Jeremiah Garner Misbegotten or Misunderstood?

     These Garners are proving tough nuts to crack.  Trying to pin down Jeremiah's birthplace has even been a challenge.  The transcription of the 1850 census of the Town of Wolcott, NY on Ancestry says he was born in Virginia, but a look at the actual image reveals the place was really Vermont.  On the line below below Jeremiah's family is a family named "Wright".  The letter t at the end of "Wright" clearly illustrates how the census taker formed the letter t; the same as at the end of the abbreviation VT after Jeremiah's name.  That is a useful tip if there is confusion about a letter or word in a document, look for a word you do understand and note how the various letters were drawn.

1850 Wolcott, NY

     In this census Jeremiah is living with his wife Clarinda [Wood], and their children.  I can't find him at all in 1860, unless the entry for a "Jersey Garner" in neighboring Sterling, NY is him.  By that time he had separated from his wife Clarinda Wood, so Jersey, working as a farm laborer and living with his employer could be Jeremiah, he is the right age, but this man was born in New York.  Of course there is no guarantee the census taker actually spoke with Jeremiah himself, his employer or employer's wife could have given the information. There should be severe penalties for that in my opinion, it's very inconvenient for future generations of family historians. 

    There are several family trees on Ancestry that claim Jeremiah was variously born in Canada, Vermont or New York.  None of them have sources that prove a place of birth so while they offer clues, they aren't conclusive evidence.  

   Thomas Garner, Jeremiah's father is no easier to trace than his son.  The census of 1810 shows a Thomas Garner in Vermont, the 1820 and 1830 censuses don't seem to list him at all.  The 1840 census shows Thomas in Summerhill, Cayuga County, NY.  The Town of Summerhill did not exist in 1830, it was then part of the Town of Locke, whose census originals are damaged, that may be why I can't find Thomas in 1830.

   I think Thomas' wife was Prudence Lamphere.  A transcribed list of deaths in Summerhill on the Cayuga County website shows "Pruda Garner" died December 10, 1848 at age 89.  I have no information at all on Thomas' father.  It's possible his name was also Jeremiah.  In the town of Locke, which you remember was the "home town" of Summerhill, there lived a Gideon Garner of the same generation as Thomas.  Like Thomas, this Gideon named his firstborn son, born in 1808, Jeremiah.  The surname isn't all that common in early America, in 1800 there were only 100 entries in the whole USA for Garner--mostly in the south and as you can imagine, Jeremiah Garners were even rarer.  Two Jeremiah Garners in the same generation in the same county would seem to indicate a relationship.  I'm thinking Thomas and Gideon Garner may well have been brothers. 

     I don't believe Jeremiah who married Clarinda was born in Canada, later records all agree he was born in the USA, Vermont is a distinct possibility however.  A list of marriages in Huntingdon, Ontario Provence, Canada has this entry--Jeremiah GARNER, 53, tavern keeper, widower, born Vermont, Huntingdon, s/o Thomas & Judy, married Angeline COLLINS, 38, Huntingdon, Mar. 31, 1870 at Huntingdon.

  Sounds promising. I'll admit that when I saw "father Thomas" my heart skipped a beat, but then I saw "mother Judy".  Hmm, so is it really him?  Prudence and Judy are not totally dissimilar, the deceased woman in Summerhill was referred to as "Pruda".  Pruda, Prudy, Judy... I guess it's possible, the marriage list was after all a transcription.  The widower part is interesting too.  Family Search has a record of a marriage in Ontario Canada between Jeremiah Garner and Betsey E. Grandy on March 28, 1868.  He could have become a widower before 1870 when he married Angeline.  If he's not in Canada during the 1870's and 80's I don't know where he could have been, he doesn't appear in any US censuses during that time.  He's not in the New York State 1892 census either.

