Nicholas Wilhelm Reiter - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

The Single Most Favorite Double in the World

1979 Doublemint twins ad from YouTube.

This week the theme is ‘multiples’. This theme was almost too broad for me to decide what to write about! After some debate I narrowed it down to two topics. After looking at the 2021 weekly topics list I felt the other story would fit into an October theme and this particular story for this week didn’t really fit anywhere else. So, this week we’re talking about multiple births. I’m going to look into something I’ve always wondered: how many sets of twins did my direct-line ancestors have? I’ll be going back as far as my 2nd great grandparents. I chose that as a stopping point so this blog doesn’t get too lengthy. Out of the 8 pairs of my 2nd great grandparents, 3 of the couples had twins.

Dad’s Family: Double Your Sentiment

90’s Doublemint twins ad.

In the 21st century the statistical probability of having twins is about 3%, or 3 in 100. That is a higher probability than previous generations. In my family (in that 2nd-great-grandparent generation) mixed sets of twins were more popular (mixed meaning a boy-girl set of twins versus same-sex twins). Out of my dad’s great grandmothers, he had one who had twins. Eliza Emoline BELL WILLIAMS (and her husband, Samuel Morris WILLIAMS) had a set of twins in 1900- two boys named Lorenzo Dall and William Sherman WILLIAMS. Neither baby survived. I’m guessing the babies are probably buried in Oakland Cemetery in Success, Texas County, Missouri since the family lived in that area and other family members are buried in that cemetery but I can’t say for certain where the babies were buried. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this family today because I’ve written about them quite a bit. You can find previous posts at:

Mom’s Family: Double Good

Early iteration of the Doublemint twins ads.

My 2nd great grandmother, Sarah C. DAVIS REITER, and her husband Nicholas Wilhelm REITER had a set of twins in 1864. My mom thinks Sarah’s twins were mixed – one boy and one girl. She can’t remember their names but is going to try to find that information for me. I’ve not found their names anywhere but if mom locates that information I’ll be sure to let you know. The babies did not survive. I don’t know where they’re buried but I’m sure it’s in Illinois, in the area of Perry, Pike County, Illinois since that’s where the family lived. This is another family I’ve written about quite a bit so I won’t spend a lot of time on them today. You can read more about Sarah and her family at:

My 2nd great grandmother, Druziller Mahala LATTY BULLOCK (and her husband James Mathaniel BULLOCK), also had a set of twins born in 1892. For this grandma though, both twins survived – one girl named Alice May and one boy named Oscar Morris.

1982 Wrigley’s Doublemint gum twins ad.

Alice May and Oscar Morris BULLOCK were born 17 April 1892 in Benton County, Arkansas. They remained in Benton County, Arkansas until after they married. Alice married Martin Rotramel when she was 17 years old. Together, Alice and Martin and had 8 children – and no twins. Here is Alice in her later years with her dog, Major. I love this photo.

Alice BULLOCK ROTRAMEL and her dog, Major.

Alice lived to be 92 years old! The last 52 years or so of her life she lived in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Alice passed away on 1 December 1984 in Jay, Delaware County, Oklahoma. She’s buried in Hillcrest Cemetery beside her husband in Gravette, Benton County, Arkansas where her parents are buried.

Oscar Morris BULLOCK grew up with his family in Benton County, Arkansas. He served as a Private in the U.S. Army as evidence by the Army transport document below.

I don’t fully understand that document. It looks like perhaps he was transported to a Veterinary Hospital. It would be interesting to know what he did in the Army. Oscar fought in World War I. I do know he arrived in New York in June of 1919 on his way to fight in France.

According to military records, Oscar was serving with Veterinary Hospital #16 MR. as a Private V.C.. Oscar served in France in 1919. During that time, the final US deaths of the war happened and the Treaty of Versailles was drawn up. The treaty was signed the day after Oscar arrived back on US soil. Oscar shipped out from Marseille, France on the ship Taormina and arrived home at New York, USA on 27 June 1919.

Some researchers say that at age 27 Oscar married Stella BROWN. He lived in California at the time but the marriage certificate was in Arkansas. I haven’t done extensive research on this line so I can’t say what really happened. I know that in his obituary no children or wife were listed. Oscar passed away at 80 years of age. He died on 17 February 1973 in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas. He was buried in the Fayetteville National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas.

