When my great-grandfather, Emlin Anderson Campbell , was born in 1875, his father, John Campbell had already died. John was 25 yrs. old when he died and as of yet, I don't have his death certificate...so I don't know what he died of. Emlin had an older sister, Lucy. Not too much later, his mother, Myra (Huntsman) remarried to a man whose last name was Merrill. They had several more children. And this was as far as my mother knew about this side of her family.
She said her grandfather told her they were not Scotch...they were Pennsylvania Dutch. Well...the Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish who originally came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania (Germany is called Deutchland and this is where the name came from). So far, I haven't been able to tie the Campbells to Germany. However Emlins wife, Adelaide Wittekind, is of German descent. We'll talk more about the Wittekinds in another post.
The 1900 census shows him and his wife, "Addie" living in Raton, New Mexico, where he was a railroad fireman. This is where my grandpa...an only child...was born.
Mom says her grandfather used to come home from work in his overalls and boots covered with dirt...at that time he worked as a crane operator in a coal yard. He would sit on the front steps, take off his boots, go in to clean up, and come out in black pants, white shirt and suspenders. During the depression when she'd come to visit her father, there was always fresh fruits and vegetables that her grandparents had grown.
When Mom left for California to live. Her Grandpa Campbell told her, "Now don't you get mixed up with any of those damn Mormons!"
This is a copy of his Word War One draft registration. And a copy of his death certificate.
Since all I had was his fathers name...John Campbell...this was as far as it went. I've been searching off and on for several years to find something more and then one day I was looking at a census in the town where Myra Huntsman lived and found a John O. Campbell as a young boy. I also found a cemetary listing for the same person. He and Myra were the same age and it just felt right that this was the John I'd been looking for. This gave me more names...his parents, grandparents, and so on. But I still needed some sort of proof to tie it all together.
Two weeks ago at the Family History Center, I told Don that's what I wanted to accomplish that day.
While combining some records...I came across a marriage date for John O. Campbell and Myra Theora Huntsman. There was the proof I needed and gained several more generations to add to our family records as a bonus!!! Below is a copy of the pedigree from my grandfather Fred to his fourth great-grandfather, Patrick Campbell.
To this point, this is all I have for the Campbells. It is so much more than I had when I started, so I can't complain. I'm hoping as I continue my research, I can learn a little more about these new ancestors. I guess this is why genealogy has become so interesting to me. It's kind of like reading a good mystery book...you never really know what you'll discover next.
Next up: the Ryckmans...my moms maternal ancestors. Until then..........
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