Playing Clue Game with Genealogical Documents

The year end holidays present a perfect opportunity to entertain ourselves with games and puzzles. One of my favorite games is Clue: The Classic Detective Game.  The object of the game is to solve a murder mystery by finding clues about the identity of the murderer, where the crime took place, and which weapon was used. Each player assumes the role of one of the six suspects, and attempts to deduce the correct answer by strategically moving around a game board representing the rooms of a mansion and collecting clues about the circumstances of the murder from the other players.  When you have collected sufficient clues you can announce that it was Professor Plum, in the Hall, with the revolver!

Genealogists are detectives that collect clues from historic documents.  Many of those clues will lead to other documents that help us to deduce the facts about our ancestors.  Who were they?  How did they arm themselves to make a living?  Where did they live, work and socialize?  The clues to answer these questions are found in genealogical and historical documents.  Names, occupations, dates and places are clues that help us identify the most likely suspects of our family history.

Some people get excited about receiving holiday cards in the mail.  I get excited when I receive an envelope with a vital record for an ancestor.  On December 15, I mailed a check for $5.00 to the State of Louisiana, Secretary of State for the Death Certificate of Price Bishop 1890-1955.  On December 17 a staff researcher at the Vital Record office found the death certificate and put it in the mail to me on the same day.  I was really excited about how quick and inexpensive it was to order a death certificate from Louisiana.

The death certificate for Price Bishop contained some amazing clues about his identity and his last days in New Orleans.  These clues lead me to other documents and images which help to illustrate his life.  Let's use this death certificate as an example of how to analyze clues in historic documents.

Death Certificate of Price Bishop 1890-1955

Box 7 on the death certificate contains the date of birth of the deceased: April 17, 1890.  This date matched the date of birth that I had from his World War I draft card so I knew I had the right man.

World War I Draft Card of Price Watson Bishop born April 17, 1890 in Cleburne, Johnson County, Texas.

However there is a slight discrepancy between the two documents.  The death certificate states that Mr. Bishop was born in Dallas, Texas.  The draft card states that he was born in Cleburne, Texas. These two cities are only sixty miles apart.  Mr. Bishop was residing in Dallas in 1918.  Usually the draft card would be considered a more reliable source since the information is a first hand account from the man himself. The informant on the death certificate would be considered a secondary source relying on his memory in a stressful time after the death of a friend or loved one or perhaps the informant knew very little about the person.  To further emphasize this point, the informant did not know the names and places of birth of the parents of Mr. Bishop.

Price Bishop was residing for four months prior to his death at a hospital or institution at  4000 Dumaine Street in New Orleans.  The physician attended Price Bishop from 7 February 1955 to the date of his death which is a four month period.

You can discover a lot more than your ancestor's name and address in city directories.  The clue from the death certificate was that there was a hospital or an institution located at 4000 Dumaine Street in New Orleans.  Instead of using a general search, it is best to search directly within the City Directory database.  The image below shows the City Directory search page which can be accessed from the card catalog at Ancestry.com.

Access the City Directory search page from the card catalog at Ancestry.com to conduct a keyword search.

I used the address "4000 Dumaine" as a keyword search and limited it to the year 1954 which was one year before the death occurred.  Several names came up as matches for this address.

As I scrolled down the list of names at 4000 Dumaine, I found nine people were residing at that address.  I also found a curious name: "Patients Accepted Bedridden."  Clicking on the link led me to a directory listing for the Elysian Convalescent Home as follows:

ELYSIAN CONVALESCENT HOME
  OWNER: MRS ELSIE O'CONNOR
  FOR CONVALESCENT PATIENTS AND AGED PEOPLE
  BEDRIDDEN PATIENTS ACCEPTED
  24 HOUR CARE BY LICENSED NURSES
  4000 DUMAINE
  TELEPHONE GALVEZ 3420
  (See opposite page)

On the opposite page was this advertisement in the City Directory:

Advertisement in the 1954 New Orleans City Directory for the Elysian Convalescent Home at 4000 Dumaine Street.

A search of Google Maps for the address of 4000 Dumaine led to this map and a street image:

4000 Dumaine was located very close to the New Orleans City Park.

This building was certainly large enough to serve as a ten-bed nursing home in 1955.

