How many times have you asked yourself, “What the heck could have happened to Great Grandma Margaret?” Have you ever stopped to think about what was going on in the world at that time? I don’t know about you but I can’t remember every piece of history. But hey if you can, fantastic! For me, I’ve found this book extremely useful in my genealogical research.
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While researching your ancestors you begin to realize you’re also researching history. You can’t have one without the other, dang isn’t that a verse in some song? My point is our ancestors are intertwined with history. Judy Jacobson’s book; “History for Genealogists“helps you look at the connection. In this book, she covers everything from wars, natural disasters to disease epidemics, and much more.
Researching for a client in Kentucky I was shocked to find there were so many deaths in 1890 around the same time in Louisville. My first thought, there must have been an illness, an epidemic that swept through the community. Nope, that wasn’t the case as you can see in the photo to the right, “Tornado in Louisville (76 died).” See history and our ancestors go hand in hand.
In addition to last week's post “Books for Your Journey“I would recommend including this one in your research library. What books do you find useful in your library?
Let’s face it when we first started researching our family, our ancestors it became a true journey. A journey into the past, learning more about them, their lives, and those around them. There are three books that I would often refer to and still find useful. So, it doesn’t matter if you're starting out or you’ve been researching for a while, check these three books out.
Mastering Census and Military Records by W. Daniel Quillen Searching for our ancestors can sometimes be a nerve-racking task. Those wanting to learn some tips, tricks, and techniques in searching census records, military records, and even mortality records will find this book especially useful. Mr. Quillen shares with you some of the pitfalls he’s encountered along the way helping you to learn from his journey.
Mastering Immigration & Naturalization Records by W. DanielQuillen You’ve been working hard to learn more about your ancestors, here in the United States. You’ve researched census records, military records, birth, and death records, what more could there be. Well, we know that most of our ancestors crossed “the pond” so to speak. Now you find yourself looking for those immigration and naturalization records. This is the perfect time to take a look at this book.
Mastering Family, Library & Church Records by W. Daniel Quillen Our family letters, bibles, and other personal collections hold so much personal information. We sometimes forget to look at the information that can be found in our churches, our libraries. Obtaining church records can seem like a foreign language to some. Thankfully with this book and Quillen sharing some of his helpful tips you can maneuver those obstacles.
Some feel the big plus with belonging to a society are the newsletters, quarterlies, and journals you receive. I have to agree I enjoy getting all of mine, well I do now. See I like organization, spreadsheets, file cabinets, schedules everything has its place.
I started to notice a huge pile of my society library. I needed to find some way to recycle, organize and just clean up that space. That’s when I decided it was time to scan, photograph and copy all of those interesting, important articles. Creating a folder for each organization on my computer has been a lifesaver, space saver, and time saver. Just a heads up if you decide to give this a try, I recommend creating a subfolder for each month within that society/organization.
How many of you have ever visited a penitentiary? Do you know much about its history, prisoners, and guards behind the walls? Some don’t realize what history, stories, and genealogical significance can be found when including such facilities in our research. It’s not all about the spirits and ghost hunting, which I still enjoy also.
While visiting back home last year I wanted to take a tour through the Missouri State Penitentiary. When I was much younger my parents thought the penitentiary would be a family outing of sorts. Okay, stop laughing, back 40 plus years ago the penitentiary would give paid tours. Yes, there were prisoners in the facility. No, we ended up not being able to take that tour because of my young age.
But with the penitentiary closed, no longer housing prisoners it wasn’t a problem this time around. There were many stories shared throughout the tour, don’t worry I’ll share more later. When it came to the gas chamber it was creepy, sad, and interesting, strange I know.
The Chamber
When entering through the front of the building, where the prisoners were escorted, a large white cross was inlaid in the walking path. The construction and bricklaying were all completed by the inmates. The construction was completed sometime around 1937.