Doing the Numbers

So, let’s bring this all together. I looked at all my direct line ancestors from my parents up through all of my 2nd great grandparents. The only generation that included twins were my 2nd great grandparents’. Out of 8 sets of 2nd great grandparents, only 3 couples (2 on my mother’s side and 1 on my father’s side) had twins. The paternal set of twins passed away or were stillborn; their names were Lorenzo and William. One set of maternal twins also passed away or were stillborn and included one girl and one boy; I don’t know their names but they were given names. The final set of maternal twins (Alice and Oscar) lived to adulthood and at least one of them had their own offspring but did not have their own set of twins.

According to official statistics:

The gender chances of a fraternal twin pregnancy are; 25% chance that a mother will have two boys, 25% chance that a mother will have two girls, and 50% chance that a mother will have a boy and a girl. On the other hand, identical twins are always the same gender.
https://healthresearchfunding.org/24-interesting-fraternal-twins-gender-statistics/, accessed 28 Feb 2021.

So, according to Health Research Funding, Alice and Oscar were fraternal twins as were the DAVIS twins. Only the paternal twins- Lorenzo and William WILLIAMS- had a chance at being identical twins. I found that very interesting.

I was wondering about what my chances of having twins might have been in my childbearing years. Since 3 out of 8 couples in my 2nd great grandparents’ generation had twins, I felt like statistically I stood a better chance of having twins in my child bearing years. MedlinePlus.gov confirms it as does Washington State Twin Registry. Turns out, fraternal twins- especially if they occur on the mother’s side- are associated with an increased likelihood of twins being hereditary in families. I searched some more and I hit some good information:

A family history of identical twins does not necessarily make it more likely you’ll have multiples, although the offspring of male identical twins may be more likely to have their own identical twins. However, if you have fraternal twins (non-identical) in your family, your chances of conceiving twins rise. If there are fraternal twins on both the mother and father’s side, your odds for twins goes up even higher.
Lazarov S, Lazarov L, Lazarov N. Multiple pregnancy and birth: Twins, triplets and high-order multiples. Overview. Trakia J Sci. 2016;1:103-107. doi:10.15547/tjs.2016.01.015

There are other factors that play a role as well. As it turns out, having children when you’re older increases your odds of having multiple births from one pregnancy. So I went back to my charts to check ages of the mothers. Eliza Emoline was 28 years old when she had Lorenzo and William. Sarah C. was 27 years old when she had her twins. Druziller Mahala was 34 years old when she had Alice and Oscar.

Final Thoughts

One last statistic about twins from Health Research Funding.

A woman named Mary Jonas, who died in 1899 had 15 sets of fraternal twins.
24 Interesting Fraternal Twins Gender Statistics – HRF (healthresearchfunding.org)

I found that tidbit interesting since two sets of the twins I talked about today were born during the 1890’s. I will spare you one last Doublemint commercial. Hopefully the song is now stuck in your head so I don’t have to suffer that fate alone now.

If you’d like to learn more about the BULLOCK family, you can find more of my posts at:

If you’re looking for more blogs to read later in the week, you can go to:

If you’re interested in joining me on this family history writing adventure, well…the more the merrier! You can join at Amy Johnson Crow’s website. There’s a Facebook page that goes along with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. The only rules are the rules you make up for yourself on this writing adventure. Anything you get down in writing is more than you had before so get writing! Don’t miss out on Amy’s blog and podcast either. Both are very good.

Enjoy your week and make the most of it!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives Genealogy blog

Reiter Family: Stowaway Legend

This week’s post discusses a family legend about my 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas Wilhelm REITER.

Obituary photo for Nicholas Wilhelm REITER.

If you’d like to read previous stories about him, you can go to my home page, scroll down and find the search box, type in his name and hit [enter]. That will bring up a list of posts that include information about him. The story my granny (my maternal grandmother and the granddaughter of Nicholas) always told about him is that he immigrated here by stowing away on a ship. I’m not sure how true the story is especially since he would have only been about 5 years old in 1830 when he was said to have immigrated here.

