Surprise Finds --- Some of the most Fun

A surprise genealogical find is often the most exciting, and often one of the most revealing. A couple of weeks ago I was playing around on FindAGrave, one of my favorite sites. I love the idea of genealogists and others contributing to the database without any monetary reimbursement. FindAGrave now has over 39 million graves listed. I have contributed many records, taken many photographs, had others take photos for me, and searched it regularly. I would never be able to visit all of the cemeteries in person, but FindAGrave gives me the opportunity to see gravestones throughout the country.

I had been looking at my records for Lydia Rosevelt Tracy, wife of Dennis Tracy. A published family history stated that Lydia died in New Jersey in 1890. The last record I had for her was in the 1880 census, where she is shown living in Monroe, Middlesex County, New Jersey. A look at Google maps showed that there was actually a place called Tracy there and may be where she resided. It also showed its proximity to nearby Monmouth County. I decided to see what cemeteries were nearby, so I used FindAGrave. There were a few not far from Tracy. I then did a name search and found Lydia buried in Old Tennent Churchyard in Monmouth County. Thank you AnnieFran, Anne Mount West, for your contribution. She also has her own web page with links to Monmouth County resources. A further search of FindAGrave showed several other family members buried there also.

The message here is to check, and re-check, a source. I probably missed seeing the entry earlier because it didn't show Middlesex County. This wasn't my find of the year, but it was still fun to come across it unexpectedly.

Manuscript Heaven - NYHS

I'm on my way to manuscript heaven, New York Historical Society in this case. The train to NYHS required a station change. There were several stations closed over the weekend and that caused a few problems. I got to NYHS by about noon and noticed that I had received a voice mail from my friend Steve who had gone on a Statue of Liberty tour. Living up to Mission Impossible standards, we reached the same station from opposite directions within just a couple of minutes of each other. Steve agreed to do some sightseeing and take in Central Park while I did my research.

There was a short line to get into NYHS, but no fee to use the library and manuscripts. I was referred to the manuscript department and had some very good advice for doing the searches. Besides the Relyea Family Papers, the card catalog had an entry for Misc Rosevelt Papers, which I also ordered. While they were getting the papers, I paid $15 for permission to photograph the papers. I was very glad I did.

There were great materials in the folders. Many of them were the source material used earlier by others, but there were also some papers that had not been cited in earlier research. Photographing them gave me the opportunity to go through a great many in a short time. I will be able to read them carefully at my leisure later. Of course, the Solomon Rosevelt Bible record got my immediate attention.

Next stop-- lunch, but what could beat an afternoon in manuscript heaven.

The picture is of an oil painting of Elizabeth Wilde Rosevelt, wife of Solomon Rosevelt, and baby son Solomon, Jr probably done about 1808.

Daytripping at Woodlawn

I am on a jet plane to NYC. I have been to NYC a few times, but I never had the opportunity to reserve much time for genealogical research while I was there. This time I have planned time to visit the New York Historical Society, Woodlawn Cemetery, and Greenwood Cemetery. There will be a lot of opportunity to make good use of the digital camera I bought last month.

On this trip I will be ferreting out more information on the siblings of Stephen Rosevelt, plus there is supposed to be a family record of Solomon Rosevelt at the NYHS where they also have the Relyea Papers. Those papers are supposed to have several documents regarding my line.

All of Stephen's brothers and two of his sisters resided in NYC for at least a few years. All of the brothers, except for John Henry, were involved in someway with shipping. Jacob headed the Custom House and also was a ship's chandler. Solomon and George both had shipyards and Warren was a dock builder.

My plan was originally to visit NYHS early on Saturday. The weather forecast caused me to rethink that. They were calling for rain 0ff-and-on for most of the day, but more so in the afternoon. I decided Woodlawn would be the bet for the morning. Three of Stephen's siblings are buried there, Sarah Gifford, George, and Warren. It was a very easy ride from the hotel on the subway. Woodlawn is the last station on the line and the cemetery is just across the street from it. The main entrance though, where I needed to get my photography permit, is on the farther side. It is quite a nice walk through the cemetery and the route to the office is marked by a divided white line on the lane. I had talked with Sonia at the cemetery office earlier and had emailed her several times. She was very helpful. While I was there I got the lot card, which was very helpful.

