Author Archives: Dawn Bingaman

Bingaman-Rice Family Photo: Postscript

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Five oldest sons of Josephus BingamanFive oldest sons of Josephus Bingaman (L to R): Henry, Frank, Oliver, Rice and Fred.

About the time I finished writing my last post, correcting the record regarding the identification of several individuals included in a studio photograph of the Josephus Bingaman and Mary Rice family, I located this brief newspaper article. Emphasis mine.

  At the residence of E. T. Bingaman on King street in Ottawa, last Sunday, occurred a reunion of the five oldest sons of J. Bingaman. Those present were E. T. Bingaman of Ottawa, F. L. Bingaman of Hickory street, R. W. Bingaman and family of LeLoup, C. H. Bingaman and family of Chippewa and O. M. Bingaman of Rice county. The latter having spent most of the time for the past five years in the west, returned to spend New Years with his parents in Garnett and visit other relatives. He expects to return the latter part of the week to Rice county wher[e] he is employed as a foreman on a ranch. 1

If the information in this newspaper is taken at face value, Oliver M. Bingaman had been away from the family working in another part of the state. If Oliver was indeed reunited with his family for a visit after five years, it suggests that the studio photograph would necessarily have to have been taken prior to his removal. This lends credence to the assertion that the family photograph was taken circa 1900-1901. Also shown in the table in the last post, Oliver was recorded still living at home in his father’s household at the time of the 1900 census (April 1900). This information, coupled with the dark clothing of those in the photo suggests the photograph may have been taken in the Fall of 1900 or over the Winter months of early 1901.

It should be noted that the identification of E. T. Bingaman, should be E. F. Bingaman. There is no one in the family with the initials of E. T. “Fred” Bingaman is the author’s great-grandfather.

Source:
1 “Chippewa”, The Ottawa Herald (Ottawa, Kansas), 18 Jan 1906, p. 6, col. 4. Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 Dec 2014).

 

This post and associated image first appeared on AncestorRoundup.com on 29 Dec 2014. The image of the original photograph was edited by Dawn Bingaman. © 2014. All rights reserved.

Bingaman-Rice Family Photo: A Contemporary Misidentification?

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Comparing the caption on a treasured family photo with information from the census to resolve an incorrect identification

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A photograph of a family member who lived and died before anyone now living remembers is akin to finding the Holy Grail for genealogists. An old photograph captures what mere words cannot. This message is reinforced by watching popular television series like “Who Do You Think You Are?” and “Finding Your Roots”. Oftentimes the professional genealogists on the respective shows manage to track down a photograph of the celebrity subject’s family who are clearly moved when the image of their long-dead ancestor is revealed to them for the first time.

I can certainly relate to this feeling. It was looking at early family photographs with older family members and listening to their stories that were the “hook” for me and my life-long interest in genealogy and family history.

Provenance
I have had a photograph in my personal collection for at least fifteen years, gifted to me by my father for safe-keeping due to the damage. It is torn, stained, scuffed and tinged with mold but is precious nonetheless. It is the only photo we have of Josephus Bingaman (1844-1931) and his wife, Mary Rice (1849-1917), and their children. Today the original photograph is stored in a Hollinger metal edge archival box in my home office. A framed copy of the photo sits on my mantle.

When I first laid eyes on this particular photo as a young teenager, it was stuffed in an overflowing metal file box, along with other photos, letters, bills and the like. What I don’t know is when or where my father acquired the photo. When questioned about the provenance of the photograph last October, Dad admitted he did not remember where or from whom he had gotten it. He offered three or four possibilities, but nothing definite. Because the photo is of my father’s grandfather and great-grandparents, it seems most likely that he received the photo from his great-aunt, Wanda (Bingaman) Jensen. Growing up estranged from his father, first by war, followed by a divorce, it was she that filled in some of the gaps for Dad about his paternal ancestors from Kansas. She provided other photos to Dad of his Bingaman ancestors over the years, and he seems to have inherited others upon her death. Our family even moved to the same small community where she lived in the mid-1970s.

This original photograph, mounted on a heavy card backing, is undated and has no visible photographer’s imprint to tell us the name of the studio. An apparently contemporary caption was recorded by an unknown hand. The inked notation reads: “Aunt Mary & Uncle Joe Bingman & family and Tressie Rice.”

Besides this caption, someone took the time to number the children depicted in the photograph, and record their names, as follows:

  1. Henry
  2. Fred
  3. Frank
  4. Rice
  5. Oliver
  6. Elizabeth, Lizzie
  7. Bert
  8. George

Upon closer inspection, three persons in the picture have no numeral or notation. Two of them are clearly the parents, Mary Rice and Josephus Bingaman, the oldest members of the family group. The third unnumbered individual, then, is supposed to be Tressie Rice, the young woman shown on the far left of the group. On the surface, there is no reason to doubt this identification; whoever recorded the information using a fountain pen did so long ago, much closer to the event than I am today. Whether the information was captured about the time of the taking of the photograph is unknown. Fountain pens were commonly used for at least the first half of the twentieth century.

