How Far Would You Go? How Much Would You Pay? -- Obtaining a CDV of My G-grandfather in His Civil War Uniform

It seems to me how far someone will go and how much they would spend to obtain a family heirloom is subjective to the person.  How valuable is the heirloom to you?  We don't feel the same about all heirlooms.  How much "work" is required?  Just phone calls or a road trip?  And how much money do I have to spend?  Can I afford the cost?

I get "pats on the back" and accolades from many relatives on how hard I will work and how far I will go to obtain genealogical information, much less family heirlooms.  But to me there is little question.  I aim to do what is necessary.  It might take me a day or a dozen years, but I at least aim to do what is necessary.

Some generous soul posted a picture on Findagrave.com of my g-grandfather Arthur Herrick Needham (1831-1921) in his Hospital Steward uniform during the Civil War.  

At first, I was stunned and elated, but no genealogist is going to stop there!  I had questions!  (An axiom of genealogy: answers create questions).  Who has this picture?  Do they have more?  Are they related?  And on and on.

First off, there was no question it was him.  I have lots of pictures of him as a senior; Change the color of his beard and hair to gray and it is definitely the same man.  Second, he signed the CDV and his signature matches those I have collected.

First Step: Contact the person that uploaded the pic to FindaGrave.  He knew nothing about it!  He captured the image off a listing on eBay.  

Second Step: Track down the listing on eBay.  It had sold more than six months previously, so the listing was no longer publicly available, but I figured out a way to access older listings and got the seller's name.

Third Step: Track down and contact the Seller.  He was an individual using a company name to sell items.  This took some time-consuming detective work, but I succeeded.  When I contacted him, he said he didn't keep meticulous records and would need to do some research himself to find the name of the Buyer.  After a few days, all he found was an email address.  That will work!

Fourth Step: Email the Buyer.  Yes, he still owns it.  No, he cannot make a high-resolution scan for me, because he no longer has it!  He put it up for sale on consignment at an antique store in Gettysburg.  He would sell it to me if I wanted, and because I am a descendent, he would even discount it from $250 to $200 for me.  My heart sunk.  That sounded like a rip-off?!  But I did not give up.

Fifth Step: Contact the antique store in Gettysburg.  Yes, they still had it.  Yes, they ship, and they charge $35 to ship.  "$35" to ship a photograph?!?  The lady said to me, "This is our business."  She emailed me a picture --

-- Ironic that the seller was trying to bolster the bona fides by claiming the same picture is used for the FindaGrave memorial. Not realizing that a complete stranger saw this very CDV for sale on eBay, captured the picture, and uploaded it to the memorial.

So now I had to wrestle with the price and the cost to ship.  I asked around and every one of my genealogy friends said they would jump at the chance to pay $200 for a picture of their gg-grandfather.  Most of them have no pictures at all!  Then I researched the costs of civil war era pictures of soldiers, and actually the seller's price was quite reasonable!  I had no idea there was a collector's market out there.  So after negotiating the shipping price down, I bit the bullet (pardon the pun) and pulled the trigger (two is too much).  And here it is.

A CDV of my g-grandfather, circa 1864, signed in pencil.  The only picture I have of him as a young man.  Now you know how far I will go, how much I will pay.

Copyright © 2023 by Kevin W. Walker

"Just Another Picture of 'Just Another Distant Aunt.'" To Whom?

We all have them.  Me as many as anyone!  I have over a hundred pictures of great-aunts and great-uncles that go without much attention from me.  Why?  Isn't it obvious?  They are "just distant aunts and uncles". . . to me.  My bias is toward researching and giving attention to my "ancestors," not just "relatives." 

Then it happens, someone comes along less selfish than me.  More thoughtful.  More considerate.  He posts a picture on FamilySearch.Org of one of his "just another distant aunt."  He is thinking less inward and more outward.  What can he do that might be good for someone else?  What can he do that is good for the hobby of genealogy and therefore all genealogists?  

Then I come along and find the picture he posted of his "just a distant aunt."

Meet my 2xg-grandmother Martha Porter (nee. Scott, 1825-1909).  This is the first picture I have ever found or seen of her.  My newfound cousin's "just a distant aunt" is my gg-grandmother!  

