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Tag: mary lane larkin

There’s Power in Numbers

I had totally intended to write about my Power family this week but it seemed everyone else was and I prefer to do something different. My thoughts went in a few different directions: “power in the blood” (i.e.- the life of one of my several Reverends) or “power in numbers” (i.e.- many offspring), etc. About the middle of the week though, something happened and I wrote about neither. I wrote nothing but emails…but I’m getting ahead of myself. About the middle of the week RootsTech conference started and of course, due to Covid it’s virtual. One of the few things I’ve been grateful that Covid changed…one of the few things Covid changed for the better…is a free and virtual conference! So I got busy with RootsTech and they have this amazing online tool this year where you can see who is at the conference that you’re related to so I started finding all these cousins and messaging them through the FamilySearch system and folks, that’s all the family history writing I’ve done this week! It’s been fun, though! A few have responded back and some I’ve asked to guest write or co-write some blog posts. We’ll see if anyone is willing to do that…fingers crossed, knock on wood, rub the lucky rabbit’s foot, pray-pray-pray!! I love guest writers on the blog and haven’t had one for a long time! Anyway…I decided to combine “power in the blood” and “power in numbers” and revamp them a little so that today I’m not telling the story of an ancestor so much as I’m telling the story of who I’ve been in touch with this week. I hope you’ll stick around and read this one and then come back next week for an ancestor story.

It’s funny how knowing that someone is related to you changes how you feel about them. It changes how much leeway you’ll give them and changes how you interact with them. Even if you don’t think it does…it does. There’s something about a blood connection that changes the way you think about and interact with someone initially. Now…after you get to know them that might change, but initially it seems to make a difference. Not only does it make you more open to introducing yourself to strangers, it’s an eye-opening, visual experience in genetics. It’s been very interesting to see which lines of my families have lots of researchers at the genealogy conference and which have seemingly no one at all. I’m not a statistics person but surely the number of researchers in a specific line makes a difference in which lines of the family get preserved (as far as information, stories, and pictures) and which don’t. I thought it would be interesting to let you see who/which family lines I’ve been in touch with so far.

Power in the Blood AND the Numbers

Dad’s Lines

  • Braxton DRAKE/Martha Patsy GREER line: 1 person.
  • Mordecai MITCHELL/Lucretia HUTCHISON: 5 people.
  • Jesse BAKER/Mary BAIR: 1person.
  • John HUBBARD/Nancy CHAMBERS: 1 person.
  • Levi HUBBARD/Nancy Indiana WHITE: 21 people!
  • John HUBBARD/Nancy WEDDLE: 2 people.
  • Josep LARKIN/Mary LANE: 1 person.
  • Bartlett UNDERWOOD/Minerva BRINSFIELD/BRINCEFIELD: 1 person.
  • James LANE/Nancy CONKWRIGHT/CONKRITE: 1 person.
  • John WEDDING/Mary McAfee/McAtee: 1 person.
  • John WILLIAMS/Nancy WALLS(?): 1 person.
  • John BELL Jr./Sarah HARDIN: 4 people
  • Hardy HARDIN/Tabitha ROBERTS: 1 person.

Mom’s Lines

  • John BATES/Mary MOBLEY: 1 person.
  • Charles G. SEELY/Synthia FOSTER: 3 people.
  • George SEELY/Elizabeth SHELLY: 3 people.
  • Frederick FOSTER/Mary BURNETT/PICKENS: 5 people.
  • John SEELY/Katherine BRINKER: 1 person.
  • James GIBSON/Lucinda DOW: 2 people.
  • Samuel GIBSON/Lucinda BELL PETTIT: 7 people!
  • Henry DOW/Rebecca WHITE: 1 person.
  • James GIBSON/Sarah PHILLIPS: 5 people.
  • John DOW/Harty ELLIS: 2 people.
  • Benjamin WHITE/Mary ELSTON/WALDROP: 6 people!
  • James BULLOCK/Cynthia DALE: 4 people.
  • James Squire DALE/Elizabeth SMITH: 3 people.
  • John LATTY/Martha Frances SCOTT: 4 people.
  • Edwin WALLS/Delilah UNKNOWN: 1 person.

Each person I contacted was only counted once. That’s 89 people I’ve connected with so far! Some people are connections for lines I struggle with so that’s very exciting. There are several people I’ve asked to guest write or co-write a blog post about their branch of the family (or about our common ancestor, either way). Some have already given me leads to resources I didn’t know existed for our family! The computer only shows me 300 relatives out of a whopping 45,000+ that are registered for the conference!!! I probably won’t even get through all 300 but I got as far as 5th cousins as of this evening. I’ve also learned how I connect to several professional genealogists I follow. Amy JOHNSON CROW, one of my favorite genealogists, is my 7th cousin through my mom’s FOSTER line. Thomas MacENTEE, another genealogist is my 10th cousin twice removed through my dad’s LARKIN line. Michele Simmons LEWIS, another genealogy friend, is my 11th cousin through my dad’s GREER line. Not all of my favorite genealogists have shown up on RootsTech and some have been no relationship at all. It’s been fun to find out though and I love this online tool.

