Pin Oak Research

09/05/2022

I wrote this article a couple of months ago.

Friendship

Have you ever found an old picture and wondered who the person was and what kind of life they lived? I have.

Several years back, prior to 1998, my husband and I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to see his grandmother. While we were there, we drove across town to see my Uncle Malcolm Munson. He showed me an old photo album that belonged to his mother. Graciously, he allowed me to take it and get copies of the pictures made.

His father, Joseph Christopher “Kit” Munson have given the photo album to his wife, Eva 1904, as a Christmas gift. At the time they lived in Hope, Lavaca County, Texas.

There were a lot of family photos throughout the album. However, one particular photo caught my interest. It was of a beautiful young woman named Myrtle Thrift. I did not know whether she was family, or a friend of Eva’s. I was not able to find her among family, so I turned to friendship. Many years passed without knowing how she was connected with Eva Munson.

Over the years, I would take a chance at trying to find her several times, and then I would let it sit. While going through the album once again, I decided to take another look. I found a Myrtle Thrift in the 1900 census of Lavaca County, Texas. She had a marriage record from 1909 in Gonzales County, Texas. This was promising since I knew Eva Belle Airhart was born in Lavaca County, Texas. I pulled up the census document and located Myrtle Thrift. I took a chance and looked at the pages before and after, and sure enough I located Eva Belle Airhart and her family.

Eva Belle Airhart, 8 years old, was born August of 1892, and Myrtle Thrift, 7 years old, was born February of 1893. They were six months apart in age. Since Myrtle was in Eva’s photo album, I assume they were childhood friends. Unfortunately, my great grandmother, Eva Belle Munson passed away at the age of 36 on July 14, 1929.
Myrtle Thrift married Thomas Shelton Southerland White on May 26, 1909, in Gonzales County, Texas. They had one son, Hurst White. She later remarried, and passed away on October 26, 1973, in San Antonio, Texas as Myrtle T. Deviney.

09/05/2022

FROM MONEY TO THE SALT MINES

In the 1800’s, Charles and Louis Delcambre immigrated to Louisiana from Belgium. They settled in the area between the two towns of Delcambre and New Iberia. Desire Delcambre, son of Louis founded the town of Delcambre, which became known as the sh*****ng capitol of Louisiana. Desire Delcambre’s first cousin once removed was Aldes Delcambre, my great grandfather.

The idea for this story began from two pictures. The first one was taken in 1920, and the second was taken between 1926 and 1930. The contrast between the pictures made me wonder what happened. They looked very well to do in the first, and completely penniless by the second. I reached out to my dad’s first cousin, Drue and she began to bring the story to life.

Aldes Delcambre, also known as Ideat, was born in 1885, and married Elodia LeBlanc in 1908. He was a trapper up and down the bayou. One day he was climbing on a stump to get a better vantage point when his shotgun went off, blowing off half of his forearm. They were able to get him home and place him on the dining room table, where the doctor amputated the remainder of his lower arm. As soon as his arm healed, he was back at work. He never thought of himself as handicapped, and could set his traps with one arm, faster than anyone in the area.

During this time, he also owned several sh*****ng and fishing boats. He was also a gambler, and as was common, there were games of chance on the boats while out in the bay. So much money exchanged hands, that they would throw the silver overboard and keep the paper money. According to his daughter, Elda, they were so rich he didn’t need the coins. They had a housemaid/laundress and a nanny for the eight children. They were the second family in the town of Delcambre to buy an automobile, the doctor was the first.

Around 1925, Aldes became very ill. By the time he died in 1926 at the age of 40, they had spent all their money trying to get him well. Elodia was destitute at 32 years of age with 8 children and had to find a means of support. So, she moved with her eight children to Jefferson Island which was a small village built on top of a very large salt mine.

