CFH First Draft: John Dancer Ferguson

 This post is part of an ongoing series, sharing the first draft of my Revised Callin Family History. 

John Dancer Ferguson is the 51st person in a descendant report beginning with the earliest known ancestor of our Callin family, (1.) James Callin. This descendant report uses the Register Style of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 

Please use the Contact Form (at right) to send questions or corrections.

CFH First Draft: Elizabeth Belle Ferguson McNabb Reed

 This post is part of an ongoing series, sharing the first draft of my Revised Callin Family History. 

Elizabeth Belle Ferguson is the 44th person in a descendant report beginning with the earliest known ancestor of our Callin family, (1.) James Callin. This descendant report uses the Register Style of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 

Please use the Contact Form (at right) to send questions or corrections.

Reed to the End

Hello, cousins!

We've been talking about the children from the second marriage of Elizabeth Belle Ferguson McNabb, and this week, we will finish up by looking at the two younger siblings.

On a personal note, this week is the end of my summer school term, so I'm looking forward to a week of vacation, and having some time to work on the draft of The Callin Family History. I'll have some thoughts to share about how to make that happen (finally!) and I'm interested in hearing from you about what you expect to find in the book. Spoiler alert: it should be a bit like this blog, but on paper and with footnotes.

But to the business at hand - to help you find your place in the tree here's a "map" of this branch of the family:

Elizabeth B. Ferguson McNabb Reed's tree

     VI. Margaret Jane Reed (1870–1952)

Margaret was born on 28 December 1870 in De Kalb County, Indiana, and raised in Jackson Township. On 19 April 1892, she married Francis Marion "Frank" Furnish (1872–1962), son of William H Furnish (1849–1904) and Eva Watson (1840–1874). He was born on 6 January 1872 in Kendallville, Noble County, Indiana.

(It is worth noting that another Francis Marion Furnish was born in Indiana in 1872, to Benjamin and Permelia Burk Furnish; it isn't clear that they are related in any way, but if you go looking for records, be aware that a second Frank Furnish exists!)

Maggie and Frank had a difficult first few years together. Their first son, Basil, died young, but they also had unnamed "infant sons" in 1894, who died in infancy. They are buried Evergreen Cemetery in Auburn. But they did have two children who survived into adulthood, and overcame some early financial difficulties, moving to South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana.

Frank was able to support the family as a salesman, eventually retiring as a hardware store clerk. Maggie died on 3 September 1952 after three weeks of illness. Frank died on 23 November 1962; they are both buried in Saint Joseph Valley Memorial Park in Granger, Saint Joseph County.

     A. Basil Talmadge Furnish (1893–1894) was born in 1893 and died of meningitis in 1894, according to a note on his Find-A-Grave memorial. He and younger, possibly twin, brothers, are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Auburn, De Kalb County, Indiana.



     B. Charles Cecil Furnish Sr (1895–1977) was born on 5 August 1895 in Auburn and served in the U.S. Army during World War I, enlisting from 20 September 1917 to 9 July 1919. He was assigned to Company E of the 309th Engineers, and returned from Marseilles, France, in June 1919.

Cecil married Gayle Agnes Myers (1900–1992) around 1925. She was born in Sedan, De Kalb County, on 17 March 1900 to George Myers (1867–1942) and Emma A Rohm (1871–1944). They raised two daughters and three sons in South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, before moving to Fort Wayne in the 1950s.

Cecil died in Fort Wayne on 27 March 1977 at 81 years of age. He was buried in Greenlawn Memorial Park in Fort Wayne. Gayle died on 9 May 1992 in  in St. Joseph Medical Center of Fort Wayne, and was buried with her husband.


       i. Mary Catherine Furnish Thomas (1926–2014) was born on 9 June 1926 in South Bend, Indiana, and died on 8 September 2014 in Baytown, Harris County, Texas. She was described as a longtime resident of Baytown, having retired from Baytown Sterling Municipal Library where she worked with the book mobile. She was a member of Faith Presbyterian Church and lifetime member of the Presbyterian Women’s Elizabeth Circle. She served as the church librarian and sang in the choir for many years. She was survived by a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.

       ii. Betty Lorine Furnish (1928–1967) was born on 15 January 1928 in South Bend and attended John Adams High School in that city. She became a school teacher, retiring in San Francisco. She died in Napa, California, at the St. Helena Sanitarium on 15 August 1967, after battling breast cancer.

       iii. Charles Cecil Furnish (1929–2014) was born on 13 December 1929, and served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He was a graduate of Purdue University and a retired as a Pharmacist with CVS Pharmacy. He died at age 84 on 22 September 2014 at the Saint Anne Home in Fort Wayne.

       iv. Warren Leroy Furnish (1935–2016) was born on 17 May 1935 in South Bend and died on 23 March 2016, when he was living in Fort Wayne. He was survived by a wife.

       v. Thomas David Furnish (1946–2003) was born on 4 February 1946 in South Bend. He worked at American Electric Power for 25 years and was a U.S. Marine veteran. He was only 57 when he died at his home in Ossian, Wells County, Indiana, on 18 August 2003.

     C. Bernice M Furnish (1898–1979) was born on 10 April 1898. She was a registered nurse and remained single. Her father stayed with her before his death. Bernice died on 30 May 1979 in Fort Wayne.


