Category Archives: Investigations

“Aortic insufficiency is a heart valve disease in which the aortic valve does not close tightly. This allows blood to flow from the aorta (the largest blood vessel) into the left ventricle (a chamber of the heart).”

The same article says that rheumatic fever was the main cause of aortic insufficiency in the past. Also that diagnosis was made by hearing a heart murmur and the patient having other symptoms.

This is a copy of Thomas Allen’s death certificate from his pension file. Before I received the file, I found his death certificate on ancestry.com. Finding his mother’s name to be “Clara Green” made me realize that he was my great grandmother Anna’s brother and that is the reason I sent for the Pension File.

Foster Ray – Slaveholder

April 7, 2017A-Z Challenge 2017, African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Investigations, KentuckyThomas AllenKristin

Click to enlarge. Thomas Ray Allen gave this testimony two months before his death.

I had never heard the name of Foster Ray before reading it in my 2X great uncle Thomas Ray Allen’s military papers. Foster Ray was born in Washington County Kentucky in 1796, the second son of Nicholas Ray Sr. and his wife Susan Sheckles. They were a large family with seven or eight children. In the 1820 census he was 24 years old and was the only person in his household. He had no slaves and was engaged in manufactures.

Foster married Marietta Phillips in 1829. In the 1830 census he was enumerated in Lebanon, KY. There were 9 people in his household. That included 4 enslaved. In 1837 he received a land grant for 50 acres in the recently organized Marion County. The new county included Lebanon and other parts formerly of Washington County. In 1840 Foster’s brother Nicholas died and his son Hugh Ray came to live with Foster, who seems to have had no children. In the 1840 census the household included three free white people – Foster, Marietta and Hugh, who was about five years old. There were also five enslaved which included one male under 10; one male and one female between 10 and 23 and two females between 24 and 35.

In 1850 when Thomas would have been about 2 years old, Foster Ray was enumerated in Hannibal Missouri. He was lodging at the Brady House with his wife and nephew. His occupation was listed as “Pork Packer” with real estate valued at $12,000. Hugh was attending school. There were 38 people staying at the Brady. This included nine families. This is the first census where slaves were enumerated separately. One fourteen year old girl was counted for Foster Ray. He had land in Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois. Thomas would have been about two and living back in Kentucky on Foster’s land there. I could find no list of his enslaved there.

In the 1860 census, Foster was enumerated in Lebanon, Kentucky again. He was 62, his wife Marietta was 47, Hugh was 24. They were all literate. Ninety year old Nancy Ray, black, was enumerated with the family. Had she been freed? Was it a mistake? I don’t know. She was illiterate.

Foster’s occupation was “farmer” with real estate worth $120,000 and a personal worth of $100,000. In 2015 dollars, this would come to over six million dollars. He owned 28 slaves between the ages of six months and sixty years. My uncle Thomas Ray Allen, now about 12 was among them. No names are given for the enslaved, so I can only guess. Hugh was a clerk with real estate worth $700 and personal worth of $24,000. He owned one 64 year old male.

Foster Ray’s and Hugh’s list of enslaved. Because there are no names, I can only guess that the 12 year old mulatto male I highlighted is Thomas Ray Allen.

Foster Ray died on January 15, 1863. He wrote a will and left everything, his lands and slaves and all to his wife Marietta Phillips Ray and his nephew Hugh B. Ray. Unfortunately for me, because he left his estate in order, there was no list of those enslaved on his plantation.

Thomas Ray Allen joined the United States Colored Calvary two years later. He considered that Foster Ray was the only slave owner he had.

Boulé

February 13, 2016Cleages, Investigations, Photographs, sepia saturdayKristin

Here are 6 young women at a Boulé event back in the 1940s in or outside of Detroit. Two of my aunts are in the picture. Barbara Cleage is front and center with a light dress and jacket. At the end of the line is my aunt Anna Cleage who seems to be wearing trousers. Unfortunately the photo was unlabeled and I do not know the names of the others. I recognized the woman on the far right as one in the background photograph of the photograph of my grandfather, Albert B. Cleage Sr with a camera. Sheryl asked last week what sort of even my grandfather was attending. It made me go back and look at the background in the photo below and then look for photographs that appear to have been taken on the same day. You can read an post from 2012 about the Boulé at this link.

