Wordless Wednesday: Two Boys

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

This cabinet card is one of several in a photo album belonging to my great grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis.  Like the others, the subjects are unknown to me.  However, this one is especially charming because the boys are so well-dressed.  

The photography studio was Star Studio in Shenandoah, Virginia.

Mystery Monday: Searching for Mary Ann, part 4

Mystery Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers encouraging bloggers to share mystery ancestors or mystery records – anything which is currently unsolved.  With any luck fellow genealogy bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help solve the mystery.

Searching, part 1

Searching, part 2

Searching, part 3

In my effort to find the family of my 3G-grandmother Mary Ann Armentrout Jollett, I concluded it would be useful to eliminate the various candidates.  However, traditional German naming patterns makes finding her father more complicated.  At baptism, the child’s first name was a spiritual name, and usually all children of the same gender in the family had the same first name.  In this family’s case, all the boys’ spiritual name was John, or “Johan.”  

But that didn’t mean the boys went by “John.”  They went by the middle name, their secular name.  The one exception was “Johannes.”  That spelling indicated he was intended to be called “John” and there was no separate secular name. 

Let me introduce the candidates:

Sons of Johannes

Johannes Emerich (1747 – 1831) is a NO.  The spelling of his name indicates he was known as John, but his daughter Anna Maria (easily Anglicized to become Mary Ann) was 20 years older than my 3G-grandmother.  Furthermore, Anna Maria was married to Jacob Hostetter. 

Johan Heinrich (1749 – 1827) is a NO.  Before 1800, he moved his family to Rockbridge County and then later to Botetourt County.  He had a daughter Mary, but she married Andrew Hayslett. 

Grandsons of Johannes

Johannes Emerich Jr. (1778 – 1825) is a NO.  He married twice and had a total of nine children, none of whom were named Mary Ann, a fact supported by his will.

John (1772 - ), son of Johan Heinrich, looks like a likely candidate because he had a daughter Mary Ann born in 1798, the same year that I believe MY Mary Ann was born.  However, he too is a NO.  He was a resident of Rockbridge County, but land left to Mary Ann and Fielding Jollett was in Rockingham.  However, the strongest argument against this John is that this Mary Ann married Andrew Miller and died in 1831, almost 40 years before the death of my 3G-grandmother.

Grandson of Johan Phillip

Johan Peter (1783 - ), son of Peter Ermentraudt, is a NO.  He and his wife Catherine Leonard married young.  In 1817, they left Virginia and moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, where he likely died although no record has been found.  His wife made her home with her daughter in Illinois. 

Son of Johan Friederich

John (1751 - ) is a mystery man, and therefore a likely candidate since there is nothing to eliminate him as the possible father for Mary Ann.  There was a son baptized at St. John’s Reformed Church in Pennsylvania in 1751, the same church where the other children of Friederich and Maria Catrina Hedrick Ermentraudt were baptized.  The child was unnamed in the record, but the sponsor was John Peter Lamm.  In some other record, Friederich listed his children in order, and John was second.  No other record has been found for this John. 

Son of Christopher

Johannes (1770 – 1810) is a NO.  He lived his entire short life in Hardy County, Virginia (now West Virginia), never in Rockingham.  He married, but none of his daughters were named Mary Ann. 

Grandson of Christopher

Johannes (1777 – 1851), son of the first Christopher born to the elder Christopher and his first wife Elizabeth Schmehl, is a NO (the elder Christopher had a second son named Christopher by his second wife).  This is an easy NO because the first son Christopher returned to Pennsylvania where he married and lived out his years.  Therefore, this Johannes (John) was a Pennsylvania resident all his life.  And even if I grant it’s possible he could have inherited land in Virginia without ever living there, the fact remains that his daughter Anna Marie lived less than a year (1801-1802).  To top it all off, this John died in 1851, but according to the burnt deed, Mary Ann’s father John was already dead by 1837.

Son of Johan Georg

Johannes Frederick (1764 – 1855) is an obvious NO, again because of the date of death being almost 20 years after the sale of land that Mary Ann inherited from her deceased father. 

