Campens in Baltimore

A' mhuir tha i ciùin	The sea is calm
Tha i fiadhaich, tha i farsuing	It is wild, it is vast
Tha i àlainn, tha i diamhair	It is beautiful, it is mysterious
Tha i gamhlasach is domhainn	It is vengeful and deep
O ach sinn, tha sinn dall	Oh but we, we are blind
'S chan eil againn ach beatha	And all we have is life
Tog an seòl, tog an ràmh	Raise the sail, lift the oars
'Gus am faigh sinn astar ann	'Til we get up speed
"Cearcall A' Chuain" by Calum MacDonald & Rory MacDonald

On July 25, 1853 - 162 years ago today - my 4th-great-grandparents Heinrich "Henry" and Sophia Campen arrived in Baltimore City, Maryland on the Neptune.  According to the ship's passenger list, Henry was a 60-year-old merchant, and his wife Sophia was 58 years old - certainly past middle age for their day.  Traveling with them were two of their adult children, Catharine and Eduard.  The Neptune had departed from Bremen, but the Campens reported their last legal residence as Emden.

They were joining my 3rd-great-grandfather, John Campen, who had arrived in the U.S. about five years prior.  Henry and Sophia arrived just in time for the birth of their grandson, John's first son, Henry Cornelius Campen, on September 25, 1853.

Unfortunately, Henry only got the chance to enjoy life in his new country for two years.  The exact date of his death is unknown, but the records of the Baltimore Cemetery indicate that he was interred there on Christmas Eve in 1855.  This time, Henry just missed the birth of a grandson:  John's second son, my 2nd-great-grandfather, Louis W. Campen, was born the following month, in January of 1856.

Sophia Campen survived her husband by 17 years, passing away at the age of 88 on January 28, 1873.

CAMPEN - On the 28th of January, at three o'clk P. M., SOPHIA CAMPEN, aged 88 years, wife of the late Henry Campen, born in Emden Ost Friesland, kingdom of Hanover, but for the last twenty years a resident of Baltimore.		Mrs. Sophie Campen died yesterday, our good, elderly mother, grand- and great-grandmother, widow of the late Heinrich Campen, of old age in her 88th year of life. The grieving family asks for quiet sympathy.

Johann Campen

Ach siùbhlaidh mi uat	But I shall go away
Cha ghluais mi tuilleadh nad dhàil	Never to return to you
Tha m'aois is mo shnuadh	My age and my appearance
Toirt luaidh air giorrad mo là	Presage the shortness of my days
An àm dhomh bhith suainnt'	When it's time for me to be laid out
Am fuachd 's an cadal a' bhàis	In the cold slumber of death
Mo leabaidh dèan suas	Make up my bed
Ri fuaim na h-ataireachd àird	Where I can hear the surge of the sea
--"An Ataireachd Àrd" by Donald MacIver

For years now, I've been using Chronicling America to research my family in Richmond, Virginia.  The newspapers on the site have been a goldmine of information about my ancestors' day-to-day lives.  But not long ago, Chronicling America added a new collection - issues from Der Deutsche Correspondent in Baltimore, Maryland.  And it was here that I found an obituary for my 3rd-great-grandfather John Campen, much more complete than the brief notice that appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

John Campen died on December 10, 1888, and this obituary appeared in Der Deutsche Correspondent two days later, 126 years ago today.  My German's rather rusty, but here's a rough translation:

Ableben. – Am Montag Abend 1/2 12 Uhr entschlief Hr. Johann Campen für ein besseres Jenseits.  Der Verstorbene, welcher im 67. Lebensjahre stand, war seit 40 Jahren in Baltimore ansässig;  er war zuerst als Maschinist thätig und betrieb seit 1862 eine Blechbüchsenfabrik.  Er wanderte aus Emden, Hannover, hier ein und war zwei Mal verheirathet.  Der Verstorbene, welcher vielen Vereinen angehörte, hinterläßt zwei erwachsene Kinder ans erster Ehe.  Die Beerdigung findet morgen Nachmittag 2 Uhr vom Trauerhause Nr. 812 Lightstraße, aus statt.

