My Musical Cousins: Roger "Doc Bellows" McNaughton

Who doesn't like music? Not many. But musical tastes vary widely, and the musicians of my extended family are no exception. My family has so many musicians that I thought they deserved a series of their own. Ergo "My Musical Cousins."

William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914).

Mary Elizabeth Grant McNaughton (1856-1946) in 1934.

First up is my second cousin once removed Roger Jon McNaughton (born 1952). Roger's and my common ancestors are my great-great-grandparents William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914) and Mary Elizabeth Grant McNaughton (1856-1946). William and Mary were Roger's great-grandparents. I've never met Roger--the closest I've come is meeting his brother Al, who's also into family genealogy.

Roger "Doc Bellows" McNaughton

Roger's stage and recording name is Doc Bellows. He plays accordion in the band Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers, whose specialty is preserving the songs of the singing cowboys of motion picture and radio fame--Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and the Sons of the Pioneers. Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers perform tunes such as "Happy Trails," "Back in the Saddle," and "Streets of Laredo." Here's their website.

Two compact discs of their recordings are available. I've had both for several years now. Cowboy tunes aren't my top type of music to listen to, but I pull these out every once in a while for a change of pace. The songs are varied and tuneful, the voices and musicianship are graceful and smooth, and the production is excellent. I prefer the songs that were already old when the singing cowboys were current, songs such as "Home on the Range" and "Red River Valley," but the Sunset Pioneers' performances of more recent compositions such as "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Vaya Con Dios" are just as enjoyable. I wouldn't mind if the closing tracks on each cd, contemporary pieces written in singing cowboy style by lead singer Pioneer Pepper, had been left off--the performances are good, but the material just doesn't measure up to the authentic stuff that fills the rest of these cds. If you're into this sort of music, don't miss these recordings. If you're curious, these are a safe bet for sampling. Both cds are available to order in the store on the Sunset Pioneers website.

Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers compact disc.

The accordion playing of Doc Bellows--aka Roger McNaughton--is easily distinguished on the Sunset Pioneer recordings and his talent and versatility are obvious. As his online biography makes clear, he can play a wide variety of instruments and is also a talented vocalist and a former voice teacher in his native Ohio.

Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers are based in the Mesa, Arizona, area. They've performed internationally, but they mainly play in the south-central area of Arizona around Phoenix. Their schedule--click here--shows them performing pretty often, so if you're in the area, check them out and say hi to my cousin Doc Bellows.

Watch this YouTube video of Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneers performing "Ghost Riders in the Sky" live at an outdoor venue a few years ago. Cousin Roger is wearing black with a red bandana around his neck, playing the accordion and seen mostly on the left side of the screen. (It's not a professional video, so please forgive the swaying camera and people talking in the background.)

Adventures in DNA

Betsey Elizabeth Marshall Patterson Grant (1818-1912), circa 1904.

I recently had my DNA tested in order to help with genealogical research.

The impetus for this decision started when I was contacted through this blog—click to read the specific post—by a woman possibly related to my Marshall line. She has the text of a will made by her earlier relative Seth F. Marshall.  Mentioned in the will are the names George Marshall, Nathan Marshall, Silas Marshall, and Betsey Grant.

I got excited. Betsey Elizabeth Marshall Patterson Grant (1818-1912) was my great-great-great-grandmother. George, Nathan (1823-after 1900), and Silas (1828-1907) were her brothers. I had never heard of Seth F. Marshall (1823-1856) before, but if he mentioned my Marshall relatives in his will, there was a good chance of his being my relative, too.

The relative who contacted me wondered if I could provide any assistance in learning who the parents of Seth F. Marshall were.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t help. I have plenty of information on Betsey Marshall Grant’s mother, Polly Rider Marshall (1793-1870), and her ancestors. But information on Betsey Marshall Grant’s father, William Obadiah Marshall (1784-1854), is scarce. What little there is remains difficult to verify.

But the probable connection between Seth F. Marshall and my Marshall line was too tantalizing to let rest. The contacting relative and I proposed the possibility that Seth was a first cousin to Betsey and her brothers, that Betsey’s father William was a brother to Seth’s father (name uncertain but possibly John or Charles). But we had no proof of this and no way to test the hypothesis. The contacting relative and I each had pieces of the puzzle. How could we fit the pieces together?

One possibility was DNA testing. The contacting relative has DNA information from a 92-year-old cousin. If someone descended in my Marshall line turned out to be a DNA match to that cousin in her Marshall line, then that would support the family connection implied by Seth F. Marshall’s will. And who knew how many other questions might be answered by DNA?

I’d previously considered having my DNA tested, but since I didn’t have much concept of what the results might be and because none of the tests are particularly cheap, I hadn’t bothered. But now here was a solid reason to take the test. I realized the results might not answer our questions about our Marshall relatives. But even if they didn’t, the results might give me answers to other family research questions beyond the Marshalls.

So I took the test. The one I chose was the autosomal DNA test offered by Ancestry.com since the contacting relative’s DNA info was all through Ancestry.com and she would be able to view my results there.

The test isn’t difficult. I ordered the simple kit from Ancestry.com. When the kit arrived I spit into the tube, mailed it back, and waited about six weeks for results.

The results were not everything the contacting relative and I hoped they would be.  Ancestry.com reported hundreds of matches between my DNA and the DNA of others. Ancestry.com gives a very general range of relationship, but figuring out my exact lines of connection to those others is up to me. It’s time consuming, sometimes frustrating, and often fruitless. I have to search family trees of the reported DNA matches to find names that might also be in my family tree. Many times there are no matches—either because our areas of research are different or because the genealogical information gathered by either side is wrong. Yet I’ve found enough connections to DNA matches that I think the autosomal DNA test was worth doing.

But what about the Marshall connection? Well, the DNA test did not find a match to the DNA of the 92-year-old cousin of the contacting relative. But the DNA results of another Marshall cousin of hers showed up as a match to me. I don’t know why my results didn’t match her 92-year-old relative, but the one successful match was exciting news.

