Claudia Overington Newman Gammon, 1925-2014

As I said in my last post, my grandmother Claudia passed away on February 8. I wanted to write a bit about her life, so here's my attempt.

My grandmother as a baby (1925)

She was born Claudia Overington Newman on June 2, 1925 in New York. Her parents were Claudia "Poppy" Overington and Glenn T. Newman.

My grandmother with her mother, on the porch at Oaklands. (1925 or 1926)

The story is that Poppy was attending Hood College, and a friend wanted to go on a date but couldn't go alone. So Poppy went with her friend, and her friend's date brought Glenn, who was at Annapolis, where I believe he was at the military academy. But Poppy missed the train back to school and didn't get back until well after curfew and so she was expelled. Facing disgrace, her family encouraged her to marry Glenn and so they were married on June 14, 1924.

By the time my grandmother was four or five years old, Glenn and Poppy had divorced. Poppy and my grandmother moved in with Poppy's parents at the Overington house, Oaklands, in Frankford, Philadelphia. Poppy worked as a stenographer at a railroad office and her parents took care of my grandmother during the day. She told me once that when she'd been learning to talk she'd started calling her grandfather Grinnie, and the name stuck. And her grandmother at some point or other became Minnie. She seemed to have happy memories of her childhood at Oaklands.

Claudia at the beach in Atlantic City with her grandparents (1929)

Jumping rope in the driveway at Oaklands

August, 1931

When she was eight years old, her mother married Edgar Jones, known as Casey. They continued to live at Oaklands for some time. By 1940 Poppy was working as a secretary for security brokers and Casey was a salesman for a manufacturing company. My grandmother grew up in a mansion with servants. She attended services in a church her ancestors had helped to found. Her grandparents regularly took her to the beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her childhood was one of decaying privilege, as the family fortune was nearing exhaustion by the time she was born. Her grandfather had failed to pay his taxes and the city arranged that he could keep his property as long as he was alive, but once he passed away they would take the house. He lived until 1950, and by the time the house was torn down in 1953 it was in such an advanced state of disrepair that I have to assume that its condition and subsequent condemnation was due to the family's inability to keep it up, or perhaps they did not care to since they knew they wouldn't be staying.

My grandmother in her graduation dress (1942)

At any rate, my grandmother graduated from Frankford High School in 1942 and went away to Albion College in Michigan to study biology. While she was there, a bunch of new Army recruits were there for a ten week training program. There she met one from Los Angeles - my grandfather, Howard Gammon.

My grandparents outside the house where my grandfather was stationed at Albion College (1943)

In 2011 my father and I interviewed my grandmother about a few things using my cellphone as a recorder. She'd already had her stroke and had difficulty focusing but she was delighted to talk about how her parents met, and how she and my grandfather had met and gotten married. She got roped into a blind double date much like her mother had. "I was horrified," she said. "I had to go out and go, of all things, on a scavenger hunt and things like this with an absolutely blind date - somebody in the army that I didn't know from Adam!"

I'm not sure of the exact story but at some point or other they got engaged, I believe before my grandfather got shipped off to a military base in California. My grandmother went with her grandmother to a department store to buy her wedding dress, which was made of cotton. They got the dress pressed at a Chinese laundry. My grandmother had wanted a petticoat to wear under the dress but couldn't find one so she called up her college roommate, who was in Chicago. Apparently rationing wasn't as strict there so my grandmother took the train out there to visit and picked up a petticoat.

June 3, 1944 in Roswell, NM

I know my grandmother took a train out to Roswell, New Mexico, where she met up with my grandfather and his mother and they got married. I think my grandfather got shipped out to Hawaii after the wedding and then came back to her. They lived in a lot of places throughout their marriage until 1958. They had a daughter, Mary, in 1947, then another, Jeanne, in 1948. I learned on the day she died that she'd had two miscarriages after that. She had named one of those babies Ruth. My father Jim was born in 1953, the youngest of the family.

My grandparents and their three children in the middle, with my grandfather's parents on either side (early 1950s)

They lived for some time in Chardon, Ohio and later on Runyon Avenue in Piscataway, New Jersey. In 1960 my grandfather opened his own business, Gammon Technical Products, which was based out of Newark, NJ originally, then in Brielle and finally in Manasquan, NJ. They raised their three children. My aunts eventually moved to Chicago, where they lived until recently, when they moved back to NJ. My father stayed in New Jersey, where he met my mother. My grandparents went with them when they eloped in Bel Air, Maryland.

