Paddling Back Up-River - Article Follow-Up

This is a follow-up of the Actor Frank Vincent Kiefer article. Nora Smith was one of the genealogical researchers, besides Brenda Jerome, to answer the challenge to learn more about this mysterious local actor. Nora sent me a lot of data with references, although some was from other people's research that did not have all of the sources listed. I will attempt here to briefly summarize what she sent me... with the hope others will help to unravel the mystery further.

Frank Kiefer is found in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census as being born in May 1874 (Indiana) living in Pigeon Township of Evansville, Indiana. By 1910, he was living with his brother-in-law's family (Edward Rabin) where he was listed as an Actor (age 38, single, both parents born in Germany). Then in 1920 U.S. Census, he was 44 with spouse Mary (Mary Josephine Haag, dau. of Peter Haag). Mary Haag Kiefer 1872-1948. There is another Kiefer that was an actor also.

Nora said she could not find a Frank Vincent Kiefer in Ancestry.com, but did find a Vincent Kiefer in 1880, Mt. Vernon, Indiana born about 1872.

The Frank that died in 1955 and buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in Evansville was the one that was married to Mary Haag (and listed as "Frank W.") and apparently not the same one with tombstone at Oak Hill Cemetery that died in 1833! So, who is he in relation to our actor Frank? From a scrapbook of Anna Thomas Loehrlein, there is newspaper clipping "Aged Man Kills Self with Gun: Health Blamed." What the clipping says is not available at this time!

According to Ancestry.com "One World Tree:" Mary Josephine Haag (wife of Frank W. Kiefer) is buried at St. Joseph Cemetery & had 3 children - one William Kiefer owned Terry's Steak House. Some information from the Browning Database.

- Submitted by Nora Smith... Compiled & edited by JGWest

"Remembering Her Wedding Day... on Mother's Day"

Peggy Gilkey is sharing this great Mother's Day suggestion with us.

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Since Mother's Day is coming up, it started me thinking about something Ken and I both did sometime ago. I was visiting with my mom in Kentucky before her death and we spent alot of time talking about her family and going through old family photos. I decided to ask her about her Wedding Day. It was wonderful how she remembered every detail down to the cost of everything, the town and what was happening at the time. I scribbled down everything she told me, dates, colors, prices and places. When I got home I went through my notes and put it all in story form. On my next visit I read it to her and asked if any changes should be made. We did the same thing with Ken's mom when she was in a retirement home before her death. It was amazing how she could remember even the cost of her shoes, where they married, people in the town.


With men it usually is a different story, they do well to remember the date. I think they were so happy to win the girl and that was the thing that was most important to them.


Now both our moms have gone on to meet their ancestors but we still have these wonderful stories of their wedding days to pass on to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. If you still have your mom spend some time with her this Mother's Day and learn her Wedding Day story, if she is no longer with you write your own story and give a copy to your children or grand children.

- Submitted by Peggy Gilkey

[NOTE: I was going to use today for some follow-up on our Frank Vincent Kiefer mystery... we have some updates on this local actor. It will be in tomorrow's (Sat.) blog. My apologies to the ones that went to a lot of trouble following up on this, but I will have more time to present it better. Peggy's idea is more timely for today.]

Tombstone Thursday - Charles Anderson

A Bedstone shaped Tombstone

I have seen many grave markers that resemble a bed with a large flat marker at the head and a flat footstone with posts in all four corners and a small concrete fence that look like a bed side rails. As you can see this marker looks like a real bed! - JGWest

Governor Charles Andderson

Charles Anderson was born near Louisville, Kentucky, on June 1, 1814. In 1829, Anderson came to Oxford, Ohio, to attend Miami University.
He graduated in 1833 and returned to Louisville. Anderson advocated granting African Americans civil rights and argued, unsuccessfully, that Ohio should
repeal its "Black Laws". President Abraham Lincoln sent Anderson to England to seek support for the Union war effort through public speaking. Anderson felt that this role did not contribute enough to the war and soon returned home to the United States. The Governor of Ohio gave him a commission as a Colonel in the Ninety-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1862. Anderson was severely
wounded at the Battle of Stones River. On August 29, 1865, Anderson became Ohio's twenty-seventh Governor. In 1870, he moved to Lyon County, Kentucky, in search of a quieter life. Charles Anderson died in Kuttawa, Kentucky, on September 2, 1895. [This is exerpts of the biography of Charles Anderson by Ohio History Central. Cabinet Card Photo made ca. 1880-1890 of grave submitted by Don Howell] Visit Peggy Gilkey's web site (Kuttawa Park Cemetery, Kuttawa, KY) to see more of this story

