The Turnbulls of Kansas

I've continued to search some online Kansas newspapers for more info on the family of Ronnie Turnbull. Unfortunately, they do not go back very far in time so I've not had much further luck. I did request an obituary from the archivist from one newspaper. It is for Michael Turnbull, Ronnie's grandson, who was murdered in 1987. I will be posting some newspaper articles on this sad story at a later date.

Obituary: Ellen Louise Turnbull

Ellen Louise Turnbull married a descendant of Clark and Rachel Carothers when she married Ronald. She also gave birth to and raised many new descendants.

Ellen Louise Turnbull, 85, Alma, died Oct. 17, 2002, at the Alma Manor. She had been a lifelong resident of the area.

She was born March 27, 1917, in Paxico, the daughter of Edward and Nettie Woodley Maginley.

She was raised in the Dog Creek and Snokomo communities. She attended school districts 65 and 24 and graduated from Maple Hill High School in 1935.

She married Ronald A. Carothers Turnbull on Jan. 13, 1940, in Lyndon. He preceded her in death on Jan. 17, 1971.

Mrs. Turnbull was a homemaker. Her memberships included the Eastern Star in Alma, Maple Hill Royal Neighbors, Alma Legion Auxiliary, the WARC in Eskridge, and the Paxico Methodist Church.

She is survived by one daughter, Dinah Turnbull; and a son, Daniel, both of Alma; one grandson; and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Cynthia Stuewe; a son, Michael Edward Turnbull; and one grandson, Michael.

Funeral services will be at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the RJ Evans-Gentry Funeral Home in Alma. Reverend Charlie McClelland will officiate.

The family will greet friends from 7 until 8:30 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Bethlehem Cemetery on Snokomo Road south of Paxico. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Ellen Turnbull Memorial Fund, to be sent in care of the funeral home.

The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
October 20, 2002

Ellen Turnbull

ALMA --- Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Monday at R.J. Evans-Gentry Funeral Home, in Alma, for Ellen Louise Turnbull, 85, Alma. She died Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002, at an Alma nursing home.

She was born March 27, 1917, in Paxico, the daughter of Edward and Nettie Woody Maginley. She was raised in the Dog Creek and Snokomo communities and graduated from Maple Hill High School in 1935.

Mrs. Turnbull was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, in Alma, Maple Hill Royal Neighbors, the Auxiliary to the Alma Post of the American Legion, WARC in Eskridge and the Paxico Methodist Church.

She married Ronald A. Carothers Turnbull on Jan. 13, 1940, in Lyndon. He died Jan. 11, 1971. Mrs. Turnbull also was preceded in death by a daughter, Cynthia Stuewe; a son, Michael Turnbull; and a grandson, Michael.

Survivors include a son, Daniel Turnbull; daughter, Dinah Turnbull, Alma; a grandchild; and two great-grandchildren.

Burial will be in Bethlehem Cemetery south of Paxico. Visitation will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Ellen Turnbull Memorial Fund and sent in care of the funeral home.

The Topeka Capital-Journal
October 20, 2002
October 19, 2002

Ellen Turnbull

ALMA --- Services will be announced by R.J. Evans-Gentry Funeral Home in Alma for Ellen L. Turnbull, 85, Alma. She died Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002, at an Alma nursing home.

The Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
October 18, 2002

Obituary: Daniel Adam Turnbull

Daniel Adam Turnbull is a descendant of Clark and Rachel Carothers. I was searching through a Kansas newpaper database, to which my county library provides access to card holders, when I came across Daniel's obituary. I was actually looking for his brother.

Daniel Adam Turnbull, 50, of Alma, died Monday, April 11, at his home.

He was born July 8, 1954 in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Ronald Carathers Turnbull and Ellen Maginley Turnbull. He attended schools in Alma and graduated from Alma High School. After high school he work at the Alma Hotel. He then worked for many years at Wamego Sand and several years at the Topeka Capital Journal.

He is survived by his twin sister, Dinah Turnbull of Alma; several nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister Cynthia Stuewe; a brother, Michael Turnbull; and a nephew, Michael Turnbull.

Graveside burial services will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, at Bethlehem Cemetery, southeast of Paxico. Rev. Charlie McClelland will be officiating.

The family suggests memorial contributions to the Dan Turnbull Memorial Fund and those may be sent in care of Campanella-Gentry Funeral Home in Alma.

The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
April 13, 2005

Daniel Adam Turnbull, 50, of Alma, died Monday, April 11, at his home. He was a lifelong resident of the Alma community. Graveside burial services will be held 2 p.m. Friday at Bethlehem Cemetery, southeast of Paxico. Complete obituary information will be announced by Campanella-Gentry Funeral Home.

