Tombstone Tuesday Dudley Kent Of Suffield, Connecticut

When I visited Suffield, Connecticut in 2011, I was very disappointed that my local ancestor's headstones no longer exist. I was told by a staff member at the Kent Memorial Library that the church had expanded and renovated over the years and built the additions to the church over the graves. Although I was very disappointed, I was happy to find this wonderful headstone for Dudley Kent. Dudley was born to John Kent (my ancestor) and his first wife Abigail Dudley (who is not my ancestor). Dudley was born in Suffield on 23 October 1695 and married Ruth Ruggles who bore him 10 children. Dudley lived to be 71 years old.The headstone is a typical style for the Hartford County area of this period. We are very fortunate his headstone exists in remarkable condition considering it is over 246 years old!

Funeral Card Friday - Mary Earle Huffman Rigsby

Mary Earle Huffman was the sister of my biological grandfather William Huffman. She was known by her middle name Earle. Earle was born on the 9th of May 1903 in Barren County, Kentucky. Her parents were (James) Marion and Mary Belle (Baldock) Huffman. Her siblings were:

• Sherman Arthur Huffman
• Otha Marion Huffman
• Nannie Mae Huffman Rigsby
• Mattie S. Huffman
• Carl Thomas Huffman
• Earl Huffman
• William Marion Huffman

Earle married John Rigsby in Barren County and had 3 children. Earle lived to be 90 years old and was loved by all who knew her. Below is her funeral card.

Treasure Chest Thursday - My Grandmother's Quilt

My mother's mother was Myrtle (Schmitt) Dewey. She was quite the crafty woman and was accomplished at sewing, needlepoint and even made quite beautiful Christmas ornaments. She was the perfect grandmother in every way except one. She lived over a thousand miles away in San Diego, California.
Both my mother and my grandmother were quite gifted in the art of letter writing. My grandmother wrote me every week and I reciprocated until her death in 1973. When I was 10 years old my grandmother came to Chicago and stayed with us for a month to help care for my mother after her hysterectomy. She brought with her one of the quilts she had made from her husband's neckties. This quilt is a small piece of both my grandmother and grandfather. Knowing how proper was grandfather was, I was quite surprised at how whimsical some of his ties were and wondered if he actually wore them. Although the pictures do not do it justice, it is one of my prized possessions because it reminds me of my sweet grandma.

Motivation Monday - Life Happens

I realize I have not made many blog posts or updates to my websites this year. I have actually been uncharacteristically very quiet on my blog as well as all social media and my websites have not been updated. I have had good reasons for this though. 2012 was a huge year for me personally. In July I received my original birth certificate with revealed my original name at birth before I was adopted. I had no idea at that time the emotional journey that would transpire in the days and months to follow after meeting my biological family. I have learned more about myself and my own personal past in the past 6 months than I could ever imagine. I have also spent this time trying to get to know my new found family and have discovered so much about myself as a result. Because their world and mine are so different, I have had a unique view into what aspects of our personalities are influenced by genetics and what was a result of environment, learning and life experiences. My life has been dramatically changed forever. If you ask a genealogist why they do what they do, many may tell you it is a journey to discover where (and who) they come from. But for an adopted person it is all that and to discover themselves as well. To know who they look like and what personality traits they share with whom, family health history and so much more. I did not have that basic knowledge. The past 6 months have been an unexpected intense journey of discovery for me. I have been given answers to questions I never knew existed until I met my brother. We share so many personality traits it is hard to believe how different we were raised in every way but still have so much in common in our personalities. It has been an exciting and very happy time in my life. It has also been quite healing. However, I have also had another issue in my life that takes most of my time. I prefer to keep the circumstances private for now. It has been these things that have kept me silent on social networking, my blog and my websites. I simply have not had the time or energy.
Finding my biological family has been an amazing, happy journey of discovery. It has also been a time of confusion for me. From a genealogy point of view, I have become uncertain where I belong. I have begun many blog posts for various branches of both my biological lines as well as lines for the family that raised me. These posts have never been completed because I simply have not felt right posting them. I have been uncomfortable writing about any of my family lines. The term family became quite complicated for me. I imagine this was all part of my personal journey of processing everything in my mind. The fact is I should be writing about both my biological and adoptive families. My biological family is my bloodline, my DNA and part of why I am who I am. My adoptive family is also a huge part of why I am who I am and I love them all dearly. And I know them well. They are both my family. So I have decided to simply jump back in as time permits. Since I did not grow up knowing my biological family or hear family stories as I grew up, I will need more help from them to learn and more work will be necessary to write the Huffman-Smith stories. They have all been wonderful about that and I am learning. 2013 will be the year I begin writing about the Huffman and Smith families, however, I still have so much work to do to finish writing about the Napolitano families and Dewey families and have no intention of stopping my work on them. I have decided to redesign my website Early American Ancestors to add the Huffman and Smith families. Before I do that, I need to choose a new CSS based template for a totally new look and begin writing the Huffman and Smith family genealogy. This will be a lot of work and my plate is pretty full with my personal issue so I will be unable to create any time schedules for myself. I will have to do what I can, when I can. My huge list of priorities will have to wait and I must be patient. I hope everyone understands.

