Izola Martha Mills marriage certificate/note to Mr. Hall

[Steve Whitlock]

(10-17-2019 08:51 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 05:44 PM)Steve Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 10:18 AM)Steve Whitlock Wrote:  I also have the marriage records, as well as the 1871 birth of Harry Jerome Dresback Stevenson, which is sometimes claimed to have occurred in 1870 in order to go along with the myth of Martha running off to be with JWB and coming back pregnant in 1869.

I'm unsure as to exactly how long Charles S. Bellows Sr was away at sea, and whether a short term child could have been claimed. However, even in the case of a Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith and his vasectomy supporting his divorce against his wife for adultery the presumption was that when a couple is married any children that come along are the husband's. That's why Timothy Lincoln Beckwith got a million dollar settlement from RTL Beckwith's estate, rather than test his paternity, again, in court. And that was after a judge had already ruled against his mother for refusing dna testing.

Perhaps the feeling was the same for the probate and pension of Seaman Charles Still Bellows; however, had they known that she was a bigamist the results might have been different, and yet, would the children have still had a claim, having been born while Martha and Charles were still married. Why didn't he divorce her if not his children?

Do we know exactly when Martha and Rosalie got chummy? I noticed that in the hearings, and on her birth certificate, Ogarita was Ogarita Elizabeth Bellows, but later was Ogarita Elizabeth Rosalie Booth/Bellows.

Martha and Rosalie knew each other from at least 1869. Besides the Baltimore marriage record with her surname recorded as "Booth", Martha's anonymous 05 Dec. 1885 New York Sun letter (which got Edwin Booth so mad) claims that she saw John Wilkes Booth's body reburied. Also, Martha and John Stevenson's first child, a daughter named Rosalie Izola Stevenson was born in Boston on 17 Oct. 1870, and obviously named after Rosalie Booth. Rosalie continued to keep in contact (and sending funds) to Martha at least until 1883. Although, it appears Rosalie cut off contact with Martha by 1885 after apparently being persuaded by relatives, like brother Edwin, that Martha was a fraud.

Young Rosalie Izola seems to have died before 1880. Ogarita didn't originally have the middle name Rosalie, it seems to have been added later to try and convince Rosalie that her niece was partially named after her by JWB.

Again, I refer to the book on The Elusive Booths of Burrillville that concluded that the whole thing was a scam. Also, we may need to take into consideration that some historians believe that Rosalie Booth (the sister) may have had some special needs issues and that she would have been an easy target for folks like Martha.

Mr. Hall developed a very good relationship with the late-20th century branch of this "family," and pretty much convinced them that This One Mad Act could not be documented.

Yesterday I watched:

History's Greatest Mysteries Season 1, Ep. 4 "The Escape of John Wilkes Booth" Narrated by Laurence Fishburne

There are some points of interest in that the last male Booth from the Junius Brutus Booth line, i.e. Anthony Barton Booth, son of Elizabeth Barton Booth, and grandson of Sydney Barton Booth, made an appearance in the show. He provided some dna, according to my source, but the results were not stated, or I missed (I watched about 2 AM to 3:30 AM. so a little brain-fog).

The base for the Booth dna was provided by known descendant Joanne Hulme. Those tested include 4 descendants of Harry Jerome Stevenson, a descendant of Ogarita Booth, a descendant of Lisa Booth, she of the 3 generations of John Wilkes Booth; however, dna results prove not a match to the Lincoln assassin, John Wilkes Booth, line. That was predictable had the paper trail been used. The first JWB for Lisa Booth was born in 1866, so his father must have approved of the assassination. If necessary I can find that father's name again.

The descendants of Harry Jerome Stevenson also were not a dna match to the Booth line, but did match each other. Nor was there a dna match to the Ogarita Bellows/Booth descendant. There was no mention of whether Ogarita and the Harry J. Stevenson descendants were a match to each other. The dna testing was done by Colleen Fitzpatrick.

They wanted to test the line of Laura Ida Elizabeth Booth; however, there are no living descendants for her line.

Getting away from the dna there was mention of an autopsy record, shown, that mentions JWB having a broken left leg aroung the ankle area. You may recall there was some confusion as to the right leg being mentioned by those on the Montauk, if memory serves, and the document establishes, further, the correct damage done to JWB's left leg.

A handwriting expert testified that the signature for the John W. Booth who married Louisa Jane Price in TN did not match that of J. Wilkes Booth. That stands to reason since a glance at the marriage records show that the same person, clerk or minister, did all the writing, and that wasn't the signature of John W. Booth. The program didn't mention that, but I noticed it long ago.

The same handwriting expert studied the signature of David E. George and concluded that his writing did not match that of JWB.

An expert for facial analysis stated that JWB was not a match to James W. Boyd, nor to David E. George/John St. Helen.

Those are some of the highlights for the show, which costs $2.99 to watch. I found it because I was looking for it. I wasn't going to mention this but the company that made "The Escape of John Wilkes Booth" contacted me 24 Sep 2019 and wanted to know if I would work with them for people they were researching. I agreed and provided some assistance, until we had a falling out because I wouldn't do an interview for the show. My reasons were that I look terrible these days, I also talk softly, and mumble. Then there was a long period where I couldn't complete a sentence without stopping to search for a word, or God forbid, a name that I should know. But I did know they were going to dna test people I wanted tested. It would be better if those dna results were published for analysis, but I haven't found any release by Colleen Fitzpatrick for that information.

My assessment of the program is that they have provided some necessary information for researchers, but the show is a bit cursory for development, in my opinion. I provided a lot of stuff they could have used, but perhaps there were time constraints, and maybe they didn't want to use the information I provided without my full participation.

I forgot to mention that Mike Kaufman was a participant in the show.