So great! We have some scientific supporting evidence that she and I are related through the Marshalls. I just don’t know where to go now with that information. We still don’t know who Seth F. Marshall’s parents were or exactly how Seth was related to Betsey and her brothers.

My Mayflower Ancestors

The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, William Halsall, 1882.

Crossing the Pond

I’ve mentioned in previous posts several distant family connections to passengers aboard the Mayflower, the ship famous for one particular crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. It carried along with its crew a group consisting of religious Separatists, who disagreed with the Church of England, and English merchants with their families and servants. The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. In mid-November of that year it came within sight of Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts.

Before venturing ashore, most of the male members of the group signed an agreement known as the Mayflower Compact, by which they would govern themselves in the colony they founded at the spot England’s King James I had named New Plymouth. The first winter was hard on the colonists. Death from disease and hardship claimed more than half of the one hundred and two passengers. In the spring of 1621 the survivors stepped onto Plymouth Rock. Shortly afterward the Mayflower, its crew diminished by disease, bade farewell to the colonists and returned to England.

The Plymouth Colony struggled for survival, but with the cooperation of the Wampanoags and other native Americans, they were able to celebrate their first anniversary in the New World. That celebration is still commemorated in the USA on the final Thursday of each November, the holiday known as Thanksgiving.

Mayflower by Marriage

While researching my genealogy I’ve discovered quite a few connections by marriage to Mayflower passengers. Here are those I’ve found.

Catharine Rathbun Huss (1818-1894).

Catharine Rathbun (1818-1894), five-times-great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger George Soule (1597-1680), married Christian Huss (1815-1864), my five-times-great uncle.

Samuel Rider (abt 1601-1679) and Anne Gamlett Rider (abt 1605-1695), my eleven-times-great grandparents, arrived at Plymouth Colony between 1636 and 1638 and settled there. A number of their descendants married descendants of Mayflower passengers, as follow:

Hannah Harlow (1720-1792), great-great granddaughter of Samuel and Anne Rider, married Ebenezer Sampson (1716-1808), a direct descendant of no less than four Mayflower passengers: Myles Standish (1584-1656), Priscilla Mullins (1602-1685), John Alden (1598-1687)—all three immortalized by Longfellow’s poem The Courtship of Miles Standish—and Henry Samson (1604-1684).

Hannah Rider, great-great granddaughter of Samuel and Anne Rider, married Josiah Bradford (1724-1777), great-grandson of William Bradford (1589-1657), Mayflower passenger and second governor of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

William Bradford’s seven-times-great granddaughter, Rena Ann Newcomb (1883-1938), married my great-great uncle Charles Thomas Shanower (1882-1952), not a Rider descendant.

Samuel and Anne Rider’s son Samuel Rider (abt 1632-1715), my 11-times-great-uncle, married Sarah Bartlett, granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Roy Robert Grant and Hilda Lucille Stafford Grant.

Other descendants of Richard Warren, sisters Hilda Lucille Stafford (1898-1973) and Helene Thelma Stafford (1902-1985), married Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988) and Charles Elwood Grant (1900-1945) respectively, first cousins to each other and second cousins twice removed of mine. These Grants were both seven-times-great grandsons of Samuel and Anne Rider. I discussed the Grants and Staffords in a previous blog post here.

Richard Warren’s five-times-great granddaughter Mary “Polly” Knowles (1806-1879) married Silas Rider (1803-1871), three-times-great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider. The same Silas Rider, my third cousin six times removed, was also the four-times-great grandson of Mayflower passengers Stephen Hopkins (abt 1580-1644) and Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins (abt 1595-abt 1643).

Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins have other Rider connections by marriage. Their great-great granddaughter Desire Godfrey married Nathaniel Ryder (1705-?), Samuel and Anne Rider’s great-grandson. Stephen Hopkins’s great-great-great granddaughter Mehitable Snow (1731-1813) married Reuben Ryder (abt 1717-?), great-great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider. And Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins’s great granddaughter Elizabeth Pierce (1737-?) married Gershom Rider, great grandson of Samuel and Anne Rider.

The just-mentioned Elizabeth Pierce was also the great-great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty (abt 1599-1655), a servant of Stephen Hopkins.

I also have non-Rider connections to Edward Doty. His great-great-great grandson Aaron Doty (1807-1843), married my five-times-great aunt Polly Grandy (abt 1805-1838).

Celia Hietanen Woodland as a schoolgirl.

Ellis Doty (1861-1895), Edward Doty’s six-times-great grandson, was the first husband of Alta Lucinda Flowers (1870-1929). After Ellis Doty died, Alta and her second husband had a son Homer Floyd Woodland (1898-1959). Homer married two great-great aunts of mine, Ida Justiina Salo (1894-1967) and Celia Hietanen (1902-1925). You can read about Homer and his wives in this previous blog post.

Homer Woodland is also reputed to be an eight-times-great grandson, through his mother’s mother, Maza Rowley Flowers (1835-1910), of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller (1575-1621) and his wife, whose name is unknown.

There may well be other marriages that I’m not aware of between my blood relatives and Mayflower descendants.

Fuller and Sons

Over the years, I’ve wanted to find more than simple marriage connections to Mayflower passengers. I’ve been hoping to stumble across a direct Mayflower ancestor.

I may have done that. The Mayflower passengers I mentioned just above—Edward Fuller and his wife—seem likely to be my eleven-times-great grandparents. I'm not absolutely certain of that because there's a weak link the in the chain of descent.

The first few generations descending from Edward Fuller and his wife have been established by decades of research by others into Mayflower passenger genealogy. Edward Fuller and his wife were part of the Separatists who moved from England to Leiden in the Netherlands in order to practice their form of Christianity. After several years in Leiden, members of the Separatist community formed the plan to move to the New World where they wouldn’t have to worry about their children being absorbed into the Dutch community of the Netherlands. Edward Fuller with his wife and younger son Samuel (abt 1608-1683) decided to go along. Edward Fuller’s brother, also named Samuel Fuller (abt 1580-1633), joined them on the Mayflower as physician. Brothers Edward and Samuel Fuller both signed the Mayflower Compact. Edward Fuller’s elder son Matthew, stayed behind, probably in England, and arrived with his wife and family in the Plymouth Colony on a later ship.

