Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Sympathy Saturday - Sad or Creepy?

Every so often I come across a coincidence (?) that is sad. Or maybe it is creepy? I don't know. My first reaction is sad and then it works its way into creeped out.

The latest in the sad or creepy factor are the deaths of Green Caleb Gay and Pluma Woodworth Gay of Andover, Ashtabula, Ohio. Green died December 28, 1928 of infirmities of age - he was 86. His widow, Pluma died one year later on December 28, 1929 -- of infirmities of age! She was 85.  Both were buried in West Andover, Ohio on December 31st of the years they died.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, December 30, 2011

A Look Back at 2011

I don't know why it is that I am so happy to see the year end. Maybe because it wasn't such a great year over all. My DH and I were each diagnosed with diseases we didn't want to deal with, yet I think the experiences and learning how to deal with our diagnoses has been a wake up call. DH is walking close to if not over 5 miles on a daily basis. I'm eating healthier. I think we both feel a lot better knowing we have somewhat minimal control over our bodies for the time being.

DH's father passed in September. He was 92 years old and was starting to decline at an increased pace.

Our older daughter took a cruise with friends. She loved it. I'm a little jealous. Younger daughter made the move from the Detroit area to Nashville. It's nice to have all four of us in the same state again.

My genealogy database grew by smaller leaps and bounds than usual - adding just over a thousand people with associated sources, places and images. And I finally got all the death records I had lingering in folders added to my database!

I actually did work on older daughter's scrapbook photo album. Now that vacation time is over and the holidays are winding up, I expect to be back in the groove scrapbooking again. This time last year I was planning their cookbooks, a project that actually got done quickly. It's nice to know I don't have to package up anything I make for younger daughter and pop it in the mail or over to UPS. Nope, we can drive it there or have her pick it up on one of her trips here for the weekend.

Younger daughter adopted a cat in May. Her name is Belle and she has spent some time at grammy and grampy's house without younger daughter. Amazingly enough, she really didn't get too excited about the Christmas tree or the decorations. Of course, grammy tried to keep the danglies to a minimum.

What's in store for 2012 besides the 1940 census? Who knows!

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Thriller Thursday - Annie Barr Bunn

Annie Barr Bunn died at the age of 53 in Jefferson township, Shelby county, Missouri as a result of accidental burn with hot water. Contributing to the cause of her death was the fact that she had epilepsy of the grand mal variety. Which meant she had seizures. She died September 10, 1930. She was married to Joseph Bunn and had at least one daughter, Mildred, who married Paul Austin Chinn. 

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Wedding Wednesday - Buford & Eckle


December 28, 1892 in  Lexington, Lafayette county, Missouri, Florence Buford, daughter of Legrand Griffin Buford and Ora Ella Chinn were married.  Orra was the daughter of Joseph Garland Chinn and Nannie Shelby. Orra was my first cousin 3 times removed and Legrand was my third cousin 4 times removed.





Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

This is Why I Blog!

I had a great email exchange the other day with a chap in Scotland. It seems that he did a mountain of research on breweries in Scotland and Alloa in Clackmannanshire in particular. I mentioned in a blog post on May 19, 2010 that I was working on the Maitland family and mentioned Charles Maitland of Bass Crest Brewery in Alloa. By the time he was through I had tons of stuff on the family including a transcription from the family bible. This wasn't a different Maitland family, it was my direct line. Well you can imagine, especially if you are a family researcher, that I am just thrilled with my windfall. One of my favorite items is a photo of Bass Crest House, where Charles Maitland lived with his family. And it is still standing and occupied.


Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, December 26, 2011

This is Fun? Yes!

I've been having quite the time of it, entering death certificates in my database. I started off with about 250, added about a dozen, and am currently down to about 56 left. Yes, I am enjoying it. It sounds crazy, but each death certificate has provided me with a little more detail about the people who were already in my database. And then there are the death certificates I found of people who weren't yet in my database. And the marriages I found as a result, and the next generation found because I am paying attention to the detail.

I am always looking for blog topics, and have found a few and discarded them because I don't want to offend the living. For instance, there is a death record for one relative, a second cousin twice removed, that seems fitting for my Thriller Thursday blog, but since this person left behind a couple of children, I don't want to speculate on the circumstances of her death. Maybe someday.

