Genealogy Story – Finding Lizzie Evans

Earlier this evening someone posted on a picture on my family tree of my father’s father and step-mother (Erskine and Elizabeth [Evans] Russell) that this was a picture of her great-grandmother and she wondered how other people who had that picture were related to her. This was a bit of a shock to me, as the person posting the comment was from England and I did not have relatives there. After a few back-and-forth messages, she seemed pretty certain that her grandmother had been born to Elizabeth Evans in 1921, just two years before my [step]grandmother (I’ll just call her my grandmother in the below to keep it simple) came here to the US and that Elizabeth had left her young daughter behind.

I didn’t have a lot of information in my family about Elizabeth’s life before coming to the US, but I decided I needed to do a “crash course” of ancestral research about her so I could converse more intelligently about her and see if this might be true. The below are the results of that research (ignoring all the rabbit trails that didn’t lead anywhere).

[Picture of Erskine and Elizabeth]

 

My Starting Point

I had a few documents as a starting point – my grandmother’s obituary, the 1930 and 1940 census, her naturalization paper, and the ship’s register from when she arrived. I also had a single English census record that I had thought might be hers. I decided that I needed to take a very close look at all of these.

Obituary – this listed her date of birth (June 3, 1885) in Sheffield, England, and that she was the daughter of Stephen and Eliza Evans. Her name was given as “Mrs. Elizabeth (Evans) Russell”.

Census records – In the 1930 census she was listed as single, living in a boarding house, with the occupation of dressmaker (this will be important later). She married my grandfather (who had divorced several years earlier) in 1932, so in the 1940 census she is married and no longer has an occupation.

Naturalization Application – She became a US citizen in 1928/1929 (applied in 1928, final approval given in January 1929). The document gave her date and place of birth, the date she came to the US, etc. Nothing new there. But, something I had never paid a great deal of attention to before as that her name on the paper was “Lizzie Evans”, not “Elizabeth Evans” and she signed her name the same way. Was this not just a nickname?

Looking at the document online, I also noticed that it appeared that there was information on the backside that was showing through faintly, so I advanced to the next page (something I had never done before). There, in addition to her signature under the oath to her new country, was another “Order of Court Admitting Petitioner” where she was at the same time applying for a change of name from “Lizzie Evans” to “Elizabeth Evans” which had been granted by the judge. Ah, so a good clue – Lizzie was not a nickname, it was her legal name back in England and she did not become Elizabeth until a few years before marrying my grandfather! This was to prove to be a useful clue

[Naturalization name change]

 

Passenger List – the passenger list for the ship Belgenland on August 4, 1923 had Lizzie listed on line 6. It matched the information and date given in her naturalization paperwork. She listed herself as a 38yo single lady who was going into “Domestic service”. Her immediate past address was in London and she was going to Waterbury, CT. On the back side of the page, it said that she was going to 94 Harvard St, Waterbury to be with her “Aunt Mrs William Scholey”. I had seen this before, but had never taken sufficient time to explore and see if I could verify this “aunt” connection. But now there was more of an urgency to do so as I could use the information to confirm if I had the right person.

[Aunt William Schonley]

 

Where to next?

Looking in the US – I decided to get my confirmation information first, i.e. to see if I could establish the identity of Lizzie’s aunt. I made the assumption that the “aunt” relationship was the key one and that Mrs. Scholey was a sister to Lizzie’s father or mother.

Using census records for Waterbury, I found that Mrs. William Scholey’s first name was Florence. I then found information about the family and discovered that William and Florence are buried in a cemetery in Waterbury (one where several of my relatives are also buried). In looking at the gravestone (thanks findagrave.com), it was very helpful that it gave the information as William Scholey, Florence Bennett (i.e. her maiden name), and their daughter Naomi was also buried with them (she was listed in the household in the 1930 census). So now I had a date of birth, a date of death, and the maiden name of Lizzie’s uncle and aunt. This didn’t help me find Lizzie in England, but would be a confirmation when I had a more complete picture.

Looking in England – Now it was off to England – and see if I could find traces of Lizzie’s life there. I had searched several years ago, but that was using what I now knew to be the incorrect name, i.e. Elizabeth. Let me use Lizzie instead.

Lizzie is a much less common name, so in looking around Sheffield (her listed place of birth) I quickly found some promising information in the 1891 census. There was a Lizzie Evans of the right age (5), together with her father, Stephen, and an older brother Ezra. No mother however. Did that mean that her mother, Eliza, died when Lizzie was just a baby? File that information, and let’s move on. Also, the census record was for a place called Attercliffe in Yorkshire. A quick check of the map reveals that Attercliffe is a small place about 2-3 miles from the center of Sheffield, so that’s consistent.

[1891 census]

 

Let’s check for census results in following decades, 1901, 1911, 1921…

In the 1901 census, at age 15, Lizzie is no longer living with either parent. Instead, she is living in St. Pancras, a part of greater London a little more than a mile north of the Thames River and Big Ben. The census shows her as having been born in Sheffield, so we know we have the right person. The other people in the household are Fredrick J and Maria Spark, her uncle and aunt, and her cousin Frank Spark. Lizzie is also listed as a dressmaker (remember how I said that would be important).

In the 1911 census, Lizzie is still at the same location in St Pancras. Her uncle is listed as Fredrick John Spark, Maria is no longer there, and Lizzie’s cousin Frank is still at home. Lizzie’s occupation is listed as a milliner. Ok, and now we have yet another family relationship – either Fredrick or Maria Spark – to see how they fit into the final picture.

Finding relatives – Finally, I decide to go the other direction in the census and see if I can find anything more about Lizzie’s family by looking for her father Stephen in the 1881 census, possibly with Lizzie’s mother. I quickly found what I was looking for.

