Cousin Bait. It's How I Roll.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives
Photographer: Flip Schulke 1930-2008

I received a most interesting email about a week and a half ago from a maternal cousin, Chip.  He said that he stumbled upon my website or my blog (I can't remember which ... mainly because I was so excited that someone was actually reading it!).  Sorry, I digress.  Anyway, he saw my post about my great grandfather (his grandfather) Harold John Crowe, Sr.  He sent me an email and says that he, too, has done some genealogy research.  I almost fainted.  Seriously.

Fast forward 6 days and several emails.  We talked on the phone for over 2 hours and Chip shared some wonderful stories that he had heard from his dad (my grandmother's brother) about the family, growing up, being in World War II, and other little tidbits (the stuff you don't find in the archives and libraries).  It literally took a thunderstorm knocking the power out to get us off the phone.  I'd say I hooked a big 'un!

I am now working on getting all my information up on WikiTree so we can collaborate with 2 other cousins.

There's a bit of a learning curve for me with all the HTML and whatnot, but my first attempt at an ancestor profile can be found here.  Okay, apparently the learning curve is a little bigger than I thought.  I made his profile public, but the actual public view is not what I saw when I edited it.  In any case, There are some photos and a biography and sources and everything.  It's pretty cool.  I hope it shows up eventually.

Here's a screen shot:

That took me about 1-1/2 hours to create.  Mainly because I had no clue what I was doing, and a lot of it was trial and error.  To me, the coolest (and most difficult) thing was adding the sources so they would show up as footnotes.  After I got the hang of it, I figured out the easiest thing is to edit everything in a Word document, add the HTML, then copy and paste it onto the profile.

I learned a couple of very important lessons from this.  (1) People are reading your blogs - even when you think they aren't.  You never know when a cousin will stumble upon what you've posted and make contact with you; and (2) I need to learn HTML.

Who knows?  Maybe I'll do something super fancy with it when I figure out what I'm doing.

Genealogy Success Team - Week One

Back in April, Laura of It's All Relative posted about a Genealogy Success Team to help give her research a boost.  As it turns out, my research (or lack thereof) also needed a swift kick in the pants - from a focus standpoint more than anything else - so I responded to her blog post.  A couple of other people did too, but they fell through, so we had to proceed with a team of two.  We had our first "meeting" by phone this morning at 7:30 EST (that's how hardcore we are!).  We discovered that we have quite a bit in common.


First, we share a brain on the purpose of our research.  We both believe that it's the stories of our entire family (not just the direct lines) that help us understand who we are, more than names, dates, and places.  We both have some very interesting ancestors.  Don't be jealous - I'm sure there are some pretty cool people in your tree too :)


Second, we both have the same problem with the Genea-Crap (if you are unfamiliar, see Kerry's blog post at Clue Wagon).


Third, we're both cat lovers.  I think that's important.  If for no other reason than an empathetic standpoint concerning researchus interruptus (that's Latin for "the cat is on my keyboard").


The purpose of the Team is to come up with goals that are reachable within the week (baby steps), and share them with each other so we are accountable to someone.  Without that accountability, I will never stay on track.  Next week, we will share our progress, brainstorm any problem areas, and make new goals for the following week.  I wrote down my goals and Laura's goals on my notepad.  That's when I realized that if I put one more piece of paper on my desk, it might collapse.  So I wrote them down on the whiteboard next to my desk:

Now it's a constant reminder.

I learned from Laura that the key is to make small, attainable goals - and then actually work toward them!    

My goals for this week are:


1. Set a schedule for blogging, researching, and transferring data from FTM to RM4.  With a full-time job and other stuff (life, etc.), without a schedule I'm doomed.
2. Organize the pile o' Genea-Crap on my desk (remember the whole collapsing thing? This is why):

Fortunately, I had managed to get all of it in one consolidated pile already.


3. Blog at least once this week - so here it is (I'm no Charlie Sheen, but I'd say that's winning!).  Check.
4. Call the Family History Library that is 10 minutes from my house and find out when they're open.


Ultimately, we are going to make so much progress that everyone else in the genea-community will be totally jealous and wish they had gotten in on the ground floor of this venture.


So I'm gonna go get started!

Harold John Crowe - Indiana - 1899-1971

Harold John Crowe is my great grandfather. You may remember him from my blog posts a couple of weeks ago in which I thought he and his family had been abducted by aliens, only to find out he was just a victim of bad penmanship.

I can't remember ever meeting him, since I was only about 3 years old when he died, but doing this research has really helped me learn a little bit about who he was, and it makes me kinda proud.