     VII. Charles Albert Reed (1871–1927)

Born on 2 September 1871 in Auburn, and he lived for many years in the home of his sister, Emma, and brother-in-law, Daniel Moody. He supported himself as a general laborer, and he died at the age of 55 years from heart and kidney disease on 5 June 1927.

- -- --- -- -

And with that, we have reached the end of this branch of the family tree. Unless we make any more breakthroughs in these older generations, I should be able to start preparing a draft of the revised Callin Family History for publication! That goal has been a long time coming, and I'm looking forward to getting the manuscript ready to go so I can start planning to get it into the hands of as many cousins and public libraries as possible.

Watch for announcements here and on Facebook and Twitter as we make progress.


As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We now have more ways to reach out:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time.... Happy Hunting!

A Good Summer Reed

Hello, cousins!

I hope you're enjoying your summertime - I know I am. A term paper per week, combined with absorbing the history of Germany, and working full-time means I'm keeping busy this month! Fortunately, I worked ahead to give you this series. 

Last week we talked about the second marriage of Elizabeth Belle Ferguson McNabb, and the descendants of the oldest child of that marriage, James F. Reed. This week, we continue with three of his five younger siblings.

Just to help find our place in the tree, here's a "map":

Elizabeth B. Ferguson McNabb Reed's tree

     III. Emma A Reed (1865–1934)

Emma was born on 22 November 1867, according to her Find-A-Grave memorial (though her death certificate gives the year as 1870). Raised in De Kalb County, Indiana, she married Charles Allen Picker (1871-1951) on 26 September 1894.

While I found many records that seem to tie Charles's story together, I'm not 100% that I am not just piecing together records for men with similar names and birthdates. That said, here is my best guess: He was born in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, to Edward H Picker (1843–1918) and Mary Ann Kaho (1848–1875). After his mother died, Edward remarried and moved the family to Colorado, where Charles grew up, appearing on the Census for 1880 in Denver, Arapahoe County. Charles may have lived with his uncle, George, in Cherokee, Montgomery County, Kansas, in 1885, before moving to Indiana, where he married Emma.

Charles and Emma had a daughter together, but they had separated by 1904, when Charles married Mary Sands in Belmont County, Ohio. After that marriage record, there is a twenty-year gap where I could not trace Charles at all - until a Charles Allen Picker turned up back in Denver, where he married Sarah "Sadie" Lamont on 11 April 1924. If this is the same Charles, he died in Denver in 1953 and was buried with Sadie, who died in 1964.

In 1910, Emma and little Myrtle were living with Emma's brother, Charles Albert Reed, according to the census. Emma married her second husband, David Daniel Moody (1845–1920) on 9 March 1916 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana.

Emma's third husband was Charles Wesley Bowman (1882–1947), and they married on 30 December 1926. Emma died on 4 January 1934 in Fort Wayne and was buried in Lindenwood Cemetery in that city.

     A. Myrtle Picker (b. 1899) born about 1899, Myrtle grew up in Fort Wayne and became involved in the theater and vaudeville scene. In 1917, the Pretty Baby company came to town, and Myrtle joined the company and went on tour with them. In August of that year, she married the producer, Al Garbelle. Their marriage was short-lived, and in 1919, Emma traveled to New York to bring her daughter back to Fort Wayne, where she lived in 1920.

After the 1920 Census, there are no definite records telling us what happened to Myrtle. She is mentioned (as "little Miss Myrtle Moody") in a 1923 newspaper item about a celebration for her mother's birthday. Sadly, that is where the trail has ended for this family.

     IV. Eliza A. "Lida" Reed (1866–1951)

My best guess is that while George and Elizabeth named their second daughter "Eliza Alise" and her husband and children called her "Lyda" or "Lida." I went into much greater detail with my analysis of her records in Wednesday's essay "The Corruption of Names" if you'd like to see how my analytic process works.

Born 23 November 1867, Lyda married Norman Perry Donaldson (1868–1940) on 14 October 1890 and they lived in Auburn from then on. Norman and his twin brother, Newton, were born on 2 August 1868 to James Donaldson (b. 1835) and Susan M Sherwood (1837–1921). Norman worked drilling wells until finding employment at the Auburn Automobile Co. He retired from the plant in 1934.

Norman died on 4 December 1940 after having a heart attack, and he was buried in the Roselawn Cemetery in Auburn. Lyda died at age 84 in the Williams Convalescent home in Butler, De Kalb County, on 25 August 1951. She was buried with her husband, and they were survived by four of their five sons, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. Many of these folks attended the Donaldson family reunion in 1951 (see article at right).

     A. James Andrew Donaldson (1891–1951) was born in Auburn on 11 May 1891 and after attending the schools in Auburn worked as a painter. He would spend time as a tire builder working for the Auburn Rubber Corp. and as a leather cutter for the Auburn Automobile Co. before returning to his trade as a painter.

On 2 June 1917 married Celestia Carrick (1894–1959). She was the daughter of Frederick Samuel Carrick (1869–1946) and Nettie Myers (1875–1949), born on 26 November 1894. They lived in Auburn for 22 years and left in 1939 to move to Muncie, then to North Webster, Indiana, in 1946.