Demise. – On Monday evening 1/2 12 o'clock passed away Mr. John Campen for a better afterlife.  The deceased, who was 67 years of age, was a resident for 40 years in Baltimore;  he first worked as a machinist and operated since 1862 a tin can factory.  He emigrated here from Emden, Hanover, and was married twice.  The deceased, who belonged to many clubs, leaves behind two adult children to the first marriage.  The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock from the house of mourning No. 812 Light Street.

John Campen and his second wife, Charlotte

It doesn't help to track down his first wife, but it at least does confirm that she existed!  So, the hunt continues for elusive Caroline Fredrick Campen!

Veterans Day

Wae be tae the orders that marched my love awa'
And wae be tae the cruel cause that gars my tears doon fa'
Wae be tae the bluidy wars in High Germany
For they hae ta'en my love and left a broken heart tae me
-- "The Wars O' Germany" (Traditional)

  
Today, November 11th, is Veterans Day, though tomorrow is the observed federal holiday.  Originally proclaimed as Armistice Day by Woodrow Wilson to commemorate the end of World War I, it became a federal holiday with an act of Congress in 1938.

Because of a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973, many records relating to World War I soldiers were lost, making it hard to research.  I do know of at least three men in the family tree who served during World War I - all connected to my great-grandmother, Grace Siegel Campen:  her husband, Clarence Campen, and two of her cousins, Lawrence Meyns and Baker Sears.
 

My great-grandfather Clarence Campen has just passed his 26th birthday when he enlisted in the Army on July 20, 1918.  As this was near the end of the war, he served for just a few months, and was discharged on December 10, 1918.  Clarence hadn't yet met my great-grandmother;  at the time, he had just married his first wife, Mary Dallam.  The only record that I have of his service is a copy of his discharge papers, passed down to my father:

In early 1919, the Governor of Virginia created the War History Commission to document Virginia's participation in World War I.  Among their records are questionnaires completed by returning soldiers and their families, including those of Grace's cousins, Baker Sears and Lawrence Meyns.

While Grace and Baker probably knew each other quite well growing up (they're mentioned together in newspaper accounts, and their mothers were close), I'm not sure how well Grace and Lawrence knew one another.  He was born in Colorado and raised in Virginia, but then moved around a lot afterwards, following a career in the military.

Lawrence Meyns' questionnaire was filled out by his father, Charles.  Charles was born in Germany and had immigrated to the U.S. in his late teens.  His pro-German sentiments during the war got him into some trouble;  he was investigated by the FBI, and fired from his job at the British-American Tobacco Company.  He was proud of his son's service in the military, according to one of his coworkers, "not from the fact that he was serving his country, but that he was making good money."  On the War History questionnaire, however, Charles left several questions blank, saying that Lawrence "would undoubtedly prefer to reply to them himself."  Whatever his father's opinions, Lawrence, who was 22 years old when he enlisted in 1917, continued his career in the Army through World War II, rising to the rank of Colonel.

Baker Sears, on the other hand, filled out the questionnaire himself.  He enlisted on July 11, 1917 at the age of 21, and was discharged shortly after the end of the war on January 10, 1919.  His answers clearly show his pride in his military experience, saying that he "would'nt take a million for it" and that it had made him "broader in my ideas in every way."

Clarence Campen is buried with his wife Grace at Meadowridge Memorial Park in Elkridge, Maryland.  Lawrence Meyns and his wife Victoria were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  Baker & Margaret Sears' graves are at Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.

	(Photo courtesy of Star Kline)	(Photo courtesy of Anonymous)

The Other Campen Family

Now all you young fellas, when for marriage you go
Examine your true love from the top to the toe
And if you don't do that, like me you'll be sold
To a damsel not nineteen, but a ninety-year-old

-- "Only Nineteen Years Old" (Traditional)

Not long ago, while browsing through the 1940 Census for family members, I came across the record for the family of Henry Campen.  Henry was the older brother of my great-great-grandfather, Louis Campen.  Henry died in 1927, but his widow Louise and two daughters were still living in Baltimore City in 1940.  At first glance, the record is somewhat unremarkable.

