Surprising Find...

Sarah Jane Padgett Fuller Calhoun was my great great grandmother. She was first married to my great great grandfather, Alexander Fuller, and together they had two children.  Alexander died in the Civil War.  Sarah next married William Calhoun who also served in the Civil War.  They had several more children together.  In searching for a picture of Sarah Jane, I first made the acquaintance of a distant cousin who shared a picture of her in her older years.  I also received a copy of a picture from my aunt that I shared in a previous blog of two grandmothers and a great grandmother collectively looking at a new baby.  I was happy to have copies of these pictures because my immediate family did not have any pictures of her....or so we thought.

This year my husband and I became grandparents...and so I was going thru old boxes looking for my baby book.  We wanted to compare my baby picture to my new granddaughter's picture.  I found the old box with my book in it and as I was going thru it a picture fell out from between the pages.
I picked up the picture and it was the picture of a woman that I thought I recognized.  On the back of the picture it was labeled as "Grandmother Calhoun".   I have no idea how it got there.  I have gone thru my baby book many times over the years and have never seen the picture before.  What a wonderful surprise!!!

               *Picture of Sarah Jane Padgett Fuller Calhoun from the collection of Debra Waggoner
#52Ancestors  #Surprise

At the Library...

One fun thing I like to do while researching my ancestors starts at the library.  At lot of libraries will have a collection of city directories.  By using a city directory you can find an address for where your ancestor lived during a certain time.  My great, great grandfather, Tilghman Overton, lived with his brother, Mark, when he was in Lincoln.  On a visit to Union College Library in
Lincoln, NE I found a directory listing where Mark Overton was living at the time.

Line


He was living at 2110 Q St., in Lincoln.  I used the address and plugged it into Google Earth to see if the home still exists.  In this case it did not, but I still was able to get an idea of the area.


*Google Earth PRO
Where the home used to sit there are now great walking trails.  It is hard to tell from the "street view" but what I see are sculptures and walking paths.

*Google Earth PRO





*Google Earth PRO

Another address I found in the Omaha Public Library belonged to my great uncle George Boehler.
He was living at 102 S. 52nd St., Omaha Ne.  I had a lot more luck viewing this home.  George was a dentist in Omaha and he was a bachelor.  He did not own this home but rented a room here.  He died at a young age from compications of an appendicitis surgery in 1933.  I love being able to google an address and see where my ancestors resided.  Somehow this makes them more real!
#52Ancestors  #Atthelibrary

Elizabeth M. Byers Overton

If I was given the chance to talk to one of my ancestors....I would have to chose my great, great grandmother, Elizabeth.  I  would pick her because she is such a mystery to me. I don't have the usual records that I would normally collect for my ancestors.  No pictures, marriage records, or cemetery records.
What I do know is that in 1850 she was living with her family in Miami Co, IN. From this census record I can estimate Elizabeth's birth to be circa 1840 in Ohio.  Her mother had already died and her father, Isaac Byers, was remarried. I was able to find a marriage record between Isaac Byers and Margaret Potterf in 1849 in Miami Co, IN. to support this.




*Ancestry.com

 Isaac died 16 May 1854 in Jasper Co IN where he is buried in Saltillo Cemetery indicating that the family had moved there by 1854.  In the 1860 census I can find several of the children living with other families.  Elizabeth is living with the N.P. Lefler family and listed as help.  Her husband to be, Tilghman H. Overton, is also living in Jasper Co, IN.


*Ancestry.com

By 1870, Elizabeth and Tilghman are married with 3 children and living in Sarpy Co, NE.   There is not a marriage recorded in Nebraska so I suspect that they married in Jasper Co, IN before moving to Nebraska to homestead.  The Jasper County courthouse burned and the early marriage records were lost so I can only guess.

*Ancestry.com

In the 1880 census Elizabeth is gone and Tilghman is married to a Maria Adkins. Their oldest daughter, Margaret, is living in the household of James Davidson and listed as a servant. Robert is living with Elizabeth's sister, Matilda, and listed as a farm laborer.  I was unable to find Anna after the 1870 census.  I checked cemetery records for Sarpy Co but could not find anything for Elizabeth or Anna.
I searched the land records and found that Tilghman and Elizabeth had taken a mortgage out on their land in 1871 from James Preston but by 1876 the mortgage had not been paid off and Mr Preston is asking for the sale of the land to recoup his money.  It was in the court documents that I found Elizabeth listed as Tilghman's wife and that she had died since the mortgage was taken out.


