The Case of the Missing Eyeball

Bruce Buchanan (1943-living) 

Father 

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan

When my dad was about five years old, he went down to Ma Buchanan's house.  He and a neighbor kid, Bobby, decided to play in a sandbox in Bobby's backyard.

This is what parents would like to think is happening when their kids play together in a sandbox.

This is usually what happens when kids play together in a sandbox.

Dad and Bobby were no exception.  They began to fight.  Suddenly, FOR NO REASON, (yeah, right Dad) Bobby picked up a chair and threw it at Dad's head.  Dad wasn't happy.

But not just because his feelings were hurt.  He was really hurt.  His eye specifically.  So he covered his face.

It didn't take long to realize why his eye was hurting.  His was bleeding!  What does any boy do when he's hurt and bleeding?  He ran into the house to find his grandmother, of course.

"Ma, Bobby hit me in the face with a chair!"

Ma Buchanan did what any grandmother would do if she saw her grandson running through the house bleeding.

No, she didn't do that.  She did this.

As Dad was bleeding over the sink, Ma Buchanan called Nona.  "Your son has been hurt, there is something wrong with his eye."  Nona jumped in her car and headed to her mother-in-law's.
Meanwhile Ma was trying to wash Dad's face, but Dad wouldn't put his hands down.  He kept covering his eye.  Finally, Nona arrived 10 minutes later, she was able to convince him take his hand off his eye.  What happened next was absolutely horrifying.

Dad's eyeball fell out of its socket and went down the drain!

Or so she thought.

Turns out the blood had begun to clot in his hand. When he let go, all of the clotted blood looked like a bloody eyeball going down the drain.

Needless to say, Dad was never allowed to play with Bobby again.

The Ellusive John Buchanan

John Buchanan (1869-1941)

My great grandfather

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan-->Robert Amos Buchanan-->John Buchanan

When I was 12 years old, I found out that we didn't know who my great grandfather's parents were.  I decided to find out.  Little did I know what I was in for.

John Buchanan circa 1940

I'll save how I found him for another post. I want to write about who he was and who he became.


Right before John Buchanan died in 1941, he gave a few clues as to who he really was.  These are the only four clues I've had all these years.

1. I was born in Highland, Illinois
2. My mother was from France.
3. My mother's name was Susan "Boo-shan" (never spelled it).
4. My father's name was Nathan.

Well that should be plenty right?  I mean all I should have to do is look in 1870 census records for a little baby named John Buchanan in a household with Nathan and Susan Buchanan, right?  Wrong.

John Buchanan wasn't born John Buchanan.  He was born Joshua Demoulin.  Here's the story.

Nathan, John's father, came to America from Northern France, with his father Martin Joseph.  They bought a farm in Clinton County, Illinois.

He met a girl named Susanne Besin also from France.

They were married soon after, and had their first child.  His name was Nathan Jr. and he was born still.

They had three more children all girls, Evodie, Lydia, and Susanne (Susie).  On October 18, 1869, they had another son.  This time he lived.  They named him Joshua and nicknamed him John.

In November of 1871, Susanne had another little girl.  This time the baby and the mother both died.  Nathan is now left with 4 children, the youngest not even two.

His father, Martin, died 5 years later.

Tombstone of Martin Demoulin in Jamestown Cemetery, Illinois.

Nathan remarried another girl, Fanny Combe from Switzerland.  They had 6 kids.

Evodie married Samuel Noel, then William Thomas.  She died at the age of 51.

Lydia never married and died at the age of 40.

Susie never married and died at the age of 86.

Joshua disappeared in 1905 without a trace.  The family just assumed he died and never had any children.



They were wrong.  He changed his name to John Buchanan, married June Miller, and became my great grandfather.

 

After 24 years of looking, I finally found him.  Nice to finally meet you Joshua Demoulin.



The 24-year Genealogy Class

Me (1969-living)

Heather Ruth Buchanan Pack

In the fall of 1988, I registered for a Rel C 261 class.  It's official name was "Family History-Genealogy."

Our entire grade was based on a single project.  Completing our pedigree chart.  All semester long we were supposed to collect photos, certificates, and other documents of our great grandparents and great great grandparents.

I had a problem.  I didn't know who all of mine were.    My Dad's line ended with his grandpa, John Buchanan.  So I filled in what I could and turned it in.  My grade?  D+.

 The very next semester I took HIST 262R, also known as Family History Research Lab.  This was a much better class.  My grade was either Pass or Fail.  You passed based on how many hours you logged researching, not what you found.  I logged lots of hours, I found nothing.  I passed.

