Saturday Night Fun–Probate Record Reveals

Edward James Leach, c. 1890

Genea-Musings prompted Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with the prompt: “Today’s challenge is to Share something you learned from a probate file or will that you wouldn’t have otherwise known about.”

I don’t normally post twice in one day, but I was intrigued by this prompt and it is not something I’ve written about. 

One of my brick walls is Henry Edward Leach (1834-1892), my great-great-grandfather who when he died, left my great-grandfather, Edward James Leach (1883-1919) an orphan. He emigrated to the US in 1860’s from England and I knew nothing about any of his family, only a wife he met and married in Michigan in 1882 and his one son. Even though he died in 1892, I couldn’t locate a Death Record. I wrote about Henry early on in January 2023 (My First Brick Wall).

After writing that blog I came across an index to Michigan, US, Wills and Probate Records, 1784-1980, Houghton through Ancestry. It’s only an index, but it directs you to where it is held. I wrote to the State Archives who directed me to Michiganology and a Request form for Probate Court Research ($10). They said that it would be about 1-2 weeks before I received it. It took 19 days, but it was well worth the wait!

Probate Record

The Probate Record was 82 pages long! I have learned that probate records can vary wildly in what they contain, which depends on the familial circumstances and financial holdings. Henry was not a rich man and didn’t own the home they were living in, but he had a comfortable existence as a bookkeeper for a Copper Mine. The probate record included information about his death (location and date), his executor, friends, will, and lots of purchases made for young Eddie! His personal estate was estimated at $2,300 which in today’s dollars is about $79,000. All of the men that are mentioned are all men Henry knew through his membership in  I.O.O.F(International Order of Odd Fellows), which provides camaraderie but also Life Insurance.

Will

The will was a standard will handwritten by his friend and executor of the estate, Charles Smith just a day before he died. Looking at his signature, he must have had a stroke or something that affected his writing ability because this was clearly not his normal signature. We have confirmation that his son is E.J. (Edward James) and Charles Smith is his guardian. No information about his parents or other family.

Fun Expenses

The fun things for me were all of the expenses that little Eddie had in the first couple of years. Clearly nice clothes for a growing boy were important because there were several receipts for new suits, over coat, cap and socks from local clothier L H Richardson’s and a receipt for a suit for Henry from Detroit’s men’s clothier R. H. Traver. (The building does still exist and was renovated for offices.)

There were school supplies listed, link ink and pen tips, paper supplies like toilet paper, and even receipts for oranges and milk.

Unexpected finds

There were 3 unexpected finds: 

1) evidence of ownership of land in Minnesota! I looked it up in the BLO website and it appears that a George Sigel was the original purchaser in 1869. I haven’t figured out when Henry Edward might have bought it (yet) or if it was sold before Edward was of age?

2) purchase agreement for 2 grave markers for he and his wife. This is interesting, but unfortunately any evidence of their gravestones is gone. They were originally resting in what was called Pioneer Cemetery originally owned by the Quincy Mining Company. In the 1970s there were announcements asking relatives if they would like to move their loved ones. I’m guessing by that time, they had no knowledge of living descendants for Henry and Flora, so their headstones were removed and their bodies remain there with a small park between the Catholic Church and Lutheran Church. Some names were recorded, but Henry and Flora don’t appear on any of them. I actually knew this before learning about the purchase of their headstones, which actually made me a little sadder.

3) A receipt from Charles Smith to the County Clerk’s office for copies of his death certificate! So there was one at one time! I was so excited to find this, I had proof that his death was recorded and where. In 2023, armed with this receipt, I went in person to the County Clerk’s office. I had been through the on-line death records numerous times and never found him, but it must be there. There’s an amazingly wonderful clerk there who helped me with finding my grandmother’s birth record and she was anxious to help me. With this death record, I might actually find out his parents’ names!!

But alas, she said that she searched through the whole book and never found him recorded. It was so disappointing, especially because I know that at some point they did have it recorded somewhere.

I have gotten no further with finding his parents, but the Probate Records were still worth it!

 

A Quest Completed!