My grandfather Albert B. Cleage with his camera. In the background we see the young woman with her hand on her hip and the dark dress, from the first photo above. The woman closer to us in the striped outfit, carrying a big purse, appears in the bleachers (which we see in the background here) in the photo below.

The 4th woman from the right, first row, is in the photo with my grandfather to his left. Above her head, on the top row are some of the young women from the first photo above.

First a photo of the men, then one of the women. Or vice versa. Who is that on the second row taking a photograph of the photographer? Front row center is Cornelius Henderson, engineer who graduated from the University of Michigan and helped design the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor.

Cornelius L. Henderson

boule event 1940s 4 — My grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage facing front, second woman to the right in the second row

My grandmother second bench, 2nd from right. My aunt Anna (from the photo of the lovelies) can be seen behind the lady first in my grandmother’s row. My aunt Barbara is 1 person over from Anna. You can see the woman in the striped dress in the first photograph lineup. Toward the left side, top row, you can see another young woman from the first photo.I do not see any family members but do notice the men and women are sitting together in this one. I wonder how the man in front lost his leg.

Sepia Saturday 317 Header — For more SepiaSaturday, click!

Do the Women Who Have Babies After 33 In My Family, Live Longer?

July 10, 2014InvestigationsKristin

Women Who Have Babies After 33 Live Longer “…women who had their last child after the age of 33 doubled their chances of living to age 95 or older compared with women whose last child was born before their 30th birthday…The natural ability to have a child at an older age likely indicates that a woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly, and therefore so is the rest of her body,’ said Perls.”

Thia made me take a look at my family tree to see the age of mother’s at the birth of their last child and how long they lived.

Maternal side

My 2 X great grandmother Eliza Williams Allen (1839 – 1917) gave birth to her youngest child when she was 40. Eliza died 78.

Eliza’s daughters:

Mary Allen McCall (1856-1937) gave birth to her youngest at 38. Mary died at 81.

My great grandmother Jennie Virginia Allen Turner (1866 – 1954) gave birth to her youngest at 42. Jennie died at 88.

Willie Lee Allen Tulane (1873-1954) gave birth to her youngest child at 27. She died at 80.

Abbie Allen Brown (1876-1966) gave birth to her youngest child at 21. She died at 89.

Beulah Allen Pope (1879 – 1962) gave birth to her youngest child at 31. She died at 77.

My grandmother Fannie Turner Graham (1888 – 1974) gave birth to her youngest child, at 40. Fannie died at 87.

Her daughters

Mary Virginia Graham Elkins (1920-2009) gave birth to her youngest child at 34. She died at 89.

My mother, Doris Graham Cleage (1923-1982) gave birth to her youngest child at 25. She died at 59.

Paternal side

My great grandmother Anna Allen Reed (1849 – 1910) gave birth to her youngest child at 37. She died at 62.

Her daughters

Sarah Reed Busby (1870 – 1954) gave birth to her youngest child at 44. She died at 83.

Louise Reed Shoemaker (1873 – 1938) gave birth to her youngest at 31. She died at 64.

Minnie Reed Mullins (1878-1963) gave birth to her youngest child at 43. She died at 84.

*My grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage (1886-1982) gave birth to her youngest child at 39. She died at 96.

Pearl’s daughters

*Barbara Cleage Martin (1920 – still living) gave birth to her youngest at 31. She is 94.

* Gladys Cleage Evans (1922- still living) gave birth to her youngest at 37. She is 92.

Anna Cleage Shreve (1925-2013) gave birth to her youngest child at 37. She died at 88.

My great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman (1855-abt 1931) gave birth to her youngest child at 28. She died at 76.

Her daughter Josephine Cleage (1873-1956) gave birth to her youngest child at 36. She died at 82.

_________

Of the 19 women in my study, 13 had children beyond the age of 33. Two of the 12 lived beyond 90. My grandmother is the only one who lived past 94. She lived to 96. One, Gladys is 92 and still living.

4 of the women gave birth to their youngest child in their 20s.

6 of the 17 did not have children after 33. 1 of the 5 lived beyond 90, she is 94 and still living.

I guess I should do a graph using this information. Maybe tomorrow.

