Military Monday: A Memorial for Truman Weaver

© Ifistand47 | Dreamstime.com – Nashville National Cemetery Photo

This isn’t the post I would like to write about Truman Weaver.

Earlier this month, I put the spotlight on Gertrude Weaver. Today I’d like to shine it on her grandfather, my 4th-great-grandfather. For the longest time, he was a brick wall in my tree, and even now I have questions.

Truman Weaver married Mary Ann Vanorsdale, likely in Pennsylvania around 1845, estimating from the birth of their first (known) child the following year. It’s the births of their children that shape my limited timeline of their life together. With their fathers and other relatives, they removed to Trumbull county, Ohio around 1847 (because their second son was born there), and in 1855, they made an entry of land in Tuscola county, Michigan. Their sixth known child was born in the state that year, too.

Truman and Mary Ann’s ninth and last child, Milo Gardiner Weaver, was born in September 1860, some months after the census taker came by. It took quite a search to connect Milo to his father; they were never enumerated together.

Truman enlisted with the 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics (Company F) on October 1, 1861. Just about a year after the official start of the Civil War, he died in Nashville, Tennessee. In contrast to the rough sketch of his years of family life, I know a fair amount about his last weeks. Mark Hoffman’s history, “My Brave Mechanics”: The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War, contains revealing details, such as the fact that Companies D, F, and G made the most difficult marches of the entire regiment in the early part 1862, and that sleeping on wet and frozen ground undoubtedly contributed to rapidly deteriorating health of the men. By the end of January, 1862, half of the men in Company F were laid up or in the hospital. (Hoffman, 53)

The regiment received orders to march to Louisville on February 23, 1861. They covered 46 miles in two days, and then Companies D, F, and G slept on the steamer Argonaunt. The Argonaunt left Louisville the next day and arrived in Nashville on March 4. And then… “When the regiment left the Nashville area in early April, at least 200 sick men were left behind…” (Hoffman, 52)

Truman Weaver died April 15, 1862. He was one of the two hundred abandoned.

He was interred at the Nashville National Cemetery, grave mark number A.3906. However, there is also a stone for him and his wife (which also includes his son Benjamin and wife) in the Cochranton Cemetery in Crawford county, Pennsylvania—where his family landed after he was gone. It seems likely to me that his older sons made this decision as a tribute to their father since Mary Ann had remarried. It’s bitter, though. Truman Weaver was not forgotten, but he left too soon for his youngest son. Milo had nothing to remember.

The post I wanted to write about Truman Weaver should include more particulars than rough dates and places. It would feature clues about his personality and relationships, and it would be more about the story of his life than the circumstances of his death. Nonetheless, on Memorial Day we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This is my tribute to his.

Motivation Monday: Second Passes on Old Searches

What do you know about those Van Pelts?

Almost a year ago, I commemorated the 100th wedding anniversary of my great-great-grandparents, Florence Van Pelt and Jesse Bartoo. Then maybe six or eight weeks ago, I received an email from a distant cousin. He told me how he was related, and asked what I knew about Samuel Van Pelt (Florence’s grandfather and my 4th great-grandfather.) So, I fired up the ol’ Family Tree Maker file and discovered that what I knew about Samuel Van Pelt amounted to . . . almost nothing!

Really nothing.

No interesting tidbits. No parents. No date of death, and even his birth was iffy. Some sources claimed he was born in New York, and others put him in Delaware. And the calculated birth years varied. A lot.

Getting that email about the Van Pelts spurred me into action. I started poking around in the Fulton History and Ancestry stacks. I found so many Van Pelt clippings for more recent generations that I might just start a Van Pelt Family Scrapbook page to collect them. However, I couldn’t find an obit for Samuel Van Pelt, and that was what I was really hoping for.

I turned to a stack of notes from a genealogy road trip from a few years back. I spent much of that trip racing the clock. With limited time, I had ducked in and out of the Potter County courthouse as fast as I could. As soon as the place closed at the end of business, my plan was to scour two or three cemeteries before dark.

My notes from that visit, unfortunately, reflect the finding-frenzy rather well. My methodology? Flipping pages of big birth and death index books as fast as I could and copying anything I cared about in a scrawl that I, at least, would understand. I entered the pertinent facts into my Family Tree Maker file when I got home from that trip.