By the time I reached the family lots, it was starting to lightly rain. I hurriedly took the pictures and looked around the area. Fortunately, it wasn't raining very hard and I was able to get some very good pictures. The fun part was finding a name I did not know of before and which should open up another line of research. On the way back to the subway station it started to rain harder and I was very happy I had brought my umbrella.

Next stop-- NYHS.

I Discovered the Actress from Hale!

My photo excursion through Hale Cemetery helped to refine some information on John Rosevelt's descendants and in the process helped me to find the actress from Hale. John’s eldest daughter Margaret married Henry C. Clemm in February, 1881 in Carroll County, Missouri. She and Henry had two children. The first child, Jene, was born in October, 1881 and had a gravestone in Hale Cemetery. I couldn't find a burial record for their younger daughter, Aileen, born in 1901.
I found Henry, Margaret, and Aileen in the 1925 census of Kansas. Aileen Poe Clem was listed as an actress who was born in 1901 in Missouri. In first tries I couldn't find any of them in the 1900, 1910, or 1920 census.
The Clemm's were very difficult to locate in the U.S. censuses, too. I did find a record for Margaret Rosevelt Clemm in the 1930 census in Hale, Carroll County, Missouri.
After little success with censuses, one of my first thoughts was to search for death certificates. That meant using Missouri's great vital record site. http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/ Missouri has indexed and added images of the certificates from 1910-1958. After trying several variations of the names I was still unable to locate a death certificate for any of them. The gravestone showed Henry had died in 1925, the same year that found them in Kansas, so that wasn't too surprising. I was very much hoping that I would find the death certificate for Margaret Rosevelt Clemm who according the gravestone died in 1934.
I did a Google search and found a very interesting article about Aileen and her mother in Kansas City in 1908. http://www.vintagekansascity.com/100yearsago/labels/vaudeville.html Aileen was noted as being fourteen years old. A woman claimed she had sent her husband compromising notes, and she was out to get Aileen. They all ended up in court, where the judge wasn't happy with Aileen and her mother.
From the clue noting her as working vaudeville I put more effort into searching for something about her as an actress. Ancestry's newspaper collection was helpful. The Chillicothe newspaper had articles mentioning Aileen and in one told about her and a friend on their way to Hollywood. After more Google searching, it became apparent that Aileen was using the stage name Aileen Poe (her middle name), which brought to mind Edgar Allan Poe, whose wife was his cousin Virginia Clemm. That could be an interesting search for a Clemm researcher.
The New York Times had an obituary for Aileen Poe with a place of death and reference to her death date. I retried the Social Security Death Index, but there was nothing for her as Poe or Clemm. I then tried her first name and death date. That brought up Aileen Egelston. Later research showed Aileen had married Charles Egelston. That helped to find her on a few ship manifests and gave her birthplace as Hale, Missouri.
Aileen and her mother still eluded me in the 1920 census. I tried many different searches and finally hit pay dirt with Ail*, no surname, born Missouri, mother born Iowa. Aileen was shown as being married to Reginald Grant and living in Manhattan, NY. Her mother was also in the household as Margaret Clenin. Interestingly, Aileen was noted as single in the 1925 census of Kansas.
Aileen was fairly successful as an actress. Her earliest recorded Broadway performance was in 1916 in Fast and Grow Fat. A play bill from around 1920 shows her as the attractive femme fatale, a role that she often played in other plays from that time period. Fade In - Fade Out was her last big performance on Broadway in 1966 with Carol Burnett.
There still wasn’t a death record for Margaret Rosevelt Clemm. That required some new thinking. Margaret’s close relationship with her daughter suggested checking the death record index for New York City. A couple of great volunteer groups have worked to add vital records from all of the boroughs of New York City. A search of their index showed Margaret Clemm died August 2, 1934.
So there it is, I discovered, Aileen Poe Clemm, the actress from Hale.