Leafy Dell Park: 52 Ancestors Week Three Prompt "Unusual Name"

Leafy Dell Park: 1878-1958

            I can’t claim a close relationship with this ancestor: she’s my second cousin three times removed. But I was charmed by her name, so happily added her to my family tree.

            The Park branch of the family had some lovely, atypical names such as Huldah, Rosolvo, Lorenzo and Hiram, so I suppose the choice of the name “Leafy Dell Park” for George Alonzo Park’s second daughter would scarcely have raised an eyebrow in the family. I haven’t found any information about the source or reason for the name, but it works well with the surname “Park”, conjuring up a beautiful image of a green, leafy hollow amid the trees. 

            Leafy was born on April 14, 1878 to George Alonzo Park and his second wife, Angeline Stevenson Park. Leafy was the eighth of George’s ten children, his sixth with Angeline. She first appears on the 1880 census, incorrectly recorded as “Leathy”. The family was farming in the Delaware, Ohio area. 

By 1884, the Park family had moved to Kansas, settling in Montgomery County near Caney. By 1895, Leafy is 17 years old and is married to Charles Dobson, living next door to her parents and younger siblings, and by the 1900 census, she and her husband are living with her parents and youngest sister, Frankie. 

             At some point after 1900, Leafy and Dobson apparently divorce, because on October 19, 1904, Leafy Dell marries Earnest Ellmore Love, and she becomes Leafy Dell Love, another charming name. (Charles remarries as well.) On February 8, 1917, Leafy gives birth to a son, Robert Solomon Love. By this time, the Loves are living in Arkansas City, Arkansas, and Earnest Love, a native Arkansan, is working as a barber. They continued to live in Arkansas City until Leafy’s death at age 80 on December 28, 1958. Since Earnest had served in the military from 1901 to 1904, both he and Leafy were buried in the National Cemetery in Little Rock. 

            The Park family features one additional Leafy Dell Park. Leafy’s older brother, Sidney Fremont Park, named his third daughter Leafy Dell in honor of his sister. This next-generation Leafy was born September 20^th, 1911. Tragically, she died just a few months later, on January 3, 1912.

Lena Funk Hoffman 52 Ancestors Week #2: Challenge

Lena Funk Hoffman: A Records Challenge

            My maternal great-grandmother, Lena Funk Hoffman, has proved to be a true “brick wall” for me genealogically. Proving her parentage and identifying her siblings has been a challenge.

 I can find reliable records for Lena following her 1889 marriage to William Henry Hoffman, including census records and state and federal death records. These materials, along with information on her grave marker, state that she was born on February 12, 1869 and died on October 23, 1944. However, beyond her birthdate, her life before her marriage is a murky mystery.

            Even her name presents questions. Some records show her maiden name as “Funk”. Others add an “e” at the end to read “Funke”. I know that her family lived in Blue Earth County Minnesota in the 1870s and 1880s. The 1870 federal census lists a family I believe is hers. The record shows the household was headed by a Prussian immigrant named John Funk. The family included his Ohio-born wife Catherine, and their five children, William, Sophia, Mary, all born in Iowa, and Charles and infant Lena, both born in Minnesota. Unfortunately this census has a transcription error: their surname is listed electronically as “Frenke” even though the spidery handwriting of the actual census record clearly reads “Funk”.

            The only other pre-marriage census record I have found is an 1885 Minnesota state census, showing a family headed by a Charles Funk. His age corresponds to the 1870 John Funk, and his birthplace is again listed as Prussia. However, there is no wife, and only three children remain in the household: Charles L, age 19, born in Iowa, Amelia, age 17, born in Minnesota, and Lena, age 15. Charles’ birth year corresponds to the 1870 entry. However, Amelia wasn’t listed on the 1870 census.

            I have searched for death records for Lena’s probable mother Catherine, and for any sign of the lost siblings William, Sophia and Mary, but had no luck. I have tried tracing the family back into Iowa, where the older children were born according to the 1870 census. No luck. No records of Catherine’s marriage to either a John or Charles Funk in Ohio either.

            To further complicate things, other descendants of Lena’s have posted family trees on Ancestry with contradictory information, but with no records linked that support that information. For example, one tree lists Lena’s mother as Dorothy Muellerliele without one shred of information explaining where they discovered this name. The same tree states Lena’s father is John N. Funk, with no support for the addition of the middle initial “N”. Other trees provide variations on Lena’s middle name. Some list her as “Lena Hellena” (yes, Helena with two ‘l’s). Others show her as “Lena Henriette” or “Lena Henrietta”. At least everyone is in agreement that her middle initial is likely an “h”.

            I will keep searching. The Blue Earth County Historical Society has been a marvelous resource in my research on other family members. I am hoping that a visit there next year will help break my Lena Funk Hoffman brick wall. I will begin by looking for my great-grandmother’s obituary, hoping against hope that it will list the names of her parents and siblings. Until then, Lena Hellena Henriette Funk Funke Frenke will remain one of my greatest genealogy challenges. 

Harriet Stemen Macbeth 52 Ancestors Week #1: First

Harriet Stemen Macbeth: First Professional Woman in the Family Tree

            My second-great-uncle, Dr. Albert Macbeth, was married to a family first. His wife, Harriet Stemen, was the first professional woman that I have found in the family tree.

 Harriet was born February 19, 1873 to Christian Beery Stemen and Lydia Enslen Stemen. Harriet’s parents were very progressive for the time period. Christian Stemen was a minister, teacher, surgeon and medical doctor, and a great proponent of education. Several of his children followed him into the medical profession, including two of his daughters and three sons. Few women were allowed to attend medical school before 1900, so Harriet, her sister Katherine, and her parents were true trail blazers for women’s rights to pursue medical careers.

My second-great-uncle must have shared the Stemen family’s progressive views as well as their medical training, for he married Harriet in 1900. They seem to have become true partners, establishing and running a hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. While they had no children, they had a long marriage. Harriet died in 1939, and Albert died in 1947. They were well-respected members of their community.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks...

I'm trying to become a better genealogist, so last year I took an online course from professional genealogist Amy Johnson Crow. I discovered that she also sponsors a genealogy challenge every year called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks". Crow provides fairly open-ended prompts, one for each week of the year, that people can use to write about their ancestors in either blog-format or some other more private format.

I wanted to try the challenge last year, but didn't discover its existence until June. Rather than start partway through the year, I decided to lurk--receiving the Challenge emails each week, and checking out some of the blogs people generated in response. I liked what I read. There were so many interesting approaches and so many fascinating stories.

This year I decided to accept Crow's challenge. I may not finish a blog each and every week, but I'm eager to discover just how many I do manage to write. My family tree is full of interesting stories. It's time I started recording them!