The International Maritime Organization defines a stowaway as,

a person who is secreted on a ship, or in cargo which is subsequently loaded on the ship, without the consent of the shipowner or the Master or any other responsible person and who is detected on board the ship after it has departed from a port or in the cargo while unloading it in the port of arrival, and is reported as a stowaway by the Master to the appropriate authorities.”
https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Facilitation/Pages/Stowaways-Default.aspx

According to an article in The New Yorker, there was no word in the English language for ‘stowaway’ until 1848. Etymonline confirms this information. In 1850, the U.S. created the legal concept of a stowaway. By 1891 there were legal ramifications for shipmasters who were found to have a stowaway. The shipmasters had to pay for the stowaways’ return travel to their country of origin- even if the stowaway was admitted into the U.S. and stayed! Notable people who have made their way to America by stowing away on a ship include silent film actor Henry Armetta, Lindbergh kidnapper Richard Hauptmann, painter Willem de Kooning, writer Jan Valtin, and yachtsman Florentino Das. (Wikipedia)

Immigration in the early 1800’s from Europe to America was difficult. There wasn’t enough of it to justify dedicating resources to it, so immigrants often got rides on merchant vessels- if they were able to pay the fare. Merchant ships weren’t outfitted for passenger transport. To begin their journey, those wanting to immigrate to America had to find a port of departure and in doing so had to consider their route to get to the port, decide which port was closest to their home, but also consider how likely they were to find a ship there that was going to America. As immigration increased, the number of ports of departure available for that purpose began to concentrate in certain areas. Around the time of Nicholas’ departure from Germany, the port of Le Havre, France had become the main point of departure for Europeans.

Camille Pissarro painting of the port of Le Havre, France. Image found at http://impressionistsgallery.co.uk/artists/Artists/pqrs/Pissarro/03.html

To see additional pictures and information about the port of Le Havre, France, go to genhist.org.

South Germans arrived in Le Havre either overland or by sailing from Cologne, Germany.

North Germans also sailed to Le Havre Port. However, the ports of Bremen, Germany and Hamburg, Germany were rising in popularity. In 1832, the heavy immigration from Germany to America began. At this point, passenger transportation became important enough to dedicate resources to building ships designed to carry passengers rather than merchandise. It was around 1816 or so that New York City, New York became the principal arrival point in the U.S. rather than Philadelphia, Pennyslvania. From 1830 on, New York was “the gateway of the nation”. (https://www.gjenvick.com)

Port of New York ca 1890, Currier & Ives. Image found at Loc.gov.

Depending on the time of year and the weather, the voyage from Europe could take from 1 to 2 months. Beginning about 1830, passengers were required to provide food for themselves for 6 weeks. In the summer of 1835, a transport via ship to America was at least $16 U.S. dollars. Ship conditions for people were “a serious menace to life”. (https://www.gjenvick.com) Conditions on ships were so bad and immigrants arrived so ill that by the 1840’s laws were being made to improve conditions. Upon arrival, immigrants were forced to navigate a sea of swindlers and grifters as soon as they stepped onto land. South Germans were among the most swindled of all immigrants because they most often came as individuals or in single families. It reminds me of the phrase “strength in numbers”. North Germans were more likely to come as very large village-groups and were more able to protect themselves and each other. It was so bad that the Germans formed an aid society to help and protect newly arriving German immigrants. John Jacob ASTOR was a primary funder for the German Society of the City of New York. Some states eventually began enacting laws to protect and help new immigrants. Sadly, the swindling worsened exponentially and eventually the Irish immigrants received the worst of it until states stepped up and assisted them. You can read more about what the immigrants endured to get to America by going to https://www.gjenvick.com.

Given Nicholas’ date of immigration, his most likely route to America was from his home in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany to the port at Le Havre, France and from there via ship to New York, New York.

At some point he ended up in Perry, Pike County, Illinois and from there to Oklahoma Territory (most likely arriving shortly after the 1890 land run). It was hard to read what new immigrants went through when I thought of it in terms of my 2nd great grandfather. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the same level of desire to be here- or the same level of courage it took to get here and make a life for myself and my family. Sometimes, people are heroes and we don’t even know it.

Be courageous. Be bold. Live your dreams. They’re worth it.

Love,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

The Late, Late Show

I’ve been working on my family history tonight and I think I’ve made a discovery about my maternal 2nd great grandfather, Nicholas Wilhelm REITER. I want to share it with you and get your thoughts. It concerns the draft during the Civil War.

Civil War draft poster found at the National Archives. This is an example of what one of the draft posters looked like so you can get an idea of what he may have seen posted around town.

