Thanks to the folks at the Monroe County, Indiana Public Library, I was able to obtain a copy of the obituary of my maternal 3great-grandaunt, Mary Florence (Gilliland) Crane (1887-1924). The obituary appeared in the May 7, 1924 edition of the Telephone in Bloomington, Indiana.
DEATH OF MRS. THOS. CRANE
Mrs. Thomas Crane, at Unionville, died Tuesday afternoon of uremic poisoning after being sick 3 weeks, age 37. The husband and six children survive, including an infant. She was a member of the Baptist church and the daughter of Mary Gililan and sister of Mrs. Daniel Stevens of this city.
Funeral Thursday at 10 o'clock at Baptist church of Unionville and burial at Payne cemetery.
There were a couple of spelling errors on the names - her mother's name was Mary Ellen (Swafford) Gilliland and her half sister's name (Delia) was Mrs. Daniel Stivers. Curiously, her brother William Everett Gilliland was not mentioned in this obituary.
Met with mom on Monday to discuss the process for DAR membership and talked about which Patriot ancestor to choose from.
Decided to use Francis Smalley-A105541 as the Patriot ancestor to start the process with for a number of reasons. One reason is that his line comes through our Pierce line which should allow us to gather the necessary documentation. Another reason is that Francis' father, Joseph Smalley and Francis' father-in-law Samuel Hutchinson Sr. are both recognized as Patriots by the DAR, so mom could later do supplemental applications for them. Additionally, it is through the Smalley line that mom has a connection to the Mayflower and Stephen Hopkins, a future project. So if we can get all of the documentation together on the descent from Francis Smalley we can take care of several things at once.
Mom filled out the contact form on the DAR main website and within a few hours was already contacted by the local chapter. She has given the registrar a line of descent from Francis Smalley and hopes to meet with her next week for initial discussions on how the application process works.
In the meantime, I'm putting together a list of documents that I'm sure we will need and will work with mom on collecting the birth/death certificates, etc.
If you have experience with this process and have any advice, I'd appreciate hearing it.
If you are related to any of the families on the line, I'd love to share information and update my database.
Our line of descent from the Patriot ancestor, Francis Smalley :
Francis Smalley & Sarah Hutchinson
Thirsa Smalley & Gurdon Pierce
Francis S. Pierce & Rebecca Page
Edmund G. Pierce & Catherine Groenendyke
William F. Pierce & Clara A. Penisten
Edna M. Pierce & Virgil L. Wright
William L. Wright & Bonnie M. Lambertson
mom
One of my memories of my grandmother, Bonnie (Lambertson) Wright was when we were on a trip in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Ruby Falls/Rock City. At some point, my grandma was buying a ticket or something and the cashier asked her for her name. When she said "Wright", the cashier asked her how she spelled it. My grandma answered "W-R-I-G-H-T, how else would you spell it?"
Good thing grandma didn't look at these records in the FamilySearch collection of Massachusetts Revolutionary War muster rolls. These are the variations for the Wright surname, including : Rite, Right, Writ, Write, Whright, and Waright, just to mention a few.
