Monday, December 14, 2009

Carl (Charles) Eggebrecht (1834 - 1888)

A joint biography has been created for Carl/Charles Eggebrecht and his wife, Wilhelmina Boldt Eggebrecht (1832 - 1888). See biography.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Albert J Miller (1864 - 1924)

Albert provided the finacial support for his mother and three step siblings from 1882 through 1893. He can be identified in 30 of the St. Louis City Directories from 1881 through 1923. Along with various census entries and his Death Certificate, I was able to create a biography for Albert. See biography.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Update to James William Kemps (1807 - 1887)

On Footnote.com, I found fourteen James Kemps entries in the Philadelphia City Directories for the years 1843 through 1861. They provided addresses and his occupation. I have updated his biography with this information; see James William Kemps.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Emily M Miller Brown Fekete (1863 - 1940)

The 1921 and 1923 St. Louis City Directories, found on Footnote.com, were key to locating many of the details of Emily's life. They identified her as the widow of Walter P Brown. This allowed me to find her in the 1900 Census along with her children. Additional details of her life also became apparent and this allowed me to create her biography. See biography.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Update to Julia Ryan Kemps (1879 - 1960)

I have now included the address information, for Julia, from the St. Louis City Directories. Three were from years when her father, Patrick Ryan, was alive. Sixteen were from years when she lived with her mother, Louisa Ryan. Fifteen were from years when she lived with her husband, Luther Kemps. For the updated biography, see Julia Ryan Kemps. Two additional group pictures were added on October 20th and two Chicago City Directory entries were added on October 30th.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Update to Luther James Kemps (1876 - 1935)

On Footnote.com, I found fifteen Luther Kemps entries in the St. Louis City Directories for the years 1903 through 1917. They provided addresses and his occupation. I have updated his biography with this information; see Luther James Kemps. Two additional group pictures were added on October 20th and two Chicago City Directory entries were added on October 30th.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Updates for Louisa Briehl Miller Ryan (1835 - 1926)

On Footnote.com, in the St. Louis City Directories, I was able to find Louisa on 27 different years from 1882 to 1921. I also found her as Louisa Miller in 1868 & 1869. Additionally, on her daughter Pauline's Death Certificate, I found that Louisa was born in Biedenkopf, Germany. I have included all of this information in her updated biography at Louisa_Ryan. (This biography is now seperated from Patrick Ryan).

Updates for Patrick Ryan (1833 - 1881)

On Footnote.com, I was able to find this Patrick Ryan in the St. Louis City Directories for 15 different years. This allowed me to trace his and the family's movements from 1864 to 1881. The 1882 City Directory also allowed me to confirm the date of Patrick's death. With this additional information, I had enough data to seperate the biographies of Patrick and his wife Louisa. See Patrick_Ryan for this additional information.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Pauline Julia Miller O'Donnell Rutledge (1860 - 1943)

I recently acquired the death certificate for Pauline Rutledge. Additionally, from Footnote.com, I had obtained some St. Louis City Directories that included Pauline O'Donnell. With what I already had, this allowed me to create a biography for Pauline. See biography.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Thomas McClurken's Revolutionary War Pension File

I recently obtained, from Footnote.com, the complete 94 page Revolutionary War Pension File of Thomas McClurken and his widow, Elizabeth. Each page is a seperate image. To aid in viewing the file, I reduced the size of the images and assembled them into a slideshow, see: Thomas McClurken Pension File. In the near future, I will create a summary of the most important information in the file and the associated pages. I also removed some, possibly incorrect, information from the biography of Thomas McClurken. I need to do some more work to straighten out the details for this individual.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

William & Albert Kemps Updates

On Footnote.com, I found six entries in the City Directories of St. Louis for William. The years were from 1901 to 1911. I have added the data from these pages into his biography and links to these directory pages. Albert was also listed in the 1907 City Directory and his biography was similarly changed.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Raymond Presley Kirkpatrick (1880 - 1979)

