Video tribute to my dad using family photos

Three years ago when my dad passed away, my fiance and I spent a huge amount of time on a video tribute of his life. I was never able to get it up on You Tube due to its length - until tonight. I used a ton of his family photos that I have acquired in my genealogical pursuits over the last decade or so. (I have even more now!) For anyone interested in watching it, it is here. It is quite long, so don't feel badly if you can't hang in until the end. I hope you enjoy it!

Amanuensis Monday: Follow Up to New Treasures from My Mother #2 - Doc and Rose Campbell

I have an update on Doc Campbell and family, whom I wrote about back in June.

In his Handbook of Old Gallatin County, Jon Musgrave, has compiled 19th and 20th century sources, including bios from Gallatin. On p. 232-3, he transcribes (from Memoirs of the Lower Ohio Valley) the bio of my 2nd great grand uncle:

William Campbell, M.D. - 1905

WILLIAM CAMPBELL, M.D., who has practiced medicine at Equality, Ill., for almost forty years, was born two and a half miles west of that town Nov. 12, 1842. His father, William C. Campbell, was born in Virginia about 1789 and came in early childhood to Kentucky with his parents, who settled near Lexington. There he grew to manhood, married Mary Guard, and soon afterward came to Gallatin County, Ill. His wife died shortly afterward and he subsequently married Sallie Gillette Hewitt, the widow of William Hewitt, and a native of Vermont [contradicts census birth place]. They continued to live on the farm until 1858, when they removed to Equality and there spent their declining years. He died at the age of eighty years and she at eighty-two. Of their two children Doctor Campbell is the only one living.

Dr. William Campbell received his elementary education in the public schools of Equality, and began his business career as a clerk in a store. While thus employed he commenced the study of medicine, and after 1864 devoted his entire time to the acquirement of a professional education. In 1867 he was graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine, and soon afterward opened an office in Equality, where he has ever since practiced his profession. Doctor Campbell is one of the oldest practicing physicians in his section of the state, has a lucrative business, is recognized as one of the successful men in the treatment of diseases, and stands high with both the public and his brother physicians. He was one of the organizers of the Gallatin County Medical Society, to which he has belonged ever since its formation. As a member of Lodge No. 19, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, he has filled all the chairs, and has taken considerable interest in promoting the good works of the Methodist Episcolpal church, of which he is a member.

In 1867 he was married to Rose Norcross, a native of Evansville, Indiana, and they have three daughters and a son living. The three daughters live in Equality, where Nellie is a Mrs. Purcell; Mary a Mrs. Dempsey, and Nora a Mrs. Wathen. The son, William A., is an engineer on the railroad and lives in Danville, Ill. Doctor Campbell is one of the public spirited men in town, and as a Democrat takes a keen interest in political questions, though he is not what could be called a practical politician.
                                                                          
This biography which was kindly sent to me from a fellow Hewitt researcher answered many of the questions which I posed in my last post about the Campbells, however it also brought up additional questions. It turns out that some of the information contained in the above on Doc's father is incorrect. William C. Campbell has long been a bit of a mystery to many Gallatin researchers. I have made numerous inquiries about him in the past and had learned little about his origins. He was quite well-established in Gallatin and his name appears rather frequently in the town records, however it seems that no one except his contemporaries seemed to know his background - until now.

The bio above provides some clues, which led me to research done by Phil Norf on the Campbells of South Virginia. He mentions a William born about 1787, son of Captain William Campbell and Mary "Elizabeth" Ellison. Norf's exhaustive research places the family of this William Campbell in Augusta County, Virginia and then Tennessee prior to 1784 and in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky from about 1784 to 1806. Afterward they moved to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky and then onto Gallatin County, Illinois. Sound familiar?

Since there are already some discrepancies with the birth info that I have seen for "my" William C. Campbell, the birth date of 1787 is not that much of a stretch. The bio above states he was born about 1789 in Virginia and the 1850 Federal Census lists him as born about 1791 in Tennessee, but the migration pattern fits perfectly with that of Norf's William since "my" William seems to believe he was born in Tennessee, which is where his family was before coming to Fayette County, which was Virginia at the time and not Kentucky.

Norf's work states that William's wife's name is unknown. I have three wives for "my" William. 1) Nancy Graham or Nancy K. Campbell, 2) Mary Ann/Margaret Guard and 3) Sallie Gillette Hewitt (my 2nd great grandmother). The bio above ignores Nancy and states that William C. married Mary Guard before coming to Gallatin from Kentucky, but I found their marriage record in Gallatin in 1837. Since he was already about 50 years old by then, it makes sense that Nancy was the wife that he married in Kentucky who died shortly after arriving in Gallatin. This is further supported by the fact that both Nancy and Mary are buried in Gallatin County with the inscription "Consort of William C. Campbell". It is interesting to note that two of the siblings of William from Norf's research married Guards and at least one married another Campbell. So, it fits perfectly with "my" William who married a Guard and, probably, a Campbell cousin.

