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