Brick Walls: Now and Forever? (Maybe not)

Every genealogist has them; those ancestors whose lives are not an open book, whose records (and sometimes even names) we haven't found anywhere we've looked.

Now I've just started using AI to help with my research and here is the result of my first trial.

My maternal third great-grandfather William T. Slater from "York County, England" made his first known appearance applying for citizenship in Jefferson County, Indiana, in 1818. All we have of this record is a transcription so I thought it might be interesting to contact the courthouse to see what else might be available. Alas! 

FIRE

At the Jefferson County, Courthouse

Madison, Indiana

May 20, 2009

At the time, it was feared that all the court records had been lost but according to the link above, it seems that because the fire was confined to the cupola, roof and top floor, they survived. So I asked Perplexity and Claude "What court records are survive in the Jefferson County Courthouse, in Madison, Indiana?"

Both agree that since before 1906, naturalization was handled by local courts, my ancestor's application could possibly be there (unless destroyed in earlier disasters, including two other fires in1853 and 1859). Both also give information about contracting the court clerk both by phone and email.

Now the rest is up to me!

Note: We've written quite a bit about William here on the blog, including what could possibly be his family in the Yorkshire West Riding--although Christine, who is the DNA expert around here, hasn't found a connection. A search of the blog will find the other posts about him.  

© 2026 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Celebrations: Easter Sunday - 1951 (Again & Again)

Here's four-year old me with my Easter basket on my trusty tricycle in the backyard in Encanto; the blooming tree behind me is an avocado.

[Making its 3rd annual appearance, this photo is from my personal collection]

The Easter basket was a present from Jessie and Jimmy Neal.

I'm sharing this oldie but goodie for a third time.



© 2024 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Memento Mori: Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, honors the memory of all the people who have died while serving in the United States military.

This day of remembrance officially began on 30 May 1868 when the head of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. It became a federal holiday in 1971.

Parks, Gordon, photographer. Gloucester, Massachusetts. Memorial Day, . A Legionaire sounding taps for the War dead during services. May. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017855725/>.

The title of the Memorial Day image above (from the Library of Congress) informs us that this bugler was sounding Taps, which dates to 1862.

Harold Delbert "Hal" Currey, Jr. (the only son of the parents who raised me) and my uncle John William "Jack" Slater, both Second Lieutenants in the Army Air Corps, died in action during World War II. You can see their pictures and read more about them here.

© 2020 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

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.

Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 8th through 14th

Two of my known direct ancestral couples were married during the second week of December:
maternal 6X great grandparents Moses Cooper and Mary Mathewson were wed in Glocester, Rhode Island, on December 10, 1732; and maternal great grandparents Lewis Logan Slater and Rufina Tomlinson in Severy, Kansas, on December 13, 1885.

[Lewis Logan Slater & Rufina Tomlinson Slater-undated double portrait

courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The following two couples also married during the second week of December but I'm less certain of my relationship to them: paternal 10X great grandparents Thomas Ford and his first wife Joan Way wed in England on December 13, 1610*; and maternal 5X great grandparents William White and Jemima Wright were married on December 13, 1781 in Adams, Massachusetts, by my 6X great grandfather Elder Peter Worden.**

*This is a line that I haven't looked at in years and so I'm not certain of my connection. In any case, I would be descended from his second wife Elizabeth Charde.
**This couple's relationship to me is entirely speculative and not to be relied on. If it's true they are the grandparents of Hannah Leonard, the wife of Porter Worden (my 3X great grandparents)



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Anna Delilah Webb Slater (1891 - 1973)

This 1957 snapshot of my maternal grandmother Annie Slater with her first granddaughter (and my first cousin) Sue* appears to have been taken in her backyard in Niwot, Colorado.

Sue sent a message correcting the location: "At my parents' home in Glen Burnie, Maryland."

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

*Actually I was her first grandchild (and was 10 years old at this time) but that's a secret that, as far as we know, my mother never shared.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Rockhounding on the Oregon Coast

I'm guessing that this picture of Mother and me was taken at Merchant's Beach, Oregon, in about 1960.

[From my personal collection]

I wonder what the joke was.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Emma Maria Worden (1861 - 1939)

While working on last Friday's post I realized that we have a portrait of young Emma that hasn't been shared here. It was probably taken in Jones County, Iowa, sometime before her marriage to Madison Monroe Kuder in 1884.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

This picture from my great grandmother Elnora Worden Webb's photo album that we scanned during the epic session with Cousin Sue and her husband Bob at her mother's house in 2011.




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Marc's Updated Ethnicity Estimate at AncestryDNA

My son's updated ethnicity estimate at AncestryDNA.

My son Marc's updated ethnicity estimate changed a bit.  It seems accurated based on the paper trail.

Updated Estimate

Germanic Europe 31%
Refined from:
Europe West 34%

Norway 27%
Refined from:
Scandinavia 18%

Ireland and Scotland 13%
Increased by 9%

Baltic States 12%
Refined from:
Europe East 25%

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe 11%
Decreased by 3%

Eastern Europe and Russia 6%
Refined from:
Europe East 25%


Migrations
Pennsylvania, Ohio & Indiana Settlers
Western Norway
Hordaland & Rogaland


No Longer in Estimate
Iberian Peninsula 2%
Finland/Northwest Russia 1%
Europe South less than 1%
Asia South less than 1%




© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

My Updated DNA Results Summary at AncestryDNA

My updated AncestryDNA results.

My updated AncestryDNA ethnicity admixture results weren't very dramatic, although I think that it better reflected my Norwegian great grandparents.

The estimate with the information on what it was updated from:

England, Wales & Northwestern Europe: 41%
Decreased by 30%


Norway: 39%
Refined from: Scandinavia 17%


Ireland and Scotland: 12%
Increased by 12%


Sweden: 8%
Refined from: Scandinavia 17%


Migrations
Western Norway
Hordaland & Rogaland
Ohio River Valley, Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Settlers
Pennsylvania, Ohio & Indiana Settlers


No Longer in Estimate
Europe West 9%
Europe East less than 1%
Caucasus less than 1%




This update features:
16,000 reference samples (13,000 more)
380 possible regions (17 additional)

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Further Speculation about William T. Slater's Yorkshire Roots

When William T. Slater, one of my maternal third great grandfathers, applied for citizenship in Jefferson County, Indiana, he stated he was 27 years old and a native of  "York County, England."* We've never been able to definitively trace William's antecedents to a specific location in Yorkshire so when this book came to my attention** I decided it might be worth a try:

[Yorkshire surnames: Are you a Brook, Haigh or a Hirst? Find out where your name came from 

The Huddersfield Examiner: 20 Dec 2015]

I first looked on worldcat.org hoping to find it in a local library but the nearest copy is 629 miles away in Salt Lake City and Amazon's vendor's asking price is $135. Fortunately I was able to find a bookseller in England for a fraction of that, although it turned out I had to pay extra because it's a brick of a book.

When my copy arrived I couldn't wait to see if Slater rates an entry. And it does! (However, Tiller which we believe to be his middle name, doesn't appear.)

According to Mr Redmonds this although this surname can be found thinly spread in many other English counties, it's in "the Pennine area where the name was exceptionally common: Lancashire, West Riding [Yorkshire], Staffordshire, and Derbyshire."

Concentrating on the West Riding this list of Slaters in Yorkshire that Christine found via FindMyPast several years ago hasn't changed materially.***

[findmypast.org]

Christine notes that the Wakefield individual died the in 1815 and I found that the Thornton William Slater was enumerated there in the 1851 English Census which leaves the one erroneously listed as born in Morley. Looking at the baptismal record the actual parish of birth was Leeds and the family's abode was Mill Shaw [Millshaw] a hamlet in Beeston which was a center of woolen cloth manufacture and is still considered an industrial area.

[Ancestry.com. West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: West Yorkshire Nonconformist Records. Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield, England:

West Yorkshire Archive Service.]

No occupation was listed for William Slater [Senior] but the only time that column seems to have been filled was only when the father was identified with a trade like mason, cordwainer, or clothier which is very seldom. Apparently being a mill hand wasn't deemed worthy of note. The initials purported to be the "Signature of Parents" are all in the same handwriting all throughout the register which would seem to indicate that none of the couples were expected to be able to sign their names.

I've found baptism records for four other children of this William and Mary Slater: Joseph (born 1789 in Churwell); Isaac (born 1790 in Millshaw); Betty (born in Beeston 1794) and Benjamin (born in 1806 in Mill Shaw).****

There's no proof that my ancestor was the William Slater born to this family but I think it's a definite possibility. To someone growing up in the bleak atmosphere of an early Industrial Revolution woolen mill town  and facing a future of unrelenting toil might well find "taking the King's shilling" an attractive idea since the bounty offered could equal several months pay.*****

However he found himself on board one of the over fifty ships comprising the British naval fleet invading Louisiana in 1815, it's clear that William Slater chose to end his military career then and there.

*Christine posted about her discovery of this record here.
**Sadly I don't remember who/where I saw the reference to this book so I can't give them credit.
***Except for the addition of a William Slater born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1790 whom I'm ignoring for now.
****So far I haven't found other records for any these people.
*****Leeds, located 50-60 miles from the nearest port, wouldn't seem to be a likely place for a naval press gang.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Lofton (? - 1704) Transported Criminal or Indentured Servant?

Lately I've been looking at the upline of my maternal Slater/Wilson ancestors and this hint for William Lofton of Maryland, one of my eighth great grandfathers, caught my attention.

Since very few of the people whose lives are traced were convicts and my ancestor was among the minority who went on to establish families, own land and leave a will it seems unlikely he came as a prisoner.

A quick search on WorldCat informed me that the nearest copy of the source book Colonial Families of Maryland, Bound and Determined to Succeed is in the Los Angeles Public Library (112 miles away). However I was able to purchase an digital copy from Google Books for $15.12.

In his introduction Robert W. Barnes explains that he made a study of 549 transported individuals after their terms of service ended, 17 of whom were convicts.* This book details the lives of  102 of those people including William Lofton.

According to his research my ancestor was transported in 1673; no mention is made of where he departed from, any skill or trade he came with or how old he was when he arrived. However, William must have completed his service by 1690 when he married a woman we know only as Elizabeth and the couple went on to have five children.

William's name appeared as a head of household in Spes Utij Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, beginning in 1695 and continuing until 1703. Here's a transcript of the list from 1699 (his name-misspelled-is the last one on the second page):

[Maryland historical magazine by Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912;

Dielman, Louis Henry, 1864-1959; Maryland Historical Society. Source: Archive.org]

No date of death is given but he was buried April 13, 1704, and his estate was inventoried in July of that year. The year of his wife's death is uncertain--October 20, 1703 or 1704.





*Here's my descent from him:

[Ancestry.com]

*In fact very few convicts were sent to Maryland until 1718 when Parliament passed the Transportation Act.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Otis Slater (1866 - 1936) Not Only an Auctioneer

Otis Slater was a grandson of my third great grandfather William T. Slater.* It was this obituary that led to me do some further research.**

[30 Mar 1936, Page 2 - The Decatur Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

In earlier days Otis was well known as a breeder of horses, mules and hunting dogs. I wonder if he's the person posed with the huge Percheron stallion in this 1910 front page newspaper spread?

Here's an excerpt from the above newspaper:

[12 Jun 1910, Page 1 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

This notice of a public sale a year later gives a good idea of the size of his enterprise.

[15 Feb 1911, Page 11 - The Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

The caption to this 1913 picture of Mueller Company employees informs us that the coon dogs belonged to Otis Slater who "does a great deal of hunting and keeps the dogs for his own use, seldom loaning them to any one else."

[5 Oct 1913, Page 3 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

However by 1917 he and his sons were proudly advertising his dogs in national publications like Country Life, Forest & Stream and Harper's Bazaar:

[The New Country Life: 1917, Volume 32. Google Books]

[Country Life, Volume 37, 1920. Google Books]

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

**While I found numerous newspaper articles that referred to him as Colonel there's no evidence that he ever saw military service.






© 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.

Monday Is for Mothers: Anna (Webb) Slater - Dry Creek, Niwot, Colorado

Obviously on this particular day Dry Creek wasn't living up to its name.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

In 2012 Dry Creek Trail was opened to hikers, bikers and equestrians. You can learn more about the area here.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

School Days: Niwot High - 1934

As you can see from the list on the back of this class photo, my uncle James Slater is in the middle of the back row, right behind the principal H.D. Parrett.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

Last month I posted another 1934 class picture from Niwot that included my other maternal uncle Jack Slater.

This paragraph describing Niwot is taken from the 1932 Polk's Boulder County (Colorado) Directory.

[Ancestry.com - U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

School Days: Niwot 6-7-8th Grades, 1934

My uncle Jack Slater is in the front row, third from the left, as you can tell from the writing on the back of this multi-class picture that lists everyone.

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

[Courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

The teacher's name is given as Miss Stromquist--looking through local records, I believe her full name was Lillian Stromquist, born in Colorado of immigrant Swedish parents.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Creating a List of People By Location

Can't do this on Ancestry!  A list of the people in my tree who lived in or had a life event in Niwot, Boulder, Colorado, birthplace of my biological grandmother Alta Mae Slater.

One big reason I purchased stand-alone genealogy software (in this case Legacy 9) was to create lists of people to research by location, or by any other specific criteria.  Although Ancestry is a giant database it doesn't allow the user to create this type of report.

This is so fun!


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Memorial Day

Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day honors the memory of people who died while serving in the United States military.

[Johnston, F. B., photographer. (1899) Daisies gathered for Decoration Day. Washington D.C, 1899. 

Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2001703674/. ]

Harold Delbert "Hal" Currey, Jr. (the only son of the parents who raised me) and my uncle John William "Jack" Slater, both Second Lieutenants in the Army Air Corps, died in action during World War II. You can see their pictures and read more about them here.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.