Madness Monday - Note to Self on a Bakery Picture

One of the great things about having your own blog is that you can write anything you want. Including a note to yourself - a kind of bulletin board if you will. Over 10 years ago, I found this picture in my great grandmother's (Eugenie Roos) postcard album. Only somewhere along the way, I forgot just where I had seen this picture. After going through boxes and boxes and coming up empty handed, I finally gave up. Maybe I dreamed it or something. Well, it resurfaced when I was working on the postcard album rescue project!

Now for the back-story. Great Grandfather Eugene Roos was the proprietor of the Cheney Bakery in Cheney, Washington in the late 1800's and the first part of the 20th century. Before that he was a baker in Los Angeles. I don't know when or how he became a baker but he may have learned the trade as a young man in St. Louis, Missouri.

The family lore is that he owned a bakery on what is now some very prime real estate in downtown Los Angeles. Had he remained there, we would all be rich because the land became so valuable. OK, there's one small problem with this story. Had Eugene remained in Los Angeles, my grandfather would never have met my grandmother....and none of us would be around talking about it. Nevertheless, I've always been curious about where this bakery might have been located as well as where Eugene learned the baker's trade. This picture could be a clue.

Transcription:

1887

Paul Schilling

Building

Here is the old
saloon. You had a
room hear, when you were
working in the bakery. Part
of the building on one side has
been taken down.
[check mark in circle] was your room if I am
not mistaken.

First, I must remember that the photo was found in his wife, Eugenie's, album. So for all I know the note on the back could have been addressed to her. At any rate I've got a little to do list for when I get around to investigating.

Note to Self:

• Analyze the photograph for possible clues.
• Investigate the Paul Schilling Building - 1887 - possibly in LA or St. Louis.
• Handwriting comparison to try and determine who wrote this note.
• Keep an eye open for references to this building in any of Eugene's papers.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Do You Know What Kind of Flowers These Are?

A family member received these as a gift. We've had an army of people say they don't know what these are? Can anyone help?

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Free Wi-Fi On An Airplane?

This weekend I had one of those first in a lifetime experiences. Hopefully it wasn't a once in a lifetime experience! After settling in for my Alaska Airlines flight, an announcement was made that went something like this:

...we hope you enjoy complementary wi-fi on your flight today. I'll tell you how to use it once we're airborn.

Did I hear correctly? Free wi-fi on an airplane? For once, I actually listened to the flight attendant's announcements! Sure enough I had heard correctly. Out came the laptop. I checked email, read some blogs, wrote a blog post, and started working on an assignment for my latest course with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. Then suddently it happened, the battery died...

That's Murphy's Law for you. The one time I get on a flight without a fully charged battery...

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Taking A Break

The Madness Monday posts on the William H. Ballinger family will be on hiatus for two or three weeks as things are a little "mad" around the Goodrum household with summer and family activities.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - William Ballenger Land Sale

This week I am looking at the deed of sale from William H. and Lucinda Ballinger to Jeremiah Ballinger.  You can read a transcription of the deed below but the particulars are this:

The sale is dated 7 March 1854.
It was for 160 acres in Mahaska County, Iowa.
The land was sold for $300.
Samuel Ballinger was the witness.

In my post Collateral Lines Anyone? I noted that Jeremiah and Samuel were young men and had been listed in various Iowa state censuses from the 1850s sometimes in the same house with an older John F. Ballinger.  I will definitely be taking a closer look at those 3 men.

From this document, I can plot where William's land was located and begin to fill in the other neighbor's from property maps and other land transactions.

This deed has left me with lots of questions (remember I am looking for relatives of William):

1. Who are Jeremiah and Samuel and why are they transacting business with William?
2. Why did William sell 160 acres?
3. When did he buy this property?

At least this gives me an additional data point on William's timeline!


