Betty Lorraine Werst Cone RIP

Dear Grandparents,
Just to let you know that you are being reunited with my mother Betty Lorraine Werst Cone today. She left us this afternoon after a long struggle. We are grateful that her passing was calm and peaceful. She will be greatly missed by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sister, nieces and nephews as well as friends.

She is surround by her children in this photo taken in October 2012

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I've been thinking about how many of you she will be wanting to see. Her husband, Charles Newton "Chuck" Cone, Jr. who died in 1992 will probably be first on the list.

Betty and Chuck pictured at son Rusty's wedding to Patty Gorman June 28,1979.

She was very close to her mother Grace Colby Werst Branchflower who left us in 1973.

I fervently hope that she will be reunited with her father Cecil Oscar Werst who died before she was two when he was only 27. She was the apple of his eye and I'm sure it must have seemed very cruel to have been parted from him so early.

After his death, Betty was sent to live with her Aunt Madge Colby Massey and her husband Hal in Pendleton, Oregon. She lived there until she was reunited with her mother and sister Helen and they went to live with her maternal grandfather on Pinelawn Farm in Newberg, Oregon. William Wallace Colby died in 1936.

W. W. Colby with Grace, Betty and Helen at Pinelawn Farm circa 1935.

My sister Leslie, husband Ed and I were able to be with Mom when she died. We were able to tell her we love her and ease her passing.  In looking back a few hours later, I am wishing that I had time to mention a list of you grandparents that I really want her to contact and find some way to send back the answers to some of my brickwalls.

I know you will welcome Mom with open arms. I do wish you would find some way to drop me a few clues.... just asking...

Love,
Cecily

Surname Saturday COLBY

Dear Grandfather and Grandmother Colby,
It is not often when I am drafting these letters, that I can combine a Surname Saturday article, with a brick wall post and a commemoration. We'll start with the celebration. Today we are remembering the 158th anniversary of the day you married. William Henry Colby and Fannie Hutchison Hunnewell were united in marriage 11 May 1855 in Lake County, Illinois, the record is 093M088. Your marriage lasted 55 years, till Grandfather Colby died January 3, 1911.

I know a lot about Grandmother Colby's family, the Hunnewells back to their immigration from
Devonshire, England in the 17th century. The Colby's however are a brick wall. I have not found a clue that identifies the names of your parents.

Each time you were asked to identify the state of your birth, you said New Hampshire. That connection in New England may well tie your family to Anthony Colby one of the original settlers of Salisbury, Massachusetts. He was of English origin and immigrated to Boston with the Winthrop Fleet about 1630.  Anthony's descendants are organized, with website, The Colby Family Association , reunions ,etc. He was one of the founders of Amesbury, Massachusetts and one of the properties he owned still exists.

Macy-Colby House purchased by Anthony Colby from Thomas Macy
in 1654. Today it is on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.
This photo is from the Colby Family Association Website
 

This rear view of the home is from The Macy-Colby House web site.
The home is open for tours Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Special private tours can be arranged for family members.
 

Alas, as much as I would like, I can not claim relationship to Anthony Colby's clan for you. It does seem likely, but we must find proof. There are also Colbys of German origin who have anglicized their surname for Kolbe, as well as Norwegian. The surnames all seem to indicate people who have come from regions where coal was found.

So Happy Anniversary and any help in tracking down your parents would be much appreciated.
Love,
Cecily
P. S. Your Granddaughter and my Grandmother was very proud of her Colby heritage. I named a daughter for her so you have a 3rd great granddaughter named Colby.

Help break down a brickwall - Lydia Hayes

Dead ends for Genealogists are referred to as "brick walls"

 

Dear Grandmother Lydia,

I really need your help. No Cone family researcher has been able to identify your parents. We have your birth date as Feb. 2, 1771 and place as New London, Connecticut. We believe that you married Ira Cone about 1795 probably in Connecticut and moved to Laurens, Otsego County, New York the next year.

According to records you had two sons, Lyman born 18 Apr 1799 and Naaman born 11 Sep 1804, both born in Laurens. Some researchers believe that there may have been other children who did not survive infancy but we do not have their names.

From the minutes of the Butternuts Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, we know that you and Ira were Quakers and requested in 1811 that Lyman be admitted to the meeting. He was accepted on the 1st day of the 5 month (May) that year.

The Friends' Intelligencer, Volume 12 published some excerpts of the "Autobiography of Samuel Comfort" in August 1870 which contained a description of his visit with your and Ira , "His wife's (Lydia's) health appears to be pretty good, but she goes half bent, and walked so to meeting. Says she cannot get into a carriage." Page 24. Google Books

As a genealogist, I believe strongly that you want to be found. Your parents await identification and any hints that you can send would be greatly appreciated. Were the Hayes family Quakers or did you and Ira become join after your marriage? Perhaps one of your other descendants has the clue and will share it when they see this letter.

Love,
Cecily Cone Kelly

P.S. For family members Ira and Lydia Hayes Cone were parents of Naaman Cone, who's son William Warner Cone's son Frederick Naaman Cone is my great grandfather.

Update to Surname Saturday... Puterbaugh to Puderbaugh

Dear Grandfathers Jacob,

I wrote an earlier post about your surname PUDERBAUGH and the challenges of the many spellings. After finding photographs of your headstones, I've decided that if each of your families' spelled the name as above, I should use the spelling you used.

Jacob Puderbaugh 1788-1865 was buried in the Ozawkie Cemetery in Jefferson County Kansas
Photo is from www.findagrave.com, originally submitted by Raymond Riley and used with his permission.
I believe the original site of the cemetery is now under a reservoir and the cemetery was moved to higher ground.

Jacob Puderbaugh 1757-1822 was buried in Darke County Ohio

Both headstones us the Puderbaugh spelling.

I continue to search for the origin of the surname. From on site research in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, I believe the family was associated with the Dunkard or Brethren sect of Anabaptists. These Churches are off shoots of a church group that was founded near Schwarzenau, Germany about 1708. Today there are several communities named Schwarzenau in Germany and Austria. The village associated with the Brethren is located near Bad Berleburg in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. Wikipedia has maps and information on the location at Schwarzenau, Bad Berleburg. So far, I have not found any Puderbaughs in Germany, but I am still looking.

Love,
Cecily

Celebrating Marie Kelly Beaumont's 95th Birthday

Dear Aunt Marie,
Happy 95th Birthday. Today we're remembering your life and especially the effort you made to keep your nephews and nieces, the sons and daughters of your brother Edward E. Kelly part of the larger Kelly clan. Though their parents divorced when the children were young, no birthday passed with out a card of good wishes and a dollar tucked inside. We are very appreciative of all your efforts.

Life was not always easy for the Kelly household. The stories you told of only having heat in your home when there were enough coins to put in the household meter have stuck with me. You were barely 20 when your father was killed 17 Sep 1939.



1940 Census for Mary Kelly
from www.ancestry.com

The form shows your family living on Conestoga Street including:

Given Name   Relationship   Sex  Race   Age    Marital Status   Last Grade

Alice                 Head                 F      W       40        Widowed             4th

Mary                Daughter          F      W       21          Single                10th

Alice                 Daughter          F      W       20          Single                  9th

Dorothy           Daughter          F      W       19          Single                10th

William            Son                    M     W      17          Single                  8th

Edward            Son                    M     W      14          Single                  7th

John                 Son                    M     W        9           Single                 3rd

It also shows the level of education completed by each member of the family . Your mother Alice Mae Hanna Kelly left school after the 4th grade and by 1940 no family member had completed high school each having left school to go to work.

You and your sisters were winders at a Rubber factory with an income of $670 for 16 weeks of work. That means that your family may have had no more than $2,010 income in the last 12 months.The form also shows that though your brother William (Bill) wanted to be working, he had been unemployed for 52 weeks.

Ed reconnected with your son Joe last year and he let us copy your wedding picture with Uncle Jack (John J. Beaumont). You were a beautiful bride. Your love lasted a lifetime.


We know how important family was to you and vow to endeavor to keep in touch with your sons.

Love,
Ed and Cecily

Surname Saturday - WARNER

Today is the 306th anniversary of the birth of my 6th great grand uncle Elisha Warner, which has led me to focus on the Warner Family this Surname Saturday. Those of us who have early American immigrants in our family trees, the search for information often yields lots of details. This is true of the Warner family.