In the 1881 census for Attercliffe, Stephen is living with his wife, Eliza, and their 10-month old son, Ezra. Thus, I now have confirmation that this is the right family with both parents matching the information in Lizzie’s (Elizabeth’s) obituary. But, fortunately, living with Stephen, Eliza, and Ezra is a 10-yo girl by the name of Sarah Jane Bennet, who is listed as a sister-in-law of Stephen, i.e. a sister of Eliza. Thus, we also find that Eliza’s maiden name is Bennet[t], i.e. the same maiden name as Florence [Bennett] Scholey back in Waterbury! Pay dirt!

[1881 census]

 

Building out Lizzie’s Family Tree

Now, having the legal names, dates-of-birth, and places of birth (neither were originally from Sheffield, so my long-ago searches for them there had not found them) of Lizzie’s parents, it was a fairly quick set of searches to find the families of both Stephen and Eliza and who their siblings were.

On the Evans side, Stephen’s siblings were Alfred, Louisa, Eliza, and Maria. Maria’s age matched the age of the wife of Fredrick John Spark, and some further quick checks confirmed that relationship.

On the Bennett side, Eliza’s siblings were Florence, Elizabeth, and Mary Ann. Again, a quick check revealed that Florence had married William Scholey and moved to the US with him.

I haven’t yet found all the dates-of-death, but here is a quick synopsis of Lizzie’s life:

·       1885 – born to Stephen and Eliza [Bennett] Evans in a suburb of Sheffield

·       Sometime before 1891, Eliza dies

·       1891 – living with her father Stephen and older brother

·       Sometime before 1901, Stephen also dies

·       1901 – Lizzie now living with her father’s sister, Maria, and Maria’s husband and son in London. Even though she is quite young, Lizzie no longer going to school, but has picked up a trade of dressmaker.

·       1911 – Maria now dead, but Lizzie still with her uncle Fredrick and cousin Frank

·       1916 – Fredrick dies. Lizzie, now an orphaned spinster in her 30s, moves out on her own and is living elsewhere in London

·       1923 – Lizzie is invited by her mother’s younger sister, Florence, to join their family in America. She makes the voyage to the US by herself and settles in Waterbury, CT. Perhaps she stays with her aunt and uncle initially, but she supports herself as a dressmaker and moves into a rooming house about a mile away in the center of the city.

·       1928/1929 – Lizzie becomes a US citizen and changes her name to Elizabeth

·       1932 – Elizabeth marries Erskine Russell, about 10 years younger than herself with two children from a former marriage (children are living with his former wife, then later with his father and step-mother until the children marry).

·       1970 – After 38 years of marriage, Erskine passes away. Lizzie follows him in death just 6 months later.

I am now satisfied that I have “found” Lizzie Evans, the woman I knew as “Nana Russell” growing up and whom my parents called “Aunt Bess”. She had a difficult life growing up, losing her mother, then her father at a young age. Being taken in by an aunt and uncle, then having them die as well – and all this by the time she was 31. Then being invited by yet another aunt and uncle to come to America, she worked to support herself here, finally marrying at the age of 47. But then she got to spend the last 38 years of her life in a stable relationship.

Aftermath and Learnings

This was my first time at doing detailed ancestral research using non-US record collections. While similar to using US records, one has to get used to what sort of information can be found in which collections. So my knowledge base has been expanded.

I have also learned that one should not leave partial, unverified, results in one’s tree. That one “possible” census record for Elizabeth Evans that I left attached to my grandmother’s record in my family tree as likely the cause for what I have now seen as a couple of trees of UK individuals who used it to attach my grandmother and her picture to their family tree. I sent an apology to the person who posted a comment on my grandmother’s picture and want to do so for any others who may have used that picture incorrectly.

But, more importantly, I now have completed the “story” of my grandmother and her life and preserved it for others.

John Russell’s Family – Part 2

A few months ago, I wrote about my great*5 grandfather, John Russell (1756-1833) and his family. You can find that story here.

In that story, I began with John’s will and all that he said about his family members. However, since then I have been having ongoing conversations with one of my distant cousins who is a descendant of James Russell (1757-1806), a younger brother of John. As a result of our continuing, and very engaging(!), email conversation, I’d like to add to/correct that story.

John, like his father before him, and many of his descendants, was illiterate. Thus, we are very fortunate that he thought to dictate a will and leave us so much information about his family. Without that will, trying to construct a complete picture of this family would be very difficult if not impossible.

I am also fortunate that with the advent of personal DNA testing, I have been able to confirm DNA connections that help to confirm some of the information in this family. But, as you will see below, this information by itself, can be misleading.

Update #1 – I have written before about John’s service in the Revolutionary War (see here and here). My original story had John’s son, John Jr, born in 1776 while John was serving. That is incorrect. As we’ll see below (update #4), John Jr was born in 1783, thus after having Caleb in 1775, John and his wife did not have any other children until August 1778 - after his service in the war was completed in July 1777.

Update #2 – In the will, John makes a point that the only of his heirs that are not yet 21 is his youngest son Levi (who had just turned 20 the month before John’s passing). This is an indication that John must have made the final updates to his will fairly recently and just before his passing in November of 1833. His next youngest child, Naomi [Ganong] has just turned 21 in July of that year, and his grandchild James Smalley had also just turned 21 in June of that year. Thus, this was not a will that John had written earlier and was just now being probated, rather it was one that he probably dictated as he lay in bed in his final days.

Update #3 – One of the reasons I am so certain that Caleb Ebenezer was John’s son called “Ebenezer” in his will is that in the 1800 census for Fishkill, Caleb is the entry right next to John. Thus Caleb (age 25) with his wife and one young child are either in the house next door or possibly still living in the same house with John, but as a unique family. By 1810 he has moved to the far reaches of Dutchess County which is where he passed away in 1830. There are perhaps 100 family trees in ancestry.com for an Ebenezer Russell who died in Hartford CT in 1828, but these trees have absolutely no supporting documentation except report of the death and burial and nothing to link them back to John except another family tree that they copied the information from. Thus, I am forced to ignore these false trees as being unsupported. My having the relevant census records makes me quite confident in the tree that I have constructed. In addition, the number of DNA matches with other of John’s children is good confirmation that this is the right family.

