Grandparents of my Grandparents

 Anyone who has read any of my postings knows that family is incredibly important to me. I feel so lucky with the family members related to me and the role they have played in making me who I am today. Grandparents were those very special people to me. I was fortunate because I knew all four of my grandparents as a child and also as an adult. My first grandparent to pass away was my paternal grandmother, Dorothy Emma Sedlock Massey, in 1993, when I was 25 years old!

Today’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posted by Genea-Musings asked the question, “Did your grandparents know their grandparents?”

Paternal Grandfather, Rocco Joseph Mazziotti (1909-1995)

Rocco Bellantoni

As I have recorded in other blogs, my grandfather’s father was a “wheel baby” in Calabria, Italy and never knew his biological parents. He was adopted/fostered by Rocco Bellantoni (1842-1920) and Grazia Bova (1847-1900). While my grandfather, Rocco, might have known his namesake since they overlapped 11 years, to my knowledge Rocco Bellantoni never came to the United States and my grandfather never traveled to Italy.

My grandfather did, however, know his maternal grandparents:

• Giuseppe Antonio Mortelliti 

• b. 26 Feb 1843 in Scilla, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy

• d. 29 Jul 1915 in Elmsford, Westchester, New York

• Santa Morabito

• b. 3 Aug 1857 in Scilla, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy

• d. 3 June 1945 in Elmsford, Westchester, New York

These grandparents are the people who immigrated in 1893 (Giuseppe) and 1902 (Santa). Giuseppe travelled back and forth a few times before all of the family finished arriving in 1902 when Santa and her daughter (my great-grandmother Concetta) were the last to arrive. Unfortunately I have no photos of this couple to date, but I’m sure there were some taken and I just haven’t found them yet!

Paternal Grandmother, Dorothy Emma Sedlock (1910-1993)

Emma and Otto, 1 Oct 1911

My grandmother, Dot, had a difficult childhood. Her parents, Alonzo Sedlock and Louise A. Hillmann, both struggled with their mental health at various points in their lives. They separated and divorced around 1913, when my grandmother was just 3 years old. My grandmother didn't talk much about her childhood, but my grandfather shared with my father the following story. After the divorce, Dot and her sister were living with her mother who left them in a hotel room when she was working as a clothes buyer for a department store. At one point, the hotel caught on fire when the daughters were there by themselves. I have not been able to verify this with any records but in 1915 Census little Dot was living with a neighbor and her sister living with her grandparents. By 1920, Dot and her sister Ruth were living with their maternal grandmother, Emma Amanda Sackmann and her 2nd husband, Otto Schmidt. (Dot’s biological grandfather Johannes Willheim Hillmann died in 1906 so she would have never met him). My grandmother knew and loved her grandmother very much and “Granny” eventually came to live with her family for a bit and my father knew and loved her too.

Maternal Grandparents:

• 

  Favorite photo of Ruth and Dot

  Johannes Willheim Hillmann

• B.18 Apr 1856 in Bremen, Bremen, Germany

• D. 13 Jan 1906 in Brooklyn Ward 25, Kings, New York

• Otto Fred Schmidt (step-grandfather)

• B. 1868 in Germany

• D. 3 May 1924 in Brooklyn Ward, Kings, New York

• Emma Amanda Sackmann

• 26 Jun 1862 in Germania, Potter County, Pennsylvania

• 2 Feb 1951 in Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont
  

I have evidence that she did meet and know her paternal grandmother but I do not know to what level. She never spoke about this grandmother to my father, so nothing was really known about her, but I am certain that she is the one who paid for one of the favorite photos I have of she and her sister.

