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.

Rachel Bridget Gillespie Rogers

Our subject is the mother of John Rogers (b 1863 in MI) who is the husband of Nellie Mae Albro.

In the 1870 census Bridget states her birthplace as Ohio and her birth year as 1843. She is listed as not being able to read or write. In the household are Robert Rogers age 29 a laborer of Canadian birth whose value of real estate is $300, nine year old John, 8 year old Ellen, 7 year old Robert Jr, 5 year old Margaret, 4 year old Alice Agnes and William who is just one year. We know from records that a daughter was born and died in March of that same year.

In 1880 she is going by Rachel and still says she is born in Ohio with a similar birth year. She lists her parents as having been born in Ireland. The children and husband are the same. Robert Sr. is now listed as a logger, no doubt making more than a laborer.
In 1880 relationships are listed in the census so we can confirm she is the husband of Roger and the mother of the children in the home. So far we have not been able to locate a marriage record.

Marriage records between some of the children indicate that Bridget was born in Ireland.
In 17 OCT 1895 a request for guardianship is filed by the Rogers children in Manistee at the Probate court.

In the matter of appointing a guardian of Bridget Rogers, an alleged incompetent married woman. The undersigned, John A Rogers, William Rogers, Robert Rogers Jr, Alice McDonald, Margaret Adams and Ellen Hansen your petitioners, would respectfully represent to the Court, that they are children of said Bridget Rogers, that said Bridget Rogers is of the age of Fifty-four years, and an inhabitant of, or resident in said county, and is possessed of personal and real estate, situated and being in said County, and the estimated value of the personal real estate the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, or there-abouts as your petitioners are informed and verily believe. Your petitioner further represent that it is necessary that a guardian be appointed, of the person and of the estate of said Bridget Rogers for the following specific reasons to wit; That said Bridget Rogers is now and has been for two years last sick and insane and wholly incompetent mentally and physically to take care of herself and to have the charge care and management of her property. Your petitioners further represent that her husband Robert Rogers, Senior is abdicted to the habit and use of intoxicant liquors and spends and squanders the most of his earnings and such property as he can get control of for drink, and has not and does not support said Bridget Rogers and furnish her the necessary medical attendance which she requires, and is therefore an unfit person to be appointed the Guardian of said Bridget Rogers.

The document goes on to say that all of her children reside in Manistee and Robert Rogers Sr resides in Wexford. It asks that John be appointed guardian. Just under a month later in November Bridget is dead. There is no indication of how she died but the application for guardianship that places Robert Sr in Wexford leads me to believe they are no longer living together.

At the start her estate is managed by a few people, among them John Rogers and John Albro. Margaret’s husband Adolf Adams appears to have been in charge of burial arrangements from seeing that the grave was maintained for the first year after her death to paying someone to dress Bridget for the burial. Eventually John Rogers becomes the sole executor and he spends a good deal of money on remodeling her home.

28 NOV 1898 Robert Sr. marries Eliza Logan in Wexford; they are still together in the 1900 census with Robert Jr living in the home, no less.

The 1920 census captures the Widowed Eliza living in the Wexford county poor house. Robert Jr. marries and lives with his own family after 1900 as do all of the children.

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.

Other Genealogy Blogs

Some Genealogy Blogs, I've put the title first and surname (when possible) in Parentheses.

Beyond Fiction (Spangler)

West in New England (Too many to list)

I Seek Dead People

BackTrack

Genealogue

The Register of Misdeeds

Thomas Cooper

Bad News, I got my second "rejection letter" from the National Archives. Thomas Coope of the 11th Ohio Cavelry was not our guy. There was no Thomas Cooper in the 8th MI Cal and no Thomas Cooper in the 3rd Ohio Cal. I'm not sure what the next step is.

I have not heard anything back about Milo's records but I am keeping my fingers crossed and hopin' and prayin' and all that. I'm not sure where to go from here if he doesn't work out. There is a Freeman Family in Pennsylvania that is looking good these days.

I'm waiting for Ancestry to make some changes to their DNA ordering system so that we can upgrade to the next set of Markers (I think it's 48). I heard a rumor that will happen soon.

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.

Bad Census Pages

I found this in my Ancestry Weekly Journal, it's quite helpful when dealing with Images. Most of my problems lie in the way Ancestry Indexes things. Like Cordie Russell being listed as Eva Russel in 1920.

Help for Hard-to-Read Images
by Juliana Smith
So you’ve found what you think might be your ancestor in the census. The problem is, when you view the image, what you find sends your heart plummeting. The image is a) too dark, b) too light, or c) looks like a chimpanzee with writer’s cramp wrote it. So what’s a twenty- first-century family historian to do? Let’s explore some options.
Image EditingMany of the records we use today were microfilmed when that technology was in its infancy. So it’s no wonder we run across faded images or dark, hard-to-read records. Photo-editing tools are great for optimizing record images that are in digital format. I use Photoshop Elements, but many of the photo-editing programs out there have the same or similar options. Here are a few ideas for sprucing up those difficult to decipher images:
Darken highlights. I had a really faint 1910 census entry for my great-great-grandmother. Using the “Darken Highlights” function that is available in the Quick Fix mode, I was able to make the image much more readable. (View before and after images on the blog. The “before” image is in the center so that you can compare it with both of the edited images I’ve posted.)
Invert. Another option for lighter images is to invert the colors (i.e., the background would change to black with white writing on it). (I’ve also posted an example of this using the same example--see the bottom sample.)
Lighten Shadows. Another census image, for my Dyer family, had the family enumerated on the bottom of the page. The corner was very dark and writing from the other side of the page bled through. I used the Lighten Shadows tool and it helped remove some of the darkness. You can also play around with exposure tools to help clear out a little more of the “clutter.” (The second grouping on the blog has an example of this.)
Crop. This won’t really enhance readability, but by cropping black edges off of digitized images, you can save a ton of ink when you print a copy for your files.
Save a Copy of the OriginalWhenever I’m editing a record image, I make a copy of it first. I always save a file with the original image and then save it with the same title, adding “_edit” at the end. Sometimes the edits will help one portion of the record, but make another portion harder to read so it’s good to have that original to refer to.
When It’s the HandwritingWhen we’re dealing with “chimpanzee writing,” there are low-tech options that can help us decipher letters and numbers. The easiest is to compare the character in question--whether it’s a number or a letter--to others on the page that are more readable.
At Ancestry on each of the main census search pages, you’ll find a box on the right with a link to a pop-up “Handwriting Help” box. It contains several handwriting samples for every letter in the alphabet and by leaving it up in the background, you can compare the samples to the records as you are searching.
Also look for marks that are carried down from the line above or up from the line below. If the bottom of a fancy J spills down and overlaps the name you are trying to interpret, you may be misled. So with hard to decipher names or words, look at the lines above and below too.
Another technique is to trace the letter. Sometimes retracing the path of the enumerator’s pen may give you that “Aha!” moment.
Some commonly misinterpreted letters include:
T and F
J, G, and Y
I and J
K and R
O and Q
P and R
U and W
(From The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.)