My 2nd great grandfather William H WAITS’ card was especially interesting because it mentioned his wife Elve’s first husband John PITT.

All I’ve been [...]]]>

I thought I’d check out Footnote.com today for something different.  Within 5 minutes, I located Civil War pension cards for several of my ancestors!

My 2nd great grandfather William H WAITS’ card was especially interesting because it mentioned his wife Elve’s first husband John PITT.

All I’ve been able to find on John PITT so far, was that he was married to Elve and was the father of Samuel M PITT. No census information, no date of birth, death, or burial information.  And yet here he is mentioned on WH’s pension card!  Apparently, he served during the Civil War in Co K 58th Indiana Infantry.

Naturally, I immediately looked his card up to see what other information they had on him!

Here it is!  But… I don’t get it.  It looks to me like he died Feb 1, 1928.  Could that be right?  I guess I’ve always assumed that she was a widow when she met William.  But if he was still living, then why would William be listed on his card?  There’s nothing filled in about his widow, and I’m not sure what the 1st line of remarks means, other than 718192 matches William’s certificate number.  It looks like he filed for benefits on Dec 7, 1885 five years before William did.

Can anyone shed some light on this?  I don’t get it.

William and Elve Waits and family

Mystery solved!!

After posting about Grandpa Will’s obituary yesterday and finding the Pitt reference for Elve, I remembered seeing something with the name Pitt on it.  So I dug out my big envelope with all of the [...]]]>

William and Elve Waits and family

Mystery solved!!

After posting about Grandpa Will’s obituary yesterday and finding the Pitt reference for Elve, I remembered seeing something with the name Pitt on it.  So I dug out my big envelope with all of the original documentation that I got from my Dad and started looking.  Sure enough!  There was a photocopy of a handwritten note that I assume was transcribed from an obituary?  It’s hard to say, but here it is!

Samuel Melvin Pitt

the son of John & Elvie Pitt was borned May 13-1869 in his Grand Father home stead near Ruby Nebr he passed away at his home in Ruby a part of the home stead of his grand Father his age 70 years 10 months 3 days. His Father & Mother were the first white couple married in Seward County married Nov 12 1866.  Mr Pitt never married he preferred single life he live with his grand mother for many years and farmed the old home stead for several (photocopy cuts the rest off).

This explains a lot!  I kept running into this name on Census forms and he was always either living with a family member or right  next door to them! 

• The 1880 Census shows William H (35) & Elve (35) living with Melvin S (son-11), Fred (son-4), and Vina (dau-2).  My family group sheet shows Fred as the oldest, but I added Melvin S in anyway and just documented it with the census information. 
• I also have a photocopy of a photo (shown above) that has all of the Waits kids and their parents.  They all look pretty much identical except for the guy on the left, who looks older and has a face that’s more square than long and skinny like the rest of the family.  Yet, when you count out the kids and compare that to the family group sheet, there’s one extra.  and in my mind, it has to be  Samuel Melvin Pitt.

Thanks again to Vicki!  We emailed back and forth a few times yesterday.  I just saw this morning that she sent an awesome scan of a 1900s photo of William and Elve that I haven’t seen before.  Yippee!

If anyone has an original photo of the one posted above, or any other photos of that family, I would love it if you could scan them and send them on to me.  It doesn’t come out so well when you scan a photocopy of a photo.  Like in Multiplicity, a copy of a copy of a copy just isn’t that sharp.  =)