From the Probate Files: Hugh Kennedy - Allegheny County, Pennsylvania - 1814

Last week we looked at the will of William Kenedy who is believed to be the father of my ancestor Hugh Kennedy and I promised to examine Hugh's will. Somehow the day got away from me and I just realized that it's my turn to post. Fortunately Hugh Kennedy's 1814 will is relatively short and the clerk who copied it into the records had legible handwriting.

[Will Books, 1789-1917; Author: Allegheny County (Pennsylvania). Register of Wills; Probate Place: Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Wills and Probate Records, 1683-1993 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Pennsylvania County, District and Probate Courts.]

In the Name of God Amen. I Hugh Kennedy of the County of
Allegheny and the Township of Mifflin being weak in body but of sound &
perfect mind and memory Blessed be Almighty God for the same do make
and publish this my last will and Testament in manner and form foll-
owing that (is to say) first I give and bequeath unto my beloved wife Eli-
zabeth Kennedy a good deacent mentenence together with all the bedd-
ing and household furniture endurring her life or widowhood. I do also
-------
give and bequeath unto my Eldest Son William one dollar. Also I give and
bequeath unto my Daughter Rebecca one dollar. I also give and bequeath un
to my Daughter Mary one dollar. I also give and bequeath unto my son Martin
one Dollar. I also give and bequeath unto my daughter Jennet one dollar.
I also give and bequeath unto my son Henry one dollar. I also give and
bequeath unto my daughter Catherine one dollar. I also give and bequeath
unto my son James one Dollar. I also give and bequeath unto my daughter
Isabella one Dollar. I also and bequeath unto my two sons Hugh & D-
avid their heirs and assigns all that my messuage or Tenement situated
lying and being in the Township and County aforesaid. Together with all my
other free hold Estate whatsoever to hold to them the said Hugh and David
their heirs and assigns forever. And lastly I give and bequeath unto my
beloved wife all the rest and residue and remainder of my personal prop-
erty estate goods and chattels of what kind and nature soever enduring 
her widow hood, and at her death to be divided betwixt my two sons Hugh
& David each the one half together with each paying the half of my Lawfull
debts, and I do hereby appoint my sons David and my trusty friend William
Canel my whole sole Executors of this my Last will and Testament hereby re-
voking all former wills by me made. In Witness whereof I have heretofo-
re set my hand and seal this second day of February in the year of our Lo-
rd one thousand eight hundred & fourteen. Signed Sealed published a-
nd declared by the above named Hugh Kennedy to be his last will and
Testament in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our names
as Witnesses in the presence of the Testator.                    his
Geo. McMillen. Adam Boyd. Jeremiah Ferree.       Hugh X Kennedy {Seal}
                                                                                          mark.

Allegheny County Ss. On the 9th day of March A.D. 1814. Personally came Ge-
orge McMillen, Adam Boyd and Jeremiah Ferree, the Subscribing witnesses
to the within will before Saml Jones Register for the probate of wills & for said
County. and being duly Sworn they did depose and say that they were pres-
ent and did see Hugh Kennedy make his mark to this instrument of wri-
ting and published pronounced & declared the same to be his last will an-
d Testament, and that he was of sound mind and memory at the ti-
me of so doing to the best of their Knowledge. Given under my hand the
day & year aforesaid
                                    Recorded 9th March 1814           Saml Jones Register.


Hugh names eleven children in his will, leaving only token bequests to all but two of his sons, Hugh and David. He had two wives, Catherine Hughes and Elizabeth Scullion but it's not clear to me which one was the mother of which children including my direct ancestor Jennet (Jane) who married Isaac Webb.







© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Ross Lloyd Hughes (1878 - 1967) Stationary Engineer

Abandoning, at least for the moment, the farther reaches of my family tree, my attention was drawn to the career of Ross Lloyd Hughes who's the oldest child of Lewis Logan Slater's sister Serena Adeline and her husband Dr. Ezra Hughes. (So he's my first cousin, twice removed.*)

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

In the 1900 Federal Census he was a single man working as a farm laborer in Kansas but by the end of the next year he was living in Blaine County, Oklahoma Territory, where he married Arizona native Blanche Rowe.

[Ancestry.com. Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Original data: Marriage Records. Oklahoma Marriages. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, UT.]

I don't know where these pictures were taken but they're each holding the same branch of that leafless tree.

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

From another of Cousin Vicki's photos we can place the couple in North Dakota in 1906 at the Fort Berthold Indian Mission** in Elbowoods.

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

This double portrait of Ross and Blanche, dated 1909, was taken the year after the fire mentioned at the top of the preceding picture.

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

And the 1910 Federal Census found the couple and their two children residing at the Vermillion School at Pipestone Mission in Minnesota. (For some reason, the enumerator listed both adults as Canadian-born which they clearly weren't.) Ross's occupation was given as Eng[ineer} and Blanche was listed as a Teacher.***

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Township 62, Saint Louis, Minnesota; Roll: T624_724; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0244; FHL microfilm: 1374737. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Eight years later 40-year-old Ross, still residing at Pipestone Mission, registered for the draft and gave his occupation as stationary engineer.

[Registration State: Minnesota; Registration County: Pipestone; Roll: 1675774. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.]

Subsequent census records (1920, 1930, and 1940) confirm that Ross remained at Pipestone as a stationary engineer at least through 1942 when he again registered for the draft.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147. National Archives and Records Administration.]

[Courtesy of Vicki D. via Ancestry.com]

After his wife died in 1960, Ross went to live with one of his sisters in Oklahoma where he died in 1967. His body was taken back to Minnesota where he's buried next to Blanche in the Old Woodlawn Cemetery in Pipestone.



*All of the pictures of Ross Lloyd and Blanche in this post were originally shared by his great granddaughter Vicki D. in her Ancestry.com public tree (And she's a 5th-8th cousin in my Ancestry DNA matches).
**You can read more about the history of Indian Missions in North Dakota. including the early history of Fort Berthold, here.
***Here's a history of American Indian boarding schools in Minnesota (and elsewhere), and if you really want to get into the subject Adam Fortunate Eagle's memoir Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School is available from Amazon (and other sources).


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.