Henry William Scramlin, Family and Farm

Henry William Scramlin, father of Wealthy Melvina Scramlin and 12 other children. He was my 3rd great-granduncle.

(Permission to use given by Gary Hanna)

Photos of Farmon Scramlin (twin to Harmon) his parents, Henry and Mary Scramlin and the Scramlin farm in Momence, Illinois.

You Plan and Plan, then, Say What? Tombstone Tuesday

For years, at least 10, I've wanted to visit a cemetery in an area of Massachusetts I've never been, and never wanted to see. On a map, it looked like a complicated trip, not particularly long but the unfamiliar roads in a heavily populated city near Boston just scared me. I had to put it off until I felt comfortable to drive and I ran out of taking most of my direct-line ancestor's cemetery photos (I've taken about 150 so far).

The trip was mapped out, and my husband and I headed for Revere, 5 miles from Boston and next to the Atlantic Ocean. From Google maps, I saw the Ye Olde Rumney Marsh Burial Ground, established in 1693, was in the middle of a block of houses, yes, I knew the houses surrounded the cemetery. It wasn't difficult to find this residential area, but I never expected a high stone wall completely surrounding the cemetery with a iron-tight gate, locked at that! Hey, my ancestors (three directs) were in there and there was no way to get in, no phone number, nothing. Should I have knocked on all the house doors, who has the key? We sat there for a bit, I took the two photos below, but what good is that, I can't even read what it says.

Ye Ole Rumney March Burial Ground

 Sarah Doolittle Floyd

My 8th great-grandmother.

Hugh Floyd

My 7th great-grandfather.

Samuel Pratt

My 6th great-grandfather

Fortunately, there were photos on Find-A-Grave and I contacted the two photographers who took pictures before the cemetery was restored several years ago prior to its re-dedication in 2009. Photos were taken by Bill Boyington (top two) and Kevin O. (bottom only), and permission was granted to use on this blog.

Below are tidbits from Wikipedia about Revere, Massachusetts

It is named after the American Revolutionary War patriot Paul Revere.

In 1775, the area played a role in the American Revolution as the site of the first naval battle, at Rumney Marsh, and other locations.

Revere’s first inhabitants were Native Americans who belonged to the Pawtucket tribe and were known as the Rumney Marsh Indians.

Revere Beach is the oldest public beach in the United States. It has a fairly active beach front district.

Wealthy M. Scramlin Hanna -- Wordless Wednesday

Wealthy was my first cousin 4x removed.

Photo and Obituary belong to Gary Hanna, and permission was granted for me to include in this post.

Wealthy M. Hanna

Wealthy M. Hanna, widow of John F. Hanna, formerly of Momence, Ill.,

but who has for the last three years resided with her sons, Herbert and Henry

Hanna, one mile east of Moscow, died early Tuesday morning, Oct., 6th.,

from decease of the heart and old age.

Deceased has been in poor health for about two years, but was not confined

to her bed until recently.

Mrs. Hanna, whose maiden name was Scramlin, was born on Aug. 13,

1833, in Canada. When but four years old she moved with her parents to

Battle Creek, Mich. In 1850 they moved to Kankakee Co., Ill., and settled upon a homestead near which now is the city of Momence.

In 1853 she was united in marriage to John F. Hanna, to which union was born six children Namely: Cother F., Henry S., Arther Eugene, Herbert E., Grant G., and Franklin A. Hanna, of whom but three survive her, Henry, Herbert and Frank Hanna of Moscow.

As a wife, she was ever kind and considerate, and a most devoted mother, always sacrificing for her loved ones.

She was self-denying, kind and patient which qualities attracted many friends, all, who knew her, will remember her bright smiling face.

She passed away with the light of love shining on her face, which showed she was at rest with God, her Maker.

The funeral services were held at the home of her son, Herbert E. Hanna one mile east of Moscow on Thursday Oct., 8th, at 10 o'clock and were conducted by the Rev. Koontz of the Methodist church. The remains were laid to rest in the Moscow cemetery.