- Submitted by Peggy Gilkey

[Tombstone Thursday is dedicated in memory of Donald G. West 1952-2000]

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

The saying goes...

"April Showers Brings

May Flowers!"

... but, why do we still have April Showers?

(Oak Hill Cemetery, Evansville, Indiana ~ Connie M. Miller 1935-2004)

NOTE: the scriptive name engraving.

- Submitted by JGWest

RACING DOWN the RIVER -Brief Genealogical Notes

There are a lot of Internet sites, email lists, bulletin boards, etc. that genealogists of similair interests or of the same family (some of these may be interest in the same location... such as a county or region of a state). There are an increasing number of new Internet social interacting networks... I think twitter.com may be the newest. Add to this FaceBook.com, MyFamily.com, Genealogy.com, RootsWeb.com and MySpace.com and you have a variety of great ways to communicate & interact with large groups of people with the same or similar interests... these can be used for groups of genealogists to better communicate and aid in their research efforts.

Best of all most of these are free to use (MyFamily.com now has a small annual fee for the site owner - only) & you can start up your own site! Check out some of these networking ideas & see if it may benefit you & your friends/family... especially with your genealogical research.

Submitted by JGWest

Marker/Plaque/Monument Monday

Soldiers & Sailors Monument

Mt. Vernon, Indiana

Posey County Courthouse

(Click on images to enlarge)

Back Side Plaque

-Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

"Submitters Needed for TSGS Cruiser Blog"

I have nothing for today, except to take this opportunity to ask TSGS Members, Genealogists, Visitors, Friends & Family to submit articles for the blog. I could put up a great & neat tombstone up for today, but I would rather not make the blog just a tombstone photo blog. I will have a super cool tombstone for this week's "Thursday Tombstone" feature submitted by Peggy Gilkey! I continue to get some very good material from Brenda Jerome & Don Counts. Chris Myers sends items & is a great commenter for articles. I do get an occasional contribution from several other people from time to time... that I am very grateful. However, at this time the only thing in my "Blog Items to Publish" is Peggy's interesting tombstone photo. I have one or two ideas in my mind, but will take time to develop.

"The First Mate's - Photo Album" is not a big problem with the hundreds of hundreds of photos I have taken over just the last 10 years not counting the collections of family members over the last 50 years or so. I have quite a few photos for "Monument Monday" as well. I can not stress more that I do not want the Tri-State Genealogical Society TSGS Cruiser Blog to be just my contributions... I envision this as a site for many, many genealogical/historical contributors from all walks of life with a wide diversity of experiences.

I had hoped, that as genealogists, most visitors would want to share an interesting, humorous or unusual brief story of their genealogical research journey. Interesting short stories about family members (past & present). [Wow, this gives me ideas to use... if you do not want to hear about my family only - you need to send in your stories!] I have the "Escape to the Texas Territory" - "The Young Ohio Co., KY Bear Killer" - "The Indian Massacre Saga" - "My Grandpa Long" - "The 'Last-Minute' Feast" - please send in your stories!

People complain that the Internet is short on using good sound genealogical research techniques; well, lets change that, submit articles or facts that we all need to learn to improve our family histories and help us research more efficiently with a higher standard of validity.

Lastly, if you have something that makes our research efforts more fun... send me some genealogical humor (jokes, stories, photos).

Submit anything you think might be good to publish on this blog. I might have to edit what you send to make it more appropriate or be of reasonable length, but I will let you decide if the edit is OK with you before I publish it. Help me make this a nice forum for TSGS members with plenty of submissions by a large spectrum of individuals. Send contributions to: jgw.mylines@gmail.com or click on the submission links found on the right column.

John G. West, Blog Master