This is certainly an exciting weekend. It’s been dampened a little by the fact that my computer has decided it no longer wants to live but I’m going tomorrow to get a new one so the adventure can continue! (By the way, I apologize if this post is unreadable or has lots of errors. I was fighting a dying computer that was randomly deleting entire paragraphs and other crazy things.) Over the remainder of the weekend I will likely begin looking up DNA matches to see if I can find any connections there. I hope you have a fun, exciting weekend. Do something for yourself!

Until next weekend,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

William Larkin: Farmer, Mine Owner, and Road Paver

Today we’re celebrating William LARKIN’s birthday which is actually on the 13th but as I said in Sunday’s post, writing about three people on one blog post is just too much- for you AND for me. So here I sit (with my cup of coffee flavored with a little caramel syrup) to write another story for you. William is my 2nd great grandfather and the father of Ralph LARKIN about whom I blogged on Monday.
William was born in 1868 in Ohio to Joseph and Mary LANE LARKIN. Theodore Clay LARKIN (the one with the penchant for baseball bats that I wrote about here) was William’s uncle. William’s family moved to Kentucky about 1870 and then on to Arkansas by 1872. Between 1876 and 1880 they moved to McDonald Township, Barry County, Missouri. It was in Barry County, Missouri that William married Minerva Jane UNDERWOOD in 1889. They stayed in Barry County for a decade or so. This is where most (possibly all) of their children were born. After William’s mom passed away in 1899, William and Minerva moved to Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence, but on the 1900 census (and only on this one) he gave his occupation as mine owner. So did he inherit a mine from his mom or her family? Did he inherit money and that’s how he bought a mine? Did it just happen to all fall into place about the time his mom died? Or, did he hope to get in on the gold that was discovered in Barry County in 1910? So many questions, so few answers. (If you’re interested in the 1910 discovery of gold in Barry County you can read about it here. You’ll have to scroll almost to the bottom of the page or use your search function. Hey Becky, is this your RICH family mentioned in this gold article??)
William and his family stayed in Aurora for the decade between 1900-1910. 1910 is a little confusing where this family is concerned because the census shows they were living in Hulbert, Cherokee County, Oklahoma (near Tahlequah). But later on down in this post you’ll see a city directory entry that shows them living in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma. My opinion is that their residence was in Hulbert but during the work week William lived in a tent in Tulsa. You’ll see a newspaper article toward the end of this blog post that will make this theory more clear.
I lost William and Minerva after 1910 and they were “missing” for a very long time until I found a researcher who told me Minerva died about 1917 or 1918 and is buried in a plot in a cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The plot was meant for someone else but when Minerva died and they needed a place to bury her, they used the plot they had. It is, as far as I know, an unmarked grave. To be clear I can’t verify whether or not Minerva is there. I can’t verify her death date or place either. Oklahoma just came out with a database yesterday to search births and deaths in Oklahoma and I couldn’t find Minerva on there by her name. There was, however, an unidentified female with the last name LARKIN who died in March of 1917 in Cherokee County, Oklahoma so this could possibly be Minerva. I’ll be checking this out soon.

Unnamed Larkin female on OK2Explore.
Unnamed Larkin female on OK2Explore – Oklahoma’s online vital records index.

If you have Oklahoma ancestors you’re researching you can find the database here. (Thanks to Becky for the link! After she linked me, I got the same link from my cousin Denise LARKIN. Thanks to both of you!)
As for William, he disappeared after 1910 and I haven’t been able to find him. Becky did make this discovery just this week that I want to share with you.

1910 Tulsa City Directory entry for William and M. Jane Larkin.
1910 Tulsa City Directory entry for William and M. Jane Larkin.

1910 Tulsa City Directory entry.
Based on images I can find online it looks like 121 N Nogales is now an empty lot:

121 N. Nogales, Tulsa, Oklahoma on Google Maps.
121 N. Nogales, Tulsa, Oklahoma on Google Maps.

(Thanks, Google maps!)
Along with that new information Becky sent a link so I could learn more about the company William worked for- Tulsa Vitrified Brick and Tile Company. You can learn about it too by going to Tulsa Gal’s blog.
I did not know William was ever in Tulsa so this is a new area to research. I checked the new Oklahoma database I linked to above and found one entry for a William Larkin.

William Larkin entry on OK2Explore.
William Larkin entry on OK2Explore – Oklahoma’s online vital records index.

I will definitely be checking this out further and, if it looks promising, I’ll be ordering a certificate. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that after all these years I have finally found him (and Minerva, too).
Becky found one more little tidbit that I’d like to share with you from Newspapers.com because I believe there is a strong possibility that this article is about our William LARKIN:

16 September 1906 newspaper article in The Morning Tulsa Daily World about William Larkin.
16 September 1906 newspaper article in The Morning Tulsa Daily World about William Larkin. Found on Newspapers.com.

16 September 1906, The Morning Tulsa Daily World
Anybody in the Tulsa area feel like taking a trip over to the old fair ground district to take some photos for us??
So there you have it. Our farmer, mine owner, and road paver summed up in one story. The next time you’re driving around in Tulsa, I hope you’ll think about William. You may be driving on a road he once paved.


Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

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