Light Night And Heavy Emails

It was quite clear last night that we are indeed in the darkness of the sweltering summer months as there were only two of us who made it out to the lodge for fellowship. Given the travel that I have been hearing about from various brothers, it was not a complete surprise. Also, and I take responsibility for this one, there isn’t much in the way of communication during this season which leads some to simply forget. In reality, it was nice to have a relaxing evening to catch up with one of my brothers, reflect on our recent efforts, and look forward to the coming months of meetings, events, projects, and objectives.

There are a number of us who remain active throughout the year only taking breaks here and there. Lodge is something that we enjoy and that we want to see thrive during our lives in the lodge so we put forth the effort and do what we can, not just to make good men better but to make good lodges better. However, in my position, I have seen multiple instances (through email, social media, casual conversation, etc.) where brothers think that they are doing what is best for the fraternity but, in fact, they are doing everything to undermine freemasonry in general and our Grand Lodge in particular.

I am not one to name names in this instance, and I am not privy to those names in other instances, so let us simply say that there are many brothers out there that are not holding themselves to the same high moral standards of a mason that they should. They speak about brothers behind their backs and they hide behind fake names and Facebook pages that are, to put it nicely, and despicable disgrace. They seem to forget the traditions, rituals, rules, and standards by which we should hold ourselves and others in this fraternity.

While what is being said bothers me a great deal, it is the fact that they do not stand by their own words by attaching their name to their statements. This is hugely important to me as I hold myself to that basic standard when posting these blogs. If I can’t put my name to it, I don’t write it. Although I haven’t really had anything fall into the latter category. There is a time and place for everything and we all certainly have the right to our own opinion but we should also stand strong in our convictions and opinions. We must also remember the rules by which we live our lives and the moral standards by which we hold ourselves and others. We are here to make good men better, our lodge better, and the fraternity better. It is impossible to do so if we undermine all three as some brothers have chosen to do.

Sunday Search: Connections Through Occupations

There is a wealth of information that can be found in the census. Some of those facts prove to be quite useful when trying to pull the pieces together in order to learn about a distant relative. And while there are a number of things that should be checked and double checked, there is one piece of information in particular that seems to be regularly reliable… occupation. While the spelling of names, use of nicknames, and inaccurate dates abound in these national reports, the occupation of the individual is something really hard to mess up unless the census taker is told the wrong information on purpose.

While most of my family can be found listed as farmers and homemakers, there are the occasional outliers that catch my attention. Not because they are of any extraordinary profession but because it is simply something different than the norm and it makes me think about what that job must have been like at the time. After all, while the basic functions and responsibilities associated with a particularly line of employment, the means by which the tasks are completed are vastly different from that of over 100 years ago. There are exceptions to that rule as well.

Of course, what is even more interesting to me is the interplay between the different lines of the family tree. Sometimes there are other common connection both in geography and occupation that makes you wonder if ancestors in question ever ran into one another. This is where the intrest is really piqued and when the imagination can sometimes wander in to the realm of possibility regardless of how improbable it may have been. Let’s just take the 1900 Census for example.

In 1900 and at the time of his death in 1902, my great great grandfather on my dad’s side, Samuel Ardis, was a clerk for the railroad most likely the Pennsylvania Railroad which, at the time, was headquartered in Philadelphia (my three times great grandfather was a messenger for the railroad as well). Who knows, maybe he ran into my great great grandfather on my mom’s side, William McKannan, who was a Railroad Night Caller in Trenton. While he may have lived and worked in Trenton, there was still a lot of family that remained in Philadelphia. It is interesting to think about the duties and responsibilities that they each had and whether there was a possible connection between the two families over 70 years before my parents got married.

Another interesting consideration is the fact that at the turn of the 20^th century another one of my great great grandfathers on my mom’s side, John Uttley, was a Philadelphia Police Officer in Ward 5 (Roxborough). For good reasons or bad, I wonder if he ever ran into some of the other members of my family years before the trees would merge. You simply never know if there was ever an introduction among the families before the actual connections were made years later.   

And this is just one year of the census, one family, and one geographic location. There are undoubtedly times when you will see different families within the same page or two of the census but it is fascinating to look back decades before the families would eventually merge to find the possible points of contact and connection that may or may not have existed at the time. In a dedicated passion that requires facts, sometimes it is nice to think about the possibilities despite the lack of evidence. I guess you could say that this is part of the process as well. After all, you never know what you might find.

Sunday Search: Putting Names To Faces

When my wife and I were figuring out our schedule for the weekend we knew that we wanted to get together with my parents before they left for a little warm weather vacation next week. Fortunately, despite some other changes to our plans, everything worked out and we spend yesterday afternoon together. More importantly, our son spent some time with his grandparents.

It was supposed to be one of our usual get togethers over lunch and then back at the house to catch up on things (even though I talk with them every few days). It is a nice relaxing time. However, I decided to change things up a bit yesterday when, because the thought popped into my head, I decided to pull out the photo album sent to me months ago (maybe over a year at this point) and flip through the pages with my mom. We did a quick scan before lunch noting some of the relatives I knew, many that I didn’t, and, oddly, some that I recognized but my mom didn’t.

This was a long overdue project and after lunch, toward the middle of the afternoon, we revisited the photos but this time we took a closer look and I had post it notes in hand to record the names. After flipping through a few of the pages and not being able to put a name to a face on a few occasions, we peeled back the plastic and carefully pulled up the pictures from the paper in the hope that there might be some information on the back. While this didn’t always work, there were a few times when it did and it allowed us to put a few more pieces together.

What we couldn’t figure out immediately was the handwriting on the backs of the photos until one of the last pictures had the simple words inscribed on it “My Mother” which means that my grandfather labeled many of the photos that we had been looking at over 30 years ago. It was one of those things that we didn’t expect but glad that we figured out. What was also nice was the fact that I have done so much on the family tree because there were a few times when only first names were known or ‘that was her or his daughter.” By having much of the tree completed, I can write down the bits of information now and put the pieces together later.

Hopefully, this is the first of many times when I can sit down with my mom and put faces to names. There are a number of other loose photos and albums stored in drawers at their house and I am eager to flip through them and finally pull together a visual history of the family in addition to the information that we already have. Who knows, maybe I can even discover something new. But, for now, it is back to the current album where I can now write (with an archival pen of course) on the backs of the photos the names of the faces on the front.   

Sunday Search: Lost Children

One of the things that many people overlook about genealogy is the fact that it is not always about making the remarkable link to some historical figure or event. Sometimes it is about making sure that people are not forgotten. This doesn’t just apply to those names that may not be part of the usual family discussions, it is about the names that may not have even carried over to the next generation. I have written about many of the people that lived interesting lives, some that may have died too soon, and others whom I simply wanted to learn more about. To date, the list is rather extensive and includes the following leaves from my tree:

• Samuel Ardis
• Jacob Wirth
• John Uttley
• Charlotte Noblitt
• William Jacob McKannan
• Percy Davis Teaford
• Cecile Teaford
• John Lewis Hallman
• William Edgar Yeagle
• John Redcross

Those are just a few of the lives that I have tried to bring back to the forefront of my family history. Many of the details were already known to various family members but there have been a few that have come as a surprise (at least some of the details). These stories are fascinating to me and I will certainly be adding to that list in the near future but, for now, I wanted to take the time to share some of the names that can too easily be forgotten. Some lives are cut short while other lives never had a chance to get started.

When looking through the census records it can be a little startling to see the two numbers listed a few columns over from the mother’s name. These columns stick to the factual… number of children followed by number of surviving children. The census is a form full of facts and numbers and doesn’t provide any additional insights as to the discrepancy. Seeing these do, usually different, figures has become routine for many of us conducting research on our families. However, when we dig a little deeper, when we find a name, that column is no longer filled with simple numbers. Below are just a few of the names that I have been able to find…

• I knew about my great aunt Frances Reba Teaford from the time I initially became interested in the family history. A few of her siblings are still around and have shared stories about her with me and the short life that she lived. Frances was born in Eagle Rock, Virginia to Harry Gilmore Teaford and Nettie Love in 1926. She succumb to the ravages of Tuberculosis a few years after the family moved to Pennsylvania in 1943. However, I didn’t find out until later about a baby brother that was born in August 1930. Unfortunately, he passed away three months later still without having been given a name.
• Samuel Ardis and Sarah Myers had three children together including twins born on April 18, 1902. Thomas died in July 1902 (a month before his father) and Edna died in March 1903 (seven months after her father).
• My great great grandmother, Susan Laura Corner, was one of nine children born to Jacob Corner and Tamise Culp. However, by the time she turned five year old, she had already lost three of her siblings including her twin sister. Calvin was born two decades before my grandmother and never made it to his first birthday. Hannah was six when her baby twin sisters were born but only knew them for five years. Emma Flora, Susan’s twin, was just over two years old when she passed away.  
• William McKannan and Susan Corner had three children, two sons and a daughter. Their youngest son, Reuben (named after Susan’s brother), was born in July of 1893. He was laid to rest in what would become the family plot in May of 1897.
• By the end of 1919, William Jacob McKannan (Reuben’s brother) and Helen Fulton had four children, two boys and two girls. By the close of 1922, William was a widower caring for two sons. His two daughters, Marion (1916-1920) and Helen (1919-1922), both preceded their mother in death. Helen succumbed to a stroke on September 7, 1922.  
• Over the course of a single year from 1879-1880, John Uttley lost both his first wife Sallie, who passed away in January 1880, as well as their only child Charlotte who was born in February 1879 and died three months later.
• Jacob Wirth and Mary Eppright had four children. By August of 1864, Mary was a single mother of one. Their oldest daughter, Emma, didn’t even make it to her first birthday passing away at 10 months old in October 1858. The day following her father’s death aboard the USS Tecumseh at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Laura died just over a month shy of her second birthday on August 6, 1864 and Mary succumb to her illness (likely yellow fever) three days after her sister on August 9^th.

Genealogy is about ensuring that the family history is passed down to future generations. Sometimes those facts and events are obvious and quite well known, other times it takes some digging to ensure that we have as complete a picture as possible. As many of you know, it is usually about the tiny details. Sometimes, even just ensuring that the name of a lost child it remembered is the greatest thing that we can accomplish. This is why I continue to try to make the connections and put the pieces together to tell the larger story but take the time to make sure that these children are part of the story and not forgotten. After all, each life is part of the family.

600 Really Sneaks Up On You!

Honestly, 600 is a number that I wasn’t even sure would be possible when I first started this blog in May 2013. My goal back then was to just get through the first year as I knew that the daily routine of writing is something that I had long forgotten about. My writing remained dormant and while this is vastly different to the daily work that I was producing a decade ago, it is still keeping me productive beyond the confines of the responsibilities and stresses of life.

I have shared more personal items as of late while still respecting the anonymity of those around me, I have written about some of the things that bother me and piss me off, and there have been other posts that I wrote because a topic or certain thing that I watched or read interested me. There have been moments, especially over the last few months when I have doubted my ability to continue writing every day and I seriously questioned whether I should continue committing the time to these words. Those moments continue to come and go but, in the end, I made a commitment to myself to keep writing so that is what I am going to continue doing.

The usual topics persist throughout these digital pages as my weekly lodge posts and frequent genealogy musings have been joined by the weekly firearms related material and frequent baby updates. Now more than ever, you can see the diversity in the topics that I write about and why I chose from the onset to not focus on any one subject. This may be the most important aspect in keeping this thing going as there are times when I come up with the most random thoughts for posts and I know that I don’t have to second guess as to whether they would fit.

There is tremendous freedom in not being limited in what I can say. Sure I keep names off the screen but I can still make my point without calling people out or making others uncomfortable (and, given some of the posts I have put up, I am sure that my writing wouldn’t help them with their friends or employers if their name was found on here). And where there is freedom there is also structure.

I have made it through 600 posts now and few people can find their name anywhere on the blog. Considering the fact that given the 400 word minimum for each post that is at least 240,000 places where their name doesn’t appear. Of course, if you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I seldom come close to the 400 so it is probably more along the lines of 300,000 words.

Well, here is to the next 300K with the hope that things smooth out a bit. There at least should be plenty of fodder that will keep me busy. I just don’t know if it will keep my too busy.