Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Tom & Karen Streff Wedding, August 18, 1979

Based on a handwritten note on the back of the photo (not that of either of my parents), I think this is the bride's sister Mary Kay, her friend Kathy, her sister Deb, the bride Karen Lyness & groom Tom Streff, and Tom's brothers Bud, Paul, and Dan.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Society Saturday: Going to #FGS2014!

image adapted from FGS2014 blog, to include my town!

The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and co-hosts, the Texas State Genealogical Society and the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, have announced a SPECIAL Saturday-only half-price rate of $49.99 to attend that day, August 30, of the upcoming annual conference in San Antonio, Texas.

That one day has more than 35 lectures plus optional workshops and luncheons to choose from - decisions, decisions!

There are some great speakers that day that I've heard at previous conferences - Lisa Louise Cook of Genealogy Gems (who taught me tricks with Google Earth), Thomas W. Jones, Curt B. Witcher with Allen County [Indiana] Public Library, Susan Kaufman with the Houston Public Library's Clayton Center for Genealogical Research,  Debbie Parker Wayne (from whom I've learned a lot about DNA), Teri E. Flack (an expert on Texas county records), and James Harkins with the Texas General Land Office, who is conducting a two-hour workshop that Saturday

A number of bloggers I follow but have never met will also be speaking:  Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers, The Accidental Genealogist Lisa Alzo, The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor, and The Legal Genealogist Judy Russell, as well as well-known genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills of Evidence Explained fame.  Naturally, many of their Saturday sessions conflict with each other or with other sessions I'd particularly like to attend, such as Archives, Libraries and Institutions for Genealogical Researchers in Germany by Dirk Weissleder.

I had already planned to drive down to visit the FREE Exhibit Hall to see product demonstrations and presentations on one of the two stages, as well as visit vendors and exhibitors in their booths, so this half-price rate makes the day even better!  Register now, take a "day trip" and spend Saturday in San Antonio!

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Streffs, March 3, 1979

From the left the adults are Paul, Buddy, Tom, Bud, and Betty Pape Streff, Marianne Streff & Bill Gustafson, Beth Streff, Rho Streff & Steve Grandusky, and Dan Streff.  In front are Heather and Brooke Grandusky.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: My Civil War Ancestors

At left:  Jacob Shelton, my great-great-great-grandfather, Confederate
At right, Joseph William Wolfe, my great-great-grandfather, Union

This is a post for Bill West's Fourth Annual American Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge.  Bill asks:

Did you have ancestors in America during the Civil War? If so, where were they and what were their circumstances? How did the Civil War affect them and their families? Did the men enlist and did they perish in battle or die of illness?  On which side did they fight, or did you have relatives fighting on BOTH sides?

He asks some other questions as well, but these are the ones that are pertinent to me.

Jacob Shelton (1822-ABT 1974) is my great-great-great-grandfather on my mother's side.  He was a private in Company B of the 6th Regiment, Louisiana Cavalry. This unit was assembled in January, 1864, and saw light action in Louisiana. Later it operated a courier-line between Camden, Arkansas and Alexandria, Louisiana. According to Civil War Prisoner of War records, Jacob surrendered to the Union in New Orleans on May 26, 1865. He was paroled in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on June 13, 1865. This is the only record of his service; he is not on any muster roll, and an application for a pension was never made.

Joseph William Wolfe (1845-1918), is my great-great-grandfather, also on my mother's side.  On September 2, 1861, Joseph enlisted as a private with Company D of the 79th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, which saw quite a bit of action in the Civil War. He rose to the rank of corporal and served through July 12, 1865. Apparently he eventually applied for a pension in December 1868 as 1883 pension rolls for Washington County show him receiving $4 a month.

My maternal great-great-great-grandmother, Leah Pickering (or Pickens) Barton Spikes (1835-1903), was a Civil War widow before she married my great-great-great grandfather Levi Lewis Spikes (1805-1881) in 1865.

Somewhere in the early 1850s, Leah married George Washington "G. W." Barton (1826-1864), a native of Alabama.  They moved to Winn Parish, Louisiana, and had three sons.  G.W. fought for the Confederacy in the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, on April 8, and was wounded there. According to his great-great-grandson Tom Barton, G. W. "survived that.  His unit moved on to fight in the Battle of Yellow Bayou (near Simmesport), where he died of pneumonia. My father was able to find out that virtually all of the dead were buried in a mass grave, so there is no marker."

