Sunday's Obituary ~ William Scott Pyle (1906)

I looked in several places for an obituary for my great grand uncle William Scott Pyle, who died of cirrhosis of the liver on January 1, 1906.

On Ancestry.com, in the Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1851-2003, I found the death notice in The New York Times in both the January 2 and January 3 issues.

Ancestry.com, Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1851-2003 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006), www.ancestry.com, Database online.
Record for William Scott Pyle, The New York Times, 3 January 1906

On Chronicling America (Historic American Newspapers) (a free website), I found a death notice in the the January 2, 1906, New York Tribune. (Note the error in his age: he wasn't fifty years old; he was in his fiftieth year of age.)

"William Scott Pyle," New York Tribune (New York, NY), 2 January 1906, digital images, ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov

At Old Fulton NY Postcards website (another free website), I found an obituary from the New York Herald, which gives a bit more information about his family.

"William Scott Pyle Dead." New York Herald (New York, NY), 2 January 1906, digital images, Old Fulton NY Postcards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html)

On GenealogyBank.com, I found a death notice in the January 23, 1906, Anaconda Standard of Anaconda, Montana. Amazing that it took three weeks for this news to get from New York City to Montana. Not important enough to send this news by wire, I guess.

"William Scott Pyle Dead News Received of the Demise of One of the World's Well Known Manufacturers,"
Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, MT), 23 January 1906, digital images, GenealogyBank

This last obituary indicates that my great grandfather, James T. Pyle, is now the sole manager of the James Pyle & Sons business.

Great Grand Uncle William Scott Pyle (1856-1906)

It's interesting how finding one source document leads to a new (to me) branch of the family.

My great grand uncle, William Scott Pyle, was the younger brother of my great-grandfather, James Tolman Pyle. These two were the sons in James Pyle & Sons, the successful New York soap manufacturer of the late 19th century.

William Scott Pyle was born in April 1856 in New York City. He died on January 1, 1906, in New York City, at not quite 50 years old. I had always wanted to know what caused his death at a relatively young age (and as a fan of FindAGrave, I was wondering where he was buried in order to set up a memorial for him) so I obtained his death certificate.

New York, New York, Manhattan Deaths, FHL Microfilm 1323106, Certificate No. 181.
William Scott Pyle, January 1, 1906.; Family History Library microfilm.

He died at home, #3 East 53rd Street, New York City, of Cirrhosis of the Liver with contributory cause of Ascites. (By the way, definitions of old medical terms can be found here.) Ascites is defined as: "Collection of fluid in the abdomin, due liver disease or cancer."

William Scott Pyle was buried on January 3, 1906, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. I contacted the cemetery to see who else was buried in this plot. The mausoleum includes his wife, Mary Vanderhoef Pyle (1860-1946), James V. Pyle (likely a son who died young), William Scott Pyle, Jr. (1888-1938), and Marie Elizabeth Waller Pyle (wife of William, Jr.).

The mausoleum in which the family is buried is very nice, with a beautiful stained glass window (see the Find A Grave memorial for William here) but because there are no marker stones, I can't get dates from that source. I therefore have spent a bit of time exploring other records to learn more about this family.

Surname Saturday ~ Wells of New Hampshire

The earliest ancestor I know about on this line is Thomas G. Wells. Ancestry.com has trees that spell his surname as Welles and show parents for him, but they don't include sources, so for now, he is still a "brick wall" for me.

Courtesy Wikipedia

Based on his gravestone (died in May 1849, age 70), he was born in 1779 or 1780. I believe he was born, lived, and probably died in New Hampshire. I find him in Hopkinton, New Hampshire in the U.S. Censuses for 1820, 1830, and 1840. In 1820, Hopkinton was in Hillsborough County (next to Massachusetts), but in 1823, a number of towns, including Hopkinton, were removed to become part of Merrimack County (the dark green county in the green image of New Hampshire at right). The red image represents where Hopkinton is located in the current Merrimack County.

Thomas G. Wells married Lucinda Lyman about 1802, as their first child was born in 1803. I estimated the date of this marriage based on the New Hampshire birth records of their children (Elias Lyman, Thomas Goodwin, Lucinda L., Phineas Parkhurst, Maria Emeline, Edwin R., Ruth Lyman, Elias Lyman (born the year his older brother died), Bodwell Emerson, and Elizabeth A.) which include the parents' names.

I know Thomas G. Wells is a physician from the 1820 U.S. Census (which doesn't usually include occupation information).

1820 U.S. Census, Hopkinton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, record for Thomas G. Wells

Dr. Thomas G. Wells died on May 2, 1849, according to his gravestone at the Old Hopkinton Cemetery. See his Find A Grave Memorial, where I have linked him to the memorials of family members, including nine of his ten children!

