Tag Archives: Cardinal

Family photos

13 Saturday Jan 2024

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This week’s prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge is “favorite photo”. Nearly fifteen years ago, before my grandmother’s Alzheimer’s got too bad, she handed my uncle Bill a large box of pictures. She said it was all the pictures she had collected over the years. He scanned them into the computer and gifted her an electronic picture frame for Christmas with all the photos stored in it. He said there were between 500 and 600 photos in that box. In 2015, my grandmother passed away. As Bill sorted through drawers and closets, he found more pictures. Over the course of the following three years, he scanned an additional 700 to 800 pictures. He then organized all 1300 pictures and gifted them to me and my sisters. When this challenge came up, I decided to pick a photo from his collection.

My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Cardinal Keller, was born in 1925, and she had two sisters and four brothers. She was fifth in the birth order. Each year during the summer, there would be the Thompson Family Reunion held at the local park in the town were I was born and raised. Thompson was my great-grandmother’s maiden name. I don’t remember too much about the reunions except there were always lots of people I didn’t really know and lots of food–fried chicken, potato salad and deviled eggs. I do recall that Grandma’s siblings who lived out of town would make an effort to come to the reunions.

I have selected two photos for this challenge. One from 1953 and one from 1989. Both pictures feature all seven Cardinal siblings.

This picture was taken in 1953 in Vincennes, Indiana. It might have been taken at my grandparents house, although I am not sure. From left to right, Morris Cardinal, Marlin “Buck” Cardinal, Virginia Cardinal Dye, Dorothy Cardinal Keller, Norma Cardinal Sheley, Wayne Cardinal, and Don Cardinal.

This picture was taken in the summer of 1989 in Vincennes, Indiana, during a family reunion. This particular year, it was not held at the park but at a family member’s house. It may have been Norma’s but I’m not 100% certain of that. Front row, Dorothy, Virginia and Norma. Back row, Don, Buck, Morris and Wayne. This was one of the last pictures of the siblings as Don, the oldest, passed away in 1993.

Pierre Cardinal

31 Sunday May 2020

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On May 31, 1665, Pierre Cardinal was the fifth son of Simon Jean Cardinal and Michelle Garnier born in the Lachine area of Montreal, Canada. He had a total of five brothers and one sister: Jacques, Jean, Gabriel, Etienne, Simon and Cecile. His father died in 1679 and his mother remarried the following year to Jean Chevalier.

Lachine, Montreal, Quebec (map obtained from Google)

Pierre married Marie Matou on September 17, 1685 in Montreal. It is reported that seventeen children were born to this couple.

  • Pierre, Jr
  • Marie, who died at age fourteen
  • Jean Baptiste
  • Daniel
  • Francois Marie (b. 1693)
  • Charles, who died at age fifteen
  • Marie Francoise
  • Marguerite
  • Francoise, (b. 1700) who died in infancy
  • Marie Anne Cardinal
  • Francois-Marie (b. 1701)
  • Angelique, who died in infancy
  • Simon
  • Gabriel
  • Jacques, who died in infancy
  • Augustin
  • Francoise (b. 1719)

Pierre died at the age of eighty-one on January 13, 1747 in Lachine.

Pierre Cardinal was my 9th great uncle on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

  • Quebec Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families (Tanguay Collection)
  • Programme de Recherche en Demographie Historique (PRDH)

Mary Emma Cardinal

22 Friday May 2020

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Mary Emma Cardinal was born May 22, 1874 in Knox County, Indiana to Franklin Cardinal and Mary Henrietta White.  She had three older siblings: William J, Eliza, and Charles.  Her family lived in Johnson Township near Decker where they worked the family farm.  It is believed that she went by her middle name Emma.

On August 18, 1892, Emma married Henry McGaughey across the river in Lawrence County, Illinois.  They made their home in Johnson Township were Henry farmed the land.  They had at least five children, four of which have been identified:  Jeremiah, Levi, Florence, and Lorene.

In 1904, typhoid fever was nearing epidemic levels in cities such as New York City.  Rural areas, such as Knox County, were not immune to the bacterial infection.  There were regular reports in the local paper of citizens, both old and young, who succumbed to the disease.  Unfortunately, the McGaughey family was hard hit by the bacteria in 1904.  Young Florence at the tender age of seven, died in September.  Emma fell victim on November 2, 1904 and eleven year old Jeremiah followed five days later.  All three are buried in the City Cemetery.

