I recently stumbled across an interesting fact about Moses Clapp. In addition to being a tireless advocate for the rights of women, black people, and American Indians, he also supported deaf people. In A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America, author John Van Cleve explains that “Minnesota Senator Moses E. Clapp proposed as well that the federal government create a ‘bureau for the deaf and dumb’ in the United States Department of Labor.

I recently came across this little folding Missouri Road Map. Inside someone has written “1929-1930″, and since it has Highway 40 on it (which was built in the ’20s), there’s a good chance that the date is correct. Cover of the 1929 Map of Missouri

William Wyatt Whitlow died on February 11, 1909 of blood poisoning. The text of his obituary reads “W. W. Whitlow, of Harvel, who was taken to the hospital in Litchfield some time ago, suffering with blood poisoning, died there last Thursday. He was about 70 years of age and is well known here.” 1909 obituary of William Wyatt Whitlow

I was just going through some photos and I came across this panoramic shot of Stamps Cemetery in Butler County, Alabama. It is every bit as beautiful as it looks. There’s a little more information here. If you want to visit it yourself, this might help: View Larger Map

There’s something very quaint about this postcard that I found in amongst photo postcards from the early 1900s. It was most likely used by a Missouri church around that time.

Stamps Cemetery is located in Butler County, Alabama, and is the final resting place of Britton Stamps, sheriff, U.S.Marshall, judge, and baptist preacher; and father of 24 children (several of whom are buried in Chambers County, Alabama). Britton Stamps and his wife are buried there. According to Freddie Shearin, who researched the Stamps in the 1990s, all the other graves are slaves and their descendants.

William Henry Harrison, of Boonville, Missouri, is a difficult man to track down, due to the unfortunate circumstance of sharing a name with the ninth President of the United States. This William Harrison was born in Howard County, Missouri, on June 10, 1842. Portrait of W. H. Harrison

Here is a short article that may be of interest to those researching the Cochran or Harrison families. It was printed in 1927 and references the marriage of Mattie Callaway Harrison to W.J. Cochran in 1890. Although the Cochran family is well documented (due to W.J.’s successful construction business in Boonville, Missouri) it’s alway nice to have extra evidence.

The Churchill Memorial in Fulton, Missouri was dedicated in 1969, after being moved from London, England and painstakingly reconstructed, stone by stone. It was an important event for the small town of Fulton, Missouri, and thousands of people gathered to commemorate the event. Note: The video has no sound, since it was converted from 8mm film.

Stamps Cemetery in Chambers County, Alabama is the burial place of several descendants of Britton Stamps. It has fallen into disrepair over the years, and now sits hidden behind a nondescript warehouse. The cemetery is overgrown with trees and the gravestones are scattered around as if they had been carelessly dumped there. The remains of Stamps Cemetery

Below is the list of marriage licenses issued printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 8th, 1914.

Newspapers are one of the best resources for tracking down ancestors – the oldest newspapers you can find will probably have obituaries and may even list marriages as well. Even if you can’t find the person you’re looking for, you’ll still be able to get a feel for the time period and learn about what was going on in the area.

I recently bought a copy of the 1926 University of Missouri yearbook (The Savitar) to find photos of some ancestors. Below are a few photos.

Daniel Whitlow was born in 1795 in Kentucky, to Pleasant Whitlow and Tabitha Tudor. He married Francis Ray “Fannie” Tison on May 6th, 1835. Daniel moved to Illinois in the mid 1800s, and is listed in the 1850 census for Greene County, Illinois as a farmer.

William Wyatt Whitlow William Wyatt Whitlow was born on April 1, 1834, in Greene County, Illinois to Daniel Whitlow and Francis Tison (“Fannie”). He worked as a farmer in Greene County for most of his life, and eventually worked as the Commissioner of Highways. In 1856 he moved to Montgomery County, Illinois, and married his wife, Fannie Elizabeth Thomason there two years later.

John Cochrans tombstone John Cochran was born in Ireland on November 28th, 1790 to his parents Samuel Cochran and Margaret Wilson. He grew up in Castlebar, Ireland with his 4 brothers and sisters: Alexander Cochran, born 1794 in Ireland Mary Cochran, born 1797 in Ireland Catherine Cochran, born 1800 in Ireland Margaret Cochran, born 1804 in Ireland

Augustin Troxclair (also spelled Trosclaire, Troxler, Troxclaire, among others) lived in St. James Parish, Louisiana, just west of New Orleans. He was born in Saint James Parish in about 1820. Augustin was married to Felicite LeBoeuf, who was born in St. James Parish around 1810. The 1860 census for St. James Parish lists Augustin as a Farmer, living just next to Jean Rome.

Photo of Marcellus Gladden Gorin from his obituary in the St. Louis Republican Marcellus Gladden Gorin was born in about 1836 in Louisiana, Missouri, son of Bartley William Gorin and Mary Johnson. Marcellus attended Westminster College in Fulton, MO, and received a Doctor of Divinity degree. In 1858 he married Joanna Knott, sister of Kentucky governor James Proctor Knott in Memphis, MO. Marcellus and Joanna had seven children:

A note from the Louisiana Secretary of State I recently sent off for several Louisiana records and have just received a very clear response that explains what records are available to researchers. The note reads: In 1918 the Louisiana Legislature mandated the registering of births and deaths occuring in the state. Even though it was a state law, unless a person was born or died in a hospital, it was the family’s responsibility to file the birth or death certificate. In the early 1950’s, the funeral homes took over filing the death certificates. Before 1952 it is not unusual for there to be NO state death certificate on file. Your only recorse is to check for obituaries, coroner, probate or church records in the parish where the death occured. This note came from the office of the Secretary of State of Louisiana.

Harvey Spaulding Clapp Harvey Spaulding Clapp was born in Moretown, Vermont, in 1817 to Rufus Clapp and Wealthy Parkhurst Spaulding. He traveled extensively throughout the Great Lakes as a marble salesman and kept a diary, which, although it consists almost entirely of mundane business transactions, shows him to have possessed an extraordinary intellect. The diary, written in the summer of 1847, follows Harvey from his home in Moretown, Vermont, through New York, Northern Ohio, Michigan, and as far as Milwaukee, Wisconsin.