At Honeysuckle Farm, LLC I sell handcrafted aromatherapy and other products. I also customize essential oil products for my customers based on their specific needs and goals. You can find the Honeysuckle Farm, LLC online store here.
Days of Our Lives is my genealogy blog that I've had for over 10 years where I write about mine and my husband's family histories. Through Honeysuckle Farm, LLC I offer customized family history research/writing packages for my customers. You can see examples of my writing by going to my family history blog here.
Ink & Perfume is my aromatherapy blog where I write about all things aromatherapy and Honeysuckle Farm, LLC.
While you're shopping online, take a look at my mom's ebay store. She sells interesting vintage items.
This week’s theme is “favorite photo” and is a follow-up piece to last week’s post about former Idaho Governor/Idaho Senator/U.S. Senator Frank GOODING and his wife (my 1st cousin 4 times removed) Amanda THOMAS GOODING. As I said last week, my favorite find is whatever discovery I’ve most recently made. Likewise, my favorite photo is likely to be whatever photo I’ve most recently discovered. This past week while trying to make progress on my paternal 4th great grandmother’s line, I discovered that one of her granddaughters was married to former Idaho Governor/Idaho Senator/U.S. Senator Frank R. GOODING. In searching for information about Amanda and Frank I discovered that while photos of him were easily found, there were absolutely NO photos of Amanda online. Not in a Google search, not on FamilySearch, not on Ancestry.com, not on newspapers.com, etc.
Not one to give up quite that easily, I decided there had to be a photo of her out there somewhere given her status as a governor/senator’s wife and the number of years Frank was in public service. So I decided to contact the archivist at Idaho State Archives and ask if they had any photos of Amanda. I had the pleasure of speaking with archivist Erin Bostwick and she found 2 photos of Amanda for me. I ordered the photos from the archives and they came last Friday. They are absolutely gorgeous photos and I have the great honor of being the one to put them out into the great wide web-world.
Allow me to introduce my 1st cousin 4 times removed, Amanda Jane THOMAS GOODING.
P1868h. Mrs. Frank Gooding (Amanda, wife of Governor Gooding). Idaho State Archives.P1961-96-28. Mrs. Frank Gooding (Amanda, wife of Governor Gooding). Idaho State Archives.
If you are a GOODING family member, I’d love to hear from you. In fact, if one of her family members would like to guest write a blog post about Amanda I invite you to contact me to work that out. You can write it yourself or you can tell me about her and I can write it for you. You’ll be credited on the blog either way. I would be interested in knowing more about Amanda.
I hope you all have a great week and I’m wishing you the best of luck in your ancestral searches this week.
This message is for both sides of my family and for everyone related to Bart on his dad’s side.
I’m giving you a heads-up and also asking you to do some homework over the next 2 weeks. I rarely ask you to do this but in 2 weeks, you’ll be so glad you have this background information. I’m asking you to listen to 2 episodes of a podcast. It’s easy to do on your way to and from work, on your lunch break at work, while taking a walk, exercising, cooking, or any number of other tasks you have to do daily. It will help pass the time and, as I said, in 2 weeks you’re going to be so glad you have this information.
Over the next two weeks please listen to these two podcasts in order:
Thanks for doing this. I can’t wait to bring you this story! The story will post on January 27th so set your alarms and keep an eye out for it. Also, a special thanks to Ahmed Zayan and Unsplash.com for use of the header photo for this post.
I’m excited to tell you about one of the changes I made this year for Honeysuckle Farm products. Last year products were made with coconut oil. While I love coconut oil, those who aren’t familiar with it were frustrated when the oils in their roller bottles solidified. They didn’t remember me telling them to warm it back up because air conditioning solidifies coconut oil. Well…problem solved! This year, I’m using grapeseed oil as a base rather than coconut oil. The biggest obvious benefit is it doesn’t solidify in air conditioned buildings, but there are so many more benefits. The second thing that drew me to grapeseed oil was the fact it has quercetin which boosts your immune system. I began researching grapeseed oil and this is what I found.
