52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Going to the Chapel

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of June 4, 2018, is Going to the Chapel. Amy suggests this topic doesn't necessarily have to be about going to the chapel to get married; it could be about a clergyman in the family or a particular church. I thought of my maternal great grandfather, George Albert Redles, an Episcopalian minister.

One of seven children, George Albert (or G. Albert) Redles was born on September 12, 1843, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to John Adam Redles and Jane Eliza Myers. 

G. Albert graduated from the Boys’ Central High School in Philadelphia in 1862 and entered the University of Pennsylvania that year where he studied in the Department of Arts. He graduated in 1865.[1] 

Handwritten information (page 1) for the University of Pennsylvania’s biographical sketch in my mother’s possession. This appears to have been written by my grandfather, William Liming Redles, G. Albert’s son

Handwritten information (page 2) for the University of Pennsylvania’s biographical sketch in my mother’s possession. This appears to have been written by my grandfather William Liming Redles, G. Albert’s son

While G. Albert was at the University of Pennsylvania, he was a member of the Philomathean Society (a literary society according to Wikipedia), the Honors Club, and the University Glee Club.[2] In 1865, he entered the Episcopal Divinity School and graduated in 1868. He was ordained as a deacon by Bishop Stevens and as a priest of the Pennsylvania Diocese by Bishop Lee.[3] He accepted the position of Assistant Minister of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware, in June 1868.[4] The following year, he married Isabella Sheppard (nee Liming) on June 7, 1869, at St. Andrews. Rev. Alfred Lee, rector of the church, performed the ceremony. It was the first marriage for G. Albert, and Isabella’s second (her first was to Joseph Sheppard, see my post Two Husbands for Isabella).

G. Albert was the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, from 1871 to 1874.[5] He baptized his own son, William Liming Redles, on March 16, 1874, in this church.[6] G. Albert and Isabella had two other children, Isabella (b. 1876) and Helen (b. 1877).

G. Albert eventually joined the Reformed Episcopal Church and was the rector of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Our Redeemer. He was the rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Philadelphia from 1910 to 1912. He retired in June 1912, and died on November 4, 1912, at the age of 69.[7] According to the handwritten information for the University of Pennsylvania’s biographical sketch, G. Albert was the rector of a total of six churches (see footnote 1 below). 

Catherine
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References:
[1] Handwritten information for the University of Pennsylvania’s biographical sketch in my mother’s possession. This appears to have been written by my grandfather William Liming Redles, G. Albert’s son. 

[2] University Society Record, University of Pennsylvania, 1863. University Record, University of Pennsylvania, College Year 1864-1865. (Both available online at Penn University Archives & Records Center.)

[3] The American Church Almanac Yearbook for 1913, page 568. Edwin S. Gorham Publisher, New York. (Digital copy available on Google Books)

[4] Journal of the Proceedings of the Seventy-Ninth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Delaware, held in Christ Church, Delaware City on Wednesday June 2, 1869, Published by Order of the Convention, H. & E. F. James Printers, Wilmington, Delaware, 1869. (Digital copy available on Google Books)

[5] Archives of the General Convention, Edited by Order of the Commission on Archives by Arthur Lowndes, New York, 1912, page 348. (Digital copy available on www.archive.org)

[6] Baptismal record for William Liming Redles. (accessed on ancestry.com) Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records, Reel 777.

[7] See footnote 3.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Another Language

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of May 14, 2018, is Another Language.

For this prompt, I thought of my immigrant ancestors and the languages they spoke when they arrived in America: English, Irish, Scottish, French, and German. There are probably others that I can’t think of right off hand without getting all technical and looking at my genealogy software or at a map. 

I also thought of my maternal grandfather, William Liming Redles, and my Aunt Catherine (his daughter and my mother’s sister), who both spoke several languages. My mom told me their father could speak five languages, including Spanish and Japanese and maybe Chinese, too. Will was a U.S. Marine and was stationed in Cuba and Japan, and he had visited China on several occasions as part of his U.S. Marine duties. 

My maternal grandfather, William Liming Redles

Aunt Catherine spoke German, Italian, Portuguese, and Brussels French, just to name a few. She’s lived all over the world working in the Foreign Service for the U.S. State Department until she retired.

