Christmas Greetings

A quick Christmas update for everyone out there. 

Christmas went very well. I can say I am one spoiled boy! I have a wonderful wife with wonderful family. I am fortunate enough to have a comfortable home and a job to provide income. Who could ask for more? I have clothes to cover me, and gained more this Christmas. I have food to fill my belly (that of course does not include all the tasty junk food that comes this time of year).

The weather was in the upper 60’s with an almost continual rainfall all day. It was pretty. It was a nice relaxed day.

I phoned and talked to all my immediate family that I could. It was good to visit with them.

Dad is doing very well. He said for the first time in the last 10 or so years, he does not have swollen ankles. Something the doctors attribute to
the liver and gallbladder problems. He said he is still sore in the tummy, but the water weight is falling off him. In the last week he has squeezed
in his belt 3 notches. He says his breathing capacity is back up to what it was in about 2000. Another thing attributed to his liver and gallbladder.

Andra is happy and doesn’t have any complaints. She had a Merry Christmas and was looking forward to going out to Dad’s place for the evening. I wonder what she thought of her present.

Amanda’s family continues to do well. They rehearsed all the presents and how their morning had gone. It sounds like Christmas was good for them.

I visited with Rose Byrom from Runcorn for at least an hour over the two days. Who would have thought the housewife of 7 years ago would now be a lecturer at John Moore University and Halton/Riverside University? Neither she nor I would have believed you. She should have her Master’s by the end of 2007. Life changes quickly.

I sat down and did some family history. Ended up with a serious road bump in some of my research. I found the Confederate Record for James A
Meredith. In the 1880 Census my James Thomas Meredith is living with an old man, James Meredith. That old man claimed little James was his son. That just seems implausible. How did he marry Nancy Graham if he was still married? Oh his wife is living with a sick daughter in that same census. So, knowing Nancy married a James Meredith, we always assumed it was old man James’ son, James Jr who was the father of James Thomas Meredith. Well, I found the Confederate record for James’ service. He was killed in Lexington, Virginia in a battle in 1864. Well, that makes it pretty difficult for him to be the father of a boy born 4 years later. Everything points that this confederate soldier, James Anderson Meredith is the same James A Meredith, son of James and Sarah Meredith. Their birth years, even the A for a middle name, and the soldier joined the Confederate Army in Pulaski County. The missing James A Meredith did not add any more children to his family, and his wife is alone and head of household in 1870. So, it all pieces together. So now back to the drawing board. Is old man Meredith really the father of James Thomas? Is that the real reason why he and his wife are living apart, or is it really as the census says, she is ill? Why did Nancy let the boy go to live with the father/grandfather? Where is the marriage record? That is what I really need to verify she married a James. Oh, another piece of evidence, old man James’ history tells he lost two sons in the war. Daniel, and another not named. This could certainly be the James A I have been seeking for such a long time.

On a good note, I found the father my Edith (Edie) Boothe. His name was Daniel Boothe and had quite the family. It took me a good hour just to get everything in relation to his children and wives situated. I also pursued some more on the Martin lines hoping to find something, but nothing yet. Will Virginia yield her secrets to me? I sure hope so.

Tomorrow we are headed back up to Washington. Taylor Duncan’s wedding is at 1:00 and we are planning on attending the temple while we are there. It will be great to see Paul and Kathy again, along with the rest of the family. I wonder who else of the family will be coming out. I have some new temple names to print up while we are there. Should be a good day.

Meredith’s revealing some secrets

Yesterday turned out to be a good day in relation to finding some roots.

In teaching the family history class, I feel like I need to know what I am doing before hand. On top of that, family history is never completed, so I was searching out some new lines. I thought I would have another go at the Meredith line.

Up to this point I have been able to find several families of the Meredith line. Legend and family lore goes that my James Thomas Meredith’s father was James Meredith. That is all we know. He apparently was raised by his grandfather, but I still don’t know why he took the Ross name to become James Thomas Meredith Ross. He married as a Meredith, but gave all his children the Ross name.  (I have since written more about this with more information here.)

In the 1880 Census we find James Thomas Meredith Ross with James Ross who is 70, little James is 9. Now, little James was born in 1868, but where the census takes your age at time of the census, then he may have had his birthday soon, or who knows. Plus James the older was probably giving the information and may have just rambled off the latest number. Whatever the reason for the age issue, the real problem is he told the census taker that little James was his son. For what reason, I have no idea. (I could easily look up his age and the day of the census, but that would take getting off onto the other computer, which I don’t want to do.) If I remember right, Nancy is over in the next county working as a servant for her Aunt Lavincia, I think. I know that Nancy was poor, so that may have been why little James was with his father/grandfather.