James died suddenly of a heart attack on 20 July 1951, just a month before his mother died. A few years later, Celestia's health also began to decline, and she died in Michigan, where she was under the care of her daughters, on 17 July 1959. They are buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn.

       i. Alice Lanett Donaldson (1918–1987) was born in Garrett on 23 May 1918 and attended Auburn High School in 1935. She married Warren Albert Beehler (1910–1988) on 7 March 1937. He was born on 18 September 1910 to David Christian Beehler (1867–1948) and Clemma Irene Troup (1874–1947).

Warren served in the U.S. Army from 3 January 1944 through 11 December 1945, and after the war, he was a manager for Montgomery Ward, and the family lived in Elkhart, Indiana, and in Spokane, Washington, during the 1940s and 1950s. They raised one daughter.

Alice and Warren spent their final years in Lake Havasu, Arizona. She died there in January 1987, and Warren died on 2 January 1988.

       ii. Martha M Donaldson (1923–2011) was born on 5 September 1923 in Auburn and grew up to marry James Jay Stinson (1920–2007) on 6 February 1941. James served in World War II, being discharged in 1944 according to his death certificate. After the war, the couple raised their family in the New Albany area.

James died on 20 December 2007 at Westminster Nursing Home in Clarksville, Clark County, Indiana. Martha died 5 December 2011 at Kindred Care in Sellersburg, Clark County. They are buried in Kraft-Graceland Memorial Park in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana. They are survived by a son, a daughter, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.


     B. Russell Charles Donaldson (1893–1963) was born in Auburn on 17 June 1893 and raised in Union Township. On 11 March 1916, he married Florence Gertrude Marsh (1898–1988), the daughter of Julius B Marsh (b. 1845) and Minnie Bell (1865–1918). Florence was born on 8 March 1898 in Garrett, and her older brother was Holly Harvey Marsh (1887-1961), whose son, Dale Emerson Marsh, married Georgia Irene Carper from an earlier post.

Russell worked for the Auburn Automobile Co., and later as a newspaper carrier agent. He and Florence had two children, but after about 15 years, they separated in 1932. She married Archie G. Weller in Chicago on 19 February 1933. Russell remarried on 14 July 1946 to the widowed Audrey O. Rohm nee Tomlinson (1896-1979).

Russell died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack on 29 July 1963 at his home in Garrett, De Kalb County. He is buried at the Waterloo Cemetery in Waterloo, De Kalb County. Florence died at age 90 on 19 September 1988 of heart failure. She is buried in the Cedar Creek Cemetery in Cedar, De Kalb County.

       i. Russell Norman Donaldson Jr (1924–1991) was born on 17 December 1924 in Auburn. At 18 years of age, after graduating from Waterloo High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served from 17 March 1943 to 17 October 1945. Then, on 6 April 1946, he married Patsy Lou Holser (1927–2011) in Kendallville, Nobel County, Indiana.

Patsy was born in Kendallville on 3 January 1927 to Lawrence W Hosler (1902–1967) and Bonita Rider (1907–1958), and was raised by her mother and step-father, Earl Danzer, in Kendallville. After they married, Patsy and Russell remained in Kendallville. She worked for Campbell and Fetter Bank from 1955 until she retired in 1989. Russell worked for Lincoln Food Service and won a seat on the Kendallville city council in November 1963.

Russell was involved in a two-car collision on 24 January 1991 and died from his injuries on 8 March 1991. He was buried in the Lake View Cemetery in Kendallville. After his death, Pasty returned to work part-time at the bank from 1991 until 2009, and she served as a volunteer at the Mid-America Windmill Museum in Kendallville and sponsored the new Kendallville Library.

Patsy died on 24 February 2011 at Chandler House in Kendallville and was buried with Russell. They are survived by two daughter, five grandsons and a granddaughter, and seven great-grandchildren, as well as step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

       ii. Sally Diana Donaldson (1929–1971) was born on 20 July 1929 in Auburn, and she was about four years old when her parents separated. While her brother stayed with their father, Sally went with her mother to live in Chicago, and her step-father, Archie Weller. She appears to have remained in Chicago, unmarried, until her death at age 42 on 4 December 1971. She is buried with her mother in the Cedar Creek Cemetery in Cedar, De Kalb County.

     C. Newell Edward Donaldson (1900–1962) was born on 6 April 1900 in Auburn. He found work as a painter and decorator and established himself early on. He married Ruby Bassett (b. 1903) on 6 July 1923, but they soon divorced, after she admitted to preferring a wilder lifestyle than Newell would tolerate.

He married again on 4 June 1927, this time choosing Georgia L Phelps (1907–1987), daughter of Clyde E Phelps (1883–1945) and Sophia G Picker (1885–1944), for his bride. Georgia was born on 22 September 1907, and also grew up in Auburn. They raised two sons together, one of whom is still living, and Newell made his living working at the Auburn Automobile Co. for 11 years, then at Fort Wayne Decorators before partnering with his son, Joe, in Donaldson Decorating in Auburn. Newell also served on the De Kalb County Alcoholic Beverage board from 1950 on.

Newell died on 26 February 1962 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn. Georgia died in Fort Wayne on 2 November 1987 and was buried with Newell in Woodlawn Cemetery.

       i. Joe Edward Donaldson (1928–2018) was born 19 May 1928 in Auburn. He was a veteran of the United States Air Force and served during the Korean War, spending 18 months in Africa. After the war, JD went to work with his father's Donaldson Decorating company.

