Reflections From the Fence: May 2023

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Brick Walls - As I Wrote This Post - The Wall Came Tumbling Down, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, who year after year posts "challenges" for her followers to share thoughts and/or photos in whatever manner suits each individual. Blogs, social media, or just in your personal memories. I have played before, and will play along a bit this year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

This week's challenge is: Brick Walls.

Originally I was going to whine, err, write about Valeria.

Valeria was the second wife, in a very short marriage, of Man's father.

You can see from this screen shot of her on my data base, with a time line to the right side, that from the time she is about 33 until her death, there is a HUGE bunch of missing info.

That said, on review and several hours of additional digging on the internet for new clues, I am ready to say, I have that first half of her life and her death reasonably researched and over all I am pleased with the results. EXCEPT for the little tidbit of a third marriage?? To one "Walley Vedro".

Despite a number of tries, I just cannot get a lead on Wally. No marriage record to Valeria (Valerie and other spellings accepted.). Said marriage, if there was one, would have happened after 1957 when her second hubby John Martin Scherer passed.

I have not been able to locate Wally on census enumerations, I am not sure what locality to search, in the U.S., or, maybe somewhere else.

I am currently searching for "alternate" given names to research, otherwise, he is truly a brick wall.

Oh, see the P. S. below that was written about 24 hours after what you have just read.

P. S. FOUND HIM!! He is Raymond Joseph Vedro. I'm still trying to figure it all out and do the input. Interesting little genie twist, there are two marriages (that I have found so far) between the Vedro and Butkus clans.

I found him by going to GenealogyBanks dot com (I pay full price for my subscription) and searched every Social Security Death Index entry for the surname Vedro. There were less than 50, so the search was not overwhelming. When I found Raymond I stopped short and took a nice long look, because his last benefit was forwarded to the same small community that Valeria's last benefit was forwarded to. With a name, and some dates, his wall came tumbling down.

Still no marriage index or record. Still no burial place for either. Still no obituary for him. That can all wait for another day, cause, frankly, I am kinda tired, I stayed up wayyyyy too late last night tossing around all those bricks.

And, I have no idea why he went by "Wally". But, we all know, there is no rhyme or reason to nicknames. And, we all know, nicknames were invented to drive the already partially crazy family researcher to the FULL ON WACKADOODLE crazy. We thank you.

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Mother's Day 2023

Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers in our family I have been blessed to know in my lifetime.

Top left. Daughter-in-love and the grand twins.

Top right. My great grandmother and her 4 great grands.

Middle left. My mom, the scholar.

Middle right. Daughter-in-love’s mother.

Bottom left. My father’s mother at the beach, her fav place as far as I knew.

Bottom middle. My mother’s mother and her four grands. Yes same four as in the top right.

Bottom right. Man’s mother and turtle.

I tried to choose photos that were my favs and/or showed something a bit different.

Them thar is some fine women!!

* Collage made with the app LiveCollage on my ipad.

Monday, May 8, 2023

Harriet (nee) Pinkerton? (nee) Henry? Pinkerton, Research Report, the As It Is Series

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors. (Noting that today's post is neither efficient or speedy fast. Groan.) This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report. It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let’s begin - -

Meet - - Harriet (nee) Pinkerton? (nee) Henry? Pinkerton.

SIGH. Ya, I know. Messy start.

This last weekend I spent too many hours chasing a Pinkerton and Henry clan and extensions thereof. This post is an attempt to review and organize, I have a feeling it may be messy, very very messy.

I had, before this weekend, almost nothing recorded about Harriet Henry, bride of Andrew Jackson (A. J.) Pinkerton. I was working some other Pinkerton and Henry peeps and it eventually led me to Harriet.

Here is how she appeared on my data base before I began (clip from Legacy which has the old data, I no longer update this data base, so it is great for reviewing what was.)

During my deep dive over the weekend, I discovered that some researchers hinted that her mother was Charlotte Pinkerton, father unknown. I found these census reports. I am still sitting on the fence.

Harriet Pinkerton. ** Birth name?

in the 1850 United States Federal Census

Detail Source

Name Harriet Pinkerton

Gender Female

Race White

Age 8

Birth Year abt 1842

Birthplace Pennsylvania

Home in 1850 Township 6 S R 6 W, Randolph, Illinois, USA

Line Number 22

Dwelling Number 1568

Family Number 1578

Household Members (Name) Age

James Pinkerton 72

Charlotte Pinkerton 29

Harriet Pinkerton 8

Harriet Henry * a different birth name? the one she may have used the rest of her life.

in the 1860 United States Federal Census

Name Harriet Henry

Age 18

Birth Year abt 1842

Gender Female

Race White

Birth Place Pennsylvania

Home in 1860 Township 7 S Range 5 W, Randolph, Illinois

Post Office Shiloh Hill

Dwelling Number 3044

Family Number 3054

Inferred Mother Charlotte Henry

Household Members (Name) Age

Douglas Henry 45

John Pinkerton 85

Charlotte Henry 40

Harriet Henry 18

Sarah L Henry 6

Charles W Henry 3

William D Henry 1

See Charlotte Pinkerton marries Douglas Henry (aka Ranson Douglas Henry) by the 1860 census enumeration. Charlotte does marry in Randolph County, Illinois, giving some credence to the census reports above.