 

Mary Emma Cardinal was my 2nd cousin, 4 times removed on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census: 1880, 1900
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Illinois Statewide Marriage Index
  • Find A Grave website

Jean Baptiste Cardinal

19 Tuesday May 2020

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Jean Baptiste Cardinal was born on May 19, 1728 to Jeanne Duguay and Jacques Jean-Baptiste Cardinal,  and was baptized at the Basilique Notre-Dame in Montreal. He was one of nine children which included two sisters named Jeanne, and brothers named Jacques, Joseph, Nicolas, Jean-Baptiste, Pierre and Charles.

On April 8, 1755 in Detroit, Jean Baptiste married Marie-Anne Maillet.  Their first two children, Jeanne-Marie and Marie-Anne, are believed to have been born in Canada.  At some point between 1758 and 1761, the family migrated southward and settled at Fort Vincennes.  Four more children were born to the couple over the next decade: Jacques, Genevieve, Jean-Baptiste, and Celeste.

Fort Vincennes played a pivotal part in the battles on the western front of the Revolutionary War.  The fort changed hands several times between the British forces, which were based in Detroit, and the American forces who made allies of the French Canadians who lived in the area.  Jean Baptiste supported the cause against the British by signing the Oath of Allegiance to Vincennes in 1778 and fighting in the militia under George Rogers Clark.  In 1780,  it is believed that Jean Baptiste marched with Augustin de la Balme in an attempt to take Detroit.  Along the way, La Balme took an unoccupied British and Indian trading post near present day Fort Wayne, Indiana.  When his expected reinforcements did not show up, he took some of his men to capture another post along the Eel River.  The local Indians were unhappy with the outsiders intruding and attacked.  After a lengthy battle, most of the men, include Jean Baptiste Cardinal, perished along the Eel River.

 

Jean Baptiste Cardinal was my 7th great-uncle on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

  • Canadian Genealogy Index
  • Quebec Vital Church Records (Drouin Collection)
  • Quebec, Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families (Tanguay Collection)
  • “De La Balme’s Defeat” – Revolutionary War and Beyond website

Charles Cardinal

17 Sunday May 2020

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Charles Cardinal was one of at least 5 children born to Pierre Cardinal and Madeleine Cesar.  He came into this world on May 17, 1718 at Lachine, Quebec, Canada.  He had at least two brothers, Jean Baptiste and Francois, and two sisters, Marie Angelique and Marie Joseph.

Charles was married twice. His first wife was Marie Catherine Deniau and they were married on January 19, 1750 in Lachine.   No children have been identified from this union and it is likely Marie Catherine perished just a few short years after their marriage.

Charles married his second wife Susanne Amable Massiot on 20 January 1755 in Lachine.  To this marriage was born at least six daughters and one son: Suzanne-Catherine, Charles, Marie, Marie-Josephe, Suzanne, Marguerite, and Archange.  Suzanne-Catherine and Marguerite both died as infants and Marie-Josephe perished at the age of ten.

Charles is thought to have died himself in or around 1770, although documentation has not yet been located.

Charles Cardinal

Charles Cardinal was my 2nd cousin 8x removed.

REFERENCES

  • Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection)
  • Quebec, Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Familes (Tanguay Collection)

Minnie Myrtle Cardinal

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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Minnie Myrtle Cardinal was one of the six children born to William Jerome Cardinal and Mary Frances Connell who lived to adulthood.  She was born April 18, 1885 in Knox County, Indiana, and had four sisters–Effie May, Florence, Gertrude and Laura–and a brother named Everett.  The family resided in the southwest portion of the county near Decker until the late 1890s, at which time they moved across the river to the community of Billett in Lawrence County, Illinois.

Around 1901, Minnie met and married James Joseph Wheeler, son of Bill Wheeler and Sarah Carey, who was originally from the St Thomas area in Knox County.  They started their family in the Billett area with the births of daughters Allie and Flossie.  By 1907, they returned to Johnson Township where Willard and Sylvia Irene were born.  James supported the family as a farm laborer.  They remained in Indiana for a few more years, however, the family returned to the Billett/Lawrenceville area by the time Leo was born in 1914.  Leo was followed by brother Herbert in 1920 and sister Dorothy in 1923. As many others in Lawrenceville did, James worked in the local oil refinery.