Grapeseed Oil: Lightweight & Powerful
Grapeseed oil is a lightweight oil and absorbs quickly so it’s great for any mixture you use on your skin or hair. It works with all skin types including oily skin that still needs a moisturizer. It’s also a powerhouse for your body. It contains quercetin which builds your immune system and helps you fight off viruses, bacteria, colds, and flu. It is cardioprotective, and helps lower blood pressure. There are also studies that show it helps protect you from cancer. You can find the study here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988453/. You can find a visual of the benefits here:
Grapeseed benefits per NIH.GOV study.
Other studies show cosmetic benefits of grapeseed oil. Here is the visual and the link to the study is at the end:
Cosmetic benefits of grapeseed oil with corresponding link to study.
As always, I recommend you seek out your own online sources of information before you apply anything to your body. This blog is in no way meant as medical advice and you should always consult a physician prior to using any supplements. One caveat I found in the studies was that grapeseed oil is high in Omega-6 fatty acids so if you get a high amount of Omega-6 in your diet, you may want to skip the grapeseed oil. Having said that, if you ever need to customize any of my products with a different oil, just let me know. I’ll accommodate all the requests that I’m able to accommodate.
I hope you love the changes in the products this year. I’d like to send a special shout-out to Rajesh Rajput and Unsplash.com for use of the grape photo in my Grapeseed Oil infographics. I’m excited to debut the new items and look forward to your feedback. Take care and stay healthy.
The blog post theme this week is “favorite find”. To be honest, my favorite find is whatever I’ve just discovered. Any find is exciting for me. Let me tell you about my most recent find – which happens to be my favorite today!
I’ve been researching my dad’s HUTCHISON family. For background, the line goes from my paternal great-grandfather, Mark DRAKE to his father Ervin Alonzo (also known as Poppy), Poppy’s mother Hester MITCHELL DRAKE, Hester’s sister Mary Louise MITCHELL, and finally to Mary’s daughter Amanda Jane THOMAS who married Idaho’s 7th Governor, Francis Robert “Frank” GOODING. When I discovered that my 1st cousin 4 times removed had married the former Governor of Idaho I had to laugh. My husband and I lived for 10 years in Idaho and not one day of that 10 years did I know of this family connection to Idaho. I was well aware of my husband’s family connections and I was aware that I had some distant family who had lived there at some point but I was completely unaware of any connection to a former governor of Idaho.
Mary Louise Mitchell Potter Thomas
I was researching Mary MITCHELL only because I’ve had such a difficult time finding her parents (and my 4th great grandparents), Mordica Elias MITCHELL and Lucretia HUTCHISON MITCHELL HARTMAN. So much of a hard time that I had resorted to researching the children in an attempt to figure out where the family was and who really belonged in this family (as well as who didn’t). I had already looked into the two oldest children of Mordica and Lucretia – two sons named James Harrison MITCHELL and John West MITCHELL. I had already looked into the oldest known daughter as well – a daughter named Susan M. MITCHELL. By this time I was getting desperate but I continued. Next in line was Mary Louise. I was about to give up on Mary when I made the completely unexpected discovery that her daughter was married to Francis R. “Frank” GOODING ~ former Idaho Governor, former Idaho state Senator, and former US Senator from Idaho. Perseverance pays off!
