In my last post, I talked about finding Edna Craig in the 1900 Census living with Mrs. Emily Snyder and how I initially thought that Emily Snyder was Edna's mother, Emily Hunter. Further research showed that Emily Snyder was not Emily (Hunter) Craig. However, I did not know who Emily Synder was nor why Edna and her brothers were living with the Snyders.
Once I learned that Emily Craig was murdered by her husband, John Craig, I thought again about who the Snyders could be. My mother was orphaned by the time she was six. She and her brother and sister went to live with their paternal grandparents. Thus, I wondered if Emily Snyder was a relative.
Besides being named Emily, Mrs. Snyder was born about the same time as Emily Hunter, therefore, Mrs. Snyder could not have been a sister. It was possible that Emily Snyder was a paternal aunt.
As I noted in my previous post, I was unsure that Emily Snyder's mother was born in California as indicated in the 1900 Census because her mother would have been born in Mexican California. From the newspaper accounts of the hanging of John Craig, I had learned that his father was Daniel Craig, who in 1896 was living and residing in Illinois. Unless there was an error in the 1900 Census concerning the birthplace of Emily Snyder's mother, Mrs. Snyder probably was not John Craig's sister.
As it turns out Emily Snyder was Emily Hunter, Edna's mother's first cousin. Emily (Hunter) Snyder's parents were Asa and Petra Hunter. I found their marriage record. Asa Hunter and Petra Ortiz were married in California. Therefore the information concerning Emily Snyder in the 1900 Census was accurate.
Indeed, she was born in California, had no children in 1900 and her mother was born in California. Furthermore, I found that the Hunter family settled around what is now Glendale very early in the history of the State of California. The family had acquired substantial property that included a portion of the southern part of Rancho San Rafael and the adjacent 1200-acre Rancho Cañada de los Nogales. Over the years, the Hunter family sold parts of the property. Tropico, California, where Emily (Hunter) Craig was murdered, was located in what was once the family property.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tropico, California and the Emily Craig Murder
Awhile back I was doing some research to find out more information concerning Mary Griffith Stoutenburg's son, Walter Stoutenburg Rawlings when I came across his whereabouts in 1920. He was living in California and was married to Edna.
From the census image, I could determine that Edna was born in California between 1892 and 1893. Her father was born in Illinois; her mother, in California. As she would be 17 in 1910, I assumed that she would be single and living in California. Getting no where, I gave up looking and moved onto other persons of interest.
By chance, last week I found a record of the marriage in 1914 in Los Angeles County of Walter S. Rawlings and Edna Craig that included the identification of the parents of both parties. I learned that Edna's mother was Emily Hunter and her father was J. Craig. Since Edna was born in California about 1892 and was married at and living in Los Angeles County, I decided to look for her in the Census of 1900 and of 1910.
I felt that I had a the best chance of finding the given name of her father by searching for her in the 1900 Census as she was only 7 then. I found an Edna Craig who was born in June 1892 living at 743 Castelar Street in Los Angeles. (Castelar Street is now Hill Street.)
The head of household was 36-year-old John Snyder whose wife was 28-year-old Emily. They had been married 7 years. I assumed that this Emily was either divorced from J. Craig or that J. Craig was deceased. Later I learned that I was both correct and incorrect.
There were some things in this record that struck me as odd. First, the three children, of which Edna was the youngest, were recorded as lodgers and not the step or adopted children of John Snyder. His wife, Emily, was recorded as having no children and no children living in 1900. For whatever reasons, sometimes stillborns or infants dying shortly after birth are discounted. My initial inclination was she had no children of this marriage and that fact was what is recorded.
Finally, I was curious about Mrs. Snyder's parents' birth locations. They matched those of the children. I found it particularly odd that Emily's mother was born in California. If Emily Hunter was born about 1871, then her mother would have been born about 1850 or earlier. There were not very many woman of Northern European ancestry who were born in California before 1850. Until 1848, California was a Spanish terrritory.
I entered the information I found in the 1900 Census to my family tree, but added a note about my concerns. The next step, was to find Edna Craig in the 1910 Census. I found her living as a student at the Girl's Collegiate School on Adams Boulevard near Hoover Street. Either she or the school administration did not know where her father was born except that he was born in the United States.
She was the only student enumerated at this address. The others were employees of the school. Combine this with the oddities I noted in the 1900 Census, I began to wonder who Mrs. Emily Snyder really was. At this time, I don't know who she is, but I do know that she was not Edna Craig's mother because Emily (Hunter) Craig was murdered in 1894 by her estranged husband, John Craig.
