Wordless Wednesday

No words to describe this other than the couple on the back row left are my grandparents Harry and Floy Brandes. This is 1920's.

Everybody Has at Least One Black Sheep Ancestor

Years of research never produced any black sheep ancestors until one day about 8 years ago I discovered the Shelby County (Illinois) Circuit Court Case Files online. I can’t say I ever wished for black sheep but when they showed up I learned that what they say about the past is true. We are doomed to repeat it.

Between 1855 and 1870 the Lamb family members that lived in northern Shelby and southern Macon County Illinois created 14 Circuit Court case files in Shelby County alone. The list of indictments included "tippling house", "gaming house", "trespass", "burglary", "debt", "riot", "resisting an officer", and "assault with intent to murder", and best of all, "fornication" in 1868.

With visions of my ancestors and their neighbors dancing in the streets drunk, gambling away the family funds, and causing great havoc in the towns and country as well as participating in other sordid acts, flashing through my head, I ordered copies of the files. Although the visions didn't go away I did feel a bit better when I received the first copies and found that Sarah Lamb and Frank Ousley were actually accused of "Living in Open State of Fornication" which simply meant they were living together but not married to each other. At least they weren’t doing that in the streets. In this one case I hadn’t repeated the past.

However, they didn’t do all of that alone. Various others related and not related to the Lambs were also named in the indictments. But that’s another story.

The following are transcriptions of two of the six documents contained in the file labeled The People vs John P Lamb & others; Grand Jury, Illinois State Regional Archives Depository, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL. Box 40, Folder 141.

The People vs John P. Lamb and others

Grand Jury

State of Illinois

Shelby County

To any Citizen of said County, Greetings

Whereas oath has been made before William H. Snell Esquire a Justice of the Peace in and for said county by William Portwood that one William O D Lamb and John P Lamb did on the twenty fourth day of November A D 1863 at Moawequa in said County in and __ the said William Portwood unlawfully willfully feloniously and against the Peace of the People make an assault and did assault with a deadly weapon to wit a knife and also a stick commonly called a club to wit a hickory cane with intent him the said William Portwood feloniously willfully and of malice aforethought to kill and murder and that he has reason to believe that Elias Denton Henry Biram Henry Armstrong William Dobson John Saush Levi Carey are Material Witnesses to prove by whom the said assault with intent to kill was committed. These are therefore in the Name of the People of the State of Illinois to require you to cause the said Elias Denton Henry Biram Henry Armstrong William Dobson Levi Carey James Baker forthwith to come before the said Justice to give such information and evidence as they or either of them know concerning this.

State of Illinois Shelby County Nov 25^th 1863

Justices Court

The People of the State of Illinois

Vs

William O D Lamb

John P. Lamb

Justices cost 100

Court cost 200

William H Snell J P

Warrant issued Returned Nov 25^th 1863

Serviced the within by arresting the within named defendants and they are now in custody Nov 25 1863

W _ Clark const

Defendants foresant

John P Lamb upon conplesion of the charges set fourth in the complaint were bound ove to the next term of the circuit court in abont of two hundred dollars

Wm O D Lamb aquited

William H Snell J P

John P. Lamb appeared on the 4^th day of February 1864 and paid two hundred dollars recognizance and promised to appear at the next term of the circuit court to answer the indictment for assault. There are no papers in the file that say whether or not he appeared and what the result was.

John P. Lamb was the oldest son of William O. D. Lamb. William O. D. Lamb died at the age of 52, the father of 19 children with two wives. My July 29, 2009 posting Wordless Wednesday includes a scan of the tintype of W.O.D. Lamb. He holds in his hand…a cane. Maybe a hickory cane?

(also see This is Lydia and She Is Dead July 29, 2009. Lydia is W.O.D. Lamb’s mother).

©Sue Tolbert 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun-My Genealogy Threes

It is Saturday night and Randy Sever has posted his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun as follows:

Over on Facebook, some people have been posting their "3s of Me" with information about themselves providing three responses in different categories like "Three names I go by," "Three jobs I've had," "Three favorite drinks," etc. You get the idea.

