Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Antique Store Finds: Dora "Dade" Basnett (Gardner??)


Another year, another post!

Some time ago I said I’d start posting items from antique stores. Recently I was in Augusta, MO and found two orphan photos. I believe they cost $1/each. 

Here is the first:

Dora “Dade” Basnett



Front of photo reads: 
M Crown, Eldorado Springs, MO

Back of photo reads:
Dade Basnett
Aunt Dade
Age 17 or 18
Aunt Dade was 85 in Nov 1960
Died 1970

She may be the person on this Find a Grave page. If so, her married name was Gardner. She's waiting for her relatives to come and claim her. 

If you are a descendant of Dora's or are of a collateral family and would like to adopt her photo, please leave a comment so we can begin a correspondence. Happy ancestor hunting!




Monday, August 11, 2014

Halbrook Family Reunion 2014


Our family recently attended a reunion of descendants of Oscar Halbrook (1889-1981) and Effie Crocker (1891-1955). I have added a number of “new” (to me) cousins on Facebook and will be sharing this post on my wall there.

The reunion was held on the 123rd birthday of Effie Jane Crocker at Sam A. Baker State Park. At the reunion, my focus was on all things Halbrook. I wasn’t the only one! Other Halbrooks enjoy genealogy, and I’m glad we’ll be sharing research.

Cousins, thank you for holding this family reunion. We had a wonderful time. It’s been some 28 years since the last one and I hope only a year until the next. This reunion has inspired me to write a post about the Halbrook-Crocker family. 

Oscar Marcus Halbrook was born on November 2, 1889. His parents were George Washington Halbrook and Rebecca Adaline Denton.

Oral history has George Washington Halbrook running away from the family. Census records would suggest this happening between 1900 and 1910, when his wife, Rebecca Adaline Denton, is listed as married but George Washington Halbrook is not present. By the next census, she is listed as widowed. I do not know whether she received word of his death, had him declared dead, or just assumed it. I have not found record of George Washington Halbrook after 1900. If you’ve heard this and/or have other information about him, please leave a comment.

Family legend also states that Rebecca Adaline Denton Halbrook was part Native American. My grandmother once mentioned to me that a grandmother of hers was part “Indian,” and I have heard this from Halbrook cousins. Please comment if you’ve heard this before about one of our female ancestresses. Be sure to mention who told you, what tribe you heard mentioned and any other details. I would love to investigate her background.

Effie Jane Crocker was born on August 2, 1891. Her parents were Sidney Stanton Crocker and Amanda “Mandy” Keith. She had10 children, 8 of whom survived to adulthood.  Descendants of four of these children were present at the reunion.

Grave of Oscar Halbrook and Effie Crocker Halbrook.
(c) Travels with My Foremothers 2011 for use only with permission.

I highly recommend a visit to the cemetery where Oscar and Effie are buried, Bollinger County Memorial ParkCemetery. It’s well-kept and has a nice memorial wall and quality facilities, which cemetery-seekers will surely appreciate.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Antique Store Finds: Introduction



 The past year I’ve switched my focus to completing graduate school and starting my librarian career. That has caused me to put off updating this blog and a number of other things. Now I’ve graduated, I have a good job, and I’m back with a number of ideas for future posts. One is the Antique Store Find.

A few years ago, an item caught my eye when I entered a small antique store in Clarksville, Missouri. I picked it up briefly and went on. As I walked around the shop, it kept calling me back. I didn’t fall in love with it, have a practical purpose for it, or even desire it. But somehow I knew two things: 1) it didn’t belong there and 2) it was supposed to leave with me. Twenty-five dollars later, it was mine, but I was still unsettled because I didn’t feel like it was really mine.

The item was a scrapbook from a girl’s grade school graduation in the late 1920s.




The book was filled with a stenciled illustrations, congratulatory cards, and memories. What a beautiful piece it was.





I was bugged that the book was separated from those to whom it might mean something special… not likely to be the owner, who was probably dead, but to her descendants, siblings, nephews, nieces, etc. As neat as the book was, I didn't really want to keep it because it had no personal significance to me.

As I read proper nouns – people and places in the girl’s life – I wondered if I would be able to use my research skills to discover who she was, develop her family tree, and locate her survivors.

Through death certificates, obituaries, and census records, I did so. The girl, from St. Louis, died as an elderly woman. She was survived by her sister, who still lived in the St. Louis area and whom I was able to telephone. When I described the journal and the names in it – including a classmate who later became the girl’s husband—the sister explained that the book probably got confused with other items when the girl’s house was cleaned out. She had no idea how it ended up in Clarksville, which is some two hours north of St. Louis. I sent her the book. As far as I know, it’s still safe in her possession. 