My assumption, based on the 1900 Census, that Emily was either a widow or divorced was correct. Emily Hunter divorced John Craig shortly before he killed her. Two years after her own death, she became a widow when John Craig was hung at Folsom Prison in Northern California for murdering her and her parents.
The various newspaper accounts of the murder say that she was murdered at the Hunter Ranch in Tropico, California. She had taken her three children there to live with her brother, George. John Craig wounded his brother-in-law, killed his wife then looked for his children. A servant had managed to get the children safely out of the house and into hiding.
John Craig then went the home of his mother and father-in-law on Buena Vista Street in a suburb of Los Angeles and shot them dead. He unsuccessfully tried to kill himself.
A 1908 map of Tropico provided me with the names of the streets in the town, some of which sounded familiar. I compared the streets on the 1908 map with Google maps and was able to determine where the former town of Tropico was.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was on the west side of the the town. The Amtrak and Metro-Link trains both have a stop here, the Glendale Station. The north-south street names are mostly unchanged. They include San Fernando Road, Central Avenue, Brand Boulevard and Glendale Avenue. Los Angeles Avenue on the 1908 map was not a contiguous street. It terminated at Cypress Street and resumed a few blocks away at Tropico Avenue. Today the northern portion is Los Angeles Street and the southern extension is Gardena Avenue.
Many of the east-west street names are changed with Tropico Avenue the most significant. You will find it on Google maps under is current name, Los Feliz Road. Cypress, Laurel and EulaliaCerritos Avenue. Two streets north of Tropico (Los Feliz) whose names were changed are Wilkinson Court and Victor Court. They are now called Fernando Court and Palmer Avenue, respectively.
According to A History of California and An Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, Volume 1 by James Miller Guinn (Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1915), Tropico was laid out as a town in 1887. Page 441 reads, "The San Pedro & Salt Lake road passes along the borders of the town, affording easy access to the city (Los Angeles)." This was a railroad that connected Salt Lake City to San Pedro at Los Angeles Harbor.
The land around the town was divided in to lots for fruit raising of which the primary crop is strawberries. The Los Angeles, Tropico & Glendale Trolley was completed about 1905 providing a 20-minute ride to Los Angeles. I'm sure that many Angelenos would love to have only a 20-minute commute nowadays.
The town was incorporated in 1911. Tropico was annexed to Glendale in 1918. Over time most indication of its existence disappeared.
Sources:
Look for the James Guinn book at Google Books
An aside:
Glendale is a city north of the downtown Los Angeles near Griffith Park. The University of California Santa Barbara Library has a photo of a building in Tropico, California. It is a lone building with what looks like tumbleweeds or other desert plants in the landscape. The photo was taken in 1978 by John S. Kiewit. The library subject is:
Tropico (Calif.)
Buildings-California
Glendale (Calif.)
The building in the photo does not look like anything I have seen in Glendale. The vegetation looks more like desert than the vegetation of the very urban city of Glendale. I found a website that has several photos of buildings near the old mine site. Click on the photo on the right to see the gallery of photos. The photo at UCSB is very similar.
From the census image, I could determine that Edna was born in California between 1892 and 1893. Her father was born in Illinois; her mother, in California. As she would be 17 in 1910, I assumed that she would be single and living in California. Getting no where, I gave up looking and moved onto other persons of interest.
By chance, last week I found a record of the marriage in 1914 in Los Angeles County of Walter S. Rawlings and Edna Craig that included the identification of the parents of both parties. I learned that Edna's mother was Emily Hunter and her father was J. Craig. Since Edna was born in California about 1892 and was married at and living in Los Angeles County, I decided to look for her in the Census of 1900 and of 1910.
I felt that I had a the best chance of finding the given name of her father by searching for her in the 1900 Census as she was only 7 then. I found an Edna Craig who was born in June 1892 living at 743 Castelar Street in Los Angeles. (Castelar Street is now Hill Street.)
The head of household was 36-year-old John Snyder whose wife was 28-year-old Emily. They had been married 7 years. I assumed that this Emily was either divorced from J. Craig or that J. Craig was deceased. Later I learned that I was both correct and incorrect.
There were some things in this record that struck me as odd. First, the three children, of which Edna was the youngest, were recorded as lodgers and not the step or adopted children of John Snyder. His wife, Emily, was recorded as having no children and no children living in 1900. For whatever reasons, sometimes stillborns or infants dying shortly after birth are discounted. My initial inclination was she had no children of this marriage and that fact was what is recorded.
Finally, I was curious about Mrs. Snyder's parents' birth locations. They matched those of the children. I found it particularly odd that Emily's mother was born in California. If Emily Hunter was born about 1871, then her mother would have been born about 1850 or earlier. There were not very many woman of Northern European ancestry who were born in California before 1850. Until 1848, California was a Spanish terrritory.