On the second pass through my notes, I discovered a person of interest. (Tweet this!)

I found that a “Dane I. Van Pelt” was recorded in the death index. The interesting part? I couldn’t find any other record of Dane Van Pelt—no census records, no military registrations, no newspaper mentions . . . The trouble is, I can’t remember how legible (or not) that book of records was. The impression of memory, which could be totally wrong, is that it was neat and careful penmanship, reducing the odds that I misread the name considerably.

What if the handwriting was neat and careful because it was copied from another source?

The date of the record is about eight months after the date of the death being recorded, and even though the recorder was closer to the event than I am, the index is still a secondary record. Was that careful penmanship being copied from a messy or careless hand? Is there a possibility that “Dane I” was actually “Sam’l”?

Just a doodle I did in MS Paint to decide whether my theory was plausible.

It’s possible . . . But that’s a lot of supposing. I wish I could remember!

Tip: If you can’t make copies, note primary vs. secondary sources and rate the legibility of penmanship. (Tweet this!)

What am I hoping to prove here?

Here is what I wrote down for this person of interest:

Full Name of Deceased: Van Pelt, Dane ? I ?
Color: W
Sex: M
Age: 63
Condition: Married
Place of Birth: Delaware co.
Occupation: Laborer
Date of Death: 4/20/1898
Place of Death: Harrison
Cause of Death: Kidney Trouble
Duration of Illness: One week
Place Interred: Addison NY
Date Interred: 4/22/1898
Name of Father: Jake Van Pelt
Name of Mother: Jane Van Pelt
Recorded: Jan’y 13, 1899

I do try to avoid wedging discoveries in sideways to make them fit my theories, but I know you understand how a person might be motivated to see what she wanted to see in “Dane I.” If I could say for certain that this record was, in fact, about Samuel Van Pelt, that would be a lot of information, wouldn’t it?

I checked FamilySearch. GenWeb sites. Cemetery transcriptions. All came up empty.

And suddenly, I couldn’t remember whether I’d checked Fulton History before or after the big Christmas day upload. Once again, I went back for a second look.

Persistence, my friends, is the name of the game. (Tweet this!)

Tryniski, Thomas. “Addison Advertisers, Thursday April 28, 1898.” Old Fulton NY Post Card Website [online]. Accessed January 5, 2015.

I’m not worried about the age discrepancy. We’ve established poor legibility in the primary source that the index recorder copied, and my existing sources for Samuel Van Pelt’s birth already range from 1825 to 1831. My opinion? The April 20, 1898 date on both sources makes the crucial match, with the death in Harrison PA and the burial in Addison NY as additional support.

Found: Samuel Van Pelt!

And needless to say, the search is on for Jake and Jane Van Pelt!

P.S. To any other Van Pelt cousins out there . . . 

57 Angles, Tips, & Prompts for Writing Your Family History

Write Your Family History

If you’ve ever struggled with ways to turn your pedigree charts and research notes into a shareable, readable history for your family to enjoy, read on. This list of story angles, creative tips, and writing prompts is for you. Some of these ideas might seem on the border of embroidering the truth. Let me clarify upfront that my intent is to suggest fullest use of available facts, as well as drawing well-reasoned, logical conclusions wherever possible. That said, I welcome discussion in the comments! And now, without further delay . . . !

Basic Structure & Style

1. Choose an ancestor and place births, deaths, and other impactful events on a timeline. Don’t forget their in-laws. (Tweet this)

3. Don’t be afraid to be a little repetitive if that works with how you’ve structured your history. Your family is all connected, of course, but ask yourself if your articles make sense as stand-alone works.

4. Utilize the word count function in most word processors. Aim for 150-300 words for a biographical blurb, 400-600 words for a family legend or interesting story, and 1200-1500 for an involved dramatic account. (And remember that even a broken guideline can aid the structure of your story. If you need to run longer, do, but ask yourself if the narrative contains a natural break where it would makes sense to divide it into parts.)

5. Use bullet lists or timelines if they make more sense than a narrative structure. (Tweet this)

6. Don’t get boxed into a format. Tell each individual story in the way that makes the most sense.

Picture This

8. Got an obvious family resemblance? Put photos side by side and write about it.

9. If you can take a 3-, 4-, or 5-generation photo, stop reading this and do it, right now. (Tweet this)

10. Try to recreate modern versions of old family photos.

11. Group scanned documents, newspaper clippings and photos by decade to create a visual history. (Tweet this)

Details, Details

(Even better if you can find a historic map.)

