.

Stay indoors!! Enjoy the air-conditioning!! “Climb the family tree”  (but don’t ride the three-wheeler). Bore the occasional reader with pictures of the indoor-outdoor thermometer. OMG, Lorraine, get a life!!

It has been a marathon!!

A cousin sent an interesting newspaper article with the name “J.W. Frantz.” I began the search to identify the man and the answer materialized about six hours later. Just to prove that I  “burn the midnight oil,”  I’ll publish this blog message. Details will follow in the light of day.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Perhaps I “read” more into a situation than original intent? My thoughtful, considerate cousin may have sent the information because of the “Frantz” name. I see the article in three ways: 1) A Bible–the word of God. 2) Abraham Lincoln. our first Republican President, and 3) a man with the “Frantz” surname. All three very important to me.

Conservatively, I spent six hours searching for documentation of this man. First: Military records revealed service at Fort Smith, Montana, (1867-1868) and later Fort Sanders in Wyoming Territory (1869-1871). At first, the records listed him as J.H. Frantz but a South Carolina record listed his name as “John” and he was at a military installation (1873-1875) known as “Columbia.” John can be found at Fort Preble and Scammel, Portland, Maine, in 1876-1878. Honestly, I did not “save” every available military record. When I stumbled on his death record in “U.S. Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930” (and saved to my database), Ancestry suddenly gave me eighteen “hints.”

Ancestry “hints” and “sources” provided the name John Herr Frantz (1837-1882) and “Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014)” supplied the name of his parents. I was able to merge “John” with the existing family in my Ancestry  database.

Too tiny to read? Click on the image to enlarge. This… and another newspaper article told of the hardships suffered during the winter of 1867.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At midnight, I said it had been a “marathon.” For three days I researched my “Musselman” confusion. (Not my family but my confusion.)

…prompted a lengthy reply.

SINCERE THANKS for your message. I love, love, love to hear from “cousins” and “roundabout cousins.” Don, allow me to tell you about a God-given blessing.

When I was doing genealogy “the old-fashioned way” researching in libraries, cemeteries, courthouses, Annual Meeting(s), etc., I heard about “The Dore Frantz Manuscript.” Occasionally, I would see something called “Except from The Dore Frantz Manuscript.”

I was at Old German Baptist Brethren Annual Meeting–in Springfield, Ohio–in 1990 or 1991. Lela Landes Shoup was my hostess and we went to the Springfield Library, and cemeteries, etc, plus the Annual Meeting. I repeatedly asked “Where is the Dore Frantz Manuscript?” Nobody seemed to know. Someone suggested I call Ilo Fisher. I called and she said “Call Jess Monteith.” I called Jess and he gave me a two word answer: “Call Dore.” I said “How can I call Dore? He’s dead.” Jess said “Dore, Jr. in Sinsinnata.” I did misspell… that’s the way he said it “Sin sin nat a.”

Lela looked up the phone number and we called and asked if we could visit. We would drive to Cincinnati. Dore Jr. said he would came to his brother George’s house in Springfield. About three that afternoon we were at George’s and I was able to see “The Dore Frantz Manuscript.”

Let me digress and tell you that Dore Sr. did research in the 1930s and 1940s that could not be duplicated in the 1990s. Tombstones are broken off and leaning against a tree or fence, etc. because Lela took me to a lot of the cemeteries. REMARKABLE  RESEARCH  BY  DORE  M.  FRANTZ.

Dore had typed pages that would eventually be chapters for a book. Remember (or you may be too young) carbon paper in slender boxes? Perhaps fifty carbon-paper boxes that fit neatly into a “just the right size” large cardboard box. Sadly, I did not get a picture of the box of valuable information.

I asked if I could take it back to California and enter the information into my computer. George and Dore said they would think about it. I said I’d buy an old trunk and pack the “valuable information” and ship it to California. A couple of days later they called Lela’s house and said “no.” I asked if they would take it to the place in New Carlisle where police records and hospital records where filmed. I would pay to have the pages available to me. (I was preparing the material that became Frantz Families–Kith & Kin.) I think it was late August (several months after Annual Meeting) when a package arrived–about the size of a Reader’s Digest. There were thirty-nine microfiche–which represented hundreds of pages.

