The Year of The Buckinghams

Last year I attempted to dedicate one year to one family line (surname): The Year of Lee! This was my husband’s paternal line. Yes, I’ve thought about how much cooler this line would have been last year during the Royal Wedding events… Dang it! Lol!

I learned that even though divine intervention derailed my year, with a main goal to focus on one family line… My focus had more focus!

I discovered that when you spend a year thinking about only one line you really open yourself up for a lot of discovery. I was also finally able to go & locate various kinds of records instead of basic vitals (birth, death, census). A slow process indeed, but I learned so much!

The Lees were much fun! Though I wasn’t able to smash the brick wall down, I was able to add a little more to the story, verify family stories, & connect with another family through a lost relative ;)

So this year is The Year of Buckingham!

Over the years I’ve made a few contacts with long lost distant Buckingham cousins & using Facebook, I’ve connected with more family! Since there’s been so much interest & correspondence… I am gonna try to focus on my Buckingham line & see what we all come up with!

The Buckinghams are my maternal grandmother’s line: Darlyne Marie Buckingham, also known as “Grands”.

(See my family tab for a quick mini family tree.)

In this family we will find all kinds of stories & characters. Our “brick wall” seems to lie with my great great grandfather: Robert Edwin Buckingham, or REB as many of us refer to him. The question: “Are his parents his biological parents or does a story of English heritage hint to an unsolved mystery?”

As the weeks pass I will introduce various ancestors & stories, and hopefully you can see the process of discovery unfold.

I ask only that you feel free to share, ask questions, & help collaborate with me :) Happy New Year 2012!

Not My Frank Lee – Take 2

In the midst of potty training & the holidays, I finally got a little piece of exciting mail. I received a letter from the Mayes County (OK) Genealogy Society yesterday. A copy of the following obit & a sticky note saying they “finally got the obit”. So here reads the blurry obit…

“Frank Lee, School Land Donor, Die; Funeral Thursday

(there is no date… nice of them huh? but math says it in 1976’ish)

Frank Lee, 81, pioneer resident of Lee Square community, eleven miles

southeast of Nowata ,died Monday at 4:00 p.m. after an extended illness.

Mr. Lee came from Indian Territory in 1895 from Springfield, MO.

He was well known throughout this area, and donated the acre of land

for the building of Lee Square school, which also served as a community center

for many year. He was active in and enjoyed the local singing conventions,

many of which were held at Lee Square.

Funeral services will be conducted Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Benjamin Funeral Home,

with Rev. Harvey Hardin, pastor of First Christian Church in Chelsea, officiating.

Interment will be in the Ball Cemetery.

Survivors include the wife, Mrs. Ella Lee, of the home, three sons,

Tony Lee, Springfield, MO, Florance Lee, Beneca, MO, and Frank Lee, Bartlesville;

five daughters, Mrs. Jim McMatin, Cody’s Bluff, Mrs. Paul Milam, Bartlesville,

Mrs. F. C. Myers, MIdland, TX, Mrs. T.O. Mason, Manhattan, KS, and Mrs. Edna Grant, Wollard, MO;

one sister, Mrs. J.C. Weaver, San Gabriel, CA, and one half-brother, Guy Murray.

Casket bearers include Louis Nitters [?], Lonnie Allison, Mayden Marney,

Georger Frauenberger, Bob Cox, and Lon Myers.”

Well, I can say this is NOT our Frank Lee. Good news is that this little piece of paper saves me a lot of endless unproductive research. The above Frank Lee, buried at Ball Cemetery with his first wife Maude P[auline] Lee. The above Frank has a son Frank of Bartlesville, OK in 1976’ish who was born 1922,… our Frank Lee was born 1900 & was definitely not living in Bartlesville, OK in 1976’ish. Our times lines don’t match up at all!

The 1895 date out of “Indian Territory” jumped out at me, but they came from Springfield, MO. That isn’t what we have known to this date.

The truth is that our Neuhaus family connection moved from Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL, at the same time that their mysterious “daughter” would have been pregnant with our Frank Lee b. 1900. They would have had to have met in Milwaukee or Chicago before any move to OK.

