Heartland Genealogy

A Crandall Public School Souvenir Did your grandparents save mementos from their childhood? Perhaps an old report card, a class photograph, or a school program? My maternal grandmother, Pauline Mentzer, saved a small souvenir booklet from Crandall Public School in Coffey County, Kansas. Although the booklet is undated, it provides a glimpse into her childhood and the school she attended with her siblings. Dating the Souvenir Booklet Unfortunately, the booklet does not include a date. However, the teacher's name, the ages of the Mentzer children, and the family's movements suggest that it was likely created sometime between 1912 and 1915. In 1910, the Charles Mentzer family was living in Liberty Township, Coffey County, Kansas. According to the Burlington Independent of Burlington, Kansas, Charles Mentzer rented the H. Harreld farm near Crandall in January 1912. By 1915, the family was still living in the Crandall area, where the Kansas state census recorded them in Neosho Towns...

Turning an Ancestor’s Story into Song Have you ever thought about turning an ancestor's life story into a song? I've been experimenting with using artificial intelligence to tell family stories in different ways. My latest experiment took the story of my relative, James Marshall Ricketts, from a collection of genealogical records to a song—and eventually to a YouTube video! It Started with a Biography My first step was to provide ChatGPT with a RootsMagic narrative report for James Marshall Ricketts and ask it to write a biography. James was born on November 28, 1847, in Clinton County, Indiana. As a teenager, he enlisted in Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War. After his discharge in 1865, he returned to Indiana and married Rachel Elmeda Christy on July 12, 1866. James and Rachel began raising their family in Indiana before moving to Woodson County, Kansas, where James purchased land in 1879. He spent much of the remainder of his life farming in Kansas. Ja...

Do you have old newspaper photocopies tucked away in your genealogy files? As I continue looking through my Crawford-Kansas files, I am finding newspaper clippings and photocopies collected years ago—records that deserve another look and, more importantly, a place in my digital research. Today's Friday Find is the obituary of Nelson Garfield Crawford , brother of my great-grandfather Judson Foster Crawford . Nelson was a son of Washington Marion Crawford and Mary Foster . Like Judson, he grew up in the Dodge City, Kansas, area after the Crawford family moved west. His obituary provides more than the basic facts of his death. It gives us a glimpse into a long career with the Dodge City post office, his involvement in the Methodist Church and Masonic organizations, and his place in the community. One detail that particularly caught my attention was his 47 years of service with the post office . According to the obituary, Nelson served as Dodge City postmaster from March 1928 until A...

Do you struggle with figuring out who’s who in records created before the 1850 census began naming everyone in a household? I certainly do—especially when researching the CRAWFORD surname in Kentucky. While using FamilySearch Full Text Search for records involving William Crawford in Madison County, Kentucky , I uncovered a 1792 court document that caught my attention. Among several men summoned to testify was: William Crawford, Junr. That little word “Junr” immediately raised a much bigger question. Which William Crawford Was He? Was this William Crawford Jr. the son of the William Crawford who later migrated to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri ? Or was he simply a younger William Crawford living in the same area who was unrelated—or perhaps only distantly related—to the older William? The designation Junior is an important clue, but it does not by itself establish a father-son relationship. Historically, Senior and Junior could be used simply to distinguish two men of the same name livi...

 Other genealogists have been asking ChatGPT what AI knows about them, so I asked. If you asked me, “What does AI know about me?” , based on our conversations, I could actually give a fairly detailed answer—not because I have searched the internet for you, but because of what you have shared while we have worked together. Here is how I would describe you: What I know about you You are Marcia Philbrick , a retired educator, librarian, and technology coordinator in northeast Kansas. Technology has been part of your professional life for decades, so your interest in AI is really a continuation of something you've been doing for a long time: figuring out how new technology can be put to practical use. Genealogy is one of your major interests. You maintain Heartland Genealogy , where you write about your research, discoveries, records, DNA evidence, research problems, and the process of doing genealogy. You don't just want names and dates—you are interested in reconstructing people...

  From Indiana Farm Boy to Kansas Pioneer James Marshall Ricketts lived through a remarkable period of American history. Born in Indiana in 1847, he grew up on the eve of the Civil War, enlisted in the Union cavalry while still a teenager, married shortly after returning home, and eventually moved his growing family west to Kansas. There he spent much of the remainder of his life farming in Woodson County. Over the course of his seventy-three years, James experienced the Civil War, westward migration, the development of rural Kansas, and enormous changes in transportation, agriculture, and everyday life. Yet the surviving records also tell a much more personal story—of family, land, military service, visits from relatives, and more than fifty years of marriage. Birth and Parents James Marshall Ricketts was born on 28 November 1847 in Clinton County, Indiana .[3–14] The census records place him in the household of John Ricketts during his childhood. In 1850, three-year-old James wa...

