Charles V. Rote, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

At this time, I do not know what connection, if any, Charles V. Rote of Lancaster, Pennsylvania had to my family. However, as there were a number of Rotes living in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, many of them descendants of Alpheus Rote, and possibly of his siblings, it seems quite possible that he was a relative.

Regardless of the specifics of his connection, in honor of my relatives, and those of my husband, who worked for the railroads, especially those who worked as brakemen, I am sharing this patent listing for a better brake.

On page 674 of Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, Volume 160, available as a free book on Google Books, is an entry for a patent on a railway car brake, filed with the United States Patent Office on July 25, 1910. The patent was filed by Charles V. Rote, with assignor Maggie P. Holman, both of Lancaster, Pennsylvania:

Image 1: Left Column of entry for 975,893 CAR-BRAKE.

Image 2: Right Column of entry for 975,893 CAR-BRAKE.

Transcript of text from above images:

975,893 CAR-BRAKE. Charles V. Rote, Lancaster, Pa., assignor to Maggie P. Holman, Lancaster, Pa. Filed July 25, 1910. Serial No. 573,656.

1. In a car brake the combination of a track-brake suspended above and adapted to be lowered upon the rail, a brake-applying device and a take-up device, both movable with the track brake whereby they maintain a relation at each application of the brake, and means for locking said take-up device in a substantially fixed position when the track-brake is on the rail, said brake applying device exerting pressure upon the track-brake and having its reaction taken by said take-up device.

2. In a car-brake, the combination of a track-brake supported above and adapted to be lowered to the rail, a wear-compensator or take-up device movable with the track-brace to maintain a constant relation thereto, means for locking said take-up device in a substantially fixed position when the track-brake is on the rail, and a brake-lever mounted upon the track-brake and having a projection taking under said take-up device, said brake-lever being operable to bear down upon the track-brake.

3. In a car-brake, the combination of a track-brake supported above and adapted to be lowered to the rail, a wear-compensator or take up device movable with said track-brake, means for locking said take-up device in lowered position, and a leg-formed brake-lever supported upon the track-brake and having a foot-portion or toe adapted to engage under said take-up device, said brake-lever being operable so that its heel portion bears the track-brake.

4. In a car-brake, the combination of a track-brake, and brake-actuating mechanism including a pressure applying device and a wear-compensator, said pressure-applying device bearing upon the track-brake and having opposed pressure taken by said wear-compensator, the latter being automatically adjustable in proportion to the increased distance the brake-shoe has to travel to the rail as it wears away.

5. In a car-brake, the combination of a track-brake and a brake-actuating mechanism including a pressure-applying device and a wear-compensator, said pressure-applying device bearing upon the track-brake and under said wear-compensator, the latter being automatically adjustable in proportion to the increased distance the brake-shoe has to descend as it wears away.

[Claims 6 to 39 not printed in the Gazette]

On page 105 of The Railway Review, Volume 62, available as a free book on Google Books, is a list of patents on railway devices, issued by the United States Patent Office on December 18, 1917. Among them is a mention of a patent submitted by Charles V. Rote:

Brake shoe mechanism, 1,250,513 to 1,250,515 inclusive — Charles V. Rote, Lancaster, Pa., assignor to C.V. Rote Brake Shoe Co., Lancaster, Pa.

These two entries provide evidence that Charles V. Rote was living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the years 1910 and 1917, that he was an inventor, that he was associated with one Maggie P. Holman, and that he owned or was associated with a company called C.V. Rote Brake Shoe Co. located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1917.

If Charles V. Rote is your relative, or if you have any more information about him or his family, I'd love to hear from you. Please, feel free to comment or send me an email.

Elmer Bruce Lloyd, ACMM, US Navy (1886-1948)

Over on WikiTree, I've been working on biographies on my family tree. One of these is my paternal grandfather's biography, which is almost complete. Since he was a veteran of two world wars, I thought Memorial Day would be an appropriate time to share, even though I've still got several source citations to complete.

Elmer Bruce Lloyd, looking jaunty in his leather jacket, as he rests his arm against one of the propeller planes he worked on. (Scan of photo, original in RLM's collection.)