     Another weird instance in this case-- Clarinda, Jeremiah's first wife, died in 1886 in New York. Jeremiah lived until 1894, and even his death place is disputed, some say Canada, others New York.  What is indisputable is that both he and Clarinda are buried in VanFleet Cemetery in Wolcott, New York.  And get this, her stone says Clarinda wife of Jeremiah!  Or so the transcription says, I need to check for myself in the spring.  Looking at the alphabetized cemetery list, I noticed directly under the Garner entry this tantalizing entry--  GRANDY, Willie  son of M. & Betsey  d. Dec. 29, 1853    ae   1y  5m  4d.

     Betsey Grandy??? Could it be?????
 

My Grandma Is My Aunt, And So Is My Other Grandma

     

Great Grandma Mary Wiggins Lash

      I'm still investigating the supposed cad Jeremiah Garner who left his wife Clarinda Wood and high tailed it to Canada where he remarried, maybe twice--we'll get to that in the next blog. Looking through online sources and my old research, I saw Clarinda had a sister named Anna.  Here is where it gets interesting...Clarinda is a 3rd great grandmother on the Lash side of my family. The line goes from Clarinda Wood/Garner to her daughter Aurilla, to Aurilla's daughter Mary Wiggins who married Irving Lash.  Since Anna is Clarinda's sister, that makes Anna my 4th great aunt.  But wait!

     Aunt Anna married Benjamin Brown and had a daughter named Lydia.  Lydia Brown married Morgan Lash and had a son named Irving Lash, who as we know, married Mary Wiggins.  That makes Anna my 3rd great grandmother as well as my 4th great aunt.  And since Grandma Clarinda is her sister, Clarinda is also my 4th great aunt.  Are you still with me?  That means my great grandparents Irving and Mary were 2nd cousins!

     I found this slightly unsettling, (although it might explain alot).  I wondered how common this sort of thing was back around 1895 when they married?  It appears it was no big deal back then, people even married their first cousins occasionally, Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin being two famous examples. Until after the Civil War it was perfectly legal in the US to marry your first cousin, and  even today 26 states still allow them to marry.  Second cousins are considered far enough apart that they can marry in any state.  Catholics however are a little wary of the whole deal, it wasn't until 1983 the Church lifted it's ban on second cousins marrying.  Mayor Rudy Guiliani  was actually granted an annulment of his first marriage when he discovered his wife was a second cousin. Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe that is why he divorced her.

     This is something to keep in mind before assuming that your ancestors couldn't have married because they were cousins.  I have Bridget Hogan whose mother was Catherine O'Dwyer marrying Andrew Ryan, son of Alice O'Dwyer.  I dismissed the possibility they were first cousins, but now I'm not sure.  Of course if you throw the Catholic ban on cousin marriages into the mix, it seems they probably weren't cousins since they married in a Catholic Church.  This may be my next project after I get the dirt on Jeremiah.

Remembering

     

JFK in Dublin

     I know I don't have to tell you what happened on this day 50 years ago.  The media coverage and racks of "special edition" magazines near the checkouts have seen to that.  Commemorations are taking place all over the world today, the film of the Presidential limo turning into Dealey Plaza will air over and over, and even though we've seen it a hundred times before, in our minds we'll be hoping it will somehow end differently, the Limo will stop, or Oswald will miss...but it rolls on to it's inexorable end, and as it does the sense of horror and sadness is the same.  But rather than dwelling on that awful moment I'd like to take a look at the Irish perspective.  President Kennedy, himself the descendant of famine immigrants, took a four day trip to Ireland shortly before his tragic death. It was a joyous homecoming, the island receiving him with open arms, delighting in their returned son. They and the Irish here in America were so very proud of our president.  My grandmother had only two pictures hanging in her front parlor.  One was of the Pope, the other of her president.
  
      It's hard today to find the words to explain to my children what it meant to have an Irish Catholic president.  Patrick O'Donovan, an Irish newspaper reporter based in London, wrote at the time of JFK's visit, "Occasionally in the history of a country, a thing happens that means more than can quite be put into words".  It was impressed upon us in Mass every Sunday when Father enjoined us to pray for our president and we heard our parents and grandparents speak of him with great pride and admiration.  Perhaps it really can't be fully explained now that discrimination against Catholics is a thing of the past in most quarters.
   