I entered the information I found in the 1900 Census to my family tree, but added a note about my concerns. The next step, was to find Edna Craig in the 1910 Census. I found her living as a student at the Girl's Collegiate School on Adams Boulevard near Hoover Street. Either she or the school administration did not know where her father was born except that he was born in the United States.
She was the only student enumerated at this address. The others were employees of the school. Combine this with the oddities I noted in the 1900 Census, I began to wonder who Mrs. Emily Snyder really was. At this time, I don't know who she is, but I do know that she was not Edna Craig's mother because Emily (Hunter) Craig was murdered in 1894 by her estranged husband, John Craig.
My assumption, based on the 1900 Census, that Emily was either a widow or divorced was correct. Emily Hunter divorced John Craig shortly before he killed her. Two years after her own death, she became a widow when John Craig was hung at Folsom Prison in Northern California for murdering her and her parents.
The various newspaper accounts of the murder say that she was murdered at the Hunter Ranch in Tropico, California. She had taken her three children there to live with her brother, George. John Craig wounded his brother-in-law, killed his wife then looked for his children. A servant had managed to get the children safely out of the house and into hiding.
John Craig then went the home of his mother and father-in-law on Buena Vista Street in a suburb of Los Angeles and shot them dead. He unsuccessfully tried to kill himself.
Tropico, California
Having lived in Southern California for thirty-seven years, I had never heard of Tropico, California. At first only I found information about an abandoned mine, Tropico Mine in Kern County. But then I learned of a section of Glendale, California called Tropico.A 1908 map of Tropico provided me with the names of the streets in the town, some of which sounded familiar. I compared the streets on the 1908 map with Google maps and was able to determine where the former town of Tropico was.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was on the west side of the the town. The Amtrak and Metro-Link trains both have a stop here, the Glendale Station. The north-south street names are mostly unchanged. They include San Fernando Road, Central Avenue, Brand Boulevard and Glendale Avenue. Los Angeles Avenue on the 1908 map was not a contiguous street. It terminated at Cypress Street and resumed a few blocks away at Tropico Avenue. Today the northern portion is Los Angeles Street and the southern extension is Gardena Avenue.
Many of the east-west street names are changed with Tropico Avenue the most significant. You will find it on Google maps under is current name, Los Feliz Road. Cypress, Laurel and EulaliaCerritos Avenue. Two streets north of Tropico (Los Feliz) whose names were changed are Wilkinson Court and Victor Court. They are now called Fernando Court and Palmer Avenue, respectively.
According to A History of California and An Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, Volume 1 by James Miller Guinn (Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1915), Tropico was laid out as a town in 1887. Page 441 reads, "The San Pedro & Salt Lake road passes along the borders of the town, affording easy access to the city (Los Angeles)." This was a railroad that connected Salt Lake City to San Pedro at Los Angeles Harbor.
The land around the town was divided in to lots for fruit raising of which the primary crop is strawberries. The Los Angeles, Tropico & Glendale Trolley was completed about 1905 providing a 20-minute ride to Los Angeles. I'm sure that many Angelenos would love to have only a 20-minute commute nowadays.
The town was incorporated in 1911. Tropico was annexed to Glendale in 1918. Over time most indication of its existence disappeared.
Sources:
Look for the James Guinn book at Google Books
An aside:
Glendale is a city north of the downtown Los Angeles near Griffith Park. The University of California Santa Barbara Library has a photo of a building in Tropico, California. It is a lone building with what looks like tumbleweeds or other desert plants in the landscape. The photo was taken in 1978 by John S. Kiewit. The library subject is:
Tropico (Calif.)
Buildings-California
Glendale (Calif.)
The building in the photo does not look like anything I have seen in Glendale. The vegetation looks more like desert than the vegetation of the very urban city of Glendale. I found a website that has several photos of buildings near the old mine site. Click on the photo on the right to see the gallery of photos. The photo at UCSB is very similar.
Friday, January 27, 2012
The General's Bouwerij
According to the record of baptisms at the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam, Wyntie, daughter of Pieter Stoutenburg and Aefje van Tienhonven, was baptized at the General's Bouwerij (farm) in 1662. The General was Peter Stuyvesant who was the Director-General in New Amsterdam on behalf of the Dutch West India Company. Stuyvesant had a house at the very end of lower Manhattan. Because I assumed that he had a bouwerij (bowery) attached to his home, I couldn't reconcile that fact the Wyntie was baptized at the General's Bouwerij and not at the church in the fort. The church in the fort was within walking distance of Peter Stuyvesant's home.