Finding the Will for Will Was Great, But Frozen to Death, Not So!

Two wonderful pieces of information provided the documentation I needed to tie-up my research for William "Will" Scramlin, my 2nd cousin 3x removed. Both of these resources were free.

I last found him in the 1900 census in Harmon, Roberts, South Dakota, then the trail ran cold. That was until I searched for Will Scramlin in FamilySearch.org. Their were seven hits for William Scramlin, so it didn't take long to go through the file, but one, the Saskatchewan, Probate Estate Files, 1887-1931 Weyburn 1918 had 32 pages of legal documents, including the will and probate records for him! Apparently, he and his family were living in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was pure luck that these documents were scanned and put online, I would never have found them, and why would I ever think Saskatchewan.

A few days later, while still researching him, more information came to light, when I used Google News and found the newspaper, The MorningLeader - Jan 28, 1918.  The headline was HALBRITE MAN FOUND FROZEN AT MANKATO, MINN. (See below the will.)

I, Will Scramlin, of the Village of Halbrite, in the

Province of Saskatchewan “Real Estate Agent”, being of

Sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby revoke

All former Wills or testamentary dispositions by me at

Any time heretofore made; and do make, publish and de-

clare this as my last Will and Testament.

1^st. I hereby nominate and appoint my wife, Kate

Scramlin, the Executrix of this my last will.

2^nd. I direct that all my just debts, funeral and

Testamentary expenses be paid.

3^rd. I give, devise and bequeath all my real and per-

Sonal estate which I may now or hereafter be possessed

Of or interested in to my wife, Kate Scramlin, absolutely.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, this

12^th day of November in the year of our Lord, One thousand

Nine hundred and fourteen.

SIGNED by the Testator, as and for

His Last Will and Testament, in the

Presence of us, both present at the        Will Scramlin

Same time, who, at his request and

In his presence, have hereunto sub-

scribed our names as witnesses.

T. A. Oakley

of Halbrite, Sask.

J. A. Kjeldson

of Halbrite, Sask.

____________________________
HALBRITE MAN

FOUND FROZEN AT

MANKATO, MINN.

Was Well Known in Weyburn

District and Good

Colonizer

MANKATO, Minn. Jan. 26.—The

Body of William Scramlin, said to be

a wealthy land man of Weyburn, Sask.,

was found frozen stiff near the city

hall today. His skull was fractured

and his face smeared with blood

Whether he was struck by some one

or fell against the  building on the icy

Sidewalk the police have been unable

To determine.

Scramlin and his wife came here

Thursday night to visit relatives and

bid farewell to their son who enlisted

In the aviation service. Scramlin was

Fifty years old. A wife and four chil-

dren survive.

The Morning Leader - Jan 28, 1918 (page 10)

Do You Know?

How long does it take FindAGrave to add a million grave records into their site?

By my calculation it is now taking just a little over 3 weeks. I base this on my visual viewing of their site, since I am on it almost every day. The weeks between December 7 and January 1 took a little bit longer to reach the million mark, due to holiday activities. I say by August 15th they will hit the 100,000,000 mark. What do you think?

In November, I wrote, Have You Looked Lately? a short piece about FindAGrave. For each new figure, I updated my blog to reflect the stats.

** While I was working with FindAGrave today, December 7, 2012, the total went to 91 million  grave records.

** The total is now 92 million grave records as of January 1, 2013!

** The total is now 93 million grave records as of January 22, 2013!

** The total is now 94 million grave records as of February 13, 2013!

** The total is now 95 million grave records as of March 4, 2013!

** The total is now 96 million grave records as of March 24, 2013!

Probate of Amos H. Adams of Batavia, Genesee Co., NY

Amos H. Adams           Testator

State of New York,

Genesee County Surrogate’s Court,

To the Surrogate’s Court of the County of Genesee :

The petition of Charles R. Gould of the town of Batavia in the said County Genesee respectfully represents: That Amos H. Adams late of the town of Batavia in the said County, departed this life in Batavia, N.Y. on the 22^nd day of August, 1907, at the age of 84 years, having previously, as the petitioner is informed and believed duly made, executed and published his LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT bearing date the 29^th day of June 1901, which is now produced : That the petitioner Charles R. Gould is named in said Will as executor.

