Monday, March 31, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #12 Jane Eliza Myers

Jane Eliza Myers was my maternal second great grandmother and part of my Pennsylvania connections (I'm not all southern). I previously wrote about her in Jane Eliza Myers - A California Gold Rush Widow. I've been on the hunt for her parents and siblings off and on for a while. Jane was born on June 14, 1818, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was married to my second great grandfather John Adam Redles whose father, Johann Adam Rodelsperger, was a fairly recent (1802) immigrant to America from Germany (in comparison to other branches of my family).

Jane and John had seven children: Charles Davidson (1841-1854), George Albert (1843-1912, my great grandfather), Sarah Sallie (1844-1921), Joseph Wade (1848-1851), John A. (1851-?), Clarence (1855-1859), and Harry (1856-?). While I don't have death dates for John A. and Harry, they are both in the 1920 U.S. census for Philadelphia. Three of Jane's children didn't make it to adulthood.

I've made a list of the naming patterns of Jane and John's children for clues to Jane's parents and siblings, but I haven't done any research yet. Since I don't know anything about Jane's ancestry, I used English naming patterns (although, she could be of German or Irish descent). Then I used German naming patterns, since John's father was a German immigrant. I based my lists on some I found at RootswebUSGenWeb.com, and a link via an About.com genealogy article to Charles F. Kerchner, Jr.'s website about Pennsylvania German naming patterns.

This chart is based on ones found on Rootsweb and USGenWeb for English naming patterns


This chart is based on Charles F. Kerchner Jr.'s lists of Pennsylvania German naming patterns

Now I need to do the actual research!

Jane outlived her husband John by five years. She died on November 14, 1885, at the age of 67 in Philadelphia and is buried at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Church.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.





Saturday, March 29, 2014

52 Weeks of Sharing Memories - Gardening

This post is part of the 52 Weeks of Writing our Memories by Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy who has challenged us to write our memories for our future generations.


Here I am in 1957 in the garden at our first house on Alden Avenue

My dad loved to garden, at least in the early years of my childhood until his interests turned more and more toward writing. He grew daylillies, roses, camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, white spirea, shrimp plant (a strange and beautiful flower that fascinated me and made me think of, well, shrimp!), cast iron plants, johnny jump ups (one of my favorites), and boxwood. There were many more that I can't think of right now. Besides the pine trees and white oak trees already on the property when my parents bought the second and final house, he had dogwood trees and a couple of holly trees. My favorite rose was a miniature rose bush with light pink roses that he got from his mother, who also loved to garden. Later on, my dad planted a eucalyptus tree, a red maple, and a Japanese magnolia. I remember once helping him pick up acorns from under a white oak tree in the front yard and thinking what a chore! That tree is still here dropping acorns. He tried and tried to get grass to grow under that tree.

Red maple on the left, a dogwood tree on the right, and azaleas in the background in the front yard at my parents' house

Beautiful white azaleas that my dad planted along the front walk

My dad would go around the back yard and pollinate the daylillies to make new varieties. I used to follow him around while he did this, and he'd sometimes let me pollinate them, under his supervision of course. I even pollinated one or two (probably more) without his knowing. My dad had all of his daylillies marked with their names on metal labels that he inserted in the ground on metal stakes. One day, my oldest brother and I pulled up all of his labels. I don't remember why we did it, but we thought it was great fun. I'm sure he got mad (I would have been).

Once, maybe when I was about ten, I grew a small patch of annuals from seeds that included zinnias and marigolds. I was actually successful! There was a small, circular patch of dirt where no grass was growing in the middle of the yard, and for some reason, this is where I chose to plant them! I guess because the garden was full of my dad's plants. Every time I see zinnias and marigolds today, they remind me of my childhood. (After writing this, I went out and bought two vats of marigolds!)

