I know I have not updated you much on the DNA front, but there hasn’t been much to share. I belong to a group at haplozone.net that has been gathering data on us (the artist formerly known as E3b) and doing some sub-clade predictions. All you really need to know is the prediction, which is E1b1b1b2 or M183 and you should also know that the work they are doing is completely voluntary and very super expensive and full of very amazing technology related items. This new name and predicted sub-clade doesn’t change our Berber-ness, it makes us more common Berbers, if there is such a thing among a group of people born in Michigan*. Wikipedia is saying that 80% of the Maghreb** can claim this sub-clade as well, which is substantial in a culture that is pretty much gone. I wonder what Juba would think of that? Well Juba II probably wouldn’t give a shit since he could not find anything wrong with being all kissy-kissy with the Romans. Juba Sr. was pretty serious about his loyalty so he would be really mad.
I just recently finished re-reading chapters one through four of The Berbers. The very first thing they do is beat to death the topic of what it means to be a Berber (or what it means to categorize someone as a Berber or what it means to speak a Berber dialect or what it means when you identify yourself as ohmygodshutup). So the decision seems to be made that there will be no decision or that the definition of a Berber could be one who speaks a Berber language (which as they point out actually defines them as possible variations of the words Tamazight or Imazighen but whatever, they’re the experts). They only touch on the dispute that the Romans (who would have liked to oppress Berbers but were only materially successful because the Berbers suffer some kind of weird self-oppression Xtreme complacency) called us Mazices, which could possibly have at some point translated into the words Free Man. This is only the most exciting discovery (for me anyway) since the results themselves came in. Anyway as much as I would like to get into how popular a past time it was to invade the North African coast I clearly don’t have the time or resources. I’m not sure how to research someone that nobody cares about. There are a few books available aside from my favorite so I’ll let you know what I find as I find it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8Zcz91t29ukC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Berbers&client=firefox-a
Actual DNA non-discovery:
Originally I was going to tell you about the Gonzales’ from El Bierzo, Spain but
towards the end of this entry I began to check and double check my info and I realized that I missed one very important detail about them. I had to take my best paragraph out because of this oversight. I was going to tell you about these Gonzales’ and their kit number 30660/XJYA7 and how close of a match they were and how interesting that is and what it means for blah blah blah. To give you a better idea of distance and DNA within our haplogroup our Freeman matches hover around a distance of 3 at about 22 markers. Back to the important detail that I missed, the Gonzales’ have only tested 12 markers, which is no better than knowing your blood type, no better for DNA anyway. At 12 markers we now have 9 exact matches**** which sounds pretty neat but more common haplogroups (ah-hem R1b or whatever you are calling yourselves now) can have upwards of 100 of those exact matches. So at this point my opinions and the opinions of the psudo-science-mostly-genealogy community part ways. They think these 9 matches we have are totally insignificant. Well, easy for them to say when they have hundreds.
* That is going to be the name of my new quilting group, the Berbers of Michigan.
** I can’t find any other info on this statement aside from The Berbers since no one cares about Berbers except people who study DNA for family history purposes. There is pretty much no data for me to find…online.
***YSearch is a website database sponsored by (I believe) FamilyTreeDNA at which any person with their YDNA results can enter them for all the world to see (and compare).
**** Four Freemans, one Aviles, one Gonzales, one Lujan, one Lovato, one North African Test Group including 112 people from Algeria and one Magann.
Showing posts with label Freeman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freeman. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Milo Goes to Jail
After receiving Milo Freeman’s Pension records I ordered some intake
records form the prison that had had been assigned to. I was not sure
that he had actually made it to jail but the papers I received
yesterday confirm that he did complete his sentence there. Milo was
admitted to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus on 28 JUN 1865 and
was ordered released early by an order from the war department. The
order was received on 04 DEC 1865 and carried out on 11 DEC 1865.
The
assumption had always been that Milo changed his name to avoid this
sentence but now that we can see it was served there is no explanation
of him.