Pauline Mentzer’s Delayed Birth Certificate Have you ever found a birth certificate that was created decades after the birth it records? Among the records in my genealogy files is a delayed birth certificate for my grandmother, Pauline Edith Mentzer Briles . Pauline was born March 25, 1896, in Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas, the daughter of Charles Oliver Mentzer and Nettie Adell Wells. Since Pauline was born before Kansas began statewide registration of births, there was no state birth certificate created for her in 1896. More than sixty years later, in January 1958, Pauline applied for a delayed certificate of birth. What makes this record particularly interesting is that it not only documents Pauline's birth but also identifies the evidence used to prove it. Delayed Certificate of Birth The upper portion of the certificate provides the following information: Full name at birth: Pauline Edith Mentzer Date of birth: March 25, 1896 Birthplace: Yates Center, Woodson County,...

Serendipity! It’s Saturday Night — time for some Genealogy Fun! This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge asks: Serendipity! What happened when you went looking for an ancestor or a genealogical record and were pleasantly surprised to find someone else or something else you didn't expect while you were doing that search? At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to answer this week's question. Then I realized that one of my recent research adventures was a perfect example of genealogical serendipity. Looking for Richard Foster's Land My search began with Richard Foster . I wasn't looking for a new family connection or trying to solve a DNA mystery. I was simply trying to figure out where Richard owned land in Warren County. Using information from a land abstract along with a map showing the area's early landowners, I was studying Richard's property and the people who owned land nearby. That's when one name caught my attention: John E. Stufflebeam...

  Have you ever tried telling an ancestor's story through music? After researching the Civil War military and pension records of James Marshall Ricketts , I decided his story would lend itself particularly well to a song. James served in Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry , enlisting in August 1863. His military record says he was 18 years old. However, census records and his later pension records consistently point to a birth in 1847 or 1848. That means James was probably only 15 years old when he enlisted . A Fifteen-Year-Old Cavalryman James's young age was only part of his Civil War story. Within months of enlisting, James later said, his horse fell on him near Germantown, Tennessee, crushing and bruising his right leg. His pension records state that he was sent to Overton General Hospital in Memphis . His military records help corroborate that part of the story. Muster rolls record him as sick in a Memphis hospital, while hospital muster rolls actually place him at Overt...

Remembering 9/11 Do you rmember the Alan Jackson song, Where Were You (When the World Stoped Turning) ? When that song began playing on the radio in the months following September 11, 2001, its question resonated with millions of Americans. We knew where we had been when we first heard the news. Like so many events throughout American history, 9/11 can be remembered through stories—the stories of the families who lost loved ones, the first responders who rushed toward danger, the survivors who escaped, and ordinary Americans far from New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania who watched the events unfold. Even those of us in Kansas have our stories. In 2001, I was the librarian and technology coordinator at Nemaha Valley High School. During first period that Tuesday morning, I had gone to the school office for some now-forgotten reason. While I was there, one of the secretaries mentioned hearing something on the radio about an attack in New York City. I returned to the library and moved a...

Following the Crawfords from Kentucky to Ohio One of my longstanding genealogy questions concerns my ancestor James Crawford , born 17 April 1772 in Virginia. He married the widow Sarah "Sally" Smith Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky, in 1799 and later settled in Preble County, Ohio. Who were his parents? I still don't know. However, marriage records, land records, tax lists, migration patterns, associates, and Y-DNA are beginning to reveal a network of Crawford and Sellers families that may eventually help answer that question. Instead of looking at my James Crawford in isolation, I'm now asking a broader question: How was my James Crawford related to the other Crawford families living in the same part of Kentucky? The Crawford-Sellers Connection One of the first clues comes from marriage records. In 1791, James Sellers married Mary Crawford in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Rebekah Crawford gave permission for Mary to marry. Five years later, in 1796, William Sellers...

Have you ever encountered someone with the surname you are researching living in the same place—and immediately wondered whether the two families were related? That is exactly what happened when I recently found an 1836 Jefferson County, Indiana, court case involving the dower rights of Jane Crawford, widow of Thomas Crawford. Since I have spent years researching James Crawford (b. 1758), his wife Rebecca Anderson, and their descendants in Jefferson County, my first thought was obvious: Could Thomas Crawford be related to James Crawford? Following Thomas Back to Virginia The court case referred to the "heirs of Thomas D. Crawford," so I began searching my records for Thomas. When I did not find him among the Crawford families I had already researched, I started digging into Thomas Crawford and his wife, Jane Todd. That search led me back to their 1794 marriage in Rockbridge County, Virginia. I then located the will of Thomas's father, James Crawford, in Rockbridge County....