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Society Saturday: Erath County Genealogical Society

Today I spoke to the Erath County (Texas) Genealogical Society in my role as the Coordinator for Archives and Special Services at the Dick Smith Library at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, the county seat.  Program chair Harrell Gilbreath contacted me four months ago to ask me to speak at this quarterly meeting about resources we have at my library to help them with their research.  President Janella Hendon and newsletter editor Sheryl Rascher gave me lots of ideas for topics to discuss.

Here are the slides from my presentation:

This group meets at the Dublin Public Library, where director Adina Dunn has put together an awesome collection - she gave me a brief library tour before the meeting. I was excited to hear that she and the library recently received a grant to have Dublin newspapers digitized and put on the Portal to Texas History.

There were 17 people attending this meeting, including Director of Comanche Public Library Margaret T. Waring, and Tom Rogers, son of local photographers Ralph and Dossie Gilbreath Rogers, who permitted us to add many of their images to the Cross Timbers Historic Images Project. They were very interested in my presentation and asked lots of great questions.  The meeting started at 2 PM and it was almost 4 when it was over!  Afterwards, I went with a group to the Dublin Historical Museum next door for an after-hours tour (more on that in a future post).

In other society news:  The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and co-hosts, the Texas State Genealogical Society and the San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, have announced a SPECIAL Saturday-only half-price rate of $49.99 to attend that day, August 30, of their upcoming annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. That one day has more than 35 lectures plus optional workshops and luncheons to choose from - decisions, decisions! I had already planned to drive down to visit the FREE Exhibit Hall to see product demonstrations and presentations on one of the two stages as well as visit vendors and exhibitors in their booths, so this makes the day even better!  Register now, take a "day trip" and spend Saturday in San Antonio!

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Bob & Lorrie Pape

An undated photo of Uncle Bob and Aunt Lorrie Pape from my parents' photo collection.  It's undated, but I think probably from the mid 1980s or so, possibly on a visit to Texas.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wedding Wednesday: Dietz Family, August 1977

Standing:  cousins Ruth, Rob, Regina, Rich, and Ron.  Seated: Uncle Das, cousin Shelly, Aunt Moe.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Black Sheep Sunday: Jacob Shelton's Murderer, John Dove, in Prison

A few months back, I wrote a couple blog posts about one of my family's black sheep, my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Shelton (1822 - ABT 1874).  Jacob was killed by John Dove, the brother of Jacob's third wife.  John Dove went to prison and, according to Dove family stories, was killed trying to escape to visit a dying daughter.

I was exploring a little at FamilySearch.org the other day, and decided to browse through the "Index of Official Register of Inmates Vol. 1, no. 1-9073, 1866-1889."  I jumped over to the last names beginning with D and pretty quickly found these two pages (which I've very roughly stitched together to create this image, with the headings for each column at the bottom of the image:

Below are enlargements for the relevant information. The column headings for these sections are Reg[istration number], Name, Year Received, Crime, and Yrs/mo [length of sentence].  John Dove was received into the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1877 for murder with a life sentence.

The page on the right-hand side had column headings for Expiration of Sentence, Where Sentenced, and Remarks (if any).  John Dove's sentence did not expire (since it was life), and he was sentenced in Winn Parish (where the crime of murdering my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Shelton occurred).

Under Remarks, it says he "Died  Sept. 3rd 1878."  The circumstances of his death are not described.  It may very well be that he was in fact shot while trying to go see his dying daughter Julia, as a Dove family story contends.

Sources:
"Louisiana, State Penitentiary Records, 1866-1963," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-24842-38169-35?cc=1931391&wc=M6PZ-NWL:227357201,227511501 : accessed 11 Jul 2014), Correctional institution records > Index of official register of inmates vol 1 no 1-9073 1866-1889 > image 104 of 577; citing State Archives, Baton Rouge.
AND
"Louisiana, State Penitentiary Records, 1866-1963," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24843-335-16?cc=1931391&wc=M6PZ-NWL:227357201,227511501 : accessed 11 Jul 2014), Correctional institution records > Index of official register of inmates vol 1 no 1-9073 1866-1889 > image 105 of 577; citing State Archives, Baton Rouge.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Mare, Buddy, and Uncle Bob, April 1953

My cousins Marianne and Bud Streff, and my Uncle Bob Pape, in April 1953, from a Kodachrome slide taken by my father, Frederick Henry Pape, when he was home on leave, enroute from Korea back to Ellington Air Force base in Houston, Texas.  Bob was still in the Navy and must have also been home on leave, visiting his parents (and his sister Betty Pape Streff) at the family home on Lunt Avenue in Chicago.

