Monday Is for Mothers: Mary Thornton (1793-1871)

This paternal third great grandmother was born in North Carolina in 1793, probably in Moore County which had been created out of Cumberland County in 1785. Her parents were Sarah* and James Thornton; Mary was their third child and oldest daughter.

[The State of North Carolina, Carey's American Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps And One Chart ... Philadelphia: Engraved For, And Published By, Mathew Carey, No. 118, Market Street. M.DCC.XCV. (Price, Plain, Five Dollars-Coloured, Six Dollars.)

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

By 1807 the Thornton family had moved just south of the state border to Chesterfield County, South Carolina, and that's where Mary and Samuel L. Avery were married on June 18, 1808.

[South Carolina. Drawn by S. Lewis. Engd. by D. Fairman. (Boston: Published by Thomas & Andrews. 1812)

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

Samuel served as a private in Alston's 3rd Regiment South Carolina Militia sometime during the War of 1812. (Unfortunately I haven't been able to learn when and where his service took place.)

The young couple stayed in Chesterfield County, where their four oldest children were born, until about 1819 when they moved to Greene County, Alabama, which had just been established on the eastern border of Choctaw lands by the territorial legislature. Their next five children were born there.

[Geographical, Historical, And Statistical Map Of Alabama. Alabama. No. 30. Drawn by F. Lucas Junr. B. Tanner Sc.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By 1830 the family had relocated to Marengo County, just south of Greene (and part of the fertile "Black Belt" of Alabama) where two more children were born.

But their travels weren't over yet--sometime after 1833 the Averys moved to Winston County, Mississippi, where my direct ancestor John Warren Avery was born on October 16, 1835. his younger sister, born two years later was Mary and Samuel's last child.

[A New Map Of Mississippi With Its Roads & Distances by H.S. Tanner. Engraved by W. Brose, Philadelphia. Entered ... 1833 by H.S. Tanner ... Pennsylvania. Published by H.S. Tanner No. 144 Chesnut St. Philadelphia. (above neat line) Tanner's Universal Atlas.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

The 1850 U.S. Census is the first one that named all the (free) members of the household. Samuel and Mary still have four children living at home with them, including John. The family has prospered; Samuel is claiming ownership of $4,000 worth of real estate.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: Winston, Mississippi; Roll: M432_382; Page: 363B; Image: 739. 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.]

After Samuel died intestate on Marcy 27, 1853, his widow filed a petition in the Winston County Courthouse to claim her dower rights** which were granted to her.

["Mississippi Probate Records, 1781-1930," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-31024-8379-38?cc=2036959 : accessed 30 November 2015), Winston > Minutes 1834-1854 vol 1-2 > image 432 of 467; county courthouses and public libraries, Mississippi.]

And in other probate records we find that Samuel owned fourteen slaves who could not be fairly divided so the heirs were being notified that they would be sold by the estate's administrator.

["Mississippi Probate Records, 1781-1930," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-31024-7375-41?cc=2036959 : accessed 30 November 2015), Winston > Minutes 1834-1854 vol 1-2 > image 439 of 467; county courthouses and public libraries, Mississippi.]

Mary survived Samuel by 18 years. She continued to live in Winston County for the rest of her life.

[Year: 1860; Census Place: Winston, Mississippi; Roll: M653_594; Page: 679; Image: 161; Family History Library Film: 803594. 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.]

Although the Civil War and Emancipation made a great difference in her fortunes (the $3,000 in personal property in the above census almost certainly represents the value of slaves she owned), in the 1870 U.S. Census when Mary was living with the son Samuel, she owned $500 worth of real estate and $430 in personal property.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 13 Range 12, Winston, Mississippi; Roll: M593_753; Page: 457B; Image: 442; Family History Library Film: 552252. 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.]

Mary Thornton Avery died on December 23, 1871, and she and Samuel are both buried in the Golden Cemetery in Fearn Springs, Winston County, Mississippi.



*We don't know her mother's maiden name; it could be Davis or Brewer.
**You can read more about dower here.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Shipwrecks on the Southern Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is breathtakingly beautiful but historically it's been a perilous place for ships.

