Some More Items from the Overson Photography Collection

Margaret Jarvis Overson's business card.

The Overson home in St. Johns. 

Here is a more recent picture of the home.

Henry and Maggie Overson, 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Here is the same picture from Margaret Overson's genealogy book. It has gone through the printing process, so the quality is not as good as the photograph.

Thanks once again to Randy for sharing the photography collection! What a treasure!

Another Christmas Surprise

A picture taken by Charles DeFriez Jarvis of his wife and her sisters. 

Courtesy of Randy Cameron.

Yesterday I received an email from an Overson cousin, Randy Cameron, who found this blog and sent an answer in response to a question posed over two years ago:

Does anyone know who has Margaret Jarvis Overson's original photographs? She had hundreds of original photos and photographic plates or negatives of the Jarvis ancestors and family and descendants.

Randy found the blog and emailed to let me know that he has the collection, and would like it to be digitized and preserved, so Randy and my parents are in the midst of making arrangements to do that.

He said there are about twenty boxes full of prints and negatives, and a collection of glass plates, full and half, which he has put into negative sleeves. The prints include 8x10 and 4x5 and other sizes. During World War I, photographic materials were rationed, so the technology was not always used in a linear way. Margaret Jarvis Overson and her father Charles DeFriez Jarvis would make plates, develop the photos, then scrape the emulsion off and reuse the plates. As a result, there are not as many plates in existence as negatives.

He also said that members of his family have the first two volumes of Henry Christian Overson's missionary journal. Here is the third volume (Henry Overson Missionary Journal) with links to images and transcripts of its pages. Hopefully we will also be able to get a copy of that.

It was a real delight to talk to Randy, and I wish I could be there to help with all the arrangements! It is such exciting news to know about the existence of the collection, and to be able to start to make it available to the extended Jarvis and Overson family and descendants of families of St. Johns, Arizona.

A Christmas Surprise

My husband has been very supportive of all my family history and Mormon history projects, so about a month ago, I decided to make a book for him for Christmas, tracing back one of his family lines.

My kids and I managed to keep it a secret, and we are now making it available to his family and cousins. Here is a list of the families included in the book. Anyone who arrives here through Google can contact me at the email address listed in the sidebar, and I will be happy to provide you with a link to download the book in PDF format.

• George William Thiriot and Alvira Rhoana Henrie
• Joseph Peter Thiriot and Alice Hannah Avery Timms (Margaret Loretta Scott)
• James Henrie, Jr. and Clarissa Alvira Clark
• Georges Thiriot and Marie Barbe Mitaine
• William Timms and Mary Ann Avery
• James Henrie and Rhoana Hatch (Christena Schow, Gedske Schow)
• John Clark and Alvira Jane Pratt
• Nicholas Thiriot and Jeanne Chretien Gardeur (Nicolas Gardeur)
• Jean Baptiste Mittain and Marie Ann Bistorin
• John Timms and Alice Smith (Mary Timms)
• John Avery and Hannah Allen
• William Henrie and Myra Mayall
• Ira Stearns Hatch and Wealtha Bradford (Abigail Whitley, Jane Tinto Bee, Jane Ann Stuart)
• Samuel Clark and Rebecca Garner
• Samuel Pratt and Louisa Tanner

Merry Christmas!

I just finished a very time-intensive project that I will mention in a post in a day or two. Between that and the Eminent Women project, posts have been very scarce here lately, and the Marsden family series has been severely delayed, but will resume after the new year.

In the meantime, here are some Christmas posts from prior years and a few links from around the online world.

Pictures from Christmases past.

Family history Christmas memories.

The recording of the Messiah that I listened to yesterday.

Family Heritage Recipes: Gingerbread Houses.

Family Heritage Recipes: Italian Nut Cookies. (One of my favorites.)

The Life of Christ Bible Videos.

He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. (Mosiah 16:9)

Merry Christmas to friends and family! Best wishes for a happy new year!

The Members of the Mormon Battalion

After spending much longer than should be necessary searching for a list of the members of the Mormon Battalion, here is a link to the only one I have found online. It was compiled by Carl V. Larson and is comprehensive. Many thanks to him for providing the list.