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You would enter through the door and come face to face with what would ultimately be your last prison cell, the chamber. The chamber door might look familiar to some, especially those enlisted in the US Navy and served on a submarine. The door was from a World War II submarine. To the right you would see your holding cell, I would imagine this is where you’d receive your last meal, last rights, and visit with loved ones.
While taking this guided tour we learned the courts felt as if death by lethal gas was more humane than hangings. The first three executed in the chamber, John Brown on 4th March 1938, William Wright on 4th March 1938, and Raymond Boyer on 5th March 1938, initially were to be executed by hanging. Pictured below is the chair that the prisoner would be strapped into during the execution. The large black round circle, hanging above the prisoners’ chair was actually a mirror. The prisoner’s reflection from the mirror allowed those in the windows behind the prisoner to observe the execution.
Executed
Executions in this chamber, by gas, were from 1938 through 1965 ending with the execution of Lloyd Leo Anderson on 26th February 1989. In the photograph below you will see the prison photos of all those executed in this chamber. Notice that out of the 40 photographed 34 were convicted of 1st-degree murder and 6 were convicted of rape. Yet one of the noticeable differences in those photographed is 39 are male and 1 female, Bonnie Brown Heady. She along with her partner, Carl Austin Hall, were convicted for the kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease.
Do you have a connection with those photographed above? Have you traced any of your ancestor’s criminal records?
Who are they?
William Wright, age 33, 03/04/1938, Murder 1st & Robbery
John Brown, age 34, 03/04/1938, Murder 1st
Raymond Boyer, age 33, 03/05/1938, Murder 1st
Raymond Batson, age 33, 03/30/1938, Murder 1st
Johnny Jones, age 35, 07/15/1938, Rape
Adam Ricchetti, age 28, 10/07/1938, Murder 1st
Granville Allen, age 26, 10/28/1938, Murder 1st
Byron King, age 20, 11/04/1938, Murder 1st
John F. Williamson, age 63, 02/15/1939, Murder 1st
Robert Kenyon, age 24, 04/28/1939, Murder 1st
Chester Jackson, age 31, 09/20/1940, Murder 1st
Robert West, age 25, 09/20/1940, Murder 1st
Wilburn Johnson, age 40, 01/03/1941, Murder 1st
Ernest Tyler, age 37, 04/24/1942, Murder 1st
Allen Lambus, age 73, 06/16/1944, Murder 1st
James Thomas, age 20, 10/19/1944, Rape
Leo Lyles, age 22, 05/25/1945, Murder 1st
William E. Talbert, age 24, 11/16/1945, Murder 1st
Fred Ellis, age 23, 08/16/1946, Murder 1st
Jesse Sanford, age 37, 08/16/1946, Murder 1st
Van Lee Ramsey, age 37, 01/09/1947, Murder 1st
Marshall Perkins, age 59, 01/24/1947, Rape
Floyd Cochran, age 37, 06/26/1947, Murder 1st
Afton Scott, age 49, 11/04/1949, Murder 1st
George Bell, age 26, 12/02/1949, Murder 1st
Charles Tiedt, age 56, 05/19/1950, Murder 1st
Claude McGee, age 39, 01/05/1951, Murder 1st
Willie Porter, age 29, 10/28/1952, Rape
Ulas Quilling, age 53, 05/29/1953, Murder 1st
Kenneth Boyd, age 23, 07/10/1953, Murder 1st
Bonnie Brown Heady, age 41, 12/18/1953, Kidnapping & Murder
Carl Austin Hall, age 34, 12/18/1953, Kidnapping & Murder
Dock Booker, age 46, 04/01/1955, Murder 1st
Arthur Ross Brown, age 31, 02/24/1956, Kidnapping & Murder
Thomas J. Moore, age 42, 09/01/1957, Murder 1st
Sammy Aire Tucker, age 26, 07/26/1963, Murder 1st
Charles Harvey Odom, age 32, 03/06/1964, Rape
Ronald Wolfe, age 34, 05/08/1964, Rape
Lloyd Leo Anderson, age 20, 02/26/1965, Murder 1st
George C. Mercer, age 35, 01/06/1989, Murder 1st – Lethal Injection
Spring months are upon us and summer is even closer than we realize. With summer, comes vacations and family reunions. it’s the perfect time for many family historians to share their work, family charts, family trees, and stories.