As 1930 approached, the children grew into adults and started to leave home.  Allie married and Willard moved to California where he worked in a variety of occupations.  During the 1930s, Flossie and Sylvia married.  James retired from the refinery, however, he left Minnie a widow in 1938.   In 1940, Minnie, Herbert and Dorothy were living in a boarding house in Lawrenceville and Herbert was working for the WPA.  With the start of World War II, both Herbert and Leo were drafted.  Unfortunately, Leo did not make it home.  He was attached to the Armored Forces Tank Units and suffered extensive injuries from artillery shrapnel in May 1944.  He did not survive.

Minnie remarried at some point in the 1940s to Frank Higgins.  They resided in Sumner and later Lawrenceville. She died on November 11, 1949 after suffering from a brief illness.

Minnie Cardinal

Minnie Cardinal Wheeler Higgins was my 3rd cousin 3x removed on my mother’s side.

 

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Find A Grave website
  • Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index
  • United States WWII Draft Cards
  • United State WWII Hospital Admission Card Files
  • Indiana Birth Certificates
  • Vincennes Sun Commercial, November 13, 1949

How Abraham Lincoln found his way into my family tree…

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Famous People, Genealogy

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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is the 1st cousin 3x removed of the husband of my 1st great grand aunt

As I expected, and predicted, I have wandered off on a tangent or two as I try to put together my family’s history.  Probably my most interesting tangent so far is the one that led me to the Lincoln family.  It’s not a direct link between me and the 16th President of the United States, but a wild and crazy path that winds through the Ohio River Valley.

It’s probably not that surprising that a connection was made to Lincolns.  Anyone who grew up in Knox County, Indiana should be more than aware of the fact that Abraham’s family supposedly passed through our community in 1830 as the family moved from Spencer County, Indiana to Illinois.  There’s a historical marker on the Illinois side of the Memorial Bridge stating this very fact.  Not to mention that many an Indiana fourth grader has visited the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Spencer County during a class field trip, including myself.

Abraham’s family tree is fairly well known and can be viewed at Archives.com.  His parents were Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks.  Thomas’s parents were Abraham Lincoln and Bathsheba Herring.  This is what set off the alarms in my head since my Lincoln tangent includes Bathsheba Herring Lincoln.  It’s a rather unusual name and one most won’t easily forget.

So what is the path that goes from me to Mr. Lincoln?  As I mentioned earlier, it’s not a direct path and we have no common blood relatives.  The connection is through a marriage and many purists will discount the claim based solely on that.  Regardless, I think it’s cool that I could even make a connection to anyone, let alone one of the greatest leaders of our country.

Without further adieu, here’s the relationship path:

  1. Me
  2. my mother – Phyllis Keller DeMoss
  3. my grandmother – Dorothy Cardinal Keller
  4. my great-grandmother – Ethel Thompson Cardinal
  5. my great-great grandparents – Frank & Sarah (Butler) Thompson
  6. my great-grand aunt – Edith Thompson Williams
  7. my great-grand uncle (Edith’s husband) – Everett Williams
  8. Everett’s mother – Mary E Lincoln Williams
  9. Everett’s grandfather – Benjamin Lincoln
  10. Everett’s great-grandfather – Thomas Lincoln
  11. Everett’s great-great-grandfather – Josiah Lincoln
  12. Everett’s 3rd great grandparents – Abraham Linkhorn and Bathsheba (Herring) Lincoln (who are also Abraham Lincoln’s grandparents)
  13. Abraham’s father – Thomas Lincoln
  14. Abraham Lincoln

So there you have it.  My 5 seconds of greatness.

John Frank Thompson and Sarah Hannah Butler

06 Saturday Dec 2014

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John Frank Thompson and Sarah Hannah Butler are my 2nd great grandparents.  Frank was born to Robert C. and Sarah (Roderick) Thompson on October 19, 1872 in Knox County.  Sarah, also known as Sadie, was born to Eli and Amanda (Newcomb) Butler on October 4, 1875 in Indiana.  They were married on June 7, 1894 in Knox County.  They lived their lives together in Johnson Township where Frank farmed.  Frank and Sarah had four daughters together: Ethel, Edith, Pearl, and Gertrude.

Ethel (1895-1949) married August Cardinal in 1915.  They had seven children: Donald, Virginia, Marlin, Norma, Dorothy, Morris, and Wayne.  Ethel was my great-grandmother.

