Eli Matthews (1804 - 1864) Was a Copperhead

Although he would probably have called himself a Peace Democrat.*

[Compromise with the South - Dedicated to the Chicago Convention. Wood engraving after Nast.

Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, 1864 Sept. 3. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

Here's a different view of the issue.

[Caption: War and Argument - Cold Steel and Cool Reason - having failed to restore the Union, it is supposed that the South may be bored into coming back. -  Illus. in: Harper's weekly, v. 8, no. 408 (1864 October 22), p. 688.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

Eli, my 3X great grandfather, was born in Tennessee, his family moved to Illinois in 1818 when he was 14. He spent the rest of his life there in that part of Sangamon County which became Christian County in 1839. He and his wife Susan Hanon had nine children, six boys and three girls.** At least two of their sons served in the Union Army during Civil War.

Since it had been years since I have done any research on the Matthews line, this afternoon I decided to see what I could find at Newspapers.com.

[11 Mar 1863, Page 2 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

Of course I had to find out more:

[12 Mar 1863, Page 2 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

Eli sent this letter to his second son, Aaron V. Matthews who had joined Company L, Illinois 10th Cavalry Regiment and remained in that unit until December 30, 1864.*** Aaron's first wife Sarah Short had died around this time, leaving the couple's four children to the care of relatives.****

It's clear from the letter that Eli wasn't a particularly educated man but that didn't seem to hinder him from a public role in Christian County, He was the county's first postmaster, served as a Justice of the Peace and was appointed to several committees that represented the county.


*You can find more about these folks here.
**Their third child and oldest daughter Sarah married George W. Slater.
***About two months after his father's death.
****Aaron did marry again (in 1865) and he and his second wife Martha Jane Walker had five children together, one of whom he named Abraham, known as "Abe".


© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Ethel Imogene Nash & John Washington Hill

I've found two portraits of Ethel, one of my distant Moore/Matthews cousins)* and her husband John posted by a grandson of the couple who were married in the mid-1930s. As far as I can tell, they always lived in Christian County, Illinois.

["Grandpa Johnny and Grandma Ethel" posted to his Ancestry.com family tree by Kent_Hutchings]

["Grandpa Johnny and Grandma Ethel" posted to his Ancestry.com family tree by Kent_Hutchings]

Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Clinton Samuel Tomlinson (1860 - 1904) & Ann Eversole Tomlinson (1868 - 1949)

Clinton, my first cousin three times removed, attended Northwestern University, Class of 1886 and was undoubtedly the first of his family to graduate from college.*

[Commencement program for Northwestern University. 28th annual commencement, 1886.

Source: Internet Archive]

His first job after graduation was as the editor of the Boone (Iowa) Republican which remembered him respectfully years later:

[Boone News Republican, December 6, 1915, p. 43]

As stated in the above piece, after two years Clinton's next step was the editorship of the Daily Republican in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, which is where he met and married 23-year-old teacher Ann Eversole in 1891.

By 1900 the couple were living in Chicago and Clinton was the editor of the Chicago Dry Goods Reporter, a trade publication of the garment industry.** No occupation is listed for Ann.

[Dry Goods Reporter. Chicago, January 1900. Source: Hathi Trust Digital Library]

However Ann Eversole Tomlinson's name appears in newspaper stories across America later that year.

[Chicago Daily News Thursday, Apr 19, 1900 Chicago, IL Page: 5.

Source: Genealogy Bank.]

Clinton's view of his wife's possible inheritance appeared on the same day as the above article:

[19 Apr 1900, 2 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

The next information I found about the couple is Clinton's 1904 obituary

[30 Oct 1904, 5 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com]

While I haven't found any further newspaper reports confirming the amount Ann received from her ancestor's estate, her lifestyle as a widow seems to indicate that she was a wealthy woman. Next week we'll look at her career after Clinton's death.



*With honors too.
**Many editions of the Dry Goods Reporter are available digitally through the Hathi Trust and Google Books. They offer a fascinating insight into the fashions of the times.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Amanda J. (Hardy), George Bartley & Family - 1895

Amanda is one of my paternal second cousins, three times removed. Our common ancestor is John H. Hardy.*

[Mandy (Hardy) Bartley is standing. Her husband George Bartley is seated holding their daughter, Hazel. The boys, left to right, are Willie and Chester Bartley.   The photo was taken at the Brady and Medaris Studio in Monticello, Illinois, in early 1895. Posted by lorenandkathy on a public Ancestry.com family tree]

This branch of the Hardys left North Carolina for Illinois and that's where Amanda was born in 1869. She married George Bartley in 1887 and together they had four children, one of whom died soon after birth.