I descend from his second son, Thomas Goodwin Wells.

I have done a bit of research on the descendants of this ancestor, but I'm still not sure who his parents are! It's a challenge, as there are several men by the name of Thomas Wells in New England during this time period.

Thomas Goodwin Wells

Generation 2: Thomas Goodwin Wells (1804-1873), whose image I shared on Wednesday (at left) was born in Sutton or Hopkinton, New Hampshire. (Different sources note different locations.) As I discovered several months ago, he first married Mary Eliza Little in September 1835 in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. She died in 1836. As far as I can tell, there were no children from this first marriage.

Thomas later married Elizabeth Sewall Willis (1820-1900) on November 6, 1838 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. They had five children: Eliza May Wells, Henry Willis Wells, Louisa Wells, Benjamin Willis Wells, and Ruth Lyman Wells. I descend from their oldest, Eliza May Wells. This Thomas became a successful merchant in Boston, and he is enumerated in the 1860 U.S. Census in Brookline, with several servants in his household. This couple is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in the Willis family plot with several additional family members.

Follow Friday ~ Listen to Podcasts

A podcast is like an online radio show, but you don't have to tune in at the same time every week. I use iTunes and subscribe to several podcasts, which I list below. From iTunes on my computer, I sync the podcasts to my iPhone and listen to them from the podcast app (icon at right) on my iPhone when I exercise.

I walk daily. I love listening to podcasts when I walk. These podcasts help make the time pass and I walk three miles before I know it!

Most of these come out weekly or every 2-3 weeks and are usually about 45-60 minutes long. I am sharing the iTunes image for each so you will know when you've found it if you're searching the iTunes store. I also share the link to each podcaster's website because you can also listen to these right from their websites.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast
 - Drew Smith and George Morgan have been hosting this podcast of genealogy news, information, and answers to readers' questions since September 2005! It started as a weekly podcast, but these men are are so busy that they now release a new podcast every couple of weeks.

The Genealogy Gems Podcast
 - Lisa Louise Cooke has been hosting her podcast full of genealogy "gems" for several years as well. She offers a couple of quick research tips (genealogical and technological) in each show, as well as answers questions from reader email. She also sometimes has interviews with interesting folks in the genealogy world.

Fieldstone Common
 - Marian Pierre-Louis started this podcast about a year and a half ago. Every week she interviews an author who has written a book about some aspect of New England (and sometimes New York) history. My "to-read" book list grows every month! In a recent podcast, Marian interviewed Jane E. Wilcox (see below), which was a wonderful conversation to listen to! (Look for Season 2 if you're subscribing through iTunes; Season 1 was recorded using BlogTalk Radio and she had to change the subscription setup when she changed from recording the show at BlogTalk Radio.)

The Forget-Me-Not Hour (Your Ancestors Want Their Stories to be Told)
 - Jane E. Wilcox hosts this radio show on BlogTalk Radio twice a month, interviewing a variety of historians and authors. One interview will be with a genealogist and/or historian with a New York state focus and the other interview will be with a genealogist or historian who strikes Jane's fancy. Jane is a great interviewer and has interesting guests.

BackStory with the American History Guys
 - I read about this podcast about a year ago at Marian Burk Wood's Climbing My Family Tree blog. This podcast, which is broadcast weekly on various public radio stations, is hosted by three historians, each an expert in the history of a different century - 18th, 19th, and 20th. The topics are as varied as U.S./Russian relations (April 25, 2014) to Fair Wages (March 28, 2014) to Alcohol in America (December 27, 2013).

The Genealogy Professional
 - More recently, Marian Pierre-Louis started this podcast in which she interviews professional genealogists in order to offer listeners ideas about what being professional genealogist entails. I have only listened to a couple of these podcasts, as I am not currently planning to become a professional, but it is very interesting to hear what a variety of jobs these professionals have and how they got to where they are.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
 - This podcast is just for fun. It is the weekly NPR radio program which has been on the radio since 1998 that I always forget to listen to when it's on during the weekend, so I subscribe to the podcast and enjoy it during the week.


So if you're saying: "I need to get out for a walk," subscribe to a couple of these podcasts, figure out how to get them on your iPhone, iPod, or other smart phone, and get walking and listening!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Thomas Goodwin Wells

I have two copies of this image (which I think is a photograph of a framed drawing) and on the back of each, in different handwriting, is written: "Thomas Goodwin Wells, your great grandfather," which would have been written to my maternal grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland.

I descend from Thomas Goodwin Wells as follows:

Thomas Goodwin Wells

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Eliza May Wells

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Ethel May Greeley

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Lowell Townsend Copeland
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My mother
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Me