52 Ancestors: #22 Florence PAISLEY ~ An Informal New Beginning of Sorts

I don’t remember exactly when it was that I purchased my first computer. I think that it was about 1992, but I wouldn’t swear to that. Perhaps ’92 was the first year that we had dial-up service with AOL. It was also somewhere around this time that I started moving my genealogy into a computer program, starting with a DOS based program that I don’t remember the name of and then moving soon to a program that Broderbund had introduced called Family Tree Maker. Technology evolves and we change right along with it, so seamlessly that at times it is difficult to remember when those changes actually happened. The only year etched into my memory as far as technology goes, is 1963. That was the year that my dad bought a color TV and when the news broke about Kennedy, my five-year-old self was sitting in front of it, and I instantly made the connection to the framed portrait of the President that was hanging on the wall in our living room.

I think that I was pretty fortunate to be able to hold a subscription to Ancestry.com since its beginning days. I was also able to keep one or two other subscriptions going at one time or another, providing me with access to old newspapers and other information. All of that changed when this month, for financial reasons, I had to let those paid subscriptions go. When a company where you’ve worked for more than 35 years closes – there is oft times a big adjustment and this has been true for me. These last few weeks, it has become quite clear to me just how much and how often I used these services and how much I miss being able to sit down, in my home, at 6am or midnight to do a bit of sleuthing. But the good thing is that there are all kinds of places on the internet to help you with advancing your family tree that are free and this is going to force me to expand my horizons a bit. Plus, I’ll still be able to access some things at the library whenever I might get the chance to spare a few hours on a Saturday.

So, as I was preparing for my next blog posting, I thought a lot about the information that was out there that I (and anyone else with access to the internet) can obtain without charge. For this post, I was able to verify 94% of the factual information against sources found online without using a paid subscription. The bulk of those references can be found at https://familysearch.org.

My great-grandmother, Florence Paisley, was born on the 15 October 1874 in Salineville, Columbiana County, Ohio to Simon Paisley and Jane “Jennie” Wycoff. Florence had two brothers and a sister who survived to adulthood. A sister, Sarah Etta, died at four months of age in 1878 and a brother, Joseph Levi, died when he was not quite two in 1884. Florence was the oldest. Her sister, Mary Catherine, who was called Mayme, was born in 1876 and she married Lewis David McConnaughy. Her brother, John Clark Paisley, was born in 1880 and married Gwendoline Lewis and her brother, Charles Elliott Paisley, born in 1885, married Jennie Myers (granddaughter of Lambert Myers and Susannah Crawford.)

When Florence was 11 years old, her father, Simon, was killed by a train. Her mother, Jennie, remarried in 1887 to Henry C. Fried, a Civil War veteran who was also widowed, his wife having passed away the year before.

On 18 June 1893, Florence, or Flora, as she was called, married Thomas John Hackathorn, the son of Jacob A. Hackathorn and Mary Amna Myers. Thomas’ oldest brother, Christian, vouched for them, but by my reckoning, instead of 20 and 26, they were 18 and 28.

Their first child, Mary Amna, was born on 28 December 1893. In June of 1895, Flora gave birth to twins, but only one, William Henry, would live past that first day. Unfortunately, William would only live until October of the next year before he too died. The cause of death was listed as indigestion, but I’m not sure what that would have really been.

Tragically, this wouldn’t be the family’s last experience with the death of a child.

Silvia Dora was born on 17 January 1902, and died 05 May 1904 from pneumonia.

Eva Lucille, who was born 14 October 1905, died on 20 November 1906 from whooping cough.

Robert Clyde, born 17 October 1915, passed away shortly after birth. Those children who lived to adulthood were:

• Mary Amna, born 28 December 1893, married Charles Edward “Chad” Champion, died 21 September 1966.
• Charles Clarence “Shorty”, born 27 September 1896, married Sylvia Rebecca Jolley, died 28 August 1973.
• John Thomas “Jack”, born 28 September 1898, never married, died 06 October 1959.
• Jennie Marie, born 26 June 1900, married Joseph Fritz Champion, died 12 July 1992.
• Golda May “Goldie”, born 17 January 1904, married Frank Gritser, died 08 December 1994.
• Elsie Marcella, born 01 January 1908, married David Moore, died 11 December 2002.
• George Ernest, born 01 January 1910, married Ruth Reising, died 26 September 1963.
• Frank Edwin “Sandy”, born 16 December 1911, married Ruth Palmer, died 11 March 1976.
• Audra Lois, born 05 October 1913, married Joe Paris, died 27 August 1977.

07 May 1917, Flora went into premature labor and both she and the child, a boy, died. Her cause of death was “placenta previa” and she hemorrhaged to death. Flora had given birth to 15 babies in her short 42 years of life. She left behind six children who were under the age of 17. The oldest daughter, Mary, was a teacher and stepped in to help care for the youngest children. My grandmother was nine years old at that time.

This is my Week #22 post for Amy Johnson Crow’s

52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge.

The optional theme for week 22 was “Commencement”.