13. Got a story about a particular day? Check the weather to help set the scene.

14. Search a “today in history” archive to give your story context.

16. Find a moment of truth–in your ancestor’s life or in your search for him or her–and record both facts and emotions. (Tweet this)

17. Highlight apparent contradictions or discrepancies in the facts. Think about who would have supplied the data and brainstorm possible reasons. For an age variance, did your ancestor lie about their age for vanity, to guard themselves from age discrimination in the workplace, or to dodge–or qualify for–military service?

18. Spend some time researching your ancestors’ friends, associates, and especially neighbors. See if you can find a connection. Adding relevant details will enrich the story.

A maybe-haunted house. A family tree full of secrets. My debut novel, Whispers in the Branches, is available now!

Content & Substance

20. Resist the urge to do a Federal Census recap–unless it reveals something significant. Highlight the details beyond where and when.

21. Write about surname origins. If your findings conflict with what you know or believe about your ancestors’ homeland, highlight the puzzle and try to piece together a plausible answer to it.

22. Resist writing about your search–unless you’ve got a great search story! (Tweet this)

24. Profile the community where your ancestors lived (especially if they stayed for more than a generation in one place).

25. Write about questions you have without pressure to supply answers. (Tweet this)

More Content & Substance

27. Write about pets, hobbies, or personality traits. (Tweet this)

28. Type up family recipes (along with associated food memories). If you can, ask the person handing down the recipe where it came from.

29. Contrast lives of two very different ancestors who lived in the same time period.

30. Write about generational patterns you notice–attitudes, beliefs or sayings. (Tweet this)

31. Ask living relatives if they are named for anyone. (This might not be obvious, especially if they are named for a non-family member!)

32. Write what you can infer about relationships. If a clipping lists your relative among a group of unfamiliar names (out-of-town wedding or funeral attendees, for example), see if you can draw connections to others listed.

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Even MORE Content & Substance

34. Interested in genetics? Find a list of dominant and recessive traits and see how far back you can trace yours.

35. If your ancestor got political, write about a controversial issue of the day. (Tweet this)

36. Write about a law that may have impacted your ancestors. (Tweet this)

37. Interested in medical mysteries? See if you can WebMD a “diagnosis” for a sickly ancestor (but be sure to delineate between fact and speculation).

38. Use prompts to generate more ideas. Geneabloggers has over forty day-of-the-week prompts to get you started and The Armchair Genealogist is a treasure trove of helps for the family chronicler.

Get Creative

39. Read up on creative nonfiction techniques and try applying them to your family history.

41. Write a poem or song about an individual in your family tree. (Tweet this)

42. Posing questions with answers you know, write an imaginary interview with your ancestor.

43. Got a frustrating ancestor with hardly any paper trail? Pen a tongue-in-cheek madlib-style profile and celebrate those maddening blanks for once.

44. If you feel you don’t have enough to say, make brevity the goal and format your stories for Tweets, Facebook posts, or 3×5 index cards.

Collaborating & Sharing

45. If an older generation isn’t forthcoming with stories, make it easy for them. Ask what they remember about ONE photo, person, or place.

46. Think about how to share your writing, whether via blog, CD’s, expensive bound photo books or photocopied printouts in a binder.

48. Ask a sibling, cousin, aunt or uncle to write out their version of a well-known family story. Compare notes and see if your relative highlights additional details or remembers it just a bit differently.

Words to the Wise

49. Take on a writing challenge (such as the Family History Writing Challenge in February or #52Ancestors in a year) to stay motivated.

50. Don’t plagiarize.

52. Do a little at a time. It’s easier to write a 500-word ancestor profile than it is to “write your family history.” (Tweet this)

53. Stick with the facts, but don’t feel compelled to cram every detail you’ve learned into one article if they don’t support the story you’re telling.

(If Grandma is embarrassed by her father’s stay at the state penitentiary, realize that what’s interesting to you might have been awful for her.)

55. Don’t wait to get started. (Tweet this)

56. Don’t be afraid to suppose (but clearly state as much, so your assumptions don’t come off sounding like facts).

Your Turn

Share your best angles, tips and prompts for writing your family history in the comments below!