Some of the information submitted to me by the Ohio
Historical Society include his physical description and information
about his family. His intake form also included his age at the time of
arrival (19) and confirms his unit (9) and company (c) as well as his
place of arrest which we already know from military records was Little
Rock, Arkansas.
The Register of Convicts lists his nativity as
Michigan and his occupation as a laborer, height is 5 feet 11 inches
and hair is light, straight, soft and fine. He has grey eyes. It looks
like everyone on that page is either a laborer or farmer and they are
all quite young. Under general appearance it lists his Complexion as
Common (the only other ones on the page were Light and Dark).
"Freeman
has narrow low forehead. Flat face widest at eyes, eyes sunken, heavy
brows, close vertical ears horizontal scar in left temple, very large
scar on right arm."
Under Habits it says he is a moderate drinker, some of the other men are temperate, very moderate and free drinkers. HIs
education is Common School although others on the page are categorized
by weather they can read or write. They claim he has no property but
residence of relatives says; “Has father Alva Freeman, mother Betsy, 1
brother, 4 sisters near Keokuk, Iowa.”
Now, in case you have not
really been following this, Milo (for everything we know about his and
his family and generations of his family) does not have 4 sisters. This
begs the questions, whose daughters are these? I is possible that he
has none and he has made this up. But that seems odd now, after he has
told the truth about his age on the intake form (19) when he joined the
9th Cavalry he gave is age as 18 and that was three years ago. So he tells the truth about his age and lies about siblings?
There
is no real way to know how many children a woman had, even now, the
only real record you can consider is your own birth certificate, which
should list how many children have been born to your mother. In 1867
there was certainly no information like that and while birth, death and
marriage records had just been mandated they were records and not
certificates and frequently listed no information other than the
parents names and child's date of birth, if the child had a name that
was also listed. However, in 1900 census enumerators were told to ask
how many children had been born to each mother and how many were
living. I’ll give you three examples of how this works.
Eliza
(Powell) Cooper’s 1900 claim was 3 children born and 3 living and for
her we have, in fact, 4 children born and 3 living.Claud 1882, Cora and Cordy 1870 and only today Jennifer discovered that they had a boy in 1869 who by 1870 was no longer.
Lydia
(Powell) Wilson Russell’s claim was 2 born and 2 living, but we know
from records that she had at least seven (we have conclusive
information on records on the following children JerryRueben Wilson
1862, Robert Wilson 1868, Minerva Wilson date unknown, Frank Henry
1872, Louis 1873, May 1879 and Cordie 1881) and we know that at least
one (Minerva) was deceased, although we suspect May also did not
survive.
Betsy (Hicks) Freeman’s claim was 2 born and 1 living
but we do not have an actual record that states Betsy is the mother of
Milo, according to Betsy’s other son’s death certificate she s his
mother, but we have no such document for Milo. In Betsey’s letters to
the pension office she certainly claim’s she is Milo’s mother and she
does mention her husband Alva and other son William but never anything
about daughters.
So as you can see the claims of maternity vary
wildly and I’d have to say accuracy is about 50/50. In all of the above
mentioned cases we have the same claims on paternity as far as getting
proof from records except for Milo, again because we have no official
record, unless we consider Milo’s intake record an official document.
With
those inaccuracies in mind it is entirely possible that Alva, not
Betsey, had four daughters. Milo was born in 1847 or 1848 and William
was not born until 1852. We know that Alva spent a lot of time
traveling and we’re not sure how much of this he did with his family.
