Sunday's Obituary - Emma Harriet Landon Bellinger

Emma Harriet Landon Bellinger
1862 - 1915 or 1916

Mrs. John W. Bellinger

Harriett Emma Landon was born August 13, 1862 in Sharon, Wisconsin, and with her parents moved to Nebraska in 1870. She was united in marriage to John W. Bellinger November 12, 1879. To this union three children were born. - Harry Bellinger of Omaha, Mrs. Will Kelly of Greenwood, and Clifford Bellinger of Lincoln. she united with the Greenwood Methodist church in 1900, of which she has been a faithful member. She died December 31, 1915, at the age of 53 years, 4 months and 18 days. She leaves to mourn her loss, her husband, three children, two grandchildren and one sister, Mrs. Margaret Loder of Waverly, and a host of friends. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Wilton from the M.E. church Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock, and the body laid to rest in Greenwood cemetery.

Source: Ashland (Nebraska) Gazette, January 6, 1916

Greenwood Gazette
Greenwood, Nebraska
date unknown

John and Emma Bellinger
Greenwood Cemetery
Greenwood, Cass county, Nebraska

Genealogy is not an exact science. Information we discover often just provides clues that allow us to make inferences. We do the best with the clues we find.

Emma Harriet Landon Bellinger was my great grandmother. Or perhaps she was Harriet Emma Landon Bellinger. Sources differ on which of her names came first. She was known as Emma.

She died on December 31, 1915. Or maybe it was January 1, 1916.

She was 53 years old when she died. Or maybe she was 63.

She was born in Sharon, Wisconsin. Or maybe she was born in Belvidere, Illinois.

Her surviving daughter was Mrs. W. L. Kelly, not Mrs. W. O. Kelly as one of the death notices states.

Cass County Nebraska - web site resources

Plattsmouth is the county seat of Cass County, Nebraska where a lot of my research is focused. The city of Plattsmouth web site is located at http://www.plattsmouth.org/

Once on the page, click on Departments, then select Library for the new web location of the Plattsmouth Library. The library can also be found on Facebook.

Under the Living in Plattsmouth menu item, you'll find a link to the Cass County Museum - an essential research location for anyone doing research in the county.

Also of help is the Cass County web site. Here's a quick look at the history and towns of Cass county.

Another interesting web site is the Plattsmouth Covservancy. Who's up for the Haunted Victorian Ghost Walk? That will take place October 22 and 23. I might be interested if it wasn't after dark! BOO!

Nebraska State Government Resources for Genealogists

Today's Tip will focus on genealogy resources available on the State of Nebraska's official government web sites. While many of the government pages merely provide links to other online resources, there are a few gems to be found along the way. If your genealogy has any Nebraska ties, I hope you'll find a couple resources you may not have seen before.

A couple years ago, the State of Nebraska revamped its online presence to this dynamic Nebraska.gov site that was intended to serve as a portal to all state government services in one location. Personally, I find it cumbersome and much too difficult to find what I'm looking for most of the time. If I need to find something quickly, I've learned to go to Google to search within this site. To save you some time and frustration, here are some of the pages of interest to genealogists doing research in Nebraska.

A starting point is a list of links of Genealogy resources:

http://nebraskaccess.ne.gov/genealogy.asp - the links are the usual fare for genealogy researchers and most are general information, not specific to Nebraska (Ancestry, Cyndi's List, FindAGrave . . .)

The State of Nebraska offers free access to Heritage Quest if you are a resident of the state. Your Nebraska driver's license number will get you into this database. Access to eLibrary is also available with a password you can obtain through your Nebraska public library.

Privacy issues have limited access to some records for genealogists. The basic procedures for obtaining records is on the Health and Human Services web site. The state rules and regulations for release of records for genealogical purposes is in Chapter 3 of Nebraska Administrative Code 174. You have better access to records if you are a certified historian or a an enrolled student of history working on a specific project or an employed member of the news media.

Information about where to obtain birth, marriage, death and divorce certificates is on this page, although it is primarily a list of links to external sites.

The State Library Commission hosts a blog which announces different libraries in Nebraska as each attains an online presence. You can subscribe to this blog in your RSS reader to receive updates. Here are a couple examples of the libraries on the site:

• Alliance Public Library
• Superior Public Library

This page has links to libraries in Nebraska, links to their social networking sites, and indicates if they have WiFi access or a catalog online. This is a good starting point for your local research.

Nebraska Memories is another government web site operated by the Nebraska Library Commission. Subtitled "Making Nebraska's Past Unforgettable" you can browse or search a variety of digital images on such categories as portraits, sports, music scores, animals, maps, government, education, business, disasters and more. I can easily get lost on this site for quite a while.