In the meantime, I will continue to enter the information, research a little further if possible, and blog about it if relevant.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas



Greeting done with My Memories Suite v 3 and "Blue Christmas" from Trixie Scraps.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Sympathy Saturday - Charles Webb Becken

Off and on, I've worked on the Webb family, which is my dad's side of the family. And I am always surprised when I find someone who connects recently to the line.  One such person, was Charles Webb Becken. I began corresponding with him in the late 1990's and a little into the 2000's. Chuck was the adopted son of Mary Louise Webb and Albert Charles Becken. In all our emails, when he gave me dates of births and deaths, he never gave me places. Recently, I started looking for death information on this adopted grandparents, Walter Leslie Webb and Mozella "Zella" Hutcheson. Since the Walter and Zella married in Jackson county, Missouri, that is where I started my search. Walter died in 1930, but was not found in Missouri. Nope, I found him in Illinois.  Once I had his death certificate, I found the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses, and had discovered three daughters. But, Mozella was the mother of 5 with 3 living children. One more daughter was found on Family Search's Illinois birth records - Margaret - born in 1892. Since she is not listed on the 1900 census, I presume she died somewhere in that 8 year time frame.

Obituaries for Walter and Zella, who died December 12, 1941 elicited the spouses of the daughters. Frank Herdman, William H. Brady and A. C. Becken. Unfortunately, it did not give the daughter's given name. Just Mrs. Frank Herdman, Mrs. William H. Brady and Mrs. A. C. Becken. Well, I knew Becken was married to the youngest daughter, Mary Louise. Search of the 1930 census gave me Katherine Herdman and Helen Brady.

Search of the Social Security death index gave me Charles Webb Becken, born in 1926 and died December 23, 2007. None of my online indices have pointed me towards a death notice or obituary. I am saddened by that. One thing I should mention about Chuck, is that he surfed the web and sent email with WebTV. While I never met him, I enjoyed our sporadic correspondence. So here is my poor attempt at an obituary for Charles.


     Charles Webb Becken died in Los Gatos, California on December 23, 2007. Born in Illinois on August 2, 1926 he was adopted by Albert Charles and Mary Louise Webb Becken.


     Later in life, Chuck developed an avid interest in genealogy. Especially his own. He was a willing correspondent and sprinkled his family history emails with jokes. He is missed by his audience. He is survived by one daughter ...

As you see, I don't even know where he is buried, so that I could post a memorial on Find-A-Grave. Blogs touch a lot of people, and I hope someone out there has more information for me.


Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, December 23, 2011

OCFRD ...

Yes, I do have this disease. OCFRD. Obsessive. Compulsive. Family. Research. Disease. And I have it bad. And that is what makes me look for the death certificate online for a seriously removed relative. Or the in-law of a removed relative. For instance, while entering the parents of a seriously removed relative's wife (2nd cousin 3 times removed) from her death certificate, I noticed they listed her mother as Helen unknown. I hate that. So I had to look. I didn't find her maiden name, but I did look. I feel that women are hard enough to trace, mainly because we give up our maiden names. The ultimate insult is to find a death certificate for a woman, and they don't even bother with her first name, they just list her as Mrs. John Smith. And then list her parents as unknown. That just sets my OCFRD off and off I go searching for the answer.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thriller Thursday - John Loyd Thurman ... Or Is It?

I am transcribing death certificates into my genealogical database and I came across one that piqued my interest: John Loyd Thurman (their spelling) who died in the Greene County, Missouri Jail. 

Why he was in jail, I do not know, but he died of generalized arteriosclerosis, cerebral sclerosis with psychosis and he was malnourished. He was 75 years old.

Okay, I can see why he might get picked up. Again I've not found a newspaper article regarding him. He was the son of John Loyd Thurmond and Martha Kirtley.

Is this something we might call Alzheimer's today? A sad end for the poor man.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Wow! Two years ago I started this mostly family history blog. And I've kept it going even though there were times I realllllllly wanted to skip it. But I've stuck with it (every day but Sunday.) Thanks to my 100 followers and the 20 thousand plus hits on my blog. You make me want to get that next topic posted. So Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Wedding Wednesday - Webb & Hutcheson

On December 21, 1883 in Jackson county, Missouri, Walter Leslie Webb, son of William C. Webb & Martha Jones Webb was married to Mozella "Zella" Hutcheson.


Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

To Err is Human. To Find Anyway is Divine!

I hate errors on vital records. Really hate it. Why? Because then I have to go back and PROVE why my information is right. That can be incredibly time consuming. For instance, yesterday one of the death certificates had the decedent's father's name wrong. I was able to pull census to prove my information is correct, but I hate having to do that.

Then there was the death record for William P. Smith of Agency, Missouri. According to his death certificate, he was born on August 15, 1916 and died October 15, 1916 at the age of 55 years and 2 months. Not possible. Slightly dyslexic person who filled out the form? According to census and calculating the birth date from his age, he was born August 15, 1861. That was a careless mistake. You see it all the time.

Another careless mistake is they will ask the informant for the father and mother's names. They DON'T want the names of the informant's parents, they want the name of the decedent's parents.

And I can't tell you how much time I've wasted over the years looking for a death record in one state only to find out that the person died somewhere else. This happens mostly when you have a burial record but no death certificate. I am sure there might be a future generation who doesn't know that my grandmother died at the Soo in Michigan (that's Saulte St. Marie for all you non-Michiganders) and not in Lexington, Missouri. And no, she wasn't living at the Soo either. My dad's family was on vacation when my grandma became ill. The transportation costs to transport her back to Detroit, have a service there, and then transportation for the whole family - dad, his brother and father - to Lexington, Missouri where she was ultimately buried - must have been astronomical for 1938.

What did I learn from all this? Widen your search. If you don't find a record where you expect to find one, search for the unexpected. It works.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, December 19, 2011

Making Progress

I am AMAZED that I am making any headway on my family database this close to Christmas. I've worked on some Christmas crafts that are gifts (enough said) and wrapped everything. I have one stocking stuffer to get yet, if I can find what I want and now am working on the death certificates I've accumulated over the past year. When I name the files for saving, I name them:  MO-DC William P Smith. If there is more than one William Smith in my database it might read thus: MO-DC William P Smith-Buchanan - for the county. Or I might stick the year on the end. This avoids duplication when I go to add the image to the database. Over the last 3 weeks, I've added about 150 images, mostly death certificates. And I've added about 10 more to the queue. And countless census records and marriage records and one or two birth records.

I've made it up to the last few of the Missouri death records, if I could just stop adding more! Still to go,109 death records that encompass New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington, and Ontario, Canada.

I've added 134 new people to my database also. The census records include 554 pages and there are 540 marriage records to add. Those are the ones that will take a while to enter. I cringe every time I add a new census. My goal is to be done with the death records by the end of the year. If I start dipping into the marriages - that will be good.



Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Sympathy Saturday - Victor Klijewski

Victor Klijewski was a first cousin twice removed to my DH. My hubby's great grandfather, Max Klijewski was a half brother to Victor's father, Leon Klijewski.

I sort of stumbled on this second family of Leon Klijewski not long after Victor died. I don't know if he ever married, had children or grandchildren. I only know that he was born December 21, 1914 in Detroit, Michigan and died December 17, 2001, and his last residence was Livonia, Michigan.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, December 16, 2011

Loriman Samuel Percival Who Are You?

In yesterday's blog post, I indicated I had possibly found a family member while randomly searching on Ancestry in their "Report of the Death of An American Citizen" database recently. I came across a death record for one Loriman Samuel Percival. Curious. While I do have a Loriman Brigham Percival, born in 1884 to Samuel M. Percival & Druscilla Snow Percival*, I only have a census from 1910 that shows Loriman B. Percival married to Inez. Inez proved to be Inez C. Mattison and they were married in 1905 in Washington. After 1910, Loriman B. Percival, or L. B. Percival is difficult to find. In 1910, he is listed as a salesman, but the majority of the articles I find on him list him as an actor. I have looked for a death notice/record of him for some time now, without much luck. I need something to prove that Loriman Samuel Percival is his son.

One more look at the newspapers on Ancestry showed something I hadn't seen before. Could this be the article I hoped to find?


