Ask a Librarian: Francis Marion Singer

     Back in the stone age of my ancestral search in 1980, using the resources of a library was a common thing.  I had yet to get a home computer, and digitized genealogical materials were a long way off.  Fast forward to the present, and the belief, by some, that "it's all online now."  (Hearing this makes me cringe, but that's a whole other subject.)  While new resources are frequently being made available via the Internet, the library still plays an important role in making information available to us.

     The past couple of years have been about reassessing the data I already have, and seeing where I could have done a better job.  During this process, I realized that I didn't have an obituary for Francis Marion Singer, half-sibling to my ancestor, Allen Ives.  From the records posted on Findagrave.com, I knew that "Frank M. Singer" was buried in Fountain Park Cemetery, Winchester, Randolph Co.,IN.  The photograph of his headstone shows a death date of December 13, 1903.

     Armed with a likely date and place, I located a website online for the nearest public library.  Following the procedures outlined on the site, I directed an e-mail to the appropriate party, asking whether someone might check the microfilmed copies of the local newspaper around that date.  I also asked whether they wanted a fee in advance, and whether I could pay extra to have them check for any other articles such as funeral notices, thank yous from the family, and the like.  The fee settled on was $10.  I received a packet before they could have received my check, which included not only the F. M. Singer obituary, but an account of the accident that caused the amputation of his leg (with four doctors in attendance), an update on his condition (he could "set" up), a biography from a county history, and, for good measure, some other obituaries for individuals named Singer, including a very detailed one for his second wife.  Among the information new to me was the description of where his property was located, a pastor's name, and the fact that F.M. Singer was a Mason.

     In this example, I use techniques I would have used in 1980, updated to make use of the internet as an additional tool.  In the end, however, it was the extra effort of a dedicated librarian, which provided me with these great, time-saving results.

W.C. "Andy" Anderson: Gentleman War Hero

     

     In June of 2012, my uncle by marriage, Wilford C. "Andy" Anderson, received France's highest-ranking medal of valor, the Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, for his WWII service.  An article about the events marking the occasion can be found here:  http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/S-F-vet-to-get-France-s-medal-of-valor-3646100.php .  He was part of Company C, 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 13th Airborne Division.  A unit history can be found here:  http://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/517/517.html .  His name is on a short list which shows the unit's recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross.
     Long before I knew of "Wif's" (as I called him) military service, I knew him as a gracious, welcoming, and kind individual, with a wry sense of humor.  We have enjoyed many pleasant and interesting conversations throughout the forty-five years or so that I've known him.   
     On two recent visits, he greeted me warmly, and the time flew by as we reminisced.  At one point, I examined some photos and medals displayed on the wall, and we talked about his time in the military.  As platoon sergeant, he bore heavy burdens, and has some dark memories of that time.  But,  in his typical fashion, he also took the opportunity to poke gentle fun at the idea of himself as a "war hero."  "Oh, no," he said.  "it was all because I remembered my high-school German! I just told them, "Raise your arms, and you will live.  I have cigarettes, food, and drink.  Or, keep your guns, and you will be dead.""  He said that they came to him very willingly at that point, many of them being "just kids of sixteen or so."  The certificate on the wall, accompanying the Distinguished Service Cross, paints a much more frightening picture.
     On another occasion, he was on a night parachute jump.  The plane left Italy and headed into France, the site of the jump.   He landed upside-down in a tree.  Thinking he was about 30 feet up, he decided to open the auxiliary chute and climb down.  At that point, he heard a private at eye level say, "Whattya doin,' Sarge?"  He had come to rest in an apple tree, and only had to turn over, to be on the ground.  When I mentioned that I couldn't imagine jumping out of a plane at night, with no idea what faced me at the other end, he replied modestly, "Oh, well, that was combat."
     Wif's training took place in Toccoa, Georgia, with the 506th, the outfit which would come to be known in the book and film as the Band of Brothers.  He freely admits that he probably would not have survived, had he continued with that unit.  An officer asked him to remain behind, and continue as platoon sergeant with a new outfit, which became the 517th.
     Luckily, Wif returned home, and became a devoted husband to his sweetheart, the former Phyllis Foulkes.  The tender care he took of her as she became ill late in life, was another act of heroic bravery.
     The greatest generation, indeed.