My mom and Aunt Catherine were told that Will could speak Japanese fluently, and that if he was sitting behind a screen with native Japanese speakers, no one would be able to tell that one speaker was not Japanese. I remember Aunt Catherine saying that an Italian had complimented her on how well she spoke Italian, like a native-speaker. 

Aunt Catherine reminds me on occasion that if you don’t use the language you’ve learned, you tend to forget it. So true. I took Latin and Spanish in high school and French in college and can’t speak any of them now. The reverse might also be true, forgetting your native tongue. I have a British friend who lived in France for several years. He told me once that he was forgetting his English (he has since moved back to England). 

Learning a new language isn't easy. No wonder many of our immigrant ancestors lived in enclaves with people from their former countries who also spoke the language of the old homeland, even while trying to assimilate to their new home in America.

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Mother's Day

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of May 7, 2018, is Mother's Day.

Mother’s Day was this past Sunday (May 13). We took Mama out for brunch. Not everyone in our large family was able to come with us but we still had a table full—11 in all. It was nice to sit with family for a meal. We don’t get to do that very often. 

My mother, Leona Redles Pendleton, and me not long after I was born

Three generations: my mother holding me, and her mother, Leona Roberts Redles, is on the right 

I’m my mother’s oldest; that means I made her a mother first! Ha! But that didn’t make me her favorite. Mama doesn’t have any favorites; at least she never acted like any of her five children were her favorites. That’s a good thing, I think. At brunch, I teased my son that he was my favorite son (he’s my only son). And he said I was his favorite mother. Kids!

I hope Mama had a great Mother's Day!

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Close Up

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of April 30, 2018, is Close Up.

I feel like I know my maternal grandfather, William Liming Redles, close up, because of the letters and documents he left behind that were saved after his death by his wife, my grandmother Leona Roberts. I don’t have such a volume of information on any other ancestor written in his or her own hand. My grandmother saved the letters Will wrote to her, even after he requested that she destroy them. I’m glad she didn’t listen. Stubborness runs on the Roberts side. 

My maternal grandparents Leona Roberts and William Liming Redles

I believe attention to detail runs on the Redles side, at least in Will’s case. Maybe that’s part of the reason Will made the Marines a career. It fed that part of his personality, or made it useful. I wonder if attention to detail can be passed down in our genes. I certainly have it, and one of my children and one of my grandchildren have it, too. I was told once it’s my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. I can’t see the forest for the trees, to use a cliche. In reading Will’s letters, it seems he picks apart detail after detail, focusing on the smallest of things. He was bossy as an older brother to two younger sisters and as an older husband to a much younger wife. I suppose my younger siblings, my children, and my grandchildren would say I'm the same way.

My dad had started a novel about the father-in-law he never met (Will died in 1932), but the book was never published. The story starts out as Will (Trent in the novel) lays dying, and then his story is told in flashbacks through letters from his sisters and friends, letters to his wife, and military documents. My dad changed all the names. I’ve wanted to write a biography about Will, but it will only interest my immediate family, if even them. And it feels like such a monumental task to get the details right (as much as I love detail). 

Rather than repeat what I've written about Will before, please take a look at my previous blog posts:

My Maternal Grandfather William Liming Redles
Church Record Sunday - The Baptism of William L. Redles
Sympathy Saturday - Scrapbook of a Death
My Granddad's Philadelphia

Maybe I’ll do like my dad, and write a work of fiction about my grandfather. I do find his life fascinating. 

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Maiden Aunt

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of April 2, 2018, is Maiden Aunt. I've already written about a few of my maiden aunts, so for this prompt I chose my maternal grandfather's sister, Helen Redles. 

I don't know much about Helen, except what I've read in the letters she wrote my grandfather, William. He relied on her a lot (and on his sister Isabelle) to take care of his business while he was overseas. 

Letter from Helen Redles to my mother after I was born

At one point, William and Helen had a rift over some possessions he'd left in Philadelphia while he was stationed elsewhere (he was a Marine). He accused her of taking his things and also some items their mother had promised him. I don't know what the outcome of all of this was. It's been a while since I read their letters, but I do remember that she pleaded innocent on both counts. 

