Kindred Souls

The moral for today is one that I have heard over and over: Don't just research your direct-line ancestors but also their siblings (and sometimes even their friends and neighbors.) I've even followed this advice a few times and made some great discoveries. However, if I had followed it in this case, I would have made this interesting discovery a long time ago. 

I have to give the credit to Ancestry's Thru-Lines. I was looking at the descendant lines of the siblings of my 3rd great-grandmother, Priscilla Souls/Soles. Under her sister Elizabeth Soles Faulk, I found the name of a descendant that I have seen for years as a DNA match to me on Ancestry and Gedmatch. 

Here's why I overlooked the discovery I finally made this week. I am always looking for DNA matches that will help me find the parents of my 2nd great-grandfather, John Smith, and this particular match had the surname Smith. I know it's a long shot, but I always take a second look at my Smith matches. Years ago when I determined that the Smiths in Mr. Smith's tree were not my Smiths, I looked just far enough to realize that our match was not through the Smiths, but through the Soles line. I put a Note to myself that Mr. Smith was a Soles descendant and moved right on.

As I said above, this week I was looking at Thru-Lines, and this time I clicked on Mr. Smith's profile pic and looked a little closer at our match comparison. Thru-Lines had highlighted our shared surnames, which included Smith, Soles, and Harris. The Harris made me look a little closer, and that is the lucky part because the Harris surname is not even on the Smith side of my tree. However, it is my grandfather's middle name, and I have always wondered where it came from.

My 3rd great-grandmother's sister, Elizabeth Soles, married Phillip Lemuel Faulk in Columbus County, NC, in 1814. (Again, it's always good to research siblings, especially if you are into DNA matching. This explains why I have so many DNA matches with the surname Faulk in their family trees.) Their daughter, Mary Ann, born 1826, married Edward Harris on 10 January 1843 in Pike County, AL. (My Soles and Simmons ancestors also moved from Columbus County NC to Pike County AL in this time period.) 

Edward and Mary Ann's son, Joseph Warren Harris, born 1847, married Nancy Jane Hinson on 5 December 1867 in Troy, Pike County, AL. Nancy's parents were William Hinson and Martha Ann Pugh. And now you have all the names you need to know in order to understand the significance they had for me. 

On the 1860 census of the Eastern Division, Pike County AL, my 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Simmons Mansell, is enumerated as head of household; her husband, John Mansell, had died in 1845. Her name is spelled "Mansill" on the census, and mis-transcribed as "Mansild." Enumerated with her on this census are: her sons, William, Samuel, and Simeon; her daughter Frances (my great-grandmother), age 11; and twins, age 7, named Pugh and Nancy J. 

1860 census, Pike County AL, Mansill family

More than one mystery is attached to this census record. The most significant one for me is: Who is Frances's father? Since she was born in 1849, four years after John Mansell's death in 1845, he can't be her father--even though she used the Mansell surname on her marriage license. Even the identity of Simeon's father can be questioned; he was born the same year that John Mansell died. However, the big one is: Who were Pugh and Nancy and what happened to them? 

As far as I can tell, neither of the twins ever appear again on any census, including the 1870, in which they would have been 17 and young enough to still be living with Elizabeth. Some explanations come to mind, and I have tried to eliminate each of them through research over the years. Nancy could have married before the 1870 census. Either or both of them could have died. They could have been Elizabeth's grandchildren and enumerated on the 187o census with their parents. Or maybe their surname wasn't Mansell at all, and they appear later under other surnames. Of course, Nancy J. has such a common name that she could be anywhere, but Pugh Mansell, if that was his name, should show up somewhere. He doesn't.

Then--my discovery this week, which gives me even more options. Could Nancy J. and Pugh have some connection to the Harris/Hinson family of Pike County? 

Possible avenues for research:

• The most obvious explanation is that the Nancy J. on the 1860 census with the Mansell family IS the Nancy J. Hinson who married Joseph Warren Harris. Who else would be likely to have a twin brother whose given name Pugh is Nancy's mother's maiden name? Maybe she and her brother were visiting their cousins and got enumerated as Mansills by mistake. However, a couple of facts make this unlikely. The dates are a little off--Nancy J. on the census was born in 1853; Nancy J. Hinson was born in 1849. Her marriage in 1867 makes it unlikely, although not impossible, that the 1853 date is the right one. Another fact makes this explanation even more unlikely. "Jane" Hinson, age 11, appears on the 1860 census with her parents, William and Martha (Pugh) Hinson--no twin brother and no brother named Pugh. Too bad this couldn't be the answer, because I thought I had finally solved the mystery of Nancy J. and Pugh!