And the said plaintiff further saith that the said Tilghman H. Overton & Elizabeth M. Overton, his then wife, for the purpose of securing the payment of said promissory note did on the 14th...



Plaintiff further says that Elizabeth M. Overton, the former wife of said defendant has since the executions of said deed of mortgage, died: that the legal title of the land at the time of the executions of said mortgage was wholly and entirely in the ...

Elizabeth must had died between 1871 and 1876.  Anna is also gone...Robert is alive in 1880 but is not found after that time.  I have not found death notices or cemetery records for any of them.

I would love to talk with Elizabeth and hear stories about her family, her marriage to Tilghman, homesteading and so much more.  #52Ancestors  #I'dLiketoMeet

Unusual Surnames...Bantam and Boehler

My mother’s maiden name is Bantam.  This sounded like a perfectly normal last name to me but then there were a lot of Bantam families in my hometown.  My grandfather and his two brothers each married and raised medium to large sized families in my hometown so there was no shortage of Bantam families in Harlan Co. Nebraska. 

My dad’s surname and my maiden name is Boehler. My great grandfather, Conrad Boehler, was the only one in his family to come to the United States.  So basically my dad’s family was all there was in the area leading me to believe that it was more uncommon than Bantam.  That was before I started doing genealogy!

Once I learned how to research the families that notion changed.  While there weren’t many other Boehler families directly related I found that the name was not as uncommon as I had originally thought. 

A fun tool to use to see just how many families of a certain name were in the United States at a period of time is found on Ancestry.com.   Below you can see how many families and where they were living in 1920.  My families were both in Nebraska in 1920 but as you can see there were a lot more states with people of the surname Boehler in the US than there were of the surname Bantam.

Ancestry.com also allows you to select different time periods.  If you wonder how unusual your surname really is you should check it out. 

*Screenshots were taken from Ancestry.com

#52Ancestors  #Unusualname

Challenges of Married Life...

My great, great grandfather, Tilghman H. Overton knew the challenges of married life all too well.

Tilghman was married 3 different times with two of the marriages ending in divorce.  His first marriage to my great, great grandmother, Elizabeth M. Byers ended with her death sometime around 1872.  Together they had 3 children with my great grandmother, Margaret Overton, being the only one to live to adulthood.

In 1876 he married for a second time in Sarpy County, Nebraska to a widow, Marie Algeo Adkins.  This marriage did not last for long.  We see them living apart around 1881 with Tilghman at a boarding house in Omaha and in 1886 he is living and working as a contractor in Lincoln Nebraska.
Later in land records it is stated that Marie is divorced.  I am still searching for the divorce record for Tilghman and Marie.

His third and final marriage was in California to an Elvira C. ____.  I found information about this public divorce in the newspapers and then was able to obtain a copy of the divorce.  The divorce papers state that they were married on or about the 20th day of October, 1887 in Los Angeles, CA.  No marriage record can be found.



*Oakland Tribune, 13 Feb 1894, Page 1







*The San Francisco Call, 14 Feb 1894, Wed, Page 10


According to the divorce record filed by Tilghman, Elvira had left him and could not be found.  It states that she has been extremely cruel to Tilghman, she demands all of the money that he makes and then goes off to the Opera with another man.  He states that she has said that she no longer loves him and calls him a "damned old fool". In the statement he says, "Defendant is a woman of much personal beauty and plaintiff was very fond of her and did everything in his power by kindness and attention and by giving her the money which he earned to make her happy and contented. One night he would not give her all of his wages because he wanted to retain a portion for his own use, she became very angry with him and cursed him and struck him several violent blows on the head with a heavy umbrella handle and broke it over his head and called him a damned fool and she said that she wished he would die and she took a large butcher knife and told him she would kill him with it and he had great difficulty in getting the knife away from her.

Elvira could not be found to serve her with the divorce summons so it was served by publication.

Tilghman did not venture to marry again....I guess he wasn't up to the challenge!

