Shakin' the Family Tree

Things that make you say, hmmmm...

2012-03-24T16:01:07Z

Something in Jenny Lanctot's March 22 Ancestor Spotlight post caught my eye.

Aside from the fact that the post was interesting and well-written. Jenny sets the bar pretty high in that regard.

No, it was what she said before she ever started telling the story of Charles Crowe.

For now, I will try to spotlight at least one ancestor per month, (hopefully) alternating branches of my family. I think they get a little touchy when I spend too much time on the "other" side, which is why I think I have such a hard time finding information. (My emphasis added.)

No one really talks - or blogs - about that.

You know, those "moments" when something unexplainable happens while you are plowing - or plodding - along on your research...

Like the time I was trying to figure out where the family of my maternal great-great grandmother, Catherine C Mueller was in between 5 Sep 1832, when they stepped off the boat in New York, and sixteen years later, when Catherine married Jacob Williams in Franklin Co., KY.

I was using Ancestry to search historic records for each member of the family listed on the passenger list for the ship Elisabeth, which had sailed from Bremen, Germany.

And I looked up from the keyboard and saw that all the search fields were written in another language. I knew it had to be German, even though I don't speak, read or write German.

But Catherine did.

Instinctively, I knew I was entering the correct data in those fields. ~ tab, type, tab ~

As I stared at the computer monitor, I got that prickly, tingly feeling in the crown of my head that I nearly always get when something otherworldly occurs.

And I knew the moment was about to end if I looked away.

It did as soon as I did. Back to English.

I could only recall three fields. I scribbled them down on my handy-dandy scratch pad, and went to Google Translate.

Geburtsdatum - date of birth
Geburtsort - place of birth
Todesdatum - date of death

I've kept that piece of scrap paper in my hard copy Mueller family research file. For years.

I've never been able to re-create the anomaly.

Then, there are the dreams.

Especially the dreams that occur just before or after unexplainable events.

I have a Black and Decker programmable coffee-maker. Over the years, I've had several of them. What can I say? It's my brand, and I like having my coffee ready when I rise in the morning.

I stayed up way too late one night shakin' the family tree, looking for some Wingfields. When I realized how late it was, I got my butt in gear and shut down the cottage for the night.

Including setting up the coffee-maker.

I had a dream. Three of my ancestors showed up to confront me.

Including the woman on the left in this photo, looking much as she does in the photo.

She was my paternal great-great grandmother, Mary C Dunn Callaway Williams.

I don't know who the other two were, but Grandmother Mary wasn't pleased.

She told me not to forget her (she's one of my toughest brick walls). She also said I was spending too much time on "those people." I protested meekly. She was having none of it, and repeated herself.

When I awoke the next morning, the coffee-maker had not. I got the prickly, tingly scalp feeling, but told myself it was late when I went to bed and I probably had forgotten to program the appliance.

That night, I made sure I hit the program button, and wrote it on a post-it note that I stuck to the kitchen counter in front of the pot.

No coffee the next morning either.

Since that time, I've plugged that pot - and two other identical ones - into outlets in three locations in my kitchen.

When I don't get my morning coffee automatically, I know I need to pay some attention to the Callaways...the pot works fine after that.

Sometime, I'll tell ya about my haunted printer.

I have a witness to its hijinks.

The journey is good.

The ancestors will guide us if we let them.

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And it wasn't a window envelope...

2011-09-23T20:25:07Z

I got mail today.

And it wasn't a window envelope.

I'm sure it was in the back of my mind, as are many things in my quest to discover who my people are - whose genes had anything to do with the making of me.

But I had almost forgotten that several weeks ago, I mailed a form and a $15 check to the Mississippi State Department of Health for an uncertified copy of a death certificate for my great-great grandmother, Mary Emily Conner.

I took off work earlier this afternoon, did a couple of errands and came home, looking forward to throwing open the windows of the cottage on this wonderfully cool and breezy day of the autumn equinox.

When I checked the mail, I saw the envelope's return address.

I think others of you reading this will identify with my next move.

I reached in the mailbox and laid my hand on the envelope to feel its thickness.

It wasn't one of those flat, skinny envelopes. I could tell by touch there was more than one sheet of paper - that standardized form letter - announcing, We're sorry but we were unable to locate the record you requested.

And then, they keep your $15 for looking...

Some of you may identify with my next move...

Since I was where my neighbors could see me, and wearing a skirt, I did a restrained happy dance, and came in the house and laid the envelope down on grandma's table.

I decided to savor the opening and discoveries of that envelope.

So I ditched my bra and shoes, quickly did a few chores, got a cup of coffee and kicked back on the couch.

And opened the envelope.

When I sent off for this record, I had hope for the answers to a number of questions about Mary Emily Conner.

Did I have her date and location of death correct? Where was she buried? How had she died? Who provided the information for her death certificate, and what relationship did that person have to her?

Did she die alone?

