Mayflower Ancestors

Here we are again, preparing for the holiday season beginning with Thanksgiving. I have wanted to post about my Mayflower ancestors for quite a while now since most of my family isn’t even aware of a Mayflower connection. The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, on 6 September 1620 and arrived on Cape Cod on 11 November 1620. The exact number of passengers is still in question. However, AmericanAncestors.org lists 108: 102 passengers and six crew; 54 died the first year. According to Mass.gov, approximately 10 million Americans and 35 million others descended from the Pilgrims. Not all on board were separatist Puritans. Fortunately for genealogists, many researchers before us have done extensive work on the subject, including extraordinary family trees, in the early years, completed without technology.

Mayflower Compact signed 11 November, 1620.

“Agreement between the Settlers at New Plymouth—1620.” In The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, compiled and edited by Francis Newton Thorpe, vol. 3, p. 1841. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1909.

In the genealogy world, a group of books called “The Silver Books,” also known as The Silver Book Project or The Five Generations Project of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, traces the lineage of Mayflower descendants. The first book was published in 1975, but the beginnings of the idea date back to 1899. The years in between were spent researching approved lineage papers. Today, there are 22 volumes with multiple parts that make up a 42-book catalog. I own only one Silver Book, volume 4, about my ancestor, Edward Fuller, published by Bruce C. MacGunnigle.

Edward Fuller was baptized on 4 September 1575 in Redenhall, Norfolk, England, and was the son of Robert Fuller and Sara Dunkhorn. Edward, his wife, whose name is unknown, and his son Samuel came to Plymouth on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact on 11 November 1620. Edward and his wife, however, died in January 1621, soon after they came ashore. Edward’s brother Samuel Fuller, a physician on the Mayflower, took in his twelve-year-old orphaned nephew Samuel.

So, where does my family fit in? Edward Fuller is my 11th great-grandfather on my paternal side, below in descending order starting with my grandfather Harry Atwell.

Harry Atwell****William Stone/Atwell****Henry B. Stone****Laura L. Gilman****Isabella FitzRandolph****Malachi FitzRandolph****Mary Bonham****Hezekiah Bonham Sr.****Hannah Fuller****Samuel Fuller****Edward Fuller.

I found this wonderful sketch posted on Ancestry.com however there is no attached reference. Thanks to the artist whoever you are!

Not much is known about Edward Fuller’s life in Leiden, Holland, or when he relocated from Redenhall, Norfolk, England. However, the Mayflower and Speedwell left Plymouth, England July 1620, turning back twice due to leaks in the Speedwell’s hull. The decision was made to abandon the Speedwell, and finally, the Mayflower set sail on 6 September 1620. Shortly after landing at Cape Cod, the Mayflower sailed up the coast to Plymouth and began building their town while still living on the ship. By March 1621, there were enough houses to leave the Mayflower permanently, and the ship returned to England the next month.


Most know that English people containing separatist Puritans led by William Bradford, founded the Plymouth Colony. As a young man, Bradford belonged to a congregation that believed the Church of England should eliminate all traces of Roman Catholic practices to allow for a purer Christian Church. When the reform of the Church of England seemed hopeless, they felt the need to separate. Feeling persecuted, the congregation unlawfully left for The Netherlands, where religious freedom was permitted, and Bradford was intent on going. After ten years in The Netherlands, the Puritans’ children were “becoming Dutch”-adopting customs and language, so the decision was made to leave for a New World. That’s the very abbreviated recap.

However, history often dismisses that in 1614 when explorer John Smith “found” and named Plymouth harbor, it was already inhabited as a seasonal village called Patuxet by nearly 2000 indigenous Wampanoag people. By the time the Mayflower landed there, “they found themselves in a literal boneyard”(1) as disease, most likely from previous traders/explorers, decimated the people of Patuxet between 1616-1619. Bradford saw the plague as “a special providence of god”(2) which isn’t a surprise but “consistent with his puritan piety and with other assumptions of superior race and faith” (3) throughout his book Of Plymouth Plantation. Since the Wampanoag had been successfully living- farming, hunting, and spiritually celebrating on this land long before the Englishmen arrived, the remainder of the Pilgrims surely would have perished that first winter without their “help.” Having already lost half the group by January and February and struggling with scurvy, disease, and freezing temperatures, the desperate Pilgrims pillaged food stores from the village of Nauset without concern about who they were depriving. At best, the relationship between the Wampanoag and Pilgrims could be described as tolerant and strained, unlike the harmonious first Thanksgiving depictions our country has been serving for years.

As a Mayflower descendant, all of this leaves me saddened. How does a congregation of Puritans so religious see nothing wrong with using others as their stepping stones? The Puritans could have done better and should have done better, especially since they were persecuted for years themselves.

Note: The 400th Anniversary Edition Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford includes the Native American perspective in a chapter “Of Patuxet” by Wampanoag writer Paula Peters, which deserves to be recognized by historians, history, and humans.

Footnotes:

  1. Of Plimoth Plantation, The 400th Anniversary Edition, William Bradford. Special introduction by Paula Peters “Of Patuxet” pg.30, 2020 Colonial Society of Massachusetts and New England Historic Genealogical Society.

  2. Ibid, pg 31

  3. Ibid, pg 28


References:
https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstream/handle/2452/208249/ocn137336369-Mayflower-passengers.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

https://plimoth.org/for-students/homework-help/mayflower-and-mayflower-compact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bradford_(governor)

Other reading:

https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/mayflower-passengers-list-an-interactive-guide/

The Wedding Day of Marie Willing and Harry Atwell

Sometimes when researching genealogy I get so engrossed in the deep past I neglect to write about more current events, like my own paternal grandparents, Marie and Harry who were married February 1, 1930 in Racine, Wisconsin. One day while searching Newspapers.com, I came across two enjoyable articles from The Journal Times pertaining to their wedding celebrations; a detailed announce of the ceremony and another of a bridal shower for Marie.

The finer points of the veil and gown are detailed nicely as well as the bouquet. Especially the description of the veil, “caught with orange blossoms”! Of course, after reading this, I immediately pulled out my copy of their wedding photo. My grandparent’s wedding photo is very familiar however it was really hard to visualize the beauty of the grown with a black and white photo. So, I decided to use Ancestry.com’s new photo “colorizing” feature and see what would happen and then cleaned it up a bit on My Heritage’s Photo Enhance Feature as well. Wow, look at the color version of the same photo! It’s surprising to see all the dimension added to Grandma’s gown that can’t be seen in the black and white photo.

I am trying to locate a photo of the wedding party to colorize as well, however after speaking with my Aunt Marlene today she is not sure one exists. How lovely does Hildegard’s dress sound though-“a pale green georgette with uneven hemming, trimmed with green velvet”? In fact, this dress was probably made by my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Thielen Willing, who was a wonderful seamstress.

After reading a wedding shower announcement in the newspaper from January 18, 1930, one would think it was a slow day at the The Journal Times however it was common place to write about such events. In fact, journalists from that era would often push a pencil if a past resident came back to town for a visit.

And I had no idea Bunco was popular in the 1930’s. According to Wikipedia, in the 19th century England, Bunco was “a confidence game similar to three card monte” and since it’s resurgence in 2006 it’s sometimes known as “the housewife’s drinking game”!!!! Sounds like a great evening in honor of my grandmother along with the “midnight luncheon”.

Gosh, this is as close as I will ever come to being at my grandparent’s wedding 92 years ago!!

Uncle Johnny's Nabisco Torte

John Penne, circa 1942

While organizing my recipes I came across this one from my Great Uncle, Johnny Penne, and knew immediately it should join the “Family Recipes” on this blog. However, after reviewing the recipe, which is written in Johnny’s hand, I could see it was clearly abbreviated AND unreadable on the left margin! Luckily Google provided many similar recipes filling in the gaps.

Uncle Johnny was a mess sergeant during World War II and this was a mess hall favorite! It’s definitely a retro recipe and many of you most likely have tasted a similar dessert. Gelatin has been around since 1845 but it wasn’t until 1897 when a cough syrup manufacturer began experimenting with gelatin that the brand Jell-O was born. Personally, dessert recipes similar to the one below (or Jell-O shots!) should be the ONLY way Jell-O should be used. Take my word on this as someone who lived through the “savory” Jell-O phase before the 1980’s when cooks added coleslaw, carrots, olives, shrimp etc. to unpalatable concoctions. Many a time I sat at the dinner table wondering why my Mom ruined the Jell-O by adding carrots or fruit cocktail! Plain Jell-O in a bowl with whipped cream, that’s how to serve it Mom!!! haha

After reading other similar recipes online here is my extended and more complete recipe, final result photos included! Please comment if you try Uncle Johnny’s Nabisco Torte! Hey it’s way better than Jell-O and carrots!!

For other stories on John Penne and his life check out these links to my blog.

https://www.treeofmanyleaves.com/treeofmanyleaves/2015/02/the-tavern_15.html

https://www.treeofmanyleaves.com/treeofmanyleaves/2015/02/pennes-haven.html

Slovenian Catholic Records from the Archiepiscopal Archives of Ljubljana Now Available Online

In May a miracle happened at the Nadškofijski Arhiv of Ljubljana! Never did I ever imagine this institution, holder of the most important church records in the Republic of Slovenia, would release their vast collection of parish records to the public via Matricula Online. While I completely enjoyed my two trips to the Arhiv to browse through the books of the old parish records in person, having the availability of the records at my fingertips is a game changer.

Genealogy has been my long time interest, 44 years now, and not until last month did I locate the family of my second great-grandmother, Frančiška Novak. I knew Frančiška died in Mali Osolnik in Škocjan parish on 1 December 1888 from the inscription on her gravestone.(Note: It’s very rare to see a 1800’s gravestone in Slovenia as most gravesites are repurposed with the newest family member’s name on the stone.) While visiting Slovenia in 2013, however, a record search at the Arhiv for Škocjan parish was unsuccessful. Then in 2017 I searched the neighboring parish of Rob as suggested by the Arhiv staff and still nothing. My biggest obstacle was frame of reference; not knowing the location and number of parishes near Mali Osolnik. Presuming that Frančiška couldn’t have traveled far to meet her husband Jožef Kocijančič who lived his whole life in Mali Osolnik, I was stumped where to look next.

Fast forward to June 202, the map feature on Matricula Online allowed me to highlight the parishes in relation to the towns with direct links to the parish records!! Clearly I now knew the next parishes to search were Velike Lašče and Dobrepolje and indeed Frančiška’s birth record was found in Velike Lašče.

Edited screenshot from Matricula Online showing Mali Osolnik (circled) and the surrounding parishes in red-Škocjan is northeast, Rob is west and Velike Lašče southeast.

Edited screenshot from Matricula Online showing Mali Osolnik (circled) and the surrounding parishes in red-Škocjan is northeast, Rob is west and Velike Lašče southeast.

Frančiška Novak birth record 29 June 1848 taken from Matricula Online showing her parents Janez Novak and Maria Sluga as well as godparents Jožef Hocevar and Maria Zencic (if I am deciphering the handwriting correctly).

