SEPTEMBER 2004
I have been bitten by the Genie Bug!! The first attack came in late June, I spent hours and hours in front of my computer .. using up many reams of paper and several ink cartridges printing everything I could find about the surnames SHRIDER and McCURDY. And I found a lot .. from family trees already done .. to articles in the historical newspapers .. to a 30 page book written by Elmer D. E. McCurdy on the McCurdy linage and a 300 page book, “Shriders In The United States”, written by Paul Shrider on the Shrider linage.
The family trees that were already done saved me a lot of digging .. however, none of them went past the generation of Mom’s grandparents because they were done by people from the other branches. And the 2 books gave me lots of extra and very interesting information on these 2 lines of ancestry. The McCurdy linage goes from Gilkrist Makurerdy born in the 1500s in the Isle of Butte, Scotland to Ireland to Canada to Etta Blanche McCurdy in Liberty Township, Crawford County, Ohio. The Shrider linage goes from Frederick Shrider in Germany in 1752 to Pennsylvania to Levi Shrider in Allen County Ohio.. So now we know .. we are part Scottish, Irish and German!!
In August I went to Lima, Ohio “digging among dead ancestors”. I had 2 ½ days and I NEEDED a lifetime!! I went there hoping to solve some mysteries .. and hoping to get pictures of the two grocery stores Levi Shrider had owned and ran when he was there. I didn’t get the pictures of the grocery stores .. in the location where one store should have been .. the lot was empty. Where the other store had been there were houses but the address I needed was 731 West Kibby and the numbers jumped from the 720 block to 750!! Being a smalltown girl in a big city, I wasn’t sure what to do about that so I just gave it up. In looking back I wish I had gone to the Chamber of Commerce or the courthouse or someplace and asked for help. There are many mysteries I am trying to unravel regarding our ancestors. The main one I was hoping to unravel was finding where Mom’s baby brother, James Sylvester is buried. I did not find an answer to this. I did however, find a couple of answers to other mysteries in the Woodlawn Cemetery!!
I knew from information I had gathered that Mom’s grandparents, William and Pheobe Jane Shrider, and Mom’s mother’s brother, Joseph E. McCurdy, were buried there. When Mom was about 4 years old her mother, Blanche, went to Ohio and picked up her brother, Arthur’s, little girl, Helen. Arthur’s wife had died and Blanche was taking Helen to raise. When Helen was about 5 years old Arthur remarried and Helen was taken back to Ohio to live with her father. Helen died when she was 17 years old of TB. Helen and Arthur were another of my mysteries .. Mom knew Helen had died but did not know where she was buried and did not know what had become of Arthur. Of course I looked up James Sylvester, and Arthur and Helen in the book at the Woodlawn office. Sad to say .. James Sylvester wasn’t in the book but Helen and Arthur were!! So I was able to get pictures of all these headstones. Woodlawn is a very large and very beautiful cemetery.
I also went to Fisher Cemetery and got a picture of the headstone of Jacob and Catherine Shrider. These are William Shrider’s parents. Jacob died in 1902 so the headstone is 102 years old. It is a tall narrow headstone .. with the shape of a bible on the top. Jacob and Catherine’s names and dates are on the sides and are still very readable. However, the words on the bible at the top were not readable and there had been words on the front .. you could see indentations in some areas but the only readable part were the words “to rest”. I had thought perhaps James Sylvester was buried there but we did not find him there although there were a lot of Shriders. This is a very small cemetery located in the country about 3 or 4 miles outside of Lima.
A couple of miles past the road Fisher Cemetery is on there is a road named “Shrider Road”!! This road was built by Jacob’s father, George Shrider and George’s brother Jacob to go back to a farm that George lived on. This is still called Shrider Road today and I got a picture of the sign. I would like to have known what farm on that road had belonged to George Shrider but did not find that out. Here again, I could probably have found out by going to the courthouse but did not think of it at the time. According to the information in the book “Shriders in the United States” that farm was owned at the time the book came out by Daniel McKinney .. I looked for that name in the phone book as soon as I got there but it was not in the book.
Lima has a huge library with a great genealogy library in it .. I could have spent days going through everything in there. I did find a clue to one of my other mysteries in the 1905 Lima City Index .. but I’m not going to tell you about that one because I have since found more clues to that one and will tell you about it later!!! I learned how to use a microfilm reader and found some family obituaries .. Walter, his wife (Flora), Arthur, his wife (Hazel) and his son (Richard). I was unable to find Helen’s obituary. I found the story of when Blanche’s brother, Joseph E. McCurdy, was killed. He was a fireman on a C H and D train and was killed in a head-on collision with another train when he was only 21 years old. This and other family stories will be posted at various times on the webpage.
There is a museum located just across from the Lima Library. Lots of wonderful things to see in there! It also houses a genealogical library, but it is only open from 1 to 5 and I didn’t get there until about 3 on the last day I was there so wasn’t able to to do a lot there. It has lots and lots of books and information. It had rows and rows of Lima yearbooks .. my thinking was .. “oooohhh I wish I knew what schools Etta Blanche and Levi went to” .. I didn’t think until on the way home that I could have just gone thru them and seen whatever Shriders or McCurdys were there!!!! Oh well … hindsights 20/20 as the old saying goes!!
So .. I had several disappointments but also found several answers .. and I know a little more now than I did when I went .. know places I should have gone .. and things I should have done .. so now I am looking forward to going there again, hopefully in the not toooo distant future!!! One thing I know for sure is that I need a whole lot more time the next time I go.
I have learned a lot about my ancestry since June and it has made me feel close to these people that I never met .. the grandparents that I never had .. and I remember mom talking about Uncle Arthur, Uncle Walter, Aunt Ermie, Aunt Ellen .. and now I feel that I am getting to know them too. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Nellie lived in Casey and I can remember going to their house over by the railroad tracks. These are all Levi’s brothers and sisters, except Arthur, who is Blanche’s brother. Levi also had a sister named Silva .. I didn’t hear her name as I was growing up .. all I knew when I started this genealogy thing was that she was killed in a horse and buggy accident when she was very young, this came from Mom when I asked her who Silva was. She has been one of my greatest mysteries .. and that story is to come later .. so “STAY TUNED” if you’re interested!! But look out .. the “Genie Bug” may get you too!!!!
Woodlawn Cemetery Entrance .. 1825
Inside the Woodlawn Entrance 1913
No comments:
Post a Comment