CIVIL WAR - 2nd great-grand-uncle

 

William Young - 2nd great-grand-uncle

BIRTH  14 JAN 1814 • Roane County, Tennessee, USA

DEATH 14 MAR 1909 • Milwaukie, Clackamas, Oregon, USA

It was just a regular day of working on my family trees - updating and such. 

I had requested a photo of his grave on Find-A-Grave. Within hours I was notified that the photo request could not be fulfilled because there was no marker. 

Later I received an email from the pioneer cemetery in Milwaukie, Clackamas County, Oregon, stating they wanted to provide him a military marker since he was a veteran who served in the Civil War. She said they did a brief check on NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) but couldn't find "my William Young." 

Any chance to do a deep search is always invigorating, never knowing what I'll find, or if I will find anything. The search could take days or 2 years. 

I looked and looked - this was the first time I have done such a search - I joined Fold3. I looked at Tennesee Gen websites on military soldiers during the Civil War.  After a couple of days, I started getting a headache and decided I needed a couple of days of rest so that when I could come back, with fresh new eyes - which worked because within the first hour, I found him, serving in the US Army Tennessee Company B  5th Calvery. 

I have since talked with the Pioneer cemetery in Oregon and I will download the documents I have found for them. They still have to get "the official permission".

I was warned of a lot of bureaucratic red tape and that it might take a few months. She also said they will contact the Sons of the Civil War Veterans to officiate at the service, with honors and place the cement marker, honoring his service. 

I'm in Northern California - this cemetery is just 12 miles south of Portland. I told her we would drive up (a 6-hour drive) to be part of it. 

HOW COOL IS THAT????

And to think there are those, who think Genealogy is boring. HA! 

Sad News -

 

Yesterday I decided I wanted to know more about Claude McCart; my grandma's younger brother. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I was coming up with information that was not sourced - about him being killed in 1918 on an Indian Reservation, by an Indian. Ancestry just didn't have the information I needed, so I used Newspapers.com and punched in, his name and the year 1918. 

To my surprise, a list of newspaper articles from newspapers in the Kansas area popped up - This was BIG and I read every single article -

Claude McCart was highlighted in yellow - among pages of articles on the crime, the trials, and sentencing.   I discovered he was a Provost (Military) Guard at the federal military prison, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas.  He was 23 years old and the date of his death was Sunday, Jan 7, 1917. (the newspaper articles listed other dates but from that first article, I do believe I got it right) 

 I admit, while oral history bugs me because many in my family believe it's all the gods honest truth - there can be a smidgen of truth. The first person told the story, hopefully as truth, and then it evolves from there - given people's memories. 

I had grown an attachment to this young man - and to find out he really was murdered really upset me; In a way, I was mildly grieving.

Isn't that just like researching our Family Trees? It's not like we're finding royalty and famous Scientists and Educators? You never know what you will uncover and that is why I find Genealogy so much fun. You have to have a strong stomach for the bizarre things you may find. 

The arrests continued - 3 men and 3 women and a lot of witnesses. 

The 2 men got 2nd-degree murder - 5 years in prison. 

Even newspapers back then made mistakes. Little did they know, it would totally confuse future genealogists. 

Thankfully they did correct the spelling of his name - but when they said they were sending him home to Crawley County, Tennessee - I looked it up - there is no such county in Tennessee named that. ANOTHER MYSTERY. 

And yes, Claude had married 20 yr old Dolly Jordon. Just before the murder, she had filed for divorce. 

I found out way more than I intended. I still don't know what he did for the military from 1910-1914. I suspect he re-enlisted because I did find this pension file. 

Don't get mad - request military records

 

This handsome young man is my Grand-Uncle. I have always been curious about him - He served in the US Army from 1910 to 1914 so he was not in WW1. Perhaps Spanish American, The Mexican Border War, or The Philippines. 

It starts out with his birth in 1893, born in Scott County, Tennessee. He's in one census - 1900. I can't find him in any 1910 census. I checked his mother (my great grandmother and his siblings) Only one of them has a 1910 census - the sister who married. I'm thinking, these are country folk - in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee - a fiercely independent bunch. It's quite possible, they just didn't do a census that year - too busy making some good old moonshine! 

On Ancestry, information keeps popping up that he was murdered in 1918 in Oklahoma on an Indian Reservation. As I said yesterday, bad information skews the algorithms on Ancestry - When I took the time to go over the 512 family trees that copied this bad information, over and over again - they have no sources, no documentation. 

I took it upon myself once again, to search out someone with a name similar to my Grand Uncle and came across a native American with a similar name to his, that was a troublemaker - and finally was whacked on the reservation. It's NOT my Grand Uncle who served in the US Army and he doesn't deserve to have his name trashed or connected to this. I need to prove it though. 

My husband tells me I can't fix it - the bad information is just too big for me. But what I can do, is REQUEST from the US National Archives his military records. 

https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records

I admit, without a social security number (they didn't have them at this time) it will be hard for them to locate anything on him. I don't have a birth date only his birth year and even that is questionable. I do have his honorable discharge date - June 1914. 

I look into this young man's eyes which were blue according to his enlistment record - and I have to find out or at least do everything I can, within reason. 

Knowing how S L O W the government moves - it will no doubt take weeks/months.