Keys To My Heart

Archive for the ‘Genealogy’ Category

Today I received a nice letter with a photo of William and Rebecca from my double cousin, Marlene Versluis of Glendale, Arizona. I was really excited because I don’t have any photos of my Great Grandfather, George Washington Wade, Senior. He is the ONLY Great Grandparent of whom I’m missing a photo! This photo is of his father’s sister and his mother’s brother. Rebecca Wade Gabbert was the sister of John William Wade, who was my Great Great Grandfather and my Grandpa Wade’s Grandfather. William Gabbert was not only the husband of Rebecca Wade, but he was also the brother of John Wade’s wife, Mary Polly Gabbert. I got to see John Wade’s grave in December of 2005, when my Aunt Joan and Uncle Bill drove me around to some local cemeteries. One was the Union Chapel or Bachelor Cemetery–way out past Deep Cut Lake. It is the final resting place of John William Wade and his second wife, Virginia Robertson. Unfortunately, no one knows where Polly is buried. Polly’s mother is buried in an empty field near Salem, Indiana. I went there in November 2008. There is just one slab on the ground, but the area has a fence around space for two graves. Polly’s mother, also a Polly, Polly DePauw Gabbert, was the sister of Napoleon Bonapart DePauw. He also was the only relative that I ever found who owned slaves at one time or another, as in his will in 1858, he gave two their freedom. Anyway, Napoleon put these slabs on several graves of close relatives (his brothers, sister, and father).

Speaking of slaves, William and Rebecca Gabbert were very involved as southern sympathizers. They were living in Missouri at the time of the Civil War. They not only were sympathizers, but William was a famous guerrilla Bushwhacker in Vernon County, Missouri. His exploits and those of his and Rebecca’s daughter and son, Eliza and John, and John’s wife Lennora, are chronicled in several books and displays at the Bushwhacker Museum, located in Nevada, Missouri. For more info about Rebecca and William, see my genealogy website. Don’t forget to click the links in the History section on their individual pages for more stories. Also, check out their children, John and Eliza, for more tales about spying for the Confederacy. John’s wife, Lennora, and Eliza both risked their lives as couriers. In the post about Confederate sisters, Lennora and Eliza tricked Northern soldiers into releasing their captured friends by posing as their distraught lovers. John Gabbert however had died in the fighting in 1863.

If you are interested in these Gabberts and want to find out more about them, I’ve also been corresponding with Jon Lockhart. John Gabbert and Polly Gabbert Wade’s older sister, Rachel Gabbert Lockhart, is his ancestor. He has a great blog called Family Ramblings and has done a lot of research on the Gabberts and the DePauw’s. Also, on this page, Merida Wade, John Wade’s father, is mentioned in a couple of posts about land patents. The two maps show where all the families (Wades, Gabberts, DePauws, Lockharts, etc.) originally lived in Washington County, Indiana. The Wade Farm was very close to West Washington High School, a few miles from Salem. Merrida and his wife Ferrabee, are buried just down the road at the site of the current Mount Tabor Church of Christ. I visited there in January of 2009, but I couldn’t find their graves, but I did find several other family members.

Here are some photos related to this post:

First of all, I found some Shoals pictures on Google in the Life Magazine section. Evidently, Life Magazine came to Shoals in 1950 to photograph the Robert Sanders family. Robert had been captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. I did a Google search and found only one piece of info about him on the website of the Korean War Project. There was this post by Tony Sanders, his nephew, from 1998:

21st Inf Reg

Looking for information re service record of my late uncle, Paul Robert Sanders. Captured and POW for 38 months, Korea. Don’t know a lot about his service there. Life Magazine did a piece on him and my grandparents in their 20 Sept 1950 issue. I have discovered that he was a POW from 7-11-50 to 8-29-53. I believe that he was a Sgt. at the time of capture, not sure.

That would be an amazing thing to have a piece of your family’s life documented, no less than by Life Magazine. The photos they took are really interesting. Here they are in all their black and white glory. My favorites are of the downtown scenes. When did we have trees on Main Street? Well, I guess in 1950, but I sure don’t remember them, and I was born in ’56. And we had a Ford dealer downtown too? I can’t remember the post office being on Main Street, but I remember when the new post office was built, so I’m sure I went to the old one. What in the world is the building at the new post office location? Was it a large home or a hotel or something? I also love the depot pictures. You can see the Cutsinger Hotel where Lucille stayed (presently the American Legion) and even part of the Sherfick Furniture Factory in the background. It would only be two more years before the factory would burn down. I wish these photos would be in color though as I would love to know if the cars were different colors–like that popular 50′s turquoise color–or if it was not quite the fashion yet in 1950 and so all the cars were shades of gray. Also, was the sign that said Meats part of the original Tredway grocery store? I have a picture of the inside on my genealogy website. Did Coca-Cola give away free signs or something? It seems like every store had a Coca-Cola sign.

