Who Was W. P. Ellis?
William P. Ellis var mikill afi minn. Því miður, Hann lést þegar afi minn, Gilbert P. Ellis, was only two years old. Langömmu minni vissi ekki mikið um fjölskyldu Vilhjálm. The actual information Grandpa had on him was sparse, so William was the real mystery man in the family history up until 2006 eða 2007.
Grandpa had a picture of William sitting on a fake moon. William was a giant of a man. Ég myndi segja 6'4″ til 6'6″. My grandfather was 6’4″ sjálfur. Takk fyrir stafræna aldri, I know more about my great grandfather than his own son did, but the journey was complex and illustrates the joys and challenges of the genealogical journey.
Mynd af William Ellis, kona hans Caroline og foreldrar hennar, Frederick og Johanna Johannpeter
I started out knowing William died in St. Louis, Missouri milli júní 22, 1917, og júní 21, 1918. Afi minn var mest Sannorður, direct person I have ever known. I knew his information was as correct as his memory allowed. I limited my search to this period even with memory not being 100 prósent nákvæmur.
The Missouri Secretary of State uploaded most Missouri death certificates from 1910 til 1955 to it’s website, þegar ég byrjaði á þessu leit. The first few times I searched, Ég gat ekki fundið William P. Ellis. Loks, I decided I would search for every death certificate from St. Louis City, bæði á ári 1917 og 1918 með eftirnafnið Ellis.
Sem betur fer, Ég lenti borga óhreinindi í 1917. You see my great grandfather’s death certificate listed his first name as “W.P.” og föðurnafn “Ellis”, so I could have search William Ellis throughout the state until the cows came home and never found him. Finding William’s death certificate was like hitting the lottery.
William was born August 1, 1877, William H. Ellis and an unknown mother in the state of Kentucky. He lived at 5311A Magnolia Avenue, where died of lung disease on December 4, 1917. The death certificate listed his occupation as a clay miner. St. Louis was home to a large amount of clay mines along S. Kingshighway Boulevard and the “Dogtown” neighborhood at the turn of the century.
These mines turned out the bricks that St. Louis er enn frægur fyrir. William’s death certificate proved that my great grandmother only had limited knowledge of William’s background because she did not know his mother’s name or where she was from. Það er áskorun bæði ættfræði og sögu. Ef þú segir ekki að einhver eða ekki taka það, þær upplýsingar sem tapast.
William moved to St. Charles, Missouri, einhvern tíma áður en 1900 because he mustered into one of the volunteer units going to fight the Spanish-American War on July 9, 1898, at St. Charles, Missouri. He served in the 6th Volunteer Missouri Regiment, Light Battery A. He served for two years and mustered out on May 10, 1899.
My great grandmother, Caroline Ellis, lived in St. Charles also. They met sometime prior to 1912, when they married. Á maí 15, 1912, William P. Ellis married Caroline Leah “Lee” Johannpeter in St. Charles. They would welcome my grandfather, Gilbert P. Ellis, into the world on Tuesday, Júní 22, 1915, by which time, they were living in St. Louis City. They moved to the city to be closer to his work. Clay mines were located within a couple of blocks of their flat on Magnolia Avenue.
Whether it was from the working in the clay mines, environmental factors, or some other cause, William was stricken with lung problems for six months prior to his premature death on December 4, 1917. Hann var bara 40 ára.
His obituary was printed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on December 5, 1917: Obit af WM P Ellis, St. Louis Post Dispatch, 05 Desember 1917 Ellis-Tóku hvíla á þriðjudag, Desember. 4, 1917, á 11:20 er á búsetu, 5811 Magnolia Avenue, William P. Ellis, ástvinur eiginmaður Lena Ellis (Nee Johann Peter), kæri faðir Gilbert, kæri sonur okkar, bróðir, og sonur-í-lög á aldrinum 40 ár, 4 mánuðir og 3 daga. Jarðarför Föstudagur á 2:30 am frá Chapel Blederwieden-Dunkmann er, 1934 St. Louis Avenue, til New Bethlehem Cemetery. Mótor.
Í mörg ár, I thought that William’s lineage traced back through Susan Mustain through to the Plantagenet Kings of Cowardly King John and King Edward III. I recently discovered that I may have traced our lineage through the wrong William H. Ellis. Því miður, William Ellis is a quite common name in both Virginia and Kentucky. I don’t know if or when I will be able to verify this side of the family back past William P. Ellis and his father, William H. Ellis.
Sources: St. Louis Post-Sending, Desember 5, 1917, p. 17 and Missouri Death Certificate Database
