A Second Albert

...and possibly a third.

In trying to zero in on the possibilities of which Albert Roberts might have gone to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to get his picture taken with his wife, I've gleaned every available mention of the name in the local newspaper from the 1880s through the mid 1950s. Yesterday, we took a look at the abbreviated timeline we could extract from the newspaper mentions for one Albert Roberts who lived just outside Council Bluffs in a city called Riverton. Today, we'll apply the same process to all the other Albert Roberts I found mentioned in the same newspaper over that same time span.

At first, I thought we'd be dealing with just one other Albert. Now that I've constructed this other timeline, I'm wondering if we are adding two other men with the same name.

As we did yesterday for the Albert Roberts from Riverton, here's the rundown on what I found in The Daily Nonpariel, beginning with the first mention of that name in 1900. Only with today's entries, I'll include the approximate (or estimated) location for each man mentioned.

• January 11, 1900: Albert Roberts and Hattie Eshelman are granted a marriage license on January 10 in Atlantic
• July 18, 1917: Albert Roberts and wife "of Grant" visit his father, James Roberts; no location specified (assume Council Bluffs)
• May 8, 1919: Notice of Referee's Sale, Albert L. Roberts, plaintiff, against Fannie and I. M. Binns; minors Dwight, Emmet, and Frances and their guardian Nellie Roberts, defendants; property (identified by city lot numbers, not addresses) to be sold on the courthouse steps in Council Bluffs
• July 21, 1922: Roberts family reunion held in Elliott, Iowa, at former home of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Roberts, who now live in Long Beach, California; surnames of relatives in attendance included Roberts, Neary, Hully, Berg, Proctor; included in the Roberts siblings was Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts of Atlantic; missing from the celebration was a sister, Mrs. H. S. Leonard, prevented from attending due to heavy rains and bad roads
• July 22, 1926: A daughter, weighing only three pounds, was reported born to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts of 1905 Third Avenue, an address in Council Bluffs
• November 26, 1926: Funeral service for Wauneta Louise Roberts, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Roberts, from the home—this time, address given as 1908 Third Avenue—with burial in Walnut Hill Cemetery
• September 9, 1937: Funeral service in Grant, Iowa, for Mrs. H. S. Leonard of Elliott, Iowa; surnames of sisters listed were Hully and Neary; Albert Roberts of Atlantic was listed as a brother
• January 12, 1950: Fiftieth wedding anniversary celebrated in Atlantic for Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts; they had been residents in Atlantic since 1917

Now that we've uncovered a list of names to include in the various Roberts family constellations, that will help lead us to the right families. Simply logging on to a genealogical website and searching, say, the 1900 census for anyone named Albert Roberts in Council Bluffs, for instance, might not lead us to the right person. For whatever reason, when I first jumped in to this search, that was exactly what I tried, without any helpful leads.

Next, I'll cluster names associated with each Albert Roberts to see what groups emerge. We'll take a look at the results next week. Some will yield more obvious connections—like the first and last entries on today's timeline, for instance. Others will require additional research to corroborate the casual mentions in the newspaper itemized here. Hopefully, out of this mess of data, we'll gain some clues to lead us to the right identity for this Council Bluffs photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts—but be prepared for more questions to sprout, as well.  

Speed Dating Council Bluffs

As I sit, poised to give you the run-down of all the instances where I've found the name Albert Roberts in the Council Bluffs, Iowa, newspapers from one hundred years ago, I find an announcement for a free webinar advocating nearly the same exercise as I'm currently slogging through. The only thing is: while I'm working on one name in one location which may turn out to be reporting the identities of two different men, this workshop focuses on tracing one name through many locations.

The free webinar I'm referencing is a presentation by Dr. Jan Joyce, to be offered the evening of next Wednesday, December 19, by the Southern California Genealogical Society. I was particularly encouraged by one line in the SCGS promotion of the event:

With an exhaustive search resulting in negative evidence, the case can be proved of one person.

Did someone say exhaustive? I know I'm exhausted after going through those thirty-plus newspaper clippings from the Council Bluffs newspaper, in search of any mention of Albert Roberts, the man who, with his wife, posed over one hundred years ago in a photography studio in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Now I have the photograph, rescued from an antique store in northern California, and I want to return it to family—but to the family of which Albert Roberts is the question.