After receiving additional information from a second cousin, I decided that I had sufficient data. Therefore, I have created a biography for Raymond Presley Kirkpatrick. Much of the information was drawn from the "History Of Oakdale Township." I am hopeful that I will get additional input from a couple of family members. If so, I will reissue the biography.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

My Genealogy Resources

Recently, a second cousin contacted me and shared some unique documentation. In response, I created a list of the resources that I have used in my research. Since I created the list, I decided to share it with everyone and link it to my website. It is at Genealogy Resources.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Harriet Louise McClurken Ramsey (1861 - 1942)

While chasing after the Thomas McClurken probate records, I ended up with some guardianship records for Harriet Louise McClurken (she was an heir of Thomas McClurken (1805 - 1867)). I decided that I shouldn't let them go to waste, so I created a biography for her. A little digging for US Census records and some help from the Gynzer's Gynealogy Database was all that I needed to supplement information that I already had. Harriet was my great granmother's first cousin, once removed. Her biography is now available at Harriet_McClurken. Included are the records for the last couple of years of her guardianship. I also linked her into the Outline Descendant Report of Thomas McClurken (1748 - 1845) and my Ancestor Tree.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Thomas McClurken (1805 - 1867) Biography

The biography for this Thomas McClurken is now available. Thomas was married to Martha Kirkpatrick. He was the son of Thomas McClurken, the brother of James McClurken, and the uncle of Clara McClurken. Attached to this biography is a summary of the Probate Documents, as well as, copies of the actual documents.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Mary and Kate Ryan

An old family Bible indicates that Julia Ryan had two half sisters, Mary and Kate Ryan. These are the two previously unknown children of Patrick Ryan and his first wife. They have now been included in the biography of Patrick and Louisa Ryan. Additionally, two more pictures have been added to this biography. Here is one of them.

For a larger version of the picture, see this link.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

David W. McClurken

The Civil War Service Card for David W. McClurken, provided details about him that were previously very limited. I took this information and expanded the information that was provided for him on six associated biographies.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Civil War McClurken's in the 10th Regiment of the Missouri Infantry Volunteers

While researching Thomas J. McClurken's civil war involvement, I also found the service cards for four other McClurken's. The service cards are now available for: Cyrus F. S., David W., James R., John C., and Thomas J. McClurken. All five of these men enlisted on August 1, 1861, in the 10th Regiment of the Missouri Infantry Volunteers. One was discharged for disability, three died while serving, and the other was wounded in action. Links to these service cards were added to the Outline Descendant Report of Thomas McClurken (1748 - 1845) or where referenced in biographies. These cards were located online in the Missouri State Archives Soldiers' Records. Only three of the five are listed in the Illinois State Archives. However, all five are listed, with minimal detail, in the National Park Service database.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Thomas J McClurken (1828 - 1861) Biography

I have now published the biography for Thomas J McClurken (1828 - 1861). He was the oldest son of James and Sarah and the brother of Clara and others. While researching his Civil War service, his middle initial J was identified (probably for James). In addition, seven other pages were updated to provide links to this biography.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Thomas McClurken (1828 - 1861) Records

The Thomas McClurken Probate Records were obtained from the Illinois State Archives. Those for Thomas McClurken, son of James and Sarah, are now available at Thomas McClurken Estate 1861. I need to create a biography for attachment. Additionally, I need to create a biography for the other Thomas McClurken (1805 - 1867) and scan the associated probate records.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Thomas McClurken Probate Documents

Acquiring the Thomas McClurken Probate Documents has been a challenge. Per the Washington County Genealogy Trails website, they are in three different boxes in the Washington County Courthouse. First you request the documents, then they count the pages and quote the copy cost. You send the county a check and they send the copies.

My initial request specified the Thomas that died in 1845; however, I received the papers from box 93. These were for the wrong Thomas and related to the end of a guardianship for Harriet McClurken in 1879.

My second request was for both of the other two boxes: 37 and 141. I did acquire the contents of box 141; however, again the wrong Thomas. These related to the end of the guardianships for Clara McClurken and her brother, Andrew Todd McClurken, on May 5, 1870. I believe these were from the estate of their brother, Thomas, who died in 1861.

