Tombstone Tuesday - Woodrow Wheeler (1916-1977)

 

Woodrow Wheeler

b 05 Dec 1916

d 13 Apr 1977, Johnson County, Georgia

laid to rest at

Kite City Cemetery

Kite, Johnson County, Georgia

Son of

Walter Gordon Wheeler (1887-1974)

and Callie Powell (1895-1954)

Woodrow was my 2nd cousin.  His grandmother, 

Elizabeth Virginia "Lizzie" Tapley Powell, 

and my grandfather, Lusion Keman "Loosh" Tapley 

were sister and brother.

Our common ancestors are 

James Madison "Jim" Tapley (1847-1912) 

and Elizabeth Rebecca "Becky" Page Tapley (1844-1924)

buried beside Woodrow is his wife,

Flossie Mae Douglas Wheeler

b 02 Aug 1923, Sandersville, Washington County,  Georgia

d 25 Apr 1999, Kite, Johnson County, Georgia

Together forever...

pictures taken September 9, 2022

Friday's Faces from the Past - Who is this little girl?

 These photos were in some items I "inherited" from my Grandmother Nealie Drake Tapley (1895-1970). I have had these photos for years, have shared them here before, and asked some family members, but no one seems to be able to identify this cute little girl.  (The first photo might be a different person; I'm not sure.) I would guess it would be one of Grandma Nealie's grandchildren, but there are so many to choose from.  Could it be Mary Ann Tapley (1941-) or Betty Jean Weaver (1946-2015)?? Or someone else entirely???

If locations could help, Mary Ann was born in Sandersville, Georgia and has lived in Florida most of her life.  Betty Jean was born and raised in Macon.  Grandma lived in Kite and Augusta, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, but she also stayed in Macon, Georgia at her daughter's, Irene Tapley Weaver Thomas (1925-2004) often.  Irene was Betty Jean's mother.  

I will keep sharing in the hope that this time will be the time someone will say, "Hey, wait a minute.  That's ___________  ________________!"  This genealogist lives on hope!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Where were your Ancestors 80 years ago?

 From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

it's Saturday Night - 

time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

(1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on April 1, 1940 - 80 years ago when the U.S. Census was taken.

(2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

(2)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook.  

Here's mine:

I have a total of 6 direct ancestors who were living 80 years ago in 1940  One parent, three grandparents, and two great-grandparents.  

*  My father, Gilbert Earl Tapley (1928-2008), along with his mother, Nealie V. Drake (1895-1970), was living on East Church Street in Sandersville, Washington County, Georgia.  He was 11 years old.  Also in the household were a few of my father's siblings:  Lamar, age 24, Russell, age 21, and Irene, age 14.  The odd thing is they have Aunt Irene listed as "Dempsey Irene" when Uncle Dempsey was another brother.  It is obvious they are describing Irene, though, as they list her as a daughter, age 14, and she was 3 years older than my father.  The enumerator also had written "Dorsey" on a line (another of my father's brothers), but crossed through that and put "Gilbert" instead.  I don't know if it was enumerator or my grandmother who was confused.  

My father's family moved around a lot after his father passed away in 1935.  He mentioned living in Sandersville at some point, but he never showed me the house or location.  So I have no pictures and have no idea if the house is still there.  Also, I was unable to discern the house number on the census.

* For some unknown reason, I have been unable to locate my maternal grandparents, Charles Morgan Tapley (1907-1973) and Ethel Ranney Tapley (1913-1973) on the 1940 census.  However, from their California Voter Registration, I know they were living at 15749 Vintage Street, Los Angeles, California in 1940.  When my mother and I visited Los Angeles in 2010, we visited this house, and I took pictures of it then.  However, I do not have any pictures from the time they lived there, so I don't know if it has changed any.  

* My great-grandparents, Luther Boardman Ranney (1870-1943) and Bessie Alice Carter Ranney (1883-1960) were living at 313 S. Sierra Way in San Bernardino, California in 1940.  Included in their household was their middle child, Alice Ranney Williams, who was age 28.  We also visited this location when we were in California, and I took pictures.  This house has been torn down and it was just a lot when we visited.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what the house looked like 80 years ago.

Sunday's Obituary: Catherine M Odom Harrell

from "Georgia Newspaper Clippings, Emanuel County Extracts, 1815-1889 by Tad Evans, p. 184.  Reprinted from The Sandersville Herald, Sandersville, Georgia

Catherine (or Catharine) M. Odom Harrell was my second great-grandmother.