From my vantage point, mid-search, I'm already convinced there were at least two gentlemen by that same name in the vicinity during the time period of my focus, from the mid 1880s through about 1950. Still, I could only glean a bird's-eye view of that timeline, because of gaps in the collection for Council Bluffs held by GenealogyBank, my main resource for the local newspaper.

Today, let's go through a Reader's Digest version of the entries I found. To spare you the exhaustive part, I'll focus today on what I could glean about the Albert Roberts who lived in Riverton, a city outside Council Bluffs in nearby Fremont County. The earliest entries I could find, unfortunately, did not start until 1900.

• January 7, 1900: Daughter born January 4
• April 6, 1901: Mrs. Roberts sick and under doctor's care
• February 24, 1910: The Roberts' daughter is "some better"
• April 20, 1914: Mrs. Lillian Cowger and son Edward visit Mrs. Roberts; from Omaha
• July 18, 1922: Mrs. Lillian Fouts and daughter Alice Elizabeth visit from Omaha
• July 26, 1922: Albert Roberts to Omaha, visit daughter Leta, who is sick; returns home with granddaughter Alice Elizabeth Fouts
• August 7, 1923: Before moving to Fremont, Nebraska, Mrs. Lee Edwards and baby visit her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts
• June 2, 1925: A family reunion is held on the Albert Roberts farm; surnames of those in attendance include Hatton, Scharay, McKissick, Jones and Beam
• June 4, 1925: Storm damage on Albert Roberts' farm, barn roof damaged
• November 9, 1926: Birthday celebration for Albert Roberts; visitors include families of Edward Cowger, Lillian Fouts, Lee Edwards, Ed Parkinson
• December 29, 1926: Guests at Lee Edwards' home include Lillian Fouts and daughter, Albert Roberts and son Stanley, Ed Parkinson family, Mrs. Chancy Parkinson and daughter Nellie, and Leta Roberts from Omaha
• January 4, 1927: Mrs. Albert Roberts sick, perhaps "gall trouble"
• October 18, 1927: Minerva Cowger visits brother Albert Roberts; returns home following Mrs. Roberts' death 
• October 24, 1927: Edward Cowger family visits with his grandfather Albert Roberts
• January 12, 1928: Albert Roberts and daughter Leta and Mrs. C. M. Parkinson and daughter Nellie visit relatives in Farragut
• February 5, 1930: Mrs. Minerva Cowger caring for brother Albert Roberts and daughter Leta and son Stanley, then returned home to Farragut
• September 30, 1932: Albert Roberts critically ill; Daughter Mrs. Lillian Fouts visiting him
• October 21, 1932: Albert Roberts in critical condition; daughter Lillian Fouts called here from Omaha
• November 2, 1932: Mrs. Minerva Cowger of Farragut visited; brother Albert Roberts in critical condition
• June 12, 1958: 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin C. Parkinson, married at the home of the bride's parents, Mrs. and Mrs. Albert Roberts.

With that span of fifty eight years, we now have a list of all the mentions of that name, Albert Roberts, associated with the location, Riverton, Iowa—enough, in fact, to build a viable family tree. Whether that is the right Albert Roberts, however, is yet to be seen. Unfortunately, the photograph I found only showed us that he and his wife got their picture taken in Council Bluffs. The Albert Roberts from the photograph could possibly be one and the same as this man mentioned so many times from nearby Riverton. Or he could be someone else.

Fortunately, there were plenty of newspaper mentions of another Albert Roberts, this time from Atlantic, Iowa. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at those other mentions, as well as some local news articles for which no location was given. 

Scoping out the Setting

I have a hard time wrapping my head around my own family tree, much less someone else's ancestry. But when the case I'm pursuing may involve two men from the same vicinity possessing the same name, multiply that puzzle.

What we are dealing with here is a photograph of a couple I found in an antique store in northern California. The only clue, besides the imprint of the photographer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is the name of the couple written on the reverse of the cabinet card: Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts.

Currently, I'm working on constructing a timeline of Roberts family events by gleaning those chatty tidbits often featured in small town newspapers in the midwest. I searched for the name Albert Roberts on GenealogyBank, using a date range from the mid-1890s through 1950. I wanted to make sure I caught all the references to that name as the family grew older and births and marriages were added to the family history.

