First Word #7 - How I'm Related to Roy Rogers and How I'm Not

I am related to Roy Rogers. I was practically born with this knowledge. It is a part of who my family is, part of how we define ourselves. Ever since I was a little kid, I was told about this fact. I have often heard stories about “Cousin Roy” who moved from Ohio to California and I have even watched some of his movies. Any time he was in the news or mentioned on TV my relatives would say “There’s cousin Roy.” It often came up in conversations with our friends. “Hey, we’re related to Roy Rogers!” The usual response being something like “Who’s Roy Rogers?” This bit of information is what got me to actually begin researching my family history. I wanted to know how we were related. (You notice I didn’t say “if.”)

We’ve all heard these claims and rumors when researching our families. If you share a surname with someone famous, chances are it’s been postulated, if not claimed as true, that you’re related. It is such a common phenomenon that genealogists even make jokes about it.

I wanted to know how exactly how I was related to Roy Rogers, I was bored and had access to a high speed internet connection before such access was common. I had grown up knowing that his name was not Roy Rogers, but Leonard Slye. My mom’s mother was Helen Sly. (Therefore, we are related!)

From doing some basic Internet research and accessing the census, I determined that Leonard Slye was born 5 November 1911 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio.1 His family owned a farm in Duck Run, Ohio where he lived and worked until about 1929. His line has been traced back to colonial Maryland.2 I have also seen some charts showing this Slye line back to Warwickshire, England.

My late grandmother Helen Francis Sly (no ‘e’ on the end) was born in Rudolph, Wood County, Ohio, 10 April 1914. I have researched her Sly line in the U.S. back to the late 1840s or early 1850s when they immigrated from Wiltshire, England. It’s the old story of three brothers in England, two of whom came to America, James and William Sly. I believe I have found them on ships’ lists but haven’t confirmed it. The Slys are found in the 1841 Wiltshire census3, then are found in Sandusky County, Ohio in 1856 when James Sly was married in Erie County.4 The other brother, William, was married in 1858 in Huron County, Ohio.5

I have found no connection between my line and the Slyes in Hamilton County. One obvious difference, but not the most important, is the spelling with and without the ‘e’. Also, Wood County is in the northwest corner of the state, near Michigan and Indiana, while Hamilton County is in the southwest corner of the state on the Kentucky and Indiana borders. Geographically, these two lines were not close. I have traced almost all of the descendants of my Sly line from William and James and have found none that have had connections to the Slyes in Hamilton County.

I had to go and spoil all the fun for my family with the pesky truth. Maybe it’s OK sometimes for a family to have a myth to talk about. There’s some history to that in and of itself. My brother now has conversations with people along the lines of “We used to be related to Roy Rogers, but my sister had to go and ruin that!” So I’ve sort of gotten a reputation as the “Confounder of Fantasy” or the “Assassin of Overstatement.” Honestly, I’m also saddened that I have debunked this myth in our family. It was a part of how we defined ourselves. My heart breaks a little because I can tell my family misses being “related” to Roy Rogers. It’s like I popped someone’s balloon just to hear it pop. Don’t get me wrong, I am interested in proof and finding out the truth just like the next dedicated genealogist. But maybe I don’t have to burst bubbles just to highlight my skills. Roy Rogers will always be a part of my family’s history and in that way we are related to him.

The next myth I’m going to tackle is that we are “direct descendants of William Henry Harrison.” My other grandmother’s grandmother’s maiden name was Harrison. Maybe I won’t share my conclusions with them this time.

