New Names!! Mary Stompar and Peter Piorek's Parents, and a Mystery

This week brought the biggest discovery I have ever made in my Genealogy search to date. Upon the suggestion of a genealogist who has been helping me, I wrote to the city of Stratford, CT to request copies of the death certificate for Peter and Mary Piorek. It paid off big time. I know have the names of both of Mary's parents, and additional information to help me identify Peter Piorek's parents. As far as I know I am now the only living person to know these names! (Except of course I'm sharing it with you now).

I have a few observations to make. First, we now know the names of Mary Stompar's parents, Michael Stompar and Anna Jakubiec. They don't appear to have ever moved to America. Having their names is absolutely vital to helping me track down their vital records in Poland. It may lead to identifying any other children they had, and of course finding more ancestors further back. Secondarily, this death certificate confirms Mary's date of birth, which until now I was a little unsure whether I had it right or not. I did.

Regarding Peter Piorek's death certificate, it sets up a very interesting mystery. He died at the young age of 49, and his wife is the informant for this death certificate. SHE DIDN'T KNOW HIS BIRTHDAY OR HIS MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME. How could that be? What wife doesn't know her own husband's birthday, or the maiden name her mother-in-law?

The obvious answer is that Mary never knew those things because Peter never knew those things. Any why would Peter have never known his own birthday or his mother's maiden name? The best idea I can think of is that she died when he was very young, and whoever raised him also didn't know Peter's birthday or his mother's maiden name. So who raised him?

She did know his father's name, John Piorek. If Peter and/or Mary knew John Piorek, why didn't they know Peter's mother's maiden name or Peter's birthday? Presumably John Piorek would have known those things, and Peter would have grown up also knowing those things from his father.

One idea is that John Piorek didn't know the maiden name of Peter's mother, or Peter's birthday. How could that be?

OK, enough questions and speculation. Here is an interesting bit of extra data I found. This is a baptismal record that I found on microfilm for a "Petrus" (Latin"Peter") in the right month and  year (Mary knew that much, at least, if not the day) and in possibly the right place (the family relocated to America from the Kolbuszowa, Poland area):

Zoom in of Petrus' baptismal record.

Petrus' baptismal record, found at bottom of page.

Record from Dolna, Kolbuszowa

In this record, there is a Peter born in a place called "Dolna" which is somewhere within the Kolbuszowa Parish ( I haven't located Dolna yet), and he is born in June of 1863. The right time and place. However, the parents for this Peter are named:

• Joanes (John) Kurda, child of Jacobi and Hedvigis Bresiadecki
• Victoria, child of Martini Maruc (?) and Maria Smolen (?)

Some of those names are hard to read, so this is my best guess at this time. Immediately note the fact that nobody here is named "Piorek".

However, this Peter has Godparents, in the far right column, named:

• Joanes (John) Piorek and Maria A---as (?) Jacobiux.

So all of this leads to the following hypothesis: Peter's parents died when he was very young, too  young to know his own birthday, and he was at least partially raised by his godfather John Piorek. Peter took the surname of his godfather, "Piorek", and was raised with little to no knowledge of his own biological mother (and probably also of his biological father). His godfather, John Piorek, was probably able to recall being at his godson's baptism in June of 1863, but wasn't sure of the exact date.

Thus we have Peter Piorek being raised by his godfather John Piorek, not knowing the exact date of his birth, and not knowing his mother's maiden name. Peter's original surname was Kurda, and his parents were named John and Victoria.

I am obviously not 100% sure of all this, but it is the best guess at this point that ties together all of the data. Further digging through the microfilm of Kolbuszowa may yield more information.

Steve Ramik's Naturalization Documents

I've struggled to find Steve Ramik's (my mother's mother's father) naturalization documents. I had them for his wife Anna, but not for him. I put out a request for help at a Genealogy Facebook group that I joined a few weeks ago, and I had immediate results. There are some seriously great genealogists there who I have learned a lot from. It was Jan Mitchell-McDermott, one of the two administrators, who helped me.

The reason I couldn't find these documents is because they are not indexed, meaning they haven't been typed up yet. However, images of them are available and you can browse through them because they are in alphabetical order at FamilySearch.