ETA May 7, 2019:  Here's the image scanned from the original Kodachrome slide, rather than from a color print:

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: Mare, Betty, & Rho, ABT 1953

My aunt Betty Pape Streff with daughters Marianne and Rosemary, outside the home of Betty's parents, Paul Robert & Elizabeth Florence Massmann Pape, probably in 1953.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Dietz Kids, June 1958

Shelly, Ruth, and Ron in June 1958, according to my mother's handwritten note on the back of the photo.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Happy Independence Day!

Breathless watches the July 4 parade in Granbury, Texas, 2006

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday, Brother Brian! (tomorrow)

My brother Brian, with what I think is actually a birthday treat for the dog, Bismarck.  Sometime in the early 1970s.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Travel Tuesday: More San Antonio Hotels: Emily Morgan and La Mansión Del Rio

TODAY (July 1, 2014) is the last day to get early-bird discount registration fees for #FGS2014, the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference being held in San Antonio, Texas, August 27-30! If you are still looking for a hotel, and don't mind being a little further from the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, you might want to consider these historic hotels:  the Emily Morgan and La Mansión Del Rio.

Emily Morgan Hotel, April 6, 2013 /  © Amanda Pape 

When I took the picture above on the Alamo grounds in San Antonio in early April, 2013, I did not know what this building was - but I thought it was so interesting, I had to find out.

Alamo Mission [and Emily Morgan Hotel in background, 9 Sep 2011] / Zygmunt Put / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Emily Morgan Hotel [with Alamo Cenotaph in foreground, 2 January 2010] / 
Josh*m /  CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Emily Morgan Hotel is at 705 Houston Street. The San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation holds a facade easement of this building "as a means of insuring the preservation of historic structures."  Their website goes on to say:

Built as the Medical Arts Building in 1926, and designed by architect Ralph Cameron, this steel frame and brick building rises thirteen stories over Alamo Plaza. It has long been an architectural landmark in San Antonio because of the elaborate Gothic detailing in stone and terra cotta. The building was first renovated in 1976 for office space, and in 1985 converted to the Emily Morgan Hotel. The facade was donated to the Foundation ... in December, 1985.

Emily Morgan details [2 July 2008] / Christina B Castro / CC-BY-NC 2.0

The hotel's website goes on to say:

The building's distinctive form and ornamentation are influenced by the Gothic revival that was the fashion for skyscrapers nationwide in the 1920s. The panels between the first and second stories, as well as the marquee over the main entrance, are of cast iron painted to simulate bronze. The roof is copper with wood ribs. Terra cotta gargoyles depicting figures with various ailments, including toothaches and other medical troubles, are perhaps the most interesting architectural feature of this unique building.

Not surprisingly, it's the second-most photographed building in San Antonio (the Alamo is first).

Emily Morgan Architecture [7 June 2008] / Jim Lynch / CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Another cool San Antonio hotel, on the River Walk (but a but of a stroll from the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center) is La Mansión del Rio, at 112 College.  I have stayed at this hotel for conventions, and it would be a good option for those who'd like to get in some exercise each morning and evening, and who plan to spend the entire convention day at the Convention Center and other areas close to that.

La Mansión del Rio Hotel [19 July 2009] / Charles Willgren / CC-BY 2.0

Mansion on the San Antonio RiverWalk
[27 Sep. 2011] / Ivy Dawned / CC-BY-SA 2.0

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation,

In 1852, sixteen years after the fall of the Alamo, construction began on what was originally known as St. Mary’s Institute, school for boys. As the need for education grew, St. Mary’s became a junior college and finally grew into a senior college. In 1931, the building became known as St. Mary’s University Downtown College. In 1934, the law school was set up downtown and remained on College Street until December of 1966. In 1968, La Mansión del Rio opened its doors as a luxury hotel [just in time for HemisFair '68].

When we stayed there in April 2007, we had a room with a balcony overlooking the River Walk, much like the room pictured below:

Le Mansión del Rio [interior, 23 July 2006] / Dan & Susie Romer / CC-BY-SA 2.0

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.