Fantastic Find! US Mexican War Soldiers & Sailors Database

If you've ever researched an ancestor who fought in the Civil War, you're probably familiar with the Soldiers and Sailors Database of the  National Park Service (NPS). Now there's a new source of information for an earlier conflict, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).*

[B.W. Kilburn Company. (ca. 1873) Monument over the remains of 750 U.S. soldiers, who fell in the valley of Mexico during the Mexican War. Mexico Mexico City, ca. 1873. Littleton, N.H.: Photographed and published by B.W. Kilburn. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2005693423/.]

Last week the NPS and the  Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announced the launch of of the U.S.-Mexican War Soldier & Sailor database:

This online, searchable database contains information for over 85,000 U.S. and Mexican veterans who served in this war. Many records include personal details, such as hair color and occupation. 

The database allows descendants of these soldiers and sailors to connect to their personal history and helps Palo Alto commemorate and tell the stories of those who served. This invaluable research tool benefits genealogists, historians, as well as people who may have never known they are related to a U.S.-Mexican War veteran.

 This project started in 2007. Progress was extremely slow until 2015 when FGS joined forces with the NPS. FGS offered their expertise and numerous volunteers. 

Patricia Rand, the FGS contact, recruited and trained volunteers who spent over 17,000 hours doing the tedious task of inputting data. Their dedication makes it possible for future generations to learn about those who served in the U.S.-Mexican War.**

Although the database is up and running now, the virtual launch will take place at 3:00 pm (Central) on Monday, January 27, 2020 live on-line or in person at the Palo Alto Visitor Center.

I don't have any direct ancestors who were participants but Joshua Butler Walsh, the second husband of my maternal great great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling, was. We know more about Joshua than is listed in this database so I've contacted them (via their link) offering to share our information. I'll let you know how that turns out.


*I learned about this from a post by Judy G. Russell (The Legal Genealogist)
**From the FGS press release dated 14 Jan 2020.

© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh's Obituary - 1915

We have my great great grandmother's 1915 obituary thanks to research done by Findagrave's member Gayle Neuhaus, a resident of Winnetoon, Nebraska. Gayle added a transcription of it to Mercy's memorial, adding her source so I was able to locate a scan of the original* from The Creighton Liberal:

[Source: Digital Archives of the Creighton Public Library]

                  Obituary**
   Mrs. Mercy Ann Walsh was born on
the eleventh day of May 1835 at
Harvard, Courtland County, N y
and died Oct. 29, 1915 at Creighton
Nebr being 80 year 5 months and 18
days old
   In 1858 she was married to Abner
Webb of Jones county, Ia. Soon after
their marriage they moved 
to Collen County Texas
where was born to them a son
J.D. Webb who resides in Winnetoon.
When the country was in the throes of
war in the sixties her husband re-
sponded to the call of the South and
laid down his life upon the altar of 
his country.
   In 1864 Miss Webb married Joshua
B Walsh in McKenny Collen county
Texas from which place they moved
to Iowa in 1866. To this union four
children were born all of whom are
still living. Two sons F B. and J
S Walsh reside at Boulder, Colo.
Mrs Kitty May Pierce of Idaho and
Mrs Dr. Hazen of Creighton, Nebr.
During her entire life she has been
very healthy; and knowing she had
lived beyond her allotted time here
on earth she came to Creighton to
spend her last days with her daugh-
ter and also that she might at her
death be buried in the Millerboro
churchyard by the side of her hus
band  Mr Walsh served thorought
the Mexican was for which a pension
was received by his wife. He also 
fought under Gen. Jackson against
the Indians of Florida.
   For forty years Mrs. Walsh was a
member of the Church of God and
was very faithful in and to her reli-
gious beliefs. The funeral services
were held Sunday Oct. 31st at the 
home of Mrs. Hazen, Rev. Joseph
Stanford pastor Methodist Church
officiating  Internment was at Miller-
boro  Six of her grand sons, Claude,
Elmer, and Waymond Hazen;
Herbert Fred and John Webb, acted 
as pall bearers  Thus laid at rest 
a soul that feared God
                --------------
       CARD OF THANKS
   We sincerely desire to thank all our
friends and neighbors for their help
and expressions of sympathy. In the
sorror that has come to us in the
loss of our mother and grandmother.
   Dr. and Mrs. Hazen and family.
   Jess and Nora Webb and family.

This is very exciting because, although bits and pieces of Mercy's life with her first husband have come down to us, this is the closest we've gotten to the story she would have told about herself and her son (and my great grandfather) Jess Webb was one of the sources of the information printed here. Here's a portrait of Mercy that belonged to him:

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy. The handwriting is probably that of my grandmother Anna Delilah Webb Slater.]

