Bakers in the 1930 Census

Finally. I have found the Baker Family in the 1930 Census. I first searched for Clarence Baker in Familysearch.org and low and behold, the family popped up. There they were: Clarence Lee Baker, Hazel M. Baker and Clarence M. Baker. All the birthdates looked good, as did parent's birth places. FINALLY.

But I searched again in ancestry and did not come up with them. It's not a difficult name. All other documents tell me they've been in the U.S. for a while. But nothing. I've previously searched for Clarence and Hazel in Gary, IN to no avail.

Using the information from familysearch, I looked up the pages in the U.S. 1930 Census manually.

I found them under Barker, Clarence, Habel and Clarence. The annotator must have been drunk that day or something because it's clearly Baker. Oh well. Here it is, finally:

Lillian Moore Ray

Oh Lillian Moore Ray, where art thou? Your father was George Washington Moore and your mother, Martha White. You are my Calvin Moore's half-sister.

You married Franklin Ray, son of Zachariah Ray. You were married 25 September 1880, coincedently, the day I was married, just in the year 2010. Your father and step-mother were married on my birthday. But I digress.

You had three children: Beluah H. Ray, b. 1895, Hazel G. Ray, b. 1886 and Ralph F. Ray, b. 1884 all in Ohio. (These are about years). You lived in Allegany PA for a while and then in 1920, you were living in California. After that, you vanish, both you and your husband.

A potential son was found living in Chicago, IL based on the WWII registrations. But alas, you and your kin disappear.

Christmas as a child

When I was growing up in Indiana, Christmas was a huge event. My grandmother, Sylvia, was an awesome cook and more importantly an awesome baker. I remember the lovely pies on the table, the several days of cookie baking and the cheesecake. Oh the cheesecake!

The days leading up to Christmas was cooking and baking. My mom would go over to help and often a few cousins would come over to have their time with grandma. It was fairly easy as they lived across the field from my grandma and my parent's business was next door. There were nine cousins, my sister and myself, the three who lived across the field and the four who lived down the road.

The day of Christmas evening was spent gathering everything. We would go to grandma and grandpa's house to open presents. Early on, we got gifts from our aunts and uncles and our grandparents. Our moms would always order clothes for us from the Sears and/or JcPenny catalog. We got two outfits each-a dress and a school outfit. more often then not, the girls had matching dress outfits in some way or another. As we got older, we would exchange names with cousins to pick a cousin for which to buy. When we got older, my grandma would take Kelley and I shopping for our own clothes. We'd go to the mall in Michigan City and make a Saturday afternoon of it. We'd have lunch and grandma would always insist we'd have sundaes. One year, I don't remember why-I think it's when grandma fell and broke her hip maybe?- grandpa starting taking us shopping. When he did, we got a lot more then two outfits. I think we would say Grandpa, we can't decide and he'd tell us to get them all and let's go. We just couldn't tell everyone else :)

Christmas Eve was present opening at Grandpa and Grandma Poparad's house. We'd open presents and then have supper. Usually, it was Italian Beef and broasted chicken with potato wedges. There may have been boxed mac and cheese, too. The Italian beef was in the crockpot most of the day and the chicken came from the gas station down the road. Is broasted chicken available outside of NW Indiana? I haven't found it in Texas or New York. I digress. We'd eat, do a fashion show and then usually, go home from there. My cousins went to early church at their church. My mom and grandparents would usually go to midnight service. When I got older, I would often go with them.

Christmas morning was usually early at our house. We'd open presents in the morning and spend the next few hours cleaning up and putting toys together. There were always barbie dolls. I loved playing with my barbies. One year, I remember my sister getting a glow worm. She was probably two or three. I was so excited for her that we opened the present before my parents got up. Then we wrapped it back up. There was the year that there was a present in the back of the tree. My mom put the tree up in a corner. When I reached back for it, the tree fell over and on me. There was the year we go our fake cabbage kid dolls (my dad didn't work a lot) and then the year we got real cabbage patch kids. We each had preemie dolls in our stockings.

My mom loved decorating for Christmas--and still does. There is a santa claus doll that is hand made and I believe my dad made with his grandmother. Or did she make it for him? We had stockings that were made for us and were hung on the back of the front door. No one ever used the front door. We rarely even answered the door bell if someone rang it. If we knew them, they came to the back. When the bay window went in, she built a town with the fake snow and the multitude of buildings. There were Christmas figurines all on the tables. And the Christmas music-always the Christmas music!

After presents, etc., we'd go to breakfast at grandma and grandpa's house. They would have a large dinner at one, but we'd go down to GG Knapp's afterward. When that relationship went side ways, we'd stay for dinner. There was always food, so so much food! Turkey, Swedish meatballs, ham, mashed potatos, and pies. The strawberry pie was my favorite, along with the cheesecake. The female cousins would get one strawberry pie and my two male cousins could share their own strawberry pie. One year, all hell broke lose when there wasn't enough gravy.

We played poker after dinner. Always had many many dishes to clean up. Often, we had to take them upstairs for the dishwasher. We'd wash the china downstairs by hand in the back and dry them on the washer.