Amanda died in Piatt County, Illinois, in 1960, having survived George by 38 years. They are buried in Bement Cemetery in Piatt County.


*Here's our relationship:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Coye Slater (About 1825 - ?)

William Tiller Slater, my third great uncle, married Sarah Coye (or McCoy) on Valentine's Day in 1843 in Lawrence County, Illinois. The couple, residents of Shelby County by 1846, had seven children together--two of whom, Julia and Thomas, were under age when William died on September 10, 1870.

Here's the family listing in the 1870 U.S. Census which was taken less than a month before William's demise.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Oconee, Shelby, Illinois; Roll: M593_277; Page: 149B; Family History Library Film: 545776.Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.]

William died intestate so Sarah petitioned the Court and was named administratrix of her late husband's estate.

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-WHHP-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFKB-DP6%3A162590401%2C162612401 : 20 May 2014), Shelby > Administrator's record 1869-1871 vol B > image 44 of 64;

county courthouses, Illinois.]

Four years later Sarah petitioned the Court to appoint a friend, neighboring farmer Milton Lowe, as the guardian of Julia and Thomas which was approved on April 5, 1876.

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-WHHP-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFKB-DP6%3A162590401%2C162612401 : 20 May 2014), Shelby > Administrator's record 1869-1871 vol B > image 44 of 64

 county courthouses, Illinois.]

By the time of the 1880 U.S. Census Sarah's household included her son Thomas and her granddaughter Ida B. Haller (the oldest child of her daughter Margaret Jane who died some time previously).*

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Oconee, Shelby, Illinois; Roll: 251; Page: 142B; Enumeration District: 190. Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Here's  my relationship to Sarah:

[Ancestry.com]

*Julia married John Brock in 1878 and they were living in Fayette County, Illinois at this time. Their second son's name was Albert Tiller Brock--a middle name carried down through the Slater line.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Eli Matthews (1804 - 1864), Mounted Rifleman

When I first saw the Ancestry hint for this maternal third great grandfather, I didn't think it was likely because the event was in 1827 which seemed very early. I had forgotten that my Matthews ancestors moved from Tennessee to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1818 (when Eli would have been about 14).

[Ancestry.com. U.S. Army Indian Campaign Service Records Index, 1815-1858 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2017. Original data: Index to Compiled Service to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During Indian Wars and Disturbances, 1815-1858; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M629, 42 rolls)]

Here's how the National Archives summarizes the events of the Winnebago Disturbances or War:

Resentment against lead mining operations on Winnebago lands east of the Mississippi River lead to hostilities. On June 26, 1827, four Winnebago Indians attacked a farm house at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, killing two men and scalping a child. To protect the miners and other settlers, four companies of volunteers were formed; the settlers requested additional support from Illinois and the regular U.S. Army. By September 1, 1827, most of the troops had reached the center of hostilities and although prepared for battle, only a few small skirmishes took place. Seven days later, surrounded by troops, the Winnebago chiefs surrendered and agreed to hand over the six Indians responsible for the attacks.

Eli married Susan Hanon in 1823 so he would have been a young householder when the call came to Illinois militia groups to form up in response to the "Winnebago Disturbances."

I found Eli's name in the Illinois State Archives, giving his term of service as a little over a month:

[Database of Illinois Winnebago War Veterans]

It doesn't look as if he saw very much, if any, active hostilities before being discharged.

You can learn more about Eli's life in this earlier post.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

No Obituary Found for my Grandmother's Sister Alvira Fister

Alvira Fister, January 28, 1918 - July 29, 1924.  Courtesy of Tom Cairns.

Four years ago I posted about my great aunt Alvira Fister, my grandmother Margaret (Fister) Hartley's sister, who died at 6-years-old of whooping cough in Plano, IL in the summer of 1924.  I have not found an obituary for her yet.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Obit for Lyla Maria Fister Miller, 98

My great aunt Lyla Maria (Fister) Miller, 1901-1999), probably in the mid-1920s when she was a nurse at Washington Park Hospital in Chicago.  Image courtesy of Tom Cairns.

My grandmother's sisters Edith and Fern lived out here in San Diego, but the rest of her siblings were unknown to me, except for Lyla, who I met briefly in the late 1980s.

She was my grandmother Margaret Fister Hartley's oldest sister:

Corry Journal (Corry, Erie, PA)
Friday, August 6, 1999
page 2 

Lyla Maria Fister Miller, 98 

Lyla Maria Fister Miller, 98, formerly of 218 E. Smith Street, Corry, died Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999, in Corry Manor Nursing Home. 

