Maternal Ancestors – iSeeAncestors

Horse Thief

Sep 052020

Is there a proverbial horse thief in your family tree? If you’re related to John Stewart (1821-1908), the answer is yes. John’s father was Major James Stewart, a well-respected member of the community, who served in the militia over forty years and was an elder of his church. He was also school director, tax collector, assessor, overseer of the poor, and justice of the peace.¹^,²

Continue reading »Footnotes

C. T. Arms and E. White, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania 1745-1880 (Newark, Ohio: John Alexander Caldwell, 1880), Page 541, Major James Stewart.
Joshua Thompson Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present, 2 Volumes (Chicago, Illinois: J. H. Beers, 1913), Volume I, Pages 703, 706-707.

Russell Thomas Stewart: A Retrospective

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Jul 142020

Russell Thomas Stewart was born September 16, 1889 in Buffington Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He was a son of John Galbreath Stewart and Mary (McKee) Stewart. He was probably born on, or near, the Stewart homestead, a farm originally settled by his great great-grandparents, John and Margaret (McFarland) Stewart about 1796. When Russell was five years old his father died, and his mother moved the family to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

A Grim Task: Reburial

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Jun 012019

There are new details to report about my granduncle, Russell T. Stewart, who was killed in action during World War I. It was common to bury fallen soldiers near where they died. For several years after the war, their remains were subsequently exhumed and their identity confirmed. They were then reburied in France, or returned to their families in the United States for funerals here.

It is somewhat fortunate that Russell was first buried at a relatively nice place, rather than in an open field or dense forest. He died during a battle just northwest of Imécourt, France on November 2, 1918. His body was returned to the town of Imécourt and buried by a regimental burial detail on the grounds of the Chateau d’Imécourt. There were eighteen altogether. In fact he was buried next to Grover D. Selvey and Aaron Carter, and all three were in Company M.

Memorial Day Tribute

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May 252019

This is a Memorial Day tribute to Pfc. Russell T. Stewart, my mother’s uncle, who was killed in action in the woods northwest of Imécourt, France early on the morning of November 2, 1918. He served in Company M, 3^rd Battalion, 319^th Infantry, 160^th Brigade, 80^th Division. The Division earned the motto, “Only Moves Forward,” having fought in all three phases of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, from September through November, 1918.

Making Sense of my Ethnicity

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Jan 232018

My autosomal DNA test results indicate I’m 98% European, which is further broken down to 49% British Isles, 36% East Europe, 9% Iberia and 4% Scandinavia. The remaining trace 2% is either Southeast Europe or simply “noise,” which is unexplained variations in the data.

Ethnicity predictions depend on many factors and are only approximate. They represent similarities of my DNA, my past really, with representative samples from modern populations. The ethnicity map does agree strikingly with my mother’s lineage. Her father’s side was likely from Scotland and her mother’s side is proven to be from Hungary and Slovakia. However, I inherited roughly 50% of my autosomal DNA from my father. That means my father’s side is also some combination of this very same ethnic mix, with a little Spanish (9%) and Scandinavian (4%) thrown in somewhere.

Glück Auf!

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Apr 112017

Mary (Bittner) Pohl, her daughter Ida Stewart, and her daughter Ruth Voisin (standing)

“Glück Auf” has been the traditional greeting used by miners. No doubt my ancestors, who were coal miners, used this expression daily. In German, it means “good luck.” Not only did miners wish each other luck in finding and extracting the minerals they sought, but it was a wish that they also come back alive.

Pécsbánya is a coal-mining district about three miles northeast of Pécs, Hungary. The area was also called Pécsbányatelep. Literally translated they mean Pécs-mine and Pécs-mine-settlement. Pécs was known as Fünfkirchen by the Germans. For 250 years, more than 35 different coal mines operated at one time or another and 40 million tons of coal were produced here.

The Danube Steamship Company (Dunai Gőzhajó Társaság, or DGT) was a large consumer of coal. In 1852 it expanded into ownership of coal mines. To house workers for its growing operations, DGT started a “colony” in 1855, named Colonia. It was located on Gesztenyés hill ridge near the András (Andrew) mine. The first settlers there were Hungarians, Germans, Czech-Moravians, Slovakians, Bosnians and Slovenians.

Refuge in the Wilderness

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Mar 112017

Western Pennsylvania and the vicinity of Pittsburgh was a wilderness frontier at the time of the Revolutionary War and for years afterward. The few settlers who ventured into this area not only endured the hardships of pioneer life, but they also had hostile encounters with Native Americans.

In his work, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania: 1745-1880, editor Walter F. Arms provides a map of the county.¹ He indicates the location of two blockhouses within Buffington Township.

Continue reading »Footnotes

Walter F. Arms, editor, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania: 1745-1880, (Newark, Ohio: J. A. Caldwell), 1880, frontispiece.

Great-grandmother Mary Pohl

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Jan 272017

Maria “Mary” Pohl, early 1940s

It happened again. This time Zsuzsanna Jácint contacted me with information about my ancestors. She lives in Hungary and it turns out we are distant cousins. My great-grandmother Mary (Bittner) Pohl (1867-1944) is the younger sister of her great great-grandmother, Julianna (Bittner) Szeidl (~1857-1916).

Zsuzsi even provided an image of the elusive marriage record of Mary to Albert Pohl, for which I’ve searched a long time. She provided Mary’s birth record too. There’s no doubt now about the parents of both Mary and Albert.