Frančiška Novak birth record 29 June 1848 taken from Matricula Online showing her parents Janez Novak and Maria Sluga as well as godparents Jožef Hocevar and Maria Zencic (if I am deciphering the handwriting correctly).

In the genealogy world adding a new generation with a birth record isn’t just the addition of two new names it’s a lead to the next set of names as well. For example, as I continued to search the same birth record set I was able to find one sibling for Frančiška, Johanna born in 1850, then moving on to the marriage records another sibling, Jožef. Figuring I overlooked Jožef during the initial birth record search, a repeat also came up empty though. Maybe he was born in a different parish? Continuing to follow the records by using the address of Frančiška’s birth, Prhajevo 3 as a hint, Janez Novak’s birth record from 11 December 1817 was located as well as his parents’ names: Franc Novak and Maria Subokovic!

Jožef Novak birth record on line 2 shared from Matricula Online.

Jožef Novak birth record on line 2 shared from Matricula Online.

Considering the above added genealogical information to my family tree, it’s clear these records are invaluable not only to myself but many others of Slovenian ancestry. So now with a to-do list in hand my search continues with theses records. The process is slow, looking page by page, as most record sets are not indexed It seems as the names and records are found, then crossed off the list, even more are added.

Thank you to all the employees at Nadškofijski Arhiv of Ljubljana for digitization efforts!!! If interested you can look here for records in all regions of Slovenia.

My Heritage™ Deep Nostalgia™ Feature for Animated Photos

In late February 2021, My Heritage™ released a new, amazing, feature on their website called Deep Nostalgia™ for animating family photos. Upload a photo-my experience is that a portrait-style works best-and within seconds the photo becomes an animated mp4 file. In just one short week after release 10 million photos were animated. Of course, I had to give it a try and the first photo I chose was of my grandma Anne Penne Hiller when she was about 20 years old.

This is the still photo I used for the Deep Heritage™animation and below is the animation.

This is the still photo I used for the Deep Heritage™animation and below is the animation.

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Kind of freaky right? I didn’t stop here though! Below you’ll see my other three grandparents as well as my two times great-grandfather Christian Hiller. Since I was lucky enough to remember three of my grandparents, except for Marie Atwell who died when I was four, using photos from their younger days was enjoyable.

My grandpa Don Hiller, maybe about 7 or 8 years.

My grandpa Don Hiller, maybe about 7 or 8 years.

My paternal grandmother, Marie Willing Atwell.  Doesn’t she look adorable in that hat?

My paternal grandmother, Marie Willing Atwell. Doesn’t she look adorable in that hat?

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Harry Atwell, my paternal grandpa.

Harry Atwell, my paternal grandpa.

Christian Hiller’s Civil War era tin-type photo, circa 1864-1865.

Christian Hiller’s Civil War era tin-type photo, circa 1864-1865.

Try it for yourself at My Heritage™! They offer five free animations before you need to choose a membership level. I really love this new tool and of course will add the animations to my genealogy photo files and, yes, I now have a membership to My Heritage™!

PS-All the videos offered after the animations are from my own YouTube videos on genealogy. So now is your time to catch up if you missed any.

Christian Hiller's Veteran's Pension File

Hey there, happy 2021! Like me, most of you were no doubt delighted to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome a fresh new year with hopes of normalcy returning on the heels of the covid vaccine release. While we were in our hopeful socially distant bubbles however, we witnessed the first six days of this new year bring added uneasiness in our lives with tension in Congress over the electoral college certification and culminating on January 6th with the storming of our nation’s Capitol by rioters/domestic terrorists.

As these above events unfolded, my genealogist mind wandered back to the struggles of my ancestors. My grandparents and great-grandparents would have surely been aware of the 1918 Pandemic which until last year was the most severe in recent history killing roughly 675,000 Americans.(1) As I write this today, the United States stands at 416,000 covid-19 deaths.(2) Their way of life altered as well by quarantine, mask wearing, social distancing and perhaps death of a loved one. Current journalists call our covid-19 pandemic “unprecedented”. It isn’t, it’s just unprecedented in our lifetime. The very word unprecedented is dangerous, it can leave us all with the thought - “oh, this can’t happen again” and that speculation leaves us vulerable. The recent violence at the Capitol is nothing new either. During the War of 1812, in 1814 British troops burned portions of the Capitol and White House in retaliation for an equally vicious act by American troops on Canadian soil and all this happened during the lifetime of my 4th great-grandparents.(3) And then of course, the War of Rebellion better known as the Civil War from 1861-1865 damaging the United States in ways which we still haven’t healed. Two of my 2nd great-grandfathers served as Union soldiers, both German immigrants and both sustaining injuries that would affect their lives forever, Christian Hiller and Johann Thielen.

Below are Christian Hiller’s complete Veteran’s Pension file. It’s quite extensive, however the file deserves to be in a location that is accessible. My expectation isn’t that you will read this entire file, rather to know it exists. Highlights regarding these papers are discussed here in a previous post. Also, understand that the application process began by Christian himself and completed after his death by his wife, Isabelle was very lengthy. The file contains interesting affidavits from his fellow soldiers confirming his injuries and identity, medical records as well as Christian’s account of his injuries. Now, a simple Google search should locate this historical record to anyone interested rather than just tucked away at home. (Note: right click on pages to open and enlarge in a separate window.

People often remark that history repeats itself and it seems our country will continue to have pandemics and violence that could threaten our democracy. Time truly does march on. I’m left to consider how historians, professors and journalists will frame these events for my great-grandchildren. Will they still be calling the next pandemic “unprecedented”?


References

1. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

2. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days

3. https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/blog/most-magnificent-ruin-burning-capitol-during-war-1812.

What the Heck is a Status Animarum?

Over the past couple months, I’ve been working on transcribing documents I photographed in 2017 from the archive in Ljubljana, Slovenia and creating a sort of database using Google Docs. The Catholic family records known as status animarum translates to “the state of souls” and are documents enumerating people in a particular parish. In my case, the parish is the village of Veliki Slatnik where my great-grandfather Anton Pene was born. Kept by the parish priest, status animarum contained family members names, relationships, birth, house numbers, house name and sacraments such as confirmation, confession, communion, marriage and death. All highly valuable genealogical information.

Below, I’ve included the 1834 and 1854 status animarum for house #15 for the Pene Family. Unfortunately the 1893 S.A. was destroyed during World War II however I believe there are some older documents before 1834 that still survive. Just like United States Census records, status animarum trace families over time. In 1834, Jacob Pene was head of house and his wife Gertrud is listed below him. Her name is written as “Radesh”, the German spelling of Radež. This isn’t uncommon and along with Latinized spellings seen on the 1854 document, i.e. “Antonius” for Anton.

Looking closer at 1834 you see “Pene, Anton” and others listed below. I know these are the children of Jacob and Gertrud by the abbreviation of “fil” or the Latin word filius (male) or fill (female) which means child. By 1854, Anton (Antonius) married (copulatus) 28/1 “63” (28 January, 1863) Franciska Blažič “ux” or uxor (wife). Once again, below them are their children including my great grandfather Anton. That’s the basic tutorial for reading Slovenia status animarum in a nutshell!

1834 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik. These documents are only available at the Nadškofija Ljubljana, the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia or by order through email.

1834 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik. These documents are only available at the Nadškofija Ljubljana, the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia or by order through email.

1854 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik.

1854 Status Animarum for house #15 in Veliki Slatnik.

As people married and died then shifted into other residences, I found it difficult to keep all the information straight and thus my purpose in creating a single document to view all the data. For example, Franciska Blažič, was born at #9 Veliki Slatnik and then married into house #15 so she appears in two sets of status animarum. You can look at the database for yourself. Currently it’s formatted by “House #1” or birth house and any subsequent house number would be a relocation. As you can see a number of individuals have the same surname as well as given name. As I obtain more S.A., for Veliki Slatnik they will be added. There you have it, all the things you never thought you would learn. Thanks for reading!!

Johann Thielen Family Update

This post is a bit of an update with additions to a previous feature on Johann Thielen from October 2017. At the time of the original post I only had one photo of Johann and his wife. Since then a distant cousin placed another online of the whole family! Another reason why collaborative genealogy and working both your direct ancestor lines and collateral lines as well is advantageous. By this I’m referring to not just a family tree with your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on but including their siblings and siblings children. Andrew is my fourth cousin, we share third great-grandparents, Wilhelm and Johanna (Verhaaren) Thielen. Since Johann died on 2 December 1929 and a daughter, Catherine died in 1907, I’ll call this circa 1907-1929.

Johann Thielen Family-Front row, L-R: Johanna, Catherine & Johann, Elizabeth (my great-grandmother). Back row, L-R: ?, Gertrude, ?, Theodore, Clara, ? (the questions marks could be either George, William or John).  Can anyone can help me identif…

Johann Thielen Family-Front row, L-R: Johanna, Catherine & Johann, Elizabeth (my great-grandmother). Back row, L-R: ?, Gertrude, ?, Theodore, Clara, ? (the questions marks could be either George, William or John). Can anyone can help me identify George, William and John?

Another item I want to share is Johann’s baptismal record from Germany, once again, thanks Andrew and a website called Matricula Online. The text is hard to decipher and it’s written in a Latinized form of German which I am not familiar. The record is from the Catholic parish of St. Lambertus in Appeldorn, Germany which explains the inclusion of Latin.

Johann’s baptismal record in full (line 720) and a cropped version below.

Johann’s baptismal record in full (line 720) and a cropped version below.

The first line reads “22 November” and not sure after that. Second line is “Joannes, filius (son), legitimus (legitimate), Wilhelmus Thielen and Johanna Hedrina Verhaaren”. I can’t read the third and fourth lines, maybe godparents?

The first line reads “22 November” and not sure after that. Second line is “Joannes, filius (son), legitimus (legitimate), Wilhelmus Thielen and Johanna Hedrina Verhaaren”. I can’t read the third and fourth lines, maybe godparents?

Both of these are great additions to the Thielen Family story. Using this Matricula Online website, which contains thousands of records for free, I hope to find Wilhelm and Johanna’s baptismal records. Andrew has already found their marriage record but will save that for a future feature. Thanks for reading!

James Henderson and Family

James Henderson of Jedburgh, Scotland was my third great-grandpa. He was born on September 25, 1822 and died at the age of 82 on November 9, 1904 in Lake Odessa, Michigan. James’ obituary heading in the Lake Odessa Wave read “Odessa Pioneer Has Gone”. He and his wife Jeannette or Janet (Hood) Henderson are considered a pioneer family which was any person or family living in the Ionia County before 1881. There is an official certification involving paperwork- someday, maybe, it’s on my to-do list.

Lake Odessa in 1888.

Lake Odessa in 1888.

Much is still unknown about James’ early life in Scotland however I can tell you that when his brother, Archie who was already living in Michigan, wrote him in 1857 with a job opportunity James was married with three daughters. Lacking a marriage record for James and his wife it would be reasonable to estimate before November 25, 1851, the birth of their first child and my second great-grandma Isabelle. Agnes arrived in May, 1853 and Mary Jane in September, 1856. Off they went to America and by June 1858 their first American-born child arrived, John Clark Henderson. John’s birthdate is important in that it gives me an end-range when dating their arrival in the United States as I still have not found the family’s immigration/passenger record after years of searching. Additional children, Archie G. and Elizabeth Margerete also known as Bess were born in 1861 and 1864 in Lake Odessa.