Especially interesting is the statement that Mercy and Abner Webb moved to Texas shortly after their 1858 marriage.*** Abner's maternal grandfather Jesse Sill died in November of the previous year, leaving him a bequest of $300; could it have been the expectation of this money that encouraged the couple to relocate? If so, I'm afraid they were to be disappointed because at the time of Jesse Sill's death the country was experiencing a severe economic "panic" and his diminished estate wasn't settled for a very long time.

We've never been able to locate Mercy in the 1860 U.S. Census although we know that Abner was employed as a carpenter by attorney Fred L. Gates**** in Collin County on June 7, 1860 (less than six weeks before his son was born). Several sources has claimed that son Jesse David Webb was born in Galveston but not this obituary.

Although there's no record of Abner's military service (on either side*****) here it's stated clearly that his sympathies were with the Confederacy.

Thanks again Gayle, for finding this and posting it where I could find it.


*Looking at the obituary as printed, it's clear that whoever set the type wasn't particularly skilled and/or didn't proofread it carefully.
**Several corrections are in order: Mercy Darling was born in Harford in Cortland County, NY; McKinney is in Collin County, Texas.
***There's a transcription of a Jones County Marriage Book which lists the date of their marriage as November 6, 1856. Because it's not the original, that date could be an error.
****Gates later rose to the rank of a Captain in the 16th Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Fitzhugh's). Two other regiments included men from McKinney: 6th/15th (Consolidated) Regiment, Texas Volunteers; and 6th Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Wharton, Stone's).
*****I've even seen some claims that Abner served with Sherman on his march through Georgia.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Anna Segrist (1740 - About 1800)

Thanks to research done by Jeffery Bernstein* we have the baptism record for Anna in the archives of Zurich, Switzerland.

[Source: Staatsarchiv Zurich, added to an ancestry.com profile by Jeffrey Bernstein]

Ten-year-old Anna left for Pennsylvania together with her parents John Segrist (also Sechrist or Sigerist) and Anna Wildberger and her brothers and sisters on the ship "Brotherhood" which arrived in Philadelphia on November 3, 1750.

The Segrist family settled in York County where Anna married Franz Graaf (also known as Francis Grove) and they settled in Shrewsbury Township. I haven't found a marriage record for them but their first child was born in October of 1760 when Anna would have been twenty.

In the early Spring of 1765 Anna's father died without leaving a will and her mother filed a petition with the probate court regarding a division of his estate. She named all her children and Anna was listed as the wife of Francis Grof. In petition filed at the same court term, Anna's oldest brother Jacob sought the clarification of the status of 50 acres of land he considered to not be part of his mother's marriage settlement. He requested a division of the land among himself and his siblings.**

[Another document originally found by Jeffery Bernstein]

Anna and Franz had seven children, 6 boys and one girl, their youngest. My direct ancestor is their fourth son John, born in 1769.

Anna died sometime before June of 1801 when Franz married a widow Catharine Eberhard who survived his death in 1812.

We don't know where either Anna or Franz are buried.

Here's how I'm related to her:

[Ancestry.com]

*He's married to one of my distant cousins through my great great grandmother Mercy Darling's second marriage to Joshua Butler Walsh.
**I don't know the outcome of this petition.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Walsh/Brown

These two children, whose parents were my second great aunt Catherine May "Kitty" Walsh 1874-1966) and her first husband Peter Louis Brown (1870-1898), are my first cousins, twice removed.

[Frances Ethel Brown (1894-1964), courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Charles Peter Brown (1895-1939), courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Dr. and Mrs Hazen

The couple in this 1915 photo are my 2nd great aunt Emma Ann Walsh (1868-1949) and her husband William Hazen, M.D. (1848-1928). She is the oldest daughter of my great great grandmother Mercy Darling and her second husband Joshua Butler Walsh.

They were married in 1887 in Niobrara, Knox County, Nebraska and lived in Creighton where William had established his medical practice two years earlier. The couple had  five children.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers? Who Are These People?

It's a very nice studio portrait of a mother and (presumably) her son but unfortunately there is nothing to indicate who they are or how they might be connected to me and there's no clue where the photo was taken. The photos we scanned before and after this image are of Webbs and Walshes so it may well be that's where they belong.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Joshua Butler Walsh (1810 - 1888), Blacksmith and Soldier, Mexican War

Born in South Carolina on May 30, 1810, Joshua had already survived two wives when he met and married my widowed great great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling Webb in Texas in 1864, thereby becoming the stepfather of my great grandfather Jesse Webb. 

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

He had enlisted as a army private in the Mexican War in May of 1847 in Alton, Illinois.*

Census records confirm that he was a blacksmith, although how much heavy work he was doing in the 1885 Nebraska census (below) is in question.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: District 11, Marion, Illinois; Roll: M432_119; Page: 41B; Image: 609. 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.]

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Fairview, Jones, Iowa. 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.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.]

[Nebraska State Census; Year: 1885; Series/Record Group: M352; County: Antelope; Township: Verdigris; Page: 8. Ancestry.com. Nebraska, State Census Collection, 1860-1885 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors in partnership with the following organizations: Nebraska State Genealogical Society Bismarck Mandan Historical and Genealogical Society Original data: Nebraska. Cass County. “County Census, 1876-1882.” Microfilm RG220, 9 rolls. Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.Nebraska. Lancaster County. “County Census, 1860-1880.” Microfilm RG207, 4 rolls. Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln.Schedules of the Nebraska State Census of 1885.

NARA Microfilm Publication M352, 56 rolls.Washington, D.C.]

Joshua died in Antelope County, Nebraska, on July 5, 1888, and his widow is listed on the 1890 Special Schedule - Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.**

[Year: 1890; Census Place: Verdigris, Antelope, Nebraska; Roll: 37; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 2.

Ancestry.com. 1890 Veterans Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M123, 118 rolls); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

*None of my direct ancestors fought in that war.
**One of the few records to escape the fire that destroyed almost all of the 1890 U.S. Population Census.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mary (Polly) Gates (1809 - 1883)

Almost everything we know about this maternal third great grandmother comes from census records. She was born in New York in 1809 and may have been the daughter of Joseph Gates (1776-1854) who was living in Otsego County by 1810. Her mother's name isn't known for certain, although she may have been a Burdick or a Partridge.

Joseph Gates and his family were living in Virgil in Courtland County, New York, by 1820 and that's probably where Polly* married David Darling (1805-1895)** around 1830.

[A Map of the State Of New York. Compiled from the latest authorities; including the Turnpike Roads now granted as also the principal common roads connected therewith. Intended as well for the Student in Geography as a directory to the Traveller.

By Wm. McCalpin. Oxford, 1808. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

Polly and David and their growing family remained in Courtland County for the next two U.S. Census enumerations. In the 1850 Census for Harford, New York, we see Polly's name for the first time.***

[Year: 1850; Census Place: Harford, Cortland, New York; Roll: M432_493; Page: 425B; Image: 605. 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.]

[Colton's Township Map Of The State Of Iowa Compiled from the United States Surveys, & other Authentic Sources. Published By J.H. Colton. No. 86 Cedar St. New York. 1851. Entered ... 1851, by J.H. Colton ... New York. Drawn by Geo W. Colton. Engraved by J.M. Atwood. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

But the 1852 Iowa State Census shows that the Darlings had moved to Fairview Township in Jones County. Their daughter Olive, died there on January 15th of that year and is buried in Norwich Cemetery.

[Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.]

Just David is named in Iowa's 1854 census which only included heads of household, but the whole family is enumerated in the 1856 census.****

[Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Microfilm of Iowa State Censuses, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925 as well various special censuses from 1836-1897 obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa via Heritage Quest.]

By the 1860 U.S. Census, their only child left at home is 19-year old Amanda, who six year later will become the second wife of my great great grandfather George Marion Tomlinson.

[Year: 1860; Census Place: Fairview, Jones, Iowa; Roll: M653_328; Page: 593; Image: 585; Family History Library Film: 803328. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. ]

In the 1870 U.S. Census, Polly and David had been joined by their widowed daughter Lovenia whose husband Corporal Moses Sipe had died of pneumonia in Helena, Arkansas, in 1862. Their 11-year old grandson George Sipe is living there too.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Fairview, Jones, Iowa; Roll: M593_401; Page: 67A; Image: 137; Family History Library Film: 545900. 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.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

The 1880 U.S. Census is the last enumeration that Polly appears in. She and David are living alone.

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Fairview, Jones, Iowa; Roll: 348; Family History Film: 1254348; Page: 433B; Enumeration District: 336; Image: 0450. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and other terms and conditions applicable to this site. 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.]

Three years later, on May 14, 1883, Polly died and was buried next to her daughter Olive in Norwich Cemetery. David survived her by 12 years, dying on January 28, 1895, possibly in Boulder County, Colorado.

[Photo by Earl Munday (#46874433); findagrave.com]

*Polly is a traditional nickname for Mary.
**The Darlings left their native Rhode Island when David was about 11 and after first settling in Chenango County, New York, were living in Virgil by 1825.
***My direct ancestor Mercy A. Darling (Webb-Walsh) is their second daughter.
****Note that there's a Webb family living nearby--are they related to the two Webb men, Abner and Jesse Sill, who married my great great grandmother Mercy and her sister Nancy Adelia?