He taught me how to take cuttings from a plant and how to root it to form a new one. He told me that he learned how from his mother. Besides the miniature rose bush, I think some of the camellias that he had came from her. Maybe even some of his azaleas, too. I don't remember what she grew in her yard except for azaleas and camellias, and she had some pecan trees in the back yard. I remember collecting pecans off the ground sometimes when we visited. In the Big House (J.T. Roberts house) garden, my maternal great grandparents' house where my mom grew up, was my favorite flower of all--narcissus. I love the scent of that flower! Whenever I smell it, I'm transported back to that house, a house I grew to love as I got older.

Narcissus blooms at the Big House (J. T. Roberts House)
I love to garden, and like my dad, I've done less of it over the years. Partly because I lived in a condo with no yard or balcony, and partly because of time constrains. But I'm hoping to change that by reclaiming my parents yard from the overgrown undergrowth with help from my son and his family and my nephew. I want to bring it back to its former glory!

Catherine

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

52 Weeks of Sharing Memories - 7th & 8th Grades

This post is part of the 52 Weeks of Writing our Memories by Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy who has challenged us to write our memories for our future generations.

I went to Valdosta Junior High for 7th and 8th grades. The building has since been torn down and the Valdosta Middle School built in its place between Oak and Patterson streets and south of Northside Drive. (Click on the aerial below for a larger view.)

The location of the former Valdosta Junior High School. The oval shape below the arrow is the current track. The old track used to be where the northern wings of the current Valdosta Middle School are located. They've flip-flopped the school building and track. McKey Park and the tennis courts are across the street to the south

Seventh grade was the first time I changed classes during the day and had several teachers. The first day of school was overwhelming. Students everywhere, moving en masse to our classes when the bell rang. It was hard to push through the crowd. I had no idea where I was going, and it took me a few days to learn my way around. I used a fountain pen with blue ink to take notes. I loved that pen. I was always getting ink on my hands. I made myself stop biting my nails while in junior high.

My junior high hair-do. No more hair clip. I had braces (that I was trying to hide when my dad snapped this photo) and my "lovely" glasses. This was taken Christmas 1966.

My yearbooks are in storage, so I can't look up the teachers to refresh my memory. I had Mr. Cleveland for science, Mrs. Kessler for English, and Mr. Sloan for Latin. I took Latin because I thought French would be too hard! What a joke. Learning Latin helped me learn French and Spanish, though, later on. I learned the word "debris" from Mr. Sloan. He was very particular about the cleanliness and orderliness of his classroom. I was no good in math. I disliked my math teacher (I don't remember if I had her in seventh or eight grade). I felt like she only paid attention to the popular boys. She should have been able to read my mind and "know" I needed help! I hated asking for help (still do). I did so poorly in her class that my parents went to see her. It embarrassed me to no end to be singled out like that!

I think eight grade was when I started dying my hair blonde, which I kept up into my 20s. (Or maybe it was seventh grade. My hair looks a little blonde in the photo above.) In fact, it was my dad of all people who got me started! He bought my first box if hair dye. He told me I was born a blonde and he wanted me to stay a blonde. My hair had progressively darkened over the years and was more brown than blonde. I also started letting my hair grow longer around this time. I was tired of having short hair (which is funny now that I have short hair again!). Finally, my parents let me have longer hair.

Once again, my memories of school have blended together. Some of what I remember may have been in ninth grade which was part of junior high back then. Tenth grade was the start of high school.

I let this post sit for a day in the hopes I'd remember more. Nope. Nothing except (again) flashes of random scenes--boys I had crushes on, the lunchroom (which as I've said, I hated school lunches---the smell!), crowds of students in the hallways, classmates, teachers, feeling like a fish out of water (this has never changed), etc.