Update #4 – In my original posting, I chose to think that “John2” was John Jr, son of this John, based on some DNA evidence tying him to me. But the fact that “John1” was listed as being from Putnam County still weighed heavily on my mind. I have now reversed that decision as I’ll try to explain here.

Factor #1 – John mentioned in his will, written in 1833, that his sons Isaac and John Jr were both in Tompkins County, NY. But while both Isaac and John1 were there in the 1830 census, John2 could not be located there until the 1840 census. Did Isaac move there first and John not follow until sometime after 1830 but before 1833? That’s a pretty short window. And if he wasn’t there, then could I find him? Unfortunately, in the NY census records for 1820 and 1830 there are literally dozens of John Russells. Trying to match the demographics of each one to the age ranges of John, his wife, and children was much too daunting a task. But it left me still discomforted.

Factor #2 – why was I so heavily influenced by the DNA matching of that one brother and sister who had a family tree that connected John2 to this family? I decided to examine the people and the information in their family tree. While the information there was all very consistent, there wasn’t a lot of supporting evidence. So, I went searching for any corroboration. First, I managed to locate the obituary for one of the children of John2, Esther [Russell] (who was the direct ancestor of the two individuals whose DNA matched mine). She had married and moved first to IL, then later to KS where she died. While the obituary did not give the names of her parents, it said that she was from Albany County, NY, [this turned out to be false as we’ll see below] as was her husband, Lewis Mead. But I had no indication that John Jr was ever in Albany County, only in Dutchess/Putnam County (Putnam County was split off of Dutchess County in 1812) and Tompkins County.

I then found another family tree for another in that family, Daniel, which had much better research and places of birth. It indicated that Daniel and his siblings were born in Elmira, NY, not Albany. And it gave Esther’s maiden name as O’Brien [which was also incorrect as O’Brien was actually the maiden name of Esther’s mother, Elizabeth, who was from Albany, NY]. This other tree also gave the name of John[2] as John M. Russell (a middle initial!)

Thus, it appears that when Esther told her story later in life, she may have said something like, “Our O’Brien family was from Albany” and people interpreted it to mean that her maiden name was O’Brien and she was from Albany. So, there were other errors in these family trees as well as in her obituary. But it gave me a new place to look – the county to the south of Tompkins County, Chemung County, where Elmira, NY, is located – right along the border with PA.

Factor #3 – I also discovered the probably reason why Isaac and John may have been drawn to Tompkins County. The building of the Erie Canal was in that period – with construction beginning in 1817 and the canal opening in 1825. The canal enabled water traffic to move all the way from New York City, up the Hudson River to Albany, then through the Mohawk Valley west all the way to Lake Erie just south of Buffalo. It ran across the northern ends of the Finger Lakes, including a water connection into some of the Finger Lakes, including Cayuga Lake. Tompkins County was on the eastern shore of that lake. With water access across the lakes to the canal, this opened up the whole area for other endeavors.

While prior to this, most of the existing railroads in the country were owned by companies for carrying materials from mines or other such endeavors, they were now being built as commercial operations that carried other people’s goods – or the people themselves. The only operating railroad in NY at the time was the Mohawk and Hudson line, but it was soon put out of business by the Canal. In 1828, a new rail line was begun, the Ithaca and Owego Railroad, which brought goods/people from Owego, NY (near the NY/PA border) to Ithaca, where they could be transported across the lake to the Erie Canal at the north end of the lake. At the time, this was the longest rail line in the country.

The resultant economic impact of the Canal, together with the railroad, meant that the area was now open for easy travel and people were needed to help with the resultant construction. John1’s son Joel was listed in the 1850 census as a “sawyer”, i.e. someone who worked in a sawmill – likely taking trees in the area and turning them into the needed construction materials for both railroad ties, homes, barns, and businesses. As noted in the history of Tompkins County, “Railroad development linked Tompkins County with the markets and destinations beginning in 1832 with the horse-drawn Ithaca-Owego Railroad. By the 1870s, there were four major railway lines running through Ithaca. Lake travel began in 1823 and continued into the twentieth century.”

All this would have become known to John Russell and his family as they lived in the Hudson River valley, and this would likely have been the draw for Isaac and John Jr to leave their home county for the opportunities in the interior of NY in Tompkins County.

Factor #4 – One of the ancestry “hints” that appeared all the way at the bottom of the list for John Jr was a link to a scanned book of a family history of the Tracy family. In it was a reference to John M Russell of Branford, CT where it noted that he “[w]ent to Central New York…”. This seemed to match the family tree in Elmira, NY, as well as matching the middle initial which suddenly showed up in this other more well researched family tree.

If this individual was indeed the John2 in my original research, then I could instead connect John1 to my family tree, the reference to his being from Putnam County a great piece of corroboration. I had uncovered a whole bunch of erroneous family trees that had it wrong, and I could report back to my distant cousin (whose detailed questions had started me off on all this research) that we had resolved John’s family (with the exception of exactly who his first wife was – see Update #6 below). All I had to do was figure out why there was a DNA match to these descendants of Esther [Russell] Mead and her father John M Russell from Branford, CT.

Update #5 – DNA Matching. The Tracy book was limited edition (only 200 copies), privately printed, book from 1933 – from a time much closer to the lives of the people I was looking at. There are only four pages devoted to the Russell family – who are just one ancestral line of the Tracy family being researched. Starting with those who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, there are eight generations of this branch of the Russell family.