Both Edward Fuller and his wife were among the many Mayflower passengers who died during the first winter in Massachusetts. Their son, Samuel Fuller, survived and lived with his uncle Samuel’s family in the Plymouth Colony.

Samuel, son of Edward Fuller, married Jane Lathrop (bef 1614-bef 1683). One of their children was John Fuller (abt 1655-1726), who married Mehitabel Rowley (1660/61-abt 1732), and lived in East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut. Mehitabel was a granddaughter of Matthew Fuller, the elder son of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife, and so a first cousin once removed to her husband John Fuller. Church records from East Haddam provide information that one of John and Mehitabel Fuller’s children was Shubael Fuller (abt 1684-1748), who married Hannah Crocker. One of Shubael and Hannah Fuller’s children was Shubael Fuller, Junior, (1721-abt 1800), who married as his second wife Sarah Chapman.

Uh-oh, Jethro

Up to this point the line of descent from Edward Fuller and his wife is firm, proven primarily by wills and church records. Beyond this, the evidence for further descent grows scanty. The book Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower by William Hyslop Fuller, published in 1908 (hereafter referred to as Descendants of Edward Fuller), claims that Shubael Fuller, Jr., had a son Jethro Fuller (1770-1821).

This Jethro Fuller was Shubael, Jr.’s second son named Jethro. The first Jethro is attested in church records from East Haddam, Connecticut. Descendants of Edward Fuller claims the first Jethro died young. The idea of naming a child the same name as a previously deceased sibling might seem dubious. But this naming custom was common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I’ve run across so many instances of it that I don’t find it unusual anymore. So there’s no reason there couldn’t have been a second Jethro Fuller, son of Shubael Fuller, Jr.

I’ve found apparent geographical links between Jethro and other Fullers who seem to be his family. The 1810 US Federal Census records a Jethro Fuller and household of eight others living in Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Descendants of Edward Fuller says that Jethro died in Lenox, Massachusetts. Lenox was also the dwelling place of Jonathan Fuller, clearly a son of Shubael Fuller, Jr., as attested in East Haddam, Connecticut, church records. Both Jethro and Jonathan were also from Dawes Grant, a tract of land in Hawley, Massachusetts, where Jethro married Siba Kelsey in 1795. Other sons of Shubael Fuller, Jr., linked by Descendants of Edward Fuller to Lenox and Savoy, Massachusetts, were Jedediah and another Shubael. Eliezer Fuller had property exchanges in Massachusetts with Jonathan Fuller and Shubael Fuller. The idea that these Fullers were all brothers of Jethro, as Descendants of Edward Fuller claims, is well within the realm of possibility.

Town records of Savoy, Massachusetts, give two sons of Jethro and Siba Fuller: Japheth, born December 29, 1790, and Lorin, born February 8, 1798. That’s where the more-or-less documented chain of descent ends for this line descended from Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife.

Jethro Fuller and Siba Kelsey Fuller's children listed in Genealogy of Some Descendants of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower by William Hyslop Fuller, 1908.

Loring vs. Lorin

Elma Louisa Conkey Grandy, June 1, 1930.

But can I connect that line to my known ancestors? Let's see.

My great-great-great grandmother was Elma Louisa Conkey Grandy (1835-1934), grandmother of Adella Cecil “Dell” Grandy McElroy Evans Hundhammer (1888-1974)—who I wrote about in this blog post—and mother of Millard Curtis Grandy (1867-1941).

Elma’s maternal grandfather was named Loring Fuller (1798-1863). Census records, other written sources, gravestones, and the fact they and many of their immediate family members lived in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio, support this.

What are the chances that Elma’s grandfather Loring Fuller and the Lorin Fuller reported to be the four-times-great grandson of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife are one and the same? This is the weak link I mentioned above.

Let’s examine the evidence for these two Fullers.

Spelling of names:

One is spelled with a “g”—Loring. The other isn’t—Lorin. Yes, they’re different, but only slightly. In a time when many Americans were illiterate and the spellings of words hadn’t been standardized, I’m not sure that the difference in these Fuller first names is significant.

Place of birth:

In the 1850 and 1860 US Federal Censuses, my certain relative Loring Fuller, who lived in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio, was recorded to have been born in Massachusetts. An entry for Loring’s son-in-law George Melton in the 1889 book Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas lists Loring as being from Massachusetts. That information is in general agreement with information about Lorin Fuller, the son of Jethro Fuller, who was recorded to have been born in Savoy, Massachusetts. 

1860 US Federal Census listing for Loring Fuller and family in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio. Remember you can click on any image to see it larger.

Date of birth:

The gravestone of Elma’s grandfather Loring Fuller stands in the Chatham Township Cemetery in Chatham, Medina County, Ohio. Here’s a photo of that gravestone. It gives Loring's death date as March 17, 1863, and his age at death as sixty-five years, one month, and eight days. That would make Loring Fuller’s birth date February 9, 1798. That date doesn’t match the birth date of Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro Fuller, which is February 8, 1798. But notice that the difference between them is a single day.

Other possible evidence for Loring Fuller, grandfather of Elma:

The 1840 US Federal Census lists a Loren Fuller living in Sullivan, Lorain County, Ohio. “Loren” is another spelling, but is this individual the same as either Loring or Lorin? There’s no sure means to tell. This Loren is between forty and fifty years of age, and any Loring born in 1798 would be about forty-two. So that matches. There’s a white female between thirty and forty years of age. This agrees with Loring Fuller’s wife who was born in 1801 and would be about thirty-nine in this 1840 census. Her name is variously spelled Orpha, Orphila, and Orphilia. Her maiden name is unknown. However, the age ranges listed for the other people in this 1840 census mostly match the records I have of Loring and Orphila Fuller’s children, but not exactly. There are also discrepancies in the number of them and their genders.

