, 1899 at the age of twenty-five to Thomas Albert Strange from Daviess County.  They had a daughter in 1901 named Elsie.  Albert worked for the railroad and was often gone for stretches of time doing construction.  On May 23, 1905, he was hit and killed by a passenger train in Mitchell, Indiana.

Ara and her daughter lived with her parents for a few years until she met and married Charles Downey around Christmas 1910.  They made their home together in Bicknell where Charles was a farmer.  Ara’s father died in 1920 and her mother followed in 1925.  At the age of sixty-six, Ara passed away on August 6, 1940 from complications associated with a hernia.  She is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Bicknell.

 

Ara Belle Gilmore is my 1st cousin 4x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census – 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriage Collection
  • Find A Grave website
  • Vincennes Commercial, December 23, 1910
  • Vincennes Sun-Commercial,  August 7, 1940
  • Daviess County Democrat, May 27, 1905

 

Mura Mae Cox

10 Sunday May 2020

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Mura May Cox

On May 10, 1897 in Vigo Township, Knox County, Indiana, Mura Mae Cox was born to Emily Arabelle McCullough and Frank Cox.  She was the third of five siblings that lived to adulthood–Raymond and Blanche were older, and Anna and Jessie were younger.  Her father supported the family through farming.

Soon after the birth of Jessie in 1904, the family moved to Welch Township in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.  Frank remarried in 1907 to Mollie Bugg Givens Schwepker.  It is unclear what Arabelle’s fate was between 1904 and 1907.  The Deed Record Index for the land purchase in Welch Township indicated that both Frank and Arabelle were listed in the transfer.  That would lend credence that she possibly perished in Missouri.

With the addition of a step-mother, the 1910 Census actually has the five siblings rather scattered.  Raymond and Mura were living at home with their father.  Blanche worked as a servant for a private family.  Anna and Jessie could be found back in Knox County living with different families.  The exact circumstances surrounding this situation are unknown.  Anna was listed as a ward of Mr. and Mrs Bode Goodman in Bicknell.  Ann and Charles Rogers were raising Jessie in Westphalia.  Ann was Frank’s sister and Jessie’s aunt.

Mura Mae saw both of her older siblings marry in 1911.  In January 1915, her father died of tuberculosis in Vincennes.  It’s possible they were back in Indiana visiting family over the holidays.  Since her father did not have a will, the widow was placed in charge of the estate and Mura Mae basically was homeless.  She was found in 1920 to be living with her father’s cousin Nathan Killion and his wife Cordelia in Daviess County, Indiana.  In November 1920, Mura Mae married Jesse Thomson and they moved to Indianapolis.

Mura and Jesse had three children: Colleen, Shirley and Ramon.  In 1930, they were living on Sugar Grove Avenue, just a few miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The house they lived in then may still be there today.  It is possible it was a duplex at the time.  Jesse supported the family as a sales manager for a hardware store.  By 1940, he had risen up to the rank of territorial manager.  They had moved to the Crown Hill part of Indianapolis which not far from the present day Children’s Museum.

Over the years, their children grew up and started families of their own while Mura and Jesse continued to live in Indiana’s capital.  Despite the lack of a cohesive childhood together, pictures of Mura and her brother and sisters would indicate they remained close throughout the years.  In 1965, her sister Blanche died of colon cancer.  Raymond followed in 1968.  On December 22, 1975 at the age of 78, Mura was a victim of breast cancer.

Mura Mae Cox

Mura Mae was my 2nd great aunt on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census – 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriage Certificates
  • Find a Grave website
  • Deed Records 1805-1910, Cape Girardeau County MO
  • Missouri Marriage Records
  • Missouri Wills and Probate Records

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Rosanna Ishmael

09 Saturday May 2020

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Rosanna Ishmael

Rosanna Ishmael was born on May 9, 1848 in Fleming County, Kentucky to John A Ishmael and Margaret Keel.  Rosanna had three siblings–John, Laura and Samuel–although when exactly John was born is not clear.  In the early 1850s, John and Margaret packed up the family and moved to Illinois.  According to the 1855 Illinois State Census for Cole County, they were accompanied by other Ishmael families, likely brothers or cousins of John Sr.  Margaret was counted in the July 1855 census, however, it would appear that she died not long after that, although it is not known whether she was laid to rest in Illinois or Kentucky.  Also, Laura may have also perished during this time as her whereabouts are unknown after 1855.

