Crews/Travers in Wayne Co., Illinois

I was very pleased last week when Judi Finnell commented on my blog post about Peter Crews m. Martha Monroe. I always wondered who the Travis (Travers) children (John and Mary) were in their 1860 census. I thought they were likely grandchildren but Wayne Co., IL is a "burned county" so finding marriages for daughters in this time period isn't easy. Peter and Martha had two daughters of marriageable age Nancy and Mary who were with them in the 1850 census and not with them in the 1960 census. Either might have been the mother of the children. Judi informed me Nancy was the mother. Nancy was the second wife of Judi's great-great grandfather Nathaniel Travers. Judi said Nathaniel and both his wives were buried in the Travers Cemetery and I checked my cemetery book by Doris Bland and there they were. It was wonderful to finally know who Mary and John Travers were and their parents. Judi also had further information about Mary and John. What a great day it was when I heard from Judi!

Now... if someone would please come forward and let me know what happened to Nancy's sister Mary Crews (b. about 1828 in KY) after the 1850 census....

Alcorn/Englis kin

I recently heard from 3 Alcorn researchers responding to a message I left years ago on either an Alcorn site or a Cass Co. Illinois site. What fun this is! Two were related to me by marriage and not my bio cousins (an Alcorn cousin of mine was the second husband of the woman they descended from). I didn't know about this marriage so I was delighted to hear from them. Last year I submitted some Alcorn/Englis photos to the Cass Co., Illinois Historial & Genealogical Society site and they can be viewed there.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilcchgs/

For anyone researching in Cass Co., Illinois this is a great site (besides the fact you can see the photos I contributed!).

My Alcorn bio cousin who recently contacted me has been too busy (two teen age kids plus a full time job) to go through her old pictures and documents. But she plans to and we will talk more then. I'm sure she will have lots to share. I'm so happy to have her email so we can talk later.

McClure & Monroe

Last month I made contact with Barbara Wright who researches the McClure family of Grayson Co., KY who marry into our Monroe lines. She shared information with me and I am attempting to update all the Johnson Monroe descendant lines who are also Samuel McClure (m. Frances Craven) descendant lines to share with her. The lines I am trying to complete are Annie Elizabeth McClure m. 1866 Absolam S. Kerr (parents of Samuel R. Kerr m. 1896 Sarah Pearl Monroe), Alice McClure m. 1884 George Washington Taylor Monroe and Ida Belle McClure m. 1888 Henry William Monroe. Annie Elizabeth McClure, Alice McClure and Ida Belle McClure are sisters. As always happens I have run into some snags because I don't have any "family story" information to guide me.

I have documented 9 children from Samuel R. Kerr and Sarah Pearl Monroe. I have a marriage for only one of them and death dates for only 3 of the nine. Maybe I can trace a some of the daughters through KY birth records - or at least get a potential surname or two for them.

I lose track of descendants of Alice McClure and GWT Monroe after the 1930 census. (This is Emeline Monroe's (b. 1915) family line). I'd love to talk to her and learn what she knows about her aunts and uncles and 1st cousins and their descendants.

I lose track of some of the descendants of Ida Belle McClure and Henry William Monroe after the 1930 census.

Their daughter Frances married a Mr. Ryan (on her gravestone) but was this her first husband? Did she have children? I have not found her in 1920 or 1930 census. She is likely married but I can't find her under the surname Monroe or Ryan.

Their daughter Ida N. I think I found in 1920 and 1930 census but I'm not positive. In 1920 she is in St. Louis and working as a bookkeeper and in 1930 she is a manager of a flour mill in TN. She is single in 1920/1930 if this is our Ida N. Monroe.

Their son George William Monroe (the one who has a monument in Camp Ground Cemetery) second wife was Mary B on the 1930 census. Is she the Mary Biles Monroe in Cave City Cemetery 1889-1970? If so then her birthdate on the stone (and on the Soc. Sec death index) doesn't match the 1930 census which shows her age 39 (b. ca. 1891). Maybe the age is close enough.

I surely need some Kentucky cousin help!

August-September 2008

I haven't blogged for a while. Seems like every time I started to something came up. I've been all over the place research wise since my last blog. I started to look at my Wayne Co. Illinois cousins and got side tracked from that with an email of a possible cousin related by marriage to the Owen family my Monroe's married into and maybe this person was a descendant. Best we can tell for now is no relationship proved but that doesn't mean there isn't one. We agreed to keep in contact.

My Hobson research hasn't gone much of anywhere but I have had continued contact via phone and email with my "new" second cousins. So... this is basically positive news.

I need to step back and look at where I was when I last blogged and my recent emails. Then I'll have a better idea what to write. I've worked on several projects and if I tell you about them maybe you have something to contribute - or maybe some of it will help you with your research.

Today I'm in a situation I don't want to be in - I'm a potential juror for a case that is estimated to last 9 weeks and if it goes into a penalty phase it could be another 3 weeks. I can't say anything beyond this. I don't want to be on this (or any) jury. I've been on several juries in the past and feel I've already "done my civic duty" and don't want to be on another one. And of course my spinal arthritis makes it difficult for me to sit or maintain any physical position for an hour (some times less) without pain/ache. So far the court wants me to come back for another interview on September 30. Ugh!

Lyn's Hobsons #2

Last week I had a surprise phone call from a Hobson 2nd cousin. Mike is Judy's (mentioned in previous post) younger brother. We had a great conversation and the really fun part was Mike remembered singing with my first cousin (his second) at a Sedgwick Co., KS meeting of some sort where both the towns of Cheney (Mike) and Mt. Hope (Dick) were represented. The two of them never knew Mike's father and Dick's mother were first cousins! Dick doesn't remember the event from the meager description I emailed him. My notes from my phone conversation with Mike weren't very good and I may have left off the one thing that would have triggered Dick's memory.

I've continued on working on this side of my family a bit. I'm basically trying to track descendants of Minos Russell Hobson and Mary Ann Hod(g)son m. 1868 in Henry Co., IN. At this point I'm about to believe my grandfather's youngest brother William Lynn had 3 wives and not just the two I thought earlier. William Lynn only had one son I am aware of named Lynn Jr. born about 1922. Lynn Jr's mother's name is Olive but that's all I know about her except her marriage to Wm. Lynn didn't last long and ended in divorce. It was not her first marriage. SSDI and Texas death index indicates Lynn Jr. died in Houston area in 1999. If he married and had children I would love to learn about them and hopefully make contact.

The other sibling of my grandfather Ellis who married and had children was Adella Hobson m. Hiram Kline. They had two children Gerald and Pauline. Pauline did not marry. I remember meeting Cousin Pauline and Aunt Della in the early 1950s. Gerald married Ruth Minich. They had at least one child named Gerald born about 1928. If Gerald, Jr. married and had children I would love to know.

My high school classmate Eve mentioned last post came through with the three Wichita obituraries I requested. Not sure one of them is mine but getting negative information is good too as it tells me to look elsewhere. Thank you Eve! I appreciate you.

Lyn's Hobsons

Not quite Monroe research but given my link to Johnson Monroe is via Ellis L. Hobson married Alma Monroe I assume my recent contact with a second cousin via Hobson makes this post fit here quite nicely. My "new" cousin Judy's grandfather Orlando K. "OK" Hobson is my grandfather Ellis' older brother. I have a couple of letters OK wrote in early 1900s. In these letters OK has some of the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen. OK was the Methodist minister who married my grandparents. I have references to him in my grandfather's 1910 obituary and in letters written by one or the other of my grandparents.

Judy never heard of me or my grandfather. I knew her father's name but not much more. A couple of days ago I received photocopies of several items Judy owns. I thank her publicly for being so generous. One item was our great-grandfather Minos Russell Hobson's will. I didn't know it existed. My mother and her sister didn't receive anything but they both were mentioned. I was happy to see that. Judy also sent some obituaries which were very interesting. I did not know OK's wife Bessie Harlow was a licensed Methodist minister. I couldn't tell from the articles when the General Conference of the Methodist Church authorized women to preach but it must be much earlier than I ever imagined. I have only begun to absorb this new information and new information always creates questions. I will likely drive Judy nuts asking questions in the next few weeks. Hopefully she will be willing to put up with me. All this has me thinking I should do more work on documenting descendants of my Hobson great-grandparents. I made a teensy start by asking a high school classmate who lives in Wichita to look up some obituaries at the Wichita Historical and Genealogical Society I found in the WHGS on-line index. She agreed to do so as she plans a visit there for her own family research but it may be a few weeks. Thank you Eve! I've also done some census work and found some "my Hobsons" related World War I draft cards. And then... I set up a private Picasa Hobson photo album and uploaded some pictures. If anyone is interested in seeing this album, please let me know. Finding a "new" cousin is a wonderful experience - but it surely makes me see a zillion holes in my research and reminds me of all the projects I need to work on.

Family Myth Busted!

For years I can remember being told that Highland Methodist's church land had been donated by my Monroe Ans., but the other day I was in Glasgow and stopped by the courthouse for a quick dig regarding a house up for auction that I thought might have been tied to Nathaniel and Alethea's land I came across the deed for Highland and lo and behold Franklin Overstreets estate donated the land! Since Franklin is tied to my branch of the family to both my Shaw family and is also the father of Laura who marries one of Issac West and Phobe Monroe's sons I guess it still works, but now I wonder how in the dickens the story was created that the land came from a Monroe? I wonder where all the old records for Highland are? Anybody know?