I’ve written about Nicholas before and you can find those posts here:

Occupation: Cabinetmaker (The most recent of 4 posts on the old blog at LiveJournal.)
Lost and Found, Part 1 and Part 2 (They’re long. Sorry.)
Reiter and Davis Marriage (This is very much my OLD style of writing- more oriented toward research than telling the stories of my ancestors. Still, it’s worth a look I think.)

Nicholas has been hard to research. He immigrated from Germany with his parents when he was very young according to my granny BATES, but I have not been able to locate immigration records that I’m certain are his. I don’t know who his parents or brothers were and have been unable to locate him in records prior to his marriage to my maternal second great grandmother, Sarah DAVIS REITER. In addition, there are so many ways to spell his last name (and even multiple ways to spell his first name!) that it becomes overwhelming very quickly. (And let me tell you, I get tired of OCR programs hitting on the word ‘typewriter’ and passing that off as a search result for ‘Nicholas Reiter’!) So, I was pretty excited when I found the following article as I’m fairly certain this is him. The first article I found was in German and I’ll post a shortened version of it below. After I’d gone to the trouble of translating it, I found an article in English that was basically the same information. I wish I could say I translated it using my own skills but alas, I used Google translate. I used to be fluent in German after taking 4 years of it in high school but that’s been a very long time ago. German was, however, my favorite foreign language to learn. But I digress…

First, the article in German from the Minnesota Staats-Zeitung out of St. Paul, Minnesota dated 4 June 1864, found at newspapers.com:

Newspaper article written in German indicating Nicholas Reiter’s draft notice into the Civil War.

Here is an article out of the St. Cloud Democrat with basically the same information. I included the whole article here because it only lists Stearns and Morrison Counties as opposed to numerous counties like the article in German. The print is tiny. Sorry about that! If you’re looking for Nicholas’ name, go to the town of Wakefield (right before Morrison County). He’s in the second column right above the glitch or paper crease mark.

Article indicating the draft of Nicholas Reiter into the Civil War.

I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it’s the first new information about Nicholas that I’ve found in a very long time so I was really excited to find these. Hopefully this new information will lead me to more information about him. I would love to get one more generation back on this family line. Feel free to beat me to that research if you want. Just don’t be surprised if I ask you to write a blog post about it!!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Sarah C. Davis Reiter

Sarah C. DAVIS is my maternal 2nd great grandmother. She married Nicholas REITER whom I wrote about here. Sarah passed away in February of 1870 in Illinois. Today I’m honoring her life.
Sarah was born in July of 1836 in Perry Township, Pike County, Illinois. As far as I know, she never left that area. That area is where she was born, where she lived, and where she died. It’s been difficult to find Sarah in records, in part due to the short duration of her life. In the 1850 census (the first one that included details on each and every person residing in a home), Sarah was only 12 years old and living with her parents. I have not been able to find her at all in the 1860 census and in 1870 she passed away before the census was done. There is an 1865 Illinois state census but it doesn’t list each person in the household. One of the most interesting documents found about Sarah was found by my sister-in-law, Becky. She found three affidavits Sarah gave on behalf of her mother, Rachel, when Rachel was applying for John DAVIS’ military pension (John was Rachel’s husband and Sarah’s dad). Sarah gave affidavits stating that her brothers (Charles D., Alpheus B., and Harvey D.) were the legitimate children of John and Rachel DAVIS and she knew this because she was present at their births. Sarah would have been between 16-20 years old when her brothers were born.
THE AFFIDAVITS
58-year-old Rebecca WORK, and 29-year-old Sarah RITER – both residents of Perry Township, Pike County, Illinois – signed an affidavit on 3 May 1867 declaring they were both present at the birth of Charles D. DAVIS (Sarah’s brother) on 31 May 1852.

Affidavit regarding the birth of Charles D. DAVIS. Their handwritten portion of the statement is difficult to read. It says they know the information they swore to “from the fact that we were both present at the house of said John F. Davis and in the presence of said mother Rachel Davis at the time the said Charles D. Davis was born.”
Rebecca and Sarah signed a second affidavit declaring they were both present at the birth of “Alphis B. Davis” (should be spelled Alpheus) on 17 Apr 1854 stating they knew this information “from being present in the house and in the room when and where said Alpheus B. Davis was born.”

