Who We Were, Are & Will Be Our Family

03 March 2026

"Obituary" (death announcement) For Judy (Gibson) Larsen, 1940-2021

My aunt Judy. My mom's younger sister. The last of her generation on that side of the family.

Death Announcement for Thelma Gibson

Merced Sun-Star (Merced, CA), 29 Oct 1991, the death announcement for my maternal grandmother, mentioning my mother had already passed.

15 February 2023

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.

30 June 2022

Genealogy Method: "What About 'Dead-Ends?'"

A guy wrote to me yesterday and gave me the Civil War enlistment dates for my great-grandfather. Now I already have them, and from multiple sources. I even have a photocopy of his military record that I ordered from the national archives. I didn't need this information at all, but what was my reply to him?

"May I please have the citation for the enlistment records you found?" Just as if it was all new to me.

Why? Why would I ask for that?! Why would I appear to not know what I already know? Because there must be no assumptions. Because it might be a source I don't know about, and the source might have even more information.

He wrote me back and yeah, it was a source I already had. So just like the other ninety-seven percent of the time, it went nowhere. But I still have to ask! There is that other three-percent. If I want the most complete picture, I still have to ask.

Many years ago, I had a friend who owned a store that sold audio and video equipment. Mostly televisions. We were sitting at his desk in the showroom talking, and a couple walked in, and he greeted them with a friendly and audible wave; They made a trip around his store, not liking anything they saw, they started out the store door and he gave them another friendly audible wave.

I said, "I don't know how you can handle that? Customer after customer, walking in and walking out without buying anything." He said, "It is like this. According to my data, every tenth customer that walks through that door makes a purchase. You interpret that as ninety-percent rejections. I choose to see each customer as ten-percent of a sale, even if they don't make a purchase."

Seeing the whole complete picture means incorporating the apparent "dead-ends" into the method, not just dismissing them.

01 June 2022

New Sign at Powell Canyon Cemetery (Custer County, NE)

I have never visited it, but yet I have told my wife and family it is where I would like to be buried. I consider Custer County, Nebraska my ancestral home; and Powell Canyon my ancestral cemetery. Out of a listed twenty-nine graves, seven are direct ancestors (Phoebe Chesley, Charles H. Chesley, Candis Chesley, Warren D. Copeland, Lucy M. Copeland, Herold C. Walker, Norman Walker) and the more I research the more I learn the others are extended family.

I was doing a rudimentary search on Newspapers.Com and found the following last year --

What a beautiful sign! What a beautiful gesture! I was moved to track down the family and thank them. And when I did, wouldn't you know what I discovered? The Brooks family are kin too.

24 July 2021

Obituary for Louisa Victoria Dutton (nee. Brindsen 1840-1915)

The Springfield News-Leader (Springfield, Missouri), February 14, 1915, Sunday, Page 5 --

Mrs. Lou Dutton Dies After Short Illness
After a short illness of pleuro-pneumonia, Mrs. Lou V. Dutton of 432 West I.ocust street, 75 years of age. died yesterday morning at her residence.
Mrs. Dutton was the wife of Captain H. J. Dutton of Company A. 33rd Illinois Infantry, a Civil War veteran. Besides the husband, Mrs. Dutton is survived by one son, Clarence A. Dutton, of Los Angeles, and four daughters. Mrs. A. O. Mack, Mrs. R. E. M. Mack, Mrs. G. A. Coover of this city, and Mrs. F. A. Dunlap of Kennewick, Wash.
Mrs. Dutton was born in Burford, Can, October 17, 1840. Left an orphan at an early age, she went to relatives in Illinois and was married at Metamora, Aug. 29, 1866. In 1869 she moved to Cedar county, Mo., where she lived until 1884, when she moved to Springfield.
Funeral services will be announced as soon as word is received from the son and daughter living in the west.

Louisa was the wife of my 2xg-grandfather Harvey J. Dutton, whom I blog about often.

23 July 2021

John Scott Farm, Scott County, Iowa (ca. 1875)

John Scott (1805-1883) was my 2xg-granduncle.

22 July 2021

Signature of 9xG-Grandfather Capt. Samuel Walker (1639)

(Click to Enlarge.)