 
The circled X next to Louise's name indicates that she was the one who gave the family's info to the census taker.  She reported that she was 68 years old, and her daughters Teresa and Laura were 35 and 33 years old... except that they weren't.  Not even close!

Now, I've come across many, many census records where ages weren't right, but normally, they're still in the ballpark.  And Louise and her daughters have a history of distorting their ages in every census record going back to 1900.  But in 1940, Louise just outright lied:  she was born in 1856, so she would have been 84... not 68!  And not only that, Louise lied about her daughters' ages as well.  Teresa should have been 61 (not 35), and Laura was 57 (not 33).  This time she was off by more than 20 years!

Dating back to brothers Henry and Louis, there was a split in the Campen family.  According to family lore, they jointly inherited their father's canning business after his death, but Henry tricked Louis out of his share.  Louis died in 1901, aged only 44 years, leaving behind his wife Mary and six children.

Aunt Jean once wrote to me about the Campens:  "Henry's family were well to do.  They had a chauffeur and went to Florida in the Winter.  The story is that one of Louis' grown daughters talked with one of Henry's daughters on a street car and suggested that they get together and Henry's daughter indicated that they were not interested.  After all they were first cousins."

Ancestry.com has several travel records for Teresa and Laura from the 1950s.  They went on a few cruises, and visited England twice.

The divide in the family can also be seen in where Henry and Louis were buried.  Louis and his wife are buried at the old Baltimore Cemetery in unmarked graves, but Henry's family were buried at the better-known Green Mount Cemetery, in a plot just down the hill from Johns Hopkins' family.

 
On the other hand, though, neither of Henry's daughters ever married (whatever their ages were!), so his family line died out, while Louis has dozens of descendants alive today.

1940 Census, part 2

A miner's life is like a sailor on board a ship to cross the waves
Every day his life's in danger, many ventures being brave
Watch the rocks, they're falling daily, careless miners always fail
Keep your hand upon your wages and your eye upon the scale
-- "A Miner's Life" (Traditional)

In my first blog post back in May, I wrote about trying to find ancestors in the newly-released 1940 U.S. Census.  At the time, the only relatives I'd found were those whose addresses I already knew.  Four months later, Ancestry.com has just completed its index of every single state, with 134 million names.  So with this new search tool, I've found a few more...

I quickly found my great-great-grandparents John and Louise Gallo, living at 570 Roosevelt Street in Trenton, New Jersey.  At the age of 75, John was still working, listed simply as a "laborer" - ten years prior in 1930, his occupation was "farm laborer". 

(Full-size image here)

Next on the list was Clarence Campen, whom I discovered staying at the veterans' hospital at Perry Point in Cecil County, Maryland.  An interesting tidbit on this record:  instead of giving a person's 1935 residence, the hospital provided the patient's date of admission.  For Clarence, he was admitted on June 28, 1933.

(Full-size image here)

With a bit of hunting, I was able to find my great-great-grandmother Lucy Jane Dotson.  She was living with her daughter Sophronia's family in Letcher County, Kentucky.

(Full-size image here)

Which now brings me to the most difficult person to find - Pop Pop!  The prior year, in 1939, Pop Pop's father had died from his injuries after being struck by a car.  My great-grandmother Savannah was left with five children to raise on her own.  From what I've found, it looks like the family was split up.  First I found Pop Pop's older sister, Aunt Fay, with husband Willie Freeman, their daughter Sheila, and Aunt Jackie, living in Pike County, Kentucky.

(Full-size image here)

Next I found Pop Pop's brothers Otis and Walter Jr. living with Savannah's brother Arthur, also in Pike County, Kentucky.  Like Willie Freeman, Uncle Otis and Arthur were working as coal miners.

(Full-size image here)

Alas, Pop Pop, his mother Savannah, and Savannah's then-future husband, Beecher Ramey, are all still playing hide-and-seek.  I'm hoping their names are just indexed some weird way - I've seen many creative renderings of Datson, Dotsin, etc.  At least I now have Pike County to focus on, fingers crossed!

