Still have not found Harry but more has fallen from the shaken family tree for Sherman. While looking for 2nd great grandfather, Harry, his brother Sherman’s chronology has grown to pages and pages of data. We were touched by his life (and wife Flora’s) and one thing after another continued the saga. The tales of the brothers and cousins, Harry Hutton Kidd, Ernest Seton Kidd and Reginald Sherman Kidd aka Reginald Sherman Winton and let’s add cousin Ernest Evan Thompson aka Ernest Thompson Seton – of the names and the confusion.
One day I am sure I will find a DNA sample for Sherman, and maybe one day for Harry also – then we will have that wonderful verification of a male surname line through having descendants of multiple sons test their y-dna. This can prove a common patriarch for our own family; hopefully find a way in addition to secure some au-DNA with artifact testing.
I am still nail biting to learn all about the first results from a new Australian artifact testing company, totheletter, which is leading the way in retrieving DNA genealogy gold from letters and stamps.
You will find my earlier story about artifact testing and the many envelopes, stamps and covers I have collected for several decades – some whose writers and receivers have been identified and their genealogies researched. I have even found descendants and distant relatives linked to letters, bibles, military medals and photographs we have found. Often I have tried to return these precious artifacts to those families.
I must make a day soon to drop everything and update this story and add the new, but in between here is the earlier artifact testing story:
I don’t handle my possible DNA samples any longer and am trying to get them added to archival covers for protection. I am trying to learn if that is even a good idea, there is so little information so far. I am also saving and preserving things which are not even possible to test yet in the hope as more DNA possibilities are added, maybe some artifacts will be added – like getting the DNA of a painter off of a painting.
Here, you can follow the story of artifact testing at the company totheletter (other companies are being added as they begin to offer the services commercially and actively):
https://www.totheletterdna.com/
And also follow the inside scoop on the latest in artifact testing and everything else DNA from DNA Central – Blaine is my competition and he has also become a mentor to follow – so follow his page AND mine also!!!
https://www.facebook.com/TheDNACentral/
I still don’t know for certain whether Sherman did or did not marry Elizabeth Gaynor of Waukasha, Wisc., but the marriage license and marriage were announced in the newspaper. They were to live in New York but clearly it did not work out, I have not found a divorce or death record for Elizabeth and this is a period of semi lost years for Sherman. By 1916 Sherman marries Flora Lillie in Boston as a 2nd marriage. If Sherman and 1st wife Elizabeth had children and the marriage did not work out she might have returned home with children and there might be an added story to be found one day but I can only depend on looking for letters Sherman might have sent and hope he sealed the envelopes and licked the stamps. Or the technology will advance and his DNA can be sequenced from his paintings.
For the time being we have lots of family DNA for the Kidd cousins near and far and the y-DNA haplogroup is R1a = R-CTS4179. We have a lovely match with one Richard Kidd of Craven and Giggleswick in England. We have autosomal DNA and we are always searching for more and more distant relatives to test.
Sherman Kidd became Sherman Winton in 1926. I waited until I had two sources that believed the name change and then I searched and found and ordered the name change file from Palm Beach County Courts. Sherman’s wife’s (Flora’s) nieces have been wonderful family history researchers for many years and I am certain it was one of them who first found that Sherman must have officially changed his name.
Sherman arrived home in 1904 from Paris as Reginald K Winton and I could not prove it and still can’t but of course it has to be him. This is the earliest record I have found where Sherman used the name Winton. With this and then seeing the later Winton records I wrote — and Flora’s family approved of the likelihood — the Wintons are in fact the Kidds.
Ancestry.com – the database that just keeps on giving and giving – but they should have kept the grandfathered promises of 15 years ago –
1926 change of name
For travelers there are two other must-enjoy-and-use websites. But we all must always remember to think outside the box and consider other possibilities of spellings and just flat-out changes.
…and the very very wonderful Cyndi’s List
https://www.cyndislist.com/ships/
Cyndi’s List has EVERYTHING – but don’t forget to love me too!!!
Not only have families changed their names and spellings of names through the generations, but researchers must deal as well with transcription errors. With all the thousands and thousands of pages of names, places, dates and so on one that people of goodwill are transcribing, one must realize that some mistakes are inevitable!
One might believe families have been confused and an incorrect family followed because of name misunderstandings. And certainly our DNA surname projects show us that names evolve and many surnames, many families have ancestries with their surname changing over time and through the years and not always have all the descendants used the same name. Sometimes clerks or census takers misheard, misunderstood, or spelled a name phonetically. The 1850 census in Brown County, Wisc., lists Michael and Augusta Bostwick. They are living with Mr. Bostwick but they are in fact Michael and Augusta Rademacher.
This is where DNA to read the family genetic signature is as important as the understanding and knowledge of the many name spellings and names a person or family might have used. We have lots of Kidd cousins’ and ancestors’ DNA so there is family to match once we can find the special artifacts to test.
Searching for his work we need to be aware of the many signatures he used; check back often as all examples will be added.
Reginald Sherman Kidd
Reginald Kidd
Reginald S Kidd
R Sherman Kidd
Sherman-Kidd
R S Kidd
Sherman Kidd
R·Sherman-Kidd.
Sherman-Kidd
R·S·K·
RSK
ЯSK
S·K
Reginald K Winton
Reginald Sherman Winton
R Sherman Winton
Sherman Winton
R S Winton
1924 US Passport
1920 Letter to F. A. Lucas of Museum of Natural History (what on earth happened to the drawings submitted.
Did the libraries and museums keep the envelopes that letters and submissions came in? DNA gold on archives all over the world. I must ask for another search of this file – there is a page one, with the other pages not included, and yes please search for the envelopes. Maybe we still have this need…
For Sherman, it is clear some of his work painted as Kidd has had the signature changed from Kidd to Winton by later restoring – as Sam Schlappich says in 1953 he restored the Armada painting. By whatever name, he will not always be easy to recognize as he was such a diverse painter.
I bet this is Sam Schlappich who has corrected the name
I declare I see under the Winton the original Kidd signature. Looking closely at the “int” in Winton and if you placed an i from Kidd on that i, I believe I might see a faded “dd” where the “nt” now is. Sam Schlappich said he restored the painting. We know Sherman was using the name R. Sherman Kidd when he painted this circa 1924 and 1925. Local newspapers used the name Kidd in notices about exhibitions of the painting at Whitehall and the Breakers and in reviews afterwards.
Searching for people – think outside the box – what is in a name? Just a few hundred years ago there were no surnames – what then? – DNA!
The courts of the world are full of people’s records of changes of name. Countless adoptions and family feuds. The DNA has directed up all to see we might have perfect documented research for an ancestral line but what if…
Seeking Sherman – earlier posts:
https://cherielynnsherstory.com/2018/03/01/newspapers-and-harry-ernest-and-sherman/
Sherman’s Facebook page:
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