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1. “Roy Rogers Tribute” on the Womack Family News website: http://www.womacknet.net/features/royrogers/roy.htm. Viewed 6 June 2007.
2. Research of Viettia Newcomb, of Ukiah, UT. Pedigree charts sent to author August 2000.
3. James Sly household, 1841 Census returns of England and Wales, Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred (Warminster), Horninsham Parish, Piece #1177. FHL film 464196.
4. Erie County Marriage Records volume 2, page 183, Probate Court, Sandusky, Ohio. (Marriage of James Sly and Catherine R[einner?])
5. Huron County Record of Marriages, page 180, Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, Norwalk, Ohio. (Marriage of William Sly and Harriet Callin)

The First Word #6: Roadside Stops: Rest Areas, McDonald’s® and Cemeteries

Last summer, my family and I visited relatives, as we do every year. All of my ancestors, all four lines, converged in Wood County, Ohio for several generations, so there is a lot of information to find each time we go back for a visit. I always make a list of new things I want to search for, such as obituaries, church records, land records, and so forth, but probably my favorite is searching for the cemeteries and tombstones of my ancestors.

Often I am visiting “easy” cemeteries such as Fort Meigs Cemetery in Perrysburg, Ohio. It is quite large but very well indexed and mapped and only a few miles from my grandma’s house. Another “easy” cemetery is Maple Grove Cemetery, in Findlay, Ohio located one block from my dad’s house. On nice days, we just take walks in the cemetery even if I’m not looking for tombstones.

On our last excursion, I had a few ancestors to locate in a “new” and as it turns out, not-so-easy cemetery in Hancock County, Ohio. Hancock is one county south of Wood, and the cemetery was near the city of Findlay. I had done some research in advance of our trip, consulted historical maps, checked county history books and looked in Google Maps for a current map of the area. I knew the general location of this cemetery, within a few square miles or so. I knew it would be between a few major roads, but not on which particular county road.

My dad, who I mentioned lives in Findlay, offered to drive us and help us find it. He knew from my maps the general area in the country where this cemetery should be and a few landmarks along the way. My extended family has become curious about my “hobby” and they are interested in the new things I find out about our ancestors every time I come. We had to take two cars because everyone wanted to ride along, six of us in all.

Since my dad knew the area best, we let him lead and followed him in our car. He drove to the general area with no problems, but after a few turns and no sign of a cemetery, we quickly realized that we didn’t know enough to find it ourselves without systematically driving up and down country roads in a grid-like manner.

After some time, we were driving down yet another country lane surrounded by farm land and a few houses nestled next to small wooded groves. My dad spotted a farmer driving his tractor down the road ahead of us. My dad, who has a knack for striking up conversations with perfect strangers, pulled up beside him and waved him down. Since I was in the second car, I couldn’t hear the conversation but I watched my dad get out and lean up against the tractor like he was talking with an old buddy about “this weather we’re having.” I watched the flapping of arms left and right and the pointing “over there.” My dad finally motioned for us to follow him, climbed into his car and we were on our way again.

We turned around and went east just one road. Behind a stand of trees that had been blocking our view, sat a little cemetery. It seemed to be well cared-for and was located a stone’s throw from someone’s house. I suspect that it was originally a family cemetery that expanded to meet the needs of the surrounding community. We had a fun time walking the cemetery and locating the tombstones together. It wasn’t too difficult to locate our ancestors due to the small size of the cemetery.

I think it was a memorable experience for my dad. I also learned one thing about genealogy from my dad during that trip; don’t be afraid to talk to the locals, and if you are, then bring along someone who isn’t. It can also become a fun activity or adventure for your family members to help you out with your research. It will give them a sense of being involved in the process.

I also try to get my children involved with searching for our ancestors. When I take them to cemeteries I use it as an opportunity to work on the alphabet.* (“Ethan, find a tombstone beginning with an M.”) On this trip, involving my kids in the search for our ancestors’ graves had begun to take it’s toll. One day, while taking some time to check out two cemeteries, my son fell asleep in the car in the cemetery. He was confused when he woke up and said “Are we still in the cemetery?” I had to answer, “No, we’re in another cemetery now.” On a different day, while riding in the car with my grandma, Ethan saw a business’s sign made out of a large slab of stone. He said to my grandma with much trepidation, “Grandma! That’s not a tombstone is it? My mom stops at anything that looks like a tombstone!” I guess he’d had enough genealogy for one trip.