Catherine

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #11 Alice Moore

The other day, I was looking through my family tree to see how far back I could go to see who passed down the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup HV0 that I have. I only got as far back as Alice Moore, my maternal 5th great grandmother. Just about all I knew about her before writing this post was that she was born around 1756, married my 5th great grandfather John Thompson Lawson (a Revolutionary War soldier) in 1777, and died in 1798. In doing some research for this post, I found that her father may have been Charles Moore who was born around 1727 and was Scots-Irish from Ulster, Ireland. When Charles came to America, he may have lived in one of the mid-Atlantic states before eventually heading south and settling his family in what is now Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

Alice's mother was named Mary. Some family trees on ancestry.com say she was Mary Margaret Hamilton and some say she was Mary Barry. There seems to be several connections between the Moore, Barry, and Lawson families. Also, Alice's sister Margaret Catherine married a Barry. One of Alice's daughters is named Mary Barry, and her great granddaughter (my maternal 2nd great grandmother) was named Mary Barry Wyche.

Charles and Mary built Walnut Grove Plantation in Spartanburg County in 1765, so this is probably where Alice grew up. The Moores actively aided the Patriots during the Revolutionary War and allowed the militia to muster at their plantation.

Location of Walnut Grove Plantation in Spartanburg County in  northwestern South Carolina (Aerial from Google Earth).

Walnut Grove Plantation home of Charles and Mary Moore in Spartanburg County, South Carolina (Wikipedia Commons from the Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service).

After Alice married John Lawson, they moved to Georgia. They had at least seven children: Charles, Hugh Thompson, Roger, Hannah Thompson (my 4th great grandmother), Mary Barry, Violet, and Alice Margaret. They may have lived in Twiggs or Warren counties. Folks Huxford, in his Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, notes that John was a prominent citizen of Jefferson County. Jefferson and Warren counties are next to each other. Twiggs is further to the southwest near Macon, Georgia. Below is an 1863 Georgia map that I've labeled showing the locations of these counties (A. J. Johnson's map of Alabama and Georgia, http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/histcountymaps/ga1863map.htm). They could have ended up in Twiggs, which is where their daughter Hannah died in 1842.




I wonder if Alice and her husband John were cousins. John's great grandfather was named Charles Moore. Alice's grandfather was also named Charles Moore. I tried following this trail for a while but the name Charles Moore is fairly common, and I haven't found if these Charles Moores are related. What a tangled web!

Now, off to learn about the Scots-Irish from Ulster!

Catherine
This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.



----
Sources:

Mrs. James W. Fant. National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form for Walnut Grove Plantation, May 16, 1970. Electronic document, "Walnut Grove Plantation", accessed March 16, 2014.

Folks Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Volume 5. Self published, Homerville, Georgia, 1948, 309.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #10 Hulda Lewis

My paternal 3rd great grandmother Hulda Lewis was born September 30, 1795, in New York, probably in New York City. I'm not sure I have the correct parents listed for her in my tree--Gilbert Lewis and Eliza McBride. In Confederate Memoirs, it is mentioned that Hulda was related to George Washington's brother-in-law Fielding Lewis who married George's sister Elizabeth (Betty), but I haven't been able to find a connection between Hulda and Fielding Lewis.

What drew Hulda from New York all the way down to Savannah, Georgia, in the hot, humid south to meet and marry my 3rd great grandfather Frederic Edmund Tebeau there on February 20, 1817? Did Frederic meet her in New York? If so, what was he doing there? There must be an interesting story here.

Hulda gave birth to nine children: Elizabeth Ann (1818-1819), John Robert (1820-1896), Catharine Sarah Melissa (1822-1889, my 2nd great grandmother), James Gilbert (1824-1851), Emeline (1826-1858), Mary Caroline Josepha (1828-1836), Lewis Charles (1830-1901), Frederic Treutlen (1832-1858), Sarah Washington (1834-1836). Hulda and Frederic had a house in town as well as a plantation in Chatham County, Georgia. According to the 1850 U.S. Slave Schedule for Chatham County, they owned 26 people as slaves.

The 1850 U. S. Slave Schedule for Chatham County, Georgia. Frederic and Hulda Lewis Tebeau's slaves are outlined in red.

