My maternal grandfather, Mershell Cunningham Graham was born about 1887 in Coosada Station, Elmore County, Alabama. He was the fourth of six children. His parents farmed. His maternal grandmother lived in Elmore county, but she doesn’t appear in any records after the 1880 census so she was possibly dead before he was born. His maternal grandfather was the slave holder and he died in 1860, well before Mershell was born. Mershell’s father, William Graham, doesn’t appear with his parents, so I don’t know who they were, much less if they lived nearby and were alive when my grandfather Mershell was.
Albert B. Cleage Sr.
My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, was born in 1884, the youngest of five children. His father, Louis Cleage was share cropping in Loudin, Tennessee. After Louis Cleage and his wife Celia Rice Cleage, divorced, she moved back to Athens where her mother Susan Rice Regan lived. Susan lived until 1911 when my grandfather would have been grown. I am sure that he knew her.Susan and al of her children had been enslaved on a Rice plantation south of Athens. Celia’s father was an unknown slave holder by name of Rice and I’m sure that my grandfather never met him. Albert B. Cleage’s paternal grandparents were Frank and Juda Cleage. They were enslaved on Alexander Cleage’s plantation in Athens, Tennessee. They do not appear in any records after the 1870 census. According to the testimony of Adeline Sherman in the pension case of Katie Cleage, Frank and Juda died before 1890, when she gave testimony. I doubt that they they lived long enough for my grandfather to meet them.
Pearl Doris Reed 1904
My paternal grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed, the youngest of eight children, was born about 1886 in Lebanon, Kentucky. Her mother Annie Allen Reed and her maternal grandmother, Clara Hoskins Green, lived near each other. Clara died after 1880. Annie’s father is listed as Robert Allen. I cannot find a Robert Allen in their area. Pearl probably would have met Clara if she lived until the 1890s. Annie and her children moved to Indianapolis, Indiana about 1891 when Annie and her oldest son George appear in the city directory. Pearl was about five years old. Her father Buford Avritt was a white doctor who, according to oral history, did not support the family in their time of need. I was warned never to mention his name to my grandmother. I’m sure she never met her paternal grandparents.
You can read about my maternal grandmother and her grandparents at this ink -> when it goes up
Albert B. Cleage was born in Tennessee in 1884. He moved to Indianapolis, IN in 1909 to attend Medical School. There he met and married Pearl Reed, who was born in Kentucky and came to Indianapolis as a small child. Soon after the birth of my father in 1911, the family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where my grandfather became the first black physician. After several years, they moved to Detroit.
The Cleages and friends at Idlewild, Michigan 1925. Three of the children are not in the photo – Louis, Hugh and baby Anna. Cannot identify the others.
In 1920 they bought a large brick house on the corner of Scotten and Moore Place on Detroit’s Old Westside. By 1925 they were the parents of seven children, my father Albert (14), Louis (12), Henry (9), Hugh (7), Barbara (5) Gladys (3), and baby Anna born in January of that year.
Family home 1920-1948. 6429 Scotten Avenue. Detroit, Michigan.
My grandfather’s medical office was several blocks away at 4334 McGraw. He and Dr. Grimes, a dentist, shared the space. My grandmother had plenty to do at home with seven children and didn’t work outside the home after she married.
Dr. Cleage shared an office with in the house above in 1925.
Dr. Grimes and Dr. Cleage on the office steps
Pearl and AnnaHugh, Barbara, Gladys and Albert Cleage. 1925LouisHughAlbert and AnnaHenry, Albert Jr, Albert Sr, Gladys
Eighth grade class at Wingert Elementary School. My father is second from left, front row. 1924
My father, Albert Jr with his eighth grade class at Wingert Elementary school. The school was a block from their house. Henry, Hugh, Louis and Barbara were also students at Wingert in 1925.
Two of Albert’s siblings, Jacob and Henry, and their families plus his mother Celia were also living in Detroit by 1925. They lived within walking distance of each other. My great grandmother Celia lived with my grandfather. His sister Josephine still lived in Indianapolis. His brother Ed remained in Athens, Tennessee and died there the following year.
They were members of St. John’s Presbyterian church, where Albert and Pearl had been founding members. They had a car which Albert used for work. They took trips both in Michigan and to Indianapolis and Athens to visit family.