Corporal Pollock’s Account

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Aug 032016

Cpl. Arthur Pollock

Corporal Arthur Nelan Pollock served in Company F, 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I. Amazingly, he kept a diary. It so happens he got separated from his regiment and became attached to the 319th Infantry. This was the same regiment in which my granduncle Russell Stewart served, as I describe in a previous post.

It is enlightening to read Corporal Pollock’s account of the battle. Since both men were then in the same regiment, this is very likely what Russell Stewart also experienced. Here is an excerpt of Corporal Pollock’s account from September 26 to October 2, 1918. It was originally published in the Pittsburgh Press, April 20, 1919 and continued on May 18, 1919. This excerpt was transcribed by Lynn Beatty and the full text is found at the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania USGenWeb.¹

Continue reading »Footnotes

Pennsylvania, USGenWeb Archives, Allegheny County, Military, World War I, (http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/military/wpa-ww1/chapter-16.htm : 3 August 2016.)

Violets are Blue

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Jul 232016

There once was a precious little girl named Violet who died at age 2. More than one hundred years later, it is she who helped me unravel a compelling mystery.

Russell Stewart: Only Moves Forward

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Jun 302016

Russell T. Stewart

My granduncle Russell Thomas Stewart was my maternal grandfather’s younger brother. In a family tree published by my second cousin, Robert M. Stewart, there is a somber copy of a telegram addressed to my great-grandmother, Mary (McKee) Stewart, and dated December 5, 1918.¹ It was news that her son Russell Stewart was killed in action November 2, 1918.

Finding no other information, I decided to investigate the short life of my granduncle, who I had never heard about. I was able to find a little more about him, but his story is mostly the tragedy of World War I and the sad ironies of its end.

Continue reading »Footnotes

Robert M. Stewart, Stewarts 1776-1979 (N.p.: n.p., 8 July 1978), Appendix, Copy of Western Union telegram to Mary Stewart indicating Russell Stewart was killed in action 2 November.

Pinpointing the Stewart Homestead

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Apr 022013

My fourth great-grandparents, John and Margaret Stewart, were two of the first settlers in what would eventually become Buffington Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. John Stewart married Margaret McFarland in 1788 and by 1796 they had a son, my third great-grandfather, James Stewart.

I describe here how I used records available at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)¹ and Google Earth to pinpoint the location of the original Stewart homestead.

Footnotes

Pennsylvania, “Copied Surveys, 1681-1912,” database and digital images, Pennsylvania State Archives, Land Records (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/state_archives/2887 : downloaded 9 December 2009), RG-17, Series #17.114, Copied Survey Book C-206, Page 221 and reverse, John Stewart, http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-114CopiedSurveyBooks/Books%20C1-C234/Book%20C206/Book%20C-206%20pg%20441.pdf; Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History.

Hopeful Peace after World War II

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May 182012

I found a scrap of paper on which my mother, Ruth (Stewart) Voisin, wrote a poem. In December 1945, World War II had finally ended. Ruth was only 18 years old. She had just left home and moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the Franklin School of Science and Arts. This was against her father’s wishes, who said college was no place for women. Her mother had died two years prior. With no financial help from her father, she began her way in the world.

She always loved poetry and transcribed many famous poems in her notebooks. She also wrote her own poems. In this one, I can envision her sitting in her room at the YWCA looking out her window to the street below: A young woman on her own, and filled with a sense of peace and hopefulness about the future.

Grandmother was a Taper

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Apr 242012

Ida (Pohl) Stewart, about 1909

The 1910 Federal Census lists the occupation of my grandmother Adelheid T. (Pohl) Stewart as a Taper at the Electric Works. She was 19 then, just prior to her marriage with John Galbreath Stewart later that year.

I’ve been curious for some time. What was a Taper? No doubt the “Electric Works” was Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a short distance from Turtle Creek, where my grandmother lived.

Through the wonders of the Internet I happened upon a short video clip produced in 1904 that explains a lot.

Here’s to You Mom

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Jan 292012

Ruth Voisin

It was twenty years ago today that my mother died suddenly. I often wish I could speak with her again. But time is healing my loss and it’s fun to reminisce every now and then.

She collected old lithographs with a theme depicting a bluebird on a tree branch with a little girl gazing up, usually looking out a window. They reminded her of one by Bessie Pease Gutmann that her mother had. Of course this morning a couple bluebirds happened by my backyard. Every time I see one now I chuckle and think to myself it’s mom saying hi.

Mom’s the one who got me interested in genealogy. She often said that I come from “good stock” and spoke of how strict and clean my German ancestors were. Even though my grandmother’s pantry had a dirt floor, it was always swept and “clean.”

Circuitous Yet Fortuitous

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Sep 212011

Albert and Mary Pohl Homestead

This is a case of genealogical serendipity. I set out to determine the precise location of the house where my maternal great-grandparents, Albert and Mary Pohl, lived. In this picture taken about 1909, the Pohl family posed in front of their house.¹

From something unexpected, I uncovered a trail of bread crumbs that led me to their doorstep.

Continue reading »Footnotes

The original is in the possession of Mike Voisin (mounted on cardboard, 5-15/16 by 6-15/16 inches).

To Grandmother’s House We Go

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Aug 152011

Adelheid "Ida" (Pohl) Stewart

I recently noticed FamilySearch.org added more Hungarian records. I quickly found a new lead in the search for the birthplace of my grandmother, Adelheid “Ida” (Pohl) Stewart. She immigrated to America in 1893 when she was but 2 years old along with her mother and two older siblings. They departed from Hamburg, Germany, where the ship’s manifest listed them as living in Fünfkirchen, Hungary.