Sunday, March 9, 2014

Mound School

Mound School1928-peopleMound School '28Mound School '28_1MoundSchool28bMound School28Mound School '28 v2
Mound School '28 v2 (2)MoundSchool28v2MoundSchool28aMoundSchool28dMoundSchool28c

Mound School, a set on Flickr.
This photo was taken in 1928

This photo has 133 people in it and most people are unknown. Several of my great Aunts taught school at Mound School in Prairie Township in Shelby County, Illinois. Mound school was just south of Stewardson and north of Shumway in Banner township in Effingham county, Illinois. The first photo in the set has the people numbered. Below is list of known people in the photo.

1 - Possibly Mildren Bullerman - Daughter of Pearl and William Bullerman (see number 2)

2 - Pearl Williams Bullerman - I am not 100% sure on this one but Bullerman is written over her head so she seems the most likely person. Pearl was the wife of William Bullerman who was the son of Mary Klarman (Mary was William Frederick's sister) and Henry Bullerman. She also taught school. The child she is holding may be her daughter Mildred.

4 - Lora Rentfro(w) Webb - Lora was the daughter of Eli Rentfrow and Margaret Ellen Shouse and married Harry Webb.

7 - Della Webb Rentfro(w) - Della was the sister to Harry Webb and she married Jesse Rentfro(w). Jesse may possibly be 129.

12 - Emma Perryman Klarman - wife of William Frederick Klarman and my great grandmother

15 - Daisy Lipkey - Niece to Emma Perryman Klarman. She was the daughter of Ella Perryman and Louis Lipkey. Ella was Emma's sister.

16 - Dorothy Klarman Lagerhausen - Daughter of Emma Perryman Klarman

31 - Kathleen Dappert

32 - Delbert ? Not sure of the last name but could possibly be Rentfrow

43 - Jake Yakey - He could possible be number 44. The writing is above the building and it is unclear which name below to this men.

44 - Frank Schultz - could possible be number 43. Frank was the brother Louis Schultz who married Grace Klarman who was Emma Perryman Klarman's daughter.

52 - Mabel Schultz

58 - Fred Klarman - son of Emma Perryman Klarman

65 - ??? Keller

66 - Ruby Dappert

94 - Edna Klarman - My grandmother and daughter of Emma Perryman Klarman

99 - Wilma Klarman - daughter of Emma Perryman Klarman

125 - Bill Rentfrow

129 - Possibly Jesse Rentfrow - He is sitting directly under number 7 which would of been his wife.

133 - Possibly William August Bullerman - Son of Mary Klarman and Henry Bullerman. He was husband of Pearl Williams who is possibly number 2.



Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Illinois Resources

I going to make a list of great collections for each state that I have researched. I am starting with Illinois. Here is my list for Illinois.

Illinois Archives - Great resource for searching any ancestors who lived in Illinois. The online resources include the following index of vital records databases that I use frequently.
Many of the records are held in regional archives on public universities. Some that are of interest to me are the following which are all held at at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois.
Illinois Digital Archives - Discovered this one when searching Booth Library on the EIU website. Looks quite interesting. 

Family Search Illinois Databases - The familysearch.org website has several Illinois databases that I have found helpful. The database in particular that I have found helpful is the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947 database.

Illinois State Genealogical Society - The society has webinars and also holds a conference each year. Members have access to several databases as well. 

Shelby County Historical & Genealogical Society - The society is using the old county jail for the holdings it has which include a large collection of family history books. 

The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) - An index of all the collections of newspapers holdings from various locations around Illinois.

52 Ancestors: #1 Jacob Klarman

I decided I am taking the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Amy Johnson Crow posted this challenge last week and I decided this challenge is perfect for where I am in my research. I have severely neglected this blog with the usual excuse of being busy with life and work but two snow days have given me the perfect reason to pick up the pace on my research writing. So better late than never.