For box 37, I was advised that boxes 1 through 50 had been sent to the Illinois Regional Archives Depository facility in Springfield. I called and found out that they were preparing the documents for preservation and are currently working on box 37. They are going to call me back with the copying cost. They did check and let me know that two persons named Thomas McClurken were included; however, both died in the 1860s. I will order then in order to clarify the contents of the first two boxes.

I will scan and post the relevant copies on my website when I have sorted it all out. Unfortunately, none seem to exist for the Thomas McClurken who died in 1845.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

James McClurken Probate Documents Update

After two more iterations, I was finally able to get copies of the receipts signed by J. H. McClurken and C. A. Kemps. I rescanned the whole package and these updated documents are on pages 17 and 18 of the file, James_McClurken_Probate_Documents.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

My Mother's Family

Recently, I had the pleasure of sharing the details of my mother's family with a cousin. I had collected all the data and stories over a period of years. Unfortunately, because of identity theft concerns, this information is only available to family members. What a shame that their biographies can not be shared in my lifetime.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Photo Pages Added and Restructured Website

I was very happy with the new ancestor tree and decided to add the photo page feature for 25 individuals (66 photos in all). I also created a link to the biographies. This allowed me to restructure my webpages. The old summary page is now the biography index and the homepage is the central page, as it should have been. All the biography pages now have links to the homepage and the ancestor tree.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Ancestor Tree Enhancement

I was never happy with the ancestor tree diagrams that I had placed on my website. They were screen captures of outputs from Family Tree Maker and they were static and fuzzy. Additionally, they caused me to split the tree into two images. I had looked at a couple of other websites and decided to evaluate the software that they had used. I downloaded the free version of GedHTree and played around with it. I created a subset of my GEDCOM file with only 219 individuals that I wanted to display. All living individuals were excluded, although the program allows various privacy options. I concluded that I wanted to present the "all-inclusive tree style" that displays all the children of various parents. This feature is only in the $20 registered version, so I shelled it out. I am fairly happy with this new feature, although, the all-inclusive tree may confuse users until they figure it out. For the time being, I have not added photos and there is no linkage to the biographies. However, this feature is so nice that I will be redesigning my homepage and biographies to better coordinate. Try it out at Ancestry Tree.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Probate Documents

Ordering probate documents comes with mixed results. Patience is also required. With Washington County, first you identify what you want. Then they quote you a price based on the number of pieces. Next, you send them a check, wait for the documents and hope they are for the right individual. I ordered the records for James and Thomas McClurken; but, the ones for Thomas were for the wrong Thomas. The documents come on legal size paper so they are too big to scan. Some sheets I took to the copy store and got them reduced. Others I cut apart since they were a collection of small pieces. Still others came with cutoff pieces. Scanning required extra effort to modify the B/W threshold on some pages that were lighter or darker than the average.

In the end, I am fairly satisfied with the Probate Summary of the James McClurken Estate and the James McClurken Probate Documents. The second one is a fairly large file of 32 pages.

I will try again to get the records for the right Thomas.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Over 50 Images including James William Kemps

James William Kemps 1807 - 1887

I have added almost 5o images to the various biographies on my website. They are so helpful in adding life and connections to these stories. A very special one was a tintype of James William Kemps. I cannot thank Philip Smith enough for his significant contributions to this endeavour.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Generosity of "Relative" Strangers

Through the power of the internet, a second cousin, unknown to me, found my website and asked me if I had made any progress regarding James and Isabella Kemps. I could not help Philip Smith, but has he ever helped me immensely. He has generously spent his time scanning over 25 images of priceless family pictues, obituaries and wedding announcements. All will soon be posted on my Website in the appropriate biographies. They include:
Samuel Henry Kemps

Clara Amanda McClurken Kemps

Luther James Kemps
In addition, I was able to add the biographies for three great aunts; May Belle Kemps Kirkpatrick, Edna Adella Kemps Smith and Clara Ethel Kemps Boyle. They are pictures below:


Thank you Philip Smith !!!