Amanda Jane Thomas and Frank Gooding
In attempting to figure out how Frank GOODING would have met Amanda Jane THOMAS, I began looking at Frank’s life. Frank was born in England. He immigrated to the US with his family when he was about 7 or 8 years old. His family settled in Michigan and then moved to Mount Shasta, California in1877. BINGO! Amanda’s family had moved to Shasta County, California in the late 1850’s or early 1860’s. The information I’m working with says that Lucretia (Amanda’s maternal grandmother and my 4th great grandmother) died in California but I have no proof of this. However I do know that by 1860, Amanda’s mother (Mary Louise MITCHELL POTTER THOMAS, my 3rd great grand-aunt) was living in Shasta County, California with her brother – James Harrison MITCHELL. In 1860, Amanda’s mom was going by Louisa rather than Mary. I can only presume Louisa was pregnant with her first child, Adeline, at that time since a 10-year-old Adeline POTTER shows up on the next census and a later court case names Adeline as a daughter of Benjamin F. and Mary Louise MITCHELL POTTER.
Divorce of Mary Louise MITCHELL POTTER and Benjamin F. POTTER. Image from Newspapers.com, The Red Bluff Beacon; 15 May 1862; Red Bluff, California.
As for the 1860 census, Louisa’s last name was listed as POTTER because she was married to Benjamin F. POTTER in Saint Louis, Missouri, just a few years prior to showing up in California. Mr. POTTER was not living with the MITCHELL family in 1860. All the researchers on Ancestry claim Benjamin POTTER died around 1861. I have found no proof of his death but I did discover that Mary Louise filed for a divorce from Benjamin F. POTTER in 1862 in Tehama County, California. The divorce must have been granted because on 21 October 1862, Louisa married Samuel M. THOMAS.
In 1870, Louisa and Samuel THOMAS were living in Shasta County, California with their family including the future Senator’s wife, Amanda Jane. Frank GOODING and his family were still in Michigan in 1870. In 1877, Amanda’s father Samuel passed away in January and later that year, Frank and his older brother moved to Shasta County, California.
In 1880, 18-year-old Amanda was living with her mother and siblings in Shasta County, California. A 21-year-old Frank GOODING was living in nearby Gasspoint, Shasta County, California, raising turkeys for a living. On 1 June 1880, Frank and Amanda married and they moved to Idaho in May of 1881. Frank would go on to be elected Sheriff in Ketchum, Blaine County, Idaho.
The family also lived in Shoshone, Lincoln County, Idaho for a while. They built a home there and limited rooms are available for rent in the home. If you’re interested, you can request more information from Lincoln County Historical Society in Shoshone, Idaho where I found this photograph of the home:
In 1898 Frank was elected to the Idaho legislature (Senate). Two years later he was reelected to the Senate. While serving in the state legislature he had the honor of serving as President Pro-Tempore. In 1904 he was elected Governor of Idaho and served two terms. In 1918 a special election was held to elect someone to finish the term of the US Senator James Brady who had died in office the previous year. Frank lost to the opposing candidate, however that candidate resigned from office early and Frank finished his term. Frank went on to win his own 6-year term representing Idaho in 1920 and was re-elected for a second term in 1926. Frank succumbed to cancer while serving his second term as US Senator. One final accolade for Frank is that in 1958 he was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.
1921 photo of Frank GOODING from Library of Congress website.
Because of his efforts to pursue and hold accountable the murderers of his predecessor–Governor Frank STEUNENBERG– Frank GOODING had to move out of his home and be under constant guard because of bombings and other threats to his life. In his lifetime, Frank also founded the town of Gooding, Idaho, and the county of Gooding was named after him. Frank was instrumental in bringing the State School for the Deaf and Blind and Gooding College into Gooding, Idaho. Frank’s endeavors were financially beneficial to the area of Gooding, Idaho. He brought in tourists with the hotel he built. History of Idaho has some great pictures of GOODING’s Lincoln Inn.
Original Gooding College building. Photo found at Only In Your State website. In the 1940’s it was converted into a Tuberculosis Hospital and is said to be haunted.
Frank was successful in getting the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind moved from Boise to Gooding. Here is a 1906 photo of the school found at APH Museum:
Amanda lived for another 18 years. She died in 1946 and was buried next to Frank in Elmwood Cemetery in Gooding, Gooding, Idaho.