Jacob Klarman


Jacob Klarman on the front porch of his farm house in rural Shumway, Illinois

I am going to start with the ancestor that sparked the genealogy bug in my grandmother and myself. Jacob Klarman is my third great-grandfather and a German immigrant. He traveled to America around 1859 with his wife and small children. The story that has been passed around the family is that he traveled to America to save his son(s) from having to serve in the Bavarian army. Whether that is true or not I do not know. I have found indexes from German collections on the Family Search website that are helpful in documenting his life in Germany. An entry in the Germany Marriages, 1558-1929 collection indicate he married Phillipina Boehmer on 20th of June in 1856 in the Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche in Rockenhausen, Germany. The record details that his parents are Jacob Klarmann and Margaretha Zubiller. I question the marriage year because of conflicting information on their oldest daughter's birth year. I don't know much about his time in Germany and this is where I need to do more research.

His life in America is more easily documented although I never found any passenger lists or other records that indicate what port he left from and arrived to when coming to America. According to Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 index on the Family Search website, Jacob and Phillipina had at least three children in Germany: Maria in 1856, Eliza in 1857, and Jacob in 1858. Jacob first appears in the 1860 U.S Federal census in Monroe Township in Coshocton county, Ohio. Jacob is listed as Jacob Clarman and is 28 years old. He is a farmer with real estate valued at $800 and a personal estate valued at $250 dollars. His wife is listed as Tenah and is 30 years old. Their two young daughters, Mary is listed as age 5 and Eliza as age 4. The son, Jacob, is missing in the record. Family stories indicate that Jacob and Phillipina's son died on the long trip to America. My grandmother did much research which consisted of her writing her older siblings for information about their grandfather. My grandmother's older sister Beulah told her that the son had died of "bowel troubles". After arriving and settling in Coshocton county, Jacob and Phillipina had three more children, Phebe Anna in 1861; Augusta B born on in 1862 and William Frederick Klarmann (my grandmother's father) in 1869. 

The 1860 decade was most likely hard on Jacob. Storm clouds of war were brewing as he made his way to America for a better life for his family. Little did he know when he made the trip to America that he would be drawn into a Civil war in his new country. He enlisted in the Union army as a Private on 25th of February 1864 at the age of 33 in Company C of the 67th Infantry Regiment of Ohio. Records of the 67th Infantry Regiment state they traveled to Whitmarsh Island, Georgia on 22 February 1864. It is unlikely Jacob was with the regiment on the trip to Georgia, but more likely he and other new recruits met up with the regiment in Yorktown, Virginia in April of 1864. Jacob spent a year and half with the regiment in Virginia and mustered out on 7 December 1865 at City Point, Virginia.

The 1870 U.S. Federal census record still finds Jacob and his family living in Monroe Township in Coshocton, Ohio. Jacob is listed as 40 years old and a farmer with 1500 dollars worth of real estate with 500 dollars of personal estate worth. His wife is listed as Phebe and is 42 years old. The children are listed as Mary, 15; Elizabeth, 13; Anna, 10; Augusta, 8; and William, 1. Another child named Sonnels Harrison, 4, is listed with the family. It is unclear who this child is or what became of him.

Many of Jacob's friends were getting the itch to move west. In 1865 one of Jacob's friends, the Dappert family, moved west and settled in Prairie Township in Shelby county, Illinois. Some time between 1870 and 1880 Jacob and his family made the move to Effingham county, Illinois. On 1st of January in 1867 Jacob Klarman was naturalized at the courthouse in Coshocton county, Ohio so Jacob's migration likely occurred sometime after that event. In the 1880 U.S. Federal census the family can be found in Banner township in Effingham county. Banner township is close to Shumway in Effingham county, Illinois and is just south of where the Dappert family settled in Prairie Township in Shelby County. Jacob is listed as 50 years old and his wife “Phebe” is listed as 57 years old. The children listed are Anna, 19; Augusta, 17; and Willie, 11.

In the 1900 U.S Federal census Jacob and Phillipina are living next to their son, William, and his wife, Emma Frances Perryman, and their young family of three children in the 1900 census. The Klarman girls have all married and have families of their own. Jacob dies on 24th of March in 1910 from complications of a stroke. Jacob's farm would stay in the family until the mid 1970's when Jacob's grandson Kenny sold the farm. I have fond children memories of going to the farm when my great-uncle Kenny owned the farm. He had turned the barn into museum of sorts with his large collection of antiques and often held family gatherings on the farm. Kenny's wife Evelyn would make homemade peanut brittle and apple butter. It was always fun and likely why I feel such a strong connection to Jacob.