In 1845 Alva is listed as a tax payer inLodi, Washtenaw , in 1850 he,
Betsey and Milo are in Wayne County and in 1856 they are enumerated
twice in the Iowa state census once in Mitchell and once in Osage. In
1860 they are in Black Hawk county and of course two years after that
Milo enlists in Marion county, Iowa. Betsey says to the pension office
that her husband went to Davenport, Iowa in 1865 to meet Milo but Milo
never shows. In 1867 (I think it’s 67) Alva’s father dies and leaves
him some land (I have not substantiated this claim with any documents
but I have spoken to someone who gave me that information from memory)
but Alva does not go himself toWashtenaw and instead sends someone else. In 1870 Betsey, William and Alva are in Geneso, Illinois. In 1872 Alva dies while in Berrien county but his death information is placed in the Washtenaw county death returns, there is not information about his will at the Washtenaw Probate Court. In 1879 Betsey marries one George F Hughes in Washtenaw
but in 1880 Betsey, William and his new family are in Kalamazoo Aurora
and in 1890 Betsey applies for Milo’s pension from Aurora, Illinois.
There is never any mention of Betsey's second marriage and Mr. Hughes
is not dead, he continues to live on with, Ibelieve, his daughter and her family, but of course his only purpose in adding himself to our difficulties is to be enumerated
twice but at least in the same county, once listed as widowed and once
listed as married. In 1900 Betsey, William and family are still in in
Aurora. Betsey never gets the pension and stops applying after her 1898
denial, she passes away at age 85 in in 1904 in Aurora. In 1910 William
and family are living in Chicago but in 1916 William, while a resident
of Oak Park, IL (not too far from Chicago) dies in Cleveland, Ohio.
I cannot list all the conclusions I am able to draw from this. So you’ll have to work on your own for now.
I still have not received the Court Martial Records from the National Archives.
records form the prison that had had been assigned to. I was not sure
that he had actually made it to jail but the papers I received
yesterday confirm that he did complete his sentence there. Milo was
admitted to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus on 28 JUN 1865 and
was ordered released early by an order from the war department. The
order was received on 04 DEC 1865 and carried out on 11 DEC 1865.
The
assumption had always been that Milo changed his name to avoid this
sentence but now that we can see it was served there is no explanation
of him.
Some of the information submitted to me by the Ohio
Historical Society include his physical description and information
about his family. His intake form also included his age at the time of
arrival (19) and confirms his unit (9) and company (c) as well as his
place of arrest which we already know from military records was Little
Rock, Arkansas.
The Register of Convicts lists his nativity as
Michigan and his occupation as a laborer, height is 5 feet 11 inches
and hair is light, straight, soft and fine. He has grey eyes. It looks
like everyone on that page is either a laborer or farmer and they are
all quite young. Under general appearance it lists his Complexion as
Common (the only other ones on the page were Light and Dark).
"Freeman
has narrow low forehead. Flat face widest at eyes, eyes sunken, heavy
brows, close vertical ears horizontal scar in left temple, very large
scar on right arm."
Under Habits it says he is a moderate drinker, some of the other men are temperate, very moderate and free drinkers. HIs
education is Common School although others on the page are categorized
by weather they can read or write. They claim he has no property but
residence of relatives says; “Has father Alva Freeman, mother Betsy, 1
brother, 4 sisters near Keokuk, Iowa.”
Now, in case you have not
really been following this, Milo (for everything we know about his and
his family and generations of his family) does not have 4 sisters. This
begs the questions, whose daughters are these? I is possible that he
has none and he has made this up. But that seems odd now, after he has
told the truth about his age on the intake form (19) when he joined the
9th Cavalry he gave is age as 18 and that was three years ago. So he tells the truth about his age and lies about siblings?
There
is no real way to know how many children a woman had, even now, the
only real record you can consider is your own birth certificate, which
should list how many children have been born to your mother. In 1867
there was certainly no information like that and while birth, death and
marriage records had just been mandated they were records and not
certificates and frequently listed no information other than the
parents names and child's date of birth, if the child had a name that
was also listed. However, in 1900 census enumerators were told to ask
how many children had been born to each mother and how many were
living. I’ll give you three examples of how this works.
Eliza
(Powell) Cooper’s 1900 claim was 3 children born and 3 living and for
her we have, in fact, 4 children born and 3 living.Claud 1882, Cora and Cordy 1870 and only today Jennifer discovered that they had a boy in 1869 who by 1870 was no longer.