Transcription:
[left hand margin is written “34-76-15”]


Wm H Ballenger etux
To Deed
JJ Ballinger

Filed for Record April 20th 1854 at 1
O'Clock PM & Recorded April 22nd 1854

For the consideration Three hundred dollars we hereby convey
unto Jeremiah J Ballinger the following tract of land Situated
in the County of Mahaska in the State of Iowa. Viz: the South
East Quarter of section Thirty four in Township Seventy six No

[page] 557

of Range fifteen West containing one hundred and Sixty acres
And we warrant the title to the same to the said Jeremiah J Ballinger
against all Persons whomsoever. Executed this Seventh day of March
AD 1854 in presence of
Samuel Ballinger

W H. Ballinger
Lucinda Ballinger

State of Iowa, Mahaska County ss
Before me Samuel Kirby a Justice of the Peace in and
for said County personally appeared the above named William H.
Ballinger and Lucinda Ballinger personally known to me to be the
identical persons whose names appeared in the foregoing Deed as grantors
and acknowledged the above instrument to be their voluntary act
and deed for the purposes there in expressed. Given under my
hand this 1 day of April AD 1854
Samuel Kirby
Justice of the Peace

Henry Blackburn recorder Mahaska County Iowa.

[Citation:
Mahaska County, Iowa, Land Deeds, 1853-54, Volume E, 20 April 1854; Family History Library microfilm 972968.]

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Collateral Lines Anyone?

One piece of advice often heard regarding brick wall ancestors is to research collateral lines.  In the case of my brick wall, William H. Ballenger, I haven't even been able to identify a collateral relative to research.  So in his case I thought I'd try identifying potential collateral lines.

William's last three known residences of Nye, Montana, Grand County, Colorado and Boulder, Colorado haven't turned up any potential Ballenger relatives.  However, when he was living in Mahaska County, Iowa, I noticed that surname so I decided to start looking there.

Initially I am focussing on the 1850-1859 time period, since I know that my William Ballenger was living in Mahaska County then.  In reviewing the Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1926 on Ancestry, the following Ballenger family groupings turned up:

John F. Ballinger

• Two Johns-with one being much older than the other.
• The younger John appears in the various years as Ballenger, Ballinger and Ballanger.

Landon Ballinger
Thomas Ballinger
Samuel & Jeremiah Ballenger (young men listed, at times, in the same house with the older John F. Ballinger).
William H. Ballinger (click here to read a little about William)
Willard Ballenger

The listing for Willard Ballenger was for 1854 and caught my eye right off the bat so we will be taking a look at him next week. Can you guess where this discussion is headed?


© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Moving on with the William Ballenger Family

When I started this blog, I was using the Madness Monday theme to discuss one of my difficult families, that of William Harrison Ballenger.  Each week I was discussing one member of the family.  Life got busy and I had to suspend the posts.  Well, now I've uncovered some new information so I am going to take a slightly different tact.  One of the things I would like to try out is something I learned in Pamela Boyer Sayre's workshop, "Synchronized Research and Reporting" at the NGS Salt Lake City conference; write as you do your research.  Well I'm already behind, but I'm going to try and use Monday's to write about some of the items that are being discovered regarding the Ballenger family. 

For an overview you can check posts here and here.  I'll wait until you return...

One of my original goals with this family was to identify the alleged 12 children of William and Lucinda.  I have accomplished this.  Here's the family group sheet.  I want to acknowledge The Shy Genealogist for her posts on how to do some great things like this form in Word or Excel.

I was tempted to use a family group sheet from my genealogy program but I like this table format a little better.  It was an interesting excercise in that putting this form together manually forced me to evaluate each piece of evidence rather than just taking the easy road and printing off and posting the FGS.  That's why there's so many "probably," "circa," and "or" statements.  Much of the evidence is not yet conclusive in my mind.

Next week we'll look at the newest Iowa state census record I found on this family.

By the way, if you think this might be your family or are just interested, please contact me, I would love to share information and sources.

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Monday Madness - Flora J. Ballinger

Flora was probably born 27 February 1859 (or 1857).  So far, no evidence of her marrying has been uncovered.  Her death date and place are unknown.

