Author: joelowry1982

Wordless Wednesday – A Cousin’s Baptism

joelowry1982 Maternal, Wordless Wednesday
Family collection.
When looking through my parents photos, I quickly recognized the location of this 1977 baptism as the basement of Saint Rose Church in Girard, Ohio. Saint Rose was where I went to elementary school; the stained glass windows in the basement stick out.
My older cousin Jake Sofranko is being held by his mom Julie, with dad Bill in the gray suit. My mom is the godmother in the blue dress.

Wordless Wednesday – The Porubsky’s

joelowry1982 Maternal, Porubsky, Wordless Wednesday
Family photo. Click to enlarge.
Dapper in their floral print, this is my great, great grandparents Carl (1885 – 1962) and Elizabeth Schulmeister (1887 – 1977) Porubsky. This photo was probably taken near their home in Topeka, Kansas. Carl was a Volga German born in Saratov, Russia who immigrated to the United States in 1901. Elizabeth was born in the United States. Her parents were likewise Volga Germans who had immigrated in 1886.

Tombstone Tuesday – Jacob and Henretta Bahle

joelowry1982 Bahle, Paternal
Photo by FindAGrave.com user Wellington1
One of the cool things about genealogy is that there are always people that are willing to help you find information. I have an account on FindAGrave.com, which is a user community that posts and shares cemetery information. They  have a photo-request service and when I realized I lacked a headstone photo for several Pittsburgh relatives, I posted a request. 48 hours later, user Wellington1 sent along the photos and provided permission to use them on my blog and family tree. Following up on Sunday’s 1880 Census of Jacob Bahle, let’s jump ahead to 1908…
Grave of Jacob and Henr(i)etta Bahle
Saint Mary Cemetery
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I know Henrietta is dead, I just haven’t proved it yet. Her grave has no death date and neither does my family tree. So many mysteries, so little time…
Relationship to me
Jacob Bahle (1832 – 1908)
father of:
Mary Anna Bahle (1877 – 1935)
mother of:
Mary Margaret Pepperney (1902 – 1980)
mother of:
Charles James Lowry (1924 – 2007)
father of:
Patrick Edward Lowry
father of:
Joseph Patrick Lowry

Census Sunday – The Bahle’s in 1880

joelowry1982 Bahle, Census Sunday, Paternal
It’s fun (for me, anyway) to look at the same point in history and see where two branches of your family are. I have previously looked at the Lowry’s in 1880 and just last night discovered the 1880 U.S. Census for Jacob Bahle’s family. Lowry and Bahle are both paternal surnames. My great grandfather Charles Lowry married Mary Pepperney, whose mother was a Bahle. The Bahle’s are an  interesting family, and I’ve discovered quite a bit about them recently.
In 1880, the Bahle’s lived in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Today we know of this as Pittsburgh’s North Side but before 1907, Allegheny was a separate city. While I think they resided on Iten Street (or something similar, see the middle of the ‘N’ in the map below), the street name is unclear on the several census sheets it appears. To further complicate things, upon annexation, many Allegheny streets were renamed because of duplicate names used by Pittsburgh. Based on the names of surrounding streets, examining a 1876 map and comparing it to today’s Google Map, I presume they lived in the East Allegheny, or Deutschtown.
1876 map of Allegheny city’s 7th Ward (Source). To see where this is today, click here. 
For the residents of this street, the census sheet lists birthplaces of Bavaria, Hesse, Prussia and Werttemburg. In the late 1800’s, these were all Germanic kingdoms or duchy’s. Jacob was working in a cotton mill, which is an interesting occupation for Pittsburgh where steel and iron production ruled. While wife Henrietta maintained the home, elder sons George and John were unemployed and looking for work. The younger children were either in school or stayed at home with mom.
The 1880 Census sheet for Jacob Bahle and his family. Click to enlarge.
Finding these records isn’t as easy as you might assume. I had a rough sense that the Bahle’s were living in Pittsburgh in 1880, but wasn’t sure where. A simple last name search turned up nothing. While I’ve manually searched census records for places like Leetonia and Salem, the 1880 Census determined Pittsburgh to be a city of 156,389. After about an hour of using more advanced search techniques (wildcat searches!) on a few different genealogy sites, I found them and discovered by they weren’t easy to find. The enumerator spelled their last name B-A-L-I instead of B-A-H-L-E.