Veterans Day 2012 - Francis Marion Huffman

I thought I would choose this Veteran's Day to write my first post about my biological ancestors. Today's post is about Francis Marion Huffman, my 3rd great grandfather who was injured in The Battle Of Shiloh during The Civil War. Francis Marion went by his middle name, Marion. He lived near Eighty Eight in Barren County, Kentucky where he worked as a farmer.

Francis Marion Huffman was born in Barren County, Kentucky on the 31st of August, 1822. By the start of The Civil War Marion was already in his late 30's, married and had 5 children to support. Marion's younger brothers Jonathan Clark Huffman and Louis Francis Huffman decided to enlist in the war in September of 1861. Their cousins, Stacey Huffman and Albert and George Baldock also enlisted. Marion joined his brothers and cousins and together they enlisted on September 24, 1861 with Capt. Chenowith's Company of Home Guards on the Union side. Marion mustered in for a 3 year period of time. He must have had strong reasons to leave his farm, wife and children who undoubtedly had to make huge sacrifices in his absence. His children were young, between the ages of 5 and 11. It is possible he believed the talk that the war would not last long. Regardless on April 6, 1862 Marion's company was at Pittsburgh Landing, Kentucky for the start of what would be known as The Battle of Shiloh. This battle would become the bloodiest battle ever seen at that time and resulted in the deaths of over 24,000 men. On the second day of the battle, Marion was shot in the foot and carried off the battlefield. The shot shattered a major bone in his foot and surgery had to be performed to remove the shattered pieces of bone to prevent infection. The injury left Marion unable to walk on that foot. According to his military records he was discharged from service on February 4, 1863. Just weeks after Marion's injury his younger brother Louis died in a military camp of a fever caused by the measles. Marion went back to his farm near Eighty Eight in Barren County and tried to continue farming, however due to his injury, we was unable to keep up with the hard labor. He died 11 years later as a result of his injury which had developed gangrene from his foot all the way up his leg to his thigh and pyaemia (a type of septicaemia).
Marion's father Thomas was a veteran of The War of 1812. His descendants have participated in every war since then.
On this Veteran's Day, I am grateful for all our veterans past and present for their sacrifices to protect us all.

Workday Wednesday - Carl Stohn, Jr., Chicago Producer and Director

While going through some pictures, I found this picture of my parents with Carl Stohn, Jr. (far right) a man who should be a Chicago legend. Sadly, he is not. This blog post is my feeble attempt to write something about this great man who I remember fondly. Carl Stohn, Jr. was born in Canada but moved to Chicago sometime before 1950. When my father first introduced me to Mr. Stone, I was a young girl, probably around 1968. For the next 10 years I would meet with and talk to Mr. Stohn. My father ran a business that provided seminars (and an annual conference) to electronic engineers. The seminars lasted a week and were arranged by my father four times a year. When my father moved his offices from Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago to the suburb of Oak Brook, he began hosting the seminars at Pheasant Run Inn located in St. Charles, Illinois. It was here my father met Carl Stohn, Jr. who produced and directed plays at the theater in Pheasant Run. The theater was a new concept - dinner theater. During his career in Chicago, he directed many of the great screen legends in popular plays of the day.
By 1950 he was already a well known producer and at that time also acted. During this time he produced plays for the only winter stock company outside of the New York area. When Carl Stohn joined forces with Tony DeSantis to produce and direct plays at Drury Lane Theater in Evergreen Park, the concept of dinner theater was new. Mr. Stohn was an innovator in the industry. When Pheasant Run opened their dinner theater they recruited Carl Stohn to produce and direct their plays. He had a reputation in the industry and was able to attract many big name stars to perform in his plays. Pheasant Run Dinner Theater was set up like a restaurant on multiple levels with a stage in the front. Patrons would enjoy a full course meal followed by good entertainment. He was well spoken, witty and a very sharp dresser. He was a class act. He also liked a bit of flash and always wore stunning jeweled cuff links and several diamond rings.
On August 21, 1980 Carl Stohn, Jr. was brutally assaulted, mugged and shot in the head. Several south side gang members were put on trial for his murder. It is ironic his death occurred around the same time as the decline in popularity of dinner theater. Although he seems to have been forgotten by most, I will always remember him.

