Eh Hem: What?

[Steve Whitlock]

(10-03-2014 07:18 AM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  

(10-02-2014 06:13 PM)L Verge Wrote:  A surname that is tied to the current movement to disinter Edwin to test for DNA is "Hulme." The ones pushing that are here in the states, but the Surratt Society has at least one Australian member named Hulme. I have never ventured into asking if there is a relationship, but do you know if the name ties into the Booth heritage?

My original post was wrong so here is the correction.

Members of the Hulme family are related to the Booths, but they are not direct descendants of any of the Booth children. Their line descends from Jane Booth, Junius' sister. She married James Mitchell and had several children.

Dr. Joseph Booth's second wife was Cora Estelle Mitchell. She was his first cousin once removed and 30 years his junior. They had a son together, Edwin, but he died at the age of 15 months. All three of them (plus Joe's first wife, Margaret) are buried at the Booth family plot at Green Mount. Some of the outspoken Hulmes like to lay claim to Joe and Cora, but they are not direct descendants as Joe had no heirs.

Not all members of the Hulme family agree with the few misguided members of their family who push for an exhumation of Edwin. I hope that they are so distantly related (1st cousins 4+ times removed by my count) that they will likely never have the legal standing to desecrate the grave of the Booths.

Jane Booth and James Mitchell had a son, Robert Girard Mitchell, among their children. Robert G. Mitchell m: Ella B. Cheshire and their daughter, Agnes Warren Mitchell, m: Victor Humbrecht. A daughter of Agnes and Victor was Virginia Eleanor (Humbrecht) Kline, wife of Frederick C. Kline.

Among the Kline children were 3 daughters, Suzanne (Kline) Flaherty, Joanne (Kline) Hulme and Virginia A. Kline, who have been active in requesting exhumations.

Among statements made by Joanne Hulme is one mentioning all 3 ladies.

“I’m absolutely in favor of exhuming Edwin,” said Joanne Hulme, 60, a resident of Philadelphia’s Kensington section who is the historian in the Booth family. “Let’s have the truth and put this thing to rest.”

“It’s better to know,” said her sister Suzanne Flaherty, 64, of Bordentown.

The sisters, with a third sibling, Virginia Kline of Warminster, have wondered about Booth stories that don’t match accepted history, as did their late mother."

There is also a lengthy article about Nate Orlowek which mentions the Kline and Hulme connections. I'll just include a paragraph, or so.

"The Booth descendants at first resisted the idea, but Orlowek’s evidence persuaded many of them. Joanne Hulme’s mother, Virginia Eleanor Humbrecht Kline, signed on to the project, along with Lois W. Rathbun, Booth’s great-great-grand niece. Backed by the Smithsonian, having rallied the family, recruited a young up-and-coming lawyer named Mark Zaid, and with the support of Baltimore’s state’s attorney, by 1994 Orlowek and company would finally know just who was buried in Booth’s grave. Everything was going to plan.

Then the cemetery balked."