Here is a timeline of what I have been able to find out about Flora:

27 February 1857 or 1859 - Flora is born.  In the 3 census records I have for Flora (CO State census 1885, Federal MT 1900 & 1910), she is listed as being forn in Iowa.  Between the census records and the Declaration for an Original Pension of a Father, listed below in sources, there is a discrepancy in Flora's birth year.

1860s - Flora and her siblings Nancy, John and Mary Ann are listed as attendees in the first school house built in Colorado (see sources below).

1880 - Living in Boulder, Colorado, with Joseph Wolff, are his wife Eliza J, Flora Ballinger and several hired men.  Flora is doing housework. (1880 Federal CO census).

1892 - in the Directory of Farmers in Boulder County for 1892, Flora is listed as a farmer.  From the property description, it appears she is farming on her father's former homestead.

1900 - In 1900 in the Township of Stillwater, Carbon County, Montana, Flora J. Ballinger was enumerated with Charles Williams, his wife Georgie L., and their family, a servant and a boarder. Flora is listed as Aunt. She is the aunt of Georgie L. (nee Robinson). Flora’s sister, Nancy Robinson (nee Ballenger) was Georgie’s mother.

1910 - Flora is enumerated in the Town of Joliet, School District No 7, Carbon County, Montana with the Henry family.  Oddly she is listed un the relationship column as a patient.  Although it is very difficult to read.

After the 1910 census Flora appears to disappear.  I am waiting for something else to turn up.

Sources not listed above:

• Ed Hubbard's article from The Daily Camera 17 November 1909 as extracted and appearing in the Boulder Genealogical Society Quarterly February 2002.
• Declaration for an Original Pension of a Father, Military Pension file for John H. Ballenger, file number 630269, National Archives and Records Administration.  William H. Ballinger is the informant and made the declaration on 8 February 1896 in Boulder, Colorado.  Further he states in the document that he is a resident of Nye City, Montana.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Mary Ann Ballenger Woods - continued

Last week for I introduced one of the oldest children of William and Lucinda Ballenger - Mary Ann Ballenger who was initially identified from an article in the Boulder Daily Camera, December 1893.

The next step I took in looking for answers to my questions about Mary, was to look in the 1900 Census where I found her with her husband and 3 children.  After some more census research the following timeline has been compiled.

Circa 1855 - Mary Ann is born - see 1856.

1856 - Mary Ann Ballinger is living with her parents William and Lucinda and siblings Nancy and John in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa. She is one year old and listed as residing in Iowa for 0 years. Go figure. (Iowa State Census 1856 - Ancestry.com)

November 1866-February 1867 - She is listed as attending Central School in Boulder, Colorado with her sister Nancy Ballenger ("Items About Boulder's Early Schools," Boulder Genealogical Society Quarterly, February 1975).

Circa late 1870s - Mary Ann moves to the southern part of Colorado. One wonders why? (Boulder Daily Camera, 7 December 1893, front page).

1880 - A Mary Ballinger is listed in the Federal Census in Rico, Ouray County, Colorado.  She is living with the Walter Higgins family.  I can't be sure if this is my Mary or not.  Her age is 22 putting her birth year around 1858 and her birthplace is listed as Illinois.  This Mary is living in the part of Colorado that would be consistent with the Boulder Daily Camera article and at the right time.  Her birth year is close.  The state is not the same but close.

December 1893 - Mrs. Milton Y. Woods and her 3 children visit her sister, Mrs. Dan (Nancy Ballenger) Robinson, in Boulder. The article states that Mrs. Woods in her "girlhood" was known as Mary Ballinger. (Boulder Daily Camera, 7 December 1893, front page).

1900 - Mary A. Woods is living with her husband, Milton, and their 3 children, Blanche, Walter and Hazel in California Mesa, Montrose County, Colorado.  The federal census lists Mary's birthplace as Iowa and her birthdate as August 1860 which is slightly different from the 1856 Iowa Census.  It also states she is the mother of 4 children 3 of whom are living.  This is consistent with the Boulder Daily Camera article in 1893 which stated she was visiting Boulder with her 3 children.  The census also states Mary and Milton have been married for 18 years which gives me a time frame to go on when I look for a marriage record.