The Manhattan Mercury (KS)
April 12, 2005

Scanners, the best way to share photos!

I scanned the photo below from my parents home on a recent visit. It is a photo of my Dad and his brother, my Uncle Wade. A great thing about scanners, is that there is no longer a need to hoard old family photos. Just scan them and you can share them with everyone in your family! In fact, I've already printed out this image and will be framing it soon.

I'm a new member of OFGS!

I sent a letter to the Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas, Inc. yesterday. I paid for an annual membership and for a copy of their "Oak Grove Cemetery" book. I also requested that they look up information on William Henry Carothers and his family in their record collection. I provided copies of all the information I have on them.

I'm hoping for school records, newspaper articles, church records, directory listings, birth, hospital, mortuary and cemetery records and the like. Perhaps some school pictures with Gerald in them. Who knows? William apparently owned a grocery store, so there could be some information about that. My father also recalls that William went overseas during WWI.

If there is not a copy of Myrtle's tombstone in the "Oak Grove Cemetery" book, I will request a picture of it. I'd really like to go to Fort Scott someday.

They've been having a lot of fires in Fort Scott recently. Four residential fires that are apparently arson related, and a terrible fire downtown that is apparently not arson. An AP story about the big downtown fire is available at firehouse.com. There are some very good pictures of the damage downtown posted at swanno.org. It is really quite sad.

Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas, Inc.

I had a nice chat with Virginia of the Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas, Inc. I was able to confirm the information on the webpage. Membership is $15 for one year. A new issue of the "Old Fort Log" has just be published, and I will get a copy of it. They also sell a copy of the "Oak Grove Cemetery" book. This is the cemetery my great-grandmother Myrtle Elizabeth Carothers (Herring) is buried in.

My grandfather, Gerald Carothers, was born in Fort Scott, so I'm interested in any records they might have on him and his parents. They lived there for something like 15 or 20 years. The OFGS library has a large collection of local records of historical and genealogical value. I'm quite impressed with the records they have collected, and I'm guessing they will be able to find a great deal of information about William, Myrtle and Gerald.

Virginia said they will do research essentially for free, the only cost is for the copies. I'll be sure to make a good donation.

Fort Scott, Kansas

My chat with my Dad this last weekend has stirred my interest in tracking down more information on William Henry Carothers, his first wife, Myrtle Elizabeth Herring, and their son, and my grandfather, Gerald Carothers.

Today, I was Googling around and came across a number of Fort Scott, Kansas websites that should be of help in that regard. The most promising is the "Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas, Inc." They have collections of local Fort Scott records. I'd love to spend a week there! As time and budget are limited, I'll settle for becoming a member, and see what it will cost for local researchers to get the information for me.

I did locate the Oak Grove Cemetery Myrtle is buried in. I even found an aerial photo of the Cemetery from Terraserver. Click here to see it.

The official Fort Scott City Government website is here.

The official Bourbon County Government website is here.

The Kansas Office of Vital Statistics website is here.

The Orlando Oscar Carothers branch

Tonight, I spent some time with my documentation of the Orlando Oscar Carothers' branch of the family. I added scans of several documents to my Carothers Genealogy website. I will do more as time permits this week. I'm also planning on adding scans of US Census records. I have a lot of those!

A Visit with my Parents

Today we drove to my parents' home for a visit. Time for the grandparents and grandkids to get together again! While I was there, my Dad and I started talking about his memories of his father, Gerald, and my Dad's grandfather, William Henry.

My Dad remembers W.H. was a tall man, and smoked a pipe. W.H. remarried after his first wife passed away. They were probably married in Kansas. My Dad has memories of Lucretia babysitting he and his brother. William Henry died when my Dad was 6 years old. Dad remembers that she moved back to Kansas when his family moved to Utah. He wasn't sure about Kansas, but he thinks that's right. Dad also remembers that William Henry was in the military during WWI in France.

Dad mentioned that his father had been in the Naval Reserves prior to WWII and was a police officer. When the war started, he was activated and spent the war in Hawaii as a mechanic for the Navy. At the end of the war he was a Motor Machinists Mate, 1st class, an E-6. Upon returning home after the war, he became a police officer once again. Then he took up trucking, working for Yellow Freight, Watkins and Watson. And probably others.

As you can see, I've got a lot of information to track down!

More time, more pictures!

I've been busy with too many things, but I squeezed in some time tonight to add a few more pictures to the Carothers Genealogy website. They are pictures and documents related to William Henry Carothers and one picture of his son Gerald.

Contact

I received an email from my Kansas cousin Shirley today! It's good to be back in touch with her.

I've been working on my Carothers Genealogy website and learning a great deal about html. Fortunately, I'm a software engineer, and that makes it a bit easier to learn.

I need to get uploading more images to the website.

