I recently found Boyd Lydick's memorials on findagrave.com for Uriah & Mary Ann (Lydick) Harris. They are my gg-grandparents - I descend from their son Samuel Harris. The memorial listed Uriah's middle name as Binnegar - interesting as that was the maiden name of his mother. Being the sort who always hopes to find supporting documentation for this type of information, I contacted Boyd.
Unfortunately, Boyd said he knows he would not have arbitrarily recorded Binnegar as Uriah's middle name, but he is unable to locate any place where he recorded the source at the time. That's a problem that happens often to genealogists, especially when it's something from their early days of research. And yes, it has happened to me too ... I sometimes run across something and wonder, "so where did I get that piece of info?" and then have to hope that I'll run across it again in the future. Moral of the story: always record your source for all of your research.
While Boyd and I were trading emails, he found a post on GenForum by Bobby Rawls who refers to his gg-grandparents as Sheridan Uriah Harris and Mary Ann Lydick. Same Uriah (married to Mary Ann Lydick) -- so could this be Uriah’s full name instead? Possibly …
Uriah & Mary Ann had a son whose name appears as Uriah Sheridan on his death certificate and as Uriah S. on the 1870 & 1900 censuses. I believe the son was commonly known by his middle name, which I’ve seen spelled as Sheridan, Sherwood and Sherrard. I’ve also seen the son’s name as Sheridan U. which had once led me to believe that Uriah may have been his middle name in honor of his father.
If Bobby is correct that the father was Sheridan Uriah (commonly known by his middle name, Uriah) ... and if my thinking is correct that the son was Uriah Sheridan (commonly known by his middle name, Sheridan) ... then that ranks near the top of the list of most convoluted things I've ever seen!
So what is the real full name of this man known as Uriah Harris? If you have any input, I'd love to hear from you!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
Holidays and Genealogy
Wow ... I hadn't remembered that my last blog post was way back in October. I knew it had been too long, but I was thinking I had posted in November ... see what getting older does to us?
First of all, I decided to revamp the way I'm doing my West Virginia Heritage website so that it includes a lot more people, but that's food for a separate post. The work with that decision was taking longer than I anticipated. Secondly, about that time other things took precedence over my genealogy research ... and when I don't look at my database I also don't have things popping into my brain that I want to add here.
What I probably need to do is go back and see what I had promised to write about and try to tie up some of those loose ends ... like a followup on the Glassworker series, or additional info about the Fork Ridge Christian Church that I've found, or additional info sent to me by cousins, etc.
Sounds like a plan ... now all I have to do is actually do it. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great time getting ready for Christmas!
First of all, I decided to revamp the way I'm doing my West Virginia Heritage website so that it includes a lot more people, but that's food for a separate post. The work with that decision was taking longer than I anticipated. Secondly, about that time other things took precedence over my genealogy research ... and when I don't look at my database I also don't have things popping into my brain that I want to add here.
What I probably need to do is go back and see what I had promised to write about and try to tie up some of those loose ends ... like a followup on the Glassworker series, or additional info about the Fork Ridge Christian Church that I've found, or additional info sent to me by cousins, etc.
Sounds like a plan ... now all I have to do is actually do it. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great time getting ready for Christmas!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Samuel E. Clark
From disappointment to delight ... here's the scoop: Last week I visited the Washington County, PA, courthouse and made the disappointing find that they have no birth records prior to 1898. Disappointing because I had really hoped to find a birth record for Samuel E. Clark, my 2nd great-grandfather who was reportedly born in the 1850s. I wrote about him in a July post in which I noted:
Apparently it's time to just throw some of my info out here and see if anyone else has different ideas as to Samuel's correct birth info. I have bolded the variations in the following discussion.
The marriage license for Samuel Clark and Margaret Shimp is my primary lead that Samuel was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the informant was Margaret's mother - giving a little less credibility than if Samuel himself had been the informant. However, there are several other sources that support the state being Pennsylvania.
According to Samuel's death certificate:
Per the 1856 Iowa State Census, Samuel was 3 years old and born in Pennsylvania - this agrees with the birth info above.
Per the 1865 Kansas State Census, Samuel was 11 years old and born in Pennsylvania. More agreement with the death certificate.
The 1930 U.S. Census also supports a birthplace of Pennsylvania. The age is off by a year, but that's common in census records.
Now for the conflicts ...
The 1900 U.S. Census reported Samuel's birth as August 1852 in West Virginia (of course it was still Virginia in 1852).
The 1910 U.S. Census also reported his birthplace as West Virginia (on the bright side, the age given is consistent with the birthdate on his death certificate).
The 1920 U.S. Census is the only source I've run across giving Kansas as Samuel's birthplace - but I make a good argument against that one on my website (just look up Samuel E. Clark).
One last thing ... I started this post with, "From disappointment to delight". So what was the delight? My husband and I took our Trek bikes to Wellsburg, WV, yesterday to ride the Brooke Pioneer Trail now that the connection to the Wheeling Heritage Trail is complete. (If you like paved rail trails, we highly recommend both of those.) We had a PERFECT day ... low 60s and lots of sunshine. Delightful!