Edith (1896-1991) married Everett Williams in 1916.  They lived in Knox County until about 1936 when they moved to Owensville in Gibson County.  They had eight children: Kenneth, Inez, Marvin, Eldon, Max, Everett, Billy, and Bobbie.

Pearl (1902-1997) married Cleatus Beamon sometime around 1924.  They lived in Vincennes and had nine children, including a pair of twins:  Frank, Erma, Dorothy, Mary, Harry, Betty, Paul, Dale, and Pearl.

Gertrude (1906-2001) married Ewing Steffy around 1928.  Ewing farmed and they lived a time with his parents in Palmyra Township, which is essentially in the middle of the county between Vincennes, Wheatland, Bruceville, and Monroe City.  They did not have any children prior to 1940 and no one was listed in Gertrude’s obituary.  After Ewing died, Gertrude lived in Vincennes, just down the alley from my grandmother.  She would mention often about going to check on Aunt Gerty.

In January 1937, the Ohio River Valley suffered massive flooding.  This included the rivers that feed into the Ohio, such as the White River and the Wabash River which both border southern Knox County.  Johnson Township borders the White River and the area does sit in a known flood plain.  It was reported that levies were breached impacting the local residents.  Sarah died on January 22, 1937 at Good Samaritan Hospital.  The newspaper did not specify the cause of death, but there is always the possibility that it was related to the weather or the flooding.  The paper did say her body was returned to the Thompson home in Rural Johnson Township, so it’s possible they were not affected adversely by the flooding after all.

On January 26, 1939, Frank died of tuberculosis which he had been suffering from for a number of years.  He had been a patient at the Hillcrest Hospital which over the years served as a quarantine facility for various infectious diseases, especially tuberculosis.  With the advances of modern medicine, the hospital closed in 1971.  The building still stands and is thought to be haunted.

Marriage Announcement: Thompson-Williams

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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Now that I’m working on my mother’s family which is mainly from southern Knox County, use of the online archives for the Vincennes papers is more relevant.  While looking for information on my 2nd great grandfather, John Franklin Thompson, I came across the following announcement for marriage license applications.

“Everett Williams, farmer, of this county, son of Louis Williams, farmer, of this county, and Miss Ethel Thompson, of this county, daughter of Frank Thompson, farmer, of this county.”  [The Vincennes Commercial, January 14, 1916, page 2.]

Okay, so what? you say.  The wrong daughter is named.  Ethel, my great-grandmother, was already married to August Cardinal when this was printed.  It should have read Edith, her younger sister.  Edith and Everett were indeed married the day before on January 13, 1916.

August Cardinal

01 Monday Dec 2014

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As promised, I’m going to start on my mother’s family tonight.  Searchable Vincennes newspaper archives are a dangerous tool to let me have access to.

August Cardinal was my great grandfather.  He was born August 21, 1893 in Knox County, IN to James S and Anna Gravel Cardinal.  It’s likely he was named after his birth month.  There is a discrepancy in the year of his birth, however, as some sources say he was born in 1894.  He was the oldest of 4 children who lived to maturity.

In January 1911, he attended the 18th birthday party of Maggie Dellinger.  Others in attendance whose names caught my eye were Ben Gravel (possibly his cousin), Leo Sievers and Lawrence and Raymond Siewers.

In 1915, August met and married Ethel Thompson, daughter of John and Hannah (Butler) Thompson.  Their first child, Donald, was born in 1916. A couple years later, in June 1917, August was arrested for stealing farm equipment from farms south of Vincennes. His daughter Virginia was born while awaiting trial which was set for April 1918.  Nothing was easily found in the newspapers regarding the outcome of the trial, however, their third child, Marlin wasn’t born until 1920, so maybe he did do some time in the pokey.

Things were fairly quiet for the next few years for August.  Norma, Dorothy, and Morris were all born in the 1920s.  The family seemed to move around a bit living in both Harrison and Johnson Townships (Monroe City and Decker areas, respectively).  In 1934 it was reported that August ran his car into a guy wire, taking out a light pole.  Wayne, their youngest child, was born around this time as well.

1940 found the family renting in Busseron Township (Emison/Oaktown area).  When World War II came along, Marlin enlisted and August and Ethel were reported to live at 309 Depot Street, near the present day Vincennes University campus.  In 1949 when they were living at 121 Tecumseh, Ethel passed away at age 53.

Nothing more could be found in the archives regarding August until his death in 1964.  His obituary mentions a widow surviving him, but I have no idea who that might have been as she was not specifically named.