Given that: 1) The migration pattern of the two Williams is exactly the same, 2) "My" William married into families that were allied with the "other" William's family, 3) Norf's William became a landowner quite young (1804), inheriting from his father which put him in a position to be well-placed in Gallatin society like "my" William was, and 4) Researchers do not have info on "my" William's early life or Norf's William's later life - it follows that they are the same person.

With that in mind, William was probably born in Fayette County c.1787 when it was still Virginia, and  not in Augusta County or Tennessee as he apparently believed. Since the family had lived in both places previous to his birth, the confusion is understandable. His parents were Captain William Campbell (1748-1800), son of "Black David" Campbell and Jane Cunyngham, and Mary "Elizabeth" Ellison Campbell (1755-1825). In the 1810 Census William is probably the young male living with his widowed mother and three younger sisters in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. At least four of his sisters, one brother and his mother also ended up in Gallatin County by 1830.

The bio above also confirmed that all of my previous research on Rosanna Norcross and her children (that I wasn't too confident about) was indeed correct, except that instead of daughter Nora who is mentioned in the bio, I had Jennie who married George C. Helm on my tree. It appears that Jennie died before 1905 when the bio was written and Nora was born after the 1880 Census and married before the 1900 Census, thus making her "invisible" to me. With the info on her married name provided above, I was able to find Nora and even track some of her descendants forward.

I am happy to say that I feel like I have a really nice full picture of Doctor Campbell's family now and I hope that one of his descendants will happen upon my blog and contact me. Or, maybe I will get a DNA match one of these days to someone with the surname Campbell, Purcell, Dempsey, Helm or Wathen and because of this research be able to recognize the significance. Now, that would be fun!

Following the Footsteps of My Great Grandparents, 1906-1916

I visited San Francisco last week and took a couple of hours to seek out the homes of my great grandparents George and Fredrikka (Herstad) Allen. They were married shortly after the Great Earthquake of 1906, which took place in the early morning hours of April 18. Since George had just arrived at port on the S.S. Sierra a month earlier, I don't know how long they knew each other. He was a crew member and had been in San Francisco off and on since 1903, so it is possible that they had met before, but they were, apparently, not contemplating marriage. George always said that the earthquake "shook them together."  Fredrikka was already 35 years old and well on her way to being a spinster when they married on June 28, 1906.  I guess I have that devastating earthquake to thank for my existence!

George and "Dikka" Allen, wedding photo June 28, 1906

Their 1906 marriage license lists both of their residences as 595 Fell Street, so I started there.

I don't know if they were living together in this apartment building after the quake or if they listed this address because they intended to live together there after their marriage. I have been told that during the quake, George was sleeping in his bed and a very large picture fell off the wall just barely missing hitting him. He then got his things together and immediately went to Dikka's home to check on her. This is, most likely, that place and it, apparently, survived the quake.

For their next addresses, I scoured the San Francisco City Directories from 1906-1919. In 1907 and 1908, George (and, presumably, Fredrikka) are listed at 114 Divisadero Street.

Now, this address is an apartment tucked under the stairs. In 1907, it might have been a larger part of the house or, possibly, all of it.

My grandmother's sister Flora was probably born in this home in February 1908.

The city directories for 1909-1911 as well as the 1910 Federal Census show the growing family living at 230 Valley Street. That means that my grandmother Wanda was born in this home in December 1909.

The house next door has a plaque on it stating that it was built in 1884. The owner told me that this house was subdivided at some point, but has been restored back to its original condition in recent years. This information tells me that the Allens inhabited this entire home. Isn't it homey? When they walked out their front door, they encountered quite a site.

Saint Paul's Catholic Church, located on the corner of Church and Valley Streets, was first the site of a mission in 1876 and construction started on this tremendous building in 1897. Their site says it wasn't officially dedicated until 1911 when the Allens were living there. Funny, since they weren't religious at all. I wonder what they thought of it.

In 1912 and 1913, the Allens do not appear in the SF city directories at all. I know that George was transferred to Salt Lake City at some point in his career to oversee some stores that weren't doing well, so that may be when they moved. If so, that solves the question of when this photo was taken of George. However, that means that he would have been about 32 in it and he looks a bit older than that to me.

Taken in Salt Lake City, UT, c.1912?

In 1914 and through 1915, the Allens reappeared in San Francisco at this beautiful home at 635 Castro Street. It was strange, when I was walking down the street, oblivious to the addresses, I immediately knew that this was their house.

George was, obviously, doing well at his job with the United Cigar Stores and, as a result, "moving up in the world".

You can probably see from the photos that there are multiple doors on this residence. Undoubtedly, it has been subdivided in more recent years. The Allens, most likely, inhabited the whole house. I would need to check the historic property records to confirm this.