Elodia had several brothers and nephews who lived and worked on Jefferson Island. She moved into one of the small houses there with her family. The younger six children went to the school that is still there today. She took in washing and ironing for the workers, management, and the owners of the mansion. She washed under the oak trees and had bloody sores on her hands from the harsh soap and scrub board. At night she would wrap her hands with cloth and rub salve on them to help heal and reduce the pain. The oldest daughter, Cecile was 14 years old and went to work in the bagging department of the mines. The oldest son, Louglace, (my grandfather) was 13 years old and worked underground in the salt mines with the men. Some days all they had to east was a palm of cooked rice. When the children were in or about the 6th or 7th grade, they had to quit school and go to work. Elda, (Drue’s mother), went to work at her Aunt Bye’s house doing housework and helping in their restaurant.

The three younger sons, Artilus, Edus and Percy went on to serve in WWII. They were awarded many medals for bravery. Artilus, the older of the three came home with tuberculosis. He was sickly and disabled until he died at the age of 35.

After all her eight children were settled on their own, Elodia married an older gentleman by the name of Lodias Stelly in 1938. They moved to Pecan Island where he had a home next to the rice canal that provided support for his crops. He was a rice farmer and owned hundreds of acres of land on the island, there were tons of crawfish in their rice fields. During the season they would surround the home as far as you could see on all sides. They were so plentiful, that they covered the road in front of the house.

Lodias Stelly had six sons and seven daughters from a previous marriage, who lived in the area. He had lots of money but was very frugal. He was known to carry over $2000 cash in his wallet. They lived there until the early 1960’s when he started getting sick, then they built a home in the town of Delcambre where they lived there until their deaths. He died at 90 years of age in 1966, and she passed on her 93rd birthday in 1986. The remaining children began to pass, beginning in 1976. The last child died in 2004, on her 65th wedding anniversary.

This story was co-written by Drue Suire Breaux, granddaughter of Aldes and Elodia, daughter of Elda Delcambre Suire, and Pamela Russell, great granddaughter of Aldes and Elodia, and granddaughter of Louglace Anthony Delcambre.

I have included the following pictures
• Aldes Delcambre as a teenager
• Family picture from the winter of 1920
o Top Row – Elodia & Aldes
o Middle Row – Cecile & Louglace
o Bottom Row – Currly, Elde, Elda and Artilus
• Family picture between 1926 and 1930
o Top Row – Cecile, Elde, Artilus, Elda, Louglace, Currly
o Bottom Row – Percy & Edus
• Lodias and Elodia Stelly
• Elodia with children, Percy and Cecile
• Elodia Stelly – top left as Delcambre Shrimp Festival Queen
• Cecile Delcambre Migues Walls
• Cecile (L) with a cousin in 1940
• Louglace Anthony Delcambre
• Elde Theresa Delcambre Dore & Elda Marie Delcambre Suire
• Edus Pierre Delcambre
• Percy Sylvester Delcambre
• Picture of Elda Suire’s children, Drue, Brud, Loretta, Carolyn and Joey
• Picture of Louglace and his son, Kenward Delcambre, my father. (My dad looked so much like his father in the 2nd family photo)
• Kenward Delcambre and Sandra Royer, children of Louglace Anthony Delcambre
• 3 pictures of the Jefferson Island Salt Mines, along with one of the fabric bags