Here is a picture of my great-grandfather, William Henry Carothers.

I love it!

I love the "The Next Generation" software I recently purchased for my genealogy website. It is so easy to use and looks great! Tonight I added new photos and document images. I added photos for William Henry Carothers and the Clark Carothers familiy Bible birth page.

Click here to see all the photos I've downloaded so far.

I've also been organizing my image files. I have lots more to organizing, scanning, and uploading to do! I have to thank my fellow researchers, mostly distant cousins, who have shared photos and documents for their branches of the family and for those relating to Clark and Rachel Carothers.

Research overhead

I've spent some time getting my new Carothers Genealogy website up to snuff. I've also started adding pictures and images of scanned documents. I started with Myrtle Elizabeth Herring.

There is a certain amount of time one must spend as a researcher documenting and organizing the information you collect, and I've got a bit of catching up to do on that score. I'm happy to have this problem as it means I'm collecting a lot of information and making progress!

I did locate another address for Shirley Farrell in Topeka, Kansas. I sent her a letter. I hope it is a valid address! I'm still hoping to hear from Earl Lucas. If I don't hear from him in a while, I'll have to try something else. I'm trying to contact living descendants of Orlando Carothers and Mary Elliot. If you are one, I'd love to hear from you!

The Next Generation

I just had a letter returned as undeliverable that I had sent to Shirley Farrell. I'll have to try some other methods to track her down. Shirley is a distant cousin of mine, we are both descendants of Clark and Rachel Carothers.

"The Next Generation", TNG, refers to the "The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding". I was fortunate to come across this product, it is quite easy to use and a very good value for the price. This product is essentially an online genealogy program. You simply load all the product files onto your webserver then upload your genealogy data in the form of a GEDCOM file. Your genealogy can now be viewed by anyone on the web! Don't worry, you can control user access and who sees what on the site. There are many examples of TNG user sites that can be accessed from the TNG website.

I have purchased the program, installed it and uploaded my genealogy. I have not customized it yet and made it pretty, so cut me some slack. Click here to see my TNG site. I will make my Carothers research available at this new website from now on. This will include all my photos and document images. It's going to be great!

Relatives in California

I'm busy working on my catalog of source documentation for the Carothers research I'm currently engaged in. While doing so, I have been reexamining the documents. One such document has a sentence which has become more meaningful. This document is an article from the Russell Record, of Russell Kansas, given to me by another descendant of Clark and Rachel Carothers. Her name is Shirley Farrell. The article is about a coroner's jury being called for the suspicious death of George Caruthers. The last sentence of the article is as follows:

"Officials have determined that he has a brother in Topeka as well as several nephews, also there are relatives in California."

The relatives in California are likely Orlando and Mary Carothers, and their family. When I first obtained this article from Shirley, I had no idea who the "relatives in California" were.

A second, later, article, from Shirley, regarding George's death, lists Orlando Carothers, of Nevada, Missouri as a survivor. The article is dated May 15, 1947! Orlando's 1964 death certificate lists him as having lived in Stanislaus County, California, for 24 years. Now there's an interesting conflict. Orlando's death certificate places him in California from about 1940 onward, yet this newspaper article places him in Missouri in 1947. Hmmm....

Time for spring cleaning!

I've been collecting a great deal of documentation during my research on the descendants of Clark and Rachel Carothers. Much of it is in the form of pictures and scans of original documents. To make it available to other interested researchers, I plan on updating my summary of the research located here, to include links to these images and pictures.

As I started on this project, I noticed my electronic files are not nearly as well organized as my paper ones. Although as the amount of material has increased, I've found I need to re-organize my paper documentation too. All of my electronic files relating to this research are stored in one directory! I will need to find a good way to organize and catalog them, then I will be ready to make them available to other researchers.

I have not heard from Earl yet, hopefully soon!

In the beginning...

If I recall correctly, I started researching my Carothers genealogy before I graduated from high school. That was over 20 years ago. When I started, I knew my father's name, my Carothers grandfather's name, and my Carothers great-grandfather's name. But I had no information beyond that. So, I started with William Henry Carothers, my great-grandfather, and began looking for him in a US Census when he was a child, to find out who his parents were.

This was back in the microfilm days. I went with my Mom to the San Diego Family History Center, and we began looking through rolls of microfilm. Rolls and rolls and rolls. Finally, my Mom hit pay dirt! She found William Henry at the right age with his parents, Clark and Rachel Carothers. Much subsequent research over time has made firm that relationship.

I can't recall at the moment what information we had that led us to look through Missouri's US Census. We must have known his birth place was in Missouri. I'm guessing we must have used an index and were looking for Carothers families in particular counties in Missouri, but I can't recall that detail. I'll have to look through my old research notes.