Although portions are hard to read, James’ obituary offered up some good information.  I already knew about Archie but this is how I found out his sisters were in Michigan as well.  Once I visited Archie’s gravestone and found him in the same plot a…

Although portions are hard to read, James’ obituary offered up some good information. I already knew about Archie but this is how I found out his sisters were in Michigan as well. Once I visited Archie’s gravestone and found him in the same plot as a family named Renwick, I quickly found Jenette Henderson Renwick and soon after Margaret.

Below is an article from The Sebewa Recollector explaining the circumstances of how James found his was to Ionia County and some fun tidbits about his children and grandchildren:

“THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, Bulletin Of The Sebewa Association; Volume 17, December 1981, Number 3.  Submitted With Written Permission Of Grayden D. Slowins, Editor: December 1981

HENDERSONS

Among Ionia's first settlers in 1833 in the Dexter Colony from Herkimer, New York was Erastus Yeomans and family.  Erastus prospered and acquired the title of Judge.  He was in a position to hire help in his farming operations. In 1857 Archie Henderson was an immigrant from Scotland and became one of Judge Yeoman's employees.  Mr. Yeomans was so well pleased with Archie Henderson's work that he said to him, "I wish I had another good man like you". Archie was quick to reply, "I'll write my brother, James, and he will come".  James was living at Jedburgh, Scotland near the English border with his family.  He accepted this opportunity for a chance to emigrate to the "New World" and came to Ionia in the employ of Mr. Yeomans.

The Yeomans family owned considerable land in the south part of the country as other speculators did.  Eventually James Henderson bought a Yeomans' forty located on the northwest corner of Henderson Road and M 66.  Later he bought other land nearby.  James' daughter, Mary, and son, Archie, spent their long years at the family home just south of Henderson Road on M 66.

Son John married Kate Seybold, sister of John Seybold and they established their household in a log house a half mile west of M 66 on the south side of Henderson Road.  Later he bought the farm just south of Archie's where Charles Steward had built the large Italianate house that has long been known as the Henderson home.  The lumber for that house whose style was so popular in the late 1800's was white pine hauled from Ionia by horse.

Of John and Kate's six children Mildred Hall and Florence Eckhardt still live in that house and Marian of Lake Odessa and Olive of Battle Creek frequently visit them.  The elder Hendersons saw to it that all six of their children completed high school at Lake Odessa at a time when going to high school was not yet considered a necessity for rural children.

At the Bippley rural school they walked with the Rogers girls, Eva Augst (Austin) and the Bippley children.  There Florence Yeager, Helen Cheetham, Clyde Battdorf, Minnie Sindlinger, Lydia Sindlinger and Emily Brown were teachers.  Lydia Sindlinger was very strict.  Once the Bippley School baseball team went to Sebewa Center and played a game.  The boys never wanted the girls to play ball so they got a ball club of their own and painted it red.  Then they had a girls' team.  Once they attended a fieldmeet sponsored by County Superintendent Harvey Lowery and Mr. Angell at Sebewa Center.

At high school Mildred had to stay in town during the week--first with a family by the name of Simmons.  The oldest Simmons boy was home from work in a bank in Grand Rapids.  Everybody knew that he had tuberculosis.  Mrs. Henderson wisely knew that Mildren shouldn't be subject to that exposure and that was when she went to stay at the Frank Reiser home.  When Florence was ready for high school James Henderson got the girls a driving horse and buggy and the children drove daily and stayed in town only when the weather was severe. George Downs was the Superintendent of Schools.  LeRoy Steward was principal.  A Mr. McCullough was a superintendent later and Clarence Mote was principal.  This was before the high school building burned and was replaced by the 1923 building.  There were twenty students in the 1915 graduating class.

The driving horse was named "Teddy".  Sometimes he would get spooked by the sight of an automobile and turn right around in the road.  They drove south to Bippley Road.  The next mile south was swampy so they drove straight west to Odessa Center and then south into town.  The horse was kept in a barn near the Reisers'.  A few oats supplied Teddy at noon.  The Rogers girls drove a horse named Bessie. Sometimes they would race to see who could make the trip first.

After high school the girls earned life certificates for teaching by spending two years at the Teachers College at Mt. Pleasant.  Mildred taught at Carr, Johnson, Jennings, Clarksville and Halladay schools.  Florence taught at Odessa Center, Limerick and Bippley.  Olive taught at Lawton and Mason and Marian taught three years at Vicksburg.

Mildred remembers Em Martin driving the stage coach between Woodbury and Ionia.  It was not what she thought it should be but rather just a buggy with three seats.  Before Rural Free Delivery in 1900 the mail came to West Sebewa and residents around there would go there to pick up their own.  John Henderson kept horses, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens.  He never raised beef cattle.  Eggs and butter brought the trading money for groceries at Jason Peacock's store in Lake Odessa in the location where the bank is now.  When John Henderson was no longer able to work the farm, Mildred's husband, Irwin Hall, took over the farm work.

In 1977 Mildred, Florence, Marian and Olive made a trip to England.  After seeing some of the British sights they took a bus across the border to Jedborough in Scotland.  There they found the farm where their grandfather had lived and worked.  No relatives were to be found.”

James’ naturalization certificate dated October 5, 1867 which means he probably applied when arriving in 1857. A ten year wait period was the standard.

James’ naturalization certificate dated October 5, 1867 which means he probably applied when arriving in 1857. A ten year wait period was the standard.

According to the 1870 United States Agriculture Schedule, thirteen years after arriving in Michigan James Henderson had 60 acres of land; 8 improved, 45 woodland and 7 other unimproved. His farm cash value was $1300 with farm implements and machinery valued at $50. His farm consisted of 3 milk cows, 1 working oxen and 5 pigs valued at $140 and his winter wheat crop was 43 bushels. Also, in this same schedule I noticed that another household the line above James. Their last name was Hood, just like Jeannettes. And this is how I found Jeannettes siblings, William, Betsy, Ephraim and nephew John. By 1881, however, Betsy and Ephraim were back in Scotland. The search for the others and their parents continues……….

Rabbit Hole: a bizarre, confusing, or nonsensical situation or environment, typically one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.

The Boats by William Atwell

The world has changed a lot since my last post on January 16, 2020 and with all the stay at home orders in place throughout the United States and World many of us had extra time on our hands. However, instead of using my time wisely writting advance blog posts I spent my time knitting! After many months off though I am happy to share a childhood memory from my Dad, Bill Atwell. He’s written and shared many books, poems and memories with the family over the years often writing special poems for individuals as they reach important milestones in life. I’ve heard bits and pieces of “The Boat” over the years yet his current recollection below makes a complete story.

Dad in one of the small rowboats.

Dad in one of the small rowboats.

From as along as I can remember, my Dad was always in our basement working on or trying to invent something. I can’t get into every one of the activities, though I would like to describe one area, boats.

Somewhere along the way Dad decided to build rowboats for children. I was still young and am not sure how this came about.  I think someone he met was trying to buy one. I am also not sure where the plans came from.  He might have just taken a full-sized set of plans and downsized them.  

Dad and his brother Don.

Dad and his brother Don.

I recall the first boat he built, though I wasn’t involved. We took the boat to a river we used to fish and tested it out. I went out first and Dad took pictures. Then I rowed while Don sat in the backseat. We didn’t have life jackets though the river area wasn’t dangerous water.  I know he sold the first boat he constructed and as I remember, he made and sold several more. It would be just a few years later that the boat building would begin again. This time I would be involved!

My Dad loved to fish.  As a young boy he usually took me on these Saturday fishing outings. Sometimes my brother Don would come, however, his extreme diabetes often prevented him from making these trips. Of course my Dad fished with other guys and even sometimes alone.  I think we fished every lake within a fifty-mile semi-circle of Milwaukee. Some lakes I recall are Lac LaBelle, Pewaukee, Okachee, Phantom, Moose, Big Cedar, Little Cedar, Upper and Lower Nemabin, and Oconomowoc. Sometimes lakes and rivers further north and even small ponds.  

We generally rented rowboats from whoever had them available on each lake.  Later my Dad purchased a used 5 horsepower Hiawatha outboard motor, which definitely made fishing easier. Even when the fish weren’t biting my Dad didn’t want to quit. If it was raining he didn’t quit. This was his fishing day. Thus, these were long days and I often fell asleep on the homeward trip.

When we arrived home there was usually fish to clean. We would spread out newspaper on the concrete in front of our porch that faced the alley.  The neighborhood kids, who never had a chance to go fishing, would gather around to watch. There would be oohs, aahs and yucks as we cut off fish heads and pulled out their guts. 

At some point my Dad decided we needed a boat. He didn’t like the metal rowboats as they make too much noise when you were fishing and this tended to scare the fish, at least that’s what he said. So, the boat would have to be wood. 

We purchased a set of boat plans from an ad in the back of a Popular Science magazine. The plans were for a 12 foot boat with the new, wide lower transom and a covered cowl over the bow. The transom was shaped like the Chris-Craft boats, wide at the bottom, curving at the sides to a more narrow top. Before starting construction we actually made a small, to scale, balsa wood model of the boat. Materials were expensive so this was an important step to insure there were no mistakes. I still have the boat model on the shelf in our lake cottage.  This model is almost seventy years old. Satisfied that we had a good set of plans, construction started on the boat.    

Dad had three large worktables in the basement that were from his sign painting days. We cleared everything off of these tables to allow space for the boat construction.  The patterns for the ribs, transom and bow had to be traced on pieces to pieces of hardwood. We used a table saw and a jigsaw to cut these pieces. These were the only power tools we had. I was taught to run both of these power tools safely.

Cutting and sanding the rib and transom pieces was a big job. We put a sanding wheel on the table saw and this was a big help. Once all the ribs and transom were finished, we started to assemble the ribs, holding them in place with the keel that ran the length of the boat from transom to bow. The spacings and straightness between rib sections had to be carefully measured.  The upper and lower gun rails had to be steamed, then carefully bent along the ribs to the boats shape. When these pieces were in place, this completed the “skeleton” of the boat. The boat was starting to take shape.

Normally finishing the hull of a boat would be a lengthy process using individual long slats. In the late 1930’s the development of waterproof glues allowed for the development of water and weatherproof plywood. This strong, lightweight material was used extensively during World War II for the construction of boats, such as PT Boats, and the construction of building, such as barracks. Our plans called for the use of plywood on the boats hull.

Using the plan patterns, each hull piece had to be traced and cut out one at a time. When we had one piece finished it was attached to the hull using waterproof glue and screws. We used brass screws, a lot of brass screws! Each hole had to be pre-drilled and countersunk, by hand, no power drills! Every screw was screwed by a hand-ratchet screwdriver, the precursor to power drills. When each section was finished, each screw hole was filled with waterproof wood putty and hand-sanded, with sandpaper on a wooden block.      