Now, I could have been discouraged and frustrated.  I could have said, "I guess when it come to researching my ancestors, I'm a D+ student.  I'll let someone else do that."  But I didn't.  I didn't give up. 

Those two classes sparked a desire in me to continue looking for John Buchanan and his parents.  I never stopped looking.  Well, actually I did stop looking.  I stopped on March 22, 2013.  I stopped, because that  day I found him. I didn't just find him, I found his parents, siblings, half-siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on, all the way back to the 1500s.

Do you think it's too late to ask for a grade change?  After 24 years I think I deserve an A.

One Step Closer

Susan Bezin? Berzin? Bazin? Bousien? (1840-?)

My second great grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> John Buchanan --> Susan

For those who don't know, I've been searching for my great great grandmother for over two decades.

Yesterday I believe I came one step closer.  I mentioned previously that I found a Susan Bogin living with a family, the Eismons.

Initially this seemed like a dead end because I couldn't find the Eismons in any future census records, nor on any passenger lists.  Turns out the census taker and the those who indexed the names got the family's names wrong.

The head of household wasn't Fenlon Eismon.  His name is actually... are you read for this?

Irenee Foulon

Pretty different, huh?  Well, there's more.  His wife's name is Lydia Foulon.  They had a son named Irenaeus Dielschristo Foulon.  I was able to find his death certificate.  His mother's maiden name is listed as, drum roll please.

Lydia Bousien

Bousien could sound like "Boo-zhan" don't ya' think? 

This means that Susan Bogin was living with someone whose maiden name sounded quite a bit like her last name.  So I'm thinking they are related, what about you?

But wait, there's more.  While writing this post, I found another death certificate.

Do you see that?  It gives her father's name as Wer Berzin.  Now if someone who hears the name "Lydia" and spells it like "Littia."  What name was this person trying to spell by writing Wer Berzin?

The quest continues!

Before the Titanic

Petronilla Bartolomeo Litizzette

1862-1940

me-->Bruce Albert Buchanan-->Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan-->Dominica Litizzette Wahl-->Petronilla Bartolomeo LItizzette

Today I finally found the passenger list I've been trying to find for years.  The reason why I haven't been able to find it is because Petronilla Litizzette sailed to America under her maiden name, Bartolomeo.  Her two children, Guiseppe and Pietro, also used her maiden name.

They left the port in Le Havre, France and boarded the ship La Bourgogne

and landed in New York on September 17, 1888.  This ship was a French ship run by a French crew.

Here's a few facts about the ship.

built in 1885 

almost 500 ft. long

2 funnels

4 masts

7,395 tons

17-knot speed (apparently it was the fastest ship at the time)

Accommodations were

390 First Class

65 Second Class

600 Third Class

220 Crew

I don't know what class my family were, but I'm guessing third.  

Now, if you are like me, you've never heard of the La Bourgogne.  And if you are like me, you probably don't ever want to.

Before the Titantic in 1912, the world experienced a horrific tragedy in 1898.

The La Bourgogne was sailing from New York back to La Havre, France, when it hit a British vessel known as the Cromartyshire.  The British vessel didn't receive too much damage and was fine.  Initially the captian of the La Bourgogne thought they were too.  But 40 minutes later it sunk.

Here are some chilling statistics:

Number of passengers on board: 506

Number of crew members on board: 220

Number of passengers who survived: 70

Number of crew who survived: 103

Number of women who survived: 1

Number of children who survived: 0

Does it seem odd to you that only 14% of the passengers survived and 47% of the crew survived?  Well it was odd.  So much so that the surviving crew was held in custody when they reached the shore.  The United States wanted to conduct an investigation, but France insisted on bringing them back to their own country.  There they conducted their own formal investigation.

What they discovered were absolutely horrific tales of chaos and a lack of humanity.  Let's just say that if my great great grandmother and her two boys had been on that fateful voyage, they wouldn't have had a chance of surviving.

I wonder if she ever found out about the shipwreck.  I wonder if she put herself back on that same ship and wondered what would have happened had it sunk as they were sailing towards a new life.  

On a related note, I don't think I'll be booking a cruise any time soon.

Planned to set sail in 2016.

Navajo Tacos and Bubble Gum Ice Cream

When I was a little girl living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, our family drove to Price, Utah every summer to visit the grandparents.  Fortunately, my dad's mom lived just 15 minutes away from my mom's parents.

