Second Ward School Class Picture

 

Although Grandma, Thelma Mariah Oakley West, was born in Olean, New York, in 1904, her family moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania when she was young. Great Grandpa, George Clair Oakley found a house for them on Summer Street in Bradford and Grandma and her siblings would grow up there.

This picture is of Grandma and her grade school class at the Second Ward School, on the corner of Elm and Congress Street. Grandma is in the front row, first from the right, with the bow in her hair. I am estimating that the photo was taken about 1913.

Bradford’s population was growing rapidly and by the 1920s had reached 20,000 and  it wasn’t uncommon to have 50 children in a grade school class. This class had around 40 children in it. The wooden building would be replaced in 1935 with a brick building.

 

Grandpa Delivered Groceries

I remember my grandfather, Chester Davis West telling stories about delivering groceries. He would tell about how he wasn’t suppose to go inside the pesthouses, but would walk up to the door and straight into the kitchen to place the groceries on the table. The pesthouses were places where people sick with tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox or typhus would go to get well. At one point an old schoolhouse was used as the local Bradford pesthouse. Starting around 1918 Grandpa delivered groceries driving the Spencer Grocery horse and wagon.

By the 1920s the horse and wagon was to be replaced with a 1920s Dodge Screenside Delivery Truck. The pictures of the delivery vehicles turned up in a batch of photos that my mother had never seen. They must have been Grandpa’s private stash of  photo memories before he married my Grandmother. A couple of photos of a vary young her were tucked in the mix.

From Deep in the Closet

We have turned up all types of family objects in the process of selling mom’s house. The kitchen turned up favorite cutting boards and a small pan for cooking poached eggs belonging to my grandfather. Cookbooks with parts collected from trips to the grocery store were boxed up to save.

In the process of looking for a special hand painted Santa candy dish, I dove deep into the hall closet pulling out all the boxes. Mom mentioned a box in the back that held my grandfather’s paperwork. I spotted it tucked in the very back and pushed my way into the narrow space and drug the box out.

To my surprise it contained, not paperwork as my mother remembered but old photos, many of my grandfather’s parents and baby photos of my grandparents. One of my favorites was of my great grandparents, George Arthur West and Josephine S. Davis, taken in 1899, shortly after their marriage, as was noted on the back by my great grandmother. Married February 18, 1899, in Bradford, Pennsylvania, the photo was taken by Mary Zuver West, George’s mother.

Massachusetts Town and Vital Records on ancestry.com

My Burgess line goes back predating the arrival of the Pilgrims to Thomas Burgess, born in England in 1601 and died in Massachusetts in 1685. My connection to the Pilgrim’s would come when Joseph Burgess, great grandson of Thomas Burgess, would marry Thankful Snow, great granddaughter of Pilgrim, Nicholas Snow.

Many of the spouses of my Burgess line have been documented with the exception of Benjamin Strong Burgess and his two wives, Laura and Jeannette H. Recently ancestry.com released the Massachusetts Town and Vital records for 1620 – 1988. Included in the digitized documentation is the marriage intent and marriage license for Benjamin S. Burgess and Laura Britton.

According to the documentation Benjamin and Laura were living in Springfield, Massachusetts and married September 14, 1836.

Below the annotation for Benjamin and Laura is the marriage of Martha A. Chapin and Joel K. Bliss for September 19, 1878. Martha is related to me through Levi Chapin, who is my 5^th great grandfather. Levi’s daughter Rebecca married Benjamin Shepard Burgess, father of Benjamin Strong Burgess.

Below Martha and Joel is the marriage record for Joseph Chapin and Sophronia Jenks. Joseph was Martha’s brother. He and Sophronia were married September 20, 1839.