This is the signature of my 9xg-grandfather Capt. Samuel Walker (1615-1684). He was the first of my Walkers to come to North America, we think immigrating in 1637, seventeen years after the Mayflower. Because he was a Scottish Presbyterian, the English Presbyterians would not let him settle in Massachusetts Bay Colony. So he and his fellow travelers went to Exeter, New Hampshire for some years, before moving back to Reading, Massachusetts and finally settling in Woburn, Massachusetts.

The document is The Exeter (New Hampshire) Combination of 1639, pledging loyalty to God and King, but also saying "We are not like those from Massachusetts."

21 July 2021

Wordless Wednesday: Ira Gibson (ca. 1950)

Ira Gibson (1890-1966) was my granduncle on my mother's paternal side.

20 July 2021

Tombstone Tuesday: Emma (Gibson) Calkins Waggener Boll

Emma Gibson Calkins Waggener Boll
Born: September 3, 1898, Kansas
Died: May 7, 1975, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California
Buried: Glen Haven Memorial Park, Sylmar, Los Angeles County, California

Emma was my much beloved grandaunt on my mother's paternal side. Not much of a "tombstone," but a beloved ancestral relative.

19 July 2021

Another Case of Family Tree Serendipity (years 1668 and 1855)

"In 1668 Thomas Dutton [of Woburn] brought an action of slander against Michael Bacon Jr., who had charged him with being a thief…The following paper also appears as evidence in this case and is very valuable for its autographs: Wee whose Names are under written testyfy that Thomas dutton having lived amongst us in the Towne of woburne nere the space of tenne yeares, has bine very Industrus in his calling and and has not to our knowledg bine any way given to steall or to take any thing that is not his owne. Josias Conuars, William Johnson, Mathew Johnson, James Conuars, Samuell Conuars, John Broockes, Thomas Peirce, Samual Walker senyer, John Russell Junior, henry broockes, Isack Broockes, Edward win, Richard Gardner, John Russell Sen., John Carter.
"The plaintiff obtained a verdict of fifteen pounds."

-- Johnson, E. F. (1906). Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. United States: Andrews, Cutler, & Company, 3:83, footnote to Dutton.
-- AmericanAncestors.org,, Middlesex County, MA, Abstracts of Court Files, 1649–1675 (online database, 2003). Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, "Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649," n.d.: 2:48, Dutton vs. Bacon.

Thomas Dutton (1621-1687) was my 8xg-grandfather, and Samuel Walker, Sr. (1615-1684) was my 9xg-grandfather.

One hundred and eighty-seven years later, in 1855, in the small town of Metamora, in central Illinois,

my 2xg-grandfather Henry Walker, Sr. (1829-1865) married my 2xg-grandmother Louisa Dutton (1833-1913). Direct descendants of Samuel and Thomas.

18 July 2021

Leroy Needham Family (1940)

(L to R) Grace Needham (nee. Auterson, 1872-1942), her husband Leroy Needham (1873-1959), their son Arthur Needham (1908-1975), and his wife Ethel Needham (nee. McKenzie, 1911-1999).

17 July 2021

Visit to Family in Nebraska (1964)

In 1964 my Dad, Paul Walker (1929-2019), took his budding family back to Nebraska to visit all the family. Our Mom Brenda Walker Cox (nee. Gibson, 1938-1989) is holding my brother. That is me wearing my new Dix (Nebraska) High School sweatshirt (when it was obviously summertime warm outside), and trying to show off my missing tooth. We are at Lee and Linnie Wistrom's (1906-1986) home in Kimball, Nebraska. Lee (nee. McNeil Walker, 1907-1980) was my Dad's oldest sister.

16 July 2021

Dutton marries Dutton? Be Careful.

From The Silver Blade (Rathdrum, Idaho), April 19, 1907, Friday, Page 3 --

April 18. -- S. S. Dutton 71, of Sagle, and Mrs. Mary S. Dutton, 60; of Rathdrum.

It would be very easy to presume this is the announcement of a husband and wife marrying. But just a little bit of digging discloses that Mary Dutton was in fact the widow of William Allen Dutton (1847-1905). Samuel Smith Dutton (1835-1914) was marrying his newly widowed sister in law Mary Sofia Dutton, (nee. Else, 1846-1926).

15 July 2021

Small Town Joy Evident in the Social Page (1941)

From the social pages of the Arnold Sentinel (Arnold, Nebraska), June 5,1941, Thursday, Page 4 --

Herald and Jerald Walker visited Sunday with their brother, Norman Walker,
and their cousins, Wayne and Paul Walker, of Dix, Nebraska.