Cleages In Black and White

January 6, 2014African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Cleages, Investigations#slaveryKristin

Several days ago, I found the will of Alexander Cleage, which mentioned my Cleage Ancestors: Frank, Juda and Lewis Cleage by name, as he willed them to his wife. After finding the will, I did two things. First, I went back through the other documents I have concerning the white Cleages and slavery. I found a bill of sale wherein David Cleage and his sister Elizabeth sold some of their inherited slaves (including my great-great grandfather, Frank) to Alexander. I had believed that my family went from Samuel Cleage to son David, and remained with him, after Samuel’s death. This cleared that up.

Next, I set up a tree for the white Cleages on Ancestry.com. Through the shakey leaves I found another will. This one for Elijah Hurst, father of Alexander’s wife Jemima Hurst Cleage. In the will, Elijah deeds Jemima my great-great grandmother, Juda, who (along with several other slaves) he had already given her when she married. There was a wealth of information and documentation available on Ancestry which I am going through now.

After going through those documents, I will modify the timelines I have for Frank and Juda Cleage. I am also going to be looking for traditions surrounding giving ones daughter a couple of slaves to take with her when she married. This is the second case of that I have found in my family. My great great grandmother Eliza was given to Edmund Harrison’s daughter Martha Harrison, when she married Milton Saffold.

This is the year that I plan to devote some real time to writing up my family history. More about that later.

Article of Agreement Between Samuel Cleage and Overseer – 1834

Cleage Bricks

The Will – 1860

Merrie Christmas and Happy New Year

December 14, 2013Christmas, Grahams, Investigations, Montgomery Alabama, One Place StudyKristin

A Christmas card from my Grandparent’s ( Mershell and Fannie Graham) collection, date unknown. I read on a post by Pauline on Family History Across the Seas about the people who sent Christmas Cards. It started me thinking about the cards I had from my grandparents collection with photographs of people I only knew were friends of the family, but nothing else about them. I wondered what I could find out. I picked this one out because, unlike some of the others, it had a name and a street address, although there was no date and no city. My grandparents lived in Montgomery, AL before moving to Detroit in 1919, so I started there. Here is what I learned from the census and Montgomery Directory about Addie Smith.

Addie Smith "Ma Smith" — Addie Smith “Ma Smith” is written on the shingles near her face level.

"Merrie chtsmas and happy New Year. Your Addie Smith 105 Hutchinson St." — “Merrie Christmas and happy New Year. Addie Smith 105 Hutchinson St.” My mother wrote “Don’t know date- friend”

Addie was born in 1869 in South Carolina to parents also born in South Carolina. In 1888, (the year my grandmother was born), Addie married Fountain Smith, a laborer about 14 years her senior. This was her first marriage. Fountain may have been married before. They had no children.

By 1906 Fountain and Addie were living at 105 Hutchinson Street in Montgomery. She would live in this rented house for the rest of her life. A Fountain Smith filed for bankruptcy in 1906. Over the years Addie Smith worked as a char woman/janitress in the Post Office. She may have also worked in that capacity in other public buildings.

At 53 years old, on October 26 in 1922, Addie Smith died. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery. Fountain lived another 8 years, dying on November 3, 1930. He would have been about 62. Because Addie died in 1922 and my grandparents moved to Detroit in 1919, I am guessing that this card was sent in 1920.

Fannie and Mershell soon after their marriage in 1919. — My grandparents Fannie and Mershell Graham soon after their marriage in 1919.

Looking at a map of the 4th Ward in Montgomery in I found that Hutchinson street no longer had houses below #800, However, my great Uncle Victor Tulane had a grocery store at Ripley and High street. My grandmother Fannie managed the store for a number of years before her marriage. This store would have been several blocks from Addie and Fountain Smith’s house. I am supposing that this is how they met.

Timeline – 1948 Happy Birthday Pearl!

December 8, 2013Investigations#Pearl CleageKristin

I decided to make a collage of happenings in 1948, the year my sister Pearl was born. The most surprising thing was how many of our very favorite Little Golden books came out that year. I don’t know what my mother was reading to me before 1948!

Seven Generations of L3e3b – My Mtdna

May 13, 2013Allen, DNA - Genetics, Investigations#Elizas descendantsKristin

This chart is adapted from the 23andMe website.

The mtdna that I received from my mother, who received it from her mother and on back to the beginning lost in the mists, is L3e3b. I have been told that I share this haplo group of L3e3b with the Mende people of Sierra Leone. You can read more in this post Stolen from Africa – Fearless Females.