Fortunately I came across a magazine on the Internet, Americana. As I read it, I realized that Stuyvesant's Bouwerij was outside of the city wall. I also knew that Pieter Stoutenburg had a house and lot outside the city wall. Families that lived outside the wall were subject to attacks by aborigines. New Amsterdam afforded protection to its inhabitants against these attacks but not for those who lived outside the wall.
There apparently was some pressure by Thomas Hall and Wolfert Webber to provide protection to those who lived outside the wall. On May 3, 1660, the New Amsterdam council allowed a village to be established near Augustyn Heermans’ bouwerij and that of the Director-General. The village was established to provide a place in which the sparsely spaced inhabitants could go for protection from attack.
The village was established in the triangle formed by present day 3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue and St. Mark’s Place. The village included a blacksmith shop, a tavern and a schoolhouse. Stuyvesant erected a chapel on his bouwerij in which he solicited Domine Selyns to preach to the inhabitants on Sunday afternoons.
In addition to preaching on Sunday afternoons, Domine Selyns performed marriages and baptisms at Stuyveant’s bouwerij. He returned to the Netherlands in 1664 after the British took control. Although he returned to New York City in 1682 to be minister of the Reformed Dutch congregation, when he departed in 1664 his records were transferred to the church at the fort and copied into its baptismal record book.
The magazine also indicated that Pieter was an elder at the Stuyvesant Bouwerij congregation and that he and others joined the church at the fort after Selyns returned to Europe.
Source:
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij Part I by Hopper Striker Mott. Americana Volume 10, July 1915. Pages 660-676
New York City:The National Americana Society
Fortunately I came across a magazine on the Internet, Americana. As I read it, I realized that Stuyvesant's Bouwerij was outside of the city wall. I also knew that Pieter Stoutenburg had a house and lot outside the city wall. Families that lived outside the wall were subject to attacks by aborigines. New Amsterdam afforded protection to its inhabitants against these attacks but not for those who lived outside the wall.
There apparently was some pressure by Thomas Hall and Wolfert Webber to provide protection to those who lived outside the wall. On May 3, 1660, the New Amsterdam council allowed a village to be established near Augustyn Heermans’ bouwerij and that of the Director-General. The village was established to provide a place in which the sparsely spaced inhabitants could go for protection from attack.
The village was established in the triangle formed by present day 3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue and St. Mark’s Place. The village included a blacksmith shop, a tavern and a schoolhouse. Stuyvesant erected a chapel on his bouwerij in which he solicited Domine Selyns to preach to the inhabitants on Sunday afternoons.
In addition to preaching on Sunday afternoons, Domine Selyns performed marriages and baptisms at Stuyveant’s bouwerij. He returned to the Netherlands in 1664 after the British took control. Although he returned to New York City in 1682 to be minister of the Reformed Dutch congregation, when he departed in 1664 his records were transferred to the church at the fort and copied into its baptismal record book.
The magazine also indicated that Pieter was an elder at the Stuyvesant Bouwerij congregation and that he and others joined the church at the fort after Selyns returned to Europe.
Source:
The Hamlet at the Bouwerij Part I by Hopper Striker Mott. Americana Volume 10, July 1915. Pages 660-676
New York City:The National Americana Society
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Microwave Popcorn
My sister added a post on her Facebook wall that mentioned microwave popcorn. She bought microwave popcorn before she had a microwave oven. Her post made me recall my own microwave popcorn initiation.
I was working in the BioMathematics Department at UCLA. One of the employees came with a bag of microwave popcorn that he/she had bought in a vending machine and popped in the microwave oven. The bag looked like a standard brown lunch bag.
We had a microwave oven in our apartment and I really like popcorn. So, I told my husband Charley about this microwaveable popcorn. If I had more common sense, I would have found out more about this microwave popcorn in a bag before I told him about it. We had a microwave adventure shortly after we married.
The instruction booklet that came with the Litton microwave oven included warnings about cooking with metal as well as not cooking eggs in the shells. The booklet implied that you could not tell when the egg was cooked.
My engineering husband didn't understand why this would be a problem. So he decided to conduct an experiment. He cooked the egg in the shell for a few seconds more, then cracked the shell to release some steam. He cooked the egg for a bit longer. The egg exploded and made a huge mess!
The door to the oven was only a metal plate with tiny holes. Egg penetrated every hole in the door. I had to use a toothpick to clean egg out of each hole.
I had no idea that my popcorn adventure would be anything like the egg explosion! Charley decided not to use a paper bag. I don't know if that was a good or bad decision. He instead decided to use one of my Corningware pots in which to pop the popcorn.
