Working on Wednesday: Jesse Tomlinson (1798-1857) & the Ohio Canal - 1831

The Tomlinsons left Maryland for Ohio early in the 19th century and the 1830 federal census located this maternal 3X great grandfather in Perry Township of Pickaway County (where he, his wife Catharine Gaskill Freeman and their five oldest children were living by 1824).

[1830; Census Place: Perry, Pickaway, Ohio; Series: M19; Roll: 138; Page: 108; Family History Library Film: 0337949. Ancestry.com. 1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.  Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Ohio Governor Jeremiah Morrow and New York Governor De Witt Clinton had taken part in the ceremonial start of the Ohio and Erie Canal (to link the river to the Great Lakes) on July 4, 1825.

[Map of Ohio showing canals built. Source: Ohio's Historic Canals]

And here's a detail from an 1831 Ohio map showing the route of the canal through Pickaway County.

[Detail from Ohio. Drawn & Published by David H. Burr. New York. Entered ... Nov. 11th in the year 1831 by David H. Burr ... New York. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

Obviously Jesse Tomlinson was affected by the construction of the canal as we can see from this page of The Tenth Annual Report of the Board of Canal Commissioners. He was awarded $125, a substantial amount at the time, for the loss of stone taken from his land.

[Ancestry.com. Public documents concerning the Ohio canals : which are to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River, comprising a complete officia [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Public documents concerning the Ohio canals : which are to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River, comprising a complete official history of these great works of internal improvement, from their commencement down to the close of the session of the legislature of 1831-32. Columbus Ohio: I.N. Whiting, 1832.]

Here's how I'm related to him.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Catherine Gaskill (1804 - 1874)

We know so little for certain about this maternal third great grandmother but a few things seem clear. The oldest daughter of Phoebe Budd? (1775?-1845?) and Caleb Gaskill (1775-1837), her given name is consistently spelled "Catharine" (including on her gravestone) not the more usual "Catherine." Also census records almost always list her birthplace as Pennsylvania, most likely in Brownsville Township in Fayette County. Her paternal grandparents were Hope Rossell and Caleb Gaskill and we can trace her lineage back to Edward Gaskill.

The family moved to Ross County, Ohio,* in 1809 when Catharine was about five years old. Unfortunately the 1810 U.S. Census records for all Ohio counties except one do not survive so we don't know exactly where the Gaskills settled.**

[A new map of part of the United States of North America, exhibiting the Western Territory, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia &c., also the lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario & Erie; with Upper and Lower Canada &c. From the latest authorities. By John Cary, engraver. 1805. London: Published by J. Cary, Engraver & Map-seller, No. 181, Strand, June 1st, 1805.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Detail of above map showing location of Brownsville and general area surrounding Chillicothe in Ross County.]

On March 2, 1820, Catharine married Henry Freeman*** who apparently died the following year. A year later his widow married Jesse Tomlinson in Fayette County, Ohio.

In the 1830 U.S. Census, when Jesse Tomlinson's household was enumerated in Perry Township in the southwest corner of Pickaway County, his family had grown to seven people including three little boys, a little girl, and an elderly man over 70 whose identity is unknown.**** Ten years later the Tomlinson's were still living in Perry Township and had added four more children, two boys and two girls.*****

[Detail of Map Of The State Of Ohio From the latest & best Authorities; Including the Census of 1830. Engraved by A. Reed, East Windsor Connecticut; 1831. Published by Silas Andrus, Hartford Con. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

[Perry Township; Ancestry.com. 1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

[Perry Township; Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

In the 1850 U.S. Census, Catharine finally got her own listing. She and her family were now living in Union Township in Madison County, Ohio, next door to her brother Noah Gaskill. Only six of their children were still living at home including my direct ancestor George who was 11 and their youngest child Albert who was three years old.

[Union Township is located west and south of London which isn't included in it; Detail of Map Of The State Of Ohio. Published By Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. No. 253 Market St. Philadelphia. 1850. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Union Township; Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

In 1856 the Tomlinsons left Ohio for Washington County, Iowa, where Jesse died on May 24, 1857. Three years later the 1860 U.S. Census listed Catharine as head of a household and a farmer . Two of her sons, Albert and George, were living with her and one of her other sons, Samuel, and his family were living nearby. (Note that Catharine's place of birth was listed as "unknown" which makes me think that she probably wasn't the person who answered the enumerator's questions.)

