Lewiston Man Dead on Train

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

October 27, 2022

“Lewiston Man Dead on Train”

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 126 (up from 121 last chronicle)

Number of pages in basic Descendant Report: 190 (up from 181 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am now # 294. # 286, where I was last week, is now Raymond Gayle MacKillop.

Matthew Williams, Jane William’s grandson, is last at # 415, up from # 402, and his son is # ii.

#402 is now Elizabeth McCargo.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

 

 

Simon’s new perch.

Fed the dog, made my coffee, and opened my email early Sunday morning the 16th. I received a blessing on a drizzly grey day. Several of you often send me a note after you read my weekly chronicle, and I am so grateful. This day, I heard from someone new. Someone I knew about, yes, but not someone I had met before, either in real life or virtual. I won’t share her whole email, just the gist of it. She identified herself, said that her mother forwards her my weekly email (thanks, Mom), and she enjoys reading them. She told me of her career and where it took her, and her interest in family history. And this – Thank you for all that you do to document and enrich everyone's family history stories - an unbelievable commitment and dedication! ~ Jennifer.

 All of your comments warm my heart and renew my passion, making it easier to research and write, chase our elusive ancestors, and tell their stories.

~

Well, I took a tentative step in producing our family history and genealogy book in Family Tree Maker, as I compiled a sample pdf copy and sent it off to a few family genealogists. This is a bit of a tree: the lives of three descendants of Daniel and Charlotte Hoyt Holmes who settled for a short or a long time or summer stays in Lincoln, Maine: Sarah Louise Holmes and Robert Roy Ballantyne; William Nelson Holmes and Anna Columbia Heath; and Caroline Maria Holmes and Charles Alfred Steeves. It’s rough – but it is a sort of template of what is to come eventually. This is all part of “A Colossal Collection of Cousins,” so I don’t mind moving about in the project. Plus, I determined earlier that, if ever I find myself unable to complete CCC, I should at least have the genealogy done.

 I’m hoping the few genealogists I have chosen will give me their honest feedback so I can proceed. If they like it, I’ll be after more of you to help me with your family. Some of you have helped in the past, but still, new information always comes up.

 This contains the names of a few living people, perhaps of my generation – those of us who are - well – mature in years. Is that a kind way to say it? I’ll need permission from each one of them to include them, for privacy reasons. Without permission, I’ll be temporarily dropping them from the tree (easily done, as long as I don’t forget to add them back in), but if most people object, I’ll drop a generation. No littles will appear in this tree that will go to an archive, but they will probably appear eventually in a copy for family members. If there are objections, they will appear in my copy only. That’s off in the future, anyway.

 There are only 30 pages in my sample book, which of course will change.

~

So, as I consider what I have to do and redo and revise for this booklet, I decided to start revising the Robert Ballantyne family. I have the basics in my tree but need to add details and sources, as they change with time.

 Louisa Ballantyne was the daughter of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes, and married Robert R Ballantyne.

 The children of Robert and Louisa Ballantyne:

 

Daniel   1867 – 1924

Grace    1868 – 1941

Winifred 1870 – 1931

Alice      1873 – 1937

Kingsley 1876 – 1944

Ellwood  1879 – 1899

Frank      1882 – 1958

Edith      1887 - 1897

 

(Their causes of death are an interesting study as well.)

 I came upon my Alice Ballantyne conundrum again – I remember it from my research of long ago, when I was working on the three Ballantyne sisters who lived together in Iowa and Idaho, together most of the time, with their brother Frank living with them by times and/or close by. I’m sure Paula will remember: Grace, Winifred, and Alice.

 What is important to know is that a death certificate is only a primary source for the death - not for the birth and the details before the death. Generally, it turns out to be correct, but not always. It’s only as good as the memory of the informant. Upon the death of Alice, sister Grace gave the wrong information to the recording secretary. She gave Alice’s birth date as November 8, 1878; place of birth, Brooklyn, Iowa. My hypothesis is that Alice was born in November, 1873, as recorded on the census of 1900.

 It is rare that I would choose a census date over a date on a death certificate, but you have to follow the entire family throughout their lives to note a discrepancy like this. Grace, also the informant on Winifred’s death certificate, gave a birth date for Winifred that was off by six years. Why would a lawyer do this? Grace was one of the first few female lawyers I the US.

 What were the ramifications of this/these errors? The sources available to on-line genealogists are wrong. What I can find for Alice’s death are the Idaho, US, Death Index; the Idaho, US, Death Records (actual record), and Find A Grave # 71713827 are all wrong. Will I lose sleep over this? Naw. It just throws the family picture off kilter, and causes me misgivings about Grace. Five years off for her sister Alice and six years off for Winifred, when they were all born one right after and lived together nearly all of their lives. I looked at Grace’s certificate of death. Grace died four years after Alice – but her cause of death and contributing health issues were all heart related; no mention of dementia.