03/20/2022

Starting Life Under an Oak Tree

In 1932, Roy P. Stuckey came to town and saw this 14-year-old girl named Lela and fell in love. The girl did not feel the same way about him. He was fifteen years her senior and bargained with her mother to marry. She accepted that arrangement, not for love but to get away from babysitting her older siblings’ children. She had no life at home and was always on call to watch her nieces and nephews. Marriage seemed like a better proposition. Little did they know where life would lead them or how.
Times were so different. They married with no plans on where to live. After their wedding, they moved in under an oak tree and stayed there for several days before her older brother took them to his home. One morning an argument arose over an egg. There was just one egg, and her sister-in-law and her argued over whose husband would get it for breakfast. To this day, I do not know who got the egg, but afterwards Lela and Roy were living under the tree again. Adversity can bring people together. It was not long before Lela indeed fell in love with Roy. And from that first oak tree to many years later in their last house on Schley in San Antonio, Texas, they built an incredible life together. They had two boys and two girls. Each of the children raised large families themselves. Roy’s adventures in employment would include border patrol, prison guard, potato farming, campground superintendent, DOCTOR who also practiced as a veterinarian when needed, building a business in vending machines, and property rental. Lela worked cleaning houses, waitressing, and running her husband’s businesses. They lived from Austin to Mexico City and many destinations in between. Life was full. Life was good.
Life provided its shares of hardships too, and together they dealt with each one of them. During my senior year, their house burned down. It was tragic for the whole family. Roy, known as Popo, advanced in age, and did not fare well from that tragic loss. They would afterwards move to their final home, where a few years later, he would pass in 1990, suffering from dementia. Lela, known as Nana, moved beyond that loss, and kept busy in church, her ladies daily “phone” group, and being a beloved mother and grandmother to our family. She buried one son and two grandsons, which was difficult to overcome. In Lela’s later years, her girls moved her to Plano Texas to be near them until her death in 2006.
I remember her daily. Her furniture and photos fill my home. I cannot go into any room without feeling her there. My hope is that her legacy, and mine one day, will continue with those that follow behind us. Genealogy has been a huge gift to me for that very reason. To know about them is often as good as knowing them personally. That has proven true for many generations in my family tree. Our genealogy research has bred respect and knowledge for so many people that made me and mine. This knowledge reminds me daily that I am not alone, nor is my journey in life. It a continuation of many that have come before me.
I am blessed.

03/19/2022

I will be posting another story and pics tomorrow. Sorry for the long absence. Life has been busy.

10/17/2021

How did it get there?
As a teenager in the late 1970s, I became very interested in the history of my grandmother’s house. I spent much time at the San Antonio Library and City Hall searching fire maps and records to learn its history. Nana showed me where she thought the house was expanded and we located plats to confirm its growth. One day she pulled out an old photo album that was found in the attic when they moved in. It was full of history showing a house similar to theirs, but different. She showed me a house around the corner that she thought might be the same house. We agreed that was the house in the album, but she knew nothing of the people in the album or why it was in her attic. After that I never saw the album again. Nana’s house caught fire several years later. They moved from the neighborhood and that chapter was closed. My grandparents have since passed.
This spring I was going through some of their belongings which were passed down to me. One was a big box of old photos. Pamela and I went through them carefully trying to identify people from long ago and memories that have stood the test of time. When we got to the bottom, we found a large black photo album. When I opened it, I immediately realized it was THAT photo album which my Nana shared with me forty plus years ago. I looked through every page, reliving the discussions we had as we pondered that other house. I could still hear her words pointing all types of things about the neighborhood where both homes stood. This discovery was a real delight, but that delight sent me directly “down the rabbit hole” of continued research. Why this album was there and who these people were had to be answered and we had to find these people and get this book to them.
After hours of inspecting this treasure trove, we knew enough to get started. Girl, 18ish, named Elaine, went to Breckenridge High, had lots of friends and even a friend directory page included in the album. She had a sister Iona. Both seemed close. Both had a very active social life. So to begin…
Locate house, check.
Research time family spent at residence, check.
Find their spouses, check.
Follow them up till death, check.
Locate children, check.
They had died, so locate grandchildren, check.
Find living great nephew of Elaine, check.
Call nephew, check.
MAKE CONTACT, SHARE HISTORY AND RETURN 100-YEAR-OLD LOST ALBUM TO ITS FAMILY, CHECK!!!!!!
(Events took longer than making a list. About a month.)
But how did the album get there? We did discover when Elaine was 16, a boy named John lived in Nana’s house who was also 16. That family owned the house till my grandparents bought it in 1966. Maybe they were friends in the day? We’ll never know. Research is like that! We find answers to unasked questions and often don’t find them for the ones we do. But regardless of the outcome, we at Pin Oak Research enjoy the journey in the past to get what answers we can. Do you have a “Rabbit Hole” that needs diving into? Well, we do that!!