Issue: Both of these reports indicate a birth place for Harriet of Pennsylvania. Census from 1870 forward till her death, report her birth place as Ohio.

Issue: Her husband's obituary clearly states he married Harriet in Michigan, St. Joseph County perhaps, possibly 1863. I have not located any marriage record as of this post. I do have concerns over how and/or why Harriet made her way to Michigan from the far west side of Illinois where Randolph County is. I do find her future husband living in Branch County Michigan in the 1860 census.

Next section of input is from her husband's bio:

Andrew J Pinkerton

Census • United States Census, 1870

Name Andrew J Pinkerton

Sex Male

Age 23

Birth Year (Estimated) 1847

Race White

Relationship Code Head

Event Type Census

Event Date 1870

Event Place Frederika, Bremer, Iowa, United States

Event Place (Original) Frederica, Bremer, Iowa, United States

Page Number 7

Birthplace Ohio, United States

Harriet Pinkerton F 26 Ohio, United States

Ellesly Pinkerton F 5 Michigan, United States

Emma Pinkerton F 0 Iowa, United States (actually says 6 months)

Charley Pinkerton M 19 Ohio, United States

Jackson Pinkerton is enumerated on the 1880 US census of Frederika Township, Bremer County, Iowa, as follows: Jackson Pinkerton, 36, farmer, born Ohio, parents both born Pa.; Harriet age 37, wife, born Ohio, father born Ct, mother born Pa.; next is listed a male child, son, age 14, born Michigan, name cannot be read as the entire entry has a line drawn through it, this entry was considered a "Duplication" and there are some numbers given, which are smeared, compiler has been unable to determine where the duplicate entry is, however, it does indicate that this child was "at school", name begins with an "E"; Alva, age 4, son, born Iowa; Lewis, son born April 1880.

Jackson Pinkerton is enumerated on the 1885 census of Frederika, Bremer County, Iowa as follows: Jackson, age 37, farmer, born Ohio; Harriet, age 4? (could be 42, 47, or 49), born Ohio; Alva, age 8, born Bremer County, Iowa; Lewis, age 4, born, Bremer County, Iowa.

Andrew J Pinkerton

Census • Iowa State Census, 1895

Name Andrew J Pinkerton

Sex Male

Age 49

Event Type Census

Event Date 1895

Event Place Bremer, Iowa, United States

Birth Year (Estimated) 1846

Record Number 2882

Harriett Pinkerton F 52

Alva Pinkerton M 18

Louis Pinkerton M 13

Harriet died before the 1900 census, on her Find A Grave memorial (# 28303494) the year of death is reported as is inscribed on her headstone, 1898.

I searched everywhere, at least a couple of times, for her death record, even bracketing the years to 1896 and 1900. I have not found that record, yet. Note that the Iowa death records for Bremer County for these years are indexed, but, are not viewable from my home, I must go to a FamilySearch library.

However, while reviewing again, I found 2 additional obituaries for Andrew, both stating she died February 18, 1899. With that specific date, I again searched for death indexes at FamilySearch, again, fail. I then found the newspapers online via the Advantage Archives project and fairly quickly found 2 death notices for Mrs. J. Pinkerton.

From the Weekly Republican, Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa, published February 23, 1899:

“FREDERIKA

Mrs. J. Pinkerton died Tuesday. Funeral took place Thursday from the M. E. church. She leaves a husband and two sons to mourn her loss.”

From the Waverly Democrat, Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa, published on February 23, 1899:

“Frederika.

Mrs J. Pinkerton, died Tuesday of paralysis. The funeral was held at the M.E. church Thursday. She leaves a husband and two sons to mourn her loss.”

Next I pulled a calendar for February 1899, I'm having issues trying to get the stated death date of February 18th to work with the newspaper reports of her death.

I have updated her profile on Reunion, here is what it looks like now, in tree view. We note, additional children's names have been added, per the research done over the weekend.

At this point, I have not found additional information indicating her who her parents actually are. The search continues. But, not until I take a much needed mental break. I have brain burn. During the next round of research, I will again attempt to figure out who Charlotte Pinkerman's parents are, other than a possible father of James or John. SIGH. So many holes.

* Researching this clan has been tedious, the use, for example, of AJ or Jackson or Andrew J or Andrew Jackson in records makes for a slow slug.

** Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors. I pay for subscriptions, full price.

*** My judgements may or may not be correct. Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

**** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink. Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs. As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed. If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

***** I hope the usual happens, within hours, sometimes minutes, I do another search and something shows up. Well, I can hope.