Wren Kin » Records

“Who the heck is that?”

Bonnie Wren — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:18:22 +0000

I depend very heavily on census information. And thanks to modern databases, what used to take my mother weeks of correspondence with the National Archives in order to look at a census page now only takes seconds in the comfort of my oh-so-cushy sofa.

“How could Mother have another child that I somehow forgot? How could my brother and I not remembered our very own sister?”

But how accurate are censuses? I’ve often heard stories about census-takers who were too drunk to do their jobs properly, or stories about those census-takers who depended upon neighbors to tell them about families nearby rather than walk the entire neighborhood.

We’ve all seen the crazy misspellings and “off” birth years and birth places, but for the most part the censuses are my favorite resource, providing family relationships and useful hints as to where vital records may be found.

And yet… I just had a brush with a census record that is obviously, blatantly, amazingly incorrect. It’s not a Wren census, but it is interesting enough I thought I’d share it with you.

(Click on this image for a larger view)

While you can see the family in the image above, I removed the surname because the dear lady still surviving from that family would like her privacy protected from Google searches. But you can click on the image for a larger view.

I had pulled up this census as a favor to my friend Bettie, who was glad to receive it. But when she took it home and examined it she received an enormous shock: according to the census image she and her brother had a sister!

“Goodness,” she told me on the phone. “I thought, ‘How could Mother have another child that I somehow forgot? How could my brother and I not remembered our very own sister?’”

What was even more shocking to Bettie was the idea that the lost sister could’ve been a twin (please note that the ages given on the census for Bettie and Jane-Anne were crossed out and rewritten.)

Bettie was 6 and her brother was 10 when this census was taken, certainly old enough to remember a sister, or at the very least remember a cousin or a friend who might have been living with them at the time, but she couldn’t remember any family members with that name. “I couldn’t remember a neighbor named ‘Jane-Anne’, either.”

Still, Bettie didn’t immediately assume the census was in error. She thought perhaps she and her brother DID have a sister, and perhaps that sister was lost to the family in such a traumatic way that she and her brother couldn’t remember her.

“You do hear about such things happening,” she said. “I doubted that happened to us, but I thought it could be possible.”

So before she called me she contacted all her surviving relatives who were old enough to remember the early 1930s and asked them if they remembered a little Jane-Anne. Nobody could.

Then she asked them if they’d ever heard of Bettie’s mother having two girls instead of one. Nobody had.

She looked through all her old photo albums. No luck, there, either.

Since any children living in the neighborhood would’ve attended the same school as Bettie and her brother, she looked through all her old yearbooks, but again, found nothing.

She finally called me. “The idea that my brother and I could’ve lived our lives not remembering a sister was an incredible shock, but after talking to my family, I have to tell you: I think that census is wrong.”

I turned to the California birth index and quickly found Bettie and her brother listed as born in the 1920s, but I couldn’t find a Jane-Anne with that surname. I searched by surname (just in case Bettie’s father had a previous marriage) as well as Bettie’s mother’s maiden name for all counties in California, but could only determine that Bettie’s mother had only two children in the state of California. And since Bettie’s mother was born and raised in San Diego County, it seemed unlikely she would’ve left the state to have a third child.

Thinking perhaps Jane-Anne was a relative or a friend after all (despite Bettie’s research), I then searched the CA birth indexes for any child of that first name, or combination of first names, but found no one of the right age.

I then searched through the California Death Index for a person named Jane-Anne who might have died in California after 1930. When that proved fruitless, I made separate searches by first name only, surname only, mother’s maiden name only, and birth year only, but I couldn’t find any person who matched.

While it is possible that there actually was a Jane-Anne out there somewhere who happened to be in the house when the census was enumerated, Bettie and I concluded that this really was just a census-taker error, probably one of the most blatant ones I’ve ever seen. But then the problem became: “How do we alert future generations to this error?”

Some possibilities we discussed included her writing a letter she could keep in her family Bible, copies of which she could tuck into all her family photo albums; a letter explaining what had happened when she first viewed the 1930 census, and how after interviewing her surviving relatives, she concluded the census-taker had made a mistake.

(If you readers have any more suggestions, I’d love to hear them.)