Mrs. Miller was born June 29, 1901, in Newark, Ill., a daughter of the late Benjamin and Mary Corina Anderson Fister. 

She was raised and educated in the Newark area where she graduated from Newark High School in 1919.  Following high school, she attended and graduated from Washington Park Hospital with a nursing degree.  After graduation, she worked for Washington Park Hospital for several years.  In 1926, she had been a surgical floor supervisor at the Illinois Central Hospital. 

Mrs. Miller moved to Marinesco, Mich., after her marriage and resided there for many years.  She had also resided in Cicago, Ill., and later in Youngstown, Ohio.  In 1987, Mrs. Miller moved to Corry to be near her daughter and grandchildren. 

Mrs. Mller attended St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Corry.  While a resident of Youngstown, Ohio, she had been a member of the Eastern Star there. 

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Jesse LeRoy Miller Jr., in 1987.  They were married August 16, 1927, in Chicago, Ill.  Also preceding her in death was a daughter, Kathryn M. Keller, in 1990; a sister, Edith Bornhoft; and five brothers, Roy, Lyle, Russell, Alvin and Myron Fister. 

Survivors include a daughter, Susann E. Rozelle of Corry; a son, Eugene LeRoy Miller of King George, Va.; three sisters, Fern E. Fister, Margaret Hartly and Doris Cairns Shulkin, all of San Diego, Calif.; and three grandchildren, Eric John Rozelle of Glenham, N.Y., Jay Thomas Rozelle of North East and Suzanne Janine Baron her husband, Michael, of Rock Springs, Wy. 

No calling hours or funeral services will be observed.  Correspondence is welcome and can be addressed to Susann Rozelle... 

Burial will be made in Greenhaven Cemetery in Canfield, Ohio. 

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, Corry Unit, 2 South Center street, Corry, Pa. 16407. 

Funeral arrangements are under the director of the Bracken Funeral Home, 315 North Center street, Corry, PA. 16407.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

The Search for My Great-Uncle Alvin Reginald Fister's Obituary (updated with obituary)

My grandmother Margaret Fister's brother Alvin Reginald Fister (1899-1976).  He lived most of his life in the areas outside Chicago, but some time after 1966 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he died.

After spending a good part of the day looking in historical databases (both subscription and free, even public library and community college subscription databases) for an obituary or death notice in Memphis for Alvin Fister in the 1970s, I came up empty-handed. I didn't find any obituary mention of him in Illinois, either.    This is quite a blind spot--hopefully there will be Memphis newspapers available in the 1970s and 1980s sometime soon.

The few things I know about him:

• He served in the Army during WWI
• He married Ilona Elizabeth Michalez in 1926 in Chicago, Illinois
• in the 1930 Federal Census he was working as a Planning Engineer in the manufacturing industry
• in the 1940 Federal Censu he was "Labor Rate" Engineer in the telephone manufacturing industry
• he and his wife had 4 children: Mary, Alvin Jr., Paul Michael Fister, and Russell Benjamin Fister

I need to contact my Fister relations and see if they have an obituary for him.

EDITED TO ADD:  Found it!  The image for his obituary is a little blurred so a direct search didn't work, but a search for his sister Edith (Fister) Bornhoeft kicked out his obituary in the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois)
25 Nov 1976, Thu
Page 67, col 4
from Newspapers.com 

Alvin R. Fister Sr., of Memphis, Tenn., formerly of Downers Grove, beloved husband of Lilly, nee Michael,; fond father of Mary (Theodore T.) Jansey, Alvin R. Jr.(Susan), Paul Michael (Nelda) and Russell B.; brother of Myron B., Lila Miller, Fern Fister, Edith Bornhoeft, Margaret Hartley and Doris Cairnes; grandfather of eight; great-grandfather of one.  Service Friday, 10 a.m. at the Adams-Winterfield Funeral Home, 4343 Main St., Downers Grove. Interment Clarendon Hills.  Visitation Thursday 7 to 9 p.m. 968-1000

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Liel Fister Dies

My grandmother Margaret Fister's older brothers: Liel Fister (right), with his brothers Roy Fiester (left) and Alvin Fister (center). Image courtesy of Tom Cairns.

According to the Fox River Lutheran Church records, Liel Fister was born Jun 28, 1897 in LaSalle County, Illinois, to Ben and Mary Fister.

He appeared in the 1900 Federal Census with his family in Mission Township, LaSalle, Illinois.