The 1860 census indicates that John Sr has taken a second wife, likely in early 1856.  It’s assumed the marriage between John and Mary A Hunt occurred in Kentucky since she was a native of Bath County. This marriage added eight more children to the family as half-siblings to Rosanna–Margaret, Nancy, John Thomas, Martha, James, George, Sarah, and Minnie.

As the last of Rosanna’s siblings were being born, she married and started her own family.  She married farmer Timothy Ishmael around 1868 and they settled in Nicholas County, Kentucky.  Together they brought twelve children into this world, Nine of those offspring would live to adulthood–Margaret, Lilly, Eugene, Anna Belle, Lucy, Gertrude, Charles , Rosa and Ethel.  Both Clara and John Samuel died as toddlers while Liddie only survived a couple months.

Rosanna’s father John passed away in 1898 and a few years later in 1906, her husband Tim also left this world.  Rosanna’s children continued to grow up and move on with their lives.  In 1921, her daughter Lilly Alexander preceded her in death after a year long battle with liver cancer.  Rosanna joined them in the afterlife on September 6, 1923 at the age of seventy-five.

 

Rosanna Ishmael is my 2nd cousin 4x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1910, 1920
  • Kentucky Death Index
  • Find a Grave website
  • Fleming County, Kentucky marriage index
  • Illinois State Census, 1855

Jonathan Crane Bonnel III

08 Friday May 2020

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Jonathan Crane Bonnel III was born May 8, 1860 in Chatham, New Jersey, the oldest child of Jonathan Jr and Emily Russell Bonnel.  Jonathan was followed by two sisters–Jeannette who never married, and Eloise who died at age six in 1871.

This Bonnel family was instrumental in the development of this area of New Jersey.  Jonathan III’s great-grandfather, also named Jonathan, founded Bonneltown which later was renamed Stanley.  His grandfather, Jonathan C. Sr who went by “Crane”, played an important part in getting the railroad to run a line through what is now Summit, New Jersey.  Jonathan and his father, Johnathan Jr, continued to develop the area economically in the years since.

In 1875, Jonathan’s mother died at the age of forty-three.  His father remarried in 1879 to Sarah English, the daughter of a prominent local doctor.  Unfortunately, that marriage only lasted about a year as Sarah died in 1880.

Jonathan himself married just once.  On June 27, 1892, he married a woman named Carrie in Kings, New York.  Not much is known about Carrie other than she was born in 1856 in Wisconsin, her parents were born in New York and she was likely married once before Jonathan.  There were no children born to this marriage and Carrie disappeared after the 1910 census.  There is some evidence that she might have relocated to Los Angeles.  Jonathan is listed as divorced in the 1915 New Jersey Census.

For several years Jonathan was in poor health.  He was hospitalized when his father died in February 1916.  His sister Jeannette was left control of the family estate and charged with her brother’s care.  Jonathan succumbed to his illness in November 1916.  He is buried in the New Providence Presbyterian Churchyard in New Providence, New Jersey.

 

Jonathan Crane Bonnel III was my 4th cousin 5x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910
  • New Jersey State Census, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915
  • New Jersey Death Index
  • New York Extracted Marriage Index
  • Find A Grave website
  • The Chatham Press – December 2, 1916 & February 12, 1916 via Newspapers.com
  • The Central New Jersey Home News  – February 7, 1916 via Newspapers.com
  • New Jersey Marriages
  • US Newspaper Extractions form the Northeast

Benjamin Lankford

07 Thursday May 2020

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Benjamin Lankford was born in  Indiana on May 7, 1853.  His actual birth year and location are somewhat up for debate.  Most census records would put his birth in or around 1853, however, his death certificate would indicate he was actually born in 1849.  Because he’s not listed in the 1850 census, I am inclined to believe he was born circa 1853.  The year of his birth would also give a clue as to where he might have been born. Taking into account where his siblings were born, it is likely Benjamin was born in Knox County, likely in Steen Township.  His parents were Benjamin William Lankford and Sally Mattocks.  He had four brothers (William, Harrison, James and Burrell) and four sisters (Martha Jane, Josephine, Sophia, and Lucinda).

The Lankfords supported themselves through farming.  The family was actually in Lawrence County, Indiana until around 1850 when they packed up and moved to Steen Township, Knox County.  They stayed in Knox County for a decade or so before they relocated to Washington in Daviess County in the mid to late 1860s.  It was in Daviess County where Benjamin met and married his first wife Rebecca Jane Burlett on May 8, 1877.  It appears this marriage did not last very long as Benjamin was living with his brother Harrison in 1880 in Steen Township and his marriage status was listed as widowed.