Mary Elizabeth Tapley	Me
Gilbert Earl Tapley	My father
Nealie Vermell Drake Tapley	My grandmother
Emma Vermell Harrell Drake	My great-grandmother
Catherine M Odom Harrell	My 2nd great-grandmother

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who Is Your 3rd Most Recent Unknown Ancestor

From Randy over at Genea-Musings:

Dear genealogists everywhere, it's Saturday Night!  Time for some Genealogy FUN.

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:

 1) Who is your TMRUA - your Third Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the third lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your TMRUA?

4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. 

Here's mine:

1)  My Third Most Recent Unknown Ancestor (TMRUA) is #26, the father of my second great-grandfather, George W. Schwalls (January 1, 1837 - January 21, 1908).  

2)  While I haven't searched for this information recently, I am very familiar with what I do know.  Unfortunately, what I know about George W. Schwalls, "ain't much":  

George was born in Germany (One document mentioned Bavaria).  Sometime in the 1850's, he came to America with at least one cousin, maybe more.  His cousin, George Michael Schwall, settled in Sandersville, Washington County, Georgia.  George W. Schwalls (he added the "S", by all accounts, to be differentiated from his cousin) settled in Johnson County, Georgia.  

There are stories that they came to this country because they had gotten into some kind of trouble and had to flee their home.  The stories state that the boys were smuggled over on a ship from France.  I do not know if that is true; however, I do know that I have been unable to locate their names on any ship manifest coming from Europe during the 1850's.  

Thus, with so little information, I have been unable to determine where in Germany George was born and, therefore, unable to identify his father.

3)  I have done exhaustive searches of ship manifests, Civil War records (George fought in the war.), actually any and all records I could find on Ancestry.com and Family Search that might have a mention of George's birthplace recorded by him.  He did not even list the town on his Civil War Pension Application!  I have tried in vain to find a descendant who knows the family history by using the Ancestry.com message boards and this blog to get my query out there.  I have searched at the Georgia Archives, Dublin (Georgia) Public Library (which has a fine genealogy resource room for the geographical area), and NARA in Washington D.C. for any information about George's place of birth and ancestors.  

I have also done numerous searches for his cousin's ancestry, to no avail.

I have come across some message board posts on Ancestry.com with names of possible parents of George W. Schwalls.  However, none of those messages were sourced, and I was unable to confirm any of the information.

4)  Done!  I have written numerous blog posts about my elusive George Schwalls... please visit "Posts by Topic" above and search under "Schwalls."  

Mystery Monday: How did he get here?

My number one brickwall ancestor, hands down, is my great-great-grandfather, George W. Schwalls.  He immigrated to America sometime in the 1850's from somewhere in Germany.  Thus, the mystery.  I do not know where in Germany he was born and cannot find out who his parents were.  Of course, there's a story.  I just don't know the truth of the story.

It came down through my family that George and two other relatives (either a brother and a cousin or two cousins) fled to America after getting into some kind of trouble in their home country.  It was hinted that they killed someone.  The story goes that the three of them sneaked into France and stowed away onto a ship bound for America.  Once they arrived, they split up... George came to Georgia.  He settled in Johnson County, married twice, had many children, and died there.

Now I know what you're thinking... stowaways?  Yea, right.  That really didn't happen that often.  It's like having a Cherokee princess in your family... it's probably just a legend.  I would tend to agree... except I cannot find any record of a George Schwall or Schwalls coming in on a ship in the 1850's.  Or the 1840's.  Or in 1860 or 1861.  I know he was here by then because he served in the Civil War.  Now Schwall IS a German name, so that leads me to believe it was his true surname.  He added the "S" later.  I found one document where he signed his name "Jorge."  So the variation of "George" may be his real first name. 

Several years ago (like 10 years ago), there was a flurry of activity on the RootsWeb message board about George Schwalls and his companions that he came to America with.  Without revealing names of the posters, here is what was shared:

October 31, 2000:  "...George William Schwalls and George Michael Schwall came from Germany via France possibly together.  They are/were double first cousins - brothers married sisters.  Later some of G M's siblings came to America setting in CAL.  You and I are linked by them and all of the Schwall/Schwalls in America today.  I don't know if any of G W's siblings came to America, if they did they may have kept the original spelling Schwall. "

Now I have one issue with this theory.  George W Schwall's first wife was Lincelia Claxton, who was born in either Georgia or South Carolina.  There was a George Michael Schwall who lived in Sandersville who was married to a Rebecca Rogers and later a Mary Gladdin, but neither of those ladies appear to be a sister of Lincelia Claxton or of George W. Schwall's second wife, Mary Williams.