The youngest of three, Helen Redles was born in Philadelphia on April 7, 1877, to Isabella Liming and George Albert Redles. She was the youngest sister of my maternal grandfather, William Liming Redles. Their other sister was Isabelle Redles. 

Helen Redles. No date on the photo.

Helen graduated from a girls’ high school in 1895; she’s listed among those of the class who were “especially distinguished” in a Philadelphia Inquirer article dated June 13, 1895. I’ve been told that Aunt Helen was an artist. In 1896, she graduated from the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, receiving a certificate in industrial drawing (Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 June 1896).

Helen fell deeply in love with a minister in the early 1910s who turned out to be a rogue. Her brother William had heard some talk about the man, and so he had interfered for the sake of his sister. And then Helen discovered that the man was also a two-timer. The relationship ended (from a paper Helen wrote that was sent to me by my Redles cousin). I can imagine her broken heart.

In the summer of 1912, Helen's mother Isabella fell ill and had to be hospitalized. During this same time, her father George Albert became sick and wasn't expected to live for much longer. Helen bounced between the hospital and her father's sick bed, "exhausted with grief and anxiety" (from Helen's paper). Her father died in November 1912, and her mother died four years later in 1916.

I’ve not been able to find Helen in the 1920 or 1930 census records. Some of the letters she wrote to my grandfather in the 1920s are from various places: Leavenworth, Kansas; Palmyra, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Several letters from 1930 and 1931 are from Palmyra, New Jersey.

Both of Helen’s siblings died in 1932: Isabelle on June 19th and William on August 29th. Now she was alone as far as immediate family. I wonder how that made her feel? Although, she did have nieces and nephews.

In a November 12, 1936, article in the Trenton Evening Times, Helen is listed as a faculty member at the annual convention of the New Jersey teachers association. In 1937, she signed a teaching contract with the Pemberton, New Jersey, Board of Education for a salary of $1,200 to be paid over ten months (a digital copy was sent to me by my Redles cousin). I believe she taught art. An article on the front page of the April 24, 1937, Trenton Evening Times, notes that Helen supervised a student art exhibit in the main hall of Pemberton High School for a parents/teachers meeting. In a January 12, 1940, article in the Trenton Evening Times, Helen is listed as the supervising teacher for art in the Make Up Day program at Pemberton High School.

According to the 1940 U.S. census for Burlington County, Pemberton, New Jersey, Helen was a lodger at the home of Jenny Woodington and had lived at the same address at least since 1935. Helen was still employed as a school teacher in 1940. By 1952, Helen was living in Chico, California; she's listed in the city directory for that city. It seems like my cousin told me she lived with them in California.

Helen died on May 5, 1962, at the age of 85. She’s buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Orland, California. I find it interesting that her death notice (transcribed on her findagrave memorial) only mentions her sister Isabelle’s children and says there are no other living relatives. Her brother William’s children, my mother Leona and her sister Catherine, were also Helen’s only living relatives! Well, besides all of the grand nieces and grand nephews.

I wish I could have seen some of Aunt Helen's art!

Catherine
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"High School Girls Receive Diplomas." Philadelphia Inquirer. June 13, 1895. Electronic copy, genealogybank.com, accessed April 4, 2018.

"Groezingers Will Act as Hosts to Teachers,” Trenton Evening Times, November 12, 1936, page 27. Electronic copy, genealogybank.com, accessed April 4, 2018.

"Pemberton Pupils Hosts to Parents." Trenton Evening Times, April 24, 1937, page 1.


"Pemberton High Opens Club Slate."  Trenton Evening Times, January 12, 1940, page 17. Electronic copy, genealogybank.com, accessed April 4, 2018.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Strong Woman

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of March 5, 2018, is Strong Woman.

For every female ancestor I considered for this prompt, Strong Woman, I discovered I’d already written about her in previous posts, so I had a hard time coming up with someone unless I went even further back in the generations. And the further back I go, the less information I have and the harder the women are to research. 

