FOLLOW UP ~ Answering my questions from the blog post about Charles Brown & Cemathe Avery's wedding

 

I published a post, yesterday about another great find in Cora’s scrapbook.  But, that lead to some questions.  Did I get answers to those questions? 

Here are the questions I asked myself:

·   Which Presbyterian Church did John Woodbridge officiate as Pastor?  Was there only one Presbyterian Church in Saratoga Springs at the time?

·   Who are William & Charlotte Ayers?  There are no Ayers in my database/tree.  Were they friends or relatives?

·   Would it be possible to locate the actual church record for this marriage?

·    What other types of records would tell me more about the Pastor?

Here’s what happened………….

The first thing I did was search for a John Woodbridge (the Pastor) on Ancestry in census records from 1850 forward, in Saratoga Springs, NY.  I was rewarded in finding him listed in the 1870 census as a “Dd” living in Saratoga Springs with his wife and children.  I suspected that Dd meant Doctor of Divinity.  In looking on Google I confirmed that suspicion.  Now I know I have probably found Pastor John Woodbridge.

Further searching reveals Pastor Woodbridge in the Presbyterian Ministerial Directory for 1898 as follows.  And this matches up with the census records.

Let’s move on to William & Charlotte Ayers.

I have located them in the 1850 Federal census living in Saratoga Springs, New York and also the 1855 New York state census.  This does not tell me how they are associated with the bride and groom, but it does confirm them in the place and time of the marriage.

Can I use city directories to give me more information?  I entered Charles Brown in the Ancestry U.S. City Directories 1822-1995.  I found him in the 1882 directory on page 66.  His home address is one I’m familiar with 59 Church and I know that Charles was a Cigar Maker (although cigar is misspelled in the directory).

1882 Saratoga directory showing Charles Brown

Knowing that directories also contain lists of businesses, churches, associations etc., I am now going to try and find the Presbyterian Churches listed

In the Table of Contents for this directory from 1882, the churches are listed on page 45.  In reviewing that page I find two Presbyterian churches listed:

Ø First Presbyterian church, Broadway, north of Town Hall.  Rev. Peter Stryker, D.D. pastor and

Ø Second Presbyterian church, Spring street near Regent. Rev. William R. Terrett, pastor.

Neither of these shows a pastor named John Woodbridge, but this is 31 years after the marriage record and he likely had moved on or perhaps died. 

Can I locate a directory closer to the time of the marriage? I need to adjust my search on Ancestry and see if I can bring up other directories for Saratoga Springs.

The best I could do was a directory for Saratoga Springs from 1868.  That’s 17 years after the marriage, but let’s see what I can find in it.

I want you to know that I’m doing a little happy dance here.  On page 31 of the 1868 Saratoga Springs Directory is the list of churches.  And there is the “Presbyterian Church, Broadway, north of Lake avenue.  Rev John Woodbridge, D.D., residence South Broadway, a short distance below Circular street.”

Table of Contents from page 31 of the 1868 Saratoga Springs directory showing John Woodbridge as the Pastor/Reverend of the Presbysterian Church 

I made a couple of phone calls trying to locate the actual marriage record.  Afterall, the letter signed by Pastor Woodbridge states “that record of the same has been made in the Register of the Presbyterian Church.”

I made phone calls to the County Clerk for the County of Saratoga (518) 885-2213, the City of Saratoga Springs (518) 587-3550 and the Presbyterian Church (518) 584-6091 that is located in Saratoga Springs.  I spoke to some very nice ladies. We talked about the weather and had a few laughs about the difficulty in finding old records. 

Unfortunately, none of them could provide any marriage records from 1851.  I made sure to record in my Research Notes in Legacy, what organization I called, who I spoke with and the phone number.  I date all my research notes and going back to them provides me with a record of the things I’ve done in my research for a particular person or event.

When I record a marriage in my Legacy database I always include as much information as I can by using the Events/Facts entry.

Here is what this marriage looks like in my Legacy record.

This is the marriage event for this couple. 
Note the Event entries.

In the end, I did locate more information and answered some of my questions.

Ø I still don’t know how the witnesses, William & Charlotte Ayers were connected with the bride and groom.

Ø There were 2 Presbyterian Churches in Saratoga Springs at one time, but I still don’t know which one the couple was married at.

Ø I was not able to find the original church record of the marriage.

