Ives Family History Blog

Updated Summary of Ives Family History Blog

I started this blog on February 15, 2007 with this post Ives Family Blog Overview. I first did this summary on October 4, 2007 and this is just an update. I have put up a total of 240 posts so far. I am still getting many comments and have 208 so far. As I said then, I am writing about the descendents of William Ives, one of the founders of New Haven CT. It is not like a regular blog that posts on current events and does not go back and makes changes to prior posts. Rather it is an online draft history that I hope to continue to improve. I intend to continue to modify this document on an ongoing basis and welcome all comments, additions, and corrections. This includes going back and correcting material already posted when new evidence arrives. Below is an Ives family gathering in Pinebluff North Carolina in the early 1900s. My great grandfather, Sumner Abraham Ives, is on the far right. My grand father, Sumner Albert Ives, is next two him. The two women are my great grandmothers, Alice Dunbar Ives and Eulalia Sharp.

I have now provided all the research that I have completed to date. There have been over 55,271 page views (6/15/09) since I started with an average of 65 a day, over a 100 on some recent days. I have met a number of new relatives and learned new information about the Ives family. I will continue to make periodic updates through new posts and corrections to existing material. You suggestions are welcome.

Captain Edwin Burke Ives 1884-1958

Here is the obituary I received from Sue Vetter Wemett for Captain E.B.Ives, of Verona, KS, 1884-1958. I greatly appreciate it and wanted to make it more visible.

Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, April 3, 1958

E.B. Ives

Edwin Burke Ives was born at Nevada, Mo., June 1, 1884, and passed away at his store in Vesper, Kan., March 18, 1958.

At the age of 16 he joined the U.S. Navy and in four years of service saw the world. He served during the Spanish American War and was honorably discharged in May 1905 with the rank of quartermaster.

In 1910 he was married to Amelia Mae Swartz of Salina and the young couple made their home in that city, operating a grocery store near Kansas Wesleyan University.

During World War I, Mr. Ives volunteered for duty with the U.S. Army, Aug. 1, 1917, and three months later was commissioned a second lieutenant. He served overseas in all the major engagements of World War I where he was assigned to the 2nd Division, Ninth Infantry. He was discharged with the rank of Captain in October 1919 after being decorated with the Croix De Guerre (with palms), the Distinguished Service Cross and the Victory Medal. He was in Germany for a short time after the Armistice but returned to the States when his wife died at Salina during the flu epidemic.

Following World War I, Mr. Ives returned to traveling sales work, opening the sales territory of New Mexico and Arizona for Folger and Company and later opening southwest Texas for sales and carload distribution for Wilson and Company. He organized and established the fresh Provision Company, now one of southwest Texas’ major provision companies.

In 1929 or 1930, Mr. Ives returned to Kansas, selling store equipment, refrigerator cases and similar lines. He acquired the old Vesper bank building late in the 1930s and worked out of there until World War II.

At the age of 58, Mr. Ives re-enlisted in the Army. He retained his rank of captain and was assigned to the Provost Marshall’s department in California. Later he was transferred to the Transport Command and served aboard ship in the Pacific until he was 60, at which time it is mandatory that line officers be placed on inactive-duty status.

Returning to Vesper, Mr. Ives devoted his time to his store and established a good business, always intensely interested in his community. He was a member of the American Legion Post 165 of Lincoln.

Mr. Ives leaves the following relatives: A son, Howard Ives and family of Beaumont, Texas; a daughter, Mrs. Margaret Bell of Phoenix, Ariz.; a sister, Mrs. R.J. Coleman of Phoenix, and eight grandchildren.

The funeral services for Mr. Ives were conducted by the Rev. William L. Staub, minister of the Vesper Presbyterian church, at the Hall Memorial Chapel Saturday, March 22, at 2 o’clock p.m. Interment was made in Gypsum Hill cemetery at Salina.

