Questions and Shares

The idea behind this page is to provide a means where people can attempt to make contact with others interested in researching the same lines, the same related topics.  Perhaps a missing link that you are wondering about could be found in the files of another interested researcher or researchers.

Perhaps a more “in your face” way of asking questions of people than the up to now more typical Massive emailing to F/F/F Mailing Members.

Please think of a clear subject line … and please provide good contact information (valid email address at the minimum).  Again, this is a page in progress and will be fine tuned the more it is contemplated and utilized.  Similar types of efforts to “reach out” can also be done on the associated Facebook Page by pressing this link.

Please also make the SUBJECT of your Request clear.

Flora – A Line Query (Absalom Flora)

Kim Rowse writes:

[I am searching for further information on] my husband’s mother’s family. “… further information on the A Line, in particular Absalom Flora – b 1780-1790; d. 1843?  …. I believe the A Line can continue for Absalom as follows:

Absolom – m. Barbara (last name unknown); died Paw Paw, WV

Children:

1 Morris

2Archibald

3Margaret

1 Morris – m. Eliza Ann Largent (d/o Lewis and Mary (Hull) Largent)

Children:

1.1Thomas L.

1.2Robert P.

1.3Alcia

1.4Caroline

1.5Joseph S. m. Valeria Ryan

1.6Hannah C. m. Christopher C. Booker

1.7George Alfred

1.8Morris Bryson

1.9James W. m. Emma Seaman

1.1 Thomas L m. Margaret Ella Van Horn

Children:

1.1.1 Albert (H, E or C)

1.1.2 Thomas G. (“Guy”)

1.1.3. Edith L

1.1.4 Charley

1.1.5 Margaret

1.1.6 Baker

We believe Albert (1.1.1) married married Emma M. Robertson – but we can’t find a record to prove this.  They had Beulah Louise Flora (born June 1887).  We know from Beulah that Albert died in a train accident when she was two.  She lived with her grandparents in Paw Paw while her mother worked in Cumberland.  Cant find a birth record for Beulah, nor a marriage record for Albert and Emma.  Beulah married Joseph Crisp and they had Flora May Crisp.  Flora May married Edward Davis Rowse and they had four boys, including my husband Thomas.

If you have any information to help with confirming the above I would be very appreciative.   If you would like more information on Absalom’s descendents, I can sure forward what I have.  My source is a book published in 1913, West Virginia History, Vol. 2, by Miller, Thomas Condit. ”

Flora, Commodore;  Flora, Andrew Washington; Flora, John Question (Wisconsin/Ohio/New Jersey/California):

Judy Fehringer has the following line of Inquiry she is trying to pin down.  Judy writes  “I am trying to find more information on a John Flora. I will try to line out as much information as I have [on him].