It certainly did prove several things. First, it proved Loriman B. Percival mentioned was the correct Loriman Percival. Even though they got his mother's first name wrong. Dinsilla? Really? Spouse was Viola (Shaw). And his son -- Loriman S. Percival. I love it when things work out they way I think they should! I am so glad I kept looking for this record, because the name kept making me think they were father and son, but I needed the proof.

*Samuel & Druscilla were first cousins.


Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Thriller Thursday - Loriman Samuel Percival

I always like to browse new or updated databases at Ancestry.com. Recently, I found this tidbit on the left. (Click on image to see a larger image.) It seems that Loriman Samuel Percival was in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941.

Hmm. That's interesting. Maybe I could find an obit with more information. Well, as you can see, I did find Loriman "F." Percival in the Oakland Tribune on Ancestry. All it did though was make me ask more questions, like who are his parents. Oh sure, it shows his mother on the death report, but no mention of a father. Was he related to Loriman Brigham Percival?

Check back tomorrow for the answer to my questions.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Wedding Wednesday - Basher & Zimmeth

This couple were my first cousins twice removed. They, therefore, were first cousins to each other. Francis Joseph Basher/Bescher was the son of George Bescher and Marianna Zimmeth and Josephine Zimmeth was the daughter of Michael Zimmeth/Simmet/Simmeth and Catherine Eisenmann. Marianna and Michael, were of course brother and sister and were two of the siblings of my great-grandfather, August Zimmeth.


Frank and Josephine were married December 15, 1887 in Lancaster, Erie, New York.



Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Texas Deaths, 1977 - 1986

I feel like I'm using a very slow microfilm reader. Seriously. Family Search now has some death certificates up for Texas from 1977-1979. I had really good results with 1977, so I thought I would get a jump on 1978 Texas deaths.

First, I printed a custom report in RootsMagic that listed the name, death date and location of the people that I know died in Texas in 1978. If and when all these records are indexed, I'll go and search by surname. that always turns up a few winners for me.

In order to search, you need to know the county and the month, at least, when they died. This required looking at some of the indices available online. You would think that one of these indices would have the certificate number listed. Oh no. That would be too easy. Instead you have to locate the year, month and county on Family search and page through. and it isn't even like they tell you that certificate number 12345 - 23456 is Harris county or anything like that. And the month? Well, let's say that several of the groups say Aug-Sept and include June and July too! Weird way of doing things if you ask me. And I am not going to page through Harris county, Texas. It's a huge file. So then I have to make a to-do list item so that I don't forget about searching once these records are indexed.

And I won't even talk about the hour I wasted looking for a record in the wrong year.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, December 12, 2011

Great Review, But ...

Lexington Herald, March 8, 1964:

MRS. WILSON REMINISCES

AN ESCAPE FROM REALITY,

by Hester P. Wilson. Exposition Press, $2.75

Mrs. Wilson is a native of Fayette County and a retired teacher, and "An Escape from Reality" is a little book of recollections of her childhood.

She was born Hester Price
[WRONG] and she grew up at the Price [WRONG] Family farm on the Newtown Pike in a section of the county where many of the old homes and some of the old families remain yet. Her mother was the teacher in the one-room school Hester attended, and Prof. M. A. Cassidy was the county school superintendent, a  dignified educator who later became superintendent of city schools and for whom an elementary school is named.

Mr. Price
[WRONG], a youngster during the Civil War and a staunch Confederate sympathizer, often told Hester tales of the conflict, in which the Southerners were, of course always the heroes, and throughout the book Mrs. Wilson refers to herself not as Hester but as "Rebel." it was not until she was well along in school that she learned that the Civil War, as a matter of fact, had two sides.

Her recollections are fascinating. The Harknesses, Miss Elizabeth Dangerfield, H. Price McGrath, the Peters family, the Keenes all have a place in these reminiscences, as do Castleton, Winton, McGrathiana, Cabell's Dale, Elmendorf and other well known homes and farms.

Change from the one-room schoolhouse, the crossroads store and the horse and buggy to the present day is the theme of "An Escape from Reality," and the author's rich sense of humor and easy style of writing make it an interesting book. - L.B.M.