So it appears there is only one good choice for Mary Ann’s father:  the son of Friederich.  However, now I am second-guessing everything.  The burnt deed that indicates Mary Ann’s father was “John” makes me wonder if he really was known as “John” or if the person drawing up the deed simply neglected to record both a spiritual and secular name.  I could easily spend time going back through the six Ermentraudt boys and assume each of their sons and grandsons was Johan Somebody.  But I’m going to just go with this son of Friederich for now because there is no conflicting information. 

Next time, I will start examining Friederich’s other children.  Surely a collateral search will offer some clues to help me find Mary Ann’s mother. 

Sepia Saturday: Dressed to Impress

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt depicts a lovely young woman adorned with some elegant jewelry.  While many of the women in my family tree appreciated jewelry, their tastes were decidedly more modest than that of the woman in the prompt. 

Mary Susan "Sudie" Eppard Rucker
my great-grandmother
(maternal grandmother's mother)

According to my aunt, my great-grandmother Mary Susan “Sudie” Eppard Rucker was considered a well-dressed woman.  Her husband was a railroad conductor in the days when railroads were booming.  I suppose she had to dress the part.  

Jet jewelry that belonged to Mary Sudie Rucker

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of her wearing her jet beads that now are mine.  The triple strand was originally a long single strand which was popular among 1920s flappers who liked wearing a necklace that reached at least to their waist.  Since Sudie would have been too old to be a flapper, maybe her jet beads were actually mourning beads.  The somber color and simple design made them appropriate jewelry for women in mourning. 

Mary Sudie Rucker

My sister is now the caretaker of Sudie’s ornamental hair comb.  It is black, probably celluloid.

Turn of the century “big hair” required a little help.  Enter the hair receiver.

Celluloid dresser set including the hair receiver

A Victorian dresser set would have included a tray, a powder jar, and a hair receiver like the celluloid one I display on my dresser.  The hole in the lid allowed a lady to fill the pot easily with hair removed from her brush and comb.  When she gathered enough hair, she would stuff it into a cloth bag called a “ratt” that could then be tucked under her own hair to add volume and height. 

I wish I could say this was Sudie’s dresser set and her hair receiver.  However, supposedly this celluloid dresser set was my mother’s.  She was a teen in the 40s, so it’s unlikely the set is turn of the century.  Plus it’s in terrible condition, speckled with paint that probably resulted from being left out while a ceiling was being painted.  And there is nail polish, of all things, on the lid of the hair receiver.  Had this dresser set been valuable, Momma would have taken better care of it. 

So why am I including it in a post about jewelry?  Because of something weird we found in Sudie’s attic.

I was quite young but I remember visiting Grandma Rucker’s house one last time after she died. 

In the attic we found a bag full of hair. 

She must’ve been planning some big ratt!

Please visit my friends at Sepia Saturday.  You can bet their posts are real gems.

Wordless Wednesday: Two Girls

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

This woefully faded photo is in the photo album belonging to my great-grandmother Mary Frances Jollett Davis.  I don’t know who they are.  I don’t know how to date the picture.  If it’s around 1890, then maybe the girl on the right is Mary Frances herself (1870-1950) and the other might be a sister. 

Then again, there are more “unknowns” than “knowns” in the album suggesting maybe these are from the Davis side of the family, Walter Davis’s sisters perhaps. 

Mystery Monday: Searching for Mary Ann, part 3

Mystery Monday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers encouraging bloggers to share mystery ancestors or mystery records – anything which is currently unsolved.  With any luck fellow genealogy bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help solve the mystery.

Searching, part 1

Searching, part 2

Armentrout researchers have identified seven main branches, representing each of the children who arrived in Pennsylvania aboard the Samuel in 1739 along with their widowed mother Anna Elizabeth Ermentraudt. 

Potential fathers for Mary Ann are in bold. 

Johannes Ermentraudt

Johannes was apparently the oldest of the seven Ermentraudt children.  He was born about 1717 in Palatinate (south-western region of Germany along the Rhine) and died about 1753 in what is now Rockingham County, Virginia.  While in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he married Anna Elizabeth Hedderich in 1742.  The couple lived with her father Adam Hedderich and raised three children:  Anna Marharet (1745 - ), Johannes Emerich (1747 – 1831), and Johan Heinrich (1749 – 1827).  It was Johannes and his father-in-law who first decided to investigate the rumors of good land in Virginia and who convinced others in the family to sell their Pennsylvania farms and move south. 