Annie Williams is the first woman in this ancestral line that I can name. She was born about 1820 in Virginia. Her daughter, Eliza Williams Allen (who is the Eliza this blog is named after) and all of her children were born in Alabama. Eliza passed her mtdna to her 13 children. 5 died before adulthood. 2 were sons. Of her 6 daughters, I wondered, how many had daughters who had daughters, who had daughters?

eliza_dna — Photographs and word cloud with names of all the known female descendents of Annie Williams.

Mary Allen McCall had 6 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters survived to adulthood. Two, Jeanette McCall McEwen and Alma Otilla McCall Howard, had sons only. Annabell McCall Martin had 7 children. 3 were sons and 3, daughters, Anna Marie Martin, Geneva Martin and Thelma Martin. So far I have been unable to trace them beyond the 1940 census in Detroit when they were unmarried, childless, teenagers, so I don’t know if they had daughters.

Anna Allen (oval picture) had no children.

Below Anna is Beulah Allen Pope who had 2 sons and 1 daughter. Her daughter, Annie Lee Pope Gilmer, had 1 son.

Willie Lee Allen Tulane had 3 daughters. Only 1, Naomi, survived to adulthood. Naomi Tulane Vincent had three daughters – Sylvia, Jacqui and Barbara. Sylvia and Barbara did not have any children. Jacqui had 2 sons.

Abbie Allen Brown had 2 sons.

My great grandmother, Jennie Virginia had three daughters. Daisy and Alice had no children. My grandmother, Fannie, had 4 children. Her 2 sons died in childhood. Her 2 daughters, my aunt Mary V. had 3 daughters. Barbara and Marilyn both had sons only. Dee Dee’s one daughter, Maricea, has no children.

My mother, Doris, had 2 daughters. I (Kristin) have 2 sons and 4 daughters. Jilo has 1 son and 2 daughters. Ife has 1 son and 1 daughter. Ayanna has no children. Tulani has 1 daughter. All of their daughters are still children. My sister Pearl had 1 daughter. Deignan has 1 son and 3 daughters, all still children.

I have the mtdna haplo group from my father’s mother and for my grandfather Cleage’s mother. I will be writing them up soon. I will also be writing about my total dna findings. Unfortunately, there are no men in my direct line alive to test for the Ydna.

B is for Buford Avritt

April 2, 2013A-Z Challenge 2013, InvestigationsKristin

This is my second post for the April A-Z Challenge. I will be blogging everyday using the letters of the alphabet as a prompt. Today I am going to write about one of my great grandfather’s – Beauford Edmund Avritt.

Beauford Avritt was my father’s mother’s father. I wrote about her mother, Anna, yesterday. There were few stories passed down about Beauford Avritt in my family. I was told that he was my grandmother’s father, and that he was a “doctor of English extraction”, but advised not to never mention this to her. My uncles and aunts told me that at some point Anna and her family were having a difficult time and the older sons went to ask him for help. His reply was “I know nothing about you people.” My father once mentioned that his own father had not had a middle name and as an adult took the name “Buford” out of respect to Beauford Avritt. I thought that was pretty strange, given the story that I had heard over the years of knowing nothing about you people. When I mentioned this to my Aunt Gladys, she said that wasn’t how her father got his middle name. She said that he picked it on his way to Medical school when they passed a town called Buford, before he met my grandmother.

I learned from cousins on my grandmother’s side that my grandmother’s older sister, Minnie, had the middle name of Avritt. Recently I learned that her brother Hugh had gone to California with his family and changed his name to Averrette. The story about the father of Anna’s four younger children being Beauford Avritt’s was also told in other branches of the family.

For a long time I didn’t claim Beauford Avritt and avoided doing any research beyond the basics. Since he didn’t want to know anything about my grandmother and her siblings, I didn’t care to look for anything about him. After finding Hugh’s family, I became interested in spite of myself. I found the details of his life in various places online. It is from these that I wrote this post. I don’t have any photographs of Beauford Avritt. I was hopeful today, when I found the archives of the University of Louisville School of Medicine, but so far no luck. I have written them and I’m still hopeful that one will turn up.

Beauford Edmond Avritt was the second of the nine children of John and Elizabeth Marshall Tucker Avritt. He was born July 21, 1839. His father was a farmer. The 1840 census is the only one I have found that shows the family owning a slave. There was one female slave under the age of 1 counted with the family.