Probably the best information I found here is a confirmation of his birth date. I have conflicting data with his birthday, and this is very helpful in pinning down the right date. Also of note are alternate spellings, or even names (possibly nicknames) for a couple of his children, including my own grandmother.

I was hoping for some insight into his place of residence or birth in the old country. He wrote the same thing here that he had on other documents, so nothing new there.

Here they are (if you click on the link above each picture you can see the pictures zoomed in, and much clearer).

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMW-DY37?i=957&cat=1147528

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMW-DY7P?i=958&cat=1147528

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMW-DPVP?i=959&cat=1147528

Where is "Moschna"?

In their Hamburg departure passenger listing (see this post), Stefen Ramik and Piotr Gemsa stated that their "last place of residence" (Google translation from the German) was a place called "Moschna". For now I assume it is somewhere near modern day Kiev, but I want to post this puzzle here for future research.

One candidate is Mosna, Romania. Here is a German language Wikipedia page for that city, translated by Google (so the grammar is weird in places:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMo%25C8%2599na_%28Sibiu%29&edit-text=&act=url

Stefen Ramik & Piotr Gemsa---Fellow Travelers to America, Detained at Ellis Island

Stefen Ramik, my great-grandfather, immigrated from western Europe to America in 1904. He traveled with a family member named "Piotr Gemsa". The Gemza family was his mother's family. I don't yet know exactly who Peter is, but I believe that Stanley and Walter Gemza were his 1st cousins. Peter Gemza may be his uncle, since at the time of their travel Stefen was only 17 but Peter was 32 (my current age!).

Here is the record of their departure from Hamburg, Germany. Their names are about 1/3 of the way down.





Here is the record of their arrival in New York City. Actually, this may not be the only document. This is a record of "detained alien passengers". In those days they detained people at the port of entry if they didn't have enough money to get themselves to a destination within the states. The symbol "Tel $" means that a telegram has been sent to their relatives requesting money so they could purchase fare to get to their final destination. They didn't just let people off the boat to wander around with nowhere to go. They apparently only wanted to let in people who would be taken care of or received by someone.

Stefen Ramik and Piotr Gemsa were detained for this very reason. They were to be retrieved by the "Polish Society".

This website explains it: http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Manifests/detained/

Here is an interesting video from the History Channel that showed what it was like to stay overnight for detainees:
http://www.history.com/topics/ellis-island/videos/detained-at-ellis-island?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

Finally, here is the actual document. Their names are at the top:



As I alluded to above, I'm going to keep searching for the standard passenger arrival log.

St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Bridgeport, CT

The St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Connecticut was set up specifically for Polish immigrants to the Bridgeport area in the early 1900's. It is where Stefan Ramik and Anna Piorek were married, according to their daughter Ann Jaroszewski (via her daughter, Suzanne O'Connell).

I plan to write or call them sometime to ask for marriage records. These often include more, and more accurate, data regarding ancestry and places of birth.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael_the_Archangel%27s_Parish_(Bridgeport,_Connecticut)
==================================================================

St. Michael the Archangel Parish - designated for Polish immigrants in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States.

Founded in 1899. It is one of the Polish-American Roman Catholic parishes in New England in the Diocese of Bridgeport.

History[edit]

In 1899 Bishop of Hartford Michael Tierney, assigned Rev. Joseph Sulkowski to the newly formed Polish parish, consisting of approximately 1,000 Polish immigrants in Bridgeport's multi-ethnic East Side. The parish was organized in December 1899 and soon after an old Roman Catholic church on Crescent Avenue was purchased. What was once known as St. Mary's became the new St. Michael's. In 1990, Bishop Tierney transferred Father Sulkowski and assigned Rev. Witold Becker as pastor. Parishioners were disturbed about the transfer of their well-liked Polish priest and some reportedly left the church when Father Becker assumed his pastoral duties. Over time, Father Becker managed to establish a Sunday school and church societies, and brought back some who had left the parish.^[1]

Father Becker died in 1906 and the parish was placed under the Conventual Franciscans of the Polish-American Province of St. Anthony and the Franciscans became responsible for finding new priests appropriate for the Polish American parish.^[1][2] Rev. Leon Wierzynski ministered to the parish from August to December 1906, when Rev. Felix Baran arrived to take over the parish. The parish members upset at once again losing a well-liked Polish priest demonstrated and even physically blocked the transfer. Police were called in to disperse the protesters and the church was locked to keep them out. Some of the dissatisfied parishioners left St. Michael's permanently, forming St. Joseph's Polish Parish under the Polish National Catholic Church in early 1907.^[1]

Buildings[edit]

In 1907, the present St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church was built on what is now known today as Pulaski Street.^[1][3] The architect for the church was George P. B. Alderman of Holyoke, Massachusetts who also designed Sacred Heart Church, New Britain, CT.