Relationship to me:
Jacob Bahle (1832 – 1908)
father of:
Mary Anna Bahle (1877 -1935)
mother of:
Mary Margaret Pepperney (1902 – 1980)
mother of:
Charles James Lowry (1924 – 2007)
father of:
Patrick Edward Lowry
father of:
Joseph Patrick Lowry

State: Pittsburgh
County: Allegheny
Town: Allegheny City (annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907)
Page No.: 44
Supervisor’s District: 9
Enumeration District: 24
Dwelling: 305
Family No.: 426
Address: 22 (illegible)

Bali, Jacob White, Male, Age 48 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Head of household. Married. Occupation: works in a cotton mill. Born in Werttemburg, Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Werttemburg.
— , Henrietta. White, Female, Age 37 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Wife. Married. Occupation: keeping house. Born in Pennsylvania, Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Werttemburg.
— , George. White, Male, Age 19 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Son. Single. Occupation: laborer. Number of months this person has been unemployed in Census Year: (checked). Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.
— , John. White, Male, Age 17 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Son. Single. Occupation: laborer. Number of months this person has been unemployed in Census Year: (checked). Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.

— , Jacob. White, Male, Age 17 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Son. Single. Occupation: at school. Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.
— , Anna. White, Female, Age 10 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Daughter, Single. Occupation: at school. Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.
— , Joseph. White, Male, Age 8 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Son. Single. Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.
— , Mary. White, Female, Age 3 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Daughter, Single. Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.
— , Andrew. White, Male, Age 1 at last birthday before June 1, 1880. Son. Single. Born in Pennsylvania. Father born in Werttemburg, Mother born in Pennsylvania.

Sources:
1880 U.S. census, Allegheny, Pennsylvania population schedule, Allegheny, enumeration district (ED) 24, page 44 (penned), dwelling 305, family 426, Jacob Bali; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 February 2013); NARA microfilm Roll 1087.

Wordless Wednesday – On the Front Stoop

joelowry1982 Lowry, Paternal, Wordless Wednesday

From a family collection. Click to enlarge.
Standing in front of his newly built house on 607 Mansell Drive are my grandfather Chuck Lowry (left) and godfather/uncle Chuck Lowry (center, about age 3). Based on my uncle’s apparent age and other photos in the series, I imagine this photo dates to around spring of 1952. You’ll notice there is no grass in the yard. As the house was finished in the autumn of 1951, they probably waited until 1952 to plant grass.
I’m not sure who the other two people are in the photo, including the adult behind grandpa and the young girl. Perhaps a cousin? Does anyone know the name of the dog?

Surname Saturday – Mary Anna Bahle

joelowry1982 Bahle, Paternal

Mary Anna Bahle Pepperney is my great great grandmother on my father’s side. Born in 1877 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Jacob Bahle and (Rachel Snauffer?)*.

On August 5, 1896, in Saint Mary Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, she married George Peter Pepperney with Rev. Enders presiding.

Click to enlarge.

Together Mary Anna and George would have at least six children, with four surviving into adulthood.

  • George Lawrence Pepperney (1899 – 1900)
  • Mary Margaret Pepperney (1902 – 1980)
  • James Albert Pepperney (1906 – 1999)
  • Katherine Emma Pepperney (1910 – 1978)
  • Baby Pepperney (1910)
  • Eleanor Julia Pepperney (1912 – 1951)
After their marriage, Mary Anna and George lived in Charleroi, Pennsylvania before relocating to Beaver Township, Mahoning County, Ohio. By 1930, they had settled in Leetonia, Ohio where George was a painter of rooms and houses, not canvas. (Interestingly, the 1940 Federal Census lists George as an ‘interior decorator’, which I suppose he was.)

