Can You Give Someone A Hand?

Today we feature queries from folks seeking information on Inland Northwest ancestors. If you can answer their questions, write directly to them.

Martha Daugherty Latko, 8809 Prairie Ave., Highland, IN 46322, is seeking descendants of George R. SMITH, who died in 1951, and his wife, Jessie L. CLARK SMITH, who died in 1943. They are buried in Rosalia’s (Wash.) Evergreen Cemetery. They had three daughters: Bessie, who married Henry KASTLER; Annabelle, who married John KINSELLA; and Georgia, who married a PETERSCHICK of Plaza, Wash. There were seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

William E. Jenkins, 3685-41 Vista Campana North, Oceanside, CA 92057, wants information on Walter Elias PARR, born in 1904 in Chicago. He was the son of the Rev. Walter Robinson Parr who had a pastorate in Granite Falls, Wash., 1908-1920, and then in Lewiston, 1921-1922, when he died. Walter might have remained in Granite Falls with a married sister; he is listed as being in grade school there in the 1910 census.

Kathy McKurdy Bena, P.O. Box 3016, Port Angeles, WA 98632, wants to contact others researching Claude McCURDY and his parents, Payson and Naomi (RHOADS) McCURDY who settled in Whitman County before Washington statehood.

Mrs. C. Mackay, 609-25 Ave. NE, Calgary, Alberta, T2E 1Y6, Canada, is researching Alexander SIEGEL and Sarah Ann BEEMAN of Pine City, Wash. Their children were: Jason, George, John, Alice (who married Thomas SLINKARD), Franklin, William and Grover. She is also researching the collateral lines of VAN DYKE, SAMPLY, DAVIS and REED.

Kena L. Jacobs, PO Box 422, Coulee City, WA 99115, has hundreds of antique photographs to give to descendants of a TRAUT family in Spokane in the 1920s, plus a birth announcement for Laverne Elizabeth Traut, born 15 Oct 1921 to E.W. and Ellen Traut at Deaconess Hospital. The pictures belonged to Herman and Ada (HOPKINS) JACOBS, who lived in Addy, Wash., 1906-1919, and then moved to Zillah, Wash. She also has pictures of Emma HUBERT, who married Jesse Byron GLASGO, 9 Aug 1909.

Carol Holma, 9207 W. Thompson Road., Woodstock, IL 60098, wants information on Lindley Hoag COX and wife Sarah, who lived and died in Washington in the late 1800s.

Susan Dechant of Kettle Falls, Wash., wrote about her genealogical success using the principles of collateral research: “I had been researching my husband’s Fox family for years and needed proof that Samuel Fox (1791-1880) was the father of Abram Fox (1840-1911). Samuel was buried in Parkhill Cemetery in Paris, Mich. When I visited there, I found his tombstone to be a large, four-sided monument, with one side for his son, Sydney, killed during the Civil War.

“I sent for Sydney’s military records. Because he had been killed in the war, his mother, who outlived his father, applied for Sydney’s military pension. She had to prove she was Sydney’s mother, married to Samuel; she listed her other children, including when and where they were born. Abram was one of those children! I had the proof I had been looking for, thanks to Uncle Sydney!

“With that information, I pursued Samuel in earnest. I learned he had been married three times and that my Abram had a half-brother, Cyrus. Checking the EWGS surname file, I found a biographical article on Cyrus with all kinds of information on his father, Samuel Fox, and his grandfather, Israel Fox. So, my advice to all is, yes, do pursue those collateral lines. They can pay off really big!”

, DataTimes MEMO: Readers can write to Donna Potter Phillips at The SpokesmanReview, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review