Since then, I’ve occasionally purchashed old scrapbooks and photographs in antique malls or stores. Including the Girl Graduate journal, I’ve been able to reroute four items to relatives or researchers. All of these people have reimbursed me for the initial purchase (usually $1 or $2 for photographs), so I am breaking even and keeping genealogy a relatively low-cost hobby.  

In the future, I intend to use this blog to document the occasional photo or scrapbook search when I hit a brick wall in my research or in finding someone to take the photo. I will include the names and locations (I chose not to do so in this post to respect the privacy of the owner). If you see your ancestor, contact me, and the photo is yours. 

When I go through photos in antique stores, I’m always saddened to see so many without my prerequisites for purchase: name(s), location, and reasonable price. I can’t possibly purchase all of the photos I see that meet these prerequisites. Still, I love making someone's day by providing a photo of a long-gone relative. That’s the thing with ancestors being long-gone… we think we won’t get any more of them. But we can. People leave traces of who they were everywhere they lived. And sometimes in Clarksville too.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Update: Little Rock City League

A researcher from the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia recently contacted me about my research of the Little Rock City Baseball League in 1911.  I shared the articles of the Hubs' 1911 season, and their page on the City League has been updated to include team names and managers. 

A detailed profile of player "Wild Bill" Luhrsen, my great-grandfather's brother, includes a photograph of Bill as a young man.  He bears a striking resemblance to Gus. 

Many thanks to the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia for the great research efforts you have taken in chronicling the history of the Little Rock City League. 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Arkansas History Commission



Arkansas History Commission

One Capitol Mall
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
(501) 682-6900
http://www.ark-ives.com/

Monday-Saturday 8:00 a. m. – 4:30 p. m.


According to EncyclopediaofArkansas.net, the Arkansas History Commission and State Archives “is the official state archives of Arkansas and houses the state’s largest collection of documents, publications, photographs, and other material relating to Arkansas history.”  Read more about the history of the History Commission here.


Collections

The Arkansas History Commission has many primary and secondary sources for researchers to use.  These include manuscripts, newspaper archives, county records, military records, books and maps, photographs, land records, and a biographical index file that contains information from obituaries and other sources.  More information on holdings is available at their website.

Research Requests

The History Commission does not do research for users. 


Procedures
  1. Bring government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license).
  2. Sign in and complete a registration form.
  3. Bring cash.  There are no ATMs on site. 
  4. No use of cell phones or other personal copying equipment is permitted. 
  5. The only fees are for duplication.  Printing from a computer or photocopier is $0.10 per page.  Fees vary by size for photo duplication and map reproduction. 
  6. Printing microfilm is $0.25 per page.  Money must be pre-loaded on a card.  The card must be loaded with a minimum of $1.00 and the money is nonrefundable.    The staff will not make change, and there are no refunds, so unless you intend to print a lot of pages or don’t mind losing the money, bring $1 bills.
  7. Directions to the State Capitol Complex are on the Arkansas History Commission website.


The Research Topic

My ancestor Gus Luhrsen, born in Iroquois County, Illinois, lived in North Little Rock, Arkansas with his aunt, uncle, and two of his brothers who ended up settling in the area for good.  Gus was the older brother of William “Wild Bill” Luhrsen, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1913 season. 

In August 2009, my cousin gave me a copy of a picture of Gus wearing a baseball uniform that reads “HUB.”  The date printed at the bottom was 1911, and “Gus Luhrsen” was written on the side of his headshot.  Looking at the photo, I could tell that it was Gus.  The cousin told me that he was on a local team while he was young man; he was 28 in 1911.   She said she would be interested to know more about the team, and that I could keep the copy to reference when I researched. 



I could find nothing about the team online, and numerous phone calls led me to an Arkansas baseball expert who hadn’t heard of the team but who gave my question to a local baseball historian.  This man and his wife took time out of their own research to look into the question of who the Hubs were, and I am still so grateful for their help.  The two articles they shared with me gave me hope that there were more about the 1911 baseball season.  I hoped I might find some mention of Gus by visiting the Arkansas History Commission myself.  


The Results

First I looked up several obituaries for Arkansas relatives in the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas-Democrat GazetteThen I sped through the Gazette for mentions of the Hubs in 1911.  What I learned is that the team was started that year by the owner of the Hub Clothing Company, which was located at 114 Main Street.  The other teams were Argenta, Bakers’ Union, C. Wells, Fort Roots, Lloyd’s, and Uniteds (United Clothing Company).  Together they formed the Little Rock City League. 

The Hubs won the championship that year. I don’t know if the teams played in subsequent years.  The articles did not mention Gus, but it is clearly him in the photograph, so perhaps he served in a managerial position.


Comments

I intend to post more information about the Hubs and the City League season as I transcribe the articles.  If you are interested in reading the Hubs articles I have found, I will share them if you leave your contact information below.  If you know anything about the history of any of the Arkansas teams, or if you have a similar photo, please leave a comment.