My research now turns to the old-fashioned way of requesting death records from the Cook County Clerk. Both daughters & the wife of Emil Neuhaus died before him. There has to be a record of something somewhere… and a lot of Chicago papers to search. I also need to track down the correct marriage for our Herman Neuhaus & see if there is any living cousins that can give us a helpful hint :)

I am going to work this Lee year to the very end :D

3rd Neuhaus Child Review

I’ve been back & forth on whether or not there’s indeed a third Neuhaus child & if indeed it was a female. So here’s my process:

(As noted by a fellow genealogist over at “Are My Roots Showing?” … I might be less in need of this blog if I kept research notes… LOL!)

…………………………….

On the 1895 Wisconsin State Census, for Milwaukee, Emil Neuhaus is clearly listed as having a total of 5 family members: 3 white females & 2 white males…all native born in the US.

We clearly know their nativity is false due to further censuses stating immigration in 1885, all listed as German born on each consecutive one… And we’ve located his naturalization record also stating he was an immigrant on “1-20-1885″…

Knowing he’s a household of 5, not 4… Look at this immigration manifest again:

Who is the eldest daughter? Who!?

If you look super closely, the numbers are listed consecutively 1…2…3…4…. Clara, Henricks, Marie, & Herman.

Also the manifest is September 1884. That wasn’t a red flag for me since the boat arrived at New York, & then they made their way to Wisconsin, which probably took months…add holidays & winter weather,… & they probably didn’t think they were truly here, as “arrived” until they reached their final destination.

However, I wasted some quality hours trying to locate another possible manifest match, wondering if I jumped too quickly (I hate second questing myself)…which nothing added up like this one. (Again, yet another point clearly made if I’d only kept research notes!)

But only 4 vs. 5 caught my eye… Possibilities?

1- Clara immigrated pregnant… Had child in US… Maybe also aiding in the months it took to travel to Wisconsin… (which would make this child a very young match for our Frank Lee)…about 15-16 yoa.

2 – The extra child was a “grandchild”, a “niece”, or a “sister”….

Well, I went back to the 1900 census to see what I might have forgotten or overlooked… Apparently Clara is listed as having 3 children in which 3 are living. However, as you can see below, only the son is living at home. Where are both the girls then in 1900?

A German Printer in Chicago, IL

So we can clearly & reasonably deduct that there is indeed a third Neuhaus child & SHE is female. We can make a safe assumption she’s roughly 15-16 years of age at time of Frank Herbert Lee’s birth in 1900. We will refer to her as “Gladys” Neuhaus as listed on Frank Herbert’s marriage record in 1920.

Now to locate Gladys Neuhaus…& her untold short story…

Saturday Stalkings

Well this week was summed up by a very busy week leading into a very busy Halloween weekend! TRICK – OR – TREAT!!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

This week I stumbled upon a blog post that really hit home with me: “Stupid or Crooked?” You Decide by Arlene H. Eakles. A wonderful post about the ethical debate of using undocumented trees in a client’s report. You will see my comments. I am very opposed to undocumented trees… they really set me off :D

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana. Here is a recent news story of the truth within this quote… Removing Native American children from their native homes for the betterment of the secular ideas & beliefs…. http://m.npr.org/story/141672992?url=/2011/10/25/141672992/native-foster-care-lost-children-shattered-families

For a little fun… a little treat…. I landed upon “Where I Am From” – First found at Gena-Musings with Randy Seaver, who linked you to the original template: http://www.swva.net/fred1st/wif.htm . So here is my poem:

WHERE I AM FROM

I am from an era of high-tops, mini skirts, very pouffy hair, Nike, Lacoste, and Bugle Boy jeans.

I am from poor, old housing, where the heat was in the floor & air was in the window, where the bugs might just have carried you away when you weren’t looking, right into the many graveyards.

I am from Irises, Lilacs, and Daffodils, from home-grown gardens, and lots and lots and lots of trees nestled away in the Ozarks.

I am from Christmas being a time of “peace” amongst everyone, where coin collecting is a necessity, the women are strong and family secrets run deep on all my Holmes, Standlee, and Buckingham lines.

I am from the OCD, the ADHD, and the NDD… and any other “D” disorder.

From “Disobeying your parents is like disobeying God”, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, and “You didn’t fail, you just found a way that didn’t work.”

I am from a family of we don’t know what we are, but we believe in God… mostly. “Losing My Religion” wasn’t a song, but rather a way of life.

I’m from Harrison, Arkansas with trails into the British Colonies and Ireland, where tomatoes and potatoes are staples in all forms… especially fried!

From the legends of Indians, gold, and Union soldiers, from Sister Rosa (Ogden Buckingham) Mason, the house-mother of the Sunshine Mission of Destitute Women and Girls, and claims to the Buckingham Palace.

