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!

 

"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!

The Rabbit Hole Sometimes Works!

Repeatedly over the past year, I have heard (from Lisa Louis Cooke in Genealogy Gems), read (in Family Tree Magazine), and learned in my Boston University Genealogy course that your family history journey should always follow a research plan. I actually know from my day job that the research question and plan should always guide your work, but somehow when I have limited time and BSOs (“bright shiny objects”), I would rather follow the BSOs down a rabbit hole to the next interesting link, than stick to the plan. 

The logic behind sticking to the research plan is that you can keep track of what you’ve done and not done, so that you don’t retrace your steps over, again and again! In the long run, it actually saves you time. (In 40 years of family research, I can tell you that I’ve done this a few times and although amazed at what I learned in the moment, I am a bit dejected when I realize that I already “knew it” from a decade before and “wasted” the precious time I have to search.)

Having said that, this week, I did chase that BSO and spent hours down a rabbit hole that actually paid off!! So, I’m going to recount my rabbit hole experience….

• Starting point: I have mentioned before that the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) is an incredible FREE resource to family historians. They offer FREE webinars and I just had to go to the one offered last Thursday night. They hosted the webinar, “21st Century Italian Genealogy” with President of Italian Genealogy Group*, Michael Cassara. (Michael Cassara is a professional genealogist and lecturer based in New York City, specializing in Italian/Sicilian genealogy, 20th century US immigration, and genealogical technology.) Something I definitely didn’t want to miss!

• The BSO: I have seen several different books in the Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing, but Michael helped me to see these in a different light and suggested that we search their publications. Great idea!

•  I put it on my list of things to do for my Italian research. As a backstory, my great-grandfather, Emanuel Antonio Mazziotti (aka “mystery orphan baby”) worked as a stone mason/builder/laborer on Rockefeller’s Estate Kyuit and is said to have worked on the Japanese Teahouse. (I have found the house he lived at with many of his wife’s family, the Mortelliti’s, while working on the estate but that’s a story for another day.)

• So, I started with the state of New York. There were over 700 books that related to New York, so I narrowed my search and tried “Elmsford”, “Kyuit”, “Pocantico Hills” and unfortunately nothing came up. I decided to just skim through all of the 700 titles. Although there were some promising ones, a quick search through the table of contents and the allowable on-line content, I didn’t find anything interesting.

• I moved next to Pennsylvania. At this point, I was no longer looking for any of my Italian family and just curious to see if I could find anything about Jim’s PA family. PA had over 450 titles. I searched them 48 at a time. Although lots of interesting titles, one even about Slovakian’s in Pittsburgh (my Slovakian family didn’t settle in Pittsburgh), but nothing that produced anything fruitful.

• Finally, the last state, which has lots of promise for both Jim and my family is Michigan! Arcadia had 749 titles with lots of promising titles like, Dutch Heritage in Kent and Ottawa Counties for Jim’s DeBoer, Van Dam, Van der Veen family who settled in Grand Rapids, MI! Or Ann Arbor in the 19th Century for my Tubbs and Orcutt lines. All were interesting but nothing really jumped out to me.

The GEM! It came when I spotted two books in the series, Houghton County 1870-1920 and finally, Hancock.

Images of America Series, Hancock (2014)

My grandmother, Elizabeth Leach Tubbs, was born in Hancock in 1914, and her father, Edward James Leach, was born in Houghton County, close to Hancock in Schoolcraft in 1883. In 1917, the Edward Leach family of 4 was living in Hancock at 520 Hancock Street, according to his WW1 Registration** and working as a Civil Engineer at the Copper Range Rail Road Company in Houghton (just across Portage Lake from Hancock).

World War I Draft Registration Card 

Portage Lake Baptist Church
Hancock (2014), p. 66

While I was amazed that this lovely book existed about this very small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, this in and of itself was not the GEM. The GEM came while I was flipping through the pages of the book on-line, I came across a photo of the Portage Lake Baptist Church. The name meant nothing to me, since the Leach family attended the First Congregational Church, but it was the photo that jolted me. I KNEW this church, I had seen it before. It was, I was fairly sure, the church in the background of a photo that I knew well.

First Congregational Church,

Hancock (2014), p. 63

Florence Stoddard Leach with son Clay, c. 1910
in Hancock, Michigan

I shrieked when I figured this out and promptly interrupted the pinochle game happening at the kitchen table to share my discovery. Both my father-in-law and uncle-in-law promptly agreed they were the same church. My husband, Jim, however, was not entirely convinced. He wondered about the bridge ("elevated Front Street") and couldn't be sure based on the elevation of the landscape.

I took several more hours to try to figure out the angle of where the photo was taken. I searched the Library of Congress and found the Sanborn Maps of 1900 and 1917 of Hancock and found that 520 Hancock St. was a short walk to Portage Lake Baptist Church, where there was a very large field "behind" the church.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Hancock,
Houghton County, Michigan.Sanborn Map Company, Jun. 1900. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04045_003/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Hancock,
Houghton County, Michigan. Sanborn Map Company, Aug, 1917.
Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04029_002/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Hancock,
Houghton County, Michigan. Sanborn Map Company, Aug, 1917.
Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04029_002/

In addition, in 1900 there were wooden bridges both in front and behind the church. I learned that the elevated Front Street had been replaced by changing the elevation of the ground, somewhere around 1906. The book's photograph was taken in 1894, so by the time my photo was taken, the one bridge had been replaced by land. Jim is now convinced but shakes his head in wonder why I even care.

You might shake your head like Jim, but I can't tell you how happy I am to now have identified where my great-grandmother and great-uncle were standing when this photo was taken. I think I need to go visit the U. P. this summer and see it for myself, although sadly the church has been converted to an auto repair shop.

Well, this BSO turned out to be a real GEM, and I am so very happy I turned down the invitation to play pinochle with my husband, my father-in-law, and my uncle-in-law and instead spent hours searching through this series while watching their games at my in-laws kitchen table Friday night. It was a win for everyone, well, almost, Jim didn’t win a game that night.

Maybe I will just pretend that my research question was, “Can I prove that this photograph of my great-grandmother Florence Stoddard Leach and her son (my great-uncle) Clay Leach was taken in Hancock, MI? And identify the church in the background?” 

Sure....this wasn’t really a rabbit hole, it was my plan all along.....

*If you are interested in Italian family research then you do need to join the IGG or at least join their FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ItalianGenealogicalGroup. As a member of the IGG, you have access to the archive of back issues of POINTers (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together), the American Journal of Italian Genealogy (1987-2013), which is in the top 10 list of Family Tree Magazine’s “10 Key Italian Genealogy Resources” (by Sharon DeBartalo Carmack).

 

**Source Citation:Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. (Michigan; Registration County: Houghton County Draft Card: L.

Original data:United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm. (I do also realize that his birth is recorded here at 1884, but his birth date was 1883.)