I don’t have the actual marriage record yet, but somewhere I have been given a date for their marriage and a place. I am hoping that record will tell me James’ father’s information.

The interesting thing is that James the old man was born in 1805 or about there. His wife was Sarah J Bell. James and Sarah had a son named James who was only a few years older than Nancy. So it is very feasible that James, the son of James and Sarah was the real father.

The problem is multiplied. If old James was not the father, which I have my doubts, then I must ask who was the James Meredith’s in the area. Well, there turn out to be about 10 James Meredith’s within about 10 years of Nancy’s birth. So far I can account for most of them when Nancy had her son James. They were married, dead, or enough distance to probably be safely not the father of my James Thomas Meredith Ross.

However, there are three James Meredith’s which I cannot account for. I found old man James’ wife, Sarah J Bell Meredith in the 1870 census. Which means she was still alive, so in all likeliness old man James did not marry Nancy Adeline Sheperd (married before, Ross) in 1867. That casts a whole bunch more doubt on his father being the father. I guess he could have been, but I assume the actual James Meredith is the father.

As I said, there are three James Merediths that I cannot count for. This is where it gets hairy. One is the son of James and Sarah J Meredith. The other is the son of Hugh and Katherine Meredith and roughly the same age. Then there is the son of William and Octavia Meredith, also roughly the same age. All three of them just fall off the planet. I can find no records of anything of their lives. Death, nothing. I hope to find at least one of them died in the Civil War or something, but nothing as of yet. Just out of interest though, I thought I would pursue each of these three families. James, Hugh, and William were all born within about 5 years and roughly in the same area. So I started to wonder if they were related as well. I then found a history of Hugh Meredith saying his father was Hugh and Nancy Meredith. I then found Hugh Sr and Hugh Jr living side by side in the 1840 census. So following Hugh Sr back another 10 years, he had the right number of sons who were the right ages to be Hugh, James, and William. Going back into the census clear to 1820 he had about 8 children. Three boys were within about 5 years of each other, which is very likely to be these three boys. What is more, you get back into the 1830′s and 1840′s, these were the only Meredith’s in the area. When you get back to find these three men as boys, the numbers really shrink. So I am very sure these were brothers.

To top it off, Hugh and James Meredith both married women whose last names were Bell. Which narrows it down even more. Sadly, I doubt Katherine and Sarah were sisters, for if they were, their mother was 50 when she gave birth to Sarah, which is not likely. Plus all other family accounts have Katherine as the last child, not another one 8 years later. I have more hunting to do. Regardless, these are my ancestors, aunts and uncles. Old Man James is my relative, whether father or grandfather of James Meredith. Even if it is one of the other James’ in the mix, he is now an uncle. But why would the child go to live with James if he was not father or grandfather. Remember, we pretty much ruled him out as father. I am confident he is the grandfather.  (I have since been given information that Sarah was a sibling of Katherine born in 1806, not 1809.)

So linking these families together, and pulling together histories, I added another 4 generations to the family history. The Bell history, through Hugh’s wife added 4 generations. I am sure my Sarah is at least a neice to Katherine’s Bell family. So that line goes back to about 1705. Katherine’s mother, who was a Farmer, whose history takes me back into the late 1600′s. So I was thrilled to make these discoveries. I need to find some more information to tie it together more firmly. But the Bell and Farmer lines have wills and more for the lines I connected myself into.

It is the Meredith line now that is curious to me. Hugh Sr disappears mysteriously from the 1810, 1800, and 1790 census. Now it is possible that it was early enough to have missed Hugh in Southwest Virginia. However, I did find there are records from the area. What is more, Hugh was about 20 years older than his wife. So he just appears on the scene with Nancy Smallwood in Blacksburg, Virginia. But, in 1810, 1800, and 1790 there is a Hugh (1800 has David Hugh) Meredith living in Pennsylvania.  Which interestingly, is where all the other Meredith families live I keep contacting.  None of them can link to the Southwest Virginia Meredith’s.  However, if Hugh is a key, then perhaps…

One of the questions is Hugh has some older children in the 1820 census which means he could have brought some more with him.  The only problem with the American census before 1850 is they only listed the head of the household and then the other members of the house according to age group and sex.  So quite honestly, those could all be white servants (blacks or slaves were tallied under a separate area.  He didn’t have any).