Don’t we all love a good mystery? I think that’s why I love family history so much! It’s a quest for me, where the journey is as much fun as reaching the goal.

My bisnonno in his Italian Army 
uniform, c. 1897

What was my recent quest? It was finally finding the military records for my great-grandfather (bisnonno) Emanuele Antonio Mazziotti!! If you’ve read my other blogs, you know he is a constant feature, since his early life is a big mystery to me. He was orphaned by his family by being “left on a wheel” in Villa San Giovanni as a day old infant and family lore has him shipped off to Switzerland and raised by nuns until he became a foster child of the Bellantoni family in Scilla, Italy. My daughter found his birth record in 1876 after searching tirelessly page by page through Antenati (the incredible site for the best town birth, death, and marriage records) Villa San Giovanni records. Supposedly Grace Bova (Bellantoni) favored him over her own sons so he left to fight in Africa with the French Foreign Legion. Well, that was the story. What have I learned? I know that he came to America in 1900 according to his ship manifest, but what happened to him between 1876 and 1900 remained a mystery. So off on a quest I went!

Scilla, Italy
October 2023

My Quest
A few weeks ago, I went to Scilla, Italy to search for his past!! It was a surreal experience because I lived for a week with a genetic cousin (we don’t actually know how we are related, but we share 26 cM of DNA!), Carolina, who hosted me and another cousin, Cas, for the week at her home. Googletranslate worked wonderfully for us and Carolina was incredibly valuable to me as I plotted my adventure to search out my family’s history. The trip was absolutely amazing and I have so much to process and share, but here I will just talk about my quest to secure my bisnonno’s military records. (A colleague of mine directed me to military uniforms several years ago, where I learned that his uniform was NOT French foreign legion and it WAS Italian Army.)

Prior to Going

In preparation for this trip, I chose to take a course offered through the Family Tree University called "Find Your Italian Ancestors". It was a good course and I would recommend it, although I do have some serious critiques (such as some of the lessons have not been updated and some references to websites and resources are seriously outdated). The instructor for the course is Melanie D. Holtz, who encourages you to purchase her book The Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide. I do highly recommend this book if you have Italian family research, I appreciate that it includes both instructions on how to locate records in Italy and also sample template correspondence. I used these sample templates when I wrote to the Archivo di Stato in Reggio Calabria to understand their policies on making appointments and requesting information.

 

Archivo di Stato di Reggio Calabria

Cas and I took the 20-minute train to Reggio Calabria from Scilla and back for less than 6 Euros! The archives was about a 25 minute walk from the train station and surprisingly was tucked up on a hill in a fairly residential area. I was one of 5 researchers in the Reading Room and the only one who didn’t speak fluent Italian. Although the head archivist was not excited to help me and treated me much like I had read about—(in other words, she found my request burdensome)–the younger female workers tried very hard to help me.

I FOUND IT!!

And it is filled with wonderful information that I'm still processing. It is officially called his Fasciolo Matricolare, which are his personal military records. It includes a description of his physical features, like his hair and eye color were described as chestnut and his skin color was tanned and he was 1.645 meters tall (64.8 inches). It was not suprising that his father was listed as "Ignoti" (unknown) but his mother was listed as Grazio Bova ("nutrice"--which is nurse)!!

I’ve been reading a book, Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control (1993) by Brown University professor David I. Kertzer. In 1863, the highest rate of abandonment was in southern Italy, specifically in Sicily and Calabria (where my bisnonno was raised). The rates of abandonment were over 5% of newborns and the mortality rate was over 50%! Women from the communities were paid to be wetnurses for the babies and those babies who weren't matched were less likely to survive. I'm really glad that my bisnonno was among the lucky ones to be matched with a wetnurse and to survive!  

This suggests that Grazia (Grace) was his wetnurse and chances are that he was raised in the home along side their other children and he was with them until he served his required military service in the Italian Army. The document provides the accounting of where and when he served and what he did. So, Where did he serve? Africa!!

So, like most family lore…some is true…and some is not! And it was a LOT of fun figuring out which is what!

From Brick Wall to Beautiful Mosaic….Pieces falling into place!