[Detail from A New Map of the State of Iowa. Published By Charles Desilver, No. 714 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1856 by Charles Desilver in the Clerk's office if the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 35. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

["United States Census, 1860," database with images, <i>FamilySearch</i> (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-25248-2235-2?cc=1473181 : accessed 21 March 2016), Iowa &gt; Washington &gt; English River Township &gt; image 12 of 34; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, <i>Fold3.com</i> (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

We haven't been able to locate Catharine in the 1870 U.S. Census but in Grave Records of Washington County, Iowa, compiled by the Graves Registration Project of W. P. A. lists her date of death as May 2, 1874. She's buried near her husband in the Richmond Protestant Cemetery (now Richmond Public Cemetery). Find A Grave's photograph of her gravestone shows that it's been broken and only the top part appears to have survived

[Catharine, wife of Jesse Tomlinson, Richmond Public Cemetery, Washington County, Iowa.

Source: Find A Grave Memorial# 19698590; Photo by Connie (#46496968)]

Catharine and Jesse's son George Marion Tomlinson married Elizabeth Taylor who died shortly after their daughter Rufina Ellen Tomlinson was born in 1863. Fina married Lewis Logan Slater and their second child, Harry Allen Slater, is my maternal grandfather.

*Chillicothe is the present county seat for Ross County. In 1800 Chillicothe became the capital of the Northwest Territory and from 1803 through 1816 (except for a brief interval) it served as the Ohio state capital.
**I haven't been able to locate Caleb Gaskill in the 1820 U.S. Census either. In the 1830 U.S. Census his household was listed in Scioto Township in Ross County but we don't know if that's where they settled when they first arrived in Ohio or whether they relocated once they were there.
***I haven't found any further information about Henry.
****Jesse's father died in 1815 and Catharine's father was still living in Ross County.
*****Another daughter, named Phoebe for her grandmother, was born in 1832 and died in 1836.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

FamilySearch Learning Center Course: "Sections, Ranges and Townships" by Roberta "Bobbi" King

FamilySearch offers a great variety of FREE genealogy courses covering topics worldwide:

The current snapshot of the FamilySearch Learning Center home page.

As I'm doing a quick overview of my tree for the first time this year, I realize I have been neglecting some of my early Ohio ancestors.   For example, my Tomlinsons and Gaskills moved to the Columbus area sometime around 1803, but existing federal censuses only start in 1830 so I have had to use other records, like taxes and whatever court records I can find, to fill in that time gap.  As I have started to look at Ohio land records I realize that there is a lot I have failed to fully grasp about Ohio's development.  According to the FamilySearch article, "Ohio Land and Property," "the rectangular land survey system (section, township, and range), established by the Land Ordinance of 1785, was first applied to federal land grants in Ohio."

Conveniently, FamilySearch has a course (video and slides) called "Sections, Ranges, and Townships" that I will be viewing tonight that might help me get started in Ohio land records.  I hope to get some idea of how to proceed with issues that come up, like the following:

A snapshot taken from the subscription site HistoryGeo.com, which has a module that compiles Bureau of Land Management patents into a convenient visual format.  Notice that there are areas which weren't covered by BLM records. Naturally, I had Tomlinsons and Gaskills in the counties with either NO or partial BLM land records (notice the western parts of Franklin and Pickaway counties along the Scioto River are not covered, and Madison, Fayette, and Ross counties).  I am guessing that the land grant system in Ohio has a part to play in this.

It does appear the original land grant areas did have an impact on what was covered by BLM. "Map of major land grants, tracts, districts and cessions in the State of Ohio." on wikipedia courtesy of user:DiltsGD

As a (new) subscriber to Legacy Family Tree Webinars I also have access to their numerous Ohio-specific webinars, like Ohio: The Great Land Experiment, but you have to pay to play for those (I pay $9.95/month, which is quite reasonable).





© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: James Rossell (About 1727 - After 1780), Wheelwright

As far as we know from the few existing records we have, this maternal sixth great grandfather lived his whole life in Northampton Township in Burlington County, West New Jersey.

[New England, New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania. By H. Moll, Geographer. (Printed and sold by Tho: Bowles next ye Chapter House in St. Pauls Church Yard, & Ino: Bowles at ye Black Horse in Cornhill, 1736?) Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

His occupation is listed on the marriage license granted on April 24, 1745, by Charles Read, secretary to Governor Lewis Morris which named "James Rosell of the Township of Northampton County of Burlington Wheelwright of the one part & Elizabeth Alcott of the same place Spinster of the other party."