Any of my female ancestors who survived long enough to give birth to a healthy child who became my ancestor was a strong woman indeed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. In fact, any woman who survives to adulthood is a Strong Woman, whether she leaves behind children or not. 

So as I perused my family tree and looked up a few ladies, I settled on my maternal 6th great grandmother, Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin, for no other reason than I haven’t written about her before nor have I done any research. As soon as I began researching, I found that she’d been married twice and had children by each husband.

I don’t know if the dates of birth and death that I have for Amy are correct. I don’t even remember where I got them, probably from someone’s family tree on ancestry.com before I knew better than to just copy trees. She may have been born on August 31, 1732. A findagrave memorial says she married my 6th great grandfather, Thomas Mitchell, in 1747 and they had seven children: John, Henry, Thomas Goodwin (my 5th great grandfather), Tabitha, Winifred, James, and Richard. Amy’s first husband, Thomas, died about 1762 or maybe before, as she married her second husband, John Raines, that same year, on October 5, 1762. After marrying John, she gave birth to four more children: Thomas, Robert, Cadwallader, and Amy. 

Amy died February 14, 1773, in Sussex County, Virginia. 

Here’s my descent from Amy:

Amy Goodwyn/Goodwin and Thomas Mitchell (my 6th great grandparents)
Thomas Goodwin Mitchell and Ann Raines (my 5th great grandparents)
Susannah Mitchell and Littleton Wyche (my 4th great grandparents)
Thomas Clark Wyche and Catharine MacIntyre (my 3rd great grandparents)
Mary Barry Wyche and Remer Young (my 2nd great grandparents)
Catherine Young and John T. Roberts (my great grandparents)
Leona Roberts and William Redles (my grandparents)
Leona Redles and Albert Pendleton (my parents)

I also didn't find much online about Amy's first husband Thomas. Maybe one day I'll get back to this research.

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Heirloom

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of February 19, 2018, is Heirloom.

I looked up the definition of heirloom. According to Google, an heirloom is “a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations.” I wonder how many generations count? And what is considered valuable? I guess most of what my family has would be considered ephemera and memorabilia. But a few items come to mind that might be considered heirlooms. At least maybe in the coming generations as they get passed down. 

My mother has her father’s (William Liming Redles) U.S. Marine Corps sword. She also has a diamond that belonged to him that she had reset into a ring for herself. 

This sword belonged to my maternal grandfather William Liming Redles

My dad had his great uncle Louis Pendleton’s gold pocket watch that was sent to my paternal grandfather Albert S. Pendleton, Sr. after Uncle Louis died in 1939. 

Uncle Louis' gold pocket watch and one of his novels, In the Okefenokee.

The note with the watch says, "Watch sent to Dad by Uncle Louis administrators." The watch still works! Yes, I wound it up to see. Couldn't help myself.

What are some of your family heirlooms?

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Valentine

This post is part of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks for 2018. The prompt for the week of February 12, 2018, is Valentine.

I'm so lucky to have letters my maternal grandfather, William Liming Redles, sent to my grandmother, Leona Roberts, during their courtship and marriage in the 1920s and early 1930s. (He died in 1932.) I've only read through 1923, but I've listed the letters in a spreadsheet with a short synopsis of each one. 

I previously posted a Valentine's Day card I'd found in Will's letters that he'd sent to Leona for Valentine's Day in 1923. I searched my spreadsheet to see if there were any others, and I found one he mailed to her for that same Valentines' in 1923.

1923 Valentine's Day card my grandfather Will sent to my grandmother Leona

I wonder what my grandparents would think about me posting their love notes on the internet for the world to see! I doubt they'd be pleased. From reading my grandfather's letters, he sounds like a very private person. In fact, in one of his letters, he asks my grandmother to destroy all of his letters. I'm glad she didn't listen!

Catherine

The Roberts Family, Christmas Day 1915

I’m so thankful that my maternal Roberts family was fond of taking photographs, especially group photos on holidays. I was looking through digitized copies of my mom’s photos this morning and came across this one taken of the Roberts family on December 25, 1915, on the front steps of the Big House (Known locally as the J.T. Roberts house. Click on the photo for a larger view). Luckily, my mom wrote their names on the back. I would have been able to pick out a few of the people, like my grandmother Leona, most of her sisters, her brother Leland, and her parents, because I knew them (except for her parents, of course) when I was growing up.