Wisdom Wednesday: Happy 100th Birthday, Gramma Rosie

“You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.”

Today would have been my Great-Gramma Rosie’s 100th birthday. She was a loving and wonderful grandmother, but I never knew her to be one to restrain herself from speaking her mind. This old saying is mild compared with some of her gems.

 

So what does it mean exactly? According to The Free Dictionary, “You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die” just means that life deals us each a share of woe. I recently learned that a peck is the equivalent of 8 quarts. That’s a lot of dirt to eat, but spread out over a lifetime? Eh, maybe not as bad.

Gramma Rosie’s share came from Norwich PA where she was born, as well as a handful of other places she lived–Lockport NY, Liberty PA, the Randolph Children’s Home where she and her siblings stayed while their mother sorted out a rough patch–and Olean NY, where she lived for most of her life.

She married young, became a young mother and a young grandmother, was widowed young, and retained her youthful spirit into her nineties. She loved dollies and garage sales and chattering birds–both the kind kept as pets and the ones meant to twitter away in the lilac branches. She worked many years at the Olean Tile Plant–I’m not sure what her job was there, but I assume a good bit of her peck of dirt came from there. I want to say I’ve been told that ladies who worked at the tile plant could be pretty salty when it pleased them.

But never mind that. Until we meet again, here’s to one hundred years. Happy birthday, Gramma Rosie. There’s another little saying I remember you used, and I’ll send it back to you now: I love you, a bushel and a peck.

REVIEW: Top Hat Photo Repair (and a story)

We’ve all got that one dogeared, tattered photo that needs repairing.

Time is a destructive force. You know this. And I’ll bet, whether you’re an amateur genealogist or a professional or a family historian of any stripe, you’ve got (at least) one old photo that needs repair. One in such terrible condition, you can’t even understand how it would have gotten damaged in the first place. Am I right? Got that photo in your mind? Okay, then. Hold that thought.

Meet John C. Smith

 

My mother and I thought this picture was a hoot. Nursing a pig with a baby bottle! On the dining room chairs! In a jacket and tie!

“That picture’s been wadded up and flattened out again,” Mom observed. “And look how angry he looks!”

There’s a story there, we figured. And really, isn’t there always?

The Smith family memorabilia came to us digitally, via CD filled with photos of old photos. If anything was known about the photo’s subject, it was in the file name. If not, then not.

John C. Smith was the son of Henry Smith and Sarepta Metzgar of Groton, Tompkins county, New York. They came to West Union, Steuben county, New York, between 1870 and 1875. In 1870, still in Groton, Henry Smith listed his “Personal Estate” at $2000, but had no real estate. By 1875, he had moved his family to West Union and earned a tick mark in the “Owner of Land” column. The siding you see behind John is part of the grand old farm house before it was very old–and which is still standing today.

John C. Smith married Nellie Cornell around 1912. There’s a complementary photo of Nellie with their first two children, Esther and Virgil, taken about 1915. The nice clothes and dining room chairs are present. Thankfully, the baby bottle isn’t.

If the picture of John C. Smith was also taken in 1915, then he would have been around 40. Looks about right to me.

It’s just kind of weird: a creased and tattered picture of Pa coddling a pig, and one perfectly intact of Ma clutching her babes without him.

Were we reading too much into it?

Part of the mystery was solved when Mom and I learned that it wasn’t such an unusual thing to bottle feed a pig. It didn’t mean the animal was a beloved pet–more likely, a runt needing a little extra attention before making it to the dinner table. (As my Grandma once told me, the only thing lost on a pig was the squeal.)

Maybe the damaged photo wasn’t the story at all. (Click to Tweet this.) Here was an almost-one-hundred year-old piece of our family’s history. Maybe we were seeing the wrong things.

Top Hat Photo Repair to the Rescue!

When Michael of Top Hat Photo Repair initially approached me about a review, I hesitated. I don’t really do reviews here on my blog, and if I did, I’d review books. I was going to say no.

Out of curiosity, I visited their website. Right there on the front page was a gallery of repaired and colorized images–historic photos brought to life. Faces teased out of obstructions like fading and creasing and given clarity once more.

And of course, then I wanted badly to see one of my pictures restored.

