Tag: stalmacher

52 Ancestors Week 3: Longevity

On 17 January 2018

This week’s theme made me automatically think of one ancestor: Ellen Louise (Pape) LaValey. My 3rd great-grandmother. She lived to 101 years old!

My favorite picture really showcases this:

From left to right: Ellen (Stalmacher) Langeneck, Ellen Louise (Pape) LaValey, Robert Langeneck holding his son, and Edna (LaValley) Stalmacher

So to make that clearer and in relation to Ellen Louise it is: her granddaughter, herself, her great-grandson holding her great-great grandson, her daughter

Seriously, how cool is that! That picture was taken in 1953 and she didn’t pass away until 1978. I am amazed at such an incredibly long life!

Ellen was born to John Henry Paper and Martha Matilda (Dean) Pape on 30 June 1876 in Michigan. ((Social Security Administration, “Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2018), entry for Ellen Lavaley, 1978, SS no. 365-68-0840)). She was the third of four children. Her younger sister, Effie, leaved to be nearly 100 as well! ((“Effie C. Gratopp,” obituary, Saginaw News (Saginaw, Michigan), 14 March 1975, p. B9.))

Her father, John Pape, was born in Germany and came over around 1865 and did become a naturalized citizen by 1900.Her mother was born about 1855 and maybe in Texas or Michigan. I’ve found some conflicting records on that. ((1900 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, population schedule, Carrollton Township, enumeration district (ED) 30, sheet 18B, dwelling 359, family 368, Henry J Pape; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 739.))

Ellen grew up in Michigan and stayed in the state for life (according to records so far). She met William C. LaValey in the 1890s and the two married 26 Aug 1893 in Saginaw County. ((Saginaw County, Michigan, Marriage Records, vol 4:97, record 4223, William LaValley – Louisa Pape, 26 Aug 1893; image, “Michigan, Marriage Records, 1867-1952,” Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2018)))

This is a Pape family reunion picture that although has stayed in the family, we only know that John and Martha are center (2nd seated row, the older couple) and Ellen is the seated in the 2nd row, last on the right. She’s holding Edna in her lap which makes this picture likely between 1894-1900.

William and Ellen were together until William’s death in 1962. ((William LaValley Obituary, Saginaw News (Saginaw, Michigan), 27 Mar 1962, p. B8.)) Here is the couple in 1945. This picture graced my parents shelves for my entire life.

My mom talked about her grandma LaValey frequently. She was her namesake after all, plus her many years always made her a bit of a superstar in our family stories.

My mom worked for the newspaper in the 70s and she remembers helping to write up an article on Ellen when she turned 100. She passed away in Feb 1978, only a few months shy of her 102 birthday. ((Saginaw County, Michigan, death certificate no. 326, Ellen Louise LaValey; Saginaw County Clerk’s Office, Saginaw.))

Her obituary states that surviving her were 8 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren, 18 great-great grandchildren, and several great-great-great grandchildren. ((Mrs. Ellen Louise LaValey Obituary, Saginaw News (Saginaw, Michigan) 17 Feb 1978, p. D7.)) So many descendants!

101 years! From 1876-1978. Let’s just think of everything she saw in her lifetime:

New States: Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii
Movies: from The Great Train Robbery to Star Wars
Music: From church and folk songs to Woodstock – using a radio or record player
Fashion: From long dresses with corsets to 1970’s women in pants and bikinis
Technology: Telephone, light bulbs, electricity in the home, indoor plumping, phonograph, the ballpoint pen, the zipper, radio, the vacuum cleaner, TV, penicillin, the first computers, video tape recorders, Sputnik, the moon landing, calculator, video games, home computers
The Wild West: Battle of the Little Bighorn, Nez Perce War, The O.K. Corral, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Annie Oakley (I loved her when I was a kid), Oklahoma Land Rush, Wounded Knee Massacre
Presidents: Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon (and Watergate), Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter
Race and Immigration: Chinese Exclusion Act, The Dawes Act, Plessy v. Ferguson, Booker T. Washington, the Niagara Movement, NAACP founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, the KKK, Indian Citizenship Act, Detroit race riots, Civil Rights Movement, Brown v. Board, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr., Little Rock
Labor Unions: Haymarket Affair, Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike
Social Issues: National American Woman Suffrage Association; Prohibition; 19th Amendment; Roe v. Wade
Economic Crisis: Panic of 1893, Panic of 1896, Panic of 1907, Panic of 1910-1911, The Great Depression
Wars: Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Boxer Rebellion, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis
Transportation: from cars with the Ford Motor Company (especially since it was in Michigan) with the Model T to the cars of the 1970s; airplanes from the Wright brothers to the Boeing 747, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart

I can’t list everything here but my goodness! I had flashbacks of my history classes in high school just looking at the list of things. It’s so much! It definitely makes me wonder what I’ll be able to list of historical events that happened in my lifetime.