In 1989, the church was closed for a period of time when Bishop Edward M. Egan called on police to evict dissident parishioners who had occupied the church for a week. About 200 parishioners had been protesting the transfer of a popular priest, Rev. Roman Palaszewski, brought from Poland three years earlier.^[4]

Anna Piorek--Born in Kolbuszowa, Poland

I had a major breakthrough last night.

In a previous post (HERE) I tentatively concluded that the Piorek's came from Swierczow, Poland, but then I had to figure out which Swierczow because there are several. I concluded that the most likely one is the one in far SE Poland, in the area of the old Galicia kingdom.

I was right!

Proof comes from a Naturalization record for Anna Ramik in which she states that she was born in Kolbuszowa, Poland.

The Swierczow, Poland that I had tentatively concluded was the right one. It is a suburb of Kolbuszowa! This also confirms that the family stuck around the Kolbuszowa/Swierczow area for several years. She not only was born there but it is the place she lists as her last residence before she immigrated to America.

This is a big breakthrough for me. I have been trying for a couple of years now to figure out where my great-grandmother was born. Now I have that answer. Now I can begin searching for church and government records in the right location for further information.

Gemza-Ramik Family Details

I want to document a few details here because I'm confident they are correct but I don't have source documents for them yet. Last fall Aunt Ann spoke to her older sister, Aunt Cecele, and Cecele provided new information about their father's family. This is from an email from Ann's daughter Suzanne to me:

My mom spoke to Aunt Cecele.  All she could remember was that Walter Gemza's mother was named Ava Gemza but it is spelled Ewa in Polish.  Walter Gemza is Stepahn Ramil's first cousin.  Stephan's mother and Walter's father were sister and brother.  She remembered the sister - in- law's name because she was the one around and Walter's father was dead.  Stanley Gemza was Walter's younger brother.  The reason I am mentioning him is because he and his wife, Anna, lived in my mother and father's neighborhood in Trumbull.

I've tried to capture this information in my Ancestry tree:

The Pioreks Probably Came from Swierczow, Galicia, in modern day Poland.

EDIT: NO LONGER "PROBABLY", BUT "CERTAINLY". I'VE FOUND PROOF. SEE HERE.

In our interview with Aunt Ann (Jaroszewski) she mentioned that her mother immigrated to the United States with *her* mother (Mary Stompar) to meet up with her father (Mary's husband) Peter Piorek. A while back I discovered a passenger list from 1905 that includes their names. It is not easy to read, but if you zoom into lines 25-28 you can see their names:



Somehow I had overlooked the fact that one of the columns informs us of the "last residence". The word written there is almost impossible to read. However, a quick look at the Ellis Island records confirms that the word written there is "Swierczow" (At the Ellis Island website it transcribes it as Swderczow, but that is certainly a typo).

http://libertyellisfoundation.org/

So they came from somewhere called Swierczow. At this point I am not sure whether this is a residence they held for many years prior or perhaps it was a stopping point along their journey to America. It is entirely possible that Mary and her children stayed with family there while Peter went ahead of them to America.

Now, if you search for Swierczow in Wikipedia you get the following:

Here are the locations of all 5 cities on a modern map of Poland:


Which one could it be??!!

Skimming through all other "Piorek"s who came through Ellis Island there are a couple other folks who came from the same town, likely relatives. Their record specifies that they came from "Swierczow, Galicia". When I saw this I suddenly remembered that Aunt Ann, in our interview with her, mentioned that this was the place that her mother used to talk about coming from. She also specifically mentioned a town called "Bratislova".