Judging from this detail work, someone has lovingly restored this historic home. It is impossible to know if it looked like this in 1914 when the Allens lived here, but I sure hope so!

This photo may have been taken there.

In 1916, the Allens again disappear from the San Francisco city directories. Luckily, I have George's World War 1 draft record, which lists the Allens residence as 663 Fairview Street, Oakland on September 12, 1918. (I didn't have a chance to visit that residence on this trip, but will likely do so next time I am in the Bay Area.) His draft card also confirmed that by 1918, he was the District Sales Manager for his company. In the early city directories and 1910 Federal Census he was listed as simply a clerk. I also notice that he listed the address of his work as 555 Howard Street, San Francisco (another one to add to my list for next time), so he must have been traveling from Oakland to San Francisco daily. Although I know that he loved to walk long distances, that would be too far even for him, so perhaps he had a gotten a car by then.

By the 1920 Federal Census, the young family had moved to Seattle, Washington, leaving the beautiful city by the bay behind.

I've often visited San Francisco, even working there for weeks at a time on a couple of occasions. I have always loved the city, but hadn't really considered my personal connection to it. It was fun this trip to have an excuse to explore the residential neighborhoods, discovering historic buildings and comfy cafes that we wouldn't have thought to seek out if not for following the footsteps of George and Fredrikka. Visiting the homes of my great grandparents made me feel more connected to this historic city than I ever had before and made me realize, one more time, how so many events, places and people make up the road to our existence.

Sepia Saturday: New Treasures From My Mother #4 - Sally Proctor Fargo

Sally Proctor Fargo (1862-1940)

In the packet of photos that my mother recently gave me, was this familiar face. I have quite a few photos of my grandfather Everett Proctor's Aunt Sally (sometimes called Sallie), but in them she is well weathered by the years. It is so nice to see her fresh young face here for the first time.

The photo was taken at Talman Studio in Nebraska City which was, according to the photographer's stamp on the bottom of the photo, located on the north side of Main Street. I spent a ton of time trying to figure out what Sally was doing in Nebraska when I know that she spent her life in Illinois, Iowa and Washington State. Then, I finally used Google Maps and found out it is only about 16 miles from Sidney, Iowa where Sally lived from 1885 to about 1902. That was a lesson that I won't soon forget. I couldn't find anything at all about Talman Studio and it was very difficult to read the name on the photo card, although I did find some local families with that surname, so I am quite sure that is the correct name.

Since I cannot find any information about the photographer, it is difficult to narrow down the time frame of the photo. Sally lived in Sidney from the time she was 23 to 40 years old and this photo could be from almost any of those years. 

Sally didn't marry until she was 42, so she did not have any children of her own and was very close with her brother Daniel's children. In fact, when Sally was very ill in 1938, my grandmother Aune Proctor nursed her back to health even though she was pregnant with my mother at the time. There are a lot of photos of Sally with the family in my series of "Letters from Aunt Cleo".

This is how I am used to seeing Aunt Sally. She looks like a nice lady and I have heard nothing but good things about her. In 1904, she married Arva Fargo (who also had a photo in this packet) at her parents' home in Washington. Judging from what I have heard, sadly I don't think it was a very happy marriage. She was living with her single brother Charles in the 1930 Census, which is interesting because in the 1900 Census she was also living with three of her bachelor brothers. None of the Proctor siblings married except Sally and my great grandfather Daniel and he was the only one who had any children. Lucky for me, he bucked the family trend!

One Year Anniversary of "My Tangled Vine"

Thanks to Geneabloggers for reminding me that it has been one year since the first post of this blog and also to those of you who have visited and left your congratulations. It has been a pleasure to be a part of the Geneabloggers community. You all have inspired me to keep blogging even when time is a difficult thing to come by. Although I haven't been posting much this summer with my son home and needing my attention, I have continued to collect "new" old family photos to post and gather information for updates to some of my past blogs.

It has been amazing how many descendants of the people I have posted about have contacted me. Most are cousins of mine, while some are only related through marriage. Through these contacts I have received new and interesting information on the people in my family tree and, sometimes, even photos. I have often ended a post wishing for more information on my subject and, amazingly, I have often received it.

For those of you who have been wanting to start a family history blog to chronicle and share your genealogy research - JUST DO IT! It is well worth the time and effort. I love having a place where I can record all I know about a specific ancestor and use it as a reference later to either remind myself of easily forgotten details or to send to someone who is inquiring about a particular ancestral line for their research or DNA matching purposes. There is a certain satisfaction to weaving the hard-won facts, family stories and almost forgotten tidbits, personal theories and, best of all, photos into a "living" online profile of a long-gone family member that will be (God and Google willing) a permanent record of their lives. It is so much more meaningful than names and dates in a software program and isn't that what we all strive for in our family history research?