He married Fannie Jane Cox (1934–2018) on 5 February 1955 at the First Presbyterian Church in Auburn. Fannie was born on 8 June 1934 to Orland Dwight Cox (1900–1989) and Mary D. Gaylord (1903–1993). She and JD raised two sons together, both of whom are still living.

JD painted many homes in the Auburn area over 52 years, and because he loved the Eckhart Public Library fountain, he always volunteered to paint the fountain. After Newell died, JD was the owner of JD's Decorating.

Fannie and JD were divorced and each remarried in 1975. Fannie Jane Pepple died 15 March 2018 at Betz Nursing Home in Auburn, and she was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. JD died at his home in Auburn on 12 September 2018, and he was also buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. They were survived by their two sons, four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, as well as several step-children and step-grandchildren.

     D. Glenwood Linden "Glenn" Donaldson (1904–1976) was born on 6 September 1903 in Auburn. On 30 April 1927, Glenn married Emma L Radabaugh (1909–1971), the daughter of John Radabaugh (1874–1915) and Zoma Bell Wolff (1878–1951), who was born on 9 May 1909 in Marion County, Indiana.

       i. Rose Marie Donaldson (1927–2014) was born on 28 October 1927 in Auburn and graduated from Waterloo High School with the Class fo 1945. She married Daryl Oliver "Todd" Ford (1924–1999), son of  Rollie A Ford (1895–1945) and Cladie Olive Fee (1893–1945) on 16 February 1946. Todd was born on 28 January 1924 in Pleasant Lake, Steuben County, Indiana and served in the U.S. Army, enlisting on 12 March 1946.

Rose and Todd raised their family in Waterloo. She worked at Charleston Metals for 23 years before retiring in 1989, and he was a self-employed contractor. Todd died of prostate cancer on 30 August 1999 and was buried in Waterloo Cemetery. Rose died 5 January 2014 and was buried with her husband. They are survived by three sons, two daughters, 14 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great-grandchildren.

       ii. Ralph Linden Donaldson (1929–2001) was born on 9 January 1929 in Auburn, and served in the U.S. Army just after World War II, achieving the rank of Corporal. He married in 1949 and raised his family in the Waterloo area. He died on 11 October 2001 after choking on food and was buried in Waterloo Cemetery. He is survived by his wife.

     E. Gerald LeRoy Donaldson (1906–1986) was born on 6 August 1906 in Auburn, the youngest son of Norman and Lyda Reed Donaldson. On 9 October 1926, he married Wilma Dora Zigler (1908–1980), the youngest daughter of Charles Preston Zigler (1875–1962) and Amanda Lanius (1881–1911). Wilma was born in Montpelier, Williams County, Ohio, on 13 May 1909.

Gerald worked as a plumber Wilma worked as a store clerk; they raised their family in Auburn. Wilma died of an acute coronary thrombosis on 16 September 1980, and Gerald died from a heart attack on 25 February 1986. They are buried in Waterloo Cemetery. They are survived by two of their four children.

       i. Annabelle Donaldson (1927–2000) was born 21 April 1927 in Auburn and graduated from Auburn High School, Class of 1945. She married Maurice Eugene "Gene" Stafford (1924–2003) on 21 April 1946 in Auburn. Gene was born on 8 August 1924 to J. Frank Stafford (1869–1956) and Dora Shields (1884–1950) and was wounded in action while serving as a private in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.

Annabelle served as secretary-treasurer of Waterloo Press Inc from 1958 until her death. She was a bus driver for the DeKalb Central United School District for 15 years, retiring in 1992. Gene was a printer, and published for the Waterloo Press. They raised four sons and a daughter.


Annabelle died at age 73 on 5 June 2000 at her Waterloo home. Gene died on 1 July 2003 at DeKalb Memorial Hospital, in Auburn. They were buried in Waterloo Cemetery, and they are survived by four of their five children, eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.  Their grandson, Dennis Duane Stafford (1966–1994), died on Christmas Day 1994, after crashing into a guard rail with his car on 22 December.

       b. Randy Lee Stafford (1949–2002) was the second child of Gene and Annabelle Donaldson Stafford, born on 26 July 1949 in Auburn. He died of lung cancer on 28 June 2002 and was buried in Waterloo Cemetery.

       ii. Jack Leroy Donaldson (1928–1993) was born on Christmas Day 1928 in Auburn to Gerald and Wilma Zigler Donaldson. He married Betty Jean Deal (1932–2007) on 2 September 1950. She was the daughter of Walter Arthur Deal (1909–1961) and Ida Arvella Murphy (1912–1986), born on 25 July 1932.

Jack and Betty had three daughters, one of whom survived to adulthood. Toni Rae Donaldson (1951-1955) and Kim Renee Donaldson (1960) are both buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Edgerton, Williams County, Ohio. Jack died on 24 July 1993, and is also buried there.

After Jack's death, Betty married Brooks Reign Fee (1918–2013) on 5 December 1995. She died in Edgerton on 23 January 2007 and is also buried in Maple Grove Cemetery. Jack and Betty were survived by one daughter and two grandchildren.


     V. Mary Reed (1868–1869) was born about 1868, according to The Callin Family History, and died "at one year old." No other records have been found.

- -- --- -- -

I'll stop there for now - we have one more set of siblings to look at next week, and we'll be finished with the Reed family for now. (You're never really finished with family history...I hope!)

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We now have more ways to reach out:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!

Essay: The Corruption of Names

Most cultures contain within their most primal beliefs the idea that Names have Power.