This was a good research session and I enjoyed the process. I hope that I’ve shared some ideas that would be helpful to you in your own research.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this or any of my other blog posts, please get in touch.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2023   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FOLLOWING LEADS ~ THE SEED FAMILY FROM YESTERDAY’S POST ~ Maurice Joy Seed

During my discoveries about Emily Gillen and her daughter, Emma Pope yesterday, I added information to my Ancestry tree.  My routine is to have both Legacy and the web open at the same time.  I use two monitors here at my desktop and that makes it real easy.  When I locate information, I add it to my Legacy database and also to my Ancestry tree.

Each time we work on someone in our Ancestry trees, or add new people, we will usually generate hints.  I was not disappointed this morning as I had hints for Emma Pope Seed’s children, Maurice and Rhoda.

There were 16 hints for Maurice and 11 for Rhoda.  Let’s take a look at Maurice and see what I can learn.
 
By the way, Maurice is my half 1st cousin, 3 times removed.  I don’t normally research that deep into the tree, but there are just too many good hints here for me to ignore.

Here are some of the hints:

• Census records for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940
• Florida State Census for 1935
• U.S. City Directory for 1912 & 1924
• U.S. School Catalog for 1903
• Florida Passenger List for 1921
• Passport Application for 1921
• U.S. Social Security Applications Index
• U.S. Find A Grave Index
• Photo of his headstone

The very first one I went to was the Passport Application. Why?  Because they will often contain photos of the applicant.  I was not disappointed.

Here’s Maurice’s passport application, including his photo.
 
This application gives his exact place of birth, his father’s name and exact place of birth, where he is traveling to, and a complete physical description of Maurice.  I also collect signatures from my ancestors and this application provides me with one.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)
 


Certainly a bonanza of information for any genealogist.  I wrote a blog post about Passport Applications which you can read here.
Next, I’ll check that U.S. School Catalog hint.  Maybe I’ll find a picture there too.  Here’s what I found.

Name:	Maurice Joy Seed
Publication Year:	1903
Publication Place:	Illinois
School Name:	Northwestern University

From page 356 of the school catalog for Northwestern University in Illinois, publication year 1903.



This entry gives us more evidence of his date and place of birth and tells us what he studied and where he lives at the time of this publication.

From the U.S. city Directory for 1912 I learn that Maurice was married to a woman named Elizabeth and living in Mount Vernon, Illinois.  His occupation was Editor and Publisher of the Daily & Weekly Register at 806 Main.  That his home is at 1030 Maple and it gives his telephone number as 181 – 1 ring. 

Also of note on this page is his sister Rhoda is listed just below him, working as a teacher, listed as “Miss” so she’s not married and she is living with her parents at 517 N. 10th.  The father, Thos. H. Seed is listed just beneath Rhoda.

Name:	Maurice J Seed
Gender:	Male
Residence Year:	1912
Residence Place:	Mount Vernon, Illinois, USA
Occupation:	Editor And Publisher
Spouse:	Elizabeth Seed

I’ll take a look at one final item today, the FindAGrave hint.
 


Now, I have links to the memorials for Maurice’s family and a death year for him.  I can use all the leads from these memorials to find more vital records.

CONCLUSION: Following the hints on Ancestry can lead you to some great discoveries.  Note, that none of the hints I follow involve other member’s trees.  I will occasionally check the trees, but I follow the records, not the trees.

I’ve learned a lot about Maurice today and a little more about his father, Thomas too.  Now I can take a look at other leads on my Ancestry tree for this family and use the FindAGrave memorials to gather more information.

I hope you’ve found this journey today as much fun as I have.

If you think you might be related to anyone mentioned in this blog post, please contact me.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND–HENRY HART FAMILY–PART 3

MY GOAL:  CAN I PROVE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MY 2ND GREAT GRANDFATHER, HENRY HART & A REPORTED FIRST WIFE? 

 

HE IS REPORTED TO HAVE MARRIED & HAD 4 CHILDREN WITH THIS WIFE, PRIOR TO MARRYING MY 2ND GREAT GRANDMOTHER.
 

I WILL SHARE WITH YOU, IN THIS POST AND UPCOMING POSTS, HOW I FOLLOW THE LEADS AND WHAT I FIND.
 

THIS IS AN ONGOING SERIES.  PLEASE REFER TO PREVIOUS POSTS, IF NECESSARY. 
 
