A Very Merry May | Family Milestones this Month

May Family Milestones

What say we reconvene around the campfire with a timely look at May’s movers and shakers in the Foutz-Ley family tree? It’s always neat to see how all the birthdays and weddings and, here, one passing line up.

2 – Birthday of Justin Foutz

Cousin J.D. was born in 1972 to Don and Peggy (Jones) Foutz. Still no word yet on whether Aunt Peg’s Joneses can be traced all the way back to our great-great-great grandmother Delilah Ann Jones (wife of Gideon Pfouts) of Harrison County. Happy 39th, J.D.!

Dolores, Roy & Suzanne Foutz

3 – Birthday of Roy Vance Foutz

Great Uncle Roy, that is, oldest son of Vance and Laura (Zeigler) Foutz. Born in Dover, 1908. Died of a heart attack behind the wheel in 1953. He would have been old enough to remember our great-great grandmother Rebecca (Caldwell) Foutz, who lived with her youngest son Vance’s family in Canal Dover in the 1910s.

6 — Marriage of Robert Ohio Weible and Beatrice Ethel Morgan

1914. They were both 21. She was from Carnegie, Pa., the daughter of Welsh immigrants. Her father, a steelworker and owner of the Hotel Morgan, died when she was 5. Her mother, Janet Louise (Reese) Morgan, had passed away only three months’ prior. Beatrice’s (M.A. to you and me) family had lived in Dover for awhile before returning to Carnegie a year or so before her mother’s death. An older sister, Jennet Morgan Richardson, was a resident of Dover at the time of our great-great grandmother’s death, and our great-grandmother’s wedding. R.O.’s parents were both around.

Great Uncle Carl Foutz

6 – Birthday of Carl William Foutz

100th anniversary of his birth, in fact. Great Uncle Carl was the second son of Vance and Laura. Born in Dover, 1911. Worked in the steel mill alongside his father and two brothers (the other being my grandpa, Don Foutz) before moving to Florida, where he passed away in 1972.

Edwin Frederick even looks like a Weible in this bad photocopy. Happily, he married a Ley.

8 — Birthday of Edwin Frederick Weible

Born in 1879 in Canal Dover, he was a nephew of my great-great grandfather, Franklin Eli Weible. In 1904, he would marry Minnie Mae Ley, daughter of my great-great-great grandfather Augustus Ley. Eventually, Minnie’s third nephew, Robert Earl Ley Jr. would marry Edwin’s first cousin once removed, Suzanne Abbott Weible — my grandparents.

9 — Marriage of Donald Dale Foutz and Erma Maxine Johnson

My grandparents. In 1942, at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Dover, where my great-grandfather (on Mom’s side) Robert Earl Ley Sr. was a parishioner. He was a 1932 graduate of Dover High School, a former star football player who had worked in and around Dover following a brief stint at Ohio State University. She was a 1939 graduate of crosstown New Philadelphia, and a secretary in the offices of Greer Steel.

9 — Birthday of Myron Foutz

Grandson of my great-great grandfather Jonathan Foutz’s younger brother Nathaniel. Myron celebrates his 88th this year. Congrats, cousin Foutzes!

15 — Birthday of Sarah Pacheco

Our darling cousin in Hawaii, youngest grape of Bob and Sue Ley’s bunch until my youngest bro Sam came along, is 26 this year. Sam, as most junior grape, will be 25 come July.

15 — Birthday of Dawn James

Distant cousin and partner in full-contact genealogy, Dawn is the great-great granddaughter of my great-grandpa Vance Foutz’s older sister, Ida Foutz Moreland. She is taking over age 34 almost a month before I give it up for 35, but that’s all right. I know she’ll make good use of it.

16 — Birthday of Thomas Henry Morgan

Second son of great-great grandparents Thomas and Janet Morgan. (Their oldest child’s name was William, which could provide a clue to either Thomas’ or Janet’s fathers’ names.) He lived almost his entire life in Carnegie, Pa., where he passed away in 1923 at age 46. He’s buried with his parents in Chartiers Cemetery.

18 — Birthday of Joseph Burkey

Third great grandfather, father to Annie Burkey (who would marry Clement Johnson). Born in 1839, he was a veteran of the Civil War. He is buried in New Cumberland Cemetery, near Atwood Lake.

22 — Birthday of Johann Jacob Zeigler

Great-great grandfather J.J. Zeigler was born in 1827 in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. He emigrated to America as a young man and married another German immigrant, Elizabeth Duerr. They farmed near Zoar. His death in 1897, when my great-grandmother Laura Zeigler Foutz was a teenager, remains a mystery. Laura’s daughters-in-law claim he was shot, but I haven’t been able to find any corresponding death certificate or newspaper story to verify that family legend.

Janet Louise Ley

25 — Birthday of Janet Louise (Ley) Foutz

Mom! Born in 1952 in Dover, Ohio. Happy 59th!

25 — Birthday of Thomas Moreland

Otherwise known as great-great aunt Ida Foutz’s husband, and cousin Dawn James’s great-great grandfather. Hey, he was born 86 years before my mom in Bowerston, Ohio, old stompin’ grounds of the Foutzes and Morelands.

25 — Death of Rebecca Caldwell Foutz

Thomas’s birthday was also the same day his mother-in-law, my great-great grandmother, died in 1915 at age 67. At the time, as mentioned above, she was living with my great-grandfather Vance, great-grandmother Laura, and their three sons, Roy, Carl and Don. Sister Doris wouldn’t come along until May 1917 (see below).

26 — Birthday of Delbert and Della Johnson

You’ll find twins on both sides of my family — of both my father’s and mother’s mothers’ branches (Johnson and Weible, respectively) — but always a few generations back, and not in my direct line. But let’s acknowledge the 1904 birth of Delbert and Della. Ain’t they cute? They were siblings of my great-grandfather Charles. Delbert died in 1961; Della (by then a Weber) in 1978.

26 — Birthday of Phoebe Amanda Palmer

In 1824, according to her gravestone. She’s my great-great-great grandmother, grandma to Viola Mae (Palmer) Johnson.

29 — Birthday of Doris Pauline (Foutz) Waddington

Great Aunt Doris was born in May, like two out of three of her older brothers. Only my grandpa Don Foutz was born in March, and he made up for it by having his firstborn in March, who then had a son born in May and a daughter born in March. If circumstantial gymnastics are your thing. Here’s a great pic of her as a kiddo in Dover.

30 — Birthday of Robert Ohio Weible

Born in 1892 in what was then Canal Dover, Ohio. If you think being born on Memorial Day is an occasion bedecked in red, white and blue, check out R.O.’s mom — Great-Great Grandma Esther Bliss (Goddard) Weible was born on July 4, 1852. R.O., whom she gave birth to just shy of her 40th, was her youngest child.

30 — Birthday of Elizabeth (Duerr) Zeigler

My great-great grandparents Zeigler shared a birth month, though Elizabeth was some 18 years’ J.J. Zeigler’s junior. She was born in 1845, also in Baden-Wurttemberg, which is where her mother, Katharina Weinnman was born May 17, 1814.

And that concludes our wrap-up of May milestones. Make it a memorable one, everybody!

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