Madness Monday/ Who was Erastus??

    

      I haven't posted here in awhile, I'm still in pursuit of my Galloway ancestors.  Every spare minute this week has been spent pouring over New York State land records at the Family Search site, and there are alot of Galloway transactions.  I had no idea my family were such wheelers and dealers, they were flipping land before that term even existed.  I haven't found very much, but I know you understand that I can't take the chance the one record I don't look at will hold the clues I need.  So I must read them all.

     I did find Milo Galloway, who I believe was the brother of my 3rd great-grandfather Russell, selling his mill in Wayne County, New York to George R. and William Galloway of Detroit, Michigan.  I can't figure out who they might be, he had two sons of those names, but they were too young to be the purchasers.  I also found Russell owning property and living in Arcadia next to Milo which was very helpful in my quest to prove they are siblings.

     The problem is the elusive Erastus.  I can find no trace whatsoever of Erastus Galloway other than a notice published in  1818 stating he had a letter waiting for him at the Lyons, NY (part of Arcadia at that time) Post Office. I wouldn't have known he even existed if not for that one notice.  He clearly was in Arcadia at the same time as Russell and Milo and their father George... that's all I know.  I have searched Ancestry, Family Search, Roots Web, Old Fulton Postcards, Historic Rochester Newspapers, Wayne County, NY GenWeb, NEHGS etc, etc...  Done searches on Google and Mocavo and nothing, zip, nada. It's as if the man hatched, picked up his letter and immediately departed for Saturn.

     Looking at the 1820 census I find George Galloway in Lyons with his wife and three sons.  From my calculations, one son was born between 1811 and 1820, this is the mystery son.  Another born 1810-1805,  must be my Russell who was born about 1807.  The third son was born 1804-1794, that would be Milo who was born about 1800.  It's very doubtful a boy born between 1811 and 1820 would be receiving a letter in 1818, so Erastus wasn't George's youngest son.  That leaves two possibilities, Erastus must be a brother or cousin of George, or it's a coincidence--a BIG one.  I'm inclined to believe Erastus was a brother since my Russell Galloway named a son Erastus in 1834, after his uncle?  Hopefully, more records will come online before long because this one is truly driving me mad.