     Young though I was, I also remember how everything changed overnight. I was only 7 years old at the time of the assassination, but even I "got it".  So much more than the man was  taken away that day, our innocence was also stolen. The grief was palpable, women crying at Mass, the shocked, disbelieving looks on the faces of the men.  Those haunting images of Jackie's veiled form, her children close beside her.  One thing I don't recall seeing, is what happened at Arlington.  Due to my tender years, I wasn't allowed to watch the entire burial.  I might not have remembered all that happened anyway as young as I was, and I surely would have missed the significance of what occurred on the heels of the flyover.

     Months earlier, when the President and his wife visited Ireland, he and President de Valera had laid a wreath at the graves of the heroes of the 1916 Easter Rising.  During that ceremony, 26 Irish Army cadets performed a slow, mournful drill; a very precise one traditionally done in remembrance of the dead which ends with the soldiers lowering their heads over their rifles in solemn respect.  President Kennedy was so impressed by the young cadet's performance, he asked that a film be made of the drill and sent to him in Washington.

    In Ireland, preparations for filming began immediately.  The cadets practiced the drill daily week after week, perfecting every intricate move.  One drill sergeant, in that enigmatic Irish way, was not pleased, and he made it known.  Sgt. An Rau O'Sullivan cautioned the cadets, this drill was meant only for a burial or memorial service, to perform it for any other reason was to court bad luck.

    And so, it would seem, it was.  Four months after returning home, the unthinkable happened and our young President was gone.  As plans went forward for the funeral, Jackie Kennedy sent a request to the State Department--she wanted the Irish cadets to repeat the same drill they had done for the President in Ireland at his graveside in Arlington.  This was an unusual request, never before had a foreign army been called upon to perform such a service for an American president, but how could they refuse the President's widow?

     That evening a call from the Irish military chief of staff was received at the cadet's barracks in Kildare--"You are providing a guard of honor at the funeral of President Kennedy", was the message.  Young men were frantically sent to round up their fellow cadets in restaurants, theaters and dance halls.  They would leave the next day, the 23rd, for Washington.

    The day of the funeral, the cadets waited by the grave for hours, in the distance, muffled sounds of the cortege could be heard coming ever closer.  As the caisson bearing the casket arrived, the Marine Band began the National Anthem, followed by the old aire, Mist Covered Mountains, played by the Air Force Pipe Band.  As the President was carried to his final resting place, fifty military jets followed by Air Force One commenced their flyover; then finally the order came-- "Ar Arim Aisiompaithe Lui", and the drill began. It went flawlessly.  Upon their return to Ireland, the cadets were greeted with praise and honored by President deValera personally.  Still known as Kennedy's Class, they remain close, and are planning a trip back to Arlington this year.  While they won't be performing the drill again, I would bet that as they stand by the eternal flame, the tones of the bagpipes will come wafting back over the decades and at least in their mind's eye, it will be repeated.

     You Tube has a six part video on the subject titled, JFK's Irish Honor Guard here, the videos aren't long, under 9 minutes each.  Part 4 has the best video of the drill, but they are all worth watching.

Treasure Chest Thursday or The Metal Box

     I hate to admit it, but my Dad is getting older, and these days he needs a little help with his bill paying and so forth.  Stacks of papers were accumulating on the table and more on his ever present TV tray-- what he needed was organization.  I remembered he had one of those old metal boxes designed to protect important documents stashed in his bedroom.  Of course it was just a thin aluminum box that would be useless in a house fire, but at least it had folders I could use to get some semblance of order while I figured out what bills I needed to pay.

     I dusted it off, dragged it out to the living room and lifted the lid; it was then I discovered that sitting before me was a real life treasure chest!  Unbeknownst to me, this box had once belonged to my grandparents.