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Darling/Walsh

In Texas on September 6, 1864, my maternal great great grandmother Mercy Ann Darling Webb, a 29-year-old widow with a 4-year-old son,* married Joshua Walsh (1810-1888), a South Carolina native and veteran of the Mexican War. Before the end of 1868 the couple had re-located to Fairview in Jones County, Iowa, to be near her family and added a son and daughter to their household which eventually included two more children, the youngest of which was Catherine Mae Walsh (1874-1966) known as Kitty.

[Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh, photo courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

[Joshua Butler Walsh, photo courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

[Catherine Mae Walsh, photo courtesy of Olive Kennedy]

After residing in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and Idaho,** by 1930 Kitty was living in Southern California, first in Los Angeles and then Long Beach. By 1944 she had moved to San Diego County where she died in 1966.

[Date: Sunday, March 6, 1966   Paper: San Diego Union (San Diego, California)   Page: 16  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004. Source: GenealogyBank.com]

Today we met up with Kitty Walsh Brown's granddaughter Catherine Brandenburg (born in 1921) together with three generations of her descendants, first for brunch and then later at Mount Hope Cemetery where Kitty is buried.

*My great grandfather Jesse David Webb (1860-1935), the only child of Abner Webb (1834-1861?) whose death had stranded his family in Texas during the Civil War.
**That we know of, there is a gap of 30 years we haven't account for yet.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday is for Mothers: Mercy Ann "Anna" Darling

Mercy Anna Darling Webb Walsh; courtesy of Olive Kennedy

My great great grandmother Mercy Ann "Anna" Darling Webb Walsh was born in the town of Harford in Cortland County, New York, on May 11, 1835, one of the six daughters of David Darling and Polly Gates. The family appears there in the U.S. 1850 Census.

However by the 1852 Iowa State Census, they had moved to Fairview, Jones County, Iowa, where on November 6, 1856, 21-year old Anna married a young carpenter from Pennsylvania, Abner Webb.

The 8th U.S. Census on June 27, 1860, lists Abner as one of three carpenters working for a well-to-do young attorney F. L. Gates in Collin County, Texas. We haven't found any sign of Anna in that census but there's a handwritten genealogy in the family records that states that Abner and Anna's only child, Jesse David Webb (my great grandfather), was born in Galveston, Texas, on July 17, 1860.

The 1860 census record is the last one we have for Abner Webb. Family tradition says that he was forced into serving in the local Texas militia and was killed in battle, but I haven't found any verification of that.

From the same source comes the story of Anna's widowhood on a small ranch in Collin County and her subsequent marriage to Joshua Butler Walsh. Joshua, a veteran of the Mexican and Seminole Wars, was one of a posse of men who stopped for water at her place during their pursuit of a horse thief. Apparently it was love at first sight for Anna and Joshua--he promised to return and take her back to Iowa.

Mercy Anna Darling Webb, Walsh; courtesy of Olive Kennedy

They were married on September 6, 1864, and by the 1870 U.S. Census the Walsh family was residing in Fairview, augmented by the first two of her four children by Joshua. (Nine-year old Jesse's surname is given as Walsh also.)

By 1885, Joshua and Anna were living in Verdigris, Antelope County, Nebraska, with three of their children. And that's where Joshua died in 1888 at the age of 78 and is buried in Millerboro Cemetery.

As his widow, Anna received a government pension and we find that record in the 1890 Special Schedule for veterans and their widows.

Ancestry.com. 1890 Veterans Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Original data: Special Schedules of the Eleventh Census (1890) Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M123, 118 rolls); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

According to an announcement in the Anamosa Eureka in April of 1902, she had retained her connection to Jones County, Iowa, and was visiting friends there so it's apparent that she had the means to travel a bit.

Mercy Ann Darling Webb Walsh; courtesy of Olive Kennedy

According to Mark Allen (the husband of one of Anna and Joshua's descendants) family legend further has this to say of her: "She suffered from chronic sinus and headaches, as well as liver disease in her 50s, and was declared by her physician son-in-law to be 'insane' as of 1897, but then was granted to be 'sane' in 1903."

In both the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses, Anna was living in a house she owned on Goss Street in Boulder, Colorado and she was no longer working by the later date.

She died on 29 Oct 1915 in Creighton Township, Knox, Nebraska and shares a gravestone with Joshua in Millerboro Cemetery.

One of her younger sisters, Nancy Adelia, married Jesse Sill Webb, Abner's brother, and her youngest sister  Amanda J. was the second wife of my great great grandfather George Marion Tomlinson.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.