Anna Elizabeth Ermentraudt

Anna Elizabeth was the only daughter of the widow Anna Elizabeth Ermentraudt.  She was born in Palatinate about 1718. She married her cousin Johan Frederick Hain, son of George and Veronica Hain with whom the Ermentraudts lived upon arrival in Pennsylvania.  They moved to Rockingham County, Virginia where they raised two sons, Johannes (1747 - ) and Johan Frederick (1749-1811). 

Johan Phillip Ermentraudt

Johan Phillip was born about 1720 in Palatinate and died about 1790 in Rockingham County, Virginia.  He was married to Elizabeth Reith (Reisch, Rish, Rush) of Pennsylvania.  He purchased around 700 acres of land in Virginia over the years, and probably lived near his brothers Georg and Friederich who purchased land from the same tract on the same day.  Phillip and his brother Stophel (Christopher) participated in the French and Indian War.  He and Elizabeth raised three children:  Phillip Jr. (1747 – 1836), Peter (1751 – 1824), and Heinrich (1755 – 1806). His mother lived with him after the Ermentraudts settled in Virginia, and he served as executor of her estate.  Apparently Phillip did quite well financially as he gave each of his sons a farm.

The Peaked Mountain Church in McGaheysville, Virginia
where the Armentrouts were active and devoted members.
This building has been torn down and replaced.
Photo scanned from Armentrout Family History
by Russell S. Armentrout
For a clearer photo, click HERE.

Johan Friederich Ermentraudt

Johan Friederich was born around 1722 or 23 in Palatinate, arrived in Pennsylvania with his mother and siblings about 1739, joined the Ermentraudt migration to Virginia around 1754 (based on a deed), and died in Rockingham County in 1789 or 90.  He married Maria Catrina Hedrick in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The two raised at least eight children:  Anna (1747 - ), George (1750 - ), John (1751 - ), Christopher (1761 - ), Charles (1763 – 1836), Augustine (1765 - ), Frederick (1767 – 1837), and Catherine (1769 - ).  Although no record exists, it is assumed Friederich served in the French and Indian War because all able-bodied men were required to do so.  He was over-age to be drafted during the Revolution, but he was nevertheless a patriot who provided supplies and services to the Continental Army. 

Christopher (Stophel) Ermentraudt

Christopher was born about 1724 in Palatinate.  He married Elizabeth Schmel in Pennsylvania.  They had two children:  Barbara and Christopher Jr. (1754 – 1825).  Apparently Elizabeth died shortly after the birth of the second child because Christopher then joined his family that had already migrated to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  It is possible that Elizabeth’s parents raised the two children, but there is also some indication that they lived with Christopher’s sister Anna Elizabeth Hain in Virginia.  Soon after arriving in Virginia, Christopher joined the Militia and fought in the French and Indian Wars.  In 1760 he married a second time, to Susannah Gallet Power (or Bower), a widow.  He was captured by Indians in 1762 and spent six years in captivity before escaping and returning home.  Shortly afterwards he sold his land in Rockingham County and in 1771 moved his family to Hardy County, which today is in West Virginia, where he purchased 226 acres.  While Christopher was too old for service in the Revolution, he paid for supplies for the Continental Army.  He and Susannah raised six children: Elizabeth (1761 – 1800), Anna Maria (1762 – 1850), Henry (1763 – 1833), Johannes (1770 – 1810), Susanna (1772 – 1842), Christopher (1775 – 1857).  He remained in Hardy County the rest of his life and died in 1805.

 

Heinrich Ermentraudt

Heinrich was born about 1726 in Palatinate.  He married Mary Magdalena Bauer in Augusta County, Virginia (Rockingham County after 1778) in 1759.  Like his brothers, he served in the Militia during the French and Indian Wars and provided supplies to the Continental Army during the American Revolution.  He was a large land owner with roughly 1000 acres.  He must have died rather suddenly at age 56 in 1782 because he left no will.  He and Mary Magdalena had eight children:  George (1760 – 1805), Elizabeth (1763 - ), Mary Magdalena (1767 – 1858), Mary (1769 – 1861), Margaret (1772 - ), Philip (1776 – 1859), Henry (1779 – 1846), and Barbara (1781 - ).