Jonas Chilson Conkey and Mary Loretta Fuller Conkey.

The 1830 US Federal Census lists a Loring Fuller living in Nichols, Tioga County, New York. Here the children exactly match the number, genders, and age ranges in my records for Loring and Orphila Fuller’s children. Also, Loring and Orphila’s first three children, including my four-times great grandmother Mary Loretta Fuller Conkey (1824-1877), were all born in the state of New York, where this Loring Fuller and his household were living. But this 1830 census lists both the adult male and adult female in the household as being between forty and fifty years of age. This doesn’t match with my relative Loring, who’d have been about thirty-two, nor with his wife Orphila, who’d have been about twenty-nine.

These two censuses, 1830 and 1840, might be the right Loring if the census-taker recorded inaccuracies. The censuses might record the necessary path of Loring and his family from Massachusetts through New York to Ohio. But they might not.

Too Many Lorings

There was another Loring Fuller, a son of Zephaniah Fuller, who was born in Kingston, Massachusetts, in 1789. He was a descendant of Samuel Fuller, the Mayflower physician brother of Edward Fuller, and a distant cousin to Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro. For a while I suspected that my five-times-great grandfather Loring Fuller might be the same as this Loring Fuller of Kingston. But I’ve come to discount that possibility because the birth dates of the two don’t match at all. There are still sites on the internet that conflate them, however.

But I don't want to conflate my Loring with Lorin, Jethro's son, if they were not the same person. If they weren't, are there any traces of Lorin, Jethro's son, that would disprove it? Other Loring Fullers, who were alive at about the right time, include:

A Loring Fuller was born 1800 in New York, as recorded in American Genealogical-Biographical Index, volume 59, page 349; and a Loren Fuller was born 1800 in New York, as recorded in American Genealogical-Biographical Index, volume 59, page 349. I suspect these two are the same person. He's possibly identical with Lorin Fuller, son of Jethro Fuller, although there’s a discrepancy between this Loring/Loren Fuller’s New York place of birth and Lorin Fuller’s evident birth in Massachusetts. And he's also possibly identical with Loring Fuller, grandfather of Elma, except for the same birth place discrepancy. The birth year is slightly off, too.

A Loring Fuller and wife Betsey had son Philo S. Fuller in 1827. Philo Fuller died in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1876, so it’s quite possible that his father Loring was the son of Jethro Fuller born in 1798 in Massachusetts.

A Loring Fuller and wife Laura had daughter Caroline A., born in Berkshire, Massachusetts, about 1827. It’s possible that this Loring was the son of Jethro Fuller, especially since Savoy, Massachusetts, where Jethro’s son Lorin was born is in Berkshire County, the same county where this daughter Caroline died.

I have no record that my five-times-great grandfather Loring Fuller had any child named either Philo or Caroline. There are no records that he was married to either a Betsey or a Laura. So if either of these two previous Lorings is identical with Lorin, son of Jethro, then the chain of descent doesn't connect. But I've found nothing to suggest that either of these other Lorings was, in fact, a son of Jethro Fuller. So this evidence is inconclusive.

There are many other Loring/Lorin/Loren Fullers recorded at various times and places in North America, but they all have birth years so distant from 1798 that I have discounted them from consideration.

Conclusive or Not?

So after sifting the available evidence, what is the chance that my five-times-great grandfather was the son of Jethro Fuller? They had a similar name. They had the same general birthplace. They had a similar birth date. In the end, it's that birth date, with a discrepancy of a single day, that I believe means they were almost certain to have been the same person.

A cousin of mine who has done years of research on this family line doesn’t accept that our ancestor Loring Fuller is the same as Lorin, son of Jethro Fuller, because there is no proof. I agree there isn’t proof. But the evidence weighs so heavily in favor of them being the same person that I accept the idea as true.

Of course, there’s a bit of wishful thinking in my acceptance—because if it’s true, then I’m a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller, his unnamed wife, and their son Samuel.

That means I’m also related by blood to Edward’s brother Samuel Fuller, the Mayflower physician. That opens up a whole new slew of marriage connections to other Mayflower passengers, including Francis Eaton and his wife Sarah, their son Samuel Eaton, John Billington (the first murderer in the Plymouth Colony) and his wife Elinor, their son Francis Billington, and John Howland (who fell off the Mayflower in a storm and was rescued).

It also means I’m related by blood on my father’s side to Homer Floyd Woodland, who married two of my great aunts on my mother’s side.

So I conclude that I'm related by blood to four Mayflower passengers and have connections by marriage to fifteen more. I’ll take it.

Idealized painting of the first Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

The Over-the-Rainbow Connection

What relative peeks over Harry Doll's shoulder?

This blog post could fall into the My Famous Relatives series as well as the Cousins in Common series. How does that work, you might ask. Read on.

Margaret Williams Pellegrini died three months ago on August 7, 2013. Margaret was one of the last surviving little people to play a Munchkin in the 1939 MGM motion picture version of The Wizard of Oz—you know, the famous one starring Judy Garland. I learned of Margaret’s death that day when my cousin Vikki Colgrove Young posted the news to my Facebook page. Along with her post Vikki, who’s also interested in family genealogy, commented about us being related to a Munchkin. I thought she was kidding. She wasn’t.

Vikki didn’t mean we were related to Margaret Pellegrini. That would have been amazing. I knew Margaret a little bit from Oz conventions we’d both attended. In the early 1990s I’d sat next to her at dinner at a Winkie Con in Pacific Grove, California, and told her about turning The Wizard of Oz movie into a drinking game. (There’s only one rule: every time the word “wizard” is said or appears, you take a drink.) Margaret wasn’t particularly charmed. But she didn’t hold it against me. The last time I saw her was at the International Wizard of Oz Club’s Holland, Michigan, convention in August 2012. But I’m not related to Margaret—as far as I know.