The numbers in the list below correspond to the numbers in the photograph:

4th row: 1-Edmund Pendleton (my cousin on my dad’s side) and wife 2-Stella (Roberts) Pendleton, 3-Kathleen (Roberts) Winn (for whom I named my daughter) and husband 4-Abial Winn, 5-Mary (Converse) Roberts and husband 6-John Young Roberts.

3rd row: 7-Maie Dell (Roberts) Covington, 8-Margaret Roberts (later Graham).

2nd row: 9-Henry L. Covington, Jr. (husband of Maie Dell Roberts), 10-Leona Roberts (later Redles, my grandmother), 11-Dinah Roberts (later Parramore, on my dad's side), 12-Edwina Roberts, 13-W. Leland Roberts.

1st row: 14-Henry L. Covington III (son of Maie Dell Roberts and Henry Covington Jr.), 15-John Taylor Roberts holding babies 16-William Edmund Pendleton (son of Stella Roberts and Edmund Pendleton) and 17-John Roberts Covington (son of Maie Dell Roberts and Henry Covington Jr.), 18-Kathleen Winn (later Knight, daughter of Kathleen Roberts and Abial Winn), 19-baby Mary Young Roberts (later Oliver, daughter of John Young Roberts and Mary Converse), 20-Kate (Catherine Young) Roberts, and 21-John Winn (son of Kathleen Roberts and Abial Winn).

Compare this photo to the ones I posted previously: The Roberts Family Circa 1900 and The J. T. Roberts Family—A Group Photo ca. 1936 and see how much this family grew. What a difference a few decades make!

Catherine

Spanish-American War Veterans in Sunset Hill Cemetery

I love perusing the shelves in the genealogy room of my local library. I find things I probably wouldn’t have thought to look for (unless I needed them, of course). During one of my perusals, I came across a document titled Spanish-American War Veterans Buried at Sunset Hill Cemetery, Valdosta, Georgia, Tombstone Inscriptions and Newspaper Accounts of Deaths.* I learned there's a plot in the cemetery where some of the veterans are buried. It's located in Section E106, Block 32 in Sunset Hill Cemetery and was bought in 1933 by the J. O. Varnedoe Camp #14 U.S.W.V. Many other Spanish-American War veterans are buried on family plots throughout the cemetery. Information about the veterans in the document was gleaned from newspapers, cemetery records, city directories, and surviving family members.

The Spanish-American War veterans plot at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Valdosta, Georgia

The Spanish-American War veterans listed in the document include soldiers who volunteered during the war with Spain in 1898, soldiers who stayed in the service, and soldiers who enlisted to keep the peace in Cuba and Puerto Rico after the peace treaty was signed on December 10, 1898, and approved by the U.S. Senate on February 6, 1899.

After the war, the William F. McKinley Camp was formed in Valdosta by a group of veterans. The name was changed in 1927 to J. O. Varnedoe Camp #14 to honor Major Varnedoe after his death.

Veterans buried in the Spanish-American War veterans plot are:

Allen Anderson

Andrew J. Anderson

John E. Cato

Frank B. Dawson

William B. Foster

Oscar S. Langford and his wife Janie Futch

James K. McNeal

Edward Newcomer

Joseph P Shearer

Veterans buried on family plots are:

Bentley B. Barfield

Charles Wesley Barnes

Hugh N. Beville

William T. Braswell

Reppard B. Caswell

George F. Connell

John S. Crumbley

James Warren Harper

Charles I. Harrell (husband of my great aunt Gertrude Pendleton)

Lucian Clive Holtzendorff

Augustus J. Ingram

Patrick John Linahan

Clayton McLaney

Charles Robert Minors

Henry Sims Morgan

John Cleveland Morgan

Charles L. Moseley

Roscoe Rouse

Andrew J. Sweat

Harry M. Ulmer

J. O. Varnedoe

Edward Armlain Vaught Sr.