1959

At my parents' wedding (1974)

The period of my grandmother's life I was around to witness is actually the time I know the least about. She and I never had much of a relationship. So I will leave you with her obituary, as published by the Asbury Park Press:

Claudia Overington Newman Gammon, 88, passed away peacefully at home Saturday, February 8. She was raised in Philadelphia and attended Albion College. she married Howard M. Gammon in 1944. Howard went on to fly in WW2 and they lived in several places before settling in New Jersey in 1958. 

Claudia was an active member of St. Mary's by the Sea Episcopal Church and volunteered for many civic organizations over her life including past president of the Manasquan Woman's Club and the Manasquan Thrift Store for the VNA. She loved to read and travel. 

Claudia is survived by her husband of almost 70 years, Howard M. Gammon; 3 children, Mary and Jeanne Gammon of Spring Lake, their foster daughter, Lovi of Elgin, IL, and Jim Gammon and his wife Wanda, and her 2 grandchildren, Jimmy and Sandi, all of Wall Township. 

Visitation will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 at O'Brien Funeral Home, Route 35, Wall Township. Funeral Service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13 at St. Mary's by the Sea Episcopal Church in Point Pleasant Beach. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the St Mary's by the Sea "Table Fund". http://www.saintmarysbythesea.org/. For more information or to send condolences, please visit www.obrienfuneralhome.com.

Fearless Females, March 3: Carrie McKee

Today's prompt:

Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

I do actually share a name with an ancestor, but it isn't my first name. My father's father's mother was Carrie Bernice McKee. She was born in Wayne City, Illinois on June 24, 1887, after four older brothers. Her father Albert Finley McKee Senior was from Chagrin Falls, Ohio and her mother Sarah Helen Smart was from Newmarket, New Hampshire. The family moved around a lot but eventually Carrie moved to Los Angeles, where she met and married my great-grandfather James Mathias Gammon on November 9, 1921 at her father's house. They were both 34 years old. They had two sons: my grandfather Howard and my great-uncle Newton (who died in 2005).

Carrie and James died in the early 1970s, over a decade before my older brother was born. My mother never even met her, but my parents decided to name both my brother and I after her because she was such an intelligent and powerful woman in the Gammon family. My brother's middle name is McKee and mine is Carrie.

In about a month I will be going down to Maryland to meet the descendants of one of Carrie's brothers. She was the last of the McKee siblings to pass away (she outlived them all by at least 29 years) and when she did, my branch of the family lost touch with the others. It has been a particular joy of my research to rediscover these relatives. I was always very interested in Carrie because I was named after her, and she's always meant a lot to me.

For more photos of Carrie, check out her tag (CBM) on my Flickr photostream.

As a bonus, here are some of the extra-special female names in my family tree: Aralinda, Armilda/Artmilda, Auleen, Calantha, Coloma, Docia, Elender, Erman, Fairy, Firm, Junale, Marilda, Philonise, Philura, Treulie, Wilmartha, Zelina, Zilpha, and Zoa.

Do you have any of these names in your family tree? Have you even heard of them before? I've excluded any that are more modern than my grandparents.

Fearless Females, March 2: Jenny Burns

I missed the first day and I have a very busy month ahead of me, but I'm going to try to participate as much as I can in The Accidental Genealogist's Fearless Females daily prompts for Women's History month. 

Today's is simple: "Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?"

Here's my photo:

This is Jane "Jenny" Robertine Burns, my great-great-great-grandmother. This photo is one of my all-time favorites, and has been pretty popular over on my Flickr photostream, too, so it was a natural choice.

I have no idea when or where this photo was taken, but it's by far the youngest picture of her I've ever seen. All I can suggest is that she is not wearing a wedding ring, so the picture was probably taken before her marriage to Thomas Fogden Overington, which took place on June 5, 1855. Long-time readers may remember my post last year about this wedding.

A little more about Jenny:

• She was born on January 27, 1836 in Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Her parents were Dr. Robert Bruce Burns, a Scottish immigrant, and Elizabeth Love Yarnall, a Philadelphian woman.
• She had one older sister and eight younger siblings.
• She married her husband Thomas when she was 19 and he was 26.
• They had two sons, John (1864) and William (1871).
• The family lived at the Overington mansion "Oaklands" at 4606 Leiper Street in Frankford, which is now Overington Park.
• They attended services at Trinity Church Oxford in Oxford and its daughter institution, St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Frankford (which the Overingtons helped to found).
• Thomas passed away in 1877 at the age of 48, unusually young for his family (for example, his father passed away in 1892 just a month before his 100th birthday). He was buried at Trinity Church Oxford in Oxford, Philadelphia.
• Jenny lived another fifty years, but wore a widow's mourning black every day for that half-century.
• She passed away on September 4, 1927 at the age of 91. She was buried beside her husband.

