My Rebus Postcard

I had the great fortune of acquiring this postcard, copyrighted 1909, from an antiques dealer in Colorado. It is a rebus puzzle postcard, made as an advertisement from the Sawdey and Hartner City Market Seed Co. in Denver CO. It was copyrighted by Mrs. Stella Gilbert from Council Bluffs, IA.

A rebus puzzle is one that uses pictures or symbols in place of words or syllables. On the front of this postcard is "A Farmers Love Letter". See if you can solve the puzzle, it is pretty easy and so cute. On the back is the handwritten name and address of the intended recipient, Miss Bertha Cooper of 306 N. Seventh St Monroe LA. There is also the post stamp dated for Sep 9, and the one cent postage stamp. There is no written or stamped year, so I don't know for sure when it was sent, but I believe the postage for a postcard was one cent between the years of 1898 and 1952.


This postcard has a little more meaning to me other than its obvious charm. The Sawdey in question here is a relative of mine (although not a blood relative), Curtis Isaac Sawdey. He had this seed company in Denver for a while and then moved on the Los Angeles, where he eventually became the president of the Western Growers Protective Association.

He married Minnie H Medaris sometime around 1900 or so. Minnie is the younger sister of Lily, who is my great-grandfather's first wife (she also is no blood to me). Lily had three sons, two of which were quite young when she died. My theory is that when their mother died, these two boys went from their home in Iowa to live with their maternal grandparents in Denver. I also think that when Minnie married Curtis they took in the one boy and raised him as their own.

I have not found conclusive proof of this, but there is a lot of circumstantial proof. The boy I found living with the Sawdeys has the same first name (Burr) and birthday as Lily's son. He is living with Lily's other son, Walstein, with Lily's parents, and they are both listed as their grandsons. However, Minnie claims him as her son. I believe he is at best only her adopted son. Minnie was only 15 when Burr was born and not even married yet. Also, if this boy is actually Minnie's boy, where is Lily's boy? It seems logical that Lily's husband could have sent the two young boys to live with grandparents when his wife died. It seems unlikely that he would have split them up. It seems highly unlikely that Minnie, at 15 and unmarried, had a son who just happened to be born the same month and year as Lily's son and that she named him the same name.

My great-grandfather, Walstein Tyrrell, eventually married a second time and had several more children, including my grandfather, Fitz. Over the years I have known of Burr, but not much. I knew he existed and I wanted to find him. By the time I started researching my family everyone who knew Burr personally had died. He has been quite elusive, but I have been so determined to find out what became of him. He is my grandfather's half-brother. I want to know if he and my grandfather were ever like brothers to one another. I have found only one record of Burr Tyrrell. I have found several of Burr Sawdey. I know that Burr Sawdey moved to Los Angeles, as did all the Tyrrell boys, including my grandfather. Did they meet up? I may not ever find out for sure, but it gives me a pleasant feeling imagining that all the brothers did in fact get to know each other and hung out together.

UPDATE: The mystery of Burr has been solved and is in detail on my family tree on Ancestry.com

Finally Breaking Through the Brick Wall...I Think.

I was researching Millie Haynes. She was born around 1845 in TN. I found a 5 yr old Milla in Hamilton Co TN and a 15 yr Milley in Greene Co AR in 1860, in both cases her father's name is Miles. These were obviously the same family, all family members' names and ages matched up. But this did not prove she was my Millie. I was having trouble proving her parentage.

I knew she married Bill Sisco before 1880 and that they lived in AR. I found them on the 1880 census for Randolph Co AR. They are listed with some people named Littler. I did not know these people and wondered who they were for quite some time. I still was no closer to her parents.

When I thought I had exhausted all avenues, I decided to go back to the Milla and Milley I found in 1850 and 1860. I went through and searched all her brothers, trying to find them as adults. One brother in particular was Alexander. I found an Alexander Haynes in 1880 in Lawrence Co AR, same age and birthplace as Milla's brother. I discovered that he is also listed with people named Littler. And that was it, my connection.

So, I concluded that all these Alexanders are the same person based on location, family members, date and place of birth. I concluded that my Millie and these other "Millies" are also the same person, based on date and place of birth and the fact that both she (after her marriage to Bill) and Alexander had these Littler people living with them. This means that my Millie's father is Miles Haynes. While not 100%, it would be very coincidental to find that these were actually different people.

After making that connection, I have since found other names that connect these people on marriage records and census records. I consider it a success.

But I still don't know who the Littlers are.

The importance of searching collateral lines was very apparent in this case, it was the key to finding the information I needed. So don't ever discount collateral lines.