Affidavit regarding the birth of Alpheus B. DAVIS.
Dr. Harvey DUNN Jr. and Sarah A. RITER (both residents of Perry Township, Pike County, Illinois) signed the third affidavit declaring they were both present at the birth of Harvey D. Davis on 4 Mar 1857.

Affidavit regarding the birth of Harvey D. DAVIS. Their reason for knowing this information was “from being present and assisting when the said Harvey Davis was born into the world.”
All three children were sworn to be legitimate children of Corporal John F. and Rachel DAVIS.
WAS SHE OR WASN’T SHE?
When I read these affidavits I wondered if Sarah might have been a local midwife. I have no proof that she was or that she wasn’t. Another thought crossed my mind. Sarah died from “Consumption”. You’d know that disease better as Tuberculosis. My thought was whether Sarah contracted Tuberculosis while delivering a baby. I don’t know if that’s possible. That’s just the thought that crossed my mind. She was present at the births of her brothers from age 16 until the last recorded sibling of hers was born. She attended these births with another older woman for the 1852 and 1854 births. I have tried researching Rebecca WORK but have not made much progress. My goal was to find out if she was a relative, a local midwife, a good friend, etc.. I can’t answer for any of these possibilities at this point. While researching I did find a biography for Dr. Harvey DUNN, Jr. If you’re interested, you can read it on Google Books in the book, History of Pike County, Illinois or on FindAGrave website.
Just an FYI, Rachel (Sarah’s mom) did have another child in 1853- a boy named Jonathon. Because of the wording in the pension paperwork that Rachel filed, I believe that this child died prior to the filing of the pension paperwork.
In February of 1870 Sarah died of Tuberculosis. My niece read a book when she was younger entitled, Breathing Room by Marsha Hayles. It’s about a young girl who contracts Tuberculosis and moves to a sanitorium to be cured. Now that I’m thinking about that book, it makes me think that perhaps Sarah was in a sanitorium in 1860 and that’s why I can’t find the family on the census. Isn’t it funny what types of things give us an inspirational idea like that? I think I’ll go research that angle now and maybe see if I can check out that book, too. I’m so thankful for modern medicine. If you’re sick, go to the doctor! There are so many people in your life that would miss you and need you if you were gone. Do it for them if that’s what you need to do. This illness that’s currently going around is nothing to mess with and in Nevada a woman died recently from a Superbug that we have no medicines to treat. Don’t take chances with your health. We need you here!

Stay healthy until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

I Love a New Year

Each year I try to close out the old year with a recap of the year’s goals and my progress toward those goals. Then I begin the new year with a new set of goals. The close of 2015 and opening of 2016 was rocky to say the least and the blog was definitely not at the top of the list. But, it’s the weekend and I’m trying (unsuccessfully) to get warm by sitting on the couch under a blanket and in front of the heater. So why not write that post now.
Last year’s goals:
1. To learn more about my great-great-great-grandmother’s family (Mary Elizabeth LANE). (Research goal)
2. To blog consistently using No Story Too Small’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge as an inspiration. I will be doing this alongside my sister-in-law who will be using the same challenge and blogging at Down in the Root Cellar. (Writing goal)
3. To start over in reviewing and organizing my family history utilizing ideas from Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do-Over Challenge. (Organizing goal)
4. To share some of the family history and research with relatives by publishing. To help me with this I’ll be attending Thomas MacEntee’s and Lisa Alzo’s Genealogy Self-Publishing Bootcamp online. (Sharing goal)
5. To attend a conference/workshop/educational event. This year’s choice is Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas 2015. I’ll be attending with my mom and hopefully my sister-in-law. (Self-Improvement Goal)

Goal #1 (research) Learn more about Mary Elizabeth LANE’s mother.
BIG WIN!! I blogged about the LARKIN-LANE families several times this year and was so fortunate to even get to take two short trips to Ohio to research the families. It seems like each year when I advertise my goals to the universe, somehow those goals come to fruition to some degree. I love that! My very first blog post about Mary Elizabeth LANE LARKIN was posted on 25 April 2012. After that post (and sometime before the next post that included her) I made a second trip to locate the cemetery in which she was buried and the area in which she lived (Camp Bliss Hollow, Barry County, Missouri). I spoke with the woman who owns the property and she did not have any knowledge of a cemetery on or near her property. I went armed with a map of the location. I also had copies of photographs of the probable location of the cemetery thinking it might be possible to visually identify at least the general location of the cemetery. (I was wrong, in case you’re wondering.)