Mom Mom

The road now leads onward and I know not where
I feel in my heart that you will be there
Whenever a storm comes, whatever our fears
The journey goes on as your love ever nears

-- "Never-Ending Road" by Loreena McKennitt

Were Mom Mom still living, today would have been her 81st birthday.  To remember her best, this post was written by my Dad...

My Mom was born in Baltimore, July 1931.  Not sure of their exact address.  She grew up an only child of Milton & Grace Campen during the Depression years of the thirties.  A picture of Mom at around 1939 or 1940 with her Grandmother, Grace Siegle seems to show Grace Siegle's love of her only grandchild.

 
Mom went to school at Immaculate Conception then later at the school located at the corner of Charles & 28th streets in Baltimore.

 

Before finishing school, she met Dad a few years after WWII.  They married and started their family in 1948.  At this time they moved in with Bob Cole, Grace and mom's parents at 4905 Brookwood Road in Brooklyn, south Baltimore.

In 1956, Dad & Mom built a house in Arden on the Severn, right on the Severn River.  In June 1963, they decided to buy a dairy farm in Carroll County.

The boys did the farm work and of course milked the 26 cows.  Mom kept track of all the cows' records, as to when they were ready for artificial insemination.  Besides keeping the boys from killing each other, she kept the farm life humming as Dad still worked full time at Bethlehem Steel.  Most of us boys got all of our sense of humor from Mom, her best gift to us.  Dad didn't have one.  Mom's love for her seven children grew immensely when we got older and had kids of our own.  Her grandkids were a source of great appreciation of life.

Cancer caught up with Mom at age 48 and she passed away too early at age 53.

Birthday Mystery

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand.

For the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand. 
-- "The Stolen Child" by William Butler Yeats

Roughly 120 years ago today, my great-grandfather Clarence Milton Campen was born.  I can't say with exact certainty what year he was born because it seems like each time he wrote his birth date on some form or other, he used a different year.  The year 1892 is my best guess.

Usually when trying to verify a date, I go with the earliest source.  For Clarence, that would be the 1900 census.

Unfortunately, the person who gave the information couldn't keep all the names and dates straight.  Of the nine family members, I've been able to confirm that at least one of the names and five of the dates are wrong (more on this later).  Clarence's is certainly wrong - he was not born in February.  So the census record is in no way reliable.

Next is Clarence's draft card from World War I, with a birth date of July 15, 1892.

And here is his World War II draft card, with 1891 instead.

In 1943, Clarence applied for a Social Security number.  On this form he also used 1891.

Clarence's 1945 baptism certificate goes back to 1892 as his year of birth.

On Clarence's death certificate, his wife Grace gave his birth year as 1890.

And finally, just to confuse matters, the Social Security Death Index has Clarence's birth year as 1893.  I'm not sure where they got their information from.

One of my ongoing research projects has been to track down a birth record for Clarence at the Maryland Archives.  The good news is that Baltimore City was issuing birth certificates at the time.  The bad news is that the records for the Campens have not been easy to find.  And, as seems to happen a lot in genealogy, finding an answer to one question inevitably leads to more questions.

The problem is that Baltimore's early birth records did not require a name for the child.  They simply noted the date of birth, the child's sex, the parents' names, the father's occupation, and how many previous children the couple had.  Locating a birth certificate requires searching by the father's name, going through the microfilm index year by year... and hoping that the name was spelled right (most often, it's not).

So far, I've found birth records for four of Clarence's siblings:  Caroline on June 13, 1884;  Leonora on August 17, 1885;  John on March 26, 1889;  and Emma on May 9, 1897.  Not one of these matches the info on the 1900 census record above.

Yet to be found are Bessie, Clarence, Henry... and another child...