One of Hulda's great granddaughters Constance Pendleton wrote in Confederate Memoirs: "She was beautiful and exquisitely dainty, she never touched money but picked it up with a bit of white tissue paper...She was a severe and rather pious woman, who was strict in carrying out her principles." Hulda taught the supposedly reluctant slave children to read and "insisted on their learning by heart verses from the Bible." Her Pendleton grandchildren (children of daughter Catharine and Philip Pendleton), could not escape her insistence on Bible verse memorization either. Hulda would go visit her family in New York every year or so for a month and would take her youngest child with her. Apparently all of the slave children, as well as her Pendleton grandchildren, enjoyed a vacation away from her strictness while she was gone. (Her going to New York where her family was is a good clue.)

It sounds like Hulda didn't care too much for her home New York City. In a letter dated May 19, 1870, to her grandson Philip Pendleton, she wrote, "Now I perceive why I was so much troubled, on account of his [grandson William Pendleton] visiting N. Y., altho [sic] my own native city, I verily believe that it is the worst place in the whole world." Now I need to research what New York City was like during this time to make her say that!

Getting back to who Hulda's parents were, I made a naming pattern chart based on one that I found on Rootsweb to look for clues (click on it for a larger view):


Based on the above naming pattern chart, it's possible that Hulda's father was named Gilbert, her mother was Eliza or maybe Elizabeth, and the other names that I can't account for are her siblings' or grandparents' names. The siblings I have for Frederic are Ann Margaret, Mary, Charles Watson, and Susan. At least I have a few clues to go on when I get back to researching who Hulda's parents were!

Hulda died on November 21, 1875, and is buried in Springfield in Effingham County in the Tebeau cemetery.

Catherine


This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.



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Constance Pendleton, ed., Confederate Memoirs: Early Life and Family History, William Frederic Pendleton and Mary Lawson Young Pendleton. (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 1958), 114, 149, 175.

Monday, March 10, 2014

52 Weeks of Sharing Memories - Movie Time!

This post is part of the 52 Weeks of Writing our Memories challenge by Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy to write our memories for our future generations.

The first movie I remember seeing was the Wizard of Oz on TV at home. I must have been about three or four years old, because we were still living in the house on Alden Avenue. My mom was watching it, so I watched it with her. I remember that the movie frightened me!

Here's a picture of me at the house on Alden Avenue. I must have been making my theater reservations the old fashioned way, by phone. On the right is the TV on which I watched the Wizard of Oz with my mother. Love the look of that now vintage TV (B.C., Before Color)! It's long gone, though.

After we moved to the house on White Oak when I was four going on five, I remember going to the Ritz Theater on Patterson Street in downtown Valdosta (it's no longer there) with my mom and my new friend and her mom from across the street. I don't remember exactly which movie we saw, but it was either a Disney animated version of Cinderella or Snow White. At some point during the movie, I started begging my mom to take me home. I think I told her I was sick, but I was actually scared out of my wits because of some of the scenes in the movie! I don't remember now what it was. I guess I was just a scaredy-cat. A lot of things frightened me when I was a kid (dogs, the dark, and what lurked in the closet and under the bed...). When we left the theater, I remember being shocked that it was still daylight outside. It made me feel so disoriented, like I was somewhere else looking on. I also thought that we must be getting home really late and that my dad would be looking for us. I had lost all sense of time and space being in the darkened theater, so I thought it would be nighttime when we walked outside.

I went to the Ritz Theater many times as a kid and as a teenager until the Beverly Theater was built on Bemiss Road. Then I started going there, rarely going to the Ritz anymore. I don't go to the movie theater much anymore. I miss watching movies on the Big Screen!

Catherine

Thursday, March 6, 2014

52 Weeks of Sharing Memories - Who Was My Favorite Relative

This post is part of the 52 Weeks of Writing our Memories challenge by Lorine McGinnis Schulze at Olive Tree Genealogy who has challenged us to write our memories for our future generations.