According to family story little 4-year-old Liel died August 18, 1901.  I don't have an additional source for the place or reason of his death.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Sie Taylor's Stock Car

Since this maternal second cousin, twice removed*, died in August of 1960 at the age of 55 this snapshot must date sometime before then. He's standing back watching someone else (possibly his son Bob) working on the car.

[Originally posted by James A Williams in a family tree on Ancestry.com]

*His full name was Merton Edison Taylor, but seems to have always been known by his nickname "Sie." Here's his obituary:

[Originally posted by James A Williams in a family tree on Ancestry.com]

And here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Mrs. Mary Fister Dies at Plano

My great grandmother, Mette "Mary" Fister, with her youngest daughter Doris Fister (my grand aunt), probably in the late 1920s.

The Aurora Beacon-News
Tuesday, 8 Jan 1935
page 2(?) 

Mrs. Mary Fister Dies at Plano 

Plano, Ill., Jan. 8.--Mrs. Mary Fister, widow of the late Ben R. Fister, a resident of Kendall county for 40 years, died yesterday at her home in Plano.  She was born at Stavanger, Norway, Nov. 25, 1876.  Her maiden name was Mattie (Mary) Crina Anderson.  She was married Oct. 18, 1894.  Mr. Fister died May 2, 1934. 

Surviving are five daughters, Lila, Fern, Edith, Margaret, and Doris***, five sons, Roy, Alvin, Russell, Myron and Ival, nine grandchildren, three sisters and one brother.
Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon from the home at 1:30 o'clock and from the Plano Lutheran church at 2 o'clock.  Burial will be in the Plano cemetery.

***The daughters are pictured here, around the time of Mette "Mary" Fister's death.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Emma Biddle Spencer (1842 - 1868)

Sarah Emma, one of my paternal third great aunts, was not quite ten years old when her father returned from the West and packed up his whole family and moved with them to the Oregon Territory.*

[From the Barton/Cardwell/Chalmers/Babler/Fortier Family Tree

of Delby46 on Ancestry.com]

At 17 she married William H. Spencer:

[Ancestry.com. Oregon, Biographical and Other Index Card File, 1700s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: Oregon, Biographical and Other Cards. Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.]

Her only child was born two years later and died at 15 months:

[Ancestry.com. Oregon, Biographical and Other Index Card File, 1700s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: Oregon, Biographical and Other Cards. Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.]

Today I found Sarah Emma's 1868 obituary at Newspapers.com:

[30 May 1868, Page 3 - Corvallis Gazette-Times at Newspapers.com]

She's buried next to her son in the IOOF Cemetery in Corvallis, Oregon.


*She was just over three years older than her sister Matilda "Puggie" (my great great grandmother).

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday:Susan Hanon Matthews (1805 - 1884) Farm Wife & Mother

To date almost all my Wednesday posts have been about men in my family tree because it's easier to categorize the work men did while the women's contributions to the household have been taken for granted. Here's an example from the 1850 U.S. Census for the family of a pair of my maternal third great grandparents Susan (Hanon) and her husband Eli Matthews, who were then living in Christian County, Illinois.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 22, Christian, Illinois; Roll: M432_100; Page: 132B; Image: 27. 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.]

Read the instructions sent to the marshalls and their assistants for this census:

[census.gov]

At the time it simply wasn't contemplated that women could have an occupation or profession.

Susan and Eli were the first couple married in Sangamon County in 1823.* This quote taken from 2011 article in the Illinois Times titled Pioneer life here was hard on women and animals gives us a glimpse into aspects of a woman's life in Illinois.

Christiana Tillson and her husband moved to central Illinois from the east coast in 1822 and settled in Hillsboro; she wrote about her experiences and impressions of 19th century pioneers here. She said husbands often mistreated their wives. “If (the farmers) had slaves,” wrote Tillson, “the authority was exercised over them; if not, the wife was the willing slave.…” 

Men hunted for food, built cabins and farmed, while women helped farm, planted and harvested vegetables, picked, carded, and spun cotton, made the family’s clothes from cotton or wool they’d weaved, cooked, kept the house clean, took care of the children and animals, made candles, soap and butter, tapped maple trees for sap and made sugar, and birthed many children. 

While pioneer men visited friends or took off on long hunts with them, the women didn’t have time to visit friends, who usually lived several miles away. One such pioneer wife recorded that she only left her neighborhood three times in four and a half years. Men were able to play because their wives were taking care of things at home.**

I don't know any personal details about Susan's life but I'm sure it wasn't greatly different from this description. Susan had eight children, her youngest one William was born when she was 40. Eli died in 1864 and Susan survived him by 20 years.

*Christian County was formed from Sangamon County in 1839 along with parts of Montgomery and Shelby Counties.

