Skip to main content

Obituary of Emily PJ Wakefield

The below obituary appeared in The Ottawa Herald, Ottawa Kansas, May 9, 1917, page 1. Emily is the third great grandmother of my child.


MRS. EMILY WAKEFIELD DEAD 

Colored Woman Was Born in Kentucky in Ante-bellum Days. 

 Mrs. Emily Wakefield, 72 years old, colored, died yesterday afternoon at her home, 128 Sycamore street. Paralysis caused her death. Mrs. Wakefield was the widow of the late Jasper Wakefield who fought in the Civil War. They were married fifty-six years ago. Mrs. Wakefield was born in slavery in Louisville, Ky., in 1845. Her husband died February 16, 1909. The Wakefields came here thirty-five years ago. 

Five sons, William, Chat and Chris Wakefield of Ottawa, Joe Wakefield of Kansas City and Fred Wakefield, address unknown, and one daughter, Mrs. Laura McNear of Ottawa survive. There are three brothers, George, William and Stephen Smith in Louisville, Ky. 

The  funeral will be field at the Third Baptist church, Second and Poplar streets at 3:30 o'clock Friday afternoon. The Rev. S. A. Williams will officiate. Burial will be in Hope cemetery.  

***

I'm thankful for the names of Emily’s brothers, but with the surname Smith, it would certainly be nice if their first names were a little less common. I’m also thankful for knowing Emily’s husband Joseph’s nickname, and confirmation of the children’s names. Two sons were named John William and Joseph William. I believe in the obituary William in Ottawa is Joseph and Joe of Kansas City is actually my child’s 2nd great grandfather John. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 1880 Census for Joseph and Emily PJ Wakefield

One expects the census entries for a household to follow a particular pattern: Head of Household Spouse Children in descending age Others When the entries don't follow this order, it can raise questions. Below is a detail from the 1880 census for the family of Joseph and Emily PJ Wakefield, Greensburg, Green, Kentucky Wakefield, Joseph | Black | Male | 43 | Head of Household | Married | Farmer Wakefield, Emily PJ | Mulatto | Female | 26 | Wife | Married | Keeping Home Wakefield, Aldora | Mulatto | Female | 1 | Daughter | Single Wakefield, Christopher | Mulatto | Male | 18 | Servant | Married | Farm Laborer Wakefield, Mary J | Mulatto | Female | 12 | Step Daughter | Single | At Home Wakefield, John W | Mulatto | Male | 6 | Son | Single Wakefield, Martha | Mulatto | Female | ? | ? | Married | At Home Ancestry.com's "tree hints" suggest that Aldora is the only child of Joseph and Emily in this census. Once it reaches a servant, it assumes the ...
5 comments
Read more

Kentucky Poetry

With the Kentucky ancestry of my adopted child (including both the Boones and the Wakefields), I have been doing some research on the state recently. Bill West at WestInNewEngland  has an Annual Poetry Challenge 1. Find a poem by a poet, famous or obscure, about the region one of your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local animal. It can even be a poem you or one of your ancestors have written. 0r, if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone performing the song.  2. Post the poem or song to your blog (remembering to cite the source where you found it.). If you wish to enter an older post, you may as long as it has not appeared here in an earlier Poetry Challenge. 3.Tell us how the subject of the poem or song relates to your ancestor's home or life, or the area of the country where they lived. After reading his post, I tried to find some Kentucky p...
5 comments
Read more

Introduction

I have been researching my genealogy for over a decade. However, my spouse and I have adopted a child. Unfortunately, it is my belief that the family of one of the biological parents might be completely unaware of the existence of the child. This creates difficulties with blogging about near ancestors. And the more I blog about distant ancestors, a close relative could find the blog and discover a significant amount of surnames in common. I don't wish to give up the benefits of finding distant cousins through blogging. I've broken down some of my own brick walls in this manner. However, I would rather be anonymous if this happens, and they decide to contact me. If you are thinking about contacting me, be aware I will not tell you who I am, or where I live. If I know, I might tell you how closely related you are to my child. I might not. It will certainly depend a lot on how much time has elapsed since this initial post. As my child will need to be old enough to express thei...
Post a Comment
Read more