The death certificate also showed that his burial place is listed as Grand View Cemetery in La Porte, Texas.  His body was removed to the cemetery on the same day that he died: 11 June 1955.   Grand View Cemetery is located very near the borders of La Porte, Deer Park and Pasadena, Texas which are all part of the Houston Metropolitan area.  I found a current listing for the cemetery as follows:

Grand View Memorial Park/Bethany Cemetery
Website http://www.dignitymemorial.com/grand-view-funeral-home/en-us/index.page
Address: 8501 Spencer Hwy, Pasadena, TX 77505
Phone:(281) 479-6076

Unfortunately, the cemetery has been unable to find his burial record to determine the location of his burial.  Apparently, this cemetery files their burial records under the name of the owner of the cemetery lots.  We tried looking under all of the names associated with the four daughters of Price Bishop but the cemetery staff could not find his burial record.  There is no record for him on FindaGrave.com either.  Some clues lead to more questions: why was Price Watson transported from New Orleans to the Houston area for burial?  He did have family in the Houston area but none of them are buried in this cemetery.

All of these clues from the death certificate provide useful information about the circumstances of the death and burial of Price Bishop.  The advertisement from the City Directory gives some reassurance that Mr. Bishop received good care.  Hopefully, the cemetery will be able to find precisely where he is buried.  More mysteries need to be solved as to why and where he was buried in Grand View Memorial Park.

If you would like to learn more about genealogical research techniques, please contact me.

Lake Tahoe and Grandpa George 1911-1981

Grandpa George Kelly, Nick Cimino & Uncle Jack Kelly on the beach at Lake Tahoe.

I have had the great good fortune to spend lots of time at Lake Tahoe over the years.  My grandparents, George and Elaine Kelly moved to South Lake Tahoe in the mid 1960s.  The first house I remember was on Nez Perce Drive.  Grandpa George was a Deputy Registrar and Inspector for the State Contractors Licensing Board before he retired. As I recall he found several of the houses that he owned through his travels as a state inspector.  He was especially fond of uncompleted projects that he could finish as he came from a family of carpenters and was a highly skilled carpenter and contractor himself.

The Cimino Family in the driveway at Gram Elaine and Grandpa George's house at South Lake Tahoe, February 1968. Left to right: Vicky, Nick, Jill, Vince, Faran and Dick Cimino.

Gram Elaine and Grandpa George were members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the South Lake Tahoe Yacht Club. They were also former owners of Valhalla before it was sold to the state. In 1989 during a visit to Gram Elaine and Grandpa George at Lake Tahoe, I had an opportunity to sit with Grandpa George and make a tape recorded oral history of his life. He told me many fascinating stories and he had a keen memory for details. This history of his life is based on that tape recording. 

George Kelly was born in Tacoma, WA on the 21st of July 1911. That was the year that Irving Berlin composed Alexander's Ragtime Band. William Howard Taft was President of the United States. Ty Cobb was the biggest name in baseball. It was the first year of the Indianapolis 500 and the first cross country airplane flight was made in a Burgess-Wright biplane from N.Y. to Pasadena, CA in the incredible time of 82 hours and 4 minutes.  A lot happened in George Kelly's 80 years of living. 

George Kelly in the sailor suit about 1918 with his brothers.

George was the youngest child of 10. His father was John Caesar Kelly, born in the Isle of Man and his mother was Annie Marie White born in Bedford, England. George's family moved to Selah, WA, the home of Tree Top apple juice. His dad was a building contractor who constructed big fruit warehouses and other large construction projects. His mother was a housewife who had a full time job caring for their large family. George attended grammar school in Selah for 8 years. He told me that he used to catch a ride on the apple trucks on the way home from school. 

George Kelly about 1929.

In 1925 the Kelly family moved to San Francisco. George used to take the streetcar from his home in the Parkside District to Lick High School in the Potrero district. He graduated from high school in 1929 on the eve of the great depression. He was able to find work during prohibition for Consumers Yeast Company, delivering yeast in a small panel truck. He would deliver about 300 pounds of yeast to a garage in the Marina District. He would meet a guy there who would then take George's panel truck and make George wait for him to come back. He had a pretty good idea that they were bootleggers. 

George held a variety of jobs during the depression years. He was an apprentice carpenter for about 6 months. Then he went to San Jose state college but he never graduated. He had to go to work. He worked at Sears Roebuck as a shipping clerk. After he was married to Elaine Kelly in 1937 he worked for Union Oil Company as a maintenance man and a tanker truck driver. During the war he was a fireman in Sacramento. 