My Favorite Relative

Choosing a favorite relative is hard. I don't think I have a favorite above all the others. I enjoyed going to the Big House to see my Roberts relatives. I liked going to Grandmama and Granddaddy's house (my dad's parents) on Slater Street. I liked visiting with all of my cousins on both sides of my family. But the relative I was most excited to see was my mom's sister, my Aunt Catherine, whenever she came home for a visit from one of the many countries in which she lived.

My Aunt Catherine and me not too long after I was born.

I wrote about Aunt Catherine during Women's History Month in March 2013 in Fearless Females March 8 - Letters from the Foreign Service. I thought she led such an exotic life! I looked forward to her visits, especially to see the present she brought for me. She gave us the most interesting gifts! She gave me a doll from every country she lived in or visited. I still have most of them.

My brother Andy and me in the Japanese outfits that Aunt Catherine gave us. I still have the hat.

In a reply to a comment on the post that I wrote about Aunt Catherine last year, I said she was the first person I thought of asking to accompany me when I drove from Anchorage, Alaska, to my hometown Valdosta, Georgia, when I decided to move back home. "I figured after the life she's led that she'd be up for the adventure." Lucky for me, she wanted to do it, and she had the time to spare since it would take 15 days and 5,577 miles!

Catherine

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #9 Catharine Tebeau

My paternal second great grandmother Catharine Sarah Melissa Tebeau was born May 28, 1822, in Savannah, Georgia, to Frederic Edmund Tebeau and Hulda Lewis. One of nine children, her siblings were Elizabeth Ann (1818-1819), John Robert (1820-1896), James Gilbert (1824-1851), Emeline (1826-1858), Mary Caroline (1828-1836), Lewis Charles (1830-1901), Frederic Treutlen (1832-1858), and Sarah Washington (1834-1836). After its completion in 1836, the Tebeau family moved to their new family home at 16 W. Liberty Street in Savannah. (Because of a threat of demolition, this house was moved in 1984 by the Historic Savannah Foundation to the corner of Whitaker and Perry streets, renovated, and converted into apartments.)[1]

The Frederic Tebeau house now at the corner of Whitaker and Perry streets in Savannah, Georgia.
(From Google Earth street view)

Catharine met her future husband Philip Coleman Pendleton in Savannah at a party at the home of "a Mr. Godfrey" where Philip was staying while publishing his magazine the Magnolia. I found a copy of the transcribed note below in my dad's papers written by Catharine to Philip dated March 10, 1841. I don't know if it was written before or after they became engaged:

Perhaps the letter you received
Caus'd you to seem so much agrieved!
Pray tell me, was it so?
Endure with patience her complaint
Nor let it cause your heart to faint
Be pressed in spirrit [sic] though!
Let not the loss of one, though fairEnshroud your brow with gloom and care!
'Tis the Editor's Lot!
O, let ' Magnolia's leaf now greenNe'er by any be withered seen.
A friend
Savannah 10 March 1841 

My Pendleton cousins in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, have several letters written by Philip to Catharine before and after their marriage, and several are quoted in Confederate Memoirs. In one letter that he wrote before their marriage he says, "I have been anxious to both see and hear from you, and am always thinking of you...and have felt how necessary you are to my happiness."[2]

Catharine and Philip were married on November 23, 1841, in Savannah by the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[3]

Marriage record for Catharine Tebeau and Philip Pendleton (from Georgia's Virtual Vault)
Philip traveled around Georgia and South Carolina in the early years of their marriage to gain subscribers, contributors, and an editor for the Magnolia. (It was Catharine who said writing is the Pendleton family curse, something my dad repeated to me years ago.) Catharine and Philip may have lived with her parents while Philip traveled, as Catharine gave birth to their second child William Frederic at her parents' home in 1845. Their first child, Edmund, died the following year when he was just three years old. Prior to giving birth to their third child James, Catharine's little family moved to a farm in Effingham County that her father had bought. Philip taught school while they were living there, and Catharine gave birth to sons James Aubrey (1846-1881), Philip Coleman (1848-1870), and Charles Rittenhouse (1850-1914). In 1851, the growing family moved to Powelton in Hancock County, Georgia, where Philip taught school for two years. Catharine gave birth to daughter Emelyn (Emma) Tebeau here in 1852.