Two things jump out at me immediately: 1) the caption was probably recorded by a niece or nephew due to the use of the words “aunt” and “uncle” to describe the parents and 2) the surname of BINGAMAN has been misspelled “BINGMAN”. If the writer shared the last name of Bingaman then, chances are, they would have spelled the name correctly. The caption was likely penned by someone on the Rice side of the family. This is pure speculation on my part, though.

Comparisons
Fortunately, we have another photograph of my great-grandfather, Edward Frederick Bingaman (called “Fred”) to use for comparative purposes. The individual photo of Fred seen in the slideshow above was taken in Garnett, Kansas in 1898. I do not see a great deal of difference between the two images, so my initial impression is that the group photograph was taken within a few years at most of the dated photograph, say 1900-1901. One thing is certain: the photograph was made before 1917, as Mary (Rice) Bingaman died in February of that year.

For additional clues as to when the photo may have been captured, I turned to the 1900 Federal census. Taken in the United States every ten years, it is the census closest to the estimated date of the photograph. This should reveal the ages of family members in the photo at a fixed point in time and allow me to determine whether my initial estimate is correct by visual comparison.

It was in looking at the 1900 census that I first noticed a problem with the identifications of Lizzie Bingaman and Tressie Rice in the family photo. That year, Lizzie was recorded as eighteen years of age, and Tressie was only six years old.

1900 census household of Josephus Bingaman1900 census households of Josephus Bingaman, and his son, Edward F. Bingaman, with entries for Lizzie and Tressie highlighted. Click the photo to enlarge.

Dating the photograph to 1900 seems about right if the identification of the young woman and the girl in the photo are swapped. Assuming the census ages are correct, Tressie should be the girl marked as number 6, and Lizzie thus has no number recorded. I then looked at census entries for all family members to verify that the ages recorded in the 1900 census were not a simple mistake made by the census enumerator. They were not. In fact, ages tracked surprisingly well across the years when compared with state censuses taken on either side of the Federal enumeration. In doing the census research, it becomes obvious that the list of children was annotated in birth order.

Table 1. 1895-1905 census enumerations for the Josephus and Mary Bingaman family members. Adult children in their own households are included but footnoted separately.

Table 1 Bingaman census comparisons 1895-1905

While the estimate of 1900-1901 is probably fairly accurate based on visual comparison of individuals correlated with census research, undoubtedly more can be done to evaluate the clothing styles worn by those in the photo and studio props. An expert in fashion or Kansas photographers would likely be able to discern if my estimate is correct. Likewise, physical characteristics of the photographic print itself can also yield clues to the type of camera used or available photographic processes in certain time periods. I am not an expert in these esoteric subjects, so invite comments from experts in these fields. Some further specifics about the original print have been included below should someone with this knowledge wish to comment.

Details of the photographic print
Details of the photographic print. Click to enlarge.

If you have a copy of this photograph or copies of photographs of any of the persons shown in the Bingaman-Rice family photo in your family’s collection that could be used for comparison, I would like to hear from you. Please click on the title of this post to bring up commenting options.

This post and the associated images first appeared on AncestorRoundup.com on 28 Dec 2014. All images of the original photograph were created and edited by Dawn Bingaman. © 2014. All rights reserved.

Table 1 footnotes

[a] 1895 Kansas state census, Franklin County, population schedule, Pomona Twp., p. 6, dwelling/family 38, Joseph “Bingamin” household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 51. The children are all incorrectly attributed to dwelling 38, family 39, that of D.M. “Bingamin”. D.M. Bingaman was David Marion Bingaman, a Civil War soldier and brother of Josephus Bingaman. He and his wife, Ada (McKibben) Bingaman had no children.

[b] 1895 Kansas state census, Franklin County, population schedule, Lincoln Twp., p. 9, dwelling/family 49, C. H. Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel K-50.

[c] 1895 Kansas state census, Franklin County, population schedule Lincoln Twp., p. 9, dwelling/family 47, George Patterson household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel K-50.

[d] 1900 U.S. census, Anderson County, Kansas, population schedule, Jackson Twp., ED 18, sheet 4B, dwelling 76, family 81, Josephus Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 470.

[e] 1900 U.S. census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Lincoln Twp., ED 82, sheet 5A, dwelling 53, family 54, Cornelius Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Dec 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 480.

[f] 1900 U.S. census, Anderson County, Kansas, population schedule, Jackson Twp., ED 18, sheet 4B, dwelling 77, family 82, Edward F. Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 470.

[g] 1900 U.S. census, Anderson County, Kansas, population schedule, Jackson Twp., ED 18, sheet 5A, dwelling 86, family 91, Frank L. Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Dec 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 470.