A USCIS Update

By Nichelle Barra

On 15 December 2015

In Personal, Research

In March of this year, I mentioned that I was sending out for my 2x great-grandfather’s naturalization records to the USCIS. I discussed how that works where you first had to have them search the index for the name if you didn’t have a record number for them, which I did not.

Then about the end of July, I received a letter in the mail stating that the record did exist, some information in it, and how to get the full document. I, of course, wanted the whole thing!

FINALLY – it came!! I nearly did a dance in my driveway! It took me about six months to get this information!

There was a delay in the records (I had been checking up on them through the website) because a Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request had to be sent out. There was a letter in with the copies of the records that stated that I received two pages in their entirety and one page released in part (you can see the white blank space on the petition for naturalization). That information had to deal with where the two witnesses to the petition for naturalization lived so it was likely a privacy issue. I’m not sure how common that is when requesting these records.

There were three documents that came in the mail (oddly, it came in the mail – when I requested the information I asked for it to be emailed to me):

The Declaration of Intention (dated 18 November 1920)

Stalmacher Declaration of Intention

The Petition for Naturalization (dated 27 November 1922)

Stalmacher Petition for Naturalization

And the Certificate of Naturalization (dated 14 June 1923)

Stalmacher Certificate of Naturalization

I find it interesting that in that three year span, the town John Stalmacher was born in went from Russian territory to Polish territory. In his initial declaration, he said he was born in Suwalki, Russia and he it was his “…intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to… The Republic of _____” that part is too faded to read but there is a stamp that reads “Russia or any independent state within the bounds of the former Russian Empire.”((“Declaration of Intention,” John Michael Stalmacher, Citizenship File No. C1759741; Naturalization Certificate Files, 27 September 1906 – 31 March 1956, Historical Records Series, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Washington, D.C.))

By the petition in 1922, he states he was born in Suwalki Russia and renounces allegiance to the Republic of Poland.((“Petition for Naturalization,” John Michael Stalmacher, Citizenship File No. C1759741; Naturalization Certificate Files, 27 September 1906 – 31 March 1956, Historical Records Series, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Washington, D.C.)) I’ll need to do more research on the town but I can map it out and see that it is on the eastern border of what is now Poland, close to Lithuania. Wikipedia has some information too but I would like to verify it. It does state that after 1915, the area was no longer Polish, which does mean that when John Stalmacher was born in 1891, he was born (technically) in Russia. Weirdly though, it wasn’t part of Russia at the time of his declaration (at least according to Wikipedia). But I do want to read more about that to see what exactly was happening in that area.

Besides that fun tidbit (I have a hometown now!), there is also some fun information on what he looked like. He had a fair complexion, was 5 foot 4 inches (only an inch taller than me!), had brown hair and blue eyes. Neat information!((“Declaration of Intention,” John Michael Stalmacher, Citizenship File No. C1759741.))

I also have a where and when he entered the U.S.!

He came in to Baltimore by the first part of July in 1905. Sadly there isn’t a ship named. Which means I’ll have to search for all ships that left Bremen, Germany and arrived in Baltimore that left on the 18th of June and arrived in Baltimore on the 2nd of July.((“Petition for Naturalization,” John Michael Stalmacher, Citizenship File No. C1759741.))

He would have only been 14 at the time and it’s likely that his younger brother, August, who would have been 10 at the time, was with him. Was it likely that the two came to America by themselves? I would think not but until I find his passenger list, I’m not positive on if their parents (or other older relatives) were with them.

So in the end, it took about 6 months from the beginning to the end of this project. I did get some answers to some questions (like his birth city, which can explain the switching between Poland and Russia as a birthplace) but now I’m left with more questions. That’s always the case though, isn’t it?