#52 Ancestors #Challenge

First Boehler Ancestor in the United States

Conrad and Amelia Boehler - Golden Wedding Anniversary

   The following was posted in the local newspaper about their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1925: 

   "On January 12, 1875, Conrad Boehler and Amelia Spitley were united in the bonds of matrimony at the Catholic church at Lincoln, Illinois, Rev. J. Schmidt officiating.  The groom, a native of Baden, Germany was a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War leaving the fatherland for the New World at the close of the war, arriving in New York in 1872.  The bride, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Spitley, was born and grew to womanhood in the vicinity of Lincoln, Illinois.

   The young couple engaged in farming near Lincoln, Illinois.  They left Illinois, heading for the land of opportunity in 1878 settling near Beatrice, Nebr.  In 1893 they located in Harlan county on the farm now owned and tilled by Frank Boehler a son.

   In 1908, having through thrift and frugality, accumulated a competence Mr. and Mrs. Boehler retired from agricultural pursuits and moved into their beautiful home in Alma, Nebraska.

   On January 12th the Golden Anniversary was celebrated.  At 9 a.m. the family and many friends attended mass at St. Joseph's Church, Rev. R. J. Healey, celebrant.  Father Healey paid a beautiful tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Boehler in an eloquent ten minute sermon.  At mid-day the wedding party autoed to the old home.  A Golden Wedding ceremony performed by Rev. Healey was followed by a sumptuous repast partaken of by the immediate family and Rev. R. J. Healey of Alma and  Rev. J. L. O'Donnell of Roseland, Nebraska.

   The wedding party returned to the Alma home, where from two till five and from seven till ten o'clock p. m. Mr. and Mrs. Boehler kept open house greeting the numbers friends calling.

   The decorations of white and gold were mostly of flowers and and were very tasty.  On the table, a beautiful bridal cake, from the Petey Bakery, for a center piece, with elaborate decorations of cut glass and silver greeted the eye in the dining room.  

   Exceedingly tasty refreshments of coffee, ice cream, cake and fruit cocktail was served during the reception.

   In the afternoon Mesdames W. G. Haskell, W. D. Flanigan and H. M. Mead were hostesses.  In the evening the hostesses were Mesdames S. C. Gould, Fred Colgan and Miss Lula Haskell.

   A fine and highly appreciated part of the evening program were the musical numbers by Mrs. C. G. Gould, of Alma and Mrs. H. McCaffrey of Orleans, Miss Lula Haskell, accompanist.

   Many old time melodies were rendered in a most pleasing manner.  The most pleasing feature of the occasion was the present of all the surviving children:  Joseph J., Frank X., and Caroline of Alma; Dr. G. M. Boehler and E. C. Boehler of Omaha.

   From the children, Mr. and Mrs. Boehler received a beautiful gold watch, elaborately engraved; Mrs. Boehler being remembered with a lovely gold circle ring.

  Grandfather received a gold Eversharp and Grandmother a gold thimble from the grand children.

   They have rounded out fifty years of married life, forty-seven of which were allotted to Nebraska.  The trials and tribulations, the joys and sorrows of those early days can be appreciated only by the pioneers who shared them.  That they have been useful, well-spent years was evidenced by the hosts of friends who greeted them on their joyous anniversary and who wish them many more years of the contentment and comfort they so richly deserve."

#52Ancestors   #First

   

   

Howard's Story

A few years ago my mother did a story on her 2nd cousins life long dream of becoming a pilot and how he lost his life for our country when he was shot down in WWII.  I asked her if I could share it here on my blog post and she thought it was a great idea.

HOWARD'S STORY

First Lieutenant Howard W. Smith 

                                        March 23, 1923 --- June 10, 1944

Prologue

June 26, 1944 was a beautiful summer day in Eldorado Township, Nebraska, near the Kansas border.
Assisted by his nephews, Dale and Bryan Bantam (who lived nearby), Laurence Smith was at work on his farm.
Sometime during the day Laurence looked up to see two official looking cars approaching up the lane. His nephew said later his uncle was frozen in place! Laurence knew it meant terrible news about his only son Howard William Smith.
From that day forward, life on this farm was never the same.
Howard would never come down that lane again. He would never be home again except in spirit. 

Because those who gave their lives to save our freedom must not be forgotten, this is our family's story of a lost son.