Denny Hermon Vocke

Charter Hill Wilkinson

William Penn Yarbrough

William R. Youles

(Cemetery interactive map for burial locations http://www.sgwebmaps.com/sunset/)

A granite monument to honor the Spanish American War veterans was erected in 1949 on the Ashley Street side of the “old” courthouse. (I say “old” courthouse, because a new courthouse was built in recent years further north on Ashley Street.)

U.S. troops occupied Cuba as part of the Spanish-American War from 1898 to 1902. My maternal grandfather William Liming Redles, who was a U.S. Marine, was sent to Cuba in September 1906 as part the Second Occupation of Cuba, also known as the Army of Cuban Pacification. He was in command of a small post in the interior of the island. In a report he tells of the stress he and his men were under, because they were “surrounded by insurrectos.” He returned to the U.S. in December 1907.

My maternal grandfather William Liming Redles in his uniform.
I don't know when this was taken.

Catherine 

---

*Spanish-American War Veterans Buried at Sunset Hill Cemetery, Valdosta, Georgia, Tombstone Inscriptions and Newspaper Accounts of Deaths. Compiled by Mrs. Joseph A. DeGange, Chapter Genealogical Records Committee Chairman, General James Jackson Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 1995 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #43 Mary Gregory

Mary Gregory was my paternal 7th great grandmother. She was born in Essex, Rappahannock County, Virginia, in 1665 to John Gregory and Elizabeth Bishop. I have her siblings as Ann, Elizabeth, John, and Richard.

Mary married James Taylor in 1682. When I noticed that the date for her husband's birth was 1635 on the marriage index record on ancestry.com (see below), making him 30 years older than she, I thought it possible that he may have been married before or maybe the dates are wrong.

U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 about Mary Gregory

Name: Mary Gregory Gender: Female Birth Place: VA Birth Year: 1665 Spouse Name: James Taylor Spouse Birth Year: 1635 Marriage Year: 1682

According to a findagrave.com memorial for James, he was married twice before. His first wife is noted as Elizabeth Underwood and his second wife as Frances (no maiden name given). He had children by all three wives according to his memorial. The children he had with Mary are noted as Ann, Elizabeth, John, Mary Bishop, Edmund, James, and John Powell.

A findagrave.com memorial for Mary says that she died on April 30, 1698. It gives James' birth as 1615 and his arrival in America as 1635. It notes Frances Walker as his only other wife, and the death date for Frances is given as 1680.

The only children I have listed for Mary are Ann, Mary Bishop (1688-1779, my 6th great grandmother), and John (1696-1780).

A genealogy on James Taylor lists his children by Mary Gregory as follows:

Anne b. 1685
Elizabeth b. 1685 (died in infancy)
Mary b. 1686 (died in infancy)
Mary Bishop b. 1688
Edmund b. 1690
John b. 1692 (died in infancy)
Elizabeth b. 1694
John b. 1696

The above genealogy notes that Mary's second husband was Rowland Thomas of Caroline County, Virginia.

According to the findagrave memorial noted above for James Taylor, he died on September 22, 1698. I have Mary's death date as 1747 in Bowling Green, Caroline County, Virginia. The findagrave memorial for Mary gives her death as April 30, 1698.

I did a little more research on Mary Gregory but didn't find anything definite. Several records were conflicting. One of these days, I'll get back to researching Mary and her family.

My descent from Mary Gregory:

1. Mary Gregory and James Taylor
2. Mary Bishop Taylor and Henry Pendleton
3. Elizabeth Coleman and James Pendleton
4. Martha Aubrey and Philip Pendleton
5. Martha Gilbert and  Coleman Pendleton
6. Catharine Tebeau and Philip Coleman Pendleton
7. Susan Parramore and Alexander Shaw Pendleton
8. Helen Brown and Albert S. Pendleton Sr
9. Leona Redles and Albert S. Pendleton Jr
10. me

Catherine

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

52 Weeks of Sharing Our Memories - Let's Visit Grandma!

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.

My maternal grandmother, Leona Roberts (Redles), died from breast cancer on April 19, 1955, a few months after I was born. Here's a photo of her holding me not too long before she died. I can tell from the photo just how ill she was. (I love the labels my dad wrote on these photos.)