09/19/2021

There is a saying . . . “heading down a rabbit hole”

Sometimes while researching, something piques our interest and suddenly we are about to head down the rabbit hole. At this point, as researchers, we place a “rabbit” sticker so that we can continue the initial research project. Before we close the file, we will go back to the rabbit sticker, and decide whether to go down the trail or not. Sometimes the extra information can be beneficial to the file, while at other times, it is just for fun. Before taking the trip, we must be prepared to find something that explains everything, something intriguing, or something mysterious and unforgettable. Well, here we go . . .

09/05/2021

My grandmother, Irma Lee Morris’ maiden name was Munson. When I was a child, my family received a booklet on the Munson family. The booklet was written by Kenneth Elwyn Munson, my 2nd cousin, twice removed. He was born in 1912 and passed away in 2000. Most of the stories and dates came from Kenneth’s father, Charlie Ellis Munson, the grandson of Charles Fredrick Munson. Charlie learned many of these stories in the 1890’s when his grandfather lived with them.

I have included 3 pictures . . . the first is Charles along with 3 of his sisters, Hetta, Minta and Fredricka. The second is Charles, and the third is Charles and Mary's headstone.

Below is an excerpt from the booklet regarding my 3rd Great Grandfather, Charles F. Munson.

The Great Adventure

Charles Fredrick Munson was born January 26, 1814. His five sisters were Mary, Julia, Hetta, Minta, and Fredricka. Two of these sisters were older than their only brother.

They grew up on a small farm near Weimar Germany which required hard work and good management on the part of all the family to make a living. His father, Henri, owned two cows that furnished milk and butter for the family. During the day the cows were yoked together and used to pull the plow. The family raised potatoes and vegetables of all kinds, as well as grain for bread, and for the animals, chickens, ducks, and geese.

In school each child was taught a trade or special line of work. Charles was an apt pupil and before he was 18 years old had developed into a skilled workman as a carpenter, wheelwright, and blacksmith.

Before his birth Germany had been overrun by Napoleon. Three hundred German duchies and kingdoms had been forced to combine into 39 units with war between them most of the time until unification in 1871 by Wilhelm I with the help of Bismarck. In order to wage war against others and enforce repressive measures, Saxony and most of the other German kingdoms required 4 years of military service of all males at 18 years of age.

To avoid this unwanted requirement, Charles escaped to America in 1832. Among some goods being shipped to America was a feather mattress. The five sisters sewed him inside with a hole for breathing and placed him aboard the ship. When the ship was at sea, Charles came out of hiding and worked for his passage to America.

He landed at Charleston, South Carolina where he soon found a butcher who spoke German. He worked for the butcher for some time. By 1840 he was living in Mobile, Alabama where he helped Mary Sanger who was from Alsace-Lorraine (French territory at that time) unload her baggage. Her ship left Europe with a 60-day supply of food and water but encountered a tropical storm on the way. It took 90 days from crossing and there were without food and water before they landed in America. In 1840, Charles and the black-haired, black-eyed Mary Sanger, who was born in 1811, married February 23, 1943.

His five sisters decided to join them in America. Their voyage to America was interrupted, and they were shipwrecked in Key West, Florida. The sisters survived but remained in Key West. Charles went to see them. Yellow fever was epidemic in Key West at that time. He and the sisters came down with the fever. His sisters, Mary and Julia died. Charles attributed his survival to the fact that he jumped into a cistern of water and his fever broke soon after he was pulled out. The three sisters shown in the picture with him also survived the epidemic. That picture was made at Key West in the 1890’s when Charles went back for an extended visit for two years.

Charles and Mary had four children born in Mobile, Alabama. A daughter was born in 1842 and died in 1846. Edwin William Munson was born March 15, 1844. He remembered his older sister as well as the younger one who was born in 1846 and died as an infant. Charles Wesley Munson was born March 28, 1848.