January 27, 2001:  "I have a little information on George Michael Schwall of Leinsweiler, Germany, and Sandersville, GA.  He and two cousins supposedly came to America.  His travel book says March 17, 1851, age 24 and single.  Family tradition says they worked up north on the railroad.  Two came south with the railroad.  The cousin added an S. to the end of his name to distinguish his family from Mike's.  Mike married twice and lived and died in Sandersville, GA. "

Now this was the first I heard that George Michael Schwall was from Leinsweiler, Germany.  Or that he had a travel book.  There is a family tree on Ancestry.com that shows that he was born in Leinsweiler, Sudliche Weinstrasse, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.  Unfortunately, the only source citations they have for this information are several censuses that only list "Germany" as his place of birth and a Civil War index that doesn't list a place of birth at all.  So I do not know where that information was obtained.  On the 1900 census, he indicates that he came to this country in 1852.  If that is true and George W. came with him, then G.W. was 14 years old when he came to America.

In one and only one instance that I have found thus far, George W. indicated on his Civil War pension application that he was born in Bavaria, which was part of Germany.

On George W. Schwalls' 1900 census, it indicates he was born in Georgia and there is no year listed for immigration.  In my research, it does appear that he took some pains to leave his past behind.  

An employee at the Georgia Archives once attempted to help me locate a naturalization record for George W.  She was unsuccessful.

April 2, 2001:  "...I know about george michael and george william, but who was the third person.  According to my records they entered new york and first worked on lake erie canal.  I don't know what name they used to enter the usa but they came via havre france. "

Believe me, I have repeatedly checked ships that came into New York or Philadelphia or Virginia from Havre, France or anywhere and have come up empty.

Also, the Erie Canal was constructed from 1817-1825.  (See Wikipedia and The Erie Canal.)  So much for that theory.

April 2, 2001:  "I have conflicting reports on the third person.  My husband's family told me that it was a cousin.  I read on the net that the third person was the son of the Frenchman who helped them escape.  Originally it was supposed to be two brothers and a cousin, but I know it wasn't his brother.  "

I have plugged George Schwalls and just Schwalls into Google many times and never found anything that mentioned the son of a Frenchman.

April 3, 2001:  "according to a bio written by his son george washington schwall - it was mike and william without mention of a third relative - but it is possible.  At one of the family reunions my mother was told about a #rd relative, but no one had anything written down. "

 I have never seen this biography.  I would love to get my hands on it.

That was all the posts.  There have never been any breakthroughs or definitive answers that I know about.

I wonder if I shouldn't just start searching in Leinsweiler, Germany and maybe I'll get lucky.  I feel confident that George Michael and George W. (I'm not convinced his middle name was William.) were somehow related.  They settled one county apart and they had the same not so common surname.  In addition, the family tree on Ancestry.com has two pictures of George Michael Schwall posted and the resemblance to George W. is unmistakable.  Their records have gotten confused, especially records from the Civil War because they served in the same unit together.

George Michael Schwall

George W. Schwalls, front row, third from left

 The same family tree I have mentioned also has George Michael's parents, grandparents, and back a few more generations listed.  However, I am unable to find any mention of George W. in that tree.

So there it is.  The mystery all laid out.  It's a big one.  I don't believe I will ever find out the circumstances of George W. coming to America.  (Did he SWIM here???)  I would just like to learn where in Germany he was from and who his parents were.  I would be over the moon if I found that information.  Any suggestions?  See anything I missed?

Sunday's Obituary: Mrs. John Drake

While doing some research at the Dublin, Georgia, public library, I came across this snippet from the October 22, 1935 edition of the Dublin Courier-Herald:

Mrs. John Drake was Emma Vermell Harrell Drake, my great-grandmother.  There were three reasons I could deduce this:  (1)  Her husband was John William Drake; (2) She died October 19, 1935; and (3) She was buried at Poplar Springs.  For the time, this is a very short obituary.