[Original data: New Jersey State Archives.]

Now a casual glance at the record above might lead a modern person to see his occupation as Whoolwright. That's because it was written in the old fashioned Secretary's Hand in which the o's and e's look very alike when written in a word.

[Society of Genealogists. The National Family History Centre.]

Here's a video of the wheelwright's shop in Colonial Williamsburg and to learn more about the craft the Colonial American Digressions blog has a very informative post about it here.

James and Elizabeth's daughter Hope Rossell married Caleb Gaskill whose granddaughter Catherine Gaskill married Jessie Tomlinson.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Edward Gaskill (About 1603 - 1690), Ship Carpenter

There's so much we don't know about this maternal ninth great grandfather--like where in England he was born, when he came to Massachusetts, how soon he settled in Salem or what his wife Sarah's maiden name is--but we do know his trade was. As you can see for yourself in this document from 1659 (at the beginning of the fourth line of text below the horizontal line on the page), Edward was a ship carpenter.

[Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Registry of Deeds. Southern Essex District.

http://www.salemdeeds.com/BookPageListArchive.asp?bplSearchBookArchive=1&bplSearchPageArchive=0119]

To assist you, just in case your paleography* skills are a bit rusty, here's an abstract of the text:

"Ralph Tomkins of Salem, planter" sold to "Edward Gaskill of the same place, ship carpenter,...a dwelling house & about one acre & half of land adjoining thereunto...in the township of Salem near the tide mill..."

This is the house where Edward died in 1690.

Here's a bit more about Edward, including some of the various spellings of his surname, from an early 20th century book.**

[Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 1. Ellery Bicknell Crane, Lewis Publishing Company, 1907 - Worcester County (Mass.)]

Since the only times his name appears in the volumes of the Great Migration Project for 1634-1635 refer to later property transactions in the profiles of other men, I think it's safe to assume that he didn't arrive until after that period.

His oldest son Samuel married Provided Southwick, the daughter of Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell.

*If you are interested in improving those skills, look here for direction.
**Available as a Google Ebook here.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Hope Rossell (About 1745 - Before 1804)

Often, as in the case of this maternal fifth great grandmother, the only record we can find that actually names the woman relates to her marriage. Otherwise we must rely on her husband's records for her whereabouts.

[New Jersey State Archives, Colonial Marriages, 1665-1799]

What we have here is the marriage bond posted by the bridegroom Caleb Gaskill* and Joseph Gaskill (most likely his uncle) which served as a marriage license and didn't require banns being read out in church for three weeks before the wedding could take place. Because getting the license cost a fee, it wasn't something that poor people could afford to do.

 [The early marriage laws of New Jersey, by W. Nelson.--Index to marriage bonds and records in the office of the secretary of state at Trenton. Paterson, N.J., The Press Printing & Publishing Co. Year: 1900.

Source: Internet Archive. Original: Library of Congress]

Hope and Caleb were married on July 15, 1765, and continued living in Burlington County, New Jersey, where their third child and oldest son, also named Caleb**, was born about 1775.

By the time their eighth child Mary was born in 1781, the family had moved to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where they are found in the 1790 U.S. Census in Washington Township.

[Ancestry.com. 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: First Census of the United States, 1790 (NARA microfilm publication M637, 12 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

We can get an idea of their 200-acre farm in Washington Township from tax records in 1798 which valued it at $1,200.

[Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Direct Tax of 1798: Tax Lists for the State of Pennsylvania. M372, microfilm, 24 rolls. Records of the Internal Revenue Service, 1791-2006, Record Group 58. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.]

In the 1800 U.S. Census they were still living in Washington Township and we believe that Hope is represented by the 1 entered in the 10th column which enumerated "Free White Persons - Females - 45 and over".

[Ancestry.com. 1800 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Second Census of the United States, 1800. NARA microfilm publication M32 (52 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Second Census of the United States, 1800: Population Schedules, Washington County, Territory Northwest of the River Ohio; and Population Census, 1803: Washington County, Ohio. NARA microfilm publication M1804 (1 roll).]

We don't know when Hope died, probably in Pennsylvania, but it was sometime before 1804 when Caleb married a woman whose given name was Elizabeth. Sometime later he moved to Ohio where his son Caleb and several of his married daughters were living. He died in 1817 in Deer Creek, Pickaway County.