Our Warner immigrant, Andrew, has been written about extensively. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vols. I-III has information on him (This information is available at the New England Historical Genealogical Society's website www.Americanancestors.org).

He was born at Hatfield Broadoak in Essex, England about 1595. His immigration is listed as 1633 with his first residence at Cambridge. He moved to Hartford in 1636, to Farmington in 1648, back to Hartford in 1650 and finally to Hadley in 1659. He was a member of the Puritan Church in Cambridge prior to 14 May 1634 when he was declared a freeman. He became a Deacon in the Church at Hartford by February 1639.

In his later years, Andrew Warner was a "maltster" or one who brewed malt beverages. According to "History of Hadley: Including the Early History of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts by Sylvester Judd and Lucius M. Boltwood published in Northampton by Metcalf & Company in 1863 and available on www.books.google.com, "John Barnard...had a malt0house in Hadley, and another in Wetherfield, and was called "maltster." Andrew Warner hired his malt-house in Hadley, and it was burnt in 1665. He then built malt-works for himself, and was the maltster of Hadley, and his son Jacob seems to have succeeded him." It seems that he was also distilling other liquors as his inventory shows "Andrew Warner of Hadley had a small still valued at 10 shillings."

Lucien C. Warner and Josephine Genung Nichols compiled a genealogy, "The Descendants of Andrew Warner" which was published in New Haven, Connecticut in 1919. This volume is available at http://archive.org/details/descendantsofand00warn digitized by Brigham Young University for all to read. They trace the Warner ancestry to John Warner of Great Waltham, England. The link below will take you to a copy of the Coat of Arms for the Warner family of Great Waltham that they believed was used by John Warner Arms of Warner of Great Waltham. Another Warner researcher, has included a more up-to-date image on his website www.babcock-acres.com.

Unfortunately, I could not find a means of contacting him to ask the origin of this image. He does state that he had not found information on this image to tie it to John Warner.

Our descent from Andrew Warner is as follows Cecily daughter of Charles N. Cone, Jr.; son of Charles N. Cone, son of Frederick N. Cone, son of William Warner Cone; son of Naaman and Joanna Warner Cone; Joanna Warner daughter of Thomas Warner and Rhoda Hopkins; Thomas Warner son of Eleazer Warner and Joanna Hale, son of Thomas Warner and Delight Metcalf, son of Andrew Warner and Deborah Leffingwell, son of Isaac Warner and Sarah Boltwood, son of Andrew Warner and his first wife Mary Humphrey.

Newsom Gibson was a red head!

Dear Grandfather and Grandmother Gibson,
Last week I had the opportunity to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and look at your service record from the Cherokee War and Grandmother Gibson's pension application contents. When I last wrote you, I explained that I have been searching for the names of your parents and your wife's parents for years. Though I did not find the exact answers, there were some clues in the pension file.

On "Indian War Pensions Act of July 27, 1892" Declaration of widow for Pension, Grandmother Gibson lists her birthplace as Rutherford County, Tennessee not Davidson County. That will be a new place for me to research. With the maiden name of Elizabeth Jane Jones, it has been a challenge to determine which of the Jones' were your parents.

Your descendants were especially excited to read the physical description of Grandfather Gibson. Each of the three depositions in the pension file described Newsom Gibson as being of fair complexion, having brown eyes, being between 5'7" and 5'9" in height about 145 pounds, and having red or auburn hair. I think the photograph below, shows you why we were especially excited to discover you were a red head.

These red-heads are your 3rd great grandchildren Charles "Rusty" and sister Trude Cone.
They are enjoying ice cream near where Trude lives in Amsterdam, Holland.



We had previously known that our paternal grandmother and her father were red heads. Our mother's maternal grandfather and two of his daughters were also red heads. Now we know there was red hair in the Gibson line also.

It was wonderful to learn more about you both and the search for your parents continues.

Love,
Cecily

P. S. For family members; Newsom and Elizabeth Jones Gibson's daughter Sarah Amanda Gibson married Van Epps Hugunin, their daughter Mary Elizabeth Hugunin married William Wallace Colby, their daughter Ada Grace Colby married Cecil Oscar Werst, their daughter Betty Lorraine Werst married Charles Newton Cone, Jr, I am their child.