Elizabeth Kristof Barath,
taken at the same photography studio

Paternal Grandparents:

• Janos Szedlak

• B. 31 Dec 1841 in Barca, Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

• D. between 1878 and 1885 in Kosice

• Elizabeth Szabo Kristof
  

• B. 18 May 1855 in Garadna, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Hungary

• 22 Mar 1919 in Port Jervis, Orange, New York

Maternal Grandfather, Walter Elliot Tubbs (1911-1994)

Although my grandfather was the youngest of the three Tubbs children, he did appear to overlap in life with three of his four grandparents. Although this was the case and I knew my grandfather into my 20’s, I never remember hearing a story about any of them. I asked my mother at dinner tonight and she doesn’t ever remember hearing any stories either, even about the grandmother who lived in the same town close to my grandfather into his teenage years.

Samuel Obed Tubbs

Paternal grandparents:

• Samuel Obed Tubbs

• B. 24 Feb 1834 in Ontario County, NY

• D. 30 Jun 1917 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

• Francis Eliza Randall

• B. 4 Jan 1837 in Watertown, Jefferson, NY

• D. 22 Oct 1924 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

Maternal grandparents:

Frances Eliza Randall

• Chauncey Gould Orcutt

• B. 25 Dec 1838 in Troy, Rensselaer County, NY

• D. 9 Oct 1919 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

• Susan Ann Bailey

• B. 8 Dec 1840 in Green Oaks, Livingston, MI

• D. 1 Oct 1904 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI

Chauncey Gould Orcutt

Maternal Grandmother, Elizabeth Anna Leach (1914-1998)

Although I knew all of my grandparents into my 20’s, I was closest with my maternal grandmother, Betty. She was bright, an avid reader and bridge player, and a fierce advocate for women, although not in the feminist sort of way. (See Thankfully Celebrating My Grandmother's 110th Birthday for more about this grandmother.)

I think she learned from her mother never to be dependent on a man. Her father died young leaving her mother and two young children to fend for themselves in the 1920’s. She took away from this experience that women needed to have an education and a job that could support themselves and to always, always have a $20 bill in your purse and 20¢ for a phone call and to know how to drive!

Betty’s father was left an orphan at age 9. His mother died a week after giving birth to him and his father died of a stroke leaving Edward to be raised by his maternal grandmother. So she never had the chance to know her paternal grandparents.

Her mother’s father died also before she was born, but her maternal grandmother was still alive. And I have two stories I heard from my grandmother about her grandmother, Mary Bedell Stoddard. In Michigan, card playing is a common pastime, especially in the cold winter months or the summer vacation time. I’m not sure if my grandmother learned to play cards from her grandmother but I know they played together, because my grandmother told me that her grandmother “cheated at cards!” and she was partially deaf and used a horn like thing. My grandmother would say, “Grandma, you can't do that!” and she said that her grandmother would pretend not to hear or would put the horn to her ear and say, “What? What’s that you say?” knowing full well she knew what she was doing was not allowed! I also know that she was a beautiful artist, and my husband and I have one of her paintings she painted of a civil war soldier and young woman. I, unfortunately, don’t have any stories about what the painting represents.

Henry Edward Leach

Paternal Grandparents:

Henry Edward Leach

• B. 25 Jan 1834 in England?

• D. 15 Jun 1892 in Lake Linden, Houghton, MI

Flora Elizabeth Croft

• B. 1854 Canada

• D. 1 Sep 1883 in Lake Linden, Houghton, MI

• 
  

Flora Elizabeth Croft

Henry Clay Stoddard

Maternal Grandparents:

• Henry Clay Stoddard

• B. 25 Aug 1841 in Detroit, Wayne, MI

• D. 8 Apr 1909 in Reed City, Osceola, MI

• Mary Bedell

• B. 19 May 1852 in Nankin Twnsp, Wayne, MI

• D. 8 May 1933 in Big Rapids, Mecosta, MI

Mary Bedell

A Castle, A Clan, and A Connection

Jim and Lynn at Urquhart Castle c. 1989

Sometimes a place calls us to it and we don’t learn for decades later why! 

For me, the place is Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, close to Inverness Scotland. In 1988-89, my boyfriend (now husband), Jim and I studied our junior year abroad at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In addition to our travels to Europe during winter break and around the UK during spring recess, we took day trips and long weekends organized by the exchange program. At least twice that year, we visited Urquhart Castle. I’m sure that the infamous Loch Ness was one reason, but a love of castles was another. 