Slowly the bottom and then sides of the boat were completed. When each plywood seam was filled with wood putty and sanded it was time to turn the boat over and begin working on the inside and top of the boat. We had to build a sort of cradle to hold the boat steady while this work was completed.

The inner and outer gun rails were completed first. Some steaming of the wood was needed to get the bends near the bow. A transom wood plate was added on the inside to provide extra support for the outboard motor.  Two convex ribs were added near the front of the bow. These were then covered with a triangular shaped piece of plywood, creating a small, covered storage compartment at the bow of the boat. A narrow piece of plywood ran on top of each gun rail from the bow canopy to the transom. I wasn’t sure why they were needed, however, they made the boat look streamlined. All seams in the new plywood were filled and sanded smooth. 

Wooden floorboards were fabricated providing a flat surface for standing. The floorboards were removable for easy cleaning.  Two lifting handles on outer sides of the transom and one on the bow were added for carrying the boat.  Dad made the seats and installed them with hinges. Removing the hinge pins allowed us to remove the seats. I wasn’t sure why we would want to remove them, perhaps for ease of cleaning. Finally, adding a set of oar locks completed the fabrication.

The inside of the boat was sealed with two coats of clear varnish. The bow cowl and top of the gunrails were stained a slightly darker color and the sealed with to coats of varnish. This completed the top and inside parts of the boat. It was time to turn the boat over again.

We had to set the boat on blocks to protect the curved part of the cowl.  The hull was sanded again and applied three coats of white enamel paint. We sanded the hull after the first and second coats to ensure a smooth final coat. It was a beautiful boat, quite different than your typical rowboat.

As I looked at the boat the next day, Dad said “ Should we launch it? “  I thought, how do we get it out of the basement?  Our rental home still had a coal bin and a coal-fired furnace.  A basement door that faced the alley led to a small cinder block room used to store garbage and ashes before they were put out for pickup. Several steps up led to a slanted wooden door that led out to the alley. With help from a neighbor we just barely got the boat through the first door and then up the steps to the outside. It was really tight. I don’t know whether my Dad had measured previously or just got lucky. 

Dad had purchased a set of car top carriers and the boat was lifted onto the top of the car and strapped down. The boat was lighter weight because of its plywood construction, however, it still required two people to get in on and off the car top carriers.  In Dad’s rented garage he constructed a rope and pulley system. The ropes were slid under the front and rear of the boat as it sat on the car top carriers. Pulling on the ropes lifted the boat off the car and tying the ropes to garage wall hooks secured the boat. Simply untying and lowering the ropes loaded the boat for the next fishing trip.

In the water the boat performed great. It was very stable, roomy and quiet. With our five horsepower Hiawatha outboard motor it scooted right along from one fishing spot to another. We could store our lunch and drinks under the bow, out of the sun or rain. Many other fishermen stopped us to inquire about the boat. It would serve us well for years 

After the boat was completed, I didn’t realize that my Dad had a second construction phase in mind.  He planned to convert our boat into a mini-cabin cruiser. The plans for this part of the boat were in my Dad’s head. We constructed a three-sided cabin wall.  It had a pointed windshield that was connected by hinges to the side walls. The windshield had two plexiglass windows and each sidewall had a large plexiglass window. The walls sat right on the gun rails and were locked in place by sliding pins through hinges.  A plywood top snapped on to sidewalls keeping everything locked in place.   I thought we were finished but Dad wasn’t.  With a water-poof, silver colored, canvas material, Dad fabricated a cover that stretched from the ends of the cabin walls to the boat’s transom. The cover could be easily attached and removed with snap attachments. I still have a piece of this same material in my garage. The entire cabin could be easily removed when we wanted to just fish.

It was just a beautiful, unique little cabin cruiser. We set it up in the backyard and the Milwaukee paper sent a photographer to take a picture for an article in the newspaper. 

Milwaukee Journal article showing the cabin cruiser with my Dad and grandfather, Harry Atwell.

Milwaukee Journal article showing the cabin cruiser with my Dad and grandfather, Harry Atwell.

My Dad had a friend who lived on Moose Lake. One weekend Dad dropped my friend Tommy Baker and I off on his friend’s property. We launched the boat and camped on his friends land. We fished and swam all weekend. In the evening we anchored the boat in a back bay, with the cabin and cover in place we slept on the water. Late on Sunday Dad picked us up.

When Dad wanted to fish alone the boat actually created a problem. He wasn’t able to handle it himself.  At the time there was a one-man boat loader on the market. After examining it, Dad decided it wasn’t worth the money as it was still difficult to use.  It was probably at this point when he decided that he would build his own model.  

I can’t remember how many different loader designs he drew and fabricated. Each one was a progression forward. He would build a part out of wood. Someone would make a mold for him and then cast the part out of aluminum.  Trial after trial went by until finally he hit on the design that solved all the problems.

The pole of the boat loader attached to a standard trailer hitch with the ball removed. At the top of the pole was a clamp that hooked to the top of the transom, when the boat was upside down on the car.  Once on the can you would simply pick up the bow of the boat and walk around to the back of the car. At this point you could flip the boat over and lower the front of the boat to the ground near the shore. This was made possible because the transom clamp could be rotated 180 degrees and moved downward 45 degrees, a very unique design.

Grandpa and his one-man boat loader.

Grandpa and his one-man boat loader.

Unscrewing a locking knob above the trailer hitch then allow one to lower the pole till the boat is flat on the ground. A short shove puts the boat into the water. Reloading the boat follows the reverse directions, ie, attach the transom clamp lift the pole till the boat is at a 45 degree angle, screw in the locking knob, lift the bow of the boat, rotate 180 degrees, then walk from the back of the car to the front and lower the boat onto the car rack. The transom clamp design and the tilt pole were the key patentable designs.

This boat loader was the best built, most functional design on the market. There was one problem; the market. Boat ownership was becoming popular and purchased boats were now coming with trailers. Most owners who could afford a boat didn’t want to mess with the handling that came with the one man boat loader. My Dad obtained a patent, however, he lacked a distribution channel and no significant sales ever developed. 

Dad used the boat for many years and then sold it. I had already moved out of state so I never knew the next owner. I still have the only remaining, functional boat loader. I have no idea what to do with it. I just don’t have the heart to throw it away!

Written by William H. Atwell  (3-28-2020)

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Grandpa was an artist so I’m sure he did this drawing!

Grandpa was an artist so I’m sure he did this drawing!

On Finding and Meeting a New Cousin

Happy New Year everyone! I’m a bit late getting this one out due to travel and holiday hustle and bustle but it’s given me time to reflect on my genealogy journey. While continuing to document names, dates and places and growing/completing my family tree overtime I also like to add new elements. Recently, I was contacted by a cousin wondering if a certain genetically inherited disease was ever documented in our family and then realized this area is lacking in my current family tree. Subsequently, this year I will make efforts to additionally document medical information for ancestors so that in the future I might be able to answer any medical inquiries more thoroughly.

In October while in Wisconsin, I detoured to a town in Illinois and met my father’s cousin Jim Atwell. Jim’s grandfather, my great-grandfather, built the house in Round Lake, Illinois where he is currently living. Over the years I had heard stories and was shown photos of the small cinderblock home in various stages of completion so naturally I was excited to see what it looked like in 2019. From what I’ve been told, the home was started sometime after Will (William H. Stone Atwell) retired from the Wabash Railroad (maybe late 1930’s?, I need to verify this information). When Will died in May, 1944, I don’t even think the exterior of the home had been completed. Although our visit was a bit short, only three hours, Jim did have time to take me to a couple cemeteries and share these wonderful photos.

I feel so privileged to have been able to meet so many members of my “family tree”. People whose stories and photos would have gone unknown to me without my persistent digging and questioning. Each of them have added something to my research and my soul.

We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors wisdom. – Maya Angelou

Anton Pene's Journey from Veliki Slatnik to America

“… in the heart of every man there is an instinct for
prosperity and greater happiness. Our Slovenian emigrants,
who are leaving for larger cities, either in Germany or in
America, are not pale, drained, hungry and desperate but
are strong, blooming, young men who are full of life and
strength, and the most vigorous women. On the sad road,
taking them out of their homeland they are not accompanied
so much by despair but rather by happy expectations and
the awareness of their own forces and strength… They are
aware of their spiritual and physical strength and that they
could prosper with it. At home they see with sadness that all
their intelligence and diligence are in vain, that it is
impossible to develop one’s powers as they should be
developed and therefore they hurry abroad, where they
intend to attain happiness and wealth more easily.”
— Anton Korošec (1872-1940) studied theology, was an ordained Roman Catholic priest, politician and noted lecturer who became the 7th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. This quote is taken from a speech at the 3rd Catholic meeting in Ljubljana, 1906.

Using last July’s post as a lead-in, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the process my Slovene ancestors used to emigrate to America focusing specifically on Anton Pene however the process was similar for his wife Johanna Kocijancic. I had big plans to spend hours researching the topic however within the first hour I found a website that had already done all the work-Ljubljana-Crossroads on the Way to the World by Marjan Drnovšek, PhD. as well as an informative PDF. You are welcome and encouraged to browse and read these on your own as I will be referencing them in this post. Many thanks to the author for making these valuable works available online!!

ss KAISER FRIEDRICH built 1897 by Schichau for Norddeutscher Lloyd- source Wikipedia

ss KAISER FRIEDRICH built 1897 by Schichau for Norddeutscher Lloyd- source Wikipedia

Anton Pene started his journey to America in March, 1899 but I don’t think he was alone. I believe he was with Alois Skrlj and Johan Skul, number two and three on the manifest seen below. All three men were from the same area in Slovenia and all traveling to Eveleth, Minnesota. Furthermore, Alois Skrlj was most likely a cousin. Was the idea of traveling to America new or had he been planning it awhile? John F. Kennedy writes, in his book , A Nation of Immigrants, “There were probably as many reasons for coming to America as were people who came. It was a highly individual decision” however generally three main reasons were political oppression, religious persecution and economic hardship (1). Historically the custom of primogeniture (firstborn, legitimate son inherits parent’s entire estate) determined land distribution in Slovenia and Anton was the second born son. His brother Franz would inherit the family home in Veliki Slatnik making Anton’s options limited.

The first portion of his journey would have been the 6 kilometers from Veliki Slatnik to Novo Mesto. Since the rail route from Novo Mesto to Ljubljana was completed in 1894, Anton would have purchased a ticket for the 70 kilometer journey. Had he traveled to Ljubljana before? Could this short trip have been the longest in his life so far? Once in Ljubljana there were many people waiting for emmigration trains and the area was surrounded by shops, pubs and hotels all catering to emmigrants. In some instances, if a man had not fulfilled the military requirement, he would need to avoid Ljubljana and the municipal police patroling the area for illegal migration and use alternate railroad stations outside of Ljubljana.

Assuming Anton left from Ljubljana and browsing his ship manifest record it was then necessary to acquire a ticket to Bremen, Germany and then a rail connection, free of charge, to the port city of Bremerhaven when on March 14 the SS Kaiser Friedrich left port to America. Looking at the railroad maps though Europe during this time, there are two probable train routes Anton would have taken from Ljubljana: Ljubljana-Vienna-Prague-Dressen-Berlin-Bremen or Ljubljana-Frankfort-Cologne-Bremen.