On Christmas Day 1881, Benjamin married a second time to Mrs. Sarah M Hurst.  Very little has been found regarding Sarah or this marriage.

Fast forwarding a decade, Benjamin is at the alter once again.  On October 12, 1893 he married Cordelia Martindale Bland.  The specific location of the marriage is not definitively known, but likely took place in either Knox or Greene County, Indiana.  Cordelia’s first marriage lasted less than three years, but whether it ended in death or divorce, that is not clear. Benjamin supported his family as a carriage painter and they resided in Edwardsport.

Cordelia and Benjamin had two children who lived to adulthood…Mary and Walter.  Mary married Robert Bartlett, however, she only lived to be nineteen.  In 1915 she died of meningitis.  Walter married, several times actually.  He lived to be 78 and made his home in the Linton area.  Cordelia outlived her husband Benjamin.  He was afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis.  He died on April 15, 1916 in Switz City where he is also buried.

 

Benjamin Lankford was my 4th great-uncle on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1910
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriage Collection

Bernice Fredericka Ireland

06 Wednesday May 2020

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On May 6, 1888 in Brownstown, Jackson County, Indiana, Bernice Fredericka Ireland was born to Frank and Lillie Wacker Ireland.  She and her older brother William were the only children born to Frank and Lillie.  Bernice received her middle name from her maternal grandmother Fredericka Rush Wacker.

Frank Ireland supported his family as a school teacher while his children were growing up.  Bernice graduated from Brownstown High School in 1904 and later attended Indiana University in Bloomington where she studied to also be an educator.  On February 20, 1919 at the age of thirty-one, Bernice married Walter Greger.  Immediately following the wedding, the couple moved to Chicago where Walter worked as a mail clerk.  On January 20, 1920 in Chicago, Bernice gave birth to their only child Janet.  While living in Chicago, Bernice put her training to good use and taught in the Chicago Public School System.

In 1932, Bernice lost her father to cancer of the lymph glands.  He was seventy-two.  A decade later, her mother succumbed to heart disease mere days after her eighty-first birthday.

Bernice and Walter continued to live in Chicago until their retirement in the mid-1950s when they returned to Jackson County.  Based on the numerous mentions in the local newspaper, Bernice was quite active in the community in various organizations upon their return.  Unfortunately, Walter’s life was taken to soon, as he suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1957.  Bernice continued to keep busy for a few more years, before suffering a fatal stroke in February 1965.  She and Walter are laid to rest in the Fairview Cemetery in Brownstown.

Bernice Ireland

Bernice Ireland Greger was my 2nd cousin 4x removed on my dad’s side.  She is also a first cousin 1x removed of William Puloski Ireland who was previously the subject of a biography.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriages
  • Find A Grave website
  • Jackson County Banner, February 19, 1913, February 26, 1919, September 7, 1932, April 3, 1957 via Newspapers.com

 

 

Norma Lucille Kaiser

05 Tuesday May 2020

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Norma Lucille Kaiser was born in Knox County, Indiana on May 5, 1925 to Henry M Kaiser and Josephine Wetzel.  She was one of at least ten children born to the couple which include five boys and five girls, all but one living well into adulthood.  Her brothers included Joseph, Lawrence, Cletus (who died as an infant), Henry and Walter.  Norma was the third girl of the family: Anna, Mary, Norma, Marcella, and Dorothy.

The family made their living through farming.  In the 1920s they resided near Henry’s father’s farm outside of Vincennes, although by the mid-1930s, they had relocated to Haddon Township in Sullivan County.

Lawrence Wolfe, also of Haddon Township, enlisted in the Army in 1942 and served three years.  He married Norma on December 26, 1944 in Sullivan County, in the middle of his enlistment.  After the war, he supported Norma and their family as a truck driver.  They had five children, four of which grew to adulthood.

Lawrence and Norma continued living in in the Carlisle area until his death from cancer in 1987.  Norma lived another eleven years, a victim of heart disease on January 26, 1998 in Sullivan.

Norma Kaiser is a great-granddaughter of Michael Kaiser.

Norma Kaiser

Norma was my half-2nd cousin, 1x removed on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1930, 1940
  • Indiana Marriages
  • Indiana Birth Certificates
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Vincennes Sun-Commercial via Newspapers.com
  • Find a Grave Website
  • US Social Security Death Index
  • US WWII Draft Cards
  • US Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File
  • US World War II Army Enlistment Records