First off, my apologies for any Leonard Legends spam you may have received earlier today. I was implementing a new “feature” here at Leonard Legends & Legacies and inadvertently added something like 166 “new” posts to the site. What they really were, were a handful of articles from a few of my favorite genealogical-type bloggers.

It’s all a very thinly-veiled attempt to cover up my own inadequacies in my blogological (it is TOO a word) duties. I’ve been neither attentive nor diligent about my family history or this site in recent weeks and I’m not sure it’s going to get any better in the foreseeable future.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up or tuning out or going away. I’ll be more than happy to relay any of your discoveries to the wider audience, but for the moment, I have no particular direction.

So I’m inviting you to partake of some of the same blogger that I read on a regular basis. If you click the “Syndicated Feeds” tab on the home page, you’ll see seven of the latest headlines. Click a headline and you’ll see the article that goes with it. Click the headline on THAT page and you’ll go directly to the original site. Alternately, you can select “Blogroll” from the categories list on the right. That’ll get you a summary of the same seven articles and a link to their respective sources. Headlines/articles get updated once every hour.

So there it is… my “Declaration of Independence,” so to speak. Or, you can all it a cop out if you like. Either way, this post is likely to be stuck here for a while.

Cheers!
Rick

While I haven’t come across anything quite so dramatic in our family tree, I have come across a few instances of cousins marrying cousins… and doing it twice. Take, for example, the strange case of Nancy Leonard-Leonard-Leonard.

First, let me say that I have checked my sources, alive or dead, and it’s entirely possible we’re all dead wrong about these relationships. (But I don’t think so.) –End of disclaimer

Nancy (1786-1847) was the daughter of Lot and Elizabeth (Hoge) Leonard, named in his will. Her first husband, Joseph Leonard, son of Caleb and Sarah (Burt) Leonard, was her cousin (according to “A Pioneer History of Greene County, PA., “Ten Mile Country and Its Pioneer Families,” and Jennie Leonard Hutchinson, among others). Nancy and Joseph were second cousins, but who’s counting. Nancy Leonard became Nancy Leonard, nee Leonard.

Can’t find a date of death for Joe, so we’re not sure if he died or they divorced, but sometime before 1826, Nancy Leonard-Leonard apparently married her brother-in-law Zenas Leonard… becoming Nancy Leonard-Leonard-Leonard.

In all honesty, all we know for sure is that A Nancy Leonard presided over Zenas’ estate in 1826, the father of four kids is anybody’s guess, and w-a-a-y too many Leonards named their kids Zenas and Nancy.

The point of this whole disclaimer-riddled diatribe is to say that cousins marrying cousins and widows marrying brothers was incredibly common back in the day and none of us should feel icky about it. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) There’s plenty of good reading on the subject here, here, and here.

Now, everybody outta the pool while I change the filter.

Just when you think it’s hopeless, a letter turns up that not only answers the question, but opens new vistas for exploration. Take the case of “Dr. Shafer.”

Dr. Shafer's letter... mouse-over to enlarge.

Trouble was, Jennie never mentioned “Dr. Shafer’s” first name and Lydia (Leonard) Shafer had five grown sons. To make matters worse, Lydia and her entire family disappeared from the record after spending 20+ years in Cherokee County, Kansas. I even had a Kansas researcher walk every cemetery in the area (very rural, not many cemeteries) to see if they were there.

We found not a trace of Lydia, husband Charles, or sons Franklin, William, Charles, Jesse, or John.

Fast forward three-quarters of century or so. Our good buddy Sean returned to his grandmother’s Florida home this week and dug through a few boxes. I got an email. “What was that doctor’s name again?” I told him. “I think I have a letter from him to my grandparents Eleanor (Leonard) and Lester Burke.”

Can you imagine? In a letter written in 1945, on a letterhead bearing the name “Dr. W. T. Shafer, chiropractor,” the long-lost and by then 85-year-old Dr. Shafer had surfaced at last… in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He even mentioned his visit with “Mrs. Hutchinson” in 1927. He recalled her being a librarian, but hadn’t heard from her in a long time.