Once on board the SS Kaiser Friedrich he would have made his way to steerage class generally below deck or between decks. The average cost of a ticket in steerage was $30. There is a great deck plan and cabin layout of the ship here. The harsh steerage class was the most economical voyage to America and was usually very cramped and at times the stench was unbearable.

Anton Pene’s immigration record is on line 4. The “ST” in the left column means he was in steerage.

Anton Pene’s immigration record is on line 4. The “ST” in the left column means he was in steerage.

The SS Kaiser Friederich was owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd/North German Lloyd and the route was routine-Bremerhaven to Southhampton to New York City then back again. Departing immigrant passengers have been described as silent and pensive while on deck watching their homelands fall out of view but upon arriving cheers of happiness, most likely for a chance to get off the ship. The ship arrived in Southhampton, England on March 15, took on passengers and promptly departed arriving in America on March 23 after nine days at sea.

”Upon arrival in New York City, ships would dock at the Hudson or East River piers. First and second class passengers would disembark, pass through Customs at the piers and were free to enter the United States. The steerage and third class passengers were transported from the pier by ferry or barge to Ellis Island where everyone would undergo a medical and legal inspection.”

-https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history

My great grandfather should have been processed through Ellis Island if it were not for a fire on June 15, 1897. Re-opening wasn’t completed until December 17, 1900, therefore, immigrant processing reverted back to the Barge Office, a processing center from April 19, 1890 until December 31, 1891, located on the southeast tip of Battery Park. There are many accounts of immigrant arrival experiences through Ellis Island but I haven’t been able to find any for the Barge Office during this time.

Barge Office, circa 1900. Photo from The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection. (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/det/item/2016808419/

Barge Office, circa 1900. Photo from The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection. (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/det/item/2016808419/

Upon arrival to New York, ships stopped at the entrance to the Lower Bay of New York Harbor, the quarantine area, where medical inspectors would board and check cabin passengers for contagious disease. After the inspectors left, the ship was free to continue to the Upper Bay, past the Statue of Liberty and on to Ellis Island or in Anton’s case, Battery Park.

Statue of Liberty from immigrant’s vantage point. Photo used from NPS.com, (https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/the-immigrants-statue.htm).

Statue of Liberty from immigrant’s vantage point. Photo used from NPS.com, (https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/the-immigrants-statue.htm).

Steerage passengers, with their name tag and manifest number attached, would now have to wait, wait and wait for their turn through inspections. The immigration interpreters proved invaluable, most speaking six languages/dialecs, helping the arrivals through the questioning with the registry office, physician and final test with the primary-line inspector who had two minutes per immigrant to verify the 31 questions on the ship manifest although I only count 27 questions on Anton Pene’s manifest. Here I should mention, immigrants names were not changed upon arrival, most likely immigrants themselves changed their names afterward to sound more American. Of course, not every immigrant was cleared and some were detained for further examination and others just deported. In all, about twenty percent of immigrants were detained and only two percent denied admittance. According to the ship manifest is doesn’t appear Anton was detained.

Once receiving a landing card, the next step was money exchange and railroad ticket office. It’s unclear if Anton Pene had pre-arranged a ticket to Eveleth. Some men signed contracts to obtain train and steamship tickets before even leaving their homeland. Looking at the ship’s manifest, however, Anton stated that he purchased his own passage, had $3.00 in his pocket and was joining an “acquaintance” in Eveleth, Minnesota. Perhaps with only $3.00 left he already had the train ticket? Making arrangement for baggage to his final destination was the last detail. With admittage papers, railroad ticket and box lunch in hand Anton Pene had made it to America. Train travel from New York City to Northern Minnesota in 1899 was approximately 1 week, depending on connections. Some kind of route from NYC-Chicago-Minneapolis-Duluth makes sense but in the end there is no way we can know for sure. Anton did make it to Eveleth and began working as an iron miner.

The 1900 United States Census has him boarding with John and Anna Shank along with eleven other men on Missabe Mountain. One, Peter Kerze, would become his brother-in-law and two others Frank and Joseph Blazic were prrobably cousins-Anton’s mother’s maiden name was Blazic!

What an incredible journey! What an incredible story! I’m sure Anton Pene wasn’t thinking about all the future generations lives he was changing when he set off on his journey to America but I am forever grateful for his decision.

Previous posts on Anton Pene-Anton Pene, 50 Years Together, and two really nice video clips in Vintage Christmas Photographs and An Immigrant from Slovenia.


Footnotes

(1) Website, http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey

Sources

Earl of Cruise

http://www.revisionist.net/hysteria/german-exodus.html

http://www.aei.org/publication/maps-of-the-day-travel-times-from-nyc-in-1800-1830-1857-and-1930/

http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey









Genealogical Mapping of Velki Slatnik, Slovenia

Two weeks ago a member of Ancestry.com, Margaret from Toronto, connected with me and she’s the best lead I’ve had in years for researching my ancestors in the town of Veliki Slatnik. We share a surname in our tree, Srebernak, have been collaborating daily, and started down the rabbit hole of attempting to locate our ancestor’s houses in the town using maps and land registries from 1824. Our common ancestors are our 3 times great-grandparents Jakob and Gertrud (Radež) Pene. Jakob and Gertrud had 6 children: Margaretha, Maria, Elizabeth, Anton, Anna and Jakob. Margaret’s Srebernak line is through Margaretha who married Janez Srebernjak and my line is through Anton who married Franciska Blažič. However, Franciska’s mother was Ursula Srebernak and there is probably relation there as well, I’m still investigating. Apparently, it was a small village;)

Empress Maria Theresa (ruled 1740-1780) the only female ruler of the Habsburg lands as well as the last of the House of Habsburg began a complete cadastral mapping of the Habsburg lands in 1746. A cadaster is a register that includes details of property ownership, location and measurements of both homes and land parcels. Cadastral maps and records are commonly used in conjunction with other records such as title or parcel register. Having reliable maps, which the Empire was lacking during the Seven Years’ War, was one purpose but the main objective was for efficient tax collection. Maria Theresa’s son Emperor Joseph II (ruled 1780-1790) improved the cadaster in 1785 by introducing simple land measurements, registered vulgar names and reorganized house numbers. Vulgar names also called “household names” are names attached the house itself as a fixed point that remains the same even if the household inhabitant’s surnames change over time. They are used in Slovenia to this very day. Jakob Pene’s home in 1826 at Veliki Slatnik 15 was known as “Saudat”, which means soldier.

In “modern” Slovenia, beginning around 1826, the Francisean cadaster was created by Emperor Francis II who was the last Holy Roman Emperor (1792-1806) and then the Austrian Emperor (1804-1836). During the two year overlap he was known as Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austrian Empire. This comprehensive cadaster is one of the single most important resources for spatial research today. Luckily, these maps are available today for anyone patient enough to figure out the system. Detailed and elegant, the cadastral map is truly a work of art. Several years ago, my daughter gifted me a much larger framed cross-section of the map shown.

Veliki Slatnik from 1824 Habsburg Cadastral Map Collection, mapire.eu.

Veliki Slatnik from 1824 Habsburg Cadastral Map Collection, mapire.eu.

Since I already knew the village and house number, Veliki Slatnik 15, where my great-grandfather, Anton Pene, was born the next step was to find which cadastral municipality it belonged. Fortunately, someone on Facebook Group Slovenian Genealogy put together an impressive tutorial on finding new address of old house numbers and I was able to use a variety of internet maps (geopedia.si and arsq.gov.si) to find my answer. Veliki Slatnik is in the municipality of Novo Mesto and the cadastral municipality of “Potov Vrh”. Referencing the parcel list I could see Jakob Pene at Veliki Slatnik 15 and number 78 on the cadastral map.

Jakob Pene’s information taken from the parcel list showing map number #78, house name “Saudat” and house number 15.

Jakob Pene’s information taken from the parcel list showing map number #78, house name “Saudat” and house number 15.

After finding location 78 on the map and looking at the attached GPS coordinates I used Google Maps to find the location today, including the current address of Veliki Slatnik 24.

Current map showing location of Jakob Pene home in 2019 and 1826 as well as the Blažič and Srebernak homes. Jakob Pene’s son Anton, my 2nd great grandfather, would marry Franciska the daughter of Jakob Blažič and Ursula Srebernak.

Current map showing location of Jakob Pene home in 2019 and 1826 as well as the Blažič and Srebernak homes. Jakob Pene’s son Anton, my 2nd great grandfather, would marry Franciska the daughter of Jakob Blažič and Ursula Srebernak.

Interestingly, though, when I looked back on Jakob’s wedding record from 1821, his address was Žihovo selo 5 and his wife Gertrud Rađez Veliki Slatnik 15. The two towns are 8.8 km apart, today that’s a 14 minute drive.

Pene home on cadastral map, 1826. Notice the difference between the German spelling of the town, Schichousello, and the modern Slovene spelling, Zihovo selo.

Pene home on cadastral map, 1826. Notice the difference between the German spelling of the town, Schichousello, and the modern Slovene spelling, Zihovo selo.

The Pene home in 1826 at Žihovo selo 5 doesn’t seem to exist in 2019.

The Pene home in 1826 at Žihovo selo 5 doesn’t seem to exist in 2019.

It seems there are additional questions now that need answers: How did Jakob and Gertrud meet? What was the circumstance of the house transferring from Gertrud’s father Johann to Jakob? What became of Zihovo selo 5?, did Jakob have an older brother who inherited the home? And, by the way, if you ever visit Veliki Slatnik, the Gostilna Slatnik is a wonderful place to drink espresso, pivo or wino and they are the “new” Veliki Slatnik 15!


Sarah Towne of Salem, Massachusetts: Life After the Salem Witch Trials

Proctor’s Ledge where innocent people accused of witchcraft were hanged. Image from Salemnews.com.

Proctor’s Ledge where innocent people accused of witchcraft were hanged. Image from Salemnews.com.

Governor William Phips, unfortunately, failed to recognize the problem at the onset of the trials; that innocent people were being convicted and hanged based on spectral evidence alone. Remember, spectral evidence was the testimony based on visions and dreams by the accusers and not valid evidence. Despite warnings by respected minister Cotton Mather and his father, Increase Mather, then president of Harvard, who both cautioned against allowing spectral evidence, it wasn’t until Governor Phip’s wife was accused of witchcraft that he took any notice. Increase Mather suggested “"It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned." (1) Phips eventually pardoned all those accused of witchcraft and they were released from prison by May, 1693. However, the destruction was complete: 19 were hanged on Gallows Hill, one man was pressed to death and many more died in prison.