After a few minutes in the microwave oven, only a few kernels had popped. He added more time and still very few kernels had popped. Several more attempts yielded very little popped kernels. At this point, Charley decided to remove the lid to the Corningware pot to look at the kernels. Fortunately he used a potholder to remove the lid as it burst into flames when he touched the glass lid.
He let the lid cool before attempting to touch it again. When he lifted the lid, we saw stalactites of glass hanging from the underside of the lid. The lid had become so hot that the glass began to melt.
Popcorn kernels and ceramic pots contain very little liquid. Glass, on the other hand, has a liquid state. The glass lid absorbed the microwave energy becoming hot. Charley shortly thereafter learned that the paperbag contained oil, an essential ingredient to make the popcorn pop.
I was working in the BioMathematics Department at UCLA. One of the employees came with a bag of microwave popcorn that he/she had bought in a vending machine and popped in the microwave oven. The bag looked like a standard brown lunch bag.
We had a microwave oven in our apartment and I really like popcorn. So, I told my husband Charley about this microwaveable popcorn. If I had more common sense, I would have found out more about this microwave popcorn in a bag before I told him about it. We had a microwave adventure shortly after we married.
The instruction booklet that came with the Litton microwave oven included warnings about cooking with metal as well as not cooking eggs in the shells. The booklet implied that you could not tell when the egg was cooked.
My engineering husband didn't understand why this would be a problem. So he decided to conduct an experiment. He cooked the egg in the shell for a few seconds more, then cracked the shell to release some steam. He cooked the egg for a bit longer. The egg exploded and made a huge mess!
The door to the oven was only a metal plate with tiny holes. Egg penetrated every hole in the door. I had to use a toothpick to clean egg out of each hole.
I had no idea that my popcorn adventure would be anything like the egg explosion! Charley decided not to use a paper bag. I don't know if that was a good or bad decision. He instead decided to use one of my Corningware pots in which to pop the popcorn.
After a few minutes in the microwave oven, only a few kernels had popped. He added more time and still very few kernels had popped. Several more attempts yielded very little popped kernels. At this point, Charley decided to remove the lid to the Corningware pot to look at the kernels. Fortunately he used a potholder to remove the lid as it burst into flames when he touched the glass lid.
He let the lid cool before attempting to touch it again. When he lifted the lid, we saw stalactites of glass hanging from the underside of the lid. The lid had become so hot that the glass began to melt.
Popcorn kernels and ceramic pots contain very little liquid. Glass, on the other hand, has a liquid state. The glass lid absorbed the microwave energy becoming hot. Charley shortly thereafter learned that the paperbag contained oil, an essential ingredient to make the popcorn pop.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Rudolph Valentino and Crown Point, Indiana
I volunteer as an arbitrator on the FamilySearch.org indexing project. Recently, I downloaded a batch of marriage records from Lake County, Indiana to arbitrate. Each batch of records is indexed by two individuals and the arbitrator, in the case of a descrepancy between the indexers, decides which of the two are correct.
One of the indexers for this batch determined that the marriages took place in Lake County while the other left this field blank. The rules for indexing state that you are to enter what you see for each field.
Looking at the image of the register page, I saw no place in which the location of the marriage was recorded. I agreed with the indexer who left this field blank. However, I could see why the second indexer decided that the marriages took place in Lake County.
The marriage license was issued by the clerk at the county courthouse in Crown Point, Indiana. One the same day Justice of the Peace, Howard H. Kemp performed most of these marriages. This indexer assumed that since the license was issued at a courthouse and the marriage was performed by a justice of the peace on the same day, then the marriage took place at the courthouse from which the license was issued.
This was probably true.
Arbitrating this same batch, I came across an entry in which both indexers entered the same name but I disagreed. The name that each indexer entered was Stalmaker. I looked at the name again and again and felt that it was Stalnaker. I did a little research and found this bride. The interesting thing is I found this couple in Nebraska in the records I encountered. Other than this marriage entry, there is no indication that they were in Indiana.
By now I was intrigued by this couple and also wondered if Howard Kemp was a justice of the peace at the courthouse in Crown Point. I came across a book on Rudolph Valentino entitled Dark Lover: Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino by Emily W. Leider. On page 255, I found an account of his marriage to Natacha, AKA Winifred de Wolfe, in 1923.
The marriage was performed by Justice of the Peace Howard H. Kemp at 6:05 pm in Crown Point, Indiana. The couple had wanted to marry in Chicago but there seemed to be a waiting period between the issuance of the marriage license and when the marriage actually could take place. Rudolph and Natacha drove to Crown Point to be married.
As I stated earlier, the marriages in the batch that I arbitrated took place on the same day that the license was issued. So it would seem that Indiana did not have a waiting period. I don't know if in the 1920s Wisconsin or Iowa had waiting periods.