I don't know exactly which year, but the day after we arrived, Nona drove down to Price to pick up my sister and I and take us out to lunch.

"Where do you want to go to lunch?"  Nona asked.

Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what Price had to offer in the way of restaurants.

"We could go to the Carriage House," she suggested.

Again Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what a carriage house was.  Turns out it was a hotel that had a restaurant attached.  A pretty cool looking hotel actually.

This restaurant had on its menu something that Kristi and I had never eaten before.  Navajo tacos.

"Wait, you are living in New Mexico and you had never eaten Navajo tacos?"  

"We are from Southern New Mexico, the Navajos live in Northern New Mexico."

"Oh, got it.  Continue with the story."

For those who don't know what a Navajo taco is, it's fried bread (like a scone) with taco toppings piled on top.  We were very familiar with tacos and ordered it.  I loved it!

After lunch, Nona went to the cash register to pay for our meal.  There at the register was an ice cream bar, where you could get hand-scooped ice cream.  Nona offered to buy us each an ice cream cone.  As I looked through the frosty glass to see what flavors they had, I saw something I had never seen before.  

BLUE ICE CREAM!

"What flavor is that?"

"That's bubble gum ice cream."

First Navajo tacos and now bubble gum-flavored ice cream?  Price, Utah has many wonderful new and exciting foods to behold!

Of course I had to try this crazy new ice cream.  And I loved it!

How I think I looked eating the ice cream.

How I probably actually looked eating the ice cream.

The following year, Nona again came the day after we arrived and asked us where we wanted to go to lunch.  We now know of one restaurant in town, The Carriage House.  So we said, "We'd like to go to the Carriage House."

When it was time to order our lunch, we knew of one item on the menu.  Navajo tacos.  So we got Navajo tacos.

When Nona offered us ice cream, I got the one flavor that you could only get in Price, Utah.  Bubble Gum.

Pretty soon, going to the Carriage House for Navajo tacos and ice cream became a tradition that would last for many years.

Even now I still like to order bubble gum ice cream. It always reminds me of Nona.

This story features:

Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (1916-1998)

My grandmother (Nona)

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan

The Life He Was Meant To Live

Milo Andrus (1814-1893)

My third great grandfather

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Robert Amos Buchanan --> June Miller Eckstein Buchanan --> Lavenia Andrus Miller McComb-->Milo Andrus

Milo Andrus is probably the most famous Mormon ancestor I'm related to.  His home is one of the sites at This is the Place Heritage Park.  

Most of the stories I know about Milo Andrus are about his later years.  He brought three handcart companies across the plains, including one that had two of my mother's ancestors in the company.  But recently I discovered a story he wrote about himself and his father.

When Milo's mother died, Milo was 15 years old.  He says that he "bought the balance of [his] time until [he] was twenty-one of [his] father."  I'm not exactly sure what he means by this, but all I can conclude is that he was considered to be an indentured servant or apprenticed to his father and wouldn't be released until the age of 21.

How much do you think he paid for his freedom at the age of 15?  

$150

How much do you think that is in today's dollars?

$3116

As hard as it is to imagine having over $3000 at the age of 15, it's even harder to imagine giving it up just to be free of my father.  Milo must have had great conviction at such a young age to know that the life he was living was not the life he was meant to live.  

Milo joined the church a couple of years after he had bought his freedom.  Within of month of his baptism, he left his new bride and began missionary work in Ohio.  At one point, he was to travel to Mansfield, Ohio to join the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith.  Elder Orson Hyde was to lead the group.

To get from Huron County, Ohio to Mansfield, Ohio, the group needed to pass by Milo's father's home which was by Lake Erie in Henrietta.  His father caught wind of the plan and decided to get the sheriff to help him stop Milo at the county seat in Norwalk.

When Elder Hyde, heard of their plan.  He came up with a plan of his own.  He made inquiries about a road to Tiffin to make Milo's father and sheriff think they they were going to avoid Norwalk.

Not wanting to take over Milo until he camped, his father and the sheriff decided to wait until the end of the day.  During that time they, as Milo describes it, "drank freely."  Finally, in the evening they set out toward Tiffin to find Milo's camp.  Well into the night, they got tired and decided to head back home.  The next morning they discovered that Milo was 40 miles down the road on the way to Mansfield.  Realizing they had been duped, they gave up and went back home.

By this time, Milo knew he was living the life he was supposed to live, and nothing, not even his father or a sheriff, was going to get in his way.