Triplett History: Finding my grandfather

Family history on my father's side has been easy - I saw a book that went back 200 years when I was in high school. Never thought much about it. Recently, I have done a lot of research into my mom's side. My maternal grandmother's ancestors were easy. My maternal grandfather's were not. Today the pieces come together.

First, the information I had 2 weeks ago: Born in 1903 in Poulsbo, WA, real name unknown, orphaned at 9 years old. That's it. I've been back and forth with my uncle a lot the last few days, and many things came up:

my G-grandfather's name was John Franklin Triplett. He died in 1916-17 in Spokane in a car crash. My G-grandfather and G-grandmother's marriage was a second marriage for both of them and he's the only child of that marriage.

Today, I spent the afternoon with my mother teaching her about the research I've done and how to do some of it herself. New things: my grandfather gave my grandmother a Bible in 1954 with his parents' birth and death dates. My grandfather has a couple half-brothers who died by drowning in the 1920s. My G-grandmother's full name (including her married name from her first marriage).

So - this morning I was able to search through Washington State's vital records and find John Franklin Triplett. He died in Spokane in 1917. I ordered his death certificate. This afternoon, after learning my G-grandma's name, I looked through the census of 1910. There they were: John F and Martha Triplett. 2 sons in their 20s, 1 son who was 11 years old. All born in Missouri. It matches a 1900 census I had seen before.

To sum up the information I have now about my grandfather: my grandfather's name was not Francis or Jack. It was John, like his dad. He was born in Nov, 1898, not 1903. He was born in Missouri, not Poulsbo, WA. He was orphaned at 19, not 9. He did not spent his childhood on the streets.

Next steps: marriage certificate for the G-grandparents and birth certificate for my grandfather. I call him little Johnny for now, until I see his birth certificate and know what his full name was. The trail is no longer cold. This 1/4 of my family tree will soon be filled in.

Glenn Family History, First Edition

So I've been working on the Sults, my great-grandmother's parents and immediate family. I thought, "What about Joel P Glenn, my grandma's dad?" So I Googled his name and Idaho. And immediately there was a page about him. Turns out the guy who lives in the house Joel built in 1910 is a big history guy in Council, Idaho. And he's published stuff.

So Joel went byJoe. He was a good singer. A bass, it seems. He and Cora Belle built a house in 1910 and lived there until 1924, when they sold it and moved to Toledo, Oregon. It's a few miles inland from Newport. I don't know why. Maybe feeding their 14 kids and keeping them sane all winter in a 24' x 24' house proved too much for them. "Let's go somewhere where we can let them play outside all winter, Cora." "Sure thing, Joe. I'll stop sharpening the butcher knife now. I won't be needing it after all." "That's good, dear."

Back to digitizing documents now - double-checking dates and names from hand-written records so I can roll it all up into something easy to digest.

Also - Sult update - I found where JT and Ann's homestead was. It's on the corner of Nasi Ln and Farm to Market Road between Roseberry and Donnelly. That creek right there is Boulder Creek.

Sult Family History - JT and Ann, part 1

I got bit by the family history bug, and now I'm infected. My grandmother is Amelia Kathryn Glenn. Her mother is Cora Belle Sult. Her mother is Grace Hall, her father is Charles Sult. Charles' parents are John Theodore Sult and Ann McCormac. The only history I have of my family that is written down is of JT Sult, Ann, their kids and grandkids. I have the family tree for the Sults, but I want to fill in their story. Since I have a start, I'm going to share what I've got, how I found it, and I'll add as I find more information.

This is from my mom's cousin, who gave a hard copy to us years ago. I took digital photos at my uncle's house last summer, and now I'm typing them up so they can be shared by the whole family. Here's the first part of it.

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John Theodore Sult and Virginia Ann McCormac were married at her home in Linn County, (Mound City) Kansas, April 25, 1878. They moved to his farm in Wilson County, near Fredonia, where the three oldest children were born. They sold the farm in the spring of 1885. Levi McCromac and J.T. Sult bought 150 head of cattle and prepared to go West.