List of Hanged on gallows hill

June 10, 1692

Bridget Bishop, Salem

July 19, 1692

Sarah Good, Salem Village

Rebecca Nurse, Salem Village

Susannah Martin, Amesbury

Elizabeth How, Ipswich

Sarah Wilds, Topsfield

August 19, 1692

George Burroughs, Wells, Maine

John Proctor, Salem Village

John Willard, Salem Village

George Jacobs, Sr., Salem Town

Martha Carrier, Andover

September 19, 1692

Giles Corey, Salem Farms, pressed to death

September 22, 1692

Martha Corey, Salem Farms

Mary Eastey, Topsfield

Alice Parker, Salem Town

Ann Pudeater, Salem Town

Margaret Scott, Rowley

Wilmott Reed, Marblehead

Samuel Wardwell, Andover

Mary Parker, Andover

Died in Prison

Sarah Osborne, Salem Village

Roger Toothaker, Billerica

Lyndia Dustin, Reading

Ann Foster, Andover

There may be up to 13 more who died in prison but records differ on the exact number.

Only one of the six accusers ever publically apologized, Ann Putnam Jr. The others went on to live normal lives without being held accountable in any way, perhaps not even realizing what they had done or more possibly choosing to ignore what they had done. Of the 62 people Ann Putnam accused, 17 were executed. Her public apology finally came in 1706 as a requirement for her requested admittance to the Salem Village Church:

I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling providence that befell my father's family in the year about ninety-two; that I, then being in my childhood, should, by such a providence of God, be made an instrument for the accusing of several people for grievous crimes, whereby their lives was taken away from them, whom, now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time, whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental, with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon myself and this land the guilt of innocent blood; though, what was said or done by me against any person, I can truly and uprightly say, before God and man, I did it not out of any anger, malice, or ill will to any person, for I had no such thing against one of them; but what I did was ignorantly, being deluded by Satan.
And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humble for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families; for which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sorrow and offense, whose relations were taken away or accused. (2)

Ann Putnam Jr died ten years later at the age of 37 of unknown causes.

“A period of atonement began in the colony following the release of the surviving accused witches. Samuel Sewall, one of the judges, issued a public confession of guilt and an apology. Several jurors came forward to say that they were "sadly deluded and mistaken" in their judgments. Reverend Samuel Parris conceded errors of judgment, but mostly shifted blame to others. Parris was replaced as minister of Salem village by Thomas Green, who devoted his career to putting his torn congregation back together. Governor Phips blamed the entire affair on William Stoughton (my note: Chief Justice and member of the court during witchcraft trials as well as an agressive witch hunter). Stoughton, clearly more to blame than anyone for the tragic episode, refused to apologize or explain himself. He criticized Phips for interfering just when he was about to "clear the land" of witches. Stoughton became the next governor of Massachusetts”.(3)

Restored home of Peter and Sarah Clayes on Salem End Road. Photo borrowed from Zillow.com.

Restored home of Peter and Sarah Clayes on Salem End Road. Photo borrowed from Zillow.com.

There are many different accounts regarding Sarah’s imprisionment, release and/or escape. The website framinghamhistory.org offers that after being sent to Ipswich in August 1692 to await hanging, Sarah escaped with the help of her husband Peter Cloyce and then was hidden by friends. Eventually, she and Peter made their way to land owned by Thomas Danforth (acting governor before Phipps and sympathetic to the accused witches) in what is now Framingham, Massachusetts . Upon relocating, they changed their last name to “Clayes” and soon many other family members joined them. The Peter and Sarah Clayes home still stands and has recently been restored and sold-657 Salem End Road. It’s hard to sort out which stories are true since there are so many. However, the Clayes did remain in this area until their deaths, Peter in 1708 and Sarah 1703. Just weeks before her death, Sarah presented evidence to the magistrates-a map and a list of 20 people who opposed the hiring of Reverend Parris. The map of the town had a line drawn through it and marked the farms of the accusers and accused; all the accusers lived west of the line and accused east. And of the list of 20 people who opposed Reverend Parris, 17 were accused! A coincidence??? Although the magistrates could not directly decide on guilt or compensation they did give Sarah three symbolic gold sovereign coins, one for each life that suffered as documented in the PBS film “Three Sovereigns for Sarah” in 1985. Finally, in 1711 Sarah’s sisters names were cleared and reparations made. Mary Esty’s family received 20 pounds sterling and Rebecca Nurse’s family received 25 pounds sterling. Many of the other victims’ names were cleared as well and total reparations was 600 pounds. Two hundred sixty-five years later in 1957 Massachusetts formally apologized for the witch trials and in 1992, the 300th anniversary, a memorial was unveiled.

Footnotes

  1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/

  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Putnam

  3. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM

Sources

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/ann-putnam-jr/

https://framinghamhistory.org/biographies/sarah-towne-clayes-1638-1704/

Additional Reading

Proctor’s Ledge in Salem Confirmed as Witch Execution Site

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Sarah Towne of Salem, Massachusetts, Part 2: The Accusers and Accused

Excavated foundation of the Samuel Parris parsonage in what is now Danvers, MA. This is where all the trouble started! Photo taken from the website -historyofmassachusetts.org.

Excavated foundation of the Samuel Parris parsonage in what is now Danvers, MA. This is where all the trouble started! Photo taken from the website -historyofmassachusetts.org.

The trouble began in February, 1692 when several local girls including Betty Parris (daughter of Rev. Parris), Abigail Williams (niece of Rev. Parris), and Ann Putnam, Jr. (a friend) gathered at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris to listen to the tales of Tituba, Parris’ Indian servant. She filled their impressionable minds with accounts of voodoo and the supernatural from her native Barbados as well as possibly teaching them the fortune telling technique called “venus glass”. ( I say “possibly” because some sources indicate that Tituba taught this to the girls however there is no mention in court records or evidence she was involved.) Venus glass, also called oomancy, is performed by dropping an egg white into a glass of water and then waiting for a shape or symbol to appear. The girls used this technique in an attempt to learn about their future husbands and social standing. During one of these sessions, Ann reported seeing an apparition or “specter” of a coffin. Spectral evidence, a form of evidence based on visions and dreams became focal months later as it was admitted into court during the trials by the chief justice, William Stoughton.

Shortly after, “Betty began behaving strangely in January of 1692, when she hid under furniture, complained of fever, barked like a dog, screamed and cried out in pain”.(1) It didn’t take long for Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, Jr. to follow with their own set of strange symptoms as well as Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Booth. The doctor was called; the girls examined and unable to find anything physically wrong, Dr. William Griggs suggested they may be “bewitched”.

On March 1, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba would be the first arrested after being accused as witches by Betty and Abigail. Tituba quickly confessed that all three were approached by the devil to do his work as witches, which believe it or not, saved her life as the common belief was she could then repent her sins. In the townspeople’s minds, Tituba’s confession proved undeniably that the devil had slithered into Salem bringing about mass hysteria and the hunt for more witches. During the same month, four more women were accused including Rebecca Nurse, the sister of Sarah Towne.

Many historians believe that a long-standing feud between the Towne and both Putnam and Gould families and the need for revenge prompted some of the girl’s parents, mainly Thomas Putnam, Ann’s father and Reverend Samuel Parris, Bettys father and Abigail’s guardian to encourage their children to make the accusations. In 1670, 22 years before the hysteria, the Goulds who were close friends of the Putnams accused Joanna Towne mother of Rebecca, Mary and Sarah, of witchcraft presumably after she defended Topsfield minister, Rev. Thomas Gilbert in court (In order to avoid getting too sidetracked you can read more about this here.) Then in 1686, Mary Estey’s (Sarah’s other sister) husband Isaac and other Towne family members testified against Captain John Putnman for harvesting trees according the The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society periodical:

“The Putnams were strong-willed men, of high temper and seemingly eager for controversy and even personal conflict. In a suit brought in 1686, Isaac Easty sen., Isaac Easty jr., John Towne, and Joseph Towne jr. testified that they were in the woods within Topsfield bounds on the south side of the river and ‘saw Capt. John Putnam of Salem Farms or Village & his sons & some of his cousins cutting down timber within Topsfield bounds & on Topsfield men’s properties & several of Topsfield men forewarned Capt. John Putnam from cutting timber on their land; the said Capt. Putnam replied, I have faled the timber yet is here cut down on my orders & I will keep cutting & carrying away from this land till next March, & ye said Putnam being asked, what by violence, his answer, ay by violence & further said you may sue me you know where I dwell & then did his company fall on.’ The court again decided in favor of the Topsfield men which of course only served to make the Putnams more bitter.”

Although Joanna was never tried in court for witchcraft, the local town gossip during the 1692 trials in Salem suggested that witchcraft was passed down to family members, ie her daughters Rebecca, Mary and Sarah. As far as the girl’s symptoms, modern theories are epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness, hysterical contagion or disease from eating rye infected with ergot fungus. Symptoms of early ergot poisioning are nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and weakness, numbness, itching and progressing to vision problems, confusion, spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness and deaths

An illustration of Rebecca Nurse on trial.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RebeccaNurse-inChains.jpg

An illustration of Rebecca Nurse on trial.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RebeccaNurse-inChains.jpg

While their sister Rebecca sat in jail, Sarah Towne Cloyce and Mary Estey were accused of witchcraft with Sarah arrested on April 8 and Mary on April 21.

Rebecca Nurse was tried on June 30, 1692, found guilty, granted a brief reprieve by the governor after pleas by her family and friends who vouched for her good character but ultimately hanged on July 19, 1692 along with Sarah Good and three others. Rebecca Nurse was not only a pious woman but was loved and respected by her community. Prior to hanging many of the other accused of witchcraft had been social outcasts. The accusations and trials were now completely out of control.

Mary was tried released from prison on May 18, but one of her accusers, Mercy Lewis, continued her claim and she was arrested again 48 hours later. Court records indicate that the complaint against Mary was by, interestingly, John Putnam, Jr. and another man on behalf of the original accusers. During trial, the testimony against her was mostly stories from the stricken girls about being inflicted with Mary’s spirit and other testimony from the girls’ parents and relatives including Edward Putnam and John Putnam, Jr. Mary was tried on September 9 and during the course of her trial submitted two petitions; one with her sister Sarah before her conviction asking that “spectral evidence” not be allowed and the other by herself after her convictionThe:

“The humble petition of Mary Easty unto his excellencies Sir William Phipps to the honoured Judge and Bench now sitting In Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth that whereas your poor and humble petitioner being condemned to die do humbly beg of you to take it into your judicious and pious considerations that your poor and humble petitioner knowing my own innocency blessed be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtility of my accusers by myself can not but judge charitably of others that are going the same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in I was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for and then cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honours know and in two days time I was cried out upon by them and have been confined and now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my innocency then and likewise does now as at the great day will be known to men and angels — I petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is set but the Lord he knows it is that if it be possible no more innocent blood may be shed which undoubtedly cannot be avoid in the way and course you go in I question not but your honours does to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be guilty of innocent blood for the world but by my own innocency I know you are in the wrong way the Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work if it be his blessed will that no more innocent blood be shed I would humbly beg of you that your honors would be pleased to examine this afflicted persons strictly and keep them apart some time and like-wise to try some of these confessing witches. I being confident there is several of them has belied themselves and others as will appear if not in this world I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I question not but you’ll see an alteration of these things they say myself and others having made a league with the devil we cannot confess I know and the Lord knows as will shortly appear they belie me and so I question not but they do others the Lord above who is the searcher of all hearts knows that as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat that I know not the least thing of witchcraft therefore I cannot I dare not belie my own soul I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dying innocent person and I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors
To his Excellency Sir William Phipps: Governor and to the honoured Judge and Magistrates now setting in Judicature in Salem.
Mary Easty Petition”

The petition was too late, Mary Estey was hanged on September 22 with 7 other people.