 These words from the book "The Flying 463rd" with narrative by Harold Rubin express our feelings best:

CHILDHOOD

Howard was the second child and only son of Laurence Little and Una May (Abbott) Smith. He had one sister, Erma Jean Smith (Nicoll) who was two years older. His childhood was spent on the family farm which was named ìSpringbrook Farmî, enjoying the large trees and a natural spring that was unusual for the dry southern Nebraska countryside. His grandfather, William Porter Smith, was a Civil War Veteran who served with Co. A, 2nd Missouri Cavalry.*
As a child growing up, Howard was fascinated with flight and his room was decorated with airplanes.
The family home stands abandoned, but an area of one wall in what was Howardís bedroom still displays the original airplane wallpaper. 

Howard attended District 26 'Springbook School' and graduated from the

8th Grade in 1936. (See next page)
Like many others who attended District 26, he often rode a pony to school. 

*Early family history has fortunately been compiled by Lela Bantam Fidler in her book "The Bantam-Smith Connection -- Clippings From My Grandma's Purse 1926-1991". Anyone interested in early family history will want to contact Lela. 

HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

Howard attended Long Island Kansas High School and graduated with the Class of 1940. One of his classmates was Wilmer Hogan who was able to give me the facts that follow:

"Because of the distance from his home, Howard rented a little house in town from a family named Culbertson. His roommates were brothers named Frances and Phil Benson.
He was a good athlete and played center on Long Island's six-man football team, one of the first six-man teams in Kansas.
He was quiet but a little mischievous--a very nice person."

Footnote: Wilmer also joined the Army Air Corps, was a bombardier on a B-17. When his plane was shot down he broke his ankle and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. 

ENLISTMENT AND TRAINING

Because Howard wanted to fly, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserve in May, 1942. He was not called into active duty until November 6, 1942.

He worked in an aviation factory in Bakersfield, California and had enrolled in Junior College there for the fall term. His sister, Erma Jean, had also moved to California and was working in an aviation factory in Inglewood, California.

He began his pre-flight training as a pilot on November 10, 1942 at Kelley Field near San Antonio, Texas.

On March 21, 1943 he was transferred to Cimarron Field, Oklahoma, to begin his aviation cadet training. His first instructional flight was on his 20th birthday, March 23, 1943. When he completed his primary course, he had a total of 65 hours in the air. Here is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to his parents while in Oklahoma: 

On May 25, 1943 he was transferred to Strother A. A. Field, Winfield Kansas for more training.

On July 30, 1943 he went to Pampa A. A. Field, Pampa, Texas to attend advanced Flying School, graduating with the Class 43-I on Friday, October 1st 1943. Just two pilots received their wings at that time. The other officer was Edward Weiss. He was older than Howard and had a family. His plane was shot down in May, 1944 and he was held as a POW for a period of time.

On September 30, 1943, Howard was given an Honorary Discharge "for the convenience of the US Army" so he could accept a Commission as Second Lieutenant. This is how the Army promoted an enlisted man to Officer's rank.

Pictures of the planes he flew during his training are shown in the SERVICE RECORD kept by his mother. 

The SERVICE RECORD follows and has been copied just as she wrote it.

FURLOUGH HOME
After Howard graduated from Flight School and had earned his wings, he came home for a furlough. He was home October 5-11, 1943.

During that time the entire extended family gathered for a picnic. I was six years old and in awe of this strong, handsome soldier. I remember swinging on the tire swing that was tied to a large tree over a creek. Other cousins mention this same memory.

No one knew it would be his last days at home.

Shown with Howard are his mother (Una), Father (Laurence) and sister (Erma Jean). 

Following his time at home on furlough, Howard was assigned to the 19th Bomb Group in Peyote, Texas. There he took part in advanced combat training. When the 19th Bomb Group was disbanded he was assigned to the 463rd Bomb Group, 775th Squadron.

