Carr & Causier on FindAGrave

I've spent a lot of time on Find A Grave lately.  This post is the first of probably several about my finds. For some locations, especially Vermont, FindAGrave has become a necessary part of my search regimen.  

For my Carr / Causier lines, my grandmother and all 4 of her direct ancestors who immigrated to the USA are at FindAGrave with bio info and photos of the markers!  Each memorial page includes links to immediate family also at FindAGrave.

I can use the photo of the Carr niche here because I'm the volunteer who took the photo and submitted it to FindAGrave.  Photos from FindAGrave can only be used with the specific permission of the submitter/photographer.

Here are links to my Carr & Causier ancestors at FindAGrave:

My grandmother
Bertha Maud (Carr) Causier

Bertha's father, John Henry Carr
Bertha's mother, Ann Matilda (Causier) Carr 

Ann's father,  Charles Causier 
Ann's mother,  Catherine (Hughes) Causier

Many, many thanks to all the other volunteers at FindAGrave who make all this possible! 

Founders Memorial Park: History to be Repaired!

For a little over a year, I have been volunteering with Find A Grave, answering people's photo requests for cemeteries near here.  I enjoy it a great deal and people are always very appreciative.  I hope it, at least partially, repays the kindness of all the volunteers who have fulfilled my requests across the nation.

One of the first requests I received was for a cemetery in the city of Whittier that I had never, ever heard of and that was supposedly in the same neighborhood as my dentist's office.  How could that be?

Long story short: Founders Memorial Park, aka Whittier Cemetery, was actually two adjacent cemeteries near Uptown Whittier that were abandoned by the 1930s.    The earliest burials were from the early 1880s and continued until at least the 1930s (and possibly into the 1950s).  In 1968, the city took over and eventually made them into a beautiful park of about 4 acres.  Attempts were made to contact family members.  Remaining headstones are now kept at the Whittier Museum.  The museum website includes a brief story of the cemeteries and a listing of all the known burials.  I had been driving by this park every six months and had no idea of its history!

Each cemetery is commemorated with a large,  double-sided memorial. There are a few benches and some paved pathways.  It was purposely kept simple and meditative.  There are no picnic tables, no playgrounds, and no ball courts ... just lots of older trees and the very appropriate memorials.

The memorials feature large bronze plaques with the names of those who are buried at the site.  Unfortunately, just a few days before my first visit to the site, vandals had defaced one side of the Mount Olive memorial and stolen the title plaque and 5 of the name plaques, probably for their metal value.  In my September 2012 photo showing the defaced side, you can see how lovely the overall park is and you can make out the Broadway Cemetery memorial in the distance.


But driving by for my dentist's appointment in November 2012, something didn't look right from the road. I parked to investigate and was extremely saddened and very angry to see that the remainder of the plaques had been stolen and both memorials attacked ... for lack of another word.  Here is what was left of the 4 sides of the 2 memorials:

I was so very upset. Last month, though, there was finally some good news!  The city of Whittier has just made their budget for 2013-2014, and although it will require going into the reserves, repair of the Founder's Memorial Park memorials has been approved.  The estimate is that repairs will cost $50,000 (boy, that seems low...) and insurance may cover some of it.  The newspaper article did not say how or if the repairs will attempt to prevent such damage in the future....

Great Connection: Homer Porter & Dolly Ann Bates

A great day!  I'll spare you all the details, but recent "Member Connect Activity" at ancestry.com has led me to a "new" cousin, Marla, and her incredible photos of my great-great-grandparents Homer Thomas PORTER and Dolly Ann BATES!

Dolly Ann (10 Sep 1823 Westford, Chittenden, Vermont  - 1892 Great Falls, Cascade, Montana) was the daughter of Norton Bates and Betsey Sweet.  [There is no proven connection between these two Bates women: this Abigail is a Bates in the Clement Bates line, while Dolly Ann is in the Edward of Weymouth, Massachusetts line.]

Homer Thomas Porter (20 Nov 1813 - 24 Dec 1903, both Colchester, Chittenden, Vermont) was the son of Thomas Porter and Abigail Bates.   He married Dolly Ann Bates 11 Sep 1845 in Essex, Chittenden, Vermont.  