Obituary of Amanda Thomas Gooding. Obituary of Amanda Thomas Gooding. Image from Newspapers.com; The Idaho Statesman; 8 Apr 1946; Boise, Idaho.
Side Notes
When I lived in Idaho I was a junior paralegal at a large law firm and my job entailed working on Superfund mining cases, so the story of the mining dispute that led to the assassination of Governor Frank STEUNENBERG (and then Governor Frank GOODING’s later involvement in bringing people to justice) was very interesting to me. If you’d like to read about the dispute, what led to it and how it ended, I recommend going to this website: http://www.3rd1000.com/history3/events/cdamines/1892-1899.htm. I found it interesting that John HAWLEY, the founder of the law firm I worked for in Boise, once represented the miners in their litigation and later he would lead lawsuits against the miners. Clarence Darrow once referred to John HAWLEY as the “god-father of the Western Federation [of Miners]”. James HAWLEY’s family founded the law firm where I worked on Superfund mining cases.
If you can’t get enough information about Pinkerton detectives, you might plan a trip to the Idaho State Archives in Boise, Idaho, and have a look at their James H. HAWLEY collection which includes the “Pinkerton Papers” regarding the investigation of the assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. Interesting side note: to earn extra money during my college days at Boise State University, I did contract work for Pinkertons researching court records and doing background checks on people. It was during my college days at BSU that I was fortunate enough to take a class under Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley paralegals who saw potential in me and got me hired on at the firm. So, to go back to all this old Boise and Idaho history is, in a small way, to relive some old memories for me.
The one thing I found most odd during this research session was that I was unable to locate any photographs of Amanda THOMAS GOODING. There are photos of Frank GOODING, but none of Amanda. I emailed the archivists at the Idaho State Archives to ask if they have any photographs of Amanda THOMAS GOODING. I heard back from archivist Erin Bostwick right before publishing this blog post and she attached two watermarked photos of Amanda. I’m posting the photos with the watermarks and will be ordering un-watermarked copies of the photos from the Archives later this week.
Photo of a young Amanda THOMAS GOODING courtesy of archivist Erin Bostwick at Idaho State Archives.Photo of an elderly Amanda THOMAS GOODING courtesy of archivist Erin Bostwick at Idaho State Archives.
If you would like un-watermarked, high-resolution copies of these photos, fill out this form and attach $10 per photo. The details of the quality of the photos is on the form. Just an FYI, these photos are low-res in addition to being watermarked. Photos you order from the Archives will be high-res and look much nicer.
If you’d like to learn more about Lincoln Inn (built by Frank) go to; the original Lincoln burned but it’s been rebuilt and you can stay there when you’re in that area. You can find the new Lincoln Inn at https://historiclincolninn.com/.
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about our connection to the 7th Idaho Governor, Frank GOODING. If you ever get a chance to visit Boise, Idaho, I highly recommend doing it. While you’re there, take side trips to the Archives and to Gooding if you can. Boise is a beautiful place and that area of Idaho is one of my favorite places in the world.
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
Resources Utilized for This Post
Encyclopedia of Idaho by Nancy Capace; found on Google Books at https://tinyurl.com/447t5pvu. Accessed on 11 Jan 2022
Illustrated History of McDonald County, Missouri: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ~ J. A. Sturges, comp./ed. found at https://tinyurl.com/2p8cpkf7; accessed on 9 Jan 2022
So many people I’ve come into contact with are having trouble breathing this winter. Whether it’s a cold or asthma, or bronchitis, it seems to be bad this year! My advice to help tide them over until they can get to the doctor? Use tree-based essential oils. Oils derived from trees are helpful for breathing easier. Just be aware that not all oils are safe for babies/children or pets so do your research first! Also, this post is not meant as medical advice, so make sure you get with your doctor asap if you’re having trouble breathing!