Camp Bliss Hollow map

You can see the photos I took with me here. (McDowell Mill Cemetery dowsing photos and a photo of the Old McDowell Mill.)
The information above was what I took with me on the second trip to McDowell, Barry County, Missouri. I feel I got much closer to the gravesite but was ultimately unsuccessful. I’d like to return and try again some day- maybe when I have time to talk to some local researchers and learn more about the area. You can find the gravesite and mill photos plus a little extra information about the family at this link. I have tried contacting Donna Haddock Cooper who hosts the link and photos but she did not respond. (Just for the record- I never found that rattlesnake again. Thank God!)
On 18 July 2015 I wrote about the LARKIN family. The post included a tiny amount of general information about the LANE family as well as information and history about the area in which they lived in Ohio. I haven’t yet written about what I learned about the LANE family on my 2016 trips to Ohio but I will hopefully write about that soon. But back to the research goal to find the mother of Mary Elizabeth LANE- the answer is Nancy CONKWRIGHT LANE. This information comes from Ancestry.com but I am confident enough in the information to post it here. I am continuing to research the family and, in case you are wondering, her father’s name is James LANE.

Goal #2 (writing): To blog consistently using No Story Too Small’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge as an inspiration.
I’d call this a win, especially compared to the previous two years on the blog. I did great until the last month of school when everything was going haywire at work and I was just hanging in there trying to survive. I recovered a little in June but was never quite able to catch up. In July I became obsessed with learning the true story of Theodore Clay LARKIN and that pretty much completely derailed the process as it took me about 2 months of research to write the blog post. Starting in June through to the end of the year I did quite a bit of traveling when I wasn’t at work. So after the August blog post about Theodore, I only got in two more (long and very involved) blog posts about Nicholas REITER. Nicholas was the subject of my 2012 research goal. Better late than never, right? It just so happened that in 2015 Bart worked a job in Woodward, Woodward County, Oklahoma which provided me opportunities to go down on the weekends to visit him and also get in some very productive research time. See? The universe DOES listen. 🙂 So- I’m calling this win #2 for 2015.

Goal #3 (organizing): To start over in reviewing and organizing my family history utilizing ideas from Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do-Over Challenge.
Yeah…total fail. I am still following this challenge’s Facebook group though and I will eventually get to it. (Because the universe really does listen, right?!)

I’m 2-1 going into Goal #4 (sharing): To share some of the family history and research with relatives by publishing. To help me with this I’ll be attending Thomas MacEntee’s and Lisa Alzo’s Genealogy Self-Publishing Bootcamp online.
I wasn’t able to get into the online Bootcamp so that failed almost immediately. Once again, I didn’t get anything published in 2015. I’m going to have to work harder on that this year. However, if I count this blog as “publishing”, I at least got that done. So this one is just going to cancel itself out. I didn’t publish in the format or way that I wanted/intended but I did get a lot of the stories out there in a public forum and that’s important.

So we’re still 2-1 going into the final goal (self-improvement): To attend a conference/workshop/educational event. This year’s choice is Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas 2015. I’ll be attending with my mom and hopefully my sister-in-law.
BIG WIN!! I was able to attend this conference with my mom and had a great time. I went to one workshop where I got a sample of a product called D/2 to clean gravestones. It was fantastic!! See before and after photos below of one of the SEELY gravestones that we cleaned.

Charles Seely's gravestone ~ 'before' photo in May, 2015. — Charles Seely’s gravestone ~ ‘before’ photo in May, 2015.

This was Charles SEELY’s gravestone in May of 2015. (His wife Synthia SEELY’s was even worse!) This is what the stone looked like before we cleaned it with D/2 (above).

Charles Seely's gravestone ~ 'after' photo taken two weeks after the previous photo. — Charles Seely’s gravestone ~ ‘after’ photo taken two weeks after the previous photo.

^^This was Charles SEELY’s stone approximately two weeks after we sprayed it with D/2.

Charles Seely's gravestone in December, 2015 ~ approximately 7 months after the initial cleaning with D/2. — Charles Seely’s gravestone in December, 2015 ~ approximately 7 months after the initial cleaning with D/2.