Alonzo Sedlock

 I have always heard about “breaking down brick walls” which sounds great, but then in reality if you break down a brick wall you have lots of pieces of brick and mortar strewn about. That seems like a big mess. And in my case, it has been! But then, I never thought beyond this image of a mess. What happens to all of the pieces? 

Well, after last night and today, I know what lays beyond this messy yard…it turns out that all of those little brick pieces get recombined into a beautiful mosaic!

A New Cousin

Yesterday, I began correspondence with a cousin that matched with my sister only 8 cM. For people not well-versed in DNA, this is barely connected, it could technically be as close as 3rd cousins, but it is more likely to be 7th cousins or farther (on average you will match 14 cM with a 7th cousin).

(From: https://pngtree.com/freepng/the-brick-wall-breaks-through_8413483.html)

Image from DNAPainter Shared cM Project by Blaine Bettinger, 2000

Why did he reach out to me? Well, it turns out that when I broke through my brick wall of Alonzo Sedlock and added two more generations to my tree three weeks ago in Salt Lake (remember the Slovakian baptisms, marriages, and deaths I found extending beyond my Alonzo Sedlock brick wall?), a name jumped out to him…Kerekes!

We talked for 2.5 hours (!!!) comparing notes and learning about his family tree and we could have talked for several more! His paternal grandparents were both Hungarian/Slovakian and he has a rich history of researching the area and could pronounce all of the town names and even knew how close they were to one another. He is also a professional researcher (not genealogy, but court/records), so he knows where to quickly look to find things. 

During the call, we were able to piece together how we are related, turns out that we are 5th cousins 1x removed (5C1R) through the common couple, Georgius Kerekes (1754-1810) and Maria Fedor (1759-?) and he helped me to find the connections for several other DNA matches that I hadn’t been able to figure out.

Let's go back to how I began chipping away at the brick wall.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Piece #1: My father knew that Alonzo Sedlock’s mother’s name was Elizabeth Kristof Barath. This has always been a stumbling block for me because where did the Sedlock come from? And why the Barath? And was Kristof a maiden name or another marriage? I had so many questions!

Piece #2: About 7 years ago, I came across Alonzo’s WW2 Draft Registration and he listed Stephen Leonard Barath as a brother! Okay, he had (presumably) a half-brother and Elizabeth married a man with the last name of Barath.

Piece #3: About 5 years ago, a genealogy angel posted on Elisabeth’s Find-a-grave site her obituary!! Imagine my surprise when I found out that Elisabeth had 3 children and Alonzo had a full-older sister, Eleanor Sedlock. It also said that she came to the US 30 years prior (~1889) and that she was the daughter of “Mr. and Mrs. John Kristoff”. Equipped with Elisabeth’s death date and location, I then found her will, which also named her estranged husband, Gabriel Barath. But still, where does the Sedlock come in?

Piece #4: Over the past 5 years, with DNA, I have found 10 people who are all related to a Frank Christoff in Clearfield County, PA and who share DNA with my dad ranging from 38 cM to 102 cM. The colorized photo is Frank’s family in around 1901. Frank and his wife had 10 children and I have identified descendants for 6 of these children that share DNA with my dad. 

Frank Christoff and Susanna Hajnal and children, ~1901

Piece #5: According to the Ancestry Trees out there, Frank was born in 1849 in Hungary to a Stephen Peter Kiss Christoff (1832-1902) and Maria Hajnal (1835-1913). They had no children identified that were born in 1855, so maybe Frank was Elizabeth’s brother and these were her parents? But if so, why didn’t she live in Clearfield with ALL of the other children? And if Frank is their son, why was the next child born in 1856 and every other child after was born in 2-3 year intervals? And was Maria really just 14 when Frank was born, that was young for them even at that time?

Piece #6: DNA is powerful and it is also tricky! There are so many possibilities and with “close” DNA there are still lots of possibilities. (I’ve shown here a wonderful tool from DNAPainter in which you input the cM match and it spits out the likelihood for the type of relationship.) 