Thank you, Marla, for posting these photos and for permission to crop them for use here.  I look forward to a long and rewarding partnership with you!  You have made my month!!

While I'm on this couple and from our 2004 trip to Vermont: I am confident that this stone from the Malletts Bay Cemetery (Colchester, Chittenden, Vermont) commemorates Homer and his siblings, Ashbel and Sally (who married Horace H. Johnson).  Homer's Vermont death record and probate file (both available at familysearch.org) makes it pretty clear that the death date on the stone is incorrect and that 1903 is much more likely.  (A more legible image by Barb Destromp exists at findagrave.com)

Headstones: John D. & Isabella Richardson

One of the very special treats during my trip to Missouri last June was Cousin Donald taking us to see the headstones of John D. Richardson and Isabella Shaw, our great-great-grandparents.  This photo shows the whole plot with a glimpse of the intersection where the stones are located.  The map excerpt is a portion of Morgan County. Cousin Donald made the red annotations and gave me this copy.  (The red rectangle gives the general location of the land where I took the 2 photos of John Richardson's land and shared in an earlier post.)  The red circle shows the location of the plot where these headstones are.  Comparing the map to the photo, you can actually pinpoint the location given the roads!  That's handy because there are no signs.

As I remember Cousin Donald  telling me....  Many years ago, after he had found these stones and was photographing them, an "oldtimer" stopped to see who Donald was and what he was doing there.  Donald told of his family relationship and that Donald had even grown-up nearby.  The oldtimer hesitated for a few moments and then proceeded to tell Donald that the graves were not actually here: the gravesites had been "down by the creek!" The oldtimer and another neighbor had moved the headstones because pigs were constantly wallowing in the mud along the creek and repeatedly knocking over the stones.  Tired of uprighting them and fearing the stones would eventually break, the men had moved the headstones up to this location many years earlier.

Even with two men helping me, it was still hard to get good photos with all the vegetation around the stones.  The stone of the left commemorates both John and Isabella.


The center stone commemorates only Isabella.  We suspect that it was the stone made at her death.  The deterioration is evident; parts of the stone are very hard to read.  But is possible to see that it does name her as Isabella Shaw, wife of John D. Richardson.

The third stone in the grouping commemorates John's second wife, Nancy Jane Krues.  She is something of a mystery to me. Some people, including Donald, even have her name as Nancy Jane Bowles.  Clearly, I need to do more research!  Overall, I haven't done much research on other spouses of people from whom I descend.  But recently it has occurred to me that I cherish all my great-greats and I should also cherish those whom they married, whether I descend from them or not.

Sadly, there is a small, hidden stone between the two women's stones for 'Infant Richardson.'  We cannot make out the second line at all and have no idea who it represents.  And, knowing that the stones have been moved, the placement is not even a guarantee that the infant belonged to any of these Richardson's.  It bothers me a great deal to have unidentified children.

Going back to the first photo of the whole plot, the closest marker is for Margaret Beaman, wife of N. Beaman.  I don't know how she fits with the Richardson's. Given that the marker is apparently from about the same time as that of John's and Nancy's, and that it ended up here, I'm assuming there is some connection.  I guess that's more research to do!

Isn't that what always happens?  I find something wonderful, but now I have more questions and more to research...!

Richardson spots in Missouri

Here are just a few photos in Morgan County from my great trip to Missouri.  With cousins Donald and Linda as our personal guides, it was easy to see things we could never have found by ourselves.  We spent several hours in the community room (which you can just barely see behind the church) at a Richardson reunion, meeting dozens of third-cousins for the first time.

The Glensted Church was established in 1888.  Great-grandmother Margaret had moved away by then, but great-great-grandfather John D. Richardson was still nearby and very active.  He may not have worshiped here, but he certainly would have been going by here!

The Glensted Cemetery is just across the road from the church.  If facing the cemetery, and then turning right , you'd see:

 Below is a shot of the property once owned by great-great-grandfather John D. Richardson.  I started to cry as I took this photo, filled with thoughts that my great-great-grandfather had been here and now I was, too.

His property continued on to the other side of the current "road."  Both parcels are about 6 miles from the Glensted Church.