Don, have you seen Frantz Families–Kith & Kin on the Internet? I list Dore M. Frantz as the author, with two other dear folks who were so helpful. I listed myself as “editor.” FF-KK is free on the Internet. Also Digitized Library of Family History.

I see you have DShull Family Tree and I will look at that after I “send” this message. I love your big smile. Would you like an invitation to my tree so you can wander around the forest of Old German Baptist Brethren and Church of the Brethren families??

Sending very best wishes and “happy researching.” THANK YOU for sharing your connection to Dore and Jessie. The printed books (FF-KK) have pictures of Dore and family. I didn’t know how to get the pictures on a CD, and later the data went from CD to Internet website. I wish I had the pictures of Dore and family on the website. I’m quite “savvy” about computers, etc, and Ancestry (for 85 years young) but some features are a mystery to me.

This morning I wrote an article and attached it to several individuals in my Ancestry database. If  “a seasoned researcher”  is baffled, how does a fledgling view the information?

First: Let me introduce myself as a seasoned researcher. I have more than thirty years experience. Furthermore, I am very familiar with the features of Ancestry.com. Second: I encountered a situation that had me baffled!

Another Ancestry subscriber “commented” that I had an individual linked to the wrong parents. Following her information, Aaron Musselman (1852-1913) was removed as son of George Washington Musselman (1816-1851). That prompted further examination of relationships and eventually he (GWM) was attached to Daniel Musselman (1791-1860) and Anna Judd (1799-1840). Getting to that point was complicated because his wife’s name is “Esther.”

The reader doesn’t need exact details of this researcher’s diligent search for documented “sources” confirming the identity and relationships. For me, the problem was a woman named Esther Wagoner.

Esther (Wagoner) Musselman (1817-1914) was identified married, first (1840), to George Washington Musselman and, second (1870), to Aaron Ulrey (1816-1906). However, Aaron Ulrey’s records listed him married (1836) to Esther Musselman with five documented children.

The answer to the confusion: Both of Aaron Ulrey’s wives were named “Esther.” His first wife bore the maiden name of Musselman (1817-1870). His second wife was Musselman by marriage to his first wife’s brother.

I hope this explanation helps another individual “climbing the family tree.” I’m passionate about “sources” and I believe I have accurate sources to confirm the identity of these several individuals. ~~ ADDITIONS & CORRECTIONS WELCOME.

Lorraine Frantz Edwards is the editor of a three-volume set of books titled Frantz Families–Kith & Kin (available “free” on the Internet), and website titled Digitized Library of Family History. Her Ancestry database is titled Lorraine Frantz Family Tree. Her stories appear in Mennonite Family History. She documents genealogy experiences on her blog titled Three Quarters And Counting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That article was written after three days of research. It started with this very brief comment:  “Aaron Musselman is not George Washington Mussemans son. He is the son of Esther Shively & David Musselman.”

You think I’m crazy? Sometimes I think I’m crazy!

THE  GOV.  ANSWERS  THOUGHTFUL  LETTER  FROM  LEFT-LEANING  READER

From Karen B:

Just a note for my right-leaning family and friends from my left-leaning self as we near voting day:

They say we want to disband police departments (and that we hate the police): we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and unnecessary police brutality and for those who abuse their power to be held accountable.

They say we want to release all prisoners: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and ensure the punishments match the crimes and to deprivatize prisons.

They say we want open borders: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want asylum seekers to be given their chance to seek asylum. We want to help people who are cg from unimaginable terror and poverty help to give them the chances we have. We want to ensure children aren’t separated from their parents and that nobody is kept in cages. But we do want proper vetting.

They say we want to take away your guns: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want logical gun control to help prevent mass shootings.

They say we want to wage a war on Christianity and Christian values: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all religions to be able to practice and worship freely.

They say we want to get everything for free: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to work hard and make sure that healthcare and education are affordable for all.

They say we want a war against traditional marriage: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter who you love.

They say we want to destroy or rewrite history: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to recognize the ugly parts of our past and do everything we can to say “that’s not okay, let’s not honor those aggressors, let’s not let those things happen again”.