My second find was at a YouTube site. After my first success at Google Images, I tried searching for Shoals on YouTube and found this great video. It must have been made by a Terre Haute TV station, although I’m not sure which one. It tells the story of two unusual Indiana Mascot names. Ironically, I lived at both places. Shoals Jug Rox and Speedway Sparkplugs are the featured mascots. I lived in Speedway for two years when I first got married in 1978. It was the time of the Speedway bombings and the Burger Chef murders. Four kids who closed the restaurant were taken out to some fields and gun-downed. Oh, and I also worked there up to a few weeks before–arrrggg. You know, after that happened, I seriously began to wonder about myself. My grandma was in a horrible fatality, and her car was brought in to the Ford dealership while I was at my high school prom–right next door. I go to the University of Evansville, and the whole basketball team and several others die in a horrible plane crash. Then I move to Speedway, and a bomb goes off in a dumpster in the shopping center right next to my apartment. Not to mention the Burger Chef murders where I worked just for the fun of it. I knew two of the four kids killed. Wouldn’t you know that my brother-in-law was in the Pentagon on 9-11 in the very section where the plane hit it?

Well, at least this video is cheery. It shows my sister’s classmate, Mike Harding. And one thing more, the plaster Jug Rock on the principal’s desk in the video was made by my grandmother (the very same one who was killed on my prom night). I know because she created the mold at her flower shop. Are you hearing any weird Twilight Zone music? Doo doo doo doo . . . . . . .

Good finds. Happy hunting.

There are some great genealogy blogs out there, and I was lucky to read one called Roger’s Ramblings which happened to quote another blog, Genea-Musings. The posts were about calculating one’s dominant nationality. I tried it and here are the steps that were listed:

1. List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2. Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3. Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 – 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4. If you don’t know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents then do it for the last full generation you have.

Here’s mine:

• Daniel Sherfick – born 1822 in Ohio, USA; died 1907 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Aletha Moore – born 1833 in Virginia, USA; died 1907 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Thomas Tredway – born 1844 in Martin County, Indiana, USA; died 1909 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Sarah Waggoner – born 1842 in Martin County, Indiana, USA; died 1917 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Phillip Hutton – born 1852 in Martin County, Indiana, USA; died 1913 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Janie Bousman – born 1855 in Indiana, USA; died 1930 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• John Williams – born 1852 in Martin County, Indiana, USA; died 1940 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Harriet Swayze – born 1858 in New Jersey, USA; died 1925 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• John Wade – born 1817 in Ohio, USA; died 1898 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Mary Gabbert – born 1820 in Kentucky, USA; died before 1850, more than likely in Indiana, USA
• Unknown Smith – born around 1820-1830; died unknown in USA
• Unknown Native American – born around 1820-1830 in USA; died unknown in USA
• Joshua Freeman – born about 1840 in Nova Scotia, Canada; died before 1865, more than likely in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Elizabeth Denning – born 1842 in Ohio, USA; died unknown, more than likely in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• George Barr – born 1820 in Pennsylvania, USA; died 1894 in Martin County, Indiana, USA
• Permelia Abel – born 1822 in Ohio, USA; died 1887 in Martin County, Indiana, USA

It looks like I’m 100% North American and about 94% All-American, although there is a Smith ancestor that I haven’t found yet who may have been born somewhere else. When I started doing research I kept reading about the immigrants who came America through Ellis Island, and I poured over the websites looking for family names. It turns out that not a single ancestor of mine came through Ellis Island. Most of my relatives came to North America before there were even any ship records. Harriet Swayze’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather was born in New York in 1653. John Wade’s great-great-great-great grandfather was born in 1700 in New Jersey. Thomas Tredway’s great-great grandfather was born in 1706 in Maryland. Mary Gabbert’s grandfather was born in 1757 in Virginia. John Williams’ grandfather was born in 1777 in North Carolina. Phillip Hutton’s great grandfather was born in 1730 in Pennsylvania. Daniel Sherfick’s father was born in 1794 in Maryland. Elizabeth Denning’s father was born in Ohio in 1807. Sarah Waggoner’s father was born in 1813 in Kentucky. I wish more information was available for the ladies, but since the census lists didn’t put their names on (or those of the children) until 1850, some of their information has been lost forever.

Josh Freeman was an orphan from Canada, so where his people came from is a mystery, although it is assumed to be somewhere on the British Isles. My great grandmother, Celia Smith, was half Native American, and the surname Smith is not the easiest name to research. There is also no information about what tribe my great grandmother belonged to, so I cannot document that I am 1/16 Native American. That would have been nice as my kids could have gotten college loans.

Nationality is known for some of the ancestors of these 16 great-greats. The Barrs, Sherficks, Waggoners, Bousman, and Gabberts were German. The Moores, Huttons, and Dennings were Irish. The Williams family came from Scotland, and the Wade family came from Wales. The Tredway and Swayze family came from England. Freeman, Smith, and Abel are just guesses although they sound English.

It looks like four or one quarter of the 16 were born in my home county (and coincidentally my future home this fall), Martin County, Indiana. Ten of the 16 were born in the Midwest. I also find it interesting that the births of the 16 range from 1817 to 1852. I’m assuming that this is because some of their parents married at a young age while others were part of second families. I know that most all of them were born into large, agrarian families. Daniel Sherfick was first born in a family of thirteen. Phillip Hutton was the only child of Abel Hutton and Mary Harper (both second marriages), but his parents were very old and died shortly after his birth.

It was an interesting exercise, and it makes me feel even more Patriotically American. I owe my existence to the heartiness of American Pioneers. Thanks for reading my blog, and if you post your nationality somewhere, send me a link!