Those Collaterals (siblings, etc. of direct line)

My whole purpose with writing this blog is to record and share with my cousins what I know about our family's ancestors. It is a way of organizing the papers, pictures, pedigree charts, and assorted slips of paper that came from my mother, the saver of everything. And in the case of genealogy, how glad I am that she did.

Growing up where my mother's family had lived for generations, I was very familiar with my maternal collaterals. My great grandmother's brother and sister-in-law lived close by. Their daughter, my first cousin twice removed, is the source of much of the Vorhies genealogy.

I thought I knew about my dad's side. He was born in Lake City where my great grandmother Emma Borden lived when I was young. She had a couple of sisters, Great Great Aunt Mae and Great Great Aunt Alice. They were the children of George J. DeHart. He seemed to be quite a prominent member of that community. He left Iowa and moved to Texas with his second wife and daughter ( GGrandma Emma Susan DeHart Borden's  half sister). I have written about George Jackson DeHart and found his grave in Dalhart, Texas a year or two ago. There is quite a lot of research already done on the DeHart side. The needed information for membership in Daughter's of the American Revolution traces back to Abraham DeHart. This is not new information.

So where am I going with this, you might ask. I mentioned in my Easter 2016 that I had recently received (on loan) some of my aunt's genealogy papers. I am just starting to look at them. The very first paper I read is a photocopy of the obituary of William Calahill  DeHart. I have come across that name when doing DeHart research but I would need to do a little more to confirm what I think. I think he is George Jackson DeHart's brother. And he lived in Lake City.
 
Who Knew? More collaterals in Lake City to explore.

The same thing has happened on Dad's side. I have mentioned in  Cousins  I knew very little about the origins of my Great Grandmother, Jennie Emily Olmstead Wright. After some late night obsessive explorations, I have found her parents. I learned that they along with Jennie's younger siblings  moved from Illinois to Sac City, Iowa.  This was about the time Jennie and her new husband, Charles Howard Wright, settled in that same community.

Who knew?

I am still amazed at the geographical closeness of these collaterals. Lake City and Sac City, both, had more ancestors and collaterals than I realized.

Thanks to my Aunt Bonnie, I now have more information on the DeHarts, the Wrights, and the Olmsteads.

My Aunt Bonnie and me.
She is so pretty, and I have a stupid curl on top of my head.

I imagine the  furtherest thing from her mind was that I would be picking up her genealogy research about 65+ years after this photo was taken.

September 19

Readers might notice that my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule is a little off. In the next couple of weeks, a post might come anytime. Don't be surprised. There might be a few more or a few less. By October, this irregularly should be back to normal.

Today is the 46th anniversary of the birth of my paternal grandmother's first great grandchild. Did you follow that?  Nina Frances Borden Wright was born September 19, 1900 in Cook County, Illinois. My father was her oldest child, and I was her oldest grandchild. How appropriate for her first great grandchild to be born on her 69th birthday. This great grandchild is also known as daughter to her father and me.

Birthday Celebration of 1978
My Grandma Nina and her first great grandchild

                      Happy Birthday Mrs. G.

Celestia... Friday's Feature

Sometimes my head begins to spin with dates and places, names and relationships of these ancestors that have contributed to who we are or who our children and grandchildren are. I need to stop and try to spin a possible story to get to know these pioneers and a little about their lives. The family connections of my husband's great great grandmother, Celestia, can be traced back to 1630. It is easy to get lost in that information about the founding of this country. After hours of reading, comparing information, entering data and reflecting on such, I want to think more about the stories. I need to try to make theses ancestors more real.

Celestia Mary Phillips Marsh (1829-1918) is buried in the cemetery in Jefferson, Iowa. ( I became aware of this only a few months ago.) When I can walk to someone's grave, they start to become real to me. She was the daughter of Elijah and Ellen Thompson Phillips and was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania. Here is a quick lineage reminder: Celestia/ Minerva Jane/ Ina/ Doris/ Tom (my husband).