1910 - Mary, Milton and their daughter Hazel are listed in the federal census in Montrose County, Colorado.  Mary does not seem to be aging properly - her age is listed as 47 which would put her birth year at about 1863.  This is both Milton and Mary's first marriage and they have been married 30 years.  Again she is listed as mother of 4 children 3 of whom are living.

1920 - Mary and her daughter, Hazel, are living in Ouray County, Colorado.  Her age is listed as 58 and birthplace of Iowa.  She is widowed according to the census.  Mary works as a cook in a "mine boarding house." Hazel is a waitress in the same place.

I need to find Mary and Milton's marriage record and death certificates for both.  At least now I have more clues to guide me in that search.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - Elusive Mary Ann Ballenger

This Ballenger daughter has been a bit on the elusive side. If it wasn't for the Boulder Genealogical Society website, Colorado Historical Newspapers and Ancestry.com, I would have absolutely no information on Mary Ann. She is a great illustration of how a little piece of information here and another bit there can get you started in researching an individual. So I want to talk about some of these sources and the methodology you can use to get going on a project.

The Boulder Genealogical Society, among the many ambitious projects they have taken on over the years, has published abstracts from the local newspapers in their Quarterly. This has proven to be a goldmine of information on my various Boulder families. While the abstract itself is usually immensely helpful, I like to get a copy of the entire article.

What I have done is searched the BGS Quarterly's annual surname index for the names I am interested in. That takes me to the appropriate article or abstract in the BGS Quarterly. My local Family History Library has the Quarterlies on microfiche. You can also check local libraries with genealogical collections for items like these.

The Colorado Historical Newspapers has been the next stop in my searches. Once I find an abstract, the first place I check is this website. They don't always have the article I want but it's worth a try since it's quick and I don't have to physically go anywhere. I have also spent quite a bit of time searching and browsing for my Boulder families on this site with great results.

Remember too there are numerous commercial websites with digitized newspapers such as Ancestry.com, worldvitalrecords.com and genealogybank.com

Another option would be to request a copy of an article through interlibrary loan which I have also done successfully.

The next stop has been onsite searching of newspapers at the Boulder Public Library and the University of Colorado Archives. Even though I don't live in Colorado, I have been fortunate enough to be in the Boulder area in recent years and have taken advantage of their resources on my trips. This has been particularly helpful since some of the newspaper articles I was interested in, I was unable to get economically through interlibrary loan.

A basic timeline outlines what little I know about Mary Ann Ballenger:

Circa 1855 - Mary Ann is born - see 1856.

1856 - Mary Ann Ballenger is living with her parents William and Lucinda and siblings Nancy and John in Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa. She is one year old and listed as residing in Iowa for 0 years. Go figure. (Iowa State Census 1856 - Ancestry.com)

November 1866-February 1867 - She is listed as attending Central School in Boulder, Colorado with her sister Nancy Ballenger ("Items About Boulder's Early Schools," Boulder Genealogical Society Quarterly, February 1975).

Circa late 1870s - Mary Ann moves to the southern part of Colorado. One wonders why? (Boulder Daily Camera, 7 December 1893, front page).

December 1893 - Mrs. Milton Y. Woods and her 3 children visit her sister, Mrs. Dan (Nancy Ballenger) Robinson, in Boulder. The article states that Mrs. Woods in her "girlhood" was known as Mary Ballinger. (Boulder Daily Camera, 7 December 1893, front page).

So from these 3 tidbits I have been able to link Mary Ann to her parents William and Lucinda and 2 siblings, Nancy and John via a census record. And have linked her to Boulder (the home of the Ballenger family in the 1860's, 70's and possibly early 1880's) and again to her sister Nancy through two newspaper articles.

So, even though I haven't "proven" anything, I do have a very basic outline and lots of questions:

Where in southern Colorado did the Milton Y. Woods family live?
Who were the 3 children that visited Boulder with their mother in 1893?
When and where did Mary Ballenger marry Milton Y. Woods.
When and where did they die?
The list goes on.