     Sifting through the contents, I found my grandmother's birth certificate, her and Grandpa's marriage certificate, and Grandma's death certificate.  There were letters from their parish Priest thanking them for donations, (and I mean LARGE donations, I had no idea), a copy of the letter Grandma wrote informing the railroad of her impending retirement along with both of their retirement papers from the Railroad Retirement Board.

    

     It goes to show, that advice you're always hearing about checking the homes of older relatives for clues is good advice.  Maybe even snooping around just a little bit-- my Dad didn't even realize what he had.

Wordless Wednesday/Katie & Angie & Irish Lace

Katie 13, Angie 11

Captain Milo, In Which I Learn Just Cause It's Published Doesn't Make It True

Erie Canal Tow Path

       I'm ready to say conclusively, I have exhausted the internet's supply of information concerning one Milo Galloway.  And there was only one in New York State in my opinion.  You will note I said opinion, not fact. That pesky Erastus has taught me a good lesson, I only found him by chance in a newspaper ad, he exists in no other records I've ever found, so you never know.  But neither the forename Milo or surname Galloway were very common to start with and I have searched three different census indexes, newspapers and books and still find only one Milo G.  

     I've long suspected the group of Galloways in East Palmyra and those in Arcadia/Wolcott were probably related in some way.  East Palmyra actually borders Arcadia, but I still haven't found the link. The Palmyra family descended from a James Galloway of Connecticut, and mine from George Galloway of Massachusetts, (assuming the 1850 census is correct on George's birthplace)--but I did find a very old deed giving Milo's address as Palmyra.  I also found, in the Lyons NY Wig, this ad placed in1829--

     The first sentence reads, "Left at the collector's office from on board the Boat Gen. Green, of Newark, [NY] Capt. Galloway, a lady's camlet mantle", and it is signed Milo Galloway.  Another reference to Milo being a captain appears in the book Palmyra and Vicinity, by Thomas L. Cook, an early resident of Palmyra.  In it he says Milo Galloway captained a boat called the Comptroller in the 1830's.  I always wondered where Milo came up with the capital to purchase the many properties he acquired over his lifetime, not to mention the mill and factory.  It would appear that early in his marriage he plied the Erie Canal and invested in real estate.

     I consulted another book about Palmyra where I found Milo's name.  This volume stated "Milo Galloway Sr. was Captain of the Comptroller, and was the father of Julia Emilia Galloway who married Milo Yeoman", but Milo didn't have a daughter named Julia.  Does that mean there was another Milo-- and my Milo wasn't the captain?  I don't think so. The part about the boat is probably true, but I found Julia E. Galloway in two censuses in the household of Rev. Edgar M. Galloway in nearby Marion, NY.  It seems reasonable to believe he was her father,not Milo, especially since Edgar's mother was Emilia Lewis (from actual photos of the Lewis family Bible posted on Ancestry.com--they call her Emily, her tombstone says Emilia).  

     But the clincher can be found in the edition of the Newark Union, published on Jan. 21, 1905. An article about the Marion Christian Church actually states that "Mrs. Julia Yeomans is the daughter of the late Rev. Edgar M. Galloway, former pastor of the church."  And by the way, her husband's surname was Yeomans, not Yeoman; nitpicky I know, but if you're going to write a book, it's not really hard to find the correct name and paternity, I did.  Does that sound snarky?  It does doesn't it, but it's my pet peeve.  If you're guessing at something say so, you can't publish guesses as facts, you just can't.

     I'm taking a road trip to Wolcott and Lyons tomorrow to check at the Wayne County Historian's office for NY State censuses that aren't online (why does no one have Wayne County online?) and whatever else may be in her office, then on to Wolcott Library for a newspaper I need to look at, also not available online.  After that I think I'm taking a break from Milo, mostly because I'm not sure where else to look.  This doesn't mean I'm giving up, I'm nothing if not tenacious, but other ancestors are clamoring for my attention.  Like Jeremiah Garner, a 3rd great grandfather on my Mother's side.  I just found a tree claiming he abandoned his wife Clarinda Wood and took off to Canada where he remarried!  This is obviously something I need to verify or disprove, and it looks like it just might be true, Clarinda is living with only her children in 1860 and 1870, but Jeremiah returned in time to be buried next to Clarinda in New York, so little time, so many ancestors...