1860 census, Pike Co. AL, Hinson family

• Perhaps Nancy J. and Pugh were visiting cousins with a connection to the Hinsons--again, accidentally enumerated as members of the Mansell family. This will require researching other Pugh descendants who could have children of the right age to be the twins.

• They could be Elizabeth Mansell's own children. She would have been 40 at their birth. We still have the problem of who their father was. And why would she give them names more significant for her cousins than for herself? Looking closely at that relationship, exactly how was she related to the Hinson/Harris family? Elizabeth's mother Priscilla and Elizabeth Soles were sisters. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to conclude that Elizabeth Simmons Mansell was named for her aunt, Elizabeth Soles. Priscilla's daughter Elizabeth and Elizabeth's daughter Mary Ann would have been 1st cousins. Mary Ann's son, Joseph Warren Harris, would have been Elizabeth's 1st cousin, once removed. His wife, Nancy J. Hinson, whose mother was Martha Pugh, would not have been related to Elizabeth Mansell at all. Why would Elizabeth name her daughter for unrelated Nancy Jane Hinson or her son for Nancy's mother, Martha Pugh? How do I even begin to research this?

• Maybe there is an even closer connection between the families than I expected. Don't forget that the naming continues into the next generation with Elizabeth's daughter Frances naming her youngest child Weaver Harris Smith. In fact, in the Smith family's petition to the Dawes Commission for Cherokee citizenship my grandfather is listed as Harris W. Smith. Maybe the connection is with the unknown father of Frances, Nancy J., and Pugh, but who could he possibly be? 

No matter which of these explanations is the right one, or even if Elizabeth and Frances just liked the names Nancy Jane, Pugh, and Harris, there is possibly a much closer relationship between the descendants of Priscilla and Elizabeth Soles than I had previously realized. While Nancy J. and Pugh are still mysteries, at least I now have another direction in which to search. 

Christmas Baskets

As usual, the holidays have put me in a nostalgic frame of mind. Pulling out the tree ornaments and decorations, some of which are a half-century old, (see my post "Ghosts of Christmas Past") and remembering past Christmases with family members who are no longer here always makes me sentimental at this time of year. After having a conversation with my sister-in-law about practical presents, I decided to make food baskets for my family, based on gift items my grandmother used to make and recipes I remember making with her. I called them Grandma Fannie's Christmas Baskets.

Ham Salad

I remember when my grandmother started making food baskets for her sisters for Christmas. I remember her saying that she couldn't think of anything they needed or wanted, but everybody could always use food. Now that I'm older, I know exactly what she meant. The conversation with my sister-in-law about practical presents put me in mind of this observation of my grandmother's.

She always started her sisters' baskets off with a ham. She would pick a fairly small one--they didn't need a lot--but fancy it up with cloves and a glaze. I decided to go the ham salad route with my family baskets. I hadn't made or had ham salad in a long time, but it was something my grandmother made a lot. I checked out a lot of recipes and finally came up with my own. It used to drive me crazy when I would ask my grandmother for a recipe, and she would say "a pinch of this" or "a dab of that," but that's exactly how this ham salad was made. She used to grind the ham in her meat grinder, but I used the food processor, then added finely chopped red onion and celery, mayonnaise, a little Dijon mustard, and a "dab" of dill pickle relish. It was a big hit.

Bread and Butter Pickles

My grandmother canned her pickles, but I made the easy refrigerator kind. Bread and butter pickles are sweet and sour. Honestly, I can't stand sweet pickles, so I had to ask my relatives if these turned out well, because I didn't even try them. The ones who like sweet pickles said they were good!

I have wondered for a long time about the name of these pickles. Google mentions several variations on the theme of the Depression--taking cucumber sandwiches for lunch, etc.--but the name actually became trademarked in 1923 by a couple of cucumber farmers from Illinois as "Fanning's Bread and Butter Pickles." Omar and Cora Fanning said they called them bread and butter pickles because before they were famous, they used to use them to barter with their neighbors for bread and butter.