Further search revealed records for:

Freeman E. Burgess and Theresa Small, Apr 15, 1831, Harwich, Massachusetts

Reuben Burgess and Anna Brooks, Apr 17, 1831, Harwich, Massachusetts

Eliza Swift Burgess and Nathan B Gibbs, Jul 31 (1843), Springfield, Massachusetts

Elijah Burgess and Betsey Wing, their children’s birth records

Stephen Burgess and Sarah White, their children’s birth records

Eyth, Eith, Stehlin and Stehle

Research on my Eyth family has previously ended with my 4^th great grandfather Marcus Eyth and his wife Elisabeth Hoefelin. With  the Family Search release of Pennsylvania marriage records and German birth, death and marriage records, I now have information out to and including my 7^th great grandfather.

Marcus’ full name was Marcus (Marx) Evangalista Eyth, His wife was Elisabeth(a) Hoefelin, also spelled: Haefelinn, Hofeling, Hofelin and Hastelin. From his birth record I now know that his father was Andreas Eyth and his mother, Kunigunda Luib and he was born April 25, 1780. He had a brother Carl Josephus Eyth, born January 28, 1777.

Andreas’ father was Petrus Eith (Eyth) and Rosa Stehlin. Andreas had eleven brothers and sisters born between 1741 and 1777. Petrus’ father was Joannes Jacob Eith and his mother was Elisabeth Stehlin. Petrus had 7 brothers and sisters.

Through time the Eyths (Eith) and the Stehlin (Stehle) have married each other. I haven’t determined, yet, how many of them were related or how closely. Andreas’ brother Ignaz married Agnes Stehlin, whos parents were Dominikus and Barbara Kleindienstin Stehle. Their mother was Rosa Stehlin and their grandmother was Elisabeth Stehlin. Georgia Eith, Ignaz’s daughter, married Calixt Stehle, Calixt’s mother was Barbara Eith. The more I dig into the families, the more tangled together they are turning out.

Breaking a Brick Wall One Brick at a Time

When you least expect it a brick wall will fall down, or at least a few bricks break off. Family Search has been adding a lot of new documents to their on line library. Just recently I found multiple documents that extended my Eyth line and confirmed several birth and marriage entries. Birth records from Germany help with family lines. I had tried a search for my Siffrinn line and did not find any new records.

Yesterday, for fun I entered the Siffrinn surname, not expecting any results. Up popped Pennsylvania marriage certificates for several Siffrinn surnames. I glanced through the selection and clicked on a William Siffrinn. The details of the entry included a full name, William Siffrinn, birth of Stolberg, Germany and birth date of May 20 1864. He was the son of John and Christina Ronen Siffrinn. It also documented his marriage on Jun. 24, 1914, to Lizzie Kilday, daughter of Peter and Mary McGrale Kilday, born in Pennsylvania, Jan. 1, 1875. The marriage was documented as taking place in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania. The last clue on the document was that he had been married previously and his wife had died March, 29, 1911.

I saved the document to my desktop, curious at first that it was missing information to Louis and Caroline’s son, William, except for the information given as to parents.

I opened the next result for William Siffrinn, I now had the clues that linked my SIffrinns to their German past. This was the same William Sifffrinn as the first document that I had opened for his first marriage to my great-great grandmother. I knew that my great-great grandmother had remarried after the death of her husband Louis Siffrinn. I was pretty sure that the man that she married next was the brother of her husband but I did not have proof.  The marriage documentation documented that William Siffrinn was marrying his brother’s widow, Mrs. Caroline Siffrinn, a midwife, her maiden name was Everhardt. The marriage took place 2 years following the death of my great-great grandfather in Oct of 1888 and a year after the birth of John Siffrinn, Caroline and William’s son in Norristown, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

William had arrived in the United States in 1886, four years after his brother and family had moved to the Philadelphia area from Germany. The men were glassblowers in Philadelphia. Although I still have not found the passenger list for the Louis Siffrinn family’s arrival to the States, I am pretty sure that they immediately settled in the Norristown area, not arriving in Kane or Port Allegany Pennsylvania until close to 1900. In the 1900 Census Caroline has listed that she has had 12 children of which 7 are still alive. More searching would reveal a daughter that I did not have listed, Mary Siffrinn born in Germany in 1876, married to Joseph E Grant born in England April 1872. Searching on Mary in Census records I found her living with her sister, Emma born in Germany 1869, another new child for my file, and her brother-in-law, John Norman born in Germany, Mar. 1857.