In 1849, a hurricane demolished Mobile, Alabama. Charles and Mary moved to Texas with their two sons a few years later. At first, they went to Fredericksburg and then to Seguin where Edwin joined the German Methodist Church in 1854.

From Seguin they moved to the small community of Hope, Texas in Lavaca County where Charles first bought land from the State of Texas in 1857. Hope had a German Methodist Church which was organized a year after Texas independence from Mexico. The church had a log building on public land on the banks of Scarborough’s Branch until 1855. Mary was buried there in the Harless Cemetery in 1870, and Charles beside her in 1901.

Excerpt written by Kenneth Elwyn Munson, with slight updates by Pamela Russell

08/23/2021

From a friend . . .

08/09/2021

I have attached an abbreviated price list below. Contact us for a detailed list.

FREE CONSULTATION . . . 30 minutes

08/09/2021

Meet one of our genealogists . . .

My name is Amanda Snyder.

Genealogy has been a huge part of my life since I was a little girl. For the past 30+ years, my parents have spent countless hours researching our family’s history. It was not uncommon to find me and my brothers in libraries, courthouses, nursing homes, cemeteries, or visiting family…all for the sake of research. Over the years, my parents love of genealogy has become a passion of mine as well. For the past 13 years, I have been lucky enough to be part of an industry that has allowed me to turn my passion into a career.

08/09/2021

Embracing the Skeletons

Family research is always interesting. New discoveries from historical places to lost defining moments, helps ground us and gives us roots. Sometimes it reveals things that one never knew, didn’t expect, nor does it fit in our “folklore.” We have all heard the saying skeletons in the closet. Beware because researchers look in closets, and once skeletons are found that knowledge and reality is hard to ignore.

In 1991, while researching my Russell family heritage we found such a skeleton. In those days there was no internet. We had to search old archival documents, trace trails of people’s travel, speak to heirs and connect unnoticed clues that were always before us. Our document was a letter. The trail was my grandfather’s military assignments in Utah and San Antonio and the clue…a photo.

When my Nana Russell was put in a convalescent home, we put all her stuff in storage. Later that stuff, seemingly unimportant or valuable, was retrieved by my wife and me. In a box was a letter and in the letter was a photo of a boy named Bill and some woman. My grandfather was called Bill. The date would suggest that this boy, was very close to my father’s age and there was a close resemblance to my dad, an ONLY child named Charles. I felt sick. What was happening?

A little back history. My grandfather vacated his family early in my dad’s life. He spent most of his time in the military and basically missed his upbringing. When he came home, it didn’t last long. He and my father didn’t have a relationship. My grandmother hated that man and his family. It stayed that way until his death in 1980. We didn’t know much of anything about the Russell name or its heritage. My grandmother just told us things like “drunks and horse thieves.” She might have been a little bitter. Then here I came wanting to know EVERYTHING about who I was. She gave me what she knew, like where they came from, states, names of people she knew or heard of and other basic information. It wasn’t much but I was determined.

Back to the Box. When we realized that there might be another child, I went digging. We drove from Dallas to San Antonio to speak with Nana in the home. She confirmed what we suspected. There was another child out there. She knew nothing about him. When asked why Dad didn’t know, she said it was none of his business. After that bitter moment, she finally explained what happened.

My grandfather was a nice man then. A family event and WWII had hardened him. When he was single and stationed in Utah, he had a best friend that was married. They made a pact that if his friend died in war, my grandfather would take care of his wife. An accident happened at the Utah base and the friend died before being sent over. My grandfather honored his pact, the two fell in love and my grandfather wanted to get married. She said no. She had a blind father that she couldn’t leave. He would go off to war and probably settle back in Mississippi. She couldn’t move so she said goodbye. Soon afterwards, he was transferred to San Antonio. Again, the woman said no. The first week in San Antonio, at a dance for the soldiers my grandfather met my grandmother. It was love at first sight for each. They were inseparable until he was shipped off. They got married before he departed. My grandmother became pregnant and was now married, with child and without her husband until the end of the war. What no one knew for several years is the woman in Utah also was pregnant. My father was born soon after his unknown half-brother. Why she kept this secret, I don’t know. But here we are. The search for the long-lost Uncle was underway.

