Mildred Westcott

A lamb adorns the tombstone of Mildred Westcott. Little Mildred Westcott died on June 16, 1919, at age 9. She was the daughter of Carl and Helen Westcott. Mildred Westcott is buried in Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery. Her death certificate can be viewed online at Family Search Labs.

The Complicated Parentage of Sarah Nodine Milner Steen

My great great grandmother, Sarah Nodine Milner Steen, seen on the far left of the Steen family picture above, has a complicated situation concerning her parents. Her date of birth, as listed on her death certificate, was on November 13, 1850 in Michigan. The death certificate listed Sarah's parents as Henry Milner and Huldah Westfall Milner. However, an obituary from volume 14 of the Firelands Pioneer states that the daughter of Henry and Huldah Westfall Milner was adopted.























In 1990, my mother and I were curious about Great Great Grandma Sarah. We contacted Erie County Probate Court, to see if we could find out more information. The staff from Probate Court stated that in Erie County Court records, Sarah's twin daughters Ada Parker and Alpha Steen, give their mother's name as Sarah Milner, and Sarah had been born in Hastings, Michigan. Yet another birth record of an infant born to Sarah and Charles F. Steen, who died young, stated that the Sarah's maiden name was Nodine.

So...next we contacted Probate Court in Barry County, Michigan, which was in Hastings, Michigan. The Probate Register of Barry County Probate Court did not have on file a birth certificate for Sarah Nodine, because their records did not begin until 1863. However, she looked through some microfilm records, and found that Wheeler Nodine died in February, 1872, and one of his heirs was named Sarah, and was residing in Ohio at that time. Records also hinted that Eliza Jane was the mother of some of the children of Wheeler Nodine, but it did not definitively state that Sarah's mother was Eliza Jane Westfall.

When I was first becoming familiar with computers and email correspondence, another researcher from the West coast (who sadly has since passed away) told me that her ancestor Julia Nodine was also the daughter of Wheeler Nodine and his wife Eliza Jane Westfall. We made a conjecture that for reasons unknown, Wheeler and Eliza Jane Westfall Nodine gave their infant daughter, Sarah Nodine, to Eliza Jane's sister Huldah Westfall Milner, living in Erie County, Ohio.

Though the total story is not told, our hypothesis seems to be correct. A third cousin who lives nearby, allowed me to photocopy this page of birth records from the Milner family Bible. She said that the Bible originally belonged to Huldah Milner, then was passed down to Sarah Nodine Milner Steen, and then was kept up to date by my great grandmother Ada Steen Parker. Whoever filled out the births included both the biological parents of Sarah, who were Wheeler Nodine and Eliza Jane Westfall, as well as the adoptive parents of Sarah, Henry Milner and Hulday Westfall. The sisters were only about two years apart in age. We may never know why Sarah was adopted by the Milner's, and that was their only child. Wheeler Nodine and Eliza Jane Westfall Nodine had several other children, and Eliza appears to have been married three times.




















The birth records state that Sarah Nodine Milner was born in Ohio, but all other records indicate that she was born in Hastings, Michigan. At the very bottom of the page of birth listings are the names of several of Sarah's biological brothers and sisters.

Sarah married Charles F. Steen in March, 1875, and she died on March 6, 1939. She had four children, including Harry, who died young, twins Ada and Alpha, and another son Rollin. She was a lifelong member of the Perkins Grange, having been a charter member of that organization in 1874. Reading between the lines, I think that Sarah cherished her family. She had a lot of photographs taken of her children, and according to Great Grandma Ada's scrapbooks of clippings, she attended countless family dinners, parties, and family reunions. Though her past is somewhat mysterious and we do not know the reasons why she was adopted, she had a rich life, and I am thankful that she kept a record of so many of her family connections.

I Survived the Ohio Floods of 1969

On the Friday evening of July 4,1969, just a month after I graduated from High School, severe thunderstorms hit a wide area of Ohio. There were high winds and flooding as a result of these storms. Forty one persons lost their lives, and hundreds were injured. Four recreational boaters were among those who died in the 1969 storms and floods. Power outages were widespread. Homes and roads remained covered by water for several days. Ohio Counties affected included Erie, Sandusky, Ottawa, Huron, Wayne, Ashland and Holmes.