This is a picture of the group that he trained with on the B-17G Flying Fortress airplane: (This is the group with whom he would go overseas) 

Top row left to right: A. J. Brown, Top Turret & Engineer; K. M. Glitch, Radio Operator; H. F. Scott, Tailgunner; W. A. Taft, Right Waist Gunner; R. M. Anderson, Left Waist Gunner; H. T. Tripp, Ballturret Gunner.
Front row Officers left to right: Lt. D. W. Borchert, Bombardier and chinturret gunner; Lt. John S. Frazeur, Pilot; 2nd Lt. H. W. Smith, Co-Pilot; 2nd Lt. L. A. Gatz, Navigator.
Howard was the only one in this photo to have been lost. Why? Fate. How? More information is on the next pages.
Others in the front row survived the war without being taken prisoner or shot down. Those in the back row were aboard a plane that was shot down 4 days after Howardís plane was lost. They were able to escape the plane by parachute. All were taken prisoners of war but were returned home in 1945.
 I spoke by e-mail with the grandson of John Frazeur. He was searching for more information about his grandfather and could not add any information I didn't already have, nor could I tell him more about his grandfather. He commented on the "cocky 40's attitude" in the grins of Howard and his grandfather. (John S. Frazeur would later serve during the Korean and Viet Nam wars.) 

OVERSEAS DUTY

When Howard completed the advanced training, his crew was sent to Lakeland, Florida. As part of the 463rd Bombardment Group, 775th Squadron, he flew as co-pilot of a B-17G Flying Fortress plane with the crew pictured on the page just before this one. The Aircraft number was 42-31841.

From Lakeland, the 463rd Bomb Group was sent to join the battle. The ground support crews left on ships and rejoined the air crews at Celone Army Air Base in Italy. The flight crews had stops in South America and Dakar, Africa. A letter (below) from Howard tells his travel until he reached Dakar, Africa. On March 15, 1944 they arrived at the Foggia, Italy airfield. 

FINAL AIR BASE

This was Howard's last base, in Italy. When a crew was shot down, another crew moved into the tent--often before all of the effects had even been removed. 

463rd BOMBARDMENT GROUP HISTORY 1944

On the next page are the highlighted missions we can document that Howard flew. Through May 18, 1944 he flew with his original crew
on the original plane 42-31841. (The information is taken from several sources and may in some cases be inaccurate, but it is as close to the actual actions as possible.) 

While Howardís crew was on a rest, another crew flew that plane and it was hit and lost on May 24, 1944. The pilot at that time was a Lt. Orf. All of the crew bailed out and were made prisoners of war, except for the pilot, who was impaled on a branch of a tree and was killed. The co-pilot was Ed Weiss, who graduated with Howard from Pilot School. The entire crew was taken Prisoners of War until 1945 when they returned safely. After that plane was lost, Howard was promoted to pilot and flew several different planes, with different crews.
One of the worst missions Howard would have flown prior to June 10 was to Ploesti on May 18, 1944. (This oil field produced 1/3 of all of Germanyís oil supply and was a primary target for the U. S.) Exceedingly bad weather was encountered that morning and the Air Force sent out a recall signal which was received by all groups but the one to which Howard was assigned. Making the lone run on Ploesti, about 150 of Goeringís yellow nose fighters attacked their formation of 35 planes. Six B-17s were lost to flak and the fighters. Finally a large force of P-38ís appeared and drove off the Luftwaffe. If they had not arrived, all of the planes would have been lost. For this and their other missions the Group received a Commendation from the USAAF Commander-in-Chief General Spaatz.
After the loss of the 42-31841 on May 24, 1944, Howard was promoted to Pilot and flew these planes: Pictures and what happened to these planes is found in the APPENDIX to this story. The 4 planes with * after their names were lost.

A/C #42-31832 "The Biggast Bird" 25 May 1944

A/C # 42-97536 No known nickname 26 and 27 May 1944* 

A/C # 42-31742 No known Nickname 28 May 1944*

A/C # 31821 "Mary Lou" 31 May 1944*

A/C #42-102909 "Nobody's Baby" 4 June 1944

A/C #42-31809 "Nameless" 6 June 1944* 

FINAL DAY: JUNE 10, 1944.
On June 10, 1944 Howard was assigned to pilot A/C #42-37997 "Miss Behaven". This is an earlier photo of the actual plane: 

Top Row L - R: Hugh Diggins; Grover Jenkins; Scott Rousseau; George Wray; Lloyd Upchurch; Front Row L - R: Malcolm Coulman; Kent Polkinghorne; Frank Gilbert; Edward Biga; John Palmer All of the highlighted names are men who were on the plane with Howard on June 10th, 1944. Not shown is Joseph Russo, who was the 10th man on the crew. All 10 were lost.