I took this photo of the Versailles, Morgan County Court House on Sunday afternoon while standing in the middle of the road.  There is certainly no civic center in greater Los Angeles county where I could have taken such a photo with no people in it nor any cars to dodge!

It was a wonderful trip!  When I started my genealogy research, I didn't know I had Richardson ancestors, let alone that they were from Missouri.  Best of all, I have now met my dear friends, Donald and Linda, face to face.  That they happen to be my cousins is icing on the cake!  And, that Donald is a generous and incredibly thorough genealogist makes it double-thick, chocolate fudge frosting!

Unexpected Gift from a Great Blogger

Bill West, of The Old Colony Graveyard Rabbit, recently posted lovely photos of the "Olde Beechwood Burial Ground"  in Cohasset, Massachusetts.  One photo that caught my eye turned out to be the headstone of my 5th great-grand-aunt, Sarah Bates, who died at about the age of 11 in 1737.

I know Bill also contributes to FindaGrave.com, so I quickly clicked over to their site and found out that Bill had indeed already submitted a photo and annotation for Sarah's father, Joshua Bates.  Thank you, thank you, Bill!

Thanks to Bill, I now have burial locations for both Joshua and Sarah!  I like filling in blanks in my database!  Now, I wonder if Bill West and I are related....

For Veteran's Day: Uncle Mickey

He died before I was born and the family did not talk much about my uncle Mickey. I just remember that it seemed a difficult topic for them. The great sense of sadness was a constant. Over the years, I learned from them that he had died in World War II in something to do with a plane crash. Much later, as I became more serious about formal genealogy, researching Uncle Harry became one of my goals.

A LITTLE ABOUT UNCLE MICKEY
Uncle Mickey was the fourth child of Benjamin Theodore Hegwer and his wife, Bertha Maud Carr. Mickey was born in 1918 at the Lifton Power Station where Ben worked and a house at the station came with the job. I have very few photos of the family while they were there in the Bear Lake, Idaho area, but this one is a favorite from May 1925 on 'the old canal at little dirt dam' at Lifton -- Herb, Wyla, Ray, Mickey, Lelia (left to right).


His name was really Harry Albert, but I didn't know that until I was an adult. A sister-in-law said he was very handsome and a good tennis player. A sister says "his name was really 'Henry' but no one ever, ever called him that." I have never seen it on a document, but 'Henry' is a family forename in each of his parent's families. By the time I had real questions to ask, there was no one left who knew how they got 'Mickey.'

Years later, after moving to Los Angeles, the family lived near the Stapp family, whose son 'Babe', was an Indy 500 driver. 'Pop' Stapp took quite a liking to Mickey and he accompanied them to Indianapolis at least once. I remember seeing Aunt Barbara's photos of Mickey at Indy with a race car (I wish I had a copy of the photo). This one is Mickey and 'Pop' Stapp in their front yard, circa late 1930s; I don't know what they were celebrating.

At 5'8" and 145 lbs., Uncle Mickey enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on 15 November 1941 at Fort McArthur, Los Angeles County, California [1]. He served in the Sixth Air Force [2], earning at least 2 medals [3,4], but was with the First Air Force at the time of his death.

A request for his compiled military records received two responses: there was nothing more to request and that I wasn't a close enough relation to request it anyway. There may be more info there, but I think what I found next will be enough for me.

SEARCHING FOR THE CRASH
A very brief Los Angeles Times article about the plane crash gave me, for the first time, a date and a location: 8 January 1944, a crash into the James River of Virginia [5]. When the article was posted to the AP, Uncle Mickey and one other man were still missing while 9 crew members were being treated for exposure. I had never considered that there would have been other men involved in a crash! With all this new information, I was able to do a more thorough internet search and found an article in the "The News" of Frederick, Maryland of January 10 [6] and the same article in the Frederick Post on the next day. This article listed Uncle Mickey and 3 other crew members by name. I am purposely omitting the names of all the crew. It is possible that the crash survivors are still living and the subject could be a difficult one for them or their families.

I also found Uncle Mickey in an online obituary index for the Alexandria, Virginia library. For a very small fee, they sent me a copy of the front page item from the Alexandria Gazette of 13 Jan 1944. The librarian also included a very nice letter naming the other newspapers she had searched on her own and several suggestions of other things to try. ( I have had very good experiences with local libraries and their services. Writing this blog entry reminds me that I should write more often to local libraries even when I have not found anything from them online.)