Once again this year I’m doing Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This year she is offering a once monthly option as well so when I get too busy to post once a week, I’ll revert to once a month and hopefully that will at least keep me writing. This week’s theme is ‘foundations’. When I was thinking about types of foundations I already had in mind that I wanted to do another DNA blog post and so what better ‘foundation’ to write about than the very foundation of human life? Today’s DNA post will relate to my SEELY family since they are my annual focus this year.
My SEELY family member nearest in relation to me is my 2nd great grandmother, Mary SEELY who was married to George Columbus BATES. I’ve written about them in a number of posts on this blog if you’d like to go back and get some background information. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know that for a few years I’ve been trying to figure out a way to utilize my DNA to create a more complete genealogy. I wasn’t willing to pay for classes or videos so everything I’ve learned has been trial-and-error or free information so it’s taken me a while to get it figured out. Today I want to talk about what I’ve discovered that works.
Modified Triangulation
What seems to be working for me right now is a modified triangulation of sorts.
SEELY family tree – screenshot from Ancestry.com.
So for instance, in order to see if my SEELY DNA lined up with my family tree as it looks right now, I took the surnames SEELY, BRINKER, SHELLY, and RIDGWAY and searched my DNA matches for people with those surnames in their family trees. I chose those 4 surnames because on the SEELY line I’m certain of my family tree up through Charles George SEELY. I felt my best next move would be to take the surnames of Charles’ 4 grandparents and see if those names were prevalent in my DNA matches’ trees as well (a modified triangulation technique).
Seely
I am confident I’m on the right track on the SEELY line. My family tree lines up really well with information in my DNA matches’ family trees. Understand though – the fact that my tree matches up with other trees does NOT mean any of us have it right. It’s just a clue that I probably am fairly accurate on that line but I’ll need records to back that up and prove it. DNA is just one more clue pointing me in a certain direction. Out of 5 DNA trees with the name spelled ‘SEELY’, I matched 3. One matched to Mary SEELY’s parents; one matched to Mary SEELY’s great-grandparents (John SEELY and Katherine BRINKER), and one matched at 3 generations past John and Katherine – my 8th great-grandparents named Jonas SEELY and Mary WICKS or WEEKES. In regard to common alternate spellings, I had 3 hits (out of 15 DNA matches) with the spelling of ‘SEELEY’. One matched to Jonas and Mary (see couple above) and two matched to my 9th great-grandparents, Jonas SEELY and Mary ANGELL. Of the DNA matches where I couldn’t make a SEELY connection, some didn’t have family trees, some trees didn’t go very far back in time so I wasn’t able to find a connection, and then I’m sure there were others where SEELY wasn’t the line we matched on so I wasn’t able to find a connection on that line. Overall, I am more confident now that my SEELY line is pretty accurate. I just need to make sure my documentation is accurate and organized.
Charles SEELY minister credentials.
Brinker
The second surname I listed was BRINKER. I feel confident I have the correct BRINKER line right now. The DNA seems to back that up. Utilizing both the spelling of the surname my nearest BRINKER relative used (Katherine, my 5th great grandmother) as well as the older alternate spelling of BRUNGGER, I found a total of 12 matches with these surnames in their tree. Of those, I could find the BRINKER/BRUNGGER connection in two of those trees but I found clues in most of the others that leads me to believe that once I know more about the family I’ll be able to connect the remaining 10 matches (or most of them). One DNA match connects to me at my 5th great grandparents, John SEELY and Katherine BRINKER. The other is a double connection matching to my dad’s HUTCHISON family (starting with his 3rd great-grandmother, Lucretia) and to my mom’s family on her BRINKER line.
John and Katherine (BRINKER) SEELY’s home in Ralls County, Missouri. This home was restored by John BARAGIOLA (a descendant) and you can find videos on YouTube. I’ll post one below so you can find them.
Here is the first of many videos of John BARAGIOLA’s restoration of the SEELY-BRINKER log cabin. You can find more on his YouTube channel. John’s a great guy. When you watch his videos please like the videos and subscribe to his channel as this helps his status on YouTube.