Lydia
(Powell) Wilson Russell’s claim was 2 born and 2 living, but we know
from records that she had at least seven (we have conclusive
information on records on the following children JerryRueben Wilson
1862, Robert Wilson 1868, Minerva Wilson date unknown, Frank Henry
1872, Louis 1873, May 1879 and Cordie 1881) and we know that at least
one (Minerva) was deceased, although we suspect May also did not
survive.
Betsy (Hicks) Freeman’s claim was 2 born and 1 living
but we do not have an actual record that states Betsy is the mother of
Milo, according to Betsy’s other son’s death certificate she s his
mother, but we have no such document for Milo. In Betsey’s letters to
the pension office she certainly claim’s she is Milo’s mother and she
does mention her husband Alva and other son William but never anything
about daughters.
So as you can see the claims of maternity vary
wildly and I’d have to say accuracy is about 50/50. In all of the above
mentioned cases we have the same claims on paternity as far as getting
proof from records except for Milo, again because we have no official
record, unless we consider Milo’s intake record an official document.
With
those inaccuracies in mind it is entirely possible that Alva, not
Betsey, had four daughters. Milo was born in 1847 or 1848 and William
was not born until 1852. We know that Alva spent a lot of time
traveling and we’re not sure how much of this he did with his family.
In 1845 Alva is listed as a tax payer inLodi, Washtenaw , in 1850 he,
Betsey and Milo are in Wayne County and in 1856 they are enumerated
twice in the Iowa state census once in Mitchell and once in Osage. In
1860 they are in Black Hawk county and of course two years after that
Milo enlists in Marion county, Iowa. Betsey says to the pension office
that her husband went to Davenport, Iowa in 1865 to meet Milo but Milo
never shows. In 1867 (I think it’s 67) Alva’s father dies and leaves
him some land (I have not substantiated this claim with any documents
but I have spoken to someone who gave me that information from memory)
but Alva does not go himself toWashtenaw and instead sends someone else. In 1870 Betsey, William and Alva are in Geneso, Illinois. In 1872 Alva dies while in Berrien county but his death information is placed in the Washtenaw county death returns, there is not information about his will at the Washtenaw Probate Court. In 1879 Betsey marries one George F Hughes in Washtenaw
but in 1880 Betsey, William and his new family are in Kalamazoo Aurora
and in 1890 Betsey applies for Milo’s pension from Aurora, Illinois.
There is never any mention of Betsey's second marriage and Mr. Hughes
is not dead, he continues to live on with, Ibelieve, his daughter and her family, but of course his only purpose in adding himself to our difficulties is to be enumerated
twice but at least in the same county, once listed as widowed and once
listed as married. In 1900 Betsey, William and family are still in in
Aurora. Betsey never gets the pension and stops applying after her 1898
denial, she passes away at age 85 in in 1904 in Aurora. In 1910 William
and family are living in Chicago but in 1916 William, while a resident
of Oak Park, IL (not too far from Chicago) dies in Cleveland, Ohio.
I cannot list all the conclusions I am able to draw from this. So you’ll have to work on your own for now.
I still have not received the Court Martial Records from the National Archives.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Everyone, please say hello to Milo
I would like to update you as far as Milo V Freeman goes but there is just so much I don't know where to start.
I recieved Milo's civil war records. For those of you who are interested in the National Archives you can order a few different types of records from there website here. I ordered the complete file and actually I was dissappointed. I was really hoping for a physical description.
It took just over 30 days and cost me 75 smack-a-roos. Just as I suspected there is no proof Milo died, nor is there proof that he ever showed up in Ohio for his two year prison sentence for larceny.
Can stealing $30 really be larceny?
I have some files on order. I sent in a request for more data from NARA, specifically the court martial records and also some penitentiary records from the Ohio Historical Society. They have a blog, and a link to the Ohio Genealogical Society on their site.