Indictment #1 of Sarah Cloyce for Afflicting Abigail Williams.

Indictment #1 of Sarah Cloyce for Afflicting Abigail Williams.

While Sarah waited in jail her sisters Rebecca and Mary were executed. Fortunately Sarah’s fate was different than her sisters. Historians suggest that Mary’s plea in her petition for the court to be reasonable and think twice about what they were doing is what possibly ended the hysteria. The beginning of the end was in September when “spectral evidence” was declared inadmissable in the court. The last hangings in Salem were on September 22 and by 1693 the Salem Witch Trials had ended. The indictments against Sarah were dropped in 1692 and the charges dismissed on January 3, 1693 and her husband Peter Cloyce paid all her fees and she was released from jail. The Cloyce’s, understandably, relocated to West Salem End now called West Framingham.

Next Month: Life After the Salem Witch Trials

“I will say it, if it was my last time. I am clear of this sin” - Mary Eastey.
Towne sister statue at Salem Wax Museum.

Towne sister statue at Salem Wax Museum.


Sources:
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/

Footnotes:

  1. Brooks, Rebecca B. Elizabeth Parris: First Afflicted Girl of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. June 10, 2013. historyofmassachusetts.org.


Sarah Towne of Salem Village, Massachusetts

Since the introduction of this blog in 2014 my focus has been recent ancestral stories however for the next few months we will be traveling back 11 generations to Salem, Massachusetts. My 9th great-grandmother Sarah Towne’s story is truly remarkable and if you haven’t guessed by now involves the Salem Witch Trials. The hysteria began in 1692 in Salem Village when a group of girls claimed to be possessed by the devil accused several woman in the village of witchcraft. In the end, more than 200 people would be accused and 20 killed. However, before I explore Sarah and her part in the trials let me start with some background information on the Towne Family, Salem Village and the Reverend Samuel Parris.

Map of Salem Village, 1692.

Map of Salem Village, 1692.

Here is the pedigree starting with my paternal grandfather:

Harry Atwell (1908-1985)▶︎William H. Stone Atwell (1875-1944)▶︎Harriet Parks (1855-1909)▶︎William Parks (1824-1868)▶︎Mehitable Barton (1800-1890)▶︎Alpheus Barton (1763-1849)▶︎Timothy Barton (1732-1791)▶︎Joshua Barton (1697-1773)▶︎Hannah Bridges (1669-1727)▶︎Sarah Towne (1638-1703)

William and Joanna Towne were married in St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England on April 25, 1620, the same church William was baptized in March 18, 1598/99. Their first six children were baptized here as well between 1621 and 1634: Rebecca, John, Susanna, Edmund, Jacob and Mary. There are varying accounts of the actual date of Sarah’s birth, 11 January 1637 in Salem, Massachusettes being the most accepted and her brother John followed in 1639. An exact immigration date is also not know however using references from The Ancestry of Lieutenant Amos Towne and the birthdate of their daughter Mary, it appears the family entered Massachusettes between 1634-1635: “The first record of William Towne in America appears in the town book of Salem in 1640 when he was granted ‘a little neck of land right over against his house on the other side of the river’”. “It is probably that Towne was in Salem some years before 1640, however. The list of grants by the town to that portion of its territory called the North Fields is undated and the best opinion seems to indicate that the grants were made before 1635, when the town records begin. William Towne’s name appears on this list, and it was in the North Fields that he lived”. (1)

St. Nicholas Parish, Great Yarmouth as it is today.

St. Nicholas Parish, Great Yarmouth as it is today.

In 1651, the family relocated to the neighborning town of Topsfield, selling the Salem property in 1652.

Sarah and Edmund Bridges were married in Topsfield on January 11, 1659. Together they had 8 or 9 children one of which was my ancestor Hannah Bridges. The couple lived in Salem Town while Edmund persued his occupation as an lawyer. Furthermore, referencing the book, Currents of Malice by Persis W. McMillen, “Edmund Bridges and a certain William Becket owned part of a wharf on the Salem waterfront. Edmund also procured a license to sell alcholic beverages."  "Sarah became involved with running the waterfront tavern while her husband carried on with his legal practice, often appearing in Salem quarterly courts as attorney, arbitrator and witness." (2)

Edmund’s unfortunate death at the age of 44 years in June of 1682 left Sarah and her children destitute and within three months the family was ordered out of town by the constable. Sarah returned to her family in Topsfield. She had lost both her husband and mother in the same year.

Sarah quickly remarried Peter Cloyce who had a farm in Salem Village (now known as Danvers). Salem Village and Salem Town were about a half days journey from each other and as far apart culturally and socioeconomically. Salem Village was known as a farming community while Salem Town for it’s fishermen and maritime merchants. Sixty years after the Witch Trials, Salem Village won it’s long bid to separate and thus no longer share taxes with Salem Town, changing the name to Danvers.

The Cloyces were members of the Salem Village congregation of Reverend Samuel Parris as was Sarah’s sister Rebecca Nurse. Samuel Parris was born in England immigrating to Boston in the 1660’s and attended Harvard College. Samuel’s father, owner of a sugar plantation in Barbados, died in 1673 so Samuel left Harvard to take up his inheritance. In 1680 after a hurricane left much of his property damaged he sold a little of his land and returned to Boston with his two slaves Tituba and John Indian. Later that year he married Elizabeth Eldridge. During this time Samuel worked as a merchant but soon began training as a minister. In July 1689 Samuel became minister of Salem Village bringing his wife Elizabeth, Tituba and his three children Thomas, Elizabeth also known as Betty and Susannah with him to Salem Village as well as his niece Abigail Williams whose parents had been killed after an American Indian raid. Generally a minister was appointed for life however, Salem Village had trouble keeping and paying their minister; Reverend Parris would be their fourth in 16 years. To say Salem Village was in turmoil when Reverend Parris became minister would be an understatement. Uncertainty was everyday life. King James II of England had just been overthrown, Massachusettes had no local magistrates, charters or written laws and until his Parris’s hire, no minister. Notwithstanding, Salem Village was known by neighboring towns as a contentious place to live and known to be bad-tempered. Not all townspeople welcomed Reverend Parris and many did not vote for him as minister which led to more feuding. Like the three previous ministers he got caught in the middle of the fracas. Parishioners would refuse to pay the minister’s salary or provide firewood for the parsonage and by October 1691 the town stopped paying his wages as well. In the book, The New England Soul, Reverend Parris didn’t handle the situation well:

“Parris had not enjoyed a moment’s peace since the commencement of his ministry in 1689, when he found himself caught between warring factions in Salem Town and Salem Village. Instead of confining and channeling social fears and tensions into revival and covenant renewal as his colleagues were seeking to do, Parris inflamed local rivalries by declaring that ‘if ever there were witches, Men and Women in covenant with the Devil, here are multitudes in New-England.’ By March 1692, he was convinced that witches had infiltrated the churches, including his own Salem congregation. In a sermon on Judas Iscariot he declared that ‘as in our text [John 6:10] there was one [devil] among the 12 [disciples]…so in our churches God knows how many Devils there are.’ Such preaching offered a powerful and dangerous release for social and political tensions that had been brewing throughout the previous decades. It encouraged the villagers to purge their feelings of frustration and guilt by locating and destroying ‘witches’ in their midst. In many cases these witches were individuals who had run afoul of Parris and his key clan of supporters, the Putnam family.”

Parris probably never imagined that his own household would become the centerpoint of accusations of witchcraft with his niece, Agibail Williams and daughter, Betty Parris, being the instigators.

Next month: The Accusers and Accused

Footnotes:

  1. The Ancestry of Lieutenant Amos Towne, 1737-1793.

  2. Currents of Malice, Persis W. McMillen

Souces:

Samuel Parris wikipedia

Sarah Towne wikipedia

The New England Soul by Harry S. Stout

Two of Auntie Marlene's Delicious Recipes

Uncle Howie and Auntie Marlene in their younger days.

Uncle Howie and Auntie Marlene in their younger days.

A visit to Uncle Howie and Auntie Marlene’s house always means sampling her wonderful baked goods. As a child, I remember seeing them both at Christmas and she would open a round tin full of cookies all different shapes, sizes and colors-green Christmas holly cookies with dried cherries or red hots as the berries, English toffee, Hello Dolly bars, pecan fingers, date nut pinwheel cookies, shortbread and probably more I am forgetting about. My aunt always makes time to bake during the holidays, something I do as well no matter how busy I may be. Many people won’t share recipes but my aunt has always shared with anyone so I know she won’t mind me posting her English Toffee and Shortbread recipes. Both are delicious and I only wish I had time to make them today and share photos!

I love collecting my family’s recipes, especially when they are written in their own hand as is these two.

I love collecting my family’s recipes, especially when they are written in their own hand as is these two.

IMG_1558.jpeg

How I Became A Photo Detective

Almost everyone has old unlabeled photos that have been passed down to them through the years, right? Wishing you knew the people from days gone by looking back at you from the photo and saying with frustration “Well, it’s someone related to me I just don’t know who!”. With a lot of detective work, you can put names to faces in those old photos. I know, because I did it!

After finding a distant relative, Jill, on Ancestry.com in 2015, she offered to send a photo (below) that had been in her family stating “it includes Hendersons and Seybolds” and the infant being held in the middle was her grandmother, Ethel Seybold born in April 1916. That’s all she knew! Since my great grandmother Isabelle Hiller’s maiden name was Henderson and her brother James Clark Henderson married Katherine (Kate) Seybold I became very interested in knowing the identities of the 33 people in the photo.

To begin, of course, I knew it would be essential to have a somewhat complete family tree containing both direct and collateral line ancestors, luckily something I had already accomplished. A direct ancestor is a person directly related to you, parents, grandparents, etc. A collateral ancestor is someone related to you but not in your direct line, think aunts, uncles and cousins. Therefore a collateral line would be the family of this collateral ancestor. Of the 20 people I eventually identified in the photo only 4 are in my direct line!

Original Henderson/Seybold photo I obtained, with added numbers for identification purposes. Baby Ethel is #1. Circa, 1916.

My first goal was to date this photo. Looking at my family tree, I knew most of these people probably lived in Lake Odessa, Ionia County, Michigan and this was most likely the setting of the photo. Fortunately, Jill provided baby Ethel’s birthdate and since she appears to be about 6 months old I dated this photo October 1916. Furthermore, I made the assumption that Ethel was being held by her mother and quickly did a 1920 United States Census check and found her parents to be Herbert and Mattie (#2) Seybold. My second assumption was that Herbert (#31)was standing behind his wife.