Updated Summary of Ives Family History Blog

I started this blog on February 15, 2007 with this post Ives Family Blog Overview. I first did this summary on October 4, 2007 and this is just an update. I have put up a total of 238 posts so far. I am still getting many comments and have 188 so far. As I said then, I am writing about the descendents of William Ives, one of the founders of New Haven CT. It is not like a regular blog that posts on current events and does not go back and makes changes to prior posts. Rather it is an online draft history that I hope to continue to improve. I intend to continue to modify this document on an ongoing basis and welcome all comments, additions, and corrections. This includes going back and correcting material already posted when new evidence arrives. Below is an Ives family gathering in Pinebluff North Carolina in the early 1900s. My great grandfather, Sumner Abraham Ives, is on the far right. My grand father, Sumner Albert Ives, is next two him. The two women are my great grandmothers, Alice Dunbar Ives and Eulalia Sharp.

I have now provided all the research that I have completed to date. There have been over 47,282 page views (2/11/09) since I started with an average of 65 a day, over a 100 on some recent days. I have met a number of new relatives and learned new information about the Ives family. I will continue to make periodic updates through new posts and corrections to existing material. You suggestions are welcome.

Ives Marriages in North Adams Massachusetts

One of the readers of this blog mentioned that in Book No. 1 of the First Series of North Adams Massachusetts Town Records, the following marriages are listed:

Page 47 7/1/1790 George Hodge - Sarah Ives
Page 53 7/25/1792 Abraham Cook - Esther Ives
Page 58 5/9/1793 Joshua Knapp - Lydia Ives
Page 59 12/25/1797 Nehemiah Hodge - Rene Ives
Page 63 1/26/1806 John Chamberlain - Lomira Ives
Page 64 3/24/1805 Amasa Ives Jr. - Betsey White
Page 64 4/07/1805 Ruluff Butler - Matilda Ives

This reader is especially interested in information on the last couple, Ruluff Butler and Matilda Ives. If you know anything please leave a message as a comment.

Godfrey Memorial Library - great online genealogy source

I noticed I did not include the Godfrey Memorial Library in my list of online resources. Through them you can subscribe to a number of the quality primary data source like the US Census for a lower rate that the commercial sites. I used their services a great deal when I did my research. It is also a great place to visit if you are in the Middletown CT area. 134 Newfield St. · Middletown, CT · 06457 · Tel: (860) 346-4375

Summary of Ives Family History Blog

I started this blog on February 15, 2007 with this post Ives Family Blog Overview. I first did this summary on October 4, 2007 and this is just an update. I have put up a total of 231 posts so far. As I said then, I am writing about the descendents of William Ives, one of the founders of New Haven CT. It is not like a regular blog that posts on current events and does not go back and makes changes to prior posts. Rather it is an online draft history that I hope to continue to improve. I intend to continue to modify this document on an ongoing basis and welcome all comments, additions, and corrections. This includes going back and correcting material already posted when new evidence arrives.

I have now provided all the research that I have completed to date. There have been around 35,000 page views (8/7/08) since I started with an average of 65 a day, over a 100 on some recent days. I have met a number of new relatives and learned new information about the Ives family. I will continue to make periodic updates through new posts and corrections to existing material. You suggestions are welcome.

The Mormons are Working on Genealogy Web 2.0

This is a cross post from my other genealogy blog, the Sharp Family in NC. I heard from my Fast Forward blog colleague, Paula Thornton, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been working on a project to provide is one and only one instance of every individual -- to be shared in a global representation of genealogy. This allows all work done by individuals to be shared in an open collective.

At first I was a little skeptical. Some of what the Mormons do is extremely helpful. For example, I when I did some family history research a few years ago, I was able to get microfilm of actual church records in England in the early 1600s. However, what they put on their web sites was simply user contributions with no fact checking. I saw the same mistakes repeated over and over again. If you treated the material as clues to validate with actual records then that was sometimes useful. But many people treated the material as facts and so much misinformation was being spread.

Now the Mormons were not unique in this spreading of misinformation, all the other genealogy sites also do no fact checking as far as I can see. I could see the same errors repeated across sites. So I would be very suspect of the data that is conveyed.

However, Paula made a very good point, and this is the potential of web 2.0. She said that the whole purpose of the 'shared' space is for such 'errors' to be shared and fixed collectively. Then we can also see what facts might need more research and run off and do it (or take related trips). This is the point of the genealogy forums but they seem awkward to use which is one reason I started my genealogy blogs. I am sure there will be controversies and perhaps edit wars (like in the wikipedia). However, progress should be made.

Here are some of the things that the Mormons are doing which can be found at the their family history research site.

Record Search - helps you identify your ancestors by letting you search millions of indexed records and by letting you browse images of records that have not yet been indexed.

The FamilySearch Family Tree is their effort to combine their Pedigree Viewer and the Life Browser and combine them into a more full-featured application. The current version updates the person page and adds an event map.

Standard Finder allows for a search for a standardized name, date or place based on your input. The Standard Finder will present the standards that will be used in future releases of new FamilySearch.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki forms a community of research experts and interested genealogists that share up to date information on how to research sources for information about your ancestors

Our Puritan Ancestors Banned Christmas in Boston

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Thanks to our Puritan ancestors you could not celebrate Christmas if you lived in Boston, as I do now. Now the William Ives family had gone to New Haven so you cannot blame them but there were many cousins and future cousins still around at the time. I knew something about this but was reminded in a post from Neatorma, Banned in Boston. It said:

“In 1659, just a few decades after they had arrived in the New World, the Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas (as well as gambling and congregation for non-religious purposes). The holiday reminded them of Old World customs from England (the nation from which they’d fled to escape religious persecution). In fact, they refused to consider December 25th a holy day at all - the Catholic Church had selected the date as the day to celebrate Christ’s birthday because it coincided with an ancient, popular pagan festival. Anybody in Boston caught singing, drinking, playing games, or having a feast on Christmas was fined five shillings. The bans were later revoked, but it wouldn’t be the last time a moral outcry deprived Bostonians of diversions that seem relatively harmless today.”

There is a lot more on other things banned in Boston so check out the complete post and seasons greetings.

Cornell University’s Making of America Collection

Cornell University has a portion of their website dedicated to the "Making of America". Eliz Peters says that she has gleamed tons of great information and even illustrations from the online scanned pages. I is not likely that any of MOA's offerings come up in the Google Books search at this point.

Her is an example that shows one of our ancestors. Nathaniel Turner. The link goes to a scanned page of Harper's new monthly magazine, Volume 17, Issue 97, Pub.: Harper & Bros., Pub. Date: June 1858, New York, Pages: 874. Nathaniel Turner is mentioned and it even has an illustration of his sword which is on pg. 3 of the magazine. Thanks to Eliz for this.

New Information on Nathaniel Turner

Eliz. J. "BJ" Peters provided some useful information on Nathaniel Turner's activities regarding trade on the Delaware. I wrote in Nathaniel Turner Part Two, "In the same year he purchased the large tract of land in New Jersey on Delaware Bay along with the current site of Philadelphia in what turned out to be an ill fated venture for the merchants of New Haven due to resistance by the Dutch and Swedish neighbors." Eliz provided a link to a scan of the book, "The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware: Their History and Relation to the Indians, Dutch and English 1638-1664", Vol.1, by Amandus Johnson, PhD, Pub. 1911 by D. Appleton, Agents.

Thanks to Eliz for sharing this. She writes Saurbaten, Tea Time, and Scones. Eliz is related to many of the New Haven families, being descended from two of Christopher Todd's sons through both of her 2nd great grandparents, they being Todd cousins. Her New Haven ancestors include Theophilus Eaton, Nathaniel Turner, Christopher Todd, Thomas Yale, William Ives, David Atwater, John Bishop, and others so we are very related.