Henry and Clara Till

Henry Till enlisted in the 65th New York Volunteer Infantry on August 20, 1861. He began as a private in Company H, but later transferred to Company K. Private Till was wounded in action on May 10, 1864, and he was hospitalized in Stanton Hospital, Washington D.C. for a time. The Ohio Marriages database, available at Family Search, indicate that Henry Till married Clara A. Moore in Erie County, Ohio on December 28, 1865. By the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, Henry and Clara Till were living in Lookout, Kansas. At this time, Henry Till was 42, and Clara was 41. At this time Henry and Clara had a twelve year old son, also named Henry Till. The elder Henry Till was working as a carpenter in 1880. Henry stated that he had been born in England, and Clara had been born in the state of New York. An article in the December 7, 1891 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that Henry Till, cousin of Sandusky architect Levi Till, had died in Denver, Colorado on December 5, 1891. Funeral services were held at Henry Till's former residence in Sandusky, at 116 Madison Street. Burial was in Oakland Cemetery.

Mrs. Clara Till lived to be ninety nine years old. She died at the Britton Convalescent Home on Fulton Street in Sandusky on October 20, 1934. An obituary for Mrs. Till is found in the 1934 OBITUARY NOTEBOOK at the Sandusky Library. Mrs. Till was survived by a son from her first marriage, Newton Moore, eight grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, and three great great grandchildren. Mrs. Till was buried next to Henry Till at Oakland Cemetery.

Sadly, Henry and Clara's son Henry Till had died in 1905. He too was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery.

A Dickens Christmas: Christmases Past, Present, and Future

The theme of the 113th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is:

A Charles Dickens Christmas. We're going to borrow Charles Dickens' idea and have some visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

My parents didn't always have a lot of money, but they both loved Christmas, and they made sure that we had a very happy holiday each and every Christmas! We had programs at church and at school. On Christmas Eve we gathered with the extended family. We opened our gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. When I was 8 years old, my sister and I got dolls, and my brother Paul was thrilled with his Huckleberry Hound dog! Baby brother Todd wondered what all the fuss was about!

Mom loved sending out picture Christmas cards.In 1960, Mom went with the Mickey Mouse Club theme, and we all wore sweatshirts with our names on them, just like the Mouseketeers!

By 1972, two more little ones were added to our branch of the Orshoski family tree.

Now, Mom and Dad are both in Heaven, but we still gather together on Christmas Day. We have several more families to fit into the festivities, and some of us have to leave early to go to family events on our spouse's side of the family, or to our childrens' homes, but as many as possible come to my baby sister's house to celebrate a lovely Christmas luncheon. Some other ways we celebrate include my sisters participating in a race in Chicago, and my husband and I taking our grandsons to the train exhibit at the R. B. Hayes Presidential Center.

As for future Christmases in our family, I am hoping that we continue to gather together at lunch time on Christmas Day. It would be a joy to see some of our siblings, and nieces and nephews from Mississippi and Georgia be able to make the trip to Northern Ohio, so they can "enjoy" our brisk winter weather with loved ones all around!

Thelma Tight Pelton

Thelma Tight was the oldest daughter, and the fourth of five children born to Fred and Louise Yeager Tight. She was born on June 19, 1910. The Fred Tight family lived in Perkins Township, Erie County, Ohio. Thelma was my first cousin twice removed, and she was a first cousin to my paternal grandmother Emma Yeager Orshoski.




















Thelma's mother, Louise Yeager Tight, emigrated from Germany to the United States with her family in 1881. In 1928, when Thelma was 18 years old, her parents had another baby girl, named Mary Louise Yeager. Sadly, on September 7, 1928, when Mary Louise was just an infant, Louise Yeager Tight took her own life, after becoming despondent over ill health. With Mrs. Tight having died at a young age, Thelma must have played a vital role in helping to raise her baby sister Mary Louise Yeager. An article in the July 12, 1933 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal reported that Thelma Tight hosted a birthday party for Mary Louise's fifth birthday.
















By 1944, Thelma had become Mrs. Kenneth J. Pelton. Her husband, formerly a Sandusky mail carrier, was stationed in England, serving as a Corporal in the U.S. Army during World War Two. In 1946, Thelma and Kenneth had their only child, a daughter named Majorie Pelton. When Thelma's baby sister Mary Louise Tight married Eugene A. Wasserman, in 1948, the news article about the Wasserman marriage reported that Mary Louise had made her home with her sister Thelma and brother in law Kenneth prior to her marriage. (The article appeared in the November 24, 1948 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News.) In the late 1970's, I had the pleasure of working with Thelma's daughter Marjorie, at Margaretta Junior High School. Later, Marge was my son's elementary Art teacher. Marge was a "no-nonsense" kind of teacher, and she was a pleasure to work with.