Mystery Monday - Genie Hooten/Davis Smith

I have begun working on my biological family tree. After over 2 months of visiting my brother and sister every week and I feel I know them better, it is time to put on my genealogy hat and begin asking questions. The Huffman family is fairly well documented as far as anyone born Huffman is concerned. There is an amazing website called Huffmans To The Barrens that includes many sourced documents and photos. Of course, I am looking for my own sources and verifying as I move up the tree, but my Huffmans (yes, I have more than 1 line) have been made easy for me. To make things even easier, Family Search has many records for Barren County, Kentucky available online. So last week, I was in Vermilion County visiting my new family and the time has come to begin asking questions. My grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Smith. It is her mother that is the big mystery and the subject of today's blog post. Her name was Genie (Hooten) Smith and she was adopted into a family by the name of Davis as a baby or young child. I doubt she was legally adopted since all family references to her include the name Hooten, not Davis.
Genie was born on October 15, 1887 somewhere in Texas. According to the 1900 census, she is living in Hiseville, Barren County, Kentucky as the adopted daughter of Benjamin K. Davis (aged 62) and his wife Martha. Genie is the youngest member of the household at the age of 11. Also living in the home are the other children of Benjamin and Martha:

• William K. Davis, age 30
• Charley B. Davis, age 25
• Philip Walthall, age 25 (husband of Bessie)
• Bessie M. Walthall, age 23 (daughter of Benjamin and Martha)
• Myrtie M. Davis, age 19

According to this census Genie's mother was born in Texas also. The Davis family were all born in Kentucky except for Benjamin who was born in Illinois (although his parents were Kentucky born). So, how did Genie end up with this family? How did she come to arrive in Kentucky from Texas? Hiseville, Kentucky is 982 miles from the Texas border and back in the 1890's it would have been a journey that took weeks to arrive from Texas to Hiseville. As I examined this census record, I noticed others in the household that were not listed as family. A man named Hartfield Wood, age 26 was listed as "black" and a laborer. I assume he worked on the farm. Laura Wilson age 54 and Louisa A. Davis, age 82 are listed as boarders.
As I followed the Davis family forward in time through the census records, things get a bit more interesting. Philip and Bessie Walthall end up living in Texas so there may be some sort of family tie to Texas. I will have to pursue this.
So, the next logical step was to obtain a copy of Genie's death record. So during my recent visit with family, my brother and I went to the Vermilion County Courthouse in the hopes of finding Genie's death record. We filled out the form, paid the fee and read the record. It stated her father's name as James Hooten. Great, verification of her father's name! However, it listed her mother's name as unknown and her place of birth as unknown, Texas. Not much help there. Texas is a huge state and there were many men named James Hooten there, so, I now officially have my first brick wall of my biological family tree. I believe Genie had no idea who her mother was. I believe she was adopted because her mother died shortly after her birth. I am just guessing here but it makes sense that is why her father's name was known and her mother's name was not. If this is true, her marriage record may read the same way - mother unknown. Regardless, my next step is to find the marriage record of Genie Hooten or Genie Davis to Elon E. Smith in Kentucky. I also need to find out if any records of adoption exist for Genie and the family who raised her, Benjamin and Elizabeth Davis. As I said before, I doubt they adopted her because family photographs and her death record refer to her as Genie Hooten, not Genie Davis. In the meantime, I am keeping a watchful eye on anyone named Hooten in Texas. It is interesting to note that Genie's father's name was known but her mother's name was unknown. How did Genie know her father's name? Is it possible she knew him? I can relate to Genie, although our circumstances were very different, she was adopted, just like I was. I find this the perfect first brick wall of my biological family and am very excited to see what I can find on my 2nd great grandmother and her family.