^^This was Charles SEELY’s stone in December, 2015. Looks great, doesn’t it?! D/2 is biodegradable and is used by monument conservationists. I was introduced to the product by conservationist Rusty Brenner. You can learn more about his business and purchase D/2 from him here.
So I say goodbye to 2015 which happened to be a fabulous genealogy year. And I usher in 2016 which, frankly, hasn’t been a good year so far- but we won’t muck up the blog with all that.

So here is 2016 in 200 words or less. (It’s less- so keep reading.)
Goals:
1. To learn who my great-great-great grandfather Charles SEELY’s parents were. (Research goal)
2. To blog at least once per month. I think that is a much more achievable goal to create as full and complete of a story as possible. My goal is to have more interesting and complete stories versus a quick introduction. Also, to convert some of my blog stories to articles and try to get them published in small local or specialized genealogical or historical publications. (Combined writing and sharing goals)
3. To start over in reviewing and organizing my family history utilizing ideas from Thomas MacEntee’s Genealogy Do-Over Challenge. (Organizing goal- keeping the same goal since I didn’t meet it last year.) You can learn more about the challenge here.
4. To attend a conference/workshop/educational event. This year’s choice is Family History Conference of Northwest Arkansas 2016 (same as last year). It’s a free event with some good workshops. If you’re interested you can find more information here. (Self-Improvement Goal)
So there you go, universe. Let’s make it happen. (Also- a better year than what I’ve had so far would be totally awesome. Thanks.)

~ Lisa at Days of Our Lives

Plowing Through the Lean Times

John C. Bates (1817- 21 July 1863)
When I started drafting this blog post I was not planning on writing about my 2nd great-grandfather, John C. BATES. Nope. I was going to tell you about my great-grandfather Nicholas Wilhelm REITER. Both of these men are my ancestors on my mother’s side. I’m very proud of both men for very different reasons. The theme this week was “plowing through” and I wanted to tell you how Nicholas persevered through some difficult situations in his life and how late in life he became a cabinet maker and I wanted to show you pictures of a circa-1900 plow plane similar to what he likely used in his work. One day- I’ll finish that post and publish it. But today, I want to tell you about “plowing through” all the dead ends until you finally hit pay dirt.
It was getting late tonight when I was trying to write the original post and I don’t write well when I’m tired but I couldn’t go to bed yet either. So I switched tactics and began browsing through Ancestry.com. I decided to click on one of my “brick walls”- John C. BATES. I didn’t expect to find anything that I hadn’t already found a hundred times. There was no “little leaf” telling me Ancestry had found new hints for me. It was just a routine “I’ll try one more time because I’m bored and tired and have nothing better to do” try. As has happened so many times- and always when I least expect it- one of those routine “tries” netted me some much-needed and long-sought-for bits of information.
Before we get there though, let me back up and fill you in on who John is to me. John C. BATES is my second great-grandfather. I’m almost certain his middle name is Columbus as that is a name that has been handed down through the generations. John’s son was George Columbus BATES. George’s grandson was Troy Columbus BATES. So it stands to reason that John’s middle name was most likely Columbus as well. I always surmised that John died while fighting in the Civil War. I lost track of him in the records around that time and he never re-appeared. It was a hunch that I could never prove.
John was born about 1818 in Georgia. In 1840 he was living in Murray County, Georgia which is just south of the Georgia-Tennessee state line. That was also the year he married Mary Jane MOBLEY. In the 10 years between census enumerations, they had three children together- Martha, Greenberry, and Washington. In 1850 they were in East Chickamauga, Walker County, Georgia but by 1856 they had moved to Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia where they had my great-grandfather, George. As far as I know, they lived in Murray County, Georgia when John died. I previously believed John died between 1860 and 1862.

Portrait of Mary (Mobley) Bates Brinegar.

Mary Jane MOBLEY BATES BRINEGAR
In 1868, Mary married Paul BRINEGAR and they remained in Murray County, Georgia until sometime between 1870 and 1880. In 1880, the family was living in Benton County, Arkansas where Mary remained until her death. Mary is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hiwasse, Benton County, Arkansas. One story my granny always told me that I have neither proved nor disproved is that George walked behind a wagon all the way from Georgia to Arkansas when the family moved to Arkansas.
Now to the exciting find on Ancestry.com tonight! I found the following story tonight that finally explained John’s death and why it has been so difficult to find information about his death and burial.