A bit of Google-fu reveals that Galicia is the name for a region in Eastern Europe centered in western Ukraine and eastern Poland. The area has gone through many iterations of kingdoms and various flags flying over it. Relevant to our search, "The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria" existed as an autonomous state under the Austrian crown governed by Polish ethnics from 1804 to 1918 (thanks Wikipedia).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria

The map below is from Wikipedia. I don't know the original source of the map so I can't vouch for it's accuracy, but I've placed a red star on the map approximately where one of the Swierczow's above is located...the only one in the Galicia area:

Here is the Wikipedia article for this city, there isn't much information there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Awiercz%C3%B3w,_Podkarpackie_Voivodeship

As of now this is my best guess as to the city where Mary Piorek (nee Stompar) and her three children Johann, Sophia and Anna lived before immigrating to the United States. I assume that her husband Peter Piorek lived there as well, though he apparently immigrated to the US sometime before the rest of the family (probably to pursue work and housing for the rest of the family). What is interesting about this is that while they were ethnically Polish none of them ever actually lived within the political boundaries of Poland, but at the time they were born and lived in an Austrian kingdom.

I hope to next start digging through church records in that city for more records!

Regarding Bratislova, mentioned above by Aunt Ann, the closest thing I have found is Bratislava, Slovakia, about 250 miles away from Swierczow. There is still work to do to determine if that city has any significance.

Notes from Interview with Aunt Ann (Piorek) Jaroszewski

Notes from Interview with Ann Jaroszewski

Saturday, June 27, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfuz6QQEy3c&index=1&list=PLxAdpCTujSkaCw3lGyolkFcXyVtnCcg_m

VIDEO 1

Ann and Stephanie are 6 years apart in age.

Ann referred to Stephanie as “Stevie” several times throughout the interview.

This year Aunt Cecile will be 99.

Aunt clare was a year younger than Seal, Stephanie came two years after, then Stanley two years later, then Eddie two years later, then Ann in 1925. Timmy 1928, and Uncle Barb (?) 1934.

Seal’s daughter Carol lives in California.

Ann’s oldest son is Ned.

3:45 Gemza = Stephanie’s father’s mother’s maiden name

HE (Uncle Walter?) tried to avoid the Army. Came across the ocean with Ann’s Father. [NOTE: Records suggest his real name was “Pietr”). Settled in Bridgeport. The guy (Walter?) who tried to run away from the army opened a Speakeasy during prohibition. Ann’s father worked there but quit because he was nervous about the illegality of it. He quit “helping Uncle Walter Gemza”. “He was a very sensitive person”.

“My father played the accordion. Not the one that looks like a piano but the one with the buttons.”

After church on Sunday they would have dinner at home and he would play his accordian and smoke a cigar. He loved to dress up in his suit on Sunday or other special events,, he was a blue collar man. He was a laborer, he didn’t have any skills. Her mother Anna is the one who pushed education. She insisted that they do well in school.

Uncle Stanley had problems with the language because they spoke Polish at home, he had to stay back a year in first grade because it took him a while to learn English. He had the perseverance to eventually become a dentist. He wanted to make something out of himself. He went to the local university for two years, then went to Univ. of Pennsylvania.

Uncle Ed was a mechanical engineer. Uncle Bud was a dentist also. Uncle Tim worked in a bank, can’t remember what capacity. Was not a teller, but some kind of credit management.

9:15 Stefan’s Personality

He liked to joke around, she remembers him laughing alot. He was very strict with the kids. Growing up they did not own their own home. He always told them to be careful and not break anything in the home because it wasn’t theirs. When they finally purchased a home on main street in Stratford, they paid in cash because they had saved up all their money. Stefan never got to live in the house, he died at the age of 62 before they moved into the house. He died at Christmas time on Aunt Claire’s birthday of pneumonia.

He was not a tall man, about 5 foot nine, Anna (Bapcie Ramik) was 5 foot 6. Anna always told her daughter Ann that she walked like a question mark, to stand up straight. Anna stood up very straight. LeeAnn remembers her always wearing a dress and heels when she visitied in Texas. Ann’s response: “At that time women didn’t wear pants except Catherine Hepburn.”

13:15 Bapcie (Ann) Personality

She liked to laugh. She had a hard life. Women in those days all did, they had a bunch of kids. The nursery rthyme about MOnday you wash the clothes, Tuesday you iron clothes,: that’s just about what they did. They didn’t have modern conveniences. When they first got their washing machine they thought that was the “cat’s meow”. She was very clean. Ann used to hate when her mother insisted on her helping clean up. Ann had to come home from school to do chores, so she couldn’t join any after school clubs. Bapcie Anna was complimented on always keeping her kids clean and nice looking.