On June 10, 1944, led by their commander, Major Allyn, the "Irish Orphans" with 27 planes flying in formation dropped 81 tons of bombs on the Mestre, Italy marshalling yards. One plane (Howard's) did not return. 

The account given in the above Army Status Letter differs from the classified Missing in action reports (MACRs) that follow. In 1944 the Army did not tell all that it knew.
Damaged? The plane exploded in mid-air! 

The 1944 published report indicated ìfive chutes left the plane before it crashed into the sea. P-38ís went down to drop life rafts for the men.î (We know this didnít happen). But when Air-Sea rescue arrived none of the men were to be found.î However, the MACR reports gave no indication that any airmen were alive when the parachutes were blown out of the plane as it exploded.

 Crew aboard the plane with Howard:

The asterisks in front of the name indicated Missing in Action and the crosses indicated Killed in action. This list was taken from a book that was printed after the war ended.

According to Army Air Corps procedures Howard, as pilot, would have been the last one to leave the plane if there had been time for anyone to do so.

Eye witness accounts by airmen in other planes have been de- classified. They are known as MACRs (Missing Air Crew Reports) and now can be found on the internet. A transcribed copy of MACR #5846 is included in the appendix of this story.

Statement given by Staff Sgt. Jack Raille:

"The first time I noticed Ship No. 48-37997, the whole right wing was leaking gas. There was a trail of black smoke from number 4 engine. I noticed the right wing burning and the plane fell out of formation. A few seconds later the right wing fell off and the ship exploded. I saw 5 chutes open, I believe these to have been blown out of the ship."

Year 3...Genealogy Trip with my Mom

This year’s trip was to Indiana to research ancestors and visit cemeteries.  We left Omaha on Sunday, April 12, 2015 in a car that we had rented.  We decided that it was best to rent a car ….if you have a break down on your trip you can just call and get a car switched out as opposed to being held up somewhere waiting for your car to have expensive repairs done…and mom was looking forward to driving something different.  I went out to the rental agency to pick it up and the car that I reserved had a broken windshield that needed to be repaired so he upgraded me to a Ford Escape.  Most people would be happy for a free upgrade but the Escape would use more gas and it was the exact same vehicle that mom owns!  So much for trying out something different!  It was a nice vehicle though so there wasn’t too much to complain about . We drove all day with a stop in Genesco, Iowa for lunch at Sweet Peas.  Once we crossed over into Indiana we started noticing some beautiful and some not so beautiful barns.

We arrived at Rensselaer, Indiana around evening and found our Holiday Inn Express and checked in.  We headed in to town in search of dinner and a drink. There was only one place that we could have a drink.  It was a little smoke filled bar…yes, they do still allow smoking in Indiana…at least in bars.  We had a drink and went next door for dinner and then called it a day.

Monday we were to meet Harvey W to begin some research on Robert B. Overton and Isaac Byres.  These are two of my 3 x great grandfathers. I had met Harvey through www.INGenWeb.com  and the Jasper County Cemeteries page.  I had asked him about a cemetery and he had volunteered to go up and take some pictures for me.  We had conversed several times throughout a two year period and when I told him we were coming to Rensselaer he lined up the entire day of places for us to do research and offered to get us to each place.  Spending the day with Harvey was probably one of the highlights of our trips.  It was so nice to be able to go into libraries, courthouses, and churches and even out in the country to a private cemetery with someone local that can speed up the process for you.  We started out at Jasper County’s beautiful courthouse.  We found that each courthouse had different rules and levels of security.  At Jasper County we had tougher security than an airport.  We went through the metal detectors, had our bags completely searched…and I do mean completely…the guy there opened every little tiny zipper in my purse and wallet and thoroughly searched every nook and cranny!  It was almost funny.  After copying land records at the courthouse we went to lunch with Harvey.  Next stop was St. Joseph’s college library where newspapers were stored.  We looked through the papers for an obituary for Isaac but did not find one.  We moved on to the United Methodist church for marriage records.  We came up empty handed again.  The last thing on the list was to see if we could get out to Saltillo Cemetery.  It sits in the middle of someone’s private land and we were hoping that we would find someone to give us permission to go in.  When we got there we noticed that there was a fence with a padlocked gate on the property.  We went back to the nearest farm houses to look for someone and after several attempts finally found a neighbor.  He called the owner for us who was not around but told him to go ahead and take some bolt cutters and cut the chain off of the gate and let us drive back in to the cemetery.  We couldn’t believe it but felt so lucky.  We drove about a quarter of a mile back and found the cemetery.  Isaac’s stone is broken but you can still read it.  We spent some time taking pictures and then headed back to town.  