Caroline, Leonora, and John's birth records indicate that they were the second, third, and fourth children, respectively, of Louis and Mary.  The couple must have had a child prior to Caroline, whose birth record I've been unable to find.  Most likely the child died young, since s/he isn't listed with the family in the 1900 census, but I haven't had any luck finding a death record, either.   Perhaps Faeries made off with the baby?  Another mystery for my ever-growing list.

But back to Clarence.  Bessie, who was the child immediately before him, has records giving her date of birth as either December 3, 1890 or 1891.  With Clarence born in July, they couldn't have been born in consecutive years.  If Bessie was born in 1890, then Clarence would have been born in 1892;  if she was born in 1891, then Clarence would be in 1893.  Since Clarence himself never used 1893, the former seems more likely, thus... 1892 it is!

So happy 120th birthday to Clarence!


P.S.  For my D.A.R. paperwork, I have to use his Social Security form in place of a birth certificate - so as far as the D.A.R. is concerned, Clarence was born in 1891, and I'm not going to go out of my way to explain otherwise, thank you very much.

Grace

Telling our stories from a distant past
Most are remembered, the good and the bad
Like an old winding river in a curious plot
-- "Mystery Game" by Clannad

Out of eight generations in my family, the name Grace has been in five - including the newest, who will celebrate her 2nd birthday this week!  So, to distinguish between the two Graces in this blog, my great-grandmother Grace is referred to as just "Grace", and her mother Grace is referred to as "Grace Cole".

Sometimes I find the most interesting family history tidbits by accident.  I regularly use the well-known genealogy websites for official records, but every now and again, I'll put a name into Google just to see what pops up.  Just recently, I stumbled across an old yearbook with a familiar name in it.

One of the gaps that I've been trying to piece together is Grace Cole's life after her first husband died and before she moved from Virginia to Maryland.  Grace Cole's first husband was Charles Siegel, and in the 1900 U.S. Census, she was living in Richmond, VA with him and their two children, Charles Jr. and Grace.  Charles Sr. died in 1903, and Charles Jr. died in 1908.

Despite searching every which way I can think of, I've been unable to locate Grace Cole in the 1910 and 1920 census records.  Part of the problem arises from not knowing when or where she remarried, or when exactly she moved to Maryland.  The only clues I have are:  1) her brother's obituary from 1917, which still gives her last name as Siegel, and 2) her D.A.R. application, which shows her as dropped in 1919, and has the name Siegel crossed out and replaced with Cole.

Though the younger Grace is also missing in the 1920 census, she does appear in the 1910 census with her great aunt Octavia Gentry, staying at a hotel not far from where her grandmother was living in Mathews County, VA.

But a Google search turned up another puzzle piece – a 1917 yearbook from the State Normal School in Fredericksburg, VA.  The school has gone through a few name changes over the years, and is now the University of Mary Washington.  It started out as an all-girls school, but became co-ed in the 1970s.  Many libraries have been digitizing public-domain books and making them freely available on various websites such as the Internet Archive.  UMW has digitized all of its yearbooks, known as "The Battlefield", from 1913 up though 2010.

It seems that in 1917, when she was about 19 years old, Grace was a student there as a member of the class of 1920:

 

Paging through the yearbook, Grace was involved in a variety of school activities, from playing tennis...

 (Now we know where Dad & my sister get their tennis skills from!)

... to Glee Club...

... to a student group called "Sphinx":

 

Comparing with the previous yearbook's photos and names, Grace has to be one of the girls in the bottom row.  I showed the yearbook to my dad, and he thinks that Grace is the third photo.

No yearbook was made in 1918, and Grace is not in the yearbooks for either 1919 or 1920, so it looks like she only attended the school for that one year.   Grace's cousin Lucy Sears was also a student there, a member of the class of 1918, and was also a member of "Sphinx".

So it seems that Grace Cole and Grace were still living in Virginia for most of the 1910s, and probably didn't move to Maryland until after 1919.  Searching marriage records in Virginia and DC has turned up no matches for Robert & Grace Cole;  at that time, Maryland still kept separate records for the Baltimore City and the counties, and has no complete index, making a search tricky at best.  All I know for sure is that the three of them were living together in Baltimore by the 1930 U.S census.