Margaret Williams Pellegrini works the crowd at Oz-stravaganza! 2011 in L. Frank Baum's birthplace of Chittenango, New York. I'm in the background, cracking up with everyone else. Notice the "Deadly Poppy Field" lurking behind us. Photo courtesy Marc R. Baum. Used with permission.

The Munchkin actor that Vikki meant was Carolyn E. Granger (1915-1973). I had never heard anything about being related to a Munchkin actor before Vikki mentioned it, but once I found out it was true, I wanted to know more. It turns out that my family connection to Carolyn Granger is not by blood. It's pretty tenuous. The connection is on my mother’s side. Here’s how it goes:

My great-great-aunt Selma Marie Hietanen Filppi (1892-1978) married Victor Michael Filppi (1893-1966). Victor Filppi’s first cousin Arvo William “Chill” Filppi (1915-1987) married Maxine Julia “Mickey” Granger Filppi (1914-2005). Mickey Granger Filppi’s sister was Carolyn Granger. To recast that more concisely, Carolyn Granger’s sister married my great-great-uncle’s cousin.

The matter gets more interesting. You might recall that in a blog post a few months ago I explained how Vikki Colgrove Young and her sister Becki Colgrove Siler are cousins both to my partner David Maxine and to me. Vikki and Becki's great-grandfather was the Victor Filppi I mentioned above. So that means David also has a family connection to Carolyn Granger. What are the odds of both of us being connected to the same Munchkin actor? Here's David's line of connection:

David’s great-great-grandfather was David F. Sellers (1845-1927). David Sellers’s great-great-great-grandaughter is Vikki Colgrove Young. Vikki’s great-grandfather was Victor Michael Filppi. Victor Filppi’s first cousin Arvo William “Chill” Filppi married Maxine Julia “Mickey” Granger Filppi. Mickey Granger Filppi’s sister was Carolyn Granger.

Even more interesting, I found a second family connection to Carolyn. Yes, that’s right, a completely different connection, this time on my father’s side of the family. It goes like this:

Carolyn Granger’s eight times great-grandfather was John Howland (abt. 1591-1672/3), a passenger on the Mayflower. I have no idea whether Carolyn Granger was aware she was a direct descendant of a Mayflower passenger. Other descendants of John Howland include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Brigham Young, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Humphrey Bogart, and Sarah Palin. The list goes on. Anyway, John Howland’s great-granddaughter was Patience Howland (1749-1791). Patience Howland married Benjamin Rider (1733-1804). Benjamin Rider’s great-grandfather was Samuel Rider (1601-1679). Samuel Rider was my nine times great-grandfather. I know that’s a very long chain of connection. If you want the details, you can click this link to The Maxine Family website or the link on the upper right and trace the generations for yourself.

The Wizard of Oz is a classic motion picture based on a classic book by L. Frank Baum. It’s a movie loved by millions. But really, you might ask, despite the movie’s celebrated status, why are David's and my tenuous relationships to a minor actor in it such a big deal? The big deal is that both David and I have been major Oz fans since we were kids. I’ve been reading, watching, drawing, writing, listening to, and playing Oz since I was six years old. Half my career has had something to do with Oz. I’ve won three Eisner Awards and made the New York Times graphic novel best seller list because of Oz. Many of my closest and longest-lasting friendships were formed because of Oz. I met David because of Oz.

So finding I have even a tenuous family connection to Wizard of Oz actor Carolyn E. Granger was exciting.

Carolyn was born exactly ninety-eight years ago today on November 8, 1915, in Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio. Her parents were John Horace Granger (1881-1972) and Niona F. Halsey Granger (1886-1974). Carolyn had ten siblings, six of whom lived to adulthood.

When Carolyn wasn’t performing elsewhere, Chardon, Ohio, remained her home all her life. That was another startling revelation. For all my life I’ve had relatives in Chardon. I can’t count the number of times I’ve visited there. By the time Carolyn Granger died in 1973 I’d been a diehard Oz fan for three years. If I’d been able to meet a Munchkin actor during a family visit to Chardon back in the early 1970s, it would have meant a great deal to me. This lost potential—this ships passing in the night situation—was frustrating to realize.

In the early 1930s Carolyn Granger joined the Harvey Williams midget troupe. This was a group of little people who traveled around the country and performed vaudeville revues in venues such as county fairs. In 1938 all the members of the Harvey Williams troupe were hired to play Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz.

The Harvey Williams midget troupe, circa late 1930s. All these people played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Carolyn E. Granger (1915-1973) is second from the right, as her name at the bottom says. Ruth Robinson Duccini, one of the two little person Munchkin actors alive today, stands in the center of the group. The leader of the troupe, Harvey B. Williams, stands third from left. His wife Grace Gould Williams, stands second from left. Harvey and Grace were married at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair while the troupe was performing there.

Another member of the troupe was Ruth Robinson Duccini. Ruth is one of two little people still alive who played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. I recently spoke with Ruth on the phone. Back in 1933-34, the Harvey Williams midget troupe performed at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Ruth had a chance to see them perform at another venue in Chicago, so she went. They asked her to join the troupe and she eventually did in 1937 after graduating from high school. Carolyn was already a member.

Ruth sang and danced with the Harvey Williams troupe, although she says she didn’t do either very well. Singing and dancing are what Carolyn did, too, although Ruth doesn’t remember specifics about Carolyn’s performances. Ruth says that Carolyn was nice, but that she sometimes didn’t feel too well. When I told Ruth that Carolyn died at age fifty-eight, Ruth wasn’t surprised. I guess Carolyn’s health was delicate. Maybe it was a family trait—four of her siblings died before they were out of their teens.

In 1938 MGM studios hired Leo Singer to supply 124 little people to play Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Singer managed the largest troupe of little people performers in the USA at the time, about thirty. He scrambled to find more little people to fulfill his commitment, and still he fell short of the quota. Singer contracted with the members of the Harvey Williams troupe, and they all traveled to Hollywood. Many of the little people working on the film stayed at the Culver Hotel in Culver City, California, but the Harvey Williams troupe stayed in a private home in Culver City. The men slept in back of the house and the women, including Ruth and Carolyn, slept in the front. That house is gone now, turned into a commercial property.