After Bettie and I hung up, I realized how often I depend upon family relationships listed in censuses, and yet I rarely have the luxury of a living relative to check them over and say, “Yes, that’s right” or “Who the heck is that?”

Bettie and I may never solve the mystery of Jane-Anne. But the missing little girl is a excellent reminder to remember that censuses can have more than just odd little errors; they can have some whopping big ones, too.

Alvin Lee Wren, 1929-2007

Bonnie Wren — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:00:37 +0000

Mr. Alvin Lee Wren was the son of James Milam Wren (born 1862 in Smith County, Texas), the grandson of James C. Wren (born 1832 in Tennessee), and the great grandson of William Wren (born about 1802 in Kentucky).

Alvin’s great-grandfather William Wren was brother to Nicholas Wren, the Texan war hero mentioned several times in the memoirs of Noah Smithwick, “The Evolution of a State.”

There was no braver or better man in the service than Lieutenant Nicholas Wren. I know not whence he came, nor whither he went, but had I been sent on a perilous mission, I know of no man I would have chosen before him to bear me company.

Noah Smithwick, “The Evolution of a State, or Recollections of Old Texas Days”

Nicholas and his brother William are solid brick walls in many a Wren researcher genealogy. The loss of Mr. Alvin Wren is a sad break in our tenuous link to the past.

His grandson kindly sent me a link to this obituary:

Alvin Lee Wren, 78, died peacefully Thursday, September 20, 2007, at his home.

He was born in El Dorado to Ollie Izora (Duggar) and James Milam Wren. He graduated from El Dorado High School in 1946, and belonged to the Delta Sigma fraternity. He was a businessman and entrepreneur. Among his businesses he either owned or co-owned at one time are Wren Realty, El Do Plastics, Plastic Sign Suppliers, and Signs and License Plates. Alvin loved the outdoors, especially his gardening and fishing on his beloved North Two and his nephew’s Forever Farm (which he named). He made an annual trip each year for over 50 years to Bear Creek Lake with friends and family. He was El Dorado’s Outstanding Jaycee of the Year in 1954.

While he was able, he loved traveling and taking his family and friends on vacations. Some of his favorite places to visit were relatives in South Louisiana, relatives at the Red River Ranch in Idaho, Bill Lindsey’s in Heber Springs, and casinos.

Alvin will be remembered for his excellent cooking, hosting, and distinctive laugh. He was the best cook and if you did not believe it, he would be glad to tell you. He loved telling funny stories from his life adventures.

Survivors include two daughters, Lynda Wren Cheek and April Wren; one son, David Lee Wren; one sister, Altha Dean Nash; two granddaughters, Carrie Oswalt and Mary Wade all of El Dorado; two grandsons, Odie Blackmon of Nashville, Tennessee, and Sean Wren of Knoxville, Tennessee; and eight great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and a host of friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one brother, J. Milam Wren, and one sister, Edith Wren Reed.

He was especially fond of his trusted Hospice nurse, Andy Guinn, who he only knew a short time but looked forward to his visits each day.

The funeral will be at10:00am Monday in Young’s Chapel. Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Park under the direction of Young’s Funeral Directors.

Visitation is Sunday from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

Memorials may be made to Life Touch Hospice, 2301 Champagnolle Rd., El Dorado, AR 71730, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Burn Unit, P. O. Drawer 2222, Little Rock, AR 72203-9984 or to the charity of the donor’s choice.

Obituary: “Alvin Wren,” Youngs Funeral Home, El Dorado, Arkansas, downloaded 2 January 2008.

Alexander Wren: VA -> OH -> IL -> IA -> KS -> OR -> ID -> ?

Bonnie Wren — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:59:54 +0000

I had a fine time following Mr. Alexander Wren (and his wife, Amarilla S. Wood) from state to state.

Born in Virginia in May 1831 according to the 1900 U.S. Census, I tracked him from Warren County, Illinois in 1850 and 1860, to Appanoose County, Iowa in 1870, to Mitchell County, Kansas in 1880, to Umatilla County, Oregon in 1900, to Nez Perce County, Idaho in 1910.

His wanderlust probably came naturally. In the 1850 census his parents (John and Esther Wren) reported that Alexander’s younger siblings were born in Ohio.