My mother recounted a story to me in September 2001 about her memories of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The family was concerned that George would have to enter military service. Jill and Jack were sitting in the back of the car when the announcement came on the radio. The lived on Cavanaugh Way at the time. George and Elaine were talking about whether George would have to go. Jill's parents told her that George would not have to go to war because he was already in uniform as a fireman. Jill decided that she wanted a uniform too so she asked Santa Claus to bring her one. When she opened the package that she thought was her uniform she found a sweater. She was so disappointed that she stopped believing in Santa Claus!

George later went to work for the Contractor's State License Board as an inspector and retired from the Board in South Lake Tahoe as a deputy registrar. George was a home builder. He came by it honestly enough since his dad and his brothers were carpenters and contractors. He built several of his own homes in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe and he was always willing to help others build their homes. On October 24, 1937 he married Elaine Coffman Mayne in Reno. He had an instant family of two daughters, Joan age 6 and Jill, who was 2 years old at the time. Three years later Elaine and George had a son, Jack who was born on February 18, 1940. 

George and Elaine Kelly at their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration in South Lake Tahoe.

In 1987 George and Elaine celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at South Lake Tahoe. His first love was Elaine and his second love was Lake Tahoe. He had a boat that was a symbol of these two loves. He named it the Elaine B. George and Elaine's first venture at the lake was Kelly's Rainbow Cabin's at King's Beach. They were living in Sacramento at the time when a big snow storm left a heavy load on the roof of the cabins. George was advised to shovel the snow off the roof, by one of his neighbors at King's Beach. He apparently went golfing instead and the roof caved in. 

Kelly's Rainbow Cabins at Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe, California.
The pen and ink drawing was done by Jim Goudge, a California artist who often stayed at the cabins.

His grandchildren have special memories of the times at Valhalla. Trips on the boat to Emerald Bay and swimming in the freezing waters of Lake Tahoe. He was president of the Lake Tahoe Country Club. His home was adorned with his many golf trophies that attested to his skill on the golf course. We held his memorial service in the club house at a golf course in Lake Tahoe which was particularly appropriate considering his love of golf. He was a husband, a father, a golfer, a boater and a dog lover but not necessarily in that order. One friend described him as having a dry sense of humor. He loved to tell jokes and would do most anything to get a laugh. He knew how to have a good time and his wife and daughters said he was an excellent dancer. 

He was loved by his friends and family and he is missed to this day. His niece gave him a plaque to hang on his wall in recognition of his love of golf. The Plaque reads: "When the Great Scorer puts His mark by your name, he will not ask whether you won or lost, but how you played the game". George Kelly, you played the game well!

61 Bullets- The Death of Huey P. Long: Assassination or Friendly Fire?

One of the most tragic events in Louisiana history occurred here. On September 8, 1935, U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long was shot in the hall beside what is now the Speaker's Office. He died two days later as a result of his wounds.

We are spending a week in Louisiana in celebration of  our July birthdays, my wife, Robin's 60th birthday and my 61st.  We were in Baton Rouge yesterday and toured the Louisiana State Capitol.  We enjoy visiting state capitols having lived so many years in Sacramento and having so many family connections with state government.  The Louisiana State Capitol is the tallest in all of the 50 states. I was intrigued by the observation deck on the 27th floor as there are not many opportunities to get a bird's eye view of the terrain on the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.

As we entered the Capitol there was a docent who encouraged us to look inside the House and the Senate chambers and to view the relics of the death of U.S. Senator Huey P. Long.

Mourners pass by the open casket of the late Sen. Huey P. Long.  Huey Pierce Long, Jr., nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until gunshot wounds led to his death in 1935.  The documentary '61 Bullets' examines whether his death was due to an assassination or friendly fire from his body guards. (Oscar J. Valeton Sr. / The Times-Picayune)

We hurried to the observation deck to enjoy the view of Baton Rouge and were intrigued to learn that Senator Long had been buried on the south lawn and that a statue of him had been erected over his grave.

View from the south side of the Observation Deck showing the statue of Huey Long in the center of the lawn.

We continued our travels to New Orleans Saturday afternoon and have been enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of this wonderful city.   We were headed to our hotel when a poster about an exhibit on slavery caught my eye.  We looked into the window of the Williams Research Collection at 410 Chartres St. and the staff opened the door and invited us to attend a free screening of a documentary about the death of Huey P. Long.  We looked at each other and smiled at our good fortune and were ushered into the documentary in progress.