Members of the Harvey Williams troupe and others stand in front of the Culver City, California, house they stayed in during work on The Wizard of Oz in late 1938. Carolyn Granger stands left of center, indicated by the red arrow. Ruth Robinson Duccini stands on the far right. Photo courtesy Ruth Robinson Duccini. Used with permission.

I’m not going to give yet another history of the filming of The Wizard of Oz and the Munchkin actors’ participation. That’s been recorded elsewhere. If you’re interested, Steve Cox’s book The Munchkins of Oz is a good general account of the little people’s experiences on the movie and afterward. (Thanks, Steve, for all your help researching Carolyn Granger.)

Some of the Munchkin actors have also written books detailing their Wizard of Oz experiences, including Memories of a Munchkin by Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner—several times Meinhardt mentioned to me at Oz conventions that the name Shanower was of German origin and I wish I could tell him now that I’ve discovered the name goes back beyond Germany to Switzerland—and Short and Sweet by Jerry Maren, the other of the two little people still alive who played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Jerry played the Lollipop Guild member that hands a lollipop to Dorothy.

Carolyn Granger stands on the left in the front row in what appears to be a color test of the Munchkins in costume on The Wizard of Oz Munchkinland set. Jerry Maren stands center, to the right of Carolyn. The original of this picture is in the Technicolor Collection of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Leo Singer wasn’t always on the legal up-and-up with the little people he contracted with for The Wizard of Oz. In mid-November of 1938 MGM asked for a revised contract with many of the little people. Carolyn’s signature is the first one on the revised contract.

The revised contract between many of the Munchkin actors and MGM (Loew's Inc.). Carolyn's signature appears first. Ruth Robinson Duccini's signature is the second one on the right. Most, if not all, of the signatures on this first page of the revised contract appear to be from members of the Harvey Williams troupe.

I don’t know how long Carolyn Granger stayed with the Harvey Williams midget troupe after her work on The Wizard of Oz was finished in late 1938. She and Ruth Robinson Duccini both continued performing with the troupe for a time, since a newspaper article in the Mason City, Iowa, Globe Gazette mentions them both singing, tap-dancing, and cavorting across the stage in May 1941. One particular performance in the Ozarks stands out for Ruth. The people in the audience were so surprised to see little people that they stared at the performers as if they’d appeared “from under a rock.” During the early days of World War II the troupe performed in army camps in the south. Ruth left the troupe when she got a job with Douglas Aircraft during the war and then married in 1943.

Carolyn Granger is listed in the 1940 US Federal Census with her family at 106 Huntington Street in Chardon, Ohio. The Granger family appears in the census immediately after the family of Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988), my second cousin twice removed. (You can see a young Roy in the Grant photo I discussed in the blog post here.) The Grants lived about a block away from the Grangers on Town Line Road, which I believe is now Grant Street. Surely the Grants would have been aware of their neighbors the Grangers, and especially of Carolyn, then in her mid-twenties. As a little person she would have been noticeable.

The 1940 US Federal Census for Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, lists the Granger family immediately following the Grant family. Remember, you can click on any picture on the Several Times Removed blog to see it larger.

I wanted to notice Carolyn in The Wizard of Oz after I learned of my family connection to her. I’ve seen the movie many times and can recognize Munchkin actors that I’ve met. But which of those many Munchkins dancing and singing to Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road was Carolyn Granger? I located a couple photos of Carolyn in books about The Wizard of Oz movie and tried to impress her features into my brain. Last September the movie was re-released to theaters in a newly developed 3-D version for IMAX. David and I drove up to Hollywood to see it at Grauman’s Theater, where it premiered back in 1939. The movie looked beautiful. The new 3-D was tastefully done. But I didn’t spot Carolyn.

David and I saw the movie again a week or so later in San Diego at the Mission Valley Center AMC theater. It was sloppily framed and didn’t look as bright and shiny as the Hollywood screening. But it was still The Wizard of Oz. As usual, just after the Lollipop Guild finished welcoming Dorothy to Munchkinland, the Munchkins surged forward, singing “tra la la la la.” Suddenly there was Carolyn, just to the left of Judy Garland, jumping up and down with a big smile on her face. I’d recognized her.

Carolyn E. Granger plays a Munchkin in the 1939 MGM motion picture version of The Wizard of Oz. There she is just right of center, standing in the front row of the Munchkin crowd. The red arrow points to her. In the picture at the top of this blog post Carolyn Granger is peeking directly over the shoulder of one of the Lollipop Guild members, played by Harry Doll. Her face is just to the right of his.

At home afterward David and I watched the Munchkinland sequence again on dvd in order to make sure I’d been correct and so that we could pick out Carolyn in the rest of the scene. She stands in the front line of the crowd of Munchkins all during the Lullaby League and the Lollipop Guild songs, although she’s often obscured as the singers move back and forth. She’s fleetingly visible a few more times. But the moments where I’d first recognized her just before the Wicked Witch of the West arrives are the moments she’s most visible. Despite her death forty years ago, our distant cousin-by-marriage still looks so happy in those moments. She’ll look that happy as long as the 1939 motion picture version of The Wizard of Oz lasts. That ought to be a very long time.

If you’re an Oz fan, the journey over the rainbow never has to end. Oz has so many aspects, so many branches, there’s always something more, something new, something fascinating to discover and learn about. For me Carolyn Granger has been yet another fascinating aspect of the Oz phenomenon, but one that’s very personal because of my family connections to her.

Many of the Munchkin actors autographed this copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Carolyn's signature appears about halfway down the right hand column. Margaret Williams Pellegrini signed two names below Carolyn.

Charles Arden Muehleisen, 1920-2013

Charles Arden Muehleisen (1920-2013)

My first cousin twice removed Charles Arden Muehleisen passed away on July 11, 2013, at his home in Cortland, Ohio.