I haven’t participated Saturday Night Genealogy Fun lately but I came across this one and it seemed interesting so here is a tally of my 1st cousins, 2nd cousins and several degrees of removed cousins. I am several weeks late but you can find the original challenge at the link above.
1) Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.
My Paternal Side
The Cleage family about 1930 in front of their house on Scotten. From L to R Henry, Louis, (My grandmother) Pearl, Barbara, Hugh, Gladys, Anna, Albert Jr (My father) and (My grandfather) Albert Sr.
My father had 6 siblings.
His three brothers had no children. His oldest sister had one son. His second sister had four children. His youngest sister had two daughters. I have seven first cousins on this side.
My sister Pearl in the blue. Cousin Jan in the red. Behind Jan, Warren. Front right, Dale. Behind Dale, Ernie and behind him, me. About 1958.
Front are my other 3 cousins. In zipped coat on left, Maria. Center, Blair. On right, Anna. Aunts & uncles in background.
Warren has two daughters. They have a total of seven children.
Jan has three daughters and one son. They have a total of five children.
Ernest has two children. No grandchildren.
Anna has four children and three grandchildren.
Maria has two children. No grandchildren.
Dale has one child. Unknown number of grandchildren.
I have 14 first cousins once removed on this side and 15 cousins twice removed here.
My Maternal Side
Mershell holding my mother Doris, Fannie Graham in front Mershell Jr. and Mary Virginia. 1927
My mother had three siblings. Both of her brothers died as children. Her sister had 3 daughters.
My mother Doris & her sister Mary V with their children – Cousins Dee Dee, Barbara & Marilyn with dark hair. Sister Pearl and myself with braids.
Dee Dee has three children. They have eight children.
Barbara has two children. They have five children.
Marilyn has one son, who has two children.
I have three first cousins on this side, six cousins once removed and 15 cousins twice removed.
This makes a grand total for me of ten first cousins, 22 first cousins once removed and 24 cousins twice removed.
2) Extra Credit: Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins once removed you have.
Second Cousins are the children of your parent’s 1st cousin and the grandchildren of your grandparent’s siblings (your granduncles/grandaunts).
Howard and Jennie (Allen) Turner – Maternal great grandparents
My maternal grandmother had two sisters. Neither of them married or had children.
Fannie, Jennie (mother) Alice. Daisy standing.
William and Mary (Jackson) Graham – Paternal Great grandparents.
My maternal grandfather’s sister Annie Graham
Annie Graham’s children.
My maternal grandfather, Mershell Graham, had four siblings. Crawford and William disappeared from the records after 1880. Jacob and Abraham died childless. Annie had 4 children. My mother had four first cousins. That gives me four first cousins once removed. Between them they had 20 children, giving me 20 second cousins.
Buford Averitt and Anna Ray Reed
My paternal grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage had 7 siblings.
Josephine had two children. Unfortunately the family lost contact with those children after 1900.
Sarah had nine children. Between them, they had 14 children.
Louise had two children. Between them they had six children.
Hugh had four children. Between them they had 13 children.
Minnie had 12 children. Between them they had 30 children.
Two Reed cousins. My father and his brothers with Uncle Hugh Reed Averett’s sons. Front are Henry and Hugh Cleage. Back are my father Albert Cleage, Hugh Averett, Thomas Averett and Louis Cleage.
Mullins cousins
My father had 29 first cousins on his mother’s side. He had 63 first cousins once removed on his mother’s side. Josie’s Branch disappeared. That gives me 63 known second cousins on this side.
Louis and Celia (Rice) Cleage
Cleage Cousins – some of Albert, Henry and Edwards children.
My paternal grandfather Albert B. Cleage had four siblings. Henry had four children. They had a combined total of three children. Edward had six children. They had a combined total of seven children. Josie had five children. They had a combined total of 22 children.
My father had 15 first cousins on his father’s side. He had 29 first cousins once removed. That gives me 29 second cousins on this side.
So, on my father’s side I have 43 first cousins once removed and 93 second cousins. On my mother’s side I have 4 first cousins once removed and 20 second cousins making a combined total of 47 first cousins once removed and 113 second cousins.
How Many Second Cousins Once Removed?
Then I realized that all of my parents second cousins were my second cousins once removed. So, I have been updating and looking at my ancestry tree. I think I’m about ready to take a count.