I am from a sum of 4 well-preserved family photos that may or may not be blood family, about 20+ three-ring binders of Family Group Sheets & artifacts, and where resetting family stories and traditions is a hobby.

Frank Elwin Elner Lee – Special Spotlight

Frank Elwin Elner Lee is ABSOLUTELY no relation to my Lee line, … Before everyone gets upset…

I found this Frank E. Lee amidst a rather large broad Ancestry.com search while of course looking for our mysterious long lost Frank Lee. When I read his 1930 census, I thought it was a great story to highlight & share, though I still have little to no details of his life.

When I found a 1930 census where he was a “partner” to an Italian dude, Domenico Zavaglia, in Alaska … Well naturally I had to take a few extra looks. Instantly in my head, “A registered gay?! They actually had it put on the census?! No… I’ve got to be looking at this wrong.. Can you imagine gay in 1930?!.” And a million other questions took over…

Clearly they weren’t business partners of any obvious note. Domenico was a Blacksmith who owned his own shop, and Frank was a Ferryman who owned his own ferry. Older in age, neither married at this current time… But this above 1930 census lists Frank as “D” for divorced. So I had to look deeper… So I did…

WWII draft registration tells us he was born 11 September 1877 in Merrill, Wisconsin. He has a relative named John P. Lee who is close enough to always know where he is, who lives in Arlington, Washington. He is 5’9.5″ and 162 lbs, blue eyes, gray hair, with a dark complexion for a white man. He has no disabilities & no reason not to serve in 1942.

Found a very sparse not well sourced family tree online at Ancestry.com (thanks costellotrisha), that states his parents were Edward Lee & Alameda Bartlett.

In 1920 he is listed as single, as in never married at age 42. So with the above information this implies that if he did indeed marry and divorce it was between 1920-1930, before the 1930 census, and before his WWII Draft registration card was created. in 1920, he was living in Cook Inlet, (later known as Talkeetna), Alaska. He is a lodger at the home of another Italian, Antonia Cascutti, along with various other lodgers. The census makes it appear to be a camp town… an area that was erected in tents, shanties, and maybe a few good buildings with many foreign lodgers… right before it becomes an “official” town.

1918 WWI Draft Registration Card clearly states his is a tall, slender, blue eyed, brown hair individual. However, this time his middle name is “Elner” and his nearest relative is “Edwin” P. Lee, not “John”… but he’s in the right place with the right job…ferryman!

WWI Draft Registration Card

After this point, it becomes pure speculation as to his life between his parents & the time he lands in Alaska. After much research I can’t place him any where solid… except a possible listing in 1910 in the Seattle area, King Co., Washington… listed with John & Edward Lee all born in the US, with parents born in the US. They were laborers at the logging camp. However, John & Edward aren’t listed on the 1880 Census with the family since they were both younger, and without the immediate 1890 census we can only speculate who they are. the 1900 census implies that the 1910 Frank Lee in Seattle area is not the same as Frank Edwin Elner Lee, since the 1900 Frank E Lee was born Dec. 1876 in WI, both parents born in WI, and a locomotive foreman. He is however, still single at the age of 23 in 1900.

With the help of google & wikipedia I learned of my own ignorance on the LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) movement, and I learned that in the early 1900’s there was the first defense for gays in the US. By the 1920’s-1930’s openly gay was acceptable in the culture with “Pansy Clubs”, magazines, films, and other forms of entertainments. However this only lasted until 1935. This kind of acceptance wasn’t revitalized until the 1960’s-1970’s.

I can only imagine how hard it was for a man living in these times…. Can you imagine losing more of your freedoms after spending most of your life in a semi-free to be gay America? I have no idea if it was a “gay” marriage that Frank Elwin Elner Lee might have taken part in between 1920-1930, but I can say it was being tried & tested as much as interracial marriage was during that time.. something today’s gay issues never seem to recall.

(Disclaimer: I am not a gay marriage supporter, but as a Christian, a historian, a genealogist, a mother, a sister, a friend… I still respect & love my fellow neighbors & family no matter their choices in life as Christ does. Gay doesn’t make a man/woman an alien, an “object”, or remove them from humanity.)

Saturday’s Stalkings

Saturday’s Stalkings instead of Friday’s Followings because, let’s face it… I am playing catch up well into Friday night :D So here I am, trying to get back into the swing of things & enjoy more of the genealogy realm… This week I really enjoyed these posts & findings and I hope you do too!