Lake County is a county in the northwest corner of the Indiana sharing a border with Illinois and Lake Michigan. So for Valentino, the Crown Point courthouse was closer to Chicago than a courthouse in either of these states. In the case of Albert and Irene from Nebraska, I can only speculate that all the neighboring states including Nebraska had waiting periods.
On the otherhand, the couple may have been in Chicago visiting and on the spur of the moment decided to get married.
One of the indexers for this batch determined that the marriages took place in Lake County while the other left this field blank. The rules for indexing state that you are to enter what you see for each field.
Looking at the image of the register page, I saw no place in which the location of the marriage was recorded. I agreed with the indexer who left this field blank. However, I could see why the second indexer decided that the marriages took place in Lake County.
The marriage license was issued by the clerk at the county courthouse in Crown Point, Indiana. One the same day Justice of the Peace, Howard H. Kemp performed most of these marriages. This indexer assumed that since the license was issued at a courthouse and the marriage was performed by a justice of the peace on the same day, then the marriage took place at the courthouse from which the license was issued.
This was probably true.
Arbitrating this same batch, I came across an entry in which both indexers entered the same name but I disagreed. The name that each indexer entered was Stalmaker. I looked at the name again and again and felt that it was Stalnaker. I did a little research and found this bride. The interesting thing is I found this couple in Nebraska in the records I encountered. Other than this marriage entry, there is no indication that they were in Indiana.
By now I was intrigued by this couple and also wondered if Howard Kemp was a justice of the peace at the courthouse in Crown Point. I came across a book on Rudolph Valentino entitled Dark Lover: Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino by Emily W. Leider. On page 255, I found an account of his marriage to Natacha, AKA Winifred de Wolfe, in 1923.
The marriage was performed by Justice of the Peace Howard H. Kemp at 6:05 pm in Crown Point, Indiana. The couple had wanted to marry in Chicago but there seemed to be a waiting period between the issuance of the marriage license and when the marriage actually could take place. Rudolph and Natacha drove to Crown Point to be married.
As I stated earlier, the marriages in the batch that I arbitrated took place on the same day that the license was issued. So it would seem that Indiana did not have a waiting period. I don't know if in the 1920s Wisconsin or Iowa had waiting periods.
Lake County is a county in the northwest corner of the Indiana sharing a border with Illinois and Lake Michigan. So for Valentino, the Crown Point courthouse was closer to Chicago than a courthouse in either of these states. In the case of Albert and Irene from Nebraska, I can only speculate that all the neighboring states including Nebraska had waiting periods.
On the otherhand, the couple may have been in Chicago visiting and on the spur of the moment decided to get married.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
George Norbury MacKenzie
Who was George N. MacKenzie?
He was the editor of a series of books that was published in the early twentieth century on colonial families of the United States. These volumes contained genealogies of early families. Unfortunately, I found much of the information in these volumes to be full of errors. Most recently, I found a tree that referenced Everardus Bogardus and Anneke Jans.
Everardus Bogardus is called the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam in Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume I (George Norbury MacKenzie, Editor). This is not correct. In fact, the entire paragraph on Page 224 is full of errors. The paragraph reads:
"Dominie Everardus Bogardus, d. 1647; m. 21st June, 1642, Anneka Jans Roeloff; he was a native of Holland and the first minister of the Dutch Church at New Amsterdam; he obtained a grant of six acres on Manhattan Island, which afterwards became Trinity Church property; his wife Anneka Jans, was a granddaughter of Prince William of Orange, who afteward became King of Holland."
At the time that his book was compiled (1912), in the United States, the Netherlands was often called Holland, This is not really accurate as Holland could refer to one of two provinces, Noord Holland and Zuid Holland. Domine Bogardus was native of Utrecht Province.
Everardus was the second Reformed Dutch minister at New Amsterdam, not the first.
Bogardus did not marry Anneke Jans in 1642. The line in the book following the passage cited above states that Bogardus' son William married August 26, 1659. (See note below.) If Everardus and Anneke married in 1642, Willem would be about 16 or younger when he married.
Looking at the baptismal and marriage records in New Amsterdam in the 1600s, I find it highly unlikely that Willem Bogardus was married at such a young age. Males typically married in their early 20s.The baptismal records begin with the baptism of Jacob Wolpherttz's daughter, Neeltje on September 23, 1639. I found a record of the baptism of Cornelis Bogardus on October 9, 1640, of Jonas Bogardus on January 4, 1643, and of Pieter Bogardus on April 2, 1645.