[Historic Wrecks of Oregon Coast. Many Ships Have Piled up at Coos and Coquille, but Loss of Life Has Been Small. Date: Sunday, January 30, 1910   Paper: Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)   Volume: XXIX   Issue: 5   Section: Five   Page: 2   Piece: One of Two. 

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Topography, Oregon (Coos Co.) Coos Bay Quadrangle, U.S.Geological Survey, 1896.

Source: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas Libraries]

Since Harold Currey (1902-1981), the father who raised me, grew up in Marshfield* in Coos County, Oregon, in the early part of the 20th century perhaps it's inevitable that his photograph album features postcards showing some of the famous wrecks.

[All postcards here from the Currey Family Album in my personal collection]

The oldest of the three wrecks shown here is what's left of the schooner Marconi which was lost on March 23, 1909, while being towed out to sea to begin a voyage to Valparaiso, Chile. No lives were lost.

[Date: Wednesday, March 24, 1909   Paper: San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California)   Page: 18.  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

Although the Czarina could easily be seen from shore on January 12, 1910, the stormy weather made it impossible to rescue those on board. As recounted in this article from the Aberdeen, South Dakota, Daily News, only one man survived.

[Big Steamer is Wrecked in Storm Engines Helpless through an Accident, Ship Was at Mercy

Date: Thursday, January 13, 1910   Paper: Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, South Dakota)   Page: One.  

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

The Santa Clara's fate on November 2, 1915** was also reported in newspapers around the country. The example below is from the Rockford, Illinois, Republic.

[Date: Wednesday, November 3, 1915   Paper: Republic (Rockford, Illinois)   Page: 1  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

*The city's name was changed to Coos Bay in 1944.
**For more about the Santa Clara including photos, look here

.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Where Were My Ancestors About 1796? Abraham Bradley's Map of the United States: Part 1

This snapshot doesn't do Abraham Bradley's map any justice.  The map actually has some incredible detail and on the Library of Congress site you can zoom way in.

Okay, some old map, so what?  Well, I've discovered this particular historical map, originally made for the nascent postal system, is perfect for figuring out where my ancestors were about 1796.  My understanding is that a copy of this map was in all of the post offices, so this is how people at the time saw the country. This was a map meant to be used.

All of my ancestors, except Englishman William Slater on my mom's side, and my father's mother's Scandinavian ancestors, were all already in the United States.

This edition of the map in particular apparently listed every post office (indicated by a circle and place name) at the time.  Later editions of this map only list the larger post offices.

Ad, Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 11 Nov 1796, vol X, issue 1303, page 4; digital images, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 28 Nov 2015).

The ages I assign my ancestors for the year 1796 are largely approximate.

My Gwinnup/Hartley/Paul/Shoemaker ancestors start emerging out of the mists of time in the Philadelphia area about 1796.

Mary Gwinnup, 21, glove maker, was married to her second husband, Antonio "Anthony" Joseph Oneto (?-?) this year in Philadelphia.  Her parents and family were probably in either Philadelphia or Camden, New Jersey (although this map only shows Woodbury in that approximate area).  Four years later her daughter daughter Elizabeth "Betsey' Onetto was born in Deerfield, Cumberland, New Jersey (down by Bridgetown in the map). I do not know where Mary's future 3rd husband, Solomon Hartley, 21, is--he could be in Philadelphia or could have been off on a sea voyage, taking care of the ship's rigging.

Robert Paul, 22 and Sarah D Shoemaker, 16, both allegedly of Quaker ancestry, may have already been married or were possibly courting at this point in either Montgomery County of Philadelphia county.  I have not yet confidently identified either of their parents. In two more years Robert Paul will be consistently found in the now-defunct Oxford Township (now just part of Philadelphia county).

Tibbetts/Young/Snow/Townsend families in the back of beyond in Ohio, Hancock, Maine, inland from the Penobscot River.  The modern-day city Bangor doesn't even register as a place yet.

William Tibbetts, 65, and Laurana "Nabby" Young, 61, had been in Gouldsboro in the 1760's/1770's, and then moved to Kendeskeag Plantation about 1779 (south east nearer to the Penobscot river), before going to Ohio (renamed Corinth in 1811).  Their son, Benjamin Tibbetts, 27, had just married Hannah Snow, 23, probably in Ohio/Corinth.  Hannah was born in Hallowell, Maine, to Philip Snow and Abigail Townsend, who had previously been in Belgrade, Kennebec, Maine before they moved to Ohio/Corinth in the early 1790's (they were in Belgrade at least as late as 1790).  This tells me that Hannah and Benjamin had likely only known each other for 5 years or less when they married.  Their first child, Mary "Polly" Tibbetts, was born in 1796.  My ancestor George Tibbetts was born 2 years later in the same place.

Back in the Philadelphia region, Phoebe Worrall and father Seth were in Marple Township (which is not listed by name, but apparently it was muddy there).

George Tibbetts's future wife Mary Burnight's parents, Jeremiah Burnight, 17, and Phoebe Worrall, 11, had probably not met yet.  I have not yet figured out Jeremiah Burnight's story.  The official story in the family is that he was born in the "Scottish Highlands" and then arrived in the United States about 1800, first in New Jersey and then in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.  What I find interesting is there is a Burnight family, Methodists like Jeremiah, who are found in the Cumberland County, New Jersey, area in the late 1700's/early 1800's.  Where they related to Jeremiah?

Phoebe Worrall was born in Marple Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania, daughter of Seth Worrall and his second wife, Phoebe(?) Moore.

The Messingers and Millers were out in western Pennsylvania.

Abraham Messinger, 35, wife Catherine Hill(?),about 31, and their son my ancestor John Hill Messinger, 6,  were likely in Fallowfield Township, Washington, Pennsylvania (where they were in 1800).  The family story was that they were in Allegheny County but I don't find records to support this--it's in the same general region though).  John's future 2nd wife, Mary Matha Magdalene Miller, was not born yet, and I have not definitively found where her parents, Rudio Miller and Abigail (?) (both likely in their 30's) were, although I have working theory that Rudio was actually Jacob Miller, who was in Moon Township, Allegheny, Pennsylvania*.

Boston Nosler was originally from Germany somewhere, but he shows up in Augusta County, Virginia by August 1758.  He and his wife Sofia likely moved to Montgomery County, Virginia sometime around 1765, and then he seems to have been in Greenbrier by 1783.

Sebastian "Boston" Nosler, 58, and his wife Sofia (?), possibly about 52 if still living, were possibly in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), as Boston is found there on tax lists 1783-1786.  Their son, my ancestor John Nosler, 30, had just married his second wife, Martha Snavely, 20, in Montgomery County, Virginia.  Perhaps John had gone to Greenbrier with his parents at some point, but he seems to have been mostly based in Montgomery County.  Martha's father was likely John Snavely, about 46, of Christiansburg (Montgomery County); her mother's identity is not known yet.  John's mother Mary Brandstetter, about 77, was possibly alive (I have an unsourced place of her death as 1800 in Wythe County, southwest of Montgomery).

Possible places were Hibbs and his wife may have been in  Tennessee in 1796.

One of my most vexing brick walls, Mahlon Hibbs, 49, and his wife Nancy Ann (?), 32, were likely in Jonesboro, Washington, Tennessee (based on a daughter's birthplace) or even possibly in the area west of the Clinch River (later Anderson County, Tennessee), where Mahlon starts showing up in records in 1805.

The Comer/Kibler/ Michael/Rittgers group were all in the Hawksbill Creek, Shenandoah, Virginia area.

Sarah Catherine Comer, 21, daughter of John Comer and Mary Ann Kibler, both around 40 (and granddaughter of Michael Comer, 74, and Catherine Michael, 61, and possibly Pete Keebler), was born and raised in Shenandoah County, Virginia, as had her parents.  She would marry John Augustin Rittgers, 29, in a year after this map was made.  John was from France or Prussia, depending on the record.  According to family story his parents died on the ship over (possibly about 1774?) and he had to go on to America alone at age 7.  Four years after this map was made my ancestor Jacob "Jake" B Rittgers was born in 1800.  His wife, Hester/Esther Patterson, has unknown origins at this time, although she may have been born to a Samuel Patterson in Maryland in 1802.

Just a guess location-wise as to where in Georgia my ancestors Timney Watts and Jesse Warren were.

Jesse Warren Sr, 49, and Elizabeth Fuqua(??), 45, had moved to Georgia in 1791 from Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and started to appear in records in Hancock County, Georgia in the late 1790's.  Their son, my ancestor Jesse Warren Jr, was about 6 when this map was done.  His future wife Timney Watts (not yet born) is very likely to have been part of the Watts group in Greene County, Georgia.  She may have been the daughter of Jacobus Watts, 24.





*Jacob Miller and possible son Rudolph "Rudy" Miller are later found in Dearborn County, Indiana, where my Millers were known to be before Marion County, Indiana.




© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Family Friday: Slater

These two photos of my great aunt Opal May Slater (1890-1973) and her oldest brother George Logan "Pete" Slater (1886-1957) was obviously taken on the same day, probably in Niwot, Colorado. Sadly we have no information about the boy and dog in the second picture.

[Both photos courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Thanksgiving Day

To you and yours...

[Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "A Thanksgiving greeting." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1914. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-5320-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99]

The postcard is from the New York Public Library's digital collections.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Thanksgiving Turkey

The Library of Congress has lots of pictures. These date from the first two decades of the twentieth century.

[The Thanksgiving turkey / Alfcamp, Elizabeth, N.J. (c1900), Alfred S. Campbell.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c00216]

[Buying Thanksgiving turkey (between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915. Bain News Service, publisher.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print]

[Thanksgiving turkey (between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915). Bain News Service, publisher.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print]

[Thanksgiving - taking home turkies from raffle (1912), Bain News Service.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b18267]

[Thanksgiving, 1919, National Photo Company.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.00888 ]

[Thanksgiving, 1919, National Photo Company.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.00890]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William T. Slater (About 1790? - 1847), Deserter, Farmer, Justice of the Peace

Up until 1818 when William Slater applied for naturalization in Jefferson County, Indiana, all the information we have about this maternal 3rd great grandfather comes from family stories that I haven't been able to verify.*

According to Slater family lore, William first arrived in the United States on a ship that was part of the British invasion fleet that attacked New Orleans in 1814-15, and at some point he went over the side of the ship and never looked back.

It's been presumed that William was a sailor in the Royal Navy but I think it's possible that he could have been a marine or a soldier in the British Army.**

[Painting depicting the Naval Battle of Lake Borgne, Louisiana, between U.K. and U.S. forces in the War of 1812, by Thomas L. Hornbrook (active 1836-1844). (Image Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland.) Found on Naval History Blog. ]

We can't find him in the 1820 U.S. Census but on July 20th of that year he married (Emily) Jane Wilson in Crawford County, Indiana, and the couple's eight oldest children were born in that state. By 1830, they were living in farther west in Pike County.

[1830; Census Place: Jefferson, Pike, Indiana; Series: M19; Roll: 26; Page: 373; Family History Library Film: 0007715. 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.]

But their ninth child, my great great grandfather George W. Slater (1832-1899), was born in Illinois, signalling the family's move to Lawrence County*** where they remained through 1840. (Their last two children were born there also.)

[Year: 1840; Census Place: Lawrence, Illinois; Roll: 63; Page: 171; Image: 345; Family History Library Film: 0007643. 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.]

By 1843 the Slaters had moved again, this time in the northeastern corner of South Audubon Township in Montgomery County, Illinois. Three years later William was elected the first Justice of the Peace so he must have been a respected citizen.

[History of Montgomery County, Illinois, Illustrated Atlas Map Of Montgomery County, Ill. Carefully Compiled from Personal Examinations and Surveys. 1874. Published by Brink, McCormick & Co., of Illinois. Duval & Hunter, Lithographers, Philada, Pa.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

William T. Slater died in 1847; his place of burial is unknown.

Family tradition has one more bit of information about William, asserting that he was born in Yorkshire. Unfortunately there are a lot of Slaters in Yorkshire so that hasn't helped locate a birth record for him. As this 1880 U.S. Census record shows, his children list his place of birth as "England."

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Harvel, Montgomery, Illinois; Roll: 237; Family History Film: 1254237; Page: 283D; Enumeration District: 149; Image: 0567. 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. 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.]

*Yet. (But not for lack of trying.) And we're assuming that he didn't change his name after his unauthorized departure from the Royal Navy.
**I didn't grow up as a Slater and I've only heard this story once, from my cousin Susan. If the belief that William was a sailor is based on his desertion by "going over the side" that doesn't take into account the fact that all Royal Navy ships had marines on board or that the British Army troops had all arrived by ship too.
***Where William's father-in-law John Wilson had bought land in 1825.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Searching Through Unindexed FamilySearch Deed Records is Boring, So Let's Drum Up Some Enthusiasm To Get Through It!

No Joseph Gates here. Maybe he's on the next page??

I'm looking for my motivation today.

So I've been looking through Cortland County, New York, 1815-1820 deeds at FamilySearch.  Page by page, looking for a man (Joseph Gates), who I think is my direct ancestor.  But no sign of him yet.
Boring.

Joseph Gates began appearing in the Federal census records in Cortland County in 1820, and was listed as "engaged in manufacture."  I don't what he manufactured, I don't know when he came to Cortland (although I think it was some time before the 1820 census obviously), and I don't know his wife's name.  If he and his wife bought land, then I'd know when he bought land and know her first name.  My drive to know these things compels me to keep doing this boring search.  For me this is an obsession, although not a religious calling.

It's interesting to me that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who run FamilySearch, do consider obtaining genealogical material to be a religious calling.  I recently learned that they plan to acquire all genealogical records in the world by the middle of this century.  Wow!

The word 'enthusiasm' has always interested me, as it originally comes from the Greek, meaning "possessed by [a] god's essence" and was for a long time used only in a religious context.  Not being a particularly religious person, I still like the idea of my enthusiasm (in this case for genealogy) to be from an outer source, and possibly of unlimited scope, although I think of the 'possession' as more that I am plugged into a greater outside energy than that I have a spirit inside me, directing my actions.

Thinking about Cortland County, Joseph Gates, Mormons, and a tremendous appreciation of indexed records, got me to thinking how I could find some kind of motivation (and of course to avoid looking through those darn deed records for a few more minutes), I looked to find if there was an inspiring video about indexing to drum up some enthusiasm, preferably from an LDS member who can explain their motivation from their point of view.

The Internet being the Internet, I found what I was looking for--a sermon by LDS elder David A Bednar - "Indexing":

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Emily Jane Wilson (About 1800 - Before 1850)

Another female ancestor who is represented in very few records is Emily Jane Wilson, my maternal 3rd great grandmother, who was born in either Barren or Jefferson County, Kentucky, in about 1800. She was the third child and second daughter of  Ruth (Welborn) and John Wilson who were both natives of Rowan County, North Carolina.

[A Map of The Western Part of the Territories belonging to the United States of America. Drawn from the best Authorities. Engraved for Imlay's Topographical Description of that Country. T. Conder Sculpt. Published June 1st 1795, by J. Debrett, Picadilly, London.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By 1820 the Wilson family had moved on to Crawford County, in southern Indiana, where Emily Jane married William T. Slater on July 30th of that year.

[Indiana. Drawn and Published by F. Lucas Jr., Baltimore. (1822). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By the 1830 U.S. Census the Slater family were living in Pike County, Indiana, west of Crawford County and two years later they had moved on to Illinois, first to Lawrence County in the eastern part of the state and finally to Montgomery County, to the south of the state capitol in Springfield.

[Illinois By David H. Burr New York. Engd by Illman & Pilbrow. Entered ... 1834 by Illman & Pilbrow ... New York.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

William and Emily Jane had eleven children and my descent is from their youngest boy, George W. Slater (1832-1899).