Using the pilot's name in a few different search engines, I found the crash listed at the Aviation Archaeological Investigation & Research website. They showed the plane as a B24, serial number 42-7339. The site had lots of general info about accident reports, which was all very new to me. Uncle Mickey's name also showed up at Accident-Report.com, specializing in military aviation accident reports. I could order a specific report from them, but I first decided to see if I could find it another way.

Coincidentally at about this time, one of the genealogy societies in my area had a guest presentation by the local NARA archivist. He listened to my brief question about military crash reports and he suggested I check the national NARA website for their military specialist. While I couldn't find a specific reference to such a specialist at their extensive site, I did find an email address for something they now call "Find and Request" and sent off my question about finding crash or accident reports from WWII.

They responded the very same day that such records were held at the Air Force Historical Research Agency in Alabama. Who knew?! While NARA had included a postal contact address, I went online to see what I could find. Quickly, I had a new email address and dashed off another query that Friday. While I expected a general reply about how to order a search, on Monday I received a short email that just asked me to include a mailing address since they could not send reports by email. No order form, no fee, no wait: I had the 19-page document in my hands 5 days later. Here's an excerpt of the first page.


THE CRASH
It's been 3 years since I received the accident report and it is still difficult for me to review it. The report lists the entire crew and lots of detail about the plane and its flight history. Signed, individual statements from each of the 9 survivors make up the bulk of the pages.

Very generally, they took off for a training mission, encountered bad weather, and the instructor pilot gave orders to abandon ship; he was one of the first off the plane and 6 other crew parachuted with him. The problem was that one of the crew had spilled his parachute all over the flight deck and could not jump. By the time the student pilot and one last crew got to the bomb door, Uncle Mickey and the crew member without a 'chute were the only other ones left on board. Crew statements said that Uncle Mickey refused to jump since the other man couldn't. The student pilot decided to try to land the plane and went for the nearby James River, wheels up. He and the engineer were picked up by fishing boats. The man who could not jump was found in the river later, dead. Uncle Mickey's body was found still wedged in the wreckage when the plane was recovered later.

There was an accident review board and their summary is signed by a major and 4 captains. There had been a relatively minor mechanical failure, but the instructor pilot was found 90% responsible for the crash and loss of life for 3 reasons: he could have turned back when the mechanical failure was first discovered; he should have stayed with his crew and made more effort; and if he had checked the weather conditions properly, he would have known that flying only 15 mintues north would have taken them all out of the bad weather. As far as I know, Mickey's family was not given any of this information at the time of his death.

Uncle Mickey is buried at Forest Lawn Glendale, as are two of his brothers and one set of his grandparents. It's a beautiful view from his grave site, surrounded by tall, stately trees.

CONCLUSIONS
It's good to keep talking with family about what I find. It seems that with each of my 'finds,' they remember more than they had been able to tell me earlier. And, talking about one thing always leads to more or new info on other subjects.

Attending presentations at local genealogy groups can give an opportunity to talk with experts in all sorts of fields. Libraries near where events occurred can have information and be of other help. Sending an email to a government agency and asking questions can also be very helpful. Using more than one search engine can be useful, too.

Uncle Mickey's life was brief but he still left quite a story. I still feel the sadness, but not from knowing nothing at all.


SOURCES
Grave marker photo by MHD; children photo in MHD collection

[1] NARA - Access to Archival Databases: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946, Record Group 64; online at aad.archives.gov, entry for Harry A. Hegwer, downloaded 19 Dec 2005. Image at ancestry.com: US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946; cites NARA Record Group 64.

[2] Something About Everything Military: The Sixteen Air Forces, online at www.jcs-group.com/military/aaforces.html, downloaded 31 Aug 2005. "Sixth Air Force -- Constituted as Panama Canal AF on 19 Oct 1940. Activated in the Canal Zone on 20 Nov 1940. Redesignated Caribbean AF in Aug 1941, and Sixth AF in Feb 1942. Served primarily in defense of the Panama Canal; also engaged in antisubmarine operations. Campaigns: Antisubmarine, American Theater."

