God Speed Two Unrelated John Glenns

When growing up, I recall hearing about how we were related to John Glenn, the Astronaut. Recently, however, I've done some investigating to see if that might really be so. Getting the ancestry tree for the astronaut was pretty simple. It's readily available on the Internet. You can see it below.

John Herschel Glenn Jr's Ancestry Tree from familysearch.com

Well, one thing that jumps right out at you is that the astronaut had direct ancestors in Pennsylvania before the revolution and until they moved out to Ohio.

OUR family, on the other hand, has an ancestor tree for Daisy Glenn (Sylvia Averill's mother) as shown below.

John Sylvia Glenn family tree

Glenn Valve ad from American Engineer

There are a number of significant items to note. First, James Glenn came from Northern Ireland just like the astronaut ancestors, but they were in the US before the revolution, whereas he got here in 1790. What's more, they were in the same part of Pennsylvania (Cumberland County is near Centre County), but there are NO common names in the genealogy. What's more, the astronaut Glenns were in Ohio before our John Glenn was born - in Pennsylvania. What's more, Daisy was born in Pennsylvania. I could go on and on, but I've got a couple of tidbits to share. 

Our John Glenn was a machinist that ran a valve company in Chicago. His father, ALSO named John Glenn (AKA John Sr), was a blacksmith. This valve company left John Jr pretty well off. I believe that he lived in the house that is shown below.

Fremont Street Residence from Google Maps Streetview

If you go to Redfin, you can see the house for sale listing, here. As you can see, it was pricey, even in 2016, though it certainly has been extensively remodeled since John and his family lived there. The reason I believe this to be JSG's house is that Chicago renumbered all the houses back in the early 20th Century (after John passed away) and the book says 115 became 1934. The lower level house was also around when the renumbering took place, but I don't know who lived there back then.Yup, we're talking about a duplex that's over $1M.

Charles Henry Averill and Maria Louise Elliott in Nebraska and on to Illinois

Charles Henry and Maria Louise Averill in Front of the Marengo House Sometime Between 1900 and 1911

Charles Henry Averill represented a major shift in the Connecticut wing of the Averill family. Around 1870, he took his family and they all moved to Nebraska in order to homestead farmland around Wisner. His son, Edward and his daughter, Anna (Annie) stayed in Nebraska. The rest of them moved on with Charles Henry and Maria Louise when they left Nebraska around 1890 in order to go to Marengo, Illinois.

Charles and Maria Enlargement From the Previous Photo

There, they built a house that still stands and is clearly recognizable, though they've added a garage, changed the porch, and made a few other nips and tucks over the last century. I will let the photos and news clippings that accompany this post to tell some of the rest of the story. Click on any graphic for a larger version. This is particularly useful for the newspaper clippings.

Obituary of C H Averill

Obituary of M L Elliott

Google Maps Streetview of CH and ML Averill's House in Marengo

Five Averill Brothers

From Left: Edward, Charles, William, Frederick, and Howard

In the early 19th Century, our wing of the Averill Family lived in Connecticut. Specifically, they lived in and around Pomfret. However, after the middle of the Century, things were on the move. Charles Henry Averill had married Maria Louise Elliott. Their first three children (Ida, Edward, and Anna) were all born in Connecticut or Rhode Island. the rest were born in Nebraska. Some moved on to Illinois, and some stayed in Nebraska. The photo at top shows the five brothers born to Charles Henry and Maria Louise. I believe the photo shows them in order from oldest to youngest. If that is so, then from left, we have:

• Edward
• Charles
• William
• Frederick
• Howard

Fred is Robert Louis Averill's grandfather and he fought in the Spanish War.
Charles died at a fairly young age, but his one son was later taken under William's wing.
William is Eleanor Averill's father. His other two children each died before the age of four.
Edward is Eddie Averill's grandfather. Eddie was the one that shared the Nebraska farm with Robert. Howard finished WW1 as an aviator.

None of the Averill sisters are in this photo. Perhaps they have a separate photo of their own that I haven't found yet. However, Anna Waldo Emley (Averill) was notable among them. She was prominent in the DAR. Her DAR ancestry is shown here. One of her sons (Arthur Averill Emley) fought in Mexico with Black Jack Pershing, and later as a Captain in WW1. I do know that Ida, Anna, and Maude all lived to a ripe old age. However, that's another post entirely.

