Tuesday's Tip; Sorting Extended Families

     I am quite literally drowning in O'Horas.  My great-great-great O'Hora grandparents had five sons, at least four of them came to America from County Carlow, initially settling in Auburn, New York.  Their oldest son John had five sons and their son Michael had a whopping ten sons that survived.  Their other sons also had children but they didn't pose a problem for me in figuring out who's who in Auburn; Edward followed his dreams of wealth to California's gold fields and my great-great-grandfather James moved his family to Manchester, New York.  John's five sons never married; which was a very good thing as they were hellions of the first order who actually earned the sobriquet-- the O'Hora gang.  Still, they were in the mix in Auburn.

     There were of course many daughters as well, but since they didn't retain their maiden names after marriage their children didn't enter into the seemingly bottomless pool of O'Hora's in Auburn.  The Auburn newspapers were filled with articles about various O'Hora's but it's difficult sometimes to know which Michael, John, or Edward had died or was being arrested.  Especially when researching later generations by which time there were multiples of multiples of all the common forenames they were so fond of, though usually if someone was in trouble it was a member of the gang mentioned above.

     One of the most useful methods I've found to differentiate between individuals of the same name is to concentrate on finding their addresses.  While news articles didn't always give ages, they often gave the home address of the person mentioned or in the case of a death notice, the address where the funeral would occur back when those were held at home.  I've actually made a spreadsheet for the O'Hora's using the streets and street numbers found in newspapers, city directories, and census records.  In the federal census of 1900 thru 1940, and the New York State censuses from 1905 onwards, the street the family lived on is written in the left hand margin.

     When I see the address 302 State Street in Auburn I know that was the home of Michael O'Hora from Ireland with the ten sons, and that he or one of his sons or grandchildren is likely the subject of the article. Others of the ten brothers lived in Throop, right next to Auburn.  Being so close they still appeared in Auburn newspapers but living outside the city set them apart. John's sons moved around quite a bit, but with the spreadsheet I can spot them.  Using this method I can usually find the right O'Hora even if he happened to be staying with his parents or a sibling rather than at his usual address.


   

     

   

Dueling Dunhams

   

     The past few days I've been researching Ephraim Dunham, (1750-1823), who was born in Holland and died in Halfmoon, New York.  He's not related to me, I have no deep interest in the man, so why did I invest the time on him?  I'm bored, and ... someone told me that the information I had in my Ancestry tree on him was wrong.  That my friend, is a challenge.

     A couple of days ago I found a peculiar message in my mailbox at Ancestry in which the writer, Mr. R, informed me, "if you direct your attention to the two male individuals, [named earlier in his message, one being an Ephraim Dunham from New Jersey who died in 1815], you will discover something Amazing".  Amazing?  I welcome new information and perspectives, but that sounded like something from an advert for long wearing lipstick.

     The Dunham's come into my tree only because Maria Vincent, my fourth-great-aunt, married one.  Specifically, she wed Morgan Dunham in Saratoga County, New York around 1830.  Morgan's father was William Dunham and William's father was the above mentioned Ephraim.  The Dunham's, along with my Vincent family, resided in the quaintly named town of Halfmoon in Saratoga County, New York, gradually moving westward as people did back then.

     I researched the whole tree of this part of my family several years ago when a cousin contacted me and suggested that we collaborate.  We had a long distance ball working together and between us we pretty much nailed the Vincent-Dunham line, so when Mr. R told me Ephraim was not who I thought he was I was a little taken aback.  I began re-reading my notes just to make sure I wasn't mistaken. One piece of evidence was a biography of Charles Dunham, another son of William and brother to Morgan, in which Charles told the author his grandfather Ephraim came to America from Holland as a young man, settling in Halfmoon Township, New York.  Charles explains that he himself came to be born in Canada because his father William had moved there in 1811, only to be forced to return to Halfmoon when the war of 1812 broke out causing their welcome in British Canada to become less than cordial. 

     Another clue was a land record from Halfmoon that mentioned Ephraim Dunham's will was written in June of 1822 so obviously he did not die in New Jersey in 1815. That will, which named his son William among his heirs, was probated in October of 1823, in Saratoga County.  Census records from 1800 to 1820 also place Ephraim in Halfmoon as does a history of the town that indicates Ephraim was living there before the revolution.  I've seen nothing at all indicating he was born in New Jersey or spent time there. 

     As I looked around the net I found quite a few Ephraim Dunham's actually, which surprised me, but then again Ephraim was a much more common name a few hundred years ago than it is today.  Luckily, "my" Ephraim left a quite substantial paper trail. In conclusion, I'm comfortable saying cousin Christine and I did our homework and Ephraim Dunham of Halfmoon is indeed who we believe him to be.

I Think He Made The Whole Thing Up

     Way back in June of 2013 I wrote a blog about a cousin, George Worden (1858-1950), who claimed his father was, "a full blooded Indian", and that he, George, was born on a reservation near Seneca Point, New York.  You can see that blog and George's photo here.  Ever since, I've been looking for any evidence that could back up George's assertion.  His father was a brother of my third-great-grandfather Paul Worden, so it follows that Paul would also be of Native American heritage if George was correct.

     After thoroughly researching this matter, I am prepared to state for the record, George was a big old liar. When George celebrated his ninety fifth birthday in 1947 Lena Steele, a reporter for the Democrat & Chronicle, made the drive from Rochester to interview him in Bristol, New York located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. George told her quite a tale that day in May.  Along with his birthplace he noted his father was named Carter Worden, his mother was Pennsylvania native Mary Colver, and that he came to South Bristol with them when he was six years old. Fascinating story, especially to a genealogist, unfortunately it's not true.