They say we want to take away your constitutional rights: we don’t, that’s a lie. We choose to believe science and wear masks and try to prevent the spread of this disease.

They say we hate America: we don’t, that’s a lie. We just recognize our faults and want us to do better, be better.

Stop with the us vs. them. Stop with the straw man arguments. Stop with the fake news. Stop with Fox News. Our position is one of empathy, compassion, and logic. Stop believing the hype. Stop with the division. Just because we want equality for all doesn’t mean we want to take anything away from you.

From the Gov:

Thanks for writing, Karen. You are a very thoughtful and idealistic person. But who is this “we”? When you say “we,” I don’t think you can include the leftists with power in the Democrat Party in your description of what “we” do and do not want. You are a moderate, and today’s Democrat Party is NOT moderate.

For example, it’s certainly not a “lie” to say that many who fund and support the Democrat Party and various leftist organizations want to defund the police. YOU don’t, but many of them do. Some in Congress openly call for it. Trump wants bad cops out, of course, but law and order and the safety of Americans is a must.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many who fund and support the Democrat Party want to open up prisons. YOU don’t, but many of them do. Brace yourself, but I’d say that your goals of rooting out racism in the prison system sound downright “Trumpian.”

It’s absolutely not a “lie” to say that many on the left want a “borderless” world. YOU don’t, but many leftists with a lot more influence than you want exactly that. I’m sure you know that the left is continuing to lie (REALLY lie) about Trump and the “children in cages.”

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to confiscate all guns. YOU might not, but it’s the dream of many in your party. With a handful of Supreme Court justices bent on reinterpreting the Second Amendment, they could do it.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many in your party want to wage a war on Christianity or Christian values. YOU don’t want to, but activists on the left are waging that war, mostly in courtrooms.

It’s not a “lie” to say that some people want everything for free. YOU don’t, but many do. Democrats are seriously considering how they’re going to do reparations. Rioters justify their looting. I’m glad to hear you have a sense of responsibility. Did you know that, by improving the economy so much, Trump had made it much easier for people to get jobs and work hard?

It’s not a “lie” to say that many want a war on traditional marriage. YOU don’t, but some do. (See “Christianity,” above.) The next step is abolishing even the idea of marriage as a partnership; why not polyamory? And over the past several decades, Democrat policies have helped destroy the traditional family –- especially black families, where 70 percent are born out of wedlock and male role models are largely absent.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to tear down or rewrite history. Oh, yes, they do. YOU might see it as “recognizing the ugly parts” and learning from our past, but they see it not as a chance to learn, but to exercise mob rule, pulling down statues of…abolitionists, suffragettes, saints, whatever. Many don’t know what they’re doing. And a concerted effort to rewrite history is going on right now.

It’s not a “lie” to say that many on the left want to take away our constitutional rights. YOU apparently don’t, but many in your party do. I’ve touched on a few of these above. Another right that many would love to take away –- and they’re working on it –- is freedom of speech. As for masks, effective treatments, etc., there’s a LOT of dispute within the scientific community about all that, and, unfortunately, it got politicized.

It is absolutely not a “lie” to say that many on the left hate America. YOU don’t, but many do, from the rioters on Seattle streets to billionaires who fund your party and leftist causes. Some are calling for the outright destruction of our country. Thanks to them, America is far from “being better.”

I’d love it if you would show this letter to your family and friends, both left and right-leaning. It would be great to hear their reaction. I fear your idealism causes you to look at your party through rose-tinted glasses, ironically at a time when the left is finally showing its true colors. It might surprise you to hear that you sound in a lot of ways like today’s Republican Party. You really are too smart and thoughtful to be led around by the far-leftists of the Democrat Party. Maybe they’re not who you think they are. And I haven’t “lied” about them at all.

…messages by Jack Graham.

I encourage the reader to watch his messages.

.

.

Look closely (in the lower right corner) and you will see that I captured this image four hours after I read the “comment.” Those few words prompted me to correct the relationship, add valuable information, and add two-dozen (or more) individuals to “the family tree.”  ~~~ Hottest day of the year (according to TV weatherman) but I was “too busy” to check the indoor-outdoor thermometer. Oh so grateful for air-conditioning.