Grandad Rice

According to the Notation on the Back of the Card, the Photo was Taken at the Crystal Palace

Recently, I discovered that Thomas Rawson Rice was not just a soldier in the Great War. He was a Royal Marine Medic. His picture is shown at top. I don't know who circled his photo, but it definitely makes it easy to pick him out from the crowd.

According to the British National Archives, he enlisted on January 22, 1916, and was given Register Number 4344 in the Royal Marines Medical Unit. He was demobilized on July 6, 1919.

Yes, I've scanned in a bunch of photos...

Adding Electronic Clarity

I've been busy looking through Internet records. Electronic stuff is divided into a number of main folders and is on a USB flash drive (with backup on hard drive). These include (PINK for the Petersons and BLUE for the Averills):

• Ancestor Trees from Family Tree Maker software
• Averill
• Erickson
• Ettinger and Glenn (Averill side)
• General and Unverified Stuff
• Jacobs
• Peterson
• Rice
• Tuft
• Whitworth

Within folders, I've elected to use a descriptive approach to the files, and leave whatever id they have from their internet source. Things scanned in are so noted and the originals will be filed in accord with their family and major heading. All items in the folder are at the highest resolution available.

One problem I've found is that my first picture of Nancy's grandmother was labeled as "the only known..." Well, that didn't last long. I found another picture on the internet and will show it in a new post. I also haven't resolved what file to put married women who changed their names. Sometimes I've filed them under their maiden name and sometimes under their married name. I'll have to clean that up before too long.

Two examples of file naming may be seen below.

Major Headings First Cut

Major Heading	Number
Birth, Death and Marriage Records	01
Census Records	02
Correspondence	03
Gravestones	04
Newspaper Articles	05
Maps	06
Books and biographies	07
Photographs	08
Wills and Deeds	09
Society Records	10
Oral histories and stories	11
Reunion Info	12
Family Histories	13
Addresses	14
Receipts	15
Military Records	16
Manuscripts and Transcriptions	17
Church Records	18
Government Documents	19
School Records	20
Internet Findings	21

Family Headings First Cut

Updated on July 19, 2018. Mostly to skim down families we may have no paper records of. Adams
Averill	A-2
Barry	B-1
Bates	B-2
Bemis	B-3
Burlinghame	B-4
Burton	B-5
Cogswell	C-1
Conkle	C-2
Copestock	C-3
Corbin	C-4
Dale	D-1
Elliott	E-1
Emley	E-2
Erickson	E-3
Ettinger	E-4
Faloon	F-1
Farr	F-2
Glazier	G-1
Glenn	G-2
Griffen	G-3
Hendee	H-1
Hinton	H-2
Hopkinson	H-3
Hutchinson	H-4
Hyde	H-5
Ibbotson	I-1
Jackson	J-1
Jacobs	J-2
Joy	J-3
Knight	K-1
Mighell	M-1
Osgood	O-1
Peterson	P-1
Phillips	P-2
Rice	R-1
Scarborough	S-1
Schmidt	S-2
Snell	S-3
Thompson	T-1
Thorne	T-2
Tuft	T-3
Waldo	W-1
Weakley	W-2
Whitworth	W-3

Illinois Averills

Where Arthur and Sylvia fit on the Averill family tree

 Looking through Genealogy records of the family, there's a lot of stuff there that might be suggestive of evidence, though a lot of it would not pass muster nowadays. However, amongst that, are Illinois Driver Licenses of Arthur and Sylvia. These are pretty good evidence of residence and of their dates of birth. In fact, you can see that Sylvia's birthday is May 26 according to her DL, while I had it down as May 20!

Arthur Averill DL that expired in 1942

Sylvia Averill DL that expired in 1985

Also falling into the category of evidence, and a bit more lighthearted, was the moving sale invite that Arthur and Sylvia put out when the first moved to Chestnut Street in 1938. Tantalizingly, it includes the house numbers of their old house, though not the street.

Fixed Grandma's  birthday

As you can see, Chestnut Street wasn't as built-up in 1938, being on Rural Route 1

Stuff from Sylvia in Las Vegas Nevada

Recently, we visited with Laura on our way from Texas to Ocean Shores. Seen there were two pictures from Daisy Ettinger (Daisy Glenn Ettinger) and Sylvia Olive (Ettinger) Averill's old glass clock. When a child, I was mystified at how the clock kept time without any apparent thing to drive the hands.