 At about the same time and place, brother Frank had married the widow Alice Dorothy Matthews Mitchell as his second wife – another Alice Ballantyne, born, according to her death record, on October 6, 1878. This was close to the date of birth that Grace gave to Alice. They couple married in 1934, and Alice died of cancer in 1939 – even though Find A Grave says she died on 28 November, 1938. In this case, the death record is a primary source, so I will use the death record over Find A Grave.

 Another young Alice Ballantyne married A. Lawrence Costello on August 8, 1926. Both Alice and Lawrence were born c 1905, according to their marriage records. The other two Alice Ballantynes were long dead by this time. However . . .

 If you have a copy of the family history compiled by our ancestors in the late 1920s, it states that Alice Ballantyne (daughter of Robert and Louisa), married Lawrence Costello. I mentioned to Fen that the historians had made an error there and he said “hmmmmm.” I think he had removed his shingle from the wall by that time. I am looking at other Ballantyne relatives in the Iowa/Idaho area for the parents of Alice Ballantyne Costello. Information is pretty sketchy.

 I have a bit more work to do on this, but I’m pretty sure that I have it correct by following the census records. Ann Marie, you may want to have a look at this and see if you agree with me.

 Most of the time, I don’t go into in depth study of people. I’d need a dozen more lifetimes. But, this goes to show how easily errors are made and carried on by not doing quality research. I wonder how many errors I have made.

 ~

 Many years ago, Paula and I worked on his son, Norman Zell Ballantyne, son of the aforementioned Frank. . We couldn’t find out much about him, but were puzzled why he died so young. Paula, remember the radio tubes and how we studied them? The years go by, and more stuff shows up. I had sent away to the archives in Seattle, where Norman was declared dead, and after paying the fee, received a copy of his death certificate. It said, under cause of death, died on a train, probably a heart problem. (That is paraphrased). Well, Paula and anyone else interested, here is his notice of death. It makes me sad. It only shows up in the email, so I will transcribe it.

LEWISTON MAN DEAD ON TRAIN

Lewiston, Idaho, Sept. 13 – A Lewiston man, who left here Thursday afternoon in apparent good health, was found dead in his train compartment when it arrived in Seattle. The King county coroner’s office said the man, Norman Z. Ballantyne, 31, is believed to have died of natural causes.

Ballantyne left Lewiston Thursday to return to Japan where he has been employed for the last six years as a radio technician under United States civil service. He had been spending a vacation leave here with his mother, Mrs. Aurie Mates (sic – should be Mapes).

He is survived by his mother, his father, Frank Ballantyne, Juliaetta, a brother, Austin Ballantyne, and a half-sister, Goldie Mates (sic), both of Lewiston.

The body is being returned here to the Vassar-Rawis funeral home, with funeral arrangements pending.

~

 I am recovering from surgery and doing lots of genealogy, as I’m not supposed to do strenuous work. I had a thyroidectomy – they removed the right side of my thyroid and a benign tumor which was living off of it. I can now work on my desktop computer for short periods of time, but for several days I had to work on my tablet. It seems like I raise my head to read on my desktop, so I only used it when necessary.

 As I review, I’m finding more details than I had before, like the obituary of Norman Zell Ballantyne, above. I’m learning how to make and print my “book,” which will actually be a binder for the Lincoln, Maine, Historical Society’s new research branch. I am grateful to Ann Marie Holmes, who researches much like I do. She puts lots of obituaries on there for me to snatch, as does Ian Boss, who does not know I snatch them. Someday I might tell him, but previously, he didn’t seem interested in my project.

 

 I think I need to make a to-do diary. I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with my projects, which are –

 

·           Minutes of the Southeastern Branch of the NBGS – six times a year.

·         Four more speakers for our meetings to be located.

·         Promise of seven articles for News and Notes – two done; five to go between now and May.

·         Promise of seven articles for Generations which are the same but added to as the articles for N & N – one done, the rest are seasonal.

·         Promise of genealogy of three members of the Daniel Holmes family for the Lincoln Historical Society – anticipated date of completion, the end of the year.

·         Poor old neglected CCC, although all these promises are part of CCC and therefore not time wasted.

·         Christmas newsletter to compile and edit, with your help.

·         One promised doily to complete, wash, block and deliver.

 

No more promises until the genealogy for the LHS is complete, at least.

 We are having a beautiful end of October – shirtsleeves weather. I take a daily walk and enjoy it. Soon enough, the snow will begin. However, one of my Facebook/actual friends posted yesterday that lupins are in bloom by the bridge to Riverview. I’m heading that way today, but unfortunately, cannot stop at that location for a photo. I’d get run over.

 I haven’t been out taking photos, so I went to the archives and chose one of the photos that will go in the Lincoln project, and most of you have seen it before. This is the William and Anna (Heath) Holmes family. It will be in black and white in the project. Hannah Jennett (Ryerson) Pinkham, aka Granny Pink as I recall, is Anna’s mother.