It's not often you can find a book review for a book a relative wrote. In this case, the book was published in 1964. The review is good, but there is a glaring error. The reviewer, one L.B.M., never bothered to check his/her facts and the author's name.  Her full name was Hester Price Parker Wilson; Parker was her maiden name, not Price. Hester Parker's father was Harvey J. Parker. Hester's mother was Stirling "Price" Kirtley. Yes, she was named for a Confederate General. Price's mother. Susan Anna Chinn died just before Price's 10th birthday. Price's father was Isaac Shelby Kirtley. I have never found a record of his death. After the death of her mother, Price went to live with her aunt & uncle, Joseph & Hester Chinn Trapp.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Sympathy Saturday, Emma Bowman Mize

Emma Bowman was the daughter of Abraham Bowman and Mary Gist Bowman. Abraham and Mary were first cousins.

Somewhere around 1877 - I haven't yet found their marriage record - Emma married Peter Mize. She died December 10, 1930 in Nodaway, Andrew county, Missouri.




Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, December 9, 2011

I Just Love It When ...

I'm working on a project in RootsMagic, and all I can say is that I've knocked about 60 items off my to-do list. You know, it doesn't hurt to review those lists once in a while.

So I am running along working on this to-do list. One of the obituaries I would love to have is an Odessa, Missouri newspaper - at least I think that is what I want. Somewhere in the Lafayette or Saline county area there must be a newspaper with an obituary for Katie Webb DeMoss. She was the daughter of Samuel Webb and Elizabeth McReynolds and she married John P. DeMoss, Jr.  John was the son of John Pool DeMoss and Mary E. Davidson. John DeMoss, Jr was my first cousin 3 times removed, his mother being a sister of my great-great grandmother, Susan Davidson Percival later Holt.

Katie has been in my database for years, I found her accidentally. Born in 1867, she died in 1969. Centenarians have always interested me. So today, I found her parents. Now to connect them to my Webb lines ...

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Thriller Thursday - Martha Stanard Bodley

Martha's death certificate is one of those that makes me wonder what happened exactly. Granted, she was 83 at the time, and lots of elderly people die as a result of broken hips. Martha's cause of death reads as "of fractured right hip, accidentally fell while stepping onto curb." Of course, this death certificate doesn't really indicate whether she died from the fall or much later.  And of course, I can't find a newspaper article that relates what happened. 

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wedding Wednesday - Keen & Southgate

From  Kentucky Reporter, Lexington, Kentucky, Marriage announcement, 20 December 1824, p 3 c4:

Married on Tuesday evening, the 7th inst., by the Rev. Dr. Fishback, William Wright Southgate to Miss Adeliza Keen of this town.

Adeliza Keen was the daughter of  Sanford Keen and Sthreshley or Threshley.



Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Missouri Deaths 1834-1910

Yeah, Ancestry is great about posting new databases, but not-so-hot about fixing databases. For instance, I discovered October 16, 2010, that their Missouri Deaths 1834-1910, specifically Jackson county, were missing a lot of images. So I reported it. Not once, not, twice, but every time I came across a missing image.  On November 30, 2011 they updated their database, calling it "new." Finally I got the images I wanted. And knocked 3 more items off the to-do list! 

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Monday, December 5, 2011

Better Check It Again, Santa

 And no, I don't mean your naughty and nice list. I mean that genealogy you found on Ancestry.

As funny as the commercial may seem, it seems too many of us are accepting the information we find on Ancestry.com as fact. Just because it's there, doesn't mean it's true. Whenever I find something that I find questionable about someone on Ancestry, I seek to verify it. You be the judge: Ancestry.com Santa Commercial.



Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Sympathy Saturday - Horace Grosvenor Craig

From the Lexington Herald, December 5, 1919:

"Horace G. Craig

Word was received in the city Thursday of the death of Horace G. Craig, of Parkville, Mo., formerly well known coal dealer of Lexington. Mr. Craig was 80 years old and died of infirmities of old age. He was a brother-in-law of S. T. Swift, of this city."