Addenda:  W.C. "Andy" Anderson passed away peacefully on April 1, 2013

      
     

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: spry for his age

From my earliest Christmas memories, I remember this snow globe featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Every year, it would be brought out and carefully displayed, and never played with.  It didn't need to be said that it was something for adults to handle.  Family lore says that it was bought the year I was a baby.   Flash forward to the present, where Rudolph now lives in my house at Christmas.  For his late fifties, he's looking pretty spry!

Another of our holiday treasures was this Advent calendar, which was mailed to us by my great-aunt, Margarita "Dutch" Ives Patton.  She was born in 1901, the daughter of Charles A. Ives & Mary Catherine Myers.  Auntie Dutch lived for about a month past her 100th birthday, and was much loved by us all.  This calendar has also been carefully stored and displayed since the 1950's.  It was a Hallmark product, and cost $1.00, a pretty generous gift at the time.  We were thrilled to open a new door each day.  Various Biblical passages from the Christmas story were revealed.

Wishing you the best of Christmas memories, old and new.

"Hitting the road" for data: Clarence B. Channel

It seemed an unlikely source to find a family history nugget:  the newsletter of the Nebraska Road Department.  But, here's another example of how casting the net a lot wider via a Google search can pay off.  This refers to another descendant of my ancestor Jeremiah Channel(l) of eastern Ohio.  It proved to be a good starting point for uncovering more data about this side of the family. 

http://www.transportation.nebraska.gov/roadrunner/docs/archives/feb-mar-09.pdf

Mom: helpful or ghoulish?

The September issue of the National Genealogy Society Quarterly contains an item about what I would call the ultimate helicopter mom (one who hovers), with a macabre twist.

"In 1877 a desperate mother writes the State Department to beg for a position for her son.  Not unusual on its face, but there is a twist here.  She pins to her letter a newspaper clipping about a State Department employee's suicide, indicating she knows this place is no longer filled, and asks that it be given to her son."

Source:  Applications and Recommendations for Public Office, Hayes-Garfield Administrations.

I hope she at least waited for the funeral to be over.   

A Life in One Sentence: Lucetta Luhr Clark Francis Browning

On the rare occasions when the death of an early ancestor is noted in the local newspaper, the lack of detail makes the item resemble a telegram, or perhaps TV character Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet, known for his dead-pan delivery of  "Just the facts, ma'am."  One such example is the death notice of my ancestor, Lucetta (Luhr) Clark Francis Browning, which appeared in the Canton (Lewis Co, Missouri) Press of 12 April 1878:  "Died, March 27, 1878, Luzetta, wife of J. H. Browning, aged 27 years, 9 months, and one day."

By the time of her death  at age 27, Lucetta had lost her father young, been married twice, given birth to at least six children, made the regrettable decision, probably at the direction of her first husband, to sue her mother, and gone through the public humiliation of a messy divorce.

I am grateful that I didn't stop researching with the death notice...there was a lot left to the story. 

Never make assumptions: wrong Ives

I descend from the Ives family of Centralia, Lewis County, WA, which included Allen Ives and his son Charles Abrastus Ives.  I assumed that it was a pretty safe bet that any hits for the surname Ives, made by Ancestry.com in a search of the local newspaper for 1907, would be for this family.  Wrong!  Instead, I got the story of the one-legged chicken belonging to a resident of Connecticut, which was used as a filler in the back pages.  Don't get me wrong, it was very entertaining.  Another example of the time-gobbling rabbit holes we all fall down in pursuit of our ancestors! 

Source:  Centralia (WA) Chronicle, 24 Oct. 1907