Communication with Jim Estepp

I wrote to James Randol Estepp (jim at estepp.net). He was the author of the packet that I received from Doug Estepp, Stephen's uncle.

He has sent me some nice photos of his grandfather, James Albert Estepp (brother of Rhodes) as well as Estep Cemetery, where he thinks Rhodes is buried. I will need to talk to Lisa (Estepp) to confirm what she knows.

Estepp family

So. I have married into the Estepp family. I thought my Kentucky line was confusing! Whoa nelly, these people did not move. At least, though, they changed their names to random names. The only problem is that the spelling of these names are not standardized, so searching can be difficult.

The Estepp family is originally Estep and there are families that are Estepp/Estep in the same generation. My husband's gg-grandfather is Rhodes Estep, who is the son of Jonathan Estepp, husband of Christina Meades. We recently receieved the ancestors and family of James R. Estepp from his uncle. James R. Estepp was the brother of Rhodes Estep. There are a lot of children and families inter marrying.

Stephen and I were married September 25, 2010 at Miller Park Pavillion, Miller Beach, Indiana.

Huffman's of Wayne County, OH

I have had several 'hunches' that my William Huffman is a brother of several of the Huffman's in Clinton township, Wayne County, OH, specifically, Nathaniel Huffman and Christopher Huffman. All were born in New Jersey, with Christopher born 1816 and William born about 1812.  

Nathaniel Huffman:

m. Mary Unknown

had son Levi Huffman born in 1830, Hunterdon, NJ.  

Moved to Wayne County, OH, then to Henry County, OH, where Nathaniel died. Levi moved back to Wayne and eventually to Porter County, Indiana. He had a son Levi Randall Huffman, who married Nellie Hannah Edwards. 

Christopher Huffman married Elizabeth Unknown and was married in NJ. Christopher was born about 1816. Christopher and Elizabeth had 11 children, moving to Wayne County Ohio, then to several counties in Indiana and then finally to Porter County, IN. One of Christopher's children (presumably) is living with William Huffman's family in Porter County, IN in 1880. Christopher died in Porter County, OH. His burial site is not known. 

William Huffman married Mary Kirkoff/Carcuf and was born about 1812 in New Jersey. They had four children: Jane Elizabeth, Maria Louisa, Oliver Huffman and Roxanna. William died in 1842 with the will in probate. His children all located to Porter County, Indiana as noted in previous posts and is my line that I am interested in.

I have no information on the parents of William Huffman, nor do I know where he was born. But, because of the migration patterns of the two other Huffman patterns, it makes no sense that the families are not related. I simply refuse to believe that they are not related. Perhaps this is naive, but it's just too coincidental. 

I have a descendants of John Huffman, born 1732, died July 2, 1801 sheet listing a William Hoffman with 9 children: 

Elenenor Hoffman b. 9-8-1804

Catherine Hoffman m. John Tway

Elisabeth Hoffman m. William Bowman

John Hoffman 

George Hoffman m. Bowman

Ann Hoffman m. Jacob Corson

William Hoffman

Christopher Hoffman

Mary Hoffman

Unfortunately, this family sheet does not list a Nathaniel Ho/uffman. 

A DNA test would be the simplest, unfortunately, the male Huffmans of my William are limited and most moved away from Porter County, IN. At best, there are only five that I can trace around the 1900s. 

The search for William Huffman's wife: Mary

Since I have identified Louise Huffman Morgan Moore, I have sought to find more information about her parents, William and Mary. The information that I have about her mother, Mary:

1850 U.S. Census, Clinton Township, Wayne County, OH.
Living with daughter Jane and son Oliver.
Her birth state is listed as N.J.

1860 U. S. Census, Boone Township, Porter County, IN
Living with son Oliver Huffman. Her age is listed as 55 and birth state is New Jersey.
This would make her approximate birth year 1805.

1870 U.S. Census, Porter Township, Porter County, IN
Living with daughter Louiza Morgan, Roxada and a Henry Huffman.
Her age is listed as 64 and her birth state is listed as New Jersey
This would make her approximate birth year 1806

1880 U.S. Census Porter Township, Porter County, IN
Living with daughter Maria L. Morgan. Birth age is 73. Born in N.J.
This would make her approximate birth year 1806.

On her son's death index card, she is listed as Mary Carkuff.
On her daughter's death certificateShe is listed as Mary Canbuff (Louisa Morgan, Elkhart County Health Department 10/20/1905)

Numerous searches of ancestry.com pull up Mary Kirkoff, d.o. Gabriel Henry Kirkoff and Mary Lowe, b. 12 Dec. 1805 in Hunterdon Co., NJ and a death of September 5, 1879 in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, USA. While the birth would fit, the death is clearly wrong.

This Mary Kirkoff is often linked to Silas Callendar and the source is listed as http://rkirkhuff.home.attbi.com/kirkhuff.html . However, this url no longer exists. I have not been able to contact the owner of this tree (Scott Williams) to determine what the evidence for this marriage is.

As far as I can tell thus far, there is no evidence of my Mary Carkuff's parents. She may or may not be the d.o. Gabriel and Mary Lowe Kirkoff.