John BATES
When a man and wife both have very common names it is difficult to
determine exactly who they were and which families they came from.
This John BATES was born about 1817 in Georgia. His wife, Mary
BATES, was born about 1822.
The Census of 1860 listed the household as: John BATES, age 43;
Mary BATES, age 38; Green B. BATES, age 18; and Columbus BATES,
age 4. They used the post office at Fancy Hill.
Records in the Murray County Courthouse listed John BATES
(or BAITS), with service that began November 1861. While a member
of Company F, 3rd Confederate (Whorton Brigade), Army of Tennessee,
was captured at Tullahoma, Tennessee. He was taken to Rock Island
Prison, in Illinois and died there while a prisoner-of-war. Confederate
Army records listed him as John BAITS.
A transcription (also found on the Ancestry website) of Civil War records states,
JOHN BATES (Private). Service began November 1861. First known
as Company C, 3rd Confederate, then reorganized into Company F, 3rd
Confederate, Whorton Brigade, Army of Tennessee. Captured at Tullahoma,
Tennessee, during fighting in that area from January 2 to September 10,
1863. Died while a prisoner-of war at Rock Island Prison, Illinois.
Preceding was copied from records in Murray County Courthouse, with
spelling of battles and place names corrected as needed and dates of
engagements added. Military service records contain this information:
John Baits, Company F, 3rd Confederate Cavalry. Murray County
Census of 1860, visitation #720, shows John Bates, age 43, wife Mary,
used post office at Fancy Hill.
I just made this discovery late tonight so I have not had time to further research it. There is a lot left to learn. There is a conflict in the dates given in the above transcriptions and the official opening date for Rock Island Prison. (Just so you know- Rock Island was the Yankee version of the Confederates’ Andersonville Prison. It was the worst possible place for a Confederate soldier to go.) I’m hoping to clear up some of the confusion in the near future. In the meantime, I will leave you with some photographs and links to information about Rock Island Prison.
Click here to read a personal account from a former Rock Island Prisoner.

Rock Island Confederate Cemetery, Rock Island, Illinois.

Click here to look at the official National Park Service website about Rock Island Confederate Cemetery.
I am looking forward to learning where Rock Island prisoners were buried and other information about Rock Island prison and John BATES’ service during the Civil War. I am looking forward to finding my own way to say ‘thank you’ to POW Private John C. Bates of Company F, 3rd Confederate Cavalry, Whorton Brigade, Army of Tennessee- a man who fought for something he believed in and fought to keep his family safe.
So tonight I encourage you to plow through all your dead ends and all those endless genealogies and records that don’t seem to be the right ones. Plow through those websites, lists of researchers and potential relatives to contact “one day”, and all those notes and copies you’ve made. The only people who are guaranteed to never break through their brick wall ancestral lines are those who stop looking. Don’t be that person!
Be sure to click on over to these blogs for more great stories! Down in the Root Cellar and Theology for Mom.

Until next week,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Resolutions

It’s been a very long time since I posted anything. 2011-2013 were very difficult years. We’ve been blessed with additions of 3 grandsons but we’ve lost many loved ones during 2011-2013. Nonetheless, God chooses our paths and we trust his goodness and mercy.
I wanted to get back to posting new year’s resolutions pertaining to my genealogy. It seems like there is always some serendipitous find after I post my goals to the universe. I love that! I fashioned my goal-setting from Amy Coffin’s The We Tree Genealogy Blog at http://wetree.blogspot.com/. I did add one type of goal to her suggestions- a sharing goal.
In 2012, my genealogy goals are:
1. To learn more about my great-great-grandfather’s family (Nicholas Wilhelm Reiter)(Research goal)
2. To blog consistently. (Writing goal)
3. To scan in at least some of my proof documents (B/M/D, census, etc)(Organizing goal)
4. To share some of the family history and research with relatives (Sharing goal)
Previous research goals have been met by the above-mentioned serendipitous finds. My previous writing and organizing goals have been hit-and-miss as far as completion. My sharing goals could be increased. So there you have it. Good luck with your own goals and I invite you to post them here.
~Lisa

Tag: Nicholas Wilhelm Reiter

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