A Surfeit of Mix's (Smith Valley Cemetery)

"Surfeit" means too much of something, and the way I learned about that word was in reading about King Henry I who allegedly died from eating "a surfeit of eels". I must admit, eel is super yummy when it's a sushi roll (and I speak from experience since it was just last night that I had a surfeit of sushi).

But it's not really too many eels that killed Henry - it was the "lamprey eel", of which the kindest word to be said about it is probably....unattractive.

People seem to quite like eating lampreys (at least Henry sure did), but I have never, and probably will never try it if it continues to look like this:

yikes!







Anyway, back to my surfeit of Mix's...

I stumbled upon a cemetery last week during my day trip to New York as I was driving to the village of Willseyville.

Smith Valley Cemetery is located on route 96B in Tioga County in a valley still filled mainly with farmland. I was up there on a really beautiful fall day, the sun was warm, and there was a breeze that brought with it the earthy, but pleasant, smell of the barn just south of the cemetery.


And in this lovely little cemetery I found tons of gravestones of Mix relatives!

Most exciting for me was to see the gravestone for my 3rd great grandfather, Jonathan Collins Mix. Sadly, his stone is damaged and laying on the ground, but is still readable:

Johnathan C. Mix
Died
Jan. 14, 1853
AE. 49 Y, 7 M
& 24 D.

Just to the left of him is his wife, my 3rd great grandmother, Sally A. (Stevens) Mix:

Sally A.
Wife of
J.C. Mix
Died Jan. 27 1892
AE. 83 Yrs

Jonathan and Sally's son William Anson Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle) is also buried here with his wife Lodema Stevens:

Anson Mix
1827 - 1864
Lodema His Wife
1833 - 1906

Jonathan and Sally's son Miles Curtis Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle) is also buried here with his wife Mary Ann Soule:

Miles C. Mix
1830 - 1904
Mary Ann His Wife
1833 - 1911

And finally, of these brothers buried here, here is the marker for Jonathan and Sally's son Charles B. Curtis Mix (my 2nd great grand-uncle):

Charles B.
son of
Jonathan C. & Sally
Mix.
died Dec. 2, 1855,
Ag'd 16 Y'rs, 3 Mo.
& 4 d's.

Here is the marker for John C. Mix and his wife Henrietta Smith. John is my 1st cousin 3x removed as he is the son of (William) Anson Mix.

John C. Mix
1849 - 1910
Henrietta, His Wife
1853 - 1928
God is Love

And here is Fred George Mix, also my 1st cousin 3x removed, the son of Miles Curtis Mix, buried with his wife Drusilla A. Stillson:

MIX
1870 Fred G. 1942
1874 Drusilla A. 1942

Emery J. Mix is the great-grandson of Miles Curtis Mix. Emery is my 3rd cousin, once removed. He and his wife Josephine are buried here:

MIX
Josephine M.
Born Oct. 25, 1910
Died May 11, 1986
Emery J.
Born May 30, 1910
Died June 26, 1996

It was a good day for cemetery walking, because in another cemetery I found Jonathan and Sally's son John who is my direct ancestor! But that will be a post for another day!

Obituary of Jessie Mable Ingling Akins (1883 - 1961)

More obituaries from my grandmother's collection! Today's entry is for Jessie Mable (INGLING) AKINS.

Jessie's husband Absalom AKINS was my great-grandmother's half-brother. Absalom's father John AKINS was a widower with several children when he married my great-great grandmother.

From what I can tell from census records, Absalom was born in NY (likely Tioga County) and sometime in the early years of the 20th century moved to Nebraska. There he met Jessie and they married. At some point before 1920, the family moved back to NY and there they stayed.

Here's a real treasure I was lucky enough to have a chance to scan. It's a picture of Abe and Jessie with their 3 eldest children. I am relatively certain it was taken in Nebraska (partly based on the ages of children and census records, and partly on the fact that there is no place in Tioga County NY as flat as the land in this picture!!). The back of the photo has handwriting that says: "Uncle Abe and Jessie".