Frank Russell does not exist, genealogically speaking, until 1867. Milo stops existing, also genealogically speaking in 1865.
I recieved Milo's civil war records. For those of you who are interested in the National Archives you can order a few different types of records from there website here. I ordered the complete file and actually I was dissappointed. I was really hoping for a physical description.
It took just over 30 days and cost me 75 smack-a-roos. Just as I suspected there is no proof Milo died, nor is there proof that he ever showed up in Ohio for his two year prison sentence for larceny.
Can stealing $30 really be larceny?
I have some files on order. I sent in a request for more data from NARA, specifically the court martial records and also some penitentiary records from the Ohio Historical Society. They have a blog, and a link to the Ohio Genealogical Society on their site.
Frank Russell does not exist, genealogically speaking, until 1867. Milo stops existing, also genealogically speaking in 1865.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Ordering Records and Books
On May 27th the military records for Thomas Cooper were ordered from the National Archives. On May 29th I put myself on a waiting list for the book "Freeman Footnotes" and today I placed an order for the Military Records for Milo Freeman from NARA. Now we wait.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Seven Faces of Frank's Parents
Are these the faces of people willing to adopt a child? This is Benjamin Franklin Rosell and Jane Elizabeth Pelton. Parents of Abigail who was born in 1844 and not seen since the 1850 census (presumed dead), Helen born in 1848, Ida born in 1850, Frankling born in 1852, Sarah born in 1854, Sidney born in 1856 and William born in 1858. Jane is dead by 1860 and Benjamin remarries a Mary Harris and we don't have enough room here to go into what children they had. Theodore Freeman was living steps away from the Rosell's in 1850. We know Frank's father is a Freeman, not a Rosell so it could be assumed that Theodore is Frank's father and Frank was taken in by this family down the way.
I'm going to start scouring the 1850 census and the pages surrounding our little lonely orphan's possible father and adoptive parents to see if there are any suspicious looking women who could be Frank's mother.
Monday, May 12, 2008
For Those Of You Just Tuning In
Depending on who you are:
Grandpa Russell (Vern, for most of us) was born in April of 1929 to Milton Jerome Russell and Judith Rogers (The Real Grandma Russell, for most of us). Milton was the fifth son of Cordy Russell and Maude Smith and he was born in Oakland county on 17 FEB 1910 and died in 1969 in Michigan. Cordy Alvin Russell was born on 04 APR 1881 in Oakland and died 01 FEB 1965. He was the last child of Frank Russell and Lydia Powell.
After the Russell Genealogy Team established those facts they were unable to move forward. It was as if someone was lying about who they were. A Y-chromosome DNA test was done and confirmed the life long suspicion of many that indeed, we are not Russell's. Although nothing is 100% in DNA (no really, it's true) some things are known. What I mean is, we may not be able to prove who we are through DNA alone but we can prove who we are not.
When comparing ourselves to other Russell's it must be noted that we have few genetic similarities. When comparing ourselves to all other surnames floating around in various DNA, Surname and Family Projects the family we matchis the Freeman's with the haplotype E1b1b (or the Haplotype Formerly known as E3b).
That is where we are with our research.
Grandpa Russell (Vern, for most of us) was born in April of 1929 to Milton Jerome Russell and Judith Rogers (The Real Grandma Russell, for most of us). Milton was the fifth son of Cordy Russell and Maude Smith and he was born in Oakland county on 17 FEB 1910 and died in 1969 in Michigan. Cordy Alvin Russell was born on 04 APR 1881 in Oakland and died 01 FEB 1965. He was the last child of Frank Russell and Lydia Powell.
After the Russell Genealogy Team established those facts they were unable to move forward. It was as if someone was lying about who they were. A Y-chromosome DNA test was done and confirmed the life long suspicion of many that indeed, we are not Russell's. Although nothing is 100% in DNA (no really, it's true) some things are known. What I mean is, we may not be able to prove who we are through DNA alone but we can prove who we are not.
