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Loss – Week 12 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
It was Supposed to be Two Weeks
On March 16, 2020 our country entered “15 days to slow the spread.”
We are living in unprecedented times that will be historically important in the future. One day our ancestors will study this time when COVID-19 took over the world and marvel at the decisions that were made for us, choices we made, and how lives and the entire world changed. The truth is that COVID-19 was just one aspect of the crisis that we found ourselves in. The economy was shuttered with business closures and the loss of jobs; we found ourselves in an extremely divisive political climate; lots of people experienced social and mental health issues.
Many have compared this pandemic to the Spanish Flu of 1918. While COVID-19 is not a flu, both are novel viruses. The Spanish Flu had 3 (maybe 4 waves) and lasted 2 years. It is estimated that between 20 and 50 million people worldwide died. As of March 21, 2021 there were 2,708,557 confirmed COVID deaths worldwide with 122,736,841 confirmed cases. That continues to change daily of course and new variants are a concern.
(As an interesting aside, according to www.sciencedaily.com, “High aspirin dosing levels used to treat patients during the 1918-1919 pandemic are now known to cause, in some cases, toxicity and a dangerous build up of fluid in the lungs, which may have contributed to the incidence and severity of symptoms, bacterial infections, and mortality. Additionally, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity, as well as the expected viral causes of death.” Some doctors recommended that patients take 30 grams of aspirin; today we realize that 4 grams would be considered the maximum dose. Therefore some Spanish Flu deaths may have actually been caused by aspirin poisoning.)
In early March 2020, travel began to be restricted and entertainment and sports events were canceled. We had a Coble family hockey trip planned in Denver. As the trip loomed closer, we began to hear about COVID-19. We all agreed that Gary’s parents would stay home but the rest of us would go. Then right before the trip, the NHL canceled the game. We joked that our new hobby became canceling trips (two cruises, two Renaissance Faires, 3 trips, and Thanksgiving with the Kansas crew) and events (we generally were attending at least one Vegas event or Smith Center show each month before the pandemic hit).
On March 17, Governor Sisolak ordered a statewide shutdown of casinos and all other nonessential business in Nevada for 30 days. Restaurants and bars were closed though people could still use the drive-through or have food delivered. Schools were closed and reopened overnight as distance learning centers, often without the infrastructure and certainly without the training and preparation needed for such an undertaking. Most employees (other than essential workers) began working remotely from home. All social activities were abruptly stopped and households isolated. When the shutdown was announced there was a run on grocery stores across the country and shelves were quickly emptied. (It became impossible to buy toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water, bread, pasta, rice, hamburger, etc. Disinfectant sales increased 216 percent in the first 10 days after COVID-19 was declared on March 11, 2020.) The shortages themselves caused a great deal of stress. People overreacted because of fear of the unknown.
The complete shutdown in Nevada actually lasted 78 days. After this time, some business were able to begin opening with lots of restrictions and limited capacity. During these 78 days of the shutdown, Las Vegas, Nevada was basically a ghost town. For a lark, one day we drove down the Strip. It was very eerie to see empty streets and sidewalks in a usually bustling city. (This 45 minute drive only took us 12 minutes with road construction and stop lights.) For a city that is tourist dependent this has proven to be tragic. According the U.S. Travel Association, “The travel industry’s U.S. economic output was estimated to have lost $1.1 trillion in 2020.”
Stories abound of people who have lost so much during this year. We personally have friends who contracted this virus (one of our friends was on the verge of being put on a ventilator) and a couple of former colleagues died. Others have lost jobs or had their job situation change. Some people lost their homes or had to move in with family. Our friends who are teachers have shared some of the stresses they and their students have endured while trying maneuver through distance learning. I have several friends whose children were seniors in high school and were not able to experience all those rights of passages that young adults typically have before starting on the next phase of their lives.
Now that vaccines are available, hope is on the horizon. We’re beginning to view the world as “before COVID, during COVID, and after COVID.” We’re beginning to see encouraging signs of recovery. While this has indeed been a year of loss in varying degrees for the entire world, optimism and opportunity is emerging. One lesson learned, “don’t take things for granted.”
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Fortune – Week 11 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Rich but Forgotten
Richard Bennett III was “the richest man in all the colonies and a most influential one.” (Maryland Genealogy Trails: Anne Arundel County Maryland Colonial Families) In fact, when he died in 1749, his obituary in the Maryland Gazette said, “he was supposed to be the richest man on the continent.”
Richard’s mother, Henrietta Maria Neale Bennett, married Philemon Lloyd after Richard’s father died; therefore Philemon was Richard’s step-father. Philemon was the son of Edward Lloyd and Alice Crouch (my 9th great grandparents). Their daughter Alice Lloyd married John Watkins II.
Richard Bennett started his journey to riches by inheriting his father’s estate at birth (his father died four months before Richard was born) as well as property owned by his grandfather.
Dickson Preston wrote a Sunday feature story that fully explored Richard’s rise to wealth and his descent to obscurity. (Dickson Preston. Ozymandius Beside the Chesapeake. Baltimore Sun. Baltimore MD. 5 November 1972. P246 FF)
After his mother’s death in 1697 when Richard was 30, he began buying as much land as possible. His passion seemed to be “collecting land and estates.” He also appeared to be quite the entrepreneur. He operated his own stores where he imported goods from England. In addition, he built his own fleet of ships for “use in English, West Indies, and coastal trading.”