John and Elizabeth were literate and Beauford and his siblings attended school and were educated. Several of his brothers were farmers, two were lawyers and Beauford was a physician. He attended the Kentucky School of Medicine, completing in 1866 and University of Louisville, finishing in 1873.He worked treating the sick during the Cholera Epidemic of 1873. It started at the Marion County Fair in Lebanon and was spread through people coming to and from the fair. Here is a report made about a case of his during the epidemic from; MARION COUNTY. – NARRATIVE OF THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873.

“Case 2- Reported by B.E. Avritt, M.D. of Lebanon, KY. – Cholera – Second stage – Recovery.

Charles, a negro (sic) age 35 years, single, after a few hours of diarrhea, was attacked with vomiting and purging, attended with excessive prostration. Cramps of hands and feet were rapidly developed. The discharges assumed the rice-water character. Skin of fingers and toes was shriveled. he was first seen by Doctor Cleaver at 6 o’clock p.m. of September 10. The patient was in an old shanty, without any of the comforts of a sick-room. Some one had made up a bed for him, but at the time of the visit he was alone. He was placed upon full dose of opium, calomel and bismuth, and Doctor Avritt was asked to take charge of the case.

At 7 o’clock p.m., Doctor Avritt exhibited a full dose of chloroform; continued the powders. At 8 o’clock p.m. the chloroform was repeated, and quinine, gr. ij, was added to the powder already noted. Finding it impossible to obtain any nurse for this man, Dr. Avritt made him as comfortable as the circumstances would admit; placed by the side of his bed a bucket of ice-water and a glass, and visited him as often as possible during the night. The vomiting and purging continued during the night, but at lengthening intervals, and as water from the tumbler did not satisfy him, he drank from the bucket as long as he could tilt it to his mouth. During the night he drank all the water that was provided. At 6 o’clock a.m., September 11, surface of his body was not so intensely cold, a slight pulse, no vomiting or purging; by noon was fully reacted and on the 13 was able to sit up.”

Beauford never married and as far as I know had no other children. In 1880 he shared his home in Gravel Switch, Marion County, Kentucky, with a store clerk, C.C. Mines. In 1900 he lived with a widowed relative. In 1910 and 1920, at 80, he lived alone in Bradfordsville with family living next door and down the street. The distance between Bradfordsville and Lebanon is about 9 miles. The distance between Gravel Switch and Lebanon is 11.9 miles.

On July 7, 1926, Beauford Avritt died of “senility”. I have sent for his death certificate but have not received it yet. He is buried in Ryder Cemetery in Lebanon, Kentucky. Perhaps one day we will have DNA which will prove this relationship.

Note: DNA has provided proof in the form of DNA ties to descendants of other Avritts.

Moving Day Springfield to Detroit 1951, Revisited

March 4, 2013Biography, Cleages, Investigations, sepia saturday#me, #Pearl Cleage, #SpringfieldKristin

Back in November of 2011 I wrote Moving – Springfield to Detroit 1951 for Sepia Saturday 102. I mentioned that I remembered the little girls in the photograph, but I couldn’t remember their names. Well, I found them!

movingday02 — Moving day (note the boxed up stuff behind me) L to R: Kristin (me), Lynn, Sherrie, Pearl and in the back is Mrs. Johnson. I still have the rocking chair back there.

movingday — Left to right – Kristin (me), Lynn, Sherrie and Pearl

During February, I was working on a post about turtles I have owned, when I came across the photograph below.

Funds_us_1952 — Mr. and Mrs. Funn with me (Kristin) in front and my mother in the middle holding sister Pearl.

I recognized them as the Funns and realized that the other man’s name that I remembered from Springfield, “Lindsey”,must be the name of the father of the girls in the photographs. How could I find the last name? I decided to Google “Lindsey St. John’s Congregational Church, Springfield, MA”. The first item that came up gave me his last name, Johnson. I Googled “Lindsey Johnson, Springfield, MA” and came up with several articles. This was them! Sherrie was the oldest daughter, the one who poured milk in my dinner on that day so long ago. Below are some of the articles I found and some photographs of the Johnsons and also an article about Mr. Funn. Goggle and newspapers – it’s hard to beat them sometimes.

Lindsey_Johnson_collage — Articles about Lindsey Johnson and family. The house they talk about is the one I visited with my father in the winter 1968. Click to enlarge and read.

2013.02W.24 — To see more posts about boxes and other things, click!

Finding Eliza