2nd Video

1:35

While the family lived on Long Island, Aunt Cecile at the age of 18 moved to Bridgeport to live with Grandma Piorek (she pronouned it “pure-ek”).

3:35

Anna (Stephanie and Anne’s mother) had a younger sister named Sophie. Anna and her family lived on the city line between Stratford and Bridgeport, Aunt Sophie lived in Bridgeport right over the line. Ann (Steph’s sister) liked to go to Aunt Sophie’s house when she was 13 or 14.

4:30

Stephanie (Stevie) worked at Chance-Vought (an old airplane manufacturer), and that is what moved her to Grand Prarie, TX.

5:00

Aunt Sophie’s husband was Uncle Mike Tomasco. Oldest son named Michael. When he was 16 he went to a beach or pond with other people (his family?) and he dove into the water and was never found. Nobody ever knew what happened to him. After that his mother Sophie went crazy and had to go to a mental facility. They had 3 other children.

6:50

Anna (Steph’s mother) traveled from Poland with her own mother to meet her father who was already in America. They came from Poland by way of Germany where they embarked on the ship. Anna came here from Bratislowa, Poland. (My notes: there is no such city in Poland, but is in Slovakia).

8:00

“Bapcie Ramik” talked about somewhere called “Galicia” in Poland, which was a province or county or something like that near the Austrian border. The “Bapcie Ramik” referenced here is Ann, Stephanie and Anne’s mother. At one point later in her life she (Anna Ramik/Piorek) was invited to return to Poland for a tour, and she declined because Poland did not give her fond memories.

9:25

Stefen Ramik was born in Kiev, Ukraine, but he insisted he was Polish. Poland was split up so many times. His family had migrated to Kiev, Ukraine. We don’t know what part of Poland his family originally came from. They did not change their last name, it was always Ramik even though that is a short name for Polish.

11:00

Grandma Piorek’s (Stephanie’s grandmother, Anna’s mother) name was Mary. Her husband’s name was Peter. Peter died at the age of 49. Mary’s maiden name was Stompar. She had a brother who came over to the Chicago area. Aunt Clare once corresponded with one of his daughters. Aunt Anne (being interviewed) has no idea whether Peter Piorek had any brothers or sisters.

12:44

Stefen Ramik (Stephanie’s dad) had a brother named Joseph. When Joseph wrote to Stefen from Poland he spelled his last name RamEk. Joseph never came to the USA. Joseph had two daughters, both white blondes (Aunt Clare was a white blonde also, straight hair when she was little). One of the daughters considered coming over either to visit or stay, but she didn’t come.

15:20

When they got married, Anna Piorek (Stephanie’s mother) was 22 and Stefan Ramik was 28.

15:50

Anne’s Grandma Piorek (Mary Stompar) owned the house on Hollister street.

PICTURES START AT ~17 MINUTES

18:15

Stephanie Trapp’s  mom and dad were married on valentines day. 12 or 14 other couples all got married at the same time and place.

19:30

Picture: Extreme side is Uncle Tim, then Aunt Sophie, then Uncle Mike, then Aunt Josie, then Anna Ramik/Piorek. Then Grandma Mary Piorek (Stompar).

Mike and Tim (Anthony), John, in the picture are Anna Ramik/Piorek’s brothers.

21:10

Stefan Ramik died Dec 12, 1949.

Aunt Ann (Stephanie’s sister) doesn’t know the names of Stefan Ramik’s parents.

24:00

Stefan Ramik really liked raw onion sandwhich on pumpernickel bread sprinkled with salt.

27:00

Tradition at new years in which the parish priest would visit the home, bless it, and then write “K+M+B” in chalk over the doorjams in the house. Ann (stpeh’s sister) never asked what it meant, maybe the three kings who visited Jesus. (called “Blessing of the home on Epiphany”).

30:30

Stefan Ramik always went to bed early, around 9pm, but Anna his wife stayed up much later.