I was able to capture thirty such references, which I then cut and pasted into a document in date order. I also did a second categorization: I listed the references by location, as sometimes the newspaper mentioned Albert Roberts was from the town of Riverton, and other times, the location was a place called Atlantic.

And then, I got to wondering whether I was looking at news for the families of two different men with the same name. Or maybe three.

Since I'm not familiar with any part of Iowa at all—other than the small town where my own mother was born—I had to look up where those two towns were located. While they were mentioned in the Council Bluffs newspaper, I wanted to make sure each of them was within a reasonable traveling distance. After all, perhaps this was merely a case of Albert Roberts moving from one place to another over the years.

It turns out that Council Bluffs is located toward the far southwest corner of the state of Iowa, apparently just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska. Council Bluffs happens to serve as the county seat of Pottawattamie County, directly to the west of Cass County. Cass County—if you get my drift here—happens to have as its county seat the city of Atlantic. And Riverton, the third location mentioned in these newspaper reports about Albert Roberts, happens to be located two counties directly south of Pottawattamie County, in Fremont County.

Would it be possible that a couple would travel—mind you, in all their finery—all the way to Council Bluffs for their photograph? Or that they would move, in their later years, from Riverton to Atlantic? I'm not really sure. But if that means there are two possibilities for the identity of our Albert Roberts, that means we'll have to research at least two family trees.

Fortunately, there are ample mentions of this family name in the Council Bluffs newspaper, including those tediously long lists of everyone who attended the family reunion over the summer. Though I have yet to find any obituaries to help—remember, all I have is the name of the husband of this couple, not the wife's own name—we can at least put together a family constellation to lead us to other, more traditional, tools of the genealogical trade.

There is one other detail, too: thanks to a comment by reader Far Side, we now have a more accurate date range to pursue. Based on such clues as the woman's bustle and other details of her outfit, the time frame we are looking at is more likely to be around the early to mid-1880s. That timeline will require me to see what earlier newspaper reports I can add to my news clippings. Of course, one reason I may have run into what appears to be more than one Albert Roberts could be that the elder one gave his son the same name.

We'll start taking a look at the condensed version of the newspaper reports tomorrow. 

Setting the Wedding Date

Could the photo I found of a young couple in Council Bluffs, Iowa, possibly be their wedding photo? I don't suppose it was the style, back beyond one hundred years ago, to take engagement pictures. On the other hand, this portrait doesn't include the garb we nowadays expect as wedding attire. Perhaps this couple was simply possessed of a modest approach in how they presented themselves, even for festive events.

We know, for one thing, that their name—at least after marriage—was Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts. Not much help on the missus, there. So I went to a few online research resources to help myself. After finding not a few entries for the name Albert Roberts in the vicinity of Council Bluffs, I realized census records might not provide the most helpful clues. A lot can happen over the span of a decade. Not to mention, the only thing we have tying this couple's name to this city is a photography studio. Not the most compelling of reasons to stay in town.

That's when I decided to look for clues in the Council Bluffs newspaper. Of course, while we can try to do such a search cost-free through sites like Chronicling America or the Google News archive, I can also check the websites that provide subscription-based resources. After all, I do have a subscription.

It just so happens that GenealogyBank carries copies of the Council Bluffs newspaper The Daily Nonpariel for the span of time most likely to coincide with the years our Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts might have been in town. Today, and for subsequent posts, I'll be sharing what I've found through that newspaper (and its successor publications) related to Albert Roberts, though the links provided will likely only be accessible for those with a current subscription to that website.

As it turns out, there were quite a few mentions of that name in the Council Bluffs newspaper—over thirty entries, in fact—allowing me to capture enough information to build at least a rough sketch of someone's family tree. Whether that family tree belongs to our Albert Roberts is yet to be seen. But we'll give it a go with what we can find. Warning: this might not be easy.

For instance, here are two small entries in The Daily Nonpariel for January, 1900. The first one, published on January 7, states simply,

Born, to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts, January 4, a little daughter.

While that might have placed our couple within a likely time frame, the very next entry I found with that same name may actually knock the first mention out of the running. From the January 11 edition:

The county clerk has granted the privilege to wed to the following young people: Albert Roberts and Hattie Eshelman....