Mrs. Thelma Tight Pelton passed away on December 3, 1987. I never got a chance to get to know her, as I didn't realize we were connected until after her death. Thelma was buried at Sandusky's Calvary Cemetery, beside her beloved husband Kenneth J. Pelton.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Historical Events

The prompt for Week 49 of 52 Weeks of Personal History & Genealogy, by Amy Coffin of We Tree, and hosted by Geneabloggers, is: Historical Events.

Describe a memorable national historical event from your childhood. How old were you and how did you process this event? How did it affect your family?

A national event that touched my family was the death of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy's youngest son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born on August 7, 1963 at the hospital at the Otis Air Force Base in Bourne, Massachusetts. He was born prematurely, and soon he was transferred to Boston Children's Hospital. On August 9, 1963, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died as a result of respiratory distress syndrome. He was buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, but later was re-interred, along with another infant who was stillborn, at Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, President Kennedy would be killed on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

The reason the loss of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy affected my family was that my parents had five children under the age of 12 in August of 1963. I was just about to enter the sixth grade at that time. Even though our family was large, my parents loved each of us, and appreciated our individual personalities.

I knew how much I cherished my younger brothers and sisters, and I thought about how sad it must be for the entire Kennedy family to lose Patrick in infancy. Mom and I sent Mrs. Kennedy a sympathy card, and remembered her in our prayers. All families suffer losses, but the Kennedy family sorrows were so public, and were covered by the media across the nation and the world. My family, along with the rest of the nation, were deeply saddened by the deaths of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Photo credits:
Image of Kennedy Family from Life Magazine, April 26, 1963, page 26, via Google Books

Image of graves of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, Arlington National Cemetery, from Wikipedia Commons

Mark Townsend, Civil War Veteran

According to the American Civil War Soldiers database, a part of the military databases of Ancestry Library Edition, Mark Townsend enlisted as a Private in the U.S. Army on October 8, 1863, at the age of 18. He entered Company I of the 12th Ohio Cavalry on November 24, 1863. Just a short time later, Mark Townsend died of disease in Sandusky, Ohio, on December 2, 1863. The Oakland Cemetery interment card states that Mark Townsend died of diphtheria. He was first buried in Block 31 at Oakland Cemetery, but later his remains were removed to the G.A.R. lot at Oakland, where he rests in peace along with many other Sandusky area Civil War veterans.

Another Ancestry Library Edition database is Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903. This database has a record of the tombstone being provided for Mark Townsend. It was created by W.H. & F.S. Gross of Lee, Massachusetts. Click here to read more about Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans. The National Archives has in its holdings 22 rolls of microfilm with more than 160,000 card records about these tombstones.

Johannes Leidorf

In Block 57 of Oakland Cemetery is a tombstone which honors the memory of Johannes and Catharine Leidorf. Johannese Leidorf was born May 12, 1804 in Germany, and died in Erie County, Ohio on December 11, 1879. Catharine Leidorf was born February 11, 1816 in Germany and died in Erie County on December 8, 1894.

THE HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, ed. by Lewis Cass Aldrich, states that John and Elizabeth Catharine (Wagoner) Leidorf came to the United States in 1845, and settled in Margaretta Township. Their children were Conrad Leidorf, and Elizabeth Leidorf, who married Henry Schoewe.

the 1860 U.S. Census for Erie County lists John/Johannes' surname as Ladorf, and his birthplace as Hesse-Kassel. It is not unusual to find spelling variations in both the first name and surnames of individuals in genealogical records, especially in families of German origin.

Austin and Harriet Ferry

The 1855 Sandusky City Directory lists Austin Ferry as a merchant of hats and caps, and a trustee of the First Congregational Church. Erie County Probate Court recorded the marriage of Austin Ferry and Eliza C. Muenscher on June 23, 1853. Eliza was the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. Joseph Muenscher of Mount Vernon, Ohio. Austin and Eliza Ferry had two little girls who died in infancy in the 1860's. Eliza Muschscher Ferry died on March of 1866, in Mount Vernon, Ohio. She is buried at the Kenyon College Cemetery. By the time of the 1870 Census, Austin Ferry had remarried, to a woman named Harriet. They had two children, William, born about 1869, and Annie, born about 1871. An article which appeared in the July 19, 1876 issue of the Sandusky Weekly Register reported that Austin Ferry had died while traveling out west with his family, in search of the healthier climate of the western states. He passed away in Wallace, Kansas on July 10, 1876. His wife and two young children returned to Sandusky immediately, and Austin Ferry was buried in Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery.

Harriet Ferry lived to be ninety years of age. Harriet lived at 420 Jackson Street in Sandusky. She passed away on November 30, 1933. Mrs. Harriet Ferry was survived by her son, veterinarian Dr. William A. Ferry, and a daughter, Mrs. Anna Ennis. Harriet was buried in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. Harriet was also survived by a sister, granddaughter, and two great grandchildren.













Harriet and Austin Ferry both lived through the Civil War, and Harriet had such a long life that she saw several advancements in technology, including electricity, the automobile, motion pictures, and radio. I am sure she had many stories to tell her grandchildren.