Sean quickly found the good doctor and his wife, Ida, in the 1920 census (she was also a chiropractor) and I found them in a 1925 city directory. We’re still tracking down the wheres and whens of their arrival, dates of death, etc…. and hoping the rest of the family will turn up as part of the investigation. But here’s the part that intrigues me most… I found a reference to a Wm. Shafer in the records of the Oklahoma Land Rush!

Still too early to know if it’s the right guy, but wouldn’t it be cool if the Leonards once again crossed paths with some hugely significant historical event? The Land Rush happened in 1889, precisely four years after the Shafer family disappeared from the Kansas record. Kansas is obviously right next door to Oklahoma. And the reference to “Wm. Shafer” in Logan County, Oklahoma, turns up in 1890, when William would’ve been 30 years old. No idea yet whether he has descendants.

All of that comes from a couple of letters, written to and from people I never had occasion to meet, discovered by someone who, a year ago, wouldn’t have recognized the letters as significant in the least. Thanks. Again. Sean!

Isn’t family history fun?

* the title of this post comes from an old Robert Palmer song recorded in 1979, “Bad Case of Loving You.” Here’s hoping it gives you an earworm, making you as old as me.

Awright, ladies and genealogists, this month’s mystery photo comes to us from our good buddy Sean and involves the man pictured to your immediate left. Specifically, who is he? (Mouse-over to enlarge.)

Do you know this man?

All we know is that it’s a re-print, possibly from a cabinet card, and that it was found with a stash of pictures of Leonards who lived in Ohio. But members of the extended family lived in Pennsylvania and one of those (McClellan Leonard) was a photographer for a few years at the turn of the century. Many of his photos bore an embossed logo for his studio. This one does not.

You know the drill. If he looks familiar, go scour your photo albums, shoe boxes, and bottom dresser drawers for an identical or similar photograph that might have his name etched on the back. The back of this one says (helpfully) “Do you know who this is?” In much fainter, presumably older script is the word “Squeegee,” which we assume is the photographer’s note to himself as he was processing said photo. But, if you heard stories about “Great Uncle Squeegee,” by all means, let us know.

If you know anyone who knows anyone who knows anything about period costumes and studio props, that might help us narrow down the year. (I’m guessing 1890-1900, but I’m no expert.) Then we subtract his apparent age (50-ish?) and we might be a little closer to his birth date and (fingers crossed) identity.

Cheers!
Rick

Isaac & Daniel Leonard, twins?

So, whaddaya think? Neither of these photos is dated, but both appear to be men in their fifties. Isaac Leonard, on the left, was born in 1827 according to an early Leonard researcher. That would put him midway between firstborn Edmund (1925) and third born Daniel (1930), on the right. Unfortunately, that early researcher didn’t leave us his sources.

Both men left extensive paper trails, but neither man ever mentioned having a twin brother. Wouldn’t you think it would come up at least once? Their county of birth hadn’t started keeping birth records yet and newspapers from that time are mysteriously missing from the microfilm collection. (I suspect ancestors of Rose Mary Woods, but she passed away in 2005.)

In 1860, the first census to record ages has Issac as 28 years old, Daniel as 30, making Isaac the younger brother not the older. Isaac is missing in 1870, but in 1880 he appears as 48 years old Daniel is 50. Records of 1890 were destroyed by fire, but in 1900 Isaac lists his age as 69 and his birth month as June 1830, same as brother Daniel. but Daniel says the month was April. In 1910, both men are 80 years old, listing only the year of birth as 1830. Both men died within a few months of each other in 1913 and 1914.

Daniel consistently listed his birthday as June 24th, 1930 in multiple locations… the April date in 1900 is clearly a clerical error. Isaac, on the other hand, rarely mentioned his birthday and appeared to grow older as the decades rolled by. But his tombstone clearly says “June 24th, 1830.”

What’s a researcher to do? How ’bout you? Any twins in your line? Any unsolved mysteries?