VIDEO 3

0:00

Aunt Clare (Steph’s sister) had a more reserved personality. Aunt Ann enjoyed spending time with her sister Stephanie, and Stephanie gave her a lot of “information”.

1:45

Stephanie worked as a waitress after she “got out of school” at a diner in town. Babe Ruth once came in, but he was “drunk as a skunk”.

3:00

Ann (Steph’s sister) was 15 when the family moved from Long Island back to CT. When they moved Stephanie was still living with the family. They (the family) had a rental first before they bought their house, and that was when Stephanie began working at “Chance-Vought”.

4:30

Stephanie was probably already living in Texas when her father Stefan Ramik died. The timing on that was narrow. Stephanie was an executive secretary.

5:10

Mary Piorek’s maiden name was Stompar, she had a brother who migrated to Chicago. Don’t know if she had any other siblings. Don’t know Mary’s parent’s names.

Stephanie’s Father’s Mother’s maiden name was Gemza. One of those relatives tried to avoid the army draft. Stephanie had always told LeeAnn that Stefen Ramik came over with an uncle on the Gemza side, Ann (Steph’s sister) doesn’t know whether it was an uncle, cousin, or what.

7:10

Ann’s (Steph’s sister) youngest son David went to Poland to research family history on the Jaroszewski side (Ann’s husband’s side). They were very cautious of talking to him, were not comfortable talking to him.

Augusta Cain's Parents Are a Mystery

Augusta Cain married William Simpson Trapp in Georgia in 1853. They are my 3rd-great-grandparents. Unfortunately I am having trouble linking Augusta to any specific parents in available records. FamilySearch provides her with parents, but there is no documentation for it and I simply have no reason to trust it. The parents that it provides are William Cain and Mary Odill, but all the records I've seen for them do not have her anywhere in them.

I just want to make a note of this fact here for future reference.

The search goes on.

Virdie & Virgie Trapp: Sisters With Almost The Same Name

My great-great-grandparents William Wright Trapp and Martha (Mattie) Ann Murphy had seven children. The first two were daughters born less than a year apart. The first was born in November of 1880 and the second was born in October of 1881.

The first was named "Virdie" and the second was named "Virgie". I guess nobody ever told them that parents already have a hard time keeping their kids names straight. Why make it harder for yourself?

For a time I thought these were variant spellings for the same person, until I saw this 1900 US Census. It isn't a typo.

Virdie and Virgie Trapp in the 1900 Census

Trapp-Doolin Family Connections

In the early 1900's the Trapp family had a very close relationship with the Doolin family. Long story short, my great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp and his brother Tank married a set of sisters, Bertha and Mary Doolin, who were next door neighbors to the Trapp family.

My great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp was first married to Ella Tatum in 1916, but they were divorced by 1923, when she remarried. They only had one child, my grandfather James D. Trapp.

By 1930 James Duncan Trapp was remarried to a Mary Isabella Trapp, and they had two children already ages 5 and 2 (I've been told that, in her later years, his wife was called "Mean Mary" by her step-grandchildren). Interestingly, James Duncan and Mary had already known each other for many years, because the 1920 census shows James Duncan and his young wife Ella living next door to the Doolin family. James Duncan was 26 and Mary was 17 at the time.

1920 US Census showing James and Ella Trapp living next
door to Mary Doolin, James' future 2nd wife.

This bit of trivia is intriguing, but what further caught my attention was the discovery that James Duncan had a brother named Eugene Tankesly ("Tank") who married Mary's sister Bertha.

The website "Find-a-Grave" features the obituary for Bertha Trapp (nee Doolin), wife of Tank Trapp, and includes this detail:

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Carl (Louise) McMillan of Cooper and Mrs. Ray (Iva Lee) Kennemer of Paris; one brother, E. H. Doolin of Paris; one sister, Mrs. Jim Trapp of Leonard; nine grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. 

Furthermore, in the same 1920 census as before Ms. Bertha Doolin is a 25 year old widow with three small children, and she lives next door to Eugene (Tank) Trapp, who is 27.

Eugene (Tank) Trapp is 27 living next door to the widow Bertha Doolin

Finally, if we reach way back to the 1910 census we can see that 16 year old Bertha Doolin and her 6 year old sister Mary I Doolin live next door to one Dewitt Trapp, who at the time is living with his aunt and uncle Robert and Virdie Cain. Cain is the maiden name of James Duncan and Tank's grandmother Augusta Clarissa Cain.