**All of this reminded me of this humorous folk song:

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Katheryn Madeline Matthews Dutton and her Family, About 1930

Growing up with adoptive parents I was certain that I would never (knowingly) meet any of my biological kin, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. My mother's family, the Slaters, have been particularly welcoming and the stories and photos they've shared with me have been a great help in tracing my ancestry.

It's still exciting for me to find a family resemblance in someone's family photo like this one posted by another Matthews descendant on his public Ancestry.com tree. Katheryn, my second cousin, twice removed, and I share as our most recent common ancestors Eli Matthews (1804-1864) and his wife Susan Hanon (1805-1884).

[Courtesy of jimwhite1184, who is undoubtedly some kind of cousin even if the

relationship doesn't appear on Ancestry.com ]

I definitely see a likeness between myself and her oldest daughter Mary Catherine (1923-2007).

[From my personal collection]

And there are times when I see a similar likeness in my grandson Marc. I guess we're just being Matthews.



© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Michael Hening/Hanon (About 1760? - 1817), Immigrant & Settler

First of all, Michael was a very uncommon name in North America in the 18th and early 19th centuries. One of my maternal 4X great grandfathers, Michael Hening/Hanon is the only one of my forebears to carry that name.

We know very little about Michael, including when and where he was born. It's possible he's the Michael Henning who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1767/68*, in which case he  could have been as young as five or six and probably would have been an indentured servant from Ireland.* There were two other males on the same list, James Hening and Simon Cameron, both of whom seem to have been associated with Michael in later years.

[(1762) An exact prospect of Charlestown, the metropolis of the province of South Carolina. Charleston Charleston Harbor South Carolina, 1762. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2012647508/.]

Michael's whereabouts and occupation are unknown over the next dozen year until his name appears as a private on payrolls for the Loyalist South Carolina Militia, along with a James Hening, but we haven't found any more information about his service and have no reason to think he was among those loyalists who left the new United States for Canada.

Instead we believe he's the Michael Hening who appears with his young family*** in the 1790 U.S. Census in Fairfield County, South Carolina. (Note that the following name on the census is that of a Simon Cameron.) His oldest four children, James, Hannah, Samuel and Jesse were born in South Carolina.

[Year: 1790; Census Place: Fairfield, South Carolina; Series: M637; Roll: 11; Page: 153; Image: 103; Family History Library Film: 0568151. 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.]

By 1796 the Henings had moved west to near Nashville, Tennessee, where Michael and Sarah added two more children, Martin and Rhoda, but the family didn't remain there for long and by 1805**** had moved on to Butler County, Kentucky, where Susan and her youngest brother Elijah were born. (Note that there's a James Hening in the same district, although how close a neighbor he may have been in unknown because the list is alphabetical.)

[Year: 1810; Census Place: Butler, Kentucky; Roll: 5; Page: 362; Image: 00200; Family History Library Film: 0181350. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

However the Henings/Hanons didn't stay in Kentucky either, moving on to Gallatin County, Illinois, in 1812 where Michael died in 1817.

[Ancestry.com. Illinois sesquicentennial edition of Christian County history [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Illinois sesquicentennial edition of Christian County history. Jacksonville, Ill.,: Printed by Production Press, 1968.]

There are some probate records available online for Gallatin County and that's where I found this:

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939J-238Y-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFK5-PTT%3A162587801%2C162598801 : 20 May 2014), Gallatin > Index to estates and guardians 1815-1900 vol 1 > image 18 of 74; county courthouses, Illinois.]

Given how uncommon the name Michael is, I wouldn't be surprised if this records refers to my ancestor. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate any other probate records regarding him. (Note: the #44 refers to the box in which the record was placed and is not in chronological order.)

By the way, here's how I'm related to him.

[Ancestry.com]

*On the other hand, his daughter Susan Hanon Matthews (my 3X great grandmother) told the enumerator for the 1880 federal census that her father was born in North Carolina.
**You can learn more about children as indentured servants in colonial times here (PDF).
***We don't know the surname of his wife Sarah.
****To date we haven't located them in the 1800 U.S. Census.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Mrs. Mary Fister Dies At Plano

Original clipping of my my great grandmother Mette Karine a.k.a. Mary Fister's obituary, from The Aurora Beacon-News, Tuesday, January 8, 1935 (possibly page 2).  Her daughter Margaret is my grandmother. From my personal collection.

This weekend my father surprised me with this clipping of my great grandmother Mette Karine's obituary in the Aurora Beacon-News (Aurora, Illinois).  I suspect it was my grandmother's copy of the obituary notice.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.