Elizabeth Ellen Tyrey Reiter

Eliza is also my great-great-grandmother (my grandfather Roy Long's grandmother). Her father Jacob Tyrey (the surname was probably not spelled that way) came from Germany and settled in Wisconsin (mining) before coming to Missouri. Her mother Celicia Gilpatrick or Kilpatrick(probably a Scotch-Irish name) was from Tennessee---I don't know any more about either of them.

I've mentioned before that being related to someone famous doesn't interest me, nor does having a family tree back to the dawn of man. I'm interested in where my ancestors lived and why they moved. My cousins Gwendolyn and Ira Pigg just sent me a package with some documents they copied for me. Above is an envelope that had her pension check in it (her husband Louis Reiter was a Civil War veteran). I don't think she actually lived in Oermann, Missouri, but nearby---this is on the Morse Mill-Grubville Road (I think)
If you look in quadrants 19 and 20, you'll see the name "Elizabeth Reuter" whom I believe to be Elizabeth Reiter. I've found spelling mistakes on every relative in this 1898 atlas.
The 1900 census shows who lived around her, and I can find all of those names near her on that Atlas page. She still had Annie Josephine Reiter Phenty and Edward William Reiter living with her. Below is a note she wrote Annie:

Aug. 12, 1898
To Annie
A life can be well ended
if it has been well spent.
Eliza E. Reiter

Catherine Brown Long

Milton Long and Catherine Brown Long

Catherine Brown Long was my great-great grandmother---Thomas Henry Long's mother (her other children were Jeptha Long , Milton Martin Long, Nora Long Couch, Sarah Jane Long Maness, Susan Long Wallace, Mary Evaline Long Hughes, and James C. Long). This page of the 1898 Atlas has Maness, Couch, Long, Brown, Graham farms---they sure didn't go far to find spouses back then, did they?
Catherine Caroline Brown Long was the daughter of Henry G. Brown and Mary Polly Graham---both names are "old" Jefferson County names. Henry G. Brown was apparently the constable of the Big River Township (click here to see---on the document with guardianship of Thomas's children)

Milton Long

I don't really have many stories about these great-great grandparents---Milton Long and Catherine Brown Long. One story that I recall was my dad's uncles saying how much he looked like their grandfather Milton. I always thought dad looked like their father, but they insisted he looked more like their grandfather and I can actually see it, now. (Double-click on any of the documents to see more clearly---use the back arrow to come back)

While going through my files looking for something on Milton, I found this from the Pierce Mothershead web site showing what happened to Milton and his siblings when their parents died.The 1850 census confirms that Milton was living with the Pounds family (along with some Mothersheads).

Louise Wicker Long ID crisis--- Post 9-11

Every thing went fine with Mom's identification until 9-11. With the Homeland Security Act, a person needed more than just an affadavit from her mother and an inaccurate birth certificate. Mother started worrying about how she was going to re-new her driver's license which didn't match the name or birth date on her birth certificate. So, she decided to hire a lawyer to correct her birth certificate. She got new documents in addition to the ones she had had. She now had documents from cousins to add to her portfolio of proving who she was. Notice she had her name listed as "Louise Alice".

Her cousin Verna McCaleb was 93 and had had a similar problem (her mother was Mary Ann Williams b.Oct 1891 Tennessee, one of the James B Williams kids---so, I think Verna was really my grandfather's first cousin).Verna says "It took me almost a year getting mine corrected. . .what I hated most I had to go to court and pay a lawyer to prove I was living. Silly, but I had to do it. The Dr. and My Dad both must have been drunk. "
Undoubtedly they had the same doctor---there weren't that many in the bootheel of Missouri in the early 1900's. When I saw the name, I laughed. So, mine isn't the only family that has a long history of substance abuse. And, yes, that's the same Limbaugh family---probably a great uncle of Rush.
Mom thought she was finally going to have it all settled after 80 years of inaccuracy when. . . the lawyer died. You would have thought he did it to spite her. She fretted that she would not be able to re-new her driver's license---there were lots of stories of people being denied because the license information didn't match the birth certificates. As I was re-newing mine, I noticed that she could get a passport with the documents she had. So, we got her a passport which matched perfectly with her driver's license and she was able to re-new her driver's license. It was cheaper than hiring another lawyer (that she was afraid would die). I think by this time she had thought getting an accurate birth certificate was jinxed---maybe she was right, but we got around it.

Louise Wicker Long Identity Crisis 1970's

In the 1970's Mom needed to "get her Social Security in order". I think she needed a new card but also knew she would need a birth certificate to claim Social Security in the future. Mother had never had a birth certificate, but had carried this affidavit (above) all of these years.
So, Mother sent off for her birth certificate. Although she went by the name Louise, her name "at birth" was "Alice Louise". (See above)The state returned her money and said it wasn't on file. She tried again driving to Jefferson City, but still they couldn't find her birth certificate. Finally, she contacted her state representative (whom she'd known since the 1940's) to see if he could "pull some strings." He was able to locate her birth certificate, but it had two problems---first, there was no name other than "Baby Girl"; second the birthdate was wrong.
Mother found out she could correct one thing on her birth certificate, but to correct two things would require a lawyer. Even to correct her name, she needed to get certain documents.
First, she needed a certified copy of the census.
Then she needed school records---check
and check.
Finally, she needed an affidavit from a relative who was alive when she was born---her aunt Ruth Williams Ezell and her uncle James Ezell. They also told her that the reason she had no name was my grandparents were fighting over her name. Grandpa wanted to name her Catherine and Grandma would not have it----that was his old girlfriend's name. The only explanation Ruth could give on the birthdate being wrong, was that the doctor was a lazy drunk who had failed to register the birth. So, to save his butt, he made the date July 20.
So, she had her birth certificate corrected with the name---she didn't think the birthdate was that important. Actually, several members of the family preferred July 20 because July 1 was too soon in the month. But, for the rest of her life, individuals referred to her inaccurate birth certificate---if a birthday card was late, "Well, no one really knows when your birthday is anyway."
It's unfortunate that someone chose to put "Alice Louise" on her birth certificate---the documents she submitted clearly indicated she went by Louise, but I think Mom wanted it to match with Social Security so there would be "no problem." Guess again---the same situation happened again after 2001!