As the oldest child she probably kept busy in their home in little Russell, Pennsylvania (This town has gone by many names according to the town's website. In her obituary it is called Russellburg) This small village is located  in the township of Pine Grove and is just over the state line from New York in the northwest area of  Pennsylvania. Pine Grove is often mentioned as the place of residence in census records. She had seven younger siblings. Her dad, Elijah, was a farmer and her mother, Ellen, was undoubtedly kept busy with the care of this family. Remember, Aunt Fanny, youngest child of Celestia. In 1941 she wrote about life in those early days as had been told to her by her mother. 
Aunt Fanny's Research.

 It appears that Celestia grew up in this area of Pennsylvania. In 1850 when the census was taken, she was 19 years old. Then next year on December 31, 1851 she married Richard Marsh. I wonder if there was any special celebration for the New Year about to break.

In the nine or so years before moving to Illinois in 1860, four children had been born to Celestia and Richard. The third child, Dwight, wrote about this move in papers from 1941.   See Pennsylvania to Iowa 1860. The family lived around Princeton, Illinois for approximately 16 years before moving on to Greene County, Iowa in May of 1876. While in that area they had two more children, Emmett (1870) and Fanny (1873). Prior to Fanny's birth, their daughter, Florence died in 1872) Then in 1876, they lost 6 year old, Emmett. This was the year, they moved to Greene County in May. I do not know if Emmett died before or after their move. Their oldest son, Joseph Merritt, had married the year before the move to Adelia Mudge on March 3, 1875. Our direct line ancestor, Minerva Jane, would have been around 16. Once in Greene County she met Edward M. Reeder. (We all know where that lead.)

When I was reading about the Reeders, I learned they lived south of Jefferson. Guess where Celestia,  Richard, and Marsh children ( including Minerva Jane)  moved to in 1876. Yep, to a farm south of Jefferson. I wonder how long it took them to meet.  Our Minerva Jane Marsh and Edward M. Reeder married December 22, 1880.

Celestia's husband, Richard, died in 1885 about 9 or 10 years after coming to Greene County. This is probably the reason for their move into Jefferson.

Grandma Celestia, also called Celia died just a few weeks before my mother-in-law (her great-granddaughter) was born in 1918.

Pennsylvania to Iowa 1860

I am thinking that I need a "new system" to alert my readers to which family tree I am climbing now that I am starting to jump around a bit.  The post from July 1 was about my maternal side. Today, the information is about my husband's maternal side. I am open to ideas. Anyone? Anyone? 

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Minerva Jane Marsh Reeder (1860-1953) was the fourth of six children. They were the children of Richard and Celestia Phillips Marsh who moved from Pennsylvania when Minerva Jane was just a baby. They stopped in Illinois first.

The baby of this family was Fanny. See Aunt Fanny (1873-1956) It is Fanny's research and writing that I am using to share this part of my husband's maternal family story. Among these records is a writing by Dwight, the third child of the family. I just have a feeling that Aunt Fanny convinced him to do this.

He writes of the family home in Warren County, Pennsylvania and their move to Illinois about 1860.  He says they started out with a team and a wagon.  There were four children. Joseph Merritt about 8 years old, Florence about 6, Dwight about 4, and the baby Minerva Jane (direct line ancestor). The trip included arriving at a railroad, loading everything on the train and eventually arriving in Princeton, Illinois.

He included a story that I found to be very, very sad. "My uncle and family started with us but we had not travelled many days when one of my cousins fell out of the wagon and was run over and killed so the family returned to Warren County". I wonder if this uncle and family were on Dwight's mother's side or father's side.

His mother's maiden name was Phillips.  Celestia Phillips was the daughter of Elijah Phillips and Ellen Thompson Phillips. I am explaining this lineage because Dwight mentions one of his great-grandfathers in his writing.

