Cleaver Family Counted Twice in the 1940 Census

I was just looking through my census records, reorganizing them and making a checklist of the ones I have for each person when I realize that William Cleaver and his large +10 family is counted twice in the 1940 census, in two different townships in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Now, I have seen a few times individual people being counted twice in different households... but a whole family?


If the family wasn't so big it could have just been a coincidence, but a 10+ family size with all the children's names the same and the same ages? I think not.

The two townships they were listed in was Upper Bern and North Heidelberg, looking at the map they are not even next to each other, and these censuses were taken less than a week apart and were taken by two different enumerators, so someone messed up big time. I know that they owned a farm, and in both of these census records it is listed they live on a farm, also this census asks where they were living in 1935 and both say they were living in the same place... not even a bit possible.

The only thing I can think of is William owned multiple farms in Northern Berks County around the Bernville area, so they counted the family twice since they lived in both farms. Maybe the family was split into two at the time and when the enumerator came to visit they listed everyone, not just the ones that were there. Something definitely went terribly wrong because this is not suppose to happen and now I don't know where everyone was at this time.. :-(

(fast forward a few days)
I just checked the recorder of deed for Berks County, Pennsylvania and I found multiple deeds, along with mortgage, right of way, and easement records for William S Cleaver, listing his wife Katie R Cleaver as well. Some listing property in Upper Bern and North Heidelberg! This find was really exciting, so I know for sure they had property in this area at the time of these census records. The fact remains the same though that all the family members should not have been placed in both census documents.

Sources:

• 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Berks County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, North Heidelberg, Enumeration District 6-68, Sheet 5B, Family 85; William Cleaver; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 November 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, Roll 3434.
• 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Berks County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Upper Bern, Enumeration District 6-100, Sheet 61A, Family 112; Wm. D. Cleaver; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 November 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, Roll 3436.
• Berks County, Pennsylvania Recorder of Deeds

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (#2): Benjamin Hutchison Lewis

This one is a little late, I missed a couple weeks. I'm working on more posts now.

Benjamin Hutchison Lewis was my great-great-great grandfather on my paternal grandmother's side. He was born on the 19th of September in 1827 in Henry County, Alabama. Benjamin was the oldest son of John Lewis and Sarah M Hutchison and he only had one other sibling, a younger brother.

Photo credit to Judie F Lewis

There are discrepancies in his birth year. The Bible record is illegible, while it looks like it could be a seven, comparing it to other seven's, it could also be a one. On the multiple census records that have been gathered his age suggests his birth in 1827, also his civil war documents state that he was born in 1827. The only thing is his tombstone lists his birth year as 1821.

He married Emeline Glawson on March 20th of 1849 and had 9 children; James Lafayette (who was my great-great grandfather), Elouisa Josephine, John Thomas, Benjamin Hutchison, Jr., Jesse Brown, Emeline Georgeann, Sarah C, Arabella C, and Ella Etta.

Benjamin enlisted in the Civil War on July 3rd of 1861 and was the Captain of the Confederate Company F 15th Alabama Regiment, the "Brundidge Guards." In The War Between the Union and the Confederacy which is an actual account of Colonel William C Oates. This book describes Benjamin a few times revealing his personality; "brave a Caesar," "battalion drill completely bewildered him," (Oates 79) and an actual conversation between him and the Colonel which makes you giggle because of his responses, and that this was actually an example of why things went bad for the Confederacy.

He contracted the measles while in Camp Toombs in the fall of 1861 and since they were in the middle of a war it was not caught fast enough and he went crazy. He was cured eventually, but his mind never recovered from the damage of the measles. The sickness and mental health is what led him to resign in January of 1862. While his health was in decline, he also probably got a letter from his family that his daughter, Sarah, barely a year old, died while he was away at war.

Now you think his run of bad luck would have ended there but in September of 1882, just 20 years after his resignation in the war, he was shot to death. He was shot by an 18 year old boy who was never arrested, mostly because once they found him again he was married and with a family, the Lewises did not want to bring it up again, or they just took revenge outside the law.