Our only consolation, having just been tipped off about the apparent indicator of double possibilities, is that the first one was for a couple living in Riverton, part of Fremont County, while the second report came from Atlantic, the county seat of Cass County, Iowa. Both locations, however, were considered close enough to Council Bluffs to be reported in that city's newspaper. Thus, not only will we try to sketch a rudimentary family tree from the thirty newspaper entries I've already located, but we'll have to discern which report belongs to which family, as there obviously was more than one Albert Roberts in the area.

In the meantime, the most helpful next step would be to date this photograph, and then extrapolate key dates to watch for, guessing how old the couple might have been in the photo and when each of these two might have been born.

Above: Undated photograph of "Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts" from the Sherradan photography studio in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Photograph currently in possession of author until claimed by a direct descendant of the Albert Roberts family.

Anyone's Guess

Perhaps it is possible to think one's self too clever. After all, it seems like a great racket: hit up several antique shops in quaint Gold Rush towns and rescue the abandoned family photographs being held hostage—then, à la Robinhood, return them to the bereft families from whence they once originated.

My comeuppance may have arrived the minute I lifted the picture of a young couple from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and spotted their name, written carefully on the reverse. Only problem was: the name provided—hard to read before digital enhancement—was Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts. Surely, there would be only one such couple by that name in a city of twenty five thousand people.

Then, too, there was no guarantee that this Mr. and Mrs. Albert Roberts—whoever they were—actually lived in Council Bluffs. That's just where the photographer's studio was located. Finding a city directory online for Council Bluffs would have been a nice touch, but, as it turned out, was an as-yet unsuccessful attempt. Thus, neither am I provided with a timeline of operation for the Sherradan studio nor any record of the couple's address in town.

If, that is, they even lived in town. Albert Roberts could have been a farmer somewhere in Pottawattamie County. Worse, the Roberts couple could have just been passing through town—or driving into town from quite a distance, simply for the express purpose of posing for their likeness.

Poking around in the digitized records in Ancestry.com's holdings didn't lead me to any compelling clues. I couldn't even stumble upon any enticing family trees there. So I opted for a different approach: to see whether I could find any mention of someone named Albert Roberts in the Council Bluffs newspaper.

Oh, yeah. There were plenty of articles. Enough, in fact, to help me construct an entire family tree. I wouldn't have thought it possible to build a family tree simply from newspaper reports, but in the case of one Albert Roberts, it may be a serendipitous exception. We'll take a look tomorrow at what can be gleaned about at least one family with that name from the Council Bluffs area. Either Albert Roberts was a well known man about town, or that city had a very chatty newspaper.

Whether the man in the newspaper accounts is one and the same as the young man in the photograph, however, is anyone's guess at this point.

Above: The digitally-enhanced scan of the name written on the reverse of an undated photograph from Council Bluffs, Iowa, labeled "Mr. + Mrs. Albert Roberts," followed below by the imprint of the photographer from the front of the picture. Scan and graphic manipulation courtesy Chris Stevens. Photograph currently in possession of author until claimed by a descendant of the family.

Being "That Guy"

With no thanks to a long trail of contemporary contexts of the phrase, "that guy" has become the epitome of everything which people hope never to be accused of doing. The end result of all that is that I can't simply use that phrase for an innocent application of something positive—rather than smirkingly railed against—without having to do a convoluted tap-dancing prelude beforehand.

It's only been since about 1994 that people have glommed on to the term "that guy" disparagingly—at least, according to the website Know Your Meme. The phrase's evolution since that year has gained it a berth in the Urban Dictionary lexicon, ever since then transmitting its culturally censured connotation.

But before that time—and I'm sure you can recall an era before the dawn of that phrase's current usage—"that guy" could be, well, just anyone. Especially a generic anyone. And that's how I want to use the phrase today.

You see, I read this story about a guy—an innocuous, unobtrusive guy—whose quiet way became the key to extraordinary success for those around him. I found his story in a book I'm currently reading—Daniel Coyle's The Culture Code, but more about that another day—and I've been mulling this one over for a few days now. The more I think about it, the more I think I want to become like that guy...until I realize I can't even say that without launching into a long diatribe as to why it is okay to become "that guy" when the phrase has been hijacked from its normal usage in the English language.