What is so special about this? Norman is 14 years old, Paul is 12, and Wayne, Herald, and Jerald are all only 10 years old. And this is reported in the social pages of the local newspaper. In 1941, Arnold was the home to about eight-hundred souls.

A good friend of mine said jokingly, and with a smile on his face, that "Hedda Hopper had nothing on this reporter." But that is the point of it, isn't it? Small town charm versus the action, drama, and celebrity of high society.

To each their own, but give me the small town.

14 July 2021

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Kids Football (1940)

I date this circa 1940 in Dix, Nebraska. Left to right -- Bobby Wistrom (1930-1999), Wayne Walker (1931-2018), and Paul Walker (1929-2019).

Bobby was my first cousin, Wayne was my uncle, and Paul was my father.

13 July 2021

Tombstone Tuesday: Herold C. Walker (1892-1892)

Herold C. Walker

Born: January 13, 1892, Custer County, Nebraska

Died: April 13, 1892 (aged 3 months), Custer County, Nebraska

Burial: Powell Canyon Cemetery, Custer County, Nebraska, USA

Had he survived, Herold would have been my granduncle.

12 July 2021

Amanuensis Monday: Postcard Home

(undated: Circa 1915)

Mrs. K.G. Walker

Dix, Neb.

Show this to some of them so will know where I am at. Keith

"Well, geesh Kevin, that is not much of a transcription." Yeah, I know but for me it is an emotional one. My Grandpa Keith Walker (1894-1980) lived and worked on the Union Pacific Railroad. But in his heart he was a family man. He was writing home to his wife and large family wanting them to know where he was.

This day it was Rawlins, Wyoming.

11 July 2021

Another Shooting in the Family Tree: John McGill Shoots Mr. & Mrs. Irvin Gurwell (1909) Part 1

The Humboldt Daily Herald (Humboldt, Kansas), April 22, 1909, Thursday, Page 1 --

INTENDED MURDER
FAMILY QUARREL IS ENDED WITH FIRE ARM
SHOOTS SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW, AT ROSE,

THEN GIVES HIMSELF UP TO SHERIFF

A serious shooting affray occured about nine miles west of Humboldt yesterday afternoon. From what we could learn, Irvin Gerwell and wife had gone over to visit John McGill, who is a brother of Mrs. Gerwell. It is supposed that the three got into some dispute, which became so serious that McGill shot his sister and brother-in-law with a revolver.
It seems that Frank McGill, who lives near where the shooting took place, was the first to hear of it and he phoned the news to the home of Jake Gerwell. A brother of Irvin Gerwell immediately jumped on a horse and rode to the home of the injured man. Finding no one there he rode with all haste into Humboldt, supposing that the injured people had been brought here.
Instead, however, Irvin Gerwell, who is not seriously hurt, took his wife to the home of her parents, who live one mile north and four miles east of Rose. Dr. Dingus, of Yates Center, was immediately called and made an examination of Mrs. Gerwell's wound.
The bullet penetrated her right side, but the doctor does not think it touched any vital part. He says her injury is not dangerous. The bullet which was fired at Mr. Gerwell hit a button on his clothing and glanced off without doing any harm.
John McGill, the man who did the shooting, went directly to Yates Center, where he surrendered himself to the sheriff. He is now in jail at Yates Center. The authorities will make a full investigation of the affair today.

Irvin Gurwell was my 1st Cousin, twice removed, on my mother's paternal side. There is a lot more to be fleshed out about this story, like why and what were the consequences? Stay tuned.

10 July 2021

Probate Announcement for Samuel Day (1861)

From The Monroe Sentinel (Monroe, Wisconsin), July 10, 1861, Wednesday, Page 2 --

County Court of Green County in Probate.
In the matter of the estate of
Samuel Day, deceased.
NOTICE is hereby given that James Hickman has filed an application in this court praying that letters of administration of said estate be granted him and that said application will be heard before the County Judge on Monday the 5th day of August, A.D. 1861 at 10 o'clock A.M. of said day at the probate office in Monroe, said County.
Dated July 3d, A.D. 1861.
D. Dunwiddie
County Judge

Samuel Day (1784-1861) was my 3xg-grandfather.