John BARAGIOLA’s SEELY-BRINKER log cabin restoration video.
Shelly
The third surname I listed was SHELLY. My SHELLY line is one that I wasn’t as confident about when I started this project. I am still not completely comfortable about the line as it is right now. I found a total of 14 matches on the various surname spellings. Out of 14, I could verify only one and he matched to my 7th great grandparents, Johan “Hans” Michael SHEELY and his wife Elizabeth. Johan and Elizabeth were the great-grandparents of Elizabeth SHELLY, my closest SHELLY relative (and my 4th great grandmother).
George SEELY and Betsy SHELLY marriage certificate, Ancestry.com. Marriage took place 17 February 1814 at St. Charles County, Missouri.
Ridgeway
The final surname I researched was RIDGEWAY – a family line I was not well-versed on and didn’t have worked out past my nearest RIDGEWAY relative (my 5th great-grandmother Mary Ann “Nancy” RIDGEWAY). Seven DNA matches were also researching this surname and I was not able to connect to any of them because their RIDGEWAYs were so far back in time compared to mine (and also, some didn’t have family trees at all). So, I didn’t make much headway on this line and information on Ancestry.com is conflicting. Figuring out this line will take considerably more research and documentation and I may find out I’m on the wrong trail altogether. I also have to consider that, due to the way DNA recombines in each individual, it’s possible I just didn’t receive any RIDGEWAY DNA and that’s why it doesn’t show up.
To Sum It Up
Just to clarify, I’ve used this technique on my ‘brick wall’ lines with much greater success in the past so keep that in mind when reading this blog post. I do plan to continue using this modified triangulation technique in the future, especially on brick wall lines where I feel I’ve made all the progress I can with conventional research methods. Please keep in mind that DNA is just a CLUE that points you in a certain direction. You still have to do the traditional research to ensure you have correct information. Having said that, I felt I had less success on these particular lines using the modified triangulation. I was able to come to a point where I feel confident about my SEELY and BRINKER lines. I am less confident that my SHELLY line is correct and am moving my RIDGEWAY line over to ‘brick wall’ status as there is conflicting information on Ancestry and it isn’t matching up to my DNA either. That doesn’t mean it’s definitely wrong, it just isn’t looking good right now. This is definitely a line I need paper documentation and research time on.
I hope you have a chance to try out this modified triangulation technique for yourself. Possibly someone else has already done this and I’m just late to the game because I’m unwilling to pay to learn what to do. That’s fine. This is what I’ve come up with that works for me and I’m sharing it freely with you. I hope you have time to use it and you have great success with it. If you do use it and make some discoveries, I’d love to hear about it in comments!
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives
P.S.- I’ve changed the website again to try and make it more user friendly. Hopefully I’ve accomplished that. In the process, you may have been accidentally unsubscribed from my blog. I’m sorry about that. If you enjoy the blog, please re-subscribe and keep reading! I hope your weekend is fabulous and you make many wonderful genealogical discoveries – or at least make a great memory or two!
Continue unpacking and organizing and preserve pictures and documents.
Commit to writing at least 12 blog posts.
Ancestral focus: Nicholas REITER.
I wrote 31 blog posts some of which were private posts for specific individuals. I was doing well up until the end of April/beginning of May which is typical for me. Because school is ending, April and May become difficult for me to find time to write. Last year it was not only the craziness of the end of the school year but also I was a Junior class co-sponsor which meant assisting with prom as well as supervising concessions at basketball games to raise money for prom. I helped the art teacher by chaperoning a trip to an art museum in May. Then add in the fact that in April and May I geared up for and then opened my own small business…well, writing wasn’t exactly at the top of the list. I spent the first part of June getting ready for our annual Cousin Camp, and then afterwards I was building my business for the rest of the summer and didn’t stop doing events until after this current school year started in August. By September I was exhausted! So, all things considered, I’m happy with 31 posts.