Charles was born July 11, 1920, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Our common ancestors were his grandparents William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914) and Mary Elizabeth Grant McNaughton (1856-1946), his mother's parents. They were my great-great-grandparents, my father's father's mother's parents. By profession Charles was an architect and ran his own firm for twenty-five years, before retiring in 2001. He served in the US Army in World War II and was active in several community organizations, including the Warren (Ohio) Rotary, the Boy Scouts, and the First United Methodist Church of Warren. I never met him.

Charles married Peggy E. Patton (1918-1992) in 1948. They had two daughters, Debra Elayne Muelheisen Rodriguez, who passed away in May 2012, and Beth Arden Muehleisen Ensign, who put together with her niece Barb Rodriguez and her son Andrew Ensign a lovely memorial video, which you can view here.

A memorial service was held on July 18. The family suggests memorial donations to the First United Methodist Church of Warren, 309 N. Park Avenue, Warren, Ohio 44481, or to The Rotary Club of Warren, P.O. Box 68, Warren, Ohio, 44482.

The McNaughtons, Clearing Some Haze

William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914), my great-great-grandfather.

In this previous blog post about my McNaughton ancestors, I said that my earlier McNaughton ancestry was lost in the haze of time. Since then I’ve pierced the haze a little.

On the actual McNaughton line, I still can’t really go beyond Malcolm McNaughton (1790-1870), the great-grandfather of my great-grandmother Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower (1891-1964). It’s possible that his father was named John McNaughton, but that’s not certain. I’d previously thought Malcolm immigrated from Reispole, Scotland, but that was incorrect. Instead he was born in New York State. He married Mary McIntyre (1791-1867), my great-great-great-great-grandmother, and it’s mostly the McIntyre side, not really the McNaughtons, that has allowed me to clear some of the haze away from the distant past.

In the late 1700s many families from the Argyll region of Scotland emigrated to the Mohawk Valley town of Johnstown, New York, forming a Scottish settlement there. They were among the earliest settlers of European origin in the area. It’s likely that Malcolm McNaughton’s parents were among these immigrants—since Malcolm McNaughton was born in the USA in 1790—but I don’t know that for sure.

In 1801 western New York opened up to settlers. When Genesee County, New York, was carved out of Albany County in 1802/03 a number of Scottish-origin families moved there from Johnstown, New York, to found the town of Caledonia. Three of my McIntyre relatives were among the earliest settlers that went from Johnstown to Genesee County.

My five times great-grandparents John Roy McIntyre (abt 1753-1831) and Helen “Ellen” Stewart McIntyre (abt 1765-1834) arrived with their children in Johnstown, New York, from Argyll, Scotland, in 1805. In 1811 three of the McIntyre siblings left Johnstown for Genesee County. They were Allen (b. 1788), about twenty-three years old; Peter (1795-1851), about eighteen years old; and Elizabeth (1797-1890), about fourteen years old. It’s likely that twenty-year-old Mary, my four times great-grandmother, didn’t go with her brothers and sister because she was already married to Malcolm McNaughton.

Peter, Allen, and Elizabeth McIntyre spent fourteen days on the journey by ox cart to Genesee County. They crossed the Genesee River in a scow and settled in the Caledonia area on the south side of Ellicott Pond on lot 43. In 1814 the rest of the McIntyre family joined them. In 1819 the northwestern area of Caledonia they lived in became the town of York and in 1821 their section of Genesee County became Livingston County.

It seems that Malcolm and Mary McNaughton joined Mary's three pioneer siblings in Genesee County before the rest of the McIntyre family arrived in 1914, because their first child, my great-great-great-great-uncle John Malcolm McNaughton (1812-1893) was born there in 1812. The rest of Malcolm and Mary McNaughton’s children were probably born in the same area, but I don’t have firm evidence of that.

Their fifth son Malcolm Duncan McNaughton (1824-1905), my great-great-great-grandfather, was still living with his parents in 1850, but by 1851 he had married his first wife Sarah Jane Mann McNaughton (abt 1830-1907) and they’d moved further west to Galt, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. There they had two children, William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914), my great-great-grandfather (pictured above), and Elizabeth Alvira McNaughton (abt 1851-unknown). Malcolm Duncan’s brothers Joseph (1824-unknown) and Alexander (abt 1828-1919) were also living with them.

By 1860 Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane McNaughton had moved south with their children to Montville, Geauga County, Ohio. I don’t know what became of Malcolm Duncan’s brothers Joseph and Alex. But their eldest brother John Malcolm McNaughton lived next door with his wife Clarissa Almeda Hodges McNaughton (1818-1893) and their four children. The rest of the McNaughton siblings and their parents seem to have remained back in Livingston (formerly Genesee) County, New York. (Except possibly for Peter McNaughton [1815-1874], who seems to have died in Michigan.)

Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane split up before 1873, and each married again. Malcolm Duncan’s second wife was Lydia Annette Clark (1839-1905), and they lived in Brecksville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Sarah Jane’s second husband was the much younger James W. Sweet (1868-1895), and they lived in Claridon, Geauga County, Ohio. Both Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane had children with their second spouses.

Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane’s eldest child, my great-great-grandfather William Malcolm McNaughton married Mary Elizabeth Grant (1856-1946). They had eight children, including Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower, my great-grandmother. That brings me to ground I’ve covered in past blog posts here and here. And I think that clears a lot of the haze surrounding my McNaughton line.

One of the more interesting details about my McIntyre forebears is this: Mary McIntyre McNaughton’s sister Elizabeth McIntyre McKenzie, who pioneered the move to Genesee County, New York, with her two brothers in 1811, maintained until the end of her days that the family was descended from the royal house of Stuart. In the book A Short History of the Campbell Family (1906) author Hugh Campbell writes that Elizabeth “never forgot the trace of royal Stuart blood that was coursing through her veins, and long life, clear complexion and clean skin were all attributed to it, forgetful of the fact that the Stewarts never were noted for their longevity, or for much of anything else that was good.”

King James I of England and VI of Scotland.