Amarilla passed away between 1900 and 1910, as Alexander reported himself as a widower in the 1910 Census. I couldn’t find him in any other records between 1910 and 1920 but I did find some World Connect databases that say Alexander’s middle name was Andrew and that he died in December 1910 in Canada. Unfortunately they provide no sources I can check so I’ll leave him in Idaho in 1910, unless someone would like to provide more details about this family.

Speaking of sources, I want to thank a recent registrant who found some unsourced data in our Wren Kin database. As a rule I’ve tried to add only sourced information, but since that heads-up I’ve found more unsourced entries, most of them omissions I made while inputting data (a good reminder for me to SLOW DOWN).

In the meantime, if you find unsourced data or other errors, please remember that I welcome all corrections, additions, suggestions, etc.

Wrens from Louisiana, Iowa and Ireland!

Bonnie Wren — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:05:00 +0000

I’ve been in contact with a descendant of the Bamburg/Wren line from Coushatta, Louisiana and am in the process of adding more data on that family to our database. How exciting!

And in my online cemetery hopping I found William E. Wren and his wife Pearl N. and their family, all from Iowa and apparently moved to Minnesota. William E and his son William Edward Jr. also appear to have been veterans: William E. Sr. in World War I and William E. Jr. in World War II.

And in more good news, we just had an Irish Wrynn join the Wren Family Association. He says he recently learned that his Wrynn surname was originally “Wren,” and that some of his great-grandparents would’ve had a lot of relatives emigrating to the United States.

The Railroad Retirement Board is a genealogical gold mine

Bonnie Wren — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:37:04 +0000

I wasn’t having as much success as I’d hoped in interviewing relatives about my great-grandparents.

The Railroad Retirement Board will not release information on living individuals, but if your deceased ancestor worked for the railroad from 1937 on, they will provide you with his or her employment records for a non-refundable search fee.

My great uncle knew plenty about my great-grandfather Ed’s railroad career, but he couldn’t remember where Ed was born and he didn’t have a copy of his death certificate, which meant I was going to have to pay for a copy from New York State.

Even more disappointing, he knew nothing about Ed’s first wife (my great-grandmother). I had her picture and her first name, but nothing else. No one in our family could remember anything about her, either, and she seemed doomed to remain hidden behind a genealogical brick wall.

But then my great uncle mentioned something that took my mind off my lost great-grandmother: he told me how Ed had survived two head-on train collisions in 1905.

It seemed to me a head-on collision would’ve been front-page news, and if a newspaper had written about it, perhaps I could get a copy of the article.

I started researching train wrecks and before long I found I’d Googled my way into the Railroad Retirement Board‘s site, which soon proved to be a genealogical gold mine.

The Railroad Retirement Board will not release information on living individuals, but if your deceased ancestor worked for the railroad from 1937 on, they will provide you with his or her employment records for a non-refundable search fee of $27.*

I followed the instructions at the site and sent in my request for information. Within a few days I received a letter telling me the search had been started. (They also wanted to remind me that search fees are non-refundable.)

Twenty-three days later an over-sized envelope came in the mail and I knew I’d hit pay dirt. The envelope included photocopies of:

Ed’s baptismal certificate, which he used to prove his date of birth
Ed’s wedding certificate to his second wife, and
Ed’s death certificate, issued the year he died

Those three documents alone more than made up for the $27. But there was more, including photocopies of forms Ed had filled out containing valuable genealogical information, like:

the year and the city in which he married his first wife (my great grandmother)
my great grandmother’s maiden name
my great grandmother’s death date and place

The paperwork included Ed’s railroad resume, listing the positions he held and the dates he held them over a span of 30 years. There were even life insurance papers Ed’s second wife had filled out, listing her birth date, her first husband’s name, the day and place they were married, the day and place he died, and her parents’ names (including her mother’s maiden name).

Details on my great uncle were in there, too, but as promised, the Retirement Board carefully censored all information on living individuals.

My one disappointment was there was nothing about the two head-on collisions in 1905 that Ed had survived, because the Railroad Retirement Board can only provide records back to 1937. I’m not complaining, however! Thanks to the Railroad Retirement Board, I learned more about my great-grandparents in one afternoon than I did after months of research.

*The search fee cost $27 at the time of this writing.