So, you pull out the three-ring binders, laptops, and scrap paper and begin working on the family chart. As you’re working you begin to think; “there has to be an easier way to do this.” Building a family chart that can actually be a “working family chart.” One that you can roll up, easy transport, with clear text and straight lines. A way to display, share and work with all of your information in one place.
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There is,“Family ChartMasters”with over a decade of creating beautiful charts sharing your family history. As a top-notch genealogy chart printing company, they have received awards and kudos from many. In the video below, you will see an interview I had with Development Director, Janet Hovorka. I spoke with her during the 2018 RootsTech conference in Utah. She was very busy at her booth but took the time to share more information with me and all of you.
Take time to visit their website and see all of the beautiful pieces of “family history art” they’ve created over the years.
Built-in the early 1800s the Chambers house is a Quaker style home is also known as the “Stairways.” While walking around the outside of the home I noticed it was actually built into the side of a hill. Once I made it around to what I thought was the back of the home I noticed a door. It turns out this was the front entrance into the home on the second floor. It appears to be this was also facing the main road, well what’s left of the road. When touring the inside of the home you must enter and exit through the back door in the basement, first floor.
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The reason the house has the nickname “Stairways” is because of the three stairways inside of the home. The one constructed in the original portion of the home is made of stone. The home was built by Joseph Chambers after the death of his father, Benjamin. The land the home was built on was purchased by his father around 1770, close to 250 acres. Currently, it is used as a nature center for the park.
Who isLiving DNA? Where is Living DNA? What makes them different from all of the other DNA companies? These are just a few of the many questions I’ve received and heard throughout the last four months. I wanted to take some time to answer just a few questions today. But don’t worry I won’t stop here, check back every week to see what else I can tell you about Living DNA.
Living DNA is a company like no other company out there. With our test, we bring your family history to life while providing you over twice the details as other companies. Our kit isn’t just one test it’s 3 in 1, we test the fatherline, motherline and your familyline. So, let me give you a little back history, for those of you who are just hearing about us for the first time.
YouTube Interview
Co-founders David Nicholson and Hannah Morden-Nicholson set out to show how we are all connected across the world. Launched in 2016 under the watchful eye of our parent company DNA Worldwide Group. In February of 2016, we worked with Mark Jobling, a Professor of Genetics, developing the most detailed chip-based fatherline ancestry test available. We then worked with Innsbruck University to develop the most detailed chip-based motherline ancestry test available. We are based in the UK with a testing facility in Denmark. Please feel free to click on the links above to learn more. Don’t worry like I said earlier I have more to share so this isn’t over.
I’m curious how many of you know what a “diving bell” is? Have you ever seen one while walking along the beach or while taking a boat tour? I thought I had numerous times even in movies like “Finding Nemo”. But in reality, what I thought turned out to be a ” harbor bell buoy”. Two completely different things. Almost always I would have pictured a flock of seagulls around one or a seal sunbathing.
Sunbathing Seal
It turns out that the purpose of a diving bell is to save lives much as a buoy is floating in the water. While walking through a park in Delaware City the structure pictured below caught my attention. Not the typical structure I’ve ever seen so I had to find out more. I learned that a diving bell is used as an air chamber for divers, those working underwater to make repairs.
I don’t know of any of my ancestors who would have experience with one. I’m not fond of close quarters so this would be difficult for me. Diving bells aren’t new there are even sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. I remember an experiment my dad shared with me, capturing air in a cup before submerging it into a sink of water. When you would work to pull it up you feel of pull then a pop as the air is released when it meets the surface.