Happy Veteran's Day!

     

     Veteran's Day is here again, and to me this is the real start of the holiday season.  Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday, then comes Thanksgiving and before you know it, it's Christmas and New Years Eve!  After that here in the northeast we settle in for winter, when I leave my den as seldom as possible.  

     Today is about the veterans though, men and women like my youngest son Christy and my son-in-law Anthony, both of whom served in Iraq, and my late husband Graham and now husband Jack who were Vietnam veterans, all of whose service allows me to plan my holidays and then hibernate the rest of the season in relative peace.  I say relative because with two terriers in the household, well...

Dad on the left with his parents and my Uncle Bill

     My father and his brother are also veterans, of the Korean era, two more in a long line of Irishmen who served the USA.  Beginning with the American Revolutionary War down to this century innumerable soldiers of Irish extraction have fought for this country.  There was a sizable Irish population here by the 17th century, many of them indentured servants who were probably more than happy to aid in the rebellion against England in the 18th.  If you recall from American history class, the founding fathers got a big hand from France and General Lafayette, (some say his name was really General Lafferty and he was Irish), during the war.  The French army at that time contained at least three Irish regiments. One of whom, Walsh's regiment was the first French unit to aid the American side, serving as marines on John Paul Jones' ship Bonhomme Richard.

     Irishmen served in the Civil War too, often being literally met at the docks by Army recruiters.  For a poor immigrant, especially one with a family to support, a regular paycheck was not easily dismissed.  This earlier post tells part of the story of the legendary Irish Brigade whose battle cry, “Faugh a Ballagh”(Clear the Way), echoed across many Civil War battlefields.

     The pacifist in me hates that there is a need for a day like this, but the realist in me understands that need.  I wish all the veterans at home or abroad a day of peace, and I thank you and your families from the bottom of my heart for all the sacrifices you have made and continue to make.

Christy

Tony

News From The World Of Irish Genealogy!

     

     There are some exciting developments I want to tell you about today.  According to John Grenham who writes the genealogy column for the Irish Times, Rootsireland will be adding to it's database of Wexford parish records.  Some are already online, but more are on the way.  I will find you yet James White!  This is a pay site by the way.

     This next one is a freebie, irishgenealogy.ie plans to put online the GRO index of births, marriages and deaths.  Yes, I know Family Search has already done that, but this database will include the previously unpublished indexes from 1903-1927 which include the mother's maiden names.  And it never hurts to have two sets of eyes doing the indexing.  Currently, church records from Kerry, the diocese' of Dublin, and Cork & Ross along with COI records from County Carlow are available here at no charge.

     Also, early in the coming year all of the 19th-century testamentary records at the National Archives, and their Valuation Office records will be available through Family Search.  The valuation records are really cool, by using them and the revisions that occurred over the years you can track the owners and/or occupiers of your ancestor's home.  I've spent quite alot of money at the Valuation Office, and could easily spend alot more; this will be wonderful.  

     The testamentary records as you might imagine have to do with the administration of wills.  You can actually go to the National Archives website and view the indexes, or calendar, for the years. 

1858-1920 and 1923-1982

Search box for 1858-1920

     I did a search for my 3rd great-grandfather John Gunn of Kerry, clicked on the image button (seen in the lower left in blue above), and this appeared:

     I can tell by the address this is probably not my grandfather, oh well.  The images are most easily viewed at 50% magnification, not the 100% they pop up in.

