Genealogical Gems

Ennis Cosby Wikipedia Photo Actor and comedian Bill Cosby has been in the headlines a lot lately however On This Day in 1997 it was his son who sadly tragically was in the news. Cosby’s 27 year old son Ennis William Cosby was driving his Mercedes Benz convertible on Interstate 405 in Los Angeles , California when he got a flat tire. He pulled over to fix the flat and was shot and killed. It was around 1 a.m. when Mikahail Markhasev, a teenager, and his two friends were hanging at a nearby park-and-ride lot. Reportedly high on drugs, Markhasev approached the young Cosby and demanded money. In August 1998, now 19, Markhasev was sentenced to life in prison. At the time, he showed no remorse. In 2001 however, he confessed and apologized to the Cosby family. The young Cosby had been a graduate student at Columbia University Teachers College . He wanted to work with children with learning disabilities. Source Entertainer Bill Cosby’s son murdered along CA intersta...

Alcatraz Island , the infamous federal prison off the coast of California , was originally sold to the United States in 1849 by the Spanish. An US Army detachment was stationed there in 1859 and in 1868 military criminals began to be housed there.    It was finally transformed into a high security federal penitentiary and it was On This Day in 1934 that Alcatraz Island became home to federal prisoners who were deemed to be notorious and dangerous. For 29 years this prison housed the likes of Al Capone (at left here in this Public Domain photo from Wikipedia) and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Did YOUR ancestor spend time at Alcatraz ? Ancestry.com offers the database: Alcatraz , California , U.S. Penitentiary, Prisoner Index, 1934-1963. You can search the index and, if you happen upon a black sheep in your family there, you can request the relevant case file from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Pacific Regional Office.   A quick che...

1969, for all intents and purposes, was a good year. Led Zeppelin released their first album. Joe Namath was named MVP in Super Bowl III. We went to the moon. Monty Python’s Flying Circus is first aired on BBC One. Most importantly, I was born!    However, it was also the year of Charles Manson. It was On This Day in 1969 that Charles Manson’s cult murdered five people in a movie director’s home in Beverly Hills , California . Director Roman Polanski’s pregnant actress wife Sharon Tate was among the five killed. Polanski himself was not home at the time.   Manson, despite not actually committing the murders himself, was convicted in 1971 and sentenced to death. The ruling was overturned the following year and Manson remains today in a California prison.   Source: Manson cult kills five. History.com. 1969.      Photo: Public Domain photo from the State of California. Wikipedia.       On This Day ...

The account of General John Augustus Sutter’s funeral was covered On This Day in 1880 in the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer . General Sutter’s died on 18 June and his funeral was 24 June 1880.    He was known for a discovery of gold in California . He had been president of the New York Society of California Pioneers for many years.   Many notable people flocked to his funeral. His remains were laid out in the front parlor of his home in Lititz, as was the norm in that day. The funeral processed to the Moravian Church in Lititz where services were conducted by Rev. Charles Nagle.   Sutter left behind a wife, two sons (John A. and Emil) and a daughter (Mrs. Dr. Link). John was the US consul at Acapulco , Mexico . Emil was the consul of Greece at San Francisco . The daughter also lived in Acapulco .    Sutter had been born 15 February 1803 in Baden , Germany , just miles from the Swiss border. He immigrated to America , coming to New Yo...

My 3x great grandfather’s brother Benjamin Franklin VanHorn fought in the Civil War, came home, married and moved. First they moved to Virginia then onward to California . On Wednesday I finally found the land patent!   Benjamin was born on 8 March 1843 in Pennsylvania to George Washington Vanhorn and Jane Dudbridge. He was one of seven children. As I mentioned he did fight in the Civil War. He enlisted on 2 September 1863. He was captured at Weldon Railroad in August 1864 and was held a POW in Liberty Belle Island Prison. At the war’s end he was released and came home. On 24 April 1867 he married Margaret Hensel in Philadelphia . They moved to Virginia , where they had their first child in 1868, and then pushed onward to California . The other seven children were born, starting in 1870, in San Jose , Santa Clara County , California .   On Tuesday, I read a post on Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog which spoke of a land patent for one of her ancestors. I fo...