Horace Grosvenor Craig was the son of Elijah Wisdom Craig and Almira Grosvenor. He was born December 15, 1835 in Lexington, Kentucky.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday, December 2, 2011

Success! At Last

Ever since the Seeking Michigan site went online, I've been looking for death certificates of some of my family in Michigan in the 1900-1910 time frame. I pulled many certificates, but was stumped on George August Zimmeth, my great-uncle George Zimmeth's son. Or one of them. You see, George Zimmeth, Senior and his wife Julia Blust had a total of 12 children born between 1907 and 1918. Only three lived to be adults, most of them died as infants, one died as a three-year-old.


I looked every which way I could and the other night decided to give it one more try, searching instead by the date of 1909 and county of Iosco. I found him indexed as Augut Zinnth, Oct 25, 1909, Tawas, Iosco County. 

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thriller Thursday - Accidental Shooting of Sidney E. DeLong

From the Lexington Leader, June 23, 1932:

ACCIDENTAL SHOT PROVES FATAL TO SIDNEY E. DELONG

Paint Salesman is Struck by Shot While in Basement of Bank


  Sidney E. DeLong, 49, 720 Sunset drive, paint salesman, died at St. Joseph's hospital at 10:45 o'clock this morning, 45 minutes after an accidental shot struck him in the abdomen while he was in the basement of the First National Bank and Trust Company building at west Main street and Cheapside.

  Mr. DeLong was shot when a pistol Billy Courtney, 17, 229 South Hanover avenue, was handling accidentally discharged. Young Courtney is the son of William H. Courtney, president of the banking company. He had been employed in the bank basement for several days sorting checks, and with Mr. DeLong and John A. Gross, Newtown pike, custodian of the building, had been examining the gun.

  Young Courtney said he thought the gun was unloaded, and had been told it was "on safety."

  Mr. Gross had started to grease the pistol, when Mr. DeLong and the Courtney boy took the weapon for closer examination. Mr. DeLong had gone to the bank to see Mr. Gross about an order of paint.

  Mr. DeLong's wife, Mrs. Nell Wallis DeLong, and two of his brothers, George E. DeLong, Fayette circuit clerk, and John B. DeLong, 522 west Third street, were notified immediately. George DeLong accompanied his brother to the hospital in the ambulance.

  Mr. Gross turned the pistol, a Luger automatic, over to Capt. Thomas P. Hanley, Lieut. J. Howard Wills and Detectives John L. Sellers and Ed Wiseman, who investigated the accident.

  Mr. Gross said he had taken the pistol from his office on the fourth floor to the basement room to clean and grease it. It had one cartridge in the barrel, and the magazine was out.

 The custodian said he had just introduced Mr. DeLong and young Courtney, who had not previously known each other. They had shaken hands, and Mr. DeLong had remarked on Billy's resemblance to his father.

  Mr. Gross turned to get some rags off a shelf, and heard the shot. When he turned Mr. DeLong said, "I'm shot - I'm going to die."

  In his excitement, Mr. Gross exclaimed, "Sid, I told you it was loaded - why did you fool with it?" He said Mr. DeLong shook his head weakly, apparently unable to speak.

  Mr. Gross said it was impossible for him to tell in whose hands the gun was at the time it discharged, since both Mr. DeLong and young Courtney were looking at it  and standing very close together.

  Young Courtney, immediately after the shooting, ran upstairs into the main corridor of the bank into his father's office. His father was in attendance at the Kentucky State Bankers' Association meeting at the Lafayette hotel, and the boy hurried there, where he told his father what had occurred.

  Mr. DeLong was a member of a prominent old Fayette county family. He was a son of Mrs. Etta Berkley DeLong and the late A. A. DeLong. Besides his mother, his is survived by his wife, Mrs. Nell Wallis DeLong; a daughter, Miss Sarah Elizabeth DeLong; a son, Sidney Wallis DeLong; three brothers, George E. DeLong and John B. DeLong, Lexington, and Arthur A. DeLong Jessamine county, and by three sisters, Mrs. Merrit O'Neal, Louisville, and Mrs. H. B. Tucker and Mrs. Francis Fox, both of Lexington.

  Mr. DeLong had been in the paint business in recent years, and before that had been a farmer. He was widely known and highly respected. He was a member of Immanuel Baptist church and was actively interested in church work.
Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes