The Hayes Family History Site

Leta Ethel Smith, sister of Frank Edward Smith (my wife’s great grandfather) was born in Iowa on May 30, 1887.  The only thing we knew about her, until today, was that she had twins named Merle and Berle.  In fact we have pictures of Leta, Merle and Berle in our possession.  There is some recollection that she and her husband “Bert “may have ran a gas station in Mount Kisco, New York for a couple of years.  Grandma Patty Smith Barnes recalls her sister going to live with Leta and Bert in Westchester for a summer around 1930 after her father deserted the family.  Besides this information, I had nothing to go on as far as leeds in tracking down this branch of the Smith family tree.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, Laurel Newman, daughter of Eileen Smith sent me a box of wonderful photo’s from the Eileen Smith side of the family.  Thank You Laurel!

Laurel rescued them from a flood at her mother’s house.  She tried to clean them up as best she could, but in addition to the water damage, they also suffered some oil damage in the flood.  I scanned them in at high resolution and tried to crop out as much of the damage as I could without losing any of the important surroundings.  Now we just need to identify those photo’s that have the generic “img_XXX” label.

http://www.hayesfamily.us/albums/The%20Laurel%20Newman%20Collection/index.html

I have finally found the elusive Frank Edward Smith, estranged husband of Jean Louise Baron Smith and estranged father to Marie, Patricia and Eileen Smith .

Frank Edward Smith was born February 27, 1893 in Humboldt, Iowa to Hiram Gregg Smith and Julia Geeslin Smith.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hiram Gregg Smith was born in New York State circa 1864 to Caroline E. and Benjamin H. Smith.  He was one of 10 children. Somewhere between 1873 and 1878, the family picked up and moved out to the Humboldt, Iowa area.

On December 17, 1884, Hiram Gregg Smith married Julia Geeslin in Rutland, Iowa.  There first child, Caroline (Carrie) was born shortly thereafter sometime in 1885.  Their second child, Leta Ethel Smith was born May 30, 1887.  Following Leta was John William Smith on August 3, 1889.  Benjamin H Smith was then born sometime in 1891 followed by Franklin (Frank) Edward Smith on February 27, 1893.  The sixth and final child, Sumner (or Summer) Smith was born sometime in 1896.

Read the rest of this entry »

After the major “Smith” family break through earlier today,  I came across a very interesting geneaology query posted on July 14, 2001 at the genealogy.com Smith surname forum:

I am looking for any information on  Hiram Gregg Smith. He died sometime before 1913 in Iowa and was married to Julia Ann Geesline in 1884 in Humboldt Co., Iowa. They are reported to have had at least 5 known children including my great-grandmother Leta Ethel Smith. E-mail me directly. Shawn Butler

I was very excited.  I finally found another Smith relative.  Shawn had actually posted another similar query at the Ancestry.com forums on March 9, 2001.

Looking for any information on Julia Ann Geesline born in Johnson Co. 5 DEC 1868 and later married Hiram Gregg Smith

The bad news is that the email address attached to his postings is no longer valid.  Unfortunately there are just too  many Shawn Butlers out there to try to find him without more info.

For the last several months I have been researching Frank E Smith, Colleen’s great grandfather.  Having access to limited online resources, it was difficult to find any information beyond Census Records.  But with the Census info I had and the help of Martha Schmitdt of the Humbolt Genealogy Society, I have finally discovered some concrete information about the Elusive man who abandoned his family back in the 1930’s.

Today, Martha wrote the following email to me:

“Hi,

I checked birth, marriage & death records at the Court House yesterday. Hiram Gregg Smith and Julia Ann Geeslin were married 17 Dec. 1884 at Rutland, Iowa.

The births of Leta Ethel (30 May 1887), John William ( 3 Aug. 1889), and Franklin Edward ( 27 Feb. 1893) are at the Court House. The family was living in Weaver Township where Gregg was a farmer. His parents were nearby.

In 1895 they were living in Gilmore City as were his parents. The humboldt newspapers are digitized which means there is a name index. In 1898 there was something in the South Weaver column about Gregg Smith as a former resident being in Fort Dodge. In 1903 he visited someone in Gilmore City.

I didn’t find any deaths on the death index at the court house. I checked 3 cemeteries: one in Weaver Twp., one at Gilmore City and one at Humboldt. I didn’t find any Smiths from these families. There is a Sumner Smith at Humboldt, but he was much older than yours.

If you want copies of the court house records, I can hand copy them for nothing. A genie copy is $5 a piece.

Martha”