In April they were ready to start from the home of A.J. McCormac, with Ann driving the team of mules. While they were loading, the team became frightened and ran, injuring Ann so that it was imp[ossible for her to make the trip. J.T. and Levi started on, leaving the family with her parents. They went as far as Kingman County, where his sister, Mrs James Reese, lived.

In July, twins were born. J.T. came back in the late summer and moved the family to Kingman County, where Laura May died, Nov 25, age 4 months. The next spring the family, with Theodore Sult, a nephew of J.T. started West again, with Ann driving the mules, J.T. the ox team, and Levi and Theodore the cattle. That summer they traded “old Bob” for Topay, a young filly, so that Charley, age 7, could help with the cattle. (Topay became a family institution; all the children and several grandchildren learned to ride on her. She finally died of old age about 1911.) They spent that winter in Wyoming, near Bushnell Creek, about 65 miles from Cheyenne. There was good open range here, and they bought hay for the cattle during the worst of the winter.

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Here's some more stuff I figured out by looking at birth dates, maps, and place names. Mound City was founded just 20 years before J.T. and Ann were married there. We don't know why they moved West. When Ann was injured hooking up the horses, she was 6 months pregnant with twins. They moved West in spurts - leaving Mound City for Fredonia (90 miles away) then selling the Fredonia farm and moving back near Mound City. Then JT headed 241 miles away with the cattle while waiting for Ann to heal and deliver their twins. When they left Kansas for good, they had 4 kids, the youngest was just 9 months old. It took them 2 years to move - 1 summer to get to Wyoming, another to get to Western Idaho.

I have more bits and pieces, but I'm going to add them as I go. For any family members, I'll be adding things in Google Docs, and I'll share them all with you if you're interested.

Allowing natural growth

We have 4 awesome kids. They came in pairs - older 2 separated by 2 years, then a 3 year gap, then the younger ones separated by just 16 months. Since our younger kids were born, the other kids have been the "big kids".

That changed tonight, and the story to how we get there is instructive, I think.

It is true that people become who you expect them to become. We expected our big kids to be good examples, responsible and kind, etc. We expected our "little kids" to not be as advanced. Of course they would be behind the big kids, but it was clear that when we were dressing our 4 year-old girl and her big sister was dressing herself at 3, that we had given in to what someone called the "soft bigotry of low expectations". Compound this with the fact that our little kids were the littlest kids we got to be around. They were the only ones we got to snuggle with, who said funny things, who needed help putting on their seatbelts.

Of course, it wasn't them that needed the help. We needed to give the help. We needed to feel needed. And it was all of us - parents, older siblings, grandparents. We all conspired to keep our little kids little.

Well, our little girl started kindergarten and turned 6, and she was having trouble adjusting to the big wide world. We started to make some conscious changes to our expectations of her and how we served her. Today, some things came to a head. I turned the corner by my bedroom door to find her sitting on the floor crying. The exchange went something like this:

L: Dad, it really hurts my feelings when people call me little. It's a little bit of an issue.

T: I'm sorry sweetie. Who does that most? Is it mom and I or the older kids?

L: It's mostly you and mom and the older kids and everyone.

T: Well, when we need to say things like, "get the car seats for the younger kids", what should we say?

L: I just want to be big, because I am big.

T: Okay. So do we call you and your little brother the big kids and the other kids the old kids?

L: (smiling) Yes. I would like that.

I thanked her for telling me her feelings, and promptly spread the news around to the rest of the family.

What is particularly salient about this event today is that she felt something, told me, figured out what she wanted to make it better, and was able to have a good conversation with me about it to find a solution. I didn't have to draw it out of her. It was her initiative. It is the most grown-up thing she has ever done. And I'm proud of her for it.

Bye bye little kids. I think my next opportunity will be in about a dozen years when the grand kids may start coming.