More photos:

Jenny with her granddaughter Claudia "Poppy" Overington, on or about May 16, 1906

And her gravestone:

Photos of Couples, 1852-1974

So this isn't a terribly substantial post, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. The semester is coming to an end and I find myself incredibly busy, so this is the relatively simple project that is getting tackled this month. I put together all the photos of couples in my family tree. Many are aunts and uncles or cousins, but several are my direct ancestors. They are arranged in chronological order.

Mary Elizabeth Redding & Russell Howard McKee

married on October 13, 1852

James Wilkinson Gammon & Armilda Eliza Myers

married on November 19, 1852 in Monroe, IA

Isaac Newton Morrison & Lydia Josephine Gammon

married in December 1879 in Centerville, IA

Anna Mary Seufer & Newton Franklin Gammon

married on February 14, 1880 in Decatur County, IA

Katharine Rebecca Wilson & John Overington

married on November 5, 1889 in Philadelphia, PA

William Overington, Jr. & Claudia Wetherill Fries

married on November 16, 1903 in Philadelphia, PA

 

Walter Smart McKee & Willie May Maxson

Albert Clate Gammon & Abigail Ruth Lester

married on January 1, 1907 in Ringgold County, IA

James Mathias Gammon & Carrie Bernice McKee

married on November 9, 1921 in Los Angeles, CA

Edgar Percival Jones and Claudia Overington

Howard McKee Gammon & Claudia Overington Newman

married on June 3, 1944 in Roswell, NM

Gisele & Walter Leonard McKee

  

Jack Leroy Upper & Claudia Overington Reid

married in 1950

Shirley Bubadias & Victor Carl Fetzer

married on August 2, 1953 in Neptune, NJ

Jim Gammon & Wanda Starnes

married on November 25, 1974 in Bel Air, MD (shown)

and on July 16, 1983 in Belmar, NJ

My Incredible AncestryDNA Story

A few weeks ago, I spit in a tube and mailed it to Ancestry.com. No, really. It's part of their new program, now in the beta stage, called AncestryDNA. I won't go into the details because their website does a much better job of it here. It's just become available to the general public for $199 or to Ancestry.com subscribers for $129. The test traces your genetic code back hundreds of years. I am not in any way compensated for my promotion of AncestryDNA, I simply find it a very worthwhile investment. My results were, to say the least, shocking.

Screenshot of my actual AncestryDNA results. Click to enlarge.

I'm almost three-quarters Scandinavian! If you'd have asked me before I took this test, I would have told you I was three-quarters British and one-quarter German and who knows what else. As you can see on the map, sixteen of the ancestors in my family tree were born in the UK and two in Germany. Everyone else that I know the birthplace of was born in the United States or Puerto Rico.

As baffling as this was at first, it has come to make a certain amount of sense. Over the last thousand years, Scandinavians made various invasions into the rest of Europe. The most likely scenario is that my ancestors were Scandinavians that migrated into central and southern Europe, married the locals, and then moved, as many people did, into the UK in later generations. It seems a colossal coincidence that they then married other people of Scandinavian descent, particularly once they made it the US, but it's not impossible. I hope to get my parents and grandparents to take the DNA test as well to get a more detailed view, as my DNA contains only a selection of each of theirs.

Now, I promised you an incredible story and although so far it's been a strange and unexpected one, I wouldn't call it incredible. The real story here is in another feature of AncestryDNA, which shows you a list of members that share genetic markers with you and are likely to be your cousins. They're sorted by the estimated distance of the relationship. My very first result was a user named Terry_Cott. I didn't even think twice about his name until after I clicked on it and Ancestry suggested that, based on our trees, we shared a common ancestor - Joseph Cott.

Joseph Cott has always been something of a mystery to me, and someone I thought I'd never know the full truth about. That's probably still true, but in the past week I have learned far, far more about him than I ever thought I would. So, a little background is required. Joe was my great-grandfather - my mother's mother's father. We knew him as Joseph Cott Bubadias, a truck driver. He was my great-grandmother's second husband, and they had six children together before he abandoned the family. He moved to north Jersey, changed his last name to Cott, and had another family, including two daughters. I knew from my research that Joe was married to a woman named "Kath" after my great-grandmother. I knew his birth year varied depending on the record, as did his birthplace - sometimes it was Oklahoma, sometimes Puerto Rico. On one record, he even indicated his race as Cherokee. I was hopelessly lost in contradicting information. I felt like he was laughing at me from beyond the grave, as if he had intentionally muddled the trail to stop me from knowing the truth.