On Sunday, March 31, 1935, Mary Anna was stricken with a sudden stroke at age 58. She was nursed for two weeks before dying on April 11 at 12:30 p.m.

Mary was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Leetonia, Ohio.Her husband George would survive another 27 years before dying in 1962.
Joe Lowry photo.


*Mary Pepperney’s death certificate provides this name, but so far I’ve found no other records of a Rachel Snauffer married to a Jacob Bahle. There is a contemporary Jacob Bahle in Pittsburgh married to Henrietta, but I haven’t explored that further..

Sources:
“Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1953,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X6W7-2RF : accessed 10 Feb 2013), Mary Pepperney, 11 Apr 1935; citing Leetonia, Columbiana, Ohio, reference fn 21925; FHL microfilm 2022486.

“Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885 – 1950,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VFMT-KY5 : accessed 09 Feb 2013), George P. Pepperney and Mary Bahle, 1896.

Wordless Wednesday: No longer on the demo list…

joelowry1982 Lowry, Maternal, Paternal, Wordless Wednesday

It’s all well and good to say that Youngstown needs to demolish more houses, and it does. Its good policy in a shrinking city. It’s hard to recognize that these were once homes. In this case, 233 West Dennick Avenue, my childhood home, met it’s fate on Tuesday courtesy of a backhoe and a Federal grant.

A few fond memories…

(click on a photo to view slideshow with larger photos)

(Cross-posted to the Y-town is My Town Blog.)

Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Ancestry.com Indexer

joelowry1982 Census Sunday, Paternal, Rogan

When the 1940 U.S. census records were released, Ancestry.com paid some folks a lot of money to transcribe and index them, which would allow average Joe’s like to me to go in and find people with a simple keyword search. I appreciate that these indexers were faced with records for millions of people to index and handwriting that could be atrocious, but these indexers sucked at their job.

I introduce for the prosecution Exhibit A: the 1940 Census of Mercedes Rogan Clark and her husband John.

In 1940, one of the questions asked by the enumerator is where the person lived in 1935. The objective of the question was to capture additional changes to information from the 1930 census. And how did the indexer transcribe the answer to that question asked of Mercedes: Pen Argyl, Molesmer, Ohio.

I’m not a geography whiz, but I know a few things. Pen Argyl is in Pennsylvania, not Ohio, and Molesmer is a fictitious place. What is clear to me is that the line reads, ‘Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio.’

Source:
1940 U.S. Federal Census, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Enumeration District 37-19, Sheet 16B. Clark, Charles; digital image, Ancestry.com (link), accessed 29 January 2013), citing National Archives microfilm publication Roll T627 3537.

Tombstone Tuesday – Lowry, but which one?

joelowry1982 Lowry, Paternal

A Lowry family headstone from Calvary Cemetery in Leetonia, Ohio, with no dates or other markers associated with it. The back is blank, but I’d like to place bets on this being either Michael Lowry (1868 – 1949) and Anna Lottman (1869 – 1945) or Michael’s parents, Michael Lowry (1829 – 1928) and Bridget Conley (1825 – 1904). Nearby stones, including those for Anna Lottman Lowry’s parents, are dated starting around 1920 but do extend into the 1950’s. The groundskeeper told me that the cemetery records are reported to be in someone’s basement. Somewhere I have a cell phone number for the guy. I’ll need to dig that out eventually.

Photo of the Day: The Witt Siblings

joelowry1982 Maternal, Photo Friday, Witt
Among the many photos that I scanned over Christmas was this amazing shot of my grandfather Howard Witt and his siblings. Based purely on perceived age, and no doubt requiring some straightening out by my aunts and uncles, are:
(l to r, back), Francis (1920 – 2002), William (1922 – 2011), Governor (1919 – 2004)
 (l to r, front) Frederick (1924 – 2009), Howard (1929 – 2001), Ruth (1926 – 1932)
The only sibling missing is Helen (1934 – 2009) who was not yet born when I estimate this photo was taken around 1930.
If you know better than I, can you help me correct the identification? Thanks! (corrected by my mom! Thanks!)