Belle's Family

October is Family History Month, so let's look at Belle's Family.

Arabella Maria Tisdale c1859

Belle's parents, B. F. Tisdale and Eliza Helen Pratt, married on 29 July 1851. Their first child, Belle's sister Mary Bernice, was born 15 March 1853. 

That was the year of the worst yellow fever epidemic in Louisiana history. 7,849 people died in New Orleans. Belle's Grandmother and Grandfather Pratt moved out of the city of Baton Rouge to their plantation, Oakland, about 5 miles east. The Baton Rouge Weekly Comet reported on 2 October 1853 that there were 1,600 cases of yellow fever in Baton Rouge. This was at a time when the population of the city was about 4,000. There was another lesser epidemic in 1854, with 2,425 dead in New Orleans alone. (Yellow Fever Deaths in New Orleans, Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library, nutrias.org, and George Augustin's History of Yellow Fever (N.O., 1909)

Arabella Maria “Belle” Tisdale was born on the third of January 1855. That summer and fall there was another yellow fever epidemic with 2,670 dead in New Orleans. In 1855 the State Board of Health was formed. The Picayune called it the Board of Death.

Belle's family was living in New Orleans by 1854. B. F. Tisdale is listed in the 1854 city directory at "S. Customhouse."  In  1855, 1856, and 1857, he is listed as an accountant at 26 Old Levee St. and in 1859 he is with the John B. Murison firm, Commission Agents, and living at 2 Bienville Street. His oldest brother, Joseph Wade Tisdale, had been living in New Orleans since 1842 and brother Nathan O. J. Tisdale had lived there since 1850.

On 8 May 1857 a third daughter, Florence Helen, was born. Little Florrie, not yet 18 months old, died on 3 December 1858 in New Orleans and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge. We have no record of her cause of death, but there was another yellow fever epidemic that year, “exceeded only by 1853,” with 4,845 deaths in New Orleans “by mid-November.” (Louisiana State Board of Health, The Formative Years (1855-1884) Gordon E. Gillson, Professor of History, Adams State College of Colorado, 1966. Gillson was a graduate student at LSU and this was his doctoral dissertation.)

Belle's mother and grandmother may have taken her to A. D. Lytle's photography studio in Baton Rouge to have this carte de visite made. She appears to be about 3 or 4 years old and is wearing a crinoline or hoop skirt, typical of the 1850s. The photo must have been made about 1859 soon after A. D. Lytle opened his studio. There is no photographer's imprint on the back which tells us it was an early use of this new system for making images.

Previous Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and Tintypes were one of a kind images. In all three processes the image was formed directly on a coated plate by exposure in the camera. The carte de visite camera had four lenses and the interior was divided into four compartments. By using a sliding plate holder and exposing first one half and then the other, eight small portraits could be taken on an 8” x 10” glass plate. By uncapping each lens separately, eight separate poses could be taken on one plate. The resulting contact print was cut into eight 2 1/4” x 3 1/2” portraits which were pasted onto 2 1/2” x 4” cards, the common visiting card size. This made photography much cheaper. (A Concise History of Photography, Helmut Gernsheim, Third Revised Edition, Dover Publications, Mineola, N.Y., 1986.)

Marion Franklin Pratt c1857

Ambrotype plate

Ambrotypes were first made in 1854 and their peak years were 1857 to 1859. The embossed design in this case was patented in 1855. That fact and his hair and beard style date this image to the late 1850s. The Ambrotype, developed by James Ambrose Cutting, is a silver image on a glass plate with a black cloth or cardboard backing. The image appears negative against a white background but positive against a black background. To coat the plate the photographer used collodion, a thick, sticky mixture of guncotton, alcohol, and ether invented in 1847 and used by military physicians as a liquid bandage. One of the drawbacks of the Ambrotype was its fragility. You can see that this glass plate is broken. 

Marion Pratt, Eliza's brother, may have been living in New Orleans when this image was made. The cardboard backing behind the plate has an advertisement for a New Orleans blacksmith.

Connely Family History Document

Bernice Hackley Connely Pratt
taken in Baton Rouge c1860

Negative photostat of document

Connely Family History Document

The most challenging document I have transcribed is a history of the Connely family, probably written by Belle Tisdale's grandmother, Bernice Hackley Connely. The handwriting is similar to one page of a letter written by Bernice to her daughter Eliza in 1867. There were two sets of copies of the three page document. By the time I got them they were both faded and almost illegible. One set consists of three faded negative photostats on heavy photographic paper and the other set contains three faded Xerox copies made by my mother in the 1960s. Present location of the original is unknown.