According to Dickson Preston, “some internal seed seemed to drive him to collect more and more land, more and more money, more and more economic power.” Richard took advantage of the economic depression during this time in history that forced many landowners into bankruptcy and used the misfortune of others to acquire more property. If someone hadn’t paid his rent or couldn’t prove he had a valid title, Richard swooped in and procured the property.
In 1749, Richard, 82, fell from a horse and broke his hip. He began to decline rapidly and was on his deathbed by September 1749. While on his deathbed, Richard who was a widower and had no children, apparently made Edward Lloyd III (step-brother of Richard, son of Philemon, grandson of Edward) his main beneficiary. (Edward III and Richard had bad blood between them, much of it due to religious differences. Richard’s mother, Henrietta influenced him greatly and he became a devout Catholic as she was. Edward III was a Protestant. There was serious conflict between Catholics and Protestants going back to 1650-1658 when “Puritan revolters prohibited the practice of Catholicism.” (www.napa-institute.org)
It is probable that Edward III took advantage of the situation with Richard close to death to add to his own wealth. According to Dickson Preston, Richard signed a deathbed will though his “cheeks were sunken, his breathing torturous, his sight and hearing almost gone.” This will invalidated his previous will.
Why did Richard feel the need to amass such a fortune? Was his passion satisfied? What was his real plan for the property, goods, and money that he left behind? Was his fortune his legacy? So how did the richest man on the continent become just a footnote in history, largely forgotten?
The Name’s the Same – Week 10 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Perplexing Ancestors
I’m so confused! Is it Frances or Francis? Is it he or she? Is is 1696 or 1701 or 1732 or 1768? And then of course, there is Stephen Watkins and Stephen Watkins. Seriously, who is who?
Actually all of the above information is part of the story. Francis Warman married Frances Hanslap who then became Frances Warman. They had a son who they named Francis who then had a daughter he named Frances Hanslap.
Stephen Watkins had a son named Stephen Watkins who married Frances Hanslap Warman (the granddaughter of Francis and Frances) in 1783. Stephen Jr. and Frances had a son named Joseph Hanslap Watkins who was born in 1788.
To continue the confusion, Stephen’s grandmother, Mary Warman and Frances’s grandfather, Francis Warman are brother and sister. Mary and Francis’s parents are Stephen Warman III and Sarah Watts.
(When doing research, if things don’t make sense, keep digging. Using other people’s research and trees can be helpful in providing hints. However, you will likely find conflicting or wrong information. Do your best to verify all information and use common sense.)
Multiples – Week 9 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Twins
My genealogic journey began with a search for twins.
During my Thanksgiving visit in 2014, my mother, Jerrie Watkins Bernal, asked me to make a book about her family. She and her cousin (actually her first cousin, once removed), Barbara, decided that it was important for them to go through their family photos and identify as many relatives that they could so that this information would be preserved for future generations. My mother also asked me to try to find out as much information as possible to fill in the blanks.
My grandmother, Annie Anthony McLeod, was born in 1905. Her oldest brother, Henry, was born in 1886, 19 years before her. Annie had been told that her mother, Gertrude Schmidt Anthony, had 10 children, but she only knew of 7. She and Barbara’s mother had been told that Gertrude had a set of twins but did not know if that was accurate. My mother asked me to try to find out if indeed there were twins and to find out anything else that I could about them.
I spent the next year doing research and going through the pictures to create the book which was completed in January 2016.
The good news is that I was able to find the twins! Christina and Otilla (sometimes spelled Otillia) were born October 13, 1897. Christina died February 27, 1898 and Otilla died in 1890. Both Christina and Otilla were family names. Gertrude’s mother was Maria Christina Shafer (Schaefer) and her sister was Christina Schmidt. Gertrude’s husband and Christina and Otilla’s father was John Peter Antony (Anthony). His mother was Otilla Endress (Enders) and Gertrude’s sister was Mathilda Otillia Schmidt.
The other sister that my grandmother didn’t know anything about was Katherine. She was born and died in 1890. In 1896, Gertrude and John had another daughter that they also named Katherine.
Power – Week 8 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Power of a Mother
Mothers have a great capacity to ensure that their children are taken care of even during periods of history when society does not want to afford them this right. Frances Watkins Lloyd was such a mother. Frances married John Watkins I in 1637. Their first son, John Watkins, was born in 1640. John Watkins I died February 20, 1648 in Norfolk, Virginia.
During this time, the colony of Virginia followed British law which stated that a husband controlled his wife’s property. If her husband should proceed her in death, the wife was often provided a dower. This provision allowed for her support during her widowhood. However, if she remarried, this dower became the property of the new marriage.
Subsequently, Frances married Edward Lloyd in 1654. According to the book, The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland by Joshua Dorsey Warfield, Frances “relinquished her dower in Virginia to Edward and stipulated that her son, John Watkins, was to be paid his portion by Lloyd.” This happened in 1658. This land that Frances insisted that Edward Lloyd give to John was called “Watkins Hope” and was located on the north side of West River in Maryland. By giving up her dower, Frances used her power to ensure that her son was a property owner.
John Watkins then married Alice Lloyd in 1660. Alice was the daughter of Edward Lloyd. Therefore, John was both the stepson and son-in-law of Edward Lloyd.
(According to the Anne Arundel County Earliest Land Surveys from Lord Baltimore’s Rent Rolls, Watkins Hope consisted of “300 acres, surveyed July 8, 1663 for John Watkins.”)
Frances’ foresight continued to make an impact on the Watkins lineage. According to The Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Land Surveys and Condominium Plats, John Watkins III inherited the 300 acres and purchased another 554 acres. Leaving a legacy is one power of a mother.