I am not finished with organizing and preserving photos and documents and I made no progress on the REITER family. The REITER family has been very elusive. Things that weren’t on the list that I made progress on include learning how to better utilize my DNA results to further my genealogy; moving forward with writing a book including taking two writing courses to brush up on certain skills; and, reading several instructional books. (I highly recommend Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story. It’s an excellent book for fiction writers and even though I’m writing non-fiction, I still got a lot out of it.) I was also fortunate to take several genealogy research trips to Kansas and Kentucky plus several non-research genealogy road trips to Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio. One of the highlights of my year was when my cousin, Chris BENNETT, gifted me the old church records from the church we grew up in. I was so excited to receive those and I treasure them. So, overall it was a good year. I made some exciting breakthroughs in December that I’m not ready to talk about but I hope to blog about them soon.
Looking Forward
With my business still being less than one year old and my book project in full swing, I think following 2021’s mantra of keeping plans “simple and uncrowded” is a good idea. So here is my simple and uncrowded plan for 2022:
Finish organizing and preserving documents and photos. I have to do that with the lines that are going into my book anyway so I think this is a good strategy.
Print records that are online-only so I have a paper backup in case something were to happen to my online access. Of course, these will then have to be organized/preserved but I think having a paper backup is important. The end goal will be to have a dual set of records – one digital and one paper.
Continue writing blog posts and commit to at least 12. That’s only one per month. I hope to do more but with all that’s going on, I think I’ll stick with this number as a minimum.
Have a complete first draft of my book by December, 2022.
Ancestral focus: my SEELY line.
I hoped for fewer than 5 goals but this is what I settled on. We’ll see how it goes. I hope that your 2022 is blessed and that you meet all your goals plus do a few things you never thought you’d get to do.
It never ceases to amaze me how life is so circular in nature. Back in 2012 when I was first blogging, I wrote about my 4th great grandfather, Ervin Alonzo DRAKE (Poppy Lonzo’s grandpa). Ervin lived in a town in Indian Territory (now Delaware County, Oklahoma) called Echo. It took me decades to learn where Echo was. You can find that blog post here. If you go back and read it, you’ll see that Echo doesn’t exist anymore. It was a town that was sacrificed so Grand Lake could be created. In all these years, they are the only family I’ve come across in my research who lived there. I know there were other families there, but in the course of my research I’ve never found anyone else who had family that lived in Echo…until today! Today I spoke with Penny, a woman who works on the same job Bart is working on right now. Penny’s been reading my blog (thank you, Penny!) and she mentioned that she was having a little trouble researching her own family and that her family was from Delaware County, Oklahoma. It’s so crazy that Bart goes to a job in Colorado and meets someone who has ties to our little neck of the woods. So I had a brief conversation with Penny this morning. She dropped a name here and there (and I took notes – sorry Penny!!). Once I hung up I thought I would do a quick search to see who her family was. So today, you get to hear a tiny bit about Penny’s family.
Oh yes – Of Course I recognize that name!
One of the surnames Penny dropped was SIXKILLER. One of my favorite people was Terry SIXKILLER. I worked with him for quite a few years. He was intelligent, fair, generous, kind, level-headed and wise beyond his years. I always enjoyed talking to him and so appreciated all the wise advice and direction he gave me when I was just starting out in that job. We also had a neighbor named Taylor SIXKILLER. He and his wife were good people. The year our son passed away, all five families who live on our little dirt road lost a close family member. Taylor was one who passed away that year. Eventually his widow moved out and a couple of years later their house burned down. They were good neighbors.
But I digress. I’m not writing about Sixkiller’s today. Penny’s family member that caught my attention today is Charles Fred SAMUEL and his parents, James W. and Carrie (MORRIS) SAMUEL. As I was looking at Charles’ information I noticed a Dawes Census card on the family. I decided to pop it open and take a look. Here’s what I saw:
Dawes Census card for Charles F. SAMUEL. Image found on Ancestry.com.