My hypothesis thus far is that Hugh was married in Pennsylvania and raised a family there.  His wife died or something and he went to Virginia.  I don’t know where Nancy Smallwood comes into it as there is not any Smallwood families in the Southwest Virginia area.  So she could have come with him.  Perhaps they married in Pennsylvania and then moved to Virginia with his new wife and existing family.

I have to go back now and research all those old Meredith histories to see if I can find a Hugh in their histories.  I have always searched for James, Hugh Sr’s son.  If I can find a Hugh Meredith (Merideth in 1810, 1800, and 1790 census) born in 1767 up there, they may have something about his family.  Then he would disappear about the right time frame from their history.  Perhaps….  I will have to see what I can find.

Anyhow, I keep searching.  I am finding I am much more linked in revolutionary America than I ever thought.

Monticello and Vernal

This weekend was a great trip.  I don’t know if I have written this, but Amanda and I made a goal to hit all the Utah Temples before we move away.  We made this goal in Jan or Feb and have been working on it since.  Monticello and Vernal both posed a problem for achieving that part of what we wanted to do.  Why not knock them both out at once?  So we did.  We took this past weekend, drove down to Monticello on Friday and stayed the night.  We stayed at, and highly recommend the Monticello Inn (in the phone book as Triangle H) especially if you are LDS.  They were more than wonderful with us.  She even called the temple to make our reservation for the 8:00 session for the next morning.  We attended the 8:00 session and when we came out, got our photo (we are taking a photo with us and each temple as well, Amanda’s idea!) and headed out.  We drove back up through Moab, over to Fruita, Colorado, up through Rangely, Colorado and into Vernal.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.

Vernal turns out to be one of our favorite temples.  There is something about it.  It has more character than some, and it seemed more like home to me.  We were sitting in the chapel waiting to go on the next session when I kept looking at the only other couple in the room.  I was sure it looked like the parents of a friend from high school.  She looked younger though, and he had some chops, so I had my doubts.  Finally, I just had to know, walked up to them, and sure enough, it was Scott and Anita Jensen from Paul, Idaho.  Anita was a cub scout leader for me for a few years.  Bryan, their son, helped me secure a ring at a great price for Amanda last year.  We chatted, and were one of only a few couples on the session.  I will tell you what, there is something that is inspiring when the rays of the sun are coming through the veil when they lift the curtain before being introduced.  It just lit up the room and I loved it.

On the session was also a Shane Mayberry.  Afterward, I visited with him and asked if he knew a Carma Preece.  He said he went to school with her son.  I asked about her, and found out she only lived a block of two from the temple.  Before we left, by asking others, he had her address and phone number for me.  So, we are close, why not visit.  I gave her a phone call, she was home, and we were invited to stop.

She is the first person I have ever met who is related to me through the Ross line.  In fact, her maiden name is Ross and her father is the brother to my Great Grandfather.  It was interesting to look at her characteristics and physical makeup.  She must have barely have been over 5 foot.  Similar to most of my closer Ross relatives, other than my Dad, who inherited his height from the Donaldson side.  Amanda snapped a picture of a portrait of her parents.  Giving me the first copy of a photo I have of any of the other Ross siblings.  I have a rough, vague, damaged photo of my Great Grandparents, and nothing of them together.  My Great Grandmother died in 1925 after giving birth.  The baby also passed away with her.  For some reason or another, the Sharp line did not like my Great Grandfather, John William Ross.  So he was run off, and my Grandfather’s family farmed out to members of the Sharp family.  My Grandpa to the Ed Sharp family, Uncle Harold to the Delwin Sharp family, and Paul Ross to Fred and Vic (Sharp) Hunt.  The only thing we really know is that he moved to California.

He died in the Veterans Hospital in Livermore, Alameda, California.  As far as we can tell, all of his siblings ended up in California as well.  John had a sister named Fanny, who married a Calvin Dickerson Phibbs, who was the judge in Rupert, Idaho for a time.  Calvin’s father and some other family members are buried in Rupert.  But the Phibbs went to California as well.  Then there was a Robert Leonard Ross, and his life is very sketchy.  Have very little idea of him.  He was married to a Minnie Belle Hambrick, Rose Ann Clawson, and Ruby Leaster Hall.  The only one of these I could confirm was Rose Ann Clawson, who had been married to a Sanders, but he married her in Burley, Idaho.  Then there was Carma’s father, James Thomas Ross who settled in the Vernal area.  Apparently he was the one who went to Utah so his children could marry LDS.  They missed Virginia so much, they named their first child after their old home.  So, Carma’s older sister is named Vesta Virginia.