The last stop was the local library where they had a nice genealogy section.  

Jasper County Court House

Harvey

Saltillo Cemetery

We wanted to take some more time and go to a couple of neighboring county courthouses to check on some additional records.  We decided to stay one more night in Rensselaer and move on the next morning. 

For dinner Monday night  “The Farmhouse” at Fair Oaks Farms came highly recommended.  You can check this place out at www.fofarms.com. This was a beautiful place and we learned a lot about how the entire facility runs on cow and pig manure.  They are very eco-friendly and humanely treat their animals.  You will have to go to the site and read about them.  The farmhouse had wonderful food and we really enjoyed out night here.

The Farmhouse RestaurantA view of Fair Oaks from the highway.

Tuesday we went to Winamac, IN where the Pulaski County courthouse resides.

At this courthouse just one county over there was no security at all, we were able to walk right in. We met a really nice lady there that worked at the courthouse but who had a love for genealogy and she gave us some suggestions on what to look for next.  We did not come up with anything in Winamac but enjoyed the stop to see the courthouse.

Pulaski County Courthouse

We moved on to Peru, Miami County, IN for a stop at their courthouse.  I found a deed at this courthouse to Isaac Byres land that listed the name of his wife on it.  Census records only listed her as Polly.  I also found a marriage record for Isaac and Margaret (Polly) Byres that indicates that she must have been a second wife.  The marriage was in 1847 and on the 1850 census record that lists the two of them I find eight Byres children all born before 1847. 

Miami County Courthouse

From Peru we traveled on to Fort Wayne IN and found a room at a Best Western Plus.  We drove over to Ohio so Mom could add Ohio to her list of states that she has found a geocache in (see the notes at the end of this blog for more on that) and then we went out for a cocktail and dinner.  Somehow spending all day driving or working in a courthouse demands a cocktail at the end of the day.

Wednesday we spent the entire day at the Allen County Library downtown Fort Wayne. They have a beautiful genealogy library wing and we had so much fun looking through the collections.  We couldn’t believe how fast the day went.  They even have a coffee and sandwich shop in the library so that you don’t have to leave when you get hungry.  I highly recommend spending time here if you ever get the chance.

From here we drove on down to Anderson, Madison County, IN.  Here we were hoping to research the Rains and Roadecap (sometimes spelled Roadcap or Rodecap) families from my mom’s side of the tree.  In the counties of Henry and Madison we have Henry and Lydia Myers Roadecap, Ahasual Raines and Mary Elliot Raines, and their children who married in Madison County, Joab Raines and Mary Martha Roadecap.  I will spell their names the way they are spelled in the family bible that we have.

 

 When we got there it was still light out so we decided to search out the first cemetery that was on our list.  We would be going to Middletown, Henry County, IN. It was the final resting places for Henry Roadecap and his wife Lydia Myers my 3 x great grandparents.  They belonged to the Upper Fall Creek Church of the Brethren.  We stopped at the local library that just happened to be open late and the librarian was able to give us directions out of town to the cemetery and church.  The church is still in existence today although probably not the same building.  The cemetery we were looking for was across the road from the church.  Pictures of Henry and Lydia’s stones have never made it to findagrave.com so we were anxious to see if we could find them.  This was a big cemetery and there wasn’t a directory.  We looked for the oldest section of the cemetery and stumbled right up to the stone.  It looked like someone had recently replaced the stone and Lydia’s previous stone was leaning up against it. 

We felt like the ancestors were leading us right to them. 

When we drove back through Middletown we noticed a historical society so we decided that would be our first stop on Thursday.  We went back towards our hotel which was another Best Western Plus…and stopped at a Montana Mike’s for dinner.