He mentions that Great Grandfather Thompson came from Pennsylvania to Illinois at the age of 99 years.  While there he jumped on a horse and rode.  He lived to be over 100 years old. So, Dwight and our Minerva Jane's mother Celestia was the daughter of Ellen Thompson Phillips and her father would have been Caleb Thompson, the Great Grandfather Thompson to whom Dwight is referring.

He also mentions that his great grandmother Phillips lived to be 97. So, longevity is on not just from Grandpa Halle Augustus (1890-1990) my husband's maternal grandfather, but from my husband's maternal, maternal, maternal, maternal, paternal side too. Doris/Ina/Minerva Jane/Celestia/Ellen/Caleb Thompson.

Ina Reeder Augustus, Minerva Jane Marsh Reeder, Celestia Phillips Marsh

Three generations of Grandmothers

Ginevra Mary "Neva" Smith Walker (1909-1975)

Great Aunt Neva was the third child born to Hiram and Estella Smith. She was born in Scranton Township in Greene County, Iowa on February 18, 1909.   Recently, I wrote about the second child, Merroll.  Some family members might wonder why I haven't written about, Nina, the first child. Nina was my grandmother, and I have lots to tell about her. I decided I would introduce her siblings first. When I write about Neva and Bert one should know they were my great aunt and uncle. I always just called them aunt and uncle and will continue the title in this post.

One of my first memories of Aunt Neva was in great-grandma Smith's house. She and her husband, Bert, lived in Illinois and had come for a family visit. She immediately hugged me, folding me into her arms, and almost smothering me in her fur coat. It is that fuzzy black coat that must have made the memory so vivid because I was very young. As an adult, I learned more about why they had moved to Illinois.  For several years, Bert, farmed Estella's ( great-grandma Smith) farm. Evidently, things weren't going so well and he was terminated. I understand there was family fall out as one might expect. There are other family skeletons linked to this aunt and uncle but for now let's just let them rest.

Uncle Bert and Aunt Neva never had children. I always felt like they considered my mom as their daughter and in turn, I was like a granddaughter. These realizations affected me strongly as a kid. I was very young when I determined that as a grown-up, I wanted my own family. I wanted children and grandchildren of my own. As special as we were to her, we belonged to her sister.

Bert and Neva drove my mom to the hospital when I was born. The story goes that there was a bad snowstorm. Dad had to stay behind to milk the cows but came later. I have always loved snow and believe the excitement of the occasion coursed its way  through mom's umbilical cord and reached me as an unborn child. O.K. Laugh if you must, but I actually did a study on this once.

Neva wanted Mom to name me Sarah Jane. This did not happen but through my study of my third great-grandmother Sarah Jane Swartzel Withrow, I feel like I have become very close to her.  It would have been an honor.  Aunt Neva also gave me a necklace that she always wore. I believe it belonged to her grandmother, Ginevra for whom she was named. (She is wearing it in the picture at the end of this page)

Aunt Neva's birthday was 3 days before mine. She wanted me to be born on her birthday, but instead I was born on John's birthday, February 21. John was brother to my mother and they were Aunt Neva's niece and nephew. When I was eleven John's first child was born. Oh, how I hoped the new baby would be born on February 21. Well, the new baby made Aunt Neva very happy because she arrived on February 18. On February 18, 2008 another family member was born. This time the baby born on Aunt Neva's birthday in 1956 was thrilled to welcome into the world her own first grandchild. Aunt Neva's wish came true a couple of times.

I have many, many memories of Aunt Neva.  I am not sure when they moved back to Greene County from Illinois.  Uncle John said she was his favorite cook in the family. When I was in high school, I would stay at Bert and Neva's house if Mom and Dad went somewhere overnight. In fact, I was staying with them when I was dropped off from a New Year's Night party that to this day is a momentous anniversary. (First date with the guy who would become my husband several years later)

Aunt Neva died in July of 1975 just two weeks after the husband of her sister, Nina. Of course, that was my grandfather, Bert Grisso, of whom I am speaking. I thought how hard it must be to lose a husband and then a sister so close together.



Neva and Bert Walker