The Website: Simple and Stylish

The homepage immediately communicates what Top Hat Photo Repair is about: a side-by-side comparison of a Before photo and the After showing their work. The gallery puts image after image at your finger tips. I appreciated that the site does NOT include an annoying slideshow functionality to manage my rate of review. I could take all the time I wanted to look back and forth between images, studying the details before moving to the next.

The menu at the top of the page is straightforward, linking to the Order Form, Gallery, FAQ, and Contact pages. I wished there was an “About Us” page for that little extra boost of confidence of knowing a bit about who I am sending my treasured image to, even if it is “only” a digital version.

The Order Form designates the pricing for each level of service: Minor Repair, Major Repair, Minor Repair and Colorize, Major Repair and Colorize, and Colorize Only. Realizing the kind of time and skill that goes into each image, I would say the prices are quite fair.

The Gallery, similar to the home page, is my favorite part of the site. I’m the sort who rescues cabinet cards from flea markets to blog about them. Of course I love seeing photos–some that I would have guessed were beyond repair–made to look new.

The FAQ page covers ordering and payment policies and offers technical advice on scanning and uploading. The least you need to know: you pay (via PayPal) when you’re satisfied with the work, and pictures scanned at 600 dpi will yield the best results.

The Contact page is a simple email form, but for those who prefer to retain a sent copy of their messages, the contact email address is given as well. (I liked this. Contact forms are not my favorite thing in the world.)

The site is minimalistic and clean, and as such I didn’t see any social media links or icons. However, a quick search led me to their Facebook page and even more restored photos. So fun.

The Service: a quality service experience

Of course I had to ask a few questions beyond what was covered on the FAQ. Most pressing:

Q1. If 600 dpi is recommended, does that mean my unfortunate collection of 72 dpi photos can’t be saved?

A1. While 72 dpi photos “should be okay” to work with, the pictures can’t be blown up for large copies without looking grainy. As with all digital graphics, no one can manipulate pixels that don’t exist. Scan quality copies of your historic photos, particularly if you only have one chance to do so, ever (she said ruefully. Sigh.)

Q2. Would they be willing to supply an image release allowing me to use the repaired photo in whatever capacity I choose, uncredited if necessary?

A2. Top Hat Photo Repair doesn’t claim any rights to the finished and restored pictures. Though Michael said no one had ever asked for such a document, he indicated he would be willing to provide one, should a customer require it.

Once I sent over the photo, Michael turned it around for me in about a day. At this point I had overcome my skepticism and was pretty excited about it. I had no expectations that it would be so fast, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to get the picture back so quickly.

As for the results–what can I say? Another thousand words, when a picture would do?

The Results: Drumroll, please!

 

As I looked back and forth from Before to After, just as I had with the anonymous pictures in the Gallery, I realized Michael had actually repaired damages I hadn’t even noticed! The yellow stain in the lower left corner. The heavy shadows on John C. Smith’s face. The chunk of photo paper that’s evidently missing from the pig’s ear.

 

I was so pleased. I could hardly wait to show my Mom the finished product!

 

I did kind of want to find something to nitpick, knowing that I was going to do a review, after all. The one and only thing I found was the stains on John C. Smith’s clothes were completely gone from the repaired image.

I grinned and called Mom. “I’m guessing it’s tough to stay clean when you’re nursing a pig in your lap. Should I ask him to put the stains back?”

“Yes,” she said. No hesitation.

I emailed Michael with my belief that the stains were on the clothing rather than the photo, and within hours, he sent me the revision (shown above). Again, I was very impressed not only with the quality of the work, but the quick turn-around. For me, the whole experience truly put the company’s words into action:

Started by Michael McCarty in 2012, Top Hat Photo Repair is dedicated to the historically accurate restoration of photographs.  They take pride in the careful way they work with the owner of each photo to bring back what time has damaged.

Now, back to YOU and your photo that needs repair

Remember I told you to hold that thought about the dinged-up, dogeared, faded, torn and stained photos in your collection? Well, I’m all thrilled, because I get to make a special offer: use the promo code “brandy” to receive 20% off any order through the end of August. There is a space for the promo code on the Order Form.

(Side note: this is the very first time my name has been a promo code, and I can’t help thinking that’s sort of awesome.)

I received a free photo repair in exchange for an honest review of Top Hat Photo Repair’s website and service. My opinions are my own.