William died in 1847 in Coffeen, Montgomery County, Illinois. We assume that Emily Jane died before 1850 because there's no census record for her in that enumeration. There's no record of where she's buried.

And we have a presidential connection through Emily Jane's older sister Christina (1798-about 1834) whose great great granddaughter Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) was Barack Hussein Obama's beloved maternal grandmother.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Train Travel in Victorian England

[England & Wales With its Railroads & Canals, v1855, J. Archer. Found on freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com]

Cousin Randy Seaver has a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post every week on his Genea-Musings blog and everybody is welcome to join in.* Last night the theme was "Who Is Your Most Recent Immigrant Ancestor?" and Randy's offering was:

"My most recent immigrant ancestor is my great-grandfather, Thomas Richman/Richmond (1848-1917) and his mother, Hannah (Rich) Richman (1824-1911). They immigrated into the United States on 14 November 1856 in New York City, arriving on the ship Osprey out of Bristol in England.  The passenger list included:
*  Hannah Richman - age 32, female, a wife
*  James Richman - age 7, male, a child
*  Thomas Richman - age 6, male, a child
*  Louisa Richman - age 4, female, a child
*  Elizabeth Richman - age 3, female, a child
*  Ann Richman - an infant, female, a child 

James Richman (1821-1912) had come to America on the ship Calhoun from Liverpool in England on 22 October 1855.

The Richmans had lived in Hilperton in Wiltshire, near Trowbridge, until they emigrated.  I don't know how they went from Hilperton to the ports - Liverpool is fairly far away from Wiltshire.  Perhaps they went by wagon or coach." 

It was the last paragraph with Randy's speculation of how they may have reached Liverpool and Bristol that caught my attention because I think there's a a strong likelihood that his ancestors traveled by train** instead.

The English were railroad pioneers and by the time the Richman family set out for America in 1855-56 there were thousands of miles of track in Britain and every town of any size had its railway line. As the BBC History Magazine explains:

"At first, train travel was too dear for the average working man but fares gradually came down thanks to competition and William Gladstone’s 1844 Railway Act, which obliged every company to supply at least one train daily at the cost of no more than 1d a mile. Meanwhile, the growth of excursion trains and the Great Exhibition of 1851 stimulated vast numbers to use the railways for the first time. 

By the end of the 1850s, passenger numbers had risen beyond all expectations. In 1854 alone, 92 million journeys were made in England and Wales alone, on a network stretching 6,000 miles. The magic of train travel had caught the public imagination and the rapid expansion of the iron road left few aspects of life in Victorian Britain untouched."

According to A History of the County of Wiltshire,***  railway service reached Trowbridge by 1848. 

[Wiltshire Railways and canals, Source: British History Online]

National Museums Liverpool has an Information Sheet (PDF) describing 19th and 20th century emigration. The section titled "Awaiting Departure" gives us an idea of what James Richman's experience there was probably like in 1855.

"Emigrants were not allowed on board their ships until the day before, or the actual day of sailing, so this meant that most emigrants usually spent between one and ten days waiting for their ship in a Liverpool lodging house. In the mid-19th century emigrants passing through Liverpool were liable to harassment and fraud by local confidence tricksters, known as 'runners'. Runners frequently snatched the emigrants' luggage and would only return it if the emigrant paid a large fee. In the late 1840s and 1850s, lodging houses were often inhospitable, dirty and overcrowded."

For general information about British trains, I suggest you check out the National Railway Museum. We visited it when we were in York last year and it is amazing!

*I added my 3rd great grandfather William T. Slater, the English deserter from the War of 1812 in the comment section of Randy's blog last night.

**And of course, the trains would have been pulled by steam locomotives. If you want to hear and see what they sounded like the obsessive trainspotters of England have puts lots of videos on YouTube. (Unfortunately none of them are short.)

***'Railways', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 4, ed. Elizabeth Crittall (London, 1959), pp. 280-293 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp280-293 [accessed 21 November 2015].


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.