I owe him so much for posting this picture publicly.  I think he is the type of guy who would appreciate me paying it forward.  I need to go start uploading pictures of "just distant aunts" and "just distant uncles."

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin W. Walker

Wordless Wednesday: "Picture" of Robert S. Surpluss (1804-1885)

This is my only "picture" of my 3xg-grandfather Robert S. Surpluss.  I am without words.  The good news is I know which branch of the family last had the original and I am trying to make contact.

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin W. Walker

Obituary For Harvey Rowan Mack (1895-1969)

From the Springfield Leader and Press (Springfield, Missouri), 30 Sep 1969, Page 22 --

HARVEY ROWAN MACK

     Harvey Rowan Mack, 74, of 2324 Mt Vernon, died at 1:15 p.m. Monday in Foster Nursing Home here. 

     A lifelong resident of Spring field, Mr. Mack had been in ill health for two years. He was veteran of World War I, and had retired after working for Frisco for 40 years,

     Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Mary Ann Witt,, 2324 Mt. Vernon, Mrs. Patricia Lee VeHorn, Rushville, Ind.; three brothers, Lester, 721 West High, Robert, Brighton, Earnest, 404 East Madison; a sister, Mrs. Edith Helfrecht, 827 West Whiteside; eight grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. 

     Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Klingner Chapel with the Rev. William Spindler officiating. Burial will be in Greenlawn Cemetery.

As I discovered here Harvey Rowan Mack was the blessed young man who inherited his grandfather Capt. Harvey J. Dutton's officer sword that he carried in the Civil War.

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin W. Walker

Artifacts

I read with some excitement recently that very soon scientists will be able to affordably retrieve the DNA of our late ancestors off of family artifacts and test it for us.  This is very exciting!  Genetic genealogy has been a gift to my research, and it is easy to imagine what is on the other side of the horizon, in example identifying nameless faces in photographs of our ancestors.

I have always enjoyed that existential connection to my ancestors.  It feels special to walk where they walked; to visit a building they lived in, and to handle something they touched and owned a hundred years ago.  They were real people with lives, and artifacts make them more real to me.

About a year ago I set about locating the same regimental flags that my gg-uncle served under and my gg-grandfather died under in the Civil War.  It took a couple months, but I finally tracked them down, there are two sets, one is stored away in the McClean County (IL) History Museum, the other is stored in the State Armory at the state (IL) capital Springfield.  

The bug that bit me next was trying to track down my gg-uncle Capt. Harvey J. Dutton's (1836-1928) officer's sword from the Civil War.  I talked about the prospects with my cousins.  First I would need to research all his descendants, then try to locate and make contact with them, all without knowing if the search was going to be fruitless and all my time wasted.  With most family artifacts it only takes a few generations of separation before families forget what made it special in the first place?  Who did it belong to?  Why did we keep it?  So I asked in my mind, did the sword become a toy that people played with?  Did it get sold in a garage sale?  

No.  I decided no, unless I had direction, I was not going to go down that road.  And then this happened.  I discovered a newspaper story, from The Springfield News-Leader (Springfield, Missouri), 25 Jan 1928, Wednesday, Page 3 --

DUTTON PROPERTY LEFT TO SEVERAL CHILDREN

    Each of the five children of the late H. J. Dutton, Civil War veteran and for many years a resident of Springfield, is to share in the estate, according to the terms of the will filed yesterday.  A property on East Harrison street is left to Florence E. Mack, property in Florida goes to Clarence A. Dutton, a son; Norma E. Mack receives a property on Lyon avenue, Bertha I. Dunlap will have the property on West Chestnut street, while a property on West Locust street goes to another daughter Gertrude L. Coover, and her husband Guy Coover. 

    A sword carried by the veteran in the war between the states is bequeathed to a grandson, Harvey R. Mack.     

    R. E. M. Mack and A. O. Mack are appointed executors of the will. 

Uhh, yeah, where I am from?  That counts as "direction."  Besides, when that bug bites you, sometimes you have to wonder if it is an agent of providence?