Next, since I knew that my second cousin Dorothy grew up in Lake Odessa, in fact as the same house as our common 2 x great grandfather Christian Hiller, I asked her to look at the photo. Dorothy and I had talked on previous occasions and she stated that she had known some of the Hendersons as a child. Immediately, she recognized her father Calvin Hiller (#4) and his twin sister Connie (#3) (born 24 April 1914) as the two children standing in the foreground of the photo and their parents Archie (#24) and Jennie (#26) Hiller. Dorothy also said that she was “pretty sure” that right behind Calvin and Connie were their grandparents, Christian (#8) and Isabelle (#7) Hiller. Wow! I had only see one photo of Isabelle in her later years and had never seen a photo of Christian. Dorothy also recognized Mildred Henderson Hall (#14) daughter of James Clark Henderson mentioned above and the house to be “Aunt Mate and Uncle Archie’s” (More on these two later). So now, out of the 32 people, 10 are potentially identified. With so many individuals in this photo, I’m going to venture a guess it is a special occassion and not just a regular “Sunday dinner”. Noticing that Christian and Isabelle Hiller are front and center with 2 of their grandchildren and referring to my records, I see their 40th wedding anniversary was November 6, 1919. Maybe this was the occassion? Final photo dating is October or November 1916.

Looking at Mildred, she is holding the arm of the woman next to her, was this her mother, Kate? And if so, is her father John (#12) next to Kate (#13)? After looking at that whole row I realized that the eight members of the John C. Henderson Family were all there-I had seen their photos before. Quickly, I looked at a collection of Lake Odessa High School yearbook photos I remembered I had from a visit to the Lake Odessa Area Historical Society and Depot Museum and confirmed each child. Below are the children of John and Kate Henderson and their respective graduation dates.

Using these photos I confirmed Mildred and her siblings on the original photo, moving from Mildred right is Florence #15, Marian #16, Olive #17 and Ethel, (#18) and James (#25). That makes 15 now.

Knowing the year this Henderson/Hiller/Seybold family photo was taken, I reviewed their family respective genealogies and made a list of possible other individuals who were alive in 1916, mostly concerning myself with the Henderson and Hiller Families since they have members in my direct line.

The little boy on the right, next to Ethel Henderson, was completely throwing me off until I observed that the photo is somewhat divided by family- Seybold’s to the left and Henderson/Hiller to the right. That’s when I had a lightbulb moment and realized the little boy on the right was my grandfather, Don C. Hiller! And his father Ernest J. Hiller is behind him, wearing a cap. Further confirming this was the absence of Ernest’s wife, Martha Kenyon Hiller, who died in 1912.

Here’s Ethel and my grandfather, Don Hiller some years later, date unkown. Ethel and Don were about 6 months apart in age.

Moving on, I kept with the theory that this was Christian and Isabelle’s anniversary celebration and began a list of people most likely to attend. Since their sons, Ernest and Archie and their respective families have been identified next would be their individual siblings, since their parents had long died. Christian had 3 siblings alive at this time: Elizabeth in Grand Rapids, John in Illinois and Barbara in Lake Odessa. Looking at a photo I had of Barbara it was surprising to see she was absent since she was so close to Christian. Maybe she took the photo?I dismissed Elizabeth and John as living too far away.

Isabelle had 4 siblings still living: Agnes living in Ionia (in all likelihood too far away), Mary Jane known as “Aunt Mate” and Archie both in Lake Odessa and whose house was the setting for the photo, as well as the youngest Elizabeth known as Betsy. As I was positive Aunt Mate and Archie were in this photo, it wasn’t until I received another photo (below) from Hiller relatives in October 2017 that Aunt Mate was identified (#9) and then Archie (#10). Ethel and Don, seen standing behind them, seem to have a level of comfort with these two resting their hands on the back of Aunt Mate and Archie’s chair just like you would with an aunt and uncle. That makes 20.

The photo I used to identify Aunt Mate, courtesy of Hiller Family in Michigan.

The photo I used to identify Aunt Mate, courtesy of Hiller Family in Michigan.

It took 2 years of patience, determination and detective work to identify 20 people, so far. Although other projects have taken me away and I have not been actively working on this since October 2017, I believe all the Henderson/Hillers are accounted for and the remainder are Seybold family members, possibly Kate Seybold Henderson’s brother John (#3)and his wife Ada (#4)Seybold? Since identifying these people, incredibly, I have added names to other unlabeled photos given to me from Dorothy and the Hiller’s, like the one below. Go ahead, see if you can do it yourself using the above identifications. Hover your cursor over the photo for the answers. Then scroll to the bottom for an interesting addendum.

Back Row: Christian Hiller, his sister Barbara (although she was never identified in this post), 2 still identified.Front Row: Mildred Henderson Hall, Isabelle Hiller and Aunt Mate.

Back Row: Christian Hiller, his sister Barbara (although she was never identified in this post), 2 still identified.

Front Row: Mildred Henderson Hall, Isabelle Hiller and Aunt Mate.

Notice that Christian’s eyes are closed in these 2 photos? Two other photos I have of him are exactly the same. I was curious about this until receiving his Civil War pension records last year and learned his eyes were injured by locomotive smoke during the war.

Vintage Christmas Photographs

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic and thought it would be fun to make a gallery of all the Christmas-inspired photographs I’ve collected through the years. These are a mish mash of the Atwell, Hiller, Willing and Penne families, some of which are on previous posts but I do like that they are all in one spot now. I hope you enjoy reminiscing as much as I did while gathering these photos. We can’t turn back the clock but we sure can add to this collection of photo memories so feel free to add your own. Merry Christmas. Vesel božič. Fröhliche Weinnachten.

My Great Grandparents Anton and Johanna Penne

Lee Christian Hiller 1921-1943

Ensign Lee C. Hiller

Ensign Lee C. Hiller

Lee was the middle child born in Charlevoix, Michigan on October 28, 1921 to Ernest and Christine (Peterson) Hiller making him my grandfather Don Hiller’s half brother. Lee’s older brother Ernest James was born in 1919 and his younger sister Annabelle in 1924. He attended high school in Charlevoix graduating in 1939. Lee then entered Michigan State College until June 1942, when he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve.

Lee trained at Iowa State University and later at airfields in Washington and Texas and was commissioned an ensign in October then directly proceded to Naval Air Station, Opa-locka air base in Miami as an instructor. Naval Air Station consisted of three separate fields: Opa-Locka as known as Mainside, Miami Municipal and Master Field. He was classified as A-V(N) which is an United States Naval Reserve aviation flight officer, detailed to active duty in the aeronautic organization of the Navy immediately following their completion of training and designation as naval aviator.(1)

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Naval Air Station (NAS) in Opa-locka started to ready itself in fighter, dive-bombing, torpedo bombing training as well as searching off-shore for German submarines. One of the aircraft used for dive bombing training was the Scout Bomber Douglass (SBD) Dauntless, often called “Slow But Deadly”. The Dauntless first entered service in mid-1939 and by May 1943 the SBD-5 was released. A typical dive-dombing attack sequence would be to cruise at 18,000 feet and after finding the target the Dauntless would drop to 8,000 feet accelerating as they descended.(2) The aircraft would then go into a vertical dive at a 70 degree lasting about 30-40 seconds, while under enemy fire, and when reaching 1,500-2,000 feet the pilot would release the 1,000 pound bomb.(2) After the bomb drop, the pilot would then need to execute a 4G pullout while under anti-aircraft fire!(2)

Ensign Hiller was a SBD-5 Dauntless pilot and on November 20, 1943 while on a practice flight was killed in a crash approximately 10 miles west of NAS. Years ago I received a copy of an except taken from an administrative report detailing the crash and I have provided a verbatim transcription below.


Excerpt Taken From Administrative Report

1. Ensign Lee Christian Hiller, A-V(N), USNR, pilot, permanently attached to NAS , Miami, Florida as an assistant instructor in O.T.U., VSB-5 was killed in a crash of an SBD-5 airplane, BuNo. 28986. The accident occurred at a point approximately ten miles west of this station at 11:45 EWT 20 November 1943.

2. Ensign Hiller had had a total of 323.8 hours of which 5.4 hours had been in a SBD-5 aircraft. A study of his flight jacket indicates that he was an average to slightly above average pilot. On the day of the crash Ensign hiller was normal to all outward appearances and, insofar as can be determined, physically and temperamentally qualified for the control of the aircraft. Ensign Hiller did not go to bed until 0200 on the night preceding the crash but he had not indulged in any intoxicating beverages the evening or night before the accident. It is not believed that the fact that he had had less than average rest before the flight should have seriously affected his ability to fly.

3. Weather conditions at the time of the accident were average to good for dive bombing, with cloud patches at 7,000 feet to 2,500 feet. The wind was about fourteen miles per hour from the northeast.

4. Ensign Lee Christian Hiller took off in SBD-5 airplane, Buno 28986 from Master Field in company with four other SBD-5’s for a regularly scheduled practice dive bombing flight using Target Number Four. The pilot made four dives from about 10,000 feet twice recovering at an altitude of less than 1,000. One of the recoveries was dangerously low and the pilot was warned of this by the observing pilot. The fifth dive was started at 10,000 feet and was made at an angle of approximately 060 degrees. He released his bomb and then continued in his dive with no visible effort to recover. The plan struck the ground and exploded.

5. Based on the evidence available the following facts are deemed established:

(a) SBD-5 airplane, BuNo. 28986, crashed at a point approximately ten miles west of U.S. NAS, Miami, Florida, at about 1145, 20 November 1943. Plane was completely demolished the pieces were recovered.

(b) The airplane was engaged in a duly authorized flight immediately prior to the crash.

(c) There was no damage to private property.

(d) Ensign Lee Christian Hiller, A-V(N), USNR, was killed as a result of the crash.

(e) The crash was due to the failure of Ensign Lee Christian Hiller to recover from a dive.

6. It is the opinion of the Commanding Officer of the U.S. NAS Miami, Fla., that:

(a) The crash of the airplane and the death of the pilot cannot be attributed to the intent, fault, negligence or inefficiency of any persons in the naval service or connected therewith.

(b) Pilot Ensign Lee Christian Hiller was killed in the line of duty and his death was not due to his own misconduct.

(c) Material failure was in no way responsible for the crash.

(d) The reason for Ensign Hiller’s failure to recover from the dive is, and must remain, unknown.


After reading the newspaper article included in the gallery above, I was curious about the death of Lee’s friend, John Scholz, especially since it was less than 4 weeks from Lee’s own crash. A Fort Myers News-Press article dated 16 October 1943 that “the flier (John Scholz) crashed in the center of Fort Myers Thursday after knocking a wing-tip off his plane while stunting low over the business section of the city”. Quite a different scenario than Lee’s crash. Then I came across another article in the Tampa Bay Time, 23 November 1943. Besides Lee, that weekend the Navy lost 2 other men in a separate air crash and at press time the men were still missing and believed dead. Gosh that seems like a lot of crashes at the same base in a short amount of time.

During this month of Thanksgiving, I want to say thank you for your service, Great Uncle Lee. Although your life was so very short, almost 100 years later you are still remembered.

Footnotes:

1. Glossary of U.S. Naval Abbreviations

2. Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum

Additional Reading:

SBD-5 Dauntless Aircraft

Pearl Harbor Aviation MuseumH