Announcing the Wren Kin Database (beta version)

Bonnie Wren — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:56:22 +0000

“In beta” means I’m still working out the kinks. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

You’ll have to register for an account, but don’t worry, it’s free and your email won’t be sold to anyone.

Bear with me if there are any hiccups in the process, as this is new and fairly untested!

Once you get in, take a look at the photos, the gravestones, and everything else. You’ll see how we can associate images with family facts, like a death certificate with a death date.

The Official Wren Kin Database is here.

Bobby Joe Wren, 1929-2000

Bonnie Wren — Sun, 13 May 2007 02:13:29 +0000

Subscribers of the original Wren Kin newsletter will remember the sweet and informative columns of Mr. Bobby Joe Wren.

Bobby Joe passed away in 2000, but I wanted to post the notice of his death here for all the people who came to know him through the pages of Wren Kin.

A WREN HAS FLOWN HOME
Bobby Joe Wren
1929-2000

Bobby Joe Wren, 70, of El Paso died Sunday (Jan 2, 2000). Services will be private. Survivors include his wife, Ruth; his sons, Robert Allen Wren, Melvin Russell Wren, and Lee Roy Wren; his daughter, Marilyn M. Taylor; his brother Worth S. Wren; his sister, Evelyn Ashey, nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. He was a retired operator delivery man for Southern Pacific Pipeline and a Navy veteran. He was also on the board of directors for Parks and Recreation and lived in El Paso for 41 years. memorial contributions may be made to Parkland High School Athletics. Arrangements are by Hillcrest Funeral Home.

“The remains of Seaman Second Class Bobby J. Wren, were committed to the sea At 0850 22 April, 2000 in a ceremony onboard USS David R. Ray.

Military Headstone placed in the Wren family plot at the Hico Cemetery in Hico, Texas.

Favorite Song: Suppertime by Gov. Jimmie Davis.

Favorite Bible Verses:
John 3:16 For God so loved
The world, that He gave his
Only begotten Son, that
Whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have
everlasting life.

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life.

Source: from a photocopied memorial sheet for Bobby Joe Wren. Original is in the possession of Ruth B. Wren.

Wren marriages added to database

Bonnie Wren — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:54:16 +0000

The dates and counties of these marriages have been entered into the W(R)en(n) database:

Bennie WREN, Delia TUCKER (1914)

Carter WREN, Rilla SHAW (1882)

J.C. WREN, Mattie GODFREY (1878)

Sources used: Marriage Records Van Zandt County Texas 1909-1931, Compiled by Quana Barber, Ruth Johnson & Maefayr Hooton; and Van Zandt County Texas Marriage Records 1855-1884, transcribed, compiled & Edited by Exa Thomas.

Texan Civil War Pension Records

Bonnie Wren — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:53:50 +0000

I just received a package from Ruth containing Civil War Pension records for the following individuals:

Mrs. Anna K. Wren, Wood County, Texas
Mrs. E.J. Wren, Wood County, Texas
G.W. Wren, Lamar County, Texas
Mrs. M.A. Wren, Brown County, Texas
T.E. Wren, Brazos County, Texas
W.B. Wren, Anderson County, Texas
William B. Wrenn, Falls County, Texas
William Henry Wrenn, Mills County, Texas

All I can say is: woo hoo!

I will scan these and put them online in our genealogy database, which I’ve almost finished preparing for public access. This database will provide scans of actual documents, but you’ll have to register with the W(R)en(n) Family Association in order to view any of them. Registration will be free, of course.

I’d like to have a complete collection of Texan Wren/Wrenn pension records, but we still need the pension files for:

Eugenia Gilson, Application #36154, Travis County, wife to Thomas Lycurgus Wren
Viola Wren, Application #31456, Hamilton County, wife to William Coleman Wren
R.H. Wren, Application #13941, Madison County

Poor Parthenia Wren’s pension file has been missing for years (Application #08378, Kaufman County). It’s my dearest hope that one day it will turn up again, donated to the Texas State Library Archives, perhaps, or maybe even to Wren Kin—where I would photograph it carefully (without a flash, of course) and then donate it to the Texas State Library Archives…

Ah, well. I can dream, can’t I?