You’ll notice that Charles was 1 year old in 1906 when the census was taken. His father is a non-citizen of Cherokee Nation and his mother’s roll number is 767. I noticed the information about the application and the corrected affidavit. Penny will want to seek those documents out as they may have valuable information on them. I highly recommend applying for your own roll number as well, Penny! What a valuable thing to have your ancestor’s roll number! I was about to close out the census card image when my eyes caught sight of the family’s residence. Her ancestors lived in Echo!!! The same little defunct town where my ancestors lived! I love it when our ancestors surprise us with a little nugget like this. Hopefully Penny already has this census card but if she didn’t have it before, she does now.
It’s possible that 115 years ago mine and Penny’s people knew each other. And now, all these decades later, Penny and I meet. I look forward to getting to know Penny better. I love it when my blog brings new people into my life. Thanks for reading and for getting in touch with me Penny, and if you’re ever in Northeast Oklahoma hit me up and I’ll take you around to see some of the places that were important to your people. I hope you really do start your own blog. I will look forward to reading your stories.
Do you remember when I wrote about the YOACHUM Silver Dollar legend? You can find that story here if you need to refresh your memory. You can also find a SCHELL/YOACHUM family photo in this post. This weekend I’ve been thinking about and researching that family again and I came across a website I’d really like to share with you. I found a photo of Henry SCHELL’s trading post and water mill on the website. It gives a lot of history about the SCHELL/YOACHUM and related families as well as the surrounding community of Shell Knob, Missouri. You can find the website at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/shell/schell.henry.htm. Here’s their business that founded Shell Knob, MO:
Henry SCHELL’s trading post and water mill at Shell Knob, Missouri. Photo comes from https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/shell/schell.henry.htm.
There are many other family photos at the website. The individuals are not named but are part of the SCHELL family. I hope that some day people can identify the individuals. In addition to the brief story and all the photos on the page above, there is an additional link to a newspaper article about the family that can be found at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/data/news/schell-BigSugarCreek.htm. That page also contains this photo:
Photo to be Henry and Elizabeth (YOACHUM) SCHELL’s home and Henry’s burial spot.
I encourage you to go read the websites to learn more about the SCHELL-YOACHUM family and take a look at those photos. Do they resemble any of our BAKER or DRAKE ancestors? I was excited to find all of this information freely available on the internet. Take advantage of it before it’s gone.
Today my cousins are remembering their mom on her birthday, so I will join them. Their mom was Jeannie STROUT. She was born in 1949 to Bobby and Virginia (KUYKENDALL) STROUT (at least, I think Virginia was her mom). I haven’t been able to do enough research to confirm who Jeannie’s mom was yet. Jeannie had four children – 2 boys and 2 girls. One of her daughters, Kim, passed away in 2001 – a loss that devastated my cousins and, I’m sure, devastated Jeannie as well.
Jeannie and Poynor Baptist Church
As with most of the spouses of my paternal aunt and uncles, the spouses attended Poynor Baptist Church at some point. Jeannie was no exception. Her entry in the Membership Roll book shows she was saved on 20 September 1970. She was baptized 19 September 1972. Her entry is under her married name of DRAKE.
Poynor Baptist Church Membership Roll entry for Jeannie STROUT DRAKE.
At the time of this entry, her address was Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas.
Jeannie’s dad, Bobby, was a preacher so church and religion were not a new thing for Jeannie or her sister, Linda. Her dad pastored Guiding Light Tabernacle, an evangelical church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for years. Jeannie’s mom has been a bit of an enigma for me so I won’t go into her until I have solid information.
For now, I’m going to leave you with this simple sketch of Jeannie. I was too young to have any memories of her myself and haven’t had time to ask around for stories about her so sometime in the future I’ll get back to writing about Jeannie. In the meantime, hugs to my cousins as they remember their mom on her birthday.
