In this visit, I had a concussion and was not so focused and dear Cousin Michael was excited about new findings. Three subjects that came up in this well of excited fascination, William Hood, Alexander Quaid and Uncle Bill and Aunt Bet, have been set aside as separate articles #5, #6 & #7. The first phase of this discussion follows and then we will focus on the mechanics of Mike’s look into the birth records.
To the Office of Register of Vital Statistics, Board of Health, Baltimore City
“I looked from 1895 through 1905 for Lillian Seibel, birth of twins, boy and girl. Your mom says Lillian told her that he died at birth or soon after. He is not on the census for 1900. She was, they put 1 over 12 for her, a fraction of the year. The address is just a few doors down from the address that appears on this document. The name that is on the census is Lillian Arthur, who must have been the father.”
“She lives for two years without a husband. She was living with her mother and father and her unmarried siblings. Her father dies that same year of 1900 or soon after, then she lives with her mother. When she applies for divorce in 1903 the father has passed away. In the divorce testimony, her mother, Willhamena, but she went by Mini, says that she had to support William Hood, who had no job. Lizzy Siebel, who every body knew as Grandma Jubb, married William Hood [for which there will be an extensive treatment], that lasted all of two weeks, then she married James Jubb.
“They made the society pages—the Jubbs were not working class.
“I made a mistake and found the wrong James Jubb.
“My mother remembers Grandma Jubb drinking coffee from a saucer, because she lived just a few houses up on McKewin Avenue.
“I have a marriage certificate of Elizabeth Siebel and William Hood.
“So, we’re not Jubbs.
“I have left numerous ancestry sites because of all of these white people claiming that they are Cherokee. That is like me saying I’m black because my Great Grandfather was. I’m not any, because my Mom was adopted. I wasn’t supposed to happen because my dad was having extensive chemo therapy in 1968, and shazzam, Cherry got pregnant. Then when she married John, John was supposed to be sterile from having mumps as a kid. And bam! Johnny was born, and she made John have vascectomy. [Not even trying to spell it.]
“We couldn’t sleep out overnight in our back yard because the “boogies” would get us and when we drove through Park Heights she’d say roll up your windows were going through niցցer safari country. During the riots her and Mike Jones, my bio dad, were driving around with a white flag on their antenna until the National Guard pulled them over and told them to get home. My mom was a cub scout leader and was pissed off because she had to have a Filipino and black kid in the group—now she would deny that ever happened.
“We are Arthurs, biologically. I consider the family you are raised in more important than the biology. I see more examples of nurture being transmitted down than nature.
“Lillian was born, our great grandmother, was born out of wedlock, before our great great grandmother married James Jubb. Lillian was adopted by James Jubb, after the fact. That’s why we are legally but not biologically Jubbs. Jubb could come from two different places. It’s middle English for Jew or its Frisian for Job, for someone who works really really hard, doing slave labor if you are Frisian. So there is possible there is some crypto Jew origins. It’s so complicated. It makes sense to me because I’ve been doing it for so long. I learn in bits and pieces. I try to explain it to people and they have a hard time. This is the first time I really plowed through a certain aspect of our family. I tend to get distracted and this is the first time I really put my nose to the grind stone.
“Yes, Great Grandma [Lillian] was a bastard. She was with her biological mother [Lizzy, Elizabeth Siebel], [1] and adopted by her mother’s second husband, James Jubb. James moved into their place, at 449 North Milton Avenue. The Siebels came from Germany.
[So Lizzy has Lillian by a man named Arthur, whose first name is not known, as Michael has not gotten that record yet.]
“Can only assume his last name was Arthor because that is the name she is listed as in the 1900 census. The census happens every ten years and they are big helps for genealogy.
[Lizzy marries William Hood in 1903, divorces him in 1905, marries Jubb in 1906.]
“Mini is there. She doesn’t die until 1931.
“Lizzy dies in 1957. She’s buried in Loudon Park Cemetery, where her parents were buried.
There is a little remnant Jubb family cemetery where the Jubb plantation was. There is still a Jubb Cover on the Magathy River—what do you think you are, are you a Jubb?
[So speaks Michael to Romao the back cat.]
“James Jubb died in 1940 in Anne Arundel County. My grandmother remembered him as being a farmer and going to visit him at his farm. That is interesting because that is not how he started out. He was a native Baltimorean, so how he ended up in Anne Arundel County on a farm, I don’t know how.
“I have a 1911 blurb from the Baltimore Sun,
Master James E. Jubb, son of the late William and Ella Jubb, a well-known shipping master of East Baltimore, gave a reception in honor of his fiftieth birthday at his home, 1027 South Kenwood Avenue. Music was furnished by Mr. James E. Jubb and Mr. Jeff Davis. Supper was served in the dining room. Among those present:”
[A list of Jubbs, Davis’s and Lechthaler’s.]
“Probably the social section. These kinds of [print] announcements were very common. It was the society page. Other things on the page were prominent figures at Saint John’s, banquets, “health department men eat oysters at a boat club outing,” one of the Siebel weddings is in there:
“The wedding of Mary Louise Seibel, Lizzy’s sister. She is listed as a guest.”
[Shows an extensive description of the people and attire of the wedding.]
“The father of both of these girls was Henry anglicized from Johann. This was in 1902, before the anti-German sentiment. They came from Hessen Germany. He was the son of Johannes Seibel. Mini was already a Seibel when they were married. That was just a coincidence. There seems to be no relation. Henry and Mini were born in Germany. Henry’s parents came here and died here and are buried here. I’m not sure of the timing of the immigration. They are all buried in Loudon Park.]
“Lillian, daughter of Liz, Married Joseph Quaid, in 1917, she would be 17 years old. I have not found their marriage certificate yet. The licenses are online so they are easy to find, she would have been 16 or 17. He would have been 27. All the chicken hawks in our family. James was a lot older than Lizzy too. Could you imagine the brewhahah now. If you are not married on the same day everything is problematic—that’s now everyone’s favorite word.
“A lot of the stuff from the early 20th century, even for the Quaids is called Deutsche Correspondence, a German language newspaper. They used that heavy Gothic German type face which was interesting. The searches still work for newspapers.com. I can find every one’s name. I just have to translate it. Usually the same thing as the Baltimore sun. It only published until 1918. I wonder why?
“The News American [a defunct Baltimore paper] is not available. They just added 200 new papers in the U.S. and from around the world. That is where I found out about Robert L. Pitt’s fornication arrest and all kind of other little tidbits.
“This is fascinating but can be confusing.
“Joseph Quaid died of stomach cancer in, 27 November 1948.
“Him and Grandma are buried in Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery.
“Lillian passed February 15 1976 of a cerebral vascular accident, probably had a stroke in there shower and fell. Who knows, they probably didn’t bother doing a proper determination. She was that old and in a crappy nursing home, she would have been 75, three months shy of 76.
DNA Testing
“It would be interesting if more of you got tested. That would help. I still got a small percentage of West African, 2%. I have a little bit of German and mostly all British isles. Coon got into the hen house. That made me happy. Maybe I’m related to my grandfather, Robert Pitt, “The Man.”
…
Notes
-1. “Mini” or Wilhelmina Siebel.