1.     Rev. John Russell, came to Cambridge, MA in 1634

2.     Rev. John Russell, came with his father

3.     Rev. Samuel Russell (1660-1731), graduated from Harvard, married Abigail Whiting, one of the founders of Yale (I had written about him here)

4.     Col. John Russell (1686-), married Sarah Trowbridge

5.     John Russell (1710-), married Mary Barker

6.     Col. Edward Russell, married Sarah Maltby, his first cousin

7.     John Russell, married Hannah Plant

8.     John M. Russell, went to Central New York

So many Johns!

I was well aware of this family because of the Yale connections mentioned above, but none of the above show up in my direct ancestral tree. However, the names of the wives mentioned above are all familiar to me and seemed be the reason why I have a DNA connection to John M Russell (the John2 in my original posting). Some further research was in order.

After spending a few hours starting from the above and building out a more complete ancestral tree for John M Russell, I found not one, but several connections. Not only were there several intersections between John M’s ancestral tree and my own, but things like the note above where Col. Edward married his first cousin also played into these connections.

One of the interesting things about DNA matching is that if you have two different matches at generation X the amount of your DNA commonality also doubles, making it appear from a percentage basis that your match is at generation X-1, i.e. one generation closer.

The impact of all these multiple matches and marriages among cousins is that it’s quite easy to see why the ancestry.com DNA Thrulines made it appear that John2 in my original tree met their criteria for a match at that generation, when, in fact, the connection is a couple of levels farther up our successive trees.

Update #6 – John’s two wives. It’s pretty obvious that John had two wives. His second wife, Anna [Wixon] was only born in 1769 (based on her gravestone) and thus she would have been only six years old when John’s first child, Caleb, was born in 1775. John and his first wife continued having children for nearly 20 years – Caleb (1775), William (1778), Isaac (1780), John Jr (1783), Elizabeth (1783 – twins?), Phebe (1788), Robert W (1790), and Abigail (1794). Then there is a break in the continuity when his first wife dies and he remarries to Anna. He has seven more children with her – Lee (1800), Abijah (1801), David (1803), Margaret (1805), Sophiah (1809), Naomi (1812), and Levi (1813). That’s 15 children over a period of nearly 40 years!

There are many trees in ancestry.com which give the name of John’s first wife as Abigail [Isham]. But I believe these to be false. The Abigail Isham they link to was from a well-to-do family in CT and she died in Bolton, CT, in 1800 (again based on her gravestone). While that date might reasonable, it’s too late for John to have remarried and had a child with his new wife the same year. It’s also not in the right place and she would have been unlikely to marry an illiterate farmer from the Hudson River Valley like John.

I have seen a number of trees which give a death date to John’s first wife of 1798 and a date for his marriage to Anna of either 1797 or 1798. But, lacking any corroboration of any of these dates, they remain speculative.

Summary – With the addition of these updates, I can now be much more certain that my list of John’s descendants is accurate. Thanks to my cousin for challenging me to continue to dig deeper into all these matters.

Except for the identity of John’s first wife and the date of her death and John’s subsequent marriage to Anna, I believe that I have resolved all the issues with John’s family. But, like any good genealogist, one should always be open to new information. My work is never done!

 

 

Investigating the Walter Family

A friend recently loaned me a copy of a family tree of her mother-in-law's family – the Walter Family. I wanted to see if I could verify the information in it and add anything else to the stories that it represents. As I built back the family tree using ancestry.com, most things lined up, but there were three areas that needed further examination

The Tree

The tree I was loaned was a single piece of rolled-up paper that was in the form on a descendant tree. It was developed and drawn in 1975. The person at the head of the tree was Jacob Walter (1729-1803). There was a crude drawing of the Walter family crest and information about how he came to America in 1749 and made his way to Centre County, PA. The branch of interest to my friend goes as follows:

1. Jacob Walter (1729-1803), m. Maria Kauffman, only 2 children listed, only one with descendants

2. Jacob Walter (1762-1817), m. __ Lauver, only 2 children listed, only one with descendants

3. Jacob Walter (1798-1873), 2 wives, 17 children listed, but only two with descendants

4. Abraham Walter (9/1/1829-1893), m. Mary Ann Shively, 13 children

5. Elmer Abraham Walter (3/8/1872-1925), m. Sarah Newberry, 3 children

6. Harold G Walter (10/1/1910-), m. Catherine Weiser, 4 children

7. Mary E Walter (1929-) [still living]

The right-hand side of the paper is covered with hand-written additions representing the 45 years since the page was originally drawn.

Tracing Back Even Further

The paper genealogy chart starts on the left with Jacob Walter (1729-1803). But it notes that this is a very old patronymic. Can we trace it back farther? The answer is yes. [Note that I did not do this research myself, but relied on what other had already posted in various family trees.] Here is the continuation of the Walter name before Jacob (1729).

Johann Jakob Walther (1702-1734)

Hans Walther (1680-1754)

Hans Jacob Wather (1653-1742)

Hans Jacob Walther (1625-1693)

Hans Jorg Walther (1590-1635)

Hans Walther (1560-1645)

Christoph Walther (1534-1603)

Christoph Walther (1512-1592)

Hans Jorg Walther (1491-1526)

That's 9 more generations, taking the family tree back to the year before the voyage of Christopher Columbus! And all in what is now Germany. Truly a rich family history!

The Tale of the Three Jacobs

The first few generations (1-3 above) have a dearth of information, then there is suddenly an explosion in the 4^th generation. Because colonial families tended to be very large, there appears to be much missing. Since the investigation of this family took place in 1975, long before the Internet and online genealogical tools, I thought that I could fill in the missing information. But in the process I also discovered some errors in the chart.

According to the best sources, Jacob (1729) and his wife had 19 children between the years 1754 and 1780. One of these was the Jacob of generation 2 above, except that he appears to have been born in 1757, not 1762. But this Jacob did not marry someone with the last name of Lauver. He married Maria Bobb and they had 11 children. Moreover, none of their children had the given name of Jacob (the purported name of Abraham's father).

