Mark Wing's Genealogy Mind Dump

This is a picture of a great grandmother, Gertrude (Finley) Lever.  I actually have quite a few photos of her, but this one is one of my favorites.  The pitcture is less than an inch square.  I had thought about attempting to remove the photo from the border so I can see more of the photo, but I am afraid I would damage it.

Today, I located the headstone of Bessie Mae (Beauregard) O'Donnell.  Bessie was my great grandmother's sister and is interred at Hillcrest Park Cemetery in Springfield.

Bessie was the oldest of three sisters born to Napoleon and Hattie (Beals) Beauregard.  Napoleon was born in Vermont, but was of French Canadian descent.  Hattie was of English descent with the majority of her ancestors being part of the Puritan migration.

Recently, I located the gravesite of Francis (Frank) J. Beauregard.  He is interred in Calvary Cemetery in Holyoke, MA  Frank was the brother of my 2nd great grandfather, Napolean Beauregard.

The inscription on his headstone reads:

Frank J. Beauregard
(1868 - 1931)

Margaret C. Smeddy His Wife
(1874 - 1918)

The headstone is larger and more ornate than the other lots in the same section.  Furthermore, the lot has a stone border, which is a feature not present in other lots in the same area. 

I had expected to see other names on the headstone.  Lots in this area typically have room for four or eight burials and my information had some of the children of Frank and Margaret at Calvary.  Furthermore, I couldn't find the other Beauregards.  To get some answers, I called the cemetery office.  Their records had the following additional people in this lot:

Grace A (Beauregard) Wilson (1891 - 1955)
Beatrice C. (Beauregard) Johnson (1893 - 1979)
Francis M. Beauregard (1895 - 1971)
Marion A Beauregard (1897 - 1975)
Raymond Beauregard (1902 - 1963)
Ira A. Johnson (? - 1933)
Pierre Smeddy (? - 1943)

Ira was the husband of Beatrice and Pierre appears to have been the brother of Margaret.  The rest were the children of Frank and Margaret.  According to my research, they had one other child ( Lucy) who was born in 1890 and died before the 1900 census.

After Margaret's death, Frank married Delia Pauze.  Delia was born in French Canada in 1891.  Their only child was named Norman and he was born in either 1920 or 1921.  Unfortunately, their marriage was a short one as Delia died in Holyoke Hospital on September 29, 1921.  She is interred in her family's lot at Notre Dame Cemetery in South Hadley.

I have very limited information on Norman.  Norman survived Beatrice and was living in Florida at the time.  I found a Norman E. Beauregard who was born in Holyoke in Jan 1921 and died in Florida in 1987.  This feels like a match, but I am not completely certain.

To my knowledge, Grace and Francis had children and Beatrice, Marion and Raymond did not.  If my Norman is the correct Norman, he also had children.

I do find it interesting only Frank and Margaret are listed in the family headstone.  I have to wonder if this was because of the cost, disagreement over the arrangement of the names in a limited space or something else. 

Back in December, Laurie and I located her great grandmother, Doris (LaCasse) Morin.  She is interred in St. Michael's Cemetery in Springfield, MA.  Doris's marker has sunken into the ground considerably.  Here is what it looked like before we edged it. 

Doris was born in Southbridge, MA in Jan 1897 and died in Springfield, MA on June 10, 1959.  She was the daughter of Frank and Mary (Lavallee) LaCasse.  Both Frank and Mary had migrated to the United States from French Canada in the late 19th century.

As of this writing, I am undecided on whether the Doris's maiden name was "LaCasse" or "LaCosse".  Her obituary and census records seem to indicate "LaCasse."  However, her sister Evelyn's headstone and the obituaries of other family members says "LaCosse."  I would speculate that it was originally "LaCasse" and changed to "LaCosse".  In the 1900 census, Doris's parents, Frank and Mary were listed as Francois and Marie, so we know they were willing to anglicise their names.  My guess is they "LaCosse" is an anglicised version of "LaCasse" as "LaCasse" in French would sound like "LaCosse."

I have added Silas Wright to my list of famous relatives.  Silas was a prominent politician from New York.  His offices included United States House of Representatives (1827-1829), New York Comptroller (1829-1833), United States Senate (1833-1844) and New York Governer (1845-1846).  He was known for his financial accument and was honored when his protrait was featured on the $50 Gold Certificate when it was first issued in 1881.  His protrait was replaced by Ulysses Grant in 1913.

Silas was the nephew of my 5th great grandmother, Mary Wright (1774-1841).  Mary married Asher Loveland (1767-1849).  My 2nd great grandmother on my Wing side was a Loveland.

Last weekend, Laurie and I successfully located the graves of some of her relatives.  While this had limited value to our genealogy research, nonetheless, some of what we found was interesting.

Our first stop was at St. Michael's Cemetery in Springfield, MA.  Laurie's great grandparents included Cornelius and Catherine (Harrington) Sullivan.  The headstone photos are here and here.  They had nine children total and their lineage looks like this:

1 Cornelius C. Sullivan (1858 - 1937)
   + Catherine J. Harrington (1873 - 1933)
      2 John J. Sullivan (1892 - 1944)
      2 William Edward Sullivan (1894 - 1961)
      2 Catherine C. Sullivan (1895 - 1973)
         + Samuel J. Smart Jr (1895 - 1936)
            3 Catherine L. Smart (1923 - 2001)
               + Robert Morin
            3 Barbara L. Smart (1925 - 2006)
               + Richard Mantha
            3 Living Smart
            3 Rita Smart (1934 - 1934)
            3 Samuel J Smart III (1934 - 1934)
      2 Anna Sullivan (1900 - ??)
      2 Agnes Sullivan (1902 - ??)
      2 Alice Sullivan (1903 - ??)
         + Abair
      2 Cornelius W Sullivan (1904 - 1937)
      2 Edward D Sullivan (1906 - 1964)
      2 Joseph J Sullivan (1908 - 1946)

The five sons and Alice are interred with their parents.  There are military markers for John, William and Edward.