I have to say that my favorite part of writing "My Tangled Vine" this year is the connection that it encourages with my living family. It has brought long-lost cousins (and photos!) out of the woodwork, encouraged communication with closer family and even helped to inspire some to write their own stories. What could be even better than that? As a side effect of my blogging, my six year old son knows who his maternal eight great great grandparents are and is fascinated by them! He knows what they looked like, he can show you on the map where they were born and he refers to their names as if he knows them. Not only their DNA, but their memory, lives on through him.

My reason for writing and, sometimes, my reason for NOT writing

New Treasures From My Mother #3 - Arva A. Fargo

Arva A Fargo, c.1897, Chico, CA

Following the trend of images of allied family in the new packet from my mother, it contained this photo of Arva A. Fargo. Arva married my great grandfather's sister Sally Proctor in 1904, but before that he had another family in California. According to the 1900 Federal Census, Arva was born in Pennsylvania in March 1857. His early life has been difficult to trace, but I believe that I found him in Siskiyou, CA in 1860 and Ada, Idaho in 1880. He married Mary Campbell in the latter half of 1880, almost certainly in California, and had four surviving children - Amal (b.1881), Elmore Arva (b.1884), Edna (b.1887) and Lola (b.1894). They are shown living together as a family in the 1900 Federal Census in Pleasanton Town, Alameda, California. His wife must have died shortly after the 1900 Census since Arva ended up in Washington by October 24, 1904, when he married Sally at her parents house in Columbia City. Since she was already 42 years old when they married, they did not have any children together.

This photo is by Hiram Hamilton Frye who was born Sept 1, 1841 and died May 21, 1900. He operated a photography studio at 6 1/2 Mill St, Grass Valley, CA in the 1880s and on 2nd Street in Chico, CA in the 1890s until his death in 1900.  On another of his photos that I came across, it stated that his studio was "Established in 1879", but a Frye Family Tree on Ancestry.com states that he was working as a photographer as early as 1874. I found a strikingly similar photo to this one in the Small Family Album. He must have enjoyed photographing middle aged men with beards! From Arva's apparent age and the photographer's location and years active, I would guess this photo was taken between 1895-1900.

I have been diligently researching to find his descendants from his first wife with the goal of sharing this wonderful photo with them. Hopefully, in the future, someone will be happy to see their own ancestor in him.

New Treasures from My Mother #2 - Doc and Rose Campbell

This new packet from my mother seems to contain photos of allied family rather than my direct ancestors. Fortunately, I have done quite a lot of research on most of these people, so I still feel like I know them and happily welcome their photos into my collection. It is so nice to finally see their faces.


William and Rosanna (Norcross) Campbell, c. 1900, Gallatin, IL


When I saw the writing on the back of this photo - "Doc Campbell and his wife," I immediately knew who it was thanks to Aunt Cleo's letters. After reading that he was the doctor who cared for the Proctor boys and was related to my great great grandparents Ephraim and Mary (Hewitt) Proctor, I had previously done some extensive research to untangle this part of the family tree. It turned out that Dr. William Campbell (pictured above) was the half-brother of my great great grandmother Mary Hewitt Proctor. I found that Sarah "Sally" Gillett (my 3rd ggrandmother) had first married William F. Hewitt and then after his early death, she married the well-established William Charles Campbell. With her first husband she had two children - William Martin and Mary Hewitt and with her second husband she had (at least) two more children - William and Laura Campbell. Thankfully, Sally's second husband seemed to have had a positive effect on his stepchildren's lives.

According to Genealogy Trails, Dr. William Campbell (1842-1912) married Rosanna Norcross on April 9, 1867 in Gallatin County, Illinois. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find much on her. According to the 1900 Federal Census, she was born in July 1848 in Indiana and her parents were born in Massachusetts and England. I may have found her in the 1850 Federal Census living in Vanderburgh, Indiana with her family, but I am not sure it is her because the name seems to read "Rocena Norcross". The places of birth for these parents do match the 1900 Federal Census (and the 1880 Federal Census). If it is indeed her, then her parents are Allen and Jane (Sangford) Norcross. Apparently, the family was broken up by 1860 since I found most of the children living in other family's households in the 1860 Federal Census. I could not find Rosanna/Rose/Rocena though. I would like to have more information on her, but have hit a dead-end for now.

William and Rosanna Campbell had children Nellie, Jennie, William and Mary. I haven't yet followed their family lines down into the present, but it sure would be fun if one of their descendants was to come across this photo and contact me...Anyone?

Now that I have seen his face, I am inspired to say "thank you" to the good Doc for taking such good care of the Proctors. I know that his sister must have really appreciated what William and his father did for her and her family since she named her first son Charles Campbell and her second son William Ephraim. After all, taking care of each other is what family (biological or adopted) is all about.