It is so interesting finding these stories, filling them into to someone's life and seeing how it could have affected them and their family.

Sources:

• Lewis, Judie Fogleman. John Lewis: A History and Genealogy. Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, 1985.
• Oates, William C. 1905. The war between the Union and the Confederacy, and its lost opportunities, with a history of the 15th Alabama regiment and the forty-eight battles in which it was engaged ... the war between the United States and Spain. New York and Washington: The Neale Pub. Co.
• 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Pike County, Alabama, population schedule, Henderson, Sheet 387B, page 322 (stamped), Dwelling 84, Family 84; Benj. H. Lewis; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 January 2015), citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, Roll 37.
• 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Pike County, Alabama, population schedule, Sheet 144A, page 289 (stamped), Dwelling 114, Family 114; B. H. Lewis; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 January 2015), citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, Roll 13.

Report of the Death Document for Guglielmo Mario Gamalero

There isn't a lot of information for my Gamalero family, it ends with Guglielmo, my maternal great grandfather. This is because they were from a small town in Italy; Pagani, which is in the Province of Salerno. There are a lot of Italian records that are on the internet out there, but for my family not much.

Guglielmo was born the 26th of May in 1889 and immigrated to the United States to then go over to Guatemala where he lived most of his life. This is also where he met his wife, Marina. Marina's family was originally from Spain, but they had been living in Guatemala for a couple generations.

When Guglielmo immigrated over to America he changed his name to the English translation, William. So, in many records he is referenced as William. Many immigrants changed their names to the English version to become more integrated with the culture and so they would blend in and not stand out as immigrants. I will be referencing him as Guglielmo throughout the rest of the post.

Now on to discuss his Report of Death. This document is an example of where his name is William, listed as William Mario Gamalero. The Report of Death of an American Citizen isn't an actual death certificate, but a report sent to America from Guatemala (or any other country) to let them know about the death of an American citizen. The date of his death and the day this report was filled out is over a year apart. He died August 27, 1963 in Guatemala City, Guatemala of an acute nephritis of the liver and emphesema of the lung.

This document contains an abundance of valuable information; his occupation, his last known address in the United States, his spouse, the address of his spouse (which would have been his as well), and so much more.

When I first found this document I only saw the front and I did not think to check for a back side or other pages. A few months after I found this report I was doing more searching and I realized that I missed a huge part of the document, the back side (at least I believe it is the back side)! Now it is all in Spanish (and I am not yet fluent), but it lists the names of his parents. I had only known the name of his father since that was stated in his naturalization papers, but now I also knew the name of his mother.

This find really made me a better genealogist and researcher, because Ancestry.com or other genealogy search sites do not tell you if there is a back side or more pages, but now I know to check forward and back to see if I missed something important when looking at online documents.






Sources:

• Report of Deaths of American Citizens 1835-1974, Guatemala City, Guatemala, Record Group; RG59-Entry 5166, Box Number; 12, Box Description; 1964 DL - GK; William Mario Gamalero; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 November 2014), citing National Archives publication; A1 5166, ARC ID; 613857, Record Group; 59.
• They Changed Our Name at Ellis Island: Immigrant Names and Name Changes at Ellis Island

Brick Wall with the Edwards Family

Finding the Edwards was a bit of a task, it took a little searching and intuition. I was looking for Susan 'Susie' Elizabeth Powell's parents; Susie is the wife of Robert Harrow Callis. In the Callis book I have it states that her parents were George and Mattie Powell, it also mentions Carroll Powell as her brother (since he married Robert's sister). With these bits of information I had some places to start.

I began searching on Ancestry, looking up Susie's name (both her full and nickname) and a few hits for censuses popped up for the years when she would have been living with her parents. Since I knew one of her siblings, there was only one possible match that came up with Susie and her brother Carroll, an 1880 census which lists her parents as George W and Cincinnati (which if you are creative enough Mattie could be a shortened version of Cincinnati). Also luckily enough this census contained George's mother, Susan (look a naming pattern! and the reason why they called her Susie), and his brother Victor. So much information on one census, it was really exciting.

Just to add some more proof to the parents, I found a marriage index for Carroll's marriage to Lola (Robert's sister) and it lists both of Lola's parents, George and Mary Callis, along with Carroll's parents, George and Cincinnati Powell. His name is listed as Carroll Edward Powell, which I will come back to if you haven't noticed it yet.

With the first census I identified I knew what I had to look for and I found the 1870 census for George and Cincinnati Powell and it had George's mother Susan again, and then Thomas, his father! Which leads to my next discovery; I found a possible marriage index for George and Cincinnati, and look, both Thomas and Susan are listed as household members, and then there was also a William S and Elizabeth Edwards listed as household members. These had to be Cincinnati's parents and with all this evidence adding up, it just had to be true. Plus, Susie's middle name is Elizabeth, and her grandmother is Elizabeth; clue after clue, so wonderful.

Now going back to Carroll's marriage index, his middle name is Edward, his mother's maiden name is Edwards, yet another naming pattern. After this point I had pretty much proven to myself that I had found the right family.

But of course after all this work I, just recently, found through my grandmother's papers a lot of the information that I strived to get. So Edwards was correct all along.

After this point I hit a wall, I can't seem to find William S Edward's parents or the maiden name of Elizabeth. There is a far stretch possibility in the Mathew's Tombstone book that I have, but some of the names are very misspelled (even though some dates are somewhat correct). Until I can find more proof about this I cannot verify it.

Sources:

• 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Mathews County, Virginia, population schedule, Piankatank District, Enumneration District 047, Sheet 483D, Dwelling 32, Family 32; Geo. W. Powell; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 November 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, Roll 1377.
• Sheridan, Christine L., and Elsie W. Ernst. 1988. Tombstones of Mathews County, Virginia, 1711-1986. Mathews County, Va: Mathews County Historical Society.
• McGinnis, Helena Callis. 1998. The Callis Family in England and the USA 1086-1998. Chicago, Illinois: H.C. McGinnis.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (#1): Robert Harrow Callis 1878-1923

Robert Harrow Callis was my paternal great grandfather and he was born on 8 March 1878 in Mathews, Virginia.

His parents were George Robert Callis (1824-1907) and Mary F Mathews (1837-1907) and he was one of 7 children, being the second youngest of them all.

On the 24th of December in 1905 he married Susan Elizabeth Powell, whom they called Susie for short. Both the Callis's and the Powell's were oystermen; making a living by catching oysters. Mathews County is by the ocean with many rivers running through it and a bay, so it was ideal for oyster fishing. Both the Callis family and the Powell family spent a lot of time together; so much that Robert's sister, Lola Inez Callis, got married to Susie's brother, Carroll Powell.

Quoting from my grandmother's memoir:
"Both the Callis and Powell families (several children in each family) were fun loving eregarious people. Most of them were mariners or fisherman. Although they owned horses and participated in Surry Racing, they traveled mostly by boat or ferries as Mathews County was bounded by rivers and crossed by creeks. The Piankatank, a salt River, flowed into Chesapeake Bay. There were oyster beds in the River and Bay, and in season soft crabs were plentiful as other crabs were all season. Seafood products were a main source of income." (Callis 1).

I have a picture of his oyster fishing license, which was taken quickly (and I need to get a better scan of). My parents have this document and tons more of his, including different receipts from when he went to the market. All of my family were hoarders, which ended up to be a good thing.

Searching for his census records I was only able to find with certainty the one for 1920, which lists himself with his wife, Susie and his son, Gerald Powell. I believe I found the one for 1880, but it lists him as Harrold, which makes some sense since his middle name was Harrow and they sometimes referred to him as that. His age is correct for that census (he would have been only 2 year old) as well so I am 90% sure that this is the correct census for him.

He died on the 13th of November in 1923 at the age of 45. He was buried in H.C. Smither Memorial Cemetery in Hudgins, Mathews, Virginia; his FindAGrave memorial.

In the Callis book, which I have listed below it states Robert's birth date as the 4th of March rather than the 8th. Having only the tombstone isn't proof enough for believing it was the 8th, but then on his WWI Draft Registration Card it lists the 8th as his birth date.