If your research leads to a famous Nebraskan, there are several links on this page. I have to toot my own horn a little bit since the page links to my NebraskaOnFilm.com web site (another of my passions in addition to genealogy).

The Nebraska State Historical Society provides a wealth of information and resources online. Since I've already written a blog post about their resources, I'll direct you to that post rather than repeat it here. But here is a link to the Society's page about doing genealogy research.

If you are researching property in Nebraska, here's a nice 60 page guidebook with a lot of great tips. A link in this book took me to an interesting map labeled "Ghost Towns of Cass County" as well as a 1908 map of Lancaster county. Even if you don't have a Nebraska connection, this publication also serves as a good resource on land and property research. This publication may just be the best "Easter egg" that I discovered while surfing sites to include in this post. It's a pdf file that you can download.

You can search court cases, but you need to get a User ID and password. Presently, the fee is $15 per search.

The Secretary of State's office has some information that may be of value to researchers, although this information may be more recent in nature. One of the databases is on registered voters, which I've used a time or two.

The Unclaimed Property division of the State Treasurer's department might yield results on missing relatives. This is a searchable database of money sitting around in bank accounts or safe deposit boxes. Whoa, Nellie! I just found a listing for less than $300 for one of my Dad's aunts who died in 1982. I told you that you might find something here!

I hope these links provide Nebraska researchers with a few resources they may not have seen before. If you come across other gems or links on any State of Nebraska government web site, please share them in the comments section below.

Sunday Supper: Homemade Ice Cream

As the end of summer draws to a close, I'm looking back at one of my favorite and funniest childhood memories.

Homemade ice cream was always a favorite treat at our house, even though it took hours and a lot of hard labor to make it. I remember my Mom putting all of the ingredients in the tall silver cylinder and packing the wooden tub with a combination of ice and rock salt.

Then the tub was turned over to my Dad and any other strong man who was available to undertake the job of turning the hand crank for what seemed like half a day to this eight year old. It was a lot of work and the cranking had to remain constant. I would usually beg to get in a few turns of the crank until it wore me out - which didn't take too long.

Relatives on Dad's side of the family had a habit of "just dropping by" which probably was why I developed a life long resentment about anyone who stopped by my house without  advance notice. I digress. Rewind back to about 1959 when the relatives invited themselves over for homemade ice cream (okay, it was my grandmother and my aunt's family). At least that's how I remember it. Mom and Dad were a bit ticked off because none of the guests ever helped out with the work of cranking the ice cream, but were more than willing to eat it.

So - my parents hatched a plan! Dad and I got in the car with the silver cylinder, drove eight miles to the next town which had a Dairy Queen. He turned over the cylinder and asked them to fill it up with the delicious vanilla soft serve. All the way home, I was warned that I had better keep my mouth shut about this dastardly plot. Once home, Mom and Dad packed the bucket with ice and rock salt so it appeared that all of the hard work was over by the time the relatives arrived.

When it came time for dessert, we all sat around the big dining room table as the bowls of ice cream and spoons were handed out. My grandmother took her first bite and exclaimed, "This is so good. It tastes just like Dairy Queen!"

I could hardly contain myself and dove under the table with some lame excuse - probably about dropping my napkin or something. I knew that I couldn't give away the secret, so I really had to behave while we all finished eating our Sunday treat.

Mom, Dad and I laughed about this for years and never once gave up the secret (until now). But to this day, I can't have an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen without remembering the Great Ice Cream Scandal of 1959.

Upcoming Events in Omaha

Greater Omaha Genealogical Society fall conference

The Greater Omaha Genealogical Society fall conference will be October 30, 2010 at Nebraska Methodist College, 720 N. 87th St., Omaha. Advance registration is $20 for membership and $30 for nonmembers. Lunch is available for $4.50

Sessions include:

• Land Records - presented by Lynne A. Farr
• Oral Histories - presented by Lucille Saunders
• Organizing Your Files - presented by Cyndy Salzmann
• What You Can Do With a Digital Camera - presented by Jeff Ramsell

You can download a brochure and registration form here.

Tombstone Tour of Omaha Cemeteries

A motor coach tour of three Omaha cemeteries led by Joni Fogarty is planned for October 24, 2010. The tour includes Forest Lawn, Holy Sepulchre and and Prospect Hill. Cost is $40 and registration deadline is October 19.

For more information and to register, click here.

If you can't make the cemetery tour, I recommend a virtual visit at the Graveyards of Omaha, a wonderful site by Marta Dawes.