However, there was a line from Jacob (1729) to Abraham. One of the other of Jacob's sons was David Walter (1761-1838). David married Susanna Barbara Eberhart and they had 12 children, one of whom was Philip Walter (1790-1855). And one of Philip's children was listed as Abraham (1827-1893).

To be fair, there are a handful of trees in ancestry.com that show a Jacob as being the father of Abraham. But these trees do not list a father for Jacob, nor do they have any supporting evidence. And this is all complicated by the fact that the name Jacob/John was often used as almost a prefix with families having multiple sons with that first name – for example, David had sons named John Jacob, John David, John George, John Adam, and John Conrad. Other families often used the name Mary in a similar fashion with female children. So while I cannot be 100% certain that the family tree is Jacob-David-Philip-Abraham or Jacob-Jacob-Jacob-Abraham.

The VERY Young Couple and a scandal?

The final thing that I saw worthy of investigation was the heritage of the last person in the original chart, Mary Elizabeth Walter. Her parents were listed as Harold G Walter (b. 10/1/1910) and Catherine Weiser. But Mary Elizabeth was purportedly born in 1929 when Harold was not yet 20. And my research showed that Catherine was even younger! Also, the family trees I ran across all had Mary Elizabeth's mother as Mary Catherine Neugebauer. What was correct?

By looking at census records and obituaries, I was able to determine what was going on – and confirm that this had been worthy of investigation.

Here is the obituary for Harold. You can see that he was indeed born on 10/1/1910 to Elmer and Sarah Newberry. His wife is also listed as Mary Catherine Weiser. His four children are also properly listed with information that matches the family tree I had been provided. So nothing seems strange here.

[Obituary – Harold Walter]

But now let's look at the obituary for Mary Catherine several years later. She was born on 11/10/1912, married Harold on 9/22/1928, and has the same list of children. But her parents are listed as William and Mary Ellen (Woleslagle) Neugebauer! Further investigation into the 1910 and 1920 census showed that her mother was [Mary] Eleanor Woleslagle who was living as a 16-year-old servant in 1910, and that William and [Mary] Eleanor Neugebauer were living together with then 7-year-old Mary Catherine in 1920. So [Mary] Eleanor was only 18 when Mary Catherine was born. But that's still older than the age of Mary Catherine when her first child was born.

[Obituary – Mary Catherine Walter]

So, we now have another error in the hand-written chart – Mary E Walter's mother's maiden name was NOT Weiser, but was Neugebauer, the erroneous obituary of her father not withstanding!

Now let's look at the 1930 census when Harold and Mary Catherine were married and had their first child, Mary E Walter, who would be not yet two year's old.

[1930 Census – Harold]

[1930 Census – Mary Catherine]

As you can see, Harold is 19, living with his mother, Sara [Newberry], age 48, and her new husband, Wilson Engleman, age 77. Sara and Wilson have only been married a few years as Harold's biological father passed away in 1925. Also living with them is Harold's grandmother Elizabeth (listed by a nickname Lydia). Interestingly, Wilson's new mother-in-law is six years younger than he is! But note that Harold is listed as Single! That is clearly wrong as we know he married nearly two years before. [It's quite possible that Sara intentionally gave the wrong information to the census taker to help cover up the scandal.] But where is Harold's wife and daughter?

We find Mary Catherine living with her parents, William and Eleanor. She is listed as “[Mrs.] Harold Walters” (note that she is a daughter and female) and her child, Mary Elizabeth is age 1 and 1/12. As this census was taken in April 1930, that means that Mary Elizabeth was born in March 1929. Mary Catherine is properly listed as married.

So, what it going on here? Apparently Harold had gotten Mary Catherine pregnant around June of 1928 (9 months before the birth of Mary Elizabeth). He was 17 at the time (his 18^th birthday would have been in October of that year), and Mary Catherine was only 14 (her 15^th birthday would have been in November of that year). When they discovered that she was pregnant, their parents forced them to get married in September of 1928, but they were not allowed to begin living together – being much too young. Thus, in April of 1930 when this census was taken, Mary Catherine and her 13-month-old baby were living with her parents in Tyrone, PA, and Harold was living with his mother and step-father in Milton, PA – about 95 miles away!

Not a very auspicious start for this young couple! But we know that they must have reunited by the end of 1930 as Mary Catherine became pregnant around December of 1930 and their next child was born in September of 1931. Oh, the tangled web we weave!

Finding Your Roots - Glenn Close

I was watching a recent episode of "Finding Your Roots" where one of the celebrities being featured was Glenn Close (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknCSNuc25E). At 17:20 they were following one of her ancestral lines back and ended at John Strong (1605/6-1699). I immediately thought, "he's in my family tree!" I paused the program to check my tree and, sure enough, he is my great*10 grandfather.

That was exciting enough - to know that Glenn (who is only a year older than myself) is a distant cousin. But I was unprepared for what came next (at 19:35) as they revealed that there are over 100,000 descendants of John and that some other important individuals who Glenn (and by extension myself) are related to through the Strong family - FDR, Clint Eastwood, and [drum roll please] Princess Diana.

I've not done the detailed analysis to see exactly how these individuals are descended from John Strong, but I trust that the researchers of this TV show have done their homework.

I had previously documented (https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/03/presidential-connections.html) how I am connected to ALL the US presidents [not sure about Joe Biden yet], but this connection is 30 generations ago, so this connection to FDR is much closer. And as my wife is a distant cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt (https://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2018/02/genealogy-story-roosevelt-connection.html), so this is also a case of my cousin marrying my wife's cousin. Made my day.