Sisters Bertha and Mary Doolin lived next door to a Trapp and the Cain family.

So, lots of connections between the Trapp and Doolin families of Cooper, TX. My great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp and his brother Tank married a set of Doolin sisters. The addition of a Cain family as next door neighbors makes the story even better, but will require more digging to flesh out.

How the Trapps Came to Texas

I recently saw a short presentation on tips for doing genealogy work, and it led me to reaching out to a local library in Delta County, Texas to see if they have any resources. I want to learn more about my great-grandparents James Duncan Trapp and Ella Tatum, who lived for over ten years in and/or around Cooper, TX.

I sent an email to a the only email address I could find for the Delta County Library, and I was very surprised to actually get a response at all, which came the next day. I specifically had asked about available old local newspapers which might be available. A librarian responded and said that the microfilm for the Cooper Review had been sent to UNT and over the course of the next year they would be digitizing it, which is great!

She also asked me for a bit of information about my family history in the area, and she passed my phone number to a distant relative of mine who I didn't even know existed. Eddie Trapp is an elderly gentleman who lives in the area. He called me this afternoon and we shared a brief but very good conversation. I haven't confirmed any of this with Eddie, but it looks like Eddie is a retired science teacher who was beloved by his students. See this article here:
http://www.myssnews.com/news/2008/October/nt101308-2.html

Also, this is the Facebook picture for Eddie Trapp living in Cooper, TX:

Eddie's genealogy:

William Simpson Trapp

William Wright Trapp (g-grandfather)

Eugene Tanksley (went by "Tank") Trapp

Tommy (Thomas?) Trapp

Eddie Trapp

My genealogy:

William Simpson Trapp

William Wright Trapp (g-g-grandfather)

James Duncan Trapp

JD Trapp

LeeAnn Trapp

James Stutz

So W.W. Trapp is Eddie's g-grandfather, and is my g-g-grandfather. Eddie is my 2nd cousin 1x removed.

Eddie mentioned that as far as he knew there is no information beyond William Simpson Trapp, because the "Yankees" destroyed the courthouses and all the records in the south. We actually do have some information, including names, beyond W.S. Trapp but in our brief conversation I wasn't able to mention it to him. I'll have to call him back sometime.

Eddie related the following information to me:

William Simpson Trapp married to Augusta Clarissa Trapp (which is extremely helpful, as I've been struggling to get her name right; the records are confusing). After the Civil War they left Atlanta to seek a new life because Atlanta and all the South was in ruins. Everybody was moving to Texas in those days, so decided to go there too. The train stopped in Mississippi because of a flood, and while they were waiting of the flood to go down Augusta got real sick so they ended staying there for 10 years. They lived in Iuka, and in the town of Eastport which he said is currently under a lake (I'm not sure I totally understood that detail).

After about 10 years they started their journey to Texas again, saw the beauty of east Texas as they passed through it but stayed on the train further west, toward Childress/Midland area (two cities he specifically mentioned), but decided they didn’t like how it looked and wanted to live in the big trees back in east Texas. They got back on the train and went back east. One of the sons said he was getting off in the Paris area and they could all do what they wanted, but they all got off together and “scattered like quail” from there.

W. S. Trapp and Augusta were eventually divorced, There is a fine picture of William and his five sons (below). Augusta referred to the picture as the devil with his 5 angels.

(Top left to right: James Simpson, Dorman, & Nathan. Bottom row left to right: William Wright, Land Lott, William Simpson. This according to Eddie Trapp.)

I'm very grateful that Eddie called me and I hope we get to meet someday.

Descendant of the Mayflower

(Originally written July 30, 2013)

Back in November of last year (2012) I did some genealogical research and found that I was a direct descendent of several of the passengers from the famed Mayflower ship which landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Here is the chart I made at the time to try and organize the data:

Now, I shared this information on Facebook and Aunt Ellen (my dad's aunt) responded telling me that we were related to several more, but I have not yet done the research on them or added them to my illustration. Their names were:

William Brewster
Peter Brown
James Chilton
Francis Cooke
Edward Fuller

If I include all of these names that is a grand total of 12 Mayflower passengers of whom I am a direct descendant!