"I've been trying to put together a post about Samuel and Margaret, but the more I dig into my info, the more conflicts I keep finding. I don't want to post the conflicts here until I'm a little more sure of my line of reasoning."
Apparently it's time to just throw some of my info out here and see if anyone else has different ideas as to Samuel's correct birth info. I have bolded the variations in the following discussion.
The marriage license for Samuel Clark and Margaret Shimp is my primary lead that Samuel was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the informant was Margaret's mother - giving a little less credibility than if Samuel himself had been the informant. However, there are several other sources that support the state being Pennsylvania.
According to Samuel's death certificate:
- Born 25 August 1853 in Pennsylvania
- Died 01 June 1936 in Moundsville, West Virginia
Per the 1856 Iowa State Census, Samuel was 3 years old and born in Pennsylvania - this agrees with the birth info above.
Per the 1865 Kansas State Census, Samuel was 11 years old and born in Pennsylvania. More agreement with the death certificate.
The 1930 U.S. Census also supports a birthplace of Pennsylvania. The age is off by a year, but that's common in census records.
Now for the conflicts ...
The 1900 U.S. Census reported Samuel's birth as August 1852 in West Virginia (of course it was still Virginia in 1852).
The 1910 U.S. Census also reported his birthplace as West Virginia (on the bright side, the age given is consistent with the birthdate on his death certificate).
The 1920 U.S. Census is the only source I've run across giving Kansas as Samuel's birthplace - but I make a good argument against that one on my website (just look up Samuel E. Clark).
At this point, I'm leaning toward Samuel's birth info being:
25 August 1853 in Pennsylvania
I'd like to find additional documentation to confirm if it was Washington County before I take that stand officially - the courthouse folks suggested searching for church records. Easier said than done! If you're a Clark researcher who has input, I'd love to hear your thoughts.One last thing ... I started this post with, "From disappointment to delight". So what was the delight? My husband and I took our Trek bikes to Wellsburg, WV, yesterday to ride the Brooke Pioneer Trail now that the connection to the Wheeling Heritage Trail is complete. (If you like paved rail trails, we highly recommend both of those.) We had a PERFECT day ... low 60s and lots of sunshine. Delightful!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Flora R. Harris
In the John Harris family cemetery on Fork Ridge in Marshall County, West Virginia, there is a grave marker for Flora R. Harris:
As you can see, Flora was the daughter of J. A. and I. Harris - but when I took that photo in 2004 the initials didn't register. I recently searched through my Harris folks for a J. A. Harris married to an I. “Somebody” and realized I had John A. Harris married to Isabella/Isabell/Isabel Littleton. Aha!
Sounded like a good match, but was I really on the right track? I needed more to back up my theory. I have a typed copy of John's obituary that lists his children, obtained from a distant cousin. Per that obituary, John and Isabella had 13 children, 12 of whom were still living when John died. Could the one who died be Flora?
John and Isabella lived in Marshall County, (West) Virginia when they were married and for the birth of their earliest children. The obituary says that the family moved to Illinois in 1865 after John's Civil War service. Flora's gravestone is pretty worn, but it looks to me like she died 29 April 1865 only 22 days old. So it seems plausible that she could have died shortly before the family moved. If I'm right about John and Isabella being her parents, then her burial in the John Harris (Sr.) family cemetery means that she was buried on her great-grandfather's farm. John A. was a son of Benjamin Harris, who was a son of John (Sr.).
Unfortunately, I've run into issues with my theory. I just added the 1870 and 1880 federal census enumeration for the John A. Harris family living in Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois, to my West Virginia Heritage website. I'm running into likely name errors and incorrect genders that don't entirely match up with the children's names listed in John's obituary … this is leaving me with more than 13 children.
I've lost touch with the distant cousin I mentioned earlier, but I think it's time to see if I can track her down again!
As you can see, Flora was the daughter of J. A. and I. Harris - but when I took that photo in 2004 the initials didn't register. I recently searched through my Harris folks for a J. A. Harris married to an I. “Somebody” and realized I had John A. Harris married to Isabella/Isabell/Isabel Littleton. Aha!
Sounded like a good match, but was I really on the right track? I needed more to back up my theory. I have a typed copy of John's obituary that lists his children, obtained from a distant cousin. Per that obituary, John and Isabella had 13 children, 12 of whom were still living when John died. Could the one who died be Flora?
John and Isabella lived in Marshall County, (West) Virginia when they were married and for the birth of their earliest children. The obituary says that the family moved to Illinois in 1865 after John's Civil War service. Flora's gravestone is pretty worn, but it looks to me like she died 29 April 1865 only 22 days old. So it seems plausible that she could have died shortly before the family moved. If I'm right about John and Isabella being her parents, then her burial in the John Harris (Sr.) family cemetery means that she was buried on her great-grandfather's farm. John A. was a son of Benjamin Harris, who was a son of John (Sr.).
Unfortunately, I've run into issues with my theory. I just added the 1870 and 1880 federal census enumeration for the John A. Harris family living in Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois, to my West Virginia Heritage website. I'm running into likely name errors and incorrect genders that don't entirely match up with the children's names listed in John's obituary … this is leaving me with more than 13 children.
I've lost touch with the distant cousin I mentioned earlier, but I think it's time to see if I can track her down again!
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