[h] 1900 U.S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population schedule, Junction Twp., ED 119, sheet 3B, dwelling 56, family 57, Rice “Bingeman” in John Myres household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Dec 2014), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 494.

[i] 1905 Kansas state census, Anderson County, Kansas, population schedule, p. 14, dwelling 1, family 4, Joe Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 4.

[j] 1905 Kansas state census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Ottawa, p. 7, dwelling 116, C. H. Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 55. The enumerator used a 1904 form and penned in column headings, omitting family numbers.

[k] 1905 Kansas state census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Ottawa, p. 1, dwelling/family 296, Fred Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 54.

[l] 1905 Kansas state census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Ottawa, p. 1, dwelling/family 295, F. L. Bingaman household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 54.

[m] 1905 Kansas state census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Hayes Twp., p. 61, dwelling 104, family 109, R. W. Bingaman in the H. Wright Smith household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 55.

[n] 1905 Kansas state census, Rice County, Kansas, population schedule, Wilson Twp., p. 3, dwelling 19, family 21, O. M. Bingaman in the Susanna Wills household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 136.

[o] 1905 Kansas state census, Franklin County, Kansas, population schedule, Franklin Twp., p. 6, dwelling 55, family 56, E. E. Crane in the W. J. Crane household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Dec 2014), citing Kansas Historical Society microfilm reel 55.

Digital Organization and File Naming Conventions

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Last week I returned from a genealogical research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The result of my three days of research was more than one hundred digital images of microfilmed documents, mostly consisting of 19th century New Jersey deeds for Middlesex County and daughter county Mercer, created in 1838. I was in information gathering mode and did not have time to read through more than a few of the documents while on-site. I needed a quick way to catalog my finds so I could see at a glance what I had already scanned and what was still outstanding from my to-do list.

For this project, I chose to first create an Excel spreadsheet where I entered in selected entries from the deed index available on microfilm at the library. Since I am exploring connections between the Tindall and Carson families post-Revolution in the aforementioned counties, I chose to focus on deeds where people with these surnames were grantors and grantees on the same document, or documents that indicated “heirs of” or “estate” or similar verbiage.

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Portion of my Excel spreadsheet showing deed research underway on the Tindall family of New Jersey.  [Click to enlarge this or any other photo.]

I then pulled the relevant microfilm, scanned the film, and saved an image file to my FHL 2014 folder on my thumb drive. Every evening when back at the hotel, I copied the contents of the folder to my laptop and to Dropbox for safekeeping.

I chose to save copies of the microfilmed documents as JPG files at 300 dpi or better (depending upon legibility of the microfilm). All saved files were named in a similar fashion, with one example shown below:

2-filename

 

 

Elements of the file name, from left to right
Repository: FHL
Microfilm file number: ####### (7-digits)
Volume number
Page number
Surname
Type of document (i.e. deed, death record, etc.)
Miscellaneous: this field may or may not be used; if I imaged only a portion of the full page, I might include “top” or “bottom” or “light” or “dark” depending on how I may have cropped or edited the file.

Note that I use no spaces in the file name, and separate the various elements with a hyphen. This will improve readability and sorting, and if I choose to upload the file to my website, I will not get those %20% space fillers in online URL links.

3-file-folder-structure-names

Files in my Data > Genealogy > FHL 2014 folder

Not only does this file naming convention help me stay organized, it also helps me to maintain the necessary information for later crafting of a source citation. How many times have you gotten a copy of an item, only to later be unable to recall the source of that file or photocopy? By including the repository and the film number in the file name I have that information close at hand, and can later pull title information from the institution’s online catalog. Although not shown above, I typically include an image of the spine of the filmed book to aid me in creating accurate source citations as well.

Assembling the various images that make up one document into a single PDF file and abstracting and transcribing that information will keep me occupied over the next few months. I plan to also plat out the various metes and bounds parcels using DeedMapper (or similar software) at a future date.

Web Sightings: New Jersey Civil War Gravestones

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This is the first post in what I intend to be a continuing series I am calling “Web Sightings“, highlighting websites I use in my own research.

New Jersey Civil War Gravestones [link] is an online database of headstone images of Civil War veterans and related service and biographical information aimed primarily at genealogists and family historians. Their mission “is to capture digital images of gravestones of our ancestors who served in the Civil War and are buried throughout New Jersey“.

This website is one of the many independent sites now utilizing software originally developed for the Gravestone Photo Project (GPP) in 2003 to house and display cemetery images as part of the larger Iowa GenWeb project.