Lloyd, Elmer Bruce, WWI Draft Registration Card (FamilySearch)

Elmer Bruce Lloyd was born 2 May 1886 in Michigan. (Most likely, Sault Sainte Marie, Chippewa, Michigan. Lloyd-391 00:23, 17 May 2014 (EDT)) He was the forth child and second son of Samuel Hughes Lloyd and Jane Ellen Higgins. He died 19 January 1948.
His son Winston wrote about his early education^[1]: "I thought he had finished the eighth grade but Bruce says Father told him it was the third grade and I believe him. (Per the 1940 US Census, Elmer B. Lloyd had completed 8th grade. Lloyd-391 15:56, 19 May 2014 (EDT)) The story goes...

To read the rest of the biography and see more photos, please visit my grandfather's profile on WikiTree. I've also created military pages for him on Ancestry, and at Fold3, where you can view additional sources and photographs that have not yet been added to his biography.

Update: Shorter Connection to A.J. Jacobs and the Global Family Reunion

Earlier this month I posted about my relationship to A.J. Jacobs, who came up with the idea of a Global Family Reunion (GFR) to include everyone to whom he is related.

The first connection route between us, calculated by Geni, showed 200 degrees of separation, with some Greek gods and goddesses along the way. Humorous, and A.J. and I were willing to accept it as showing a connection between us (mostly because we already recognize that as human beings, there is a connection, even if unknown), but we now have a much more satisfactory connection route, this time courtesy of WikiTree's Global Family Reunion project.

AJ Jacobs and Pamela Lloyd have 31 degrees of separation:

0. 
   AJ Jacobs →
1. 
   Ellen Kheel
   (his mother) →
2. 
   Theodore Kheel
   (her father) →
3. 
   Julian Kheel
   (his brother) →
4. 
   Victoria Kheel
   (his daughter) →
5. 
   James Spader
   (her husband) →
6. 
   Jean Fraser
   (his mother) →
7. 
   Elizabeth Bowditch
   (her mother) →
8. 
   Frederick Bowditch
   (her father) →
9. 
   Sarah Higginson
   (his mother) →
10. 
    James Higginson
    (her father) →
11. 
    Stephen Higginson
    (his father) →
12. 
    Stephen Higginson
    (his father) →
13. 
    Elizabeth Higginson
    (his sister) →
14. 
    Benjamin Prescott
    (her son) →
15. 
    Rebecca Minot
    (his wife) →
16. 
    
    James Minot
    (her father) →
17. 
    
    Timothy Minott
    (his brother) →
18. 
    Mary Brooks
    (his wife) →
19. 
    Noah Brooks
    (her father) →
20. 
    Hannah Mason
    (his mother) →
21. 
    John Mason
    (her brother) →
22. 
    Sarah Mason
    (his daughter) →
23. 
    Thomas Harrington
    (her son) →
24. 
    John Harrington
    (his son) →
25. 
    Charles William Herrington
    (his son) →
26. 
    William Herrington
    (his son) →
27. 
    John A Herrington
    (his son) →
28. 
    Isaac Newton Herrington
    (his son) →
29. 
    Inez Minerva Herrington
    (his daughter) →
30. 
    Winston Lloyd
    (her son) →
31. 
    Pamela Lloyd
    (his daughter)

Note: The color changes indicate where the connection is through a spouse, rather than a direct relative.

For more about my efforts on WikiTree, visit my profile there. If you'd like to join me on WikiTree, you can do so for free, just by signing up. Or, if you prefer, ask me to invite you.

August 28, 1919: Soldiers to Receive Naturalization Free

Thanks to Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, I've just discovered the free digital archives of newspapers offered by Advantage Preservation. Although the offerings are not as comprehensive as most paid sites, it just so happens that one of the collections is for Erie County, specifically for the Digital Archives of the Huron Public Library. One of the newspapers in the collection is the Erie County Reporter, which was published in Huron, Ohio. My mother and her older sister were both born in Sandusky, a small town in Erie County, on the shores of Lake Michigan, so I thought that looking for something related to their childhood might be good for a trial run.