When comparing ourselves to other Russell's it must be noted that we have few genetic similarities. When comparing ourselves to all other surnames floating around in various DNA, Surname and Family Projects the family we matchis the Freeman's with the haplotype E1b1b (or the Haplotype Formerly known as E3b).
That is where we are with our research.
Friday, May 9, 2008
How to get from Free Soil, Mason to Ypsilanti, Washtenaw
Using the Michigan Central Railroad was not much of an option because it appears as though the majority of the operating time they spent wandering to and from Detriot to Chicago. This link offers a look at current railway stops and routes, but be careful if you have dial-up, it's a PDF!
If you wanted to get there after 1879 you had this option but the dead people we are currently researching were in the area long before that. Isaac Elliot (who is running for the position of Frank Russell these days) was allegedly born in Michigan around 1851. In the 1860 census he is but a wee thing living in Little Sauble, Mason County (later on Eden, Free Soil and Indian Town). So he may have been born there. He lives in a home of some type with William Freeman, possibly age 24 and No Qua possibly age 26. There are no relationships listed on the 1860 census so there is no way to tell who those adults are to him. Page 7 of 8 of that census is rampant with surnames and unrelated Indians.
The Neighbor Study
Page 7 houses only Indians born in Michigan. There were three race options for a enumerator in 1860; White, Black and Mulatto. So all Indians are listed as Mulatto, except those who are listed as White, Black or in our case, Indians. :P
The enumerator for Little Sauble, Charles Roswell actually listed his Indians as "Ind." quite a new thing in those days. He may have even gotten a "talk-to" at work.
At the top of the page John Wakefield lives (age 20 born in Michigan) with belongings worth $50 and in his home a female, Ke Ge Qua age 15. I was curious about the relationship between these two people so I checked in with them in 1870. John Wakefield (of Indian Town, the new name of the same place) is now 50 and Ina Mee, a female in the house is 40.
In a similar situation in 1860 Freeman Sutton, age 24 living with Oe Na Swa Ba a male who is 40 and Charita a female who is 22. Also in there house are two children, William Griffin age 2 and Mary Judson who is 5. In 1870 they still live next to the Wakefields and they have aged at about the same rate. He is now 40 and his new wife, Mary Sutton is a 25 year old Indian woman and they have three children, John, Jane and William, ages 4, 1 and 6. Poor Charita must have succumbed to the consumption!
Whatever Freeman was doing in his personal life is, I suppose, his own business but he did purchase land in 1872 under the authority of the Indian Allotment and again in 1879 with the help of the Homestead Act in 1879 in Mason county in Township 18 N, otherwise known (at the time) as Indian Town. By 1880 the Sutton's of Mason are pretty much a new family.
Freeman is married to Jane (there is nothing to rule out the possibility that Jane, Charita and Mary are all the same woman) and there are two children, Johnson (6) and Andrew (15). They live quite near (next door in fact) John Wakefield, who is an old man, 70 in fact! What is interesting now is that Mr. Sutton Freeman has only aged 4 years since the last census and John Wakefield, in the last 20 years has aged 46 years.
Most of these people are unexplainable. I do know enumerators were not supposed to count Indian's who were not taxed. Can you imagine someone moving into your home and then charging you rent? Anyway, I don't know how this data was gathered. If the original data was transferred and transcribed that could explain all the errors in age and perhaps age. Did the enumerators make up names and identities for people they could not reach? Or people they did not want to reach? Did the Indian's think the Christian name's were a big joke?
"Hey, hey, Shah Uou! What's my name? Guess!"
"Ummm...is it Tom Bob?"
"No, it's THOMAS MITCHELL!"
"Ha ha ha, Oh that is sooo funny!" Ash E Wa laughs so hard he starts to cry.
I'm not sure what happened to all of these other people. They may have died or disappeared. If they could have left, perhaps William Griffin and Mary Judson went too. Did Issac go with them? Did he go to Macomb and marry 38 year old Ester Graham, widow of the county-wide-famous Benjamin Graham?
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