Here are links to the first two posts:
HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND - HENRY HART FAMILY - PART 1
HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND - HENRY HART FAMILY - PART2

I HAVE RESTATED MY GOAL ABOVE AND WILL RE-STATE THAT GOAL AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH POST FOR THIS SERIES.
 
Let’s now go to the third child of Henry Hart & Sarah Sumner.  

Benjamin Tyler Hart. 

BENJMAIN T. HART & HIS WIFE MARY CAMPBELL

Here is the family group record that I received from Judy Haynes who descends from Henry Hart & Sarah Sumner

 

YOU CAN SEE THAT THIS TYPED RECORD LISTS BENJAMIN HART AS A CHILD OF HENRY HART & SARA SUMNER AND HIS DATE OF BIRTH AS 28 JUL 1820

WHAT RECORDS HAVE I ALREADY COLLECTED FOR BENJAMIN TYLER HART?

• The above family group record from a descendant, which gives his name & date of birth and states that he was a child of Henry Hart & Sarah Sumner.
• A marriage record from Westminster, Middlesex, Ontario, Canada from 20 Jun 1843 for Benjamin Tyler to Mary Campbell.
• An 1850 census record with Benjamin Hart & his wife, Mary & their two sons, William & Alonzo.   NOTE: They are living next door to Hiram Hart (brother of Benjamin) and a young girl named Clarissa, who is the right age to be the daughter of Hiram.  Where is Hiram’s wife, who is also named Clarissa? This is a question I will write down and come back to later.
• An 1870 census record with Benjamin Hart & his wife Mary and children, Isaac, Harriet, John & Charles.  There are two other people in the household named Ellen William, age 59 and James Johnson, age 20.  They are listed as a domestic servant and a laborer.
• A record of Benjamin’s death from Michigan, Death & Burials Index, 1867-1995
• A picture of Benjamin’s headstone from a FindAGrave memorial.

WHAT DO I WANT TO LOOK FOR NEXT?

• An actual copy of his death record or certificate.  I happen to know that familyseach.org now has images of the Michigan death records from 1867-1897.  In fact I wrote a post about Michigan death records and how to find them.  Here is a link to that post:  Michigan Death Records - Where can you find them?

I have located a death record for Benjamin T. Hart on familysearch.org.  He died 14 Jun 1897 in Clyde, St. Clair, Michigan.  

Male, white, married
Age 26 yrs. 10 mos. 14 days
Place of death – Clyde
Disease or cause of death – Bright’s disease
Birthplace – Canada
Occupation – Farmer
Parent’s names & residence – Henry & Sara Hart, Canada
Date of record – 29 Jun 1898

Here is the document recording his death.  He is the last one on the page.  
(Please click on any image to enlarge it)

  

Anyone see that item in red in the list above the document?  His age is listed as 26 years.  Our Benjamin was supposedly born in 1820.  He was married in 1843.  

What am I to think?  Is this the wrong person?  In my opinion, No.

First of all, if I calculate from the date of death 14 Jun 1897 and use the age 76 years and not 26 years, 10 mos. and 14 days, we have a birth date of  31 Jul 1820.  Our information from cousin Judy, says 28 Jul 1920.  Pretty close.  If you look at all of the numbers written on the death record, the writer seems to always have a curl at the bottom of his or her 2’s.  

It is my opinion that the number so easily mistaken as a 2 could easily be a 7.  

HOWEVER, I would hope to find another piece of evidence that this is the correct Benjamin Hart.  

Let’s look at the headstone for Benjamin and see what it says.



Don’t you just love it when headstones have more that just a name & year on them?  

Look at this one!  For both Benjamin T. Hart & his wife Mary C. Hart, we have exact dates of birth and death.  I know the two children Laura & Nancy are their infant daughters.

This is pretty good evidence that the death record I found was the correct one.  Can headstones be wrong?  YES!  Just like any other record we find, they too can have mistakes.

How about an obituary?  Let’s go look on genealogybank.com and see if they have something.  Darn, not a thing on that site.

One more piece of evidence that Benjamin died in 1897.  His wife Mary is listed as a widow, living with her son Isaac & his family in the 1900 census.

I am satisfied that the death record is for the correct Benjamin.  

BUT WAIT!

WHAT DID WE START OUT LOOKING FOR?  That’s right, proof that my 2nd great grandfather Henry Hart was, in fact, married to Sally “Sarah” Sumner prior to marrying my 2nd great grandmother, Olive Doten.

Doesn’t that death record for Benjamin T. Hart name his parents as Henry & Sara Hart?  YES!