Thursday morning we hit the ground running because we had a lot of area to cover.  We started at the Middleton Historical Society.  They had old newspapers and we found an obituary for Henry Roadecap.  Henry had been married twice and there was an interesting note in the news about his death.  It said that Henry had a will and that the estate amounted to about $6,000 to be divided among his children.  It then stated that there was an ante-nuptial contract drawn up between Henry and his second wife in 1882. Who knew that they were doing prenuptials back in 1882?  Now we wanted a copy of his will!  Henry died in Madison County so we headed over to Anderson, IN to the courthouse to look for the will.  When we got to this courthouse there was security to walk through but not as invasive as Jasper County.

We were able to find a copy of Henry’s will.

 We also wanted to look for a marriage record for Henry’s daughter Mary Martha Roadecap to Joab Raines.  We have an obituary for Mary stating that she and Joab married on 5 May 1867.   This same date was also listed in “The Wine Family in America” book but their first son, Frank, was born on 6 May 1867.  This mystery did not get solved on this trip.  We did not find a marriage record for them at the courthouse.  Did they really marry one day before the birth of their first son or was this a typo?

We decided to check the Henry County Courthouse for the marriage record just in case they would have married there.  We drove over to New Castle, IN and at this courthouse we had to turn around and take our cell phones back to our car as they were not allowed in the courthouse.  We searched for the marriage record in question but struck out again. 

 Henry County Courthouse

Mom had visited with the librarian that worked in the genealogy room at the New Castle library so we were to meet with her next.  We headed over to the library and were impressed with their genealogy collections.  We found marriage records for Henry Roadecap and his second wife, Maria Showers.  We also found a marriage record for  Ahasual Raines and Mary Elliott.  We had two more cemeteries that we wanted to visit and were able to look them up and found directions to the first one. 

We headed out again and this time went to Knightstown, IN to Glen Cove Cemetery to see if we could find Joab and Mary Raines.  We got there and the office was open.  They were able to tell us that they were buried there but they had no way of knowing where.  The old part of the cemetery had never been plotted out so they only knew who was there but not where.  Someone had put a picture on findagrave.com so we at least knew what shape of stone to look for.  We did find them but they were not in as good of shape as they were when pictured for findagrave.com.  They were tilting and Joab’s was really hard to read now.  We paid our respects and moved on.

We had been having good luck finding the cemeteries that we wanted to visit.  We had one last cemetery to go see before leaving the area.  It was northeast of Anderson, IN in Hartman Cemetery by Moonville, IN.  This cemetery is listed in findagrave.com as a cemetery but there are no interments listed here.   Mom looked up the cemetery on the historical society site and it gave geo-coordinates so we plugged them into the Garmin and headed that way.  When we first got there we didn’t see the cemetery but then I spotted it behind someone’s place with no access to it without going through someone’s private property.   We found a gentleman mowing his yard so mom asked him about it and he directed us down the road to a different neighbor.  We went down to that house and were lucky enough to have someone come out of the house to talk to us.  She (Sharon) told us access was from yet another neighbor’s land but that she had six dogs and that we wouldn’t want to walk over there unless she was home to take her dogs in.  Great.  Sharon called the other neighbor for us and she told us it was okay to go on over and that the dogs were in.  Sharon walked over with us just to make sure all went well.  We were able to cross just fine and go in. It was a small cemetery so we found Ahasual and Mary Raines in a short amount of time.  We spent a few minutes paying our respects.  We thanked Sharon and headed up the road.  It had been a long prosperous day and we were heading to Lafayette, IN to spend the night. 

Friday morning we got up and hit the road for Omaha.  We spent more time on the way back pulling off at exits so mom could grab some Munzees.  We pulled into Omaha about 7:30 p.m.  Another genealogy roadtrip was in the books!  We were sorry to see it end.

Notes: More on Geocaching can be found at www.geocaching.com.  It is an activity where someone puts a log sheet for you to sign at different locations.  A lot of the time these are put somewhere that has some historical significance and other times they are random areas.  You are given coordinates to follow with a GPS to help you find them.

More on Munzees can be found at www.munzee.com.  It is “the 21^st century scavenger hunt that you can play using your smart phone.” For this game a sticker is placed in different places and when you find it you scan it with your phone to earn points.  Again you use the GPS features of your phone to locate the sticker.