"Pop" Crowe (this is what everyone in the family called him) was born on 15 Sep 1899 in Cannelton, Perry County, Indiana, to Charles C. and Ida Mae (Gray) Crow. His family bounced around in rented homes to Perry County (1900 Census), Spencer County (1910 Census), and Posey County (1920 Census).

On 31 Dec 1917, he traveled roughly 50 miles to Princeton (Gibson County), Indiana, and enlisted in the Army National Guard and presumably served in France during World War I. I don't know yet when he was discharged, but he is listed with his family on the 1920 Census at 502 Third Street, Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

He finally put down some roots in Indianapolis (Marion County) in September 1920, when he married Lucile Francis Stiker (1900-1969), daughter of Eugene F. and Jeannette C. (Heerdink) Stiker. They lived at 1637 Raymond Street in Indianapolis on the 1930 Census. Unfortunately, the house has since been demolished, as it appears as a grassy lot on GoogleMaps. They had four children between November 1921 and December 1926, the third being my grandmother.

In 1936, Pop Crowe filled out his SS-5 to receive his social security number. I finally received a copy of it in the mail the other day. At that time, he was living at 2435 S. State Street, Indianapolis. He was working for Continental Baking Company (Wonder Bread Bakery) at 339 E. Market Street, Indianapolis. Apparently, the bakery building has since made way for a parking lot. I sent an inquiry to the company (now Interstate Brands) to see if they might have an old photo of the bakery.

In 1939, he went to work for General Motors in the Allison Division as an engine inspector and retired from there 25 years later in 1964. He passed away on 19 Sep 1971, at the age of 72, from respiratory and cardiac arrest resulting from a cerebral vascular accident (stroke). He also was diabetic. At the time of his death, he lived at 35 W. Pleasant Run Parkway South, Indianapolis. His son, Harold Jr. ("Bud") was the informant on his death certificate, as "Mom" Crowe had predeceased him in 1969. I received the funeral records from G. H. Hermann Funeral Home in Indianapolis showing that Pop Crowe is buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Obviously, this is not his entire story, and I have many holes to fill. At least I have a solid framework to fill in at this point. I plan to get my mom and her siblings to provide some stories of Mom and Pop Crowe (so if they are reading this - get busy!).

Part of my attempt to fill in some gaps in the history is to locate the Indiana state census records, along with obituaries for both Pop and Mom Crowe. I am also trying to obtain his military service record, but it looks like I may have to get my grandmother to request it, since I'm not considered "immediate family." I am also going to see if Wonder Bread still has employee records from 1936. I'm curious to find out what position he held there. I should probably get some church records (if any exist) and check for probate records too. If anyone has any other ideas, I look forward to hearing them.

I Found My Great Grandfather ... Sorry Aliens!

I have been obsessing about my great grandfather, Harold John Crow(e), for the past couple of weeks.  As I mentioned in my post here, I totally blamed Aliens for abducting the entire family.   Sorry about that, Aliens.  You guys get blamed for a lot of stuff, but not this time.


I was seriously ready to pull out my hair, but then I stepped back for a second and thought about it.  I was writing down the name "Crow" and I wasn't being especially careful.  Then I looked at it.  It was hard to read my own handwriting, especially with letters that could so easily be mistaken for other letters ("r" for "n" and "w" for "m", etc.).  Then I had one of those A-HA! moments.


I decided to systematically go through the 1920 census images by hand.  I know - almost enough to make your eyes bleed.  I started with where I knew he was in 1910 (Spencer County, Indiana) and where I knew he was in 1930 (Posey County, Indiana).  I also knew that he had been married in 1920 in Posey County, Indiana.  That's where I started my search (thank goodness!)


I pulled up Posey County records and started with Black Township.  I searched every line on every page for Districts 47, 48, and 49.  No dice.


I went back and chose Mt. Vernon City, Ward 1.  I got to page 15 and found something that looked like "Crow" but I couldn't be sure.  The first names looked like Amos and Luana.  No way I could make that look like Charles and Ida (I tried, believe me).  I kept looking ... there were 13 more pages.  Then lo and behold, on page 26, there he was.  I had to know why I wasn't able to find him.  It clearly said "Crow" when I read it.  It had been indexed as "Cron."  After looking at it, I could see how it might have been misread:

... and there is Harold on line 48 at age 20 and still single (don't worry, he'll be married before the year is out).  It shows him as a soldier in the U.S. Army.  Yep, that's my man.


I literally found this information 15 minutes ago and had to share it immediately.  My first brick wall success!  Woo hoo!  I can't wait to share my good news with everyone in SecondLife tonight!