Cinnamon Apples

I remember watching my grandmother make cinnamon applesauce. It was one of the items that almost always went in her baskets. I had a recipe from an old cookbook that my grandmother used, but I had recently watched the Pioneer Woman make cinnamon apple slices on TV, so I used her recipe. They were delicious! The hardest part of this recipe was finding the Red Hots. I thought maybe it was because they are old-school, but my friend reminded me that a lot of people use them for gingerbread houses. In any case, they weren't available at our local grocery stores, but I finally found them at Dollar General.

Cloverleaf Rolls

I am a good cook, and sometimes a good baker, but I cannot make bread. I was going to use my grandmother's roll recipe from her old cookbook (copyright 1953), but I decided maybe I needed a more modern version. It didn't matter. They still didn't rise. Don't tell my family, but I ended up making them out of Rhodes frozen bread dough. The whole point is that they are cloverleaf rolls, which is what my grandmother always made. 

Late in life--she was in her 70's or 80's--my grandmother decided to start baking bread from scratch. Now I imagine she had made bread before, but she decided she needed to perfect the process of making cloverleaf rolls. Now that I am retired myself, I think I know what she was trying to do. She wanted to stay busy and keep her mind and hands active, and that was what she did. She used a recipe from my mother's cookbook, which is the only one I ever saw her use. The only reason I know it was my mother's is because my grandmother wrote on the flyleaf, "Ida Belle's cookbook." It was called The Modern Family Cookbook by Meta Given, and you can see that my mother and grandmother made good use of it.

Hermit Cookies

My recipe for hermits also came from The Modern Family Cookbook. I remember making hermit cookies with my grandmother and by myself, when I was a teenager. Compared to the cookie varieties we have now, they weren't very special, made with ingredients that most cooks would have in their pantries. I guess the best way to describe them would be as spice cookies--they have both cinnamon and nutmeg in them--with raisins and nuts. I laughed out loud when I saw the directions--the cook was supposed to sift the flour five times--once for the flour itself and once each after the addition of salt, soda, the cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Can you imagine any busy woman now sifting the flour for cookies five times?

My grandmother had no problem with modern conveniences. By the time she started raising my brother and me at the age of 60, she had been cooking for a long time, and she didn't mind at all using store-bought foods or being taken out to eat. And my dad, after a long day at work, didn't mind at all taking us out to eat. I was luckier than most kids in that respect, I guess, and those dinners out at our favorite places are some of my best memories. To be honest, there were some things that my grandmother could cook really well--her roast and potatoes in the pressure cooker were something I have never been able to reproduce--but she was a better baker than a cook. She made cakes a lot, but I don't remember her ever using a recipe. Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines cake mixes with homemade frosting--buttercream or marshmallow--were often requested and enjoyed.

By the way, many have wondered how "hermit" cookies got their name, and there is no definite answer. One website suggested that the Moravians, sometimes called by the Dutch name "hernhutters," also baked a kind of spice cookie, and their name might have sounded like "hermits" to an English speaker. Hermit cookies have been known by that name in the U.S. since the 1870's. Apparently, they last forever (maybe hermits could keep them a long time in their caves) and were a popular choice for mothers sending packages to their sons overseas during WWII.

Divinity

I have no recollection of my grandmother making divinity, but I'm sure she did. Her sister Georgia was the divinity queen in our family. This was one of those "keeping your mind and hands active" things for me. I just wanted to see if I could do it. If I have ever made divinity before, it was so long ago that I have forgotten. Unlike the rolls, the divinity turned out wonderful! The first ones wanted to spread a little, so I googled that and found a suggestion to add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar. That did the trick. Scrumptious, if I do say so myself.

On a note in each family's basket, I wrote:

Grandma Fannie's Christmas Basket
Ham Salad
Bread and Butter Pickles
Cinnamon Apples
Cloverleaf Rolls
Hermit Cookies
Divinity

And on the other side:
Making food for us was how she showed her love
Making her food for you is how I show you mine

Grandma Fannie's Christmas Baskets