Have I accomplished my mission on this date.  I would say so.  

There is one more piece of evidence that lists Henry & Sara Hart as the parents of Benjamin Hart.  It’s a Michigan, Deaths & Burials Index, 1867-1995.  Again, we have a little discrepancy.  His middle initial is listed as “J.” instead of "T".   I can’t look at the original as there is only an index on Ancestry.  This could easily be a transcription error.  Given the other information on this index, I conclude that it is the correct Benjamin Hart.



Is this definitive proof about Henry & Sara’s marriage?  I wouldn’t call it proof, but it’s a start.  At least we have their names appearing together on two different documents.  Although her maiden name is not listed.  

TIP:  Sometimes we have to come to conclusions in our research based on evidence we find that isn’t the proof we’d like.  I would like to find a marriage record for Henry Hart & Sara Sumner.  I would also like to find a death record for Sara Sumner Hart.  I'm not sure if I will be able to find either, but I'll keep looking.

For now, I'll be satisfied with what I do find.

I’m going to stop for today, or I’ll have to publish this as a book and not a blog post.  

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
Surprise! A birth record where it wasn't supposed to be
Cemetery Records - What can they tell you? How do you use them? 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND–HENRY HART FAMILY–PART 2

MY GOAL:  CAN I PROVE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MY 2ND GREAT GRANDFATHER, HENRY HART & A REPORTED FIRST WIFE?  

 

HE IS REPORTED TO HAVE MARRIED & HAD 4 CHILDREN WITH THIS WIFE, PRIOR TO MARRYING MY 2ND GREAT GRANDMOTHER.
 
I WILL SHARE WITH YOU, IN THIS POST AND UPCOMING POSTS, HOW I FOLLOW THE LEADS AND WHAT I FIND.
 
THIS IS AN ONGOING SERIES.  PLEASE REFER TO PREVIOUS POSTS, IF NECESSARY. 
Here is a link to the first post: HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND - HENRY HART FAMILY - PART 1

I HAVE RESTATED MY GOAL ABOVE AND WILL RE-STATE THAT GOAL AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH POST FOR THIS SERIES. 
 
According to the information from cousin Judy, Hiram Harper Hart was born on 11 Sep 1818. No place of birth is listed nor is there a death date or place.
 

There is some handwritten information on the sheet from cousin Judy (see above photo of same) that seems to contain specific information related to Hiram. I can read most of it, but what does it mean? 
 
Here is what I think it says, I am trying to interpret the printing to the best of my ability.
 
“1850 census list Hiram 32, Clorasis-younger, Curtiss
1859 – son Seth, d-Nancy, s-Elijah, d-Clarassia, son-Arthur
Believe there were 6 children (must be 3rd wifes 6 children)”
 
The first place I will look will be on the census reports. 
 
NOTE:  Before 1850, only the heads of household were listed on the U.S. population census reports.  This means that we can look at the census records from 1790-1840 and try to ascertain from the ages of those enumerated, who they might be.  However, since this family was living in Canada prior to about 1838, as far as I can tell, this makes finding them a little more challenging.  Here is the chronology report with the information I currently have on Henry HART & his first wife, Sarah SUMNER:
 


Your looking at this for the first time and so am I.  What does that “verified” word at the top mean?  I haven’t verified any of this information yet.  I am using Legacy version 8, which just came out last week.  Is this an anomaly in the report?  For now we will ignore that word.
 
What I have found online on Ancestry.com as far as early census records, is NOTHING.  

There is a family tree on Ancestry that states that Henry was living in Cambria, Niagara Co., New York in 1840.  Would Hiram have been living with him then?  How about the other children?  I cannot locate that census record.
 
Let’s move on then.  Our focus is Hiram Harper HART.  It is very easy to get sidetracked when we are researching.  I can tell you that I am a HUGE offender.  FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!  Those are words I repeat to myself often.
 
I’m going to go to familysearch.org and put in Hiram Harper Hart, with a wife named Clara (instead of Clarissa, I will enter Clara or even Clar* as it gives me a broader search).  Parents names Henry & Sally Sarah.  
 
NOTE:  I tend to put in minimal amounts of information to broaden the net of my search.  If you enter too much you will restrain the search and I’d rather scroll through some data and pick what is relevant, than have too little.
 