Again, no internet! This was the hardest most extensive search we have ever done. It took a month to find him. I will still remember making the phone call that day. I was shaking in anticipation, excitement, and a lot of fear of his reaction. It was surreal. The phone rang, someone answered, and I asked for Bill Russell. The phone was passed off to some lady. You could hear commotion in the background. I remember hearing her say “Hello” for the first time. I told her my name and she gasped. She listened to everything I told her, as if I was apologizing for so many wrongs I didn’t know about. She was kind. I could feel her tears. She then crashed my little world and informed us that Bill had passed….14 days prior.

He died thinking that his father had abandoned him and went off and made another family with someone else. He thought my father was having the best life ever as if an episode of “Father Knows Best.” He carried that pain his whole life and here I was, too late. I couldn’t fix this wrong. I was devastated. My Dad was crushed. I wish I had never opened that box at that moment. Pain! More pain for everyone involved. That poor man. His poor family and wife. My disappointed Dad. I was sick.

The last thing I remember of that phone call was the voice of his wife. It started out so sad. She, still grieving the recent loss of her husband and now this? But that wasn’t what her voiced said. She was so thankful for the call, for knowing the truth, and had concern for my dad. I was taken back by the change in her spirit. I told her I was so sorry. She said don’t be. I said but I was too late, and she told me that for the last 14 days, Bill has known the truth. Bill is fine. I loved my new Aunt Carol.

The skeleton in our close though, was not a long-lost half-brother. It was the story, THIS story, that isn’t true!

As I said earlier, times have changed. Advanced technology and research tools, now gives researchers so much to work with. We all have family lore, but a researcher may discover facts that do not cover people’s culpabilities even if it helps the future deal with real pain. This closet needed to be cleaned. Unfortunately, that is something that researchers often must do!

One fact remains…I wish I could have met my Uncle Bill. He seemed like a good decent man deserving of being grafted into our crazy family tree. One day, Uncle Bill, one day.

If you need closets cleaned, Pin Oak Research can try to do that for you. All skeletons welcomed!

07/28/2021

07/28/2021

continuation of "Once I Was Lost But Now I Am Found"

06/16/2021

Please email for a price list of services offered.

06/16/2021

Meet one of our Genealogists . . .

My name is Timothy Russell. I had two types of grandmothers, one that kept secrets, and one that lied about her family facts. My curious nature never accepted such situations.

I remember going all over San Antonio, Texas looking at the houses our relatives lived in. Who was born where, when they lived there, and the nearby churches and schools of my elders. That passion for knowledge spurred me to begin my research hobby early in high school.

Today I have decades of property history and family heirship research experience. Knowledge is fun, enlightening, and sometimes a bit surprising. Let me share your history with you.

06/16/2021

Meet our Owner and one of our Genealogists . . .

My name is Pamela Russell. My father was born in southern Louisiana, Cajun country. There was an early desire to know my family heritage on that side. My grandfather on my mother's side was one of nine children. Due to circumstances, his sister became lost to family through the years. I had a driving force to find her and reunite her back into the family. I located her in 1992, four years after she passed away. I have spent decades searching family records and collecting stories.

I have over 40 years of experience in genealogy research. At the time that I started researching, everything was done by mail, phone and on foot. I love to go graveyard stomping in the old cemeteries. Let me put my knowledge to use in helping you find your relatives.

06/16/2021

06/16/2021

With so much information out there about ancestry research and DNA results, it can be very overwhelming and confusing. We bring all that information together in a concise and understandable format.

Some of our services offered include:
- Family History
- Lost relatives
- Heritage
- Migration history
- Military Service
- Residence History

Whether you are looking for any of the above, or something specific, we are here to help.