Anneke Jans and Everardus Bogardus were clearly married before October 9, 1640. Willem Bogardus was their eldest child and was likely born before September, 1639, the date of the first entry in the Doop Book.The records of the city include an entry in which Anneke Jans, wife of Everardus Bogardus sold a hog on October 19, 1638.
It was In 1642 that Anneke Jans' daughter from her first marriage married Hans Kierstede. It was at the celebration of this marriage that Everardus Bogardus was able to garner enough pledges to be able to erect a permanent structure for his church.
The property mentioned in the paragraph did become the property of the Trinity Church in New York City and was the subject of legal battles beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and culminating in the early twentieth century. The descendants never prevailed in their several suits. The reasons are well documented.
Anneka is not the way that Anneke Jans' name was recorded. This is not the way this given name was spelled during this period. Anneke, Annetie, Annetje and Annetjen is the way this name was recorded. She was never Anneka Jans Roeloffs. That would have meant that she was the daughter of Roeloff. And that brings me to the last point.
Anneke Jans was the daughter of Jan. She was not "the granddaughter of Prince William of Orange, who afterward became King of Holland." Willem of Orange, also called Willem the Silent, died in 1584. He was instrumental in uniting the provinces, but he never was a king. Willem I, the first king of the Netherlands, was crowned in 1815.
It is important to keep the Williams straight. Willem the Silent's grandson, Willem, became William III, King of England in 1689. William III ruled jointly with his wife Mary Stuart.
Anneke Jans was the daughter of Tryn Jonas and Jan (patronym not known). She was born in Norway, not in the Netherlands. This story of her parentage appears to have been concocted sometime in the late nineteenth century.
Note: Willem Bogardus was married after October 29, 1659. This is the date on which the marriage banns were posted. "29 Aug. 1659. Willem Bogardus, Van N. Amsterdam, en Wyntje Sybrandts,Van O. Amsterdam."
He was the editor of a series of books that was published in the early twentieth century on colonial families of the United States. These volumes contained genealogies of early families. Unfortunately, I found much of the information in these volumes to be full of errors. Most recently, I found a tree that referenced Everardus Bogardus and Anneke Jans.
Everardus Bogardus is called the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam in Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume I (George Norbury MacKenzie, Editor). This is not correct. In fact, the entire paragraph on Page 224 is full of errors. The paragraph reads:
"Dominie Everardus Bogardus, d. 1647; m. 21st June, 1642, Anneka Jans Roeloff; he was a native of Holland and the first minister of the Dutch Church at New Amsterdam; he obtained a grant of six acres on Manhattan Island, which afterwards became Trinity Church property; his wife Anneka Jans, was a granddaughter of Prince William of Orange, who afteward became King of Holland."
At the time that his book was compiled (1912), in the United States, the Netherlands was often called Holland, This is not really accurate as Holland could refer to one of two provinces, Noord Holland and Zuid Holland. Domine Bogardus was native of Utrecht Province.
Everardus was the second Reformed Dutch minister at New Amsterdam, not the first.
Bogardus did not marry Anneke Jans in 1642. The line in the book following the passage cited above states that Bogardus' son William married August 26, 1659. (See note below.) If Everardus and Anneke married in 1642, Willem would be about 16 or younger when he married.
Looking at the baptismal and marriage records in New Amsterdam in the 1600s, I find it highly unlikely that Willem Bogardus was married at such a young age. Males typically married in their early 20s.The baptismal records begin with the baptism of Jacob Wolpherttz's daughter, Neeltje on September 23, 1639. I found a record of the baptism of Cornelis Bogardus on October 9, 1640, of Jonas Bogardus on January 4, 1643, and of Pieter Bogardus on April 2, 1645.
Anneke Jans and Everardus Bogardus were clearly married before October 9, 1640. Willem Bogardus was their eldest child and was likely born before September, 1639, the date of the first entry in the Doop Book.The records of the city include an entry in which Anneke Jans, wife of Everardus Bogardus sold a hog on October 19, 1638.
It was In 1642 that Anneke Jans' daughter from her first marriage married Hans Kierstede. It was at the celebration of this marriage that Everardus Bogardus was able to garner enough pledges to be able to erect a permanent structure for his church.
The property mentioned in the paragraph did become the property of the Trinity Church in New York City and was the subject of legal battles beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and culminating in the early twentieth century. The descendants never prevailed in their several suits. The reasons are well documented.
Anneka is not the way that Anneke Jans' name was recorded. This is not the way this given name was spelled during this period. Anneke, Annetie, Annetje and Annetjen is the way this name was recorded. She was never Anneka Jans Roeloffs. That would have meant that she was the daughter of Roeloff. And that brings me to the last point.