Here is what I entered for my search:
 
 

Notice I have not entered a last name or even a complete name for Clarissa, his wife.  Nor have I entered a last name for his father or mother, only first names.
 
Here are some of the results of this search:

As you can see we have plenty of results.  And what excites me is that the names are a match to what is on that family list from cousin Judy (see above).
 
Now to examine each and every one of these records.  Since several of them have images (as indicated by the camera next to the record source) we will be able to actually look at the record, rather than just an index/transcription of the record.  However, any record is better than no record.
 

NOTE: It is extremely easy to get sidetracked when doing any research.  I am a perfect example of that.  I had to stop writing the draft of this post due to other priorities (you know…regular life things, especially during the holidays).  

 

Before being able to examine the records I have posted above about Hiram Harper Hart, I found one of those “oh so tempting” shaky leaves on my Ancestry tree for Clarissa Curtis, Hiram’s wife.  I took the bait and clicked on the hints and have now gone down the road with Hiram’s wife, Clarissa.  This isn’t a bad thing to do because, after all, it’s still the same family and you don’t know what records you will find.
 
Here is what happened.
 
I followed one lead, which led to another and don’t you know I have FINALLY located her death certificate!  That’s a big find!!!  Up until now I had not located her death date or record.  WHY?  Because I would have been searching under the surname Hart.  
 
She must have remarried to someone named PARKS.  She was living with her son Arthur in the 1900 census listed as Clarise Parks, widowed mother of the head of household, her son, Arthur Hart.  Does this help me with Hiram.  YES.  Because if Clarissa remarried and I can locate the marriage record, then I may be able to determine if Hiram died or they divorced.  At least I will have a time frame.
 
The steps I followed to locate her death record were as follows:

• Click on her name in the 1900 census and this is what comes up.

Notice it states she is widowed.  Also over on the right hand side you will “other records that may be relevant to Clarrisa Parks.”  There is a listing for a Michigan death record.
 
I clicked on the link for the Michigan death record and found this:
 


You can see that it gives the name of her father, Asa Curtis.  Based on the information from cousin Judy, I believe her maiden name to be Curtis.  And from a couple of Ancestry trees I have found her father listed as Asa Curtis.  Along with that is a year of birth 1829, which is in keeping with other records for her.
 
Notice over on the right hand side of this record there is listed an 1891 Canadian census.  

Let’s see what that contains.
 


I reviewed this record and some of the other records listed on the right side of the page above. In evaluating those records I have concluded that there may be two Clarissa Parks. 
I won’t go into detail here as this post is already too long.  

However, let me share the marriage record I did find for Clarissa Curtis Hart to Edward Parks.
 


The entry for Clarissa Curtis Hart & Edward Parks is the second one from the bottom and here is a close up.  (Remember you can click on any of these image to make them larger)
 


As you can see this marriage record not only lists Clarissa’s last name as Hart at the time of the marriage, but it also gives her maiden name as Curtis.  Her place of birth is New York, which matches other records.  As far as her age, it’s within a year or two of other records. 
 
TIP: Always pay attention to the ages & year of birth, but be sure you don’t disregard a record because those figures don’t match exactly.  People didn’t always know their exact dates of birth, like we do now.  And, remember, those ladies and even the men, weren’t always truthful about their ages.
 
Now I am convinced that the Clarissa Parks listed in the Michigan Death record is our Clarissa.  I know that there are online images of Michigan Death Certificates from 1897-1920 at a site called seekingmichigan.org.  I have used this site MANY times.  I went to that site and that's where I located Clarissa's death certificate.
 
Here is Clarissa’s death certificate:


You can see that her year & place of birth match other records we have for her.  That her father’s name is given as Asa Curtis and that the informant is her son, Elijah.  I am further convinced that this is the correct Clarissa Curtis, wife of Hiram Harper Hart.
 
I am going to close this post for now as it’s already too long.  This is a good research day as I have discovered that Hiram Harper Hart’s wife, Clarissa, married a second time and I’ve found her death certificate.
 
Next time, we will continue our search and see what we find.
 
REMEMBER:  When we have a plan for what we “think” we want to do, sometimes we need to be ready to go in another direction, at least temporarily.  
 
We are still trying to find proof of the marriage of Henry Hart to his “said to be” first wife, Sally Sumner.  It just may take us a while to get there. But, aren't we having fun in the meantime.  I know I am :)
 
I will continue with this search and share it with you. Stay tuned.
 
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
 

Copyright © 2013   Diane Gould Hall