We thought that was the end of the story until Terry got back to me. As it turns out, Joe's birth name was Jose Cott, and he was born in Puerto Rico. Terry is Joe's grandson through his first marriage, a marriage that my family didn't know anything about. His father is my grandmother's half-brother. He is my mother's first cousin. Terry and I are still exchanging emails and photos. It will take some time for both of us to adjust to knowing one another. Maybe someday we will meet.

For now, this is just the incredible story of how my DNA connected my grandmother and the brother she's never met.

My grandmother Phyllis in 1952.

My great-aunt Shirley in 1953.

Terry's father Allen Cott in 1943.

Oaklands Photo Album

I wrote a post about Oaklands nearly a year ago now, with what I knew about the house. In that post, I said that there aren't very many pictures of the house. As it turns out, that is a completely untrue statement. I simply had not found (or identified) many of them yet. In this post, I am including photos from my personal collection as well as photos from the Philadelphia Department of Records. This latter set were taken when the city took possession of the property, to document it before demolishing the house.

I have reused the map from my previous post, but not any of the photos so refer to that post, as well, for more pictures.

Let's start with a plan of the property from a 1920 atlas of the city. This is oriented so that the top is NE, bottom is SW. The house faces southeast - towards Leiper Street - and has a curved drive up to the back of the house on Pilling Street. The other large building is the stable or barn.

On to the photos! I've put in a jump break because this is a long list of photos, so click "Read More" to see the rest of the post.

Documenting a Marriage, Part 2

The Marriage of William Overington, Jr. and Claudia Wetherill Fries, my great-great-grandparents

I'm still looking at the Overington family for now but this time around I'd like to show how useful newspaper clippings can be. Now, I don't have access to these newspapers on microfilm and so I can't give you advice on going through old papers, but my point here is that you shouldn't throw away any scrap of paper among your family's things without actually reading it. This clipping and another were tucked into a family bible and were falling to pieces - I am forever grateful that I didn't just toss them out, especially because I do not have a copy of their marriage certificate so all my information comes from these articles.

If you remember last month, I mentioned my genealogist great-great-grandfather. I was looking at his parents' marriage and this month, I'm looking at his.

The Frankford Gazette, 16 November 1903

Overington-Fries

Wedding Bells at Old Oxford Trinity Church. Brilliant 

Reception at "The Pines," the Home of the Groom. 

One of the most beautiful and impressive weddings of the season took place in the historic "Old Trinity Church, Oxford," on Monday evening at 6 o'clock, when Miss Claudia Wetherill Fries was united in Marriage to Mr. William Overington, both well known young people of Frankford. The picturesque little church was artistically decorated with palms and choice chrysanthemums, and was filled to its utmost capacity. The ceremony was performed by the rector Rev. Horace F. Fuller. To the ever beautiful and solemn strains of the march from Lohengren, played on the organ by Mr. James Baird, the bridal procession, in perfect rymth moved up the aisle of the church the bride leaning on the arm of her brother Mr. Horace Teese Fries, who gave her away. The best man was Mr. John R. Savage, a life long companion of the groom. The ushers were Mr. Arthur G. Singer Mr. William W. Foulkrod, Jr., Mr. Henry K. Fries, Mr. George R. Wilson, and Mr. John A. Page. The first three are the sole surviving bachelors of the Thirteen Club of which the groom had been a member for many years.

The bride wore an exquisite gown of white panne crepe de chene, with veil and orange blossoms, a magnigcent diamond sunburst, the gift of the groom, and a shower boquet of lillies of the valley. Miss Louisa Fries, sister of the bride, was maid of honor and wore a beautiful gown of pink crepe de chen. THe bridesmaids were Miss Helen E. Fries, Miss Edith E. Good, and Miss Sarah C. Goodfellow, who wore gowns of white mull most effective in their simplicity.

Immediately after the ceremony, the bridal pair returned to the "Pines," their future home at Leiper and Orthodox streets, where an elaborate reception was held. The grand old mansion is an ideal place in which to entertain, for while over five hundred persons were present at no time was the stairway or hall crowded. Refreshments were served most bountifully on the spacious porch which had been enclosed and the interior illuminated with small incandescent lights and twined with smilax, for the occasion. A most joyous spirit of good cheer seemed to pervade the entire assemblage. 

