(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: My Two Grandfathers, George Hartley Jr and Harold Delbert Currey

[At my parents' wedding in 1966, George (left) (1907-1977), and Harold (right) (1902-1981)]

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Davis (About 1597 - 1643/44): Locksmith

When researching an early immigrant ancestor it's great to find an entry for him or her in one of the Great Migration Study Project's volumes as is the case with this maternal 10-times great-grandfather whose daughter Abigail (by his first wife*) is in my direct line. The information below comes from there.**

However, as the comments explain:

"The records in this sketch present an unusual problem. The reason for including a William Davis in this volume is the birth record for Abigail in Boston on 31 October 1635 (followed by several other births to the same couple). But there were several men by the name of William Davis in early New England; to which do these birth records belong?

We need to consider three William Davises, who are distinguished by their occupations: William Davis, locksmith, who died in late 1643 or early 1644; William Davis, gunsmith, who moved to Barbados; and Captain William Davis, apothecary."

And after sifting the evidence:

"We have concluded that the children born in the late 1630s belong to William Davis Sr., the locksmith."

William is believed to have arrived in New England in 1635 with four children from his first marriage and probably his second wife whose given name was Mary. We don't know the name of his first wife or when and where she died. Nor do we know anything of William's antecedents.

Perhaps he was inspired to leave his homeland by William Wood's book "New England's Prospect."

[[Woods's New England's Prospect on Open Library]

[The south part of New-England, as it is planted this yeare.... William Wood, London, 1634.

Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University]

On April 16, 1638, "William Davisse, the locksmith, a houseplot near unto the new mill..." in Boston and as far as we can tell he stayed in that town, eventually owning three parcels of land including two houses.

On March 7, 1643/44, General Court records show that he had died intestate and orders were given for the division of his estate to his widow and children, two of whom were minors.

If you want to read more about the history of locks and keys, the Lock Museum of America is a good place to start.

*He had another daughter named Abigail (the one born in 1635) by his second wife.
**Great Migration 1634-1635, C-F. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F, by Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001. pages 316-320

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Book Shelf: Food in England, A Complete Guide to the Food that Makes Us Who We Are

Dorothy Hartley's 1954 classic, profusely illustrated, certainly lives up to its title.

[Published by Piatkus Books ]

[Illustration from Food in England, page 35]

And it's relevant to an understanding of the foodways our British ancestors brought with them from their home country.

I bought my (gently) used copy on Amazon and recommend it highly.

If you would like to know more about Dorothy* you can watch historian Lucy Worsley's 2012 documentary.

*Sadly, as far as I can tell, Dorothy Hartley isn't related to the family I married into.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Mappy Monday: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Genealogy

So much of genealogy involves places.  I have a huge American colonial heritage and I'm always having to look up various places throughout the United States.  Some of those places are still towns and some of them are ghost towns, or even under water in the case of areas near dams and reservoirs.  I've been using Google Earth for much of my investigations, but just realized there is another resource; the United States Geological Survey!

"Government agencies are also favorite haunts for genealogists to locate past and present place-names.  The United States Geological Survey (USGS) was on the forefront of collecting place-names when it began its mission of resource mapping the entire nation in 1879.  USGS began its program six years after the Ordinance Survey completed its mapping of England.  The United States did not complete its topographic mapping of the entire country until prior to the decenniel census of 1990."*

A collection of videos from the National Map Viewers Conference in May 2011 gives an overview of the massive online digitization project of the USGS map collection mentioned above.  Much of the conference is "in the weeds" but worth viewing.

The National Map Viewer, similar somewhat to Google Earth, is a way to access all of that info.  I'm just starting to fool around with it and see what kind of goodies this amazing resource can bring.  Even more info.

USGS also has a nice overview report in PDF, "Using Maps in Genealogy," which was written 13 years ago but is still generally relevant.





*page 32 "The Unfolding Tale of Using Maps in Genealogical Research"
from Geography and Genealogy: Locating Personal Pasts
Dr Jeanne Kay Guelke, Professor Dallen J Timothy
Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., Nov 28, 2012


© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Elizabeth Davis? (About 1751 - 1838)

We are certain that this paternal 4th great-grandmother's given name is Elizabeth and that she died in Georgia in 1838. She was the wife of Jesse Warren, Senior, (although we don't know what year they were married in Virginia where she and her husband were born) and they moved their family to Georgia in about 1791.

[Georgia, from the latest Authorities. B. Tanner, sculpt. N.Y. Published by J. Reid, L. Wayland & C. Smith, 1796.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

For now we think her surname might have been Davis? but some of the other names we've considered include Elliott? Chandler? Beall? Manson? Green? Pegram? Rives or Harton?? Thweatt? In other words, she's one of our brick walls.

After her husband's death in 1827 she lived with her unmarried daughter Mary Warren. (We don't know who the 40-something man living with them is, perhaps he's an overseer for the 13 slaves.)

[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.]

Elizabeth (?) Warren died at the home of her daughter Susan (Mrs. Joseph Johnson) in Putnam County on July 2, 1838, as the result of a carriage accident.

Here is her obituary in the Southern Recorder, 24 Jul 1838, page 3:

"Departed this life, in Putnam county, at the house of Joseph Johnson, on the 2d instant, Mrs. Elizabeth Warren, consort of Jesse Warren, Sen., late of Hancock county, deceased, in the 87th year of her age.  Mrs. Warren went home with her daughter, Susan Johnson, to spend a short time, but unfortunately the carriage upset, and threw her out, and she was brought home a corpse.  Mrs. Warren was born in Dinwiddie county, Virginia.  In early life she attached herself to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1774.  Mrs. Warren, in all the various relations of life, was an exemplary pattern of christianity.  In her deportment she was amiable and kind--performing her duties as wife, mother, and mistress, with a fidelity and punctuality seldom equalled, and never surpassed.  Mild and gentle in her demeanor, courteous and affable in her intercourse with her acquaintances, she gained the esteem of all who had an opportunity of knowing her.  A few hours previous to her death, she called her family around her, and whilst she manifested the assurance of her acceptance with God, exhorted them, in the most affecting manner, to fill up the vacancy which she would soon leave in the church, and to serve God who comforted her in the hour of death. But she is gone! and has left two sons and four daughters, and large circle of relatives and friends to mourn her irreparable loss." 

We do have her Last Will and Testament signed with her mark. It was made in 1833, after the death of her oldest son, Jeremiah, and presented for probate in September of 1838 in Hancock County.

["Georgia, Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-30438-5354-92?cc=1999178&wc=9SBM-YWG:267654601,267808601 : accessed 04 Dec 2014), Hancock - Wills and administration records 1837-1850 vol P-Q - images 131 + 132 of 662; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

52 Ancestors in 54 Weeks: Week 10: My 2nd Great Grandfather, Gustav Andersson (b abt 1850)

Gustav Andersson is my most modern brick wall.  According to another Fister family researcher, my great grandmother Mette Karine's father was listed as "Gustav Andersen Bergehoin," a Swedish roadworker.  My understanding is that Mette thought that her father was a sailor and had died at sea when she was an infant, and only later discovered that she had been born out of wedlock.  Gustav has been a mystery ever since.

There is a Gustav Andersen in the Norwegian 1875 Census in Kvål, Høyland, Rogaland, Norway  who might the same guy.  He is listed as a railway worker, born in 1850 in Lidkjøbing, Sverige (Lidköping, Sweden).  This seems to be my most promising lead.

[Lidköping circa 1700, from Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna, from Wikipedia]

I have found a Gustav Andersson, born 1 August 1850 in Gösslunda, about 4 miles away from the center of Lidköping, in Ancestry.com's "Sweden, Births from the Swedish Death Index, 1901-2006" database.  I don't know if it is the same guy, but if it is it means that he went back to Sweden after working in Norway, as the database contains birth information on people who died in Sweden.




© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Happy New Year!

This colorful 1909 postcard is from the digital collections of the New York Public Library.

[Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "New Year wishes." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1909. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-4791-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99]

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.