I was named Kristin at my Uncle Henry’s suggestion, after the heroine of Norwegian author, Sigrid Undset’s trilogy, “Kristin Lavransdatter“. My mother had considered naming me after her mother, Fannie, but my grandmother said that was an awful name to inflict on a child, so she didn’t. My other grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage, thought everybody should have a family name. In the case of my name she made an exception because it came from, she said, the best book in the world.
The name Kristin reached it’s height of popularity in the 1940s, however my health care professionals seem to be continual startled to find such an old woman with the name of Kristin. They think that only younger people have received that name.
I’ve always liked my name, even though people like to spell it with an “e” instead of an “i”. During the late 1970s, Penguin Books came out with a new edition of the trilogy. I was stunned to read that Sigrid Undset wrote the series while raising 6 children. I was raising 4 and hardly had time to read, much less write Nobel Prize winning literature. I started trying to find out more about her life. I wrote letters to Undset experts at various universities and made connections that resulted in a 7 week trip to Norway in the summer of 1981. I found out how she did it and I will write more about that experience in another post.
An interview with me in the Norwegian paper “Aftenposten” starts with mention of me being named after the heroine of “Kristin Lavransdatter”. I did not do the interview in Norweigian.
I got the idea for this post from Randy Sever’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, although I didn’t do it exactly the way he described.
The “Saturday Night Fun” assignment from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings (along with some of the fine results) can be found here. It involved picking out a photograph to use in this challenge for August 16 by the Family Curator. For the original challenge you hold up an old photograph and match it up to the present day scene. This means you have to be in the area. Unfortunately, I live far from the sites of my past and that of my ancestors so I was am not able to do this exactly. I also was not able to just choose my photo and let it go at that. Here is what I did.
The parsonage now and us back in 1953.
In 2004 I spent a day driving around Detroit taking photographs of places where I used to live and of other houses family members lived in. The angle of this house fit almost perfectly with the photograph taken in 1953 of my father with my little sister Pearl and me. We are in front of the parsonage on Atkinson. My father was the minister of St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, two blocks up the street on the corner of 12th Street and Atkinson.
My sister and I shared the bedroom on the upper left. We used to look out of the side window into the attic of Carol and Deborah. They were our age and lived next door and got to stay up much later then we did. They had a wonderful playroom in the attic. I taught Pearl to read by the streetlight shinning into our bedroom. I don’t know why we waited until we were supposed to be in the bed to teach and learn reading.
On our other side lived Eleanor Gross with her family. Eleanor was a teenager and babysat with us during the rare times our parents went out. My paternal grandparents lived down the street and I have a 2004 photograph of that house which I think I will mix with one from the 1950’s. I was trying to think of someone still in Detroit that I could get to take a photo from the proper angle of St. Mark’s. I like this assignment!
1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her – what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?
2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.
Me, my niece,Deignan and my step-grandaughter, Maya.
I found three people in my Reunion data base with my birthday. 1. My niece Deignan was born on August 30, 29 years after I was. 2. My step-grandaughter Maya was born on August 30, 58 years after I was. 3. Elizabeth Ferguson was born 22 years before I was and is the wife of my first cousin twice removed husband’s great uncle. In other words, she is not a blood relative but a result of one of my wandering searches.
It took me some time to figure out how to find this information in my REUNION genealogical software, which is why I am posting on Sunday night instead Saturday. I found it by going to my calendar, under LIST, then picking Birth as the event, include ALL PEOPLE, month of AUGUST and then picking LIST. I got a window with all the August birthdays, scrolled down to August 30 and voila, there they were.
910 Fayette Indianapolis Indiana – two story house on the right- Google maps
I decided to accept the Saturday night challenge. After looking and not finding anything but parking lots and weed covered land where my ancestors used to live, I found 910 Fayette standing. For several years I was confused about which house it was because the houses in Indianapolis were renumbered and it turned out it was the two story house on the right and not the little gray/blue one on the left.
My father, Albert Buford Cleage, Jr, was born in this house on June 13, 1911. His parents had married the year before after Albert completed his medical training and received his physician’s license. The three Cleage brothers, Jacob, Henry and Albert and wives Gertrude and Pearl shared the house until the following year when Albert opened a practice in Kalamazoo Michigan and moved his family there.