Johan Georg Ermentraudt

Georg was the youngest of the Ermantraudts, born about 1729 in Palatinate.  He married Barbara Friedtel in 1759 in Augusta County, now Rockingham County, Virginia.  He amassed a large amount of land, roughly 850 acres.  As did his brothers, he joined the Militia and fought in the French and Indian Wars, which earned him a military warrant of 50 acres.  He also served in the Militia during the American Revolution and was present with his company at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. He and Barbara had at least four children but possibly six:  George (1761 – 1787), Mary M (1763 - ), Johan Frederick (1764 – 1855), and Catherine B (1769 - ).  Georg died after 1805.

Next time I will eliminate the ones who could not be Mary Ann’s father.

Sepia Saturday: Hospitalman 3rd Class

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt features the kitchen of a hospital train.  Hospital train?  That’s a foreign concept to me, but I do have a TRAINed nurse.  (HA HA HA HA -- I kill me! Yeah, I'm here through the weekend.)

Janet Basham Meines
1929 - 1997

Janet Louise Basham was my mother’s cousin.  She was the older daughter of my grandmother’s sister Rosalind Mae Rucker and Larry Dalton Basham.  Janet was born July 10, 1929, in Roanoke, Virginia, and graduated from William Fleming High School in 1947.  

Janet Louise Basham 1947
scanned from William Fleming HS yearbook
The Colonel
available on Ancestry.com

As many yearbook staffs tend to do, quotes were selected for each senior.  Next to Janet’s photo was this gem:  “Thou shalt not wash dishes.”   In the Class Last Will & Testament, Janet left her bubblegum to another student, Jack Baldwin. 

Typical teenager!

Janet Louise Basham Meines
photo courtesy of her daughter
(name withheld for privacy)

Sometime between graduation and marriage, Janet joined the Navy as a WAVE and became a nurse, specifically Hospitalman 3^rd class.  


That is probably where she met her husband, Clarence “Clix” Meines.

Newly-Wed Pair Expected for Stay at Bride’s Home

A former Roanoker, Miss Janet Louise Basham, Hospitalman 3^rd Class, WAVE, was married July 24 [1950] to Clarence Haines Meines, Jr., Hospital Corpsman, USN, in the chapel of the US Naval Hospital, St. Alban’s, Long Island, New York.

Both will be discharged from the Navy this week and will arrive in Roanoke Saturday to visit Mrs. Meines’ parents, Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Basham.

Mr. Meines of Paterson, NJ, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Haines Meines.

The ceremony was performed at 4 p.m. and Chaplain J. T. Embry officiated.

Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore a ballerina length dress of white organdy and lace over taffeta with a fingertip veil and lace headband.  Her bouquet was of white carnations.

The maid of honor and only attendant was Miss Ellen Farmer of Ohio.  She wore a ballerina length gown of pink organdy and carried pink carnations.

Michael Rooney of New Jersey served as best man.  Ushers were Willard Barnes and Horace Latouir.

Following the ceremony, a reception was held at the WAVEs’ quarters, US Naval Hospital.

For a wedding trip, the couple went to Culver’s Lake, NJ.  Following their visit in Roanoke, Mr. and Mrs. Meines will live in Paterson, NJ.

Janet and Clix raised 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys.  She died in April 1997. 

I don’t remember ever meeting the Meines children when I was a child.  It’s possible.  My grandmother’s sister visited usually every year, and Janet sent Christmas cards, so there was some level of closeness.  Several months ago after scanning a Meines Christmas card into my family files, on a whim I searched on Facebook for the “kids.”  Not too surprisingly, they are there.  The oldest is a new grandmother and now my Facebook friend.  Wonders of the Internet!

I got slightly off-track with this post, but climb aboard the Sepia Saturday train and see what else is cooking.

Wordless Wednesday: Boy on a Trike

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

This photo was in a box of pictures belonging to my great-aunt Helen Killeen Parker.  I don’t know who the boy is, but it isn’t likely someone in my direct line.  The photographer was located in Norfolk, Virginia, but the Killeens were New Yorkers until 1905 when the newly widowed Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen moved to Portsmouth, Virginia to be closer to her in-laws.  Helen’s only brother Matthew would have been 10 in 1905, but this boy looks younger than that.  He could be Helen’s husband Herbert Parker.