Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

Jesse Pitcock's name might appear fairly average upon first examination, but there's something fun hidden in his middle name. He was my 1st cousin 4x removed on one of my mother's lines. And before a day ago, I didn't even know he existed, let alone would have picked him for this blog's subject line. But due to coincidental timing this week, I happened to discover him and have the perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight on him and his family. Jesse was born in 1890 in Greene County, Pennsylvania to parents John and Sidney Pitcock. John was my 3rd great granduncle. I believe Jesse was their youngest child out of 9 kids! He went on to marry a woman named Lucy John and they had 5 daughters together. Now, I don't have any strong evidence to back up this suspicion, but I believe Jesse's parents had a wonderful sense of humor. Jesse's name only sprung out at me while leafing through my Ancestry.com tree's image hints. His obituary had been uploaded by ano...

My great grandfather George Foltz had two middle names, Lee and Roy. Nowhere in his parents' families do any of his given names exist, so it's unknown what led to him being named George LeeRoy. George LeeRoy Foltz But was he named George LeeRoy? Or was it George Lee Roy? Or how about George LeRoy or Leroy? In the end, he went by the nickname Roy, so I guess it doesn't really matter. But there are certainly historical documents out there that list him with all of those variations. And even on his homestead application, 3 of those variations are included across just 2 pages....and he corrected one of them to LeeRoy, inserting a missing "e"! Plus, he signed his name "Georg LeeRoy Foltz" on another page (oddly dropping the "e" from George)! What's that about? Is it likely that going by Roy seemed the simplest way to always get it right? Well, if that's the case, then why go and name your son Charles Leroy Foltz?  Or did they name him LeRo...

During my grandfather's lifetime, in 1936, social security numbers were invented by the government in order to keep track of employment wages and histories of United States workers in an effort to determine their entitlement to benefits out of the social security fund. Harry Foltz, Portland, Oregon, 1930. This new line of bureaucratic red tape may have been the reason my grandfather and his mother went on the hunt for a record of his birth. The same issue appeared to crop up when it was time to apply for a passport as well. Although they were both certain he was born 3 February 1910 on their homestead in Fort Rock, Oregon, there was no extant documentation claiming so.  Oregon State Board of Health, "Birth Record Application," 8 Mar 1958. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, copy of 1920 U.S. federal census enumeration details for Foltz, Harry A., 27 Aug 1942. His mother had to write up a deposition testifying to the details of his and his siblings' births in...

  NOVEMBER 06, 2021 In an age before most everyone was literate, spelling and grammar didn’t count for much – and that went for people’s names as well. Week 41: Changes In my family tree, I’ve recorded my maternal 2nd great grandmother as Phoebe Ann (Yoders) Millhouse. She was born 1 November 1873 in Woodruff, Marshall County, West Virginia to parents Samuel Zachariah Yoders and Lucinda Ott. She was one of at least 13 children. Out of a brood that big, you’re bound to get somewhat overlooked, and perhaps part of that plays into the fact that Phoebe’s name on records never seems super solid. While I personally determined the “official” spelling of her name to be Phoebe Ann Yoders, I know that there’s no right answer. Depending on the informant and their literacy, their preference, her preference, and their circumstances, Phoebe’s name tended to change a lot over the years. In 1880, at the age of 6, she was enumerated on the federal census as Pheby A. Yoders – likely information giv...

  NOVEMBER 04, 2021 Middle names, also known as second given names, tend to be shrouded in mystery a lot of the time. This happens because they don’t really serve much purpose, at least in the United States, unless of course you’ve committed murder. In that event, as you might well be aware, a murderer’s full legal name is printed up in all the papers to help distinguish them from other persons who share the first and last names. It also comes in handy differentiating yourself from a terrorist who has found their name plastered on the “no fly” list. But aside from those rare and uncommon occurrences, middle names do not tend to be well known, even amongst close friends or family at times. Week 39: Steps Ethel (Hinman) Eggenberger, ca. 5 Feb 1930. This was certainly the case for Ethel Hinman, my paternal great grandmother. When I first began researching my family history, I had no sources that recorded her middle name. And both my father and aunt (her grandchildren) were not aware o...

  AUGUST 08, 2021 I’m always interested in hearing the backstory of one’s name. Nowadays, parents tend to spend a good chunk of energy in determining the names of their offspring, and I question if the trend was as big an ordeal in the past as it is the present. Week 31: Favorite Name On my father’s line of the family tree, we have very deep roots in America, stretching all the way back to the first few decades of the original colonies. The Crandall line can be traced back to Elder John Crandall who was born in England in the early 1600s and traveled to Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1635. John’s great granddaughter is my 5th great grandmother. She was born 28 January 1743 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut. Her parents, who had rather normal names of Samuel and Sarah, granted her the special name of Desire Crandall. The name Desire calls to me, because it stands apart from most other common names in my family tree. And because I consider myself a dreamer, it really tugs on m...

  JULY 11, 2021 My great grandfather, George LeeRoy Foltz (1880 - 1923), was certainly his father’s son! The pair of them could not be tied down to a single location for very long; the proof being in the evidence of their movements left behind in photos and written documents. George LeeRoy Foltz, postcard to brother Walter in Kansas, 3 Oct 1912, Ft. Rock, Oregon. Week 28: Transportation After growing up and starting his family in Marshall County, Kansas, George filed a homestead application in Fort Rock, Lake County, Oregon with the federal government, intent on securing his own property out on the west coast of the United States. They left behind their home in Vliets, took up residence on the new piece of land in June of 1909, and finished building a home on the property by the 16th of that month. The Albany Citizen, “Fort Rock Country,” Albany, Oregon, 20 May 1910. But once George got his dry farming techniques up and running at home, he was already on to his next venture – which...

  MAY 02, 2021 As far as I know, there is only one ancestor in my direct line that has had a major run-in with the law, and it was quite a shameful event, so I’d rather focus on my 2nd great granduncle’s brush with the prison system. Week 18: Crime and Punishment The eldest son of my 3rd great grandmother, Margaret (O’Keeffe) Boyce was first only known to me as William T. Boyce. Other than being aware that he was born circa 1864 by the 1870 and 1880 US censuses that he appeared on, I didn’t really have any other info on him. It wasn’t until this past year that I took note of the fact that William was born several years prior to any of his siblings, and more importantly, even though he held the Boyce surname on the censuses, his birthdate appeared to have fallen previous to his parents’ marriage date in 1868. I knew his mother, Margaret, had been married once before to a papermaker in Wheeling, West Virginia. Originally, I believed her 1st marriage to have ended quickly and before a...