Most of my direct ancestors have a portrait in my mind's eye.

For Mary Emily Conner, that portrait includes a real visual image. I am lucky to have at least one known photo of her, and I wouldn't be surprised if she is not in some of the unlabeled photos in the Williams family album, although at an older age than the 1873 photo.

I am also fortunate that she was a notable character in a written Meek family history - even though she was an in-law, and then, a divorced in-law at that.

From that written history, I learned that Mary was an educated woman. She was fluent in French.

She was a business woman, and was able to support her family with her millinery business while her first husband, James Alexander Meek, was fighting a lost cause in the Civil War, getting wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, and being held prisoner for nearly two years at Pea Patch Island.

Although I don't know the back-story, the timing of her divorce and re-marriage may also say something about a woman who was able to leave the past behind and move on...she and James Meek were divorced on 10 Oct 1871, and she was married to Samuel Webb (a successful confectioner) on 26 Oct 1871.

And wouldn't I love to have that back-story? Uh huh.

Date and location of death? Check. 27 Apr 1913, in Sardis, Panola Co., MS

Where is she buried? Union Church Cemetery, in Sardis, Panola Co., MS

Cause of death? Diseases arising from old age.

Not attended by a doctor, she died at home. The informant, and physician who signed her death certificate, was William J Hays, her nephew. He was the son of Mary's younger sister, Elizabeth Conner Hays.

He gave his address as Sardis, MS. I know his mother, Elizabeth Conner Hays, died in Sardis.

So although my great-great grandmother may have died at home alone (although the death certificate only says she died at home), another question was answered...

I always wondered when Mary decided to move back to Panola Co., MS after the death of her husband, Samuel Webb in 1882 in Russellville, was she near family?

I think she was...and so the portrait gains another layer, moving into filling out some of the gaps in that third dimension. In my mind's eye, I can see her, sitting and visiting for a spell, with her sister - talking and maybe having some refreshment, as Southern ladies once did. Perhaps Mary's nephew, the doctor, stopped by every once in while to check on his elderly aunt. I can picture her being proud of him...

So cool when it's not a window envelope...

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Black Sheep Sunday: William Elihu Francis

2011-07-31T14:41:25Z

It started with an email message from my Callaway cousin, Joe.

I wasn't online when he sent it, so he followed up with a phone call.

I need you to figure out if Elihu Francis is related to us.

Joe knows that I have carried my family tree out to include collateral relatives, because I can't just confine myself to linear relationships and call it good.

His urgency was evident in the tone of his voice. I asked for some detail.

In the wee hours of the morning on 3 April 1914, Elihu's wife and three young children were murdered with an axe. The house, in rural Clark Co., AR, was then set on fire to cover up the crime.

As I started looking, I found news reports from all over the country.

The Lincoln Daily Star, 4 Apr 1914:

Mother and Her Children Killed by Ax Murderer
Little Rock, Ark., April 4 - An unidentified assassin early yesterday murdered with an ax Mrs. Elihu Francis and three of her children in their home near Fendley, having previously set fire to the house, according to reports received here. Mr. Francis, the husband and father and a fourth child, narrowly escaped the same fate.

According to statements made by Francis, he was awakened about 4:30 in the morning by the barking of his dog, and found his house in flames. About this time, Francis said, he saw a man enter his wife's room carrying an ax. Believing the intruder was searching for him, Francis said he ran into the yard in an effort to draw the man away from the house, but the slayer remained and killed Mrs. Francis and the three children, ranging in age from two to six years.

Francis stated he then ran to the house and the assassin disappeared, the flames by this time had completely enveloped the house and he was unable to enter the room where lay the bodies of his wife and children. He succeeded, however, in rescuing the one year old baby from another room.

Great excitement has been aroused in the vicinity of Fendley by the crime. Bloodhounds have been sent from this city.

That story must not have sat well with the sheriff.

Indianapolis Sunday Star, 5 Apr 1914:

Father Held for Slaying Wife and Three Children
Arkadelphia, Ark., April 5 - On the recommendation of the coroner's jury, Elihu Francis is held in jail here today, charged with the murder of his wife and three children, whose charred bodies were found yesterday in the ruins of their home near here. Francis declared his wife and children were murdered wiith an ax by an unidentified man who set fire to the house and fled.

Three neighbors, who rushed to the Francis home when they saw the flames, testifed they saw no one leaving the place. An ax bearing blood stains and which Francis said belonged to him was found in the ruins of the house.

Other news reports of the time say that Elihu was bound over for trial, but was then committed to the Arkansas State Hospital for Nervous Diseases, where he died of tuberculosis in 1916.

Elihu's niece, Ada Elizabeth Francis, married William Andrew Callaway, who was Joe's grand uncle.

So technically, no - we are not related to Elihu Francis.

But the story still begs a question that transcends any bloodline...

What on earth would cause a 24 year old man to murder his own wife and children?

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