My friend Linda and I were working at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Sandusky, Ohio. We closed early due to the terrible weather conditions. I spent the night with Linda's family, as her home was much closer to our job than mine was. Her mom managed to make us supper, without any electricity.
The next day I was able to get back to my own house. Luckily my family home did not suffer any serious water damage, and I can recall my five younger brothers and sisters being bored with no electricity and no television for a few days. The family of my husband-to-be lost several family photograph albums, which was heartbreaking, especially for my future mother in law.

To read more about the July 4, 1969 Floods in Ohio, see the Severe Weather article at the website of the Ohio Historical Society.

This blog post was written for Week 10 of 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin, and hosted by Geneabloggers. This week's prompt was: Disasters.


*Note: For another account of the July 4, 1969 storm and flood, see pages 213 - 216 in the book THUNDER IN THE HEARTLAND: A CHRONICLE OF OUTSTANDING WEATHER EVENTS IN OHIO, by Thomas W. and Jeanne Appelhans Schmidlin, published in 1996 by the Kent State University Press. Figure 66, which appears on page 214, shows the Ohio counties which were affected.

Online Resource about Cemetery Art

An amazing resource was brought to my attention by Randy Seaver at Genea Musings. It is an online video about Cemetery Art.

The graphics are wonderful, and the information was easy to understand. The video would be useful to anyone who does research in cemeteries. Many more research courses are available at:

https://learning.familysearch.org/researchcourses

Thanks so much for the heads up, Randy!

And Ellen Miller, you are a wonderful presenter!

Thrifty Thursday: Share Your Stories and Photos

The pictures above were mailed to me via the U.S. mail by my cousin Debbie in Nevada. (See a larger view of these photos here). In the top photo, pictured are: Front: left,Ray Furney; right, Fred Yeager. In the back are: Florence Furney at left, and then: Norma Yeager Ernst Gruhlke, Julia Orshoski, Dorothy Yeager Orshoski, and Joseph Orshoski.

In the bottom picture in the back row, from left to right are: Martha Schweighart, Florence Furney, Julia and Joseph Orshoski, and Marge Green Yeager. In the front row, people we know are: front left, Ed Schweighart, unknown man smoking, Norma Gruhlke, the gal next to the man smoking; and the two adults next to the dog are Fred Yeager and his younger sister Dorothy Yeager Orshoski. We do not know the name of the man standing with his arm around Norma, or the names of the two little boys by the dog.

We do not know the occasion of this gathering, and several individuals remain unidentified. However, after an email from my dad's cousin Janet in Florida, we now know that the pictures were taken at the home of Nick and Dorothy Yeager Orshoski at their Adams Avenue home in Huron, Ohio and the little dog was named Trixie.













With the ease of pressing a few buttons on the computer, I was able to share the photos that Debbie had in Nevada, with our mutual relative Janet in Florida. We didn't uncover all the mysteries associated with these images, but we now a bit more about those Yeager/Orshoski family members in Huron, Ohio so long ago! Use your computer to share stories, images, and documents with your cousins online. I love the computer age!

Wordless Wednesday: Keim Monument at Oakland

The Brief Life of Matilda Cross

Matilda Rosa Cross was my third great grand-aunt. She was born to Charles Cross and Patience M. Manning Cross in 1851. She was christened at Holy Angels Catholic Church, on July 12, 1851, by Rev. J. V. Conlan. Her baptismal sponsors were a Mr. Spalding and Martha Martin. The baptism record was recorded in church books at Holy Angels Catholic Church, and is accessible at Family Search. These particular records are not indexed, but searching is relatively easy if you have a rough idea of the time frame involved. You can view each page at full-screen, and flip through the records page by page with ease at any computer.





Matilda's father was the first Catholic Mayor of Sandusky, Ohio, serving in that office from 1853-1856. Little is known about Matilda's mother, Patience, except that she died sometime after Matilda's birth in 1851 and before 1860. Sadly, Matilda Cross died very young. Her death was recorded in Holy Angels church records as September 14, 1866, when Rev. R.A. Sidley was serving as the priest. Matilda was 15 years old at the time of her death.




Matilda's brother James went on to serve his country in the Civil War, and another brother, Charles A. Cross was a photographer in Sandusky, Ohio for several years. My gut feeling is that Matilda was a special little girl to her family, especially since she lost her mother at such a young age. How I wish I could see some Cross family photographs that surely must have been taken by Charles A. Cross! Though Matilda's name has not been inscribed on the tombstone, St. Joseph's Cemetery records indicate that she is buried in the same lot as her father, Charles Cross, in Section D.