The Castle

Urquhart Castle, like most castles in the UK, has a long and storied past. For those interested, please visit the official historic website. There are many beautiful photographs of the location, far better than my (over) 35 year old digitized photos can provide!

 

Sometime after we were married, we happened upon a vintage image of what we thought was Urquhart Castle. I think we found it on our trip back to Scotland in 1999. We didn’t get that far north on that trip to Scotland but we must have picked it up on our travels. We liked it enough to have it framed and it has been hanging prominently in our house on a kitchen wall for decades. In researching for this blog, I learned that the image is actually a copy of a vintage engraving from 1895 printed in a book called Souvenir of Scotland: Its Cities, Lakes, and Mountains One Hundred and Twenty Chomo Views. Who knew?!

The Clan

There was also a clan named Urquhart who resided in the region. Both Urquhart Castle and the Clan Urquart were named for the Celtic word “Airchart”, which is a region now called Cromarty, just about 25 miles north of Inverness. The research that I read suggests that the Clan Urquart was not affiliated with Urquhart Castle, they were both just named after Airchart. So maybe it was more of a draw to the area and not really the castle?

The Connection

About 10 years ago as I was investigating my great-grandmother (Cora Viola Orcutt–the one whose Irises I have in my yard), I learned that the name Orcutt is a version of Urquhart that shows up in America. My great-aunt, Helen Tubbs Judson (my genealogy angel), researched the Orcutt Family and identified who she thought was the immigrant. That was William Orcutt (1618-1693) and his wife Mary Lane (1646-1693). There is some question about Mary, as it seems he might have had more than one wife and possibly more than one wife named Mary. There is documentation, though, that they had a son named William in 1664 in Bridgewater, Plymouth, Massachusetts, where William died. William Orcutt was born in Fillongley, North Warwickshire Borough, Warwickshire, England. In some information I found, it appears that there were Orcutt’s who migrated to England before heading to the “new world”.

Why now?

Why did I have a renewed interest in Urquhart Castle and the Clan Urquhart? Well, as I was investigating lineage societies recently, I came across Clan Urquhart Association, a lineage society open to anyone who can trace their name back to an Urquhart, Orcutt (as well as Cromartie and Cromarty)! The one-time fee of $20 would get me a membership card, two newsletters a year, and invitations to international gatherings of the Clan. The organization was established in 1976 to help promote awareness and preserve the history and heritage of the Clan. There is still also a Chief of the Clan. I haven’t decided if I am going to try to join, but I may invest in some article of clothing with the Clan’s tartan, which I find quite appealing! And just maybe I will wear it sometime when I’m back in Scotland and visit my family’s long ago homeland near Urquhart Castle?

Making it back to the Mayflower?!

 I feel so lucky as a family historian to have a variety of ancestor experiences to uncover. I have German immigrants who came in the 1850’s to Germania, PA, Hungarian immigrants in the 1870’s who I have connected with the Christoff’s of western PA (Brick wall to beautiful mosaic),  I have a “mystery orphan baby” left “on the wheel” in Italy in the 1870’s, I have Scottish ancestors who settled (via Canada)  to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the 1860’s,  I have Civil War veterans (Celebrating Civil War Veterans), Revolutionary War veterans, and now possibly Mayflower passengers. 

One of my goals this year was to prove a line back to the Mayflower and join the Mayflower Society. One might ask “why?” and you can read about the benefits here, but my main reasons are the verification and documentation of my ancestors and the continuous opportunity to learn as a family historian. And in this past week, it’s getting closer to becoming a reality!

Early Research

For over 20 years, I have been gathering information and documentation on my family history and have known about the Stoddards and Tubbs families who came to the New England colonies in the 1630s. These are close but no cigar for the Mayflower!

