Family Notes

  I have about 8700 names in my family tree, which seems like a lot until you notice how many trees on Ancestry have 100,000 and more. As a general rule I don’t seek out every possible distant cousin to add to the tree. I try to be as complete as I can be on the direct ancestors, and beyond that look for people who seem interesting to me.  That “seems interesting” gives me a pretty broad leeway. I read somewhere about the man credited with being the first homesteader to take advantage of the 1862 Homestead Act. His name was Daniel Freeman and his homestead was in Beatrice, Nebraska. Now Freeman is a pretty frequent surname in my wife’s ancestry, so I looked into Daniel’s bloodline and sure enough discovered that he was her 7th cousin (4x removed). Note: since Laurie and I are actually related (17th cousins) that means Daniel is my relation as well, but far more distantly. Anyway, what really made me want to add him to the family tree was his picture. You can read about Daniel’s homeste

 Oviel was born to George W. and Sarah Greenlee in 1894. He grew up in the little farming community of Kurtz, Indiana. He is my first cousin, twice removed, his aunt Lucinda being my great grandmother (on my mother's side). Oviel registered for the draft in June of 1917. He was an unmarried 24 year old who had been working with a railroad gang, laying track for the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railroad. A side note: what I found most interesting about this registration was the tab in the bottom left corner. See that? "If person is of African descent, tear off this corner." Note also that on line 12 ("Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)?"), is written the words "physical disability." I wonder what that was? In any case, the exemption was not accepted as valid and Oviel was scooped up by Uncle Sam. He was initially assigned to the 251st Infantry, drilled in Kentucky at Camp Taylor. Sent to France in June of 1918, he was immediatel