And here is Jessie's obituary (the text is typed out below - all identifying information of the newspaper has been trimmed away):



Obituary Text:

Mrs. Jessie M. Akins, 77, of Barton, Saturday, April 1, 1961. Survived by daughters, Mrs. Clara Thrasher of Waverly, Mrs. Harold De Witt of Barton and Mrs. Kathryn Gillett of Belleville, Ill.; sons, Lloyd Akins of Waverly and George Akins of Breesport; eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Body at Russell Funeral Home, Waverly. Calling hours after noon today. Funeral services there Tuesday at 2 p.m. the Rev. Judd L. Hunter Forest Homes Cemetery, Waverly.

SNGF - People Born on My Birthday

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver was to find the people in your database that have the same birthdate as you:

1) Is there a person in your genealogy database that has the same birth date that you do? If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you?


2) For bonus points, how did you determine this? What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out? I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the calendar function.

My answers are:

1) No one has my exact year, but there are 9 people that have the same month and day (October 9th). There are 8009 people in my database. So that means, if you are in my database, there is a .001123 chance that your birth date is Oct. 9th.

I love statistics! I hate math. But I love statistics! One of these days I'm going to do a whole chart that maps out the birth months for my database.

Anyway!

Back to those 9 people. They are:

Nathaniel AMES (b. 09 Oct 1677) - No direct relationship to me
Caleb ATWATER (b. 09 Oct 1705 - Husband of my 2nd cousin 8x removed
Damaris ATWATER (b. 09 Oct 1698) - No direct relationship to me
Mary BOZWORTH (b. 09 Oct 1732) - My 6th great grand-aunt
Robert W. DAY (b. 09 Oct 1854) - My 10th cousin 5x removed
Abigail Adams ELIOT (b. 09 Oct 1892) - My 10th cousin 5x removed
Eliza Mitchell ELIOT (b. 09 Oct 1830) - My 10th cousin 5x removed
Mary Rotch ELIOT (b. 09 Oct 1847) - My 10th cousin 5x removed
Vista A. WALKER (b. 09 Oct 1823) - My 5th cousin 4x removed

Not one person in the 20th century other than me!

And how about those ELIOTs, huh? I checked their relationships to each other:

Eliza and Mary ELIOT are sisters and they are 1st cousins with Abigail ELIOT.

Also, no direct ancestors for me; the closest is my 6th great grand-aunt, Mary BOZWORTH of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Her older sister Esther BOZWORTH married Timothy IDE, and they are my direct ancestors.


2) I figured all this out using my trusty Family Tree Maker v16 which I shall never give up, at least as long as the new versions of FTM don't give me the same reporting flexibility and power.

I did a custom report on names and birth dates, exported to .CSV file and then did a search on "09 oct". Each time it turned up, I copied and pasted into a new sheet and then continued the search.


Thanks Randy, this was interesting!!

Obituary of Robert H. Patrick (abt. 1903 - 1963)

I'm continuing to publish the old newspaper clippings in my grandmother's collection. I had a great suggestion in the comments from my last post to type up the text so it gets picked up by search engines. May I say - what a great idea! And may I say, DUH, how could I not have thought of that? :-) So later I'll be updating the posts I've already done with text.

Anyway, today's obituary is for Robert H. PATRICK. He was the brother of my great-Aunt Mazie's husband, John Howard PATRICK.

The obituary is below. All identifying information was trimmed off of it, and the handwritten date is in my grandmother's handwriting.



Obituary text:

Robert H. Patrick

Geneva - Robert H. Patrick, 63, of Lyons Road, died unexpectedly at his home Wednesday. Funeral services will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Bennett Funeral Home. Rev. Richard L. Manzelmann, pastor of North Presbyterian Church, will officiate. Burial will be in Oak Lawn Cemetery, Town of Phelps.

Friends may call at the funeral home from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Mr. Patrick had served four years in the Navy as a machinist mate first class. He was presently employed as a machinist for the American Can Co.

He is survived by three brothers, Elmer C. Patrick, Stewart R. Patrick, both of Geneva, and John Howard Patrick of Eagle River, Alaska; several nieces and nephews.

Obituary of Hattie E. Kirby Akins Quick Allen (1866 - 1863)

I'm continuing with posting the newspaper clippings in my grandmother's collection. Today's clippings are the obituaries for her grandmother - Hattie (a.k.a. Harriet) KIRBY, born in 1866.