*As mentioned in “How Potty Training Can Help Your Genealogy” in BGS Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2, May 2006.

The First Word #5: Building Brick Walls Between You and Your Living Relatives

The week of Thanksgiving 2006, I discovered that my great-uncle, William H. “Bill” Sly of Buckeye, Arizona had died 13 January 2005 at the age of 81. That was almost two years ago! No one in my immediate family had even heard of his passing. A cousin (my third cousin once removed) who also works on Sly research, and who coincidentally lives in Phoenix, also had not heard about his death.

I happened upon his obituary while checking out a new subscription-based web site that contains a growing collection of historical newspapers: www.genealogybank.com. I thought I would check Genealogy Bank out to see if anything useful to my research turned up. I searched for "William Sly" intending to locate my great-great grandfather by the same name in Ohio. However, an obituary for "William H. "Bill" Sly" from a Buckeye, Arizona newspaper turned up first on the list. Unfortunately, the obituary turned out to be only one sentence in length and did not have much information.

I remember visiting Uncle Bill in Arizona just after I finished kindergarten during the summer of 1980. My parents packed my younger brother and me in a van (the old style, not a comfy mini- van with a DVD player) and we headed out from Weston, Ohio to Buckeye, Arizona. I don't remember much about that trip, but I do remember it was so hot that our crayons melted! I also remember Uncle Bill was a big guy to a 6-year-old, who did a lot of laughing. We visited his mother, my great-grandmother, Lucy Alice (Long) Sly. She was living in a nursing home, was very frail, used a walker, and seemed ancient to me. She would have been ninety-two years old and she passed away that November, just five months after our visit.
Lucy Alice (Long) Sly was my maternal grandmother's mother. She was born in Audrain County, Missouri to Martha Alice “Mattie” (Mitchell) and William Henry “Harvey” Long. Her father, who was born in Ohio, moved to Missouri where he met and married his wife and they had most of their children. In 1900 he moved the family back to Wood County, Ohio. Lucy married Sanford Sly sometime between 1910 and 1915. Their first daughter Alice (who was not Sanford’s biological daughter, but that’s a story for another time), had a lung illness such as asthma or tuberculosis. Sometime between 1930 and 1936 they moved Alice and their youngest child and only son, William H. “Bill”, to Arizona thinking that the dry climate would benefit her health. Their two other daughters, Marie and Helen (my grandmother) were already married and therefore stayed in Ohio.

There are at least three living connections from my family to Uncle Bill. My cousin living in Phoenix (I mentioned earlier) said she remembers visiting my great-aunt Marie but didn't remember visiting my grandmother Helen. Several years before his death she had tried contacting Uncle Bill to see if he was interested in corresponding with her about the family––he was not. However, my mom’s half-sister, who is now the oldest living relative on that side of my family tree, used to visit Uncle Bill quite often. Unfortunately, after his mother (her grandmother) passed away in 1980, she didn’t visit as much and eventually lost touch.
Several times over the past few years I had talked to my mom about getting in touch with Uncle Bill. I especially wished to visit him again after becoming increasingly interested in genealogy. Over the years I checked the SSDI occasionally to see if he showed up and he didn't. As long as he didn’t, I kept my hope that one day we could make the trip, but it was not to be. None of my family’s connections to Uncle Bill knew of his passing for over two years.
This experience has convicted me of the fact that we need to get in touch and stay in touch with our living relatives. I am not sure why my branch of the family lost touch with his branch of the family. Surely the distance had something to do with it. Possibly telephone costs were a hindrance as well. No one has said, but maybe there were some hard feelings between family members. It is sad that he is gone, not only because I never really got to know him personally, but also from a genealogical standpoint. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS for him. He may have been the only one who could have answered them ... like the brick walls surrounding his parents and his sister Alice. I have a feeling those walls may stay there for a while if not forever. My interest in genealogy makes that breaking of a family tree branch all the more poignant.