So here is your assignment, if you decide to accept it (this is not Mission Impossible, of course):

Tell us your three responses to the questions:

* Three genealogical libraries I frequent
* Three places I've visited on genealogy trips
* Three genealogy societies I belong to (or want to)
* Three websites that help my research
* Three ancestral graves that I've visited
* Three ancestral places I want to visit
* Three brickwall ancestors I want to research more

* Three genealogical libraries I frequent

Muskogee Public Library, Tulsa Genealogy Center, Oklahoma History Center Research Library

* Three places I've visited on genealogy trips

Southern Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri, Southern Arkansas

* Three genealogy societies I belong to (or want to)

Muskogee County Genealogical Society, Shelby County Genealogical & Historical Society, National Genealogical Society.

* Three websites that help my research

UsGenWeb.org county sites, Accesgenealogy.com, footnote.com

* Three ancestral graves that I've visited

Elisha Reynolds Sain, Nashville, AR; John C. Moore, Neodesha, KS; W.O.D. Lamb, Shelbyville, IL

* Three ancestral places I want to visit

Hagerstown, Washington Co. MD; (Conrad & Young families) Berlin, Somerset Co. PA (Conrad); Harrodsburg, Mercer Co. KY (Moore)

* Three brickwall ancestors I want to research more

James A. Longwell, Thomas Snelson, Eustasius Jung

Wordless Wednesday

I can't post a picture and say absolutely nothing. Here is a scan from a tintype of my 3 great grandfather William Odle Dobson Lamb born 23 March 1819 in Kentucky, died 8 September 1872 in Shelbyville, Shelby Co. Illinois. He usually used his initials W. O. D. Lamb so my cousin and I affectionately called him 'Wod' as we collaborated on research for the Lamb family.

Some of my Lamb ancestors were 'black sheep' (pun intended) and tomorrow I'll post a transcription of one of the court documents that proves it!

Tombstone Tuesday

Discovery of this Civil War pass took me on a research journey that lasted more than 10 years but led to the story of this ancestor and the discovery of his tombstone.

George J. Conrad born 27 July 1813 Hagerstown, Washington Co. Maryland, died 22 December 1882, Tower Hill, Shelby Co. Illinois.

Family Gravestone Friday

Sad isn't it? I took this picture several years ago, probably about 2002 when Rick and I took a trip to Missouri to look at family graves near Springfield. This one is in Rose Hill Cemetery just outside of Billings, Missouri.

The only reason that I am sure whose graves this marks is that I have an earlier survey of the cemetery and also that my great grandparents are buried beside them.

The only readable marking is the name "Lange" on the base because the marker is limestone and years of water being absorbed and freezing has caused the striations that obliterate the inscriptions.

Carl Lange (13 Mar. 1845- 7 Nov. 1911) and his wife Louisa Wagehoft (8 Sept. 1849-15 May 1936) were married 19 Aug. 1870 in Hillsboro, Montgomery County, Illinois. Both were born in Germany. They had 12 children, the oldest of which was my great grandmother Caroline Wilhelmine (Minnie) Lange Brandes who was buried next to them in 1915. Her husband Chris F. Brandes was buried next to Minnie in 1953.

Oh! Baby

This entry is for the 7th Edition of Smile for the Camera. As the title suggests the subject is babies. Always a good subject as I don't think I'll ever run out of baby pictures. This time I've chosen not just one but a series of pictures. I thought it would be fun to see baby pictures but also pictures of the same subjects as they get older.

The first picture is William Trever Longwell, known as Trever who was my grandmother's brother. He was born 12 March 1894 in Tower Hill, Illinois and died in Frederick, Oklahoma 1947. He was the son of Edwin Plummer Longwell and Ida Edana Conrad. Trever was a dentist in Frederick, Oklahoma and for many years the Secretary of the State Dental Association. He was a wonderful musician, as well as a sought after vocalist. He married Winifred Newlin in 1918 and together they had two daughters.


The next three pictures are Trever and his sister Floy, my grandmother. Her name was really Hester Floy but she always went by Floy. I didn't know Hester was her name until I was grown. I guess she didn't like it much. Floy was born 14 October 1896 in Tower Hill, Illinois. She married my grandfather Harry Brandes in 1920. Floy was the mother of my Dad Kenneth and his sister Beverly Jo.



Here they are a bit older.



The Edwin Plummer Longwell family moved from Tower Hill, Illinois to Frederick, Tillman County November 8, 1908 where Plummer worked as a barber.