Anneke Jans was the daughter of Jan. She was not "the granddaughter of Prince William of Orange, who afterward became King of Holland." Willem of Orange, also called Willem the Silent, died in 1584. He was instrumental in uniting the provinces, but he never was a king. Willem I, the first king of the Netherlands, was crowned in 1815.
It is important to keep the Williams straight. Willem the Silent's grandson, Willem, became William III, King of England in 1689. William III ruled jointly with his wife Mary Stuart.
Anneke Jans was the daughter of Tryn Jonas and Jan (patronym not known). She was born in Norway, not in the Netherlands. This story of her parentage appears to have been concocted sometime in the late nineteenth century.
Note: Willem Bogardus was married after October 29, 1659. This is the date on which the marriage banns were posted. "29 Aug. 1659. Willem Bogardus, Van N. Amsterdam, en Wyntje Sybrandts,Van O. Amsterdam."
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Von Limburg is not Dutch
I came across a family tree on Ancestry.com that included General Lewis Cass. I was very much interested in this tree as Lewis Cass' daughter, Matilda was married to a very distant cousin of mine, Henry Ledyard. When I say very distant, he is my 6th cousin 4 times removed.
General Cass was the governor of the Michigan Territory, which at that time included the current states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of North and South Dakota. While researching my family, I found family in Cass County, in most of these states. My grandparents are buried in Cass County, Minnesota. I hadn't connected why so many of these states had a Cass County until I learned about Lewis Cass.
I generally don't spend much time on the ancestors of people who marry into my family. Typically, I try to find out birth, death and marriage dates for the parents of a person who married a relative. When I searched for Lewis Cass, I was surprised how much was written about him. I was also surprised at some of the things written about him or his family that were not correct.
Then I came across another tree that sent a red flag up the pole when I saw it. Lewis Cass had another daughter, Isabella. This tree claimed that she married Baron Theodorus Marinus Roest Von Linburg who was the Dutch Foreign Minister to the United States. The words baron and von were the triggers.
The word Von is German, not Dutch. It translate to the English word of just as the Dutch word van would translate. However, the German word "Von" signifies a person of the nobility of that place whereas the Dutch word "van" simply means of or from. Baron is a title used in the regions that today comprise Germany. It is not a Dutch title.
I came across an inventory of letters and documents relating to the family Roest van Limburg from 1604 to 1978 at the Archives of the Netherlands. Theodorus Marinus Roest van Limburg is addressed in letters as Mr. not as Baron. So where did the author of the tree get this idea that Theodorus was a baron?
So I decided to search further. I found a book that was printed in 1922, "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922 Volume II." There it was, big as life! But that same search found another book. Only this book is recent (1996). It is entitled "Lewis Cass and Politics of Moderation" by Willard Carl Klunder at Kent State University. To me it looks like Mr. Klunder lifted the text from the 1922 book.
Since it was published by Kent State University, I can hardly blame someone researching Lewis Cass and his descendants for incorporating this junk into their tree.
General Cass was the governor of the Michigan Territory, which at that time included the current states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of North and South Dakota. While researching my family, I found family in Cass County, in most of these states. My grandparents are buried in Cass County, Minnesota. I hadn't connected why so many of these states had a Cass County until I learned about Lewis Cass.
I generally don't spend much time on the ancestors of people who marry into my family. Typically, I try to find out birth, death and marriage dates for the parents of a person who married a relative. When I searched for Lewis Cass, I was surprised how much was written about him. I was also surprised at some of the things written about him or his family that were not correct.
Then I came across another tree that sent a red flag up the pole when I saw it. Lewis Cass had another daughter, Isabella. This tree claimed that she married Baron Theodorus Marinus Roest Von Linburg who was the Dutch Foreign Minister to the United States. The words baron and von were the triggers.
The word Von is German, not Dutch. It translate to the English word of just as the Dutch word van would translate. However, the German word "Von" signifies a person of the nobility of that place whereas the Dutch word "van" simply means of or from. Baron is a title used in the regions that today comprise Germany. It is not a Dutch title.
I came across an inventory of letters and documents relating to the family Roest van Limburg from 1604 to 1978 at the Archives of the Netherlands. Theodorus Marinus Roest van Limburg is addressed in letters as Mr. not as Baron. So where did the author of the tree get this idea that Theodorus was a baron?
So I decided to search further. I found a book that was printed in 1922, "The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922 Volume II." There it was, big as life! But that same search found another book. Only this book is recent (1996). It is entitled "Lewis Cass and Politics of Moderation" by Willard Carl Klunder at Kent State University. To me it looks like Mr. Klunder lifted the text from the 1922 book.
Since it was published by Kent State University, I can hardly blame someone researching Lewis Cass and his descendants for incorporating this junk into their tree.
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