[3] Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug 1943, p. 5. Online through ProQuest Historical Newspapers. "Air Medal Goes to 78 Army Men - Washington, Aug. 3. The War Department tonight announced awards of the Air Medal to 78 officers and enlisted men of the United States Army 6th Air Force assigned to the Caribbean Defense Command for long-range antisubmarine patrol flights over the Pacific and Caribbean area. Those decorated include ... Sergt. Harry A. Hegwer, gunner, Alhambra, ... ." (Uncle Mickey was one of 4 men listed in this brief article)

[4] Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug 1943, p. A20. Online through ProQuest Historical Newspapers. "Southlanders Win Air Medals on Four Fronts - More names of Southern California fighters appeared yesterday in a War Department list, which had been transmitted ... Awards of the Air Medal to the following California men with the 6th Air Force in the Caribbean, also were announced: ... Sergt. Harry A. Hegwer of Alhambra, ...." (Thirty men were listed in this article, from Australian, Caribean, South Pacific, and Sicilian operations.)

[5] Los Angeles Times, 11 Jan 1944, p. A. Online through ProQuest Historical Newspapers. "Two of Bomber Crew Missing After Crash -- Langley Field (Va.) Jan. 10 (AP) -- Two members of the crew of a four-engined bomber from Langley Field were missing and nine others were suffering from shock and exposure after their plane crashed in the James River near here Saturday, the Army announced today. One of the missing is listed as Staff Sgt. Henry A. Hegwer, 25, of 1913 Princess St., Alhambra, Cal." [NOTE: the street name should be 'Primrose;' that was Grandma Bertha's house and is still there.]

[6] The News (Frederick, Maryland), 10 Jan 1944, p. 1, col 6. Online at NewspaperArchive.com.

Great-Grandparents John Carr & Annie Matilda Causier

This is one of my photos of All Saints' Church in Whitwood, Yorkshire. My great grandfather John CARR and great grandmother Ann Matilda CAUSIER were married here 129 years ago today. There is also a photo of it at the GENUKI site. (When I first found the church at this site, the page was labeled 'Whitwood' and the photo 'All Saints' Church, Whitwood. I don't know why they have changed the titles.)

This copy of their marriage certificate was among the things my dad left. I don't know where he got it, but I suspect it was from cousin Judy. As you can see, the 10 October 1880 wedding was performed by Jno. Jas. (JJ) Needham, Rector of All Saints'.


The 1881 English census was just a few months after John and Annie's wedding. It show them living in Castleford, West Yorkshire, which is about one mile from Whitwood.


The family of John's parents, William and Jane (ETHELL) CARR are nearby in Whitwood, interestingly just 4 entries away from Rector Needham. Also, the way I've cropped the census image, you can see William and Jane's son, Grice Ethell Carr who was one of the witnesses for his brother's wedding.


In September 2006, my husband and I were able to travel briefly to England and see part of Yorkshire. My research had led me to fourth cousin Val, who still lives in the area. She and her husband were wonderful tour guides and showed us places we could never have found by ourselves. While Whitwood, in general, is understandably much changed, the church is still there! What is left of the church cemetery is nearby, but very few headstones remain.
After approaching one of the Whitwood headstones, I was surprised to read that it was that of Rector Needham.


An inscription for his mother is on the left side of the large marker. He is not an ancestor of mine, but it is somehow touching that I could photograph a headstone for a stranger whose name I had seen in old records. I have not found any record that Rector Needham ever left descendants and I wonder if anyone else will ever search for him or his mother.

Great-grandparents John and Annie CARR appear to have left for America between 1887 and 1889, joining Annie's parents and siblings in the greater Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. In contrast to that of the man who married them, their burial niche in Glendale, California, is marked by a small plaque. Their youngest daughter, also named Annie, is with them.


SOURCES
Photos and marriage certificate copy: MHD collection

1881 England Census excerpt #1: England, Yorkshire, Castleford, District 17, p. 31 from ancestry.com

1881 England Census excerpt #2: England, Yorkshire, Whitwood, District 4, p. 6 from ancestry.com

Carr interment location: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California;
Great Mausoleum, Dahlia Terrace, Columbarium of the Graces, #11686