That the said deceased was at the time of making and publishing said LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of sufficient age to enable him to make such will and at his decease, an inhabitant of the County of Genesee.

That said LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT relates to real and personal estate, and the deceased died possessed of real and personal estate in the said County of Genesee.

The petitioner further shows that according to the best of his knowledge and judgment, the estate and effects for and in respect to which probate is herein applied for, will not exceed the value of ninety eight hundred Dollars. And the personal property of testator will not exceed the value of fifty eight hundred Dollars.

The petitioner further shows that the names of the heirs and next of kin of the said deceased, and their respective places of residence so far as your petitioner upon diligent inquiry he has been able to ascertain the same, are as follows, viz :

Name.	Relationship.	Age, if under 21.	Residence.
Emily A. Radican	Sister		Niles, Mich.
Horace J. Adams	½ Brother		Niles, Mich.
George Adams	½ Brother		Niles, Mich.
J. Q. Adams	½ Brother		Niles, Mich.
Mary Blair	½ Sister		Wyoming, Mich.
Ada DeWolf Sherwin daughter of a deceased Sister Betsey Adams DeWolf                                     Batavia, NY
Charles DeWolf son of said deceased Sister                 Batavia, NY
Frank DeWolf son of said deceased Sister                   Stafford, NY
Oliver J. Hopkins son of a deceased sister
Nancy Adams Hopkins			Kent, Kent Co., Mich
Harriet M. J. Bann, daughter of said deceased                                                              256 First St., Detroit, Mich.
Sister Fanny

Your petitioner therefore prays that said will may be proved, and that a citation be issued out of and under the seal of this Court, to be directed to the proper persons, pursuant to The Statute in such case made and provided, requiring them and each of them, at such time and Place as shall be in the said citation mentioned, to appear and attend the probate of the said Last Will and Testament, and that such further or other proceedings in the premises shall be duly had as may be requisite to be the proving and recording of the said Last Will and Testament and the granting probate and Letters Testamentary thereof. And your petitioner will ever pray.

Dated this 3^rd day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven

                                                                                    Charles R. Gould

The probate Proof of Service was filed at the Genesee County Surrogates Office on September 13, 1909, was obtained by my 5th cousin Claire who lives near Niagara Falls, NY. There were 8 legal documents in the packet, no copy of the original will found. Photo of cemetery stone also taken by cousin Claire.
---------
Amos was my first cousin 4x removed.

Additional names mentioned in the documents: Ella Sherwin, Mrs. Albert Francher and Fanchier, Lorena Cooper, Arden Smith, Nellie and Marie Fox, Lulu Fox, Hobert B. Cone, Franklin I. Judd, First Baptist Church of Batavia, N.Y., Elmwood Cemetery Association, and the Baptist Educational Society of the State of New York.

Momence, Kankakee Co., Illinois -- Those Places Thursday

Momence, Illinois

Photos used with permission, thanks to Gary Hanna, my recently discovered 5th cousin. He and I share the Scramlin / Scrambling line and he is currently working on the Hanna line. If anybody has Hanna in their tree from Illinois, please let me know.

Newspapers

I am just learning about the wealth of genealogical information newspapers can provide. An ancestry subscription will often have articles with your ancestor's name, and I've always known about the Library of Congress (LOC.gov). However, recently there are two more sites to fill my newspaper hunger. They are:

1.  NewspaperArchive at  http://newspaperarchive.com/  Just yesterday I subscribed to the 3 month special for $19.95.

2. Google newspapers at  http://news.google.com/newspapers#V was written about today by Brenda Silvey on facebook. She posted the information on the facebook site, Technology for Genealogists, started by Susan Petersen. There are a combination of both free and fee papers. The nice thing with this site is, you can put in the surname, and most likely, you'll get a lot of hits. Since I'm currently working on the SCRAMLIN line, the first hit was about the man I'm currently working on, and I found out he froze to death. After finding that, I went through about 50 other articles.