Seriously, folks, if any of you have copies of the above pension files (or if you have copies of ANY Wren/Wrenn/Ren/Renn pension files from ANY state, would you consider donating copies to WrenKin.com? We’re starting with pension files from Texas, but only because we have to start somewhere.

In fact, if you’re interested in donating any Wren/Wrenn/Ren/Renn-related material to Wren Kin, please drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

Warren County, Kentucky Marriages: 1797-1851

Bonnie Wren — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:19:12 +0000

Over at the Wren Family Surname Forum at Genforum, I found this statement:

It is said Randolph Wren signed off on the marriage of Binns Jones Wren and Elizabeth Betsy Depew in Kentucky. I have never been able to document this information.

The record of this marriage may be found in the book Warren County, Kentucky marriages, 1797-1851: from the original marriage bonds and consents, by Helen Thomas, Mary Rabold, Elizabeth Price (Bowling Green, Ky. c1970).

(Some interesting background on this book: Mrs. Thomas found the original marriage contracts in the trash—if I remember the story correctly—and rescued them. She and Mrs. Rabold and Mrs. Price abstracted the contracts and published them in this book, thereby saving a segment of Warren County’s genealogical history for future generations. Hooray for Mrs. Thomas!)

This book of marriage contract abstracts is an incredible resource, to be sure, but the researcher trying to document the Binns Jones Wren marriage wanted to be absolutely certain of the facts.

I have come across this data before. But I was wondering have you seen (either online or in person) this actual document? (Warren County, Kentucky marriages, 1797-1851 ) Is there somewhere I can I view the document?

It’s something every family researcher should do: let the abstracts and transcriptions reveal the location of the original record, and then hunt down the original and read it for themselves.

So where were the original Warren County, Kentucky marriage bonds, the ones Helen Thomas abstracted for her book? After abstracting the records, did she return them to the County Clerk’s office? Donate them to a library? Give them to her local genealogical society to maintain?

A quick Google search found this Rootsweb thread, in which a poster says that the original marriage contracts are currently in the Manuscripts Room of the Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Excellent! I phoned the WKU library and spoke with a helpful librarian who said the Manuscripts Room did contain the marriage contracts abstracted in Helen Thomas’ book, but horror of horrors, not all of them.

According to the librarian, before the original marriage contracts were donated to the library, the authors of the book gave some of the contracts to descendants who asked for them. Ugh!

How will descendants of the couples mentioned within these missing Warren County documents ever locate the originals now? Abstracts are better than nothing, but the original documents are the gold standard in genealogy. Any contracts given to individual researchers are now lost to other descendants.

As a family researcher, I understand the desire to own an original ancestral document, especially if I didn’t believe the collection would ever make it into a library. But I see far too many family Bibles, photographs and documents sold by estate liquidators to trust in my own mortality. If a library can take the documents and keep them safe and available to other researchers, then that is the best place to put them.

With that in mind, what do you do if you need a copy of an original Warren County, Kentucky marriage contract from 1797-1851?

The WKU librarian recommended researchers try email contact first:

Name up to five marriage contract requests
Include the names of the couple mentioned in Helen Thomas’ book and the date they were married, and
the page in Helen Thomas’ book the marriage abstract was found on, if possible. Then
email this request to Amanda Hardin.

The staff will determine if they have the record or not and email you back with an estimate of photocopying costs. At the time of this writing the costs are minimal: ten cents per one-sided copy (twenty cents for double-sided) and $1.25 for postage.

When you order the photocopies, specify whether or not you want front and back, and any attachments (some marriage contracts do have attachments). In the case of Binns J. Wren, there are four pages to be photocopied, which would come out to a total of $1.65.

Amanda asked that the check be made out to Manuscripts & Folklife Archives and sent to:

Amanda L. Hardin, Archival Assistant
Manuscripts/Folklife Archives
1906 College Heights Blvd. #11092
Western Kentucky University
Bowling Green, KY 42101-1092

And if you live in Bowling Green, Kentucky, consider volunteering your services to the Manuscript Room at the WKU library. The librarian said the marriage contracts would be the first of their collection to be digitized if they had the funding. They do have the equipment to digitize the collection, but no money for labor costs.

This sounds like an excellent project for the local Bowling Green genealogical society. (As it turns out, the local genealogical society did organize the contracts when they first arrived, but now the collection needs to go digital!)