The bouquet thrown by the bride as her final message of good will to her young friends was caught by her younger sister, Miss Helen, and if there be anything in signs, we know who our next bride is to be. The bride and groom left on their wedding trip midst a shower of rice and confetti, and will be gone about two weeks. The gifts were exceedingly numerous and were particularly noticeable for elegance and refinement; there were also a number of bank checks of large denomination. Many good wishes follow the happy pair wherever they may be, and a host of true friends are ready to greet them on their return.

I love this clipping. It's a perfect example of how a family and a community represents itself at a wedding. From a genealogical standpoint, there is detailed information on the whole family and it mentions all their friends. It describes the wedding gown, which is an amazing companion to the photograph I have of it. A textile historian (Leimomi Oakes, to be specific) graciously looked at this photo for me last year and informed me that the style was the height of fashion in 1903 and likely to have been quite expensive.

Claudia Wetherill Fries in her wedding gown, 1903

The two newspaper articles about the wedding (the one above and another from the Frankford Dispatch), even though they are local papers, seem to back up the idea that it was an extravagant wedding and meant to make a very clear statement of status to the community. It's a good thing they got those "bank checks of large denomination," because I'm sure they needed help paying it off!

William and Claudia, early 1900s (poss. 1901)

I believe that they were honestly a happy couple. Just look at that tintype and try to tell me he doesn't adore her! You may also remember the goofy newspaper photo they took in 1901 (in this post).

Documenting a Marriage, Part 1

The Marriage of Thomas Fogden Overington and Jane R. Burns, my great-great-great-grandparents

Thanks to my genealogist great-great-grandfather, I have a great deal of information regarding my family's history. Among all the photos and papers are some incredible references to weddings. Today I'm looking at his parents' wedding.

This is a letter from Thomas Rowland Jr., apparently a friend of the family. It is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek request for the services of a Reverend George Sheets at the wedding of Thomas Fogden Overington and Jane Burns. What I find particularly humorous about this is that I'm fairly certain Thomas Rowland's brother Benjamin and Thomas Overington's sister Sarah had married two years earlier. Here is a transcription:

My friend T. F. Overington about making a change from the life of a Bachelor to that of a married one; desired that I would write requesting your services on the reason of his wedding. Prompted in making this request for the desire of his intended Bride (Miss Jane Burns), as well as in accordance with his own feelings on the subject, his esteem & affection towards a leash & divine from early association being centered in yourself, a favourable answer would be particularly desirable. Tuesday the 5th day of June at about 10 o'clock is the day & time appointed for the ceremony. Please address care S&B Rowland Co. undersigned at 61 South Second St. Very respectfully, Thomas Rowland, Jr.

As it turns out, Rev. George Sheets was available to perform the ceremony because I also have this document:

Here Rev. Sheets puts their marriage into writing:

Whereas application has been made to me by Thomas F. Overington and Jane Burns, both of Frankford, Philadelphia, Pensylvania [sic], to be unified together in holy Matrimony, and find upon due examination that there is no legal let or impediment by reason of precontract consanguinity, affinity, nor any other just cause whatsoever, to hinder their marriage; This is therefore to Certify that the said Thomas F. Overington and Jane Burns were joined in wedlock by me. Given under my hand this fifth day of June, AD, 1855. George Sheets, Rector of St. James' Church, Stanton, Delaware

And finally, here are the happy couple (albeit individually and at different times):

Jane "Jenny" R. Burns (1836-1927)

Thomas Fogden Overington (1828-1877)

Shared Photos

I was recently contacted by a blog writer on Oprah.com asking to use a couple of photos from my Flickr account for an article. Of course I agreed! The blog post was published today, and you can see it here. She used this photo of my great-grandmother Claudia Wetherill (Fries) Overington and one of her sisters:

What I didn't realize when I got the request was that she had come across my photos on a website called Retronaut, which had posted one of my other photos of Claudia Wetherill (Fries) Overington on October 9 as a sort of survey of the Flickr group "The Smiling Victorian." That page is here. This is the photo they used:

Retronaut edited it a bit before posting, which I somewhat disagree with because it takes away some of the feeling of oldness, but I suppose they can do as they wish. It's just a personal preference of mine to leave old photos unedited, as you can see if you've visited my Flickr gallery.

It is really amazing to know that a lot of people are looking at pictures from my family and to think that maybe they are bringing a little bit of joy into their days. 

William Overington, I

William Overington, I, a photo by dressedupinwords on Flickr.

This is the only photograph I have of William Overington. I'm sure I have the original somewhere but I can't find it. This copy was in a newspaper many decades ago.