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Massachusetts Roots

This post is a mental reminder of the great book resources I found researching the Macy family of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The Macy family had many marriages with the Coffin, Folger, Starbuck, Barnard, and Coleman families. Below is a list of books found on Archive.org.

The Coleman family : descendants of Thomas Coleman, of Nantucket, in line of the oldest son, 10 geneartions, 1602-1898 - 296 years
Author: Silas Bunker Coleman
Published in Detroit, Michigan, 1898
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23289141M/The_Coleman_family

Genealogy of the Macy Family from 1635-1868
Author Silvanus Jenkins Macy
Publisher: Joel Munsell, 1868
http://archive.org/details/genealogymacyfa00macygoog

The Coffin family : the life of Tristram Coffyn, of Nantucket, Mass., founder of the family line in America; together with reminiscences and anecdotes of some of his numerous descendants, and some historical information concerning the ancient families named Coffyn (1881)
Allen Coffin, b. 1836
Publisher: Nantucket, Hussey & Robinson, 1881

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Rootstech 2013

I loved the fact that I can watch live sessions from the Rootstech conference. I especially enjoyed Syd Lieberman's keynote. He had such a wonderful way of weaving the story about his family into an interesting story. My next favorite of the streaming sessions was Laura Prescott's Researching Ancestors Online. She introduced me to some great sites I have never considered. And of course the always funny David Pogue. Thanks all for such a great show.

Here are some great links

http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid - One stop shop for searching and locating historical archives.

http://www.linkpendium.com - I think I can seen this one before but I think I need to use it more often.

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic - Great government website for finding long lost places.

http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc - This looks great. I will definitely be checking this one out.

http://www.davidrumsey.com - A fantastic map collection. I checked this one out and will be going back often.

EIU's Digital collections - I already knew that Eastern Illinois University held many collections but I didn't realize how many of the collections are online. Thanks so much Laura Prescott for the great tip!

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx - Another great link thanks to Laura Prescott.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

My Most Difficult Wall: Part 2

So in the previous post I layed out what little information I had to start with with Joseph Hobby who married Aretta Burr. Whenever I would get frustrated with not being able to break down this brick wall I would give up for the time being and go work on another family line to work on for awhile. One day I decided to work at the brick wall from a different angle. I knew most likely Joesph was born in Connecticut and I went on the assumption he most likely was around the same age as Aretta. I reviewed the entries on Find-A-Grave for Ohio and someone had posted an entry in the Ninevah Cemetery  in Greenwich, Huron County for a Joesph Hobby and they even posted a picture of the gravestone. This entry seems to fit my Joseph but the gravestone is hard to read. It appears to say the following:

Joseph Hobby
died 
Mar 27 1850
aged 
35 Years

So if I am correct, this is likely to be my Joseph who married Aretta. This does fit with my previous theories but it still isn't solid evidence. I still didn't have any further information about Joseph's parents so I decided one day that I was going to start with the records that came from Connecticut.  I started with the The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records. Vol. 1-55  that was edited by Lorraine Cook White and available on Ancestry. Unfortunately, this collection just made me more frustrated because the records were not detailed and covered several years of birth, death, and marriage records. So I gave up for a time and worked on other lines. Google searches with the Hobby name are quite unfruitful as it is a common word but I decided to filter down to just Google books. I got lots of hits for Captain Joseph Hobby and Captain Thomas Hobby. Most of the references were with regards to military service in the revolutionary war and these men would be unlikely candidates for Joseph's father but could possibly be his grandfather. I realized it is was time to brush up on my history so I did. One historical event that was of particular interest was the Tryon's raid on the colonies of Connecticut in 1779. Most of the towns on the Connecticut coast were burned during the raid. After the war people in this area received a war bounty of land from the Connecticut Reserve which consisted of land that is now modern Ohio. This was a huge clue for me and made me realize why the migration of family took place. I am getting closer to solving this brick wall but not there yet! If one thing I have learned it that you must look at everything and leave no stone unturned. Still more to come. Stay tuned.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Thankful Thursday

I think I have to thank my grandmother, Edna Klarman DeKay, for giving me the genealogy bug. She contacted several close relatives and distant cousins for information on the family. She spent several years compiling family stories and other interesting tidbits about the Klarman family. I do miss her so much now!

Edna May Klarman abt 1929