Below, keeping with the Scramlin surname, here are two articles about distant relatives who did some murdering during their lifetime.

William Scramlin killed his wife, Helen Annette Teach on Aug. 2, 1967.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VMAiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VLYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1527,2640093&dq=scramlin&hl=en   

and

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=t0tSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yHsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5728,6747810&dq=scramlin&hl=en

James Earl Scramlin beat Albert Willard to death in 1977
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vURYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cz4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4310,576481&dq=scramlin&hl=en

ADDITIONAL NEWSPAPER SOURCES FROM READERS

Albert Riezebos shared the sites below:Yesterday 9:03 PM

Early Manitoba newspapers.
http://manitobia.ca/content/en/newspapers

Henderson Directories and newspapers mostly for Manitoba,Sask. and Alberta.
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/henderson.html

From csccat, she shared:
Old Fulton NY Postcards, aka: Old Fulton Newspapers or Fulton History

You've All Heard of My New Cousin

Two years ago I visited the house of one of my distant cousins, she was my Sixth cousin, 5x removed. At that time, I didn't know there was a connection to me. As a matter of fact, I found out from a facebook friend, Janeen, who asked if she could use my cemetery photo because she was related. Janeen and I share so many ancestors, I would guess 15 maybe more and all from Connecticut. Thanks to Janeen, I saw I also share an ancestor of Harriet Beecher Stowe (see HERE). No wonder I was so excited to visit her house in Hartford, CT, see another one in Brunswick, ME and visit the cemetery where she and her husband were buried in MA.

Hartford, Connecticut house where she lived.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

While on a tour of the house, I asked where she was buried. Was quite surprised to learn that she was buried just a few towns away from me. The following day, we went to the cemetery, then two days later, while on a trip to Maine, my husband remembered where she lived in Brunswick, Maine, so of course we went there. That house looks unoccupied, and in dire need of repairs.

I was there the day of the 200th Birthday Celebration for Harriet Beecher Stowe. Horse rides, music and entertainment as well as free cake were available to all.

Brunswick, Maine house where she lived.

Phillips Academy Cemetery

Andover, Massachusetts

FindAGrave site

1811  HARRIET BEECHER STOWE  1896

Reprinted from my post of June 22, 2011

Generation No. 1 for John Meigs and Thomasin Fry ancestors of Harriet Beecher Stowe and me

---

1.	JOHN MEIGS (VINCENT MEIGS1) was born 29 FEB 1612 in Bradford, Devon, England, and died 4 JAN 1672 in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut. He married THOMASIN FRY 1632 in Weymouth, England / Guilford, Connecticut, daughter of WILLIAM FRY and SARAH HILL. She was born 29 FEB 1612 in Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England, and died 4 JAN 1671 in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut.
	Children of JOHN MEIGS and THOMASIN FRY were:   2   i. Elizabeth MEIGS was born BET 1631 AND 1635 in Guilford, New Haven Co., Connecticut, and died 1664. She married Richard HUBBEL 1652 in New Haven / Guilford / Fairfield / Stratford. + 3   ii. Mary MEIGS was born 1633 in Weymouth, England, and died 30 APR 1703 in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut. + 4   iii. CONCURRENCE MEIGS was born BET 1637 AND 1643 in Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England or Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut, and died 9 OCT 1708 in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut. + 5   iv. John MEIGS was born 28 FEB 1641 in Weymouth, England, and died 9 NOV 1713 in Guilford, New Haven Co., Connecticut.   6   v. Tryal MEIGS was born ABT 1646 in New Haven, New Haven Co., Connecticut, and died 1689 in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., Connecticut. She married Andrew WARD ABT 1668 in Guilford / Killingworth, Connecticut. He was born ABT 1643, and died 1690.

New England Church #1

 First Congregational Society Unitarian, Chelmsford, Massachusetts

 1655 Cemetery behind the Church.