Sources

• Callis, Bennie Greye (2003), Untitled Memoir, Original handwritten memoir in possession of Sarah Callis.
• 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Mathews County, Virginia, population schedule, Piankatank District, Enumeration District 74, Sheet 12A, p. 662 (stamped), Dwelling 248, Family 254; Robert H. Callis; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 November 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T625, Roll 1897.
• 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Mathews County, Virginia, population schedule, Piankatank District, Enumneration District 047, Sheet 486A, Dwelling 69, Family 69; George R. Callis; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 February 2015), citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, Roll 1377.
• McGinnis, Helena Callis. 1998. The Callis Family in England and the USA 1086-1998. Chicago, Illinois: H.C. McGinnis.
• "Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 January 2015), Mathews County, Virginia, entry for Ro. H. Callis, dated 24 Dec 1905.
• "U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 November 2014), Mathews, Virginia, entry for Robert Harrow Callis, dated 12 September 1918.

Sophronia Frances Fuller's Birth Year

James Lafayette Lewis & Sophronia Frances Fuller

I first saw Sophronia’s name in one of my family’s genealogy books, John Lewis: A History and Genealogy. She was my great-great grandmother on my paternal grandmother’s side.

In the book it states this discrepancy of date, saying that all of the census records and her tombstone state that she was born in 1852 while the Lewis family bible says that she was born in 1851. In the Lewis book it reads "According to the family Bible, Sophronia was born 25 August 1851 of Asa A. and Susan Fuller at Ft. Gaines, Georgia. However, the gravestone and all Census records indicate Sophronia was born in 1852." (Lewis 41).

The Lewis family bible was done after the fact because all of the handwriting was by the same person, so there is a lot of doubt about the year 1851 because there is a lot more substantial evidence stating that she was born in 1852 (such as her tombstone for instance, you would think that the family members would get the year right on the tombstone but then again many mistakes are made, even now). She is the second entry to the left on the bible page.

I always believed that she was born in 1852 since most of the sources stated this but then I found the discrepancy that she was born only four months away from her brother, Zachariah, which is not possible. I came to the conclusion since Sophronia's date already has a variation and there is a gap in the year of 1851 of the years of her siblings, that her birth year is 1851.

The birth dates of her and her siblings (according to their tombstones):
Asa Jefferson Fuller, Jr.: 27 August 1847
Uriah Samuel Fuller: 11 November 1849
Henrietta Fuller: 11 January 1850
Saphronia Frances Fuller: 25 August 1852
Zachariah R Fuller: 3 December 1852
Lucy Elizabeth Fuller: 4 December 1854
James Jasper Fuller: 2 October 1856
John Newton Fuller: 2 October 1856 (has his death certificate instead)
Peter Francis Fuller: 23 June 1858

As you can see Sophronia and Zachariah are only 4 months apart, and there is a gap between Henrietta's birth of 1850 for Sophronia to have been born in 1851. There is also the possibility that Zachariah to have been born in 1853, but I don't have any evidence to prove that while I have evidence to suggest that Sophronia was born in 1851. Another crazy scenario would be that they had different mothers, but then again I would need some proof.

Also, a lot of my grandmother's research says that she was born in 1851, all of the dates that she put for Sophronia say 1851, such as her DAR application, so it gives me a reason to think that this was correct.

Since her name is very original, there are different spellings in different sources, her tombstone says Fronie, the census records give different variations, but I go with the one from my grandmother's research because Sophronia was her grandmother.

I plan on scanning and uploading a lot of my grandmother's documents and notes, she never threw anything away and wrote everything down. She has a couple different memoirs that she wrote (which there were many mess ups and planning, but she kept all those papers too).


Sources

• Lewis, Judie Fogleman. John Lewis: A History and Genealogy. Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, 1985.
• Crosby, Debra. "Asa Jefferson Fuller/Susan Faust." Ancestors of Debra Hughey Boswell Crosby. February 17, 2002. Accessed January 19, 2015.