We don't know who had the negative photostats made or when, but it was probably before my mother started researching in 1964. The Photostat Corporation began about 1920 and the 1922 issue of Patent and Trade Mark Reviews says that its former name was The Commercial Camera Company. Photostat brand machines were in use as early as 1911. Photostat eventually became the generic name for any kind of copy just as xerox has become the generic name for copies today. The Xerox process was introduced in the 1950s and the Photostat Corporation was absorbed by Itek in 1963. 

(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photostat_machine)

The original document appears to have been a little smaller than 8” x 10” and consisted of one full page written on front and back and one page with two short notes. I started trying to transcribe the document in November 1991 and worked on it off and on. When I got a scanner and photo editing software, the job became possible. By reversing the negative to a positive and enlarging words on the computer screen I was able to piece the text together from the two copies.

Enhanced Xerox copy of the document

When I finally got the transcription done in August 1995, I sent a copy to my cousin Janet Sarradet Colletti in Louisiana. She wrote me back and said that she had heard from another Connely family history researcher, Roger Connelly, in Maryland. She gave me his address and I wrote to him. (Notice this was back when we were communicating via snail mail.) I sent him copies of my transcription and told him that we were going to be visiting friends in his area in about a month. Within a week he wrote back:

“The transcription of the 'Connely Letter' was a treasure, thanks for going to all that trouble with multiple copies and for sharing it with me. It seems to be based on the info found in a Connely family Bible (my trans. of that enclosed) but has some dates and counts of children that are of interest to me. I saw this Bible in person (see a few paragraphs in one of the early issues of my newsletter which are enclosed).”

Roger's transcription of the Gilmore Connely Bible information was almost word for word the same as my document, but includes more information on the Gilmore Connely line. There was either a strong oral tradition passed down in the family or both had been copied from an earlier document. Roger also sent me copies of his Connelly Connections newsletter that had much more information on the Bible.

Gilmore Franklin Connely was a great-grandson of the original emigre, Thomas Connely. He married Lucy Leffingwell in Assumption Parish, Louisiana, on February 14, 1843. This was about the same time that William Henry Pratt first came to Louisiana and settled not far away in Baton Rouge. In 1980 the family Bible was in the possession of Gilmore's grandchildren, Ruth and Lavinia Connely, in Houma, Louisiana.

About seeing Gilmore Connely's handwritten information in the Bible, Roger wrote:

“What a thrill it was to read those 3 sentences [the introductory sentences of the document], written by a Connely one and a quarter centuries ago, and providing a wealth of information about our immigrant ancestors of yet another century earlier.”

“...actually seeing the words written by Gilmore Franklin Connely brought tears to my eyes.” 

(Roger R. Connelly, Connelly Connections, A Connelly Family Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 2, April-June, 1980, pages 1-3)

Roger had been doing genealogical research for much longer than I had, and I was overwhelmed with the amount of information he had gathered. Roger has graciously given me permission to use these quotes. If you would like to see the Gilmore Connely Bible data transcription and learn more about the whole Connely/Connelly family, go to Roger's website at:http://www.rogerconnelly.com/

Roger even told me where to find Arthur Connely's grave in Old Stone Church cemetery in Augusta County, Virginia. But that's a story for another post.

For today here's the transcription of Bernice Connely Pratt's Connely Family History:

The original is written as one long document with no paragraphs. I have transcribed the words exactly as written but formatted it for ease of understanding. I have used brackets whenever I was not sure or when I have inserted information.

[page 1]

           Thomas Connely, his Brother Arthur & Sister Mary, together with their Father & Mother emigrated from Ireland to the State (then colony) of Virginia in the year [blank].

about 1756 or 57 [inserted between lines]

They left behind them a married sister who never had any children.

Thomas Connely married in Virginia a lady named Walker, who bore him 9 children to wit:

Arthur – Thomas – Alexander – Robert – Martha – Mary – Jane – Eliza[beth & Isabella – faded but supplied from next generation]

Of the above 9 persons

Arthur married Jane Dale in Augusta County Virginia by whom he had 9 children, (to wit:

Isabella Connely born [27^th] Sept 1786 – died Dec 5 1849 leaving one child named Donaldson.

Thomas Connely born 24^th Nov 1787 has 6 living children-

Alexander Connely born 17 May 1789 has 16 living children.