*This Caleb Gaskill was the great grandson of Provided Southwick and her husband Samuel Gaskill, and the great great grandson of Dirick Areson.
**My direct ancestor, whose daughter Catherine married Jesse Tomlinson.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Cassandra Burnell (About 1600 - 1660) and her daughter Provided Southwick (1641 - 1728)

As far as I know, my maternal ninth great grandmother Cassandra (Burnell) Southwick is my only ancestor whose name has been used as the title of a poem. But when the Quaker poet and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier wrote his poem  in 1842/3 he was actually telling the story of her daughter Provided* who (with her brother Daniel) was sentenced in 1658 to be sold into slavery in either Barbadoes or Virginia when they could not pay the fines imposed on them for not attending services at the established Puritan church in Salem, Massachusetts.

[The attempted sale into slavery of Daniel and Provided Southwick, son of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick by Gov. Endicott and his minions, for being Quakers.]

Cassandra had married Lawrence Southwick on January 23, 1623, in Kingswinford, Staffordshire**, England and all their children except Provided, the youngest, were born there.

The family had moved to Salem, Massachusetts, by 1639 and were respected members of the First Church and the community there for many years. All this changed sometime after 1655 when the first Quaker missionaries arrived in the Colony and were swiftly met with official hostility and civil punishments because of their perceived threat to authority and public order. When these measures failed, more severe anti-Quaker laws were enacted, and several people were executed in Boston.

[Title page of book on the persecution of Quakers in New England (1660-1661)]

We don't know exactly when the Southwick family adopted the Quaker faith, but Cassandra was publicly admonished by the Salem Quarterly Court for habitual non-attendance at regular church services in 1657 and the next year Lawrence, Cassandra and their son Josiah were fined for staying away from church and testimony was given that a known Quaker had spent several hours at their house. The parents and two of their sons admitted that they were Quakers and were sent to the House of Correction while the younger children, including Provided, recanted and were released.

While imprisoned, the Southwicks and several others Quakers were harshly treated, being whipped, starved and forced to do hard labor. Their written response to the Quarterly Court at the July session was as follows***:

"This to Magistrates at the Court in Salem.

Friends:--Whereas it was your pleasure to commit us, whose names are under-written, to the house of correction in Boston, although the Lord, the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth, is our witness that we have done nothing worthy of stripes or of bonds; and we being committed by your court to be dealt withal as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term us; and having some of us suffered your law and pleasures, now that which we do expect is, That whereas we have suffered your law, so now to be set free by the same law, as your manner is with strangers, and not to put us on the account of one law, and execute another law upon us, of which according to your own manner we were never convicted, as the law expresses.

If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should have expected the jailer's order to have been on that account, which that it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which we bare, as four of us were whipped, among whom was one that had formerly been whipped; so now according to your former law, friends, let it not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, our families to ruin. It is not unknown to you, the season and the time of year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and families may be exposed unto; and also such as live upon trade.

We know if the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in that place is well known, and what we now suffer for, is much for false reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresy and sedition. These things lie upon us to lay before you. As for our parts we have true peace and rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, for which we suffer: yea, and we do find (through grace) the enlargement of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and our families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life.

Lawrance Suthick, Cassandra Suthick, Josiah Suthick, Samll Shattock, Joshua Buffum 

From the house of bondage in Boston wherein we are made captives by the wills of men, although made free by the Son, (John 8, 36). In which we quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658."

Lawrence, Cassandra and Josiah Southwick and two other Quakers were ordered to leave the Colony and threatened with death if they didn't comply. Released after twenty weeks of imprisonment, they fled to Shelter Island on Long Island Sound in 1659. Cassandra died there in the Spring of 1660, just three days after the death of her husband.

[1706  Early Map (author unknown)  excerpted from a New England Map

Source: OldMaps.com]

While their parents and older brother were in jail, Provided and Daniel were again fined for not attending the established church and Provided was put in the stocks for calling the Court "persecutors." They were imprisoned for non-payment of their fines and would have been sold as slaves if any ship's master had been willing to buy them. None did, so they were let go while the Quarterly Court considered how to punish them. The worst of the anti-Quaker laws were changed before they did.

Provided remained in Salem and married a fellow Quaker, Samuel Gaskill, in October of 1662. The couple had seven children. Josiah, their youngest, is my seventh great grandfather. Provided died in 1728, having survived Samuel by eight years.

A fellow Southwick descendant, Janet Ireland Delorey, has written "A Study of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick" giving many details of the family, their background and trials which you can find here.

*From whom I descend.
**In the West Midlands.
***According to tradition, Cassandra was the author.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.