I have no idea whether this old family tradition of royal descent is true or not, and I wouldn’t know how to prove it. Elizabeth and Mary McIntyre’s mother was my five times great-grandmother Helen “Ellen” Stewart. There are plenty of Stewarts and Stuarts in the world, especially of Scottish origin. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them claim relationship with the Stuart royals. So I take the story with a grain of salt.

But David is pretty solidly descended from the Stewart family. His estimated fifteen times great-grandmother was Jane Stewart, the six times great-aunt of King James I of England, son of Henry Stuart and Mary Queen of Scots. So if it’s true that I’m descended from the Stewarts, then David and I have another blood connection, in addition to our common Bartlett cousins. However, until DNA testing can be refined more precisely than it currently is, I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.

My Famous Relatives: Richard Gere

Richard Tiffany Gere, born 1949.

A few years ago David and I found that he was related to many crowned heads of Europe. It was exciting. And it was one of the factors that spurred me to delve into the genealogy of my own family. For months I searched for a celebrated blood relative of my own, but without luck. At last, however, I began to turn up relatives who had made some wider mark on the world. One thing rewarding about famous relatives is that there’s usually a lot more information available than just dates and names. Perhaps the best known of the famous relatives that I’ve discovered so far is the actor Richard Tiffany Gere (born 1949).

How are Richard Gere and I related? We’re tenth cousins. Our common ancestors are our mutual great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents Samuel Rider (1601-1679) and Anne Gamlett Rider (abt. 1605-1695). They immigrated to the USA from Northampton, England, between 1636 and 1638, and I’ve mentioned them in previous posts to this blog.

With Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman.

The Rider branch of the family provides the blood relationship between Richard Gere and me, but we also have a family connection through two marriages. My second cousin twice removed Charles Elwood Grant (1900-1945) married Helene Thelma Stafford (1902-1985), Richard Gere’s tenth cousin once removed. And Helene’s sister Hilda Lucille Stafford (1898-1973) married Roy Robert Grant (1897-1988), another of my second cousins twice removed. As I’ve written on this blog before, the Staffords descend from Mayflower passenger Richard Warren (1580-1628) and his wife Elizabeth Walker Warren (1583-1673). And so does Richard Gere.

Richard Gere has never been an actor whose career I particularly followed. I recall first being aware of him when the movie An Officer and a Gentleman was released in 1982. I saw the movie during its original theatrical run and enjoyed it. But I was far more interested in one of the movie’s locations than I was in Richard Gere’s leading role.

Fort Worden State Park, near Port Townsend, Washington.

An Officer and a Gentleman was partly filmed at former US Army base, now State Park, Fort Worden near Port Townsend, Washington. I spent a week at Fort Worden in 1974 when I was one of the two kids selected from Clallam County to attend a retreat for fifth and sixth graders with a talent for writing and drawing. In addition to working on the book the students all collaborated on—my contribution was a linoleum block print of Herby the Medicine Man from Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Giant Horse of Oz—I explored, with adult supervision, Fort Worden’s spooky old, partially flooded military bunkers. And in the boys dorm I learned definitions of terms for sexual prophylactics that had previously been opaque to me. So when I saw An Officer and a Gentleman I was more interested in the shots of Fort Worden than in Richard Gere.

The poster in Judi's room.

But I continued to be aware of Richard Gere, as ubiquitous a presence as most any movie star in US culture. When I was in art school one of my female apartment-mates had a poster of Richard Gere hanging in her bedroom. His white tank top-clad torso and tight jeans so blatantly screamed sex symbol that I scoffed at the poster. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so derisive if I’d known back then that he was my cousin.

I remember hearing jokes in the 1990s about Richard Gere’s conversion to Buddhism and trips to Tibet. Why were people who didn’t even know him so concerned by Richard Gere’s religious life?

I went with a group of friends to see The Cotton Club in 1984. We went opening day because one of the friends was a big Francis Ford Coppola fan. I remember kind of liking the movie, contrary to the general reaction, but beyond Diane Lane, the Hines brothers' dancing, and a scene of someone shaving with an old-fashioned razor which I think I admired for the historical research and the ability of anyone to shave with such an instrument, I don't really remember the movie. I certainly didn't remember Richard Gere was in it until reviewing his career for this blog post. Well, it's been a while.

In And the Band Played On.

I've seen a few of his other films that I actually recall him being in. Days of Heaven from 1978. Something called Power from 1986, which I saw on an airplane.  Sommersby, a 1993 movie he did with Jodie Foster, I barely remember except for the scene where Gere quotes from Homer’s Iliad. I was impressed to see him in 1993’s And the Band Played On, a tv adaptation of Randy Shilts’s book of investigative journalism into the early years of the AIDS crisis. In that Gere played a thinly disguised version of Broadway choreographer Michael Bennett.

More recently I’ve seen him in Shall We Dance, a solid, middle-of-the-road Strictly Ballroom-wannabe, notable for Stanley Tucci’s comedic performance. I thought Gere made a perfectly respectable Billy Flynn in the movie version of the play Chicago. I have friends—many of them dancers—who thought the movie of Chicago was terrific. I'm afraid it seemed mostly like lukewarm Cabaret leftovers to me. But I don’t fault Richard Gere for problems with the material and direction. Or for the fact that Catherine Zeta-Jones—one thing in the movie I would call terrific—overshadowed everyone and everything else simply by appearing onscreen.

Richard Gere in recent days

Richard Gere married model Cindy Crawford in 1991, but they divorced in 1995. In 2000 Richard Gere and Carey Lowell had a son, my tenth cousin once removed, Homer James Jigme Gere. Homer is also the first name of Richard Gere's father, my ninth cousin once removed, Homer George Gere (born 1923). In 2002 Richard Gere and Carey Lowell married.

Richard Gere’s been in popular and critically praised movies that I haven’t seen—Pretty Woman, American Gigolo, the recent Arbitrage—so I can’t claim to be a big Richard Gere fan. But I’m certainly happy for his success and wish him the best in his continuing acting career. I also like being able to say I’m related to a movie star.