Immigrant Ancestors

The vast majority of my ancestors came to New England during the Great Migration of 1620-1640. Over 1000 of the estimated 20,000 individuals who came during that period are my direct ancestors. However, there are also a number who came later, or who did not initially come to New England. While I have a few dozen “brick walls” which I am still investigating, here are all those I have been able to identify in the research I have done thus far. All these individuals came here from England unless otherwise noted. All but a dozen of the below came to New England, the others came to New York (7), Virginia (4), or Pennsylvania (1). (The notation GxGF/GM/GP is short for my great*x grandfather/grandmother/grandparents, e.g. G9GM = my great*9 grandmother.)

1600s – Arrivals in New England, but after the Great Migration ended in 1640

(note that in my original analysis I included those who came through the end of the 1640s to catch some of the stragglers, so the below starts in 1650)

·       Rebecca Beebe (1630-1672) (G9GM) arrived in New London, CT, in 1650. Her mother had died in England just before Rebecca and her father left, and her father died on shipboard during the trip. As a 20-year-old orphan, she married only a few months after arriving.

·       Noah Giles (1595-1675) and his wife Marie (G10GP) came to Boston around 1650.

·       Robert Stewart (1625-1688) (G9GF) came to Boston in 1651 from Scotland.

·       Robert Winsor (1620-1679) and his wife Rebecca (G10GP) came to Boston in 1652.

·       John Munro (1632-1691) (G8GF) came to Boston in 1652 from Scotland.

·       Robert Webster (1619-1676) (G10GF) came to Connecticut in 1652.

·       Thomas Barlow (1620-1658) and his wife Rose (G10GP) came to Connecticut in 1653.

·       Moses Ventrus (1625-1697) (G9GF) came to Connecticut in 1654.

·       William Pringle (1631-1690), my great*8 grandfather (G8GF) came to New Haven, CT in 1654.

·       Alse Mose (1630-) (G9GM) came to Rhode Island around 1657.

·       Richard Howell (1629-1709) and his wife Elizabeth (G10GP) came to Massachusetts around 1660. They later moved to New York.

·       Samuel Scripture (1649-1738) (G8GF) arrived in Massachusetts in 1662.

·       Humphrey Davie (1625-1688) and his wife Mary (G8GP) arrived in Massachusetts in 1665.

·       Nicholas Evans (1649-1689) (G9GF) came to Connecticut around 1670.

·       Augustine Cobb (1633-1714) (G8GF) came to Connecticut around 1670. He married Bethia Harvey (1658-1748), who had come to Connecticut with her parents around the same time.

·       Joseph Crowfoot (1632-1678) (G10GF) came to Massachusetts in 1672.

·       John Cunnabell (1650-1724) (G8GF) came to Boston in 1674.

·       Daniel Shelton (1668-1728) and his wife Elizabeth (G8GP) came to Connecticut in 1686.

1600s – Arrivals other than in New England

·       John Culpepper (1606-1674) (G9GF) came to the US in the 1620s, but initially to Virginia, not New England. Only a few years later he moved to Boston where he married, then with his wife settled in Branford, CT.

·       Richard Frisbie (1598-1635) and his wife Margaret (G9GP) came to the US around 1620, but initially to Virginia. They both died at sea in 1635. Their son, Edward, moved to Branford, CT in 1644.

·       Richard Valentine (1610-1684) (G9GF) came to New York in 1644.

·       Christopher Branch (1598-1681) and his wife Mary (G10GP) came to Virginia in 1624.

·       Francis England (1609-1677) and his wife Sarah (G10GP) came to Virginia in 1642.

·       Jan Wouters Van Der Bosch (1638-1707) (G8GF) came to New York around 1660 from the Netherlands. His son, named Wouters Janze (Jan’s son) in the Dutch tradition, anglicized his name to Walter Johnson.

1700s

·       Ralph Burn (1692-) (G7GF) came to New Hampshire sometime around 1715.

·       John Dunkins (1690-1749) (G7GF) came to Rhode Island sometime in the 1710-1730 timeframe.

·       Robert Russell (1730-1811) (G6GF), the one from whom I received my last name, came to New York around 1750 from Scotland.

·       Hugh Thompson (1720-1797) and his wife Sarah (G7GP) came to Pennsylvania sometime around 1750 from Ireland.

·       John Smith (1730-) (G6GF) came to New York around 1750.

1800s

·       Sarah Shilling Few (1847-1928) (G2GM) arrived in New York from Lincolnshire, England, as a two-year old in 1849 with her parents. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY, but married a man from Prospect, CT.

·       Alexander Levy (1840-1918) (G2GF) arrived in Brooklyn with his parents in 1851. The Levy family were Ashkenazi Jews. Although they arrived here from England, the family origins were in East Germany/Poland. Alexander married Phoebe Isaacs (1843-1910) who had arrived here with her parents in 1852 from the same part of East London. Alexander and Phoebe moved to Connecticut in 1870.

·       Francis Xavier Merchant (1826-1910) (G2GF) arrived in New York from Switzerland in 1853. Francis married Nancy Anna Soan (1840-1900) who had arrived here with her parents in 1847 from Ireland. They raised their family in Dutchess County, NY, but later moved to Litchfield County, CT.

 

Russell Hill

In an earlier blog, I had written about the History of Connecticut and how the part of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, PA had been settled and claimed by families from Connecticut in the mid-to-late-1700. I wondered if I could document any of those earlier settlers as being relatives of mine.

One of the resources which I found was “History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Cos. Penn. 1786-1800” (available in Google Books and other places). In looking through this for a list of those early settlers, I found a short paragraph with a bio of an individual which read:

“A. H. Russell was born in Washington township, near Russell Hill, January 24^th, 1834. His father, Alban Russell, came from Connecticut many years ago, and from him Russell Hill received its name.”

Since that’s not only my last name, but my initials as well, I was naturally intrigued. Where was Russell Hill and was A. H. Russell related to me? So, I temporarily abandoned my initial search for early settlers to find the story of this Russell family.

Using the facilities of ancestry.com as well as other websites, I quickly located A. H. Russell. I was a little disappointed that the “A. H.” did not stand for “Alan Harold” (my name), but “Alban Hartwell”. Apparently that combination of names was very common in that family line, as it was not only his name, but the name of his uncle and his grandfather. I also discovered that the above quote was incorrect as the Alban Russell who came from Connecticut was his grandfather, not his father. Also, his birth was in 1823, not 1834. (Note – to avoid confusion in the rest of this blog, I’ll refer to the Alban who was from Connecticut as Alban#1 and the Alban in the book as Alban#2. The uncle of Alban#2 I’ll refer to as Alban#3.)

Alban#2’s Russell family line was: Alban#2 (1823-1904) <- Schuyler (1800-1859) <- Alban#1 (1771-1850) <- David Jr (1715-1797) <- David Sr (1673-1752) <- Rev. James (1640-1709) <- Dr. Richard Woodward (1611-1676). Dr. Richard Russell came to Charlestown, MA from Herefordshire, England in 1640 as part of the Great Migration. Thus, there is no connection to my Russell ancestors, at least those in the last 10 generations.

But there were other connections that I was able to find.

First, Alban#1’s great-grandmother (the wife of Rev. James Russell) was Mabel Haynes (1645-1676). She was the aunt of Sarah Haynes (1659-1696), the second wife of my great*7 grandfather, Rev. James Pierpont (1659-1714) and the ancestor of the members of the Pierpont Family Association in New Haven, CT.

Second, the wife of Alban#1 was Hannah Hartwell (1769-1869). The name Hartwell is also significant to me. Hannah’s great-grandfather was Samuel Hartwell (1666-1744). Samuel is also the great*5 grandfather of my great-uncle, Joseph Hartwell (1900-1991), making Alban#2 the 4^th cousin, twice removed of my great-uncle Joe.

These connections were one on my mother’s side (Pierpont) and one on my father’s side (Hartwell). But I was also able to find two other direct cousin connections.

Third, there is a direct connection between myself and Alban#2 on his mother’s side. One of his great*5 grandfathers is Peter Mallory (1627-1698). Since Peter is also my great*9 grandfather (on my mother’s side), that makes Alban#2 my 6^th cousin, 4 times removed.

And finally, there is at least one direct connection between myself and Alban#1 (on Alban#2’s father’s side and on my father’s side). One of Alban#1’s great*3 grandfathers is John Lawrence (1609-1667). John is also my great*9 grandfather, making Alban#1 my 4^th cousin, six times removed and Alban#2 my 6^th cousin, 4 times removed by another path.

Alban#1 was born in Killingly, CT in 1771. In 1795 he married Hannah Hartwell who lived near Plymouth, MA. They lived for a few years in Killingly and their first two children (Alban#3 and a daughter, Alvisa Louisa) were born in there. They moved to PA sometime between 1798 and 1800 as their son Schuyler was born there in 1800. They had other children also born in PA during the coming two decades. These dates mean that Alban#1 was not among the Connecticut settlers who took part in the Pennamite Wars as the last conflict between CT and PA was in 1784 and it was in 1799 that the US Congress finally settled everything.

In an 1869 map of the area, there are three Russell families living in the village of Russell Hill. I’m not sure who they are as there are no first names given. There was a post office located there from 1843 to 1908. And the Russell-Prevost Cemetery is still located there. The cemetery is named after Russell Hill and the Prevost family who are the most numerous ones buried there (the cemetery is on Prevost Road). There is at least one Russell occupant – Phoebe J Russell Arnts who is the granddaughter of Alban#1 through his son Wilbur. Other members of the Russell family are buried in other locations in Wyoming County.

According to the Wyoming County Historical Society (pawchs.org):

“In 1762 settlers from New England came to the Wyoming Valley, but were driven out by the Indians. It was not until after the Sullivan expedition in 1779 that families were able to establish a permanent settlement in the Tunkhannock area. In 1842, Wyoming County was created from part of Luzerne County. The name ‘Wyoming’ is derived from an Indian word meaning ‘extensive meadows.’”

[Map of Russell Hill]

 

It’s been an interesting investigation – finding distant relatives who share the Russell surname living just to the north of me in eastern PA, and a bonus of finding a location even named after them. That place now is barely known, with the post office a distant memory (the area is now part of Tunkhannock) and the small cemetery of 188 old graves hidden away on Prevost Road just down the road from the Russell Hill United Methodist Church at the intersection of Route 6 and Prevost Road, and just a few old postcards depicting the beauty of it. There are still a number of Russell families living in the area (with addresses in Tunkhannock). Perhaps on a nice summer day (after the COVID pandemic is just a distant memory), I’ll take a drive and visit the area.

[Russell Hill postcards]

John Russell’s Family

My great*6 grandfather, John Russell, was the first-born child of my Russell immigrant ancestor, Robert Russell. He was born in 1756 in Bedford, Westchester, NY. He married in 1774, had 8 children by his first wife, Abigail. Then when she died in 1798, he married again a few months later and had 7 more children from his second wife, Anna.

Although John was illiterate, he did leave behind a will detailing who his heirs would be. Here is a transcript of that will and how each of his wives/children are noted.

[John Russell will]

 

·       First wife – Abigail Isham (1754-1798) – deceased so not listed

o   Caleb Ebenezer (1775-1830) – “residence unknown” (see below)

o   John Jr (1776-1860) – living in Tompkins County (see below)

o   William (1778-1846) – living in Fishkill, Dutchess County

o   Isaac (1780-abt 1840) – living in Tompkins County (see below)

o   Elizabeth [Smalley] (1783-1819) – deceased (see below)

o   Phebe [Wixon] (1788-1857) – believed to be living in Castile, Genesee County with husband John Wixon

o   Robert W (1790-1888) – living in Kent

o   Abigail (1794-1863) – living in Carmel

·       Second wife – Anna Wixon (1769-1848) – widowed living in Kent

o   Lee (1800-1888) – living in Kent

o   Abijah (1801-1881) – living in Kent

o   David (1803-1858) – living in Kent

o   Margaret [Barrett] (1805-1834) – believed to be living in Tioga County with husband Holmes Barrett

o   Sophiah [Robinson] (1809-1847) – living in Kent with husband Adonijah Robinson

o   Naomi [Ganong] (1812-1885) – living in Carmel with husband Jesse Ganong

o   Levi (1813-1896) – living in Kent

 

Notes on Elizabeth

She had passed away in 1819 and her husband Isaac has also passed away in 1812. Thus, their children, John’s grandchildren, were all listed as heirs as follows:

·       Isaac Smalley (1801-1885) – living in Kent

·       Abbey [Cole] (1802-1868) – living in Michigan Territory with husband Levi Cole

·       Zachariah Smalley (1804-1864) – living in Kent

·       John Smalley (1806-1891) – living in Michigan Territory

·       Freeman Smalley (1808-1891) – living in Kent

·       Mary “Polly” [Townsend] (1810-1878) – living in Kent with husband Stephen Townsend

·       James Smalley (1812-1867) – living in Philadelphia

Notes on Ebenezer

Listed in the will as Ebenezer, Caleb Ebenezer was the oldest child of John and Abigail. In the 1800 census he was living just a few houses away from his parents, but shortly thereafter he and his wife, Parmea, moved to the extreme NE corner of Dutchess County in the small town of Dover – about a 30-mile trek. They apparently never came back even to visit. Caleb had passed away three years before John, but the rest of the family was apparently not aware of it.

There is not a lot of documentation regarding Caleb Ebenezer being the Ebenezer listed in John’s will. I mentioned this in an earlier blog Finding Caleb Russell's Family. But in addition, there is now a lot of DNA evidence that connects me through Caleb to other of John’s children (see below notes on DNA Matching).

Notes on John Jr

John’s will notes that John Jr is in Tompkins County, NY. But research showed there were two men with the name John Russell there at that time.

One (whom I’ll refer to as John1) was born about 1783 (based on age in census records), was married to Martha who was 5 years older than he. He lived in Hector along Seneca Lake. He had a couple of children, including a son, Joel. In the 1850 and 1860 census he was living with Joel who by then had moved a bit north to Lodi in Seneca County (note that prior to 1817, Hector was part of Seneca County. In 1817 Tompkins County was created and Hector was part of it until 1854 when it became part of the new Schulyer County. So county name changes also figure in here a little). Martha passed away between 1850 and 1860 and John1 between 1860 and 1870 as he is no longer found in census records. Of interest is that in the 1860 census, both John1 and Joel were declared as having been born in Putnam County (which is where John’s family was located).

The other one (whom I’ll call John2) was born about 1776 and lived in Newfield, about 30 miles away from Hector and close to Ithaca, NY. His wife, Elizabeth, was 10 years younger than he. They had a large family, including a son Jacob and a daughter Esther. In the 1850 census, John2 and Elizabeth are still in Newfield and Jacob (age 18) is the only child at home. In the 1860 census, Jacob has gotten married and moved to Elgin, IL, and taken his aging parents (then 84 and 74) with him. John2 and Elizabeth’s daughter, Esther, had gotten married in 1847 and she and her husband had also moved to Elgin – in the 1860 census Esther and Jacob were only a few pages apart.

So which John is the son of the John back in Putnam County? Joel said that John1 was from there, but a birth year of 1783 is a point against him as that is not only the same year as John’s daughter Elizabeth, but it would have made John1 the 4^th son. Being given the same name as the father is usually not done past the 3^rd son. Also, two of my DNA connections (see below) have a fairly well documented family tree back to Esther, including a consistent migration path from NY to IL, then to KS which is where Esther is buried and where my DNA connections were born. Thus, my DNA connection supports John2 being the needed John Jr in the family.

So, despite the Putnam County listed in John1’s census record, I believe that John2 is the son or John – both because of the fit of the birth year and the relatively consistent tree associated with my DNA connections.

Notes on Isaac

Information on Isaac Russell in Tompkins County, NY is scant. He appears in the 1820 in Covert, Seneca County, then in the 1830 and 1840 census in Hector, Tompkins County. He and his wife appear to have four children. Isaac is 60 years old in the 1840 census and appears to have died before the 1850 census. But as the only individual with that name in the county, there is no reason to doubt that he is the son of John named in John’s will.

Notes on DNA Matching

One of the newer benefits of having your DNA in ancestry.com and linked to your tree is that they will find other people’s DNA that has common segments with yours, and who thus could be relatives of yours, and who also have trees that intersect with yours. So, this gives a sort of confirmation that your tree and theirs are both valid and it can also help you find paths in your tree where you might be having difficulty doing research. This DNA matching is valid back about 6-7 generations as above that the shared segments get too small to be meaningful.

That was certainly true in this case. In addition to 9 matches through Caleb and his descendants, I have a dozen DNA matches to other children of John Russell. This is not only confirmation that the relationship between John and Caleb is correct, but helped to identify the proper John Jr as outlined in the notes above on him. 11 of these 12 matches are as follows: 2 to John Jr, 1 to William, 2 to Elizabeth, 4 to Phebe, and 2 to Robert W.

This leaves one other that I have still not resolved. It purports to be through another Ebenezer Russell who is not the Caleb Ebenezer in my ancestral tree. I have looked at ancestral trees that reference this other Ebenezer and he has been assigned a variety of birth years between 1778-1781 and died in 1821-1831 perhaps in Hartford CT or Steuben NY. In contrast the trees for Caleb Ebenezer all have consistent dates of birth and death.

I tend to trust my research and having so many DNA matches to other children of John Russell backs that up. But this unresolved DNA match is still an outstanding issue to be resolved at a future date.