More than one million gravestone images have been uploaded to GPP websites as a whole, and more than 12,000 of those images are part of the New Jersey Civil War Gravestones site. Soldiers from both sides of the conflict are included in this New Jersey database, as long as they were buried within the state. Since this is an archive of grave markers, there will be no entry in the database if there is no corresponding headstone image. This is one of the main differences between New Jersey Civil War Gravestones site and the better known cemetery website called Find A Grave.

nj-civil-war-gravestones-main

The site has a Quick Search function, which allows one to input a first and last name, and limit the search to a particular county within the state of New Jersey. This is the default search type, accessible on the site’s home page, or by clicking on Search on the menu bar. There is also an advanced search feature, accessible by clicking Search on the menu bar, then Advanced Search. Advanced search reveals additional parameters including search by record ID, cemetery, submitter information or upload date.

Searching for the grave marker of a service member is straightforward: simply input a name in the search box. I am searching for the surname Carson, so that is the name I used in the example below. If searching for a very common surname, you may want to include a first name and/or county in your search. As a general rule, I always do a very broad search at the outset, and then narrow the search only if I get too many results.

nj-civil-war-gravestones-search-bar

I quickly received a list of eleven Civil War soldiers with the Carson surname buried in the state of New Jersey with gravestone photos contributed to the website.

nj-civil-war-gravestones-carson-search-results

I recognized all five of the Mercer County names; three of these men were brothers, and are part of my extended Carson family from that area. Their information from the New Jersey Civil War Gravestones site appears below.

james-carson-nj-civil-war-gravestonesJames T. CARSON (1836-1910) Co. E, 21st New Jersey Infantry.1 (Click on his name to go to the featured website.)

perrine carson nj civil war gravestonesPerrine CARSON (1821-1866) Co. I, 38th New Jersey Infantry2. Birth and death dates are from my own research, and are not part of his database entry. See my blog post regarding the provisioning of his headstone, part of the Office of Quartermaster General records (RG 92) at the National Archives here. A more legible image of his headstone is on the aforementioned Find A Grave site here.

george carson alias cassner nj civil war gravestonesGeorge H. CARSON, alias CASSNER (1834-1903) Co. F, 38th New Jersey Infantry3. Middle initial of H (for Henry) and his birth date is from my own research. I included an image of one of his pension cards (from T289) as part of a 2012 blog post here. The pension bureau confused the service of two New Jersey Civil War veterans named George Carson, and have papers incorrectly interfiled in their pension files as agents attempted to establish their separate identities.

The fifth man from Mercer County, John Wesley Carson, is not the same man as I have blogged about here previously, even though they share a name. Our John Wesley Carson moved about following the Civil War and died in Oregon.

There are several things to be aware of when using the New Jersey Civil War Gravestones site.

It is not all-inclusive. Not all Civil War veterans buried in New Jersey are included in this database. This is a volunteer-driven site and requires that a recent photo of the headstone be submitted, along with information about the veteran’s military service. The site owner will then verify the service before actually posting the photograph. If the soldier had no headstone, or service cannot be verified, then the submission will not be accepted.

All headstone photographs submitted to the site must be original images taken by the contributor. Images from other websites or taken by others may not be uploaded without their express permission. The photographer retains all rights to the image, but gives permission for the project coordinator to edit the image if necessary to meet certain specifications and to store and display the images “permanently for free public access“.

Getting permission to utilize the photographs may prove to be difficult. I have submitted two separate requests via the website’s contact form (12/2012 and 6/2014) and never received a response to either request.

Overall, this is a fantastic resource for those with Civil War soldiers buried in New Jersey. Kudos to the site coordinator for undertaking this worthy project. I wish I could name those responsible, but I have not been able to glean that information from the website, nor from a WHOIS search. And, a BIG thank you to those who have contributed their time and images. Should you have images you wish to contribute, please visit this link.

Finally, here is a link to other Gravestone Photo Project sites.

Sources:

1 New Jersey Civil War Gravestones, database and images  (http://newjerseycivilwargravestones.org : accessed 29 Jul 2014), entry no. 10384 for James T. Carson (1836-1910), citing Groveville Cemetery, Groveville, Mercer County, New Jersey; image contributed 24 Aug 2012 by “fredsays”.

2 New Jersey Civil War Gravestones, database and images  (http://newjerseycivilwargravestones.org : accessed 29 Jul 2014), entry no. 6857 for Perrine Carson (no dates), citing Presbyterian Churchyard, Hamilton Square, Mercer County, New Jersey; image contributed 16 Sep 2010 by “fredsays”.

3 New Jersey Civil War Gravestones, database and images  (http://newjerseycivilwargravestones.org : accessed 29 Jul 2014), entry no. 6853 for George Carson (d. 1903), citing Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey; image contributed 15 Sep 2010 by “fredsays”.

Disclaimer: The author regrets the inability to obtain explicit permission to showcase images from this website and makes no claim to ownership of any image shown here. Clearly, all screenshots on this Web Sightings post were taken from the New Jersey Civil War Gravestones site, and every attempt has been made to make that obvious.