You see this idea pop up in fantasy stories about magic, in mystical belief systems, and in most creation stories; Adam's first act in the Garden of Eden was to name the creatures being created. (The first taxonomist!) It is also true in modern society, where your username gains you access to the world and where your "personal brand" is often more important than the substance of what you sell under that brand.

In genealogy, the first thing most novice researchers focus on is their collection of names. It can be thrilling to find a name you recognize attached to your ancestors, especially if it's a famous name. My paternal grandfather, for example, knew that his maternal grandmother's name was "Hale," and I grew up hearing that we were "probably related to Nathan Hale" based solely on the power of that name connection. As far as I have been able to discover, we have no family connection to the 21-year-old American spy, and he died unmarried and childless. (Though I did find The Nixon Connection.)

As important as names are, it can be brutally difficult for a researcher to figure out what a person's name actually was, and how to find that person in historical records. Today I wanted to talk about one example of how someone's name became a puzzle.

From Name to Record

We don't often think about how names get attached to a person, or how those names get recorded, but when you do think about it, the process starts to resemble the old Telephone game. Before a name gets to you, the researcher, it can go through several layers:

• the people who pick the name
• the person who uses the name
• the people who know the person
• the people who record the name
• transcribers and indexers

As with the Telephone game, errors can creep in at any point between any of these layers. I've seen countless examples where parents have used one name for their child only to have that child prefer to use a middle name or an alternate spelling later in life. My great-grandmother Hannah Merle was named "Hannah" after her grandmother but went by "Merle" or the diminutive "Merly" until her death in 1984. My great-uncle, Byron Herbert Callin, was called "Byron" in his youth but preferred to use the more distinguished-sounding (to his ears) "Herbert" in his career as an educator.

There are, of course, nicknames: Jack for John; Libby for Elizabeth; Sadie for Sarah; Polly for Mary; and Dick for Richard. These are pretty common even if they don't always make sense to later generations, and some of them have taken on a life of their own. I've seen countless examples of people who were christened with a pet name or diminutive like "Billie," or "Johnny."

As these names get written down, there can be a mix of factors that lead to some wildly different recorded results. Let's take a look at one person whose name looks different on almost every record: Eliza Alice "Lydia" Reed Donaldson (1866-1951).

Following the Records

The first record I had that named Eliza was The Callin Family History record of her mother, which identified her as "Eliza, married, five children living." Great-Uncle George did not cite his sources for his information in the CFH, but we might assume from the newspaper reports of regular Callin Family Reunions in Ohio during the early 1900s that gatherings of distant cousins would share what they knew, and he probably collected the names of his cousin Elizabeth's children at one of those gatherings.

The earliest public record I have is her family's appearance in the 1870 U.S. Census, where her name is given simply as "Eliza" - here is how her name seems to have evolved each time she appears in the Census (as transcribed for Ancestry):

• 1870: Eliza (Reed)
• 1880: Eliza A. (Reed)
• 1900: Lisa A. (Donaldson)
• 1910: Leda A. (Donaldson)
• 1930: Eliza (Donaldson)
• 1940: Liza Alise (Donaldson)

The game of telephone becomes really apparent when you consider how the Census records get to us. First, of course, you have the family that knows the information; then you have the enumerator who writes down the information; and after 70 years or more, the records are scanned and transcribed by a human being to create the index we search against.

Since we don't know who told the census enumerator the names of the Reed or Donaldson families in each of these records, we don't know for sure what the family actually told them. The three records where our girl is listed as "Eliza" are pretty straightforward - the enumerators of those records wrote clearly, and the indexes were transcribed accurately. But the other three are harder to read, and make the name more ambiguous:

detail from 1900 U.S. Census record on Ancestry.com

detail from 1910 U.S. Census record on Ancestry.com

detail from 1940 U.S. Census record on Ancestry.com

If we assume that Norman gave the enumerator his wife's information, it's possible that he said "Liza" each time, but the different enumerators heard it differently. Of the three, only 1910 is clearly written with a "d" in "Lida" or "Leda" - and while it's not a common name today, "Lida" was a fairly familiar name in the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century. (Familiar enough for a song with that name to appear in the 1962 Broadway musical The Music Man!)


Taking all of these records together, I'm inclined to believe that her given name was actually "Eliza" and that everyone knew her by the nickname "Liza" - but there are more records to consider.

The Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001 database on Ancestry is very useful, as it provides the names of the bride, groom, and both sets of parents, in addition to the marriage date and location. As with the Census, though, we don't know who is providing the information on the record, and we don't know which human being(s) were involved in digitizing and transcribing the records for the index. At the least, I think it's safe to assume that the bride and groom gave their parents' names to the county clerk. So, with that assumption in mind, here are the variations of Eliza's maiden name as known to her children:

Year / Groom / name given for mother:
1916 / Russel Donaldson / Lydia Reed
1917 / James A Donaldson / Lida Reed
1926 / Gerald Donaldson / Elizabeth Reed
1927 / Glenn L. Donaldson / Lyda Reed
1927 / Newell Donaldson / Lida Reed

Note: I linked the names of the grooms to the original record images at FamilySearch.org so you can examine them for yourself. With one exception, they appear to have been transcribed accurately; Russel's document clearly says "Lida," though, and was incorrectly transcribed as "Lydia":

detail from Indiana Marriages 1811-2007 on FamilySearch.org

This tells me that four of her five sons knew her maiden name as "Lida Reed" - and they probably all knew that was a nickname, but Gerald thought that "Lida" was short for "Elizabeth."

Oh, Have You Met Lydia?

As I pointed out, one transcriber seems to have misread "Lida" as "Lydia" - possibly not knowing that Lida was a popular nickname, or thinking that it was a shortened version of Lydia. There are two other records which list Eliza's name as "Lydia," however, which could either mean she started using that name later in life for some reason, or that this is a very common mistake.

The first example, chronologically, is the Death Certificate of her husband, Norman Donaldson, who died on 3 December 1940. This is a typewritten document that can be found in the Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 database on Ancestry.com. Oddly, the transcriber entered the name in the index as "Ludia," but the document quite clearly gives her name as the wife of the deceased: "Lydia D."

The second example is another Death Certificate, this time for Eliza's son, James, from 20 July 1951, again from the Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 database. This record is also clearly typewritten, and gives the mother's maiden name as "Lydia Reed."

In the first example, the informant is recorded as "Newton Donaldson," which either refers to Norman's brother, or to Norman and Eliza's son, Newell Donaldson (1900-1962). If they were referring to the latter, then the clerk botched the name of the informant, and that makes me suspect that Newell probably gave her name as "Lyda" and the clerk got that wrong, too. In the second example, the wife of the deceased, Celestia Donaldson, is the informant. The clerk did a much better job spelling the name of the informant on this document, but given the patterns we've seen in other records, I'm inclined to think that either Celestia didn't know her mother-in-law's name was "Lyda" or (more likely) the clerk just corrupted it into Lydia, as we've seen done elsewhere. It's possible, if the informant on Norman's death certificate was Newton, that both clerks made the same error.

Conclusion

Based on the totality of the available evidence, I have recorded Eliza's name as "Eliza A. 'Lyda' Reed" with alternate names included to highlight the one record that gives her middle name as "Alise." And while I will refer to her as "Lyda," since that seems to have been the name she was known by, I tend to give the final authoritative word on what someone's name is to whatever the family is willing to set in stone.

Find a Grave Memorial 141478294

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If you're interested in learning more about this family, subscribe to my RSS feed or come back on Friday morning for A Good Summer Reed.

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

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Until next time.... Happy Hunting!

The Second Life of Mrs. McNabb

Hello, cousins!

Over the past several weeks, we learned that Elizabeth Belle Ferguson's first husband, James McNabb, died in 1860 leaving Elizabeth widowed with a small daughter, Ella. We just spent three posts covering the descendants of Ella, "The Carper Children," and now we will move on to her half-siblings.

Just to help re-orient yourself:

Elizabeth B Ferguson McNabb Reed

James, Elizabeth, and Ella appeared on the 1860 U.S. Census in Cedar Creek, Allen County, Indiana, living in the household of a William and Fanny McNabb (this William most likely being the older brother of Reuben McNabb). William and Fanny McNabb's household is listed just above a Robert McNabb (age, 38; wife, Prudence) and another William McNabb (age, 28; wife, Celia) who appear to be from another McNabb family. The upshot is that we don't have many records, and we have a LOT of people with similar names, which makes the puzzle of who's who in the McNabb zoo a very tricky one to solve.

But thanks to Elizabeth's obituary, quoted in our earlier post, and this 1860 Census record, we can assert that James most likely died in Cedar Creek after the date on this record: 12 July 1860. And that's where we'll rejoin Elizabeth's story - but first, we must introduce Mr. Reed:

George Washington Reed (1825–1874) was born in Ohio around 1825. I believe his parents were James C. Reed and Mary Glass, but the evidence for this is somewhat thin. We do have the record showing that George married his first wife, Clarinda "Clara" Trindall (1828–1853) on 26 October 1847 in De Kalb County, Indiana. They then appeared on the 1850 Census with their son, Jacob, in Mifflin, Ashland County, Ohio. Their household consisted of:

• George W Reed, Age 23
• Clara Reed, Age 22
• Jacob M Reed, Age 1
• Mary Reed, Age 53 (possibly George's mother)
• James P Reed, Age 21 (possible brother)
• S. A. Reed, Age 18 (possible sister)

George and Clara had more children, notably Lovina Reed (1853–1925), who would grow up and marry John D. Ferguson (1848–1922), the younger brother of the very same Elizabeth Belle Ferguson George is about to marry!

We don't have a record to say when Clara died, but Elizabeth's obituary tells us that she and George married on 27 March 1861. In 1870, we see George and Elizabeth on the Census record for Jackson, De Kalb County, Indiana, listed below the households of James Ferguson Jr and Sr. There are two boys, Franklin and William, who are older than Elizabeth's daughter, Ella, so presumably they are Clara's younger children. From that, we might assume that Clara died after William's birth around 1857.

There is a memorial on Find-A-Grave for a "Clarana Reed, wife of George W. Reed, Died 11 March 1859" located in the Vesper Cemetery in Mifflin Township, Ashland County, Ohio; in the same cemetery, there is a memorial for a Mary Reed, d. 1882, "wife of James Reed" - that could be George's mother. Until we can confirm some of this with additional records, all of this is just speculation, but these facts do seem to fit together.

At any rate, from this point, we will be focused on the children born to George W. and Elizabeth Ferguson (McNabb) Reed. Since we numbered Ella Florence McNabb, Elizabeth's first child, as "I." in our earlier post, I'll continue to number her half-siblings for consistency:

     II. James F. Reed (1863–1936)
     III. Emma A Reed (1865–1934)
     IV. Eliza A. Reed (1866–1951)
     V. Mary Reed (1868–1869)
     VI. Margaret Jane Reed (1870–1952)
     VII. Charles Albert Reed (1871–1927)

George W. Reed died on 21 February 1874, and he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Auburn, DeKalb County, Indiana. According to her obituary, Elizabeth "lived in the present home [the farm she and George moved to in 1867] for 28 years. She kept the family together, and looked after their welfare." When she died on 8 June 1896, she was buried in Evergreen Cemetery with her husband.

     II. James F. Reed (1863–1936)

James was born on 5 January 1863 in Indiana, most likely in De Kalb County, where he grew up. It should be noted that out of the six children born to George W. and Elizabeth Ferguson Reed, James is the only one not mentioned in The Callin Family History.

In 1885, he married Ellen Walter (1866–1941), the youngest child of Joseph Walter (1818–1882) and Sarah Nixon (1818–1888). They lived in Auburn until moving to Fort Wayne in 1900. I should note that the records were very inconsistent on whether their surname was "Walter," "Walters," or even "Waters" or "Watters." The family appears to have preferred "Walter."

James worked for the railroad, and then as a laborer until winding up working in the streets department of the City of Fort Wayne. He suffered from liver and heart trouble and died at age 73 on 2 September 1936. Ellen also died in Fort Wayne on 22 January 1941. She and James were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn. They were survived by their two sons and one grandchild.


     A. Elmer Charles Reed (1886–1954) was born in Auburn on 27 February 1886 and lived there until his father relocated the family to Fort Wayne in 1900. Elmer married Seauretta Bonsay (b. 1887) on 21 May 1909, but divorced her five years later, claiming she "up and left" him.

Elmer was a barber and worked in a number of barber shops in Fort Wayne over the years. He appears to have remained single after his divorce and left no children behind. He died on 28 December 1954 in Fort Wayne and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery with his parents.


     B. Ralph R Reed (1888–1946) was born 3 December 1888 in Auburn and married Lucille L Havert (1893–1964) on 5 August 1913 in Fort Wayne. She was born on 21 March 1893, the daughter of Alphonsus Havert (1850–1903) and Ellen Didier (1861–1947).

Ralph retired as a switchman from the Casad Ordnance Depot in New Haven and then worked as a taxi driver in Fort Wayne. He suffered from heart disease for several years and died at the age of 57 on 31 May 1946. Lucille died on 20 March 1964 after suffering from uterine cancer for 6 years. They are buried in Catholic Cemetery in Fort Wayne.

     i. Ralph Raymond Reed Jr (1916–2007) was born on 3 October 1916, and listed his birthplace as Jackson, Michigan, though he was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was living in Los Angeles, California when the war came, and he enlisted there on 23 October 1943.

After the war, Ralph married Anna Marie McLaughlin (1922–2017) on 11 February 1946 in McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Francis H McLaughlin (1881–1965) and Estelle M Bigley (1888–1966).

Ralph worked for the Uniroyal Corp. in Mishawaka, Indiana, for more than 30 years. Anna was a secretary for Wilts Office and Sears. He died on 5 July 2007 from renal failure after suffering from kidney trouble for many years. Ralph donated his body to Indiana University Anatomical Education Program, Indianapolis. Anna died on 16 May 2017, and they are buried in the Bigley Family Cemetery in Coulter, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

They left behind one son (now deceased), one daughter, two granddaughters, and three great-granddaughters.

     a. Raymond Richard Reed (1950-2017) was born on 1 July 1950 in Fort Wayne and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Ray died in Coulter, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, 6 May 2017. He is survived by his daughter, sister, two grandchildren, niece, and great-niece.

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Next week, we will continue with James Reed's younger siblings. I'm still in summer school for a couple more weeks, and then I get to take some vacation in August before settling into my "senior" year!

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We now have more ways to reach out:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time.... Happy Hunting!

The First Life of Mrs. Reed

If you hearken back almost three years to a post titled The Mysterious McNabbs, we left a mystery unsolved about Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb (1835-1898). Here's what I said about her back then:

     Mystery #2: Mary Ferguson's sister, Elizabeth (1835-1898) also married a McNabb. The Indiana Marriage Index helpfully tells us that a James McNabb and Elizabeth B. Ferguson were married in DeKalb county on 8 February 1858. The CFH tells us that they had six children:

•     Ella McNabb 1859–
•     Margret McNabb
•     Mary McNabb
•     Charles McNabb
•     Eliza McNabb
•     Emma McNabb

But... after finding what I believe to be the only appearance of this family in the 1860 Census (with James, Elizabeth, and 1-year-old Ella), they seem to fall between all of the cracks in the databases. I have not been able to find them in 1870 or 1880, even with very broad searches.

Looking at the data again, there are some details in the original Callin Family History that were hard for me to interpret. This was one of several records in the CFH that could be read in more than one way, and without source citations, it's hard to check the information great-uncle George drew from or figure out what he meant to communicate to us. Here's what his record actually said:

Record of Elizabeth Ferguson who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin who was the 2nd son of James 1st.

Born about 1836, died about 1898.

Married to James McNabb.

To this union seven children were born:

Ella, married, has five children living.
G.W. Reid (by 2nd marriage), married, two children living.
Emma, married.
Eliza, married, five children living.
Charles, unmarried.
Margret, married, two children living, three dead.
Mary, died at one year old.

It's pretty clear now that I should have interpreted this as telling me after Ella, the other children listed were from Elizabeth's second marriage. It's an understandable mistake, and since I didn't know to look for people named "Reed" instead of "McNabb," I missed a lot of clues.

The CFH also gave us some of the vague information Great-Uncle George had about Ella:

Record of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Ferguson McNabb, who was the 2nd daughter of Eliza Callin Ferguson, who was the 3rd daughter of John Callin, who was the 2nd son of James 1st.

Born ----.

Married ----.

To this union were born five children.

Record of Alta McCorse, eldest daughter of Ella McNabb, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Callin Ferguson, 3rd daughter of John Callin, 2nd son of James 1st.

Born ----.

Married ----.

To this union were born four children.

For years, I misread this as saying that Ella married someone named "McCorse," when it turns out that "McCorse" is similar to her daughter Alta's married name...but we'll get to that next week.

In 2016, I didn't have access to Newspapers.com, so I didn't find Elizabeth's obituary until recently. It still wasn't easy to track down (I had to open my search parameters and dig through a lot of results), but as you can see, this find fits with what we already know from the CFH and the 1860 Census.


Elizabeth McNabb, wife of James McNabb, obituary Thu, Jun 18, 1896 – Page 8 · The Waterloo Press (Waterloo, DeKalb, Indiana) · Newspapers.com
Here's the first part of the obituary:

"Elizabeth B. Reed was born in Ashland Co., Ohio, Jan. 1, 1835, and departed this life June 8th, 1896, aged 61 yrs., 5 mos., 7 das.
"She was married to James McNabb, July 8th, 1857. To this union was born one child, Ella Carper, who survives them. This union was severed by death, Dec. 27, 1860. She was married the second time to George W. Reed, Mar. 27, 1861. To this union were born six children, two sons and four daughters, five of whom survive them. In 1850 she came with her parents to DeKalb county, where she has since lived. They moved on their farm in 1867, where they enjoyed life together until death removed her husband. She has lived in the present home for 28 years."

Elizabeth's place in the tree

That confirms enough of the details we already know and gives us some insights we didn't know so we can start tracing Elizabeth's children.

As with previous breakthroughs, this one document allowed me to find a large number of previously unknown descendants of our common ancestor, James Callin. For the next few weeks, we'll look at the members of this branch of the family.

We'll visit Elizabeth's second husband, Mr. Reed, and their children in future posts, but today we'll look at Ella, the daughter born from her tragic first marriage. There are a lot of folks to cover, and I'm researching as I go, so I'm going to break these down into smaller posts so I can better stick to a weekly schedule.


James McNabb (1834–1860)

James was the first husband of Elizabeth Ferguson. Despite learning his date of death, I haven't been able to dig up anymore about his origins. As the first mystery in the original post on The Mysterious McNabbs concluded, this James McNabb is not obviously related to the other McNabbs who married people in our Callin/Ferguson tree. All we really know about him are these three vital facts:

• Born about 1834 in Pennsylvania (according to the 1860 Census)
• Married Elizabeth Ferguson on 8 February 1858 (according to two records in the Indiana, Marriages, 1810-2001 and the Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941, respectively)
• Died in Allen County, Indiana (according to the above obituary - I didn't even find an official death record!)

There is a discrepancy between the marriage date in the Indiana marriage records (8 February 1857) and the obituary (8 July 1858), but that's close enough to be either a clerical error or the time between registering for the license and the actual wedding. Either way, before he died, he left behind one child:

I. Ella Florence McNabb (1859–1929)

Like a few other people in our family tree, Ella seems to have shifted from using her first name to going by her middle name as she got older. She first appears as "Ella McNabb" in 1860 and as "Ella F Reed" in 1870. After she married Jacob Carper she appeared on the Census in 1900 as "Ellen Carper" and in 1910 as "Ella Carper;" but on the various marriage and death records of her children, and on the 1880 Census, her name is recorded as either "Florence Carper" or "Florence E. Carper." I surmise that her parents named her "Ella Florence McNabb," but she started using "Florence" later in life. Her eldest daughter and some of her grandchildren were apparently given that name in her honor.

Ella grew up in the home of her mother and step-father in De Kalb County, Indiana, and in 1875 she married the son of Adam Carper (1795–1877) and Ann Elizabeth Cobler (1812–1886). Jacob Carper was born in Indiana in June 1853, the youngest of ten siblings.

Between 1879 and 1891 Jacob and Ella (or Florence, as she got older) had four children in Jackson Township, De Kalb County:

     A. Alda Florence Carper (1879–1970)
     B. Howard Leroy Carper (1882–1948)
     C. John D Carper (1886–1964)
     D. Callie Bell Carper (1891–1980)

Jacob underwent some minor surgery in late July 1927 which resulted in his health quickly deteriorating; he died on 6 August 1927. Florence died just two years later in 1929, and they are buried together in Roselawn Cemetery in Auburn, Indiana.

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We'll end there for now, but continue next week with the descendants of Jacob and Ella. There's a lot of them, so be prepared to take thorough notes!

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