In “ An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California” originally published by the Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1889, we find a story of my 2xgreat grandfather, A.W.Flora.  It states: “A.W.Flora, deceased, was born in Loraine County Ohio, in 1831, his parents being John and Alvira (Mellen) Flora, natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and New York. The father was drowned when the subject of this sketch was eight years old. His mother married again and moved to Illinois and subsequently to Wisconsin.”  That is the information I had to start my quest.  I have found a John Flora living in Brownhelm, Lorain County, Ohio in 1830, listed as a single man of 30 years but not 40 years old.  Then I found a marriage license for John Flora and Alvira Mellen on 23 June, 1830 in Lorain County, Ohio.  Their son, Andrew Washington Flora        (my 2xgreat grandfather) was born 30 Apr 1831 in Lorain County, Ohio. John Flora died 4 May 1839, and his tombstone reads “drowned in the Black River”. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery, South Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio. In the 1840 Federal Census, we find Alvira Flora listed as head of household age 20-29 years old, in Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio with 2 males under the age of 5, and 3 males age 5-9. In the 1850 Federal Census we find Nashington  (which is certainly a transcription error for Washington; I think that my GGgrandfather went by the name “Washington” as a young man) Flory listed in the household of Asa Patten, whose wife is Almira Patten, in Pulaski,Wisconsin .  We also find a Richard Florey living in the household of Lemora (?) Mellen, in Pulaski, Wisconsin.  In the same census, just a few lines up in the census listing from Asa Patten.I have a marriage for Washington W Flord and Hellen S. Kendall on 16 May, 1866 in Pulaski, Wisconsin. A few spelling errors notwithstanding, that is the marriage for my GGgrandparents.  Still trying to find more information, I kept looking for any Flora males born in Ohio and living in the Pulaski Wisconsin area.  I then came up with Commodore Peary Flora, born in Lorain County, Ohio about 1835, marrying a Mary P Higgins 18 Oct 1857 in Pulaski, Wisconsin. The marriage index lists the parents of Commodore as John Flora and Clara.  Could the name Clara be a misreading of Alvira?  In the 1880 Federal Census we find Commodore Flora living in Willow, Wisconsin with wife Mary and children including a daughter named Alvira. In the 1880 Federal Census,I find Richard Flora, born in Ohio about 1837, living in Pulaski, Wisconsin with wife Julia and children including a daughter Elvira and a son Andrew.  Asa and Alvira Patten lived in Pulaski, Wisconsin and then moved in their later years to live in Hammonton, New Jersey, where they both died. On various legal forms I have seen Alvira’s name also spelled Elvira, Almira, Almyra, Elmira and Almer.  If this is the mother of my Andrew Washington Flora, Commodore and Richard, why did they go live in New Jersey instead of staying in Wisconsin?  I believe that they lived with adopted children, but why not with her natural children?  I know I am making some leaps of faith here. When John Flora died, Alvira was left with a number of small children. I am guessing that she went to live with family and possibly farmed out her children to live with other family members, or they hired out as hired hands fairly young. I think that my Andrew Washington lived with his mother.   Richard Florey is living with a Mellen (same surname as his mother’s maiden name, so a relative?) in 1850.  I haven’t found Commodore Flora in 1850, but there could be a spelling error, so that I can’t find him.   I think that Alvira Patten is the mother of Andrew Washington Flora, Commodore Peary Flora and Richard M. Flora (could the M in his name be for Mellen?).  I have found no hint of where the other two young males in the original household in 1840 have gone.  We find Andrew, Commodore and Richard using Alvira/Elvira as first or second names for their daughters.  I am not too concerned with the different spellings of Alvira/Elvira/Almira etc. as whoever wrote the name may have spelled it how they thought it should be spelled.  I am also not too concerned with the Flora/Florey even Flord spellings, as again, it depends on who was doing the writing or who was trying to read the writing.   There is also an Almira/Elmira Sturtevant living in Pulaski, Wisconsin, who is about the right age of my Almira, so she is another possibility for being the mother of these three men.  I am discounting her mainly because there was not a Flora/Florey living with her.  On one Flora family forum, just today, saw a Susan P (with a mindspring email address) who had made the connection with Commodore and Richard, but her email address was from 2001 and it bounced back to me. If anyone knows who she is, I would like to get in contact with her.  On most of the census forms, I have found my John Flora listed as being born in Pennsylvania, but I have no other information on him. I guess him to be born 1790-1800 if the 1830 census is correct.  I have come to a complete standstill in my search any further for both John Flora and Alvira Mellen.   Any hints or help would be appreciated.

Judy in April 2013 provided an update (and some new information she has run across:

“I have made a breakthrough on my Flora line, but it is for the mother of Andrew Flora. I have been busy trying to pin down all the information so I can prove what I have found. I had been following the family of Asa and Almira Patten, thinking that Almira was the mother of the Flora boys, because they were the family that my Andrew W Flora was living with in 1850. I had looked briefly at an Alvira Sturdevant, but had discounted her mainly because there was no Flora living with her. However, I had revisited her for a number of reasons and I thought she was a much stronger candidate. I started to seriously think that she was the mother of Andrew Washington Flora, Commodore and Richard. Then I recently visited with my aunt in California, and she had copies of a bible and I don’t think she knew what she had. (When I visited her, I did the “grab and copy” method of genealogy research. That’s when you make copies of everything you can get your hands on without reading it, because you don’t know if you will ever have access to the information again) Her copies of that bible showed an entry for a marriage for John Flora and Elvira, as well as an entry for Elvira and Marcus Sturdevant. Plus the names and birthdates of Elvira’s parents and death dates for three of her four grandparents. I am not sure of the relationships of several of the people, but I think by the way they are listed that I can follow the family generations. Then when I started looking on Ancestry.com, I found that Elvira named her son from her second marriage, Marcus Commodore Sturdevant. What a coincidence. I contacted someone who was working on the Sturdevant line, and their family story was that Marcus Sturdevant Sr. left Ohio and went to Wisconsin with Richard Flora to get land. That was the final straw to make me think there definitely was a connection, although the lady I wrote to, had no idea that there was a blood relationship between the Sturdevants and Floras.