Arthur Connely born 19^th Dec. 1790 has 7 living children.

Robert Connely born 20^th Dec. 1794, has no children.

Margaret Connely born 1^st Nov. 1792 – married S. Logan – has 11 children -

Elizabeth Connely, - died in infancy,

Gilmore Connely, born May 5, 1799 has 9 living children -

Maria Connely born 29^th Dec. 1800 – married twice died 16 Aug. 1831 leaving no children –

Thomas married & emigrated to Boone County Kentucky where he died leaving 5 children.

Alexander settled & still lives in Covington Ky where he raised 8 children -

Robert settled in Boone County Kentucky (where he died in 1850) he raised 11 children -

Martha married her Cousin Arthur Connely -

Mary Married [her cousin][struck through twice] George

[page 2]

Berry but never had any children – She died in 1848)

Jane married Charles Patterson by whom she had two children a son & a daughter – (The former             was killed in 1837 by a fall from a horse)-

Elizabeth married Samuel Tharp by whom she had seven children who now live mostly in Illinois -

Isabella married Saml Gowdy and settled at Xenia, Ohio where she died in 1838 leaving a large               family –

The Arthur Connely – brother of the first named Thomas married in Virginia & there died, having            raised 9 children to wit:

Thomas – Robert – John – David – Arthur – James – Mary – Jane & Sarah -

Of the last named 9 -

Thomas was killed in the Revolutionary War

Robert was killed by the Indians while on a surveying expedition in Kentucky -

Arthur married his cousin & settled in Kentucky -

James left a family in Scott County, Kentucky -  [Bernice Hackley Connely's father]

John never married he died near Xenia Ohio

David left a family near Xenia Ohio who now are scattered over the west and south -

Mary married Joseph McCauley (left a family -

Jane married David Williamson –

Sarah married John Walker the brother of her uncle Thomas's wife– she lived to a great age & died          in Augusta County Virginia

[page 3]

     note - Alexander Connely of Covington Died [?] May 1851 the last of the old stock

[Faded note near middle of page 3]

I may have mi[ illegible ] wife with Alexander & it may have been the sister of Thomas & Arthur the first emigrants that married John Walker.

Who was Belle Tisdale?

Belle and Mary Tisdale c1860

Arabella Maria Tisdale was my great grandmother. She was born on the third of January 1855 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her parents were Benjamin Franklin Tisdale and Eliza Helen Pratt. In one of the letters in Belle's collection, her father writes that she was named Arabella for a pet name he had given to her mother and Maria for his sister. She signs her name Belle in all her letters.

The carte de visite photograph is of Belle and her sister Mary Bernice. It was taken at the studio of B. Moses in New Orleans. Judging from their ages it must have been about 1860. (It's interesting that, when I was a freshman in college, I had my photo taken by Moses Photography.) Belle and Mary and two of their brothers spent a lot of time in Baton Rouge with their grandparents, William Henry and Bernice Connely Pratt. They wrote frequent letters home to their parents in New Orleans full of descriptions of their everyday life.

Belle married Samuel Walker Booksh on 23 April 1878 and they had four children. They lived in Iberville Parish in Grosse Tete and moved to New Orleans in 1893. Great Grandpa Sam died on 3 November 1930 and Belle died on 30 March 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were buried in the Girod Street cemetery in New Orleans, which is now under the Superdome.

Even though she died before I was born, I feel like I know her because I have spent so much time looking at all the photos and reading all the papers and letters she left behind. Fortunately I discovered them while my grandfather, Wilton Tisdale Booksh Sr., and his sister, Vera Booksh Ventress, were still alive and could tell me who most of the people were. It was also fortunate that I copied as many as I did before Hurricane Katrina came through the area and put a magnolia tree through my aunt's roof.

I have spent the last two years transcribing Great Grandma Belle's papers and doing research with plans to do a book. Recently I have been introduced to blogs and it seems to me that this is the perfect way to share her collection with all the cousins that I know as well as all the cousins I don't know. Maybe they can contribute other letters and information.

There are 34 original documents and 41 photocopies plus uncounted photographs and newspaper clippings. The dates range from 1842 to 1929. It's my plan to post one document every two weeks, generally in chronological order, along with information about the people mentioned and associated photos. I also plan to research what was going on in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and post that along with links to sources. Eventually I plan to post family group sheets and pedigree charts. I'm just learning this new blogging thing so be patient with me.