My friend Jen, over at “Climbing My Family Tree“,  has a good post this last week about her Grandmother, A Glimpse into my Grandma’s life: 1941. What an amazing treasure she received & shared with everyone. Her grandma seemingly had a great summer in 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and before WWII was made real for everyone in America.

10 Signs You Have Genealogy OCD – “Randy Seaver, of Genea-Musings, posted his SNGF via Michael John Neill’s RootDigpost, 10 Signs You Have Genealogy OCD, and asked fellow geneabloggers to post their own 10 Signs of Genealogy OCD” as Wendy Littrell states on her blog, “All My Branches”. I loved hers! They are totally me too :D

Landed on The Genealogue & was rolling in laughter. Chris claims to be an “unprofessional genealogist”… I am sure due to his sarcasm & satire.. Not sure what happened to Chris after April 2010, but all his older posts are worth a read.

Great simple well stated & straight to the point, Genealogy Tip of The Day, “Errors can be clues” was a great “AHA!” moment for me. Like, “Oh, yeah… duh! Now I need to look at a few things differently!”

I have only bumped into Tami online here through genealogy, but her blog, Finding Family Stories, is riveting! She doesn’t post every day or even regularly, but when she does… you can’t stop reading!

 

I have nothing planned this weekend, but I am positive it won’t be a still one. Hope you all have a great weekend!

You’re What?!

With a degree in Sociology & YEARS of research I’ve concluded a new unprecedented, undocumented, & completely unethical hypothesis:

If we tell enough generations that they’re “Indian” (feathers not dots), then “they” (tribes) can’t deny our claims.

Right?

Umm, OK….

I’ve been chasing Native American lineage “stories” for years now, well against any interests of mine, on many sides & branches of my family to instead find everything else: English, German, African American, Welch, Irish, Swedish,….

I can’t place exactly where the stories originated for these claims, but some go so far back that breaking away from the story would make me the liar & a rebel breaking “family” tradition.

However, I calmly keep beating the paper trail and still come up with negative results for these Native American claims,…just as they have.

So if the proof is in the evidence, then why are they still all holding so tightly to these “false” claims? And where’s their positive evidence for their claims?

My other unprecedented, undocumented, & unethical theory is that there came a time when the US government was trying to make amends for the brutal & unfair treatment of Native Americans by what appeared to be “free land, money, food, & other wealth.” (Of course after years of being persecuted that many true Native Americans denied their heritage to prevent further loss, hardship, & turmoil due to a major lack of trust in US government.) Thus many families living near these tribes (in Oklahoma, AR, KS, etc) struggling to make ends meet thought they could fool the tribes & the government into also receiving these “benefits”. So began these twisted claims that aren’t true…

By no means do I judge. I rather try only to imagine how desperate someone had to feel to try this approach, for it was tricky & if any results occurred, would take years to materialize.

And here we are years later, where “false” claims seem to be some of the family’s ghosts.

I don’t deny that my family branches don’t have a few with true Native American blood, but not on a direct line to my immediate family & 1st cousins. Respecting a people whose way of life that was destroyed & rebutted, is very honorable. Admiring it & wanting to have something unique & special is also human nature… Respecting a people, who to this very day, try with every inch of their being to hold on to the last remaining elements of their culture is also very honorable. Trying to claim it as your own under all false pretenses…is stealing!

Can we stop with the myths & focus on the truth…the evidence & for the love of Puff the Magic Dragon… Prove me wrong!

USS Lansdale & The Lee Brothers

Clarence Herbert (C.H.) & Frank Lee, sons of Frank Herbert & Mardell (Beamer) Lee, both joined the Navy just in time for World War II.

After finding many references to their military careers in the Mansfield News (Ohio), I was curious what ship they served on together….

I discovered that it was the USS Lansdale. C.H. had been a crew member of the Lansdale since the date of commissioning, as according to many muster roll lists on Ancestry.com. I found a later muster list showing them both aboard the USS Lansdale on 31 December 1941:

Clarence H. & Frank R. Lee crewmen of the USS Lansdale 31 Dec 1941

Later I found a reference to them both still aboard the USS Lansdale, by the nature of their muster rolls found at Ancestry.com, in a clipping from the Mansfield News Journal for the marriage of C.H. Lee, 7 August 1942 :)

USS Lansdale, DD-426 (as pictured below) :

USS Lansdale (DD-426) off the New York Navy Yard, 22 October 1943. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo #: NH 107272.