Piece #7: DNAPainter also has another amazing tool called WATO (What are the odds?). For this tool, you enter in a family tree and include the cM for each relative you know in the tree. It produces various hypotheses and calculates the Odds for each. So, in this case, I entered in Frank and all of his children and the 10 people with their cM that match my dad. I then add in my great-great-grandmother through my grandmother on the tree somewhere and it spits out a tree with all of the possible locations for where my DAD would be placed. The most likely option isn’t always the best, but that’s where you use genealogy to discount some of the possibilities. You don’t need to actually read this graphic, I just wanted to show you the tree and the tan rectangles are the known cousins with their DNA fit into the tree. The blue rectangles are all of the possibilities for where my dad “could” fall and the little green bit has a number that shows the ODDS. The larger the number the more likely the outcome. I have put a rectangle around the 4 most likely outcomes with the red arrow pointing to it.  These 4 paths rely on Elisabeth being a full-sister with Frank.

Brick Wall Busters: In Salt Lake, 

• I managed to find Stephen Kiss Kristoff and Maria Hajnal’s marriage record. They were married Jan 15, 1855, six years after Frank was born and just over a year before their first child, Stephen. 

• I found the baptismal records for all but one of their children and for that child, I found her marriage record which names Stephen and Maria as her parents. 

• I found the baptismal record for “my” Elisabeth which names her parents, Janos Kristof and Theresia Kotsis. Her parents were married November 25, 1839 and their first of six children (I found) was born 1841. There were NO Frank’s (Ferenc)  among the children but there was a Istvan (Steven) who was baptized May 18, 1849.

• I wrote down every single Kristof baptism and marriage I could find at this church for about 50 years…this is a lot and a lot of little paper sheets (each sheet is a couple and their children) In all of the baptisms, I found ONE Ferencz and he was born in 1843.

The Mosaic..putting the pieces back together

My new cousin was intrigued and he was in agreement with my emerging theory…Frank’s given name was not Frank, it was Istvan and that he is the brother to my Elisabeth.

So what did he do? He found the death certificate for a Steven Christoff in Clearfield County, PA! The birth date lines up with BOTH Istvan (Elisabeth’s brother) and Frank Christoff. The death date mirror’s the death date that the Ancestry trees have for Frank. The parents listed are “J?o Christoff” and “Tressa Cortosaf”. Which seems consistent with Janos (John) Kristof and Theresia Kotsis.

This morning I did a search of all of the probates/wills/death certificates for Clearfield County in an around the 1919 date. I found NO Frank Christoff’s but I did find the index to Frank’s wife’s estate in 1920. It is not available on-line, so I guess a trip is in order to Clearfield County, PA. This death certificate doesn't prove my theory, I need to somehow show that Steven married Susanna or somewhere that indicates that Steven went by Frank. (Yes, I did look for an obituary and didn't find one for him in the newspapers.)

I did also write a note to Christoff cousin, who still lives in Clearfield who descends from Frank and asked if he or his father recalled if Frank was ever called Steven. He doesn’t know but suggested writing to the Christoff Facebook page. He has an 100 year old great-aunt who might remember something. He also invited me to look him up if I wanted to see where the Frank Christoff’s settled. I'm thinking April might be a good month to go to Clearfield. :)

Here's where the pieces come together. It’s really hard to tell in photos, but don’t you think  that Alonzo looks a lot like his “uncle”, Frank?

Frank is the man sitting

 

Young Alonzo and older Alonzo.

"Ask! And you shall find!”

 For most people, the idea of sitting in a library building for 10-12 hours a day peering at multiple computer screens and walking less than a block from their hotel to eat out of a mini-refrigerator and vending machines for a week is not their idea of a vacation. But for me, this was an AMAZING vacation and so worth the investment!!

I spent an entire week with Ancestor Seekers and I can’t tell you how much I think it was worth it!! You can see how they describe the “Dream Vacation” here.

I can’t tell you how much I learned in the week! Not only about my family and finding resources to help me find family, but also about researching, in general. One of the biggest take-aways was learning to ASK for help and ASK for things from archives. Let me share two examples.

Asking for help from Archivists

On my first day, when working with Malia (one of the senior researchers at Ancestor Seekers), I shared with her my “brick wall” of my great-grandfather Henry Edward Leach who just appears in the Upper Peninsula in 1880 Census and I can find no records of him prior to 1880. His census, his marriage, record, son’s birth record, and other things pointed me to England for his birth, but I have looked (really hard!) for his death record hoping to learn more but I just can’t find it recorded anywhere. I just received his probate records the week before from the Michigan Archives–very interesting and cool information–but beside providing me the information that he died at home in Houghton County, Michigan on June 15, 1892, there was nothing about parents or a birth location.

Malia asked if I had his obituary and I said that I did not and that the newspapers from the Houghton County area are not yet digitized anywhere accessible to me right now. She then said, “Well, have you asked the archivist where the newspapers are available?” Well, no!! I’m not sure why not, I just hadn’t thought to ask for that!! So, I promptly wrote an email to the archivist, Emily (she has already done some other searching for me, so I already had her email) and within 45 minutes, she sent me the following email:

Emily Schwiebert

Feb 21 2023, 02:56pm via System

Good afternoon, Lynn--

Thank you for your email. I am doing well and hope you are, too. 

I would be happy to see if an obituary exists for H.E. Leach. The surviving newspapers from the Copper Country (both in our holdings and elsewhere) from the 1890s are sparse for unclear reasons: both earlier and later eras tend to be more robust. However, I believe we may have a title on microfilm that covers 1892. 

Preliminarily, it appears that a brief report of his death appeared in the Daily Mining Journal of Marquette, which is available from the Peter White Public Library through the UPLINK service. You can review the death notice on page 7 of the document at the following link: June 16, 1892 Daily Mining Journal. 

I'll consult our holdings to see if more is available from papers closer to home and follow up with the results one way or another, hopefully by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to email or call.

All best,

Emily Schwiebert

Wow!! I was speechless and so excited. Not that this bit of newspaper told me exactly what I wanted to know, but it gave me important information that is going to help me move forward. (The date of his birth is in conflict with other data, so while Obituaries provide information, take them with a grain of salt because the people reporting this information sometimes don’t know the accurate information.) Since it said that he had been with the company from nearly their beginning, I was able to look up the history of the Hecla & Calumet Mining Company and determine that he had been in Houghton County since at least 1872 and had been working there for 20 years. Also, while I knew he was active in the Odd Fellows, it helped me to understand that he was fairly involved in the organization and might provide me another lead and opportunities.

Emily also did consult her resources and found a couple more articles about H.E. Leach (including the announcement of his wedding to Flora Elizabeth Croft of which I had seen a transcription but not the original). 

What a find, and all I had to do was ASK!!

Now, I will give some advice….when asking an archivist for information, be specific! You need to know dates and people and exactly what you are looking for. They are busy people and don’t have lots of time to do your legwork, but they do WANT to help. And always say “Thank you” especially since you never know when you will have the opportunity to ask for something else. 🙂

Asking help from Communities

Did you know that most countries/regions of the world have Communities created within FamilySearch.org? Nope, me neither!! Well, Heidi–another Ancestor Seeker researcher helped me with this one. She could read some Hungarian and Slovakian, but when I found the marriage record for my great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather (parents of Alonzo Sedlock, my other major brick wall), she suggested that I post it to the Austrio-Hungarian Group in Communities.

So, I did. And within 2 hours, I had a translation! 

Hello-

I'm wondering if anyone can read and translate the entry in the marriage record of my gg-grandparents? It's from 1874 under the column about any impediments in the marriage banns. Thank you!

• Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭

• February 24

• Announced twice, have dispensation for 3rd announcement. The girl received a dismissal from the parson of Felső-Novaj.

Yeah, Googletranslate was not going to provide me this!! This bit of translation was the KEY to unlocking so much more about Alonzo's family!! By learning about Felső-Novaj, I found the church which holds all of the baptismal, marriage, and death records for the Kristoff (Alonzo's mother's) family.

I went on to use the community several more times during the week. The Community was amazing and everyone wants to help each other. As my daughters would say, “10 out of 10”, definitely will keep on using!

And I will be doing a lot more ASKing!!

Gem in Indiana...The Allen County Public Library

 The ACPL Library

Last week I spent two incredible days at the Allen County Public Library and when I say two days, I mean two FULL days! Over the 2 days, I was in the library and researching a total of 21.5 hours! The resources available there are incredible and could be a bit overwhelming. On the first day, I chose not to take a break to eat, I just didn’t think I would have enough time. I was famished by the time I returned  to my hotel room and couldn’t make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich fast enough! I learned something. Tuesday, I chose to break for lunch, a great pizza place where I could eat a pizza by the slice, and felt much better late afternoon and early evening. This was a GREAT practice for my weekly long visit in the Salt Lake City Family Search Center, starting Tuesday!!

The true treasure though are the research librarians!! They were amazing and everything is FREE. If you ever go, I highly recommend that you make an appointment ahead of time for a consultation and share with them ahead of time your research question and goals. I started my first day at 10am with a meeting with Sarah. Sarah was assigned to me because she specializes in the midwest. She had done lots of research ahead of time and provided me with a printed list of suggestions specific to me and we went over it together. She acknowledged that my brick wall of Henry Edward Leach was truly a brick wall and I felt a little bit better that a professional acknowledged that this was a hard one. She then gave me a tour of the library and set me up with my first task of searching the microfilm for the death records for Henry. 

You can have your own book cart!! That was so cool and I really learned how to best use my brand new scanner.

My First Brick Wall

I didn’t end up finding out much about Henry, although I chased down a lead given to me by Sarah that  might end up netting something in the future. Sarah reminded me about the FAN Club Principle in Genealogy. This concept was developed by Elizabeth Shown Mills, a guru in genealogy, and it’s simple but very effective. FAN stands for family/friends, associates, and neighbors. If you are ever stuck, you might find leads in the FAN Club. 

Sarah suggested that I look to the people who hosted the Boarding House that Henry Edward Leach was living at in the 1880 census, since it was reported that he was from England and so were the owners of the boarding house and one of its other boarders. She reminded me that it is possible that there was a connection among them or that they knew each other in England or knew people who knew them. It was a great thought and although I don’t think there was a connection, it heightened my awareness of the boarding house owners for later reading! I came across a photo and some background of the couple and gave me a better understanding of where Henry was living in 1880.

Other Cool Stuff

After those first 4 hours, I chose to turn my attention to other parts of Jim and my family trees. I found several plat maps that show various family members' farms...like the Tubbs farms in Washtenaw County (my side) or another the plat map that identifies where Jim's great-grandparents had a farm in Crystal, Michigan. It's always cool to see the relatives' names on these maps. (Peter Monroe Baucher is my my husband's great-grandfather and his property is in the right side of the NW corner of section 7, just above and to the left of Crystal Lake.)

I also found a not so old...1986..Sesquicentenniel Celebration book of Three Rivers, Michigan complete with a Prophecy for 2011. What was amazing is that one of the students who was making the prophecies is a woman that Jim and I met while studying abroad at the University of Aberdeen (she was another American!!). We don't think of ourselves making history, but we are! Makes you wonder what remnants we will each leave behind for future generations to find.

The Mayflower Society

Another goal I have during this year is to solidify the connections to hopefully submit an application to the Mayflower Society. I’m doing this as a genealogical challenge. 

If you think you have a line that goes back to one of the original 26 families of passengers on the Mayflower, I suggest starting with the Silver Books. They provide all of the proof for the first 5 generations of descendants from the original 26 families with descendants. (There were actually 106 passengers on the Mayflower, but over 50% died in the first winter and only 26 families had descendants that lived on.)  I had used the Silver Books at the DAR Library in DC (anyone can use the library, you don’t have to be a member) to investigate the two lines that I think I descend from. 

The Book that provided the connection
between the Walkers and Orcutts.

The ACPL has an amazing collection of Family Histories and I was able to find a book that provided to me the confirmation and link I needed! Now I “just” have to find copies of all of the birth, death, and marriage records. That’s part of what I am doing at the Family Search Center now!

Highly recommend the ACPL and I definitely think I will be back!