The story goes somewhat like this. I'll give you the author's once-upon-a-time lead up to it:

Back in the early part of the last century, well before Silicon Valley, the world's foremost hub of invention and innovation was located in a series of large nondescript buildings in suburban New Jersey.

That place was known as Bell Labs. If you've ever studied organizational development in your pre-historic, dinosaur college years—when "that guy" could innocently be an alright kind of dude—you may recall reading a paper or two on studies about what made that place so phenomenal.

It seems that, at some point, people began wondering what was at the center of this powerhouse of innovation. What made it tick?

There were all sorts of obvious clues that might have been construed as the answer to that question. After all, brainiacs and scientists bring a special set of ingredients to the mix. But in examining all the variables that might have affected the collective genius of the place, nothing much stood out as an obvious answer.

Except for one thing. The "supercreatives"—the ones who had generated the largest count of patents for the company—had this in common: they regularly ate lunch in the Bell Labs cafeteria.

No, it wasn't something in the water. No secret sauce by the executive chef. The caveat was that this one group of scientists had lunch together with a specific connection: they spent their lunchtime with one particular co-worker.

This co-worker, an engineer, was the antithesis of the eccentric, dynamic scientists populating the company's labs and offices. Though he had generated his fair share of technological advances, he was quiet, reliable, hardworking, and so predictable as to become, as the author put it, "nearly invisible."

In building his case for why this Bell Labs employee was the key to an incredible run of paradigm-shifting inventions, author Coyle cited two personal qualities possessed by this individual. For one thing, he possessed a "relentless curiosity." He asked questions, delved deeply, but above all, was always looking for connections. Tempering that urgent sense of the quest of the mind was another quality: his warmth. In speaking with others, he had a way to make them feel cared for—but he could also draw them out, get them thinking, serve as a catalyst with his questions.

It was "that guy" who stood behind much of what the other scientists at Bell Labs were developing, through his way of igniting ideas via conversation. Coyle, in carrying that theme further, shared his idea on the best way to find "that guy" in any organization, by asking one question:

If I could get a sense of the way your culture works by meeting just one person, who would that person be?

While the author continues the chapter by describing others like "that guy" who had had such a positive impact upon their organization, my mind trails off in another direction. I begin thinking about how to spark innovation and creativity in the groups where I'm currently involved—namely, our local genealogical society. I want to surround myself with others who are getting things done, coming up with all the cutting-edge projects, making a difference. I want to pick their brains, see where their concepts cross-apply to my organization, and, hopefully, return the favor by adding some of my own ideas to the mix. Perhaps the blend of those "what-ifs" will be the synergy juice to make our efforts even better.

In short, I want to be "that guy." Not the one the nineties branded with that scornful negativity, but the kind of person who serves as connecting linchpin in the relentless collective pursuit of creating change in our organizations for the better.  

Now Indexing : Back to NYC Naturalization Records

It's so difficult being homeless. Our genealogical society may have big plans and hopes, but we are still strapped to a very small budget. Despite our sixty-plus years of existence, we still depend on the graces of others for those tangible items which help any office run smoothly. Come to think of it, we even depend on others to supply that "office" space for us to conduct our business.

All that to say, it's hard to plan for training sessions for our members when we don't even have a place to host them. I'm still waiting on the word about whether we can use a computer-friendly site to train our members on how to index records at FamilySearch. Our plans for a team-centric indexing challenge may have to wait until next year. Fortunately, that year is drawing ever closer.

In the meantime, I'm playing it solo in the indexing department. I returned to my usual haunts for this month's indexing installment. New York City is always good for more naturalization records. Besides, I keep hoping to uncover a few more relatives in the process.

While there are some digitized entries from this record set already searchable online, New York being New York, there are many more to be indexed. I can always be sure of going back to the FamilySearch indexing website and finding another set of New York City naturalization records to research.

This time, I indexed records concerning quite a few immigrants from Ireland—wondering, all the while, whether the ones who came from locales of my father-in-law's family might have known any of our relatives. The world becomes a much smaller place, once we have all these documents at our fingertips, rather than seeing the crowded blur of people rushing past our faces. Digitized records in searchable form not only make a genealogist's tasks more quickly executed; they also allow us to see more of the world's timeline in microcosm form.