Another dip into the Poole--Virginia Isabelle McClure

Cover of autograph book once belonging to
Virginia Isabelle McClure

     Genealogy tips do come from some welcome sources as was my good fortune this week. A message was left on one of my family pages out on ancestry alerting me to the sale on Ebay, of an old autograph book, dating from the 1880's, that once belonged to an ancestor.  

     In the end, I decided to not purchase the book as the price was a little steep. The first owner, Virginia Isabelle McClure, is my first cousin three times removed. I may have anted up if the owner was just a bit less removed.  I was able to copy scans of the pages that the seller published and there was a listing of the various signers that could be identified.  I guess that will have to suffice.

January the 1 1885
To My Friends
My Album is open
Come & see what.
Wont you waste a line
on one.  Write but a
thought a word or tot
that memory may revert
to you.

     Virginia, or Jennie as she is identified by many of the autograph signers, was the daughter of William Steele McClure and Elizabeth Ann Pool.  She was born on August 31, 1873, probably on the family farm located in the Morgan District, Monongalia County, West Virginia.  The McClure family had previously lived in Greene County, Pennsylvania and Jennie was the first of their children to be born in West Virginia.  She had nine brothers and sisters and died at age twenty of a fever on October 23, 1893, in the Morgan District, Monongalia County, West Virginia...probably on the family farm.

Page that was glued onto the back cover
of the autograph book

What I learned from the few pages scanned:

1. Virginia's date of birth.  I had the year, but not the exact date.
2. Virginia's date of death.  I found it in records found on the West Virginia website, but had it incorrectly written on my FTM database and out on ancestry.
3. Virginia's middle name.  She is listed as Belle; however, her brother, George Jerome McClure used Isibelle (Isabelle) in the autograph album.
4. Virginia was called Jennie by friends and family.

Note that brother George used the name
Isibelle (Isabelle) for his sister.

Signers of the autograph book that were listed and relation to Virgina:

1.  John McClure--John Frum McClure, Virginia's oldest brother.
2. Oliver McClure--Oliver Lanham McClure, Virginia's second oldest brother.
3. M.E. Hall
4. Emma Church--Emma J. Church, second cousin once removed.
5. C. C. McClure
6. Belle Fleming
7. Martha McClure--Maratha Ann McClure, Virginia's oldest sister.
8. E.H Conway--could be Enzor Herschel Conway, husband of her sister Martha.
9. George F.C. Hartman
10. A. McClure--could be Elizabeth Ann Pool McClure, Virginia's mother.
11. J.B. McClure
12. Susie Brunner
13. George McClure--George Jerome McClure, Virginia's younger brother.
14. Joseph Johnson
15. C.N. Finnell
16. James McClure--probably James Sampson McClure, Virginia's younger brother.
17. John Fleming--could be John F. Fleming, first cousin once removed.
18. Lida Brunner
19. G. F. Lumley
20. R.H. Harne
21. S.A. Kinsley--Samuel Arlington Kinsley, first cousin twice removed to Virginia.
22. G.H. Kinsley--George H. Kinsley, first cousin twice removed to Virginia.
23. Edward Kinsley--Edward H. Kinsely, first cousin twice removed to Virginia.

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© 2012, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser