The Life of Sarah Ann Mitchell Editor's note:  Today's blog is the result of a comment posted to a recent blog about finding context in research. Thanks for your comments! Military bounty check for Sarah Ann’s husband, Fantley H. Naylor. https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/LSTACivWar/id/11319/rec/1 Civil War Ancestors I had several Civil War ancestors' families near Muncie, Indiana. A few months ago I found an Indiana militia bounty check (like a signing bonus) from the county. It was endorsed by the first husband of my great-great-grandmother, Sarah Ann. I love his name: Fantley Hopkins Naylor. This was in the Archives and Special Collections of the Ball State University Library in Muncie. Digital Media Repository at Ball State University Library’s Archives and Special Collections    https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/LSTACivWar    My discoveries were in the Delaware County section.  I have yet to peruse the rest!  Location Search on...

Women's History Month | National Women's History Museum Recognition of w omen's contribution to history has grown from a week in 1980 to the entire month of March beginning in 1987.  For the next four weeks, this blog will feature stories and pictures of our society members' women ancestors and their historical experiences.  Some of the stories are short remembrances with pictures. Elizabeth Barrett Gunnell (1822-1907)  Smiles Amidst Tears   Created out of different journal entries  by Elizabeth Barrett Murray File (1893-1994) "When they moved from Virginia to Kentucky they left a set of glass goblets on the table as they had no room to take them. I always wished that I could have gone in and got them. "One time when they were short on food Grandma’s mother went to the mill to buy meal on credit and the miller wouldn’t let her have it. So she came home and threw herself across the bed and cried. I always wondered what the family did." A little background ...

Nearly hidden Pioneer Cemetery   Courtesy Google Maps If you are north bound on Auburn Way North, a main thoroughfare in Auburn, south King County, Washington, and stop for a traffic light, you may glimpse a small cemetery to your right at 8th Street NE.  This is the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery, on land donated for that purpose in 1878.  Grave of a Civil War veteran, M. P. Hopkins Courtesy Kristy Lommen "The marker commemorating the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery’s only Civil War veteran is disappointingly vague. It includes no dates, neither birth nor death. The soldier’s name is included, but in abbreviated form. And to add insult to injury, the sparse information that  is   displayed has been mis-transcribed and published incorrectly on several online genealogy sites. Fortunately, the stone does include the fact that Mr. Hopkins served in Company B of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry—and that single fact was enough information to discover much of his life story."1 Recently the...

BOOK REVIEW Millard, Candice.  Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President.    New York:  Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc. 2012. Elizabeth Shown Mills reminds us that as genealogists we must understand the patterns of the time in which events took place. [1]   Patterns of History If you are studying ancestors in the period immediately following the Civil War, this non-fiction account of a little known event in American History may increase your understanding of the societal norms of the time.   Death of General James A. Garfield. Lithograph by Currier & Ives. From the Library of Congress President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881.   Ignoring Evidence This is a story of how one man’s stubborn refusal to let scientific medical evidence change a firmly held belief may have changed the outcome of the assassination attempt.   Rebound from Tragedy The...

William Jackson Myers, Moving West By Janet O'Conor Camarata William Terry Myers, nicknamed “Blackie” in his later years, was born December 7, 1861 In Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana at the beginning of the Civil War. He was the second son of William Jackson Myers and Mary Etta “Met” (Asher) Myers.   William Jackson Myers and his parents were originally from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and had moved west, sometime in the early 1840s, settling in south central Indiana.   By 1860, William Jackson Myers was living in Cloverdale Township, Putnam County, Indiana. He married “Met” Asher on April 30, 1857 in Owen County and shortly thereafter, moved to Clay County where his eldest son was born. When the war began in Indiana on April 12, 1861, William Jackson Myers was 31 years old living in Harrison Township, Vigo County, northwest of Terre Haute. William Jackson chose not to volunteer to serve in the Civil War. By 1862, a draft was established, and quotas were set ...

By Valorie Zimmerman This is not April Fools joke! A few years back, my husband was walking through the forest near our cabin outside Mt. Rainier National Park when he came across a grave for a Civil War soldier. Henry C Allen grave site Astonished, he took us there to honor the soldier and find more about him. Just a hundred feet or so off Highway 410, we saw a beautiful grave site with a headstone of marble, covered with flags and other remembrances. Reading part of his story on signs at the site was fascinating, and Bob created a web page about the site and the man:  http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~bobofwa/family/HCAllen_grave.htm Henry C. Allen, 16 Wis. Inf. 1848-1896 Last year there was a notice in the Washington State Genealogy Blog about a group gathering information about all Civil War soldiers buried in Washington State , so I wrote to report this grave site in case they had not heard of it. They had not, and asked me to find out more about this ...

By Richard  M. Thayer Yesterday we marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I which formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.  On 13 May 1938, a Congressional Act was approved making the 11th of November each year a legal holiday to be known as Armistice Day.  On 26 May 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill making Armistice Day a day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in the First World War.  Six days later Congress amended the bill making 11 November Veterans Day instead of Armistice Day.  We have been observing Veterans Day ever since.  Albeit not in November for seven years in the 1970’s due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968.  Having been in the Federal work force (U.S. Air Force) in the 1970’s, I can remember the grumbling among us about holiday changes, “Why can’t Congress leave well enough alone!” Map of Lowe...