My maternal grandmother Leona Roberts (Redles) and me in 1955.
Taken at the J. T. Roberts house.

She grew up in the J. T. Roberts house. The photo behind my blog title was taken of the Roberts clan on the side porch of that house. After the death of my grandfather William Redles, she moved back to the Roberts house with her daughters, my mom Leona and Aunt Catherine, and lived there with three of her sisters and their families. One of her brothers lived next door with another one of their sisters and her family. Everyone called the Roberts house the Big House (we still call it that). We continued to visit our relatives there for many years after my grandmother died.

I don't remember a lot about visits to my paternal grandmother Helen Brown's (Thomas, Pendleton) house. I remember picking up pecans in the back yard and playing in the front yard. I remember what the inside of her house looked like and the layout. I remember sneaking in her bedroom to smell her Jergens lotion. That scent still reminds me of her. She and my granddad Albert Pendleton Sr. lived in a stucco house on a quiet street--the same house my dad and his siblings grew up in. Below is a photo taken on their front porch.

My mother holding me on the left, in the center is my grandmother Helen Brown (Thomas, Pendleton), on the right is my Aunt Frances Thomas (McLaughlin) holding her son/my cousin Rob McLaughlin (we called him Bobby back then).

I enjoyed visiting Grandmama and Granddaddy (Helen and Albert) and going to the Big House where my great aunts and uncles lived and where Grandmother Leona and my mom and aunt grew up!

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #29 Christina S. Schenkel

I decided to venture across the ocean again and write about one of my German ancestors.

Christina Sophia Schenkel was my maternal 4th great grandmother. I have her birth year as 1748 and her death year as 1816. I didn't record where I got these years, but I probably got them from a family tree on ancestry.com years ago when I first started compiling the tree. I don't have any parents or siblings listed for her. She married Johann Nicholas Roedelsperger/Rodelsperger, and they are the parents of Johann Adam Roedelsperger (John Adam Redles), my German immigrant 3rd great grandfather and husband of Sarah Rulon.

I found a Christina Sophia Schenkel in an index on ancestry.com called Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898. It lists her birth date as February 8, 1747 in Groß Umstadt, Hessen, Germany, and her death year as 1816 in Germany. She was baptized the day after her birth on February 9, 1747. It lists her parents as Johann Conrad and Sophia Elisabetha Schenkel. This could be my Christina, but I'll need to do more research to confirm. Another record in that same index on ancestry.com gives the place of baptism as Evangelisch, Gross Umstadt, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. I found records of two more children of Johann and Sophia: Anna Maria born in 1744 and Maria Philippina born in 1749. These could be Christina's sisters.

One of my German Rodelsperger cousins, who has done extensive research, put together a pedigree chart several years ago for the Rodelsperger/Redles branches. He has that Christina Schenkel and Johann Nicholas Rodelsperger were married October 1, 1767, in Heubach, Germany (a district in Groß Umstadt, Hessen, Germany). He gives Christina's death date as January 14, 1816, in Heubach and that she was buried on January 17, 1816. Besides Johann Adam (my 3rd great grandfather), he lists their other children as Johannes (b. 1767), Johann Jakob (b. 1769), Catherina Elisabetha (b. 1771), Johann Nicholaus (b. 1774), Johann Leonhardt (b. 1777), and Margaretha Elisabetha (b. 1778). He notes that Christina's father was Johann Eduard Schenkel.

Click on the map below for a larger view.

Heubach, a district of the south Hessian town of Gross-Umstadt in Darmstadt-Dieburg, Germany (Google maps)

Several years ago, my mom, her sister, and my youngest sister went to Heubach, Germany, for a reunion of Rodelsperger/Redles descendants. I wasn't able to go, but I hope someday to have the opportunity!

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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52 Weeks of Sharing Our Memories - First Loss

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.

The first loss that I experienced when I was young was the death of my maternal grandmother Leona Roberts (married name Redles). I was only a few months old, so I had no idea what was going on. I was born in October 1954, and she died the following year on April 19, 1955.

