Dangling From A Tree Limb

Govanstown Cemetery Project The Whittle Plot As I said earlier, Samuel Whittle has been an exercise in patience. The census records are usually our best bet for tracking someone through their life span, but Sam has been a tough nut to crack. To recap, we found Sam on the 1880 Federal Census by the “leaf” … Read more

A Footnote to History

Govanstown Cemetery Project The Whittle Plot For those of you that have not used Footnote it is the online outlet for the National Archives. You can search for free, and there is quite a bit of free content, but most of it is premium content that requires a subscription. A subscription goes for about $75 … Read more

The Lowest Branch of the Family Tree

Govanstown Cemetery Project The Whittle Plot Now that I’m comfortably sure I have the right man, I’m off to Ancestry for the basic grunt work – this is actually my favorite part! Put in a name and see what magic happens. Sometimes you get absolutely nothing and sometimes you get the whole family line. It’s … Read more

Additional Vitals Generation #1

Scholefield Family Tree

Now that additional family members have been located, there are vital records that need to be located and/or confirmed. In addition to the Arizona birth and death certificates that are already online, some indexes might also be available on FamilySearch. For recent deaths, any one of a number of the available Social Security Death Indexes should be checked, and any other available death indexes should be explored.

Checking Hugh Wallis’s list of IGI Batch numbers, it will be found that there are no indexes created for Arizona, but there are plenty for New York and California. (I will save IGI hits on family group sheets — if any — for later!)

Beginning with the most recent family groups, which are for the children of George and Clara Scholefield, I find additional data from several sources that report Helen’s husband’s information and more specific data regarding their son. A search for Max Brodie on Ancestry turns up his World War I draft card and an entry for him in the California Death Index. A search for Armour Major Brodie on Ancestry turns up his Social Security information, and a check of Arizona’s online records turns up his birth certificate. He was not named at birth and his mother filed his full name at a later date. Vitals summary:

Max Mordacai Brodie was born 28 Jul 1877 in Germany and died 23 Mar 1962 in Los Angeles County, California.1 He was married on 10 Oct 1907 in Tucson, Pima, Arizona,2 to Helen Scholefield who was born 5 Mar 1886 in Tucson, Pima, Arizona, and died 17 Jul 1957 in Tucson, Pima, Arizona.3
Their son:
bulletA. Major Brodie b. 9 Jun 1909, Rodger’s Hospital, Tucson, Pima, Arizona and d. 12 Nov 1970, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, never married.4

One of Carl’s daughter’s obituaries was located which names all her siblings,5 and a few searches turn up information about them. Arizona records had been located earlier in the search, but I did not post the data because I was not sure if they were possibly living. Social Security information was located for those siblings who died after deaths began to be recorded. Only one child was born before the SSDI and he was located on Ancestry in a Montana Death Index. Information for Carl as well as the children who were born or died in California was also indexed. George B. is presenting a difficulty because I cannot locate his birth record in Arizona even after searching only with the first names of him and his parents during a range of appropriate years. Vitals summary for Carl’s family:

Carl Burnett Scholefield was born 18 Apr 1888 in either Tucson or Globe, Arizona, and died Nov 1966 in Santa Clara County, California.6 He married Alice Hester Bradford who was born on 1 Mar 1891 and died in Dec 1979.7
Their children:
bulletBlissie H. Scholefield b. 16 May 1912 in Alameda County, California, and d. Sep 1995 m. ______ Lee. 8
bulletCatherine Hester Scholefield b. 26 Oct 1913 in Pima County, Arizona, and d. 26 Dec 2005 in Reno, Nevada, m. Hans Schnitter.9
bulletAda Virginia Scholefield b. 8 Apr 1915 in Rosemont, Arizona, and d. 3 Jun 2005 in Placerville, California, m. Charles E. Matson on 17 Nov 1945 in Reno, Nevada.10
bulletGeorge B. Scholefield b. abt 1917 in Arizona and d. 16 Aug 1957 in Granite County, Montana, m. ______.11
bulletCarroll Mae Scholefield b. 24 Sep 1919 in Vail, Arizona, and d. 14 Apr 1965 in Santa Clara County, California, m. ______ Tuttle.12

A search of the records at FamilySearch did not turn up any records which were not submitted by patrons (other than SSDI). Most of the information matches the birth and death information which was located.

1. “World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Sep 2008), Max Mordacai Brodie, serial no. 3849, order no. A2550, Draft Board 0, Tucson, Pima, Arizona; citing World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M1509, roll 1522647; “California Death Index, 1940-1997,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Sep 2008), entry for Max Brodie (23 Mar 1962); citing State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.
2. “Brodie-Scholefeld Wedding,” Tucson Daily Citizen, 10 Oct 1907, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 29 Sep 2008).

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The Great Obituary Hunt

Govanstown Cemetery Project The Whittle Plot I went back to the little email from Dr. Anderson and while I was disappointed in my first attempt I wanted to try again. In looking at the list I felt something tug at me and noticed that I was unable to get past Samuel Whittle. No matter how … Read more

Recent Obituaries and Other News

Scholefield Family Tree There are four places I can search for recent obituaries — all of them require that a searcher go through some hoops to use them. Ancestry, GenealogyBank, and NewspaperArchive all require subscriptions. Newsbank is available free online for Pima County residents who hold a valid public library card. All will be checked … Read more

In The Beginning

Govanstown Cemetery Project My current work in Cold Genealogy began almost a year ago as an offshoot of research on my maternal line. I began searching for my 3rd great grandfather, Washington Harford, in Baltimore, Maryland. The search eventually yielded an obituary from the Baltimore Sun dated 29 Jun 1875 in which the funeral was … Read more

Googling Scholefield

Scholefield Family Tree Since I had such success searching for Clara’s side of the family, I’ll try George’s. First, George himself. To make sure that Google does not automatically “correct” my search I have to put his last name in quotation marks. To narrow further, I also add the name of the state — Arizona. … Read more