Hattie was raised by her grandparents as her mother died soon after birth. I've posted on her situation before, her father was the husband of her mother's older sister (allegedly - haven't proved that one yet). Family lore states that Hattie was "sold" by her grandmother to a widower with several young children (John AKINS). John died not long after, and Hattie married Joseph S. QUICK.

Joe QUICK died in 1913 and Hattie then lived with a gentleman named Frank Robinson until about 1936 when he went into an old age home.

After that, the 73 year old Hattie married a 37 year old man - Harry ALLEN. They were separated at the time of her death.

Wow! She must have had some stories to tell!

All the information above was provided to me by my grandmother and notes/lists from her mother.

Despite all the marriages and such, Hattie only ever had 2 children - Cornelia and Charles AKINS.

Her son Charley died relatively young (age 39), and I posted a poem previously that Hattie wrote upon the death of her son. It is a touching example of the pain that parents feel when a child precedes them in death.

Below are 3 obituaries my grandmother had pasted onto a sheet of paper for her grandmother Hattie. All identifying information on the newspaper has been trimmed off. The handwritten "1963" is in my grandmother's handwriting.



***Update on 28-Nov-2010 to add text of obituary:

Obituary Texts:

1.
Mrs. Hattie E. Allen
Mrs. Hattie E. Allen, 97, of Valois, died Tuesday, June 4, 1963.

She is survived by her husband, Harry Allen of Newfield; a daughter, Mrs. Cornelia E. Simpson of Valois; ten grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; 19 great-great-grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Friday morning at the May Funeral Home, Burdett, the Rev. John Booth officiating. Burial was in Union Cemetery, Burdett.

2.
Mrs. Hattie E. Allen, 97, of Valois, Tuesday, June 4, 1963. Survived by husband, Harry Allen of Newfield; daughter, Mrs. Cornelia E. Simpson of Valois; 10 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; 19 great-great-grandchildren. Body at May Funeral Home, Burdett. Calling hours: Thursday 7 to 9 p. m. Funeral there Friday at 9:30 p. m., the Rev. John Booth. Union Cemetery, Burdett.

3.
Mrs. Hattie E. Allen of Valois.
Body at May Funeral Home, Burdett. Calling hours: Thursday 7 to 9 p. m. Funeral there Friday at 2:30 p. m., the Rev. John Booth. Union Cemetery, Burdett.

Obituary of Cornelia Elizabeth Akins Mix Simpson (1887 - 1986)

I am continuing to post the obituaries that are in my grandmother's collection. Below is the obituary for her mom.

Cornelia Elizabeth (AKINS) MIX SIMPSON lived to be nearly 100 years old! I don't really remember her, but we do have a "4 generations" picture that includes me, my mom, my grandmother and Cornelia.

Cornelia divorced my great-grandfather, William Homer MIX, in 1935, and married Leon SIMPSON.

According to family lore, Leon and Cornelia married so that there would be a stable home for Cornelia's children. When they married in 1935, Cornelia's youngest was still just 8 yrs old.

My great-grandmother was a list-keeper (and boy am I grateful!!!). I have hand-written lists of her children, their birthdates and where they were born, and hand-written lists of every place she ever lived. The list of homes is quite significant because her husband was basically an itinerant farm worker so they sometimes moved every few months, sometimes stayed in one place for years; all in the Tioga/Tompkins county area of New York.

Here's an example from one list:



And finally, below is her obituary. Newspaper information has been trimmed off of the clipping and it was pasted onto a blank sheet of paper.



***Update on 28-Nov-2010 to add text of obituary:

Obituary Text:

Cornelia E. Simpson
Trumansburg - Cornelia E. Simpson, 98, of 1749 Mecklenburg Road, Ithaca, died Friday, Jan. 24, 1986, at Tompkins Community Hospital. She was born April 23, 1887, in Lockwood, a daughter of the late John and Hattie Kirby Akins. She was the widow of Leon Simpson who died in 1960.

She is survived by four sons, Floyd Mix of Homossasa Springs, Florida; Lawrence Mix of Ithaca; Leslie Mix of Trumansburg and Donald Mix of Watkins Glen; three daughters, Daisy deMarc and Mazie Patrick, both of Ithaca and Ann Donmelle of Millersburg, Pa.; 29 grandchildren, many great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

Services were held at Rhode-Covert Funeral Home in Trumansburg with Elmo Johnson of Sodus Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses officiating. Spring burial will be in Hector Union Cemetery in Burdett.

Obituary of Daisy Mix deMarc (1913 - 1994)

I'm continuing to post newspaper clippings on family members that my grandmother collected. My hope is that someday, some cousin will do a search and find one of these clippings.

Unfortunately, the newspaper information has been trimmed off nearly all of the obituaries and clippings, so until all the newspapers from the Finger Lakes region of New York are scanned and online, I won't be able to identify them for you.

Today's obituary is for my great-Aunt Daisy Mix. She and her sister Mazie were wins born in 1913.

A little tidbit I always thought odd...so my grandmother had these 2 older sisters, twins, born in May of 1913.

My grandfather, her husband, also had older siblings, twins, born in October of 1913.

Isn't that weird??? I think it's weird.

An important note is that on Aunt Daisy's birth certificate, her name is listed as "Mable Mix" and in lists of children that her Mom made (her mom was a great person for making lists of things like addresses and family members) - her mom in one list referred to her as "Mable Hattie".

The name "Hattie" would be a reference to Aunt Daisy's maternal grandmother, Hattie KIRBY AKINS.

But for whatever reason, as far as I can tell, she was always known as "Daisy".

So, Daisy was the 4th or 5th child of William Homer MIX and Cornelia Elizabeth AKINS.

I believe her twin Mazie was the older, but only because she seems to be listed first in most lists. I don't have proof of that yet.

Here is her obituary:


***Update on 28-Nov-2010 to add text of obituary:

Obituary Text:

Daisy Mix DeMarc
Snow Camp, N.C. - Daisy Mix deMarc, 81, of Snow Camp, N.C., and formerly of Ithaca, died Monday, June 6, 1994 in UNC Hospital, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Born in Ithaca, she was a daughter of the late William and Cornelia Akins Mix, and the widow of Marc deMarc who died in 1971. She was one of Jehovah's Witnesses, belonging to the Ithaca Congregation several years.

Mrs. deMarc is survived by two sons, Daniel deMarc of Toledo, Ohio and Adriel deMarc of Englewood, Fla.; brother, Donald Mix of Snow Camp, N.C.; her twin sister, Mazie Patrick of Snow Camp, N.C.; sister, Ann Domily of Millersburg, Pa.; eight grand-children and several great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 6:00 p.m. Monday, June 13, 1994 in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1201 Danby Rd., Mr. Gene G. Wilcox officiating.

Burial will be in Resurrection Park, Lansing. Friends may call from 5-6:00 p.m. prior to the service.

The E.C. Wagner Funeral Home of Ithaca is in charge of arrangements.

Obituary of William Homer Mix (1876 - 1954)

From my grandmother's newspaper clipping collection is the clipping below for her father, William Homer MIX.

He spent the majority of his life in Broome, Tioga and Tompkins Counties in New York. He was the youngest son of John and Mary Ellen MIX.

On Christmas Day in 1904, at age 28, he married 17-yr-old Cornelia Elizabeth AKINS and they had 10 children.

All identifying information about the newspaper was trimmed off before being pasted onto a sheet of paper.


***Update on 28-Nov-2010 to add text of obituary:

Obituary Text:

William H. Mix
William H. Mix, 78, of 130 S. Tioga St., a carpenter employed by the Finger Lakes State Parks Commission, died unexpectedly Tuesday, July 6, 1954. He became ill at work.

He is survived by seven sons, Floyd of Newark Valley, Spencer and Laurance of Ithaca, William E. of Spencerport, Leslie and Donald of Valois and John Mix of Montour Falls; three daughters, Mrs. Mabel DeMark of Freeville RD, Mrs. Mazie Patrick of Ithaca and Mrs. Anna Donnelle of East Liverpool, Ohio; several grandchildren and a brother, Orville Mix of Union Center.

Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Strong Memorial Chapel, Dryden, with the Rev. Edward Wallser of Nichols Baptist Church officiating.

Burial will be in Willow Glen Cemetery.

Friends may call at the chapel Thursday evening.