Next week we'll look into this case a little deeper.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday - A photograph Helps Solve the Question of When Nancy Died

Nancy Ballenger Robinson is my gg grandmother and one of the oldest children of William and Lucinda Ballenger, who I wrote about last week for Madness Monday. She married one of Boulder, Colorado's early pioneers and later in their lives they moved to Montana probably either with their children or to be near them. After Nancy's husband Daniel died, she stayed on in Montana, living off and on with her various children.

My goal was to obtain Nancy's date of death and place of burial. The latest record I had for her was a 1925 homestead file in Stillwater County, Montana. She was not listed in the 1930 Federal Census. It seemed logical that she might have died in Montana, so I sent off to the Montana State Vital Records Office for her death certificate (this was before the index was available online). They were able to search well before 1925 and well after 1930 but she was not in their index. Frustrated, I set her file aside.

At a later point, while looking through some of the family snapshots taken at Alki Beach in Seattle, I notice a woman who looked suspiciously similar to a photo I had of Nancy. Was she visiting her children who had moved on to Seattle? Or had she possibly moved there herself? I was able to check the Washington Death Index and there was a Nancy Robinson with a death date of 7 September 1927. I obtained her death certificate and discovered Nancy had followed 3 of her children when they moved to Seattle and had been living with her daughter Georgie Williams.

I was able to visit the cemetery where she, my great grandparents and my grandparents are buried in Seattle. Sadly, she is buried in an unmarked grave.

So now I have an end to that story and as a result of the research I did trying to find Nancy's death date, I now have names for several more faces that keep showing up in some of the family snapshots.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum

Madness Monday-William Harrison Ballenger

When I first started researching William Ballenger, I thought this would be an easy project. My mom and uncle helped me put together their side of the family when I did my pedigree chart for a junior high social studies project years ago . What they found among family papers was that William was born in 1821 in Maysville, Kentucky. He married Lucinda Cambell (or Campbell) and they had 12 children. There also was a picture of William and Lucinda taken in Boulder, Colorado which is where several other branches of the family also lived at one time.

What I most wanted to learn about William was:
1. Who his parents were.
2. Verify his birthplace. As you will see in future postings there is a big question mark on his birthplace.
3. Identify William and Lucinda Ballenger’s children and verify whether they had 12 children.

This is were easy ended. The first thing I discovered was there is no consistency, even within the family, as to how his name was spelled. I have seen Ballanger, Ballenger, Ballinger and many other variations. When I add in all of the potential spelling errors, I am ready to pull out my hair! Even one person would spell Ballenger differently over a period of time.

A logical next step was to check out the US Federal Censuses. Unfortunately, I have yet to find William in one single Federal Census over the course of his life. Through other research I have been able to put together a pretty extensive timeline of William's life. So I know pretty close, if not exactly, where he was living for the various federal censuses. What happened every year when the census taker came along? Did he and the family go into hiding? Did he come out and run the census taker off? Have I somehow missed this family every ten years due to spelling errors? I really believe the man had some "privacy" issues!

The good news is that William and his family are listed in 2 state censuses and this has turned out to be a huge help.
• 1856 - Black Oak, Mahaska County, Iowa he is listed with his wife Lucinda and their three children: Mary, Nancy and John.
• 1885 - Grand County, Colorado. William and Lucinda are listed with 6 of their children Stephen, S., Wm., M., Lewis and John. There were also two boarders in the house: John Gibbons and Henry McGuffey.

I keep holding out hope that William will eventually turn up in a federal census but I am not holding my breath. In the meantime, I keep looking for alternative sources to search and try not to let it drive me to madness.

I will be writing more on this family. I started out with a single photo of William and Lucinda, taken in Boulder, Colorado and the basic information I mentioned. From there I have been working to compile an extensive outline of the family. A photograph is a good home source to illustrate how you can take an item found in the family home (or that of another relative) and tie it in to your family history and come up with a more complete and interesting story.

Copyright 2010, Michelle Goodrum