 “To top it off, I also visited the grave of Andrew W Flora in Georgetown, Calif, and in the same plot he is, was a headstone marked “J J F”. They were buried in the Oddfellows part of the cemetery, and when I contacted a representative of the Oddfellows, he said that their records showed that it was a John J Flora ( but he didn’t have immediate access to the original records. When I asked him if anyone could get to the records he just laughed) . In the census, Andrew W Flora, his wife and child, plus a “John Jackson” were all living in the same household. In the probate records for A W Flora, his widow deeded some land to a John Jackson Flora. To me, if someone with the same last name was living in the same house, you had land dealings with him and he is buried in the same plot, there is a close family relationship. When I mentioned something to my aunt, she said that she was pretty sure he was Andrew’s brother. So now, I think I have 4 of the 5 brothers listed in the 1840 census: Andrew Washington Flora, John Jackson Flora, Commodore Peary Flora and Richard M Flora. I personally would love to find out what Richard’s middle name is; somebody famous??

“From what I have seen, John J Flora had no children, although it is possible in his later years. He has been hard to track down.

 “When I was in Georgetown, I also got some records for a Joshua Flora who had a wife Martha and a daughter Addie Bell ( I have also seen the name as Abbie). Apparently he had abandoned his wife and child and the court was appointing a guardian for Addie after her mother Martha died. This was in 1875 in El Dorado County, Calif. It is all a handwritten document and at times the handwriting is difficult to read, but interesting nonetheless. Apparently Joshua was in the Calif penitentiary for a number of years and then he couldn’t be found.”

Judy’s email can be immediately provided if anyone thinks that they may be able to help her with this.

Florey, William Franklin; Florey, George Morgan (Illinois/California)

The following is received from Jon Florey who is trying to add more to his knowledge of the various physical movements as well as religious trends in the family …..

I now know that the Floreys were Lutherans 350 years ago. As a child I was told that my parents went ‘church shopping’ and just happened to pick the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. That seems a little coincidental and I wonder if most of the other Florey — Flory — Flora family members are also Lutheran or have been Lutheran recently. 

I see that the family was Lutheran in Revolutionary War times. Were they still Lutheran in Macon County, Illinois?

Why did William Franklin Florey leave Illinois? Why did he settle in San Jose, California? He was a farmer, but what did he grow? Did he own a farm? Where was it? What happened to it?

George Morgan Florey, my grandfather, was a piano and organ tuner who worked for Bruenn Piano in San Francisco. He joined that company at about the same time Gustav Heine did. Heine became a partner and then fought a duel with Bruenn. He won and took over the business. He was also an early Ford dealer and tried to manufacture his own luxury car. It looks like my grandfather went into business for himself rather than work for Heine.

Ruth Vitelle Florey  (Mrs. George Morgan Florey)(Photo Courtesy of Jon Florey)

George Morgan Florey (via Jon Florey)

Floweree, William Question

An interesting query from a new (to me) researcher, Ms. Joan Elburn Farley:

“I am trying to help an elderly lady, Mrs. Anne Heard Flythe, in Spotsylvania, Virginia trace her family roots. Her Grandmother was an Annie M. Flowerree (1866 Helena, Montana – 1961 Moline, Illinois) who married Willard Lamb Velie (1866 – 1928 Moline, Illinois) – The Velie of the Velie Automobile and the Velie Monocoupe Airplane Engine.

“To make a long story short and to cut to the chase, Mrs. Flythe has always been told that she is descended from William Floweree who died in 1741 in Spotsylvania, Virginia. In 1730 William became the manager of the mines of Governor Alexander Spotswood, and developed the first hot air furnace. There is a historical marker (J042) for “Spotswood’s Furnace”which addresses the visits of William Byrd, who wrote PROGRESS TO THE MINES: IN THE YEAR 1732. Mr. Byrd took copious notes on the hot air furance developed under the auspices of then Col. Alexander Spotswood. In his notes he addresses meeting Col. Spotswood in “Massaponux” [Part of Spotsylvania, Virginia] where he observed the newly invented hot air furnace. He wrote “Mr. Flowry is the artist that directed the building of this ingenious structure.”

William Floweree (as Mrs. Flythe seems to believe he spelled his name at that time) married Martha Routt in 1736 in Spotsylvania, and William’s will is in Spotsylvania Will Book A, P. 334, Dec 1, 1741.”

Has anyone heard of this Floweree connection?

Ms. Farley would “genuinely appreciate any information you might have on this subject (or advice to keep on searching elsewhere)”.

Her email address is available to anyone who thinks she/he might be able to add to this interesting history. S.

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