It seems to me that somehow they caught wind of the opening of the Sugar Factory in Paul, Idaho, so they moved there from Virginia.  I know the Phibbs were there before the Ross family was.  Fanny and Calvin were married in Virginia in 1906.  The Phibbs all moved to Idaho and then Fanny probably invited her other siblings to go.  Fanny arrived there sometime between 1912 and 1914 as children changed their birth locations.  My Grandpa has a half brother, Hobart Day, born in 1911 in West Virginia.  My Great Grandparents were married in Fort Logan, Colorado.  How that ever happened I will never know.  My Great Grandmother was married to a Mark Lewis Streeter, who gave another half sibling to my Grandpa, June Streeter.  Great Grandma went with Mr. Streeter and they operated a confectionery in Paul, Idaho named Streeter’s Confectionery.  There doesn’t seem to be records of this in Paul, other than a Hall’s Confectionery which according to my Grandfather would have been in the same location.  Whatever happened, my Great Grandmother divorced her Streeter husband in 1919.  My Grandpa is the oldest, born in Plain City.  Paul was born in Paul, John Harold in Burley, and Ernest Jackson in Plain City, who died.  So that pretty well breaks down the time in Idaho for my family.  My Great grandmother married Streeter in 1917 or so as June was born in June 1918.  Fanny and Calvin were there until after 1930, when their last child was born in Rupert that year.

James Thomas had only one child born in Idaho at Rupert.  She is a middle child, and the rest were born in the Vernal area.  That child, Sydney Bea was born in 1922.  As for Robert Leonard, he married the one wife in 1919 at Burley, but that is about all that is set in stone for him.

I do not know what the draw was to California.  All of them seemed to have died there.  I don’t know where Robert died, but I know it was in 1944 and everyone says it was California.  Nobody seems to know where, and I have not found a record.  My John William died in Livermore in 1948.  He remarried a Zane Coffey in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We don’t know what happened to her, if they stayed together.  Fanny died in 1943 in San Francisco.  James died in Los Angeles in 1964.  California had such a draw that both of their parents, James Thomas Meredith (legally, but went by James Thomas Ross) and Damey Catherine Graham both moved to California and died in 1951 and 1933 in Fresno and Marysville respectively.  I do not know if my Great Great Grandparents ever came to Idaho, or spent any time in Utah.  Carma told me that she met her grandparents in California, so that makes it seem that while she has memory, they were not in the Vernal area.  Who knows for sure.  I seem to remember somewhere that James Thomas Meredith/Ross was a Bishop in California at one time, indicating he spent some time there, long enough to become acquainted and be called.  I don’t remember for sure if it was him or someone else who was called as Bishop.

Anyhow, it was interesting to visit with Carma.  She told me of a couple of visits to Grandpa and Grandma’s place.  She told me how impressed she was with how tender they were with Judy.  They have not visited Plain City since the early 1970′s.  She told me of a time that Grandpa came to visit them in Vernal.  She said they took them around and introduced them to the family and showed them the area.  The one comment that was interesting was that Grandpa used to swear up a storm.  According to her, every other word was a swear word.  I have never known him like that.  The only time I ever heard him swear was when the emphasis was needed, or another word sometimes just did not seem to fit.  She was surprised to learn that Grandpa and Grandma had become active.  I thought that was interesting.  She was even more surprised to learn that they both worked in the Ogden Temple for a few years.  Carma now works in the Vernal Temple.

It was good to sit and visit with her.  She loaned me a book that was given to her just the month before with all the descendents of James Thomas Ross (Jr).  I was excited about that.  It looks like we will have to call on Carma on the way to Denver at the end of this month.  To return the book and perhaps to glean some other memories from her mind.  She is 81 now, and who knows how much longer she could be around.  Getting into those ages, things change so quickly.  However, I hope she will still be around when we come to visit Utah again, and that we can pay her another visit.  Funny how things happen.

We had a great visit and we snapped a picture of Carma and me together.  I enjoy visiting family.  There are always more stories to hear.  I have many more, I record of all my visits in my regular journal.  Sorry you don’t get to read of some of those adventures.  Perhaps someday I will reiterate some of them here.