The Williams Research Center at 410 Chartres Street is located in a former police station and criminal courthouse.  This was a fitting location for a screening of 61 Bullets: The Unsolved Mystery of Louisiana

I was struck by the interviews of the descendants of Sen. Long and Dr. Carl Weiss who is alleged to have been the assassin.  The following summary from IMDB was written by one of the filmmakers:

September 8, 1935. Bullets ricochet through the marble corridors of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. When the shooting finally stops and the panicked screaming subsides, two men have been fatally wounded. The first: populist United States Senator Huey P. Long, the most powerful man in Louisiana, and one of the most prominent political figures in 1930s America. The second: Dr. Carl Weiss, a respected local physician, and Long's presumed assailant. Weiss is riddled with sixty bullets, some of which have passed through his body and lodged in the alabaster walls. Blood soaks through his white linen suit and onto the ornate floor of the State Capitol. Huey Long, known as "The Kingfish," is rushed to the hospital, but pronounced dead thirty hours later. Louisiana politics - and the lives of the two men's families - will never be the same. Through the debate over how Huey Long was killed, 61 Bullets explores a piece of history that is as contentious as the man himself. We watch two families grasp for closure in the wake of a tragedy with ongoing political and personal ramifications. We engage those who know the most (Long experts) and those who care the most (the families of Long and Weiss) in a juxtaposition of competing narratives of the biggest political killing between McKinley and Kennedy. As the Weisses seek to rewrite history and clear their family name, the Longs strive to defend the legacy of their patriarch and preserve his iconic status.
- Written by David Modigliani

The screening was followed by a panel discussion including one of the filmmakers and two experts.
The discussion made it clear that this documentary does an excellent job of navigating a very difficult terrain of two families caught in a series of very tragic events.  History is left with an enduring mystery made more poignant from the family stories that are told through dozens of interviews.  Experts examine every angle of the limited evidence.  In the end we are left with another "Ancestor Puzzle."

For an additional touch of irony and coincidence we walked across the street and enjoyed an excellent meal at Kingfish Restaurant.  We watched as one of the panelists entered the restaurant and had her picture taken in front of the mural size picture of the "Kingfish", Huey P. Long.

For more information, visit the website for 61 Bullets: http://www.61bullets.com/

Collecting and Indentifying Family Photographs

I prepared a slide show for my father-in-law, Bill Harrington’s memorial service this weekend.  I searched for all of the photos that I could find that included Bill.  One of the techniques that I found helpful was to put the approximate date as the first four characters of the file name.  This put the electronic images in chronological order which helped me to sort through the photos and guess the dates on the ones that were not already dated.  Based on this experience, I recommend that you gather photos associated with certain events into a folder and also place copies in folders for persons in the photos.

When I examine collections of family photographs, I often find batches of pictures taken at the same event.   For example, when inspecting some photographs in my mother-in-Iaw’s albums, I found several pictures that were taken at a gathering prior to the memorial service for Truman Harrington in February 1978.  Truman was my wife’s paternal grandfather.  The pictures helped to refresh my memories of the event.  Our daughter was only eight months old and there was a picture of the three of us as we were getting out of the car when we first arrived. 

This picture was taken in February 1978 in Boron, California.  I am on the left, my wife Robin is holding our eight month old daughter, Nicole and Robin is talking with her mother, Irma Harrington.  We had gathered in Boron for the Memorial Service for my wife's grandfather, Truman Harrington.  Scan your old pictures now before the colors degrade any further.

There was also a picture of Truman’s three sons.  In birth order they were Harold, Bill and Cleve.  In ascending height order they were Bill, Harold and Cleve.  I never noticed that Bill was the shortest until I looked closely at this photo of the three brothers standing together.

Bill, Harold & Cleve Harrington in the backyard at Cleve's house in Boron, California, February 1978.  Bill and Cleve look very similar in pictures when they were teenagers.  Now I know that Cleve was the tallest one.

Since I was at this event, I had no difficulty in establishing the exact date.  However, when I am attempting to date an older family photo, the children are the first clue to the date.  If you can identify the children, then it is usually pretty easy to estimate their age and thereby date the photo.  These are some of my casual observations from recent experience but if you want advice from a real family photo expert then I recommend you consult with Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective.

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at meetings and conferences of historical and genealogical societies, and other organizations both nationally and internationally.  She is the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show.  I highly recommend that you read her books and her column in Family Tree Magazine.  You also can get a free download of some of her best magazine columns at this link. 

Her website is www.MaureenTaylor.com  and she also writes a blog for the magazine at this link.