According to Larry Parker, who is the person who alerted Eastman of the archives, the search feature doesn't work well for the newspapers, so I decided to browse through an issue. I chose the August 28, 1919 edition because it was the first edition (the newspaper was a weekly) immediately following the birth of my mother's sister, Marion Virginia Rote, who was born the 24th of that month. So far, I haven't found an announcement of Marion's birth, but I did find a short article on page 5 that I feel fits the spirit of Memorial Day very well:

Here's the text the transcript (with one misspelled word corrected):

"Soldiers to Receive Naturalization Free"

No soldier of foreign birth who served in the U. S. armies during the world war need pay a fee for naturalization, according to instructions [received] by Clerk of Court Carroll. It is not necessary for him to obtain a declaration of intention, or certificate of arrival, if he presents his discharge.

What a wonderful and appropriate celebration of veterans, to ensure that all who served, regardless of their country of birth or the status of any immigration paperwork, had the opportunity to be citizens of the United States for which they had offered their lives and service, without question and without paying any monetary fees.

Cousin A.J.'s Relationship to Me

Okay, I'll admit it. I was just a bit disappointed when Geni's relationship calculator couldn't find a connection between me and A.J. Luckily, however, it worked from A.J.'s end, so I now know that he is (in a fuzzy, I don't claim there are any valid genealogical proofs, way) my 87th cousin 24 times removed.

The short path includes myself, my father, 197 relatives, A.J.'s mother, and A.J.

The long path… well, as A.J. put it, "it goes so far back that I'm not sure it's 100 percent trustworthy. I'm sure there's a cleaner and shorter route." A.J., I discover, has a knack for understatement. But, he's ready to call me cousin and I am now officially invited to the Global Family Reunion.

For your amusement—for this surely tickles me!—I present the long path below the cut:

Cousin A. J.'s Get-Together

A. J. Jacobs, "editor at large at Esquire magazine and author of four New York Times bestsellers" according to his website, is hosting what he hopes will be the world's biggest family reunion. News of his upcoming party has been shared widely, with notices on the WikiTree, Geni, and My Heritage blogs, and in the New York Times. Jacobs has also been a guest on Boston's NPR program On Point, for a discussion of "Crowdsourcing And The New Genealogy Boom."

I looked him up on Geni, to see what our connection is, but that was a bust. Geni just couldn't find the connection. Which is strange, because I know there is one, as explained in the email I just sent to A.J.:

Hi A.J.,

Although Geni tells me it can't find a path between us, I know there has to be one. Here's why:

You say that Albert Einstein is your second great-uncle’s third cousin’s wife’s first cousin. Well, Geni reports that he's my 6th great aunt's brother's wife's fourth great niece's husband's aunt's husband's great grandson. This is a distant, some might even say tenuous, connection, but it is a connection none-the-less.

I'm on Geni at http://www.geni.com/people/Pamela-D-Lloyd/6000000007818456107. I'm also on WikiTree at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lloyd-1428, but my ancestry is much less developed there, mostly because the entry process is much more time-consuming.

Your website requests that I submit the names of my four great grandparents. My paternal grandparents are Elmer Bruce Lloyd and Inez Minerva "Sissy" Herrington. My maternal grandparents are Galen Weiker Rote and Lulu P. Craun.

My Lloyd lineage goes directly back to Thomas Lloyd, my 8th great grandfather, who served for a time as lieutenant governor of provincial Pennsylvania under William Penn.

I hope I've provided you with sufficient information for you to discover our connection. I'm sure there is one, since I hold to the firm conviction that all humans on the planet are related and it's only through a lack of knowledge of the connections that we don't all call each other cousin.

Best wishes,

Pamela D. Lloyd

What I didn't tell A. J. is that I'm unlikely to attend in person. Not only would travel to the party pinch my pocketbook, but I really don't like big crowds. But, that's okay because I can attend virtually, via a Google Hangout.

For more information about the MegaReunion, as it's sometimes called, check out WikiTree's Global Family Reunion project and then join WikiTree's Global Family Reunion Project.

What about you? Ready to join the party?  Do you think you might be related to A. J.? Or to me? I'd love to hear from you.