(View Online)(Download PDF)

Several members of the families featured on this blog were in the Battalion, but no direct ancestors. 

Family Members in the Battalion

Marcus DeLafayette Shepherd (son of Samuel Shepherd)

Hamilton Swarthout (stepson of Samuel Shepherd)

Nathan Swarthout (stepson of Samuel Shepherd)

Albert Tanner (son of John Tanner)

Myron Tanner (son of John Tanner)

The statue of the Mormon Battalion soldier is by Edward Fraughton and is in Presidio Park, San Diego, California. Picture from Wikipedia.

More Details about John Morgan's Dream

Bessie put up a post yesterday on Ancestral Ties about the identity of the woman mentioned in the story of John Morgan's dream.

Here is her post complete with links: John Hamilton Morgan and Serepta M. Heywood.

Here is Serepta Blodgett Heywood's Findagrave entry. Her gravestone says "A Most Perfect Woman," which matches her role in the John Morgan story.

Here is the Heywood family website. Serepta's husband was Joseph Leland Heywood, and he spent much of his life in Utah living in Southern Utah.

There is not a picture of Serepta available online or at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum. Her husband's diaries are available at the Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 database.

And an additional note: there is a chance that the story of John Morgan's dream, as later told by others, was a combination of two different stories about his mission in the Southern States.

General Land Office Records

Commenter Grant mentioned at Keepapitchinin about the Bureau of Land Management website containing General Land Office Records. It has a good search feature and many documents available for download online as well as a mapping feature.

General Land Office Records

Here's a document about Charles and Margaret Jarvis:

Marsden Family: The Survey, Part 1

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently realized that I do not have much information on the Marsden family. 

I was a little puzzled how to start researching the family until I remembered that I recently wrote a guide to Tracing Mormon Pioneer Ancestors. So I will go through the steps of that process with the Marsden family over the next several weeks.

First is the Survey: a look at family records, FamilySearch, New Family Search, and RootsWeb.

Family Records

In my Reunion file I have the names and some dates and places of Charles Marsden and his wife Mary Ann Hancock Marsden and their daughter Lucy Marsden Green, but no other children in the family. None of the facts are sourced except for the ordinances, which are linked to a prior digital generation of the records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Ordinance Index.

My RootsMagic file, which is my working file, has several children added from the 1851-1881 England census. Here is a copy of the first page. As you can see, there are several conflicting dates and places.

 

Next is a look into my file box containing family history information from my grandmother. 

The Lucy Green-Marsden file is entirely empty.

Next is a look at my grandmother's file box containing legal-sized documents. There is a "Green, Henry" folder, and it has multiple research notes and family group sheets and pedigree charts. There is also a catalog of Henry Green's letters, but the letters are not included. (Sigh. I am deeply appreciative for all the work my grandmother did, but I am trying hard not to leave my files in a scrambled condition, and since I now have the benefit of the internet I am trying to make all the materials and pictures available in multiple places on the internet, for the benefit of all the descendants of these people.)

And that's all for today. I will continue with a look at FamilySearch and NewFamilySearch and RootsWeb, as well as present the materials from my grandmother's' files.

To be continued...

Mary Hancock Marsden Emigration

 Mary Ann Hancock Marsden

I ordered a copy of a history of James Marsden from the DUP. He was the son of Charles and Mary Ann Hancock Marsden and the brother of Lucy Marsden Green. Some of the information in the history about his emigration and that of his Marsden family may be confused with the emigration of another James Marsden. I am still trying to piece the puzzle together. As far as I can tell, Mary Hancock Marsden emigrated in 1866 on the ship St. Mark. Here is the immigration record, and a link to her entry in the Mormon Migration Index.

Mary Marsden, 59, England, is on the fourth line, followed by Eliza Marsden, 17 or 19, spinster. This record is from the New York Passenger Lists for the ship St. Mark with an arrival date of July 24, 1866. Mary is listed in the same family as James Whinham (Mormon Migration's transcription) or Whonham (Ancestry.com's transcription). I do not know who this is! Time to do some remedial research on this family!

To be continued...