 I’d say in the past 5 years I have seen other people’s trees on Ancestry.com that had similar ancestors to me that suggested I had at least one line to the Mayflower through my mother’s paternal grandmother (Cora Viola Orcutt–the one’s whose Irises I enjoy.) Last fall, after being accepted into DAR, I went to the DAR Library in DC (Note: you do NOT have to be a member to make use of the library!) to start really investigating for the Mayflower. 

Beginning Serious Research

Step 1: I had heard about the Silver Books but it was at the DAR Library that I first was able to explore them. The Silver Books refer to the documented, verified, and accepted collection of volumes of the first five generations (and in some cases farther) of the passengers of the Mayflower. It was truly a Herculean feat to put together these books and we can thank the Mayflower Society that continues to update them.

Step 0: Before consulting these, though, you need to know which pilgrim you are connected to. The Silver Books are organized by pilgrim into separate volumes.  It is wise to have the proposed lineage mapped out for yourself, so you can see if the first 5 generations match yours. 

I didn’t learn this until later in my journey, but there is a helpful website, called Relative Finder,  which provides possible lineages based on your Family Search tree. This obviously means that you need an account and have entered in enough of your family tree to connect with the world tree that is there. You can see that this tool searches for more than just Mayflower Relatives, but I am showing just the Mayflower Direct Connections for my family. Hopefully you have more than one line as possible, but choose one and try to prove it. I chose to work on two lines, one from Thomas Rogers and one from John Cooke. 

Just like any resource, there are bound to be errors, so you need to do your own research to confirm, but this is the place to start. There is another tool through Family Search that ties into the Mayflower Society descendancy records, but if your family is like mine and have to prove a lot of generations, it is not likely to be too helpful.

Step 2: Try to find another published family history that might start to give you ideas of what has been documented and what resources to go to for documentation. For me, the Silver Books proved through generation 6, to William Walker and the place to start was to show that George was the son of William Walker. When I went to the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) see my post, I found a book on the Walkers:  Memorial of the Walkers of the Old Plymouth Colony Embracing Genealogical and biographical sketches of James, of Taunton,... and of their descendants from 1620 to 1860 by J.B.R. Walker, AM (Member of the Old Colony Historical Society” Printed by Northhampton: Metcalf & Company, Printers. 1861). This book provided me the next several generations through to my mother’s great-grandfather, Chauncey Orcutt. Since I knew the line from there, I was OVER the MOON to find my great-great-grandfather mentioned being in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the book printed in 1861!

Step 3: Once you are confident that you have a line, you can submit a Mayflower Lineage Match (MLM). There is a fee and it may take 2-3 months to hear back, but it is an important step. Once you have submitted, the Mayflower Society will investigate other previously approved lineages and see where your line intersects previously approved. For me, I am the 13th generation and I was informed that they have proven through generation 7! Only 6 generations of birth’s, deaths, and marriages for me that needed to be proved!

Step 4: Once your MLM (from Step 3) has returned, the Mayflower Society also notifies your state’s historian for the state’s Mayflower Society. In my case, I will be joining through the PA Mayflower Society and I was connected with my awesome Co-Historian Sharyn Davis. Sharyn was an absolutely amazing resource and helped me each stage of the way from here. I learned soooo much from Sharyn, and she did so much work for me!! 

Your Historian will evaluate your line and will have you send in the documentation you have already collected and then set you on a path to collect the rest. I started with my own generation and worked backward toward the 7th generation.

This last step began June 16th and the next several weeks were a whirlwind of document gathering and submitting. Each day, I would send Sharyn an email with information or documentation and she would respond back usually providing more guidance and instruction. County Clerks offices, cemeteries, county historians, town clerks, and town historians were contacted both in New York and Michigan. Censuses, property records, newspapers, and lots of websites were scoured! It was a fun and fulfilling process, but is not for the faint of heart! I can’t even count the number of hours spent trying to gather the information!

We *think* we have provided enough documentation to “prove” my line, but it needs to go through final evaluation in Plymouth. I should know sometime this fall.

Meanwhile, I’m off to work on Jim’s Mayflower line….