Name Game: Eckles

I am still obsessed with research on my Eckles family. While thinking about explaining bits of it to another I remembered that I've come up with a Chinese restaurant menu for spelling variations. Check it out!

A name might begin with the more common E, but a first letter of A is often written. The next segment in my family is ck but cc is very common too. A lone k or even c might appear. When it is spelled with a ch it may be of German origin rather than Scots-Irish. Segment three is usually either le or el, but could be ol. Last the name usually ends in an s but is sometimes omitted. So I see this as a case of pick one from each column to arrive at a possible spelling. With the exception of ending in s, or not, the variations would be covered by Soundex if you do both A and E initial letters. The codes would be E242 or A242 with a final s or E240 and A240 without. This certainly would be a good case for Soundex.

Finding 1940 Census Locations

We started recording 1940 U.S. census enumeration districts (EDs) for our closest relatives using Stephen P. Morse's very helpful website. Dick's parents and paternal grandmother lived in Cleveland, a city for which the EDs have been indexed. To find their ED we used Obtaining EDs for the 1940 Census in One Step (Large Cities) and with their cross streets quickly got the number. My great aunt in Lakewood, a nearby suburb, was equally easy. My parents lived in North Olmsted, a small town/suburb, that only had two EDs. The written descriptions show the town was divided by the main east-west road so all I needed to know was whether they were north or south of it.

We couldn't find his maternal grandmother as easily. She was widowed in January of 1939. We knew that she moved, but not when or where, or if more than once. Luckily the Cuyahoga County deeds are all available online. A search for her name in the appropriate time frame turned up a deed from November 1939. At that time she bought the house where Dick remembers her living. It is highly likely that she moved in before April 1st of 1940. We had to add several street names, looking at a map, before we could narrow down her ED, but we think we are ready for all our closest relatives in this area.

Now, it is just a little over 32 days!

1940 U.S. Census - Just Over a Month

1940 advertisement illustration

The 1940 U.S. Census will open to the public on Monday, April 2nd. For the first time it will be provided digitally online at the beginning. My husband and I won't be there, but our families will. Finding them will require a little work because there is no index...yet. I've given a talk to the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group - Cleveland Area (CAGG-CA) on the census and current finding aids. Wally Huskonen has been giving talks and on Saturday, March 3, 2012, he is presenting a workshop for the Genealogical Institute at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Reservations and a fee are required. Please check the website and registration form. I've also signed up with this blog as a 1940 census blog ambassador. I'll be posting more in the days before the 1940 census comes online.

Two Degrees of Separation - SNGF

Today Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun in his Genea-Musings blog has a fun feature asking us to report on our family link's to the past. The requirement is:

Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

My life overlapped that of one of my great grandparents on my mother's side. Effie (Irion) Bell (1860-1948) did not die until I was four. I don't clearly remember her, but my older sister knew her well. Effie grew up near all four of her grandparents and knew them well. The lives of her two maternal great grandmothers overlapped her own. They were Jemima (Hutchings/Hutchinson) Irion (1779-1868) and Mary Ann "Polly" (Cooper) Trotter (1776-1867). It is likely she knew them both at least a little. In this line my two degrees of separation link me to women born in 1776 and 1779, back to the time of the American Revolution.

Effie (Irion) Bell

I am particularly interested in this line because of a third degree of separation. I vaguely knew my great grandmother, Effie (Irion) Bell. My sister knew her well and heard the family stories from her.  Effie grew up close to her grandmother, Mary (Trotter) Irion (1811-1900). Mary was a great storyteller and along with her sister Phoebe (Trotter) Willey (1818-1906) passed on the stories they learned from their paternal grandmother. "Mad Anne" Bailey was a locally famous woman of the frontier around present day Charleston, West Virginia. Anne (Hennis) Trotter Bailey (ca. 1742-1825), an English immigrant, lived with her son's family in Gallia County, Ohio, in her later days and was close to her granddaughters passing down her stories to them. I've long felt that the connection truly goes back to her through the lives and stories of her descendants. See the sidebar for a link to my page on her.

Christmas Dinner Remembered

Christmas dinner in 1952 as photographed by my mother. I don't remember what we usually ate for Christmas dinner though the incredible Swiss steak for New Year's sticks in my mind. That was unlike anything I've ever seen since. Mother always saw to a beautiful Christmas for me, but she hated the stress it created, especially after she went back to work when I was seven. This was only a little over a year later. My brother was back from Korea where he had served as a young Marine in the war. We were certainly grateful for his return. I think I see the magic still reflected in my youthful eyes.

Blog Caroling: Favorite Christmas Carol

I don't think any one carol is my favorite. I know as a teen I went out caroling with a group but a little later the Kingston Trio recorded an album titled "Last Month of the Year." The songs were folk and gospel songs and that record has ever since been my favorite Christmas music. This year Dick's Hum & Strum group at the senior center did one of the songs in their annual holiday concert. Dick didn't know why he knew the song, but it was "Children Go Where I Send Thee," a song on that album. It is a lively, but beautiful song of African-American origin. I couldn't find an online recording of the Kingston Trio version, but there is a very old one with Gordon Lightfoot.


The words to it (from Wikipedia) are:

Children, go where I send thee
How shall I send thee?
I'm gonna send thee one-by-one
One for the little bitty baby
Wrapped in swaddling clothing
Lying in the manger
Born, born oh, born in Bethlehem.

Children, go where I send thee
How shall I send thee?
I'm gonna send thee two-by-two
Two for Paul and Silas
One for the little bitty baby
Wrapped in swaddling clothing
Lying in the manger
Born, born oh, born in Bethlehem.

Three for the three men riding (or: the Hebrew children)
Four for the four that stood at the door (or: were knocking at the door)
Five for the gospel preachers (or: the five that came back alive)
Six for the six that never got fixed (or: picked)
Seven for the seven that never got to Heaven (originally "the seven that all went to Heaven", probably alluding to Luke 20:27-33)
Eight for the eight that waited (or: stood) at the gate
Nine for the nine all dressed so fine (or: the nine that stood in the line)
Ten for the Ten Commandments
Eleven for the eleven deridersTwelve for the twelve Apostles

I fond recordings of many variations of these lyrics, but that is the beauty of music of the people.

And here is a view of Dick and the guitar and ukulele group on December 1st.

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Christmas Stockings Remembered

Grocery shopping with my sister today I was reminded of the oranges and/or tangerines (the latter preferred as easy to peel) and assorted nuts that were such a treat in our Christmas stockings. She remembered them just as I do. My husband says his family had the same goodies in their stockings.We are remembering from the 1930s into the 1950s. I think my brother's children got them too. I can't imagine children today thinking those were special enough for a Christmas stocking. Looks like times just keep changing.