Caroline’s 1900 Census record lists, her married to William and children, Augusta, Peter, and John living with her in Kane, Pennsylvania. William was working as a glassblower; the children were all in school. Some of the family remained in the Norristown, Pennsylvania area, which now broadens my search area considerably for the remaining four children Caroline gave birth to as claimed in her 1900 Census record.

God Bless You

My husband came in the house the other day chuckling. I know someone related to you has been riding in our car, he teased. I looked at him, a bit confused, “why?”

“I found Kleenex stuffed in your car in the passenger side door pocket.”

Mom has moved in with us and it seems the ever running nose has been passed down through my mother’s side of the family. Not only do I sound like her, have her delicate digestive system and matching feet, but I got the dripping nose.

No matter the season and heaven help during the change of seasons, tissues must stand at the ready. I can remember my grandmother with her hankies stuffed in the pockets of her apron and housedress. Mom tells me that my great grandmother was also always in possession of a delicate cotton hankie in her apron too. I must say I am rather glad we have given up on that bad habit and the pile of dirty hankies for the laundry that would pile up quickly.

Kleenex won’t have to worry about going out of business any time soon. Each car has its travel box; the living room, bedrooms and baths all have their standing full boxes in preparation for that frequent sneeze. I buy bulk.

Found Treasure

Life has been so busy lately that I haven’t had as much time to play with the ancestors. We moved into a larger house and moved mom in with us. Of course all of the moving things around in a house lived in for 50+ years was bound to uncover something. In the back corner, on a shelf, in a room that I grew up in long ago, I found an old blue box and dragged it out, dust and all.

When I peaked into the box, from my doubled up position under the eaves, I spotted what looked to be an old photo album. I put the box into a pile I was building to take downstairs for further inspection.

Once I got the top off the box, I realized that I had found my grandfather’s old photo album; including pictures of my grandmother holding my mother as a baby. What really surprised me, tucked into that box, was a glass negative from my great great grandmother’s collection. Mary Zuver West, 1851 – 1936, was a professional photographer in Bradford during the late 1800s to early 1900s. She learned the trade from her husband, Jacob West, whose German uncle Francis Eyth continued the family business of photography in the states once settling here from Germany in the mid 1800s. Francis had a photography gallery in Butler for years before engaging in the hotel business in Slippery Rock.

Mary was known for her photographs of women and children. This photo shows a woman with a bicycle. My grandfather had pulled it from the rack of old negatives and had inserted it in the box of family photos. I wonder if the reason he had kept it out was because of the interesting composition or if it was a family member.

Indexing Surprise

I have been indexing 1940 Census records as a volunteer on Family Search. Most of the records don’t cause me to pause and look for more information except for this one today. As I keyed in information I noticed something for the first time. The female was listed as  Head of the family and her husband was still living. This was the first time I was typing into the index the word Husband.

By this time my curiosity was peaked and I scrolled to the right on the image to see  what was the reasoning behind the order of the household listed. There on the occupation line was listed, Judge, County Court. Her full name is Hon. Lois Mary Downs McBride. She was born about 1891 and was 49 years old in 1940 when the Census was taken. She lived just outside of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. She was appointed judge June 5, 1934 of the County Court of Allegheny Countyand on November 4, 1934 she was elected to the same office for a 10 year term.

Ancestry.com has completed posting all of the states for browsing. They are not having volunteers doing indexing, although Family Search is and I have joined that group of volunteers. You can pick a state but the pages you get will be from random counties.

 

First Completed 1940 Indexes Online

Ancestry.com has announced the completion of the first two states indexed, Nevada and Delaware.

Tomorrow morning all 1940 U.S. Census images will be available for browsing.

I have been volunteering my time this past week with indexing my favored state, Pennsylvania.