Catherine C. Sullivan is interred in another area of St. Michaels.  Interestingly, the cemetery records indicate the Smart twins are also in this plot.  Rita lived only a few hours and Samuel died after 29 days.  Originally, they were buried somewhere else and were moved to the Sullivan plot.  Samuel Smart Jr had originally been interred in this plot, but he was moved out of the plot to another area in St. Micheal's.

I had most of this information before our visit.  The biggest thing that varied from my records was the birth year of Cornelius C. Sullivan.  The 1910 census indicates around 1865 and the census of 1920 indicates around 1870.  1858 is a lot earlier than I expected and could possibly be wrong.

Our next stop was Hillcrest Park in Springfield, MA.  Another set of Laurie's great grandparents, Samuel and Louisa (Martin) Smart are interred here.  These are Samuel Smart Jr's parents.  We found some other Smarts in the same area.  Frank and Fannie Smart were in the next row almost immediate behind Samuel and Louisa.  After some more research, Frank is the son of Samuel and Louisa and Fannie is the first wife of Henry Smart, another son of Samuel and Louisa.

Frederick Eugene Wright is one of my great great grandfathers on my mother's side.  He was born in Wilbraham, MA to Solomon and Abagail (Sweet) Wright.  My best guess on his birthday is May 1959.  The 1900 census has him born May 1860, but this is almost definitely wrong.  He appeared in the 1860 census as a 1 year old and his headstone says 1859.  As a result, I am assuming May is correct and the year was 1859.

Frederick's family had moved to Monson by 1870.  Frederick married Harriet (Hattie) Augusta Pike around in 1884.  Initially, they settled in Monson, but eventually moved to Palmer and then Amherst.

Here is Frederick genealogical record:

1 Frederick Eugene Wright
  + Harriet Augusta Pike
    2 Ina A Wright (1886-1886)
    2 Essie E Wright (1888-1970)
       + Frank McConnell (1888-1970)
        3 Possible living daughter
        3 Possible living daughter
    2 Franklin Clayton Wright (1980-1947)
       + Rosalie Rouleau
    2 Bessie Arlene Wright (1893-1986)
      + Glen Edward Flint (1893-1976)
        3 Glen Eugene Flint (1918-2005)
        3 George Collamer Flint (1919-2008)
    2 Edna R Wright (1899-1997)
      + Floyd F Reed (1898-1965)
        3 Eleanor Gladys Reed (1922-2004)
        3 Harold E Reed (1928-??)
        3 Living daughter
    2 Frieda G Wright (1902-??)
      + Ralph Brown
    2 Allyn W A Wright (1908-1997)
      + Thelma Williams (1906-??)
         3 Possibly living adopted daughter
         3 Possibly living daughter

The lines in italics are known to be dead lines (no offspring or surviving decendents).  Interestingly, the only son to have children had two daughters and as a result, the family name did not get carried on.

Hattie died February 27, 1939 and Frederick died less than one month later on March 25, 1939.  A couple weeks ago, we located his grave site in Hillside Cemetery in Monson.  He shares a headstone with Ina, Franklin and Franklin's wife Rosalie.

Elmer is my great-great grandfather.  He was born in Manchester, NH on May 31, 1861 and died in Agawam, MA on August 6, 1916.  The cause of death was an "accidental drowning".  My best understanding was he was going for a swim after work.

Elmer had four children: Herman Curtis, Susie Ester, Grace May and Chester Edmund.  I don't have a record of Grace, but I have evidence that she died as a youth.  Chester Edmund married Sara Elizabeth Cole and had a successful career as a engineer in Hastings, Michigan.  However, they did not have children.

Susie married Ernest Waite Lawrence in 1905.  They had four children: Charlotte Frances, Eleanor W, Elizabeth E and Elmer C.  Charlotte married Thomas Lester Low, Elizabeth married Henry Joe Lambert and both had children.  I don't have any information on Elmer or Eleanor.

Finally, Herman is my great grandfather.  Obviously, he had children :).  I more have information on him, but will post it separately when I get a chance.

This is a picture of John M. Lever, his wife Anne (Pemberton) and their two sons William George (standing) and Arthur Ellis. Arthur is my great grandfather. There is no date for the photo, but Arthur was born in 1900, so my guess is 1906 give or take a year.

John is one of my many gateway ancestors. In 1887, he migrated from Hyde, England and settled in Lewiston, Maine. Two years later, his younger brother Samuel Ellis Lever joined him.

Tracing John and Samuel back to England has been challenging. Based on my research, their parents were George and Eliza. Unfortunately, this is where things get confusing. There is another George and Eliza Lever in Hyde, England and not only were their first two children born around the same time as John and Samuel, but they also named them John and Samuel. One of the censuses has Samuel's full name, so this allowed me to distinguish between the two families.

That said, I am making the assumption that John and Samuel are brothers. Samuel signed John's naturalization papers as a witness, so I think this makes this a safe bet rather than another strange coincidence.

After that, George and Eliza's parentage is unclear to me. At one point, George's mother (Ellen) was living with them, but that is the end of my research. John and Samuel also had four sisters (Mary Ellen, Bertha, Elizabeth and Clara). These names were pretty common and I have no idea what became of them.

At this time, my research has been limited to what I can find on google or ancestry.com. The records from England on ancestry.com is pretty limited. At some point, I may pursue this further by attempting to obtain records from England.