My maternal grandmother Leona Roberts (married name Redles) and me. My dad wrote, 
"Friday before Easter. Last picture with Grandmother"

The loss that I do remember was my Uncle Big Bubba, William Leland Roberts. He was my grandmother Leona's oldest brother and one of my favorite people. I was nine years old when he died on March 15, 1964, in Valdosta, Georgia. He lived with his sister Kathleen Roberts and her husband Abial Winn, but ate his meals with his sisters Margaret, Dinah (Mary Remer), and Leona and their families next door in the dining room at the Roberts House, what we refer to as the Big House. His invalid sister Midge (Edwina) took her meals at the table and chair in the living room where she always sat. The chair had been raised to accommodate her infliction.

Uncle Big Bubba (William Leland Roberts) is on the right, Nick is in the center, and Tom Preuet on the left. Valdosta Builders Supply was a Roberts family business and was in the field behind the Big House.

I'm not sure I knew what the implications of death were back then. I knew that I would never see Uncle Big Bubba again. I don't remember what I felt when I was told he had died, but I'm sure I felt his loss. Someone I had known my whole life was suddenly no longer there. As far as I recall, he was the first person close to me to die. I didn't go to his funeral. My parents probably thought it best to keep us young children at home.

Uncle Big Bubba was always kind to us children, and as I wrote in my previous blog post linked above, he would sometimes come outside to sit with us in the swing on the front porch. I enjoyed that.

Catherine

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #19 Sarah Rulon

Sarah (Sallie) Rulon was my maternal 3rd great grandmother and one of my French connections. Her 2nd great grandfather was Ruel Rulon, a Huguenot immigrant from France who came to America for religious freedom.

One of at least seven children, Sallie was born on February 19, 1785, in New Jersey (possibly Cumberland County) to John Rulon and Sarah Burt. The siblings I have listed for her are John, Deborah, Lydia, Mary, Theodosa, Henry, and Anna.

Sallie married John Adam Redles, a German immigrant, on May 19, 1806, in Cumberland County, New Jersey. John had just landed in America four years earlier in 1802.

Marriage record for Sarah (Sallie) Rulon and John Adam Redles [1] 

Sallie gave birth to at least four children: Ann (b. 1809), Elizabeth (b. 1811), John Adam (b. 1817, my 2nd great grandfather), and George (b. 1821).

Sallie is listed twice in the 1850 U.S. census for Philadelphia: Once with her husband John Adam in the Chestnut Ward of Philadelphia on August 19 and once with her son George Redles in Germantown two days later on August 21.[2] (At the time, Germantown was a suburb of Philadlephia.*) She died seven months later on March 8, 1851, so maybe she had taken ill in the summer of 1850 and had gone to live with George and his wife Dorcas.

Sallie's funeral was to start at her son George's house in Germantown the following Monday after she died, with burial to follow. According to her findagrave.com memorial, she's buried in the Hood Cemetery in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her husband John Adam died eight years later on August 13, 1859. His funeral also started at their son George's house.[3] I don't yet know where he is buried.

Catherine

* Thanks for the correction cousin Amy! I mistakenly said in the previous sentence that Germantown was part of Philadelphia.

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] "New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VW55-295 : accessed 12 May 2014), Adam Riddels and Sarah Rulon, 19 May 1806; citing p. 75, Cumberland, New Jersey; FHL microfilm 853720.

[2] 1850 U. S. census, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia Chestnut Ward, p. 464B, dwelling 115, family 144, Sarah Redles, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 May 2014), citing NARA microfilm publication M432_813; 1850 U. S. census, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Germantown, Philadelphia, p. 230B, dwelling 574, family 604, Sarah Redles, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 May 2014), citing NARA microfilm publication M432_824.

[3] Death notice for Sarah Redles, Public Ledger, Philadelphia, 10 March 1851, online archives (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 12 May 2014), p. 2; Death notice for Adam Redles, Public Ledger, Philadelphia, 15 August 1859, online archives (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 27 December 2012), p. 2

Happy Mother's Day!

My beautiful mother!

First, there was one (Mom and me). Then there were.....

...five. Mom with her brood. Left to right, Helen, Melissa, John, Andy, and me.

The house was quiet only when we were asleep!

Catherine

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 Rootsweb, USGenWeb.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.

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