     George's father was named Sylvester, not Carter although Carter was the maiden name of Sylvester's mother.  Also, Sylvester was living in South Bristol a full eight years before George was even born as evidenced by the 1850 census which shows Sylvester with his wife Mary and their three youngest children there.  His mother Pelina Carter Worden also resided with him that year so I'm sure I have the right man. They are also living there in 1855 and 1860. George couldn't have come to South Bristol at age six, he was born there.

     The maiden name of Sylvester's wife was Culver, not Colver, but that's close enough for me to chalk it up to a spelling error or misprint.  She was however, born in New York not Pennsylvania.  And the reservation?  There was no reservation anywhere near Seneca Point in 1858, the year of George's birth.  That place was the site of a large Seneca Nation village in the years before the American Revolution but in 1779 Major General John Sullivan, at the order of George Washington, mounted an expedition targeting Loyalists and the Native Americans who sided with them against the Patriots.  That included the residents of Seneca Point who left the area at that time.  Some may have lingered near their old home, but a reservation there did not exist.

     George passed away at the county home for the aged in Hopewell, New York on 27 October 1950.  His obituary gives his birthplace as the Town of Bristol, New York, not Seneca Point.  So why the story?  I've wondered about that and the best I can come up with is he did it for the attention.  George outlived his wife, Eva Bartlett, by almost thirty years and their only child, a daughter they named Ethel, passed away in 1896 at the age of six.  George was lonely...

     

     

Culling My Book Collection; In Which I Learn I Can't

     With so much time at home I've been sorting, cleaning, and weeding out items for donation. Yesterday I started on my stacks of books, let's just say I have MANY of them.  I've always loved books, I love cracking them open for the first time, I love revisiting my old friends filled with notes I've made in the margins, I even love their scent. Needless to say, I will never own a kindle. Historical fiction has been my favorite genre since high school, (imagine that), but with all we uncover about our families as we trip through their pasts, who needs fiction?  

     Most of my ancestors were Irish.  The list of books I've acquired on Irish history and genealogy would fill at least ten blogs.  The classic, The Great Hunger, by Cecil Woodham-Smith was one of my first purchases followed by Paddy's Lament, The Hidden Ireland, The Famine Ships, and too many more to list. My youngest son often chooses a book for my birthday and Christmas gifts, usually with a nod to my admiration for Irish rebels.  I have a 1917 copy of, History Of The Sinn Fein Movement And The Irish Rebellion Of 1916, a copy of  Allegiance, on the same subject, signed by the author Robert Brennan, and one of, Irish Rebel John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland's Freedom. Those and many more like them all go in the keep pile.  A long lost cousin, Tom E., has very generously sent me numerous books; it was he who first introduced me to James Charles Roy who has become one of my favorite authors.  I love his quirky observations of historical and present day Ireland and I'm keeping all four books I own of his.

     The majority of my immigrant Irish crossed the ocean during the famine, but a few left home in the 1860's.  So of course when I saw a used copy of, Transatlantic, for sale at Amazon I had to have it and I'm so glad I bought it. Stephen Fox's descriptions of early steam ships, the Liverpool docks, and the harrowing voyage across the stormy North Atlantic were utterly fascinating.  I could almost feel the dock rising under my feet with the incoming tide flooding up the Mersey.

     One branch of my O'Hora/Hore line from County Carlow went west seeking their fortune in the mines and gold fields of California, eventually settling in San Francisco so when I spotted a used copy of, The San Francisco Earthquake,  by Gordon Thomas and Max Witts it looked like something I really needed.  And I was right, it's a painstakingly researched tome well worth the pittance I gave for it.  

     My eighth-great-grandmother Winifred King Benham, aka, The Witch of Wallingford, inspired my purchase of, Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World', and my son to buy me,  A Storm of Witchcraft, when he came across it in a gift shop while vacationing in Salem, Massachusetts.  I'm not giving that away, it was a gift!  Speaking of Massachusetts, that was home to my Galloway ancestors one of whom, Milo, came to New York and was a mover and shaker on the Erie Canal, so of course I needed a copy of, The Artificial River, and just for a change, the fiction work, Canal Town, set in Palmyra, New York where Milo lived for a time and four miles from where I now reside.

     Mary Augusta Vincent, my third-great-aunt, left New York for Nebraska with her husband George Matteson and two small children shortly after the Civil War.  That necessitated my purchase of, Pioneer Women, by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith.  You won't find descriptions of prairie life like those included in this book on Ancestry.  Definitely a keeper.

     Their Own Voices;Oral Accounts of Early Settlers in Washington County, New York.  Now this one is really special.  Beginning in the 1840s and continuing until his death, Dr. Asa Fitch of Salem, NY, interviewed elderly neighbors, questioning them about the time of first European settlement, the Revolutionary War, and the first decades of the 19th century. Two of the interviewees were actually directly related to me!  How often does that happen?  I can't possibly part with that book.  I even bought my uncle a copy.

     I've barely touched on the number of books I own and love, there are books I bought when I found Civil War soldiers among my ancestors along with Revolutionary War soldiers, local history books of places they lived, etc, etc. and as I discovered about three hours in, I can't part with any of them. I'm buying more bookshelves.