Harvey Rowan Mack died in 1969, in Springfield, Missouri. He had two daughters.  And so it begins.

Copyright © 2021 by Kevin W. Walker

Surprise Find is also a Reminder to Be Careful

Growing up we visited my maternal grandparents Bruce and Thelma Gibson frequently.  And like most loving grandparents they had at least one picture of each of their grandchildren in their living room where everyone resided in the evenings.  I got very familiar with the picture they had of me --

-- in a brass frame on a shelf next to where my grandmother would sit for hours and knit or crochet. 

When my grandparents died, my aunt Barbara Butler was the executrix and she gave the picture to me still in its frame.  Jump ahead almost twenty years, and my son asks for a baby picture of me to compare to his daughter, my granddaughter, whom he swears is my spittin' image.

I go to get the baby picture of me to scan and send to my son.  When I open up the frame, I am surprised to find inside another picture --  

-- My brother and I are confident that is a picture of my (living) aunt and maybe her prom date?  We are pretty sure it is not our uncle.

So what's the sum?  I went to retrieve a baby picture of myself, and in opening a frame that had not been opened in six decades I discovered another family picture behind it.  Lesson learned?  Don't assume what is inside things.  Be they books, shoe boxes, pictures frames, or whatever.  Look inside, you never know what you might discover.

Copyright © 2020 by Kevin W. Walker

Little Mysteries in Grandpa's Little Black Book

One of the many things I inherited from the estate of my aunt Jenifer Cosgriff was one of my Grandpa Keith Walker's little black address books.  It is chock full of little pieces of paper with names, addresses and phone numbers, because the spaces in the book are all filled.  He had to use a large rubber band to hold it together and everything inside.  But then there are these inside as well, little newspaper clippings --

-- You can click on the image to enlarge so I am not going to bother transcribing them.  But why did my grandfather keep these?  Were they things he wanted to remember, or to show someone, or did he just find them interesting?

I have no idea.  Just another mystery to be figured out.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

Family Heirloom: Uncle Bud's Railroad Pocket Watch

My Uncle "Bud" was Arthur Donald McNeill, born 6 May 1916 in Arnold, Custer, Nebraska, and died 22 November 1985, in Colorado City, Mitchell, Texas.  My father's much older half-brother by a different father.

Bud worked most of his life for the railroad in multiple capacities.  He did what they needed him to, where they needed him to do it.  "Company man."

This pocket watch is his official railroad watch, and he was required by his work to have it regularly serviced to keep accurate time.  It is an Elgin Rail Road model in a Rail Road case. It is a B W Raymond style, 21 jewel mechanism, in 12K gold.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

Family Heirloom -- School Hall Pass

Our family is lacking of family heirlooms but I am trying to fix that.  My still-living father taught math at the same middle school for thirty-four years, retiring in 1992.  This was his class hall pass.  It is about eight inches long.  Not easy for a truant to forge.


Copyright © 2016 by Kevin W. Walker

Dutton Letters: An Introduction

I have been procrastinating writing this entry into my blog for over a week now.  Not because it is anything negative!  But because I am at a loss for how I want to craft my words.  My emotions have been crowding out my ability to think logically.

This blog has paid me back time and time again.  Distant cousins googling their ancestors or their surnames or whatever; they find me and write me, then they offer to share (some are only interested in what I can give them, but we won't mention them). Such is the case with "the Dutton letters."

As my regular readers know I am particularly proud of my Dutton ancestors.  After reading my blog I was contacted by a descendent of the Duttons -- Linda, a 3rd cousin once removed.  She said she had a lot to share.  Boy howdy!  She had family artifacts!  Letters, pictures, and more.  All I had to offer her was my research.  She was happy to get it!  She blesses me, and we have become friends, albeit 2200 miles apart.

She sent me the first batch of family letters.  Yes, she sent them to me, via registered mail, the ORIGINALS!  God bless her!  Mostly from the 1920s, one or two as late as the 1940s, eleven in total.  The only original she did not send me was an 1863 Civil War letter from my 3xg-grandmother Nancy Smith Dutton to my 2xg-uncle Harvey Dutton.  She plans on donating that to a museum, so she sent me a photocopy and a transcription.  I will take it!  Thank you!!!