Photo of USS Lansdale found in C.H.'s stuff

As according the many cited sources & papers, the USS Lansdale was indeed in yard for a period of time between escorts in 1943 in which Mr. Burkett went to New York to visit her son, C.H. Lee who remained still aboard the USS Lansdale…

(NOTE: the informant wasn’t correct on “his” assumption of last names due to Mrs. Burkett’s second marriage… but other clippings clarify it is indeed the correct connection based on her residence location.) 

There was a brief time when they were both enlisted in which they could still serve together, before the loss of the Sullivan brothers… 5 brothers aboard the same vessel that was sunk in 1942. The loss of all five brothers on one ship moved the Navy from allowing brothers to serve on the same vessel again. Due to these new rules, Frank & C.H. were split up. Since C.H. was a “plank owner”, he remained with the USS Lansdale while Frank was reassigned.

Which explains why “Mrs. Carl Burkett” only went to see one son in 1943 & not both when the USS Lansdale was pulled into New York’s port.

C.H. remained aboard the USS Lansdale until late 1943, just before it was sank in 1944 by German planes. One family story holds a drunk night in a bar where he swears he was on it when it sank,… who knows. His muster rolls found on Ancestry.com show him reassigned to the USS Anteaus in August 1943, & then the USS DeLong in late 1943 and 1944, and the USS Kline in 1944-1946.

Ancestry Is NOT A Golden Source

… or even a primary source.

As I am learning more & more each day, Ancestry seems to fall short for many reasons, and it really cuts deep knowing that so much information is being misused & mislead to those thousands looking for their roots. Ancestry is simple a “helping tool” not a “source”.

“What did they do this time?”, you ask.

I was surfing Amazon with my great ninja skills & came across Ancestry’s paperback publication of “The Standlee Name In History”. I, of course, bought the book with no real expectations, but with a little hope that might guide my research on the “Standlee” line of mine.

I was highly disappointed! First off, it was a book mostly in the trends & history of general immigration with a few little “Standlee” facts thrown in along the way…. but their facts don’t match my research. I instantly thought, “Am I wrong? Did I miss a huge step or ancestor in my research?”

The answer of course is, “NO! My research is solid.” Their research however, is lacking in great detail a lot of DETAILS! Say, maybe,… just maybe… there’s an entire “other” Standlee line that was over looked… MY Standlee line!

It started for me with their statement that most Standlee (Standley, Standly, etc.) immigrants were from Germany. “Wait? What? Who’s from Germany? What Standlee is from Germany?” No one in MY Standlee line has ever heard of a “German” connection. So my red flag was thrown & I started really reading & absorbing the details as they followed (or didn’t follow).

Then they made a bold statement that in 1840 only 6 Standlee families resided in Arkansas: 3 in St. Francis County & 3 in Greene County. Umm… however, that is not correct. As you can clearly see below, in 1840 below is three Standlee Households of the many “Standlee” families living in Sugar Loaf, Carroll County, AR. Why didn’t Ancestry count them in their research? (Not helping in making my lineage more justified in their poor attitudes towards genealogy & Ancestry… )

They didn’t even start to count MY Standlee’s until the 1900’s & even then they are missing a few in their stats.

This book made it appear that the Standlee family that Arkansas holds dear to their history & was located in St. Francis & Greene Counties (central Arkansas) were the only Standlee’s to be in state & the only ones worth recognition.

It wasn’t until the end of the book that two things happened: 1 – they started looking at the England-Wales Standlee names in their history & 2- they proved my entire research as valid to the point that there is NO connection with the “central Arkansas Standlees”.

They Did It How?

Today I started out mowing my own lawn for the first time in 2+ years. I had a toddler streaking behind me, random baby snakes that kept getting caught with the mower, earned some blisters, and my feet & hands were green… When I decided I wasn’t cut out for lawn mowing any more & quit.

Now I can appreciate a good workout….

So then I went into my big modern kitchen & started making zucchini bread from scratch (using veggies from my garden)… I’m pretty sure my right arm is now 10 times stronger than my left as I don’t currently own a mixer.

As I’m standing there reflecting at noon how my day has gone I found myself wondering how our ancestors got up & did this kind of manual labor every day!! And how lazy have we gotten? No wonder disease is so rampant amongst our culture today.