King and Gooding Families: Orestes, Indiana

Stumbled across the webpage of Debbie Dunn which contained information regarding the King and Gooding families.  The site also give accounts of the famous Orestes, Indiana tornado of 1922.  


Growing up, I attended Orestes Elementary.  Our school mascot was the "Cyclones" in memory of the devastation that occurred in 1922.  Today, the elementary school is closed and sits idle, wasting away.


The connection of this author's line to mine is that Francis Marion GOODING married in 1874 to Mary Ann KING, daughter of Thomas and Martha E. (HAGGERTY) KING.  Thomas was a brother to my Daniel KING.


I need to do some research to tie all of them together, but Thomas KING's widow, Martha, married Nelson GOODING, who was the father of Francis Marion GOODING, above.  So step-brother and step-sister were married in 1886. 


And here I thought modern-day families were complicated...

FindAGrave Success : Metzner

I need to give a long-overdue "shout-out" to a kind volunteer at the FindAGrave.com website, who helped provide pictures of the tombstones of my Metzner relatives at the Gravel Hill Cemetery, Jay County, Indiana.


Thanks to volunteer, Lulabell, I know have photographs on the memorial pages for the following Metzner relatives:


William F. Metzner (1844-1929): William was the son of John and Catherine (YOUNG) METZNER, and married to Mary Ann HALEY, daughter of Sebastian and Lydia A. (RADER) HALEY.


Irvin G. Metzner (1879-1969):  Irvin was the son of William F., above, and was married to Julia STONE.


Herbert W. Metzner (1906-1910): Herbert was the son of Irvin, above.


Gravel Hill Cemetery is located in Bryant, Jay County, Indiana.  William F. Metzner's occupation was listed as a furniture dealer and farmer in the census, Irvin's was listed as a teacher.

Slow Week for Genealogy Research

It seems this time between Christmas and the New Year has been a slow one for my research, most of the work on my family has been sorting through papers and trying to get organized.  My dad has been giving me a lot of his old research papers and family photos to go through.

I did manage to send off two requests for military records, form SF 180, to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, requesting records for both of my grandfathers.  According to the paperwork, there is no charge for a copy of the records if sent to the next of kin, so I had my parents sign and request the paperwork.  Better to do it now while I can.  I submitted copies of my grandfather's obituaries as proof of death, hopefully that will work.  If not, will resubmit with death certificates, when I obtain them (one of my goals for 2011).

My maternal grandfather, William Lee Wright, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps  during World War II.  My paternal grandfather, Ord Wehrly LeMaster, served in the National Guard in the 1920s.  While I have some military records for Grandpa Wright, I do not have anything on Grandpa LeMaster, and I'm hoping that St. Louis has something in their files.  I understand there was a huge fire in 1973 that may have destroyed the records that I seek.