The loss for words has returned.  So have the tears of joy.  Yeah, I am an emotional guy, so what.

Over the next several days I will be posting pictures and transcriptions of all these letters, beginning with the Civil War letter tomorrow, on the occasion of the blogging prompt "Amanuensis Monday." All the letters deal with family relations, which could explain why they were kept by Linda's parents and grandparents.

Understandably, I have read the letters, and two things jumped out at me.  The first is kind of hard to explain.  We as genealogists and family historians talk about the happiness of the finds and the discoveries, especially the difficult ones that we had to work our hardest to get through the figurative "brickwall."  But I think I have discovered something even more rewarding -- the confirmation that what I presumed about these people was correct.  Let me explain.  We all create images in our heads of these people as we research them.  Who they were, what they were like, what they believed, why they made the choices they did, etc.  As long as we don't promote our presumptions as fact, it can actually aid in research.  But then, to actually read in their own handwriting and their own words a confirmation that the presumptions I made about them were correct?  The feeling is indescribable.  Nothing else like it!  "Rewarding" does not say enough.  It fills the researcher with joy.

The second thing that jumped out at me in these letters is these are real people just like us, doing what they need to do and what they want to do.  They work and they relax, experience highs and lows, illnesses and well-being, losses and triumphs.  Too, too often when we do this research, these people becomes names and dates -- static, objective, without identities.  So wrong.  These are living people, progressing in real time in their daily lives in their era, living subjectively, and full of identity and individualism.  Time and custom might restrict how well we are able to get to know them as persons.  But they never were less.  They never are less.

Linda says she has more, she just needs to find the time to gather it all.  If you are a Walker relative of mine in all likelihood she is your cousin too.  She is not just blessing me by sharing, she is blessing you too.  From all of us Walkers to you cousin Linda, thank you.


Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

Treasure Chest Thursday: My Dad's Antique Woodcarver Plane

My Dad has handed down to me more than a few family treasures, but I am unaware of any of them giving him greater pleasure and pride than this antique plane.  My dad was not a carpenter, although he did teach woodshop.  I wonder if he remember where he got it?

It was made in Paris, and it says "Aux Forges De Vulcain."  You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Treasure Chest Thursday: Emma's Mug

In a previous post here I lamented my not knowing where is my mug that was hand-painted by my great-aunt Emma Gibson.  My brother saw the post and sent me pics of his, so that I can now share her talent with the readers of this blog.  Great-aunt Emma passed away in 1975 age seventy-seven.  This mug is about fifty-one years old.  My brother has done an excellent job of caring for it. (click to enlarge) --

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Family Treasures, Take II

About forty-years ago my grandmother Thelma Gibson (nee Surpluss) knitted a matching toboggan cap and a scarf for me. She passed away twenty-three years ago, age eighty-seven. That cap and and scarf are two of my most prized possessions. It turns out she knitted some elastic into the cap and over the years it dried out, lost its elasticity, and it eventually broke.  Today it poked through the knitting, and I pulled it out. There at the end was a knot. A knot she tied. From her generation to me; From her to me, a knot.  I smiled seeing it.

I am guessing there are two types of people in this world, those who understand this little story, and those who don't.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

Family Treasures

I didn't inherit a lot of material possessions from my maternal grandparents Bruce and Thelma Gibson, living 2000 miles away meant me being limited in what I requested and even that being a subset of what I could remember them owning.  I did get some handmade items from my grandmother, and a hunting rifle from my grandfather.  Those were the items that mattered the most to me so I am content.

But perhaps what matters to me even more is an item from the wall in their entryway.  For whatever reason, my grandmother selected this for me to have, and sent it to me before she passed --

-- it is a framed copy of "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Guest.  It isn't worth anything monetarily, but it has priceless value to me.  My aunt tells me everyone in the family wanted it, and wondered where it had gone?  And for whatever reason my grandmother selected me to have it.

Needless to say it is those items that turn out to be of real value.  "Family treasures."

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker