Finding John Powell - 1 possibility down

One of my current projects is identifying all the descendants of Jonathan Richardson, the man I call "the progenitor" of my Richardson family in western New York. He came to Ontario Co, NY between 1803 and 1810 with (probably) four sons.

One of those sons, Jonathan (II) Richardson, had a daughter named Rhoda. Rhoda Richardson married Rowland Powell and had at least five children. The second-to-last known child and last son was named William Ryder Powell, and he seems to have a bit of a bad guy. (More on him as a person to come later.)

William Ryder Powell married (or at least had a somewhat long term relationship with) a woman named Mary Martin. Mary Martin was born in Ireland about May 1826, probably in the small parish of Youghalarra in County Tipperary where her known brothers and sisters were baptized. Her parents were Malachi/Malachy Martin and Margaret O'Brien (Brien). I have not been able to find when Mary Martin emigrated to the United States.

Their first child, Mary Adelia Powell, was born in Livonia, Livingston Co, New York, probably around May of 1848 (though her obituary gives her birth date as 22 May 1846, all of the previous records give year of birth around 1848 rather than 1846). This also gives the latest emigration date for Mary Martin as approximately nine months before May 1848 (or 1846) - around July of 1847 or 1845.

The only census that has William Ryder and Mary (Martin) Powell enumerated together is the one from 1850; Mary appears alone with three children in the 1855 New York State census: Mary A, aged 6; William I, aged 4; and Luceria A, aged 2, as well as a cousin, Margaret Hogan. The 1855 census also states that Mary (Martin) Powell had lived in Livonia, New York, for 12 years and that she was an alien. (William Ryder Powell was a natural-born American.) That gives a latest emigration date for Mary Martin as 1842-1843.

In 1860 Mary (Martin) Powell has two children with her in her household: 7-year-old Lucera and 2-year-old John. William appears to have died and Mary Adelia is living in another household working as a domestic. I have not been able to find John in the 1865 New York State census. In 1870 he is living with his mother, Mary, in Livonia, and by 1875 Mary (Martin) Powell has married a man named Michael Tone and John is living in their household, listed as a step-son to Michael Tone. John is enumerated as working on the Erie railroad.

And where is John after that? In the 1900 census, Mary (Martin) Powell Tone's enumeration states that she has had four children and that three are still living. That appears to imply that John Powell is still living.

The web becomes further tangled as the history of William Ryder Powell is examined. According to his obituary, William Ryder Powell was not the nicest of people. He was shot to death (supposedly in self-defence) in 1904 in California. The obituary also states, "He was arrested, tried and convicted [for horse stealing], and our informant is quite sure that his sentence to Auburn prison was for a term of five years. After he got out of prison, which was something like thirty-five or forty years ago, he drifted to California...."  This gives some dates for William Ryder's incarceration at Auburn: released between 1864 and 1869, with a five year sentence, gives his incarceration beginning dates of between 1859 and 1864. However, records for this period at Auburn do not survive. It is, of course, possible, that these dates are off, and maybe as many of five years on either side.

The probate completed in 1904 and 1905 by his daughter, Mary Adelia (Powell) Sheldon, states that her father purchased land in California and was unmarried when he did so, and gives his only surviving heirs as two daughters: Mary Adelia (Powell) Sheldon and Lucera (Powell) Crane (I'll come back to this one, too).

So what happened to John Powell? Was he really William Ryder Powell's son? Where is he in subsequent censuses after 1875?

I thought I had found a candidate - a John H Powell married a woman named Kitty Dempsey in Rochester, NY in 1886. He worked on the railroad, was approximately the right age, and his mother was born in Ireland. I was lucky in that I had already ordered a roll of microfilm from the FHL of Rochester and vicinity church records for another purpose!

On 26 April 1886 John H Powell married Catherine "Kitty" Dempsey at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Rochester, New York. John H Powell was the son of Samuel Powell and Elizabeth Kennedy. Catherine was the daughter of Bernard Dempsey and Catherine Costello.

And there went that hypothesis popped.

So what happened to John Powell? I'm still looking.

I'm also still looking for Lucera (Powell) Crane/Ware too: she signs her name as Lucera Crane in the probate documents, her death certificate gives her name as Lucera Ware, and I can't find anything on her under either name. Supposedly, according to online family trees, she married a man named John Ware and they had two children (before 1904 when she signs her name as Lucera Crane), but I am still trying to follow that up.


[If sources are desired, please comment or send an email. I would be happy to oblige.]

Bartholomew Genealogy Dance!

So I have been working on trying to prove the name of my Anna (Richardson) Bartholomew Harrington's first husband for over a year - this is in Ohio in 1830.  I had a candidate by census records - Don C. Bartholomew was the only Bartholomew in Mentor Twp, Geauga Co, Ohio in 1830. Anna Bartholomew married her second husband in Mentor Twp in 1832.

Then found a book of newspaper extracts that proved that not only did Don Bartholomew survive his wife (not right for my Anna's second husband), but he also died after Anna had remarried her second husband.  Ok, so not him.


Back to the census drawing board. I came up with another candidate: Russell Bartholomew.  (He was in the 1830 census and not in the 1840 census, and appeared to be the right age.)  Issue - he wasn't in Mentor Twp. To a map! He lived in Concord Twp, which is right next to Mentor Twp in Geauga Co, Ohio.  Less of a issue.  Larger problem: He is a young, newly married man in the 1830 census! His wife remarried in 1832! I posit that they had a child, named David. But none of David's records name his parents. The book of newspaper extracts had an entry for Russell Bartholomew giving his death in January 1831.  This is all leading to Russell looking like a good candidate.

Looking at the 1830 census, I then went to the neighbors.  Russell and his young wife were living next to an older man named Jedediah Bartholomew.  Perhaps Russell's father?  Went looking for family trees online to see if anyone had done anything on the family. Well, a little bit - I found trees but they only had two children.  Then it is time to Google.

I found a post from 2006 on an Ancestry message board about New Jersey Rev. War veterans that mentioned a Bartholomew book from 1885 - "Record of the Bartholomew Family."

And there is Russell, marrying Anna Richardson and having one son, David. And Russell's father is Jedediah.

Of course, there are no sources or citations in this family history. So I still have work to do. Russell and Anna's marriage is not in indexes for Geauga Co, Ohio. It may be that they married in New York before coming to Ohio. (Of course, early New York vital records are fairly scarce.) 

So while I still have work to do, I know have at least one source (however secondary and/or derivative) that confirms my hypothesis that Anna Richardson married, first, Russell Bartholomew, and had one son, David Bartholomew (Civil War veteran). She then married, second, as his third wife, Otis Harrington, and had four more children.

Genealogy happy dance!

Title page of the Record of the Bartholomew Family, published 1885.

History in a series of cannons, cont....

Cannon on the Vicksburg side of the Mississippi River, March 2013.

Latest in the series of cannons, this one just over the Mississippi River in Vicksburg near the Visitor's Center.  I got to see none of the cool parts of Vicksburg; we took a few photos of the bridge, which we were not allowed onto, and then back across the river to the next bridge.

Old Vicksburg Bridge, March 2013

Database Updates...

Updated my website at Rootsweb and my WorldConnect database this evening based on email from a cousin. Apparently I had some wrong dates (not surprising). Hopefully I got all the sites that my data lives on.

DNA tests - Making sense of percentages

My parents and I have all done DNA testing, at both FamilyTreeDNA and 23andme.

The image below shows my mom's "Ancestry Composition" from 23andme.  Ok, so obviously, mostly European. Got that. But what exactly do these percentages represent? I was trying to make this more clear in my mind as to what the 0.1% signified.

So I started thinking. Mom has a number of percentages that are at 0.1%. In order to make that equal 1 person, I would have to have 1000 ancestors represented in this evaluation.  Then I went looking for how many generations it takes (remember, your number of ancestors in each generation doubles) to get to 1000 ancestors.  The answer? 9.  (I used this website.)

By the time you get to the 9th generation back from you (that is your 7th great-grandparents), you have 1023 unique ancestors. However, it is unlikely that there are no intermarriages and duplicated individuals.  So generally, the 9th generation back gets us 1000 ancestors. That website gives a general birth year of 1680 for this generation. (A previous post at this blog counted the ancestors that I have identified by generation; I have 83 of the 512 in this generation identified.)

So taking mom's percentages, based on 23andme's speculative percentages, out of 1000 ancestors I get the following numbers of people in her ancestry:

466 British and Irish
117 French and German
45 Scandinavian
312 Northern European
42 Iberian
9 Southern European
1 Ashkenazi
5 European
1 Sub-Saharan African
1 East Asian/Native American
1 Unknown


Cool, right? That is a little more...understandable. Concrete. Essentially mom is half Irish/Scottish/English/Welsh. Most of her known ancestors in this group are Irish/Scottish. And she definitely has duplicate ancestors - her paternal grandparents were first cousins (surnames McFEATERS and McCACHREN).


Dad's results:
305 British and Irish
127 French and German
124 Scandinavian
360 Northern European
9 Sardinian
5 Italian
25 Southern European
33 Eastern European
9 European
1 South Asian
1 East Asian/Native American


My results:
409 British and Irish
84 French and German
17 Scandinavian
418 Northern European
11 Iberian
4 Italian
32 Southern European
5 Eastern European
16 European
2 South Asian
1 Unknown

I've got some of these results that I am scratching my head about, but being able to take Dad's results, Mom's results, and my results and compare them, I can see patterns.  Got the Italian from Dad (not surprising, with his Gredler family being in Tirol in Austria, near the Italian border), Iberian from Mom (NO CLUE about this group), and missed some of the markers. I didn't get either one of their East Asian/Native American marker, and I didn't get Mom's Ashkenazi or her sub-Saharan African marker.

Another excitement is that one of the matches at 23andme is someone that I talked genealogy with probably 10 years ago. We know we are cousins and have researched together previously on the McFEATERS and CAMPBELL families in Pennsylvania. So now I have my first paper AND genetic cousin match!!! So exciting!

Genealogy Pet Peeve

Today's post is brought to you via frustration.  My pet peeve in genealogy is when you find someone that has compiled a tree online (or in a book) and the information gives you a date and a place, but no citation.  Well, citations would be nice, but I should easily be able to find the records, so I go looking for the information in the place the event supposedly took place.

AND I CAN'T FIND A RECORD OF IT HAPPENING IN THAT PLACE!

Sigh.

Like it is not difficult enough to have record losses and non-existant records, now I am chasing records that may exist but I am not sure of the location?! Oiy vey.


(c) Sara Gredler, 2013.

Presentation Announcement

I will be presenting as part of a panel on organizing your family history at the January 2013 Williamson County (Texas) Genealogical Society meeting (http://www.williamsontxgenealogy.org).  A good time will be had by all!

Social time and snacks begin at 7pm; presentation begins at 7:30. The panel includes discussion of paper organization, digital files, and dealing with/preserving heirloom items.  Should be interesting.



(c) Sara Gredler, 2013.

Genealogy Happy Dance!

A new database of browse-able images on FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/2078654): New York Land Records! YAY!

Current workings....

1829 Mentor Twp, Geauga Co, Ohio, personal property tax records. From FHL microfilm.

Two current projects I'm working on. Trying to discover the name of the first husband of Anna (Richardson) Bartholomew Harrington, who married Otis Harrington in 1832 in Geauga Co, Ohio. (Hence the tax records from that county.) It appears that Otis Harrington got his first piece of land in Geauga Co in 1831, so now I am off to land records. I also went looking to see if, when Lake Co was set off from Geauga in 1840, if the family moved or was just "moved" by the change in the county lines.  It appears not - as by 1840 they had moved from Mentor Twp to Willoughby Twp further west. Between land records and tax records I will hopefully be able to pinpoint a year for that move.

Secondly, to use the probate of two siblings who died childless in 1883 and 1891 in Livingston Co, New York to identify the descendants of their other siblings. Jasper and Abigail Powell, brother and sister, never married. At their subsequent deaths, they each had wills that left their estate to some of the children of some their deceased siblings. Right now I am only looking at the original wills and codicils, plus the newspaper announcements listing the heirs, but it appears that perhaps at least one branch of the family was "missed." I'm trying to prove (to myself) that the first wife of Charles Sowersby of Allegany Co, New York, Linn Co, Kansas, and Wright Co, Missouri, was Rhoda Powell, daughter of Stephen Powell and Lodaecy Powell. Lodaecy was the daughter of Rowland Powell and Rhoda Richardson. Stephen Powell's first wife was Lodaecy's sister Rhoda. (What a tangled web we weave!)

However, looking for evidence of that branch led me to a website (http://www.kscourts.org/dstcts/6linnppq.htm) for probate records in Linn County, Kansas.  That lists records for Powell children after, it appears, the death of their mother and remarriage of their father. The website lists a phone number so it looks like I might be making a phone call to Kansas next week!

Other items I have crossed off my top do list: I sent six death certificate applications to the state of Pennsylvania last week. I know it will be awhile before those requests are fulfilled, but they include multiple lines of my mother's family. The problems above are only on Dad's side - trying to follow all those Richardson branches to the present day. I'm hoping that, like on the other lines, I might eventually get living descendants to contact me.

Also have been looking through a pension file from Fold3.com for Phebe Ann (Harrington) Richardson Hayes, who appears to have...not been completely honest with the federal government regarding her remarriage after the death of her first husband Orlando H. Richardson in the Civil War. It appears that both civil and criminal charges were brought against her and two of her witnesses. I have to reread through the whole file again and put it in chronological order, but it is a doozy!

Back to work! (Well, lunch first.)

English records - ELLIS, COX, and HANN families

I've been watching episodes from the UK's "Who Do You Think You Are Are,"and have been reviewing my records on a pre-civil registration family in Dorset, England.

John Ellis, born abt 1760-1761 (possibly Dorset, England), married, 5 Aug 1790 (by license), Sarah Cox, in Dorchester Holy Trinity parish, Dorchester, Dorset, England. John Ellis was listed as being "of the parish of Hounslow" and Sarah Cox was listed as being "of the parish [of Dorchester Holy Trinity]."  Both John and Sarah signed their names, and the witnesses to the marriage were George Hann and Thomas Hardy.

Before John and Sarah married, they had a son, George, baptized 9 April 1790 in Holy Trinity parish, Dorchester, Dorset, England.  Their first legitimate child, Thomas, was baptized in Holy Trinity parish, on the 5 July 1791. Their other children were Mary Russell, Elizabeth, Robert, Ann, Michael John, Sarah, Mary, and Jane. Burial records have been found for George Ellis/Cox, Mary Russell, and Robert. Further records have been found for Thomas, Michael John, Sarah, and Jane.

On 1 December 1796, in the parish of Dorchester Holy Trinity, George Hann married Ann Cox, both of the parish, by banns. The witnesses to the marriage were Thomas Bessant and Sarah Ellis. The signatures of George Hann and the signatures of Sarah Ellis/Sarah Cox matches the ones from the marriage of Sarah Cox to John Ellis.

George Hann and Ann (Cox) Hann had at least four children: William, Mary, Robert, and Charles. Burial records have been found for William and Mary. No further records have been found for Robert or Charles.

The families of John Ellis and George Hann both lived in Shire Hall Lane in Dorchester. John was a blacksmith; George's occupation is currently unknown.

Sarah (Cox) Ellis, wife of John Ellis, of the parish of Dorchester Holy Trinity was buried 19 November 1820, aged 58 years, in St. Peter's Parish, Dorchester. That gives a birth year of approximately 1762.

Ann (Cox) Hann, wife of George Hann, of the parish of Dorchester Holy Trinity, was buried on 21 January 1817, in St. Peter's Parish, Dorchester, aged 48 years. That gives a birth year of approximately 1768.

George Hann, of the parish of Dorchester Holy Trinity, was buried 13 May 1817, in St. Peter's Parsh, aged 49 years. This gives a birth year of approximately 1767.

I've not been able to find the death record of John Ellis. I've been able to track him on the 1841 and 1851 censuses with his son Michael John Ellis, and both censuses indicate the John Ellis was born in Dorset [somewhat conflicting with the "of the parish of Hounslow" from the marriage register. Thomas Ellis had emigrated from England to New York in 1837 and from there moved to Canada by 1851.

I've also not been able to find the baptisms of Sarah Cox, Ann Cox, or George Hann in the parish records for Dorchester Holy Trinity or other Dorchester parishes.

I'm not familiar enough with English records nor do I have the ability to get at some of these records.

This family married into a branch of a family that married into a branch of one of my RICHARDSON branches. Until I hit this snag, I was doing well on the ELLIS family. I think that Sarah and Ann Cox are relatives in some way, possibly sisters.

(c) Sara Gredler, 2012