In 1853, the family was on the move again, this time to Sandersville in Washington County. Philip stopped teaching to practice law (for which he had trained years before), and he bought the Central Georgian newspaper.[4] Catharine gave birth to son Alexander Shaw (1855-1925, my great grandfather) and daughter Mary Zella (1857-1932) while they were living in Sandersville.

Catharine contracted tuberculosis and her health was failing, so the family left Sandersville in 1857 and headed back to the Savannah area where they stayed briefly. Philip thought moving further south to "the piney woods" would benefit Catharine's health, so he and Catharine's brother Lewis bought farmland next to each other in Ware County, and in 1858, Catharine and Philip moved their family again. They called this area Tebeauville in honor of Catharine's father (now Waycross). Catharine gave birth to their son Lewis (later spelled Louis) Beauregard here in 1861, just before the start of the Civil War.[4]

When the Civil War began, husband Philip and oldest son William, who was just 17, joined the Confederate Army, leaving Catharine at home with seven children. I'm sure the older boys helped their mother and looked after their younger siblings. In the latter part of 1862, Philip became very ill and had to return to Georgia from his post in Virginia. He brought William back with him because a law had been passed that soldiers had to be at least 18 to serve. I'm sure Catharine was glad to have her husband and son back home again! This joy was must have been short lived when William rejoined the war as soon as he turned 18 in March 1863.

Catharine and Philip moved yet again, and by 1864, they were living at an area called Cat Head in south Lowndes County, Georgia, south of the county seat of Valdosta.

One of the houses of Catharine and Philip Pendleton. They had a house at Cat Head in south Lowndes County, south of Valdosta, and later moved to Valdosta. I don't know which house this is.

Philip began the first newspaper in Valdosta called the South Georgia Times (now the Valdosta Daily Times) in 1867. Just two years later, Catharine and her children were devastated when Philip died as a result of his wounds from a buggy accident in June 1869. Their young, four-year-old son Nathaniel Dandridge (1865-1937) was with Philip when the buggy overturned, but he survived. The older boys took on the responsibility of running the newspaper and providing for Catharine and their younger siblings. Tragedy struck the family again when son Philip died from typhoid in 1870, and again in 1881 when son James died.

Sons William and Nathaniel were the first and second bishops, respectively, of the Swedenborgian church in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. Son Charles was editor and owner (later part owner) of the Macon Telegraph in Macon, Georgia. Son Alexander opened a small fruit stand that grew into The A. S. Pendleton Co. wholesale grocers. His business operated nearly 100 years. Daughters Emma and Zella were teachers, and Emma had several of her stories published in the Macon Telegraph. Son Louis wrote and published several novels and a biography of Alexander H. Stephens (vice president of the Confederate States of America).

Catharine died on May 12, 1889, in Valdosta, 16 days before her 67th birthday. She's buried at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Valdosta next to her husband Philip.



Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.



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[1] Melody Pullen. "Work on Tebeau House Underway." Savannah Evening Press. September 17, 1985, p. 1, 2.

[2] Constance Pendleton, ed., Confederate Memoirs: Early Life and Family History, William Frederic Pendleton and Mary Lawson Young Pendleton. (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 1958), 12, 13.

[3] Marriage Record for Catharine Tebeau and Philip Pendleton, Chatham County Marriage Book, 1837-1842, page 201. Georgia's Virtual Vault, http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/

[4] Constance Pendleton, ed., Confederate Memoirs: Early Life and Family History, William Frederic Pendleton and Mary Lawson Young Pendleton. (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, 1958), 12-29, 52.