     I saved the best, (to me anyway) for last--  the National Archives of Ireland, in partnership with Family Search will be putting transcripts and images of the surviving fragments of the 1821-1851 censuses online. I'm sure you know the early census records for Ireland no longer exist, but there are a few portions that survived.  Segments of the 1821 census, an every person census, exist for counties Cavan, Kilkenny, Galway, Meath, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.  The other years survivors are mostly for the north of Ireland.  I'm coming for you James White!

Elections

     First, I want to thank Gini Webb of Geneabloggers for asking me to do an interview with her on the Geneablogger website.  I'm very flattered to be asked, and had alot of fun contemplating her questions.  Also this morning, I've been looking through the results of our local elections. Yeah, I enjoy politics, I'm Irish aren't I?  Along with that, I've been thinking about Grandpa O'Hora

     That the Irish loved politics is no secret, they were in fact represented at the very beginning of the United States; one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll, himself an Irish Catholic.  So it came as no surprise that my great-great-grandfather, James O'Hora from County Carlow who became a citizen in 1855, took an active interest in the politics of his adopted country. He was a staunch Democrat, as were about 90% of Irish Catholics, who saw the Democratic Party as more sympathetic to the common man.  They further resented the opposition’s support of the temperance movement.

     In June of 1884, James was chosen to represent Shortsville at the Democratic County Convention to be held at City Hall in Canandaigua, New York.  He had come a long way since he signed his naturalization papers with an X.  He was now able to both read and write, and had become a respected member of his community. 

     The period from 1840 to 1890 in America has been called the golden age of parties.  The major political parties would never again be as strong as they were during that period.  Electioneering in the 19th century was as much a social event as a political one; torchlight parades, rallies, barbecues and other community wide festivities were employed to keep enthusiasm high.  It worked too, voter turnout was between 70 and 80 percent for presidential elections.

     Voting methods also contributed to party loyalty.  The secret ballot was yet to come; prior to the late 1890’s each party printed their own ballots which listed only their candidates and were of a different color than the opposition’s.  When casting ones vote, these were deposited in a box in full view of all present, any defections to the opponent's side would have been readily obvious.

        At the convention held in Canandaigua that year, James and his fellow representatives elected delegates who were for Samuel Tilden and Senator Thomas Hendricks, both from the previous election year’s ticket.  In an instance that mirrors the 2000 presidential elections, Democrats believed that the presidency had been stolen from Tilden when the Electoral College Commission awarded all disputed electoral votes to his opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes.  Tilden’s health prevented him from accepting the nomination however, and Grover Cleveland was chosen to run against the Republican candidate James Blaine.   

    The race was a very close one, quite likely decided by an incident that took place a week before the election.  Blain had attended a Protestant church meeting at which the minister made the inflammatory statement, “We don’t propose to identify with the party whose antecedents are rum, Romanism, and rebellion.” Clearly a swipe at Democrats and Catholics,  Irish Catholics in particular, it was widely reported in the press and his failure to distance himself from that bigoted remark cost Blaine the New York State electoral votes and ultimately the election itself.  Though Cleveland and Hendricks carried the day by a very narrow margin of only .3 percent Grandpa must have been pleased and proud to have been a part of that process.

    

Tombstone Tuesday/Andrew Ryan From Tipperary

 

     This tombstone, in St. Anne's Catholic Cemetery in Palmyra, NY,  belongs to the brother of my 3rd great-grandmother Anna Ryan White.  Andrew was born in Goldengarden, South  Tipperary.  He was baptized March 21, 1827 in the parish of Annacarty/Donohill just north of Tipperary Town, the second of the eight children of Cornelius Ryan and Alice O'Dwyer.

     Andrew arrived in he USA just as the famine in Ireland was ending. He lived in Palmyra and Manchester, NY before purchasing a farm in Perinton, NY.  His wife Bridget Hogan was the subject of another Tombstone Tuesday blog.  Andrew died at his home in Perinton April 4, 1888 of typhoid fever.  His daughter Ellen died of the same disease six years later, at the age of 26 and is buried next to her mother in the same cemetery.  Her marker simply reads, "Nellie".

     

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.